IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 20, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ACME Communications, Inc. (Pink Sheets:ACME) today announced that pursuant to the Plan of Liquidation approved by its shareholders in December 2012, its Board has approved a final distribution of $0.0432 per share, payable in cash on December 30, 2016 to shareholders of record as of December 26, 2016. Based on the Companys outstanding shares of common stock of 16,046,763, the total amount of the distribution will be approximately $693,000. The liquidation distribution is being treated as a return of capital. Following the distribution, the Company will have extinguished all known and potential liabilities and have no remaining assets. The Company expects to be dissolved by December 31, 2016. The Company anticipates it will post its final annual report for the year ended December 31, 2016 on Monday, January 2, 2017 via its website at www.acmecommunications.com. About ACME Communications, Inc. ACME Communications, Inc. was formed in 1997 as a television station operator and grew to twelve television stations by 2002. Beginning in 2003, the Company began an organized process of exiting from the business. Its shares are traded over-the-counter under the symbol: (Pink Sheets:ACME). Forward-Looking Statements The matters discussed in this press release include forward-looking statements. In addition, when used in this press release, the words "will", "expects" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward looking statements. Such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual results in the future to differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect any future events or circumstances. A large explosion reportedly involving fireworks has killed 29 and at a market in Tultepec, Mexico, Tuesday afternoon, according to local officials and media. Gov. Eruviel Avila says that in addition to the 26 people who perished at the market, three more died after being hospitalized. RELATED: U.S. issues travel warning for Mexican border cities ahead of Christmas BNO News obtained video of the explosion that happened around 2:50 p.m. local time in the town about an hour-and-a-half north of Mexico City. The footage shows plumes of black smoke and colored, firework-like explosions filling the air and was reportedly "visible for miles." Tultepec, a city popular for fireworks manufacturing and displays, hosts the "National Pyrotechnic Festival" each year in March. It is heralded as the "best" at state and national levels and proves that fireworks are a part of the local culture, according to El Sol de Toluca, a Toluca-based news site. The cause of the explosion remains unclear and the area remained dangerous. Luis Felipe Puente, National Coordinator of Civil Protection, told the Associated Press that nearby homes were also damaged and that people should not come within 3 miles of the site. Puente added that there was no choice but to let any unexploded fireworks burn off. A fire engulfed the same market in 2005, touching off a chain of explosions that leveled hundreds of stalls just ahead of Mexico's Independence Day. A similar fire at the San Pablito Market also destroyed hundreds of stands in September 2006. The Associated Press contributed to this report. mmendoza@mysa.com Twitter: @MaddySkye English Finnish Stock Exchange Release Talvivaara Mining Company Plc 21 December 2016 NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, HONG KONG, SOUTH AFRICA OR JAPAN OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. Talvivaara Mining Company Plc extends the subscription period of the directed conversion issue to expire on 28 December 2016 The subscription period of Talvivaara Mining Company Plc's ("Talvivaara" or the "Company") directed conversion issue (the "Share Issue") commenced on 28 November 2016 at 10:00 a.m. (Finnish time) and was initially set to expire on 22 December 2016 at 4:00 p.m. (Finnish time). Pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Share Issue, the Board of Directors of Talvivaara has today decided to extend the subscription period of the Share Issue to expire on 28 December 2016 at 4:00 p.m. (Finnish time). As result of the extension, the new shares issued in the Share Issue are expected to be (i) registered in the trade register maintained by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office on or about 4 January 2017; (ii) issued as book-entry securities in the book-entry system maintained by Euroclear Finland on or about 4 January 2017; and (iii) listed on the official list of the Helsinki Stock Exchange on or about 5 January 2017. The offering circular related to the Share Issue and the terms and conditions of the Share Issue are available on Talvivaara's website at www.talvivaara.com/conversion_issue and at Talvivaara's registered office located at Ahventie 4 B 47, FI-02170 Espoo, Finland. Talvivaara expects to supplement the offering circular reflecting such new dates and the supplement will be made available on the same Talvivaara website and at Talvivaara's registered office. Enquiries Talvivaara Mining Company Plc Tel +358 20 7129 800 Pekka Pera, Chief Executive Officer Pekka Erkinheimo, Deputy CEO DISCLAIMER This announcement is an advertisement and not a prospectus and creditors should not subscribe for any shares referred to in this announcement except on the basis of information in the applicable prospectus published by Talvivaara in connection with the Share Issue. The information contained herein is not for publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa or Japan. These written materials do not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States, nor may the securities be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration as provided in the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the rules and regulations thereunder. There is no intention to register any portion of the offering in the United States or to conduct a public offering of securities in the United States. The information contained herein shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities referred to herein in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration, exemption from registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. Investors must neither accept any offer for, nor acquire, any securities to which this announcement refers, unless they do so on the basis of the information contained in the applicable prospectus published or distributed by Talvivaara. Talvivaara has not authorised any offer to the public of securities in any Member State of the European Economic Area other than Finland. With respect to each Member State of the European Economic Area other than Finland and which has implemented the Prospectus Directive (each, a "Relevant Member State"), no action has been undertaken or will be undertaken to make an offer to the public of securities requiring publication of a prospectus in any Relevant Member State. As a result, the securities may only be offered in Relevant Member States (a) to any legal entity which is a qualified investor as defined in the Prospectus Directive; or (b) in any other circumstances falling within Article 3(2) of the Prospectus Directive. For the purposes of this paragraph, the expression an "offer of securities to the public" means the communication in any form and by any means of sufficient information on the terms of the offer and the securities to be offered so as to enable an investor to decide to exercise, purchase or subscribe the securities, as the same may be varied in that Member State by any measure implementing the Prospectus Directive in that Member State and the expression "Prospectus Directive" means Directive 2003/71/EC (and amendments thereto, including the 2010 PD Amending Directive, to the extent implemented in the Relevant Member State), and includes any relevant implementing measure in the Relevant Member State and the expression "2010 PD Amending Directive" means Directive 2010/73/EU. This communication is directed only at (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) persons who have professional experience in matters relating to investments falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order") and (iii) high net worth entities, and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). Any investment activity to which this communication relates will only be available to and will only be engaged with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this announcement or any of its contents. Attachments: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8687b033-96db-4db2-bee4-5ddd0dd2822b Brandon M. Callender/African-American Shakespeare Company and SFBATCO African-American Shakespeare Companys production of Cinderella honors tradition and charts new territory. The company has been producing the show since 2000, but the 2016 version, which is co-produced by San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company, features an updated script and more dance. Its also hilarious. A representative dialogue sample, as Grandmomma (Paige Mayes) narrates the story for her grandchildren, Shayla and Sherena: Her stepmothers true colors were revealed, says Grandmomma. Shaylas reply: Like her hair color? The FBI told a federal judge that it needed to search a computer to resume its investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server because agents had found correspondence on the device between Clinton and top aide Huma Abedin - though they did not have any inkling what was being discussed, according to newly unsealed court documents. The documents, made public Tuesday after a Los Angeles lawyer sued for their release, reinforce the impression that when the bureau revealed less than two weeks before the election that agents were again investigating Clinton, they had no new evidence of wrongdoing. The FBI's revelation upended the presidential campaign, and to this day, Clinton and her supporters say it is at least partly to blame for her surprising loss to Donald Trump. The documents unsealed Tuesday relate to the warrant the FBI obtained to search a computer belonging to disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner for information potentially related to the Clinton email case. Weiner is Abedin's estranged husband, and the FBI had been investigating him over allegations that he exchanged explicit messages with a teenage girl. In the course of the Weiner investigation, officials have said, agents found messages potentially related to the Clinton probe, which had been closed without charges months earlier. But according to the documents unsealed Tuesday, their discovery was relatively limited. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Melina Mara / The Washington Post Show More Show Less 2 of 3 ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Looking at just the header information of emails, agents found on Weiner's device thousands of Abedin emails, including what seemed to be "regular" correspondence with Clinton and some messages that appeared to have been sent while Clinton was secretary of state. Based on that - and because Clinton and Abedin were previously on email chains in which classified information was discussed - they argued to a judge there was probable cause for their search. They had not at the time reviewed the content of any Abedin emails, according to the documents unsealed Tuesday. The bureau did not act unilaterally. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox approved a search warrant in the case. But on Tuesday, representatives for Clinton criticized the FBI and its director James Comey for stretching the limits of the bureau's authority. David Kendall, Clinton's lawyer, said in a statement the affidavit highlighted the "extraordinary impropriety" of Comey revealing that the investigation had resumed, which Kendall alleged "produced devastating but predictable damage politically and which was both legally unauthorized and factually unnecessary." "The affidavit concedes that the FBI had no basis to conclude whether these e-mails were even pertinent to that closed investigation, were significant, or whether they had, in fact, already been reviewed prior to the closing of the investigation," Kendall said. "What does become unassailably clear, however, is that as the sole basis for this warrant, the FBI put forward the same evidence the Bureau concluded in July was not sufficient to bring a case - the affidavit offered no additional evidence to support any different conclusion." Brian Fallon, a former Clinton campaign spokesman, said on Twitter there "was nothing in search warrant filing to controvert Comey's statements from July and truly establish probable cause of a crime," and that it was "salt in the wound to see FBI rationale was this flimsy." E. Randol Schoenberg, the lawyer who sued to have the warrant unsealed but has no affiliation to Clinton, said he saw "nothing at all in the search warrant application that would give rise to probable cause, nothing that would make anyone suspect that there was anything on the laptop beyond what the FBI had already searched and determined not to be evidence of a crime, nothing to suggest that there would be anything other than routine correspondence between Secretary Clinton and her longtime aide Huma Abedin." "I am appalled," Schoenberg said. The FBI and a lawyer for Abedin declined to comment for this story. To obtain the search warrant, the FBI did not need to meet a high bar. White collar criminal defense attorney Jacob Frenkel said the FBI likely revealed only what was required to establish probable cause, mindful of putting too many details in a document that could become public. "What the judge looks at are the four corners of the warrant, and as to probable cause, that standard, it does meet the requirements," Frenkel said. Weiner's and Abedin's names are redacted from the newly released documents, but they were confirmed by people familiar with the case. Comey wrote to Congress on Oct. 28, two days before the FBI obtained the warrant, to announce agents were resuming their work on the Clinton email case. Agents in an "unrelated case," he wrote, had found emails that "appear to be pertinent to the investigation." Law enforcement officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, soon revealed that case was the investigation of Weiner's alleged sexting with a 15-year-old girl, and on Oct. 30, the FBI obtained the warrant to look more thoroughly at Weiner's computer for Clinton-related materials. On Nov. 6, Comey announced that investigators had concluded their review and found no reason to change their earlier conclusion about Clinton. The messages they reviewed, U.S. officials familiar with the case have said, were either personal or duplicative of those found earlier in the investigation. Matt Zapotosky covers the Justice Department for the Washington Post's National Security team. AMMAN, Jordan Four policemen were killed Tuesday in an exchange of fire with wanted men in a central Jordanian province where assailants had killed 10 people in a series of ambushes earlier this week, state media said. Government spokesman Mohammed Momani told reporters Tuesday night that one fugitive was killed and one wounded. The operation will continue and will not stop until we uproot terrorism from our country, Momani said in quotes published by the state-run Petra news agency. State media said police officers came under fire during a raid of a suspected hideout of fugitives. Petra said the cell targeted Tuesday was not connected to those involved in Sundays attacks in Karak. Earlier Tuesday, the extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for Sundays shootings that killed nine Jordanians and a tourist from Canada. Sundays shootings were the bloodiest in Jordan in recent memory and raised new concerns about the rise of Islamic militancy in the pro-Western kingdom. Jordan plays a key role in the U.S.-led military campaign against the Islamic State, which seized large areas in neighboring Iraq and Syria in 2014 and proclaimed a caliphate there. The back-to-back violent clashes between security forces and armed men this week undermine the kingdoms claim to be an oasis of stability in a region increasingly threatened by Islamic extremists. Sundays shootings took place in the town of Qatraneh in Karak province and in the provincial capital of Karak city. Hours after an initial attack on a police patrol in Qatraneh, four gunmen were killed by Jordanian security forces during a standoff at Karak Castle, a Crusader fortress and popular tourist destination. The Islamic State claim of responsibility was published Tuesday on Shumoukh al-Islam, a password-protected website affiliated with the extremist group. MBALE, Uganda Seth Yonadav swaggered along a dirt path in rural Uganda, pointing toward the new synagogue where young men wearing yarmulkes lingered. Up on a hill, the synagogue stood like a crown jewel, surrounded by schools and a guest house, all owned and operated by a small community of Jewish believers in this remote hamlet founded by a single convert a century ago. The Stern Synagogue, built largely with money donated by Americans, is a source of pride for hundreds of Ugandan Jews known locally as the Abayudaya, who have tenaciously maintained their belief despite the prejudice they have suffered over the years in this Christian-dominated country. The community continues to pursue formal recognition from Israel, which would give it a further sense of inclusion. The Jewish Agency, a nonprofit that works closely with the Israeli government to serve Jewish communities worldwide, has recognized the Abayudaya since 2009, spokesman Avi Mayer said. People come here for conversion, many of them, said Yonadav, a 40-year-old teacher who serves as cantor at the synagogue. I know 50 people right now who are ready to convert. The groups leader, Gershom Sizomu, a U.S.-trained rabbi who in February won a seat in Ugandas parliament, started fundraising among friends abroad. The new synagogue is named for Sue and Ralph Stern, a Jewish couple in Newport (Orange County) who gave a sizable chunk of the $300,000 spent on its construction, Sizomu said. Sizomu, who believes he is the first Jew to win a parliamentary seat in Uganda, said he saw his victory as a sign that the Abayudaya are finally being accepted by an often-distrustful tribal community. In the 1970s, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin outlawed the group, which saw its numbers dwindle to a few hundred. In the 1980s, there were violent attempts to strip the Abayudaya of the land on which the new synagogue stands. Today the community of about 2,000 enjoys a more positive reputation. It runs a health center, two schools, a bakery project for women, a cooperative saving society and a guest house, as well as a tree-planting program. Unlike fundamentalist Christian groups that seek out converts across Uganda, the Abayudaya practice Conservative Judaism with no proselytizing. Converts have to go through a rigorous process, and so far this year none has joined. ANKARA, Turkey Investigators from Turkey and Russia hunted for clues Tuesday in the assassination of Russias ambassador to Turkey in front of stunned onlookers at a photo exhibition in Ankara. A team of 18 Russian investigators and foreign ministry officials arrived in Turkey and began inspecting the art gallery where the shooting of Andrei Karlov took place. Central to the joint Turkish-Russian investigation is whether Mevlut Mert Altintas, a member of Ankaras riot police squad, planned the attack alone. One senior Turkish government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details to the press, said it was unlikely Altintas acted alone. The official said the killing had all the marks of being fully professional, not a one-man action. So far, authorities have detained only people close to the gunman in their investigation: Altintas parents, sister, three other relatives and his roommate in Ankara. Independent Turkish security analyst Abdullah Agar said it was likely that an organization was behind the assassination. The analyst said that Altintas behavior and the manner in which he carried out the attack gives the impression that he received training that was much more than riot police training. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said the countrys foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, provided U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry information on the assailant during a telephone conversation on Tuesday. Cavusoglu also told Kerry that both Turkey and Russia know that a movement led by U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind the attack, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government rules. Originally from the western town of Soke, near Turkeys Aegean coast, Altintas had been serving in Ankaras riot police for the past 2 years. But how or why he became impassioned with the war in Syria was unclear. Dutch English ABN AMRO publishes first human rights report ABN AMRO is the first financial institution in the world to publish a human rights report based on the reporting framework of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In the report, the bank sets forth its human rights policy and how it seeks to meet its policy commitments. The publication of the report is an important milestone in the bank's efforts to revisit its operations from a human rights perspective. The report focuses on four human rights issues: privacy, discrimination, labour rights and land-related human rights. These are the human rights that are most at risk of being violated by the activities of the bank and the companies it finances or invests in on behalf of clients. ABN AMRO is active in a large number of countries and sectors. In order to minimise the risk of the bank doing business with companies that violate human rights, it actively monitors clients that operate in high-risk industries and countries. Where necessary, ABN AMRO engages with clients to bring about improvement. The bank also proactively seeks to create positive impact, for example by encouraging social impact investing. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are the global authoritative standard on business respect for human rights. Caroline Princen, member of ABN AMRO's Managing Board: 'Firmly embedding respect for human rights in our operations is an ongoing process. In this report we also describe the dilemmas we face and where more work is needed. We are proud to be at the forefront of businesses reporting about their activities in the area of human rights.' Caltex Australia has agreed to buy Gull New Zealand for $340 million, giving the ASX-listed fuels company a foothold on this side of the Tasman with about 5 percent of the market. Sydney-based Caltex will take over Gull's 77 retail sites, 22 supply sites and Gull's import fuel terminal in Mount Maunganui, subject to regulatory approvals, in the second quarter of next year, the Australian company said in a statement to the ASX. The deal represents an earnings multiple of about 8.2 times Gull's forecast earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in 2017, and is expected to lift Caltex's earnings per share in the first full year of ownership. "This acquisition delivers on Caltex's strategic plan as it optimises Caltex's infrastructure position, builds trading and shipping capability, grows the supply base and enhances Caltex's retail fuel offering through low-risk entry into a new market," it said. "Whilst its retail network is concentrated in the northern half of the North Island of New Zealand, Gull is well placed to profitably grow via new-to-industry and/or new supply site expansions." Caltex Australia gained control over its destiny after cornerstone shareholder Chevron exited last year as part of the US energy giant's withdrawal from the region, which included selling its downstream New Zealand assets. The deal follows Z Energy's acquisition of Chevron's Caltex-branded New Zealand network for $785 million, which was at an earnings multiple of 5.9 times Caltex's replacement cost operating earnings. The regulator cleared Z to buy the assets in April, provided it sold 20 sites. Caltex Australia said it will keep Gull's brand, management and employees. Gull was set up in 1998 as a challenger brand, and sells about 300 million litres of petrol and diesel a year, including "numerous" commercial customers. Its Mount Maunganui terminal is the country's biggest facility of its kind with 90 million litres of storage. The deal is subject to Overseas Investment Office approval. Caltex Australia's shares last traded at A$30.81, having dropped 18 percent so far this year. NZX-listed Z shares fell 0.7 percent to $6.98, having gained 4 percent so far this year. BusinessDesk.co.nz Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: FPH to announce half year results on 29 November 2022 ATM - FDA approval to supply infant milk formula to United States Steel & Tube - Adopts ESG World Platform BGP - 3rd Quarter Sales to 30 October 2022 GEO - Quarterly Operating Update SUM - Andrea Scown to join Summerset as Future Director CCC - Admission to Trading on Aquis Stock Exchange November 3rd Morning Report Air New Zealand issues Performance Rights Heartland announces new Director of Heartland Bank Transport Minister Simon Bridges says an alliance has been established to repair road and rail infrastructure near the South Island coastal town of Kaikoura after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake isolated it in November. The alliance, which will repair State Highway 1 to the north and the rail line to the north and south, includes the New Zealand Transport Agency, KiwiRail, Fulton Hogan, Downer, Higgins, and HEB Construction. It is being led by Duncan Gibb, formerly of the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team. The earthquake isolated the tourist town in November and caused damage in the upper reaches of the South Island and lower part of the North Island. Last week the government said it expects to spend as much as $2 billion rebuilding the coastal route north and south of the stranded town and wants full access restored within a year. This week the government restored access from the south for daytime traffic and has opened the inland Kaikoura road, Bridges said today. Road crews have removed more than 50,000 cubic metres of rock and material in more than 7,000 truckloads from 26 slips along the route, he said. Work is currently underway on State Highway 1 north of Kaikoura to allow access for residents and to prepare for the huge job of clearing several massive slips blocking the road. The alliance will be lead agency to repair the transport infrastructure damaged during the earthquake, said Bridges. Other parts of the network have been significantly damaged and theres a massive repair job ahead. The work is being carried out under an Order in Council, signed into force by the Governor General yesterday. The Order in Council will modify provisions of the Resource Management Act and nine other pieces of legislation, to streamline the recovery work. BusinessDesk.co.nz Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: FPH to announce half year results on 29 November 2022 ATM - FDA approval to supply infant milk formula to United States Steel & Tube - Adopts ESG World Platform BGP - 3rd Quarter Sales to 30 October 2022 GEO - Quarterly Operating Update SUM - Andrea Scown to join Summerset as Future Director CCC - Admission to Trading on Aquis Stock Exchange November 3rd Morning Report Air New Zealand issues Performance Rights Heartland announces new Director of Heartland Bank New Zealand shares edged higher, led by A2 Milk Co after it reassured the market about its infant formula business, while Tourism Holdings gained on a US acquisition. Intueri Education Group sank by a fifth after missing out on Australian government funding. The S&P/NZX50 Index advanced 13.08 points, or 0.2 percent, to 6,802.75. Within the index, 26 stocks fell, 19 rose and five were unchanged. Turnover was $139.7 million. A2 Milk led the index, up 5.9 percent to $2.16. The milk marketer played down fears about the infant formula market stemming from ASX-listed rival Bellamy's Australia's extended trading halt. The stock fell as much as 15 percent after Bellamy's entered the trading halt last Monday. Bellamy's was to have lifted the trading halt today but now expects the suspension to stay in place until Jan. 13, pending negotiations with key suppliers and manufacturers that could affect earnings. "They've added a bit of flavour by talking about their value proposition in the marketplace, their supply contracts and sales channels, risk minimisation - basically trying to allay any fears investors might have from what's happening with Bellamy's. It was just confirmation their business is sound and growing, it's distancing itself," Peter McIntyre, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners said. "A2 really was the angel of the market, it's been from $2.61 down to $2.00 for the month rolling which is a wild swing for them - it tends to meet resistance around the $2 mark," McIntyre said. "A lot of institutional investors took some risk off the top, but management decided enough is enough and they need to put out a positive statement. The proof will be when they trade again tomorrow, how much further uplift they'll get. It's a volatile stock and it trades in a wide band, but the updates they've given so far have been very reassuring." Tourism Holdings rose 5.3 percent to $3.59. It will pay US$65 million for US campervan rental and sales business El Monte Rents to expand its operations in the world's largest recreational vehicle market. The acquisition, for an enterprise value of $94 million including transaction costs, will be funded through $82 million of debt from its existing lenders and through the issue of 3.4 million Tourism Holdings shares. "On the surface it looks earnings accretive, though it certainly increases their debt burden - debt-to-equity will be around 50 percent - but they haven't diluted the shareholder base by any real significant percent," McIntyre said. "The market really liked that early on but it's starting to weaken off - it wasn't that long ago that debt got them into trouble, and they've been paying down debt for a few years. Institutions will have some confidence about the CEO's expertise and ability to pull this off." Contact Energy was the worst performer, down 1.9 percent to $4.65, while Restaurant Brands New Zealand dropped 1.8 percent to $4.97 and Stride Property declined 1.7 percent to $1.71. Fonterra Shareholders Fund rose 0.3 percent to $5.98. Fonterra Cooperative Group's New Zealand milk collection was down 5.7 percent on the year in the six months to Nov. 30 as dairying regions were hit by unfavourable weather conditions. Outside the benchmark index, Intueri Education Group fell 20 percent to 3.6 cents. It said the Australian Department of Education and Training declined its application for an A$6 million uplift in VHF funding for its Conwal unit and the company slashed 2016 earnings guidance by that amount to $3.2 million as a result. Intueri shares have tumbled 94 percent this year. It listed on May 2014 at $2.35. Airwork Holdings fell 1.6 percent to $4.82. Zhejiang Rifa Holding Group's partial takeover offer for Airwork of $5.40 is near the top of independent adviser Grant Samuel's assessed value range for the shares and was recommended by Airwork's board. Abano Healthcare dipped 0.1 percent to $8.20. It cut 3 cents from the independent valuation it commissioned to allow for executive incentive shares while confirming a 73 percent gain in first-half profit to $5.9 million. The Auckland-based company is fending off a hostile takeover from Healthcare Partners, an entity owned by cornerstone shareholders Anya and Peter Hutson and James Reeves, which wants to lift its stake to 50.01 percent paying $10 a share, including Abano's interim dividend. BusinessDesk.co.nz Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: FPH to announce half year results on 29 November 2022 ATM - FDA approval to supply infant milk formula to United States Steel & Tube - Adopts ESG World Platform BGP - 3rd Quarter Sales to 30 October 2022 GEO - Quarterly Operating Update SUM - Andrea Scown to join Summerset as Future Director CCC - Admission to Trading on Aquis Stock Exchange November 3rd Morning Report Air New Zealand issues Performance Rights Heartland announces new Director of Heartland Bank Fronde Systems Group, which provides IT services to businesses, posted a 26 percent decline in first-half profit and lower revenue as the company continued to cut costs and quit unprofitable business. Net profit fell to $574,000 in the six months ended Sept. 30, from $778,000 a year earlier, the Wellington-based company said in a statement. Sales dropped 16 percent to $26.5 million. "Our focus on profitability (driven by higher margin revenue streams, capacity management, and costs) is yielding results," the company said. "With this focus on profitability, some parts of our business are growing, and we are choosing to reduce our focus on unprofitable areas. Consequently, revenue reduced by 16 percent versus the prior period." Fronde's biggest segment, NZ business technology products, reported a 20 percent drop in revenue to $11.6 million, while its NZ business technology products posted a 12 percent fall to $9.4 million and the Australian operations an 8.5 percent decline to $6.2 million. In June, the company returned to annual profit on a pretax basis after overhauling the business to cut costs in the face of falling revenue. The company experienced a slowdown in Wellington sales in the 2015 financial year, pushing it into the red and triggering a restructure where jobs were cut and Fronde's Christchurch office closed. Former Fisher & Paykel Appliances executive Anthony Belsham was hired as the new chief executive in December last year. Fronde said the second half "will be one of continued focus on stabilisation, improving profitability, and establishing a strong foundation to build on further." Revenue is increasingly less reliant on one-off large projects, and gross margin increased to 32 percent, with gross profit at $8.42 million, from 27 percent, or $8.36 million, a year earlier, it said. The company has previously said it wanted to grow to $200 million annual revenue company by 2017 after generating rapid sales growth over three years before the Wellington slowdown hit trading. Fronde's shares are listed on the Unlisted platform and last traded at $1 on Aug. 30. BusinessDesk.co.nz Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: FPH to announce half year results on 29 November 2022 ATM - FDA approval to supply infant milk formula to United States Steel & Tube - Adopts ESG World Platform BGP - 3rd Quarter Sales to 30 October 2022 GEO - Quarterly Operating Update SUM - Andrea Scown to join Summerset as Future Director CCC - Admission to Trading on Aquis Stock Exchange November 3rd Morning Report Air New Zealand issues Performance Rights Heartland announces new Director of Heartland Bank The National Party has taken a 4.5 percentage point hit since the departure of former Prime Minister John Key on Dec. 5, but the Labour Party continues to poll below 30 percent despite a 5.5 percentage point jump in support, according to a regularly volatile opinion poll conducted by Australian pollster Roy Morgan. In the month since the previous Roy Morgan poll, which put National at 50 percent and Labour on 23 percent, National has dropped to 45.5 percent support and Labour jumped to 28.5 percent. Combined with the Greens, unchanged at 14.5 percent, a centre-left coalition commands 43 percent support, just short of National. Winston Peters's New Zealand First party was down half a point to 7.5 percent support. The poll may not capture the full impact of the change as the sample of 872 landline and mobile telephone users started on Nov. 28, a week before Key resigned and covering Labour's trouncing of National in the Mt Roskill by-election, on Dec. 3. It ended on Dec. 11. Of all electors surveyed 5.5 percent, down one point, didnt name a party. The Roy Morgan poll is the first long time series poll to come out since Fairfax Media did a snap poll on the evening of Dec. 5, just after Key announced he was leaving politics, leading to his replacement by Bill English and the appointment of a new Cabinet last weekend. "If a New Zealand election was held now, the latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows it would be a very close result," the polling agency said. Among the government's three support partners, the Maori Party slipped half a point to 1 percent support, Act fell half a point to 0.5 percent and there was no measured support for United Future. Roy Morgan also measured a hit to the government confidence rating, which fell 10 points to 131. New Zealanders saying the country was "heading in the right direction" fell 6.5 percentage points to 58.5 percent, while pessimists rose by 3.5 percentage points, at 27.5 percent. BusinessDesk.co.nz Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: FPH to announce half year results on 29 November 2022 ATM - FDA approval to supply infant milk formula to United States Steel & Tube - Adopts ESG World Platform BGP - 3rd Quarter Sales to 30 October 2022 GEO - Quarterly Operating Update SUM - Andrea Scown to join Summerset as Future Director CCC - Admission to Trading on Aquis Stock Exchange November 3rd Morning Report Air New Zealand issues Performance Rights Heartland announces new Director of Heartland Bank PARIS, Dec. 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Smith & Nephew, (LSE:SN) (NYSE:SNN), the global medical technology business, has been awarded the 2016 French Galien Award for PICO; the novel single-use negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) system. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/34f0869f-bf31-4690-8a41-980b674b8db2. The Prix Galien acknowledges significant advances in pharmaceuticals and medical devices which deliver real improvements to human life. The prize, awarded in the Medical Disability Compensation and Return to Social Life category, rewards Smith & Nephews determination to improve the daily lives of patients and professionals with the management of wounds. Managing Director of Smith & Nephew SAS (France), Bertrand L'Huillier, said: "Receiving the Galien Award is a huge honour and recognition of our contribution to medical research and ability to innovate. It is also a great encouragement to continue our investment to support healthcare professionals in their daily efforts to improve the lives of patients worldwide." Improving community healthcare and patient outcomes Managing wounds, whether chronic, acute or post-surgical, has a significant impact to a patients quality of life as well as a financial impact on the health economyi. Chronic wounds are often hard to heal, resulting in a cycle of pain, anxiety, frequent home visits and reduced quality of life. However, with the availability of the PICO system in the community, the lives of patients with wounds are significantly improvedi. A study of 326 community based patients who received PICO for pressure ulcers, leg ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, trauma wounds and dehisced surgical wounds, showed that prior to using PICO wound dressings were being changed four times a weekii. This fell to two dressing changes a week when using PICO, and to 1.8 times a week, on average, in the four-week follow-up period. Fewer dressing changes resulted in considerable cost savings; the total cost of care using PICO was three times less than the baselineiii. About PICO PICO is a novel, canister-free single use system that offers portable, accessible and affordable NPWT, overcoming many of the disadvantages of conventional NPWT devices. PICOs unique dressing technology not only absorbs and locks exudate but is designed to move exudate away from the wound and aids in the evaporation of fluidiv. The PICO pump maintains negative pressure at -80mmHg through the wound bed and dressingiv. The PICO system can be used up to 7 days depending on levels of exudate, and includes two dressings. About the Prix Galien Each year, the Prix Galien rewards pharmaceutical research and therapeutic innovations made available to healthcare professionals and patients. The honour committee includes the most prominent figures in the scientific world, including several Nobel Prize winners. Recognition at the French Galien Awards means that Smith & Nephew will now be able to enter PICO into the international Galien Awards, held in 2018. Full press pack, containing clinical and product imagery, videos, and background information is available at http://www.smith-nephew.com/news-and-media/media-releases/news/PICO-wins-prestigious-Galien-Award References i Reducing the burden of chronic wounds in the community with single-use NPWT JCN supplement 2015, Vol 29, No 5. ii Hurd et al., Use of a portable, single-use negative pressure wound therapy device in home care patients with low to moderately exuding wounds: A case series. Ostomy Wound Management, March 2014. iii Hampton J, Providing cost-effective treatment of hard-to-heal wounds in the community through use of NPWT. British Journal of Community Nursing, Vol 20, No 6, Community Wound Care, June 2015. iv Malmsjo M, Huddleston E, Martin R. Biological effects of a disposable, canisterless negative pressure wound therapy system. Eplasty 2014;14:e15. 21 December 2016 Tern plc ("Tern" or "the Company") Issue of Equity Tern plc announces that it is issuing 3,400,000 Ordinary shares of 0.02p pursuant to the conversion of a loan note. The loan notes concerned were part of loan notes amounting in total to 50,000 held by a former director. As disclosed in note 18 of the 2015 Report and Acccounts, the treatment of the loan notes were subject of a dispute when the former director left the Company. This dispute has now been resolved. The outcome is that 42,500 of the loan notes are converted at a conversion price of 1.25p in accordance with the original terms of the loan notes, with the balance of 7,500 being redeemed for cash. Application has been made for the 3,400,000 new ordinary shares to be admitted to AIM and it is expected that admission will take place and trading in the new ordinary shares will commence on by 29 December 2016. Following Admission of the new ordinary shares, the enlarged issued share capital of Tern will be 118,511,443 Ordinary Shares of 0.02p each. The Company does not hold any shares in Treasury. The above figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations to determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company, under the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules. Enquiries: Tern plc Angus Forrest / Al Sisto Tel: 020 3807 0222 WH Ireland (NOMAD and broker) Tel: 0117 945 3470 Mike Coe / Ed Allsopp Peterhouse Corporate Finance (Joint broker) Tel: 020 7469 0936 Lucy Williams / Duncan Vasey Whitman Howard (Joint broker) Nick Lovering / Francis North Tel: 020 7659 1234 About Tern: Tern Plc acquires and invests in privately owned companies with IP, established products and customer bases. Its investment strategy is focused on taking an active role in its investee companies in order to improve the business model, accelerate growth, expand the business globally, and identify exit opportunities. Latvian English Joint-Stock Company Reverta informs that submission of the interim abridged financial statements has been scheduled for the following dates: 3 month report: 24 - 31 May 2017; 6 months report: 24 - 31 August 2017; 9 months report: 23 - 30 November 2017. For additional information: The main competencies of the JSC Reverta are loan restructuring, debt recovery and real estate management. Since 1 August 2010 to 30 November 2017 Reverta has recovered more than EUR 720,4 m from the restructuring of distressed loans and disposal of real estate properties. According to the EC approved Restructuring Plan for Parex Bank, Reverta has to complete the workout of its portfolio and close all operations by the end of 2017. To learn more about Reverta, please visit the Companys web page: www.reverta.lv For more information, contact: Marita Ozolina Head of Communication and Marketing Department Tel.: 67779142 or 29287169 E-mail: marita.ozolina@reverta.lv COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho, Dec. 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New Jersey Mining Company (OTCQB:NJMC) (NJMC or the Company) is pleased to announce that at its annual meeting held in Coeur dAlene, Idaho, on December 16, 2016, stockholders of the Company voted to re-elect Delbert Steiner, John Swallow, and Grant Brackebusch as directors until the 2017 annual meeting. Detailed results of the vote for the election of directors are set out below. Nominee Votes For Votes Withheld Percent For Percent Withheld John Swallow 43,901,708 51,102 99.88 % 0.11 % Delbert Steiner 39,053,797 4,898,913 88.85 % 11.14 % Grant Brackebusch 43,901,708 51,102 99.88 % 0.11 % The stockholders also ratified the appointment of DeCoria, Maichel & Teague as the Companys independent registered public accountant for the ensuing year. A total of 69.6-percent of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company were represented in person or by proxy at the annual meeting, and the votes represented thereby cast on one or more matters at the annual meeting. NJMC President John Swallow stated, I would like to thank our shareholders for their continued support and for submitting their votes at our annual meeting. We have accomplished a great deal over the last year and look forward to advancing our objectives and delivering tangible results to our shareholders in the year ahead. As part of the annual meeting, management reviewed the Companys accomplishments of 2016 and presented its primary objectives for 2017. Significant events and highlights of 2016 Consolidated 100-percent ownership of the Golden Chest Mine. Completed mine planning and ore modeling studies at and around the Golden Chest. Developed and commenced mining operations at the Golden Chest open-pit. Dewatered the underground mine at Golden Chest and prepared to resume mining operations. Shipped Golden Chest ore and resumed ore processing at the New Jersey Mill. Completed acquisition of GF&H, expanding the Companys land position at Golden Chest. Completed an extensive data compilation study across the Golden Chest land package. Increased the number of identified ore shoots from three to seven, indicating the significant potential to increase mineral resources and mine life at Golden Chest. Acquired 50-percent interest in Butte Highlands Joint Venture, owner of the Butte Highlands Gold Mine, an advanced-stage project with approximately $39-million of prior development. Signed an MOU to modify the Operating Agreement at Butte Highlands to assume control of permitting and other day-to-day management functions. Key objectives for 2017 Increase market exposure for the Company, pursue listing on a Canadian stock exchange. Extinguish remaining debt and continue to improve operating efficiencies. Continue robust open-pit production at Golden Chest, proceed with pit expansion as possible. Commence ramp-up of underground mining operations at Golden Chest. Achieve 2017 production goal of 8,000 ounces of gold. Advance near-term exploration plans with a focus on extending mine life. Finalize new Operating Agreement and advance work plans at Butte Highlands. About New Jersey Mining Company New Jersey Mining Company is headquartered in north Idaho, where it is currently in production at its Golden Chest Mine. It is deploying its mining and milling expertise to build a portfolio of advanced-stage assets with near-term cash flow potential and leverage to higher gold prices. NJMC built and is majority owner and operator of the New Jersey Mill, a 360-tonne per day flotation mill and cyanide leach plant. NJMC owns and operates the Golden Chest Mine project where open pit mining is underway and underground mining is expected to resume later this year. NJMC also holds a 50-percent interest in the fully-permitted Butte Highlands Gold Project. Company assets were developed with more than $50-million of investment dollars from New Jersey and other companies. Management owns more than 15-percent of NJMC stock and has participated in prior financings and made purchases in the open market. The Companys common stock trades on the OTC-QB Market under the symbol NJMC. For more information on New Jersey Mining Company, please contact: Del Steiner, Chairman & CEO Email: dsteiner@newjerseymining.com Forward Looking Statements This 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 that are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created by such sections. Such statements are based on good faith assumptions that New Jersey Mining Company believes are reasonable but which are subject to a wide range of uncertainties and business risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed, projected or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the risk that anticipated production levels are not attained, the risk that the mine plan changes due to rising costs or other operational details, the risk that complications arise during the dewatering of the underground workings, the risk that the Company is unable to obtain sufficient funds necessary to resume underground mining at the Golden Chest, the risk that gold recovery percentages are lower than expected, , the risk that oxidization levels remain the same or increase as the pit deepens, the risk that different portions of the mineral deposit respond differently to processing, the risks and hazards inherent in the mining business (including risks inherent in developing mining projects, environmental hazards, industrial accidents, weather or geologically related conditions), changes in the market prices of gold and silver and the potential impact on revenues from changes in the market price of gold and cash costs, a sustained lower price environment, as well as other uncertainties and risk factors. Actual results, developments and timetables could vary significantly from the estimates presented. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. NJMC disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. NEW YORK, Dec. 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PHI Group, a U.S. diversified holding company focusing on acquisitions and investments in special situations (www.phiglobal.com); (OTCMarkets:PHIL), has formed a subsidiary Abundant Farms, Inc., a Florida corporation, to manage its premium organic farming plan and administer an EB-5 Investor Visa Program to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. The Company is in the process of acquiring a 408-acre farm in Holmes County, Florida, which is a qualified Targeted Employment Area, as defined by the EB-5 Investor Visa Program of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Company plans to provide opportunities for international investors to become U.S. permanent residents by investing $500,000 each directly in its farming program. (https://www.uscis.gov/eb-5) The Company recently signed an agreement with Mr. Van M. Pham, a Vietnamese agricultural expert, to secure intellectual properties for application of proprietary natural immune and symbiotic microbe systems in premium organic husbandry. Initially, the Company plans to use a combination of proprietary enhanced bioavailable nutrient and natural symbiotic immune systems, without chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, to grow select medicinal plants for export. It also plans to raise premium organic poultry and other livestock for domestic sale and to develop model-farming programs to grow broader agricultural products without antibiotics and chemicals. Once the business model has been verified, the company plans to replicate and license the farm model to others in the U.S. and abroad. Henry Fahman, Chairman and CEO of PHI Group, stated, We are confident of the multiple merits and tremendous potential of our premium organic farming program, coupled with the EB-5 Investor Visa Program, because it can create substantial employment opportunities for the local community in Holmes County, provide a legal pathway for qualified international investors to become permanent residents and ultimately citizens of the United States, supply healthful crops and livestock that humans can consume and potentially enhance the economic value for our shareholders and all other stakeholders. About PHI Group Founded in 1982, PHI Group primarily focuses on acquisitions as a principal and invests in special situations in large, growing markets that may substantially enhance shareholder value. Safe Harbor: This news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected on the basis of such forward-looking statements pursuant to the "safe-harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. 21 December 2016 NORTHERN INVESTORS COMPANY PLC Proposed Return of Capital and Notice of General Meeting Northern Investors Company PLC (the "Company") reported on 15 November 2016, in the half-yearly financial report for the six months ended 30 September 2016, that the next distribution to shareholders will be made by means of a bonus issue to all ordinary shareholders of new B preference shares, which will then be redeemed for cash. The Company is now pleased to confirm that a circular giving details of a proposed Return of Capital to Shareholders of 250 pence per Ordinary Share by way of the issue and redemption of redeemable B Shares to shareholders has been published today. The Company is proposing to introduce a mechanism to enable capital to be returned to Shareholders through a compulsory procedure involving a bonus issue, on a pro rata basis, of B Shares followed by the redemption of such B Shares at the option of the Company. The introduction of the B Share Scheme will require Shareholder approval, which will be sought at a general meeting of the Company to be held at 3.00pm on 19 January 2017. Subject to the approvals being obtained at the General Meeting, the Company will be able to make future capital returns through the issue and redemption of B Shares without the need for further Shareholder approval. This will be a less costly way of returning capital than tender offers and can be achieved more quickly. It also ensures that all Shareholders are treated equally as capital is returned to all Shareholders on a pro rata basis. Subject to the approvals being obtained at the General Meeting, the Company proposes to return 6.2 million to Shareholders, representing 250 pence for each Ordinary Share currently in issue, by the issue of 5 B Shares for each Ordinary Share held on the Return of Capital Record Date. The B Shares will be redeemed compulsorily by the Company shortly after their issue. Further Details of the B Share Scheme Subject to the B Share Scheme Resolution being passed, the Company will be able to return capital to Shareholders by capitalising the appropriate amount standing to the credit of its special reserve (which was created through the cancellation of the Company's share premium account) and then applying the resulting amount for the purpose of paying up the nominal value of the appropriate number of B Shares. Such B Shares would then be issued to Shareholders on a pro rata basis as determined from time to time by the Directors and, shortly thereafter, the Company would then redeem and cancel the B Shares in accordance with their terms for an amount not exceeding the amount treated as paid up on the issue of the B Shares. Following the redemption and cancellation of the B Shares, the redemption proceeds will then be sent to Shareholders. Subject to the B Share Scheme Resolution being passed at the General Meeting, B Shares may be issued and redeemed at the discretion of the Company without the need for additional Shareholders' approval. Future capital returns under the B Share Scheme will be notified to Shareholders by means of an RIS Announcement. No share certificates will be issued in relation to the B Shares and the B Shares will not be listed or traded on the London Stock Exchange or any other recognised exchange. The B Shares will have limited rights, including a right to a dividend at a fixed rate. The Return of Capital Subject to the B Share Scheme Resolution being passed at the General Meeting, the Company proposes to return 6.2 million to Shareholders utilising the B Share Scheme. Under these proposals, Shareholders will receive 5 B Shares for each Ordinary Share held by them on the Return of Capital Record Date by way of a bonus issue. Shortly after their issue, the B Shares will be redeemed by the Company in accordance with their terms at a price of 50 pence for each B Share then in issue. Shareholders are expected to receive the proceeds of the redemption by 31 January 2017. In addition, Shareholders will receive a small fixed rate dividend on the B Shares as explained more fully in the Circular. The Circular, which includes a form of proxy for use at the General Meeting, has been posted to Shareholders today and a copy will be available for inspection at the Company's registered office at Time Central, 32 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4SN during normal business hours on weekdays (Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays excepted) from the date of this announcement until the commencement of the General Meeting. The Circular is also available on the NVM Private Equity LLP website at www.nvm.co.uk. A copy of the circular has been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM Expected timetable Publication of Circular 21 December 2016 Latest time for receipt of Forms of Proxy 3.00pm on 17 January 2017 General Meeting 3.00pm on 19 January 2017 Record date for entitlement to B Shares in connection with the Return of Capital 6.00pm on 19 January 2017 Ordinary Shares trade ex entitlement to the B Share Entitlement and the associated B Share Dividend 20 January 2017 Issue of B Shares in connection with the Return of Capital 8.00am on 20 January 2017 Record date for the B Share Dividend 6.00pm on 20 January 2017 Redemption of B Shares 6.30pm on 24 January 2017 Settlement of the capital payments linked to the redemption of the B Shares into CREST and by cheque 31 January 2017 Income payment of the B Share Dividend to mandated bank accounts or by cheque 3 February 2017 Unless otherwise defined, capitalised terms used in this announcement have the same meaning as those defined in the circular published by the Company on 21 December 2016. Enquiries: Northern Investors Company PLC Nigel Guy/Christopher Mellor 0191 244 6000 Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited Neil Winward/Mark Bloomfield/Gaudi Le Roux 020 7710 7600 Website: www.nvm.co.uk Neither the contents of the NVM Private Equity LLP website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the NVM Private Equity LLP website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement. WASHINGTON: Donald Trump's bombastic run for president and his electoral triumph headlined much of 2016 that was also a "great year" for Indo-U.S. ties as the two countries overcame "hesitations of history" to closely collaborate on key issues like defence, counter-terrorism and civil nuclear energy. In a result that stunned the world, rank political outsider Trump was elected president crushing his strongly- favoured Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the November 8 poll. Riding a wave of anti-establishment resentment in a closely-contested race to become the 45th US president, the 70-year-old billionaire businessman, who took to politics only 18 months ago, won with a comfortable margin. He first beat 16 other Republican presidential hopefuls to clinch the nomination and then trumped Clinton. Much of the year was headlined by controversies created by his bombastic style during one of the ugliest campaigns in US political history that also saw Trump making alleged anti- Muslim assertions and sexist remarks. In the election season, allegations flew thick and fast from Trump being accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women to Clinton's email saga. However, it was the email scandal that finally proved to be her nemesis as just days before the election when she was leading in most polls, the FBI announced reopening of its probe into the saga which swung the pendulum in Trump's favour. Though the FBI gave her a last-minute clean chit ahead of the polls, experts said it might have been too late by then. Apart from the election, another issue that dominated the discourse were lone-wolf attacks and mass shootings, including the horrific Orlando gay nightclub shooting incident in which Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11. Post-election, there was a massive spike in hate crimes and assaults on hijab-clad women which many blamed on Trump's campaign rhetoric. On the bilateral front, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one among the top few world leaders with whom Trump spoke over the phone after his victory By any standards it could be described as a "great year" for the Indo-US relationship. It was a year in which Modi made a historic address to a joint session of the US Congress and met President Barack Obama as many as three times, twice in Washington DC. The year gone by also saw the signing of the long-overdue logistics exchange agreement, US designating India as a major defence partner and playing an instrumental role in India becoming a member of the prestigious Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). If it would not have been for Chinese resistance, the icing on the cake could have been India's membership to the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group. The US tried its best but was unable to cross the 'Great Wall of China'. The future of ties also look bright with Trump assuming power next month. Trump himself has publicly said he is a fan of Modi and has praised the Prime Minister for taking steps for reviving the Indian economy and cutting bureaucratic red tape. Given the fact that Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, who made a quiet trip to Washington last month, was given rare access to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, it could be a strong indication that the India-US relationship under a Trump administration would continue to see an upward trajectory. The bonhomie in ties that kicked off during the Clinton administration, got a big boost under the Bush administration with the civil nuclear deal and was propelled to a new level under the Obama administration. "2016 was a great year for US-India ties," Alyssa Ayres, a former state department official in the Obama administration, told PTI. The White House used Modi's words from his address to the Congress that India and US have "overcome the hesitations of history" to describe the relationship between the two countries in 2016. "As Prime Minister Modi noted in his June 2016 address to Congress, India and the United States have 'overcome the hesitations of history' and 'turned barriers into bridges of partnership'," Emily Horne, a spokesperson of the National Security Council, told. Read Also: Facebook Debuts 'Live Audio' On Its Platform Here's the list for 'Most Searched Politicians in India in 2016' NEW DELHI: The tiny Union Territory along the Arabian Sea coast, Daman and Diu, has become the first cashless region of the country. Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir has commended the UT administration for taking the initiative to make Daman and Diu as the first cashless region of the country. During a recent visit to the Union Territory, Ahir lauded the painstaking efforts of the UT administration in successfully making Daman and Diu a cashless region. At least 190 teams of trained volunteers visited over 25,000 households spread across the UT to educate their members about the benefits of cashless transactions, an official statement said. The administration has introduced free Wi-fi services in the Union Territory recently and 3,500 GB Data was used by over 32,000 tourists and local people during the last 45 days. This initiative was appreciated by Ahir as it will help in promoting the government's initiative of Digital India and e-transactions. Ahir reviewed the developmental projects in Daman and Diu and also inaugurated the coastal police station at Kadaiya. He directed the officials to expedite work on setting up the coastal police station at Diu. Ahir called upon the UT administration to fill up the vacancies immediately so that the coastal police station can operate at its full capacity at the earliest. The Minister also inaugurated a function to commemorate the 56th Liberation Day of Daman and Diu on December 17, 2016. Speaking on the occasion, Ahir said the UT has an immense tourist potential and hoped the tourism sector will emerge as a major revenue source with the slew of initiatives undertaken by the UT administration, the release said. A Staff Recruitment Board has also been constituted recently for bringing transparency in the Administration and to check corrupt practices. In the social development sector, infrastructure in all primary schools is being upgraded under the 'Jan Bhagidari' scheme of the UT administration. Read Also: Facebook Debuts 'Live Audio' On Its Platform Here's the list for 'Most Searched Politicians in India in 2016' NEW DELHI: Government will soon launch a new programme, Digital Village, to provide services like health and education in villages with the help of technology. The programme would be rolled out in 100 villages initially and will be expanded later, Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today. "We are going to unleash another important initiative-- Digital Village. As per my understanding, it will be a collector-driven initiative. We propose to begin with 100 villages and expand it later," Prasad said at the Digital India Awards event here. He said a collector with the help concerned local bodies may select a village to provide health, education and other virtual world service through Wi-Fi connectivity. The minister appealed officers at the event to join pro-actively in government's digital initiative aimed at transforming the country. "We have trained 18 lakh people over a span of four days. We may scale it (digital payments training) up in January," he said. Government has set a target of training 1.25 crore people on digital payments by March 31, 2017. Minister of State for Law and IT P P Chaudhary appreciated National Informatics Centre and said that there are about 8,000 websites carrying information about government work and facilitating transactions. "I would like to suggest some of the areas where we have to perform. We are far behind in the generation of Intellectual Property. In the area of cyber security, we have to be pro-active and not only be reactive," Chaudhary said. IT secretary Aruna Sundararajan said this is the first time Indians are having access to government without intermediaries. At the event, e-governance service of departments from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and Jharkhand won Digital India awards, earlier known as Web Ratna Aawards. Rajasthan won platinum award in the state category while Tamil Nadu received Gold and Haryana silver award for e-governance services. North Goa won platinum award in districts category. Kupwara received Gold and Udham Singh Nagar bagged silver award for e-governance. Municipal Corporations of Surat, Greater Visakhapatnam, Madurai and UP's e-NagarSewaUP bagged award. Read Also: Paytm Sets Up Awareness Camps To Help India Go Cashless Acharya Balkrishna: The Man behind Patanjali's Phenomenal Rise BENGALURU: The fall of 2016 doesnt seem to pass by smooth as country people continue to suffer the side-effects of #noteban, which came into effect after the midnight on 8th November. Following the surgical strike on black money and accounting multiple foreign visits throughout the year, Indian PM Ranks top for Most Searched Politicians in India for 2016. For many of us, Modi is still Usain Bolt of Politics and Mr. Kejriwal, the tortoise of Indian politics. Delhis Chief Minister might be at loggerhead with the PM all the time, however, he did not fail to praise P.Ms surgical strikes on Pakistan and urged Modi, unmask the false propaganda of Pakistan, which many of countrymen misunderstood in the beginning. While the transgression between them seems invincible, google search puts Mr. Kejriwal at 2nd rank. The list is then followed by Mr. Sidhu, who, after being in the long confusion over his decision to join AAP, has now launched his own party in Punjab. Donald Trump has made its place in the list as fourth most searched politician in India. The world witnessed the former WWE wrestlers victory as 45th president of the United States. Known for his classic speeches that nobody gets it many times, Rahul Gandhi is at the 5th place in the list. There were few speech/es where he failed to address the audience correctly. What more the uneducated poor people of the country want, Isnt it! Further, names of other personalities that are in the list goes like Subramanian Swamy, P Chidambaram, Kamal Nath, Hillary Clinton, and Vijay Rupani. However, by no surprise, Sonam Gupta has topped the list for most popular search on Google in India. (Note: Not in the same list). Read Also: India, Czech Republic Discuss Defence, Commerce Ties Cyrus Mistry Quits From Tata Group Firms NEW DELHI: Deepening their ties, India and Kyrgyztan today finalised broad contours of a bilateral investment treaty and inked six other pacts covering a range of areas besides resolving to work closely to combat challenge of terrorism, extremism and radicalism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev held comprehensive talks and agreed to step up engagement in key areas of defence, security and trade with specific focus on mining, IT, agriculture and energy. "We discussed how we could work together to secure our youth and society against common challenges of terrorism, extremism, and radicalism. We agreed on the need to coordinate and work closely in addressing and overcoming these challenges for our common benefit," Modi said in a media statement. The Central Asian nation bordering China is strategically important for India and both countries have been steadily ramping up defence collaboration. Modi had visited Kyrgyztan in July last year during which a pact for boosting defence cooperation was inked. A joint statement issued after the talks said the two leaders noted the challenges posed by terrorism and extremism globally as well as in the Asian continent, and emphasised the importance of ensuring a stable and secure environment for peaceful economic development. "In this context, they also called for the adoption by the United Nations of the draft Comprehensive Convention on Combating International Terrorism," it said. Aiming to broaden economic engagement, the two countries initialled a bilateral investment treaty which will provide protection to investors in each other's country apart from creating enabling environment for trade to grow. The six MoUs will provide for deeper cooperation in areas of agriculture, tourism, culture, broadcasting and youth affairs. In his comments, Atambayev said he was not happy over the current volume of bilateral trade as there was huge untapped potential for its expansion and called for removing bottlenecks in transportation of goods between the two countries through Iran. Denouncing terrorism and extremism, he said both countries were binded by historical links and fundamental values such as freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. He also mentioned about popularity of Bollywood legend Raj Kapoor in his country. To ramp up economic engagement, both sides, during the talks, directed the ministries concerned to develop a comprehensive road-map for a five-year timeframe. The two leaders also reviewed the "cooperative engagement" in defence with Modi calling the Kyrgyz-India Mountain Bio-Medical Research Center as an excellent example of successful collaboration. Both the countries are also involved in Mountain Bio-Medical Research and Modi called it an excellent example of successful collaboration. Read Also: India, Czech Republic Discuss Defence, Commerce Ties Cyrus Mistry Quits From Tata Group Firms NEW YORK: Donald John Trump has been formally elected to lead the most powerful nation by its electoral college, setting him on course to takeover as the 45th President of the US next month. With the electors overwhelmingly spurning calls by Hollywood celebrities, politicians and activists to defect from Trump, the president-elect on Monday received 304 electoral college votes, 34 more than the 270 needed for his election. Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton received only 227 votes despite her 2.9 million lead in popular votes. "With this historic step we can look forward to the bright future ahead," Trump said in a message to the nation. "I will work hard to unite our country and be the President of all Americans. Together, we will make America great again." The final step in the election process is for the Congress to certify the electoral college results on January 6 ahead of the inauguration scheduled for January 20. The last minute appeals to patriotism fuelled by Democratic President Barack Obama administration's claims that Russia had interfered in the US elections did not turn Trump's electors against him nor the oft-repeated questioning of his suitability for the job. The appeals to conscience, in fact, backfired when five electors elected by their voters to vote for Clinton turned against her while only two Trump electors voted against him, but for other Republicans. Three of the Clinton electors voted for Colin Powell, the African-American general, who led the nation in the first Iraq war and was the Secretary of State with President George W. Bush. Although Trump called his victory a "landslide", it was not one in terms of popular votes or electoral college votes. Clinton's 2.9 million popular vote lead over Trump did not matter either because the US presidential election is ultimately an indirect election -- much like India's -- and the electors have the final say, not the voters themselves. The electoral college votes are distributed by states based on their relative size and this helped Trump. Clinton's popular vote lead came mainly from large states like California, where she trounced Trump by 4.2 million votes and New York by 1.7 million. But these leads were limited by the number of electors they could elect in the state. Trump tried to delegitimise Obama by questioning whether he was born in the US, a constitutional requirement. Now it is payback time for the Democrats who have raised Russia's hand in the elections to undercut his victory. As electors gathered in state capitals across the nation, they were met by protesters who denounced the alleged Russian interference and called Trump a Russian stooge. Suddenly for the American liberals and the left, the CIA and the other US intelligence agencies had gained credibility despite their false reporting of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify Bush's plan to invade the country, a falsehood that was written in blood costing tens of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. The hacking of the Democratic Party computer systems and the publication of internal correspondence and other documents does not seem to have affected Clinton, whose support level before the publication by Wikileaks in fact rose slightly to 48.4 per cent by the time of election. Trump is heading into his inauguration publicly unperturbed by the Russian allegations, which is claimed by the media and politicians smarting under Clinton's defeat as a direct intervention by President Vladimir Putin. At thank you rallies around the nation, Trump has been expressing his gratitude to his various supporters, among them Indians and Hindus. At a rally in Florida last Friday, Trump singled out the two communities pointing out to them in the crowd and said: "They were fantastic." He has been outlining his policies in broad terms, mainly a throwback to his campaign rhetoric that he had in the post-election interviews even though he had smoothened them on issues like mass deportation of illegal immigrants that he had walked back on. Now with key cabinet posts filled and an outline for bold policy changes, he has to confront the legitimacy issue over the alleged Russian electoral involvement, and the ethical issues arising from his extensive business interests at home and abroad and his family involvement in government. But the biggest challenge of all is uniting a polarised nation -- a seemingly impossible task given the depths of animosity on both sides. Read Also: Indian American-Led Foundation To Fund Fellowship For Indian Journalists Trump Thanks Indian-Americans For Role In Polls Triumph Source: IANS BENGALURU: Indians have always been acclaimed internationally for their exceptional services. And, the list of Indians still continues to pitch in from across the world. One such woman is Savita Vaidhyanathan, as she will now be a part of the history books. According to the Economic Times, she was recently sworn in as the Mayor of Cupertinoa city in California known for its Apple Headquarters. Furthermore, she is now known as the first Indian-American to be elected as the new mayor of Cupertino. Hailing from an MBA background, Savita worked as a high school Maths teacher, as an officer in a commercial bank, and in a non-profit management. Her mother had flown all the way from India to attend the ceremony. "This is definitely a very momentous moment in my life," says Vaidhyanathan to a packed house at the community hall in Cupertino, Meanwhile, in the initial two days of taking the charge, she issued her first proclamation as the Cupertino Mayor in education. The Forbes marks Cupertino as one of the most educated small towns in the country. Savitha has been a resident of Cupertino since the last 19 years and was involved in numerous community activities in the city. "I've had several congratulatory messages saying that I'm the first woman mayor of Indian-origin," says Savita. The thank you note of Savitha stated a moment of pride and prestige and further went ahead to thank the residents of Cupertino city for voting, irrespective of the ethnicity and for trusting her. Savitha concluded the note with a statement maybe we did break that silicon ceiling and put a few more cracks in that glass ceiling." Read Also: Indian American-Led Foundation To Fund Fellowship For Indian Journalists PepsiCo Chief Indra Nooyi Joins Trump's Strategic Policy Forum ALLSCHWIL, SWITZERLAND - 21 December 2016 - Actelion (SIX: ATLN) has entered into exclusive negotiations with Johnson & Johnson regarding a possible strategic transaction. There can be no assurance any transaction will result from these discussions. Actelion does not intend to make any additional comments regarding these discussions unless and until it is appropriate to do so, or a formal agreement has been reached. ### NOTES TO EDITOR ACTELION LTD Actelion Ltd. is a leading biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative drugs for diseases with significant unmet medical needs. Actelion is a leader in the field of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Our portfolio of PAH treatments covers the spectrum of disease, from WHO Functional Class (FC) II through to FC IV, with oral, inhaled and intravenous medications. Although not available in all countries, Actelion has treatments approved by health authorities for a number of specialist diseases including Type 1 Gaucher disease, Niemann-Pick type C disease, Digital Ulcers in patients suffering from systemic sclerosis, and mycosis fungoides type cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Founded in late 1997, with now over 2,500 dedicated professionals covering all key markets around the world including Europe, the US, Japan, China, Russia and Mexico, Actelion has its corporate headquarters in Allschwil / Basel, Switzerland. Actelion shares are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange (ticker symbol: ATLN) as part of the Swiss blue-chip index SMI (Swiss Market Index SMI). All trademarks are legally protected. For further information please contact: Andrew C. Weiss Senior Vice President, Head of Investor Relations & Corporate Communications Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Gewerbestrasse 16, CH-4123 Allschwil +41 61 565 62 62 http://www.actelion.com The above information contains certain "forward-looking statements", relating to the company's business, which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "estimates", "believes", "expects", "may", "are expected to", "will", "will continue", "should", "would be", "seeks", "pending" or "anticipates" or similar expressions, or by discussions of strategy, plans or intentions. Such statements include descriptions of the company's investment and research and development programs and anticipated expenditures in connection therewith, descriptions of new products expected to be introduced by the company and anticipated customer demand for such products and products in the company's existing portfolio. Such statements reflect the current views of the company with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Attachments: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/02574a42-243b-4838-9f27-eb5b808d9cd8 STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Today's archive page is from May 20, 1943. Students at McKee Vocational High School, St. George, complete 210 model 172 Vultee U.S. A-31 dive bomber model planes. The models will be used by the U.S. Navy in its independent courses for training future air officers. They are made to scale and represent 4,800 hours of work on the part of 55 boys under the direction of Walter D. Wood, senior teacher in charge of the war training program. Each model plane must be perfect in detail, down to the last tiny part, before being glued together. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Wednesday marks 28 years since the Lockerbie disaster, when Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed over the Scottish town, killing all 243 passengers, 16 crew members, and 11 people on the ground who were hit by parts of the aircraft. Three Staten Islanders were aboard the transatlantic flight on Dec. 21, 1988: David J. Platt, 33, of New Dorp, living in England while working for an architectural firm, married and father of three. Daniel Rosenthal, 20, of St. George, a student of Vassar College. Kathleen Jermyn, 20, of Annadale, a student of SUNY Oneonta. It wasn't until 2001 that Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was jailed for life after being found guilty of 270 counts of murder in connection with the bombing. He was later released in August 2009 on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. See the gallery above for photos of the disaster and memorial services held through the years. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Ramel Santiago lowered his head and wept Tuesday in a St. George courtroom as the jury foreman read the verdict in his murder trial. They were tears of joy. Santiago, 34, was acquitted of murder and weapon-possession charges stemming from the May 10, 2015, fatal shooting of Joshua Williams, 29, inside the West Brighton apartment where Santiago and his fiancee lived. The victim was a friend of Santiago's fiancee. Santiago claimed self-defense. He testified Williams had struck him twice in the head with a gun as they argued over Williams being at the residence in the early morning hours of Mother's Day. The defense contended Santiago put up his hands and pushed Williams when Williams tried to strike Santiago a third time and the gun went off. Prosecutors maintained Santiago shot Williams as Williams came to the aid of Santiago's fiancee whom Santiago had just hit in the face. Santiago was also acquitted of charges accusing him of attacking and choking the woman four days earlier on May 6. As the bearded, bespectacled defendant wept, friends and relatives of his in the courtroom gallery shed tears and hugged each other. Later, several of them whooped outside state Supreme Court. JURORS GET CASE MONDAY The verdict in the three-weeks-long trial was announced about two hours after jurors listened Tuesday to extensive portions of Santiago and the woman's testimony read back. She testified for the prosecution. Jurors got the case late Monday afternoon. "As always, (District Attorney) Michael McMahon was well-served by Assistant District Attorneys Rhiannon LaTour and Mark Palladino," said Mario F. Gallucci, Santiago's lawyer, outside court. "However, like I said in my opening statement, my client was the victim of an ambush, and the jury was able to cull through the evidence and see that I was correct." Prosecutors declined comment. In her opening statement three weeks ago, LaTour said the fatal chain of events was set in motion with a May 6 text message Santiago received from his ex-girlfriend. His fiancee confronted him, and the defendant beat, kicked and choked her during "a substantial onslaught," said LaTour. The woman, who, at the time, had a 2-year-old son with Santiago, managed to get outside and call 911, said LaTour. Santiago left, and afterward the woman received medical treatment at the hospital, the prosecutor said. During the next few days, Santiago came and went at the house "sporadically," said LaTour. Early on the morning of May 10, Williams, who was in town at the time for Mother's Day, came to visit the woman, LaTour said. Santiago, who had been lurking outside, became upset that another man was in his house. He called the woman and cursed her, she said. Williams then spoke to Santiago over the phone, and Santiago came down to the house. The two men then entered, and Williams said Santiago was just getting some things and leaving, said LaTour. However, the defendant "put his hand against" the woman's face and Williams interceded, punching the defendant, LaTour said. GUN GOES OFF A gunshot went off and Williams clutched his stomach, extended an arm and said, "You got this, you got this," said LaTour. Santiago told his fiancee not to call cops and bolted. One bullet was later recovered, but not the gun, said the prosecutor. The woman did not see who had fired the gun and didn't see a gun on either man beforehand, according to her court testimony. In his opening statement, Gallucci contended his client wasn't the aggressor. He said Santiago's fiancee had attacked his client and smashed things in the house after the defendant received the text message from his ex. Afterward, Santiago moved in with relatives, but returned occasionally over the next few days to play with his children and get clothes. Santiago had two children from other relationships who were at the house. He said his client had called his fiancee early on May 10 and asked to come over to see his kids. When Santiago heard Williams' voice, he asked her what she was doing with another man. Gallucci said Santiago went to the house at Williams' invitation, thinking the other man was offering an "olive branch." But that wasn't the case, he said, and the fatal confrontation ensued. "Little did he know what was going to happen was an ambush, an absolute ambush," said Gallucci. Gallucci said his client didn't know Williams was shot and ran out of the house because he was afraid he would be shot. It wasn't immediately clear Tuesday whether Santiago, who had been remanded on the murder indictment, would be released from custody. He is being held on bail on a fugitive-from-justice charge in an unrelated case in Criminal Court. Gallucci said he believed the warrant stemmed from an out-of-state traffic infraction. On the set of Heaven Only Knows. (Photo by Eli Ruben) On the set of Heaven Only Knows. (Photo by Eli Ruben) A new DS course this semester, DS 302 Story to Screen, was co-designed by Professors Nicole Coady and Vickie Riley, drawing on their respective talents in screenwriting and cinematography. For the past 15 weeks, the interdisciplinary course brought together student writer/directors, cinematographers and sound designers with the shared goal of creating an original short film. Though the course maintained a strong focus on fact-based research, it also given students the chance to explore the realm of narrative storytelling in a way thats never before been offered at Skidmore. The 12 students enrolled in DS 302 came from a diverse range of artistic backgrounds and worked to strengthen the individual skills they brought to the classroom setting and their respective films. When Shooting "Operation Suckerpunch" - photo, Sam Grant Shooting "Operation Suckerpunch" - photo, Sam Grant asked to describe the class in her own words, Riley pointed out that "We want students to take the skills theyve learned in other classes and test their ability in a collaborative, real-world situation. The class, though taught during one shared time block, was subdivided into the three categories of crew roles so as to approach each discipline thoroughly and attentively. Each student owns their part of the film. Its up to them how to direct the actors, or how to approach sound or cinematography to further the story," she adds. While cinematographers and sound designers covered topics like camera angles, foley recording and equipment handling, writer/directors discussed the basics of screenplay writing, festival circuits and casting calls. Though the material covered in class differed among the three groups, all of the students were responsible for producing an in-depth research paper on a topic of their choice, so as to ground their creative feats in fact. The chosen subjects of the papers ranged from the effects of PCP on the brain (a topic broached in one of the films) to the visual identifiers of 1940s film noir, and offered students the chance to explore a topic or style embraced by their film that they were excited to learn more about. Were trying to use evidence-based storytelling as we tell our narratives, Coady explains. All of these unique projects are rooted in research; thats how we connect to the broader goal of the MDOCS program. Caleb Weiss (sound) (Photo by Anna Parsons) Caleb Weiss (sound)(Photo by Anna Parsons) Even students not enrolled in the course have voiced their enthusiasm and support for it and are eager to see the addition of narrative-based film classes into the existing documentary program. We have outstanding musicians/sound designers, cinematographers, screenwriters and actors on campus, Riley notes. We had the interest, talent and helpful advice from a number of faculty. Jordana Dym, in particular, was crucial in providing some of the answers we needed and it cant go unsaid that the support we got for gear was incredibly generous. Dym is delighted with this year's projects and looking forward to next year's class, which promises to introduce documentary storytellers to crew-based work. "In 2014, Larry Hott argued that documentarians (whose reenactments have much in common with narrative filmmaking) have 95% of a narrative filmmaker's toolkit," she observes. "I look forward to findout out how the two kinds of filmmakers grow from each other." Already in the process of redesigning and tweaking the class for next spring, Coady mentioned that theres definitely been a learning curve this semester, because its the first time were offering the course. Students and faculty alike are looking forward to seeing how the course grows in coming years, particularly following the excitement following the recent two-night MDOCS Student Showcase, the event at which all four short films premiered to their very first outside audiences. Shot both on and off Skidmore campus, projects featured the work of both student and professional actors, many of whom were in attendance to see the culmination of their work. For several members of the class, this was their first taste of producing a film from its pre-production phase (script writing, researching, casting, planning, etc.) into post-production (editing, sound design, color correction, etc.). This hands-on experience gave students the chance to wear multiple hats, some taking on roles they were less familiar with, such as directing, editing and makeup design. DS 302 is a chance to broaden your cinematic horizons and step outside of your academic comfort zone. "Film is the quintessential interdisciplinary medium, Riley explains. When you get people together who are excellent at what they do, something great can happen. Thats the opportunity Nicole Coady and I wanted to provide with this class. Final films/class credits included: Love in Idleness: Written/cirected by Bianca Thompson; cinematography by Jennifer Davies; sound design by Connor Crawford Operation Suckerpunch: Written/directed by Sam Grant; cinematography by Dante Haughton; sound design by Graham Gilmore Loved Ones: Written/directed by Alix Marello; cinematography by Wilson Espinal; sound design by Jack Mullin Heaven Only Knows: Written/directed by Anna Parsons; cinematography by Eli Ruben; sound design by Caleb Weiss Sam Grant 18 English Dutch Press Release Regulated Information 21 December 2016 - 6:00 p.m. - CET VGP acquires a large development land plot located in San Fernando de Henares (Madrid) The pan-European investment and property Group VGP announces the acquisition of a large development land plot in San Fernando de Henares located close to the Madrid Barajas International airport. The transaction consists in the acquisition of 223,000 m of new development land on which VGP will be able to develop around 140,000 m of new lettable area for future tenants. Jan Van Geet, CEO of VGP, comments: "We are very happy to have been able to acquire a prime development location in Madrid and are keen to start our first developments during 2017. With the acquisition of the development land in San Fernando de Henares together with the acquisition of the logistics centre and surrounding industrial land plots in the Mango Logistics Park in Llica d'Amunt (Barcelona) announced yesterday, VGP now disposes of two very attractive development locations in the two main cities it targeted when entering the Spanish market." For more information: Jan Van Geet Dirk Stoop CEO CFO Tel. + 420 602 404 790 Tel.+ 32 52 45 43 86 E-mail: jan.van.geet@vgpparks.eu E-mail: dirk.stoop@vgpparks.eu English French Press release Paris, 21 December 2016 Orange signs the renewal of its syndicated credit facility with 24 banks Orange signed today with 24 international banks a new multi-currency EUR 6 billion syndicated revolving facility in order to refinance in advance the previous syndicated loan expiring January 2018. The new facility, which has an initial December 2021 maturity, includes two one-year extension options. Such extension options can be exercised by Orange and are subject to the banks' approval. This refinancing is part of the Group's prudent liquidity management and is secured at attractive conditions, with an opening margin reduced to 25 basis points. The self-arranged transaction has been largely oversubscribed, which illustrates the strong support that Orange benefits from its financial partners. About Orange Orange is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with sales of 40 billion euros in 2015 and 154,000 employees worldwide at 30 September 2016, including 95,000 employees in France. Present in 29 countries, the Group has a total customer base of 256 million customers worldwide at 30 September 2016, including 194 million mobile customers and 18 million fixed broadband customers. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services. In March 2015, the Group presented its new strategic plan "Essentials2020" which places customer experience at the heart of its strategy with the aim of allowing them to benefit fully from the digital universe and the power of its new generation networks. Orange is listed on Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN). For more information on the internet and on your mobile: www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com or to follow us on Twitter: @orangegrouppr. Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited. Press contacts: +33 1 44 44 93 93 Mathilde Boistay ; mathilde.boistay@orange.com Emmanuel Gauthier ; emmanuel2.gauthier@orange.com By clicking Agree, you consent to Slates Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners to deliver relevant advertising on our iOS app to personalize content and perform site analytics. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about our use of data, your rights, and how to withdraw consent. Agree TORONTO, Dec. 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Greybrook Realty Partners Inc. is pleased to announce the successful deployment by its managed issuer of $23,605,000 in equity to acquire and subsequently manage the development of two parcels of land located in Mississauga, Ontario. The properties are co-owned with two experienced Greater Toronto Area (GTA) developers, Metropia and Sorbara Group. The properties are in close proximity to one another and located in the established Erin Mills district of Mississauga. The first property is situated at 3355 The Collegeway and is expected to be developed into a mixed-use development comprised of 336 stacked townhomes and approximately 12,000 square feet of redeveloped retail and office space. The second property is located at 2277 South Millway and is expected to be developed into a low-rise residential development comprised of 144 stacked townhomes. The developments will provide future residents with convenient access to a diverse range of community amenities, 400-series highways, public transit, shopping and a variety of green spaces. The developments, which are located within established communities, will provide prospective purchasers with a source of newly-constructed homes. Our asset management team continues to evaluate high-quality investment opportunities that have a strong probability of yielding exceptional returns for our investors. Investing in infill developments within strong growth areas in the GTA, like Mississauga, will help fulfil the real demand for affordable ground-related housing in the market and provide our investors access to an exceptional development opportunity, said Peter Politis, CEO of Greybrook Realty Partners. Metropia and Sorbara Group have collectively developed over 20 low-rise and high-rise communities. We are pleased to complete this inaugural transaction with two well respected developers with exemplary track records and deep management expertise. Selecting the right development partners is at the core of our investment strategy and Metropia and Sorbara Group are two excellent additions to our select network of high-quality partners, commented Mr. Politis. The portfolio of low-rise development holdings managed by Greybrook Realty Partners includes over 900 acres of land in Southern Ontario. The development of these properties is projected to result in the completion of over 5,000 single-family homes in the Greater Golden Horseshoe region. About Greybrook Realty Partners Inc. Greybrook Realty Partners offers investors the unique ability to partner with top-tier North American real estate developers and share in their value creation activities. In addition, Greybrook Realty Partners provides asset management and advisory services to investors and landowners, respectively. Greybrook Realty Partners and its affiliates have been involved in the creation, development, construction and management of over 50 real estate projects which are expected to result in the development of over 15,000 residential and commercial units. This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on managements current expectations and are subject to known and unknown uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contemplated or implied by such forward-looking statements. Greybrook is under no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Vectura Group plc (LSE:VEC) ("Vectura", "the Group"), an industry-leading inhaled airways disease focused business, reports that Novartis announced today that it has signed a licensing agreement with Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc., (MARLBOROUGH, Mass, "Sunovion"), for the US commercial rights to its three treatments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ("COPD"), Utibron(TM) Neohaler (indacaterol/glycopyrrolate) inhalation powder, Seebri(TM) Neohaler (glycopyrrolate) inhalation powder, and Arcapta Neohaler (indacaterol) inhalation powder. This license is specific to the US and has no implications outside this market. Novartis will continue to manufacture these medicines for Sunovion. Novartis will also continue to commercialise Ultibro Breezhaler (indacaterol/glycopyrronium), Seebri Breezhaler (glycopyrronium) and Onbrez Breezhaler (indacaterol) to COPD patients outside of the US. Outside the US, Novartis' indacaterol/glycopyrronium formulation Ultibro Breezhaler 110/50 mcg administered once-daily is the leading therapy in sales in its class. In all markets other than the US, Novartis has a full respiratory presence and portfolio and is committed to building category leadership and meeting the evolving needs of patients living with respiratory diseases including asthma and COPD. The COPD portfolio remains a global priority for Novartis. James Ward-Lilley, CEO of Vectura, commented: "We are pleased that Novartis has signed this licensing agreement with Sunovion to bring Seebri and Utibron to the US market. We are confident that with its established US respiratory focus and commercialisation expertise Sunovion will be a strong partner. The launch of these products in 2017 will give doctors new treatment options for their COPD patients. We look forward to the successful US commercialisation of these products and the further contribution they will make to the substantial existing recurring and growing royalty stream we receive from Novartis as reported in our recent interim results." This announcement includes inside information Enquiries Vectura Group plc +44 (0)1249 667700 Andrew Derodra - Chief Financial Officer Fleur Wood, Director - Communications Elizabeth Knowles - Director Investor Relations and Analysis Consilium Strategic Communications +44 (0)20 3709 5700 Mary-Jane Elliott / Sue Stuart / vectura@consilium-comms.com Jessica Hodgson About Vectura Vectura, a FTSE250 company listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:VEC), is an industry-leading inhaled airways disease focused business with proprietary formulation and devices across DPI, pMDI and smart nebulisation platforms. With our extensive range of technologies, capabilities and collaborations, we believe we can become a leader in the development of inhalation products, increasing our ability to help patients suffering from respiratory diseases. In June 2016 Vectura completed a merger with Skyepharma PLC. Vectura has seven inhaled, four non-inhaled and ten oral products marketed by partners with growing global royalty streams, and a portfolio of drugs in clinical development, a number of which have licence agreements with several global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies including Hikma, Novartis, Sandoz, Mundipharma, Kyorin, Baxter, GSK, UCB, Ablynx, Grifols, Chiesi, Almirall, Janssen, and Tianjin KingYork. For further information, please visit Vectura's website at www.vectura.com. About Utibron Neohaler Utibron Neohaler (indacaterol/glycopyrrolate) 27.5/15.6 mcg is a twice-daily fixed dose combination of long-acting beta2-adrenergic agonist (LABA) and long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA). In the US, Utibron Neohaler is a prescription medicine approved as a long-term maintenance treatment of airflow obstruction in patients with COPD, including chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema1. It is not approved for the relief of acute bronchospasm or the treatment of asthma. Utibron Neohaler was approved in October 2015 in the US with a dose of indacaterol/glycopyrrolate 27.5/15.6 mcg administered twice-daily, which is different from the product marketed outside the US. Recent new data from two head-to-head studies showed Utibron Neohaler provided clinically meaningful and comparable bronchodilation to GSK's Anoro(TM) Ellipta in US patients with COPD. However, the primary endpoint in terms of 24-hour lung function improvement (FEV 1 AUC 0-24h ) was not met statistically. A full evaluation of this new data is ongoing and will be communicated in due course. The primary objectives of the two head-to-head studies were to demonstrate that Utibron Neohaler was non-inferior to Anoro Ellipta in terms of improving lung function over a 24-hour period (FEV 1 AUC 0-24h ), after 12 weeks of treatment. More information on the trial design can be found at: Clinicaltrials.gov2,3. Outside the US, the dose and regimen of indacaterol/glycopyrronium is different than in the US. It is available as a once-daily formulation, marketed as Ultibro Breezhaler 110/50 mcg, and is available as a maintenance bronchodilator treatment to relieve symptoms in adult patients with COPD4. Once-daily Ultibro Breezhaler is currently approved for use in over 90 countries worldwide, including countries within the EU and Latin America, Japan, Canada, Switzerland and Australia. About Seebri(TM) Neohaler Seebri Neohaler (glycopyrrolate) 15.6 mcg is a twice-daily LAMA bronchodilator. In the US, Seebri Neohaler is a prescription medicine approved as a long-term maintenance treatment of airflow obstruction in patients with COPD, including chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema5. It is not approved for the treatment of asthma. Outside the US, the dose and regimen of glycopyrronium is different than in the US. It is available as a once-daily formulation of glycopyrronium, marketed as Seebri Breezhaler 50 mcg, and is available as a maintenance bronchodilator treatment to relieve symptoms in adult patients with COPD6. Once-daily Seebri Breezhaler is approved for use in over 90 countries, including countries within the EU and Latin America, Japan, Canada, Switzerland and Australia. Glycopyrronium bromide and certain use and formulation intellectual property were exclusively licensed to Novartis in April 2005 by Sosei and Vectura. About Arcapta Neohaler Arcapta Neohaler (indacaterol) 75 mcg, is a once-daily LABA bronchodilator. It is a prescription medicine approved in the US as long-term maintenance treatment of airflow obstruction in patients with COPD, including chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema7. It is not approved for the treatment of asthma. Outside the US, it is marketed as Onbrez Breezhaler (indacaterol) 150 mcg and 300 mcg8. About the Novartis US COPD portfolio The Novartis US COPD portfolio includes Utibron Neohaler, Seebri Neohaler and Arcapta Neohaler, which are all indicated as maintenance treatments for COPD patients and use transparent capsules to help with dose confirmation. About Sunovion Sunovion is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the innovative application of science and medicine to help people with serious medical conditions. Sunovion's vision is to lead the way to a healthier world. The Company's spirit of innovation is driven by the conviction that scientific excellence paired with meaningful advocacy and relevant education can improve lives. With patients at the center of everything it does, the Company has charted new paths to life-transforming treatments that reflect ongoing investments in research and development and an unwavering commitment to support people with psychiatric, neurological and respiratory conditions. Sunovion's track record of discovery, development and commercialisation of important therapies has included Brovana (arformoterol tartrate), Latuda (lurasidone HCI), and most recently Aptiom (eslicarbazepine acetate). Sunovion's COPD portfolio includes Brovana (arformoterol tartrate), an FDA approved twice-daily nebulised long-acting beta agonist (LABA), and SUN-101/eFlow (glycopyrrolate), an investigational nebulised long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA), for which Sunovion submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the FDA in July 2016. Headquartered in Marlborough, Mass. Sunovion is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd. Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Europe Ltd., based in London, England, and Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc., based in Mississauga, Ontario, and Sunovion CNS Development Canada ULC, based in Toronto, Ontario are wholly-owned direct subsidiaries of Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. Additional information can be found on the Company's web sites: www.sunovion.com, www.sunovion.eu and www.sunovion.ca. Connect with Sunovion on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube. About Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd. Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma is among the top-ten listed pharmaceutical companies in Japan operating globally in major pharmaceutical markets, including Japan, the United States, China and the European Union. Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma aims to create innovative pharmaceutical products in the Psychiatry & Neurology area and the Oncology area, which have been designated as the focus therapeutic areas. Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma is based on the merger in 2005 between Dainippon Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. Today, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma has about 7,000 employees worldwide. Additional information about Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma is available through its corporate website at www.ds-pharma.com. About COPD Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects an estimated 27 million people in America9, claiming the lives of 143,489 Americans in 201210. It is progressive (usually gets worse over time), and can be a life-threatening disease11,12. COPD makes it difficult to breathe, with symptoms that can have an impact on health-related quality of life11,12. Forward-looking statements This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the discovery, development and commercialisation of products. Various risks may cause Vectura's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: adverse results in clinical development programmes; failure to obtain patent protection for inventions; commercial limitations imposed by patents owned or controlled by third parties; dependence upon strategic alliance partners to develop and commercialise products and services; difficulties or delays in obtaining regulatory approvals to market products and services resulting from development efforts; the requirement for substantial funding to conduct research and development and to expand commercialisation activities; and product initiatives by competitors. As a result of these factors, prospective investors are cautioned not to rely on any forward-looking statements. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. References 1. Utibron Neohaler US Product Information. Available at: www.pharma.us.novartis.com/product/pi/pdf/utibron.pdf [Accessed November 7, 2016] 2. Clinicaltrials.gov. Efficacy and Safety Study of QVA149 in COPD Patients. NCT02487446. Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02487446?term=indacaterol+AND+Umeclidinium%2FVilanterol&rank=4 [Accessed 11 November 2016]. 3. Clinicaltrials.gov. Efficacy and Safety Study of Indacaterol Maleate/Glycopyrronium Bromide in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients. NCT02487498. Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02487498?term=indacaterol+AND+Umeclidinium%2FVilanterol&rank=2 [Accessed 11 November 2016]. 4. Ultibro Breezhaler EU Summary of Product Characteristics. Available at: http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/EPAR_-_Product_Information/human/002679/WC500151255.pdf [Accessed November 7, 2016] 5. Seebri Neohaler US Product Information. Available at: www.pharma.us.novartis.com/product/pi/pdf/seebri.pdf [Accessed November 7, 2016] 6. Seebri Breezhaler EU Summary of Product Characteristics. [Online] Revised 02-Oct-2015. Available at: http://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/27138/SPC/Seebri+Breezhaler+Inhalation+Powder,+Hard+Capsules+44mcg/ [Accessed November 7 2016]. 7. Arcapta Neohaler US Product Information. Available at: https://www.pharma.us.novartis.com/product/pi/pdf/arcapta.pdf [Accessed November 7, 2016] 8. Onbrez Breezhaler EU Summary of Product Characteristics. Available at: http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/EPAR_-_Product_Information/human/001114/WC500053732.pdf [Accessed November 7, 2016] 9. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Morbidity & Mortality: 2012 Chart Book on Cardiovascular, Lung, and Blood Diseases. Bethesda, Maryland: U.S Department of Health and Human Services, NIH, NHLBI. February 2012. 10. National Vital Statistics Report (NVSR): Deaths: Final Data for 2012. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr63/nvsr63_09.pdf [Accessed November 7, 2016]. 11. Global Alliance Against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD). Global surveillance, prevention and control of chronic respiratory diseases: a comprehensive approach. Available at: http://www.who.int/gard/publications/GARD_Manual/en/ [Accessed November 7, 2016]. 12. Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). Global strategy for the diagnosis, management, and prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Updated 2017. Available at: http://goldcopd.org/ [Accessed November 16 2016]. Independent Turkish security analyst Abdullah Agar said it was "likely that an organization was behind" the assassination. The analyst said that Altintas' behavior and the manner in which he carried out the attack "gives the impression that he received training that was much more than riot police training." Agar also said the gunman's words, which he uttered in Arabic, were from a passage frequently cited by jihadis. The claim of responsibility came not long after German prosecutors said they had released a man picked up near the scene of the attack, initially suspected of driving the truck. The man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany last year, was taken into custody based on a description from witnesses of a suspect who jumped out of the truck and fled after the attack. Even before his release, officials had expressed doubt the man was behind the attack. Best Canadian Blog 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 About Kate Why this blog? Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me "what Canadians think". In all that time they never once asked. This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio - "You don't speak for me." (goes to a private mailserver in Europe) I can't answer or use every tip, but all are appreciated! Katewerk Art Support SDA I am not a registered charity. I cannot issue tax receipts. Reconnaissance Man Economics for the Disinterested Montrose County Ages 7 and up, ideal for adults and kids to read together! Want lies? Hire a regular consultant. Want truth? Hire an asshole. Historical Evidence Concerning Climate Change Social Conservativism In an age of Revolution Weather Shop Click to inquire about rates. Dow Jones What They Say About SDA "Smalldeadanimals doesn't speak for the people of Saskatchewan" Former Sask Premier Lorne Calvert "I got so much traffic after your post my web host asked me to buy a larger traffic allowance." Dr.Ross McKitrick Holy hell, woman. When you send someone traffic, you send someone TRAFFIC. My hosting provider thought I was being DDoSed. - Sean McCormick "The New York Times link to me yesterday [...] generated one-fifth of the traffic I normally get from a link from Small Dead Animals." Kathy Shaidle "Thank you for your link. A wave of your Canadian readers came to my blog! Really impressive." Juan Giner - INNOVATION International Media Consulting Group I got links from the Weekly Standard, Hot Air and Instapundit yesterday - but SDA was running at least equal to those in visitors clicking through to my blog. Jeff Dobbs "You may be a nasty right winger, but you're not nasty all the time!" Warren Kinsella "Go back to collecting your welfare livelihood."Michael E. Zilkowsky Intelliweather Seismic Map Comments Policy Read this Best Of SDA Hide The Decline The Bottle Genie (ClimateGate links) You Might Be A Liberal Uncrossing The Line Bob Fife: Knuckledragger A Modest Proposal (NP) Settled Science Series Y2Kyoto Series SDA: Reader Occupation Survey Brett Lamb Sheltered Workshop Flakes On A Plane All Your Weather Are Belong To Us Song Of The Sled The Raise A Flag Debacle (Now on Youtube!) (.mwv Video) Abuse Ruins Life Of Girl Trudeaupiate Kleptocrat Jeans Child Labour I Concede Small Dead Feminist Protein Hoser: THK Interview The Werewolf Extinction Dear Laura (VRWC) We Wait Blogging The Oscars Jackson Converts To Islam Just Shut The HELL Up Manipulating Condi Gay Equality Rights System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. 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After the cuts were announced a year ago in the Turnbull government's first MYEFO statement (midyear economic and fiscal outlook), there was uncertainty as to what would actually happen. Now in fact the sky has fallen in: the flagship research tool in the humanities, the National Library of Australia's Trove online archive has been compromised; there have been severe staffing cuts at the National Library and the National Gallery, and lesser cuts at the other cultural institutions. The exception, the Australian War Memorial with the former Liberal Party minister, Brendan Nelson, at its helm has been immune from the savagery. Some artists have also lost meagre streams of income from organisations once funded by Oz Co as well as experiencing cuts to small grants and small projects. Despite the economic gloom in the arts sector, Canberra public and private commercial art galleries continue to hold brilliant exhibitions that challenge conventions and inspire the public. So much so that selecting the top five shows for this year is akin to judging an art prize where you know that any of a dozen entries would be a worthy winner, but only one will be awarded the pot of gold. Artist Fiona Hall in her Venice Biennale exhibition Wrong Way Time, which was clever and provocative. Credit:Elesa Kurtz For me, the five major highlights of the visual arts calendar for this year were the following. Fiona Hall's Wrong Way Time at the National Gallery was simply brilliant. Clever and provocative, the installation from the Venice Biennale was recreated and in a neighbouring space a selection of Hall's work from the gallery's own collection was assembled. It was a show that had a huge wow factor for the mind, as well as for the eye. Shareholders are right to be increasingly worried about just how financially painful Bellamy's Chinese burn is going to be. At its worst, the organic baby formula producer is experiencing an existential moment as the crisis it's having with suppliers and customers drags on. The saga of Bellamy's demonstrates just how rapidly a company can move from being a sharemarket darling with seemingly limitless growth prospects to a sharemarket pariah with a questionable business model. Following a trading halt and a two-week trading suspension of its shares in early December, the company has now requested its shares remain suspended from trading on the Australian Securities Exchange until January 13. Nathan Tinkler's audacious bid to escape bankruptcy has fallen at the first hurdle after he failed to post the $1 million he proposed to settle debts of more than $550 million before a creditors' meeting on Wednesday. Mr Tinkler's bankruptcy trustee, John Melluish, of Ferrier Hodgson, said "part of the proposal was that the funds had to be sitting there before the meeting started". Now bankrupt former billionaire Nathan Tinkler's sister Donna Dennis (not pictured) is also facing bankruptcy. Credit:Ben Rushton "This had not occurred before the time of the meeting and therefore it could not be put to creditors, so it was a bit of a non-event, in the end," Mr Melluish said. He said "three or four" creditors had attended the Grosvenor Place meeting and another "four or five" took part by telephone. Even for a puppy, Kat Donatello's black lab, Austin, was hyperactive. After experimenting with natural supplements on her older dog, Brady, Donatello slipped the puppy a special biscuit. "It just kind of took the edge off of him," she recalled. The treat contained Cannabidiol, better known as CBD, a chemical compound extracted from the marijuana plant. Mars agreed to buy VCA, a company that owns about 800 animal hospitals, a lab business and dog day care franchises that operate under the name Camp Bow Wow. Credit:Steve Cassell The CBD supplements were expensive, and options for pet treats were limited, Donatello said. "So I started spending my winters baking dog biscuits." She tinkered with the recipe before launching her CBD-laced biscuit company, Austin + Kat, in the US state Maine earlier this year. Along with Therabis and Treatibles, Austin + Kat, is one of several Cannabidiol-for-dogs businesses that have popped up in the last two years, a time period during which CBD pet product sales in the US doubled, according to data kept by cannabis industry analytics firm MJ Freeway. It's the newest trend in America's booming half-billion dollar ($690 million) animal supplements market, which is expected to grow by more than $150 million in the next four years. A customer returns to his Irish number-plated car at a petrol station near Newry in Northern Ireland. Credit:Chris Ratcliffe Supporters of Brexit say there may be short-term pain, but there will be longer-term benefits from trade agreements around the world and not having to pay into the EU budget. It doesn't feel that way at the moment in Derry on the UK's western extremity. A disused customs control point sits boarded up at the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, near Dundalk in Ireland. Credit:Bloomberg The city is closely bound to the EU, with about 78 per cent of voters backing "remain" in the June 23 referendum when nationally "leave" won 52-48 per cent. It's also right on the border with Ireland, whose largest trading partners are Britain and the US. Discount airline Ryanair, a transportation lifeline for many smaller cities around Europe, will fully scrap its Derry-London flight in March and is phasing out its route to Portugal and scaling back other services after the pound tumbled. Credit:Bloomberg Ryanair lifeline Brexit is already taking a toll in a place that was Britain's City of Culture in 2013. Discount airline Ryanair, a transportation lifeline for many smaller cities around Europe, will fully scrap its Derry-London flight in March and is phasing out its route to Portugal and scaling back other services after the pound tumbled. "Ryanair's decisions are a direct casualty of Brexit," said Clive Coleman, contracts director at the company that runs the airport. "It just didn't add up for them because of the devaluation of sterling." While the government agreed to subsidise the London route and the search is on for another operator, it's a reminder of how far Northern Ireland had come and what's now at risk. The Brexit vote caused a schism like it did in the rest of the UK, but here it laid bare the lingering sectarian divide. The largest of the pro-UK, traditionally Protestant parties backed Brexit while the Irish republicans of Sinn Fein opposed it. One thing they all agree on is that transit between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland should remain unencumbered, something supported by the UK government. Prime Minister Theresa May told lawmakers in London on Tuesday that "we don't want to see a return to the borders of the past" and British and Irish authorities are working on a solution. The border runs from Derry in the north to Dundalk in the south, and for decades, British soldiers patrolled the crossing as the violence that began in the city in the late 1960s spiralled into a 30-year conflict that claimed 3500 lives. The province still gets EU subsidies tied to a 1998 peace agreement. Where to next? Locals, meanwhile, don't even agree on the name: Catholics call it Derry, Protestants Londonderry. Now 43, Lily McGonagle remembers crossing into the north as a child living in Donegal in the south. Her parents told her to say she was going "to the city". "If you said Derry or Londonderry, that gave away where you were from," she said. "The idea that they could reintroduce the border just seems ridiculous." Earlier this month, she drove her three children to Derry to visit Santa Claus without a second thought. After the border melted away, she worked in the largely pro-UK Waterside area, and her husband is now studying part-time in the city. "It's our natural hinterland," Mrs McGonagle said in a cafe in Derry's Foyleside shopping mall. "We go out there, we shop there, we go to wakes in Derry. I even think in sterling." A short stroll away is the Bogside, where the region's civil rights movement took root in the late 1960s. Murals of victims of the conflict adorn the area, dominated by a vast gable wall telling visitors "You are now entering Free Derry''. Doomed walk All over the city, European money is apparent. The EU mostly paid for a pedestrian bridge linking Waterside to the rest of the city. Two weeks before June's referendum, former British prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major walked across it together as part of the doomed "Remain" campaign. Close by, builders were erecting new premises for the Museum of Free Derry dedicated to Bloody Sunday. ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- David Smith of Princeton Public Affairs Group was appointed 2017 Chairman of The Advocacy Group Board of Directors. The TAG Board announced his appointment at their November 2016 Annual Meeting in Dana Point, CA. Mr. Smith, a partner in the Trenton, NJ-based Princeton Public Affairs Group, is a veteran of the public affairs arena and has successfully managed public affairs campaigns impacting auto insurance, life insurance, tort reform and environmental legislative initiatives. Mr. Smith received national acclaim when he was honored with a Pollie Award by the American Association of Political Consultants and named to their United States Public Affairs Team of the Year. TAG is the premier municipal, state, federal and international government and public affairs organization. TAG members are recognized as the top public affairs firms in state capitals throughout the United States as well as many countries and jurisdictions throughout the world collectively representing thousands of corporations, associations and organizations. The 2017 TAG Executive Committee also includes: President Bryan Brooks of Paladin Group located in Madison, WI; Vice President Meghan Loper of Capitol Strategies Group located in Sacramento, CA; Treasurer Dave Collins of Rath, Young & Pignatelli located in Concord, NH; Secretary Dave Horne of Smith Anderson Blount Dorsett Mitchel & Jernigan LLP located in Raleigh, NC; International member Warwick Smith of Instinctif Partners in the UK and other offices in Europe; Ex-officio and past chair member June DeHart of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in Washington DC, TAG Federal member; and Managing Director Leif Johnson. For more information or help finding a lobbyist in TAGs extensive global network, please email info@theadvocacygroup.org or go to the TAG website at www.theadvocacygroup.org. To directly connect with TAGs Managing Director Leif Johnson, call 703-597-4276. There are guards outside the asylum-seeker centres dotted across Germany, but no one is sure who they're guarding and from whom. Them or us? "Tja," says my friend the Harley mechanic in his cynical Berlin drawl, "dat wissen wir nucht." Translation, "dunno, mate". When I last sat with them, in September, his Polish wife was less unsure. She is scared of the menacing youths that crowd the U-Bahn in the evening, the unpredictable men who have made her country of refuge feel unsafe. Today she is counting her blessings. A year ago, she was selling souvenirs at the Christmas market under the iconic bombed out church on Breitscheidplatz where the December 20 truck attack occurred. In a brewery bar on the edge of the Turkish-Arab ghetto of Wedding, Nikki is more circumspect. His girlfriend works in an asylum-seeker centre. We roam across topics, drinking the beer that's bubbling through the pipes around the cellar walls. Then he intermeshes his fingers with crossed thumbs forming a triangle before him, in imitation of Chancellor Angela Merkel's signature pose. "Wir schaffen das," he quotes her, "we'll succeed". "But how? She keeps on saying it and she hasn't told us how. Just like her mentor, Kohl: stubborn, there's no other way but mine." "I don't know if we can do it." What a nice touch, a Column 8 Christmas bauble atop of the column. Very merry Christmas to C8, my fellow contributors and the thousands of readers who help make this unique Australian icon what it is today." Allan Gibson of Cherrybrook. Hang on. "Love the idea (C8 Christmas deco), but when I opened my paper this morning I thought a drone had infiltrated my C8." Meri Will, DY. Moving on. "No copies of the SMH were delivered to Glenbrook on Monday, writes Dr Gideon Goosen of Lapstone. "Could you kindly send me a copy of Monday's Column 8 please?" [C8: Consider it done ... it's Christmas.] "In response to Trevor Dallen's post on the surfeit of QI on the ABC (C8), we are also being swamped by cooking shows. What has happened to The Bill?" asks Aileen Lingard of North Ryde. More telly. "There was once a drinking game associated with Escape to the Country (C8). You'd take a drink every time someone mentioned a 'good-sized' room, beams, character, inglenook fireplace, or a potential buyer exclaimed 'lovely!', among others. Made the show much more entertaining if you didn't pass out before the end." Alex Mayo of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In the coming year, Malcolm Turnbull will hopefully start to justify all those pictures of himself catching the train. And when he gets to working out how to justify those pictures, he will not find himself short of suggestions for things he can do for the city, and particularly for western Sydney. When Turnbull claimed the top job in 2015, he seemed to take upon himself the mantle of the urban reformer. His vision for the city dense, environmentally sensitive, public transport oriented was one of the central ways in which he differentiated himself from his car-loving and train-hating predecessor. But, to outward appearances at least, Turnbull has done little to implement his vision in the past 15 months. The fact that he catches the train to and from meetings may, in itself, be an attractive symbol of Australian egalitarianism. And it may capture something of Turnbull's own (perhaps faded) pragmatic brand of progressivism. But the point of going into politics, of course, is not to catch the train to work: the point is to work to make the trains better. There is impatience for something to happen. Consider what NSW Premier Mike Baird told Turnbull at a meeting of premiers in Canberra this month. Baird, who is building more roads and rail in NSW than any state leader in generations, in effect told Turnbull the federal government could be helping the state do still more. Leaders at a low ebb Surely it's clear to all that's it's not faith in democracy that is falling it is faith in leadership ("Faith in democracy at lowest ebb", December 21). You may not like him but Russia is in love with its strong, decision-making leader who puts Russia first. New Zealanders embraced a leader who had the courage to increase their GST and make some big economic decisions in the best interest of New Zealanders. The United States voted against more of the same, weak, populist mismanagement that failed to finish the job in Iraq that opened the door for Islamic State to run amok. Australia's leadership is simply weak. We don't have a Howard, or a Hawke or a Keating or even an Abbott, people who had courage, vision and did what they did in the best interests of the nation. It's really quite simple, find the right leader who will take on the Senate, take on the Coalition partners and make sound, gutsy decisions. Being tied to unions on one side and right-wing philosophy on the other will simply leave the door open for more populist splinter groups to take more votes and further weaken the process of government. Somebody has to shut the revolving door. Ian Murray Cremorne Point Dissatisfaction and loss of trust by voters in "the people running our country" is akin to people complaining about being stuck in ever-increasing traffic jams the problems are of our own making. We have reached the point of no return, with nobody to blame but ourselves. Ron Elphick Buff Point 2016 ending in peril I couldn't agree more with Mukul Desai (Letters, December 21) about the parochial, trivial nature of parliamentary debate and commentary from government ministers in general. I don't blame the media; they report what is currently circulating in national debate. We come to the end of 2016 with apocalyptic tragedy in Syria, our own government's inaction and apathy regarding climate change and the environment in general, and the governments of Europe and the US leaning perilously to the right. Come on politicians show us some courage, leadership and informed debate about world affairs. Josie McSkimming Coogee Mythological premise Ross Gittins has illustrated that the obsession of both major parties with balancing the budget and cutting spending is premised on mythology ("Why I wish we had a ratings downgrade", December 21). Imagine if our government instead followed the advice of the IMF and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and decided to spend large amounts on infrastructure. Government expenditure could be used to create a more cohesive, fairer and equal society. Instead what we have is deepening polarisation, social exclusion and poverty as the government cuts essential services. Alan Morris Eastlakes Lawyers in Parliament to blame for the collapse in trust Your reporting of the 12th Australian Election Study by the ANU is silent on possible causes of the collapse in public trust in our elected representatives ("Faith in democracy at lowest ebb", December 21). I suggest the correlation of this collapse with the growing dominance of law graduates in our national Parliament is no coincidence. If you wish to win an argument, hire a lawyer. If you wish to build something, hire an engineer. If you wish to manage something, hire a businessman. How many of our top companies have ever had a lawyer as chief executive? And yet we expect a Parliament full of lawyers to manage our economy. A good lawyer chooses the expert advice most supportive of the argument being pursued. A good manager fashions policy and strategy from all expert advice. How many times have we seen our elected representatives ignore expert reports or muzzle their conclusions? Lawyers mistakenly believe that a training in interpreting laws qualifies them uniquely for deciding public policy and distilling it into new laws. The latter task, of course, is performed by our public service rather than by our parliamentarians anyway. The Herald would do well to highlight the proportion of non-lawyers in each political party as they already do for women. Moving beyond the current culture of high school debating is fundamental to reversing that collapse in public trust. Michael Britt MacMasters Beach Assurances needed on Metro tunnels safety On Tuesday evening, many rail passengers were forced to traipse hundreds of metres along a stifling hot tunnel following an equipment breakdown ("Rail chaos caused by broken bracket", smh.com.au, December 21). The NSW Minister for Transport and the chief executive of Sydney Trains have apologised profusely.The same thing might well happen one day in the long Sydney Metro tunnels around Epping, where the gaps between stations will be up to six kilometres and the trains will not be crewed. The authorities planning Sydney Metro need to give a convincing account of how such an incident might be handled safely. Jim Donovan Lindfield Fortunately a train and/or equipment failure such as Tuesday evening's is rare. Perhaps I was fortunate that my train from the city at about 4.30pm, which also suffered a brief power failure before entering the tunnels, got going again. However, being partly disabled and using a walking frame, I would be reassured to know how Sydney Trains could get me and others like me from a failed train in the underground tunnels. Ian Brady Waverton No royalties for copyright rent-seekers So, Adam Suckling, please explain why the grandchildren of copyright owners should benefit from a royalty 70 years after the owner's death ("Copyright report isn't innovation it's a rip-off", December 21)? How exactly does this benefit creative industries, as opposed to rentseekers? Copyright is a statutory monopoly imposed by the state. It should be minimal enough to encourage creativity, and no more. A high school student studying Patrick White in 2060 should not have to pay one red cent for copying a few pages, but she will. Why should White's heirs or publishers be so enriched? Ronald Watts Chatswood I wish to lend my support to Adam Suckling. I have been writing textbooks in geography and commerce for more than 30 years. It is hard work. The textbook market today is extremely competitive and schools are increasingly relying on the internet to access teaching resources. Authors and creators of intellectual property don't want people freeloading or ripping us off. The Copyright Agency has so far done an excellent job in distributing fair and just payment. We shouldn't be importing any US copyright models. Brian Parker Terrigal I was in agreement with Adam Suckling until he mentioned copyright royalties earned over decades. Decades! How many decades is fair? Then I remembered the copyright lawsuit over use of part of the Kookaburra song in the flute line of Men at Work's Land Down Under. The writer of the 1932 song, Marion Sinclair, was long dead but copyright was owned by a music publisher which claimed 40 per cent to 60 per cent of the modern hit song's royalties; the courts granted it 5 per cent of past royalties back to 2002 and 5 per cent of all future royalties. And Adam Suckling talks about stifling innovation. What humbug. Rodney Crute Hunters Hill Taxpayers ripped off It is with dismay that I read that Australian taxpayers are to be made responsible for funding a loss of approximately $2.2 billion to unscrupulous education providers under the VET FEE-HELP scheme ("Vocational colleges cost $5.5b and half will not be repaid", December 21). It is obvious the transfer of the post-school public education system to the more "efficient" private sector is, and was always, a recipe for disaster without suitable safeguards. The reported losses are extraordinary. Surely losses of this magnitude demand a thorough investigation and the responsible ministers, policy advisers and bureaucrats must be called to account, by the courts if required, for their ineptitude. The whole strategy of privatising higher education must be reviewed in light of the abysmal performance of the politicians and the education department to date. It is also beyond belief that the federal Treasurer choses to ignore this significant loss of revenue while focusing on squeezing lesser amounts from needy but vulnerable citizens. Chris Denton Croydon Surgeries will be clogged Great ("Codeine Crackdown raises stockpile fears", December 21). Now my surgery will be clogged full of people with minor ailments that can be best managed (and more cheaply) in the community guided by a health professional called a pharmacist. Next appointment to see Dr Smith? That will be in six weeks! Dr Trevor Smith Culburra Beach Parliament needs circuit-breaker Ken Ryan (Letters, December 21), you need either a president or a governor-general in order to have a circuit-breaker when both houses of Parliament are deadlocked. This is what happened in 1975. If there's no force outside of Parliament that can hit a metaphorical reset button by calling a fresh election, the country will become unworkable if the opposition denies supply to the government of the day. Boris Feigin Narwee Fixed salary, endless work Good news, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is penning a series of articles on workers who would like, and are available, to work more hours ("The underemployment truth behind the jobless figures", December 20). I don't expect its salaried staff to have the spare capacity to simultaneously pen another series that's so desperately needed: about salaried employees whose incomes are fixed yet their bosses, and the community, have seemingly insatiable expectations that they work longer and longer hours. Col Shephard Yamba Posties exist, so use them or lose them Fear not, Helen Pitt, the old-fashioned postie still exists ("Why are we waiting? Post office is hell at Christmas," December 21). We are on first-name terms with our local postmaster and he once rang to tell us that he was holding a letter that had been sent to our closed PO box. I deliberately pay all my bills by cheque over his counter to make sure he stays open for our community. Lesley McBurney Wavell Heights (Qld) Gifts hit a bum note My wife's retail shop has been selling (chocolate) reindeer poo ("What your gift choice says about your relationship," December 21). It's been flying out the door! Paul Mangioni Paddington Mount disappointment Victoria Harrington (Letters, December 21), you must have been rich! A gig! We could barely afford a horse. As a six-year-old on a horse twice as high as I, an anchor would have been handier than a whip. Garry Sharp Regency Downs (Qld) Trump's four and out And that leads into a second lesson of 2016 the increasing challenge of getting facts and evidence into policy decisions. Will the Trump voters and the Brexiters and others actually get what they want? The difficulty is that, as many now claim, we seem to live in a post-truth world. The examples are numerous, from Britain's Michael Gove's pox on all experts, to Donald Trump's Twitter assertion that climate change is a Chinese conspiracy, to the numerous "alt-right" websites that have sprung up spouting lies, innuendo, and half-truths by way of muddying the waters. In 2016, we have consistently seen not just a refusal to accept evidence, but also a backlash against those who would deliver it. But this is not simply an invention of the populists; the political elites of this world have been peddling half-truths and what have frequently proven to be broken promises. In the propaganda wars, truth is the first victim. Post-truth is not just about "what is fact"; it is also about the underlying message. In the Philippines, Duterte's call for vigilantism and the death of drug dealers is about being tough on crime an appeal to personal security and safety. The actual impact of his drug war is, at least for the time being, less important than the commitment to "do something about crime". The question of how many of the near-6000 people murdered since June without trial were even drug dealers is not yet an issue for many voters. That the President still maintains popular support, even after claiming that he himself murdered people when he was a mayor, highlights the real danger of populist demagogues. Condemning the opportunists and demagogues who take advantage of movements for change is simply not good enough. Those in the political ruling class who have been opportunistic and who have failed to deliver must also take a share of the blame. If what you are selling does not work, don't be surprised if people will shop elsewhere for solutions. The situation is even worse further north, with computer modelling forecasting freakishly high temperatures in the high Arctic. Around the North Pole, temperatures were predicted to soar between 40 and 50 degrees above normal, approaching melting points despite this being the coldest time of the year. "That's pretty intense," said Ryan Maue, a meteorologist with WeatherBell Analytics. (See below for the coming abnormal heat over the North Pole, via The Washington Post.) As a result of warmer air and sea temperatures than normal, Arctic sea ice was 17.7 per cent below the 1981-2010 average in November, and the smallest extent for the month since the satellite era began in 1979, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says. Less sea ice means that there will be less reflection of solar radiation when the sun returns to the far north, and therefore, more heat being absorbed by the now exposed oceans. A similar retreat of sea ice is underway at the other end of the planet. Last month, the extent of the Antarctic sea ice was 11.1 per cent below the 1981-2010 average, also the lowest for this time of year in 37 years of records. The Antarctic story, though, is more complex given the impact of the great southern continent on the climate, with wind strengths one factor in shifting sea-ice totals. Still, the spring sea-ice melt in the south is running about two weeks earlier than average and one week earlier the previous rapid melt, Blair Trewin, senior climatologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said. Early storms Tropical cyclones had an unusually early start for the year, with Hurricane Pali becoming the earliest such storm on record for the central Pacific basin when it formed on January 11. Only two other January cyclones had formed in the basin since 1949 data began, Weather.com said. Two days later, on January 13, Hurricane Alex formed in the North Atlantic, the first such storm for the month in that basin since 1938, the NOAA, said. Later in January, the north-eastern US copped Winter Storm Jonas, which dumped 70 centimetres (27.5 inches) of snow on New York City, the most since records began in 1868, NOAA said. Scientists have drawn links between the loss of Arctic sea ice (see above) and longer winters across eastern North America as the polar vortex zone of frigid air encircling the Arctic weakens and buckles, sending ice blasts far to the south. Coral bleaching could have been worse Coral bleaching caused by extreme warmth at Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef. Credit:Climate Council El Nino events in the Pacific typically produce unusually warm sea-surface temperatures, which, when overlaid on the background heating from climate change, push coral beyond key tolerance thresholds. For the Great Barrier Reef, the extreme warmth resulted in its worst bleaching event, with more than 22 per cent of the corals dying. Many other reefs around the world also suffered bleaching. Tourism authorities and governments were relieved that the impacts were mostly confined to the northern reefs away from the more accessible corals near Cairns and further to the south. In fact, they have a monster storm to thank for that, with the powerful category-5 Cyclone Winston moving over southern Queensland after devastating Fiji and Tonga with its 285km/h winds in February. The storm worked to cool the waters of the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef long enough and just in time, to prevent worse coral mortality. Extreme heat records Death Valley National Park in California is one of the world's hottest spots. Credit:Alamy Global warming sceptics like to highlight long-standing heat records. But hot-day records are in fact falling much faster than cold day ones. In Australia since 2000, for instance, a record hot day is now occurring 12 times faster than record cold days. During the first half of the 20th century, the ratio was roughly one-to-one, the Bureau of Meteorology says. In 2016, though, the world has also had some bouts of remarkable daily heat, including the 54 degrees recorded in Mitribah, Kuwait, on July 16. According to the Weather Underground blog, it was the hottest on record outside Death Valley in California. The latter, at the aptly named Furnace Creek Ranch, was 56.7 degrees, recorded on July 10, 1913, although historians debate that high mark. Other extreme heat in 2016 included 51 degrees recorded in Phalodi, Rajasthan, in India on May 19, making it the hottest day of record for that country. The previous record of 50.6 degrees was set in May 1886, although a similar and perhaps more reliable reading was also recorded in 1956, the website said. Among the year's most significant heatwaves was one that swept across southern Africa in January, Dr Trewin said. Temperatures reached 43 degrees in Pretoria and 39 degrees in Johannesburg, both cities located more than 1000 metres above sea level, and breaking previous records by about 3 degrees. "They are very high temperatures for such high locations," Dr Trewin said. Strongest storm Typhoon Meranti had one-minute sustained winds reaching 305km/h . Credit:Weather Channel Whether known as Typhoon Meranti or Ferdie, this tropical cyclone was the most powerful in 2016 when it emerged in September. The Joint Typhoon Warning Centre estimated the storm had one-minute sustained winds reaching 305km/h at its peak as it crossed the Philippines island of Itbayat. More than 10,000 people were affected. It was still powerful when it reached the Chinese mainland, becoming the most powerful storm to hit Fujian province in at least 67 years when standard records began, Agence France Presse reported. Hurricane Matthew was another significant storm, leaving at least 550 dead in the Caribbean nation of Haiti, before causing widespread flooding along the US south-eastern states in October. Typhoon Lionrock at the end of August was also a major event, described as the worst natural disaster for North Korea in that state's history. Big wet As in every year, there were more than a few candidates for large-scale flood events. The US provided several, including severe floods in May in Texas, and the widespread heavy falls along the eastern seaboard in September when Hurricane Hermine became the first hurricane to make landfall in Florida in 11 years and then hugged the coast as it moved northwards. The most costly floods, though, probably came in the Yangtze River region of China, where sustained rains caused a damage bill of more than $10 billion and left hundreds dead. Central and western Europe also saw big floods in Paris in June. Australia, though, warrants a mention because of the share scale and sustained nature of much of the rainfall. It was officially Australia's second-wettest winter, but taking the five months from May, the big wet was even more notable, especially for the eastern half of the country which had record rain. (See chart below of how much of Australia had very much above or record levels of rain for May-September.) Awaiting some wet relief are regions that were hard hit by drought during the El Nino of 2015-2016. These include south-east Asia and southern Africa. While the latter region has had reasonable summer rains recently, the region has a long way to go before the dry years of 2014-15 and 2015-16 are made up, Dr Trewin said. One positive in 2016 was a good monsoon in the sub-continent after a couple dry years. Hottest month Surfers out early at Tamarama on a hot December day. Credit:Jessica Hromas From a climate point of view July is typically the hottest month of the year. Temperatures over land fluctuate more than over water, and during northern summers more land is facing the sun than in southern summers so the mercury is higher than in January. And so, with the lingering effects of the El Nino, this past July was the hottest month recorded, according to NOAA. Average temperatures were 16.67 degrees across the planet that month, beating the previous July then a record by 0.06 degrees. The biggest departure from the norm, though, came earlier in 2016. March was 1.23 degrees higher than the 20th century average, pipping the previous month for the record. Of the 15 warmest monthly anomalies for global temperatures, all but one of them January 2007 have occurred since the start of 2015, NOAA says. And if you were wondering when the last below-average month was globally, you have to go back to December 1984. Assuming December 2016 doesn't freeze over in the next week, the tally of above-average months in a row will be 384 by year's end. Hottest year With so many warm months in both 2016 and 2015, this year is likely to only just edge out last year as the hottest on record. Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, tells Fairfax Media this year will come in at about 0.14 degrees warmer than 2015. NOAA, which includes less of the exceptional warming in the Arctic than NASA, will probably report a narrower margin of about 0.04 degrees, he estimates. While both years were boosted by an El Nino, a weather pattern in the Pacific that results in less heat being absorbed into the ocean compared with neutral years. That said, it is notable that both 2015 and 2016 will be about one-third of a degree warmer than the year of the biggest El Nino event on record, which sharply lifted temperatures in 1998. (See NOAA chart below.) Britain's Met Office this week estimated temperatures will ease back in 2017 as any lingering El Nino boost dissipates. Retired independent MP Tony Windsor has launched an extraordinary spray, daring Cory Bernardi to quit the Liberal Party while urging Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to "piss" and kick the outspoken senator out of the party or "get off the potty." And Fairfax Media can reveal the Queensland Nationals MP George Christensen is considering his own future over the festive season. Speculation is rife that Liberal Senator Bernardi is preparing to defect, despite the conservative South Australian dismissing suggestions for months of a breakaway. Senator Bernardi could not be reached late Wednesday and has told friends he plans to keep a low profile over the Christmas and New Year break. Late last month he said witnessing the election of political maverick and outsider Donald Trump to the US presidency had been an epiphany. Families of passengers who were on board missing flight MH370 say a government decision to end the search for the plane and ignore game-changing new evidence of its location is "another kick in the guts". Danica Weeks, whose husband Paul was one of 238 passengers and crew on the doomed Malaysia Airlines jet, told Fairfax Media that new analysis showing the plane likely crashed in a stretch of the Indian Ocean north of the existing search zone should trigger an extension of the operation. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau review, conducted by a panel of international experts and released this week, found that the 120,000 square kilometre search area likely never contained the wreckage and that salvage teams should instead scour a 25,000 square kilometre area further north. But the Australian government quickly knocked the idea on the head, saying countries involved in the two-year, $200 million search agreed it will terminate soon unless credible evidence about the "specific location" of the aircraft is found. Best friends Michelle Williams and Busy Philipps have long been the poster girls on the power of female friendship. Meeting on the set of Dawson's Creek in the early 2000s, both actresses have taken the time to celebrate 15 years of friendship with throwback pictures and heartwarming remarks. But it was at the premiere of her new film, Manchester By The Sea, that Williams expressed how important it is to have a female best friend by your side throughout life (the pair are known for attending events together). Actresses Michelle Williams and Busy Philipps attend a special screening of Manchester by the Sea. Credit:Getty Images "I'm so in love with her," Williams told People Magazine, at the New York City screening of her latest film. "She's proof that the love of your life does not have to be a man. That's the love of my life right there." The feeling of friendship fuzzies is clearly mutual, with Philipps taking to Instagram to post a 2001 throwback image alongside a more glamorous shot from the movie screening to express how far their friendship has come over the 15 years. In Sydney, couples spent an average of 8.4 years raising the $214,600 required for a deposit on a median-priced house. Credit:Illustration: Matt Davidson Mahraj, who works as a technical officer for a security firm, agrees that it's best to invest your money wisely. "So many young people waste their money on partying and other things. We live in a society where if you work hard you can get a good job and make good money. The property crisis is just going to get worse, so better get your foot on the ladder now while you're young." Mohiuddin took advice from his father who had worked as a bank teller for many years. "I found out from him the kind of loan I could get and the monthly repayments I would have to make. I then started doing research into the kind of areas I could buy a place." Research is vital when looking for your first home. Zain Zama, 23, who works for a finance firm and runs the Young Property Investor website on the side, says young people should familiarise themselves with the ins and outs of buying property before they start house hunting in earnest. "Get to know the free online resources such as Domain and other property websites," Zama says. "And then get yourself out there, meeting real estate agents, and other property professionals. Go to open homes and see how buying a property works. Go to the bank that you've always been banking with, have a conversation with them and ask all the questions that are in your head, no matter how stupid they seem. And then go on to the next bank and the next bank. Understand the process of home ownership. All this information is free." Zama bought his first property when he was 19 years old and working in retail. He lets it as an investment property and rents his home. Zama believes people get too hung up on the area in which they want to buy. "If you're fixated on an area then you need to do whatever you can to buy there. That may involve saving more and increasing your income. But it's best to not be too romantic about where you can own a home." Zama suggests setting your maximum budget (say $700,000) and then searching for property under that amount. "Find out what's at your price range and then start filtering away to get to the best compromise," he says. For Alex Heneberry, 25, on the other hand, being picky about the suburb is important for the resale value of the property. Heneberry bought his first house in the suburb of Sydney suburb of Colyton at the age of 20. He was doing an apprenticeship in building when his boss advised him that rather than spend all his money on buying and doing up cars, he buy property instead. Alex took his boss's advice. He sold his car and put the money towards the deposit for his first property. He now owns a property portfolio that has him on track to be semi-retired by the time he's 30. arvs212 wrote: it would be great if you could give me some more information regarding IIFT accepting GMAT scores...and the course structure.. FAQ: Placements: Mode of Admission Important Dates: Pattern of Admission Test Contacts: Seems like GMAT score is acceptable only in case of Foreign Nationals and NRIs. In case you get more information on whether GMAT scores are acceptable for Indian Nationals, please share with all of us. IIFT admissions dates for "MBA-International Business" has been announced. The advertisement is available in today's (i.e. 18-Aug-09) Times of India, as well as on http://www.iift.edu/iift/courses_mba.asp For General/SC/ST/PH/OBC (non-creamy layer) candidates:On the basis of Written test, Group Discussion and Interview.For Foreign National/NRI/Children of NRI:On the basis of General Management Aptitude Test (GMAT)Tuition Fee (for 2010 batch):Approx Rs.3,50,000/- p.a.Last date for receipt of application : FIRST WEEK OF SEPTEMBERWritten examination: FOURTH SUNDAY OF NOVEMBER 10.00 am 12.00 noonCommencement of Programme: FIRST WEEK OF JULYThe admission test is a multiple choice objective type written test (in English). Duration of the test is two hours. It normally consists of around 200 questions covering ENGLISH COMPREHENSION, GENERAL KNOWLEDGE & AWARENESS, LOGICAL REASONING AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSISNew Delhi Campus AddressIIFT BhawanB-21, Qutab Institutional AreaNew DelhiTelephone+91-11-26965124+91-11-26965051Fax+91-1126853956Kolkata Campus AddressJ-1/14 (7th-9th Floor),EP & GP Block, Sector-VSalt Lake City,Kolkata-700091Telephone+91-33-2357 2854Fax+91-33-2357 2855Hope this will help. Five schools across Sydney are bucking the trend of Australia's decline in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, leaping more than 10 places compared to their overall HSC ranking to become one of the state's top 20 schools for STEM, a Fairfax Media analysis has revealed. Among those leading the way is Auburn's Islamic non-government school Al-Faisal which surpassed its overall ranking by 23 places to finish equal 19th on the STEM scoreboard. Business and education leaders have warned that Australia must pick up its performance in STEM subjects or risk leaving its future workforce behind. Up to 75 per cent of the fastest-growing occupations increasingly require STEM skills, a 2015 report from PricewaterhouseCoopers found, with the country set to lose $57.4 billion in future GDP revenue if future jobs aren't shifted into STEM focused roles. Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP, tapped into the angry voter during the Brexit campaign. Combining Brexit with Brangelina created the noxious frankenword "Brangelexit" Credit:Getty Images The "butt ugly frankenword" might not have been rolling off the tongue of those barometers of community sentiment - say taxi drivers and hairdressers - but it did find traction on social media. Brangelexit was tipped into first place by saying something about the mood of 2016, Dr James said. "Locker room talk'' was voted the "Non-Apology of the Year'' Credit:Andrew Harrer "It captures the shallowness of our current culture when a celebrity separation is elevated to the status of a world event of genuine political importance," he said. Dr James said a list of worst words was important because there was a risk of blandly accepting the spin and doublespeak rather than demanding "clear public language". "For a nation that prides itself on calling a spade a spade, it seems that Australia has started to call a spade an 'articulated portable digging implement'." Plain English Foundation executive director Dr Neil James "For a nation that prides itself on calling a spade a spade, it seems that Australia has started to call a spade an articulated portable digging implement," Dr James said. Worst Words 2016 Winner Brangelexit When super-couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie decided to split, it spawned one of the ugliest frankenwords of all time, combining "Brangelina" with "Brexit". Apart from being inherently ugly, elevating a celebrity divorce to the level of a major world event was a poor reflection on 2016. Corporate spin Battery cell issue Samsung kicked off a year of poor communications from mobile phone manufacturers. When its phones started catching fire, it said they had a "battery cell issue": "Samsung is committed to producing the highest quality products and we take every incident report from our valued customers very seriously. In response to recently reported cases of the new Galaxy Note7, we conducted a thorough investigation and found a battery cell issue" Samsung just edged out Apple, which had to explain why its phones were suddenly turning off. Apparently it was all due to "controlled ambient air". "We found that a small number of iPhone 6s devices contained a battery component that was exposed to controlled ambient air longer than it should have been before being assembled into battery packs. As a result, these batteries degrade faster than a normal battery and cause unexpected shutdowns to occur." It didn't really explain what "controlled ambient air" actually is. Disestablished Every year, organisations prove themselves incapable of using two clear and simple words: "job cuts". In 2016, a New Zealand university explained: "It is proposed that 16.28 full-time equivalent staff are disestablished." Meanwhile in the UK, Uber lost a case where it claimed it did not actually employ anyone, so it just "deactivated" drivers it no longer wanted. Judges scolded the company for "twisted language" and ruled that Uber drivers should receive the national living wage. Temporary volume dislocation When baby formula business Bellamy's Australia hit some problems with Chinese regulators, its sales and share prices plummeted. The company spin noted it was simply experiencing a "temporary volume dislocation". Euphemism Wastage How do you talk about the mass killing of greyhounds that are not able to race? You turn to a bland euphemism: "wastage". And they wondered why the NSW government wanted to ban the sport. Alt-right As we find ourselves in a "post-truth" world, a new political force is making its way to the fore: the "alt-right" or "alternative right". As many are realising, this is actually a euphemism for what is better labelled the "far right", "extreme right" or "white nationalism". Revenue measures In April, Treasurer Scott Morrison tied himself in linguistic knots trying to avoid the word "tax": "It's not to say there won't be revenue measures in the budget, of course there'll be revenue measures in the budget. But what we're saying, is where will apply those revenue measures, is to reducing the tax burden in other parts of the economy wherever possible to drive down the deficit." Integrated resorts Then there is this classic euphemism from the gambling industry. Apparently, they don't build casinos any more. They build "integrated resorts". Buzzwords and business jargon Cultural externalities The Productivity Commission report on the publishing industry talked a lot about "cultural externalities". We used to call these "books". Risk of tree failure A big storm in Sydney prompted a local council to post signs saying: "For your safety we advise you not to visit the park during or just after heavy rain and strong winds because of the risk of tree failure". This turned out to mean we need to watch out for falling branches. Frankenwords Bigly Although the Trump camp denied he ever said this, the first presidential debate coined an ugly new adverb: I'm going to cut taxes "bigly", and you're going to raise taxes bigly. Whether he actually said "big league" or "bigly", this frankenword deserves to be attacked ruthlessly by a pitchfork-wielding mob. Woke While a new word for being socially and politically aware might be useful, surely we can come up with something that actually uses English grammar correctly. "Stay woke, dude" does not. Mixed metaphor of the year Hurtling through quicksand Experts often use metaphor to explain complex concepts. But they don't always think it through. Health care law expert Larry Levitt warned that repealing the US's Affordable Care Act would mean that: "As the car is hurtling towards the cliff, it's driving on quicksand." A close runner up was this gem in the Adelaide Advertiser: "The writing was on the wall that a changing of the guards was on the cards after Thompson won last month." Non-apology of the year Locker room talk How can you apologise without apologising? You say sorry for lewd and misogynistic comments but then pass them off as "locker room talk". Rail transport through central Sydney was crippled on Tuesday night because of the failure of a bracket used to hold up power lines between Wynyard and Town Hall. Two trainloads of passengers needed to be evacuated through underground rail tunnels as a result of the failure, which also affected services on other lines. The Transport Minister, Andrew Constance, described the events as a "bugger of a situation for everyone", and thanked commuters for their patience. "I know how frustrating and difficult the situation was for commuters," he said. "We are not sugar-coating it." A security guard who found a lost child at the Sydney shopping centre where he worked allegedly exposed himself to the girl before returning her to her parent, police say. The 27-year-old security guard will face court on Thursday charged with committing an act of indecency against the three-year-old girl at the DFO Homebush shopping centre on Sunday. A NSW Police spokeswoman said the girl was with one of her parents at the shopping centre on Underwood Road when she became lost amid the Christmas crowds. Her parent immediately alerted shopping centre staff, who started searching for her. Police will allege in court that the security guard found the girl but, rather than returning her immediately to her parent, he took her to a corridor at the shopping centre where he exposed himself and committed an indecent act. From the outside, unit 24 looked as unassuming and legitimate as any other inside the modern Sydney apartment complex. Yet when police busted inside on August 31, they allegedly uncovered the tools the group known as "Sultani's crew" was using to ply its trade. There were 13 guns, including an automatic assault rifle and pistols fitted with silencers, ballistic vests, five jerrycans filled with petrol, three NSW Police shirts, cable ties, bleach, gloves and disposable overalls. The Legend of the Seas cruise ship. "Most of it is in the area at the end near the cruise ship terminal itself." Fairfax Media in March reported the area was a "sandy wasteland", with wrecked cars, poorly maintained roads and abandoned housing. Council's infrastructure committee chairman Amanda Cooper confirmed a joint funding agreement to make $10 million in road improvements would be signed. Cr Cooper said the council supported the international cruise terminal at Luggage Point. "Council is already working with the State Government and the Port of Brisbane and is in full support of this important project, which will be befitting of our city," Cr Cooper said. "Under the agreement, council has proposed to contribute half ($5 million) of the $10 million required to undertake preliminary works to upgrade the local road network, with the Port of Brisbane to contribute the remaining half of costs. "The next step in this project is for the Port of Brisbane to lodge their full proposal with the State Government and seek endorsement for the terminal project to proceed," Cr Cooper said. "Following state Government's project approval, council and Port of Brisbane can then enter into an agreement for road upgrade works and council will undertake the works commencing late in 2017." Maritime Safety Queensland has also given "in-principle agreement" to Brisbane's newest cruise ship terminal, the source said. Their simulations show the swing basin can support the 120 to 150 cruise ships planned for the new cruise ship terminal. A second swing basin near the Brisbane River mouth may be needed in "about five years" if the anticipated increase in container and tourist shipping demands continues, their modelling shows. In principle agreements with the two cruise ship liners; Royal Carribean and Carnival are in place and "commercial agreements" are likely to be signed after detailed talks when cruise line chief executives visit Brisbane in January. "We have 80 per cent of our approvals now done and we are on track to have them all completed by mid-February," the source said. "And we are tracking to go early in March for State Cabinet approval to stage two of the market-led proposal." That would mean a final state government sign-off in June 2017, with work beginning in October 2017. Brisbane's new cruise ship terminal could be finished by the end of 2019. The "berthing pocket" currently used by the vessel, the Charles Darwin, which has bought the sand from Moreton Bay to pack down for the second parallel runway at the Brisbane Airport, will be expanded. The Palaszczuk Government began a process of "market-led" proposals when it came to office, allowing private sector firms to "pitch" large-scale development projects to Queensland Treasury. Currently cruise ships berth at Hamilton. At Luggage Point where the Brisbane River is deeper, a new cruise ship terminal can safely berth larger cruise liners that are more than 300 metres in length and carry up to 4500 passengers each. Queensland Urban Utilities runs South East Queensland's largest water treatment plant at Luggage Point right beside the proposed location. Engineering studies to reduce odour from the plant are now underway and the site's boundaries will be landscaped to make it blend into the location. "We expect to have those studies finished by the end of January," the source said. Shipping volumes at the Port of Brisbane both cruise ships and containers ships - are steadily increasing, the source said. Local governments will be told not to publicly identify owners whose properties were being auctioned to retrieve unpaid rates after the state ombudsman blasted a Queensland council for humiliating a landowner. Ombudsman Phil Clarke was harsh in his criticism of Toowoomba Regional Council in its dealings with a resident whose property it was selling to recoup unpaid rates. Auction Credit:Josh Robenstone A notice was erected at the property, with the capitalised words "notice of sale of land for overdue rates or charges", underneath which appeared the name of the owner. "That an action is not prohibited by law does not necessarily make it reasonable," Mr Clarke said in his report. A woman who was born in Taiwan and is running for One Nation says party leader Pauline Hanson was right to warn about Australia being swamped by Asians 20 years ago. But Shan Ju Lin believes Ms Hanson was talking about the Chinese, and has told the ABC "good Asians" will vote for One Nation at the next Queensland election. One Nation candidate for Bundamba Shan Ju Lin. Credit:Facebook She told the ABC that "European people" find it hard to distinguish between Chinese and people from other parts of Asia. She believes Ms Hanson was right to use her maiden speech to federal parliament 20 years ago to warn Australia was at risk from a tide of Asian immigrants. Ms Walker said a condition of the visa was that Ms Shamsalipoor was expected to make plans to return to Iran. "They're still saying she's expected to leave the country and they're expecting her to also show evidence of that - so they're wanting her to get an Iranian passport and things like that," she said. Ms Walker said the worst-case scenario from Wednesday's meeting with immigration officials was that she would be returned to detention. "That was the fear we all had. The last time she went into the immigration office, that was what happened, she was detained," she said. "We were told today too, the best we could expect for the foreseeable future, if she doesn't return to Iran and if the minister doesn't lift the ban preventing Milad and Mojgan applying for the partnership visa, it'll be ongoing three month visas for the foreseeable future." Ms Shamsalipoor is in a difficult position as she applies for a partner's visa. Her husband has permanent residency - and applied for citizenship earlier this year - but Ms Shamsalipoor can only apply for a partner's visa from outside Australia. But that is not an option, as Ms Shamsalipoor fears for her life if she returns to Iran. Ms Shamsalipoor sought asylum in Australia in 2012 after fleeing an arranged marriage to a 60-year-old man and several assaults in Iran. If returned to Iran, Ms Shamsalipoor feared the prospect of prison and physical threats, exacerbated by her decision to take part in multicultural dance festivals. Ms Shamsalipoor's supporters will continue to call on Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to intervene. "We're going to continue to petition the minister and put in another application asking him to allow Mojgan to stay and grant her a partner visa on shore so she doesn't have to leave the country to apply for a partner visa," Ms Walker said. "It'd be so dangerous for her to go back to Iran - it is just not an option for her to go back there. "The likelihood of her being arrested and put in prison is extremely high." Ms Walker said Ms Shamsalipoor would need to physically present immigration each time she has her visa renewed. "If she doesn't do that, they'd be considering her to be in Australia unlawfully and they could arrest her and put her in detention," she said. "She's living her life in three-month blocks at the moment but trying to put it out of her head and work and study." Ms Shamsalipoor continues to work as a waitress, is studying and hopes to study nursing and then midwifery. Last month, tears flowed as Ms Shamsalipoor stood in front of her peers at Yeronga State High School and accepted her Year 12 graduation certificate. She had studied her classes, with the help of teachers and peers, from detention. Portable ethanol burners have been banned in Queensland after a woman was hospitalised from serious burns when one exploded. The interim 60-day ban on the sale of the decorative burners was announced on Wednesday after 38 incidents in the state and 117 across Australia. This includes a 28-year-old woman who suffered severe burns to her face and body when one exploded in her backyard in Western Australia, which also introduced its own interim ban on the burners this week. Two people in Queensland were also injured in a similar incident. A new South Yarra railway station will not be built as part of the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel but the Andrews government has conceded it may be needed in the future, after months of arguing it was not necessary. Planning Minister Richard Wynne announced on Wednesday that he had accepted an expert planning panel's conclusion that the case for connecting South Yarra to the tunnel is not justified given its high cost. But the panel also found that the final design of the tunnel "should not preclude the ability to include such a station as part of the metropolitan network at some time in the future", a recommendation the government has accepted. "I encourage the MMRA [Melbourne Metro Rail Authority] and wider government to consider this opportunity when preparing the final design for the project," Mr Wynne wrote. A father who grew a cannabis crop and planned to traffic the drugs to pay for his son's treatment for an ice addiction has been jailed for four years. When Veli Selmani learned ice was behind his 26-year-old son's increasingly aggressive behaviour, he vowed to get help and paid $40,000 for his son to attend The Hader Clinic, a renowned rehabilitation centre. Knowing the treatment would put further strain on his family's tight finances, Selmami also acted on the advice of a friend, who said growing and selling cannabis might be the best way to find extra cash. It proved, the County Court heard on Wednesday, a disastrous decision and one the judge described as a "misguided" attempt to help. A 93-year-old woman will spend Christmas in hospital after being shoved to the ground by a stranger who was yelling abuse about old people. The woman was shopping with her son in Melbourne's south-east when she was assaulted. The injured grandmother in hospital on Wednesday. Credit:Twitter/@SebCostello9 Her son Neil told 3AW they were leaving Southland shopping centre in Cheltenham on Friday just before 11am when a woman walking towards them began screaming abuse at his mother. "She looked up and started screaming about old people and looked at my mother and said, 'Old woman', and we thought, 'Well, we're going to walk around her.' And she turned and barged between us and pushed my mother over," he said. The saga of Nedlands restaurant The Curry Tree continues long after an arson attack forced its closure in 2014, with the local council finally winning a long-running case against it as a separate Fair Work court case proceeds. Owner Simon Mackenzie, seen waving protest signs outside the City of Nedlands recently, must pay penalties and costs totalling $23,800 after his conviction on December 14. The City started investigating in 2013 after a customer bought one of the Broadway eatery's pre-packaged meals from a supermarket and had an allergic reaction as the food was incorrectly labelled. The restaurant wasn't supposed to be supplying pre-packaged meals, having failed to notify the City it had changed its operations from a restaurant to a ready-to-eat meals manufacturer, thus breaching the Food Act. Guildford Grammar School says it has experienced an "unprecedented" surge in enrolments, despite parents speaking out about the school's decision to become a co-educational high school. Perth's oldest private all-boys school made the decision to slowly integrate girls into years 7, 8 and 11 in 2017, and flagged their intention to introduce boarding for girls in the Senior School by 2020. Some parents of the college were initially upset with the lack of consultation by school administration on the decision, and one mother said she would explore other options for her two sons as a result. "There was no consultation and when I asked the questions in my interviews and meetings only just 12 to 18 months ago, there was no mention of this being remotely possible," she said. International cyber criminals based in Eastern Europe and overseas crime gangs operating from the Americas, Asia and beyond will be a major focus for Australia's top crime fighting agency - the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission - next year. ACIC chief executive Chris Dawson said cyber criminals based out of countries like Ukraine, and "transnational" drug gangs were high on his 2017 hit list. Chris Dawson, chief of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. Mr Dawson said he believed ACIC was making progress on organised crime gangs impacting on Australia, but he said their work would never end. "The pervasive nature of serious and organised crime means we will always have a job to do," he said. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has overturned a controversial decision by regions minister Fiona Nash to make Mandurah and the Peel region a suburb of Perth, after intense lobbying by Canning MP Andrew Hastie. Mr Hastie told the Mandurah Mail Mr Turnbull had made the call after widespread discontent about the decision among local governments, business groups and residents. Canning MP Andrew Hastie convinced Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to return the Peel's regional status. Credit:Nathan Hondros. By redrawing the map to make the region part of the Perth metropolitan area the federal government had excluded local governments and community groups from applying for the $297.7 million Building Better Regions Fund (BBRF). But Mr Turnbull reversed the decision after vigorous lobbying by Mr Hastie, who spent the previous two weeks arguing for the change to the Prime Minister, leader of the National party Barnaby Joyce and senior government figures around the country. Geneva: Buses carrying evacuees started leaving the last rebel-held enclave of Syria's Aleppo again on Wednesday, aid agencies said, raising hopes that a last minute hold-up had been resolved. Civilians have been waiting in freezing temperatures since plans to get them out of the war-battered city hit problems on Tuesday. Sixty buses were stuck there, a war monitor said earlier on Wednesday, as TV pictures showed vehicles covered in snow. But a UN official in Syria told Reuters by email at 2pm that buses had started moving again from east Aleppo. "We hope that this continues so that people can be safely evacuated," the official added. Berlin: A Moroccan man has been arrested in Germany and charged with being a member of the Islamic State cell that carried out deadly attacks in Paris last year, the Federal Prosecutor's Office said on Wednesday. Redouane S. was detained in Lower Saxony on Tuesday, prosecutors said. By convention, suspects in Germany are identified by the first name and initial. A man has been arrested in Germany for links to the coordinators of the deadly Paris terror attack last year. Credit:Marc Piasecki The 24-year-old man was accused of renting flats in Turkey and Greece between October 2014 and Spring 2015 that were used by cell members to plan the attacks. Prosecutors said he knew about a meeting of cell members in Verviers, Belgium on January 15, 2015 where Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a main coordinator of the attacks, chaired a meeting to plan the attacks in Paris on November 13 last year. Jakarta: The Australian government has issued an updated travel warning to Indonesia as three suspected terrorists were killed after a bomb was thrown at police officers during a raid of a house in South Tangerang, about 25 kilometres south-west of Jakarta. The raid came as DFAT's smart traveller website warned that Indonesian authorities continued to arrest terrorists allegedly in the advanced stages of attack planning. Police believed the three were plotting to carry out a terror attack on Christmas Day targeting police posts in South Tangerang, part of the Greater Jakarta metropolitan area. "The information we received was there were three bombs ready to explode inside the house - pipe [bombs inside] three backpacks," Jakarta Police spokesman M. Iriawan said. Eichenwald said the tweet sent him into convulsions. "This individual did something clearly knowing his actions could injure me, and he succeeded," Eichenwald said in a Newsweek story. Kurt Eichenwald, senior writer with Newsweek, who had a seizure after being sent a tweet. Credit:Twitter/@kurteichenwald Now, he is pursuing civil and criminal cases against the user. On Tuesday, he tweeted links to court documents seeking subpoenas compelling Twitter to reveal the identity @jew_goldstein, whose account has since been suspended. Twitter has agreed to comply with a judge's order to turn over the information, Newsweek reported. The publication said Eichenwald has also filed a criminal assault complaint with police in Dallas, where he lives. In an interview with ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday, Eichenwald said the incident had spurred numerous copycats whom he accused of targeting him because of his reporting on Trump. "It is amazing to me that simply because I am a political reporter, simply because I write about Donald Trump that we have become so sick and twisted in this country that people think they have the right and obligation to inflict potentially very serious injury,'' he said. Eichenwald's stories on Trump - and his jabs at Trump supporters - have brought him death threats and other abuse online. He described some of it in Newsweek in October: "I have received innumerable death threats, sometimes just general invocations that I should die, sometimes more specific threats that I should be shot or 'lynched', as one Trump fan wrote. "I have been called 'kike', 'Jew' and 'anti-American Zionist', even though I'm Episcopalian with a Jewish father (as if that makes a difference). I have received video cartoons that look like they are from Nazi Germany of hook-nosed men dressed in Jewish garb rubbing their hands greedily over piles of money. I have been told to go back where I came from, whatever that means." He continued: "I write this knowing that it will spur more vile and violent online attacks on me. I have warned my children and my wife to be extra careful. And now that I have revealed how easy it is to inflict an injury on me, until this election is over, I will not be pushing PLAY on any unsolicited video I receive. It's simply too dangerous." He said the tweet that triggered his seizure came shortly after he left an interview with conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson on December 15. Carlson had grilled Eichenwald over a tweet he posted on September 13 - and later deleted - claiming that Trump was "institutionalised in a mental hospital for a nervous breakdown in 1990". The tweet drew broad criticism for its lack of attribution or supporting evidence. As The Washington Post's Paul Farhi wrote at the time, "Eichenwald's tweet appears to cross the usual lines. It is an unsupported and potentially inflammatory claim about a leading presidential candidate in the midst of a campaign." In the Fox News segment, Carlson asked Eichenwald repeatedly if he could substantiate his claim. "Was he in a mental hospital or not in 1990?" Carlson asked. "You alleged that he was. Was he or wasn't he?" Over and over, Eichenwald skirted the question, at one point holding up a white binder reading, "Tucker Carlson Falsehoods" and accusing the host of talking over him. "You're not fooling anybody," Eichenwald said. "You're trying to stop me from giving the answer." "I don't mean this in a cruel way," Carlson said at the end of the segment, "but I would have real concerns if I were one of your editors." That night, Eichenwald was at home sitting at his computer and checking his Twitter mentions when he saw the flashing image from @jew_goldstein, he told The Daily Beast. His wife, Theresa Eichenwald, said her husband called out, and she found him turned away from the screen, "incoherent" in his chair. "I knew right away what was going on. I quickly got the image off the screen. He did not have a grand mal seizure," she told The Daily Beast, referring to the most severe, potentially fatal type of seizure. "He had a localised seizure. All you can do is make sure the person is safe and wait it out and tell him he's OK. My response was more anger than anything else." She said she tweeted from her husband's account that she had called police: "@jew_goldstein This is his wife, you caused a seizure. I have your information and have called the police to report the assault." Earlier, Eichenwald had posted a string of tweets about his spat with Carlson, some of which he went on to delete. One of the tweets he left up said that "Fox News viewers" were threatening his children over the interview. "As expected, Fox News viewers going after my kids online because of my confrontation with @TuckerCarlson. Classy bunch of fans u have." In his appearance on ABC on Tuesday, Eichenwald responded to criticism about his claim that Trump was institutionalised, telling host George Stephanopoulos that he intended it to be a "signal to a source" to talk to him. He said he was trying to poke fun at Fox News for its allegations about Hillary Clinton's health while she was campaigning for president, including the incorrect suggestion that she was having seizures. "There was a reporting purpose for that tweet going out," Eichenwald told Stephanopoulos. "I was writing a series of jokes leading up to that with the intent of sending that tweet, which was a signal to a source to talk to me." Stephanopoulos didn't follow up. In the same segment, Eichenwald said he was taking a break from Twitter, although he has posted multiple updates about his legal cases in the past two days. "I can't look at my Twitter feed any more, but apparently a lot of people find this very funny," he said. "A lot of people who identify themselves as Trump supporters are loading up my feed with more strobes." "I'm very public about the fact that I have epilepsy. I have a lot of people who follow me who have epilepsy," he added. "Now my Twitter feed is dangerous for them." Loading For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser POINTE BLANCHE:--- Port St. Maarten is still welcoming travel agents and tour operators who would like to be part of the ports booth at the 47th edition of the Dutch Vakantie Beurs Utrecht (Tourism and Leisure Fair), considered the trade show for the travel industry. The Vakantie Beurs will be held from January 11-15, 2017 at the Convention Center in the Dutch city of Utrecht. Interested travel professionals can email the port at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Travel agents/Tour operators are essential in creating travel experiences as they can engage with clients and help them plan that perfect stay-over or cruise. Vakantie Beurs Utrecht is the perfect opportunity to connect the thousands of travelers that visit the tourism and leisure fair every January with a vacation experience, and travel agents are the ambassadors. Since the ports initial call back in November, several tourism sector businesses have come forward to join Port St. Maarten with promoting Sint Maarten in the Netherlands in January. These businesses are: Le Beau Travel, S.E.L. Maduro & Sons, and Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM Airport). Destination St. Maarten has been absent from the aforementioned trade show for several years resulting in a low brand awareness of the country in the Dutch market. This will be the second year 2017 that Port St. Maarten will be participating, and has committed itself to promote the destination and the cruise sector for a five-year period. Vakantie Beurs Utrecht caters to business to business and business to consumers. More Dutch travelers are becoming aware of cruises, and the St. Maarten cruise brand is the largest and most developed cruise port in the Dutch Kingdom. In 2016, approximately 121,593 visited the Vakantie Beurs. This expo fits into the ports destination strategy to infiltrate the European Union tourist market. Port St. Maarten is moving full speed ahead in establishing itself as a home port destination in the north eastern Caribbean catering to small and medium size vessels as well as the high-end market of the luxury cruise sector. The home porting business will translate into a significant positive impact on the countrys economy with spinoffs to the majority of sectors. Promoting the destination at the Vakantie Beurs can lead to homeporting and stay-over business for the country. Cruise lines such as Seabourn that cater to luxury cruising participates in this tourism travel fair of which is a high caliber event. Holland America Line (HAL) also has a presence at the fair. Back in November Port St. Maarten welcomed HALs latest and largest ship in its fleet the ms Koningsdam. HAL caters to European travelers and is widely recognized as a leader in the premium segment of the cruise industry. Stayover tourism is a main component of the countrys tourism industry and is linked to Port St. Maarten. Without stayover visitors, things will be different. It is up to us to sustain this, and continue to grow, and therefore that is why as a port we are investing in our future by attending this expo, and are inviting travel agents/tour operators to come on-board as we promote our destination experiences. The port is committed to participate in the Vakantie Beurs for a five year period and this will strengthen airlift and promote stay-over and homeporting of luxury cruise lines which fits into the ports strategic planning for long-term sustainable quality cruise tourism, Port St. Maarten Management pointed out. For information about Vakantie Beurs Utrecht, you can visit: http://www.vakantiebeurs.nl/nl-NL/Bezoeker.aspx PHILIPSBURG: --- During the first live press briefing on Wednesday Prime Minister William Marlin informed the people of St. Maarten that the screening process for the Ministry of TEATT is not yet completed but hopefully that process will be completed shortly. Marlin said that in the meantime, the Minister of Justice Raphael Boasman will be responsible for that Ministry until the new Minister takes office. However, Minister Boasman has left the island shortly after the swearing in ceremony for the Netherlands for a period of two weeks, therefore, the Prime Minister will be responsible for the Ministry of General Affairs, Justice and TEATT until Minister Boasman returns. The Prime Minister also introduced the new council of ministers, namely Minister of Finance Richard Gibson, returning Minister of VSA who was not present at the opening of the weekly press briefing Emil Lee, Minister of Education, Minister of Justice Raphael Boasman, and Minister of VROMI Christopher Emmanuel and Minister of EYS Silveria Jacobs. Marlin said that he hopes that the coalition partners will give this government a full four-year mandate which would give the island some stability. Marlin outlined some of the things the government has been doing, and of the things they have high on their agenda are affordable housing and he plans to support the Minister of VROMI with whatever plans the SMHDF and the Ministry come up with to provide more affordable home. Another priority for the government is the countrys infrastructure which is affecting the visitors of the island and residents. He said the rainfall these past days created a number of potholes. He said that the Minister of VROMI do have a lot on his plate to deal with but he is sure that the Minister has broad shoulders to deal with the issues facing the country. PHILIPSBURG:--- The St. Maarten Chamber of Commerce and Industry would like to inform the members on the results of the postulation of candidates for the Election for the Board of Directors of the St. Maarten Chamber of Commerce & Industry, concluded on Tuesday, December 20, 2016, 2012 at 12 noon. Through the completed postulation process the following person was postulated in accordance with the laws and procedures. Small Business sector: Three (3) candidates were postulated for (1) one seat, The names are Anastacio Baker, Edsel Gumbs, and Niel Henderson. Large Business sector: Two (2) candidates were postulated for (2) two seats. Charlise Philips and Peggy Ann Brandon. Based on these results no election shall be held for the Large Business sector. The Election for the Small Business sector seat shall be held on January 19, 2017. Voters are advised to pick up their voting cards at the Chamber of Commerce & Industry office from Tuesday, January 3, 2017. PHILIPSBURG:--- This Friday at Oyster Bay Beach Resort's Infinity Restaurant, Fete de la cuisine organizer Henri Brookson handed over a $1,758.57 cheque to the Sint Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association. The donation was the result of a collaboration between Fete de la Cuisine and Oyster Bay Beach Resort Infinity Restaurant to donating 50% on the net proceeds of the nights event, to enable Sint Maarten to send our culinary team to the regional Taste of the Caribbean culinary contest. The dinner was prepared by members of the 2016 award winning culinary team assisted by Sundial students, the infinity kitchen and service staff with the guides of Bart Peut from Sundial School. This October, the Fete De La Cuisine was held at both Oyster Bay Beach Resort and Holland House. International television channels, as well as lifestyle magazines, reported the event, putting Sint Maarten on the map as a culinary travel destination. The Taste of the Caribbean Team 2016 used the events for practical training, while at the same time the four-course dinners serve as a fundraiser to. Taste of the Caribbean is the leading culinary competition of the region. Last year's Sint Maarten team, led by well-known chef Dino Jagtiani, won in different categories in the event. Sint Maarten is looking forward to defending its title at the 2017 event in Miami. The Sint Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association is dedicated to bringing quality to all aspects of life on St. Maarten by promoting sustainable economic development for its members in cooperation with the social partners and the creation of a fair marketplace. For more information please contact our offices at 542-0108 or visit our website at www.shta.com Kissing 2016 goodbye: Small business operators optimistic about 2017 TORONTO, ONTARIO (Marketwired) 12/20/16 Think positive. Thats the sentiment small business operators in Canada are embracing as they look to the year ahead. According to research conducted by , optimistic small business operators in Canada outnumber pessimists by 2 to 1 about the outlook for 2017. The findings are the result of research by through its Angus Reid Business Forum, an online community of business leaders from across Canada. According to the research, 77 per cent of small business owners expect 2017 to be a good year, while almost 40 per cent expect 2017 to be better than 2016 in terms of revenue and profitability. Four in ten respondents reported lower revenue (37%) and profits (38%) in 2016 than 2015, while the biggest challenges faced in 2016 were work/life balance (38%), government bureaucracy (27%), effective marketing (26%), profitability (23%), lack of repeat clients (23%) and cash flow (21%). Many respondents cited improved marketing efforts as something they would do differently if they could go back to the beginning of 2016 more advertising and promotion, improved web communications, and more aggressive tactics for finding the right customers. Many others cited things they wish they could have changed in 2016, like the low value of the Canadian dollar and decreased crop yields due to fluctuating climate conditions. When asked to share a piece of advice for new business owners in 2017, a number of respondents stressed the importance of being ready to weather shifting market conditions, being familiar with taxation and regulatory issues, spending wisely, keeping good records and doing your homework. Understand that if you own a small business you can make a good living by working half days, said one respondent. You just have to decide which 12 hours you want to work. A total of 444 owners of small businesses from across English speaking Canada were contacted through the Angus Reid Business Forum, a community of business leaders whose role and business type have been pre-identified. The survey was completed online between December 13 and 14, 2016. To learn more about the Angus Reid Business Forum survey, visit: About the Angus Reid Business Forum The Angus Reid Business Forum is Canadas premiere online business research community, giving Canadian business leaders the opportunity to voice their opinions since 2008. Organizations use the Angus Reid Business Forum to help them better understand the business-to-business community on a variety of topics including buying behaviour, business outlook, government policies, the economy, and taxation. Members are prescreened on the number of employees, type of industry, role in the business and many other attributes. This makes it possible to quickly and efficiently reach the type of business leaders that are important for making sound business decisions. About Maru/Matchbox Maru/Matchbox, a Maru Group company, has been pushing the boundaries of the customer market insights space for over a decade. We combine deep sector expertise with cloud-based customer insights communities, and take a results-focused, consultative approach to helping clients better understand what motivates their customers and influences their markets, so they can act decisively and win. For more information please visit: About Maru Group Maru Group is a technology enabled professional services firm delivering information and insight services. Operating in multiple countries, Maru Group provides research, insight and advisory services to large enterprises across a broad spectrum of industries and markets. Founded in 2016, Maru Groups core area of expertise is providing fast and strategic customer feedback to corporates through a variety of technology platforms. Led by market intelligence industry veteran Ged Parton, Maru Group is backed by Primary Capital Partners LLP, a United Kingdom-based provider of private equity finance for high potential and growth companies. Contacts: Media Inquiries: ZoomerMedia Limited Announces Results for the Year Ended August 31, 2016 TORONTO, ONTARIO (Marketwired) 12/20/16 ZoomerMedia Limited (TSX VENTURE: ZUM) (the Company), the leader in serving the interests of the 45+ Zoomer market in Canada, today announced its financial results for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2016. Consolidated Results For the year ended August 31, 2016 the Company had revenues of $52.7 million, operating expenses of $46.6 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $6.1 million. Net income for the year ended August 31, 2016, after taking into account a gain on the sale of property of $11.9 million and income tax expense of $2.4 million, was $1.8 million. For the year ended August 31, 2015 the Company had revenues of $54.4 million, operating expenses of $50.0 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $4.4 million. Net income for the year ended August 31, 2015 was $137,454. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are non-IFRS earnings measures which do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to EBITDA or Adjusted EBITDA presented by other companies. EBITDA represents earnings before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA excludes impairment of broadcast licenses and the gain on sale of property. These measures are important to management since they are used by potential investors to evaluate the Companys operating performance and ability to incur and service debt, and as a valuation metric. Investors are cautioned that this non-IFRS financial measure should not be construed as an alternative to other measures of financial performance calculated in accordance with IFRS. Additional Information Detailed financial information and Managements Discussion and Analysis for the year ended August 31, 2016 can be found on SEDARs website at . The financial information included in this release is qualified in its entirety and should be read together with the audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended August 31, 2016, including the notes thereto. About ZoomerMedia Limited ZoomerMedia is a multimedia company that serves the 45plus Zoomer demographic through television, radio, magazine, internet and trade shows. ZoomerMedias television properties include; Vision TV, Canadas only multi-faith specialty television service; ONE: Get Fit, offering programs on exercise, meditation, yoga, natural health and living a planet-friendly lifestyle; JoyTV in Vancouver, Victoria, Surrey and the Fraser Valley, and HOPETV, a lifestyle television service out of Winnipeg devoted to broadcasting Christian programming and is available in approximately 6 million Canadian homes. ZoomerMedias radio properties include CFMZ-FM Toronto The New Classical 96.3FM, CFMX-FM Cobourg The New Classical 103.1FM, CFMO-FM Collingwood The New Classical 102.9FM, Canadas only commercial classical music radio stations serving the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), eastern Ontario and Collingwood, CFZM-AM 740 Toronto and CFZM-FM 96.7FM Toronto Zoomer Radio, Torontos Timeless Hits Station. ZoomerMedia also publishes ZOOMER Magazine, the largest paid circulation magazine in Canada for the mature market. ZoomerMedia is Canadas leading provider of online content targeting the 45plus age group through many properties, the key one being . ZoomerMedia also has trade show and conference divisions that produce the ZoomerShows, annual consumer shows directed to the Zoomer demographic and ideaCity, an annual Canadian conference also known as Canadas Premiere Meeting of the Minds. Cautionary note on forward looking statements The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Certain statements made in this report are forward-looking statements which may include, without limitation, any statement that may predict, forecast, indicate or imply future results, performance or achievements, and may contain the words believe, anticipate, expect, estimate, project, will be, will continue, will likely result or similar words or phrases. Forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward looking statements. The risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in filings by ZoomerMedia Limited with provincial securities commissions. New risk factors emerge from time to time and it is not possible for management to predict all such risk factors, nor can it assess the impact of all such risk factors on the Companys 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. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to, the following: Given these risks, and uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on forward -looking statements as a prediction of actual results. ZoomerMedia Limited does not intend and does not assume any obligation to update these forward -looking statements. Contacts: George Kempff Vice President and Chief Financial Officer ZoomerMedia Limited (416) 607-7735 Leanne Wright Vice President Communications ZoomerMedia Limited (416) 886-6873 Kaseya Closes Out Banner Year with Strong Growth, Continues Momentum into 2017 NEW YORK, NY and MIAMI, FL (Marketwired) 12/21/16 , the leading provider of complete IT management solutions for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and small to midsized businesses (SMBs), today announced record corporate growth in 2016. At the heart of Kaseyas success is the launch of Kaseya IT Complete. As the industrys first and only unified growth platform designed specifically for the MSP community, IT Complete enabled the average Kaseya MSP to grow its business by over 30 percent in 2016. Backed by Kaseyas Times 20 strategy of delivering solutions that allow MSPs to receive a 20 times return on their IT investments, Kaseya MSPs are growing faster than those on competing platforms. As a result, the company experienced over 50 percent year-over-year growth that can be directly correlated to the 30 percent year-over-year growth of Kaseya MSP customers. With customer satisfaction scores surging and the continuous delivery of proven, next-generation IT management solutions, 2016 has been a banner year for Kaseya. In April, Kaseya launched its platform as the industrys first and only unified growth platform designed specifically for the MSP community. Kaseya IT Complete completely transformed managed services by enabling MSPs to leverage solutions that allow them to both run their businesses effectively, as well as generate revenue to grow their business. As part of the Kaseya IT Complete offering, the company introduced , a second-generation PSA solution. Offered at a fraction of the price of competing solutions, BMS allows MSPs to be more strategic with their IT investments, and reinvest their capital into revenue-generating solutions. Learning from widespread dissatisfaction with competitors first generation PSA tools, Kaseya developed its second-generation BMS platform with the overarching goal of providing MSPs with a better solution. BMS provides robust features at an incredibly cost-effective price nearly one-third of the price of other solutions helping MSPs dramatically reduce operational costs right away. At the same time, its intuitive interface makes employee adoption easy and seamless, while its powerful automation capabilities simplify tasks so that all departments work together more efficiently. Kaseya AuthAnvil In November, Kaseya launched the latest release of 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. With its enhanced capabilities and growing library of supported services and applications, AuthAnvils business is up 400 percent year-over-year. Kaseya VSA 9.3 Announced in May, delivers a reimagined technician experience to greatly improve productivity, enables 247 operations, provides policy-driven end-point security management, and increases platform scalability and extensibility. VSA 9.3 also delivers the industrys fastest, most reliable and functionally complete remote monitoring and management solution. Kaseya Traverse 9.4 of , also launched in November, extends its key cloud and network infrastructure monitoring capabilities with added automation. Traverse supports leading hybrid cloud infrastructures, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Nimble Storage and Dell Compellent among others. Nearly 300 MSPs and mid-market enterprises run Traverse, which offers a single pane of glass to monitor across public, private and hybrid clouds. IT Completes one-two punch of revenue generating, effective IT management solutions means MSPs can now experience immediate returns on their IT investments to the tune of 20 times their initial expense. With Kaseya MSPs growing at 30 percent a rate faster than that of the industry, the combination of Kaseyas Times 20 strategy and IT Complete platform is a proven success in helping MSPs accelerate their business. Subsequently, customer response to these initiatives has been tremendously positive with Kaseyas overall customer satisfaction rating for 2016 more than doubling and its customer retention rate at 97 percent. In addition to quadrupled year-over-year sales growth and the continued surge in worldwide customer adoption, Kaseya concludes a very successful 2016 with more than $100M on its balance sheet. A portion of these funds are allocated for upcoming technology acquisitions aimed at expanding Kaseyas portfolio of purpose-built products that help MSPs and enterprises more effectively and efficiently run their businesses. In July, Kaseya announced the expansion of its EMEA headquarters in Dublin, and plans to significantly increase its presence in Las Vegas, New York and Miami in the coming year. Additionally, in November, Kaseya extended its popular Connect user conference to the EMEA region with the first-ever Kaseya Connect Europe. Following the success of Kaseya Connect 2016, held in May in San Diego, Calif., Kaseya kicked off Kaseya Connect Europe in Barcelona to provide EMEA partners and customers an immersive, European-focused version of the popular event. In 2016, Kaseya also released . This community-sourced, online, open market was built for users to share, buy and sell agent procedures, scripts, monitoring sets, reports, templates and other types of system and network automation. With more than 2,000 contributors and thousands of downloads per week, Kaseya Automation Exchange taps into the strong, collective knowledge and expertise of Kaseyas vast community to further the companys commitment to openness, interoperability and vendor neutrality. Kaseya Automation Exchange delivers community-driven, self-service content that allows its customers to leverage robust automation capabilities to increase productivity. With more time available as the result of increased efficiencies, MSPs and SMBs are free to focus on servicing their own customers to grow and accelerate their business. Looking ahead to 2017 and beyond, we will continue to outpace the competition with our overall technology investments, in order to further our strengths and enhance our capabilities within the Kaseya IT Complete platform, said Fred Voccola, CEO, Kaseya. Our Times 20 philosophy is our commitment to delivering the best in class IT management solutions that enable our customers to grow their business. We only succeed when our customers succeed. Every decision we make is viewed through the lens of what is best for our customers. As such, we will continue to aggressively innovate our product lines and remain an open platform so our customers have the freedom to choose the leading, proven technologies that will best meet their business needs. 2016 has been a banner year for Kaseya, and we are thrilled at the opportunities that await us in the year to come. Kaseya is the leading provider of complete IT Management solutions for Managed Service Providers and small to midsized businesses. Kaseya allows organizations 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 . Prysmian: Launch Of The Second Edition Of Make It, The Recruiting Programme For Engineers With Operations Experience Milan, 21 December 2016 Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, is launching the second edition of the Make It recruiting programme, aimed at scouting new talents for its production plants worldwide. After the great success achieved in the first edition, which received over 6,000 applications and led to the recruitment of 50 professionals, this year the Group continues to search for process, maintenance, design and quality engineers, as well as other technical specialists. The profiles required include a degree in engineering, or equivalent, and about 3-7 years work experience obtained in similar positions in a previous professional context, a good command of English and leadership skills. In Prysmian we believe strongly in young people because they represent the future, and our goal is to enhance them so that they can achieve their full potential. It is within this framework that Make It, combined with our Build the Future graduate programme, is just one of the many schemes that allow us to tap into the talent that can really make a difference for us, stated Fabrizio Rutschmann, HR & Organisation SVP. Ongoing learning, training and the opportunity for real and concrete professional growth are the key elements underpinning the companys philosophy and an extensive human capital development strategy. Through a four-year professional pathway, Make It offers a top training scheme involving the Prysmian Group Academy, which will focus on further developing the skills essential for the career of the candidates selected. The programme will include a one week induction in the Groups new Milan headquarters and two weeks of training in the Manufacturing Academy in Mudanya (Turkey), a specialist centre recently inaugurated in one of the Groups major plants that will allow training from highly specialised personnel. The selection process will be open up to the end of March and the induction into the Group is expected in June 2017. With 88 plants and various centres of excellence distributed throughout 33 countries, Prysmian Group represents an organisation committed to ongoing industrial investment amounting to about 200 million a year which makes it a world leader in its sector, particularly in key submarine cable and optical fibre segments. Further information on the Make It programme visit www.prysmiangroup.com, people & careers section. Global Industry Analysis of Semiconductor Inspection Systems Market Predicts Higher Growth till 2021 Albany, New York, December 21, 2016: Market Research Hub (MRH) has recently added a latest study, titled Global Semiconductor Inspection Systems Market Research Report 2016 to its report offerings. This study provides a holistic perspective on the current state of the global market during the period of 2011 to 2021, with a strong focus on some key regions including North America, Southeast Asia, Europe, China, Japan and India. Request for Sample Report: http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=901020 The inspection of intermediates products and the analysis of substrates is crucial and this has necessitated the requirement for semiconductors inspections. It can be defined as, it is the part of fabrication equipment i.e. used in manufacturing process of semiconductor device to detect the failure that interrupts the production. Once the defect is obtained and sufficiently removed, the process is advanced to the next step. Main defects in the semiconductor manufacturing process includes pattern defects and small particles on semiconductor wafer. Further, the market has been segmented on the basis of various types and applications. By types, it covers: wafer inspection and mask inspection systems. The wafer inspection system features improved sensitivity to defects on silicon, poly and metal films. It also has the ability to sort defects by the type and size. Through the geographical analysis, North America region holds the largest market share of global semiconductor inspection system market. This region is also home to many of the key players of the market. In Europe region, the market is witnessing moderate growth rate. Germany, being the largest electronics manufacturer and automotive hub, contributes enormously to the Semiconductor Inspection Systems in Europe market. According to the report, growing requirement of semiconductor inspection system will be a key driver for market growth during the forecast period. The technical development in the electronics and semiconductor device markets is propelling wafer manufacturers to invest heavily. Factors such as the increasing demand for low-cost, high-performing semiconductor devices and growing complexity of design and manufacturing process of these devices will expand the usage of inspection systems in the semiconductor manufacturing process in future years. Moreover, the report recognizes the following companies as the key player in the global semiconductor inspection system market: Applied Materials Hermes Microvision Hitachi High-Technologies KLA-Tencor Lasertec SML Holding Carl Zeiss Planar FEI Nanometrics Nikon Rudolph Technologies Tokyo Seimitsu Toray Engineering Read Full Report with TOC: http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-semiconductor-inspection-systems-market-research-report-2016-report.html The report offers profiles of key players along with their cost and revenue structure, business strategies, latest developments and contact information. It also mentions their 2015 and 2016 market shares, capacity and product specification. In the end, the report also provides a comprehensive evaluation of industry chain structure including upstream raw materials analysis, main equipment and downstream demand analysis. SMP Campaigns Marketing the Florence Roby store front with digital marketing by Agency 51 Got an interesting story? Get in touch. Florence Roby website launchFlorence RobyEMEA, MENA08/11/2016 to 26/12/2016Email marketing, PPC, PR, social media and SEOFive-figure sumThe brand (company it is for) along with the URL (briefly Florence Roby has been providing luxury uniforms for the health and beauty industry for 60 years.From an organic SEO perspective, primarily the UK, but from a paid search perspective the regions covered Australia, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, France, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.Florence Roby Website Launch. To alert customers of a new, fully mobile optimised website to facilitate the purchase of beauty uniforms for both corporate and college audiences.08/11/2016 to 26/12/2016 (on-going before January sale offers come in).We are trying to reach Florence Robys existing customers whilst also trying to broaden their customer base. From a corporate perspective, we are targeting beauticians, salon owners, hairdressers and dentists etc., while from a college perspective, we are targeting those studying these disciplines.The Florence Roby Website Launch campaign has been designed to encourage brand awareness and facilitate a better customer experience by directing customers to a new, fully optimised website. This has been done by a variety of different digital marketing mediums including on-site and off-site SEO, PPC advertising, email marketing and social media.The objective is to increase brand awareness and encourage sales on the website as well as over the phone. This campaign is different because we are marketing a website rather than a specific product itself, and as such we are focusing on the new and improved quality of the interface whilst still maintaining the core message of high quality products.We are using email marketing through Mailchimp to encourage orders, which is then shared on social media including Facebook and Twitter @FlorenceRoby We are also advertising with Google AdWords and are using tools such as Response Source to reach out to bloggers to talk about the beauty uniforms industry.We would like to see a 25% increase in website sales over the next 12 months, plus a 10% increase in newsletter subscriptions. We would like to quantify brand awareness, which we will measure through domain authority. A value wed like to increase from the current 20s to the 30s and through measuring the source of sales in Google Analytics.There have been some website configuration challenges due to the teething problems with launching a new website on a different content management system. We are using Magento and as such are still waiting for some functionality of the site to be configured e.g. logins for college students. However we have overcome this by keeping our customers informed through email marketing and advising they keep on top of their college account through our telephone sales system instead.We are using social media as a primary platform for engaging with our ecommerce audience by updating our Facebook and Twitter pages regularly with news updates, product launches and any other points of interest. These are also essential in delivering the brand ethos and in turn driving sales; for example we post web versions of any promotional mailers onto Facebook to drive sales.We are using Mailchimps analytics to measure click through and open rates from our promotional mailers. We are using Google Analytics to measure website sales, sources of sales, and demographic. We are also using Google AdWords, which helps us to determine what people are searching for and which keywords convert into a sale.With the development of a new website, this is a five-figure sum which includes digital marketing retainers, web development and media spend.We are initially using Facebook and Twitter to engage with our customers and share with them any product launches, offers and other news updates. We are exploring other social media such as Pinterest and Instagram due to the visual nature of the products we are selling.We are not using any hashtags specifically for this campaign, however we have used more far-reaching hashtags such as #BlackFriday to further brand awareness. Solar Novus Today Has Been Integrated With Novus Light Technologies Today Visit Novus Light Technologies Today to see all the cutting-edge stories and products that you have come to enjoy on Solar Novus Today. In addition, you will find more information on related light-based technologies. Get the latest solar and renewable energy news delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for the Green Technologies newsletter CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR GREEN TECHNOLOGIES NEWSLETTER Former city council candidate at large, Gary Boike, is challenging Council President Patrick Greens tenure claiming that the city charter only allows Green to remain in office through Nov. 14. A guide to voter rights in Indiana. What you need to know before you cast a ballot Mayor Jack Scoville reads from a proclamation honoring Nell Morris Cribb, right, for her contributions to Georgetown. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Welcome to SwanseaOnline - your home for the best news, sports and what's on coverage of the city. Never miss a Swansea story with our daily newsletter Sign up to comment on our stories here Follow us on Facebook and Twitter | Swansea City news | Ospreys news | InYourArea The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was building spacecraft before NASA even existed, and today it's the space agency's go-to center for the robotic exploration of worlds beyond Earth. Technicians at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory work on the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity in May 2011. The rover is upside-down, and its six wheels are off (they rest on a table, at far right of the photo). (Image credit: Mike Wall) JPL leads the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission, which dropped the 1-ton Curiosity rover on the Red Planet's surface in 2012. It also is managing the upcoming Mars 2020 rover, which is slated to go to the Red Planet in 2020. The center also ran the Saturn-studying Cassini mission (which ended in 2017), and continues managing the Voyager probes in the outer solar system and interstellar space. JPL is based in Pasadena, Calif., and is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Here's a brief rundown of the lab, which employs about 5,000 people and has an annual budget of $1.6 billion. A long history JPL's roots go back to 1936, when a group of researchers at Caltech's Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory performed a series of rocket experiments in a dry canyon wash known as Arroyo Seco. They moved out to the valley after an accidental explosion on campus. "They weren't going to mess anything up out here," Jia-Rui Cook told Space.com. Cook works with JPL's media relations. The success of those trials attracted the attention of the United States military, which gave the Caltech team money to develop strap-on rockets to help Army planes take off from short runways a concept called "jet-assisted takeoff," or JATO. [10 Military Aircraft that Never Made it Past the Test Phase] In 1943, several of the researchers formed the Aerojet Corporation which remains in business today to manufacture JATO motors. That same year, the Caltech team began referring to their research organization as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In the early years, JPL was funded by the U.S. Army to develop missile technology. By 1945, the lab employed nearly 300 people and had begun to launch test vehicles to an altitude of 37 miles (60 kilometers) from White Sands, N.M. Just two years later, JPL first launched Corporal, a guided missile viewed as an answer to Germany's famous V-2 rocket. Corporal missiles were deployed in the U.S. and Europe from 1954 to 1964. JPL then branched out, applying the skills gained from its missile efforts to nonmilitary research missions. The lab began developing Explorer 1, the United States' first successful satellite, in November 1957 and launched it to orbit on Jan. 31, 1958. Before the end of the year, JPL had been transferred from military to civilian jurisdiction. Congress created NASA in October 1958, and the space agency took charge of JPL two months later. [NASA's 10 Greatest Science Missions] Planetary exploration: The early years The lab soon began setting its sights beyond Earth orbit. In 1962, for example, JPL's Mariner 2 spacecraft flew by Venus, becoming the first probe ever to observe another planet up close. The Mariner 9 spacecraft. (Image credit: NASA) Mariner 4 performed a Mars flyby in 1964, and Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to circle another planet when it settled into orbit around the Red Planet in 1971. JPL efforts also helped pave the way for NASA's manned Apollo moon missions. In 1964 and 1965, the Ranger 7, 8 and 9 spacecraft took photos of Earth's nearest neighbor before intentionally crashing into the lunar surface. And from 1966 to 1968, Surveyor 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7 made soft landings on the moon. Mariner 10, launched in 1973, was another pioneering effort. The JPL spacecraft swung by Mercury after getting a boost from Venus the first time a probe ever employed this planetary "gravity-assist" strategy, which allows robotic explorers to maximize the distance they travel while minimizing fuel use. Going to Mars Curiosity and the more advanced Mars 2020 may be the most ambitious and capable rovers ever designed, but they are far from JPL's first Red Planet foray. The lab has helped send a phalanx of robotic explorers to Mars over the last four decades. [History of Robotic Mars Missions (Infographic)] In 1975, NASA launched the Viking mission, the agency's first attempt to look for life on the Red Planet. Viking delivered two orbiters and two landers to Mars, eventually returning intriguing but equivocal evidence of possible biological activity. JPL built the orbiters and eventually assumed responsibility for management of the mission. JPL also led the Mars Pathfinder mission, which placed a rover and a lander on the Red Planet in 1997, and Mars Global Surveyor, which studied the planet from orbit from 1997 through 2006. The lab's Mars Odyssey orbiter launched in 2001 and remains operational today. Further, JPL manages the Mars Exploration Rover mission, which landed the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity on Mars in January 2004. Spirit stopped communicating with Earth in 2010, but Opportunity is still going strong and has driven more than a marathon's worth of distance on Mars JPL's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched in 2005 and continues to study the Red Planet from above, providing details about the planet's weather and features. And in 2008, the Phoenix lander confirmed the presence of water ice just below the Martian surface near the planet's north pole. Additionally, the Mars InSight lander is expected to launch in 2018 to study the interior of the Red Planet. Not all of JPL's Mars efforts have been successful. For instance, contact was lost with Mars Observer in 1993, shortly before it was slated to enter orbit. And both the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander were lost upon arrival at the Red Planet in late 1999. "Landing on Mars is hard," Cook said. That's why missions often rely on existing ideas and hardware from previous trips to the red planet. According to Cook, the upcoming Mars 2020 rover, for instance, will utilize the a spare heat shield from the Curiosity mission. "If we've done it successfully already, then we'll build on that," she said. Beyond the Red Planet An artist's illustration of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, the farthest human-built object from Earth, which launched in 1977 and is headed for interstellar space. (Image credit: NASA) JPL has also sent many probes beyond Mars. Two of the most famous are the lab's twin Voyager spacecraft, which launched in 1977 to study Jupiter, Saturn and their moons. The probes achieved their initial goals, then kept on going, checking out Uranus and Neptune on their way toward interstellar space. Voyager 2 entered interstellar space in 2012 and Voyager 1 should reach there in the next few years. JPL's Galileo probe also studied Jupiter, entering orbit around the solar system's largest planet in 1995 and making observations for the next eight years. Cassini, which launched toward the Saturn system in 1997, sent data and images home until 2017, when the probe was deliberately hurled into Saturn on the off chance it might crash into (and contaminate) an icy moon such as Enceladus. One of Cassini's most famous findings was seeing water spurting in dozens of geysers from the moon's surface. The lab has also led or participated in missions to study comets and asteroids. One such effort was Stardust, which collected particles from the tail of Comet Wild-2 in 2004 and returned them to Earth. The JPL-managed Deep Impact spacecraft smashed a projectile into Comet Tempel 1 in 2005, then chased down Comet Hartley 2 for an up-close look in 2010. And JPL's Dawn spacecraft orbited Vesta, the second-largest object in the asteroid belt, before heading off to study the belt's biggest body, the dwarf planet Ceres. JPL also keeps its eyes on Earth. According to Jason Craig, who works on visualization for JPL, nearly a third of the lab's budget is spent studying our own pale blue dot. Some of the missions are very long running, such as the Topex/Poseidon satellite that provides information about global sea levels; it celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2017. Satellites large and small monitor Earth's atmosphere, oceans, gravity, and temperature as it orbits the sun. They even track "what's on fire around the Earth," Cook said, thanks to the carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. In addition to wildfires, this allows scientists to track the slash-and-burn tactics prevalent in the rainforests of South America and Africa. All of this information is available to the public through a desktop application known as "Eyes on Earth." "We collect the data and we hand it over," Craig said. "Everything we do is released to the world." The Deep Space Network command center keeps track of JPL's far-flung missions. (Image credit: Nola Taylor Redd) Not just planetary exploration While JPL is best known for its planetary exploration missions, it has managed or assisted a number of other efforts over the years as well. For example, the lab manages the Spitzer Space Telescope, which has been scanning the universe in infrared light since its 2003 launch. And JPL's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer space telescope, or WISE, found more than 100,000 previously unknown asteroids in the asteroid belt before shutting down in 2011. JPL also serves as the home of NASA's Near-Earth Objects Program, which coordinates observations of Earth-crossing asteroids and comets. Further, JPL managed flight project development for the Kepler space telescope, which has spotted thousands of potential alien planets. The lab handed control of Kepler's science operations over to NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., after Kepler's March 2009 launch. Kepler is running low on fuel and is expected to cease operations in 2018. JPL also designed, built and operates NASA's Deep Space Network, a system of antenna stations located in California's Mojave Desert, Spain and Australia. The DSN provides tracking for NASA and international missions to deep space, and it helps image planets and asteroids using radar. Data collected from the outskirts of the solar system streams back to the lab in California, leading some JPL folks to jokingly refer to it as "the center of the universe," according to Jim McClure, who manages Mission Control. The floor of the DSN's mission control testifies to the nickname. A large inset commemorates the cooperation of JPL with NASA and Caltech, proclaiming the site to be the center of the universe. "We fly our nerd flags extremely high here at JPL," McClure said. "So high we have had four marriage proposals at the center of the universe." In addition to its main Pasadena site and the three DSN antenna stations around the world, JPL facilities include an observatory at Table Mountain, Calif., and a launch complex at Florida's Cape Canaveral. The lab's current director is Dr. Michael Watkins, who took control in July 2016. [Infographic: NASA Centers' New Mission] Additional reporting by Space.com contributor Nola Taylor Redd. Follow her tour of JPL here. Red dwarf stars make up the largest population of stars in the galaxy, but they hide in the shadows, too dim to be seen with the naked eye from Earth. Their limited radiance helps to extend their lifetimes, which are far greater than that of the sun. Scientists think that 20 out of the 30 stars near Earth are red dwarfs. The closest star to the sun, Proxima Centauri, is a red dwarf. The term "red dwarf" does not refer to a single kind of star. It is frequently applied to the coolest objects, including K and M dwarfs which are true stars and brown dwarfs, often referred to as "failed stars" because they do not sustain hydrogen fusion in their cores. "There is no true definition of red dwarfs," astronomer Michael Gillon of the University of Liege in Belgium told Space.com by email. Gillon, who studies stellar objects at the cooler end of the spectrum, was part of the team that identified the ultracool star TRAPPIST-1. Red dwarf "generally refers to dwarf stars with a spectral type ranging from K5V to M5V," Gillon said. Formation and characteristics Red dwarfs form like other main-sequence stars. First, a cloud of dust and gas is drawn together by gravity and begins rotating. The material then clumps at the center, and when it reaches the critical temperature, fusion begins. Red dwarfs include the smallest of the stars, weighing between 7.5% and 50% the mass of the sun. Their reduced size means that they burn at a lower temperature, reaching only 6,380 degrees Fahrenheit (3,500 degrees Celsius). The sun, by comparison, has a temperature of 9,900 F (5,500 C). The low temperatures of red dwarfs mean they are far, far dimmer than stars like the sun. Their low temperature also means that they burn through their supply of hydrogen less rapidly. While other, more massive stars burn through only the hydrogen at their core before coming to the end of their lifetimes, red dwarfs consume all of their hydrogen, inside and outside their core. This stretches out the lifetime of red dwarfs to trillions of years; far beyond the 10-billion-year lifetime of sun-like stars. In this artist's conception, gas and dust swirl around a young star. Eventually this material should form planets through gravitational accretion. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Classifying red dwarfs Scientists occasionally have difficulty distinguishing a red dwarf star from a brown dwarf. Brown dwarfs are cool and dim, and likely form the same way red dwarfs do, but brown dwarfs never reach the point of fusion because they're too small, and therefore, they're not considered stars. "When we observe a red dwarf and measure its atmosphere, we don't necessarily know whether it's a brown dwarf or a star young brown dwarfs look almost exactly like ultracool stars," said Adam Burgasser, an astronomer at the University of California, San Diego. To figure out whether a celestial object is a brown or red dwarf, scientists measure the temperature of the object's atmosphere. Fusion-free brown dwarfs are cooler than 2,000 Kelvin (3,140 F or 1,727 C), while hydrogen-fusing stars are warmer than 2,700 K (4,400 F or 2,427 C). In between, a star could be classified as a red dwarf or brown dwarf. Sometimes, chemicals in the object's atmosphere can reveal clues about what's happening at its heart. According to Burgasser, the presence of molecules like methane or ammonia, which can only survive at cold temperatures, suggests that an object is a brown dwarf. Lithium in the atmosphere also suggests that a red dwarf is a brown dwarf rather than a true star. But scientists may still use the term red dwarf to describe how a celestial object looks small and dim even if the object is actually a brown dwarf, Burgasser said. Brown dwarfs mix features of stars and planets, but they are their own unique entities. This artist's illustration shows the brown dwarf 2MASSJ22282889-431026, which NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes simultaneously observed. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) A host of habitable planets? Planets form from the material left over in a disk after their star has been created. Many red dwarfs have been found with planets surrounding them, though enormous gas giants are rare. Because red dwarfs are dimmer than stars like the sun, it is easier to find small planets that may surround these dimmer objects, making red dwarfs a popular target for planet hunting. NASA's Kepler space telescope (which operated between 2009 and 2018) and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite , or TESS (which started operations in 2018), have surveyed many red dwarf stars for possible Earth-like planets. Since the planets examined by TESS are near bright stars that tend to be close to Earth, it's easier for ground telescopes to follow up on the observations. In April 2019, TESS investigators announced they had found their mission's first Earth-size planet , although its conditions are not ideal for life as we know it. For a long time, scientists thought red dwarfs were uninhabitable. Their limited light and heat meant that the habitable zone or the region where liquid water could form on planets around a red dwarf would be very close to the star, putting the planets in range of harmful radiation from the star. Other planets may be tidally locked to the star, with one side constantly facing the sun, causing one side to be too warm, and the other to be too cold. In 2016, a potentially habitable planet was found orbiting Proxima Centauri (Earth's closest star). And in 2019, astronomers announced the possibility of a second planet orbiting far outside the star's habitable zone. At least seven Earth-size planets orbit the red dwarf TRAPPIST-1 , and many studies suggest at least some of those planets could host life . This artists conception shows a hypothetical habitable planet with two moons orbiting a red dwarf star. Astronomers have found that 6 percent of all red dwarf stars have an Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone, which is warm enough for liquid water on the planets surface. Since red dwarf stars are so common, then statistically the closest Earth-like planet should be only 13 light-years away. (Image credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)) The end of the line Tiny red dwarfs may have an extended lifetime, but like all other stars, they'll eventually burn through their supply of fuel. When they do, the red dwarfs become white dwarfs dead stars that no longer undergo fusion at their core. Eventually, the white dwarfs will radiate away all of their heat and become black dwarfs. But unlike the sun, which will become a white dwarf in a few billion years, red dwarfs will take trillions of years to burn through their fuel. This is significantly longer than the age of the universe, which is less than 14 billion years old. Red dwarfs may be a bit dim, but like the tortoise, they slowly but surely win the survival race. Additional resources: This article was updated on June 6, 2019 by Space.com contributor Elizabeth Howell. NASA is investigating "anomalous readings" during a vibration test of the James Webb Space Telescope. The spacecraft's optical system, including its mirrors and instruments, were undergoing a vibration test at the Goddard Space Flight Center earlier this month to simulate launch conditions when the anomaly was detected. Officials did not provide additional details about the problem, but noted that an inspection of the telescope did not find any evidence of damage. [Spaceflight Insider] More News Japan's Epsilon rocket launched a space science mission this morning. The Epsilon lifted off from the Uchinoura Space Center on schedule at 6:00 am. Eastern and placed the Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) satellite into an elliptical Earth orbit. The 350-kilogram ERG will study the Van Allen Belts and solar storms. The launch was the second for the solid-fueled Epsilon rocket, after a 2013 launch. [NASASpaceFlight.com] The $1.2 billion OneWeb raised this week was the equivalent of two financing rounds in one. Greg Wyler, founder and chairman of OneWeb, said in an interview Monday that the company had previously planned to raise two $500 million rounds one year apart, but was quickly oversubscribed on the first of those two rounds thanks to interest from SoftBank. Wyler said that OneWeb, which has now raised $1.7 billion, will finance the rest of the system, whose total cost is estimated to be $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion, with debt rather than equity. [SpaceNews] A controversy involving another state agency and a hip-hop star may require Space Florida to be more open about its deals. At a recent meeting of Space Florida's board, one member warned that the agency must be prepared to explain in detail the return the state will get on the financing Space Florida offers to space companies. That concern comes after controversy involving Visit Florida, the state's tourism agency, and its $1 million contract with Pitbull, the hip-hop artist; that and other questionable deals led to the recent ouster of the Visit Florida's CEO. The warning came as Space Florida agreed to extend a line of credit for a venture known as only "Project Ice" that plans to produce fiber optic cables in space. [News Service of Florida] A NASA cubesat to be deployed from the space station early next year will test a new deorbiting technology. The TechEdSat-5 spacecraft, delivered to the ISS on the Japanese HTV-6 cargo vehicle earlier this month, will demonstrate a parachute-like technology called Exo-Brake that will increase the satellite's drag but also guide the spacecraft. That technology could eventually be used to guide capsules for reentry without the need for thrusters. [Space.com] A star's unusual spectral signature could be explained by it having consumed one of its planets. Astronomers noted that star HIP68468, around which astronomers have previously discovered planets, has unusually high levels of lithium and other elements associated with rocky planets. Such elements could not have formed in the star itself given its age, but could be explained if another rocky planet recently fell into the star. "It's as if we saw a cat sitting next to a bird cage," said one astronomer involved in the study. "If there are yellow feathers sticking out of the cat's mouth, it's a good bet that the cat swallowed a canary." [Seeker] Dark streaks seen on the surface of Mars are not necessarily evidence of liquid water there, scientists caution. The discovery of the dark streaks, known as recurring slope lineae, along with hydrated salts there, led many scientists to conclude that the streaks are formed by liquid water at or near the surface. At last week's American Geophysical Union meeting, though, others said that the hydrated salts could be formed by atmospheric conditions, rather than in the presence of liquid water. [Space.com] Lance Bass still wants to go to space. Bass, a former member of the boy band NSYNC, trained to fly on a Soyuz mission to the ISS in 2002, but was grounded when the funding for the trip fell through. "There's no specific date, but there are plans for me to go," he said in a recent interview, although it wasn't clear if those plans involved another attempt to go to the space station or, instead, a suborbital flight. "Eventually in the next five to 10 years I would say that once we're really flying to space a lot more that I'll be able to take that mission." [Business Insider] This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry. NOAA is looking into the possibility of obtaining data from two NASA constellations focused on tropical storms, the 12-cubesat Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats mission (shown above) and the eight-satellite Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System that launched Dec. 15. Once the NASA missions complete their science objectives, NOAA could use the data they obtain in its weather prediction models. SAN FRANCISCO The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is interested in using miniature satellites to gather data it can feed into the agency's weather prediction models to augment data provided by its fleet of large spacecraft. "The idea is that for much less money and much less time, we will be able to get data that are good enough to help mitigate gaps," said Margaret Caulfield, division chief in NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service's office of projects, planning and analysis. NOAA officials are particularly concerned that the agency will experience a gap in polar satellite data if the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnershi (NPP) spacecraft fails before its successor, the first Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) spacecraft begins providing data. NOAA polar-orbiting satellites, NOAA-15 and NOAA-18, have drifted out of their afternoon orbits. Meanwhile, the NPP satellite, launched in October 2011, has exceeded its five-year design life and JPSS-1 is scheduled to launch in March on a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. [Small Satellites Spur Space Innovations | Video] "To mitigate that gap, we need to get new observations and we propose to do that with small satellites," Caulfield said. "Small satellites are particularly suited to this because they are an affordable source of mitigation data with short, responsive call-up times." Specifically, NOAA in interested in using small satellites equipped with microwave and infrared sounders as well as visible infrared cameras. If those programs are successful, the agency "would like to go further and use small satellites to augment operational capabilities," Caulfield said Dec. 14 during a presentation at the American Geophysical Union conference here. To gather microwave data, NOAA is interested in radiometers the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory developed for NASA's Microsized Microwave Atmospheric Satellite and the Microwave Radiometer Technology Acceleration. "All the components have heritage and high maturity," Caulfield said. "From our point of view we are ready to proceed" with a NOAA microwave sounder. NOAA also is drawing on infrared sounding technology NASA plans to demonstrate in 2018 with its Cubesat Infrared Atmospheric Sounder developed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers. NOAA would need to modify that instrument to turn it into an operational weather sensor, Caulfield said. To make sure the measurements provided by the cubesat sensors would be useful, NOAA is simulating the type of data it would obtain from the new instruments and determining how well that data supports weather forecast models. NOAA is turning to the U.S. Department of Defense to find technology the agency could draw on to obtain infrared imagery with cubesats. That technology is not as mature as the infrared and microwave sounders, Caulfield said. In addition to flying its own small satellites, NOAA is looking into the possibility of obtaining data from two NASA constellations focused on tropical storms, the 12-cubesat Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) mission and the eight-satellite Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System that launched Dec. 15. Once the NASA missions complete their science objectives, NOAA could use the data they obtain in its weather prediction models. "For as long as those satellites live, we would like them to become a part of weather prediction," Caulfield said. This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry. As captured in one of Gil Garcetti's photos from the exhibition, a truck towed the external tank through the streets of Los Angeles to the California Science Center. One and a half million people turned out four years ago to watch as space shuttle Endeavour slowly navigated the streets of Los Angeles to be delivered to the California Science Center for display. Gil Garcetti was not among them. "I've made few mistakes in my life that I really regret, but one of them was having the opportunity to be present and photograph when the Endeavour went through the streets of Los Angeles," said Garcetti, the former district attorney-turned-photographer, in an interview with collectSPACE.com. "I was 'too busy' working on another project and I regretted it the day after." [Photos: Space Shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center] Fortunately for Garcetti, and now, for the visitors to the California Science Center, who can see his photographs in the new exhibit, "Mission 26: ET Comes Home" he had a second opportunity. "When I was offered the chance to photograph the journey of ET-94, there was no hesitation on my part. I needed to do this. I wanted to do this," said Garcetti. From April 12 through May 21 of this year, Garcetti went along on the sea and street journey of ET-94, NASA's last remaining built-for-flight space shuttle external tank, from its New Orleans' assembly facility to the California Science Center. The tank, along with two solid rocket boosters, will be stacked with Endeavour to form the world's only exhibit of a fully authentic space shuttle launch vehicle as part of the new Oschin Air & Space Center, scheduled to open in 2019. "This is going to be part of Los Angeles. It is an exciting part of Los Angeles," said Garcetti, who is also the father of the city's mayor, Eric Garcetti. "I've [already] seen how Endeavour has transformed people's thinking about space travel, about engineering, about flying, about maybe even a career in something related to this." Former Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti poses in his photo exhibition at the California Science Center capturing the journey of NASAs last built-for-flight space shuttle external tank. (Image credit: California Science Center) The exhibition, "Mission 26: ET Comes Home," features 30 of Garcetti's photographs capturing ET-94's voyage from Louisiana, through the Panama Canal, to Marina del Rey and ultimately, its delivery to the California Science Center. The gallery opened on Dec. 15 and runs indefinitely. Although the 2012 move of the winged orbiter might have been more iconic, Garcetti was drawn to the external tank given its appearance and the reactions to it. "The first thing was the size and the color when I saw it in New Orleans," explained Garcetti, "but then, I also noticed almost immediately, there was almost a reverence by the workers who were in charge of moving it. A reverence that they were moving something truly unique, something very special to the history of our country that was the first thing I noticed." Garcetti photographed the large orange fuel tank from the ground, on the barge alongside it for its ocean journey and from above. "When I was up in the air [photographing from a plane], I just saw this and obviously it wasn't, but I felt that it was emitting some special vibes that were going to bring smiles and hope and energy to the people who could see it," he recalled. Garcetti sensed a similar feeling as he watched the tank cross the Panama Canal. "When the tank started going through the canal, there was another awesome feeling," he said. "Part of it was because it had been threatening to rain, but as soon as it got near the locks boom! I mean, the rain poured down, and I thought, 'Okay, this is special, too, for what we are doing here." Garcetti witnessed as those in the observatory overlooking the canal "oohed and aahed" at spotting the tank passing from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean. [Photos: Space Shuttle Fuel Tank ET-94 Comes Ashore] "It was magical," he told collectSPACE.com. "It was wonderful watching it journey through it." Garcetti and the tank parted ways as the latter continued up the coast of California, but they were reunited several days later, as ET-94 arrived at the marina and was brought ashore. "The very best part was when we brought it through Los Angeles," he stated, "when you saw the incredible feelings from little kids and very mature adults." "One photo I took was of this little girl, she was probably three and a half, maybe four, years of age. She and her family had made a space helmet for her and she was with her father and much younger brother," Garcetti described. "And just the expression on her face and her hands were just in awe. Her father, his mouth was slack open looking at it." "They were emblematic of what people were feeling," he said. Garcetti followed the tank knowing that he would provide the photos to the California Science Center, but it was not until after they saw his results, did "Mission 26: ET Comes Home" come together. "Once we saw what we had, they very quickly came to the decision that these photographs tell a great story," he said. "Mission 26: ET Comes Home," featuring the photos of Gil Garcetti, is now on exhibition in the "Endeavour Together" gallery at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Watch a brief video interview with Gil Garcetti in his Mission 26: ET Comes Home photo exhibit at the California Science Center at collectSPACE. Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2016 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved. The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. 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Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service. 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. Optimization Are you frustrated with a slow pc or a hard disk not performing as it should? Try SLOW-PCfighter to speed up boot time on a slow PC, or try a free scan of FULL-DISKfighter to recover space on a full disk. The latest offering is DRIVERfighter to update your driver updater. Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools. 'Everything Is as Quiet as Usual' The greatest amount of turmoil is currently occurring at the former Tempelhof Airport, Berlin's largest refugee accommodation, where Naved B., who was detained and later released, reportedly lived and where 250 members of the SEK special police forces were deployed at 3 a.m. There are two entrances. At one of them, a security guard sits in front of a Christmas tree and says, lying: "Everything is as quiet as usual." At the other entrance, reporters mob anyone who comes or goes. An Italian TV journalist asks: "Is this really a refugee shelter?" A young Afghan, wearing a bomber jacket and a sidecut, says he was sleeping so soundly that he didn't even notice the police raid. We show a photo of Naved B. to a short, thin Pakistani in yellow jeans. He only speaks Urdu, but he immediately points at Hangar 6, to indicate that the suspect lives there. An interpreter explains that the man saw Naved B. there yesterday. Several refugees say they recognize B., but no one can say anything more than that he is a Pakistani. A Berliner who has been working as an interpreter in the hangar for a few weeks is plagued by a "sick feeling" today, over the kinds of people he may have interacted with inside. He is afraid, he says, that something could happen in the shelter, where the mood is already bad enough. At 1:30 p.m., the reports arrive that the suspect is apparently not the perpetrator, after all. Many reporters reach for their phones and then leave. "Where should I go now?" a British reporter asks, looking a little forlorn. 'Life Goes On' A few blocks away, Stephan Linsner is sitting in his favorite bar and says: "This is where we live." This is Manfred von Richthofen Street in the middle-class Tempelhof neighborhood, where you can see the airport hangar. "It feels a little unsettling when they do searches, and now they say it wasn't even him." Linsner shrugs his shoulders. The notion that the real perpetrator could still be at large in Berlin doesn't fluster him. His dish of Manti, or Turkish dumplings, is getting cold, but Linsner, who runs a communications agency, wants to make his point. He certainly feels anxious, he says, but he isn't afraid. Besides, he says, he isn't going to Christmas markets this year, because an attack "was on the agenda." Still, there is one question that has troubled him since Monday evening: "Why did the United States issue a warning to its citizens not to go the German Christmas markets, but we didn't tell our citizens the same thing?" It's 3:30 in the afternoon at Checkpoint Charlie, and it's already getting dark. Everything seems normal at this tourist hotspot, where Chinese and Italians stand in line to pose for a photo with an actor in a US military uniform. Tourists walk across the street. A driver honks his horn. A woman poses with her daughter and son in front of the sign identifying the American sector. What does it feel like to be on vacation in Berlin today, after the attack? The new tool was developed by the Crop Protection Association with support from Catchment Sensitive Farming and has 22 multi-choice questions covering Planning and Management, Filling and Handling, Soil Management and Field Practice. After completing the questions, users are given a score for each aspect of their spraying operation, and an overall score. A detailed report with recommendations on how they can improve their practices is also provided as a download. The tool has been allocated CPD points by both NRoSO and BASIS. "Doing everything right in terms of water protection is really important if we are show that farmers are continuing to use pesticides responsibly," says the VI's Patrick Goldsworthy. "The Check it Out tool will help farmers and operators to review how they are doing, what they can do to improve and where to get further advice... I hope everyone check's it out!". In the new movie Why Him?, James Franco plays Laird Mayhew, an Internet gazillionaire who tries to win over his girlfriends parents by doing and saying things that no reasonable human being would ever do or say. (Well avoid spoilers here, but just know that this movie has a well-earned R rating.) This comedy is a unique spin on the classic boy-meets-girl, boy-meets-girl's parents-and-all-hell-breaks-loose structure, but it really grabbed our attention for its portrayal of that new breed of young entrepreneur who has crazy money in their pockets and crazier ideas in their heads. Entrepreneur spoke by phone with the film's director John Hamburg (who wrote Meet the Parents, Zoolander and I Love You, Man, to name a few modern comedy classics) and discussed technology, working with Elon Musk and, of course, the haunting beauty of humping animals. The main character Laird is eccentric to put it mildly. Was he based on anyone in particular? No, he wasnt based on one specific person. It was more reading stories and watching YouTube clips of a lot of people who have achieved massive success in the digital realm at a very young age. You hear these stories like Sean Parkers wedding where I think they turned the place into a medieval forest or something. When you have more money than you could ever spend in many lifetimes, you do some crazy stuff. But we werent passing judgment on people who are young and super successful for inventing things. It was more like, these people exist and theyre running the world -- lets explore that! Credit: Scott Garfield Real-life tech billionaire Elon Musk makes a cameo. Did he teleport to the set or was there anything particularly Musk-ian about his day? He was scheduled to shoot on one day, and he had to cancel because apparently one of his rockets didnt launch properly. So when he did come to set, I said, Elon, this is definitely the first time in the history of my career that Ive had an actor cancel because of a failed rocket launch! I must admit I was a little nervous for Elons day. Im a big fan, I think he is one of the great geniuses of our time, one of the great innovators. But he was so nice, really low-key. His main thing was that he was happy to do a cameo, but he didnt want to come off like he was this big shot. He did roll in a Tesla, which of course Id expect. If I saw him rolling up in a Kia, I would have been a little shocked. Credit: Scott Garfield Among the things in Lairds high-tech home is a smart-ass version of an Amazon Echo that is voiced by Kaley Cuoco. Do you have lots of gadgets in your house? Im not really tech guy. I dont think Id be able to work one of those things. I would have a hard time ordering a new toothbrush or whatever with that thing. I was scared to buy a Roomba to replace my vacuum cleaner. But if I could have an Echo voiced by Kaley Cuoco? Sure, I might invest in the technology. When you were filming this, where were we in terms of the presidential election? Really last spring, so things werent really as heated up as they became. So there was no danger of Bryan Cranston leaving in the middle of filming to move to Canada when Trump won? No, that was not on my mind during filming. Nor Bryans. Well, maybe a nice family vacation to Banff, but certainly not emigrating. Related: Walter White's 5 Most Badass Business Moves in 'Breaking Bad' As the director of this movie and others, are there any leadership lessons you'd take from Laird? I think he has one quality that is really quite admirable: he speaks the truth. I think that is commendable. When you are managing a lot of people, being honest and direct and clear is really important. Now, on the other hand, I do think you need to occasionally filter yourself. Laird has no filter. By nature, I dont love confrontation. So there is no danger of me just going no filter. So if a take in a scene isnt good, you wouldnt just say, Guys, that sucked balls. I might shout that out at the end of a take, actually. Im making comedies, so my goal is to disarm and keep everything loose. I wouldnt say that if I didnt think someone could handle it. Like I know Bryan Cranston could handle it because hed come back with a comment that will just cut my legs off. There were times where wed be laughing and Id say, I know you never talked to the directors of Breaking Bad like that. And hed just say, Well, they never deserved it. He is awesome, hes hilarious. Credit: Scott Garfield What would you say are the best movies about the world of work? The top is, of course, Office Space. Mike Judge brilliantly captured what it is like to suffer through a mindless corporate existence. I also love Broadcast News, a great movie about people who are just so passionate about what they do and the energy in that kind of working world. These people care, almost to a fault. That movie had a real impact on me. Related: 18 Movies Every Entrepreneur Should Watch Do you have any routines or habits that keep you focused when you're working? When I am writing, I aim to have a really normal schedule. Drop the kid at school and go to an office and begin the day as if it is a normal nine-to-five job. Directing is totally different. The hours are crazy, youre talking to so many different people all day, it takes physical stamina. But whether I am writing or directing, I aim to meditate at the start of the day. Ill do it in the afternoon if I cant fit it in. Just those 15 or 20 minutes of calm and quiet are super important for me. When it comes to running the show, do you delegate, do you obsess over details -- whats your management style? You have to build up a team of collaborators who understand the directors vision. Thats the key. Its my job to communicate my vision and then let these wonderful camera people, costume designers and production designers do their thing. Id also say that you have to be open-minded and decisive. Those may seem antithetical but they work well hand in hand. You need to be open to hearing ideas for how something might be better, and then you need to make a decision. A lot of movies get into trouble when people are wishy-washy about what they want. I try to allow a lot to happen with improv, but I also need to know when it is time to move on to the next scene. Related: The Heavy Metal Tribute to Elon Musk You've Been Waiting For There has been a lot of discussion about the very interesting artwork adorning the walls of Lairds house. How did that come about? I wanted Franco to feel comfortable in Lairds house. We started looking around and the artwork was OK, but it wasnt great. And we got to talking, and he told me about art work that he had done. I saw his painting Fat Squirrel and immediately wanted it to go in there. And then I got greedy and wanted more. So he showed me his Humping Animals series and I knew I'd have one over the guest bed Bryan Cranston sleeps in. So these werent commissioned for the movie, I guess you can say theyre part of the James Franco permanent collection. And Franco was kind enough to give me Fat Squirrel as a wrap gift, and it hangs in my office. Now selfishly, Im hoping that since it was featured in the movie, prices will soar! Why Him? hits theaters Dec. 23. Watch the extremely NSFW trailer below! Related: 'Why Him?' Director on Elon Musk's Amazing 'I Can't Come to Work Today' Excuse #7 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Take From Bollywood A Billion Dollars of Turkeys and Other Thanksgiving Numbers to Gobble Up Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate STAMFORD The daughter of a Lione Park murder victim gave a tearful testimony during a probable cause hearing Wednesday as she told the judge how she watched her mother die last year. Andrina Roberts had difficulty describing the final moments of her mothers life. Maxine Gooden, 43, was a bystander who was struck and killed by a bullet last November. The 24-year-old Roberts said Gooden had just given her a drink in the parking lot of the facility she knows as Jamaica Park about 10 p.m. on Nov. 2, 2015. She remembered it as a quiet night as she, her mother, younger sister, her sisters boyfriend and several others were laughing and talking. Then she heard the shots. Boom, boom, boom, boom from behind me, Roberts testified. When I turned around, my mother was face down on the ground. Roberts said she initially thought the explosions were fireworks, but realized her mother was bleeding and then discovered the bullet wound in her abdomen. I will never, ever forget that wound, Roberts told Judge Thomas Colin. Roberts explained that her mother, a nurses assistant, had been injured on the job a few years earlier. When her disability ran out earlier that year, Gooden, who was an expert Jamaican cook, began selling food in the park to make money. The testimony in the 15-month-old case comes as one of the three defendants, DeShawn Hayes, and his attorney, Darnell Crosland, have requested a probable cause hearing. The hearing is like a mini trial where the states witnesses are called to testify and cross-examined so a judge can determine if there is enough evidence to charge Hayes with being an accessory to Goodens murder. The attorneys for the two other murder defendants, Jhonel Telemin-Valerio, 22, and Morris Joel Moore Jr. 24, have said they will not request hearings. Senior Assistant States Attorney Paul Ferencek, the prosecutor on the case, also called a man to the stand, who along with a friend, provided crucial help that led police to Hayes, Telemin-Valerio and Moore. The man, whose name is being withheld at the request of the Stamford States Attorneys Office, said he was standing on nearby Delaware Street and saw two men in black hoodies walk by him heading into the park. The two returned seconds after the gun shots and jumped into an idling Jeep parked in the middle of the street. The man and his friend got into his car and followed the Jeep. His friend took a picture of the license plate and the two drove back to the park and told police. Hayes, Telemin-Valerio and Moore were apprehended minutes later when an officer spotted the Jeep. An investigation of the SUV found a disassembled pistol in the vehicles dashboard, police said. But the man testified it was too dark to recognize the suspects, and he was not asked to identify Hayes, who watched the witnesses take the stand from behind the defense table dressed in light gray sweats. During his cross examination, Crosland dug deeply into the mans story and at times raised his voice and indicated the man could have been motivated to testify against his client in order to get a visa for himself and his parents. But under questioning by Ferencek, the man said he had not even heard of the Stamford police program that could get him a visa until three months after Goodman had been killed. The man said he was told he could be rewarded if he cooperates and testifies truthfully. The hearing will be continued on Jan. 5. jnickerson@scni.com; This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate An already complicated murder case could become even more difficult to prosecute if a new accusation against police is substantiated. However, the New York Police Department on Wednesday disputed a claim that incriminating statements related to the murder of Stamfords Joseph Comunale may be inadmissible in court because one of the suspects was questioned after he requested a lawyer. During the interrogation, Lawrence Dilione, 28, of Jersey City, N.J., told New York police detectives where to find Comunales body, according to a criminal complaint. Police said Comunale, a 26-year-old Westhill High School grad, was stabbed 15 times after a party at a luxury Manhattan apartment before his body was buried in a shallow grave behind a flower shop in Oceanport, N.J. Diliones attorney, Michael Pappa, said his clients attorneys contacted the NYPD, which he said should have terminated its interrogation. I have good reason to believe ... that one or more lawyers for Mr. Dilione contacted investigators of the NYPD to instruct them not to question Mr. Dilione yet these instructions were apparently ignored in violation of Mr. Diliones Miranda rights, Pappa told the New York Daily News on Tuesday. NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said investigators did nothing wrong. This comes from the defense counsel and we expect that kind of thing, he said Wednesday in a statement. I read the report and saw what detectives did, and from what I can see, they did a great job. In an emailed statement to the Advocate, Pappa brushed off the chiefs response. It should be of no surprise to anyone that the chief of detectives would make such a statement to cover for the detectives under his direction, Pappa wrote. I stand by our position and firmly believe that the truth is on our side and that the truth will come out when this critical issue is decided in court. The Manhattan District Attorneys Office declined to comment. Police detained Dilione two days after the murder and questioned him for at least 40 hours. He and 25-year-old James Rackover, who lives in the apartment where the crime is believed to have occurred, were initially charged by the NYPD with second-degree murder. However, the DAs office dropped the murder charge while investigators try to determine who committed the stabbing. Dilione and Rackover were instead indicted on charges of concealing a human corpse, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence. A third suspect, Max Gemma, 29, has also been charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence. Gemma lives about a mile from the site where Comunales body was found. All three have pleaded not guilty. Joseph Colarusso, a Stamford criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, said its hard to assess the impact of Pappas accusations without knowing what discussions took place between Dilione and NYPD investigators. If Dilione had invoked his right to counsel and in fact had called an attorney who then, in turn, called NYPD and informed them not to question the suspect, the prosecution has a real difficult time with having his statements entered into evidence, Colarusso said. If Dilione later waved his right to counsel, suppressing his statements becomes much more difficult, Colarusso said. However, several other factors could play a role in the case, including if Dilione was pressured into waving his rights and whether his attorney was denied access to him during the interrogation. Authorities said Comunale was in New York City on Nov. 12 when he met Dilione and three women at a bar. The Stamford man then accompanied the group to a party at Rackovers apartment at The Grand Sutton, where Comunale was last seen, police said. Hours after the crime on Nov. 13, Rackover was seen placing a large duffel bag into the trunk of a black 2015 Mercedes that was parked outside of his building, police said. Rackover, who has a criminal history in Florida under his birth name, James Beaudoin, is the surrogate son of Jeffrey Rackover, a celebrity jeweler whose clients include President-elect Donald Trump. Colarusso said prosecutors are smart for building a stronger case before charging someone with murder. The District Attorneys Office is actually being very thorough in going forward and not rushing into a murder charge, he said. noliveira@hearstmediact.com, 203-964-2265, @olivnelson As 2016 draws to a close, we're revisiting some of the best Gothamist stories from the past year. These are stories that illuminated the good, the bad, the infuriating, and exhilaratingin other words, what makes New York New York. Here they are, in no particular order. 'Slumlord' Matchmaker: Brooklyn Landlord Turns Desperate Strangers Into Sudden Roommates // By Emma Whitford Liam O'Brien was crashing on his friend's couch last winter when he found a Craigslist post for a single room in a five-bedroom apartment in Crown Heights, for $775. He responded quickly, and set up a viewing through the management company. Later that week, a man named Gary, who said he was the building manager, let O'Brien into 80 New York Avenue #5 to look around. Four of the bedrooms appeared lived in, though no one was home. Gary said O'Brien's credit history wouldn't be an issue so long as he could pay an extra month's security. "I took the first thing I could get, and this was it," he told Gothamist. O'Brien, a 29-year-old ironworker, still hadn't met his future roommates when he went to property owners Mendel and Chananya Gold's Williamsburg office the next day to sign the lease. A copy of that lease shows his name written in pen over what appears to be whiteout. Instead of giving him a set of keys, someone in the office provided the code to a lock box that's clamped to the railing outside the four-story pre-war building. According to residents, the lockbox holds keys that prospective tenants, and sometimes brokers, use to enter their apartments unannounced. How has the city settled into such a low expectation of success in the preservation of affordable housing? How did Stuyvesant Town, which so recently stood as the paragon of affordable, middle class housing in Manhattan, fall so far? In a city that prioritizes affordable housing over every other issue, how is preserving the status quo in exchange for $221 million in taxpayer money and hundreds of millions more in development rights considered a victory? (Scott Heins / Gothamist) Luis M. was sweating when he tilted up the head on his Elmo suit to get some air. When approached by a reporter and asked how the new Designated Activity Zones/freedom pens in Times Square were treating him, he didn't hesitate: "I feel like a fucking caged animal," he said. "Fuck the law. Fuck the system." A passing tourist caught his eye and he broke off momentarily to call to her: "Hey, beautiful, come over here," he said. Normally, he would have followed her to try to convince the woman to pose for a picture and cough up a tip, but as of this week, police can ticket him if he plies his trade outside the confines of the white lines delineating the zone. A slender lane of teal paint within the box is the only place he's allowed to pose for a photo and take money. (Rebecca Fishbein/Gothamist) We run red lights in Chinatown and come dangerously close to pedestrians, none of whom seem particularly pleased about the train of orange RVs blocking traffic and blasting music (it's still the "Moshiach! Moshiach! Moshiach! song, and by this point I am ready for Moshiach to come and end it). "Ach, Manhattan!" Vorovitch keeps saying, as taxi drivers try to cut him off. "Happy Passover!" he yells at them cheerfully, and the screaming children behind me follow suit. (Erica Siudzinski / Gothamist) On the evening of July 29th, 1985, members of a mysterious group called the Sullivan Institute broke into and terrorized an apartment at 100th Street and Broadway. Dressed in dark colors and stocking caps, some beat the tenants with sticks, while others slit open mattresses and smashed the sink, toilet, and television set. It was a coordinated revenge attack, intended to send a message to the group's neighbors, who allegedly started the drama by spilling paint on the institute's wall. (Sai Mokhtari) I feel like this is what Sex and the City promised me New York would be like, said Ruthie, a photographer for Bushwick Daily. We were leaning against the bar, sipping champagne and watching a woman in glittering nipple tassles arrange a pile of fried quail wings on a mans crotch. He was lying supine on a low table, naked but for a pair of flesh-colored underwear, a jeweled necklace, and the serene expression of a person totally at ease with his current place in time and space. A couple kneeled on the pillows beside him, dipping their wings into an orange sauce smeared across his thighs. I wondered if he was ticklish. (Scott Heins/Gothamist) When [Robert] Sandler, or any educator in New York City, teaches his students about 9/11, he faces a unique challenge: How do you teach such an intensely emotional, local event to a generation of kids who don't have any first-hand frame of reference for it? Teachers across grade levels described the difficulty of making 9/11 relevant to their students, most of whom were born after the attacks took place. "It takes a lot to punch through to a teenager and make them emotional," said Sandler, who was honored by the 9/11 Tribute Center for the unit he teaches about 9/11. "When they have my class they really walk away with something, I think, significant." (Getty Images) A female undercover NYPD detective converted to Islam to spy on Muslim students at Brooklyn College, none of whom were ever accused of a crime. The spying continued for years, long after Mayor de Blasio vowed to end the NYPD's blanket surveillance of the Muslim community. While the NYPD didnt respond to Gothamists calls or emails when we published the account, they later claimed that the story was bogus. "There's truth in the Gothamist story, if you pick out certain facts you can say, 'Well, this is true,' or 'That's true, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller, told WNYC in November. But it's wrapped around this narrative that there was this overarching blanket surveillance, which is not the case." Jethro Eisenstein, an attorney who has been part of the lawsuit challenging the citys investigations into political and religious groups since 1971Handschu v. Special Services Divisionwasnt so sure. (Scott Heins / Gothamist) I ask Mike Rivera if the crews are still fighting as much as they were before the raid. "No," he says, shrugging. "But it was never really a gang. MHB, the Make It Happen Boys, whatever. It was just Manhattanville. We didn't have no colors or no one in charge. It was just us. It was just living in the projects." Should The Brooklyn Cop Convicted Of Killing An Innocent Man Be Spared Prison? // By Max Rivlin-Nadler "The DA's decision sends the message across the country that officers can continue to kill without being held accountable," said Cathy Deng, the Executive Director of CAAAV, an organization that has supported the Gurley family throughout the trial. "I know this case is uniquely different from a lot of others, but not so much that it's still the story of an officer walking away free from killing another black person in the United States." Remembering The Crown Heights Riots, 25 Years Later // By Raphael Pope-Sussman "All of us who lived in the neighborhood and had some claim to leadership were convinced beyond any doubt that we had to do things differently. It was a horrible, horrible indictment of all of us. We couldn't pretend to be running our little organizations and running our candidates and pretending that we were making something good happen if something like those riots could happen again. It was international infamy." (Scott Heins / Gothamist) Last Christmas, a 51-year-old woman from the Upper West Side walked into a Chinese restaurant in Manhattan and introduced herself to twelve strangers. A victim of a highly-publicized rabbinical scandal, she'd recently shed the daily routines of Modern Orthodox Judaism for good. There to greet her was a group of former Mormons, Hasidic Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Muslims. "There's a bazillion different appetizers and there are 12 people at the table, so I go around the table and say, 'Who eats treif? Who eats vegetarian? Who eats meat but not treif?'" she recalled. "Because when you leave, your what-kind-of-Chinese-appetizer cues are no longer defined by the system." For the members of Formerly Fundamentalist NYC, a meetup group for New Yorkers who have left strict religious communities, perusing a menu is an exercise in post-religious decision making. Balzano at home with mustache on his 80th birthday. (John Del Signore) Inside the bar, those who tried to pay for drinks were informed that "the first round was on Sunny." This was quintessential Sunny, generous (and indifferent to profit margins) to the end, and it reminded the bereaved that Sunny's generosity was bigger than any one person. It's physically impossible for Sunny to buy anyone a drink ever again, and yet, there we were, thanking the dead man for the beer and reflecting on the larger force of universal kindness, of which we are all instruments. Sunny, on his best days, was one such excellent instrument, whose soulful music inspired the rest of the orchestra to resonate with richer harmonies. As I thought about how Sunny's ghost had just given me a buyback, I recalled the best and only time I'd been ordered to leave a bar (that I can recall, anyway). It was past four in the morning, and I was loitering in a back booth with a few others, taking our sweet time calling it a night. Sunny appeared at our table, smiled radiantly upon our motley crew, and threw us out of his bar by singing an improvised song that could have been lifted from a Lerner and Loewe musical. What I remember of it began, "It's time to go hoooome / It's time to get out of my hooouse..." We exited, laughing as we left what was, in fact, Sunny's house. (Rainer Turim) "I had known Hilly from my time working with bands and I put in a call to Hilly. He told me that the awning currently in place was not the original and that the first one was stolen years ago by some punk band. Pressed further, he thought it was Jodie Foster's Army. I called a friend of mine who had been deep in the indie punk scene in the '80s and '90s and asked if he knew anybody in JFA. Fortunately, he knew them well. I called and they became measured with their answers. They never took my call again" Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Curatorial Director Howard Kramer. One of the many people we talked to during our three part investigative series on the old CBGB awnings. "The Lower East Side in Manhattan was bialy central for the world," explains Evan Giniger, the current owner of Kossar's who took over in 2013. "Morris Kossar thought that opening a bialy-only store would be a good idea. And you have to kinda think about what a concept that is, to open a single-product store that could sustain itself. It's unthinkable today that you could open up a store that only sold one thing." Yet that's exactly what Kossar did, along with business partner Isadore Mirsky, opening Mirsky and Kossar's at 145 Clinton Street in 1936, nine years after arriving in the United States from Russia. Back in Bialystok, Polandwhere the bread derives its nameand elsewhere in Eastern Europe, bialys were a daily part of life, something that Mirsky and Kossar's, and their competitors, wanted to recreate in the United States. (Getty Images) As Bowie once sang, "You're not alone/give me your hand"it only seems right to extend that kindness to friends, acquaintances, and, most of all, strangers across the world who are feeling this loss as acutely as I am. Grieving is weird and difficult enough when you refuse to leave your apartment, let alone when you try to interact with the real world and don't really know what to say. (Scott Heins / Gothamist). Spread across 155 buildings, the apartments in the TIL program are the unintended leftovers of a bad legislative decision made during the fiscal crisis of the 1970s. Facing bankruptcy, the City Council passed a law in 1976 that empowered the city to seize buildings whose owners had not paid property taxes for one year. The goal was to pressure delinquent landlords and increase tax revenues. Instead, many landlords in the city's poorest neighborhoods simply abandoned their properties. Ultimately, NYC acquired more than 100,000 vacant and occupied apartments. "The city ended up creating, inadvertently, the second largest public housing system in the country," explained Harry DeRienzo of the nonprofit housing development corporation Banana Kelly. (Scott Heins / Gothamist) "Moses had done something no one else had ever done. Everyone thought power comes from being elected. He wasnt elected, he realizes hes never going to get elected to anything, so hes got to figure out a way to get all this power without getting elected, and he does it. I didnt understand it, no one else understood it, even La Guardia says to him, 'Dont tell me what to do,' or whatever the quote is, 'Im the boss, you just work for me.'" (Scott Heins / Gothamist) In New York City, PTACs are also the standard climate-regulation method for new construction buildings. This sets New York apartnowhere else does a resident of a brand-new condo have to share her home with one, or several, of these hulking metal monstrosities. "Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angelesnone of the buildings there have these fucking glorified window units sticking through their walls," says Smith. (Jordan G. Teicher / Gothamist) If Tyrone Youmans, 46, a chef from Queens, wants to read this article, he has a couple options. None are ideal. He can travel 15 minutes from his apartment to his local library branch and log on to a desktop computer for up to 30 minutes. If its crowded, hell have to wait until one becomes available, and log off as soon as his session is over to make way for another patron. If the librarys closed, he can travel more than an hour to use his girlfriends computer in Far Rockaway, or his sisters in Flatbush. Or, he can use up some precious data from his monthly two gigabyte mobile data plan. Youmanss best bet, for now, is to use a computer after his class at The HOPE Program, where hes enrolled in an eight-week work readiness training. (Bluejake/Sarah Bibi/Gothamist) This is a good time to get real with her and ask why, for the love of all things holy, she hasn't yet called an exterminator. If you found out your roommate had ebola, would you just carry on for two weeks as if nothing was wrong? Bedbugs are the ebola of New York infestations. Her lackadaisicalness suggests a depressive tendency towards self-harma profound recklessness that should concern you as her friend. (Photo courtesy of WIC) The Women's Interart Center formed in 1969 as more of an idea than a venue, one of many women's collectives formed amid the heady ferment of feminist activism in New York City at the time. As Lewitin recalls, the group, founded as a non-hierarchical collective, was meeting in members' homes when a painter named Rose mentioned the buildings in Hell's Kitchen that were just sitting there, and proposed trying to move into one. A call to Housing found a sympathetic audience with the man in charge of commercial leasing, and that summer the center established its first brick-and-mortar location on the 10th floor of 549 West 52nd. The rent: $50 a month. "It was the most incredible experience because you have these blue-collar people, and you have these arty people, and they all got on the same page," she said. "We had this huge model, and we said, 'You go here. You go here'...Everyone got the sense that this was possible." Santos "Frenchie" Ramos, 76, sits at the desk where he's overseen his Williamsburg gym for 40 years. (Scott Heins/Gothamist) All day long, a community of very strong men walk through a dingy foyer and up a narrow staircase on Williamsburg's Southside. Dressed in sneakers and tank tops, most are sweating already as they twist their broad shoulders through a third floor doorway and set upon rusted dumbells. Even with the sunlight coming through the windows, the gym feels like a dungeon populated by medieval giants. They all seem to know each other. Above a stereo blasting rock music and the clanging of heavy plates the weightlifters cheer one another by name, and overseeing it all is a sinewy 76-year-old man with a knotted beard. He runs the place. Santos "Frenchie" Ramos has managed his namesake gym at 303 Broadway for 40 years. He has no business partners, no shift schedule, and no staff. Instead, the former bodybuilder and professional wrestling referee still works 70 hour weeks to keep the doors open and membership fees low. "For me, it's been a struggle. I haven't become rich. I live in city housing," Ramos said. "I manage. I don't drink, I don't go out. The gym is my second home." "But why didn't she win?" "Well, I think that while we and a lot of other people believed in her ideas, there were many people who thought Donald Trump had better ideas"though not really"so he is the president now. What we can do is hope that he can help everybody." "This. Is. The. Worst. Day. Of. My. Life," she declared. "Well, I hope this is the worst day of your life," I said. "Why?" "Because we're healthyand we're all together. Think about how much worse it would be if someone you knew and loved died. So I hope this is the worst day of your life." A group of LGBTQ and Black Lives Matter activists say men beat them and called them "faggots" in Tribeca on Saturday night, shortly after they left a reception and party for Decolonize This Place, an activism-focused residency at Artists Space on Walker Street. In the days since, the alleged attack has sparked debate among the activists, several of whom identify as queer, about when it makes sense to file a complaint with the NYPD. Michael Basillas, 31, a fashion designer from Harlem, says he left the party around midnight on Saturday with about eight other people, all chanting slogans from various activist movements. "We were chanting in front of the placeit was a celebrationeverything from Black Lives Matter to Queer Liberation," he recalled. The group started walking east on Walker Street towards Broadway, intending to get some food, when they say four men on the other side of the street started yelling 'Trump' at them. "They started chanting 'Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump,' so we started chanting, 'Ole, ole, ole, screw Trump, screw Trump,'" Basillas said. He described the group of men as racially mixed, and said they seemed to be rallying behind one man in particularwhite, about 5'11", with tattoos and a "Blue Lives Matter" band on his wrist. The man with the 'Blue Lives Matter' bracelet allegedly punched a member of the group, Connor Hicks, in the face, according to Hicks and multiple witnesses. "They specifically went after the queer people, and queer people of color," said Hicks, who is white. "I tried to take a swing at him and he ended up hitting me," recalled Colin Ashley, a 36-year-old sociology professor at Hunter College and organizer with People's Power Assemblies. "I had a hold on him while he continued to punch me in the face. Once we hit the ground he was wailing on me and kept punching me in the face." "It turned into a big brawl," said Peter Soeller, 24, another member of the group. "Most people were focused on pulling the big white guy off of Colin [Ashley]. I'm a skinny guy, and this guy was a hulk. I tried really hard to pull him off, [and the] guy turns around, calls me a faggot, punches me in the face, knocked my glasses off. My nose was pouring blood." Basillas and Patti Cruz, a 26-year-old social worker, said that the commotion drew about 20 partygoers out into the street. As the fight broke up, they allegedly approached police in a patrol car parked near the scene. "We tried to talk to them [the police], and they told us, 'Step onto the sidewalk.' They didn't take the information," Basillas recalled. "My friend and I told the officer that our queer, gay friends were attacked by these white supremacists, and he just said, 'We'll patrol the area, why don't you just go back to where you were,'" Cruz said. Two "activist medics" attending the party came to the group's aide, according to Cruz. Four people were treated for injuries inside the gallery space. Ashley sustained facial swelling and bruising, he said. Hicks said he sustained a swollen jaw, and two welts on his forehead. The NYPD did not have any record of the incident on Wednesday morning, and declined to comment on whether police had been on the scene that night. "We looked into that incident, we checked 911, we checked the database for any complaints of an assault, and there has been nothing of the sort," a spokesman said. The alleged victims said that they were not able to capture video or photos of their attackers. Hicks and Soeller said that they deliberated with the other victims for several days about whether to file a complaint with the police. "Communities that are affected by police violence have a hard time trusting the police when things like this happen," Hicks said. The alleged indifference from officers on the scene deepened their reservations. "It was a very difficult conversation in the last 24 hours to do something that doesn't align with their activism," Basillas added. By Tuesday, the group had decided that "it would be a challenge for the NYPD to do their job correctly without the information." But Hicks said that he and Soeller went to the First Precinct around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday and began the complaint filing process, only to back out. "We were open and honest about being activists and the cop was listening, but he really didn't seem that interested," Hicks alleged. He added that he's now hoping to acquire surveillance footage from nearby buildings without NYPD assistance. Anti-Defamation League Policy Director Etzion Neuer told Gothamist that the scenario was a familiar one, citing "victims' reluctance to deal with the police based on a history of animosity." "Writ large, the incident highlights that the ability of law enforcement to respond to hate crimes depends on a mutual trust between the law enforcement and the community they serve," he added. The alleged assault comes in the midst of an uptick in hate incident reports. Basillas said his group wanted to publicize the story to warn other potential victims. "We want people to understand that they, too, could be susceptible to this violence," he said. "At this point the conversation in the activist scene is prioritizing self-defense." Ashley added that he was hesitant to blame President-elect Trump, whose campaign featured racist, sexist and homophobic rhetoric, as well as promises to ban and deport minority groups. "I think the election showed many of us how big these problems still areracism, sexism, homophobia,'" he said. "But the starting point isn't the election of Donald Trump." W hen Bill Clinton was handing over his White House to George Dubya Bush, his staff went out of their way to make life difficult for the new tenants, even removing the W keys from the office keyboards. Barack Obama seems to be doing the same for Donald Trump. Last night, he used an archaic presidential right to declare it permanently illegal to drill for oil and gas in the US-owned Arctic and parts of the Atlantic Ocean. While Obama justified his deployment of the obscure section 12 (a) of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act on environmental grounds, its clearly also a poke in the eye for the President-elect. Trump has made it an electoral pledge to deregulate US oil, and hired the biggest oil baron in the country Exxon chief executive Rex Tillerson as his next secretary of state. Its not just Tillerson whos been plucked from the oil world to serve: shale oil advocate Scott Pruitt is taking over the Environmental Protection Agency, oil and gas consultant Ryan Zinke is to head up the interior department, and Rick Perry, former Texas governor and climate change sceptic, is to run the Energy Department, which he once pledged to abolish. Big Oil is cock-a-hoop. Obamas administration made itself a major nuisance to the energy industry, imposing a welter of rules making life harder for oil drillers both on and offshore. Unsurprisingly, the oil industry spent today howling and decrying his last-ditch, Commie measures as a grave and unforgivable assault on US energy security and jobs. Doubtless, they and the new government will fight for years to overturn them. Doubtless theyll eventually succeed. But in the meantime, are the curbs really that meaningful? Well, no. They only ban future licences, so sites already being explored by BP, Repsol and Exxon in the Atlantic can carry on, and the Gulf of Mexico is unaffected. As for the Arctic, in the US Chukchi Sea, only one licence has ever been granted to Shell, which abandoned drilling last year after massive costs, disappointing results and environmental concerns. While there may be more action in the Beaufort Sea, at $50 a barrel, there has been no clamour for new drilling rights in this most expensive and inhospitable territory. For the foreseeable future, Big Oil is only interested in guaranteed winners already discovered by small explorers (for whom the Arctic will never be economic) or onshore in the US. Fracking in Montana can be done cheaply and profitably even at todays energy prices. Trump and his crew will make hay in deregulating those industries, and Obama is powerless to stop him. B rexit and Donald Trumps election as President will define the year for most investors, but AIM-listed Pittards had punters cursing turbulence in another part of the world. The leather goods company, which specialises in handbags and gloves, said the unrest in troubled Ethiopia hit production after its tannery was affected by the disruption. It has mitigated the impact by shifting production to the UK, but added there will nevertheless be an impact on the results for the second half of the year. Ethiopia has been rocked by year-long protests by the Oromo people, who have been calling for an end to systemic exclusion and subordination. The government declared a state of emergency in October. To compound matters for Pittards, the demand for leather has been weak and has caused sales to suffer in the last few months of the year. The profit warning spooked investors and sent the shares down 12p, or 14%, to 76p. December 21 is officially Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, although on trading floors it felt like the longest day given the lack of news and deals in the works before Christmas. Big trades were thin on the ground, but shares continued to edge higher, with the FTSE 100 up 1.23 points at 7045.19, even if the so-called Santa Rally is yet to fully kick in. BP enjoyed a 3.75p boost to 498.85p as broker UBS upgraded the shares from neutral to buy. UBS was heartened by a field trip to Azerbaijan, which it said helped emphasise a new sense of direction and helped dispel concerns that it needs to make material acquisitions. The rise was modest but trumped Royal Dutch Shell, whose B shares were down 3.5p at 2326p. Worldpay fell 2.1p to 264.5p although vague takeover speculation surrounded the payments giant, with rumours the company has some interested foreign suitors. Investors piled into photo booths operator Photo-Me after its chief executive bought another big chunk of shares. Serge Crasnianski spent 4.6 million on shares, taking his stake to above 22%, just four days after he splashed out 3 million on the AIM-listed companys shares. London developer Telford Homes improved 3.51p to 312.76p after selling its third build-to-rent property to M&G for 49 million. Aurum Mining was off 1.25p at 4.5p as it unveiled a discounted share placing to raise 6 million and changed its name to Shearwater Group as part of its planned shift into cybersecurity. The AIM-quoted company, which has several big-hitters on the board, plans to sell its mining assets. I know hes a good general. But is he lucky? Whether or not Napoleon actually posed this question, it captures an indisputable truth about leadership in all its guises. To prosper, politicians, as much as warriors, need the gods on their side. You might suppose that, as the Prime Minister fated to implement Brexit (or at least to try), Theresa May had rolled snake eyes. Certainly, the task is fiendishly complex, historically unprecedented and will test her to the limit. But look at the broader picture and you will see that, in other respects, fortune has smiled broadly on her. For a start, her ascendancy to the top job was dramatically and unexpectedly accelerated by the shattering of Boris Johnsons alliance with Michael Gove, and Boriss consequent withdrawal from the leadership race. Team May had drawn up a two-month campaign grid for the contest. Suddenly, the grid was ripped up and her acolytes found themselves in No 10 running the country. Next, consider the strikes that have cast a shadow over the final days of Advent. For commuters, Post Office customers and British Airways passengers, they are a headache dreamt up by the Grinch. But in purely political terms they are also a stocking-filler for Mrs May. At the apex of government, it is true, there is still an edgy debate about how the PM should respond. Some fret that co-ordinated industrial action, bleeding into the New Year, will threaten her authority, as the fuel protest of 2000 did Tony Blairs. Others call for snap legislation, something the press can call a clampdown, that will invite comparisons with Margaret Thatchers defeat of the National Union of Mineworkers. Theresa May's red, white, and blue Brexit But this is not the Miners Strike, and Sean Hoyle is no Arthur Scargill. Every time the president of the RMT says his unions objective is to strive to replace the capitalist system or declares, charmingly, that, if we all spit together we can drown the bastards, he plays into the PMs hands. In 1984-5, Thatcher could plausibly describe union militants as the enemy within, attacking democracy itself. Todays strikes are a crashing nuisance rather than a threat to national order. My strong hunch is that Mrs May will leave all options on the table reminding the unions and the voters who is in charge but impose no crushing legislation. That, after all, is precisely what the militants want: new legal restrictions they can caricature as an attack on the very working class the PM aspires to represent. The narrative of the strikes would change, and not necessarily to Mrs Mays advantage. And why interrupt her opponents while they are making an error? As helpful as the unions have been to her, the PMs greatest ally the clearest evidence of her good fortune is Jeremy Corbyn. Since July the Conservatives have rarely been fewer than 10 points ahead of Labour in the polls. In a Guardian/ICM survey at the end of last month, the gap was 16 per cent the Tories preferred by almost every demographic group, including those in semi-skilled or unskilled labour. So grievous is Corbyns position that the occasional blow struck at Prime Ministers Questions or a narrowing of the Tory poll lead in a single survey to a mere seven points is hailed as a new dawn. But the truth is that the Opposition is still enveloped by night. The paradox of Corbyns leadership is that he has turned Labour into the largest political club in Europe and the smallest prospective force of government. He can justly boast that he heads a movement of half a million members. But they are ideological hobbyists rather than the ground troops of a reforming regime-in-waiting. As one veteran of the New Labour years puts it: This really could be it for the party. The public has made up its mind about Corbyn, so Theresa May can essentially choose when she has her landslide. Blunt this may be, but it is also essentially correct. In as much as the public register Labours present trajectory, they do so with a collective shrug. The populism that is sweeping the West Brexit, Donald Trumps victory, the far-Right surge has absolutely nothing in common with the reheated Leftism offered by the party. We know how that particular movie ends, and it never ends well. Corbyn is not a scary extremist. He is a total irrelevance. The curious upshot is that when the general election comes it will not be about Brexit. Yes, the campaign will be cacophonous with arguments about the PMs management of the EU negotiations, her disappointments, her successes. But all this will be a distraction from what the late, great pollster Philip Gould would have called a concrete block: the fact that the voters will never, ever choose Corbyn over May as their Prime Minister. Delphic by design, Mrs May is the least garrulous occupant of No 10 in recent memory. In Downing Street they describe this style as consultative and deliberative: which means policy initiatives will be revealed when she is good and ready. In 2017 her Governments feet will be held to the fire: over Brexit, of course, but also industrial strategy, the NHS and the social agenda that (I think) is the PMs greatest preoccupation. Not yet six months old, her premiership is still in its infancy. But the unflashy steadiness she has brought to the job is precisely what the party needed after the rupture of the referendum. It may also be what the country craves. As fortunate as Mrs May has undoubtedly been, she also seems to know what she is doing, and is evidently determined to go on doing it. To coin a phrase: the harder she works, the luckier she gets. Happy Christmas. S ix weeks ago, after years of walking becoming increasingly painful, I finally had a hip replacement. This operation is a popular subject of meanie, ageist jokes in series such as Little Britain but it is one of the marvels of modern medicine for those like me, who, in any other era, would have spent the rest of our lives condemned to ever greater discomfort and immobility. It all went just about perfectly thanks for asking! Such a great hospital (King Edward VII), such a good surgeon, such expert and caring nurses and physios. The preparatory assessment gave me one unusual experience, unusual for me in the past few decades anyway. The registrar looked at my details and said: But youre young! Possibly I am 58 in the context of hip replacement. Not in any other world these days, I think, except the obits. So a couple of weeks ago I started coming back to work in the office, on public transport, still using a crutch for outdoors. The experience has proved an eye-opener and a humiliation for me in so far as I identify as a man. Eight or nine times out of 10, those who have spontaneously offered me their seat on the Tube, whether sitting in places designated for those less able to stand or not, have been women. Not men. It is particularly women, I have learned, who, even in crowded carriages where it seems impossible to move, spot the need and make the effort. I had not expected this and I have felt so moved by it. And since I have a fair old commute across London, from Haringey to Kensington, involving three or four changes each way, this lesson is repeated twice a day, to the point where I cant ignore it or think it random any more. Somehow I hadnt realised that this is what goes on every day across the network. Although often not very well able to stand pre-op either, there was not much sign of any disability, apart from my usual grimaces and grumps. If I had to ask to sit on the Tube I usually targeted able-bodied-looking young men, not women. These guys didnt refuse but rarely looked best pleased either. So these past two weeks have been an education for me. Ive been trying to account for the phenomenon. Perhaps women just have greater social, even spatial, 360-degree awareness of the environment they find themselves in, even in the stressful circumstances of rush hour? (I must admit that I myself have long coped, not by wearing headphones and screen-staring but by no less resolutely abstracting myself from my environment by concentrating on what I am reading, not looking up to see how those around me are faring.) Or is it perhaps that women are sensitised to the needs of others by looking out for those with a baby on board more than men do? I am afraid the conclusion to which I have been driven is simpler. Women are kinder than men. Women are more alert to signs of need or trouble on the most everyday level. They are better at sensing when another person needs care. Maybe everyone tacitly knew this? I have been learning it afresh every day this December. Thats been my Christmas lesson. An actors lot just took on a whole new meaning Second coming: Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin, alongside Darth Vader in Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) There are many things not quite right about Rogue One but the greatest of them (I think St Paul mentions it in passing) is the ultra-creepy CGI re-animation of Peter Cushing, who died at the age of 81 in 1994, as Grand Moff Tarkin. Or, if its not that unholy resurrection, its the even dodgier CGI-ing of the young Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, even more tactless than the Cushing outrage, since the real Carrie Fisher is still alive and enjoying her dog. So here we have the future of cinema. In the years to come, any star engaging in a major franchise will surely be contractually obliged to provide everything required for the CGI continuation of their performance in their absence, should they fall under a bus or have too many hot dinners. In due course, living actors will be as readily replaceable through technology as everybody else, from train drivers to lovers. Film audiences themselves, too, perhaps, in due course? Felicitys gone Hollywood but shes got British gnashers Star power: Felicity Jones / PA Felicity Jones has turned in some great performances recently Dickenss mistress in The Invisible Woman, Jane Hawking in The Theory of Everything, the mother in this weeks tear-jerker A Monster Calls... but I am not sure that her role as Jyn Erso in Rogue One is quite on the same level. However, for those of us not entranced by lightsabers and X-wing fighters, she is still the most real and rewarding part of the whole film. In one highly specific respect, too. Jones has the most appealing pout such an expressive mouth! I dont like to believe it but I have heard that certain Hollywood stars enhance their image in this area by the injection of collagen. Or is it silicone? Or both? Nothing like this for our Felicity. As is revealed whenever she speaks, her amazing looks depend on another factor entirely: her British teeth. Old-fashioned. Unrestrained. Horsey, even. This pout is the real thing. A national treasure. T heresa May gave the Standards Christmas Appeal a ringing endorsement today, saying it would help to save young people from the injustice of rough sleeping. She also announced 20 million for projects to tackle the misery of people sleeping out in the capital. Homelessness is a tragedy for all of us especially for those affected, all the more so because it can happen at any time and for a wide variety of reasons, the Prime Minister said on a visit to Thames Reach Employment Academy in Camberwell. She saluted readers and donors whose gifts have raised more than 1 million for the Young & Homeless Helpline being launched by Prince William to get emergency help quickly to young people in danger of being forced to sleep out. Theresa May: The Prime Minister visited an employment academy in Camberwell / Jeremy Selwyn The early intervention and advice that the Young & Homeless Helpline can provide will help turn young lives around and save people from the injustice of rough sleeping, she said. The Standards appeal is doing vital work to raise funds and awareness of the problem. I salute all the Evening Standard readers and patrons who have taken part in this years appeal. Christmas generosity, together with the work of government, can make a real difference to vulnerable young people on the verge of sleeping rough. Christmas appeal: She soluted readers who have donated to the homeless helpline / JEREMY SELWYN Mrs May and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid met staff and clients at the academy, where they announced winning bids from a 50 million government funding pot for homeless schemes. Among schemes that won funding are North London Housing Partnership, which gets 917,500 for helping people to get their lives on track - including aid with addictions and jobs. Another 10 million goes to schemes aimed at those at imminent risk of having to sleep rough - including 414,000 towards the No First Night Out drive by City of London, Tower Hamlets and Hackney councils. Charity visit: Mrs May announced funds going towards homeless schemes / JEREMY SELWYN Some 2 million goes to new social impact bonds devised to fund help for a smaller number of people with the most complex needs, including mental health issues and poor education. Mr Javid said: Thames Reachs work to tackle homelessness shows the wide range of services the most vulnerable people in our society often need. Its efforts are proof of the real difference that can be made when charities, councils and volunteers work together. On her visit, Mrs May met former rough sleepers being trained with new skills to help turn their lives around. She watched trainees paint a nursery as part of a six-week course to become full-time decorators with qualifications and references. Thames Reach chief executive Jeremy Swain said: This place is all about getting people into work. Our strong view is that the best way of avoiding homelessness in the future is to help people get the skills to move into a job. Up to 2,000 people get support each month at the centre which offers help, advice and training for a range of problems, not just homelessness. Peter Cheasman, 53, one of the trainees Mrs May met, spent three months on the streets earlier this year and said the scheme had turned his life around. "I had no job, no home and no prospects and I was told by my caseworker I would just have to sleep rough," he explained. "I was walking the streets for three months." The former tyre fitter's life was derailed when he received a speeding fine and denied being at fault. He ended up being prosecuted for perverting the course of justice, which he denied, and served three months. "Now I'm in accommodation and I am finishing the course, which I really enjoyed, and looking forward to getting a job as a painter and decorator. For me it is a fresh start and it is brilliant." Before leaving the centre, created from a former workhouse, Mrs May said it showed how early intervention could transform lives of people in danger of sleeping out. "I was very impressed with what I saw here," she said. "The Standard campaign is very good because we need to put prevention at the heart of what we do in dealing with homelessness. That's exactly what I have seen at Thames Reach, working with people to give them the skills they need to get on in the workplace." J anuary is just around the corner which means its time to start thinking about restocking your bookshelf for those long commutes to come. If youre likely to spend a good proportion of your downtime with your nose in a book, youll be pleased to know there are plenty of great tomes preparing to land in your local bookshop or library over the next 12 months. These are the books youll want to rush out to buy as soon as theyre published. 1. Idaho by Emily Ruskovich In this stunning debut novel, Emily Ruskovich introduces us to Ann and Wade, who have carved out a life for themselves from a rugged landscape in northern Idaho. But as Wade's memory begins to fade, Ann becomes determined to learn more about her husband's first wife, Jenny, and their daughters. What Ann discovers is a mysterious and shocking act that fractured Wade and Jenny's lives. Hauntingly brilliant, this book will stay with you for days after you've put it down. 2. South and West by Joan Didion From the best-selling author of the National Book Award-winning The Year of Magical Thinking comes two extended excerpts from her never-before-seen notebooks that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer. Didions latest tome documents overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, drafts of essays and articles from the Seventies. 3. Hunger by Roxanne Gay The bestselling author of Bad Feminist is back with a searingly honest memoir of her life, which covers the topics of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself. 4. A book of American Martyrs by Joyce Carol Oates Author Joyce Carol Oates tells the moving story of two very different and yet intimately linked American families. Luther Dunphy is an ardent Evangelical who envisions himself as acting out God's will when he assassinates an abortion provider in his small Ohio town while Augustus Voorhees, the idealistic doctor who is killed, leaves behind a wife and children scarred and embittered by grief. What unfolds is a moving and insightful portrait of two interwoven families in American society. 5. The Futures by Anna Pitoniak In this debut coming of age novel about love and betrayal and redemption, a young couple moves to New York to find successonly to learn that flourishing in the city may come with dangerous strings attached. 6. Id Die For You by F. Scott Fitzgerald The iconic writer of The Great Gatsby will, next year, posthumously release a collection of his last remaining unpublished and uncollected short stories, edited by Anne Margaret Daniel. Fitzgerald did not design the stories in Id Die For You as a collection. Most were submitted individually to major magazines during the 1930s and accepted for publication during Fitzgeralds lifetime, but were never printed. This is the first time Fitzgerald gans will be able to read the stories as one. 7. Into the Water by Paula Hawkins From the author of the global phenomenon that is The Girl on the Train, Into the Water follows the story of two sisters who live in a small, riverside town. While little has been given away about the plot, its publisher Doubleday, has teased fans by saying that it will unfurl a gripping, twisting, layered story with ghostly echoes of the past. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders This hotly-anticipated first novel by the National Book Award-shortlisted George Saunders follows the story of Abraham Lincoln and the death of his eleven year old son, Willie, at the dawn of the Civil War. Unfolding over a single night, Lincoln in the Bardo is written with George Saunders' trademark humour and poignancy. Follow us on Twitter: @eslifeandstyle C hristmas at Kate Beckinsales house in Los Angeles will be unusual by anyones standards. I turn up the air conditioning and hire a snow machine so we can feel cold and see snow, says the Chiswick-born actress, 43. Its difficult for a British person to make it feel like Christmas when its warm outside. Her daughter Lily, 17, will be there, of course, and also Lilys father, the stage and screen star Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon, Masters of Sex), and his girlfriend, the comedian Sarah Silverman. Beckinsales actress mother Judy Loe will come, and her stepfather, the producer and former member of the Workers Revolutionary Party, Roy Battersby. Loe got together with Battersby when Beckinsale was nine, five years after the shock death of her father, the Porridge and Rising Damp star Richard Beckinsale, from a heart attack. There will also be various waifs and strays and floating Jews, all these Americans wearing Selfridges cracker hats and not really understanding it. This year, there will also be a new Christmas decoration the Evening Standards New West End Company Award for Best Actress on the mantelpiece. Beckinsale won it two weeks ago to tumultuous applause from her peers in a dazzling ceremony at Claridges for her performance in Whit Stillmans Love & Friendship, adapted from a lesser-known Jane Austen novella. Her character, Lady Susan, is a scheming but irresistible widow on the lookout for husbands for herself and her daughter, manoeuvring as deftly as she can within the strictures imposed on women in 18th-century British society. It was a part that blew away memories of Beckinsale as the gun-toting, Lycra-clad vampire Selene in the Underworld films, and allowed the Oxford-educated actress to show her intelligence and sharp wit. As Lady Susan in Love & Friendship / Alamy Stock Photo Beckinsale thinks it is telling that Austen did not publish the epistolatory novel in her lifetime: It almost feels like a very personal thing, [with Austen thinking] Okay, if I was in a fantasy world where I was without moral compass, maybe this is what Id be. She, Stillman and her co-star Chloe Sevigny had worked together 18 years before in Beckinsales first US movie, The Last Days of Disco, and in her awards speech she paid tribute to the directors ongoing love for tricky, difficult, clever, awful, women. He had planned the Austen adaptation for years, she added, but waited for her to ripen like an old cheese into a woman who could be both glamorous and the credible mother of a daughter of marriageable age. She carried the bulk of the script on her shoulders, coping with daily revisions from Stillman in the 26-day shoot, which she found both thrilling and unnerving. She bore the lions share of screen time and lines, after all. You certainly dont want to be the person who collapses proceedings. With Sheen and his girlfriend, Sarah Silverman (To/Variety/REX/Shutterstock) / Rex Features When I compliment her outfit at the ceremony a black mini-dress with organza overlay she bats it away in a decidedly English fashion, saying that things were very different when she won her last major prize, a Critics Circle gong for, funnily enough, The Last Days of Disco in 1999. I had just had my daughter and was in the first shock of motherhood, and also was really young, she recalls. So I was stashed in a room, madly nursing, then dashed out in some enormous trousers to get it. Hopefully, I was slightly more together this time. Does Love & Friendship feel like a departure, the first in a new era of grown-up roles, I ask? Not really, she says. My experience of my career is I do an Underworld, then three or four independent films that dont get as much attention. Because I didnt go to drama school, I have tried to do as many different things as possible. She began her career while reading French and Russian Literature at Oxford, eventually dropping out to appear as Hero in Kenneth Branaghs Much Ado About Nothing. After that she was in Cold Comfort Farm and Austens Emma on TV, in James Ivorys The Golden Bowl as well as Michael Bays much-hyped Pearl Harbor, Scorseses The Aviator and Michael Winterbottoms The Face of an Angel as well as the Underworld movies and the Total Recall remake. She is currently working on an adaptation of The Chocolate Money, a coming-of-age story set in 1980s Chicago about the relationship between a wealthy chocolate heiress, Babs Ballentyne, and her sensitive daughter, Bettina, with writer and fellow British expat Emma Forrest, which will shoot next year. The Last Days of Disco with Chloe Sevigny / Alamy Stock Photo Her background and her personal circumstances shaped her career, not least her fathers death. But while admitting that this was 100 per cent soul-destroying and profoundly affected her life, she adds that there were an awful lot of things to do with being my fathers daughter that werent just tragic. I mention that Ive interviewed a few people recently who lost a parent young, including comedian Alan Davies and Rory Kinnear, the actor son of another beloved comic performer, Roy Kinnear, and sense how hard it is: the loss is devastating, but harder to focus on or fathom as one progresses into adulthood. Kate Beckinsale - In pictures 1 /80 Kate Beckinsale - In pictures Kate Beckinsale attends the Warner Bros. premiere of "The Suicide Squad" at Regency Village Theatre on August 02, 2021 in Los Angeles, California Getty Images 1989 Kate Beckinsale at 15 years old in 1989 Kate Beckinsale arriving for the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2018 PA Kate Beckinsale and Pete Davidson kiss during a NHL game between New York Rangers and Washington Capitals on 3 March 2019 Rex Features 1973 Richard Beckinsale and Judy Loe pictured with their daughter Kate Beckinsale in the garden of their Teddington home in 1973 Associated Newspapers 1979 Judy Loe and daughter Kate Beckinsale leaving memorial service for actor Richard Beckinsale in 1979 Associated Newspapers 1997 Samantha Morton, Mark Strong and Kate Beckinsale star in the ITV adaptation of the Jane Austen classic 'Emma' ITV 1998 Ian Richardson with Kate Beckinsale in Channel 4's 'Alice Through The Looking Glass' (1998) 2001 Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale arrive at the premiere of the film 'Pearl Harbor' aboard the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis on 21 May 2001 in Pearl Harbor Getty Images 2001 Kate Beckinsale in 'POearl Harbour' in 2001 Buena Vista 2002 Kate Beckinsale and Nicolas Cage at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards held at the Shrine Theatre in Los Angeles Getty Images 2003 Kate Beckinsale as Selene, leader of the Vampire death dealers in 'Underworld' (2003) Entertainment Films 2003 Kate Beckinsale and director Len Wiseman attend the Los Angeles premiere of the film "Underworld" at the Mann's Chinese Theater, Hollywood in 2003 Getty Images 2004 Kate Beckinsale and Leonardo Dicaprio in 'The Aviator'(2004) 2004 Kate Beckinsale as Anna in 'Van Helsing' (2004) 2004 Kate Beckinsale with daughter Lily is seen at the Distinctive Assets lounge for Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards on 03 April 2004 in Westwood, California Getty Images 2004 Kate Beckinsale and Hugh Jackman attend the world premiere of the film "Van Helsing" at the Universal Studios Cinema 03 May 2004 in Universal City, California Getty Images 2009 Kate Beckinsale, arrives at the MOCA New 30th Anniversary Gala on 14 November 2009 in Los Angeles, California Getty Images 2009 Kate Beckinsale (R) and her daughter actress Lily Sheen arrives at the Tribeca Film Institute benefit screening of 'Everybody's Fine' on 03 December 2009 in New York AFP/Getty Images 2010 Kate Beckinsale arrives for the screening of "Robin Hood" by director Ridley Scott and for the opening ceremony of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival on 12 May 2010 Reuters 2010 Kate Beckinsale attends the Chopard 150th Anniversary Party at Palm Beach, Pointe Croisette during the 63rd Annual Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2010 in Cannes, France Getty Images 2010 Kate Beckinsale poses during the 63rd Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2010 in Cannes AFP/Getty Images 2012 Kate Beckinsale and her husband, director Len Wiseman, attend the Germany premiere of 'Total Recall' at Sony Center on 13 August 2012 in Berlin, Germany Getty Images 2012 Kate Beckinsale attends "Underworld Awakening" (Underworld: El Despertar) photocall at Villamagna Hotel on 25 January 2012 in Madrid, Spain Getty Images 2012 Kate Beckinsale arrives at the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards held at Staples Center on 12 February 2012 in Los Angeles, California Getty Images 2012 Kate Beckinsale prior to the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards at Santa Monica Pier on 25 February 2012 in Santa Monica, California Getty Images Kate Beckinsale in 'Shooting Fish' (1997) 2012 Kate Beckinsale stands next to a poster showing herself at the Germany premiere of "Total Recall" at Sony Center on 13 August 2012 in Berlin, Germany Getty Images 2012 Kate Beckinsale attends Porsche Design's 40th anniversary event at the Sheats Goldstein residence on 04 September 2012 in Los Angeles, California Getty Images 2013 Michelle Dockery, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Frieda Pinto, Rita Ora, Kate Beckinsale and Lily Mo Sheen at The Burberry Prorsum 2013 Autumn Winter Womenswear Show at Kensington Gardens on 18 February 2013 in London Dave Benett 2013 Kate Beckinsale arrives at the 2013 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter at Sunset Tower on February 24, 2013 in West Hollywood, California Getty Images 2013 Kate Beckinsale (L) and her daughter, Lily Mo Sheen, attend FIJI Water at the 9th Annual Pink Party Benefiting The Cedars-Sinai Women's Cancer Program at HANGAR:8 on 19 October 2013 in Santa Monica, California Getty Images 2014 Kate Beckinsale attends the Warner Music Group annual GRAMMY celebration on 26 January 2014 in Los Angeles, California Getty Images 2014 Kate Beckinsale attends the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on 12 January 2014 in Beverly Hills, California Getty Images 2014 Kate Beckinsale attends 'The Face Of An Angel' premiere during the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival at Winter Garden Theatre in September 2014 Getty Images 2015 Kate Beckinsale poses in the press room during the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on 11 January 2015 in Beverly Hills, California Getty Images 2015 ate Beckinsale attends the "China: Through The Looking Glass" Costume Institute Benefit Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 04 May 2015 in New York Getty Images 2015 Kate Beckinsale attends the Evening Standard Theatre Awards at The Old Vic Theatre on 22 November 2015 in London Getty Images 2015 Kate Beckinsale attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on 11January 2015 in Beverly Hills, California Getty Images 2016 Actress Kate Beckinsale attends the 18th Costume Designers Guild Awards with Presenting Sponsor LACOSTE at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on 23 February 2016 in Beverly Hills, California Getty Images 2016 Kate Beckinsale attends the 2016 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Graydon Carter at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on 28 February 2016 in Beverly Hills, California Getty Images 2016 Kate Beckinsale attends the 2016 Billboard Music Awards at T-Mobile Arena on 22 May 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada Getty Images 2016 Kate Beckinsale arrives at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and InStyle celebrate the 2017 Golden Globe Award Season at Catch LA on 10 November 2016 in West Hollywood, California Getty Images 2016 Kate Beckinsale attends The Fashion Awards 2016 on 05 December 2016 in London Getty Images 2016 Hugh Grant and Kate Beckinsale attend The London Evening Standard British Film Awards at Claridge's Hotel on 08 December 2016 Dave Benett 2016 Kate Beckinsale with the award for Best Actress at the Evening Standard Film Awards PA 2016 Kate Beckinsale attends The London Evening Standard British Film Awards at Claridge's Dave Benett 2016 With Sheen and his girlfriend, Sarah Silverman Rex Features 2017 Kate Beckinsale arrives at the GQ Men of the Year Party at Chateau Marmont Invision/AP 2017 Kate Beckinsale attends the Vanity Fair Oscar Party Getty Images 2017 Billboard Music Awards Steve Marcus/Reuters 2018 Kate Beckinsale speaks onstage at The 2018 ESPYS Getty Images 2018 Kate Beckinsale attends the GQ Men of the Year Awards Dave Benett 2018 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Reuters 2018 Amber Heard, Kate Beckinsale, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Dianna Agron and Nicky Hilton Rothschild attend the Oscar De La Renta front Row during New York Fashion Week: The Shows at Spring Studios Terrace Getty Images 2019 Kate Beckinsale in The Widow ITV 2019 Kate Beckinsale arrives at the InStyle and Warner Bros. Golden Globes after party Invision/AP 2019 Kate Beckinsale attends the Vanity Fair Oscar Party Getty Images 2020 POOL/AFP via Getty Images 2020 AFP via Getty Images Weird you mention those two, as Alan was obsessed with my dad and some people think he looks like him, Beckinsale says. And I was at school with Roy Kinnears daughter when that happened and I was dispatched to say, Er, well, I survived. Weirdly, when I went to Oxford, and you make a bunch of friends in your first term, all of us found we had one parent. The dead parents club found each other. She seems very fond of her stepfather Battersby, who was at one point blackballed by the BBC for being too left wing and surveilled by the security services, and of the step-siblings she acquired through him. They used to pick up the phone and shout rude words into the receiver to confuse the listening spooks, and thought it was completely normal to have a house full of miners and trade unionists all the time. At her private school, Godolphin & Latymer (Battersbys communist ideals having waned a bit by then), she won writing prizes. Knowing she wanted to act, she applied to Oxford rather than drama school, because I had grown up around actors, and I thought it would be good to be around people who were passionate about things that werent acting. That was a good decision, but it did leave me feeling like there is a magical secret that everybody who went to drama school knows and I dont. Hence the eclecticism of her career, which she treats as an apprenticeship. Credit: Sam Jones / Trunk Archive / Sam Jones / Trunk Archive In 1995, aged 22, she played Nina opposite the charming and mercurial Sheen in a production of The Seagull at the Theatre Royal, Bath, and the two fell in love. She took a couple more theatre roles before falling pregnant in 1999 with Lily, which effectively put paid to her stage career as she didnt want to miss bedtime. My mum did quite a lot of theatre when I was little and I did find that tough, she says. You come home from school and your mother immediately leaves and you dont see her because you are at school again the next day. When Lily was a toddler, they went to New York where Sheen was in a play one bitter winter, and realised that LA would be a great place to raise a child. In 2001, she got Pearl Harbor and she and Lily stayed after splitting with Sheen, having never married, in 2003. They have maintained an extraordinarily close relationship focused on Lily and the need to keep her in one school system, even though Beckinsale married Len Wiseman, the director and writer of Underworld, soon after they separated (they have since split, though Wiseman is producing the fifth film in the series, Blood Wars, out next year). Beckinsale and Silverman are affectionately all over each others social-media feeds. Despite being a huge Luddite, Beckinsale joined Instagram this year, partly to promote Love & Friendship and partly to correct what she thinks is a false public perception of her. I would far rather people dislike me in an informed way than in a misinformed way, she smiles. Credit: Andrew Woffinden / Andrew Woffinden It is weird, she adds, that people find it odd she and Sheen remain close. Its so normal for us, she says. We split up ages ago. We have been not together far longer than we were ever together. But I really love him and like him and we make each other roar with laughter. I really love his girlfriend as well, and we are really lucky that we both get on, and Lily gets on great with her having as many strong females in your teenage daughters life as possible is a good thing. Beckinsale has lived up to her Oxford contemporary Victoria Coren Mitchells assessment: Whip-clever, slightly nuts and very charming. And filthy, too. She swears with a clipped elegance that must send Americans into paroxysms. When a newspaper inferred a romance from a dinner she had this year with her old friend David Walliams, she promised that if she ever saw him naked shed have his private parts tattooed on her face. Though loath to give up the LA weather entirely, Beckinsale tells me she may soon be spending more time in London and may even go back on stage now that Lily is old enough not to give a f**k whether I am in the house or not. Indeed, Lily is now considering drama school and an acting career herself. Did Beckinsale or Sheen try to discourage her? That would be like sitting there with a glass of wine saying, You cant have a drink, she says. I can see why she wants to do it. I dont love the downside of it for my baby. But its not like she hasnt seen both of her parents having a real experience of what its like. She has seen us ecstatic and miserable shes seen that, squared. But I think Beckinsale is, as usual, being a touch too modest. Anyone looking at her would immediately surmise that her career has worked out pretty well. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter: @EsMagOfficial R ichard Ratcliffe wanted to postpone Christmas until his wife Nazanin and daughter Gabriella were home. But his mother had another idea: give them each a present pile under the tree. The plan is that wed have them there even though theyre not here, says Ratcliffe. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian charity worker who has lived in the UK since 2007, is serving a five-year sentence in Irans Evin Prison. The exact charges against her remain unknown but she is accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamic Republic. The 38-year-old was arrested in April by the Revolutionary Guard. She and Gabriella, now two, were visiting her family in Tehran. At the airport, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taken away for questioning. Gabriella, a British citizen, is now living with her grandparents, unable to leave Iran. Homa Hoodfar, a Canadian-Iranian professor who was released from Evin in September, shared a cell with Zaghari-Ratcliffe for a night. They dont put political prisoners together, she says. I guess it was a mistake they moved Nazanin the next day. It was close to Gabriellas birthday and Zaghari-Ratcliffe was crying about how much she missed her daughter. All she wanted in the world was to be reunited with her family. She told me that they were planning to have a second child. Hoodfar says Zaghari-Ratcliffe had signed any papers she was asked to because the Guard had promised to release her in return. The pair saw each other occasionally when they were being moved from cell to cell. I knew Nazanin wasnt doing well. She was disheartened. They kept telling her she was going to be freed. After Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced her family filed an appeal. They have just been told the date January 4. Thats what the lawyer says, but if you ask Nazanins interrogators, nothing is going on, says Ratcliffe. The Revolutionary Guard has tried to persuade Nazanin to ditch her lawyer. They say he is useless. They are trying to get rid of him, which means he is doing something right. Now the Guard is also putting pressure on Nazanin either to move Gabriella into prison with her part-time, or sign a document saying she does not want the right to be with her. Hoodfar says they were both more hostages than prisoners because they were held in a detention centre by the intelligence services rather than a jail. She thinks initially the guard believed Hoodfar was British she studied here so speaks with an English accent but it was easier to negotiate her release when they realised she has Canadian citizenship. Canada isnt considered an imperial country, old or new, so I wasnt much use to them. She had also become seriously ill. Zaghari-Ratcliffes health also deteriorated in November after she went on hunger strike. In her darkest moments she contemplated suicide, and was suffering from heart palpitations and blurred vision. It was a shock when she got that low, says Ratcliffe. I was frightened she couldnt cope much longer. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her daughter Gabriella. / AFP/Getty Images She is eating again now and her parents have been allowed to bring in vitamin pills. Ratcliffe spoke to his wife last Friday. She had been desolate the last three phone-calls. This time she was better, a bit calmer. She said, I have to start fighting again. Shes back in solitary confinement so shes fighting to get out of solitary. Gabriella, meanwhile, has adapted. Her English is gone she now speaks Farsi. At first she was traumatised about Nazanin not being there and seeing her in prison. Now she says Be strong, Mummy at the end of visits. Its hard for Nazanin to see that Granny is now the primary carer. The British ambassador to Iran has visited Gabriella. However, Ratcliffe feels the Foreign Office is not doing enough. Boris Johnson has not spoken to him. With our foreign policy, business comes first. But its not safe. Another dual national will get taken. Hoodfar adds: We should demand the British Government negotiate. The Canadian government negotiated via the Oman and Italian governments to achieve my release. A Foreign Office spokesperson says: The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have raised her case with their counterparts in Iran... We also stand ready to help get her daughter back safely to the UK if requested. Ratcliffe has applied for an Iranian visa. Originally, he hoped to take Gabriella home if he could but his wife said Please dont take my baby. I still want them home for Christmas, he sighs. But we will see what happens next on January 4. Follow Rosamund Urwin on Twitter: @RosamundUrwin We rely on your support to make local news available to all Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2022. Donate today H eavily armed officers were seen patrolling the streets surrounding Buckingham Palace as security was stepped up in the wake of the Berlin lorry massacre. Carrying a cache of weapons, including assault rifles, submachine guns and tasers, the officers were out on patrol during the Changing of the Guard on Wednesday morning. Images show armed police standing guard at the no-drive zone around the palace, which has been expanded following the deaths of 12 people in the attack on the crowded Christmas market in Germany. The three main roads approaching the Victoria Memorial were closed for the ceremony, with Spur Road and Constitution Hill both blocked completely and The Mall shut from at the Marlborough Road junction, 500 yards away. Spectators gather to watch the Changing of the Guard / Jeremy Selwyn The officers were pictured patrolling the empty roads, which will be blocked off to pedestrians with physical barriers for two hours during the ceremony taking place every other day from around 10.45am. Spectators lined the pavements behind barriers waiting to watch the Changing of the Guard. A heightened police presence outside Buckingham Palace / Alex Lentati While a three-month trial period of the extra road closures had already been planned to protect the thousands of tourists and military personal taking part, the Met admitted the start date had been brought forward in light of the attack. Their deployment comes after Scotland Yard said an attack with a large vehicle, such as the lorry driven into crowds at the crowded Christmas market in Germany, had already been considered as a possible scenario. Extra police officers were also photographed on patrol in Soho last night which was packed with revellers and shoppers buying last minute Christmas gifts. Extra police patrols in Soho on Tuesday night / Nigel Howard Scotland Yard stressed that the road closures surrounding Buckingham Palace were a precautionary measure and not in relation to any specific intelligence. In a statement the force said: The closure follows a request from the Metropolitan Police Service as part of ongoing security measures aimed at keeping the public safe. In a request to The Royal Parks, which manages the roads, the MPS highlighted that due to the events high profile in an iconic location with a substantial military presence and attracting large crowds, the closures were a necessary precaution to continue protecting the public and those taking part in the event. A man who groped a young woman as she waited to board the Tube in a "truly abhorrent" attack has been spared jail. Ioachim Ciobanu, 29, was sentenced to four months in prison suspended for two years after pleading guilty to sexual assault at Blackfriars Crown Court on Monday. A jury heard how Ciobanu, of Chertsey Road, Twickenham, grabbed and groped the woman as she waited to board the Metropolitan line at Baker Street on October 9. The 22-year-old sought help from a female staff member who took her to the station control room where staff called the police and tracked the man on the stations CCTV cameras. Police were able to arrest the attacker at the scene after his victim successfully identified him. A judge also gave Ciobanu a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order. Investigating Officer Detective Constable Dean Percival, from British Transport Police, said: This was serious and a truly abhorrent incident. "The victim was left violated by the action of Ciobanu. British Transport Police takes all sexual offences seriously and I would like to thank the victim for coming forward and reporting this to us so that this man was able to be put through the court system and convicted for his atrocious act." A gang of thieves who stole 120,000 by blowing up a string of cash machines in a month-long crime spree have been jailed for a total of more than 43 years. Trevor McCarthy, 43, Gary Mills, 40, Ray Abraham, and Daniel Dorkin, both 36, pumped combustible gas into ten petrol station ATMs and ignited it with an electrical fuse to try to access the money inside. They caused around 200,000 of damage in the raids, in August and September, succeeding in breaking through to the cash box five times. Flying Squad detectives, called in to investigate the raids in London and the Home Counties, first identified Dorkin after he was captured on CCTV wearing a t-shirt with the slogan seasoned offender. His accomplices were also identified and police swooped on the gang following an explosion at an ATM in Denham. Exploded: ATM standalone kiosk on Brabazon Road, Twickenham / Met Police McCarthy, of Barlby Road, Ladbroke Grove, and Mills, of Fleetwood Close, Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire were both jailed for ten years and eight months at Kingston crown court yesterday (tues). Jailed: Trevor McCarthy / Met Police Abraham, of Hobart Drive, Hythe, Southampton, was sentenced to 11 years and four months in prison and Dorkin, of Baynard Close, Basingstoke, Hampshire, was jailed for 11 years. Jailed: Gary Miles / Met Police All four pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal, conspiracy to commit criminal damage and recklessness endangering life. Jailed:Raymond Abraham / Met Police Detective Inspector Mark Bedford, of the Flying Squad, said the gang had caused extensive damage and put innocent members of the public at risk: This crime network caused a series of large explosions in petrol stations and it was by sheer luck that no unsuspecting members of the public were injured as they passed by. A crooked council executive who pocketed thousands of pounds of taxpayers money in a breathtaking benefits fraud has been jailed for two and a half years. Charles Hahn, 43, claimed more than 22,000 in handouts and was given a council house despite having a series of well-paid jobs. The father of three worked at food manufacturer Tate & Lyle, property firm Grosvenor, Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, and in 2012 became head of compliance and health and safety at Hammersmith and Fulham council. He even established his own company Hahn Consultant Ltd while receiving housing benefits illegally. He hid his career to get a one-bed council home in Greenwich and failed to tell the authorities when, in 2010, he bought a house at Aveley in Essex. In May 2012 he was granted a two-bed local authority home in Blackheath, despite not being entitled to handouts. Hahn applied to purchase it, with a 100,000 discount under the right to buy scheme, but before the deal could go through, fraud investigators began to unravel his web of lies. Jailing him at Woolwich crown court on Tuesday, Judge Philip Shorrock told Hahn: Your dishonesty has been breathtaking. "Anybody looking at you in the summer of 2012 would have seen a man who was working as the head of health and safety for one of the bigger London local authorities, earning a good salary, and nobody would have guessed from your superficial appearance what a fraud you really are. Knowing perfectly well you were not entitled to benefits, you failed to tell the local authority of that fact for a period of years and helped yourself to over 22,000 from the taxpayer. While paying rent on his illegally-obtained council house, Hahn bought his own home but failed to declare it. Because of your selfishness and dishonesty, another family was not able to occupy these premises, said the judge. If that wasnt crooked enough, you had the brass neck to apply to the local authority for a larger property even though you had your own home. Mark Hunsley, defending, said Hahn suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after leaving the Royal Navy, and had been the victim of a hate crime when he was stabbed 16 times. He told the court Hahn lives off credit cards and has 50,000 of debts, partly because he pays for care for his disabled daughter. Hahn, of Grove Park, pleaded guilty to four counts of dishonest representation for obtaining benefit and four counts of fraud. A paedophile drama teacher who sexually assaulted young boys has been jailed for nine years. Glyn Davies, 71, used different aliases inluding the name Glen Knowles to run private drama classes in south London and Kent during the 1980s. He was arrested after two former pupils contacted police to report being assaulted by Davies at the Glen Knowles Drama Schools and clubs in Coulsdon and Hampton Hill. The Somerset resident admitted multiple counts of indecent assault on a boy aged under 14 at Isleworth Crown Court and was sentenced on Tuesday. But police fear that there may be other victims out there due to the different aliases Davies used and the large numbers of children he taught. Detective Constable Helen Lawson, who led the investigation, said: "Davies abused a position of trust and due to the large amount of children who attended his classes there are concerns that there may be other victims who are yet to come forward. "Davies also used the surnames Knowles, Krauss and Krauss-Davies during the 1980s. I would urge anyone who is yet to speak with police to contact us." Davies was arrested on February 10 this year and charged on September 29. Alongside his jail sentence, he was placed on the sex offenders register for life. Anyone with information should contact officers via 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. T he Met's gang crime unit has launched an investigation after a teenager was shot in south-east London. Police and paramedics rushed to the scene of the shooting in Kidbrooke at around 7.30pm on Tuesday. An 18-year-old man was found with a gunshot wound to the foot in Rochester Way, near the junction with Nelson Mandela Road. Paramedics rushed the teenager to a south London hospital. His injuries are not thought to be serious. Witnesses described seeing swarms of emergency services as the road was cordoned off with police tape. Emma Price wrote on Twitter: "The park has been closed off by police on Rochester way/Nelson Mandela Road, police tape everywhere" Another user, John, wrote: "Anyone know what's happened at Kidbrooke Green Park tonight? Police, ambulance dogs. Area taped off." There have been no arrests and enquiries continue. A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: We were called at 7.29pm on Tuesday (20 December) to reports of an incident at Kidbrooke Park Road, SE3. We sent an ambulance crew, a single responder in a car and an incident response officer to the scene. We treated a patient at the scene for a foot injury and took them to a hospital in south east London. Anyone with information is asked to contact Trident on 020 8247 4863 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. A man was seriously injured after a pile-up involving five vehicles on a busy London bridge. Two lorries, a car and a van were involved in the crash on Putney Bridge ahead of the morning rush hour on Wednesday. Dramatic images and video taken at the scene showed the crushed vehicles involved in the incident. Police, paramedics and firefighters raced to the collision on the southbound carriageway of the river crossing at around 6.45am. Witness Syle Haradinovic, 34, from Putney, described seeing a swarm of emergency services and the vehicles involved in the crash "crumpled together". Pile-up: Five cars were involved in the crash / @phill_potts He told the Standard: I arrived at Putney Bridge at about 7.15am. There were about three fire trucks, two ambulance cars and police. All the vehicles involved were crumpled together. The van in the middle was very badly damaged. It was very bad. Traffic was running very slowly. The heavily used Thames crossing was sealed off by police in both directions for about four hours as officers investigated the crash. Police said one man was rushed to hospital with serious injuries. His injuries are not thought to be life-threatening or life-changing. A Met Police spokesman said no arrests have been made and enquiries were ongoing. London Fire Brigade (LFB) and London Ambulance Service also attended. A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: We sent two ambulance crews to the scene, with the first of our medics arriving in under five minutes. We treated a patient at the scene and took them to a hospital in west London. An LFB spokesman said no-one was trapped in the collision. T en people were arrested during dawn raids in Croydon today which uncovered a haul of deadly weapons. Police seized stashes of Class A and Class B drugs along with an array of knives, an imitation gun and wads of cash from New Addington homes. Images from the raids show a variety of lethal blades, one more than 2ft long, alongside stacks of 20 and 50 notes. The eight males and two females arrested range from 13 to 74. They were detained on suspicion of a range of crimes including possession with intent to supply Class A and B drugs and breach of bail. Croydon Borough Commander Jeff Boothe said: "The borough has seen an increase in violence related offences and knife crime. Raids: police uncovered weapons, drugs and cash / Met police This operation, and others to come, will see us targeting those offenders who commit this type of criminality. I hope this provides reassurance to the Croydon community and increases their confidence in the ongoing work we are doing to keep them safe." Operation Rayong saw officers join forces with the Met's Territorial Support Group, Trident and Area Crime Command, specialist drugs dogs and Croydon Council's anti-social behaviour team. A Royal Marine serving life after being found guilty of murdering an injured Afghan fighter will spend Christmas behind bars pending a new challenge against his conviction. Sergeant Alexander Blackman, 42, of Taunton in Somerset, appeared via video link from prison, failed to persuade two judges at the Court Martial Appeal Court to grant him bail. Blackman's wife Claire sat with dozens of supporters in a packed London courtroom on Wednesday to hear Jonathan Goldberg QC urge Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas and Mr Justice Sweeney to rule that it was an "exceptional" case in which bail could be given. The judges dismissed the application but announced that an "expedited" appeal would be heard either at the end of January or "as soon as possible" in February. Blackman's bail move followed the announcement by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the independent body that investigates possible miscarriages of justice, of its decision to refer his conviction and sentence to the court for review. Desperate bid: Claire Blackman outside the Royal Courts of Justice / PA The CCRC announced it had concluded that a number of new issues, including fresh evidence relating to Blackman's mental state, "raise a real possibility" that the Court Martial Appeal Court "will now quash Mr Blackman's murder conviction". Speaking outside court, Mrs Blackman said: "We are obviously disappointed by the judges' decision not to grant bail this afternoon. "However we must remember that earlier this month the Criminal Cases Review Commission decided to refer the case back to the appeal courts and this is the most important step towards getting Al's conviction and sentence overturned. "We are grateful to the courts for expediting the appeal process." Lord Thomas continued restrictions imposed at a hearing last Friday preventing reporting of the details of the proceedings, but gave the go-ahead for the court's judgment on the bail application and other matters to be publicised. In the ruling, Lord Thomas said the "practice of the court is always to expedite appeals rather than release on bail", except in "exceptional circumstances". He announced that "despite the unprecedented nature of this case", the court "can see no basis for departing from what is that practice". Blackman was convicted in November 2013 by a court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire, and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 10 years. In May 2014, the Court Martial Appeal Court rejected a conviction challenge, but reduced the minimum term to eight years because of the combat stress disorder he was suffering from at the time of the 2011 incident in Helmand province while serving with Plymouth-based 42 Commando. Blackman shot the insurgent, who had been seriously injured in an attack by an Apache helicopter, in the chest at close range with a 9mm pistol before quoting a phrase from Shakespeare as the man convulsed and died in front of him. He told him: "There you are. Shuffle off this mortal coil, you c***. It's nothing you wouldn't do to us." He then turned to comrades and said: "Obviously this doesn't go anywhere, fellas. I just broke the Geneva Convention." The shooting was captured on a camera mounted on the helmet of another Royal Marine. During his trial, Blackman - who denied murder and was known at that stage as Marine A - said he believed the victim was already dead and he was taking out his anger on a corpse. He was "dismissed with disgrace" from the Royal Marines after serving with distinction for 15 years, including tours of Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland. M ore than 80 firefighters were battling a huge blaze at a sewage works in east London early this morning. One warehouse and two floors of an office went up in flames at Crossness sewage treatment works on the bank of the Thames in Abbey Wood. There were 12 fire engines on the scene after the fire brigade was called to the blaze at 5.25am. A London Fire Brigade spokesman told the Standard that 10 per cent of the building was alight. Sewage works: Fire engines can be seen attending the fire in the heart of Crossness sewage plant / @n_s_martin Station Manager Nick Harding who is at the scene said: The reason we have got so many appliances on scene is because we need a lot of firefighters wearing breathing apparatus to enter the warehouse to identify the location of the fire which has probably spread into the buildings voids. "Crews are making good progress systematically searching for the fire spread but they are working very hard in pretty difficult conditions. The burnt inside of the warehouse / London Fire Brigade "The fire itself is currently contained to the workshop and maintenance area of the sewage works but this could well be a protracted incident due to the difficult location of the fire Local residents took to social media to describe being woken up by sirens as fire engines raced to the scene. Debbie Wareing posted on Facebook: Been woken by sirens at 6.15 whats going on in Thamesmead? Crossness is the second biggest waste treatment plant in Europe and currently serves about 2 million people. The fire was brought under control at around 10am. An investigation has been launched into what caused it. Last week, along with the surprise series The OA, Netflix dropped a movie about Barack Obama, called Barry. I didn't rush to watch this, because I didn't expect it to be very good it's possible recent shows like The Get Down and Vinyl have turned me off "Old New York" period productions, as they often come off as era caricatures. There was also the fear that a Netflix Original movie on such a wonderful and complex man would be reductive, to say the least. It may be the timing of it all, and the strong desire to mentally escape the Trumpocalypse via focusing on the good people in the world, but I enjoyed it. It doesn't dive too deep, but it gives you a snapshot of this manand the obstacles he overcameduring his time at Columbia University, starting in 1981. It's a movie that will show you how character gets built. With that in mind, taking a 1 hour and 44 minute dive into the story of a good human, who has done good things, who is about to leave us (against his own will) in the hands of Evil, might make you cry, tremble, and scream. The entire time I watched Barry a second reel was playing in my head, a movie about Donald Trump during his formative years, showing how a man so opposite in nature of Barack Obama had come to be. If Obama was being tested, educated, and trying to understand the world and others while overcoming his own struggles, Trump was being manufactured in a privileged incubator of greed, narcissism, and grotesque materialism. While Obama was living in a rundown building on 109th Street, Trump was building his Dark Tower on 5th Avenue, and that distinction alone is a perfect visual contrast of the two men. The movie, smoothly directed by Vikram Gandhi, focuses on Obama's life in 1980s New York, where he's attending Columbia University; it's there that we see him experience racism, contemplate who he is, chain smoke, attend parties, struggle with the death of his father in Kenya, bond with his mother, and date. Screenwriter Adam Mansbach's intention is simply to give you an idea of who he was before he became President, and it succeeds there; even if it never feels too profound, you'll feel connected. A huge part of why this film is watchable is 100% because of its star, Devon Terrell, who delivers the most incredible performance, even beyond his perfect vocal impression. It's worth a watch, but again be warned: Barry felt like a Goodbye To All That, in which the All That is decency in the White House. T he mother of a five-year-old boy who died after allegedly being beaten in a park paid tribute today to her little angel. Alex Malcolm was described as beautiful, kind and gentle by his mother Liliya Breha, 29, who wept as she said: He shouldnt have been taken away from me. Alex, a Year 1 pupil at Archbishop Sumner CofE primary school in Kennington, suffered head injuries while playing in Mountsfield Park, Catford, at about 6pm on November 20. Police were called at 1.45am the following day when he was admitted to Kings College Hospital. He died the next day in intensive care. A 38-year-old man has been charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent. Ms Breha, who lives in Bromley, said: Im heartbroken, I miss him. I really struggle because he shouldnt have been taken away from me. He was my best friend. She said that Alex, her only child, was popular among classmates and enjoyed going to parks and on trips around London. He appeared as an angel in a nativity play last year and had recently completed a portfolio to begin child modelling. Alex Malcolm, who died in hospital, pictured with his mother Liliya Breha Ms Breha said: He had so many friends everybody knew Alex. He would always share all his toys and sweets. Lots of my friends have newborns and he would feed them with their bottles he was really soft and gentle. He would always care for me and compliment me and always say thank you. He was too beautiful, people often thought he was a girl. He was doing a little modelling. Wed just done a portfolio, hed had lots of offers but we never had a chance to do proper modelling. She said he loved school, where he was always among the first at the gates, and enjoyed music and singing. If I was too tired hed say Miss told me you have to read me the book so I knew he was listening to his teachers, she said. Hed help me with the shopping and was very tidy. He was perfect. He would see what I was doing and copy me. Alex suffered head injuries while playing in Mountsfield Park I could see he was growing in confidence. He was beautiful. He was an angel in the nativity last year and we all called him little angel. Family friend Sarose Burnley described Alex as a stunning little boy who was devoted to his mother. She added: Her bond with Alex was super strong. She doted on him. Despite everything shes going through shes been extremely strong but I know speaking to her on a day-to-day basis that shes broken. Ms Breha hopes to set up a charity in memory of Alex and has agreed with his school to plant a tree in his memory. His family have not been able arrange his funeral as police have not yet released his body. Marvyn Iheanacho, 38, of Hounslow, appeared in custody at Woolwich crown court yesterday charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent. He was remanded in custody until March 10. T oxic air pollution limits have been breached more than 1,000 times this year in a single London high street, shocking new figures show. The hourly cap for nitrogen dioxide has already been broken on 1,142 occasions in Putney High Street. Under EU rules the limit is not supposed to be exceeded more than 18 times in a year. Education Secretary Justine Greening, who is MP for Putney, said: Its very concerning that we still have regular air pollution breaches. For Putney and Thamesfield residents its vital our air quality problem is sorted out. Simon Birkett, director of Clean Air in London, said: Currently, were predicting that Brixton Road, Brompton Road, Putney High Street or the Strand will breach the nitrogen dioxide hourly legal limit for the whole of 2017 by Monday 9 or Tuesday 10 January. He added: Alfresco dining should be suspended whenever the World Health Organisation guideline for hourly human exposure to nitrogen dioxide is likely to be exceeded. Under EU regulations the hourly upper limit for NO2 is 200 micrograms per cubic metre. Mr Birkett urged Mayor Sadiq Khan to use cleaner buses on many more streets. Professor Frank Kelly, of Kings College London, which runs a network of pollution monitors, said: Understanding air pollution hotspots is the first step in addressing the problem. The number of pollution peaks is down in Putney High Street, from more than 2,700 in 2012. But the overall average for 2016 is slightly higher than for last year. Wandsworth council has persuaded Transport for London to replace or up-grade polluting buses in Putney High Street. Daytime delivery vehicles have been banned from stopping and measures introduced to ease traffic flow. A Wandsworth spokesman said: Since 2012 we have seen decreases in pollution episodes each year. "There is a long way to go but Kings College London confirms Putney High Street is one of the only locations in London to secure such a significant fall in NO2 pollution over this period. Deputy mayor for environment Shirley Rodrigues said: Putney High Street will be the first Low Emission Bus Zone from February. Brompton Road saw hourly breaches rise from 97 in 2015 to at least 187 this year. There have been 476 breaches in Brixton Road, 154 in Beech Street in the City, 163 in Oxford Street and 126 in Walbrook Wharf. R esidents in north London tonight rallied together to help an injured swan which was found wandering alone through the streets of West Hampstead. The bizarre sight was spotted in Sherriff Road, near to West End Lane, on Wednesday evening. Passers-by became concerned for the rogue swans welfare and called the RSPCA to come and help. Police were seen at the scene directing cars away from the animal. Swan loose in West Hampstead. Video by Coleen Mensa James Nahon, who captured the forlorn swan on camera, told the Standard the RSPCA sent the local police to come and protect it from traffic. Rogue swan: The injured animal was spotted wandering through West Hampstead. / @Mike_Spike81 Twitter He said: Somehow, an injured swan has ended up in West Hampstead. Feeling beaky: The swan appeared to be injured, residents said. / James Nahon Its a quiet road, no biggie for cars, but amusing to see the police slow all the cars that do come past down and explain. Photos from the scene show people crowding around the lost animal as they try to find a way to rescue it. Witnesses said it was reportedly rescued by a nearby animal sanctuary which came to pick it up. I ndependent businesses in east London claim they are being priced out because Network Rail is trying to cash in on the areas hipster reputation. Tenants of the Ponsford Street railway arches in Homerton have accused the rail company of hiking rents by tens of thousands of pounds, forcing them to move out. The firm spent 4 million renovating 12 arches in 2013. Tamara Dial rented one of them, building up her dog daycare business Reservoir Dogs. She moved out in September. I originally chose it because it was affordable, she said. Now theyre chasing us out. Ms Dial says Network Rail allowed her to extend her 7,500-a-year lease for only three months, before raising the rent to more than 20,000. She added: There needs to be some kind of rent control. If the world didnt have small businesses, where would we be? Nick Vadasz, who runs Vadasz Deli in the arches, said: The whole point of Hackney cool is that you have coffee shops and other small independent businesses. "But if theyre priced out, youre going to be left with Costa. A Network Rail spokesperson said: These tenants were offered an extension of their contracts at the same rent while we undertook an open market letting. The refurbished units will be offered at market rents to local independent businesses. J eremy Corbyn faced a perfect storm by election test today with the resignation of one of his backbench critics. The departure of Jamie Reed in February means a by election next year in Copeland where Labour has a majority of just 2,564. Such a slim majority would make any incumbent party nervous, but Copeland contains a number of dangerous potential traps for Labour. The constituency voted Leave in the EU referendum and Ukip performed very strongly in the 2015 election, gaining over 6,000 votes to take third place. The Conservatives were in second place and may benefit from a by-election that is likely to be held around the time that Theresa May moves Article 50 to leave the EU. But a major local factor is the importance to local jobs of the nuclear power industry and the Sellafield site. Mr Corbyns personal opposition to the nuclear industry, in contrast to the support for it in other sections of the party, could be a significant disadvantage. Mr Reed said he is quitting in February to take up a private sector job as head of development and community relations at Sellafield. The 43-year-old insisted his decision had absolutely nothing to do with Corbyns leadership. However, the centrist MP has previously accused Mr Corbyn of being reckless and narcissistic in his resistance to renewing Britains Trident nuclear weapons system. In what was seen as possible sarcasm by some, Ilford North MP Wes Streeting tweeted: Were 'election ready': building a movement and going for government, so presumably we're aiming for a bigger Labour majority in Copeland! The by-election will be held in March at the earliest but could be delayed by Labour to early May when council elections are held. Mr Reed, an MP since 2005, is likely to see his seat disappear in boundary changes before the 2020 election, which may have influenced his decision to quit Westminster early. In a letter to Mr Corbyn announcing his decision, Mr Reed said his seat needed a Labour government. I have long argued that our national politics must meet this challenge so that communities like mine - far removed from our major urban centres - can shape our own futures. I hope that the next Labour government will help to deliver this. Now that our country has voted to leave the European Union, we need a Brexit that works for communities like Copeland, and one that works for the whole of our country. I love my community and I love the Labour Party. Leaving Parliament is the hardest decision of my life. D rone operators could be forced to pass a new safety test under new measures designed to crackdown on reckless users. The Department for Transport launched a consultation on Wednesday following dozens of near misses with passenger jets this year, including near the Shard and at Heathrow Airport. Measures include new criminal penalties for those who breach no-fly zones near airports and prisons and for all gadgets to be registered before being used. Ministers have also pressed for drones to be electronically identifiable so the owner can be tracked down by police if required and for operators to undergo a safety test before flying. The tough rules come amid the increasing popularity of drones, triggering a surge of high-profile near misses in the 10 months to October, up from 29 the previous year and just six in 2014. Close call: A drone nearly caused a plane to crash above the Shard / Getty In July, a passenger jet carrying 165 passengers came within 65ft (20m) of a drone as it flew over the Shard during a final descent into Heathrow. Aviation experts deemed the incident to be in the most serious category of risk. In February, another plane came within 35 metres of a flashing drone shortly after it took off from Heathrow giving pilots no time to react, according to the UK Airprox Board. In April, a pilot claimed his British Airways Airbus A320 had been hit by a drone as it came in to land at Heathrow although the then transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin later told MPs the incident was unlikely to be a collision. Near miss: Some drones have come into close contact with planes near Heathrow Airport / PA Police also investigated a "reckless near-miss" between a drone and a plane flying from Stansted Airport to Newquay Airport in August. The Government said it is determined to take advantage of the emerging technology, which is estimated to be worth around 102 billion by 2025. Aviation Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said: Drones have enormous economic potential and are already being used by emergency services, transport and energy providers and conservation groups to improve services, respond to incidents and save lives. While the vast majority of drone users are law-abiding and have good intentions, some operators are not aware of the rules, or choose to break them, putting public safety, privacy and security at risk. The government is taking a common sense approach to tackling this behaviour, ensuring the safe roll-out of this technology. Current regulations balance clear rules on safety and strong penalties for misuse, and companies using drones for commercial purposes need permission to ensure they are operated responsibly. The measures were welcomed by aviation experts. Tim Johnson, from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said: Our priority is the safe operation of drones and we cannot underestimate the importance of understanding how to use drones safely and responsibly. The new CAA Dronecode, which forms part of our wider drone awareness campaign, is designed to help protect the safety of the wider aviation industry. Drones have significant potential to drive benefits across a range of sectors, from farming to emergency response, healthcare to logistics." A London university has been accused of giving into "gay-stapo" campaigners by removing a picture of a former Archbishop of Canterbury from its campus. A picture of Lord Carey of Clifton was taken down from the alumni wall of fame at Kings College London's building on The Strand. The removal comes after a five-year campaign by a group of students who objected to his opposition to gay marriage. In a statement, Kings College London said the picture had been removed after a review had concluded that its alumni pictures did no capture the diversity of our university campus. But its decision was criticised by an academic at the college who said the gay-stapo had claimed victory. Removal: the picture was at King's College London's Strand campus (Picture: Google Street View) In an article fpr the Conservative Women website with the Rev Jules Gomes, a vicar at an evangelical church, mental health lecturer Niall McCrae wrote: For a prestigious institution of Christian heritage to allow this campaign to claim victory is worrying. Carey is not homophobic, but his name has been tarnished by a 'gay-stapo' that refuses to acknowledge that a clergyman cares for all, while maintaining a traditional view of marriage. The campaign to remove Lord Careys picture from the wall of fame was led by student Ben Hunt, who is now the president of King's student union. Mr Hunt pledged to fight for the pictures removal in his manifesto when he stood for the position of LGBT officer. A Kings spokesperson said: In 2015 a review of our window display policy across all our campuses was undertaken by representatives from External Relations, the Students Union and Alumni Relations. "It was agreed that the current static displays, which are costly to maintain, or change, did not capture the diversity of our university community and that this should change. "The decision was taken that we should expand the breadth of content to include the achievements of our students and staff." Mr Hunt said: "When I was LGBT+ Officer I carried on a campaign that had been running at Kings for several years to make the window representation at Strand more representative of the Kings community. "LGBT+ students over several years had been concerned with the portrayal of Lord Carey of Clifton as an alumni who should be celebrated due to his views expressed during the debate regarding gay marriage. "A petition was signed asking for his removal by hundreds of students several years ago, as well as policy being passed through our democratic system endorsing the Union to take this stance. "Motivated in part by this campaign, but also by a desire to ensure that the diversity of students and alumni at Kings was represented, I worked with the University on the digital display content which currently shows images about the past achievements of Kings, our present student and staff community and what mark Kings wishes to make in the future, in Service of Society." Lord Carey has been approached for comment. S cores of Groupon customers in London claim hundreds of pounds has been taken from their bank accounts by cyber criminals. Scammers have allegedly got their hands on some customers details and hacked into their accounts to buy high-end products like holidays and iPhones. Many Groupon buyers claim they received unexpected confirmation emails for purchases they hadnt made while other online shoppers reported losing out on hundreds of pounds. Fraudsters targeted the sites customers since the start of December, an investigation by MoneySavingExpert revealed. Company Groupon said its own site has not been hacked but confirmed hackers had managed to hack into users accounts after getting log-in and password details from a third-party website. Groupon's own website hasn't been targeted but hackers can get customer details from third party websites. / Shutterstock Many customers shared their experiences on social media, calling on the company to do more to tackle the problems. Samantha King said: "Account hacked and no one responding to help! Disappointed." "Could someone please contact me asap directly as I have had my account hacked and fraudulent transactions have gone through." The company said they take fraud extremely seriously. A spokesperson told the MailOnline neither their website or mobile app had been hacked. What we are seeing however is a very small number of customers who have had their account taken over by fraudsters. Fraudsters have a number of ways in which they can obtain your login details to a website including phishing e-mails, trojan attacks, spyware and malware. They are advising their customers to use strong passwords and regularly check their email for unauthorised purchases. T he Queen has delayed her plans to leave London to travel to Sandringham for Christmas because of a heavy cold. Buckingham Palace said the Queen and Prince Philip had decided to postpone their trip to Norfolk because they were both suffering with colds. They were expected to travel from London to Kings Lynn by train on Wednesday and then onto their nearby private Sandringham estate for the holidays. The spokesman said: "The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have heavy colds, and so have decided not to travel to Sandringham today." The Queen, aged 90, and Duke of Edinburgh, who is 95, hosted their annual Christmas lunch for their family at the palace on Tuesday. Police were present at the station on Wednesday morning but later left after the couple decided not to travel. It comes after Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen would be stepping down as patron of 25 organisations. The patronages will be taken on by other members of the Royal Family. B ritain remains the most lucrative destination in the European Union for Romanians and Bulgarians with a "generous" welfare system providing a major incentive for migrants despite new curbs being introduced, it has been claimed. David Cameron has rushed through a plan to introduce a three-month wait before EU migrants can claim out-of-work benefits so it coincides with the end of temporary controls tomorrow that had blocked citizens from the two countries moving to the UK. But the reforms do not affect welfare payments for claimants with jobs, meaning migrants will still have more in-salary and in-work benefits than in any other major European country, according to Migration Watch UK. Business leaders, however, have said lifting the restrictions will help "cement our economic recovery" as well as fill the gap in the number of skilled workers companies need. Lifting the transitional controls to give citizens of the two countries unrestricted access to the UK labour market from New Year's Day has become a flashpoint in the increasingly bitter debate over immigration in Britain. Research by Migration Watch UK suggests some of the two million Romanians and Bulgarians already living in Spain and Italy could choose to move to northern European countries where there are "considerably greater" financial rewards. A worker with a spouse and two children on half the average wage in Romania or Bulgaria would be three times better off in Spain or Italy but six times better off in the UK, according to its report. The think-tank found that Germany remains the "most attractive destination" with its low unemployment rate and large number of vacancies, but reiterated its previous analysis predicting that 250,000 Romanians and Bulgarians will move to the UK over the next five years. Migration Watch UK chairman Sir Andrew Green said: "This study shows how Britain's generous benefits system acts as a pull factor for migrants from across Europe. "There must now be a renegotiation of the benefit system in the EU which was designed before 100 million people in much poorer countries joined the EU. British taxpayers must no longer subsidise immigration from poorer parts of the EU." The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that 55% of its members believe immigration has had a positive impact on the capital's economy and more than half employ migrant workers. Chief executive Colin Stanbridge said: "Political rhetoric on migrant workers has stepped up in recent days as the deadline for removal of restrictions approaches. However, the debate often fails to take into account the positive benefits that migration brings to the London economy. "Migrant workers are often highly skilled, bringing with them knowledge and experience that London businesses badly need - now - in order to continue to grow. "Of course the Government needs to equip our young people with the skills that businesses require, but that will take years. "The Government has allowed the debate about Bulgarian and Romanian migration to become highly politicised when, in fact, giving London businesses access to a larger labour pool will help cement our economic recovery." The UK imposed the seven-year restrictions on Romania and Bulgaria after they joined the EU in 2007 - only allowing citizens a visa if they were self-employed, had a job offer, or were given a specialist role. Backbench Tory MP Nigel Mills's amendment to the Immigration Bill would extend transitional arrangements on the two countries joining the European Union's freedom of movement rules by a further four years to 2018. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith insists the reforms that have been pushed through will "not allow people to come to our country and take advantage". After six months on Jobseekers' Allowance of up to 71, only those who can provide compelling evidence that they have a genuine chance of finding work will be allowed to continue claiming the benefit. Claimants, including Britons returning from overseas, will also face a tougher "habitual residence" test to prove where they live, including face-to-face interviews, before they receive any JSA payments. Mr Duncan Smith said: "The British public are rightly concerned that migrants should contribute to this country, and not be drawn here by the attractiveness of our benefits system. "That is why, as part of the Government's long-term economic plan, we have taken action. New rules are now in place to ensure we have a fair system: one which provides support for genuine workers and jobseekers, but does not allow people to come to our country and take advantage. "I know that other countries across Europe share our concerns, so we'll continue to work with them to ensure we can protect the integrity of our benefits system." P olice hunting the Berlin Christmas market killer made a breakthrough today amid reports that they had found DNA and an identity document linked to the terrorist. Officers are said to be searching for a radicalised Tunisian man in his 20s after finding an ID document under the drivers seat of the truck which ploughed into a Christmas market killing 12 people and injuring 48 more. The man was named as Anis A who German media described as highly dangerous and a member of a large Islamic organisation. He was apparently previously arrested for GBH but not charged because he went underground. The man is also believed to use false names. Bild newspaper claimed he is an Islamist and part of a wider network, who was already on the radar of the authorities. A manhunt was underway for the man named as Anis A There were also reports that police have found DNA from the mass assassin inside the cab. One possibility is that the terrorist was badly injured in a fight with the Polish lorry driver Lukasz Urban as he hijacked the 20 tonne truck. Floral tributes made to victims of Berlin 'terror attack' German police were searching hospitals in Berlin today as a massive manhunt was launched across Europe for the armed attacker. The details emerged as it was also claimed that Mr Urban, 37 may have fought with the terrorist hijacker in the final seconds as the truck was driven into the Christmas market on Monday evening. Hijack victim: Polish lorry driver Lukasz Urban Investigators say there is evidence that father-of-one Lukasz, 37, was alive and fighting to wrest back control of the lorry as it was driven into the crowds. A post mortem is said to have found that he was shot either in the final moments before the carnage or when the lorry came to a stop, according to Bild. Mr Urbans badly bruised body was found in the cab. He is thought to have been shot and stabbed. Chaos: Twelve people died and a further 50 were injured in the attack / Markus Schreiber/AP He must have put up some fight, the newspaper quoted a police officer as saying. The details emerged as German police conducted a huge manhunt for the suspect behind the lorry attack. Berlin terror attack: Horror as lorry ploughs into crowds 1 /32 Berlin terror attack: Horror as lorry ploughs into crowds A tow truck operates at the scene where a truck ploughed through a crowd at a Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz square Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters A trail of devastation is left behind, the day after a truck ran into a crowded Christmas market Markus Schreiber/AP Debris at the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz square Markus Schreiber/AP Firefighters look at the debris after the trailer has been towed away from the crime scene in Berlin Markus Schreiber/AP The damaged towing truck is towed away Matthias Schrader/AP A tow truck operates at the scene where a truck ploughed through a crowd at a Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz square Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters A damaged windscreen of a truck which ploughed through a crowd at a Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz square Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters The smashed window of the cabin of a truck which ran into a crowded Christmas market Markus Schreiber/AP A tow truck operates at the scene where a truck ploughed through a crowd at a Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz square Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters Rescue workers gather outside a tent in the area after a lorry truck ploughed through a Christmas market Sean Gallup/Getty Images An aerial view shows the extent of the damage at the scene where a truck crashed into a Christmas market close to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church Bernd von Jutrczenka/EPA A candle and flowers are seen near the site where a truck ploughed through a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz square Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters Smash: The truck that crashed into a Christmas market, close to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in Berlin. Clemens Bilan/EPA Investigation: A German police officer looks into a truck at a Berlin Christmas market following an accident with the truck on Breitscheidplatz square Christian Mang/Reuters Horror crash: The damaged front part of a truck is pictured at the scene after it crashed into a Christmas market, Rainer Jensen/EPA Security: Policemen and rescue workers secure the site next to a truck at the scene, after it crashed into a Christmas market. Rainer Jensen/EPA Mayor: Berlin's Mayor Michael Mueller (left) speaks to the media at the scene where a truck crashed into a Christmas market, close to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in Berlin, Germany. Maurizio Gambarini/EPA Christmas: Parts of a Christmas market decoration stick in the windscreen of a truck following an accident. Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters Inspection: A specialist in a protective suit talks to police near a truck at a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany. Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters Wounded: An injured person is carried on an stretcher by fireman at the scene where a truck crashed into a Christmas market Clemens Bilan/EPA Christmas market: German police officers secure the site of an accident with a truck at a Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz square near the fashionable Kurfuerstendamm avenue Christian Mang/Reuters Forensic: Experts of the police investigate the crime scene after a truck ran into a crowded Christmas market and killed several people in Berlin, Germany. Michael Sohn/AP Survivors: A survivor of an accident with a Polish truck is rescued on a stretcher near a Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz square near the fashionable Kurfuerstendamm avenue Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters Injured: Rescue workers push a person on a stretcher in the area after a lorry truck ploughed through a Christmas market Sean Gallup/Getty Images A 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker Naved Baluch was arrested in the aftermath of the attack based on a description from witnesses of a suspect who jumped from the truck and fled. Hoewever, it emerged that a man who was said to be following the suspect lost him in a near-by park. Loading.... Today, one report suggested Mr Baluch was arrested when he jumped a red light. German police say the attacker may still be armed and at large. Within hours of the atrocity Islamic State claimed responsibility saying for the attack saying the perpetrator was a soldier of the Islamic State who carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition. Loading.... The attack has led to heightened security in the UK with Scotland Yard announcing plans to bring forward tighter protection measures for the Changing the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace with a number of new road closures. Police were also on duty in central London this morning carrying out checks on heavy goods lorries driving through the capital. Merkel 'shocked and deeply saddened' by Berlin market attack Today Berlin police said they had received 508 tips about Mondays attack at the market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the west of the city - but it was not clear whether prosecutors had any concrete leads. The man who leapt from the wrecked cab of the giant Skania lorry was said to have been masked and there are no apparent descriptions of him. Andre Schulz, chairman of the Federal Association of German Criminal Detectives, said last night : Im fairly confident that we can present a new suspect maybe tomorrow or in the near future, adding that his colleagues had assembled good evidence and that there were very many starting points. A key part of the investigation is focusing on the GPS and data recorder in the truck which showed attempts to start the truck in the hours behore the attack. Tributes left at the scene of the atrocity / John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images Police believe it possible that the mass assassin may have been trained as an HGV operator because it would, in the words of one investigator, been very hard for someone who didnt know what they were doing to drive an articulated truck through the streets of Berlin. Lukasz had parked his truck laden with 20 tonnes of steel in Moabit on Monday night ready to deliver it to a Thyssen-Krupp factory on Tuesday. His wife last spoke to him at 3pm when he complained about having to wait to get unloaded. In the hours afterwards the lorrys e;ectronioc systems showed there were attempts to start the engine followed bya number of erratic movements. The GPS showed the engine appeared to be choking as it was driven prompting the company to try and contact the driver, without success. Further details emerged about the victims of the attack today with a Italian woman thoguht to be among the 12 dead. Feared dead: Italian Fabrizia Lorenzo Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, 31, has not been heard from since the atrocity, and it is understood her phone and metro pass were found at the scene. She is believed to have been living in the German capital and her family have reportedly flown there in the wake of the attack. The wife of an Israeli man has also been declared missing, according to The Times of Israel which said he had been seriously injured. A Londoner told how he and his girlfriend had a miraculous escape in the Berlin Christmas market massacre. Matthew Shepherd, originally from Wembley, north London, and his girlfriend Lauren Emsden were hit by the truck driven by the mass killer. He said on Facebook shortly after 9pm on Monday: Hate posting something like this but just want to let everyone know that me and Lauren Emsden were hit by the truck in Berlin tonight. So lucky to say we are in one piece and are just being treated for shock and bruises. Thoughts and prayers out to everyone else who has been affected. The couple are believed to have been treated in hospital and are now thought to be back in the UK after the attack in which 12 people died. The truck which was hijacked and driven into the market / Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters Ms Emsden is a veterinary student at the Royal Veterinary College in London. The couple are listed on Facebook that they have been in a relationship since 2014. Mr Shepherd is believed to now live in Meldreth, south Cambridgeshire, but to come from Wembley. Lorry used in Berlin Christmas market 'terror attack' towed away Gary Emsden, believed to be a family member, wrote on his Facebook page: Lauren and Matt had a very close call. somebody is looking out for them. thank you! Matthew Shepherd states on his Twitter account he is an economics graduate working in marketing. 12 people were killed in the attack / Markus Schreiber/AP A Foreign office spokesman said: We are in close contact with the German authorities following a suspected terrorist attack in Berlin earlier this week. Earlier today, German officials informed us that two British nationals had received medical attention for shock and minor injuries and were discharged a short time later. We stand ready to provide assistance to any more British Nationals caught up in the attack. We continue to advise any British Nationals in the area to remain vigilant and follow the advice of local authorities. Floral tributes made to victims of Berlin 'terror attack' Officials at the Foreign Office are understood to have spoken to both Mr Shepherd and Ms Emsdens families to offer support. It comes as police were searching for the Christmas market killer after finding DNA and an identity document. Officers are said to be hunting a radicalised Tunisian man in his 20s. Pictured: the man wanted over the Berlin terror attack He was named as Anis A and described as highly dangerous and a member of a large Islamic organisation. He was apparently previously arrested for GBH but not charged because he went underground. The man is also believed to use false names. The German newspaper Bild claimed he is an Islamist and part of a wider network, who was already on the radar of the authorities. Within hours of the atrocity Islamic State claimed responsibility. They said the perpetrator was a soldier of the Islamic State who carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition. C rowds of people gathered for an emotional candlelit vigil in Berlin to remember the victims of Monday nights horrific lorry massacre at a Christmas market. Many hugged and wept as the vigil took place by a large Christmas tree at Brandenburg Gate, close to the Christmas market where the deadly attack happened. Tributes of candles, messages and flower were left next to the tree while those attending the service brought candles and lanterns. Berlin writer Anne Wizorek gave a speech and John Lennons song Imagine was played as dozens stood together near the famous landmark. 'I am a Berliner': A refugee choir and the 'Everybody Can Sing Chor' of Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church sing together. / EPA "We need radical solidarity," Ms Wizorek told the crowd. "We have to stand together and not be torn apart. "We cannot let the hate and the fear have a platform. In memorial: A Hertha BSC football club wreath laid at the site of the attack at the Christmas market. / EPA "You will not receive our hatred - not in Berlin and not anywhere else in Germany." A minutes silence was held at the same time as other memorial silences in Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt. Mondays attack killed 12 people and injured 48 others after a lorry ploughed into innocent bystanders at a Christmas market. Police arrested one man but later released him due to insufficient evidence. Loading.... Terror suspect Anis Amri, who was already reportedly arrested three times by police this year, is now being hunted by German authorities. German authorities are now offering a reward of up to 100,000 euros (84,000) for the arrest of the Tunisian terror suspect. Federal prosecutors describe 24-year-old Anis Amri as of average height and weight, with black hair and brown eyes. D onald Trump has branded a truck massacre on a Christmas market in Germany "an attack on humanity. The US president-elect spoke to reporters briefly before a meeting with retired General Michael Flynn, his incoming White House national security adviser. Asked whether the attack was prompting him to re-evaluate his call during the campaign for temporarily banning Muslim immigration into the United States, Mr Trump said: "I've been proven to be right." Twelve people were killed and 48 injured when a truck ploughed into a popular Berlin market on Monday evening in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. German officials have launched a Europe-wide manhunt for a "violent and armed" Tunisian man Anis Amri suspected to have carried out the attack. Loading.... Mr Trump is spending the final days of 2016 at his palatial private estate in South Florida, meeting advisers and completing plans for his cabinet and White House staff. While Mr Trump has assembled his Cabinet at a quick pace, the process to fill out top White House jobs has been slowed by resistance among some advisers. Some of Mr Trump's earliest advisers have expressed concern to the president-elect himself that they are getting boxed out in favour of those more closely aligned with incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus, who has chaired the Republican National Committee. S tamping their feet to fend off the bone-chilling cold of a December night in the Turkish capital, the gaggle of police, journalists and passers-by gathered outside the citys Modern Arts Centre exchanged looks of disbelief. Normally home to travelling film festivals and offbeat exhibitions, on Monday the centre was transformed into a real-life Tarantino set as a black-suited assassin shouting Dont forget Aleppo killed the Russian ambassador with a flurry of shots to the back. As the sirens blared and the TV cameras rolled into action, Turks were left asking themselves what on earth could possibly happen next. We all know that the this year will go down in history as one that shook the established order to its core. But even by 2016 standards, Turkey has had an extraordinary 12 months. A guard stands watch outside Ankara's Modern Arts Centre where the killing took place / AP War raged not only over the long border with Syria but also in the cities of Turkeys Kurdish-majority south east. Deadly bombings struck the country at a rate of roughly one a month. Then, on July 15, tanks rolled out onto the streets and MPs huddled in underground bunkers as bombs fell on the nations parliament in a violent coup attempt that traumatised the nation. Turks will be asking each other where they were on that night for decades to come. Guards carry the coffin of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov / AP President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a rabble-rouser elected before most had even heard of Nigel Farage or Donald Trump, has few fans in the west. But the feeling goes both ways. The Turkish press, encouraged by politicians, is riddled with conspiracies blaming the United States and Europe for the recent tumult. Many ordinary people believe them. The assassination of Andrei Karlov is no different. Turkey was quick to blame the killing on the secretive Islamic movement accused of orchestrating Julys coup attempt, whose leader lives in exile in Pennsylvania. Headlines the next day duly suggested a CIA role. Rather than damaging relations between Turkey and Russia, it looks like the killing may draw them into a closer embrace. Instead, it is the nations already creaking ties with the west that face yet more strain. A t least 31 people have been killed in an explosion at a fireworks market in Mexico, according to officials. More than 70 other people, including many children, were injured and burned in the blast at the San Pablito market near the capital Mexico City. Many fireworks caught fire and rocketed into the air as huge plumes of thick black smoke billowed from destroyed stalls and buildings. Dozens of paramedics and police raced to the scene and locals were told to avoid the area and keep the roads clear. Aftermath: A view from a drone of smoke billowing from the market after the explosion / AP Photos from after the explosion show emergency services scouring the scorched remains of the market. Local resident Alejandra Pretel told the AFP news agency: "The sound of blasts started to go off and we thought it was a nearby fireworks workshop. Disaster: Emergency services survey the remains of the market / EPA "My neighbours said they felt everything shake, but I didn't realise because I was running away." The Mexican president, Enrique Pena Nieto, offered condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and wish a speedy recovery to the injured. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fire. The same market was hit by smaller fires in 2005 which injured dozens of people. F inding the perfect fragrance for the first man in your life needn't be a hassle. With not long to go until Father's Day (Sunday, June 18), we've compiled an edit of the top aftershaves and colognes to match every style and personality. They won't look bad on the bathroom shelf either. 1. Hugo Boss BOSS Bottled Intense Warm and masculine, Boss Bottled Intense is a full-bodied fragrance for classically stylish men who like to leave a lasting impression. Exotic cinnamon and clove mingle with orange blossom and smooth vanilla. Charged with spice and wood, its less sweet than Boss The Scent making it more suitable for the winter season. 42.88, Boots, Buy it now 2. Acqua di Parma Colonia Eau de Cologne Spray Ideal for well-groomed gentlemen, this sophisticated scent will linger for hours on end. Its notes of grapefruit and blood mandarin are harmonised with cinnamon, fresh spice and Indian Patchouli. Its seductive yet doesnt overpower, which makes it perfect for the warm summer months. From 66, John Lewis, Buy it now 3. Dior Homme Intense Eau de Parfum Christian Diors Intense, the third fragrance in the Homme series, provides the perfect finishing touch to smart outfits. Bold and aromatic, the scent is made up of floral and musky accents such as hibiscus seed, Virginia cedar and vetiver. A little goes a long way. From 48.45, John Lewis, Buy it now 4. Tom Ford for Men Eau De Toilette The first mens fragrance from Tom Ford is a bright, musky affair that will work wonders for any man. It opens with hints of grapefruit flower, which lead to a leathery mix of tobacco leaves, ginger and amber. Its also the first scent to include the rare Indian root, Cypriol. From 45.90, John Lewis, Buy it now 5. Penhaligons Juniper Sling Eau De Toilette Described as a tribute to the Bright Young Things of the roaring twenties, the bracing Juniper Sling combines notes of gin, brandy, spice and soft leather. In addition to its luxurious smell, it comes in a charming bottle that hell want to keep on show. 98, Penhaligons, Buy it now 6. Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue Pour Homme Eau de Toilette A winner of multiple fragrance-industry awards, this woody-spicy fragrance is a follow-up to the original Light Blue for women. It takes inspiration from the heat of the Mediterranean with notes of refreshing juniper, mandarin, pepper and rosewood. Easy to wear in any situation. 49, Boots, Buy it now 7. Paco Rabanne Invictus Eau De Toilette Paco Robannes fragrance portfolio boasts a number of bestsellers for men, and Invictus is a leader of the pack. Housed in a trophy-shaped bottle, it combines notes of grapefruit with oakmoss and patchouli and has great staying power. As its not as vibrant at the popular 1 Million, this sporty scent is more suited to daytime wear. From 39.49, John Lewis, Buy it now Follow us on Twitter @ESLifeandStyle and on Facebook K anye West has reportedly cancelled the entire European leg of his Saint Pablo tour following his hospitalisation. The US rapper, who pulled out of his remaining North America dates back in November, is thought to have scrapped the rest of the tour in its entirety. According to TMZ, West will not perform dates in the UK, France and Germany which he had planned to announce at the beginning of the year. No dates had been set or tickets sold, but the star was expected to bring his sell-out tour to Europe after the US run had come to an end. Kanye West meets with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower West announced that he would be cancelling the remainder of his US tour dates last month, leaving fans disappointed. The award-winning musician was later rushed to hospital after reportedly displaying erratic behaviour at the home of his personal trainer following an on-stage meltdown in Sacramento. Police and paramedics were called to the scene and West was then taken to hospital, reportedly off his own accord. Kanye West 1 /45 Kanye West Date night Kanye West with his wife Kim Kardashian at the "Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology" Costume Institute Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2016 in New York Getty Images Stage presence Kanye West performs at the Forum on October 25, 2016 in Inglewood, California Getty Images Idol Kanye West performs onstage at the 2015 iHeartRadio Music Festival at MGM Grand Garden Arena on September 18, 2015 in Las Vegas Getty Images North America Crowd pleaser Kanye West performs onstage during DirecTV Super Saturday Night hosted by Mark Cuban's AXS TV and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan at Pendergast Family Farm on January 31, 2015 in Glendale, Arizona Getty Images for DirecTV Icons Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West attend Harper's Bazaar's celebration of "ICONS By Carine Roitfeld" presented by Infor, Laura Mercier, and Stella Artois at The Plaza Hotel on September 9, 2016 in New York City Getty Images North America Family affair The rapper is all smiles as he introduces his daughter North to Nicki Minaj Getty Images Model man Kim Kardashian takes a look at the mannequins for Kanye West's Famous music video Getty Images North America Down time Kanye West takes a break from touring to join Kim Kardashian to watch the Los Angeles Lakers play the Denver Nuggets during Game 7 of their NBA Western Conference basketball playoff series in Los Angeles, California REUTERS Travelling the world Kanye West performs during the 10th edition of the Mawazine international music festival "World Rythms" in Rabat, Morocco AFP/Getty Images Baby on board Kim Kardashian shows off her baby bump at Kanye West's Yeezy Season 2 during New York Fashion Week at Skylight Modern in New York Getty Images North America Award winner Kanye West poses with the three Grammy awards he won at the 47th annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles February 13, 2005 REUTERS Stage invasion Kanye West jumps onstage after Taylor Swift won the "Best Female Video" award during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall on September 13, 2009 in New York City Getty Images Headline act Kanye West performs onstage during day 1 of the 2016 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival Weekend 1 at the Empire Polo Club on April 15, 2016 in Indio, California Getty Images North America Fashion career Models on the runway at the adidas Originals x Kanye West YEEZY SEASON 1 fashion show during New York Fashion Week Fall 2015 at Skylight Clarkson Sq on February 12, 2015 in New York City Getty Images for adidas Fashion forward Models wear fashion from the Yeezy collection at a presentation and album release for Kanye West's latest album, "The Life of Pablo," Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016 at Madison Square Garden in New York AP Kiss me quick Kim Kardashian gives her husband a kiss at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards at Microsoft Theater on August 30, 2015 in Los Angeles, California Getty Images Fashionable pair Kanye West and Kim Kardashian attend CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Show and Tea at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, California Getty Images North America Glastonbury headliner Kanye West was a controversial addition to the Glastonbury line-up AFP/Getty Images Red carpet ready The Hollywood couple on the red carpet for the "Charles James: Beyond Fashion" Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2014 in New York City Getty Images Unimpressed Amy Schumer pretends to trip and fall on the floor in front of honorees Kim Kardashian and Kanye West (L) as they attend the Time 100 Gala at The World at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 21, 2015 in New York AFP/Getty Images Stepping out Kanye West leaves his apartment in New York on October 4, 2016 AFP/Getty Images Royal appointment Britain's Princes William and Harry are seen with rappers Kanye West and P Diddy at the reception following the Concert for Diana, at Wembley Stadium in London in 2007 PA Musical collaboration Kanye West performing on stage with Paul McCartney and Rihanna during The 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards at the STAPLES Center on February 8, 2015 in Los Angeles, California Getty Images for NARAS Musical duo Kanye West and Jay-Z accept the award for best group at the 2012 BET Awards in Los Angeles, July 1, 2012 REUTERS Wedding bells Kanye West and Kim Kardashian leave their residence in Paris on May 23, 2014, ahead of their wedding. AFP/Getty Images On the FROW Kanye West joins Dan Gillespie, Ellie Goulding, Sienna Miller, Gemma Arterton, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Mario Testino, Andy Murray and Kim Sears attends at the Burberry Spring Summer 2012 Womenswear Show at Kensington Gardens on September 19, 2011 in London, England Getty Images Say cheese Kim Kardashian and Kanye West attend the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets Game 7 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals in the 2012 NBA Playoffs on May 12, 2012 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California Getty Images Best friends John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West attend John Legend Celebrates His Birthday And The 10th Anniversary Of His Debut Album "Get Lifted" at CATCH NYC on January 8, 2015 in New York City Getty Images North America Band major Kanye West, dressed in a band major uniform, performs 'Gold Digger' at the 48th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles February 8, 2006 REUTERS Old flame Kanye West and Amber Rose arrive at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday Sept. 13, 2009 in New York KRAPE Back in the day Kelly Osbourne and Kanye West attend the Jeremy Scott Spring 2011 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Milk Studios on September 15, 2010 in New York City Getty Images Bringing home the goods Kanye West poses with his Best Rap Song, Best Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Album awards in the press room at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center on February 8, 2006 in Los Angeles, California Getty Images Throwback Kanye West posing ahead of his performance at the Apollo academy Kanye West arrives at the G.O.O.D Music "Heavenly" Grammy After Party held at The Lot Studios with a sign on February 8, 2006 in Los Angeles, California Getty Images West remained at the UCLA Medical Centre for nearly two weeks, having been diagnosed with exhaustion and sleep deprivation. One of his first public appearances after being released was to meet with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Towers. After the meeting, he tweeted: I wanted to meet with Trump today to discuss multicultural issues These issues included bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculums, and violence in Chicago I feel it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future President if we truly want change He also suggested that he would be running for President himself, simply tweeting #2024. T he extent of the pressures on front-line NHS staff will be revealed after documentary makers won permission to film behind the scenes at one of Londons biggest hospital trusts. A six-part series, Hospital, starts on January 11 on BBC2 and will show how staff at Imperial College Healthcare cope with demands from a growing number of patients. It will show a range of services at Imperials five hospitals Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Western Eye, St Marys and Queen Charlottes and Chelsea. Michelle Dixon, Imperials director of communications, said: Its not an easy decision to allow camera crews in to follow all aspects of daily life in our hospitals. But we think its really important to share the opportunities and challenges, the highs and the lows, with our patients and local communities. Its their service as much as ours and the only way we can ensure we maintain and build on the very best of the NHS is by working together. She said the trust was extremely grateful to staff and patients for sharing their experiences. The series is produced by Label1, part of ITV Studios Shiver production company. Christmas TV Highlights 2016 - in pictures 1 /12 Christmas TV Highlights 2016 - in pictures The Great British Bake Off Paul Hollywood, Sue Perkins, Mary Berry and Mel Giedroyc on The Great Christmas Bake Off, featuring a selection of bakers from previous series, which will be the final show on the BBC before it moves to Channel 4 BBC Doctor Who Charity Wakefield as Lucy, Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who and Matt Lucas as Nardole in the Doctor Who Christmas special, The Return Of Doctor Mysterio BBC Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes the Magic Fairy (voiced by Dominic West) and Cindy (voiced by Bel Rowley) in an adaptation of Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes, taking on the classic fairytales of Cinderella, Jack And The Beanstalk, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs and "serving them with a mischievous twist" BBC Maigret Rowan Atkinson as Maigret on ITV over the festive season Colin Hutton/ITV Grantchester James Norton as Sidney Chambers and Robson Green as Geordie Keating in Grantchester Christmas Special ITV Mrs Brown's Boys Brendan O'Carroll as Mrs Brown in the Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas and New Year Special 2016 BBC Ethel and Ernest Ethel And Ernest, an adaption of a graphic novel by Raymond Briggs, as the BBC has unveiled its Christmas highlights BBC Outnumbered The cast of Outnumbered is all grown up in their 2016 Christmas Special Colin Hutton/Hat Trick/BBC The Last Tango in Halifax Nicola Walker as Gillian, Anne Reid as Celia, Derek Jacobi as Alan and Sarah Lancashire as Caroline in the Last Tango in Halifax Christmas Special BBC Follow @RossLydall and @StandardEnts for more news. News, analysis, and archives on the grassroots in Haiti. Nouvel, analiz, ak achiv sou baz yo an AYITI. Noticias, analisis y archivos sobre el pueblo de Haiti. Did you know that millennials dont use fabric softener? I didnt until Tuesday morning as I sat down to watch the news. According Proctor & Gamble, millenials dont use fabric softener. Thats the explanation given in an investor meeting to explain a 26 percent dip in sales of Downy Fabric Softener between 2007 and 2015. Shailesh Jejurikar, P&Gs President of Global Fabric Care, said millennials simply dont know what the product is for or think it is for a specific load. Huh? Downy is planning an education campaign to teach millenials how to do laundry and the benefits of fabric softener, according to CBS News. Ill admit - I have my doubts that millenials are to blame for decline of sales of fabric softener. I would guess that other things may be responsible. For example, you can go onto any natural blog and youll hear about using vinegar as an alternative. How about the growing use of HE washers? You dont need as much fabric softener for those machines and many will recommend you dont use it at all. How about those of us who favor dryer sheets? However, Jones did get one thing right: Millennials different than previous generations, didnt grow up spending lots of time doing household chores or possibly didnt see the product used at home with the frequency which prior generations experienced. Maybe he is right that millenials at least contribute to the decline in fabric softener. According to a March 2015 story in the Washington Street Journal - and post that has been circulating Facebook lately - only 28 percent of parents reported that they require their children to do chores. In the survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, 82 percent reported having regular chores when they were kids. What lucky kids, I initially thought. I had chores as a kid Laundry, cleaning, washing dishes and others. A former co-worker admitted once that he did not know how to do laundry, although he was older than 30. His mother or wife had done laundry and he had never learned. I found it surprising ... but maybe he is the norm these days? It would seem so after a college student told me that she was among the only students in her dorm who knew how to do laundry. When she had a friend ask her to show her how to do laundry, it practically turned into a class for the whole dorm. However, according to studies, giving children chores helps them to build skills, responsibility and self-reliance. We know that, right? A University of Minnesota study also says that children who have chores are more likely to have good relationships with family, be self-sufficient and achieve academic and early career success. If thats not enough, a Harvard Study published in 2014, also says that chores teach children how to be empathetic and responsive. Your kids might grumble about doing chores now, but tell them theyll thank you later - when their lives are better and their laundry is also softer. This page is archived. Data published after 5 April 2022 can be found on the renewed website. Go to the new statistics page Published: 21 December 2016 Uusimaa managed to hold sway in 2015 According to Statistics Finland, 360,000 enterprises operated in Finland in 2015. The enterprises had a total of 392,000 establishments. Measured with the concept full-year employment, the establishments employed 1.4 million persons. Nearly one-third of establishments and nearly one-half of turnover in the whole country are concentrated in Uusimaa. Uusimaa's share (%) of entrepreneurial activity in the whole country in 2015 Gross value of output grew in construction and in information and communication The production of establishments can be measured with the gross value of output. Besides turnover, the gross value of output includes all production output, such as production for own use and production for the enterprises other establishments. Additionally, the purchases of goods for resale are deducted from the profits of operating activities, so that operating activities only include the margin created by sales of goods for resale. Formation of the gross value of output in manufacturing and trade in 2015 EUR million Manufacturing Trade Turnover 120 144 117 563 Deliveries to other establishments within the enterprise 5 482 2 706 Production for own use 75 10 Other operating income 2 808 1 789 Change in inventories of commodities 306 30 Acquisition of merchandise -24 373 -88 376 Gross value of output 104 443 33 722 The combined gross value of output of establishments was EUR 275 billion in 2015. Of the regions around the largest cities, Uusimaa, Varsinais-Suomi and Satakunta produced slightly over one-half of the total. Output grew by EUR 1.3 billion from the previous year. Uusimaa contributed to the growth. Although output in manufacturing fell, output in Uusimaa continued growing on account of the growth figures of construction and information and communication. Output in construction also grew in other regions, such as North Ostrobothnia, Varsinais-Suomi, Paijat-Hame, Pirkanmaa, Satakunta, Kymenlaakso and Lapland. Information and communication also grew in nearly all regions. After excluding production costs 1) from the gross value of output, the value added of establishments totalled EUR 98 billion. Value added increased by EUR four billion from the previous year. The growth was influenced by considerably lower production costs than in the previous year. Value added in Uusimaa grew by EUR 2.8 billion, or 70 per cent of the value added growth in the whole country. Development of key variables in the whole country and Uusimaa in 2014 to 2015 Whole Country Change % Uusimaa Change % Establishments 391 512 -1 110 058 0 Number of personnel 1 422 013 -1 520 939 0 Turnover, EUR billion 380 -1 179 -3 Gross value of output, EUR billion 275 0 114 1 Value added of output, EUR billion 98 4 41 7 Value added of output per person, EUR thousand 69 5 79 7 1) excl. personnel costs Source: Regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity 2015, Statistics Finland Inquiries: Merja Kiljunen 029 551 3284, rakenne.tilastot@stat.fi Director in charge: Mari Yla-Jarkko Publication in pdf-format (227.2 kB) Updated 21.12.2016 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity [e-publication]. ISSN=2342-6268. 2015. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 3.11.2022]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/alyr/2015/alyr_2015_2016-12-21_tie_001_en.html This page is archived. Data published after 5 April 2022 can be found on the renewed website. Go to the new statistics page Published: 21 December 2016 Total energy consumption went up by 3 per cent in January to September According to Statistics Finland's preliminary data, total energy consumption in January to September amounted to 985 petajoule, which was three per cent more than in the corresponding period in 2015. Electricity consumption amounted to 62 terawatt hours (TWh), which is three per cent more than one year earlier. Carbon dioxide emissions of the energy sector similarly rose by three per cent year-on-year. Colder weather than last year contributed to the rise in total energy consumption. Total energy consumption *preliminary Among fuels, the consumption of wood fuels increased most in January to September, by eight per cent. The consumption of coal grew by five per cent and that of oil by three per cent. Substantial falls were recorded for natural gas, whose consumption went down by 12 per cent and for peat, which was consumed ten per cent less than one year ago. Net imports of electricity grew in January to September by 15 per cent compared with the corresponding period last year, being higher than ever before. The share of net imports in total electricity consumption stood at 23 per cent. The use of wind power grew by 27 per cent. Hydro power and nuclear energy were used for electricity production nearly as much as one year ago. In January to September, diverse energy products were imported into Finland to the value of EUR 5.0 billion, which was 15 per cent less than one year earlier. Imports came mostly from Russia, whose share of the value of imports was 64 per cent. Energy products were exported to the value of EUR 2.8 billion, which was one per cent more than one year previously. Exports went most to OECD countries, which accounted for 78 per cent of the value of exports. The fallen world market price of oil contributed to the reduction in the value of imports of energy products. Stocks of coal amounted to 18 TWh at the end of September, which was 28 per cent less than one year earlier. At the end of September, it was estimated that the peat stocks contained 18 TWh of energy peat, or one per cent less than one year earlier. Total energy consumption by source (TJ) and CO2 emissions (Mt) Energy source I-III/2016* Annual change-%* Percentage share of total energy consumption* Oil 1) 1) 235,554 3 24 Coal 2) 76,788 5 8 Natural gas 3) 53,114 -12 5 Nuclear Energy 4) 178,776 1 18 Net Imports of Electricity 5) 50,835 15 5 Hydro power 5) 45,100 0 5 Wind power 5) 6,810 27 1 Peat 36,600 -10 4 Wood fuels 264,297 8 27 Others 6) 37,452 -1 4 TOTAL ENERGY CONSUMPTION 985,324 3 100 Bunkers 28,109 -5 . CO2 emissions from energy sector 30 3 . * = Preliminary data. = Category not applicable1) Oil: includes the bio part of transport fuels.2) Coal: includes hard coal, coke, blast furnace gas and coke oven gas.3) The consumption of natural gas does not include raw material use.4) Conversion of electricity generation into fuel units: Nuclear power: 10.91 TJ/GWh (33% total efficiency)5) Conversion of electricity generation into fuel units: Hydro power, wind power and net imports of electricity: 3.6 TJ/GWh (100%)6) Others: includes exothermic heat from industry, recovered fuels and heat pumps. Source: Statistics Finland, Energy supply and consumption Inquiries: Ville Maljanen 029 551 2691, energia@stat.fi Director in charge: Ville Vertanen Publication in pdf-format (256.5 kB) Updated 21.12.2016 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Energy supply and consumption [e-publication]. ISSN=1799-7976. 3rd quarter 2016. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 3.11.2022]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ehk/2016/03/ehk_2016_03_2016-12-21_tie_001_en.html MISSOULA Gov. Steve Bullock and First Lady Lisa Bullock have announced $29,905 in private grants for the Breakfast after the Bell initiative at nine schools. They include schools in Lolo, Florence, Dixon, Drummond, Winifred, Helena, Lodge Grass, Gallatin Gateway and Great Falls. Schools can use the funding to start new breakfast programs or convert existing programs to alternative models to increase student participation, such as "grab-and-go" which is done at Kessler Elementary School in Helena or breakfast in the classroom. The money can be used to buy delivery carts, insulated food storage bags, breakfast service kiosks and point-of-sale systems, or to offset the costs of additional labor hours required during the transition to an alternative breakfast model. Building a stronger, healthier future for all Montanans begins with making sure our children have all the resources they need to succeed, the governor said in a news release Monday. Kids cant learn, grow, and be successful if theyre starting their school days with an empty stomach. By partnering with more schools, community organizations, and businesses across the state, we can better prepare the next generation of Montanans to succeed down the road. Montana schools saw a 16 percent participation rate in breakfast as part of the Child Nutrition School Program in 2015, according to the Office of Public Instruction. That's compared to 43 percent lunch participation. Weve seen much higher participation in school breakfast when schools provide an alternative breakfast model, Lisa Bullock said in a news release. Serving breakfast in the classroom or offering a grab-and-go option helps students avoid feeling singled out, and its a convenient way to make sure they have the energy they need to focus on learning. Research has shown that alternate breakfast models such as grab-and-go increase participation. Grants are offered by Montana No Kid Hungry, and were made possible through support from the Walmart Foundation, Share our Strength, the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, and Round It Up Montana. In February, Montana No Kid Hungry and the Bullocks will offer another grant cycle for schools. More than $230,000 has been awarded to 66 Montana schools since fall 2014. This page is archived. Data published after 5 April 2022 can be found on the renewed website. Go to the new statistics page Published: 21 December 2016 General government debt grew by EUR 0.9 billion in the third quarter of 2016 General government EDP debt, or consolidated debt at nominal prices, grew by EUR 0.9 billion in the third quarter of 2016 and stood at EUR 131.2 billion at the end of the quarter. These data derive from Statistics Finland's statistics on general government debt by quarter. General government debt by quarter During the third quarter of 2016, central government debt increased by EUR 0.6 billion, and stood at EUR 112.4 billion at the end of the quarter. Central government debt grew in the third quarter mainly because the stock of bonds issued by central government increased by EUR 3.0 billion. The stock of short-term debt securities diminished in total by EUR 2.4 billion. Local government debt remained almost on level with the previous quarter, standing at EUR 17.8 billion at the end of March. The debt of social security funds grew by EUR 0.1 billion during the quarter. General government EDP debt describes general governments debt to other sectors of the national economy and to the rest of the world, and its development is influenced by changes in unconsolidated debt and internal general government debts. Consolidated general government gross debt is derived by deducting debts between units recorded under general government from unconsolidated gross debt. For this reason, general government debt is smaller than the combined debts of its subsectors. The EDP debt of general government differs conceptionally to some extent in the case of central government, from the central government debt published by the State Treasury. Central government's EDP debt includes loans granted to beneficiary counties by the European Financial Stability Facility EFSF, received cash collateral related to derivative contracts, the capital of the Nuclear Waste Management Fund, debts generated from investments in central government's PPP (public-private partnership) projects, coins that are in circulation, and the deposits of the European Commission. In National Accounts, central government is also a broader concept than budget and financial economy (http://www.stat.fi/meta/luokitukset/_linkki/julkisyhteisot.html). The valuation principle for both debt concepts is the nominal value, where the effect of interest-rate and currency swaps is taken into account. Source: General government debt by quarter, Statistics Finland Inquiries: Timo Ristimaki 029 551 2324, Henna Laasonen 029 551 3303, rahoitus.tilinpito@stat.fi Director in charge: Ville Vertanen Publication in pdf-format (209.0 kB) Updated 21.12.2016 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): General government debt by quarter [e-publication]. ISSN=1799-8034. 3rd quarter 2016. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 3.11.2022]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/jyev/2016/03/jyev_2016_03_2016-12-21_tie_001_en.html Countries & Areas Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe Dianne Cowell Dianne Sophie Cowell (81) passed away in Soldotna, Alaska, on August 3, 2022 following complications with late stage kidney disease; her final moments were spent being comforted by her three... Patrick Collins Patrick Timothy Tim Collins, 71, of Petoskey, passed away Friday, October 14, 2022. He was born February 21, 1951, in Petoskey to Norman Jack and Vivian Ann (nee March) Collins.... Carolyn Hank Carolyn Ann Hank, 85, of Sault Ste. Marie and Cedarville, passed away after a long battle with dementia and lung disease. She was surrounded by family and her final moments... Henry Smith Henry Emerson Smith of Thornton, Colorado, passed away Monday, October 24, 2022, at Centura St. Anthonys North Hospital. He was 68. Mr. Smith was born March 21, 1954, in Sault... Roger Milkey Roger John Milkey, 80, of Kincheloe, died at McLaren Northern Michigan in Petoskey October 22, 2022. He was born June 6, 1942, in Saline to Emil and Wanda (nee Bame)... The co-Chair of the Alliance of Democrats and Liberals (ALDE), Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, was elected on Wednesday the Speaker of the Senate with 87 votes 'in favour' and 40 'against'. From the total of 136 Senators, 129 have voted (two votes were null). The vote was conducted by secret ballot. Calin Popescu-Tariceanu was supported for this position by the Social Democratic Party (PSD), ALDE, and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR). Agerpres The mission of the new Parliament is to make order in the national legislation and to restore the reputation of the institution, declared on Wednesday in the plenary session, the Deputies' Chamber Speaker, Liviu Dragnea. "The Romanian Parliament is an institution across which these past years have laid a questionable reputation. Maybe undeserving, some say, but at the same time, it is a fact. It is our mission to restore the reputation of the Parliament and the only way we can do that is by cooperating, by working with civic and national responsibility. I believe the second essential mission of the Parliament is to make order in Romanian legislation. Far too many laws have been adopted during the years, laws that contradict each other, that are inadequate, that confuse society and the relations between institutions," Dragnea maintained. He added that he would initiate a parliamentary project through which, together with other competent institutions, but most importantly with the Government, the Parliament would restore order in legislation and clarify the relations among institutions. "This order is one of the fundamental conditions of law enforcement in Romania. I am convinced that together we can accomplish a true reform of constitutional legislation, we no longer have the right to miss this project. It is up to us to restore the constitutional power of Parliament and I want us to start together this project. The control activities the Parliament is entitled to exercise mustn't be feigned anymore. At the same time I would like to convey a very strong message - the Parliament is where the law is born but also the place were the abuse in its application is stopped. The year 2017 and the years that follow are not easy, we have all engaged in this electoral campaign in order to produce sustained economic growth and to bring welfare to Romanians. It is our duty to deliver laws that are both good and clear, to help Romanians believe in Romania," emphasized the Deputies' Chamber Speaker. Dragnea also declared that new parties have entered Parliament, showing that this is a good thing for democracy, context in which he urged parliamentarians to leave aside conflicts and fight for bigger projects. "It is essential that the Opposition parties express their points of view loud and clear. (...) The fact that we are here today shows that people have had confidence in us, that they have put their hopes in us, have given us the chance to do something that hasn't been done and to straighten whatever has been crooked. I would like to urge you all that starting with today we try not only to be colleagues, but also partners, a team that pulls in the direction of the public welfare. We shouldn't all become a big, sole party, on the contrary, it is necessary that every party make its voice heard and fight for the ideas they believe in. What I ask of you is to look together at big projects, to leave aside petty interests when the country's interest is at stake. I invite you all to cooperate with national lucidity for greater causes and to keep political fights for the lesser ones," PSD leader also showed. Agerpres The Save Romania Union (USR) will not vote in office Liviu Dragnea's nominee for PM, "which is a poor and inefficient choice," said USR deputy and former Minister of European Funds Cristian Ghinea. "A disappointing proposal. A puppet Dragnea left behind at the Ministry of Development where he was actually the one who was pulling the levers including this year, and we sensed this inside the government. If she lands this position, Shhaideh will lead a dysfunctional government because we cannot have two power structures: a government and a party that monitors the government. So practically Liviu Dragnea is placing a puppet here to smoothen his way to taking over as PM," Ghinea said at the Palace of Parliament. He added that the USR delegation will let President Iohannis know all these objections when they go to the Cotroceni Palace for consultations. Asked what exactly the issue was with Mrs. Shhaideh, Ghinea said that "word came out that Mr. Dragnea had left his cronies at the Ministry of Development and that they were blocking various initiatives." "I cannot precisely put my finger on anything specifically, but when you feel that something bothers you, you look around to see who put grit in the engine, so to speak, and it was this lady," he argued. Sevil Shhaideh is the Social Democrats' proposal for Prime Minister, party Chairman Liviu Dragnea announced on Wednesday, adding that "for the time being" he cannot claim the office himself. agerpres. At the Helena School Board meeting on December 13, we heard an excellent presentation done by the Montana Preservation Alliance. They gave us information showing that Central School could be renovated and expanded to provide an exceptional learning environment for our students! With data from architects and engineers, they showed that this could be accomplished with less expense than a new school and that it could be completed in a shorter time frame. This would allow Central students to return to their neighborhood school sooner. Choosing this option for Central would do many things. It would provide a modern and updated educational facility of the quality that all of our students deserve. It would help to heal the disruption these students, their families and the school staff have suffered over the last 4 years. It would retain the historic value and aesthetics of Central School and the 7th Avenue Gym. This adds to the core of our city and community and it helps us to maintain our unique historical character. The board would be fiscally responsible in making this decision and could use the savings achieved to address needs in other schools. Historic renovations and remodels have been very successful in other communities across the country. Billings has done this with their McKinley and Broadwater schools with great results. Lets choose a course of action that will give our students an excellent educational facility, maintain our history, save us money, and get our students back to their home school earlier. Renovate and expand Central School. This choice makes sense! Nancy Nicholson Helena Updated at 5 p.m. NEW YORK Brazil-based construction colossus Odebrecht SA and affiliated petrochemical company Braskem SA agreed on Wednesday to pay at least $3.5 billion, the largest penalty ever in a foreign bribery case, to resolve international charges involving payoffs to Brazil's state oil company and others. Odebrecht and Braskem pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court in Brooklyn to conspiring to violate a U.S. foreign bribery law after an investigation involving political kickbacks at Brazil's Petrobras unearthed the bribery scheme. The huge penalty was negotiated as part of a broad settlement with U.S., Brazilian and Swiss authorities. Some of the hundreds of millions of dollars used in bribes to secure lucrative business deals flowed through the American banking system and some of the schemes were planned in the United States, enabling U.S. authorities to claim jurisdiction in the case. Odebrecht is Latin America's biggest engineering firm. Braskem, the region's biggest petrochemical producer, is jointly owned by Odebrecht and Petrobras. Their guilty pleas were the first in the United States following a nearly three-year investigation in Brazil dubbed "Operation Car Wash" into corruption at Petrobras, which has led to dozens of arrests and political upheaval in Brazil. The total fines and penalties to be paid out by the companies exceeded a 2008 agreement in which German engineering company Siemens paid $1.6 billion to U.S. and European authorities for paying bribes to win government contracts. Odebrecht and Braskem were charged with conspiring to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which is aimed at deterring companies from bribing officials overseas. "Odebrecht and Braskem used a hidden but fully functioning Odebrecht business unit - a 'Department of Bribery,' so to speak - that systematically paid hundreds of millions of dollars to corrupt government officials in countries on three continents," U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Suh said in a statement. From 2001 to 2016, Odebrecht paid approximately $788 million in bribes in association with 100 projects in 12 countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, according to the U.S. charging papers. The companies hid the bribes through carefully disguised payments routed through a network of shell companies as well as suitcases of cash left at preset locations, Suh said. The U.S. Justice Department said the penalty to be paid by the two companies amounted to at least $3.5 billion, including $2.6 billion from Odebrecht and $957 million from Braskem. Brazilian authorities gave a lower figure for the overall deal but did not explain the discrepancy. U.S. officials said most of the money would go to Brazilian authorities. Both companies also agreed to continue to cooperate with authorities, implement compliance improvements and become subject to oversight by external monitors. Odebrecht's former CEO Marcelo Odebrecht is already serving a 19-year sentence after being found guilty on corruption charges last year in Brazil, Latin America's biggest country. He turned state's witness and is expected to be freed by the end of 2017. 'TURNING THE PAGE' "The company is glad to be turning the page and focusing on its future," William Burck of U.S. law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which represented Odebrecht, said in a statement. Fernando Musa, Braskem CEO since May, said his company also was pleased to be settling the matter. "We are implementing more robust practices, policies and processes across the organization," Musa said in a statement. According to U.S. prosecutors, Odebrecht said it was able to pay $2.6 billion although it agreed the appropriate criminal fine would be $4.5 billion. The judge scheduled sentencing for April, when the deal would become finalized. Braskem also agreed to more than $632 million in criminal penalties and fines as well as additional money to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Swiss and Brazilian authorities, the SEC said. In the sprawling "Car Wash" investigation, named for a Brasilia gas station where some of the money-laundering took place, prosecutors in Brazil have said more than $2 billion in bribes were paid over a decade, mainly to Petrobras executives, from construction and engineering companies. As part of the deal, Odebrecht agreed that 77 of its executives and employees would cooperate with the investigation, and they have already provided testimony expected to implicate upward of 200 Brazilian politicians. U.S. prosecutors want to use testimony from Odebrecht employees to pursue more criminal cases that fall under their jurisdiction, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the Odebrecht deal. Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who Brazilian prosecutors say oversaw a scheme in which Odebrecht paid 75 million reais ($22.18 million) in bribes to win eight Petrobras contracts, is among those already charged in Brazil. The scandal also contributed to the downfall of Brazil's former president, Dilma Rousseff. She was ousted by Brazil's Senate in August, ending an impeachment process that polarized her country amid the massive corruption scandal and a brutal economic crisis. Michel Temer, Rousseff's vice president, then took over, but Temer himself has been cited in recently leaked testimony that Odebrecht officials have given, reportedly accused of accepting illegal campaign donations, allegations he has denied. Google saved $3.6 billion in worldwide taxes in 2015 by moving 14.9 billion euros ($15.5 billion) to a Bermuda shell company, new regulatory filings in the Netherlands reveal. The amount the company shifted through its Dutch subsidiary, Google Netherlands Holdings, and then on to a Bermuda mailbox was 40 percent greater than in 2014, according to filings the company made with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce on Dec. 12 and which were made available online Tuesday. News of the filings was first reported by the Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad. Alphabet moves the bulk of its non-U.S. profits through this Dutch subsidiary, which has no employees. The company has used the Netherlands company since 2004 as part of a tax structure dubbed a "Double Irish" and a "Dutch sandwich." By moving most of its international profits to Bermuda, the company was able to reduce its effective tax rate outside the U.S. to 6.4 percent in 2015, according to Alphabet's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "Google complies with the tax laws in every country where we operate," a Google spokesman said in a statement. In February, Google also said such calculations of an effective tax rate do not reflect the methods actually used to determine its international taxes in any jurisdiction. Some 12 billion euros of the money funneled through the Dutch company in 2015 came from Google Ireland Limited, which collects most of Google's international advertising revenues. The rest came from a Google subsidiary in Singapore that serves a similar role. The Dutch company then transfers this money on to Google Ireland Holdings Unlimited, which has the right to license Google's intellectual property outside the U.S. That company is based in Bermuda, which has no corporate income tax. The use of the two Irish entities is what gives the structure its "Double Irish" moniker. The total amount of profit Google had sheltered from U.S. taxation, most of which passes through its Dutch subsidiary en route to Bermuda, grew to $58.3 billion in 2015, according to Alphabet's SEC filings. The Irish government closed the tax loophole that permitted "Double Irish" tax arrangements in 2015. Companies already using the structure, however, are allowed to continue employing it until the end of 2020. Google is under pressure from regulators and tax authorities around the world for not paying enough tax. On Tuesday, Indonesia set a Dec. 31 deadline for Google to resolve a tax dispute there, including a possible $223 million fine. The company's offices in Spain and France have also been raided by tax investigators in the past year. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has discussed possible changes to U.S. tax laws in order to allow American companies to repatriate foreign profits at a one-time tax rate of 10 percent. That would eliminate some of the incentive U.S. companies currently have to hold foreign profits outside the U.S. Tech firms have some of the largest such stockpiles, with Apple holding $181 billion outside the U.S. and Microsoft holding $94.4 billion, according to their 2015 annual SEC filings. WASHINGTON About 6.4 million consumers have enrolled for subsidized health insurance coverage through HealthCare.gov, ahead of last years pace, U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services officials said Wednesday. The number of people who signed up for coverage during the Nov. 1 through Dec. 19 period represents an increase of 400,000 compared with the same period a year ago, the government said. Total plan selections through the extended deadline of Dec. 19 include 2.05 million new consumers and 4.31 million returning consumers actively renewing their coverage. Todays enrollment numbers confirm that doomsday predictions about the marketplace are not bearing out, HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said. In Missouri, 185,413 people have selected a plan for coverage starting Jan. 1, a more than 3 percent increase compared with this time last year, HHS said. The statistics released Wednesday are for 39 states served by HealthCare.gov, the federal online insurance marketplace established under the Affordable Care Act. Numbers from states running their own markets have not been fully tallied and will be added later, raising the total. Toward the end of this month, several million current customers who are being re-enrolled automatically will be added to the count. The government has said it expects a total of 13.8 million people to sign up for 2017 coverage compared with 12.7 million in 2016. That coverage will cost more. In October, the government said benchmark 2017 HealthCare.gov premiums will rise 25 percent compared with 2016. The average monthly premium for the benchmark plan will rise to $302 from $242 in 2016. But the impact of premium increases on most people enrolled in the exchanges has been softened by the laws subsidies, which are designed to rise if the cost of insurance goes up. Because of higher subsidies offsetting higher premiums, taxpayers will be paying nearly $10 billion more next year to make insurance available to millions of lower-income Americans, a study last week from the nonpartisan Center for Health and Economy found. The cost of premium subsidies to taxpayers will rise from $32.8 billion currently to $42.6 billion next year, the study found. The government provides income-based subsidies to about 85 percent of people enrolled; 72 percent of consumers on Healthcare.gov are able to find plans with premiums of less than $75 a month. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to overturn the Affordable Care Act. The Associated Press, Reuters and the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. As rumors swirl about Verizon's plans for acquiring Yahoo, business analysts say the former search giant could see choppier waters ahead if Verizon backs out of the deal, as some observers have suggested it should do. Yahoo, the troubled Internet company that once dominated the online search market, last week disclosed a massive data breach that occurred in 2013 and affected up to a billion users. The admission came just weeks after another announcement that hackers had put half a million Yahoo accounts at risk sometime in 2014. Together, they rank as the two biggest known hackings in corporate history. Verizon expressed significant concerns over the smaller breach in October, signaling that it could jeopardize its $4.8 billion bid for Yahoo. Executives at the telecom behemoth said they were leaning toward concluding that the hack had adversely affected Yahoo's core business, making it a less attractive purchase. The initial hack could have been written off as a one-time event, analysts say, but the bigger breach will be impossible to ignore. For Verizon, the stakes have risen. Although it has not raised fresh warning flags over the new disclosure, the telecom firm must balance Yahoo's initial estimated value against the possibility of discovering even more hackings down the road. "It's like buying a ticking time bomb," said Jeff Kagan, an independent industry analyst. "You never know when it's going to blow again, and could keep blowing up time after time." Security experts have criticized Yahoo's use of outdated security technologies to defend user data, and the company's top security official resigned in protest in 2015 when he was cut out of a major decision to allow the federal government to scan customer emails. The renewed concerns over Yahoo have caused Verizon to think seriously about abandoning the deal or asking for a discount, Bloomberg News reported Friday. Some analysts have suggested that Verizon may seek as much as a $200 million price cut. Backing out of the deal, Kagan said, probably would cause Yahoo's value to decline. But Verizon is more likely to seek a discount than to walk away, according to a mergers and acquisitions lawyer familiar with the transaction who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters of corporate strategy. A discount could help offset the potential legal, regulatory or reputational risks that Verizon may assume by going through with the deal, according to analysts. By just how much is unclear. "As we've said all along, we will evaluate the situation as Yahoo continues its investigation," Verizon said in a statement last week. The company declined to comment for this story. Yahoo executives say the core business remains strong. Chief executive Marissa Mayer told investors on a recent earnings call that the company had "launched several new products and showed solid financial performance across the board." Yahoo said Tuesday in a statement that it is confident in its value and that "we continue to work towards integration with Verizon." But should that effort collapse, the consequences for Yahoo could be dire, according to analysts who say the company has been losing staff at an alarming rate. "Yahoo has no Plan B," said Laura Martin, an industry analyst at Needham & Co. "People have been leaving in droves," creating gaps in talent that could be difficult to fill if Verizon backed out of the transaction. The result, she said, may be a less healthy organization at a time when it most needs to show that it is fully functional. The outgoing secretary of state, former state lawmakers and several others are preparing to sue Gov. Steve Bullock to keep Montanas top political cop in office another two years. Outgoing Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena, Secretary of State Linda McCulloch, a group called Montanans for Experienced Judges, former Republican Rep. Jesse OHara and Montana Trial Lawyers Association executive director Al Smith are bringing the suit in Lewis and Clark County District Court. A spokesman for Bullock said Wednesday the governor's office has received the lawsuit and is in the process reviewing it. At a meeting with the Missoulian editorial board in Missoula on Wednesday, Bullock said it was a matter of statutory interpretation. The suit argues that Jonathan Motl, the commissioner of political practices, started his his term as commissioner in 2013. Commissioners who are confirmed by the state Senate serve six-year terms. Whats unclear is if Motl started his own term or assumed the term of Jennifer Hensley, who was appointed in 2011 by former Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer but not approved by the state Senate in that years legislative session. Schweitzer then appointed David Gallik, who resigned in 2012 and whose appointment was never the subject of a Senate vote. After that, Schweitzer appointed Jim Murry, who was also not voted on by the 2013 Senate. The plaintiffs argue that means neither Hensley, Gallik nor Murry served a term as commissioner, and Motl started a fresh term in 2013. Motl was appointed by Bullock in a May 17, 2013, letter that said the end of his term was Jan. 1, 2017. The Senate in the 2015 legislative session confirmed him. The plaintiffs ask for the court to keep Motl in place and say that resolution of the matter is important, given the partisan wrangling and legislative manipulation the office of the Commissioner of Political Practices is often subject to. They add the failure of the Legislature to approve appointees between 2010 and 2013 erodes public confidence in the office. Motl told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle earlier this year he expects his term to expire at year's end. He did not return a call for comment Wednesday. Bullock said the office was not as politicized in the past. I dont think it adds to the value of the office or the offices mission when you have individuals that dont get confirmed and it ends up being a one-year or two-year turnaround, he said. He added Motl has done a good job of cleaning up the docket and moving forward. When Motl took over the office, it was swamped in a backlog of cases that he cleared this year. Jim (Chris Pratt) is one of 5,000 voyagers on course to a distant planet. How distant? The voyage is scheduled to take 120 years. Like the others, Jim is in a state of suspended animation. Upon arrival, hell be the same age as he was when he left planet Earth. When his pod opens, Jim assumes that the starship isnt far from its destination and that hell meet some of the folks with whom hell create a new civilization. But he finds that no one else is awake. A bartender named Arthur (Michael Sheen) turns out to be an android friendly to be sure, but incapable of fully grasping Jims situation. The truth is that Jim has been awakened 90 years too soon. The ship is well-stocked with food, and hell probably survive for decades. But without human contact, its not long before loneliness sets in and Jim becomes desperate to rid himself of it. In his wanderings, he comes across a beautiful young woman comfortably ensconced in her pod. Her name is Aurora, and she could be just the company he needs. But waking her up would doom her to share his dilemma. Can he do that? Should he? Passengers is an offbeat vehicle for two of Hollywoods hottest stars, but the film never quite achieves escape velocity. Working from a screenplay by Jon Spaihts (Doctor Strange), director Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) persuasively evokes the existential loneliness of outer space. But the film eventually runs out of rocket fuel, piling on the special effects but arriving at a disappointing conclusion. Still, if youre going to be stuck on a starship, Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) and Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) make for appealing company with just enough chemistry between them to make the trip interesting. And its oddly comforting to know that, regardless of advances in technology, the possibility of things going wrong will endure. JEFFERSON CITY Gov.-elect Eric Greitens has picked Anne Precythe, a corrections official from North Carolina, to oversee Missouris state prison system. Precythe, a former parole officer, currently serves as the Director of Community Corrections in North Carolinas Department of Public Safety. She was the first woman to serve in that position, where she is responsible for supervising more than 100,000 offenders on probation or post-release supervision. Precythe will be the second woman at the helm of Missouris prisons, after Dora Schriro, who served as director from 1993 to 2001. Greitens announcement comes in the wake of reports that have brought to light a culture of harassment and retaliation among workers in Missouris Department of Corrections. An investigation by Pitch.com, an alternative weekly newspaper in Kansas City, found that the state has paid millions in settlements to employees alleging they faced harassment at work for their sex, religion, race or disability. Its a revelation that has led to an audit into the states legal expense fund and investigations by the Legislature. It also motivated Greitens, who will become the states chief executive on Jan. 9, to name a replacement for George Lombardi, Missouris embattled prison chief. Lombardi will step down when Gov. Jay Nixons term ends, and has already sent a letter of resignation to department employees. In a statement on Wednesday, Greitens praised Precythe for making North Carolinas corrections department leaner and more efficient, and for her creation of a program to support employees affected by violence at work or home. Anne is tough on crime and a fierce advocate for the employees and officers who will keep our streets safe, Greitens said. She delivered results in North Carolina. In her state, people released from prison are less likely to commit crimes again. The system is wasting less money. Employees feel heard and appreciated. Precythe could not immediately be reached for comment. Calls to Precythes office were directed back to Greitens transition team. In North Carolina, Precythe has pushed initiatives intended to reduce recidivism and help former prisoners lead successful lives. And in an interview with a podcast through the University of North Carolinas School of Government earlier this year, Precythe said she enjoyed being able to reinforce the good things corrections officers do as part of her job as director. They are doing yeomans work, theyre doing excellent work every single day. And they dont get credit for the good work that they do, and they do so much more of that than the things that really make the papers, Precythe said. But they know, I hope they know, that Ive got their back, and Im going to stand up and were going to work through whatever comes up. Thats what we have to do, she added. Were dealing with human nature, and its not always predictable. Greitens statement also addressed the recently exposed problems within Missouris prisons that Precythe will be tasked with addressing in the new year. Missouris Department of Corrections is broken and that puts public safety at risk, he said. Our corrections officers struggle in a culture of harassment and neglect, in a department with low morale and shockingly high turnover. CLAYTON Zhan Lu Stamme says she was stalked, chased into a street and viciously attacked by a former boss when she rejected his romantic interest. After multiple surgeries to her face and eyes, Stamme stood in court last week and asked a judge to put Yaoxing Cao in prison for 18 years or more, as the prosecutor wanted. But Stamme, 53, left in frustration, saying the punishment the possibility of parole after three years was too light. The scales were tipped to the evil side, the defendant, Stamme said. I am very, very angry. Cao, 56, of Olivette, pleaded guilty of first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the July 5, 2015, attack. He could have received up to 30 years. On Friday, St. Louis County Circuit Judge Kristine A. Kerr gave him 10 years for armed criminal action, and Cao will be eligible for parole after three years. On the assault charge, Kerr imposed a 10-year term but suspended the execution of the sentence and put him on five years of probation instead. The judge indicated that she had considered Caos age and lack of prior crimes. Stamme, of Overland, a U.S. citizen who has been in this country 17 years, has said this was her first experience with the American justice system. Cao is a permanent resident but not a citizen. The court used a Chinese interpreter for him. His attorney, Keith Cheung, could not be reached for comment. Stamme formerly worked for Cao at his Chinese restaurant in St. Charles County. He began stalking her, sexually harassing her and trying to get her to come work for him again and buy into his business, according to Stamme and her daughter, Feng Shuang Stamme, 28. Hed call my mom 12 times a day, and call my cellphone if he couldnt reach her, Feng Shuang Stamme said. Hed show up in the middle of the night knocking on her window. As Zhan Lu Stamme arrived home one night, Cao came out of hiding in bushes outside her apartment and beat her with his fists and an unknown object, prosecutors said. Two witnesses chased him off. Zhan Lu Stamme said she believes he wielded a meat cleaver, but officials said the object was never found. Cao claimed it was a wooden stick. Stamme suffered a broken nose, three broken ribs, deep abrasions near her eye socket and cuts on the back of her head. Once arrested, police said, Cao confessed, saying he wanted Stamme to date him. He told investigators his eyes were seeing fire and he began beating her when she refused. MISSOULA Missoula police have identified the person they believe has distributed pro-Nazi literature around Missoula over the last few weeks. Mayor John Engen made the announcement during his remarks at Har Shalom synagogue Tuesday as part of a news conference for the A Light in Every Window campaign that supports the Jewish community. The man, in his 70s, lives in an assisted living home and apparently downloaded the American Nazi Party propaganda and printed it off at the rest home. We believe this person has acted alone, Engen said. After the event, Police Chief Mike Brady confirmed Engens announcement, saying they identified the man over the weekend, but havent arrested him. What hes doing isnt illegal, he said. Its not a crime. Brady said the police intend to have a conversation with the mans family about his activity. Public information officer Sgt. Travis Welsh said someone aware of what the man was doing called police and identified him. Welsh said over the past few weeks several people have reported to the police that they have received the fliers. We were assessing every one of those reports. But to date we have not seen that any crimes have been committed, Welsh said. BILLINGS President Barack Obamas clemencies and pardons issued Monday for federal inmates include four people convicted of drug crimes in U.S. District Court in Billings. Obama shortened the sentences of Gary Lee Gordon of Laurel; Gregory R. Boyd of Oakley, Calif.; and Larry Darvell Henricks of Billings; and pardoned Tavia Dion Blume of Snohomish, Washington. The 231 people granted pardons or clemency Monday were the most individual clemencies ever granted in a single day by any president, the Associated Press reported. In a round of presidential clemencies last month, Obama shortened the life sentences being served by two drug dealers, Victor Robert Nava Sr. and Lamar Webster, who were convicted in Billings of drug trafficking crimes in separate cases. White House counsel Neil Eggleston wrote in a blog post Monday that the people granted clemency had all shown "they are ready to make use or already made use of a second chance. And, he said, that while each recipients story was unique the common thread of rehabilitation underlies all of them. In 2014, Obama sought to bring attention to what his administration describes as over-sentencing in federal prisons by directing the Justice Department to prioritize petitions for communications from nonviolent offenders who were serving longer sentences than they would receive today if convicted of the same crimes. Obama has used his constitutional clemency power to reduce the sentences of 1,176 people since he has been in office, according to the White House. Gordon originally was sentenced in January 2008 by retired U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull to 24 years and two months in prison and 10 years supervised release for his guilty plea to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. The sentence was amended to about 18 years. Obama shortened Gordons sentence to expire on Dec. 19, 2017. Gordon, 56, is incarcerated at a low-security federal prison in Sandstone, Minn. During an investigation of Gordon, officers found about 6 ounces of meth and more than a pound of marijuana in his home in November 2006. A witness who collected drug proceeds for Gordon told investigators that Gordon was receiving about a half-pound of meth every three days from his supplier. Boyd, 33, of Oakley, Calif., was sentenced in July 2007 by retired U.S. District Judge Jack Shanstrom to a total of 35 years for possessing about 30 grams of meth with intent to distribute and to being a felon in possession of a firearm. The term included a consecutive five years for possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. Before clemency, Boyds release date was Feb. 17, 2036, according to information from the federal Bureau of Prisons. His new release date is Dec. 19, 2018. Boyd is incarcerated at a low-security prison in Lompoc, Calif. A jury convicted Boyd, who was indicted after Billings police officers pulled him over for having an expired temporary sticker and arrested him on outstanding warrants. A search of his car turned up less than 2 ounces of meth packaged for sale, two unloaded .40-caliber semiautomatic handguns and a scale. Shanstrom determined that Boyd, who had two prior felony drug convictions in California, was a career offender, which increased the sentencing guideline range. At sentencing, Shanstrom said he had compassion but that it was a tough case and the guidelines were the guidelines. This is a severe sentence, but the crimes youve committed have been severe, he told Boyd. Henricks, 47, was sentenced in October 1995 to 35 years for convictions on conspiracy and possession counts involving cocaine, marijuana and meth and on firearms crimes. His release date was Aug. 20, 2025. Obama shortened Henricks sentenced to 30 years, and his new release date is Dec. 19, 2018. Henricks is imprisoned in Sandstone, Minn. The president also pardoned Blume, 38, who received an amended sentence of six years in May 1999 for a meth possession charge and a firearm conviction. Blume was released from prison in 2001. Villigers latest offering combines a nod to the past as the company continues its efforts to make new inroads into the premium cigar market. This 1888 line features bold new packaging for a blend based on a celebratory 2010 regional limited edition. The first 1888 lineVilligers introductory hand-made long-filler cigarwas a limited edition that hit U.S. shelves in 2009. The 1888 name commemorates the tobacco giants founding year. Interestingly, one of the blends considered for the cigar included Cuban tobacco, but the company decided against using it in order to maintain access to the U.S. market. The blend on this new incarnation, according to a press release by the company, is based on the Villiger 1888 Reserva 2010, which was issued to celebrate the Swiss-based companys 100th anniversary in neighboring Germany. It combines a lovely Ecuadorian leaf over a Mexican binder and filler from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. The Robusto, retailing for under $6, measures 4.875 inches with a 50-ring gauge. It comes in four other sizes, with prices ranging by size up to a Toro Gordo (6 x 60) at $8.20. Theyre crafted in the Dominican Republic and come in boxes of 20. Rolled out to retailers at the end of 2016, the new 1888 follows Villigers successful launch of the SanDoro line earlier in the year. I found the new 1888 to be a medium-strength cigar that starts a little dry with lots of smoke and a dead-even burn. Along the way, I tasted a bit of chocolate, clove, and a rich sweetness, particularly in the final third. Occasionally, I did get some of the dirt taste I associate with Mexican tobacco, but it was infrequent and never overbearing. A little spice comes and goes, and is especially noticeable on the retrohale. The 1888 has a light, very pleasant finish. With such a modest price, its a no-brainer to recommend you pick up a couple to see whether they suit your palate. For me, it easily rates three and a half stogies out of five. [To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.] George E photo credit: Stogie Guys Captains of industry are being summoned to King Donalds Court to see who will become knights of the Cabinet Table. And as indicated in this column last week, a secretary of agriculture still hasn't been selected. However, farm groups could take a close look at the designees for other department and agency posts in the new Trump administration. There are lots of signals that the policies of the new administration may need to be reconciled from one cabinet member to the next. Either that or the White House Office of Management and Budget will be busier than a three-legged cat in a corncrib full of mice, in trying to do that. One of the first indicators of a red flag that farmers are watching is ethanol. President-elect Trump campaigned in Iowa shouting ETHANOL! and got a lot of applause from rural Americans who took that to mean he was in favor of ethanol and the Renewable Fuel Standard which guarantees ethanol blends in motor fuels. Since the election, Mr. Trump has nominated Scott Pruitt to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and Rick Perry to be secretary of energy. While both were welcomed by conservative Republicans, agricultural leaders have been turning their heads to look at each other for any positive reaction. While Mr. Pruitt was seen as someone who will be a friend to agriculture in the regulatory activities of the EPA, he has a strong background against ethanol. And Mr. Perry, a former Texas governor was seen as an advocate for the petroleum industry, which has a strong opposition to ethanol. As part of their confirmation process, both will have to undergo questioning by Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, who is an uber-protector of ethanol interests on Capitol Hill. Using the social medium Twitter, Sen. Grassley said, Since they come from oil states, I intend to grill EPA director-designee Pruitt and energy secretary-designee Perry on ethanol. Trump equals ethanol, so should these two. Agricultural interests may have tightened their seat belt when former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson was nominated as secretary of state. Since that post has been considered the senior cabinet post from George Washington on down, Tillerson theoretically should be able to shake his head and ethanol would disappear. And that would not surprise oil or ethanol interests. But looking back at some of Mr. Tillersons policy preferences from speeches and interviews, he may be more pro-agriculture than anyone else in the cabinet named to date. Some of his on-the-record comments are music to the ears of farmers, who have been stymied by the EPA and energy appointments, as well as by Mr. Trumps campaign rhetoric which is adverse to trade. In a 2013 interview, Tillerson said Anything that promotes global energy security is in U.S. national interest. Any steps we (Exxon) take to develop new resources, to promote trading relationships, to promote stability in countries, from a socioeconomic, geopolitical perspective, that is all in U.S. national interest. Use of the term global energy security could certainly include renewable fuels. In a 2015 speech, Tillerson said, Congress has been debating trade promotion authority. If passed, it would give President Obama authority to move forward on two major, pending free-trade agreements: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would strengthen the economic relations among 11 nations in the Asia-Pacific region, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which would increase trade between the U.S. and European Union.Completing such agreements would revitalize the global discussion of -- and renew the appreciation for -- the value of international trade and investment. Because of his openness to trade, and specifically the TransPacific Partnership that agriculture wants and Mr. Trump has castigated, Mr. Tillerson could be farmer-friendly when it comes to advocating and implementing the global policies of the new administration. And, if he is a lesser opponent of ethanol than his petroleum colleagues, he will be a white knight for agriculture. Smoke is released into the sky at a refinery in Wilmington, California March 24, 2012. Picture taken March 24, 2012. REUTERS/Bret Hartman/File Photo - RTX2V7BV By Scott DiSavino NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil futures fell on Wednesday after Libya said it expects to boost production over the next few months and a report showing a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories last week. Brent futures for February delivery fell 89 cents, or 1.6 percent, to settle at $54.46 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for February lost 81 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $52.49 per barrel. Even though WTI futures for February were down, the U.S. front-month gained about 0.5 percent due to the contract roll from lower-priced January to the higher-priced February on Tuesday and closed at its highest level in over a week. "The big news of the day is that it looks like we're going to get more crude out of Libya," said James Williams, president of energy consultant WTRG Economics in Arkansas. Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) confirmed on Tuesday that pipelines leading from Sharara and El Feel fields had reopened, saying it hoped to add 270,000 barrels per day (bpd) to national production over the next three months. "The big question is what will OPEC do about the Libyan increase. With Libya excluded from the production cut agreement, I anticipate the Saudis will unilaterally balance the Libyan crude," WTRG's Williams said. On Nov. 30, OPEC agreed to cut output by 1.2 million bpd for six months from Jan. 1, with top exporter Saudi Arabia cutting around 486,000 bpd. On Dec. 10, non-OPEC countries including Russia agreed to reduce output by 558,000 bpd, the largest-ever contribution by non-OPEC producers. In the United States, U.S. crude stocks rose by 2.3 million barrels in the week to Dec. 16 even as refineries hiked output, while gasoline stocks and distillate inventories fell, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. [EIA/S] That was the first weekly build in crude stockpiles in five weeks. Analysts were expecting U.S. crude inventories to fall by 2.5 million barrels, according to a Reuters poll. [EIA/S] The EIA report diverged widely from the American Petroleum Institute industry group's data released late Tuesday, which showed a larger-than-expected 4.1-million-barrel crude draw. [API/S] Oil markets are expected to remain well-supplied despite the planned OPEC and non-OPEC reductions. Russia's 2016 oil output is expected to total 547.5 million tonnes (11 million barrels per day), a 2.5 percent increase from last year, Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters late on Tuesday. (Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci) Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC) announced today it has agreed to sell its operated and non-operated upstream assets and operated midstream assets in the Marcellus Shale of north-central Pennsylvania to Alta Marcellus Development, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alta Resources Development, LLC, for approximately $1.24 billion. The midstream assets in the Marcellus owned by Western Gas Partners, LP (NYSE: WES), Anadarko's sponsored master limited partnership, are excluded from the agreement. "With this transaction, we have announced or closed monetizations totaling well in excess of $5 billion in 2016, while principally focusing Anadarko's U.S. onshore activities on our world-class oil-levered assets in the Delaware and DJ basins," said Al Walker, Anadarko Chairman, President and CEO. "Our Marcellus team has done a superb job of maximizing the value of our position in this natural gas play, and we are grateful for their efforts and dedication." The Marcellus Shale divestiture includes approximately 195,000 net acres and, at the end of the third quarter of 2016, sales volumes from these properties totaled approximately 470 million cubic feet per day. The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions and adjustments. Jefferies LLC marketed the assets, and Sidley Austin LLP served as Anadarko's legal counsel. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) today announced that the companys Board of Directors has appointed Giovanni Caforio, M.D. as chairman of the board, effective May 2, the date of the companys annual meeting of shareholders. Caforio, who will continue to serve as chief executive officer, will succeed current Chairman Lamberto Andreotti, who has announced his plan to retire. It is an honor to have the opportunity to build on the strong foundation established by Lamberto Andreotti, said Caforio. Bristol-Myers Squibb has tremendous opportunities for growth, highlighted by our leadership position in Immuno-Oncology and the opportunity to accelerate our diversified pipeline of transformational medicines. Working with the talented leaders and employees of this company, I look forward to further advancing our BioPharma strategy, and delivering transformational medicines that make a difference in the lives of patients around the world. Since being named CEO, Giovanni has clearly demonstrated the capabilities needed to lead Bristol-Myers Squibb in the near and long term, said Andreotti. It was a pleasure working with Giovanni during this transition period, and I have full confidence that he will do what is needed to continue to deliver on the companys mission and generate sustainable growth for our shareholders now and in the future. Togo D. West, Jr., the boards lead independent director, said, Since becoming CEO last year, Giovanni has demonstrated strong leadership and a commitment to the companys patient-focused mission and culture of integrity and ethics. Giovannis depth of experience, knowledge and deep understanding of the industry make him the right person for the chairmanship. I also want to thank Lamberto for his many years of service to the company and for serving as chairman. As a valued and trusted leader, he played a critical role in the companys transformation to a BioPharma leader and in shaping the strategy that continues to guide the company today. Andreotti served as Bristol-Myers Squibbs chief executive officer from 2010 through May 2015 and will have served as Bristol-Myers Squibbs chairman for two years when Caforios appointment becomes effective in May 2017. Under Andreottis leadership, Bristol-Myers Squibb successfully transformed into a leader in the BioPharma industry, one known for its robust pipeline and portfolio of innovative medicines, including the increasingly promising portfolio of Immuno-Oncology medicines that are transforming the treatment of cancer today. Caforio has been chief executive officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb since May 2015 and has been serving on the companys Board of Directors since June 2014. As CEO, Caforio has led the companys focus on researching and developing transformational medicines, which includes a leading portfolio of immunotherapies that are fundamentally changing the way patients live with cancer. With a background as a physician, Caforio has helped strengthen the companys patient-focused culture -- one driven by innovation, speed, accountability and passion. Prior to becoming CEO, Caforio served as chief operating officer with responsibility for leading a fully integrated worldwide commercial organization and the companywide functions of Enterprise Services and Global Manufacturing & Supply. This was preceded by his work as the companys chief commercial officer. Born and educated in Italy, Caforio received his M.D. from the University of Rome. The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) and Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD) have reached an agreement regarding the transition of AB InBevs 54.5% equity stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) for 3.15 billion USD, after customary adjustments. CCBA includes the countries of South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ghana, Mayotte and Comoros. In addition, the companies have reached an agreement in principle for The Coca-Cola Company to acquire AB InBevs interest in bottling operations in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, El Salvador and Honduras for an undisclosed amount. The transactions are subject to the relevant regulatory and minority approvals and are expected to close by the end of 2017. The Coca-Cola Company plans to hold all of these territories temporarily until they can be refranchised to other partners. The Coca-Cola Companys intent is to account for the acquired stakes as a discontinued operation for reporting purposes. Carlos Brito, CEO of AB InBev, said: We are happy that we have been able to reach this agreement with The Coca-Cola Company in a timely manner and with a satisfactory outcome for all parties. We are pleased to have reached an agreement quickly that is in everyones best interests, said Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. We will move forward with our long-term strategic plan in these important growth markets. We are continuing negotiations with a number of parties who are highly qualified and interested in these bottling territories and look forward to refranchising these territories as soon as practical following regulatory approval. By Jonathan Saul and Andrew MacAskill LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland is close to selling at least $600 million worth of shipping loans from its portfolio, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. RBS, which is more than 70 percent state-owned, is still in the throes of a restructuring, which includes asset sales, job cuts and tackling multi-billion dollar charges to settle litigation and pay regulatory fines for past misconduct. The sources said buyers of the various shipping loan tranches included Japanese financial services firm Orix Corp, Germany's Berenberg Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and asset manager Davidson Kempner. Bank of America and Berenberg declined to comment. Orix could not be reached for comment. Davidson Kempner and RBS declined to comment. The loans, which primarily come from RBS's Greek shipping business which was valued earlier this year at $3 billion, are being sold in various parcels, one of the sources said. "Discreet sales talks have been going on for a while," the source said. RBS announced in September it had begun winding down its global shipping finance business, abandoning efforts at that time to sell it off during a worsening downturn across the freight industry. Around 90 percent of world trade is transported by sea but the shipping industry is stuck in its deepest slump on record, as international trade slows and freight rates fall in a market flooded with too many vessels. German banks, which provide a quarter of the world's $400 billion of outstanding shipping debt, are struggling to recoup their loans, while many other lenders are looking at ending or reducing their exposure. Sources had told Reuters earlier this year that Orix and Berenberg were among potential suitors that had looked at RBS's Greek shipping business. The Edinburgh-based bank which has had eight years of annual losses was rescued with a more than 45 billion pound ($55.54 billion) bailout at the height of the financial crisis. Last month, RBS was the biggest failure in the Bank of England's annual stress test, partly because of a mounting legal bill and the difficulty it has selling off unwanted assets. RBS's overall exposure to shipping exposure was 5.514 billion pounds at the end of September, down from 6.765 billion pounds at the end of June and 6.776 billion pounds at the end of 2015, RBS data showed. RBS had previously been a top lender to the global shipping industry and its Greek office played a pivotal role. (Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze in Frankfurt and Taiga Uranaka in Tokyo; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Jane Merriman) RPM International Inc. (NYSE: RPM) today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire SPS Group (SPS), a Dutch decorative and specialty coatings company with annual net sales of approximately $60 million. Located about an hour south of Amsterdam in 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, SPS will operate as part of RPM's Rust-Oleum European business. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. It is expected to be accretive to earnings within one year, excluding one-time costs. SPS offers a complete line of topcoats for interior and exterior walls, primers, lacquers, floor and roof coatings, metal coatings, wood stains and finishes, plasters and more. Its major customers are large home center chains and builder merchants based in the Netherlands. Its products are used by painters, plasterers, industry and do-it-yourselfers. "By leveraging the manufacturing and distribution strengths of SPS, we expect this acquisition to accelerate Rust-Oleum's growth in the Netherlands and other nearby European countries," stated Frank C. Sullivan, RPM chairman and chief executive officer. "It will also allow the existing customer base of SPS to benefit from Rust-Oleum technologies and innovations." A man walks on the Federal Square in front of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in Bern, Switzerland June 16, 2016. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/File Photo ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss government defended the central Bank's ultra-loose monetary policy on Wednesday after criticism from members of parliament following the bank's removal of its cap on the value of the Swiss franc against the euro nearly two years ago. The franc surged against the euro once the cap was lifted, hitting the export-driven economy by making its goods more expensive in other countries. The SNB responded with negative interest rates and currency intervention to rein in the franc. "The SNB's monetary policy concept has proved its worth also in difficult situations such as in the wake of the global financial crisis from 2007 to 2009," the cabinet said in a statement after a meeting. The cabinet found the SNB had the tools it needed to fulfil its mandate of ensuring price stability while paying attention to the overall economy. The SNB can also influence the value of the franc if it considers this necessary, it added. It saw no need to change governance at the SNB, whose monetary policy is set by a three-person governing council. Many Swiss complain about the impact of negative rates, which hurt banks and pension funds and make life hard for savers. But the cabinet said low rates were a global phenomenon and the SNB was keeping rates negative to reduce the appeal of franc-denominated assets. "They are effective only if all financial market players are affected by them. Any exceptions would create a precedent which would diminish the effectiveness of monetary policy," it said. The government saw scant opportunity to use the low-rate environment to give the economy an extra shot in the arm despite calls to refinance state debt, create a special fund to promote investment or have the SNB seek higher returns on its portfolio. The government already seeks to optimize state finances and debt, it said, noting it had extended debt maturities to lock in low rates. It rejected boosting debt or creating a new state fund, arguing this would violate the policy of keeping debt low and only lead to higher refinancing costs in future. It also saw no need for changes in the way the SNB invests its huge currency reserves, which stood at 648 billion Swiss francs ($631 billion) at the end of November. (Reporting by Michael Shields, editing by John Revill) Families trying to do right by their college-age students are the latest victims of the state's ongoing budget mess, with funding on hold for Monetary Award Program (MAP) grants. Money for continuing the state grants was not included in the stopgap funding bill passed earlier this year, although several state universities said they would continue to enroll the students through the second semester. Other students, including some at private universities, aren't as lucky as those schools are making some very difficult choices of their own. As reported by the Herald & Review's Springfield bureau last week, a new survey from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which administers the grants through the Monetary Award Program, suggests some schools that covered the grants in the fall arent making guarantees for the spring. Of the 96 colleges and universities that responded to the survey, 53 percent said they would guarantee the funding for the spring semester, down from 60 percent in the fall, although not all schools responded to the survey. The stopgap budget plan (which ends Dec. 31) included money to finish paying off last years MAP grants, but didn't include money for the current year. Most schools covered the amounts for the fall, but not all are doing that for the spring. Illinois State University is, but Illinois Wesleyan University is changing its policy to case-by-case eligibility. A majority of schools that are covering the grants said they would require students to repay them if the state doesnt come through with the money, or reduces the program's funding level. As the state continues to stumble along through another budget stalemate, lawmakers and other state leaders need to pay close attention to the people and programs they choose to fund or not fund. If there is a nongovernment grant available for a particular program, perhaps the state's grant could be shaved or dropped. The type of program also needs to be taken into consideration: Surely education is a higher priority one that would pay off in benefits for years to come than other programs of more questionable design. Not every student will get state aid for attending college, but those who do have the greatest need those who qualify for MAP grants and should be given priority, as should the program itself. Education is the key to a good life, a good economy and a good future. Illinois needs to make sure its funding priorities are front and center, not just for MAP grants, but for vocational, pre-k, secondary and post-secondary learning and teaching. We call on our legislators and legislative leaders to step up and do the right thing. Yes, we've asked them to do that time and time again, and will continue until they do. The company's logo is seen at the headquarters of Swiss biotech company Actelion in Allschwil, Switzerland December 6, 2016. Reuters / Arnd Wiegmann By John Revill and Ludwig Burger ZURICH/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Swiss biotech company Actelion has turned back to prospective bidder Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) for exclusive talks about a "strategic transaction", in an about-turn that appears to sideline rival suitor Sanofi . Actelion said in a brief statement on Wednesday it was in exclusive negotiations with the U.S. healthcare giant but that there could be "no assurance any transaction will result from these discussions", declining to comment further. J&J confirmed the talks in a separate statement. The announcement could dash the hopes of French drugmaker Sanofi, which sources have said has been circling Actelion after J&J a little over a week ago said it had ended discussions with Actelion. Sanofi has been trying to broaden its drug line-up as its key diabetes business comes under pressure. The French company has signaled it remained keen to make a takeover deal after being trumped in August by Pfizer's (NYSE: PFE) $14 billion bid for U.S. cancer drug company Medivation. Sanofi declined to comment on Wednesday. Actelion had a market value of 23.2 billion Swiss francs ($22.6 billion) at Wednesday's closing price of 215 Swiss francs in Switzerland. U.S. shares in Actelion rose 11 percent after the announcement. J&J shares were down 0.3 percent at 1815 GMT. Actelion had told J&J before initial talks collapsed last week that it was confident it could attract an offer significantly higher than the approximately 250 Swiss francs per share the U.S. company had offered, one person familiar with the matter said. There were also disagreements about the proposed deal's structure, the person added at the time. Actelion co-founder and Chief Executive Jean-Paul Clozel has fended off previous takeover attempts, including a reported takeover approach by Shire (NYSE: SHP) last year and an activist campaign in 2011 by U.S. hedge fund Elliott Advisors. Acquiring the Swiss biotech firm would boost J&J's drug pipeline and diversify its prospects. J&J's biggest product, the arthritis drug Remicade, faces cheaper competition from Pfizer (NYSE: PFE). (additional reporting by Matthias Blamont in Paris) Billionaire activist-investor Carl Icahn gives an interview on FOX Business Network's Neil Cavuto show in New York, U.S. on February 11, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo By Emily Stephenson and Svea Herbst-Bayliss (Reuters) - Billionaire Carl Icahn will advise Donald Trump on rescinding what the activist investor called "excessive regulation" on U.S. businesses, the president-elect's transition team announced on Wednesday. Icahn will serve as a special adviser, not a federal employee, and he will not have specific duties, Trump's team said in a statement. He will not take a salary, a transition aide said. The pick could draw scrutiny because Icahn, whose major investments include insurer American International Group and oil refining business CVR Energy, could help shape rules meant to police Wall Street and protect the environment. In the transition team statement released on Wednesday, Icahn said it was time to "break free of excessive regulation" and let businesses create jobs. Icahn, an early supporter of Trump's White House bid who has at times been outspoken about regulation, has already helped the transition team weigh candidates to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. He has held meetings at his New York City office, not far from Trump Tower but away from reporters staked out there, people familiar with the talks said. Current SEC Chair Mary Jo White will leave in January. Candidates to replace her have included former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins and Debra Wong Yang, a former federal prosecutor, a source familiar with the matter said. Over the years, Icahn's businesses have had occasional regulatory run-ins, according to disclosures with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He is a large investor in nutrition supplement maker Herbalife, which said at one time it was investigated by the SEC. "Voters who wanted Trump to drain the swamp just got another face full of mud," Democratic National Committee spokesman Eric Walker said in a statement, referring to Trump's pledge to clean up Washington. Icahn, who was once known as a corporate raider, said in a recent Reuters interview the 2010 Dodd-Frank banking law "went too far." He is a critic of the U.S. biofuels program that requires oil companies to use renewable fuels such as ethanol. "I do believe that, to some extent, we have gone overboard concerning the environment. But I leave that to the experts in that area," Icahn told CNN in a recent interview. Trump and Icahn share some history in the casino business. Icahn this year helped shutter the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resorts in Atlantic City, two years after buying it out of bankruptcy. The casino was once a prized part of Trump's empire. (Reporting by Emily Stephenson, Sarah N. Lynch, Steve Holland and Diane Bartz in Washington, Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Chris Prentice in New York and Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese and Alan Crosby) PHOENIX, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Miracles are usually one in a million. Not this Christmas season at Dignity Health St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix AZ, where within 17 minutes, five tiny miracles appeared. Earlier this month, Margaret and Michael Baudinet welcomed their five firstborns. The tiny miracles became the first set of quintuplets born at St. Joseph's in the hospital's 121-year history. The Baudinets' dreams of being parents seemed impossible. But, on Dec. 4, Margaret gave birth to Ava, Clara, Camille, Luke and Isabelle Baudinet. "This is an incredible time for the Baudinet family and for the hospital," said Patty White, president and CEO of St. Joseph's "They are now a part of the rich history here at St. Joseph's." After two miscarriages, the Baudinets decided to try fertility treatments. Upon learning the treatment was successful, the couple recalls feeling a mixture of shock and joy alongside a healthy dose of fear and anxiety. "Going to our first ultrasound, I was worried it would result in yet another miscarriage,'" said Margaret, 31, who manages College Solutions, a private college counseling firm in Richmond, Virginia. "Then, I remember the nurse started to giggle as she performed the sonogram. She told us she saw at least four heart beats. We immediately went into shock which was only furthered when we later learned that I was actually carrying five babies." While complications can happen with any pregnancy, Margaret's pregnancy would pose higher risks for prematurity, low birth weight, sight and hearing deficiencies, underdeveloped lungs and cerebral palsy, among other risks. Quintuplets are rare, occurring only once in several million pregnancies. "I was prepared for two or three children, and always thought it would be fun to have twins. I wasn't at all prepared for five children all at once. Still, after all we've been through, it wasn't until about 24-weeks gestation that we actually started to feel excited," said Michael, 34, a lawyer at McGuireWoods LLP in Richmond. After a lot of research, Margaret ant Michael spoke with renowned perinatologist John Elliott, MD, in Phoenix. Following a phone consultation, they decided to move temporarily from their Virginia home, near Richmond, to Phoenix to work with Dr. Elliott. The plan included delivering the babies at St. Joseph's Hospital. "Like many patients who call, they were scared and looking for answers," said Dr. Elliott, who specializes in high-risk pregnancies and has delivered more sets of quintuplets than any doctor in the world. "Our goal is to give them a program; a blueprint to help them feel more in control and more optimistic for success." The Baudinet quintuplets were born at 32-weeks via cesarean section. Delivering the five babies took the 24-person team at St. Joseph's just 17 minutes. Despite their early arrival, the five babies had better than anticipated weights ranging from three to four pounds. All are doing well and will spend their first Christmas continuing to grow in St. Joseph's NyICU, before heading to Virginia in January. The Baudinets have chronicled their pregnancy on their blog, A Bundle of Baudinets, which has links to a Go Fund Me campaign and other baby registries. "We are very grateful to our friends and family for all their love and prayers and to McGuireWoods for all the support it has provided us," Michael said. About Dignity Health St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center Located in the heart of Phoenix, AZ, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center is a 586-bed, not-for-profit hospital that provides a wide range of health, social and support services with special advocacy for the poor and underserved. St. Joseph's is a nationally recognized center for quality tertiary care, medical education and research. It includes the internationally renowned Barrow Neurological Institute, the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center, the Norton Thoracic Institute, a campus of Creighton University's Medical School and the first Level I Trauma Center in Arizona verified by the American College of Surgeons. U.S. News & World Report routinely ranks St. Joseph's among the best hospitals in the United States for neurology and neurosurgery. For more information please visit our website at www.dignityhealth.org/stjosephs. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/christmas-miracle-couple-welcomes-quintuplets-300382829.html SOURCE Dignity Health St. Josephs Hospital and Medical Center Atlanta, Georgia (PRWEB) December 21, 2016 For Dominicans, Christmas is a time to get together with family and friends. To help Dominican expats feel closer to home, LlamaRepublicaDominicana.com offers them 10% discount for longer calls to the Dominican Republic. This way, even they can't meet their loved ones on Christmas, they get the chance to talk more and hear the news back home. The offer is valid for three days, starting December 20, for any Voice Credit order above $20, placed using coupon 1XMASTIM3. The surprises offered by LlamaRepublicaDominicana.com are not over yet, because customers can also win $10 free Voice Credit if they enter the "Call for Santa's elves" contest. All they have to do is add a comment mentioning the name of the person who fits the description of the elf that LlamaRepublicaDominicana.com is looking for this Christmas. It may be the name of a family member, a friend or even their own name. The contest is open for two days, starting December 20. The selection mechanism is random pick, so the luckiest Dominican expat who posts a comment to the contest wins the prize. The prize can be used to call the Dominican Republic and talk for 400 minutes, in case the winner calls landlines or 125 minutes, if she or he calls mobiles. Customers can stay connected to the Dominican Republic using any of the 3 products available on LlamaRepublicaDominicana.com: Voice Credit, Mobile Recharge, and Virtual Numbers. The standard Voice Credit rates are 2.5/min for landlines, 7.9/min for mobiles, and 7 for SMS. The mobile recharge is a service through which customers can recharge mobile phones anywhere in the world. The process is fast and secure and the credit reaches its destination instantly. The mobile operators available for recharges to the Dominican Republic are Claro, Orange, Viva, Tricom, and Moun. To feel closer to their loved ones, customers may also access the Virtual Number service, a monthly subscription created especially for the people back home. Thus, anyone calling the customers' Virtual Number will pay the regular rate of a local call. LlamaRepublicaDominicana.com is available both in English and Spanish, so customers can navigate using the language that is more familiar to them. Within the same purpose of finding easily the information needed, the website also offers 24/7 Customer Support, that can be contacted by email or phone. To find out more about offers and promotions on mobile top ups to the Dominican Republic or about international calling rates to this country, customers are invited to follow LlamaRepublicaDominicana.com on its Facebook page: Facebook.com/LlamaRepublicaDominicana. About LlamaRepublicaDominicana.com: LlamaRepublicaDominicana.com is an interactive website designed by KeepCalling, a global telecommunications company registered in 2002 in USA. Presently, KeepCalling provides its services to hundreds of thousands of consumers and businesses, with a focus on customer satisfaction. KeepCalling has been listed by Inc 5000 as one of the fastest growing companies in the USA for 5 consecutive years. In 2015 the company registered a revenue increase of over 200% from 2011 to 2014. Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/12/prweb13935950.htm Grant Marks Second Award Since 2014 ENNIS, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- A Christian Response of Shelter and Service (A-CROSS) received a $16,000 Partnership Grant Program (PGP) award today from Ennis State Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas). A-CROSS will use the funds to offset costs of providing temporary housing to Ennis, Texas, residents in emergency situations. The grant brings the nonprofits total awards to $36,000 since 2014. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161220006134/en/ Ennis Mayor Angeline Juenemann participated in the presentation of a $16,000 grant to the nonprofit, A Christian Response of Shelter and Service (A-CROSS), from Ennis State Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas on Tuesday, December 20, 2016. A-CROSS will use the funds to provide temporary housing for Ennis residents in emergency situations. (Photo: Business Wire) The work of A-CROSS truly speaks to the spirit of Ennis and its wonderful people, said Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX). When an individual or family falls on hard times, they have a safe place to go through A-CROSS and the temporary housing they provide. With this generous grant from FHLB Dallas and Ennis State Bank, this important work will continue in 2017. Ennis, located 35 miles south of Dallas, is home to more than 18,000 people, according to 2010 Census figures. A-CROSS has touched the lives of our citizens at times when they face serious challenges, said Ennis Mayor Angeline Juenemann. This committed group of caring individuals shows what compassion can accomplish in cooperation with partners like Ennis State Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas. Through the PGP, member institutions contribute $500 up to $4,000 to a community-based organization (CBO). FHLB Dallas matches the contributions at a 3:1 ratio, which provide up to $12,000 in grant money to a CBO. Our entire community benefits from the work of A-CROSS, said Julie Pierce, Ennis State Bank chief financial officer and A-CROSS board member. We have helped hundreds of people since the nonprofit was founded in 1993, and the need for our work continues, so thank you, FHLB Dallas for your ongoing support. The average stay in A-CROSS temporary housing is six months. Many of the people assisted by A-CROSS also are helped with education and job counseling. When they land jobs, a portion of the pay is set aside to be used later as a deposit on an apartment or home, Ms. Pierce explained. In 2016, FHLB Dallas awarded $225,000 in PGP funds to assist 23 CBOs. Combined with the $96,200 from member institutions, a total of $321,200 was awarded this year. Nonprofits face significant challenges in their mission to serve those in need, said Greg Hettrick, first vice president and director of Community Investment at FHLB Dallas. The Partnership Grant Program was established to support local service agencies through our member institutions, like Ennis State Bank, a valued partner with us and their community. About Ennis State Bank Since 1933, Ennis State Bank has been servicing the residents and businesses of Ellis County. Our traditional philosophies of customer service, sound advice and a strong dedication to our community differentiate us from other banks. In 2012, we decided to bring this level of service to the Design District in Dallas and opened our branch location, Trinity Capital Bank. This year, we opened our doors to its second branch in Sunnyvale, Texas. To service your mortgage needs, we have ESB Mortgage, where our dedicated lending specialists are known for their honest pricing, excellent customer service, and competitive rates. For more information, please visit www.ennisstatebank.com or www.esbmortgage.com. About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas is one of 11 district banks in the FHLBank System created by Congress in 1932. FHLB Dallas, with total assets of $58.4 billion as of September 30, 2016, is a member-owned cooperative that supports housing and community development by providing competitively priced advances and other credit products to approximately 850 members and associated institutions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Texas. For more information, visit fhlb.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161220006134/en/ Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas Corporate Communications, 214-441-8445 www.fhlb.com Source: Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas LUXEMBOURG--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I), operator of the worlds first Globalized Network, powered by its leading satellite backbone, today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Intelsat (Luxembourg) S.A. (Intelsat Luxembourg), has commenced, subject to the terms and conditions set forth in a confidential offering memorandum (the Offering Memorandum), a private offer to exchange (the Exchange Offer) its 6.75% Senior Notes due 2018 (CUSIP No. 458204 AN4) (the 2018 Lux Notes) held by Eligible Holders (as defined below) for newly issued 12.50% Senior Notes due 2024 (2024 Lux Notes). For each $1,000 principal amount of 2018 Lux Notes validly tendered at or before the Expiration Time (as defined below) and not validly withdrawn, Eligible Holders of 2018 Lux Notes will be eligible to receive $1,000 principal amount of 2024 Lux Notes. Eligible Holders whose 2018 Lux Notes are accepted in the Exchange Offer will also receive a cash payment equal to the accrued and unpaid interest in respect of such 2018 Lux Notes from December 1, 2016, which is the most recent interest payment date, to, but excluding, the Early Settlement Date or Final Settlement Date (each as defined below), as applicable, provided, aggregate cash payments to Eligible Holders who tender their 2018 Lux Notes after the Early Delivery Time (as defined below) and who in exchange receive 2024 Lux Notes on the Final Settlement Date, will be reduced by the amount of interest accrued on the 2024 Lux Notes received by them from the Early Settlement Date to, but excluding, the Final Settlement Date. The 2024 Lux Notes will mature on November 15, 2024. Interest on the 2024 Lux Notes will accrue at the rate of 12.50% per annum and be payable semi-annually in arrears on May 15 and November 15 of each year, commencing on May 15, 2017. On or after June 1, 2017, Intelsat Luxembourg may redeem all or a portion of the 2024 Lux Notes at any time at a price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the 2024 Lux Notes redeemed, together with accrued and unpaid interest to, but excluding, the redemption date. Prior to June 1, 2017, Intelsat Luxembourg may redeem all or a portion of the 2024 Lux Notes at any time at a price equal to 101.688% of the principal amount of the 2024 Lux Notes redeemed, together with accrued and unpaid interest to, but excluding, the redemption date. The 2024 Lux Notes will be Intelsat Luxembourgs senior unsecured obligations, ranking equally in right of payment with all of its existing and future senior indebtedness and senior to its existing and future subordinated indebtedness. The 2024 Lux Notes will be effectively subordinated to Intelsat Luxembourgs existing and future secured indebtedness to the extent of the assets securing such secured debt. The 2024 Lux Notes will also be structurally subordinated to all of the existing and future liabilities of Intelsat Luxembourgs subsidiaries, including the liabilities of Intelsat Connect Finance S.A. (ICF) to be incurred in connection with the exchange offers previously announced on December 7, 2016 (the Prior Exchange Offers) and the liabilities of Intelsat Jackson Holdings S.A. under its Secured Credit Agreement and existing notes. The Exchange Offer will expire at 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 19, 2017, unless it is extended or earlier terminated by Intelsat Luxembourg. In order to participate in the Exchange Offer, Eligible Holders must validly tender their 2018 Lux Notes at or prior to 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 19, 2017, unless extended by Intelsat Luxembourg (such date and time, as the same may be extended, the Expiration Time). Intelsat Luxembourg expects to conduct an early settlement of the Exchange Offer with respect to 2018 Lux Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn prior to 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 4, 2017 (the Early Delivery Time and the date of such early settlement, the Early Settlement Date), and a final settlement promptly after the Expiration Time (the Final Settlement Date). The following table sets forth certain key dates of the Exchange Offer. Further information may be found in the Offering Memorandum: Key Date Calendar Date Launch Date December 20, 2016 Early Delivery Time 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 4, 2017, unless extended or earlier terminated by Intelsat Luxembourg. Early Settlement Date Promptly after the Early Delivery Time, and expected to be the second business day after the Early Delivery Time. The Early Settlement Date is currently expected to be January 6, 2017. Intelsat Luxembourg reserves the right, but is under no obligation, to elect to have an Early Settlement Date. Withdrawal Deadline 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on the date of the Early Delivery Time, unless extended or earlier terminated by Intelsat Luxembourg. Expiration Time 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 19, 2017, unless extended or earlier terminated by Intelsat Luxembourg. Final Settlement Date The final settlement date is currently expected to be January 20, 2017. Intelsat Luxembourg reserves the right, but is under no obligation, to elect an Early Settlement Date. The Exchange Offer is subject to customary closing conditions. Subject to applicable law and the terms set forth in the Offering Memorandum, Intelsat Luxembourg reserves the right to waive any and all conditions to the Exchange Offer, in whole or in part, and may do so, subject to applicable law, without reinstating withdrawal rights. In addition, Intelsat Luxembourg expressly reserves the right to extend or terminate the Exchange Offer and to otherwise amend or modify the Exchange Offer in any respect. Tendering 2018 Lux Notes in the Exchange Offer will preclude tendering those 2018 Lux Notes in the Prior Exchange Offer for 2018 Lux Notes (the Prior 2018 Lux Exchange Offer), unless they are validly withdrawn from the Exchange Offer. ICF intends to tender into the Exchange Offer the $25 million of 2018 Lux Notes currently held by it, together with the additional 2018 Lux Notes acquired by it in the Prior 2018 Lux Exchange Offer and pursuant to the support agreements previously announced on December 7, 2016. It is anticipated that the 2018 Lux Notes acquired by Intelsat Luxembourg pursuant to the Exchange Offer will be cancelled. The 2024 Lux Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or any other applicable securities laws and, unless so registered, the 2024 Lux Notes may not be offered, sold, pledged or otherwise transferred in the United States or to or for the account or benefit of any U.S. person, except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act. Intelsat Luxembourg does not intend to register the 2024 Lux Notes under the Securities Act or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction. The 2024 Lux Notes are not transferable except in accordance with the restrictions described more fully in the Offering Memorandum. The Exchange Offer is being made, and the 2024 Lux Notes to be issued pursuant to the Exchange Offer are being offered and issued, only (a) in the United States to holders of 2018 Lux Notes who are qualified institutional buyers (as defined in Rule 144A under the Securities Act), (b) in the United States to holders of 2018 Lux Notes not resident in Arkansas who are institutional accredited investors (within the meaning of Rule 501(a)(1), (2), (3) or (7) of Regulation D under the Securities Act) and (c) outside the United States to holders of 2018 Lux Notes who are persons other than U.S. persons in reliance upon Regulation S under the Securities Act. The holders of 2018 Lux Notes who have certified to Intelsat Luxembourg that they are eligible to participate in the Exchange Offer pursuant to at least one of the foregoing conditions are referred to as Eligible Holders. Only Eligible Holders are authorized to receive or review the Offering Memorandum or participate in the Exchange Offer. The Exchange Offer is being conducted pursuant to the Offering Memorandum, this press release and Intelsat S.A.s or Intelsat Luxembourgs other press releases related to the Exchange Offer (collectively, the Exchange Offer Materials). Guggenheim Securities acted as Intelsats financial advisor for these transactions and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal advisor. Questions regarding the Exchange Offer may be directed to Intelsat Luxembourg at the following email address: Attn: Investor Relations, Email: [email protected]. The complete terms and conditions of the Exchange Offer, as well as the terms of the 2024 Lux Notes, are set forth in the Offering Memorandum. The Offering Memorandum will only be made available to holders who complete an eligibility letter confirming their status as Eligible Holders. Holders of 2018 Lux Notes who wish to receive a copy of the eligibility letter for the Exchange Offer may contact Global Bondholder Services Corporation (the Information and Exchange Agent) at 65 Broadway Suite 404, New York, New York 10006, Attn: Corporate Actions, (212) 430-3774 (for banks and brokers) or (866) 470-4200 (for all others). Holders may also obtain and complete an electronic copy of the eligibility letter on the following website maintained by Global Bondholder Services: http://gbsc-usa.com/eligibility/intelsat_luxembourg. Intelsat Luxembourg is making the Exchange Offer only by, and pursuant to, the terms of the Exchange Offer Materials. None of Intelsat Luxembourg, the Information and Exchange Agent, nor their respective affiliates makes any recommendation as to whether Eligible Holders should tender or refrain from tendering their 2018 Lux Notes. Eligible Holders must make their own decision as to whether or not to tender their 2018 Lux Notes, as well as with respect to the principal amount of the 2018 Lux Notes to tender. The Exchange Offer is not being made to any holders of 2018 Lux Notes in any jurisdiction in which the making or acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities, blue sky or other laws of such jurisdiction. This press release does not constitute an offer to purchase securities or a solicitation of an offer to sell any securities or an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase any new securities, nor does it constitute an offer or solicitation in any jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. About Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I) operates the worlds first Globalized Network, powered by its leading satellite backbone, delivering high-quality, cost-effective video and broadband services anywhere in the world. Intelsats Globalized Network combines the worlds 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. Intelsat Safe Harbor Statement Statements in this news release, including statements regarding the Exchange Offer and the Prior Exchange Offers, constitute forward-looking statements that do not directly or exclusively relate to historical facts. When used in this release, the words may, will, might, should, expect, plan, anticipate, project, believe, estimate, predict, intend, potential, outlook, and continue, and the negative of these terms, and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. The forward-looking statements reflect Intelsats intentions, plans, expectations, anticipations, projections, estimations, predictions, assumptions and beliefs about future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of Intelsats control. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements include known and unknown risks. Known risks include, among others, market conditions and the risks described in Intelsats annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2015, quarterly report on Form 6-K for the quarters ended June 30, 2016 and September 30, 2016, and its other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and risks and uncertainties related to our ability to consummate the Exchange Offer or the Prior Exchange Offers. Because actual results could differ materially from Intelsats intentions, plans, expectations, anticipations, projections, estimations, predictions, assumptions and beliefs about the future, you are urged to view all forward-looking statements with caution. Intelsat does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161220006153/en/ Intelsat Dianne VanBeber, +1 703-559-7406 Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications [email protected] or Michele Loguidice, +1 703-559-7372 Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications [email protected] Source: Intelsat NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Kellwood Company, LLC, a leading apparel manufacturer, announced that it has been acquired by a Hong Kong-based investor group for an undisclosed amount. Kellwood Company operates a portfolio of popular brands focused on the womens and juniors apparel market. The acquisition includes the My Michelle, Jolt, Rewind, Democracy, Sangria, JAX, and Briggs New York brands, as well as the XOXO apparel license, and Kellwoods private label business. In connection with the acquisition, David Falwell has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Kellwood. Falwell returns to Kellwood where he served as Executive Vice President of Operations until 2013, following a 29-year career at Kellwood and predecessor companies. Caren Belair, a 33-year veteran of Kellwood, will continue as the Companys President, and Xiaopei Chin, who has been with Kellwood for 10 years, has been appointed President of the Western Region. Kellwood is one of the leading apparel manufacturers in the United States, with over 50 years of history at the forefront of the apparel industry, said David Falwell, CEO of Kellwood. We believe that there is tremendous growth potential for Kellwoods businesses, and this acquisition will allow the company to leverage its existing relationships in Asia to grow its businesses and increase profitability. I am also excited to have this opportunity to return to Kellwood to lead a proven management team, continued Falwell. Together with a strong investor group that believes in the companys growth potential, I believe that Kellwood has a bright future and is better positioned than ever to serve its retail partners and consumers. Buchalters Shareholders Jeffrey Kapor, Jeremy Weitz and Tanya Viner, and their associate Garry Padrta represented the Hong Kong-based investor group in this transaction. About Kellwood Kellwood Company designs, manufactures, and markets a portfolio of womens and juniors fashion brands and private label apparel. Kellwoods brands cover a broad range of consumer lifestyles including My Michelle, Jolt, Rewind, Democracy, Sangria, JAX, Briggs New York, and XOXO. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005204/en/ KHPR Rachel Zucker 310-295-1189 [email protected] Source: Kellwood Company, LLC HOUSTON, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Petrogas Company, Inc. (OTC PINK: PTCO) ("Petrogas Company" or "the Company"), today announced that it participated in a government auction by the Bureau of Land Management ("BLM") and successfully purchased two oil and gas leases in the Eastern States. More specifically, the company purchased a lease in Washington, OH and another in Monroe, OH. The leases are on a 10-year primary term and the company will pay 12.5% in royalties to the government once production begins. "We are pleased to have won these government auctions. These leases will be our first in the eastern states and with oil prices at a 12-month high we are looking forward to exploring the potential in this area," cited Mr. Huang Yu, CEO of Petrogas Company. The total crude oil production in Ohio for 2015 was nearly 22 million bbl and the total natural gas production approximately 950 million mcf mostly produced from the Utica and Marcellus shales. More than 1,200 wells are operated in Ohio in part by large companies including XTO Energy (an Exxon subsidiary) and Chesapeake. About Petrogas Company, Inc. Petrogas Company, Inc. is an oil and gas exploration and production company focused on the acquisition of properties in areas with significant oil reserves and drilling potential. The Company's growth strategy includes the acquisition of oil fields from distressed third parties at a substantial discount to value, and development of fields whose potential has not been fully maximized. For more information investors can visit www.petrogas-company.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release and the materials referenced herein include "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements give Petrogas Company's current expectations or forecasts of future events. Such statements involve material risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to: whether newly drilled or newly acquired properties will produce at levels consistent with management's expectations; market conditions; whether we will experience equipment failures and, if they materialize, whether we will be able to fund repair work without materially impairing planned production levels or the availability of capital for further production increases; the ability of Petrogas Company to fund the costs of new wells and to obtain financing from other sources for continued development; the costs of operations; delays, and any other difficulties related to producing oil; the ability of Petrogas Company to integrate the newly producing assets; the ability to retain necessary skilled workers to operate the new producing wells; the price of oil; Petrogas Company's ability to market and sell produced minerals; the risks and effects of legal and administrative proceedings and governmental regulation; future financial and operational results; competition; general economic conditions; and the ability to manage and continue growth. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual outcomes may vary materially from those indicated. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements are set forth in our Form 10-K and the registrations statement for any offerings as filed with the SEC. Petrogas Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update such statements to reflect current events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Petrogas Company's production forecasts are dependent upon many assumptions, including estimates of production decline rates from existing wells and the outcome of future drilling activity. Although Petrogas Company believes the expectations and forecasts reflected in these and other forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance they will prove to have been correct. They can be affected by inaccurate assumptions or by known or unknown risks and uncertainties. Contact:Petrogas Company(832) 899-8597 Source: Petrogas Company The all-cash public tender offer announced on August 1, 2016, by TDKs subsidiary EPCOS to acquire all publicly-held shares of Tronics has been successful. EPCOS has acquired 72.38% of the outstanding shares at a price of EUR 13.20 per share, and has thus exceeded the defined 65.41%1 success threshold for its offer. The settlement of the tender offer will occur on December 27, 2016. Through the acquisition of Tronics, TDK broadens its portfolio of cutting-edge sensor technologies and strengthens its basis for faster growth in the strategic field of sensors. Thales Avionics will remain a strategic shareholder of Tronics. After the closing of the successful offer, Thales Avionics and EPCOS will enter into a shareholders agreement. The tender offer will automatically reopen in the beginning of January 2017 for a period of 10 trading days. TOKYO & CROLLES, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- TDK Corporation (TDK, TOKYO: 6762) and Tronics Microsystems SA (Tronics, ISIN:FR0004175099 ALTRO) jointly announced today that the all-cash public tender offer launched by TDKs wholly-owned subsidiary EPCOS AG (EPCOS) was successfully closed on December 14, 2016. EPCOS, a leading manufacturer of electronic components, modules and systems based in Munich, Germany, acquired 72.38% of the outstanding shares at a price of EUR 13.20 per share, thus exceeding the defined 65.41% success threshold for the offer. The acquisition of these shares represents a value of approximately EUR 33.432 million. The settlement of the tender offer will occur on December 27, 2016. Thales Avionics, which holds a 20.9% stake in Tronics, will remain a strategic shareholder of Tronics. After the closing of the successful offer, Thales Avionics and EPCOS will hold in aggregate 93.30% of the capital and 88.88% of the voting rights of Tronics. The two companies will enter into a shareholders agreement to act in concert, which will take effect at the closing of the reopened tender offer in accordance with the terms summarized in the offer documentation. The tender offer will automatically reopen in the beginning of January 2017 for a period of 10 trading days. The offer price per share will remain unchanged at EUR 13.20 and represents a 78.4% premium over Tronics closing share price on July 7, 2016, the trading day immediately preceding the stock trading suspension, and a 62.1% premium to the volume-weighted average price during the last 60 trading days prior to this suspension. The composition of the Supervisory Board of Tronics will be revised to reflect the new shareholding structure of Tronics. Next steps If, at the end of the reopened tender offer, EPCOS2 holds more than 95% of the capital and voting rights of Tronics, EPCOS reserves its right to ask the AMF, within ten (10) trading days from the result publication of the re-opened tender offer, or where applicable, within three (3) months from the end of the reopened tender offer, to implement a squeeze-out procedure by the transfer of Tronics shares which would not have been tendered to the offer. Solid basis for future growth With the addition of Tronics, which provides an immediate entry to the rapidly growing market for inertial sensors, TDK has implemented a further key element in its strategy to broaden and strengthen its portfolio of cutting-edge sensor technologies. Comments Joachim Zichlarz, Corporate Officer and Senior Vice President of TDK, as well as Chairman of the Management Board, CEO and CFO of EPCOS: With the successful completion of the tender offer and the conclusion of our agreement with Thales, we have created a solid basis for further developing Tronics' business under the roof of TDK and, at the same time, boosting our innovativeness and market strength in one of the futures most promising technological fields. Moreover, TDK expects strong synergies with its own cutting-edge thin-film and assembly technologies. Pascal Langlois, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of Tronics comments: Tronics shareholders have recognized the strong financial and industrial merits of the acquisition by TDK. Its solid financial basis and extensive know-how in materials and production engineering now provide a very good basis to grow further Tronics inertial products and MEMS technologies. This is a great step in the companys development as we will benefit from TDKs leading and developing position as a powerful component manufacturer in industrial, automotive and consumer electronics markets. Additional information related to the tender offer The Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) published the results of the tender offer on December 19, 2016. The offer documents and press releases for the tender offer can be found on the EPCOS website under www.epcos.com/tronics and on the Tronics website under www.tronicsgroup-bourse.com/en/. Please note that these documents are available only in French with the exception of the initial press release on August 1, 2016, announcing the tender offer. Advisors Kepler Cheuvreux is acting as presenting bank in the context of the public tender offer, PwC Corporate Finance is acting as financial advisor and Hogan Lovells is acting as legal advisor to TDK. Gimar & Cie is acting as financial advisor to Tronics, and Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier is acting as legal advisor to Tronics. About TDK Corporation TDK Corporation is a leading electronics company based in Tokyo, Japan. It was established in 1935 to commercialize ferrite, a key material in electronic and magnetic products. TDK's portfolio includes electronic components, modules and systems* which are marketed under the product brands TDK and EPCOS, power supplies, magnetic application products as well as energy devices, flash memory application devices, and others. TDK focuses on demanding markets in the areas of information and communication technology and consumer, automotive and industrial electronics. The company has a network of design and manufacturing locations and sales offices in Asia, Europe, and in North and South America. In fiscal 2016, TDK posted total sales of USD 10.2 billion and employed about 92,000 people worldwide. * The product portfolio includes ceramic, aluminum electrolytic and film capacitors, ferrites, inductors, high-frequency components such as surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter products and modules, piezo and protection components, and sensors. About EPCOS EPCOS, a TDK Group Company, develops, manufactures and markets electronic components, modules and systems, focusing on fast-growing leading-edge technology markets, which include information and communications technology, automotive electronics, industrial electronics and consumer electronics. Thanks to the approximately 25,500 employees at more than 20 design and production locations and an extensive sales network outside of Europe, the company is well-equipped to work closely with customers and create the right solutions for them. Since February 2015, the two existing European sales channels for EPCOS and TDK products have been merged under the one roof of TDK Europe. In fiscal 2016 (ending in March) EPCOS posted sales of about EUR 2.5 billion. About Tronics Founded in 1997, Tronics is a recognized technological leader in the sector of nano & microsystems with high added value. Positioned at the heart of product innovation, Tronics has technology platforms protected by a portfolio of 25 families of patents, resulting from 15 years of R&D and more than EUR 15 million of cumulative industrial investments. Addressing high-growth markets relying on increasing miniaturization of electronic devices, Tronics designs, manufactures and sells custom or standard products to the industry, aeronautics & security, medical and consumer markets. Located in Crolles, near Grenoble (France) and in Dallas, Texas (United States), Tronics posted revenue of EUR 7.8 Million in 2015. It now has 92 employees, of whom 55 are engineers and scientists. ISIN code: FR0004175099 ALTRO. Innovative Company certification number: A1410008 V. For more information: www.tronicsgroup-bourse.com 1 This success threshold was reduced to take into account the shares of Tronics underlying the bons de souscription de parts de createur d'entreprise (BSPCE) and stock options that will be covered by irrevocable forward sale agreements, so that the 66.67% threshold can be reached after the offer as a result of the delivery of these shares. 2 Acting in concert with Thales Avionics View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005325/en/ TDK Contacts Sumio Marukawa, 81-3-6852-7102 Corporate Communications [email protected] Jun Hatsumi, 81-3-6852-7102 Investor Relations [email protected] For EPCOS related issues: Hans-Peter Ziegler, 49-89-54020-2415 Corporate Communications [email protected] or Tronics Contacts Investor Relations & Corporate Communications: Actus Lyon France Bentin/Serena Boni, 33-4-72-18-04-92 [email protected] Marketing: Karl Biasio, 33-4-76-97-29-50 [email protected] Source: TDK Corporation NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Xerox (NYSE: XRX) has named Steve Hoover, as chief technology officer, effective Jan. 1, 2017. Hoover currently serves as chief executive officer of PARC, A Xerox Company. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005581/en/ Steve Hoover, Chief Technology Officer, Xerox Corporation (Photo: Business Wire) Hoover will be responsible for research and product development, reporting to Jeff Jacobson, CEO of Xerox following the companys separation. In this role, Hoover will oversee the Xerox global research centers including the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), the Xerox Research Centre Canada and the Xerox Research Centre Europe, as well as Xeroxs globally distributed product development and engineering capabilities. With more than 12,000 active U.S. patents, Xerox has a long history of innovation that includes the creation of the worlds first plain paper copier, the FAX, Ethernet, laser printing, the graphic user interface and computer programming that is the basis for todays desktop and laptop computers. Hoover joined PARC in 2011 after serving as vice president of the Xerox Research Center of Webster. He has helped transform PARC from Xeroxs flagship research laboratory to a world-class R&D organization in the business of open innovation, providing technologies and custom innovation services to enterprises, start-ups and government agencies. Since joining Xerox in 1994, Hoover has held a variety of roles in both product development and research, leading long-term technology investments in analytics, digital manufacturing, intelligent systems, distributed and cloud computing, nanotechnology, mobile, the future of work, and advanced printing and mass customization technologies. Steves experience at PARC provides a great foundation for building on Xeroxs strong innovation heritage, said Jacobson. His leadership will help drive new, cutting-edge technologies that redefine how work gets done for our customers leading the way to enhanced productivity, efficiency and profitability, Hoover earned his doctorate degree and masters degree in Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and a bachelors degree from Cornell University. Hoover succeeds Sophie Vandebroek, who will retire at the end of this year. Vandebroek joined Xerox in 1991 and has served as the companys chief technology officer and president of the Xerox Innovation Group for more than a decade. Click to Tweet About Xerox Xerox is helping change the way the world works. By applying our expertise in imaging, business process, analytics, automation and user-centric insights, we engineer the flow of work to provide greater productivity, efficiency and personalization. Our employees create meaningful innovations and provide business process services, printing equipment, software and solutions that make a real difference for our clients and their customers in 180 countries. On January 29, 2016, Xerox announced its plans to separate into two independent, publicly traded companies Xerox Corporation, which will be comprised of the companys Document Technology and Document Outsourcing businesses, and Conduent Incorporated, a business process services company. Learn more at www.xerox.com. Note: To receive RSS news feeds, visit https://www.news.xerox.com. For open commentary, industry perspectives and views visit http://twitter.com/xerox, http://www.linkedin.com/company/xerox, http://simplifywork.blogs.xerox.com, http://www.facebook.com/XeroxCorp, http://www.youtube.com/XeroxCorp. Xerox and Xerox and Design are trademarks of Xerox in the United States and/or other countries. Conduent is a trademark of Xerox Business Services, LLC in the United States and/or other countries. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005581/en/ Media: Xerox Carl Langsenkamp, +1-585-423-5782 [email protected] or Bill McKee, +1-585-423-4476 [email protected] Source: Xerox SPRINGFIELD Illinois top leaders arent meeting to discuss the state budget, but a group that includes rank-and-file lawmakers from both parties has been meeting more frequently in recent weeks to come up with a plan to overhaul the way the state funds public schools. Despite the standstill over the broader state budget, members of Gov. Bruce Rauners education funding reform commission said theyre optimistic that the group, which has been meeting since summer, will be able to come up with at least the outlines of what a new school funding formula should look like. When the first-term Republican governor announced the group in July, he set a Feb. 1 deadline for it to complete its work. The commissions next meeting is set for today. Weve made meaningful progress on an incredibly difficult issue, said state Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, a member of the commission and a leading voice in his caucus on school funding issues. If reform is going to occur, Barickman said, the group, and ultimately the General Assembly, will have to come to a consensus on complicated issues such as property taxes and achieving parity among school districts, from Chicago Public Schools, the nations third largest, to tiny rural districts. State Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, the point person for the Senate Democrats on school funding issues, said he believes the group will be able to complete at least a set of specific recommendations that could be the framework of legislation. I personally believe that we can produce a bill before Feb. 1, Manar said, adding that others on the commission might disagree. Barickman said he believes the more likely scenario is a number of separate bills based on the commissions recommendations. None of those recommendations has been put to paper yet, but Manar said he believes theres agreement that the states new approach to school funding needs to take into account the varying needs of individual districts. Rauner and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle acknowledge that Illinois is among the worst states in the nation when it comes to providing equitable funding for students in its poorest school districts. A recent report from Advance Illinois, an education advocacy group, noted that under the current formula, Illinois spends 81 cents educating students from low-income families for every dollar it spends educating kids from wealthier ones. That is just upside-down from what we know needs to happen, said Ginger Ostro, Advance Illinois executive director. So far, however, long-term proposals aimed at fixing the problem havent been approved because they would either take money away from wealthier districts or vastly increase state spending on public education, both of which are politically challenging. Despite the political challenges inherent in the debate over education funding and the heated political environment in Springfield in the lead-up to and aftermath of a contentious election, both Barickman and Manar said the commission has managed to keep partisanship out of its work. Manar said he credits Beth Purvis, Rauners education secretary. Shes done a fantastic job of leading the commission and keeping us on task, he said. The governors office did not make Purvis available for comment. A complicating factor in the groups work is Rauners recent push for a freeze on local property taxes, which are the primary source of school funding in the state. While elementary and secondary education is funded through the rest of the school year, a stopgap spending plan for other state operations expires Dec. 31. Rauner has said hell only sign another short-term spending plan if lawmakers approve a property tax freeze and a referendum on amending the Illinois Constitution to create term limits for elected officials. Under Rauners plan, school districts and other local governments would need permission from voters to raise property taxes. Ben Schwarm, deputy executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards, said there is a lot of concern (among members) about what that would look like and what that would do to their local school budgets. However, a property tax freeze might be workable if the state shouldered a greater share of the responsibility for funding schools, Schwarm said. It all works together, and until we know how the rest of these parts are going to move, we dont know what the ultimate impact would be, he said. By Abdiqani Hassan and Feisal Omar BOSASSO, Somalia (Reuters) - Al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab militants shot dead an aide to a regional official in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region on Tuesday, the second such attack in a week, police said. Aden Huruse, a director in Puntland's presidential palace, was attacked at a restaurant in its main city Bosasso, police told Reuters. "Two men armed with pistols fired several bullets into his head. He died on the spot," said Major Mohamed Hassan, a Bosasso police officer. Al Shabaab regularly targets officials throughout Somalia. Its insurgency aims to drive out African Union peacekeepers, topple Somalia's Western-backed government and impose its strict version of Islam on the Horn of Africa state. Tuesday's shooting occurred six days after al Shabaab gunmen killed the region's deputy police commander Jamac Sahardiid outside a hotel in Bosasso. "This evening we killed the director in Bosasso. We were also behind the killing of Puntland's deputy police commander days ago," said Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the militant's military operation spokesman. The al Shabaab insurgency persists in Somalia as it pursues reconstruction after more than two decades of conflict and chaos that have left the nation in tatters. Somalis are now voting across the country for a new parliament, which will choose a new president. (Writing by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Mark Heinrich) By Suzanne Barlyn (Reuters) - New York's financial regulator will delay an anticipated Jan. 1 deadline for banks and insurers doing business in the state to comply with controversial cyber security rules, a person familiar with the matter said. The regulator, the New York State Department of Financial Services, will publish a revamped version of its cyber security rules in the New York State Register on Dec. 28, the person said. The new effective date, following a public review period, will be March 1, 2017, the person said. Once finalized, they will be the first rules of their kind in the United States by any state or federal agency, the regulator has said. Banks and insurers have been fighting for an extension of the compliance deadline and other changes since New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued the long-anticipated proposed cyber security regulations in September. The New York agency regulates state-chartered and foreign banks licensed to operate in the state, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Barclays Plc and Deutsche Bank AG, and all insurance companies that do business in the state. On Monday, banking and insurance industry representatives expressed their concerns about the rules in a hearing before New York state lawmakers. Among their objections: The rules did not distinguish between small and large financial institutions and would possibly conflict with future U.S. government cyber security rules. The New York regulator received more than 150 letters from banking and insurance industry groups, among others, in response to the cyber security plan. Other changes to be included in the revised rules are unclear. The planned regulations, in the works since 2014, followed a series of high-profile hackings of U.S. companies and three surveys by the regulator about cyber security programs at a total of nearly 200 companies under its watch. One report the regulator issued last year revealed that a third of 40 banks it surveyed did not require outside vendors to notify them of data breaches, which could compromise bank data. A task force of U.S. state insurance regulators is also developing a model cyber security law, which individual state legislatures could ultimately choose to adopt. Model laws, which cover a variety of subjects, typically lead to more uniformity among state laws. But model laws first must be finalized and approved by organizations developing them before being considered by state lawmakers. (Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; editing by Jonathan Oatis) A logo of Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank is seen on the ground in Siena, Italy, November 5, 2014. REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito/File Photo - RTX2VB64 MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's Monte dei Paschi di Siena has raised around 500 million euros as of Tuesday in a voluntary debt-to-equity offer that is a key part of a last-ditch attempt to raise 5 billion euros ($5.2 billion) and avert state intervention, a source close to the matter said. The troubled bank, recently judged the weakest of the European Union's major banks, must raise the money by the end of this month as part of a rescue plan that also includes the sale of 28 billion euros in bad loans. Finding investors has proved difficult amid political turmoil triggered by the resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi following his defeat in a constitutional referendum on Dec. 4, and a state bailout looks likely. A failure of the world's oldest bank would threaten the savings of thousands of Italians and could have repercussions on the country's banking sector, saddled with a third of the euro zone's total bad loans. Italy's third biggest bank reopened the debt swap offer on Friday to include retail investors owning 2.1 billion euros of the bank's junior debt and holders of a hybrid financial instrument known as Fresh 2008. The new swap offer, which the bank estimates could raise 1.8 billion euros including 1 billion euros already tendered by institutional investors in a first phase, ends on Wednesday. The bank is also selling shares in a placement that ends on Thursday and that should raise 3.2 billion euros to be successful. The bank had pinned its hopes on Qatar's sovereign wealth fund putting in 1 billion euros in the cash call, but sources have said the fund has not decided yet whether to invest. If Monte dei Paschi fails to pull off its own privately-funded rescue, a government bailout could come as early as this week after Rome decided to seek parliamentary approval to borrow 20 billion euros to prop up the Tuscan bank and other ailing lenders. (Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Silvia Aloisi and Adrian Croft) Norwegian PM Erna Solberg visits Klobben island during the annual informal summer meeting of the Nordic prime ministers in Saltvik, the Aland Islands, Finland September 27, 2016. Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva/via REUTERS OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg will reshuffle her cabinet on Tuesday, replacing at least three ministers nine months before the next general election, public broadcaster NRK reported, quoting unnamed sources. The minority government of the Conservatives and the anti-immigration Progress Party, which rules with the backing of two small centrist parties in parliament, has lagged the centre-left opposition in recent opinion polls. EU Affairs Minister Elisabeth Aspaker of the Conservative Party will step down, NRK said, while adding it was not clear who would take up the post. NRK and other news organizations on Sunday reported that Oil and Energy Minister Tord Lien would leave in favor of Terje Soeviknes, a popular small-town mayor, while Justice Minister Anders Anundsen would be replaced by Per-Willy Amundsen, a junior minister. Norway is western Europe's top producer of oil and natural gas, and the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy manages the government's majority stake in Statoil. Solberg's office declined to comment. (Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Stine Jacobsen) Swiss national Xavier Justo is escorted by Thai police commandos as he arrives at the Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok, Thailand, December 20, 2016. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand on Tuesday freed from prison a Swiss man jailed for blackmail and attempted extortion in a case linked to a scandal over Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Xavier Justo was among 150,000 Thai and foreign inmates who were granted a royal amnesty this month by Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn. He will be deported to Switzerland, his lawyer said. Justo was jailed for three years in August 2015 after Thai police said he admitted to blackmail and attempting extortion of his former employer, Petrosaudi International, a Saudi Arabia-based oil and gas company and former joint venture partner of 1MDB. The Malaysian state fund 1MDB, once a pet project of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who chaired its advisory board, is the subject of money-laundering investigations in at least six countries, including Switzerland, Singapore and the United States. After his release, Justo, dressed in a white T-shirt, blue shorts and flip flops, was taken to an immigration detention center in Bangkok in a police van accompanied by four police commandos. "I'm happy to be sent home," Justo told Reuters as he went into the center. "I hope to be back by tonight." Justo's lawyer in Thailand, Worrasit Piriyawiboon, said his client would be deported to Switzerland. "It's now up to immigration when they decide to deport him and up to his embassy," Worrasit told Reuters. In August, Justo's sentence was cut to two years under a royal amnesty, prompting the Swiss authorities to request his transfer to serve the remaining term back home. Thailand declined the extradition request, which Swiss authorities said in September they regretted. Worrasit said it was customary for Thailand to deport people to their country when they are released, and Justo could do what he wanted when he got home. "This is not an extradition. This is a deportation," he said. "Once he's in Switzerland, he's a free man." Reuters was not able to reach the Swiss Embassy in Bangkok for comment. Thai police said Justo leaked documents from Petrosaudi relating to its joint venture with 1MDB that were published by Malaysian and international media groups last year and formed the basis of the money-laundering investigation. He was arrested on a Thai resort island in 2015 following allegations by Petrosaudi that he had demanded payment in exchange for not disclosing confidential information, Thai police said at the time. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib has denied any wrongdoing in connection with 1MDB and said Malaysia would cooperate with the investigations. (Reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Jutarat Skulpichetrat; Editing by Robert Birsel) RBC Capital Markets Filed Pursuant to Rule 424(b)(2) Registration Statement No. 333-208507 Pricing Supplement Dated December 20, 2016 To the Product Prospectus Supplement FIN-1 dated January 14, 2016, and the Prospectus Supplement and Prospectus, each dated January 8, 2016 $1,000,000 Redeemable Step Up Notes, Due December 23, 2026 Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada is offering the Redeemable Step Up Notes (the Notes) described below. The CUSIP number for the Notes is 78012KSD0. The Notes will accrue interest at the following rates during the indicated year of their term: Years 1-5: 2.625% per annum Years 6-10: 4.000% per annum We will pay interest on the Notes on June 23 and December 23 of each year (each an Interest Payment Date), commencing on June 23, 2017. We may call the Notes in whole, but not in part, on December 23, 2021 upon 10 business days prior written notice. Any payments on the Notes are subject to our credit risk. The Notes will not be listed on any U.S. securities exchange. Investing in the Notes involves a number of risks. See Risk Factors beginning on page S-1 of the prospectus supplement dated January 8, 2016, Additional Risk Factors Specific to the Notes beginning on page PS-5 of the product prospectus supplement FIN-1 dated January 14, 2016 and Additional Risk Factors on page P-5 of this pricing supplement. The Notes will not constitute deposits insured by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation, the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the FDIC) or any other Canadian or U.S. government agency or instrumentality. Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined that this pricing supplement is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense. RBC Capital Markets, LLC has offered the Notes at varying public offering prices related to prevailing market prices, and will purchase the Notes from us on the Issue Date at purchase prices between 98.90% and 100.00% of the principal amount. See Supplemental Plan of Distribution (Conflicts of Interest) on page P-5 below. To the extent that the total aggregate principal amount of the Notes being offered by this pricing supplement is not purchased by investors in the offering, one or more of our affiliates may purchase the unsold portion. However, our affiliates will not purchase more than 15% of the principal amount of the Notes. We will deliver the Notes in book-entry only form through the facilities of The Depository Trust Company on December 23, 2016, against payment in immediately available funds. RBC Capital Markets, LLC Redeemable Step Up Notes, Due December 23, 2026 SUMMARY The information in this Summary section is qualified by the more detailed information set forth in this pricing supplement, the product prospectus supplement FIN-1, the prospectus supplement, and the prospectus. Issuer: Royal Bank of Canada (Royal Bank) Issue: Senior Global Medium-Term Notes, Series G Underwriter: RBC Capital Markets, LLC Currency: U.S. Dollars Minimum Investment: $1,000 and minimum denominations of $1,000 in excess of $1,000 Pricing Date: December 20, 2016 Issue Date: December 23, 2016 Maturity Date: December 23, 2026 CUSIP: 78012KSD0 Type of Note: Step Up Note Interest Rate: Years 1-5: 2.625% per annum Years 6-10: 4.000% per annum Interest Payment Dates: Semi-annually, on June 23 and December 23 of each year, commencing on June 23, 2017. If an Interest Payment Date is not a New York business day, interest shall be paid on the next New York business day, without adjustment for period end dates and no interest shall be paid in respect of the delay. Redemption: Redeemable at our option. If we redeem the Notes, we will pay you the principal amount, together with the applicable interest payment. Call Date: The Notes are callable, in whole, but not in part, on December 23, 2021 upon 10 business days prior written notice. Survivors Option: Applicable. See General Terms of the NotesSurvivors Option beginning on page PS-17 of the product prospectus supplement FIN-1 dated January 14, 2016. U.S. Tax Treatment: Please see the discussion (including the opinion of our counsel Morrison & Foerster LLP) in the product prospectus supplement FIN-1 dated January 14, 2016 under Supplemental Discussion of U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences and specifically the discussion under Supplemental Discussion of U.S. Federal Income Tax ConsequencesSupplemental U.S. Tax ConsiderationsWhere the term of your notes will exceed one yearFixed Rate Notes, Floating Rate Notes, Inverse Floating Rate Notes, Step Up Notes, Leveraged Notes, Range Accrual Notes, Dual Range Accrual Notes and Non-Inversion Range Accrual Notes, and Supplemental Discussion of U.S. Federal Income Tax ConsequencesSupplemental U.S. Tax ConsiderationsWhere the term of your notes will exceed one yearSale, Redemption or Maturity of Notes that Are Not Treated as Contingent Payment Debt Instruments, which applies to your Notes. Redeemable Step Up Notes, Due December 23, 2026 Calculation Agent: RBC Capital Markets, LLC Listing: The Notes will not be listed on any securities exchange. Clearance and Settlement: DTC global (including through its indirect participants Euroclear and Clearstream, Luxembourg as described under Description of Debt SecuritiesOwnership and Book-Entry Issuance in the prospectus dated January 8, 2016). Terms Incorporated in the Master Note: All of the terms appearing above the item captioned Listing on page P-2 of this pricing supplement and the terms appearing under the caption General Terms of the Notes in the product prospectus supplement FIN-1 dated January 14, 2016, as modified by this pricing supplement. Redeemable Step Up Notes, Due December 23, 2026 ADDITIONAL TERMS OF YOUR NOTES You should read this pricing supplement together with the prospectus dated January 8, 2016, as supplemented by the prospectus supplement dated January 8, 2016 and the product prospectus supplement FIN-1 dated January 14, 2016, relating to our Senior Global Medium-Term Notes, Series G, of which these Notes are a part. Capitalized terms used but not defined in this pricing supplement will have the meanings given to them in the product prospectus supplement FIN-1. In the event of any conflict, this pricing supplement will control. The Notes vary from the terms described in the product prospectus supplement FIN-1 in several important ways. You should read this pricing supplement carefully. This pricing supplement, together with the documents listed below, contains the terms of the Notes and supersedes all prior or contemporaneous oral statements as well as any other written materials including preliminary or indicative pricing terms, correspondence, trade ideas, structures for implementation, sample structures, brochures or other educational materials of ours. You should carefully consider, among other things, the matters set forth in Risk Factors in the prospectus supplement dated January 8, 2016, Additional Risk Factors Specific to the Notes in the product prospectus supplement FIN-1 dated January 14, 2016 and Additional Risk Factors in this pricing supplement, as the Notes involve risks not associated with conventional debt securities. We urge you to consult your investment, legal, tax, accounting and other advisors before you invest in the Notes. You may access these documents on the SEC website at www.sec.gov as follows (or if that address has changed, by reviewing our filings for the relevant date on the SEC website): Prospectus dated January 8, 2016: Prospectus Supplement dated January 8, 2016: Product Prospectus Supplement FIN-1 dated January 14, 2016: Our Central Index Key, or CIK, on the SEC website is 1000275. As used in this pricing supplement, we, us, or our refers to Royal Bank of Canada. Redeemable Step Up Notes, Due December 23, 2026 ADDITIONAL RISK FACTORS The Notes involve risks not associated with an investment in ordinary fixed rate notes. This section describes the most significant risks relating to the terms of the Notes. For additional information as to these risks, please see the product prospectus supplement FIN-1 dated January 14, 2016 and the prospectus supplement dated January 8, 2016. You should carefully consider whether the Notes are suited to your particular circumstances before you decide to purchase them. Accordingly, prospective investors should consult their financial and legal advisors as to the risks entailed by an investment in the Notes and the suitability of the Notes in light of their particular circumstances. Early Redemption Risk. We have the option to redeem the Notes on the Call Date set forth above. It is more likely that we will redeem the Notes prior to their stated maturity date to the extent that the interest payable on the Notes is greater than the interest that would be payable on our other instruments of a comparable maturity, terms and credit rating trading in the market. If the Notes are redeemed prior to their stated maturity date, you may have to re-invest the proceeds in a lower rate environment. Investors Are Subject to Our Credit Risk, and Our Credit Ratings and Credit Spreads May Adversely Affect the Market Value of the Notes. Investors are dependent on Royal Banks ability to pay all amounts due on the Notes on the interest payment dates and at maturity, and, therefore, investors are subject to the credit risk of Royal Bank and to changes in the markets view of Royal Banks creditworthiness. Any decrease in Royal Banks credit ratings or increase in the credit spreads charged by the market for taking Royal Banks credit risk is likely to adversely affect the market value of the Notes. SUPPLEMENTAL PLAN OF DISTRIBUTION (CONFLICTS OF INTEREST) Delivery of the Notes will be made against payment for the Notes on December 23, 2016, which is the third (3rd) business day following the Pricing Date (this settlement cycle being referred to as T+3). See Plan of Distribution in the prospectus supplement dated January 8, 2016. For additional information as to the relationship between us and RBC Capital Markets, LLC, please see the section Plan of DistributionConflicts of Interest in the prospectus dated January 8, 2016. After the initial offering of the Notes, the price to the public may change. To the extent that the total aggregate principal amount of the Notes being offered by this pricing supplement is not purchased by investors in the offering, one or more of our affiliates may purchase the unsold portion. However, our affiliates will not purchase more than 15% of the principal amount of the Notes. Sales of these Notes by our affiliates could reduce the market price and the liquidity of the Notes that you purchase. We may use this pricing supplement in the initial sale of the Notes. In addition, RBC Capital Markets, LLC or another of our affiliates may use this pricing supplement in a market-making transaction in the Notes after their initial sale. Unless we or our agent informs the purchaser otherwise in the confirmation of sale, this pricing supplement is being used in a market-making transaction. Redeemable Step Up Notes, Due December 23, 2026 VALIDITY OF THE NOTES In the opinion of Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, the issue and sale of the Notes has been duly authorized by all necessary corporate action of the Bank in conformity with the Indenture, and when the Notes have been duly executed, authenticated and issued in accordance with the Indenture and delivered against payment therefor, the Notes will be validly issued and, to the extent validity of the Notes is a matter governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario or Quebec, or the laws of Canada applicable therein, and will be valid obligations of the Bank, subject to equitable remedies which may only be granted at the discretion of a court of competent authority, subject to applicable bankruptcy, to rights to indemnity and contribution under the Notes or the Indenture which may be limited by applicable law; to insolvency and other laws of general application affecting creditors rights, to limitations under applicable limitations statutes, and to limitations as to the currency in which judgments in Canada may be rendered, as prescribed by the Currency Act (Canada). This opinion is given as of the date hereof and is limited to the laws of the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec and the federal laws of Canada applicable thereto. In addition, this opinion is subject to customary assumptions about the Trustees authorization, execution and delivery of the Indenture and the genuineness of signatures and certain factual matters, all as stated in the letter of such counsel dated January 8, 2016, which has been filed as Exhibit 5.1 to Royal Banks Form 6-K filed with the SEC dated January 8, 2016. In the opinion of Morrison & Foerster LLP, when the Notes have been duly completed in accordance with the Indenture and issued and sold as contemplated by the prospectus supplement and the prospectus, the Notes will be valid, binding and enforceable obligations of Royal Bank, entitled to the benefits of the Indenture, subject to applicable bankruptcy, insolvency and similar laws affecting creditors rights generally, concepts of reasonableness and equitable principles of general applicability (including, without limitation, concepts of good faith, fair dealing and the lack of bad faith). This opinion is given as of the date hereof and is limited to the laws of the State of New York. This opinion is subject to customary assumptions about the Trustees authorization, execution and delivery of the Indenture and the genuineness of signatures and to such counsels reliance on the Bank and other sources as to certain factual matters, all as stated in the legal opinion dated January 8, 2016, which has been filed as Exhibit 5.2 to the Banks Form 6-K dated January 8, 2016. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. The post-election Presidential transition in the United States has raised many questions and concerns among the international development community about the future direction of funding for and engagement with overseas media and democracy assistance. Below, David E. Kaplan of the Global Investigative Journalism Network, Monroe E. Price of the Annenberg School for Communications, and Tara Susman-Pena of IREX respond to some of these questions and concerns. The following responses do not engage individual organizations. Key Takeaways: There will be no immediate effect on US overseas development funding in the short term since the budget is set for the coming fiscal year and near-term programming is in the pipeline. Effects will be more pronounced one or two years from now. There are indications showing that substantial changes to USAID policy on overseas development funding can be expected. Changes in the management structure of broadcasters like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty indicate a higher degree of politicization of broadcasting content. President-Elect Trumps presidential campaign indicates that the field might come under extreme scrutiny. There is a concern among US-based organizations about a pressing need within the US for the kind of media development initiatives undertaken globally. David E. Kaplan is executive director of the Global Investigative Journalism Network, the international association of investigative reporting organizations, with 145 member groups in 62 countries. He has worked in media development for over 20 years and served as editor of two editions of Empowering Independent Media: U.S. Efforts to Foster a Free Press and an Open Internet Around the World, published by the Center for International Media Assistance. Tara Susman-Pena is a senior technical advisor in IREXs Center for Applied Learning and Impact and in the Information and Media practice. She specializes in the role of media, information, and innovation in governance, development, and resilience. Views expressed herein are her own and do not necessarily reflect views of IREX. Monroe E. Price is the director of the Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS) at the Annenberg School for Communication, and the Joseph and Sadie Danciger Professor of Law and Director of the Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media and Society at the Cardozo School of Law. As director of CGCS, Price works with a wide transnational network of regulators, scholars, and practitioners in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia as well as in the United States. Is Donald Trump's isolationist stance during his Presidential campaign going to reflect on the future of USAID's overseas development funding? DK: Predicting what will happen under a Trump Administration is exceedingly difficult. Trump has proven himself impulsive and unpredictable, with a loose attachment to facts and frequent changes in policy positions. With that said, some trends are discernable: he is a more isolationist and transactional leader than any in modern US history. He does not see long-standing alliances and relationships, but a series of deals and interests to be negotiated. He is a fan of authoritarian regimes and not enamored of arguments in favor of human rights, democracy building, or independent media. Given that, the development community should brace itself for major changes in US overseas assistance. The budget is set for the coming fiscal year and should be unaffected, but following that, US foreign aid may be subject to sharp cuts and used much more as a tool for deal-making than as part of a global commitment to development. Possibly mitigating this is support for international assistance within portions of the Republican majorities in the US Congress, which may negotiate a sizeable commitment as part of a broader budget agreement. TSP: I'm not sure there will be immediate effects (as near term programming is already in the pipeline), but I think we will see impacts after a year or two. I'm wary about making predictions for the Trump presidency, as most predictions about Trump have been very wrong so far. It is possible that overseas development funding will not be impacted much early on because it is a very small portion of the overall US budget. Overall, it seems inconceivable that there will not be some significant negative impact. Can a fundamental change in USAID policy on overseas development assistance be expected? DK: Yes. A more moderate tone could emerge when Trump becomes president, but indications from his cabinet appointees are that his administration will have a very hard-line, America-first approach. Governments, agencies, NGOs, and others who depend on US international assistance should be preparing now to cope with major cuts in support. If Washington does continue significant support to media development, we may see attempts to interfere with and steer editorial content. TSP: Signs are there. What this will mean for actual activities is still uncertain, but people are nervous. I think there is a lot that will be tested over the next four years about how well American democracy works as a system. If checks and balances are truly in place, there will be negative ripple effects, but we may be able to hope for a few rays of sunshine- like PEPFAR (The United States Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) funding under George W. Bush. If the system is more vulnerable than we might hope, the results could be catastrophic in many areas, including for development assistance. As per a recent amendment inserted into the National Defense Authorization Act, the US Senate voted to abolish the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) of Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty thereby bringing VOA and RFE/ RL under the direction of a Chief Executive appointed by the President. Can these outlets still act as standalone examples of independent media where access to fair and accurate information is scarce? DK: Unlikely. US government-financed broadcasting services have long struggled to be professional and independent. Trumps antipathy to the media, combined with centralizing control of the services under a political appointee, makes scenarios likely in which budgets are cut, broadcasts become more politicized, and quality staff leave. On the other hand, the blitz of disinformation, propaganda, and fake news has alarmed Republican as well as Democratic lawmakers in Washington, so Congress may act to preserve and even augment these programs. MP: There have been long-standing issues of management and identity crisis within the VOA and RFE/ RL. If the dissolution of the BBG is directed towards simplifying governance, it might be helpful. However, it does not engage with the main concerns. One could say that two main models of international broadcasting are emerging- polar positions really. The BBC World Service model of a full-fledged news service (and surrogates) and RT- an instrumental entity seeking to achieve articulable foreign policy goals for the sponsoring country and using a broad array of tactics (often questionable) to accomplish those goals. Of course much is in between (noble surrogates, diaspora government supported broadcasting) and what might be called cosmetic instrumentalism, as is the case with Chinas CCTV 9. If international broadcasting becomes a method for proclaiming Americas greatness, maybe even contributing to it, there is a substantially tweaked VOA leaning toward BBC effort. It could be a radio or multi-platform effort that trumpets Trumpism. It could be Trumpism promotion as a self-perceived variant on democracy promotion. It could be fostering abroad the brand of governance that is ascendant at home. There could be a new partnership radio among new friend regimes that have a specific take on redefined participation, an alliance of like-minded regimes or governments. There might be a thorough review of which audiences merit international broadcasting direct thrust and what kind. Even the function of surrogate radio may be to emphasize different streams of thought within the country-target. The very important current question might be the relation of international broadcasting to Fake News. International broadcasters can contribute to the idea of a core commons of information or, has been seen, they can destabilize and enhance the uncertainty of factlessness. An independent international broadcaster would have one take on these issues. But the new administration may have different views: destabilize where necessary, even if there is a tightly held set of beliefs that need to be dislodged. The capacity to unleash international broadcasting, or to curtail it, could emerge as a bargaining chip. The problem with the current entities is that they are sufficiently ineffective that their use or disuse may not be much of a chip. President-Elect Trump's election campaign has involved incendiary comments against the freedom of the press. What concerns do these raise for the nature and direction of future US funding for media and democratization? DK: There are good reasons why the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists declared Donald Trump an unprecedented threat to the rights of journalists and noted that he has consistently betrayed First Amendment values. Trump is quick to take offense to press coverage, has attacked individual journalists and their outlets both online and in person, filed multiple lawsuits to intimidate and harass reporters, and made the US news media an object of hate and derision during his campaign. In addition, he has vowed to change US libel laws to make it easier to sue journalists and win those lawsuits. Intolerant of a watchdog press at home, Trump seems unlikely to endorse US support to independent media overseas. Congress plays a key role in the federal budget process and could protect funds for media development and democratization, but there will likely be pressure to cut such programs and the field will come under unprecedented scrutiny. TSP: The new concern for US-based organizations is the pressing need within the US for the type of work we do globally. The increasingly fragmented, overloaded, and unreliable state of journalism, social media, and media literacy in the United States certainly significantly contributed to the election of Trump. Clearly we cannot take democracy and its key areas of support (i.e. a free, independent media system) for granted - backsliding is now clearly a possibility in any context. We cannot hope to help abroad unless we are attentive to the cracks in our own foundation. In 2017, IREX will be undertaking new research and other initiatives to understand, more deeply, the current fraught state of affairs and identify a path forward. gfmd.info From at least as early as 1876, the "Bartow Hotel" stood near Bartow Station on the New Haven Branch Line. For many years, the proprietor of the Bartow Hotel was Charles E. Mahoney. Mahoney and his family lived in the hotel that also included a rather notorious saloon. The hotel was described in 1878 as the "'Bartow Hotel,' which appears to do a composite business in beer and horse-shoeing." , , Aug. 23, 1878, . (Note: Paid subscription required to access via this link). During the 1880s, as New York City assembled and purchased the parcels necessary to open Pelham Bay Park, it became clear that the days of the Bartow Hotel were numbered. Indeed, by early 1890, according to news reports, New York City had taken the hotel property and paid Charles Mahoney $1,200 for the structure and the land on which it stood. Mahoney was, however, permitted to remain and to continue to operate the hotel for a time. Mahoney continued to live in the hotel with four daughters, the oldest of whom was fifteen. Mahoney's wife had died in about 1887. In late March, 1890, Mahoney was flush with cash. He had deposited in two banks the $1,200 he had received from New York City for the Bartow Hotel (about $40,000 in today's dollars). He announced to his four children, whom he loved dearly, that he was taking his two bank books and taking a train to New York City to meet with his lawyer, W. R. Lamberton, who had an office at 16 Exchange Place in lower Manhattan. Mahoney told family and friends that he would return that evening. Mahoney left for Manhattan and vanished into thin air. As the days passed, Mahoney's children grew frantic. Friends and neighbors throughout the Town of Pelham were abuzz over Mahoney's disappearance. Some became amateur detectives, making inquiries and searching for the missing man. Inquiries at the law office of W. R. Lamberton in Manhattan revealed that Charles Mahoney never arrived at Lamberton's office. Most believed Mahoney had met with foul play. New York City Park authorities grew alarmed and announced that Bartow Hotel had been closed. Mahoney's four girls were allowed to remain in the home. Multiple reports note that their Pelham neighbors and friends were caring for the girls in the absence of their father. The mystery grew frightening and sinister on Saturday, March 29, 1890. That day a shabbily-dressed young man with blond hair showed up at Bartow Hotel. He told Mahoney's oldest daughter that he was simply a messenger with a message. He said that her father was in New York City and was very ill. He told the girl that her father had asked for her to come to his side. He offered to take her to her father's sickbed. Though the girl demanded to know where her father could be found and asked for details, the young man refused to provide any further information. As a train bound for New York City pulled into Bartow Station, only steps away from Bartow Hotel, Mahoney's daughter ran next door to a neighbor's house to ask for assistance. This spooked the shabbily-dressed young man who ran to the station and hopped on the train as it departed for New York. Several of Mahoney's neighbors said that they saw the young man when he arrived at Bartow and approached Mahoney's daughter. At least one neighbor claimed to have seen the man a second time later. Within a short time, Mahoney's daughter received a telegram signed with her father's name. The telegram asked the girl to come to her father at an address on East 125th Street. It turned out that no such address existed on East 125th Street. Mahoney's friends and neighbors in Pelham were perplexed. They believed that Mahoney was being held against his will until money could be siphoned from his accounts or, worse, that he had met his end. Shockingly, on Wednesday, April 2, 1890, Charles E. Mahoney reappeared at Bartow, accompanied by a Constable named Munson. Mahoney told a strange tale, claiming that a woman who said she was his second wife whom he had abandoned had preferred abandonment charges against him and had him arrested while he was in New York City. Mahoney claimed, however, that he never married the woman, though she went by the name Mrs. Mahoney. He claimed that he was prepared to marry yet another woman, though he would have to get out of his "present difficulty" first. According to one account: " He spent his time Thursday in telling the boys what a great time he had. He was arrested on a charge of abandonment preferred against him by his second wife. Mahoney says that the lady who bears the name of Mrs. Mahoney is not his wife, and that he expects to marry another woman as soon as he gets out of his present difficulty. Mahoney's vacation cost him about $500, and the bill is not all paid up yet." It seems that although Mahoney had safely returned to Bartow, the mystery of his disappearance had simply evolved into the mystery of his personal life -- a mystery that seems never to have been cracked by New York newspapers or Mr. Mahoney's Pelham friends. Detail from 1881 Map Showing Area Around Bartow Station; Bartow Hotel Is Likely One of the Two Structures Near Shore Road Above the "Rodgers" Structure. Source: Bromley, G.W., County, New York, From Actual Surveys and Official Records Walter S. Bromley, 1881). NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge. * * * * * Below is the text of a series of articles about Charles E. Mahoney's strange disappearance and reappearance in the early spring of 1890. Each article is followed by a citation and link to its source. "WHERE IS MAHONEY? ----- Sudden and Mysterious Disappearance of a Hotel Keeper. Charles E. Mahoney, proprietor of the Bartow Hotel, a popular summer road house, situated at Bartow, near City Island, has been missing for the last two weeks. When he left home it was with the intention of visiting the office of W. R. Lamberton, who is his lawyer, at No. 16 Exchange place, saying that he would be back the same evening. He had in his possession at the time two bank books, representing all the money he was worth. This money he had recently received from the sale of his hotel property to the city of New York, the hotel being situated within the limits of the new Pelham Park. The books represented about $1,200 in all. Mr. Mahoney was known as a reliable citizen and was devoted to his home and his four beautiful children. His wife died about three years ago. He never left home before without his people having a full knowledge of his whereabouts. Inquiry at Mr. Lamberton's office elicited the information that Mr. Mahoney had not called there. No other information has been secured regarding Mr. Mahoney except that brought by a young man who called at the Bartow Hotel on last Saturday, and told Mr. Mahoney's daughter Mary that he had been sent to inform her that her father was very ill and he wanted her to come to him at once. The stranger was a blond young man, of shabby appearance, and refused to answer the frightened girl's questions as to the whereabouts of her father. He said he was simply a messenger sent to tell her of her father's condition, and that he could not tell her where he was. The girl refused to go with him, and ran to a neighbor's home for assistance. The young man at once left, taking the train for New York, which was then at Bartow station. Neighbors and friends have since interested themselves in the case and have made inquiries at every place that Mr. Mahoney has visited in the past. None of his friends has seen him. The Park authorities of New York city have now taken his hotel and closed it up, leaving Mahoney's children destitute. They have allowed them to remain in the house and the neighbors are assisting them. Meantime the town is excited over the peculiar case. The neighbors of Mahoney, one of whom saw the strange young man when he called last Saturday and once since then, believe that Mahoney has been either enticed or taken away by force, by a gang in Harlem who knew he had money and are either holding him until his money is gone or have already made way with him." Source: WHERE IS MAHONEY? -- "MISSING FROM HOME. Charles E. Mahoney, who for a good many years has been the proprietor of the Bartow Hotel, a summer road house at Bartow, on the Harlem River Branch Road, has been missing from his home for about two weeks. When he went away from the house he said he was going to see his lawyer, W. R. Lamberton, in New York, and had two bank-books with him representing about $1,200. That is the last that has been seen of him by his family or friends at Bartow. His wife died about three years ago, but he has four children. Mr. Lamberton says he has not seen him, and that he did not come to his office, as he said he was going to do. His family and friends fear he has fallen into the hands of some roughs, who, knowing he had the money with him, are keeping him until it shall all be used up, or that he has been foully dealt with. The New York park authorities have taken his hotel and closed it up, allowing the children to remain in it. Last Saturday, his daughter says, a strange young man called at the house and said he had been sent as a messenger to tell her that her father was very ill in New York, and wanted the daughter to come to him. He would not give the address, and she would not accompany him. The authorities are trying to discover his whereabouts." Source: "MYSTERY ABOUT MR. MAHONEY. ----- Mr. Charles E. Mahoney, the proprietor of the Bartow Hotel, at Bartow, near City Island, left his home some two weeks ago with the expressed intention of consulting his lawyer, Mr. W. R. Lamberton of No. 16 Exchange place, and has not since been seen by any of his friends or relatives. Inquiries showed that he did not visit his lawyer. He had with him at the time he disappeared a couple of bank books representing deposits of $900. This money he had recently received from the city for his property, which had been condemned as being within the boundaries of the new Pelham Park. His four children still occupy the house, supported by his neighbors. Last Saturday a shabbily dressed young man called at the house and told the oldest daughter, who is fifteen years old, that her father was very ill and that if she would accompany him he would take her to her father. He declined to tell where her father was and ran off when the girl went to consult a neighbor. Subsequently she got a telegram signed with her father's name, requesting her to come to him at a certain number on East 125th street. No such number could be found. Mr. Mahoney bore a good reputation and his friends suspect foul play." "HOME AGAIN. -- Charles E. Mahoney, the former proprietor of the Bartow Hotel, who left his family a week ago, returned home on Wednesday night under the charge of a constable. He was arrested on a charge of abandonment preferred against him by his second wife." "MAHONEY'S COSTLY VACATION. ----- Charles E. Mahoney, the former proprietor of the Bartow Hotel, who left his family and went on an extended and somewhat hilarious tour a week ago, returned Wednesday night to Bartow in charge of Constable Munson, and is still in charge of that official. He spent his time Thursday in telling the boys what a great time he had. He was arrested on a charge of abandonment preferred against him by his second wife. Mahoney says that the lady who bears the name of Mrs. Mahoney is not his wife, and that he expects to marry another woman as soon as he gets out of his present difficulty. Mahoney's vacation cost him about $500, and the bill is not all paid up yet." "COUNTY ITEMS. . . . --Charles E. Mahoney, for a good many years proprietor of the Bartow Hotel, a summer road-house at Bartow, has been missing from his home for several weeks. When he went away he said he was going to see his lawyer, W. R. Lamberton, in New York, and had two bank books with him representing about $1,200. That is the last seen of him. His wife died about three years ago, but he has four children. Mr. Lamberton says he has not seen him. It is feared he has fallen in the hands of roughs, knowing he had money. The New York park authorities have taken his hotel and closed it up, allowing the children to remain in it. Mahoney returned on Wednesday night under the charge of a constable. He was arrested on a charge of abandonment preferred against him by his second wife." Labels: 1890, Bartow, Bartow Hotel, Bartow Village, Bartow-on-the-Sound, Charles E. Mahoney, Hotel, New Haven Branch Line Family and friends of kiwifruit pioneer Roland Woodroffe Roly Earp will celebrate his life in Pyes Pa on Thursday. Considered by many to be one of the founding pillars of New Zealands kiwifruit industry, Roly passed away peacefully at Bethlehem Views in Tauranga on Sunday, December 18. He was 93. Born and raised in Te Puke, Roly originally trained as an accountant before pursuing a career as a kiwifruit grower in 1959, purchasing a 50 acre dairy farm in Te Puna with childhood friend Grahame Bayliss. The two broke with tradition by coming the first growers to establish a large scale orchard totally devoted to growing Hayward kiwifruit the variety on which the industry is now based and exported their first fruit in 1964. In the years following, Roly would eventually revolutionise the kiwifruit industry by helping growers to retain control over the marketing of their crops, and would eventually become the first chairman of the Kiwifruit Association in 1978, a position he held up until he retired in 1984. By the time he retired, the industry was a major horticultural exporter worth more than $100 million in that year. Friend and kiwifruit grower Mike Muller first met Roly 44 years ago when he and his wife purchased a kiwifruit orchard in Te Puna. I needed to find out what a kiwifruit orchard was about because I was a farmer. So I found Roly, who lived just down the road, and from that time on Ive known him on a professional and personal basis. He is one of the most unselfish people I have ever met. All the time I knew him his focus was entirely around what was best for kiwifruit growers, he believed what was best for the growers was the best for the countrys industry. Mike says even now for old growers like me and those new to kiwifruit growing, they are all huge beneficiaries of Rolys passion and determination for the industry. Absolutely no doubt, Roly is a founding pillar of the kiwifruit industry that we know today. He elevated those around him, he singlehandedly did this and he just wouldnt have a bar of it, not a bloody bar of it. Its amazing the people in your life that have this clear view of what is best for the whole and I think this sums Roly up for me. Everything he did was for the betterment of everyone. He was the most unassuming, modest and humble man. He was a man of high principal and great integrity, and absolutely steely and resolute in what he wanted to achieve, says friend and former journalist Rosalie Smith. I greatly admire Roly and so do a lot of people. He has a lot of good friends in the kiwifruit industry. Rosalie collaborated with Roly on his book The Kiwifruit Adventure published in 1988, which looked at the early history of New Zealands kiwifruit industry, as well as partly serving as his autobiography. In his professional and personal life Roly was absolutely determined with what he wanted to achieve and worked hard until he accomplished it. It was the same when writing the book, recalls Rosalie. He would hand me a draft chapter and I would edit it and make three sentences into one, and one paragraph into three, she says with a chuckle. But he was determined that my alterations meant that it wasnt saying exactly what he wanted, there was no-changing him. His determination to get his message across as he wanted it really impressed me. Almost all of my alterations made it into the final version, 95 per cent. But there was that five per cent that he wanted exactly his way. A special ceremony commemorating Rolys life will be commemorated at Pyes Pa Memorial Park Chapel on Pyes Pa Road in Tauranga at 1pm on Thursday, December 22. Mount Mainstreet is about to get festive, and Mount Mainstreet manager Ingrid Fleming wants everyone to know. Head over to Mount Mainstreet on Thursday, December 22, for an evening of late-night shopping, food, activities and cruise ships. On the Thursday night we have late-night shopping, well be staying open until 9pm, and it just so happens that we have three cruise ships in. Itll be a really awesome night for locals to come on in and do some shopping and they may choose to have some dinner, and then watch the boats sail out, says Ingrid. Its quite a special night here in the Mount. Were going to have some carol singing, a fire dancing performance at dusk, and more. Then on December 23 and 24 you can meet the red man himself on Mount Mainstreet between 11am-2.30pm both days. Santa will be sitting in his big purple chair waiting to hear Christmas wishlists. Hes the real deal, hes the real Santa, says Ingrid. Parents can take a photo of their child with Santa, they just need to take it on their phone. Theres no charge to get a photo with Santa in the Mount. For more information, visit: www.mountmaunganui.co.nz A man suffering from a medical condition would have been faced an hour long journey to hospital, had it not been for the Trustpower TECT Rescue Helicopter. The Tauranga-based rescue chopper was dispatched to Te Kaha around 2.30pm to fly a man to Whakatane Hospital. Pilot Todd Dunham says the 58-year-old man was suffering from a medical condition and required immediate hospital care. He was stabilised by a doctor and St John paramedics, before being flown to Whakatane hospital for treatment. The helicopter was called due to the medical condition and distance to the required hospital. A Bay of Plenty Vehicle dismantlers has been fined $38,000 for discharging motor oil and fluids onto the ground at a property leased in Ngongotaha. Charges against ANZ Auto Parts Limited relate to discharging contaminants onto or into land in circumstances where they may enter water. A member of the public called the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to report seeing an oily discharge at a storm water outfall into Lake Rotorua in winter 2015. An investigation found that oily storm water was flowing into Lake Rotorua and the sheen could be seen extending about 150m into the lake. The oily storm water was traced by Council officers back to ANZ Auto Parts Limited. When they visited the ANZ site the council staff found oil leaking from numerous sources such as car engines and an overflow tray. The cesspit, intended to collect storm water, was completely inundated with hydrocarbon contaminated sediment. The oil filter cloth that was supposed to collect any oil residue in the cesspit, was torn and ineffective, says a statement from the Regional Council. Three abatement notices were later issued requiring ANZ Auto Parts Limited and its director to cease discharging oil and fluids to land at their site, and to prohibit them from commencing their operation at a new address. The Waikaraka Street site has since been cleared. Image: Google Maps. Samples collected during Council visits to ANZ Auto Parts site later revealed copper, lead and zinc were up to six times above the guideline levels set by the Australian New Zealand Environmental Conservation Council. Concentrations of total petroleum hydrocarbons at the site exceeded these guidelines by up to 200 times. The offending occurred between May 23 and July 29, 2015. Lake Rotorua is sacred to Maori and incredibly special to the wider Rotorua community. Its also home to a number of threatened indigenous flora and fauna, says Regional Council senior pollution prevention officer John Holst. Storm water drains are for storm water only and this company should have known better. Pollution events like this are a slap in the face for the volunteers, community groups and Councils working hard to improve water quality. ANZ Auto Parts Limited was sentenced by District Court and Environment Judge Melanie Harland in Tauranga on November 8, 2016. A man wanted by Bay of Plenty Police on methamphetamine-related charges has been arrested in Whakatane this morning. Mark Tane Morgan had warrants out for his arrest for supplying methamphetamine, conspiring to supply methamphetamine and participating in an organised criminal group. Police want to thank members of the public for information which helped lead to his arrest, says a spokesperson. Morgan is expected to appear in court later today. Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A now has seven restaurants in New York state, all in the NYC area. (Mark Lennihan | AP) After more than a year of rumors, Chick-fil-A is closer to opening its first location in Upstate New York. The Democrat & Chronicle reports the town of Greece has confirmed a public hearing will be held next month "to consider the request submitted by Chick-fil-A to operate a restaurant" on West Ridge Road. It would be the fast food chain's first location in the Rochester area and could open before a recently proposed restaurant in Albany. "Great town board meeting tonight. Chick-Fil-A is coming to Greece," Town Supervisor Bill Reilich wrote on Facebook Tuesday. Employees familiarize themselves with Chick-fil-A's first New York location, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015. According to WHEC, the Greece Town Board will hold the hearing at 6:18 p.m. on Jan. 17 to consider the application and gather community input. The Georgia-based Chick-fil-A, well-known for its chicken sandwich, has more than 2,000 restaurants in 46 states, but its only New York locations are in the NYC area. The company has reportedly been scouting expansion into Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany since last year. In October, developer Scott Earl submitted a proposal for a Chick-fil-A as part of a 60,250-square-foot retail complex in the Capitol Region at the corner of Route 146 and Old Route 146 Route 146 in Halfmoon. However, Earl hadn't yet signed a deal with the company at that time. "While we hope to serve communities in the Albany area in the future, we do not currently have any locations to confirm," Rob Entsminger, a spokesman for the eatery, told the Buffalo News. The company made similarly disheartening statements about the possibility of a Chick-fil-A in Central New York and the Buffalo area. But Greece, N.Y., could prove a beacon of hope for fried chicken lovers across Upstate New York. Stay tuned for pictures of cows encouraging Upstaters to "eat mor chikin." Syracuse, N.Y. The Syracuse Industrial Development Agency postponed a vote Tuesday on $1.7 million in tax exemptions for a proposed $66.6 million student apartment project near Syracuse University. The agency agreed to put the vote off until January after member Donald Schoenwald said he wanted more time to consider the request from BVSHSSF Syracuse LLC, an affiliate of Peak Campus, of Atlanta, Ga., the country's second largest privately-owned student housing company. Peak Campus has proposed building a 244-unit student apartment project at 945 E. Genesee St. The development would have 604 beds and 6,000 square feet of commercial space. The developer has applied for an exemption, worth $1.36 million, from sales taxes on construction materials and an exemption from the state mortgage recording tax, worth $363,750. It is not seeking property tax exemptions. Mark Riley, senior vice president of development for Peak Campus, told the agency the tax exemptions the company is seeking are an "important part" of the project's feasibility. He said the project would be "expensive to execute." An analysis of the city's student housing market by Camoin Associates, of Saratoga, found that new off-campus student housing projects likely would be successful at attracting students who prefer new housing with lots of amenities. However, the firm said demand does not exist for an overall increase in the supply of student housing because Syracuse University and the other colleges in the area have no plans to increase student enrollments. So, the new projects would pull tenants away from older homes that have been converted into student apartments over the years, creating a "void in demand for the vacated units," the firm said. "The resulting vacancies in adjacent neighborhoods would require substantial investments by owners or would have to be filled with non-student renters," Camoin said. Four off-campus, student apartment buildings with a capacity for 690 tenants have been built in the city by private developers in the past couple of years. Four student housing projects, with a capacity for 2,024 tenants, are under construction or have been proposed in the city. The University Hill Corp., a planning and development organization, has expressed concerns that the construction of so many new off-campus housing units will lead to a rise in vacancy rates and create a derelict housing problem in the neighborhoods surrounding Syracuse University. It has recommended against incentivizing the projects with tax exemptions. Mark Riley, senior vice president of development for Peak Campus, of Atlanta, Ga., describes the company's proposed $66.6 million student apartment project at 945 E. Genesee St. to the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency on Dec. 20, 2016. Bill Ryan, chairman of the industrial development agency and Mayor Stephanie Miner's chief of staff, said he, too, is worried about the impact of the projects on existing apartment homes because it may not be financially feasible to convert them back into single-family residences. "To me, that is a concern," he said. Schoenwald expressed a different concern about the project, telling Riley he found the building's design a bit boxy. "I wish there was something you could do with the style of the building," he said. Riley said the company's renderings do not do the design full justice. He said balconies will project out from the building, giving its exterior "some relief." "Hopefully, when you see it come together, it will have a little pizazz," he said. Camoin Student Housing Market Student Nov. 2016 by rickmoriarty on Scribd Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148 Alec Baldwin, Donald Trump Alec Baldwin is pictured portraying Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live" Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016. (NBC video still) How much does Alec Baldwin get paid to play Donald Trump? The actor revealed in a new interview with The New York Times that he gets just $1,400 for portraying the president-elect on "Saturday Night Live," despite helping the show bring in big ratings (and controversy with each Trump tweet criticizing it). For comparison, Baldwin was reportedly receiving $300,000 per episode of "30 Rock," also on NBC. Baldwin says he doesn't write the "SNL" skits, though he did spend hours watching Trump rallies and speeches to prepare for the role. Baldwin is not a regular cast member, but does hold the record for hosting the long-running variety show on 16 episodes. The Trump makeup and wig -- which takes just seven minutes to put together -- help Baldwin get in character, which he says focuses on Trump's hand movements and "puffs" while speaking. "I see a guy who seems to pause and dig for the more precise and better language he wants to use, and never finds it," Baldwin told the Times. "It's the same dish -- it's a grilled-cheese sandwich rhetorically over and over again." The actor added that he'll likely only continue playing Trump intermittently as he has two films coming up, including the animated "The Boss Baby" (picture Baldwin's "Glengarry Glen Ross" character as a pint-sized cartoon) and "Downsizing" with Kristen Wiig and Matt Damon. Baldwin also portrayed Tony Bennett while hosting a salute to the singer on his 90th birthday Tuesday. Baldwin also expressed concerns that his Trump would get tiresome for audiences. Trump, who hosted "SNL" last year, did not criticize Baldwin's most recent performance as Trump, which featured Kate McKinnon as a distraught Kellyanne Conway, Beck Bennett as a shirtless Russian President Vladimir Putin and John Goodman as Rex Tillerson, the ExxonMobil executive nominated for Secretary of State. Trump did, however, blast two "totally biased, not funny" episodes after winning the election and asked for "equal time." "Release your tax returns and I'll stop," Baldwin tweeted earlier this month. Former Syracuse lawyer Martin Rothschild being handcuffed at his 2013 sentencing. (David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.com) SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Former Syracuse lawyer Martin Rothschild has to use a catheter for the rest of his life because of the medical treatment he received in state prison while serving a sentence for child pornography, he claims in a lawsuit. Rothschild, 63, is suing the state, claiming guards at Elmira Correctional Facility ignored his pleas for help in 2013 when he suffered symptoms of a urological problem, the suit said. He was urinating frequently and suffered shaking, severe pain, spasms in his abdomen, nausea, weakness and dehydration, the suit said. Guards ignored his complaints until the next day, when the medical staff attributed his symptoms to Crohn's disease, the suit said. Rothschild's lawsuit makes these further allegations: Guards continued to ignore his complaints for two more days, until they took him to the prison infirmary with a hard and distended lower abdomen and frequent incontinence. He was then taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors determined he was retaining urine in his bladder because of a blockage. Rothschild had developed deverticuli of the bladder because it remained full and distended for so long. He was discharged back to Elmira on a catheter. Two months later, Rothschild underwent surgery at the hospital, but it did not restore his ability to urinate. He was transferred to Clinton Correctional Facility in Northern New York. The catheter was not maintained according to medical standards at Clinton. He was admitted to the prison infirmary in April 2014 for treatment of a kidney infection and sepsis related to the placement of the catheter. While he was in the infirmary, the catheter fell out because the line was rotten. A nurse took 30 to 40 minutes to insert a new line. Rothschild contends it was not inserted properly. In July 2014, lab tests showed he was suffering from kidney damage, with low creatine levels, reduced platelet counts and a high white blood cell count. Rothschild ended up at a hospital in Champlain with a fever of 104 degrees in August 2014. He was treated for septic shock from E. coli bacteria related to a catheter infection. He was discharged from the hospital a week later. The poor medical care Rothschild received in prison left "severe and permanent damage to his bladder," the lawsuit said. The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision released a written response today: "DOCCS strives to provide all those in its custody medical care to the community standard, including outside medical visits when necessary and appropriate." A state official said he couldn't comment further because the case is the subject of a lawsuit. Rothschild was released from prison on parole in June of this year after serving nearly three years. He did not respond to a request for an interview. He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2013 for storing child pornography on the social media site Tumblr. Prosecutors said he had at least 30 videos of child porn, and that he allowed them to be shared with other people. Rothschild was a longtime personal-injury lawyer who frequently appeared in his own TV commercials. He was arrested in February 2013 after state police raided his home and office and seized his computers. Contact John O'Brien anytime | email | Twitter | 315-470-2187 NEWFIELD, N.Y. -- The president of Herkimer County Community College has confirmed that one of the four people who have been charged in connection to a Tompkins County homicide is her daughter. President Cathleen C. McColgin said Tuesday that Colleen E. McColgin, 37, of Dryden, is her daughter, the Utica Observer-Dispatch reported. "This will not impact my ability to lead the institution and fulfill my responsibilities as president of Herkimer College," McColgin told the Observer-Dispatch. Tompkins County sheriff's deputies rushed to 221 Burdge Hill Road in Newfield Dec. 2 after get a call a person was in cardiac arrest. When they arrived, they found Camden Rundell, 30, unresponsive in the front yard. Rundell was pronounced dead 100 feet from his front door. The sheriff's office said his death was initially considered suspicious, in part because he had not been wearing cold-weather clothing. Officials later ruled his death a homicide. The sheriff's office has not said how Rundell died. Colleen McColgin was one of two women arrested and charged with second-degree murder the day after Rundell's death. Two other people were also arrested. Colleen McColgin remains jailed with no bail. Cathleen McColgin served as provost and senior vice president at Onondaga Community College from August 2008 until she left in June 2015 to become the next president of Herkimer County Community College. Before that she served seven years as provost of Cayuga Community College's Fulton branch campus. DeVaul.jpg Deputies say Alexis DeVaul, 15, ran away from her East Dead Creek Road, Van Buren home in earlier this month. (Provided) Alexis DeVaul VAN BUREN, N.Y. -- Deputies are searching for a missing Van Buren girl who ran away from her home. Alexis DeVaul, 15, ran away from her East Dead Creek Road residence earlier this month, said Sgt. Jon Seeber, of the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office. She has run away "several" times in the past, he said. Detectives believe Alexis is in Syracuse. She may have been on the city's North Side near Oak Street and James Street last week, Seeber said. Alexis is 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs about 120 pounds, Seeber said. She was last seen wearing a blue Hollister sweatshirt, blue sweatpants and gray Nike Air Jordan sneakers. Deputies asked anyone who knows where Alexis is to call (315) 435-3081 or send a tip to tip411. Destiny USA exterior 2013.0.JPG Exterior of Destiny USA shopping mall in Syracuse. Picture shot from Hiawatha Boulevard. (Rick Moriarty / The Post-Standar) Richard Darwish Syracuse, NY -- Accused carjacker Richard Darwish spent two court appearances in the last two days complaining about his court-appointed lawyer. Ben Coffin was the third lawyer assigned to the case after Darwish filed grievances against the previous two ones. He vowed to do the same thing to Coffin. But County Court Judge Thomas J. Miller wasn't planning to budge. He said Coffin had done nothing wrong -- despite Darwish's gripes about accessibility and strategy -- and ordered both men to work it out. Darwish is facing eight charges in connection with the Aug. 24 knifepoint robbery of a woman and two children -- ages 12 and 14 -- in the Destiny USA parking lot. He took the woman's car and fled before being caught later. Darwish also faces three other cases, and has a total of two dozen charges pending against him. Among other things, Coffin had ordered a mental health exam for his client, angering Darwish. Miller ordered both "gentlemen" to get in a room and figure out their differences. But as a last-ditch question, the judge asked Darwish if there was any lawyer he would be willing to work with. "Irene Flores," Darwish replied. Miller wasn't convinced, noting again that he found no reason to dismiss Coffin from the case. But at that moment, Flores happened to walk into the courtroom. "Timing is everything, Ms. Flores," the judge said, asking her up to the bench. The judge explained that she was the fourth lawyer assigned to Darwish. The previous three all had complaints filed against them. Flores agreed to meet with Darwish briefly. Then she took the case. "This is the fourth and final lawyer," Miller warned Darwish. (The judge had promised the same thing when he assigned Coffin in October.) Now, Darwish's case may finally move forward. He remains in jail. Wiley Cerilli has a vision for the immediate future of food delivery in the Syracuse-area. It includes bringing noted New York City favorites like Joe's Pizza, Ess-a-Bagels and No. 7 Subs to your door. Cerilli, just 36 but already a veteran online entrepreneur, also has a vision for the longer term future of food delivery in general. "I think the bulk of restaurants will not have storefronts ten years from now," he said. "Because, why would you? The technology exists where you don't need the hassle." Cerilli and his partner Matt Doumar have chosen Syracuse as the initial launch site for their new business, a food app that has a local kitchen and delivery vehicles but no storefront or dining room. It's called Good Uncle, and it launches officially this week. It's been tested this fall with deliveries to students at Syracuse University dorms, who then provided feedback. Delivery is now available across the Syracuse area, with an emphasis on the University area and downtown. The app is free in the iTunes app store. Though other online-ordered food delivery businesses exist, Cerilli and Doumar believe they've hit on a model that will work in cities like Syracuse -- smaller towns with colleges, far from major metropolitan areas with trendy dining options. Good Uncle is now scouting locations in other Northeastern college towns, and may have another three or four other sites by the fall, Cerilli said. "I love the atmosophere of a college area because cool things can go viral very fast," he said. The menu is limited, but is built around brand names that students and others might recognize. Anyone from the New York City area, for example, will be familiar with Joe's Pizza, or the wings from Croxley's Ale House, or No. 7 Subs, or the chicken tenders from Sticky's Finger Joint. Good Uncle is also forging partnerships with selected local brands, like Gannon's Ice Cream and downtown Syracuse's relatively new Original Grain restaurant. And it's making some of its own "healthy" option dishes, too, usually in the form of a protein with two vegetable sides. Good Uncle's partnerships have two models. For items like Joe's Pizza, Sticky's chicken tenders or No. 7 Subs, Good Uncle has licensed recipes and makes the foods from scratch in its own kitchen, located at 614 S. Crouse Ave. (That's the former Rosewood Heights nursing home, now a University area apartment building). "We use their recipes, their ingredients -- everything is made just like it is in the kitchens at Joe's or one of our other partners," Cerilli said. (When you use the app, you get the backstory behind each brand, too). For partners like Gannon's or Original Grain, Good Uncle is buying pre-made items to include in orders. Original Grain, for example, is selling its three flavors of Chia Seed Pudding, a breakfast item, through Good Uncle. Original Grain co-owner Chris Bily heard of Cerilli and his vision from mutual friends. "What attracted us is, basically, his concept sounds cool, and he has a track record of finding and building better mousetraps," said Bily, who with his partners brought a hip West Coast vibe to downtown Syracuse with Original Grain. "And this is a good way for us to get our products in front of SU students and others." Cerilli's track record started when he enrolled at Syracuse University to study education, then dropped out after a year. At 19, he joined the founding executive team of Seamless, a pioneer in the online food ordering business, then went on to found SinglePlatform, an online marketing service for businesses. (Doumar worked with him at SinglePlatform). He picked winners: Seamless is now in partnership with online food giant Grub Hub and SinglePlatform was acquired in 2012 for $100 million by ConstantContact. Cerilli has thought through all aspects of his new business. He has a fleet of six delivery vans and drivers who carry the food in Cambro boxes, like those used in the military. "They only lose one degree of heat in an hour," Cerilli said. The name Good Uncle came to Cerilli after several of his nieces came to visit him in New York City. They went to a nice Italian restaurant, he connected them to a cool hair salon for haircuts, and took them to a Broadway show. "That's the idea of the Good Uncle -- he shows you all the cool stuff you didn't know about," he said. "That's our model here. We're introducing or connecting you to cool stuff, and making it as easy as possible for you to get it." Don Cazentre writes about food, beverages, restaurants and bars for syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Contact him by email, on Twitter, at Google+ or via Facebook. Upstate NY's best brewery: And the winners are... The week leading to Christmas is the busiest days for the U.S. Postal Service facility on Taft Road., the largest in Central New York. On any given day this week the 800 plus workers process in excess more than 3 million letters, cards and packages. The 24-hour operation fills more than 450 truck deliveries and services 546 Zip codes in Central New York. "Our employees really understand their role, especially this time of year" says Maureen Marion, manager of corporate communications for the U.S. Postal Service. "The public trusts us to deliver their mail and we work very hard to do that." geddes town hall.jpg The Geddes Town Hall on Woods Road in Solvay. (Provided photo) GEDDES, N.Y. -- The Geddes Town Board will hold a special, private meeting next week in the wake of eavesdropping allegations at town hall. Town representatives would not say what will be discussed, only saying they will address "personnel issues." The meeting comes as the Onondaga County District Attorney's office is investigating eavesdropping allegations. Police have arrested the secretary of Town Supervisor Manny Falcone. The DA's office began its investigation after town employees reported cameras with microphones had been installed in town hall. In New York state, it is illegal for a third-party to record a conversation between other people. The Town Board will meet in a private executive session next Wednesday to "discuss a personnel matter regarding a particular employee," according to the agenda. Deputy Supervisor Jerry Albrigo would not say whether the board would specifically be discussing Falcone or his secretary, Ellen Colelli. "I couldn't comment on that," he said. "I'd be hesitant to say more given the nature of what's going on in the town at this time. It's difficult to say anything." Councilor Paul Valenti also said he wasn't allowed to discuss personnel issues, but said more information should be available after the meeting. Last week, state police charged Colelli for eavesdropping, a felony. Falcone said police had interviewed him, but would not say whether he was under suspicion. The office building recently added security cameras. Falcone said they were for security purposes and there were no listening devices attached. A work order, however, shows at least one camera was installed with a microphone. Falcone has denied that he was involved. It's unclear what action the town board could take next week. Much will depend on the final results of the DA's investigation. The Council does not have the authority to remove the town supervisor from office without cause, said Town Attorney Paul Curtin. There have been no charges against Falcone from the district attorney's office and, therefore, no cause for the council to take action. Curtin said he has been asked to attend the meeting next week. The meeting takes place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 28 at Geddes Town Hall in Solvay. Kathy Rapp Legislator Kathy Rapp speaks to the Onondaga County Legislature during her final meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016 (Chris Baker | cbaker@syracuse.com) SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A retiring Onondaga County Legislator decried the partisan political nature of county government today as she concluded her final meeting in office. Legislator Kathy Rapp served in her last legislative session Tuesday afternoon. She said the statesmanship and optimism that once filled county government has faded in her 18 years and been replaced by personalities. "I've always liked the work. Politics is driving me out," she said. "Sometimes it feels like it's not the same as it used to be." Rapp pointed to last week's meeting of the legislature's facilities committee, which devolved into a shouting match. She said partisanship, personalities and "trying to be right instead of doing what's best" have become too commonplace. Rapp first took office in 1998, representing the county's fifth district, which includes Liverpool, North Syracuse and parts of DeWitt. Her crowning achievement, she said, was pushing to approve an expansion of Carousel Center to Destiny USA. She and two other legislators helped generate public support to win over the rest of the legislature, she said. "Now there's 5,000 jobs over there," she said. "We're a tourist destination because of it." The Onondaga County Legislature presented Kathy Rapp a plaque to commemorate her 18 years in office. Legislature Chairman Ryan McMahon took several minutes to say farewell to Rapp during the session. He reflected on her contributions over an 18-year career, including chairing multiple committees and boards and serving in other leadership roles. He extolled her work to clean up Onondaga Lake, approve Destiny USA and develop Hancock Field. Rapp, too, took a moment to reflect on her 18 years in office and how the county has improved. "Sometimes when you're in public office it seems like nothing gets done and we're just kind of spinning our wheels," she said. "But who would have thought in 1998 when looking at that cesspool of a lake...that Tim Burtiss and I would have been jumping in that lake last year?" In October, Rapp decided to take a $10,000 buyout to retire at the end of this year, midway through her term. That decision sparked some backlash in the community. Rapp defended her decision to take the buyout, but admitted she had some second thoughts. She said she had planned to retire at the end of this year anyways and would be giving up an entire year's salary for the $10,000. "Of course, you go through this 'Oh my god, am I really this terrible person?'" she said. "At the end of the day I knew I did it for the right reasons...You've got to be true to yourself. You can't please everybody. Let people think what they think." Rapp recently became a grandmother twice over. As the meeting closed, she made an effort to revive an old end-of-the-year tradition. She invited everyone (Democrats, Republicans, staff, the executive's office and even the media) to join her for a round of drinks. "We would all go out at the end of the year to raise a glass of cocoa or beer or whatever is your taste and give voice to the good things we did through the year," she said. "Let's put differences aside and look forward" to 2017. She received a rousing standing ovation and was presented a plaque before the meeting adjourned. Rapp's term will officially end Dec. 31. County Executive Joanie Mahoney will have 30 days to appoint her replacement. Cydney Palmatier Cydney Palmatier (GoFundMe photo) Cydney Palmatier worked extra shifts at Ruby Tuesday at the Crossgates Mall to help pay for her tuition and buy some Christmas gifts for her family. Last week, the fruits of her labor were taken from her when thieves smashed her car window in the mall parking lot and stole the gifts out of her back seat, along with her purse, keys and wallet, Time Warner Cable News reported. Cydney, a 20-year-old education major at The College of Saint Rose, was devastated, but her Christmas was saved by generous strangers after her mother, Guen Palmatier, created a GoFundMe page for her daughter. Cydney had lost an estimated $200 in gifts, including a panini press for her mom, fancy teas for her grandma, and a funny shirt for her dad. Her mother set a fundraising goal of $400 to cover the loss of the other items that were stolen, but the GoFundMe has already reached nearly $2,000. "I'm at a loss for words," Cydney told the Albany Times Union. Donations ranged from $5 to $300. Cydney told the Times Union she intends to donate most of the extra cash to the Help Yourself Academy which supports disadvantaged students at a nearby elementary school. Coworkers at the Ruby Tuesday also donated another $150 to Cydney. "I never expected the community to react this way. I'm completely grateful. I just can't keep all that money," she told the Times Union. Ashley Madison A June 10, 2015 file photo shows Ashley Madison's Korean web site on a computer screen in Seoul, South Korea. (Lee Jin-man | AP) Update: The New York State Attorney General's office says a lawsuit accusing AshleyMadison.com of lying to customers over its "full delete" service has been settled. Ashley Madison, a website that helps users seek extramarital affairs, was accused of cheating its customers in a new TMZ report. A lawsuit filed by NYS AG Eric T. Schneiderman said the site charges departing customers $19 to remove their profiles and all messages and photos, but the infidelity info was actually retained for 12 months or longer. Court papers filed on behalf of 7,989 users in New York state who bought the option claims it didn't protect them from the site's 2015 security breach that left millions of users' data exposed. The hackers' breach also revealed the adultery dating site, whose slogan is "Life is short, have an affair," created fake female profiles to entice male users. Ruby Corp., the Toronto-based parent company of Ashley Madison, agreed to pay $1.6 million in settlements following an investigation led by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Schneiderman's office said the settlement with the company is for $17.5 million but said remaining balance is suspended based on Ruby's inability to pay. A representative for the AG's office says the settlement includes damages for the deceptive "full delete" option. TMZ previously reported a new lawsuit had been filed. Schneiderman said the company also agreed to implement a stronger data security program and cease engaging in deceptive practices. Schumer.JPG United States Senator Charles Schumer holds up a copy of a news story about the latest fatal crash involving a semi-trailer outside the DeWitt firehouse on Wednesday. In addition to pushing for devices to control truck drivers' speed, the incoming Senate minority leader spoke about working with President-elect Donald Trump on infrastructure and vetting his cabinet appointees. (Patrick Lohmann | Syracuse.com) DEWITT, N.Y.-- The incoming minority leader for the United States Senate said that despite his deep divisions with the incoming president-elect, infrastructure -- potentially $1 trillion worth -- is an area of shared interest. And Sen. Charles Schumer (D-Syracuse) told reporters outside the DeWitt firehouse on Wednesday that he would push for federal money from that infrastructure funding to the redevelopment of Interstate 81, which is slated to be rebuilt or torn down in the coming years. "I've talked to the president-elect four or five times and I've told him, 'Look... where we agree with you, we're not going to oppose you just because the name Trump is on it," he told reporters. "We're going to try to be bipartisan and get things done. One of the things we've talked about is a large infrastructure project." For that to happen, local leaders and members of the public need to decide what they want on the Interstate-81 project. Debate is ongoing about whether a boulevard or new viaduct should replace the interstate. Local projects that don't provide a united front to the federal government won't be funded, he said. "If we get such an infrastructure bill, I-81 is going to be one of the things I'm going to push for," he said. "There's a lot of division about what should happen. If there's division, nothing will happen. So we need people to get together and choose the best plan." Schumer invited reporters to the fire station to increase pressure on the U.S. Department of Transportation to require semi-trailers to install devices limiting their speed. He pointed to several recent cases of out-of-control trailers causing crashes, some of them fatal, on Central New York highways. He also spoke about the transition to becoming the highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate and his strategy in dealing with Donald Trump, who has angered and terrified many of Schumer's party with his recent cabinet appointments. "Look, we're going to vet all these nominees," he said. "So many of them are multi-millionaires. So many of them, like (Exxon CEO Rex) Tillerson and others, have huge conflicts of interest -- huge oil holdings and things like that. So we have an obligation to vet nominees very, very carefully." Asked whether he's identified any strategies for dealing with Trump one-on-one, he smiled and said, "not yet." He also reiterated his support for a Congressional select committee to "get to the bottom of" allegations that Hillary Clinton emails published by Wikileaks were hacked by Russian agents. "It should trouble every American -- Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative -- that Vladimir Putin, who is a bully, tried to influence our elections," he said. "I'm not trying to point fingers or be partisan, but if foreign countries-- Russia, China, Iran-- are trying to influence our elections, that's serious stuff." In his first visit to Syracuse after the Nov. 8 election, he thanked voters for the wide victory margin he enjoyed over opponent Wendy Long. But he said Democrats' economic message, or lack of one, was what handed the election to Trump, even though he said Trump's actual policies won't improve the lives of the voters who elected him. "When you lose an election the way we did, you look it in the eye. You don't flinch, you don't make an excuse," he said. "What did we do wrong? I'll tell you what we did wrong. We didn't have a sharp enough economic message to show middle class people how they could stay in the middle class." He said his new job as a Senate leader is to sharpen that message for voters. He'll be voted in as minority leader Jan. 3. Reporter Patrick Lohmann covers New York state government and other topics. He can be reached any time: Email | Twitter | (315)766-6670 Obama Offshore Drilling In this May 14, 2015, file photo, the oil drilling rig Polar Pioneer is towed toward a dock in Elliott Bay in Seattle. The rig was the first of two drilling rigs Royal Dutch Shell was outfitting for Arctic oil exploration. (Elaine Thompson | AP) WASHINGTON -- Invoking a rarely used provision in federal law, the Obama administration on Tuesday announced a permanent ban on offshore drilling in broad parts of the Arctic and Atlantic coasts -- a sweeping and controversial move that will help secure the president's environmental legacy even as critics vowed to reverse it. The ban relies on the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which says the president "may, from time to time, withdraw" federal waters from oil and gas development that are not already leased. It was announced as part of a joint action with Canada, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also made long-term, though not permanent, commitment to protect the Arctic from drilling. Obama cited the Arctic's "unique ecosystem," the risk of damage from a spill, the high cost of working in the remote and frigid region and concerns about climate change. "It would take decades to fully develop the production infrastructure necessary for any large-scale oil and gas leasing production in the region -- at a time when we need to continue to move decisively away from fossil fuels," the president said in a written statement. The announcement, coming one month to the day before Obama is to be succeeded by President-elect Donald Trump, is intended to help counter plans by the incoming administration to vastly expand energy extraction by fossil fuel companies. Trump made clear his intentions for robust new drilling during the campaign, and his appointment to key Cabinet posts of longtime loyalists to the oil industry has alarmed environmentalists. Major conservation groups had been pushing Obama in recent weeks to put the offshore areas off limits in perpetuity. Past presidents, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, have invoked the law to issue temporary bans. Obama's action appears to be the first time the law has been used to impose a permanent drilling ban -- and it is almost certain to be challenged. A senior administration official said Tuesday that the White House was "quite confident" that the decision could not be undone by Trump, noting that the law specifies no provision for reversal. The official suggested that overturning the ban could require years of legal action and the passage of a bill in Congress. Some oil industry leaders said they believed the next administration could easily reverse it. They cited a 2008 memorandum by President George W. Bush that lifted a temporary ban in certain offshore areas imposed by President Bill Clinton. "Fortunately, there is no such thing as a permanent ban, and we look forward to working with the new administration on fulfilling the will of American voters on energy production," wrote Erik Milito of the American Petroleum Institute. Yet environmental groups say the 2008 reversal left intact other permanent changes Clinton made. Under the 1953 law, a presidential order that explicitly states that it is intended to be permanent, and is designed to address an "articulated purpose," would likely stand up to legal challenges, lawyers for two conservation groups, Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote in a legal brief on the issue last month. The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. How much the decision might change the situation in the Arctic is unclear. Only one company, Royal Dutch Shell, has conducted exploratory drilling in the region in recent years. Last year, after spending more than seven years and $7 billion preparing, Shell abandoned its plan after a single summer of drilling, citing disappointing results. On Tuesday, an administration official estimated it could take decades -- and a doubling or tripling of the price of oil -- to make drilling in the Arctic appealing to many companies. The administration emphasized that oil and gas exploration have thrived in other parts of the country at far less expense. While the Arctic is believed to hold vast reserves, it currently provides 0.1 percent of the nation's crude oil production. None of the companies that hold the 42 active leases in the Arctic's Beaufort Sea is currently pursuing drilling. Still, with Trump promising to unleash a wave of fossil fuel development, the announcement is another example of Obama moving to shield his legacy of environmental protection. If and how Trump might undo various policies have been constant questions. Some rules are fairly easily reversible; others could require years of regulatory processes to change. Trump has suggested he could walk away from the landmark agreement on global warming Obama signed with other countries in Paris last year, as well as scrap the Obama administration's signature effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power plants. Trump has promised to champion coal power, eliminate subsidies for green energy programs and broadly relax federal environmental regulations. His pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, is a climate change skeptic who has led state efforts to resist the agency's authority. His choice for Energy secretary, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, has also expressed doubts about human-caused climate change and is a close ally of the oil industry. Canada's role in the announcement on Tuesday follows a commitment Obama and Trudeau made in March to collaborate on Arctic issues as declining sea ice from climate change is stirring new interest and posing new risks in the region. While Canada also banned drilling in its Arctic region, its ban would be reviewed after five years. The nations also pledged to work together to define "low-impact shipping corridors" to protect the Arctic's endangered whales and other species as well as the subsistence hunting and fishing practices of indigenous people. The announcement includes a ban on drilling in large parts of the Atlantic, from New England to the Chesapeake Bay, where the U.S. administration is seeking to protect underwater canyons, some deeper than the Grand Canyon. Many are what scientists call biodiversity "hot spots," providing homes to corals, beaked whales, fish, sponges and crabs. Officials say preserving the canyons will ensure better health for commercial fish populations. But the big news was in the Arctic, long a stage for conservation battles. While 3.8 million acres are being protected in the Atlantic, 115 million are set aside in the Arctic. The ban there includes all of the Chukchi Sea and the vast majority of the Beaufort off the coast of Alaska, leaving out a portion near state waters and the onshore drilling fields of the North Slope. That area, the administration noted, includes known oil reserves, and its proximity to existing infrastructure and spill-response equipment somewhat reduces risks of serious damage from a drilling mishap. That area already had not been designated for leasing in the federal government's upcoming five-year program for the Outer Continental Shelf, which begins in 2017. Just last month, the administration said it would not sell new leases for drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic through 2022. That announcement also blocked expansion in the Pacific, leaving the Gulf of Mexico as the primary offshore production area. While many lawmakers on the East Coast supported Tuesday's decision, Alaska's three-member congressional delegation sharply criticized it and other moves by the administration that have restricted oil development in that state, including previously announced protections for a wide swath of western Alaska and Bristol Bay, home to one of the world's largest runs of wild salmon. 201612211117_0004.jpg Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, center, poses for a picture in Syracuse with Mahtab Shaikh, and his wife Marilyn. The date of the photo has been lost, but it might have been from August 1973 when she appeared in the play "Blithe Spirits" at Henninger High School. Her dog was ill while she was in town. (Post-Standard file photo) Zsa Zsa Gabor, the actress and socialite, died this week at the age of 99. A reader wrote an e-mail to syracuse.com remembering seeing Gabor in 1973 in Syracuse. She played the role of "Elvira" in a production of Noel Coward's play "Blithe Spirits" for the Famous Artists Playhouse at Henninger High School's auditorium. The comic play, first performed in 1941, was about Charles, a novelist who invites a medium, Madame Arcati, into his home to do a seance, hoping to gather material for his next book. His plan backfires, though, when the ghost of his first wife, Elvira, returns to haunt him, and his current wife, Ruth, who cannot see or hear the ghost. The Post-Standard's reviewer, Nevart Apikian, wrote that Gabor "materialized" on the stage on August 15, 1973, and was "glamorous in chiffons and ostrich feathers and dazzling with diamonds." Apikian said that the "beautiful blonde is just like you've seen her on stage and television." At least three audience members of the practically full house brought opera glasses to get a closer look at the Hungarian star. But, Apikian said, Gabor's "gleaming hair, elegant profile and decollete down to there were evident to the eyes." The review said that, "Miss Gabor's comedy lines were delivered with flair, though occasionally she could not be heard." Her famous accent was there, and she was a "charmer all the way through." The review cheered Nancy Cushman as the medium and Michael Evans as Charles. Evans appeared at the Corinthians Club's luncheon on August 16 after Gabor felt under the weather. Lois Vosburgh wrote in the Post-Standard Women's World page that the club members "who had expected 'my darling' charm" appeared more than happy with the substitution of the "handsome" Evans. Gabo's Shih-Tsu was also ill and had to be taken to a Fayetteville veterinarian. This feature is a part of CNY Nostalgia, a section on syracuse.com. Send your ideas and curiosities to Johnathan Croyle: Email | 315-427-3958. Greek tanker fleet increases With an overall growth of 6.5% in vessel numbers and 10.26% in deadweight tonnes terms, Greek shipping continued to power ahead this year, according to a new report from Petrofin Research. With an overall growth of 6.5% in vessel numbers and 10.26% in deadweight tonnes terms, Greek shipping continued to power ahead this year, according to a new report from Petrofin Research. This growth is even more impressive, if the challenging prevailing market conditions in most sectors are taken into account, the report said. Moreover, the associated poor cash flows and restricted lending policy by banks have contributed to the difficulties encountered by Greek shipping. In the report, Petrofin outlined some of the reasons for the large rise in both vessel numbers and fleet deadweight tonnage: - 1) Many Greek owners had committed newbuilding orders, which were delivered even though there have been significant delivery delays, as a result of revised agreements with the shipyards. 2) In comparison to newbuilding prices, secondhand vessels represented a better buying opportunity and as a result, Greek owners switched their attention to purchasing modern secondhand vessels. 3) A number of Greek owners remained committed to building their eco fleets and to snap up any newbuilding resale opportunities. 4) Particularly in the drybulk sectors, there was a widespread belief among owners that the worst was over and acquiring modern vessels represented an opportunity. 5) Private equity funds have again begun to conclude joint ventures with Greek owners, especially in the drybulk sector. 6) Greek owners have increasingly made use of their reserves to purchase vessels on a cash basis. There has also been continuous improvement in the average age of the Greek fleet. Using a 20,000 dwt cut off point, the average age has fallen to 8.39 years. The tanker fleet (vessels over 20,000 dwt) saw an average age reduction to 9.35 years and an increase of 43 vessels and 14.6 mill dwt with, however, with three fewer companies, the report said. Overall, there is a clear trend whereby the fleets are getting larger but the number of companies has remained virtually the same. In all three sectors (drybulk, containers and tankers), there is strong evidence of economies of scale at work, whilst the age momentum continuously supported younger vessels. Indeed, it is remarkable that for the Greek fleet, the total number of owners with 20,000 dwt plus vessel fleets is the same at 389 in 2016, as it was in 2003, although the total dwt has more than doubled from 160.9 mill in 2003 to 355.9 mill in 2016, Petrofin said. The age drop over the 13-year period has been significant - from 19.2 years to 8.63 years - which underlines the quality revolution that has taken place in Greek shipping over the period. Analysing the large tanker fleet of over 20,000 dwt, this sector showed a marked increase in tonnage by 14.6 mill dwt to 131.6 mill dwt, compared to a small increase of only 220,751 dwt in 2015. The number of vessels was also significantly up rising by 43 to 851. The number of companies in this sector fell by three and age wise there was a marginal drop to 9.35 years average from 9.49 years in 2015. This sector now occupies 36.37% of the Greek fleet, from 35.65% in 2015, 39.4% in 2014 and 2013, 37.12% in 2012, 37.82% in 2011 and 39.9% in 2010. Taking a base of 10,000 dwt, the number of tanker companies has reduced by four. Tonnage is up again but this time by 14.54 mill dwt, compared to only 199,687 dwt in 2015 and now the tanker sector represents 36.39% of the Greek fleet, compared to 35.7% in 2015. Average age is slightly down to 9.33 from 9.485 in 2015 and the average unit has got larger, at 153,666 dwt, from 143,382 dwt in 2015. It should be noted here, that there is a marked tendency not to specify the type of tanker (product, chemical, etc) in the databases used, so the general category of tanker may not be quite sufficient to show the evolution of this sector, which is taken into consideration in the research, Petrofin said. HFW to merge with Legge Farrow On 3rd January, 2017 law firm Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW) will merge with US energy and marine concern, Houston-based Legge, Farrow, Kimmitt, McGrath & Brown. Houston is an important geographical market for HFW and its clients, being a key touch point for several of the firms chosen sectors energy, marine and aviation in particular. The city is second only to New York as a home to Fortune 500 companies and is known as the energy centre of the world for virtually every aspect on the oil and gas industry lifecycle from exploration, production and midstream to refining, marketing, supply and technology. The merger follows successful collaboration between the firms on several cross-jurisdictional client projects in the energy and marine markets and takes their relationship to the next level. It brings HFW closer to existing clients in the region, giving it a physical presence in the US for the first time, the company said. It also creates opportunities for the firm to expand its client base and develop business elsewhere in the US and throughout the Americas. For Legge Farrow, the merger with HFW provides its clients with strategic benefits of access to an established international network of 16 offices in South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. The firm's Houston office can now service the international needs of its existing clients with support from over 450 lawyers involved in transactional and dispute resolution matters worldwide. Legge Farrow has offices in Texas, New York, California and Louisiana. The firm numbers eight partners and nine associates. This merger will bring the total HFW headcount to 170 Partners, 450 lawyers, plus other fee earners and staff totalling 915. Richard Crump, HFWs Global Senior Partner, said: Houston represents a major business hub for us. Having an on-the-ground US office has been a goal for some time and this merger will bring us closer to our existing clients in the region, and enable us to develop more business in our key sectors of oil and gas, marine and aviation, which are key growth sectors in the region, as well as building out our sector capability. This is an exciting development for the firm and we are pleased to be taking such a significant step with friends and colleagues at Legge Farrow with whom we have worked so successfully for so many years." Glenn Legge, a founding Partner of Legge Farrow, said: We are extremely pleased to be formalising our long-standing relationship with HFW. We are very similar in terms of culture and providing pragmatic, cost effective services. Further, we both value the importance of in-depth sector knowledge. Through the merger, we are able to offer HFW an opportunity to enhance its existing presence in the US; and for us the merger provides our multinational clients with access to an established and well recognised international network. Paul Dean, Head of HFW's Oil and Gas practice and who led the US expansion, added: "I see this exciting development as an investment in the businesses of both our and Legge Farrow's clients in Houston." Markets- VLCC price crash The cost of a newbuilding VLCC has fallen to between $70-$80 mill. For example, brokers reported that New Shipping had contracted two, option two VLCCs from Jinhai for only $70 mill each. They are due for delivery in 2018. The same owner was believed to be behind the purchase of the 2016-built VLCC Hangzhou for $60 mill and the 2003-built VLCC Perseus Trader for an unknown price level. Brokers also reported that H-Line had taken over two newbuilding VLCCs at HHI-Philippines for around $79 mill each. They are due for delivery in March next year. Another VLCC, the 2000-built BW Ulsan was also reported to have been sold on subjects to Seven Islands Shipping for $24 mill. In the newbuilding sector, Polaris Shipping was believed to have swapped two Newcastlemax newbuilding bulk carrier contracts for two Aframaxes at Daehan. They are valued at $43 mill each and will be delivered in 2018. Returning to the S&P market, Minerva was said to have taken a second Aframax, the 2012-built Nissos Delos, for $30 mill, She followed the sale of the Nissos Kythnos reported last week, while the 1999-built Aframax Aegean Pride was believed sold to Chinese interests for $10.5 mill. In the charter market, the 2013-built Aframax Alicante was due to start loading 600,000 barrels of oil at the Libyan port of Es Sider bound for to Italy on Tuesday, port officials told Reuters. A second tanker is expected to load before the end of the month. This is the first cargo of crude to be handled since the terminal- Libyas largest - reopened following a two-year closure. According to a Reuters report, it reopened in mid-September, but repairs were needed before tankers could start to load. Elsewhere, brokers reported that the 2013-built Suezmax Almi Sun had been fixed to Phillips66 for six months at $27,000 per day, while ST Shipping was said to have taken the LR2 Gulf Valour for six months at $17,750 per day. Navig8 was believed to have fixed the 2012-built VLCC Trikwong Venture for 12 months at $31,000 per day and Koch was said to have taken the 2000-built VLCC Ruby IV for a rather high $40,000 per day for six months work. Hafnia was believed to have fixed the 2009-built LR1 FPMC P Fortune for two years at $12,500 per day and Reliance was said to have taken the 2010-built MR Swarna Pushp for 12 months at $13,000 per day. Trafigura was believed to have fixed the 1998-built MR Unimarine for three to six months at $12,500 per day. Finally, leaving the fleet was the 1988-built Handysize Crete reported sold to Bangladesh breakers for an unknown sum. Mixing refrigerants could be the answer With the phase out of R404A refrigerant now gathering pace, due to its skyhigh global warming potential (GWP), the search for an environmentally friendly alternative is more pressing that ever. Wilhelmsen Ships Service (WSS) believes that it has discovered an ideal low cost replacement, which has been available all along. Testing the performance of a R404A/R-407F mixture at the companys Singapore facility, WSS found that R-407F is a ready-made replacement for the outgoing R404 gas. Hiding in plain sight, R-407F offers almost identical performance to R404A, but with a fraction of GWP rating and in addition, both refrigerants use the same type of oil. Svenn Jacobsen, WSS technical product manager, refrigeration, while confident the refrigerant would work, was nevertheless still taken aback by the results. Finding that could we add R-407F to a system running on R-404A with no loss of performance, or compatibility issues when it comes to the compressor, evaporator or condenser, was a very pleasant surprise. Tried and tested in both an AC and low temperature system, R-407F also dispenses with the expensive and time-consuming need to recover the existing R-404A. So its a win, win for owners, he said. Typically, this recovery involves the vacuum pump removal of any residue R404A and replacement with a complete charge of R-407F. With an on board system typically using 300-400 kg of refrigerant, Jacobsen estimated the costs could be as high as $16,000. He added, Factor in the destruction of the original gas and the time to recover, vacuum and re-charge the system, along with the hassle of cylinder handling, the proven compatibility of R-407F becomes even more valuable. Permissible by all flag states, except the US, as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states in section 608 of its regulations that any mixing of refrigerants is forbidden, there is however some additional paperwork required when mixing gases. For example, several legislative bodies require that the refrigerant type used in a system must be stated on the nameplate. In order to comply, a new label must be used, stating the original refrigerant (ie R-404A) and the initial charge (number of kg/lbs charged to the system). In addition, the new refrigerant (R-407F) added to the system must be stated, and a log book must be kept and updated to verify the amount of R-407F added to the R-404A system. In closing, Jacobsen considered the additional paperwork nothing more than a minor inconvenience. New labels and log book entries are a very small price to pay for an environmentally friendly ready replacement for R-404A, which weve proven works and doesn't demand any equipment changes, he stressed. Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. It's not uncommon for online retailers to offer barebones PC packages for those putting together a new system. What you won't see all that often, however, is a purpose-built bundle like the PC Gaming Revival Kit that recently cropped up from Nvidia. First spotted by Videocardz.com in Spanish-speaking countries, Nvidia's curious kit includes an MSI GTX 1060 3GT OC graphics card, a 240GB Corsair Force Series LE 240 solid state drive and a Corsair CX450M 80 PLUS Bronze power supply (450W) as well as a code for a digital copy of Gears of War 4 and a t-shirt. The kit is reportedly priced at 399, or around $415. Tallying up the individual components on Newegg comes up to $472.13 before shipping which makes this a decent deal assuming that you were already planning on purchasing similar hardware. It's unclear if Nvidia is planning on offering the kit in other markets or if there will be multiple offerings with varying levels of hardware. The timing is also of interest as it might not be a coincidence that this is just now surfacing in the holiday timeframe. It's entirely plausible that Nvidia may be going after less tech-savvy shoppers looking to upgrade aging manufactured PCs that likely lack a discrete graphics card and flash-based storage. The last few weeks have seen a deluge of Samsung Galaxy S8 rumors, but now it's time for some speculation about Apple's upcoming handsets. A pair of purported manufacturing documents from the company's East Asia supply chain seemingly confirm that we'll see three iPhones released next year. A Sina Weibo user posted the documents, which were noticed by Apple Insider. They appear to add weight to earlier rumors that Apple is readying three iPhones for a 2017 release. The models are referred to as D20, D21, and D22. The first two models are thought to be iterative updates of the iPhone 7; they'll most likely stick with tradition and be named the iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus. Chinese blog cnBeta reports that this year's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were known internally as D10 and, strangely, D20. But the most interesting model is the one designated D22. This will reportedly be the high-end iPhone 8, which goes by the other internal codename of 'Ferrari.' The handset is said to come in a similar form factor as the current iPhone models, but features an almost edge-to-edge AMOLED display, embedded home button, wireless charging, and more. The inside of Ferrari is expected to have undergone a major overhaul. The logic board will be split into two separate units that are connected by a flex cable. One section will hold the phone's main operating components such as the A11 SoC and flash storage, while the other board will contain communication parts for Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity. Additionally, the documents say Apple is considering moving the SIM card tray to the bottom of the handset to make room for the internal hardware. Apple faced criticism over how similar the iPhone 7 is to its predecessor. With next year marking the 10th anniversary of the first iPhone, the company will no doubt want Ferrari to be something special. In a big boost to the wildlife, Greater Mekong region in the Southeast Asia has made a cheering discovery of nearly 163 new species including a rainbow-headed snake and a dragon-like lizard. According to the report by conservation group World Wildlife Fund, Species Oddity, the new discovery in 2015 included nine amphibians, 14 reptiles, 11 fish, 126 plants and three mammals in Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. Among the new discoveries, mention must be made of a gecko in Laos with pale blue skin and a ctritically endangered rare banana species in northern Thailand. Magnet Of Conservationists "The Greater Mekong region is a magnet for the world's conservation scientists because of the incredible diversity of species that continue to be discovered here," said Jimmy Borah, wildlife program manager for WWF-Greater Mekong. Home to world's most endangered species, Mekong, according to Borah, is a glimmer of hope even as extinction rates are increasing at an alarming rate. The Greater Mekong region keeps reminding there are many incredible, unexplored areas, leading to new discoveries and is crucial that they are protected before they are lost, added Borah. Calling the scientists unsung heroes of conservation, Borah said they are racing against time to ensure that these newly discovered species are protected. Vast Bio Diversity Passing some of the most biodiverse lands on earth, Mekong river, after starting from Tibetan-Qinghai Plateau of China, flows to Southern Vietnam and empties into the South China Sea. It is considered the backbone of the region thanks to the diverse wildlife and ecosystems. When classified, the new discovery includes 9 amphibians, 11 fish, 14 reptiles, 126 plants and 3 mammals. So far, Greater Mekong has unveiled 2,409 new species between 1997 and 2015. Depleting Wild Life The WWF is already on record that by 2020, fish, birds, amphibians, mammals and reptiles will decline by two-thirds. The threat from illegal wildlife trade in Greater Mekong is also substantial. Despite the vigil, many collectors are willing to pay thousands of dollars for rare, unique and endangered species and buying them at illegal wildlife markets, noted Borah. Improving enforcement against poaching and shutting down illegal wildlife markets has assumed a matter of grave urgency. The newly discovered newt, Tylototriton anguliceps from Thailand's Chiang Rai Province, resembles a Klingon in the movie Star Trek, thanks to the amazingly red and black markings. Sensitive to pesticides, because of porous skin, the newt faces an existential threat from deforestation. Faced with extreme development pressure from mines to dams, the Mekong region's natural landscapes are under heavy stress. Adding to it is the menace of poaching for bush meat and multi-billion illegal wildlife trade. The scenario is such that many species would be wiped out even before they are even discovered. WWF Concern On Swordfish Meanwhile, the WWF urged 48 fishing nations to end overfishing of the Mediterranean swordfish and announce recovery plans to end the annihilation of the species. At an international conference in Vilamoura, Portugal in November, countries, which are members of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) such as the United States, Japan, and the European Union (EU) agreed to deliberate on schemes to manage key species such as bluefin tuna, Mediterranean swordfish, and sharks. "The future of the Mediterranean swordfish is seriously at risk," said Giuseppe Di Carlo, WWF Director for Mediterranean Marine Initiative. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Sprint is going to release a second-generation version of the Samsung Galaxy J3 handset which will be available under its own network and both of its no-contract prepaid arms Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile. The phone will launch in the United States come Jan. 6, 2017, under the name Galaxy J3 Emerge. It retains much of the specifications found on regular Galaxy J3 handsets, though several of its internals have been bumped up this time. The report comes from Evan Blass, consummate leakster with a trusted caliber of accuracy. Blass culled the official Emerge moniker from a user manual that VentureBeat reviewed. Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge Specs The Galaxy J3 Emerge comes with a 5-inch 720p screen like its previous iteration, but under the hood is a different conversation altogether. Sprint has upgraded the Galaxy J3's internals, whereas the 2016 came with a quad-core proprietary Exynos chipset with 1.5 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage, the Galaxy J3 Emerge will shift to an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. On the back is a 5-megapixel camera and on the front is a 2-megapixel camera. Sure, the configuration lags behind today's standards, but the Galaxy J3 Emerge belongs in the budget category, which is just par for the course. The rear camera is able to record 720p video, at least. Will It Be Upgradeable To Nougat? The handset won't ship with running Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, unfortunately, but it will still run android 6.0 Marshmallow, which is a step up to previous Galaxy J3 handsets that came with Android 5.0 Lollipop. There's still no word from Samsung if the Galaxy J3 Emerge will be included in its Nougat roadmap. Budget phones are typically withdrawn from current-gen Android operating systems, so prospects of Nougat for the Galaxy J3 are a stretch for now. Disappointingly, Sprint hasn't bumped up the Galaxy J3 Emerge battery from the previous iteration: the phone still comes with a 2,600 mAh battery capacity. But Marshmallow's battery optimization improvements and Doze feature may at least help with efficient power consumption. Pricing Pricing for the phone under Sprint, Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile hasn't been revealed yet, though the device's specs definitely do not spell a bank-breaking price point. Chances are, the Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge would slide comfortably in the budget smartphones range. Additionally, release dates for other countries apart from the United States are yet to be confirmed. What do you think of the Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below! 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. At present, Google Home integrates seamlessly with connected Chromecast devices, which are capable of performing a number of minor tasks via voice commands, but if Google Home is poised to push out Amazon Echo's smart speaker reign, then it needs a bigger ecosystem than what it currently boasts. Starting Monday, Dec. 19, Google Home owners may be able to pair Sony speakers or Android TVs to control music and video streaming, without fumbling with complicated smart home or hub setups. Google Home Expands All of Sony's speakers that have Chromecast built in will get the Google Home support by virtue of a firmware update, as is the case with Android TVs poised to take advantage of the expanded ecosystem. This means that barking orders to Google Home, such as playing music from Spotify, can now be routed directly to supported Sony speakers. Additionally, Google Home can now also route TV-based voice commands, such as asking it to play something from Netflix, directly to the connected Android TV. TV sets such as Sony's Bravia line or its latest 4K HDR panels will support this new integration. "This additional functionality is another example of Sony's commitment to customer choice by delivering new and innovative technologies," said Mike Fasulo, Sony Electronics' president and COO. Multi-Room Feature There's also a multi-room feature for homes sporting multiple devices that can connect to Google Hone. The feature allows grouping of all compatible Sony speakers placed in different parts of the home. Once all devices are grouped together, users may command Google Home to synchronize musical output. They may create groups via the Google Home app, and name it "all speakers." Tell Google Home to play music on "all speakers" and the command is triggered across all devices included in the group. Even with this newly formed integration with Sony devices, however, Google Home still lags behind the stellar Amazon Echo and Echo Dot, which sport Amazon's proprietary voice-enabled virtual assistant Alexa. At present, Alexa has these things called "skills," or different app integrations it can process, such as pulling the latest news, playing music or adjusting paired smart home devices as instructed. Google Home needs a little more than just speakers and TVs before it can significantly rival Amazon's smart speaker line. To be fair, Google Home is still relatively young, and the company is likely hard at work procuring forthcoming integrations for the smart speaker. It remains to be seen whether it actually surpasses Amazon Echo and similar devices, but a growing ecosystem spells only good news. Do you have a set of Sony speakers or a Sony Android TV? Have you tried any of the commands described? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below! 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. New Nokia-branded Android smartphones will hit the market in 2017 and rumors are flying high. The latest leak now reveals core specs for the purported Nokia Z2 Plus. So far, various Nokia leaks tried to paint a picture of what to expect next year but none of them ever made a mention of a Nokia Z2 Plus. We've had leaks about the Nokia D1C, Nokia C1, Nokia P, but the Z2 Plus is entirely new. Nevertheless, the Nokia Z2 Plus has now surfaced on Geekbench with some specs in tow, including a Snapdragon 820 processor that suggests it won't exactly be just another midranger. Nokia Z2 Plus On Geekbench While previous benchmark results have shown less powerful devices, the Nokia Z2 Plus listing reveals a well-specced device. It may not be as powerful as the Nokia P rumored to pack a Snapdragon 835 processor and 6 GB of RAM, but it still packs a good punch with this year's processing star the Snapdragon 820. Next to the Snapdragon 821, the Snapdragon 820 is the most powerful processor that powered 2016 flagships such as the Samsung Galaxy S7. Qualcomm unveiled its latest Snapdragon 835 in the meantime, which will power 2017 flagships. Other specs of the Nokia Z2 Plus include 4 GB of RAM and Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow on board out of the box, which is a bit odd considering that Android 7.0 Nougat is out and about. On the other hand, the benchmark could have tested an earlier version of the handset. The Geekbench listing also reveals that the Nokia Z2 Plus scored 2,100 points in single-core benchmarking tests and 5,100 in multi-core, thanks to the powerful Snapdragon 820. Nokia Under HMD Global New Nokia-branded smartphones will be under HMD Global's umbrella, as HMD bought the rights from Microsoft and for the next decade it will be entitled to manufacture devices using the Nokia brand. The first handsets stemming from the new HMD-owned Nokia will hit the market in the first half of 2017, HMD confirmed. With this in mind, it's likely that HMD will unveil the first Nokia Android smartphones at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 in late February - early March next year. Rumor has it that HMD plans to release two high-end Nokia smartphones next year, which would fall in line with the Nokia Z2 Plus and Nokia P leaks. Entry-level and midrange Nokia handsets are also expected. Keep in mind, however, that HMD offered no details regarding what devices it plans to release and what specifications it has in mind, so take all leaks and reports with a grain of salt for now. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency has successfully launched its newest scientific satellite designed to monitor the radiation environment of near-Earth space. JAXA's Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace satellite was sent into space aboard an Epsilon spacecraft, which took off from the Uchinoura Space Center on Tuesday, Dec. 20. The space agency hopes that the ERG satellite will be able to reach a highly elliptical orbit about 215 miles to 18,640 miles above the Earth. This would allow the probe to make it to the Van Allen radiation belts, a region where the magnetic field of the planet has trapped various particles, including fast-moving electrons. JAXA officials said these particles can cause significant damage on the computer systems of satellites orbiting the planet. They also pose a threat to astronauts working in deep space. Japan's ERG Satellite According to JAXA's fact sheet, the main goal of the ERG mission is to find out how high-energy electrons are created and accelerated in the Van Allen radiation belts. Scientists also want to know how exactly space storms are able to develop. The ERG satellite is tasked with conducting a comprehensive observation of various particles, such as ions and electrons, located near the equatorial plane in the Earth's geospace. Researchers have long suspected that this region is where fast-moving electrons are accelerated. JAXA said the space probe has been fitted with nine different scientific instruments designed to monitor activity in the radiation belts. It will remain in near-Earth for at least an entire year while it conducts its work. Epsilon Rocket Tuesday's launch also marks the second time Japan's Epsilon spacecraft has blasted off into space and first for its "enhanced" version. Developed by IHI Aerospace, the original version of the rocket made its maiden launch in September 2013. The 85-foot-tall Japanese rocket is built to carry loads of up to 3,300 pounds into the Earth's low orbit. It is meant to provide companies and organizations with an affordable option of sending their scientific satellites into space. JAXA said costs for the spacecraft's first launch ran at about 3.8 billion ($32.4 million). The latest version of the Epsilon rocket is now capable of transporting about 30 percent more weight into orbit compared to its original version. While it still makes use of the same first stage booster as that of the original Epsilon, the newest model has been fitted with an improved second stage booster that allows the spacecraft to carry about 9,500 pounds (4.3 metric tons) more propellant. Engineers have also updated the structural components of all of the Epsilon's booster stages to make them lighter and easier to manufacture. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. As early as 1879, Listerine manufacturers already claimed that the disinfectant can be used as treatment for gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Now, after more than 100 years, scientists have found evidence suggesting that the popular mouthwash can indeed kill gonorrhea bacteria. Listerine Controls Gonorrhea Bacteria In a new study published in Sexually Transmitted Infections on Dec. 20, researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial to test claims that Listerine can be used as treatment for gonorrhea. They found that the mouthwash can indeed help control gonorrhea bacteria in petri dishes and even in people's mouth and throat. The findings suggest that daily use of the mouthwash may provide a cheap and easy means to reduce the spread of the sexually transmitted disease. Listerine vs. Salt Water Solution Study researcher Eric Chow, from the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, and colleagues tested Listerine Cool Mint and Total Care variants, both of which are composed of 21.6 percent alcohol, in laboratory experiments and found that these reduced levels of gonorrhea bacteria. A salt water solution, however, did not. The researchers then proceeded with a clinical trial that involved 58 men who have tested positive for gonorrhea in their mouths or throats. The men were randomly assigned to rinse and gargle using either Listerine or saline solution for one minute. Results revealed that the proportion of viable gonorrhea in the throat of those who used Listerine was lower at 52 percent compared with 84 percent among those in the salt solution group. After five minutes, the men in the Listerine group were found to have less chances of testing positive for gonorrhea in the throat compared with those who gargled with salt solution. Listerine Effect On Transmission Of Gonorrhea To Other Body Parts Researchers said that they are not sure how long the results would last or how long men need to gargle and rinse with the mouthwash to prevent future infections of gonorrhea in the throat. While Listerine may significantly reduce the levels of bacteria in the mouth and throat, it also remains unclear how the mouthwash would affect transmission of the STD to other parts of the body such as the anus and urethra. "This data suggest Listerine, significantly reduces the amount of N. gonorrhoeae on the pharyngeal surface. With daily use it may increase gonococcal clearance and have important implications for prevention strategies," Chow and his colleagues wrote in their study. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. For Facebook, 2016's latter half has so far been rife with accusatory dialogue aimed at its services, having went through a diverse chorus of pundits who had lambasted its purportedly abysmal upkeep over rampant schmears of fake news, having been accused of arbitrary content censorship and presently having to face a lawsuit over its CEO's misguided approach attempt to set foot in politics. Surely, it can't endure another blow with all these unresolved narratives, and yet it has to: another problem has risen for the largest social network in the world, and it has to do with its $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp in 2014. Did Facebook Lie To The European Commission? The European Commission said Tuesday that it was holding an investigation to determine whether Facebook lied or withheld information about its capacity to pull data from WhatsApp back when it announced that it was acquiring the company for the aforementioned sum. The company has until Jan. 31, 2017 to acknowledge and respond to the commission's "Statement of Objections" on the matter. If the commission determines that Facebook indeed underhanded a crucial detail during its acquisition of WhatsApp, it could impose a fine of up to 1 percent of Facebook's turnover, Forbes reported. In its statement, the commission recalled looking at an element during Facebook's planned acquisition of WhatsApp, whereby Facebook accounts being merged or matched with WhatsApp accounts stood as a disconcerting possibility. Facebook responded by saying that it would be "unable to establish reliable automated matching between the two companies' user accounts." Changes To WhatsApp's Privacy Policy In August, however, WhatsApp updated its privacy policy that included, among changes, the possibility of linking WhatsApp user phone numbers with Facebook accounts. The company explained that the change merely allowed Facebook to offer better friend suggestions or tailor relevant ads to users. The commission believes that Facebook knew about this ability to match accounts from both services back during its acquisition of WhatsApp, essentially rendering Facebook's response as defunct, if not deliberately false. The commission now believes that Facebook had "intentionally, or negligently" given it misleading information, thereby breaching its obligations under the EU Merger Regulation. This isn't the first time that a reputable tech company had to issue a payout to a regulator: Microsoft had to pay the commission almost $800 million in 2004 over bundling Media Player into Windows. The commission has also been looking into Google since 2015, having since threatened to impose a 10 percent fine on the company's annual revenue. The proceedings remain to be seen. Facebook hasn't issued official word in light of the situation. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Mumps virus eruption seems to have badly hit the areas of Arkansas, Illinois and Iowa, with the outbreak cases still continuing to be on the rise. Mumps Cases Top Charts In 2016 The areas of Arkansas, Illinois and Iowa were struck by mumps in August 2016 and the outbreak has been on the rise since then. The number of virus affected cases, reported by health personnel each year, used to be few hundred, but in the last five months, they have reached the total of more than 4,000. "Mumps is a highly infectious disease," said Dr. Dirk Haselow, the Arkansas state epidemiologist, in a press release. "People who cough or sneeze can spread it to people in their general area. But what really caused it to take hold in our outbreak was population density and poverty." North West Arkansas Identified As The Centre Of Mumps Outbreak Arkansas seems to be the center of the mumps outbreak which originated this year, in August. More than 2,200 of 4,000 cases reported are from Arkansas and most of the victims belong to the Marshall Islanders community. Marshallese populace is a very small portion of the total population of the area, but 60 percent of the total 2,200 victims belong to their community. Director of Department of State Health, Dr. Nate Smith has no clue of the reason why Marshallese people are so badly getting infected, though; he noted that these people do like to live in each other's proximity. "It's a little bit more like a college dorm in terms of intensity of exposure," said Smith in a press release. He further said that the Marshallese people are more "community-oriented," and like assembling in public places like church, community centers, etc., where chances of spreading of virus infections are higher. Mumps Vaccine Often Proves Ineffective The mumps vaccine or MMR is a combined vaccination for Mumps, Measles and Rubella. Around 50 vaccination clinics have been set up by the state to help improve the general immunity rate. According to Manisha Patel, medical officer at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the mumps vaccine works effectively on 88 out of 100 people vaccinated. She says that the vaccine has a comparatively weaker component for mumps than for measles and rubella. Though the strike rate of mumps vaccine is not 100 percent, but it was useful enough to eradicate the mumps epidemics, prevailing in the United States till 1960. The cases reported that time were in millions, but now they are reduced to being somewhere between 100 and 1,000 each year. Mumps is an extremely contagious disease and can spread easily through sneezing and coughing. Highly populated and poverty stricken areas are more susceptible to being hit by this disease. The common symptom of mumps is swelling of glands below the ears. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A Google product manager has filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing Google of engaging in illegal confidentiality agreements, practices, and policies. Google employees are reportedly prohibited from discussing any illegal practices or dangerous product defects, even internally, out of concern that such talks could be used in legal discovery in case of litigation or obtained by the government. No Talking Or Whistleblowing The purported policies reportedly stand in violation of California laws and deny Googlers' right to speak, work or act as whistleblowers, or speak to attorneys, the government or the press about any issues within the company. Employees are even prohibited from telling their friends or spouses whether they think their boss is doing a good enough job, alleges the complaint [PDF] filed on Tuesday, Dec. 20 in the Superior Court of California for the city and county of San Francisco. The complaint further alleges that Google's policies prohibit employees from using or disclosing all of the knowledge, skills, acquaintances, and experience at Google when shifting to another employer. Google's confidentiality practices violate the California Labor Code, public policy, and the state's interests, adds the complaint. Reporting Colleagues According to the complaint, the Global Investigation Team at Google is also encouraging "volunteers" to rat out colleagues who might have discussed details about the company. Moreover, a purported "Stopleaks" program reportedly requires Googlers to report any "strange things" they observe, such as someone asking for details regarding a Googler's job or project, the complaint further discloses. In contrast, more than 600 tech employees, including Googlers, signed a "Never Again" pledge, vowing not to help build president-elect Donald Trump's Muslim registry on fears of mass deportations and genocide. Among a number of steps they promised to take, signatories also pledged to ask questions about their companies' practices, stay informed and report on any wrongdoing. The practices detailed in this complaint would make that impossible, since employees can't even talk to their spouses about their work. Using Confidentiality And Other Policies For Illegal Purposes Google's policies reportedly aim to control Google's current and former employees and limit competition, but they trump constitutional rights and prevent employees from reporting any wrongdoing or misconduct. According to the complaint, the company is using confidentiality and other policies for improper and illegal purposes not to protect trade secrets, consumer privacy or other data that should be protected under law. John Doe vs Google The employee filed the lawsuit anonymously, as John Doe, and also points a finger at Google's director of global investigations, intelligence and protective services, Brian Katz. According to the complaint, Katz has lied to roughly 65,000 Googlers telling them that the plaintiff was fired for leaking information to the press, without disclosing his name. Google and Katz reportedly used the employee as a scapegoat to urge other Googlers to remain committed to the company's confidentiality policies, or else. The complaint asks that the plaintiff should not be required to "self-publish" his name. Alleged Amendments As The Information points out, the lawsuit follows a complaint the employee filed earlier this year with the Labor Workforce and Development Agency, which purportedly resulted in Google amending its policies to broaden employees' rights to discuss payment, schedule or other terms of employment, and to communicate law violations to government agencies. However, the plaintiff claims those amendments were just fictional and in fact Google did not even tell employees about the changes. All practices and policies remained the same. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Employee Sues Google Over Its Spying Practises | TechTree.com Started with a motto 'Don't be evil', Google hasn't been able to keep its image clean in last few years. It was embroiled in data scraping scandal in Kenya. More recently, it faced the heat in Europe for stealing data from personal computers while mapping the Street View. This time around, the search-giant has been sued by its own employee for spying program, which encourages employees to report their colleagues who might have leaked information. The report claims that Google warns employees not to communicate their concerns about potential illegal activity within the company in text format. Not even Google's attorneys are supposed to receive such information in a message, as that might find its way to regulators and law enforcement. The Mountain View based company's confidentiality clause also prohibits its employees from writing a novel about their experience in the Silicon Valley, until Google approves the draft. If these charges are proven, Google will look like a North Korea of the tech world. In addition to demanding the relaxation in the company policies, the court may also slap a hefty fine on Google. Image source: yournewsticker.com TAGS: Google Lisa is moving west near 10 mph and that track is expected to continue as the center of the storm passes southeastern Mexico. | Read More 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. Gov. John Bel Edwards on Wednesday gave a forceful defense of his brother, Tangipahoa Sheriff Daniel Edwards, whose office was raided by the FBI last week in connection with a federal drug probe. "Without any fear of contradiction or ever being proven wrong, I will tell you now, he did not engage in anything improper, much less illegal," Gov. Edwards told reporters gathered at the Governor's Mansion for an end-of-year news conference. "I have all the confidence in the world in that, and I think that time will bear that out." Gov. Edwards added that he doesn't "have much information about what they were looking for, why they chose to operate in the manner that they did." The FBI raided the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office, as well as the Hammond Police Department, last Thursday, as part of a U.S. Justice Department investigation of a federal drug task force linked to officers suspected of stealing drugs and cash that had been seized during narcotics investigations. Two former Tangipahoa sheriff's deputies have been charged. Law enforcement officials told The Advocate that Daniel Edwards' computer was among the items seized during last week's daylong raid. "I can tell you that my office has cooperated with the federal authorities since the beginning of their investigation," the sheriff said during a brief news conference Friday. Edwards again defended his brother on his monthly call-in radio show later Wednesday, telling listeners that his brother had done nothing wrong. The probe into the sheriff's office caps a year of unfortunate news to which Gov. Edwards, who took office in January, has had to respond. Edwards on Wednesday reflected back on Louisiana's whirlwind 2016 that was marked with cataclysmic floods, a deadly attack on law enforcement officers, a historic state budget deficit and series of political setbacks for the only state-wide elected Democrat. "There are always lessons learned, but I'm very proud of the work we've been able to do under difficult circumstances," Edwards said. Edwards took office in January. A month later, the state Legislature entered what would become 19 consecutive weeks in session, largely dedicated to trying to temporarily sort out the state's finances and close a projected $2 billion deficit. "I would like to have had more successes in the legislative sessions," Edwards said. Legislators are expected to attempt a more substantive overhaul of the budget in the session that begins in April. "The simple fact of the matter is we are not going to cut our way to prosperity," Edwards said. In the months since lawmakers left the Capitol in June, the state has faced repeated blows. In early July, Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was shot dead by two white Baton Rouge police officers, sparking mass demonstrations in the city. The Department of Justice has not yet completed its probe of the shooting. Less than two weeks later, a Missouri man executed a targeted attack on cops in Baton Rouge. East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Deputy Brad Garafola and Baton Rouge Police officers Matthew Gerald and Montrell Jackson were killed in the deadly shooting. Three other officers were injured. Edwards, who was getting ready for church when he learned of the attack, said he considers that day the "toughest day" since he's been in office. A month after the shooting, south Louisiana was ravaged by floods that left thousands of homes damaged or destroyed and necessitated the emergency rescue of residents across the area. "I know we have people out there whose lives are upside down and are hurting," Edwards said of the continued recovery efforts. Edwards also has been locked in a court battle with Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry over an executive order that he issued shortly after taking office that aimed to ban discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in state government. A judge last week tossed out the executive order, ruling that Edwards had overstepped his constitutional authority as governor. Edwards said he plans to challenge the order. "I do believe we are best served in Louisiana by having an official policy of inclusion," he said. Not seeing the video below? Click here. MINDEN -- A northwest Louisiana tourism director has lost her job after accidentally sending nude live video of herself on social media to a t Louisiana is in line to become the first state to outfit all of its troopers with body cameras, a move that law enforcement officials say will provide transparency and improve policing. "Nobody else has done what we're announcing today," Gov. John Bel Edwards said. "This full statewide deployment is the first of its kind in the country." The $5.3 million effort comes as more law enforcement agencies move toward implementing body-worn cameras and address conflicts between officers and the public. Louisiana made national headlines in July after two white Baton Rouge police officers killed Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, during an altercation in a convenience store parking lot. Cellphone-recorded video of Sterling's death quickly spread online after the shooting and sparked mass protests. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the incident. State Police Superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson said implementing a body camera program for all 700 troopers will help protect the public and State Police. "This is about transparency and accountability," he said. "The public has a right to know what we are doing." Studies suggest that body cams can lead to fewer conflicts with police. Researchers from the University of Cambridges Institute of Criminology found that body-worn cameras reduced the use of force by 59 percent and complaints against officers dropped 87 percent compared to the previous year during a 12-month trial study of Rialto, California, police in 2013. "When people know they're being recorded, everybody's behavior improves," said Rick Smith, CEO and co-founder of TASER, the Arizona-based company that the state is contracting with for the cameras and cloud storage for video. Smith attended Wednesday's announcement of the program. State Police in the New Orleans area will get body-worn cameras in the first wave of the program expected in January. From there, the effort will spread across the state in the coming months. Edmonson said that the effort will cost $5.3 million over five years, but State Police will be using existing funds to cover the cost. Both Baton Rouge police officers were wearing body cameras when one fatally shot Sterling, but BRPD said both cameras fell off during the struggle with Sterling so there was no footage from them of what happened. Smith said that the state will have four options for attaching the cameras to troopers, which will make them more secure and less-likely to fall off. A pilot program, involving 22 officers, has been going on for the past seven months. "They open up the communication line between our police and first responders and the public," Edmonson said. He said it will also serve as a training tool, as supervisors can view police interactions with the public and give feedback. The move by the State Police follows similar action that has been taken by the New Orleans Police Department, the Baton Rouge Police Department and the Lafayette Police Department to institute body-worn camera policies. The New Orleans Police Department became a leader in the movement when they began their body-camera program in 2014. It now includes body cameras for most officers. NOPD Superintendent John Thomas hailed their program as a success during a meeting of the Baton Rouge Body Camera Task Force in early November. He said program is a significant cost upfront, but he believes it pays off. Thomas said body camera videos have helped resolve citizen complaints and potentially prevent litigation against New Orleans officers. BRPD launched a pilot body-camera program last October and hopes to cement the program in 2017, pending parish funding. BRPD's First District has tested four body-camera vendors and will make a recommendation in April to Mayor-President-elect Sharon Weston Broome's administration for funding. "We have noticed a decrease in complaints and an increase in officer accountability," BRPD Chief Carl Dabadie told the Metro Council last week, citing the success of the body camera pilot program. Dabadie estimated the program's implementation for the entire department would cost about $5 million over five years. Outgoing Mayor Kip Holden's administration didn't include money to buy cameras for the entire department. The Lafayette Police Department equipped 20 officers with body cameras last week in a trial run before issuing the devices to every uniformed officer in the department. The department has about 60 body cameras and another 90 are on order and expected to arrive in March. After working out all the kinks of the trial, the department plans to expand the program, newly-appointed Lafayette Police Chief Toby Aguillard said. "Anyone wearing a uniform will have a body camera," said Deputy Chief Reginald Thomas. The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux has expressed interest in a body-camera program, but said his office has not had the money for it. The great news about East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office deputy Nick Tullier's recovery is a gift to the community and state he served, as well as his family and friends. Tullier was wounded during the ambush of law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge by a disturbed Missouri gunman who was killed in the firefight on July 17. Two city police officers 32-year-old Montrell Jackson and 41-year-old Matthew Gerald and 45-year-old sheriff's Deputy Brad Garafola were killed in the shooting. In addition to Tullier, two other officers Sheriff's Office Sgt. Bruce Simmons and a city policeman who hasn't been publicly identified were also wounded in the incident. The wounded sheriff's deputy from East Baton Rouge Parish is doing better in his long recovery than expected. We like to think that the prayers and good wishes of thousands of people in Baton Rouge and Louisiana are doing something to help. Not seeing the video below? Click here. Tullier surprised the specialists at TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital by showing rapid progress and emerging into what Dr. Sunil Kothari calls a "fully conscious" state. Despite his remaining serious physical limitations, officials with the Texas rehabilitation facility said at a news conference last week that Tullier is aware of his surroundings, understands questions and commands, answers "yes" and "no" by moving his head, recognizes loved ones and can even read words. "Right now, it's probably still a little early to speculate" on how complete a recovery the deputy might make, said Kothari, the medical director of the hospital's Disorders of Consciousness Program. Kothari said Tullier's cognitive abilities have shown remarkable improvement in the month since he arrived in Houston from Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge. Therapists are now working to build up his ability to move Tullier can now tilt his head, move his left hand and support some weight on his legs but struggles with other basic activities and are working on loosening up muscles in his throat to improve swallowing and possibly regain the ability to speak. "Nick's got a real long way to go. We know that, we understand that, but Nick's a fighter," said James Tullier, Nick's father, who moved to Houston to be with his son. At Thursday's press conference in Houston, James Tullier, who's been sharing daily updates on his son's condition to thousands of followers through Facebook, spent several minutes thanking the first responders who rushed Nick Tullier to the hospital on July 17 and the "prayer warriors" who've kept him in their thoughts in the long months since. In the holiday season, celebrations of faith and family are replete: Thanksgiving, Hannukah, Christmas and New Year's Day. They ought to be reminders of not only close family connections but the broader community of values in which we are proud to share, and the community of people who risk themselves every day to make our streets and homes safer. Louisiana and particularly Baton Rouge have been through a lot in 2016. For us, and please God for Nick Tullier, let things be better in 2017, and may the recovery continue. Charlie Melancon could have been a U.S. Senator, theoretically, anyway. Actually, he faced steep odds when he gave up his U.S. House seat in 2010 to take on David Vitter, despite Vitter's prostitution scandal, which had erupted three years earlier. This was the election in which Vitter pioneered the strategy of running less against his actual opponent than against the specter of the Obama administration, and despite Melancon's best efforts to convince voters he was his own man, he got trounced. Still, having been a member of Congress is pretty good. Also good, although somewhat less so, is joining a new governor's cabinet. Not so good? Being removed by said governor less than a year later, without a formal explanation and not even by the governor himself. Melancon told the Associated Press' Melinda Deslatte last week that Gov. John Bel Edwards's chief of staff and executive counsel asked him to resign from his post as head of the state's wildlife and fisheries department. He was originally slated to stay on through February, but on Wednesday announced plans to leave immediately. The culprit appears to be not the financial mismanagement that auditors found plagued the department under former Gov. Bobby Jindal, which Melancon was tasked with cleaning up, but with Melancon's combative stance in the always contentious battle between sport and recreational fishing interests, and specifically with Republican U.S. Rep. Garret Graves over Graves' bill to transfer red snapper management from the federal government to the gulf states. Here's what the governor's office had to say after the fact: "From the moment Gov. Edwards took office, investigators have been at the agency conducting reviews of the previous administration's mismanagement. After 11 months, progress to make the necessary reforms took a backseat to unnecessary public battles from the secretary," Edwards' spokesman Richard Carbo said in a statement. "Gov. Edwards chose to move the agency in a different direction where the reforms can continue without interference under a new secretary." +2 Charlie Melancon continues battle with Garret Graves' bill Controversy continues to swirl around Charlie Melancon and his state agencys position on re On the bright side, though, Melancon finally got to prove he wasn't the pawn of Democratic Party bigwigs, whether in DC or Baton Rouge. One lesson here? It's one thing to flex your independence from other politicians. It's quite another to do so from your own boss. Northshore student killed in crash a devoted brother, 'best friend you could have' Northshore High student who died in crash remembered as devoted brother, 'the best friend you could have' Traci D. Howerton is social media editor of Animal Rescue New Orleans, a nonprofit, volunteer-based, no-kill shelter. Contact ARNO at animalrescuecolumn@gmail.com or visit www.animalrescueneworleans.org. There has been an outpouring of support from the Canberra hospitality industry for bride-to-be Lauren Bailey. Ms Bailey and her fiance were left without a reception venue this week, just 10 weeks out from their wedding, when The Lobby Restaurant in Parkes unexpectedly announced it would close. Andy Day of Sage Dining Rooms and Akiba restaurant was just one of the people offering to help find a suitable reception venue. Ms Bailey said she was "shocked" on Wednesday morning to hear a number of venues had reached out via email and on social media to help out however they could. "I actually can't [believe it]. I thought I might be labelled a bridezilla or something like that," she said. Festive season travellers were greeted with what appeared to be an extravagant gift at Brisbane Airport on Wednesday morning a gift-wrapped airliner. But anybody wondering whether it was a Christmas gift from a particularly wealthy person to a particularly lucky one would have been disappointed to learn it was just a publicity stunt. An Alliance Airlines Fokker 70 was wrapped in Christmas paper in a Powerball promotion at Brisbane Airport on Wednesday, December 21, 2016. Credit:Paul Castle The Alliance Airlines Fokker 70 was decked out in blue wrapping paper in an eyecatching campaign for a lottery company. The 80-seat plane was parked on the tarmac in front of Brisbane's busy domestic terminal as part of creative agency GPY&R's "dream gift" campaign for Powerball. Brazilian iron ore miner Vale said on Tuesday it signed a non-binding agreement with BHP Billiton to allow the use of its Timbopeba pit to deposit tailings from iron miner Samarco when that company restarts operations. The deal, which will become definitive pending commercial negotiations and government approvals, is the latest step for Samarco to resume operations suspended in 2015 after the collapse of a dam holding mining waste, or tailings. The rupture killed 19 people and caused Brazil's worst environmental disaster. Horses struggle in the mud in the small town of Bento Rodrigues, Minas Gerais, Brazil after the Samarco dam burst. Credit:AP Samarco is jointly owned by Vale and BHP Billiton. In compensation for the transfer of the pit, Samarco will supply Vale with non-processed ore for some time, Vale said in a statement. The Christmas market truck assault in Berlin, which has left 12 dead and dozens injured, is a disturbing echo of the truck-borne attack on Bastille Day celebrants on the Nice promenade in July. How could such events be allowed to happen? Why werent intelligence agencies in Germany and France able to stay one step ahead of the perpetrators? After all, we have become used to hearing stories of increased chatter and high alerts. Doesnt that mean intelligence agencies should know enough to prevent such attacks? Several trends are emerging that help explain the latest phenomenon and the limits of the security and intelligence agencies. These include: The word "idiot" is enjoying something of a renaissance. Searching "Donald Trump idiot" on Google yields nearly 10 million results, and the epithet has become a regular feature in the national media. A recent New York Times op-ed blasted Trump's "agents of idiocracy," while a headline from Salon asked, "Who are these idiot Donald Trump supporters?" Celebrities from Judd Apatow to Cher have denounced Trump as an idiot, and even data from polls have been used to claim that his supporters are idiotic. It's absolutely true that America is full of idiots - but not in the usual sense of the word. The term "idiot" derives from the ancient Greek "idios" an adjective often translated as "personal" or "private." The earliest recorded use of the word dates to Homer's Odyssey. When Odysseus's son, Telemachus, meets the old warrior Nestor, he says that he has come on a private matter to seek information about his father and not with a purpose that concerns the people of Ithaca, his home. The distinction is important enough that he clarifies the nature of his visit right away. Regular unleaded petrol - the most popular fuel choice among Australian motorists - would be completely phased out under a series of radical proposals by the Turnbull government. Banning regular unleaded petrol would dramatically improve the quality of Australian fuel, rated the dirtiest in the developed world, but would likely lead to substantial price hikes for motorists. Premium unleaded petrol costs an average of 10.7 cents more per litre than regular unleaded, which has been the standard fuel for Australian vehicles since leaded petrol was phased out by the Howard government. The operators of Australia's four remaining oil refineries - two in Victoria, one in Queensland and one in Western Australia - would also be forced to rebuild their plants, with costs potentially running into the billions. She was a university student. I was a chambermaid. She'd had the same boyfriend since high school. I collected notches on my bedpost. She was outgoing and social. I was sensitive and private. But we hit it off and our friendship blossomed. The shift came when we became flatmates. Over a span of 18 months, we became close, although we came from different walks of life. At 15, I moved "to town" with older siblings as a way to get through puberty. My social status increased thanks to adolescent smoking and partying. I had one close friend and a circle of acquaintances. One of those acquaintances became my best friend in the early 1990s. I was never good at making friends. As a child, I was in a trio friendship and often treated as the third wheel. I was shy, meek and emotional; unable to stand up for myself. When I was 11, my family moved to a rural area and any friends I made lived a distance away. We fleeted in and out of each other's lives but I've always felt that she was the one, the bestie. We've lived on opposite sides of the world since 2001 when I left Canada on a holiday and never returned. Three years ago, we met in Bali for a girls' holiday. We haven't seen each other since. We're not as close as we once were but when we get together, we pick up right where we've left off. And for me, that's the definition of a best friend: someone who can come in and out of my life with ease and grace. But it's not enough. I'm lonely and often feel alone, although I have a family. I've been a nomad for much of my adult life. I've met many people I can call friends but they're not deep, meaningful relationships. I may have friends scattered around the globe but I don't have anyone near me. No girlfriends to go shopping with or ritual Sunday brunches. Nobody I can ring up when things are going wrong, or right. I wish I had a friend posse a la Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte. Then again, maybe I watch too much Sex and the City. My friendlessness drop kicked me when I listened to the Straight and Curly podcast about adult friendships. The hosts, Kelly Exeter and Carly Jacobs both spoke about having a handful of close friends. My heart cracked a little and my loneliness spiked. I questioned my choices and lifestyle. Travelling and living here and there has given me a colourful and exciting life. As I traipsed around the world, it never occurred to me that I didn't have deep friendships. But now, I'm on the other side of 45 and crave a friend who lives near; someone I can ring up and say "let's go to a movie" or "I need to talk". In 2013, Gurbaksh Chahal allegedly punched and kicked his girlfriend 117 times before attempting to suffocate her, according to police who viewed security camera footage that was later ruled inadmissable in court. At the time, police were forced to drop their 47 felony charges; and instead Chahal pleaded guilty to two misdemeanour charges, striking a deal to avoid jail time. Gurbaksh Chahal Credit:Charley Gallay/Getty Images Earlier this year, while on probation as part of that deal, he allegedly assaulted a second woman - and was sentenced to a year in jail for the breach of probation. Chahal was granted bail as he awaits an appeal. In the meantime, he's been handed a job as adviser to Chicago-based venture capital firm NIN Ventures, who appear unperturbed by his history of violence against women including actual convictions and a pending jail sentence. Daily Life's 2016 Woman of the Year, Mariam Veiszadeh, was blocked from Facebook for sharing a highly abusive Islamophobic message she was sent. The anti-Islamophobia advocate, whose determination in the face of incessant cyber bullying was commended by Women of the Year judges, said that being punished by the social media giant for pointing out the extreme opinion was a "terrible experience". She has since been unbanned from the site, which apologised after claiming the barring was a "mistake". Facebook appeared to sanction the abuse, which was on Tuesday sent as a private message to Veiszadeh, calling her a "f---ing disgrace" and "muslim filth" and claiming that she is "full of hate for our western culture". "f--- off back to Afghanistan where you belong! you do not belong here! [sic]" ends the message, which was sent after news of a suspected pro-Islamic terror attack in Berlin emerged. A man has been arrested in Sydney's west and charged with gun offences by a police task force investigating the shooting death of Curtis Cheng. Masood Zakaria, 21, was arrested at Westmead on Wednesday morning. Officers from the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team and the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad took Mr Zakaria to Parramatta Police Station. He was charged with possessing an unauthorised pistol, suppling a firearm to a person unauthorised to possess, and acquiring a pistol subject to a firearms prohibition order. Mr Zakaria appeared at Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday afternoon, where he was refused bail. A burglar used a fire escape to get to a second-floor window early Wednesday morning, gaining entry to an architectural firm's offices. The break-in was reported at about 7:20 a.m. at Aro Eberly Architects, 116 King St., Madison police said. "A second-floor window was smashed out," said police spokesman Joel DeSpain. "It is believed an intruder may have accessed the business via a fire escape." The interior of the office was damaged, but officials didn't know what, if anything, had been taken. While travelling on a cruise ship, Canadian woman Melina Roberce wrote: "I used to be afraid to get out of my little town and now I feel like I don't want to see that little town anymore cause it's beautiful out there." On Wednesday Ms Roberce's world got a lot smaller, with magistrate Robert Williams committing her to stand trial on a charge of importing cocaine on the Sea Princess cruise ship in August. Isabelle Lagace, 28,(right) has pleaded guilty to importing cocaine. Her travel companion Melina Roberce, 22, (left) appears in court again next week. Credit:Instagram Ms Roberce, 22, wearing a bright red jacket, sobbed throughout the 30-minute court proceedings, and held a tissue to her nose. She had mascara streaming down her face when she briefly stood to address the magistrate, saying "no" when asked if she wanted to answer to the charge. Two teens from the NSW South Coast, at the centre of a murder plot co-ordinated from inside a Sydney prison, are only alive today thanks to the most unlikely of heroes - their would-be executioner's hard-nosed cellmate, a court has heard. The inmate, a long-term prisoner with an apparent intense dislike of authority, took the extraordinary step of contacting police in early 2015 after learning his bunk buddy was looking to hire a hitman for $50,000, the court heard. He said the man's targets were a 14-year-old girl who had accused him of sexual abuse, and his own son, also 14, who backed the girl's assault claims. The incredible exploit was outlined in an agreed set of police facts tendered in a criminal court case against the 36-year-old man's wife. She admitted in court to providing the would-be hitman with instructions from her husband and information about the intended victims. Marburg received hailstones two to three centimetres in diameter, and Brisbane city experienced a brief patch of stormy weather. Severe thunderstorms are forecast to hit Ipswich and Lake Wivenhoe this afternoon. Credit:Jorge Branco The severe thunderstorm warning for the south-east has now been cancelled, after thunderstorm cells travelled north past Ipswich towards the Sunshine Coast hinterland. More than 2200 homes in south-east Queensland were without power on Wednesday evening, after severe thunderstorms passed through the region. While severe thunderstorm warnings are still current for south-east Queensland, the main thunderstorm cell has passed Brisbane and is now tracking towards the Sunshine Coast hinterland. "The main storm we're concerned about is coming up towards the hinterland," Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Michael Paech said. "Sunshine Coast is still expecting to see thunderstorm action, but not expecting severe storm action." Mr Paech said people should still keep an eye on weather warnings as the bureau was still seeing "a reasonable amount of storm development" just over the border in NSW. Hailstones two to three centimetres in size have been detected at Marburg, and the two severe thunderstorm cells have joined to create one thunderstorm system. Tiahleigh Palmer's foster brother's alleged sexual relationship with the slain Logan schoolgirl may not have been the first time he was involved in such conduct, a court has heard. Incest-accused foster brother Trent Jordan Thorburn will spend Christmas behind bars after he was refused bail in the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Trent Thorburn, pictured in a photo he posted to Instagram, was refused bail. Police raised fears he would offend against other children but the judge, who noted allegations the defendant had offended against another underage girl previously, was more concerned that he may potentially interfere with other witnesses. The 19-year-old wasn't required in court for the hearing, on the same day his father faced court accused of murdering Tiahleigh. A litter of kittens born with an abnormality have been given a second shot at life after they were rescued from a Queensland farm. Brisbane woman and Cat Cuddle Cafe founder Katina Balson took on the litter of three and their mother on November 6 fter they had been rescued from a Queensland farm. Three kittens with forelimb abnormalities are on the mend thanks to public donations. The then four-week-old kittens had varying degrees of a forelimb abnormality called Radial Hypoplasia, a disabling condition where the kittens are born with forelegs abnormally short or twisted. Ms Balson said the kittens were malnourished while the mother had Feline Immunodeficiency Virus. It could be the largest structure ever discovered. Astronomers have found a supercluster of galaxies that might help explain why the Milky Way travels the universe the way it does. "This is one of the biggest concentrations of galaxies in the universe possibly the biggest in the neighbourhood of our galaxy, but that will need to be confirmed by further study," said a co-author of the new study, Professor Matthew Colless from the Australian National University. The Vela supercluster is mind-bogglingly huge. Spanning across 370 million light years at an average distance of 840 million light years from Earth, the cluster probably contains up to 100,000 galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars. So it has come to this. By the government's own admission, it is simply unable to find secure accommodation for just 15 teenage boys. By leaving them at the maximum-security Barwon Prison, the government is acting illegally. But, according to Solicitor-General Richard Niall, QC, it could be months before repairs at the Parkville Youth Justice Centre allow the boys to be moved back to that facility. This is a system in paralysis. After riots destroyed more than 60 beds at the Parkville facility last month, the Andrews government said it would take swift action. Tough action, if you will. The battle to drag the Victorian Liberal Party to the hard right has escalated amid rising panic that One Nation are "in for a serious shot at a few upper house seats" at the 2018 state election. Confidential emails from senior figures on the Liberal Party's influential 19 member administrative committee warn that the party must undertake a "substantial and clear pivot back to the right" to win back voters being lost to One Nation. Preselection candidate Stephanie Ross, Brighton Liberal James Newbury, and party numbers man Marcus Bastiaan. Credit:Twitter And Fairfax Media has also obtained a private letter sent this week by pro-life campaigner Stephanie Ross, who is challenging 65-year-old incumbent Gary Blackwood for the state Liberal seat of Narracan, rallying supporters to "reignite the fire" to promote a socially conservative agenda and halt a push towards same-sex marriage and euthanasia. "There is a state/nation wide push to bring conservative politics back into fashion!" the letter says. "People like Corey (sic) Bernardi in SA, Andrew Hastie in WA, George Christensen in QLD and Kevin Andrews in VIC are all fighting and need our backing." A distressed man who walked into a Sunbury tyre shop on Wednesday afternoon was suffering from stab wounds, police say. Police are investigating a possible "stabbing incident" in Sunbury, after the man had "multiple stab wounds" when he attended a Beaurepaires store on Neill Street about 2pm, a police spokesman said. Police at the scene where a man presented with stab wounds, in Sunbury. Credit:Twitter/@7NewsMelbourne Tha man, aged in his 60s, was assessed by paramedics and taken to hospital in a serious but non-life threatening condition. The exact circumstances of the incident are yet to be determined and anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. It was the second stabbing in Melbourne on Wednesday, a 34-year-old woman was stabbed in the face and neck by a group of armed robbers demanding her bike and phone about 2.30am in North Melbourne. A man who killed a two-year-old girl by stomping on her when he became angry because she had urinated on his couch through her nappy has been jailed for 11 years. Mussie Debresay was this year found by a jury to have inflicted fatal internal injuries when he stomped on the toddler's abdomen in his Footscray unit on the morning of May 13, 2005. Mussie Debresay has been sentenced to 11 years after being found guilty of manslaughter. Credit:Justin McManus The toddler, who cannot be named, was the daughter of Debresay's partner. On Wednesday, Debresay, 38, looked up at the ceiling of the Supreme Court and held back tears as Justice Terry Forrest jailed him for at least eight years. He was found guilty of manslaughter, but not guilty of murder, earlier this year. Work on redrawing the state Assembly map should begin immediately, with or without the participation of state lawmakers, according to a court brief filed Wednesday by lawyers for a group of Wisconsin Democrats. The group, which won a federal court ruling last month that declared the current Assembly map to be an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander that overwhelmingly favors Republicans, wants the new map ready for elections in 2018 and 2020, according to the court filing. But the state Department of Justice, in its brief, wrote that the federal three-judge panel hearing the case should wait to order a plan to replace the 2011 state Assembly map until after the U.S. Supreme Court has acted on its inevitable appeal. Briefs from both sides were filed Wednesday at the request of the panel, which ruled 2-1 in November that the 2011 redistricting plan, drawn up by Republican legislators, is an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. When the panel made its ruling, it did not decide how it would change the map, instead ordering both sides to write briefs telling the panel what they believe should happen. On Jan. 5, both sides will file responses to the others position. The group of Democrats sued last year, calling the 2011 plan one of the worst partisan gerrymanders in modern American history. In its brief, lawyers for the Democrats asked the panel to bar further use of the 2011 Assembly map so that DOJ can immediately appeal. But while the appeal is ongoing, they wrote, the panel should begin the process of redrawing the map. The Democrats wrote that the panel may, but need not, allow legislators to draw a new map. The elected branches illegal conduct in passing and defending the current plan, as well as their own position that they are barred by the Wisconsin constitution from redistricting again until the 2020 cycle, are compelling reasons for the court not to extend them this opportunity, lawyers for the Democrats wrote in their brief. If allowed to participate, though, the panel should give legislators and the governor a firm timetable, clear line-drawing criteria and concrete disclosure instructions, the Democrats wrote. If the court decides to draw the map itself, they wrote, it should have even stricter line-drawing constraints. The states lawyers, while disagreeing with the panels decision that the 2011 redistricting plan is unconstitutional, wrote that the court should direct the Legislature to revise Assembly districts to comply with its order, but wait to do so until after the states appeal has been heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Such an approach would allow the defendants appeal to the Supreme Court to proceed immediately, while avoiding a waste of resources devising a plan that is a temporary placeholder until the Supreme Courts ruling in this case, DOJ lawyers wrote. Only after a Supreme Court ruling will it be known if a replacement map is needed and, if so, what form it should take. DOJ said that because of a lack of legal precedent on partisan gerrymandering cases, it would be a waste of time and money to draft and pass a new plan, only to have the Supreme Court provide a standard that would require an entirely different plan, or to have the court reverse the decision by the three-judge panel. U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb of Madison and 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Kenneth Ripple ruled on Nov. 21 that the 2011 state Assembly redistricting plan is a partisan gerrymander. U.S. Chief Judge William Griesbach of Milwaukee dissented. Ripple, the senior judge on the panel, wrote that the 2011 map was intended to burden the representational rights of Democratic voters ... by impeding their ability to translate their votes into legislative seats. He added that there was no justification for the map based on the states political geography or any legitimate state interest. The redistricting plan was written at the law office of Michael Best & Friedrich under strict secrecy. Democrats contend it was drawn to give Republicans a large and durable advantage in elections. Lawyers for the Democrats said that they have devised a way to measure unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders that the U.S. Supreme Court has said it was lacking. The measure, called the efficiency gap, shows how breaking up blocs of Democratic voters, called cracking, and packing other Democrats into certain districts results in wasted votes excess votes for winners in safe districts and perpetually inadequate votes for losers. Chaos has engulfed the Andrews government's approach to juvenile detainees, with 15 youths to remain at Barwon Prison in the short term, despite the Victorian Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday that jailing them in an adult prison is illegal. In extraordinary scenes, Justice Gregory Garde initially ordered that the children be removed from Barwon Prison by 4pm on Thursday and transferred to another remand centre in Victoria, before declaring he had no choice but to order them to stay for now. Justice Garde ruled the children were being held illegally at the maximum-security facility, and their human rights were being breached. "All persons deprived of liberty must be treated with humanity," he said. However, after hours of legal argument, Justice Garde accepted there were no suitable youth justice facilities in the state to take them. A mother has thanked Victoria Police for looking after her five-year-old son, who had left his Carlton home to go wandering in the dead of night. Toni Swain was reunited with her son Digby this morning hours after he was seen dressed in his pyjamas and with no shoes in Lygon Street by a passing cab driver. Toni Swain with Digby outside Fitzroy police station. Credit:Nine News Melbourne Ms Swain said she was relieved that Digby, who has Down syndrome and is non-verbal, had stuck to the footpath. "It could have been completely different; he could have been hit by a car," she said. Bangkok: The United Nations has called on Philippine authorities to investigate controversial president Rodrigo Duterte for murder after he bragged about killing people last week. Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, also urged investigations into the "appalling epidemic of extra-judicial killings" under Mr Duterte's deadly crackdown on drugs that has left almost 6000 people dead. In unprecedented criticism of a serving national leader by the world body, Prince Zeid said children as young as five have become victims of the violence, adding he was surprised there has been no sign of prosecution of those responsible. "The perpetrators must be brought to justice, sending a strong message that violence, killings and human rights violations will not be tolerated by the state and that no one is above the law," Prince Zeid said. if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi... A Madison man chased by a Dodge County deputy early Wednesday morning crashed his car and fled on foot before being taken into custody. The incident happened at about 2:20 a.m. on Highway 16 in the town of Emmet, the Sheriff's Office said. Sean Johnson, 26, was injured in the crash and taken to Aurora Summit Hospital in Oconomowoc with non-life-threatening injuries. The deputy stopped Johnson on Highway 16 near Highway 26, and was going to arrest him for driving impaired, but Johnson drove away. The chase on Highway 26 was short-lived after Johnson's car left the highway and rolled over. He fled the scene but was taken into custody a short time later. Both drugs and alcohol are believed to be factors in the crash. The investigation is continuing. The drivers killed in a head-on crash north of Janesville Monday afternoon have been identified. Carolyn Rhodes, 75, of Janesville, and Bradley Britt, 57, of Davis, Ill., were killed in the crash that happened on Highway 14 in the town of Janesville, the Rock County Medical Examiner's Office said. Forensic examinations by the Dane County Medical Examiner's Office showed their deaths were the result of injuries sustained in the crash. The crash was due to icy road conditions, the Rock County Sheriff's Office said. Rhodes was going east on Highway 14 when she lost control of her pickup truck and crossed the center line, hitting a westbound pickup truck driven by Britt. Britt was pronounced dead at the scene and Rhodes died later Monday evening at UW Hospital in Madison. The crash remains under investigation. A "soldier" of the Islamic State carried out the truck attack in Berlin on Monday evening, the terrorist group claimed through its unofficial news agency. Twelve people were killed and dozens more injured when a hijacked truck loaded with steel crashed into a popular Christmas market. A suspect was detained near the scene by German authorities, but he was later released on Tuesday, when officials said they did not have proof he was the individual driving the truck. The claim of responsibility comes through the Amaq News Agency, which ISIS typically uses to announce attacks it orchestrated or inspired. Like in other claims of responsibility, the news agency cited a security source within the Islamic State. It is not immediately clear whether the terrorist group directed or merely inspired the perpetrator of the Berlin attack. Amaq does not typically provide proof of ISIS involvement in attacks, but it has a history of being careful about which foreign attacks it claims. While ISIS supporters celebrated when a German-Iranian teenager opened fire inside a Munich shopping mall in July, ISIS did not formally claim that attack. The teen was later revealed to have had psychiatric problems and no ties to ISIS. Amaq sometimes later posts video pledges of allegiance from perpetrators of attacks it claimed, and other times, the perpetrators are later linked to ISIS by authorities. German authorities have not identified the individual responsible for the Monday attack and said that the armed perpetrator is likely still on the run. An asylum-seeker from Pakistan was detained near the site of the attack on Monday evening. But the man, identified only as 23-year-old Naved B, was released on Tuesday, and the federal prosecutor's office said that "forensic tests carried out so far" did not link the man to the crime. According to The Guardian, an eyewitness saw a man exit the cab of the truck and offered police a description. Naved was later detained because he appeared to match it. Earlier reports mistakenly said the eyewitness had followed the suspect from the attack site. The Berlin truck attack claim is somewhat unusual in that ISIS does not typically claim responsibility for attacks where perpetrators are still at large, or have been apprehended by authorities. On Tuesday, CNN reported that the suspect in a planned attack on a high-speed train in France last year confessedbut only after his links to Paris attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud were disclosed in an academic journal. He had previously said the attack was motivated by hunger, and ISIS did not claim it, even though the man allegedly had deep ties to established leaders. (The attack was thwarted by two vacationing American servicemembers and their friend.) Likewise, the terrorist group has not claimed Ahmad Rahimi, who allegedly placed bombs at various locations in New York and New Jersey this summer, even though authorities have discovered writings that appear to show his affinity for the terrorist group. This is the third vehicular attack in the West claimed by ISIS in the past year, and comes on the heels of an issue of its propaganda magazine calling on supporters in the West to carry out such attacks. As was the case in an attack at Ohio State last month, the Berlin attacker evidently carried a knife to cause additional damage after the vehicle stalled. The Polish truck driver, who was found dead inside the truck, had bullet and stab wounds. Both vehicular and knife attacks were heavily encouraged by ISIS propaganda magazine Rumiyah in recent issues. The new focus on Rumiyah, or Rome, appears to indicate a shift in the terror group's focus from Dabiq, the Syrian town where they expected to triumph against other forces. (It lost Dabiq to opposition forces this year.) In the second issue of the magazine, ISIS published a detailed guide on choosing a knife and approaching a knife attack. The message was then reinforced by a video of knife attack instructions published by the terror group. The third issue followed up with instructions on how to conduct a vehicular attack and how to choose the truck. It suggested outdoor markets as one of the possible targets and having a secondary weaponsuch as a gun or knifeto maximize damage. A couple years back, conservative columnist George Will wrote a column that caught him some well-deserved flack. In it, he argued that being a rape victim was a coveted status on college campuses, one that confers privileges. At the time, I thought it was the stupidest thing Id ever read, and I wrote as much. In what crazy world would a person want to have endured sexual abuse? How utterly warped would a person have to be to view trauma as aspirational? Guess I have my answer. On her podcast Women of the Hour last week, Lena Dunham informed her audience that while shes never had an abortion personally, she wishes she had so she could do her part to reduce stigma around the issue. The story goes that when she was asked to share her abortion story, she didnt have an abortion story to share, which she found, somehow, stigmatizing to women who had them. Now I can say that I still havent had an abortion, but I wish I had, she said, for some reason. I understand Dunhams point that normalizing abortion is important for women who believe access to the procedure is important. I could not disagree more that the person who needs to do the normalizing is Lena Dunham. Conservative outlets love to bash Dunham at every opportunity. In many cases, their dogpiling is unwarranted. In this case, its not. Treating abortion like a leisurely activity that Lena Dunham can personally help normalize represents a cartoonish version of clueless urban liberalism wed be well-served to rid ourselves of. Dunhams comments are free red meat for the sort of troll who believes pro-choice feminists spend their days praying to their lord and savior Margaret Sanger that theyll get accidentally impregnated so they can have one of those abortions the gals at the nail salon cant stop gabbing about. Its not compassionate; its bizarre, a more obnoxious version of telling a person who has had their appendix removed that you, too, wish you could have your appendix taken out. Abortion is a medical procedure. Like most medical procedures, it is unpleasant, time-consuming, and costly. Theres blood involved, and doctors prodding your vagina, and cramping, and waiting room muzak infused with the smell of anxiety hormones and hospital sanitizer. For many women, theres also a moral component to abortion. The Catholic Church considers abortion a mortal sin, one that completely severs ones relationship with God. Other faiths are similarly hardline on terminating a pregnancy. Even non-religious women choosing to have an abortion often have to brave crowds of protesters calling them murderers while walking to the clinic doors. Its a difficult decision for all women, and, while some have the procedure without any emotional baggage, many women feel conflicted about terminating a pregnancy. Dunhams flippant attitude is insulting to women who have actually gone through it. Unlike other medical procedures, the Supreme Court has ruled that the constitution protects womens access to abortion. In Roe, the justices established a right to elective abortion to the point of fetal viability, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, they established that states can regulate access but cannot place an undue burden on women seeking to terminate their pregnancies, and in Whole Womens Health v. Hellerstedt, they ruled that states cannot attempt to regulate abortion providers out of existence when those regulations show no clear benefit to the health of women. Despite this, womens access to abortion, especially in rural areas of red states, has never been more tenuous. The website Rewire tracks all the ways that anti-choice lawmakers have attempted to weasel around Supreme Court decisions with bans and regulations (Ohios brand new 20-week ban or Texass mandatory burial for fetal remains, for example), and perusing their comprehensive database is a frightening way to spend five minutes, or an afternoon. The only thing standing between women in many states and a complete lack of access is the court system. And our days of being able to rely on those court protections, thanks to the incoming Trump-Pence administration, are likely numbered. So its more important than ever for women who are advocates of choice to be careful with how our side of the argument is represented. The truththat abortion is a deeply personal decision between a woman and her doctor, that its one of the most safe and common medical procedures, and that its necessary to protect the health of women and their familiesis what we need to keep repeating to our friends, neighbors, and elected officials. What we dont need are actresses with messiah complexes issuing ignorant and irresponsible comments about wishing theyd had one of their own, suggesting that having an abortion is (to borrow from George Will) a coveted status that confers with it certain privileges. Women dont need Lena Dunham to normalize abortion by having one. The only thing comments like Dunhams serve to normalize is that tucked away in urban centers live a tribe of feminist caricatures, 30-year-old millennial feminists that have the empathy and self-awareness of petulant teens. Donald Trump will no doubt be impressed. Trumps favorite British politician, Nigel Brexit Farage, wasted no time today in politicizing the Berlin Christmas market truck attackblaming it on immigration and open borders across Europeand then attacked as a supporter of extremism the widower of a pro-European British politician murdered during the EU referendum campaign. Brendan Cox, the widower of Jo Cox, became caught up in a war of words with Farage after criticizing the politician for saying the Berlin Christmas market attack would be Angela Merkels legacy." Jo Cox was murdered this summer by a far-right terrorist motivated by hatred for the MPs pro-European stance. The dispute began when Farage tweeted that the Berlin attack was no surprise, adding: Events like these will be the Merkel legacy. Brendan Cox replied, accusing Farage of blaming politicians for the actions of extremists. He added in his tweet: Thats a slippery slope Nigel. Farage responded to Cox on a national talk radio station, LBC. Asked about the Twitter exchange with Cox, Farage said: Well, of course, he would know more about extremists than me, Mr. Cox. He backs organizations like Hope Not Hate, who masquerade as being lovely and peaceful, but actually pursue violent and undemocratic means. Farage was apparently referring to the fact that the Jo Coxs Fund donates to the charity and anti-racism pressure group, Hope Not Hate. Farage added: And Im sorry Mr. Cox, but it is time people started to take responsibility for whats happened. Mrs. Merkel has directly caused a whole number of social and terrorist problems in Germany. Its about time we confronted that truth. When the host pointed out that Cox knew well the consequences of extremism, Farage replied: Yes, its a terrible thing what happened, with the murder of his wife. Hope Not Hate, which has 200,000 members and campaigns against discrimination, called Farages accusation outrageous," and the groups chief executive, Nick Lowles, later tweeted: Hope Not Hate has sent Nigel Farage a legal letter demanding he retracts and apologizes or else we will start legal action. Hope Not Hate has a history of beefing with UKIP, and runs a blog called Purple Rain, which claims to put UKIP under the magnifying glass and parse their claims. The group, which bills itself as the UKs largest anti-racism campaign, challenging organized hatred and working to strengthen communities was criticized by Daily Beast writer Maajid Nawaz after it published a list, complete with profile photographs and career details, of 920 organizations and individuals in 22 countries, whom it deemed to be anti-Muslim. Farage has regularly accused Hope Not Hate members of disrupting his meetings and events. Asked on LBC how Merkel could be responsible for a truck potentially being hijacked in Poland, Farage, referring to the Schengen agreement which allows passport-free movement of people across much of Europe, said: Well, she supports Schengen as well, doesnt she? He added: Theres the point. These leaders of Europe support Schengen. They support the total free movement of people without borders. And the free movement of people doesnt just mean the free movement of good people. It means the free movement of bad people, as well. In a statement, Hope Not Hate said Farages comments were a political smear, adding, That Nigel Farage made his remarks in the context of a discussion about Jo Cox, who was so brutally murdered earlier this year, makes them all the more poisonous and hateful. ISTANBULHe may have screamed Allahu Akbar before he committed his act of murder. He may have cried out for revenge for Moscows bombing of Syria. But some in the Turkish government and the Russian press are portraying the young policeman who assassinated Russias ambassador to Turkey on Monday as no mere jihadist. Instead, he is being painted as a devotee of an Islamic cleric living in American exile. And the crime, which a mere 24 hours earlier threatened to tear Russia and Turkey apart, is suddenly being spoken of as some sort of Western-connected plot. The end result of this tragedy could well be a strengthening of Turkish-Russian ties at the expense of Ankaras longer and strategically important relationship with Washington, a relationship that has suffered greatly since the start of the Syria crisis and only worsened after a failed coup attempt against the ruling Turkish government last July. Mevlet Mert Altintas, age 22, was filmed pulling the trigger of his semiautomatic handgun and killing Ambassador Andrey Karlov at the opening of a photo exhibition in Ankara Monday evening. After shooting the diplomat at close range, Altintas launched into a Turkish language denunciation of Russias bombing of civilians in Aleppo, combined with an Arabic pledge to pursue jihad. His shouts of Allahu Akbar, or God is great, has already led some, including U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, to describe the killer as an Islamic extremist. But it may not be that simple. When Turkish police raided Altintass apartment, they said, they found books about al-Qaeda but also about Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric who lives in American self-exile. Gulen has never been associated with violenceuntil, that is, it was accused of using loyalists in the Turkish air force and military to try and seize power in the summer, including a botched attempt to capture Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his erstwhile political ally. (Theres some legitimacy to these charges.) Gulens role in the coup has been a major point of contention between Ankara and Washington, with Erdogan demanding his extradition and sensationalist pro-government outlets in Turkey, such as newspaper Yeni Safak, went so far as to accuse Gulen, who has been domiciled in the Poconos of Pennsylvania since 1999, of being a CIA asset and therefore acting at the behest of the U.S. government, the putative mastermind of the botched coup. It did nothing to mitigate this conspiracy theory that U.S. President Barack Obama took weeks before he called Erdogan to express his support, whereas Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned his Turkish counterpart offering unwavering solidarity, as one leader to another, just a day after the putschists were put down. That message, coupled with Erdogans apology for the Turkish Air Forces shoot-down of a Russian fighter jet in November 2015, went a long way toward repairing badly damaged relations between Russia and Turkey, which had included a suspension of tourism, commercial and trade ties. Turkey is now reeling from a wave of violence coming from four different directionstwo terror attacks attributed to Kurdish separatists in 10 days, military operations in Syria against Islamic Sate extremists whove also attacked civilian targets here, the mid-July coup attempt, and the first ever assassination of a foreign ambassador. Erdogan has repeatedly attempted to lump the Islamist and Kurdish violence together with the coup attempt to a skeptical public but Mondays assassination may provide a first sketchy basis to his claim. In another episode of violence, a gunman approached a gate of the U.S. embassy in Ankara in the early hours Tuesday and fired several rounds from a semi-automatic weapon. He was detained and its not clear if there was any connection with the assassination of Karlov, which took place at an exhibition hall across the street from the embassy. Altintas has now been reported by several pro-government news organizations as the graduate of a school run by the Gulen movement, to prepare students for high school, college and police academy entrance exams. It sounds innocuous, but the Turkish government claims that it has obtained numerous statements by former graduates about how administrators obtained the answers to exams from contacts within the testing organizations, and distributed them to pupils in advance. It's important to note that none of these allegations has been independently verified and the Turkish media in general is increasingly falling either under state control or state suspicion. The government here maintains that the prep schools are the vehicles the Gulen movement used to place its followers throughout the Turkish army, security services, courts and prosecutors offices. Altintass uncle, who police briefly detained Monday, was an administrator in Gulen schools. Altintass travels in mid-July also aroused suspicions. On the eve of the coup, which took place July 15, he purchased an air ticket from Diyarbakir, where he was stationed, to Ankara, and requested a leave for several days beginning July 16. As the coup unraveled, police cancelled all leave, but Altintas traveled anyway, according to the Turkish Interior Ministry. His superior officer, identified as Kahraman Sezer, was arrested after the coup for alleged links with the Gulen movement. Altintas also was suspended from service in early October, but reinstated six weeks later. Gulen, who lives a reclusive life and rarely talks to the media, issued a statement late Monday U.S. time, which condemned the assassination as a heinous act of terror, but his aides declined to comment on the timing. As of now, Erdogan has avoided blaming the Gulen movement as a primary theme in his public statements. Instead, he has expressed his strong wish, in parallel with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, that the assassination not stop the warming of ties between the two countries. And hes linked the Kurdish attacks on Turkish police and military to the assassination. He said Altintass connections are being searched and investigated and have started to be clear. But then, turning to the broader onslaught of violence, he connected the insurgency in southern Turkey by the Kurdistan Workers Party guerrillas with Mondays assassination. If you pay attention, you will notice that in the past the terrorist launching acts in the mountains are now coming to the cities, he said. They even started targeting the Russian Federation ambassador. Efforts to link Altintas to the Gulenists are already revving up in the Russian press, largely following on initial reports out of Turkey. And they suggest that the shooting will not derail warming relations between the two countries. It could even strengthen their ties at the expense of Ankaras longer and strategically important relationship with Washington, a relationship that has suffered greatly since the start of the Syria crisis and worsened after a failed coup attempt. The Interfax news service, for instance, cited an unidentified Turkish official who says that this is the main hypothesis for Altintass motivation to commit murder. There are, the unnamed source says, persuasive signs of such an explanation. Pro-Kremlin tabloid Infox asserts as fact what the mayor of Ankara claimed on Twitter Monday night, that Altintas was a member of the Islamist movement, while state-owned Channel OneRussias most-watched television channelrelies largely on the Turkish medias reporting to make the same allegation. Meanwhile, Kirill Koktysh, an associate professor at the department of political theory at Moscow State Institute for International Relations, one of the most elite universities in Russia, was interviewed by pro-government newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, saying that not only is Gulen is the suspected architect of the July coup effort but that someone is behind him. Here the situation is rather complicated. I think that there are more than enough players interested in having Russia and Turkey quarrel. Both in the Middle East and beyond its bounds. Ultra-nationalist Russian MP Vladimir Zhinirovsky wasted no time on Monday night claiming that the assassination of Ambassador Karlov was a false flag operation cooked up by the West to prevent Turkish-Russian reconciliation. Even Putins comment about the attack straddled a line of conspiracism: rather than an ideologically or religiously motivated murder over Russias scorched-earth war tactics in Syria, Putin said, Altintas actions amounted to a provocation to scuttle improved bilateral relations. Alexey Pushkov, the former chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian parliaments lower house, lashed out at the Western media for spreading hysterical falsehoods about Russias intervention in Aleppo. Putin, who came to power in 1999 on the back of a series of mysterious apartment bombings in Moscow, which he blamed on al-Qaeda-linked Chechen terrorists, has vowed to stop at nothing to eliminate the bandits behind Karlovs slaying. Throughout the Syrian civil war, and well before Putins direct military involvement in it, Russian state propaganda organs have trafficked in feverish accusations that the U.S. is support al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups such as ISISwhile simultaneously demanding that Russia and the U.S. forge a common alliance in the ongoing war against Islamic extremism. The Gulenist angle, and its implicit anti-Americanism, has been used to mutual benefit before to paper over Ankaras rift with Moscow. Following the July coup, for example, Turkey alleged that the pilot who downed the Russian Su-24 in November 2015 was one of the clerics followers, a claim recycled by Sputnik, the Kremlins English-language propaganda portal. It was the parallel state that has deteriorated our relations with Russia, Ankara mayor Melih Gokcek ++told CNN Turk++ after the putsch attempt. It was an incident, in which one of the pilots of this structures has participated, I guarantee it. Gokcek, it bears mentioning, was also the Turkish official to associate Altintas with Gulen on Monday. For this reason did Amanda Sloat, the former deputy assistant secretary for Southern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean Affairs at the U.S. State Department, tell Foreign Policy: I think the United States is likely to be one of the bigger losers coming out of this. Not one to let a good crisis go to waste, Putin could well use this assassination to widen the rift between two NATO allies. When Congress and the Trump administration begin work on immigration reform, Wisconsins congressional delegation should make clear our states position: Wisconsin needs more legal immigration, not less. A key word is legal. The race for president focused intently on the millions of people living in the United States illegally, and whether to let most of them stay. Its a complicated problem. Mass deportations arent realistic or humane. But President-elect Donald Trump also has suggested he might make it tougher to immigrate legally to the United States, out of concern that immigrants take jobs away from American citizens. Wisconsins experience contradicts some of Trumps assumptions. In fact, restricting immigration by making it tougher for foreign-born people to gain visas to work here would hinder the states economy in ways that threaten growth. Consider the evidence. One of Wisconsins highest barriers to economic growth is a limited supply of skilled workers. Since 2010, the state has been losing 10,000 people per year in net domestic outflow as our residents move to other states and we fail to attract new residents. Add a declining birth rate, and Wisconsin businesses cannot find the employees they need. Seventy percent of Wisconsin companies responding to a Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce survey reported difficulty finding employees this year. The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce projects that over the next 10 years, 100,000 jobs in the Milwaukee metro area will go without workers to fill them. Jobs in science, technology, engineering and math fields (known as STEM positions) are especially difficult to fill. Wisconsins chief open avenue for new workers has been immigration from other countries. And opportunities exist to take even greater advantage of legal immigration if the right policies are in place because Wisconsin has assets attractive to immigrants. A chief asset is our university system. About 4,500 foreign students attend UW-Madison. Statewide, the total is more than twice as large. Thats brainpower that could fill and create jobs in the state. One of every eight STEM workers in Wisconsin with an advanced degree is already an immigrant. Currently, visa requirements to retain foreign students in Wisconsin are costly, restrictive and self-destructive. In 2011, 51 percent of patents awarded to the University of Wisconsin System included at least one foreign-born inventor with no clear path to gain citizenship. As former Google chairman Eric Schmidt put it: Of all the crazy rules in our government, the craziest bar none is that we take the smartest people in the world, we bring them to America, we give them Ph.D.s in technical science, and we kick them out to go found great companies outside America. Another Wisconsin asset attractive to immigrants is the dairy industry. To find the skilled labor they need, dairy farms recruit from foreign countries. Four of every 10 dairy farm workers is now an immigrant. But visas are geared to seasonal farm labor, not full-time dairying. Without more flexible policies, the industrys efforts to legally fill jobs will be at risk. Reform is required to make it easier for Wisconsin to attract immigrants to fuel our economic growth. Without more immigration, the work force will be unable to meet demand, businesses will look elsewhere to expand, and Wisconsins prosperity will be in jeopardy. You can hear Charles Johnsons skull and facial bones being beaten in with each of the 19 blows his murderer deals out in a bystander video taken last month on a rain-soaked Chicago street. The murder weapona glass liquor bottlebreaks only when Johnsons killer has had enough and smashes it on the pavement next to the dying mans head. Damn! is all one of several bystanders says as the deadly beating plays out at rush hour on a Monday night. Johnsons murder in West Englewood is one of more than 770 killings in Chicago so far this year, and its brutality is only slightly more notable because it was caught on camera and because the weapon was a bottle, not a gun. Fucked-up crime in a city of fucked-up crimes, a veteran Chicago police officer tells The Daily Beast. The city has already hit a 20-year high for homicides this yearup more than 300 from last yearand could hit 800 for the first time since 1995. Across America, homicides are up 14 percent, with Chicagos murder problem accounting for a staggering 40 percent of that national year-to-year rise. If we went all-in with bottomless money and bottomless personnel, we might be able to see some effects in a matter of years, but in the meantime its five below zero and were seeing 40 shot and 10 or so dead over the weekend, the officer, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about violence in Chicago and the state of the department, said about last weekends gunplay. In a few days its going to be Friday night, and the question now is, what do we do to prevent people from shooting and killing each other this weekend. As Johnsons killer keeps hitting, and hitting and hitting and hitting him, cars pass and people walk by on both sides of the street. In that sense, the killing recalls the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese in New York, when a young woman was raped and murdered in her apartment when, at least according to a famous New York Times account, 38 New Yorkers ignored her screams. At least one other bystander can be seen in the recording this February in Chicago pulling out a phone to record the killing, which remains unsolved; the suspect hasnt been identified and is still on the loose, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Police and paramedics arrived soon after the video ended, and took Johnson to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. This is the society we live in now, where things like this sometimes become the next viral video, the officer said. People are searching for the reason that this year was so much more violent than the last one. But there isnt one, according to the officer, only many. Chief among them, though, is a political environment in Chicago that has officers concerned about starring in their own viral videos if a police stop goes wrong. Jedidiah Brown, a police-accountability activist who also mediates gang conflicts in the city, said gang members and other criminals have become emboldened following the long-delayed release of a video showing Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting and killing 17-year-old Laquan McDonalds death. Ive never seen such disrespect or such bold disregard for law enforcement, Brown said recently. Thats a perspective that I cant really share as much as I want to. Another issue, Brown speculated, is that as activists are fighting among themselves following the release of the video, those who may be looking to them for an alternative to criminal life may be turned off, and head back to the streets. But there are any number of factors that need to be examined before any conclusion is reached for Chicagos bloodier-than-usual 2016, both Brown and the officer agree. The release of the McDonald video, which led to the firing of Chief Garry McCarthy, plummeting approval ratings for Mayor Rahm Emnauel, and the ouster at the polls of two-term States Attorney Anita Alvarez, is universally seen as a marquee event thats changing the nature and scope of policing in Chicago. The city is in a state of flux, simultaneously having to reckon with what many call a lawless police department that unfairly targets people of color and what many call lawless streets. The question now is, how to move forward and stem the bloodshed? The officer who spoke with The Daily Beast suggested the new states attorney, Kim Foxx, who defeated Alvarez in the Democratic primary in March, should focus less on her campaign promise to investigate officers accused of misconduct and those involved in police shootings, and more on securing convictions for repeat offenders who have been shown to be responsible for much of Chicagos violence. Brown said the activist community must play its own role in stopping infighting and providing a way out of street life for those looking for one. Both Brown and the officer agree that Mayor Emanuelwho withheld the tape from public view for 13 months after the shooting, until after hed won re-election, and whose approval ratings then plunged below 20 percent this year, before starting to recoverand other city politicians arent helping matters. Rahm Emanuel is the worst thing to happen to Chicago, Brown said. There is no political will to address these complex issues, the officer said. This city is completely willing to let people on the South and West Sides fight for their very existence. Charles Johnson didnt appear to do much fighting in the video of his death. He appears on screen as a dark, motionless blob as the headlights of cars flicker on the wet pavement around him. Whatever happened before his fatal encounter with his murderer isnt known publicly, and Johnsons wife declined to speak about her husbands killing, fearing retaliation from the killer. Shes concerned about talking and repercussions in the neighborhood, a friend said. A man entrusted to manage investments for New Yorks Common Retirement Fund put his own payday before state employee pensions. Prosecutors say his on-the-job decisions were fueled by bribes of drugs, sex, and a $17,420 luxury wristwatch. Navnoor Kang funneled investment of the billions of dollars in retirement assets he managed to two brokerage dealers who paid him off with personal bribes, according to a complaint filed Wednesday in federal court. The NYS Common Retirement Fund is one of the largest pension funds in the United States. It holds more than $184 billion in trust for a million beneficiaries who work for state and local governments, including firefighters and police. But prosecutors say Kang was a far cry from the dedicated civil servants whose pensions he managed. They allege that he used his position as Director of Fixed Income and Head of Portfolio Strategy at the NYSCRF to give business to Deborah Kelley and Gregg Schonhorn. (The alleged bribes offered were also in violation of policies at the firms they worked for.) Altogether, they got $2 billion in business from Kang, the complaint says, and earned millions in commissions. And because Kelley and Schonhorns firms werent on an approved broker-dealers list for the NYSCRF, prosecutors say Kang even arranged for the business to be funnelled through an approved broker, who got a share of their commission. At times, these step-out trades resulted in the NYSCRF paying more in commissions than it would have if it had trader directly with an approved broker, according to the complaint. Prosecutors say the scheme defrauded the fund of its intangible right to Kangs honest services, and that Kang lived large while abdicating his responsibilities to New Yorks employees. Kelley and Schonhorn allegedly paid him off with prostitutes, drugs, and bottle service at nightclubs. They also allegedly hooked Kang up with travel, cash, and lavish meals, for a total of about $100,000. Specific alleged bribes detailed in court documents include weekend trips Kang took with Schonhorn to Montreal, where the latter spent thousands of dollars on bottle service, travel, and cocaine. Kelley also took Kang on an out-of-town trip to New Orleans, where she paid for his Paul McCartney concert tickets, and covered a ski vacation to Park City, Utah for Kang and his then-girlfriend. And by the time Kang formally recommended that their firms be placed on the NYSCRF approved list in November 2014, Schonhorn had allegedly bought him thousands of dollars worth of cocaine, Broadway tickets, and strip club visits. By 2015, Kang allegedly had the gall to ask Schonhorn for a little gift: a $17,420 Panerai wristwatch that the pair picked out at a Madison Avenue store. (Kang was fired from his previous employer after failing to disclose a similar treat from Schonhorn, according to the complaint.) It paid off. Schonhorns firm went from having no business with the NYSCRF one year to overseeing $2.378 billion in bond transactions three years later. It was the third largest broker-dealer with which the NYSRCF executed transactions in domestic bonds for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016. It handled eight percent of the funds domestic bond transactions, and received up to $1 million per month in payment from the fund. Kelleys firm wound up handling $179 million in domestic bond transactions that same year. This wasnt the NYSCRFs first pay-for-play scandal. Former state comptroller Alan Hevesi was sentenced to up to four years in prison in 2011 for a similar scandal in which he accepted nearly $1 million in bribes. And the NYSCRF added a code of conduct that prohibited employees from receiv[ing] any consideration from [a] party ... in connection with a transaction involving the [NYSCRF], according to the complaint. That dovetails with the other New York regulations that say state officers cant solicit, accept or receive any gift having more than a nominal value, the complaint added. Kang moved to San Francisco after his tenure with at the Fund, according to Linkedin, where he became the chief strategy officer for a news site called the Fair Observer. He calls himself a seasoned portfolio manager who has outperformed his peers year after year because of his astute investment strategies and sound judgment for value. Kang and Kelley were charged with securities fraud and other charges. Schonhorn cooperated with the investigation and pleaded guilty to related charges, a spokesperson to the U.S. Attorneys Office told The Daily Beast. Since Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election, the victors and the vanquished have disparaged identity politicscoded language for multiculturalism. Most notably, in a New York Times op-ed, Mark Lilla argued, in part, that Democrats are so enmeshed in linguistic minutiae they cant develop effective messaging. Predictably, Democrats are apoplectically tripping over one another to distance themselves from the term, a core tenet of the party. (Hearing Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio use Obamas word shellacked while discussing the Democrats need for better messaging is humorously ironic, as there is very little original messaging in reusing a word someone else introduced into the vernacular.) A Democratic retreat from identity, however, could prove just as costly as anything we experienced last month. It is time for Democrats to get a backbone, own its identity as a liberal tent, and stop retreating at the smallest hint of criticism. Lillas broader premise for identity abandonment is an affront to liberals who are not white, male, and straight, because it asks them to subjugate their political goals to the larger group, a presumably heteronormative one focused on that groups economic needsvery similar to how Donald Trump campaigned. We are also left to assume the notion that meritocracy, a false concept if ever there was one, would sort out leadership and policy concerns. Yet institutional structures will work against groups that have made gains in recent decades. Without a conscious effort for inclusiveness, the Democratic leadership risks alienating the very constituency it needs to remain viable. Even more frustrating, as many decry identity politics, Trump supporters proudly brandish their identity labels. Now, as Democrats shy away from the label, they play into conservatives hands yet again. Conservatives have explicitly and successfully integrated identity politics into their platform, while branding Democrats with a derisive moniker for doing the same. (Remember how liberals once were afraid to call themselves liberal, opting for the term progressive?) They and timid Democrats argue that the left focuses too much on issues like transgender bathroom access or marriage licenses. No, Republicans continue successfully to drive such wedge issues as identity markers for their voters. As proof, values voters who readily accepted a thrice-divorced philanderer as their candidate are very receptive to the idea that their identities as Christian conservatives are under siege when they support laws in Indiana, North Carolina, and Texas to ward off threats to traditional marriage, bathroom stall etiquette, and religious freedom. Further, white working class seems to be the identity that matters when considering how Trump won. I hear continually this is the group we should concern ourselves with understanding to the exclusion of others. How absurd. I cannot recall any of those who exhort us to empathize with the white working class asking us to question their racist or sexist motives, as if this groups decision-making occurs in economic isolation. Additionally, white supremacists who outright advocate for an all-white state supported Trumps candidacy. If that is not identity focused, Im not sure what is. The reality is that both parties necessarily indulge identity to appeal to voters. Economic issues do not operate in a political vacuum, yet identity abandonment asks us to assume it does. Race and gender are outsized determinants that correlate closely with income, social outcomes, and yes, political power. It is unfair and unrealistic to ask holders of these demographic markers to suppress the very real roles they play in their political existences. Indeed, Bernie Sanders continues to struggle with black voters because he believes that if we address the economic component of what plagues many Americans, the rest will take care of itself. The suggestion that subgroups abandon their identity to a larger goal is the ultimate identity grab: Fall in line, and well sort it out when we win. Bull. Wrangling commitments out of politicians before an election is one of the few ways the electorate holds politicians accountable. Yet as Democrats seek short-term expediency, they are likely to dig themselves into a deeper hole. Such behavior is reminiscent of the 2010 midterm and 2012 general election. Then, many candidates distanced themselves from President Obamas successes but still got buried politically. Voters notice such fright and flight. It signals lack of conviction in ones policies and beliefshardly confidence inspiring to the marginal voter. Finally, individuals care about a multitude of economic, political, social, environmental, and visionary issues that transcend individual identity. As proof, consider that Trump, who offended so many groups that comprise distinct political bases he attacked, outperformed Romneys 2012 totals with blacks and Latinos and won the vote of white women. This should serve as an indicator that identity politics alone does not motivate voters but may be a factor. Voters of all persuasions want an acknowledgment of their concerns. Identity and economics need not be mutually exclusive in the political realm. To signal to large swaths of the public that their needs will have to wait until leaders solve the economic pieces risks alienating them and defection from the party. Millennial, boomer, veteran, senior, female, black, Latino, gay, Muslim, white. These are but a few groups both parties court for a reason: Identity personalizes politics. Addressing income alone will not address badly needed police reform, education disparities, or a womans access to reproductive services. Neither will it address religious freedoms or climate change. Nor will it address the institutional structures that make dismantling barriers to fairness difficult. National parties and politics are messy because of the multiple interestsidentitiesthey encompass. Until and unless we move to a multiparty political system, we must focus on speaking to those identities. The world does not come with equality; it is something we must work to achieve. If we engage exclusively in economic politics and desert identity liberalism, we will not accomplish this. If the identities of the right matter, however, so do mine. Just yesterday, Queen Elizabeth II hosted her legendary Buckingham Palace Christmas lunch party for those members of her close and extended family who are not invited to Sandringham, her country home, on Christmas Day itself. She was said to be in fine fettle as she welcomed some 50 guests, including Prince George and Princess Charlotte, who are spending the big day with their maternal grandparents, the Middletons, this year. But on Wednesday, the palace found itself being forced to brief reporters off the record that there were no grave concerns over the health of Queen Elizabeth, 90, or her husband, Prince Philip, 95, as an information vacuum opened up after the royal couple dramatically abandoned plans to travel by train to her country home 100 miles north of London. With just half an hours notice, they failed to show up for their annual train ride on the 10:44 to Kings Lynn, a town close to Sandringham. It took over three hours for the palace to get an official statement out, which read: The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have heavy colds, and so have decided not to travel to Sandringham today. The panicky response to what some would say is the most inevitable of British news events was exacerbated by the chaotic way the news of the queen and Philips ill-health was managed. Photographers waiting to snap the queen and her husband at the railway stationin recent years, Her Majesty has made a point of traveling to Sandringham on a regular passenger service (in a roped-off first-class carriage) rather than using the royal trainwere abruptly told, Its not happening now, just 30 minutes before the service to Kings Lynn was due to depart. The death of the queen is, understandably, one of the great British obsessions, and newsrooms around the U.K. will remain on high alert over the festive period, despite Buckingham Palaces attempt to calm the waters, with sources saying they will still travel to Sandringham before Christmas Day. The queen and Prince Philip maintain an astonishing schedule despite their advancing years but have battled the ravages of age: Philip was taken ill with a heart attack at Sandringham over Christmas 2011, and had to be rushed to hospital to have a stent fitted. Signs are emerging that Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and former Comptroller Susan Combs are in play for the job, one of the few Cabinet posts Trump has yet to fill. Combs, who was the state's agriculture commissioner from 1998 to 2007, met with Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Tuesday in Washington, and Miller is preparing for a trip to Trump Tower in the coming days. Commissioner Miller has had multiple conversations, telephone conversations, with Chairman Priebus and is planning a trip to the Trump Tower to visit with Chairman Priebus and members of the transition team between Christmas and New Years," Miller spokesman Todd Smith said Wednesday, referring to Reince Priebus, the outgoing chairman of the Republican National Committee whom Trump has appointed as his chief of staff. Word of Miller's trip came hours after Combs earned a valuable endorsement for the job that of U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, the Midland Republican who chairs the House Agriculture Committee. "Shes certainly capable and well-qualified for the job," Conaway told the Texas Tribune Wednesday. The position is one "that we on the Ag committee work the closest with, and shes someone Im comfortable I could work with her in her role as secretary and in my role as chairman." Trump's transition team indicated Wednesday he has not yet made a decision on agriculture secretary or another Cabinet post, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. "I don't know how imminent any announcement will be," Trump aide Jason Miller told reporters, adding that he has not received any indication Trump has officially made up his mind on those positions. Conaway said he has not spoken with Trump or Pence about Combs, emphasizing that decision is ultimately up to the president-elect. "All these Cabinet folks will be direct reports to the president, for the most part, and its important that its people hes comfortable with," Conaway said. "It doesnt matter if Im comfortable or Mike Pence is comfortable its got to be the president." Asked about Miller, Conaway said the current agriculture commissioner is well-versed on the issues. Its up to Mr. Trump to decide who he believes would do the job that he wants done, Conaway said. In Combs and Miller, Trump would have two candidates who differed in the extent of their support during the campaign. Combs, who backed two of Trump's primary rivals, was not an enthusiastic supporter during the general election, though she said she would vote for him and participated in at least one of his Texas fundraisers. Miller, meanwhile, served on Trump's agriculture advisory committee Combs did not and emerged as one of his most loyal Texas surrogates in the closing days of the race. Miller would no doubt be a more controversial pick. He became engulfed in controversy days before the election, when a tweet appeared on his Twitter account calling Trump's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, an obscene term. Miller apologized and blamed the tweet on a staffer. In weighing the two Texans, Trumps camp will see stark contrasts in style and substance. Combs, a budget wonk, recently served as a visiting fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and plans to launch a nonprofit platform aiming to foster career ambitions in women. Miller is a rodeo cowboy who relishes being seen as an enemy or political correctness, and his freewheeling interviews and social media posts frequently land him in hot water with Texans outside of his passionate support base. The two have sparred on policy particularly on food, a large part of an agriculture chiefs job. In 2015, Miller irked Combs when he lifted a decade-old ban on deep fryers and soda machines in Texas public schools that she had introduced while she was agriculture commissioner. He said the move was geared at granting schools more freedom. Combs called it unimaginable that Miller would repeal her effort. I don't think there is any way he could have studied the issue or he never would have done this, she said in 2015. I am actually baffled and sorry that Commissioner Miller did what was not good for kids. If you give children bad choices, they will make them. (During her tenure, Combs also implemented a more comprehensive school nutrition policy that Millers processor, Todd Staples, repealed.) And then there was Miller's first official act as agriculture commissioner: a press conference to grant "amnesty" to a cupcake. Miller said he wanted Texans to know the state had just lifted a ban on the treats in classrooms that had been put in place by Combs. But Combs swiftly noted that cupcakes had been allowed in schools for a decade, and raised questions about Millers priorities. Abby Livingston and Jim Malewitz contributed to this report. Disclosure: The Texas Public Policy Foundation has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here. Taking a sad drive through what has become an ugly city When I drove to the Texas A&M campus through the residential area south of campus, I could hardly recognize the area. The so-called Aggie Shacks had replaced so many of the single-family homes. Homes were destroyed and replaced by these mini-dorms with parking lot lawns. The area was ugly. On my return, I drove the bypass, and I was amazed by all of the apartment complexes that surround the city. A hodgepodge of odd shapes, sizes, and colors. This area also was ugly. I realized that I live in an ugly city. Which brought to mind the experience I had when I serving on a neighborhood resource committee. We were concerned about the deterioration of the single-family neighborhoods, and we made some recommendations that we thought would offer some relief. When these recommendations were presented to the College Station City Council, a member said they should not be implemented because they feared the unintended consequences, even though they are routinely used in communities through out the U.S. I thought that if some action proved to have some negative consequence, surely it could be eliminated or amended to correct the problem, but may be the action would be positive. They were rejected, however. I keep hearing the governing bodies speak in support of single-family neighborhoods and the need for affordable family housing as stated in the City Council Strategic Plan. The actions or inactions of our governing bodies, however, have lead to this ugly city we have. Is this the result of unintended consequences, or was this by design? I trust that it was the former, and that our newly elected officials are up to these challenges to take action to alleviate and control the continued deterioration of our once lovely city. R.J. KOHEL College Station Why did Research Valley Partnership work to harm Blinn College? Kudos to Blinn College officials for their clear and comprehensive presentation of their educational programs to a group of concerned residents this past week. I left the meeting feeling confident that Brazos County's workforce training needs already are being met, or soon will be met by Blinn's Bryan campus and its new RELLIS facility. It was also clear that Blinn's spending along with spending by the faculty, staff and students at Blinn's Bryan campus contribute substantially to the local economy -- and at no cost to local taxpayers. The only negative impact is the increased traffic load on Villa Maria Road and surrounding neighborhoods. I also left that meeting wondering why the Research Valley Partnership, a taxpayer-funded organization, is spending our money in attempting to establish a new taxing authority in Brazos County to replace training already offered by Blinn at no cost to Brazos County residents. Is there possibly more to this story that the partnership steering committee might not want us to know? If sabotaging Blinn College is the best the Research Valley Partnership can do with its time and our tax money, perhaps it's time we asked our elected officials on the city councils of Bryan and College Station along with the Brazos County Commissioners' Court to take a critical look at the partnership to determine what else it is doing and if an outlay of $350,000 a year is a cost-effective and responsible use of our hard-earned tax dollars. WILLIAM KUYKENDALL Bryan State Sen. Don Huffines working to make Texans less safe Texas state Sen. Don Huffines, who pledged to "keep Texans safe" while running for his position, now is calling for an elimination of the state's vehicle safety inspection program. It seems that Huffines can't get access to the funds that the state spends on this program, so he hopes to eliminate the program, and then transfer those same funds that Texans pay for safety into another program that he has access to. Can you say money launderer? Texans are taxed for this program, yet Huffines thinks his own greed is more important then Texas motorists. Eliminating the safety inspection program would not only result in more injuries that could've been avoided on Texas highways, but it would result in Texas motorists dying because Huffines decided to renege on his campaign promise to keep Texans safe. I hope the kickback he gets is worth it! ALBERT GONTER Bryan Be prepared: because this change of heart' will not be half as good news as it seems. It might not even be good news at all. To understand why, we need to understand better why Trump will most likely claim at some point in 2017 to get it' on climate. Trump on climate: from denialism to agnosticism to...? The process has actually already begun. Trump has pulled back somewhat from his previous full-on climate-denialism, to a position of agnosticism' on the issue: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-climate-change-scepticism-may-withdraw-paris-agreement-a7469221.html Why? Because Trump's climate-denialism in the election period was partly just a pose, to shore up support among Republicans, and to epater les bourgeois. Now that, incredibly, he has made it all the way to the White House, he can afford to stand back and look more Presidential', less extreme. A position of studied agnosticism fits the bill nicely. Meanwhile, as I say, the Administration that he heads is getting stuffed full of climate-deniers: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/12/donald-trump-environment-climate-change-skeptics They will be working gung-ho to re-fossilise the U.S. economy, and are thus preparing the ground to harvest the faster destruction of the future of our living planet. So, why would Trump go further than agnosticism on climate in 2017? Already, Trump and his aides will be receiving briefings every day from those Government agencies that are well aware of the reality and disastrous consequences of human-triggered dangerous climate change. Foremost among these, perhaps, will be the Pentagon, which has a long record now of being part of the reality-based community' on climate: http://taskandpurpose.com/dont-count-us-military-among-climate-change-skeptics/ This constant drip-drip of truth into the awesomely thick skulls (and thin skins) of Trump and his team will gradually have its effect. Sooner or later, Trump will most likely decide that the moment is ripe to accept reality. The PR bonanza awaiting Trump if he accepts the truth on climate As this moment - literally - of truth approaches, Trump will discuss with his aides the upsides and downsides of joining the reality-based community. A downside will be that it will annoy some supporters. But that doesn't matter that much; Trump doesn't need them much for the next few years, and he will be confident that in any case he can motivate them in other ways with regular extreme tweets, eye-catching speeches to feed the base, and a million other methods. The biggest upside is that Trump's acceptance of climate-reality will be a huge story - a story blindsiding most of his critics (unless they have been forearmed by reading the present article, first...). Trump and his publicists will I think be unable to resist its incredible potential for him to sound so reasonable, rowing-back from some of the less tenable aspects of his public persona and stance. And it could take the wind out of the sails of a remarkable number of his opponents, to hear Trump say, publicly, that climate change is real, partly human-influenced and dangerous. Be prepared for this. Don't let the wind be taken out of your sails. People are so desperately wanting there to be hope for the world. When Trump's climate moment comes, it will chime all too easily with this desperation. And too many of the intelligentsia will rush with relief toward the conclusion that Trump can be normalised' after all, and that we aren't actually on the brink of a sub-fascist, end-game for democracy. But we still will be. For Trump's climate moment won't be the product of a conversion to rationality, science and precaution (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMyxXs3t7Fs). It will be the product of a cynical decision by a self-publicist-populist'-President to cut some of his losses, in a way that his critics are (as yet) totally not expecting. If Trump accepts the human influence on climate, whither climate-policy? A key question, in order to become clear on why Trump's climate moment (that I'm here foreseeing) will not in truth be good news, is this: what will be the real-world consequences, the policy-consequences, of Trump's moment of truth' vis-a-vis climate? Here's my guess as to the rough outline of how little difference it will make, how few consequences it will have in the most obvious places and respects: It will not significantly affect the behaviour of the climate-denying numpties now getting ready to take the reins of the U.S. Federal Government. They will continue to eviscerate regulations, to back big business, and to burn fossil fuels like (in a sadly-telling phrase) there's no tomorrow. It will not result in the scaling back of Trump's horrific infrastructure-building' programme, which will continue to spill roads and bridges and airports across the U.S.A. And so forth. It will not ensure either that the U.S. does not pull out of the Paris Agreement; there are plenty of reasons for someone like Trump to continue to hate that Agreement (which is by its nature internationalist), even if he admits the reality of the reason for it. And even if the U.S. does remain within that Agreement, Trump's own climate-change will not ensure that the U.S. does not in effect gut, delay or bog down the implementation of the Agreement (which was already - is - incredibly weak and problematic to begin with: http://kevinanderson.info/blog/is-the-climate-change-academic-community-reluctant-to-voice-issues-that-question-the-economic-growth-paradigm/). What actual difference then will Trump's climate conversion make to policy? Here is where things get complicated, and maybe even worse:One piece of actual good news: it will give Trump the excuse he may already have been looking for to help some parts at least of the U.S. renewable energy sector: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/23/trump-may-not-snuff-out-renewable-energy-industry-despite-his-doubts-on-climate-change.html . Why not embrace green-tech when it's profitable (while going hell for leather for coal, oil, gas, tracings etc., simultaneously)? Even here, though, enormous care is needed: Trump could easily, for example, embrace large scale agro-fuels in the name of green energy': with calamitous consequence: http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk As I already warned above; a bad effect will be the risk that it encourages complacency (as Paris itself, arguably, already does, unjustifiably). There is a terrible danger that a Trump who gets it' on climate will suddenly seem not worth the trouble of endlessly fiercely opposing; and that the last-ditch struggle to stop climate-catastrophe will start taking a back-seat in the minds of too many climate activists (including, possibly, you, dear reader: which is why I want to forewarn you). And here's the really bad news. Here's where it gets really scary. There are significant elements of the Right that favour a sort of survivalist' strategy vis a vis threats such as climate: they aren't interested in the altruism and enlightened self-interest of climate-change-mitigation, but they are interested in adaptation'. Adaptation is indeed necessary, because we are already, tragically, committed' to some pretty serious harmful climate-change just by virtue of how much we have polluted our atmosphere with GHGs already; but an adaptationist stance alone looks pretty ugly, and capable of making things worse, in the round. Adaptation, consisting of things like building ever higher hard' flood defences and hardening one's heart against climate refugees is hardly... heart-warming, as a response to climate-reality. One can imagine Trump adopting a pretty terrifying narrowly adaptionist climate-policy. The scariest possibility of all, by far, is that a climate wake-up call' for Trump could take him in the same direction that a number of influential voices on the hard Right (including, notably, Newt Gingrich) have already moved in: that of climate-engineering or geo-engineering' http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/opinion/the-risks-of-climate-engineering.html The idea of a kind of total planetary management of climate fits well with the hubris, techno-utopianism and refusal to change course of many on the Right: in fact, they sound exactly like Trump.... Why alter the American way of life', if we (who, exactly?) can just put mirrors in space to cool the Earth down a little? The extreme moral hazard of climate-engineering, of course, is that it provides the perfect seeming-excuse for not bothering to rein in our GHG emissions. Paris, climate-engineering - and the hard Right... Lest all this seem a remote possibility to you, I want you to notice something that very few people have noticed yet: that the Paris Agreement made climate-engineering mainstream. Worse than that: it committed us to it: http://kevinanderson.info/blog/the-hidden-agenda-how-veiled-techno-utop The Paris figures don't add up without desperate, utterly untried, utterly reckless vast-scale technological gambles, later this century. Why not - Trump's advisers will whisper - speed the process up a little? What bolder idea for Trump than to wake up' to the reality of human-influenced climate change - and propose that we tackle it in the biggest way imaginable: by allegedly taking charge' of the Earth's climate, and finding a solution' that will let us keep the petrol flowing (and keep the oceans dying, and keep the atmosphere moving into uncharted waters, and so forth) indefinitely? I can see Trump, for example, providing a huge Government funded prize for the most successful (sic) plan to geo-engineer the future. Take it a step further: it's not that hard to imagine a Hollywood-ification of climate disaster(s) in which Trump's narrative becomes that of: America saves the world', by high-tech, ultra-reckless gambles such as mirrors in space, seeding the oceans', GM-monoculture fuels and forests... That's why I say: be careful what you wish for. When Trump's climate moment comes, we need to be ready to push back. Otherwise, he might lead' us out of the frying pan of climate-denialism, into the fire (literally) of what would actually be an out-of-control tech-mad future, in which climate reality became an excuse for allowing the world's biggest polluter (and its military) in effect to take ownership of the atmosphere itself. This Author Rupert Read is philosopher working and writing at UEA, the Chair of Green House think tank, and a former parliamentary candidate for the Green Party of England & Wales. He Tweets at: @GreenRupertRead & @rupertread Baby Kensley Jamison is the 100th baby born at New Life Birth Center in Rocky Mount. Kensley is pictured above (from left) with her parents Ethan and Laura Jamison, nurse-midwife Karen Winstead and assistant Alicia Slawson. The New Life Birth Center in Rocky Mount recently celebrated the birth of its 100th baby. Kensley Jamison, daughter of Ethan and Laura Jamison, was born Dec. 4 into the hands of nurse-midwife Karen Winstead. Midwife assistant Alicia Slawson was a great help, said Winstead, who is the centers president. Mom and baby are doing well. New Life Birth Center opened in 2012 and has expanded to two birth suites with large labor tubs. A nurse midwife attends the mother throughout the labor process. At the center, women are able to move about, go for walks and eat and drink during labor. Babies remain with their parents while at the birth center. Mothers and babies also receive a home visit by a nurse or midwife. We also feature an Assured Comfort bed, which is a welcoming place for tired parents to rest, Winstead said. Nationally certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) can provide routine gynecological exams, family planning, pregnancy testing and counseling, lab testing, prenatal care and labor and birth services. CNMs also provide newborn care and breastfeeding assistance. Our board of directors would like to thank the many people who have made contributions, Winstead said. Your generosity has made the birth center a success. Some of those contributors and supporters include Medical Director Dr. Susan Osborne, Dr. Charles Lane, CNM Hannah Mann, CNM Sherrie Doss, the Franklin County Perinatal Education Center and other local volunteers. New Life Birth Center is a 501(c)3, non-profit, faith-based organization. The center is located at 610 S. Main Street in Rocky Mount. For more information, contact the center at (540) 482-0505. 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 ... State volleyball championship round live updates and analysis Get live updates from the state high school volleyball championships at Xtream Arena in Coralville. Forget health insurance and retirement funds, 2017 is set to see student loan repayments become the next best employee benefit. Companies across America woo employees with many attractive perks. These range from comprehensive health insurance to flexible vacation schedules and 401(k) retirement investments. But, in a bid to lure and retain millennials, many firms are turning to a newer benefit: student loan repayment assistance. Data from the 2015 American Student Assistance survey revealed that 76 percent of respondents admitted a deciding factor in choosing an employer would be whether the firm in question helped them to pay down their student debt. The Society for Human Resource Management says just 4 percent of businesses are using such initiatives. This is expected to rise significantly during the coming year. Among the firms already offering such support, Fidelity provides employees at, or below, management level up to $2,000 per year towards their loans, with a maximum of $10,000 in total assistance. It is estimated that around 25 percent of Fidelity staff have student debts at the moment. Healthcare firm Aetna offers similar financial assistance, while technology firm Nvidia provides a maximum of $6,000 per year, up to a total of $30,000 in student loan repayment benefits. With many Americans battling student debt, gaining such a perk through the workplace could be very attractive. This is particularly true for the younger generations who have more debt than ever, making it harder to achieve other goals, such as owning a car or a home. With more and more companies beginning to realize this, it seems that more student debt relief benefits are set to be offered in 2017. Find out quickly at what rate you can refinance your student loan. When I started my first company, I was a little bit lost, because there were not that many open resources back at that time, 20 years ago (not to date myself). There was the city library, of course, and the option to attend a lecture from a successful business owner at the local university. But, otherwise, there wasn't much. Related: 12 Sites That Will Teach You Coding for Free Oh, have things changed. Today, startup founders can easily access numerous organizations, websites and experts to help them launch their startups and see them thrive. After all, knowledge is power, right? And knowledge is key to making the soundest decisions you can, and developing optimal strategies, to get your startup off the ground and into a position to sustain itself. Resources I'd recommend? Here are 10 that startups in 2017 can use to gain their biggest advantage possible: 1. Global Accelerator Network Gan.co, or GAN, is an incredible resource for startups comprised of more than 70 accelerators across six continents and 100 cities. GAN offers a way for startups to benefit from short-term, mentorship-based programs that help them launch in a smart, strategic way. Started in 2010 by two co-founders of TechStars, this network has helped 3,300 companies complete their GAN program as well as raise more than $4 billion across the globe to fuel these companies and create nearly 22,000 new jobs. Startups enjoy access to best practices, industry data, discounts and perks, consulting, investors, peers and mentors. 2. Startup Grind Billed as one of the largest startup communities in the world, Startup Grind brings together more than 400,000 entrepreneurs in 85 countries and 200 cities. The community offers a network of resources, which include events, partnerships with organizations like Google for Entrepreneurs and media opportunities. There are also local community events that help entrepreneurs meet up with others for face-to-face assistance and connection. That assistance includes ways to reach out to talent, innovators, investors and educators. Startup Grind started in 2010 in Silicon Valley and has grown, to offer online and offline opportunities for tapping into some very important resources and opportunities for funding. 3. Young Entrepreneur's Council Young Entrepreneur Council, created by entrepreneurs is an application-only resource that offers startups considerable support and resources. For marketing, YEC offers a free website, numerous opportunities for media exposure, tools for brand-building and invitations to special events and conferences. As a resource, YEC has knowledge-sharing, networking and professional development opportunities. Other perks include affordable healthcare options, a travel agency and discounts for co-working spaces all over the country. Related: 21 Resources to Make You a Better Entrepreneur 4. Coursera If you're looking for a convenient, affordable way to expand your own knowledge and skill set as well as that of anyone you hire, Coursera will connect you to the worlds universities and their best online courses. There are numerous specialties available, including machine learning, Python, data science and a wide range of other very relevant topics and courses to assist todays startup founders. Prices range from $25 to $99, making this a very affordable way to expand knowledge and skills within a typical startup founders budget. Online degrees and certifications are also available, depending on what you are looking to achieve. 5. Strategyzer Strategyzer offers a tool called Business Model Canvas, which helps users to create, on one page, a business model that helps direct their startup journey. The company also offers other resources, like the Value Proposition Canvas and other tools businesses can use to improve their strategic management processes and overall direction when they're not sure where they are going or how to get there. 6. Udemy Similar to Coursera, Udemy is another excellent resource for learning about all types of subjects and acquiring the necessary skills so businesses do not have to invest their lean funding in additional staff to handle those projects. This global marketplace of learning offers more than 42,000 courses and a network of more than 14 million students. Numerous certifications are also available. 7. Userinput Sometimes its difficult to know if your website, app or idea really has enough traction to go the distance and become a full-fledged business. So Userinput.io helps startups get honest feedback from users willling to provide their opinions. The benefits for the businesses are a very affordable way to get reviews and input from selected reviewers. The feedback comes quickly and offers constructive criticism to make the necessary improvements to increase a startups chances at success. 8. EdX While similar to some of the other educational resources on this list, edX offers free courses which are especially attactive for startup founders facing a very limited budget. Those courses' major benefit: They're from prestigious universities like Harvard, MIT and the niversity of California -- Berkeley. The organization also has business partnerships with universities, professors and industry experts all over the world and features a global community that facilitates connections among entrepreneurs. 9. Growthority Growthority is a growth-hacking service that helps startups by taking over the early stages of growth for them. Its akin to an outsourcing service for growth, where startups have a team that can handle online marketing and technical skills as well as provide other knowledge necessary to help build the busines into something larger, with the traction needed to continue the momentum. 10. Clarity Clarity is an organization geared to providing access to mentors and experts that can help entrepreneurs in specific areas. Users can browse for experts by topics such as business strategy, marketing, social media, strategic planning, SEO and business development, to name a few. Users then select their expert and connect directly with them to get answers and advice. This is a great way to tap directly into an area founders are unfamiliar with, to get the assistance needed, rather than hire someone full time to do the same thing. Related: 8 Invaluable Online Classes for Entrepreneurs In 2017, be sure to leverage these free and low-cost startup resources; most are available on users' preferred time-zone schedule and platform. In return, users can obtain the necessary advice and support to build up their startups to the point where these businesses have a life of their own, and founders have the knowledge and savvy to operate them. Related: 10 Expert Resources for Startups in 2017 5 Critical Factors for Success in EdTech Veteran Indian Prof Says Entrepreneurship Course at School Level May Be A Bit Much Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved State Sen. Toni Boucher believes there needs to be a change in the state leadership majority, and she aims to do her part by defending her fifth term in the 26th state Senate District against Carolanne Curry, of Westport, in the upcoming general election on Nov. 8. The Democrats hold majorities in both the state Senate and House of Representatives. In my view, on her side of the aisle, her party has had a tremendous amount of time to fix things, and in the majority, they have failed to do so, Boucher said. And now, its time for change and to let us take a leadership role to enact what we feel are better policies to turn the state around. If re-elected, Boucher said her top priorities would focus on making Connecticut more affordable for businesses and individuals by reforming current tax and spending policies to encourage job growth, balance the state budget and improve roadways and transit systems. Theyre all interrelated, she said. I really believe that the tax structure of our state is a major reason that jobs grow and people stay. And we can see that those bad policies that have been enacted are doing the opposite we have people leaving and jobs decreasing. Boucher said her extensive background in finance comes in handy when proposing solutions to remedy the states fiscal issues, especially when it comes to government spending in areas such as transportation. We have to stop raiding our transportation fund and moving other things that its not designed to fund and spending in other areas that are taking up the priorities. That practice has got to stop, she said. If we take our general obligation funds and prioritize what we can do, we can almost gain a billion dollars extra. As a ranking member of the Education Committee of the General Assembly and a former member of Wiltons Board of Education, Boucher said she would also continue her efforts in closing the gap between high- and low-income individuals by changing the educational funding formula and reducing tuition hikes. The best way to close the income gap is a higher education, she said. The vast majority of income is not necessarily from a trust fund, but people who have worked their way up the economic ladder by getting a higher educational degree. Boucher said she would do her best to prevent three things from moving forward: the mileage-based tax, the implementation of additional tolls and the regionalization of local municipalities all of which, she claims, would layer more taxes and financial burdens on Connecticuts population. We have to focus on our affordability for our businesses and people, and expanding Connecticuts tax base, Boucher said. She said her 16 years in state government attest to her credibility and record of meeting her constituents needs, having served as the state representative of the 143rd Assembly District for 12 years prior to being elected as state senator in 2008. I respond, I give them my phone number, personal cell, email whatever we can do, she said. But in addition to that, we pursue their issues and problems. I have a folder called my bill folder and any good ideas they forward to me, Ill look through that to see all the things we could put forward. SKim@hearstmediact.com; 203-354-1044; @stephaniehnkim Westport Democrat Carolanne Curry believes the voters of the 26th state Senate District deserve a new leader, one that will further the fight for fair, common-sense legislation in a time of political divisiveness. With a lengthy political resume and a willingness to go against the grain, Curry believes she is the better bet to usher in change than her opponent, Republican incumbent Toni Boucher. What I want is fairness. Im not going to legislate on behalf of the special few; Im looking to secure a fair legislative future for everyone in the district, Curry said. Id like to pursue a return to fairness and morality in our political system for everyone. Her experience, Curry said, is one of her greatest advantages in pursuing her goals. She has worked closely with legislators in Hartford, where she worked as an administrative assistant to the state Senate president. Curry is no stranger to the municipal level, having worked as the director of welfare for both New Haven and Bridgeport. She is an aide to Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim and coordinates the citywide effort to clean up illegal dumping and blight. After seeing to the welfare of cities like New Haven and Bridgeport for years, Curry now wants to ensure the welfare of the state as a whole. Curry said the state is not doing enough to ensure fair-minded laws. Curry points to the $22 million in state financial aid the State Bond Commission awarded to Bridgewater as a prime example of the kind of special treatment she would not tolerate if elected. More Information Carolanne Curry Toni Boucher See More Collapse If we really need to look at how our money is being spent, well see that it is not being spent wisely. I want to be a part of the group who comes in and re-thinks how our tax money is spent in this state, Curry said. All were doing right now is putting Band-Aids where we should be restructuring. While Curry acknowledges that a restructuring of the Legislatures finances wont be easy, opposition is nothing new to her. Curry, who is openly gay, believes that her unique blend of life and political experience will ultimately enable her to pursue what is right in the face of whatever resistance comes her way. Although Curry admits that she and Boucher see eye-to-eye on a number of issues, such as the elimination of the business entity tax, there is a bit of a disparity in their views when it comes to some social issues. Curry said that whereas Boucher voted against a recent medical marijuana bill and an act concerning services for individuals with intellectual disabilities, she would have voted for them. There are also corporate loopholes that are being exploited by businesses much to the dismay of the people of Connecticut, Curry added. For one, if elected, Curry said she would aim to revise affordable housing legislation that allows a developer to ask the courts to override local zoning decisions in order to construct affordable housing for working class and low-income individuals. My aim is to stop that abuse to let the towns have affordable housing, offer diversity in housing, but not be locked in to these outrageous sizes that developers want to put into the towns, Curry said. These are just some of the goals, Curry said, that she will pursue if voters of the district, which consists of Westport, Wilton, Ridgefield, Redding and parts of Bethel, New Canaan and Weston, elect her to replace Boucher. ptomlinson@hearst mediact.com; 203-354-1046; @Tomlinson_PE We are gathering information for the 2022 general election. On desktop, click "election information" on the right side of this pag... This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WILTON Freezing rain, slick roads and bad weather didnt stop Wilton veterans Franklin Dunn and Alex Ruskewich from showing up at the Veterans Memorial Green on Saturday morning, for a scheduled wreath-laying ceremony. The ceremony is a tradition the American Legion Post 86 and the Wilton Boy Scouts have observed on Wreaths Across America Day for the past few years, laying wreaths in front of the six monuments that honor Wiltons fallen heroes, from the the French and Indian War up until the Iraq War. But after 40 minutes of standing outside, waiting for others to show, Dunn and Ruskewich were the only two there. It turns out the ceremony had been canceled last minute. We tried, Ruskewich said. Dunn and Ruskewich said they didnt think twice about braving the storm because they wanted to show the Boy Scouts and community the importance of honoring soldiers who sacrificed their lives, having witnessed the fervor and courage of the military during their service. Ruskewich served as a lieutenant for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the Cuban Missile Crisis and Dunn served as a military policeman during the Korean War. Were part of the American Legion and the American Legion believes that the soldiers should be honored, Ruskewich said. Theres a lot of people in the military who are very dedicated to it and they're basically people who we should respect. Particularly in a town like Wilton, people dont really understand the military, he added. Later that day, a wreath-laying ceremony took place at Sharp Hill Cemetery, the oldest grave site in Wilton thats maintained and owned by Wilton Congregational Church. The cemetery became an official location this year. This year, with the Wreaths Across America theme being Say Their Name so that people arent forgotten, we thought it was important to honor those, the soldiers, that really created our country, said Pamela Brown, executive administrator of Wilton Congregational Church and Hillside Cemetery. Brown is also as a member of the Drum Hill Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution a nonprofit, nonpolitical volunteer service organization of more than 180,000 women who have direct ties to American Revolutionary War soldiers. In accordance to the groups mission of promoting historic preservation, education and patriotism, Brown teamed up with Wiltons chapter of the Children of the American Revolution to hold the inaugural wreath-laying ceremony at Sharp Hill Cemetery. I think its important for the kids to learn and I think its also important for the veterans to see that they will never be forgotten, said Lisa Pojano, who leads Wiltons CAR chapter. The group met at 1 p.m. and laid wreaths at the headstones of 18 Revolutionary War and nine French and Indian War soldiers buried there and concluded the ceremony at another cemetery, hidden among the trees near the the intersection of Comstock Lane and Signal Hill Road, where seven veterans are buried. Ron Egut, of Norwalk, was among the 20 people who attended and the only veteran there. He served in the U.S. Navy in 1966 and served for 26 years, of which seven were active duty. It was his first time laying wreaths on veteran graves and he said it wouldnt be his last. Im thankful I came back OK, but a lot of guys didnt come back so we have to make sure we dont forget them, the sacrifices they gave, Egut said, taking a moment to gather himself. Hes very patriotic, his wife Jeanne said. So Im just very proud of this country, Ron Egut said. Im thankful for all the service these guys did. SKim@hearstmediact.com; 203-354-1044; @stephaniehnkim WILTON An incarcerated Bronx woman is facing new charges after video surveillance linked her to an illegal check-cashing incident that saw two of her alleged accomplices arrested in Wilton three years ago, police said. Allison Arthur, 46, had attempted to cash a fraudulent check worth $1,012 at the First Niagara Bank at 30 Danbury Road, police said. Employees determined the check to be fraudulent after calling the business listed on it, which said it was not authorized, police said. A charming, delicious, and peaceful delightul interlude in our village of Wilton is CultureTea. I woke up this morning with the atnicipation of another visit with Bill to enjoy a pot of Assam and homemade scones by Shu-Chuan in the comfort of a beautifully decorated tea room. CultureTea is a new shop in town, the creation of Shu-Chuan and Alexander. Youll find this hidden jewel behind the Town Green, next to Artisan House. Hope youll join me there soon. Jean Gardner, Wilton Wilton needs to re-elect Lavielle To the editor: Wilton needs to re-elect Gail Lavielle to the Connecticut House of Representatives. Gail has demonstrated that she hears us and works to support our needs. She has proven her effectiveness, intelligence, and work ethic. She has represented the 143th District very well. While understanding the dire state budget situation, she has provided concrete solutions instead of just complaining. Republicans are very close to a majority in both the House and the Senate, so this is a pivotal election for us to help stop wasteful spending, control our taxes and encourage business to come to our state not leave it. Gary Battaglia, Wilton WILTON A Wilton Meadows nurse is facing sexual assault charges after having inappropriate contact with at least two patients, police said. Police picked up Hunter Scott McGinty, 26, on Tuesday after a certified nursing assistant (CNA) informed police about inappropriate contact between the suspect and an 82-year-old female patient on Monday, police said. WILTON A masonry worker is facing larceny charges after a former employer accused him of absconding with money he had been paid for work that was never started, police said. A Wilton resident told police that he had hired Ryan Miller, 32, in December 2007 for some masonry work. He claims that Miller was paid almost $2,000 in advance, however once paid, Miller never showed up again. WILTON An underage Ridgefield resident is facing alcohol possession and forgery charges after getting pulled over for speeding, police said. Monique Barbosa, 18, was pulled over by police for traveling 57 mph in a 40 mph zone around 10 p.m. on Friday. Upon approaching the vehicle, an officer noted that there were two large Yellow Tail wine bottles sitting in plain sight right behind the drivers seat. To revive American constitutionalism would require not more people who talk about justice, the common good, and the best regime, but people who are able to shoulder concrete responsibilities, so that the reconstruction of society could begin where it matters most, in the personal lives of the citizens Discriminating observers recognize that political practice in the United States today bears only a faint resemblance to the Constitution written at Philadelphia. The old Constitution enjoys a formal, ceremonial existence still and possesses a limited practical efficacy, but American government and politics have been transformed in the direction of a centralized mass democracy greatly at odds with what the Framers envisioned. To understand the distance between the intent of the Framers and current practice it is insufficient to compare the present state of affairs to the words of documents like the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. Their real meaning emerges only when the texts are put in their religious, moral, cultural, social, and political context. The Constitution and related documents all imply an entire view of human nature and society. The particular text assumes and forms an inextricable part of a more comprehensive and unwritten constitution, which includes the moral ethos of the Framers. The institutions and procedures prescribed by the written document imply a particular kind of civilization and a particular kind of human being. Without a certain personality type setting the tone in society, the government could not function as intended. The Constitution presupposes character traits in tune with its prescriptions, and those prescriptions are expected to foster that personality. A consideration of what the Framers assumed and implied will demonstrate the inadequacy of interpretations that look for the meaning of the Founding in texts abstracted from historical settings and concrete substance. Neglect of the unwritten constitution may serve as an example of the debilitating effects of abstractionist, ahistorical modes of thought in contemporary political philosophy. Of special importance in ascertaining the intent of the Framers is the moral ethos that permeates the unwritten constitution and informs their written work. Attending to this dimension of the Constitution helps reveal the extent of the decline of American constitutionalism. Studying the work of the Framers in this manner shows the futility of trying to restore crumbling constitutional structures by invoking the principles of the Constitution in the abstract. Returning to the intent of the Framers, if it were possible or even desirable today, would require nothing less than a revival of the constitutional personality and of the civilization from which it is indistinguishable. The disintegration of constitutionalism in America manifests the emergence of a different type of civilization and human being. To stress the need, in the face of that development, to recover the principles of the Framers neglects the presuppositions and concrete entailments of their ideas. Most of the assumptions behind their constitutional preferences are left unstated, because they are taken for granted. Abstractionist interpretations misunderstand both the intent of the Framers and the prospects for constitutionalism today. Grasping the moral ethos of the Framers goes a long way toward explaining their preference for a decentralized, regionally differentiated, and group-oriented society. The Framers assume the preponderance of a particular type of moral responsibility with deep roots in classical and Christian civilization. The virtue they admire and hope will assist the realization of their plans is not some abstract precept or ethereal sentiment. It is a virtue of character and concrete obligations that generates social relationships and institutions of a certain type and quality. This moral ethos can be contrasted with a very different notion of virtue, one that has become increasingly influential in the Western world. While the older kind of virtue manifests itself in individual, personal responsibility and tends to foster private and local community and a decentralized society, the more recent kind of virtue manifests itself in abstract ideas and sentiments and tends to foster a collectivistic and centralized society. The two types of morality may resemble each other in terminology, but they represent incompatible views of human nature and society and have radically different social and political ramifications. To bring out a crucially important aspect of the Framers outlook it may be useful to present first a view that is very different from theirs. A distinctive feature of the political philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is the rejection of social subdivisions in the state. According to Rousseau, the citizens must not be distracted from the good of the whole by group loyalties and interests. The proper dedication to the common good requires that the people be dissolved into an undifferentiated mass of individuals. Traditional Western civilization is incompatible with Rousseaus vision and must be overturned. To accomplish that goal it is necessary to destroy the elaborate groupings and social patterns through which that civilization manifests itself. The Greeks argued that man is a social being who can realize his true humanity only through associations, starting with the household. Christianity continued that tradition, making its own additions and revisions. But Rousseau wants society swept clean of decentralized, group-oriented structures. He wants the state to have no sectional associations (societe partielle).[1] Rousseaus philosophy is thus in the sharpest possible conflict with American tradition. In America, groups and subdivisions have not only proliferated, but they have been encouraged and protected. Alexis de Tocqueville was struck by the habit of Americans to join together, privately and locally, to conduct their own affairs. He took special note of the influential role of the Churches. It is important to note that under the old Constitution the American people are recognized only as members of sub-divisions, of States and electoral districts. The Framers set up not a single institution through which the American people as an undifferentiated mass of individuals could express their will. The will of the people is plainly viewed as something very different from a numerical majority. The people, the Framers say or imply, are members of groups or subdivisions. The interests of persons are seen as more or less bound up with the interests of their most cherished associations. Beyond the Constitution itself, American tradition in general gives power, protection, and independence to countless social and political subdivisions. Without always making it explicit, the Framers view life in autonomous groups as fulfilling a basic human need.[2] Federalism is just one of the more striking examples of the old American preference for local and regional autonomy and decentralization. The way in which the United States Senate is constituted illustrates the Framers respect for sectional interests. According to the democratist standard of one-man-one-vote, all persons should carry the same political weight at the polls. The Constitution embodies a much different conception of popular rule. It gives all States, regardless of size and population, the same representation in the Senate. New York has the same number of Senators as Delaware, California as Wyoming. The votes cast by citizens of Delaware and Wyoming are, as it were, counted many times. This is done in deference to the States as semi-autonomous entities worthy of support and protection. The enormous expansion of American central government in the last century makes it difficult to remember that the Framers actually expected the States and the people to retain all powers not specifically delegated to the central government. Even in the case of the allegedly most popular, or democratic, institution of the United States Government, the House of Representatives, the Framers balanced regional against numerical considerations. A tiny State that purely quantitative standards would leave without representation in the House is guaranteed at least one representative. The Framers also assigned the task of selecting Presidents not to the mass of the people, but to the Electoral College, containing as many members from each State as that State had representation in the House and Senate. Again small States were deliberately given vast overrepresentation. Traditional American society as a whole nurtured decentralized social and political structures and a multiplicity of subdivisions and associations. In asserting the one-man-one-vote formula as integral to the Constitution, the Warren Court introduced an atomistic and democratist notion alien to the Framers. The pervasiveness and proliferation of communal ties in the older American society are among the reasons why it is misguided to treat the political philosophy of John Locke as paradigmatic for the United States. Lockes social and political atomism, focused on the rights of discrete individuals, does not account for an American historical reality that is in some respects surprisingly reminiscent of medieval Western society. It is crucial to understanding the written and unwritten constitutions to recognize the ethical import of the old American affinity for groups and associations. The Framers, their class, and the American people in general were steeped in a Western tradition whose conception of virtue gave precedence to the responsibility of the individual in personal relationships and associations. Aristotle had explained the centrality of the household in fostering sound habits. The Romans had also viewed family as preparing the individual for wider duties. Christianity gave succinct expression to what would become the heart of the moral ethos of the Western world when it stressed love of neighbor. It is primarily in ones daily contacts with people that one should show goodness and charity. The persons chief obligation is to limit his own selfishness and generally to improve character so that he can do right by others. By neighbor is meant not people in the abstract and in the distance, but people of flesh and blood with names and faces. In his more intimate associations the individual gets practice in loving neighbors. There virtue is concrete and personal. The individual is continually encouraged to consider the needs and wishes of others. In the family especially, the person learns both what it means to be loved and cared for and what it means to hove and care for others. Taking others into account becomes a habit. It is not possible to get away with mere moral posturing. People who present themselves as better than they are are mercilessly exposed when their actions fall short of their words. Over time, life in groups and associations tempers the selfish ego. It fosters character traits conducive to a larger good. Having gotten its start in the family and other relationships at fairly chose range, moral responsibility can be applied to wider social and political concerns. Note carefully that traditional Western moral virtue is not a sweet sentiment or a generalized concern for mankind in the abstract. Virtue is a matter of character. It means making the best of self and acting responsibly toward real people, which means that morality is hard. To make love of neighbor particularly difficult, real people are frequently less than pleasant, and they may be our competitors. Behaving charitably may require strength of will. Virtue shows itself, thus, not in high-sounding phrases or teary-eyed compassion but in responsible conduct. Compare this older Western and American ethos to the common modern notion of virtue. The latter can be described as morality in the abstract. Unlike the older virtue, it does not presuppose improvement of self. It can be espoused by the worst of human beings, by people who are very difficult to live and work with. These same individuals can ooze benevolence for people in the abstract and talk incessantly about justice, human rights, and the common good. They can advocate schemes for sweeping social and political change. In fact, the wider the scope of their virtuous project, the more compelling is supposed to be the evidence of a superior morality. But this abstract and self-congratulatory virtue cares about nobody in particular. It is morality made easy. Anybody can do it. You can remain the same odious person as before while professing noble principles and feelings. From the point of view of the older Western ethic, the new virtue actually looks like a moral hoax. It is a more or less subtle escape from mans primary moral responsibility: to make the best of self and do right by neighbors. Abstract moralism is less interested in improving self than in improving others. And the need to take concrete action is somehow always transferred elsewhere, typically to government, which acquires ever new responsibilities and becomes ever more centralized. The importance of this contrast between different notions of virtue cannot be exaggerated. The two kinds of virtue foster different human beings and build entirely different societies. From the old virtue of character springs a decentralized, group-oriented society. Those have the chief responsibility for acting on problems and opportunities who are most directly affected by them. Help is sought beyond the people most involved only to the extent that they cannot satisfactorily manage their own affairs. De Tocqueville found among Americans in the early decades of the 1800s a pronounced disinclination to hand over responsibilities to authorities further away.[3] The traditional moral ethos of the West shows its own substantive meaning only in the kind of concrete social and political patterns that have been described. Man is thought to express his essential nature and find his greatest satisfaction in associations, starting with the family. Rousseau knew what he was doing when he turned against sectional associations. Only by destroying the socio-political structures in which the older ethos manifested itself could you effectively destroy it. Federalism and decentralization in the American tradition can be adequately understood only in the context of the old Western moral heritage. If regional, local, and private initiative and independence are eroding today, it is because a new ethos is replacing the older one. The new moralism is undermining the virtue of character and undermining the corresponding exercise of up-close responsibility. The new virtue generates a centralized and expansionist government which ceaselessly meddles in the life of the citizens. No amount of abstract principle can restore decentralized constitutional government and a vital federalism. The political system envisioned by the Framers assumed the preponderance of a particular type of human being, what has here been called the constitutional personality. Without that personality of character a decentralized society is not possible. To revive American constitutionalism, if it can still be done, would require, not more people who talk all the time about justice, the common good, and the best regime, but people who are able to shoulder concrete responsibilities, so that the reconstruction of society could begin where it matters most, in the personal lives of the citizens. Trying to restore the intent and the work of the Framers by advocating abstract principle avoids the heart of the matter. It bypasses the central need of all civilized life. the shaping of moral character. Character, let it be underlined, is not the same as keeping nice-sounding principles in your head. In fact, talking about virtue in the abstract easily becomes an escape from what is much more difficult and needed, the actual improvement of self and the actual exercise of responsibility. To that extent, endless theorizing about the good aggravates the erosion of a free and decentralized society. One of the dangers of philosophical abstractionism is that it discourages attention to the concrete texture of responsibility and distracts the individual from obligations that are near and personal. It turns virtue into a matter of correct thinking. Rather than attuning the individual to the actual moral opportunities of historical existence, abstractionism invites him to contemplate ideal propositions. The good of abstract theorizing does not belong to the world of particulars in which the person has to act and hence is not directly relevant to the needs of specific situations. Even if abstractionism encourages the individual to keep the idea of the good in his head, he becomes used to more or less ignoring it in practical conduct. The effect of centering morality in ahistorical contemplation is to undermine the virtue of character, including the self-restraint that can hold the individuals lower self in check. This criticism of abstractionism is not directed against philosophy in general. There can be no question of rejecting or discounting reasoning that is truly philosophical. It should be said also that there is a special sense in which genuine philosophy can be said to be abstract: It is contemplative and conceptual, not a form of practical action. The object of criticism here is poor philosophy, the kind that attempts to separate itself from the world of particulars in which human beings actually dwell. Good humanistic philosophy embraces historical particularity and articulates it: universality and particularity are at the same time inseparable and in tension.[4] A most unfortunate weakness of postwar American intellectual conservatism has been its limited interest in philosophy beyond loosely held generalities and formulas. A lack of philosophical breadth, depth, and discipline made possible the paradoxical spread of ahistorical or anti-historical habits of mind. It is now widely believed that sound theorizing assesses ideas apart from considerations of historical substance and circumstance. The meaning of ideas and principles are looked for within textual formulations themselves, as if the concrete referents and larger experiential context of words and terms were not part of their meaning. According to this view, the principles of the good society can be discerned and pronounced by enlightened individuals who reflect in isolation from historical experience and circumstance. It is believed that doctrinal formulations can carry precise and definitive meaning. This philosophical and interpretive stance is the epistemological counterpart of religious fundamentalism.[5] That anti-historical sentiment should be common among academics labeled conservative could not be more paradoxical, for if intellectually serious modern conservatism has any distinctive feature, it is surely the historical consciousness and the sense of the intimate connection between universality and historical particularity. Most persons of traditional views have a conviction, based in religion, ethical intuition, or philosophy, or all three, that there is a universal moral order and that right and wrong are not questions of subjective preference. But the term conservatism indicates that the position to which it refers is conservative of something, specifically, of the ethical awareness that emerges from the great classical and Judaeo-Christian heritage. As in the case of Edmund Burke, the sense of universality is indistinguishable from the historical sense. What is ethically universal transcends history and particular civilizations, but it becomes known to man only in concrete historical manifestations. Moral good cannot simply be a creature of convention, for history produces evil as well as good. But only a deep and wide-ranging historical sense can distinguish true universality from momentary and idiosyncratic preferences. There has been much loose talk over the last few decades about the dangers of historicism. A belief in moral universality and lasting truth is said to be incompatible with stressing the historical nature of human existence. That moral and epistemological relativism, as ordinarily understood, poses a danger to civilization hardly needs repeating, but it betrays ignorance to assert that the only real alternative to relativism is ahistorical ratiocination. Although espoused by some individuals reputed to be conservative, moral and epistemological abstractionism is profoundly anti-conservative. The notion that real universality must be sharply distinguished from historical particularity clashes, for example, with the belief that man is dependent for moral, intellectual, and cultural guidance on the human heritage of life and letters. Among those who have uncritically accepted a doctrine of abstract principles are many philosophically innocent Christians, perhaps especially Roman Catholics, who vaguely assume a connection between those principles and natural law. The latter is interpreted in a rationalistic and legalistic manner. Properly concerned to affirm universal morality, many Christians have, for lack of real exposure to philosophical alternatives, attached themselves to ahistorical assumptions that are not easily reconciled with what they presumably also believe: that the transcendent Word became flesh, that the Logos was incarnated in history. Drawing no philosophical lesson from this religious belief, they blithely accept the notion that universality could have no integral association with historical particularity. Many others with conservative instincts follow a similar suicidal course. The belief in universal values is transformed into an assertion of abstract principles that is sometimes hard to distinguish from the Jacobin advocacy of rights inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.[6] Abstractionism affords a limited and limiting perspective on the Framers and the state of the Constitution today. It lacks a sense of the concrete substance and implications of ideas. Abstractionism misses the central importance of the unwritten constitution. lt diverts attention from the world of historical particularity. Appealing as ahistorical theorizing is to some academics today, such thinking was not the manner of the Framers. The Constitution is the result of deep and plentiful reflection, but it is not a blueprint based on ahistorical ratiocination. Federalist No. 37 is here both explicit and emphatic: It is a strength of the Constitution, Madison writes, that it does not have that artificial structure and regular symmetry which an abstract view of the subject might lead an ingenious theorist to bestow on a Constitution planned in his closet or in his imagination.[7] The work of the Framers was creative and distinctive, to be sure, but it was historically rooted and informed, and adjusted to concrete circumstances. If we are to understand their Constitution with all of its unstated assumptions, preconditions, and entailments, and if we are to understand the forces that are now destroying it, a philosophical outlook is needed that is attuned to historical realities, both past and present. Many would like us to believe that the great intellectual struggle of today is between historicists of various kinds and defenders of universal truths and values. But this formulation of alternatives leaves out the one truly fruitful course of philosophical renewal. The intellectually significant choice is not between historical and anti-historical positions, but between historicism that does and historicism that does not acknowledge the universal. Abstractionism manages to misconstrue both universality and particularity. Rejecting the historical consciousness, it engenders rigidities and reifications that can only give universality a bad name. In its fondness for disembodied ideas and texts rather than historical realities abstractionism becomes an escape from the concrete and acute problems of our time. Books on the topic of this essay may be found in The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore. Republished with gracious permission from Modern Age (1992, Vol. 34, No. 4). Notes: 1. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract , Bk. II, Ch. 3, 73. Rousseaus political philosophy is analyzed in depth with special attention to its ethical import and contrasted with American constitutionalism in Claes G. Ryn. Democracy and the Ethical Life , 2nd expanded ed. (Washington, D.C., 1990). 2. The term autonomous group is used by Robert Nisbet. See, in particular, The Quest for Community (San Francisco, 1990), which explains the humane significance of life in small and independent associations. 3. See, for example, Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New Rochelle, N.Y., undated), Vol. 1, 177. 4. The historical nature of philosophy is perhaps nowhere better demonstrated than in the work of the Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce (1866-1952). His most famous and central books, Aesthetic (1902), Logic (1908), and The Philosophy of the Practical (1908), present a mature and lucid, though not flawless, version of German idealism. Crocean ideas are revised and developed and incorporated into a reconstituted epistemology of the humanities and social sciences in Claes G. Ryn, Will, Imagination and Reason (Chicago and Washington, D.C., 1986). 5. For an extensive discussion of the relationship of universality and particularity, see Ryn, Will. The sense in which philosophical abstractionism is fundamentalistic is explained in Ch. 7. 6. The relationship between moral abstractionism, as found, for example, among disciples of the late Leo Strauss, and currents of moralistic utopian ideology is explained in Claes G. Ryn, The New Jacobinism: Can Democracy Survive? (Washington, D.C., 1991). Abstract universalism of the Straussian kind is no less questionable when its advocates think they are presenting it for popular consumption but hiding their real, putatively Nietzschean beliefs. Suggestions of secret writing simply claim credit for philosophical ambivalence and incoherence. 7. Hamilton, Madison, Jay, The Federalist Papers, No. 37 (Madison), 230. Long before fake news became a hot topic, liberals in the mainstream media were practicing their own special brand of fake news. They werent misleading the public for malicious reasons; it was quite the opposite. They were simply showing off their humanity. The best examples of this fake news-for-a-good-cause go back to the 1980s, when two of the biggest stories in America involved the rise in homelessness (in the age of Reagan) and the national scare over a new disease called AIDS. I was a correspondent at CBS News at the time and I witnessed firsthand how and why the media got both those stories monumentally wrong. Lets start with the homeless. The networks were doing lots of homeless stories back then, and the homeless we put on TV almost always looked just like you and your next-door neighbors. Except the homeless I saw on the streets of New York didnt look anything like that. Most of them were either alcoholics, or drug addicts, or were talking to spaceships in the sky. But reporters felt they needed to portray the homeless as people just like you and me. In fact, Tom Brokaw actually said that the homeless are people you know. How could serious reporters really think the homeless by and large were people we knew in our everyday lives? They saw the homeless on the streets. They saw what I saw. It didnt take an investigative reporter to figure out that the homeless living in cardboard boxes in the freezing cold were nothing like the Americans who were watching Tom Brokaw on TV. But the homeless lobby had an agenda and they needed their liberal friends in the media to help them pursue it. They needed to drum up compassion for the homeless and one way to do it was to convince reporters that the homeless were just regular folks brought down by a bad break. And journalists, who pride themselves on their compassion, gladly went along. After all, if the homeless were mainly a bunch of winos and junkies the public might not want to fund government welfare programs to help them. But if they were people you know wed all be more sympathetic. (Besides, putting homeless folks on TV who look just like the audience helps boost ratings.) So liberal reporters became cheerleaders for a liberal cause they believed in. And something similar happened with AIDS. In the 1980s, journalists were spreading an epidemic of fear. And that too was based on fake news. A headline in U.S. News & World Report said, The disease of them is suddenly the disease of us. The Atlantic Monthly headlined a cover story with this: Heterosexuals and AIDS: The Second State of the Epidemic. The Ladies Home Journal ran a story with this tease on the cover: AIDS & Marriage: What Every Wife Must Know. Life magazine ran a cover with this scary headline: Now No One Is Safe from AIDS. And in 1987, one of the most famous and beloved Americans weighed in with a dire warning. AIDS has both sexes running scared. Research studies now project that one in five heterosexuals could be dead from AIDS at the end of the next three years. Thats by 1990. One in five. It is no longer just a gay disease. Believe me. Who wouldnt believe Oprah Winfrey? Except she was dead wrong and so was just about everybody in the mainstream media. There was nothing resembling a heterosexual epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control, by the end of 1999, about 50 percent of those who had come down with AIDS were men who had sex with other men; 28 percent were IV drug users; 6 percent were men who had sex with men and injected drugs. There were also some cases tied to blood transfusions that were infected with HIV, the AIDS virus. Journalists should have wondered: If AIDS is breaking out into heterosexual America, why havent I witnessed entire neighborhoods wiped out by the disease? Thats what was happening in gay neighborhoods in San Francisco, so why wasnt it happening in suburban towns across the rest of the country? They didnt ask those questions because they didnt want to know the answers. So again, journalists misled the American people and again, for a good cause. Just as the homeless had to be our friends and neighbors or else we might not spend enough on them people with AIDS also had to be just like us or else the public might not care enough to spend federal tax dollars to find a cure for a disease that mainly hit gays and junkies. Lets be clear: If even one person has AIDS it is a terrible tragedy. And the government had a moral responsibility to help find a cure for a disease that was killing so many people. But journalists cant become cheerleaders no matter how worthy the cause. And in many ways the mainstream journalism version of fake news is worse than what the social media version, where jerks put out ridiculous stories about nonexistent underage sex rings run by Hillary Clinton out of a pizza parlor. Unlike the social media clowns, mainstream journalists have legitimacy. They help set the national agenda. They influence legislation. And its not just about fake homeless and AIDS stories. Theyre still putting out fake news about the supposed sexist wage gap between men and women doing the same job with the same experience, about the epidemic of rape on college campuses, about the 99 percent of scientists who supposedly believe Al Gores version of global warming and think everyone else is an ignorant science denier. But hey, theyre faking the news for good causes, right? The slaughter of civilians in Aleppo last week may have shocked the conscience of the world, but no one should have been surprised. Syrias Assad regime has always treated opponents savagely, and its assault on Aleppo, once the countrys largest city, has been coming for a long time. When Secretary of State John F. Kerry and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power pleaded with Assad to observe the niceties of civilized warfare, they knew their words would likely have little impact. What has happened already in Aleppo is unconscionable, Kerry said. The Assad regime is actually carrying out nothing short of a massacre. Are you truly incapable of shame? Power asked the Syrians and their allies. Is there no act of barbarism against civilians, no execution of a child that gets under your skin? But their anguish was real in part because both Kerry and Power have long urged President Obama to intervene more forcefully in Syria, only to be rebuffed again and again. The U.S. inability to stave off the fall of Aleppo was the tragic but predictable product of a mismatch between Obamas rhetoric and his commitments. Soon after the uprising against Assad began in 2011, Obama declared the United States on the side of the rebels and announced that the dictators days were numbered. The president never backed up those words with action, though, because he believed there was no compelling U.S. interest that justified direct intervention in the civil war. He insisted that there was no military solution to the conflict, and dispatched Kerry to seek ceasefires and peace talks. Assad and his allies in Russia and Iran decided, to the contrary, that there was a military solution and, so far, they are turning out to be right. The winners are the Assad regime, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Lebanese Hezbollah who supplied many of the ground troops, and Russia, which provided air power and special operations forces. The city was the last major stronghold of the moderate rebels whom the United States had been supporting. Their defeat sends many of their surviving fighters into territory controlled by the more radical Conquest Front, Al Qaedas affiliate in Syria. The battle in Aleppo also took Syrian troops away from the eastern front where theyve been sporadically fighting Islamic State, allowing that group to reconquer Palmyra. So the fall of Aleppo is not only a humanitarian disaster; its a setback for hard-nosed U.S. interests, too. In Obamas defense, its true that there were never easy, cost-free alternatives to his policy of restraint. But its not true, as he also argued, that the only alternative was a full-scale U.S. invasion. Obama aides spent years proposing less-costly alternatives, only to be turned down. In 2012, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta proposed arming moderate rebels who were already receiving aid from other Arab countries, but Obama rejected the idea. In 2013, after Assad used chemical weapons against civilians, Obama announced that he would retaliate with U.S. military force but had second thoughts. In 2014, after Assad began dropping crude barrel bombs into rebel-held neighborhoods, aides proposed supplying anti-aircraft weapons to the insurgents, but they were denied. Instead, in a half-measure, the United States sent anti-tank missiles, which helped the rebels win a series of victories on the ground and brought the war to an apparent stalemate in 2015. At that point, though, Russias Vladimir Putin intervened, surprising the White House by sending air force units to back up Assads troops. The Russian intervention shut the door on U.S. action to protect civilians, said Frederic C. Hof of the Atlantic Council, a former State Department expert on Syria. The administration worried that any military action would risk a conflict with Russia. Meanwhile, Kerry doggedly negotiated a series of ceasefire agreements, none of which took hold. Although the Russians played along, they never restrained the Syrian military or its Iranian and Lebanese allies on the ground. The Obama administration didnt start the Syrian rebellion and doesnt bear sole responsibility for the disasters that followed. The Assad regime and its allies, after all, are the ones who battered Aleppo with pitiless force. But officials acknowledge privately that Syria has been the greatest foreign policy failure of their eight years in office. With only a month remaining in Obamas term, theres little more for them to do but continue pleading for an orderly evacuation of Aleppo and to prepare their briefings for President-elect Trump. Trump has suggested he might try to end the Syrian war by allying with Russia and leaving Assad in place. His national security advisor, Michael T. Flynn, has said he also wants to reduce Irans influence. Good luck, said Hof. Were still coming at this from the sidelines, without much leverage to get what we want. Thats been the problem all along. Photos: Phillies fans converge on CBP for Game 4 Phillies fans were hyped up for Game 4 of the World Series at Citizens Bank Park and the stadium complex Wednesday. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville continues its exploration and integration of global partnerships throughout its academic disciplines. Expansion of an already successful pharmacy exchange program to include the Universitys breadth of health sciences was the topic of discussion during a visit from the vice chancellor of Indias Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara (JSS) University. B. Suresh, MPharm, PhD, Sc.D., visited with SIUE administrators on Wednesday, Nov. 23. The leaders discussed the possibility of future collaborations that would strengthen students academic and experiential learning opportunities. Today in this world, understanding each other is important, both culturally and socially, Suresh said. This time of collaboration helps in advancing knowledge by sharing our resources. It helps us to understand the culture of different countries and the people, and that brings more tolerance when students go out and try to be responsible citizens. The SIUE School of Pharmacy has partnered with JSS College of Pharmacy since 2014 to offer a student exchange program. Two students in their final year of pharmacy education have the opportunity to complete an elective rotation at each respective institution. SIUE students spend five weeks in India, while JSS students spend eight weeks in the U.S. Two exchange students from the JSS College of Pharmacy, Nickita Benny and Bhagya Sree, are currently shadowing SIUEs Kelly Gable, PharmD, BCPP, in the department of psychiatry in a St. Louis family healthcare center. My professional goal is to become a well-established pharmacist, said Benny. This program has helped me experience the mode of practices used in America, which are totally different from India. I am planning to come back to the U.S. after completion of my studies, so I thought this would be great exposure for me to understand practices here. This was an unexpected opportunity which came to me after attending an interview at our college, explained Sree. I was the luckiest among the interviewees to come to SIUE to experience and explore the institution and the pharmacy setup. We have received good training from our institution, but we can now see a different way of practicing pharmacy. After undergoing this program, we will have an idea of what a clinical pharmacist should be and our role for patients. Along with its College of Pharmacy, JSS University houses a Medical College and Dental College at its main campus in Mysore, India. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville provides students with a high quality, affordable education that prepares them for successful careers and lives of purpose to shape a changing world. Built on the foundation of a broad-based liberal education, and enhanced by hands-on research and real-world experiences, the academic preparation SIUE students receive equips them to thrive in the global marketplace and make our communities better places to live. Situated on 2,660 acres of beautiful woodland atop the bluffs overlooking the natural beauty of the Mississippi Rivers rich bottomland and only a short drive from downtown St. Louis, the SIUE campus is home to a diverse student body of more than 14,000. If you asked Southern Illinois University Edwardsville student Zia Hasan Ansari what he wants most for the holiday season, hed say world peace starting with the end of the Syrian Civil War. But Ansari, president of the SIUE Muslim Student Association (MSA), and members of his group, along with students in the SIUE Arabic Club, were moved to assist in one tremendous humanitarian effort in the meantime. The two groups joined with Helping Hand for Relief and Development to collect more than 40,000 pounds of donations that included food and clothing for Syrian refugees. We believe it is everyones duty to help each other out, and especially those who are suffering, said Ansari, a graduate student majoring in electrical engineering. We also wanted to motivate others to help out and do their part. A lot of people want to help, but they dont know where to start. Helping Hands contacted a member of the MSA to see if they could help. The group gladly accepted and then brought the idea to the Arabic Club. When we joined the project, there was already 10,000 pounds of donations in the form of food and clothing collected and stored in the Helping Hands warehouse, Ansari said. We assisted in organizing the donations into clothing for men, women, children and adults, he continued. Then we further distinguished them according to winter and summer. Later, we packed them in boxes. The student groups also collected clothes and shoes from contributors in Edwardsville and St. Louis. We collected items from peoples homes and mosques, Ansari said. Some people even dropped off items themselves to the (Helping Hands) warehouse and to me at the SIUE campus. We also helped in purchasing food. We purchased rice, oil, beans, sugar, wheat, canned foods, baby food and more. We transported the goods to the warehouse with the help of a truck and trailer of Elaine Abusharbain (associate professor in the SIUE Department of Biological Sciences). Im incredibly proud of the students for initiating this effort as the situation in Syria gets worse every day, said Stephen Tamari, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Historical Studies and a faculty advisor for both the MSA and Arabic Club. And I hope other students and community members follow their lead. Tamari is a Syrian expert. He and his wife, Sandra, assistant director in International Affairs, lived in Damascus for 3 years. The couple still has family and friends living in Syria. We wish health, peace and happiness for the refugees, said Ramsha Durrani, Arabic Club president and MSA vice president, and a safe environment where they can recover from the trauma and become successful in the future. The Muslim Student Associations mission at SIUE is to enrich the diversity on campus by uniting the growing Muslim community and educating our peers about the religion of Islam. To learn more about SIUEs MSA, contact the president, Zia Hasan Ansari at zansari@siue.edu. SIUE's Arabic Clubs mission is to promote the Arabic language and Arab culture, and to educate students about the Middle East. To learn more about SIUEs Arabic Club, contact the president, Ramsha Ansari at rdurran@siue.edu. Every weekday from 6:15 a.m. to 10 a.m. the Functional Life Skills (FLS) students at Edwardsville High School turn one of the concession stands in the EHS Commons into the Tiger Den cafe. The FLS students operate the cafe selling and serving flavored cappuccinos, lattes, hot tea, hot chocolate, regular coffee and freshly baked Otis Spunkmeyer cookies to the EHS students and staff in between classes. Back in 2006, the district conducted an FLS curriculum study and developed its current FLS program which was implemented in 2009. The study involved taking the Illinois State Standards and district curriculum and creating a parallel curriculum for the districts students in the FLS program. This allowed the district to continue to academically challenge the FLS students by presenting them with the same concepts as their general education peers, EHS Special Education Teacher Susan Converse explained. The FLS program attempts to present concepts in a functional way to the approximately 40 FLS high school students at their ability level, and it strives to find a hands-on way to teach these skills. The high schools program, which is available to students through age 22, has an ultimate goal to enable the students to independently apply these skills in real life. In an attempt to bring real world occupational skills and experiences to these students, Converse opened The Tiger Den on Oct. 17, and every week since then, the FLS students have been successfully running every aspect of the business operation under adult supervision. Each day the FLS students arrive at school and report directly to the Tiger Den to work. The students are responsible for preparing and baking cookies first hour in the vocational foods class under the supervision of Foods and Nutrition Teacher Becky Holle. Other job activities that take place in the vocational foods class include making the cookie packages, packaging the cookies, prepping hot chocolate cups, and prepping the mocha frappucino mix which is made from scratch. Then in the actual Tiger Den, students stock the counters and food displays, serve customers, and run the cash register. In addition, the students wipe down the counters and tables and wash and dry dishes used during preparation or the serving process. The Tiger Den provides these students with valuable vocational training while working in the coffee shop, Converse noted. And every student has a job. The Tiger Den provides a multitude of opportunities every day to work on important skills such as counting. Each day the students fill marshmallow containers that are served with the purchase of a hot chocolate. The students count out 12 marshmallows and place them in small plastic containers that are handed out when a hot chocolate is sold. They also count the cash register contents each hour, group quarters and mixed coins into one dollar amounts, and count and bundle dollar bills into groups of 25 so that it can be organized before turning into the school bookkeeper at the end of each day. While Converse oversees the Tiger Den, several other EHS teachers and support personnel covering areas of food and nutrition, speech and language pathology, and special education assist with the daily operations. Those teachers include Judy Cullen, Becky Vinson, Chris Sumpter, Anne Caton and Holle. Converse has also received support from area businesses. St Louis-based Ronnoco Coffee Company installed a 36-cup grinder/brewer coffee machine as well as an espresso machine in the Tiger Den at no charge. Also local business Goshen Coffee recently learned of the Tiger Den and dropped off a 20-pound coffee donation. The ability to provide flavored cappuccino or lattes for $2.50 or $3 apiece has been quite popular with the EHS general education students. Some students stop by every day for a favorite drink or some students are regulars for the ever-popular cookie of the day. On a recent visit to the Tiger Den, the FLS students were featuring a Merry Mocha Mint drink. We just started selling it yesterday, and were already sold out. So we are very popular, Converse pointed out. We basically took the mobile cooking idea and put it kind of into a coffee shop setting and expanded the menu which then led to all kinds of opportunities for these kids to learn skills, Converse added. Converse creatively adapted a typical coffee shop ordering process to help the FLS students understand and learn the skills necessary to run the Tiger Den. Anytime someone orders, they get a visual (card) of the product. That was for several reasons because some of the kids are non-verbal or have language issues so they can see what is coming down (the service line), she explained. So if a customer has a cookie card, the kids will know to ask what kind of cookie they want and it keeps the line moving, and just allows them to be more independent and involved. Once a customer receives his product, the card is collected and placed in a basket that is counted later to verify what was sold, for inventory purposes. The cards also serve as a way to verify that the totals match the money that was collected at the cash register. The cash register is a valuable tool that provides immense learning opportunities. Converse said that the students run the cash register, and that depending on their skill level, an adult might stand next to the student and just oversee the transactions. Then if the adult sees something that needs correcting, he or she will prompt the student, but the student is responsible for running the cash register and giving change. And we get a lot of 20s here so they have a lot of opportunities to make change, and they do a great job, she stressed. It may take them a little longer, but the people in this building the kids, the staff, everybody who comes up there have been nothing but our cheerleaders basically, very supportive and patient. All proceeds from the Tiger Den go back into the FLS program. One of the uses of these funds is the purchasing of Madison County Transit (MCT) bus passes which allows the students to learn the routes of the local transportation system. Students in the FLS program regularly ride MCT every other Friday to purchase supplies for the Tiger Den at Sams Club in addition to practicing other routes, Converse said. Students in EHS accounting classes have been assisting Converse with the Tiger Dens financials and are helping to build an actual accounting system that Converse can use to more efficiently run the Tiger Den. She said that their ultimate long-term goal is to accrue the funds necessary to offer paid positions to the FLS students who work in the Tiger Den. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ary Hermawan Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 Christmas is around the corner and Islam Defenders Front (FPI) members have clamped down on Santa hats at shopping malls in Surabaya, the countrys second largest city. That is not a picture of a merry Christmas. What is worse, however, is that the police were escorting the hard-liners when they entered the mall to prevent disruptions during what the FPI called, without a sense of irony, aksi damai (peaceful action). No matter how the FPI and the police explain it, the Surabaya incident is a serious blow to the nations dwindling pluralism. It is disturbing for three simple reasons. First, the Indonesian Ulema Councils fatwa banning Muslims from wearing Christmas paraphernalia is not legally binding and therefore should not be enforced; second, FPI militants, a fringe group (at least until recently), may not be the best people to disseminate the fatwa to the Christians; third, the police helping the FPI to carry out its antics sends the wrong message to minority groups who are wary of the groups growing clout. The incident, depressing as it is, is a clear reminder of two indubitable facts: that retrograde forces are gaining ground in the country and a fringe group, like the FPI, has become more mainstream and normalized. The Dec. 2 rally against Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama in Jakarta, the largest gathering of people the country has seen in history, is a testament to the popular support the hard-liners currently hold. It appears that as Islamic parties succumb to realpolitik for their survival, forcing them to act more secular and nationalistic and thus making them less appealing to their core constituents, hard-liner groups have filled the void and emerged as political demagogues that have exploited the inevitable rise of identity politics. That shift has huge ramifications. The police have often been accused of being too soft on the FPI, as the vigilante group allegedly has the backing of the powerful elites. That may still be the case, but the problem we have now is perhaps the police are unwilling to get tough on the FPI because they fear it would trigger backlashes from mainstream Muslims. If that is the case, we should be more alarmed. The last thing we need is a vigilante group empowered by both the elite and the masses. The question is: how did we get to this situation? The power hungry political elites played a role in empowering radicals to advance their short-term interests, but the elephant in the room is the failure of Indonesian progressives to keep the FPI marginal. Progressive Muslims are complacent. They should push the hard-liners further to the fringe. What they have been doing is the complete opposite: pushing mainstream Muslims, who traditionally have a moderate view of Islam, closer to the FPI and thus making the fringe group mainstream. Many Indonesian Muslim intellectuals are fixated on shaming and discrediting the hard-liners that they end up alienating most Muslims. This problem persists even after the two major anti-Ahok rallies in Jakarta. A renowned liberal Muslim intellectual, for instance, called those who joined the Nov. 4 rally brutal and stupid. A female Muslim academic disparages women who joined the Dec. 2 rally as mere child caretakers. Such comments disregarded the complexity of Indonesian Islam. The people joining the anti-Ahok rallies are not monolith and should not be put in a single basket of degrading stereotypes. If anything, those words would do nothing but widen the ideological divide, making it more difficult for other progressives to reach out to mainstream Muslims and change their views about Islam, democracy and the need for peaceful coexistence. On social media, most progressive Muslims also turned out to be as gullible as their retrograde rivals in sharing half-truths, fake news and hoaxes. That bad habit has deepened ideological polarization to the advantage of the radicals, who typically excel at exploiting conflicts and divisions. The other issue is the double standards exposed by many progressive Muslims when responding to the states actions against their ideological rivals. There is an alarming tendency, for example, among progressive Muslims to consider state repression as normal, as the only way to keep the FPI and its ilk under control. This kind of attitude will only bring sympathy to the hard-liners. Perhaps the greatest blunder progressive Muslims have made is their failure to go beyond identity politics or identity liberalism, to use the term coined by Columbia University historian Mark Lilla. For progressives, the only democratic goal worth pursuing is for minority groups Christians, Shias, Ahmadis and LGBTs to live in peace. It is as if Indonesias problems will magically go away if the FPI is gone. Consequently, they were mostly, and regrettably, silent when the political powers they supported persecuted the poor. They ignore the fact that the economically marginalized are mostly part of the Muslim majority. The hard-liners will find it easy to sectarianize the issue of economic equality, by claiming that progressives do not care about the majority, who then feel excluded from the progressives agenda. Indonesian progressives must learn from American liberals who spent months before Election Day in November shaming Donald Trumps supporters, the white working class who felt excluded from Hillary Clintons liberal identity campaign. The result is nightmarish: Trumps victory. So, wake up and smell the coffee before it is too late. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Cleve Kevin Robert Arguelles, University of the Philippines (The Conversation) Wed, December 21, 2016 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has confirmed that he killed three men during his time as mayor of Davao city, despite officials trying to downplay an earlier admission. Dutertes comments might yet hurt his popularity but that seems unlikely. Dutertes national crusade has resulted in an alarming daily average of 34 drug war-related murders. Despite this death toll and international condemnation, public satisfaction with his anti-drug war is at a significantly high rate of 78%. How can this be explained in a country that a mere 30 years ago brought down a dictator without resorting to violence? How could a nation that inspired the world with its peaceful People Power revolution now welcome a return to the state-sanctioned murders of the martial-law era of 1972-1981? Dutertes rise is an evolving lesson in the vulnerability of democracies in the face of a neglected public. The democratic institutions of the Philippines have little power when faced with a populist president determined to channel frustrations into immediate actions. Unfulfilled promise In 1986, millions of Filipinos ended Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship through sustained civil resistance against government violence and electoral fraud. This culminated in a massive peaceful protest in the capital along Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA). The event is now popularly known as the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. Marcos was ousted after 21 years in power. He had been democratically elected as president in 1965, but essentially ruled as a dictator from 1972 to 1986. To the disappointment of many, an elite-dominated democracy replaced Marcos authoritarian rule. From 1987, a small number of families started to restore their control of the government and rotate the seats of power among themselves. They included the Marcos family, who returned from exile in 1991 and were welcomed by their allies. In the public imagination, the promises of the People Power Revolution went beyond restoring democratic institutions. The narrative went like this: a return to democracy would secure prosperity and security for everyone. The overall framework and various social justice provisions of the 1987 Philippine Constitution clearly reflect this. But three decades later, the post-EDSA pact is far from being fulfilled. A neglected public The post-EDSA leadership has failed to solve many of the problems that concern Filipinos. Despite promising national growth rates, the gains appear to have largely benefited the rich. More than 26 million Filipinos remain impoverished. And unemployment rates are said to be the worst in Asia. This widening gap between rich and poor, recurrent domestic economic crises, epidemic levels of corruption and failed attempts to significantly reduce criminality, have left the public deeply frustrated. Surveys in recent decades have consistently shown that these are the most urgent national concerns for many Filipinos. The 1986 revolution, once a symbol of the promise of democracy and prosperity, is now synonymous in the Filipino popular imagination with the dysfunctional transport system in Metro Manila. National commemorations of the EDSA consensus have become officially important, but in the public imagination they tell the tale of how promises are meant to be broken. Democracys discontent Amid political and economic exclusion and malaise came Duterte. He offered empathy to the economic strugglers and protection from the violence of criminals and politicians. His was a twin campaign narrative of care and power. His supporters often highlighted how they felt that Duterte truly cared for them. And he was not just all talk. Duterte is seen as a man of action: decisive and quick. His authenticity is manifest in his everyday language coupled with humour that comes from the streets. Duterte articulated the publics deep-seated feelings of precariousness and powerlessness using rhetoric they could relate to. His campaign rallies, which many proclaimed as a marvel to behold, showed the rapport between the candidate and his supporters. In this Friday, Dec. 16, photo, Filipino supporters cheer as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte arrives to meet the Filipino community in Singapore. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File) (AP/Wong Maye-E) Many felt that Duterte rose from the ranks of ordinary citizens despite coming from a traditional political family and holding various political offices for 30 years. This is especially evident in his overwhelming support in the southern Philippines, as the first president from a region long neglected by the capital. How did it come to this? When democracy doesnt deliver, its legitimacy becomes difficult to defend. And when successive elite-dominated governments have used democracy for their own ends, the balance tilts towards authoritarianism. Under post-EDSA democracy the richest families amassed more wealth than ever while poverty, hunger, homelessness, and crime continued to afflict ordinary Filipinos. Its not difficult to imagine why some are nostalgic for the authoritarian past. Although national statistics show otherwise, people felt those were the countrys golden years. Extrajudicial killings are a regular feature of post-EDSA governments as they were of the martial law years. Examples include the 1987 Mendiola massacre, 2004 Hacienda Luisita massacre and 2009 Maguindanao massacre, to name a few. Perpetrators have not been brought to justice. Even before Duterte, the Philippines was known as the country with the worst state of impunity. Government critics were the usual victims until Duterte took aim at alleged drug dealers and users. In my fieldwork in a massive poor urban community in Quezon City, residents have welcomed Dutertes war on drugs. They now feel more secure in what they call their drug-infested community even though drug use has substantially declined compared to previous decades, according to one village official. Residents argue that their perceptions of community security are just as important as the numbers in government records. For people to feel safe in a city where 92% of villages face drug-related crimes and in a nation where crimes against persons and property are rising is no easy thing. When Dutertes campaign translates to perceived everyday safety, it is no wonder that drug-war murders have not met considerable resistance. Anyone with experience of the countrys institutions of justice knows how elusive criminal justice is. Around 80% of drug cases end up being dismissed and it may take a decade to achieve a conviction. There are many reasons for this, but Dutertes narrative that drug lords are so powerful that they can influence even the judiciary is not far-fetched. Most people do not trust the judiciary and many are convinced that power and money are needed to claim justice. Previous administrations also made a mockery out of the national justice system; even convicted corrupt politicians enjoy their freedom while innocents languish in jail. A corruption whistleblower, Jun Lozada, was recently convicted, while ex-president Gloria Arroyo was acquitted and set free. The legislature has been used to turn issues of justice into a public circus, such as in the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Corona and the hearings on allegations of graft and corruption against former vice president Jejomar Binay. Is it surprising then that Dutartes supporters find calls to follow the rule of law and due process hypocritical? When institutions do not work, it becomes unreasonable to rely on them. Dutertes narrative plays on the temptations for a disgruntled public to claim swift justice. In the context of his rise to power, its no surprise that calls to respect human rights or the rule of law fall on deaf ears. The election of Duterte may be seen as the nadir, but possibly also a turning point, in the long-standing democratic deficit in Asias oldest democracy. His rejection of the rule of law and liberal democracy represents a rupture in the post-EDSA consensus. Its not a stretch to say that the Philippines elite democracy had it coming. The failure to deliver on the promises of the People Power revolution made the rise of Duterte politically possible. Cleve Kevin Robert Arguelles, Instructor of Political Science, University of the Philippines This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, December 20 2016 The government decided on Monday to maintain national exams, following a call made by President Joko Jokowi Widodo in a limited Cabinet meeting that addressed the controversial issue for the second time this month. Education and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy previously proposed to end the national exams at all educational levels, putting forward evidence that students and the state budget have been burdened by them. He sought for the elimination of the exams after the government earlier gave up its role to determine who could graduate, a role that had caused distress among students and teachers. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, December 20 2016 Jakarta gubernatorial election candidate Anies Baswedan has said support from women activists has raised his chances of winning the upcoming election. Weve received support from women activists, Anies said as quoted by Antara on the sidelines of the declaration of Bidadari Anies-Sandi, an umbrella group for female supporters of Anies and his running mate Sandiaga Uno, in Cilandak Barat, South Jakarta, on Monday. Anies called on Bidadari Anies-Sandi to garner support from their family members and communities ahead of election day on Feb. 15. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Devina Heriyanto (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 A country is only as good as what is happening inside. The Jakarta Post reflects on 2016 and finds a year riddled with intolerance and oppression of minorities. This year also includes the government, reaffirming the countrys sovereignty through military and drug policies, along with tax amnesty. Here are some major things that happened this year: January The nation was shocked by a murder case, which began at an upscale restaurant in Central Jakarta. The murder investigation would spiral out of control in the following months through social media and live-broadcast trials. The following week, Jakarta was bombed by Islamic militants - the first assault after years of peace in the capital. Technology, Research and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir stated that members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community should be banned from university campuses. February In a move to nurture investment, the Indonesian government launched its 10th economic policy package containing the revised negative investment list (DNI). As many as 35 sectors are now open for foreign business and 20 have closed. The coffee murder case continues, as police scrutinize the WhatsApp conversation between Mirna, the victim, and alleged murderer Jessica. Sentiments against LGBT increase as Indonesian psychiatrists label LGBT as a mental disorder. March A powerful, shallow earthquake hit off the southwestern coast of Sumatra on March 2, triggering a tsunami warning that sent islanders rushing to high ground. Indonesian illegal fishing task force was involved in a maritime incident with China in the Natuna Sea, increasing diplomatic tension between the two countries. The countrys education system was brought under question after a study found that Indonesias literacy rate ranks second lowest among the 61 countries surveyed. April Indonesias war on drugs continues as Singaporean citizen Mohammad Noh Bin Abdul Salam was arrested for bringing drugs to Bali for his 33rd birthday party. Suspicion arose that he was part of a drug ring that aimed to test the security at the Bali airport. In international politics, Indonesia rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus call for official bilateral relations, an affirmation of the countrys support for an independent Palestine. The Jakarta Post launched a new website on April 1, with several new features including longform articles. Read our first story, MRT Jakarta: Digging the city. A look at The Jakarta Post's old website.(JP/File) May Ten Indonesian sailors previously held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf group in the southern Philippines were released on May 1, amid secrecy on the condition of the release. Find the exclusive details behind the release at: Who released the sailors? The untold story behind the hostage rescue. Trouble once again hits the paradise island; Bali police shoot dead French trouble-maker for resisting arrest and attacking police officers with a knife. Another problem between Bali police and foreign tourists occurred in August, in which a British-Australian couple was suspected of involvement in the murder of a policeman. Conversations about sexual violence in the country explode as the case of gang rape and murder of a junior high school girl in a remote village in Bengkulu sparked rage on social media. Near the capital, a sadistic homicide and gang rape also raised concerns regarding womens safety. Sexual violence happens even in the countrys education institutions, as revealed in the Posts special report sexually harassed and abused on campus. June Following a maritime incident in March and again in June, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo visited Natuna and held a limited Cabinet meeting on a warship, sending a strong message about Indonesias undisputed sovereignty over the sea. National attention turned to the countrys healthcare system as the existence of a fake vaccine ring was revealed in Jakarta, Banten and West Java. Good news from Turtle Bay: Three Indonesian diplomats have been elected to head committees at the United Nations General Assembly, giving the country the highest number of representatives in the world body. July After two years, President Jokowi finally shook up his rather shaky Cabinet in a reshuffle. Controversy arose regarding newly appointed Energy Minister Archandra Tahars dual citizenship, leading to his discharge just two weeks into office. Buddhist temples in Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra, were burned down and looted in a riot after a woman of Chinese descent complained about a mosques call to prayer volume. Haunted by the trauma of anti-Chinese rioting in 1998, a number of residents fled their homes for Malaysia and Singapore. National University of Singapore (NUS) was heavily criticized as news reports revealed a series of indecent sexual activities forced upon the freshmen during an orientation camp. August A public debate on early marriage arose when the son of prominent ustad (Islamic teacher) Arifin Ilham, 17-year-old Muhammad Alvin Faiz, married Larissa Chou, 20, on Aug. 6. The marriage quickly became viral on social media, raising question on the prevalence of child marriages in Indonesia. Racial attack at a Transjakarta bus stop increased questions about the countrys hidden anti-Chinese sentiment. Some Constitutional Court (MK) justices signaled their support for criminalizing casual sex in the country. September During the first bilateral visit after taking office in late June, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said he would not interfere if Indonesia decided to execute its citizen Mary-Jane Veloso. Both Indonesia and Philippines war on drugs have been under international spotlight for human rights abuse. Indonesias tax amnesty could be compromised as Singaporean banks refuse to cooperate. On local news, 20 people were taken to the hospital for injuries sustained in a boat explosion in Bali. October Jakartas governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama was under attack for alleged blasphemy, in a debacle that left some Indonesian Muslims offended by Ahoks remarks. Again, a Singaporean was caught carrying drugs into Bali. The Constitutional Court revoked a policy that prevented Indonesians marrying foreigners without a prenuptial agreement to purchase property. Also, a heartwarming story of friendship between Indonesian and Japanese people made international news. November Hundreds of thousands of Islamic hardliners marched to the capital to demand Ahoks immediate arrest for the defamation case. The demonstration took a chaotic turn in the evening after Jokowis no show. Not more than two weeks later, Ahok was named a suspect in a blasphemy case. Read our commentary: Questioning our pride as a democratic, tolerant and peaceful nation and Ahoks case: Jokowi steps back, but moves three steps forward. December Indonesia began the month with more anti-Ahok action, this time in the form of mass prayers in the National Monument (Monas) area. Just before the rally, several retired generals and activists were arrested in a treason allegation. A popular bread brand Sari Roti was under fire after denying involvement in the rally. Minorities under attack: a Christian university was coerced into taking down advertising billboards depicting a student wearing a hijab and a Christmas service in Bandung was canceled due to protest. The National Police found a high-explosive plan to attack the State Palace, believed to be masterminded by Islamic State-related convict involved in the Sarinah attack in January. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 Despite their potential to stoke growth, major economic policies, including the tax amnesty and aggressive infrastructure spending, have contributed to reducing bank liquidity, an economist says. Credit-rating agency Pemeringkat Efek Indonesia (Pefindo) economist Ahmad Mikail said that taxpayers participating in the ongoing tax amnesty would withdraw money from their bank accounts to pay the penalties. As a result, the growth of third-party funds in October stood at only 6.5 percent year-on-year (yoy) compared to 9 percent yoy in the same period last year. "The money will no doubt return to circulation, but not until next year," Mikail said on Tuesday. (Read also: Government to play safe with 2017 state budget) Aggressive infrastructure spending, meanwhile, has forced the government to issue more bonds. As more sovereign bonds are available on the market, many investors have chosen to withdraw their money and invest in them. "The bonds offer a higher return compared to bank deposits," he said. Mikail added that low bank liquidity would impede loan disbursement. In the end, it might lower household consumption, which contributes the most to gross domestic product. In its 2017 budget, the government expects the economy to grow 5.1 percent, lower than its initial target of 5.3 percent. The country is gradually recovering from a six-year low economic growth rate of 4.79 percent last year, with an earlier expectation of boosting growth to 5.3 percent in the 2016 state budget. However, after two budget cuts, the government has settled for between a 5 and 5.1 percent growth target for this year as a result of reduced government spending that could hinder its multiplier effect on the overall economy. (hwa) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 As prosecutors read out their statement that rejected Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnamas refutation, hundreds of supporters of the blasphemy defendant staged a demonstration outside the North Jakarta District Court on Tuesday, asking the judges to release the beleaguered incumbent Jakarta gubernatorial candidate. It was the first time since his allegedly blasphemous remarks started to trouble him two months ago that a large number of demonstrators openly voiced support for the capitals first Chinese-Indonesian governor. Wearing the iconic blue and red plaid shirts, the protesters carried signs that read, We are Muslims who forgive Ahok and Release Ahok. Ill tell you what Ahok has done to Islam. He sent mosque keepers to go on the umrah and built mosques. He is not an enemy of Islam, a man in a white cap said through a loudspeaker to supporters who responded with a thunderous applause. The scene at the old Central Jakarta District Court building on Jl. Gajah Mada stood in contrast to Ahoks first trial hearing a week before. At that time, no Ahok supporters were present. Instead, hundreds of protesters swarmed the street to demand that Ahok be jailed immediately. At least three large rallies with similar demands were staged in Jakarta, as well as in other cities, shaking the countrys political stability. With the anti-Ahok protestors also present on Tuesday, the two groups were separated by dozens of police officers and a police Barracuda vehicle. We were trying to display support for Ahok and send a message to the judges and other people that there are Muslims who support tolerance and a fair trial, Yayong Waryono of the Bara-Badja (Volunteer Front for Basuki and Djarot) told The Jakarta Post. The abbreviation refers to Ahok and his running mate Djarot Saiful Hidayat. Yayong said they decided to stage a rally because they were concerned with the hundreds of anti-Ahok protestors trying to put pressure on the panel of judges. A recent survey carried out by Jakarta-based pollster Poltracking Indonesia found that most Ahok supporters in Jakarta were from the middle class group, which seemed to make up most of the demonstrators. Inside the court building, prosecutors asked the judges to ignore the refutation statement emotionally presented by Ahok last week. Lead prosecutor Mukartono said the refutation by Ahok and his legal team was baseless and urged the judges, presided over by Dwiarso Budi Santiarto, to proceed with the trial. In his refutation, Ahok said as evidence of his great respect for Islam, he had funded many mosque keepers to go on the umrah, therefore leaving him with no reason to commit blasphemy against the religion. But Mukartono brushed off the claim. The source of the funds was from the Jakarta regional budget and it was normal for a regional leader to do such a thing, he said. Prosecutors also questioned a claim conveyed by Ahoks legal team in the previous hearing that it was a trial by mob. Prosecutors claimed that despite the blasphemy allegation that stirred public controversy, it was the crime that brought Ahok to court, not the public pressure. The legal process had been made under the proper procedures and none of it was affected by public pressure, Mukartono said. The trial has been adjourned until Dec. 27, when the panel of judges are scheduled to issue an interim decision on whether to accept the refutation statement and terminate the trial, in which Ahok would be cleared of the blasphemy charge. Ahok has been indicted on Article 156 section (a) of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on blasphemy, which carries a maximum of five years imprisonment, for his controversial remarks that included a reference to a Quranic verse when he made a visit to Thousand Islands regency in September. The Jakarta Police said they deployed 2,986 officers to secure the area surrounding the court building. The police have repeatedly voiced concerns over possible security issues during the trial hearings and asked the Supreme Court to consider relocating the trial as the current venue is located in the heart of Jakarta where many government institutions and major businesses operate. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 Bank Indonesia (BI) will cease operations the day after Christmas following the government's announcement that Dec. 26 will be a collective leave day. The central bank will not hold any BI Real Time Gross Settlement (BI-RTGS), BI Scripless Securities Settlement System (BI-SSS), national clearing system, cash services and banking rupiah and foreign exchange (forex) monetary operation transactions on Dec. 26, according to an official letter circulated on Wednesday. BI will resume business from Dec. 27 to Dec. 31 to facilitate the government's year-end activities as well as the tax amnesty redemption payments. The second phase of the tax amnesty will conclude on that day, which will also serve as the deadline for fund repatriation from the first and second stages. On Dec. 31, BI will also extend the period of RTGS transactions for state revenue transfers from perception banks, which receive penalty fee payments from tax amnesty participants, to the government's account at the central bank, by 30 minutes. The service normally ends at 4:30 p.m. on regular days. (hwa) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Hasyim Widhiarto (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) chief Penny Kusumastuti Lukito says her institution will need greater authority to strengthen its role in curbing the circulation of bogus drugs and adulterated food in the country. Penny, who was appointed earlier this year by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in the wake of fake vaccine scandals that sparked nationwide outrage, said she expected to see her institution, for example, gain the authority to punish perpetrators. "We want to optimize and revitalize our existing supervisory function so that any irregularities in the field can be detected earlier. If sufficient evidence is found, we should be able to impose punishments to create a deterrent effect," she said on Tuesday. Penny also said that BPOM was also attempting to extend its reach to the regional level by opening local branches. Currently, the agencys offices are only located in provincial capitals. "In a bid to provide better education to the public to identify counterfeit food or drugs, we want to intensify our presence in all levels of society," she said. Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) chairman Tulus Abadi previously said that BPOM needed to pay close attention to the circulation of food containing dangerous materials, including those sold on the street to children. (fac/hwa) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 The West Jakarta District Court sentenced Naman Sanip, a 52-year-old resident from Kembangan, West Jakarta, on Wednesday to two months in jail and four months of probation for his involvement in disrupting Jakarta deputy governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat's campaign. [...] Considering that the defendant deliberately disrupted the campaign so that the plaintiff [Djarot] failed to deliver his vision and mission, the court sentenced the defendant to two months in jail," said presiding judge Masrizal in a hearing on Wednesday. The court also ordered the porridge vendor to pay Rp 5,000 (40 US cents) in fines. Naman was charged with violating Article 187 of the 2016 Regional Elections Law on disturbing campaign activity. Following the sentence, Naman said he would take three days to consider responses he would make against the verdict as he insisted he was innocent. "I was protesting Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama. I did not mean to disrupt Djarot's campaign," Naman said. As previously reported, the campaign disturbance incident took place during Djarot's campaign visit in Kembangan, West Jakarta, on Nov. 9. The Ahok-Djarot pair has faced numerous disturbances on their campaign trail in several places across Jakarta after the governor was named a suspect in a blasphemy case on Nov. 16. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Corry Elyda and Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21 2016 Jakarta is gearing up for festive Christmas and New Years Eve celebrations this year amid concerns over rising intolerance in the country. Acting Jakarta Governor Sumarsono said during a coordination meeting with the Jakarta Police, the Jakarta Military Command and other relevant agencies on Tuesday that his subordinates were ready to assist police and military officers in safeguarding churches and other public areas during the celebrations. The Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) and the Transportation Agency would deploy their personnel to help the police to maintain security during Christmas and New Years Eve, Sumarsono said. The personnel of Satpol PP, especially, are not allowed to take leave during the upcoming holidays, except Christians during Christmas, he said. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21 2016 Tourists visiting the Indonesian capital can conveniently hit up all the hottest destinations while comfortably seated in a double-decker city tour bus provided by the government. However, despite the world class service being free of charge, it is almost unknown to foreign visitors. Arya Puryadika, 25, has been a bus attendant since the service began operating in 2014. He said he frequently communicates with the passengers, noting that many are actually Jakarta residents. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 The Law and Human Rights Ministry has admitted that the government is still struggling to uphold human rights principles, especially in providing safety for all citizens. [We] still need to be aware of human rights when carrying out arrests to enforce the law or when dealing with social conflict, the ministrys secretary-general, Bambang Rantam Sariwanto, told a seminar on Wednesday. Bambang was reading out remarks from Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, who could not attend the gathering arranged by his office. In his remarks, Yasonna mentioned several initiatives that the government was preparing in order to help serve civilians in a more humanistic manner. One such initiative is amending the Criminal Code (KUHP) to include strict regulations on law enforcement. The amendment is expected to enshrine stricter technical regulations that law enforcement personnel must follow before arresting civilians, Bambang said. The Law and Human Rights Ministry saw an increasing number of arrests of civilians from 2012 to 2015. The number of arrests reached more than 7,000 in 2015. The ministry has yet to provide the data for 2016. (dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 Press Council chairman Yosep Stanley Adi Prasetyo has encouraged state institutions to provide quality data to comprehensively examine the performance of the government in protecting and upholding human rights in the country. Yosep said the lack of quality data from state institutions in charge of human rights-driven public services had led to questionable reports presented by the government in international forums. [Related] state institutions mostly build their data through a quantity-based approach instead of a quality-based one, he told a seminar in Jakarta on Wednesday. The Law and Human Rights Ministry, the National Police, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the Indonesian Ombudsman and the Witness and Victims Protection Agency (LPSK) have failed to capture the real situation in society by focusing on mere numbers, he added. The former Komnas HAM commissioner referred to a lack of appropriate information obtained by state institutions related to ongoing discrimination against marginalized groups in the country, including, among others, minority faith groups, people with disabilities, children and women and the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community. The government needs to consult findings by human rights groups as well as the media to get comprehensive data, Stanley emphasized. (dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 Businessman-cum-politician Oesman Sapta Odang is set to take over the leadership of the Hanura Party from Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto, as one of the smallest parties in the ruling coalition kicks off its extraordinary national congress on Wednesday evening. Oesman, currently a Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR) deputy speaker, is expected to secure unanimous support for his sole nomination from congress participants, a number of Hanura senior officials said. We have agreed on his sole nomination. The agreement is the result of a long discussion with Pak Wiranto, Hanura executive Dossy Iskandar said Wednesday. (Read also: 'Wiranto's appointment bolsters impunity for human rights violators': rights groups) The leadership election, held a few months after Wirantos appointment as a Cabinet member, will take place during an extraordinary national congress on Wednesday evening. President Joko Jokowi Widodo is slated to attend the events opening ceremony. Dossy said hope was high that Hanura would improve under the leadership of Oesman, who is described by senior party members as the only candidate who has both the leadership and financial capabilities to lead Hanura. In the 2009 legislative election, Hanura secured 16 of the 560 House of Representatives seats, making it the smallest party faction among the Houses 10 factions. (hwa) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 The Directorate General of Taxation will intensify its investigation on the suspected unpaid taxes by tech behemoth Google, claiming that the companys tax settlement offer was too small. The government said that it would continue investigating Google as it has gathered preliminary evidence indicating that the firm has allegedly committed a criminal act. Next year, it is not going to be about a tax settlement anymore, Muhammad Haniv, the head of the Taxation Directorate Generals Jakarta branch, who is also the main investigator in the case, said as reported by kompas.com on Tuesday. We have to accelerate the process. We want Google to disclose its financial reports and the tax office will calculate the tax owed, he said. He said the consequence of the tax offices findings would be that Google had to pay taxes owed plus a 150 percent penalty. (win) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi concluded on Tuesday her visit to Bangladesh to seek lasting solutions for the plight of the Muslim Rohingya minority in Myanmar, which has long been a source of tension between Naypyidaw and Dhaka. Retno engaged her Bangladeshi counterpart AH Mahmood Ali in bilateral talks, but also raised concerns about the tumult in Myanmars Rakhine state, which has sparked tens of thousands of Rohingya to flee across the borders into Bangladesh. Indonesian-Bangladeshi cooperation goes beyond bilateral interests. It is also an important component in solving the refugee problem in the region, she said in a press statement after the meeting on Tuesday. She reiterated the importance of Myanmar and Bangladesh maintaining good ties despite the current influx of refugees, as it would support existing efforts to manage the Bangladesh-Myanmar frontier. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with regional foreign ministers to tackle growing international criticism of her armys forceful treatment of the countrys Rohingya minority, which some critics say constitutes crimes against humanity. Human rights groups have accused the Myanmar military of perpetrating mass murder, looting and rape against the Rohingya in Rakhine in a counterinsurgency operation following coordinated attacks on border police outposts that killed nine officers. The Rohingya are not considered citizens by Myanmar law, and have also been turned away by ethnically similar Bangladesh. After the bilateral meeting in Dhaka, both foreign ministers were briefed by the UN refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization on Migration (IOM). The agencies presented the challenges in addressing the influx of Rohingya, which had resulted in the overcapacity of refugee camps. Official data show there has been an increase of 10,000 refugees since the Oct. 9 attacks on border posts near the Rakhine border. Currently there are an estimated 32,000 Muslim refugees from Myanmar registered between the two camps in Bangladesh, in addition to another 200,000 unregistered refugees residing at the border. Concerns over the far-reaching effects of the turmoil in Rakhine have sparked a regional response, as ASEAN looks to prevent a repeat of the 2015 Rohingya refugee crisis that saw thousands of Rohingya become victims of human trafficking in their efforts to flee the country. Earlier on Monday, ASEAN foreign ministers convened in Yangon to discuss openly about the situation in Rakhine at the invitation of Suu Kyi. During talks with the Nobel laureate before departure to Dhaka, Retno urged stronger communications between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Suu Kyi reciprocated by offering to send a special envoy to Bangladesh, which was passed on to Mahmood Ali and was apparently well-received. After the briefing, both ministers visited two refugee camps in Ukhiya of Coxs Bazar, a border town almost 400 kilometers from the capital. They spent most of their time at a facility for unregistered refugees, where most of the recent inbound Rohingya from Myanmar have taken shelter, Bangladeshs Daily Star reports. Bangladeshi State Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohammed Shahriar Alam, local lawmaker Abdur Rahman Bodi, Indonesian Ambassador Iwan Wiranataatmadja and Secretary General of the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry Md. Shahidul Haque also made the visit. Accompanied by Mahmood Ali, Retno spoke with the Rohingya at the camps in Kutupalong. One can capture the complexity of the problem in Rakhine state from listening to the refugees stories. However, their living conditions remain meager regardless of the reasons they came to Kutupalong, Retno said during the visit. So as fellow humans we have to work harder to help them. Retno also asserted that the resolution of the refugee crisis must be tackled in the country of origin. To this end, she urged the regions leaders and other concerned stakeholders to support whatever efforts the Myanmar government was taking to ensure inclusive development in Rakhine. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi sees untapped potential in trade and investment with Bangladesh after a bilateral meeting with the South Asian nations foreign minister, AH Mahmood Ali, in Dhaka, on Tuesday. Retno arrived in Dhaka late on Monday following an informal meeting with fellow ASEAN foreign ministers to discuss the dire security situation in Myanmar, which has caused more than 20,000 people from the minority Rohingya Muslim community residing in Rakhine state to flee the country toward Bangladesh. Acknowledging that strong bonds with Bangladesh would be an important factor in containing a refugee crisis in the region, the minister discussed the necessary steps to take in assisting the beleaguered Rohingya, who have taken refuge along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border out of fear of persecution in Rakhine. She also sought to enhance economic cooperation with the South Asian partner. Both foreign ministers engaged in talks to increase bilateral trade and investment, with two-way trade last year amounting to a mere US$1.4 billion. "With a combined market of more than 400 million people, there are still ample opportunities in the economic sector to explore," Retno said in a press statement after the meeting. "For this reason, we must be more aggressive in promoting our economic diplomacy in Bangladesh." As the current chair of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) for 20162017, Retno said that Indonesia also conveyed its appreciation to Bangladesh for its continued support in enhancing cooperation in the Indian Ocean. (dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 In a move that reflects the growing influence of conservative groups in the country, National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian has said he will send a liaison officer to the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) to ensure that its fatwas do not disrupt religious harmony. The police chief is currently under public pressure to keep hard-line groups under control following reports that some of them have been visiting business establishments to inform them about a recent MUI fatwa banning Muslims from wearing Christmas paraphernalia. In Surabaya, East Java, the local police decided to escort members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) when they visited local malls to publicize the MUIs edict. The police said the move was necessary to prevent possible public disturbances. The move, however, has drawn strong rebuke from the public, who accused the police of bowing down to the MUI and the FPI. Speaking at the office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister on Tuesday, Tito said the MUI should first communicate with the force before issuing any edict that had the potential to make a massive impact on public order. Dont issue an edict before coordinating with us. [The National Police] has the authority to enforce laws. We will see whether an edict is positive or not and if it is, we will assist to publicize it, he said. He argued that the MUI edict on Christmas attributes was confusing and could be abused by irresponsible parties. If confusing edicts circulate in society, there will be [irresponsible] people who will carry out actions [based on the edicts]. People wearing Santa Claus clothing can be affected too, Tito said. MUI chairman Maruf Amin denied that the councils fatwa had caused commotion in society. He argued that the council had received reports about Muslims being forced to wear Christmas paraphernalia and that the fatwa was meant to protect religious harmony. Maruf, who visited Titos residence in South Jakarta on Tuesday night to discuss the edict, said the MUI and the police had reached an agreement that the publicity for the edict would be carried out by the MUI chapters at the local level and by the local police. We cannot allow any crackdown to be carried out by certain groups. [They] have nothing to do with the MUI edict because only the police can do it [enforce law], Maruf said, adding that mass organizations that want to conduct publicity should do it peacefully without intimidation. The police also asserted that members of mass organizations are not law enforcers who could conduct raids. Tito made it clear that the National Police would punish any group or person who break the law. On Monday evening, the Central Java Police reportedly arrested five members of a local organization called the Surakarta Islamic Paramilitary Troops (LUIS) for allegedly raiding and vandalizing the Social Kitchen restaurant in Surakarta. The men allegedly stormed into the restaurant and beat some staff members and customers, injuring nine people in the attack. However, LUIS spokesperson Endro Sudarsono, one of those arrested, claimed that they had not intended to commit violence as they only wanted to meet with the restaurant management because the latter was selling alcohol and allegedly violating regulations about opening hours. Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil, in collaboration with local police, has established a task force to ensure tolerance between people of different religions in the city amid concerns that some Muslim conservatives had disrupted the Christmas celebrations of Christian groups in recent weeks. Ganug Nugroho Adi and Arya Dipa contributed to this story from Surakarta and Bandung. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 The governments decision to increase house prices for foreign buyers has been met with positively by Indonesian real estate business players, who reason that it will help to protect the domestic property market. If the government keeps the price low for foreign buyers, Indonesians will be forced to bear the high price jump. Therefore, I think this is a right decision, Association of Housing Development in Indonesia (Apersi) chairman Eddy Ganefo said on Tuesday as reported by Kontan. He explained that the higher purchasing power of foreigners might hurt the domestic industry. The price increase is stipulated in a regulation issued by the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry. The minimum house price set for foreigners in Yogyakarta and Bali now stands at Rp 5 billion (US$371,112) per unit, up from Rp 3 billion under a previous regulation. In West Nusa Tenggara and North Sumatra, the minimum price also jumped to Rp 3 billion from Rp 2 billion. Indonesian Real Estate Association (REI) chairman Eddy Hussy said he was optimistic that the changes in price would not affect demand from foreigners to purchase houses. (win/dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 After Ramadhan and Idul Fitri in the middle of the year, domestic consumption has kept slowing as middle-class consumers have hit the brakes on spending, a researcher says. Indonesia Retailers Association (Aprindo) expert staff member Yongky Surya Susilo said that normally consumer goods consumption grew 10 percent year-on-year (yoy). However, after August it kept decreasing until it dipped below 6 percent yoy in October. "Mainly because the middle class do not shop as often or as much as before," Yongky said at a Center of Reform on Economics (CORE) Indonesia media briefing in Jakarta on Tuesday. He said producers were also less expansive and had, among other things, held back on adding more distribution channels and launching new products. "I think most companies have used their money for the tax amnesty and delay expansion," Yongky said. Despite the upcoming Christmas-New Year festive season, Yongky was pessimistic, citing recent unstable political and security conditions. He predicted consumption growth in December to be no more than 8 percent yoy. "People will be less inclined to go to a mall, and those who can go abroad for the Christmas holiday, both of which will reduce domestic spending," he said. (evi) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jambi Wed, December 21 2016 Jambi authorities must end illegal gold mining activities in the province as they lead to not only environmental damage but also human casualties, an environmentalist said on Tuesday. Illegal mines are rampant in most regencies in Jambi, but according to reports the largest ones are in Merangin, Sarolangun Bungo, Tebo and Kerinci regencies, as well as along the banks of big rivers in the province, Rudi Syaf from the Indonesian Conservation Community (KKI) Warsi said. Illegal mining has killed at least 22 people this year because of the resultant landslides, he said. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Wed, December 21 2016 The Sunday morning crash of a Hercules C-130 A-1334 transport aircraft while on its way from Timika to Wamena in Papua has shocked and worried the public as it was the sixth accident involving aircraft belonging to the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police this year. Six aviation accidents in a year are too many for a country to bear. The relevant authorities and experts have issued statements commenting on the Hercules accident. Air Force deputy chief of staff Vice Air Marshal Hadiyan Sumintaatmadja has insisted that the plane was in prime condition prior to the flight and had been properly maintained, citing regular maintenance of the aircraft for every 50 flying hours. He blamed bad weather for causing the plane to hit Mount Pugima in the remote Papuan highlands. In addition to bad weather, Wamena Airport chief Rasbuhani Umar suggested that the accident would not have happened if the Hercules pilot had not decided to continue the journey given the severely low visibility at the airport of only 2 kilometers. He cited a similar aircraft approaching Wamena Airport from Sentani Airport in Jayapura, which decided to return to Sentani upon learning of the limited visibility of the runway. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Moses Ompusunggu and Lita Aruperes (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Manado Wed, December 21, 2016 Jakarta is continuing its strong handed approach to Papua and West Papua, the countrys easternmost provinces torn between poverty and violence, despite calls to soften its stance in handling the restive region. In Manado, North Sulawesi, 85 protesters have been detained by the local police for displaying the morning star flag the symbol of West Papuan independence in front of the North Sulawesi governors office in the city. The rallies were organized by the National Committee on West Papua (KNPB), an organization advocating the right to self-determination for the people of the two provinces. KNPB chairman Hiskia Mogea criticized the polices move, saying that it did not comply with the procedures. The protesters had not yet started the rally when the police arrived to arrest them, Hiskia said on Tuesday. The group said at least 528 protesters were arrested by the police following massive demonstrations held in various cities across the country on Monday to commemorate the 1961 military operation to seize what was then known as West Papua from the Dutch. One of the detained protesters, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said the detainees had been mistreated in custody, claiming that the police had only served them once since the arrests took place on Monday. In Jakarta, an advocacy group is considering taking legal action against the government for blocking a web portal containing information about human rights violations in Papua. The Legal Aid Institute for the Press (LBH Pers) is considering taking legal action against President Joko Jokowi Widodos administration for the block put on suarapapua.com, a prominent Papua-based online news outlet deemed to contain negative content according to countrys information law, which many consider to be draconian. LBH Pers head of research and network development Asep Komarudin said the institute, which is suarapapua.com legal representative, may either file a civil lawsuit to challenge the Communications and Information Ministrys censorship, or file a report with the police accusing the ministry of violating freedom of the press guarantees in Article 18, point 1 of the 1999 Press Law. The ministry provided no clear reason for blocking the website, but we believe the site was blocked because it stood as a local news source that routinely reported on human rights violations in the region, Asep told The Jakarta Post. It was the voice of the voiceless [in Papua]. The blocking of the website came amid a series of government crackdowns on websites it deemed as sources of sectarian sentiment, known in Indonesia as SARA, amid rising political tension related to the blasphemy allegations against non-active Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama. Following the report by suarapapua.com, LBH Pers then sent a letter to the ministry to seek information about its rationale for blocking the news outlet. In response to the complaint by LBH Pers, the ministry said in a letter dated Nov. 21 and signed by the ministrys director general for information applications, Semuel Pangerapan, that suarapapua.com was blocked upon request by a ministry/government institution authorized to determine whether a website has violated the law. It did not explain further. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 President Joko Jokowi Widodo has applauded the National Polices foiling of a bombing plot targeting law enforcers and civilians in South Tangerang, Banten, on Wednesday. I have received the information from the National Police chief. Once again, I would like to express high appreciation to the police, who anticipated and prevented unwanted things from happening, the President said in a statement. The President urged the public to remain vigilant and actively participate in any attempt to eradicate terrorism. I think we have to be grateful and [at the same time] encourage the public to remain vigilant. When coming across something suspicious, please immediately make a report to police officers, he said. (Read also: Terrorists targeting police in foiled Banten terror plot) On Wednesday morning, the National Polices counterterrorism squad, Densus 88, raided a rented house in Babakan subdistrict, Setu district, South Tangerang, during which they shot dead three alleged terrorists. Another terror suspect was arrested in a separate place. The police said the group was planning to attack a police post and stab on-duty personnel. The stabbing scenario was meant to be staged to attract a crowd and create more casualties. After people gathered at the crime scene, another suspect would come to detonate a bomb. Their targets were police personnel guarding the crime scene, National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Rikwanto said. (fac/hwa) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 The National Police's counterterrorism squad Densus 88 arrested on Wednesday a suspected terrorist in Payakumbuh, West Sumatra, who was allegedly a part of a terrorist network based in the Central Java city of Surakarta. The suspect is part of a Surakarta-based terrorist network, whose members were arrested in November last year, Pakayumbuh Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Kuswoto said on Wednesday as quoted by Antara. Kuswoto said the suspect, identified as H, or JT, had been arrested when he was working at a workshop. From the suspects rented house, the police also seized several pieces of evidence, including a GPS device, a mobile phone and a bank account. (Read also: Terrorists targeting police in foiled Banten terror plot) Kuswoto said the role of the suspect was to purchase explosive material to create security disruptions in the region. The police said the suspect was financially supported by a terrorist network controlled by Abi Zaid, who was arrested late last year. Also on Wednesday, Densus 88 shot dead three people during a raid on a rented house in South Tangerang, Banten. The three people are thought to have been preparing a suicide bomb attack in the region, located on the outskirts of Jakarta. Another suspect has also been arrested. (fac/hwa) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ruslan Sangadji (The Jakarta Post) Palu, Central Sulawesi Wed, December 21, 2016 Indonesian Military (TNI) officer First Pvt. Yusuf Baharudin died on Tuesday night after being shot in the chest during an armed clash with the East Indonesia Mujhidin (MIT) early in the morning in Poso, Central Sulawesi. Yusuf, a member of the Operation Tinombala, fought against members of the MIT in Maros hamlet, Kilo village, Poso Pesisir Utara, Poso. The body of Yusuf was flown to his hometown in Bogor, West Java, on Wednesday morning for burial after undergoing a military ceremony in Palu, the capital of the province. Several military and police officers attended the ceremony. (Read also: Terrorist leader Santoso allegedly dead after Monday gunfight) Besides Yusuf, another military officer, First Pvt. Imam Hanafi, also suffered gunshot wounds resulting from the clash. Hanafi is now being treated at Poso General Hospital. The police-military operation against members of the MIT, which has allegedly declared its support for the Islamic State group, has been going on for almost two years. The operation managed to eliminate Santoso, the leader of the MIT, in July this year. (jun) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Lita Aruperes (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 People living in remote and border areas as well as on small islands, such as Miangas, in North Sulawesi are still facing poor access to health care services due to a lack of physicians and nurses, a lawmaker has said. To solve the problem, a member of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) from North Sulawesi, Stefanus BAN Liow, urged Health Minister Nila Djuwita F.Moeloek to speed up the preparation of the ministrys primary healthcare physicians (DLP) program and the accreditation program of community health centers (Puskesmas). The government was also urged to take tougher measures to solve a shortage of medicine listed on the e-catalogue. To improve access to healthcare services, I propose that the Health Ministry accelerates the development of regional hospitals in four regencies, namely East Bolaang Mongondow, North Bolaang Mongondow, South Bolaang Mongondow, Southeast Minahasa and in the city of Manado, to support medical referral services, said Stefanus. He made the statement during a work meeting between members of the Councils Committee III overseeing health and the health minister in Jakarta, on Monday. Stefanus further explained three regencies, namely Sangihe, Talaud and Sitaro Islands, needed floating hospitals to provide healthcare services to medically underserved residents of the islands. The lawmaker also asked the minister to follow up on a 2016 Finance Minister regulation on Rp 35 billion (US$2.59 million) worth of special allocation funds in the 2016 Revised State Budget for the Tomohon Regional General Hospital (RSUD) that had not yet been disbursed. Nila said the ministry would synchronize all proposals in its ongoing programs. We will adjust them to our Indonesia Health program, the national health insurance (JKN) program and other programs, which aim to strengthen Indonesias healthcare services, she said. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21 2016 The Indonesian Military (TNI) has decided to participate in a civil aviation training program in Papua to improve its patchy air safety record following the crash in the region of a Hercules C-130 belonging to the Air Force. The TNI said it wanted to take the flight safety training conducted by the National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) in Papua because it is known as the most dangerous area for pilots. President Joko Jokowi Widodo promised a review of the countrys aging military fleet last year after a Hercules C-130 crashed into a residential area in Medan, North Sumatra, killing 120 people, but calls for safety reform at the TNI remained unheeded. It is difficult for the KNKT, which is in charge of civil aviation, to give input to the TNI to improve its air safety record because it had never been involved in an investigation into the crash of a military aircraft. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21 2016 President Joko Jokowi Widodo has signed Government Regulation No. 59/2016 to regulate mass organizations founded by foreigners. According to the Cabinet Secretariat website, the regulation was issued to ensure that any mass organizations founded by foreigners respect the countrys sovereignty, social values and cultures, as well as benefit the community and abide by the law. Separately, Teuku Taufiqulhadi, a member of House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legal affairs, said the government through the Home Ministry should strictly supervise the founding of foreign mass organizations. We need to prevent terrorist organizations from entering the country, Taufiqulhadi said as quoted by Antara news agency on Monday. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21 2016 In a move that reflects the growing influence of conservative groups in the country, National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian has said he will send a liaison officer to the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) to ensure that its fatwas do not disrupt religious harmony. The police chief is currently under public pressure to keep hard-line groups under control following reports that some of them have been visiting business establishments to inform them about a recent MUI fatwa banning Muslims from wearing Christmas paraphernalia. In Surabaya, East Java, the local police decided to escort members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) when they visited local malls to publicize the MUIs edict. The police said the move was necessary to prevent possible public disturbances. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan, North Sumatra Wed, December 21, 2016 The North Sumatra Police announced on Tuesday the prohibition of the use of all kinds of firecrackers during Christmas and New Years Eve celebrations in areas across the province. The use of fireworks during the holidays will be prohibited without police permits, they said. North Sumatra Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Rina Sari Ginting said the prohibition of the use of firecrackers and fireworks on this years Christmas and New Year celebrations was stipulated on a public announcement, which took effect when North Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Rycko Amelza Dahniel signed it on Dec.16. Rina said the announcement aimed to create peace and security during the holiday celebrations. It is expected that everyone understands and adheres to this. Perpetrators could receive criminal sanctions, she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. Rina said the announcement was circulated to all police offices and introduced to vendors and people in the area. In the announcement is a requirement for organizers of performances that use fireworks measuring between 2 to 8 inches to get a police permit. The use of firecrackers in houses of worships, residential areas, hospitals, schools, airports, bus terminals, train stations, seaports, shopping centers, banks, public and private offices and roads is strictly prohibited. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 The National Police said on Wednesday that a group of terrorists was planning a bombing attack targeting law enforcement personnel in South Tangerang, Banten, before the police foiled their plot earlier in the day. They were planning to carry out amaliyah, by attacking a police post and stabbing our on-duty personnel, National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Rikwanto said, as quoted by tempo.co. He was referring to a code word used widely by extremists to refer to a suicide bomb attack. On Wednesday morning, The National Polices counterterrorism squad Densus 88 raided a rented house in Babakan subdistrict, Setu district, South Tangerang, during which they shot dead three alleged terrorists. (Read also: Three shot dead, one arrested in Tangerang during raid for Christmas bombs) The raid, Rikwanto said, had been made after Densus 88 personnel had arrested a suspected terrorist, identified as Adam, on Jl. Raya Serpong, also in South Tangerang. Based on information from Adam, Densus 88 launched a raid on the house, where three suspected terrorists, identified as Omen, Helmi and Irwan, were preparing explosives for the attack plot. The three were shot dead on the scene after resisting arrest. We asked them to surrender, but the three suspects threw a bomb at our personnel, Rikwanto said. From Adam, police reportedly learned that the group was going to attack a police post near the Eka Hospital in the Bumi Serpong Damai area, in the outskirts of Jakarta. (Read also: Police's counterterrorism squad foils plot to bomb State Palace) The stabbing scenario, Rikwanto said, was meant to be staged to attract a crowd and create more casualties. After people would gather at the crime scene, another suspect would come to detonate a bomb. Their targets were police personnel guarding the crime scene, Rikwanto said. Earlier this month, Densus 88 managed to foil a plot to attack a major target in Jakarta, believed to be the State Palace. A number of suspects have been arrested over the plot, including some people who allegedly created the explosives intended for the attack. (hwa) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21 2016 Beginning in 2013, the dispute between Swiss German University (SGU) in South Tangerang, Banten, and developer Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) reached its apex last weekend when the latter unilaterally erected concrete blocks to prevent access to the campus. No learning or teaching activities had taken place since then while lecturers and employees were only allowed to enter to retrieve their belongings after going through security screenings and body checks. I felt like I was entering a prison, said lecturer Rachman Syarief, adding he also had to hand his identity card to several men securing the campus entrance. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ashok Sharma (Associated Press) New Delhi Wed, December 21, 2016 Leading opposition figure Rahul Gandhi demanded an investigation into allegations that two Indian conglomerates paid millions of rupees as bribes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2013-14 when he was governing a western state. Gandhi, the Congress Party vice president and scion of India's Nehru-Gandhi family, said the allegations were found in diary notes and computer records of the Sahara Group and the Birla Group and were in possession of income tax authorities. "Why these accusations are not being probed?" Gandhi asked Wednesday at a party meeting in Gujarat state. Modi was the state's top elected official before he became prime minister in May 2014. Gandhi said in his speech that tax authorities had looked into the allegations and favored a full investigation. But the government has not confirmed that and Sahara and Birla have not commented on the allegations. "We want an independent inquiry. We want you (Modi) to come forward and tell the country yourself," Gandhi demanded. G. V. L. Narsimha Rao, a spokesman for Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, dismissed Gandhi's accusations as baseless and asked him to file a criminal case against Modi. Earlier this month, Gandhi accused Modi and BJP officials of not allowing him to speak in parliament during the session that ended last week. Gandhi had claimed he had evidence of "personal corruption of Prime Minister Modi," but did not reveal what it was. Sambit Patra, another BJP spokesman, accused Gandhi of "talking irrelevant things to stay relevant" and said his comments must be discounted. He told reporters that the allegations had previously been found to be unsubstantiated. Gandhi has been highly critical of Modi's ban on Nov. 8 of high-value currency notes, which was intended to force tax evaders to give up their cash stockpiles but also created hardship for ordinary Indians. The sudden withdrawal of 86 percent of India's currency left cash in short supply, with retail sales stumbling and wholesale markets in turmoil. Hundreds of millions of people in India lack bank accounts and use cash to pay for everything from groceries to hospital stays to land purchases. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 The Home Ministry is processing a recommendation for Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama to be suspended after receiving a letter from the North Jakarta District Court explaining the blasphemy charges against Ahok on Monday. "We are processing the minister's recommendation regarding Ahok's suspension to submit to the President soon," the secretary to the ministrys director general of regional autonomy, Anselmus Tan, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. According to the 2014 Regional Administrations Law, a court can notify the Home Ministry if a regional leader faces a criminal charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of five years or more. Ahok has been charged under articles 156 and 156a of the Criminal Code on blasphemy, which carry maximum sentences of four and five years imprisonment, respectively. "We have used the alternative article in the charge [Article 156a], which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, in our recommendation. It will be up to the President to decide about the suspension," he said. The law regulates that a governor or deputy governor who faces criminal charges can be suspended by a presidential decree, Anselmus said. Previously, the ministrys director general of regional autonomy, Sumarsono, said that should Ahok be suspended, Jakarta Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat would be appointed acting governor until October 2017. A newly elected governor and deputy governor will be inaugurated in December 2017, he explained.(jun) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) DARWIN Wed, December 21 2016 Indonesia will receive the biggest import of heifers in a single shipping from Australia next week as the latest batch of breeding cattle is set to leave Darwin Port on Wednesday. As many as 3,741 breeding cattle worth Rp 60.2 billion (US$4.5 million) are scheduled to arrive at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java. The importer, major livestock firm PT Santosa Agrindo (Santori), a subsidiary of agriculture giant PT Japfa Comfeed Indonesia, said that the purchase was intended to comply with the governments latest policy to boost cattle population. The policy stipulates that large firms must import one breeder for every five feeders, while cooperatives must buy one breeder for every 10 feeders. This importation shows Japfas commitment to support the government to increase cattle population. We are ready to implement the policy because we have more than one decade of experience in the breeding business, said Santori country head for Indonesia Safuan Kasno Suwondo. Soon after arrival in Indonesia, the heifers will be taken care of at Santoris 70-hectare farm in Probolinggo, East Java, along with 2,497 heifers it purchased last September. The firm has set a 75 percent pregnancy rate brought about using artificial insemination, expecting 4,678 calves to be born in 2018 from its total of the 6,238 cattle. To reduce labor and feed costs, the company is teaming up with farmers to nurture the pregnant cows. The farmers will pay for the cows through bank loans guaranteed by Santori. After the cows give birth, the firm will buy back the cows and calves at a higher price. Along with some other big players in the livestock business, such as Great Giant Livestock (GGL) and PT Agro Menara Rachmat, Santori manages less than 10 percent of the whole cow population in Indonesia. As small breeders are still in charge of the largest proportion, the Agriculture Ministry has allocated Rp 1.1 trillion to inseminate 4 million cattle next year, expecting to produce 3 million calves by 2018, as well as to subsidize feed and vaccine provision. The domestic cow population decreased to 12.6 million in 2013 from 14.8 million in 2011, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). The Agriculture Ministry said it needs 42 million cows to attain beef self-sufficiency and even become a net exporter by 2025. Cow and Buffalo Breeders Association (PPSKI) chairman Teguh Boediyana said the government had several times announced self-sufficiency targets, including in 2010 and 2014. However, it had yet to achieve it, partly because of the absence of a data-based policy and the lack of control over the early slaughter of productive females aged between 2 and 8 years old. The government needs to form policies based on data, but we dont even have accurate and updated data on the size of land suitable for cattle breeding, their average weights, productivity and many more, Teguh told The Jakarta Post over the phone. Besides, preventing early slaughter is also important because when it happens the population will still decrease even though new calves are coming, he said. Indonesia has long been dependent on imports to meet beef demand, which in past years has surged quickly thanks to a growing middle class. The country set an import quota of 600,000 head of cattle this year and expects to buy 700,000 head of cattle next year, mostly from Australia. Indonesia is Australias biggest export market with 703,257 cattle bought in 2014, out of the 1.29 million cattle it exported worldwide in that year, according to the Australian Livestock Export Corporation. -------------------- To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 National Narcotics Agency (BNN) chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso threatened to take severe actions against individuals involved in drug trafficking. "Don't hesitate to shoot drug traffickers, drug dealers and drug users. Anyone involved in drug trafficking should be punished harshly, including traitors in the BNN body," Budi said as quoted by kompas.com during the installment ceremony of the North Sumatra task force for drug eradication, prevention, abuse and dealing in Deliserdang on Tuesday. Budi called on everyone to join hands in fighting drug trafficking. "Drug dealers have been all out in their efforts to market drugs. We have to be all out as well to fight them," he said, adding that the agency had teamed up with the military to wage war against drug trafficking. North Sumatra Governor Tengku Erry Nuradi welcomed the presence of the new task force. He said that the fight against drug dealing would only be effective should the effort involve the public. (dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21 2016 The governments plan to continue allowing the exports of raw and partly processed mineral products reflect its inclination to secure state revenues in the short term as opposed to developing the downstream industry envisioned in the 2009 Mining Law. Experts argue that the impending government regulation will again clash with the existing law, showing that the government was ill-prepared in the first place with its ambitious plan to develop the downstream industry. Mining expert Bisman Bakhtiar acknowledged that the government had good intentions behind its possible move to relax the mineral ore export ban as it could help secure non-tax revenues in the short term. However, he argued that the government was clearly misguided if it issued the policy through a government regulation as it would violate the Mining Law. It would definitely create doubts for investors who are looking for legal certainty, something Indonesia is known to lack. For example, smelter investors will be hesitant to invest because exports would be allowed again, while those who support the relaxation will also be on their toes because there is no real legal basis, he said on Tuesday. A draft regulation prepared by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, a copy of which was recently obtained by The Jakarta Post, will allow companies with mining licenses (IUP), or special mining licenses (IUPK), or former holders of contracts of work to have the privilege of getting five-year export licenses. Partly processed or raw nickel, bauxite, anode slime and copper telluride will be on the list of products allowed for overseas shipment. Companies will also be allowed to resume the export of copper concentrate. The only requirements the government plans to put on the table are those on export tax payments and smelter development. The most recent data from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry show that non-tax revenues from the mineral and coal sector have so far reached Rp 24.29 trillion (US$1.81 billion) from this years target of Rp 30.1 trillion. The Mineral and Coal Directorate General has estimated that non-tax revenues will only reach Rp 27 trillion because it had initially overestimated global coal prices this year. The government expects non-tax revenues from the mineral and coal sector to rise to Rp 45.2 trillion in 2017. However, Mineral and Coal director general Bambang Gatot Ariyono dismissed the notion that the revenues would increase next year due to a possible relaxation of the export ban. The increased revenues are due to higher coal prices, he said, declining to confirm whether or not such a regulation would be issued soon. The mining law stipulates that the mineral ore miners must have their smelters completed before 2014 and the ban must be fully enforced in 2015. The smelters are expected to bring in added value to the end products, as opposed to exporting ore in its raw form. However, the ban was postponed due to the lack of smelters realized, and the deadline was extended to 2017 by the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration through a government regulation. Meanwhile, Indonesian Resources Strategic Studies (Ciruss) executive director Disan Budi Santoso said the targets set in the 2009 Mining Law were ill-planned and unrealistic. The government should bundle smelter developments with already existing downstream industries as a solution to the problem. -------------------- To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 With the approaching Christmas and New Year's holidays, state-owned energy giant Pertamina and electricity firm PLN ensure sufficient supplies of fuel and electricity across the country. There will be no problem with the readiness of electricity and fuel supply during Christmas and New Year's. Pertamina, AKR Corporindo [fuel distributor company] and PLN are ready, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan said on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com. In anticipation of surging demand of fuel, Pertamina deputy president director Ahmad Bambang said that the firm will increase the supply of all types of fuel, especially around tourist attractions. The focus is around tourist spots, depending on the location. For example, in Bali, we will prepare for a 24 percent increase [of fuel supply]. The firm will also increase the supply in Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya, Ahmad said. Despite the prediction of surging fuel usage, Ahmad said that the consumption of subsidized diesel, locally known as Solar, is expected to drop because many companies will stop their distribution of goods during the public holiday. Solar consumption will drop because some heavy vehicles will not operate. Pertamax and Pertalite consumption will increase, but again it depends on the regions, he said. (win/dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Semarang Wed, December 21 2016 Residents objecting to the construction of a cement plant in Rembang, Central Java, are continuing their protest outside the governors office. Governor Ganjar Pranowo, who met them on the second day of the tent of struggle protest near the office gates in Semarang, invited them in for talks, but no resolution to the problem was achieved. People supporting the development of the cement factory were also involved in the dialogue with the governor. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan, North Sumatra Wed, December 21, 2016 The North Sumatra Police in conjunction with the National Polices anti-terror squad Detachment 88 (Densus 88) arrested on Wednesday a terrorist suspect who has been on the wanted list for allegedly plotting to attack Singapore in August. Identified as S, the suspect was arrested at noon in a village in Sibiru-biru district in Deli Serdang regency, North Sumatra. (Read also: Police arrest six terrorist suspects in Batam) North Sumatra Police spokesperson, Sr. Comr. Rina Sari Ginting, said the arrest was made after the police received a tip-off about a person who had just moved from Batam, Riau Islands. S was alone when arrested and the police confiscated his cell phone, which is expected to contain information about his network. Rina alleged S was a member of radical group Kitabah Gonggong Rebus, led by Gigih Rahmat Dewa in Batam. The group is under the control of Bahrun Naim, a suspected Indonesian terrorist leader who is believed to be currently in Syria. In August, Densus 88 arrested six suspects in Batam, thought to be plotting an attack against Singapore. (evi) TheJakartaPost Please Update your browser Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below. Just click on the icons to get to the download page. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 The Indonesian Military (TNI) has denied a circulating provocative message reportedly conveyed by TNI commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo expressing sentiments against China and the spread of communist ideology in the country. The message, reported to be part of Gatots speech, warns Indonesian people of a scheme being conducted by China to tear apart the country by dispatching Chinese citizens to work in Indonesia. The message later quoted the speech, which said President Joko Jokowi Widodo had asked all businessmen in Indonesia to use Chinas yuan. According to the message that circulated via WhatsApp Messenger and other social media platforms, Gatot delivered the anti-China remarks during a ceremony to commemorate the birthday of Prophet Muhammad, or Maulid Nabi, on Dec. 11. TNI spokesperson Brig. Gen. Wuryanto asserted Gatot never attended the ceremony because on that day he accompanied President Jokowi at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base in East Jakarta prior to his departure for a state visit to Iran. Gatot departed to Aceh the next day to deliver humanitarian aid to victims of the massive earthquake, which struck Pidie Jaya regency on Dec. 7. Its not true that the TNI commander made such a hateful speech. The [circulating] message, which quoted the speech, is obviously engineered, Wuryanto said in a statement. I would also encourage all citizens to be more selective of messages with quotes from state officials that circulate via WhatsApp or social media, he added. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 The Jayapura Police arrested two Papuan activists on Monday on treason charges for staging a peaceful rally in Jayapura, Papua, their lawyer said Tuesday. Hosea Yemo and Ismael Alua of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), which organized the rally involving 405 protesters in several cities in Papua including Merauke and Wamena, were detained for allegedly committing treason and provoking other participants of the rally to commit treason. (Read also: Accused of treason, dozens of Papuan arrested in Manado) Article 107 of the Criminal Code on treason carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. "It was a peaceful rally held to demand justice regarding Trikora [Three People's Command], but the police reacted repressively," said Gustaf Kawer, the lawyer of the two activists. Gustaf was referring to an act on Dec. 19, 1961, when Indonesia then president Sukarno issued a decree on the establishment of the Trikora military operation in order to annex Papua, which was later called Irian Jaya. "If people want to express their opinion through a rally, the police should escort them. But we have always faced oppression here in Papua," he said. The KNPB has been fighting for the self-determination of West Papua, which comprises Papua and West Papua provinces, an action that the government considers to be treasonous and an act of separatism because of their call for independence. On Monday, rallies were held in Jayapura, Merauke, Nabire, Yogyakarta, Manado, Wamena, Jakarta, Sorong, Manokwari, Timika, Yahukimo, Bandung, Ternate and Ambon. In total, 528 people were arrested Monday and although many were later released, some like Hosea and Ismael were detained. (fac/evi) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, December 21, 2016 Amid rampant raids targeting shopping malls and business centers across the country banning the use of Christmas paraphernalia, Jakarta Military Commander Lt. Col. Wahyu Yudhayana said military personnel would ensure that no raids would be done by firebrand Muslim groups in the area. "Whatever the terms they use, be it fatwa familiarization or implementation, no mass organizations are allowed to conduct raids and take the law into their own hands," Wahyu was quoted by Warta Kota on Tuesday. The raids are related to the issuance of a fatwa or edict from Indonesian Ulema Council prohibiting companies and business owners from forcing their employees to wear Christmas-related attributes. "Should they [the vigilante groups] insist on doing the raids, we will arrest them and hand them over to the police," Wahyu added. "Besides disturbing shoppers in malls, guests at hotels and businesspeople in business centers in West Jakarta, such raids will also disturb religious harmony. For that reason, we cannot tolerate such actions," Wahyu asserted. Over the weekend, the police came under fire for their failure to prevent members of the hardline Islam Defenders Front from cracking down on business establishments that allowed their employees to wear Christmas accessories. (dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, December 22, 2016 Indonesia is facing a growing trend of discriminating against the countrys minorities and marginalized communities, activists and a scholar have said. Law and human rights professor Harkristuti Harkrisnowo said there was a frightening tendency among the people to blame others, including the victims. The former official with the Law and Human Rights Ministry argued that the growing culture of blaming others was part of the consequences of democracy implemented in Indonesia. Democracy caters to the voice of the majority, Harkristuti said. Unfortunately, she added, the majoritys voice in the country was not in line with human rights principles. A lack of law enforcement was exacerbating the issue, said Press Council chairman Yosep Adi Prasetyo. Law enforcers accommodate the interests of certain groups that commit violence. This allows them to impose their will on other groups in society, he said. (evi) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Diplomatic Correspondent (The Daily Star/ANN) Cox's Bazar Wed, December 21, 2016 Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi spoke to registered and unregistered Rohingya refugees in the Bangladesh camps and listened to their tales of assualts by the Myanmarese security forces. Visiting different Rohingya refugee camps in Ukhia of Cox's Bazar, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on Tuesday witnessed sufferings of the Rohingyas who are fleeing persecution in Myanmar's Rakhine state to seek protection in Bangladesh. Marsudi arrived in Bangladesh Monday night on a 24-hour visit after attending a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries with Myanmar State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon. Marsudi accompanied by her Bangladesh counterpart AH Mahmood Ali and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam and other senior officials, flew to the camps where some 32,000 Rohingyas have long been staying. She spent much of her time speaking to registered and unregistered Rohingya refugees in at the camps where the refugees described to the visitors the assaults by the Myanmarese security forces against them. The ministers also met those who arrived here since the eruption of the ongoing violence on October 9. But their comments and conversation with the refugees could not be known as the media was not allowed inside the camps. "The discussions with the community allowed the visitors to better understand the ground realities that have forced some 34,000 civilians to cross the borderin recent months," says a UNHCR-IOM joint press release. Unofficial sources, however, said the figure is much higher as the Rohingyas are entering Bangladesh through the porous border. Sarat Dash, chief of mission of International Migration Organisation, Bangladesh and Shinji Kubo, UNHCR Bangladesh country representative, accompanied the ministers. The Indonesian minister also called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Gono Bhaban in the capital. This article appeared on The Daily Star newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post Former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a close ally of President Elect Donald Trump, will be headlining the upcoming U.S.-Israel Business Alliance mission to Israel, led by the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce and its Executive Public Policy Committee Dr. Joseph Frager, Dr. Paul Brody, Odeleya Jacobs and Duvi Honig- along with a delegation of prominent businessmen and women. In a handwritten note to Committee members, Governor Huckabee expressed his excitement for the mission: Israel faces irrational and destructive economic terrorism with the BDS movement. I look forward to being part of a delegation of Americans who will visit with Israeli friends in government and in the private sector, to assure them of strong support for Israel and to help bring assurances that the incoming American administration is committed to forging new levels of friendship and support with Israel. The mission will take place on January 3rd and 4th, and include aspecial symposium at the Knesset; a VIP dinner and business networking event at the King David Hotel; and private dinner at the home of President Ruvi Rivlin. Some of the Israeli leaders who will participate in these events include Chief Rabbi DovidLau; the Israeli Justice Minister; Rami Levi of the famed supermarket chain; Eyal Chaimovsky of the Jerusalem Development Authority; Erez Viner of Jerusalem Winery; and Dr. Shlomo Kalish, a leading global venture capitalist. The BDS movement, UN anti-Semitism and other threats against Israel pose a substantial threat against Jewish community businesses in Israel, the United States and around the world, Mr. Honig explains. The Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce is thankful to our growing list of VIP and grassroots partners who are enabling us to succeed in our mission to help our brethren thrive amidst the threats. For more information about the U.S.-Israel Business Alliance, or to join the mission, please visit www.ojchamber.com. [TLS] We have spent a lot of time during the past few months talking about four large-scale development projects coming to the Two Bridges area. Theres a good reason why. In the years ahead, these developments will bring more than 3700 new apartments to the neighborhood, transforming the waterfront community of the Lower East Side. Today were taking a look at what happened last week when the development teams, local elected officials and residents piled into a community room for the first of four public meetings to discuss the projects. The session, held at Gouverneur Health Dec. 15, was part of a joint environmental review of the Two Bridges proposals. The city this past summer rejected Council member Margaret Chins request for a full land use review (ULURP) in the Two Bridges area. Instead, the Department of City Planning and the developers teamed up with local office holders for what has been described as an enhanced study of environmental impacts. Theyll be looking at three projects, including a 79-story tower at 247 Cherry St. from JDS Development Group, twin towers from L+M Development Partners and the CIM Group at 260 South St. and a 62-story building by the Starrett Group at 259 Clinton St. An 80-story luxury complex from Extell Development, now under construction, is not part of the environmental review. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and City Council member Margaret Chin kicked off last weeks event, addressing a skeptical audience about the merits of the public process thats now unfolding. The two elected officials have been coordinating the work of a community task force that recently began meeting behind closed doors regarding the development projects. The good news is that your input is real, said Brewer. Noting that oftentimes public meetings dont mean anything, the borough president asserted, the real fact is that your input means something. Chin agreed, saying, Your input does count. Even though we could not get a ULURP, we fought for it (and) didnt get it, we want to make sure, in this whole process, that with three major developments coming we hear from the community about what is needed The meeting was choreographed by Rebecca Karp of Karp Strategies, an urban planning consulting firm. She was hired by the development team, as was AKRF, the environmental consultants who will prepare a draft Environmental Impact Statement to be submitted to the City Planning Commission. Karp pointed out that, in contrast with a regular environmental review, the general public will be involved from the very beginning in this process. Theyll help shape a scoping document, detailing exactly what will be studied in each of 18 categories. Theyll be looking at the impact of the three developments on schools, transportation, open space, air quality, etc. The environmental review also must spell out proposed mitigations (remedies) to address these impacts. One local resident asked, What kind of weight will our suggestions have? Almost no one in the neighborhood wants to see towers put up that are three and four times the height of existing buildings. But since the projects are all allowable under current zoning, theres little anyone will be able to do to stop them. Would I like to have small buildings?, said Borough President Brewer. Yes, but Im not sure that will be as possible. Almost everything else is on the table. One audience member, Ozzie Hernandez, was more than skeptical. I have never seen a consultant hired by a developer, he said, come back with the true effects that (a project) is going to have on the community I dont think the community really has a say-so. In response, Brewer told Hernandez, The best that the Council member and I can do (is) to have serious community input about what goes into and around the buildings, and maybe, make them smaller. Could we make them smaller like you and I would like? I dont know. Im being honest with you. One-by-one, the development teams presented very brief overviews of their projects. But before this part of the meeting could begin, the evenings proceedings were nearly derailed by outraged residents fed up with rampant real estate development on the Lower East Side. As Michael Stern of JDS Development Group came up on stage, a man in the back third of the room yelled, You greedy corporate fuck Get the fuck out of (this neighborhood). Hernandez spoke up again, saying, Everyone in this room has a financial interest. How many millions are being paid to people in this room? Another audience member added, This decision has already been made. You are wasting our time. Matthew Washington, a deputy borough president who was moderating the discussion, struggled to regain control. It was 10 minutes or so before local tenant leaders managed to refocus the conversation. Trever Holland stood up to say, I live at 82 Rutgers Slip. I live right next to the Extell project I want to see what theyre building. Nancy Ortiz, tenant leader at the Vladeck Houses, added, These people (the developers) own this land as-of-right. These people already have the right to build these buildings. This (an environmental review) is something we demanded because we are concerned about the impact of these four developments in the community. Can we please be respectful?! I am asking please, can everyone just listen to the developers and then ask your questions. (L-R) 247 Cherry St., 260 South St., 259 Clinton St. Project: 247 Cherry St. Developer: JDS Development Group Building Size: 79 floors, 1008 feet, 504,175 square feet Apartments: Up to 660, 25% affordable Retail: 2500 square feet More Information: Our interview with the development team Project: 260 South St. Developer: L+M Development Partners, CIM Group Building Size: 69 + 62 floors, 798 feet, 1,125,000 square feet Apartments: Up to 1350, 25% affordable Retail: Up to 5300 square feet in existing buildings More Information: Our interview with the development team Project: 259 Clinton St. Developer: Starrett Development Building Size: 62 floors, 724 feet, 592,890 square feet Apartments: Up to 732, 25% affordable Retail: 2500 square feet More Information: Our interview with the development team Total Apartments: 2742 Total Affordable Units: 686 Retail: 10.300 square feet Total Square Footage: 2,222,065 When the developers were finally able to speak, they emphasized that the market rate projects would also include more than 600 units of affordable housing. They talked up the resiliency measures being undertaken to protect the buildings from future storms and highlighted new retail and open space amenities that would be added to the community. A senior resident of 80 Rutgers Slip spoke up, referencing the fact that JDSs tower will be cantilevered over his home. An 80 story building over the top of my head!?, he screamed. The man said that senior residents had been let down. Now you want to know, after the fact, how we feel about it?, he said incredulously. In past meetings, JDS explained that tenants in several units would be displaced during construction. One member of the audience asked for more details. Michael Stern replied that nine seniors would be relocated for about three years. When the new building opens, they will be given new apartments, he said, adding that social workers will be helping to relocate the displaced residents. There were other questions about the lack of parking in the neighborhood, overburdened local schools and whether construction jobs would be set aside for local residents. Few definitive answers were offered. Parking and the impact of new residents on neighborhood schools will both be studied in the environmental review. There were promises to hire within the community whenever possible. Other residents raised concerns about the future of Stop 1 Deli, a longtime business at 265 Cherry St.. They said that the deli, located within a building L+M and CIM Group own, has been under the threat of eviction. After the Cherry Street Pathmark store closed a few years ago, its the only place in the immediate area for people to buy milk, coffee and other staples. One man asked, Are you talking about tripling their rent to get them out? Katherine Kelman of L+M responded, We recognize that its the only source of food (in the neighborhood) and that its important to the community. She said the management team has been working with Stop 1 to, correct a number of issues that theyve had and that the business will have the opportunity to stay when lease negotiations for the revamped retail spaces begin. While there were some concerns about commercial displacement, there was even more anxiety about the prospect of residential tenants being forced from the community. The developers have said that no residents will be displaced from buildings adjacent to the building sites. One speaker said shes worried about secondary displacement, a likely result of increased rents and rising property values in the area. Will you support anti-harassment measures?, she asked, asserting that people in the Two Bridges area, need protection from developers like you. I dont see how you will fight against your own interests. Over and over, speakers returned to one central topic: the massive scale of the proposed projects. One resident asked, What about building shorter buildings? Noting that all of them will be constructed in very close proximity to peoples homes, the speaker wanted to know, Why are all three developers building up against (existing properties)? The development teams responded that they have designed projects that make use of all of the floor area allowable under zoning regulations. They said the new towers, to the best of the architects ability, have been positioned to impact their neighbors as little as possible. In the end, the conversation came back to the value of this environmental review process and whether it will end up making any difference in the community. Damaris Reyes, executive director of the tenant advocacy group GOLES, wanted to know what happens if the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) finds there are adverse impacts. If (for example) the EIS finds there are not enough school seats, not enough transportation will (the city administration) approve (the plans anyway), and if they dont approve them, can the project still move forward? The consultants working for the development teams said the Department of City Planning (DCP) can lay out conditions for approval. They said that the applications for minor modifications in the Two Bridges Large-Scale Development Area must be signed off by DCP. They cannot move forward otherwise. But they added, DCP can decide that, on balance the, benefits (of the projects) outweigh the impacts. Following last weeks meeting we checked in with Council member Chins office. We were offered the following statement about the environmental review process: As an as-of-right project built without any environmental review, Extells One Manhattan Square development has been a disaster for our community. That is why I joined the Borough President to ask for a major modification to the existing large-scale plan in order to maximize public review of these three new developments. Instead, we got a process that will result in public input being included in an Environmental Impact Statement. I understand and share the frustration of residents about this process, but it is the only one available to ensure that the public gets the increased transportation options, public school seats, construction mitigation and real affordable housing that our community needs. Last (Thursday) nights meeting was just the beginning of a substantial public process. I thank residents for braving the cold and making their voices heard. Karp Strategies has set up a website with more details about the upcoming meetings and about the three projects. The next session will take place in January. Martin Scorsese strikes back with yet another Oscar-baity treat, but one drastically different to his last effort The Wolf of Wall Street. Three years on since the drunken debauchery of Leo and co.s three hour odyssey of sex and drugs and Wall Street nastiness, and cinematic legend Martin Scorsese has set his sights on a different game entirely. Another near-three hour slog, true, but this time rife with gentle thinking, patience, and religion. Not a single coked-up hooker in sight. For those looking for more Departed-level violence, or Wolf-style misbehaviour, set phasers to sigh. Very much a passion project of the Oscar-winners, Silence sees the eventual conclusion to Scorseses unofficial faith trilogy that started some time ago with Kundun and The Last Temptation of Christ. Its been literally decades in the making, setting this one apart as one of the famed directors most anticipated projects; the result though, is frustratingly sour. Casting the fiery new talent Adam Driver alongside a sulky Andrew Garfield as two 17th-century Jesuit priests, Scorsese plants the majority of his action in historical Japan, where the anything but dynamic duo head off on a religious-powered hunt for their former leader: an apostatised padre (Liam Neeson) who has supposedly turned his back on all that is holy. Like some sort of Christ-driven twist on the Coppola classic Apocalypse Now, Silence soon finds itself in unmistakably violent country, as the priests quickly discover the nature of the danger theyve so freely strolled into: Japan is a politically Buddhist country, and the governing forces dont take too kindly to Christian folk. But before your mind starts to wander into the stylishly violent depths of Scorseses usual fare, let me save you the trouble: Silence is, rather expectedly, a bit of a snoozer. Whilst its tensest moments do still raise something of a stir, and theres plenty of really quite upsetting aggression going on overall, on the whole Scorsese seems much more defined by his internal conversations about faith here, than he does about the films actual narrative progression. On the surface, Silence feels ridiculously repetitive, tying itself in knot after knot as Garfields struggling priest is thrown from place to place, subjected to the same imprisonment and torture time and time again. The very point of the film seems to be drilling down into the very questioning of faith: what does it mean to renounce ones God? If a holy man is to defect from his religion, can he ever truly return? Hugely deep questions, and ones that work as understandable foundations true, its just Scorsese doesnt really actually go anywhere with the plot that he so half-heartedly lays over the top of them. Despite his recent big-screen break, Driver is still easily the best thing on screen, thoroughly and believably in-tune with his characters inner suffering throughout, whilst Garfield, the more prominent of the pair, seems sadly to be very much the opposite. The crux of it is, we spend the large majority of the film watching him plod about like a bratty gap year student, learning very little and achieving even less cinematically. Scorsese for some reason seems adamant that we learn of the locals suffering through Garfields apparently caring eye, but the reality is he comes across as an overly privileged outsider. We blitz past the struggling villagers in their tiny huts, living and praying in fear of torture or execution, to instead hang out with a self-confessed holy man who claims to bring kindness and salvation to Japan, but instead just ends up watching from the bushes whilst his newest congregation are mutilated and burned alive in front of him. To call Silence a frustrating watch would be something of an understatement. It may be, for the most part, breathtakingly shot (again by Wolf lenser Rodrigo Prieto), and packed out with an endless stream of some of the finest Japanese actors Scorsese could no doubt get his hands on, but the focus of his film falls mind-numbingly flat, very, very quickly. Between the troublingly slow central act and a very obviously chopped-and-changed epilogue that feels pretty far afloat from the rest, Silence might well be a hyper-indulgent labour of love for Scorsese, but entertaining it most definitely is not. For completists its an unquestionable must, but for anyone else its probably worth holding out for another few years and waiting for another slightly more accessible effort. Silence is out in the UK on 1st January 2017. When photographer Burhan Ozbilici attended a photo exhibition on Monday evening in Ankara, Turkey, he thought that he might get a few decent images of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov, who was speaking there, which would come in handy to illustrate future stories on the two countries. Little did he realise hed soon be witness to an assassination and that hed be taking photos that would shock the world. An AP photographer was in the audience during the attack on Russia's ambassador to Turkey the latest here: https://t.co/QNlIA8e2Eu pic.twitter.com/EBPa5izHsi AP Images (@AP_Images) December 19, 2016 @AP_Images incredible. So awful. But what were the odds. Captured at such close range. Boing Boing (@BoingBoing) December 19, 2016 @AP_Images One dramatic moment, in mere fractions of a second, captured for all time. That is some news photograph. #Turkey #Aleppo Richard Vernalls (@rvernallsPA) December 19, 2016 Recalling his experience to employer the Associated Press, he said: It took me a few seconds to realise what had happened: A man had died in front of me; a life had disappeared before my eyes. (Burhan Ozbilici/AP) He explained how he was well aware of the danger of the situation he found himself in when a man now identified as police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas opened fire at Karlov and then began shouting in Arabic and gesturing with his gun. But he decided to move forward a bit and do what he was there to do take photos. He said: This is what I was thinking: Im here. Even if I get hit and injured, or killed, Im a journalist. I have to do my work. I could run away without making any photos? I wouldnt have a proper answer if people later ask me: Why didnt you take pictures?. He even managed to capture the terrified and tense mood of the room by taking pictures of people taking cover and running out the building. (Burhan Ozbilici/AP) (Burhan Ozbilici/AP) The photos have had a profound effect on people, not least because its rare to be able to capture a moment as dramatic as this so close up. @AP_Images @BurhanOzbilici so surreal almost seems staged. one of the top news photos of the year Jack (@blindsprout) December 20, 2016 Can't get over this pic of the gunman who killed the russian ambassador. The type of pic you look back on. Sums up 2016 accurately. #Turkey pic.twitter.com/61AbM2snHw Nicholas Barone (@nbarone007) December 20, 2016 I can't stop staring at these photosRussian Ambassador to Turkey Is Assassinated in Ankara https://t.co/bHx3DW8XMJ JenniferMarchSoloway (@marchsoloway) December 20, 2016 The photographers bravery has been massively commended, too. incredible bravery from this @AP photographer at the scene of the Russian ambassador to Turkey's shooting. Warning: some disturbing pics https://t.co/BZGgl8Z8mb Joanna Gasiorowska (@JoGasiorowska) December 19, 2016 AP photographer Burhan Ozbilici with a late entry for photo of the year. The courage to take this simply remarkable. https://t.co/N8PvCzh9DR Dan Stewart (@thatdanstewart) December 19, 2016 (Ben Birchall/PA) (Ben Birchall/PA) (Ben Birchall/PA) (Ben Birchall/PA) (Ben Birchall/PA) (Ben Birchall/PA) (Ben Birchall/PA) (Ben Birchall/PA) (Ben Birchall/PA) (Ben Birchall/PA) (Ben Birchall/PA) (Ben Birchall/PA) (Ben Birchall/PA) Daylight on Wednesday, the shortest day, will only last seven hours, 49 minutes and 41 seconds. The official beginning of winter solstice is the point at which the North Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun (which is what everyone is looking up to the sky at). Heres what went down during the celebrations. PA reporter Laura Dennison explores if there is a need for people to volunteer at soup kitchens on Christmas Day and whether there are other things they can do to help instead. One of the most poignant memories from my time volunteering at a homeless shelter in Birmingham back in 2014 aside from awkwardly spotting a guy I went to high school with living there was what the head of the charitys homeless services said to me as December approached: Everybody wants to volunteer on Christmas Day, the one day a year when we dont actually need your help. (Jonathan Brady/PA) Crisis Homelessness is a growing problem, with homeless charityreporting that in London throughout 2015/16, 8,096 people slept rough a 6% rise on the previous year, and more than double the figure back in 2009/10. A new face of homelessness has been unveiled in the media in recent years, as so-called normal members of society are through no fault of their own finding themselves with no place to live and having to resort to sofa-surfing or living in B&Bs. In 2015/16, 114,790 households applied to their local authority for homelessness assistance and 57,750 households were accepted as homeless and in priority need. Brixton Soup Kitchen London is a city with a particularly troubling homeless problem, which is why Solomon Smith decided to set up theback in 2013, running with no government funding and admittedly not knowing very much about homelessness at the time. Their shelter provides hot meals and drinks, a clothing and food bank and an outreach service which feeds others around the UK. They also provide free legal advice, mentors and counselling to extend the kitchens role way beyond just food and truly address the heart of the issue. On Christmas Eve, Solomon plans to take his team to Londons West End to give out food and clothing to those living rough. The kitchen itself will be open on Christmas Day too. Due to their large social media presence, great work and mentions in the media, theyre never short of people wanting to volunteer. Our e-mails are crazy, Solomon says. But as the service only has three full-time staff, theyre finding it difficult to try to accommodate the 210 volunteer applicants who want to work at the kitchen on Christmas Day this year. Solomon said that this is always the time of year when their e-mail and website crashes due to so much traffic. Everyone perceives the festive season to be a time of giving back and you cant really blame them, he said. But this issue doesnt just arise over Christmas. Were trying to let people know that this [homelessness] happens all-year around. We need to wake up and think about what will be the solution. Weve all got the tools to make change but everyones side-tracked going about their own lives, and thats what makes people forget about others. When I asked Solomon what could be a more effective route for those who want to volunteer, he encouraged people to do their research. There are lots of different opportunities besides just the typical option of working in a soup kitchen, which has been popularised by photos of the likes of Kylie Jenner pouring hot soup into a bowl using her freshly manicured hands. Solomon suggests that a good alternative for people over the festive season could be to help the elderly. (Jonathan Brady/PA) On the subject of volunteering all-year around, he added: I could be working like everybody else, I could be doing 9 to 5, but Ive decided that this is something I want to do because I feel that Ive been put here for a reason. I needed to put the wheels in motion to make other people want to help. Yknow, a lot of people when they are like, Im going to go to the gym next week, theyre going to keep on doing that, and thats exactly like volunteering. Dont say youre going to do it later, do it today. The NUS has announced it plans to hire its first Transgender Officer by March 2017 to help lobby for equal rights. When the position is filled, it will make the NUS the first organisation in Europe to introduce a full-time elected trans officer role, according to The Huffington Post. Whoever takes the role will help to fight for equal rights for the UKs 28,000 trans students. According to research conducted by the NUS in 2014, 33% of this group had experienced bullying or harassment on campus and more than 50% considered dropping out of university. The specific parameters of the role have yet to be revealed but NUS LGBT office Melantha Chittenden has called the decision momentous. She said: Having a dedicated trans officer doesnt mean that the fight is over though, it doesnt mean that trans people now miraculously have equal rights, access to education or adequate support. The motion to create the role received more than 75% of the vote from NUS members, and since its announcement a number of those involved in the vote have shared their joy at its passing on Twitter and across other social media platforms. The hashtag #transformNUS was also used to help further the campaign to pass this motion. Chittenden concluded that the movement has finally given trans students what they want and deserve but most importantly what they desperately need. Chittenden has also written a longer comment for The Huffington Post further praising the NUS decision. She says that come March when the elected officer takes power, they will be fighting for things like the introduction of a gender identity clinic in Wales and that the NUS will be sure to support them every step of the way. Calling all drug dealers: have you had a bit of a falling out with competitors in the area? Have they overstepped the mark on to your turf? Are they stealing your business? Well, believe it or not, police in London are offering a platform to vent on. Metropolitan Police officers in Haringey have reached out to local drug dealers and urged them to report their fellow shotters to Crimestoppers or on the 101 non-emergency number. Any #DrugDealers who want to tell us about their competitors..... Please feel free to report via 101 or @CrimestoppersUK pic.twitter.com/JKD9AdsqmU MPS Haringey (@MPSHaringey) December 20, 2016 Police shared the appeal on Twitter alongside a photo of full baggies of cannabis, though were not quite sure how many if any will be taking up the offer. Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here You have arrived at this page because the page or post you were looking for no longer exists. 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This new and exciting direction for Tre takes inspiration from the global cuisine from some of the most distinguished restaurants in Europe. Banyan Tree Phukets esteemed Executive Chef Alfonso de la Dehesa and Executive Sous Chef Kreaton Cutajar, having formerly worked in Michelin-starred restaurants, bring expertise to bear on their new menu for Tre which features modern Western cooking techniques and presentation while incorporating Thailands native products. Wagyu Striploin Steak, Scottish Langoustines with Madagascar Peppered Sweet Breads and Foie Gras with Pear Puree are just a few of the delectable entrees on the new menu at Tre. Main courses include Poached Veal Tenderloin, Risotto with Truffles and Homemade Duck Ham, as well as Smoked Halibut and Wild Striped Bass infused with Herb Butter for seafood lovers. There is no better way to round off a meal than with a sweet selection of exquisite desserts. Guests can choose to savour a rich, wholesome Rum Banana Flambe or a delicious Chocolate Souffle with Caramel and Vanilla Ice Cream to finish. Tre is at the forefront of culinary excellence with its innovative dishes enhanced by molecular and modern preparation techniques as well as avant-garde presentation. With a martini trolley on site, this adds a stylish dimension to the gastronomic experience. This ambitious re-invention of Tre is part of the latest impressive upgrade of Banyan Tree Phuket, following the recent revamp of its celebrated Saffron and The Watercourt restaurants. Guests can now indulge in the glorious spread of treats and sips of Tre amidst the tranquil surroundings Banyan Tree Phukets signature DoublePool Villas. For further information or bookings, please email: fb-concierge@banyantree.com or call +66 76 372 400 on extension number 5463. the opportunity he refers to is probably to get that tract of land opened for development - which is...(Read More) Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina 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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe After 20 years as the Codington County auditor, Cindy Brugman retires Codington County Auditor Cindy Brugman will see through one more election night ballot count before passing her title down to Brenda Hanten. Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Clear to partly cloudy. Low near 45F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Clear to partly cloudy. Low near 45F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. LETTER: Instead of dropping 'The Ode,' find another way to honour Labrador Many writers to the Telegram have chimed in, some with vitriol, on the decision by MUN not to sing "The Ode to Newfoundland" at the recent or future graduation convocations. I am astonished, however, at the number who see no problem with changing its ... Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Costa is heading home to Goa in January. Prime Minister Costa who is of Indian originhe is still known by his Konkani pet name Babushwill be on a week-long state visit to India and will spend his last days in his ancestral village savouring the past. Prime Minister Costa will also be the chief guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas that is being held in Bengaluru. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 7. During the visit PM Costa is also expected to call on the President and the Vice President. Several MoUs are expected to be signed during the visit that would set the agenda for India-Portugal relations going forward. PM Costa is likely to be accompanied by several Ministers, a press release issued by the ministry of external affairs stated. Travelling across the country, PM Costa will also attend the Vibrant Gujarat Summit to be held on January 10. His last few days, however, will be spent going back to where his family traces their roots. His father, Orlando Antonio Fernandes Costa, was a novelist, and was part of the anti-colonial movement. He even went to jail. His most famous work 'O Signo da Ira' is set in Margao where he grew up. The house where Orlando lived onRua Abade Fariastill exists. During his visit, PM Costa will also meet the Governor and the chief minister of Goa. The National Green Tribunal has decided to slap a fine of Rs 50,000 on airlines that empty its waste tanks mid air. The NGT has asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to issue a circular to all airlines asking them to pay fine as compensation if their planes violated the direction. The NGT issued the direction while hearing a plea of a retired Army officer, who had alleged dumping of human excreta by planes around the residential areas near the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. The petitioner termed the act as a violation of the Swachh Bharat Mission. The NGT asked the DGCA to set up a helpline for similar complaints to be addressed. Said Union Minister of State for Environment Anil Madhav Dave to THE WEEK, No airline should commit such mistakes. This is morally wrong. I hope the order would be strictly implemented. I am on an official tour. Once I am back in Delhi, my ministry would initiate action against the offenders. Planes, generally, store the human wastes in special tanks, and the crew dispose them of once the plane lands. But, in rare instances and in emergencies, these tanks are emptied in mid-air. There are also cases of toilet leaks occurring in the air. Chemicals are added to the toilets in planes to reduce odour and break down the human wastes. Just about 30 kilometer away from Narendra Modi's home town Vadnagar, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that the prime minister had received crores of rupees from the Sahara Group. The Congress leader was addressing a rally at Mehsana in north Gujarat. Rahul, who is believed to have kick started Congress' campaign for the assembly elections due next year in Gujarat, chose Modi's home-turf to reveal the details, which he had been promising saying that it would lead to an earthquake. Reading out dates from a piece of paper, Rahul claimed that Sahara had given crores of rupees to Modi on nine occasions. This, he claimed, was written in a diary in possession of the Income Tax Department. The department, Rahul said, had got the diary during its raids on Sahara. Why an inquiry had not been initiated despite being sought by the IT Department, he asked. The Congress vice president also dragged the Birlas and claimed that the IT Department found from Birlas computer a note that Rs 25 crore was paid to Modi. Rahul alleged that the note mentioned that Rs 12 crore had been paid and it ended with a question mark about the remaining amount. Rahul alleged Modi received the money during his stint as Gujarat chief minister. Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal had recently exhorted Rahul Gandhi to expose Modi outside the Parliament. Rahul had alleged that he was not being allowed to speak in the Parliament. The media has been quick to dissect the allegations by Rahul. There are reports that these allegations were already there in a petition before the Supreme Court, which it had dismissed. Demanding an independent inquiry, Rahul said that since it was a question on the prime minister, he (Modi) should reply to it. I am asking you on behalf of men and women of this country and you should answer it, Rahul told the prime minister. Rahul devoted majority of the time of his 45-minute speech on the reasons why Modi initiated demonetisation and the effects it has had on the common man. The Congress vice president alleged that in initiating demonetisation, the prime minister had not targeted some 50 people (read businessmen) but the poor and hard working people of the country. I wonder why, he (Modi) did not target 94 per cent of the black money but targeted only the remaining six per cent, Rahul questioned. He alleged that the prime minister got scared when people started asking about the Rs 15 lakh in each of their accounts he had promised ahead of the general elections. Modi, during the campaign of Parliamentary elections, had said that he would bring back black money from foreign banks and each Indian would get Rs 15 lakh in account. Since he (Modi) got sacred, he brought in demonetisation, Rahul said and alleged that if the money of the common men and the poor remained in the banks, Modi could waive off the interests of the rich. Before reaching Mehsana, in Unjha, he took the blessings of Goddess Umiya. The Goddess is considered to be the main deity of the Patidars. Last week, Farhad Manjoo, technology columnist with the New York Times, set the cat among the pigeons with what seemed almost a heretical suggestion. He wrote an article titled 'The gadget apocalypse is upon us' , going on to suggest that gadgets as a class were dying, if not already dead, kaput. His argument is that nobody wants 'little electronic things that did stuff for you' because pretty soon, someone will come up with mobile apps to deliver the same functions. Meanwhile, cheap contract manufacturing from China ensures that within months of a startup developing a new and compelling gadget hardware, half a dozen clones will be available at a fraction of the price. Gadget makers are falling by the wayside in droves or are being acquired by rivals whose own survival is doubtful. This message of doom and gloom has been pretty much trashed by other tech-watchers. Most of what Manjoo says is true, but his conclusion is lopsided. Gadgets are not dying. They are warding off death by evolving and morphing in clever ways that we would never have imagined. True, we don't want to buy a device that does just one thing, no matter how useful. For gadgets to be perceived to be paisa-vasool, we expect them to be like Swiss Army knives, with blades for all puposes. The year gone by has provided ample proof of this. And in India, we have been offered pretty much everything that has been globally available, usually at lower prices, thanks to good old jugaad or frugal engineering. This is our countdown list of the greatest gadget categories in the year gone by. As you can see, this is not a ranking of specific brands but of the class of gadget. 10. VR headset In 2016, most of us got our first look at Virtual Reality and its cousin, Augmented Reality. Both had been around for a few years but pricey delivery mechanisms kept them out of our reach. Google first foray in ARGoogle Glass was a flop. Oculus who pioneered VR headsets priced themselves out of the consumer market. In India, it costs over Rs 80,000, 100 times the cost of an indigenously made model. It was left to a handful of mobile phone makers and a few third-party players to launch VR headsets that cost less than Rs 2,000, or were given away free as an phone accessory. Forget the ultra cheap Google Cardboard: it was not even good as a school project. My personal favourite is an Indian offering, the Zeb VR from Zebronics that was a comfortable fit, with focus-adjusting lenses that retails for less than Rs 1,000. It works with any phone up to 6 inch screen size. Today there is no lack of VR clips to watch. As I write this, I searched for VR video on YouTube and over 7 lakh videos turned up. 9. Health band Yes, yes, we know. Walking/jogging is good for us. The diabetics among us have been warned of dire consequences if we don't take our daily 30 minute 'constitutional'. (For those too young to understand this word, it is an old-fashioned expression that means "a walk taken regularly to maintain or restore good health"). Finally in 2016, we ran out of excuses to avoid that morning walk or run: someone had gifted us a health tracker. Of all the avatars of smart wearable technology, only the health band has caught public fancy. Mind you, what the band basically does, is to measure the steps or strides you take and your heart beat. All those displays of calories burnt and cardio fitness, is so much extrapolated hocus-pocus. But measuring your heart rate was a great thing. It alerted you if you overdid things. Global brands like FitBit can cost Rs 8,000 or more if you want extras like sleep monitor, GPS, phone alerts etc. Indians were offered basic models at around Rs 700- 800. Many health band makers created subscription models so that users could have a real-life trainer, egging them on when their enthusiasm flagged. We tried out quite a few attractively priced health bands this year. Samsung had a cool idea of combining a health band with a music player and 4G of storage for some 1,000 songs in the Gear Fit 2. We reviewed it though we were not exactly singing when we heard the price of nearly Rs 14,000. 8. Pocket Hotspot Your access to the Internet is great at home, because you have subscribed to a fibre optic cable-driven broadband connection and then turned it into a wireless hotspot with a home router. But what happens when you step outside? The data plan of your mobile phone is patchy when it comes to coverage. Things get worse when you stay at a hotelmany of them charge from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 for a day's connectivity. The pocket WiFi hotspot came as a huge help in 2016. This is because the small pebble-shaped device worked with any make of SIM and set-up was a cinch. Many customers now prefer to have a second dedicated SIM only for the mobile hotspot and to use it on a prepaid plan. For me, faced with a couple of outstation trips every month, the mobile pocket has been a Godsend. I got one of the early models from D-Link but you can find half a dozen options from TP-Link, Huawei etc and they all cost around Rs 2,000 to 3,000. We reviewed some models a few weeks ago in this space. Most mobile service providers have their own pocket routers which are a bit cheaper, but somehow I don't like the idea of a device that works for only one make of SIM. In my experience, no single provider has uniformly good coverage all over India and I usually carry two data SIMS which I switch to get the best data speeds in any city. 7. Power Bank Plus The humble power bank figures in this Top Ten list because unlike all other gadgets, this one is a life saver. Phones have become slimmer, lighter, more app heavy and less reliable. Most of us have had the experience of a phone going dead just as we are about to book a cab or buy a ticket. Inspite of the hype, only few phone batteries last a full day of intensive online use without needing a recharge. Power banks are becoming cheaper and cheaper per mAh of power, and more versatile. Some double as external storage by throwing in a few hundred GB of flash space. We have reviewed the Kingston Mobilite Wireless Pro, which offers 64 GB of emergency storage that can be wireless accessed, with its 6,700 mAh battery. These days you have to carry them in your hand baggage on flights, so it doesn't make sense to carry a jumbo model that gives 10,000 mAh etc. In any case, these are emergency devices and I prefer to carry a small pocket-sized power-bank of around 5,000 mAh which costs about Rs 500. UIMI Technologies based in Delhi recently launched the first solar chargeable power bank under the Make in India programme. The 6,000 mAh UIMIU3 for Rs 799 is great value for money. 6. Raspberry Pi Picture this: a credit-card sized computer which can connect to an HD display and as many peripherals as a full-fledged desktop. The Raspberry Pi with its Lilliputian design has been available since 2012 and its use has spread like wildfire, especially in engineering and professional colleges in India where students have embraced it as a platform to create a host of Internet of Things applications. This minion packs 2 GB of storage, USB, WiFi, Micro SD extensions and a HDMI port. Today you can buy it online for about Rs 3,000. If any single device unleashed the creativity of young Indians this year it is the Raspberry Pi. In Kerala, they started even younger: the state distributed 7,500 Pi kits to school children to encourage programming skills. In the strict sense, the Raspberry Pi is not a gadget, but thousands of young Indians are turning it into many cool gadgets, which is why it makes it to our list. 5. Smart TV From YouTube to Hotstar to YuppTv to the latest entrant to IndiaNetFlix2016 saw Indians watching a good chunk of their movies and serials on the Internet. So it was inevitable that the PC-TV sangam would make smart TVs a compelling proposition for us in 2016. Add to that the tumbling price of LED-LCD TV sets plus the tipping point in screen resolution, from Full HD to Ultra HD and 4Kand what resulted was bonanza year for TV buyers. The sweet spot: for less than Rs 25,000 was a 32 inch to 35 inch HD TV. Viewers faced a dilemma. For a few more thousand rupees , should one go for a larger set or a smarter one? Smart TV was the way of the future, allowing us (with a connection to the home WiFi network) to seamless switch from cable or dish channels to Internet channels on the same set. Did you miss the evening transmission of Karutha Mutthu (Malayalam TV serial) or Yeh Hai Mohabbatein (in Hindi)? No worries! Catch up with the missed episode on Hotstar before the next evening. For millions of Indian viewers, this was the first 'worthwhile' use of Internet and they duly cast the deciding vote for smart, rather than big. Chinese entrants to the TV arena like LeEco and TCL, graduating from the tiny screen of the mobile phone, offered jumbo-sized smart UHD TVs at disruptive prices, well below Rs 1 lakh. The year also saw LED slowly being replaced by Organic LED ( OLED) which helped make TVs unbelievably thin. This holds out the possibility of roll-up-and-carry TVs in the not-too-distant future. 4. Bluetooth speaker Wireless speakers are no big deal but trust makers to add an interesting spin to the basic device that works outdoors, on batteries and lets you take your calls. In 2016, we saw water-resistant speakers for those wet-n-wild outdoor parties and a model that comes with its own little rubber raft, so you can set it floating in the poolthe Ultimate Ears UE Roll2 from the New Jersey maker costs Rs 8,485 in India. Another class of Bluetooth speaker throws in LED bulbs so it also serves as mood lighting or a desk lamp. 3. Lampless projector Projectors have been around as long as cinema. Through all these years, the light source of the projector was its Achilles Heel. The old theatre arc lamps, always held out the danger that they would ignite the celluloid film and set the hall on fire. Even with home and office projectors, the intensely hot lamp was a nuisance that seemed designed to prove Murphy's Lawanything that can go wrong will go wrongusually dying on you when you were in the middle of a critical screening. In 2016, the lampless projector arrived and was hailed as the biggest advance in cinema after colour and digital filming. It uses a laser as light source together with one of three competing technologies to create the colours3LCD, Digital Light Processor or Liquid Crystal on Silicon. 2. Dual-lens camera phone The harsh and cardinal truth about photography is this: get the focus right or lose the photo opportunity forever. Software like Adobe Creative suite's Photoshop offered a 'sharpen' tool but this was never good enough to rescue a badly focused photo. And photos become out-of-focus especially if you fall back on the auto focus option. It is easy to deceive this option it looks for the brightest light source in the field of view and assumes that is also the most important. For me, the biggest news of 2016 was a phone with a camera that lets you shoot first, focus later. It achieved this by offering a rear camera with two lenses: one colour, one monochrome. The sum of what these two lenses separately shot was spectacularly greater than its parts. And biggest bonus: it allowed us to change the focus after taking the shot. I say 'change' not 'sharpen' deliberately. These days there is a fashionable school of photography which wants to deliberately blur some portions of the image for artistic effect. It is called the Bokeh effect. The epitome of the dual lens camera in 2016 was Huawei's P9 with a Leica lens system. Its successor was the Honor 8 which I got to try and shared my experience with readers. But Huawei is by no means alone and in recent months many phones with dual lens cameras have hit the market LG G5, iPhone 7, Lenovo Vibe S1, LeEco Le X 850 and Samsung Galaxy S8. The next Vivo phoneV5 Pluswill offer dual lenses with the front or selfie cameras. 1. 3-D printer Commercial 3-D printers first appeared in India two years ago, but remained costly tools that were mostly used by design houses to create prototypes of mechanical parts. Then a new wind of of innovation blew across the business. The huge potential of printing or rather fabricating solid structures with a printer that used resins rather than ink, was unlocked when startups discovered how cheap it could be. In fact this is one technology that caught the big names in the digital printing business the HPs, the Canons and the Epsonssleeping. Dozens of unknown names in India, began selling basic 3D printers either assembled or in kit form for as low as Rs 20,000. What you do with a 3D printer is limited only by your imaginationfrom replacing a broken spectacle frame to crafting a spare set of false teeth for granny. It is the ultimate fusion of art and science, and this is why we rate it as the top gadget that touched Indians in 2016. MK (Yahadut Hatorah) is working to reduce the cost of water. He was addressing a session of the Knesset Interior Committee which was scheduled to deal with his bill intended to lower the cost of water. He explains in recent years; private homes have been subsidizing the cost of water for farmers and he feels no one should be subsidizing the cost of water. It is an essential product for our existence and it is the states responsibility. The bill received its final approval and the cost of water will be reduced as Maklev intended. He feels as citizens should be paying the same for water, the same must be trues for farmers and it is not acceptable that a farmer in the north pays one price while a southern area farmer pays another. It is not a logical system, and as a result, we have lost many farmers due to the high-water costs. We must view the farmers as an invaluable national asset. Maklevs bill will also result in a lowering of costs of water for farmers too, with him explaining by law, the money levied by private water companies is now transferred to the treasury. The levy structure creates distortions and inefficiencies in consumption and management of water. In order to correct this prices must be lowered significantly. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) MK (Yahadut Hatorah) Uri Maklev wants the government to establish a DNA database. He explains that while the Knesset Law Committee has given the green light to reveal information pertaining to the missing Yemenite children, this will not lead to the desired results. He is calling for a government-funding nationwide DNA database. During the meeting, which he chaired, Maklev expressed his hope that revealing the information after so many years will assist in uniting families. He feels the government has a responsibility to get to the bottom of the case dealing with the Yemenite children and a national DNA database funded by the government is the way to achieve this. Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, who participated in the meeting, explaining medical information of the Yemenite children will of course not be released. Information that will assist in uniting them will be released, with Hanegbi added additional information will be released on a need to know basis. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Thousands of fifth and sixth graders on Tuesday morning 20 Kislev attended an event at the Jerusalem Arena Stadium, a kenos addressing academia and the chareidi tzibur. HaGaon HaRav Baruch Shapira addressed the forum, delivering a message from Maran HaGaon HaRav Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman Shlita. He explained that prior to heading to Yerushalayim he spoke with the Rosh Yeshiva, who stated Chareidi academia? That is like chazir with a shtreimal! Rav Shapira explained Beis Yaakov belongs to everyone and the girls are part of the battle with Gedolei Yisrael against the influences from outside for you are the continuation, the next generation, the generation of Torah. HaGaon HaRav Erenfeld announced The only place for bas yisrael is the Beis Yaakov framework and to be wary of all academic institutions including the chareidi ones. A bas yisrael has not place in them. He stressed this is the position of Gedolei Hador Shlita. Pure education is the cornerstone of Am Yisrael and you, as bnos yisrael, are the future and the education of emunah and bitachon and this is the way of Beis Yaakov and only Beis Yaakov is capable of educating women to this giant role. Academia is a stumbling block of Beis Yisrael, and therefore, all the content contradicts us and therefore one should not study there and the Beis Yaakov system does not recognize their academic degrees towards earning a higher salary. This includes study online. We are obligated to maintain the purity of the flask of pure oil without any foreign interference. The rabbonim continued that efforts will continue to seek sources of income for the next generation women, sources that will not require an academic degree. It was announced that HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky Shlita asked to convey his message as well, One who accepts upon oneself to study Torah exclusively, in Beis Yaakov and not academia, I give them a bracha for good parnasa and an abundance of bracha and hatzlacha. Rosh Yeshivas Slobodka HaGaon Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch added There is no doubt the situation today makes the functioning of the home more difficult. One the one hand, the women doesnt earn enough other than the minimum for the very basics. On the other hand, the husband, an avreich, barely makes a living. There are no answers. There must be Siyata Dishmaya that baalei batim from the United States will bring parnasa to many families. There are those who say there are answers. Include additional courses into the Beis Yaakov curriculum that will permit them to earn more or permit them the opportunity to study a profession in an academic institution but the rabbonim say no. the fathers and the husbands, including some talmidei chachamim do not understand why not. What is wrong with this? I want to explain why the gedolim throughout the generations would not change the tradition of Beis Yaakov and introduce new material and not permitting the students to enter academia. The reason for objecting to academic degrees among gedolim is because one who has a bachelors or even a regular matriculation diploma the drive to continue is great. Maran Rav Shteinman says If there is a bachelors, they want a maters and a third degree and so on. There is a cultural war and the secularist and partially secular want us to be like them. Do your mitzvos but be a part of society. You should have the same values as we do and they have the detailed plan how to do them and that is via academia. The secular lecturers and the content they deliver eventually we drift. The moment there is affiliation with a university or academia, this brings the girl down to another level as well as the family. It occurs subtly. The level of modesty begins to change and the need for physical items increases and it brings destruction. It is tried and tested by gedolei yisrael and this is the fear of academia. Dont tell my daughter or wife you are strong and it wont happen to you for this is not correct, it happens to everyone. There is another point, that each girl while in Beis Yaakov is cut off from the outside influence and therefore it must remain as it is but the moment she heads outside to academia, their style and language are adopted to become one of them (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) MK (Arab Bloc) Yousef Jabareen is calling on Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to launch a criminal investigation against a rav of Technion University in Haifa, Rabbi Dr. Elad Dokow for breaking laws against incitement. Jabareen, an attorney by profession, addresses a psak halacha released by Dokow prohibiting students from bringing a Xmas tree or Santa Claus caps on campus. Rabbi Dr. Dokow is quoted in a Shut online on the dati leumi Kippa website in which he says A Xmas tree is a Christian religious symbol but more problematic more pagan. The Rambam (Hilchos Avoda Zara) teaches us to avoid any place that involves avoda zara and we are obliged to avoid it when possible. Therefore, one should not do this and not bring it into the student building. The rav is then asked if one may buy food in the student building, to which he responds I do not see any way to permit this especially to say HKBHs name in such a problematic locale. Jabareen feels the words Dokow are an assault against the many Arabic students attending Technion. He feels the rabbis words are nothing less than incitement to racism, and therefore, a violation of the law. He also requests that the rabbis be suspended from his academic position pending the outcome of the investigation. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) In the ongoing battle between the Gerre tzibur in Arad and the citys Yesh Atid party-affiliated mayor, Nisan Ben-Hamo, the mayor scored a victory. Arad police would not permit Gerrer Chassidim hold a planned protest outside City Hall as they advertised would take place. police report they were ordered by the mayors office not to permit the protest under any circumstances. The response form the Gerrer community was If we cannot protest in Arad then we will protest in Bnei Brak. The main thing is that our voice be heard. Yesh Atid party leader MK Yair Lapid stated The chareidim can protest in Bnei Brak or Meah Shearim. We will not permit disrupting the tranquility and daily routine of the residents of Arad. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Chancellor Angela Merkel already knew that her campaign for a fourth term as Germanys leader will be her most difficult yet. The deadly truck attack on a Christmas market may have made it tougher and is already polarizing opinion. A nationalist party that has assailed Merkels acceptance of migrants leapt on events in Berlin well before authorities even concluded that the incident was an attack, with a prominent member proclaiming the 12 victims to be Merkels dead. Mondays attack also threatened to rekindle tensions between Merkel and Bavarian conservative allies, who have sniped at her migrant policies and demanded a cap on the number of newcomers Germany will accept, and whose supporters are an important source of votes. A suspect in the truck attack, who was arrested Monday night and denies involvement, came from Pakistan and registered as an asylum-seeker in Germany last year. Merkel said it would be particularly sickening if the assailant were confirmed to be an asylum-seeker both for Germans who help refugees and for the many people who really need our help and are making an effort to integrate in our country. Leaders around Europe and beyond are watching Merkels political fortunes closely, after she emerged as a beacon of tolerance and defender of Western liberal values amid encroaching populism elsewhere. Electoral math still very much favors Merkel emerging as chancellor again from a parliamentary election expected next September. Her conservative Union bloc has a tidy lead in polls over her center-left rivals, who look unlikely to muster a majority for a new left-wing coalition. The nationalist, anti-migration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has surged over the past year, but its often-provocative rhetoric remains a turnoff for most Germans its poll ratings have peaked at around 15 percent and no other party will deal with it. Merkels calm handling of crises has been an asset over 11 years as chancellor. But the past year has shown that her personal popularity is vulnerable to at least short-term hits from migrant-related incidents, with polls showing dips after sexual assaults and robberies in Cologne last New Years Eve and after a pair of summer attacks in Bavaria committed by asylum-seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group. Only the assailants died in those attacks; Germany had, at least perhaps until now, been spared a mass-casualty Islamic extremist attack. Before Germany votes, three state elections are scheduled for the spring the most important in May in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germanys most populous state. AfD will hope for big gains in those votes after a successful 2016. We must not indulge in illusions, party co-chairwoman Frauke Petry said. The environment in which such acts could thrive has been negligently and systematically imported over the past year and a half. This is not an isolated case and will not remain one. Marcus Pretzell, the AfD chief in North Rhine-Westphalia, wrote on Twitter Monday night that these are Merkels dead! Markus Frohnmaier, a spokesman for Petry who leads the partys youth wing, tweeted: Merkel is a terror chancellor. This government has failed. Such talk drew a sharp rebuke from Armin Schuster, a lawmaker with Merkels Christian Democrats, who accused Pretzell of abetting terrorists. Thats exactly what IS wants, he told the daily Die Welt. He can offer himself as their propaganda chief. Merkel herself has sought to strike a conservative tone lately, telling her party that shes determined to prevent a repeat of last years influx of 890,000 migrants and that she backs a partial ban on face-covering veils. While she insists that Germany will continue to take in people who genuinely need protection, her government has toughened asylum rules and declared several countries safe, meaning people from there cant expect to get refuge. Merkel was also a driving force behind an agreement between the European Union and Turkey to stem the flow of migrants, and has called for a national effort to ensure that rejected asylum-seekers leave Germany. In September, she ditched her optimistic mantra that we will manage the challenge of hosting and integrating migrants. Still, she hasnt yet closed a year-old rift with the Christian Social Union, the Bavaria-only sister to her Christian Democrats, which wants to cap at 200,000 per year the number of newcomers. The CSU leader, Bavarian governor Horst Seehofer, said Tuesday that we owe it to the victims, those affected and the whole population to reassess and adjust our entire immigration and security policy. That suggests Merkel could still struggle to maintain conservative unity during next years campaign. It remains to be seen how far the attack will actually shift Germans attitudes. We always knew that there was the possibility of an attack, but now the terror has become a reality and has come a step closer to us, said Monique Tinney, a 42-year-old Lutheran pastor from nearby Potsdam. My attitude toward the government will not change due to this attack, she added. However, I was taken aback by how some already tried to take political advantage of the attack as early as last night. That was disgusting. (AP) First lady Michelle Obama tells Oprah Winfrey that this past election was painful, but says she and her husband will support President-elect Donald Trumps ongoing transition to the White House and beyond because its whats best for the country. Mrs. Obama sat down with Winfrey at the White House for an hour-long special that was broadcast Monday on CBS. Michelle Obama was a vocal supporter of Democrat Hillary Clinton during the campaign, one she told Winfrey was challenging for me as a citizen to watch and experience. It was painful, she added. The first lady touched on her emotional remarks on the campaign trail following the revelation of Trumps graphic and predatory comments about women in a 2005 recording. Obama told a New Hampshire crowd in October that Trumps remarks about grabbing women had shaken her to the core. A lot of people have been shaken to their core and still are, she told Winfrey. They are still feeling the reverberations of that kind of caustic language. Still, Mrs. Obama says she and the president are supporting Trumps transition because no matter how we felt going into it, it is important for the health of this nation that we support the commander in chief. It wasnt done when my husband took office, but were going high, and this is whats best for the country, she said, a reference to her comments during the campaign that when opponents go low, Democrats should take the high road. Some congressional leaders refused to support her husband when he took office, Mrs. Obama said, adding that the strategy was good for politics, but it wasnt good for the country. As for her own political future, Mrs. Obama says she wont run for public office. People dont really understand how hard this is, she said. Its not something that you cavalierly just sort of ask a family to do again. (AP) A South Florida county wants to be reimbursed for the cost of protecting President-elect Donald Trump at his Palm Beach oceanfront estate. The Palm Beach Post reports (http://bit.ly/2ho52UH) that the county is sending a letter to Congressional members asking for help in getting reimbursed for resources devoted to securing Mar-a-Lago, Trumps Palm Beach mansion. County Administrator Verdenia Baker said when Trump visited in Thanksgiving, it cost an estimated $250,000. The president-elect is spending Christmas in Palm Beach. Officials say they anticipate it will be a significant fiscal impact over the next four years and feels the federal government should reimburse the countys taxpayers for the cost. (AP) One of the Middle Easts richest kingdoms said Tuesday it would host its annual Washington party at Donald Trumps new hotel, underscoring the president-elects unusual status as the owner of a major venue for events in the U.S. capital. Salem Al-Sabah, Kuwaits ambassador to the U.S., said the party would take place Feb. 25, adding that he hopes guests like the new hotel in town. He said no one pressed him to move the Kuwaiti National Day event from its regular venue at the Four Seasons. Although Kuwait did not have a contract with the Four Seasons for the party, the date had been set aside for it to possibly take place there. I do not know President-elect Trump, the ambassador told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. I do not know any of his people. None of his people have contacted me. He added: I thought would be exciting for our guests to see a new venue. It looks great. It looks cool. So lets do it. Al-Sabah noted that last years reception occurred at the Newseum, a museum promoting the media. Nevertheless, the move to Trumps $200-million renovation of the Old Post Office Pavilion could reinforce questions raised about the incoming presidents possible conflicts of interest. House Democrats already have warned that theyll make the splashy hotel a headache for Trump if he doesnt dump his ownership stake before taking office Jan. 20. Trump has a six-decade lease on the property. The Trump Organization is moving to remove thorny overseas relationships, canceling hotel licensing deals in Azerbaijan, neighboring Georgia and Brazil. Al-Sabah ridiculed the notion that he would choose the D.C. hotel to curry favor with the next administration. We have very deep economic, military and cultural ties; weve had tens of thousands of American troops in our country, he said, noting Kuwaits basing of forces for U.S. operations in Afghanistan and to fight the Islamic State group. You think a two-hour reception in a ballroom does that? Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article122001389.html#storylink=cpy (AP) [PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE] More than 150 people gathered at the Woodmere Fire House last week for an informative evening providing awareness and practical guidance on drug addiction and abuse within the Jewish community. The event, held on Wednesday, December 14th, was arranged by Amudim in conjunction with Project Extreme, The Living Room, the Woodmere Volunteer Fire Department and the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. Rabbi Zvi Gluck, director of Amudim, served as the master of ceremonies for the night, speaking briefly about the importance of prevention, both at home and in school, as a deterrent to drug abuse. Rebecca Glassman of West Hempstead spoke emotionally about her son Ari who died last year of a drug overdose, stressing the need for the Jewish community to wake up to the prevalence of drug use within our circles. Menachem Poznanski, clinical director of The Living Room gave a training session on addiction, explaining the progression that takes place when someone becomes a regular drug user and how to cope with the associated challenges. Reisa Berg, professional development and educational specialist with LICADD, gave an informative presentation on Narcan, showing how the lifesaving drug can be used to reverse the effects of heroin or opiate overdoses when properly administered. LICADD distributed 49 Narcan rescue kits free of charge at the event, including both an inhalable and an injectable form of the drug which is now available for civilian use and has been credited with saving dozen of lives within the Jewish community in recent months. The evening was a tremendous step in a positive direction, said Lisa Loew, one of the events organizers. It was a fantastic night, said Loew. It was an all hands on deck team effort of people from all of the different organizations really coming together to put together an enlightening and informative event for the community, the first step in educating the community about what is happening and what we can do to possibly prevent it from happening or continuing to happen. Having proper resources within the Jewish community to deal with challenges is crucial, explained participant Rabbi Boruch Ber Bender, founder and president of Achiezer. Any sort of awareness and education regarding these matters is important because you never know whose life will be saved, said Rabbi Bender. If an event like this can save even one life, then it is worthwhile. Hearing Glassman speak about the death of her son made the information far more real for many, noted Far Rockaway resident Leah Solomon, who said that she was encouraged by the brisk turnout. This was very good from an educational standpoint because it made it clear exactly what we are fighting, said Solomon. The numbers are very shocking for some, especially when you realize just how many people we have lost who were already in remission. Well known pediatrician Dr. Hylton Lightman called on the Jewish community to face the fact that we are not immune to drug abuse and to take the necessary steps to deal with that reality. We need the community as a whole, more than just a village, to help and assist both families and patients, said Dr. Lightman No parent should ever have to bear the guilt of feeling that they failed their child because services werent available and there was no one around to give them support, chizuk and guidance. Society at large, the schools and the shuls have to band together to be aware that we, klal yisroel, have a problem. Amudim has already received more than 50 questions about drug abuse and addiction from people living in and around the Five Towns since the event and Gluck hopes that other communities will hold similar programs to educate the public about drug awareness and the use of Narcan. For more information, to obtain narcan or to plan an event in your community, please email Amudim at [email protected] (YWN World Headquarters NYC) [RECORDING OF PILOT DECLARING MAYDAY IN EXTENDED ARTICLE] EL Al flight LY 30 flying from Toronto to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing shortly after the Boeing 767-3Q8 (ER) left Toronto. The pilot declared an emergency after taking off from Toronto Tuesday evening. The reason for the mayday call was an engine fire. The pilot radioed the Mayday call, and immediately began dumping fuel, and requested that emergency crews be mobilized to await their arrival on the runway. The plane landed 50 minutes after it took off on Runway 23 at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Bichasdei Hashem, There were no injuries. It was unknown when the flight would once again be departing for Israel. (Chaim Shapiro YWN) [VIDEO AND PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE] Jews in Uman were horrified to find the grave of Rav Nachman of Breslav defaced by anti-semites. People arriving at the Kever to Daven early Wednesday morning found blood smeared all over the Ohel / Bais Hamedrash. The horror really struck, when they then found a pigs head placed on top of the Kever. Police were quickly called, and the pigs head was tossed outside. Photos of the bloody anti-semitic attack quickly made their way across social media, causing shock and disbelief, as the holy grave that tens of thousands of Jews travel to each year had been defaced in such a horrible manner. There were no arrests made, and police were investigating. (Chaim Shapiro YWN) The Israeli ambassador to the United States is urging the incoming Trump administration to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Trump and his nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel have pledged to move the embassy. But previous Republican presidents have made that promise without following through. Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer says it would be a great step forward for peace. He tells a Chanukah reception at the Israeli embassy in Washington that it would send a strong message against delegitimization of Israel. The U.S. and nearly every other country have their embassies in Tel Aviv. (AP) An NYPD Officer was struck by a vehicle in Manhattan late Tuesday night. The incident happened at around 11:30PM at South Street and Clinton Street. Hatzolah as well as FDNY-EMS were treating the officer. Sources tell YWN that he is being rushed to Bellevue Hospital. He was reportedly conscious and alert, but had some significant head injuries. It was unclear what Division in the NYPD the Officer was assigned to, although sources say he is a member of the Special Victims Squad. An investigation was underway. PHOTOS BELOW VIA ULTIMATE BUFF: (Dov Gefen YWN) Police have arrested a Pennsylvania man after they say he had a loaded pistol in his backpack at Newark Liberty International Airport. A Transportation Security Administration agent spotted the weapon on X-ray at a checkpoint Monday. Authorities say 30-year-old Christopher Brown of Morrisville, Pennsylvania, told them he had forgotten it was there. Brown is charged with unlawful possession of a weapon. Its not known if he has a lawyer. (AP) Clutching a cobblers tool in his hand, Roman Gadayev defiantly lashed out against accusations that Russia meddled in the U.S. election to sway the vote to Donald Trump. Simply impossible, said the Kazakhstan native who runs a shoe repair shop near the Brighton Beach boardwalk. This is something that only uneducated people can buy into. Most Russian-speaking expatriates interviewed by The Associated Press this past week in Brooklyns heavily ex-Soviet enclaves shrugged off a CIA assessment that Russia hacked the Democratic Party and Hillary Clintons campaign boss to help Donald Trump, portraying it as nothing more than political sour grapes. Russia has nothing to do with this, Ludmila Bondar, a retired credit analyst who moved to America from Skvyra, Ukraine, 26 years ago, said in Russian. People are the ones who have elected Trump. Brighton Beach and adjacent Sheepshead Bay, which have become home to tens of thousands of Russian-speaking immigrants, are coincidentally where Donald Trumps father based a big part of his apartment-complex empire. These enclaves along the Atlantic Ocean not far from the rides of Coney Island are also among the few corners of Trump country in overwhelmingly Democratic New York City. While the city overall went nearly 79 percent for Clinton in the presidential election, most precincts in the two neighborhoods voted za Trampa, or for Trump, some as high as 80 percent. First-generation migrants told the AP they were generally drawn to Trumps promises to reduce taxes and create more jobs. And many felt that U.S.-Russian relations were likely to improve during a Trump presidency. Touting Trumps electoral triumph as a huge victory for regular people, Odessa, Ukraine, transplant Yuriy Taras scoffed at the hacking allegations and that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally behind it. I believe Russia couldnt exert any influence on the elections in America, Taras said in Russian, strolling the boardwalk with his wife, who was covered from head to toe in fur. Maybe Russia wanted to, but in my opinion, Putin maintains the position that he doesnt need war. He just needs others to stop bothering him. Taras said he considers Trumps nomination of Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, a person who knows both Putin and Russia, as secretary of state a sign that the relations between Washington and Moscow will be on the mend. If Trump does what he promised to, and Putin says all the time that he wants peace with America, then I think that enmity between Russia and the United States will stop, Taras added. CIA Director John Brennan has said the intelligence community is in agreement that Russia tried to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, though theres no evidence Moscow succeeded in helping Trump win. President Barack Obama has ordered a full review of any Russian involvement. Yefim Kacher, a hair salon owner from Odessa who said he voted for Trump because of his promise to slash taxes, was among the few who said there appears to be sufficient evidence that Russia tried to sway the U.S. election outcome. Although Kacher is critical of Putins very aggressive foreign policy, he hopes that the U.S.-Russian ties will get better because one shouldnt argue with America. Its a big nuclear power and a compromise should exist. Relations will improve thanks to common sense because no one wants to escalate the confrontation with Russia, he said in Russian. Roman Groysman, a 34-year-old marketing consultant whose family emigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine, says he sees hacking merely as a modern tool deployed by foreign countries against each other. Its to be expected. We did the same to other countries. Why wouldnt they try to do it to us? he said. Its all fair in love and war. (AP) A Nassau Community College student faces multiple charges connected to racially charged drawings discovered on campus buildings during the past two months, police said. Jasskirat S. Saini, 20, of Central Park Road in Plainview, was arrested Tuesday and is scheduled for arraignment Wednesday in First District Court in Hempstead on 10 counts of felony aggravated harassment, police said. Each count is punishable by up to four years in jail. In addition to the symbols, the words Germany and Heil Hitler appeared. In total, he drew well over 100 swastikas, along with phrases like KKK, Germany and Heil Hitler, mainly using markers, cops said. Police say Saini did it because he felt he was being harassed by the Jewish community in his hometown of Plainview. They say he used made the anti-Semitic comments on walls and handrails. Acting Nassau Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter says surveillance video from the campus helped detectives track down Saini. (Charles Gross YWN) President-elect Donald Trump is planning to meet with his incoming national security adviser in the aftermath of violence abroad as the process of filling top jobs in his administration presses on, marked by some infighting among advisers. Trump opened his day Wednesday by boasting anew about his Nov. 8 election victory, tweeting that his win in the Electoral College was more difficult to pull off than winning the popular vote would have been if he had tried. Democrat Hillary Clinton won at least 2.6 million more votes than Trump, an apparent sore point for the president-elect. I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote but would campaign differently, he tweeted. Trumps meeting with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, his choice for national security adviser, will come a day after Flynn and several other members of the incoming national security team met with Vice President-elect Mike Pence in Washington. Aides said the meeting was planned before the acts of violence In Germany and Turkey, though they were discussed. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the truck attack in Berlin that killed 12 people and injured 48. As well, investigators searched for clues on whether the gunman who assassinated the Russian ambassador to Turkey planned the attack alone. The gathering with Pence on Tuesday included retired Gen. John Kelly, Trumps nominee for head of the Department of Homeland Security; retired Gen. James Mattis, the pick for defense secretary; and Rex Tillerson, the head of Exxon Mobil and the intended nominee for secretary of state. While Trump has assembled his Cabinet at a quick pace, the process to fill out top White House jobs has been slowed by pushback among some advisers. Some of Trumps earliest advisers have expressed concern to the president-elect himself that they are getting boxed out in favor of those more closely aligned with incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus, who has chaired the Republican National Committee. Among those whose future is still in flux is Corey Lewandowski, Trumps first campaign manager, who was fired after clashing with the president-elects family. On Monday, Lewandowski met with Jared Kushner, Trumps influential son-in-law, and could still be offered a job in the administration, though potentially one that would keep him out of the West Wing and away from the president. The president-elects transition team has said it expects to announce some White House positions in the coming days. Trump met Tuesday with candidates for his unfilled Cabinet positions, including prospective hires to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, a beleaguered agency that the Republican businessman has vowed to overhaul. At Mar-a-Lago, Trumps palatial Florida estate, the president-elect met with Luis Quinonez, who runs a company with military and health care ties and is said to be under consideration for VA secretary. He also interviewed Toby Cosgrove, the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, who was a top contender to replace Eric Shinseki when he resigned from the VA in 2014. Cosgrove later withdrew from consideration. Trump repeatedly pledged during the campaign to fix the woes at the department and said he would take care of great veterans. But he also came under scrutiny for being slow in paying out money raised for veterans groups and for suggesting that strong veterans dont need treatment for mental health problems. Others said to be considered for the post include former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, Florida Rep. Jeff Miller and Pete Hegseth, an Army veteran and former CEO of Concerned Veterans for America. Trump is also considering Jovita Carranza, who worked in President George W. Bushs administration, as his choice for U.S. trade representative. She served as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration under Bush. With just a handful of Cabinet posts to fill, Trump is facing some criticism for a lack of diversity in his senior team, which currently includes no Hispanics. (AP) The Tunisian now wanted throughout Europe has six aliases, three nationalities and links to the same brand of Islamic extremism that has drawn at least 6,000 of his countrymen to jihadi networks. German authorities say the suspect in Mondays deadly truck attack in Berlin was under covert surveillance for several months this year. Berlin prosecutors told The Associated Press in a statement Wednesday that they launched an investigation against Anis Amri on March 14 followed a tip from federal security agencies. The tip warned that Amri, who was considered a potential threat by authorities in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, might be planning a break-in to finance the purchase of automatic weapons for use in an attack. Surveillance showed that Amri was involved in drug dealing in a Berlin park and involved in a bar brawl, but no evidence to substantiate the original warning. The observation was called off in September. Anis Amri, who turns 24 on Thursday, is in grim company with other Tunisians claimed by the Islamic State group. One of them includes the man who mowed down 86 Bastille Day revelers in the southern French city of Nice last July and another who gunned down tourists on a beach in Tunisia. At least 6,000 Tunisians have left home to join Islamic State extremists, forming the single largest nationality of foreign fighters for the group. Many trained at IS camps in neighboring Libya. Others made their way to Syria and Iraq. Its still not known whether Amri had direct links to Islamic State, but the extremist group claimed responsibility for the Monday night truck attack on the Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead and 48 injured. Amris wallet was found inside the cab of the truck, and German authorities on Wednesday issued a warrant for him, listing three different nationalities and six different names and birthdays that he presumably provided. His birthdate is officially listed in the warrant as Dec. 22, 1992, according to a version obtained by The Associated Press. In a pair of photos, he has a sparse beard and no mustache. Its not the first time an attack suspect has discarded identifying documents in a vehicle. The attackers who carried out the 2015 massacre at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris did so, as did one of the Nov. 13 attackers in Paris and the Tunisian in Nice, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. In all of those cases, the attacker was killed. It could be to kind of leave a trace and strengthen potential claims of responsibility, Otso Iho, an analyst with IHS Janes, said of the abandoned ID documents. It has happened so many times that theres probably some kind of reasoning behind it. Amarnath Amarasingam, a scholar at George Washington Universitys program on extremism, says he believes Amri did have ties with the Islamic State group. The fact that ISIS took credit for the attack before the attacker was arrested signals to me that he was in direct communication with someone in ISIS, he wrote in an email to the AP. We can probably expect a video or a statement from the attacker himself fairly soon. (AP) M&S Bank credit card customers are threatening to boycott the store over its heavy-handed demands to prove their identity. Money Mail revealed earlier this month how customers are being asked to submit documents signed by an independent professional decades after opening accounts. Some have had a card with the bank since the Eighties. M&S Bank says it is part of a crackdown on identity fraud, as many longstanding customers applied for credit cards before it introduced tougher ID checks. However, customers say the HSBC-owned bank has 'lost the plot' and plan to cut up their cards. M&S Bank says the identity checks are part of a crackdown on identity fraud, as many longstanding customers applied for credit cards before it introduced tougher ID checks Some have been asked to travel up to 100 miles to hand over documents at a branch. The bank is asking for two forms of ID, including household bills, passports and driving licences. It is also demanding customers find a professional worker who knows them to verify that the documents are genuine. This person also has to provide personal information, including a signature, name and date, their occupation, employer's name, company address, phone number and the certifier's professional registration number, for example, a doctor would have a General Medical Council reference code. Many retired customers say it is a huge hassle to photocopy documents and find someone to verify them. But if they do not comply, M&S Bank says they may be unable to use their cards. Jackie Keay, 72, of Yateley, Hampshire, felt unhappy about finding someone to countersign her papers. She says: 'I sing in a choir at the military academy Sandhurst, so I could have asked someone there. 'But I was very uncomfortable to ask them all that information about their address and company address and registration numbers. It seemed silly.' In the end, she called the bank, which said she could visit an M&S branch instead. 'They should have had that option on the letter in the first place,' says Jackie. Hassle: Warren Miskin, left, and Jackie Keay are unhappy with M&S Banks ID checks IT worker Keith Abbott, 61, of Poole, Dorset, has stopped using his card in protest. Keith, who has had an M&S card for more than a decade, says: 'I have never heard of a bank doing this to loyal customers who have held accounts for many years. 'They have also dramatically reduced the points they award on their cards, so we have had enough. After we received the letter, we opened a joint credit card with Barclaycard, which offers better rewards.' Under changes introduced in February, M&S Bank credit card holders now get just one point for each 5 spent outside of M&S stores. Previously, they only needed to spend 2. This means cardholders have to spend 500 elsewhere to earn just 1 in rewards. The letter sent to customers about ID checks asks for copies of personal documents to be sent to M&S by post in a prepaid envelope. Many felt this was insecure. When they complained, the bank told them to take the papers into their nearest branch although it has just 29 across the UK. This means customers may have to travel very long distances. Retired insurance broker John Powell, 80, of Oswestry, Shropshire, has used his M&S credit card to buy food in-store every week for 15 years. He was surprised to get a letter in October asking him to prove his wife Maureen's identity as a second cardholder. He photocopied her driving licence and a council tax bill. But, as most of their friends are retired, they did not know a professional worker to verify the documents. The pair called M&S Bank, which said they could get their papers signed by an M&S shop manager. But it was not encouraged. When John was turned away by his local Simply Food store, he was told by M&S Bank to make the 66-mile round trip to his closest branch at Cheshire Oaks. He says: 'I can't understand why they want to check up on my wife of 52 years. I told M&S Bank that my wife is the only Mrs Powell I have ever had, but they didn't seem to appreciate that.' After he sent several letters, M&S Bank finally replied, saying: 'If you do not provide the requested information, your account will not be affected.' John says: 'So why ask in the first place? I know they want to prevent fraud, but this is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.' Warren Miskin, 65, from East London, received a letter six weeks ago from M&S asking for wife Tina's ID. He initially thought it was a scam, as the letter came from the bank's Chester office, but wanted the identification documents to be sent to a Bristol address. Warren wrote to M&S Bank, which confirmed it was genuine and said it needed 'physical evidence' of his wife's identity to protect against financial crime. He says: 'I can't be bothered with the hassle we will use our other credit cards instead. Why do they need this information so suddenly? Has something happened?' M&S Bank insists the letters were not prompted by a security breach and is simply updating its records as an anti-fraud measure. It said those who refused to comply would have the same level of fraud cover for now, but may not be able to use the cards in future. A spokeswoman says: 'If a customer is unable to provide the information requested, we could potentially, in some circumstances, restrict the services we're able to offer them, but this would always be a last resort.' In 1991, I opened a pension with Canada Life, but stopped contributing after a few years when I changed employment. My fund was valued at 782 in 2002. I'd not heard from Canada Life for several years, but I assumed my funds would be well invested and it would contact me when I hit retirement age. I turned 65 in August and, as Canada Life still had not written to me, I contacted them. I was told my policy had lapsed in 2010 and had no value as it has been depleted by charges. The company says a letter they sent to me in the past was returned to it. C. O., Oxon. Fees: One reader's pension pot with Canada life was worth 782 in 2002 but by 2010 it had been depleted by charges Your letter epitomises why so many people have lost faith in pensions and insurance companies. I don't care how small a pension is: there is no way it should be completely eaten up by charges. Sadly, this has happened all too often on older pension and savings policies. Canada Life's explanation exposes just how badly old pension contracts exploit customers. You took independent financial advice before setting up the pension and made 43 monthly contributions between May 1991 and November 1994. Commission was paid to your financial adviser, so at least he made money out of it. You lost 4.5 per cent a year in management charges for the first two years, which then fell to 1 per cent a year. You were also charged a policy fee for administration; 5 per cent on every fund unit purchase; and a mortality charge to cover the payment of the full value of initial units on death. Those initial units basically mean there is a higher management charge on part of your investment. Think of the mortality charge as the company's insurance to protect the income it receives from these higher fees. Canada Life admits that charges were the main cause of the policy lapsing. The combined policy fee and mortality charge averaged 85 each year. Investment growth was not enough to outweigh the effects of this and other fees. Canada Life apologised for failing to contact you and admits it failed to register your change of address, despite you notifying it in 2005. It offered 100 compensation. I didn't think this was enough. My feeling is that if they had made better attempts to communicate with you and you had known the value of your fund was being depleted then you may have acted to move your pension. I suggested you should be paid compensation based on the value of your fund in January 2005, when you informed them of your new address. They increased the compensation to 500 and you are happy to accept this offer. The Financial Conduct Authority recently gave guidance on how long-standing investors with older products should be treated. It said insurers must keep investors informed and make greater efforts to track down customers with whom it has lost touch. It added they must look at investment outcomes for customers, particularly where charges are greater than investment returns, where customers stop paying into policies or where charges are imposed when they leave. YOU HAVE YOUR SAY Every week, Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails about our stories. Here are some from our investigation into how savers are losing thousands by investing in 'zero-risk' share trading websites: I'm sorry the lady lost money, but how much research did she do? I'd always Google the company I was about to give this much money to. In fact, I'd even do that for a tin of paint I'd spend a tenner on. B. L., Liverpool. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. If someone offered me the chance to make a lot of cash, I'd wonder why they're not making that sort of money themselves. S. M., via email. Cold-callers should be banned. They are a pain. I always wait half a second after saying 'hello' on my landline and, if there is no immediate response, I put the phone down pronto. H. M., Bishop's Stortford, Herts. As a successful investor, I tried spread betting a few years ago. I used a reputable company and turned 2,000 into 3,000 by betting on the FTSE 100 Index. I was over the moon and, spurred on by my success, I gambled again and managed to lose my original 2,000 and the 1,000 I'd gained. This made me realise my strengths are in investing, not gambling. R. R., Halesowen, West Mids. These deals sound great on paper. The broker offers you a two-week demo to practise. Fortunately for me, that was enough time to realise there was zero chance of me getting my head around it. You have to know exactly what you're doing, but even then, ultimately you're just betting. I can't see how any ordinary person can make money on the markets. C. S., London. This lady sounds like a good person who believes others are as honest as she is. She's lost money and will learn from this. I hope she speaks to her bank and comes up with a way to repay the debt. J. N., Uckfield, E. Sussex. I'm a self-taught stock market investor and would never dream of investing a penny without first doing all the necessary research. It's hard to feel sorry for someone who doesn't. No one should ever consider spread betting unless they can afford the losses. C. E., London. I have spent weeks trying to get my BT broadband up and running. I had attempted to change my phone and broadband service to another provider. This collapsed due to a seeming inability by them to get the broadband working. I therefore decided to remain with BT. However, I suspect BT had failed to let go of my line in the first place. More than two months later my internet is not working properly. T. F., Hants. Yours is one of a number of letters I have received from people who do not know who is providing their broadband phone service. This appears to be another symptom of general confusion in the market. Apparently, your new chosen provider placed an order to take over your phone and broadband. However, while the broadband move was successful, the order to transfer the phone line failed and this remained active with BT. When you tried to switch back to BT, it found that there was a tag meaning the broadband service was still active with the other provider. BT could not take it over without that tag being removed. Arranging this delayed your move back, a situation made worse by administrative errors. Your broadband has now finally been reactivated and should be working properly. A spokesman for the telephone company says: 'We've apologised for the delay and the poor customer service. We will arrange a payment to our customer as a goodwill gesture.' STRAIGHT TO THE POINT A friend bought me a box of Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolates. They don't expire until April, but have a bloom on them, are beige and the bottom layer is squashed. I got no response to my letter to Cadbury's offering to return them for inspection. S. S., Hants. Cadbury's has apologised for not getting back to you. A spokeswoman says it sounds as if the chocolates have got too warm, causing cocoa butter to rise to the surface, but have assured me they are still edible. Regardless, a new box of Dairy Milk is in the post to you. Since the state pension increased in March 2015, only part of mine has risen by 2.5 per cent. Overall, it rose by only 1.2 per cent. Does this mean the Government is breaking its promise to raise the state pension by 2.5 per cent? G. W., Leics. Under the triple-lock rules, the Government promises only that the basic part of the pension will rise by inflation, wage growth or 2.5 per cent each year, whichever is highest. Any top-ups rise in line with inflation. In April, the basic state pension will rise by 2.5 per cent, but the top-ups will rise by only 1 per cent. The entire flat-rate state pension (up to 155.65) for those who have retired since April 2015 rises by 2.5 per cent. What is pension credit? Is it the same thing as tax credit? G. H., London SW16. Pension credit is a top-up for retirees on low incomes, which you could be eligible for from the age of 63. Working tax credit is for people who are still working and on a low income. To find out if you are eligible for pension credit, call 0800 99 1234. For working tax credits, call 0345 300 3900. My son bought me a 200 JVC TV from Curry's online, but the picture was faulty. Curry's replaced the set, but the new one broke within six weeks. They claimed it was accidental damage, saying I must have knocked it over, and want me to pay 90 for labour and parts. A. H., Glasgow. Curry's says that despite no fault being found, the first TV was replaced as a gesture of goodwill. The second was returned with a different fault, which their engineers believe was caused by a heavy knock, not covered under warranty. You'll have to pay for an independent engineer's report if you want your claim reconsidered. For advice, contact Trading Standards on 03454 040506 or complain to the Consumer Ombudsman on 0333 300 1620. My grandfather bought a National Savings Certificate in April 1966. After his death it was transferred to me in December 1967. The certificate was passed to me in January this year after my father died. I wrote to NS&I on January 15 seeking to redeem the proceeds. It responded four days later saying the certificate was not valid or redeemable. I do not understand why. Mrs D. B., W. Sussex. National Savings & Investments has dug into this and it has had to dig rather deeply. It discovered you made contact in January 1974 to say the certificate had been lost. NS&I believes it would have been repaid at that stage or you would have been issued with a new certificate number. This would state that it was a replacement for the certificate you have sent to me, which does not have any value. A spokesman says: 'Given the time that has passed since we were informed of the missing certificate, we no longer have any record of the case.' I think they've done extremely well to uncover the record of your contact in 1974 at all. NS&I also apologises for the brevity of its initial letter. It was under the impression you were seeking a missing certificate and was unaware your inquiry was tied up with a bereavement. Odey me: Crispin Odey's has suffered a 48% fall in the value of his flagship fund Two of Britain's best known hedge fund bosses have endured a year of huge contrasts with Sir Michael Hintze emerging as a big winner while Crispin Odey suffered heavy losses. CQS, which was set up by Hintze in 1999 and has 10billion under management, has seen gains of 30 per cent in its Directional Opportunities fund so far this year. By contrast, Odey, who founded Odey Asset Management in 1991 and looks after 6.5billion of investments, has suffered a 48 per cent fall in the value of his flagship fund. Hedge fund managers and other investors have seen wild swings on the financial markets this year as the Brexit vote in Britain and surprise victory of president-elect Donald Trump in the United States sent shockwaves around the world. Hintze, 63, gained from bets on rising commodity prices. A former fund star has been jailed for 12 months after admitting insider trading. Mark Lyttleton, 45, used a phone registered in a fake name and passed tens of thousands of pounds of cash to a trader in handovers, Southwark Crown Court heard. He placed two illicit trades through a Panama company registered in his wife's name using secret information gleaned through his job as a top fund manager at BlackRock, the world's biggest investment firm. Guilty: Mark Lyttleton, 45, used a phone registered in a fake name and passed tens of thousands of pounds of cash to a trader in handovers In one case, he traded based on facts given to a colleague who had been on a corporate jolly, shooting in Scotland with the bosses of an oil firm. The father-of-two had already amassed a fortune legally and had risen to become a golden boy of the City. But when his fund stopped producing the stellar returns, he turned to placing illicit deals. Prosecutors said Lyttleton, who has since become a new age guru after visiting Singapore to learn secrets allegedly passed down from Himalayan masters, was driven by a feeling of his own power. Zoe Johnson QC said: 'What remains a mystery is why such a successful trader would descend into such criminality.' In November 2010, Lyttleton bought a Panama-registered company and listed his French wife Delphine, 40 as beneficial owner under her maiden name. The following February, the firm opened a trading account with Swiss business Banque Heritage. Lyttleton listed his wife Delphine as owner of a Panama-registered company he bought Trades were placed by asset manager Caldwell & Partners, masking Lyttleton's involvement. In 2011, a BlackRock manager was given inside information on Premier Oil's plans to acquire rival EnCore. After Lyttleton heard about it, he instructed Caldwell to buy 175,000 shares in EnCore and when the deal was made public, the share price rose and he sold the stock for a profit of 44,125. Around a month later, a Blackrock colleague attended a shooting weekend in Scotland organised by the board of Cairn Energy. Over dinner, the company's chairman Bill Gammell said that he was very optimistic about the results of oil drilling in Greenland. The BlackRock boss at the party told employees to put Cairn shares on a banned list in which trading was forbidden because the company had inside information. Lyttleton secretly bought 120 share options but after the share price didn't increase was left with a 10,000 loss. In April 2013, the authorities raided his 4.9million house in London and were able to show his phone was used to communicate with Caldwell before and after two trades were placed. Their search also turned up two other mobiles, one registered in a false name. Both had just one number stored in them, listed under the names George and Fred, and it rang through to Caldwell The Financial Conduct Authority's probe also uncovered secret meetings in which Lyttleton gave a trader from Caldwell thousands of pounds in cash. Before one lunch Lyttleton had withdrawn 60,000 to give to his contact. Mitigating, barrister Patrick Gibbs QC said Lyttleton was in 'mental freefall' at the time of the illegal trades. He said Lyttleton had been a star fund manager during the financial crisis, making money even as the financial system collapsed, but was losing clients. MBABANE As local gospel artists continue to take centre stage in the African region, Swaziland stands to host one of the biggest gospel awards shows next year. A request to host the second edition of the prestigious Trumpet Africa Gospel Music Awards in the country has been revealed. The founder of the awards popularly known as the TAGMAs, is South African Crown Gospel Awards founder Zanele Mbokazi, wife to Bishop Mpendulo Nkambule of the Word of Hope Ministries. Mbokazi has already approached the Swaziland National Council of Arts and Culture (SNCAC) with the view of having the awards hosted in the country in 2017. The first inaugural event was held at the State Theatre in Pretoria in May this year. This is where Shongwe and Khuphuka Saved Group scooped one of the prestigious African awards for best traditional group. Stanley Dlamini, SNCAC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has already informed the Association of Christian Artists in Swaziland (ACASWA) about the request from Mbokazi. The CEO said he believes that ACASWA has to be the association behind the success of these awards, as they focus on all local gospel artists. Dlamini confirmed that they have been approached by Mbokazi and her committee who informed them of their interest of hosting the second edition of the Trumpets in Swaziland. This just shows how other people value local production. The countrys gospel industry has grown and as we speak, it has proven to be one of the best. We are excited about the request and as a council we are considering it, he said. He noted that the country has the potential of hosting the awards, and he believes that it was one of the reasons why the name Swaziland came up. This is one opportunity which we as a country should make sure we grab with both hands. We will soon be meeting with the relevant people so as to check the possibilities of having this concept initiated as early as possible, he said. During the inauguration of the awards, Mbokazi said in the country, gospel music was one of the most popular and loved genres of music, adding that it was growing in numbers every day. She added that gospel dominates in almost every event hosted, be it a government or State event, social events and also in terms of revenue when it comes to sales. TAGMAs are more than just an award bestowed on deserving artists. The awards are about development of gospel talent, exposing the underdogs of the gospel industry to the world. Its about flying the African flag high, she said. She mentioned that the TAGMA awards will be hosted in various African countries as it is aimed at honouring gospel music in the continent, and will be held annually every month of May to commemorate Africa month. The over 20 categories in the TAGMAs will include best gospel song in Africa, the best gospel producer in Africa, best female gospel artist, best male gospel artist and also the different genres like best pray song and best hip pop rap gospel song. MANZINI Mluleki Simelane sustained serious injuries after he was knocked by a train while relaxing along a railway line on Saturday night. His survival has been described as very lucky. MANZINI A 21-year-old man who had been relaxing on a railway line said he considered himself lucky after being hit by a Swaziland Railway train on Saturday night. Mluleki Simelane, who escaped death, said he had decided to sit on the railway line as usual, after visiting a friend who resides just where the railway line is situated. It was only 7pm and from when we were young, we knew that the train went past our area at about 9pm. On the Saturday evening, I only saw it when it was about three metres away and when I tried escaping, it had already hit me with its locomotive. I tried escaping by jumping to the other side but I had already sustained serious injuries, Simelane said. He added that he could not remember events which occurred after he had been knocked by the train until he woke up in his hospital bed, at the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital, after a couple of surgeries. I miraculously survived and I am grateful to God, I could have been crushed into pieces by the train but somehow I managed to escape with the injuries I sustained. I did not anticipate that the train would go through the place as early as the time it did, Simelane said. According to police officers, residents came out of their homes running after the train sounded its horn multiple times. It was gathered that its driver upon realising that the train had struck a person with its locomotives, applied brakes and the worst accident was avoided. The Sidvokodvo police were alerted about the incident by residents, who had moved Simelane to a much safer side of the railway and they arrived at the scene. An ambulance arrived shortly and he was rushed to the RFM Hospital, where he was admitted. A resident, only identified as Make Malambe said she had never heard of anyone surviving after such an impact by a train. It was absolutely shocking, I have heard of people get hit by trains, and it is never a good thing because they die, Malambe said. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Khulani Mamba confirmed the incident and said the police were still conducting investigations. MANZINI Banning traditional healers and the use of traditional medicine will cause danger as the country will fail to prevent and control some deadly diseases. Mancoba Nkambule, who is a traditional healer and a member of the Swaziland Traditional Healers Association, said this when reacting to an article which was published in the Times SUNDAY that Parliament had passed a new law that would outlaw them and the use of traditional medicine in the country. The law is the Medicine and Related Substances Act of 2016. This is a big mistake because medicine provided by traditional healers and that from clinics usually complement each other. He said there were diseases which were difficult to cure using medicine from the clinic but easy to treat using traditional medication. So, if traditional healers and the use of traditional medicine is banned, the diseases which are difficult to treat by modern medicine will spread and people will die in the process, Nkambule said. He said as traditional healers they recommend that lawmakers should consult with all stakeholders before passing a law so that they could make an informed decision. He said in this case, government should have consulted with traditional healers so that they could get to know their role. As it is now, we feel government lacked in getting knowledge about traditional healers role in the fight against diseases in the country, Nkambule said. He said traditional healers were able to cure diseases like asthma, swelling, stroke and kidney disease, among others, yet modern medicine only controlled it. On another note, Nkambule said if government was banning them because they do not contribute to the economy of the country, it should come with a strategy like taxing them instead of banning them. He said recently, government advocated improved cooperation between the traditional and modern health sectors. MBABANE Shoppers abandoned their shopping and chased after a robber who snatched a bag with money amounting to E190 000 from a bar employee in the city centre. The incident happened yesterday morning at the entrance of the Corporate Place, while the bar employee was taking the money to the bank Information gathered is that the money was collected from sales during the past long weekend at one of the famous drinking spots at the mall. Banks were closed for two days as it was a holiday on Monday yet they dont operate on Sunday. This resulted in the bar having a lot of money to bank yesterday morning. Information gathered is that the owner of the bar normally sends different employees to make the deposits and the suspect might have been keeping track of the time they left for the bank on a daily basis. Eyewitnesses said the robber first scared the employee who was carrying the money and further threatened to assault and kill him before grabbing the bag and running back towards the direction of the mall. A plain-clothes police officer heard the shout for help from the employee and a chase ensued with the help of other members of the public. The robber first showed his chasers a clean pair of heels and never let go of the bag of cash. Fatigue is suspected to have got the better of him and he was finally apprehended near the car wash which is close to the shopping mall. It was such a dramatic chase as the police officer ran after the suspect without losing sight of him and all the time the suspect would look back to see if he was still being pursued. How does a person carry so much money in a bag and not be escorted by the police? They are the ones tempting the robbers, a witness who was at the shopping mall stated. Suspicions are that the suspect had some accomplices but they hid during the apprehension of their friend. The suspect was then taken to the police station where he was questioned and he will be sent to court after the police have completed their investigations. Superintendent Khulani Mamba, the Chief Police Information and Communications Officer, confirmed the attempted robbery and stated that they were still questioning the suspect. We advise people carrying such big amounts to contact us and ask that we escort them. They should also change the times and routes they use when going to the bank so that it is not easy for people to keep track of their movements. The suspect was not armed when he was apprehended. EZULWINI Having been accused of having a close relationship with the CEO, Ezulwini Town Board Town Planner Zwakele Dlamini has come out to say that all the stories are just gossip and that her boss is nothing but a mentor. Zwakele said this during her appearance before the commission of inquiry yesterday, where she strongly defended the Chief Executive Officer Vusumutiwendvodza Matsebula. She mentioned that her relationship with Matsebula was the same as that of the rest of the members of management and that she trusted his leadership, which was the reason she communicated with him from time to time to bounce off ideas. According to her, it was clear from the moment when Matsebula was hired that he stood no chance at all at the organisation, as there had been problems even before he came. While we expected his hiring to be a new start, we concluded that it was going to be a long term for him and here we are today. In my opinion, this is not about the CEO, she said. To her, the many allegations were just dirty tricks which she referred to as a creation of a smokescreen. She justified her submission by arguing that Matsebulas predecessor, Lungile Dlamini, would have also loved to have a commission take place as she also faced difficulties which led to her resignation. These are allegations that were made during the inquiry and their veracity is yet to be tested by the commissioners. According to Zwakele, Lungile, who is now the CEO of the Manzini City Council, resigned from the town Board because it was unworkable due to the fact that some members of management were allegedly colluding with councillors. The town planner alleged that it was clear that the former CEO was good as she had been doing a commendable job for a big town like Manzini. There are many problems and they start from management. Unless we address them we will be forced to come back here. My view is that the commission should also invite the Manzini CEO and get to know why she resigned. As long as there are councillors colluding with some members of management, we will be forced to change CEOs. I am not here to defend gossip but to assist the commission in finding the truth, she alleged. Zwakele alleged that the Manzini CEO actually shared with her that her job was made difficult by interference from councillors. Highlighting how the problems started, the town planner recounted the first budget meeting which she alleged became nothing but confusion as there were councillors who complained that they had not received their board packs and did not want it to continue. The commissioners then asked her to explain if the councillors received them on time and what she was going to do had she been one of those who never got them timely. I think all councillors received the packs when they got to Piggs Peak, where the budget retreat was taking place and others felt that they should have been given prior. I would have preferred to go through with the process, she said. This led to Commissioner Sicelo Dlamini commenting that she was perhaps a unique person as he would never allow to be given a board pack on the same day of a meeting. Zwakele alleged that after the meeting, there became two factions, with one comprising officers from the Treasurer Ruth Maziyas office and the other consisting of the rest of them, including the CEO. The office of the treasurer was not treating us well, so much that I always knew that I would have difficulties when it came to my requisitions. At one point I did a requisition and was told that I had not elaborated much. The office of the Health department also had problems including at a time when it was requesting to do a campaign on crime prevention and gender-based violence, Dlamini alleged. She said she ended up not working well with the treasurers office as she always knew that she was going to be bullied. When asked to describe how her relationship with the treasurer was before the problems started at the organisation, Zwakele mentioned that she concluded that both of them were fine until Maziya allegedly started gossiping about the CEO. She alleged that Maziya told her that the CEO was refusing to hire her brother. I used to get a ride from her when we were going to work as I initially stayed in Mbabane. However, I started noticing that she was not a good person because she used to talk badly about the CEO. I did not like this because I had never heard the CEO talking badly about her, she alleged. MBABANE Frustration and confusion was written on the faces of many customers of the Swaziland Electricity Company (SEC) after being told they could not purchase electricity units. Many people felt the pinch of the go-slow by the utility providers employees who turned back customers just as they entered their doors. In the capital city, for instance, one of the companys outlets was not providing certain services to customers. In fact, some of the workers informed their customers that they would not attend to any of their problems. A security guard was found by the door in the morning, addressing all the customers and informing them that they would not be attended to. He did not elaborate why this was the case. All the while, some of the employees were seen seated at their workstations. Some of them were seen reading newspapers while others were on their cellphones. We do not know when they will start attending to customers but if you want electricity units, the wise thing to do is to buy them through mobile money. There is no use going to Gwamile Street because those shops ran out over the weekend and they have not been able to restock because we are not selling to anybody, the security guard stated. Customers were compelled to leave without having purchased any units. I am saddened by this, the company should have at least warned us that they would not be selling any units. What should I do now? said a dejected customer. Another was heard lamenting the inconvenience of not having electricity in his house. How are we going to cook yebonine? This is unacceptable. What is management saying about this whole scenario, another customer said while leaving the outlet. Three other filling stations were also visited to try and purchase electricity units and they also sang the same time. A female cashier at Galp Filling Station explained that they did not have electricity units and were still waiting for them to be reloaded. It was the same story with Total Filling Station as the cashier also stated that they did not have electricity units. Nothing was communicated to us on why we cannot purchase electricity (units) from the company which sells it to us every time. All we can do is apologise to our customers about the whole issue hoping that it will be sorted soon, she said. A message circulated on social media on Monday evening warning people to purchase electricity before the go-slow started. A long queue was found at one of the shops at the Plaza as people tried to buy electricity units in the morning after reading the warning on social media. Those who have bank accounts with First National Bank (FNB) will be able to purchase electricity units, same with those who registered with Mobile Money. Beaver County preparing for robust Election Day turnout As the Nov. 8 midterm election approaches, nearly 114,000 people are registered to vote in Beaver County. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ALBANY - The citys deputy Corporation Counsel will take on the role of interim Corporation Counsel in Albany while officials search for a permanent replacement. Mayor Kathy Sheehan announced Wednesday that Bill Kelly will assume the role of interim Corporation Counsel for the city starting Jan. 1, 2017. Current Corporation Counsel John Reilly will be leaving at the end of the year to become city court judge. Reilly was appointed to the judgeship by Sheehan earlier this month. Sheehan also appointed Albany defense attorney Holly Trexler, a former longtime prosecutor, to city court judge. The lawyers will fill the seats of outgoing City Court Judge William Carter, who won election to County Court and is now serving there in an acting capacity, and former City Court Judge Thomas Keefe, who resigned from the bench in the face of misconduct allegations and distinct possibility of an ouster. Kelly has served as deputy Corporation Counsel since 2008, and in that role managed labor and employment matters for the city, including contract negotiations and personnel matters. Prior to joining the city Law Department, Kelly served as assistant district attorney for Rensselaer County. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Marist College and a Juris Doctor degree from Albany Law School of Union University. The city will be posting the corporation counsel position to allow for a competitive selection process for a permanent replacement. DORSET, Vt. -- State Police found a body submerged in Dorset Quarry at about 11 a.m. Wednesday during a search for a missing Bennington College student. Vermont State Police Det. Lt. Reg Trayah said they believe it is Hadil Marzouq, 21, who was last seen Saturday. Investigators don't suspect foul play, Trayah said. He couldn't discuss the circumstances of her death. "If you're asking if she jumped or if she slipped, I can't answer that. I may never be able to," Trayah said. The international student from Palestine attended Bennington College and lived with a host family, the Bennington Banner reported. On Saturday, Marzouq left the residence where she was staying and did not return home. She was reported missing the following day, Trayah said. About 7:45 p.m. Sunday, the vehicle she was driving was found next to Route 30 at the Dorset Quarry. Dorset is in southwestern Vermont, about 65 miles from Albany. On Tuesday, State Police, including its scuba team, scoured the land and water in and around the Dorset Quarry. Their search continued Wednesday morning, when they found the body, Trayah said. Anyone who has information is asked to contact the Vermont Sate Police at (802) 442-5421. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate HEALTH CARE ALBANY MEDICAL CENTER B. Marie Ward, an experienced breast surgeon and researcher, was appointed director of breast surgery. Ward, who previously served as assistant professor of surgery at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, has more than 19 years of experience in surgical oncology, specifically the treatment of benign and malignant tumors of the breast, and breast conserving surgery and skin/nipple-sparing mastectomies. She also specializes in general surgery. SOUTHWESTERN VERMONT MEDICAL CENTER Scott Lippacher joined Dartmouth-Hitchcock Putnam Physicians. Lippacher previously worked in the Emergency Department. Hospitalist Thet Soe joined the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Putnam Medical Group. Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and a member of the Royal College of Physicians, Soe previously worked as director of Hospital Medicine at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Massachusetts. MANUFACTURING COMFORTEX WINDOW FASHIONS Robert Russom joined as assistant controller in the Finance Department. Russom previously worked as a senior financial analyst at GlobalFoundries in Malta. SI GROUP Myles Cramer was promoted to strategic sourcing partner. Cramer works as a member of the newly-formed, center-led procurement team within the Supply Chain Services organization. Bob McQueen was promoted to senior manager, Taxation and Payroll Compliance. McQueen is responsible for oversight of North American payroll and pension finance compliance. Theresa Hill was promoted to manager, North America Forecasting and Global Reporting. Hill is responsible for the North America forecasting processes and global consolidated audit and financial statements. Roberta Steele was promoted to director, Global Treasury and Risk. Steele oversees the company's global cash, insurance and credit functions. NONPROFITS THE BRAIN INJURY ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK STATE Kara Granato joined as director of communications, overseeing the agency's marketing and communications strategy. Granato has worked in the nonprofit communications industry for nearly a decade. MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK John P. Belmont joined as vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs. Belmont previously worked as a legislative representative for the Civil Service Employees Association's Legislative and Political Operations arm. Jennifer Patterson If you're still looking for local events this weekend, here are a few options ranging from relaxing yoga to ugly sweater pub crawls for charity. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Albany When a woman who had been raped and severely beaten reported her assault to city police, she relayed the few facts she remembered from the traumatic night: the bar where she'd met her attacker, the car he drove her away in and the neighborhood where they stopped for gasoline. State-funded crime analysts got to work. Surveillance video showed the pair leaving the bar, city street cameras captured their drive down Central Avenue in a white Hyundai, and gas station footage gave detectives a clear shot of the man's face. The bar, which scans everyone's IDs as they enter, handed over its data and analysts cross-referenced the list of patrons with state vehicle records for Hyundai owners who have a plate starting with the letter F. And up popped the perpetrator, a man who was later sentenced to 25 years in prison. "This case identifies a whole mess of things: analysis, cooperation with investigators, cameras, good hard police work, IT capability," Albany Crime Analysis Center Director John Riegert said. "That all drives the bus for us." State and local law enforcement leaders toured the newly renovated Albany Crime Analysis Center on Tuesday, heralding it as a "real-time" resource capable of reacting to crimes in progress. Michael Wood, deputy commissioner of the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, said upgrades in city cameras and police data sharing agreements now allow analysts to give immediate advice to police on the ground. The state-funded crime analysis center, located in the city police department's South Station, has traditionally offered "a retrospective look at trends," Wood said. The center now produces case research, crime mapping and patterns, statistical analysis, and reporting and development of intelligence to 33 police departments and sheriffs' offices in the Capital Region. "This isn't ever going to replace what investigators do every day," DCJS spokeswoman Janine Kava. "You're still knocking on doors. But you're knocking on the right doors." The state spent $370,000 to upgrade the Albany center, established in 2009. Computer systems, dispatch logs and mapping software have been updated. The room's far wall now features a 4-foot by 12-foot video screen that displays street-view cameras, data sets and crime maps in real time. The facility is currently open weekdays during normal business hours. In the new year, those hours will be extended to 8 a.m. to midnight Monday to Saturday. The center, one of one of seven upstate that cover a total of 13 counties, integrates crime data from law enforcement agencies in Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady and Saratoga counties, but has also assisted agencies in counties south to Dutchess, west to Fulton, and north to Warren and Washington. Local and state organizations hand over data, such as incident reports, photos of suspects, parole information, street-camera footage and license-plate reader logs. And the center's analysts synthesize it all into daily crime briefings, long-term crime maps and live investigation leads. Wood said the state is committed to balancing public safety with personal privacy at a time when the mining of big data has some citizens concerned about surveillance. "This isn't Big Brother," Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo said. "This is about solving problems." When Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox gets to work every morning, he's handed a 24-hour crime brief detailing incidents around the city, he said. The center also sends his command staff briefings on gang activity, investigative agendas and active crime series. "This is a great tool in law enforcement to keep the public safe, to make sure we can identify our crime patterns and stop them," Cox said. Since August, dozens of apartments in Pine Hills have been broken into and electronics have been stolen. Last week, analysts sent a report to the police in Albany on a burglary spree targeting students living in the neighborhood. The center's report included a map of the incidents, a list of possible suspects, photos from surveillance footage and analysis of common factors. Albany police spokesman Officer Steve Smith said the department is now close to an arrest. For intel like this, Cox said his department hands over everything short of personnel records to the crime analysis center. The seven crime analysis centers are located in upstate hubs with the greatest number of incidents of Part 1 crime, an FBI designation for the most serious and closely tracked offenses: homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson. The centers are also located near the Canada border or state lines. "Criminals travel," Wood said. "These borders don't really matter." The other state-supported centers are located in Broome, Erie, Franklin, Monroe, Niagara and Onondaga counties; an eighth center is scheduled to be fully operational early next year in Oneida County. The DCJS spends about $5.5 million a year to support the program and local law enforcement agencies fund their own personnel. Albany's crime analysis center has 19 staff members, including a director employed by DCJS, civilian crime analysts, sworn police detectives and field intelligence officers. emasters@timesunion.com 518-454-5467 @emilysmasters Amsterdam Police suspect the deaths of four city residents and the emergency treatment of perhaps another dozen in recent weeks to be caused by heroin laced with the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl. "It's either that, or the heroin is more potent," said Amsterdam Deputy Police Chief Victor Hugo. Police are awaiting the results of toxicology and autopsy reports to confirm their suspicions. Two people were found dead last week and another two in the preceding couple of weeks, Hugo said. The four city residents, ranging in age from their 30s to 50s, had no connection to each other, Hugo said. Another 10 to 12 people were successfully treated for overdoses by emergency responders and medical staff at St. Mary's Hospital over the same period, marking a tremendous spike in overdose calls. Hugo said he might have expected an overdose or two, not a dozen. Police are confident that heroin was the culprit of the overdoses, even as they await toxicology results. They found packaging materials, syringes and other paraphernalia associated with the drug, Hugo said. The police department issued a warning about the possibility of the heroin being cut with fentanyl in the hopes of deterring some drug users from purchasing more of the killer batch. Heroin often proves fatal when laced with fentanyl, which has been more widely circulating in Amsterdam and throughout the region in recent months. "What we're hoping is people who are using and addicted to the stuff maybe they will be cautious, and seek treatment," Hugo said. "That may be a lot to ask, but it's the ultimate goal." The legal, pharmaceutical form of fentanyl is approved for treating severe pain, typically in patients with advanced cancer. Most recent cases of fentanyl overdose and deaths are related to illegally produced fentanyl, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some drug users stay clear of heroin and sound the alarm to friends when they hear of so-called "hot batches" laced with fentanyl, according to a Times Union report published this summer. Others, however, are drawn to the deadly mixture, chasing after a more powerful high. When fentanyl is mixed with heroin, it's hard to know the potency of the concoction. Drug dealers use fentanyl to cut down on the cost of heroin, while selling the drug at the same price. The synthetic opioid's prevalence is on the rise statewide. In 2013, law enforcement agents seized half a kilo, or about a pound, of fentanyl in the state, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York division told the Times Union this summer. In 2015, they seized 21 kilos. Midway through 2016, they had seized 35 kilos. Albany The state Education Department has agreed to clarify on its website that teachers who discuss publicly released questions from the state's standardized tests will not face punishment, according to terms of a settlement reached Monday in federal court. The agreement between the department and the state's major teachers union, New York State United Teachers, resolves a 2-year-old suit by NYSUT that claimed the department violated free speech rights of teachers who agreed to score standardized exams by prohibiting them from discussing test questions after they had been administered and scored. U.S. Magistrate Judge Christian Hummel approved the settlement. "Teachers are the professionals in the classroom," said NYSUT President Karen Magee. "Their voice is essential to public debate about the state's testing system, especially when they believe test questions are unfair or inappropriate." The dispute dated to 2014, when teachers who scored the state's English language arts and math exams for students in grades 3-8 were required to sign a confidentiality agreement prohibiting them from discussing any portion of the tests that had not been publicly released. Violators of the so-called "gag order" could face loss of employment, certification or even criminal charges. Some teachers had previously been bound by similar, locally developed confidentiality agreements. But the state-generated one came when controversy over the state exams, which were based on learning standards that many condemned as developmentally inappropriate, was nearing a flash point. In a year, one in five students would boycott the tests. As criticism of the standards and tests mounted, many parents and teachers felt they deserved to see just what it was that was causing so much angst. The department, however, contended that releasing too many questions to the public would be costly because the questions must be field tested first and are often recycled in future exams. If they released the questions, education officials said, they would need more state funding to create more versions of the tests. In response to criticism and to a 2015 mandate requiring the department to release some questions and answers annually by June 1, the department has made public more test questions each year. This summer, it released 75 percent of questions from the 2016 English and math tests the most ever. The settlement keeps the confidentiality agreements in place but requires the department to affirm on its website that they apply only to test material not publicly released something the department contends it has said all along. "The settlement approved today acknowledges the existing requirements of state Education Law and clarifies what has been the department's policy and practice which is that discussion of publicly released test material, after its public release, is not a violation of the confidentiality agreements," department spokesman Jonathan Burman said. The settlement also prevents the department from disciplining the five plaintiffs teachers from Columbia and Monroe counties for any discussion of publicly released material from the 2014 and 2015 state exams, and orders the state to pay $10,000 for their attorney fees. bbump@timesunion.com 518-454-5387 @bethanybump Schenectady A 22-year-old wanted in connection with a shooting earlier this month faces additional criminal charges after he allegedly tried to make a run for it Tuesday when police attempted to pull him over as he was driving, according to court papers. The suspected gunman, Angel Madera, 22, is accused during the late night hours of Dec. 2 of firing several rounds from a 22-caliber gun in the direction of another person on Haigh Avenue in the Central State Street neighborhood, the criminal complaint states. It's unclear if the would-be-victim was hit, but Madera initially escaped capture. Shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday, a patrol officer spotted Madera in a car and tried to pull him over when instead of complying Madera got out of his vehicle and ran off, according to the court document. He subsequently went into a home on 1040 Holland Road in Mont Pleasant. Police surrounded the place and Madera was arrested when he emerged from the residence within a half-hour, said Sgt. Matthew Dearing, a city police spokesman, He is facing charges of criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment, both felonies, related to that shooting, and obstruction of governmental administration and resisting arrest in the driving incident. City investigators are continuing their probe into a shooting Monday afternoon on Schenectady Street that landed Kenny Barros at Albany Medical Center Hospital. On Tuesday, Barros, 47, was in stable condition. pnelson@timesunion.com 518-454-5347 @apaulnelson This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Istanbul Turkey and Russia staged a determined show of solidarity Tuesday, a day after an off-duty Turkish police officer gunned down Russia's ambassador in a shocking public assassination that added another layer of complexity to the Syrian conflict. While foreign ministers from the two countries, plus Iran, pressed ahead with an already-planned meeting in Moscow to weigh Syrian strategy, a team of 18 Russian investigators arrived in Turkey seeking clarity on the motives of the shooter, who was shot dead by Turkish special forces. Turkish authorities raided homes of relatives of the 22-year-old assailant, Mevlut Mert Altintas, and searched for links to a movement that stands accused of being behind a coup attempt in Turkey five months ago. The gunman, a riot policeman since 2014, shouted jihadist slogans during his attack, and specifically cited carnage in the Syrian city of Aleppo, where Russia and its Syrian government allies carried out weeks of devastating bombardment, killing hundreds of civilians. It was not yet known whether Altintas was acting in sympathy with a Syrian opposition faction or if the killing was intended as an expression of outrage over Russia's role in civilian bloodletting in Aleppo. As the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo deepened in recent weeks, Turks by the thousands staged rallies and protests outside diplomatic missions of Russia and Iran. Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim armed factions helped Syrian government forces drive rebels out of their Aleppo strongholds. Both Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin described the assassination as a bid to drive a wedge between the two countries. The attack came amid a rapprochement of recent months that followed years of tensions over their opposing interests in Syria. Russia supports Syrian President Bashar Assad and Turkey has aided rebels seeking to oust him, but the two have been cooperating in recent months, freezing out the United States in their consultations. "We know that this is a provocation to hamper the normalization process between Turkey and Russia," Erdogan said in a televised address Monday, hours after the killing. "But both the Russian government and the Turkish government refuse to submit to this provocation." At Tuesday's meeting in Moscow, the Russian, Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers agreed to work toward an accord between Assad and the rebels, officials said. At home in Turkey, though, Erdogan's domestic political preoccupations overshadowed the investigation into the killing of Ambassador Andrei Karlov. The Turkish leader has been carrying out a sweeping purge of suspected supporters of Fethullah Gulen, an elderly cleric living in exile in the United States whom Erdogan considers the mastermind behind the coup attempt in July. Ever since our nation's founding, the issue of equal voting rights has been central to our definition of democracy. After we fought the Civil War to end black slavery the ultimate contradiction of living in a free republic the country enacted the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution. Black people were guaranteed equal protection under the laws; black men earned the right to vote. Women, too, had demanded the suffrage, a battle they finally won with ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. And in a fight waged under the slogan "one person, one vote," the civil rights movement secured enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. More Information William Chafe teaches history at Duke University. He is the author of 13 books, and served as president of the Organization of American Historians in 1999. See More Collapse Finally, it seemed, America had guaranteed the right of every citizen, black or white, male or female, to have equal access to the polling place one person, one vote. Alas, it was not true. One reason was the existence of the Electoral College, an institution that by design sought to deny one person, one vote. Almost always, this denial was connected to the issue of race. Initially, the Electoral College became part of the presidential selection system to protect the interests of slave holding whites. Although black slaves were not citizens and could not vote, they were counted as part of the population in Southern states based on the 3/5th clause of the Constitution. So 60 percent of slaves were counted as part of the state's population in order to expand the number of electoral votes a Southern state could cast, even though no Southern blacks could vote. The Electoral College and race once again played a decisive role in 1876-77. The Republican nominee, Rutherford B. Hayes, had lost the popular vote to Samuel Tilden. At that point, Hayes, despite being the nominee of the party that had fought the Civil War, proposed a deal: If the members of the Electoral College from Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana would cast their votes for Hayes, even though he had not won the popular vote in these states, Hayes pledged to remove the federal troops that had occupied the South to preserve and protect the rights of newly freed blacks, including the right to vote. Reconstruction came to an end, and the descendants of Confederate white power-brokers resumed control. Majority rule was again upended in 2000. Al Gore defeated George W. Bush by 500,000 votes across the country. In Florida, one of the most contested states, thousands of blacks faced severe difficulties in casting their ballots. White Republican districts had the most up-to-date voting machines; black communities suffered a shortage of voting machines, and those that were used were old and often malfunctioned. A recount began in three disputed areas. Then, with less than 600 votes separating the two candidates, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to halt the recount, awarding the Electoral College vote and the presidency to Bush. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. The 2016 election simply confirmed, with stark boldness, how the Electoral College, as well as issues of race, again helped to sabotage the democratic process. In 2012, the Supreme Court eviscerated the 1965 Voting Rights Act in the Shelby case, declaring that racism was over in the South and hence there was no longer a need for the federal government to oversee changes in voting rights in Southern states. Within months, the state legislature in North Carolina had enacted Voter ID laws designed to make it more difficult for blacks to register or to vote early. In 2016, Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump by approximately 2.5 million votes five times the margin of victory enjoyed by Al Gore. But once again, the Electoral College did its part to deny democracy. In Wyoming, one electoral vote represented 72,000 ballots cast by actual citizens. In California, it took 270,000 actual votes to match that same electoral vote, giving a Wyoming citizen nearly four times more power than a California citizen in allocating votes from the Electoral College. One person, one vote today remains a myth, confounding the essence of our democracy. If, in fact, we believe in one person, one vote, we need to change our electoral system now. No longer can we afford elections like those of 1876, 2000 and 2016, or the consequences that have and will flow from them. Tipperary people with friends and relatives in University Hospital Limerick are being reminded that strict visiting restrictions remain in place following an outbreak of influenza. As of 1pm on Tuesday, December 20, there were 10 confirmed cases of seasonal influenza in the hospital. The Health Protection and Surveillance Centre has urged people in high-risk groups to get vaccinated as the number of reported cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) in Ireland has increased in the past week. The figures for the Mid-West are above the national baseline for influenza-like illness. UL Hospitals Group has asked that members of the public respect the current restrictions on visiting at UHL. Visiting is restricted to one person per patient during visiting hours only (2pm to 4pm and 6pm to 9pm). In recent days the hospital had advised visiting was limited to the critically unwell and to parents of sick children only. The restrictions have been amended in response to feedback from patients / families and in consultation with the infection prevention and control team. It remains imperative that people with flu symptoms and those feeling unwell in general stay away from the hospital at this time. Likewise, the U16s are advised not to visit the hospital. UHL say its regrets any inconvenience caused by the restrictions, which are being implemented in the interests of patient care. All infection control measures are in place and every effort is being made to manage and contain the spread of the virus. Patients are being isolated and cohorted as appropriate in accordance with IP&C protocols. [December 21, 2016] 22nd Century Group Announces Major Scientific Collaboration with University of Virginia 22nd Century Group, Inc. (NYSE MKT:XXII), a plant biotechnology company that is a leader in tobacco harm reduction, announced today that the Company has entered into a sponsored research agreement with the University of Virginia ("UVA") and an exclusive license with the University of Virginia Patent Foundation d/b/a University of Virginia Licensing & Ventures Group ("UVA LVG"). Over the next three years, the Company will invest approximately $1,100,000 in this major scientific collaboration with UVA. The goals of the research agreement include: (i) creating unique industrial hemp plants with guaranteed levels of THC below the legal limits (thus eliminating the risk to growers of having to destroy non-conforming hemp crops) and (ii) optimizing other desirable hemp plant characteristics to improve the plant's suitability for growing in Virginia and in similar legacy tobacco regions. This groundbreaking alliance will also involve the development and study of medically important cannabinoids to be extracted from the Company's unique hemp plants. UVA and 22nd Century will conduct all activities in this scientific collaboration within the parameters of state and federal licenses and permits held by UVA for such work. These landmark agreements grant 22nd Century exclusive rights to commercialize all results of the collaboration in consideration of royalty payments by the Company to UVA LVG. 22nd Century has now solved one of the most significant problems that has plagued U.S. research on industrial hemp plants. Currently, the only hemp plants available in the U.S. for research and development are either (i) plants from Canada that are small in size and unsuitable for fiber production or other industrial uses, and (ii) "research only" plant material from Europe, which limits researchers to one plant generation, except only under onerous terms from European suppliers (which makes such plants virtually useless for research and development of improvements). By contrast, 22nd Century has established an exclusive network of fully licensed, legal owners and growers of industrial hemp plants in the U.S.who have agreed to provide research, development and commercialization rights to the Company. Accordingly, 22nd Century will provide superior plant materials to UVA for use in this unique collaboration. In fact, the specially-selected starting plant materials already exhibit highly desirable traits and characteristics which 22nd Century believes will significantly accelerate production of viable, reliably true-breeding industrial hemp in the U.S. Dr. Michael Timko, the principal scientific investigator at UVA for this project, stated, "We are very excited by the groundbreaking opportunities afforded by this important collaboration with 22nd Century. We believe that this partnership will yield great results for the Commonwealth of Virginia and its agricultural and medical industries. UVA looks forward to becoming a leader in Virginia in these fields." Dr. Paul Rushton, the Vice President of Plant Biotechnology for 22nd Century, remarked, "We share UVA's enthusiasm for our new collaboration. 22nd Century also looks forward to entering into additional scientific alliances with other academic and scientific research institutions. The unique new plants and intellectual property being developed and protected by 22nd Century will continue to advance our Company's position in the emerging legal medical marijuana and industrial hemp markets." About 22nd Century Group, Inc. 22nd Century is a plant biotechnology company focused on technology which allows it to increase or decrease the level of nicotine in tobacco plants and the level of cannabinoids in cannabis plants through genetic engineering and plant breeding. The Company's primary mission is to reduce the harm caused by smoking. 22nd Century currently owns or exclusively controls more than 200 issued patents and more than 50 pending patent applications around the world. Visit www.xxiicentury.com and www.botanicalgenetics.com for more information. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking information, including all statements that are not statements of historical fact regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of 22nd Century Group, Inc., its directors or its officers with respect to the contents of this press release, including but not limited to our future revenue expectations. The words "may," "would," "will," "expect," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "intend" and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity or performance. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date that they were made. These cautionary statements should be considered with any written or oral forward-looking statements that we may issue in the future. Except as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States, we do not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform these statements to reflect actual results, later events or circumstances, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. You should carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by us in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, filed on February 18, 2016, including the section entitled "Risk Factors," and our other reports filed with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission which attempt to advise interested parties of the risks and factors that may affect our business, financial condition, results of operation and cash flows. If one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results may vary materially from those expected or projected. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161220005172/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [December 21, 2016] Accenture Announces Intention to Acquire French Security Company Arismore Accenture (News - Alert) (NYSE:ACN) has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire Arismore, a privately held company in France that specializes in providing security services, including identity and access management (IAM), as well as enterprise architecture and change management services. The acquisition requires prior consultation with the relevant works councils and would be subject to customary closing conditions. Financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed. "Acquiring Arismore would be a significant step forward in our growth strategy and would solidify our position as a leading provider of digital identity management and security services in France," said Kelly Bissell, managing director of Accenture Security. "As we continue to add firepower and build momentum in our security business, we would take advantage of this acquisition to bring our extensive portfolio of end-to-end security services to clients across Europe. We look forward to completing this acquisition and laying a solid foundation with Arismore for delivering security innovations to clients." Once completed, the acquisition would bring to Accenture complementary security solutions and services, a strong client base and a talented team of 270 highly skilled security and enterprise architecture professionals. "Accenture and Arismore share the belief that digital trust and digital transformation are at the heart of business transformation. We are both committed to continuously innovating IAM and enterprise architecture services that will help organizations build digital trust while benefiting from the power and flexibility of the cloud" said Eric Boulay, president & CEO, Arismore. "The entire team at Arismore is extremely excited by this opportunity to join Accenture Security, and we look forward to supporting its growth in the field of identity management and other security capabilities." Founded in 2002, Arismore provides security and enterprise architecture services for numerous top-tier organizations in the telecommunications, media, distribution, energy, transportation, banking and insurance sectors. Arismore is headquartered in Saint-Cloud, France, and has additional offices in Villeneuve d'Ascq and La Ciotat. About Accenture Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions - underpinned by the world's largest delivery network - Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With more than 384,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com. Accenture Security helps organizations build resilience from the inside out, so they can confidently focus on innovation and growth. Leveraging its global network of cybersecurity labs, deep industry understanding across client value chains and services that span the security lifecycle, Accenture protects organization's valuable assets, end-to-end. With services that include strategy and risk management, cyber defense, digital identity, application security and managed security, Accenture enables businesses around the world to defend against known sophisticated threats, and the unknown. Follow us @AccentureSecure on Twitter (News - Alert) or visit the Accenture Security blog. Forward-Looking Statements Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "may," "will," "should," "likely," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects," "believes," "estimates," "positioned," "outlook" and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These include, without limitation, risks that: Accenture and Arismore will not be able to close the transaction in the time period anticipated, or at all, which is dependent on the parties' ability to satisfy certain closing conditions; the transaction might not achieve the anticipated benefits for Accenture; Accenture's results of operations could be adversely affected by volatile, negative or uncertain economic conditions and the effects of these conditions on the company's clients' businesses and levels of business activity; Accenture's business depends on generating and maintaining ongoing, profitable client demand for the company's services and solutions including through the adaptation and expansion of its services and solutions in response to ongoing changes in technology and offerings, and a significant reduction in such demand or an inability to respond to the changing technological environment could materially affect the company's results of operations; if Accenture is unable to keep its supply of skills and resources in balance with client demand around the world and attract and retain professionals with strong leadership skills, the company's business, the utilization rate of the company's professionals and the company's results of operations may be materially adversely affected; the markets in which Accenture competes are highly competitive, and Accenture might not be able to compete effectively; Accenture could have liability or Accenture's reputation could be damaged if the company fails to protect client and/or company data from security breaches or cyberattacks; Accenture's profitability could materially suffer if the company is unable to obtain favourable pricing for its services and solutions, if the company is unable to remain competitive, if its cost-management strategies are unsuccessful or if it experiences delivery inefficiencies; changes in Accenture's level of taxes, as well as audits, investigations and tax proceedings, or changes in tax laws or in their interpretation or enforcement, could have a material adverse effect on the company's effective tax rate, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition; Accenture's results of operations could be materially adversely affected by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; Accenture's business could be materially adversely affected if the company incurs legal liability; Accenture's work with government clients exposes the company to additional risks inherent in the government contracting environment; Accenture might not be successful at identifying, acquiring, investing in or integrating businesses, entering into joint ventures or divesting businesses; Accenture's Global Delivery Network is increasingly concentrated in India and the Philippines, which may expose it to operational risks; as a result of Accenture's geographically diverse operations and its growth strategy to continue geographic expansion, the company is more susceptible to certain risks; adverse changes to Accenture's relationships with key alliance partners or in the business of its key alliance partners could adversely affect the company's results of operations; Accenture's services or solutions could infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others or the company might lose its ability to utilize the intellectual property of others; if Accenture is unable to protect its intellectual property rights from unauthorized use or infringement by third parties, its business could be adversely affected; Accenture's ability to attract and retain business and employees may depend on its reputation in the marketplace; if Accenture is unable to manage the organizational challenges associated with its size, the company might be unable to achieve its business objectives; any changes to the estimates and assumptions that Accenture makes in connection with the preparation of its consolidated financial statements could adversely affect its financial results; many of Accenture's contracts include payments that link some of its fees to the attainment of performance or business targets and/or require the company to meet specific service levels, which could increase the variability of the company's revenues and impact its margins; Accenture's results of operations and share price could be adversely affected if it is unable to maintain effective internal controls; Accenture may be subject to criticism and negative publicity related to its incorporation in Ireland; as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the "Risk Factors" heading in Accenture plc's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this news release speak only as of the date they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture's expectations. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161219005868/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [December 21, 2016] Ascensus Announces Plans for New Tech Park Office Location in Tucson, Arizona Ascensus (News - Alert), the nation's largest independent retirement and college savings services provider, is pleased to announce that it plans to open a new office location in Tucson, Arizona by mid-2017. The new office will be located in the UA Tech Park at Rita Road, a research park owned and operated by the University of Arizona. Ascensus has experienced significant growth across all business lines and that has created the need to augment both its facilities and workforce. After a national search, Tucson, Arizona was selected due to its strong labor force as well as attractive facilities. Additionally, the new location allows for enhanced client service coverage in the Pacific Time Zone where the company has many existing client relationships. The UA Tech Park is a dynamic community, where innovators and business leaders meet and where emerging companies and technology giants work side by side. The Park is located in a suburban setting on Tucson's rapidly growing southeast side. Its spacious campus encompasses 1,345 acres and 2 million square feet of developed space. The Park is home to more than 40 companies with nearly 6,500 employees and is one of the region's major employment centers. Tech Park tenants contribute $1.75 billion to the local economy annually. The new Ascensus office space can accommodate about 170 associates, with an option for Ascensus to expand into additional space within the Tech Park as additional associates are needed. Initially, Ascensus will be hiring service center representatives and account managers. "Tucson is experiencing incredible economic growth as a result of industry-leading companies like Ascensus creating hundreds of high-quality jobs in the region," said Arizona Governor Doug Ducey. "We could not be more pleased to welcome Ascensus to Arizona and congratulate them on their success." "Once again, Arizona demonstrates that it has the talent, location, and business environment to meet the needs of growing businesses like Ascensus," said Sandra Watson, president and chief executive officer of the Arizona Commerce Authority. "We thank Ascensus for selecting Tucson after a competitive national search. We also thank Governor Ducey for his excellent leadership, as well as UA Tech Park, Pima County, the City of Tucson, and Sun Corridor Inc. for their partnerhip in this project." "We are thrilled to welcome Ascensus and its associates to the UA Tech Park," states Bruce Wright, associate vice president and chief executive officer of Tech Parks Arizona. "We look forward to our future growth together and value the support Ascensus provides to University of Arizona students through their 529 college savings programs. We would like to thank our partners who assisted in the recruitment efforts including Arizona Commerce Authority, Sun Corridor Inc., Pima County, and the City of Tucson." "With a population of more than one million people, Tucson will allow us to choose from a deep pool of talent in order to continue to build out our service team," states Bob Guillocheau, president and chief executive officer of Ascensus. "Our 1,700+ associates work hard every day to enable success for our clients, and our expansion to Tucson will help drive continued growth." About Ascensus Ascensus is the largest independent retirement and college savings services provider in the United States, helping nearly 7 million Americans save for the future. With more than 35 years of experience, the firm partners with financial institutions to offer tailored solutions that meet the needs of financial professionals, employers, and individuals. Ascensus specializes in recordkeeping, administrative, and program management services, supporting over 47,000 retirement plans and over 3.8 million 529 college savings accounts. It also administers more than 1.5 million IRAs and health savings accounts and is home to one of the largest ERISA consulting teams in the country. For more information about Ascensus, visit www.ascensus.com. View career opportunities at careers.ascensus.com or on LinkedIn (News - Alert) at linkedin.com/company/ascensus. For the latest company news, follow @AscensusInc on Twitter (News - Alert). About Tech Parks Arizona Tech Parks Arizona creates the "Interactive Ground" that generates, attracts, and retains technology companies and talent in alignment with the research, mission, and goals of the University of Arizona (UA). Tech Parks Arizona directs the UA Tech Park at Rita Road, UA Tech Park at The Bridges, and the Arizona Center for Innovation with the highest priority of recruiting companies with connections to the UA to locate at these facilities. Tech Parks Arizona is part of Tech Launch Arizona, an office of integrated teams creating an ecosystem of invention and commercialization throughout Arizona and beyond. For more information about Tech Parks Arizona, visit https://techparks.arizona.edu/. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161220005909/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [December 21, 2016] Camusat Supports Its Employee's Charity Project by Providing a Solar Heating Water System to an Hospital in Kenya Camusat, a market leader in implementing telecom infrastructures, equipped Kyeni Consolata Hospital in Kenya with a solar heating water system in order to provide hot water for the Maternity and Paediatrics wards that host 79 beds. Capacity of the system is 600 litres of hot water in Maternity and 600 litres in Paediatrics. This project, led by Ms. Beatriz Meijide, Camusat Finance Director for the Africa region, who has been personally volunteering in the hospital for 15 years, was part of Camusat's employees 'associative commitment incentive program, named "I volunteer with Camusat" and launched in December 2015. "As the His Lordship the Bishop of Embu said on the occasion of H. E. Margaret Kenyatta's visit to the hospital: "[] Regardless of who you are, regardless of what state we can make a difference by our contribution. What you give, that self-giving to serve others Any effort you make to change the lives of others, bears fruit". That has been my motivation, and indeed I have witnessed an amazing turnaround of this hospital, that has helped to save so many lives thanks to the effort of the great staff and management they have, and the contributions of so many friends and supporters. Now Camusat has marked a new milestone with the provision of hot water, something so essential for the maternal & child healthcare. For this I am deeply grateful and proud to work in a company that really walks the talk, and has made this long term awaited project come true for the benefit of the patients" said Ms. Beatriz Meijide. "The I volunteer with Camusat program reiterates our commitment in investing in the development and recognition within our host communities, a pillar of our CSR (News - Alert) policy. Through this support, we also hope to encourage our people in their personal and associative efforts to promote education, healthcare access and environment protection. The project led by Beatriz drew our attention since it aims at offering better access to healthcare thanks to a green energy solution, one of our areas of expertise" stated Elodie Perrigot, HR-CSR & EHS Chief Officer of Camusat Group. Thanks to this solar heating water system, Consolata hospital, which has been awarded the Johnson and Johnson's Best Maternity in Eastern, can now offer even better antenatal and postnatal care; an improvement that the whole community will benefit from. "The system is now working and is able to heat five showers i Maternity and four in Paediatrics. Since its commissioning, the system has been serving an average of 60 babies in paediatrics ward and 80 mothers in maternity daily. We highly appreciate the contribution of Camusat towards this noble cause which will go a long way in improving the overall hygiene" said Dominic Muriuki Mugo, Consolata Hospital Managing Director. Please visit our website to see pictures of this action: http://www.camusat.com/en/news/ About Consolata Hospital Kyeni: Located on Kenya's Eastern Province, under the Diocese of Embu since 1970, it comprises of 167 beds, outpatient facilities and 15 dispensaries in remote areas. Also a teaching hospital, it hosts the FIDENZA School of Nursing. The A&E casualty department is open 24 hours a day providing comprehensive emergency services as well as receiving patients referred from primary health care facilities and clinics in the environs. For further information: http://www.consolatahospitalkyeni.org/ About Camusat: CAMUSAT is one of the market leaders in the implementation of telecom infrastructures and one of the most experienced network developers with a history which starts back in the late 40's Our committed mission is to help the telecom actors to efficiently build and optimize their networks development by integrating the traditional telecom technologies with the most innovative know-how from adjoining fields. Our R&D Department develops innovative infrastructure solutions. Integration of quality-proofed technologies and services, as well as proficient project management skills and flexibility have played a crucial part in our success today. Diversity is another key success factor. Motivating incentive plans, strong team spirit, constant professional training, international mobility and efficiency are our strengths in achieving our client's high standard requirements. Camusat's headquarters are located in Paris, France. Nearly half of Camusat's 2000 employees work on the African continent. The company operates on the five continents with over 40 subsidiaries. For further information: www.camusat.com Camusat 2015 CSR Report: http://www.camusat.com/pdf/Rapport_RSE_EN.pdf Facebook (News - Alert): https://www.facebook.com/camusat/ LinkedIn (News - Alert): https://www.linkedin.com/camusat YouTube (News - Alert): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN3k0EyqTVU8QggtBzO5UfQ View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161219005487/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [December 21, 2016] City of Salo: The former Nokia-city in Finland builds its future on the legacy of Nokia and Microsoft R&D The City Council of Salo has decided to make a major investment. The City will invest 4.5 million euros into a limited company which negotiates purchasing the former Nokia (News - Alert) and Microsoft facilities in Salo. The plan is to turn 9 hectares of vacant business and manufacturing space into a lively innovation and business center for smart technology development. The core of innovative business is people Salo has globally known tradition in wireless communication device development and manufacturing. The business started with radio receivers in late 1920s. The golden era of developing and producing mobile phones started with Nokia in mid 1990s and ended in July 2015 when Microsoft (News - Alert) announced closing their smart device R&D unit in Salo. Now the Nokia and Microsoft jobs are gone but the skills and global experience stay within people in Salo. Nokia and Microsoft engineers are beginning their second career which is a huge possibiliy to any company wishing to create a new development team or build LEAN production of smart technology. We have got great feedback from companies like NUVIZ Inc. and Neolitics Inc. which have built their new R&D teams in Salo. They have been able to recruit highly skilled committed engineers, and seem pleased with talents and facilities Salo offers, explains Mr. Antti Rantakokko, the City Mayor. Community supports growth Business development and growth requires collaboration between companies, clients, researchers, partners and investors. Salo innovation and business center is planned to offer structures for both formal and informal meetings. Especially the lively startup community in Salo welcomes the possibility to be a part of greater business hub. There will be a fruitful mix of crazy ideas, skillful people, first class multifunctional facilities, and wide variety of advisory services. Furthermore, the City of Salo offers companies platforms for piloting and product development. Everything will be designed as customer-oriented services for companies, research organizations and universities. City welcomes new partners In Salo we are used to negotiate with global corporates as well as smaller companies. I can proudly confirm that the support we can offer is highly valuable. Our relocation services save company's resources and time, promises Mr. Antti Rantakokko. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161219006192/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Commences Investigation on Behalf of Rio Tinto plc Investors Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM") announces an investigation on behalf of Rio Tinto plc ("Rio Tinto" or the "Company") (NYSE: RIO) investors concerning the Company and its officers' possible violations of federal securities laws. Rio Tinto is a mining and metals company with assets and operations located worldwide. On November 9, 2016, Rio Tinto disclosed that the Company became aware of an alleged corruption scheme involving certain of its executives making illegal payments to acquire mining rights. The Company further disclosed that it had suspended Energy & Minerals chief executive Alan Davies; and that the Company's Legal & Regulatory Afairs group executive Debra Valentine had stepped down from her role. On November 14, 2016, Bloomberg (News - Alert) News reported that the Company's CEO has expressed "shock" at the extent of the corruption scheme and disclosed that the Company had initiated an internal probe into the alleged corruption scheme. On this news, Rio Tinto's ADR price fell nearly 4% on November 15, 2016. Days later, on November 18, 2016, Bloomberg News reported that Guinea's Mines and Geology Minister, Abdoulaye Magassouba, had requested Rio Tinto's Chief Executive Officer, Jean-Sebastian Jacques, provide more information and specifics on the internal probe concerning corruption. If you purchased Rio Tinto ADRs, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Lesley Portnoy, Esquire, of GPM, 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, California 90067 at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, by email to [email protected], or visit our website at http://www.glancylaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number and number of shares purchased. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161219005236/en/ Global Aerostat Systems Market Driven by Increased Need for Surveillance: Technavio The global aerostat systems market is expected to grow at a CAGR of just above 11% during the forecast period, according to Technavio's latest report. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161220005354/en/ Technavio publishes a new market research report on the global aerostat systems market from 2016-2020. (Graphic: Business Wire) In this report, Technavio covers the market outlook and growth prospects of the global aerostat systems market for 2016-2020. By payload type, this market is segmented into surveillance radar, inertial navigation systems, thermal imaging cameras, electro-optical sensor, and electronic intelligence system. One of the most important drivers of this market is the increased need for surveillance, especially for improved cross-border safety and maritime surveillance. Countries like the US and Japan are investing heavily in airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) payloads to enhance military intelligence, communication, and border security. Additionally, Saudi Arabia is expected to invest USD 70 billion in homeland security, which includes aerostat systems. Technavio's research study segments the global aerostat systems market into the following regions: Americas EMEA APAC Americas: largest aerostat systems market The aerostat systems market in the Americas is driven by the US, which has a high military budget. The overall market is expected to post a CAGR of 10.85% through the forecast period, with most of the revenue generated from the development and procurement of aerostat systems. The USA army got their aerostat systems upgraded in 2016 through Drone Aviation and BAE Systems (News - Alert) which brought in significant revenue to the market. The objective of this move was to enhance aerostat systems, where new technologies such as advanced optics, eletro-optical and infrared images, and communication packages will aid in better security and surveillance. Additionally, the US Pentagon delivered military supplies worth USD 1 billion, which included aerostat systems, to Iraq to help their soldiers to retaliate to external attacks. There are more projects in the pipeline, which will push the market growth over the years. Request a sample report: http://www.technavio.com/request-a-sample?report=55192 Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report including the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more. EMEA: market driven by political instability in the Middle East The political and economic situation in European countries, combined with the political unrest in the Middle East, makes EMEA a prime market for the aerostat systems. The escalating risk of internal insurgency and extremist attacks have driven the governments to launch several aerostat systems to enable better surveillance, communication, and data transmission, which are essential to combat the turbulent or unrest circumstances. "The Middle East has emerged as a major contributor to the growth of the market in EMEA. Gulf states such as the UAE and Kuwait have invested in aerostat systems to monitor the borders and the airspace. A total of 353 aerostats were delivered in 2014 to the Middle Eastern countries, and the number is expected to increase to 962 aerostats by 2018, which will contribute to the growth of the market," says Avimanyu Basu, one of the lead market research analysts at Technavio for aerospace components research. APAC: fastest growing aerostat systems market APAC is a region where there is an ongoing territorial dispute between major political powers like China, India, and Pakistan. There is a constant presence of large battalions and troops deployed across these borders. These countries are actively looking to curb cross-border activities by engaging in active surveillance. To ensure combat capabilities, communication, and efficiency of the armed troops, a significant number of aerostat surveillance systems have been deployed. "APAC is expected to register the highest growth rate with a CAGR of 12.27% through the forecast period. China has invested heavily to procure aerostat systems from AUGUR-RosAerSystems. The objective behind this move was to obtain early-warning radar stations and increased surveillance capabilities. Additionally, Malaysia has collaborated with several vendors to arrive at a memorandum of understanding for the supply of aerostat systems to increase their maritime safety and security," says Avimanyu, explaining the dynamics of the aerostat market in APAC. The top vendors in the global aerostat systems market highlighted in the report are: AUGUR-RosAeroSystems Lindstrand Technologies Lockheed Martin (News - Alert) Raven Aerostar Raytheon RT Browse Related Reports: Become a Technavio Insights member and access all three of these reports for a fraction of their original cost. As a Technavio Insights member, you will have immediate access to new reports as they're published in addition to all 6,000+ existing reports covering segments like aerospace products, commercial aviation, and defense technology. This subscription nets you thousands in savings, while staying connected to Technavio's constant transforming research library, helping you make informed business decisions more efficiently. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at [email protected]. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161220005354/en/ [December 21, 2016] O'Charley's Raises More Than $91,000 for The Folded Flag Foundation O'Charley's announced today that, with the support of its guests, the classic American restaurant has donated $91,663 to The Folded Flag Foundation, an organization that provides scholarships and educational support grants to families of fallen soldiers. O'Charley's executives gathered last night in the hometown of Nashville, Tenn. with The Folded Flag Foundation executive director and scholarship recipients to celebrate the generosity of its patrons and the partnership's success. O'Charley's and the Folded Flag Foundation presented the three recipients in attendance with commemorative wooden boxes filled with thank you cards from the O'Charley's staff as well as O'Charley's gift cards. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005187/en/ O'Charley's President Eddie Hall presents The Folded Flag Foundation Executive Director John Coogan with a $91,663 donation (Photo: Business Wire) Starting in September, O'Charley's committed to raising up to $75,000 for United States military and their families by donating $0.25 for every 22oz. beer sold through Veteran's Day Weekend to The Folded Flag Foundation. Through commitment from the restaurant teams and additional guest donations, O'Charley's was able to exceed its initial goal and raise an additional $16,663 for The Folded Flag Foundation. The O'Charley's located in Ashland, Ky. was the company leader in donations, raising more than $3,500. "The Folded Flag Foundation's mission is one that is important to O'Charley's," Eddie Hall, O'Charley's president, said. "We understand the sacrifice not only these fallen soldiers have made for our country, but their families as well. We continue to be committed to giving back to the military and we know The Folded Flag Foundation is something our guests will be honored to support." One hundred percent of all donations given to The Folded Flag Foundation go directly to the families of U.S. soldiers who have died during combat operations in the form of scholarships and grants. The Folded Flag Foundation is making a difference by ensuring the children of our service members are on a successful path towards college. Thanks to the organization's hard work and generous supporters, The Folded Flag Foundation awarded 44 educational grants for the 2016-2017 academic year, totaling $365,000 in scholarships to students in need. "We are overwhelmed by O'Charley's' generosity and want to thank them for all that they do to support our military and their families," said John Coogan, Executive Director at The Folded Flag Foundation. "We're so grateful to the O'Charley's team and its guests for recognizing our cause and helping us make a difference in the lives of military families." O'Charley's has a longstanding history of honoring our military and their families and encouraging community involvement thanks to initiatives like its Hometown Hero program which has honored more than 160 military individuals to date. In addition to this partnership, O'Charley's celebrated Veterans Day this year by once again offering veterans and active duty service members a free meal on Veterans Day in addition to giving away gift cards to veterans on social media. O'Charley's also offers a 10 percent discount to military all year long. To find an O'Charley's location, view the complete menu or join the email club, visit http://www.ocharleys.com. About O'Charley's: O'Charley's was born in Nashville, Tennessee and has been a quintessential American Restaurant with Southern roots since its beginning in Nashville over 40 years ago. Famous for its unsliceably soft rolls, Prime Rib Lovers' Weekend for Two, Sunday Brunch and fresh baked pie, O'Charley's operates 212 restaurants in 20 states in the Southeast and Midwest, including 205 company-owned and operated O'Charley's restaurants and seven restaurants operated by franchises and joint venture partners. About The Folded Flag Foundation: The Folded Flag Foundation was formed as a non-profit organization that relies on public donations to help supplement the current death benefits available to the dependents of United States military personnel and other government employees who lost their lives while deployed in combat. The Foundation is strongly committed to honoring these military fallen heroes by aiding the families with financial support for continued education. One hundred percent of all donations go directly to the qualifying families in need. To learn more, visit www.foldedflagfoundation.org. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005187/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [December 20, 2016] HK Start-up Ampd Energy Launches Zero-pollution Energy Storage System HONG KONG, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Key points Ampd Energy is a Hong Kong start-up with ambitions of eradicating diesel generators and lead acid UPSs start-up with ambitions of eradicating diesel generators and lead acid UPSs Ampd Silo is the first product launched to provide clean, safe and reliable energy backup storage using lithium-ion batteries The target market will expand from the US$13 billion generator market to the US$250 billion distributed energy storage sector Hong Kong start-up Ampd Energy has launched a novel energy storage system that offers an environmentally friendly and reliable alternative to pollutive diesel generators for developing countries to deal with frequent blackouts. The next-generation energy storage system branded Ampd Silo uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery to store electricity when power is available, and then provides energy when the main power source fails. It can be used to replace backup diesel generators that are widely used in the developing world to cope with blackouts caused by inadequate electricity production or poor energy infrastructure. Ampd is an incubatee of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park Corporation (HKSTP). The company joined HKSTP's Incu-Tech incubation programme in 2015. HKSTP Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Young commended Ampd on its latest achievement, "This technology is at the forefront in the industry. It could improve the quality of living for people and contribute to enhance global eco-friendliness. HKSTP is eager to support the development of such technology that contributes to greener and smarter cities." Ampd's creation offers greener power alternative for debilitating blackouts in developing countries The launch of Ampd Silo is especially good news to countries like Indonesia and India, where daily power outages affect millions of lives. A 2016 PWC report estimates that the Indonesian manufacturing sector alone loses around US$415 million annually from blackouts. Diesel generators are often used to keep cities going and ospitals running during blackouts, but such generators pollute the environment and affect people's health. Ampd Silo will offer a clean and safe alterative to help countries with weak electricity grids, like Indonesia, to keep residential, commercial and industrial applications in operation during power cuts. Ampd's sole distribution partner in Indonesia, Yakin Wijaya, who is Director of PT Praptadaya Sumber Perkasa, applauded Ampd's breakthrough technology. "Ampd Silo has the potential to transform the way Indonesian companies operate. It will increase productivity, allowing companies to focus on their core businesses," he said. Grander plans in place for commercialising the energy storage system The start-up has a grander vision beyond clean energy backup storage. Ampd plans to grow to serve the US$250 billion distributed energy storage sector. With sophisticated software updates, Ampd Silo owners will even be able to make money by buying and selling clean energy to the electricity grid. Once economies of scale are achieved through commercial sales, Ampd aims to enter the consumer market. Ampd's CEO and Co-founder Brandon Ng stated, "We are incredibly excited to be contributing to a much-needed missing piece for society to fully transition to renewable energy sources. Ampd Silo is the most compelling zero-pollution alternative to backup diesel generators." Ampd's Hong Kong partner Yau Lee Construction Company Limited will offer the service of replacing existing lead acid UPS (uninterruptible power supply) battery systems with Ampd Silos, through its affiliate REC Green Technologies Co., Ltd. This will provide backup power to mission-critical settings such as hospital emergency wards, airports and data centres. Compared to Lead Acid UPSs, Ampd Silo's ecological footprint is only 20% of the former and its lifespan is at least twice as long, without any toxic materials. "I believe the joint effort between Ampd Energy and RGT will transform the UPS market, and will provide a very stable and cost-effective UPS solution," said Antonio Chan, Executive Director of REC Green Technologies Ltd. Ampd Energy was co-founded by Brandon Ng and Luca Valente. The pair first started working on electric motorcycles and subsequently changed their focus to energy storage after experiencing blackouts in Sumatra and realising their motorcycle battery systems could serve a much greater purpose. To date, Ampd Energy has secured US$3.7 million seed investment -- one of the largest seed rounds for a Hong Kong start-up. About Ampd Founded in 2014 by Brandon Ng and Luca Valente, Hong Kong-based Ampd Energy has the vision of providing power to the billions of people and millions of companies which lack reliable power. The company specialises in the R&D, engineering and manufacture of advanced, grid-connected Energy Storage Systems (ESSs). For more information, contact: Media Relations Guido Phillips [email protected] +852 9285 6629 Product Images: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1s4bUD-X_e4TjJNN1o4NVlkT3M?usp=sharing Company Profile: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1s4bUD-X_e4NGxVeFVCWk5UWDg/view?usp=sharing Owners Bio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1s4bUD-X_e4Z0NkY0RXOXZEOGc/view?usp=sharing Silo Factsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1s4bUD-X_e4T3BLZV9xZldYQXc/view?usp=sharing Logo: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1s4bUD-X_e4dVA2RHpLZVhWX00?usp=sharing Logo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20161220/8521608305LOGO [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [December 20, 2016] Chinese Logistics Industry Enters Blockchain Era with the New Blockchain Application Sub-Committee SHENZHEN, China, Dec. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2016 Fintech Global Summit is held here. Among multiple major events, the founding of the Blockchain Application Sub-Committee initiated by China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing (CFLP) enjoys most of the spotlight. As an emerging industry, blockchain has a promising future. And as the initiator and organizing body, Shenzhen Digital Singularity Ltd is the only private company providing blockchain technology support. The company will lead by setting standards and rules for the industry. Blockchain for Logistics The 2016 Fintech Global Summit marks the founding of the Blockchain Application Sub-Committee initiated of the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing. It has been learned that the Sub-Committee was initiated by a blockchain startup, logistics companies and financial institutions. The Sub-Committee will be focusing on the promotion of blockchain technology in logistics by introducing blockchain technology and business training, R&D standards of blockchain for logistics, blockchain-based company credit mechanism and finally the total upgrading and re-direction of the logistics supply-chain industry. Liu Yang, CEO of Shenzhen Digital Singulariy Ltd told us that blockchain by nature enjoys high accountability, anti-counterfeiting ability and immutability. As of the past the technology was mainly used for Bitcoin, while nowadays, in the financial sector, the application of the technology is witnessing a mandatory trend. Liu Yang went on and said that the procedures of logistics are so long that problems occur constantly. Problems like the loss and mistakes of cargo delivery require powerful tracing ability. It is obvious the blockchain technology can perform well for logistics in that regard. The China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing has foreseen the incoming profound impacts from blockchain technology with overseas counterparts launching similar researches. So the Association takes the lead by founding this Sub-Committee, hoping that the introduction of blockchain technology can tackle the existing problems in logistics as well as tapping into the financial sector. Liu Yang told us that Shenzhen Digital Singularity Ltd previously has her business mostly focusing on Bitcoin, for example, www.bitkan.com, and thus have developed sound R&D capabilities of the blockchain technology. For the Sub-Committee, Digital Singularity will be the only blockchain technology provider, responsible for the making of standards. Liu Yang will also run for the presidency of the standard committee. Liu Yang expressed the wish to promote the standard-making in the industry as well as to provide comprehensive blockchain solutions that are capable of addressing real problems in cooperation with traditional logistics and procurement companies. Blockchain Technology Expected to Significantly Improve Operational Transparency Recent years saw the rapid rising of the logistics supply-chain in China with accelerating competition and merging. Logistics companies with sound supply-chain management capabilities are rising, along with improving third-party supply-chain management abilities. However, upper stream of the supply-chain are mostly small and mid-sized companies with low credit ratings. They are regular turned-aways of the banks' funding services. The conflict of the capital demand and availability is deepening considering their importance on the supply chain. Logistics, Capital and Information are 3 factors pivoting the supply-chain; while the Capital is the main hindrance for the mid and small-sized the companies and their ability on continued service. This will take a toll on the national economy as a whole if the theory goes on. As a central government demand, the finance should serve for the development of tangible economy; the Association also did tremendous work on improving the environment. But, the credit issue is still turning these companies into homeless kids. Liu Yang considers blockchain technology to be the cure by his analysis. Blockchain can be served to tag and anchor the credit rating of supply chain companies if with the cooperation from upper and lower stream participants. Liu Yang believes that the blockchain industry is still in her infancy and every party is just starting to explore. As of this moment, according to Liu Yang, the focus is on traceability and efficiency. On-Credit orders are big concerns for the industry, that upper stream company cannot have timely payment from big companies, like, 1 month of delay is commonly seen. With layered re-contracting, the chauffeurs will hurt. Chauffeurs cannot pay on credit, they pay in advance. That's why terminal small companies are struggling. Banks will simply turn away: they need factories and warehouses as collaterals. Blockchain technology, however, will save the day by turning the companies' financials transparent to the extent that the financial institutions can understand their operational status thus ultimately removing the hindrance for loan. Blockchain Technology to Dramatically Sharpen Logistics Efficiency With the founding of the Blockchain Application Sub-Committee, Digital Singularity is taking the lead. Liu Yang considers this a proof of the company's might. The four founders of the company were formerly with Huawei and Tencent, rich in the experience of large system standard making. The complexity of logistics is just as much as that of the telecommunication industry. Standardization is the answer to the former's procedures. Digital Singularity thus enjoys obvious merits. On the other hand, Digital Singularity is well-known for the rich foundation in Bitcoin. Their prototype product came live on early 2013, and the reputation is unquestionable both at home and abroad. The blockchain technology reserve and momentum of Digital Singularity speaks for itself. From the value transfer of Bitcoin in her early days to the transfer of physical objects in the real world, Blockchain is growing her applications. Liu Yang believes that in the near future, the perfect combination of blockchain technology and logistics industry will tackle the financial hindrances in logistics, and significantly improve the efficiency. Internet has had her days of information propagation; Jack Ma also wishes the logistics efficiency can be improved to a new high. With blockchain technology, this day may come sooner than you think. Please visit: www.bitkan.com To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chinese-logistics-industry-enters-blockchain-era-with-the-new-blockchain-application-sub-committee-300382342.html SOURCE Shenzhen Digital Singularity [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [December 21, 2016] Glenmark Unveils its Strategic Blueprint for Transition Into an Innovation-led Global Pharmaceutical Organization in the Next Decade MUMBAI, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- - Leverages Company's Industry-leading Capabilities to Expand Discovery and Development of Glenmark's Robust Generics and Innovative Portfolio - Focuses Resources on Growth Catalysts - Focus on innovative new molecular entities (NME) - Filing as many as nine new drug application (NDA)/biologic license application (BLAs) in the next 10 years - Targeting 30 percent of total revenues from specialty and innovation segments over the next decade Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (GPL), a global research-driven, integrated pharmaceutical company headquartered at Mumbai, today announced its 'Strategic Blueprint to Transition into an Innovation-led Global Pharmaceutical Organization over the next decade'. The Blueprint conveys the company's greater business alignment, expanding generics to prioritizing research and development efforts in three key therapeutic areas: oncology, respiratory and dermatology. The innovative oncology pipeline, with candidates targeting multiple tumors, is the top priority with the greater promise to deliver novel, first-in-class molecules and help Glenmark evolve into a fully commercialized, innovation-led pharmaceutical company. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/451507/PRNE_Glenmark_Logo.jpg ) (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/451508/PRNE_Glenmark_Pharma.jpg ) "Since 2000, it has been the primary objective of Glenmark to facilitate the company's evolution from a generics organization to a fully integrated, globally commercialized pharmaceutical company with innovative products," stated Glenn SaldanhaGlenn Saldanha. Glenmark is an early leader at the point of convergence of generic and innovative pharmaceutical R&D, with end-to-end capabilities in R&D to full-scale manufacturing, both in small molecules and novel biologics. The company enjoys an enviable market position of self-reliance, strong IP leadership and a global footprint for rapid market penetration. These intellectual assets are already producing results for the company with a specialty and New Molecular Entity (NME) pipeline consisting of nine assets in the three core areas, four of which are in clinical or late pre-clinical development. The company expects to launch its specialty business in the U.S. with its first FDA NDA approval in respiratory within 3-5 years. The strategic blueprint also outlines aggressive plans to increase Glenmark's presence worldwide by strengthening focus on complex generics including injectables, expanding its manufacturing footprint (growing from two formulation facilities to 17). Currently, the company has more than 110 Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDAs) approved and an additional 135 products in regulatory review or in development in the US. Based on the power of the pipeline, Glenmark expects to file 20-25 ANDAs and launch 20 generic products annually in the US. Its business in emerging markets is also well positioned for continuous and sustained growth over a long period in time. "Building from our enviably strong foundation has given us operational and financial flexibility that allows us to execute on our ambitious plans; we expect the next wave of our growth to be as impressive as our first," added Saldanha. About Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd.: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (GPL) is a research-driven, global, integrated pharmaceutical organization headquartered at Mumbai, India. It is ranked among the top 80 Pharma and Biotech companies of the world in terms of revenue (SCRIP 100 Rankings published in the year 2016). Glenmark is a leading player in the discovery of new molecules both NCEs (New Chemical Entity) and NBEs (New Biological Entity). Glenmark has several molecules in various stages of clinical development and is primarily focused in the areas of Inflammation [asthma/COPD, rheumatoid arthritis etc.] and Pain [neuropathic pain and inflammatory pain]. The company has a significant presence in the branded generics markets across emerging economies including India. GPL along with its subsidiaries operate 17 manufacturing facilities across four countries and has five R&D centers. The Generics business of Glenmark services the requirements of the US and Western European markets. The API business sells its products in over 80 countries including the US, EU, South America and India. For more details, visit: http://www.glenmarkpharma.com/ Media Contact: Ramkumar Uppara/Shibani Shah Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. [email protected] +91-22-40189984/9348 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [December 21, 2016] /DISREGARD RELEASE: China Mobile International Limited/ We are advised by China Mobile International Limited that journalists and other readers should disregard the photo that was sent along with the release titled Joint Declaration for Customer Roaming Expeience Enhancement by Hand-in-Hand Program Members, issued on Dec. 20 over PR Newswire. China Mobile International Limited will issue the release with a correct photo later today. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [December 21, 2016] More Natural Light to Shine in Africa COPENHAGEN, Dec. 21, 2016 /CNW/ - Following the success of the Natural Light solar lamp in Africa, the VELUX Group will deliver 20,000 more solar lamps to support sales agents in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and from now on also in Malawi. To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8006751-velux-more-natural-light-shine-in-africa/ Using an entrepreneurial distribution model, the Natural Light project will now donate a second instalment of 20,000 solar lamps. These will be sold by new sales agents in off-grid communities in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and, for the first time, in Malawi. The aim of this project, besides bringing a sustainable light source to off-grid communities, was to create a business model for local sales agents to make a living. This has been a great success. Today more than 50 sales agents in three African nations - Zimbabwe, Zambia and Sierra Leone - have their own businesses selling Natural Light solar lamps. The Natural Light project, in collaboration with social business Little Sun, and NGO Plan International, was created to celebrate the VELUX Group's 75th anniversary. Following an international design competition last year, which received 172 submissions from all over the world, the winnig design was chosen and 14,500 units of the solar lamp were distributed in Africa - one for each employee of the VELUX Group and its sister companies. Olafur Eliasson, artist and founder of Little Sun, says: "The Natural Light solar lamp is not only about providing energy to off-grid communities in Africa; it gives people the means to take charge of their own lives. By providing sustainable, reliable and affordable light, we've given people more independence and now they are able to work, study and cook safely in the dark." Alongside light, the Natural Light solar lamps will also help to improve air quality by reducing the widespread use of toxic, carbon-emitting kerosene lanterns, and instead, harness the sustainable energy of the sun. Michael K. Rasmussen, Senior Vice President, Brand, the VELUX Group, says: "As a company built on knowledge of light and fresh air, the Natural Light project was a beautiful way to celebrate our 75th anniversary and bring better living environments outside our normal markets. Apart from light for reading or cooking after sunset and substitute the smelly kerosene lamp, the Natural Light project has helped foster young, ambitious entrepreneurs who now have their own businesses." He continues: "We have extended the program to Malawi after the very positive uptake in the other countries - team members from Zambia had shared the story with the new project participants in Malawi, and we are excited to have them join the Natural Light family." The additional Natural Light solar lamps are ready for distribution. A number of local sales agents in Malawi will be trained on how to sell the solar lamps in the coming months, through a series of workshops, roleplays, demonstrations, and group work. For more information, visit http://www.littlesun.com, facebook.com/ilovelittlesun, twitter.com/littlesun. Press material at VELUX Media Centre See and download our news videos, photos and press material at VELUX Media Centre at press.velux.com. (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/450767/VELUX_Natural_Light_Solar_Lamp.jpg ) Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/450767/VELUX_Natural_Light_Solar_Lamp.jpg Video: http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8006751-velux-more-natural-light-shine-in-africa/ SOURCE VELUX Group [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [December 21, 2016] New convenient digital tax platform, Easy Tax File Canada, opens TORONTO, Dec. 21, 2016 /CNW/ - Easy Tax File Canada, a modern taxation solution designed to make organizing and filing taxes for all Canadians as seamless and stress-free as possible, this week officially opened its virtual doors for everyone looking to get ahead on their upcoming taxes before the holiday season. Borne from a passion for removing the inconvenience of filing taxes, Easy Tax File Canada makes taxes easy by using technology to simplify document sharing and correspondence with accountants. "We will contact, schedule calls or Skype sessions with accountants, and take care of the time-consuming and frustrating midleman tasks so our clients can sit back and relax during the filing process," said Andrew Zakharia, Founder and Owner of Easy Tax File Canada. "We will also provide a secured message center for clients to directly contact their accountants, omitting the unnecessary need to travel to far away, uncomfortable offices." In addition to constructing direct and indirect lines of communication between clients and accountants, Easy Tax will also develop a file-sharing portal for clients to simply take pictures of documents and scan them into their profiles immediately. Lastly, the digital partnership will ensure a more environmentally friendly way to do business will speeding up and digitizing the often-complicated mess. "The Canadian taxation industry has lagged behind general technology standards for some time, and we're here to change that," said Andrew. "By using us, every piece of paper and lengthy trip to the accountant just turned into a seamless, easy to access process. Spread the word on the opening of our business, and head on over to our website today to learn more about our services." SOURCE Easy Tax Files [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [December 21, 2016] Intelsat Announces Exchange Offer for Certain Notes of Intelsat (Luxembourg) S.A. Intelsat (News - Alert) S.A. (NYSE: I), operator of the world's first Globalized Network, powered by its leading satellite backbone, today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Intelsat (Luxembourg) S.A. ("Intelsat Luxembourg"), has commenced, subject to the terms and conditions set forth in a confidential offering memorandum (the "Offering Memorandum"), a private offer to exchange (the "Exchange Offer") its 6.75% Senior Notes due 2018 (CUSIP No. 458204 AN4) (the "2018 Lux Notes") held by Eligible Holders (as defined below) for newly issued 12.50% Senior Notes due 2024 ("2024 Lux Notes"). For each $1,000 principal amount of 2018 Lux Notes validly tendered at or before the Expiration Time (as defined below) and not validly withdrawn, Eligible Holders of 2018 Lux Notes will be eligible to receive $1,000 principal amount of 2024 Lux Notes. Eligible Holders whose 2018 Lux Notes are accepted in the Exchange Offer will also receive a cash payment equal to the accrued and unpaid interest in respect of such 2018 Lux Notes from December 1, 2016, which is the most recent interest payment date, to, but excluding, the Early Settlement Date or Final Settlement Date (each as defined below), as applicable, provided, aggregate cash payments to Eligible Holders who tender their 2018 Lux Notes after the Early Delivery Time (as defined below) and who in exchange receive 2024 Lux Notes on the Final Settlement Date, will be reduced by the amount of interest accrued on the 2024 Lux Notes received by them from the Early Settlement Date to, but excluding, the Final Settlement Date. The 2024 Lux Notes will mature on November 15, 2024. Interest on the 2024 Lux Notes will accrue at the rate of 12.50% per annum and be payable semi-annually in arrears on May 15 and November 15 of each year, commencing on May 15, 2017. On or after June 1, 2017, Intelsat Luxembourg may redeem all or a portion of the 2024 Lux Notes at any time at a price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the 2024 Lux Notes redeemed, together with accrued and unpaid interest to, but excluding, the redemption date. Prior to June 1, 2017, Intelsat Luxembourg may redeem all or a portion of the 2024 Lux Notes at any time at a price equal to 101.688% of the principal amount of the 2024 Lux Notes redeemed, together with accrued and unpaid interest to, but excluding, the redemption date. The 2024 Lux Notes will be Intelsat Luxembourg's senior unsecured obligations, ranking equally in right of payment with all of its existing and future senior indebtedness and senior to its existing and future subordinated indebtedness. The 2024 Lux Notes will be effectively subordinated to Intelsat Luxembourg's existing and future secured indebtedness to the extent of the assets securing such secured debt. The 2024 Lux Notes will also be structurally subordinated to all of the existing and future liabilities of Intelsat Luxembourg's subsidiaries, including the liabilities of Intelsat Connect Finance S.A. ("ICF") to be incurred in connection with the exchange offers previously announced on December 7, 2016 (the "Prior Exchange Offers") and the liabilities of Intelsat Jackson Holdings S.A. under its Secured Credit Agreement and existing notes. The Exchange Offer will expire at 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 19, 2017, unless it is extended or earlier terminated by Intelsat Luxembourg. In order to participate in the Exchange Offer, Eligible Holders must validly tender their 2018 Lux Notes at or prior to 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 19, 2017, unless extended by Intelsat Luxembourg (such date and time, as the same may be extended, the "Expiration Time"). Intelsat Luxembourg expects to conduct an early settlement of the Exchange Offer with respect to 2018 Lux Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn prior to 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 4, 2017 (the "Early Delivery Time" and the date of such early settlement, the "Early Settlement Date"), and a final settlement promptly after the Expiration Time (the "Final Settlement Date"). The following table sets forth certain key dates of the Exchange Offer. Further information may be found in the Offering Memorandum: Key Date Calendar Date Launch Date December 20, 2016 Early Delivery Time 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 4, 2017, unless extended or earlier terminated by Intelsat Luxembourg. Early Settlement Date Promptly after the Early Delivery Time, and expected to be the second business day after the Early Delivery Time. The Early Settlement Date is currently expected to be January 6, 2017. Intelsat Luxembourg reserves the right, but is under no obligation, to elect to have an Early Settlement Date. Withdrawal Deadline 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on the date of the Early Delivery Time, unless extended or earlier terminated by Intelsat Luxembourg. Expiration Time 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 19, 2017, unless extended or earlier terminated by Intelsat Luxembourg. Final Settlement Date The final settlement date is currently expected to be January 20, 2017. Intelsat Luxembourg reserves the right, but is under no obligation, to elect an Early Settlement Date. The Exchange Offer is subject to customary closing conditions. Subject to applicable law and the terms set forth in the Offering Memorandum, Intelsat Luxembourg reserves the right to waive any and all conditions to the Exchange Offer, in whole or in part, and may do so, subject to applicable law, without reinstating withdrawal rights. In addition, Intelsat Luxembourg expressly reserves the right to extend or terminate the Exchange Offer and to otherwise amend or modify the Exchange Offer in any respect. Tendering 2018 Lux Notes in the Exchange Offer will preclude tendering those 2018 Lux Notes in the Prior Exchange Offer for 2018 Lux Notes (the "Prior 2018 Lux Exchange Offer"), unless they are validly withdrawn from the Exchange Offer. ICF intends to tender into the Exchange Offer the $25 million of 2018 Lux Notes currently held by it, together with the additional 2018 Lux Notes acquired by it in the Prior 2018 Lux Exchange Offer and pursuant to the support agreements previously announced on December 7, 2016. It is anticipated that the 2018 Lux Notes acquired by Intelsat Luxembourg pursuant to the Exchange Offer will be cancelled. The 2024 Lux Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or any other applicable securities laws and, unless so registered, the 2024 Lux Notes may not be offered, sold, pledged or otherwise transferred in the United States or to or for the account or benefit of any U.S. person, except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act. Intelsat Luxembourg does not intend to register the 2024 Lux Notes under the Securities Act or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction. The 2024 Lux Notes are not transferable except in accordance with the restrictions described more fully in the Offering Memorandum. The Exchange Offer is being made, and the 2024 Lux Notes to be issued pursuant to the Exchange Offer are being offered and issued, only (a) in the United States to holders of 2018 Lux Notes who are "qualified institutional buyers" (as defined in Rule 144A under the Securities Act), (b) in the United States to holders of 2018 Lux Notes not resident in Arkansas who are institutional "accredited investors" (within the meaning of Rule 501(a)(1), (2), (3) or (7) of Regulation D under the Securities Act) and (c) outside the United States to holders of 2018 Lux Notes who are persons other than U.S. persons in reliance upon Regulation S under the Securities Act. The holders of 2018 Lux Notes who have certified to Intelsat Luxembourg that they are eligible to participate in the Exchange Offer pursuant to at least one of the foregoing conditions are referred to as "Eligible Holders." Only Eligible Holders are authorized to receive or review the Offering Memorandum or participate in the Exchange Offer. The Exchange Offer is being conducted pursuant to the Offering Memorandum, this press release and Intelsat S.A.'s or Intelsat Luxembourg's other press releases related to the Exchange Offer (collectively, the "Exchange Offer Materials"). Guggenheim Securities acted as Intelsat's financial advisor for these transactions and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal advisor. Questions regarding the Exchange Offer may be directed to Intelsat Luxembourg at the following email address: Attn: Investor Relations, Email: [email protected]. The complete terms and conditions of the Exchange Offer, as well as the terms of the 2024 Lux Notes, are set forth in the Offering Memorandum. The Offering Memorandum will only be made available to holders who complete an eligibility letter confirming their status as Eligible Holders. Holders of 2018 Lux Notes who wish to receive a copy of the eligibility letter for the Exchange Offer may contact Global Bondholder Services Corporation (the "Information and Exchange Agent") at 65 Broadway - Suite 404, New York, New York 10006, Attn: Corporate Actions, (212) 430-3774 (for banks and brokers) or (866) 470-4200 (for all others). Holders may also obtain and complete an electronic copy of the eligibility letter on the following website maintained by Global Bondholder Services: http://gbsc-usa.com/eligibility/intelsat_luxembourg. Intelsat Luxembourg is making the Exchange Offer only by, and pursuant to, the terms of the Exchange Offer Materials. None of Intelsat Luxembourg, the Information and Exchange Agent, nor their respective affiliates makes any recommendation as to whether Eligible Holders should tender or refrain from tendering their 2018 Lux Notes. Eligible Holders must make their own decision as to whether or not to tender their 2018 Lux Notes, as well as with respect to the principal amount of the 2018 Lux Notes to tender. The Exchange Offer is not being made to any holders of 2018 Lux Notes in any jurisdiction in which the making or acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities, blue sky or other laws of such jurisdiction. This press release does not constitute an offer to purchase securities or a solicitation of an offer to sell any securities or an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase any new securities, nor does it constitute an offer or solicitation in any jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. About Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I) operates the world's first Globalized Network, powered by its leading satellite backbone, 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. Intelsat Safe Harbor Statement Statements in this news release, including statements regarding the Exchange Offer and the Prior Exchange Offers, constitute "forward-looking statements" that do not directly or exclusively relate to historical facts. When used in this release, the words "may," "will," "might," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "project," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "intend," "potential," "outlook," and "continue," and the negative of these terms, and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. The forward-looking statements reflect Intelsat's intentions, plans, expectations, anticipations, projections, estimations, predictions, assumptions and beliefs about future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of Intelsat's control. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements include known and unknown risks. Known risks include, among others, market conditions and the risks described in Intelsat's annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2015, quarterly report on Form 6-K for the quarters ended June 30, 2016 and September 30, 2016, and its other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and risks and uncertainties related to our ability to consummate the Exchange Offer or the Prior Exchange Offers. Because actual results could differ materially from Intelsat's intentions, plans, expectations, anticipations, projections, estimations, predictions, assumptions and beliefs about the future, you are urged to view all forward-looking statements with caution. Intelsat does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161220006153/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [December 21, 2016] NAB Show Shanghai Emerges as Premiere Event for Media, Technology and Content Creation in China The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), producer of NAB Show, today announced registered attendance increased fivefold for the second annual NAB Show Shanghai, held December 6-9 at the Kerry Hotel and the adjacent Shanghai National International Expo Center in the Pudong District of Shanghai, China. The event, which was co-produced by the International High Tech Cultural Device Cluster (TCDIC), attracted over 5,000 attendees from around the world, representing a 525 percent increase over last year. All numbers are based on pre-show and onsite registration and subject to an ongoing audit. The 2016 NAB Show Shanghai also included for the first time a full-fledged exhibit floor, spanning 50,000 square feet and featuring 145 media and technology companies, including leading brands like Akamai Technologies, Inc.; B&H Photo Video; Christie; COPPOI; MOG Technologies; NERC-DTV; NewTek (News - Alert); Ricoh; Shanghai Media Group; Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media; Sony and Tata Communications, among others. NAB launched NAB Show Global Innovation Exchange | Shanghai in 2015, recognizing China's growing meda industry and the need for collaboration on emerging technologies and global business solutions. Designed for media professionals involved in the creation, management and distribution of content across broadcast and digital mediums, NAB Show Shanghai has since evolved into a one-of-a-kind convention for showcasing cutting-edge technology, promoting innovation and offering the opportunity for content creators to gain global perspectives and valuable tools to advance their craft. "This event plants the NAB and NAB Show flag in one of the fastest growing media markets in the world," said NAB Executive Vice President of Conventions and Business Operations Chris Brown. "NAB Show Shanghai is taking off and reaching new heights as indicated by this year's growth in attendance and exhibits. We look forward to continuing to develop this unique convention as it becomes the premier event of its kind." The three-day NAB Show Shanghai conference featured an enhanced program focused on topics such as broadcast, cable, film, virtual reality, over-the-top content and 4K/ultra-high-definition television. The China Post | Production Conference, produced in partnership with Future Media Concepts, included sold-out training workshops for maximizing creativity and efficiency with the industry's commonly utilized tools and software. Speakers from NAB included Chris Ornelas, chief operating officer and Sam Matheny, chief technology officer, in addition to high-ranking Chinese government officials and media and technology professionals from Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Next year, NAB Show Shanghai will be held June 13-15 in conjunction with the Shanghai International Film and Television Festival. Additional information about this year's event is available here. About NAB The National Association of Broadcasters is the premier advocacy association for America's broadcasters. NAB advances radio and television interests in legislative, regulatory and public affairs. Through advocacy, education and innovation, NAB enables broadcasters to best serve their communities, strengthen their businesses and seize new opportunities in the digital age. Learn more at www.nab.org. About TCDIC The National Base for International Cultural Trade (Shanghai) International High Tech Cultural Device Cluster is currently located at China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone. It is a national platform specializing in offering services to companies in the cultural device industry. TCDIC serves the businesses operating in the domestic and international cultural device industry. It covers the sectors of broadcasting, cinema, mobile internet, stage, game and amusement attraction and other emerging sectors in the cultural device industry. The mission of TCDIC is to advocate innovation and to promote international trade, exchange, and collaboration for domestic and international businesses registered in the Cluster. The functions of the Cluster are trade and presentation, innovative lab, bonded leasing, technical training and etc. The Cluster is the hub connecting global market needs and integrated technology supply in the cultural device industry. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005778/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Tom's Guide is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Heres why you can trust us. Kansas City Hobo Help For X-mas Show-Me Dangerous Streets Golden Ghetto Scare Local Checkup From The Neck-up Pitch: Kansas City Hipster Toilet Pix Hottiegets us started this morning as we give an up-close & personal glimpse to these Kansas City mainstream media links. Take a look:And this is thefor right now . . . War is never fun, exciting or a source of glory for anyone (well, at least it shouldnt be). Only someone who hasnt experienced it firsthand would believe such a thing. As many have put it over the years: War is hell, pure and simple. And because this statement is a fact, most countries around the world have prepared themselves accordingly, unwilling to be taken unawares by a military invasion. Though actual wars for conquest are a rare thing nowadays, this doesnt mean that armed conflicts dont happen. Here are 10 such nations who are definitely prepared for one such attack. These rankings will not be made solely on each countrys firepower or active personnel, but also on other criteria which will be considered as an advantage in their overall defense. 10. Australia Active Personnel: 60,000, Reserve: 44,000 Tanks: 59, Artillery: 75 Air Fighters: 78, Helicopters: 188 Naval Strength: 47 (Submarines: 6, Aircraft Carriers: 2) Though it boasts a relatively small population of roughly 23 million, Australia is nevertheless huge; a continent in and of itself. With the exception of the coastal areas, where 98 percent of its people live, the island nation is an almost 3 million square mile scorching desert. A perfect place for any army to hide in, and from where to launch surprise attacks on any would be invader. Given its geographical position however, this would be highly unlikely. The scorching outback, as well as the Coral Barrier Reef, protects large parts of Queensland. During WWII, the Japanese seriously considered an invasion of Australia, but given the situation at hand, they decided against it. While most of the Australian forces were already deployed either in Europe or Northern Africa, the Japanese estimated around 200,000 soldiers would be needed to take hold of the island nation. They instead opted to isolate Australia as much as possible, trying to cut it off from the US. Even if the Japanese had invaded and succeeded in taking over all the coastal cities, Australians would have been able to keep a long and extensive guerrilla war going from various hideouts scattered across the outback. According to the Global Peace Index, Australia ranks third in the Asia-Pacific region and 9th in the world. 9. Switzerland Active Personnel: 100,000, Reserve: 77,000 Tanks: 224, Artillery: 224 Air Fighters: 63, Helicopters: 43 Pretty much everyone is aware by now of Switzerlands famous neutrality. As Europe was plunged in two World Wars, the Alpine country was spared from the terrific onslaught. Given its mountainous location, the country devised a defensive plan, known as the Swiss National Redoubt, which was deployed as early the 1880s. The plan involved building a series of fortresses and strongholds in key locations around the many mountain passes. These defenses proved useful in thwarting the different warring factions from invading Switzerland throughout the 20th century. After WWII, and fearing a potential Soviet invasion, the plan was expanded to include Switzerlands entire infrastructure. The Swiss military wired all roads and railways with dynamite, which would be detonated in case of an attack. This way any invader would have to waste time and energy in getting into the country. Moreover, the many bunkers, tunnels, and fortresses built within the mountains themselves offer access and protection for entire military divisions to strike anywhere at a moments notice. Over the years Switzerland has decreased the number of its active personnel from 400,000 in 1995, to 220,000 in 2004, and again to 100,000 men in 2016. Having a direct democracy, instead of a representative one, its citizens are active participants in all major decisions happening in the country, including when it comes to its military or going to war. While they agreed to reduce the number of active personnel, they also agreed to raise the military budget by 2.4 billion Swiss francs, and to even keep conscription in place. In fact, all citizens have military training, and get to keep their weapon after its completion. At present there are an estimated of 45.7 weapons per 100 people within Switzerland. So, if it ever gets invaded, almost 4,000,000 citizens are immediately available for military service with another 3,000,000 fit for joining as well. Moreover, while so many decision makers around the world keep their wealth in Swiss bank accounts, it would be counterintuitive for them to risk losing it in the chaos of an invasion. Plus, those Swiss Army Knives can do everything. 8. Tuvalu, New Zealand, Iceland and Bhutan All four of these nations fall within this category, not because they are heavily defended, or because of their armed forces, but because of their isolation and lack of any strategic or economic importance for a potential invader. Out of all these nations, only New Zealand and Bhutan have any armies, of roughly 9,000 and 6,000 active personnel, respectively. New Zealand, even though its a developed nation, is not involved in any conflicts around the world, earning it the number four spot on the Global Peace Index in 2015. And in the unlikely event of it ever being invaded, the mountainous terrain can offer ample opportunity for waging guerrilla warfare. Moreover, located at almost 1,000 miles from the nearest major landmass of Australia, mounting an effective offensive would be quite problematic. Plus, it can always call all of those elves and hobbits into service, if need be. Tuvalu on the other hand has no armed forces whatsoever. It has only a small police force, and a Maritime Surveillance Unit for internal security. Given its isolation in the Pacific Ocean, its highly unlikely for anyone to target the tiny island nation for invasion. In a somewhat similar situation is Iceland, which has not had a standing army since 1869, but is however an active member of NATO. Its national defense and security is guaranteed by the United States, which up until 2006 had a military base on the island. Nevertheless, Iceland still has a military expeditionary peacekeeping force, an air defense system, an extensive militarized coast guard and a tactical police force. According to the same Global Peace Index we mentioned before, Iceland is at the number one spot. Bhutan is the only continental and landlocked country among these four, located high up in the Himalayas. Though sandwiched between India and China, Bhutan is one of the most secluded nations in the world, and the happiest. It has also kept itself out of any foreign entanglements since it joined the UN in 1971. The country has no diplomatic relations with the US, and only Bangladesh and India have embassies in Bhutan. Its undeniably true that if any other nation decided to invade any of these countries, they would most likely be able to without any great opposition. But because of their isolation and peaceful demeanor, what would be the point? 7. Japan Active Personnel: 250,000, Reserve: 42,000 Tanks: 777, Artillery: 839 Air Fighters: 289, Helicopters: 741 Naval Strength: 131 (Submarines: 17, Carriers: 3) Besides being an island nation, which are always more difficult to invade (just ask the Mongols), Japan also boasts a sizable army and a particularly powerful economy (the 4th largest in the world). Their national defense budget alone is somewhere around $49 billion, the sixth highest in the world. The Japanese are notorious when it comes to the defense of their country, as was seen throughout history. During WWII, the Americans were more or less forced to drop nuclear bombs over two Japanese cities, in order to hasten the end of the war, since the Allies realized the word surrender doesnt really exist in the minds of Japanese soldiers. Even though the country is aging, Japan has a total population of over 126 million, and some 1.2 million reach military age annually. Due to the increasingly restless situation in the South China Sea, Japan began its first military expansion in over 40 years. Though sizably smaller than its counterpart in the region (China) the Japanese army is far better equipped and is especially designed to be a defensive force, rather than an offensive one. This was part of the peace clause after WWII. In any case, their air force is the fifth largest in the world and the most sophisticated. Moreover, any incursion into Japanese territory by a foreign power would be challenged both by the Japanese themselves, as well as the US Military as stipulated in the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan. 6. Iran Active Personnel: 545,000, Reserve: 1,800,000 Tanks: 1,658, Artillery: 2,400 Air Fighters: 137, Helicopters: 140 Naval Strength: 398 (Submarines: 33) In recent decades the Middle East has become a hotbed for conflict, extremism, and social and economic instability, no doubt fueled by the vast amounts of oil found beneath the region (punsort of intended?). But while several of its neighbors have succumbed to the ravages of war, Iran is still a strong influence and stability factor in the region. Regardless, many other governments like that of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United States would like to see that change. Moreover, Iran has begun its own nuclear program, trying to consolidate its power even further. This new turn of events has made many believe it to be a good idea to invade Iran. However, a peaceful resolution would be a far better and less costly solution for everyone. For starters, Iran has a tremendously large army; the largest in the Middle East. Moreover, the country is literally covered by mountains, perfect for concealed defensive facilities and underground bunkers. This type of terrain, as well as Irans battle-hardened army, can withstand a prolonged war of attrition against any superior attacking force. In the meantime, the Iranian government is perfectly capable of using a mix of mines, submarines, anti-ship missiles, drones, and all sorts of other tactical forces to disrupt the flow of oil exports in the Gulf region, disrupting the world economy as a whole. One such invasion of Iran would not be supported by countries like Russia, China, or even the EU, who only stand to lose from such attacks. And even if the attack was a success and all nuclear facilities were destroyed, this would only delay Irans nuclear program by a mere four years. 5. Canada Active Personnel: 95,000, Reserve: 51,000 Tanks: 181, Artillery: 161 Air Fighters: 64, Helicopters: 175 Naval Strength: 63 (Submarines: 4) Canada is the second largest country in terms of surface area after Russia, and equally as cold (and we all know what happened when Napoleon tried to invade Russiabut well get to that later). Located at the northern fringes of the world, Canada would be quite difficult to invade, even though most of its 35 million people live close to the border with the United States. But given its size and vast expanses of wilderness, taking over all of Canada by force could be problematic for anyone. Moreover, its mostly surrounded by oceans, and it only shares a border with just one other nation, which is its ally and just happens to be the worlds largest superpower. Bringing in troops and holding a steady supply line would be quite difficult. From an economic standpoint, the country is also well prepared to withstand a prolonged war of attrition if need be. Its defense budget is at $14.7 billion and the country is currently producing more oil than it consumes. Canadas best means of defense, however, is their peaceful and friendly attitude towards other nation states around the world, giving little reason for others to invade them. Not to mention that Canada is also part of NATO. Nevertheless, if anyone got any bright ideas, they would have a really tough time in invading since Canadas military is very well equipped, trained, and supplied with cutting edge technologies. According to the Global Firepower Index, Canada is ranked as no. 22 in terms of overall military strength, but given its geographical location and geopolitical situation, the nation ranks better when it comes to an actual invasion by a foreign power. In 1974, the US declassified War Plan Red, a comprehensive offensive strategy against Canada devised in 1927, in case the British ever wanted to attack the US from the north. 4. North Korea Active Personnel: 700,000, Reserve: 4,500,000 Tanks: 4,200, Artillery: 6,550 Air Fighters: 458, Helicopters: 222 Naval Strength: 967 (Submarines: 70) Nuclear Warheads: 8 As seen during the Korean War in the early 1950s, both South Korea and the United States tried to take down the North, but to no avail. And while there is a huge discrepancy between the technological advancements between the two Koreas nowadays, many of the reasons for why the initial invasion failed are still there. Since North Korea developed its own nuclear weapons, as well as the many crimes against humanity happening over there under the rule of the Kim family, these would certainly warrant an invasion, and regime overthrow by the UN. However this invasion is not foreseen any time in the near future. The reasons have more to do with geopolitics than anything else, and pretty much everyone involved is unwilling to mount such an undertaking. For starters, theres China, which is North Koreas biggest ally and who also supported it in the 50s. They are content to keeping the country the way it is, as a sort of buffer zone between them and the South. Moreover, if something were to happen to North Korea, it is quite possible that millions of people would flood into Manchuria, trying to leave the country and destabilizing the northern Chinese region. And lastly, theres the status quo between China and the US, where China has its sights on Taiwan and the US on DPRK. This way, neither is willing to make a move, not wanting to antagonize the other. And even if the Chinese werent the problem, theres the South Koreans who, according to the polls, are afraid of the cost of unification with the North and even started to consider the North Koreans as being different people from themselves. Its like the case with Germany today, where even after nearly 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany is struggling to catch up with the West. Given the huge economical discrepancy between the two, the same thing would apply to Korea if it ever reunited, but on a much, much larger scale. The most likely invasion of North Korea would happen from within, in the form of a coup. 3. United Kingdom Active Personnel: 150,000, Reserves: 182,000 Tanks: 407, Artillery: 227 Air Fighters: 91, Helicopters: 397 Naval Strength: 76 (Submarines: 10, Aircraft Carriers: 1) Nuclear Warheads: 215 Island nations are among the most common in this list, and the United Kingdom is a prime example of a hard-to-invade country. In fact, the last time Britain was totally and successfully invaded was in 1066 during the Norman conquest of England. During WWII, try as they might, Hitler and the Nazis were unable to mount an effective attack on the island, proving just how much 20 miles of open water means in organizing an effective landing. Surrounded by two oceans and the ever turbulent North Sea, the British Isle can only be effectively invaded from the South, across the English Chanel. But even this crossing is treacherous and difficult. The Southeastern English coast consists of steep cliffs, known as the White Cliffs of Dover. This way, any would-be invading fleet would be forced to drop anchor farther away, and be exposed to British artillery and its air force. Its military is no joke either, with cutting edge technology and surveillance equipment. Its defense budget of $55 billion is the 5th largest in the world, as is its economy. It also has two aircraft carriers under construction, which are due to enter service in 2020 and 2022, respectively. Being a member of NATO, the UK has the advantage of strong allies (including the US, obviously) who will come to their aid in case of any threat. In and of itself the United Kingdom has a more or less stable relationship with all nations around the globe. 2. Russia Active Personnel: 766,000, Reserves: 2,485,000 Tanks: 15,400, Artillery: 10,600 Air Fighters: 751, Helicopters: 1,750 Naval Strength: 352 (Submarines: 60, Aircraft Carriers: 1) Nuclear Warheads: 7,300 Without a doubt, Russia is an almost impossible country to conquer. As history has proven time and time again with the Swedish in the early 18th century, the French under Napoleon in 1812, and then the Nazis during WWII, the incredibly harsh Russian winter can bring even the mightiest of armies to its knees. In fact, Russia has some of the biggest temperature differences on the planet, with a record low of -90 F and a record high of 113.7 F. Another major impediment in conquering Russia is its sheer size. Being the largest country in the world, with 6.6 million square miles, much of the country is made out of mountains and wilderness, perfect for hidden military bases and surprise attacks. Scouring these lands in the hopes of discovering all of these bases would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Even if, by some miracle, someone were able to successfully invade Russia, almost no one would be able to hold on to it. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian military stagnated, but recently it has begun to grow. Since 2008, the countrys annual military spending has increased by almost a third and is now at $66 billion. At present the country has the largest fleet of tanks in the world. However their equipment, like that tank force, is aging. Nevertheless, in recent years the country has become more and more interested in robotics development. Though generations behind the US in terms of unmanned vehicles, Russia is perfectly capable of catching up in just a few years, says Mark Gubrud, a member of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control. This technology has the potential to become the basis for a new arms race. And if someone were to actually invade Russia, we personally wouldnt put it past their government to use its nuclear arsenal, even on their own soil. 1. USA Active Personnel: 1,400,000, Reserves: 1,100,000 Tanks: 8,850, Artillery: 3,300 Air Fighters: 2,300, Helicopters: 7,100 Naval Strength: 415 (Submarines: 75, Aircraft Carriers: 19) Nuclear Warheads: 7,100 Not surprisingly, the United States is first on this list. For starters, its geographical position, as Otto von Bismarck is believed to have said, is advantageous: The Americans are truly a lucky people; they are bordered to the north and south by weak neighbors and to the east and west by fish. Then there are the truly vast expanses of the country and all the different types of terrain, from densely forested mountains to scorching deserts. Any invading force would have difficulty holding on to these places, regardless of who or what was defending them. And then theres the US Military. With a defense budget of $581 billion, it alone makes up almost a third of all money spent on the military in the world. Only 20 countries have a larger GDP than the US defense budget. And contrary to Iceland, New Zealand, or Bhutan, the US follows the best defense is offense strategy. Whenever theres a conflict in the world, 9 times out of 10, the US is sure to be involved in one way or another. The country also holds hundreds of military bases around the world, and has been at war almost constantly over the past 25 years. The US is also notorious for destabilizing other nation states, engineering coups, overthrowing democratic governments, and backing military dictatorships in their stead. This interventionist policy keeps conflicts away from its borders by generating them somewhere else. And lastly, theres the matter of guns per capita. As Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy during WWII is commonly believed to have once said, You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass. An invader of mainland USA would be faced with an already armed populace. While Switzerland has an estimated 45.7 guns per 100 residents, the US has a whopping 112. That means that there are more guns than people. Other Articles you Might Like Greece's largest social security fund (IKA) this week pinpointed the average monthly salary for part-time employees in the country at below 400 euros Greece's largest social security fund (IKA) this week pinpointed the average monthly salary for part-time employees in the country at below 400 euros, with the latest figures emanating from April 2016. The average remuneration for full-time employment was 51.61 euros on a daily basis, or 1,181.73 euros on a monthly basis; 23.84 euros and 396.67 euros for part-time employment, respectively. Net pay on the part-time side leaves a wage-earner with 331.21 euros in the wallet. In terms of employees on the books, the average number of work days per month is 20.98 days; 13.68 days per month in the construction sector, with the average rate at 41.28 euros. 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 Speculations that the tour to Crete was an elections campaign are nonsense, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in a meeting with Archibishop of Crete Irineos Speculations that the tour to Crete was an elections campaign are nonsense, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in a meeting with Archibishop of Crete Irineos. "We are at the beginning of the government's 4-year term," Tsipras noted. "Elections will be held in September 2019," the prime minister underlined. "Two targets will have been met by then," he said. These will be the exit from the supervision programmes in the middle of our term and the great vision of the country's productive reconstruction, he added. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras wrapped up his two-day tour of Crete by meeting with Lasithi olive growers on Wednesday, noting that the olive oil that they produced was Greece's own "nuclear power" and a product that could attract millions of tourists. Visiting the Kritsa Oil Producers Cooperative, Tsipras said that Crete produced oil of "peerless quality" and this needed to be better promoted abroad. He also praised the Kritsa Cooperative as an example for Greece, not only for the high quality of its products but also for preserving the cohesion of its member-farmers. Tsipras earlier visited Agios Nikolaos in Lasithi, where he spoke with farmers and representatives of the local authorities and pledged the government's support for the region. He also assured them of the government's political will to solve the problems troubling Lasithi and said this was reflected in the decision to devote half of the funds for Crete in the Public Investment Programme to the Lasithi area. Tsipras said that Greece would be able to get realistic primary surplus targets in order to escape from the memorandums and the deep crisis facing the country. "Following this, from 2019 onward, we will be able to address injustices through a more flexible, more elastic adjustment plan," he said, in order to "heal wounds" and create a more accessible environment for businesses. Prior to the prime minister's speech, there was a protest by Agios Nikolaos hospital staff and representatives of the civil servants' union federation ADEDY over the impact of austerity policy on the hospital. They also complained that the coastal road had been cut off when the prime minister's meetings were taking place. 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 The representative of Greeces Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Catherine Boura officially rejected the positions expressed by the Turkish government which dispute the right of Greece for the demarcation of maritime zones, i.e the sea-shelf and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Greek diplomat sent a letter accusing Turkey of using unfounded claims to deny Greek sovereign rights in the region of the eastern Mediterranean and its right to determine the delimitation with states sharing common sea borders. Indeed, both the deceptive and erroneous implementation of the principle of equality as a rule that governs water demarcation, and coincidental and the uneven reading of international court jurisprudence concerning sea demarcation, aim at promoting those claims included in the June 15, 2016 letter, Mrs. Boura underlines, responding to a letter by the Turkish authorities that doubted Greeces prerogative to determine its maritime zones. The letter was presented to the UN on December 8 in reply to Turkish letter to the body on June 15. The Greek letter underlines that there was no international law that compelled countries to agree among themselves regarding semi-enclosed seas based on the principle of compliance to avoid harming the sovereign rights of the other interested parties. 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 Major opposition party New Democracy (ND) threw down the gauntlet at the Greek government and PM Alexis Tsipras calling for national elections, in a statement by the partys spokesperson Vasilis Kikilias. ND called for the implementation of a Greek growth plan to exit the crisis under conditions of national dignity and responsibility. The opposition party called for cooperation with Greeces partners and not a collision, stressing that if Mr. Tsipras was unable to pass the new measures in parliament, ND would not offer a life line to his government by backing the measures. We have made it clear that we would not act as Mr. Tsipras alibi so that he can escape his responsibilities, said Mr. Kikilias, adding that if he (Tsipras) thought he had the required majority or support in parliament to pass any measures he could move forward, otherwise he would have to call elections. Kikilias said that there was a disparity between the will of the Greek public and the parliamentary representation. 9 out of 10 Greeks are dissatisfied and enraged with Mr. Tsipras, NDs spokesperson said. He added that Greece had paid a high price for the incompetence and failure of the coalition government of SYRIZA-ANEL, pointing to the fact that the second review had yet to be completed even though it was the end of December. Kikilias accused the Greek PM of acting in an irresponsible way and that he deceived the Greek people by offering the pensioners a pittance. He (Tsipras) is unrepentant. He is clinging on to the PMs chair and has the audacity to speak of the willing when it was him who signed the cutter, the superfund, huge pension cuts and vicious hyper taxation, Kikilias said. 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 The Christmas Meet Market will take place on 17th and 18th of December at their classic holiday venue of Athinais Cultural Center The Christmas Meet Market will take place on 17th and 18th of December at their classic holiday venue of Athinais Cultural Center. The Xmas Meet Market is a two-day celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit. A nomadic market place of local goods, fresh ideas and friendly folk. An audio-visual jigsaw of handmade & independently designed clothes, accessories, art, objects, organic body products, home ware, tasty food, vintage and retro collectables, records, interactive games, free prizes, dj sets and good vibes. Every Christmas, the Meet Market gets into an ultra-good mood. Firstly, because it marks its anniversary, and this year makes it 9 years since the very first Meet Market at k44 in 2007. Secondly, because the Christmas edition truly is something extraordinary. The public can enjoy some holiday browsing from over 100 stands of creations and innovations from local designers, artists, producers and collectors, plus yuletide festivities, non-stop dj sets and plenty of fuzzy feelings the kind you get from seeing familiar faces and drinking a little too much gluwein. Alongside the Meet Market, plenty of free parallel activities will be hosted for both kids and grownups alike in the Music Theatre and of course, as in every market, there will be plenty of gifts and goodies to win at the central cash point. What: The Xmas Meet Market When: Saturday 17 and Sunday 18, December 2016 Opening hours: 13:00 23:00 Where: Athinais Cultural Center, ground floor and 1st floor Kastorias 34 36, Votanikos 10447 (Metro station: Kerameikos) #theMeetMarket 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 Although the Syrian armed opposition has lost its six-year war to declare Aleppo the capital of the revolution and the Syrian equation has changed drastically, the curtain is not yet down on this act of the bloody play. Washington is idling and staying aloof while waiting for President-elect Donald Trump to take over, which has enabled Iran and Russia to complete their operations in Aleppo by sidelining Turkey. Militants and their families evacuated from Aleppo were transferred to Idlib. Everyone will try to find out what strategy Turkey which mediated the withdrawal of armed groups, especially Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra), as it had promised Russia has in mind now. One Turkish approach being discussed indicates that Turkey wants to transfer some groups to Turkey via Hatay and then via Kilis to the Azaz/al-Bab front in Syria. The groups for transfer are ones that have been moved to Idlib but are not likely to stay there because of their issues with the dominant power, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. The goal of this would be to reinforce the field elements of Operation Euphrates Shield with this new supply of fighters. A senior official of the Sultan Murad Brigade raised many eyebrows when he told Reuters that after leaving Aleppo, his group will join Turkeys Euphrates Shield operation. Al Jazeera quoted opposition sources who said the brigade, along with Fatih Sultan Mehmet and Nureddin Zengi Brigade, which were transferred to Idlib, will next be moved to al-Rai and Jarablus, which has been cleared of the Islamic State (IS), and participate in the siege of al-Bab. Operation Euphrates Shield Some units of the Sultan Murad Brigade and Ahrar al-Sham are already taking part in Operation Euphrates Shield. Of course, it would be naive to claim that all the opposition organizations leaving Aleppo are keen to be soldiers under the tutelage of the Turkish army. Some of them accuse Turkey of eroding their manpower by recruiting Free Syrian Army militants for its campaign against the Syrian regime, hence blaming Turkey for the loss of Aleppo. But those who have moved to Idlib are likely to have problems with Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. Such militants will either give up their arms or accept Turkeys offer. Operation Euphrates Shield was launched under the premise of fighting IS, but the real goal doesnt seem to have changed: Eliminate the operational plans of the Kurds. At the outset, the Kurds wanted to open a corridor via Azaz-Jarablus parallel to the Turkish border to link their Afrin and Kobani cantons. When Euphrates Shield foiled that plan, the Kurds thought of opening a southern corridor between Manbij and Afrin, some 24 miles to the south by taking advantage of the Kurdish settlements scattered over that area. Turkey also blocked this move. The US decision to keep the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in a passive deployment west of the Euphrates River helped Turkeys ambition. Ankara wants to beef up the local manpower of Euphrates Shield and persuade Washington to give up its partnership with the Kurds. Beyond that, Ankara by making use of its cooperation with Russia wants an all-out campaign against Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) cantons to eliminate any likelihood of an autonomous Kurdish entity. In the region there are humorous rumors of a Give Aleppo, take al-Bab horse trade in the works. Turkey, which for five years could not persuade the United States to agree to a buffer zone or a safe zone, is now trying to make that a part of bargaining with Iran and Russia. Ankara has also been encouraged by Trumps statement at a Dec. 15 rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, that we will set up safe zones in Syria. Front line shifting After the rout at Aleppo, the front line will inevitably shift toward the Turkish border. Ankara sees a buffer zone as a way to prevent a massive push up against its borders by militant groups and their families who are taking refuge in Idlib, or by inhabitants of the region. The same situation also applies to the 24-mile-deep, 60-mile-wide pocket opposite Turkeys Kilis border area. The Turkish Red Crescent aid group is preparing a tent city at Idlib some 3 miles from the border. Turkish Red Crescent President Kerem Kinik said, Preparations are being made for 10,000 people, but I dont think we will need [to accommodate] that many. Other humanitarian organizations are also erecting tents. To sit at the negotiation table with Damascus over the liberated areas of Idlib and Azaz/al-Bab is another aspect of the issue. A de facto buffer zone will be a trump card in Turkeys hand to prevent total marginalization of armed groups and to use them as a bargaining chip in a political process. Russia also wants to activate a political negotiation mechanism while expanding its military operations. Russian President Vladimir Putin, parallel to the political solution process in Geneva, also plans joint negotiations with Turkey in Kazakhstan for the opposition groups. Suggesting these negotiations could be held in the Kazakh capital of Astana, Putin said: The next step [after Aleppo] will be to reach agreement on a complete cease-fire across all of Syria. We are actively negotiating with members of the armed opposition, with the mediation of Turkey. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced he is ready to host such a process. Erdogan spokesman Ibrahim Kalin indicated Turkeys positive reaction to Putins proposal. This shift of the peace initiative from the West to Asia is a totally new development. But realistically, a positive outcome of this initiative depends on the attitudes of the other financial backers of the stronger armed groups. Countermoves by the US, together with regional partners Saudi Arabia and Qatar, could spoil the new Russian-Turkish designs. SOURCE: AL-MONITOR RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report The recent HIV Summit in the Middle East saw over 100 global and regional experts convene in Dubai, UAE to discuss clinical challenges and unmet medical needs in the management of HIV in the Middle East. The event, sponsored by Gilead Sciences, a top biopharmaceutical company, also highlighted strategies to reduce the prevalence of HIV in the region. Dr Samer El-Ali, medical director, Gilead Sciences Middle East stated: This Summit evidences how important the treatment and management of HIV is for the healthcare community in the Middle East. Our ambition is to establish a strong consensus to drive progress and better support people living with HIV across the region particularly through treatment simplification. Rates of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths are rising faster in the Mena region than anywhere else globally. According to the latest data available from the Joint UN Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), there are 230,000 people living with HIV in Mena and there were an estimated15,000 AIDS-related deaths in 2013,an increase of 66 per cent in the number of annual deaths since2005. The experts at the HIV Summit also aimed to explore the challenges to reach the UNAIDS target 90-90-90 and discuss the efficacy and safety of antiretroviral therapeutic strategies. A special focus was on optimising the management of HIV aging patients with one or more additional diseases and taking a number of medications. HIV healthcare leaders at the Summit shared insights and experience for optimising the management of patients living with HIV chaired by a well-recognised scientific committee. Jacques Mokhbat MD, professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Lebanese American University, School of Medicine said: There are a number of challenges in treating HIV in the Middle East and its prevalence is rising across the region. This Summit, coupled with co-ordinated action from government in the Arab States, signals our intent to answer these challenges and turn the tide on the spread of HIV. Other topics under discussion at the Summit included HIV and epidemiology challenges in the Middle East, living with HIV as a chronic condition and recent advances in HIV treatments as well as national perspectives of HIV management in KSA, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Lebanon. A patient case forum was also held where representatives from KSA, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, UK and Germany discussed the treatment of HIV in real-world settings. Dr Abdullah Al Ustadi, consultant physician, Infectious Disease Department at Rashid Hospital stated: UAE offers universal access to free and comprehensive HIV treatment, care and support for all UAE nationals, including antiretroviral therapy. In Dubai we have approximately 250 registered patients with HIV, out of which 140 are undergoing the treatment. However, clinical practice has identified that problems with follow-up or adherence exist among some patients, primarily due to disease related stigmatization. Creating and implementing specific, culturally suitable programmes that could appropriately address the denial and stigma in the region are the key to a timely and appropriate response to ending HIV epidemic. TradeArabia News Service Bateel International, a leading brand for gourmet dates and confectionary and cafes, is set to open six new cafes and boutiques in some of Dohas most prestigious locations. The openings are taking place from this month across the first quarter of 2017. General manager Tina Memic said: Bateel has been long awaited in Qatar and we are delighted to finally be able to bring the highest quality gourmet experiences and outstanding customer service to residents through our network of new locations across the city. A brand new boutique and cafe opened its doors at the Mall of Qatar earlier this month. This will be followed by another cafe set to open later this month at the iconic Doha Tower, also known as the Burj Doha. 2017 will see a period of continued growth in the country for Bateeel with a further three openings - a cafe and boutique in Doha Festival City as well as a dual-purpose location in the Lagoona Mall, which will offer both a cafe and boutique under one roof. Known for reinventing and elevating dates to a gourmet product, Bateel has grown to become an admired food brand, renowned globally for culinary excellence. Furthermore, with its well-established expansion into the cafes segment, Bateel has created a name for itself, offering an elevated casual dining concept by combining Mediterranean cuisine and the rich tradition of Arabian hospitality, promising an unforgettable gourmet experience. The year 2016 has been a year of expedited growth for the brand, with store and cafe openings across Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Dr. Ata Atmar, managing director Bateel International, said: Bateel is Arabic for a young offshoot of a date palm and like our namesake, our company has grown tremendously over the years. 2016 has been a stellar year for Bateel as we expanded into several new key markets across the GCC, as well as celebrating our 25th anniversary. All Bateel dates are still sourced from its own farms in Al Ghat. TradeArabia News Service More than 100 international companies are ready to invest up to $15 billion in Egypts renewable energy sector, but are reluctant to go ahead due to slow government procedures, a report said. Companies in the first phase of the feed-in tariff projects have not been announced, even though financial closure was submitted two months ago, one investor was quoted as saying in the Daily News Egypt report. The government should support new and renewable energy projects to diversify sources of electricity production through the issuance of the feed-in tariff law or by signing direct contracts that have not been implemented yet, say investors. The Ministry of Electricity aims to maximise the portion by which renewable sources contribute to electricity grid in Egypt to over 37 per cent by 2035, the report said. Workers and guests attend the presentation of the new AN-132D aircraft demonstrator in the final assembly shop of the Antonov aircraft plant in Kiev, Ukraine on December 20. AN-132 multipurpose aircraft is a joint project of Antonov and companies of Saudi Arabia. AN-132 can be used for military and civilian purposes. It can carry 9.2 tons of cargo and it is intended for operation on short and medium-haul routes. The new AN-132 aircraft was built in the framework of a contract with Saudi Arabia signed in April 2015, reported Defence Blog, adding that the AN-32 platform was preferred after studying the requirements of the kingdom and the global market for light transport aircraft in the military and civil sectors. Photo: EPA/Roman Pilipey Elaf Group, a Sedco Holding Group company, will open a new hotel in Madinah for the benefit of the growing number of tourists who visit Saudi Arabia for religious purposes. Elaf has entered into a strategic lease agreement with Al Aqeeq Real Estate Development to rent the Al Majeedi Residential Center situated in front of Al-Masjid Al-Nabawi, north of Madinah Al Munawara. The agreement was signed by Ziyad Bin Mahfouz, CEO, Elaf Group, and Aymen Bin Hamza Saeed, CEO of Al Aqeeq Real Estate Development and CEO of Taiba Holding Company. Under terms of the agreement, the Al Majeedi Residential Center will be renamed as Elaf Al Majeedi Hotel, serving as the latest addition to the growing portfolio of Elaf Hotels Company, a subsidiary of the Elaf Group. Bin Mahfouz pointed out that the move complements the groups expansion strategies to strengthen its presence in the country by providing the highest quality of hospitality services to the visitors arriving in Al Madinah Al Munawara. Bin Mahfouz explained that the number of tourists arriving in Saudi Arabia is expected to register a continuous upwards momentum in the coming years, complementing the Saudi Vision 2030, which was launched by the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. Expansion and development are key priorities of the Elaf Group to achieve excellence by constantly innovating its services and keeping them relevant and up-to-date as per the market requirements. The signing of this new lease agreement with Al Aqeeq Real Estate Development is part of our ongoing efforts to reinforce the groups leading position in the hospitality sector across Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, he said. - TradeArabia News Service Dubais hospitality market was the top performer in November 2016 in the Middle East and North Africa region, representing the highest occupancy at 89.5 per cent and highest revenue per average room (RevPAR) of $250, said a EY report. Compared to last year, Dubai witnessed a positive increase in occupancy from 84.8 per cent in November 2015 to 89.5 per cent in November 2016, which could be ascribed to the Big 5 exhibition, the largest construction exhibition in the Middle East, being orqanised in November this year, said Yousef Wahbah, Mena head of transaction real estate at EY, commenting on the November GCC key performance highlights. However, despite having the highest occupancy and RevPAR in Mena, compared to November 2015, average daily rate (ADR) in Dubai dropped by 8.6 per cent resulting in a decline of RevPAR of 3.6 per cent, he said. Abu Dhabi maintained stable occupancy in November 2016 mainly due to the Formula 1 event allowing hotels to keep their occupancy afloat with no change to last years 84.0 per cent. However average daily rate (ADR) decreased by 16.2 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) and as such, RevPAR decreased by 16.2 per cent in November 2016. Ras Al Khaimah witnessed a steady performance in hotel performance. Occupancy in November 2016 dropped by 1.6 per cent y-o-y, however a 2.6 per cent increase in ADR resulted in a modest y-o-y RevPAR increase of 0.5 per cent. Doha witnessed a positive increase in occupancy when compared to November 2015, increasing by 4.0% in November 2016. However, RevPAR dropped by 6.9% from USD 168 in November 2015 to USD 157 in November 2016, the report said. Saudi Arabias hospitality market saw the occupancy and ADR of some of its largest cities (Riyadh, Jeddah) decline in November 2016, resulting in a negative RevPAR performance across all cities. Oman was able to maintain the same occupancy levels of 76 per cent compared to November 2015, but ADR declined by 16.5 per cent y-o-y, leading to a decline in RevPAR of 16.5 per cent y-o-y. Kuwait experienced a 3.1 per cent y-o-y increase in ADR, however the drop in occupancy from 57 per cent in November 2015 to 50 per cent in November 2016 resulted in a RevPAR decline of 8.2 per cent in November, the report said. Hotel performance has been weak across the region due to slower economic growth, performance is expected to improve in December, in certain markets, as the holiday season attracts more tourists. It is anticipated that the hospitality market across the GCC will continue to face downward pressure on occupancy and ADR during most of 2017, said Wahbah. - TradeArabia News Service Bahamas boat accident reportedly killed one woman from the U.S. Meanwhile, the Bahamas boat accident is still being investigated since it occurred, according to the Associated Press. Though boat accidents are not uncommon in vacation favorites like the Bahamas, one accident that occurred over Memorial Day weekend have left one woman dead. The Bahamas boat accident happened in Nassau, Bahamas. As of the moment, authorities in the island country are still investigating the accident after it resulted in the death of a U.S. citizen, said officials on Tuesday. According to the Miami Herald, the woman was killed in the Bahamas boat accident when the boat reportedly struck a reef commonly known as the Turtle Rock located off South Bimini. The accident happened on Sunday night, says the Royal Bahamas Police Force. The news agency reports that the woman who died in the Bahamas boat accident is 25-year-old Paloma de Mazieres from Key Biscayne in Florida. She was apparently ejected from the vessel as the boat struck Turtle Rock on off the South Bimini island on Sunday afternoon. She was pronounced dead after she was taken to Alice Town Clinic in Bimini. Officials haven't released the cause of death of Mazieres. Inspector Jeff Adderley said that the circumstances of the Bahamas boat accident are under investigation while an autopsy was planned for later this week. There have been no reported arrests made at this time though the case is still under investigation. According to NewsMax, the victim's boyfriend named Robert Rico recently posted a photo of the two of them to his Instagram account. Meanwhile, several messages from their family, friends and followers offered their condolences after the photo. Web Pro News reports that another boating accident during Memorial Day have left a woman dead and two men critically injured after their vessel hit another in nearby Elliot Key. In 2012, a massive boat accident has reportedly left 30 people dead when a boat carrying a group of people from Haiti took on water and capsized. According to officials, they believe that the boat was overloaded and couldn't sustain the weight of all the passengers. Bahamas boat accident this week occurred off Bimini, a small cluster of islands about 50 miles east of Florida. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 As citizens in the United States witnessed during Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans was nearly submerged completely underwater. The torrent was seemingly unstoppable as the levees broke, unleashing water up to or more than 11 feet from ground level. The city recovered, as we all know, but there are island and non-island nations around the world that already know that their time may be up. Rising sea levels have already eroded away parts of their coast and hampered their crop production, adulterating their stores of fresh water with oceanic salt water. Here are five countries that probably won't be around by the end of the century: 1. Tuvalu: The Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Enele Sopoaga, has been working tirelessly since his election to forward some kind of climate change resolution in the United Nations to save his country. Unfortunately, the country has been losing some of its coastline every year, and the island of just over 10,000 residents will likely have to evacuate in the decades to come. There have been major efforts by neighboring countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, along with the European Union, to keep the country afloat, but should global temperatures continue to rise, the island chain will likely be submerged. 2. Kiribati: The small island chain in the South Pacific is one of the most likely to be gone by the end of the century. It comes as no surprise that the crux of its foreign policy is based on climate change and its work through the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). President Anote Tong has openly stated that the islands may be uninhabitable by 2050 due to salination of their water supply, and by eventual flooding. He has stated that emigration away from Kiribati should begin immediately. 3. Maldives: Located between India and Africa, the Maldives have been ranked as the third-most in danger from climate change. The former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, has pleaded in the past for some kind of action to be taken to curb global carbon emissions. In 2008, President Nasheed looked into buying land in South Asia so as to transplant all the residents of the Maldives before the islands are submerged. 4. Bangladesh: In 1998, Bangladesh saw the worst flooding in recorded history: over 1000 people died, and 30 million were made homeless as floodwaters overtook everything. Two-thirds of the country was left underwater. It is estimated that, in the coming decades, the effects of climate change will force 20-40 million citizens in the South Asian country to become refugees. 5. Nepal (and Bhutan): Sitting in the shadow of Mount Everest, these two countries might come as more of a surprise; however, melting glaciers threaten the nations with severe flooding and eradication of agriculture, and neither country is well-equipped to deal with the implications of rising global temperatures, though they have adopted several measures in an attempt to combat climate change. Worthy mentions: Marshall Islands, Vietnam, Kenya, Rwanda This is only a small sampling of countries that would be affected. Along with the (relatively) simple issue of flooding come the more complicated ramifications of an increase in global temperatures, which would cause extreme weather patterns that would disrupt the normal flows of human activity around the world. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has scheduled an international climate summit for September 2014 in New York City to address the growing urgency of global climate change. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 People in Asia would always say that how you celebrate the New Year on the midnight will determine how your upcoming 365 days will be. Thus, it is no question at all why Asian people would always do their best in celebrating the New Year. Families around Asian countries will always throw the best new year bash as they welcome another bountiful year. In Asia, there are lots of surprises that you can enjoy. If you wish to spend new year's eve with spectacular fireworks or enjoy drinks in a more solemn and traditional place, Asia is the right destination for you. Give yourself a treat as you can visit this top places to go as you welcome 2017. 1. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - This is one of the Asian countries which has been known for its Petronas Towers and as well as those spectacular towers and skyscrapers. This is definitely a good country to visit since they will always amaze each traveler with the amazing fireworks display. There are also luxe restaurants that you can choose to stay while having the best views of the fireworks backdrop. 2. Manila, Philippines - One of the countries in Asia where amazing sceneries are found. It is always evident that fireworks and other celebrations are all around the metropolis. Filipinos believe that the noisier the celebration, the most effective it is to have the best luck of the year. 3. Kuta, Bali - This is the central of Bali, Indonesia. One of the best things to enjoy this new year is partying and they had been known for that ever since. Partying starts at midnight and will go until the morning. 4. Chiang Mai, Thailand - Songkran is how the Thailand people call their new year's celebration. In this place, you will experience a 6-day partying at the northern city of Chiang Mai. Lots of foods and drinks are also offered in their luxurious restaurants. 5. Seoul, Korea - This is the city that definitely loves to party. It has lots of clubs and bars that you can choose from. Seoul is probably the largest party scene that you can visit in this place. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 New York is definitely a city not to miss when you are in the USA. With its popularity, it is about to hit a record of more than 60 million people visiting NYC in 2016. NYC & Company just announced that the Big Apple will expect to reach 60.3 million visitors by the end of 2016, according to according to travel Week. This is about 300 million people from 2015's 60 million tourism landmark. This serves as the seventh year in a row of booming travel and tourism growth. "We are proud to exceed our forecast this year and welcome an all-time record 60.3 million visitors," NYC & Company president Fred Dixon announced. "Achieving a new tourism milestone for New York City," he further added. Earlier this year the official guide to NYC announced that this new figure is higher than the amount they initially announced early this year. They first forecasted an approximate 59.7 million people traveling to NYC. And with the increasing travel and tourism in NYC, the city was able to sustained hundreds and thousands of jobs. This is a huge leap from last years 15,000 jobs. The new improvements in "The City That Never Sleeps" with its classic attractions such as the Freedom Tower, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge and do not forget the Empire State Building. Alongside the countless activities and things to do in NYC for Christmas, these are the famous that continue to attract tourists in the incoming years. The NYC invites both the locals and the tourists to take advantage of all that the city has to offer, both the affordable and endless Big Apple experiences this holiday season. To increase next year's tourism, there will be numerous events available starting in the early months of 2017. Locals and visitors can enjoy the NYC Restaurant Week which will run from Jan. 23 to Feb. 10, 2017. There will be an NYC Broadway week starting Jan. 17 to Feb. 5, 2017. An NYC Off-Broadway Week will be offered on Feb. 27. to March 12, 2017. An all-new NYC Attractions Week will be offered but no details are released as of yet. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 Philippines, one of the Asian countries, is definitely one of the most blessed countries when it comes to natural resources and tourist destinations. It is an archipelago where you can find biodiversity in all its places. It has lots of beaches, virgin forest, and ancient places where you will surely enjoy visiting especially the next year to come. When planning for a new taste of vacation, take some time of listing the following places for your next vacation in this country. 1. Boracay Island - This island is always the most favourite destinations of all times. Many tourists around the world, both local and international love to be in Boracay because of its amazing beaches and resort. Summer or not, this island is really great for vacation and relaxation. There are also water activities like scuba diving and snorkelling that you can enjoy during your stay. 2. Palawan - This is one of the best islands to visit in the Philippines. Aside from its fresh and cold water, Palawan has been mostly visited by tourists since it allows you to experience what really nature is. The place has become famous due to its gigantic and mesmerizing rocks and its underground river as well. There are basically three destinations to visit in Palawan which are the El Nido, Coron, and Puerto Princesa. 3. Batanes - This is most probably the most challenging destinations but is always worth the ride when you are in the Philippines. It is a very small island situated in the far north of the country. The island is hardly visited because getting there is somewhat expensive. However, the choice to be in Batanes is always worth the price. You will surely enjoy breath-taking sceneries in their place! 4. Bantayan Island - This is one of the most visited islands which is located in Cebu, Philippines. Year by year, the island is slowly gaining recognitions from the travellers and tourists. This is considered as the virgin island in Cebu because there are only few resorts established in the area as of the moment. 5. Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur - This is another great spot for vacation in the Philippines. There are lots of things to see and discover especially in Vigan, one of the most visited place in the Ilocos region. You can find old Spanish architecture, brick walls, and other historical spots that are really picture-worthy. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 Admit it, travelling alone may be one of the most peaceful and indulging experiences one could ever have. There wouldn't be anything more satisfying than to follow your own plans and take your own journey. However, for first timers, have you figure out how would you enjoy your initial trip alone? As per Independent Traveler, going solo on an adventure may have its jeopardies as much as it has positive effects. Part of which include loneliness, boredom, security issues and single supplement expenses. Planning a solo vacation may also sound easier but actually takes extra care as to not waste your time and money. Hence, for someone who is plotting a solo trip for the first time, here are some of the things that could help you manage your journey whilst enjoying yourself. Secure your things and yourself Since you are alone, you do not have anyone to look for you nor your things. Always see to it that you secure your things properly in a locked bag before checking it in a hotel. In addition, keep an eye on your belongings wherever you go. Independent traveler also suggests that you must not look like a tourist as to avoid dragging attention from people who might take advantage of you. Dress properly and avoid fancy clothes especially when walking on streets and any public areas. Take note of important contacts When travelling in a certain place, it is important to always have someone to call (especially authorities) in case of an emergency. Therefore, always keep in touch with the police, the hotel you're in, even the cabs you got in, so you would have someone to track whenever possible. Also, talking to locals is highly recommended as to get necessary information and tips as you go along with your journey. Act normally and do not tell you are alone Travelling alone always have risks especially if people knew you don't have anyone with you. Hence, when asking for directions or things, always see to it to act normally and never show people you are on a solo trip. You may lie a bit and say your friend will meet you in a certain place or that someone is waiting for you there as to not give notion of yourself being alone to others. Know the area first before leaving If you want to go around a place, be sure to study it before you leave the hotel. Someone who walks the streets with a map on his/her face can easily be a target of the bad guys. Hence, always see to it that you know where you'll go or at least act like you do to avoid further problems. Anyway, you may always ask for direction and apply the one mentioned above. Be Skeptical all the time Trusting people easily when in a lone trip can be dangerous. Make sure you talk to the right people and do not let anyone just drag you anywhere without fully examining their identity and purpose. The best thing is to talk to authorized personnel only and never leave your IDs or important information to anyone as to not let them have any access to your personal data. On the other hand, trusting can also make you feel secured about yourself in a trip. People, especially locals may require a certain level of trust from you in order to perform their duty or offer their hands. Always be polite when asking and respect them when they are explaining. Avoid Single Supplement deals Single supplement is the extra pay you give in lieu of a partner or companion. Hotels, cruise and other operators often ask for such to cover up for another person. Avoiding such is necessary for it will cost you much if you let them make you pay for having no one beside you. To avoid such, the source suggests to book an accommodation where you will be matched with other people (lone travelers) to cut the cost. You may also want to try camping on your own to avoid facing such dilemmas. Bring entertainment paraphernalia One of the catches of going on a solo trip is the loneliness and boredom as you have no one to talk to during the trip. Hence, bringing something that could kill time is advisable. Books are among the best companions when in a lone trip. Also if you don't want to feel much about solo dining, then you can choose to have your meal in a restaurant that offers booths for privacy, take a seat in the counter or bar area. You may also take your food inside your hotel via service crews. Sitting in a cafeteria with a book can also avoid dragging attention as compared with eating alone inside a luxurious restaurant. There are a lot of ways to plot a solo trip and the ones mentioned are just some of it. Above all, make sure to indulge yourself and enjoy your journey as much as possible. Make every trip worth your time and money by practicing all the tips above. For more Travel guide, visit Traveler's Today. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 As the Christmas season comes around so is the City of New York as it celebrates the holiday season with a bang. Multiple attractions like the Big Christmas tree that is put up at the Rockefeller Center as well as the beautiful displays on well known Avenues around the streets. With the attractions of New York City and the different of flavor it brings during the Christmas season is surely a great way to visit and see the city filled with bright lights that could warm up the hearts of people in the cold weather. According to Travel and Leisure, millions of visitors come to the city to celebrate the coming of another year and the end of another. New York Times Square and Midtown of the city has always been the crowded part wherein people flock during the holiday season though if you are not the person that like to be in a crowded situation then there are still a lot of holiday celebrations located just outside Times Square. One location wherein you can shop and not get into a crowded area is the Christmas markets across the city like the downtown vibe of the Union Square Holiday Market. Another would be the Brooklyn Flea Holiday Market which offers different kinds of vintage treasures locatd in Wiliamsburg, Brooklyn. For the people who just wants to chill and enjoy the scenery of the city there are rooftops that offer that. Rooftops that offer heated installations to keep customers warm while overlooking the cityscape plus a wine on hand is a great way to chill and experience New York City. One place that offers this is the Empire Hotel which offers a chill filled ambiance with a fireplace to keep guests warm, delicious menus plus a view overlooking Lincoln Center is a good choice for a rooftop escape. For the ones who would like to enjoy the ice, instead of the popular midtown choice which are the expensive ones, go on and head to downtown to the Rink at Brookfield Place. There you can enjoy the ice see the beautiful view of the Hudson River waterfront near the World Trade Center. Lastly, the food, yes the food, there are plenty of choices when it comes to restaurants in New York though some are a little bit pricey and also crowded at the same time. One suggestion for people that want to escape the crowd is the Rolf's German Restaurant. For more details about the latest news and current events feel free to visit Travelers Today. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 There are many places a traveler can visit in search of an adventure. But if one should supersize the scope of the wilderness terrain and the positive experience it brings, one of the best land-locked places to tour is Mongolia. Being one of the most sparsely populated countries worldwide, Mongolia has almost 20 times the number of the domesticated herd for every inhabitant. As foreign visitors make their first stop at the capital, Ulaanbaatar City, their next top 5 eco-tourist sites are the following: Gorkhi-Terelj National Park As the nearest wilderness from the capital city, Gorkhi-Terelj lies 80 kilometers northeast of Ulaanbaatar. Spanning a total of 1,600 meters, this park was first established as a tourist venue in 1963. One of the most visited natural landmarks is the Turtle Rock - a fascinating rock formation nearly resembling a turtle statue. The Gobi Desert Home to the Silk Road during the height of the Mongol Empire in the 13 Century, the Gobi Desert was once replete with caravan superhighways stretching from Rome to China vis-a-vis. But as a modern ecological wonder, geologists (and likeminded academics) camp and trek around the Mongolian boundary of Gobi Desert exploring the so-called Asian Grand Canyon named Bayanzag, or the fascinating 'singing dunes' of Khongor. Khovsgol Lake National Park The 'Dark Blue Pearl' is known as the second clearest freshwater body after Russia's treasured Baikal Lake. Most tourists explore this region to understand Mongolia's multi-faceted wildlife conservation efforts. The shores of Khovsgol Lake are teeming with pines and larches, and home to the country's finest reindeer breeders. Altai Tavan Bogd Mountains The western mountain ranges of Altai Tavan Bogd is one of the most impressive snow-capped highlands of Central Asia. Home to Mt. Khuiten, this 6,300 sq. kilometer park is a magnet for alpine mountain climbers around the world. There are over 35 glaciers in this area. Dornod Steppes A vacation in Mongolia would not be complete for eco-travelers without paying a 'strictly-supervised visit' to the famous Dornod Steppes. The vast great prairies are designated as the base of a multibillion dollar conservation project first established in 1992. It is home to many of Central Asia's documented endangered species. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 Last spring, Diocleciano Silva was sailing his yacht in the Azores near Portugal when his GPS hit on a perfectly square...thing just 40 meters off the coast of Terciara. Estimated at 60 meters tall and perfectly square, GPS imaging recorded the structure as a sort of underwater pyramid "...perfectly shaped and apparently oriented by the cardinal points," Silva Diario Insular, told the local newspaper. Since then there has been a firestorom of speculation and controversy over the possible discovery or hoax of the 'Azores Pyramid'. According to Collective-Evolution.com, the pyramid was found in an area of the mid-Atlantic that has been underwater for about 20,000 years. Considering this is around the time of the last ice age where glaciation was melting from its peak 2000 years prior, an unknown civilization predating the ice age, is the only thing that could be responsible for building a pyramid. Reports from the Portugese American Journal claim archeologists from the Portuguese Association of Archaeological Research (APIA) have found archaeological evidence on Pico island supporting the notion that human occupation of the Azores predates the arrival of the Portuguese by several thousands of years. However, deniers say that to claim the possibility of an underwater civilization as a hoax all you have to do is to compare the uncharted area around the Azores islands as it changed over the last 60 years in the ocean relief maps. Even still folklore is sometimes as strong as scientific evidence, or the lack thereof, and natives from Sao Miguel truly believe the Azores is a remnant of Atlantis. Some of the old folks on the island insist people inhabited the islands long before the Portuguese found them. Call it a conspiracy, hoax or legitimate archeological find, the Azores pyramid is a testament to the credence that the more we learn about anceint civilizations and our place in the universe, the less we seem to know. Reality truly is what you believe. What do you believe? Sources: http://portuguese-american-journal.com/terceira-subaquatic-pyramidal-shaped-structure-found-azores/ http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/01/10/underwater-pyramid-found-near-portugal-has-portuguese-navy-investigating-link-to-atlantis/ http://beforeitsnews.com/beyond-science/2013/09/giant-underwater-pyramid-found-near-azores-island-associated-with-atlantis-portuguese-navy-investigating-2443658.html See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 Alaska Airlines and Virgin America began selling tickets today for new daily nonstop flights from San Francisco International Airport to Orange County, California; Minneapolis; and Orlando, Florida, beginning the summer of 2017. Alaska Airlines and Virgin America began selling tickets today for new daily nonstop flights from San Francisco International Airport to Orange County, California; Minneapolis; and Orlando, Florida, beginning the summer of 2017. With the addition of these new flights, Alaska Airlines and Virgin America will serve 20 of the top 25 destinations from San Francisco. "We're excited to grow our San Francisco hub by adding service to three of the most requested destinations by fliers," said John Kirby, vice president of capacity planning for Alaska Airlines. "Through the combination of Alaska Airlines and Virgin America, Bay Area fliers can now enjoy 113 daily flights to 32 destinations from three Bay Area airports giving our customers even more opportunities to both earn and burn miles as part of the nation's most award winning loyalty program." Summary of new service: Start Date City pair Departs Arrives Frequency Aircraft June 15-July 17 6:30 a.m. 8:05 a.m. Mon.- Sat. E175 San Francisco - Orange County 11:15 a.m. 2:50 p.m. Daily E175 5:40 p.m. 7:15 p.m. Daily E175 June 15-July 17 8:45 a.m. 10:13 a.m. Mon.- Sat. E175 Orange County - San Francisco 1:30 p.m. 2:58 p.m. Daily E175 7:55 p.m. 9:23 p.m. Daily E175 July 18 San Francisco - Orange County 6:30 a.m. 8:05 a.m. Mon.- Sat. E175 10:00 a.m. 11:35 a.m. Daily E175 2:35 p.m. 4:10 p.m. Daily E175 6:40 p.m. 8:15 p.m. Daily E175 July 18 Orange County - San Francisco 8:45 a.m. 10:13 a.m. Mon.- Sat. E175 12:15 p.m. 1:43 p.m. Daily E175 4:10 p.m. 5:38 p.m. Daily E175 8:55 p.m. 10:23 p.m. Daily E175 July 18 San Francisco - Minneapolis 11:45 a.m. 5:22 p.m. Daily E175 6:45 p.m. 12:22 a.m. Daily E175 Minneapolis - San Francisco 6:15 a.m. (effective July 19) 8:20 a.m. Daily E175 3:20 p.m. 5:25 p.m. Daily E175 June 14 San Francisco - Orlando 6:30 a.m. 2:55 p.m. Daily A320 Orlando - San Francisco 3:50 p.m. 6:40 p.m. Daily A320 The new four-times-daily service between San Francisco and Orange County builds on Alaska Airlines' recent growth of intra-Californiaflights. Together, Alaska and Virgin America offer fliers 71 daily intra-California flights to 12 destinations throughout the state. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Travel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2022 Travel Industry Wire Mumbai, December 21 Leading wealth management player Ask Group has sold 41% stake to Boston-based private equity major Advent International for $125 million. Founders and other promoters will retain the remaining 59% in the city-based company, which is the largest in private wealth management firm in the country with an asset under management of close to Rs 30,000 crore, Ask Group MD Sunil Rohokale said. "Out of our total AUM of around Rs 30,000 crore, only $350 million are foreign capital. So this capital infusion will not only help widen our portfolio, but will also help us get foreign clients," Rohokale said. Stating that Advent will help in building capacities to raise foregin capital, he said, "Partnership will focus on accelerating Ask Group's growth by strengthening its team, launching new products and expanding internationally." "With the help of the Advent team, we plan to build an international franchise for investment opportunities focusing on institutional investors and family offices," he added. PTI Ramkrishan Upadhyay Tribune News Service Chandigarh, December 21 For the Chandigarh Administration, the year 2016, which started with disappointment as the city failed to make it to the first list of 20 smart cities, ended with achievements and satisfaction. Notably, the city Administration had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the development of the city with France a week before the much-hyped visit of French President Francois Holland and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the city. Two months later, Vijay Kumar Dev was suddenly removed from the post of the UT Adviser and his transfer to Delhi had come as a rude shock. He was replaced by Parimal Rai. The first major achievement came in May when Chandigarh finally made it to the second list of smart cities, along with 12 others. with this, a new chapter of development seems to have begun. Soon after that, the city achieved another milestone when on July 28 UNESCO declared the Capitol Complex as a World Heritage Site. The Capitol Complex is part of a group of 17 sites across seven countries (France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Argentina, Japan and India), designed by Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier. On 21 June, in a major achievement for the city, thousands of residents joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi to celebrate second International Yoga Day. The arrangements made by the city were appreciated by the Prime Minister, who expressed satisfaction over the entire event. In another important development, compressed natural gas (CNG) and piped natural gas (PNG) service stations were inaugurated in Sector 49 by Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on November 11. The first CNG service station was inaugurated in Sector 44. December brought another achievement when the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways gave nod to the Chandigarh Administration to engage a consultant for the preparation of a detailed project report for the construction of a flyover at Tribune Chowk. Chandigarh also became the first city where almost all government departments switched to the digital mode of transaction. The initiative was taken after Punjab Governor and UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore asked the officials to make the Chandigarh as the first cashless city. Tribune News Service Chandigarh, December 20 The BJP today swept the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections by winning 20 of the 26 seats. The Congress faced a crushing defeat by losing 22 seats while the remaining two seats were won by the SAD and a BJP rebel who contested as an Independent. It was for the first time in the history of the MC that any party got an absolute majority in the House. For the BJP, it was the best-ever performance while the Congress, with four seats this time, fared well than the maiden civic body poll in 1996 when the party had won only a single seat. The BJP had won 13, three, six and 10 seats in 1996, 2001, 2006 and 2011, respectively, while the Congress had bagged 13 seats both in 2001 and 2006 and 11 seats in 2011. The SAD, which contested four seats in coalition with the BJP, could win only one seat on a par with its tally in 2001 whereas the party had won two seats in 2011, 2006 and 1996. It was a complete rout for the BSP, which lost all 18 seats, including its city president Jagir Singh, and the Left, which failed to win any of the five seats which it fought as Independents. It took hardly 20 minutes to break the news of the first result from Ward No. 1 and 21 after the counting began at seven centres across the city at 9 am. The last news was that of former Congress Mayor Subhash Chawlas defeat from Ward No. 16 at 12.45 pm. However, the official declaration of the results was made by the State Election Commissioner SK Srivastava at 3 pm. With "dholis" and brass band parties already stationed outside the centres, the victorious candidates emerged out in the shape of massive processions with their supporters lifting them up and garlanding them. On the beats of "dhols" and tunes of brass bands, the victorious candidates and their supporters turned berserk, dancing all the way to their respective constituencies. Most winners were carried in open jeeps with "folded hands and plastic smiles". With restlessness clearly visible on their faces, the winners did not miss any chance to thank the voters and supporters all through the evening. To cash in on the win, local MP Kirron Kher, former MP Satya Pal Jain and city BJP chief Sanjay Tandon, who worked overtime for the saffron nominees, took out victory processions that culminated in a media briefing at the party office this evening. However, the losing Congress candidates, led by their city chief Pardeep Chhabra, staged a protest, alleging tampering with EVMs, at the UT Guest House when the State Election Commissioner was declaring the results. Later, party heavyweight and former Union Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had discussions with Chhabra at his residence to analyse what went wrong. Karthik Venkatesh The Tirupati temple authorities have refused to allow the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI )authorities to enter their kitchen citing its auspiciousness. This is a matter of concern. Sanal Edamaruku has lived in Finland since 2012. It is not a voluntary migration, but forced self-exile. If Sanal were to return to India, he is most likely to be sent to prison under Section 295A for outraging the religious feelings of a group of citizens. Sanal's crime was that he was bold enough to question a supposed religious miracle and rational enough to debunk the so-called miracle. In March 2012, he investigated a report that a crucifix at Our Lady of Velankanni Church in Mumbai was dripping water from its feet. Many believed it to be a miracle and even began drinking the water. Upon investigation, it was found that capillary action from a clogged drain that had resulted in water seeping into the wall on which the crucifix was hung was responsible for the dripping of the water. To put it bluntly, it wasn't a miracle as much as it was bad plumbing. Given that devotees were drinking the water, it was even a health hazard. Sanal's expose resulted in a backlash. He was the target of a sustained campaign that called for him to be jailed and charges were filed against him at various police stations in Mumbai. The Archbishop of Mumbai stipulated that he needed to apologise before the complaints could be withdrawn. In July of the same year, Sanal moved to Finland where he has lived ever since. With the killings of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi, all rationalists like Sanal, in the last few years, Sanal's return is even more unlikely. An apology has also been ruled out since Sanal feels he has done nothing wrong. Sanal has long been active in the Indian Rationalists Movement, a movement active in debunking superstition and promoting scientific temper. In 2008, he challenged a tantrik to kill him on live TV using magical incantations. Needless to say, it did not succeed. Sanal has also been critical of Mother Teresa and the miracles she is supposed to have wrought. That such an individual cannot live in his home country is a matter of deep regret. Religious institutions exert a strange power in this country, a power that brooks no interference or questioning. It appears that debunking miracles is an unpardonable sin! The recent Tirupati laddoo issue is another incident that highlights the air of impunity with which our religious institutions of all hues and colours seem to operate. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has turned down a request by the FSSAI that it get a food safety licence for its laddoo. It claims that the kitchen is an auspicious place where outsiders are not permitted. It even went to the extent of saying that the licence was unnecessary. God or at least his minions are above scrutiny is the implied subtext of the response. The langar at the Golden Temple which is the largest of its kind in the world is better-placed in this regard. While it is not clear whether they have a licence, the transparency of the kitchen operations is commendable. In large part, it is primarily on account of the fact that volunteers are encouraged to offer their services at the kitchen. Another mass-meals programme having religious origins, the Akshaya Patra scheme of ISKCON, is also transparent. It has been certified under ISO and operating as it does in government schools in more than 11 states, it is also open to receiving feedback and seeks to ensure transparency. Given these two instances of religious organisations willingly working under transparent norms, the TTD's reluctance to be open for inspection is more than surprising. How will the kitchen's auspiciousness be compromised if food safety inspectors were to scrutinise it? Given that close to 3 lakh laddoos are distributed as prasad every day, checking for hygiene is justifiably important and yet the TTD authorities are attempting to block it. In a Satyajit Ray film Ganashatru, a similar plot unfolds. In a town in Bengal which houses a famous temple, a doctor gets into the crosshairs of the religious authorities. His crime: his announcement that the holy water the people were drinking in the temple was contaminated and possibly causing illness. Soon, the whole town is up in arms against the doctor. The doctor's brother, a businessman, too joins the mob baying for his blood. The doctor sticks to his guns stating that it was a matter of hygiene and not religion. The Tirupati temple is likely to get away with its defiance. Given that its devotes number virtually all the rich, famous and powerful, the FSSAI stands very little chance of making it mandatory for the kitchen to obtain a licence. That's indeed a pity. Religion, as Karl Marx famously remarked, is indeed the opium of the masses. Opium dulls the brain and numbs the masses. But, that is only if we allow it to. There is scope for rationalism and faith to coexist. Finding the golden mean is our responsibility. The writer, an educationist, is an Editor with a Bangalore-based publishing house. Sudhanshu Ranjan The burial of J. Jayalalithaa, an Iyengar Brahmin, has spawned a debate on atheism and its role in politics. Her relatives re-performed her last rites by cremating a doll, supposed to be her replica, on the banks of the Cauvery. It is proved beyond doubt that she was a devout Hindu who visited temples and refrained from doing any work during the Rahu kaal. Still, her party, the AIADMK, decided to bury her, and not cremate, which is the last samskara of a Hindu. Among Hindus, only sanyasis are buried as they are totally detached from the worldly bondage and have no kin to perform their last rites. Moreover, they perform their pind daan (offering of food to the departed soul) themselves before their death. The politics of Tamil Nadu carries the imprint of Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy, the founder of the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam (DK). He made a blistering attack on the caste system and religion, (A) sizable population today remains as Untouchables, and another sizable population exists in the name of Sudras and as serfs, coolies and menials. Who wants an independence that cannot help change these things? Who wants religion, scriptures and gods, which cannot bring about a change in this sphere? The Justice Party, established in 1917 in Madras, after a series of non-Brahmin conferences, played precursor to the Self-Respect Movement. From 1920 to 1937, the Justice Party was in power in the province for 13 years forming the government four times. However, in 1944, Periyar transformed the Justice Party into the DK, a social organisation, and withdrew it from electoral politics. But a rebel faction, claiming to be the original Justice Party, went asunder to remain in electoral politics. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam are the offshoots of the Justice Party and the DK. It is nothing short of a conundrum that Jayalalithaa, an Iyengar Brahmin, not only became the unquestioned leader of a Dravidian party grounded in anti-Brahminism, but created history by forming the government for the second consecutive term. Periyar focussed on social justice and rationalism in his writings and so did M. Karunanidhi. But religion remained deeply ingrained in the popular psyche. Even Karunanidhi always remains wrapped in a yellow shawl, reportedly on the advice of astrologers since it is his mahadasha of Jupiter and yellow is auspicious for it. No body becomes an atheist by the way their last rites are performed. Hamid Dalwai, a Muslim reformer, wanted his body to be cremated, not buried after his death as he was an atheist. This declaration infuriated some people of his community so much that they refused to accept him as a Muslim. Justice M. C. Chagla, according to his wish, was cremated, and not given a burial as per Muslim tradition. The problem is not with the religion. When Karl Marx criticised religion as opium, he only meant that it intoxicates people and makes them forget the hard realities of life. In fact, in 1843, he wrote that the religion is the heart of the heartless which acts as a balm on despair. He castigated religion on two occasions in other contexts. A genuine believer never exploits anyone in the name of religion nor does s/he hate non-believers, rather he tries to convince them and also accommodate them. When Mahatma Gandhi said, "God is Truth.", Gora (Goparaju Ramachandra Rao) challenged him and wanted to know where was the place of atheists in his (Gandhi's) scheme. Gora asked him how could a person believe in truth if s/he did not believe in God. Gora believed in truth but not in God. After a long debate with Gora in November 1944, Gandhi rephrased it as Truth is God. During the debate, Gandhi said that he should fast because atheism was spreading. Gora has recorded, Evidently he thought that atheism had developed in reaction to the misbehaviour of god-believers and that better conduct on their part would render atheism unnecessary. Gora became so close to him that he became a dear member of his family and he became almost a master to him. Gora, a Brahmin, was working for the uplift of untouchables and thought that belief in God divides man into sects. He thought that an atheist could serve better the cause of removing untouchability. He even married his daughter off to an untouchable. It was no love marriage. Gandhi was to attend the marriage but he was assassinated before it could be solemnised. However, Jawaharlal Nehru attended the marriage. According to Gandhi, even atheists can be religious. He said about Charles Bradlaugh that notwithstanding his non-belief in God, he was a man of noble character and a truly religious man. And he was a great atheist. Bradlaugh was a political activist and a famed atheist of the 19th century, who founded the National Secular Society in 1866. He was elected an MP from Northampton in 1880 but he refused to take the oath in the name of God; instead he wanted to "solemnly affirm". The matter was referred to the Select Committee which did not take oath like this. He was also arrested, forfeited his seat in parliament. But he was re-elected in the by-elections four times in succession with bigger margin each time. In 1886, he was finally allowed to take the oath in 1886. Two years later, he secured the passage of a new Oaths Act which enshrined into law the right of affirmation for both Houses. In his debate with Gora, Gandhi said about Bradlaugh, "I remember of clergymen who had come to funeral of the great atheist Bradlaugh. They said they had come to pay their homage because he was a godly man." Genuine people, whether theists or atheists, are seekers after the truth, And both believe in the welfare of the mankind. Bhagat Singh, in his booklet Why I am an Atheist, has written: The day we find a great number of men and women with this psychology who cannot devote themselves to anything else than the service of mankind and emancipation of the suffering humanity; that day shall inaugurate the era of liberty. Similarly, Swami Vivekananda said that he worshipped a god whom the ignorant ones call man. So, the aim of both is the same. Gandhi appositely commented that atheism was spreading because of the ignoble behavior of believers. One should be genuinely a believer or a non-believer. Public posturing and private conduct should be totally seamless. The writer is a TV journalist & columnist. Parvesh Sharma Tribune News Service Chandigarh, December 21 Even after organising 934 digitisation awareness camps in 4,648 bank branches to promote digital payments across Haryana, only 3,287 citizens have got themselves registered for cashless payments with the official portal of the state government since its launch on December 5. The Chief Secretary has called a meeting of all administrative secretaries tomorrow to discuss the current status of the campaign launched to promote digital payments. To promote a cashless economy, the state government had announced transfer of appreciation amount of Rs 5 to each citizen carrying out at least one cashless transaction and announced many other awards. The Chief Minister had announced that there would be two or three prizes on a daily basis selected randomly by the computer. After an agreement with the Finance Department, the State Bank of India had agreed to instal 300 point-of-sale machines at various state government offices across the state without any charges. But still, things were not gaining momentum as desired by the state government. Official figures showed that the total number of government employees was around 2.76 lakh in the state. The state also had around 1.83 lakh pensioners and 31,000 widows of pensioners. A majority of employees and pensioners had not switched to cashless transactions so far, preferring to stand in long bank queues. A majority of employees do not have smartphones to shift to e-payments. Most employees do not know e-banking, said Ram Pal Malik, state secretary, All Haryana Power Corporation Workers Union. The government should not impose a cashless economy, but must give the required time and training to employees to get the desired results, he added. Sources said the Chief Secretary assigned districts to administrative secretaries on November 30 to launch a special campaign to educate the public about cashless transactions. But still, the results were not coming out on the expected lines, exposing a huge gap between claims and ground realities. Haryana Retired Adhikar Karamchari Welfare Association general secretary ML Sehgal complained that a majority of pensioners were unable to get pensions as majority did not know how e-banking. Cashless transactions are being implemented at all government offices, said Karan Dev Kamboj, Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs. It is a very simple mode of payment which will also help in checking corruption in government offices, he further said. Bijendra Ahlawat Tribune News Service Palwal, December 21 Get your child immunised and your mobile phone will be recharged for free. This is perhaps the latest offer by the Health Department to attract parents of infants to proper immunisation. A training programme in this connection was held yesterday. A spokesperson of the department said the scheme was introduced in October, but came into effect from yesterday with a training programme. It would remain applicable for the next one year. The scheme, meant for around 70 primary health centres (PHCs) across the state, would be available in select PHCs in each district and would be launched in phases. The first phase of the programme would cover Palwal, Nuh, Sonepat, Bhiwani, Rewari, Panipat and Jhajjar districts. The special drive focused on immunisation of children up to one year to ensure that infants did not fall prey to life-threatening diseases like diphtheria, jaundice, diarrhoea, bronchitis, pneumonia and meningitis. Dr Lokbir Singh, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Palwal, said the medical staff were being trained so that they could spread awareness and motivate families with infants to avail themselves of the facility of free immunisation at PHCs. The spokesperson said the scheme of free mobile phone recharge would be available at seven PHCs in Palwal district, but immunisation facility was available at all government hospitals. The mobile recharge ranged from Rs 50 to Rs 250 if the child was immunised against all diseases by the age of one year. Auxiliary nurse midwives would maintain digital data of each child and mothers would have to produce Aadhaar card at the time of immunisation. The infant mortality rate was 36 per 1,000 in Palwal. With the programme being aided directly by a Saudi Arabian social organisation and a US university, it would concentrate on regions where the response to immunisation had been poor. Dr Ramesh Kumar, immunisation incharge, Faridabad district, said he was not aware of the programme. When contacted, Dr Gulshan Arora, Chief Medical Officer, said he was in a meeting. Tribune News Service Dharamsala, December 21 The House witnessed unruly scenes today as the Opposition had a spat with the Speaker as well as the treasury benches over a debate on demonetisation. As soon as Question Hour began, BJP MLA Mahinder Singh got up from his chair and objected to the Speaker allowing debate demanded by Congress MLAs on the problems being faced by common man due to demonetisation. Mahinder Singh said the debate was earlier listed in yesterdays business. Since the proceedings of the House were adjourned, the business was also considered to be suspended. The debate listed in the business could not be listed in todays business as per the rules of the House, he said. Suresh Bharadwaj, BJP MLA, also joined the debate and said why only the debate on demonetisation was selectively transferred in todays business. Kaul Singh, Minister for Health, said since the issue pertained to problems being faced by common man, the debate should be held. Leader of the Opposition PK Dhumal said the Speaker was defending the treasury benches. However, the BJP was expecting unbiased behaviour from the Speaker. To this assertion of Dhumal, the Speaker said it was in his power to modify the rules. Dhumal said he could not amend the rules that were based on the Constitution. The Speaker then said if time came, he could also amend the Constitution. Dhumal then said, I think some elements were provoking you against the Opposition. The results of Chandigarh election had already proved as referendum over demonetisation. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Mukesh Agnihorti then demanded that Question Hour should be allowed to proceed despite protest by BJP MLAs. The Speaker told the Opposition that he would adjourn the House after Question Hour to sort out the issue of debate over demonetisation. However, the Opposition wanted immediate adjournment to sort out the issue. The Speaker allowed Question Hour to proceed. The BJP MLAs then came to the well of the House and surrounded the Speakers raising slogans. They BJP leaders continued raising slogans amid his efforts to let Question Hour proceeded. The BJP MLAs raised slogans Tanashahi nahi chalegi. They also raised slogans against CM Virbhadra Singh and the Congress government. Soon after Question Hour, after the papers listed for today were laid on the table, the Speaker adjourned the House. A meeting of the Opposition and ruling party was held in the chamber of the Speaker but this failed to break the ice. Soon after the adjournment, BJP members came to the House. They said the adjournment was just for 15 minutes and ruling did not want to run the House. BJP MLA Suresh Bharadwaj then moved to the chair of the Speaker and announced that the House was adjourned for the remaining day. All BJP MLAs moved out after that. The Speaker and treasury benches returned to the House and condemned the behaviour of the BJP members. Kaul Singh said the BJP had disrespected the chair of the Speaker. Speaker BBL Butail said the BJP MLAs needed to undergo reorientation for sitting in the House. Virbhadra Singh said in his political life, he had not seen such behudgi. The BJP had committed contempt towards the Speaker and action should be taken against them. Lalit Mohan Tribune News Service Dharamsala, December 21 Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today termed the demonetization as financial emergency. While speaking on a debate on problems being faced by the people of state due to demonetization in the Himachal Assembly today the Chief Minister said that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is also a noted economist, had termed the demonetization move a monumental blunder. The Nobel Laureate in Economics from India Amritya Sen had termed the demonetisation as despotic action. He said that the people of state were suffering as there was little cash in banks and ATMs. Traders, taxi operators and the tourism sector in Himachal have been hit hard. Horticulturists from Himachal were suffering as their produce was not been sold in fruit and vegetable markets. Almost all the trade in vegetables and fruits was in cash and now the farmers are facing problems. The prices of their produce have fallen and they are likely to face losses, he said. The people are also facing problems due to the high denomination notes of Rs 2,000. There was no change available. He said the state government had requested the union government to increase the limit for cash being given for marriages from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. The state government had also provided its helicopter for transfer of cash to remote areas of the state so that the people do not face problems. The union government should immediately provide cash in the system so that the people do not face hardships. Sanjay Rattan, Congress MLA from Jawalamukhi who had initiated the debate, said that the decision to demonetize 85 per cent of currency was announced in the middle of night by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The people are facing problems since then. The people having marriages in their families have been allowed cash withdrawal of Rs 2.5 lakh. Even for that amount a lot of riders have been added. I had given Rs 12,000 cheque to my driver, but the bank gave him just Rs 3,000 despite the fact that he had medical emergency in family. He said if the BJP was so confident about success of demonetization it should go for re-election. Ajay Mahajan, Congress MLA from Nurpur, said that though the government was pushing people towards the digital economy there have been rise in cyber crimes in the country. The digital transactions were prone to cyber crimes. About 100 people have lost their lives due to demonetization and only the PM was to blame for it. Mohan Lal Bragta, Congress MLA, said that the tourism industry in Himachal had been badly hit due to demonetization. Kuldeep Kumar, Congress MLA, said that during the elections the PM had promised to bring back black money stashed in foreign banks but nothing of this sort happened. Ram Kumar, Congress MLA, said that demonetization had hit the labourers and transporters in Baddi the industrial belt of the state. Only Congress members participated in the debate on demonetization today as the Opposition had left the House. New Delhi, December 21 After clothes and 'dupattas', California almonds have emerged as the latest commodity to be used to fund terrorist activities, the National Investigation Agency has said. An agreement for cross-LoC trade agreement between India and Pakistan allows exchange of products grown in both sides of Jammu and Kashmir including California almonds (Badam giri) a product grown in parts of Pakistan- occupied-Kashmir (PoK). The agency is currently going through documents related to sale of California almonds: NIA claims the sale money was eventually used to fund terrorist organisations in the state. The NIA claimed it has received credible information of large-scale money transfer from Pakistan to India through import of badam giri through the trade facilitation centers at Salamabad in Kashmir region's North Kashmir's Baramulla district and Chakan-da-bagh in Jammus Poonch. "This is in gross violation of the State policy of prohibition on trade in 'third-party origin goods' through this mechanism and information indicated that these funds are being used for fomenting terrorism and separatism in the state of Jammu and Kashmir," the NIA said. The NIA has already registered a case and has even conducted search operations at trade facilitation centres at Salamabad and Chakan-da-bagh. PTI Ishfaq Tantry Tribune News Service Srinagar, December 21 The draft master plan for the Gulmarg ski resort in north Kashmir is being placed before the Cabinet for its approval. A division bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court was today informed about the same by Advocate General Jahangir Iqbal Ganai. The HC is hearing a public interest litigation wherein its intervention has been sought for safeguarding the eco-sensitive areas of Gulmarg and Tangmarg from illegal constructions. Trusting the government, the court expressed the hope that a decision in this regard would be taken as early as possible. The submission by the Advocate General came after senior High Court lawyer Zaffar Shah, representing the petitioners in some connected petitions, submitted before the bench that because of the non-framing of the master plan for Gulmarg, people were facing difficulties. Responding to the said submission, the Advocate General said that the draft master plan will be placed before the Cabinet for its approval, a division bench headed by Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar noted in its orders today. We hope and trust that in the interest of the state and the government, the decision in this regard will be taken at the earliest, the High Court said, while directing the government authorities to file a compliance report in this regard by the next date, fixed in the third week of February. On April 18, in a major decision, the High Court had banned any new constructions at Gulmarg. The authorities concerned were also directed to formulate the Gulmarg master plan within three months, besides banning fresh land leases. On July 25, 2013, the High Court had directed the Chief Town Planner to file a status report about the master plan as to whether it had been finalised as the expiry date for finalising the master plan was set as August 30, 2013, by the court. The Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, in his status report to the court on May 2013 had said that a total of 84 cases had been granted lease hold rights at Gulmarg by the authorities concerned from time to time, out of which the lease period in 26 cases had expired. The lease-holders include all private hotel owners at Gulmarg. New Delhi, December 21 After clothes and dupattas, California almonds have emerged as the new product in cross-LoC trade in Jammu and Kashmir that are being used as a mode of terror funding, according to the National Investigation Agency. The NIA has registered a case in this connection and carried out searches on traders at the trade facilitation centres at Salamabad in north Kashmirs Baramulla district and Chakan da Bagh in Poonch district of the Jammu region. According to the cross-LoC trade agreement between India and Pakistan, products grown in both sides of Jammu and Kashmir can be exchanged under barter system. The products included badam giri that is grown in parts of Pakistan- occupied Kashmir. During searches, documents related to exchange of California almonds were seized by the NIA and are being scrutinised, the NIA said. The traders from PoK were sending and receiving California almonds and it is alleged that the money was used for funding of terror groups in the state. The NIA said in a statement that a reliable information was received that a large scale of transfer of funds from Pakistan to India has been taking place through the import of California almonds (badam giri) via the cross-LoC trade mechanism through the trade facilitation centres at Salamabad and Chakan da Bagh. This is in gross violation of the state policy of prohibition on trade in third-party origin goods through this mechanism, and information indicated that these funds are being used for fomenting terrorism and separatism in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the NIA said. A case has been registered by the NIA against unknown persons under the relevant sections of the IPC and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Earlier clothes and dupattas (stoles) were being used to finance terror in the state. PTI Rameswaram (TN), December 21 At least 12 Indian fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in their territorial waters. The arrest comes a day after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam asked the Centre to send a "firm message" to the island nation over continued apprehension of the state's fishermen. Yesterday, seven persons from Pudukottai district were detained for allegedly fishing in their waters and taken to Kangesanthurai Port, along with their boats. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Three groups of fishermen from Pamban near here were arrested last night by the naval men for fishing off Thalaimannar and were detained at the police station there, fisheries department officials said today. Twenty fishers who had set out for fishing from Pamban in two mechanised boats and a country boat were rounded up by the Lankan authorities while they were fishing in the south sea using the banned fishing nets, Rameswaram Fisheries Department Assistant Director, Gopinath said. While fishermen in one of the boats managed to get away in their boat, twelve others were caught and taken to Sri Thalaimannar, Lanka, he said. In his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Panneerselvam had said that a permanent solution to the fishermen's issue would be in restoring India's sovereignty over Katchatheevu islet. "It is the consistent stand of the government of Tamil Nadu that a permanent solution to this vexatious problem faced by our fishermen will be possible only by restoring India's sovereignty over Katchatheevu by securing the right to fish in traditional waters," he had said. PTI Tribune News Service New Delhi, December 21 The Dwarka Court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. The court asked Sajjan Kumar to furnish a personal bond and surety bond of Rs 1 lakh each. The court had on Tuesday reserved the order on anticipatory bail plea in the 1984 anti-Sikh riot case in which Sajjan is a prime accused. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) He filed a plea in district court of Dwarka for anticipatory bail in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case that is being investigated by the SIT constituted by the Union Government along with the CBI. Harvinder Singh is complainant in the case who is witness in the murder of Sohan Singh and Avtar Singh at Vikaspuri in West Delhi during riots. Phoolka said Sajjan was summoned by the SIT but he just confirmed his name and nothing else. Thereafter, the SIT sought his custodial interrogation following which Sajjan filed a plea for interim bail. Mumbai, December 21 Police on Wednesday seized 8.86 kg of depleted uranium worth around Rs 24 crore and detained two persons in the adjoining Thane district. The depleted uranium was brought from abroad and was to be sold in India, police said. Anti-chain snatching squad of Thane Crime Branch laid a trap near a hotel on Ghodbundar Road on receiving specific information that two persons were coming there to sell the radioactive element. Police detained two people moving with a blue handbag which contained two blocks of the sensitive material wrapped in velvet cloth. The bag also had a laboratory report which indicated the said metal was uranium, they said. The metal is banned for sale in the open market as it is used in the atomic energy plants. "We have detained two persons with the metal. As its sale is banned in the open market, we can't ascertain its value. But, it may be worth around Rs 24 crore," police officials said. Joint Commissioner of Police Ashutosh Dumbre told PTI, "We are filing a case under the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and sending the metal for laboratory testing. After receiving report, we will take further action accordingly. We will go to the root of the matter." PTI Mumbai, December 21 The Reserve Bank on Wednesday said banks have issued currency worth over Rs 5.92 lakh crore to the public since the demonetisation of old high-value notes last month. The central bank also said that it has issued 2.2 billion (220 crore) pieces of notes of new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 during the period -- November 10 to December 19. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) The currency infused into the system, however, is much less than what has been deposited in the form of defunct notes. The old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes returned to RBI and Currency Chests amounted to Rs 12.44 lakh crore as on December 10. Consequent to the announcement of withdrawal of Legal Tender status of banknotes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denominations from the midnight of November 8, 2016, the RBI said, it made arrangements for supply of "adequate quantity" of banknotes in various denominations to the public through the banks. "Over the period from November 10, 2016 up to December 19, 2016, banks have reported that banknotes worth Rs 5,92,613 crore have been issued to public either over the counter or through ATMs," the RBI said. Banks were closed on November 9, the day demonetisation came into effect. The over 2.20 lakh ATMs too remained non-functional. RBI said it has issued to the banks and their branches, for distribution to the public, a total of 22.6 billion pieces of notes of various denominations. Of these 20.4 billion pieces belonged to small denominations of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100, while 2.2 billion belonged to higher denominations of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500. Ever since the banks reopened on November 10, people have been thronging the banks to deposit their now invalid currency and withdraw cash. RBI has put limit on cash withdrawal for both individuals as well as companies. Shortage of currency at banks, post offices and ATMs are coming from all over the country. The last day to deposit the defunct notes at banks is December 30. PTI Mehsana, December 21 Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has demanded an independent inquiry into suspected payouts made to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Sahara and Birla groups while he was chief minister of Gujarat. Addressing a rally at Prime Minister Narendra Modis home turf on Wednesday, Gandhi claimed that some file notings found at a Sahara executives house in a raid by the Income Tax Department showed that the company had made nine payments to Modi between October 2013 and February 2014. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Some documents that the income tax department has in its possession also showed that Birla Group had paid the Prime Minister Rs 12 crore during his term as the head of the Gujarat government, Gandhi said, as he wondered why there was no investigation into the suspected payouts. Read: PM must quit; SC-monitored panel should probe allegations, says Kejriwal The Congress leader claimed records showed tsome Sahara officials claimed to have paid Rs 40 crore to Modi between October 2013 and February 2014. "You (Modi) did not allow me to speak in Parliament. I did not know why you did not want to face me in the House. Ill tell you the reason. Every business entity keeps record of its transactions. On November 2014, Income Tax department conducted raids on Sahara," he said. "During that raid, I-T department found some documents, which are on record. I want to share with you the contents of those documents. There were several entries in those documents, which I am reading out before you," he said. "This record is with I-T department since last 2.5 years. I-T even recommended an inquiry. I want to ask you why no such inquiry was done? We want to know whether it is true that money was given to you nine times by Sahara?" "You doubted the honesty of citizens, their hard-earned income, and made them stand in the queues. Now, on behalf of citizens, I am asking you whether the information. And if it is true, then when you will set up an inquiry?" said Gandhi. Pure as Ganga The BJP has called the allegations an attempt to divert attention from the multi-crore rupees AgustaWestland chopper scam in which the involvement of some leaders of the Congress, including the Gandhi family, is suspected. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed the Congress vice-president felt frustrated at the partys repeated defeats in elections and claimed Gandhi spoke without thinking. "Did he say a word on series of corruption in the UPA regime? Ganga Ki tarah pavitra hain Pradhan Mantri (The Prime Minister is as pure as Ganga), he said, adding that results of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation were proof that nobody was listening to Gandhi. "I condemn the irresponsible baseless allegation with the contempt it deserves. It is his nature to level baseless charges. The country need not accept anything else from Rahul Gandhi who has emerged as biggest patron of corruption," he said. The entire family is involved with agustawestland scam. If Rahul thinks that by levelling baseless allegations against the PM he can divert attention from the investigations, he is mistaken. Why did Rahul not speak on the issue earlier, why now? Party spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao called Gandhis allegations bluff and bluster. "People of India have stopped taking him seriously. Rahul Gandhi is just bluff and bluster. There is no substance in what he says. He is just showing his and his party's incompetence," he said. Wednesday's development comes a week after Gandhi claimed he was deliberately not allowed to speak in Parliament because claimed he had evidence of Modis personal corruption that could cause an earthquake. The Supreme Court is currently hearing a petition in which an NGO has accused Modi of corruption and has claimed the two companies made payouts to the Prime Minister before the general elections of 2014. PTI/ TNS Islamabad, December 21 In a surprise move, a top Pakistani General has invited India to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, saying New Delhi should shun enmity with Islamabad and jointly reap the benefit of the multi-billion dollar project. Lieutenant General Aamir Riaz, Commander of the Southern Command which is based in Quetta, yesterday said this while speaking at an award distribution ceremony at the Balochistan Frontier Corps (FC) headquarters. India should shun enmity with Pakistan and join the $46-billion CPEC along with Iran, Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries and enjoy its benefits, the Express Tribune quoted him as saying. India should share the fruits of future development by shelving the anti-Pakistan activities and subversion, Riaz said. The CPEC aims to connect Chinas western parts with the Arabian Sea through Balochistans strategic Gwadar port. India has already expressed concern over the project that also passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The top Generals call came amid tension between the two countries and a barrage of allegations by Islamabad about involvement of India in subversive activities in Balochistan, the security of which is responsibility of Pakistan armys Southern Command. Pakistan in the past has also alleged that Baloch nationalist leaders were getting support from India. Mumbai, December 21 Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, whose party had boycotted a function involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, will attend the public function here on December 24 to be addressed by Modi. The Prime Minister, after laying the foundation stone for two Metro rail projects, elevated rail corridors project, the Mumbai Trans Harbour link and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off Arabian Sea, will address a public function in suburban Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC). (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) "There will be only one function to lay the foundation stone for these projects and Uddhav Thackeray will attend the proceedings at the MMRDA grounds in BKC," a close aide of the Sena chief told PTI today. On October 11 last year, Modi had laid the foundation stone of a grand memorial to Babasaheb Ambedkar at the Indu Mills compound in the heart of Mumbai, a function which was boycotted by Shiv Sena whose chief Uddhav Thackeray was not invited. Sena is a part of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre as well as the BJP-led Maharashtra government. Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar is in Delhi and will attend the birthday celebrations of Ajit Singh, former union minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief tomorrow. "Pawar saheb will attend the function to lay the foundation stone of Pune Metro in Pune if invited. His office in Mumbai has not received an invite," one of the aide of the Maratha strongman said. PTI Rajneesh Lakhanpal Ludhiana, December 21 Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Kumar Singla today awarded life imprisonment to six persons in the Harpreet Kaur acid attack case. One person was acquitted. The judge gave life imprisonment to prime accused Amritpal Kaur alias Pari of Ranjit Nagar, Patiala; and Parwinder Singh alias Pawan of Bakshiwala village, Patiala; with the condition that their sentence would not be less than 25 years in any eventuality. Sanpreet Singh of Bakshiwala village, Patiala; Gursewak Singh of Bari Baradari, Patiala; Jaspreet Singh, resident of Rangera village, Fatehgarh Sahib; and Rakesh Kumar alias Premi of Bhadal Dhua village, Fatehgarh Sahib; also got life term. Ashwani Kumar of Mohalla Arya Samaj, Patiala, was acquitted, giving him the benefit of doubt. Harpreet Kaur of Barnala had become a victim of acid attack on December 7, 2013, in a salon at Sarabha Nagar and had died at a Mumbai hospital on December 27, 2013. One of the accused had thrown a jar full of acid on her. Two women employees of the salon had also suffered burn injuries. As per the chargesheet, Parwinder Singh had hatched a conspiracy in connivance with his associates and carried out the attack after taking money from Amritpal Kaur, the prime accused. Amritpal had been divorced by the brother of the victims fiance. So, she was nursing a grudge. The court also ordered all the accused to pay Rs 9.6 lakh as fine. Out of this fine, if recovered, Rs 6 lakh would go to the victims family, Rs 1 lakh to the injured in the acid attack Amarjit Kaur and Rs 50,000 to injured Geeta, workers of the salon, who were doing Harpreets make-up. Finally, we have got justice. We had been pursuing the case for the past three years. It is not an easy job to come for each and every hearing from Barnala. But we wanted to see the guilty punished. Their conviction will not bring back our daughter, but it will be a lesson to others, said Jaswant Singh, the victims father. Tribune News Service Chamkaur Sahib, December 21 A large number of people thronged the Aam Adami Partys political conference held on the second day of Shaheedi Jor Mela here today. Rallies were also organised by other parties, including the SAD, SAD (A) and the Aapna Punjab Party. Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann lashed out at his political adversaries, including CM Parkash Singh Badal and Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh. He said Amarinder and Badal were colluding with each other to defeat AAP in the forthcoming Assembly elections. He claimed that due to this secret pact, both leaders have stopped criticising each other. He dared Amarinder to contest from Jalalabad, the constituency of Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal. He said the former CM would never contest from the constituency as both families have soft corner for each other. Raising the Bargari incident in which two Sikh youths protesting over the sacrilege incidents were killed in police firing, Mann said the government had failed to provide justice. He said after forming the government in Punjab, AAP would punish the culprits. Later talking to the media, Mann said the final list of AAP candidates would be released this week, claiming that the party would win at least 110 seats. Denying the allegations regarding consuming alcohol, he reiterated that he was ready to undergo medical diagnosis for the same provided senior SAD and Congress leaders also undergo the same test. Denying any change in the stand of party over riverwaters, he said the state had no water to give to other states. At the conference by the Akali Dal at Diwan Hall of Gurdwara Katalgarh Sahib, the speakers, including MP Prem Singh Chandumajra and SGPC president Kirpal Singh Badungar spoke on religious issues and the development works taken up by the state government. Chandumajra appealed to the audience to vote and support Nirmal Singh, party candidate from Chamkaur Sahib. At APP conference, general secretary Hardeep Singh Kingra criticised the SAD as well as the Congress, holding them responsible for water dispute with Haryana. He said both parties allowed the states water to flow to the neighbouring state. Former Punjab speaker and president of SAD (1920) Ravi Inder Singh, addressing a gathering, said the state government had failed in nab culprits of sacrilege incidents. The people would punish the government for this during the coming elections, he added. Sarbjit Dhaliwal Tribune News Service Chandigarh, December 21 The BJP has declared a war on Navjot Singh Sidhu, its former MP and star campaigner, with the party high command instructing the state leadership to ensure that he does not make it to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha from the Amritsar (East) constituency from where he is likely to be fielded by the Congress. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had lost the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 with Sidhu, then with the BJP, choosing to stay away from campaigning. He now wants Harjit Singh Grewal to be pitted against Sidhu. Grewal, a staunch RSS activist, belongs to Dhanaula near Sangrur. He was keen to contest from the Barnala Assembly constituency. However, the SAD is not prepared to yield this constituency to its ally BJP. It is keen on fielding Surinder Pal Singh Sibia, a Congress leader, who is likely to join the SAD soon. Sidhu represented the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat thrice in a row. He did not contest last time because the BJP opted to field Jaitley instead. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, but resigned from the BJP and the Rajya Sabha some months ago. His wife has already joined the Congress. Sidhu, who has held a number of meetings with AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi, is expected to join the Congress by month-end. Aware of his star-pull, the BJPs strategy is to confine Sidhu to Amritsar. It does not want him to move out for canvassing, lest he sways the youth in Congress favour. It is highly unlikely that Sidhu will be projected as Deputy Chief Minister candidate, says a senior Congress leader. The Congress high command has promised to declare Capt Amarinder Singh, a Jat Sikh, as CM candidate. Sidhu too is a Jat Sikh. Having the CM and Deputy CM from the same community could be suicidal for the party, especially as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has promised the Deputy CM slot to a Dalit. Already, there is a clamour for two posts of Deputy CM one for a Dalit and another for a Hindu leader within the Congress. Rahul is expected to visit Punjab any time now and declare Capt Amarinder as CM candidate. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been requested to release the party manifesto, say sources. Bangkok, December 19 A rainbow-headed snake, a dragon-like lizard and a newt that looks like a Klingon from the Star Trek series are among 163 new species found in the ecologically diverse but threatened region of Greater Mekong, according to a new WWF report released on Monday. In all, nine amphibians, 11 fish, 14 reptiles, 126 plants and three mammalian species discovered last year in the Mekong region in Southeast Asia were described for the first time in the new report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The new rainbow-headed snake, Parafimbrios lao, found in Laos has been likened to David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" character. It has unique colouration pattern and different number of scale rows and upper teeth. Not only was this snake a new species, it was part of a whole new Genus: Parafimbrios. The 'Klingon Newt' (Tylototriton anguliceps) is the fourth newt species found to exist in Thailand. It measures between six to seven centimetres long, and is distinguished by a dorsal ridge and unique red markings. The Phuket Horned Tree Agamid (Acanthosaura phuketensis) is a lowland forest dwelling lizard species native to Phuket Island and the Phuket mountain range in Southwest Thailand. This medium-sized species is distinct from its mainland relatives based on unique colouration, placement and size of its many threatening-looking horns on its head and down its spine. As the Mekong River snakes its way through Southeast Asia, it passes through some of the most biodiverse land on earth. From its origins in China's Tibetan-Qinghai Plateau to Southern Vietnam where it empties into the South China Sea, the river acts as the backbone of a region where the wildlife is as diverse as the 300 million people that call it home. Between 1997 and 2015 there have been 2,409 new species described in this region, adding to the over 430 mammal species, 800 reptiles and amphibians, 1,200 birds, 1,100 fish and 20,000 plant species already known to science. However, it is not all good news for wildlife in the Greater Mekong, according to the WWF. The region is under unprecedented development pressure, threatening the survival of the natural landscapes that make it so unique. Construction is well underway on the Don Sahong Dam in Laos, a project that could have disastrous effects on the last Mekong Irrawaddy dolphins and the millions of people depending on the river's fisheries. In Thailand, the proposed Mae Wong dam, presented as a solution to water management issues in Nakhon Sawan province, has the potential to irreparably damage one of country's most important forest and wetland ecosystems, which also happens to be a critically important tiger habitat. Even more direct threats to these species are poaching for bushmeat and the multi-billion dollar illegal wildlife trade. Hundreds of snares can be set in a single night in the region's dense forests and they do not discriminate among species. PTI Berlin, December 21 The German police are looking for a Tunisian man after finding an identity document under the driver's seat of the truck that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 persons, on Monday evening, security sources said. The document was in the name of Anis A., born in the southern city of Tataouine in 1992, the sources said, using a convention whereby suspects are identified by their first name and initial. The man was also believed to use false names. A spokesperson for Tunisia's foreign ministry said it was trying to verify the information. Daily newspaper Bild reported the man was known to police as a possibly dangerous individual, and part of a large Islamist network. The pre-Christmas carnage at a symbolic Berlin site, under the ruined spire of a church bombed in World War-II, has shocked Germans and prompted security reviews across Europe, already on high alert after attacks this year in Belgium and France. The possible, though unproven, involvement of a migrant or refugee has revived a bitter debate about security and immigration, with Chancellor Angela Merkel facing calls to clamp down after allowing more than a million newcomers into Germany in the past two years. Police initially arrested a Pakistani asylum-seeker near the scene, but released him without charge on Tuesday. Authorities have warned that the attacker is on the run and may be armed. It is not clear if the perpetrator was acting alone or with others. Reuters Ulaanbaatar/ Beijing, Dec 21 Mongolias foreign minister has said the Dalai Lama will no longer be allowed to visit his country after a visit by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader prompted protests from China and imposition of virtual blockade and a suspension of talks on a major loan. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Tibet-related issues bore on Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as its core interests. Yesterday, Mongolian newspaper Unuudur carried remarks by Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil expressing regret that the Dalai Lamas visit hurt ties with Beijing and that he would not be allowed to visit Mongolia even on religious grounds. Hua said China had noted the remarks by Mongolian Foreign Minister and his commitment to not invite the Tibetan leader again. Mongolian ministers comments aimed at mending fences with China came after Beijing virtually imposed a blockade to the landlocked Mongolia, which is located between Russia and China, and reportedly put off talks on $4.2 billion loan sought by Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia had allowed the Dalai Lama to visit the country last month during which he took part in several religious ceremonies. China had reacted sharply saying the wrong doing by Mongolia on this issue diminished political foundation between the two countries. Following the blockade, the Mongolian Ambassador to India had reportedly sought the Indian government help and New Delhi has reciprocated with the $1 billion credit line, which was termed as a bribe by the Chinese official media. PTI Istanbul, December 21 The young Turkish policeman who killed Russia's ambassador to Ankara this week had provided security for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eight times since the July 15 failed coup bid, a report said on Wednesday. Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, pumped nine bullets into ambassador Andrei Karlov at an art exhibition centre on Monday evening, before he himself was killed by Turkish police. Altintas, a member of the Ankara anti-riot police for two- and-a-half years, had been on duty at eight events attended by Erdogan since July, the Hurriyet daily said. At such events he was part of the second wave of Erdogan's security after the personal bodyguard team of the president, wrote Hurriyet's writer Abdulkadir Selvi, known for his contacts in the ruling elite. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told US counterpart John Kerry in a phone call on Tuesday that Turkey believed the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who it blamed for the July 15 coup bid, was behind the assassination plot. Turkish authorities are now investigating possible links of Altintas to Gulen, including a school he attended that was run by the cleric's group. Hurriyet's Selvi said that on the day of the July 15 coup, Altintas had called in sick to the police. But it was not clear what he did that night. The security forces have now detained 13 people over the attack including close relatives of Altintas, Turkish media reports said. Meanwhile, a team of 18 Russian investigators arrived in Ankara on Tuesday to take part in a joint probe inside Turkey, an unprecedented move agreed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. AFP Washington, Decembe The US military has officially ended operations in a former Islamic State bastion in Libya, officials have announced. The Pentagon had launched Operation Odyssey Lightning to help local forces push the jihadists from the coastal city of Sirte on August 1. "In partnership with the Libyan Government of National Accord, the operation succeeded in its core objective of enabling GNA-aligned forces to drive Daesh (IS) out of Sirte," the US military's Africa Command said in a statement. US drones, gunships and warplanes had hammered IS positions, conducting a total of 495 strikes. "We are proud to have supported this campaign to eliminate ISIL's hold over the only city it has controlled outside Iraq and Syria," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters, using an IS acronym. Officials said the United States would continue to strike IS jihadists if the Libyan unity government asked for help in doing so. Unity government leader Fayez al-Sarraj on Saturday announced that military operations in Sirte were done, but IS still has fighters in Libya and on Sunday conducted a suicide attack in Benghazi. The fall of Sirte -- Kadhafi's home town located 450 kilometers east of Tripoli -- is a major setback for IS, which has also faced military defeats in Syria and Iraq. Libya descended into chaos following the NATO-backed ousting of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with rival administrations emerging and well-armed militias vying for control of its vast oil wealth. AFP Tokyo, December 21 A deal to return American military land on Okinawa to the Japanese government was hailed today as the biggest such land transfer in more than four decades. But the move is unlikely to reduce frustration on the strategic island that remains crowded with American bases, a legacy of World War II. The agreement covers about 4,000 hectares of the 7,500-hectare Camp Gonsalves jungle warfare training centre, also known as the Northern Training Area. It marks the largest land return to the Japanese government since Okinawa reverted to Japanese control in 1972, Lieutenant General Jerry P Martinez, US Forces Japan Commander, said in a statement. But the area being handed back is in a sparsely populated region, while other facilities, including air bases, are located farther south in or near crowded residential areas of the small island with a population exceeding one million people. The US wrested Okinawa from Japan in the closing months of the war. A 27-year occupation followed before Okinawa was given back to Japan, but US bases remained. The island makes up less than one per cent of Japan's total area but accounts for about 71 per cent of land allotted for US bases in the country after the handover. It accounted for about 75 per cent before. Okinawa hosts more than half of the approximately 47,000 American military personnel stationed in Japan. AFP The test truck was a 2017 Kenworth T680 with a 76-inch high-roof sleeper. Photos: Jim Park Paccar, parent company of both Kenworth and Peterbilt, recently announced its updated engine lineup for 2017 and a new proprietary drive axle that takes the standard position in both data books. The axle represents another step toward a fully vertically integrated powertrain, though it still lacks a homegrown transmission. I had a chance to drive a couple of trucks at Kenworths Research and Development center in Renton, Washington, prior to the official launch of these upgrades at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas on Oct. 2. The truck I drove was a 2017 Kenworth T680 with a 76-inch high-roof sleeper. It was equipped with the new 40,000-pound Paccar drive axles (2.67:1 ratio) and a 2017 MX-13 engine rated at 455 hp and 1,650 lb-ft (not the new top-of-the-line rating of 510 hp and 1,850 lb-ft.) Kenworths chief engineer, Kevin Baney, explained that the 2017 engine uses two different variable geometry turbochargers, one for ratings below 485 hp and another for higher-powered engines, so this truck would have the one for engines rated below 485 hp. However, 455/1,850 is a popular rating for linehaul operators, so a good choice for a test drive that represents a typical fleet spec. The automated manual transmission was an Eaton FAO-16810S-EP3 10-speed optimized for the MX-13 engine with a 0.79:1 overdrive. That rear axle/transmission combination gave us an engine cruise speed of 1,000 rpm at 57 mph in 10th gear just 100 rpm above peak torque with the 2017 calibrations. The route provided a good mix of two-lane and Interstate highway, with a few hills thrown in so we could check out the pulling power of the engine. Baney told us prior to the drive that peak torque on engines rated for less than 485 hp was at 900 rpm, while the higher rated engines produced peak torque at 1,000. The engine I drove should have gone down to 900, but it downshifted at close to 1,000 on the hills we were on. Paccars new drive axle is said to be more fuel efficient thanks to a new pinion through-shaft, and is 150 pounds lighter. Its hard to say if those shift points were the product of the predictive cruise controls look-ahead capabilities determining that the truck would not have benefited from dropping to peak torque or initiating the shift sooner, or something else in the calibrations that triggered the downshift before hitting peak torque. I was able to get it to 900 rpm on one occasion driving without the aid of cruise control where I more or less had control of the shifting. I let it lug down on one hill, and sure enough it went down to 900 before the engine and transmission ECMs seized control and made the downshift. I can say, though, that drivers really dont have to worry about that stuff anymore with all the automation onboard. All I had to do was keep my foot on the throttle, and the engine and transmission did all the calculating and shifting on their own. The new single-can aftertreatment system integrates the DPF, SCR and the DEF mixing pipe. Its lighter than previous switch-back designs and occupies less frame space. This may be an odd observation for a new product test drive, but it was difficult to perceive any difference from the 2016 version of the engine. But keep in mind, the changes consist mostly of some internal hardware, namely the oil and water pumps, the single-stage air compressor, the new single-canister aftertreatment system, and some rating alterations. Since our engine was rated at a previously available configuration, I failed to notice anything different there, but it is 50 pounds lighter thanks to the design changes. Baney also told me the engine would be about 3% or better more fuel efficient, which of course could not be verified on this short drive. The new oil and water pumps are demand-driven, variable-speed devices. That means they are electronically controlled and respond to internal changes such as operating temperature and would, by design, go unnoticed by the driver. Same with the two turbochargers now offered on engines above and below 485 hp, for all intents and purposes. I can say the engine behavior was predictable and precise, as MX engines have always been. In this case, not noticing any difference is probably a good thing. I guess I can say the same thing for the new axle and afterteatment device. They are there; they appear to work. Full stop. An axle isnt something a driver would notice in the daily routine, while the aftertreatment system, when it goes south, is definitely something a driver would be aware of. During the course of our two-hour drive I saw no indication of a problem. The MX-13 for 2017 is 50 pounds lighter than last years model and promises at least 3% better fuel economy. The new proprietary axle is designed for linehaul, regional, and pickup and delivery operations, and is rated at 40,000 pounds for an 80,000-lb gross combination weight. It is available in ratios from 2.47 to 3.70 with torque capacity up to 1,650 lb-ft, or 1,750 lb-ft behind multi-torque engines. Baney said the benefits of the axle are a proprietary pinion through-shaft for more direct power flow and fewer mechanical losses. It has laser-welded components rather than bolted parts for increased strength and lower weight. Its about 150 pounds lighter than competitive offerings, he said. With two of the three major powertrain components in place, the next big announcement well be waiting on will be a proprietary transmission. My bet is on something automated from ZF. Stay tuned. Related: Jack Martin Jack Davis Martin was born June 3, 1921, in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, to George Patrick and Mary Adeline (Pearson) Martin. He died December 13, 2016, in Owasso, Oklahoma, at the age of 95 years. Jack was reared and educated in the Drumright, Oklahoma, area and was a graduate of Pleasant Hill High School. Jack was a veteran of the armed forces having served his country honorably with the United Stated Marine Corp during World War II. He participated in action against Japanese enemy forces on Guam, Marianas Islands, and under enemy bombing raids while on Tulagi, British Solomon Islands. Jack returned stateside and a few years later was married January 22, 1951, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Claudia L. Yeater. He spent much of his working life in the oil industry as a pumper beginning with Kewanee, which later became Gulf, which later became Chevron. He had been a member of the city council in Coahoma, Texas, as well as Lion's Club. He was a faithful member of the Church of Christ in Owasso. He enjoyed a variety of pastimes, especially traveling and RVing. Jack was a man who cared for his family and never met a stranger. Loving family members include: Son; Ronald Jack Martin and wife Brenda, of Canadian, Texas. Daughter; Marilyn Pickle and husband Paul, of Owasso, Oklahoma. Grandchildren; Megan Douglas and husband Ben, of Norman, Oklahoma, Will Martin and wife Lauren, of Cary, North Carolina, Christy Horn and husband Anthony, of Edmond, Oklahoma. Great grandchildren; Norah Douglas, Owen Douglas, and Hudson Martin. He was preceded in death by his parents, wife, Claudia, son, Larry Martin, grandson, Jacob Martin, two sisters, Hazel Roberts, and Ruth Mathews, and three brothers, Gordie Martin, Hoyle Martin, and Charles Martin. Visitations were held from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Thursday, December 15, 2016, at Mowery Funeral Service in Owasso. Funeral services were held 10:00 Friday, December 16, 2016, at the Church of Christ in Owasso with Dan Schnell officiating. Committal services and interment followed at Resthaven-Sunset Memorial Park in Ponca City, Oklahoma. The family requests memorial contributions be made in Jack's memory to Hope Harbor Children's Home, P.O. Box 1047, Claremore, Oklahoma, 74018. Arrangements and services were entrusted to Mowery Funeral Service of Owasso. www.moweryfs.com By PTI: Melbourne, Dec 21 (PTI) A 102-year-old Australian ecologist, the countrys oldest working scientist, has won a battle to keep working on campus at an Australian university. Dr David Goodall was ordered to work from home next year after his presence at Western Australias Edith Cowan University was deemed a safety risk. But the university has now found an alternative workspace. advertisement Australias oldest working scientist, Goodall has produced more than 100 research papers in an ecology career spanning 70 years. He is currently an unpaid honorary research associate. After two decades at Edith Cowan University, Goodall was told in August to pack up his office when staff raised concerns about his safety. It was another setback for the ecologist, who was recently forced to give up theatre when his declining vision prevented him from driving to rehearsals. The university confirmed "better" office space has been found at a campus closer to Goodalls residence. "I am pleased we have found a solution that will ensure David can continue to be based at ECU," vice-chancellor Steve Chapman told the BBC. Goodall said he was grateful the university was able to accommodate him. "I hope to continue with some useful work in my field in so far as my eyesight permits," he told the ABC. "But I still think the emphasis on safety was unnecessary," the centenarian scientist added. PTI AKJ AKJ --- ENDS --- BROKEN ARROW A womans death in Broken Arrow last month has been ruled a homicide by the state Medical Examiners Office. Debra Lynn Morgan, 39, died Nov. 7 of a gunshot wound to the head, according to a news release from the Broken Arrow Police Department. We have not named a suspect at this time, Officer James Koch said. A family member found Morgans body in a residence in the 4400 block of West Quincy Street, according to reports. Police initially said only that Morgan was found to have suffered unusual trauma. Morgans death quickly raised suspicions among investigators because there was no indication of suicide and there were no firearms located at the scene, police detective Bill Payne stated in a affidavit for a search warrant. Payne searched cellphone records of people reportedly associated with Morgan, according to the document. Payne states that during the search of a cellphone, he found a conversation between two people in which a person says, She has told you what her errands are right? That shes scoping Debras house with the intent of killing her? Investigators, during their searches, learned there had been an ongoing dispute among Morgan and those named in the search warrants. Morgans neighbor told investigators that during the night of her death they heard loud banging, saw flashlights in the window and heard someone walk through the neighbors yard, according to Paynes affidavit. "As a part of pollution control measures, IIT Kanpur has recommended that the power plants within 300 km vicinity of the Capital should be shut down. They have also recommended vacuum cleaning of dust on city roads," said Satyendar Jain. By Varun Bidhuri: If the proposal of IIT Kanpur is implemented, then Delhi could be bracing for a power shortage. The Delhi government on Tuesday said it is considering a report submitted by the institute, according to which there should be ban on power plants within a radius of 300 km of Delhi to control air pollution. Delhi urban development minister Satyendar Jain submitted the recommendations made by IIT-Kanpur at the NCR Planning Board meeting, which was chaired by union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu. The primary focus of the meeting was the rising levels of pollution in the Capital. advertisement Also Read: Delhi set to get 20 new centres to check pollution level Jain said: "As a part of pollution control measures, IIT Kanpur has recommended that the power plants within 300 km vicinity of the Capital should be shut down. They have also recommended vacuum cleaning of dust on city roads." The National Capital Power Station (NCPS) in Dadri and Mahatma Gandhi Super Thermal Power Project at Khanpur village in Jhajjar district of Haryana are within this 300 km radius. Also Read: This is what Delhi's polluted air can do to your lungs NCPS has a huge coal-based thermal power plant and a gasbased plant. It supplies 80 per cent of the electricity to Delhi. A senior NCPS official said: "The Dadri power station generates around 2,200 MW of electricity of which 1,800 MW is supplied to Delhi. Which means Delhi gets 70 to 80 per cent of electricity from Dadri the plant. If the plant shuts down, then Delhi will face electricity shortage." The Delhi government today made it clear that the third phase of odd-even scheme will only happen in the city with prior adequate preparations and awareness to the people. Jain has asked the Centre to give the city administration sufficient time before asking it to implement the next round of carrationing scheme as part of antipollution emergency measures. Earlier this month, the Centre had submitted in the Supreme Court its action plan to tackle the menace of air pollution and recommended slew of measures including ban on construction activities and implementation of odd-even scheme in the national capital. The Delhi government also proposed setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with the Centre overseeing cleaning up of river Yamuna and Yamuna Development Front project. Jain said: "We have proposed setting up of a SPV to help in cleaning Yamuna. The Delhi government and the Centre would be the key stakeholders." --- ENDS --- Militants launched 33 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ATO area in Donbas over the past day. This is reported by the ATO press center. As noted, in Mariupol direction, the enemy used 122mm artillery to shell the village of Lebedynske. Ukrainian positions in Novotroyitske, Shyrokyne, Taramchuk, Berezove came under mortar fire. In Luhansk direction, the terrorists fired at the villages of Novozvanivka, Stanytsia Luhanska and Novooleksandrivka using 120mm and 82mm mortars. In Donetsk direction, ATO troops came under 122mm artillery and 82mm mortar fire in Luhanske, which is in the area of the Svitlodarska Duha. The militants also used grenade launchers of various systems and heavy machine guns on Luhanske and Avdiyivka. ish The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) welcomes and fully supports the EU's decision to extend the sectoral sanctions against Russia. This has been said in a statement made by the World Congress of Ukrainians, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "The Ukrainian World Congress welcomes the European Council decision of December 19, 2016 to continue the targeted economic sanctions against the Russian Federation for the next six months till July 31, 2017 in support of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine," the UWC says. In this case, the organization stressed that it "actively promotes the extension of sanctions against the Russian Federation until the Minsk agreements are completely fulfilled." ish facebook like button Tweet tweet button for twitter Published December 21, 2016 MONROE, La. A Mississippi man has been arrested for arson in connection with a fire that took place on ULMs campus Tuesday evening. At around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016, ULM Police responded to a call about a fire at the ULM waterski house, located on the banks of Bayou DeSiard just off Bon Aire Drive. Monroe fire crews arrived quickly thereafter and put out the fire, but not before damage had been done to the exterior and portions of the interior of the building. Campus surveillance captured video footage of a man setting fire to the waterski house, which opened for operation in spring 2016. ULM Police released images of the man to the local media and area law enforcement agencies shortly thereafter. Shortly after midnight Wednesday morning, 36-year old Michael Daquilla of Centerville, Miss. was located by Monroe Police as a result of the surveillance images. ULM Police was notified and they arrested Daquilla on the charge of simple arson and booked him into the Ouachita Correctional Center. Daquilla has no known connections to ULM. The fire is still under investigation by ULM Police, Monroe Fire Department, and the Louisiana State Fire Marshall. Motive for the crime has yet to be determined. ULM Police will forward their investigation to the district attorneys office for review and prosecution. I would like to commend ULM Police for their action in containing the fire until fire crews could put it out," said Camile Currier, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs. "ULM Polices collaboration with the Monroe Police Department, Ouachita Parish Sheriffs Office, and other local and state agencies was important in this incident as in others and so we thank them as well for their assistance. UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi is very pleased by the safe release yesterday of three UNHCR staff members Sarun Pradhan, Ramesh Karki and Musa Omer Musa Mohamed who were abducted on 27th November in El Geneina, Sudan. Special thanks in particular go to the Sudanese Government and its personnel, who worked to ensure this outcome. We also wish to thank the members of the UNs hostage management team and others who worked tirelessly on this case. At this time our immediate focus is on their health and well-being, as well as that of their loved ones following this ordeal. We are doing everything possible to ensure they are being well taken care of. UNHCR would like to thank all those who have sent messages of concern and solidarity during these difficult last days. These messages have come from supporters, governments, partners and private individuals, and they have been welcome solace. UNHCR staff work in some of the most difficult circumstances in the world, helping people in great need, and often facing being far away from their families for lengthy periods at a time. Like other humanitarian workers, they should not have to endure the peril of abductions, violence and threats to their lives. We are renewing our call to all parties, not just in Sudan but everywhere, to respect international humanitarian law and ensure the protection of all civilians, including aid workers whose work is to help refugees and others affected by conflict and persecution. UNHCR will be continuing its work in Sudan, providing life-saving support to hundreds of thousands of displaced in the country. We appeal to everyone to respect the privacy of Sarun, Ramesh and Musa Omer and their families at this difficult time and as they begin the process of healing. UNHCR will be standing with them on this journey. For more information on this topic, please contact: A forcibly displaced mother holds her newborn child at the maternity unit in Minawao refugee camp in Cameroon. UNHCR/Alexis Huguet ABUJA, Nigeria UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi wrapped up a 10-day visit to Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria restating UNHCRs strong commitment to continue helping hundreds of thousands of people forcibly displaced in the region by the Boko Haram insurgency. Grandi, who flew out of Nigeria late on Monday after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, highlighted the main challenges ahead for the international community and governments in the region: security, humanitarian response, development and the rights and protection of civilians. We will need to win the battle of development if we want to win the war on radicalism. Poverty, under-development, and lack of education all breed insecurity, Grandi said. We need to tackle these important development challenges in the whole region. We will need to win the battle of development if we want to win the war on radicalism." On Sunday, Grandi travelled to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, in north-east Nigeria, where he visited Bakassi, one of 12 camps run by the government with help from aid agencies. We need to have more sustainable activities, a farmer told Grandi in a meeting with camp leaders. We of course appreciate the assistance in the camp, but we have become dependent on aid and we need something to make a living, he added. The farmer and other participants spoke of the additional challenges they face, including the need for more food, water points and latrines. The camp hosts over 21,000 internally displaced people who fled violence in the region. Grandi visited a UNHCR-supported centre at the camp which helps women develop livelihoods such as tailoring and leatherwork. UNHCR has also helped develop a workshop to train mechanics in Maiduguri, and centres in Borno and Yola States to help displaced people learn and apply new skills. Nigeria: UNHCR chief visits displaced in Maiduguri He pledged to continue UNHCRs support with humanitarian assistance and to encourage the longer-term development interventions needed to improve peoples lives. I am here to express the solidarity of the world. We will continue to help the government provide material assistance, said Grandi, while adding: Your future cannot be in a camp, your future is at home, in your villages and towns. Grandi said significant and large scale intervention and development activities were also needed throughout the affected region. I am appealing to donors to urgently fund both the humanitarian response to help people in need today and invest in their futures, he said. We also need the involvement and expertise of the financial institutions, specifically the World Bank, the Africa Development Bank, and the big bilateral institutions. Grandi also listened to people who had been captured and abused by Boko Haram, including 26-year-old Nancy,* who was repeatedly raped over two years of captivity. She became pregnant but had a miscarriage because of the torture inflicted on her. Nancy subsequently escaped and now has an 11-month-old baby, a daily reminder of her ordeal. She has been reunited with her husband but carries deep scars. Your future cannot be in a camp, your future is at home, in your villages and towns. The High Commissioner also met a 13-year-old boy who was seized by Boko Haram and his father killed. The boy escaped and spent 28 days in the bush, foraging for food before being rescued by the military. He is now living with his mother at the camp. The High Commissioner began his visit in Niger on December 10 to spread awareness about the desperate situation in Nigeria and neighbouring countries in one of Africas gravest displacement crises. He also used the visit to appeal to the international community to step up its response and do more to help governments in all four countries cope with the burden. Last Friday, in Cameroon, he launched a $US241 million appeal on behalf of 36 partners to help some 460,000 affected people in Niger, Chad and Cameroon, including 183,000 Nigerian refugees. While visiting Niger, where he met President Issoufou Mahamdoui and other top officials, Grandi praised one of the worlds poorest countries for keeping its doors open, granting asylum as well as sharing scarce resources. This is really exceptional I assure you, I will use the example of Niger around the world, he said. The High Commissioner also visited the troubled region of Diffa, which has been subjected to Boko Haram attacks for almost two years. It hosts a displaced population of over 240,000, including Nigerian refugees and local communities. It is essential not just to focus on the present crisis but to look to the future, and to the need for development, he said, citing UNHCR programmes on urbanization and on domestic energy in Diffa. In Chads Lac Region, he visited another UNHCR-funded project, which provides refugees and locals the means to fish in nearby Lake Chad. He cited it as an example for donors of how livelihoods can help people live as normal a life as possible. More funding could help many more people become self-sufficient and stimulate the battered economy. In NDjamena he met President Idriss Deby and hailed the country for providing shelter to refugees from Nigeria, Sudan and Central African Republic. He also discussed development projects aimed at helping refugees and host communities with the World Bank and Africa Development Bank representatives in Chad. *Name changed for protection reasons. A retired Indian army general filed a petition seeking action against the airlines dumping waste mid-air, calling it a "violation of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan". By India Today Web Desk: Environment organisation The National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ask all the airlines, not to dispose off the waste mid-air. NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar and his bench of officials asked DGCA to impose a fine of Rs 50,000 on the airlines if they are found violating the regulation. DGCA officals on the other hand, clarifying, said that aircraft dispose off the waste through a proper mechanism only after they land. advertisement However, cases of opening the shoot of toilet mid-air, have been reported off and on. NGT has asked DGCA to even conduct surprise checks on the airline. "On landing, aircraft shall be subjected to surprise inspection to see that human waste tanks are not empty. If any aircraft is found to be violating such circular, they shall be subjected to environment compensation of Rs 50,000 per default," the bench said. This direction came after retired army man, Lt Gen Satwant Singh Dahiya, a resident of Delhi, filed a petition seeking action against airlines that dropped excreta around his residence. The waste dropped was then collected by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), which later confirmed it to be human excreta but could not identify the source. Retired Gen Satwant called the act of dropping waste a "violation of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan". --- ENDS --- In her small room in Vienna, Asira Khasalieva is rolling pastry to make gulushki (dumplings) for relatives who have recently arrived from Chechnya. They are now seeking asylum in Austria and are full of hope. She hates to tell them that she herself has been waiting three years for the Austrian authorities to answer her own asylum application. While she waits, Asira lives in Ute Bock House. This is not just a block of flats but a place of shelter, education and encouragement founded by the distinguished Austrian philanthropist, Ute Bock. I thank God that Frau Bock took us in, says Asira. She is a very good lady. I pray every day for her health. Sadly Frau Bock, 74, is not as active as she used to be, since suffering a stroke. But although she is now in a wheelchair, she still lives and works with refugees in the house that bears her name. Asira Khasalieva from Chechnya has lived in Ute Bock Haus for three years. UNHCR/Gordon Welters As well as providing shelter, Ute Bock Haus is a place of education and encouragement. UNHCR/Gordon Welters "Before [Frau Bock] got sick, she used to wash our clothes for us," says Daniel Johnson from Liberia, who is staying at the shelter. UNHCR/Gordon Welters While staying at Ute Bock Haus residents have the option to attend German classes. UNHCR/Gordon Welters There is no meanness in Ute Bock Haus, where fairness is the watchword. UNHCR/Gordon Welters Is she religious? Does she have a philosophy? She shakes her head. It is simple humanity that has motivated her over a long career of caring for the less fortunate. If someone comes, needing help, I do not tell them to go and see the Pope first. Frau Bock, who never married, lives modestly to the point of being ascetic. She has never had a holiday; indeed she doesnt even have a passport. She thinks fashion is a waste of time and her only luxury is to go to the hairdressers. How can you eat when someone else is hungry? She began her career in a childrens home and worked for many years with troubled teenagers. When she retired in 2002, she set up a small shelter for the homeless and asylum seekers. Some actually lived there while others were registered at the address, meaning they existed in the eyes of social services and could receive benefits. Frau Bock made a difference for hundreds of people. News of Frau Bocks good works spread. Her supporters were determined she should grow to become too big to fail, said her spokesman, Emanuel Hinterbauer. Playing on the Bock name, they created a Bock auf Bier (Do you fancy it?) beer festival, where 10 cents on every beer were donated to Frau Bocks shelter. This developed into Bock auf Kulture, raising thousands of Euros through regular events such as cabaret, clubbing and poetry slams. Frau Bock got a reputation for being bockig or obstinate as a goat when it came to defending the interests of the vulnerable and bockig tee-shirts and postcards were printed. Then Hans Peter Haselsteiner, the owner of the Strabag construction firm, gave Frau Bock the block of flats at Zohmanngasse 28, enabling her to accommodate 80 refugee families in one building. Altogether, she houses 300 refugees in flats scattered across Vienna. She is famous among refugees, and those from Africa call her Mama Bock. The owner of a local construction company gave Ute Bock this building so she could accommodate 80 refugee families in one building. UNHCR/Gordon Welters Frau Bock plays cards with refugees in Ute Bock House. UNHCR/Houchang Allahyari "People complain about foreigners on public transport. This is terrible," says Ute Bock, who suffered a stroke in 2014. UNHCR/Tina Herzl Clients and co-workers surround Frau Bock in her wheelchair in a communal space at Ute Bock Haus. UNHCR/Tina Herzl You could call Frau Bock a secular saint but she would just laugh at that. Shes received dozens of awards for her work but is indifferent to them all. When outgoing Austrian President Heinz Fischer himself nominated her for the prestigious Goldenes Verdienstkreuz (Cross of Merit), she joked it would have been more use to get a 20-Euro donation. Practical and straightforward, Frau Bock tolerates politicians only to the extent that they are willing to help. She is disturbed by the new wave of populist politicians who, in her view, increase the danger of xenophobia in society. People complain about foreigners on public transport. This is terrible. We must find a way not to complain about them (refugees) but to help them, so they dont get on our nerves, she says drily. Frau Bock remembers the end of World War II, soldiers coming home, the concentration camps being openedWhen you see how mean people are to each other today, you think, didnt you learn anything from history? It was as mean then as it is nowadays, or to put it another way, it is as mean now as it was then. "We all respect Mama," says Daniel Johnson from Liberia, who is still waiting for a decision on his application for asylum. UNHCR/Gordon Welters There is no meanness in Ute Bock House. Food is put out daily for all to share. There are German lessons for those who want them. Fairness is the watchword. We all respect Mama, says Daniel Johnson from Liberia, unemployed because he is still waiting for an asylum decision. It gets boring and lonely. But I see her in the corridor and speak German with her. She is like a mother. Before she got sick, she used to wash our clothes for us, and if we were arguing, she would come and break up the fight. Back in the Chechen room, the dumplings are nearly ready to go with meat and garlic sauce. Mrs. Khasalievas niece and her two children draw up to the table. In Chechnya, the family made pastries and they dream of opening a konditerei in Vienna. They are starting to see that the wait for asylum might be long and the outcome far from certain. Meanwhile they have a roof over their heads. And hope dies last at Ute Bock House. A few ambulance drivers protesting against the authority bashed another ambulance driver, who disregarded the protest to bring in a suffering patient to the hospital. By India Today Web Desk: Protesting against the hospital authority in Gardanibagh, Patna, ambulance drivers of '102 Ambulance' bashed up another team member of 102 Ambulance. The incident happened when ambulance driver Jayshankar Prasad drove in a patient to the hospital. Upon seeing Jayshankar who disregarded the protest by his team, brought in a suffering patient to the hospital, the protesting drivers started to bash him and even damaged his ambulance. advertisement After the police was informed, soon the arrests were made and the case has been filed against them. While on the other hand, the president of the ambulance drivers union alleged that police resorted to lathicharge on the orders of Civil Surgeon Office which resulted in a lot of injuries. SHO B K Chauhan denied the alleged lathicharge and told Bhaskar that protesting ambulance drivers hit Jayshankar Prasad who tried to save the ailing patient. --- ENDS --- By PTI: press New Delhi, Dec 21 (PTI) Around 400 army personnel have been deployed for security at the currency printing presses in Salboni in West Bengal and Dewas in Madhya Pradesh. Army sources said that the soldiers were deployed in wake of security consideration around the press that prints the new currency notes. The troops deployed are from armys Eastern and Central Command. advertisement The Dewas Security Press is printing new Rs 500 currency notes whereas new Rs 2,000 and Rs 100 notes are being printed in Salboni. "Keeping in view the security consideration of such sensitive location, army personnel have been deployed at printing presses," sources said. The government has already deployed transport aircraft C-17 Globemasters and C-130 J Hercules of the Indian Air Force to ferry currency from the printing presses across the country. The IAF continues to make sorties carrying new currency. The Modi government had demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8 and had introduced new Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes. PTI SAP RG --- ENDS --- "What's happening is disgraceful," Trump said. It's an attack on humanity, and it's gotta be stopped." By Reuters: US President-elect Donald Trump condemned the attack at a Christmas market in Berlin as "an attack against humanity" on Wednesday. Trump on Monday blamed the Berlin attack, which killed 12 people, on Islamist terrorists who "continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad." Asked about that statement by reporters outside his Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday, he said, "It's an attack on humanity, and it's gotta be stopped." advertisement "What's happening is disgraceful," Trump said, adding that he has not talked to President Barack Obama since the Berlin attack or the assassination of a Russian ambassador in Turkey, both on Monday. Also Read Berlin: At least 12 dead after truck crashes into Christmas market --- ENDS --- George R.R. Martin announced the graphic novel "The Mystery Knight" while keeping silent about "The Winds of Winter's" progress. The highly acclaimed writer of "A Song of Fire and Ice" has been the subject of controversy for the delayed release of the sixth book of his hit series titled "The Winds of Winter." Despite the delay, Martin never failed to tease the fans with his constant reminder of what to expect until the end. In fact, in the Guadalajara International Book Fair, the author again hinted something about his book, with his usual reference that "the winter is coming," and is apparent that he never intended the book to have a happy ending. Furthermore, he said that he included some 'dark chapters' in the sixth book. Unfortunately, the author did not mention about the progress of the book. With his previous statements that he is a slow writer and with the release of his other book, it seems that fans cannot hope that the book will be released anytime soon. With this, fans speculate that the author has been occupied with the preparations for the release of the newest addition to his masterpieces, titled "The Mystery Knight," which is why "The Winds of Winter" cannot be released just as his self-imposed schedule. The book consists of 148 graphic pages and is scheduled to be released on July 4 next year. For those uninitiated, the book is part of "The Dunk and Egg" series, which mainly relates the events before "A Song of Ice and Fire" happened and focuses the tale of Sir Duncan the Tall and Aegon V Targaryen. Accordingly, a lot can be expected from the book as Random House had the same creative team who worked on the comic adaptation of "The Hedge Knight" and "The Sworn Sword." Additionally, Martin referred the book as long-awaited and much anticipated one. A professor from the University of Alberta has joined NASA's search for life on Mars. Chris Herd is a planetary geologist. The race to Mars has stirred up the interest of many recently since space company giants such as Boeing and SpaceX announced their plans to get on the red planet. President Obama also confirmed that NASA is aiming to send humans to Mars and return them safely to Earth by the 2020s. NASA has already discovered flowing water on the red planet and that there is evidence of ice on one of Jupiter's moons. The space agency has also been able to map Pluto. According to Edmonton Journal, Chris Herd, from the University of Alberta, is the only scientist in Canada who will be joining the large group of international experts tasked to advise NASA on how to run the Mars rover. The rover is slated to be launched in 2020. The car-sized vehicle is expected to travel up to 20 kilometers across Mars' surface. It will be equipped with a drill that will allow it to collect core samples of rocks and soils. Herd noted that one of the main goals of the mission is to explore what the planet's conditions were like in the past. A search for fossilized signs of microbial life will also be conducted. "People have looked at what type of samples should be brought back to answer the big questions about Mars," Herd said. "The ultimate question is 'Was there ever life there?'" NASA has already sent the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers on earlier missions. The upcoming rover will also be tasked to test a method for producing oxygen. This is to prepare for human visits in the future. Meanwhile, it was reported that SpaceX has delayed its demonstration flights with NASA. The company revealed that they are "carefully assessing" their designs, systems and processes. This comes after the explosion of the Falcon 9 rocket on Sep. 1. A professor from the University of Kentucky was punished for sexual misconduct. Apparently, it was because he sang a song by the Beach Boys in public. Daily Caller reported that journalism professor Buck Ryan was slammed with a sexual misconduct case for singing "California Girls" by the Beach Boys. He sang it during the closing ceremony of an education program in China, which was co-sponsored by the university and China's Jilin University. Ryan taught a class for the program entitled "Storytelling: Exploring China's Art and Culture." He explained that he chose the song to "teach the many differences in Chinese and American culture." In a piece for the Lexington Herald-Leader, the University of Kentucky professor revealed that the institution's three-month investigation yielded no student complaints. He added that he has never received a complaint of sexual misconduct from a student in over 30 years of his college teaching career. Ryan noted that he sent an email about the specific details of the complaint. However, the message was misinterpreted as an open records request by the school's legal office and the professor received a two-page letter denying the request. For his punishment, he was banned from receiving international travel funds. He was also stripped of a prestigious award, which was worth thousands of dollars. He did inquire about his right to have due process for the investigation. Only to be told that he did not have any. "There is no constitutional right to represent the University of Kentucky abroad," the provost wrote. "Nor is there a constitutional right to teach a particular class. Accordingly, the University has no obligation to provide you with due process." The University of Kentucky professor was convicted without trial. He denied the allegations that he behaved inappropriately with two women students. Ryan slammed the institution, saying that the school has a dean in a college with a First Amendment Center who does not care about freedom of expression. He added that it has a provost or chief academic officer who is willing to deny a faculty member due process. During the United Negro College Fund Mayor's Masked Ball in Atlanta, musical artists such as Usher, Tyrese, Jeezy, Future and Ludacris funded the event with an additional $125,000. Mayor Kaseem Reid hosted the event in Georgia last Saturday (December 17, 2016). In an effort to support its hisorically black colleges and universities, a host of celebrities and community leaders came together. Future contributed to the event with $25,000. The money stemmed from his Free Wishes Foundation. Tyrese also gave his support by giving away $25,000. Tyrese excitedly announced that Usher is matching his contribution, too, as reported by Atlanta Blackstar. And the ball kept on rolling because Jeezy shelled out and additional $25,000. It eventually got really crazy when Ludacris jumped out and pledged $25,000 as well. Tyrese exploded with excitement. The UNCF ball's aim was to focus on raising awareness on the need of college education in HBCUs, as reported by UNCF. Historically black colleges and universities are now struggling because of decreased funding. The schools even went as far as enrolling non-African American students to help with their finances. The gala hopes to ease that financial burden. Tyrese went into a frenzy after receiving the support from his fellow artists. He sends out his support to Mayor Kaseem Reid. The artist stresses that they were able to raise a million dollars at the Mayor's ball. They all did it for the kids and for college education. He thanked everyone for coming to the event and for stepping up that night to show their financial support. President Harry Williams from the Delaware State University sent his thanks. Delaware State is committed to make sure their heritage and history is preserved. The annual event also stresses the relevance of HBCUs in America. Aside from Usher, Tyrese, Jeezy, Future and Ludacris, 2Chainz also attended the event. Along with Jermaine Dupri, Michael Ealy and Gabrielle Union. Want to know more about the UNCF Mayor's Masked Ball in Atlanta? Check out the 2014 event below: Addressing the growing problem regarding the oversupply of rice in its country, a private university in Thailand has started accepting a different means of payment for college education - rice. Rangsit University, a private institution in Bangkok, has started to accept rice payments in lieu of cash in an effort to help balance the country's grain surplus, Bloomberg reported. So far, about 19 students have availed of this new scheme, which Fortune refers to as "Grains for Brains." Witsanu Sukmoonsiri, a 22-year-old studying at the university's social innovation school, is one of the students who paid rice for his tuition. Witsanu plans to pay the 20,620 baht ($574) fee for the January-April semester using rice from his family's farm. "My parents might have had to go to a loan shark otherwise," Witsanu said. Thailand is currently facing an oversupply in its grains, which led to the depreciation of rice costs. In November Thai jasmine rice reached its lowest since February 2007, averaging 8,294 baht (about $230) per ton. Unmilled white rice, on the other hand, reached its weakest level since May 2014, according to Bloomberg. Rangsit University, who wants to help ailing families affected by the surplus, will be putting the rice paid for tuition at a higher-than-market value, said Worachat Churdchomjan, a dean who helped set the rice-for-fees program. "The university has a policy to support farmers to reduce their expenses, as they are the backbone of the country," Worachat said. Farmers affected by the oversupply look for ways to earn more from the trade. Some of them, like 25-year-old Suphatson Chanthamon, mill rice on their own and sell it in unlikely places such as a gas station kiosk. "At current prices, if we sell to rice mills, we wouldn't get money to cover production costs," Suphatson said. "But selling directly to buyers, we could have small profits. For sure, we won't be losing money." By PTI: Malda, Dec 21 (PTI) The Border Security Force have seized 900 bottles of Phensedyl syrup and tortoise shells weighing around ten kg from the Indo-Bangla border in Malda district, the paramilitary force today said. Acting on specific information regarding smuggling of huge quantity of Phensedyl syrup bottles from India to Bangladesh, a special operation was planned and launched in the area of border outpost (BOP) Sasani, a BSF release said. advertisement The personnel observed movement at around 3AM and saw eight to ten persons approaching the international boundary (IB) from the Indian side along with cartons, the release said. The BSF personnel challenged them and asked them to stop, but they fled taking advantage of darkness and fog, it said. The operation party, however, managed to apprehend one person identified as Hilal Seikh alias Amir Khan along with ten kg tortoise shells worth around Rs 70,000 and 900 bottles of Phensedyl syrup worth around Rs 1.04 lakh, the release said. The apprehended person along with the seized items were handed over to the district police authorities at Kaliachak, the release said adding, the BSF South Bengal Frontier has seized 1,76,402 bottles of Phensedyl syrup in 2016 and in these operations, 40 smugglers were apprehended. PTI SBN DKB --- ENDS --- Survivors' testimonies can reveal much about men's experiences of prostate cancer and impacts on their quality of life (QOL) during the clinical trajectory of the disease. These survivors' shared thoughts and views were hypothesized to reflect salient features of their lived social representation of prostate cancer. We explored the content of testimonies posted by men to a public blog hosted by a French national prostate cancer patients' association. The study question, "What do French bloggers' testimonies reveal about their lived experiences with prostate cancer, especially regarding their quality of life in community settings, that underpin their social representation of prostate cancer?" guided the exploration and analysis of the textual data. The aims were to better understand men's experiences and predominant thoughts and views, to elucidate patients' behaviours, and to enlighten medical policy and practice. Explore issues of QOL as reported by French prostate cancer survivors in a public blog by: (a) identifying the salient aspects and issues of the experience of living with prostate cancer from the perspective of survivors; and (b) analyzing the content in the posted testimonies regarding perceived and lived impacts of prostate cancer on QOL. A critical ethnographic study guided the selection of textual data from 196 male bloggers' testimonies about prostate cancer posted in the period from 2008 to 2013. Media content analysis method was undertaken on blog testimonies, framed by a multidimensional conceptual framework of QOL. Testimonies focused mainly on medical care and rehabilitation, recovery, health education and self-care, as well as on a global vision of prostate cancer and its impacts on personal views of manhood and masculinity. The language used indicated that political, educative and compassionate discourses were intertwined to create a complex representation of the experience and effects of prostate cancer; this multi-faceted representation can inform the public and professional debate about men's capacity to provide emotional support and problem-solve within a community of interest. Findings, while based on data limited to mostly one-time entries to a French blog, contribute to understanding a unique, collective expression of men's lived experiences of prostate cancer. These anonymous survivors shared their varied reactions, ways of coping, and thoughts on needed change. Health and quality of life outcomes. 2016 Dec 16*** epublish *** Margareth Santos Zanchetta, Marguerite Cognet, Mary Rachel Lam-Kin-Teng, Marie Elisabeth Dumitriu, Lise Renaud, Jacques Rheaume Ryerson University- Faculty of Community Services, Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, 350 Victoria St. office POD 470C, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada. ., Universite Denis Diderot- UFR Sciences sociales, Unite de recherche Migrations et Societes, Paris, France., Ryerson University- Faculty of Community Services, Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, 350 Victoria St. office POD 470C, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada., Universite du Quebec a Montreal, CSSS de la Montagne, Ministere de la sante et des services sociaux du Quebec, Montreal, Quebec, Canada., CSSS de la Montagne, Ministere de la sante et des services sociaux du Quebec, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27986091 Sources said Japan is keen on constructing the corridor on the surface as it would be cheaper. However, given the inordinate delay in several projects due to land acquisition and subsequent legal hurdles, the Japanese government is keeping both options open. If the Indian and Japanese governments agree to an elevated corridor, the deadline of starting the project in 2023 can be advanced. By Rakesh Ranjan: India and Japan have finally agreed on a fully-elevated bullet train corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. However, Japanese experts are also exploring the feasibility of constructing the corridor underground as proposed by the Indian Railways. Senior railway officials said this will rid land acquisition by 50 per cent thought the project cost would go up by nearly Rs10,000 crore. advertisement Sources said Japan is keen on constructing the corridor on the surface as it would be cheaper. However, given the inordinate delay in several projects due to land acquisition and subsequent legal hurdles, the Japanese government is keeping both options open. Also Report: Indian Railways' high speed rail project to get foreign boost JAPAN TO BEAR 80 PER CENT COST The Japanese government will be bearing 80 per cent of the total project cost and the increase in cost estimate has to be borne by both India and Japan. The actual work on the project is scheduled to begin next year after signing of the loan agreement between Indian Railways and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The agreement is likely to be signed early 2017. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu has said that the bullet train will start in 2023 but if the Indian and Japanese governments agree to the idea of an elevated corridor, the deadline can also be advanced. Also Read: Tale of two Modi cities: Delhi-Varanasi bullet train to take less than 3 hours PROJECT REPORT The Detailed Project Report (DPR) submitted to the government has proposed 25 per cent elevated corridor, 64 per cent surface corridor and six per cent underground corridor. This includes the 21-km underwater tunnel between Thane creek and Virar in Mumbai. CHANGE OF DESIGN "India and Japan have agreed on changing the design. The DPR will be modified accordingly. Construction of an elevated or underground corridor will be costlier but the government will save on the cost of land acquisition," said a senior railway official. Also Read: After Bullet trains, Modi govt sets sights on Maglev trains "Constructing the elevated corridor will save the government the hassles of land acquisition that can delay the project. An elevated corridor will be financially more viable as compared to the compensation amount to be given to land owners," he added. "Also, it will ensure speedy execution of the project. However, this may result in cost overrun. At present, the project is estimated to cost Rs97,636 crore, but with modifications in design, it may go up to Rs1.08 lakh crore," the official further said. DREAM PROJECTOfficials said that since the bullet train corridor is the dream project of Narendra Modi, the government wants to ensure that it does not get stuck in environmental and legal tangles. advertisement Already more than 400 railway projects have been stuck in land acquisition rows and consequent delay in construction work. This, according to a CAG report of 2015, has resulted in cost overrun of Rs1.07 lakh crore. The Railways faced major hurdles in acquiring land for its ambitious dedicated freight corridors that will significantly decongest the railway network and increase the speed of passenger trains. --- ENDS --- Political power in United States shifted in an unexpected and unprecedented way. As of January 20, 2017, Republicans will hold the White House and both Houses of Congress. President-elect Donald Trump will also have the opportunity to appoint two SEC Commissioners and a new Chair. He and his party will have the ability to reshape securities law and regulation. As this was unanticipated, there was little discussion before the election as to what it would mean for securities law and regulation. We believe the following seven issues are likely to be part of the discussion in the weeks and months ahead. 1.Dodd-Frank-Act-Volcker Rule The Volcker Rule, a 900-plus-page rule adopted in December 2013, was intended to limit proprietary trading by banks. Championed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the rule was a last-minute addition to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. For years, it stalled as regulators and commentators tried to distinguish between speculation (deemed bad) from investment (deemed good). Few believe that the regulators were successful in properly drawing this distinction. Making the rule more susceptible to criticism, many experts have determined the rule "would have done nothing to mitigate the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression." 2.Delegated Authority for Enforcement The SEC delegated authority to the Director of Enforcement to open formal orders of investigation of persons and entities. The Director of Enforcement then took the unprecedented step of sub-delegating authority to Regional Directors, Associate Directors, and Specialized Unit Chiefs. The delegation supports Chair White's "broken windows" approach by which deficiencies and misconduct of every size and nature are addressed. This approach has resulted in a record number of enforcement proceedings. However, many commentators have raised concerns about the ease with which proceedings can be brought and subpoenas issued and whether enforcement is now less effective because it is uncoordinated. If the new administration wishes to end the delegation, it can appoint SEC Commissioners and a Chair that will withdraw the delegation with an order not subject to the lengthy formal rule making process. 3.Fiduciary Rule The Department of Labor finalized the so-called "Fiduciary Rule" in April 2016 and announced it would go into effect in April 2017.According to the DOL, investors lose billions of dollars in fees each year because their advisors are not acting in their best interests. The goal of the Fiduciary Rule, therefore, is to "stop advisers from putting their own interests in earning high commissions and fees over clients' interests in obtaining the best investments at the lowest prices."However, the net effect of the rule is unclear. Among the potential negative effects of the rule are investors losing access to competent advice, skyrocketing costs for affected accounts, decreases of 25 to 50% in annuities sales, and unnecessary corporate restructuring. 4.Consolidated Audit Trail The SEC and CFTC attempted to trace the root cause of the Flash Crash, it became abundantly clear that the financial market regulators were ill-equipped to police modern markets. Out of this realization came the idea for the Consolidated Audit Trail (the "CAT"). CAT is conceptualized as a market-wide system that tracks equity and option trades. It would help in both investigations and monitoring. Proving manipulation and fraud, as well as identifying systemic risk, should become easier with CAT in place. However, despite years of work, "a fully baked, centralized trail is still years away." 5.Pay Ratio Disclosure The Dodd-Frank Act instructed the SEC to adopt a rule requiring each publicly traded company to disclose "the ratio of the compensation of its chief executive officer (CEO) to the median compensation of its employees." The ratio would appear in registration statements, proxy and information statements, and annual reports that call for executive compensation disclosure. This seemingly simple calculation may "actually entail herculean bookkeeping for large, diverse companies." 6.Polotical Contributions Disclosure A group of college professors argued that the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling necessitated an SEC rule requiring public companies to disclose their political expenditures. The SEC received more than 1 million public comments - a record. Yet, the SEC did not act. Senator Elizabeth Warren, less than a month before the recent election, openly urged President Obama to remove SEC Chair Mary Jo White for refusing "to develop a political spending disclosure rule despite her clear authority to do so." This was perhaps a bit unfair. Not only was the SEC restricted by law from working on the rule at that time, but the rule has faced tremendous opposition. Business groups and Republicans have long argued that "a company's political contributions are not related to its financial performance and that the disclosures are unnecessary." A Republican Congress or appointments to the SEC may find 2017 is an ideal time to revisit this issue. 7.Liquidity Risk Management The SEC announced that it had finalized a rule that would require open-ended investment companies to develop liquidity risk management programs and make additional disclosures related to liquidity. The rule, among other things, requires an investment company's board of directors to adopt a formal plan for managing liquidity risk and make disclosures classifying fund investments into one of four categories according to liquidity. In a letter to the SEC supporting the rule, Senator Sherrod Brown cited several sources for the proposition that the fund industry was growing and offering investments in less-liquid assets. Tellingly, Senator Brown cited widely-available public sources such as Barron's and Bloomberg articles. If the public has access to multiple news stories about liquidity risk, risk disclosures in regulatory filings, and lists of fund holdings online, it is fair to ask whether the rule carries a benefit to investors along with its cost. If the determination is made the costs of this rule substantially outweigh the benefits, then the SEC may engage in a formal rule making process to repeal the rule. By PTI: From K J M Varma Beijing, Dec 21 (PTI) Indias move to charge sheet Masood Azhar in the Pathankot terror attack appears to have not made much impact on China as Beijing today said any move by New Delhi to bring about a UN ban on the JeM chief must be in line with rules and procedures laid down by the Security Council. advertisement "On the question of listing in the 1267 Committee, I have expressed the Chinese position many times," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told PTI in response to a question on NIA listing Azhar, the head of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad, as terrorist in the charge sheet on the attack on an air force base in Pathankot in January this year. "Listing in the 1267 Committee must be in line with the relevant resolutions of the UNSC and the rules of procedure of the Committee," Hua said in a written reply here. NIA on Monday filed a charge sheet against Azhar, his brother and two others for hatching the conspiracy of the attack that killed seven personnel and injured 37 others. Huas reply came as Chinas second technical hold in the UN blocking Indias move to list Azhar as a terrorist under the 1267 committee rules of the UNSC is set to expire towards the end of this month. On March 31, China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, had blocked Indias move to impose a ban on Azhar under the Sanctions Committee of the Council. China was the only member in the 15-nation UN body to put a hold on Indias application with all other 14 members of the Council supporting New Delhis bid to place Azhar on the 1267 sanctions list that would subject him to an assets freeze and travel ban. Officials here say that India may have to apply again to the 1267 committee with the charge sheet details to press for its case as its present application will lapse following Beijings two technical holds. The two countries have been holding talks on Chinas blocking Azhars case as well as Indias application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The talks appears to have not made much headway as China on December 12 said there is no change in both the cases. "As for India?s application for Nuclear Suppliers Group and listing issue pursuant to resolution of 1267 (to list Azhar as terrorist) Chinas position remains unchanged," another Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang had said. His assertion that Chinas stand remained unchanged in both NSG and Azhars cases was made while answering a question on Foreign Secretary S Jaishankars remarks last week at India-China think tank forum in New Delhi thatChina should not give a political colour to New Delhis efforts to access civilian nuclear technology, in reference to Beijings opposition to its NSG bid. advertisement Jaishankar had also expressed dismay over the two countries not being able to come together on the issue at critical international forums, a reference to China blocking the ban in the UN on Azhar. PTI KJV ZH --- ENDS --- The tourism sector will host the 10 millionth foreign visitor to Vietnam at the Phu Quoc international airport in the southern coastal province of Kien Giang on December 25. The same day, a ceremony will take place to round off the 2016 National Tourism Year, which was designated to draw visitors to Phu Quoc island and the Mekong Delta region. Experts said the tourism year is a key move in turning Kien Giang into a tourism hub in the Mekong Delta region with Phu Quoc island as a leading resort destination of Vietnam. In 2016, more than 5.4 million tourists visited Kien Giang, increasing 24 percent year on year and exceeding the yearly quota by 9.5 percent. Of the figure, international arrivals grew 31.4 percent annually, 14 percent higher than initial plan. According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the country expects to welcome over 10 million international arrivals and serve more than 62 million domestic travelers this year, with total revenue estimated at 400 trillion VND (18 billion USD). On January 1, 2017, Vietnam will begin issuing e-visa for foreign tourists. As such, the tourism sector has set goals of 11.5 million foreign visitors and revenue of 460 trillion VND (20.24 billion USD) in 2017. French police officers patrol past shoppers at a Christmas market on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris on Dec 20, 2016 as part of security measures in the aftermath of an attack in Berlin. (Photo: AFP/Christophe Archambault) "We have a high level of threat and we also have a particularly high level of mobilisation and vigilance," Hollande said, expressing his "solidarity and compassion" with Germany. France, which has been rocked by a series of deadly militant strikes over the past two years, "knows ... how important it is to be united" in the face of terror attacks, he said. "That goes for a single country when it is attacked and for all of Europe and the entire world, faced with the terrorist threat," he said. Hollande said French authorities had already ordered that security be beefed up over the holidays "at all locations as far as possible, in particular Christmas markets and other gatherings." Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux earlier urged the French to "enjoy themselves" but also be careful when celebrating Christmas and the New Year. "We will ensure the security of our territory and citizens," Le Roux, who visited France's best-known Christmas market in the eastern city of Strasbourg, near the German border, told Europe 1 radio. Soldiers have been patrolling the streets of French cities since last year's November militant bloodshed in Paris. Last month, French police broke up a terror ring which was allegedly planning to attack Paris on Dec 1 and had researched a Christmas market on the prestigious Champs-Elysees avenue among its potential targets. Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park granted investment licences to nine projects worth a total of US$200 million in 2016, bringing the number of licensed projects up to 78 worth $3 billion combined.-Photo viettimes.net.vn These figures were released at a conference held yesterday in Ha Noi to call for more investment in the park. In his speech at the event, Vice chairman of Ha Noi Peoples Committee Nguyen Doan Toan said the capital city is shifting its industrial structure toward giving priority to developing hi-tech industries. He vowed that local authorities will better facilitate investors--including those investing in Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park. In order to attract more investment, Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh suggested Hoa Lacs management board perfect infrastructure facilities within the park, improving quality of human resource and quickly solving difficulties investors encounter in implementing their projects. Organising investment promotion conferences to advertise investment climate to domestic and foreign businesses should be a main priority, he said. The park, approved in 1998, is the first and the largest hi-tech facility in Viet Nam, with total area of 1,586 ha. It is expected to become a model science space and a national hub for technology development and application. Core hi-tech fields developing in the park include information technology, communication, electronics, biology, new materials and energies. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc recently approved updated plans for the park, to be completed by 2030 in Ha Nois outlying districts of Thach That and Quoc Oai, vietnamplus.vn reported. Under the updated plan, there will be an education and training zone for universities and vocational training schools covering an area of over 123ha. A research and development zone spanning an area of over 263 ha will house R&D institutions or those to train, attract and support hi-tech experts. The zone is forecast to bridge academic studies and practical applications. A software zone of almost 56ha will serve software producers and software service providers. The plant, with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes per annum, would be established through a yet-to-be-incorporated subsidiary. "Tata Coffee has made steady progress in growing its freeze-dried instant coffee business, which is now about 20 per cent of our overall instant coffee portfolio. Vietnam is considered an attractive business environment besides being the largest Robusta coffee growing region. The plant will help us further expand our global footprint," said Sanjiv Sarin, the company's managing director. Established in 1922, Tata Coffee is the largest integrated coffee plantation company in the world. Tata Coffee grows coffee on its own estates, processes the beans, exports green coffee, manufactures and exports instant coffee, and retails coffee with its own branding in the domestic market. Vietnam is a major coffee exporter in the world. According to statistics published by the General Department of Vietnam Customs, in ten months of this year, Vietnam exported 1.52 million tonnes of coffee worth $2.76 billion, up 39.8 per cent in quantity and 25.3 per cent in value, respectively. Vietnam has been recognised as an attractive investment destination with a number of coffee brands, such as Highlands, Trung Nguyen, and Vinacafe. The shipment arrived a month ahead of schedule. The purchase of eight RTGC for SGP was signed between Doosan Vina and SGP on March 4, 2016. Each of the cranes weighs 155 tonnes, is 29 metres high, 27.6 metres long, and 5.6 metres wide. They are designed to load 40-tonne cargo containers onto trucks for transit to customers or to move containers around the port. These eight cranes raise the total number of Made in Vietnam cargo container cranes to 65. The cranes are expected to arrive in Dammam City, after three weeks of transit. Dammam City is a key gateway to the Arabian Gulf, a major economic and commercial hub of the SGP system. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street in London. (AFP/BEN STANSALL) Appearing before a parliamentary committee, May said companies and government might require time to adjust, in her first comments explicitly evoking a possible transition arrangement to ease Britain's EU departure. "I would expect us to be able to negotiate a deal in the two-year period. But it may be the case that there may be some practical aspects that require a period of implementation thereafter," she said. Finance Minister Philip Hammond has said such a deal could be "helpful" to "manage the adjustment between where we are now, as full members of the European Union, and where we get to in the future". It "would tend towards a smoother transition and would run less risks of disruption including, crucially, risks to financial stability which must be a fairly real concern", he said last week. Speaking at a summit of the Confederation of British Industry in November, May had alluded to a transition deal saying: "We don't want a cliff-edge". CBI president Paul Drechsler at the same conference said: "Businesses are inevitably considering the cliff-edge scenario - a sudden and overnight transformation in trading conditions. "If this happens, firms could find themselves stranded in a regulatory no man's land," he said. BREXIT SPEECH NEXT MONTH Grilled by MPs on Tuesday about the timing of the exit deal and the new trade arrangements with the EU, May said: "I am working on the basis that we will look to negotiate those in parallel. I think that is what makes sense. The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier earlier this month said the deal on Britain's departure should be brokered by October 2018 to allow for ratification times on the EU side. He also said the EU "needs to know" the full details of Britain's plans for its long-term relationship with the EU before any interim deal was possible. "As we don't know what the UK wants and is waiting for, it's difficult to imagine a transitional period," he said. May also on Tuesday dismissed questions about whether the British parliament would be allowed to vote on the final Brexit deal that is negotiated, saying only it would be given time to discuss the issues. She said she would give a speech on Brexit next month with more details of the government's plans and planned to stick to the timetable of beginning the formal procedure for Brexit by March at the latest. "We will meet that timetable," she said. Britain's Supreme Court is set to rule in January on whether parliament's approval is required for May to trigger the Article 50 exit process, which gives a two-year timetable for negotiating a deal unless both Britain and the EU agree to an extension. One of the highest-calibre investors hails from Europe. Nguyen Van Le, general director of SHB, told Vnexpress that ever since SHB published establishing SHB Finance, numerous foreign investors from Europe, the US, and Japan proposed to buy shares. SHB is considering choosing a European firm as strategic investor. We have specific criteria on choosing a strategic investor. Notably, along the necessary financial potential, candidates must have knowledge and experience in the retail sector and must have achieved successes in countries of a similar character as the Asian market, Le added. Some days ago, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) officially approved the merger of VVF into SHB. The merger is expected to be completed early next year. Accordingly, SHB will take over all the assets and liabilities of VVF. Within 45 working days of the decision taking effect (January 12, 2017), SHB must complete procedures for business registration and disclose information as required by the prevailing rules. VVF is required to hand over all of its assets and liabilities to SHB and return its establishment and operation licenses to the SBV. SHB Finance will have a chartered capital of VND1 trillion ($43.99 million). According to the plan, at the beginning, SHB Finance will provide consumer credit services for customers with an income between VND150-200 million ($6,599-8,799) per year. In the mid- and long-term, the company will expand services to customers with stable, but less than VND150 million ($6,599) income. According to the SBV, 16 financial companies have been operating in Vietnam at the end of last year. Increasing mergers and acquisitions deals are expected to support the consumer finance market, which holds huge growth potential. Hoang Thu Thao The pageant attracted 55 participants from 55 countries. Thao said she was disappointed for not winning more awards at the competition, yet being among the top 10 was an achievement for her and she would engage in more art activities to affirm herself following the competition. Thao also participated in Miss Asia Pacific 2016 held in the Philippines in November where she did not win any award. She was then sent to participate at the Miss Tourism International 2016 in China by the Department of Performing Arts. Thao was born in 1994, graduated from Viet Nam Maritime University and is 1m72. By PTI: Kochi, Dec 21 (PTI) Five students from Ernakulams Maharajas college, who were arrested for allegedly carrying out graffiti work on the college walls, have been remanded to judicial custody, police said today. The students were produced before a magistrate court here yesterday and remanded to judicial custody, they said. The arrest of the students has created a political storm with Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Ramesh Chennithala, accusing the police under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan-led government of adopting a "brutal fascist policy" to silence the voices of students, artists and writers. advertisement The arrests were made based on a complaint by College principal, in which she had alleged that the students through their alleged graffiti work caused destruction to the public property, police said. All those who protested against the arrests including Chennithala, students and activists had alleged that action was taken against the students for simple wall writing of poems by eminent Malayalam poets. "The police controlled by Vijayan is implementing the agenda of the BJP," Chennithala said in a release. PTI TGB ROH --- ENDS --- The decree will make sure less buyers get their fingers burnt Among the big projects to be launched is An Khanh New City Developments sale of its first phase this quarter. The mega $2 billion project is developed by South Koreas Posco E&C and Vietnams Vinaconex, located in Hanois Hoai Duc district, along the Thang Long Boulevard. Scheduled for completion in 2013, the city is expected to supply 6,440 apartments, equivalent to 392,319 square metres of accommodation, enough for 30,000 people. Even though Hoa Phat Group, the investor in a more than 1,000 apartment Mandarin Garden in Cau Giay districts Tran Duy Hung road, refused to release its launching time, real estate experts predicted the project would be soon launched. At the beginning of this month the CT7D, located in Le Van Luong street and invested by Nam Cuong Group and the FLC Landmark Tower of FLC Group will also be launched, with a total of 200 units and prices ranging from VND23 million ($1,200) to VND28 million ($1,470) per square metre. In Gia Lam district, over the Red River, the second lot of Rung Co Residentials belonging to the Eco Park is also being launched, with around 1,500 apartment units. In addition, Victoria Van Phu, Star City, Diamond Tower and Song Da City View will also add apartments to the mix. Real estate consultant CBRE Vietnam expected that there would be 3,000 units in Hanoi launched this quarter, compared to 1,950 units in the third quarter. There were more than 4,600 units launched in the second quarter. This decline, according to CBRE Vietnam, could be due to the Decree 71, effective on August 8, 2010 providing guidance on the Housing Law, which caps the proportion of units sold via capital contribution contracts at 20 per cent with the remaining 80 per cent sold on transaction floors. This decree, CBRE Vietnam said, had put a pressure on developers with low financial capabilities and enhanced market transparency. However, CBRE Vietnam executive director Richard Leech said new project launches would continue trending towards more affordable options. With the opening and improvement of major infrastructure routes, the capitals western and southern districts are attracting new residents with easier access for commuting into the core urban districts, Leech said. He said that the Decree 71 was expected to benefit the market by enhancing transparency, placing pressures on developers with low financial capabilities, lessening the threat of price bubbles and limiting speculative forces. Tran Nhu Trung, Savills Vietnam associate director, said the Decree 71 had showed off its advantages to clearly regulate five types of mobilising capital investment. However, Trung said the procedures to implement Decree 71 were still complicated and wasted customers time and energy. The more simple it [decree] regulates, the more it is practical in the real life, Trung said. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. German investigators are looking for the perpetrators of the truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people on Monday. The police have released a Pakistani national, their only suspect in the attack, saying they did not have enough evidence to charge him with a crime. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted by the group's media outlet Amaq. Zlatica Hoke reports. Myanmar's economy is slowly emerging from the crippling affects of decades of military rule, where a poorly-managed resources industry dominated much of the countrys trade. The Aung San Suu Kyi-led government is encouraging investment in job-creating export industries, with a strong focus on manufacturing. Boosted by President Barack Obamas recent removal of executive sanctions on Myanmar, the countrys garment industry is on the rise. Daniel de Carteret reports for VOA from Yangon, Myanmar. In many parts of the U.S., local groups are teaching undocumented immigrants their rights in the event they are detained by law enforcement, a mission that has become more urgent in the face of President-elect Donald Trump's promises to be tough on immigration. VOA's Aline Barros and Cristina Smit went to a workshop in Hyattsville, Maryland, near Washington, that teaches immigrants their rights. Travellers in India will now enjoy their first cruising experience, from Mumbai to Maldives. By India Today Web Desk: If you are choosing Maldives as your next holiday destination, this news might be music to your ears, dear travellers. Luxury cruise, Costa neoClassica, will finally commence its weekly sailings from Mumbai to Maldives this December. Travellers for the first time will embark on a cruise right from an Indian coast. The weekly sailings will last till March 18, 2017. advertisement Also Read:White Winter: These 5 destinations in India will take you on a snowy ride This maiden service is aimed at providing people the opportunity to explore fascinating destinations and get acquainted with new cultures and experiences, within the comfort and luxury of a cruise. In this seven-night itinerary named "Colours of India, between Yin and Yang", the ship will sail from Mumbai, along the south-western coast of India and also halt at Cochin and Managalore before arriving at Maldives. It will cross Colombo and Goa on its way back to Mumbai. Guests on board will also have the privilege of taking a tour around these leisurely stops during their journey. This cruise liner, refurbished in 2001, has a capacity of 1,700 passengers, with around 654 cabins including those with sea-view and suites with private balconies. It promises to offer travellers on board amenities that assure the highest level of comfort. Facilities include a casino, ballroom, theater, discotheque, bar, as well as a wellness center fitted with treatment and sauna rooms and four Jacuzzis. Guests will also have access to two swimming pools, gym and a host of dining options. --- ENDS --- A spokesman for the Afghan Taliban says the group is ready for peace talks with the United States, if their demands are met. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said earlier this week that their two conditions for peace talks are the removal of the group leader's name from the U.N. blacklist and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan. However, the Afghan government rejected the group's demands - an indication of the depth of the rift between the two sides in Afghanistan's protracted conflict. Haroon Chakhansuri, spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, said only the Afghan government has the authority to request listing or de-listing Afghan citizens from the U.N. sanctions lists, including members of the Taliban. Taliban gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed the house of an Afghan lawmaker in Kabul, killing at least five people, according to local media and insurgent sources. The assailants are reported to have taken an unspecified number of people hostage and the siege continues. Afghan Special Forces have reached the site and engaged the militants, sparking an intense gunfight. The residence belongs to Malim Mer Wali, a member parliament from the southern Helmand province. An Afghan security source confirmed to VOA the attackers have "possibly" taken hostages, including family members of Mer Wali and several guests who were at his house at the time. The fate of the lawmaker is unclear, though local media reports say he was present inside the house but managed to escape. A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, instantly claimed responsibility, saying the suicide assault was staged when important guests, including key security commanders from Helmand, had gathered in the house. Twenty-five years ago, the Soviet Union's formal dissolution marked communism's collapse in Europe and a new era of democracy, Western-style liberalism and economic growth across the region once divided by the so-called Iron Curtain. The Soviet flag was lowered at the Kremlin for the last time on December 26, 1991, symbolizing the end of communist domination in a region that had two years earlier shaken off totalitarian governments that had been made in the image of Moscow. Todays Europe has a markedly different face. The fall of the Wall showed us that dreams can come true. Nothing has to stay as it is, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a ceremony in 2014 marking the anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall. Nations emerging from Soviet domination were eager to shed Communist totalitarian systems and integrate into western Europe and benefit from the prosperity and access to consumer goods brought by free-market systems. Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic carried out aggressive privatization campaigns and political reforms, enabling them to gain entry into the European Union and NATO. A lot of those East European countries wanted to go West to modernity, to democracy, to liberalism, and prosperity, said Alex Pravda, a Russian and East European studies professor at the University of Oxford. Happened too quickly? But Pravda, like others, wonders whether the process may have happened too quickly and notes that Soviet-era problems like corruption persist in some countries. Western Europe has a belt of unstable, authoritarian, security first-minded East European states, the remnants of the old Soviet empire, he said. Bulgaria rates as the most corrupt nation in the EU, according to Transparency International, and there are questions about Polands commitment to freedom of the press. Freedom House, a U.S.-based group that advocates free institutions, in a recent report said Polands ruling Law and Justice Party sparked domestic and international concern when it used its new parliamentary majority to pass a law in December that shifts control of public media from the regulatory body to the Treasury Ministry. The passage led to the immediate resignation of senior public media officials, the report said. But Polands leadership enjoys high popularity ratings as the countrys economy booms and, at one trillion dollars, makes Poland a major player in the European Union. Poles overwhelmingly voted for the Law and Justice Party, with many agreeing with its strong stance on immigration and its leaders' assertive attitude toward the European Union, which many in Poland commonly compare to the top-down approach of the Soviets. Brussels is the new Moscow, is a jest often heard in Warsaw and Budapest. Immigration stress In Hungary, the government of President Viktor Orban saw its popularity jump when it ordered construction of a razor-wire fence to keep out migrants and refugees in symbolic defiance of the European Unions calls for Hungary, along with other EU members, to accept migrant quotas. Unlike Germany and other nations of western Europe, which for decades have accepted workers from Turkey and elsewhere, or that have drawn newcomers from former colonies around the world, countries in eastern Europe were long sealed off to immigration and are largely homogenous. The push for them to accept migrants has been socially and politically jarring. While its former allies were adjusting to western Europe's ways, Russia, reeling from the collapse of an authoritarian system that had governed for seven decades, in the 1990s concentrated on stabilizing itself, and not on setting foreign policy. It was then, analysts say, that Europe had a chance to push through even bigger reforms than the ones that were carried out. But they put the blame largely on western Europes failure to push for deeper reforms when it had a chance to do so. The last 25 years in Europe have been specifically a time when the European Union had a chance, without outside threats and outside pressure, to move the EU's agenda forward, said Gregory Weeks, a political analyst in Vienna. Some people would say it is a missed opportunity because now we have immigration at the border, we have Russians rising again, becoming more active in international politics and putting pressure on the EU, he said. Even almost 100 years after his death, the name Harry Houdini is synonymous with escapology, but less is known about his first great escape how he left his Hungarian home as a child for a new life in the United States. The House of Houdini, a museum in Budapest's historic Castle district, seeks to shed light on the illusionist's roots with a display of memorabilia and a research team tracking down documents about his life. "He was, of course, the greatest escape artist history ever had ... but I believe his secret lies from deep inside from his Hungarian roots, when as a poor Jewish family they escaped Hungary," museum founder David Merlini said. "That was maybe his first escape: to America, in the hope of a better life." For Merlini, 38, himself a Hungarian escape artist who advised actor Adrien Brody about Houdini for a mini-series in 2014, Houdini has been a major inspiration. Merlini opened the museum this year as a tribute to the artist who was born in Budapest as Erik Weisz into a Jewish family in 1874. He left with his family for the United States in 1878 and became an American citizen. When he became a magician, Houdini started to call himself Harry Houdini after the French magician Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. He went on to become the most famous escape artist of his day, captivating massive audiences with his daring escapes. He died in 1926 from a ruptured appendix. "We are all a little bit Houdinis because everybody has a secret dream that is just waiting to be fulfilled," Merlini said. The museum displays Houdini's handcuffs and other artifacts, many photographs about his life and performances, and also a Bible from 1883, which belonged to his family. "We grew up hearing stories of Houdini and his escaping," said David Orenstein, a tourist from Israel. Six magicians take turns entertaining visitors in a small theater within the museum. Cameroon says it has intercepted more than 670 kilograms of African pangolin that authorities say were being smuggled from the Central African country to Malaysia. The pangolin is the worlds most trafficked mammal, and conservationist groups are calling for severe sanctions on the three traffickers who have been arrested. Cameroon customs lieutenant, Wara Wara Francois Noel, of the Yaounde-Nsimalen international airport told VOA the recovered pangolin scales were found in several meat packets. He said the three smugglers had bribed their way into the airport, but authorities were mobilized after getting a tip from wildlife officials. He says two weeks after the tip, his staff finally intercepted the truck loaded with pangolins at the plane bound for Malaysia. He says although it was the first large-scale interception of the protected mammal at the Yaounde-Nsimalen international airport, authorities say the have been regularly seizing three to five kilograms of scales and meat of the pangolins hidden in little containers. Six months ago, Hong Kong authorities announced a massive seizure of four tons of pangolin scales that had arrived from Cameroon and were being smuggled to Asian countries. Among the organizations assisting officials in this ongoing case is the local NGO, the Last Great Ape Association, or LAGA. Its deputy director Eric Kaba Tah says traffickers have often able to buy their way around sanctions when caught in Cameroon. "According to the 1994 wildlife law, anybody arrested or found in possession of parts or whole of a protected wildlife species is presumed to have captured or killed that animal and is liable to a prison term of one to three years and or a 10 million CFA [$20,000] maximum fine," said Tah. "If the law were applied as it was supposed to be applied, we would have been seeing many wildlife criminals behind the bars." Some cultures consider pangolin meat a delicacy and use pangolin scales in traditional medicine. High demand has fueled an international criminal trade that has severely threatened the survival of the worlds eight pangolin species. It is estimated that more than a million pangolins have been snatched from the wild in the past decade. In September, the worlds largest wildlife protection convention, known as CITES, recommended a complete ban on international commercial trade. China has been engulfed in the worst smog of the year for the past few days and more than 70 cities have declared either red or orange alerts for air pollution. The poor air quality has prompted the government to order factories shut down, restrict driving and close schools in worst-hit cities - including the capital city of Beijing. The restrictive measures, which went into effect as early as last Friday, wont be lifted until Thursday when stronger winds are expected to help disperse the pollutants. While some in China agree unfavorable weather may have triggered the six-day smog cloud, many more are asking: has the government done enough to tackle the nations air pollution problem? Worlds worst haze As of late Wednesday, Beijing remained the worlds worst polluted city with an air quality index (AQI) of 434, according to AirVisual a real-time air quality monitor. Some studies have shown that breathing that much pollution on any given day may reduce ones life span by about eight hours. Dhaka, Bangladesh followed at 238 and Indias Kolkata at 235 while Chengdu in China's Sichuan province and Guangzhu, in Guangdong province made AirVisuals list of top ten worst polluted cities in the world with respective AQI's of 211 and 156. Overall, the sky across China has been in dark red on AirVisual Earths world pollution map for days as opposed to healthy green indicators flashing in neighboring countries. Right now, the weather has a big impact on the air quality in China. So, you see, theres a big indigo color all over China. Thats going to disappear tomorrow [Thursday], but right now, this is something that is pretty bad, Yann Boquillod, founder of AirVisual, told VOA, adding the AQI in China has averaged above 300 in the past few days. Many Beijingers have complained that heavy smog has reduced local visibility to less than 50 meters. Such poor visibility has led to the cancellation or delay of hundreds of flights, and the stalled the delivery of up to 50 million parcels, according to local media. Rising health risk The awful state of air pollution in China has worried many health-conscious citizens. On Weibo, Chinas Twitter-like social media, a user named Chang-rui wrote [Lets expect] the outbreak of lung cancers in 10 years. In response to his comments, others were even more pessimistic. One user said It wont take that long. In three to five years, Id say. Another user added Ive taken out the critical illness insurance while one shared that My best friend, who went to college in Shijiazhuang [the capital of Hebei province], has already been diagnosed with leukemia and returned home in Chongqing for treatment. Many more Weibo users questioned if the government has shown enough teeth in enforcing its bans as some wrote the nations [pollution control] laws and regulation as well as the enforcement hasnt been in the right place. For example, the city of Shijiazhuang still sent pupils to school even as its smog readings have gone off the scale from time to time, local media reported. State media Xinhua also cited an official in Henan province as suspecting that nearly 4,000 factories in the province haven't stopped or limited their production since the records of their power consumption have shown little change. The Ministry of Environmental Protection said Monday that it only found a small number of business that hadnt taken the bans seriously and continued their operation. But more than 100,000 drivers in Beijing had been given fines for having violated the traffic bans, the ministrys press statement added, with no updates. Insufficient awareness The fact that so many people in China were still taking their chances during the worst smog crisis indicated the need to enhance the general publics awareness of air pollution, said Ma Yongliang, professor of Tsinghua Universitys school of environment. The professor, however, deemed the governments restrictive measures a short-term cure that wont put an end to the nations pollution problems. In the long run, the pollution problem can only be eased by adjusting the countrys industrial structure, or accelerating the upgrading of [polluting] industries so as to cut down the emission sources of pollutants, Ma said. Overall, the professor lauded the governments efforts, which he said have paid off as China, on a national level, has seen improvements in cutting carbon-dioxide emissions in recent years after it kick-started an action plan in 2013. But the increased use of coal in winter for heating homes, especially in rural areas, could pose a bigger headache for the government to tackle when the pollution deteriorates in winter, the professor warned. That, he added, will be another pressing issue as the government hasnt been able to find a cleaner alternative energy. Beijing has extended its clampdown on the activities of 7,000 international nonprofit groups in China, its latest effort aimed at curbing foreign influences in the country. Expanding on a law passed in April, Beijing published a list of activities the foreign groups will be allowed to conduct and gave the groups days to register with police and submit to government supervision before the controls take effect January 1. Many of the estimated 200 permitted activities are non-controversial, such as work in water conservation, disaster response and vocational training. But the restrictions also cover issues such as legal services, gender equality, disability rights and the rule of law. Government wants control Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged a tough campaign against foreign influences in the country, especially activities that might undermine the Beijing government, such as those promoting universal human rights. Taisu Zhang, a Yale University law professor and an expert on the Chinese law covering the international nonprofits, told VOA the list of allowable activities the Chinese government published Tuesday by the Ministry of Public Security indicates an increased seriousness on behalf of the government to signal the foreign non-government organizations to step up their compliance with the rules. The government wants to control the messages that the foreign NGOs are sending out. He said, You could imagine some anti-communist human rights group now being affected by the rules that would limit its activities in China. Under the law, the international nonprofits must have a government sponsor to continue to operate inside China. Analysts say the effect of the restrictions won't be be fully known until Chinese police and other agencies start accepting, or rejecting, requests for sponsorship. Warning issued to Americans Groups working in legal services could be especially vulnerable under the law, which authorities say was necessary to control the unregulated nonprofits and their activities. They must be sponsored and supervised by the Ministry of Justice, which legal-reform advocates say has been antagonistic to the nonprofits. Since mid-2015, Beijing authorities have jailed, detained or interrogated dozens of human rights lawyers, often accusing them of collaborating with foreign civil rights groups to promote democracy. A week ago, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing issued a warning that American citizens employed or associated with the nonprofits may face special scrutiny and/or penalties for noncompliance with the law after it goes into effect on New Year's Day. The U.S. and other governments have criticized the law as an attempt by Beijing to control civil society. Some of the nonprofits working in China had hoped that the sponsoring agencies under the law would be dominated by Chinese non-government groups, including think tanks and professional associations. But nearly all the approved supervisory agencies China listed are government-controlled. The possibility of a trade war between the United States and China loomed large over the horizon after the U.S. electoral college confirmed Donald Trump's presidency on Monday. China is expected to take a series of defensive and retaliatory measures to counter any U.S. moves to restrict the role of Chinese goods and currency movements in the American economy, as Trump has promised to do. "In the event of a trade war with the United States, Chinas response would go well beyond tariff increases," said Mark Williams, Chief Asia Economist for Capital Economics. "U.S. companies would find their products and operations in China subject to tighter regulation that hampered their capacity to do business there." "U.S. exports of cars and aircraft would be in the firing line," he said. China might also subject U.S. companies to tighter regulation that hampers their capacity to do business. Beijing may also encourage its exporters by offering tax rebates to overcome any reduction in export demand in the U.S., Williams said. In informal discussions, Chinese officials say there is a lot of uncertainty about how the new U.S. president will handle relations with China, and preparations are being made to deal with varied scenarios. WATCH: China Assesses Future Relations With US Under Trump Mixing politics and economy In the past, China has responded with trade restrictions on several countries for political reasons. For example, Norway for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to a dissident writer or giving a visa to Tibet's Dalai Lama. Trump's recent tweet questioning the One-China policy concerning Taiwan has already caused a stir in the Chinese Communist Party. Talking about investments by China's companies in the United States, Trump recently said, "They haven't played by the rules, and I know it is about time they are going to start". Some members of the U.S. Congress have also called for a review of the policies concerning Chinese investments. This elicited a strong response from Wang Jianlin, China's richest man, who acquired movie studios and other properties in the United States. He says restricting Chinese companies would hurt American jobs instead of helping the country. Wang said he has invested $10 billion and employs 20,000 people in the United States, who will have "nothing to eat" if restrictions are placed on Chinese businesses. During the election campaign, Trump also promised to declare China a currency manipulator. The Chinese yuan has considerably devalued, owing to market pressure. Analysts are divided on whether he would still go ahead with his threat after the recent devaluation. "I am sure that the U.S. under Trump will focus unrelentingly on the exchange rate," Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London. "It is a huge anomaly in the 21st century that the world's second biggest economy does not have a market set exchange rate ... In that sense, China is really a freeloader, in the eyes of its American opponents, and they will want to see a quick move to rebalance the Chinese currency, and do something about this anomaly". US business concerns More than 1,500 Chinese companies established operations employing 80,000 workers in the United States, according to the American Chamber of Commerce in China. U.S. businesses operating in China have their own fears of moves that cause instability to trade and investment relationships. "Isolating or penalizing China will not serve Americas interests, and only with engagement and commerce will the two largest economies of the world make progress to reach a consensus on contentious issues such as national and regional security, market access and industrial policies, internet censorship, cybersecurity, and terrorism," James Zimmerman, chairman of AmCham, China told VOA. "We do indeed recognize that talking tough is a lot easier than thinking tough and making tough decisions, which is what presidents actually have to do," he said adding, "The chamber has long supported maintaining stability in the region, and we expect the new U.S. administration to respect the status quo". Penalty corners Who suffers most in the case of a trade war? China would be the first to be hit, and more severely because the United States is a major market for Chinese goods. America buys three times more than what it sells to China. But Beijing can take solace in the fact that Trump would end up hurting the American consumer if he imposed a 45 percent duty on Chinese goods, as he has promised to do.The most important items in the Chinese export basket are mobile phones, tablets/laptops and network equipment. A higher tax on these goods would ultimately be paid by U.S. consumers, Williams of Capital Economics said. Williams does not see the incoming President slapping the 45 percent tax on Chinese goods as he had promised, but hostilities can break out anytime, he warns. A convicted Colorado robber who was sent back to prison after being mistakenly released decades before serving his 98-year sentence asked a judge Wednesday to set him free again, arguing it would be unfair for him to remain imprisoned after he started a family, got a steady job and reformed himself. Rene Lima-Marin, 38, was convicted in 2000 on multiple counts of robbery, kidnapping and burglary after he and another man robbed two suburban Denver video stores at gunpoint. A judge issued him back-to-back sentences for a total of 98 years. But a court clerk mistakenly wrote in Lima-Marin's file that the sentences were to run at the same time. Corrections officials depend on that file to determine how much time an inmate should serve. Lima-Marin was released on parole in 2008. He held a steady job as a window glazier, got married and had a son before authorities realized the mistake in January 2014, when a team of police officers returned him to prison to complete his sentence. First Assistant Attorney General James Quinn said the case was an unfortunate mistake but not official misconduct, as Lima-Marin's attorneys allege. Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. did not immediately decide whether Lima-Marin should be released, saying he needed time to do more legal research. He got the case after Colorado's highest court refused to free Lima-Marin earlier this year, saying he should ask a lower court to consider his release instead. Lima-Marin fought back tears as he told the judge he's experiencing severe emotional pain because of his separation from his wife, their son and her other son that he adopted. I'm supposed to be the head of the household, the person who's supposed to guide and lead them ... and I've been taken away from them, he said. I was stupid, and a dumb kid who made a mistake. But prosecutors said Lima-Marin should not be freed because he knew about the clerk's error and never notified authorities as he set about rebuilding his life. Russia mourned its slain ambassador to Turkey at a ceremony Thursday at the Foreign Ministry in Moscow. An off-duty police officer shot Ambassador Andrei Karlov on Monday in Ankara. Karlovs coffin was surrounded by wreaths and a military honor guard as seated family members looked on from the side and people approached to pay their respects. Among the dignitaries in attendance were President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the assassination was no doubt carried out by a member of the network of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. There is no need to make a secret out of the fact he was a member of FETO, Erdogan said at a news conference Wednesday, using Ankaras preferred acronym for Gulens group. Turkey claims Gulen link Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone call earlier this week that Turkey believes the killer is linked to Gulen, who lives in the United States and has also been blamed for Julys failed coup in Turkey. But Wednesdays news conference marked the first time the president had publicly made that claim. Gulen condemned the attack earlier this week, and the United States has rejected what it called absolutely ridiculous suggestions that it was involved in or supported the assassination because of Gulens presence in the U.S. Russia said earlier Wednesday it is too early to draw conclusions about the shooter. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday there should be no rush to conclusions before a joint investigation of the assassination is complete. Joint investigation State Department spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that Kerry raised concerns about some of the rhetoric coming out of Turkey in his call with Cavusoglu. We need to let the investigators do their job and we need to ... let the facts and the evidence take them where it is before we jump to conclusions, Kirby told reporters. But any notion that the United States was in any way supportive of this or behind this or even indirectly involved is absolutely ridiculous. Karlov was attending the opening of an art exhibition when the gunman shot him. A witness told VOA the shooter shouted: Dont forget Aleppo! Dont forget Syria! As long as our lands arent safe, you will not be safe! The shooter has been identified as 22-year-old Mevlut Mert Altintas. Captured on video By PTI: Kochi, Dec 21 (PTI) The Kerala High Court today dismissed writ pleas seeking a CBI probe into the sensational rape and murder of a Dalit woman in nearby Perumbavoor in April this year. Rejecting the pleas filed by father of the woman and her friends, Justice Sunil Thomas said there were no circumstances available in the case warranting a CBI probe. advertisement Meanwhile, the victims mother impleaded in the petition maintained her stand that the Special Investigation Team constituted by the state government was efficient and there was no need for a further probe. The SIT of Kerala Police has filed the charge sheet in a court here in the rape-cum-murder case. The charge sheet, submitted in the Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court, has named Ameerul Islam, a native of Assam who was arrested in June, as the lone accused in the case and charged him with offences, including rape and murder. PTI COR TGB RC SC KK --- ENDS --- Ethiopia said Wednesday it is releasing nearly 10,000 people detained under its ongoing state of emergency but plans to charge almost 2,500 others accused of destabilizing the country. Deputy government spokesman Zadig Abraha told The Associated Press that 9,800 people were being freed. "They have been given lots of trainings ... so that they won't be part of the destructive trend that we have seen in the past,'' Zadig said. This East African country declared the state of emergency in October after nearly a year of anti-government protests that human rights groups say left hundreds dead. It was some of the country's worst violence since Ethiopia's ruling party came to power in 1991. Rights groups have accused the government of using excessive force. Most of the detainees are from the restive Oromia and Amhara regions. The government has said that under the state of emergency, people detained could be sent to rehabilitation centers without charges. Zadig said Ethiopia has seen a "tremendous change in the peace and security'' under the state of emergency, which is expected to end in April. The government already has lifted a ban on diplomats traveling more than 40 kilometers (24 miles) outside the capital, Addis Ababa. Ethiopia, one of Africa's best-performing economies and a close security ally of the United States, was hit by a wave of protests beginning in November 2015 when ethnic Oromos protested against proposed land seizures to add to Addis Ababa city. Protesters said the plan was aimed at expanding the capital's administrative control into Oromia. The violence then spread to the Amhara region in the country's north and beyond, with people calling on the government to end arbitrary arrests, respect regional autonomy and respect rights enshrined in the constitution. Amid ongoing accusations that Russia attempted to influence and subvert the U.S. presidential election, Europe is bracing for a similar operation by Moscow before a series of elections. France, Germany and the Netherlands go to the polls in 2017, and analysts say Russia is already attempting to influence the outcomes, a charge Moscow denies. As the chief European architect of sanctions against Russia, analysts say German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the European leader Moscow would most like to see voted out of power. In a speech this month Merkel warned of the dangers of external attempts to hack the election, adding that German leaders must inform people, and express their political convictions clearly. The chancellor is running for a fourth term. But she does have an Achilles heel. Nearly a million migrants arrived in Germany in 2015 and analysts say Russia will likely use this to try whip-up anti-immigrant feeling. In January, a fake news story about a Russian-German girl named "Lisa" who had reportedly been raped by migrants prompted protests in Germany, and accusations of a cover-up from Moscow. The girl later admitted it was a lie. Russia will likely ramp up its efforts at disinformation before the election, says Center for European Reform analyst Ian Bond. They can target it both in France and in Germany. But because Angela Merkel herself has been so closely identified with the policy of admitting refugees and asylum seekers to Germany, it is, I think, an area of vulnerability for her, Bond says. Break-up of EU as goal The far right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party is rising in the polls. Mondays terror attack in Berlin could boost support, says Thorsten Benner of Berlins Global Public Policy Institute. Or if we have an unraveling of the refugee situation again with the EU-Turkey pact unraveling on refugees. That could also increase the pressure on Germany, Benner says. Across Europe, far right parties have sought close relationships with Moscow. Ian Bond says the populist parties share one goal, the break-up of the European Union. And from a Russian point of view if you can divide Europe, if you can then pick off individual states and make them feel more vulnerable or make them feel that they have to accommodate themselves to Russia, then that is a huge win. With Donald Trump taking over the U.S. presidency in January, Bond says European unity will be tested from all sides. Trump himself, like Putin, seems to share this preference for dealing with countries in Europe bilaterally rather than multilaterally. And so I think he is not going to shed many tears if in fact the EU is weakened as a result of Russian activity in European elections in the coming months Bond says. While Trump has said US NATO allies should pay more for defense, he has not suggested he wants to see the European Union weakened. European leaders hope that by sounding the alarm early, any attempts by Moscow to influence upcoming elections can be extinguished. But analysts warn Russias propaganda drive is already well underway. Argentina and Britain agreed on a framework to identify the bodies of dozens of unknown Argentine soldiers buried on the disputed Falkland Islands, Argentina's Foreign Ministry said in on Tuesday. The two countries, which went to war over the islands in 1982 and have had strained relations for decades, also agreed to try to increase the number of flights to the remote islands. Britain has been keen to improve relations with Argentina since pro-business President Mauricio Macri took over from Cristina Fernandez in December, although Argentina continues to claim sovereignty over the islands. Under the agreement signed by British Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan and Argentina's Vice Foreign Minister Pedro Delgado, forensic experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross will take DNA samples from the soldiers' bodies. They will then compare the DNA with that of consenting relatives, the statement said. There are 123 unknown soldiers buried in the Falkland Islands, though not all families of the deceased have given consent for DNA testing. More than 600 Argentines and 255 British servicemen were killed after Argentina seized the islands and Britain sent a task force to retake them, sparking the conflict. Both countries also agreed to consult with airport authorities in Brazil and Chile to link more flights to the islands, located about 435 miles off the coast of southern Argentina. The overwhelming majority of the islands' 3,000 inhabitants say they want the islands to remain a British overseas territory. Only one monthly flight reaches the Falkland Islands currently, departing from Chile with a stop in the Patagonian city of Rio Gallegos. Britain and Argentina agreed in September to work toward removing restrictions on the oil and gas, shipping and fishing industries around the islands. The final evacuations of rebels and civilians from the northern city of Aleppo have resumed after being delayed for one day. "The buses are now moving again from east Aleppo," a U.N. official in Syria told Reuters. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 60 buses were ready to evacuate 3,000 people from freezing temperatures in eastern Aleppo in what would be the final step of rebels leaving the part of Aleppo they seized four years ago. But the buses were held up due to a last-minute snag in the evacuation agreement. The complete evacuation of the rebel-held enclave will give full control of Aleppo to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a milestone in the nearly six-year old civil war. WATCH: Raw footage of Aleppo bus evacuations The evacuations are being conducted under an agreement negotiated by Russia and Turkey that also called for people to leave two villages in Idlib province that have been under rebel siege. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday more than 37,000 people had been evacuated from Aleppo, and the goal was to have all the remaining evacuations completed by Wednesday. After a meeting in Moscow among the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters the three nations used their influence to force the evacuation, suggesting they have become the main powerbrokers in Syria's conflict. The foreign ministers drafted a proposal that Russia said amounts to a blueprint for a cease-fire in Syria and potentially an end to the war. The urgency for Russia intensified after its ambassador to Turkey was assassinated Monday in Ankara by a man shouting "Don't forget Aleppo." Broad cease-fire sought The foreign ministers agreed to guarantee peace talks and to expand the cease-fire throughout Syria. But the broader cease-fire would exclude the militant groups Islamic State, the Fatah al-Sham Front and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which supports the Syrian government. "Iran, Russia and Turkey are ready to assist in preparing the agreement in the making between the Syrian government and the opposition and to become its guarantor," Lavrov said in a joint statement from the three countries. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel would consider bringing wounded refugees from Aleppo to Israeli hospitals for treatment. "I've asked the foreign ministry to seek ways to expand our medical assistance to the civilian causalities of the Syrian tragedy, specifically in Aleppo." Israel has treated many wounded in the Syrian civil war over the past three years, although Israel and Syria are formally in a state of war. More than 70 percent of the buildings in the western Aleppo countryside have been destroyed, and there is an acute shortage of food and medical supplies there too, according to opposition leaders and activists. U.N. monitors Meanwhile, the United Nations on Wednesday released its report into a deadly attack on an aid convoy. The inquiry found that the convoy had been attacked in an airstrike, but it could not conclude if it was a "deliberate" hit or who was responsible. The attack in September killed at least 10 people and injured 22 others at Urem al-Kubra near Aleppo. It also destroyed 17 aid trucks. The inquiry found that only aircraft belonging to the Syrian government, Russia and the U.S.-backed coalition were capable of the attack, not rebel forces. U.S. officials believe the Russians were responsible but Moscow has denied any involvement. Also Wednesday, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to set up a panel to investigate and gather evidence of possible war crimes in Syria. While human rights groups applauded the move, Syria and its main ally Russia denounced it. Syria's ambassador to the U.N., Bashar Jafaari, called it a "flagrant interference in the internal affairs of a U.N.-member state." An intense manhunt is underway in Germany and across much of Europe for the chief suspect in Monday's deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. Twelve people were killed and dozens were injured when a driver plowed a truck into a crowd of shoppers getting ready for the holiday. A German arrest warrant named the suspect as Anis Amri, 24, from Ghaza, Tunisia; he is about 1.78 meters (5 feet 10 inches) tall, of average weight, and has black hair and brown eyes. Media reports late Wednesday said police had raided two apartments in Berlin's Kreuzberg district in their hunt for Amri but came away empty-handed. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere would not confirm or deny media reports that Amri had been in touch with Islamic extremists. The Islamic State group has already claimed responsibility for the truck attack, which was similar to an assault carried out five months ago in Nice, France, that killed 86 people. Prosecutors offered a reward of over $100,000 for information leading to Amri's capture. A wanted notice said, "Beware: He could be violent and armed!" Police found Amri's identity papers in the wrecked truck; they named him as their chief suspect after learning that he had applied unsuccessfully for refugee status in Germany last year, and that he was facing deportation to Tunisia. Prosecutors said Amri had used several aliases since coming to Germany in 2013. Stephan Mayer, a lawmaker from the governing conservatives, said authorities had been keeping an eye on Amri for some time. In Tunisia, Amri's father said his son had left home for Europe seven years ago, and that he had spent time in detention in Italy before making his way to Germany. Even before Amri was announced at the chief suspect, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had said it would be especially distressing if the killer was a refugee or asylum seeker looking for protection in Germany. The truck, which was loaded with steel girders when it crashed through market stalls and mowed down shoppers on Monday, was stolen. Its Polish driver was found shot to death in the vehicle's cab. Before Amri emerged as the main suspect, police had detained a Pakistani man on suspicion of involvement in the attack, but he was later cleared and released. The market where this week's bloodbath took place, at the foot of the historic Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in central Berlin, remained closed Wednesday, but more than 60 other Christmas markets across Berlin were open, with tightened security precautions in effect. Security has also been boosted elsewhere in Germany, and in other European cities preparing for the Christmas and New Year holidays. Israel has informed the United States that Lebanese Hezbollah fighters in Syria are using U.S. armored personnel carriers originally supplied to the Lebanese Army, a senior Israeli military officer said on Wednesday. The U.S. State Department said last month that the American Embassy in Beirut was working to investigate images on social media purporting to show Hezbollah, which supports President Bashar al-Assad, displaying U.S. military equipment in Syria. Those images were widely reported to have been of U.S.-made M113 armored personnel carriers, which the State Department said were extremely common in the region. In an intelligence briefing to foreign reporters in Tel Aviv, the senior officer showed a photograph of military vehicles, which he said included U.S.-made armored personnel carriers (APCs), along a road. "These APCs are of the Hezbollah, while fighting in Syria, that they took from the Lebanese armed forces," he said in English, describing the guerrilla group as dominant in Lebanon. "We shared this information with other countries, including the U.S. of course, and I can even say that we recognized these specific APCs with some specific parameters that we know ... these were given to the Lebanese armed forces. It's not an assumption," said the officer, who under the rules of the briefing could not be identified by name, rank or position. Western diplomatic sources have said the APCs were delivered to the Lebanese Army by the United States as part of a program to equip that force. Western diplomatic sources have said the APCs were delivered to the Lebanese Army by the United States as part of a program to equip that force. The officer made no comment about when the APCs would have been supplied to the Lebanese Army. The officer said Hezbollah has 8,000 fighters in Syria where more than 1,700 of the group's combatants have been killed since 2011. Israel and Hezbollah, which the officer said has 30,000 members, half of them combatants, last fought a war in 2006. Among the casualties of Monday's truck attack in Berlin could be the political career of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Opponents, and some of her supporters, quickly blamed her controversial migrant policy for the incident. German police said the attack, which killed 12 people and injured many others at a crowded Christmas market, was deliberate, but as of Tuesday night they had yet to apprehend a suspect. A man detained earlier and described as a Pakistani asylum-seeker was released Tuesday after police determined he was not the suspect they wanted. "I know it would be especially hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that the person who committed this act was someone who sought protection and asylum in Germany," Merkel said Tuesday. "This would be especially despicable for the many, many Germans who day in, day out, are active working for refugees, as well as for those people who actually need our protection and who make an effort to integrate into our country," the German leader said, underscoring the dilemma that has deeply polarized her country since the start of the migrant crisis. Fourth term for Merkel? Merkel recently announced she plans to seek a fourth term when Germany holds national elections next year. On Tuesday, those prospects appeared to be in question. Merkels opponents and anti-Islam advocates swiftly blamed the German leader and what some describe as her open-door policy toward migrants entering the European Union In Germany alone, 890,000 people, most of them Muslims, applied for asylum last year. Terror in Berlin is not an isolated case and is directly related to Merkels asylum policy, the Alternative for Germany, a new far-right party whose popularity has risen sharply since the start of the migrant crisis, tweeted Tuesday. Merkel will have great problems, I think, to win the election in September in Germany, said Michael Sturzenberger, a controversial anti-immigration advocate in Munich who opposes immigration by Muslims to Germany. She is getting more and more problems because her policy is responsible for the terror and we will have more terror in Germany and in Europe and she does not want to change her policy, he said. The criticism from her known opponents was not a surprise to anyone, but the warnings from her supporters on Tuesday were largely unexpected. We owe it to the victims, to those affected and to the whole population to rethink our immigration and security policy and to change it, said Horst Seehofer, the leader of Bavaria's Christian Social Union, which is allied with Merkel's Christian Democrat Union, or CDU. Taking a harder stance Merkel has sought to temper criticism of her policy on migrants and taken measures recently to show she is against what many Germans consider to be the illiberal aspects of Islam, especially those regarding women. Merkel received loud applause from delegates at the CDU's annual conference earlier this month when she called for a ban on the burqa in schools and other public buildings. The full veil must be banned, wherever legally possible. Showing your face is part of our way of life, Merkel said. Our laws take precedence over honor codes, tribal customs and sharia." Last week, her defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, sparked anger in the Muslim world but praise at home by refusing to wear a veil while meeting with officials in Saudi Arabia. Merkels critics on the far-right call these empty gestures. These are little, little steps. She wants to tell the people, Yes, Im doing something, but shes not doing enough, said Sturzenberger. She is not able to protect our country from this real danger. Germany, like other parts of western Europe, was hit by a series of attacks in 2016. In July, an asylum-seeker from Afghanistan wounded five people on a train with an axe before he was shot dead. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility. Later that month, a German citizen of Iranian heritage shot and killed nine people in Munich before killing himself. Also in July, a Syrian man who had claimed asylum in Germany blew himself up outside a music festival in Ansbach and injured 15 people. A year ago, Germans were outraged when men who included refugees sexually assaulted hundreds of women during New Years celebrations in Cologne. Japan's supreme court has ruled in favor of the government's plan to relocate a U.S. Marine airbase on Okinawa, dealing a blow to opponents who want the base off the island. The Japanese and U.S. governments want the Futenma Air Base in the middle of a crowded city moved to a sparsely populated area for safety reasons. But many Okinawans want it relocated off the island altogether because of noise, crime and accidents linked to the U.S. base. The supreme court said Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga acted illegally when he revoked an October 2015 order by his predecessor, Hirokazu Nakaima, for landfill work that would clear the way for relocation of the base. The court made the decision without any hearings. Okinawa is strategically situated in the East China Sea from where U.S. troops and aircraft can react to potential conflicts throughout Asia. It has been a bastion of American military power since the end of World War II. I am deeply disappointed and concerned, Onaga told reporters after the ruling. Building the new base, which cannot gain support from local residents, is unacceptable, he said. Washington applauded the ruling. We welcome the decision by the Japanese supreme court, State Department spokesman John Kirby said. The United States and Japan remain committed ... to the plan to construct the Futenma replacement facility at the Camp Schwab-Henoko area and adjacent waters. The U.S. also announced Wednesday it is returning about 4,000 hectares of forest in Okinawa to Japan that had been used as a training area. The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said it was the largest such move in 30 years and would be celebrated at ceremonies Wednesday in Tokyo and Thursday in Okinawa. Next week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to engage in a now familiar diplomatic offensive to reconcile lingering resentment over his countrys wartime past when he visits the Pearl Harbor memorial in Hawaii. Japans surprise attack on the U.S. naval base in 1941 killed over 2,000 Americans and drew the United States into World War II. After alienating regional neighbors in 2013 by visiting the Yasukuni war shrine that honors millions of war dead, but also includes the names of over a thousand convicted war criminals, the conservative Japanese leader has taken a very proactive role to address concerns over his efforts to recast wartime history with a less apologetic tone, and to ease the limits of Japan's pacifist constitution. Hes done a good job in the last two years or so of really, I would say, keeping his mouth shut and not expressing his, what are probably his deeply held, views about recent regional history, particularly involving World War II. And thats what statesmen do, said Grant Newsham, a senior research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies in Tokyo. Revisionist Abe is a perceived nationalist who embraces a revisionist view of history that portrays Japan not as the imperialistic aggressor in World War II, but as a nation that tried to push back against U.S. and European domination of Asia. The counter narrative, one of revisionists, the one that is led by Abe, is that that is one sided and biased, and that Japan is the victim of victors justice and victors history, that unfairly impugns Japan and tarnishes its reputation, said Jeff Kingston, the director of Asian Studies at Temple University in Tokyo, during a recent seminar at the school. Comfort women Comments by Abe and his supporters that downplay or omit wartime atrocities committed by Japan have enraged China, where an estimated 20 million Chinese died fighting the Japanese in the 1930s and 1940s, and South Korea, which Japan ruled as a colony from 1910 to 1945. Regarding the estimated 200,000 Asian comfort women forced into sexual slavery by Japans military during its occupation of Asia and during World War II, the Japanese leader has used elusive language to express remorse without assuming responsibility for past abuse. Some Abe supporters caused widespread outrage in Asia with claims that many comfort women were not coerced but willingly engaged in prostitution for financial gain. South Korean President Park Geun-hye had refused to hold any bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Abe until he offered proper atonement and reparations. With Washington also pressuring Abe to resolve this contentious issue, Tokyo and Seoul negotiated for months on a settlement that would satisfy South Korea but also mitigate disapproval from Japanese nationalists. The two sides reached a deal in December of last year. Abe released a written statement that offered his most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds. Tokyo also agreed to contribute over $8 million to a South Korean fund to aid the surviving comfort women. South Korea in return resumed bilateral cooperation and both sides agreed the settlement was final and irreversible. Russia The Japanese prime minister had less success negotiating with Russia to give back the southern Kuril islands in the western Pacific, that were seized by Soviet forces at the end of the war, forcing about 17,000 Japanese residents to flee. The two countries have been unable to agree on a post war peace treaty because of the ongoing dispute over ownership of the islands. Last week Abe and Putin met for two days of talks and agreed in the end only to increase economic cooperation with the hope to reach some agreement on the island chain in the future. China Japans close relationship with the United States and Abes efforts to expand the scope of the military has raised concerns in China. Beijing and Tokyo are involved in a territorial dispute over a group of uninhabited islands called the Senkakus in Japan and Diaoyu in China in the East China Sea. There have been numerous close encounters between the two countries naval forces and coast guards in the disputed zone. In September, Prime Minister Abe met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in China, where both agreed to increase dialogue to resolve this issue and to establish a hotline to prevent accidental collisions between the two countries militaries. Trump Abes visit to Pearl Harbor is in part a reciprocal gesture for President Barack Obamas visit to Hiroshima in May. The first sitting U.S. president to visit the site of the initial U.S. atomic bomb attack in 1945, Obama offered sympathy for the victims, but no apology. Abe had fostered close ties with Obama in supporting the Trans Pacific Pact (TPP) free trade agreement, and to expand its military role to counter the North Korean nuclear threat and Chinas aggressive moves in the South China Sea. But the recent presidential election victory of Donald Trump may have added new urgency for Abe to show solidarity with the United States. Trump has opposed TPP and during the campaign he criticized Tokyo for not paying its fair share of mutual defense costs for the 50,000 American troops stationed in Japan. Bana Alabed, a seven-year-old Syrian girl who has been tweeting from war-torn Aleppo, met Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his palace Wednesday in Ankara. Bana also tweeted the experience and the same photos, a stark difference from the rest of her feed, which has shown devastation and survival in Eastern Aleppo during the past three months. She said she ws "very happy to meet with Mr Erdogan." Bana and her mother, an English teacher, have been tweeting since September 26 from their home in a rebel-held district in Syria's largest city, appealing for help and posting video footage of neighboring houses demolished in the unrelenting airstrikes. Despite being trolled and attacked on social media by supporters of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and his backer Russia, mother and daughter have maintained, electricity and internet permitting, a stream of tweets recording the devastation and suffering they are witnessing. Their meeting with President Erdogan comes two days after the Russian ambassador to Turkey was shot by a man who yelled "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!" Final evacuations of the ravaged city of Aleppo are underway.Though Bana and her mother made it safely to Turkey, they have continued to tweet to their hundreds of thousands of followers that they will not be happy until the rest of Eastern Aleppo is evacuated. The gang includes three women, who extorted at least 12 people. They used to call potential targets and asked them to meet up. Later, other gang members used to arrive at the place and posing as policemen conducted fake raids. By Ajay Kumar: BThe Crime Branch of Delhi Police arrested six people, including a constable, for being allegedly involved in extortion through honey trap. The gang includes three women, who extorted at least 12 people. They used to call potential targets and asked them to meet up. Later, other gang members used to arrive at the place and posing as policemen conducted fake raids. advertisement Most victims never came forward to lodge police complaints fearing loss of reputation and social standing. Also Read: Delhi honey trap: Gang extorted money after luring men to dating sites WHAT HAPPENED The matter came to light in November when one Pawan Kumar, who works as a clerk at ESI Hospital, registered a complaint about the gang. In his complaint, Kumar said a lady started calling him on his mobile and lured him to meet her at her room in Burari's Bengali Colony. He went to meet her on November 14 and the two started chatting in the room. Suddenly, two men who identified themselves as policemen entered the room and started beating Kumar. The two men were accompanied by a woman who identified herself as a journalist. Also Read: Hyderabad: Woman arrested for honey-trapping men on dating sites "The accused threatened that they would inform Kumar's family about the entire incident. They demanded Rs25 lakh from him as the price for keeping quiet. The victim arranged the money from his friends and paid Rs15 lakh for his immediate release. He was asked to pay another Rs10 lakh," said JCP (crime) Ravindra Yadav.KUMAR FILES REPORT However, Kumar reported the matter to the police. Crime Branch officials then tracked the number used by the woman to contact Kumar, and identified one of the female accused. "We constituted a team of police officers and technical experts. On specific inputs, we zeroed in one of the suspected female gang members named Reena alias Tabassum from New Delhi railway station on Saturday," Yadav said. "Following sustained interrogation, she revealed the identities of the other accused, including a constable posted at Jharonda police post under Burari police station," the JCP added. The constable, Pradeep Kumar, is a distant relative of the victim. He knew that the complainant is wealthy and could be extorted. He allegedly kept Rs6 lakh from the money extorted. A local reporter, identified as Krishna Nand Bhat, has also been apprehended in this connection. Bhat runs a weekly publication called Adarsh Bharat Times which is circulated in government offices. The other accused have been identified as Jeet, Nidhi Singh and Ankita. --- ENDS --- advertisement Martin Scorsese's Manhattan office, in a midtown building a few blocks northwest of the cordoned-off Trump Tower, may be the most concentrated bastion of reverence for cinema on the face of the Earth. There's a small screening room where Scorsese screens early cuts of his films and classic movies for his daughter and his friends. There's his personal library of thousands of films, some he taped himself decades ago. Film posters line the walls. Bookshelves are stuffed with film histories. And there are editing suites, including the one where Scorsese and his longtime editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, regularly toil with a monitor dedicated to the continuous, muted playing of Turner Classic Movies. It's a temple of worship, really, Schoonmaker says. Scorsese's latest, Silence, may be the film that most purely fuses the twin passions of his life: God and cinema. Scorsese, who briefly pursued becoming a priest before fervently dedicating himself to moviemaking, has sometimes seemed to conflate the two. Silence is a solemn, religious epic about Jesuit priests (Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver) in a violently anti-Catholic 17th-century Japan. Scorsese has wanted to make it for nearly 30 years. He was given the book it's based on, Shusaku Endo's 1966 novel, by a bishop after a screening of his famously controversial The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. Acts of faith Silence is an examination of belief and doubt and mysterious acts of faith. But making the film was such an act in itself. Acting it out, maybe that's what existence is all about, Scorsese says of his faith. The documentary on George Harrison I made, Living in the Material World, that says it better. He said if you want an old man in the sky with a beard, fine. I don't mean to be relativist about it. I happen to feel more comfortable with Christianity. But what is Christianity? That's the issue and that's why I made this film.'' It wasn't easy. Scorsese, 74, may be among the most revered directors in Hollywood, but Silence is almost the antithesis of today's studio film. To make it, Scorsese had to drum up foreign money in Cannes and ultimately made the film for about $46 million. Everyone, including himself, worked for scale. Few today are making movies with the scope and ambition of Silence a fact, he grants, that makes him feel like one of the last of a dying breed in today's film industry. Cinema is gone, Scorsese says. The cinema I grew up with and that I'm making, it's gone. The theater will always be there for that communal experience, there's no doubt. But what kind of experience is it going to be? he continues. Is it always going to be a theme-park movie? I sound like an old man, which I am. The big screen for us in the 50s, you go from Westerns to Lawrence of Arabia to the special experience of 2001 in 1968. The experience of seeing Vertigo and The Searchers in VistaVision.'' Scorsese points to the proliferation of images and the overreliance on superficial techniques as trends that have diminished the power of cinema to younger audiences. It should matter to your life, he says. Unfortunately, the latest generations don't know that it mattered so much. Scorsese's comments echo a tender letter he wrote to his daughter two years ago. The future of movies, he believes, is in the freedom that technology has yielded for anyone to make a movie. TV, I don't think has taken that place. Not yet, adds Scorsese, whose Boardwalk Empire was lauded but whose high-priced Vinyl was canceled after one season. I tried it. I had success to a certain extent. Vinyl we tried, but we found that the atmosphere for the type of picture we wanted to make the nature of the language, the drugs, the sex, depicting the rock n roll world of the 70s we got a lot of resistance. So I don't know about that freedom.'' Take out big Hollywood Since the election of Donald Trump, some have expressed hope for a return to the kind of 70s filmmaking Scorsese is synonymous with. If the younger people have something to say and they find a way to say through visual means as well as literary, there's the new cinema, says Scorsese. But the current climate reminds him more of the 50s of his youth. I'm worried about double-think or triple-think, which is make you believe you have the freedom, but they can make it very difficult to get the picture shown, to get it made, ruin reputations. It's happened before. Silence, which Scorsese screened for Jesuits at the Vatican before meeting with the pope, remains a powerful exception in a changing Hollywood. He wanted to make this film extremely differently from anything out there, says Schoonmaker, Scorsese's editor since Raging Bull. He's just tired of slam-bam-crash. Telling the audience what to think is what he really hates. Trying to do a meditative movie at this point, in this insane world we're in now, was incredibly brave. He wanted to stamp the film with that throughout: the pace, the very subtle use of music. How many movies start without music at the very beginning under the logos? she adds. He said, Take out all that big Hollywood. Scorsese, apostle of cinema, continues the fight. His Film Foundation has helped restore more than 750 films. And he regularly pens supportive letters to young directors whose films he admires. Imagine that in your mailbox. Almost like getting a letter from your god. Audelina Villagrana has run her ranch in Mexico's Western Sierra Madre mountains on her own since the death of her husband 23 years ago, herding livestock, hiring local Huichol people and even raising a young Huichol boy like a son. Now she and other ranchers are locked in tense confrontation with their indigenous neighbors over land that has been in contention for centuries. A series of recent legal decisions has brought the dispute to a boiling point. It's a strange situation, when on the one hand I share my home with them, and on the other, they're suing me for my land, Villagrana told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from her terracotta-tiled farmhouse in the mesquite-studded hills. At issue are vast stretches of property that ranchers want for intensive agriculture and grazing, but the Huichols also known by the traditional name of Wixarika want it for subsistence farming and to practice their traditional ways of life. Each side wants the Mexican government to settle the dispute, but so far it has failed to do so. Traditional way of life The Huichol people hold land grants dating back to the 1700s from the Spanish crown, but the ranchers hold titles from the Mexican government, dated before the decade-long national revolution that began in 1910. Now, after a series of lawsuits were decided in favor of the Huichols, they are moving in to claim 10,500 hectares (nearly 26,000 acres) in the state of Nayarit, beginning with a 184-hectare (454-acre) hillside ranch. Since September, hundreds of Huichols have organized themselves to take turns camping on the land and standing guard. This land is an inheritance that the ancestors left to us, said Luis Sanchez Carrillo, a Huichol elder who said he believes the land is necessary for upholding his people's traditions. The Huichols object to the ranchers' intensive grazing and planting, and use of chemicals and deforestation practices. They prefer subsistence farming and reforestation efforts. The Huichols also practice rituals to honor sacred sites such as the Cerro Cuate, a towering peak, where they leave offerings for ancestors and deities believed to reside there. Similar to North Dakota dispute The conflict echoes the Standing Rock dispute in the U.S. state of North Dakota, where Native American activists and supporters have camped on federal property to demand a halt to an oil pipeline project, said Paul Liffman, a professor of anthropology at Rice University in Texas and a Huichol expert. Indigenous groups have been making land claims more forcefully since a 1989 United Nations convention provided them with a legal framework, Liffman said. There's been a major revival of indigenous claims amidst the enhanced possibilities that were afforded by the ratification of Convention 169, he said. Even ... the countries that did not sign onto that have felt the pressure. Loss of livelihood But the ranchers in Nayarit fear they are losing their livelihoods. I ask you, who generated the problem? Was it the Huichols, or us? said rancher Lucio Gamboa. Wouldn't you agree that it was neither of us? It was the government. So, who is responsible for solving this problem? The government. The Mexican government has rejected a request by Huichol leaders to reimburse ranchers with federal funds designated to help prevent land conflicts. No response from government A committee of Huichol leaders and ranchers recently wrote to the government asking for a commission to be set up to address the dispute, but the government has yet to respond. A spokesman for Mexico's Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development, which is charged with resolving land disputes, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that it lacks the resources to get involved and is already faced with some 323 pending land conflicts. But Gamboa said the government should step in. If the two sides want an arrangement, why doesn't the government want that? he said. Myanmar's economy is slowly emerging from the crippling effects of decades of military rule, where a poorly-managed resources industry dominated much of the countrys trade. The Aung San Suu Kyi-led government is encouraging foreign and local investment in job-creating export industries, with a strong focus on manufacturing. Boosted by U.S. President Barack Obamas recent removal of executive sanctions on Myanmar, the countrys garment industry is on the rise, and aims to be among the nation's largest employers. The NLD-led government hopes new factories can provide employment for hundreds of thousands, whose education and work opportunities were stunted under 50 years of military rule. Exports have almost doubled in the last five years, to $1.1 billion for the 2015 financial year when, according to the United Nations' International Labor Organization (ILO), the sector employed 380,000 people, mostly women. The government recently passed an investment law that allows tax breaks for investment in the industry, while the U.S. dropped longstanding sanctions in September that will give international firms greater confidence in dealing with Myanmar. The Myanmar Garment Manufacturing Association estimates the industry will employ up to 1.5 million workers by 2024. So with all these interests, the will of the government side, and the lifting of the sanctions, and the private sector also, the garment sector also the will grow, said Khine Khine New, secretary general of the association. However, many problems persist. An inexperienced government has been slow on detailing policies that give businesses the predictability they need, said factory owner Sai Maung. While his company has benefited from foreign help to meet international labor and production standards, many factories are still coming to grips with Myanmars transition. Before we are closed, but now we are moving to a democratic country and the people have no experience at all, I mean with how to deal with the issues, said Maung. Industrial relations are struggling to keep up with pace of growth, according to ILO deputy liaison officer Piyamai Pichaiwongse. Myanmar was never a country that was operated by the rule of law. So therefore, the law does not have supremacy in anything that they do. There is not the reference for things that they do in the past, she said. The ILO is working with the government to rewrite labor laws. In the meantime, strikes have increased since a minimum wage of just $2.75 a day was introduced last year. Unions complain of increased persecution of their members, workers have little understanding of their rights and employers are struggling with compliance. With an industry on the rise, these relations hold the key to improving the living standards of hundreds of thousands of workers and their families. Clutching a cobbler's tool, Roman Gadayev defiantly lashed out against accusations that Russia meddled in the U.S. election to sway the vote to Donald Trump. Simply impossible, said the Kazakhstan native who runs a shoe repair shop near the Brighton Beach boardwalk. This is something that only uneducated people can buy into. Most Russian-speaking expatriates interviewed by The Associated Press this past week in Brooklyn's heavily ex-Soviet enclaves shrugged off a CIA assessment that Russia hacked the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's campaign boss to help Trump, portraying it as nothing more than political sour grapes. Russia has nothing to do with this, Ludmila Bondar, a retired credit analyst who moved to America from Skvyra, Ukraine, 26 years ago, said in Russian. People are the ones who have elected Trump. Brighton Beach and adjacent Sheepshead Bay, which have become home to tens of thousands of Russian-speaking immigrants, are coincidentally where Trump's father based a big part of his apartment-complex empire. These enclaves along the Atlantic Ocean not far from the rides of Coney Island are also among the few corners of Trump country in overwhelmingly Democratic New York City. While the city overall went nearly 79 percent for Clinton in the presidential election, most precincts in the two neighborhoods voted za Trampa, or for Trump, some as high as 80 percent. First-generation migrants told the AP they were generally drawn to the Republican candidate's promises to reduce taxes and create more jobs. And many felt that U.S.-Russian relations were likely to improve during a Trump presidency. Touting Trump's electoral triumph as a huge victory for regular people, Odessa, Ukraine, transplant Yuriy Taras scoffed at the hacking allegations and that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally behind it. I believe Russia couldn't exert any influence on the elections in America, Taras said in Russian, strolling the boardwalk with his wife, who was covered from head to toe in fur. Maybe Russia wanted to, but in my opinion, Putin maintains the position that he doesn't need war. He just needs others to stop bothering him. Taras said he considers Trump's nomination of Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, a person who knows both Putin and Russia, as secretary of state a sign that the relations between Washington and Moscow will be on the mend. If Trump does what he promised to, and Putin says all the time that he wants peace with America, then I think that enmity between Russia and the United States will stop, Taras added. CIA Director John Brennan has said the intelligence community is in agreement that Russia tried to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, though there's no evidence Moscow succeeded in helping Trump win. Democratic President Barack Obama has ordered a full review of any Russian involvement. Yefim Kacher, a hair salon owner from Odessa who said he voted for Trump because of his promise to slash taxes, was among the few who said there appears to be sufficient evidence that Russia tried to sway the U.S. election outcome. Although Kacher is critical of Putin's very aggressive'' foreign policy, he hopes that the U.S.-Russian ties will get better because one shouldn't argue with America. It's a big nuclear power and a compromise should exist. Relations will improve thanks to common sense because no one wants to escalate the confrontation with Russia, he said in Russian. Roman Groysman, a 34-year-old marketing consultant whose family emigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine, says he sees hacking merely as a modern tool deployed by foreign countries against each other. It's to be expected. We did the same to other countries. Why wouldn't they try to do it to us?'' he said. It's all fair in love and war.'' President Barack Obama has declared a ban on offshore oil and natural gas drilling throughout large areas of the Arctic and the U.S. Atlantic seaboard, an apparent attempt to cement his environmental legacy in his waning days in office. The White House announced the bans Tuesday in conjunction with the Canadian government, which also placed a moratorium on drilling in its Arctic waters, although the provision is subject to periodic review. In exercising his executive powers, Obama used a provision in a 1953 law to permanently ban offshore leases in the designated areas. The law states that "the president of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf." Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club environmental group, told VOA the joint announcement "is an important step forward in our effort to move away from fossil fuels and embrace clean energy." Brune acknowledged the incoming presidential administration of Donald Trump and Congress could attempt to reverse Obama's decision and open "one of the most pristine areas on the planet" to oil and gas drilling. "It's likely to be an extreme presidency, and we will give the next administration the political fight of their lives if they try to undermine the bedrock environmental safeguards for clean air, clean water and clean energy that have been put into place over the past few years and over the past several decades," Brune said. The American Petroleum Institute, which represents the oil and natural gas industry, thinks the bans should be reversed. "It's very disappointing. It completely disregards our national security interests and the huge opportunities we see here for good-paying jobs, jobs in areas such as shipyards, steelworkers, building, construction, trade-type work and even small businesses," API Director Eric Milito told VOA. Milito said Obama's executive action was "an unprecedented move to go after one of the largest expected oil deposits in the world in the offshore Alaska area," which is thought to hold 20 billion to 30 billion barrels of oil. The decision can be reversed "quickly" next year, Milito said, noting that then-President George W. Bush reinstated in 2008 about 50 million acres (20,000,000 hectares) of land that had previously been withdrawn from oil and gas drilling. Obama's action bans drilling in about 98 percent of Arctic waters owned by the U.S. government, which totals about 46,500,000 hectares. It also bans drilling in an area off the Atlantic Coast that stretches from southeastern Virginia to the Canadian border. The Obama administration cited environmental concerns for the moratoriums. The administration also cited importance of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in providing subsistence for native Alaskans and the vulnerability of the ecosystem to an oil spill. A divided Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with a death row inmate seeking DNA testing on a cigarette butt found near the scene of the 1990 double murder that led to his sentence. At issue in Tyrone Nolings case is whether there is a constitutional appeals process for death row prisoners who are denied DNA testing after a trial is over. The court ruled 4-3 that part of a law denying that appeals process is unconstitutional. Noling was convicted of killing Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig, both 81, at their Portage County home. He maintains his innocence. Chief Justice Maureen OConnor, writing for the majority, rejected prosecutors arguments supporting the quick enforcement of court decisions. Are we to take this to mean that expeditious enforcement of the death penalty is the guiding factor and goal? Are we to value speed over certainty? OConnor wrote. Of all cases that cry out for certainty, it is cases that result in the extinguishing of a human life. The solution, OConnor wrote, was to strike down part of the law as unconstitutional and leave the rest intact. Justice Terrence ODonnell, writing for the minority, agreed the law was unconstitutional but said it was wrong to focus just on one aspect. The result, ODonnell said, was justices acting as lawmakers by selectively changing the wording of a law. The authority to sever the unconstitutional part of a statute does not give this court license to rewrite it by selectively deleting words to change the meaning of the language that the legislature enacted, ODonnell said. Messages were left for the Portage County prosecutor and for Nolings attorney. Noling, 44, was part of a group involved in home robberies of elderly couples. Three others in the group implicated Noling in the slayings of the Hartigs during a burglary, although they later retracted their statements, saying they had been pressured by police to name Noling as the shooter. The original DNA tests of a cigarette butt found in the Hartigs driveway didnt match Noling or the others in the group. But Noling contends technological advances make it possible to identify the smoker and determine whether that person was among other previously undisclosed suspects. Prosecutors argued that Noling has no legal right to appeal decisions about post-conviction DNA tests. They said all DNA evidence that can be analyzed in the case already has been tested, and his appeals should end. On a cold December afternoon under bright blue skies, visitors to the National Christmas Tree in Washington strolled around carefully manicured paths designed to show off the traditional cone-shaped evergreen tree strung with brightly colored lights. Around the National Christmas Tree ran a toy train that captivated children in the crowd, while the parents admired the lights and the 56 small trees surrounding it. The small trees represent each of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the five U.S. territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa. However, people's reasons for coming to the site, between the White House and the Washington Monument on the National Mall, were varied. Some concentrated on the religious significance of the holiday, while others were there simply to enjoy the festive atmosphere. "For us, if we didn't remember the religious part, [the holiday] wouldn't be significant," said Kim Richeson of Columbia, Maryland. He said he and his wife, Audie Lea, go to a nondenominational church and consider the holiday "primarily religious." But, Richeson added, for those who see the holiday as more of a cultural celebration, a time to be together with family and exchange presents, "to each his own." Kids' enjoyment Also admiring the tree was Paula Mikowicz, also of Columbia, who said she was not religious but was married to a Roman Catholic. She said she didn't mind the religious aspects of the holiday, but her focus was on family. "I've just been a part of it for so long it doesn't mean anything to me, the religious part of it, but watching the kids celebrate, it's enjoyable," she said. A Pew Research Center poll in 2013 found that 81 percent of non-Christians in the United States celebrated Christmas despite the holiday's founding as a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Eighty-seven percent of people who said they were religiously unaffiliated said they celebrated Christmas. A Pew survey from the previous year found that 76 percent of Asian-American Buddhists and 73 percent of Hindus also celebrated Christmas. Thirty-two percent of U.S. Jews kept Christmas trees in their homes, the 2012 survey found, despite the fact that the Jewish faith celebrates Hanukkah in December rather than Christmas. Overall, in the 2013 Pew survey of about 2,000 people, nine in 10 Americans said they celebrated Christmas. But only about half said they saw Christmas as a religious holiday. Family time "I think it's more of a family holiday," said Carrie DeBlasis of Maryland, who was visiting the National Christmas Tree with her friend Stephen Gregg of Farmington, New Jersey. The two are students at George Mason University in Virginia, and said they looked forward to relaxing with family at the holidays after long months of study. "My family is more religious," said Gregg, "but for me it's more of a family thing, like going back for the holidays after finals and everything. It's just nice being with family." Erdal Dervish and his wife, Asli, who live in McLean, Virginia, brought their young son to see the tree. They were pleasantly surprised to see the electric train, which fascinated their little boy. Erdal is of Turkish origin but grew up in America, and Asli is from Istanbul. "I think in America, there's a pretty big disconnect between [people who celebrate the holiday as a religious one and those who consider it a cultural experience]," Erdal said. "I don't think people really appreciate or understand the religious aspect. ... In other countries they celebrate the actual religious aspects of it more closely," he said. "Here, not so much." Mingling traditions But Marilyn Lusk Ault of Frankewig, Tennessee, said her family keeps the focus on religion. "When I quit celebrating Christmas, I will be dead!" she joked. "I will then sing with the angel choir on Christmas Day, celebrating the one for whom the celebration started." She said she carried on the tradition of Santa Claus with her grandchildren, but added, "They usually have a birthday cake for Jesus and sing 'Happy Birthday' ... so as not to forget what the true celebration is about." Dan Chrzczonowski of Cleveland, Ohio, said Christmas is a time to celebrate his family's Polish heritage. "For most people of Polish ethnicity, the religious and the cultural are intertwined," he said. "We start by celebrating Advent a season of preparation, penance and charitable giving for the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas. We go to Mass on December 8 for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception." He said his family also follows other Polish traditions, like Pasterka, or midnight Mass, at their local church. "There is something so incredibly peaceful and magical about heading out on a cold, quiet night and entering the big, dark church by candlelight. The Polish koledy [carols] are quite beautiful," he said. As for many Americans, Chrzczonowski's holiday celebration will be a mix of traditions, because his wife is Jewish. Their home's holiday decorations include not only a Christmas tree and Advent wreath, but also a collection of menorahs the traditional Jewish candelabra used to celebrate Hanukkah. And with the first night of Hanukkah falling on Christmas night this year, the extended family Catholic and Jewish alike will gather for a celebration of both holidays. In a nation that for years has called itself "a melting pot," that mix of Catholic and Jewish traditions not to mention immigrant and American seems perfectly appropriate. Romania's Social Democrat Party (PSD) proposed a leftist woman from the country's tiny Muslim minority as prime minister on Wednesday, a close associate of PSD power broker Liviu Dragnea who was ruled out of the job after being convicted in a 2012 referendum rigging case. Sevil Shhaideh, 52 who must be approved by President Klaus Iohannis and then get a parliamentary vote of confidence, has served under a previous leftist-led government as regional development minister. The PSD won the Dec. 11 general election and, with its junior coalition partner and long-time ally ALDE, has an outright majority in parliament of 250 MPs in the 465-seat, two-house assembly. "I have come up with a solution that I hope will be accepted so that a government is in place quickly to ensure we have a budget plan approved by Jan. 15," Dragnea told reporters. Dragnea made clear he intended to be the power behind the new government. "If appointed, she would be prime minister, but the political responsibility stays with me first of all, Dragnea said. She has work capacity, knowledge of public administration and EU fund absorption and of all ministries' operations." Dragnea and Shhaideh, who comes from Romania's tiny Muslim community, are close. He was a witness at her 2011 wedding to a Syrian-born former agriculture ministry consultant. "Dragnea has nominated a loyal person, whose ... flaws stem from a lack of notoriety and authority within the PSD, but that hasn't got anything to do with anything. It will be a government controlled by Dragnea," Sergiu Miscoiu, political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj said. Iohannis, the president, started two-day consultations on forming a new government with parties present in the new parliament formed after the election. He is expected to announce a prime minister designate by Friday. The PSD, which promised higher wages and pensions during the election campaign, had hoped Dragnea, who keeps tight control of his party, would stand for prime minister but Iohannis made clear he would refuse any candidate with a criminal record. Dragnea has kept his post as party chief despite being convicted earlier this year for abusing his influence in a referendum to impeach the country's former president Traian Basescu, for which he received a suspended two-year jail sentence. Russia said Wednesday it is too early to draw conclusions about the shooter responsible for the assassination of the country's ambassador to Turkey. An off-duty police officer shot Ambassador Andrei Karlov on Monday in Ankara. A witness told VOA the shooter shouted: "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria! As long as our lands aren't safe, you will not be safe!" Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone call that Turkey believes the killer is linked to Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the United States and has also been blamed for July's failed coup in Turkey. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday there should be no rush to conclusions before a joint investigation of the assassination is complete. The United States has rejected what it called "absolutely ridiculous" suggestions that it was involved in or supported the assassination because of Gulen's presence in the U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that Secretary Kerry raised concerns about "some of the rhetoric coming out of Turkey" in his call with Cavusoglu. "We need to let the investigators do their job and we need to... let the facts and the evidence take them where it is before we jump to conclusions," Kirby told reporters. "But any notion that the United States was in any way supportive of this or behind this or even indirectly involved is absolutely ridiculous." Karlov's body arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, accompanied by his widow. Cavusoglu said on Twitter the street outside the Russian Embassy in Ankara will be named after Karlov. The Turkish foreign minister was in Moscow Tuesday for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, and the two diplomats laid flowers next to portrait of Karlov. "Turkish people are mourning this loss as much as Russia and the people of Russia," Cavusoglu said. Cavusoglu, Lavrov and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met to discuss the Syrian crises, and according to Lavrov, they agreed to facilitate a deal between the Syrian government and the opposition. Both Russian and Turkish leaders have said the assassination will not divide them. Analysts say they do not see the killing driving a wedge in Russia-Turkey relations. "For a while now Turkey and Russia had agreed on many issues in northern Syria, including evacuation of civilians from eastern Aleppo, and this convergence could be undermined by the assassination attempt but I think that will not happen," TWI Turkish Research Program Director Soner Cagaptay told VOA Turkish. "At this stage for Russia to act aggressively on this assassination issue would mean that Russia would lose what it has, so I think...Turkey will respond by running a thorough investigation of the assassination." Russian has been given Turkey the benefit of the doubt because of the broader interests developing the region regarding Syria and Iraq, said political columnist Semih Idiz of Al Monitor website. As you see now Russia has brought Turkey to its side. It's trying to capitalize on the deepening division between Turkey and the West, and it sees an advantage in this and it would not want to endanger at this moment in time. Captured on video Ambassador Karlov was making a speech at the opening of an art exhibition as the well-dressed gunman stood on the side of the stage, leading many in the audience to assume he was a bodyguard. The entire scene was captured on video. Three other people were wounded before security officers shot the gunman dead. Ambassador Karlov died at a hospital. He had been Russia's ambassador to Turkey since 2013. Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek identified the assassin as a 22-year-old police officer, Mevlut Mert Altintas. Anadolu said six people have been detained in connection with the investigation, including the roommate, parents and other relatives of Altintas. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is rejecting bipartisan calls for a special committee to investigate Russian interference in the U.S. election, which American intelligence says was aimed in part at helping Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. The likely meddling by Russia "is a serious issue, but it doesn't require a select committee,'' said McConnell, R-Ky. The Senate intelligence committee is able to investigate the matter, he added. CIA Director John Brennan has said the intelligence community is in agreement that Russia tried to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, although there's no evidence Moscow succeeded in helping Trump win. There's no question that the Russians were messing around in our election, McConnell told Kentucky Educational Television on Monday night. It is a matter of genuine concern and it needs to be investigated. Still, McConnell said the issue should be investigated in regular order by the Senate intelligence panel, which is fully capable of handling this. McConnell's comments put him at odds with Arizona Sen. John McCain and other Republicans who have joined with incoming Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in calling for a special committee to investigate efforts by Russia, China and Iran to interfere in U.S. elections. A select committee is a high-profile panel created by congressional leaders that taps lawmakers from a variety of committees to focus on a single issue, such as Watergate or the Iran-contra arms deal. McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Russian interference in the election threatens to destroy democracy, adding that a select committee is needed to find out exactly what Russia did and what effect it had on the election. We need to get to the bottom of this, McCain said. We need to find out exactly what was done and what the implications of the attacks were, especially if they had an effect on our election. He said: There's no doubt they were interfering and no doubt that it was cyberattacks. The question now is how much and what damage and what should the United States of America do? And so far, we have been totally paralyzed. Trump has called reports of Russian hacking ridiculous, and his transition team dismissed the CIA assessment, saying it was the work of the same people who claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invaded. Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement that the investigation must be bipartisan. We don't want this investigation to be political like the Benghazi investigation, he said. We don't want it to just be finger pointing at one person or another. Schumer added: We want to find out what the Russians are doing to our political system and what other foreign governments might do to our political system. And then figure out a way to stop it. McCain, Schumer and other senators say a select committee is needed to reconcile contradictory information and give the issue needed focus. In the interview with KET's Bill Goodman, McConnell spoke of his surprise at the election's outcome. I thought we'd come up short'' in the Senate, McConnell said. And I didn't think President Trump had a chance of winning. Trump won in part because he was able to connect with rural voters in states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that had previously voted for Democrats, McConnell said. Trump was able to convey oddly enough a message from a billionaire who lives in Manhattan a genuine concern for people who felt kind of left off, who felt offended by all the political correctness they see around them,'' he said. The 26-year-old MBA graduate was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau in Delhi. By Tanseem Haider: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) acting on a tip-off intercepted two courier parcels containing opium on December 20, 2016. The Information was received by the Delhi Zonal Unit of the NCB that drugs were being shipped to Canada concealed in parcels. Acting on inputs, the NCB came to know that the parcels were booked on forged ID proofs. Details of the investigation: The address of the consignor belonged to Chennai but on investigating, the address could not be located. The opium was concealed in turbans. Further on December 20, another parcel was booked at another courier company. After much investigation, the NCB was able to apprehend the real culprit, a 26-year-old MBA graduate. The apprehended woman on interrogation revealed that she had sent many similar drug parcels to different countries earlier also. She further revealed that she had many other associates in this racket. advertisement Also read: Border town becomes new drug hub. After Udta Punjab, is it Udta Rajasthan now? --- ENDS --- A sudden break in relations between Taiwan and one of its few diplomatic allies points to growing anger in China toward the Taipei leadership and analysts warn of more such moves by Beijing. Sao Tome and Principe, a western African ally of Taiwans since 1997, cut ties Wednesday and Taiwan followed by disbanding the embassy in Taipei and stopping a range of exchanges. The Taiwan governments Mainland Affairs Council said China used money diplomacy to push Sao Tome and Principe to make the break. The cut in ties, a first in more than eight years, follows Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wens December 2 phone call with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Trump's later comment that he saw no need to live by an agreement that the United States recognize only China, not Taiwan. China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan and seeks to curb its international profile. Political analysts say China maneuvered to get the African country away from Taiwan and some expect more allies to switch to Beijing over the next year. China also held an air force drill near Taiwans air defense identification zone after the Trump call, the islands defense ministry said. They would just want to intensify pressure given to President Tsai, said Liu Yi-jiun, public affairs professor at Fo Guang University in Taiwan. This is not an isolated breakup of diplomatic relationships. Its (going to be) three to five countries, which are like dominos. Taiwan has 21 diplomatic allies compared to more than 170 that recognize China. Most of Taiwans are poor countries in Africa, Central America, the Caribbean and the South Pacific. They look to Taiwan largely for development aid, and before 2008 the two would offer competing sums to make allies switch sides. From 2008 until this year, as the government of Taiwan ex-president Ma Ying-jeou held upbeat talks with China, no allies switched sides. Taiwan had helped Sao Tome and Principe, an oil-dependent country of 190,000 people off the coast of Gabon, cut its incidence of malaria dramatically, the foreign ministry in Taipei said. Taiwan in turn looks to its allies for a voice in the United Nations, which Taiwan left in 1971. China will not let it back in. That exit from the United Nations makes it clear that the Peoples Republic of China is the only legal government for all of China, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Wednesday in response to a question about the Sao Tome and Principe break in Taiwan relations. Beijing tempted Sao Tome and Principe to leave, according to a Mainland Affairs Council statement, which expresses dissatisfaction and regret. Before Tsai called Trump, she had irritated Beijing by snubbing its condition for two-way dialogue, that both sides consider themselves part of one China. Tsai wants a higher degree of autonomy for Taiwan if the two sides meet for talks. The number of tourists from China to Taiwan has dropped since Tsai took office. Since April, China has asked other countries to send it any offshore-based Taiwanese fraud suspects that target Chinese citizens. China may stagger any further pressure on Taiwans allies to break ties so Taipei has a chance to meet Beijings demands, said Lin Chong-pin, a retired strategic studies professor in Taiwan. If Beijing goes forward on this plan, it would break one or two at a time to make Taiwan feel the pain of increasingly losing ties and therefore to give Taiwan room for backing out, Lin said. Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Tai-wei indicated at a news conference Wednesday he would not match China in any resumption of checkbook diplomacy. Given our practical approach to foreign relations, we dont like to see money games, Lee said in response to a question about whether Sao Tome and Principe had asked Taiwan for $200 million before the break in ties. Wed rather help with some plans to improve the peoples welfare, something citizens of Sao Tome can feel, but we dont think its our countrys responsibility to fill a financial black hole and were not going to do that, he said. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that the violent attacks in Europe this week "prove" that he is "right" about his plans to institute tough screening of Muslims attempting to enter the United States after he assumes power next month. "You know my plans. All along, I've been proven to be right. 100 percent correct. What's happening is disgraceful," Trump said in a brief exchange with reporters in Florida, where he is continuing to interview candidates to fill key positions in his administration. Asked about the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin that killed 12 people and the assassination of a Russian diplomat in Ankara, Trump said, "Terrible. Terrible. What's going on is terrible, terrible." WATCH: President-elect Trump comments on Berlin attack He described the violence as "an attack on humanity. That's what it is. An attack on humanity, and it's got to be stopped." In his lengthy run for the White House, Trump at first called for an outright ban on Muslims entering the United States, but since then has promised to start "extreme vetting" of people trying to enter the U.S. from countries where there have been terrorist attacks. European authorities are engaged in a massive manhunt for a Tunisian, Anis Amri, with connections to the Islamic State network in Germany for questioning in the Berlin attack. The off-duty Turkish policeman who gunned down Moscow's ambassador to Turkey at an art gallery was himself shot by police. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump plans to put his pick for Commerce Secretary, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, in charge of his get-tough trade policy, a transition team spokesman said on Tuesday. It is a signal of how Trump, who is also interviewing candidates to be the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), plans to elevate a crackdown on competitors in the world market and the overhaul of trade deals that he says have hurt U.S. factory jobs. The USTR will not be merged with Commerce, but Trump transition team spokesman Jason Miller made clear that most trade policy decisions would be steered by Ross, who made a good part of his fortune by investing in distressed steel companies that benefited from stiff import tariffs imposed by former President George W. Bush in the early 2000s. Mr. Ross not only has negotiated some very good deals over his lifetime, he's also the person who worked closely with the president-elect on crafting his trade policy over the administration," Miller told reporters during a daily transition briefing. Mr. Ross will be playing a big role in any trade particulars in this administration." The move also marks a notable shift from how President Barack Obama ran his trade policy. It looks like the USTR office is being downgraded and subordinated to Commerce," said Derek Scissors, a trade expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank in Washington. That's a big change because USTR is this small elite trade agency right across from the White House. Trump, who takes office on January 20, blamed multilateral trade deals with Mexico and China for the loss of U.S. jobs, a core message during his campaign, and said he would push to renegotiate the agreements. Trump's administration is expected to crack down on Chinese trade practices with enforcement cases, which has raised fears Beijing would retaliate. He has also pledged to hit companies that shift production from the United States to other countries with a 35 percent tax on their exports into the United States legislation he said his team would soon write up. Interviews for USTR Trump has picked more than 20 nominees for his cabinet so far, packing his team with billionaires from the business world, retired generals, and loyalists. He is continuing to interview candidates for his cabinet this week at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach resort, where he will spend the Christmas holiday including potential picks for the USTR job. Elevating Ross' role as Commerce Secretary could make the USTR job less attractive to potential candidates with top-tier trade expertise, said Scissors at the American Enterprise Institute. Traditionally, the USTR takes the lead on negotiations for trade deals, while Commerce, a massive sprawling agency, handles enforcement actions including anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations of low-cost imports. On Tuesday, Trump was slated to meet about the USTR position with Jovita Carranza, a consultant who worked to attract support from Hispanic voters during the campaign. Carranza was a deputy administrator with the Small Business Administration in the George W. Bush White House. Trump has also discussed the USTR job with Robert Lighthizer, a former deputy USTR during the Reagan administration, and Dan DiMicco, former CEO of steel producer Nucor Corp. In 2012, Obama proposed to combine Commerce and the USTR with the Small Business Administration, Export-Import Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corporation and U.S. Trade and Development Agency in one streamlined department a plan that was rejected by Congress. Trump has no plans to merge Commerce with the USTR, Miller said Turkey has summoned home a senior diplomat who was accused of compiling a list of Dutch Turks who might have sympathized with July's failed coup, the Dutch government said on Wednesday. Yusuf Acar had been religious affairs attache at Turkey's embassy and the head of the Dutch arm of Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs, a situation ministers said could amount to an unacceptable mingling of politics and religion. The development comes amid heightened concern at what Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders has termed the "long-arm" activities of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian government. Acar told a Dutch newspaper last week that he had compiled a list of "Gulenists" in the Netherlands. In a letter to parliament, ministers said Ankara had withdrawn the diplomat after receiving a protest from The Hague. Ankara accuses supporters of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen of backing the short-lived coup in which over 240 were killed. Acar's information-gathering was "undesired and unacceptable interference in the lives of Dutch citizens", foreign minister Koenders and social affairs minister Lodwewijk Asscher wrote in their joint letter to parliament. In Turkey, over 100,000 people have been detained, suspended or sacked in the aftermath of the coup and tensions have spread within the 500,000-strong Dutch-Turkish community, with some suspected Gulenist sympathizers facing death threats. In a sign of widespread concern at Ankara's intelligence activities in Europe, a Turkish man was arrested in Hamburg last week on suspicion of spying on Kurds for Turkey. Ankara accuses Berlin of harboring Kurdish separatist militants. Gaza's population will more than double in about 30 years, signaling even more serious economic problems ahead for Palestinians in the small enclave if the conflict with Israel is not resolved, a U.N. official said Tuesday. Andres Thomsen of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) told Reuters "it will be very hard to imagine that you can create the right conditions for [economic] growth that can accommodate this dramatic population increase," without easing Israel's Gaza blockade. He was commenting on a new UNFPA report examining demographic changes and opportunities for development in the Gaza Strip and Israeli-occupied West Bank. The report forecast an increase in Gaza's population of 2 million to 4.8 million in 2050, outpacing that of the West Bank, where the number of people is predicted to rise from the current 2.9 million to 4.7 million. Thomsen said that even by 2030 there would be 1.3 million additional people in Gaza, territory ruled by the Hamas Islamist group, and meeting their needs will be challenging. Gaza, where Israel and Hamas last fought a war in 2014, already needs thousands of housing units and hundreds of schools and medical centers, aid officials say. But without a peace agreement with Israel, "political instability and the occupation will remain the primary obstacles to making development gains," the UNFPA report said. Peace talks broke down in 2014. The World Bank has also cited a nearly 50 percent decrease in foreign support for the Palestinian Authority in the past three years as a factor in what it has described as a worrying Palestinian economic outlook. Overall, the Palestinian economy is expected to grow at around 3.5 percent in the coming years. Thomsen, UNFPA's representative in the Palestinian territories, said that with unemployment at 43 percent in Gaza and 18 percent in the West Bank, 1 million jobs must be created in both areas by 2030 just to prevent those figures from worsening as populations grow. "To do that you need to have targeted investments in young people, in women who will enter the labor market," he said, calling for a "serious dialogue with Israel and others about how the [Israeli] blockade can slowly and gradually be lifted." Israel says it has eased restrictions on overland movement of goods into Gaza, but a naval blockade must remain to prevent weapons-smuggling. Egypt, which is at odds with Hamas, keeps its Gaza border largely closed. Maria Herrera moved to the U.S. from Mexico with her parents 14 years ago. Though she has spent most of her life in the U.S., she is still undocumented. That status and an upsurge in anxiety brought on by the promises of President-elect Donald Trump to be tough on immigration recently brought her to a "Know Your Rights" workshop in Hyattsville, Maryland. There, 100 people were told how to protect themselves and their families during immigration raids or arrests. "I just had to come here today to get informed because I probably don't have much information, but they do," said Herrera, who is studying cosmetology and struggles to express herself in English. All over the country, local immigrants' rights groups have been teaching undocumented immigrants their rights in the event they are detained by law enforcement a mission that has taken on a new urgency after the election of Trump. "I do have a lot of anxiety," conceded Herrera. Constitution 'protects' everyone At Sunday's workshop, members of the community played the roles of law enforcement officials and undocumented immigrants to demonstrate when and how attendees could invoke their constitutional rights. Alma Couvorthie, senior director of community organizing at CASA de Maryland, said it is important to understand these rights "regardless of your immigration status" since every person in the United States is protected by the U.S. constitution. "We all should know those rights and how to make them stand, Couvorthie said. The right to remain silent. The right of an attorney in case of an arrest, and to only provide our name and that you live in the state of Maryland. That's the only information you need." During the conversation, which also commemorated International Migrant Day, advocates encouraged immigrants to learn about these basic rights, while telling them to "keep in mind" that they could "still be detained." Couvorthie said these conversations prepare undocumented immigrants "beforehand" to create a network of support within their community in case of raids. "Every moment that we spend preparing is going to give us peace of mind to deal when we have a confrontation with ICE or with police," she added. 'Obstructing' law enforcement Recently, Trump has indicated he was "going to work something out" for undocumented youths like Herrera, who is part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), President Barack Obama's executive order that protected millions of undocumented immigrants known as dreamers. Under the program Obama signed in 2012, 741,000 people received permission to work. "They got brought here at a very young age, they've worked here, [and] they've gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they're in never-never land because they don't know what's going to happen," Trump said about DACA recipients in a Time Magazine "Person of the Year" interview. He promised to do something to make "people happy and proud," but did not dismiss the idea of getting rid of DACA. Not everyone would be sorry to see it go. "No society should allow large-scale illegal immigration to be sustained at the level we have for as long as we have," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Stein understood that "it's not a happy time" for DACA recipients, but said that workshops like the one in Hyattsville don't help. "What really these organizations are doing are trying to make it difficult for law enforcement to actually determine who has a right to be here and who doesn't for the purposes of obstructing immigration law enforcement," he said. No fear DACA recipient Jose Manuel Perez moved to the U.S. when he was 13 years old; he is now 31. While he attended Sunday's rights workshop, he says he has no fear of the incoming administration. "Not one moment. ... I have learned English. I went to school here," Perez said. His English is excellent. Not only is Perez not fearful, he approves of Trump's election. "We're just hoping that what he has on the table is going to turn the country around, because we do need change," Perez said. The United States on Tuesday sought to downplay its absence from talks on the Syrian conflict among Russia, Iran and Turkey in Moscow, saying it was not a "snub" and did not reflect a decline of U.S. influence in the Middle East. However, President Barack Obama's decision to offer only limited support to moderate rebels has left Washington with little leverage to influence the situation in Syria, especially after Moscow began launching airstrikes against rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad. Although Washington has long been a player in efforts to end the Syrian civil war and other Mideast conflicts, it was forced to watch from the sidelines as the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia, mounted an assault to pin down the rebels in east Aleppo that culminated in a cease-fire deal. Dennis Ross, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who was an adviser on Iran and the Middle East to both Democratic and Republican administrations, said the United States had made itself "irrelevant" in Syria. "The opposition finds little reason to be responsive to us and Assad. The Russians and Iran know that there is nothing we will do to raise the costs to them of their onslaught against Aleppo and other Syrian cities," Ross said. "Russia, having changed the balance of power on the ground, without regard to civilian consequences, has moved to make itself an arbiter." Not a 'snub' A spokesman for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry dismissed suggestions that America's absence from the meeting indicated a change in influence. "The secretary doesn't see this as a snub at all. He sees it as another multilateral effort to try to get a lasting peace in Syria, and he welcomes any progress towards that," State Department spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday. "We would obviously refute any notion that ... the fact that we weren't at this one meeting is somehow a harbinger or a litmus test for U.S. influence and leadership there or anywhere else around the world," Kirby said, adding that Washington was still engaged in the region on many other issues. "We are not excluded. We are not being sidelined," he added. At the meeting Tuesday, Russia, Iran and Turkey said they were ready to help broker a Syrian peace deal, and they adopted a declaration that laid out the principles any agreement should follow. Still, the meeting resulted in a "Moscow Declaration," reflecting Russia's growing links with Iran and Turkey, despite the slaying on Monday of Russia's ambassador in Ankara, Turkey's capital. The meeting also reflected Putin's desire to increase his country's influence in the Middle East and more widely. A U.S. official acknowledged that the U.S. absence from the evacuation talks on eastern Aleppo was Russia's way of showing that Moscow, not Washington, was running the show. "The fact is that we have put ourselves in a position where Russia is making efforts to try to work with anybody else so they can isolate us," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. "We let our differences with Turkey over the Kurds and our views over the northern part of Syria create gaps that the Russians have exploited." Focus on aid Kirby said that in the end, the United States, Russia, Iran and Turkey would like to see an immediate cease-fire and the "urgent delivery" of humanitarian aid. Ultimately, he said, it was too soon to judge whether the talks were a success. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that he and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, were working to organize new Syrian peace negotiations without the United States or the United Nations. Russia said that if they happened, the talks would be in addition to intermittent U.N.-brokered negotiations in Geneva. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that he thought that what he called the Russia-Iran-Turkey troika was the most effective forum for trying to solve the Syria crisis. Millions of dollars' worth of U.S.-supplied drones that Kyiv had hoped would help in its war against Russian-backed separatists have proven ineffective against jamming and hacking, Ukrainian officials say. The 72 Raven RQ-11B Analog mini-drones were so disappointing following their arrival this summer that Natan Chazin, an adviser to Ukraine's military with deep knowledge of the country's drone program, said if it were up to him, he would return them. "From the beginning, it was the wrong decision to use these drones in our [conflict]," Chazin told Reuters. The hand-launched Ravens were one of the recent highlights of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, aiming to give Kyiv's military portable, lightweight, unarmed surveillance drones that were small enough to be used widely in the field. They are made by AeroVironment, a privately held U.S. company. But they appear to have fallen short in a battle against the separatists, who benefit from far more sophisticated military technology than insurgencies the West has contended with in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria. Trump's plans Whether President-elect Donald Trump's administration might seek to provide Kyiv anything more robust, however, is unclear, given his stated desire to improve ties with Russia and prioritize the fight against Islamic militants. U.S. restrictions on technology exports could also limit new aid. The Air Force command of Ukraine's armed forces acknowledged to Reuters that the Ravens supplied by the United States had a fundamental drawback: Russia and the separatist forces it supports can intercept and jam their video feeds and data. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that Russia's electronic warfare capabilities were far more sophisticated than thought when the conflict began and that both the U.S. and Ukrainian militaries were adapting. Asked about Ukraine's reaction to the Ravens, one official said it took a lot of time for the drones to reach Ukraine, and that by then "they were much less effective than they would have liked, than we would have liked." The U.S. Army told Reuters it still uses Ravens but has upgraded to digital versions from analog models. Thirty-eight Ukrainian students were trained at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama on how to operate the drones between March and July this year, a U.S. Army spokesman said. Ukraine said it distributed the Ravens across the services and gave one batch to the Zhytomry Military Institute for training purposes. There were mixed accounts on how much the Ravens were being used in Ukraine, which saw Crimea annexed by Russia in 2014 and which has been fighting Russian-backed separatist forces in the east. Nearly 10,000 people have died in the conflict. Not on front lines The Air Force command of Ukraine's armed forces said the drones were being used in the "Anti-Terrorist Operation" zone, including in combat situations. One Ukrainian official, however, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said that although drones were being used in the zone, they were not employed on the front lines. Chazin said they were largely in storage and called them a vulnerability, allowing the enemy to see Ukrainian military positions and, when it wanted, easily take them down. They had short battery life and were unable to reliably fulfill the key mission of gaining intelligence on artillery positions, he said. "[Analog] basically puts you back in the stone age" of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, said James Lewis, director of the strategic technologies program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "I'm not being critical of the Raven. I love the Raven. ... But it's a cheap, disposable UAV. And for more intense conflict, that may not cut the ice anymore." The drones, along with other U.S.-supplied items like radar, first-aid kits, night vision and communications gear, fit into President Barack Obama's strategy of providing nonlethal military assistance while focusing on sanctions and diplomacy to end the war. Within that context, the miniature drones, even though small, were a noteworthy element of the more than $600 million in training and equipment that the United States has provided Ukraine so far. Ukraine pegged the Raven program's value at over $12 million. How Trump might alter U.S. support remains unclear, particularly given Cabinet picks that include retired Marine General James Mattis, who has been vocal about his concerns about Russia and was nominated to become U.S. defense secretary. Lethal arms Some of the most prominent Republican lawmakers in Congress have called for Ukraine to receive lethal arms. "If anything, it creates a new opportunity," said Luke Coffey at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank. Ukrainian officials have sought to put a brave face on Trump's election, downplaying comments on the campaign trail that included appearing to recognize Crimea as part of Russia and contemplating an end to U.S. sanctions on Russia. Topping Ukraine's wish list are Javelin anti-tank missiles made by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. The top U.S. military officer in Europe, General Curtis Scaparrotti, told a Senate hearing this year that "there's a requirement for an anti-tank weapon, like Javelin." U.S. officials expressed bafflement Wednesday over Kremlin comments that relations between Washington and Moscow are practically frozen. "I was just as much surprised as you," a high-ranking U.S. official told reporters, adding that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov "should be asked about his comments." The Kremlin official's assertion came just a day after a telephone conversation between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and on the same day that American and Russian military officers held a video conference to discuss flight safety over Syria. "The dialogue has not been broken," State Department spokesman John Kirby said at Wednesday's daily briefing. "Communications are not frozen." Washington remains committed to "dialogue and communication," Kirby added. U.S. officials acknowledge significant differences with Russia at a time of heightened tensions, ranging from Moscow's backing of Syria's government in its brutal offensive against rebels to alleged Russian interference in the recent U.S. presidential election. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia's Mir TV on Wednesday that "almost every level of dialogue" had been severed with the United States. Peskov is also quoted as saying he expects President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration to take a "fresher and more constructive approach." His remarks came a day after the White House expressed its commitment to implementing new economic sanctions on Russia a decision the Russian foreign ministry said it "regretted," while also vowing Moscow will take commensurate measures. Leaders from Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Moscow on Tuesday, excluding representatives from the United States and the United Nations, to discuss solutions to ending the nearly six-year war in Syria. There are expectations that U.S.-Russian ties, which became increasingly tense during the eight years of the Obama administration, are set to improve when Trump takes office. The president-elect has dismissed U.S. intelligence reports blaming Russia for hacking computers of the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost the election to Trump. He has also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and selected ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson, who has deep business ties to Russia, to be his secretary of state. The United States on Tuesday targeted more Russian businessmen and companies over Russia's annexation of Crimea and the conflict in Ukraine, slapping them with U.S. sanctions in a move Moscow criticized as hostile. The measures come a month before U.S. President Barack Obama hands over power to President-elect Donald Trump, who has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and said it would be good if the two countries could get along. Trump's nominee for U.S. Secretary of State, Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson, has opposed U.S. sanctions on Russia, which awarded him a friendship medal in 2013. The United States introduced sanctions on Russia after it annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and expanded them over its support for separatist rebels in the east of the country. But it is unclear if the United States will maintain the sanctions on Russia under Trump, who could lift the executive orders that authorize the measures. In a statement, the U.S. Treasury named seven Russian businessmen, six of whom it said were executives at Bank Rossiya or its affiliates ABR Management and Sobinbank. The U.S. Treasury has called Bank Rossiya "the personal bank for officials of the Russian Federation" and had previously sanctioned it and the two affiliates. One of the men named Tuesday was Kirill Kovalchuk, whom Russian media have identified as a nephew of Yuri Kovalchuk, a major shareholder in Bank Rossiya. The United States sanctioned Yuri Kovalchuk in 2014, saying he was a close adviser to Putin and his personal banker. The U.S. Treasury also sanctioned several companies and government enterprises for operating in Crimea, including two Russian firms it said were helping to build a multibillion dollar bridge to link the Russian mainland with the peninsula, a project important to Putin. Russias response The U.S. actions bar American individuals or companies from dealing with the sanctioned people or companies. Treasury also named 26 subsidiaries of Russian Agricultural Bank and gas producer Novatek, both of which had already been sanctioned in 2014. U.S. sanctions on those companies are relatively narrow and prohibit Americans from dealing in certain kinds of debt with them. Novatek is Russia's largest non-state gas producer. Its chief executive and major shareholder is Leonid Mikhelson, one of Russia's richest men. Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS news agency that the sanctions were hostile acts by the outgoing Obama administration and Russia would expand its sanctions lists against the United States in response. "We retain the right to choose the time, place and form of our responsive actions in a way that suits us," Ryabkov told TASS. U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby in a news briefing Tuesday denied suggestions that the timing of the measures was related to the transition next month. "This decision by the Treasury Department had nothing to do with the time on the clock," Kirby said. "It had everything to do with Russia's activities and support for the separatists in Ukraine and for their occupation of Crimea." Russias hope The U.S. move comes a day after the European Union formally extended its economic sanctions on Russia's defense, energy and financial sectors until mid-2017, a move EU leaders agreed to last week. Trump's election and the mutual praise between him and Putin has stoked hopes in Russia that Western sanctions might be eased or lifted under his presidency, potentially spurring investment in Russia's flat-lining economy. A reversal by Trump of existing sanctions, or a softer U.S. stance on enforcing them, could also weaken European sanctions resolve. Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, told a news conference Tuesday that Trump's forthcoming arrival in the White House promised to create the conditions for better U.S.-Russia relations. Commenting on what she referred to as "anti-Russian sanctions," Matviyenko, a close ally of Putin, said she was sure that Western sanctions would be eased or lifted altogether in 2017. Trump may face opposition to easing restrictions on doing business with Russia by the U.S. Congress, which has shown it has little patience for the Kremlin's military adventures. Both Republicans and Democrats have expressed concerns about Tillerson's ties to Russia, and many Republicans, in contrast to Trump, view Putin as a calculating, untrustworthy foe. Most of the horse traders say that the number of buyers have reduced and the few that are coming are here with cheques. By Vidya : Sixty-year-old Shabbir Ahmed from Buchanpur village of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh rues the day he bought his 12 horses in Pushkar between November 6-8. "I paid in cash as most of the transactions in horse market happen in cash. After that we came to Sarangkheda to sell these horses but not many people have come to buy. I have sold only couple of horses till now," said Ahmed. advertisement Ahmed is among the many traders who head to Nandurbar, tribal district of Maharashtra, bordering Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The 15-days of horse trading season has taken the role of a fair, with almost thousands of visitors descending this village of Sarangkheda. Salim, another trader from Richa village of Bareilly, has been visiting Sarangkheda for decades now. Traders used to travel with cash that they needed for the travel. There are costs that need to be paid to the organisers as well as the daily expense of traders themselves, as well as that of staff members who arrive at this village with the horses. "One tent costs Rs 1000 for 15 days. I have 14, so will be paying Rs 14000 for the entire stay. Each horse needs at least Rs 300 worth of grass each day and medicines. Food has to be arranged for the staff. But all old notes had to be put in bank and new notes are hardly available. It gets difficult to feed grains now to the horses," said Salim. NUMBER OF BUYERS REDUCE Most of the horse traders say that the number of buyers have reduced and the few that are coming are here with cheques or are coming with whatever cash available with a promise to provide the rest of the cash when it is available. "I am not the only one effected here. Just about every trader is facing this problem. We have hardly sold horses this time," said Bada Bakila, another trader. Also read: Demonetisation: Visakhapatnam vegetable traders go digital Sanjay Chaudhry, Secretary APMC Shahada, the parent body that organises this horse trading festival, however, claims that only 10 per cent effect can be seen due to demonetisation and he is hopeful that with seven days of the festival still remaining, trading will pick up. At present, of the 2000 horses that were brought to the festival, only 667 have been sold in the last eight days. The highest price recorded so far is of Rs 3,11,000 for a horse that was bought by a Maharashtra buyer but even in this case, a token amount was given to the trader. The organisers here have tied up with banks for point of sale machines but that really has not seen much usage while a stall has also been put up for people to learn about cashless transactions at the fair. advertisement Also read: Demonetisation woes: Is it time to bid farewell to Delhi's Tree House play school? --- ENDS --- The wife of Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone is calling for judicial reforms in Laos and for the government clarify the fate of her husband, saying she will never give up in seeking the truth behind his disappearance. Shui-Meng Ng, made the appeal as rights activists marked the fourth year since his enforced disappearance from a police checkpoint in the Laos capital of Vientiane in December 2012. The message to the [Laos] government is come clean tell us the truth and my message to the Laos government is I will never give up, Shui-Meng told reporters in Thailand. Activists say police closed-circuit television (CCTV) on December 12, 2012 shows Sombath being arrested at a police checkpoint. The recording goes on to show him brought out of the check-point and placed in another vehicle, which drove away. Another individual is seen driving Sombaths jeep away. The U.S. educated Sombath was the only individual to return to Laos after the end of the Indochina war out of a group of students who studied at U.S. universities. From a poor farming family, Sombath became well known for promoting simple but innovative methods for improving crop yields and supporting organic farming. An inspiration for Lao farmers Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, said Sombaths years of work in grassroots rural development had inspired thousands of Lao farmers and families and helped them farm better and live better. But Robertson says Sombaths uncertain fate prompted fear among Lao civil society groups, that their survival is at the whim of the government. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIFH), in a statement marking the anniversary of Sombaths disappearance also called on the Lao government to clarify the whereabouts of 10 other activists who had disappeared since 2007. In 2009, authorities detained a group of men and women planning to participate in pro-democracy demonstrations. Earlier, in 2007, an outspoken critic of Chinese-sponsored agricultural projects also disappeared. Seeking the truth Shui-Meng says since Sombath vanished she has faced an enormous struggle to find the truth about her husbands fate. Report it to the police, put his disappearance in the newspaper, try to get the lawyers to work on it, meet with people, meet with the ministers, write to the ministers, write to the prime minister, president the whole lot, she said. You appeal, you appeal, you go to every level and you are faced with a wall that is so thick that you cant even try no matter what you do that its most difficult to crack, she said. Shui-Meng accused Laos authorities of acting with impunity, amid institutional and justice system failures. This is something I cannot let go, and I will continue no matter how long or how difficult that is the greatest challenge the challenge of not getting an answer, the challenge of people you know they lie, they do not want to tell you the truth its essentially impunity, she told reporters. Human Rights Watch has accused Laos of failing to carry out any serious government investigations, leading to a pattern of delay, denial and cover-up. Four years on, Sombaths family is no closer to learning the truth about his fate than they were in the weeks after he went missing, said the rights groups Robertson. Laos is yet to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance it signed in 2008. Laos is also a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Earlier this year Laos installed a new prime minister, Thongloun Sisoulith, a former deputy leader and foreign minister. Thongloun has been viewed by analysts as a reformer in his crackdown on abuses in areas such as the environment and illegal timber trade. Shui-Meng says while the governments new direction has been welcomed, there is little evidence of a policy change in relation to human rights. The new government under the new Prime Minister [Thongloun] has taken some actions or made some directives to address some of the most challenging development issues facing the country like logging, she said. The image is so bad that I think the government has to address [these problems]. But on human rights issues they have not indicated that theres going to be any change, she said. Ngqabutho Mabhena is unusually nervous about this year's trip home to Zimbabwe. That's because, this time around, he's hand-carrying a wad of currency from South Africa to family members in the cash-strapped nation. Normally, he would send the funds by wire transfer from South Africa, for his family to collect from a bank on the other end. But he and countless other expatriate Zimbabweans are resorting to creative, and sometimes risky, measures as Zimbabwean banks rapidly run dry in the nation's largest cash crisis seven years. Mabhena, who runs a Zimbabwean community group in Johannesburg, spoke to VOA from a bus en route to Zimbabwe. For his safety, he didn't want to share too many details about his itinerary or cargo. "It's not safe, it's not safe," he said. "But these days, there is nothing that one can do. And I know some people who are not travelling [to Zimbabwe], who are now resorting to sending their money with drivers and so on. Most of this money gets lost along the way." The cash crisis has its roots in Zimbabwe's decision to abandon its wildly inflating dollar in 2009, making the U.S. dollar the dominant currency. Since then, the economy has worsened, unemployment has risen, the government has struggled to pay civil servants, and in recent months, banks have begun to run dangerously low on dollars. The government plans to print up to $200 million worth of bond notes, but Zimbabweans have widely shunned the local-use-only bills, over fears they are a reincarnation of the doomed Zimbabwean dollar. The crisis has opened the door for creative, cashless solutions, like mobile-phone banking. A South African wire transfer service recently introduced electronic payments to Zimbabwe in South African rand which is already legal tender in Zimbabwe, but is not considered stable enough to be widely embraced. Some Zimbabwean economists have recommended adopting the rand, but the government has resisted because, analysts say, they don't want to be subject to conditions imposed by the Rand Monetary Union. Raphael Grojnowski, cofounder of a South Africa-to-Zimbabwe transfer service called Mama Money, lamented the cash crisis, but says it has also provided new opportunities. In the last year, he says, 20,000 new customers have joined Mama Money, with the average customer sending home 1,500 rand just over $100 per month. It's not known how exactly many Zimbabweans live in South Africa, but some estimates put the figure as high as five million. "So we've seen, since the cash crisis and people struggle to get cash, people are requesting electronic redemption a lot more, because at least then they know the money has arrived in Zim[babwe], and they can use it to buy goods and services in store, buy electricity, buy airtime, and also cash out when there is an opportunity to cash out at a bank or at an ATM," Grojnowski said. Johannesburg-based truck driver Christopher Mutokwi isn't planning to return to Zimbabwe this holiday season. And so, the 42-year-old, who estimates that he supports 10 family members back home with about half of his monthly earnings, says he's had to employ creative workarounds for his family members don't have debit or credit cards for big purchases. For example, he said, his family is struggling to scrape together the cash they will soon need for the children's school fees. He sends money via a supermarket chain, and they try to see how much cash they can get. "They were telling me that sometimes they end up taking groceries. Then they will get some cash the change, in fact," he said. In Harare, business consultant Phillip Chichoni said the move to a cashless economy isn't entirely bad, but that expatriates and foreign services can't fix Zimbabwe's economic problems. "The economy needs to be fixed from the top," he said. "I think the government policies have to be aligned and they have to be tuned to encourage production and investment in the country." But most discussions about Zimbabwean policy eventually circle back to the man at the top, longtime president Robert Mugabe, who is now 92. His critics blame him for dismantling the once-thriving economy during his thirty-six-year rule. The prospect for a major shakeup looks slim. Earlier this month, Zimbabwe's ruling party announced that for them, there is only one possible candidate for president in 2018: Mugabe. The High Court has ordered First Lady Grace Mugabe to remove her representatives from three houses she took over after a Lebanese national failed to refund her $1,35 million she paid for a diamond ring bought in Dubai. In a ruling made Wednesday, Justice Clement Phiri said Mrs. Mugabe should also ensure that all workers who lost their jobs at the three properties owned by the diamond seller, Jamal Ahmed, are reinstated. The first ladys attorney, Wilson Manase, refused to comment. Mrs. Mugabe left the country Tuesday for Singapore with her husband, President Robert Mugabe, who is on annual leave. Ahmad is being represented by Beatrice Mtetwa, who told VOA Studio 7's Blessing Zulu that the judge expressed disappointment over the way the case was handled as armed guards refused to accept summons sent to Mrs. Mugabe. The judge said he had been unhappy with the original retain of service and had directed the sheriff to resend the notice of set-down and to clearly state if he fails to serve and why ... and the sheriff had to again attempt service at Blue Roof and he failed to serve a notice of set-down because none of the security personnel at the premises were willing to accept service and none of them were willing to identify themselves. Mtetwa said the sheriff could not affix the summons to the gate or door of Mrs. Mugabe's house in fear of breaching security protocols. He had failed to do that because of an armed solder who barred him from further action. She noted that while they were in the middle of the hearing the judge was called elsewhere and came back later and then granted them an order for the removal of people who seized the houses belonging to Ahmed. Mrs. Mugabe demanded a refund when the diamond ring, designed to mark her 20th wedding anniversary, was delivered after being polished. She allegedly demanded an immediate refund. Following the deaths of a Russian ambassador at Ankara and a high diplomat at Moscow, President Vladamir Putin has requested the Russian intelligence services to strengthen its protection of institutions both within the country and abroad. We highlight that some exceptional measures have been taken to protect President Putins annual press conference, scheduled for Friday. Contrary to the Turkish practice, Ankara accepted that the inquiry on the assassination of the Russian Ambassador be conducted by a Russian-Turkish Commission. Russia has immediately dispatched 18 experts. According to the Turkish press, the assassin, Mevlut Mert Altintas, had during recent months, been incorporated into the service 8 times to protect President Erdogan. The Turkish police had proceeded to take in 13 persons close to the assassin for questioning and is questioning them. According to Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, the mastermind of the operation would have been Fethullah Gulen (the Islamic preacher and CIA agent, who has been granted refugee status in the United States). However the Kremlin considers that it is still premature to come to that conclusion. Later on, the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility. No information has been published on the death of the high level Russian diplomat at Moscow. We still do not know if he was assassinated or if he committed suicide. On 20 December, the meeting of the Russian, Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers took place without any problems at Moscow. [1]. The headlines of the front page of New York Daily News reads Assassins, the plural being used not with reference to the assassination of the ambassador but Presidents Putin and Assad that the paper charges with the responsibility for the deaths in Syria. In an editorial, Gersh Kuntzman celebrates the assassination of the ambassador who helped this extremist Assad to kill hundreds of thousands of civilians. The journalist compares this murder to the murder of the Nazi ambassador at Paris in 1938 [2]. This daily newspaper, with the fourth highest distribution in the United States, is owned by Mortimer Zuckerman, the former president of the Congress of the Chairs of the key American Jewish organizations. The corpse of Andrei Karlov has been repatriated to Moscow (photo). A state funeral will be organized and [will take place] in the presence of his friend, President Putin. On 19 December 2016, the EU Council of Foreign Affairs and International Relations extended its economic sanctions against the Russian Federation by six months. The unilateral economic sanctions violate the United Nations Charter and are contrary to international law. They are reminiscent of the medieval principle of the siege, which the Christian Churches condemned in all circumstances [without exception]. While today the West present the sanctions as being aimed at putting pressure on leaders, all they actually achieve is inflicting hardship on the poorest populations. The Council is justifying its decision by pinning the blame on Russia for the total non-implementation of the Minsk agreements, despite the fact that the Ukrainian president has publicly declared that he would never apply them. In the past, this Council had attributed responsibility to Russia for the response of Crimea to the coup dEtat organized by the United States at Kiev. 2017 Annual Art Competition for Young Artists Gibraltar Cultural Services on behalf of the Ministry of Culture is inviting local artists to participate in the annual Art Competition for Young Artists that will be held in March 2017. Closing date for receipt of entries is 6pm on Friday 17th February 2017. The competition is open to Gibraltarians and residents of Gibraltar attending school in years 9 to 13 (or College equivalent), as well as to young Gibraltarian artists aged up to 24 years old as at 1st March 2017. Works must be original and not previously entered competitively, with the exception of non-winning entries in the 2016 Spring Visual Arts Competition and 2016 International Art Competition. Artists may submit a maximum of three paintings/drawings and two sculptures. Unframed artworks will also be accepted. All entries will be exhibited at the John Mackintosh Hall from the 1st to 10th March 2017. Prizes to be awarded are: 1st Prize The Ministry of Culture Prize 1,000 2nd Prize The AquaGib Award 500 Additionally, there will two awards of 500 each, sponsored by the Alwani Foundation, to the best entry in each of the following age groups: A. School Years 9 to 11 B. School Years 12 to 13 All the winning artworks listed above will become the property of the Ministry of Culture. Entry forms and full conditions are available from: Bayside and Westside Comprehensive Schools Gibraltar College of Further Education The Fine Arts Gallery, Casemates Mario Finlayson National Art Gallery, City Hall The GEMA, Gibraltar Exhibitions of Modern Art, Montagu Bastion, Line Wall Road John Mackintosh Hall, 308 Main Street Or via email from: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or on our website http://www.culture.gi Entries may be handed in at the John Mackintosh Hall as from Wednesday 15th February 2017 from 3.30pm to 6pm. Closing date for receipt of entries is 6pm on Friday 17th February 2017. For further information please contact GCS Events Department on 20067236 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. George Takei, Constance Wu, and Margaret Cho. Photo-Illustration: Vulture Late last week, Margaret Cho went on Bobby Lees podcast TigerBelly, where she discussed, among many other things, conversations she had with Tilda Swinton that left her feeling like a house Asian. Swinton had contacted Cho, a stranger, because the controversy over her casting as the Ancient One in Marvels Doctor Strange had left her perplexed: Why were people so mad? After I wrote about Chos comments, Swinton released the email exchange between herself and Cho to multiple media outlets. No doubt, she did it knowing that she would appear eminently reasonable, and indeed, the release was like sounding a dog whistle: Tilda has the receipts. Readers leapt to Swintons defense and criticized Cho for acting in bad faith. But for many people of color, what Cho said made perfect sense, and the release of the emails an actual act of bad faith did little to change that. In a thread on Twitter, Gene Demby wrote, In the emails, Swinton is exceedingly polite and charming in a way that almost camouflages the grossness of what shes asking. Indeed, that Swinton writes in personable prose doesnt alter the fundamental dynamics of what was going on. Nowhere in the emails does Swinton apologize for having done something wrong; she merely recognizes that people are upset, and wants an explanation. She wrote like someone looking for absolution. As writer Njaila Rhee put it in a private Facebook group for Asian-Americans in the media, Tilda Swinton is like the final boss of White Feminism. The dustup between Cho and Swinton mirrored another social-media debate that started with the news that Matt Damon would be playing the lead role in The Great Wall, a fantasy movie set in ancient China. In response, Fresh Off the Boats Constance Wu penned a mini-screed on Twitter about Damons casting in the international co-production. We have to stop perpetuating the racist myth that [only a] white man can save the world, Wu wrote. Its about pointing out the repeatedly implied racist notion that white people are superior to POC and that POC need salvation from our own color via white strength. Wus criticism was a sophisticated analysis that had shades of Gayatri Spivaks postcolonial theory to it. More important, her comments went viral and required a response. Matt Damon said that when he had heard about the criticism, he thought it was a fucking bummer. But, he said, he soon found a bright spot. Pedro Pascal called me and goes, Yeah, we are guilty of whitewashing. We all know only the Chinese defended the wall against the monster attack, Damon said. Ultimately where I came down to was, if people see this movie and there is somehow whitewashing involved in a creature feature that we made up then I will listen to that with my whole heart. For all his sarcasm, Damon never actually addressed the criticism at hand. Nowhere did Wu say that The Great Wall was an example of whitewashing. Rather, her argument was specifically calling out the fact that the film is the latest in which white people are inserted into a narrative fantastical or not to save nonwhite people. (Indeed, the fact that Great Wall is a fantasy film should make you consider who that fantasy is for.) The white-savior trope is an old, run-down one in Hollywood; for Damon to say, it wasnt altered because of me in any way is naive at best. But this is how much of 2016 went for Asian-Americans: Where there was an offense, there was also pushback. When Chris Rock and Sacha Baron Cohen cracked racist jokes at the Oscars ceremony early this year, Ang Lee, George Takei, Sandra Oh, and others penned an open letter in response, using the controversy as an opportunity to discuss racism in Hollywood. When anonymous sources indicated that the upcoming Ghost in the Shell had attempted to use CGI to make Scarlett Johansson appear more Asian, Wu was there to call it out. Takei was also vigorous in his criticism of Swintons casting in Doctor Strange, calling it insulting. All of the actors, including John Cho talking about the mechanics of onscreen racism, elevated the discussion past mere representational politics. While actors like Takei and Cho have long advocated for Asian-American representation, something changed this year. Maybe it was the synergy between actors and writers online, and the simultaneity of such grievances, but the criticism was buoyed, amplified, and heard. In part, I think its because the conversations that have emerged have seen Asian-Americans talking to each other, without the filter a white audience necessitates. What struck me about Chos own emails to Swinton was that she was serving a familiar role: Cho listened, offered reassurances, and was polite. By contrast, her appearance on TigerBelly was a conversation between two Korean-American comics both of whom have gone through the gauntlet in Hollywood where white people didnt figure in. Lee told Cho that he thinks of her as his noona, a term of endearment meaning older sister, and they discussed things like the Korean-American communitys scrutiny of Cho after the L.A. riots. (Even Lees taking Steven Yeun aside to chastise him was such a hyung thing to do.) They were speaking in shorthand familiar to Korean-Americans as well as people of color, particularly when it came to their experiences in Hollywood. They werent operating from a point where maybe Hollywood was racist. They knew it in their bones. And thats what was really refreshing: that two Asian-Americans felt free to just talk shit. Next year will bring more controversies, more fights, and more discussions: Ghost in the Shell, The Great Wall, the live-action Mulan, and Iron Fist all debut in 2017. (Already, there have been some excellent jokes about this photo of Finn Jones.) But, as Margaret Cho told Bobby Lee, its time for Asian-Americans to be making their own stories. John Cho is producing and starring in a drama for USA called Connoisseur, Jon M. Chu is adapting Crazy Rich Asians for film, Daniel Dae Kim is producing a number of shows based off of Korean dramas, and Constance Wu is slated to star in an indie drama by Jennifer Cho Suhr. Its possible to look back on the year and remember a list of grievances, but it might be better to remember it as a wake-up call. Earlier this year, John Cho told me, I think, while my career is fucking great for an Asian actor, I havent been given the chance to do all that I can. Heres hoping to 2017. The dynamic duo. Photo: Jaimie Trueblood/Columbia Pictures Industries Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are in a movie together. This is a big deal. When I say that Lawrence and Pratt are our two most likable young movie stars, I can point to evidence, like Vultures own Most Valuable Stars list, which has Lawrence at No. 1 overall, and Pratt as the most likable. But you also just know it, intuitively, like you know that dogs are friendly and bears are not. Its an elemental part of both actors personas; its what lifted them to megastardom in the first place. This innate, undeniable, nuclear-grade likability makes it surprising, then, that Passengers, the movie they star in together directed by The Imitation Game helmer Morten Tyldum, from a screenplay by Prometheus writer Jon Spaihts has been met, at least by critics, with a sticking-out of the collective tongue. While New Yorks David Edelstein was on its side and then some until its bummer of an ending, most reviews have been far less positive than that qualified praise; the movies Tomatometer currently stands at 31 percent, and its Metacritic score of 43 puts it right between two other notable imbroglios of 2016, Suicide Squad (40) and Batman v Superman (44). Although the public at large can still vote with their pocketbooks, that isnt the reception youd expect for the first meeting of such high-wattage leads. Of course, famous actors are in bad movies all the time: Lawrence had a project with her Silver Linings Playbook co-star, Bradley Cooper, go direct to VOD just last year. But Passengers still represents a particularly intriguing version of this phenomenon, the roots of which have to be traced back nearly a decade. In 2007, Spaihtss screenplay for Passengers placed third on that years Black List, Hollywoods annual career-making assemblage of the unproduced scripts most popular among polled executives. At the time, Keanu Reevess company was attached, and Reeves intended to play Pratts eventual role opposite Rachel McAdams, with TV vet Brian Kirk directing and the Weinstein Company producing. But that version of the project fell through, and it eventually made its way to Sony, where it was propelled toward a green light by the runaway success of the Pratt-led Jurassic World. The Black List is a strange beast, and its scripts tend toward three categories: biopics and true stories; high-profile scripts, often from A-list writers, that already have producers attached; and dizzyingly high-concept screenplays that are designed more to serve as calling cards for their authors than to actually ever get made. While Passengers might seem like an example of the third category, Reevess involvement made it more than just a stunt, even if the character he would play, Jim, didnt speak to another human being for 35 pages not typically the kind of thing that makes an executive from a major studio pull out their giant-check-sized checkbook. (Throughout this piece, Im referencing a widely circulated draft from 2007, the year the script made the Black List.) Prior to that moment, which would come about half an hour into the still-hypothetical movie, Jim wheels around the ship, trying to confront and comprehend the realities of life alone, not to mention the dilemma of whether to wake up another person, Aurora, the character who would be played by Jennifer Lawrence. But what sounds like a tough sell in the abstract is easily the best part of Spaihtss script, just as it would become the best part of Tyldums movie, and those first 30 to 45 pages were largely the reason why it became an object of fascination in the industry. Instead, its when Aurora enters that the screenplay starts to show the same strains the filmed version does. In the film, both Jim and Aurora feel slim as characters, but at least Aurora has a backstory: Shes a writer, traveling to Homestead II in order to escape as well as replicate the legacy of her father, who was also a writer and, as she tells Jim, a writer who wrote about his life and experiences, of which Aurora has none. Hence, the journey, which she would at least get to do in gold class. In Passengers, that motivation never feels like enough; its hard to buy the idea that a person sacrificed every relationship shed ever had just for good writing material, material that would never be seen by any of the people shed known up to that point. When she says her plan was to stay on the planet for just a year and then fly back sacrificing another set of relationships for the sake of her ambiguous project it doubles the sense of skepticism. Thats not adventurous; its sociopathic. However, the Aurora in this earlier version of the script is quite different. Rather than a general journalist, shes a writer for The New Yorker, which has, in a shocking victory for the enterprise of journalism, managed to survive at least 600 years into the future. (The 600 years comes from a line in the script from Gus, the character eventually played by Laurence Fishburne in the movie; he calculates that based on all the flights hes made, hes been alive for over 600 years, though in hibernation for all but 56 of them.) As a writer for The New Yorker, shes on assignment, writing about the colony business. While that might seem like a boon to her character, Aurora says things like: Nobody strands me on a spaceship for a hundred years. I work for The New Yorker. Ill write an expose so hot youll need oven mitts to read it. and: I boarded the Excelsior on assignment. Maybe the most ambitious writing assignment ever given. But things have taken an unexpected turn. Im not writing for The New Yorker anymore. Im writing for me. Between the way its employed and the fact that The New Yorker will not, in all likelihood, be around six centuries into the future no shots its hardly surprising that the film chose to drop this detail. But the new backstory leaves Aurora crucially shallow, though at least in that way she matches Jim, who is never granted anything more, in the movie or the script, than the fact that hes a mechanic. No family, no friends, no history, or beliefs: just a profession and the vague desire to be useful. The culmination of the film, which feels cobbled together from a bunch of other space movies a tumble into the blackness of the cosmos plays like a xerox of a scene in Alfonso Cuarons Gravity suffers from the same exact problem, failing to give much of a narrative to the characters at its center. They fall into, out of, and back into love; the juicy ethical dilemma becomes a story device, and then an afterthought. Meanwhile, the script concludes fairly differently: There are no escapades in space, and much less action-movie fighting against the clock; in a horrifying turn, the ship ends up inadvertently ejecting some 5,000 passengers and crew toward their deaths, mostly so that Aurora can see the fact that Jim woke her up as a good thing, rather than the unforgivable moral wrong it might otherwise appear. Using frozen ova and sperm from the now-discarded passengers, Jim and Aurora repopulate the ship, though it isnt quite clear how, and when it lands on Homestead II, generations come piling out. This ending wouldnt have saved the film; theres a good chance it wouldve made it worse. But at least its more distinct than the bland resolution the movie went with, and that again hits on the issue that Lawrence and Pratt come up against: Theyre too good at acting for a script this under-developed. The material cant support actors of this clarity, and the seams show from start to finish. When Aurora learns of Jims decision to wake her up, Lawrence embodies her rage and fury with such vibrating conviction that its nearly impossible to imagine she could forgive him. And the movie does push her much further down that path than the earlier script, which depicts her reaction as closer to depressed disappointment than the pure, homicidal hatred Lawrence conjures; unfortunately, that just makes it even less believable when she eventually takes him back. Pratt, for his part, lends surprising character to a role without much in the way of it, mostly by playing himself. But when his likability is put in service of such a brutally amoral choice, it doesnt create an intriguing dilemma; it mostly just seems like a calibration error. In the film, Jim almost kills himself just before he sees Aurora for the first time a moment thats also not in the earlier script and just as when Lawrence approached the brink of murder, its Pratts most poignant moment. But these sharp extremes stand out in what is otherwise an out-of-focus portrait. And Lawrence and Pratt are nothing if not in-focus actors, steering straight into the crux of whatever moment theyre playing. A film thats never quite sure what it wants to be is a bad fit for two actors who know exactly who they are. "Today because they have the power, they have made the government institution into a gang. People whom we used to give a lot of respect have done wrong. People of the country will not leave you, they will get hold of you and then you will be answerable to them. We are here because of the people, without them we wouldn't be here today. Midnapore has always raised their voice. Today I am telling you Modi will live or people of country will live, because no one is greater than the public," said Mamata Banerjee. She ensured the people of the state government being on their side. "Standing in this condition, remember that we are passing through dark days. West Bengal government is always by your side. West Bengal government will save the people before they save themselves, because saving the lives of the people is our work and we wont allow anything to happen to the public." She went on to call the demonetisation drive a scam and insisted that an investigation must take place for the same. She further went on to say that "I say Narendra Modi and BJP party people are hooligans. Don't arrest others, just arrest me and your political motive will be met. I will protest a thousand times. Demonetisation is a big scam." Mamata openly challenged the government at the Centre to catch her if they can and stop her from exposing them. According to her, the BJP government has been responsible for riots across the country and called them, 'Danga Sarkar'. "Work of government is not to create a riot and not to do demonetisation. One is a goon and the other is the leader and both of them have destroyed the country. Every week, Vulture highlights the best new music. If the song is worthy of your ears and attention, you will find it here. Read our picks below, share yours in the comments, and subscribe to the Vulture Playlist for a comprehensive guide to the years best music. Kid Cudi feat. Willow Smith, Rose Golden Its possible that Kid Cudi and Willow Smith were carved from the same neon meteor thats making trails through the universe right now, in some galaxy far, far away. Near the middle of Cudis new 90-minute meditation on existential struggle and triumph, Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin, sits Rose Golden, a collaboration between Cudi and his cosmic child/sibling, Willow. The song opens with both artists singing together, lamenting the lack of believers they had when they were growing up (because Willow is at least 300 and we know this): Since I was young been grooving to my own drum. Aint that many teachers show me my potential. But then it transitions into an affirmation of the power of difference (Stronger than I know, soon Id understand the power I possess, the story of The Chosen). Cudi continues to oscillate back and forth between melancholy and hopefulness throughout the track, rapping about fake friends in one minute and the need for all of us to love one another better in the next. Cudi has been on one hell of a journey since Speedin Bullet 2 Heaven, and Passion finds him as vulnerable as hes ever been. If youre down to dive into his moody journal, Rose Golden is a true highlight, and its been kissed by the Princess of Transcendental Lullabies herself. Jordan Crucchiola (@JorCru) Mick Jenkins, Aurora Borealis There are few pairings I look forward to hearing from more than Mick Jenkins and Kaytranada. Once again, Kay has produced a Mick song this one apparently for a Chicago compilation and, as usual, its food for the soul. That is, if you ignore half of the subpar lyrics (might go 9/11 when we fly low just, no). Micks pen can usually flow better than that, but his delivery is unaffected by the words rolling off his tongue. Its a classic dude move: Disguise all your weak pickup lines with bravado and youll get the girl. Men dont realize how transparent the shtick is; we just let them have their moment, offer some false hope that sparks are truly flying, then politely drop them back down to the dark reality. This song, like that whole act, is so smooth until its slippery. Dee Lockett (@Dee_Lockett) Hau feat. Footsie, Everything The introduction to this track on its SoundCloud page says, Hau returns with a bass-heavy monster just in time for the festive season, and since Hau is Australian, that likely refers to the sunny summertime in the land down under. But here in the States, the MCs new track has arrived just in time for Christmas, and its certainly got its own kind of good cheer. Hau opens the track with the lyrics Music, my medicine, more inspired than Ive ever been, and informs us that hes here to resurrect the true essence of hip-hop with a new message. The presence of grime rapper Footsie makes Everything hit like a Skepta song, which means you will be powerless to stop bobbing your head and tapping your feet in time with the beat. By the end, you too should be feeling like youre on the good foot with my best shoes, best hat with my best suit. JC GoldLink ft. Brent Faiyaz, and Shy Glizzy, Crew I am picking this song not just because I think its a lovely, relaxed ode to male bonding over the pursuit of women, but because as we wrap up yet another year of Songs of the Week, wed like to think weve been your crew over the course of this zany year. (But, like, remember when Zayn dropped an album?) In all seriousness, its been a trying 12 months to process, and we hope that by making the small weekly contribution of the best in new music, on an especially personal level, that weve also offered even the slightest bit of respite from it all. Many of us who write for this column have relied on music as an escape from this strange new reality; its once again been a treat having you along for our travels. See you in 2017! DL Saleh. Photo: Amanda Edwards/WireImage/Getty Images In a clip that has already gone viral, YouTube star and professional prankster Adam Saleh claims he and a friend were kicked off a Delta plane for speaking Arabic. Saleh, who recorded the aftermath of the incident and tweeted it with the now-widespread hashtag #BoycottDelta, can be seen expressing outrage while white onlookers yell bye. Its six white people against us bearded men I feel uncomfortable, Saleh argues to a flight attendant. Meanwhile, another visibly upset person of color on the plane stands up for them, saying, They should be able to speak whatever language they want. In follow-up tweets, Saleh says he was removed from the flight, spoke with police, put through security again, and, after 30 minutes, rerouted on another flight to New York City. Saleh also Periscoped himself crying after being taken off the flight, expressing anger over being racially profiled. Im not gonna let them slide with what they did, he says, threatening to call his lawyer until hes told to stop filming. We got kicked out of a @Delta airplane because I spoke Arabic to my mom on the phone and with my friend slim... WTFFFFFFFF please spread pic.twitter.com/P5dQCE0qos Adam Saleh (@omgAdamSaleh) December 21, 2016 Two customers were removed from this flight and later rebooked after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort. Were conducting a full review to understand what transpired. We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect, Delta said in a statement given to Vulture. Delta has also been tweeting this statement to Salehs massive online following. Saleh, who has more than 3 million subscribers combined between his two channels, is best known for his prank videos. (He calls himself a professional idiot.) Just last week, Saleh allegedly faked smuggling himself on a flight to another city by hiding in a suitcase for the purposes of a viral video. Tigerair, the airline it appears he pranked, called the incident inconsistent with reality, citing video evidence that disputed his claim that his stunt was successful. Saleh now insists that todays video isnt a prank, telling the New York Times before he boarded the new flight: The only thing I can say is, I would never film a phone video. Thats when its really serious, and I must film. He is referring to the fact that he allegedly did not film the incident with his professional camera. In a new statement to Vulture, Delta says it is gathering all of the facts before jumping to any conclusion. Saleh has since tweeted that he arrives in New York City at 5:50 p.m. ET, when well all surely learn more. Update: Delta has released the following statement regarding the incident. Upon landing the crew was debriefed and multiple passenger statements collected. Based on the information collected to date, it appears the customers who were removed sought to disrupt the cabin with provocative behavior, including shouting. This type of conduct is not welcome on any Delta flight. While one, according to media reports, is a known prankster who was video recorded and encouraged by his traveling companion, what is paramount to Delta is the safety and comfort of our passengers and employees. It is clear these individuals sought to violate that priority. Update: Saleh has issued a new statement, reaffirming his claim that his account of the flight is not a prank and likening the response to the boy who cried wolf. Posting a note on Twitter, he wrote: Delta never denied anything in the video. Not a single person answered us back to tell us otherwise. But now that the video is out, they are trying to deny it to save their brand. Delta has been previously called out for racist matters. The media has been twisting up my words, so I will not be speaking to any media until I speak with my attorney. What they did was wrong and we deserve to speak up about this and not let this happen again. Yes were pranksters, and it sounds like the boy who cried wolf but today you can see its as real as it gets. Read Salehs full statement below. Thank you for all your support pic.twitter.com/ukQ4EGVQ6r Adam Saleh (@omgAdamSaleh) December 22, 2016 This post has been updated throughout. The consignment carrying cigarettes from Singapore was declared as packaging material by the importer. By Atir Khan: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has detected a hawala racket which used to smuggle in sought after international cigarette brands from Singapore. Fake importer and exporter entities were created to bring in brands to India. Sources said the DRI has seized Rs 11 crore worth cigarettes from a 40 feet cargo container at Tughlakabad depot recently. The importer had declared the consignment as packaging material. However, when checked by the DRI sleuths, it was discovered that it contained 90 lakh sticks of cigarettes. Details of the seized consignment: Gudang Garam, Djarum and Red Black Clove brands of cigarettes were seized. According to the sleuths, there was hardly any concealment of the consignment, normally smugglers do conceal such consignments. Gudang Garam, Djarum and Red Black Clove brands of cigarettes were seized. According to the sleuths, there was hardly any concealment of the consignment, normally smugglers do conceal such consignments. Inquiries revealed that the cigarettes originated from Singapore. The original suppliers had created a fake entity in Singapore for this purpose. Similarly, the receiver of the consignment had created a fake importer identity in Delhi. Further help of a customs clearing agent was taken to process the consignment at Tughlakabad Container Depot. Efforts are being made to identify the people responsible for the transaction. In order to import the material, one IEC code and a PAN card are required to create an import entity. However, this system is often misused by unscrupulous elements. The importers have to pay duty after they have filed the bill of entry. However, those carrying out illegal transactions fly by night after giving fake identity documents for creating codes. After the consignment is cleared, they flee and do not file the bill of entry. Investigations have revealed the cigarettes had been imported discreetly to evade 100 per cent duty. And the difference in payments were made through hawala transactions directly by the receiver to the supplier. But more importantly, there was also a violation of statutory health warning guidelines. Cigarettes which are sold in India should cover 85 per cent of the packet with warning illustrations. However, the seized foreign cigarettes only had 50 per cent warning on the cover. advertisement Also read: 54 demonetisation changes in 42 days: Here are 9 major ones you need to keep up with --- ENDS --- Two restaurants in Waco have pulled the plug on operations, including the much anticipated Mannys on the River that opened in December 2014 to serve upscale Tex-Mex food on a new deck along the Brazos River. Jimmy Johns, a sandwich shop at South Fourth Street and Franklin Avenue, also has closed its doors for good. Local Jimmy Johns franchisee Larry Wright said the shop on Speight Avenue can handle the traffic generated by downtown customers, many of whom wanted food delivered at lunchtime. We remain committed to downtown Waco, Wright said. The closure should not be interpreted as a knock on business volume in Wacos inner city, he said. Real estate agent Raynor Campbell said he already has potential tenants in mind for the 1,5000 square-foot space Jimmy Johns used. We have several prospects we will hit hard after the first of the year, Campbell said. Meanwhile, Mannys on the River closed with little notice, leaving a message on the front door dated Sunday, saying the establishment was closed permanently as of 7 p.m. that day. Brazos River Partners, co-owned by local developer Rick Sheldon, acquired the former Lake Brazos Bar & Grill steakhouse at that location in 2013 and made the building available to the group that operates some of the Mannys Tex-Mex restaurants in the Dallas area. Renovations and construction of a 4,000-square-foot deck and boat dock followed. Several restaurateurs and tourism promoters expressed dismay that Mannys had pulled up anchor after only two years. Darlene Robert, who manages Ninfas Mexican Restaurant downtown, said it appeared that Mannys attracted good crowds during the warm months but suffered during cold periods. I went over there a few times when they first opened just to sit on the deck, Robert said. They had a beautiful outside seating area. Robert said she is saddened by the closing and wonders if the restaurants isolated location away from much of downtowns bustle and growth had a negative impact. The closing of Mannys is quite shocking, said Diane Nowlain, who manages Buzzard Billys, another restaurant with a presence on the river. Its sad I have been there several times, and that deck is the biggest attraction. The drinks were good, but the food was inconsistent, sometimes great and sometimes not, Nowlain said. Its sad because with a little work here and there that could have been an awesome spot. It already is in many ways. Nowlain said business at Buzzard Billys remains good, and she plans to have a deck installed on the side of her building. The Mannys site may prove more attractive in the near future, after planned development materializes along Lake Brazos near downtown, creating a corridor of restaurants and retailers, said Sammy Citrano, longtime owner of Georges Restaurant & Catering and observer of the Waco restaurant scene. This town is getting so many restaurants that you must do well to survive, Citrano said. If you dont live up to expectations, there are 500 places in town to eat now. . . . Mannys had a neat deck and was attractive to those going up and down the river, but evidently the whole package was not what customers wanted. No one with Brazos River Partners could be reached Tuesday about the closing of the restaurant or prospects for a replacement. That is a disappointment, said Susan Morton, tourism director for the Waco Convention and Visitors Bureau. I hope something similar will go in there. Morton said a key to successful development of the waterfront through downtown is the presence of popular restaurants. Waco businessman Trent Weaver owns a building at Franklin Avenue and University Parks Drive, where Fuzzys Taco Shop recently opened a location served by a large newly built patio. Weaver said the feature allows diners to relax and take in the sights of downtown, and he thought customers at Mannys could do the same. Fuzzys has really done well its first two months, without a lot of advertising, he said. Its a great spot to just hang out. Waco City Council approved a $100 million agreement Tuesday for a riverfront development known as the Brazos Promenade. Catalyst Urban Development plans to build a full-service hotel, retail space, restaurants and multifamily residences on the citys 16-acre site around the Waco Downtown Farmers Market on University Parks Drive. A primary school in Ghana, the site of a recent Baylor University mission trip, will benefit from a childrens book a Baylor student and teacher wrote about their trip. Lakia Scott, a Baylor assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, co-wrote The Children of Kyerekrom, with Branda Greening, an education senior from Houston. Proceeds from book sales will pay for books, a printer, a copier and other school supplies for the Kyerekrom Roman Catholic Primary School. Scott, Greening and eight other students and faculty members went to Ghana in May to work with the school and surrounding area. The school is already really rich: the idea of community, the idea of partnerships and the idea of having meaningful relationships with others, Scott said. Those are really highly valued things, but the school didnt have things we would find to be like regular things, like textbooks in the classroom. Teachers had desks but didnt have drawers or school supplies. With the exchange rate factored in, the sale of 500 books would raise enough for the equivalent of $10,000 in supplies, Scott said. The books focus is Nikki, a character loosely based on Greening. Nikki is an American visitor studying education who learns unexpected lessons in Ghana. It would provide a narrative of our experiences in Kyerekrom, Scott said. Because going to another country, that whole idea of privilege as Americans, we think we can do for others but rarely think that others can do for us. So this whole idea of learning things, though we thought we were just going to teach these children, was one of the main storylines. A book signing is scheduled Jan. 6 at the Baylor Bookstore, and the book is available on Amazon and at thechildrenofkyerekrom.weebly.com. New teaching focus Greening, who taught in the school for four days, said the trip affected her post-graduation plan in a major way. On the trip, she realized she wants to focus on education in urban centers and on how childrens backgrounds shape their educational needs, Greening said. When you try to teach kids and you dont really consider their background, its really hard for them to understand and comprehend and get something out of school, and I found that out the hard way through some blunders and awkward moments while teaching them, Greening said. I realized how important it is. Autumn Young, a psychology freshman at Central Texas College in Killeen, illustrated the book. It didnt feel like I was illustrating a book for some random person, Young said. It was very comfortable working with them. I felt like I had known them for years. It didnt feel a job for me. It was a lot of fun. The Children of Kyerekrom is meant to highlight the richness of culture, Scott said. The books Ghanaian characters have the same names as people the Baylor team met, and Youngs illustrations are based on photographs taken there. Scott and Greening will deliver the supplies next year when they return to Ghana. It was really a labor of love, Scott said. McLennan County commissioners named an interim county engineer Tuesday after adopting and posting an updated job description for the permanent position. The update clarifies that the county wants an engineer who has experience with a unit road system, leaving open the possibility of switching from the countys precinct-based road and bridge departments to a unified countywide department. County Engineer Steve Hendrick retires Dec. 31 after 24 years of service. Hendrick worked with three county judges, 11 county commissioners and seven road and bridge foremen. Commissioners named Assistant County Engineer Luke Lammert the interim county engineer. County Judge Scott Felton said several departments contributed to the wording of the new job description. What this does is, it expands the job description in case court decides to have a different structure that would accommodate whoever is hired in that position, Felton said. Felton and Precinct 4 Commissioner Ben Perry have expressed support for the county pursing a switch to a unified county road and bridge department managed by an engineer, moving away from precinct-based operations managed by commissioners. The duo have said the new system would take the politics out of roadwork and could save money. Precinct 1 Commissioner Kelly Snell, however, has said the consolidation of services would not benefit a county the size of McLennan County and would create a lengthier wait list for projects. Human Resources Director Amanda Talbert said the county engineers job description has new language to ensure a candidate can handle the additional responsibilities if commissioners decide to move to the unit road system. Youll have a stronger candidate whether that ever took place or not, Talbert said. Snell said the position needs to be filled regardless of the decision on road and bridge management. I think its imperative we get somebody in here pretty quick, he said. During the meeting, commissioners also recognized Hendrick for his accomplishments and wished him well in retirement. County leaders said one of Hendricks greatest accomplishments during his career was oversight of 35 damaged and obsolete or structurally deficient bridges and coordination with the Texas Department of Transportation to replace 32 of those bridges. ECI identified various parties which have not contested polls since 2005 and has delisted around 200 of them. It believes that most of the parties exist on papers to help people convert their black money into white by accepting donations. ECI will send the list of delisted parties to the I-T authorities seeking action against relevant laws if they are found to be involved in money laundering. ECI has the mandate to register a political party but, it lacks power under electoral laws to deregister any party. ECI used its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution to delist parties for being dormant and not contesting elections for a long time, as its demand to get power to deregister a party is pending with the Law Ministry. There are over 1780 registered, but unrecognised political parties in the country. Besides, there are seven national parties like- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and 58 state parties. The last time the phrase America First was shouted across America, German-Americans such as Charles Lindbergh encouraged America to stay out of Europes problems before World War II. American Firsters railed against internationalists such as Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill and their shrill warnings about Hitlers intentions. American Firsters opposed international organizations and instead called for isolationism. Granted, after Dec. 7, 1941, our nation united to fight fascism in its many forms. Fascism, remember, is not so much an ideology but a methodology. If there was any shared ideology among fascist nations, it might have been Japan First or Germany First or Make Germany/Japan Great Again! Even after our soldiers defeated fascism, reactionary populist ideas remained alive: The John Birch Society and the KKK, for example, preached against the United Nations, NATO, the International Monetary Fund and other international organizations that supposedly surrendered or undermined American sovereignty. Then and now, there was no desire to unite with other nations in long-term efforts of shared interest but rather a go-it-alone attitude no more moral interventions as the worlds policeman. Now, after seven decades of careful diplomacy, Pax Americana is coming to an end as new isolationists and American Firsters begin to undo the careful efforts of previous generations to build peace and free markets through diplomacy instead of loud, blustering, knee-jerk threats. Clearly, the president-elect is charting a new direction for Americas role in the world. Allies? More like moochers not pulling their fair share. Unity shmoonity! Let everyone fend for themselves. For instance, why not call Taiwan and, with one phone call, undo an agreement made between Mao Zedong and President Richard Nixon in the 1970s? Why not put our embassy in Jerusalem? Why not allow Japan and Saudi Arabia and Korea to develop nuclear weapons to defend themselves? Why continue sanctions against Russia for incursions into the Ukraine bad for business. Who needs unity anyway? Britain started the ball rolling with Brexit. Forget the idea of a united Europe and America, which seems to be keeping the ball rolling with this exit from Pax Americana. America will no longer stand for human rights but for quickie trade advantages. And into this vacuum Russia and China will be freer to move without the worlds policeman checking their ambitions. The world is once again a simpler place where everything is a zero-sum game; where every decision is about whats best for us in the short term and not about abstract notions such as democracy and human rights. And why waste money protecting the environment? Contrary to fact-spouting, alarmist scientists, we are all fine today. Why waste money now on troublesome work-place regulations that ensure safety or troublesome, costly regulations fixated on food safety? Reactionary populists have spoken: What America needs now is an authoritarian like Vladimir Putin who will not coddle those who dont conform to our sexual standards or short-term economic ambitions. What we need in America now is not a savvy career civil servant but a strongman who can get things done instead of know-it-all elitist arrogant intellectuals calling for nuance, reason, context and liberal multicultural respect. So here we are, 2017: Weve all just enrolled as students in Trump University. A. Christian van Gorder is associate professor of religion at Baylor University who teaches different religions. Among other things, he worked four years for a Dutch human rights organization called Open Doors International serving persecuted Christians. His many books include No God but God: A Path to Muslim-Christian Discussions About the Nature of God. The time for hocus-pocus schemes to block Donald Trump from becoming our next president is over. The revolt that diehard Trump opponents encouraged a revolt we condemned failed spectacularly. Of the Texas electors to the Electoral College, two broke ranks to vote for Ron Paul (who didnt even run as a candidate in 2016) and John Kasich (who did but correctly spurned any elector protest votes). In the end, Trump cruised easily to victory, enough so that all of us should respectfully address him as president after Jan. 20. Yes, we can think of six reasons to keep the Electoral College and half a dozen why it should be junked along with the old practice of state legislatures once upon a time selecting U.S. senators rather than the people doing so. (Corruption helped end the latter practice.) Yet the Electoral College was acceptable to all before this election, especially to the Democrats. So their protests now ring a little hollow. Speaking of fairy tales, just as those who oppose Trump need to get right with reality, those who back Trump need to accept the fact that widespread voter fraud is fake news. Of the 137.7 million votes in this election, officials in both Democratic-leaning and Republican-leaning states found only a few allegations of voter fraud nationwide. And next? Soon it will be time for Senate confirmation hearings, for which some grilling is justified. Then on to policy debate. Those who supported Trump should stay in touch with their federal lawmakers to ensure he stays true to his word, especially on ways to help not the giant corporations with whopping tax cuts but the little guy who benefits not at all from the grand myth of trickle-down economics. It means Republicans can no longer kick the can down the road on immigration reform. As Congressman Bill Flores informed concerned citizens visiting his Waco office last week, Trump has modulated his ideas to a degree that benefit, for instance, so-called Dreamers brought to the United States as immigrant children. Flores and others have similarly useful ideas on immigration reform. Democrats? Obviously, our nation benefits from a dynamic two-party system, which suggests the need for Democrats to not only reconsider their priorities but also their candidates. One can debate, for instance, whether Democratic lawmakers were smart to re-elect Nancy Pelosi to another term as minority leader in the House. Isnt it time for this party to put forward some new faces and new ideas? In an interview with a Trib editorial board member last Thursday, Flores acknowledged the years ahead signal major changes. No one should doubt this. However, the Founders created a process by which much change happens beginning at the grassroots level. To what degree each citizen opts to play a role is dependent on his or her courage, imagination and drive. Political vigilance is definitely a guidepost in this wildly uncharted political era. ASHLAND In the middle of the night, during family gatherings, in the dead of winter or the heat of summer, Mike Meyer has responded to emergency medical and fire calls in Ashland for more than 35 years. For his years of service, Meyer was recognized last week by the Ashland Rescue Department and the City of Ashland. Meyer had only been out of high school about a year when Jerry Strahan asked him to join the rescue squad. The two worked together at an Ashland business. At first, Meyer hesitated. I had no thoughts, no desire (to join), Meyer said. Strahan eventually talked Meyer into joining. The next year, Strahan approached Meyer about joining the fire department in Ashland. He said, We really need people, Meyer remembered. Once again, Meyer said yes. In doing so, Meyer not only found a passion, he also found a career. Two months before he completed an associates degree in fire science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1990, he joined the Lincoln Fire Department. He is now a captain on Engine 10 in northwest Lincoln. Being both a volunteer and career firefighter has shown Meyer the difference and similarities between the two positions. Going from one to the other can be difficult because of the rules you have to follow, he said. Despite the difficulty, being a career firefighter is one of the reasons Meyer has stayed on as a volunteer first responder in his hometown for so many years. Probably because I do this at my job, he said. Its what I know. Meyer also enjoys the way volunteers in Ashlands fire and rescue departments support each other like family. Ashland, like all other departments, is a family, he said. We fight with each other, we support each other. We try to take care of each other. Also like other departments, Ashland struggles to find people willing to volunteer their time to be on the fire or rescue departments. Only a handful of members are in both departments, like Meyer. Among those double volunteers are Meyers wife, Julletta, and son, Matt. His daughter, Jessica Jewell, is on the fire department. While Meyer is proud that his family members are also volunteer first responders, he also knows that when they go on fire and rescue calls together, it can be stressful, he said. Ive been to more calls that end up bad, he said. One call in particular that involved Meyer and his son still haunts the veteran. They were among the four volunteers responding to a call involving a man burning leaves in windy conditions at Horseshoe Lake outside of Ashland in 2007. Horseshoe Lake resident Stanley Bjorkman began shooting at the firefighters after they told him he would be cited for burning without a permit. Bjorkman shot Rodger Alley in the arm and pointed a gun at Meyer. Right at my head, Meyer remembered. The gun misfired. Meyer and the others took cover. The father and son were able to stay together as law enforcement arrived. Bjorkman barricaded himself in the house. He was eventually shot and apprehended. He later committed suicide while awaiting trial. Fearing not only for his own safety but also for his sons was difficult for Meyer. Theres nothing worse than having a relative, my son, in the same vehicle, in the same location, where someone wants to shoot us, he said. Meyers son followed in his footsteps and chose firefighting as a career. Matt is a member of the Omaha Fire Department. The father has mixed feelings about his sons career choice, but offers advice when needed. I know what hes going to come up against, he said. As a volunteer and career first responder, Meyer has a desire to learn more in order to improve how to help people in times of emergency. Learning different ways people are doing things, I enjoy that, he said. Perhaps his quest to learn as much as he can stems from the fact that training was almost nonexistent when he first started as a volunteer, Meyer said. Back then there wasnt a lot of training other than respond and well tell you what to do when you get there, he said. Even when hed get to a fire or rescue call, he wasnt always given direction. A lot of times they wouldnt even tell you what to do, he added. Eventually, things changed and training became more prevalent for volunteers as the state started mandating training. Having been in a volunteer for over 35 years, Meyer has seen things change in the way training is handled. Emergency medicine was theory-based back then, whereas it is now focused on the practical what actually works. Everything that I learned when I started has changed dramatically, Meyer said. Equipment has also changed over the years, but recently Meyer has noticed that some things are making a comeback. For example, when he joined the Ashland squad, they had a piece of equipment that did CPR on patients. Now they have something called the LUCAS device, which does much the same thing. The things we used to do had fallen out of grace, and now were kind of back to it, he said. Meyers career in the Lincoln Fire Department is coming to an end. He is three-plus years into the fire-year retirement process. He earned a bachelors degree in fire service management last year and plans to stay in the field, perhaps as the fire chief of a smaller paid department. I love the work, he said. While his retirement from LFD is on a set schedule, Meyer has no schedule as far as how long hell stay on as a volunteer first responder in Ashland. I want to stay as long as Im an asset to them, he said. ASHLAND At this time last year, the Ashland-Greenwood school district was contemplating adding staff and creating more classroom space for the growing number of students needing special education. Steps were taken to address these concerns, but the district is still seeing an increasing demand for special education services and will need to take further action, Kristin Fangmeyer, coordinator of special education and student services for the district, told the Board of Education during their regular meeting Monday night. In December 2015, Fangmeyer reported to the board that the district had 165 students with verified disabilities from birth to age 21. There were also 10 students in the evaluation process at that time. This year, the district has 186 students with verified disabilities and another 10 in evaluation. Weve had a big jump again in just a years time, Fangmeyer told the board. The number of students with disabilities that are new to the district has also risen compared to last year. In 2015, 15 of the 64 new transfers came with a special education verification, Fangmeyer said. Last year, 30 percent of students who came to the district came already with an identified disability, she said. This year, there have also been 15 new students with verified disabilities, with another six identified as needing evaluation. The number of evaluations done by Ashland-Greenwood special education staff members is also on the rise. Evaluations are not only done on new students, Fangmeyer said. Students must be reevaluated every three years. So far this school year the special education staff has done a total of 29 evaluations. Weve been averaging close to 60 a year, which is a lot, she added. Steps taken since last year include creating a new elementary classroom focused on meeting the needs of students with significant emotional and behavioral issues. Its a safe place for students with the highest emotional/behavioral needs, Fangmeyer said. The elementary also has a new sensory room for students with emotional/behavioral needs. Its used all the time, Fangmeyer reported. The district has also expanded the responsibilities of the early childhood special education teacher, Janet Rolofsen. She deals mainly with children from birth to kindergarten age, Fangmeyer told the board. At the middle/high school, the new life skills/transition room has been in use for several months. Its been super positive, Fangmeyer said. Meanwhile caseload concerns are being addressed by the addition of a new staff member. The school board approved hiring Kelli Allington as the new special education teacher later in the meeting. Allington is an AGHS graduate who received her education degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln this month. Despite the addition of staff and classroom space, Fangmeyer said she has concerns about the future. Not only is the special needs population rising, student needs are changing and she anticipates the district will see an increase in students with more significant needs. Other concerns include new state regulations that will be put in place next year requiring more extensive in-home evaluations by school staff members. The requirements keep getting more and more intense, Fangmeyer said. "The farming community is already stressed in the state. Now the demon of demonetisation has slowed down the life. The farmers who are yet to get their payments have now been compelled to stand in queues. We reach the bank ATM's early in the morning and remain their till the dark. Crops have failed one after the other and now the note ban has only added insult to the injury. I want to tell the government that we are happy with the cash and don't want to go cashless,"a farmer who hails from Sangrur, Balwinder Singh told India Today. As evident, the farmers in Punjab are not comfortable with the cashless drive due to a variety of reasons. One most of the farmers are very poor and only get monthly old age or social security pensions upto Rs 500 or Rs 1000.One may not use a debit card or mobile banking to withdraw this amount. Second the farmers are illiterate and the villages lack connectivity. "Our kitchen hearth has been blown out by the note ban drive. The drive may help flush the black money but it has badly hit the common man. The cashless economy is for the people who have illegal money. We are being compelled to stand in a queue for our own money," Parmil Singh , a farmer from Barnala said. Punjab's farmers do not want themselves to be considered a mere vote bank .The Bhartiya Kisan Union Punjab ,President Balbir Singh Rajewal said the farmers are politically charged this time and the community as a whole is in distress. The farmers have committed more suicides in the state during the BJP-Akali Dal regime. "The BJP and Akali Dal leaders will think twice before knocking at the doors of Punjab farmers this time. The empty assurances given by the governments only fooled the farmers. We do not want to be fooled every now and then. The lip service will not do .The leaders seeking votes from the community will have to answer what they did to us except giving false assurances," Balbir Singh Rajewal said. State's farmer's not only bore the brunt of spurious pesticides and insecticides recommended by the corrupt Agriculture officials but also the non-payment of the farm produce by the Punjab government. By PTI: Shimla, Dec 20 (PTI) In a setback to Maharshi Markendeshwar Medical College and Hospital (MMMCH) in Solan, the Himachal Pradesh High Court today dismissed a petition filed by it seeking striking down of the amendments to the HP Private Medical Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Act, 2006. In its 42-page judgement delivered today, the division bench of Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan said, "While the Medical Council of India (MCI) has been assigned the paramount role of according recognition, the affiliation is best left to the State Government/ University/examining body." advertisement "...and, therefore, it is beyond the competence of the MCI or the central government to dictate terms to the state insofar as the question of grant of affiliation is concerned or direct the state to affiliate a medical college to a particular university," it said. "We find no merit in this petition and the same is accordingly dismissed along with all applications leaving the parties to bear their own costs," the order said. The petitioner had sought striking down the amendments to sections 3(6), 3(6)(a) and 3(6)(b) of the HP Private Medical Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Act, 2006 as amended vide Amendment Act No.24 of 2015 as null and void being wholly arbitrary, grossly mala fide, in contravention of the law settled by the Supreme Court and in naked breach of the fundamental rights of the petitioners. It sought issuing of orders of appropriate nature that MMMCH or any other intuition of medical streams which may be started by petitioners be governed by the MMU (Establishment and Regulation) Act. The state government had notified the amended act on September 30, 2015 and the amendment to section 3 of the principal Act, for sub-section (6), stated that "If the State Government is satisfied that the institution affiliated to the Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) or any other University has contravened any of the provisions of this Act, it may recommend to that University for withdrawal of recognition or affiliation of such institution". Sub-section 6-a stated that HPU shall have the exclusive power to affiliate private medical education institutions set up in the state and these colleges are "bound to comply with all the rules, directions and notifications issued by the state government". The high court said that recognition and affiliation are separate issues and the moot questions that arise for consideration in the instant petition is as to which authority has the power to decide regarding the affiliation of medical college and upheld the amendments and ruled. PTI PCL SMN --- ENDS --- Indian travellers will now have to show an approval slip obtained post-registration to transport the staff before boarding the aircraft or ship to Hong Kong. By Smita Sharma: Officials in the Ministry of External Affairs sought to allay speculations on Wednesday that Hong Kong's changed visa-on-arrival norm for Indians is a decision forced by Beijing. Starting January 23, 2017, Indians wanting to visit Hong Kong will have to pre-register online to avail the 14-day visa free visit. Indian travellers will now have to show an approval slip obtained post-registration to transport the staff before boarding the aircraft or ship to Hong Kong. The new norms set: The online registration will require personal information, travel history and visit programme in Hong Kong. An assessment of the application will be done by the automated system before granting a slip for travel. As of now, India is among 160 countries whose citizens enjoy visa free travel upto 14 days in Hong Kong, the special administrative region of China. Speculations were rife if the change in visa norm was forced by the mainland, following recent strains in Sino-India relations and Beijing's objections to the Dalai Lama's sharing the stage with President Pranab Mukherjee. Refuting such reports and possibility of India reciprocating the move, a senior Indian diplomatic source told India Today, "As per Hong Kong authorities, too many Indians were overstaying, which is why this move has been taken. But it is not a policy change, rather a temporary restriction." The visa change issue has been a bone of discontent among the nearly 55,000 strong Indian community, which has historical roots there. But the government claims this move is only to restrict illegal immigration. According to Hong Kong authorities, as of October 31 this year, 10,675 cases were pending with the Immigration Department out of which 2,105 are from India. The remaining cases are from Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippine, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Gambia and Nigeria. Of the total cases, around 56 per cent are reportedly illegal immigrants. The sources said that a high percentage of Indians and Indonesians tend to stay back in Hong Kong and then claim economic asylum, while a few hundreds have entered illegally. Contrary to the perception, Hong Kong claims that India has not being singled out but measures against some other countries too are in place, so that genuine visitors are not troubled. Indians form the largest tourist group to Disneyland after Chinese from the mainland. In 2016, there were more than 5.5 lakh Indians visited Hong Kong. advertisement Also read: How Uber CEO Travis Kalanick arrived in India 'without a visa' --- ENDS --- Seksi sadece eglenmek icin yasayabilirim. Yalarm o an hem de deliler gibi. Denizli escort oldugu zaman prezervatif kullandrrms kadnlar, bana ne? Ben yarag prezervatif denen o poset varken yalayamam. O ...Devam icin tklaynz By PTI: Kolkata, Dec 21 (PTI) The IIT Kharagpur director, registrar and other officials of the institute were gheraoed overnight in their offices by a group of students protesting against 20 per cent hike in hostel fee. The decision to hike the fee was taken recently and will be effective from January next year. The protests, which began yesterday, ended this morning after a meeting between the students and management in which an assurance was given that their demands will be looked into. advertisement IIT-KGP Director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, Registrar Pradip Pyne, dean of students and a number of other senior officials were not allowed to leave their office by the students who sat at the gate last night. "We were wanting a discussion with the management over this fee hike. Kharagpur is a cheap place, but the fees are the highest across all IITs. So what is the logic behind the hike?," said one of the protesters. He said recently they were informed about a 20 per cent hike in the hostel fees. The worst affected are the research scholars who get a Rs 25,000 monthly stipend from the elite institution, said the students. "If the stipend is not increased how can we pay the increased hostel fees? Within that small amount we have to manage our food and other living expenses also," said a PhD student. In April this year, a large number of students at IIT Kharagpur had stated a peaceful protest against the HRD Ministrys decision to hike fees.PTI NIK DV --- ENDS --- The European Commission has charged Facebook with providing misleading information during its takeover of the online messaging service WhatsApp, opening the company to a possible fine of 1 per cent of its turnover. However, the statement of objections sent to Facebook will not affect the EC's approval of the $US22 billion ($30.4 billion) merger in 2014, the Commission said in a statement on Tuesday. Facebook becomes the latest Silicon Valley target of EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who has demanded Apple pay back 13 billion in taxes to Ireland and hit Google with two market abuse investigations. The issue regards a WhatsApp privacy policy change in August when it said it would share some users' phone numbers with parent company Facebook, triggering investigations by a number of EU data protection authorities. To be fair, Apple depends on Intel, which still makes key chips for Macs. Like the rest of the PC industry, Apple's innovation and product cycles are sometimes constrained by when Intel produces new chips, a process that's getting more difficult. Making a laptop stand out is also harder these days. But when Apple has tried to leapfrog the competition, it has fallen short. Take the company's attempt to create a longer-lasting battery for the MacBook Pro. Apple engineers wanted to use higher capacity battery packs shaped to the insides of the laptop versus the standard square cells found in most machines. The design would have boosted battery life. In the run-up to the MacBook Pro's planned debut this year, the new battery failed a key test, according to a person familiar with the situation. Rather than delay the launch and risk missing the crucial holiday shopping season, Apple decided to revert to an older design. The change required roping in engineers from other teams to finish the job, meaning work on other Macs languished, the person said. The new laptop didn't represent a game-changing leap in battery performance, and a software bug misrepresented hours of power remaining. Apple has since removed the meter from the top right-hand corner of the screen. In the Mac's heyday, people working on new models could expect a lot of attention from Ive's team. Once a week his people would meet with Mac engineers to discuss ongoing projects. Mac engineers brought prototypes to Ive's studio for review, while his lieutenants would visit the Mac labs to look at early concepts. Those visits have become less frequent since the company began focusing more on more-valuable products like the iPhone and iPad, and the change became even more obvious after the design team's leadership was shuffled last year, according to a person familiar with the situation. In another sign that the company has prioritised the iPhone, Apple re-organised its software engineering department so there's no longer a dedicated Mac operating system team. There is now just one team, and most of the engineers are iOS first, giving the people working on the iPhone and iPad more power. That's part of a broader shift toward making Macs more like iPhones. Apple prioritises features, like thinness and minimal ports, that sell its iPhones and iPads, which generated about 75 per cent of revenue this year. Those are contrary to professional needs, like maximum computing power. Early prototypes of the 12-inch MacBook used the iPhone's Lightning connector, although this was ditched for a more standard USB-C port. There was even a gold MacBook Pro planned, but this was shelved because the colour didn't look good on such a large product. In recent years, Apple managers have also become more likely to float two or more competing ideas, meaning designers and engineers must work on more than one concept at a time. In the past, managers pushed a more singular vision. Engineers are now "asked to develop multiple options in hopes that one of them will be shippable," a person familiar with the matter said. When the company was developing the first 12-inch MacBook, Apple tested two primary prototypes. One, known internally as Stealth Fighter, was lighter. The second, a slightly less ambitious design known as Stealth Bomber, was heavier. The lighter model prevailed, but with engineers developing and testing two competing concepts, they had less time to figure out how to cram all the electronics into a thin slab of aluminum that would hold together. In the end, Apple shipped the laptop in 2015, months after its 2014 goal. For a 2016 MacBook update, some Apple engineers wanted to add a Touch ID fingerprint scanner and a second USB-C port (which would have made some power users happy). The update instead included a new rose gold colour option alongside a standard speed increase. The internal turmoil has taken a toll. More than a dozen engineers and managers working on Mac hardware have left for different Apple teams or other companies in the past year and a half, said people familiar with the situation. Some were looking for a less all-consuming work environment, while others felt the future of Mac hardware was unclear in a world of iPhones and iPads. In 2013, Apple launched a redesigned Mac Pro, a black cylinder with bright white LED lights. It was a powerful desktop machine created partly to cast a halo over the entire Macintosh lineup. The Mac Pro was also the first Apple computer in years to be assembled in the US. Under pressure from politicians to create manufacturing jobs at home, Apple was looking to score political points. The decision caused production headaches though. The Mac Pro's glossy exterior and chrome bevelled edges meant Apple had to make its own manufacturing tools and then train people to run those machines in an assembly plant. This slowed production and constrained Apple's ability to make enough computers to meet demand. Three years on, the Mac Pro is ripe for an upgrade with its chips and connector ports lagging rival products. Because of the earlier challenges, some Apple engineers have raised the possibility of moving production back to Asia, where it's cheaper and manufacturers have the required skills for ambitious products, according to a person familiar with those internal discussions. The political environment is tougher for such a move now. During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump hammered Apple for building most of its products overseas and since his election he has pushed other companies to keep some jobs in the US. Still, Apple hasn't given up on Macs. In a recent company Q&A session, employees asked whether Mac desktop computers remain strategically important. "We have great desktops in our roadmap. Nobody should worry about that," Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said, according to a transcript of the discussion. A Perth man who believed he was putting two sleeping homeless men "out of their misery" when he murdered one and attempted to kill the other has been sentenced to life in prison. Daniel James Cohen, 31, murdered homeless man Ian John Wilson when he struck him to the head four times with a hammer as he slept on the steps of the Metrochurch in Perth on July 9. Murder victim Ian John Wilson was killed while sleeping on the streets outside a church. Credit:WA Police He was sentenced on Wednesday to a minimum 26 years jail in the Supreme Court of Western Australia with Justice Michael Corboy ruling he was a high risk of reoffending. The court had previously heard Cohen set out to kill the night he murdered Mr Wilson on July 9. Michigan: After Jacob Matthew Allemon, an Uber driver in Michigan, approached the couple he was to transport Saturday, one of the passengers rapped on his window, police said. Allemon, 23, took the action as a sign of disrespect, investigators said. First-time Uber driver Jacob Matthew Allemon. Credit:Bloomfield Township Police The situation got only worse, eventually spiralling into a physical confrontation between Allemon and the 49-year-old passenger, police said. Allemon is now accused of stabbing the man, who was with his wife at the time. The victim suffered stab wounds to his chest, back and face. Allemon was taken into custody and charged with assault with the intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, the Police Department said. San Francisco: Facebook, Google and Twitter are being sued by the families of three victims slain in the mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub for allegedly providing "material support" to the Islamic State terrorist group. The lawsuit, first reported by Fox News, was filed on Monday in federal court in the eastern district of Michigan on behalf of the families of Tevin Crosby, Javier Jorge-Reyes and Juan Ramon Guerrero. Candles during a vigil to pay tribute to the victims of the Orlando mass shooting in June. Credit:AP It is the latest to target popular internet services for making it too easy for the Islamic State to spread its message. In June, the family of a California college student killed in last year's terrorist attacks in Paris sued Facebook, Google and Twitter. Keith Altman, the attorney representing the three families in the Orlando nightclub lawsuit, also represents the family of that student, Nohemi Gonzalez, in the Paris terrorist attacks lawsuit. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, uses popular internet services such as Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube to spread propaganda, to attract and train new recruits, to celebrate terrorist attacks and publicise executions. IIT Kharagpur students go on a hunger strike against a fee hike which will make the institution the costliest IIT in the whole country. By Manogya Loiwal : A sudden hike in the registration fees in one of the most reputed educational institutions, IIT Kharagpur, has led to agitation among the students. Over 200 students of IIT Kharagpur decided to protest against the respective authorities after they received a notification regarding the fee hike. While all the students were protesting since Monday afternoon in front of the Director's office, eight of them decided to choose the tough way through and ended up sitting on a hunger strike. advertisement The authorities hiked the fee from Rs 29000 to Rs 37000 for their upcoming spring semester which starts from January. "The registration fee has gone up suddenly from Rs 29000 to Rs 37000 directly which is a hike of Rs.8000. There are several reasons for the same which are totally illegal," informed Sayan Dasgupta, a student. The students sent a petition on December 14, 2016 to the Director of IIT Kharagpur which was signed by around 1200 students. In their petition, the students asked the authorities to roll back the fee hike along with their other demands. While in some institutions, a fee hike cannot be approved without an approval of the student representatives, the students of IIT Kharagpur were kept in the dark and the notification only came out when the registration process started. Also Read: Despite demonetisation, IIT Kharagpur records 1043 placements in two weeks The authorities termed the protest by the students as undemocratic. Therefore, the students decided to initiate a protest rally from Technology Students Gymkhana, IIT Kharagpur and finally sat on a strike outside the Director's office. "First of all, this hike to Rs.37000 makes it the costliest IIT in the whole country when Kharagpur is one of the cheapest cities in India. They are using government employees, the HMC (Hall Management Centre) employees are regular staffs of the government. So they are taking their salaries from us and moreover they are implementing the seventh pay commission on their salaries which is totally illegal, Seventh pay commission has not been implemented. The tax of GST is being implemented on the food; GST cannot be implemented before April in India. There are several other reasons they are using these to hike the fee," explained, Sayan, a protesting student. The strike outside the Director's office forced the Director and the Registrar to be locked inside the office for an entire night. A hike of Rs 2000 to Rs 3000 is a regular affair in IIT, but such a huge leap enforced the students to object the decision made by the authorities. advertisement "This is not the first time, there is a regular trend in IIT to hike the fees by Rs 2000 to Rs 3000 in each semester and we have kept quiet. However, this time it has gone up by a whopping Rs 8000 and we won't keep quiet now. Students are protesting since morning" said, Sayan. It has been more than 24 hours since the students decided to go on a strike and are determined to continue if they don't get a rapid response from the authorities. Also Read: Sona Mohapatra slams IIT Bombay: Calls college sexist and training ground for worst kind of 'boys clubs' Sayan also added, "We have written a letter to the Director, we have requested him to arrange for an open house meeting and if the Director arranges the meeting we'll stop the protest. In the meeting we will ask him to give a complete stay order on the registration link that will only be open on 26th and 4th." --- ENDS --- Amman: The Islamic State terrorist group has claimed responsibility for a terrorist attack in the southern Jordanian city of Karak that killed 10 people, including the head of the military's special forces, according to an organisation that monitors militant groups. As the authorities continue their investigation into the Sunday attack, three gendarmes and a police officer have been shot and killed in Karak while Jordanian security forces conducted raids, a spokesman for the Jordanian Public Security Department said. In the statement released by the Islamic State, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, the militants said four fighters, "by virtue of God alone" and described as "caliphate soldiers" carried out the attack Sunday using automatic weapons and hand grenades. Seven Jordanian security officers, a Canadian tourist and two Jordanian civilians were killed, and four attackers also died in the clashes. The assault began at a house where the gunmen were staying. They then fled and attacked a police station, before moving on to Karak's ancient crusader castle, a popular tourist destination in the city. Moscow: Turkish and Russian diplomats on Tuesday declared their intention to halt the civil war in Syria, showing no signs of a rift the day after the Russian ambassador to Turkey was assassinated in Ankara in a brazen shooting. A tripartite conference here, held together with Iran, was hailed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as a way to "overcome the stagnation in efforts on the Syrian settlement". The comment was a dig at the United States, absent from the Moscow meetings despite its own involvement in the Syrian conflict. The three nations issued a statement - which Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu called the "Moscow Declaration" - calling for an expanded cease-fire for which they would act as guarantors. "Iran, Russia and Turkey are ready to facilitate the drafting of an agreement, which is already being negotiated, between the Syrian government and the opposition, and to become its guarantors," the declaration said. The three countries "have invited all other countries with influence over the situation on the ground to do the same". Ankara: On Monday, Mevlut Mert Altintas checked in to a hotel in central Ankara and called in sick to the local riot police unit where he had worked for the past 2 years. He said he was unwell and would bring a doctor's certificate upon his return, a senior security official said. Turkish police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas shoots and kills Andrei Karlov Russian Ambassador to Turkey. Credit:AP Then he shaved, put on a smart black suit, and walked to the Ankara Centre for Contemporary Art, flashing his police ID to sidestep security. "He walked from the hotel ... to the gallery. He showed his police ID at the entrance," the official said. Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and PM Dmitry Medvedev after Putin's state-of-the-nation address when Putin hoped for mending a rift with the US and pooling efforts in fighting terrorism. Credit:AP A Trump transition official declined to say where Russia fits into the president-elect's defence priorities, but said the memo was "not comprehensive". "For the media to speculate that this list of issues represents all of the president-elect's priorities is completely erroneous and misleading," said the Trump official, who insisted on anonymity. Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, picked for US secretary of state. Credit:AP A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the incoming Trump administration's priorities, but said the transition team had been briefed on issues related to Russia. "We would leave it up to them to describe their priorities," Gordon Trowbridge, the deputy Pentagon press secretary told FP. "We have provided them with multiple briefings that touched on Russia policy. That's the extent of our knowledge on their priorities." Since the beginning of his campaign, Trump has openly argued that an improved relationship with Russia is in the interest of the United States, especially relating to counter-terrorism efforts in Iraq and Syria. "Wouldn't it be nice if we got together with Russia and knocked the hell out of ISIS?," Trump said in July, a line he frequently reiterated on the campaign trail. Last week, he nominated ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, arguing that the oilman's extensive business dealings in Russia would be a major asset in international negotiations. Under Tillerson's leadership, Exxon has lobbied against US sanctions imposed on Moscow over its armed incursion into Ukraine and seizing of Crimea in 2014. The oil giant stands to profit from deals in Russia worth billions of dollars if the sanctions are lifted. Trump's messaging throughout the campaign markedly improved GOP attitudes on Russia, according to recent polling. But the US foreign policy establishment - including large swaths of employees at the Pentagon, State Department and CIA - remains deeply skeptical of Moscow. Steven Pifer, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who spent 25 years as a State Department diplomat, said the memo was "both surprising and concerning . . . given what the Russians are doing against Ukraine, their military modernisation effort, the bellicose tone we've heard from Moscow the past three years, and NATO's effort to bolster conventional deterrence and defence capabilities in the Baltic region." Last February, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper emphasised that the Islamic State terrorist group isn't nearly as threatening to US interests as Moscow. The Islamic State "can't inflict mortal damage to the United States," he said. "Russia can." That outlook is reflected in how the federal government has directed billions of dollars of defence spending. The Pentagon's chief weapons buyer earlier this month said that US defence budgets are now focused primarily on countering Moscow. The White House earmarked an extra $US3.4 billion ($4.6 billion) in the 2014 defence spending bill to deploy two more US Army brigades to eastern Europe - along with hundreds of tanks and heavily armoured vehicles pre-positioned for use in case of war with Russia. The Pentagon and its NATO allies have revamped some training exercises specifically to replicate fighting Russian armed forces, head of the US Army in Europe, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, told FP. Hundreds of American, British, and Canadian troops are deployed to western Ukraine, where they're training Ukrainian forces who are seeing daily combat with Russian-trained and equipped separatists in the country's east. Many of those separatist units are led by Russian officers, Hodges said. Under a Trump administration, those initiatives could be scaled back, but not without a fight. Republican hawks in Congress, including Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and John McCain of Arizona, have pledged to oppose a softer line on Russia. Last week, Rubio openly cast doubt on his support for Tillerson in what will likely be a testy confirmation battle. Others said it was too soon to judge the posture that Trump's Pentagon would take toward Russia as retired General James Mattis, his pick for defence secretary, hasn't been confirmed yet. "I would give this a little bit more time to be fleshed out and to hear more directly from General Mattis about what his priorities will be," said Heather Conley, a scholar at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. A defence official with knowledge of the transition process confirmed that the Trump transition team has met with relevant officials tasked with Russia policy at the Pentagon, but said: "There's not a lot of back and forth, it's been mostly 'how are you set up'." A second Pentagon official called the meetings professional, but said it was hard to discern the shape of the next administration's policies before a defence secretary is in place. Patrick Norman Pat Chapman is a 34-year-old, Caucasian male who was last known to be in Piedmont which is near the area of Greenville, Missouri on May 10, 2020. Pat had stayed the night with a friend and his wife at their home. In the early morning when the friend woke to go to work. Pat was gone in his own Burgundy color 1995 Ford Escort. That is the last anyone was known to have seen him. The vehicle was later recovered on May 29, 2020 in Mill Spring, Missouri. By PTI: Chennai, Dec 21 (PTI) In perhaps the first case of a top bureaucrat being raided, the house and office of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary was today searched by Income Tax officials who claimed to have recovered Rs 30 lakh cash in new notes and 5 kgs of gold besides getting "disclosure" about Rs 5 crore of unaccounted income. advertisement With about 35 personnel of CRPF providing security, around 100 Income Tax sleuths, launched the raids as early as 6 am at 15 places, including the office and the residence of Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, his son Vivek and some relatives in Chennai and Chittoor in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, IT sources said. A top Income Tax official said Rs 30 lakh in cash in new notes and 5 kgs of gold were recovered during the raids. "Disclosure" of Rs 5 crore of unaccounted income allegedly by Vivek was also obtained, he added. Rao or his son could not be contacted for their comments. The IT action came in connection with a case related to the biggest cash haul of new notes post demonetisation after the department raided some sand mining operators of Tamil Nadu here. "We proceeded (to carry out the raids) on the basis of evidence which includes documents, notings and others pointing to receipt of income by Rao and his son to the tune of about Rs 16 crore to Rs 17 crore," the Income Tax official said. The search locations included the residence of Rao here, his kin and associates, besides his chamber at the Secretariat, he said. The searches, top I-T sources said, were launched against Raos son Vivek Papisetty and his relatives, including his father-in-law based in Chittoor. To a query on the type of evidence they had, the official said, "We have lots of evidence, otherwise, how we can conduct searches." He referred to the recent seizure of Rs 135 crore in cash and 177 kg of gold from sand mining baron Shekar Reddy and Srinivasulu and said "through that (operation) too we have evidence", without elaborating. Reddy and and his associate K Srinivasulu were today arrested by CBI and remanded to judicial custody by a court here. PTI VGN/NES SKL BN DIP SMN SK AKK --- ENDS --- By PTI: From Yoshita Singh United Nations, Dec 21 (PTI) Paying tributes to Cubas late leader Fidel Castro, India said Cubans have achieved notable success in education and healthcare under his leadership despite outside pressures and Havanas struggle for the global south brought it and the Caribbean island nation together. "Fidel Castro indeed towered on the global stage. Under his leadership the people of Cuba achieved notable development successes in areas such as education and healthcare, despite outside pressures," Indias Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said at a special commemorative meeting in the General Assembly yesterday to pay tribute to the late commander of the Cuban revolution. advertisement Akbaruddin said Cuba gave a "significant voice" for the cause of the global south, and this is what drew India and Cuba together. Over the years, the two nations have worked together closely at the UN to promote the aspects of economic equity and social justice in international relations, he added. Nearly 30 envoys representing regional groups and nations paid tributes to Castro, who died at age 90, and his indelible legacy during the ceremony, presided over by General Assembly President Peter Thomson. While speakers included Russia, South Africa, Iran and China, there were no representatives from Western nations. Akbaruddin said Indians learnt about Castros demise last month "with a sense of loss." Prime Minister Narendra Modi had described Castro as one of the most iconic personalities of the 20th century and had captured the emotions of Indias one billion people when he stated that the country mourns the loss of a "great friend", Akbaruddin added. As a mark of respect to the legendary leader, members of both houses of the Indian Parliament had paid tributes to the late leader. The Indian envoy told the General Assembly that India was one of the first countries to recognise Castros government after the Cuban revolution in 1959. "Fidel Castro was a stalwart of the Non Aligned Movement during the Cold War years, when India and Cuba commenced their close partnership to advance the interests of developing countries," Akbaruddin said. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in his message on the occasion said, Castro was "one of the most important Latin American leaders of the 20th century" and "the most influential shaper of Cuban history since his own hero, Jose Marti, struggled for Cuban independence in the late 19th century." The outgoing UN Chief said as president, Castro turned Cuba into a "regional model of access to education and public health" and "until his last days he was deeply concerned about the future of humanity and challenges of the current times." Castro left "a major imprint on his country and global politics," Ban said in remarks read by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca. Lauding Castros "charismatic and wise leadership," Akbaruddin said India will always "remember and cherish our friendship" with the "strong leader of a resilient nation." PTI YAS AMS --- ENDS --- advertisement By PTI: From Yoshita Singh United Nations, Dec 21 (PTI) Paying tributes to Cubas late leader Fidel Castro, India said Cubans under him have achieved notable success in areas like education and health despite "outside pressures" and Havanas "significant voice" for the cause of the Global South brought the two countries together. "Fidel Castro indeed towered on the global stage. Under his leadership the people of Cuba achieved notable development successes in areas such as education and healthcare, despite outside pressures," Indias Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said at a special commemorative meeting in the General Assembly yesterday to pay tribute to the late commander of the Cuban revolution. advertisement Akbaruddin said Cuba gave a "significant voice" for the cause of the Global South, and this is what drew India and Cuba together. Over the years, the two nations have worked together closely at the UN to promote the aspects of economic equity and social justice in international relations, he added. Nearly 30 envoys representing regional groups and nations paid tributes to Castro, who died at age of 90 on November 25, and his indelible legacy during the ceremony, presided over by General Assembly President Peter Thomson. While speakers included Russia, South Africa, Iran and China, there were no representatives from Western nations. Akbaruddin said Indians learnt about Castros demise last month "with a sense of loss." Prime Minister Narendra Modi had described Castro as one of the most iconic personalities of the 20th century and had captured the emotions of Indias one billion people when he stated that the country mourns the loss of a "great friend", Akbaruddin added. As a mark of respect to the legendary leader, members of both houses of the Indian Parliament had paid tributes to the late leader. The Indian envoy told the General Assembly that India was one of the first countries to recognise Castros government after the Cuban revolution in 1959. "Fidel Castro was a stalwart of the Non Aligned Movement during the Cold War years, when India and Cuba commenced their close partnership to advance the interests of developing countries," Akbaruddin said. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in his message on the occasion said, Castro was "one of the most important Latin American leaders of the 20th century" and "the most influential shaper of Cuban history since his own hero, Jose Marti, struggled for Cuban independence in the late 19th century." The outgoing UN Chief said as president, Castro turned Cuba into a "regional model of access to education and public health" and "until his last days he was deeply concerned about the future of humanity and challenges of the current times." Castro left "a major imprint on his country and global politics," Ban said in remarks read by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca. Lauding Castros "charismatic and wise leadership," Akbaruddin said India will always "remember and cherish our friendship" with the "strong leader of a resilient nation." PTI YAS AMS AKJ AMS --- ENDS --- advertisement Yaks are being used along the LAC in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh for strategically pivotal logistic support duties. By Jitendra Bahadur Singh: Indo Tibetan Border Police has to survive in extremely tough freezing conditions and animals such as ponies and mules help in maintaining logistic supply of rations, ammunition, defence stores and even drinking water for troops. ITBP has become the first force to induct yaks for strategically pivotal logistic support duties and the animal is used along the LAC in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Photo: India Today advertisement The Yaks act as "ships of the cold ITBP deserts" and are employed by the ITBP Veterinary Wing which works in the two states to keep the axis of maintenance (AOM) alive. Photo: India Today Moreover, ITBP Vet and Animal transport troops take good care of the Yaks as these creatures face gradual decline. The animal is also considered divine by tribes in remote areas and ITBP's efforts to conserve and provide care to Yaks have brought goodwill from the "pipans" or community leaders of various far flung villages. Photo: India Today In fact, Chinese villagers too have been sending messages of support to ITBP for their caring efforts in conserving the Yaks as they revere the Yak not only as an economic asset but also a cultural icon. Photo: India Today --- ENDS --- By PTI: Mumbai, Dec 21 (PTI) Actress Priyanka Chopra is happy to be back home in Mumbai after having a busy year shooting for her American show "Quantico" in the US. The 34-year-old star expressed her excitement on social media by sharing a picture of her pet dog Brando, who gave a grand welcome to her. "Happy welcome.. Brando baby... happy to be home... Nothing like it," she captioned the photo. advertisement In another post she said, "So funny how some things dont change but yet everything becomes different... #backhome #backtowork #lovemumbai #morningmusings." The "Bajirao Mastaani" star also retweeted a picture, where she can be seen posing for Indian paparazzi during a red carpet event, here. "Its nice to be back," she wrote alongside the photograph. PTI SSN SSN --- ENDS --- Your Ultimate Investing Toolkit Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools: Portfolio Monitoring Top Stock Lists Premium Reports Stock Screeners Live News Feed Premium Support Free for your first month. The Progressive Corporation, an insurance holding company, provides personal and commercial auto, personal residential and commercial property, general liability, and other specialty property-casualty insurance products and related services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property. The Personal Lines segment writes insurance for personal autos and recreational vehicles (RV). This segment's products include personal auto insurance; and special lines products, including insurance for motorcycles, ATVs, RVs, watercrafts, snowmobiles, and related products. The Commercial Lines segment provides auto-related primary liability and physical damage insurance, and business-related general liability and property insurance for autos, vans, pick-up trucks, and dump trucks used by small businesses; tractors, trailers, and straight trucks primarily used by regional general freight and expeditor-type businesses, and long-haul operators; dump trucks, log trucks, and garbage trucks used by dirt, sand and gravel, logging, and coal-type businesses; and tow trucks and wreckers used in towing services and gas/service station businesses; as well as non-fleet and airport taxis, and black-car services. The Property segment writes residential property insurance for homeowners, other property owners, and renters, as well as offers personal umbrella insurance, and primary and excess flood insurance. The company also offers policy issuance and claims adjusting services; and acts as an agent to homeowner general liability, workers' compensation insurance, and other products. In addition, it provides reinsurance services. The company sells its products through independent insurance agencies, as well as directly on Internet through mobile devices, and over the phone. The Progressive Corporation was founded in 1937 and is headquartered in Mayfield, Ohio. Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. provides technical, professional, and construction services. The company's Aerospace, Technology, Environmental and Nuclear segment offers scientific, engineering, construction, nuclear, environmental, and technical support services to the aerospace, defense, technical, and automotive industries. Its Buildings, Infrastructure and Advanced Facilities segment develops/rehabilitates plans for highways, bridges, transit, tunnels, airports, railroads, intermodal facilities, and maritime or port projects; develops or rehabilitates critical water resource systems, water/wastewater conveyance systems, and flood defense projects; and provides engineering design, construction management, design build, and operations and maintenance. This segment also designs and constructs buildings; offers consulting, engineering, procurement, construction management, and delivery services for life sciences clients; and provides services relating to modular construction and other consulting and strategic planning services, as well as offers services in containment, barrier technology, locally controlled environments, building systems automation, off-the-site design, and fabrication of facility modules. The company's Energy, Chemicals and Resources segment offers services relating to onshore and offshore oil and gas production facilities, processing facilities, gathering systems, and transmission pipelines and terminals; feasibility/economic studies, technology evaluation, conceptual engineering, front end loading, detailed engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance, and commissioning services; and engineering, procurement, and construction solutions. This segment also provides services, such as manufacturing complex, expansions, modifications, and management of plant relocations; construction management and field construction services; and services to operate and maintain facilities. The company was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The following companies are subsidiares of PerkinElmer: 2Cure LLC, Analytica of Branford, Applied Biosystems, Arnel Inc., ArtusLabs, Beijing Huaan Magnech Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Testing Lab Co. Ltd., Beijing OUMENG Biotechnology Co. Ltd., Bio Evolution SAS, BioLegend, BioLegend CNS Inc., BioLegend China Beijing Ltd., BioLegend Europe B.V., BioLegend France SAS, BioLegend GmbH, BioLegend Inc., BioLegend Japan KK, BioLegend Shenzhen Ltd., BioLegend Taiwan Ltd., BioLegend UK Ltd., BioLegend Ventures LLC, Bioo Scientific Corporation, Biosense Technologies Pvt Ltd., Boulder Diagnostics Europe GmbH, Caliper Life Sciences, Caliper Life Sciences Inc., Cambridge Research & Instrumentation Inc., CambridgeSoft, Ceiba Solutions, Chengdu PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Cisbio Asia Pacific Ltd, Cisbio Bioassays SAS, Cisbio China Ltd., Cisbio.com, DIA.Metra S.R.L., DNA Laboratories Sdn. Bhd., Dani Analitica S.r.l., Dexela, Dharmacon Inc., EUROIMMUN AG, EUROIMMUN Brasil Medicina Diagnostica Ltda., EUROIMMUN Diagnostics Espana S.L., EUROIMMUN France SAS, EUROIMMUN Hangzhou Medical Laboratory Diagnostics Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Italia Diagnostica Medica S.r.l., EUROIMMUN Japan Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics Canada Inc., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics China Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Laboratory Diagnostics South Africa Pty Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika AG, EUROIMMUN Polska Sp. z o.o., EUROIMMUN Portugal Unipessoal Lda., EUROIMMUN Schweiz AG, EUROIMMUN South East Asia Pte Ltd., EUROIMMUN Tianjin Medical Diagnostic Technology Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Turkey Tibbi Laboratuar Teshisleri A.S., EUROIMMUN UK Ltd., EUROIMMUN US Inc., EUROIMMUN US Real Estate LLC, Geospiza, Guangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Hangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Horizon Diagnostics Limited, Horizon Discovery, Horizon Discovery Biosciences Limited, Horizon Discovery Group Ltd., Horizon Discovery Inc., Horizon Discovery KK, Horizon Discovery Limited, Horizon Genomics GmbH, IDS Brasil Diagnosticos Ltda., Immunetics Inc., Immunodiagnostic Systems, Immunodiagnostic Systems Deutschland GmbH, Immunodiagnostic Systems France SAS, Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings Limited, Immunodiagnostic Systems Inc., Immunodiagnostic Systems Limited, Immunodiagnostic Systems SA, Inochem S.A. de C. V., Integromics S.L., Jiangsu Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., LabMetrix Technologies, Labtronics, Nexcelom Bioscience, Nexcelom Bioscience Holdings LLC, Nexcelom Bioscience Instruments Shanghai Co. 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Bhd., Perkin Elmer Yuhan Hoesa, Perkin-Elmer Argentina S.R.L., Perkin-Elmer de Mexico S.A., PerkinElmer Argentina Holdings LLC, PerkinElmer Automotive Research Inc., PerkinElmer BV, PerkinElmer CV Holdings LLC, PerkinElmer Cellular Technologies Germany GmbH, PerkinElmer Danmark A/S, PerkinElmer Diagnostics Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Diagnostics Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Espana S.L., PerkinElmer Finance Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Finland Oy, PerkinElmer Genetics Inc., PerkinElmer Genomics Sweden AB, PerkinElmer Germany Diagnostics GmbH, PerkinElmer Global Diagnostics S.C.A., PerkinElmer Global Financing S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Health Sciences B.V., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Canada Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences FZ-LLC, PerkinElmer Health Sciences Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Puerto Rico LLC, PerkinElmer Health Sciences Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer Healthcare Diagnostics Shanghai Co. 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Ltd., PerkinElmer SAS, PerkinElmer Saglk ve Cevre Bilimleri Ltd., PerkinElmer Schweiz AG, PerkinElmer Shanghai Equity Investment Fund L.P., PerkinElmer Shanghai Equity Investment Fund Management Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Shared Services Sp. z o.o., PerkinElmer Singapore Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer South Africa Pty Ltd., PerkinElmer Sverige AB, PerkinElmer Taiwan Corporation, PerkinElmer UK Holdings Ltd., PerkinElmer VertriebsgmbH, PerkinElmer chemagen Technologie GmbH, PerkinElmer do Brasil Ltda., Perten Instruments, Perten Instruments AB, Perten Instruments GmbH, Perten Instruments of Australia Pty Ltd., Qognit Inc., RHS Ltd, RayAl Ltd., SIRION Biotech, SIRION Biotech GmbH, SIRION Biotech International Inc., Sage Labs LLC, Shandong Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Haoyuan Biotech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Signature Genomic Laboratories, Singapore Biosciences Pte Ltd., Solus Scientific Solutions Ltd., SonoVol Inc., Suomen Bioanalytiikka Oy, Surendra Genetic Labs, Suzhou PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Suzhou Sym-Bio LifeScience, Suzhou Sym-Bio Lifescience Co. Ltd., Synthetx Limited, Tulip Diagnostics, Tulip Diagnostics Pvt Ltd., Vanadis Diagnostics, Vanadis Diagnostics AB, ViaCell, ViaCord LLC, VisEn Medical, VisEn Medical Inc., Wallac Oy, Wellesley B.V., Xenogen Corporation, ZeLab SAS, and chemagen Biopolymer-Technologie AG. Read More If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now! Submit Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Dec. 21, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY By West Kentucky Star Staff Dec. 21, 2016 | 06:47 AM | PADUCAH, KY Western Kentucky's largest Christmas light displays have already collected tons of canned goods for deserving families for the holidays, but you can still donate on your next visit. All three of the decorated parks in Paducah, Draffenville and Murray will continue to help stock the shelves of local food pantries to provide assistance to more families in 2017. The lights will keep twinkling at all three parks through the end of the year. Food donations will also be accepted until the 31st at Mike Miller Park in Draffenville to support Marshall County Needline. Noble Park in Paducah will collect until the end of the year for Paducah Cooperative Ministry, Family Service Society, the Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul Society. At Central Park in Murray, food donations will be taken until Christmas Day. Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. By PTI: chief Malda (WB), Dec 21 (PTI) BJP state unit President Dilip Ghosh today said he did not see any reason why there cannot be IT raids at the residence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee if there is ground for such exercise, similar to that at the home of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao in Chennai. advertisement "I am not the authority. But if there can be Income Tax raids at the residence of Rao backed up by proofs, there can also be smilar raids at the home of Banerjee provided they (IT department) think so. Im not saying this will happen, it is their prerogative, but since you asked me the question this is how I look at the issue," he told reporters after a party programme. In a caustic remark, Ghosh said while Banerjee draped herself in white saree, her party was covered in the colour of black money. "Mamata didi wears white saree but she is surrounded by people in her party who have all been tarred with the colour of black money. What does that signify? Is she clean?" Ghosh asked. To TMC leaders criticism about his recent remarks on Banerjee for which he had also apologised in the Assembly, Ghosh countered, "I dont need to learn decency from TMC." Blaming the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government for keeping vast areas along Indo-Bangladesh border unfenced, he said will take up the issue with Home Minister Rajnath Singh. He claimed that demonetisation has led to a complete halt in fake currency and cross-border gold biscuit smuggling and requested people to have a little more patience for supply of money to regularise. PTI CORR SUS AAR --- ENDS --- By West Kentucky Star Staff Dec. 20, 2016 | 06:06 PM | HENDERSON, KY Gov. Matt Bevin Tuesday announced Tyson Chicken Inc., a subsidiary of Tyson Foods Inc., will expand its Henderson County operation with a $13.5 million project expected to create 66 jobs.Tyson is once again proving its strong commitment to Kentuckys economy. The jobs created by this investment from one of the most recognized names in protein production will further strengthen Kentuckys thriving food and beverage industry, Gov. Bevin said. Were proud that Tyson Foods and its employees help feed the world from Robards, Ky. We are grateful that the companys growing presence will continue to support Henderson Countys economy.With the project, Tyson plans to double its thigh-deboning capacity as well as replace a freezer on its production line. The company will also add 24 trimming stations, which will create the overall need for new employees. Company executives expect the positions will include packers, mechanics, supervisors and quality assurance technicians, among others.This is an investment in our plant and in our people, said Noel White, president of poultry for Tyson Foods. We appreciate doing business in Kentucky and thank the KEDFA for all it has done to make this project possible.Tyson Chicken has been part of the Robards community since 1995 and produces quick-frozen chicken products. The facility currently employs 1,200 Kentuckians. Founded in 1935 and headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas, Tyson is the worlds largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef and pork, and the second-largest food production company in the Fortune 500.Henderson County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider said the companys continued commitment to the community is a positive sign for the regions future growth.Tyson has consistently been one of the regions largest employers, and they continue to invest in their local facilities and workforce, which is tremendously appreciated, he said. The addition of new jobs is terrific and will offer new opportunities to the residents of Henderson, Webster, McLean and Union counties alike. I am encouraged by, and thankful for, Tysons confidence in our regions people, our communities and the agencies and governments that support them.To encourage investment and job growth in the community, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority in June 2015 preliminarily approved Tyson for tax incentives through the Kentucky Business Investment program. It is anticipated the agreement will be modified at the time of final approval to reflect the additional investment and job growth. By Kentucky News Network Dec. 21, 2016 | 12:35 PM | FRANKFORT, KY A new report reveals how little Kentucky is spending on smoking prevention, despite a multi-million-dollar settlement from tobacco companies.Kentucky will collect $361 million this year from taxes and the annual payout from the 1998 agreement between states and large tobacco companies. Yet, just over 4% of that money will go toward preventing tobacco use.The CDC recommends Kentucky spend more than $56 million on prevention. According to the report, Kentucky will spend $2.4 million.Ellen Hahn, Director of the Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy, said, "Our tobacco program is woefully under-funded. It always has been. There is so much we don't do that we could do."The report places Kentucky 37th among states for the amount of tobacco revenue spent on smoking prevention.John Schachter from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, says it's routine for state lawmakers to take money from the tobacco settlement fund and apply it to other purposes."Overall, this year, the states will collect over $26 billion from the state tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but they're currently only spending $492 million - that's less than 2 percent - to fight tobacco use," Schachter said.The report estimates that in Kentucky alone, the tobacco industry spends $266 million a year on marketing - 113 times more than what the state spends preventing tobacco use. Rita Redmond was a true lady who felt that every pupil had something to gift to the world THINK YOU'VE WON THE PCH SWEEPSTAKES? SHERIFF'S DEPT. SAYS IT'S PROBABLY A SCAM Holiday scams are in full swing and scammers are ready to take your money over the holidays, warns Henderson County Sheriff Charles McDonald. While the well-known Internal Revenue Service scam may have slowed down, scammers have once again shifted into high gear, pretending to be spreading holiday cheer from Publishers Clearing House right before Christmas. Con artists use this time of year as an opportunity to trick people into thinking they have won several thousand dollars a week for life from Publishers Clearing House. Sheriff McDonald advises that many Henderson County residents have been receiving phone calls from someone claiming they are winners in the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. The caller will tell the supposed winner they need to pay a sum of money in order to receive the grand prize. The winner is told to send the pre-paid taxes or fee through a Western Union wire transfer or a green dot card from Wal-Mart. This is a scam, warns Sheriff McDonald. Dont become a victim and never give out your name, your personal information or your bank account information. Below are some tips directly from Publishers Clearing House addressing the latest scam that may come from social media, phone calls or even the U.S. mail (http://blog.pch.com/blog/2014/02/25/beware-of-publishers-clearing-house-scams/): 1. If someone contacts you claiming to be from Publishers Clearing House, and tells you that youve won a prize award then asks you to send a payment or money card in order to claim the prize STOP! You have not heard from the real Publishers Clearing House. ITS A SCAM! At Publishers Clearing House the winning is always free and you NEVER have to pay to claim a prize award. 2. If you receive an email notifying you that you have won a major prize in the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes, DONT BE FOOLED: ITS A SCAM! Publishers Clearing House does NOT send e-mails notifying consumers that they have won a major prize. If you win a major prize in our sweepstakes (like our February 28th SuperPrize), youll know when the Prize Patrol shows up at your door with the Big Check. 3. If you receive a phone call from someone claiming to be from Publishers Clearing House and are asked to send money, pay a fee or pre-pay taxes to enter, collect or claim a sweepstakes prize, DONT BE FOOLED: ITS A SCAM! You have not heard from the real Publishers Clearing House. The call you received was most likely from a fraudulent sweepstakes scam operation. Again, at Publishers Clearing House the winning is always free. 4. If someone from Publishers Clearing House sends you a friend request on Facebook, DONT BE FOOLED: ITS A SCAM! The Prize Patrol will NEVER send friend requests to you on Facebook. Moreover, the PCH Prize Patrol members (Danielle Lam, Dave Sayer, and Todd Sloane) never send private messages on Facebook. In addition, Publishers Clearing House does not notify its winners through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or any other social media website. Once the 50-day period, which PM Modi had sought from people to replenish cashless ATMs with new currency notes is over,Nitish Kumar's party will be reviewing its stand on demonetisation. By Rohit Kumar Singh: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may have openly come out in support of demonetisation, but questions are being raised on whether his support has an expiry date. That's the indication coming from some top leaders of the Janta Dal (United). Bihar JD-U President Basishtha Narayan Singh has made it clear that once the 50-day period, which PM Modi had sought from the people of the country (to replenish cashless ATMs with new currency notes), is over, the party will be reviewing their stand to support demonetisation. advertisement 1. "People of the country are facing several problems because of demonetisation. Despite more than 40 days having passed, the situation on the ground has not changed much. We are in the process of reviewing the situation post demonetisation", said Basishtha Singh. 2. Nitish Kumar had himself last week dropped hints that although he has supported the demonetisation decision to crack down on corruption, black money and terror funding, he will review his stand on the issue after the 50-day period sought by the government to normalise cash flow in banks and ATMs, expires. 3. "PM Modi said demonetisation would help crack down on corruption, black money and terrorism and I extended my support on this. After 50 days, we will analyse whether, in fact, all these things have happened or not", Nitish said last week. 4. On being asked whether there was any possibility of the JD-U's launching any movement after the 50-day period elapsed, Singh said that the party would be taking a call on this after the review meeting on demonetisation. 5. On the other hand, RJD President Lalu Prasad will be beginning with the anti-demonetisation protest from 28th December. Also read | Demonetisation alone cannnot curb black money menace, Nitish warns PM Modi --- ENDS --- By PTI: Los Angeles, Dec 20 (PTI) Actors Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx took a private trip to Cabo San Lucas to celebrate her 38th birthday. The "Batman Begins" actress and Foxx, 49, who have always kept their relationship private, flew to the Mexican resort city for a "quick trip", reported Us weekly. "Katie and Jamie took a private jet to Cabo on Friday morning from Van Nuys Airport (in Los Angeles). It was a quick trip in honor of Katies birthday. It was only them and two pilots on the plane," a source said. advertisement "They stayed in one of the most private suites at the hotel. They wanted to be very discreet and had everything delivered to their room and taken care of by a personal butler," the source added. PTI SSN CK --- ENDS --- Stop with the relationship goals, you two! By India Today Web Desk: Indian television's beloved couple Suyyash Rai and Kishwer Merchantt tied the knot on December 16, and the entire thing was one big party. Also see: IN PICTURES: Suyyash Rai and Kishwer Merchantt's reception was a star-studded affair All their friends from the television industry made an appearance on various functions, and helped spread the love and cheer around. advertisement From an action-packed sangeet to a lovely reception; the couple were setting relationship goals all over the place. And it looks like the two are not going to stop anytime soon. Confused? Well, the newly-wed couple recently took a super-adorable selfie. And of course they were colour coordinated. Here's the picture: Kishwer Merchantt and Suyyash Rai's first selfie post wedding. Picture courtesy: Instagram/sukish_wings The actors were dressed in baby blue outfits, while they smiled for the camera. While Kishwer was turning up the heat in her lovely dress, Suyyash was all about the desi swag in his kurta-pyjama. Aren't they the cutest? --- ENDS --- Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 20/12/2016 (2144 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A judge has determined there is sufficient evidence for the parents of a Peguis First Nation toddler who died of trauma-related injuries to go to trial. Vanessa Bushie is charged with second-degree murder, and her former partner, Daniel Williams, is charged with manslaughter in the July 2014 death of their 21-month-old daughter Kierra Elektra Star Williams. Both parents are charged with failing to provide necessities of life to Kierra, who was also malnourished. After hearing seven days of testimony from medical professionals, police, social workers and relatives of the parents at a preliminary hearing, provincial court Judge Kael McKenzie ruled Tuesday there is enough evidence for the case to proceed to a jury trial. No date has been set. Kierra Elektra Star Williams Kierra had spent time in foster care, but was returned to her parents before her death. Evidence presented at the preliminary hearing cant be published under a publication ban meant to protect her parents right to a fair trial. The case has often been compared to that of Phoenix Sinclair, a five-year-old girl from Fisher River Cree Nation who was murdered by her mother and her mothers boyfriend in 2005 after being returned to their care by social workers. Her death prompted a public inquiry and led to several recommendations to reform the child-welfare system, some of which have yet to be implemented. Kierra died on July 17, 2014, but few details about her death have been publicly released. Her mother was arrested and charged with second-degree murder on Jan. 20, 2015, after the girls death was ruled a homicide. Details released in court Tuesday indicate Bushie grew up in a loving home with both of her parents. She wasnt exposed to alcoholism and had a very good upbringing, her lawyer Mike Cook said. Her father, Alfred Bushie, was killed in a homicide on Bloodvein First Nation in 1994, and no one was ever convicted in his death. His death greatly affected Bushie, Cook said. Bushie, 38, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a criminal charge of breaching a recognizance and was sentenced to 30 days in jail for breaking the rules at the Elizabeth Fry Society, where she was required to live after her release on bail in April 2016. She was sent back to pre-trial custody in October after society staff considered her behaviour manipulative and dishonest, Crown attorney Kyle Parker told court. On one occasion, in violation of the organizations rules and despite warnings from staff, Bushie refused to lock the facilitys door. Another time, she cried wolf over a lack of food and got her bail worker to take her to the store, where she bought Pepsi and cigarettes. When staff was gathering her belongings in preparation for her to be sent back to jail, they found marijuana, court heard. Bushie was prohibited from using alcohol and drugs after she was convicted in 2005 on two counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm. Shed been subsequently convicted of breaking that court order, and was also convicted of assault in 2008. A second breach charge relating to the seized marijuana was stayed by the Crown Tuesday. Cook said Bushie was taking responsibility for breaking the rules, but said she felt a bit let down by the society, which runs a bail program for women, because she said she wasnt always given her heart medication. Williams has no criminal record. They are both presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A Mountie escorts Vanessa Bushie into the community hall at Peguis First Nation for her preliminary hearing Monday. She is accused in the death of her young daughter, Kierra. Charges against Kierras sister, Jasmine Bushie, 23, were dropped earlier this month. katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @thatkatiemay Lalu has demanded prime minister to reply to the allegations leveled by the Congress Vice-President and also said that the charges must be probed by a Supreme Court judge. By Rohit Kumar Singh: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi after leveling corruption charges on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Mehsana rally in Gujarat has now found backing from RJD chief Lalu Prasad. Lalu has demanded prime minister to reply to the allegations leveled by the Congress Vice-President and also said that the charges must be probed by a Supreme Court judge. WHAT LALU SAID "The PM should explain the allegations leveled against him and the matter should be probed by judge of the Supreme Court. Silence of the PM is not going to work", Lalu tweeted. "The manner in which Rahul Gandhi has accused PM Modi of Rs 40 crore corruption, that too in Gujarat backed by documentary proof is not an ordinary matter", tweeted Lalu. "Faqirs never hide things from anyone and live a transparent life. Faqir Sahab (PM) should give details of Rs 40 crore bribe", tweeted Lalu. Adding further, Lalu said the silence of the PM was denting his image abroad and therefore he should come out and explain. advertisement It may be noted that Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged PM of taking Rs 40 crore bribe from a corporate house when he was chief minister of Gujarat. Also read: PM Modi as pure as Ganga, Rahul Gandhi's allegations are baseless: BJP --- ENDS --- Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. U.S. auto-safety regulators have launched a probe into a potential Fiat Chrysler defect after receiving reports of rollaway vehicles bearing a strong resemblance to the flaw that allegedly killed actor Anton Yelchin in June. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is now investigating the automakers 2013-16 Ram 1500 pickup trucks and 2014-16 Dodge Durango sport-utility vehicles over transmissions that are shifted electronically using a rotary control on the centre console. The investigation centres on reports of nine injuries and 25 crashes in which the vehicles allegedly rolled away after drivers thought they had been shifted safely into park. John Bazemore / The Associated Press files The U.S. auto safety agency has opened an investigation into complaints that another 1 million Fiat Chrysler vehicles, including the RAM 1500 pickup, can roll away after the owners shift transmissions into park, a problem similar to the one being blamed in the death of Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin. The safety administrations Office of Defects Investigation launched the probe after 43 vehicle owners complained about rollaways. The investigation came to light Tuesday in a document posted on the agencys website. Fiat Chrysler is co-operating fully with NHTSAs investigation, the scope of which is limited, spokesman Eric Mayne said in an email. He said it remains prudent practice for all drivers to use their vehicles parking brakes, which is also the agencys recommendation. The agency noted none of the people who said their vehicles rolled away had activated the parking brake. Fiat Chrysler recalled 1.1 million vehicles in April to force vehicles into park when the driver opens the door. That recall included Yelchins 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee, as well as the 2014 Grand Cherokee and the 2012-14 Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 sedans. Yelchin was found dead, pinned between the back of his car and his front gate as he left his home in Studio City, Calif., for a rehearsal, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The county medical examiner concluded his death was accidental and that he died of blunt traumatic asphyxia. Multiple automakers have begun incorporating electronic rotary shifters into their vehicles in recent years, but some motorists are confused by how to operate the new technology. Richard Shotwell / Invision / The Associated Press Anton Yelchin arrives at a special screening of Burying the Ex held at Graumans Egyptian Theatre on Thursday, June 11, 2015, in Los Angeles. In a similar matter revealed separately Tuesday, the agency launched an investigation into 39,000 models manufactured by Jaguar Land Rover after seven drivers complained their vehicles rolled away after the driver switched the transmission gear selector to park with the engine running and after the operator exited the vehicle, an agency document states. The probe covers the 2012-14 Land Rover Evoque and 2012-14 Jaguar XF. Vehicle owners reported four injuries, including one in which the person was allegedly pinned against a garage wall. As in the Fiat Chrysler vehicles, the Jaguar Land Rover models had electronic rotary-gear shifters and the drivers had not engaged the parking brake. USA Today Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Police caught him with more than 80 rocks of crack cocaine, but a former Winnipegger skated on a drug-trafficking charge after he told the judge he hadnt planned to sell the drugs; hed simply robbed his drug dealer. Bronson Kequahtooway, 22, of Moose Jaw, Sask., was found not guilty of possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of proceeds obtained by crime after provincial court Judge Timothy Killeen ruled this week there was reasonable doubt about whether Kequahtooway had intended to sell the highly addictive street drug. While I dont believe the story of Mr. Kequahtooway, it could possibly be true, and in the result Im left with a reasonable doubt, the judge said. Kequahtooway was found guilty of drug possession and was sentenced to six days in jail. Kequahtooway testified he started using crack cocaine after he broke up with the mother of his child and continued smoking it almost daily, as much as he could afford. Around 6 a.m. on Feb. 13, 2016, he said he arranged to meet a drug dealer on Salter Street after hed been drinking and smoking crack throughout the night. He said he planned to buy three rocks of crack cocaine, but when he saw the dealer pull out a big bag of rocks individually rolled in tinfoil, he acted on impulse. He told the judge he punched his dealer in the face, grabbed the bag of drugs, punched him again when he started to get up, grabbed the cellphone the dealer had dropped, and took off. I didnt plan it out. I just did it because I seen there was a lot there, Kequahtooway said under questioning from federal Crown attorney Jean-Pierre Deniset. I can tell you I was afraid, yeah, he added, blaming his impulsivity on the fact he was intoxicated. Kequahtooway said he went to a friends place and smoked some crack. One of his companions, in a drunken fit, left the house and started banging on neighbours doors, and he followed her out to try to calm her down. Shortly afterward, police were called to investigate an assault involving a suspect who fit Kequahtooways description. Kequahtooway told court he was sitting on a bench on Burrows Avenue when police arrived. Officers took him to the cruiser to search him and found the bag of drugs. There were 87 or 88 rocks of crack cocaine in the bag, court heard. Kequahtooway insisted the drugs were for his personal use, claiming the stash wouldve lasted him a week. The Crown questioned how Kequahtooway could afford to support his drug habit one rock of crack cocaine costs around $20 on the money he made from a casual construction job. Kequahtooway is in custody on unrelated charges including assault causing bodily harm. katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Recruiters for porn sites are in Winnipeg, targeting the citys vulnerable youth for sexual exploitation, activists and experts said. They are handing out business cards and offering thousands of dollars in prizes for posting amateur videos to the web. Crap like this, it drives me insane, said a Point Douglas activist who wouldnt give his full name and goes by Duck. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Stephen Sauer, a systems specialist with Cybertips.ca, says certain apps can easily be used to exploit vulnerable young people. He and other elders who gather at the Barber House centre, which is a seniors centre that has an attached day care, worry young people in the area are being targeted with offers of big money. They see young people barely in their teens exploited on the street and now more are being targeted online to create amateur pornographic videos with the promise of prizes of up to $22,500. That might be enough to lure someone into doing something they may later regret, he said. This can do a lot of damage. Once its out there, you cant take it back, said Duck. The business card shows images of very young women. Its website advertises that its free to join and performers with the most points accumulated during the month will win cash prizes. Cash prizes will be awarded in six categories (female, male, female/female, male/male, male/female, transgender). In case of a tie, the total number viewers during the month will be used as a tie-breaker. Although the website says it is for adults only, there is no age-verification system, said Cybertip.cas Stephen Sauer at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection in Winnipeg. The biggest danger here is if youth are doing this sort of activity, said Sauer, a systems specialist. Its easily recorded without their knowing, and they could be blackmailed at a later time. He said Cybertip has received two reports about the website from people concerned participants might be under age. Winnipeg police said they havent had any issues raised about the website, but sex-trade activity and exploitation has increased because of such websites and online ads on backpage.com. The Internet has definitely opened it up and made it easier for a person to get into the sex trade and made it easier for predators to identify who these girls are, Sgt. Darryl Ramkissoon said. Sauer said innocuous websites and apps such as live.me are a bigger concern. The popular social platform is used to broadcast and watch live-streaming videos. Its supposed to be an app for broadcasting yourself, said Sauer. The problem is that young people are groomed online then lured into doing something such as getting undressed. Youth dont see the danger when their image is being captured by who knows who. Children and adults need to be aware of the risks, he said. I would suggest having conversations with youth about online activities talking about the different apps theyre using and the danger of apps and anything to do with livestreaming or chatting. You dont know if the person at the other end is recording or capturing images while theyre chatting. Like sex, drugs and alcohol, social media is not going away, and the best way to help people deal with it is through education. We need to shift our thinking, said Sauer. We know youth are going to be doing this. We need to talk about the issues of doing it to be there and reassure them that were here to help them no matter how far its gone down the wrong path, Sauer said. Prevention, through arming young people with knowledge, is the best way to avoid trouble, Ramkissoon said. Were starting to educate individuals a lot more starting in schools, he said. Winnipeg police conduct Internet safety workshops and point out the potential dangers and pitfalls. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Premier Brian Pallister thought he had his timing down pat. In year-end interviews, Pallister volunteered that he expected to spend up to eight weeks a year at his vacation property in Costa Rica, an estate that has been at the centre of controversy about how much time he spent out of the country while he was opposition leader. Learning from those painful mistakes, Pallister willingly described the amount of time he would devote to recreating in Central America. There was a flurry of debate about his plans. Partisan allies and sympathizers in the electorate at large thought it was OK for the premier to spend time in Costa Rica given how hard he works and his ability to stay wired to the office while on vacation. Partisan critics and cynics in the electorate wondered aloud about how the premier would be able to fulfil all the duties of his office from a remote location that features an array of bold tropical distractions. The debate to this point has more or less missed the point. Its not how much time Pallister spends in Costa Rica, or whether hes prepared to admit how much time he spends away from Winnipeg. Its the timing. According to sources, Pallister is in Costa Rica now, having left late last week. He will be there through Christmas, returning just before New Years Day. Then, back in the country for two to three weeks, before returning to his vacation property for at least a week, if not more. That means over the next two months, he will be out of the country about half the time. Is that too much time away for a first minister who, by his own admission, works at least 60 hours a week? Probably not. But it is too much time to be away from the province right now? The end of the December legislative session signals the start of the most important four months in any premiers political calendar. It is during this period that premiers must do the hard work of composing a budget. It is hard to underline the importance of the pre-budget period. This is the time when revenues must be projected, expenditures must be contained and new priorities must be vetted very carefully. It is the moment when the budget rubber meets the deficit road, and difficult decisions must be made. Which campaign promises will be fulfilled, which will be delayed and which will be abandoned altogether. Lets remember Pallister has set some pretty lofty goals for this next budget. After lambasting the former NDP government for its out-of-control spending and deficit financing, the next Tory budget represents the first real chance Pallister will get to prove he can contain expenditures without harming core services or slowing an already lethargic provincial economy. Can Pallister direct budget preparations from Costa Rica? Given modern technology, its certainly possible. But thats not really the question we should be asking. The real question is should he be trying to lead and oversee the budget while he is 4,200 kilometres away from Winnipeg? The answer is a pretty clear no. The budget is far too important to the well-being of the province, and this is far too important a time in the formulation of that budget to have the first minister tethered to his government with a WiFi connection and a laptop computer. He is the only person in his government with experience assembling a provincial budget, and the leader of his government. His mere presence is needed more now than ever before. Remarkably, it seems Pallister may be among the last people to realize just how important he is to the pre-budget process. He has already been absent for several important events that, under normal circumstances, would have benefited from his presence. Consider that Pallister flew to Costa Rica just two days before Canadas health ministers gathered with their federal counterpart for a last-ditch negotiation on the future of health transfer payments, perhaps the single biggest threat to Manitobas finances outside of mounting debt. Ottawa is trying to cut the rate at which those transfers increase, while the provinces are desperate for more money. As it is, Manitoba will lose tens of millions of dollars in much-needed support for health if Ottawa does not change its mind. At the same time this drama was unfolding, the province released its second-quarter results that show, not surprisingly, the projected deficit has gone up by nearly $100 million and is now expected to top $1 billion. Pallister was able to trim expenditures in key service areas, but a drop in revenues overwhelmed those tiny savings. This is not evidence that Pallister is failing to get the deficit under control. It is still too early to make that judgment. However, it does prove the broader economic conditions that mired the NDP in deficit financing are still firmly in place. As much as Pallister and the Tories continue to maintain the deficits that dogged the NDP were the result of a spending problem, the most recent financial results show the real problem is very much on the revenue side. The premier should be allowed, even encouraged, to take advantage of the fruits of a lifetime of hard work and repair to his Costa Rican estate whenever it is appropriate. It is not, however, appropriate right now. dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Searchers found the body of a 21-year-old man Tuesday who was involved in a snowmobile collision Monday night in the RM of Tache. RCMP said the man had been at a residence in Ile-des-Chenes and left for home in Tache on his snowmobile at about 10:30 p.m. When he did not arrive, family members went to look for him. The body was located late Tuesday afternoon in the west ditch on Provincial Road 207 near the intersection of Prairie Grove Road, RCMP said, adding he was wearing a helmet. Weather conditions Monday night heavy blowing snow creating low visibility and speed may have been contributing factors, police said. There have been four snowmobile fatalities to date in 2016 in areas of the province with RCMP jurisdiction. The Manitoba Public Insurance Traffic Collision Statistics Report released last fall reported three snowmobile fatalities and 19 riders injured in 2015. In total, there were 118 off-road collisions involving snowmobiles that year. The report compared the 2015 numbers to the annual average over the previous three-year (2012-2014) period and found that snowmobile collisions in 2015 were below average across all categories. Yvonne Rideout, executive director of Snoman (Snowmobilers of Manitoba), which supports safe and responsible recreational snowmobile use, said the organization has 53 clubs that maintain with provincial-government funds 12,000 kilometres of trails, the third-largest network in Canada. Our trails are signed and groomed, which makes them the safest alternative. Riding on a groomed trail, ideally, its the safest place and the best place to be, she said. There were no deaths reported on Snoman trails last year. Rideout said that as of Wednesday afternoon, one trail was open in the Interlake region, five partially open in Eastman, one partially open in Central, two partially open in Westman and none were open in the North, which has had significantly less snowfall than other parts of the province. ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Even though Patrick Serda won nearly $1 million playing poker in Prague this week, hes soon returning to Winnipeg to wait tables at a local pizzeria. Serda, who graduated from Kelvin High School in 2008 and briefly studied chemistry at the University of Manitoba, has made quite the name for himself on the international poker scene. Only 26, hes won several tournaments, and his total prize money hovers around $2 million in tracked live and online earnings. On Monday, he beat a field of more than 400 players from around the world for a pot of 719,000 euros. But Serda doesnt plan on quitting his part-time job. POKERSTARS.COM Winnipegger Patrick Serda beat a field of more than 400 players from around the world in Prague this week, earning him nearly C$1 million. For the past several years, Serda has worked as a server in Winnipeg; hes now at Pizzeria Gusto and previously was at the Peasant Cookery. Honestly, its what makes me happy, Serda said over Skype from a hotel room in Stockholm. It creates a good balance in my life. Rich Hanna, the manager at Pizzeria Gusto, praises Serda as level-headed and intelligent. Hanna hired Serda as a server when he was at Peasant Cookery, and brought him on again when he switched over to Pizzeria Gusto. The pair bonded over their interest in fine wine and the restaurant industry, and Hanna is proud of his employees success. Still, he knows Serdas windfall is going to change him. Hes not gonna put his feet up and call it a life, Hanna said. If anything itll spur him on to do more. Ever since he first watched poker on television after finishing high school, Serda was hooked. I was kind of mesmerized, he remembers. The dream of winning large sums of money playing cards is pretty appealing. Serda started playing small cash games around Winnipeg and found poker to be a quick and efficient way to make a few bucks. (He is) very active and aggressive, said Leor Wasserman, a Winnipeg native whos played against Serda in several cash games. He will put a player to the test for all the chips. A lot of people might assume playing poker competitively shouldnt be considered work, but Serda maintains it is a stressful vocation. Starting when he was 22, hed start playing online poker at 9 a.m. each morning and finish around dinner time. Staring at a computer screen, monitoring games and scarcely taking breaks, Serda was focused on poker for more than 12 hours every day for more than three years. Then in June 2015, Serda decided to take a year off from the stress and pressure. He was burnt out, and he needed to refresh. I just wasnt in the right mind frame, so I took a step back, re-evaluated things and tried to figure out where I want to be, Serda said. Now, when I approach poker its much more stress-free. Since returning to competitive poker in June, Serda has been on a roll. He won $250,000 at an event earlier this year and plans to attend the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure tournament in the Bahamas next month. Everything kind of fell into place, Serda said. A day after winning the prize money in Prague, reality hadnt quite set in for Serda. Hes travelling around Sweden with his girlfriend for the next week and doesnt have any immediate plans. Ultimately, Serda has major aspirations for his card-playing career, but he doesnt want to give up the parts of his life that make it worthwhile. Sitting around a pub table, having beers, and just talking about whatever. It just makes me relax and feel happy and I guess thats the most important part for me right now, Serda said. From the time he began working in the restaurant industry several years ago, Serda has felt at home. Both of his parents died by the time he was 22, and the majority of his family lives in Poland, where Serda spent his summers growing up. A lot of his friends have become his family, Hanna said, mentioning the tight-knit staff at the restaurant. Serda says that working in restaurants helps keep him accountable and responsible. People in the business rely on others to show up and work hard. I want people to know me as who I am and who theyve met, Serda said. I dont want people to just associate me with playing a card game. Hanna said that Serdas still on the schedule at Pizzeria Gusto for the week after he returns from his trip, earning tips instead of chips. Its obviously not about the money, Serda said. I enjoy it and I dont want to give it up. ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 20/12/2016 (2144 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Woodland caribou remain a species at risk across the country with a shaky hold on the future, a new national review warned this week. The fourth annual review by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, a national conservation charity that works with government, industry and indigenous peoples to protect Canadas lands and water, concluded progress across the country to protect woodland caribou is spotted. Woodland caribou are designated as threatened under federal designation and they are distinct from their more common cousins, barren ground caribou. Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship Most of the habitat that boreal caribou need to survive remains unprotected, according to a national review. In Manitoba, conservation authorities cant meet federal timelines next year to show the province will protect woodland caribou here, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society said. The province said actions are being undertaken. Manitobas timeline is very close to the national strategy. Action plans will be developed for high priority areas by 2018, one year after the 2017 deadline, a provincial spokesman said by email. Woodland caribou have lost half their North American habitat since the 19th century and in Canada total population estimates put their numbers at just 32,000, including 2,500 in Manitoba, according to the societys statistics. The national review by the society released Monday concluded, Our assessment of progress made in protecting boreal caribou habitat is that while some actions have been taken in 2016, including through collaborative efforts by forestry companies and NGOs (non governmental organizations) working with local governments, indigenous peoples and stakeholders, most of the habitat that boreal caribou need to survive and thrive remains unprotected. By next year, Manitoba and other provinces and territories from the Northwest Territories to Labrador are to report to Ottawa with action plans in place to protect the species. More troubling, however, is the continued threat to existing caribou habitat, despite commitments to protect caribou across many jurisdictions, the review warned. Provincial officials insisted there is much to defend in Manitobas conservation record. Manitoba has some of the healthiest populations and ranges of boreal woodland caribou in Canada and has been managing for the conservation of its iconic boreal forest species in a sustainable manner in recent decades, a provincial spokesman said by email. Manitobas experience and success in conserving this species will be incorporated into recovery action plans ensuring (woodland caribou) persist into the future, the provincial statement vowed. In 2015 the NDP government under former premier Greg Selinger committed to a strategy designed to protect thousands of acres, totalling 65 to 80 per cent of caribou habitat, in Manitobas boreal forest. The province made a commitment to protect caribou habitat but hasnt taken any steps to put the strategy into action, said Ron Thiessen, the executive director of the Societys Manitoba chapter. Public support for action to protect caribou is strong across the country, with 120,000 signatures on a poster that the society presented on Parliament Hill Monday, where it released its review. Some 20,000 signatures were from Manitoba. Its a clear message the province could do more, Thiessen said. Over the last couple of decades, the province has not placed a high enough priority on protecting our species at risk, Thiessen said. There is a strategy for recovery for the woodland caribou, but as of yet we havent seen them. So far that commitment is a commitment on paper. Wed like the province to accelerate the process and develop an action plan. For them to do that, they will have to increase their staff and other capacity to get the job done. alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca By PTI: Kendrapara (Odisha), Dec 21 (PTI) In an instance of medical negligence, doctors allegedly sliced the intestine of a woman who was admitted for sterilization at a government-run hospital in Kendrapara district. Jharana Mallick (27), spouse of a daily wager Ramesh Mallick of village Kansar in the district, is battling for life at the intensive care unit of a hospital in Cuttack after doctors wrongly operated her large intestine instead of her fallopian tube during tubectomy surgery, officials said. advertisement Tubectomy is a surgical procedure to prevent pregnancies in which a womans fallopian tubes are clamped and blocked or severed and sealed. The woman on Monday had been at Community Health Center (CHC) in Indupur for sterilization. However, doctors wrongly operated her large intestine instead of her fallopian tube. After the botched-up surgery, she experienced severe pain in abdomen. "We were forced to shift her to the headquarters hospital in Kendrapara following deterioration of her health condition. Later she was referred to SCB medical college and hospital in Cuttack", said the victim?s husband Ramesh. Kendrapara Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO), Nirajan Swain said ?A portion of the intestine had been cut during the tubectomy in the Community Health Center (CHC) at Indupur for which she developed some complication. She was rushed immediately to the district headquarters hospital. As her condition was serious, she was referred to SCB medical college and hospital in Cuttack. Now her health condition has improved and she is out danger?. Meanwhile, her husband has filed an FIR in Kendrapada police station alleging that doctor and hospital staff committed gross negligence during family planning operation. He demanded stern legal action against them. ?Police are investigating the case. We are waiting for medical report before initiating legal action?, Inspector Kendrapara police station, Sanjeev Mohanty. PTI COR SKN MM --- ENDS --- Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Last Tuesday, the war in Syria garnered international headlines as Russian-backed government troops finally recaptured the last rebel-held territory in the city of Aleppo. The civil war that has gripped Syria since March 2011 was particularly brutal in this sprawling city, the largest urban centre in the country. In recent weeks, forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were able to contain and surround rebel forces in just a few of Aleppos eastern suburbs. Under the terms of a ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey, the remaining rebels agreed to be withdrawn from the city and relocated within other Syrian territory that is still under rebel control. SYRIAN ARAB RED CRESCENT / NOOR HAZOURI / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Members of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent lay a patient on stretcher after taking him out of a medical facility in the Old City of Aleppo, Syria on Dec. 7. This final rebel collapse in Aleppo set off a wave of indignant condemnation by the western media, all of it aimed at Assad and his Russian ally, Vladimir Putin. One claim, levelled by none other than Human Rights Watch director Ken Roth, was that the siege of Aleppo constituted a war crime perpetrated by Putin and Assad. Roths rationale is that, by starving the besieged rebels, the Syrian government troops had denied humanitarian aid from being delivered to those unfortunate innocent civilians within those rebel-held areas. By Roths logic, we need to revisit every siege staged throughout history and declare each and every one of them a war crime. There has never been a case where some benevolent commander allowed supplies through the siege lines in order to relieve the suffering and hunger of the civilians trapped inside. One need only look at the news stream coming out of neighbouring Iraq to see the hypocrisy of Roths allegations. The U.S.-led coalition has boasted that they have completely surrounded the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, and that some Iraqi and Kurdish units have fought their way into the citys eastern suburbs. There are an estimated one million residents left in Mosul, and only some 5,000 of these are considered to be IS extremists. There is no way in hell that the U.S.-led besiegers are letting truckloads of food and fuel into Mosul to alleviate the suffering of the civilians. When the Russians and Syrians do it, its a war crime. When the U.S.-led force including Canadian special forces operatives employ a siege, it is a brilliant tactic. There have been reports out of Aleppo that forces loyal to Assad have committed revenge killings as they entered rebel-held territory. The killing of what the western media terms moderate rebels is then attributed directly to Putin and Assad as proof of their criminal policies. I am not going to condone battlefield executions, but first off, it must be pointed out that there is no such thing as a moderate rebel. The anti-Assad forces include some of the nastiest killers on the planet. Not even counting the IS fighters, who were not present in Aleppo, the most effective fighting force in Syria is the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly the Syrian branch of al-Qaida). At the core of this unit are foreign jihadists, many of whom fought to oust Moammar Gadhafi from Libya in 2011. Critics of Assad and Putin are quick to point out that many of those fighting for the embattled Syrian president are actually foreign Shiite Muslim volunteers waging a holy war against the majority Sunni Muslim Syrian rebels. These Iranian and Hezbollah fighters certainly helped Assad turn the tide in this war. However, if employing foreigners to fight your war is evil, then we must denounce all of those foreign fighters who chose to assist the Syrian rebels aided and abetted by state sponsors such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. If foreigners should not insert themselves into these Middle Eastern conflicts, then what the hell are 200 Canadian special forces soldiers doing training Kurdish fighters to battle IS in Iraq? In one media interview concerning the fall of Aleppo, I heard some sage commentary from a Syrian refugee who is currently residing in Toronto. His concerns were for his relatives who remained in Aleppo and the reporter expected him to condemn Assad for the siege and subsequent revenge killings. Instead, the Syrian refugee said, All of those who took up guns in this conflict are to blame for the suffering. Instead of sending in agencies to assign guilt for specific war crimes in isolated incidents, we should begin with the premise that war itself is a crime. Scott Taylor is the founder and publisher of Esprit de Corps Magazine. He is also a bestselling author and award-winning documentary filmmaker. The Daily News recently ran an article (Dec. 12) from the Austin Daily Herald about an elderly southern Minnesota man with Stage 4 lung cancer, who argues that he should have the right to end his life at a time of his choosing through physician-prescribed medication, commonly called physician-assisted suicide (PAS). No humane person can read that article without empathy. But I want to take some time to argue why making PAS legal in Minnesota would be deeply wrong, as well as bad public policy. Most people who argue in favor of PAS argue it is a compassionate choice for those who are dying in pain. While ending a persons pain is a compassionate choice, ending a persons life (including your own) is not. It is telling that the Austin article never mentions the possibility of palliative care; that is, killing the pain, but not the patient. This relatively new branch of medicine has made incredible strides in the past 20 years, and while no one is promised a painless death, the dying process can be managed in ways to make physical pain tolerable. Yet most people arguing for PAS never mention how effective palliative care and hospice are in helping people die. Despite the strides made in the past few years, too many people are unaware of palliative care. This needs to change. But Mr. MacDonald, the focus of the article, states forthrightly that his primary concern is not pain but control particularly losing control over the activities of everyday living. And while Compassion and Choices (formerly The Hemlock Society) argues choosing PAS is about physical pain, apparently it is not: most people who choose PAS say they want to avoid this loss of control. Oregon was the first state to legalize PAS. Attending physicians have needed to ask the patient why he or she was requesting PAS. The most common reason (voiced by approximately 90 percent of those patients) was avoiding a loss of control over daily activities. Concern about pain did not even make the top five reasons. Its understandable that people want to continue with activities of daily living as long as they can, and we should facilitate that. But loss of control over daily activities is, to some extent, the very reality of the dying process every human being has faced since the beginning of time. There are other ways to handle well this difficult process. Regardless of how we feel about this reality, we have to pause before involving the state in intentionally ending another persons life, because many other moral alarms sound as soon as PAS is allowed. First, medical professionals take seriously the vow to do no harm. That short phrase is the basis of most medical ethics. Killing a human being is, without question, harm. It crosses a bright line and sets a dangerous precedent that the medical establishment is in the healing and killing business. When surveyed, most of the American Medical Association membership stands against PAS. We cannot ask doctors to do this without compromising their profession. Second, medical insurance and coverage is opened to new questions. If the medical profession suddenly gets defined as both a healing and killing business, how do those competing claims get covered? It is a lot cheaper to prescribe medication that will kill a person than to provide chemo, or many other treatments. Will insurance companies begin covering PAS meds and not chemo? There is a case of this already in California. Will it really be the patient who decides which treatment he or she wants? Third, our culture puts a great deal of effort into preventing suicide. It simply makes no sense to do that and support physician assisted suicide at the same time. Plus, although some laws disallow PAS in cases where the patient is clinically depressed, the numbers of referrals for a psych evaluation among those requesting PAS are disturbingly small (in the 3 to 5 percent range). The average incidence of clinical depression in the U.S. population is higher than that. Are we just facilitating suicide among the depressed? The American Psychiatric Association thinks so, and has recently come out against PAS. Fourth, legalizing the intentional killing of people who desire death due to their lack of usefulness is dangerous. Do you know that all disability advocacy groups in the U.S. and most in Europe have taken formal stands against PAS and euthanasia? This is because they think this law will be used to pressure people living with disabilities to choose PAS. Many of those living with disabilities see PAS as an outrageous judgment against their value as human beings; they often live the lives that are feared by PAS supporters but they have no desire to kill themselves. (Google Not Dead Yet for an earful from these folks against PAS.) Intentionally ending your life is a grave wrong, mitigated only by a lack of clarity regarding the nature of the act (most living with mental illness may not be morally accountable due to the illness). But even if you could bracket that moral judgment the wide social implications of legalizing PAS should give us all deep concern. It would endanger the lives of the poor and vulnerable, trample on the basis of medical ethics, and crystallize the notion that human life is worth protecting only when one is in good health. But the biggest social tragedy is that PAS does not address the real challenges of dying. Some PAS supporters like to massage the language and call giving yourself an overdose of medication aid in dying. It is not aid. It is killing. The aid in dying we need to provide comes in smart palliative care, social supports, and human accompaniment and kindness. This is a better, compassionate choice and response. It is one of fates cruel jokes that conservatism should be at its modern nadir just as the Republican Party is at its zenith if conservatism is defined as embracing limited government, displaying a rational, skeptical and moderate temperament and believing in the priority of the moral order. All these principles are related, and under attack. Conservatives believe that human beings are fallible and prone to ambition, passion and selfishness. They (actually, we) tend to become swaggering dictators in realms where we can act with impunity a DMV office, a hostile traffic stop, a country under personal rule. It is the particular genius of the American system to balance ambition against ambition through a divided government (executive, legislative and judicial). The American system employs human nature to limit the power of the state assuming that every branch of government is both dedicated to the common good and jealous of its own power. Conservatives believe that finite and fallen creatures are often wrong. We know that many of our attitudes and beliefs are the brains justification for pre-rational tendencies and desires. This does not make perception of truth impossible, or truth itself relative, but it should encourage healthy self-examination and a suspicion of all forms of fanaticism. All of us have things to learn, even from our political opponents. The truth is out there, but it is generally broken into pieces and scattered across the human experience. We only reassemble it through listening and civil communication. And conservatives believe that a just society depends on the moral striving of finite and fallen creatures, who treat each other with a respect and decency that laws can encourage but not enforce. Such virtues, often rooted in faith, are what turn families and communities into the nurseries of citizenship. These institutions not only shape good people, they inculcate the belief that human beings have a dignity that, while often dishonored, can never be effaced. In the midst of all our justified skepticism, we can never be skeptical of this: that the reason for politics is to honor the equal value of every life, beginning with the weakest and most vulnerable. No bad goal say, racial purity or communist ideology outweighs this commitment. And no good goal the efficiency of markets or the pursuit of greater equality does either. So how do we get this set of beliefs and commitments when they seem in short supply? It is hopeless to demand results from an organic process to order the grass to grow faster. But this type of conservatism a conservatism of intellectual humility and moral aspiration also has the advantage of being an organic process. It grows with tenacity in hidden places, eventually breaking down the cement and asphalt of our modern life. It appeals to people who would never call themselves conservatives who probably wouldnt use words like nadir and zenith who provide examples of hard work, personal responsibility, unfailing decency, family commitment, quiet faith, inspiring compassion and resilience in adversity. They are the potential recruits of a humane political conservatism. This is not the political force that has recently taken over the Republican Party with a plurality in the presidential primaries and a narrow victory in November. That has been the result of extreme polarization, not a turn toward enduring values. The movement is authoritarian in theory, apocalyptic in mood, prone to conspiracy theories and personal abuse, and dismissive of ethical standards. The president-elect seems to offer equal chances of constitutional crisis and utter, debilitating incompetence. The plausible case that Russian espionage materially contributed to the election of an American president has been an additional invitation to anger. Now, not only the quality but also the legitimacy of our democracy is at stake. This extreme threat would seem to require a commensurately radical response some way to change the outcome. But what is the proper conservative response? It is to live within the boundaries of law and reality. There is no certain way to determine if Russian influence was decisive. And no serious constitutional recourse seems to remain. While open to other options, I see none. It will now fall to citizens and institutions to (1) defend the legislature and judiciary from any encroachment, (2) defend every group of people from organized oppression, including Muslims and refugees, (3) expand and defend the institutions from think tanks to civil liberty organizations that make the case for a politics that honors human dignity. And pray for the grass to grow. It is hopeless to demand results from an organic process to order the grass to grow faster. Theres no shortage of charitable causes to support in Baraboo this holiday season. The Baraboo Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting a winter clothing drive through a state tourism agency until the end of the holidays. The Big Bundle Up charity drive is run by Travel Wisconsin and invites residents to donate warm winter items for families in need. Tourism organizations across the state, including the chamber, will collect the gently used coats, mittens, hats and other clothing and then donate them to charity. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday this week and next, those interested in donating can drop off winter coats and other warm clothing at the chamber office on Chestnut Street by Pierces Marketplace. Since the program began six years ago, 70,000 items have been collected and distributed. Baraboo Chamber of Commerce office coordinator Sandy Gavin said the organization has collected about 50 coats since the clothing drive began Monday and hopes to collect many more. The more the better, she said. Another local charity, the Sauk County Giving Trees annual gift drive, provided Christmas presents for more than 260 families this holiday season. Each year, the organization sets up Christmas trees at businesses, organizations and churches around the community. The trees are decorated with tags that list two clothing items and a toy that a child in need would like to receive for Christmas. Giving Tree Vice President Deb Turner said most gifts included basic necessities like socks, underwear and winter clothing. Turner said the gift drive began as an initiative to help struggling single parents provide their children with Christmas presents more than 30 years ago. Since then, the Giving Tree has expanded its charities to help families in need year-round. Turner has helped with the Christmas gift drive for more than three decades. She said knowing the organization is helping disadvantaged children enjoy the holidays makes the work worthwhile. Its for the kids, she said. A lot of these kids wouldnt have a Christmas otherwise. On Dec. 18, 1620, a group of Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Nearly 396 years later, on Dec. 17, America would bury a new breed of explorer. Sen. John Glenn, the last of the Mercury astronauts, was buried after having passed into the final frontier on Dec. 9, 2016. Glenn was a member of the Mercury 7, or as NASA called them, Astronaut Group 1. These men volunteered and, ultimately, became the first men selected to ride a rocket into the unchartered region above our planet known as low Earth orbit. It was a time when NASA had only tested the rockets along with the space capsule that rode on top. These were the men who trusted the science. When the Pilgrims left England for a new land, there was no guarantee they would make it. Even after landing and working to set up their colony, nearly half of the 102 original passengers died before spring. Glenn had scientific evidence to support his trip, but even he had to question his own mortality after his fiery reentry into Earths atmosphere. The Mercury 7 were a special breed of men. Glenn, along with Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton were not only modern-day explorers, they were the faces of the Cold War who put Americas resolve to the test against the Communist threat. The Soviet Union, along with the spread of Communism throughout the Eastern Bloc, was a major threat to the United States and freedom globally. The competition for superiority had spread beyond the planet to the outer reaches of space. By the time the Mercury astronaut team was announced in 1959, the Soviets already had launched the first satellite into space. The successful launch of Sputnik put Americas leadership on high alert. If the Soviet Union could successfully fire a spacecraft into space, what else were they capable of? Just two months later, the Russians launched a dog, Laika, into space. The threat of intercontinental missiles with a nuclear payload officially was capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. The Americans had fallen way behind. The Mercury astronauts would change the course of history. These men were willing to risk it all to advance the American cause and venture into the next frontier. Glenn was the first American to ride an oversized Roman candle into the limits of Earths orbital boundaries. Seven months after Glenns historic ride, President John F. Kennedy would proclaim, We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win. And those other things werent easy. Mercury astronaut Gus Grissom would become the first of the original seven to die serving this mission. During a launch rehearsal on Jan. 27, 1967, Grissom would perish in a cabin fire along with Roger Chaffee and Edward White. Apollo 1 would never leave the ground. Glenns initial orbit launched the future. In the same way that the Pilgrims created the first modern day democracy with the Mayflower Compact, the astronaut team, lead by John Glenn, launched the beginning of the end for the Soviet Empire. The irony of the space program is that it was a militaristic answer to a militaristic threat that ended peaceably. When America took the lead in space during Cold Wars battle over global ideology, peace ultimately won out. By the time President Ronald Reagan pleaded, Tear down this wall, the era of cooperation already had begun when an unnumbered Apollo spacecraft docked alongside a Soyuz capsule in July 1975. It also was Mercury astronaut Donald Deke Slaytons only mission into space. Space exploration is now a mission of science. Residing in the outer reaches of our planets gravitational pull, men and women from around the globe routinely live and experiment on the International Space Station. The mission of space no longer is the mission of global dominance. It is now a mission of global cooperation. NASA is now looking past the moon toward Mars. Thanks to men like John Glenn, we also look forward to humanitys grasp of the final frontier. "Nagrota, Uri and Pathankot terror strikes were carried out by Pakistan-based terrorists, but none were possible without local support to foreign terrorists", says the assessment report. By Ashwini Kumar, Gaurav C Sawant: Jammu and Kashmir police and intelligence units need to probe local support to terror, says an internal army assessment report post the Nagrota terror strike of November 29. The Army has ordered all formations within the Northern Command and those bordering Pakistan in the western and south western command to strengthen their perimeter security. 1. "Nagrota, Uri and Pathankot terror strikes were carried out by Pakistan-based terrorists, but none were possible without local support to foreign terrorists", says the assessment report. It calls upon the formations to innovate and put multi-tier security grids in place. With Pakistan-backed terrorists increasingly targeting military camps and convoys, there is an urgent need to target the sleeper cells in India. advertisement 2. While the Army expects local police and state intelligence units to investigate the role of local and overground workers (OGWs) of terror groups, a top officer, who was privy to the report, told Mail Today that local connection to terror was never investigated in the right earnest. 3. "Effort has been to brush the local terror angle under the carpet and not raise uncomfortable questions about how terrorists reached camps and who gave them logistical support. This needs to be investigated in the right earnest by putting national interest over political interest or shying away from asking hard questions", he added. 4. Talking specifically of the Nagrota terror strike, where terrorists targeted an artillery regiment, the official said that the target was not selected at random by Pakistan's ISI. Two teams were launched - one to target the Army and the second to target the police training camp at Vijaypur in Samba district. 5. Fortunately for the country, BSF spotted the second team of terrorists as they sneaked in through a rat hole (tunnel) in the Chamliyal sector. The BSF engaged the terrorists and after a fierce firefighting killed the three terrorists. 6. Like in Uri, these terrorists were carrying several explosives, chain IEDs and grenades. "Like in Uri, their aim was to set the polie training camp on fire and cause maximum damage. The BSF neutralised them, but the recovery of weapons and GPS system exposed Pakistan's ISI. These terrorists were launched by the ISI's Maj Choudhary from Sialkot district in Pakistan", sources in Jammu and Kashmir police told Mail Today. 7. While the BSF succeeded in isolating and killing 3 Pakistani terrorists in Chamliyal, the other group of terrorists succeeded in infiltrating around November 27. "Our assessment is that they stayed in Hiranagar area of Kathua district the entire next day (Nov 28). The overground worker network of terrorist groups needs to be identified and destroyed. The terrorists got into a White Tata Sumo and specifically moved to target the artillery regiment that had been hitting across the LoC post the Uri terror attack", sources added. 8. Investigators have succeeded in tracing the entire route the terrorists in police uniform took in the White Tata Sumo and have got clinching evidence in the form of interviews of eyewitnesses and other electronic signatures. advertisement 9. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing the terror strike but Army sources say local police and intelligence units have a better chance of nailing local support to foreign terrorists. 10. The Military Intelligence (MI) local teams have also been sensitised to identify local support to terrorists given the fact that several localities have come very close to Army camps and in some places, illegal multi- storeyed civil buildings are looking into Army and police camps. 11. "The impression is nobody will expose and destroy the local support network of foreign terrorists because of political reasons. Even post 26/11, local support to the 10 Pakistani LeT terrorists, David Headley and Tahawwur Rana was not investigated in the right earnest. Unless we learn from our past mistakes, we are condemned to repeating them", sources added. Also read | Why Nagrota attack is a slap on security array of army establishments --- ENDS --- The health care ratings at several Wisconsin state nursing homes for veterans have tumbled again in the wake of annual certification inspections that found multiple problems in facilities. The latest decline for the state Department of Veterans Affairs facilities at King comes as the homes face a state audit and Gov. Scott Walker searches for a new department secretary. The rating for Kings Olson Hall dropped to two stars, or below average, on the five-star scale used by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website created to allow consumers to compare quality among nursing homes. The rating was downgraded because of violations found in a September inspection. Olson had a five-star rating from 2014 through the end of November despite a March 9 inspection citation for substandard care and placing residents in immediate jeopardy related to the death of a resident. According to a CMS spokeswoman, a clerical error at the state Department of Health Services prevented the citation from lowering the ranking for months while Walker and WDVA secretary John Scocos touted Kings apparent top ratings in response to public criticism of care given to veterans at King. Walker has since announced Scocos would resign effective Jan. 7. Governor Walkers top concern is the care of our veterans, Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said in a statement Wednesday. The next secretarys top priority will be to ensure our veterans are receiving the best services possible. The Democratic leader of the state Senate said Republicans who control state government have been dragging their feet on addressing problems at the veterans homes. Rather than addressing issues with staff shortages, outdated medical equipment and crumbling infrastructure, Republicans relied on a flawed rating system to justify their inaction and ignore serious concerns from veterans and staff, Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, said in a statement. All four King units for the first time had overall top ratings in October when the status of one of them, Stordock Hall, rose from four stars to five. On Nov. 28, after the clerical error related to Olson Hall was discovered, Olson was reduced to four stars overall. It was given two stars in the category of health inspections, four stars for staffing, and five stars for quality measures. The September certification inspection, which produced seven citations, contributed to the most recent reduction in Olsons health rating, which fell to one star, with the overall rating dropping to two stars. The ratings are based on three years of inspections, which means Olsons status no longer takes into account its 2013 certification inspection that resulted in no citations, said WDVA spokeswoman Carla Vigue. Another of the four King units also saw its ratings fall. MacArthur Hall dropped to four stars overall and four stars for health. And Boland Hall, a state veterans home in Union Grove, dropped from four stars to three stars overall and from three stars to two for health. Vigue said that despite the declines in the homes ratings in the health inspection category, they remained above average in categories of staffing and quality of care. Ensuring that veterans and those living at our homes receive the best care possible (is) something we take very seriously and work very hard at, Vigue said. As always, when issues do arise during these inspections, just as they do in any 24-hour skilled nursing facility, corrective action plans are put in place so that we may make improvements. WDVA was fined $76,900 in the March 9 citation, but is appealing. Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy The Trinamool Congress Chief today took to Twitter to lash out at the Modi government for its "vindictive" politics. The Chief Minister reacted to the news of the Income Tax raid at the house of Tamil Nadu chief secretary. By Manogya Loiwal : Ever since Narendra Modi announced demonetisation of high-value currency, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been on the offensive, hitting out at the government for causing inconvenience to people. The Trinamool Chief today took to Twitter to lash out at the Modi government for its "vindictive" politics. The Chief Minister reacted to the news of the Income Tax raid at the house of Tamil Nadu chief secretary. Mamata's tweet attack on the government: The Chief Minister tweeted, "Earlier the Principal Secretary of @ArvindKejriwal was raided and harassed. Now I read Chief Secretary TN also raided". The Central Bureau of Investigation recently filed a chargesheet against former Delhi Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar in a corruption case. Mamata called such raids as "vindictive, unethical and technically improper action". "Is it only to disturb the federal structure," she asked. In a major crackdown on black money in the wake of demonetisation, the Income Tax department has been conducting raids across the country. Upping the ante against the goverment, she said, "Why don't they raid Amit Shah and others who are collecting money?" A few days ago, her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal had demanded setting up of a commission to probe source of funding of political parties. The West Bengal Chief Minister said that while corruption needs to be condemned, "raid on TN Chief Secy by Central agencies devalues the institution of head of civil services". She said proper procedures should have been followed before the raid and the state leadership should have been taken into confidence. Why don't they raid Amit Shah and others who are collecting money? 3/6 Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) December 21, 2016 advertisement ALSO READ: Modi government misleading public over income tax exemption for political parties: Mamata ALSO READ: Mamata's advice to RBI Governor: Stand up against the onslaught, don't remain silent ALSO WATCH --- ENDS --- In an exclusive interview with India Today in state capital Imphal, the three time CM said that had the Central government acted promptly things would not have escalated so far. By Indrajit Kundu: In the face of severe unrest in Manipur, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has blamed the Narendra Modi led BJP government at the centre for not acting on time to difuse tensions on the ground.In an exclusive interview with India Today in state capital Imphal, the three time CM said that had the Central government acted promptly things would not have escalated so far.Also read: Manipur: Internet services suspended in West Imphal following chaos advertisement Manipur: Police convoy ambushed in terror attack; 5 cops killed Blaming the Naga insurgent group NSCN (IM) for the unrest, Singh acknowledged for the very first time on record that the United Naga Council which had imposed the economic blockade on Imphal since November 1 was acting as the mouthpiece of the rebel group with whom the Centre was engaged in a peace dialogue. "Some groups are not happy with our decision to form seven new districts. You know who those people are?it is UNC which is the mouthpiece of the NSCN (IM)?they oppose it?thus they started the indefinite blockade," Singh told India Today. Slamming the Centre for failing to rein-in the Naga insurgent group with which it signed a peace accord last year Singh said, "Immediately after UNC announced the indefinite blockade I rushed to Delhi and met Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The peace talk is between the Governemnt of India and NSCN (IM). The state government is not involved in it. The ground rule is that the NSCN (IM) should confine (their activities) in Nagaland alone and that too in the designated camps." "I pressurized the Home Minister but I was surprised with his response. Rather, the UNC and NSCN (IM) began saying that the state government should give commitment that it won't take decision regarding creation of new districts. But with all due regards, any authority including the Government of India cannot dictate the state government because it's purely under the purview of the state," Singh added. Singh denied reports that the Centre had sent 4000 additional forces to the state. "That is a wrong report. Even today we had a combined meeting with the Assam Rifles, CRPF and BSF. Where is that 4000 personnel?" he asked adding that the state had received less than 10 companies of additional forces. When questioned about the motive behind the timing of his government's decision to form the seven new districts in the tribal areas, Singh said no matter when such a decision was taken, state government would never be able to complete any project if such "unprecedented" incidents became the norm IMPHAL HEADING FOR FUEL CRISIS? With the economic blockade continuing for over 50 days, capital Imphal was heading for severe fuel crisis. Singh said the state government was making attempts to open the NH-37 connecting Imphal with Assam though Jiribam. "We held a high level security meet today in order to open the NH-37 route so that we can resume supply to Imphal valley. There are more than 200 loaded tankers which are stuck in the blockade," he said once again reminding that the national highway comes under the Central government. Singh said his government has begun a crackdown on the UNC stating that its president and publicity secretary had already been arrested for imposing the blockade. On a day when various civil society groups held a peace meeting in Imphal, the chief minister reiterated his appeal for maintaining peace and calm in the state. "Manipur is just like Mini India and there are lots of tirbes here - the Nagas and Kukis in the hills and Meiteis in the valley. I appeal to everyone to maintain peace. We are all brothers in our state," he said. --- ENDS --- JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the 5th largest bank in the world and the largest in the U.S. The current company is the result of a series of mergers that began in the earliest days of American banking history and include more than 1,200 original banks. The oldest predecessor is The Bank Of The Manhattan Company which was founded in 1799 by Aaron Burr. At the time, The Bank Of The Manhattan Company was the 3rd oldest bank in the U.S. and the 31st oldest in the world. The Chase Manhattan Bank, a precursor to JPMorgan Chase, was later formed when The Bank Of Manhattan Company purchased Chase Bank which was established in 1877. JPMorgan & Co came to life in 1895 in order to finance the United States Steel Corporation. Itself a result of merger, the company also financed other early American businesses as well as aided the federal government by backing a bond offering. It wasnt until the year 2000 and after several more mergers that JPMorgan Chase & Co was born. It will be four more years before the merger with Bank One which is notable because it brings CEO Jamie Dimon into the picture. JPMorgan Chase & Co was instrumental in aiding the US government during the 2008 financial crisis. It backed the accounts of several major banks including Bear Stearns and eventually took over their operations. Today, JPMorgan Chase & Co operates as a financial services company worldwide with operations on every continent and in more than 60 countries. JPMorgan Chase & Co operates through four segments that are Consumer & Community Banking (CCB), Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB), Commercial Banking (CB), and Asset & Wealth Management (AWM). Services are available in branches in 48 of the 50 US states and around the world. Services are available via ATM, online, mobile, and telephone. The CCB segment offers traditional banking services to consumers that include but are not limited to deposits, loans, mortgages, and lines of credit. The CIB segment provides investment banking products and services to businesses, institutions, and governments that range from prime brokerage, insurance, corporate strategy, and access to capital markets, to lending, cross-border financing, and derivative instruments. The CB segment provides financial services for small, medium, and large businesses including commercial real estate banking of all types. The AWM segment provides investment management solutions to institutional and retail investors. This segment also provides retirement products, brokerage, trusts and estates, and investment management products. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells containment and delivery systems for injectable drugs and healthcare products in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in two segments, Proprietary Products and Contract-Manufactured Products. The Proprietary Products segment offers stoppers and seals for injectable packaging systems; syringe and cartridge components, including custom solutions for the needs of injectable drug applications, as well as administration systems that enhance the safe delivery of drugs through advanced reconstitution, mixing, and transfer technologies; and films, coatings, washing, and vision inspection and sterilization processes and services to enhance the quality of packaging components. It also provides drug containment solutions, including Crystal Zenith, a cyclic olefin polymer in the form of vials, syringes, and cartridges; and self-injection devices, as well as a range of integrated solutions, including analytical lab services, pre-approval primary packaging support and engineering development, regulatory expertise, and after-sales technical support. This segment serves biologic, generic, and pharmaceutical drug companies. The Contract-Manufactured Products segment is involved in the design, manufacture, and automated assembly of devices used in surgical, diagnostic, ophthalmic, injectable, and other drug delivery systems, as well as consumer products. It serves pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and medical device companies. The company distributes its products through its sales force and distribution network, as well as contract sales agents and regional distributors. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. was incorporated in 1923 and is headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania. Regions Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and bank-related services to individual and corporate customers. It operates through three segments: Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management. The Corporate Bank segment offers commercial banking services, such as commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and investor real estate lending; equipment lease financing; deposit products; and securities underwriting and placement, loan syndication and placement, foreign exchange, derivatives, merger and acquisition, and other advisory services. It serves corporate, middle market, and commercial real estate developers and investors. The Consumer Bank segment provides consumer banking products and services related to residential first mortgages, home equity lines and loans, consumer credit cards, and other consumer loans, as well as deposits. The Wealth Management segment offers credit related products, and retirement and savings solutions; and trust and investment management, asset management, and estate planning services to individuals, businesses, governmental institutions, and non-profit entities. The company also provides investment and insurance products; low-income housing tax credit corporate fund syndication services; and other specialty financing services. As of March 01, 2022, it operated through a network of 1,300 banking offices and 2,000 automated teller machines across the South, Midwest, and Texas. Regions Financial Corporation was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. General Mills, Inc. manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates in five segments: North America Retail; Convenience Stores & Foodservice; Europe & Australia; Asia & Latin America; and Pet. It offers ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and salty snacks, ice cream, nutrition bars, wellness beverages, and savory and grain snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables. It also supplies branded and unbranded food products to the North American foodservice and commercial baking industries; and manufactures and markets pet food products, including dog and cat food. The company markets its products under the Annie's, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Blue Buffalo, Blue Basics, Blue Freedom, Bugles, Cascadian Farm, Cheerios, Chex, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, EPIC, Fiber One, Food Should Taste Good, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gardetto's, Go-Gurt, Gold Medal, Golden Grahams, Haagen-Dazs, Helpers, Jus-Rol, Kitano, Kix, Larabar, Latina, Liberte, Lucky Charms, Muir Glen, Nature Valley, Oatmeal Crisp, Old El Paso, Oui, Pillsbury, Progresso, Raisin Nut Bran, Total, Totino's, Trix, Wanchai Ferry, Wheaties, Wilderness, Yoki, and Yoplait trademarks. It sells its products directly, as well as through broker and distribution arrangements to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, e-commerce retailers, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, convenience stores, and pet specialty stores, as well as drug, dollar, and discount chains. The company operates 466 leased and 392 franchise ice cream parlors. General Mills, Inc. was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Local television showed a flurry of multi-colored fireworks exploding in all directions as a massive plume of smoke rose above the market while people frantically fled. Firefighters and rescue workers comb through ashes and rubble at the open-air San Pablito fireworks market, in Tultepec, outskirts of Mexico City, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016. An explosion ripped through Mexico's best-known fireworks market on the nort By Reuters: A massive, multicolored explosion decimated a fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, leaving it a charred wasteland and killing at least 29 people with dozens more injured. HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Television images showed a flurry of pyrotechnics exploding into the early afternoon sky as a giant plume of smoke rose above the market. Fireworks detonated in a peal of clattering bursts reminiscent of a war zone. The technicolor blast was the third such explosion in just over a decade to hit the popular San Pablito marketplace in Tultepec, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Mexico City. The detonations struck in the run-up to the busy Christmas holiday when many Mexicans stock up on fireworks. "People were crying everywhere and desperately running in all directions," said 20-year-old witness Cesar Carmona. Some 13 children suffered burns to over 90 per cent of their bodies and were being sent to the US city of Galveston in Texas for treatment, said Eruviel Avila, the governor of the State of Mexico where Tultepec is located. He put the death toll at 29. Avila also vowed to find and punish those responsible for the blast and provide economic assistance to those who had lost their livelihoods. Isidro Sanchez, the head of Tultepec emergency services, said a lack of sufficient safety measures was the likely cause of the blast. The federal police said it had sent a forensic team to investigate the incident, adding that at least 70 people had been injured. Videos from the scene showed people frantically fleeing, while aerial footage revealed blackened stalls and a flattened tangle of metal and wood. Over 80 per cent of the 300 stalls at the market were destroyed by the explosion, said state official Jose Manzur. Local media reported there were 300 tonnes of fireworks at the market at the time of the explosion. Federico Juarez was present when the first explosion rocked the market. "Everyone started running to escape as bricks and pieces of concrete fell everywhere," said Juarez. The blast is the latest in a long-running series of fatal explosions and industrial accidents that have roiled Mexico's oil, gas and petrochemical industries. A blast struck the Tultepec fireworks market in September 2005 just before independence day celebrations, injuring many people. Almost a year later, another detonation gutted the area again. "I offer my condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives in this accident and my wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured," President Enrique Pena Nieto said in a tweet. Pena Nieto is the former governor of the State of Mexico, the country's largest which surrounds the capital. advertisement Watch video here: A massive explosion gutted #Mexico's biggest fireworks market, killing at least 29 people and injuring 70, authorities said pic.twitter.com/h4ZXgkgJzP TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) December 21, 2016 --- ENDS --- EnerSys provides various stored energy solutions for industrial applications worldwide. It operates in three segments: Energy Systems, Motive Power, and Specialty. The company offers uninterruptible power systems applications for computer and computer-controlled systems, as well as telecommunications systems; switchgear and electrical control systems used in industrial facilities and electric utilities, large-scale energy storage, and energy pipelines; integrated power solutions and services to broadband, telecom, renewable, and industrial customers; and thermally managed cabinets and enclosures for electronic equipment and batteries. It also provides motive power products that are used to provide power for electric industrial forklifts used in manufacturing, warehousing, and other material handling applications. In addition, the company offers mining equipment, diesel locomotive starting, and other rail equipment. Further, it provides specialty batteries for starting, lighting, and ignition applications in transportation; and energy solutions for satellites, military aircraft, submarines, ships, and other tactical vehicles, as well as medical and security systems. Additionally, the company offers battery chargers, power equipment, battery accessories, and outdoor cabinet enclosures, as well as related after-market and customer-support services for industrial batteries. The company sells its products through a network of distributors, independent representatives, and internal sales forces. The company was formerly known as Yuasa, Inc. and changed its name to EnerSys in January 2001. EnerSys was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Reading, Pennsylvania. It was the third time in just over a decade that explosions have hit the popular San Pablito marketplace in Tultepec, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Mexico City. The detonations struck in the run-up to the busy Christmas holiday, when many Mexicans stock up on fireworks. People were crying everywhere and desperately running in all directions said, a 20-year-old witness Cesar Carmona. Some children suffered burns to more than 90 per cent of their bodies and were being sent to the US city of Galveston in Texas for treatment, said Eruviel Avila, the governor of the State of Mexico in which Tultepec is located. He also vowed to find and punish those responsible and to provide economic assistance to those who had lost their livelihoods. The federal attorney general's office opened an investigation, saying in a statement that six separate blasts caused the destruction. Isidro Sanchez, the head of Tultepec emergency services, said earlier that a lack of safety measures was the likely cause of the blasts. The federal police said a forensic team had been sent to investigate and that at least 70 people had been injured. Videos from the scene showed people frantically fleeing, while aerial footage revealed blackened stalls and a flattened tangle of metal and wood. The state's top prosecutor raised the death toll late on Tuesday to 31, most of whom died at the market. More than 80 per cent of the 300 stalls at the market were destroyed by the explosions, said state official Jose Manzur. He said the market was inspected by safety officials last month and no irregularities were found. Mexican media reported there were 300 tonnes of fireworks at the market at the time of the explosions. The head of a local pyrotechnics association told online publication Animal Politico last week that the fireworks market was the safest in Latin America, featuring "perfectly designed stalls" that could prevent any chain reaction in the event of a spark. Federico Juarez was present when the first explosion rocked the market. He said, everyone started running to escape as bricks and pieces of concrete fell everywhere. The blasts were the latest in a long-running series of fatal explosions and industrial accidents that have rocked Mexico's oil, gas and petrochemical industries. A blast struck the Tultepec fireworks market in September 2005 just before independence day celebrations, injuring many people. Another detonation gutted the area again almost a year later. President Enrique Pena Nieto said in a tweet, I offer my condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives in this accident and my wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured. Veeva Systems Inc. provides cloud-based software for the life sciences industry in North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. The company offers Veeva Commercial Cloud, a suite of software, data, and analytics solutions, which include Veeva customer relationship management (CRM) and Veeva Medical CRM, Veeva CLM, Veeva CRM MyInsights, Veeva CLM, Veeva CRM Approved Email, Veeva CRM Engage, Veeva Align, Veeva CRM Events Management, Veeva Nitro, Veeva OpenData, Veeva Link, Veeva Network, Veeva Crossix, Veeva Data Cloud, and MyVeeva for Patients; and Veeva Vault, a cloud-based enterprise content and data management applications for managing commercial functions, including sales and marketing, and medical content and communications, as well as research and development functions, such as clinical, regulatory, quality, and safety. It also provides professional and support services in the areas of implementation and deployment planning and project management; requirements analysis, solution design, and configuration; systems environment management and deployment services; services focused on advancing or transforming business and operating processes related to Veeva solutions; technical consulting services related to data migration and systems integrations; training on its solutions; and ongoing managed services that include outsourced systems administration. The company was formerly known as Verticals onDemand, Inc. and changed its name to Veeva Systems Inc. in April 2009. Veeva Systems Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Pleasanton, California. 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. Delhi Police is now considering a lie detector test on Najeeb Ahmed's roommate Kazim, who first claimed that Najeeb was aggressive in nature and that he was scared of him. By Tanseem Haider: Despite conducting a massive two-day search operation in and around the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, the Delhi Police has not been able to make a headway in the missing Najeeb Ahmed case. Police are now likely to conduct a polygraph test, or a lie detector test, on Najeeb's roommate Kasim. Here are the developments in the case: Delhi Police is now considering a lie detector test on Najeeb Ahmed's roommate Kasim, who first claimed that Najeeb was aggressive in nature and that he was scared of him. Police are likely to approach at least 10 people for the test. Police have also written to Facebook in an attempt to get some clues regarding how he went missing. Sources said that investigations have revealed that two profiles on Facebook with the name of Najeeb Ahmed were active till a week after he went missing on October 15. The profiles were used for chatting with some contacts. According to sources, police are now trying to get details of the locations from where he logged into his Facebook account. advertisement ALSO READ: Missing JNU student: No trace of Najeeb even after crime branch's massive search operations ALSO WATCH --- ENDS --- By PTI: From K J M Varma Beijing, Dec 21 (PTI) China today said Mongolia should draw lessons and respect its "core interests" to improve bilateral ties after Ulaanbaatar expressed regret over the Dalai Lamas recent visit to the predominantly Buddhist country and announced that the Tibetan spiritual leader would not be allowed to visit again. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Tibet related issues bore on Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity as wellas its "core interests". advertisement She said China has noted the remarks by Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil who expressed regret for inviting the Dalai Lama and his commitment to not to invite the Tibetan leader again. "Our position on this issue is explicit and clear. We hope that the Monglian side can draw lessons from this, respects Chinas core interests honour its commitments and make efforts to improve Mongolia-China relations," Hua said. The Mongolian Foreign Minister said yesterday that the Dalai Lama would not be allowed to visit in the future, even for religious reasons, the state-run Xinhua news agency cited a local Mongolian newspaper as saying. The Mongolian Minister expressed regret that the Dalai Lamas visit hurt ties with Beijing. His comments aimed at mending fences with China came after Beijing virtually imposed a blockade to the landlocked Mongolia which located between Russia and China and reportedly put off talks on USD 4.2 billions loans sought by Ulaanbaatar to tide over tight economic situation. Mongolia had allowed the Dalai Lama to visit the country last month during which he took part in several religious ceremonies. China had reacted sharply saying "the wrong doing by Mongolia on this issue diminished political foundation between the two countries and brought negative impact to bilateral relations." Following the blockade, the Mongolian Ambassador to India had reportedly sought the Indian government help and New Delhi has reciprocated with the USD one billion credit line which was termed as a "bribe" by the Chinese official media. Mongolias economy is highly dependent on China, with more than 90 per cent of its imports and exports traded directly with China. As such, Chinas influence on Mongolias economy cannot be replaced by India in the short run, and efforts will be in vain if India attempts to bribe Mongolias loyalty with only USD one billion," an article in the daily said. On December 9, another article in the same daily warned Mongolia that "It is even more politically harebrained to ask for support from India, a move that will only complicate the situation and leave a narrower space to sort the issue out. We hope the crisis-hit Mongolia will learn its lessons." advertisement China regards the Dalai Lama as a separatist, though he says he merely seeks genuine autonomy for his Himalayan homeland Tibet, which Communist Chinese troops ?peacefully liberated? in 1950. PTI KJVPMS AKJ PMS --- ENDS --- MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande said that the higher denomination notes received by this centre don't get deposited in the bank. By Mayuresh Ganapatye: As people suffer because of the cash crunch across the country, the MNS in BMC's standing committee today alleged that Citizen's Facilitation Centre of 'T Ward' in Mulund West is doing fraud with the currency notes, which it receives. Showing proof, MNS corporator, Sandeep Deshpande said that the higher denomination notes received by this centre don't get deposited in the bank. Allegations by the MNS corporator: Deshpande showed the Citizen Facilitation Centre report of November 16, 2016 where 7 notes of Rs 2000 were collected by same centre but these notes didn't get deposited in the bank and on the contrary more Rs 1000 notes got deposited in the bank. "We have demanded a detailed inquiry into this. If one collection centre is receiving more than a lakh rupees in one shift, then you can imagine the overall collection of all centres in the city. But the important part is of the higher denomination notes, where have these 7 notes gone? They should explain?, demanded the MNS leader. To back his allegation, Deshpande showed the deposit slips of November 16 of the 'T Ward' collection centre, where there is no mention of Rs 2000 notes but on other hand, the internal daily report of transactions cleanly shows that collection centre collected 7 notes of Rs 2000. So far the BMC has not ordered any probe in this regard. But the MNS had demanded that an FIR be filed. The MNS has also given a deadline till tomorrow. advertisement Also read: 54 demonetisation changes in 42 days: Here are 9 major ones you need to keep up with --- ENDS --- China News on Women Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page A Muslim woman became victim to a racial attack in Australia. "I saw him grab a bottle so I quickly turned away and he threw it at me and it smashed on my shoulder and neck." By India Today Web Desk: A Muslim woman, in Western Australia, became victim to a racial attack after a man hurled beer bottle at her and later tore her hijab. The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, was shopping in Beeliar, Perth, when the incident took place. The 33-year old woman said that the attacker wished her 'Merry Christmas' and when she turned around and wished him 'happy holidays', the man attacked her with a beer bottle and later tore her hijab. advertisement ''I turned around and said 'happy holidays' to you,'' she said. ''He then yelled 'no,merry Christmas', and I said 'OK', and he called me a 'f***ing Muslim c***','' she said. ''I asked him what he said and I saw him grab a bottle so I quickly turned away and he threw it at me and it smashed on my shoulder and neck. Imagine if I had not turned around, it could have cut open my face,'' the woman said. Her hijab came off during the fight which the man dumped near the shopping complex. Still reeling under the blow, she called the police and continued to follow the man. The man even started hurling sticks and stones at me, she said. The woman waited for an hour for police and when she rang them again, they told her there was no record of her emergency call to the department. The police are now investigating the matter and are appealing for anyone with information to contact the Crime Stoppers. She told WA Today : ''I have been racially abused in the past because of my religion but this is by far worse.'' --- ENDS --- The British Agricultural Revolution refers to the period of change from the traditional to modern farming systems in Britain that occurred between the mid-1600s and the late 1800s. Before the revolution, the open-field system of cultivation was used which caused cattle overgrazing, uncontrolled breeding, and spread of animal diseases. Mechanization and scientific principles were adopted, which led to increased productivity and efficiency. As agricultural outputs became increasingly more efficient, fewer workers were required, more food was on hand, and industries cropped up as a result of the agricultural revolution. Factors Fueling the Agricultural Revolution Several factors facilitated the revolution, the first being acts of Parliamentary legislation regarding land enclosure. A series of Parliamentary legislation in the United Kingdom promoted land consolidation, either owned or rented. The aim of this system was to establish separate chunks of land to allow efficient and economical utilization of land. The acts laid the foundation for a land-owning system in Britain. Large tracts of land could be utilized for agricultural purposes, and productivity increased. The formation of agricultural societies and annual shows facilitated innovation and the spread of ideas. More efficient methods were adopted as knowledge became widespread. Other factors were changing climatic conditions, increased populations of livestock, innovations and higher yields. Changes in Technology and Farming Methods Numerous changes characterized the revolution as machines replaced people in the farms. Notable innovations included the seed drill, which was invented by Jethro Tull and enabled seeds to be planted deep into the soil mechanically. Previously, seeds had been planted on the top layer and were quickly washed away or lost. The steam engine, improved and patented by James Watt, popularized the use of steam power and facilitated the invention of the steamboat by Robert Fulton. The Steamboat enabled faster and cheaper transport and facilitated the invention of the steam-powered train by Stephenson. With better infrastructure, produce could now travel throughout the country, a situation which further helped to boost trade. Larger areas of land were further reclaimed through the draining of wetlands, the clearing of woodlands, and the transforming of upland pastures. The crop rotation system, championed by agriculturalists such as Charles Townshend, was widely adopted by farmers. In the system, fodder crops such as turnips and clover were planted instead of leaving the land fallow. Clover and Turnips were fed to cattle and also improved the soil fertility. Scientific animal breeding led to the development of the Shorthorn cattle, suited for both dairy and beef production. The Dishley Longhorn set precedence for more high quality and large-sized cattle to be developed. Robert Bakewell championed the selective breeding for sheep to develop larger breed with long and lustrous wool such as the Lincoln Longwool and New Leicester. The threshing machine, invented by Andrew Meike, improved the efficiency of harvesting grain. Numerous other innovations included the Hay-tossing machine, the flying shuttle, the spinning jenny, and Cromptons mule for the production of yarn. As more and more innovations were made, agriculture increasingly became automated. Role of Climate and Weather Patterns In the mid-1600s, the climate in England became colder and wetter, and intelligent seed selection became even more crucial for British farmers. New and superior varieties such as White-Eared Red Wheat, Red-Stalked Wheat and narrow-eared barley, which had an extended season and which could be stored in barns for lesser periods were developed. As more and more new crops were introduced, yields increased in return. Wetter climates also meant that rivers ran throughout the year and increased water supply. Effects on Greater British Society and Trade The effects of the revolution were immense and far-reaching. Now farmers were able to provide enough for the population, and the surplus produce was traded. Better infrastructure meant that produce reached local and international markets through exports. As food production increased, a rise in population was experienced as more people could be sustained. A large population in the UK became non-land holders as the tenure system of land came into effect, a situation which created a large market for agricultural produce and help boost trade. Improved trade enabled growth of the banking sector and development of loan facilities as economic assistance to farmers, and therefore underpinning industrial revolution. The Agricultural Revolution's Facilitation of the Industrial Revolution The agricultural revolution in Britain was instrumental in the developments that characterized the industrial revolution. The enclosure system had displaced people who subsequently moved into cities. A further increase in population provided labor for the industries. The agricultural revolution, which led to a greater abundance of food, had led to significant reductions in the prices of foodstuffs. The population thus had more disposable income to spend on industrial products. The need to sustain food production inspired more inventions in technology which facilitated the industrial revolution. During the agricultural period, the United Kingdom became economically prosperous and wealthy as farmers acquired capital to invest in industries and technology. The innovations in Agricultural revolution, coupled with improved infrastructure further fueled the industrial revolution. The War of 1812 was fought between American and British forces. It began on June 18, 1812. As the British army was using many of their resources fighting in the Napoleonic Wars, Canadians (who at the time lived in what was Upper Canada and Lower Canada) and Native Americans helped the British in their fight against the United States. Many Canadians, especially those in Lower Canada (modern-day Quebec) worried that an American invasion would threaten their right to speak French. Many of those living in Upper Canada (modern-day Ontario) preferred to stay loyal to the British crown. Many Native Americans also fought on the side of the British. They were led by Chief Tecumseh. The War of 1812 today is considered to be one of the most pivotal wars in American history. The war is said to have started as an American response to the impressment of American seamen by the British. Impressment means that American seamen were being forced to work for the British Navy against their own accord. Within the War of 1812, American forces launched three unsuccessful three-point invasions of Canada with the hopes of expanding their territory in the name of Manifest Destiny. When it comes to who won the War of 1812, historically, the American side and the British side have differing opinions. In American history, the War of 1812 is considered to be a War of Independence. As the Americans did not have to cede any of their territory to the British, the War of 1812 is seen as an American territory. However, as Canada did not become part of the United States, the British see the War of 1812 as a British-won war. When the French empire was collapsed under Napoleon Bonaparte, the British were able to put more resources into the war being fought in America. This eventually resulted in the capturing of Washington, D.C. by the British army and the burning down of public buildings including White House, in what was perhaps the War of 1812's most remembered moment today. The burning down of Washington was in retaliation for the American invasion of the Canadian government buildings. However, this was not the only battle that occurred during the War of 1812, which was the most recent war to have been fought on American soil. The most important of battles are outlined in the list below. 5. Battle of Plattsburgh - September 11, 1814 The Battle of Plattsburgh, which is also called the Battle of Lake Champlain, took place on September 11, 1814. The British army, under the command of George Prevost, entered the United States from what was then Lower Canada through New York state and advanced towards the town of Plattsburgh. A British naval squadron was also advancing via Plattsburgh Bay on Lake Champlain under the command of Captain George Downie. At the lakes edge, a smaller United States naval force was waiting and the battle began immediately. The British naval commander was killed and the British surrendered when Prevost called off the land battle. The army retreated back to Lower Canada. 4. Battle of Bladensburg and Burning of Washington - August 24, 1814 The British forces under General Robert Ross overcame American forces at the Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland, on August 24, 1814. From there, they marched unopposed towards the U.S. national capital of Washington, D.C. They occupied Washington and famously set fire to several presidential buildings including the White House, which was then known as the Presidential Mansion. The attack was a retaliation in response to the previous American attack on Canadian government buildings. On August 26, General Ross ordered a withdrawal and President Madison returned to Washington where he vowed to rebuild the city. 3. Battle of Lake Erie - September 10, 1813 The Battle of Lake Erie, also known as the Battle of Put-In-Bay, was a naval engagement between British forces and American forces during the War of 1812. The battle involved nine vessels of the United States Navy. The United States Navy defeated and captured six British vessels of the Royal Navy. The battle was pivotal to the control and recovery of Detroit and also enabled the Americans to win the Battle of Thames. The Battle of Lake Erie was one of the biggest naval engagements in the entire War of 1812. 2. Battle of New Orleans - January 8-18, 1815 The Battle of New Orleans was the final major battle waged in the War of 1812. The American combatants were led by Major General Andrew Jackson against the British forces who were led by Admiral Alexander Cochrane. The battle was one of the biggest and most decisive engagements that prevented the British from seizing New Orleans and other territory acquired through the Louisiana Purchase agreement. This was despite the signing of the Treaty of Ghent (signed in the city in Belgium of the same name) which was not yet ratified by the United States government until February of 1815. The warring parties continued with hostilities as they did not yet have knowledge of the treaty. The war came to an end when the British retreated on January 18. 1. Battle of Baltimore and Siege of Fort McHenry - September 13-14, 1814 The Battle of Baltimore and the British siege of Fort McHenry took place on September 13th and 14th in 1814 amid the larger War of 1812. The war was between the United States and the British forces. The United States under Major General Samuel Smith comprised of 1000 men at Fort McHenry who had 20 guns, against the British forces under Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane. The British were more well equipped with 19 ships and about 5,000 men. The British advanced to attack Baltimore, a vital port city which they believed was the base of many American privateers who were preying on their shipping. Baltimore's residents and defenders had declared their firm stance against the British by seizing their merchant ships and transporting limited cargoes to foreign ports. Baltimore had accounted for about 30% of all merchant ships captured by U.S forces hence earning the nickname "nest of pirates". The war ended with a successful defense of Baltimore and a restoration of American pride, much needed after the burning of Washington, D.C. The attack of the Baltimore Harbor famously inspired American lawyer to write "the Star-Spangled Banner", the song that would eventually become the national anthem of the United States. Higher education has always been an important aspect of society in Holland, with some of the oldest universities in the country that are still in use having been established there as early as the 16th Century. These institutions of learning play a significant role in the education of a vast number of people both locally and internationally. Some of these universities have been ranked among the top in Netherlands by the times higher education. The Delft University of Technology is ranked first followed by the university of Amsterdam, Wageningen University, Erasmus University, and Leiden University. 5. Leiden University - Leiden University was established in 1575 by the Prince of Orange as a public research university. The University, located in South Holland, is one of the highest ranking universities in Netherlands with a reputation in continental Europe as one of the best for arts and humanities. Leiden is the oldest university and is recognized worldwide as one of the best research institutions. Leiden owns more than 50 institutions and schools. Notable alumni from the university include the first lady of Costa Rica Josette Altman, the physician Johann Bartsch, the politician Ben Bot, and the judge Alexander Boswell. 4. Erasmus University at Rotterdam - Erasmus University was established in 1913 as a public university located in Rotterdam. The University is one of the top rated universities in Netherlands and the 72nd in the world. Erasmus University focuses mainly on four areas in education and arts including health, wealth, governance and culture. The university enrolls more than 26,000 students with almost 3,000 academic staff. Johann Anderson, Rene Hooft Grafland, Maarten Fontein, Eduard Bomhoff, and Jan Kees de Jager are among some of the many notable personalities who have studied at Erasmus University. 3. Wageningen University - Wageningen is a Dutch public university located in Wageningen that was established in 1918. The primary focus for the university is in agriculture and related sciences. The university offers BSC, MSc, and Ph.D. programs to both local and international students. The university enrolls more than 10,000 students and employs a total of 6500 administrative staff. Wageningen is one of the best universities in Netherlands and the 36th best in the world for agriculture and life sciences. Notable alumni from the university have included the likes of Gerrit Braks, William Hilbrand van Dobben, and Martjin Katan. 2. University of Amsterdam - The University of Amsterdam was established as a public university in 1632 by municipal authorities in Amsterdam, initially intended to serve as a medical teaching institution. Currently, the university is one of the largest research centers in Europe. The national government in 1961 made the university a national institution leading to the consequent recognition both locally and internationally. The university has been accredited by the Ministry of education, culture, and science giving it full rights to operate as a university. Notable alumni from the university include Christiaan Eijkman, Anton Pannekoek, Eric Verlind, Prime Minister Charles Michel, and trade union leader Marleen Berth. 1. Delft University of Technology - Delft University is the world's largest and oldest state-ran technological university. Established by King William II in 1842, it was transformed to become the first polytechnic school in 1864. By 1905, it was an Institute of Technology, and thereby gained full university rights and credentials. In 1986, the name was changed to Delft University of Technology. Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate Degrees are offered by the university, which has an enrollment of almost 20,000 students. Jan Arnoldus Schouten, Ben van Beurden, and Nobel Laureate Simon van der Meer are some of the most notable Dutch personalities to have attended the Delft University of Technology. Chris Hahn By: Chan Yuan (Scroll down for video) Parents in Missouri, received a call, notifying them that their son was involved in a car accident. Their son, 19-year-old Chris Hahn, was injured when a Fedex truck hit his vehicle in a head-on collision on U.S. 54 in Camden County. His parents, Daniel Hahn, 38, and Loretta Hendrickson, 37, were heading to University Hospital in Columbia, to be with him. On their way to the hospital, another car crossed the centerline and hit their car head-on at 5:30 p.m. Witnesses rushed to help the crash victims, but sadly, Hahn and Hendrickson died at the scene. The driver who crossed over the centerline, was identified as 36-year-old Arthur Hayes. He and his girlfriend, 35-year-old Crystal Hayes, who was a passenger in his vehicle, were also killed. A GoFundMe page was setup to help Chris Hahn pay off his medical bills and funeral costs. Sadly, while Chris Hahn is focusing on his recovery at the hospital, he will also have to plan the funeral for his parents. jwplayer.key=Xb4pq7jNsbZ4Vfx+msWU558xEnsZPO4TpfmMIQ==; jwplayer(player).setup({title: Lebanon mourns 5 deaths from 2 crashes on same day,mediaid: Lebanon mourns 5 deaths from 2 crashes on same day_12327298,file:http://video-static-01.clipsyndicate.com/bbed/2016/12/18/03/33/6256396fb11c45ada15c319e0e516388.mp4?co_id=1242&syndi_feed_id=1050&wpid=12614,image:http://video-static-01.clipsyndicate.com/bbed/2016/12/18/03/33/fa39518a91a74b0082f90e94285f358a.jpg?co_id=1242&syndi_feed_id=1050&wpid=12614,tracks: [{file: http://video-static-01.clipsyndicate.com/b83f/2016/12/18/03/32/698473cb2b8c47808b34bdf2aeb73a2c.vtt?co_id=1242&syndi_feed_id=1050&wpid=12614}],advertising:{client: vast,schedule: {myAds:{offset:pre,tag:http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640480&iu=/301721715/KY3&ciu_szs&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&ad_rule=0&vpos=preroll&env=vp&output=xml_vast2&unviewed_position_start=1&correlator=[timestamp]&cust_params=Category%3DNews}}}, autostart: false, ga: {label: mediaid}, width: 100%,aspectratio: 16:9}) Yvonne Caylor (left) and Nikki Collingbourne By: Chan Yuan A woman of the United kingdom, was jailed for killing her sister while she was disguised as a man. 53-year-old Yvonne Caylor was sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing her half-sister Nicola Collingbourne. A jury at the Luton Crown Court heard how Caylor was dressed as a man as she walked to her younger sisteras home in Hertfordshire. There, she forced herself into the home before attacking her 26-year-old half-sister with a chicken-shaped ceramic pot. Collingbourne was found by a family member lying in a pool of blood while wearing only her underwear. According to prosecutors, Caylor positioned her half-sisteras body in a way to make it look like she committed suicide. However, surveillance video showed Caylor coming to the apartment dressed as a man with a fake beard. Although Caylor maintained her innocence, she was found guilty of murder. By PTI: Islamabad, Dec 21 (PTI) Pakistan Navy today fired a live surface-to-surface anti-ship missile along the North Arabian Sea and said the successful test reaffirms its commitment to safeguard maritime frontiers "against all threats". The frontline combat unit of Pakistan Navy undertook the live firing of Surface to Surface Anti-ship missile from Sword Class frigate PNS ASLAT which was witnessed by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah. advertisement "The missile successfully destroyed its intended target with pinpoint accuracy reaffirming weapons lethality and offensive punch of Pakistan Navys Fleet," Radio Pakistan reported. Zakaullah expressed his satisfaction on the operational preparedness of Pakistan Navy Fleet and said the Live Missile Firing "reaffirms credibility of deterrence at sea and reassures Pakistan Navys commitment to safeguard our maritime frontiers against all threats". The successful conduct of missile firing also demonstrates the efficacy and lethality of modern weapon systems operated by Pakistan Navy, the report said. Last week, Pakistan successfully test-fired an enhanced version of an indigenously-designed cruise missile that can hit targets at 700 kms with all kinds of warheads, bringing many Indian cities within its range. Named after the Mughal invader and founder of the dynasty of same name, the missile is part of Babur Weapon System version - 2 as it is enhanced version of earlier missile and incorporates advanced aerodynamics and avionics that can strike targets both at land and sea with high accuracy. It is a low flying, terrain hugging missile, which carries certain stealth features and is capable of carrying various types of warheads, according to a press statement. The missile is equipped with state-of-the-art navigational technologies of Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) and all-time Digital Scene Matching & Area Co-relation (DSMAC) which enables it to engage various types of targets with pinpoint accuracy even in the absence of GPS navigation. Babur weapons system is an important force multiplier for Pakistans strategic defence. PTI SAI AKJ SAI --- ENDS --- Police Warn of Seriousness of Pink Teddy Bear Ecstasy Tablets This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Dec 21st, 2016 A warning to local communities has been issued after two young men fell seriously ill after taking what are thought to be Pink Teddy Bear ecstasy tablets. North Wales Police and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board have issued the warning after two men from the south Gwynedd area were admitted to hospital after taking the tablets at a party. One man was extremely ill as a result and admitted to Intensive Care. Fortunately both have now recovered and are now home with their respective families. Initial enquiries have found the two men may have taken the illegal Class A Controlled Drug ecstasy, however work is on-going to confirm this. A local investigation into the source and supply of these drugs is ongoing and North Wales Police are seeking any information that may assist identify the suppliers. District Sergeant Matt Geddes at Porthmadog Police Station said he strongly urges those who supply or use Pink Teddy Bears in particular to think hard about what they are doing and to stop immediately. He added: The family of the, initially, extremely ill young man are hugely grateful of the medical care their son received and relieved the outcome is positive however theyd hate to see other families going through the same pain and so are fully supportive of what we are trying to do and in warning people and identifying the suppliers We continue to work with our partners to highlight the dangers of drug abuse and under Operation Scorpion we actively target those concerned in the supply of controlled drugs. I should stress that whilst we have no credible information to suggest there is a rogue batch of illegal drugs in circulation people are requested to take the appropriate precautions. Dr Hywel Hughes, an Emergency Department Consultant at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital added: Over the last few years weve seen an increase in the number of people ending up in our care after becoming seriously ill as a result of taking psychoactive substances. You cannot know what these substances contain and they can be deadly. If you saw the impact they can have youd think twice. It is simply not worth the risk. Sergeant Geddes concluded: We are fully committed to providing a Safer North Wales and delivering a quality of service our communities deserve but we cant do this alone and key to all our work, and that of our partners, is intelligence and I cannot emphasise enough the importance of the community sharing their concerns with us. In line with the forces Operation Scorpion we are fully committed to the investigation of serious and organised crime and eradicating it from our communities and Id reiterate that anyone with information regarding the production and supply of controlled drugs or anyone they believe is involved in organised crime contact North Wales Police. You can contact North Wales Police / pass on information in several ways, including by speaking to your local Police Officer of PCSO. You can contact the control room direct via the web live chat or phoning 101 or messaging via Facebook or Twitter. Alternatively you can pass on information anonymously by contacting Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. For confidential advice and support on drugs go to FRANK. No one has been reported injured so far. This comes only 5 days after an Army convoy was attacked by terrorists in Pampore. By Ashraf Wani: Terrorists have hurled a grenade at a police patrol van near Parimpore on the outskirts of Srinagar. Security forces have begun search operations after the grenade blast. No one has been reported injured so far. The grenade was thrown at the van in Shalteng area of Parimpora. J&K: Suspected terrorists throw a grenade on a police vehicle in Shalteng area of Parimpora, Srinagar; No one injured. ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016 advertisement The incident comes only 5 days after an Army convoy was attacked by terrorists in Pampore. More details are awaited. --- ENDS --- The Fine Gael government and Apple Inc. are mounting what is in effect a joint challenge to the European Union (EU) to overturn a ruling that the corporation pay the Irish state at least 13 billion in uncollected taxes. The extraordinary alliance is determined by the necessity for the bourgeoisie in Dublin to maintain Ireland as a low--to almost zero--tax regime so as to attract investment from the major transnational corporations. The EU, on the other hand, is pursuing a trade war offensive against not just Apple but a host of US corporations. In August, the EU ruled that Ireland had broken European law by giving special tax preferences to Apple and must bill the makers of iPhone for 13 billion in back taxes, plus interest, from 2003 to 2014--likely to be in excess of 20 billion. This amounts to over five percent of Irelands GDP and is equivalent to the states entire education budget. The ruling followed a three-year investigation by a team of civil servants and ex-bankers under the control of the European Commission (EC), the EUs executive arm, and nicknamed The Maxforce after its leader, Max Lienemeyer. The German lawyer is no friend of Ireland. He rose to prominence initially as one of the architects of the bailout of Europes banks following the crash of 2008. The crash cost Ireland a massive 64 billion, which is still being paid back by the working class through savage austerity. The Maxforce has previously investigated the tax status of hundreds of companies. The Irish Times described its record as a story chronicling a growing clash between Europe and the US and a shift in the EU's approach to the tax affairs of multinationals. The US financial journal, Fortune, was blunter still, declaring in September, Apple Is Just the Beginning of Europe's New War on US Business. It has been more than 200 years since the US waged war with a European power over taxes. But now a more modern transatlantic struggle is brewing over much the same issue-this time with enormous sums in play, it wrote. The US Treasury told EU officials the ruling would have a chilling effect on trade and alleged that Brussels wanted to inflict pain on the largest US company by market cap, Fortune continued. At stake is what happens to about $2 trillion that US companies are estimated to have stashed abroad, out of reach of the USs 35 percent corporate tax. In 2015, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager ordered Starbucks to pay $35 million in back taxes to the Netherlands, where it was headquartered until 2014, as well as Fiat Chrysler in the duchy of Luxembourg. Other US corporations under investigation include Amazon, McDonald's and Google and Microsoftthe latter two for alleged abuse of market dominance under antitrust legislation. Starbucks responded by relocating to London in 2014. The EU decision against Apple dwarfs all previous rulings. The EC investigation focused on whether two Irish tax rulings, granted to Apple in 1991 and 2007, amounted to special treatment or reiterated a more general interpretation of Irish tax law. This second interpretation is the basis for the appeal of the Irish government launched last month and by Apple on Monday. The disputed rulings allowed two Irish-registered Apple units to acknowledge only a small part of their $130 billion in profit to Ireland, based on the argument that almost all of Apple's intellectual property is developed in the US. What it meant in practice was that Apple paid just 90 million in tax in Ireland between 2003 and 2014--as little as 0.005 percent as opposed to Irelands already extraordinarily low 12.5 percent corporation tax. The outstanding profits were effectively untaxed anywhere, including in the US. The 130-page report of the investigation was only released after several months to allow for the censoring of commercially sensitive information. It stated that the company channelled profits from dozens of countries through the two Ireland-based units. The most striking example is of how, in 2011, Apple Sales International recorded profits of about 16 billion across Europe, of which only 50 million was considered taxable in Ireland--a form of illegal state aid that rendered the two units stateless for tax purposes. The Irish government reacted furiously to the ruling, with Minister for Finance Michael Noonan claiming that the EU would only insist that the revenue was used to pay off the State's national debt of over 204 billion--a contention rejected by Brussels. The government is taking its stand on nothing less that Irish self-determination! It argues, The Commission has exceeded its powers and interfered with national tax sovereignty. But Ireland isnt the only government that doesnt want to tax Apple. Earlier this year, a US Senate inquiry into the tax strategies of US multinationals by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that Apple shifted tens of billions of dollars in profit into its stateless affiliates based in Ireland. But on Monday, the US Treasury Department objected that the EU's decision is retroactively applying a sweeping new State aid theory that is contrary to well-established legal principles and threatens to undermine the overall business climate in Europe. John McGuinness, chairman of Irelands all-party Finance Committee, has, with all due deference and humility, written to Apple chief executive Tim Cook to invite him to attend a hearing into the affair scheduled for late next month. Cook described the EUs ruling as total political crap. In a comment that underscores the dependence and subservience of national governments to the major corporations, Apple has accused the EC of ignoring decades of Irish tax law, US tax law, as well as global consensus on tax policy, that everyone has relied on, based upon a political agenda. If their opinion is allowed to stand, Apple would pay 40 percent of all the corporate income tax collected in Ireland, it complained. Apple added that the billions of dollars it routes through Ireland should be taxed in the US, in the full knowledge that this simply does not happen. The case is to be heard in the EU's general court in Luxembourg, but this will take years during which the disputed sum will be held in escrow. The main opposition party, Fianna Fail, also opposes the ruling, leaving Sinn Fein and the small pseudo-left parties to pose as an opposition. The Socialist Workers Party back in September was piling on the rhetoric, with one article, Rotten Apple--Rotten Government, describing Ireland (accurately) as a global hub for tax evasion and little more than a glorified money launderer. But its electoral front, People Before Profit, goes no further than to urge the government to take the money offered by the EC and, in future, to make corporations pay a minimum tax on profits on [sic] 12.5 percent by closing loopholes and to then Raise the rate to 15 percent over the life of the Dail. The third riot in two months, and the fourth major disturbance at a UK prison, took place at HM Prison Birmingham Friday. The riot, the largest since that at HM Prison Manchester (then known as Strangeways) in 1990, involved 600 inmates who took over four wings. During the riot at the Category B 1,450 capacity Victorian-era prison, built in 1849, millions of pounds of damage was caused. One inmate was hurt and went to hospital with a fractured jaw and broken eye socket. To quell the disturbance, G4S, the private firm who run the prison, sent in two initial Tornado riot control squads. Later the Prison Services gold command sent in an additional 11 Tornado units. It took the riot squads, comprising an eventual 160 officers, over 12 hours until the prison was taken back under control late in the evening. According to the account of Conservative government Justice Secretary Liz Truss, given to MPs on Monday, the riot began after six prisoners in N wing climbed on to safety netting on Friday at 9:15 a.m. Truss said, When staff intervened, one of them had their keys snatched. At that point, staff [who are trained to leave and go to a safe place when they lose possession of keys] withdrew for their own safety. Prisoners then gained control of the wing and subsequently of P wing. According to prison affairs academic, Alex Cavendish, an inside informant told him the trouble started with lights being broken and inmates taking control of fire hoses. The officers were then, as they are instructed to do, trying to get as many prisoners locked in their cells as possible to contain it, said Cavendish, adding, While one of the officers was putting a prisoner in the cell he was threatened with what appeared to be a used syringe. Truss confirmed that after the riot, 380 prisoners were moved out of Birmingham to other prisons. This caused problems in Britains already severely overcrowded prison system. At HM Prison Hull on Sunday, inmates refused to return to their cells after 15 inmates arrived from Birmingham. In an indication of the incendiary state of other UK prisons, staff at Hull were reportedly assaulted and CCTV cameras were torched. The Prison Officers Association (POA) reported that inmates at HMP Hull were put under lockdown, with only a few allowed out of cells at a time. As with last months riot of more than 200 inmates at Bedford prison, it quickly emerged that at the centre of the Birmingham events were the generally intolerable conditions under which inmates are confined. One prisoner who contacted the Birmingham Mailusing a mobile phone he obtainedexplained how prisoners no longer have access to basic facilities. He stated, They cancel gym all the time, the showers are cold, the food is crap, the heating is never on and we never get our mail on time. The issue of access to the gym is a major grievance nationally, as prisoners are locked in their cells for longer periods due to the chronic lack of staff to supervise them elsewhere. Another prisoner explained, We are entitled to half an hour of exercise every day and we are just not getting it. I was on N wing before and we did not get the proper levels of exercise for six weeks. People are going crazy because of it. They are breaching our human rights and the government needs to do something about it, they need to sort it out. Its a dangerous place at the moment. People are walking around with knives and G4S have no control. Another prisoner said, I used to be on one of the wings and there has been plenty of occasions where just a couple of guards have been in charge of 160 prisoners. There are all sorts of problems in here. Two people have passed away in the last couple of weeks after taking black mambaa reference to one of the relatively new psychoactive drugs that, along with spice, is now widely available in UK prisons. An independent monitoring board report covering the period from July 1, 2015 to June 30 this year warned ministers that serious incidents of violence at Birmingham prison had increased to the point where safety cannot be guaranteed. Assaults on staff at Birmingham rose 84 percent to a record high of 164 incidents last year, according to Ministry of Justice figures. There have been several other warnings about prison safety, as statistics reveal levels of violence in jails in England and Wales are soaring. Assaults on staff are up by 43 percent nationwide in the year to June. The level of suicides in prisons in England and Wales is at a record high. According to the Howard League for Penal Reform, 102 people have committed suicide already in 2016. This is up significantly from 58 people in 2011 and 89 in 2015. A new report by the organisation Preventing Prison Suicide notes, The rise in the number of prison suicides has coincided with cuts to staffing and budgets and a rise in the number of people in prison, resulting in overcrowding. Violence has increased and safety has deteriorated. It adds, The prison suicide rate, at 120 deaths per 100,000 people, is about 10 times higher than the rate in the general population. The Prison Service budget has been slashed by 900 million since 2010, with a 30 percent cut in prison officer numbers (down by 7,000). The crisis can only worsen as the entire prison network, following the probation service, is hived off for privatisation. The UK already has the most privatised criminal justice system in Europe. As of 2015, 14 prisons (holding 17 percent of the prison population) in England and Wales were run by the private sector. This is an even higher proportion of private prisons than in the United States. Following the 25-day Strangeways protests, in which two people died and hundreds were injured, the then Tory government was forced to introduce a number of reforms to the UKs prisons, including ending the barbaric practice of slopping outthe manual emptying of human waste when prison cells are unlocked in the morning. Lord Justice Woolf made over 200 recommendations, included the appointment of a prisons ombudsman and the introduction of telephones on landings so inmates could keep in closer touch with their families. Twenty-six years later the situation facing inmates is, if anything, worse than what led to the Strangeways protest. Last year, the Prison Reform Trust issued a report on HM Prison Manchester and found that nearly half of the prisoners are still doubled uptwo men being held in cells designed for only one inmate. Nationally, two-thirds of all prisons are overcrowded. According to the POA, in 1990 there were 40,000 prisoners in England and Wales and 23,000 prison staff. This year there are 86,000 prisoners and 13,000 staff. In 2016 alone, there were 500 fewer frontline prison staff. Birmingham prison has 500 staff in total, but such are the conditions that 22 prison officers, whose starting wages are just 20,300 a year, left between September and November. In contrast to the previous response of introducing prison reforms, however limited, the ruling elites only reaction today is further repressive law and order measures and the continuation of social policies that serve to increase the prison population. Truss told MPs, [W]e are ensuring that there is a full investigation at HMP Birmingham. There is a full police investigation and the perpetrators of the incident will feel the full force of the law. As the end of the year approaches, the Pennsylvania state governments 2016/2017 budget is experiencing an almost unprecedented financial shortfall. The state is on track, according to a mid-fiscal year budget report, to have a $600 million deficit. Aggravating the states fiscal problems is the lingering structural deficit of $1.7 billion. State Budget Secretary Randy Albright, quoted by WITF News, gravely remarked that the budget gap is significant, I think, or more significant than any previous administration has faced; at least during my 30-plus years of state service. Lower tax revenue, predominantly from sales-based income such as cigarette and alcohol taxes and higher social service caseloads contributed to the deficit, along with the one-time revenue fixers such as casino licenses. If recent internet gaming legislation and a second Philadelphia casino license, for example, remain unfinished, the deficit will increase by $150 million. In the long term, the Independent Fiscal Office is predicting a rapidly burgeoning debt problem for the state government, citing intractable pension obligations, higher human services costs, and Medicaid expansion costs. By 2021, the state will be afflicted with a $3 billion yearly budget deficit. In response, Albright said that Democratic governor Tom Wolf will attack the state government employees first: What we intend to do is work very surgically. So we are working with every cabinet agency to make hard decisions assessing the way that they deliver services and where things can be done. Wolf announced this month that he is eliminating thousands of vacant state jobs. The decision was done so rashly, that Wolfs press secretary, Jeff Sheridan, did not even have data on how much money would be saved by slashing these vacant jobs. The other 73,000 filled state positions are on the surgeons table as well. Harsher methods are, of course, in the works behind the curtains. State House Majority Leader Dave Reed, a Republican, said that almost everything will be on the table for cuts, particularly referencing social services and other programs and agencies that provide some assistance to the most impoverished. Government has basically looked the same in Pennsylvania for the last 40, 50 years, Reed stated. Absent a restructuring of government, youre going to look at huge personal income tax or sales tax increases, and there just isnt support for that in the General Assembly. Earlier this year, Republicans unsuccessfully tried to cut pensions for state and school employees. The entitled Three-Way Hybrid Pension Plan would have reduced retirement benefits and placed newly hired workers into a defined-contribution plan or a mixture or that and a standard defined-benefit plan. Wolf, for his part, has openly expressed support in changing benefits and had been anxiously awaiting a final product. The states total pension debt is around $60 billion. The economy in Pennsylvania is idling. The November jobs report asserted that hiring is stagnating while the state unemployment rate is trailing the national average by a full percentage point, 5.7 to 4.6, the largest gap between the two since at least 1985. The desperation facing workers throughout the Keystone state was revealed when the state, by a slim margin, voted in favor for Donald Trump. Counties that had gone for Obama in 2012, such as Erie and Luzerne, for instance, favored the demagogue Trump this time. Income inequality is soaring in the state. New data from the Keystone Research Center claims that the average income of the top 1% of Pennsylvania taxpayer rose 9% from 2013 to 2014, increasing immensely, 19 percent, from their 2009 levels. The average income in 2014 for this group was $1,175,600. A related report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analyzed Pennsylvania income data, revealing that the richest 5% of households have average incomes more than 13 times as large as the bottom 20% of households and just over 8 times as large as the middle 20% of households. The upcoming 2017-2018 budget will unquestionably contain significant cuts. Republicans have mulled the idea of formulating their own budget, upsetting the long-established tradition of the Governors budget acting as the starting point, presaging another budget battle. For all the public bickering between the two parties, both the Republicans and Democrats have supported cutting funding for education and social services, while lowering spending and corporate tax rates. According to the Pennsylvania Budget & and Policy Center and the Keystone Research Center, state spending, as a percentage of the states GDP, has fallen from an average of 4.71 percent in 1994 to about 4.33 percent now. Revenue has slumped over the same time frame from 4.89 percent of GDP to 4.44 percent. The United States Army War College published a document this month outlining US plans for waging total war in major metropolitan cities around the world. The 163-page report, Military Contingencies In Megacities and Sub-Megacities, is written by two military academics, Dr. Phil Williams and Werner Selle. Employing cold and calculating military jargon, the authors advance proposals that would likely result in nuclear war. It is likely, the article begins, that the United States will find itself at some point in the not-too-distant future engaged in military contingencies in large cities. Elsewhere in the document, the authors call the invasion of major world metropolitan cities as challenging as they are inescapable. The document pictures a future filled with historically unprecedented levels of death, destruction and human suffering. Urban warfare ensures that the battlefield will be densely populated. Civilians will no longer be mere bystanders able to be circumvented or avoided, but an integral component of the battlefield. The authors recognize that such battles might result in massive civilian and soldier casualties. Such cautions notwithstanding, an inhibition cannot be allowed to become a prohibition. If there is a highly compelling strategic rationale for action, the United States might not have the luxury of avoiding the dangers of an urban contingency. Preparing for contemporary Stalingrads The authors explain that the closest comparisons for the urban battles of the not-too-distant future are the battles of Stalingrad and Berlin during the Second World War. [B]oth of these battles ultimately resulted in the utter destruction of the dense urban areas, the authors note. A more modern scenario, which although unlikely is by no means inconceivable, could involve a battle in Seoul, in the Republic of Korea. In some ways, such a scenario exemplifies the potential for a contemporary Battle of Stalingrad. Given the population of Seoul (23 million) and the exponentially more lethal military weaponry available today, such a battle would likely kill far more than the estimated 3 million who died in Stalingrad or the 700,000 who lost their lives in Berlin. The authors response is to propose better destructive armaments for the US occupation forces in South Korea: The more US military forces are educated, trained, and equipped for a dense urban conflict, the more likely the numerical advantage of North Korea would not prove nearly as decisive as Pyongyang might anticipate. The authors explain that such contemporary Stalingrads would occur primarily in poor citieswhat the military refers to as fragile or feral cities as opposed to more developed, smart cities. The destruction of the poorer neighborhoods will be a necessary component of pacifying the population. Given the trends in urbanization, especially in the global south and the concomitant problems of instability and fragility, it is more likely that the US Army will find itself in a fragile or feral megacity than in a smart city. US military strategy: Bulldoze the slums and target poor and working class districts Large slums and shantytowns in impoverished cities present a unique challenge to American invasion: Megacities and dense urban areas also contain numerous slums or sheet metal forests, which are very different from concrete canyons [i.e., commercial centers]These areas can provide significant concealment to the adversaries and even become strong operational bases. Apart from moving the population out and bulldozing the slum, there is very little that can be done . (Emphasis added). The military proposes to target young poor and working class men. Growing slum populations result in a surplus of unemployed males with little to do but join gangs or engage in crime as a source of income. Joining extremist or terrorist organizations might also appear attractive as a way out. At the very least, in the event of some kind of conflict, these young men would provide a pool of potential recruits for those opposing the United States. In short, slums would be an inordinately difficult battlefield. The only alternative suggested by the US Army War College to razing the slums is for the US forces to ally with forces of alternative governance, including criminal entities. A tacit or explicit agreement with the forces of alternative governance might make it possible to prevent adversaries from utilizing these sheet metal forests. Of course, there would have to be something in return, even if only an implicit understanding that US military forces would not interfere with the illicit business of the criminal organizations. This admission reveals the fraudulent character of all the democratic, humanitarian pretenses given for US military intervention. To suppress opposition among the poor and working class, the military proposes to either bulldoze the slums or to give criminal gangs free rein to rape, kidnap, kill, extort, and sell into slavery the most impoverished and defenseless section of the population. Crushing civil unrest and anarchy The military is preoccupied by the likelihood of social opposition to a US invasion. The authors of the war college document list civil unrest as a main problem that will plague the governance of such cities and play significant roles in the military operations conducted within them. There is a danger posed by precipitating the collapse of a fragile city into a feral one. One only has to look at the experience of New Orleans under the impact of Katrina to see how a city can rapidly degenerate into anomie and anarchy, with the normal rules and norms of urban life abruptly jettisoned. The authors quote a leading industry strategist who writes: The urban dilemma involves a risk of insecurity among the urban poor. This applies beyond the global south: Even cities like Amsterdam, London, New York, Paris, and Tokyo are not immune. The US Army War College article quotes an academic who explains that the problem stems in large part from class conflict, which might greatly complicate the post-combat, pacification, and occupation periods. Where social opposition emerges, the authors note that the restoration of order and stability would have to accompany if not precede major disaster relief operations. This effort could also create opposition. In its efforts to crush opposition, the military fears the problem posed by transparency: The other problem when dealing with cyberspace in relation to megacity contingencies is that adversaries can exploit the almost automatic transparency that it createsboth to show US forces in bad light and their own actions very positively. As a result, invasion plans must involve efforts to shut down the internet, cell phone service, and ensure the local media publishes only US military propaganda: Part of IPB [intelligence preparation for the urban battlefield] prior to any action in a megacity or sub-megacity must be to identify the services providers for both telecommunications and the Internet. It is also important to identify online opinion-makers who could have a major impact in any controversy over US military intervention. The authors also note how here in the United States, the release of videos showing killings by police has led to significant protests and political movements. Alongside Internet and telecommunications blackouts, the document places key importance on dominating the citys infrastructure in order to control the population. There are certain areas you will always need to understand when entering an urban areawith the purpose of then controlling it and the population. These are the building layout and composition, transportation, electrical, sewage and water, and natural gas systems and the locations/status of key subcomponentsbridges, gas stations, power stations, high tension power lines, neighborhood substations/transformers, underground sewage canals, water purification plants, gas lines and their depth under roads The war college authors praise an Israeli Defense Force commander who wrote that during its 2002 attack on the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank city of Nablus, the IDF used none of the citys streets, roads, alleys or courtyards, or any of the external doors, internal stairwells and windows, but moved horizontally through walls and vertically through holes blasted in ceilings and floors. This form of movement, described by the military as infestation, seeks to redefine inside as outside, and domestic interiors as thoroughfares. The IDFs strategy of walking through walls involves a conception of the city as not just the site but also the very medium of warfarea flexible, almost liquid medium that is forever contingent and in flux. Mass surveillance The US Army War College report includes plans to establish a real-time map of an entire metropolis inhabitants, including their movements, social networks, friends, family and political thoughts. Quoting a group of European researchers, the authors state: The basic notion is that citizens with smartphones have become mobile sensors, reporting on events in the city with tweets, photos, messages, and the like. This transforms human beings into potential sensors that not only have the ability to process and interpret what they feel and think but also to geographically localize the information (sometimes involuntarily) and spread it globally through the Internet, thus drawing people-generated landscapes. At the same time, Human intelligence assets will be able to offer far greater insight on adversaries because of their ability to capture emotions and relationshipsthings that will long remain outside the purview of even the most sophisticated drones. In other words, the US military will spy on the entire population of the cities it plans on invading, using drones and cell phones as real-time sensors to monitor entire populations. Human intelligence refers to the use of informants and government agents to infiltrate political groups and communities in order to suppress opposition. Censorship and the battle of the story Key to the militarys efforts to pacify and occupy major cities is its ability to win what it calls the battle of the story. The authors explain: Presenting compelling narratives can enhance legitimacy and authority in the eyes of many stakeholders (such as the urban population). Understanding the utility and power of digital media, therefore, allows for enormous reach and breadth that can indirectly alter the battlefield. The user-friendliness of mass media and mobile technology allows adversaries to manipulate and garner favorable public opinion and recruit support. For these reasons and more, civilian and military leaders cannot afford to ignore the requirement for compelling narratives. This fight over narratives is especially important in cases where the military is occupying American cities: In the final analysis, the battle of narratives and the contradictions of security are likely to be at the forefront, especially as the most likely contingencies will be humanitarian or stabilization operations. Moreover, such operations could even take place within the continental United States, as demonstrated by the Los Angeles riots and the responses to Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. Presenting a positive image of the military to the American public is indispensable for continued support. The American ruling class prepares for future war crimes The US Army War College article could serve as Exhibit A in a prosecution of leading military figures for war crimes. The article shows that US plans for invading, occupying and pacifying cities with tens of millions of residents are in advanced stages. In fact, the authors of this article consider such invasions inescapable. No corner of the world is free from the threat of US invasion. The document lists several citiesincluding many in the United Statesas hypothetical targets for invasion. Among those cities mentioned in the document are Mumbai, Beijing, Rome, London, Los Angeles, Abuja, Baltimore, San Salvador, Paris, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Dhaka, Nairobi, Delhi, Aleppo, Caracas, Rio de Janeiro, Frankfurt, Zurich, Hong Kong, Sao Paolo, Mexico City, Seoul, Manila, San Francisco, Tehran, Istanbul, Guangzhou-Foshan, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Rangoon, Alexandria, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Shanghai, Kabul, Cairo, Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius and Mogadishu. The article flows from the US militarys analysis of its own activities over the last several years. The authors reference the National Guards occupation of Ferguson, Missouri during protests against a police killing in 2014, the occupation of parts of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as well as foreign city operations like Kabul, Mosul, Fallujah and Baghdad. The US military is aware that it is preparing both to attack cities abroad and to suppress social opposition by the working class domestically. If the US military is allowed to carry out its plans to invade major world cities using the tactics mentioned in the US Army War College document, tens or hundreds of millions will die while the number of refugees will be orders of magnitude higher. Capitalism presents a future of unprecedented death and destruction. Only a social revolution based on the international unity of the working class can prevent American imperialism from carrying out its plans. At a Tuesday morning press conference in Flint, Michigans attorney general Bill Schuette announced criminal charges against two former state-appointed Flint emergency managers and two ex-City of Flint officials for their roles in precipitating the water crisis. Both former Emergency Managers, Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, face up to 46 years in prison if proven guilty. Earley, who served as Flints emergency manager from November 2013 to January 2015, was in office during the April, 2014 switch of the citys water source from the safe Lake Huron treated water supplied by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) to water from the toxic Flint River. Ambrose was Flints emergency manager from January to April 2013, when the decision was made to make the switch. That decision, along with the actions of other federal, state and local officials resulted in the 18 months of toxic water being pumped through and destroying the citys water infrastructure and the ongoing poisoning of the population of Flint. The outbreak of Legionnaires Disease, in which 12 people died, was a direct result of the switch. Howard Croft, Flints former director of public works from December 2011 to November 2015, and Daugherty Johnson, former utilities director, both face up to 40 years in prison. All four officials are charged with felony counts of false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses related to their roles in a process that led to the issuance of bonds to pay for a portion of the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) pipeline project that motivated the switch away from water provided by DWSD and to the Flint River. The announcement represents the third round of prosecutions announced by the state attorney generals office over the Flint water crisis. The heart of the case against the latest four defendants is the fraudulent use of the states Home Rule City Act emergency bond clause, legislated to address fire, flood, or other calamity, to enable Flint, a city which was financially beyond its debt limit, to borrow the tens of millions required to pay for Flints portion of the KWA. According to Schuettes official statement, The clean-up of a troublesome lime sludge lagoonholding by-products of water treatmentbecame the vehicle to get a state waiver for the bonds. The prosecution makes the case that the clean-up project was not an emergency and that in any case, is not what the borrowed funds would be used for. Emails released last May revealed that Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) official Stephen Busch, who was among those indicted this April by Schuettes office, was at the center of the issuing of the sweetheart ACO (administrative consent order) to override restrictions on Flints ability get new bonds. Schuettes official statement adds: To make the situation even worse, tucked inside the 15-page Statement of Purpose for an upgrade of Flints Water Treatment Plant system was a one-paragraph requirement that bound the city to use the Flint River as an interim water source, and the Flint Water Treatment Plant as the sanitizing and distribution center. The Flint Water Treatment Plant, however, was not ready to produce safe, clean water to the citizens of Flint. Regardless, the Defendants mandated the City to use the Flint Water Treatment Plant as part of the deal to get the ability to issue bonds. Mike Glasgow, then head of the Flint Water Treatment Plant, was indicted in April by Schuettes office. He pled no contest to a misdemeanor charge of willful neglect of duty so a felony charge of tampering with evidence would be dropped, pledging to cooperate with the investigation. In emails uncovered in February of this year, Glasgow warned state water quality officials that the Flint Water Treatment Plant would not be ready to treat Flint River water in the timeframe demanded: I was reluctant before, but after looking at the monitoring schedule and our current staffing, I do not anticipate giving the OK to begin sending water out anytime soon If water is distributed from this plant in the next couple weeks, it will be against my direction. Schuettes statement elaborates charges that Croft and Johnson allegedly pressured employees of the Flint Water Treatment Plant to get the plant in working order before April of 2014, the scheduled date for re-start. When the deadline closed in, rather than sound the alarm, the defendants allegedly ignored warnings and test results and shut off the pipes pulling clean water from Detroit, and turned on the Flint River valves. Grandstanding at Tuesdays press conference, Schuette described his teams prosecution as hitched to a wagon called justice for Flint. Yet the crime against Flint is ongoing. While thousands of residents are still dealing with health effects from the use of Flint River water, the plan to move to the KWA pipeline is still going ahead despite the illegal and conspiratorial methods used to commit the City of Flint to the project in the first place. A 36-inch pipeline, some two miles long, has been permitted by the MDEQ just days ago to connect Flint to the KWA pipeline. Construction on the 70-mile KWA pipeline, which will deliver raw water from Lake Huron, was completed last July. After weeks of waffling in the face of public opposition to the KWA pipeline last summer, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver announced that the city had no choice but to go ahead with the connection to KWA. The charges announced Tuesday are essentially, albeit not legally, an indictment of the entire emergency manager setup, which was used to remove decision-making authority from the population in order to hand direct control to the corporate oligarchy that rules America. As a matter of fact, the emergency manager law, which was signed into law by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, a Republican, in March of 2011, was repudiated in a popular referendum in November 2012. Within seven weeks of the reactionary law being overturned, it was reincarnated in a veto-proof version and enacted before the end of 2012 against the will of Michigan voters. Democrats and Republicans alike participated in the dictatorial measures carried out under the emergency manager law. State Treasurer Andy Dillon, a Democrat, conspired with Snyder in writing the law. Obamas Attorney Generals office issued a brief endorsing the use of the emergency manager law to monetize Detroits assets during the bankruptcy proceedings. Slashing jobs, wages and robbing workers pensions and healthcare benefits were carried out under the auspices of this law. The poisoning of Flint became the most public of the crimes committed under the law. Popular outrage has forced the political establishment to take measures to attempt to defuse the situation. Their political crisis should not be underestimated. It is possible that government officials will do prison time and the investigators may be compelled to indict Snyder. Real justice for Flint will require billions of dollars in resources to provide a stable source of safe water to every citizen and to address health, nutrition and infrastructure needs in the city. Even as Schuette denounces the fixation on finances and balance sheets over human lives, the forced connection to the KWA pipeline and a questionable water treatment infrastructure still moves forward. After years of trauma to the citys water infrastructure and, more importantly, to its residents, another looming switch to an inferior water source could be a disaster. Considering the criminal and conspiratorial spawning of the KWA, it is telling that the attorney generals office hasnt issued an injunction against all its proceedings. Nearly two days after Mondays a brutal attack on a Berlin Christmas market by a large truck, the circumstances and motivation remain unclear. The first man arrested by police has been released after forensic evidence cleared him of any connection to the attack, in which 12 people were killed and 48 injured, 18 of them severely. This is an abominable crime that only serves to strengthen right-wing political forces. Although the circumstances of the crime are still unclear, the tragedy was immediately used by political leaders and the media to attack the German chancellors refugee policy from the right and justify a massive state build-up. The interior minister of the state of Saarland, Klaus Bouillon (CDU), announced a massive upgrade of police forces, including equipping them with machine guns. On Tuesday, he told Saarland radio, We have to declare that we are in a state of war, although some people who only want to see the good side of things cannot see this. On Tuesday, his Bavarian colleague Joachim Herrmann (CSU) criticised the refugee policy of the federal government. We must now deal with the question of the risks we face from this large number of refugees, Herrmann declared on Bavarian Radio. Later, Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) announced a special meeting of his cabinet Wednesday to discuss possible consequences and proposals for federal policy. We owe it to the relatives of the victims that we rethink and re-adjust our entire immigration and security policy, he argued. The chair of the far-right Alternative for Germany in North Rhine-Westphalia, Marcus Pretzell, demanded that the state hit back and declared on Twitter: Merkel is responsible for the deaths! The federal president of the party, Frauke Petry, declared: The milieu in which such acts can flourish has been negligently and systematically imported over the past year and a half. The attack was also used internationally to promote a far-right-wing agenda. The leader of the right-wing UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage, described the attack as Merkels legacy. The US President-elect, Donald Trump, went further and suggested that Islamic terrorists were behind the crime. The civilised world must now rethink its position, he added on Twitter. Immediately after the attack, it was stated that the incident was in all probability a terrorist attack resembling the terrorist act in Nice, in southern France, which also involved a large truck. That attack on the French national holiday last July killed 86 people. Shortly after the attack Monday, police in Berlin announced that the suspected perpetrator had been apprehended. He was identified as Navid B. a 23-year-old asylum seeker from Pakistan, who had been arrested allegedly running away from the crime scene. He had entered Germany at the end of last year and was known to the police for minor offences. Later on Tuesday, police announced that Navid B. had been freed. Police acknowledged that there were no DNA traces of the suspect found in the truck. In addition, the smudge marks usually created after a shooting were missing. Initially, it was assumed that the suspect had shot the Polish truck driver whose corpse was found in the cab. General Prosecutor Peter Frank, who heads the investigation, admitted there was a suspect, but we must entertain the notion that he is not the culprit, but he continued to speak of a terrorist attack based on its similarity to the attack in Nice. According to Frank, the details of the attack in Berlin also suggested an Islamic background. When asked, however, he confirmed that there had been no claim of responsibility, as was the case with other attacks. On Tuesday evening, more than 24 hours after the incident, news agencies reported that Amaq, the so-called news agency of the Islamic State (IS), announced that one of its soldiers had committed the attack in Berlin. The statement does not contain any insider information or information on the perpetrator, which according to experts, suggests that the attack was not coordinated by the IS leadership in Iraq and Syria. Even if it turns out that this is a terrorist attack with an Islamic backgroundwhich is by no means certain at presentthen it was not an incomprehensible act, as Chancellor Angela Merkel declared in her brief speech. A terrorist attack would be anything but incomprehensible, bearing in mind the aggressive militarist policy of the imperialist powers, which increasingly involves the German government. For 25 years, NATO states, with the US at the head, have been waging unceasing war against largely defenceless populations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen. Before that, imperialist interventions were carried out in Somalia, Bosnia, Serbia and a number of other countries. Millions have fallen victim to these imperialist wars and tens of thousands forced to flee every day. Such war crimes have created the basis for the recruitment of fanatics intent on revenge. At the same time, Islamic terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and its predecessors, IS, were built up, financed and equipped by the US and its regional allies, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, before they became independent and turned against their erstwhile imperialist protectors. There remain to this day links between Western intelligence services and Islamic militia. In Syria, they are part of the alliance of Western-backed rebels. Yesterday, the deputies of the French parliament stood for a minutes silence for the victims of the Berlin attack. The president of the National Assembly, Claude Bartolone, took the opportunity to recall the terrorist attacks carried out in Brussels, Paris and Nice, and to praise the Hollande government, which he described as intransigent in the fight against terror. But how has the French government responded to the terror attacks? By severely restricting democratic rights in the form of a never-ending state of emergency and by stepping up its policy of war. The German government has also been pressing ahead with the expansion of military operations following its announcement that the time of military restraint has passed. It is precisely this neo-colonial war policy that increases the terror threat. Notwithstanding the crocodile tears and condolences of President Gauck, the chancellor and her ministers, those ultimately responsible for the terrible attack on the Christmas market sit in the seats of government power where military policy is decided. It is by no means ruled out that a non-Islamic attacker may be responsible for the Berlin deaths. Last summer an 18-year-old student shot nine people at the Munich Olympic shopping centre and severely injured four others. The immediate reaction was to claim it was a terrorist attack with an Islamic background. An anti-immigrant hysteria was whipped up, and a state of siege was imposed on the Bavarian state capital involving a large-scale civil war exercise. Later, it turned out that the crazed attack was carried by a teenager who had been radicalised in right-wing circles. While the background to the attack on the Berlin Christmas market remains obscure, what is clear that the criminal act will be used to further the internal rearmament and strengthening of the intelligence services and security apparatus. By PTI: Boston, Dec 21 (PTI) Elderly patients treated by female physicians in hospitals are less likely to die or to be readmitted, according to Harvard researchers, including one of Indian-origin. The research is the first to document differences in how male and female physicians treat patients result in different outcomes for hospitalised patients in the US. Researchers estimated that if male physicians may achieve the same outcomes as their female colleagues, there would be 32,000 fewer deaths each year - a number comparable to the annual number of motor vehicle accident deaths nationally. advertisement "The difference in mortality rates surprised us. The gender of the physician appears to be particularly significant for the sickest patients," said lead author Yusuke Tsugawa from Harvard University in the US. "These findings indicate that potential differences in practice patterns between male and female physicians may have important clinical implications," said Tsugawa. Previous studies have found differences in the way female and male physicians practice - for example, female physicians are more likely to adhere to clinical guidelines and provide more patient-centred communication. The researchers analysed data from more than one million people aged 65 years or older who were hospitalised with a medical condition and were treated by general internists between 2011 and 2014. They adjusted for differences in patient and physician characteristics and considered whether differences in patient outcomes varied by specific condition or by severity of illness. The researchers found that the patients, if treated by a female physician, had a four per cent lower relative risk of dying prematurely and a five per cent lower relative risk of being readmitted to a hospital within 30 days. The association was seen across a wide variety of clinical conditions and variations in severity of illness. When the researchers restricted their analysis to hospitalists - physicians focused on hospital care, to whom patients are randomly assigned based on work schedule - the results remained consistent, suggesting that patient selection, in which healthier patients might choose certain types of doctors, did not explain the results. Female physicians now account for about one third of the US physician workforce and comprise half of all US medical school graduates. There are important gender differences in how women physicians are treated - they are less likely to be promoted and are generally paid less, said Ashish Jha from Harvard. "There was ample evidence that male and female physicians practice medicine differently. Our findings suggest that those differences matter and are important to patient health," said Jha. The study was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. PTI NKS MHN SAR MHN --- ENDS --- advertisement President Obama telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin the week before the November 8 elections, using the hot-line red phone that connects the White House to the Kremlin, to threaten retaliation in the event of any Russian hacking on Election Day, NBC News reported Monday night. Citing unnamed US government officials, NBC said that after having previously resisted making a direct warning of armed conflict during a conversation with Putin at the G-20 economic summit in China in September, Obama decided to use the more threatening language in the call on October 31. This time Obama used the phrase armed conflict, the NBC report said. International law, including the law for armed conflict, applies to actions in cyberspace, said part of a message sent over the Red Phone on October 31, according to a senior US official. We will hold Russia to those standards. The Red Phone is no longer an actual telephone, like the one used to avert nuclear confrontations during the Cold War, so Obama did not speak directly to Putin. Instead, it sends email messages and attachments. White House officials said that it had been used after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, but that Obama had never used it before. NBC reported, The use of the Red Phone communicated just how serious the situation had become. Retired Admiral James Stavridis, the former commander of NATO, told the network, Its a dramatic step to pick that phone up and use it. An Obama administration official added, There was nothing done on Election Day, so it must have worked. During his press conference December 16, Obama hinted at unspecified future retaliation over the alleged Russian role in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, but he did not disclose the October 31 message to Putin or his use of the term armed conflict in warning the Russian president. The Obama administration and the US intelligence agencies still refuse to provide a shred of evidence that the Russian government was involved in the hacking of the DNC and Podesta, or that Moscow had any plans to disrupt Election Day in the United States which had to be forestalled by Obamas threat. This has not stopped the corporate media in the US, nor Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate, from pressing ahead with their campaign of allegations about Russian hacking and ever more ferocious demands for countermeasures against Russia, ranging from economic sanctions to acts of cyberwarfare. Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado said Monday he would introduce legislation to create a new Senate select committee on cybersecurity that would take up the allegations of Russian government hacking during the US election campaign. His statement follows the issuance of a joint letter by four senators, two Republican and two Democrat, proposing the formation of such a select committee. Republicans John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Lindsey Graham were joined by two leading Democrats, Minority Leader Charles Schumer and Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. Recent reports of Russian interference in our election should alarm every American, the four senators wrote Sunday in a letter to Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader. Cybersecurity is the ultimate cross-jurisdictional challenge, and we must take a comprehensive approach to meet this challenge effectively. Schumer denied claims by the Trump transition team that the allegations of Russian hacking were an effort to forestall Trumps victory in the Electoral College Monday, or to delegitimize his election. We dont want it to just be finger pointing at one person or another, he said. We want to find out what the Russians are doing to our political system and what other foreign governments might do to our political system. And then figure out a way to stop it. The significance of Gardners support for McCain and Graham is that the Republicans hold only a 52-48 majority in the incoming Senate, which takes office in January. Any three Republican senators who joined forces with the Democratic minority on an issue like forming a select committee could potentially win the vote. In an interview with Politico.com, Gardner said he would propose to broaden the scope of the cybersecurity investigation to include North Korea, Iran and other potential adversaries, in addition to Russia. McConnell, however, has continued to reject a select committee, which would give a higher political profile to the issue, insisting that any investigation into Russian hacking would go through the Senate Intelligence Committee, which invariably meets behind closed doors and keeps its findings and conclusions secret. The underlying issue in the political firestorm over the unproven allegations of Russian hacking has been the orientation of US foreign policy under the incoming Trump administration. Powerful sections of the military-intelligence apparatus, along with the Democratic Party and much of the Republican Party, are opposed to any shift away from the hard-line policy of confrontation with Russia in Syria, Ukraine, the Baltic States, and Eastern Europe as a whole. According to a report in Foreign Policy magazine Tuesday, a Pentagon memo, written December 1 by acting Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Brian McKeon, gave a four-point list of priorities set by the Trump transition team, including defeating ISIS, eliminating caps on the military budget, developing US cyberstrategy, and finding efficiencies in the Pentagons operations. The magazine quoted a former Pentagon official saying, People there now would be pretty concerned to see Russia not on the list, especially given that Russia has been pronounced the number one threat to US national security by General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other top officials. The memo, whose text was published in Foreign Policy, mentions China and North Korea in passing, but the word Russia does not appear. The media campaign against Trump continued with an editorial in the Washington Post Tuesday endorsing the McCain-Schumer call for a bipartisan select committee. It argued, every American should be deeply concerned about evidence that Russia attempted to use computer hacking, fake news stories and perhaps other methods to undermine the integrity of the U.S. campaign and, specifically, to defeat Hillary Clinton. The most strident comment was published Monday as an op-ed column in the Boston Globe, written by John Shattuck, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, in the Clinton administration, where he was a fervent advocate of US military intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo. Under the headline, Donald Trump raises specter of treason, Shattuck wrote that Trump could be guilty of this offense, which carries the death penalty, for denying the claims of US intelligence agencies that Russia engaged in cyberwarfare against the Democratic campaign in the presidential election, in order to help Trump. Shattuck declares: The federal crime of treason is committed by a person owing allegiance to the United States who. .. adheres to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort, and misprision of treason is committed by a person having knowledge of the commission of any treason [who] conceals and does not disclose the crime. By denigrating or seeking to prevent an investigation of the Russian cyberattack Trump is giving aid or comfort to an enemy of the United States The op-ed concludes: Trump should seek to clear the air by endorsing the proposed investigation of the Russian hacking scandal. For him to continue to deny Russias cyberattack and resist the investigation invites a specter of treason to hover over the president-elect. That a significant figure in the foreign-policy establishment should write such a screed, and that a major newspaper should publish it, testifies to the deep divisions within the US ruling elite that underlie the increasingly venomous political conflict. The establishment media invariably reports social crises, human disasters or crimes by focussing on the individuals involved, often with howls of condemnation branding them as responsible. Well-heeled news anchors and media owners generally ignore or deny any relationship between such events and the deteriorating conditions of life of broad layers of people. Therefore four lectures delivered by Professor Sir Michael Marmot in Sydney during September provided a refreshing antidote to these prevailing winds. Ill health, quality of life and life expectancy are directly related to socio-economic status. Marmots lectures, Fair Australia: Social Justice and the Health Gap, presented a wealth of data charting health inequality and its underlying social causes. As an epidemiologist for 40 years, president of the World Medical Association, director of the University College Londons Institute of Health Equity and author of The Health GapThe Challenge of an Unequal World, Marmot was well qualified to present the annual Boyer lectures, commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). He presented critical statistics that establish the clear connection between social inequality, its impact on the living and working conditions of the poor, and the subsequent deterioration in their health outcomes. In The Health Gap, Marmot documented a remarkable gradient in health and life expectancy: the higher the grade of employment the longer the life and the healthier the life. This social gradient showed that: People in the middle of the hierarchy have worse health than those above them and better than those lower than them. It is as true in supposedly egalitarian Australia as it is in class-bound England. Marmots book, which explained how his research originated from his experience as a medical student at Sydneys Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, noted that in Australia ... we see a clear gradient: the fewer the years of education, the higher the risk of death. Men and women in their 40s with fewer than 12 years of education, have 70 percent higher mortality risk than the most educated. In an interview with the ABC, Marmot explained that his key insight is that health is not simply a matter of lifestyle, or access to healthcare, but is instead related to the inequality of economic and social conditions that affect all of us. He continued: There is a tendency to see health inequalities as confined to the shockingly poor health of indigenous Australians. There is a life expectancy gap of 14 years between indigenous and non-indigenous men and women. But in Australias general population, as elsewhere, the more years of education or the higher the income, the better the health. Health inequalities arise from inequalities in the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age; and inequities in power, money and resourcesthe social determinants of health. Marmot began his first lecture, Health Inequality: The Causes of the Causes, with a question: What good does it do to treat people and send them back to the conditions that made them sick? Answering the question, he turned to a riot that erupted in 2015 in the US city of Baltimore following the killing of a black man in police custody. In an earlier period, Marmot had studied the social conditions in Baltimore. He explained that not all areas of Baltimore participated in the protests, only the poorer areas, because while the trigger was yet another police murder, in fact the underlying cause of the riot was inequality of social and economic conditions. The poorer areas of Baltimore where the unrest erupted had an average male life expectancy of 63 yearsequal to that of Ethiopia and two years less than the average in India. By contrast, a male living in the richest area of Baltimore could expect to live to 83 years and, in those extra 20 years, would experience a far higher quality of life. Marmots research found startling divergences in Baltimore. In 2010, a poor suburb, Upton Druid, recorded median family income of $17,000; in Roland Park, a wealthy suburb, it was $90,000. In Upton Druid, half the households were single-parent families, but only 7 percent were in Roland Park. Of the children in Upton Druid, 90 percent did not progress to college, compared to 25 percent in Roland Park, and the disparity continued in every aspect of living conditions. Remarkably similar results could be found in every major city of any country in the world, including Australia. In the second lecture, Give Every Child the Best Start, Marmot examined the impact of poverty and deprivation on the intellectual, physical and psychological development of children. He noted a stark contrast in Australia. The suicide rate of Aboriginal children aged 1519 is four times higher in boys and six times higher in girls than in the same non-indigenous age group. But, he explained, the situation facing Aboriginal people is only the sharpest example of inequality in the entire population. The lecture highlighted how poverty directly impacts on the nature and quality of parenting and therefore the health and intellectual outcomes of children. We have been monitoring early child development in Britain and find that the more economically deprived a neighbourhood is, the lower the proportion of children, at age 5, that have a good level of development: cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional and behavioural. Around 20 percent of mothers did not understand the significance of talking, reading and cuddling their children, and the lower the household income, the higher the incidence of this trend. Marmot outlined the results of a San Diego study that measured the impact on children of adverse experiences in their first 18 years of life. The more different types of adverse experience a person had, the greater the risk of depression and attempted suicide. People who had four or more different types of adverse childhood experience had nearly five times the risk of having spent two or more weeks in depressed mood the previous year, and twelve times the risk of having attempted suicide Further, the more adverse experiences, the higher the risk of diabetes, of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (bronchitis or emphysema), stroke and heart disease. Child povertychildren living in households with less than 50 percent of median national incomeis widespread. The child poverty rate in the US was 25 percent. In Australia it was 28 percent. After taxes and transfers, which take into account welfare benefits, the US rate reduced slightly to 23 percent, in Australia it was 11 percent. Nevertheless, Australia ranked 16th in the world for child poverty, behind countries such as South Korea and Slovenia. Health and low-paid, insecure jobs The third lecture, Living and Working, recorded negative impacts on health among workers in low-paid, insecure or casualised and menial jobscharacterised by high demand/low control, effort reward imbalance, low organisational justice, social isolation, shift work and job insecurity. Jobs which imposed a combination of high demand and low control increased the risk of mental illness and coronary heart disease by about 50 percent. Marmot highlighted the zero hours contractan extreme form of casualised labour with no guarantee of any hours of workwhich is common in the US and UK but also exists in Australia. Increasingly large proportions of the population in most countries work in low-paid menial jobs, which do not pay enough to provide a family with accommodation, nutrition, clothing, health and education. This impacts heavily on the health of the entire family. Half the UK households below the minimum income threshold had at least one adult in paid work. In other words, these households were the working poor. In Australia, the proportion was one fifth. In the US, the bottom half of households in paid work had no increase in their income levels in three decades. Among these social layers, the most sharply negative health indicators were in the US, where the mortality rate of non-Hispanic, white men increased over the past 20 years. The causes for this rise were one, poisonings due to drugs and alcohol; two, suicide; three, chronic liver disease which is alcohol related; and then there were external causes of death, violence. Unemployment also has a major impact on health. David Stuckler from Oxford University compiled data showing that a rise in a countrys unemployment figures correlated with a rise in the level of suicides. In the wake of the 2008 global financial crash, the International Labor Organisation estimated that in 2013, 200 million people were unemployed. Young people were most affected50 percent in Greece, 43 percent in Spain, and 37 percent in Italy. Marmot noted: After the global financial crisis, as the recovery began, for every dollar of economic growth, 92 cents went to the top 1 percent. The recovery was felt only in the very richest, elite layers of society. For the remainder, the conditions of life have deteriorated dramatically since 2008. The social crisis facing broader layers of the population is set to worsen. The future facing young people is increasingly one of part-time or casual work, low wages, under-employment and unemployment. Hence this generation will be the first whose standard of living and health outcomes will be worse than those of their parents generation. The fourth and final lecture, Social Justice and HealthMaking a Difference, again began with a question: What do Tanzania, Paraguay, Latvia and the top 25 earning hedge fund managers in the US have in common? The answer is that the 48 million people of Tanzania, the 7 million people of Paraguay, the 2 million people of Latvia and the top 25 hedge fund managers each have an annual income of between $US21 and $28 billion. Marmot raised the obvious solutionthe redistribution of some of the obscene wealth of the top 25 hedge fund managers to the poor in Tanzania, Paraguay and Latvia. Or, in the unlikely event they paid a third of their incomes in tax, this would pay the salaries of 80,000 New York teachers. The data Marmot has amassed, painstakingly and scientifically, details how the social conditions of life that people confront determine not just their physical, mental and social health, but those of their children and grandchildren. The promotion of his work, both in Australia and internationally, contains an implicit warning to the ruling elite. Unless the widening social chasm that has characterised political and economic life over the past 25 years is halted, the result will be widespread social unrest. Marmot presents his work in the vain hope that the evidence should, by its sheer volume and substance, convince governments, corporations, communities and individuals to band together to overcome the plight facing increasingly broad sections of the worlds populations. The opposite is in fact the case. The conditions he documents, far from diminishing, are worsening, and engulfing greater numbers of people. There is a glaring contradiction, however, in Marmots argument. He presents statistics which prove that the problems are social, not the result of individuals poor behaviour, but of the social conditions in which they live. His perspective, however, is that individuals, including in the governments or businesses that preside over and benefit from social inequality, can be convinced to transform society. In reality, Marmots data amount to a searing indictment of the capitalist system that produced them. The solution is not an appeal to the very ruling elites who have created these conditions, but capitalisms replacement with a society where production is organised for the benefit of all and not the profits of the super wealthyin other words, socialism. The development comes against the backdrop of the Centre last year blocking hundreds of adult websites to prevent porn becoming a "social nuisance", sparking a debate about censorship and freedom in the world's largest democracy. By Harish V Nair: The government may advise schools to install Internet jammers in their buses after a public interest plea in the Supreme Court said crews on these vehicles share pornographic material with students and later sexually abuse them. The development comes against the backdrop of the Centre last year blocking hundreds of adult websites to prevent porn becoming a "social nuisance", sparking a debate about censorship and freedom in the world's largest democracy. The ban was partially lifted days later following a wave of criticism.Also read: It's official. Government has banned these 857 porn sites advertisement JAMMERS IN SCHOOL BUSES? Responding to a suggestion to install jammers inside schools from the Supreme Court Woman Lawyers Association (SWLA) - one of the petitioners in the PIL - the affidavit filed by RP Saxena, co-ordinator of the cyber laws and esecurity group of the government, said, "It may not be feasible to install jammers inside the school premises since jammers in schools will block internet access to computers used by children. However, in order to prevent access of pornographic sites on cell phones by these drivers or anyone who is in charge of the children in the buses, they can be installed in buses."Also Read: Five reasons why porn ban won't work In its fight against online porn, the SCWLA has said no such site should have free access and those desperate to watch should be made to pay a hefty amount which "can act as a deterrent". FIND WAYS AND MEANS TO BLOCK PORN Based on the plea from the association and others, the top court had this year asked the Narendra Modi government to find out "ways and means" to block pornography on the internet and make watching of blue film in public an offence. Also Read: Find ways to block porn sites, Supreme Court tells government "It has become very common these days for the drivers, conductors/cleaners to take advantage of innocent children, induce them to watch porn on their mobiles and indulge in molestation and sodomisation of the child," said the petition filed by the association's secretary Prerna Kumari and drafted by senior lawyer Mahalakshmi Pavani. INDIANS ACCESS PORN ON MOBILE Millions of Indians access porn on their smartphones or by inserting memory chips containing racy videos that are easily available at low prices, say reports. Some Internet companies say it is impossible to block all such sites because many of the servers that host them are outside India. Also, the sites can still be accessed through proxy servers. However, researchers from Australia's University of Melbourne found in a study last month that young people who watch pornography, which is now easily accessible on smartphones and other devices, are more likely to sexually abuse another child or young person. advertisement Referring to "increasing" instances where auto drivers, bus drivers and conductors indulge in molestation and sodomy, the affidavit says, "Limited access to persons making request to visit porn sites, may be provided (like VPN gateway server, etc) with certain conditions like: Instead of making payment to the Service providers, a hefty amount be made to the Government of India. This way, it is reflected in the bank accounts; also people like auto-drivers and people belonging to such similar strata of the society will have restricted access to online pornography. Also, it can be a great revenuegenerating model for the government." HAVE COUNSELLORS FOR KIDS The Centre said schools may also consider a proposal to have a male and female child counsellor each as well as special sex education workshops. "IT ministry has approved a formal agreement wherein Department of Telecommunications will obtain list maintained by INTERPOL containing domain names hosting child sexual abuse contents and act as an appropriate agency of the government to direct its licensee ISPs to expeditiously remove or disable access to material found in violation of the IT Act," the government's affidavit said. advertisement "Further the mechanism to obtain the list containing domain names hosting contents of child sexual abuse is being worked out in consultation with the CBI." The Centre recently told SC that it has roped in the international police agency to crack down on sexual abuse and pornography of children amid a surge in photographs and videos showing kids being sexually exploited. --- ENDS --- MADISON COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - Deputies are investigating a bomb threat at the Madison County Court House after they received a suspicious letter. Madison County Sheriff Ben Stewart said that on Wednesday around 11:30 a.m., courthouse security contacted the Sheriff's Office about a letter they received that said several bombs had been placed in the building and that the letter was traced with Anthrax. Courthouse personnel were told to evacuate the building and deputies began an exterior search of the building. As more help from the Madison Police Department, County Emergency Management, and Sheriff's Office arrived, they began to do an interior search of the building. They said that they tested and determined that the letter had no active substance on it. They also weren't able to locate any explosive devices in or around the courthouse, confirming the threat as false. Courthouse employees returned to the building, although deputies said that an investigation into the threat is still pending. We will update this story as we confirm more details. JACKSON COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - During the holidays, toys and candy are common, and authorities are asking those around children to be vigilant. Jackson County deputies are warning people about a Lego shaped drug that has caught their attention. Authorities say the Lego shaped drug contains MDMA, which is also known as ecstasy. The little pill is branded as a Lego and was found Friday night by Marianna police, while they were conducting a search. They say, what concerns them the most is that this drug can easily be mistaken as something harmless. "It is definitely scary, especially when you get stuff that mimics candy, it can get in the hands of the wrong people," said Lt. Tyler Scarborough with the Marianna Police Department. "People that possess these type of narcotics, they go to grocery stores...they get out of vehicles and putting their hands in their pockets and when they pull out they can easily slip out." Police are working to filter the drug out of schools. The drug has been a problem overseas, specifically in the UK. Law enforcement officials are asking people who see something to say something as well. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (The News Service of Florida) - A federal judge has flatly refused a request from Gov. Rick Scott's administration to reconsider a ruling that Florida violated a gambling agreement with the Seminole Tribe. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a two-page order Tuesday, less than a week after attorneys for Scott and the Department of Business and Professional Regulation submitted a 33-page document requesting changes in Hinkle's Nov. 9 ruling in favor of the tribe. "This case was tried to the court. A written opinion set out the court's findings of fact and conclusions of law. The defendant has moved to alter or amend the judgment," Hinkle wrote in the order. "For the most part, the motion simply reargues the merits. The original opinion correctly analyzes the issues. This order denies the motion to alter or amend." The November ruling and Tuesday's order were part of a legal battle about blackjack and other types of games at Seminole casinos and what are known as "designated player games" at pari-mutuel facilities regulated by the state. In siding with the tribe in November, Hinkle ruled that designated-player games at pari-mutuels violate a 2010 agreement that gave the tribe exclusive rights to operate "banked" card games, such as blackjack, in exchange for paying $1 billion to the state. A five-year agreement dealing with the banked card games --- part of a larger, 20-year deal called a "compact" --- expired in 2015, prompting the Seminoles to file the lawsuit. The state, meanwhile, filed a separate lawsuit asking the judge to order the tribe to shut down blackjack and other banked games, which the Seminoles have continued to operate. Hinkle agreed with the Seminoles that the state-authorized designated player games, also known as "player-banked" games, triggered an exception to the five-year agreement. He ordered that the tribe be allowed to continue to conduct the banked games for the remainder of the overall compact's 20-year term. In the request for reconsideration, attorneys for the state raised a series of issues about Hinkle's November ruling, including disputing his conclusion that "designated player games" meet the definition of banked card games and, as a result, violate the 2010 compact. "State and federal law contradict the finding that designated player games are 'banking or banked card games' under the 2010 compact," the state's motion said. "Furthermore, the evidence at trial did not support the factual findings on the negotiation and drafting of the 2010 compact. Nor did it support the factual findings on the parties' intent regarding designated player games." But attorneys for the tribe countered Friday by urging Hinkle to reject the state's request for reconsideration. "The court found that the designated player games are 'banked card games' based upon reasonable interpretations of (federal and state laws), common understanding of the term in the gaming industry, testimony of both expert and lay witnesses, and legislative history," the tribe's attorneys wrote in a six-page document. "The state ignores virtually all of that evidence, disregards the court's reasoning, and presents its argument as though there had been no comprehensive briefing on the relevant issues and no trial." Amid the legal wrangling, Scott's administration and the tribe have tried to negotiate a revised compact. Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said Tuesday it is a priority for him to get a compact ratified --- a move that would require legislative approval. A spokesman for the tribe declined to provide details of the negotiations. By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who traces his roots to Goa, will be in India on a seven-day trip from January 6 during which he will hold talks with the Indian leadership on boosting ties besides attending the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas in Bengaluru. Costa will hold extensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on January 7 during which both leaders will explore ways to deepen engagement in diverse areas including trade and investment. advertisement The Portuguese Prime Minister will attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas as the Chief Guest in Bengaluru on January 8-9 and would also participate in a few business events. He will also attend the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit on January 10 at Gandhinagar. Costa will visit Goa on January 11-12 and will spend some time at his ancestral place. "Several MoUs are expected to be signed during the visit that would set the agenda for India-Portugal relations going forward," the External Affairs Ministry said, adding he is likely to be accompanied by several Ministers. The relations between India and Portugal have seen steady rise over the past few years. The bilateral trade has been growing steadily. The volume of annual bilateral trade in 2014-15 was USD 692.19 million and both sides are keen to enhance it further. During his stay here, Costa is expected to call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari. In Goa, he will meet the Governor and the Chief Minister. PTI MPB SMN --- ENDS --- China's growth model reforms to spur global economy China will still be a growth engine of a global economy beset by instability, thanks to efforts to shift its growth model among other stimulus endeavors. Home prices gradually stabilize after curb policies China's red-hot property market in major cities continued to stabilize after authorities stepped in with a spate of measures to contain prices. If you are sending a Letter To the Editor, please be sure to follow these rules: Letters have a firm 200-word limit and will be edited for grammar, clarity and accuracy. The person who signs the letter must be the author. Anonymous letters will not be considered. Letters must address the editor, not a third party. We will not print form letters, libelous letters, business promotions or personal disputes, poetry, open letters, letters espousing religious views without reference to a current issue, or letters considered in poor taste. Letters reflect the opinion of the writer. The Yakima Herald-Republic cannot verify the accuracy of all statements made in letters. Writers are limited to one published letter per calendar month. Parrikar was campaigning for the BJP in Goa ahead of Assembly elections but he would return to South Block on Wednesday morning. Bakshi would also reach Delhi from Kolkata around the same time. Sources in Parrikar's office said Rawat was selected from among five candidates By Ajit Kumar Dubey: Lieutenant General Praveen Bakshi, the senior-most officer in the Indian Army, is slated to meet on Wednesday Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar days after being superseded by Lieutenant General Bipin Rawat in leading the force. Opposition parties have questioned the BJP-led Centre's move to appoint Rawat, a counterinsurgency specialist, because he was given the job ahead of two more senior candidates including Bakshi, the commander-inchief of the Eastern Command. The ruling party has retaliated by accusing rivals of "politicising" defence matters. Rawat was selected from a pool of five candidates after considering the country's security situation, said the BJP. advertisement Also Read: Why General Rawat made the cut which General Bakshi failed to WHAT IS BAKSHI'S FUTURE?Defence ministry sources told Mail Today that the supersession issue is expected to come up during the meeting and Bakshi is also likely to discuss his future. The last time the senior-most officer of the Army was superseded for the appointment was in 1983, when General AS Vaidya took over instead of the then senior-most officer, Lt Gen SK Sinha. Also Read: Army chief row: After Opposition questions choice, government says Lt Gen Rawat best suited for job PARRIKAR TO MEET BAKSHI Parrikar was campaigning for the BJP in Goa ahead of Assembly elections but he would return to South Block on Wednesday morning. Bakshi would also reach Delhi from Kolkata around the same time. The Defence Ministry has also gathered fresh ammunition to hit back at the Opposition. "There have been nine cases of supersession in cases related to appointment to services chiefs and seven of them happened under the Congress government while the VP Singh government also did it in the Navy once," said an official. Also Read: Congress questions Lt General Bipin Rawat's appointment as Army Chief Of the nine instances, four have been in the Army while the Air Force and Navy have witnessed three and two such cases respectively, they added. The latest case of supersession under Congress rule was in April 2014 when the Prime Minister's Office recommended Admiral Robin Dhowan instead of Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha as the chief of Navy after the resignation of Admiral DK Joshi. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF? The Navy had seen a similar case in 1990 when Admiral L Ramdas was appointed chief of Navy ahead of Vice Admiral Tony Jain at the time. The decision was taken by the VP Singh government. In 1983, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had appointed Lt Gen AS Vaidya as Army chief, superseding Lt Gen SK Sinha, who resigned in protest. In 1972, the Indira Gandhi government sidestepped the very popular Lt General PS Bhagat, one of a handful of Indian Victoria Cross awardees from World War II, who was in line to succeed General Sam Manekshaw. advertisement This was done by giving his junior, General GG Bewoor, a year's extension, during which time Bhagat retired. Bewoor, thus, succeeded Manekshaw. The Air Force too has had its share of supersession. Air Marshal Shiv Dev Singh was overlooked in 1973 as the Indira Gandhi government appointed OP Mehra the chief. In 1988, the IAF witnessed supersession again as Air Marshal MM Singh was bypassed and Air Marshal SK Mehra appointed. Sources say a strange excuse was given to supersede Singh as he was reportedly overlooked on the grounds that his companion was not married to him. His successor NC Suri's appointment in 1991 was full of drama as Mehra retired in the forenoon to allow the former to be appointed as chief. Suri and Mehra were to retire on the same day and had Mehra not agreed to retire half a day early, it would have been difficult for Suri to be in the chair. However, the same generosity was not shown by the Congress government in 2007 to Lt Gen Aditya Singh who retired on September 30- the same day of retirement of Gen JJ Singh. Despite pleas from several quarters, Aditya Singh retired and Gen Deepak Kapoor was appointed the Army chief. --- ENDS --- advertisement Eighty municipality heads began following up Wednesday on threats made the previous day to go on strike if the government does not renege on its plan to carry out a cross-ministerial NIS 1.2 billion cut that would take NIS 230 million from local authorities. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The strike includes a list of basic municipal services. These include City Hall services, welfare services, trash disposal, parking enforcement officers, children's school rides, kindergartens and high schools, nor will there be secretary, health inspector and custodial services in elementary schools. Special education centers are continuing to work regularly. Sanitation services will be among those on strike starting Wednesday (Photo: Motti Kimchi) Negotiation meetings took place throughout Tuesday between heads of several municipalities and high-ranking officials in the Finance and Prime Minister's Offices. On Monday, the municipality heads issued a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas), opposing the budget cut and particularly its effect on disadvantaged municipalities. The letter stated that "If the Finance Ministry will not recant, municipal services will go on strike until further notice." It continued to say that "Israel has 65 self-balanced municipalities, and apart from them, all the other municipalities are supported through (governmental grants). This means that some 190 local municipalities will be hit, as well as the services they provide their residents." The municipality heads are demanding that instead of a wide scale cut, the government look at the natural growth and expansion of local municipalities. Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality has joined the protesting municipalities that will be hurt by the budget cut. As such, kindergartens and high schools will not operate in Tel Aviv, in addition to municipal, welfare and sanitation services. Gavrilo Princip was a member of a Serbian terrorist movement called "The Black Hand," which fought against the Austro-Hungarian Empires rule. On June 28, 1914, Princip shot the empires crown prince, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie to death, an act which precipitated World War I. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Will Russia declare war on Turkey over the assassination of its ambassador , Andrey Karlov, in Ankara on Monday? Thats unlikely. All signs, both from the Turkish capital and from Moscow, indicate at the moment that both sides are attempting to minimize the extent of the damage, including holding the talks that are scheduled to take place in the city on Wednesday in a bid to try and find a solution for the Syrian crisis. The Russian ambassadors assassination, Monday. The proud Russians understand that Putins actions in Syria prompted a person to stand up and take action (Photo: AP) In fact, there is no need to start a war: It has already broken out a long time ago, and Russia and Turkey are deeply involved in itfrom both sides of the barricade. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Islamist Turkish tyrant, believed at the beginning of his reign that he would be able to establish an Islamic arc throughout the entire Middle Eastwhich would include Iran, Syria and Egyptbut when the civil war in Syria began, he realized that he must take a stand in the growing rift between the Sunnis and the Shiites. He then jumped in with both feet to stand up against the barbaric massacre carried out by Syrian President Bashar Assad in order to maintain his rule. Russian President Vladimir Putin, on his part, found a golden opportunity in the civil war in Syria to reassume the position of a world power in our explosive region. He dispatched forces to the region in a cynical game with a double objective. First of all, to physically destroy the moderate and secular forces fighting Assad, so that the only alternative would be the jihad movements, and so the world would make a clear choice in favor of the incumbent president, the lesser of two evils. Second, to make Iran and Hezbollah, which are yearning for Assads survival, dependent on the Kremlin. As time went by, he appeared to be fairly successful. With an investment of relatively cheap military aid and hardly any Russian soldiers killed, he secured Assads regime, and is soon helping him complete the murder of Aleppos residents while occupying the city. Turkey tried to challenge Russia with words and with an action downing a Russian plane that invaded its airspace but Putins aggressive response immediately squeezed a crawling apology out of Erdogan. But like in a good Game of Thrones episode, even the murderous royal family eventually realizes that power has its limits. The Islamic States main command managed to shoot down a Russian passenger plane in Sinai in October 2015 with all 224 passengers and crew, in revenge for the Putin's involvement in Syria. The international community took boycott measures against Russia that are burdening its economy. And on Monday, the ambassador was murdered in an act of terrorism that is mainly symbolic (though not for the victim and his family, of course). In the old KGB world that Putin comes from, such an incident, which bruises the national pride, could be concealed from the citizens at home. In this new world, that is impossible. The proud Russians understand that Putins actions in Syria prompted a person to stand up and take action. Putin may be able to intimidate Erdogan and gain a grateful president at the White House, but he cant take over the entire Mideast population. The more Putin keeps intervening in the region, the more he will learnlike other leaders, like the Israeli plans to change the face of the Middle East when it invaded Lebanon in 1982that the painful price tag attached to this involvement will continue to grow. Another anti-Semitic attack took place in Europe overnight Tuesday when the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in Ukraine was defaced with a pigs head and drenched in fake blood. Jewish woshippers at the site were sprayed with tear gas. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The individuals responsible for the offense arrived at the gravesite complex of Rabbi Nachmanthe influential 18th century Hassidic leader who preached mystical teachings of Judaismand screamed anti-Semitic slurs before hurling a pigs head, atop which a swastika had been etched, into the room containing worshippers. Anti-Semitic incident in Ukraine X By Wednesday morning, no one had been arrested for the attack but those praying at the site during the incident were grateful that the attack was not accompanied by more physical violence. We were saved thanks to the kindness of heaven, said one of the worshippers. The incident took place in the large building in the tomb compound at around 2am when a pack of skinheads entered and began shouting racist remarks in Russian at the Jewish worshippers, who managed to capture the harrowing images on their cellphone cameras. Fake blood After throwing the pigs head into the room, the group began throwing fake blood on the worshippers before fleeing the scene. Police were called moments later. Swastika scratched into a pig's head It was so scary, said one of the workers at the site. We have already suffered anti-Semitic incidents but this time it crossed the line and we are all still in shock. We began cleaning the place. As far as I know, no one involved has been arrested. In an interview with Ynet, the manager of the compound, Rabbi Elhadad, recalled the details of the chilling incident. A group of Nazis came to the place. One of them entered and scoured the place. We thought maybe he wants to pray because sometimes foreigners also come and pray there, he said. After about a minute, two of them came in with bottles of paint and started spraying the worshippers with tear gas." Two Israelis who were at the site had to receive medical treatment in hospital, he said. By India Today Web Desk: The newly appointed UNICEF Global Goodwill Ambassador now has added responsibilties to tackle back home. Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra will now become the new face of Assam Tourism. The state's tourism board has roped in the celebrity as its brand ambassador. PeeCee will travel to Guwahati on December 24, 2016, for the International Tour Operators Conclave where she will be formally appointed in her new role, confirmed Assam tourism minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma. The agreement will be valid for two years. advertisement Also Read: Priyanka Chopra becomes UNICEFs Global Goodwill Ambassador Priyanka will be visiting destinations in the state and will be shooting TV commercials and photo campaigns to drive the massive "Awesome Assam" campaign. The Quantico actress is, however, not charging any remuneration for her new assignment, as reported by The Financial Express. With a global personality like Priyanka on board, Assam Tourism is now eyeing the global market to promote tourism in the state. "We will make the brand campaign of Assam Tourism global. We will carry out campaigns in the United States, England and Japan. We will target the countries with which Assam has historical ties, like England," said the tourism minister while announcing the new move. --- ENDS --- The president of the UN General Assembly called Fidel Castro "one of the 20th century's most iconic and influential leaders" at a memorial tribute Tuesday to the late commander of the Cuban revolution who led his country for nearly 50 years. Peter Thompson told the ceremony in the assembly chamber that for many people Castro "embodied the struggle of the global south for independence, justice and development." He said Castro's "activism in pursuit of a fairer and more just world made him a symbol of resistance and inspiration to people across the world in Latin America, Africa and beyond." Becky Norton Dunlop, a senior official in President-elect Donald Trumps transition team, said during a tour of the West Bank this week that Anyone who comes and visits Judea and Samaria sees that it is an inseparable part of the State of Israel. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Republican members of Congress and members of the European Parliament also joined the tour of the area. The diplomatic delegation arrived this week in Israel as part of the activities undertaken by the Foreign Relations Unit of the Samaria Regional Council which was formed by the head of the council, Yossi Dagan. Becky Norton Dunlop with Yossi Dagan Dunlop, who also visited the area last year, said that she was delighted to return once again. As an American citizen, I empathize with the Israeli people who want to settle on their entire state, to expand their communities and their homes, and they should have safe places to raise their children, she declared. Delegation given a tour of the West Bank Dunlop went on to praise the fact that Arabs and Jews live in peace as neighbors in Israel. During the visit we saw that Arabs living in Israel are completely able to work together with their Israeli neighbors, she said. The international community has to take note of what is really happening here instead of listening to the mainstream media which doesnt report the news but rather invented things. They need to focus on what is really happening here in Judea and Samaria. It is unclear precisely what Trump's Israel policies will be. However, he repeatedly pledged during his election campaign to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalema promise which Israeli officials have urged him to follopw up on. Ron Dermer (Photo: AP) Indeed, the Israeli ambassador to the United States urged as such on Tuesday. Ron Dermer says it would be a "great step forward" for peace. He teold a Hanukkah reception at the Israeli embassy in Washington that it would send a "strong message against delegitimization of Israel." The US and nearly every other country have their embassies in Tel Aviv. US presidents have repeatedly waived a law requiring the embassy to be moved. The Knesset House Committee will convene on Wednesday afternoon to decide whether or not to strip MK Basel Ghattas (Joint List) of immunity afforded to all MKs, in light of an ongoing investigation against him over suspicions that he smuggled 12 cellphones to Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Chairman of the committee, MK Yoav Kish (Likud), said on Wednesday that the discussions would take place in accordance with a request submitted by State Attorney Avichai Mandelblit. If the outcome of the discussion does result in the removal of Ghattass immunity rights, the police will be granted authority to place him under formal arrest. Cellphones believed to have been smuggled by MK Ghattas I will keep the discussion topical and not litigious. This bears significant consequences and we will deal with it accordingly, Kish said. By Wednesday afternoon, Ghattas wrote a letter to Kish informing him that he would not appear for the committee session. The discussion is set to take place a day after the committee approved an initiative proposed by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan that would substantially hinder MKs' ability to visit security prisoners. Ghattas arrived at the Israel Police's Anti-Fraud Unit Lahav 433 in Lod for questioning on Tuesday morning where he was asked about the incident for four hours. MK Basel Ghattas before being questioned (Photo: Motti Kimchi) Shortly before entering into the building where he was questioned, Ghattas denied any wrongdoing, instead accusing the establishment of targeting him. I go out with my head raised high...This is all a political witch hunt, Ghattas protested. Everything is alright. We have gotten used to investigations of these sorts. It is all intended to harm our struggle. The moment I leave the investigation, I will explain things clearly. MK Yoav Kish (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky) During his questioning, Ghattas reportedly expressed surprise at the incriminating photos presented which appeared to substantiate the claims made against him. Shortly after leaving the investigation room, Ghattas tied himself to the illicit smuggling when he issued a statement which appeared to justify his actions. The visits to the prisoners are part of the a humanitarian and moral work that I am committed. The issue of prisoners is painful and unbearable. The prisoners suffer in hard conditions and taking care of this issue is part of my public and parliamentary post and I take care of it responsibly, Ghattas said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stunned Amona residents when he told them in a meeting earlier this week that he understands "what it means to lose a home." Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter During the meeting, which was held on Saturday night in an effort to find a solution ahead of the scheduled evacuation of the illegal outpost, the residents tried to explain to the prime minister what it meant to them to lose a home and see it demolished. Netanyahu responded with: "I understand what it means to lose a home. After the 1999 elections (in which Netanyahu lost to Ehud Barak), with zero warning, me and my family were simply kicked out of the house on Balfour Street (the prime minister's official residence in Jerusalem). Just like that, with all of our belongings, we were just thrown into the street. We had to go to the Sheraton Plaza Hotel, it felt terrible." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: AFP) The shocked Amona residents tried to answer Netanyahu, telling him, "But still, Mr. Prime Minister, it's a bit different..." To which Netanyahu responded: "It's difficult, it's very difficult." Reacting to the report, Ehud Barack wrote on his Twitter: "He completely lost it. 'Uprooted from his home'? By the electorate's votes. I was there. It took him six weeks to pack up and evacuate. Difficult? It's time for another time." Netanyahu himself chose not to directly respond to the report, neither confirming nor denying. Instead, he chose to quote on his Facebook page the response from the residents of Amona. "Contrary to the comments that were reported, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not demonstrate disrespect or insensitivity to our pain," the Amona residents said. "On the contrary, the prime minister showed genuine empathy and an honest desire to help as much as he could to ease the pain and sadness we feel over the destruction of our homes. The things that were reported were far from what happened in reality, and constitute a distortion of fractions of things that do not reflect the conversation or the spirit of the meeting." German police are looking for a Tunisian man after finding an identity document under the driver's seat of the truck which plowed into a Christmas market on Monday evening, killing 12 people, Der Spiegel's online edition reported on Wednesday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Der Spiegel, which did not cite its sources, said the document was in the name of Anis A., born in Tataouine in 1992. The man is also believed to use false names German police on alert (Photo: AFP) The report came shortly after German police arrested a second suspect in the ongoing pursuit in the early hours of Wednesday morning related to the terror attack. He too was later released, German broadcaster rbb reported on Wednesday. Germans remember the victims of Christmas market attack ( : ) X On Tuesday evening police released a first suspect, a Pakistani asylum-seeker who was arrested near the scene shortly after Monday's attack and authorities warned the attacker is on the run and may be armed. Berlin Christmas market surrounded by police (Photo: AFP) The Pakistani man, who who came to Germany last year, had been picked up based upon a description of the man who jumped out of the truck and fled. But prosecutors said he had denied any involvement in the attack. Prosecutors also said no forensic evidence had been found proving that he was in the cab during the rampage, and no witnesses had followed him from the scene of the carnage to where he had been picked up. Under German law, prosecutors have until the end of the calendar day following an arrest to seek a formal arrest warrant keeping a suspect in custody. The Israeli women who has been missing since the Berlin Christmas market terror attack , which claimed 12 lives and wounded dozens, has been identified as Dalia Elyakim, said to be in her 60s. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Her husband, Ramialso in his 60swho was seriously injured in the attack, remains in hospital in serious condition in Berlin. Rami and Dalia Elyakim Their children, Or (28) and Hen (26) flew to Berlin to be with their father and hope together that their mother will be found. Rami was forced to undergo two surgeries to his hip and legs and while he remains in serious condition, he is no longer in life-threatening danger. He is expected to undergo another operation. Dalia has not established contact with anyone since the attack who was standing by her husbands side when the truck slammed into the terrorists victims. Authorities are continuing the search for Dalia. Dalia Elyakim Israel's ambassador to Germany Yakov Hadas-Handelsman issued a statement on Tuesday , saying that he hoped that Dalia was among the wounded victims, most of whom were yet to have been identified at the time, according to the German interior minister. Despite efforts, which included members of the consulate going from hospital to hospital with a photograph of Dalia, the search has not yet yielded the results the Elyakim so desire. Rami Elyakim Aliza Ginis, a friend and neighbor of the Elyakim family, described her shock upon hearing of the tragic news. I was in shock when I heard about the attack and I didnt know that it was them. When I realized who is was I just broke out into tears, she said. By the time I got home I missed the children who had already left for Berlin about ten minutes before. We were good friends. Knowing each other for 30 years made us like family. With Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights and miracles, just days away, Aliza said that she was hoping for a Hanukkah miracle and that Dalia will be found. Perhaps she will be wounded, but alive. Aliza added that one day before the attack, Dalia uploaded a picture to Facebook of her happy moments in Berlin. You could see she was enjoying it a lot. The whole neighborhood is praying for her wellbeing. A senior Israeli military officer says the army believes Middle East's chaos has weakened the country's enemies, creating a low probability of war involving Israel in 2017. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The official says the army concluded that neither the Hezbollah militants in Lebanon nor Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip are interested in sparking a new conflict. IDF soldiers in the Golan Heights (Photo: EPA) The official spoke on Wednesday on condition of anonymity according to military protocol. He was sharing an official year-end intelligence assessment. He says Hezbollah is mired in the Syrian civil war while Hamas has lost much of its support from the outside. Still, the official cautioned that an unexpected "dynamic of escalation" could always risk sparking a new conflict. Israel fought a monthlong war with Hezbollah in 2006 and has since waged three wars with Hamas. The woman who was found dead early Tuesday morning in the town of Migdal in the Northern District of Israel was identified Wednesday as 31-year-old Tehilah Nagar from Kibbutz Ginosar. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Tehilah, who had suffered blows to the head, was pronounced dead by MDA paramedics at the scene and the police launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death. Her body was discovered at around 7am. Police say that they received no reports of a missing individual in the area. Her body was found by a pedestrian who called MDA who, in turn, informed the police. Tehilah Nagar was found dead on Tuesday morning Kibbutz Ginosar issued a statement expressing their sadness at the news. We received the news of her death, which took place in tragic circumstances, with shock and with great sadness. Tehilah was the daughter of Zahava and Yigal Nagar, members of the kibbutz, a spokesperson said. Her sister also lives in Ginosar. We stand in solidarity with the family during this difficult hour, and we will accompany them throughout the entire ordeal as they cope with this awful disaster that has befallen them, he continued. We are confident that authorities will do the work necessary to establish the facts of the incident. 'She was always smiling' The kibbutz director, added, she was an exceptionally beautiful girl. She was charming and she was always smiling. She was a good girl. This is a terrible tragedy for the family which has lived here for more than 40 years. It is not easy to hear that your daughter has died, particularly in such tragic circumstances as these, he added. We are still waiting to hear from the authorities what happened. Tehilahs funeral will take place on the kibbutz on Thursday at 1pm. The Knesset's House Committee on Wednesday afternoon unanimously approved a request by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to strip MK Basel Ghattas (Joint List) of immunity afforded to all MKs, in light of an ongoing investigation against him over suspicions that he smuggled 12 cellphones to Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter After a meeting that lasted for more than an hour, 15 members of the committee voted in favor of removing Ghattass immunity rights while none voted against it. Ghattas now has 24 hours to announce that he is renouncing his immunity. If he fails to do so, the Knesset will convene on Thursday afternoon to vote on the matter. If the Knesset does indeed adopt the recommendations of the committee, the police will be authorized to arrest Ghattas. MK Basel Ghattas Deputy Attorney General Raz Nazari explained that the AG's request to strip Ghattas of immunity is unusual. "For the first time, the attorney general is asking to remove an MK's immunity while the investigation is still ongoing. There is solid evidence to support the suspicions." However, Knesset Legal Advisor Eyal Yinon pointed out that Ghattas will continue to serve as an MK and will still be able to participate in Knesset votes. As you know, he isn't the only MK in the history of the State of Israel to be under investigation. Obviously, if he is arrested he cannot participate in the Knesset meetings, Yinon said. (But) he has every right to participate in discussions and votes, including getting paid. Yinon explained the decision to strip Ghattas of his immunity can only be done by the Knesset, while the committee is only empowered to recommend that course of action. The immunity in question protects the MK from search warrants and arrests but not from indictment. The committee meeting was tumultuous, with several MKs being removed from the chamber. MKs from Yesh Atid, who decided to oppose efforts to dismiss Ghattas from the Knesset, protested against comments made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that party leader Yair Lapid "was a leftist." This led to an argument breaking out between Yesh Atid and MKs from Netanyahu's party, the Likud. The Knesset's House Committee discussing Ghattas (Photo: Gil Yohanan) At the outset of the meeting, committee chairman Yoav Kish (Likud) stressed that I will keep the discussion topical and not litigious. This bears significant consequences and we will deal with it accordingly. During the meeting, Deputy Attorney General Nazari explained that Ghattas's actions were documented on video. "This documentation is important evidence in the ongoing investigation," he said. The video shows Ghattas's meeting with the two prisoners, during which "four envelopes are removed from his coat pocket and one of the prisoner is seen putting them in his pants. The prisoner was searched and four envelopes with cell phones and SIM cards were found. MK Ghattas refused to be questioned at the scene." Some of the phones Ghattas was caught smuggling into prison. Ghattas was also documented in another instance passing papers to Walid Daka, who is serving a life sentence for his involvement in the abduction and murder of IDF soldier Moshe Tamam. Nazari went on to say that "Ghattas is suspected of serious offenses. Violating the Israel Prison Service's (IPS) orders can lead to up to three years' imprisonment, and the attempt to aid a terror organizationten years." In his request to the committee, Attorney General Mandelblit said Ghattas denied in his questioning that he had brought anything into the prison to give to the prisoners. It was only after the video documenting him doing so was shown to him that he admitted to passing on the envelopes, but claimed he didn't know they contained cellphones. Ghattas, Mandelblit said, admitted to passing on papers to Dakadespite being aware this was against IPS proceduresbut claimed that the papers included "political material" pertaining to his party, Balad. Ghattas arrived at the Israel Police's Anti-Fraud Unit Lahav 433 in Lod for questioning on Tuesday morning where he was asked about the incident for four hours. Shortly before entering into the building, Ghattas denied any wrongdoing, instead accusing the establishment of targeting him. I go out with my head raised high...This is all a political witch hunt, Ghattas protested. Everything is alright. We have gotten used to investigations of these sorts. It is all intended to harm our struggle. The moment I leave the investigation, I will explain things clearly. Former president Moshe Katsav, a convicted rapist, was released from prison on Wednesday afternoon after the State Attorney's Office decided against appealing the parole board's decision to grant him early release. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Katsav, who served five years and 15 days out of his seven-year sentence for rape and indecent acts, left the Maasiyahu Prison with his wife, Gila, and brother Lior. He hugged his family members and other close associates outside the prison gate and then made his way through the mob of journalists that waited for him to the car that took him home to Kiryat Malachi. "It's a very emotional day," Gila, Katsav's wife, said before entering the prison to accompany her husband home. Katsav released from prison (: , ') X When he arrived home, Katsav as welcomed with cheers and flowers by family and friends, including his elderly mother. "It's a Hanukkah miracle," said one of the people who came to welcome the disgraced former president. "It's a day of great joy," said another. Moshe Katsav and his wife, Gila, upon his release from prison (Photo: AFP) The State Attorney's Office said that after consulting with relevant officials, the state attorney decided that there was no reason to accept a petition to deny Katsav early parole, as it is unlikely that such an appeal would be accepted by the court. Photo: Yair Sagi The State Attorney's Office clarified that "All this is not to take away in the slightest from the severity of the convict's actions, for which the state attorney requested a very substantial prison sentence, which was eventually given to him. The State Attorney's Office and the legal system's handling of Katsav's case proves that the principle of equality in the eyes of the law is alive and fully implemented in Israel. The simple man and the president will be served the same sentence." Katsav's wife, Gila Photo: Yair Sagi The Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority has prepared a detailed rehabilitation plan for Katsav to follow upon his release, which includes attending daily Torah lessons in Kiryat Malachi; attending weekly meetings of a religious treatment group; and attending weekly meetings with a psychosocial therapist. "There is no doubt ... the prisoner underwent a change," the parole board wrote in its decision. The board said it questioned Katsav about his actions and their consequences, and was "impressed by the honesty of his answers." In addition, Katsav will have to refrain from defaming his victims. He will not be allowed to give interviews to the medianor will anyone else be allowed to be interviewed on Katsav's behalf. The former president will also be barred from working in any position in which women serve as his subordinates. Gila Katsav (C) and Moshe Katsav's brother, Lior (R) The parole board also addressed Katsav's victims, saying the issue "was given an expression and was taken under considerationduring the trial, in the verdict, and in previous decisions made by the parole board. The court had its say and the prisoner was given punishment and is serving his sentence. The decision to release him or not does not take away from the contempt the board feels in light of his actions and from the grave manner in which it sees theses actions. Photo: Yair Sagi "Nonetheless, the board members were impressed that the prisoner has come a long way since the first board meeting, took up the gauntlet, and accepted the hand offered him by the prison's treatment officials. The prisoner now understands the meaning of his actions and the hurt he caused the women, and regrets this." The parole board responded to public requests that Katsav must express remorse if he is to be released early, stating that it is not a formal stipulation that he do so. The decsion has nevertheless raised the anger and incredulity of women's rights organizations, as well as survivors of sexual assault. "The parole board made an unfortunate decision that tells women in Israel that we live in Sodom and that there is no limit to the disgrace," said Odelia Carmon in response to the decision. Carmon had previously worked under Katsav when he served as Minister of Transportation and testified to having been sexually harassed by him. Orit Sulitzeanu, the Director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, also blasted the decision to release Katsav early, saying, "The decision is outrageous and infuriating and is a slap in the face to the victims of Katsav and all victims of sexual violence." Katsav held a series of Cabinet posts before parliament selected him to be president in 2000. The allegations against him forced him to resign in 2007, two weeks before his term was to end, paving the way for Nobel Prize Laureate Shimon Peres to assume the presidency. By India Today Web Desk: The year gone by was a good one for India's global star, Priyanka Chopra. Having kicked some serious a*s in Quantico and smeared multiple magazine covers with her glamour, Piggy Chops managed to conquer all terrains. And to add to all good things the actress gave us this year was the recent news of her Oscar outfit being one of Google's most-searched gowns of 2016. advertisement There aren't two ways about the 'naked' Spring 2016 Couture gown by Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad being an undisuputed winner on the Academy Awards red carpet, but the story behind it might just deepen your love for it. Also Read: Priyanka Chopra looks nothing short of stunning in a naked dress Similar to those who saw it on TV or Google, Priyanka and her stylist Sophia Banks fell for the dress at the very first sight. Priyanka Chopra's Zuhair Murad dress was a winner! Photo: Reuters "White was an on-trend colour. That dress felt like love at first sight," LA-based Banks told Mid-Day as she went on to elucidate on Priyanka's choice of colour and outfit. Also Read: Priyanka Chopra showing off her tummy with pride is a punch in the face of lookism With thousands of cameras waiting for you to make that one mistake, Priyanka's Oscar debut turned out to be rather incredible. She presented an award onstage looking like a million bucks--literally. "She had actually worn a few Zuhair Murad outfits earlier, but none of them was a classic couture gown. We were able to select a bunch of looks straight off the Paris runway. But, somehow, our heart was set on this one. Then came the jewellery--the Lorraine Schwartz diamonds worth millions of dollars which we agonised over, but it just looked perfect together," Banks told Mid-Day. Piggy Chop's LA-based designer, Sophia Banks. Picture courtesy: Instagram/ Sophia Banks Between starring in a full-fledged daily soap, shooting for her international debut, Baywatch, and handling promotions for Jai Gangaajal, Piggy Chops gave the world some serious fashion goals and a dress that will be remembered for years. --- ENDS --- Clashes between police and a militia led by a Christian pastor in northwestern Congo's Mongala province killed 15 militiamen and three policemen, the former deputy commissioner of Mongala said on Wednesday. Police battled the militia loyal to the pastor from the Kimbanguist church, an offshoot of Christianity in Democratic Republic of Congo, on Tuesday, after he kidnapped numerous local residents, Michael Sakombi told Reuters. Sakombi said the fighting had no link to Congo's wider political struggles. Concern is growing over security in Congo, where violent protests have taken place against President Joseph Kabila's decision to stay on past the end of his second term in office on Tuesday. The High Court of Justice asked the representatives of Amona on Wednesday evening to file a document by 10am Thursday in which they unequivocally commit to a peaceful evacuation of the outpost. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The High Court is currently deliberating on the state's request to extend the deadline for the illegal outpost's evacuation by 45 days in an effort to implement the willing evacuation compromise reached with the residents. "To remove any doubt, the respondentsthe residents of Amonaare asked to declare in unequivocal language that they agree and commit, all as one, to a peaceful evacuation and without conflict or resistance," the judges wrote. Settlers gather in Amona (Photo: EPA) But on the mountain near Amona, the tractors did not wait for the High Court's decision and began preparing the nearby Plot 38 that, according to the compromise deal, will house 24 homes. The Israel Civil Administration stopped the works several hours after they began. Tractors working in Amona (Photo: TPS) The Mateh Binyamin Regional Council said that "the plot is under the council's ownership for the next eight months. The council has the right to work on it and is conducting agricultural activity on the land." Meanwhile, the Palestinian land owners on whose property Amona was built filed their objections to the state's request to postpone the evacuation. "This request to postpone the evacuationwhich was filed four days before the deadline set in the ruling, and after the state had two years to carry it outis a new record in the disintegration of even the appearance of maintaining values like the rule of law, equality, protection of property rights, and fairness," said the Palestinian land owners' response, filed with the help of the legal NGO Yesh Din. Yesh Dins representatives claimed that granting an extension to the evacuation deadline would be akin to surrendering to the threats made by the Amona residents. "One can only imagine how would the state respond if a common citizenwho does not have the connections and political backing the residents of Amona enjoythreatened the authorities with resistance to the execution of a court ruling," the NGO wrote. "In fact, there is no need to imagine. Israel has been scarred by difficult evacuations of poor citizens who, for financial reasons, have been issued with evacuation ordersin Kfar Shalem and Giv'at Amal (both neighborhoods in Tel Aviv), in the Bedouin village Al-Araqeeb in the Negev, and of course in the Palestinian sector in the West Bank." Yesh Din and the Palestinian land owners also attacked the compromise agreement itself. "The state is planning on committing a blatant violation of trust by stealing private lands that belong to Palestinians and giving them to those who have already proven they would apply any means necessary to invade others' lands, refuse to leave, and even threaten in making it difficult to carry our judicial orders," they wrote. "It's hard to think of a more brutal violation of trust. This is a completely immoral and illegal act." Police arrested a Palestinian suspect on Wednesday following a security alert. He has ben taken in for questioning. The suspect was caught duing widespread searches for a stolen vehicle throughout Tel Aviv. Security forces were also alerted of the possibility of a terrorist infiltration. A senior security official said that "We use a carrot-and-stick method: we respond to every incident, and allow the other side peace and quiet when we have it." Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beytenu) sardonically pointed out on Wednesday that Hamas aerial engineer Mohammad al-Zawahri, whose assassination in Tunisia was attributed the Israeli Mossad, "probably wasn't a great man of peace or up for a Nobel Peace Prize." Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter While he did not claim responsibility, the Israeli defense minister stressed that "We will protect our interests in the best way we know how." Avigdor Lieberman (Photo: Motti Kimchi) After al-Zawahri was shot and killed last Thursday, Tunisian media reported that Israel was behind that assassination, with Tunisian journalist Burhan Basis writing on his Facebook page on Friday that it was the Mossad's doinga statement that has since been quoted by local news outlets. Hamas later issued its own statement, saying that al-Zawahri had been part of the organization's military branch's Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade and the heads of its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program. Mohammad al-Zawahri Tunisia also issued a statement, saying that there is evidence that "a foreign organization" is behind the assassination. Tunisian Interior Minister Hedi Majdoub said that "We looked at security cameras near his home to investigate, and found that there were two plans and two units (involved)." Majdoub elaborated on the Tunisian investigation's findings during a recent press conference. "Al-Zawahri was shot in the head and chest. Five 9mm bullet casings were found near his vehicle. In addition, two vehicles were founda Renault Trafic and a Kia Picanto," he said. The minister went on to say that the vehicles were found to had been rented out to a foreign woman who worked for a foregin news company and lived in the city of Safx, where the assassination took place. Prior to the assassination, the woman had allegedly asked that both cars be brought to Safx. Photos: MCT The young woman, he said, was apparently asked by an Arab man who introduced himself as a representative of Malaysian television channel TV1 to interview al-Zawahri for a documentary on the aviation industry in the Arab world. She conducted the interview and sent him the footage. The same man allegedly called the woman three days prior to the assassination and asked her to supply him with two vehicles whose specifications included an operating system that could open a door on boths sides of the vehicle. He further asked her to leave the vehicles at a designated spot, leave the keys inside and then leave Tunisia the following day. Demonstrators stepping on the Israeli flag in response to a-Zawahri's assasination Majdoub went on to describe the second alleged assassination plan. It included two SIM cards found in one of the vehicles, which belong to two Tunisians who reportedly live in Sweden. These two were similarly contacted by two strangers who offered them work. The two Tunisians were asked to rent a house in Safx and purchase two vehicles and four cellular phones, before leaving the vehicles with their keys inside at an agreed upon location. When one of the Tunisians refused, the man he had been in contact with asked him to sell both vehicles, vacate the apartment and return the money he was given. The demonstration in Tunis "There were two plans, which relied on different people and on never having their paths intersect," said Majdoub. "The second team was to be tapped for action if the first team were to have botched the assassination." He added that "The plan began outside Tunisia. All the information points to having a foreign operation involved in the assassination, but so far there is no clearcut evidence." Demonstrators following al-Zawahri's assassination (Photo: AFP) With the investigation continuing, hundreds took part in a demonstration in the capital city of Tunis, in protest of the engineer's murder. Several of the demonstrators stepped on the Israeli flag in response to accusations of Israeli involvement. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, known for her warm ties to the British Jewish community and her pro-Israel stance , issued a Hanukkah greeting on Wednesday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter "As Jewish families around the world gather to light the first candle on their Hannukah, I want to wish everyone celebrating this festival of light a very happy and peaceful Hannukah," May began. Theresa May (Photo: Reuters) "As we confront the horrors of growing anti-Semitism and the appalling hate-fuelled terrorist attacks that we have seen across Europe, so the themes of freedom and liberty at the heart of the Hannukah story remain as relevant as ever. For just as the Maccabees resisted oppression and kept their faith, to be rewarded by the miracle of a light that burnt for eight nights, so too must we today have the courage to stand up for our values and hold sacred our way of life." "For as long as I am prime minister I want you to know that I will stand alongside you and passionately defend your right to practice your faith, free from question or fear. I will do everything I can to keep you and your families safe and to fight the divisive prejudice and extremist ideology that lies at the heart of anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred. And I will celebrate proudly the extraordinary contribution that our Jewish communities make to our country, for as I have said before, Britain would simply not be Britain without its Jews." "So as our Jewish communities come together for this special time, let us take confidence and pride in our values and in doing so let us draw hope from the Hannukah message that light will always overcome darkness and that joy and peace will always overcome hatred." "Hanukkah Sameach," May's greeting concluded. And a merry winter to all. A senior official from the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel was questioned under caution on Wednesday, an Israel Police spokesman said. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The official is suspected of incitement to terrorism, expressing support of terrorism and participation in unlawful assembly. The northern branch of the Islamic Movement was outlawed by the government in November 2015 because of its close ties to the terrorist organization Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. The offices of the police's Lahav 433 unit (Photo: Avi Mualem) According to the police, on different occasions after the group was outlawed, the suspect made a series of comments to the media, on internet sites and on social media, all relating to the existence of the movement and his role in it. This was done despite the fact it was outlawed. An examination of all of these instances raised the suspicion that some of statements incite to violence or express support of terrorism. Last month, four senior officials in the Islamic Movement from Arraba and Kafr Kanna were indicted on charges of conspiring to commit a crime, membership, holding a position and serving in an unlawful group, use of property for terror activity and money laundering. According to the indictment, starting December 2015about a month after the movement was outlawedand until September 2016, the four conspired to operate a mechanism to continue the threats and harassment towards Jewish visitors and tourists on the Temple Mount. A spokesperson for Tunisia's anti-terrorism judicial police says they have questioned the family of Anis Amri, the suspect that German authorities are searching for in the deadly truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market. Spokesman Sofiane Selliti said that officials from two specialized brigades in Tunis and Kairouan interrogated family members of the suspect Wednesday at their home in the central Tunisian town of Oueslatia. He did not say how many people were present at the interrogation. The suspect's family lives in poverty and his parents are divorced, according to Tunisia's Mosaique FM radio. The truck attack Monday night in Berlin left 12 people dead and 48 injured. The parents of a Canadian man held hostage in Afghanistan say a recently released video of his family marks the first time they've seen the two grandchildren, who were born in captivity. Canadian Joshua Boyle and his American wife, Caitlan Coleman, were kidnapped in 2012 while travelling in Afghanistan. In a video this week, Colemansitting with two young childrenurges governments on all sides to reach a deal to secure the family's freedom. Boyle's parents, Patrick and Linda Boyle, said in statement Wednesday the video is the first glimpse at their grandchildren. The parents say their son told them in a letter that they've tried to protect the children by pretending their signs of captivity are part of a game being played with guards. During a public rally in Gujarat's Mehsana, Rahul Gandhi claimed that a top corporate house paid crores to Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat CM. By India Today Web Desk: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today made explosive attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that he was paid huge money in kickbacks during his stint as Gujarat chief minister. Gandhi said that Modi received crores from a big corporate house and demanded an independent probe into the matter. He said the company paid money to PM Modi on at least occasions within a period of six months. advertisement Gandhi, who had recently claimed to be in possession of evidence regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal involvement in corruption, also attacked the Centre over demonetisation calling it an anti-poor move during a rally in Gujarat's Mehsana. He said that the Income Tax department raided a company on 22 November, 2014 and the records of raid are with the department for the last two and half years yet no action has been taken. "An independent enquiry must be initiated," Rahul Gandhi said. "As per record with I-T, Rs 2.5 crore was given to PM Modi on 30 Oct 2013; Rs 5 crore on 12 November 2013; Rs 2.5 crore on 27 November 2013; Rs 5 crore on 29 November 2013," Gandhi claimed. HERE'S WHAT RAHUL GANDHI SAID: If Narendra Modi ji's government takes any big or small step to eradicate corruption, Congress party will support them. Demonetisation move wasnt made against corruption or black money; it was against the honest poor people. All cash is not black money and all black money is not in cash. This government is anti-poor, anti-dalits. The government has snatched land from tribals in states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand. Dalits are being harassed and killed. They live in fear here in Gujarat. Patidars didn't resort to violence during their protests but their women and children were thrashed. The Switzerland government has sent names of black money hoarders to PM Modi but he is protecting them. Why don't you (PM Modi) reveal the names in Parliament? Don't know why Modiji did not target the 94% of black money but the other 6 per cent, did not target the 1 per cent corrupt but 99 per cent hones people. The demonetisation move was not a surgical strike on black money, it was fire-bombing on the poor. A farmer does not purchase his seeds by cheque or card but in cash, you (Modi) have taken away that cash from them. "We are pretty much unconditionally ready for a debate in Parliament. The government is not allowing me to speak. I have personal information about PM Modi's corruption. He is personally terrified. He cannot run away from the House," Gandhi had said last week. ALSO READ: Demonetisation: My speech will cause earthquake, says Rahul Gandhi UP battleground: PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi exchange war of words Rahul Gandhi lacks guts to expose Modi, says Kejriwal WATCH VIDEO: --- ENDS --- This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company. As of 2020, Minuteman Review is now the proud owner and operator of Your Defence News, a website with a long history of breaking huge news stories and investigative journalism. We hope you are equally as excited as us. This means that now the teams of Minuteman can combine with the firepower of Your Defence News to stay at the absolute forefront for our readers. Keep an eye. Big things are coming soon. We couldn't be more excited. In the meanwhile, here are some of our most popular posts and categories to keep you busy. Happy shootin' my friends! Buying Guides: Firearms Firearm Accessories Ammunition Gun Safes Scopes & Optics Hunting Air Rifles Best AR-15 Best AR 15 Scope Best Hunting Rifle Best Gun Safe Best AK 47 Best AR 10 Best Glock Triggers Best Glock Best Home Defense Shotgun Diversity The Australian housing market was diverse in 2016 because conditions differed radically from region to region. At one end of the spectrum we have Sydney and Melbourne where dwelling values are rising at more than ten per cent per annum, while in Perth, values continue to trend lower, said Lawless. In Canberra and Hobart, the pace of capital gains has accelerated with both cities seeing annual capital gains rise higher than 8 per cent over the past twelve months. Meanwhile, Brisbane and Adelaide have shown more substantial growth, with values tracking 4% to 5% higher over the year. Across regional markets, the lifestyle and tourist-centric areas recorded an improvement in buyer demand. This increased demand has pushed prices higher, while markets related to the resources sector remained soft and are most likely approaching the bottom of what has been a considerable downturn in values and transaction numbers. Complexity The Australian housing market was complex in 2016 because indicators are diverging and moving in multiple directions. Approved housing supply reached unprecedented highs during 2016 with high rise apartment projects attracting a higher risk profile, particularly across key areas of inner Melbourne and inner Brisbane, said Lawless. Transaction numbers have drifted lower across most state capitals, however the reason for lower transactions can be traced back to low listing numbers in hot markets like Sydney and Melbourne, while in weaker markets such as Perth and Darwin, the downturn in buyer numbers is attributable to less demand for housing. Trends to keep an eye on this 2017 Trends to keep an eye on this 2017 include rising mortgage rates, a peak in the construction cycle, the potential for greater regulation in the investor space, and a renewed focus on housing affordability. Mortgage rates have already started to rise, with variable rates from most lenders trending upwards due to higher funding costs. Higher mortgage rates could dampen housing demand, particularly when viewed in the context of historically high debt levels, which implies that Aussie households are increasingly wary about the cost of debt. Related stories: Fact Or Myth? Whats Really Happening In Property? Aussies Pick Stamp Duty Removal As Best Way To Assist Property Market Loss of rent is the greatest financial risk for landlordsand Christmas is to blame, states new research from Terri Scheer Insurance. The landlord insurance providers figures show that 34% of claim types paid during the 2015-2016 financial year were for loss of rental income. During the last financial year (from December to March), there was a 26% increase in loss of rent claims. From our experience, the higher than average frequency of loss of rent claims is due to two key reasons, said Carolyn Parrella, executive manager at Terri Scheer Insurance. Tenants often put gift giving and Christmas spending ahead of paying their rent and utility bills. Money is tight and their rental payments fall to the wayside. It takes two to three months for this to show as the eviction process needs to take place prior to a claim being lodged. Unfortunately, this can put significant financial pressure on the landlord and leave them out of pocket once the mortgage and other costs are paid. According to Parrella, the new school calendar also prompts a spike in the loss of rental income. From anecdotal evidence we know that many families break their rental agreement, abscond the property and move to different suburbs for the new school year, she said. However, by maintaining a strong, positive relationship between tenant and landlord, the tenant may be more inclined to advise if they are looking to relocate. This can give the landlord an opportunity to proactively seek a replacement tenant and reduce the amount of time their property is untenanted. It also goes to show that landlords should not be complacent when it comes to protecting their rental income. Parrella encourages landlords to consider specially-tailored insurance policies to minimise any potential losses. If a tenant misses a few weeks of rental payments, a landlord can suddenly be out of pocket by $1000 or more. However, often for just the cost of a cup of coffee each week, landlords can protect themselves from this financial stress with insurance. Good policies should cover landlords for risks like malicious damage and accidental damage by a tenant and potential legal liability should a tenant or their guests injure themselves [on] the property. Related stories: Theft Claims On Properties On The Rise Investing In Property And Risk Management Dobra, k. Szczecina 900 m2 40 miejsc parkingowych Atut: Dodatkowe dochody z paczkomatow InPostu, a juz niedugo i z myjni samoobsugowej. Tradycyjny zakup nieruchomosci, mozliwosc wykupienia uzytkowania wieczystego. By PTI: Mumbai, Dec 21 (PTI) Reserve Bank today said it has signed an agreement with Turkeys banking regulation agency for exchange of information and supervisory co-operation. "The Reserve Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Supervisory Cooperation and Exchange of Supervisory Information with Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency of Republic of Turkey," RBI said in a notification. advertisement The MoU was signed by Mehmet Irfan Kurt, Vice Chairman on behalf of Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency and Meena Hemchandra, Executive Director on behalf of RBI. RBI said it has entered into pacts with a few countries to promote greater co-operation and share supervisory information. With this, RBI has signed 35 such MoUs, one Letter for Supervisory Co-operation and one Statement of Co-operation. PTI KPM ABM --- ENDS --- The notes mostly of 100 rupees and some with 50 rupee denominations now run the risk of being counterfeited. Focus is now on clamping down on fake currency racketeers. By Devina Gupta: As the regulatory authorities crack the whip to unearth black money, the next focus is clamping down on fake currency racketeers, who are changing their strategy. 1. While traditionally 500 and 1000 rupee notes have been largely counterfeited, now sources in the Ministry of Finance have told India Today that the smaller denomination notes face graver security threat. That is, notes of mostly 100 rupee and some 50 rupee denominations run the risk of being counterfeited. advertisement 2. "There are new security features in 500 and 2,000 rupee notes and these notes have not been compromised so far, but smaller denomination notes are being pushed by unscrupulous elements", said a top finance ministry official. 3. Recent data tabled in Lok Sabha from National Crime Records Bureau shows that over 26 lakh fake notes of 500 and 1000 rupee denominations or currency worth 167 crore has been recovered by RBI in the past 4 years. In fact, over 18.9 lakh fake notes of 500 rupee denomination have been intercepted as compared to 7.6 lakh fake notes of 1000 rupee denomination. The threat of being counterfeited that smaller denomination notes face will be a fresh challenge for the investigative agencies. 4. The hot belt of fake currency inflow remains, Indo-Nepal and West Bengal-Bangladesh borders. A recent NIA forensic report stated that counterfeit notes or Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) had been printed on 'highly sophisticated machines involving huge capital investment' in Pakistan. These centres have been working overtime to make up for the loss on the account of the demonetisation drive. 5. "Pakistan and other neighbouring states, from where the FICN centres operate, will take years to counterfeit new 500 and 2000 rupee notes. But Pakistan is now focusing on printing small denomination notes", said a top finance ministry official. 6. Looking at the mounting threat, RBI has already announced that a new series of smaller denomination notes will be introduced with different inset numbers. --- ENDS --- Since my early childhood, as far back as I can recall, parents and elders have always asked me to stay away from smoking. It wasnt hard as nobody in my family smokes and so I did not realise how cool smoking can actually make you look- until I joined college where a lot of people I saw around would have a cigarette in hand, even though most of them were doing it under pressure from friends or just to impress girls; not knowing what it would eventually do to their health.

Well, the days passed by and I somehow coped up with the aggravation of having to blankly stare at my friends when they talked about various brands of cigarettes and in what way one tasted different from the other. The agony grew when I watched my favourite movie star puffing a huge cigar just before kicking the bad guys butt. I will never be able to do thatI would say to myself disappointingly.

The craving to have a smoke was at its peak often and I would think of giving in to the temptation at the insistence of friends, who would say just try once and we will not force you again. But, somehow, I held myself back.

All that talk of how smoking can be the root cause of different deadly diseases such as cancer seemed even more meaningless when I started working. More than just getting to know your colleagues, I realised that the ordinary looking tobacco filled tube of bliss can also help you get into your boss good books (generally applies to male bosses). Imagine what would it feel like when even your boss joins the smokers league and you are made to look like an unwanted outsider at males only parties, where you would be the only one without a smoldering stick in your hand.

I was slowly, but surely, starting to discover what fun it is to spend thousands of rupees every month to ruin your health and still feel on top of the world. How much I would have loved to experience that.

I also got to know that smoking is the best way to socialize because the corner cigarette shop just outside your work place is the best place where you can meet just about anybody and everybody in the official hierarchy. Who knows where a casual conversation starting over a do you have a light? can take you? It is worth every second of the seven minutes that each cigarette takes out of your life.

Well, smoking has so many benefits that I can go on and on filling pages, but for the fear of inviting the wrath of our ignorant government officials, who have taken extreme steps to cut down the consumption of cigarettes.

But all said and done, one thing that I do know deep down inside my heart is that all these smokers are a bunch of regular chaps, who would do anything to quit the habit but are just paying for what would have been just one cigarette and no more at a day back in college.

Proud to be a non smoker! A photographer brings you these exclusive pictures of the first snowfall in Sahara Desert in 40 years. By India Today Web Desk: You may be perennially grumbling about the global warming tragedy but this well-known region in Africa now has a different story to share. Sahara Desert has witnessed its first snow fall in nearly 40 years with Karim Bouchetata, an amateur photographer just releasing rare images of the desert enveloped in a thin layer of snow. The exclusive photos were captured by Karim in the small Saharan desert of Ain Sefra, Algeria, on December 19, 2016. The sheet of snow stayed on the red dunes for a day and formed whirling patterns on steep slopes, the photographer told The Independent UK. advertisement Also Read:Did you know that it snows in this tiny village in South India? Such a phenomenon marks an unusual spectacle for the largest hot desert that spans around 3,600,000 square miles of area. While it snows in other parts of Algeria, the exact reason for the Sahara snowfall is yet to be determined. Reports have revealed that the last time Ain Sefra encountered a snow fall was way back in 1979. Red dunes covered with a layer of snow. Photo courtesy:Instagram/abhi085 --- ENDS --- Beijing: China said today it welcomed Sao Tome and Principe's decision to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a move that comes as US President-elect Donald Trump questions Washington's policy towards the self-ruled island. The small west African nation suspended ties with China in 1997, when it chose to officially recognise Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949 after a civil war. Beijing has repeatedly asserted its belief that there is only "one China" and that the island remains part of its territory awaiting reunification. Tensions between the mainland and what it refers to as a "renegade province" have heightened since president Tsai Ing-wen, who leads Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, took office in May. Adding fuel to that fire, Trump angered Beijing with comments earlier this month suggesting he could use recognition of the island as a bargaining chip to extract trade deals from China. "We welcome Sao Tome and Principe back onto the correct path of the one China principle," the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement on its website. "Persisting in the one China principle is the direction of international popular sentiment and an irresistible trend," it added. Sao Tome's decision leaves Taiwan with formal diplomatic ties to only 21 states, including just two in Africa -- Swaziland and Burkina Faso. It also has relations with the Vatican, its most high profile supporter. Sao Tome's decision follows a precedent shattering congratulatory phone call from Tsai to Trump, which angered Beijing. The billionaire politician further raised the temperature among the Chinese leadership by publicly questioning US reluctance to recognise Taiwan. "I don't know why we have to be bound by a one China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade," he told Fox News earlier this month. Tsai is preparing for a trip next month to meet with diplomatic allies in Latin America, where she is expected to pass through the US, which may irk China. Lahore: Are Islamic State terrorists present in Pakistan too? This question is doing the rounds as a key IS member has been arrested from Pakistan's Punjab province. The IS member was arrested alongwith the terror group's flags and weapons, police said on Wednesday. Police officials and Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) personnel raided a house in Sargodha district, some 200 km from Lahore, and arrested the militant, they said. Weapons and IS flags were recovered from him, they said, adding the suspect, who was not named, has been shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogation. Last Sunday, the CTD along with police had killed five suspected terrorists of IS group in a shootout in Dera Ghazi Khan district of Punjab province. The CTD said a team conducted a raid at a house in Mauza Rakh Rojhani, some 350 km from Lahore, and asked the suspects to surrender but they fired on the team. During a shootout, five suspected terrorists were killed while their four accomplices managed to escape. It said two of the killed were identified as Malik Tehseen and Kamran, who had escaped from the police custody some months ago. Sarajevo: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is on a three-day official visit to Bosnia, on Wednesday said Islamabad wants peaceful settlement of matters with India. Addressing the Bosnian Parliamentary group, Prime Minister Sharif said there is no presence of Daesh in Pakistan, while adding that his country has effectively handled the threat from Al-Qaeda and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), reported Geo News. Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan has paid a heavy price for war against terrorism. "We have destroyed the safe havens and sanctuaries of Al-Qaeda and TTP," he said. The premier said that Pakistan is determined to end the common menace of terrorism. Manila: The Philippines said today that President Rodrigo Duterte's killing of three people in the 1980s was part of a police operation, after the United Nations rights chief urged Manila to investigate him for murder. In several speeches last week, Duterte recounted how in 1988, early in the first of his several terms as mayor of the southern city of Davao, he and local police ambushed and killed three suspected kidnappers. UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement yesterday that Duterte's killings, by his own admission, "clearly constitute murder" and Philippine judicial authorities must launch a murder investigation. Duterte spokesman Ernesto Abella said today Zeid's comments were nothing more than "his (Zeid's) opinion". "Again, let me just remind one and all, that the incident referred to by the president was actually covered by media and it was (a) legitimate police action," Abella added. He did not address Duterte's possession and discharge of a firearm while not a policeman. Duterte has said he routinely carried a gun during his early years as mayor of Davao to protect himself in a high- crime environment. He has not said if the weapon used in the ambush was licensed. He won the presidential election by a landslide in May largely on a vow to kill 100,000 criminals to stop the country's slide into a "narco-state". According to the UN, nearly 6,100 people have been killed since Duterte took office in late June. Philippine police put the figure at about 5,300 violent deaths, with Duterte consistently rejecting allegations his incendiary comments could be encouraging police to commit murder. While mayor of Davao, Duterte was investigated by the independent Commission on Human Rights over allegations he ran death squads that killed more than a thousand petty criminals in the city. Duterte has variously denied or confirmed the allegations. The commission did not file any criminal charges after completing its inquiry. Zeid called for "credible and independent investigations" to be immediately reopened into the Davao killings. And he demanded similar probes into the "shocking number of killings that have occurred across the country since Mr. Duterte became president". "The perpetrators must be brought to justice, sending a strong message that violence, killings and human rights violations will not be tolerated by the State and that no one is above the law," Zeid said. The Modi government has approved an ordinance for an amendment to Payment of Wages Act to promote usage of cheque and other electronic modes for salary payment of workers. Modi government plans changes in Payment of Wages Act By Rahul Kanwal: The Modi government has approved an ordinance for an amendment to Payment of Wages Act to promote usage of cheque and other electronic modes for salary payment of workers. The Payment of Wages Act currently allows for payments in currency or coin. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Cabinet colleagues today in New Delhi where the move was discussed and approved. advertisement HERE'S WHAT THE AMENDMENT MEANS AND WHY IT IS IMPORTANT: Employers will henceforth be allowed to pay labourers in cheque as well. Government clarifies that option of payment through cash is not being done away with. Additional feature of payments to labourers is being introduced. Currently, employers often underdeclare number of employees. Employers don't pay full employee provident fund to workers. Government hopes that the move will lead to employers declaring actual number of workers and paying them EPF. State governments will need to notify this ordinance before it comes into effect in various areas. This ordinance doesn't mean that salaries can henceforth only be paid in cheque. At present, the Act covers all those employees in certain categories of establishments whose wage does not exceed Rs 18,000 per month. By making state-level amendments to the Act, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Kerala and Haryana have already made provisions for payment of wages through cheque and electronic transfer. ALSO READ: Probe reveals how bank officials are renting out bank accounts to black money hoarders Black money saga gets weirder: IT department raids crorepati tea seller, tailor WATCH VIDEO --- ENDS --- Chennai: DMK chief M Karunanidhi's recovering well, Kauvery Hospital, where he is admitted, said in a statement on Wednesday. The hospital released a picture showing Karunanidhi sitting on a chair and watching TV. DMK president Kalaignar Dr M Karunanidhi is recovering well at Kauvery Hospital, Alwarpet, Chennai. He will be discharged from the hospital after completion of course of antibiotics, the hospital said in a statement. Karunanidhi was admitted to Kauvery Hospital on the night of December 15 due to breathing difficulty caused by lung and throat infection. He later underwent a tracheotomy which helped him breathe freely. A host of leaders including Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, Tamil Maanila Congress chief G K Vasan visited the hospital and enquired about the 92-year-old leader's health. Interestingly, Karunanidhi had demanded that a picture or video of J Jayalalithaa be released while she was undergoing treatment at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai. The AIADMK leader had passed away on December 5. Kharagpur: The students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur are sitting on a hunger strike against the institution`s decision to hike the registration fee. Demanding that the hike in registration fee be withdrawn at the earliest, the students said that they would continue with the protest if their grievances are not addressed. "The registration fee has gone up suddenly from Rs 29,000 to Rs 37,000. This is illegal. We have asked for an open house meeting and if the director arranges the meeting then we will call off our protest. In the meeting, we will ask him to give a complete stay order on the registration link," said one of the protesting students. In April this year, the students at IIT Kharagpur staged a peaceful protest against the Ministry of Human Resource Development`s decision to hike the fee structure from Rs 90,000 to Rs 2 lakh. Berlin: German police are searching for a Tunisian man in connection with the deadly truck attack on a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market, media reported Wednesday. The man is aged 21 or 23 and known by three different names, according to reports in the daily Allgemeine Zeitung and the Bild newspaper. Both said asylum office papers believed to belong to the man were found in the cab of the truck. Ankara: The young Turkish policeman who killed Russia`s ambassador to Ankara this week had provided security to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eight times since the July 15 failed coup bid, a report said on Wednesday. Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, pumped nine bullets into ambassador Andrei Karlov at an art exhibition centre on Monday evening, before he himself was killed by Turkish police. Altintas, a member of the Ankara anti-riot police for two-and-a-half years, had been on duty at eight events attended by Erdogan since July, the Hurriyet daily said. At such events he was part of the second wave of Erdogan`s security after the personal bodyguard team of the president, wrote Hurriyet`s writer Abdulkadir Selvi, known for his contacts in the ruling elite. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told US counterpart John Kerry in a phone call on Tuesday that Turkey believed the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who it blamed for the July 15 coup bid, was behind the assassination plot. Turkish authorities are now investigating possible links of Altintas to Gulen, including a school he attended that was run by the cleric`s group. Hurriyet`s Selvi said that on the day of the July 15 coup, Altintas had called in sick to the police. But it was not clear what he did that night. The security forces have now detained 13 people over the attack including close relatives of Altintas, Turkish media reports said. Meanwhile, a team of 18 Russian investigators arrived in Ankara on Tuesday to take part in a joint probe inside Turkey, an unprecedented move agreed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. New Delhi: The menace of human waste being splattered on houses from airplanes while landing, on Tuesday led the National Green Tribunal to slap a fine of Rs 50,000 on the airline whose aircraft empties toilet tanks on air. The NGT directed aviation regulator DGCA to issue a circular to all airlines, whose planes are involved, to pay Rs 50,000 as environmental compensation. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar passed a slew of directions while disposing of a plea of a retired army officer alleging dumping of human excreta by aircraft over residential areas near the IGI Airport here. Normally, the waste in the aircraft tanks are disposed of by ground handling personnel once the plane lands. However, there are cases where lavatory leaks occur in the air. The tribunal asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue circular to all ground handling services and airlines to ensure that they do not release waste from human waste tanks while landing or anywhere near the terminals of the IGI Airport. "DGCA shall also issue directions that aircraft on landing shall be subjected to surprise inspection to see that human waste tanks are not empty. If any aircraft is found to be violating such circular or (their) tanks are found empty on landing, they shall be subjected to environment compensation of Rs 50,000 per default," the bench said. The direction came on the plea of Lt Gen (Retd) Satwant Singh Dahiya who has sought action against the airlines and levy of hefty fines on them for endangering the health of residents, terming their act as violation of the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'. While issuing directions, the green panel also said it was "surprised" to note the stand taken by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) that on analysing the samples taken from the petitioner's house, it could be ascertained that it was excreta but its source could not known. "We are surprised to note the stand of CPCB to the extent of coliform and the kind of splashes created on the houses of the petitioner as well as others clearly demostrate that it was human excreta," the bench said. It added that the amount collected shall be deposited with CPCB for using it for environment protection and a quarterly report shall also be submitted by DGCA before it. DGCA was also asked by the tribunal to set up a helpline so that similar complaints can be addressed and the helpline number as well as email address be kept in public domain. During the hearing, DGCA told the bench it has issued a circular to constitute a committee to investigate the matter. The NGT had earlier slapped a cost of Rs 5,000 on the Environment Ministry and the Ministry of Civil Aviation for their failure to file inspection report on the plea. It had also directed CPCB to depute a senior environmental engineer to inspect the petitioner's house and check the existence of human excreta on its walls and if excreta was found, samples should be collected for analysis and the report placed before the tribunal. In his petition, Vasant Enclave resident Dahiya had sought creation of a 24-hour helpline for immediate reporting of such incidents and a monitoring mechanism to check that no aircraft drops "human soil or excreta" while landing. The Ministry had opposed the argument and said plane toilets stored the waste in special tanks which are normally disposed of by ground crews once the plane lands. However, aviation officials acknowledge that lavatory leaks can occur in the air at times. Imphal: Amidst relaxation of curfew in Imphal East district of Manipur, three persons were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly throwing stones and damaging at least three buses. Police said locals of Napet Palli in Imphal East district threw stones and damaged the three buses, which were returning from Ukhrul after dropping a large number of people who had been stranded, after residents of Khurai and Lamlong went on a rampage and damaged 22 passenger vehicles on December 16 in protest against the blockade by United Naga Council. The District Magistrate of Imphal East relaxed the indefinite curfew clamped on December 18, barring the violence-hit Imphal-Ukhrul road, district officials said. Night curfew in West Imphal district, however, remained in force as a precautionary measure as the economic blockade by United Naga Council(UNC) on both the national highways of the state continued for the 51st day. Internet services too remained snapped for the fourth day today to avoid spread of rumours and false propaganda, said a telecom official. The violence had led to the clamping of curfew in the twin districts with the Centre dispatching a 4,000-strong paramilitary force to provide security for transportation of essential commodities on the national highways. Meanwhile, leaders and people of different ethnic groups of the state attended an all-community meeting today for an amicable solution to the prevailing law and order situation in the state. The leaders urged the Centre, the state government and other stakeholders to lift the economic blockade. New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday demanded resignation of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Chairperson Swati Maliwal after the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) filed a chargesheet in an alleged case of irregularities in appoitments. "Maliwalji should immediately resign as she has lost the moral right to work as the Chairperson after being chargesheeted by the ACB for irregularities in appointments made in the DCW by her," Delhi unit Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Manoj Tiwari told reporters here. Tiwari's remarks came soon after the ACB on Wednesday filed a chargesheet against Maliwal in an alleged case of irregularities in the appointments in the DCW. Tiwari also accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for irregularities in the appointments in several departments of the Delhi government. "In the matter of irregularities in contractual appointments in various government departments and statutory bodies, Kejriwal is as much responsible as the ministers concerned or the departmental heads," the BJP leader said. Tiwari alleged that since coming to power, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has made over a thousand co-terminus and contractual appointments of their favoured appointees in the government offices, apart from in the autonomous bodies like DCW and Waqf board by violating administrative guidelines. Tiwari also urged Lt Governor Najeeb Jung to order an inquiry into all ad hoc appointments made by the AAP government in last two years, as there are allegations of violation of norms in almost all appointments. The ACB action came following a complaint filed by former DCW Chairperson Barkha Singh Shukla, also a Congress leader. Shukla was Maliwal's predecessor on the women's panel. Shukla in her complaint to the ACB has alleged that AAP workers were appointed in the DCW to fetch them financial gains. Altogether 85 appointments are under investigation by the ACB. On the complaint of Shukla, the ACB registered an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act as well as under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code. Kochi: A clergyman in Kerala has donated his kidney to a Muslim woman who was suffering from kidney ailments for the last four years and saved her life, hospital authorities said on Wednesday. The 39-year-old Priest Shibu Kuttiparichel of Cheengery St. Mary's Jacobite Syrian Church in Wayanad district, donated one of his kidneys to the 29-year-old woman. The kidney was harvested and transplanted into Kairunnissa at a private hospital here. Kairunnissa hails from Thrissur and was selected as the recipient from others registered with the Kidney Federation of India. The federation was founded by another Christian priest Davis Chiramel, who himself had donated one of his kidneys a few years back. Kairunnissa was suffering from kidney ailments for the past four years and had undergone several rounds of dialysis, said the hospital management. "Even as Kairunnissa's 56-year-old mother, Shereefa was ready to donate one of her kidneys to her daughter, it was not matching," according to the hospital authorities. Later Kuttiparichel's blood group matched with Kairunnissa and the transplant was possible," said the authorities. Both the donor and recipient are in good condition. Kuttiparichel will be discharged in four days, while Kairunnissa will be discharged after a week, said the hospital. United Nations: India has described the nexus between organised traffickers and terrorist networks through illicit financial linkages as a "dangerous phenomenon" that should be urgently addressed using counter-terrorism financing tools and sanctions regimes. "The nexus between organised traffickers and terrorist networks through illicit financial linkages is a dangerous phenomenon," India's Deputy Permanent Representative Tanmaya Lal said at a UN Security Council debate on 'Trafficking in Persons in Conflict Situations', here yesterday. Lal said the low rates of conviction for crimes of trafficking across countries needs to change. "The persistence of this transnational organised crime and its links with terrorist networks despite the various collective efforts of the international community is a challenge that requires a stepping up of our efforts, more effectively using the existing counter-terror financing tools and mechanisms and sanctions regimes in this regard," he said. Lal also voiced concern that situations of armed conflict provide fertile ground for trafficking in persons especially from the vulnerable groups, including women, children and refugees for sexual slavery and forced labour or as fighters. He said that in recent times, heinous actions of terrorist groups such as ISIS or Boko Haram specifically targeting women and children in situations of armed conflict as a deliberate tactic of war add an even more serious dimension to such crimes as such groups continue to act with impunity. "The primary focus of the Security Council is to address threats to international peace and security. While increased focus on addressing trafficking in persons and its linkages to terrorism and armed conflicts is timely, we must strengthen international collaboration to better implement the various existing mechanisms, including through more effective coordination of the various entities at the UN," he said. While the Security Council should retain its focus on situations of armed conflict, Lal said broader mechanisms should be more fully utilised to strengthen national capacity building including in criminal justice capacities, regulatory frameworks of banking and financial institutions to disrupt illicit financial flows and improve regional and inter-regional cooperation. Outlining the measures taken by India to address issue of trafficking, he said India unveiled a comprehensive draft legislation this year aimed at prevention of trafficking and protection and rehabilitation of trafficked persons. India also continues to work closely with UN agencies including UN Women and the Office on Drugs and Crime. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, highlighting the plight of victims of human trafficking, underlined at the debate the need to ensure justice for victims and accountability for perpetrators, as well as to address underlying factors by focusing on human rights and stability. "If conflict gives oxygen to traffickers, human rights and stability suffocate them," Ban told the Security Council at its ministerial-level meeting on trafficking. Ban said there is need for strategic leadership in ending war ? and also in preventing conflicts and sustaining peace, noting the UN's commitment to supporting its member states in early action and in preventive diplomacy. Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will perform bhoomi pooja for a grand statue and memorial of Chhatrapati Shivaji during a day-long visit to Maharashtra on Saturday, officials said. The memorial and statue are expected to come up on a rocky islet around one kilometre into the Arabian Sea overlooking Marine Drive or Queen's Necklace, with Malabar Hill on one end and Nariman Point at the other in south Mumbai. "This memorial, Shiv Smarak, in the Arabian Sea will be the tallest memorial not only in the country but in the entire world," Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said of the ambitious project estimated to cost around Rs 3,600 crore. The state government has secured 12 major permissions from the Centre including the Environment Ministry, Defence Ministry, Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and others, he added. Slated to be 309 feet tall, the statue along with a pedestal and foundation will be taller than the State of Liberty and is expected to be a major tourist attraction. The memorial complex on the islet will house a library on the warrior king, an amphitheatre, an aqauarium and an IMAX cinema hall to screen films on the Chhatrapati, guest rooms and a helipad. There will be replicas of the entrance arch of the historic Raigad Fort, of the Tulja Bhavani temple, forecourts designed after his palaces and wadas of the Maratha era. The Shiv Smarak shall be accessible by boats to arrive and depart from jetties to come up at Radio Club in Colaba, Nariman Point and at Sagar Sangam in Navi Mumbai. However, some fisherfolks' organizations like Akhil Maharashtra Machhimar Kriti Samit and Paramparik Machhimar Seva Samit have opposed the project on grounds it could severely hit their livelihood. Modi would be accompanied by Fadnavis and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray. Two state cabinet ministers - Chandrakant Patil and Vinod Tawde - on Wednesday called on Thackeray at his home to formally invite him for the event on Saturday. Modi will also lay the foundation stones for two metro railways, an elevated railway corridor, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link and address a public rally in Mumbai. In adjoining Raigad, he will inaugurate the new SEBI Campus and later in Pune he will lay the foundation stone for the proposed Pune Metro Railway. By PTI: Gondia (Maha), Dec 21 (PTI) At least seven persons, including two women, were killed in a fire that broke out at a hotel here in the wee hours today, police said. The blaze erupted at around 3.30 AM in a shop on the premises of hotel Bindal, located on the busy Gorelal chowk at a prime location in the city, and soon spread in the building, they said. advertisement Seven persons died in the fire, Inspector General of Police, Gadchiroli Range, S T Bodakhe said. "Rescue work is underway and the fire brigade team is searching if any person is trapped inside the premises," a fire officer said. Fire tenders were called from neighbouring Balaghat, Bhandara, Tumsar, Lanji and also from Adani Power Plant in Tirora to help douse the flames. There where nearly 15 guests staying in the hotel at the time of the mishap. One person sustained serious injuries after he jumped from the second floor of the hotel following the fire. He died on way to Nagpur hospital, police said. Two bodies were charred beyond recognition while four others were found dead in their hotel rooms, they said. On getting information, District Collector Abhimanyu Kale, Superintendent of Police Dilip Patil Bhujbal rushed to the site and supervised the rescue work. Police officials had a tough time in controlling the crowd that gathered outside the mishap site after the fire. The deceased were yet to be identified, police said, adding that two of them had apparently come to attend a marriage function. PTI CORR JOE GK GVS --- ENDS --- Islamabad: Top Pakistani General on Wednesday invited India to join the USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). While extending invitation to New Delhi, the top General said India should 'shun enmity' and reap benefit of the project. The ambitious CPEC project was launched in early 2015 to link China's remote Xinjiang region with the Arabian Sea through Pakistan by building a network of roads, railways, energy parks and industrial zones. Recently, Geo News had reported that Russia wants to join the CPEC to reap maximum dividends. In addition, Russia aspires to develop strategic defence ties with Pakistan. Islamabad has moved forward with a green signal allowing Russia to use the Gwadar Port for trade. Mumbai: Two persons, including a fireman, were injured in a major fire that broke out in the hutments of Sankli street at Madanpura area in South Mumbai, a senior fire brigade official said on Wednesday. "Our control received a call at around 10.20 PM yesterday and 14 fire tenders were rushed to the spot," fire brigade chief of Mumbai civic body P S Rahangdale said. The blaze got escalated due to blast in LPG cylinders, he said adding that the fire has been brought under control. "The fire affected 50 to 60 structures on the ground-floor, and three floors above it in the area having various footwear and bag manufacturing units, scrap godowns, shops and residential structures. A few temporary structures also collapsed due to the blaze," Rahangdale said. "The fire engulfed the electric wiring, some installations, household articles, LPG cylinders and other valuables. During the incident, three gas cylinders exploded. Besides, leakage was found in two LPG cylinders which were later handed over to a gas agency," he said. According to Rahangdale, "nuisance by public" and "vehicles parked on both sides of the road" posed difficulties for fire bridge personnel to reach the spot. In the mishap, fireman Ashok Bane sustained head injury while a local resident got suffocated due to the smoke. Both have been admitted to Nair hospital, officials said. Earlier, a fire had broken out yesterday in the iconic Air India building at Nariman Point in South Mumbai, but there was no casualty or major damage as the blaze-hit floor on the premises was empty at that time. Mumbai: The Congress seems to be facing a severe cash crunch. A tea vendor, who runs a small stall behind the headquarters of Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) at Azad Maidan, has stopped giving tea to party workers on credit, The Times of India reported. The 'chai wallah' claims the Congress has an outstanding balance of Rs 2 lakh. The tea vendor, who is very famous among the Congress members, says that the grand old party hasn't paid him for a long time. However, he expresses confidence in Congress of clearing all the dues. Mumbai unit chief Sanjay Nirupam accepted that his party was yet to clear the dues. Nirupam said the matter was brought to his notice few days ago. The Congress Mumbai chief claimed that dues were Rs 4 lakh, out of which Rs 2 lakh has already been disbursed, the rest will be given soon. One of the party functionary, who didn't wished to be named admitted that Congress was facing cash crunch. Moscow: The Kremlin said on Wednesday that nearly all the communication channels between Moscow and Washington were frozen, local media reported. "Practically all levels of dialogue with the United States are frozen," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Mir TV, state news agency RIA Novosti reported. "We don't communicate with one another. Or we do so minimally." Russia finds itself locked in its worst standoff with the West since the Cold War over its 2014 annexation of Crimea, the conflict in Ukraine and lingering disagreements about the conflict in Syria. US State Department spokesman John Kirby assured later Wednesday that "diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues". "That we have significant differences with Moscow on some of these issues is well known, but there hasn`t been a break in dialogue," Kirby said, adding that Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had spoken on the phone about the situation in Syria Tuesday. The Obama administration on Tuesday reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining sanctions on Moscow over Crimea with new financial restrictions on Russian businessmen and companies. The White House this month also pointed to direct involvement by Russian President Vladimir Putin in cyber attacks designed to impact the US election. The upcoming presidency of Donald Trump now casts doubt over the future of US policy towards Russia given his apparently softer line on Putin. The Kremlin strongman has reiterated Moscow's readiness to work with the Trump administration once the president-elect takes office in January, stressing the importance of normalising the countries' relations. Kinshasa: Police said they had arrested 275 people across Democratic Republic of Congo as two days of protests against President Joseph Kabila appeared to subside on Wednesday. Sporadic gunfire rang out over the capital and witnesses reported clashes in the southeastern mining hub of Lubumbashi, but nothing on the scale of the violence when youths took to the streets on Tuesday accusing Kabila of trying to cling to power. Police said 21 civilians and one officer had been killed in the protests that erupted as Kabila`s mandate expired without any elections in place to pick a successor. Rights groups earlier gave higher death tolls. Kabila and his supporters have denied any plan to stay in power and said elections were delayed by logistical problems. But African and Western powers fear the political crisis could spiral into broader conflict, risking a repeat of the 1996-2003 wars in this vast, chaotic country that killed millions and drew in the armies of half a dozen neighbouring states. Police spokesman Colonel Pierre Mwanamputu said most of the dead civilians had been hit by stray bullets or shot while looting over Tuesday and Wednesday. "The heavy security presence will remain in place until the end of the year," he added. On Wednesday security forces repressed protests in Lubumbashi that left 10 dead and 47 wounded, King Kasongo, a lawyer and activist for the NGO Humanism and Human Rights (HDH), said. Crowds also wounded a policeman and attacked government offices, health centres and gas stations, he told Reuters. Human Rights Watch (HRW) earlier said that at least 26 people were killed across Congo, including one in Lubumbashi, though it had yet to provide a final tally. The director of the United Nations human rights office in Congo, Jose Maria Aranaz, said he had confirmed 19 deaths with 45 wounded. CHURCH LEADS TALKS As an uneasy calm returned, some Kinshasa residents ventured from their homes on Wednesday, but the city`s normally hectic traffic had slowed and buses were limited. Authorities arrested 20 members of the activist group LUCHA for sitting in front of the office of the governor of North Kivu province in the city of Goma, the group said on Twitter. The main opposition bloc showed up to the resumption of talks mediated by Congo`s Roman Catholic bishops, but Jean Marc Kabund, the leader of one of the parties in the bloc, the UDPS, told reporters he was only there to insist on Kabila quitting. The church has assumed the responsibility of trying to prevent the crisis spinning out of control. "Those of you with political responsibility, listen to the voice of your own conscience, recognise the cruel suffering of your people and take to heart the common good," Pope Francis told his weekly audience on Wednesday, addressing Congo leaders. "They should go to dialogue to find a solution," said Maggie Munanango, selling peanuts in a Kinshasa market. Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa`s biggest miner of copper and metals used in gadgets such as cobalt, has not known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Armed groups have repeatedly clashed over Congo`s land and mineral wealth and used mass rape as a strategic weapon. Separately, clashes between police and a militia led by a Christian pastor in northwest Mongala province killed 15 militiamen and three policemen on Tuesday, the former deputy commissioner of Mongala Michael Sakombi said. The clashes were not linked to the wider politics, but they underscored how easily armed conflict can erupt. (Additional reporting by Kenny Katombe, Amedee Mwarabu Kiboko, Benoit Nyemba in Kinshasa and Crispian Balmer in Rome; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Andrew Heavens) Washington: US President Barack Obama has banned future oil and gas drilling in most of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, the latest move to cement his environmental legacy before he leaves office next month. Using his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that allow presidents to withdraw areas from oil and gas leasing and exploration, Obama has protected the entire US Chukchi Sea and the vast majority of the US Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean and 31 canyons in the Atlantic Ocean from drilling, the White House said on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported. Canada would also freeze offshore oil and gas leasing in its Arctic waters, to be reviewed every five years through a climate and marine science-based assessment, according to the White House. "These actions, and Canada`s parallel actions, protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other region on earth," Obama said in a statement. "They reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region`s harsh conditions is limited," he said. Obama believed "it would take decades" to fully develop the production infrastructure necessary for any large-scale oil and gas leasing production in the region. The withdrawal areas announced on Tuesday encompass 3.8 million acres in the north and mid-Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast and 115 million acres in the US Arctic Ocean, according to the US Department of the Interior. "The withdrawal will help build the resilience of these vital ecosystems, provide refugees for at-risk species, sustain commercial fisheries and subsistence traditions, and create natural laboratories for scientists to monitor and explore the impacts of climate change," said US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. Including previous presidential withdrawals, Tuesday`s action protects nearly 125 million acres in the offshore Arctic from future oil and gas activity. Analysts said the incoming administration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump could not simply reverse the action, as the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act doesn`t include a procedure for a new president to undo actions by a predecessor. But Congress could pass legislation lifting the ban, which likely would require 60 votes in the Senate, a high hurdle for many controversial issues. BERLIN/DUESSELDORF: German police are looking for an asylum-seeker from Tunisia after finding an identity document under the driver`s seat of a truck that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market and killed 12 people, officials and security sources said on Wednesday. Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), said the man appeared to have arrived in Germany in July 2015 and his asylum application had been rejected. He seemed to have used different names and had been identified by security agencies as being in contact with an Islamist network. The man had mainly lived in Berlin since February, but was recently in NRW, Jaeger said. The man had been considered a potential threat by security authorities since November. After being turned down for asylum, he should have been deported but could not be returned to Tunisia because his documents were missing, added Jaeger. The new details added to a growing list of questions about whether security authorities missed opportunities to prevent the attack, in which a 25-tonne truck mowed down a crowd of shoppers and smashed through wooden huts selling gifts, mulled wine and sausages. It was the deadliest attack on German soil since 1980. Christmas markets have been a known potential target for Islamist militants since at least 2000, when authorities thwarted a plot to attack one in Strasbourg, France. And the modus operandi in Berlin was identical to that of a Bastille Day attack in the French city of Nice in July, when a Tunisian-born man rammed a lorry through a seaside crowd and killed 86 people. Security sources said the ID found by the Berlin investigators was in the name of Anis A., born in the southern Tunisian city of Tataouine in 1992. By convention, suspects in Germany are identified by the first name and initial. A spokesperson for Tunisia`s foreign ministry said it was trying to verify that information. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said a Europe-wide manhunt for the suspect had been underway since midnight. The Rheinische Post newspaper said police had begun searching a shelter for migrants in western Germany where the man was believed to have lived. SYMBOLIC TARGET The pre-Christmas carnage at a symbolic Berlin site - under the ruined spire of a church bombed in World War Two - has shocked Germans and prompted security reviews across Europe, already on high alert after attacks this year in Belgium and France. The possible - though unproven - involvement of a migrant or refugee has revived a bitter debate about security and immigration, with Chancellor Angela Merkel facing calls to clamp down after allowing more than a million newcomers into Germany in the past two years. Merkel, who will run for a fourth term next year, has said it would be particularly repugnant if a refugee seeking protection in Germany was the perpetrator. Police initially arrested a Pakistani asylum-seeker near the scene, but released him without charge on Tuesday. Authorities have warned that the attacker is on the run and may be armed. It is not clear if the perpetrator was acting alone or with others. The Polish driver of the hijacked truck was found shot dead in the cabin of the vehicle. Bild newspaper reported that he was alive until the attack took place. It quoted an investigator as saying there must have been a struggle with the attacker, who may have been injured. ISLAMIC STATE CLAIM Islamic State has claimed responsibility, as it did for the Nice attack. The Passauer Neue Presse newspaper quoted the head of the group of interior ministers from Germany`s 16 federal states, Klaus Bouillon, as saying tougher security measures were needed.Passauer Neue Presse newspaper quoted the head of the group of interior ministers from Germany`s 16 federal states, Klaus Bouillon, as saying tougher security measures were needed. "We want to raise the police presence and strengthen the protection of Christmas markets. We will have more patrols. Officers will have machine guns. We want to make access to markets more difficult, with vehicles parked across them," Bouillon told the paper. Some politicians have blamed Merkel`s open-door migrant policy for making such attacks more likely. The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has gained support in the last two years as the chancellor`s popularity has waned, said on Tuesday that Germany is no longer safe. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told German radio there was a higher risk of Islamist attacks because of the influx of migrants in the past two years, many of whom have fled conflicts in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The task of tracking the suspects and the movements of the truck may be complicated by the relative scarcity of security cameras in public places in Germany, compared with similar countries such as Britain. The German cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft law to broaden video surveillance in public and commercial areas, a move agreed by political parties last month after a spate of violent attacks and sexual assaults on women. State surveillance is a sensitive issue in Germany because of extensive snooping by the Stasi secret police in Communist East Germany and by the Gestapo in the Nazi era. Berlin: The German Interior Minister on Wednesday announced that a European arrest warrant has been issued against a new suspect in connection with Monday's Berlin terror attack. At the end of an extraordinary meeting of the German parliament's interior committee, Thomas de Maiziere stressed that this wanted person, of whom he did not provide details, remains a suspect, Efe news reported. The 'wanted' was not necessarily the author of the attack in which a truck ploughed through a crowd in a Christmas market, killing 12 persons and wounding 48 others, Maiziere said. He also said that a lot of information was disseminated. Earlier in the day, the police in Germany was reportedly searching for a Tunisian man in relation to the attack. He was identified by Der Spiegel magazine as Anis A., a 24-year-old Tunisian who could be using two different aliases. A residence permit was found in the truck that on Monday ploughed through the crowd. Tultepec: Forensic investigators scoured the charred remains of a fireworks market outside Mexico City on Wednesday for clues to what caused a series of massive blasts that killed at least 32 people, the third fiery accident there in 11 years. Dozens of people were injured in Tuesday`s disaster at the San Pablito open-air market, which was crowded with shoppers just before Christmas. A smell of burning hung over the remains of the market where investigators dressed in white protective gear, police, and medical personnel searched through twisted metal frames and the wreckage of stalls. Soldiers with dogs appeared to be looking for human remains. Alejandro Gomez, the state attorney general, told Mexican television it was unclear what caused the explosions, adding he could not corroborate accounts pointing to a detonation at one stall that may have begun a chain reaction. Video of the blasts showed a spectacular flurry of pyrotechnics exploding high into the sky, like rockets in a war zone, as a massive plume of charcoal-gray smoke billowed out from the site. The federal attorney general`s office opened an investigation, saying that there were six separate blasts. Alberto Teres, owner of one of few stalls remaining, saw the flames leap from stall to stall. "The only thing you could do was run," he said. THIRD TIME A dozen people are still missing, Gomez said. "It`s a catastrophe," said Guadalupe Sanchez from nearby Cuautitlan Izcalli, as she searched for her uncle, 52, who owned a market stall, and two nephews, aged 15 and 9. It was the third time in just over a decade that explosions have struck the popular marketplace in Tultepec, home to the country`s best-known fireworks shopping and about 20 miles (32 km) north of Mexico City in the State of Mexico. In late 2005, explosions struck the market days before Independence Day celebrations, injuring scores of people. Another explosion gutted the area again almost a year later. A sign reading "Tultepec, Firework Capital" stood at one of the exits to the market. It was particularly full on Tuesday as many Mexicans buy fireworks to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. Burned out cars with the paint peeled off and windows punched out by the force of the blasts ringed the site. "Everything was destroyed, it was very ugly and many bodies were thrown all over the place, including a lot of children. It`s the worst thing I`ve ever seen in my life," said housewife Angelica Avila, 24, tears running down her face. Avila spoke outside a nearby hospital as she waited for an update on the health of her brother, a fireworks salesman, who she said was burned and also suffered a heart attack. Forty-six of the injured remain hospitalized, while 18 of the dead have yet to be identified due to the severe nature of their burns, said state interior minister Jose Manzur. Investigators are studying burnt human remains at the site, but are not sure if they belong to individuals already confirmed dead, Gomez said. Manzur said the vast majority of the market`s 300 stalls were completely destroyed. However, he noted that the site was inspected by safety officials just last month and that no irregularities were found. Ankara: Clashes between Turkish-backed Syrian rebels and Islamic State militants intensified around the northern Syrian town of al-Bab on Wednesday, killing four Turkish soldiers and more than 40 jihadists, the army said. Turkey`s military said the rebel forces, which have been besieging al-Bab for weeks, had largely established control over the strategic area around the town`s hospital. "Once this area has been seized, Daesh`s dominance of al-Bab will to a large extent be broken," it said in a statement, using an Arabic acronym for the group. Islamic State was using suicide bombers and vehicle-borne explosives intensively, it added. Turkey`s military was pressing on with the operation after its foreign minister and his Russian and Iranian counterparts said in Moscow on Tuesday that they were ready to help broker a deal to end Syria`s almost six-year-old war. The talks came as Syrian government forces neared their biggest victory in the conflict, closing in on the last rebel enclave in the long-embattled city of Aleppo. Around 20 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the course of the "Euphrates Shield" operation, launched nearly four months ago, to push Islamic State and a Kurdish militia away from Syria`s border with Turkey. In the latest clashes, four Turkish soldiers were killed and 15 soldiers wounded, some of them seriously, the military said. "Currently clashes are continuing intensively in the area," the military statement said, describing the hospital area, on the slope of a hill overlooking al-Bab, as having long been used by Islamic State as a weapons and ammunition store. Turkish air strikes on Wednesday morning destroyed 24 Islamic State targets and killed more than 40 militants, according to estimates by the army. It added that some 15 jihadists had been killed in the previous 24 hours. Four Turkish soldiers were slightly wounded when the vehicle they were travelling in was damaged by a roadside blast. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported fierce clashes at the southwestern edges of al-Bab, with some rebel advances there. It said that Turkish air strikes in the area had killed seven people in al-Bab and that 15 Turkish-backed rebels had been killed in fighting on Wednesday. The Euphrates Shield operation is largely focused on combatting Islamic State, but Ankara is also determined to prevent the Kurdish YPG militia, which it sees as a hostile force, from linking cantons it controls along the border. "The roads connecting Delhi with Gurugram and Faridabad are see massive traffic flow. More than five lakh vehicles travel from one city to another every day which leads to traffic snarls on major roads like Delhi Gurugram Expressway," a senior official said. The NCRPB has also identified 14 road links to facilitate seamless travel and ensure development of the National Capital Region By Ajay Kumar: With an aim to decongest the roads in Delhi and adjoining Haryana, the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) has identified eight important roads for their facelift. The NCRPB has also identified 14 road links to facilitate seamless travel and ensure development of the National Capital Region. The concerned states have been asked to take measures like acquisition of land for this purpose. A high-level meeting was held in this regard. The meeting was chaired by Union minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu. advertisement SOUTH DELHI MORE PRONE TO CONGESTION According to NCRPB officials, south Delhi is more prone to congestion, with seven roads connecting Gurugram and Faridabad. "The roads connecting Delhi with Gurugram and Faridabad are see massive traffic flow. More than five lakh vehicles travel from one city to another every day which leads to traffic snarls on major roads like Delhi Gurugram Expressway. We want to improve other connecting roads like MG Road and Link Road connecting Dwarka, so as to give breathing space to the Expressway," a senior official said. Also Read: Bye-bye traffic woes, Delhi to get 8 radial roads soon REVAMP PLANIn its plan the board has mentioned Kalindi bypass road from Ashram Chowk; Delhi-Faridabad bypass; Dwarka Link in Zonal Plan K-II connecting Gurugram that would take traffic load off NH-8; Mehrauli-Gurugram Road that will be developed as NH-236 to ease traffic on NH-8; connecting Nelson Mandela T-Point at Vasant Kunj with the existing Gurugram-Mehrauli Road to reduce travel time; upgrading Gwal Pahari Mandi Gadaipur-Jaunpur Road up to Andheria Mor in Delhi; Auchandi Marg in Haryana to be extended as State Highway-18; road from Inder Lok Metro Station and existing Yamuna Canal Link Road up to Haryana border; and bridge over Yamuna between Chhaprauli and Hathwada village in Haryana. Also Read: Delhi set to get 20 new centres to check pollution level At the meeting, Naidu asked Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to submit Action Taken Reports pertaining to control of air pollution with NCRPB. The states have been also asked to submit futuristic action plan to save green cover and minimise air pollution of Delhi. AIR POLLUTION A MATTER OF CONCERN "Air pollution in the National Capital is a matter of serious concern and all the five states should act in unison to mitigate the suffering of the people," Naidu said. The minister has asked representatives of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to increase green cover in the National Capital Region gradually in a phased manner to 20 per cent of the total geographical area. "It is a matter of concern that the present green cover is only 3.30 per cent. The figure is declining from 4.30 per cent which was recorded in 1999. Forest cover needs to increase through conservation of entire Aravalli range, including its foothills, for ground water recharge and to maintain over all environmental balance," Naidu said. The states have given details of measures taken to contain air pollution. The measures taken included supply of equipment for mechanical disposal of stubble and crop residues, biomass gasification, imposition of fines for burning, management of sanitary landfills etc. --- ENDS --- advertisement Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday named Peter Navarro, an economist who has urged a hard line on China, to head a newly formed White House National Trade Council, the transition team said in a statement. "The formation of the National Trade Council further demonstrates the President-elect`s determination to make American manufacturing great again and to provide every American the opportunity to work in a decent job at a decent wage," the statement said. Trump made trade a centrepiece of his presidential campaign and railed against what he said were bad deals the United States has made with other countries. The president-elect, who takes office on Jan. 20, has also threatened to hit Chinese imports with high tariffs and angered Beijing by questioning Washington`s longstanding "one China" policy. Navarro, who advised Trump during the campaign, has authored several books including "Death by China: How America Lost its Manufacturing Base," which was made into a documentary film. Navarro, a professor at University of California, Irvine, has suggested stepped up engagement with Taiwan, including assistance with a submarine development program. He argued that Washington should stop referring to the "one China" policy, but stopped short of suggesting it should recognise Taipei, saying "there is no need to unnecessarily poke the Panda." "I read one of Peters books on Americas trade problems years ago and was impressed by the clarity of his arguments and thoroughness of his research," Trump said in the statement. "He has presciently documented the harms inflicted by globalism on American workers, and laid out a path forward to restore our middle class. He will fulfill an essential role in my administration as a trade advisor," Trump said. Palm Beach: US President-elect Donald Trump called the attacks this week in Berlin and Ankara "terrible" on Wednesday and said he has been proven to be correct about his plans to impose curbs on Muslims immigrating to the United States. "Whats going on is terrible, terrible," Trump told reporters, when asked about the truck attack that killed 12 people at a Christmas market in Berlin and the killing of Russia`s ambassador to Turkey by a gunman in Ankara. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Berlin killings and the assassin in Turkey shouted about the war in Syria as he gunned down the envoy from Moscow, which has aided Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against rebels in that country`s long civil war. Trump was asked by reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, if Monday`s violence would affect his consideration of a ban on Muslims entering the United States or of a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries. "You know my plans. All along, Ive been proven to be right. 100% correct. Whats happening is disgraceful," Trump said on Wednesday. At one point in his election campaign Trump called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country as a means of fighting terrorism, drawing widespread criticism at home and abroad. He later rephrased this to propose temporarily suspending immigration from regions deemed as exporting terrorism and where safe vetting cannot be ensured. On Monday, Trump immediately blamed the Berlin attack on Islamic State and other Islamist militants who "continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad." Asked about his reference to Christians, the president-elect broadened his response on Wednesday, "It`s an attack on humanity, and it`s gotta be stopped." "What`s happening is disgraceful," Trump said, adding that he has not talked to President Barack Obama since the Berlin and Ankara attacks. Trump has been critical of Obama, and of his Democratic rival in the November presidential election, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for what he says is a reluctance to clearly name Islamist militancy as a threat. Trump on Wednesday did receive a President`s Daily Brief, the most highly classified and closely held document in the government, his transition team said. The real estate magnate and former reality TV star, who has publicly cast doubt on some conclusions of the intelligence community, is receiving the briefing about once a week, far fewer than most recent presidents-elect, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. Beirut: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took control of Aleppo city on Wednesday after the last batch of fighters was evacuated. The war monitor said only one small position on the western outskirts of the city remained in rebel hands. It said some 21,500 civilians had lost their lives in the battle for control of the northern Syrian city. Tultepec: At least 29 people died in a massive explosion at a fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday. The blast at the San Pablito fireworks market in Tultepec, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Mexico City, also injured at least 70 others, according to a tweet from federal police. The market had been packed with customers buying pyrotechnics for traditional end-of-year festivities. Christmas and New Year`s parties in many Latin American countries often wrap up with clattering firework blasts. Aerial footage showed charred stalls and destroyed buildings. Television images showed a flurry of pyrotechnics exploding into the early afternoon sky as a giant plume of smoke rose above the market. Fireworks detonated in a peal of clattering bursts reminiscent of a war zone, as per Reuters. The technicolor blast was the third such explosion in just over a decade to hit the popular San Pablito marketplace. "We recovered 26 bodies at the scene of the incident. And three more have died in the hospital, for a total of 29 dead," Mexico state`s governor Eruviel Avila said, as per AFP. Fire crews struggled for three hours before bringing the blaze under control.The head of the civil protection service, Luis Felipe Puente, said crews had to wait for all the fireworks to finish exploding before they could extinguish the flames. "The entire market is gone," he said. Homes and vehicles nearby were also severely damaged. In some areas, authorities were gently probing for survivors under heaps of charred and twisted roofing material. Over 80 percent of the 300 stalls at the market were destroyed by the explosion, said state official Jose Manzur. Local media reported there were 300 tonnes of fireworks at the market at the time of the explosion. "I offer my condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives in this accident and my wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured," President Enrique Pena Nieto said in a tweet. Pena Nieto is the former governor of the State of Mexico, the country`s largest which surrounds the capital. The cause of the blast was under investigation. Some speculated it could have been mishandling of gunpowder or other fireworks components. (With Agency inputs) Beijing: A day after Mongolia said it would never again allow the Dalai Lama to visit the country, China hoped it will learn a lesson from the Tibetan spiritual leader's visit last month after which Beijing punitively hiked tariff on Mongolian trucks passing through Chinese territory. Beijing also urged Mongolia to stick to its promise. "China hopes Mongolia will learn lesson from the Dalai Lama`s visit last month and respect China`s core interests," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said here on Wednesday. "China attaches importance to the Mongolian Foreign Minister`s explicit statement... China urges Mongolia to honour its commitment and make efforts to improve bilateral relations," Hua said. On Tuesday, Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil said the Dalai Lama will never be let in again, even for religion. Defying Beijing`s warning, Mongolia in November hosted the Dalai Lama who met worshippers in the majorly Buddhist nation. In turn, China hiked tariff on Mongolian trucks moving through its territory. The situation created a blockade of sorts for the poor nation. Mongolia also sought India`s help in tiding over the crisis caused by the hiked tariff. The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. Lagos: Nigerian troops have rescued 1,880 civilians from a Boko Haram redoubt in the restive northeast in the past week and arrested hundreds of insurgents, a military commander has said. The Sambisa forest, covering about 1,300 square kilometres , is a stronghold of the notorious jihadist group, who kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in 2014. "During our operations in the period 14 - 21 December 2016, a total of 1,880 civilians were rescued from Boko Haram enclaves," Major-general Leo Irabor said in a statement after a news conference in the northeastern city of Maiduguri yesterday . He said the operation was part of a military campaign launched last year to clear the area of the jihadists. Irabor added: "564 Boko Haram terrorists were arrested while 19 others surrendered to our troops. Also, seven suspected kidnappers and 37 foreigners were equally arrested." He said several Boko Haram fighters were killed and a cache of arms and ammunitions was discovered. Boko Haram seeks to impose a hardline Islamic legal system in Nigeria's mainly-Muslim north. It has been blamed for the death of at least 20,000 people since 2009. The rebellion has also displaced some 2.6 million people, sparking a humanitarian crisis in the region. Since early 2015, Nigerian military with the support of a regional force, have recaptured a swathe of territory from the insurgents. But sporadic attacks on soft targets have continued in the volatile region, including the use of female suicide bombers. Moscow: US policy is unlikely to undergo any radical change under the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. "We are not expecting to solve all the problems. We are not expecting America to suddenly decide not to expand NATO or to bring NATO military infrastructure closer to our borders," Russian media quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying in an interview with the Mir TV channel. He added that Moscow also did not expect Washington to suddenly lift economic sanctions imposed on Russia over its annexation of Crimea and alleged involvement in the conflict in Ukraine. However, Peskov added that Trump's statements about the necessity to jointly fight terrorism was in line with Moscow's position. Peskov said the dialogue between Moscow and Washington's outgoing administration of Barack Obama was minimal, practically "frozen at all levels". The US on Tuesday slapped additional sanctions on eight more entities and seven Russian citizens it said were linked to the conflict in Ukraine. Seoul: South Korea's Constitutional Court will tomorrow start hearings into whether to confirm the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye, with her ruling conservative party deeply split on the issue before a likely fresh election. The court has up to 180 days to decide whether to uphold or reject parliament's impeachment of the country's first female president on charges ranging from bribery to abuse of power. Park has been suspended from her duties since the impeachment vote on December 9, with the prime minister taking over. If the judges back impeachment after hearing from both sides, she will be formally ousted and a presidential election held within 60 days. But any split in the Saenuri Party would drastically reduce its chances in such a poll. More than 30 Saenuri lawmakers who have been at odds with Park have vowed to leave, arguing that the party's current leadership refuses to embrace reforms despite the corruption scandal and impeachment crisis. "We've reached a conclusion that conservatives' reform through the Saenuri Party is impossible", prominent lawmaker Yoo Seung-Min told journalists. A split would also complicate any potential presidential run by outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who had been widely expected to compete on the Saenuri ticket. Thirty-five lawmakers have agreed to break away from the party on December 27, the dissident group said, adding they will try to persuade more legislators to join them. Their departure will leave the party with some 90 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament, relegating it to second place behind the left-leaning Democratic Party. The group crossed party lines to join opposition parties in passing the motion to impeach Park. Park is accused of colluding with her confidante Choi Soon-Sil to coerce large companies like Samsung into handing over tens of millions of dollars to two dubious foundations which Choi allegedly controlled and plundered. Park is also accused of ordering aides to leak state documents to Choi, who has no official title or security clearance, and allowing her to meddle in state affairs including the appointment of top officials. Investigators today raided the state-run National Pension Service in a widening probe into the scandal. A special prosecutor has been investigating whether Samsung bribed Choi to win state approval for a controversial merger of two of its units last year. Seoul: South Korea's ruling conservative party on Wednesday faced an imminent split over the impeachment of scandal-hit President Park Geun-Hye, a development that would seriously undermine its presidential election chances. More than 30 lawmakers of the Saenuri Party, who have been at odds with Park, have vowed to leave, arguing the party's current leadership refuses to embrace reforms despite the corruption scandal and impeachment crisis. "We've reached a conclusion that conservatives' reform through the Saenuri Party is impossible", Yoo Seung-Min, an eminent lawmaker among the dissenters told journalists. A split would also complicate a possible run by outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who had been widely expected to compete as a centre-right candidate on the Saenuri ticket. Thirty-five lawmakers have agreed to break away from the party on December 27, the group said, adding they will try to convince more parliamentary members to join them. Their departure will leave the party with some 90 lawmakers within the 300-seat parliament and relegating it to second place behind the liberal Democratic Party within the National Assembly. The group crossed party lines to join opposition parties in passing a motion to impeach Park this month. Park is accused of colluding with her friend Choi Soon-Sil to strong-arm large companies like Samsung into handing over tens of millions of dollars to two dubious foundations Choi allegedly controlled and plundered. Park is also accused of ordering aides to leak state documents to Choi, who has no official title or security clearance, and allowing her to meddle in some state affairs, including the appointment of top officials. The case is now being considered by the constitutional court, which has up to 180 days to rule on the validity of the impeachment that charged Park with multiple criminal and constitutional violations -- ranging from bribery to abuse of power. If the justices confirm impeachment, Park will be permanently removed and elections must be held within 60 days -- meaning a ballot could be held as early as late March. The split will drastically reduce the chances of the conservative party winning the presidential election. Abuja: A van which lost control ran into an assembly of school children in Nigeria's northeastern state of Gombe, killing 12 children and injuring 19 others, police said on Wednesday. Gombe State police spokesman Ahmed Usman told Xinhua the incident occurred on Tuesday during an annual religious procession by school children in Malam Sidi Town, located 20 kms away from Gombe, the state capital. Hundreds of Islamic school children usually gather to hold the annual Maulud procession in the Nigerian state. The driver of the van, travelling alone, was apparently driving at high speed when he ran into the procession, Usman said. According to him, an angry mob set the driver and his van ablaze before the arrival of the police at the accident site. By Siraj Qureshi: In its efforts to turn Muslim women towards the BJP, the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, which is a Muslim frontal organization of the RSS, has opened a front against the triple talaq issue in Agra. Senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar held a meeting with the Muslim community of Agra in which he criticised the Muslim Personal Law Board's stand on triple talaq issue saying that the board appears to be standing alongside "Shaitaan" instead of "Rahman". advertisement In an exclusive interview to India Today, Indresh Kumar said that triple talaq has not been mentioned in the holy Quran and even if it is necessary, talaq should be given in the light of the quran and hadith. Talaq given under the influence of any drug or alcohol or in anger is 'haraam' and is deemed invalid in the eyes of the Islamic law. WHAT INDRESH KUMAR SAID He said that the Islamic clerics are misleading Muslim men and women in the name of Islamic laws but in fact, they are keeping the Muslim populace ignorant about the real meaning of Islam. He warned the Muslims not to be misled by the 'maulanas' and not allow them to do what they please on the matter of triple talaq. Indresh said that the Muslim Personal Law Board needs to decide what path it wants to pick - that of the devil or that shown by the Prophet. So far, he said, the board has chosen the devil's path and ignored the rights of the 10-12 crore Muslim women in India, but it is time that the clerics give up their previously assumed stand and choose the righteous path in the light of the holy Quran and hadith. He said that the Prophet himself never used talaq in his life. It was his effort that all women should get equal rights in the Muslim society and the RSS will launch a nationwide signature campaign through the Muslim Rashtriya Manch on this matter. The campaign has been started from Agra and will continue across the country. Indresh had arrived in Agra to attend the Muslim Rashtriya Manch's two-day seminar on Muslim Personal Law and female rights under Islam. Criticising Indresh for commenting on the Muslim Personal Law Board, Mufti Mudassar Ali Khan Qadri said that "Indresh should first adopt Islam before commenting." He said that "if the RSS is so devoted towards securing Muslim rights in India, then Indresh should tell how many Muslims are there in the RSS and their total percentage." Qadri said that "there are very few Muslims seen at the meetings of RSS, which is a clear indicator of what place the Muslims have in the Sangh's organisation." Also read: Triple Talaq: Muslim reformist liberals form group to abolish it, plan to be petitioner in the case Qadri claimed that the Muslim Rashtriya Manch is misleading the young Muslim women by spreading falsehood about Islam and the Muslim clerics. He said that the clerics take all decisions keeping the holy Quran and the hadith in mind, whereas the RSS is doing what the BJP wants it to do. Both these organizations are engaged in vote bank politics and since the BJP now wants to form a government in UP which is not possible without Muslim votes, the Sangh and the Manch are being used as instruments to divide the Muslim society on the issue of triple talaq. advertisement Also read: On triple talaq and in UP election, BJP hopes to get Muslim women's vote Mufti Qadri said that Agra is a city of Sul-e-Kul and all communities live in complete harmony in this city. By launching this signature campaign from Agra, the RSS is trying to sow poison into the city's atmosphere which will not be tolerated. This initiative by the Sangh will have an adverse effect on the country's communal harmony and will be strongly opposed by the Muslim community. --- ENDS --- Moscow: President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday demanded restrictions on the sale of surrogate alcohol after at least 62 people died in Siberia from drinking bath oil laced with methylated spirit in search of alcoholic highs. The mass poisoning in Irkutsk, a hard scrabble city around 2,600 miles (4,000 km) east of Moscow, is the worst of its kind in recent years and has prompted nationwide soul-searching and condemnation.Irkutsk, a hard scrabble city around 2,600 miles (4,000 km) east of Moscow, is the worst of its kind in recent years and has prompted nationwide soul-searching and condemnation. Putin asked ministers to draft tighter rules for the production and sale of drinks, perfumes and other liquids with more than 25 percent alcohol content as well as medicines containing ethanol. Up to 12 million mostly poor Russians are estimated to use cheap surrogate spirits, many produced in illegal facilities, and a two-year economic slump has pushed more people into poverty. Those who died in Irkutsk had swigged a bath oil called Hawthorn whose label advertised an ethanol content of 93 percent.Irkutsk had swigged a bath oil called Hawthorn whose label advertised an ethanol content of 93 percent. Investigators said bootleggers had been selling the product for a long time without any instances of poisoning, but that the fatal batch was contaminated by methylated spirit, a toxic substance found in cleaning materials and paint stripper. Russia`s top investigator Alexander Bastrykhin flew to Irkutsk this week to take charge of an operation that has searched more than 1,500 points of sale and confiscated 6,500 litres of sprits, according to the Investigative Committee. "As of now, 12 people have been detained," the committee said in a statement on Wednesday. The Irkutsk region's health ministry said on Wednesday that the number of deaths from the poisoning had risen to 62 from 41 on Monday, and that 36 people remained in hospital. RBI has come out with another notification, yet again and Twitterati cannot stop slamming the central bank. By India Today Web Desk: After coming up with 53 notifications in 42 days, the policy makers have come up with a fresh twist as the top bank RBI has withdrawn its December 19 circular. On December 19, RBI announced that individuals can deposit over Rs 5,000 in old currency bills only once until December 30 and that only after explaining why it had not been done so far. advertisement Also read: India Today impact: RBI takes a U-turn, changes Rs 5000 deposit rule This decision received massive backlash from the public and just after two days the central bank again advised the banks to withdraw the two conditions for fully KYC-complaint. For obvious reasons, RBI is getting majorly trolled on social media platforms. Here is how the Twitterati is taking RBI's case: #RBI must recruit @bhogleharsha for LIVE commentary on changing rules of the 50 day (patience) test match they are playing in the country https://t.co/RR1EzaETYa Ganesh R (@greatganesh) December 21, 2016 Reserve Bank Of India is now ServeModi Bank of India. #RBI SiLLy (@Si_LLy) December 21, 2016 Even #donaldtrump tweets don't match up to #rbi - something new, tughlaqi & inconvenient every day. Dwaipayan Bose (@rijubose) December 21, 2016 60th notification in less than 50 days #rbi has more mood swings than my #gf :P @htTweets https://t.co/eiVEbXvFj1 Mohit Saxena (@mohit_saxena) December 21, 2016 #Demonetization-Dabang 3#RBI:Hum Tumhari Life Mein Itni Baar Rules Change Karenge. Tumhe Samajh Nahi Aayega Ki DEPOSIT Kare Ya WITHDRAWL! pic.twitter.com/nABlAsb0HK Rajeev Sahai (@rsm8243) December 21, 2016 Is this demonetization or a Bollywood number? Even the song doesn't have so many costume changes. #DeMonetisation #RBI Hemisha D'Silva (@hmaroliadsilva) December 21, 2016 Somewhere, sitting in a far away corner, Raghuram Rajan is having the last laugh. #RBI #DeMonetisationDisaster Aman Malik (@PatrakaarPopat) December 21, 2016 --- ENDS --- Odebrecht agreed in December to pay a record $3.5 billion fine after admitting to paying $788 million in bribes across 12 countries to secure juicy public contracts Scandal-plagued Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht and petrochemical affiliate Braskem have agreed to pay a record $3.5 billion to settle a vast international bribery case, US officials said. Odebrecht, a key player in the Petrobras corruption scandal gripping Brazil, agreed to a fine of $4.5 billion but said it was only able to pay $2.6 billion, the US Justice Department said in a statement. Braskem, meanwhile, will pay $957 million. The fines are to be paid to Brazilian, Swiss and US authorities, the department said, calling it "the largest-ever global foreign bribery resolution." It is the latest in a string of terrible headlines for Odebrecht, which Brazilian investigators say was one of the ringleaders of a scheme to plunder billions of dollars from state oil company Petrobras. Revelation of the scandal has rocked Brazil's political and business establishment to its foundations, with ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva facing trial and current President Michel Temer reportedly under suspicion. The bribery case settled Wednesday includes the Petrobras allegations, but is even bigger. The Odebrecht conglomerate pleaded guilty to bribing government officials and political parties to the tune of $788 million to secure business on three continents -- mostly in Brazil, but also 11 other countries in Latin America and Africa. "Odebrecht and Braskem used a hidden but fully functioning Odebrecht business unit -- a 'Department of Bribery,' so to speak -- that systematically paid hundreds of millions of dollars to corrupt government officials in countries on three continents," US Deputy Assistant Attorney General Sung-Hee Suh said in a statement. "Such brazen wrongdoing calls for a strong response from law enforcement, and through a strong effort with our colleagues in Brazil and Switzerland, we have seen just that." - Political fallout - In the main scheme, Odebrecht targeted top Brazilian politicians and executives at Petrobras for more than a decade starting in about 2001. The bribes were used to secure inflated contracts and even get favorable legislation passed in Congress. Story continues Suh praised Brazil's judiciary for tackling the issue head on. "I cannot praise their efforts enough. They have been under enormous pressure, done an extraordinary job of initiating the investigation and carrying it through," she said. The Brazilian probe, known by its codename Operation Carwash, has cast dark shadows over two of Brazil's most important companies, Petrobras and Odebrecht, adding to economic pain as the country flounders in deep recession. Odebrecht's jailed boss Marcelo Odebrecht and 76 other current and former executives have signed plea deals agreeing to tell all in exchange for lighter sentences. The Brazilian press has described the deal as potentially apocalyptic for the political establishment. Panama, meanwhile, said it would request information from the United States about alleged Odebrecht bribes paid in Panama to secure contracts, its foreign ministry said. - Shattered record - The previous record bribery settlement was $1.6 billion for German engineering group Siemens in 2008. It settled charges of systematically using bribes and slush funds to land public works contracts around the world. Margarida Gutierrez, an economist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told AFP that this settlement, Odebrecht's newest move to come clean, would open the door for its return to the market. "Right now they are unable to participate in any bids in Brazil or probably out of Brazil," she said. "Now they can start again, and try to clear their name. They will succeed but it will be hard." The US Justice Department will conduct an "inability to pay analysis" by March 31 to determine the final amount that Odebrecht must come up with. Sentencing has been scheduled for April 17. Under the plea agreement, Brazil will receive 80 percent of Odebrecht's fines, while the United States and Switzerland will garner 10 percent each. Braskem, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange through American Depositary Receipts (ADR), saw its shares soar after the deal was announced, closing up four percent. It will pay a criminal fine of $632 million, and another $325 million penalty to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Under the Braskem deal, Brazil will receive 70 percent of the fines, while US and Swiss authorities receive 15 percent. Sentencing for the firm has not yet been scheduled. MONTREAL, QuebecWho says transsexuals can't be romantic? Certainly not Dana Vespoli, as she demonstrates in the first volume of TransSensuals most romantic and sexually charged series to date. TS Love Stories is Vespoli's second film for the studio, which is part of the Mile High Media group. It features four passionate vignettes with TS stars Aubrey Kate, Stefani Special, Mara Nova, and Jessica Fox. For cover art and product information about TS Love Stories, click here. Many peoplefans and critics alikeknow Mile High Media for its erotic, couples-friendly films from studios like Sweet Sinner and Sweetheart Video, noted Mile High Media Vice President Jon Blitt. We want to inject the same passion and love into the storyline of a TransSensual series. Dana Vespoli has done a perfect job of finding that balance of raw sexuality and true passion. TS Love Stories features erotic sex scenes between beautiful TS girls and Cis men. Gorgeous, snobby Jessica Fox is impatient with assistant Chad Diamond, until he confesses his devotion to her. Aubrey Kate discovers that she and her blind date, Ruckus, have nothing in common, until she lets her guard down. Stefani Special doesnt understand where boyfriend Billie Ramos fighting ability came from after he beats up a jerk hitting on her at a party. Billie reveals his secret, and the lovers share a tender moment. Finally, emo teen Kory Houston hits on his tutor, Mara Nova, and feels his darkness fall away. TransSensual exemplifies founder Nica Noelles distinctive style with a slight twist, producing trans-positive erotica, deviating from the typical TS porn genre. TransSensual highlights stunning TS performers with an emphasis on ordinary people confronted with sexual temptation and conflict, focusing on the emotions that fuel real, passionate sex. Dana Vespoli is the second director to film movies for TransSensual. For the latest news and BTS previews follow TransSensual on Twitter. New releases, trailers, and the best of TS erotica can be seen on the official member site TransSensual.com. For production stills and content log on to Mile High Medias Press Access site. Does the theme of frontiers and separated nations for you originate in your family history? The parents of my father lived in the villages Tyrawa Woloska and Siemuszowa that according to the MolotovRibbentrop Pact went to the Soviet Union (now Poland). My grandfathers two brothers were immediately drafted into the Soviet Army. They both died (we were told they were MIA) one in the Caucasus and one in the defense of Kyiv. And when my grandmother was a little over twenty, half of her PolishUkrainian family was killed in front of her eyes by people from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). In 1947, after Operation Vistula, the Poles put them on a train and resettled them in the Recovered Territories my father was two months old. There are people in Poland who say that Banderivtsi are bad and Ukrainians are guilty in everything that was happening then. Ukrainians blame the Polish for Vistula, when all Ukrainians were resettled. And some say that the Soviet Union was the best. There are constant arguments in Ukraine and Poland who is the nationalist, who was worse, who won, who started it. And my family was punished from all sides. Perhaps thats why I am interested in the destinies of people who found themselves in the middle of such conflicts. WEDNESDAY, Dec. 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Young children can choke to death on whole grapes, warn the authors of a new report. Doctors in Scotland describe three choking cases -- two of them fatal -- that involved boys aged 5 and younger who were eating whole grapes. "There is general awareness of the need to supervise young children when they are eating ... but knowledge of the dangers posed by grapes and other similar foods is not widespread," according to Dr. Jamie Cooper and colleague Dr. Amy Lumsden. Cooper works in the emergency department at Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital. Food accounts for more than half of choking deaths among children younger than 5, the study authors said. The top three food causes are hot dogs, candy and whole grapes. In one case cited in the report, a 5-year-old boy choked while eating whole grapes at an after-school club. First-aid efforts failed to dislodge the grape, and the child went into cardiac arrest. Paramedics eventually removed the fruit using special equipment, but the boy died, according to the report. In another case, a 17-month-old boy choked on a grape while eating at home. His family was unable to dislodge it, and called emergency services. A paramedic eventually removed the small fruit, but was unable to save the child's life. In the third case, a 2-year-old boy was at a park when he started choking on a grape. Paramedics arrived within minutes and removed the grape. However, the child suffered two seizures before reaching the hospital. Once there, he required emergency treatment to relieve swelling on his brain and drain watery fluid from his lungs. He spent five days in intensive care before making a full recovery, the researchers noted. The report was published online Dec. 20 in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood. "While there are plenty of warnings on the packaging of small toys about the potential choking hazard they represent, no such warnings are available on foodstuffs, such as grapes and cherry tomatoes," the report authors pointed out in a journal news release. Grapes tend to be larger than a young child's airway, and the smooth soft surface of a grape can form a tight seal in an airway. This not only blocks the airway but also makes it more difficult to remove the grape without special equipment, the study authors explained. Cherry tomatoes pose a similar risk to young children. Both grapes and cherry tomatoes "should be chopped in half and ideally quartered before being given to young children [aged 5 and under]," the researchers concluded. More information The American Academy of Pediatrics has more on choking prevention. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be performing bhoomi pooja of the much hyped Shivaji Maharaj Memorial on Saturday. The memorial of the Maratha warrior king was one of the poll promises of the BJP. Speaking to reporters in Raigad district on Tuesday, Uddhav had said that he will only attend the function along with the PM, only if he is given due respect. Uddhav Thackeray had earlier skipped two functions of the Prime Minister in Mumbai as he was not allotted the seat next to the Prime Minister due to protocol issues. The Sena Chief was in a mood to skip this function as well. But sources say that chief minister intervened in the matter and extended a special invitation to the Sena president as a special guest. On Wednesday, two senior ministers from Fadnavis cabinet, Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil and Guardian Minister for Mumbai suburbs, Vinod Tawde, called upon Uddhav Thackeray at his Bandra residence and handed over the formal invitation for the program. "This is not a patch up. Patch up happens only when you grow apart. Shiv Sena and BJP are always together. We had come to invite him and he will be given all the due respect" said Chandrakant Patil after the meeting. If Uddhav attends the function with Modi, this will be first time since November 2014 that the two leaders will share stage. In November 2014, Uddhav Thackeray had attended the swearing-in ceremony of Devendra Fadnavis at the Wankhede stadium. Uddhav has also been invited for the main bhoomi poojan ceremony in the Arabian sea along with PM Modi, CM Fadnavis, and Governor C Vidyasagar Rao. Uddhav is likely to attend the main rally that Modi will address in the Bandra Kurla complex, where the PM will also lay foundation stones of Metro 2 and Metro 3 projects. Canada Awards Contract for Oceanographic Buoys The new buoys will increase Canada's ability to monitor the marine environment in real time; they will be deployed in spring 2017 in the estuary and the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in the Atlantic Ocean at sampling stations for Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program. Canada's Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans has awarded a $1.65 million contract to the Quebec company Multi-Electronique to design and develop four automated oceanographic buoys. Remi Masse, a member of Parliament, announced the award on behalf of Dominic LeBlanc, minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. The buoys will collect temperature and salinity profiles and make oceanographic surface observations and meteorological observations. The contract includes an option for two additional buoys that could be produced for the Pacific Region. The new buoys will increase Canada's ability to monitor the marine environment in real time; they will be deployed in spring 2017 in the estuary and the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in the Atlantic Ocean at sampling stations for Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program, which has been operating since 1998. "Our government is committed to intensifying scientific research and marine environment monitoring activities, in order to ensure sound management of the St. Lawrence ecosystem, with a view to conserving resources and protecting the marine environment. We are taking concrete action to honor our commitment," said LeBlanc. "Today's announcement demonstrates our government's commitment to investing in the health and safety of our marine environments. The automated oceanographic buoys will help collect important data that will support the Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program and will provide insight into the regions' marine ecosystem for years to come," added Judy M. Foote, minister of Public Services and Procurement. The funding comes from a $197.1 million investment in ocean and freshwater sciences that was announced in May 2016. Massachusetts School's Solar Canopy Completed Solect Energy owns and operates the array and sells the power back to Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School at a reduced, fixed rate for the duration of the agreement. The company reports the project was completed and commissioned at zero cost to the school. Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School, a public vocational-technical high school in Bourne, Mass., now boasts a 663-kilowatt (kW) solar canopy in its parking lot, thanks to its partnership with Solect Energy of Hopkinton, Mass., and Green Seal Environmental of Sagamore Beach, Mass. Besides powering the school, the solar array will provide power (and cost savings) to the Bourne Rec Authority. The array became a reality through a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with Solect Energy. The school has 725 students and 13 areas of vocational study; it offers traditional vocational programs in plumbing, electrical, carpentry, health careers, information technology, marine services, automotive technology, collision repair, and cosmetology, as well as engineering technology, environmental science, and horticulture/landscape contracting. The solar canopy enhances its curriculum by showcasing renewable technology in a live setting to students and staff. "We are thrilled about the addition of the new solar canopy to our school," said Bob Dutch, superintendent at UCT. "The solar array marks a new venture for Upper Cape Cod Tech's students and staff, who will be able to utilize the technology as part of their curriculum. We are especially thankful to Solect for enabling our school to experience significant savings on our energy costs." The school worked with Green Seal Environmental to develop, design, and permit the array, while Solect financed and constructed the system through a Power Purchase Agreement. Solect owns and operates the array and sells the power back to UCT at a reduced, fixed rate for the duration of the agreement. The company reports the project was completed and commissioned at zero cost to UCT, and the clean energy provided to them and the Bourne Rec Authority will reduce their current energy costs. "It was a pleasure partnering with Upper Cape Cod Tech on this project," said Ken Driscoll, CEO of Solect Energy. "It is a wonderful thing to provide schools with solar energy, as the benefits are plentiful to the school, its students and staff, and the environmenteven more so with UCT, as the array is helping to power Bourne's Recreation Authority as well." "Green Seal was pleased to initiate and co-develop this project with Solect for UCT," added Heather Twiss, president of Green Seal Environmental. "As a locally owned firm in Bourne, it's exciting offer renewable energy solutions for UCT in an environment where students can also learn from these emerging technologies on campus." The Mississippi-based financial holding company, BancorpSouth, Inc. BXS declared that it has acquired certain assets of Waguespack & Associates Insurance, Inc., an independent insurance firm in Louisiana. The acquisition was made through BancorpSouth Insurance Services, Inc. a fully-owned subsidiary of BancorpSouth Bank whose parent is BancorpSouth Inc. BancorpSouth Insurance currently ranks as the nations 37th largest insurance firm, with over 650 insurance and risk management professionals providing local expertise, backed by worldwide resources. Founded in 1986, Waguespack is engaged in commercial and personal lines insurance services and currently produces annual revenues of nearly $3 million. Per BancorpSouth Insurance President Markham McKnight Waguespacks core property/casualty, life and health business complements our personal and business solutions, and we believe our new relationship will benefit both current and prospective clients. Further, according to Waguespacks president, Timothy A. Waguespack, this collaboration with BancorpSouth will enable Waguespack to provide its clients with a cluster of new services like risk management resources, loss control, health-care reform and other specialty services. Background BancorpSouth has traditionally focused on a strategy, which includes expanding and diversifying of its franchise in terms of revenues, profitability and asset size, while maintaining a relationship-based approach to banking. This strategy encompasses both organic growth and acquisitions of banks and financial services companies. Further, the company enjoys a solid liquidity position to make strategic investments through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). In Dec 2013, the company announced that its insurance service wing BancorpSouth Insurance has acquired the assets of GEM Insurance Agencies, LP, for a cash consideration of $20.7 million. Also, in Apr 2014, BancorpSouth Insurance took over the assets of Lafayette, LA-based Knox Insurance Group, LLC (Knox). We remain optimistic about BancorpSouths future growth prospects through inorganic routes, as the company looks forward to tap similar opportunities. BancorpSouth currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Shares of the company have gained more than 24% so far this year, though they underperformed the 38.1% growth for the Zacks categorized Southeast Banks industry. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the stock has remained unchanged at $1.54 per share, for the current year, over the past month. Story continues Some better-ranked stocks in the same space include Carolina Financial Corp. CARO, Access National Corp. ANCX and Farmers Capital Bank Corp. FFKT, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). All the three stocks have delivered positive average earnings surprise over the trailing four quarters. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Zacks' Top Investment Ideas for Long-Term Profit How would you like to see our best recommendations to help you find todays most promising long-term stocks? Starting now, you can look inside our portfolios featuring stocks under $10, income stocks, value investments and more. These picks, which have double and triple-digit profit potential, are rarely available to the public. But you can see them now. Click here >> 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 BANCORPSOUTH (BXS): Free Stock Analysis Report ACCESS NATL CP (ANCX): Free Stock Analysis Report FARMERS CAP KY (FFKT): Free Stock Analysis Report CAROLINA FIN CP (CARO): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research By PTI: Mumbai, Dec 21 (PTI) Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray would attend the foundation stone laying ceremony for Chhatrapati Shivajis memorial, to be performed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on an island in Arabian sea on December 24, days after Sena tried to make it a prestige issue demanding an "honourable invitation" for their leader. Earlier today, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis sent two of his seniormost cabinet colleagues Chandrakant Patil and Vinod Tawde to extend the official invitation for the function to Thackeray at Matoshree, his residence in suburban Bandra. advertisement "The CM personally spoke to the Sena president and deputed two of his senior ministers to extend a personal invitation to Thackeray who has confirmed to attend," a BJP leader said. Last year, Thackeray was not invited for bhoomipujan (ground breaking) ceremony of the grand memorial of B R Ambedkar here, performed by Modi, over protocol reasons, which angered Sena, the junior alliance partner of the ruling BJP in Centre and Maharashtra. According to sources, Sena had demanded that Thackeray be made part of the official entourage which will accompany the PM in a hovercraft to the island off Mumbai coast for the event. During recently concluded winter session of state legislature, Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik and others had demanded that Thackeray be extended an honourable invitation for the event. According to the BJP leader, Sena was bent on Thackerays participation in the view of the high-stake BMC elections, scheduled early next year. "Sena apparently sensed the political mileage it could lose (if Thackeray left out of the event) considering upcoming elections to BMC, other municipal corporations and Zilla Parishads due early next year," he said. Construction of Shivaji memorial is an emotive issue given the Maratha king is revered by all sections in society in Maharashtra. "...Moreover, the Sena leadership is mindful of the Sambhaji Brigade (a Maratha organisation) deciding to contest forthcoming BMC polls, and would not have liked a anti-Maratha perception to be generated against it," he said. PTI MM NSK RG --- ENDS --- English Swedish LUND December 21, 2016 - The shareholders of Anoto Group AB (publ), are hereby invited to attend the Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on Thursday, 12 January 2017 at 13:00 at the Companys premises at Mobilvagen 10 in Lund, Sweden. Notification of participation Shareholders wishing to attend the General Meeting must be entered as shareholders in the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB no later than on Thursday, 5 January 2017, notify the Company of their intention to participate no later than on Monday, 9 January 2017, preferably before noon. Attendance is to be notified by mail to Anoto Group AB (publ) at Mobilvagen 10, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden, by telephone +46 46 540 12 00, or by e-mail to EGM@anoto.com. The notification should state name, social security number/corporate identification number and registered number of shares. To facilitate admittance to the General Meeting, proxies, registration certificates and other authorisation documents should be submitted to the Company at the above address no later than on 9 January 2017. The Company provides proxy forms at the Companys office in Lund as well as on the Companys web page www.anoto.com. Shareholders who hold their shares through nominees (Sw. forvaltare) must request a temporary registration of the shares in their own name, with Euroclear Sweden AB. Shareholders who wishes to obtain such registration must contact the nominee regarding this well in advance of 5 January 2017. Proposed agenda 1. Opening of the Meeting 2. Election of Chairman at the Meeting 3. Preparation and approval of voting list 4. Approval of the agenda 5. Election of one or two persons to verify the minutes 6. Determination of whether the Meeting has been duly convened 7. Resolution to approve the resolution by the Board of Directors to issue convertible bonds 8. Closing of the Meeting Proposals Resolution to approve the resolution by the Board of Directors to issue convertible bonds (item 7) The Board of Directors proposes that the General Meeting resolves to approve the resolution by the Board of Directors as of 2 December 2016 to issue a senior unsecured convertible loan at a par value of not more than SEK 9.2 million and that the loan shall be convertible into shares of the Company. Each convertible bond carries a par value of SEK 100,000. The convertible bonds may, with deviation from the shareholders pre-emptive right, only be subscribed for by Inhye Kim. The convertible bonds shall be issued and subscribed for at a price equal to 100 percent of their principal amount. The Board of Directors believes the subscription price being at market price considering the current industry and market conditions. The convertible loan does not carry interest. The convertible bonds shall be paid for through set-off against part of a 2.4 million Singapore dollars (SGD) (approximately SEK 15.5 million) loan provided by Inhye Kim to the Company. The set-off of claims shall be deemed to be effected immediately upon subscription for the convertible bonds, however, not earlier than the approval by the General Meeting to issue the convertible loan. Bondholders are entitled to convert, at any time during the period commencing on the date following 20 calendar days after subscription date for the convertible bonds up to and including 15 November 2018, all or part of the loan amount into shares of the Company. The initial conversion price is SEK 0.135 per share. The total amount by which the share capital may be increased on account of the conversion of the convertibles shall at a conversion price of SEK 0.135 amount to not more than SEK 1,362,962.96. The terms and conditions for the convertible bonds include customary adjustment conditions in respect of the conversion price on the occurrence of certain corporate events (e.g. dividends, bonus issues and share issues). The loan falls due on 5 December 2018 to the extent the conversion has not taken place before such date. The reason for deviation from the shareholders' pre-emptive rights is to raise capital in a time efficient manner to ensure the financing of the Companys business operations. Since Inhye Kim is married to Joonhee Won, CEO of the Company, the issue of the convertible bonds falls within the scope of Chapter 16 of the Swedish Companies Act, which means that a resolution to approve the board resolution to issue the convertible bonds is valid only where supported by shareholders holding not less than nine-tenth of both the shares voted and of the shares represented at the General Meeting. Other The Board of Directors complete proposals for resolutions in accordance with the above, including reports and statements related thereto in accordance with the Swedish Companies Act (SFS 2005:551), will be available at the Companys office in Lund and on the Companys web page, www.anoto.com, no later than three weeks prior to the General Meeting and will also be sent to those shareholders who so request and provide their postal address. According to Chapter 7, section 32 of the Swedish Companies Act, at a General Meeting the shareholders are entitled to require information from the Board of Directors and CEO regarding circumstances which may affect items on the agenda and circumstances which may affect the Companys financial situation. Number of shares and votes in the Company As of 21 December 2016, the total number of shares and votes in the Company was 2,340,832,108. The Company is not holding any own shares. Lund, December 2016 Anoto Group AB (publ) The Board of Directors English Dutch Papendrecht, 21 December 2016 Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) announces that the Dutch Directorate General for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat) intends to award the contract for the reinforcement of the Houtrib dike to Boskalis and its partner Van Oord. The contract carries a value of EUR 90 million of which Boskalis' share amounts to EUR 45 million. The project entails the reinforcement of the Houtrib dike on both sides with sand and rock over a distance of 25 kilometers. The activities will be carried out in the period 2017-2020. The dike reinforcement project is part the Dutch Flood Protection Program, an alliance of Rijkswaterstaat and all district water boards aimed at reinforcing primary dikes in a more innovative and robust manner. The Houtrib dike is located between Enkhuizen and Lelystad, the Netherlands, and protects large parts of the country from flooding. During storms, the dike prevents water from the IJsselmeer lake flooding into the Markermeer lake. The dike however currently does not meet the government safety standards. As part of the Dutch Flood Protection Program, Boskalis is currently also working on the reinforcement of the Wadden Sea dike on Texel, the reinforcement of the Wadden Sea dike between the towns of Eemshaven and Delfzijl, as well as making this dike earthquake-proof, and the reinforcement of the Markermeer dikes between the towns of Hoorn and Durgerdam. For further information Investor relations: Martijn L.D. Schuttevaer ir@boskalis.com Press: Arno Schikker press@boskalis.com T +31 78 6969310 Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. is a leading global services provider operating in the dredging, maritime infrastructure and maritime services sectors. The company provides creative and innovative all-round solutions to infrastructural challenges in the maritime, coastal and delta regions of the world with services including the construction and maintenance of ports and waterways, land reclamation, coastal defense and riverbank protection. In addition, Boskalis offers a wide variety of marine services and contracting for the oil and gas sector and offshore wind industry as well as salvage solutions (SMIT Salvage). Furthermore, Boskalis has a number of strategic partnerships in harbour towage and terminal services (KOTUG SMIT Towage, Keppel Smit Towage, Saam Smit Towage and Smit Lamnalco). With a versatile fleet of 1,000 units Boskalis operates in around 75 countries across six continents. Boskalis has over 8,200 employees, excluding its share in partnerships. This press release can also be found on our website www.boskalis.com. 21 December 2016 AIM: AAU 100% ACQUISITION OF 1Moz SALINBAS GOLD PROJECT FROM ELDORADO Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration and development company operating in Turkey, is pleased to announce the 100% acquisition of the Salinbas Gold Project* ("Salinbas" or "the Project") from Eldorado Gold (Netherlands) BV, a subsidiary of Eldorado Gold Corporation ("Eldorado Sub"). Salinbas had been part of a 49:51 Joint Venture ("JV") with Eldorado Sub since 2012 and previously with European Goldfields Limited from 2008 prior to their acquisition by Eldorado. Highlights: Salinbas Project is located within a multi-million ounce goldfield containing several significant gold-copper projects, notably the adjacent Hot Maden project. Ariana 100% owner of Salinbas following a Net Smelter Return ("NSR") royalty of up to 2% on future production being granted to Eldorado Sub. Company considering a focused work programme on Salinbas during 2017 to identify potential resource extensions and consider routes to commercialise the project. Project area includes the Salinbas Au-Ag deposit, the Ardala Cu-Au-Mo porphyry and the Hizarliyayla Au-Ag system. Salinbas contains an approximately 10Mt Indicated and Inferred JORC resource, with an average grade of 2.0 g/t Au and 10.2 g/t Ag (for 650,000 oz gold and 3.2Moz of silver). Scoping-study completed on Salinbas demonstrated potential for production of approximately 50,000 ounces of gold and 100,000 ounces of silver per annum over 10 years, providing an NPV(8%) in excess of US$100 million. Ardala contains an approximately 16Mt Inferred JORC gold resource with a grade of 0.6 g/t Au (for 323,000 oz gold), also containing copper (up to 0.2%) and molybdenum (up to 0.01%) domains. Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented: "Completing this transaction with Eldorado on the Salinbas Project comes at a significant time in the evolution of the Company. With the Kiziltepe Sector of the Red Rabbit Project due to enter production shortly, we are keen to enhance our project pipeline and to demonstrate a pathway to increased downstream production capacity. The Salinbas Project represents a major opportunity for the future growth of Ariana, coming with approximately 1Moz in JORC Indicated and Inferred resources in its own right and in a region with significant exploration upside, as underscored by the recent discovery of the approximately 4Moz Hot Maden project just 16 kilometres to the south. We look forward to providing further updates on the project and towards enhancing its value in what is proving to be a multi-million ounce goldfield and one of the most prospective areas for new gold exploration in Turkey." Figure 1 which can be accessed from the link at the bottom of this announcement: Map of the Salinbas project area showing the location of major prospects, related alteration and mapped intrusions. Most of the gold prospects, including Salinbas, lie within the Hot Gold Corridor. This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014. Salinbas Project The Salinbas Project is located in the Pontide Metallogenic Province in northeastern Turkey and lies approximately 80km southeast of the coastal city of Hopa and 20km east of Artvin. The project comprises three notable prospects: Salinbas, Ardala and Hizarliyayla. The project comprises three licences which are owned 100% by the operating subsidiary, Pontid Madencilik San. ve Tic. Ltd. Two of the licences are in process at the General Directorate of Mining Affairs for conversion to operational status. Salinbas is the most notable of the prospect areas, having been identified in 2009 following rock-chip sampling and trenching, which included 33m at 9.6 g/t Au and 46m at 8.3 g/t Au. Follow-up drilling identified a gently dipping mineralised body emplaced along a thrust zone to the east of a series of breccia pipes and the main body of the Ardala Cu-Au-Mo porphyry. The best intercepts in initial shallow drilling included 9.5m @ 6.48 g/t Au + 39.4 g/t Ag, 11.3m @ 4.98 g/t Au + 42.8 g/t Ag and 25m @ 3.34 g/t Au + 7.9 g/t Ag. Best intercepts from further drilling included 31.10m @ 1.38g/t Au, 17.90m @ 2.09 g/t Au and 9.20m @ 2.25 g/t Au, with most mineralised intercepts obtained from less than 70m below surface. A total of 11,709m drilling for 86 drill holes has been completed on Salinbas to date and has defined a tabular resource (Table 1) which dips towards the east at 25 degrees. Substantial vertical relief exists between the top of the mineralisation at Salinbas Peak (1,320m above sea level) to the lower limits of the current resource (780m above sea level) in the vicinity of the Ardala porphyry. Table 1: Classified JORC Mineral Resource estimate for Salinbas (dated 1 April 2015). The resource was modelled on the basis of geology and a lower cut-off of 0.5 g/t Au. Numbers may not sum due to rounding. JORC Classification Tonnage (Mt) Grade Au (g/t) Grade Ag (g/t) Ounces Au Ounces Ag Indicated 2.29 2.11 11.9 155,500 877,700 Inferred 7.67 2.00 9.7 493,300 2,396,400 TOTAL 9.96 2.03 10.2 648,900 3,274,200 Limited exploration drilling between Salinbas and the Ardala porphyry to the east has also been conducted. Highly encouraging results from these holes confirmed the need for further exploration in this area and suggest the continuity of mineralisation from the Ardala porphyry in the valley floor to the Salinbas system on the ridge, representing a vertical distance of 675m and a horizontal distance of close to 2km. The best recent intercepts from drilling in the area connecting the Salinbas system to the Ardala system include 81.5m @ 1.28 g/t Au + 10.5 g/t Ag, 34.5m @ 2.21 g/t Au + 10.7 g/t Ag and 18.2m @ 2.20 g/t Au + 25.6 g/t Ag. Further establishing the links between these two areas will be an important objective for future drilling programmes. A scoping study focused on Salinbas and completed in 2015 (see announcement on 1 April 2015), demonstrated potential for the project to yield strong financial returns, with NPV (8%) at US$108M, pre-tax IRR of 28%, and payback secured within approximately 3.3 years over the Life of Mine ("LoM") at a gold price of US$1,250/oz. This demonstrates that a potentially viable resource development opportunity already exists at Salinbas and that future exploration work will probably reinforce this view. The nearby Ardala area hosts a porphyry copper-gold (plus molybdenum) mineralised system associated with a series of nested quartz-diorite intrusions of Eocene age within an Upper Cretaceous volcano-sedimentary sequence. Geological mapping, soil, rock-chip and drill sample data, and a ground magnetic survey outlined the mineralised porphyry and in 2013 a JORC Mineral Resource was established (Table 2). Exposed parts of the porphyry have dimensions of 600 x 700m and interpretation of magnetic data suggests further lateral continuity beneath limestone units over an area of 1,000m x 1,000m in extent. Previous exploration also focused specifically on the mineralised intrusions, while surrounding gold-bearing skarns (peak grade 5.16 g/t Au and 0.2% Cu in rock-chips) and related disseminated mineralisation in the host-rocks remain largely untested. The best intercepts from recent drilling in the Ardala area include 119.5m @ 0.71g/t Au + 0.21% Cu + 0.01% Mo, 236.3m @ 0.34 g/t Au + 0.06% Cu and 122.9m @ 0.58 g/t Au + 0.05% Cu, which tested an area of mineralised porphyry and immediately adjacent limestone. Deeper (>150m) high-grade intercepts outside of the porphyry at Ardala include 4.2m @ 6.74 g/t Au, 2.8m @ 3.34 g/t Au + 38.96 g/t Ag + 2.56% Zn, 2.0m @ 5.29 g/t Au + 13.5 g/t Ag, indicating the potential for other styles of higher grade mineralisation sitting adjacent to the porphyry. Table 2: Classified JORC Mineral Resource estimate for Ardala (dated 13 April 2013). Separate resource domains were established for the Au, Cu and Mo components of the Ardala porphyry. There is a 95% coincidence of the Au and Cu domains, and a 40-50% coincidence of the Au and Mo domains. JORC Classification Tonnage (Mt) Grade (ppm) Tonnes Metal Ounces Metal Element Inferred 4.66 2,175 10,000 Cu 18.00 136 2,400 Mo 16.27 0.60 323,000 Au Summary of Agreement Ariana has acquired the 51% of Greater Pontides Exploration BV ("GPE") previously held by Eldorado Sub in exchange for a nominal cash consideration and a NSR royalty of up to 2% being granted to Eldorado Sub and resulting in Ariana holding 100% interest through its subsidiary Ariana Exploration and Development Limited. Eldorado Sub has provided certain limited commercial warranties as part of the transaction. The licences are held by Pontid Madencilik San. ve Tic. Ltd. ("Pontid"), a 100% owned subsidiary of GPE. Ariana is acquiring Pontid with its management team intact and with US$40,000 in cash at bank, which will increase to US$60,000 on the related sale of certain fixtures and equipment to Eldorado. Separate to the arrangement with Eldorado Sub, advance royalty payments of US$7,000 per annum will be made to the original owner of the Ardala licence for as long as Ariana holds the licence, in addition to which a 1.5% NSR will be payable in the event that the project enters production. The Eldorado royalty on this licence will be 0.5% NSR, to ensure the maximum royalty paid on any licence in the project will be no more than 2% NSR. Greater Pontides Exploration BV ("GPE") GPE was created in the Netherlands. This company, along with its wholly owned subsidiary - Pontid Madencilik San. ve Tic. Ltd., a private company incorporated in Turkey - was established originally with European Goldfields Limited as part of the agreement on the Artvin Project. European Goldfields Limited was acquired by Eldorado Gold Corporation in 2012. Prior to the acquisition as detailed above, Ariana Exploration and Development Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of the Ariana Group held 49% of the ordinary shares and Eldorado Gold Corporation, the other party to the agreement, held the remaining 51% of the ordinary shares. GPE was therefore treated in the Ariana Audited Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015 as an Associate investment with a carrying value (together with GPE's subsidiaries) at that date of nil. The reported loss of GPE in its unaudited company financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2015, amounted to US$17,965 and as at that date it had total assets of US$8,727,148. Contacts: Ariana Resources plc Tel: +44 (0) 20 7407 3616 Michael de Villiers, Chairman Kerim Sener, Managing Director Beaumont Cornish Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 3396 Roland Cornish / Felicity Geidt Beaufort Securities Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7382 8300 Jon Belliss Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7886 2500 Adam James / Tom Salvesen Editors' Note: About Ariana Resources Ariana is an exploration and development company focused on epithermal gold-silver and porphyry copper-gold deposits in Turkey. The Company is developing a portfolio of prospective licences originally selected on the basis of its in-house geological and remote-sensing database. The Company's flagship assets are its Kiziltepe and Tavsan gold projects which form the Red Rabbit Gold Project. Both contain a series of prospects, within two prolific mineralised districts in the Western Anatolian Volcanic and Extensional (WAVE) Province in western Turkey. This Province hosts the largest operating gold mines in Turkey and remains highly prospective for new porphyry and epithermal deposits. These core projects, which are separated by a distance of 75km, form part of a 50:50 Joint Venture with Proccea Construction Co. The Kiziltepe Sector of the Red Rabbit Project is fully-permitted and is currently in construction. The total resource inventory at the Red Rabbit Project and wider project area stands at c. 525,000 ounces of gold equivalent. In north-eastern Turkey, Ariana owns 100% of the Salinbas Gold Project, comprising the Salinbas gold-silver deposit and the Ardala copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry among other prospects. The total resource inventory of the Salinbas project area is c. 1 million ounces of gold equivalent. Beaufort Securities Limited and Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited are joint brokers to the Company and Beaumont Cornish Limited is the Company's Nominated Adviser. For further information on Ariana you are invited to visit the Company's website at www.arianaresources.com. Ends Tuesday, 20 December 2016, at 16:00, extraordinary General Meeting of Photocat A / S, CVR no. 27 43 99 77, (the "Company") was held, at CAPNOVA, Universitetsparken 7, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark. The Board had in accordance with the articles of associations appointed Tom Weidner as chairman of the meeting. 1. Proposal for the amendment of genereal guidelines for incentive-based remuneration The proposal was presented. The general meeting approved the proposal. 2. Proposal to change the Board's authorization to issue warrants The Board had proposed to increase the Board's authorization to issue warrants under Article 5.3 in the Articles of Association with 400.000 shares from 100.000 shares to 500.000 shares and extend the authorization period to 20 December 2021. The proposal was presented. The general meeting approved the proposal. 3. Proposal to appoint a new member to the Board of Directors The Board had proposed to appoint Nethe Rosa Hjrland to the Board. Information regarding other positions held by Nethe Rosa Hjrland was announced. Nethe Rosa Hjrland was elected. The Board of directors hereafter consists of Mette Therkildsen, Henrik Jensen, Thomas Becker, Tom Weidner and Nethe Rosa Hjrland, with mette Therkildsen as chairman. 4. Any other business Nothing was discussed. -- There were no further items on the agenda, and the Chairman then concluded that the agenda had been exhausted. The chairman then declared the Annual General Meeting to be adjourned. -- Questions regarding this announcement may be directed to CEO Michael Humle on mobile no. +45 22 10 25 23. Yours sincerely Photocat A / S TUCSON, Ariz., Dec. 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The core tenet of the Oath of Hippocratesthat physicians are healers, never killershas been largely rejected and replaced by a more modern version, writes Lawrence Huntoon, M.D., Ph.D., in the winter issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Huntoon is an independent neurologist practicing in upstate New York and editor-in-chief of the Journal. In contrast to the ancient oath, only 14 percent of modern oaths prohibit euthanasia, and all but 8 percent permit abortion, Dr. Huntoon writes. With physician opposition blunted, 18 states were considering laws to allow physician-assisted suicide in 2015. It is already legal in Washington State, Oregon, Vermont, Montana, California, and the District of Columbia, Dr. Huntoon writes. In addition to physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, he notes. Canada has not only legalized physician-assisted suicide, but in some provinces, physicians or medical facilities may be punished for refusing to participate. Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia are initially sold to the public as completely voluntary acts of compassion and death with dignity, writes Dr. Huntoon, but once in place, the next step is coercion. The elderly and those suffering from severe debilitating illnesses, who may be depressed and lonely and who may not have the will or the energy to fight back to preserve their lives, are at risk, Dr. Huntoon warns. And if experience in other countries with physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia is any indication, those eligible for death-by-physician will expand to include the healthy and the very young as well. Death by the numbers could result, as electronic medical records enable the government to score patients on the basis of their cost and worth to society, Huntoon observes, citing Chinas new social credit rating as an example. Supposedly stringent safeguards are often violated with impunity by physicians who are intent on killing patients, he notes. According to three judges of the Supreme Court of Ireland, there is a high incidence of non-voluntary euthanasia. Dr. Huntoon cautions that if the American Medical Association (AMA) changes its long-standing opposition to a neutral stance, more physician-assisted death bills will probably pass. He concludes that trust in physicians and in the patient-doctor relationship is being irreparably harmed by these pro-death initiatives. The AAPS position, affirmed in 2003, upholds the sanctity of human life: The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons supports the right to life of all human beings from the moment of conception to natural death. The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons is published by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a national organization representing physicians in all specialties since 1943. Sources say senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Raj Babbar have held several rounds of meetings with SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. The alliance, many say, will have a significant impact on the battle for Uttar Pradesh. According to sources, top leaders of both parties have had to overcome misgivings and set aside petty differences in order to make the alliance happen. It is common knowledge that SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has viewed the Congress with suspicion and has been reluctant to tie up with it out of fear of reviving the grand old party in the state. The SP has over the years managed to push the Congress to the margins and establish itself as the main "secular force" in the state. Mulayam Singh Yadav has been of the view that the revival of the Congress party will attract minority votes in the state. The Congress leadership too has had its share of misgivings about the SP chief in the past. Rahul Gandhi believes he can do business with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, but has clearly been uncomfortable about dealing with the SP chief. The two parties also have a common history marred with suspicion and mistrust. In 1991, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi believed he had forged an alliance with the SP chief. Once, they parleyed late into the night. Mulayam Singh Yadav promised to announce the alliance in Lucknow and left Delhi by an early morning flight. However, much to the dismay of the Congress, he dissolved the Assembly and went on to contest elections on his own. The alliance, if and when it is forged, is clearly a desperate move on the part of both the parties to prevent the BJP from coming to power in UP and also in preserving their own turf. It will help the Samajwadi party prevent its minority vote from being divided and provide a lifeline to the Congress party, which is clearly fighting for survival in the state. The BJP swept the state in the 2014 Lok sabha elections, winning 71 seats and 42 per cent of the vote share. Both the SP and Congress, however, fared dismally in the general elections with the SP winning 5 Lok Sabha seats with 22.2 per cent of the vote share and the Congress managing only 2 Lok Sabha seats with 7.5 per cent vote share. As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 21 (PTI) The US today warned its nationals in India of an "increased threat" at places frequented by Westerners, such as religious sites, markets, and festival venues and asked them to maintain a high level of vigilance. In a security advisory, the US Embassy said, "As we head into holiday season, please be reminded that recent Indian media reports indicate ISILs desire to attack targets in India." advertisement "The US Embassy warns of an increased threat to places in India frequented by Westerners, such as religious sites, markets, and festival venues. All US citizens are reminded to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness," it said. PTI PYK ZMN --- ENDS --- BJP and BSP members trooped into the well of the House demanding resignation of Azam Khan for his alleged remark on Bulandshahr rape victims. By Press Trust of India: Question Hour of Uttar Pradesh Assembly today washed out amid uproar by BJP members demanding resignation of controversial minister Azam Khan for his alleged remark on the sensational Bulandshahr gangrape case. HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Also read: Supreme Court accepts Azam Khan's fresh apology for his remark on Bulandhshar gangrape BJP and BSP members trooped into the Well of the House as soon as it met with separate banners demanding resignation of Azam Khan and over "poor law and order situation" in the state. BJP members were demanding resignation of Khan for his alleged remark on Bulandshahr rape victims. Amid the din, Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey adjourned the House for entire Question Hour. The brutal Bulandshahr incident happened on the night of July 29, when a group of highway robbers stopped the car of a Noida based family and sexually assaulted a woman and her daughter after dragging them out of the vehicle at gunpoint. The Supreme Court had on August 29 taken note of the alleged controversial remarks of Khan that the gangrape case was a "political conspiracy". On November 17, the apex court directed Khan to tender an "unconditional apology" for his remarks and last week it accepted his "sincere and heartful remorse." Initially, the FIR was lodged by the Uttar Pradesh Police under various provisions on July 30. The CBI re-registered the case on August 18 in pursuance to the Allahabad High Court's interim order in the case. --- ENDS --- advertisement By PTI: Thane, Dec 20 (PTI) A Vasai court today sentenced to life imprisonment a 52-year-old man for raping his teenage daughter. District Judge N R Pradhan took a serious view of the father sexually assaulting his daughter. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him. The man was tried for offences punishable under sections 376 (punishment for rape) of IPC and also under provisions of the POCSO Act, 2012. advertisement He sold scrap, while the victim did petty jobs after her mother married another man and shifted to Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh. Younger brother of the victim stayed with her in Anand Nagar slum colony of Vasai. Assistant Public Prosecutor Ujwala Moholkar had told the court that the man repeatedly raped his daughter and whenever she resisted he used to threaten that he would kill her. The victim, who was under extreme fear, narrated the incidents to a neighbour who took her to a NGO and the matter was referred to Vasai Police. PTI CORR RMT SC JMF --- ENDS --- Some of the new beers invented this year will surprise you. Picture for representational purpose. Picture courtesy: Instagram/happysachii By Shreya Goswami: When you had your first drink of beer, you might have been told that one needs acquired taste to appreciate it fully. But in 2016, beer got really weird. So weird in fact, that even if you've been drinking it for ages (and have all the acquired taste a regular beer-guzzler does) you'd be surprised, to say the least. advertisement Here are some of the new innovations made by some very adventurous brewers in 2016. Vagina Beer Vagina beer is flavoured with vaginal bacteria from a Czech model. Picture courtesy: Instagram/portalclubesat Yes, that's beer flavoured with vaginal bacteria! Don't be grossed out yet, there's more. The company behind this brilliant innovation called itself the Order of Yoni, because borrowing the word 'yoni' from Sanskrit makes it sound so much more reassuring. The makers appealed for public funding to make this dream a reality in March. They assured their audiences through a YouTube video that the woman whose vagina will be swabbed for the fluids is a young and beautiful Czech model, Alexandra Brendlova. While the plan might have had quite an appeal for all the weirdos out there who want to know what a woman tastes like, the beer is actually yet to hit the market. Belly Button Beer Belly Button beer was inspired by the American Beard beer. Picture courtesy: Instagram/7centbrewery This not-so-delicious sounding brew comes from Australia. Three brewers, Doug Bremner, Brendan Baker and Matthew Boustead, were inspired by the American Beard Beer. They realised that yeast is formed in our belly buttons just as much in men's chin hair, and decided to run with it. So, this awesome trio decided to swab their own belly buttons, and make up some beer with this natural yeast! While you might be a bit unsure if you want any bit of you going into a beverage that hundreds of people will get to taste, these brewers made the headlines in May. Also read: Tea was meant to be a replacement for beer; a short history of tea as a beverage Whale Vomit Beer Whale vomit or ambergris is used to make this tasty beer. Picture courtesy: Instagram/huttstreetcellars Another crazy idea from the Land Down Under, this beer is made from ambergris or whale vomit. Ambergris has a pungent odour, is very expensive, and is used in making perfume (ironically enough). Maris Biezaitis, the owner of Robe Brewing in South Australia, decided to use this unique product to make the Moby Dick Ambergris Ale. Strangely enough, once brewed, the beer tastes of caramel and fruit. Not at all disgusting in the end, eh? advertisement Urine Beer Urine beer might sound gross, but it might solve Belgium's water supply issue. Photo: Reuters Jokingly referred to as the 'sewer brewer', this beer might sound disgusting, but was actually for a good cause. A group of scientists at the University of Ghent, Belgium, created a solar-powered machine that converts urine into drinkable water and beer. The first machine was deployed in July at a theatre and music festival, and collected the urine of the attendees. If successful, this venture promises to solve the water supply issue that Belgium faces--and mark the advent of another Belgian beer. Burger Beer Burger and beer in a single tall glass sounds just amazing. Picture courtesy: Twitter/blogdecerveza This beer is an ode to that classic meal combination--burger and beer. The cooks at a popular burger joint in Colorado, USA, came up with this awesome beer. The staff at Red Robin's Gourmet Burgers infused the flavours of their no-beef, teriyaki glazed, grilled pineapple, Banzai burger in a special beer brewed in association with the New Belgium Brewing Company. A limited edition of this beer was released in October, with the promise that if enough punters like it, the burger joint and brewery will conitnue making it. advertisement Just like beer, this year's weird beer innovations got tastier with time. Clearly, innovation in this field needs as much of an acquired taste (and an open mind) as the brew itself. --- ENDS --- Important stuff you won't get from the liberal media! We do the surfing so you can be informed AND have a life! 2016 has seen many big developments in the local telecommunications and technology market, including several significant acquisitions. In June, Liquid Telecom a pan-African telecoms group majority owned by Econet Global entered into an agreement to acquire Neotel for R6.55 billion. Blue Label Telecoms announced in early October it was buying a 45% stake in Cell C for R5.5 billion an increase from the initial plan to acquire 35% of the operator. Later that month, Vumatel acquired Fibrehoods, with the aim of accelerating a connected South Africa. MultiSource, which acquired iBurst owner WBS in 2015, announced it will roll out an LTE network that will provide fast and affordable broadband access. There were many other interesting developments, including MTN settling its Nigeria fine and the government shocking operators with its ICT Policy White Paper. Here are the biggest South African tech stories of the year. Liquid Telecom to buy Neotel In June, Liquid Telecom entered into an agreement to acquire Neotel. The shareholders of Neotel Tata Communications of India and minority shareholders led by Nexus Connexion agreed for Liquid Telecom to buy Neotel for R6.55 billion. Vumatel acquires Fibrehoods Vumatel acquired Fibrehoods in October, with the terms of the deal not disclosed. The acquisition will help us accelerate and build a connected South Africa faster, said Niel Schoeman, CEO of Vumatel. Blue Label Telecoms buying a 45% stake in Cell C Blue Label Telecoms announced in October it was buying a 45% stake in Cell C for R5.5 billion. The proposed recapitalisation will reduce the net debt of the company to approximately R6 billion and enable it to deliver on its growth strategy in a sustainable manner. New national LTE-A network for South Africa In September, Wireless Business Solutions (WBS) announced a multi-billion-rand investment in a new high-speed LTE-A national data network for South Africa. The network will use WBSs existing spectrum in the 1,800MHz and 2,600MHz bands. To fast-track its roll-out, WBS signed a lease agreement with Vodacom. Vodacom will also benefit from WBSs LTE-A network through a roaming agreement. Standard Bank hit by R300 million credit card fraud In May, the Standard Bank Group was the victim of a sophisticated, coordinated fraud incident. This involved the withdrawal of cash using a small number of fictitious cards at various ATMs in Japan, said Standard Bank. Standard Bank said it has taken action to contain the matter and the gross loss to the bank is estimated at R300 million. Afrihost buying back stake from MTN In June, MTN announced plans to sell its 50.02% shareholding in Afrihost. We have enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership with MTN over the years and we are grateful for everything they have done for us. MTN will remain a key supplier of ours and we look forward to continue working with them for the years ahead, said Gian Visser, Afrihost CEO. Netflix launches in South Africa In January, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced that the video streaming service had been switched on in 130 new countries, including South Africa. Telkom launches FreeMe mobile packages In July, Telkom launched its new FreeMe contracts which offer aggressive prices on data-based packages. Subscribers select the amount of data they want and then pay for off-network calls. Each contract includes free calls and messaging on WhatsApp, BBM, and Viber, as well as free on-network calls and 50 free SMS messages per day. Afrihost shocks ADSL market with free data In September, Afrihost announced that all of the data used between midnight and 18:00 on its capped ADSL accounts will be free. That means Afrihosts capped ADSL accounts offer free data for 18 hours a day. Telkom partners with Vumatel to offer better fibre coverage In June, Telkom announced it will leverage open-access fibre from Vumatel to complement its existing fibre network. The partnership with Vumatel will help it to reach more consumers across South Africa, said Telkom. Victory for Please Call Me idea man against Vodacom In April, Nkosana Makate, who claims he invented Vodacoms Please Call Me service in 2000, won his Constitutional Court case against the mobile operator. The Constitutional Court ordered Vodacom to negotiate with Makate in good faith to determine reasonable compensation for his idea. Internet Solutions to buy MWEB Internet Solutions has, through its parent company Dimension Data, entered an agreement to acquire MWEB Connect for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is subject to approval by the competition authorities and shareholders. If successful, the transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2017. ICT Policy White Paper published In September, Cabinet approved the National ICT Policy White Paper. The approval paved the way for the start of a programme that will amend laws and set up new structures and institutions. The paper calls for radical changes in the telecommunications market, including the creation of a Wireless Open Access Network. Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko recently told Business Times that ICASA is biased in favour of Vodacom and MTN and wants to further entrench their domination of the broadband market. He said that those with spectrum should not get more of what they have and that the playing field should be equalised. Masekos comments are not unexpected. Telkom has been fighting hard to compete against Vodacom and MTN which have established national mobile networks. However, it is ironic that a company which has been afforded a government-protected monopoly is now complaining about a lack of competition. Telkom was built on having a telecoms monopoly and it even tried to gain monopolistic control over South Africas Internet in the mid-nineties. It was standard for Telkom to fight against opening the South African telecoms and broadband market, and it often threatened ICASA if it tried to introduce competition. Because of the fixed-line exclusivity it enjoyed for many years, Telkom has a huge advantage over any competitor in the fixed-broadband market. No company comes close to Telkom in terms of fixed-broadband connections in South Africa or national fibre infrastructure. But the telecoms market has moved on and mobile broadband is now the place to be. Here, Telkom is the new kid on the block. Telkom has moved from the monopoly in the fixed-line market to the disruptor in the mobile market. Its FreeMe packages are a good example. The data-centric products, which offer free Telkom calls and free WhatsApp traffic, are attracting mobile users to the network. Masekos comments clearly show how the telecommunications market has changed, where Telkom went from the dominant player to the small guy fighting the duopoly. Telkoms established fixed-line network is still a tremendous asset, but in a world where smartphones dominate, mobile services are where the money is. You can therefore expect more attacks on Vodacom and MTN from Telkom and Cell C as they try to grow their subscriber base. Portugal is considering abandoning golden visa scheme Biden and Erdogan to meet at G-20 summit NATO supports normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and welcomes EU efforts Bank of England raises interest rates by largest amount since 1989 Scholz says Berlin must change its attitude toward China Cavusoglu and Stoltenberg disagree over Sweden's and Finland's fulfillment of commitments Turkish Vice President to visit Azerbaijan and occupied Shushi Britain buys 250 million pounds worth of oil from Azerbaijan from July 2021 to June 2022 Yair Lapid congratulates Benjamin Netanyahu on winning election Armenian MOD: Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense spreads another disinformation ENISA: War in Ukraine, geopolitics fuel cyberattacks Armenian MFA: Yerevan and Baku agree to speed up work on agreeing procedure of Commissions' activities Zelenskyy will not participate in G20 summit if Putin participates in it WP: Man who attacked Pelosi's husband was in the U.S. illegally At Upper Lars, 30 cars are allowed through per day instead of previous 300: What are authorities doing? Bloomberg: Turkey unlikely to sign Sweden's bid for NATO membership before the end of the year Military servicemen in Armenia to be attested: Discussion at parliamentary standing committee IEA calls for urgent action on gas shortages in Europe French Senate to consider resolution demanding immediate withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenian territory Papikyan: The final number of dead will be published after the identification is complete Armen Grigoryan presents to Patrushev consequences of Azerbaijani aggression Indonesia reveals its own kamikaze drones UN: Russia resumes participation in inspection of ships in Black Sea Grigoryan: Armenia interested in using communication routes through Azerbaijan Investigative Committee: 10 officers charged in Armenia FT: Azerbaijan demands EU funding and long-term contracts for gas supplies Security Council Secretary: Azerbaijani troops must leave Armenian territory US becomes 2nd largest gas supplier to EU Russian Defense Ministry reports release of 107 Russian servicemen from Ukrainian captivity How U.S supports Azerbaijan in 20 years by suspending 907th Amendment? Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will receive less funds in 2023 than in previous two years German government urges its citizens to leave Iran Armenian MFA: Unblocking infrastructures is one of the main directions of talks Armenia MFA: We expect positive results in relations with Turkey in near future Armenia to open diplomatic representations in several countries in 2023: Uruguay among them Former Pakistani Prime Minister injured in shooting of election motorcade Russian MFA: Great Britain transferred underwater drones to Ukraine Armenia FM: International community has sent very clear signal to Azerbaijan Prime Minister receives Arin Karapet, Swedish MP Dollar, euro drop in Armenia Armenia FM: In few days there will be meeting between me, Bayramov, Blinken in Washington IRNA: Iran's IRGC eliminated a group that was planning attacks on government agencies Lawcoster 'Pobeda' to resume flights to Armenia at end of this year Armenia ex-President Kocharyan: One cannot despair, struggle must continue Deputy FM: Armenia can make some progress in simplifying visa regime with EU Turkey says Russia assures not to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine CSTO deputy chief: Armenia-Azerbaijan escalation, confrontation risk remains Armenian MFA: Cautious optimism in restoration of diplomatic relations with Hungary Uzbekistan refuses to resume operation of Mir cards in country Belarus Council: If Poland unleashes aggression, war will spread throughout Eastern Europe Peskov: It is up to the Ministry of Defense to increase the term of military service Valerie Boyer: Corrupt, racist Azerbaijan is attacking Armenia borders, seeking to continue ethnic cleansing, genocide Meeting of CIS Security Councils chiefs kicks off in Moscow Charles III travels with teddy bear and toilet seat EU plans to finance programs in Armenia for AMD 55 billion 747 mln Economy minister: Armenia and Iran are making efforts to jointly sell goods to third countries Azerbaijani Armed Forces practice capturing borders during exercises on border with Iran Storm in Philippines leaves 150 people killed Inflation in Turkey is up to 85.51% in October Armenia economy minister on Central Bank: First they said increase would be 4%t, then 1%, then 6% Borrell thanks UN and Turkey for facilitating Russia's return to the grain deal Foreign direct investments in Armenia last year totals AMD 129.2bln Minister: Examination of Armenian soldiers' bodies continues Jaguar station wagon from Elizabeth II fleet to be sold at auction IMF plans to provide more than $165 million to Armenia Marukyan: Baku says Karabakh Armenians should either stay on Azerbaijan terms or leave for 3rd country Minister of Economy: Armenia's role in Eurasian Economic Union grows Biden says U.S. troops will stay in Europe for a long time Vahan Hunanyan: Yerevan and Tehran have no disagreements on most issues Armenia, Russia to collaborate in information security Artsakh State Minister: There are many principal disagreements with Armenian authorities Public TV Company of Armenia to make purchase worth AMD 2 698.6mln for Junior Eurovision 2022 Armenian-Russian trade turnover up by 71.7%, Economy Minister Secretaries of CIS Security Councils to discuss nuclear security Economy minister: Armenia exports to other EEU countries increased 2 times Outgoing Artsakh Minister Artak Beglaryan to take position in state government system Japan Coast Guard reports 3 North Korean missile launches in a day Pashinyan says Armenian government did a lot for revival of Armenian aviation Oil falls in price Patrushev comments on Zelenskiy's statement about preventive nuclear strike WSJ: Americans favor Republicans over Democrats Turkey announces normalization of grain corridor Gold prices are down Putin calls on CIS countries security councils to use all their security capabilities SPRING PR founders were awarded the 'Global PR Leader of the year' Copper prices are rising State Duma member proposes to extend term of military service in Russia Iranian MPs: Powerful Iran will never tolerate changing of its borders Turkey to complete construction of pipeline in Black Sea in November Newspaper: Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty to be signed in Georgia US delivers more than 200 artillery systems to Ukraine since February Secretary of Armenian Security Council to visit Moscow Switzerland to direct $100 million to repair energy infrastructure in Ukraine Study: Blue whales eat 10 million particles of microplastics a day Microsoft president warns of shortage of staff to fight climate change Latvia extends state of emergency on Belarus border WSJ: UAE tried to convince Saudi Arabia not to cut oil production Cavusoglu: Greece must stop arming the demilitarized islands in the Aegean Sea Moody's downgrades outlook for banks in Germany, Italy, and 4 other countries to negative About 40 international companies to announce their relocation to UAE by end of year YEREVAN. At the invitation of President Serzh Sargsyan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday arrived in Armenia, on an official visit. Sargsyan welcomed Rouhani at Zvartnots International Airport of capital city Yerevan, the Armenian News-NEWS.am reporter informed from on location. Within the framework of his visit, the president of Iran will meet separately with President Serzh Sargsyan, and Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan. At the end of the high-level Armenian-Iranian talks, documents are expected to be signed with respect to making bilateral cooperation grow deeper in several domains. Also, Presidents Sargsyan and Rouhani will make statements to the media, regarding the results of the talks. In Yerevan, the two Presidents will also attend the Armenia-Iran business forum. Resumption of the armed conflict with Azerbaijan is possible, Defense Minister of Armenia, Vigen Sargsyan, told Lenta.ru, a Moscow-based online newspaper. In 1994, a ceasefire agreement was signed with a trilateral format: Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Armenia, recalled Sargsyan. Sadly, Baku torpedoes the peace process ever since 1994. Furthermore, all the attempts by the international community () to find possible avenues for resolving the conflict are consistently undermined. This April, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale attack against Nagorno-Karabakh, and suffered a defeat. We [i.e. the Armenian party to the conflict] build our work on the presumption of the possibility of the resumption of military actions. At the same time, it is quite apparent that a possible escalation of the conflict is not beneficial for Armenia and the countries in the region. Being the guarantor of the security of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Yerevan will have to get involved in the conflict; if this occurs. It is also clear that the resumption of war will be a major threat to the entire South Caucasus. Russian presence in the region and the deepening of politico-military cooperation between Armenia and Russia are key deterrent factors that obstruct the resumption of hostilities, and contribute to the maintenance of regional stability and security. Minister of Defense of Armenia, Vigen Sargsyan, told the above-said to Lenta.ru, a Moscow-based online newspaper. He recalled that the Russian military base in Gyumri is included in the Armenian-Russian joint military unit that has been set up in Armenia. Now, the base is a part of the defense system of Armenia, Sargsyan added, in particular. The minister also stated that, in his view, the project of establishing an Armenian-Russian military-industrial complex in Gyumri becomes urgent in terms of the prospects for developing bilateral relations. It can [also] become a platform for forming business, technico-military cooperation between Russia, and Armenias bordering Iran, Vigen Sargsyan specifically noted. YEREVAN. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan will visit Iran next year, he said following his meeting with Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani in Yerevan. I thanked Hassan Rouhani for an invitation to visit Iran next year and said I will accept it with pleasure, President Sargsyan said. Speaking about bilateral relations, the President noted that it is impossible to imagine how deep and comprehensive the ties are. According to Serzh Sargsyan, the Armenian and Iranian nations have common history that continues for thousands years, and now they continue to walk side by side, respecting each other's culture. Armenia, and I am sure that Iran, too, is interested in strengthening and development of relations. The joint projects and visits prove high level of relations since Armenia gained independence, he added. Speaking about the documents signed during the visit, Sargsyan said the arrangements will provide momentum to bilateral ties, The Armenian and Iranian leaders discussed a broad range of issues related to political consultations, energy, transport, agriculture, healthcare and culture. The sides discussed implementation of the arrangements achieved during the 14th session of intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation. President of Armenia thanked Irans leadership for traditionally attentive attitude towards the Armenian community and Armenian heritage. President Sargsyan recalled that the two countries continue to exchange gas and electricity. In this context, the sides discussed the creation of an energy corridor in the region, as well as the corridor, designed to connect the Black Sea and the Persian Gulf, which would open way to the European market and transit of goods. According to the President, Armenia's membership in the Eurasian Union is an additional interest. Noting the continuing work to improve business environment, the Armenian leader also stressed the importance of abolishing the visa regime. It is no coincidence that Yerevan is hosting a major business forum during President Rouhanis visit, he added. During the meeting the sides exchanged views on the implementation of the historic agreements on the Iranian nuclear program. According to Sargsyan, it would open up newer horizons for creative people of Iran and would enhance regional cooperation. Presidents also discussed situation in the Middle East and UN resolutions. Armenia first of all is concerned over the Armenian community, he emphasized. YEREVAN. The potential for Armenia-Iran cooperation is very large. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who has arrived in Armenia on an official visit, stated the aforesaid at the end of his talk Wednesday with President Serzh Sargsyan, in capital city Yerevan. In Rouhanis words, a part of this potential is used, and there is good cooperation, especially in the energy sector. Furthermore, the president of Iran particularly underscored the transport corridor between the Black Sea region and the Persian Gulf. In his words, this will enable to create favorable conditions for regional development. During their talk, the two presidents also reflected on environmental issues. The Araxes River is our shared worth, and its pollution problem also applies to us, the Iranian president said in this connection, and expressed the hope that this problem will be resolved. The parties plan to deepen cooperation also in education, science, and banking. And as per the Iranian president, Armenias accession into the Eurasian Economic Unionwhich also comprises Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstancreates special conditions for cooperation. Belarusian capital city of Minsk is hosting a regular meeting of the Military Committee of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The event started with a minute of silence in memory of Russian diplomat Andrei Karlov killed in Turkey, reported BelTA news agency of Belarus. The meeting will sum up the results of joint operational and military trainings of the bodies of the CSTO security system in 2016, discuss plans for joint events to be held in 2017, consider suggestions on improving the joint exercise system, and outline the areas of further work to establish an interstate information cooperation system and ensure full-scale exchange of information among the command centers of the armed forces of the CSTO member states. The meeting and the decisions it will adopt will be aimed at developing the military component of the CSTO. Belarus has assumed the presidency of the CSTO in 2016-2017. Oleg Belokonev, Chief of the General Staff of the Belarusian army, First Deputy Defense Minister of Belarus, took over the chairmanship of the CSTO Military Committee from Movses Hakobyan, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia, who wished him success. Movses Hakobyan noted that participants in the session of the CSTO Collective Security Council signed several important documents aimed at strengthening CSTOs capacities, improving collective security mechanisms, and enhancing the work of the security bodies. He wished the Belarusian side success in the implementation of the decisions adopted in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia. YEREVAN. A delegation from Armenia, and led by Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan, on Wednesday arrived in Georgia, on an official visit. After the official welcoming ceremony in capital city Tbilisi, the Armenian and Georgian Defense Ministers, Vigen Sargsyan and Levan Izoria, respectively, held a tete-a-tete, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. Subsequently, an extended meeting was conducted between the delegations of the defense ministries of the two countries. The parties discussed Armenian-Georgian military cooperation and future plans. Also, they reflected on regional security. The talks ended with the signing of the 2017 Bilateral Cooperation Program between the defense ministries of Armenia and Georgia. Results of the talks were summed up at the joint news conference of the two ministers. YEREVAN. - I will keep large investments from Iran under my personal control. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, who attended the Armenian-Iranian forum along with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, stated the aforementioned Wednesday. In his words, at the meeting he asked his Iranian counterpart to invigorate the interest of Iranian entrepreneurs towards Armenia. For my part, I promised to present Iran to Armenian businessmen in the same light, Sargsyan said. Referring to the investments from Iran, the Armenian President said that the country expects them and he will keep each large project under his personal control. The objective is clearto bring the economic potential to the level of very developed political relations. We use only little part of out potential in the trade and economic sphere. There is good experience of cooperation in the sphere of energy, but it should be expanded to other spheres as well, Sargsyan said. Armenia is a beneficial direction for investments, since despite external shocks, it was able to maintain its macroeconomic stability thanks to capable monetary and loan, as well as tax and budgetary policy, Sargsyan added. In the Presidents words, new investment legislation is drawn out, which will help solve possible legal disputes. Armenia offers good conditions also for entrance to large foreign markets. The country is a member of the Eurasian Union, which means that goods produced here can freely circulate in the 180-million market of the EAEU. Together with this, Armenia makes use of the GSP+ preferential regime for the export of 6400 items of goods. GSP is also used for export to U.S., Canada, Norway, Switzerland and Japan. Armenia also offers good opportunities for the transit of cargo from Iran to the Black Sea and all along to Europe. The North-South route along which concrete highway is constructed is the shortest way for this. The trade and investments will become more effective if obstacles in moving goods between the two countries are removed and cooperation is established between the free trade zonesIranian Araz (operating) and Armenian Meghri (planned)on the bank of Araks river. Finally, the cooperation in the innovation sphere is also very promising. Despite the limited ties with the external world, Iran has achieved great success in nanotechnologies and other spheres of innovation. Here we can join our efforts and intellectual potential to achieve wonderful results, the Armenian President concluded. The Russian Human Rights Commissioners Office requested to take Armenian businessman Levon Hayrapetyan to a medical institution; I think the mans life was thereby saved, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Natalya Moskalkova said at the meeting with the Yerevan State University (YSU) students Wednesday. She recalled that the Armenian benefactor was kept in Butyrka prison. He has diabetes and recently underwent an operation. His relatives worried very much that he might die. We do not get involved in the assessment of evidence. We think that a man, regardless of being a criminal or accused should be treated as a human being, who has two main values: honor and dignity, as well as life and health. We asked to take him to a medical institution. I think the mans life was thereby saved, Moskalkova noted. Afterwards, trial was held, following which Levon Hayrapetyan was sent to Mordovia to serve his sentence. There were also problems there and we again interfered to save the mans life. This is a very important tool, she stressed. The Moscow Municipal Court on Tuesday will consider the appeal of the verdict that was handed down regarding Russian-Armenian businessman Levon Hayrapetyan, who has been convicted on charges of embezzling $700 thousand and sentenced to four years in prison. The respective hearing had been postponed to further examine the arguments of the appeal, reported TASS news agency of Russia. On April 14, a Moscow court sentenced Russian Armenian businessman and philanthropist Levon Hayrapetyan to four years in prison, finding him guilty of swindling. Even though Hayrapetyan is in severe health condition, he was taken to a general prison cell. YEREVAN. - Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan on Wednesday held a meeting with the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is on an official visit to Yerevan, the Government press-service reports. The Iranian President noted that a number of agreements were reached and arrangements were made as a result of the meeting with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan. He also expressed hope that those programs will be implemented in the future. According to PM Karen Karapetyan, the agenda of the Armenian-Iranian cooperation is rich in content, this creating solid basis for the development and expansion of relations. The PM presented a number of proposals, whose implementation will further enhance the economic ties between the two countries, giving new impetus to the further cooperation. In particular, it was proposed to consider the idea of establishing in Armenia a center of certification of goods jointly with the Iranian side. Attaching importance to the cooperation between the free trade zones in terms of stimulating the turnover of goods, PM Karapetyan underscored the need to expand the activity of Iranian companies in Armenia, considering the capacities of the EAEU market. Karen Karapetyan reconfirmed the readiness of Armenia to contribute to the talks between Iran and EAEU. Apart from this, the sides touched on the facilitation of the process of transit traffic, use of tourist potential and expansion of the volumes of passenger transportation. President Rouhani, for his part, positively assessed the steps aimed at stimulating the Armenian-Iranian cooperation, noting that the Iranian side encourages any constructive proposals aimed at the development of bilateral ties. YEREVAN. - On the New Year eve, the farmers fairs in Armenia will work for 24 hours. Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Robert Makaryan, told the aforementioned to reporters Wednesday. Such fairs have been organized since summer: they have operated in Kasyan street and Mashtots Avenue since June and late July respectively. Overall, 13.7 thousand farmers have received free seats behind counters this year. Starting from December 24 to 30, these fairs will work not only at weekends but every day, starting from 9:00 am. Farmers, who sell their own harvest, get seats behind the counters. On New Year eve, farmers from villages not far from the town of Chambarak will also take part in the fair. They will sell Roquefort, which they received instead of cash from Ashtarak Kat company, which owed them for milk. We agreed with the Mayor of Chambarak; these farmers will get seats in the fair, Makaryan said. The Prosecutor Generals Office of Ankara continues investigative actions into the assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov. A group of 120 specialists has been involved in the investigation. The representatives of Turkish and Russian investigative authorities organized coordinated work in accordance with the Minnesota Protocol, Anadolu reports. Currently, 11 suspects have been detained. The data from killer Mevlut Mert Altntas mobile phone and bank operations are studied. The possibility that the killer might have used drugs and other medications is also investigated. It has become known that two days before the coup attempt on July 15, Altntas took a leave from the Diyarbakr police department, where he served then. He spent his vacation in Ankara. Specialists are now clarifying what exactly he did in the capital then. The killer had three additional full cartridge clips and 20-25 bullets in his pockets. The Prosecutor Generals Office is also considering whether it would have been possible to catch the killer alive. In connection with this, the footage of the shootout between the assailant and law enforcement officers after shooting Karlov is studied in detail. According to the video materials and testimonies of witnesses, after firing shots at Karlov the assailant went deeper into the hall and began tearing off and throwing on the floor the exhibits of the exhibition hall. In response to the call to surrender to the police, Altntas opened fire. He then hid behind one of the partitions and began firing at the police. Riot police, which arrived at the scene, wounded him in both thighs and then knees. It was established that Altntas fell down but continued firing. To the order surrender he responded you wont take me alive. It is supposed that the law enforcement officers killed him when they decided that Altntas was trying to take out a bomb from behind his back. FAA Issues Final Rule on Small Airplane Safety Standards The rule will streamline approval of new technology, according to the agency The FAA has issued a final rule that makes big changes to standards for small aviation airplanes. According to the news release, this rule will reduce the time it takes to move new technology for small planes into the marketplace, as well as reduce cost. Aviation manufacturing is our nations top export and general aviation alone contributes approximately $80 billion and 400,000 jobs to our economy, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. The FAAs rule replaces prescriptive design requirements with performance-based standards, which will reduce costs and leverage innovation without sacrificing safety. The rule will recognize consensus-based compliance methods for new technology, as well as add certification standards for loss of control accidents and in-flight icing conditions. The rule is a model of what we can accomplish for American competitiveness when government and industry work together and demonstrates that we can simultaneously enhance safety and reduce burdens on industry, said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. WV Governor Gives State Workers Half Day Off Dec. 23 Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's office noted that his proclamation does not affect the work requirements of public employees who may be called to duty to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of West Virginians. West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has given state employees the afternoon of Dec. 23 off work, filing a proclamation last week. The West Virginia Code provides that when Christmas Day falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is observed as the official state holiday, so state employees are getting an extra-long holidayweekend. Tomblin's office noted that his proclamation does not affect the work requirements of public employees who may be called to duty to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of West Virginians. Phuket, Thailand, December 2016 Staged amongst the serene DoublePool Villas, the newly opened Tre restaurant will serve an International cuisine of the highest order, replete with a premium Western menu. Tre boasts a sublime dining experience by combining freshly sourced ingredients with slow-cooking methods, showcasing a splendid array of wonderful flavours. This new and exciting direction for Tre takes inspiration from the global cuisine from some of the most distinguished restaurants in Europe. With Banyan Tree Phukets esteemed Executive Chef, Alfonso de la Dehesa, and Executive Sous Chef, Kreaton Cutajar expertise, having formerly worked in Michelin-starred restaurants, their new menu for Tre features Western modern cooking techniques and presentation with Thailands native products. Wagyu Striploin Steak, Scottish Langoustines with Madagascar Peppered Sweet Breads and Foie Gras with Pear Puree are just a few of the delectable entrees on the new menu at Tre. Main courses include Poached Veal Tenderloin, Risotto with Truffles and Homemade Duck Ham, as well as Smoked Halibut and Wild Striped Bass infused with Herb Butter for seafood lovers. There is no other way to round up a meal than with a sweet selection of exquisite desserts. Guests can choose to savour a rich, wholesome Rum Banana Flambe or a delicious Chocolate Souffle with Caramel and Vanilla Ice Cream to finish. Tre is at the forefont of culinary excellence with its innovative dishes enhanced by molecular and modern preparation techniques as well as avant-garde presentation. With a martini trolley on site, this adds a stylish dimension to the gastronomic experience. This ambitious re-invention of Tre is part of the latest impressive upgrade of Banyan Tree Phuket, following the recent revamp of its celebrated Saffron and The Watercourt restaurants. Guests can now indulge in the glorious spread of treats and sips of Tre amidst the tranquil surroundings Banyan Tree Phukets signature DoublePool Villas. For further information, please email fb-concierge@banyantree.com or call +66 76 372 400 on extension number 5463. Despite efforts to step down the probe of corruption allegations leveled against the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mr Ibrahim Magu, the Attorney General of the federation and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, has begun investigations into various allegations him as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari. Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, has began probe of embattled EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu According to a report by Punch newspaper, sources at the Federal Ministry of Justice and the EFCC confirmed that the query was delivered to Magu on Monday, December 20. The AGF has started enforcing the directive by the President. I can confirm to you that the minister has taken the first step by querying the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, a source in the Federal Ministry of Justice said. It was however not confirmed if the AGF has launched a probe into the corruption allegation leveled against the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal. READ ALSO: EFCC is irresponsible, corrupt, Says; Corruption cant fight corruption Meanwhile, the acting chairman of EFCC, Mr Magu has received the query, a source told the newspaper and he is preparing his defence to the allegations raised by the DSS, the source added. Yes, he has received the query with the DSS report sent to the Senate on him. Ironically, the query only contains one of the letters written by the DSS to the Senate. I think he has no problem with the query, but the question being asked by some people is that, he ought to have been given time to respond to the allegations before the Senate took that position. Nigerias secret police, DSS in a report to the Senate had listed several alleged offences against the EFCC boss. Part of the allegations against Magu was his being in possession of EFCC documents in his private residence during the chairmanship of Farida Waziri. READ ALSO: Magu, Babachir: President Buhari has failed anti-corruption promises -Adeyanju The DSS also made reference to the circumstances surrounding Magus arrest, detention and suspension by the Nigeria Police. DSS said his confirmation would frustrate the anti-graft drive of the Buhari-led administration. Recall that the Senate had called for the removal and prosecution of the SGF following alleged complicity in contract awards to take care of the Internally Displaced Persons in the North-East. Source: Legit.ng Buying last-minute Christmas gifts can be quite a pain and we all have our fair share of valid reasons. We were too busy at work, we ran out of quality ideas on what to buy, or we simply didnt really care. However, when there is a party to attend and you are expected to bring a gift, or to participate in a gift exchange, it doesnt make sense to deliberately not bring anything and to be the odd person out. You struggle to think about what to buy. Gone are the days when you can just show up with a box of Ferrero Rocher and get away with the impression that you actually bothered to make an effort. But dont worry. We got you covered. In this article, we will highlight 5 socially acceptable last minute Christmas Gift that people would appreciate having. Read Also: 11 Unusual Christmas Gifts (Below $30) That Your Friends and Loved Ones Will Never Expect To Receive For Gift Exchange # 1 ROYCE Chocolate No matter how last minute the gift was, we are not saying no to Royce Chocolate Source Ferrero Rocher was the token gift you bring to a party when you had no better ideas15 years ago. These days, people expect more. And the honour has now fallen to ROYCE Chocolate instead. With a ROYCE Collection Blue selling at 53.50 and the Red selling at $84, nobody can accuse you of not spending your fair share in livening up the Christmas party. Best of all, ROYCE Chocolate outlets are strategically situated around Orchard, City Hall, and the CBD. Grabbing a box of chocolate on the way home from the office is easy. Its expensive, it tastes good, its a great brand and its convenient to buy. Whats there not to like? # 2 A Random Bottle Of Wine wine We cant really tell the difference so we will just buy whatever looks expensive Bringing a bottle of wine to a Christmas party has always been the right thing to do, even if the person who brings it doesnt even drink and can barely tell the difference between red and white wine. Nobody could ever fault a guy who brings wine. Story continues Making a choice is easy. Find the nearest NTUC, Cold Storage or Sheng Siong and head over to the wine section. Get a bottle from some nice places such as New Zealand, Australia or France. Dont buy the cheapest wine but avoid the expensive ones. Something that cost about $30 should be just about right, even if you have no idea what you just bought. Most people dont. # 3 A Starbucks Mug starbucks Source Mugs are lousy gifts to give and receive. However, for some strange reason, the very same mug with a Starbucks logo costing $10 more is a respectable Christmas gift. The added bonus is that you shouldnt have a problem finding a Starbucks outlet, even if you just booked out from Tekong (there is one at Whitesands). Yes, there is a Starbucks outlet at Jurong Island # 4 Twelve Cupcakes Source Cupcakes are pretty to look at and terrible to be eating; especially when you are taking chunks of bites off the top, leaving cream on your mouth and plain cake left behind. At the risk of offending cupcake lovers in Singapore, we think there is, unfortunately, no shortage of lousy cupcakes being sold or made. This explains why cupcakes are always the last dessert to be eaten. One of the few exceptions that we know of is the cupcakes from Twelve Cupcakes. Founded by local celebrity couple Daniel Ong and Jamie Teo, Twelve Cupcakes remain a favourite among many Singaporeans. They are not only good to look at, but also delicious to eat. At $36 for 12 cupcakes, nobody can accuse you of being a cheapskate either. # 5 Famous Amos Cookies Source Why do people buy Gingerbread man, which nobody really wants to eat (we know that for a fact since there is still one lying around the office after more than a week) instead of delicious cookies from Famous Amos is a question that we have no good answers to. Perhaps its the idea of dressing up the Gingerbread man? Perhaps we saw it in some cartoons? Maybe its a symbol of creation? We have no idea. What we do know however is that Famous Amos cookies hardly ever get left behind during Christmas parties. On the other hand, you practically need to force people to bring their gingerbread man home. Singaporeans clearly know which tastes better. Unlike Starbucks, Famous Amos outlets are not exactly situated on every other street in Singapore. However, you can choose to order your cookies online and have them delivered, making it far easier to order in large quantities without worrying about dropping it in the MRT. # 6 Yankee Candle Source: Yankee Candle Singapore Bringing the scent of the holiday season with you is always welcoming. Get Yankee Candles as they smell good, and they burn evenly throughout. Those concerned with soot residues from burning candles can opt for soy wax candles as soy wax is petro-carbon soot-free. If youre afraid burning candles could be dangerous in a home with small children, then grab the reed or ScentPlug diffusers. Plus, theres a good range of products at Yankee Candle that will suit anyones budget. Depending on the size and type of the candle, it can range from $5 to $42. Reed diffuser costs $42. While the Electronic ScentPlug diffuser costs $19 and it doesnt come with any fragrance. So, buying the ScentPlug Refill Twin Pack ($24) along with the electronic diffuser device would cost you a total of $43. # 7 Marks & Spencer Bath or Beach Towel Source: Marks & Spencers Marks & Spencer is an iconic retailer that we connect it to all things English, and therefore all things Christmas. They sell a good range of products, such as food, home products and clothes. Their fashion line is more geared towards classic styling and contemporary elegance. You can pretty much get safe items from Marks & Spencers. Getting someone towels is always a practical thing to do. One cannot complain about having more towels, especially in Singapore. The number of showers we take in a day will never see a towel getting fully dried. Bath Towels and Beach Towels from Marks & Spencer range from $25.90 to $39.90. You can even get the whole set of towels which includes a face towel, guest towel, hand towel, bath towel and bath sheet for $96.50. # 8 TWG Tea Source: TWG Tea As the saying goes, Its the thought that counts, but honestly, the gifts we give reflect on us as a person. Thats why getting luxury tea like TWG is a good choice; they pamper and flatter the gift recipient while elevating your atas status as a friend at the same time. Ushering the festive season, TWG Tea is selling a variety of Christmas gift sets. The Joy of Christmas Tea (mini) costs $15, the Joyful Christmas Gift Set costs $70, and the Heritage Chocolate Gift set costs $75. Gift hampers are available from $442 onwards. Do you agree with our list or are we too harsh on the gifts on the list? Should some other gifts be added instead? Share your thoughts with us on Facebook. Read Also: Why Santa Is A Horrible Economist This article was originally published on 21 December 2016 and updated with new recommendations. The post Socially Acceptable Last Minute Token Christmas Gifts To Buy appeared first on DollarsAndSense.sg. Singapore convicted a third private banker on Wednesday in connection with the international money-laundering scandal involving state fund 1MDB in neighbouring Malaysia. Yeo Jiawei, a Singaporean former wealth manager with Swiss bank BSI, was convicted after a 12-day trial of witness-tampering and obstructing the city-state's 1MDB-linked investigations. He will be sentenced on Thursday. "I find the accused to be inconsistent and an unreliable witness," said Judge Ng Peng Hong in delivering his verdict. Yeo, 33, is also charged with money-laundering, cheating and forgery but will be tried next year on those counts. Allegations that huge sums were misappropriated from the Malaysian state fund through money-laundering have triggered a massive corruption scandal which has embroiled Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. Singapore, a regional financial hub known for its transparency and strong stance against corruption, last year launched a probe into alleged unlawful fund flows linked to 1MDB. BSI and another Swiss bank, Falcon, were kicked out of the city-state this year for what regulators called massive lapses in financial controls. Swiss banks were allegedly used to transfer illicit funds. Two other former private bankers from BSI have also been jailed in Singapore for fraud in connection with the case. It was revealed during Yeo's trial that he worked closely with Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, a family friend of Najib. Najib founded the 1MDB fund while Low helped set it up and played a key role in its decisions. Both men have strongly denied any wrongdoing. Singapore prosecutors had said that Yeo "played a central role in many activities connected with the money-laundering case". Local authorities have seized nearly $180 million in assets, with half linked to Low. Every Christmas, foie gras producers in Bulgaria and Hungary are overwhelmed with overseas orders but while France remains their key client, the hunt for more lucrative markets is leading to Asia. France is the top producer and consumer of the controversial delicacy. Foie gras is fundamental to a traditional Gallic Christmas dinner and France has made a habit of stocking up its own inventories with cheaper versions from Bulgaria and Hungary. At Bulgaria's largest factory near the southern village of Milevo, dozens of women nimbly sort, clean, devein, and pack hundreds of kilos of duck livers that have come straight from the slaughterhouse. Other workers cook and can glazed duck confit. Virtually unknown at local Christmas dinner tables, the bulk of Volex's production will go to France. The labels of big French brands are placed directly on the jars before they even leave the factories, although the country of origin is also indicated. This year, Bulgaria and Hungary estimate that sales in newer markets could shoot up by around 15 percent as French exports outside the EU have been hit by repeated bird flu scares. "If 10 years ago we sold 100 percent of our produce to France, now this share is about 80 percent," Volex factory owner Plamen Chelebiev told AFP. - Diversifying markets - For the past four years, his sales have been increasing in Switzerland and Japan, and more recently also in Vietnam and Thailand. "In these markets we sell our products under our own brand names and at much higher prices, which makes it more interesting for us," Chelebiev said. But Volex is also doing well inside the EU. In Spain and Belgium, "we're now selling our products without passing via France," Chelebiev added. Bulgaria and Hungary entered the lucrative trade in the 1990s by modernising large cooperative farms from communist times and using cheap hand labour. Since then, Bulgaria has become the world's largest maker of duck foie gras after France, while Hungary holds a quasi monopoly on fattened goose liver. Even French producers have expressed concern over the growing competition. "A part of Bulgaria and Hungarian products are going to third countries whose markets remain closed to us," Marie-Pierre Pe, the director of French foie gras makers' group CIFOG, said earlier this year. Around 100 companies in Bulgaria, the EU's poorest country, are involved in the foie gras business. Volex hatches some three million ducklings every year from French-imported eggs at an 80-hectare (195-acre) farm in the southern town of Haskovo. Two million are sold to other Bulgarian producers, while the rest are raised and fed in collective cages before being transferred to the slaughterhouse and factory in Milevo. Unlike France, Bulgaria never had the money to invest in single cages for the highly criticised practice of gavage, or force-feeding birds with grains to fatten their livers around four times their natural weight. Ducks put on weight more quickly in single cages because they have no room to move -- but these were prohibited EU-wide in 2016 after protests by animal rights activists. Bio-safety measures at farms in both Bulgaria and Hungary are extremely strict, insist producers. The huge buildings are regularly emptied for weeks and sanitised to prevent any bacterial diseases from breaking out, say officials. - 'As good as French foie gras' - "The quality of our raw foie gras is the same as in France and even better, due to the good conditions during the raising of the birds," according to Volex. But all this notwithstanding, neither Bulgaria nor Hungary have the capacity to conquer traditional French markets. Although the bird flu crisis has slashed 25 percent of France's exports in 2016, the country has massive stocks due to overproduction in previous years. In 2015, France produced around 19,000 tonnes of foie gras, while Bulgaria came a distant second with 2,500 tonnes and Hungary third with 2,000 tonnes. France's exports stood at 5,000 tonnes in 2015. By comparison, Bulgaria and Hungary together sell between 3,000 and 4,000 tonnes abroad annually, according to data from producers' organisations. However, their eyes are now focussed on the burgeoning appetite for luxury products in Asia. "We have expanded our presence in Japan and also started recently to sell in Singapore and Thailand," said a Hungarian producer, requesting anonymity. "They cannot match demand by solely buying from France." By J.R. Wu and Ben Blanchard TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Taiwan accused China on Wednesday of using Sao Tome and Principe's financial woes to push its "one China" policy after the West African state ended ties with the self-ruled island, with Taiwan saying China's action would not help relations across the Taiwan Strait. China's claim to Taiwan have shot back into the spotlight since U.S. President-elect Donald Trump broke diplomatic protocol and spoke with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen this month, angering Beijing. Trump has also questioned the "one China" policy which the United States has followed since establishing relations with Beijing in 1979, under which the United States acknowledges that Taiwan is part of China. The election of Tsai from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party this year infuriated Beijing, which suspects she wants to push for the island's formal independence, though she says she wants to maintain peace with China. Taiwan Foreign Minister David Lee said Taipei would not engage in "dollar diplomacy" after Sao Tome's decision. "We think the Beijing government should not use Sao Tome's financing black hole ... as an opportunity to push its 'one China' principle," Lee told a news conference in Taipei on Wednesday. "This behaviour is not helpful to a smooth cross-Strait relationship." Tsai held emergency meetings with cabinet officials and security advisers on Wednesday, and told her ministers: "Foreign diplomacy is not a zero-sum game," according to her office spokesman, Alex Huang. Tsai's office said in a statement China's use of Sao Tome's financial woes to push its "one China" policy would harm stability across the Taiwan Strait. "This is absolutely not beneficial to the long-term development of cross-Strait relations," it said. China says Taiwan has no right to diplomatic recognition as it is part of China, and the issue is an extremely sensitive one for Beijing. In Beijing, China welcomed Sao Tome's decision, without explicitly saying it had established formal relations with the former Portuguese colony or making any mention of a request for financial aid. "We have noted the statement from the government of Sao Tome and Principe on the 20th to break so-called 'diplomatic' ties with Taiwan. China expresses appreciation of this, and welcomes Sao Tome back onto the correct path of the 'one China' principle," the foreign ministry said in a statement. Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying declined to comment when asked when the two countries may exchange ambassadors, and dismissed a question on how much China may have offered Sao Tome to switch ties as being "very imaginative". Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan at the end of a civil war in 1949 and Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. In Africa, only Burkina Faso and Swaziland now maintain formal ties with Taiwan. President Tsai will visit Central American allies Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador next month. "We now have 21 allies left. We must cherish them," Lee said. China and Taiwan had for years tried to poach each other's allies, often dangling generous aid packages in front of developing nations. But they began an unofficial diplomatic truce after signing a series of landmark trade and economic agreements in 2008 following the election of the China-friendly Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan's president. Sao Tome and Principe's tiny island economy is heavily dependent on cocoa exports but its position in the middle of the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea has raised interest in its potential as a possible oil and gas producer. Diplomatic sources in Beijing have previously said Sao Tome was likely high on China's list of countries to lure away from Taiwan. In 2013, Sao Tome said China planned to open a trade mission to promote projects there, 16 years after it broke off relations over Sao Tome's diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. (Editing by Lincoln Feast, Robert Birsel) By Umberto Bacchi LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Small Pacific island states could be hit by more tropical cyclones during future El Nino weather patterns due to climate change, scientists said on Tuesday. El Nino is a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific occurring every two to seven years which can trigger both floods and drought in different parts of the world. Its opposite phase, a cooling of the same waters known as La Nina, is associated with the increased probability of wetter conditions over much of Australia and increased numbers of tropical cyclones. Between 2070 and the end of the century, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands and Hawaii could face an increased frequency in powerful storms during El Nino of up to 40 percent, Australian meteorologists said in a study. However cyclones may be up to 60 percent less frequent during the opposite La Nina pattern, according to the study published in Nature Climate Change magazine. Cyclones bring destructive winds, torrential rain and storm surges that are likely to be exacerbated by rising sea levels caused by global warming, posing a serious threat to Pacific islands, the authors said. "Storm surge...can lead to massive waves propagating far inland, devastating structures and vegetation in its path," co-author Kevin Tory, of the Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) told the Thomson Reuters Foundation via email. "Salt water inundation can also damage soil, leading to years of reduced agricultural yield," he said. Researchers said in the last three decades of the century, the ocean's surface waters will be hotter than usual in the Western Pacific due to global warming, resulting in more frequent cyclones during El Nino. "These results suggest tropical cyclone activity in these regions will increase in a future warmer climate," one of the study's authors, Savin Chand, of Federation University Australia said in an email. The latest El Nino, which emerged in 2015 and ended in May this year resulted in sea temperatures rising to the highest levels in 19 years. Small island developing states are already suffering the impacts of climate change, including rising seas and worsening extreme weather, and have pushed hard for more ambitious international efforts to reduce planet-warming emissions. The Marshall Islands, Fiji and Palau were the first three countries to ratify the Paris climate change agreement to limit global temperature rise to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius earlier this year. (Reporting by Umberto Bacchi @UmbertoBacchi, Editing by Katie Nguyen. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org) The EU gave Poland's rightwing government another two months Wednesday to reverse changes to its constitutional court or face sanctions, warning they posed a "substantial" challenge to the rule of law. The move came a year after the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party swept to power and pushed through controversial legislation. "We then invite the Polish government to react, to respond to these additional recommendations within the timeframe of two months," the European Commission's First Vice President Frans Timmermans told reporters. The recommendations are due to be published shortly, once they are translated. Since coming into power after eight years in opposition, the PiS has changed the way the constitutional court operates -- including the order in which cases are heard and how the chief justice is chosen -- and has put forward its own judges instead of those approved by the previous parliament. Critics say the reforms undermine judicial independence and the system of checks and balances. They cite other PiS bids to consolidate power including moves to increase state control over public broadcasters. At the end of July, the EU handed Poland a three-month deadline to reverse changes to the court or face sanctions, but Warsaw rejected the warning. Timmermans said sanctions were still in "the toolbox" Brussels could use if Poland failed to solve the problems within the new deadline. "We will not exclude any measures that we can take," Timmermans said. "But we will cross that bridge when we get there." Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian premier who now leads the Liberal group in the EU parliament, urged the European Commission on Wednesday "to move from dialogue to action". "This crisis has only got worse over the last months. Now, the constitutional court is under the political control of the ruling party, (and the) constitutionality of laws cannot be checked and ensured any more," he said in a statement. "Thousands of Polish citizens have been marching for months now. They wave the flag of the European Union and call desperately for help. We must not let them down". The socially conservative PiS party dominates Polish politics, controlling parliament and the government. President Andrzej Duda, while formally independent, hails from the PiS and is allied with its members. Clashes over their judicial reforms has given rise to a popular movement, the Committee for the Defence of Democracy, which has staged demonstrations in Warsaw and other cities to denounce what it calls an attack on Poland's democratic institutions. Timmermans said that despite the earlier warning Warsaw had still not addressed EU concerns, including demands by the Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, for the constitutional court rulings to be published and implemented. "We do believe there is a persistent problem with the rule of law," Timmermans said. The EU recommendations amount to a second step in a unprecedented procedure that could see Warsaw's voting rights suspended in the Council of Ministers, the EU's highest decision-making body. But in a move seen by critics as a further bid to bring the judiciary to heel, Duda on Wednesday named a PiS-backed judge to head the constitutional court. - 'End court squabbling' - The court's chief role is to check that Polish laws are compliant with the constitution. Judge Julia Przylebska takes over from the court's outgoing president, Andrzej Rzeplinski, whose term expired on Monday and who was considered a symbol of resistance to the government during the long-standing constitutional feud. The 57-year-old Przylebska, who the PiS government appointed to the court last year, will be the country's first woman to serve the nine-year term as chief justice. Duda called on her to impose order, saying, "I want an end put to the shocking squabbling within the court". Przylebska's designation was made possible by one of three parliamentary reforms, all of which according to Rzeplinski go against the constitution. The court's deputy president, Stanislaw Biernat, said one of Przylebska's first moves in her new role was to order that his desk be moved to a room farther away from hers. "It's strange that this is one of her first decisions. These are her priorities," he told reporters. But he said no rebellion was planned by the rest of the bench: "The court will continue to issue rulings, even if it'll be under tougher conditions." By Saliou Samb CONAKRY (Reuters) - Senegal authorities have arrested a Guinean soldier linked to a 2009 massacre in Conakry where at least 150 people were killed and dozens of women raped, a Senegalese security source said on Tuesday. The source said Lieutenant Aboubacar "Toumba" Diakite, who witnesses say played a key role in the massacre at a Conakry stadium, was arrested in Dakar on Monday. The Sept. 28, 2009, incident in Guinea's capital is seen as one of the worst acts of repression in West Africa's recent history and Human Rights Watch called the arrest a breakthrough in the bid to bring justice. In that incident, security forces opened fire on pro-democracy protestors who had gathered at the stadium to put pressure on then junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara not to stand at an election the following year. Diakite was head of the presidential guard and a close aide to Camara, who took power in a coup in 2008. "The arrest ... represents a major step forward in Guinea's investigation of the 2009 stadium massacre," said Corinne Dufka, an associate director at Human Rights Watch. "Victims are eager to see the case move to trial." An extradition process has started to bring Diakite to Guinea, said Baila Diallo, a public prosecutor at Guinea's Court of Appeals. Diakite is also accused of having organised mass arrests of army officers seen as hostile to the junta. Many were tortured, according to their families. Diakite shot Camara in the head in an assassination attempt in Dec. 2009 and told French radio he did it because Camara had cast the blame on him for the stadium massacre. Camara survived but resigned the presidency and fled to Burkina Faso, where he was charged in 2015 for crimes relating to the massacre. He has not yet stood trial. President Alpha Conde won the 2010 election in the first democratic transition in Guinea, the world's top exporter of aluminium ore bauxite. He was re-elected in 2015. (Additional reporting by Diadie Ba; Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Tom Heneghan) Iraqi security forces remove a concrete barriers in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016. Iraqi authorities say they have started removing some of the security checkpoints in Baghdad in a bid to ease traffic in the country's capital. The development appears to reflect the government's confidence in its ability to secure Baghdad _ even as it wages a weeks-long offensive to take back Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, from the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) BAGHDAD (AP) Iraqi authorities have started removing some of the security checkpoints in Baghdad in a bid to ease traffic in the country's capital with a population of about 6 million people, a senior military commander said Tuesday. The development appears to reflect the government's confidence in its ability to secure Baghdad even as it wages a weeks-long offensive to take back Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, from the Islamic State group. Baghdad has seen some attacks since the Mosul operation started on October 17, likely IS attempts to divert attention from the fighting. More than 25 checkpoints and 85 patrols were removed on Tuesday from Baghdad's eastern side of Rasafa, according to Maj. Gen. Jalil al-Rubaie, who added that more will soon be in the city's western side. Hundreds of much-criticized checkpoints have for years dotted Baghdad as authorities struggled to establish security. Criticism escalated after the July 3 massive suicide bombing that killed almost 300 people, the deadliest single attack in the Iraqi capital in 13 years of war. That attack forced the government to ban the use of a bogus hand-held bogus device supposed to detect bombs at checkpoints. The removal of checkpoints brought relief to some residents, but didn't alleviate their worries. "I feel happy and comfortable," said Salam Hassan, a 35-year old employee at the Higher Education from the capital's eastern New Baghdad neighborhood. "We want a beautiful Baghdad without heavy military presence, but what are the alternatives?" said Hassan, adding that there should be new plans and more intelligence efforts. Haider Fadhil didn't welcome the move. "I think it's better to keep the checkpoints despite their shortcomings," said Fadhil, a 28-year old owner of a kiosk in Baghdad's western Amil neighborhood. "The move will benefit the armed groups, the gangs and the terrorists to work more freely." Story continues Since Mosul operation started, Iraqi security forces backed by U.S.-led international coalition have managed to clear only about a quarter of the city as they have struggle to advance in the face of heavy resistance from IS militants in neighborhoods still populated by civilians. ___ Associated Press writer Murtada Faraj contributed to this report. By Valerie Volcovici and Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday banned new oil and gas drilling in federal waters in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, in a push to leave his stamp on the environment before Republican Donald Trump takes office next month. Obama used a 1950s-era law called the Outer Continental Shelf Act that allows presidents to limit areas from mineral leasing and drilling. Environmental groups said that meant Trump's incoming administration would have to go court if it sought to reverse the move. The ban affects 115 million acres (46.5 million hectares) of federal waters off Alaska in the Chukchi Sea and most of the Beaufort Sea and 3.8 million acres (1.5 million hectares) in the Atlantic from New England to Chesapeake Bay. Trump, who succeeds Obama on Jan. 20, has said he would expand offshore oil and gas drilling. A recent memo from his energy transition team said his policy could increase production in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, as well as the mid- and south Atlantic. A Trump representative did not immediately comment on the announcement. Even if Trump tries to fight the move, few energy companies have expressed a desire to drill anytime soon off the coasts thanks to abundant cheap shale oil in North Dakota and Texas. Exploratory drilling in the Arctic is expensive and risky. Shell Oil ended its quest to explore in harsh Arctic waters in 2015, after a vessel it was using suffered a gash and environmentalists uncovered a law that limited its drilling. The American Petroleum Institute oil industry group disagreed about the permanence of the ban and said Trump could likely use a presidential memorandum to lift it. "We are hopeful the incoming administration will reverse this decision as the nation continues to need a robust strategy for developing offshore and onshore energy, said Erik Milito, API's upstream director. JOINT ACTION WITH CANADA The White House and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau jointly announced their move to launch "actions ensuring a strong, sustainable and viable Arctic economy and ecosystem." Obama said in a statement that the joint actions "reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the regions harsh conditions is limited." Canada will designate all Arctic Canadian waters as indefinitely off limits to future offshore Arctic oil and gas licensing, to be reviewed every five years through a climate and marine science-based life-cycle assessment. The law under which Obama is acting enables a president to withdraw certain areas from leasing or drilling "for any public purpose," such as to limit the impacts of climate change, according to a legal briefing by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earth Justice. Under that law, a president is not authorized to "undo" a previous withdrawal, making it more difficult for Trump to target without a lawsuit. "No president has ever tried to undo a permanent withdrawal of an ocean area from leasing eligibility," said Niel Lawrence, Alaska director and attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The provision has been used by six presidents from both parties over the past 65 years, including to withdraw as much as several hundred million acres at a time, he said. 'SMART BUSINESS DECISION' In 2015, just 0.1 percent of U.S. federal offshore crude production came from the Arctic. At current oil prices, significant production in the Arctic will not occur, according to a Department of Interior analysis. There is currently no crude oil production in the Canadian Arctic. A number of companies including Chevron Corp , ConocoPhillips and Imperial Oil hold exploration licenses, but all three have put their drilling plans on hold, partly because of weak global oil prices. On the U.S. Atlantic coast, local groups have opposed offshore drilling and would fight the Trump administration's attempts to open it up. "The people of the Atlantic coast have refused to allow their way of life to be compromised," said Jacqueline Savitz, senior vice president of Florida-based ocean conservancy group Oceana. She said the Obama administration move to protect the Atlantic coast was a smart business decision since it would protect the lucrative tourism and fishing industries of East Coast communities. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Valerie Volcovici; Additional reporting by Andrea Hopkins in Ottawa; Editing by Peter Cooney) FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, file photo, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying speaks during a briefing at the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing, China. Taiwan has condemned the African island nation of Sao Tome and Principes abrupt move to break their diplomatic ties, while rival China welcomed the defection of one of the self-governing islands small number of allies. Just 21 countries and governments now have official ties with Taiwan. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File) BEIJING (AP) Taiwan on Wednesday condemned the African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe's "abrupt" move to break their diplomatic ties, while rival China welcomed the defection of one of the self-governing island's small number of allies. Just 21 countries and governments now have official ties with Taiwan. Most of the world and the United Nations do not formally recognize the island as a condition of maintaining relations with China, which considers Taiwan a part of its territory. Beijing and Taipei have competed for allies for much of the nearly seven decades since the end of China's civil war in 1949, when the defeated Nationalist government fled across the Taiwan Strait. As its economic, military and political clout has grown, China has become more successful in pulling away governments in a bid to diplomatically isolate Taiwan, though some countries, including the United States, maintain strong unofficial ties with Taipei. Taiwanese Foreign Minister David Lee accused Sao Tome of demanding "an astronomical amount of financial help," though he did not say how much. A Taiwanese foreign ministry statement said Sao Tome had been trying to "gain a higher price by lingering on both sides of the strait." Taiwan "regrets the Sao Tome and Principe government's abrupt and unfriendly decision, and condemns this action," the statement said. Sao Tome and Principe is an island nation off the coast of central Africa, with a population of almost 200,000. The impoverished former Portuguese colony relies heavily on foreign aid. China's foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday that it welcomed the decision to "break the so-called 'diplomatic' ties with Taiwan." China did not say whether it would resume its own diplomatic relationship with Sao Tome, though the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported that Sao Tome would seek to recognize China. Beijing suspended its relationship with Sao Tome in 1997 after the island nation established diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Story continues According to Lusa, Sao Tome's government issued a statement saying its officials faced the "increasingly fierce defense of national interests" by other countries. The government also cited Sao Tome's "transformation agenda and millennium development goals" in making the decision to break with Taiwan. A spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry, Hua Chunying, would not say Wednesday whether China made a financial commitment to Sao Tome. But Hua said China would consider "friendly and cooperative" relationships with other countries based on its "one-China policy." "There is only one China in the world," Hua said. She added, "By cutting ties with Taiwan, Sao Tome and Principe is showing its recognition to the one-China principle." Taiwan's remaining diplomatic allies are mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as several Pacific island nations and the Holy See. Just two African nations remain on Taipei's side: Burkina Faso and Swaziland. One former African ally, Gambia, broke with Taiwan in 2013 and established formal ties with China this year. Longtime observers of China predicted that Beijing might redouble its efforts to pull away Taiwan's allies after a Dec. 2 phone call between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and President-elect Donald Trump, the first time an American president or president-elect had publicly spoken to a Taiwanese leader since the U.S. ended its formal relationship with Taiwan in 1979. The call infuriated China, which accused Tsai's government of playing a "trick" and later warned Trump about challenging Beijing on the issue of Taiwan. China's foreign ministry did not mention the call in its Wednesday statement. ___ Associated Press news researcher Liu Zheng contributed to this report. WARSAW, Poland (AP) Poland's government on Wednesday rejected renewed pressure from the European Union for the way it is consolidating power, and opposition lawmakers pushed ahead with a plan to occupy parliament all the way into the New Year. The heart of the issue is whether Poland's populist and nationalist Law and Justice party is taking an authoritarian turn and eroding democratic institutions. The focus of concerns has centered largely on the independence of Poland's Constitutional Tribunal but also on other issues perceived as backsliding on fundamental political rights. The government stands by its democratic credentials and says that street protests and the opposition's occupation of parliament are attempts at destabilizing the state. EU Vice-President Frans Timmermans weighed in on Wednesday, voicing renewed concerns over respect for the rule of law in Poland. He said he has sent a series of recommendations and given the Polish government two months to reply. Timmermans said the 28-nation bloc "will not drop this matter." "We feel a strong, strong feeling of solidarity with the Polish people who deserve, like all Europeans, to have an independent judiciary, to have a full separation of powers," Timmermans said. Government spokesman Rafal Bochenek described the latest EU step as unnecessary. He said the government has solved its issues with the constitutional court, citing a new law regulating the court and the swearing in Wednesday of a new court president chosen by the ruling party. Poland has been in a state of political tension since Law and Justice assumed power in November 2015 and moved quickly to solidify control over state institutions. Tensions spiked last Friday over a plan by the ruling party to restrict media access in parliament. Opposition lawmakers began a sit-in around the speaker's podium that blocked proceedings on the budget. Large street protests also erupted and lasted for days. Story continues The ruling authorities have since backed away from that media plan, but a dispute continues from that sit-in a vote on the 2017 budget that ruling party lawmakers held in a separate room. Opposition lawmakers say that vote violated parliamentary procedures and must be held again. Grzegorz Schetyna, head of the opposition Civic Platform party, said protesting lawmakers will remain inside parliament's main assembly hall in protest until Jan. 11, when parliament is to resume after a holiday break. Law and Justice party chief Jaroslaw Kaczynski called the behavior of opposition lawmakers of a "criminal nature" and appealed to them to respect the law. In reaction to the protests in Warsaw, state authorities have increased security outside of parliament, erecting metal barriers. Dozens of protesters gathered there Wednesday afternoon, vowing to remain as long as the protest inside the building continues. "We will stay here til Jan. 11 to support the lawmakers, because they are fighting for us, for Polish society, so that we have full rights like in any democracy," said Elzbieta Grudzinska, an architect who has spent several nights there since Friday. ___ Raf Casert in Brussels and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw contributed to this report. By Marcin Goettig WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's lower house of parliament lifted a temporary ban on media access on Tuesday in an effort to defuse anti-government protests that have paralysed the assembly, but the opposition said more still needed to be done. The clampdown on media access planned by the ruling right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party is among a raft of measures its critics say have eroded the independence of the media and the judiciary. Fears of an authoritarian drift in Poland have brought thousands of protesters onto the streets in the past year and alarmed the country's European Union partners, though the government remains broadly popular among Polish voters. Despite the removal of the media ban, opposition lawmakers extended their occupation of parliament's debating chamber into a fifth day. They vowed to stay put until a debate and vote on the 2017 budget they say was held illegally in a side room on Friday to avoid protests and reporters is re-run with all lawmakers. The planned curbs on media access to the Sejm announced last week by PiS Speaker Marek Kuchcinski triggered demonstrations outside parliament and an occupation of the Sejm's podium and the speaker's chair by opposition lawmakers. In response, Kuchcinski temporarily barred all reporters and moved the vote to a side room. The Sejm's press office said on Tuesday the ban had been scrapped but rules on media access were still likely to change. That was an allusion to an earlier proposal to reserve all recording of parliamentary sessions for five selected TV stations and limiting the number of journalists allowed in parliament to two per media outlet. "We want, however, to give an assurance that these changes will not be introduced without broad consultations and agreements with reporters," the press office said. The opposition welcomed the move but demanded the lower chamber also re-run the disputed budget vote. PiS officials replied that the vote was legal and would not be repeated. BUDGET PROBLEMS? "PiS is retreating," the leader of the liberal Nowoczesna party, Ryszard Petru, said on his Twitter account. "Another debate on the budget is a key issue." The deputy speaker of the upper house Senate said the situation could lead to problems with Polish debt issuance. "If there are doubts around the budget, there will be doubts regarding the purchase of debt paper (by investors)," said Bogdan Borusewicz of the opposition Civic Platform. The standoff in parliament is the most serious for years in Poland and marks the sharpest escalation in tension between opposition parties and PiS since it won an October 2015 election with a large majority. Spreads in Polish 10-year bond yields over those of Germany's have risen by 81 basis points in the last 12 months to 3.16 percent amid uncertainty over the policy plans and increased borrowing needs of the new government. Poland's borrowing needs are to rise next year to 79 billion zlotys ($18.54 billion) from almost 65 billion zlotys expected in 2016 as PiS boosts social spending programmes. The eurosceptic PiS has promised a return to patriotic and Roman Catholic values in public life and a tougher stance towards the EU and historical adversary Russia. The government has placed state media and prosecutors under its direct control, passed legislation making it more difficult for the constitutional court to issue verdicts and approved a bill critics say will limit freedom of assembly. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has put the question of Poland's media restrictions on the agenda of Wednesday's meeting of the EU's executive. The government's moves have alienated many liberal-minded urban Poles, but its voter base in small towns and rural areas has remained supportive, thanks to a generous child benefit scheme and rises in the minimum wage that have helped to ease poverty, as well as cuts in the retirement age. (Reporting by Marcin Goettig, Marcin Goclowski, and Pawel Florkiewicz; editing by Mark Heinrich and Gareth Jones) By Yeganeh Torbati WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday targeted more Russian businessmen and companies over Russia's annexation of Crimea and the conflict in Ukraine, slapping them with U.S. sanctions in a move Moscow criticized as hostile. The measures come a month before U.S. President Barack Obama hands over power to President-elect Donald Trump, who has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and said it would be good if the two countries could get along. Trump's nominee for U.S. Secretary of State, Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson, has opposed U.S. sanctions on Russia, which awarded him a friendship medal in 2013. The United States introduced sanctions on Russia after it annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and expanded them over its support for separatist rebels in the East of the country. But it is unclear if the United States will maintain the sanctions on Russia under Trump, who could lift the executive orders that authorise the measures. In a statement, the U.S. Treasury named seven Russian businessmen, six of whom it said were executives at Bank Rossiya or its affiliates ABR Management and Sobinbank. The U.S. Treasury has called Bank Rossiya "the personal bank for officials of the Russian Federation" and had previously sanctioned it and the two affiliates. One of the men named on Tuesday was Kirill Kovalchuk, whom Russian media have identified as a nephew of Yuri Kovalchuk, a major shareholder in Bank Rossiya. The United States sanctioned Yuri Kovalchuk in 2014, saying he was a close adviser to Putin and his personal banker. The U.S. Treasury also sanctioned several companies and government enterprises for operating in Crimea, including two Russian firms it said were helping to build a multi-billion dollar bridge to link the Russian mainland with the peninsula, a project important to Putin. The U.S. actions bar American individuals or companies from dealing with the sanctioned people or companies. Treasury also named 26 subsidiaries of Russian Agricultural Bank and gas producer Novatek , both of which had already been sanctioned in 2014. U.S. sanctions on those companies are relatively narrow and prohibit Americans from dealing in certain kinds of debt with them. Novatek is Russia's largest non-state gas producer. Its chief executive and major shareholder is Leonid Mikhelson, one of Russia's richest men. Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS news agency that the sanctions were hostile acts by the outgoing Obama administration and Russia would expand its sanctions lists against the United States in response. "We retain the right to choose the time, place and form of our responsive actions in a way that suits us," Ryabkov told TASS. RUSSIA HOPES FOR EASING OF SANCTIONS UNDER TRUMP U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby in a news briefing on Tuesday denied suggestions that the timing of the measures was related to the transition next month. "This decision by the Treasury Department had nothing to do with the time on the clock," Kirby said. "It had everything to do with Russia's activities and support for the separatists in Ukraine and for their occupation of Crimea." The U.S. move comes a day after the European Union formally extended its economic sanctions on Russia's defence, energy and financial sectors until mid-2017, a move E.U. leaders agreed to last week. Trump's election - and the mutual praise between him and Putin - has stoked hopes in Russia that Western sanctions might be eased or lifted under his presidency, potentially spurring investment in Russia's flat-lining economy. A reversal by Trump of existing sanctions, or a softer U.S. stance on enforcing them, could also weaken European sanctions resolve. Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, told a news conference on Tuesday that Trump's forthcoming arrival in the White House promised to create the conditions for better U.S.-Russia relations. Commenting on what she referred to as "anti-Russian sanctions," Matviyenko, a close ally of Putin, said she was sure that Western sanctions would be eased or lifted altogether in 2017. Trump may face opposition to easing restrictions on doing business with Russia by the U.S. Congress, which has shown it has little patience for the Kremlin's military adventures. Both Republicans and Democrats have expressed concerns about Tillerson's ties to Russia, and many Republicans, in contrast to Trump, view Putin as a calculating, untrustworthy foe. (Additional reporting by Alexander Winning and Andrew Osborn in Moscow; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Cynthia Osterman) Trump questionnaire recalls dark history of ideology-driven science Posted on 21 December 2016 by Guest Author By Paul N. Edwards, Professor of Information and History, University of Michigan President-elect Trump has called global warming bullshit and a Chinese hoax. He has promised to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate treaty and to bring back coal, the worlds dirtiest, most carbon-intensive fuel. The incoming administration has paraded a roster of climate change deniers for top jobs. On Dec. 13, Trump named former Texas Governor Rick Perry, another climate change denier, to lead the Department of Energy (DoE), an agency Perry said he would eliminate altogether during his 2011 presidential campaign. Just days earlier, the Trump transition team presented the DoE with a 74-point questionnaire that has raised alarm among employees because the questions appear to target people whose work is related to climate change. For me, as a historian of science and technology, the questionnaire bluntly characterized by one DoE official as a hit list is starkly reminiscent of the worst excesses of ideology-driven science, seen everywhere from the U.S. Red Scare of the 1950s to the Soviet and Nazi regimes of the 1930s. The questionnaire asks for a list of all DoE employees or contractors who attended the annual Conferences of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change a binding treaty commitment of the U.S., signed by George H. W. Bush in 1992. Another question seeks the names of all employees involved in meetings of the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Carbon, responsible for technical guidance quantifying the economic benefits of avoided climate change. It also targets the scientific staff of DoEs national laboratories. It requests lists of all professional societies scientists belong to, all their publications, all websites they maintain or contribute to, and all other positions paid and unpaid, which they may hold. These requests, too, are likely aimed at climate scientists, since most of the national labs conduct research related to climate change, including climate modeling, data analysis and data storage. On Dec. 13, a DoE spokesperson told the Washington Post the agency will not provide individual names to the transition team, saying We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department. Energys interest in climate Why does the Department of Energy conduct research on climate change? A better question might be: How could any Department of Energy fail to address climate change? Established in the 1940s under the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the US national labs original assignment was simple: Design, build and test nuclear weapons and atomic energy. Since nuclear bombs create deadly fallout and reactor accidents can release radiation into the air, weather forecasting and climate knowledge were integral to that mission. Therefore, some labs immediately began building internal expertise in nuclear meteorology. When high-flying supersonic transport aircraft were proposed in the late 1960s, the labs used climate models to analyze how their exhaust gases might affect the stratosphere. In the 1970s, the labs applied weather and climate simulations developed for nuclear weapons work to analyze urban smog and the global effects of volcanic eruptions. Later, the labs investigated whether nuclear war might cause dangerous climatic effects, such as catastrophic ozone depletion or nuclear winter. Sandia National Laboratories, CC BY-NC-ND The newly formed Department of Energy took over the labs in 1977. Its broadened mission included research on all forms of energy production, efficiency, pollution and waste. In the late 1970s, for example, Pacific Northwest Lab sampled aerosol pollution with research aircraft, using instruments of its own design. By the 1980s, when man-made climate change became a major scientific concern, the labs were ready for the challenge. For example, Oak Ridge National Laboratory has run the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center since 1982, one of many DoE efforts that contribute crucially to human knowledge about global climate change. An ideologically driven purge? The Trump questionnaire harks back to the McCarthyist red scare of the early 1950s, when congressional committees and the FBI hounded eminent scientists accused of communist leanings. A principal target of suspicion then was J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who led the Los Alamos atomic bomb project, but later opposed nuclear proliferation. Oppenheimer chaired the General Advisory Committee to the AEC, direct ancestor to the DoE and saw his security clearance unjustly revoked following humiliating hearings by that same AEC in 1954. Many other physicists were also repeatedly subjected to illegal surveillance by the FBI, paraded in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, charged time and again with being the weakest links in national security, and widely considered to be more inherently susceptible to communist propaganda than any other group of scientists or academics, according to a history by author David Kaiser, on suspicions of atomic scientists in the early days of the Cold War. Another Red Scare target was John Mauchly, a chief designer of the first American electronic digital computers and a founder of the computer company UNIVAC. Mauchly was investigated by the FBI and denied a security clearance for several years. A much broader ideology-based attack on learning occurred in 1930s Germany, when the Nazis purged universities of Jewish and left-leaning scholars. Many German Jewish scientists emigrated to the United States. Ironically, the work of those immigrants in this country led to a massive increase in patent filings in their primary fields of science. The Soviet Union had one of the worst histories of purging scientists whose work was considered ideologically impure. In the 1930s, the agrobiologist Trofim Lysenko rejected Mendelian genetics, including the very existence of genes and DNA. He propounded, instead, the erroneous theory that an organism could pass on to its descendants characteristics acquired during its lifetime. Under this theory, Stalin and other Communist Party leaders believed, people who studiously practiced communist ideology could pass on their improved traits to their sons and daughters. They condemned mainstream genetics as metaphysical, reactionary and idealist. Soviet ideologues also distorted quantum mechanics, cybernetics, sociology, statistics, psychology and physiology, often by violent means. From the 1930s well into the 1980s, tens of thousands of Soviet scientists and engineers were harassed, arrested, sent to the gulags, executed or assassinated when their conclusions did not align with official communist beliefs. Climate science in the U.S. has already been targeted by government administrators. The George W. Bush administration of the 2000s literally rewrote scientific reports to weaken their findings on global warming. In 2007 testimony, former officials of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) admitted to extensive editing of documents from the EPA and many other agencies to exaggerate or emphasize scientific uncertainties or to deemphasize or diminish the importance of the human role in global warming. And when scientists views conflicted with the administrations official line that global warming science remained uncertain, the CEQ often denied them permission to speak with reporters. Worries over dismissal or intimidation The highly targeted nature of the Trump questionnaire especially the requested lists of individual scientists and leaders suggests preparations for another ideologically driven purge. On the day it was revealed by Bloomberg, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) sent Trump a letter warning him that an illegal modern-day political witch hunt would create a profoundly chilling impact on our dedicated federal workforce. Thus far, it appears the Trump administration has not responded to media queries on the questionnaire. Soviet-style government-sponsored violence seems highly improbable (though for years, some high-profile climate scientists have suffered death threats). Instead, the incoming administration might indulge in large-scale summary dismissals, program cancellations and moving entire portfolios, not only at the DoE but also at NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. Meanwhile, private and corporate-sponsored intimidation campaigns against individual climate scientists underway since the 1990s, and often backed by the fossil fuel industry will surely gain momentum and scope. An administration that directly attacks science and scientists will amplify them enormously. Its worth noting that despite considerable differences on regulatory policy, every president from Nixon and Carter in the 1970s to Bush and Obama in the 2000s supported the scientific work needed to discover, understand and mitigate climate change. Basic research on energy, pollution and climate change much of it carried out at DoE laboratories is essential to clear-eyed policy, which must be based on solid knowledge of the true costs and benefits of all forms of energy. The Department of Energys response The Trump questionnaire violates American political norms by targeting individual civil service employees, many of whom have worked for the agency for decades through multiple changes of administration. It strongly suggests that even if incoming administrators do not target individuals for retribution, these appointees will attempt to delete climate change from the roster of energy-related scientific issues. nostri-imago/flickr, CC BY-NC The best way to resist this will be to contest the basic premise. Since virtually every energy-related issue has implications for climate change, and vice versa, attempting to separate climate change from energy policy would be completely illogical and counterproductive. To oppose that separation, all DoE researchers not just climate scientists, but all scientists, lab technicians, staff, everyone involved in any way with research should insist that their work requires them to consider the causes and consequences of climate change. An all-hang-together strategy such as this would be brave and risky. Not everyone would join in. Many would fear for their livelihoods and hope to hang on by keeping their heads down. A handful might even sympathize with the incoming administrations position. In the end, such a strategy might cost even more employees their jobs. But it would send the vital message that it isnt just a few scientists, not some tiny cabal, but a vast majority of all scientists who understand that man-made climate change is real, well-understood and exceedingly consequential for human societies. It is among the most urgent political issues facing our nation and the world. Nightfall for climate science? In Isaac Asimovs 1941 short story Nightfall, scientists huddle in an astronomical observatory on Lagash, a planet with six suns. For many centuries, one or more of those suns has always been up. The current inhabitants of Lagash, bathed in perpetual daylight, have never seen stars or experienced darkness. As the story opens, the university director addresses a hostile reporter: You have led a vast newspaper campaign against the efforts of myself and my colleagues to organize the world against the menace which it is now too late to avert. The menace in question is nightfall, which comes to Lagash just once every 2,049 years. That moment is now upon them. Only one sun remains above the horizon, its last light rapidly fading due to a total eclipse predicted by the scientists, but ridiculed as unfounded in the press. In the gathering darkness, a mob bent on ruin marches on the observatory. The scientists do not expect to survive. They hope only to preserve enough knowledge and data that the next cycle will start off with the truth, and when the next eclipse comes, mankind will at last be ready for it. A dark time is coming to American climate science. Trumps mob of climate change deniers has begun its march on our present-day observatories. Like the scientists in Nightfall, we must do our utmost to ensure that after the coming eclipse, the next cycle will start off with the truth. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. If you buy something through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more. The importance of local Search Engine Optimization cannot be overemphasized, as many businesses and marketers are already taking advantage of its benefits. As the clock ticks, local SEO will continue to be relevant for enterprise companies for the following reasons: Local Scale Exposure The main reason for using local SEO is that it will target the people in the area where your business is established. This makes SEO a powerful tool for the small business owners who have recently started their enterprises. Leverage local online resources like Craigslist, Angies List, and Yelp. Advertise in local classifieds. Make sure to upload high-quality images and videos and other items relevant to your business on sites like these. Link Building and Social Sharing Another important part of using local SEO is the creation of potential partnerships between two business firms. It creates a link between them and also helps in social sharing purposes. In this process, it helps marketers to meet potential clients who can help you grow your business in the future. Meetings with other website owners and local bloggers can change your approach toward business in a positive way. You can initiate an event or a new business idea together for future profit-making strategies as well. Marketers can build and share their link with local search engines like Google Places, Bing Places, Yahoo Local, Yelp, Foursquare and YP. Growth of Mobile and Wearable Devices In 10 countries, including the U.S. and Japan, more Google searches take place on a mobile device than a PC. And with the popularity of wearable devices, like smartwatches, more and more searches will happen on the go. As a result of this, local and proximity-based searches will become more frequent. According to Adam Farra, CEO of HostGator, Society today is already transitioning from PCs to mobile Internet usage, so local SEO will be a necessity, not a nice to have in the very near future. Business Extension Your website is considered to be a second location of your business. With the help of local SEO, you are actually making it easier for the users to interact with your business. This makes it easier to locate and study your businesss webpage and also update it with informative and engaging content which is relevant for the growth of business in the future. It is very important to consider all these for optimizing your website with regard to the use of local SEO. Constant revision of content to your website will keep it updated and also your clients will have a better idea about your services, products and promotions. Profit Maker If the steps and processes are followed correctly, local SEO will help businesses make more profit along with the much needed online exposure. Traffic for your website can increase exponentially and immediately if your site is listed in the top spot of search engine results. If your business has a physical location, just how important is local SEO to your bottom line? Usefulness Functionality Price Nextdoor now make it easier for businesses to receive feedback and recommendations from their neighbors. Nextdoor is a free, private social network that requires users to register with proof of both their address and identity. The network is built around neighborhoods. You can join as a neighbor and once accepted then you officially become part of a neighborhood where you can share news, setup a Neighborhood Watch Group or even a business page. Noticing that many of the community members exchange recommendations about local business, the platform decided to add business pages for local business. Launched in 2011, the social network has grown to an audience of double-digit millions and claims to reach over 100,000 neighborhoods in the United States. Nextdoor for Small Business Who Needs a Business Page? Business pages are ideal for anyone selling goods or providing services. This could range from offering neighborhood plumbing services to running a local barbecue joint. What Can Businesses Do on Nextdoor? Nextdoor helps businesses better understand their neighborhood reputation. Through a color coded map, you will be able to see where your business has been recommended by Nextdoor members. You will also be able to reply to messages and comments that members have shared. Your neighbors can as well send you private messages. How to Setup a Business Page Setting up a business page is quite easy. Go to the business section and fill in your business name and address. The page will automatically find your business based on your contact details. Click claim and verify its your business. You will then be prompted to create your business account. You can as well claim your business page right from your personal account. Sign into your account and allow the platform to use your personal email to claim your page. However, the downside is that you will have to share your personal details with someone else if you need them to manage the page. If you own multiple businesses or your business has multiple locations, then you can claim different pages for your respective business. However, at this time, Nextdoor only allows one account per business. Conclusion Nextdoor claims that many business recommendations were already taking place and thus there was need to offer the support. Setting up an account is free and easy. Setup an account now to start receiving feedback and business recommendations from your neighbors. David Baazov Steps Away From $6.7B PokerStars Bid December 21 2016 Katie Callahan David Baazov, the Amaya founder, withdrew his $4.1 million bid efforts to take PokerStars private, reported Bloomberg. The overall value of the bid came in around $6.7 billion when accounting for debt. Baazov said in a statement Dec. 20 that the stockholder price was too lofty for him to continue. Baazov has a 17 percent stake in Amaya, making him the second largest shareholder of the company, according to data from Bloomberg. It became evident that the share price premium demanded by certain shareholders exceeded the price at which my investors and I would be willing to complete a transaction, Baazov said in the statement. Originally Baazov proposed a C$24 a share cash bid, but that bid was changed when Dubai investor KBC denied involvement in the investment. Baazov had found an alternate funder, but apparently to no avail. According to Bloomberg, Amayas market value dived to its lowest position this month: C$2.66 billion. A U.S. activist investor that upped its stake in Amaya, SpringOwl Asset Management, had criticised Baazovs offer as being too low and lacking transparency. Baazov still faces issues with Quebecs securities regulators regarding his trading, some of which required him to step down from his position as chief executive officer earlier this year. Sharelines David Baazov steps away from his PokerStars $6.7B privatisation bid, saying the price was too high. BRUSSELS (AP) As the number of victims in the Brussels suicide attacks rose to 35, Belgian police released a video of a mysterious man in a dark hat seen in the company of the bombers who attacked Brussels Airport, indicating that he is still at large. Police are seeking to identify this man, the Belgian Federal Police's website said Monday. The video's release came as a Belgian magistrate also ruled that a man identified as Faycal C., who was arrested during the police raids that followed the March 22 attacks, could be released. Faycal C. was among those taken into custody and facing preliminary terror charges. Belgian media reported the man was the mysterious suspect in the white jacket and dark hat spotted with the two bombers at the airport the morning of the attacks. But the Belgian magistrate ruled that new evidence uncovered by investigators revealed there were no grounds to keep Faycal C. in custody and he was released, the Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office said. The Belgian Federal Police's website posted a 32-second video of the still-unidentified suspect as he wheels baggage through the terminal alongside the bombers. If you recognize this individual or you have information concerning this attack, please contact investigators, police asked. Tensions remain high in the city, particularly in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, where several of those involved in both the attacks on Brussels and those in Paris last November, hailed from. Jamal Ikazban, a member of the Molenbeek council, tweeted Monday that young people in the neighborhood were being sent text messages by recruiters. Ikazban did not provide further details, beyond writing that We must ensure these recruiters can do no more damage. Belgian authorities also announced that three more people swept up in police raids that followed the attacks on the airport and on a Brussels subway train were being held on charges of participating in terrorist activities. It was not clear if the suspects ordered held by an investigating judge were linked to the attacks themselves. The three identified by Belgian prosecutors as Yassine A., Mohamed B. and Aboubaker O. were detained during 13 police searches Sunday in Brussels and the northern cities of Mechelen and Duffel. The federal prosecutors' office provided no details of the alleged actions committed by the suspects and released a fourth person without charge. The bombings, the bloodiest in recent Belgian history, were claimed by the Islamic State extremist group and confirmed Belgium's status as an unwitting rear base from which Muslim extremists can stage attacks in Europe. Many of those responsible for the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds came from Belgium. Four more people wounded in the Brussels attacks died in the hospital, Belgian Health Minister Maggie De Block announced on her Twitter account Monday. She posted: Four patients deceased in hospital. Medical teams did all possible. Total victims: 35. Courage to all the families. De Block had reported over the weekend that 101 of the 270 wounded in the blasts were still being treated in hospitals, including 32 in burn units. A doctor at one of those burn units who had once served in Afghanistan described patients' wounds as shocking. One week after the devastating attacks, which severely damaged Brussels Airport's departure area, the facility is planning to test its capacity to partially resume passenger service. Florence Muls, an airport communications manager, said 800 staff members on Tuesday will test temporary infrastructure and new arrangements designed to handle passenger check-ins. It's too early to say when airport service might actually resume, she said, adding that government and firefighters must approve the new system before Brussels Airport can start handling passenger traffic again. Before the bombings, Brussels Airport served some 600 flights a day and 23.5 million passengers per year. Lori Hinnant in Brussels contributed to this report. 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Its been called the worlds most exclusive fraternity: the men who have served in the Oval Office. Out of respect, members largely avoid criticizing one another, regardless of political party. But now theres a new pledge, and Donald Trump is writing his own rules. The soon-to-be 45th president took to Twitter on Tuesday to lay into Bill Clinton, saying the 42nd president had misrepresented a recent phone call between them in remarks reported by a newspaper that were sharply critical of Trump. He also tweeted that Clinton didnt know much about motivating voters in key swing states and that Hillary Clintons campaign had focused on the wrong states. The broadsides were just the latest example of the Republican president-elect using Twitter in unprecedented ways, including provoking China and musing about possible punishments for flag-burners. This time, he and Clinton broke with a long tradition of U.S. presidents treating one another with kid gloves, at least outside political campaigns, presidential historians said. Thats one of those many, many unwritten rules otherwise known as norms that Donald Trump has abandoned, said Thomas Mann, a scholar at the Brookings Institution. Trump was apparently provoked by an editorial in the Record Review, a small-town weekly newspaper that serves readers near the Chappaqua, New York, home of Bill and Hillary Clinton. The papers editor, Ed Baum, wrote that he and his wife had gone into a local bookstore on Dec. 10 only to find the former president also doing what appeared to be holiday shopping. For more than 35 minutes, Bill Clinton held court, answering question after question from patrons. It was a setting he was comfortable in, and he felt at ease taking questions from the group, and he responded the way he wanted to, Baum said in an interview. The article paraphrased Clinton as saying that he had received a phone call from the president-elect the day after the election and that Trump was cordial like it was 15 years ago, when the Clinton and Trump families might be seen socializing. Then, the paper said, Clinton was asked by an unnamed man if Trump is smart. He doesnt know much, Clinton replied, according to the report. One thing he does know is how to get angry, white men to vote for him. No one in Clintons orbit has disputed the encounter. A Clinton spokesman declined to comment. He appeared to still be wrestling with the election results and trying to come to terms with it, said Baum, who said he stood by and observed the encounter, taking notes. Baum said that during the course of the conversation, he identified himself to Clinton as a newspaper editor. The session was not recorded, he said. Trump fired back to his 17.6 million Twitter followers: Bill Clinton stated that I called him after the election. Wrong. The former president did offer a very nice congratulations, Trump allowed. But then he continued the criticism. Clinton, Trump wrote, doesnt know much . . . especially how to get people, even with an unlimited budget, out to vote in the vital swing states (and more). They focused on wrong states, Trump added. Trumps electoral college victory was propelled by unexpected wins in the traditionally Democratic-leaning states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin; the latter two were not frequent campaign stops for Hillary Clinton. Later Tuesday, Bill Clinton agreed that he had in fact called Trump not the other way around. Heres one thing @realDonaldTrump and I can agree on I called him after the election, Clinton said in a tweet of his own. The level of warmth among presidents has varied, but at the very least, the relationships have been characterized by mutual respect and understanding shared among the few all of them men, so far who have occupied the office. I think it comes from the empathy of having felt the pain as well as the glory, and realizing that its difficult work and its something you share with very few people on earth, said Bruce Buchanan, a presidential historian at the University of Texas at Austin. Former presidents are very sympathetic and supportive of each other. But like many things during and after this campaign, the Trump-Clinton relationship is complicated in a way not fully captured by considering them only as two men in the exclusive club of presidents. They ran in similar New York social circles after Hillary Clinton became the states U.S. senator. Over the years, Trump donated $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation and to Clinton. In turn, the Clintons attended Trumps wedding to his third wife, Melania, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in 2005. One photo capturing the foursome caught up in a moment of good humor remains an artifact of that moment in their history. A few years later, in a 2008 interview, Trump heaped praise on Hillary Clinton after she ran for the presidency and lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama. I think shes going to go down at a minimum as a great senator, Trump said at the time. I think she is a great wife to a president, and I think Bill Clinton is a great president. As they faced off in the 2016 race, both sides disavowed any past chumminess. Hillary Clinton repeatedly characterized her association with Trump as casual. And Trump declared it a product of his need to sweeten up politicians on both sides of the political aisle for the good of his businesses. Today, the election wounds are still very fresh. And it isnt clear who is most responsible for extending the olive branch: the victor or the spouse of the political loser, Buchanan said. If Bill Clinton didnt have as his spouse the person who ran against Trump, I dont think you would have heard him talk like that, Buchanan said. The comments Trump made about Hillary crooked Hillary and that sort of thing really irritated Clinton. Just Monday, Bill Clinton served as an elector in New York for his wife, tweeting afterward that Ive never been more proud to cast a vote than my vote today for @HillaryClinton. Buchanan said Trump hasnt yet learned to adjust his style to his new job. The incumbent has to put his deployment of the presidency on a somewhat more elevated plane than that, he added. I dont think hes going to enjoy the kind of reactions hes going to get if he acts like a defiant teenager caught up in a catfight when hes having a discussion with someone hes dealing with. Its not unprecedented for a former president to question the views of a sitting one. Richard Nixon, for example, was openly critical of President Ronald Reagans strategy toward the Soviet Union, said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University. But, he said, Nixon was attacking Reagans policy. He wasnt attacking his brain. Its not this kind of personal nonsense. Asked whether Clinton started the recent spat, Mann said he shouldnt shoulder the blame. He didnt go out and make a public statement, Mann said. It was a conversation in a bookstore. Usually, you ignore that kind of thing. Naftali offered a similar take but said Clinton should know that, in the age of social media, comments he thinks are private can easily become public. I think he has a right to grouse, Naftali said, but he should grouse more carefully. trump-clinton-2ndld-writethru PHILADELPHIA (AP) Ride-hailing giant Uber is blaming a computer glitch for overcharging a handful of customers, including one Philadelphia woman whose bank blocked an attempt to charge her more than $28,000 for a ride. Philly.com (http://bit.ly/2hVlyMB ) says that woman first said she got an email from Uber warning her that her financial information had been hacked. Six days later, Uber sent another email telling her that was wrong and that Uber's engineering team was aware of the error and fixing it. The San Francisco-based company says its engineers are working to ensure a similar glitch doesn't happen again. Uber says the woman's bank was never charged the $28,639.14, but a hold for that amount was placed on her account. Information from: Philly.com, http://www.philly.com/ 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. WASHINGTON A Turkish-born Dutch citizen was sentenced Tuesday to 88 months in prison by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., for providing material support to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a U.S.-designated terrorist group active in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Irfan Demirtas, 58, was a senior European-based fundraiser and recruiter for IMU leader Tahir Yuldashev before Yuldashev was killed in a U.S. drone strike in August 2009, U.S. authorities said. Demirtas admitted providing at least $65,000 and transporting several Turkish fighters to an IMU training camp during three visits between January 2006 and May 2008, when Yuldashev thanked him for the money and made threats against Americans. At the time, the IMU was actively battling Afghan and U.S. forces. It has allied itself with the Taliban, al-Qaida and the Islamic State. This is an extreme sentence to punish an extreme crime, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss of the District said, adding it to the more than five years Demirtas has already served in Dutch and French custody for his activity. Demirtas denied deliberately financing violence, saying his involvement began as charity work for earthquake victims and that most of the money was spent to buy animals as part of an annual feast. However, Moss said, videos and documents seized in a May 2008 raid on Demirtas home in Tilburg, the Netherlands, showed he was an important fundraiser for the IMU . . . He certainly knew the IMU was committed to violent jihad. Excerpts of those videos shown by prosecutors portrayed Yuldashev thanking Demirtas for providing cash and a satellite phone as well as helping bring Turkish fighters from Islamabads airport to an IMU camp in South Waziristan, near the Afghanistan border. Others showed Demirtas firing an AK-47, a machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade with Uzbek fighters, among other activities. On Tuesday, Demirtas, wearing a thick white beard, prayer cap and orange jail jumpsuit over a long-sleeved white shirt, apologized through an Arabic translator. I dont apologize once, I apologize a thousand times . . . I wish I had never met the Turks, he said, speaking from a wheelchair while he awaits surgery for a hernia. Demirtas said he had no other criminal record as a youth in Turkey or in his adult life spent in the Netherlands and added that he would commit no crime that would leave his two young children without him as their father. The IMU continues to exist. It continues to be an ally of the Taliban and al-Qaida, and it has allied itself with ISIL, or the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for an attack Monday in which a truck plowed through a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 and injured dozens, Assistant U.S. attorney Michael DiLorenzo said. The U.S. prosecutor argued in court that a lengthy sentence was needed to deter others in Europe who are considering donating or raising money for these groups. Demirtas was sentenced in France to eight years in prison for related activities on Jan. 8, 2013. Prosecutors there said that Demirtas French-based network sent at least $390,000 to the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, with more than half earmarked for Islamist militancy. Demirtas was returned to the Netherlands and released in July 2013 but was arrested again in Germany in January 2015 based on a 2012 U.S. warrant. He was extradited to the United States in July 2015. Prosecutors sought a 15-year prison term in addition to the French sentence. Assistant Federal Defender Mary Petras asked Moss for roughly the equivalent of time Demirtas has already served in Dutch, French, German and U.S. custody. With credit for good time, Demirtas could complete his term in about five years. Prosecutors said they will oppose a request from Demirtas asking to serve his sentence in the Netherlands, where his wife and two of their young children live. Petras said U.S. authorities overstated Demirtas role and ignored his acceptance of responsibility, age, poor health, lack of prior offenses, family circumstances and good conduct factors that could affect his sentencing calculation under federal guidelines during a brief period after he was set free by France. Petras cited the harsh terms of Demirtass confinement in the D.C. jail, where he spent all but 15 minutes each weekday in a windowless cell before recently being moved to a jail in Orange, Virginia. Mr. Demirtas has demonstrated . . . that he will not commit any future crimes, but rather will return to his home in the Netherlands and continue to care for his family, Petras told Moss, according to court papers. turkey-demirtas Mayor Muriel Bowser quietly approved legislation making the District of Columbia the seventh jurisdiction to allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives, but it is unclear whether Congress will intervene in the issue that has been debated in statehouses across the country. The mayor signed the legislation Monday, clearing it to be sent to Capitol Hill for a 30-day review period. Some local opponents have vowed to press the GOP-controlled Congress to use its rarely invoked power to void District laws. The earliest the law could take effect would be October 2017. The legislation, sponsored by D.C. Council member Mary Cheh, is modeled after the nations first physician-assisted suicide law, enacted in Oregon. It would allow doctors to prescribe fatal medication to patients with less than six months to live. Patients must make two requests over a period of two weeks and ingest the drugs themselves. Bowser (D) has not publicly commented on the legislation, and through a spokesman, she declined to explain why she signed it. It was one of the most emotionally charged issues of the year in the city, drawing hundreds of supporters and opponents to the council chambers and bringing some lawmakers to tears as they shared personal stories that influenced their votes. The citys health director, LaQuandra Nesbitt, raised issues with the legislation when testifying before the council last year, including that some medical professional groups consider assisted suicide a violation of the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. In an interview Tuesday, Nesbitt said the council had addressed many of her concerns with amendments from the mayors office making clear that people could not kill themselves in public places, such as on the Mall, and providing for a process for health officials to document and investigate deaths under the law if necessary. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., the citys nonvoting member of Congress, has vowed to protect the law from congressional interference. No member of Congress has publicly opposed the legislation, and a spokeswoman for Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, whose committee has jurisdiction over District laws, said the lawmaker would not comment. Congressional attempts to try to override Oregons law after it was enacted in 1998 failed. Since then, voters approved similar laws in Washington state and Colorado, as did the legislatures of Vermont and California. The practice is considered legal in Montana because of a court ruling. Aid-in-dying advocates praised Bowser for signing the legislation. They say success in the District, following passage in California last year, shows their movement can win in diverse jurisdictions after early victories in overwhelmingly white states. National polls have shown that African Americans are the most likely to oppose legislation allowing terminally ill people to end their lives, and they make up nearly half of the Districts population. Every terminally ill adult should have the freedom and liberty to make their own decisions about how they want to die in comfort and peace, in consultation with their family, physicians and spiritual leaders, said Donna Smith, an organizer with the national right-to-die advocacy group Compassion and Choices. dc-righttodie MOSCOW Turkish and Russian diplomats on Tuesday declared their intention to halt the civil war in Syria, showing no signs of a rift in their warming relationship the day after the Russian ambassador to Turkey was assassinated in Ankara in a brazen shooting. A tripartite conference here, held together with Iran, was hailed by Russians foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, as a way to overcome the stagnation in efforts on the Syrian settlement. The comment was a dig at the United States, which was absent from the Moscow meetings despite its own involvement in the Syrian conflict. But the show of solidarity could not mask underlying frictions between Russia and Turkey over the war in Syria, which the assassination of the ambassador, Andrei Karlov, had brought to the fore. The shouted words of the 22-year-old assassin, who invoked the carnage in Aleppo, echoed the anger expressed by many Turks over the course of the five-year-old civil war. Russia, a stalwart ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has thrown its military weight behind Syrias government, and launched its own punishing air raids on rebel-held areas. As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladmir Putin, work to effect a cease-fire there, the two leaders face very different stakes. For Putin, Syria holds mostly geopolitical meaning and helps Russia project power while keeping a foothold in the Middle East. He has cast Russia as a protector of legitimate leaders against the turmoil of rebellions and criticized the United States for supporting Assads opponents. But Russia has faced Islamist-led rebellion in the North Caucasus and is aware that its military actions in the Middle East could bring reprisals. Putin on Tuesday called on his security and intelligence services to take extra measures to ensure security inside Russia and outside it and tighten security of Russian missions abroad and their employees. Erdogan, on the other hand, presides over a country tangibly shaken by the war across its border, which has brought millions of refugees into Turkey, as well as the rising threat of militant attacks. For most of the conflict, which began in 2011, Erdogan was the Syrian rebels most vociferous advocate. But the rapprochement with Russia has signaled a shift toward a settlement that might keep Assad in power. While much about the assassin and his motives remained a mystery on Tuesday, authorities hunted for clues in the life of the young man, Turkish police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas. The gunman died in a shootout with police after gunning down Karlov as the diplomat spoke at a photo exhibit in the Turkish capital, Ankara. He was captured on video as he fired on the ambassador, denouncing Russias role in the Syrian war. Dont forget Aleppo! Dont forget Syria! he screamed. The assassination reflected an alarming breach of security. Altintas was allowed to carry a weapon into the event using his police identification, officials said. There was not yet any evidence to suggest that Altintas belonged to any radical Islamic group, such as the Islamic State or Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-linked group, investigators said. But senior Turkish officials, including the foreign minister, raised the possibility that the gunman was linked to a shadowy movement led by Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Turkish preacher who lives in Pennsylvania. Erdogan has accused the movement of mounting a coup attempt in July. Since then, Turkish officials have frequently implicated the group in various plots to destabilize Turkey. Gulen has denied involvement in the coup attempt, and he released a statement Monday condemning the killing of Karlov. A senior Turkish official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said Altintas took two days off work at the time of the attempted coup and then traveled to Ankara. But while both Russian and Turkish leaders moved to assuage fears of a regional conflagration, Turkey has emerged as the weaker of the two, analysts say. Relations between Turkey and Russia collapsed in 2015 when Turkish warplanes shot down a Russian fighter jet that had been running sorties in Syria and that Turkish officials say crossed into Turkeys airspace. The incident brought the two sides to the brink of war, and Russia levied harsh sanctions on Turkish goods and stopped Russian charter flights to resort cities on the Aegean. But Erdogan pivoted toward Russia following the attempted coup, snubbing Western countries he accused of a lack of support. In August, Erdogan visited Putin in Moscow, and the two leaders vowed to revive economic ties and trade. But Erdogans move to restore the relationship, after years of rallying his Sunni Muslim base for the cause of the Syrian rebellion, has made many Turks uneasy. Concessions could provoke a backlash from Erodgans constituents or some of the millions of Syrian refugees living in the country who have watched support for their uprising wane. Russia has been killing innocent people in Syria, said Muhammad, 27, a Syrian refugee from Aleppo living in Istanbul. That should not go without punishment. Aaron Stein, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Councils Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, said Turkeys government stirred up public rage at the bloodshed in Syria for domestic populist reasons. Of Altintas and Syria, Stein said: This man wasnt living in a vacuum . . . the amount of anger and fire on the local level, in the press and on TV it was unbelievable. In Moscow on Tuesday, Russia, Turkey and Iran issued a statement which Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu called the Moscow Declaration that called for an expanded cease-fire for which the three countries would act as the guarantors. Iran, Russia and Turkey are ready to facilitate the drafting of an agreement, which is already being negotiated, between the Syrian government and the opposition, and to become its guarantors, the declaration said. The three countries have invited all other countries with influence over the situation on the ground to do the same. Shoigu said that the participating countries would be able to make a difference in Syria. All previous attempts by the United States and its partners to agree on coordinated actions were doomed to failure, Shoigu said. None of them wielded real influence over the situation on the ground. In a further effort to cement his influence on the Syrian peace process, Putin has said he and Erdogan are trying to organize a new series of negotiations without the involvement of the United States or the United Nations in Astana, Kazakhstan. Cunningham reported from Ankara, and Fahim reported from Cairo. Zeynep Karatas and Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul and Adam Entous and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report. russia-turkey-syria-repeat Marion Pritchard, a Dutch social work student who was credited with saving dozens of Jews during the Holocaust, spiriting some to safe houses, hiding others under floorboards, and, in one case, executing a Nazi before he could arrest a family of four, died Dec. 11 in Washington. She was 96. The cause was cerebral arteriosclerosis, according to her family. Pritchard was recognized in 1981 by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, as one of the righteous among the nations those gentiles who, seeking no reward, risked their lives to rescue Jews from the Nazi dragnet that claimed 6 million lives during World War II. She was said to have fed, clothed, hidden or otherwise aided as many as 150 people, many of them children. She insisted that she could not have done her work without the assistance, overt or implied, of neighbors, friends and other members of the resistance. She observed, her son Arnold Pritchard recalled, that only rarely if ever during the Holocaust could one person single-handedly save the life of another. Pritchard then van Binsbergen was 19 when Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. She credited her father, a Dutch judge who abhorred the Nazi ideology, and her mother, an Englishwoman who raised her daughter in the Anglican faith, with instilling in her a sense of justice and moral resolve. The crucial moment for her came in 1942, she said, when she was riding her bicycle to her university in Amsterdam and witnessed the liquidation of a home for Jewish children. Deportation of Jews from the Netherlands began that year and would continue into 1944. Of 107,000 Jews taken away, all but 5,200 would perish. Less than 25 percent of Dutch Jewry survived the Holocaust, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was a beautiful spring morning, and it was a street I had known since I had been born, and all of a sudden you see little kids picked up by their pigtails or by a leg and thrown over the side of a truck, Pritchard said in an interview published in the volume Voices From the Holocaust by Harry James Cargas. You stop but you cant believe it. She watched two women attempt to stop the soldiers, only to be put in the truck with the children. At that moment, she said, she committed herself to fighting Nazi persecution in whatever way possible. Along with about 10 friends, she helped obtain false identity documents and hiding places to help Jews evade arrest. Despite severe food shortages, they scrounged up extra ration cards and provisions. She put her social work training to use by finding host families to take in Jewish children and prepare the families for the perils they faced. At times, she performed what was known as the mission of disgrace, falsely declaring herself to be the unwed mother of a baby to conceal the childs Jewish identity. A toddler spent several months with her before she found a safer home outside Amsterdam. For nearly three years, Pritchard cared for a Jewish man, Fred Polak, and his two young sons and infant daughter, taking up residence in the country home of an acquaintance where they were hidden. In case of a Nazi roundup, they perfected a routine by which the father and his children could slip beneath the floorboards within 17 seconds. They gave the baby sleeping pills to prevent her from crying. One day, three Germans and a Dutch policeman came to search the house and left, having failed to detect the hideaway. Shortly thereafter, the Dutchman, who nonetheless suspected that something was awry, returned and discovered the hideout. Before he could make an arrest, Pritchard grabbed a small revolver that she had kept for such an emergency and fatally shot him. I would do it again, under the same circumstances, she told an interviewer years later, but it still bothers me. She credited a local undertaker with helping dispose of the corpse by burying it with another body in a coffin. I just hope that the family would have approved, she said. Marion Philippina van Binsbergen was born in Amsterdam on Nov. 7, 1920. She grew up mainly in the Netherlands but traveled frequently to England, where she attended boarding school. When the war broke out, she was studying social work at the University of Amsterdam. She was arrested in 1941 and imprisoned for seven months after being caught at a meeting where students were transcribing Allied radio broadcasts for dissemination. Until then, I always thought I had my mothers ability to ignore fear, she remarked, according to the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. She said it was perhaps easier for her than for others to face the dangers of rescue work, her son recalled, because she was not married at the time and did not have children of her own: She was risking no life but her own. Among the most famous Jews who sought refuge in the Netherlands were the German-born diarist Anne Frank and her sister Margot. Pritchard told the Los Angeles Times that she met them by chance at a birthday party before they went into hiding and were ultimately discovered, deported and murdered. After the war, Pritchard became a United Nations social worker in displaced-persons camps. Through those assignments, she met her husband, Anton Pritchard, a former U.S. Army officer. In 1947, they were married in one of the camps. The Pritchards settled in Waccabuc, N.Y., and later in Vershire, Vt. Pritchard continued her social service work in the United States, helping refugee families. She graduated from what is now the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis and ran a psychoanalysis practice for several decades. In 2006, she moved to Washington. Her husband died in 1991. Survivors include three sons, Arnold Pritchard of New Haven, Conn., Brian Pritchard of Los Angeles and Ivor Pritchard of Washington; eight grandchildren; and a great-grandson. Pritchards wartime story was chronicled in books including Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust by Eva Fogelman and the documentary The Courage to Care (1985). Most of us were brought up to tell [the] truth, to obey the secular law and the Ten Commandments, she said in a 1996 lecture. By 1945, I had stolen, cheated, deceived, and even killed. She attributed her morals to her parents, who she said had treated her with respect and consideration from the time she was born. As a result, she observed, I grew up treating other people the same way. Erica Polak, a Dutch psychologist, was the infant girl who survived the war in the countryside shelter with her father and brothers, thanks to Pritchards efforts. My whole family is so grateful to her, she wrote in an email after her rescuer died, no words will ever be enough to describe that deep gratitude we feel. pritchard-obit FORT WORTH, Texas Tarrant County authorities say a grand jury will decide what charges a Fort Worth woman should face after she told police she fatally shot her two adult sons inside a home. Fort Worth police say officers responding to a call Sunday about a shooting found the men in an upstairs bedroom and both had apparent gunshot wounds to their upper torsos. They were taken to a hospital where they were pronounced dead. Dallas-Fort Worth television station KTVT reports (http://cbsloc.al/2i7JhfK ) the Tarrant County Medical Examiners office has identified the pair as 21-year-old Casy-Don Wilson and 20-year-old Kaylin Wilson. Police on Tuesday did not release the name of their mother or a possible motive for the shootings. ___ Information from: KTVT-TV, http://dfw.cbslocal.com SANTA FE Santa Fe's two school board positions that will be on the ballot in February attracted only one candidate each Tuesday, candidate-filing day for board seats. Lorraine Price is set to serve another four-year term and Kate Noble will become the only member of the five-member board who's a product of Santa Fe Public Schools, barring any challenges by write-in candidates in the Feb. 7 election. Write-ins can become eligible by filling out paperwork declaring their intent to run at the Santa Fe County Clerk's Office before 5 p.m. on Jan. 3, but their names would not appear on the ballot. Price was elected to her first term on the board four years ago. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., she previously worked as a teacher, assistant principal and principal in Santa Fe Public Schools. As the school board representative for Position 5, she represents a part of town that includes De Vargas Middle School, Kearny, Nava, Pinon and Salazar elementary schools, as well as Santa Fe High School. She did not return a phone message seeking comment. Noble, who resigned from her position with the city in August to go to work for yellCast, a California-based technology startup company that recently opened operations in Santa Fe, declared her candidacy for the Position 3 seat being vacated by school board president Susan Duncan, who decided not to run for re-election. I hope my experience in local economic development and relationships to the city, as well as my perspective as a SFPS graduate and as a parent to a 6-year-old kindergartner, will bring value to the board, she said in a news release. Noble spent nine years working for city government in housing and community development, economic development and as special projects administrator. The seat she's running for represents families with students who attend the Academy at Larragoite, Aspen, Camino Real and Gonzales community schools, and Carlos Gilbert and Tesuque elementary schools. SANTA FE Three men are being held in the Santa Fe County jail after another man was shot and taken to St. Vincents Regional Medical Center on Saturday with several gunshot wounds to his chest. Caleb Calandro, 34, whose last known address is in Kansas City, Mo., was booked Tuesday afternoon for attempted first-degree murder and assault with intent to commit a violent felony for allegedly shooting 28-year-old Samuel Dillon of Santa Fe several times while in a van that a group of men was using to cruise around town. Santa Fe police spokesman Greg Gurule said Dillon was in critical but stable condition Monday. A hospital spokesman did not provide an update on Dillons condition Tuesday. Gurule said Calandro was taken into custody with the help of Albuquerque police around 2 p.m. Monday near the University of New Mexico campus and was being held on a $1 million cash bail. Two other men who were in the van, Miguel Austin and Aireyon Pero, were charged with tampering with evidence and are each being held on $100,000 cash bail. According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed for Calandro in Magistrate Court, Dillon was dropped off at the hospital by two men, later identified as Austin and Pero, around 4:40 p.m. Saturday from a white 1996 Chevy van that was registered to Austin. APD officers found Austin and Pero at Austins apartment on Shepard NE in Albuquerque. A Santa Fe Police Department detective wrote that the white van found at Austins apartment had a copious amount of blood in it. Pero told Santa Fe detectives that he, Austin, Dillon and this guy Caleb were driving around and drinking beers in Santa Fe Saturday afternoon when Dillon and Calandro started arguing in the back seat, over Calandro having a gun on his hip. Pero said he tried to calm the situation, but Calandro shot Dillon four times. Pero said he believes Calandro emptied the gun of bullets because he kept pulling the trigger. Calandro got out and ran when they stopped near Rosario Hill, said Pero. Austin told detectives that he, Calandro and Pero were together earlier Saturday before they picked up Dillon and that Calandro was shooting his gun out the van window as the group was motoring up the hill to Hyde Memorial State Park. Austin said he believed the rounds Calandro fired from the van would have been used on him and Pero when the shooting started later. More than five years after the New Mexico Department of Health quit overseeing boarding homes that cater to mentally ill clients, state Rep. Deborah Armstrong who once headed the state Department of Aging and Long-Term Services says she plans to introduce legislation during the upcoming 60-day session to bring such facilities back under Health Department jurisdiction to ensure some basic safety and quality care standards. Its legislation that has been sorely needed, but avoided, for too long. In October, Journal investigative reporter Thomas J. Cole wrote a three-part series that laid out a troubling picture of mental health patients living in squalid boarding houses. Because Las Vegas is home to the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute the states only public mental health hospital the problem of unregulated boarding homes is particularly acute there. Many of the discharged patients dont have anywhere else to go, no family to take them in or any other support system besides government benefits. Some unscrupulous boarding homes are more than willing to tap those benefits to the tune of hundreds of dollars a month while providing nearly unlivable accommodations. Their clientele, fearful or incapable of blowing the whistle, have little choice but to suffer in silence, up to and including death from unsafe conditions. In Coles series, some patients reported going hungry because their boarding house operators provided inadequate meals. Others lived in cramped quarters lacking adequate heating or cooling. Some reported verbal and physical abuse, financial exploitation and violence and drug abuse sometimes by other residents. To be sure some boarding houses do their best to provide clean, safe residences that serve decent meals and ensure their clients receive their prescribed medications but theyre not the problem. Currently, the state Department of Health, Adult Protective Services and the state Office of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman say they have no legal authority over boarding homes, so the abuses continue. Armstrong, an Albuquerque Democrat, is well aware that the state is facing an estimated $69 million budget deficit this fiscal year, and a likely larger one for the next. That makes it financially impossible to facilitate much needed reforms in the way the state assists the mentally ill. But she said her proposed legislation will at least compel the Health Department to notify boarding home operators of the basic safety precautions and health standards required of them. That gives the Department of Health jurisdiction that, if they have reports of a bad actor, they can intervene and they can shut them down or make them respond, Armstrong says. Its encouraging, too, that Las Vegas Mayor Tonita Gurule-Giron, who declined to be interviewed for Coles series, has acknowledged the problem and asked Gov. Susana Martinez to re-establish the regulation, licensing and inspection of mental health boarding homes. For the roughly 200 mental health patients released annually from the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute, Armstrongs legislation might not improve their lot immediately, but its an important start. While legislators will be focused on closing the states sizable fiscal gap when they convene next month, they shouldnt overlook our mentally ill residents. The safety and well-being of those depending on boarding homes to provide basic needs have been ignored long enough. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers. SANTA FE New Mexico finally closed the book on its 2016 budget year Tuesday, but it took authorizing $594.5 million in state reserve funds or nearly 10 percent of total state spending to accomplish the task. As a result, the states backup funds are nearly wiped out at a time top state budget officials and lawmakers are facing a fresh budget challenge a projected deficit of $69 million for the current fiscal year, which started in July. Were all in this together, state Treasurer Tim Eichenberg said during Tuesdays meeting of the state Board of Finance at the Roundhouse. And were only going to get out of it together. New Mexicos Constitution requires an annual balanced budget, but a precipitous drop in oil and gasoline prices and its ripple effect on New Mexicos economy caused the states tax collections to end up falling far short of what had been expected for the 2016 budget year, which ended June 30. In basic terms, the state overspent its available revenue by just under $600 million for the year, state Controller Ron Spilman said Tuesday. That meant drastic action had to be taken to meet the balanced budget requirement. As a first step, members of the Board of Finance voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize $485.4 million in cash reserves to be used to backfill appropriations for the 2016 budget year. Then, they authorized using $109.1 million from a tobacco settlement fund nearly half the funds total value thats historically been off-limits for general state government spending. Lawmakers had signed off on raiding the fund, created in response to a 1999 settlement with big tobacco companies, as part of a solvency package approved during a special session held this fall. The money from the tobacco fund, which is invested by the State Investment Council, is expected to be freed up and made available to the state Treasurers Office at the end of this month, SIC spokesman Charles Wollmann said Tuesday. While some Democratic lawmakers have criticized Gov. Susana Martinez for failing to show leadership during the states ongoing budget crunch, several members of the Board of Finance, which includes both elected officials and gubernatorial appointees, suggested the Legislature was largely to blame for the states predicament. Board member Robert Aragon, a former state lawmaker and a Martinez appointee, said state government spending has grown too rapidly during the past several decades and accused legislators of refusing to right-size government. Clearly, these numbers are indicative of something not working in New Mexico, Aragon said during Tuesdays hearing, referring to the amount of money being transferred from reserves. New Mexico had entered the 2016 budget year in seemingly sound financial shape, with more than $613 million available in various accounts generally described as reserves. However, the ongoing revenue downturn led to sweeping budget cuts and a downgrade of the states bond rating, and there will likely be more belt-tightening to come. Martinez and lawmakers from both political parties have said the states budget crunch shows the importance of diversifying the states economy so that New Mexico is less reliant on the energy industry, but theres been disagreement on how to go about doing so. The more than $600 billion federal military budget that was approved this month includes millions for weapons research and science education specialties at the core of a partnership between the University of New Mexico and local military researchers. Officials from the university, the Air Force Research Lab and U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., joined together Tuesday at Kirtland Air Force Base to celebrate several military funding bill provisions. The news conference highlighted the parts of the bill that set aside money for weapons research and recruitment and training programs for young students, and a provision to speed up the hiring process for researchers from about a year to about two months. The provisions, Heinrich and UNM Provost Chaouki Abdallah said, strengthen the pipeline of students from New Mexico public schools to UNM to jobs at the research lab and other military and Department of Energy laboratories in the state. The university this year increased its partnership with Sandia National Laboratories, creating more internships and opportunities for students to work and learn at the labs, bringing Sandia researchers in to teach and turn research into actual products. Ronda Cole, director of the research labs STEM Education La Luz Academy, a science and technology program that hosts experiential science events for children and teens, said the programs funded by the military bill create the pipeline of those who will work for and who will run the defense and energy labs. We need them (students) to preserve our future and the nations future, said Kelly Hammett, director of the research labs program developing directed-energy weapons. Those weapons use energy such as microwaves, lasers or x-rays to disable machinery and weapons and to stun or kill people. Hammett said his departments goal is to have a directed energy weapon into the field by 2020. Heinrich said these types of weapons are the future of warfare and the provisions in the funding bill highlighted Tuesday will inspire and enable New Mexicans to claim the jobs that will help create them. Hammett said he has 21 New Mexicans with doctorate degrees on his staff, more than from any other school in the nation. Hiring for his department, though, takes a long time. He and Heinrich said Tuesday that the bill lifts six of the 14 bureaucratic steps and thus about 10 months an applicant must complete to be hired. DENVER One of two teenage girls accused of plotting to kill classmates at a suburban Denver high school has pleaded guilty. The Denver Post reports (https://goo.gl/1sywVa ) 17-year-old Brooke Higgins pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to commit first-degree murder and solicitation of first-degree murder. The conspiracy count is an adult charge, but Higgins is expected to serve time in the juvenile detention system as part of a plea deal. Higgins and Sienna Johnson were arrested Dec. 12, 2015, after police were alerted via a text-a-tip program. Prosecutors say the girls worked together to form plans to attack classmates at Mountain Vista High School in the affluent suburb of Highlands Ranch. Authorities say Higgins researched how to buy firearms as a minor and sought information on female mass shooters. Johnson is due in court next month. ___ Information from: The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com LAS CRUCES A Sunland Park man pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal drug charges, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office in New Mexico. Joel Ibarra Jr., 21, accepted a plea agreement in Las Cruces federal court and agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and money laundering. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Ibarra will be sentenced to 27 months in prison followed by a term of supervised release, which has yet to be determined. Ibarra was arrested in September 2016, following a six-month investigation that targeted a drug trafficking organization suspected of distributing cocaine in Dona Ana County. The organization was allegedly led by Joel Ibarra-Torres, 46, of Mexico. An 18-count indictment alleged that Ibarra-Torres and seven co-conspirators participated in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy from March 31 through Sept. 20. The indictment also alleged that Ibarra-Torres and two of his co-defendants participated in an international money laundering conspiracy, among other charges. During Tuesdays proceedings, Ibarra pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and money laundering. He admitted that from June through Sept. 20, he agreed with his co-defendants to distribute between 500 grams and 2 kilograms of cocaine in Dona Ana County. He further admitted that on Aug. 3, 2016, he transported $3,582 in drug proceeds through the El Paso port of entry to deliver to the source of supply in Mexico. Ibarras sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled. 2016 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at www.lcsun-news.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. _____ PALM BEACH, Fla. President-elect Donald Trump declared Wednesday that the deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Germany was an attack on humanity and its got to be stopped. He also suggested he might go forward with his campaign pledge to temporarily ban Muslim immigrants from coming to the United States. You know my plans. All along, Ive been proven to be right, 100 percent correct, Trump said when asked if the attack in Berlin had caused him to reevaluate the proposal. Whats happening is disgraceful. Trump proposed the Muslim ban during the Republican primary campaign, prompting criticism from both parties. He shifted his rhetoric during the general election to focus on temporarily halting immigration from an unspecified list of countries with ties to terrorism, though he did not disavow the Muslim ban. A transition spokesman said later Wednesday that Trumps plans might upset those with their heads stuck in the politically correct sand. President-elect Trump has been clear that we will suspend admission of those from countries with high terrorism rates and apply a strict vetting procedure for those seeking entry in order to protect American lives, said spokesman Jason Miller. But transition officials did not comment as to whether Trump could also push for the overarching ban on Muslims. The proposal remains on his campaign website. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for Mondays attack in Berlin that left 12 people dead and 48 injured. On Wednesday, German officials launched a Europe-wide manhunt for a violent and armed Tunisian man suspected in the killings. Trump was spending the final days of 2016 huddling with advisers at his palatial private estate in South Florida. He also met Wednesday with the heads of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, companies with high-dollar government contracts that Trump has criticized. Boeing has a contract to build two new Air Force One planes and Lockheed Martin builds the F-35 fighter jet. Trump, who briefly spoke to reporters outside Mar-a-Lago, said of his meeting with Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, Its a little bit of a dance. Were trying to get costs down. Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing, said his company was committed to working with Trump to lower costs on the Air Force One project. The president-elect was also finalizing his senior White House team, wrapping up a decision-making process that has been dogged by infighting among rival factions within Trumps organization. Some of Trumps original campaign aides have expressed concern to the president-elect himself that they are getting boxed out in favor of those more closely aligned with incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus, former chairman of the Republican National Committee. Among the early advisers who will not be joining Trump at the White House is Corey Lewandowski, his combative first campaign manager. But the operative wont be far away Lewandowski announced plans to start a political consulting firm with offices just a block away from the White House. Lewandowski oversaw Trumps campaign through the Republican primaries, but he clashed with the candidates family and was fired. Still, he remained close to Trump, talking with him frequently and showing up occasionally at the president-elects offices during the transition. Lewandowski said he was offered multiple opportunities to join the administration, though people with knowledge of the process said those opportunities did not include senior positions in the West Wing. The president-elect announced plans to hire economist Peter Navarro to run a new National Trade Council that will be housed in the White House. Navarro, author of Death By China, has endorsed a hard line approach toward relations with Beijing. In a statement, the Trump transition team said the creation of the council demonstrates the president-elects determination to make American manufacturing great again. Trump also named billionaire investor Carl Icahn as an adviser on regulatory reform, though the transition team said Icahn would not be serving as a federal government employee. Transition officials said additional announcements on White House jobs were expected this week. Trump opened his day by boasting anew about his Nov. 8 election victory, tweeting that his win in the Electoral College was more difficult to pull off than winning the popular vote would have been if he had tried. Democrat Hillary Clinton won at least 2.6 million more votes than Trump, an apparent sore point for the president-elect. I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote but would campaign differently, he tweeted. ___ Follow Lemire at www.twitter.com/JonLemire and Pace at www.twitter.com/jpaceDC FORT COLLINS, Colo. A Colorado congressman has pledged to support Muslim citizens amid fears about future policies that may be created by president-elect Donald Trump. The Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald reports (http://bit.ly/2hTkAkj ) that U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., on Tuesday met with officials at the Islamic Center for Fort Collins, where he spoke to members of the congregation about their concerns about the future president, including those about a Muslim registry. Polis, who is Jewish, said Tuesday that he would oppose any faith-based registry and if one were created he would register himself as Muslim as an act of civil disobedience. While campaigning, Trump said he supported a national Muslim registry for those who immigrated to the United States. ___ Information from: Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald, http://www.reporterherald.com/ The hit mobile app of the summer, Pokemon Go, encouraged players to take an average of 955 extra steps daily at least for the first week of hunting virtual beasts. So found a recent study in the British Medical Journal. To the small-mouth mole salamander, a true pocket-size monster from Ohio with long-distance urges and wee limbs, an extra thousand steps in a day? Peanuts. Like eager Pokemon Go fans, the salamanders are on the lookout for other creatures, too. The amphibian motivation is not collection but companionship, however, or at least getting to know each other in the biblical sense: A drive to sexually reproduce, determined biologists from Ohio State University and Eastern Michigan University, propels the mole salamanders on stump-legged journeys of up to nine miles at a go. Study author Robert Denton, an Ohio State University ecologist and graduate student, likened the traveling salamanders to endurance athletes. Some of them could walk for two-plus hours straight without tiring themselves, he said in a news release. Thats like a person lightly jogging for 75 miles before wearing out. (If you have not lightly jogged 75 miles recently, this would get you from Washington D.C. to downtown Baltimore, and just about back again.) The researchers had salamanders walk upon a custom treadmill until the animals were fatigued. The animals were allowed a brief pause every three minutes, in which the researchers would wet the creatures skin and check for fatigue, Denton told Gizmodo; a salamander that could not flip itself over when placed on its back was considered too tuckered out to continue. As the scientists wrote recently in the journal Functional Ecology, the average sexually-reproducing salamander could walk six miles on the treadmill. A few made it even further. The researchers compared the small-mouth salamander to a related species, which was different in one key aspect: All of the comparison animals were female clones, a type of Ambystoma salamander that does not need to mate. Instead, these unisex amphibians steal genetic material from salamanders of different species. As National Geographic put it in May, Instead of using that DNA to fertilize their eggs, the all-lady salamanders simply add it to their own genomes. Lady clones, though, could not walk as far. They became fatigued after traveling only about a quarter of the distance of the small-mouth salamanders. One possible explanation was that the lack of breeding weakened the animals endurance. Essentially, not mixing up your genomic material often enough likely causes some problems for genes that you need to make energy, Denton said. The need to breed translated to the wild: Denton and his colleagues collected genetic data from salamanders in distant wetlands. The DNA analysis, taken from 445 samples of salamander tails in Ohio, indicated that the sexually-reproducing salamanders traveled twice as far from their birth wetlands than the clones did. (Actually following a salamander on a journey through the Buckeye State was deemed too impractical, and salamander skin was too sensitive to attach a radio or other sort of tracker.) Studying breeding habits of amphibians are more than an excuse to put a salamander on a tiny treadmill. As a group, amphibians which includes salamanders as well as newts and frogs are some of the most threatened animals on earth, with approximately one in three species declining. In the United States, frogs like the western toad are vulnerable to a disease brought about by a fungus called chytrid; in Europe, a form of chytrid has also ravaged the local salamander populations. During their long hauls through Ohio, the salamanders face threats less exotic than killer fungi, too. They could get stuck in a place without access to water. It has to be incredibly intimidating for these tiny salamanders, Denton said. They could get eaten by a crow or a raccoon. http://wapo.st/2hS173c http://wapo.st/2hG53Gr salamanders ST. CHARLES, Ill. A jury in suburban Chicago has found a Texas man guilty of first-degree murder in a plot that involved driving across the country to kill his grandmother in order to inherit half her estate. The jury in Kane County returned its verdict Tuesday against 44-year-old Richard Schmelzer, who lives in the Dallas suburb of Frisco. Prosecutors during his trial said Schmelzer lived an extravagant lifestyle that left him behind on his mortgage and deeply in debt. They argued Schmelzer in July 2014 drove hundreds of miles to East Dundee, Illinois, to stab 85-year-old Mildred Dodie Darrington in her bed. Schmelzer, the married father of four children, stood to inherit at least $300,000 upon her death. He faces up to 60 years in prison when hes sentenced next month. Late-night TV hosts have cast 2016 as a downright apocalyptic year, but for television it was actually pretty great. Here are our picks for the best TV episodes of the year. It was a tall order to pick just 10 if you have a favorite TV episode from 2016, let us know in the comments. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story: Marcia, Marcia, Marcia In the years following O.J. Simpsons 1995 trial for murder, Marcia Clark remained one of its most misunderstood figures But the famed prosecutor found vindication in FXs enthralling miniseries, which focused on what millions of viewers didnt see in the 90s: the sacrifices Clark (portrayed by Sarah Paulson) made as a single mother, the casual sexism she both from her male colleagues and the media, and how deeply she wanted to see justice for Nicole Brown Simpson. One aptly-titled episode was told almost entirely from Clarks perspective, offering an illuminating and necessary portrait. Also consider: The Run of his Life, A Jury in Jail, The Verdict Black Mirror: San Junipero The episodes in this anthology series tend to be unsettling and take place in the future. San Junipero, on the other hand, is a love story that begins in the 80s. The episode, which stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis as two women who form an intense connection after meeting at a club in a surreal town, is one of the seriess most optimistic. Its also one of the most beautiful, cinematic episodes of television this year. Also consider: Nosedive, Playtest Atlanta: B.A.N. Donald Glovers understated dramedy was full of surprises and this sort-of bottle episode (directed by creator and star Donald Glover) is one of its best. The shows up-and-coming rapper Paper Boi appears as a panelist on a low-budget news show, where a conversation about transgender issues offers powerful, open-minded social commentary about race, gender identity and the dangers of dismissing entire communities as homophobic. The most brilliant parts of the episode are a hilarious segment about a black teenager convinced hes an older white man and a Trix cereal spoof commercial that delivers a scathing verdict on excessive use of force by police. Also consider: Nobody Beats the Biebs, Juneteenth, The Jacket The Americans: The Day After The Americans is one of the best shows on television period. For all of its thrills and suspense, the Cold War-era espionage drama also gets to the heart of our humanity. This episode zeroes in on a November night in 1983 as the Jennings family gathers to watch ABCs The Day After. The episode puts the fictional familys secrets and fears into real-life context, especially if you remember watching the grim TV movie about nuclear war, which earned record ratings. Also consider: The Rat, Travel Agents, Persona Non Grata Underground: Cradle In its first season, the WGN America show put the Underground Railroad into thrilling context by subtly connecting slavery to current issues around race. Seven episodes in, Underground shifted its perspective to the children of the show. Cradle follows children grappling with dire circumstances beyond their control and explores how hate, mistrust and tragedy are handed down through generations. Its a heartbreaking episode that showcases the immense talent of the shows youngest actors. Also consider: The Macon 7, The White Whale BoJack Horseman: Fish Out of Water Fish Out of Water is a good place to get a feel for what makes Netflixs animated comedy about a washed-up 90s sitcom actor (who happens to be an anthropomorphic horse) such an unexpectedly wonderful show: Its tender, rich in detail and deeper than you might expect. The episode finds BoJack attending an underwater film festival, where he tries in vain to connect with a former collaborator and winds up playing a surrogate father to a baby seahorse. Theres almost no dialogue for most of the episode, but theres a really, really good reason for that. The payoff, which comes at the very end, is laugh-out-loud funny. Also consider: The BoJack Horseman Show, Brrap Brrap Pew Pew, Stop the Presses Blackish: Hope In February, the ABC family sitcom Blackish turned its attention to a heavy topic: police brutality. But the emotional episode still manages to be funny. In an interview with The Washington Post, creator Kenya Barris said he set out to explore the quandaries parents face while talking to their children about the serious issues they so often encounter in the news. Seen through the eyes of the Johnsons and their kids 7-year-old twins and two teenagers the discussion is full of nuance and varying perspectives. Also consider: Goodish Times, Whos Afraid of the Big Black Man? The Night Of: The Beach The pilot episode of The Night Of was riveting well-paced, and established the HBO miniseries as essential viewing. The show follows Naz (Riz Ahmed), an unassuming Pakistani American college student charged with a horrific murder, though he has a huge memory gap from the night it occured. The pilot takes its time introducing Naz and his family and also presents an eccentric lawyer (John Turturro) as an unlikely hero. Also consider: A Dark Crate, Samson and Delilah Girls: The Panic in Central Park Lena Dunhams HBO show took a refreshing and unexpected turn in Season 5, devoting an entire episode to Marnie (Allison Williams) as she confronts the imminent end of her months-long marriage. During an aimless walk around New York City, Marnie runs into her ex-boyfriend Charlie, who looks and sounds a lot different than he had in early seasons of the show, before actor Christopher Abbott left Girls under somewhat mysterious circumstances. Taking cues from romantic films (most notably The Panic in Needle Park), the episode is beautiful, sad and familiar the kind of wistful reality check we tend to experience, one way or another, in our mid-20s. Also consider: Queen for Two Days, I Love You Baby Saturday Night Live: Tom Hanks SNL had a standout year, buoyed by an unusual election cycle. Its hard to pick just one favorite episode, but if we did it would be the October installment hosted by Tom Hanks. From the shrewd political commentary of Black Jeopardy to the irresistible David S. Pumpkins, the episode confirmed that SNL would have our backs when we needed it the most. Also consider: Dave Chappelle, Lin-Manuel Miranda tv-best-episodes Donald Trumps campaign and its supporters spent a good portion of the 2016 campaign arguing that Hillary Clinton was secretly very ill and not up to the task of being president. Trumps doctor, by contrast, isnt too worried about his patient dying in office at least, not when it comes to the future of the country. If something happens to him, then it happens to him, Dr. Harold Bornstein says. Its like all the rest of us, no? Thats why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying. That amazing quote comes courtesy of a new interview Bornstein did with STAT. And its part of a veritable murderers row of curmudgeonly quotes from and anecdotes about the well interesting physician. A few other quotes from the interview: About the lack of disclosure about Trumps health and his being the oldest president: Theres nothing to share on a regular basis. And: Ronald Reagan had pre-senile dementia. I mean, seriously, did they share that one with you, or did Nancy just cover it up? Before agreeing to the interview, Bornstein pleaded for the reporter to leave him alone. Please stop this nonsense!!! he said in an email. On having second thoughts about the interview being published afterward: I happen to have known the Sulzbergers [the family that owns The New York Times] for 50 years. Im going to make sure you dont ever work again if you do this. Trump isnt an old man the way my grandfather was an old man. But Hillary Clinton: Shes an old lady. Shes an old lady. Its funny, isnt it? On his son volunteering to work for Trumps campaign: What a great experience, for an 18-year-old to go to Trump Tower in a presidential year, with this character, of all people. Bornstein, in case you havent noticed, is kind of like Trump, if Trump were less rich and an eccentric gastroenterologist. Witness this anecdote: The back of his business cards are written in Italian, with the phrase dottore molto famoso, or very famous doctor, below his name. (For 10 years, he took private Italian lessons from women he found through Craigslist postings, paying them about $60 an hour for weekly sessions, he said.) A photograph of his psychoanalyst hangs in his office. As this reporter left his office, Bornstein pointed out what appeared to be a small, naked doll sitting on the ground heres a naked doorstop. Bornstein says he isnt sure if hell continue as Trumps physician while Trump serves as president. trump-doctor A truck plowed through a bustling Christmas market in Berlin on Monday evening, killing 12 people and injuring 48 people. Heres what we know so far: Monday, Dec. 19 The Breitscheidplatz square in Berlin hosts one of the citys most famous Christmas markets. On the evening of the attack, visitors to the market were drinking mulled wine and enjoying the sights and the sounds. Shortly after 8 p.m. local time, there was a loud noise, according to witness accounts. We heard a loud bang, Emma Rushton told CNN. And we started to see to our left Christmas lights were being torn down. Rushton said she saw a truck driving into the crowd. The truck veered onto the sidewalk and crashed among market stalls. It traveled 50 to 80 feet before coming to a stop. Some victims were pinned under the trucks wheels. Others were struck and tossed onto the pavement. Jan Hollitzer, deputy editor in chief of Berliner Morgenpost, told the BBC that he saw people lying on the ground and under the truck. First responders carried people away on stretchers as police with automatic weapons cordoned off the area. Police said two men were inside the truck. One, who was found dead, was a Polish national. German police use social media to ask people to stay at home and spread no rumors. A Pakistani asylum seeker was detained in the attack, which German Chancellor Angela Merkel called a likely act of terrorism. Police released the suspect on Tuesday, citing a lack of evidence. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for inspiring the attack, calling the attacker a soldier responding to its call to target nations fighting the group in Iraq and Syria. Flags are being flown at half-staff across Germany. Some Christmas markets remain closed. Berlins Brandenburg Gate was lighted up black, red and gold in memory of those who died in the attack. Wednesday, Dec. 21 German police are seeking a Tunisian asylum-seeker in deadly Christmas market attack, according to law enforcement officials. berlin-timeline Family members of the 19-year-old woman killed by an Albuquerque police officer filed their third lawsuit in the case, this time specifically targeting the officer who fired the fatal shots for allegedly violating Mary Hawkes civil rights. Her family previously brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the city, arguing the city was negligent. They also have filed a complaint to enforce the Inspection of Public Records Act against the city to try to obtain records in the case. All of the cases are pending in state court. The family on Tuesday filed a 43-page civil rights complaint against Jeremy Dear, which detailed the now-fired Albuquerque police officers history of civilian complaints, internal affairs investigations, a child custody dispute and his behavior after the shooting he and another officer on scene spent a day at Hooters and a hole-in-the-wall massage parlor shortly after the shooting. Defendant Jeremy Dear is the bad apple, the suit states. His gratuitous killing of Mary S. Hawkes on April 21, 2014, was the culmination of his bromance with fellow officer Sonny Molina. Together, these officers created danger that would otherwise not have existed; used unwarranted, brutal force against Mary S. Hawkes, causing her death; and then relaxed after killing her by going first to Hooters restaurant and then to a hole-in-the-wall for a Chinese massage. Dears attorney couldnt be reached for comment Wednesday. Dear was fired by the department over an internal affairs investigation into his lapel camera use, but a personnel board voted to give him his job back. A city appeal of the boards decision is pending. The latest suit says that Hawkes civil rights were violated when Dear shot her during a foot chase by Wyoming and Zuni in Southeast Albuquerque. Hawkes was a suspected car thief and police said she pointed a gun at Dear. But attorneys for Hawkes family have raised questions about the polices account of the shooting. The suit states Hawkes DNA wasnt on the gun found at the scene, and that video of the shooting, made by on-body police cameras, has been altered or deleted. Shannon Kennedy, an attorney for the Hawkes family, said information obtained in depositions and other proceedings from the Hawkes familys prior lawsuits, which included hiring experts to review police reports and data, were used to write this weeks civil rights lawsuit against Dear. This litigation seeks to deter other officers, like Defendant Officer Jeremy Dear, from taking human life with impunity, the suit states. Video allegations The lawsuit says that the officers on scene the night of Hawkes death knew they would be exonerated if there wasnt video of the shooting. The suit refers to a sworn affidavit by Reynaldo Chavez, the former police custodian, who said parts of videos that officers made the night of the Hawkes shooting were deleted or edited. The lawsuit says footage made by officer Isaac Romero appears to be missing the first 20 seconds and footage made by officer Tanner Tixier appears to have been altered. The new lawsuit also refers to a Dec. 7 letter from Ed Harness, the director of the Civilian Police Oversight Agency, which said the CPOA suspended its investigation into the shooting after a preliminary investigation by the group found that there may have been criminal activity by members of the Albuquerque Police Department. Harness said they made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice and also discussed the matter with the independent monitoring group overseeing Albuquerque police reform. We identified aspects that might be criminal and we didnt think it was appropriate for APD to investigate, Harness said in an interview. In the aftermath of the Donald Trump election victory, interest in West Virginia among national political figures and the media is the greatest it has been since John F. Kennedys discovery of poverty in the mountain state during his 1960 presidential campaign. The angry, rural, high school-educated, white male voter is being dissected and analyzed by every pundit and politician. To those of us from West Virginia, its highly amusing to hear commentators in Washington and New York attempt to explain why out-of-work coal miners, steelworkers and construction workers voted so overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. In the next four years, the Trump administration and Congress will face many tests, but none will be more telling than what they do to help rescue West Virginia. Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Trump made powerful appeals to the states unemployed miners. Sanders, speaking at a rally in Huntington, pointed out that men in McDowell County have the lowest life expectancy in the nation at 64 years. He compared this with men in Fairfax County, Virginia, who have a life expectancy of 82 years. To address the regions economic, health and social problems, the Vermont senator proposed a $42 billion federal investment to restore coal communities. Trump made coal the centerpiece of his West Virginia campaign. Placards pledging that Trump Digs Coal blanketed his rallies as he promised to repeal unfair trade agreements and unleash an energy revolution that will bring vast new wealth to our country. The history of West Virginia is littered with countless oversold, failed promises by politicians of both parties. During the Great Depression, my grandmother raised 12 children in Eleanor, one of three Subsistence Homesteads championed by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Kennedy, who credited West Virginia with giving him the Democratic nomination, used his first executive order to start a pilot food stamp program, and the first recipient was an out-of-work coal miner from Welch. Lyndon B. Johnson created the Appalachian Regional Commission to jump-start economic development in the 13 Appalachian states. And Ronald Reagan made a forceful appeal to coal miners, saying: We have an estimated one-half of all known coal reserves in the world. Why arent we mining more? Despite these promises and many more, the state has never found economic equilibrium. The governor-elect, Jim Justice, ran a Trump-like campaign with a simple, provocative theme: Tired of being 50th? The answer for most West Virginians is yes. West Virginia voters rallied to Sanders and Trump because they see no hope for themselves or their children the poverty and hopelessness that shocked FDR and JFK are even more entrenched. The West Virginia economy, long tied to coal, has always endured a boom-and-bust cycle. The fear now is that the boom part wont come again. The economic collapse has contributed to the rising tide of heroin and opioid addiction. To visit southern West Virginia today is to see what it looks like when every element of society starts to collapse. West Virginia is the only state with a smaller population today than in 1950. McDowell and Logan counties, in the heart of the coal belt, had a combined population of more than 175,000 when JFK took office. Today, its under 53,000. Both Charleston, the state capital, and Huntington, the home of Marshall University, had populations of greater than 85,000 in 1960. Each has fallen below 50,000 today. Smaller cities run the risk of turning into ghost towns altogether. The United Mine Workers once enjoyed more than 800,000 members; now the states total coal mining workforce of 14,000 couldnt fill a stadium. But its not just mining jobs that have disappeared. Ravenswood, a small town about an hour north of Charleston, was once a must-stop for political candidates who wanted to shake hands with the 4,000 steelworkers employed at the aluminum factory. That plant started to decline in the 1980s and has sat idle since 2009. My home town of Nitro is in the center of what was once the states Chemical Valley. Monsanto, Union Carbide, DuPont, FMC and a number of other factories were the backbone of the local economy. My father, and almost every man I knew, worked in these factories. They enjoyed decent wages, comprehensive health benefits and pensions. Almost all of them were World War II veterans, Democrats and union members. They were grateful for the factories, excited by the new schools and roads in the town, and confident that Nitro was an important part of the nations economy. Today, Nitro is a shell of its former self. The factory jobs are long gone. A dog track and a Walmart are the major employers, and the once-prosperous central business area is dotted with the usual mix of antique shops and shuttered stores. With the loss of private jobs comes the corresponding pressure on county and municipal services. Boone County, faced with the loss of nearly $9 million in severance taxes due to the closing of coal mines, has reduced the paychecks of school employees by $175 per week. This was after eliminating the jobs of 11 county employees, a security officer and several part-time janitors. Nicholas County laid off 24 employees and reduced the pay of the remaining staff by 20 percent. And this was before the devastating flood of this past summer. Mingo County has seen its coal revenue drop by more than 50 percent in five years. Laying off staff and implementing pay cuts have become a normal part of the countys operations. In towns and communities across the state, families with a working vehicle and a few dollars have packed up and moved on. The elderly, the drug-addicted and the true believers hold on in desperate hope that a better future will emerge. Its undeniable that money is a major part of the equation. Congress appropriated around $100 billion to help address the consequences of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy combined. Contrast that level of support with an announcement this past May by the White House, the Commerce Department and the Appalachian Regional Commission of $45 million in funding to help coal communities diversify their economies. Many of Trumps West Virginia supporters may not have a college degree, but they understand the difference between $100 billion and $45 million. If West Virginias challenges were the result of a natural disaster rather than an economic disaster, the support would be exponentially greater. State residents are hoping that President-elect Trump will change this practice. It will take more than federal funding to save West Virginia. The nations major charitable organizations need to take a second look at Appalachia. The work of the Gates Foundation in Africa is admirable, even heroic. But the economic, social and health challenges in places such as McDowell County deserve attention, too. The private sector needs to do more, as well. The pharmaceutical industry, which has been battered by 20 years of bad publicity, could make West Virginia a test site for restoring its reputation by helping with the drug crisis and sponsoring start-up enterprises. And nationally prominent academic institutions can partner with West Virginia University and challenge their students and faculty to help imagine a sustainable, post-coal economy. This isnt an act of charity. West Virginia matters. To let one of our 50 states sink into economic oblivion is a threat to everything this country stands for. West Virginia has promise. There are pockets of prosperity and plenty of motivated, highly talented people willing to do their part to build a new future. But they need urgent, massive help. To be fair, West Virginians must demonstrate that theyre prepared to help themselves, which starts by taking on damaging stereotypes: indifference to the environment, lack of interest in education, and racial prejudice. As anyone who drives though the state knows, its stunningly beautiful but blighted with trash and abandoned cars, tires and appliances. Its hard to persuade outsiders to care about the state if the residents dont appear to care themselves. The image of uneducated hillbillies hangs over West Virginia. There is no easy answer to this stereotype, but at the very least, the legislature should signal that it values education by putting an immediate stop to further budget reductions for the states public universities. Since 2008, West Virginia has cut funding for higher education by 42 percent, a decrease of more than $2,000 per student. With one of the nations lowest rates of college graduates, the state simply cant afford to continue to defund higher education. And residents should speak out forcefully against the racist rhetoric of Pamela Taylor, the executive director of the Clay County Development Corporation, who posted a deeply offensive comment about Michelle Obama on Facebook. The announcement that she has been reinstated in her government-funded position is one more body blow to the states reputation. The coal era is fading, but we wouldnt be the country we are today economically or militarily without the sacrifice of generations of West Virginians. Like many of his predecessors, Trump has made a series of bold promises to coal miners, their families and their communities. They accepted his promises at face value, and now he must deliver. Tell me what the West Virginia economy looks like in four years, and I will tell you whether working-class people are regaining their faith in the federal government. McGinn, a West Virginia native, is CEO of McGinn and Company, a reputation management firm in Arlington, Virginia. westvirginia-comment Jeffrey Morrill of Albuquerque was convicted Tuesday in federal court on two counts of child exploitation by distribution and one count of child exploitation by possession. Graphic, sexual images of young girls ranging in age from six to 10 were in his possession at the time of his arrest, the state Attorney Generals Office said in a news release. The defendant waived a jury trial and Second Judicial District Judge Zamora found Morrill guilty Tuesday. on the mentioned counts. Predators need to know that if they exploit and victimize children in New Mexico, the Office of the Attorney General Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force will pursue and prosecute them,Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a statement. The investigation was in conjunction with the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Department and was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Hughes and Assistant Attorney General Tony Long. The Internet has created a culture where anybody anybody can go from obscurity to fame overnight. This notoriety doesnt require consent. Often its uncontrollable, ruinous and impossible to stop. Take Pizzagate. What began as a fake news story about a child sex ring at the Washington pizza parlor Comet Ping Pong ended with an armed man firing an assault rifle inside the restaurant. Even before the attack, lives had been turned upside down: For weeks, the restaurant and its commercial neighbors had received harassing phone calls and emails. It had been slandered online. Law enforcement said nothing could be done. Thats where I come in. My law firm represents victims of online harassment and sexual assault. We stand for the belief and witness it anew multiple times a day that everybody is a moment away from having his or her life destroyed by a jealous ex, an enemy or even a demented stranger. All the angry person need do is post a picture or rumor. The internets relentlessly archiving memory and creeping search-engine algorithms provide eternal life in cyberspace to the most humiliating information, true or not. Heres a pattern we see frequently: A clients nude pictures, originally shared in a trusting relationship, get posted by her ex to a website dedicated to hosting revenge porn. Thousands of men frequent these sites each day. They email our clients. Soon he or she is assaulted by hundreds of unwanted, threatening emails, texts and social-media requests from strangers who blindly accept that she is the diseased whore her ex describes her as. These strangers compete with one another in the sites comment threads to unearth as much personal information about her as possible her social-media accounts, phone numbers of her parents employers, email accounts of her underage sisters. They use that information to stalk and harass. With a click of a button, the angry ex has presented the victim on a platter for the internet to devour. This is harassment by proxy; revenge has never been more efficient. Just because youve never taken naked pictures or dont have enemies doesnt mean youre safe. We have clients whose bikinis are photoshopped off and posted onto revenge porn sites, who are filmed getting dressed or engaging in a sexual act without their knowledge, whose faces are masterfully superimposed onto a porn stars bodies, whose rape videos have gone viral. Other clients are advertised as prostitutes for sex on websites such as Craigslist and Backpage. In one case, more than 40 strangers showed up at a clients home and workplace to intimidate her. Weve handled cases in which our clients went on one online date with the offender. One client, a male, decided not to go on a date with someone he determined seemed too emotionally unstable; his name and social-media profile picture wound up afterward on an online STD registry. In all cases, the mob is at the ready to ignore the truth and scare the bejesus out of the target. Victims often seek assistance from law enforcement, but return from precincts demoralized. Their plight is often not understood by those taking their report who have a limited grasp of social media. (That was the case for journalist Amanda Hess, who in 2014 was asked What is Twitter? by the police officers taking her report of death-threat tweets.) The law must keep up with these kinds of crimes. While 34 states have revenge porn laws, they dont cover the resulting online harassment from mob viewers. Harassment laws typically require direct contact with the victim and a course of conduct. So if the original offender simply uploads content onto a site and sits back while the mob attacks, neither of those requirements are met. Similarly, a thousand people may each anonymously send the victim one terrorizing communication again, not a course of conduct by any single person. Plus, law enforcers are highly unmotivated to open a case in which the cyber forensics may eventually show that the offender lives in a country on the other side of the equator or at least is logging in through an IP address suggesting that. Law enforcement officers shy away from investigating tech cases, especially when they are lowly misdemeanors with an anonymous offender, let alone a thousand anonymous offenders. There is good news: A combination of legislation, technology, law and advocacy can improve online life. We need laws that acknowledge harassment by proxy and that attribute actions of the incited mob to the original upstream offender. Rep. Katherine M. Clark, D-Massachusetts, is in the vanguard, introducing legislation stopping some of the most formidable online acts. One bill criminalizes the malicious publication of private information, another prevents blackmailed demands for sexual acts, and a third punishes people who falsely report emergencies causing SWAT teams to be dispatched. Other important proposed legislation penned by Clark is focused on the infrastructure of law enforcement one requiring the Justice Department to publish statistics related to cybercrimes and funding, another providing funding to hire and train law enforcement officers to investigate cybercrimes and to procure advanced computer forensic tools. Meanwhile, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-California, introduced the Intimate Privacy Protect Act this year to criminalize non-consensual pornography, with co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle. Although its a no-brainer that tech companies must stop the abuses on their platforms, angel investors and venture capitalists must refuse to fund new companies that dont build community safety standards into their earliest designs. We must also support the efforts of the grass-roots change-makers such as the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and Without My Consent. Never before has there been such a license for maliciousness. Tweets from our highest elected official have led to online harassment. To prevent a trickle-down effect of cruelty, we must take action. Nobody is trying to sanitize the internet into a place exclusively for compliments and happy unicorns birthing sparkly glitter hearts. But if we do nothing, the internets ruling class will be comprised of those with the most demented psyches and not enough to do. Goldberg is an attorney in Brooklyn at C.A. Goldberg PLLC and a board member at the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. online-revenge-comment ________________________ Best in the State Washington Post's The Fix, 2011, 2009 Best in Pittsburgh Region PoliticsPA, 2011 "[W]idely cited as one of the oldest and most-read political blogs in the city" Pittsburgh City Paper, 2007 ________________________ Dogs are wonderful creatures, read the first line of a ruling from a Canadian judge. Over the next paragraph, the judge continued singing the praises of mans best friend: Dogs are often highly intelligent, he wrote. Sensitive. Active. Constant and faithful companions. Many dogs are treated as members of the family with whom they live, the judge noted. But none of that matters when it comes to the court of law, concluded Justice Richard Danyliuk of the Court of Queens Bench for Saskatchewan. At least not in his court of law. After all is said and done, a dog is a dog, Danyliuk wrote in an August ruling that was recently reported by CBC News. At law it is property, a domesticated animal that is owned. At law it enjoys no familial rights. Danyliuk would spend 15 more pages outlining why in this case of a divorcing couple arguing over what would become of their pets the court could not treat the dogs in question as children. The case landed in court after the wife argued that she should keep their three dogs 13-year-old Quill, 9-year-old Kenya and 2-year-old Willow while allowing for visitation rights of an hour-and-a-half at a time to her soon-to-be ex-husband. Danyliuk noted that the womans request was more akin to an interim custody disposition than it is to a property order and that he could not comply, because for legal purposes, dogs must be treated as property. He was firm in his ruling. I say without reservation that the prospect of treating pets as children would be treated holds absolutely no attraction for me, Danyliuk wrote, while acknowledging that many dog owners do treat their dogs as family members. My present task is not to act with emotion or to validate the personal perspective of pet owners within the legal context. Rather, it is to interpret and then apply the law. And for legal purposes, there can be no doubt: Dogs are property. Danyliuk elaborated further by citing other cases and arguing that dealing humanely with pets and considering them property were not mutually exclusive. In one section of the ruling, Danyliuk used what he called a somewhat ridiculous example of butter knives to make his point about what I see as a somewhat ridiculous application. I strongly suspect these parties had other personal property, including household goods, he wrote. Am I to make an order that one party have interim possession of (for example) the family butter knives but, due to a deep attachment to both butter and those knives, order that the other party have limited access to those knives for 1.5 hours per week to butter his or her toast? Danyliuk suggested that the case should have never landed in his courtroom in the first place. I am sure that to [the divorcing couple], this is the most important matter, Danyliuk wrote. But, he added: To consume scarce judicial resources with this matter is wasteful. In my view, such applications should be discouraged. David Grimm, author of Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship With Cats and Dogs, said Danyliuks ruling is not unusual, because under U.S. and Canadian laws, animals are considered property. Which means that they basically legally have the same status as a couch or a toaster, Grimm told The Washington Post. Thats what it is sort of in theory. In practice, however, things can become muddled particularly when it comes to household companion animals like cats and dogs. In his book, which covers the evolving status pets have had within the U.S. legal system, Grimm noted that pets can now be beneficiaries of trusts in most American states. In a few, rare instances, some animals have been assigned lawyers. In addition, Grimm also noted that all 50 states have felony animal cruelty laws, and punishments in animal abuse cases are up to 10 years in prison or $125,000 in fines in some states. Clearly, nobodys going to fine you for setting your couch on fire or taking a bat to your toaster, Grimm said. There are things like that where clearly the law is treating animals . . . differently than other types of property. That was not the case in the 1800s, however, when animal anti-cruelty legislation described the offense as a misdemeanor at first. Only in the last 20 to 30 years did animal cruelty become a felony offense, he said. That evolution has, in part, mirrored peoples changing relationship with their household pets. People in the United States spent more than $60 billion on their pets in 2015, a figure that has increased steadily from about $20 billion more than two decades ago, according to the American Pet Products Association. These days, dogs (and, to some extent, cats) might be sent to doggy day care, eat organic pet food, attend pet spas and watch dedicated TV channels. They wear clothing, appear in family photos and participate in rituals and activities vacations, weddings, funerals people typically reserve for other human beings. Weve sort of reached this really interesting relationship with our companion animals, Grimm said. Just because we treat pets like children [at home], does that mean we should treat them like children in the eyes of the law? And I think thats causing a lot of divisions among legal scholars and in the general public. The Animal Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit that advocates for animals legal interests, has argued that considering pets strictly as property is too narrow of a view. Anti-cruelty laws do not exist for toasters, evidence that the law recognizes that animals deserve special protection, according to ALDF attorney Stefanie Wilson. At least one state Alaska has, by law, empowered courts in divorce proceedings to consider the animals well-being in making a custody determination, she added. Arguably, almost all courts have the discretion and authority, in a divorce case, to appoint a special guardian or master to consider and make recommendations for the best outcome for Fido, Wilson wrote in an email to The Post. The law is starting to catch up to the reality of the special place that our pets hold in our lives and in society. Grimm expects to see rulings over dogs in divorce cases continue to evolve, albeit more slowly than, say, animal cruelty laws did. Is it right that a judge says that that cat is a piece of property? I think in the next few decades, this is probably where the relationship with our companion animals is going to get really interesting, he said. Decisions like this will play into that. divorce-dogs BERLIN The Latest on the deadly truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market (all times local): 7:20 p.m. German authorities say the suspect in Mondays deadly truck attack in Berlin was under covert surveillance for several months this year. Berlin prosecutors told The Associated Press in a statement Wednesday that they launched an investigation against Anis Amri on March 14 followed a tip from federal security agencies. The tip warned that Amri, who was considered a potential threat by authorities in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, might be planning a break-in to finance the purchase of automatic weapons for use in an attack. Surveillance showed that Amri was involved in drug dealing in a Berlin park and involved in a bar brawl, but no evidence to substantiate the original warning. The observation was called off in September. ___ 5:45 p.m. German authorities are offering a reward of up to 100,000 euros ($105,000) for the arrest of a Tunisian man suspected of involvement in the fatal attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. Federal prosecutors describe 24-year-old Anis Amri as of average height and weight, with black hair and brown eyes. In a public notice issued Wednesday, prosecutors warn that the suspect could be dangerous and armed, and urge members of the public to notify police if they see him. ___ 5:05 p.m. Berlins city government says 12 people are still being treated for very serious injuries after the truck attack on a Christmas market. Twelve people were killed and 48 wounded in Monday nights attack. Berlins state health ministry said Wednesday that 12 people are still in hospital with very serious injuries, among them an unspecified number in critical condition. However, it said that an increasing number of people with lighter injuries are being discharged. ___ 4:55 p.m. A wanted notice for a Tunisian suspect in the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin says the man should be considered armed and dangerous. The notice, a European arrest warrant from Germany obtained by The Associated Press, indicates he has at times used six different aliases and three different nationalities. It names Anis Amri as having Tunisian citizenship, born in the town of Ghaza. But it lists multiple aliases, many of them variants on his name, and Egyptian and Lebanese citizenship as well. German authorities say they rejected the mans asylum request in July. __ 4 p.m. A senior German security official says the Tunisian man being sought in connection with Mondays truck attack in Berlin had been considered a possible terror threat by German authorities. The interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Ralf Jaeger, says security agencies exchanged information about this person in the joint counter-terrorism center, the last time in November. Jaeger told reporters on Wednesday that state police had launched proceedings against the man on suspicion that he was preparing a serious crime. Separately, he says German authorities rejected the mans asylum request in July. ___ 2:50 p.m. Stephan Mayer, a lawmaker with Germanys governing conservatives who speaks on domestic security matters, says the new suspect in the Berlin market attack being sought by German authorities is thought to be a Tunisian with ties to Islamic extremists. Mayer says the man, whose wallet was found in the cab of the truck that slammed into a busy Christmas market in the German capital on Monday evening, was apparently meant to be deported from Germany earlier this year. Mayer spoke Wednesday after being briefed by security officials about the investigation into the truck attack that left 12 people dead and nearly 50 injured. ___ 2:40 p.m. Germanys interior minister has confirmed that authorities are seeking a new suspect in the deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere says Wednesday that a manhunt has begun in Germany and in the European Unions border-free Schengen area. He gave no details on the suspect. He also would neither confirm nor deny details published in German media, which reported that hes a Tunisian whose documents were found in the truck that killed 12 people and injured nearly 50 as it plowed into a Christmas market on Monday evening. ___ 2:30 p.m. A Tunisian official says German investigators are trying to determine the role of a Tunisian man whose identity papers were found in the cab of the truck that smashed into Berlins Christmas market. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the German government hasnt publicly commented on the potential suspect, said Tunisian authorities are requesting more information on the German probe into Anis Amri. He declined to comment further. A Tunisian living in France was shot to death after carrying out a similar attack on Bastille Day revelers in the southern French city of Nice, killing 86 people. Bouazza ben Bouazza ___ 2:00 p.m. The German government has agreed on a bill that will strengthen security considerations when it comes to video surveillance. The move has been planned for months but its approval by the Cabinet on Wednesday comes two days after a deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin that sent German authorities scrambling for footage of the suspected perpetrator. The proposed law would make data protection commissioners give greater weight than before to the protection of life, health and freedom when deciding whether to permit video surveillance in public places. Germany has traditionally had very restrictive data protection rules. The bill needs to be approved by Parliament. ___ 1:00 p.m. The top security official in Germanys western state of North Rhine-Westphalia is planning to make a statement related to the truck attack in Berlin. Officials say the states interior minister, Ralf Jaeger, will make a statement at 3:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) Wednesday. German media report that police are searching for a Tunisian man whose documents were found in the cab of the truck that plowed into a Berlin Christmas market Monday, killing twelve and injuring dozens. The mans documents were issued in Kleve, a town in North Rhine-Westphalia state on the border with the Netherlands. ___ 12:15 p.m. French President Francois Hollande says French intelligence services are in constant contact with German counterparts about extremist threats, notably since the truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market. Hollande signed a book of condolences at the German Embassy in Paris on Wednesday for the 12 killed in Mondays attack. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group and echoed a similar attack in the French city of Nice in July. Hollande promised solidarity and support for Germany, just as German authorities offered help when France has been attacked in recent years. Hollande did not provide details of French police efforts to find the driver who rammed a truck into the Berlin market and is believed still at large. ___ 12 p.m. German media report that authorities have identified and are searching for a suspect in connection with the fatal truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market. The Allgemeine Zeitung in Mainz, weekly Der Spiegel and daily Welt reported Wednesday that police found documents in the truck cab that were issued to a Tunisian man. They did not cite any sources for the information. German authorities had to release two suspects arrested in the wake of Mondays attack due to insufficient evidence. They had no immediate comment on Wednesdays reports. Twelve people were killed and nearly 50 were injured in the attack on the Christmas market in Berlin. ___ 11:40 a.m. Germanys president has visited patients at a Berlin hospital who were wounded in Mondays truck attack. The hospitals medical director says that they are suffering from pelvic and other injuries. President Joachim Gauck said he spoke with three patients at the Charite hospital who faced operations on Wednesday and he was impressed by their composure. He also met a man who had rushed to help in the aftermath of the rampage and was hit by a steel beam. The Charite took in 13 patients after the attack, two of whom died. Medical director Ulrich Frei says that, among those who are still being treated, four have severe trauma of the lower extremities and the pelvis. ___ 10:40 a.m. The Israeli Foreign Ministry says that an Israeli man was seriously wounded in the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin and his wife is missing. Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said Wednesday that the man is in stable condition following surgery. He says Israel is in touch day and night with German authorities to try to find the wife. He declined to disclose the couples personal details, saying only that the couple was in Berlin on holiday and that their relatives had arrived in Germany on Tuesday. ___ 8:30 a.m. German investigators were searching Wednesday for the killer or killers in Mondays attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market after a man arrested soon after the rampage was released for lack of evidence and the Islamic State group claimed responsibility. Police in Berlin said they had received 508 tips on the attack as of Tuesday night, but it wasnt clear whether prosecutors had any concrete leads. The location of a new Route 66 Visitor Center atop Nine Mile Hill will offer sweeping views of Albuquerque, the Rio Grande valley and the Sandia Mountains. Its a sight thats greeted travelers along Route 66 or Interstate 40 for decades, and itll be the centerpiece of a $3.4 million project to celebrate Albuquerques history along the Mother Road. City Councilor Klarissa Pena and other local officials on Wednesday celebrated the purchase of the property. The first phase of construction could be done in a year though whether $3.4 million is enough to finish the project will depend on how extensive the ultimate plans are, she said. For 20 years, Pena said, community members have talked about the possibility of a car museum, an event center or amphitheater, and a restaurant on the West Side to celebrate Albuquerques presence along Route 66, which is now known as Central Avenue. Its the most spectacular view, she said Wednesday during a news conference at the site. The project is funded jointly by the city, Bernalillo County and state Legislature. The county recently acquired about five acres at Nine Mile Hill for the project, and community meetings to discuss the design of the visitor center will follow. County Commissioner Art De La Cruz said the project is now a blank canvass that will be shaped by what the public wants. This project has been a long time in the making, he said. One goal, supporters said, is to encourage drivers along I-40 to leave the interstate, enjoy the view and take Central Avenue through the city. Central is the longest urban stretch of Route 66 still intact. Before the interstate highway system, Route 66 connected Chicago and Santa Monica, California, starting in the 1920s. Its one of the most famous roads in America celebrated as a reminder of Americas car-friendly culture. CENTENNIAL, Colo. A convicted Colorado robber who was sent back to prison after being mistakenly released decades before serving his 98-year sentence asked a judge Wednesday to set him free again, arguing it would be unfair for him to remain imprisoned after he started a family, got a steady job and reformed himself. Rene Lima-Marin, 38, was convicted in 2000 on multiple counts of robbery, kidnapping and burglary after he and another man robbed two suburban Denver video stores at gunpoint. A judge issued him back-to-back sentences for a total of 98 years. But a court clerk mistakenly wrote in Lima-Marins file that the sentences were to run at the same time. Corrections officials depend on that file to determine how much time an inmate should serve. Lima-Marin was released on parole in 2008. He held a steady job as a window glazer, got married and had a son before authorities realized the mistake in January 2014, when a team of police officers returned him to prison to complete his sentence. First Assistant Attorney General James Quinn said the case was an unfortunate mistake but not official misconduct, as Lima-Marins attorneys allege. Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. did not immediately decide whether Lima-Marin should be released, saying he needed time to do more legal research. He got the case after Colorados highest court refused to free Lima-Marin earlier this year, saying he should ask a lower court to consider his release instead. Lima-Marin fought back tears as he told the judge hes experiencing severe emotional pain because of his separation from his wife, her son who he adopted and another son they had together during his freedom. Im supposed to be the head of the household, the person whos supposed to guide and lead them and Ive been taken away from them, he said. I was stupid, and a dumb kid who made a mistake. But prosecutors said Lima-Marin should not be freed because he knew about the clerks error and never notified authorities as he set about rebuilding his life. Lima-Marins co-defendant, Michael Clifton, also would have been mistakenly released early, but the error in his file was uncovered after he filed an appeal in his case. Clifton is serving 98 years in prison. Lima-Marin filed his own appeal of his sentence in 2000 but, in a rare move, asked that it be dismissed less than a year later. Prosecutors said that showed he learned of the clerical error while in prison, and feared further court action on his appeal would call attention to the clerks mistake. Lima-Marin said he asked few questions when his public defender told him he would serve much less than 98 years and urged him to withdraw the appeal. All I knew was, my prayers had been answered, Lima-Marin said of his early release from prison. An Arab-American vlogger known for his YouTube pranks claimed he was kicked off a Delta Air Lines plane Wednesday morning because other passengers felt uncomfortable that he spoke to his mother on the phone in Arabic. Adam Saleh, a 23-year-old internet personality, tweeted a video showing him and a friend, Slim Albaher, about to be removed from the plane. Guys, we spoke a different language on the plane and now were getting kicked out, a visibly upset Saleh said to the camera. This is 2016. 2016. Look, Delta Air Lines are kicking us out because we spoke a different language. You guys are racist. I cannot believe my eyes. As his video and subsequent tweets went viral, Salehs account was questioned even as his agent insisted to The Washington Post that the incident was not a prank. In the video, as Saleh panned the camera around the plane cabin, a few passengers waved. Several could be heard shouting: Bye! At least one passenger could be seen coming to Salehs defense, telling flight attendants that he thought what was happening was insane. I am upset that thats happening, really upset, the passenger said. Is there freedom of speech? They can speak in whatever language they want to on the plane. Delta officials confirmed that two people were removed from the flight from London Heathrow International Airport to New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport. Two customers were removed from this flight and later rebooked after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort, Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said in an email to The Post early Wednesday. Were conducting a full review to understand what transpired, Durrant said. We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect. Durrant did not identify the passengers who were removed from the plane. Several hours later, the airline released a more detailed statement saying it was gathering all of the facts before jumping to any conclusion. Plans are in place to immediately speak with our crew and other passengers when the flight lands this afternoon, the statement read. We will provide an update once we have more information. Flight-tracking records showed the plane departed Heathrow at 11:03 a.m. local time, about an hour after its scheduled departure. It was scheduled to land at JFK around 2:45 p.m. Salehs tweets were shared tens of thousands of times. Within a few hours, the original video depicting him on the plane had been retweeted more than 300,000 times and #BoycottDelta had become the top trending topic worldwide on Twitter. On Wednesday, skeptics noted Salehs history and cast doubt on his account of getting kicked off a Delta flight. Saleh started making YouTube videos as a teenager and has since achieved some level of fame as a YouTube star and vlogger. He is known for playing pranks on people, and often those recorded pranks center on the different treatment of Muslims in everyday life. Some took place on airplanes, such as one Saleh posted in February titled COUNTING DOWN IN ARABIC ON A PLANE EXPERIMENT!! Saleh and his friend later admitted at least one of their most popular videos, showing alleged discrimination by a New York City police officer, was staged. It wasnt (real), it was a dramatization (of) a re-enactment of what happened to us whilst filming in our traditional clothing, Saleh wrote in a subsequent video apology. We just wanted to bring awareness to the world that we werent going to be treated unjustly. Just last week, an Australian news site used airport security footage to debunk one of Salehs most recent video claims that he stowed away in a suitcase to fly from Melbourne to Sydney. Saleh seemed aware of his reputation in a live-streamed video he took at the gate after he deplaned. And on my mothers life. Ill say it for the eighth time, this is not even over-exaggeration, this is literally exactly what happened, Saleh said into the camera. I cannot believe my eyes. I cannot believe what the heck just happened. His agent, Naz Rahman, said in a phone call from London that what happened on the plane was not staged. This isnt a prank; this is not a prank, Rahman told The Post. We wouldnt go to this extent to do a prank. I know hes a prankster, but you can see it clearly on video whats happened there. A call to Saleh went straight to voice mail, and he did not immediately respond to a text message Wednesday. But the New York Times said that it reached Saleh at Heathrow and that he insisted he wasnt pulling a stunt. The only thing I can say is, I would never film a phone video, he told the Times. Thats when its really serious, and I must film. The Times noted that Salehs video camera was in his luggage. Rahman said Saleh had stopped over in London to spend a day there on the way back to New York after wrapping up an international trip that started Nov. 14. On Wednesday morning, Rahman said, he dropped Saleh off at the airport and was later told he had gotten onto the plane fine. He always calls his parents every time he flies, just gets their blessing before he goes, Rahman said. Somebody shouted, We dont understand what youre saying. Youre making us feel uncomfortable. It kind of erupted from there. Rahman said Saleh called him immediately after he was made to leave the plane. A subsequent tweet from Saleh simply titled Please help us get back to New York linked to a Periscope video that live-streamed their phone conversation, Rahman said. I swear on my mothers life they just kicked us out, Saleh is seen telling Rahman. This was their reason. They were like, Oh, um, you spoke loud. And Im like, what the hell? Thats your reason? Thats your excuse? Saying that we spoke loud? Then give us a warning if we spoke loud. Well say sorry, thats it. Saleh told his agent that, despite protests from some other passengers on their side, they were made to deplane. Everyone in there knew that what me and Slim did was just speak a different language, Saleh said. All the racist people in there, they were like, we feel uncomfortable. But since there were like 20 of those racist people, the captain came and he kicked us out. On Twitter, Saleh said he had spoken to police at Heathrow airport and been made to go through security screening once more after the incident. A few hours after his initial video post, Saleh tweeted that he had been rebooked on another flight to New York City on a different airline. When reached by phone, a Heathrow airport spokeswoman referred all questions to Delta and did not provide further details. Its not an airport issue, she said. Its an airline issue. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has reported a growing number of incidents in which a Muslim person is removed from a flight because he or she posed an imaginary threat, dubbing the phenomenon flying while Muslim. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced last month that it would begin highlighting data on the number of discrimination complaints the agency receives, noting that such complaints against airlines had risen 37 percent in the first nine months of 2016 from the same period last year. Salehs purported encounter Wednesday is the latest in a string of tense, high-profile incidents that have taken place on Delta Air Lines flights in recent months. Last week, video emerged showing an officer dragging a woman from a Delta flight from Detroit after she refused to follow boarding rules, according to airline and airport officials. In November, not long after the presidential election, a Delta passenger recorded a man standing in the aisle of the plane, shouting about politics. We got some Hillary b- here? he screamed. Come on, baby! Trump! Thats what Im talking about. Hey, baby! Donald Trump! Hes your president, every g- one of (you). If you dont like it, too bad. The man was allowed to remain on the Nov. 22 flight from Atlanta to Allentown, Pennsylvania. But Delta later apologized for the disruption, saying that the man shouldnt have been able to stay in the plane. The airline told employees that the man will never again be allowed on a Delta plane. In October, Tamika Cross, a black physician, tried to come to the aid of a passenger who had fallen ill on their Delta flight but was dismissed by a flight attendant who doubted that she was a medical professional, Cross said. Her experience triggered a change in Delta policy. vlogger A group of California businesses and individuals is accused of trying to bilk thousands of New Mexicans by sending out deceptive mass mailings about foreclosure relief and home loan modification, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday. The suit, filed by Attorney General Hector Balderas, says the groups mailings mimicked a legitimate government program aimed at helping distressed homeowners. These mailers were intended to look like official governmental communication and included a logo which used the name `Keep Your Home New Mexico to induce homeowners into believing the program was official, according to an AGs news release. The Keep Your Home New Mexico program was set up and funded by the state AGs Office following the foreclosure crisis in 2008, the suit says. The California group charged upfront fees for its claimed services, which is illegal in New Mexico unless levied by an attorney licensed in the state, the suit says. It names one attorney, Thomas A. Moore, who is from California, and the Roosevelt Law Center, also of California. A list of companies named includes Miracles for Homeowners Marketing, Inc. The mailings went out in 2013 and 2014 to 4,400 New Mexicans, at least two of whom paid a total of $4,000 in advance payments, according to the suit and to AG spokesman James Hallinan. That money was reimbursed during the AGs investigation, Hallinan said. Cancel the order! Donald Trump, the incoming president of the United States, tweeted ominously about a contract with Boeing to build Air Force One, the state-of-the-art airplanes he and future presidents rely on. It took a matter of hours for Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg to get on the phone with the president-elect and smooth things over. On Wednesday, two weeks after the kerfuffle, he made his way south to Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate to meet face to face. Trump had slapped a $4 billion price tag on the program to build two more of the next generation of planes and he had pronounced it a waste. Analysts said that while the Air Force had budgeted $2.7 billion for the Air Force One program, the costs would likely grow to about $4 billion after the planes were actually manufactured. The planes are expected to be operational by the mid-2020s. The tweet shook the political and defense contracting worlds, as Trump challenged the aviation giant and threatened to pull a contract responsible for hundreds of American jobs. But after his meeting with Trump on Wednesday, Muilenburg faced the media, hat in hand, so to speak. Were all focused on the same thing here, were going to make sure that we give our warfighters the best capability in the world and that we do it in a way that is affordable for our taxpayers, Muilenburg said. And his business head set around that is excellent. It was a terrific conversation. Got a lot of respect for him. Hes a good man. And hes doing the right thing. As for that $4 billion price tag, Muilenburg promised taxpayers would get a break though by the time the contract is finished and the planes are flying, Trump is not likely to be still in office. Were going to get it done for less than that, and were committed to working together to make sure that happens, he said. And I was able to give the president-elect my personal commitment on behalf of the Boeing Company. VIDEO: Speaking briefly to the press after meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said the company was committed to working together with the administration and execute their Air Force One contract for less than the current $4 billion estimate. URL: http://wapo.st/2hUEqLK Embed code: trump-boeing-1stld-writethru Praepitcha Smatsorabudhs business was illegal but brilliant. She would buy designer handbags from department stores, then return fake versions she had specially made in China and Hong Kong. Most of the real bags she would sell on Instagram and eBay. Prosecutors say she also kept dozens or perhaps hundreds of high-end bags for herself. She did it all, according to court documents, because of her compulsion to have expensive handbags. Smatsorabudh, of Arlington County, was arrested in June and sentenced Wednesday to 33 months in prison by a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia. I think what you did was ingenious, Judge Bruce Lee told her. Its just stealing, but the Internet has given us so many more ways to steal. I thought Id seen everything. To avoid detection, Smatsorabudh went to more than 60 T.J. Maxx stores in 12 states, using 16 different credit cards. At one point, she was the companys biggest online customer in the world. T.J. Maxx was able to identify at least 226 fake handbags Smatsorabudh returned. Neiman Marcus found 10 more. The scheme cost the two department stores over $400,000 in fraudulent returns. Moreover, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kellen Dwyer argued, some of the knockoff bags she returned were likely resold to customers who paid top dollar. That is a very big concern, he said in court, bigger than $400,000. Some buyers have also claimed that Smatsorabudh, 41, sold them bags online that designer stores confirmed were well-made fakes. It all made Smatsorabudh, a preschool teacher, rich enough to drive a Lexus, fly first class and stay in luxury Miami and Las Vegas hotels, according to prosecutors. But defense attorney Nina Ginsberg said her clients behavior was fueled by trauma, not greed. This whole collecting of these handbags, returning of these handbags it became a substitute for human connection, which I think is profoundly sad, Ginsberg said in court. Smatsorabudh, who grew up in Thailand, Ginsberg said, was physically and emotionally abused by her parents, who also fought regularly and openly cheated on each other. I think it was brought on by . . . extreme bouts of loneliness and isolation. Smatsorabudh, her thin arms trembling and with tears running down her face, apologized profusely Wednesday for her crime. She was convicted of wire fraud. What I did was so wrong, she said. I deserve to be in jail. Along with her sentences, she agreed to pay $403,250 in restitution. Dwyer said he would recommend that the federal government first draw on any funds garnered by the sale of her car, handbags and other forfeited possessions. When she is released, Smatsorabudh will almost certainly be deported to Thailand, both parties agreed. She was in the United States legally but is not a citizen. Her Instagram account, called richgirlscollection, remains active. After hundreds of shots of handbags, sushi and French pastries, the last picture is a quote. It was posted around the time when her home was searched by federal agents. What comes easy, wont last, it reads. What lasts wont come easy. handbag-scam Elizabeth Medina signed so many autographs on Wednesday that she lost count. Erik Fender, who sat next to Medina during an artist meet-and-greet at the pueblo-owned Starbucks on 12th Street, had much the same experience. Medina and Fender are among the five pueblo potters from around New Mexico whose original designs have been replicated on a new line of hot-selling travel coffee mugs offered across the street at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. The centers gift shop began taking orders for the mugs on Thanksgiving, and customers bought all of them before they even arrived, shop manager Alejandria Rodriguez said. The store quickly placed another order, then ran through that stock too. It is now placing customers in a queue for when the next order arrives from the manufacturer, some time after the holidays. I knew it was going to be popular, said Fender, whose original design showcases San Ildefonso Pueblos customary black-on-black style with a hint of turquoise and his most distinctive touch, a bit of sterling silver. I had a lot of people asking me how to get one, but I didnt think it would be this this is overwhelming. Its amazing. Fender who said he represents at least the fourth, if not the fifth or sixth generation of potters in his family has had fans clamoring for a mug since the Starbucks opened last December. The pueblo-owned corporation that runs the cafe had commissioned Fender, Medina (Zia), Frederica Antonio (Acoma), Patricia Lowden (Acoma) and Robin Teller (Isleta) to create clay, traditionally fired pots in the shape of travel coffee mugs. The store has had the pieces on display in a glass case since day one, generating a steady stream of customer inquiries. Medina, whose design incorporates the traditional Zia sun symbol, a spinach plant, a roadrunner, a raindrop and more, said the attention the mug has brought has spurred interest in her other work. She specializes in usable pieces like storage jars and serving bowls. (She and husband Marcellus Medina also collaborated on the Gildan New Mexico Bowl trophy, itself a piece of pottery.) Im very surprised, she said of the coffee mug frenzy. Its very good for us as artists. Its a lot of advertising. Even with the traditional pots I make, theyre really selling good because of this publicity were getting. The 20-ounce, double-walled poly-resin tumblers cost $25. They are sold out now, but will eventually be available again through the cultural centers gift shop, Shumakolowa, and its website. Rodriguez said orders have come in from places as far away as Germany and Poland. It goes to show these traditional and contemporary designs resonate with people in New Mexico, the Southwest and across the world, she said. WASHINGTON Sens. John McCain and Charles Schumer used to have a lousy relationship. The Arizona Republican and New York Democrat came from different backgrounds and focused on distinct legislative priorities. They were two hard-charging senators who were both aggressive in their courtship of the media. The New Yorker and the Arizonan even broke into an open feud when, during a 2011 debate on defense policy, McCain joked that Long Island was regrettably part of the United States of America. Schumer demanded an apology: All of America saw how heroic Long Islanders were on 9/11. Five years later, times have changed. The duo is emerging as a potentially critical force in the new world order of President-elect Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress. In the last 10 days, McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Schumer, the incoming Senate minority leader, led a bipartisan push to create a robust investigation into Russian hacking of political committees that intelligence officials say was designed to promote Trumps candidacy. Through TV appearances and joint letters, the senators are pushing for an investigation that Trump is so far rejecting and other Republicans have been reluctant to tackle because such a probe might appear to undermine the results of the 2016 elections. Theres no doubt [the Russians] were interfering, McCain said Sunday on CNNs State of the Union, stepping up the pressure on congressional GOP leaders. The question is now, how much and what damage? And what should the United States of America do? An hour or so later, Schumer held a news conference in New York City echoing McCains call for a detailed investigation, and a few hours afterward the carefully choreographed effort included a formal letter from McCain, Schumer and two senior senators on foreign policy issues, Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to establish a select committee to conduct a thorough investigation. Its unclear whether they will be successful in their quest, as McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., have said any such probe will be handled by their chambers Intelligence committees. But this latest act in a budding McCain-Schumer partnership could turn into a repeat performance in the new Trump era, on issues including national security, immigration and even the institutional work of the Senate. Each has a more powerful perch than previous years. Schumer is taking over his caucus at a time when he will be considered the most powerful Democrat in Washington. McCain will be sworn in Jan. 3 to a seventh term after a blowout victory over his opponent that far exceeded Trumps narrow Arizona win, giving McCain a wide berth to make decisions without fear of political backlash. Additionally, Trump at times insulted McCain during the campaign, so the incumbent owes no favors to the incoming president. Schumer and McCain could not seem much more stylistically different, but the two have a common ability to command the spotlight and shape debates inside the Capitol, something that becomes exponentially more powerful if they are working on the same side. McCain, 80,is a hero from his time as prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, a five-and-half-year stint during which Schumer, 66, attended Harvard University, graduated and then began his studies at Harvard Law. Schumer was elected to the House in 1980 from his native Brooklyn, and McCain came along two years later after having moved to the Phoenix area and won a Republican-leaning district. Schumers focus was always on legal matters, crime and gun control; McCains was on national security. McCain won his Senate seat in 1986 and set off on a long march to try to become president, running unsuccessfully in 2000 and then winning the Republican nomination in 2008 before losing to President Barack Obama. Schumer won his Senate seat in 1998 but never had any greater ambition than to become a powerful senator. McCains early view of Schumer was as a partisan with sharp elbows. He oversaw the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and added 14 seats to the Democratic caucus in four years. When McCain suspended his 2008 campaign to fly to Washington to try to help cinch a Wall Street rescue package, the meeting ended in insults and no deal. In a Senate-floor speech the next day, Schumer took direct aim at McCain and blamed him for the faltering talks. He said McCain could help in only one way: Get out of town. The first thaw in their relationship, according to those close to the senators, came when a large group of senators started discussing Senate rules on presidential nominations four years ago, the first of two Schumer-McCain negotiations that delayed for a few more months a Democratic move to end filibusters on most nominees. A few weeks after those first talks, they joined forces again as the leaders of a bipartisan group of eight senators that wrote legislation to revamp immigration laws and increase border security, which culminated in a 68-to-32 vote approving the measure. They spoke so much that year that Schumer knew McCains phone number by heart and blurted it out during a video interview with Politico, prompting the producers to bleep out the numbers. But their work on immigration died in the House, where conservatives would not allow a debate on the issue. Now, theyre back together again. McCain has been careful to keep McConnell in the loop about his moves with Schumer, but he has made clear that he wont let the matter of alleged Russian interference in the elections just drop. McCain has always viewed Russian President Vladimir Putin with deep suspicion. He is now trying to balance his work with Schumer to forcefully investigate the latest accusations while also reassuring Republicans that hes not trying to overturn Trumps win. I have seen no evidence that the election would have been different, McCain said on CNN. But that doesnt change the fact that the Russians and others, Chinese to a lesser degree, have been able to interfere with our electoral process. mccain-schumer a type of weapon referring to the rise of Protestantism, with its origins in German lands When one thinks about censorship, he or she usually has in mind restrictions imposed on the contents, reproduction and distribution of printed works. Indeed, for over a century before the first enactment of a copyright law, the Statute of Anne in 1709, there was institutionalized censorship of printed works by both the Crown and the Church. But censorship during that time was not limited to books; works of art also were subject to attempts at censorship. Perhaps the most noteworthy case was the interrogation carried out in Venice on July 18, 1573, by the holy court of the Inquisition with respect to the large-format painting created by the Renaissance master, Paolo Veronese , also known as Paolo Caliari. Despite the temporal distance between those 16th century events and our modern world, the circumstances surrounding that attempt at censorship has a remarkably contemporary feel.Veronese, best-known for his use of colors, was among the most distinguished of the Venetian Renaissance painters, mentioned in the same breath with Titian and Tintoretto . He was renowned for his paintings of feasts and pageants and he was the leading painter of ceilings of his time. The painting in question was first known as "The Last Supper", and it was commissioned for the rear-wall of the refectory of the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Castello, Venice The painting was challenged for its alleged "irreverence and indecorum. Indeed, given the costumes, setting, and overall extravagance of this work of art, it can be viewed as the artists depiction of a Venetian patrician feast. The transcript of the interrogation has been preserved, so we more or less know what happened that day. The interrogation, in part, went like this (English translation taken from Wikipedia):One is struck by the methodical nature of the interrogation and the answers given by Veronese, as he seeks to explain the artist's task ("the same license as poets and madmen"), while also suggesting that he may have gone too far. Still, Veronese did well by not being found a heretic, where the stake might have awaited him. Instead, he was merely ordered to make changes to the painting within a fixed period of time in accordance with the decision, without however further guidance what those changes might be (shades of the recent US Supreme Court decision in thecase). The inquisitors went so far as to provide that all expenses incurred in carrying out the changes would be borne by the painter. All in all, this was censorship lite with no denouncement of the entire work.So to what extent did Veronese comply with this judgment? Remarkably, it seems that he ignored its terms. Instead, he simply changed the name of the painting to "The Feast in the House of Levi", referring to an episode in chapter 5 of the Gospel of Luke , where Jesus chooses to take part in a banquet frequented by "tax collectors and sinners." Veronese made no alterations to the painting itself. As such, what was ultimately objectionable seems to have been not various elements of the painting per se, but the connection between the subject matter as embodied in titlethe "Last Supper", and its artistic depiction by Veronese. Once that linkage was severed, the artwork itself was no longer a problem.In a rough sense, just as a modern trademark might cause confusion with respect to the goods that it identifies, mandating a change of the product name, here too a change of the name of the work of art took it out of the realm of the problematic. Politics might also have come to the rescue of Veronese. The interrogation took place in Venice, a proud, if declining, empire. The apparent lack of any attempt by the Inquisition to enforce its decision, allowing Veronese to fashion his own solution, might also be explained, in part, by the power struggle between Venice and the Papacy. Then, as now, it is one thing for a tribunal to issue an order and quite another for it to be implemented. Russias popularity among Americans has once again dropped to Cold War-era depths, according to a new poll from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs released on Wednesday. The poll found Americans giving Russia an average rating of 32 when asked to rate their feelings toward Russia from 0 to 100. That score is down from an average of 40 in the organizations June survey, and marks the lowest score on this measure since 1986, when Russias rating stood at 31. The survey comes after publication of a Central Intelligence Agency assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election, in part to help Trump become president. That conclusion was endorsed by the FBI and Director of National Intelligence last week. Trump has said he doesnt believe the CIAs findings, calling them ridiculous in a Fox News Sunday interview earlier this month. Compared to other countries, Russia continues to be significantly less popular with the American public than its closest neighbors and its largest international rival. Russias overall rating 32 is 11 percentage points behind Chinas 41 mark, and far behind Mexicos 55 and Canadas 76. Among the seven countries tested in the Chicago Council poll, only North Korea ranks below Russia at 20. Russias current score also ranks above Irans average rating of 26 when it was included in the survey. Republicans and Democrats appear to have reacted differently to Russia since the election. Democrats have recoiled most sharply from Russia in the past six months, with their average rating of the nation dropping 12 percentage points since June, from 40 to 28 on the 0-to-100 scale. Republicans ratings have hardly budged, from an average rating of 38 this summer to 35 today. While Republicans have not mimicked Democrats, the Chicago Council poll contrasts with other polling this month that found Republicans warming toward Russias president and the country overall. An Economist/YouGov poll found a growing percentage of Republicans rating Vladimir Putin favorably since 2014 (a longer over-time comparison), and a shrinking share saying Russia is either unfriendly or an enemy than last summer. In the Chicago Council poll, only 15 percent of Republicans rate their feelings toward Russia as positive (between 51 and 100 on a 0-100 scale), slightly down from 20 percent in June. Over 6 in 10 Republicans rate Russia below 50 on this scale (63 percent), a number that rises to 70 percent among Democrats. Regardless of skepticism toward Russia, the new poll found large majorities saying they favor cooperation with Russia to end the conflict in Syria (78 percent), limit Irans nuclear program (79 percent) and reduce nuclear weapons worldwide (80 percent). Nonetheless, the historically negative marks for Russia suggest the public is deeply skeptical of the country, making the prospect of closer ties under a Trump administration a difficult sell to the broader public. This Chicago Council survey was conducted online Dec. 16-18 among a national sample of 1,005 adults. The sample was drawn through GfK Custom Researchs Knowledge Panel, which was recruited through probability-based sampling methods. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points; the error margin is roughly 5.5 points among self-identified Democrats and Republicans. russia-poll 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. CPR 52.3(6) provides for what seems to be a uniform and mandatory minimum standard for applications for permission to appeal: [ every litigation solicitor's bible, muses the IP Kitten] provides that "Permission to appeal may be granted more readily in patent cases". The authority cited in support of this proposition The IP Kitten bidding a festive farewell to the Pozzoli approach The Court of Appeal, in the form of Mr Justice Floyd (with whom fellow patent heavyweight Lord Justice Kitchin agreed) noted that there appear to be two components to this statement. The first is that in highly technical cases a trial judge ought to grant permission to appeal more readily. The second is that in such cases, the fact of technical complexity may make an appeal judge more ready to grant permission to appeal where the judge has refused it. Background to the application Boehringer Ingelheim's application for permission to appeal related to a decision of Morgan J to revoke Patent EP 1 379 220, concerning capsules to be used in a dry powder inhaler for the purpose of delivering a particular active ingredient (tiotropium bromide) to the lungs of a patient suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or asthma. The purported invention was primarily concerned with the material from which the capsules are made. At first instance, the patent was held to be invalid on the grounds of obviousness, and the trial judge refused permission to appeal. The Court of Appeal specifically asked for oral argument from both parties as to whether the practice reported in the White Book based on Pozzoli is correct. Counsel for both sides reported that whilst the practice in Pozzoli has never been disproved, it is not in fact applied by first instance patent judges. New CPR 52.5 In his judgment, Lord Justice Floyd observed that the civil procedural rules have moved on since Pozzoli was decided. The new must direct an oral hearing where the "application cannot be fairly determined on paper without an oral hearing" (see CPR 52.5(2)). The new procedural rules enable the judge to direct the parties to focus on particular issues, and to direct the respondent to serve and file written submissions (see CPR 52.5 (4)(a) and (b)). Lord Justice Floyd observed that the Court of Appeal is now in a good position to obtain the assistance of the parties. "Under these rules, it would be wrong for a judge to give or refuse permission without being sure that there is, or is not, an arguable point, simply because of the technical or other complexity of the case. It would not be fair to do so. The procedural background is therefore different to that which faced this court in Pozzoli." He continued: "the time has come to say that the technical complexity of the background is not a factor which trial judges should take into account in favour of granting permission to appeal. For that reason, there is no justification, in granting or refusing permission to appeal, for treating patent cases any differently to any other cases." And with that, the Court of Appeal bade a festive farewell to the Pozzoli rule: "In my judgment, the approach in Pozzoli should no longer be followed". In his judgment, Lord Justice Floyd observed that the civil procedural rules have moved on sincewas decided. The new CPR 52.5 (which took effect on 3 October 2016) provides that the Court of Appeal will determine applications for permission to appeal on paper unless the judge considering the application on paper directs an oral hearing. The judgedirect an oral hearing where the "application cannot be fairly determined on paper without an oral hearing" (see CPR 52.5(2)). The new procedural rules enable the judge to direct the parties to focus on particular issues, and to direct the respondent to serve and file written submissions (see CPR 52.5 (4)(a) and (b)). Lord Justice Floyd observed that the Court of Appeal is now in a good position to obtain the assistance of the parties. "Under these rules, it would be wrong for a judge to give or refuse permission without being sure that there is, or is not, an arguable point, simply because of the technical or other complexity of the case. It would not be fair to do so. The procedural background is therefore different to that which faced this court in Pozzoli." He continued: "And with thatthe Court of Appeal bade a festive farewell to therule: "In my judgment, the approach in Pozzoli should no longer be followed". Is permission to appeal granted more readily in patent cases? Should it be? These are the issues considered by the Court of Appeal in last week's decision concerning an application for permission to appeal in Teva UK Ltd v Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co KG [2016] EWCA Civ 1296 . The answers in short are: (a) not really; and (b) not anymore."permission to appeal may be given only where(a) the court considers that the appeal would have a real prospect of success; or(b) there is some other compelling reason for the appeal to be heard."However, the heading to paragraph 52.3.13 in the current edition of the White Bookis Pozzoli SPA v BDMO [2007] EWCA Civ 588 , in which Jacob LJ stated at para 10:"I would add this about permission to appeal in patent cases generally. Unless the case is very clear and can be understood sufficiently readily in an hour or so, the better course is normally for permission to be granted by the trial judge. For, unlike the trial judge, the Court of Appeal judge(s) who have to decide whether permission should be granted (where the trial judge has refused it) will not be immersed in the technology and evidence in the same way as the trial judge. Faced with but an incomplete understanding and a plausible skeleton argument seeking permission, the Court of Appeal will generally be likely to grant permission, even if later it discerns that the case is indeed clear."The Court of Appeal was unimpressed with the application for permission noting that the applicant was illegitimately seeking to deconstruct the judge's overall evaluative judgment on the issue of obviousness. Permission to appeal was refused. Analysts and policymakers have been proposing options for the new president. A debate has begun to unfold one side pushing to enforce the provisions of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and impose sanctions, while the other argues to renegotiate it, calling it a bad deal. The lead sanctions expert for the Obama administration team, Richard Nephew, one of the negotiators of the deal with Iran, claims that a renegotiation of the JCPOA is nearly impossible, as the conditions that got the Iranians to the table are no longer applicable. Still others see enforcement as a way to re-create the leverage that America lost when it signed the deal. An Israeli nuclear-arms expert and a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Emily Landau, said the Trump administration should understand that from Irans point of view, the struggle between them continues. Now is not the time, nor is there any reason, to engage Iran in dialogue over the deal. The U.S. is bending over backward to play down Irans aggressive behavior and violations.The major thing that needs to be done now is to change the American approach. When Iran tests missiles, like it did last fall, Washington shouldnt wait three months to react and then only impose minimal sanctions. Smith writes that, The two-track strategycombining enforcement with a new round of negotiations with Iranhas a number of high-profile supporters among those who opposed the Iran deal, like former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who, along with former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mark Wallace, recently argued that Trump should first try to aggressively enforce and then renegotiate the deal beyond the confines of the nuclear issue. That means, write Lieberman and Wallace, a Trump renegotiating team should secure an agreement with Iran to verifiably curb its regional aggression, state sponsorship of terrorism and domestic repression of human rights. In exchange, Iran could be given broad-based sanctions relief and even normalization of relations. Lieberman and Wallace purport to be optimistic that renegotiations might lead to, among other things, Iran ending its support for Hezbollah. Yet, at the same time, the authors understand very well that such Iranian concessions are a fantasy. If a decade of harsh sanctions proved anything, it is that there are no circumstances under which Iran would be willing to trade away its support for the Lebanese militia. This is even truer now that Iran is flush with post-sanctions cash, the U.S. has withdrawn nearly all its forces from Iraq, and Hezbollah is engaged in a full-scale war in Syria on behalf of the Assad regime. Lieberman and Wallace must believe that renegotiation would show the clerical regime, not the United States, to be intransigent. The problem is that what its authors may see as a clever PR strategy, incorporating Trumps fondness for deal-making is that the two strategies cannot work on parallel tracks. Renegotiation preempts sanctions, while sanctions discourage negotiations. America needs to keep Iran happy, to keep them from walking away from the table. That President Barack Obama was stupid, or that his team were terrible negotiators was never the problem with the Iran deal. Obama believed that unless he de-escalated, there was no way to get the Iranians to negotiate. He paid them $700 million a month just to stick with the negotiations, and continues to pay them, such as the $1.7 billion ransom paid in cash to release Americans that the Iranians were holding hostage. Obama blocks nonnuclear sanctions for the same reason. He was willing to pay Iran to sit at the table because the deal was the hinge for a larger geopolitical maneuver. The Obama administration effected The JCPOA for the purpose of a regional realignment that could extricate America from the Middle East by turning the keys to the car over to Tehran. Regional interests were re-prioritized, and traditional American allies, especially Israel and Saudi Arabia, were downgraded while Tehran was upgraded. While the realignment thesis has few doubters on the ground in the Middle East, where its deadly effects are visible from Aleppo to Mosul to Yemen, Americans have been slow to catch up to the reality of what Obama intended and did, in large part because of the deceptive way in which the Iran Deal was sold to the American public. As a result, many deal opponents are still chasing the mechanical rabbits that the Obama administration created for them to chaseas if the point of the Iran deal was simply to limit Irans ability to spin X amount of plutonium instead of Y amount at facility Z. Renegotiation of the Iran deal begins with the president-elects own campaign rhetoric. In a USA Today op-ed last year, candidate Trump called for sanctions and promised to renegotiate the deal. A Trump presidency, he wrote, will force the Iranians back to the bargaining table to make a much better deal. Using the president-elects own words to lead him down a confrontational path with Iran must be tempting to those with experience and expertise, but may create a new lobby for endless negotiations with Iran, from the Republican side of the aisle this time. Still, there are many experts who favor this strategy. I think the right strategy is parallel paths, said Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a leading expert on the JCPOA who assisted in the fight against what he believes is a weak agreement. The first track is to enforce the provisions of the existing deal and show zero tolerance for violations. Dubowitz agrees that the Obama administration excused Iranian violations. The Iranians dont cheat egregiously, but the sum total of their incremental cheating is egregious. If we tolerate it, Iran will keep pushing the envelope, and in anywhere from 6 months to a year well see how far theyve pushed, he said. According to Dubowitz, enforcing the deal includes hitting Iran with non-nuclear-related sanctions, which the Obama administration blocked, to keep the Iranians from walking away from the deal. Such sanctions may include issues like human rights, ballistic missiles, support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The centerpiece of the sanctions campaign should be the IRGC, Dubowitz said of the Iranian institution that is at the center of Iranian industry. Right now there are 25 IRGC-related companies, and that list should be increased by the hundreds, if not thousands. FDD has a list 575 IRGC companies that should be designated. Smith writes, Its not hard to discern that the intent behind the enforce-and-sanction strategy that Dubowitz describedto make it so difficult for Iran to continue to pursue a nuclear weapon that it either has to give up its program or, much more likely, walk away from the deal. The purpose of renegotiation, then, is to underline the fact that its the Iranians who are the bad guys, not the new president. Politically speaking, the question is how to do that without making house and senate Democrats feel like theyve sold out Obamas signature foreign-policy initiative, or Europeans fearful that theyre being led to the brink of World War III. But why, I asked, would deal opponents want to risk repeating the Obama administrations errors? Dubowitz answers, Because the Trump White House would handle negotiations differently. The Obama administration decreased pressure during negotiations, but now we increase it. Obama gave them $700 million a month to stay in negotiations, so the Iranians dragged out talks as their economy recovered. The longer they negotiated, the more their economy recovered and they avoided a crisis. So, we do the opposite and escalate pressure so they know that the longer they drag it out, the more severe the pain is. The incentive is for them to do a deal as quickly as possible. The possibility for overt pressure mechanisms are endless with tough-minded Trump cabinet officials like Rep. Mike Pompeo, Gen. James Mattis, and Gen. Michael Flynn, who will be in charge of national-security policy under President Trump. Smith again questions, Yes, but? What this analysis misses is that the key mechanism for regional realignment was the actual process of sitting down and talking with Iran. More talk with Iran, even with the idea of keeping the pressure high on the Islamic Republic, simply buttresses the regional architecture that Obama has already builtthe point of which was to get America out of the Middle East by empowering Tehran. In practice, renegotiating the JCPOA means re-creating and empowering the same constituency inside the Beltway that supported talks originally. At the same time, every player on the board, from the Europeans to the State Department and congressional Democrats, will have reasons to fight against imposing sanctions. Every failure in negotiations will be an embarrassment to the new presidentwho will be depending on the last presidents allies at home and abroad to make him look good. The Iran Deal is real, and there is no getting rid of the concessions given, other than by actually changing them. Iran has no interest in changing. The concessions that America has already made cant be taken back through talk. Iran can simply walk away from the table, especially now that Iran has been propped up by the end of sanctions, and by more than a year of overt American political and military backing. According to Smith, Renegotiation simply locks the deals opponents into the position that the Republican president ran against. Renegotiation legitimizes Irans right to right to have a nuclear program, as acknowledged by John Kerry. Worse, it fuses Irans hold on the Middle East, to which it has already brought death and destruction. The Obama administrations deceptive marketing campaign has to be turned on its head to undo the effects of the Iran deal. The point of the Deal was Obamas larger re-alignment strategy, the way to halt that strategy is to actually enforce the limited terms of the deal itself, and push back against Iranian encroachments, instead of supporting them as the current administration has. The Obama White House warned that the only option to the deal was war. The Trump administration has to convince European allies and domestic opponents that the only way to avoid military action is to enforce the deal that everyone has already agreed to. Given that Barack Obamas goal was to re-align the United States with Iran as a means to getting the United States out of the Middle East and that the nuclear deal was simply a means to that larger end, he made a brilliant move. However, Obama left an opening that could undo the strategic deception he authored, which is that the nuclear deal with Iran is not a legitimate agreement. It was never meant to stand on its own. The payoffs for sticking to the agreement exist outside the scope of the agreement itself. Enforcing the actual agreement while refusing to cooperate with Iran on its other strategic goalslike destroying Syria, arming Hezbollah, buying billions of dollars worth of advanced jet planes for ferrying weapons and troops, and building ballistic missileswill therefore most likely cause the agreement to collapse sooner rather than later. A deal collapse will, in turn, lead to much greater pressure on Iran, including the pressure of a possibly imminent military action, or military action itself. The stark, nearly binary nature of these alternatives is also a direct consequence of the deal that Obama structuredexcept, of course, that Obama never contemplated taking military action against Iran: His policy at all points was exactly the opposite. In fact, he believed that creating a choice between realignment and war would help him pass the deal and thereby lock in realignment, writes Smith. Obamas strategy may have actually been too clever. If Iran walks away from the deal after IRGC companies are designated, for instance, or because of their efforts on behalf of a genocide in Syria, or because they are developing banned missiles that can hit Europe, Tel Aviv, and the United States, that the next step is decided by Irannot us. Russian officials investigating the assassination of their ambassador to Turkey have vowed that the killing would not disrupt efforts to repair the two countries' relationship. Inquiries are focusing on whether the man who shot Andrei Karlov at a photo exhibition launch in the Turkish capital Ankara was a "lone wolf" gunman, or part of a wider conspiracy. Modified On Dec 21, 2016 10:58 AM By Arun These four-wheeled machines brought something new to the table, shook up their respective segments and are poised for a steady innings in the market. 2016 has been a busy year for most auto manufacturers in the country. We've witnessed a flurry of all-new cars across different price segments. While most new launches were a mere 'me too', we set aside 16 vehicles that we think made a difference to the Indian auto industry. These four-wheeled machines brought something new to the table, shook up their respective segments and are poised for a steady innings in the market. Without further ado, let's hop right into it in no particular order. Hatchbacks Tata Tiago The little hatchback will go down in history as the one that turned things around for Tata. Almost single-handedly, if we may add. The Tiago packed in a spacious cabin, feel-good features and frugal engines at a mouthwatering price that undercut its chief rivals by close to half a lakh. Mahindra e2oPlus Mahindra added a dose of practicality and convenience to the e2o, giving us the four-door avatar. The top-spec version got an upgraded powertrain, producing 41PS of power and a larger 210Ah battery. With a top speed of 85kmph and a range of 140km, the little electric hatch from Mahindra looks better equipped than ever before, to take on the urban jungle. Sedans Hyundai Elantra Like we said in our review, the Elantra is better than ever before. The D-segment sedan from Hyundai gets a spot on our list for its intelligent pricing. While entry level variants were priced cheaper than the segment leader, the Corolla Altis, the top-spec diesel is priced a whopping Rs 3 lakh cheaper than the Skoda Octavia. The best bit is that the feel-good features such as the ventilated seats, a sunroof, a touchscreen audio system et al. remain on the feature list. Skoda Superb If we had to sum up the Skoda Superb in three words, it would be value for money. Now, we know it costs well over Rs 30 lakh on road, but you do get a lot for that money. For instance, the space outrivals the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, the Canton audio system will put most entry-level Audis to shame, and the level of equipment three-zone climate control, boss button, leather upholstery is better than an equivalently priced BMW. See why we say it is value for money? Utility Vehicles Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza Calling the first sub 4-metre SUV from Maruti a runaway success would be short selling it. The Brezza catapulted into the A-list of best-sellers almost instantly after launch, clocking a steady 10,000 units in sales every month. The straightforward yet potent package, comprising of the SUV appeal, a punchy 1.3-litre diesel motor and the backing of Maruti's aftersales saw it command a waiting period of half a year. Maruti also debuted its 'iCreate' personalization offerings with the Brezza, helping owners make their own Brezza a tad more unique. Isuzu D-Max V-Cross Isuzu started the year with a bang by showcasing the D-Max V-Cross at the 2016 Auto Expo. It breathed life into a niche lifestyle pickup segment, which comprised only of the Tata Xenon until the V-Cross came along. The mega road presence, no nonsense styling, reliable 2.5-litre diesel and shift-on-the-fly four-wheel drive gives the D-Max a spot on our list. Toyota Innova Crysta The Crysta turned the MPV space on its head by upping the ante in every measurable way. The new Innova Crysta packed in an uber-luxurious interior, a variety of engine options 2.4-litre (diesel), 2.8-litre (diesel), 2.7-litre (petrol), and an automatic transmission too. The updated workhorse from Toyota not only went to the top of the food chain in the UV segment but bit a sizeable chunk out of D-segment sedans pie as well. Ford Endeavour Ford's big boy shocked the market in January 2016 by being cheaper than the older Toyota Fortuner. The American automaker clearly had its intentions crystal clear with the Endeavour grab the throne. For the price, it is a fantastic package, bundling in features such as active noise cancellation, semi-auto parallel park assist and a terrain management system, all while being more affordable than its arch rival the new Fortuner. Luxury Volvo S90 The Swedes have arrived, and how! On paper, the Volvo S90 seems to be better equipped compared to its German rivals, and is priced to undercut them! Notably, the S90 is a CBU, unlike the rest of its clan that are assembled locally in India. Features such as the rear air-suspension, the 19-speaker Bowers&Wilkins sound system and the 9-inch touchscreen command centre make it stand out from the run-of-the-mill Germans. BMW 3GT What we like to call 'the most practical BMW', also happens to be amongst the fastest now. The 3GT now gets the 330i variant, packing a 2.0-litre turbo petrol motor with 252PS of power on tap. With a 0-100 time of just 6.1 seconds, and a luggage hauling capacity of 1600 litres with the second row stashed away, the 3GT combines performance and practicality beautifully. Bentley Bentayga The first SUV from the winged B was bound to make an appearance on the list, for the sheer amount of exclusivity and opulence it offers. Launched at a sticker price of Rs 3.85 crore, it is the most expensive SUV to be retailed in India at the moment. In case you need an example of the extravaganza, Bentley has a dashboard clock in the options list (handcrafted by Mulliner, no less) that costs over a crore. Yep, that is a seven digit sum for a clock. We wish we were joking about this. Performance Volkswagen Polo GTI After years of contemplation, Volkswagen finally brought in the range-topping Polo the GTI to Indian shores. Priced at Rs 26 lakh, ex-showroom, the hot Polo screams performance like nothing else. The 1.8-litre turbo petrol motor develops 192PS, giving it a 0-100kmph time of just 7.1 seconds. In case you thought the Abarth Punto wasn't hot enough for you, here you go Volkswagen finally has the whole hog. Mercedes-AMG 43 Series Mercedes brought its affordable '43' range of AMGs to India this year. The range currently includes the GLE43 Coupe, the SLC43 Roadster and the recently launched C43 sedan. The 43 AMGs aren't as hard core as the big boy 63s, but are quick enough to make you yell expletives as you get hurled towards the horizon. All that for a six digit asking price. Kudos, Mercedes. Ford Mustang The iconic pony car flexed its muscles in India earlier this year, and was launched at a price of Rs 65 lakh. Notably, the Mustang is the most affordable way to get yourself a brand-new V8-powered car. The timeless styling, the roar of 400 horses and the fun of a proper rear-wheeldriven muscle car is hard to resist, giving it a spot on our list. Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT Unlike its stablemates, the hot SRT version of the Grand Cherokee feels well priced. For just Rs 10 lakh over its standard 3.0-litre diesel version, you get a whole lot more, which we think makes it a sweet deal for an enthusiast. The party piece, of course, is the big 6.4-litre HEMI V8 motor that dishes out 470PS and 624Nm, and a sonorous exhaust note! Nissan GT-R Launched at Rs 1.99 crore, the GT-R is now in its final avatar. It finds a spot on our list for offering supercar performance for a substantially lower sticker price. The handbuilt twin-turbo 3.8-litre motor is a stonker developing 570PS and 637Nm giving it a 0-100kmph time that's under 3 seconds. Summing Up That's our list of 16 game changers for 2016. Agree with our choices? Have something to add? Let us know by voicing your opinion through the comments section. For Immediate Release Contact: In Atlanta, Soyia Ellison, soyia.ellison@cartercenter.org ATLANTA The Carter Center, the impartial nongovernmental organization led by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, held meetings earlier this month with key members of the Sudanese government, civil society, and opposition. These meetings provided an opportunity to assist all parties in identifying common ground in their search for peace. The Center takes no position on specific issues in dispute, but rather attempts to help develop areas of agreement among all sides. We are nonpartisan, so we dont take sides, said Jordan Ryan, vice president of peace programs for The Carter Center. We organized these meetings as a way to help all parties look for points of consensus in their search for sustainable peace. We listened and learned a lot over the course of the meetings. Well be sharing with the participants key points that emerged during the sessions. Separately, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with a delegation from the government of Sudan in early December. The Sudanese delegation asked for President Carters thoughts on how to advance peace in Sudan and improve Sudan-U.S. relations, including addressing international sanctions. President Carter shared his belief that an end to the ongoing conflicts in the country and substantive peace negotiations would contribute to durable peace in Sudan and better relations with the international community. Translation ### "Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope." A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide. As Iraqi coalition forces claw their way into Mosul, the retreating ISIS fighters have booby trapped streets, sent suicide bombers against the liberating army, and used civilians as human shields. The civilians left in their wake are hungry, thirsty, terrified, and exhausted. One of the first humanitarian groups to aid Iraqs once second-largest city, moving in even as ISIS moves out, has been a group of persecuted Christians from Burma (also known as Myanmar). Free Burma Rangers (FBR) is a Christian group originally formed to bring humanitarian aid to the Burmese minorities displaced by ongoing persecution from their military government. Led by David Eubank, a former US Army Ranger officer, the group supplies medical assistance, food, and shelter to combat areas. It also documents human rights abuses. Members of FBR began working in the Kurdish regions of Iraq and Syria two years ago. The Burmese nationals and American volunteers have provided medical care, food, and water to Iraqis that were fleeing ISIS or recently liberated. They have evacuated and treated the wounded in an Iraqi supply truck ambushed by ISIS, prayed with a man whose family was killed by friendly fire, and provided programming for school children in northern Syria and northern Iraq. And as ISIS leaves parts of Mosul, FBR is close behind, providing supplies, medical assistance, childrens programming, and the first store in the southeastern part of the city. CT spoke with Eubank, whose answers are brief because he was in Mosul outskirts, and FBR operations coordinator Hosannah Valentine about why Burmese Christians have traded their own conflict zone for another. CT: FBR is set up to help oppressed people in Burma/Myanmar. How did you decide to add a ministry to Kurdistan? DE: I was asked to come and help in February 2015 by a friend, Victor Marx of ATP ministries. I was on a relief mission in Burma, and he set me an email via a satellite link and asked us to come in seven days. But the Burma army was blocking us, and it [had taken] me three weeks walking to get where we were. We prayed, and the next day all the Burma army units moved. We walked 80 miles in three days, and then were able to get to a border, cross it, and get to Kurdistan in seven daysa miracle for us and a sign God wanted us there. Once in Kurdistan, I asked God what to do and felt he said, Give up your own way and the FBR way, and come help these [Kurdish] people. I have three prayers: that ISIS is stopped, people are freed, and the hearts of all enemies will change to love in Jesus name. HV: We were invited to go see the situation and see if our experience in Burma could be useful in Kurdistan. We had already begun thinking through the idea of missions outside of Burma, to other oppressed people, and had gone to Sudan to help the Nuba people in 2014. We saw the value of oppressed people from Burma coming to help oppressed people in Sudan. The ethnic FBR members connected with the people there in a special way, born of having a shared experience of living through oppression, and still having joy and freedom. This same dynamic happens in Iraq as well. However, international missions haven't been a formulaic policy decision, but the following of what we feel is a specific call of God to individual situations. As Dave said, we received an invitation to visit Kurdistan and a series of events happened that seemed to really be God opening the door to the opportunityboth being able to race through Kachin State on the heels of a moving Burma army force and financial support to make the missions happen. On our initial missions [in Kurdistan], we were able to make good friends and meet a need. All this is enabled by God opening doors and drawing people to support these specific missions, as we continue to use all of our general funds on the work in Burma. Image: Free Burma Rangers CT: Does FBR still work in Burma, or is it now primarily active in Kurdistan? DE: Our main work is still very much in Burma. We have 70 teams there. We also do missions in Syria and Sudan in addition to Mosul. HV: Our main work is still in Burma, where we have 70 ethnic relief teams responding to needs in many different parts of the country. While there has been a decrease in fighting in parts of Burma, in other areas such as Kachin and the northern Shan states, there is more than ever. Right now, our staff there are in the middle of training [approximately] 30 new teams. While much of the narrative about Burma is that it is improving, the people living there still see a need for teams that can respond to crises. Also, if we do more international missions, it will be crucial to keep building up FBR teams in Burma to a higher standard of excellence in all areasfor the sake of the people in need in Burma, and for those in need wherever else we are called. CT: Who is doing the work in Kurdistan? Are these Burmese Christians that youve freed from oppression in Burma, who are now paying it forward by helping out in Iraq and Syria? DE: Yes. We have pastors, medics, and videographers from Burma on our team [in Mosul], along with my family and some American volunteers. HV: Yes, there are Burmese ChristiansKaren, Karenni and Kachin so farmedics, pastors, cameramen, as well as American volunteers, and the Eubank family, doing the work in Kurdistan. They are people who feel called to stand against oppression and with people who are oppressed everywhere. They have a unique opportunity and ability to help these people. They have prayed about it, discussed it with their teammates, and responded when they feel God calling them. This is in the face of continuing oppression in their own home country. But they feel they are part of a team whose job has grown to help people in other countries. And so they go, confident they are called and with the support of their team back home. CT: Why would Burmese Christians, who are barely out of oppression themselves, head to Kurdistan to put themselves right back into danger? DE: They feel Gods call. They feel many have helped them for so long, so they should help others. They love the Kurds and Iraqis and feel they can understand them. They are used to war and can function well here. They feel this is where Jesus calls them. HV: As they've come, they've found themselves able and effective here [in Mosul], and have come to love the people they help. Toh Win, a Karen medic and director of our medical school in Burma, was in Kurdistan in September and October. He said: Why did God want me to go there? To share the love of God and stand with those who face a difficult situation. God opened the way for our group, step by step, in the right time, so I know very well this is the calling from God to go and help these people. These people are very good in welcoming guests and friends. They love us, and are happy that we help them and stand with them. We said, We are a small group. We cannot help a lot. But what we can do is pray for you and stand with you, because our God sent us. One of their leaders said, You are a small group, but you are very important, like a cup of water is important for a thirsty person. This touched my heart a lot. I know God is doing a big thing that I cannot imagine. Most of the people we met do not share our religion, but they let us pray for them. Image: Free Burma Rangers CT: Why is this important for Burmese Christians to do? What does this ministry tell us about the strength of the Burmese church? DE: It is a very strong, outward-looking church. HV: I think its important for Burmese Christians for the same reason its important for all Christiansits following God's call in obedience. I think its especially significant for Burmese Christians to be doing this because it demonstrates that Gods callings do not depend on our strength, but on our reliance on him. He does not ask us to wait until were squared away, safe, have money in the bank and have a safety net before we go do his work. Not that theres anything wrong with those things. But I think we can learn from these Burmese Christians about obedience. It does also demonstrate the strength of the Burmese church, which has held up under decades of oppression and continues to be outward-looking and not merely in self-preservation mode. CT: Whats different about doing ministry in combat zones? DE: There is real danger, violence, deprivation, constant changes, rage, destruction all around, people suffering and often no one to help, kids terrified and bewildered. [But] Jesus is the same all the time, and he brings love, truth, comfort, healing, and new ways. HV: I think our ministry stays the same. We want to bring help, hope, and love to people under oppression and to meet their emergency needs. The needs change depending on the situation: Sometimes they are serious medical needs, sometimes they are material needs for food, shelter, supplies, etc. Usually the biggest need is simply security. People everywhere need Gods love and to be drawn to him as the ultimate meeter of their needs. One thing about ministry in combat zones is that usually we cant stop the combatwe cant fix their biggest need, which is to be secure. So we offer help as we can: medical, material, etc. But by simply being there with them, we also step into and share some of the powerlessness of the people we are with. As we point people to God, we are at the same time, very immediately, depending on him ourselves. This realitywhich is true all the timeseems especially stark when under fire. However, some of the mechanics of how we do things change. For example, if theres not immediate fighting, we can do more training of local relief teams or more educational things with the kids. In more intense fighting, our work is more immediate relief provision. Image: Free Burma Rangers CT: Do we need more "paramilitary" ministries? DE: We need people who follow Jesus into war zones and are not led by comfort or fear but by the Lord and his opportunities. HV: I agree with Dave that we need ministries that are willing to follow Jesus call into war zones and other danger zones, who are not led by comfort or fear. There is no formula, and I wouldnt encourage someone who doesnt feel called here to come. Obedience is what we are called to, not counting the costwhether it be little or high. Also, I wouldnt call FBR paramilitary as we are not designed or organized as a fighting force. But we do undertake to prepare our relief teams to be functional in combat zones, which entails an understanding of how combat happens and how to move in those situations. CT: How do you persuade donors to shift from helping oppressed people in Burma to doing ministry in Kurdistan? DE: We need help in Burma still, as it is our main focus. We do not persuade. We only report on the needs and pray that God provides for all. HV: We havent tried to persuade donors to shift support. We dont really fundraise for specific parts of any of our work. Instead, we report on the situation in the areas where we are and the activities of our teams, and trust God to provide the support we need for the work he wants us to do. Also, the kind of ministry we do in Burma and Sudan and Syria and Iraq is all basically the same. Its providing help, both medical and material; hope, by telling the stories of the people we meet to the rest of the world, and encouraging them that they are not forgotten; and love, by being with them in their situation, praying for them, doing programs for their children, training them to be able to help themselves, and pointing them to the God who is love. CT: What have the challenges and rewards been of branching out of your niche ministry into this new area? DE: Learning new things, and to love people I knew almost nothing about and seeing the power of Jesus cut through all barriers. I pray for patience and love, as I am weak here in both. HV: Challenges are learning to operate in a brand-new area, new people, and different culture. This presents both logistical and relational challenges, and requires patience, flexibility, tenacity, love, and faith. Personal challenges have been feeling stretched and pulled between different places and commitments. The rewards have been lots of learning, new friends, and personally, I think my faith has grown as well. Its a wonderful opportunity to have more and more of this world, Gods creation, opened up to me, and this happens when you go to people and stand with them in the middle of their worst situations. I think God opens their hearts, and yours too. Using Win 7 / Winforms / VS 2013 / VB.net My application stores the last several visited directories in the File menu. But when I click an item in the drop-down to set the .InitialDirectory property the OpenFileDialog just goes back to the last directory viewed. I don't need to store a specific file name, I just need the dialog to open in the desired directory. I've checked the text of the menu items and it's all correct. I also tried hard-coding a directory name and it still goes back to the first directory opened during the session. Code is below: VB ofd.InitialDirectory = e.ClickedItem.Text cntxMenu.Close() res = ofd.ShowDialog If res = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then PopulateListview(ofd.FileName) End If Don't know if this is related: This is a ContextMenuStrip that opens when a button is clicked. There are two items with dropdowns. One is a zoom menu that works fine. But with the recent directories menu, I have to close it with cntxMenu.Close() . Otherwise it remains visible on top of the OpenFileDialog . What am I doing wrong here? Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money. AutoUpgradeEnabled property to True caused it to behave normally. I'll freely admit to having no idea why. But as it's an application strictly for my own use I'm not going to worry over it at this point. Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money. Assuming that the path you give to the Property of the Dialog is existing and correct written but you should look, if the string ends with a "\" or not. Perhaps you should change this. OpenFileDialog to not recognize the string if AutoUpgradeEnabled is false. Seems highly unlikely though. I may create a temporary project and see if I can duplicate the problem there. If not then I'll at least know the problem is unique to one project. I have another app that maintains a list of recent files (not directories) and it's been working fine for years. Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money. VB Public Class frmSample Dim openFileDialog1 As New OpenFileDialog() Dim sTemp As String Private Sub btnOpen_Click( ByVal sender As System. Object , ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnOpen.Click openFileDialog1.AutoUpgradeEnabled = True sTemp = " None" sTemp = OpenDir() Do Until sTemp <> " None" Loop openFileDialog1.Filter = " txt files (*.txt)|*.txt|All files (*.*)|*.*" openFileDialog1.FilterIndex = 0 openFileDialog1.RestoreDirectory = True If openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() = System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then End If End Sub Private Function OpenDir() As String openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = " C:\Sample Initial Directory" Return " OpenDir" End Function End Class should have posted the solve here but apparently I didn't think about it. Thanks again. Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money. Just to clarify i'm not using crystal reports, just the ordinary reports in Visual Studio, I know how to link text boxes to a report but how much I link a listview with multiple rows to a report? I know I need to add the listview contents to a dataset but I cannot find any examples online and i'm really struggling, can anyone help please? Also, can anyone explain the different between Visual Studio Report and Crystal Report? Are their any benefits to using Crystal Reports over the bog standard one? Many Thanks RedRocket2016 wrote: I know how to link text boxes to a report but how much I link a listview with multiple rows to a report? Usually one puts data from a dataset in the listview, as well as in the report, as opposed to linking a listview directly to a report. If you can do so for textboxes, then you should be able to do it with a listview. Just fetch the values from the listview and pass them like you would for a textbox. RedRocket2016 wrote: but I cannot find any examples online If you look for this specific scenario, then no, there will not be an example. There are general examples though. RedRocket2016 wrote: Are their any benefits to using Crystal Reports over the bog standard one? I have not found one yet, but appears to be popular. If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] Bastard Programmer from Hell Hi guys, Im just a newbie in vb.net. Just want to ask for help.. Here's my problem. i have a parent form which i call frmKitchen. Inside it, i have a listview and an user control. I want to reload all the items in the listview when something change in my user control. is there any possible way? here's my sample code Main form: VB.NET Public Sub btnRefresh_Click( ByVal sender As System. Object , ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnRefresh.Click selectDistOfItem() getAndDisplaySum() Me .Refresh() End Sub User control: VB.NET Private Sub lvOrders_DoubleClick( ByVal sender As Object , ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles lvOrders.DoubleClick If lvOrders.SelectedItems.Count > 0 Then Dim kit As New frmKitchen kit.btnRefresh_Click( Nothing , Nothing ) End If End Sub I cant reload the data from database to listview when an event done in my user control. please help.. thanks in advance.. Hello everyone, I just want to ask for guide to where I'm doing wrong to my codes. My codes is basically to produce reports dynamically after results from database. I'm using vbnet 2015. VB Sub Fill() cryRpt.Load( " C:\Users\MicroboxMac\Documents\Visual Studio 2015\Projects\ReportsDemo\ReportsDemo\bin\Debug\cr1.rpt" ) cryRpt.SetDataSource(reportsQuery(TextBox1.Text.Trim)) CrystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = cryRpt CrystalReportViewer1.Refresh() End Sub This the table I'm getting the data results Public Function reportsQuery(ByVal bId As Integer) Dim db = New database Dim dt As New DataTable MessageBox.Show(bId) With db .sqlStr = " SELECT * from brandnames Where brandid = '" & bId & " ' " ' query string .sqlDa.SelectCommand = .sqlcm(.sqlStr, .connect) ' execute command .sqlDa.Fill(.sqlDt) ' get results and store in sqldt .close() End With Return db.sqlDt End Function unfortunately I'm stuck with this error... An unhandled exception of type ' System.IO.FileNotFoundException' occurred in mscorlib.dll Additional information: Could not load file or assembly ' file:///C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\Crystal Reports for .NET Framework 4.0\Common\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\win32_x86\dotnet1\crdb_adoplus.dll' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. I appreciate the time for helping out. I got it working now...find the solution from other thread by Joezer BH Best regards, Joe modified 18-Dec-16 22:15pm. Hi, I'm Using Visual Studio 2010 (.net) & Crystal Report 8.5 as Crystal Report Builder. I have a trouble that i can't view two different report in one view and different page. can u help me ? Thx Hermawan What framework are you using, ASP.NET, or what? The sh*t I complain about It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem ~! Firewall !~ can you show me the code to views in a view group ? modified 16-Dec-16 22:47pm. Ever since .net came around we have not been able to create an exe, or assembly that did not need the .net framework. Now with containers and smaller computing spaces available in .net it would be nice to have an optimized exe or service compiled to native code. Can this be done with Visual Studio or does ability belong to another compiler and no longer in Microsoft's abilities? I would like this to be done with the Microsoft, but if not I will need to search for another professional Basic that can do the job. There used to be another product quite a while ago, I think it was called something like "Salamander", but it cost about $2,000 and only worked with .NET 2.0 and below. As for another BASIC product, good luck with that. You're not going to find one that's any good. A guide to posting questions on CodeProject Click this: Seriously, do it. Dave Kreskowiak Click this: Asking questions is a skill Seriously, do it. rkinning wrote: if not I will need to search for another professional Basic that can do the job Good luck with that If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] Bastard Programmer from Hell This one[^] might fit the bill. "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer What's the problem? This is that FoxPro project that I'm working on, and creating a sub report for a report; while using the event handler for SubReportProcessing. So I have this dataset that I pass to the RDLC file which is a list of invoices for the month. Each invoice has items that I'm using a sub report for. So I made an event handler for it. I have the data already, and perhaps it would be easier to just write another function to load the data in the event handler instead. But I just can't get this last part in my event handler, it's so foreign to me. This is the dataset below that has my invoice items, that I add to LocalReport and is passed to the RDLC. so I have a dataset that is ready to go in "ds_invoice_items" Dim ds_items As New DataSet() ds_items.DataSetName = " ds_invoice_items" ds_items.Tables.Clear() ds_items.Tables.Add(table_Items) ds_items.Tables( 0 ).TableName = " tablix_invoice_items" ' Write the datasource to the report canvas rv_Canvas.LocalReport.DataSources.Clear() rv_Canvas.LocalReport.DataSources.Add(New ReportDataSource("ds_salesRep", ds_salesRep.Tables(0))) rv_Canvas.LocalReport.DataSources.Add(New ReportDataSource("ds_salesRep_invoices", ds_invoices.Tables(0))) rv_Canvas.LocalReport.DataSources.Add(New ReportDataSource("ds_invoice_bAddress", ds_bAddress.Tables(0))) rv_Canvas.LocalReport.DataSources.Add(New ReportDataSource("ds_invoice_sAddress", ds_sAddress.Tables(0))) rv_Canvas.LocalReport.DataSources.Add(New ReportDataSource("ds_invoice_items", ds_items.Tables(0))) rv_Canvas.LocalReport.DisplayName = p_salesRepName & " Invoices" AddHandler rv_Canvas.LocalReport.SubreportProcessing, AddressOf Me.SetSubDataSource This is my event handler. The first and 2nd line works. It's the 3rrd line. My Question is: I know List(Of model_invoice_items) is wrong. I can't figure out what to replace it with. Do I get the type, or hard code the type, I don't even know what the type is. Private Sub SetSubDataSource(ByVal sender As Object , ByVal e As SubreportProcessingEventArgs) 
 Dim mainSource = CType(sender, LocalReport).DataSources( " ds_invoice_items" ) Dim FINVNO = Integer.Parse(e.Parameters( " FINVNO" ).Values.First)

Dim subSource = CType(mainSource.Value, List(Of model_invoice_items)).Single(Function(m) m.FINVNO = FINVNO)

e.DataSources.Add(New ReportDataSource("ds_invoice_items", subSource))



End Sub



21st Century Globalism has become Socialism on a planetary scale, in which the unequal treaties of the past have come back into play.



jkirkerx wrote: New ReportDataSource( " ds_invoice_items" , ds_items.Tables( 0 ))

You're creating the ReportDataSource by passing in a DataTable . Therefore, I would expect the mainSource.Value property to return a DataTable .

VB.NET Private Sub SetSubDataSource( ByVal sender As Object , ByVal e As SubreportProcessingEventArgs) Dim FINVNO As Integer = Integer .Parse(e.Parameters( " FINVNO" ).Values.First) Dim mainSource As ReportDataSource = DirectCast (sender, LocalReport).DataSources( " ds_invoice_items" ) Dim mainTable As DataTable = DirectCast (mainSource.Value, DataTable) Dim subSource As New DataView(mainTable) subSource.RowFilter = String .Format( " FINVNO = {0:D}" , FINVNO) e.DataSources.Add( New ReportDataSource( " ds_invoice_items" , subSource)) End Sub

If that doesn't work, then you'll need to debug your code; Visual Studio should be able to show you the correct type of the mainSource.Value property.





"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."

- Homer






CUNA Consumer & Residential Mortgage Lending School, an annual event offering a comprehensive update on the latest news, discoveries and developments in credit union lending, will convene March 27-30, San Diego.

Lending seems to be in a perpetual state of change, said Kathy Smith, instructional design manager at CUNA. For lending professionals to keep their offerings competitive, their operations compliant and their growth steady, they need to stay informed on their field, and thats what CUNA Consumer & Residential Mortgage Lending School is all about.

Attended by hundreds of lending and compliance professionals and CEOs, CUNA Consumer & Residential Mortgage Lending School allows attendees to customize their schedules by choosing from expert-led sessions in 5 distinct tracks:
Talking Points

The Yen got a modest lift after the official release of an upbeat economic assessment from Japans Cabinet Office.

Its views on household spending, exports and business sentiment have all been raised.

Inflation remains a sticking point.

The Japanese Yen strengthened against the US Dollar on Wednesday after the official release of an upgraded assessment of the Japanese economy by its Cabinet Office.

Some of the reports highlights had been released the day before, at about the time Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiki Kuroda was giving his post-policy-meeting press conference. In the opinion of the Japanese government the economy is in moderate recovery, but improvements in some parts have been delayed.

The Cabinet Office has also upgraded its view on household spending, exports and business sentiment. The Yen has fallen more than 10% against the greenback since Donald Trumps shock election win, and that has had its usual effect of cheering Japans enormous export sector.

It said that corporate profits rise appears to be pausing, although they remain high historically speaking. Perhaps more worryingly it also noted that the recent rise in business investment also looks to be slowing.

But the real devil in all this detail of course comes in the form of consumer prices. They remain flat, despite vast efforts to restore some pricing power to Japan. Even here, there is hope. A weaker Yen may help here, of course, if it endures into the new year, with import prices soaring in Yen terms.

USD/JPY slipped back to 117.59 after the release of this broadly upbeat assessment, well below the 118 level it had been at before.

A bit of Yen power: USD/JPY

Chart compiled using TradingView

Would you like to know more about trading, or where DailyFX analysts are focused right now? Take a look at out our webinars.

--- Written by David Cottle, DailyFX Research
A new Tel Aviv University study finds that a popular food supplement called phosphatidylserine may be instrumental in reversing the detrimental effects of Familial Dysautonomia (FD), a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that affects approximately 1 in 31 Jewish people of Eastern European, or Ashkenazi, ancestry. FD affects aspects of the autonomic nervous system such as swallowing, sweating, and pain sensitivity, and places patients at increased risk for pulmonary and gastrointestinal complications.

The research, led jointly by Prof. Gil Ast and Prof. Eran Perlson of TAU's Sackler School of Medicine, generated a mouse model of FD to examine the neuron degeneration caused by FD and to observe the positive effects of the novel therapy. The study was published in PLOS Genetics.

Trucks, highways, and neurons

"Neurons are the longest cells in our body," said Prof. Ast. "'Highways' along our neurons allow 'trucks' with 'cargo' to supply our neurons with essential supplies. In most neurodegenerative diseases these highways -- called microtubules -- and the axonal transport process are impaired. Our study demonstrates that alterations in the stability of microtubules and disruptions in the transport may lead to FD."

The research team, including Shiran Naftelberg-Blonder and other TAU students, generated a mouse model of FD. The mice exhibited symptoms similar to those experienced by human patients with FD, including developmental delays, sensory abnormalities, unstable microtubules, and impairment of axonal retrograde transport of nerve growth factor.

"We found that in neurons from our FD mice, the microtubular highways were impaired by elevated levels of an enzyme called HDAC6," said Prof. Ast. "This impairment removed the adhesive that connects the 'bricks' of the highway. This led to less stabilized highways and to the slower movement of cargo along it."

Once the mouse exhibiting FD symptoms was generated, the researchers administered a phosphatidylserine treatment, which lowered the level of the enzyme that removed the "glue" from the "bricks" of the microtubular highways. Phosphatidylserine contains both amino acids and fatty acids and is known to be effective in slowing down long-term memory loss.

Finding a "path" to treatment

The researchers found that the treatment with phosphatidylserine enhanced the stability of the microtubular "highways" and improved the movement of "cargo" along these pathways. "We identified the molecular pathway that leads to neurodegeneration in FD and demonstrated that phosphatidylserine has the potential to slow progression of neurodegeneration," said Prof. Ast.

"Phosphatidylserine can repair the activity in neurons from the FD mouse by reducing the amount of the enzyme that removes the 'glue' from the 'bricks,'" Prof. Ast continued. "This elevates the stability of the 'highways' and increases essential cargo movement along these neurological pathways."

The researchers are currently researching ways of improving the delivery of phosphatidylserine to the nervous system. Teva Pharmaceuticals contributed support for this research through the National Network of Excellence.

###

Tel Aviv University (TAU) is inherently linked to the cultural, scientific and entrepreneurial mecca it represents. It is one of the world's most dynamic research centers and Israel's most distinguished learning environment. Its unique-in-Israel multidisciplinary environment is highly coveted by young researchers and scholars returning to Israel from post-docs and junior faculty positions in the US.

American Friends of Tel Aviv University (AFTAU) enthusiastically and industriously pursues the advancement of TAU in the US, raising money, awareness and influence through international alliances that are vital to the future of this already impressive institution.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is learning - from the real world. Nine months ago, a computer beat one of the world's best players at one of the world's oldest games, Go. That was the start of a new era, the era of new IT: Intelligent Technology, according to Fei-Yue Wang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"This victory stunned many in the AI field and beyond," wrote Wang in an editorial published in IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica (JAS), based on a speech he gave at the 30th anniversary of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the Xian Jiaotong University in Xian, China. "It marked the beginning of a new era in AI... parallel intelligence."

Defined as the interaction between actual reality and virtual reality, parallel intelligence flips traditional AI. Rather than big, universal laws directing small amounts of data, small, complex laws guide huge data, a jump from Newton to Merton, as pointed out by Professor Wang. AlphaGo, the computer victorious against Go player Lee Sedol, played more than 30 million games with itself - more than a single, century-old person could play in their entire life. And the computer learned from every game.

"[Sedol] was not defeated by a computer program, but by all the humans standing behind the program, combined with the significant cyber-physical information inside it," Wang wrote. "This also verifies the belief of many AI experts that intelligence must emerge from the process of computing and interacting."

Input X, output Y is not as simple as it once was. There's more to physical space than just cyber space. Machines must also make room for social space. According to Wang, AI is lingering in a phase of hybrid intelligence where humans, information, and machines are equally integral to the process of progress. The problem lies in learning how to model AI on shifting terms of possibility. X does not always cause Y in such complicated systems, where uncertainty, diversity, and complexity typically prevail. In order to move forward, a new framework is needed to model the next step of parallel intelligence.

Wang proposes the ACP Approach to generate big data from small data, then reduce big data to specific laws, where software (Artificial systems) learn from millions of scenarios (Computational experiments) to make the best decisions while interacting (in Parallel) with real-world physical systems. AlphaGo had learned, from 30 million games, how to make the best decisions when faced with the physical being of Sedol. It paid off.

"AI is not 'artificial' anymore," Wang wrote. "Ultimately, it becomes the 'real' intelligence that can be embodied into machines, artifacts, and our societies."

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Fulltext of the paper is available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7589480

http://html.rhhz.net/ieee-jas/html/20160401.htm

IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica (JAS) is a joint publication of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc (IEEE) and the Chinese Association of Automation. JAS publishes papers on original theoretical and experimental research and development in all areas of automation. The coverage of JAS includes but is not limited to: Automatic control/Artificial intelligence and intelligent control/Systems theory and engineering/Pattern recognition and intelligent systems/Automation engineering and applications/Information processing and information systems/Network based automation/Robotics/Computer-aided technologies for automation systems/Sensing and measurement/Navigation, guidance, and control.

To learn more about JAS, please visit: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6570654

http://www.ieee-jas.org
From a fleet of shining beetles to sharks and an alarming bird virus, spanning 5 continents and 3 oceans, these discoveries add to Earth's tree of life

SAN FRANCISCO (December 21, 2016) -- In 2016, researchers at the California Academy of Sciences added 133 new plant and animal species to our family tree, enriching our understanding of Earth's complex web of life and strengthening our ability to make informed conservation decisions. The new species include one bee fly, 43 ants, 36 beetles, one sand wasp, four spiders, six plants, 23 fishes, one eel, one shark, seven nudibranchs, five fossil urchins (and one fossil sand dollar), one coral, one skate, one African lizard, and an alarming new bird virus. More than a dozen Academy scientists--along with several dozen international collaborators--described the discoveries.

Proving that our planet contains unexplored places with never-before-recorded plants and animals (with their own set of evolving viruses), the scientists made their finds over five continents and three oceans, ventured into vast deserts, plunged beneath the sea, and scoured thick rainforests and towering mountain ranges. Their results help advance the Academy's mission to explore, explain, and sustain life on Earth.

"Biodiversity scientists estimate that we have discovered less than 10% of the species on our planet," says Dr. Shannon Bennett, Academy Chief of Science. "Academy scientists tirelessly explore the lesser-known regions of Earth--not only to discover new species, but also to uncover the importance of these species to the health of our natural systems. Each of these species, known and as-yet-unknown, is a wonder unto itself but may also hold the key to ground-breaking innovations in science, technology, or society. Species live together in rich networks that thrive on complexity whether we can see it or not. Even the tiniest organism," she adds, "can be beautiful and important."

Below are a few highlights among the 133 species described by the Academy in 2016. For a full list of species and images, contact press@calacademy.org.

Flashy "twilight zone" groppo--deepest fish discovered by human hands

One pink-and-yellow fish has earned its spot in deep reef history. Grammatonotus brianne--an eye-popping species of groppo--is the deepest new fish discovery ever made by human hands. The discovery was captured on film at 487 feet beneath the ocean's surface.

Academy scientists are currently diving to twilight zone reefs around the world. In these narrow bands of deep reefs, animals live in partial darkness, well beyond recreational diving limits yet above the deep trenches patrolled by submarines and ROVs. Reaching extreme depths requires Academy divers and their collaborators to push the boundaries of both technology and the human body, using closed-circuit "rebreathers" that extend the amount of time they can spend underwater.

The new groppo is one of several new species discoveries made during an Academy expedition (along with research partners from Hawaii's Bishop Museum) to the Philippines in 2014--part of an ongoing, multi-year exploration of the Coral Triangle's biological treasures from the shallows to deep mesophotic "twilight zone" reefs 200 to 500 feet beneath the ocean surface.

Deep-diving Academy ichthyologist Dr. Luiz Rocha and Bishop Museum research associate Brian Greene spotted the neon groppo (later named G. brianne for Greene's wife) during a murky, cold dive in the Philippine Verde Island Passage, a region known as the "center of the center" of Earth's marine biodiversity.

"This groppo is the most beautiful fish I've ever seen," says Rocha, a co-leader of the Academy's monumental push to explore, explain, and sustain coral reefs around the world. "But beyond its looks, it's a reminder that we know very little about the mysterious half-lit reefs we call the twilight zone. We need to understand the life inside these largely-unexplored deeper reefs because they may help us understand how the oceans respond to great change."

G. brianne joins 24 new species of fishes--from camouflaging gobies to lanternsharks of the Indian Ocean--described by Academy scientists in 2016 alone.

43 new ants (and a crowd of blood-sucking "Draculas")

Dr. Brian Fisher, Academy curator of entomology and real-life "Ant Man," recently added a whopping 43 new species to the tree of life. Fisher is a fierce advocate for the importance of small animals that support all terrestrial communities, and has devoted his life to the study of ants and biodiversity. Since 1996, he has conducted fieldwork in Madagascar--where only 10% of natural habitat remains--to explore regional biodiversity and generate data to drive conservation priorities in the country.

"Our work in Madagascar focuses on determining which ants live where as we develop new field guides as tools for diagnosing and understanding conservation problems," Fisher says. "It's not just about generating data--we are trying to create a culture of interest in the natural world, from the smallest ant to the tallest tree."

Several of this year's finds belong to a group called Stigmatomma--"Dracula ants" that build tiny, few-chambered colonies (generally no larger than a dime) beneath the soil. In a bizarre but fascinating means of distributing nutrients throughout the colony, ants from this group are known to wound their colonies' babies before drinking their blood--a substance called "hemolymph" in insects. An elongated jaw with two large pincers also allows the ants to grasp prey mostly comprised of centipedes, but also beetle larvae.

"Because these ants are so rarely collected, finding them is like uncovering buried treasure," says Flavia Esteves, a postdoctoral researcher at the Academy who has joined Fisher in the field since 2010. Most Stigmatomma species spend the entirety of their lives beneath the soil or inside rotten logs. Esteves cuts through Madagascar's clay-like soil with a machete, and then uses a pocket knife--and finally, forceps--to carefully expose the ants.

"In an island like Madagascar where human activities are destroying sensitive habitats, understanding specialized species such as Stigmatomma is even more important. We fear that the unique environmental niche they occupy will go unfilled once these ants are gone," says Esteves. "We still have so much to learn from these specialized soil dwellers," adds Fisher.

Fisher recently returned from a nine-month expedition to Mozambique, accompanied by Esteves, as part of a Fulbright Scholar Grant to study ants and climate. His work in Madagascar (including founding the country's first and only biodiversity research center) and Mozambique continue to provide conservation partners with a wealth of new biodiversity data and monitoring aids to inform future land-use planning.

A gray-haired "grandfather" bee fly

All around us, insects flit, hover, and buzz about, but one family--the bee flies (Bombyliidae sp.)--may cause passersby to look twice. The nearly 5,000 species that make up this fly group imitate a wide range of relatives, from delicate honey bees to menacing wasps and spiders. "Don't be deceived by stripes or fuzzy adornments," says fly-expert Dr. Michelle Trautwein, Academy curator of entomology: insects from this group are all flies. A new species from Madagascar was recently discovered as part of a collaborative project between the Academy and the Schlinger Foundation to document the country's diversity of insects and their close relatives.

Named Thevenetimyia spinosavus (which translates to "thorny grandfather"), this gray-haired bee fly was discovered by Natalia Maass, who worked with Trautwein for two summers as an undergraduate intern. While examining specimens under the microscope, Maass noticed one quite unlike the rest.

"He was longer and more slender than other bee flies, with big spikes on his thorax and longer, gray bristly hairs," says Trautwein, describing why Natalia granted it its grandparent moniker. What's more, this stubbled bee fly was completely isolated from any other species within the same relative group. Similar species of bee fly are found in Northern Africa and North America--both a long way from Madagascar--meaning this "thorny grandfather" is part of a group with an incredibly wide distribution.

No matter where they're found, adult bee flies spend their time pollinating nearby plants. But as larvae, they prey viciously upon the larvae of other species. Adult bee flies will deposit their larvae in an aerial raid: dropping them from above to land in strategic locations where they can hatch, invade a nearby nest, and consume larvae of other insect colonies before growing up to be gentler, flower-visiting--rather than larvae-poaching--adults.

"An important piece of this project was being able to support a young woman in science so devoted to learning the language of species anatomy and descriptions," says Trautwein. "Watching Natalia grow and become a graduate student gives me great confidence in the young scientists who will continue to contribute to natural history collections--our best snapshots of biodiversity in the face of great change."

New bird virus linked to beak-bending disorder

This year, scientists uncovered a fascinating new clue in the global mystery surrounding wild birds with grossly deformed beaks. Dr. Jack Dumbacher, Academy curator of ornithology and mammalogy--alongside a team of researchers from UCSF and USGS--identified a new virus that has been linked to Avian Keratin Disorder (AKD), a disease responsible for debilitating beak overgrowth and whose cause has remained elusive despite more than a decade of research.

This new virus--identified from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest--is being investigated as a potential cause of AKD and represents a critical step in understanding the emergence of this disease in wild bird populations around the world.

"Take one look at a bird suffering from Avian Keratin Disorder, and you'll understand the importance of stopping its spread," says Dumbacher. "Birds must be able to feed themselves and preen their plumage by carefully spreading waterproofing oils on their feathers. When deformed beaks restrict them from these life-giving activities, birds become cold, hungry, and often die. We're trying to understand the causes, origins, and distribution of this disorder."

After sifting through hundreds of thousands of DNA fragments (and comparing them to known virus groups among birds), scientists identified a new virus suspect belonging to the picornavirus family--a large and diverse group that includes well-known human offenders like polio, hepatitis A, and the common cold. The team named their discovery Poecivirus after the genus of black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) from which the sequences originated, and in which AKD was first documented.

Though more research is necessary to establish Poecivirus definitively as the main cause of AKD, it remains the strongest lead yet. As part of the new virus description, the team generated a detailed map of Poecivirus' genetic material--a tool that will enable scientists all over the world to aid in its identification among birds exhibiting clinical signs of AKD.

A fleet of beetles from Africa and China

After more than a dozen combined expeditions to the damp rainforests of Madagascar and cloud-kissed mountains of southwestern China, Dr. Dave Kavanaugh--Academy emeritus curator of entomology--is sharing 36 exciting new discoveries. Ground beetles are a wildly diverse group of winged and wingless predators that feast on other insects, and some are known to survive in extreme environments around the world.

Twenty-six of Kavanaugh's recent species discoveries hail from Madagascar's Ranomafana National Park--an area of lush tropical rainforest stretching nearly 160 square miles across the southwestern portion of the island. During one 5-week expedition, Kavanaugh's daughter Kathryn (for whom he later named a beetle Chlaenius kathrynae) assisted him in the field by searching for species of ground beetles in the leaf litter.

"The first few days of one Madagascar expedition were dry as a bone, making the rainforest insects very hard to find," says Kavanaugh. "And then the rains came. It poured day and night for the next month. We worked through the storms with jungle rot on our feet from the constant damp." The rain led to the successful collection of many new beetle species, including flat-backed, fungi- and log-dwelling Eurydera oracle, named in honor of generous expedition support provided by Oracle.

Several additional new species (including three new genera) are described from the Gaoligong Mountains of China's Yunnan Province, a region where extreme physical geography has caused a jaw-dropping array of species to evolve over millennia. Since 1998, Kavanaugh and his colleagues have trekked mountains packed with endemic species--those found nowhere else in the world. Scientists view the region as an isolated paleoenvironment, or an area that (due to its location) has remained relatively unchanged for millions of years. In less than two decades, the team has grown the list of the area's known ground beetles from 50 to 550 species.

Kavanaugh collaborates with local Chinese colleagues on the China Natural History Project to document the vast array of ground beetles and other animals and plants still being discovered in this isolated region. "Due to the restricted range and specialization of these insects, they are often some of the first to indicate significant changes to regional climate and biodiversity," says Kavanaugh, "which is why it's so important that we learn all about the life around us. You never know what clues even the smallest insects underfoot may hold to the rhythms of life on this planet."

Armored lizards of Angola

Amid outcroppings of granite in the arid, sloping lowlands of southern Angola, a newly discovered species of lizard wedges itself into particularly tight crevices, head-first. Only threatening spines are left exposed along its body and tail to deter approaching predators. Despite this clever maneuver, there was no escaping discovery by Dr. Edward Stanley, Academy herpetology research associate, who suspected this particular lizard might differ from known species in the area.

Stanley formally described this new species of armored lizard with the aid of CT scans, a type of imaging technology that combines a series of x-rays to reveal information about the lizard's uniquely armored body. Scans revealed that the tiny, bony spikes of Cordylus namakuiyus are actually embedded in the lizard's skin rather than attached to the skeleton itself.

"CT technology allowed us to visualize and measure the armoring structure in this new lizard species," says Stanley. "This is also the first time a 3D digital representation of a newly described species is freely available to download as part of a species description."

The species discovery--the result of a joint expedition between the Academy and partner institutions in Angola--represents a strong collaborative step towards exploring the region's extreme natural landscape. "Not much is known about Angolan species of armored lizards," says Stanley, "particularly in remote or inaccessible parts of the country, so we are excited to be exploring this biologically rich area."

Local coral discovery helps double California sanctuary

Just north of San Francisco off California's coastline, countless species thrive in the deep, chilly waters that make up the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary--one of the most biologically productive regions on the planet. Here, scientists use remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, to explore life beneath the surface. On a 2012 expedition with NOAA, octocoral expert and Academy curator of invertebrate zoology Gary Williams set off aboard the R/V Fulmar to investigate vibrant offshore life down to 1,400 feet deep.

Among the sea stars, sea worms, snails, sponges, and crabs, Williams saw a single, whip-like stalk--only 15 inches in length--of a snow-white coral gently swaying in the ocean currents. Unlike the hard coral relatives that compose the famous tropical reefs closer to the ocean's surface, this soft-bodied coral species stands alone at depth and feeds on microscopic plankton floating through the water column.

Even before its formal description, the new species--now named Swiftia farallonesica after its sanctuary home--served as a brilliant symbol of the region's ecological importance, and helped strengthen the case for sanctuary expansion. In March 2015, NOAA ensured these sanctuaries would be protected for years to come by more than doubling their size and adding strict bans on all drilling, mining, and ship discharges. The expansion added 2,700 square miles of protected territory, reaching up to Point Arena in Mendocino County.

"Discovery is always an exciting thing," says Williams. "It's crucial to continue exploring the unknown so we can properly manage and protect these priceless marine ecosystems in our own backyard."

Other new invertebrate species highlights include: five fossil species of ancient urchins and one fossil sand dollar described by invertebrate zoology curator Dr. Rich Mooi, and seven colorful new nudibranchs (sea slugs) described from the world's shallow reefs--including one from California--by longtime invertebrate zoology curator Dr. Terry Gosliner.

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About Research at the California Academy of Sciences

The Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability at the California Academy of Sciences is at the forefront of efforts to understand two of the most important topics of our time: the nature and sustainability of life on Earth. Based in San Francisco, the Institute is home to more than 100 world-class scientists, state-of-the-art facilities, and nearly 46 million scientific specimens from around the world. The Institute also leverages the expertise and efforts of more than 100 international Associates and 400 distinguished Fellows. Through expeditions around the globe, investigations in the lab, and analysis of vast biological datasets, the Institute's scientists work to understand the evolution and interconnectedness of organisms and ecosystems, the threats they face around the world, and the most effective strategies for sustaining them into the future. Through innovative partnerships and public engagement initiatives, they also guide critical sustainability and conservation decisions worldwide, inspire and mentor the next generation of scientists, and foster responsible stewardship of our planet.
A new study in The Condor: Ornithological Applications documents the steep decline of a population of endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatchers over 16 years--and the change in the sex ratio that has left the birds' future hanging on a dwindling number of males.

Changes in sex ratios can cause problems in small, declining populations, reducing individuals' ability to find mates and reproduce. From 2000 to 2015, Barbara Kus of the U.S. Geological Survey and her colleagues monitored federally endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatchers on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in southern California, collecting data as the population declined from 40 individuals to only five. They found that the number of adult males was stable until 2004, but then began to decrease sharply until females outnumbered males at least two to one from 2012 on.

As the number of males plummeted, more and more of them became polygynous, mating with multiple females. Kus speculates that this may have prevented even faster declines. "It was particularly amazing to watch two or three males manage 10 or so females between them," says Kus. "They seemed to be able to increase their individual efforts such that every female was mated."

Sex ratios of small populations can become unbalanced through chance, but it appears that other forces were at work in this case--more female than male birds were hatched almost every year of the study. The sex ratio of birds' offspring can be influenced by factors ranging from the parents' size to land use practices to the threat of nest parasitism, but it's unclear what caused the flycatchers in Kus' study to start producing more female offspring.

"The fact that we found a female bias not only in the adult population, but also in the nestling population and among recruits, suggests that the adult bias is not simply a random outcome of a declining population," says Kus. "Environmental or other factors may be influencing sex ratios at multiple stages of the life cycle, and more research on these potential factors would be useful. I think our findings indicate that it's important to track sex ratios as well as numbers in populations of species of conservation concern, in order to detect shifts that could affect population dynamics."

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"Female-biased sex ratio, polygyny, and persistence in the endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus)" will be available December 21, 2016, at http://americanornithologypubs.org/doi/full/10.1650/CONDOR-16-119.1 (issue URL http://americanornithologypubs.org/toc/cond/119/1).

About the journal: The Condor: Ornithological Applications is a peer-reviewed, international journal of ornithology. It began in 1899 as the journal of the Cooper Ornithological Club, a group of ornithologists in California that became the Cooper Ornithological Society, which merged with the American Ornithologists' Union in 2016 to become the American Ornithological Society.
ALMA observes radio waves from the Universe, at the low-energy end of the electromagnetic spectrum. With the newly installed Band 5 receivers, ALMA has now opened its eyes to a whole new section of this radio spectrum, creating exciting new observational possibilities.

The European ALMA Programme Scientist, Leonardo Testi, explains the significance: "The new receivers will make it much easier to detect water, a prerequisite for life as we know it, in our Solar System and in more distant regions of our galaxy and beyond. They will also allow ALMA to search for ionised carbon in the primordial Universe."

It is ALMA's unique location, 5000 metres up on the barren Chajnantor plateau in Chile, that makes such an observation possible in the first place. As water is also present in Earth's atmosphere, observatories in less elevated and less arid environments have much more difficulty identifying the origin of the emission coming from space. ALMA's great sensitivity and high angular resolution mean that even faint signals of water in the local Universe can now be imaged at this wavelength [1].

The Band 5 receiver, which was developed by the Group for Advanced Receiver Development (GARD at Onsala Space Observatory, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has already been tested at the APEX telescope in the SEPIA instrument. These observations were also vital to help select suitable targets for the first receiver tests with ALMA.

The first production receivers were built and delivered to ALMA in the first half of 2015 by a consortium consisting of the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) and GARD in partnership with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO, which contributed the local oscillator to the project. The receivers are now installed and being prepared for use by the community of astronomers.

To test the newly installed receivers observations were made of several objects including the colliding galaxies Arp 220, a massive region of star formation close to the centre of the Milky Way, and also a dusty red supergiant star approaching the supernova explosion that will end its life [2].

To process the data and check its quality, astronomers, along with technical specialists from ESO and the European ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) network, gathered at the Onsala Space Observatory in Sweden, for a "Band 5 Busy Week" hosted by the Nordic ARC node [3] (http://www.nordic-alma.se/). The final results have just been made freely available to the astronomical community worldwide.

Team member Robert Laing at ESO is optimistic about the prospects for ALMA Band 5 observations: "It's very exciting to see these first results from ALMA Band 5 using a limited set of antennas. In the future, the high sensitivity and angular resolution of the full ALMA array will allow us to make detailed studies of water in a wide range of objects including forming and evolved stars, the interstellar medium and regions close to supermassive black holes."

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Notes

[1] A key spectral signature of water lies in this expanded range -- at a wavelength of 1.64 millimetres.

[2] The observations were performed and made possible by the ALMA Extension of Capabilities team in Chile.

[3] The ESO Band 5 Science Verification team includes: Elizabeth Humphreys, Tony Mroczkowski, Robert Laing, Katharina Immer, Hau-Yu (Baobab) Liu, Andy Biggs, Gianni Marconi and Leonardo Testi. The team working on processing the data included: Tobia Carozzi, Simon Casey, Sabine Konig, Ana Lopez-Sepulcre, Matthias Maercker, Ivan Marti-Vidal, Lydia Moser, Sebastien Muller, Anita Richards, Daniel Tafoya and Wouter Vlemmings.

More information

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of ESO, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world's largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".

Links

* Photos of ALMA - https://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/alma/

Contacts

Leonardo Testi

European ALMA Programme Scientist, ESO

Garching bei Munchen, Germany

Tel: +49 89 3200 6541

Email: ltesti@eso.org

Robert Laing

ESO ALMA Scientist

Garching bei Munchen, Germany

Tel: +49 89 3200 6625

Email: rlaing@eso.org

Richard Hook

ESO Public Information Officer

Garching bei Munchen, Germany

Tel: +49 89 3200 6655

Cell: +49 151 1537 3591

Email: rhook@eso.org
Heidelberg, 21 December 2016 - A characteristic feature of Alzheimer's disease is the presence of so called amyloid plaques in the patient's brain - aggregates of misfolded proteins that clump together and damage nerve cells. Although the body has mechanisms to dispose these aggregates, it apparently cannot keep up with the load in the diseased brain. Researchers from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Munich and the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) Munich have now discovered a strategy to help the brain remove amyloid plaques. More precisely: they uncovered a factor that can activate microglial cells to engulf newly forming clumps in the brain. Microglia are the scavenger cells of the brain's immune system that function in keeping the brain tidy and free of any damaging material. The work is published today in The EMBO Journal.

Previous research addressing the function of microglia in Alzheimer's disease was hampered by methodological constraints. Researchers often used microglial cells cultured in a dish, but only microglia from newborn mice survive outside the body. However, young microglia are not ideal to investigate an age-related illness, especially since it was known that microglia change in the course of the disease. All in all, the role of microglia in clearing the brain of amyloid plaques was still under debate.

The research team from Munich, headed by Christian Haass and Sabina Tahirovic, devised a new tissue culture system to address these issues. The scientists took aged brain tissue from mouse model of Alzheimer's disease and co-cultured it with tissue from younger brains. They observed that, within a few days of culturing, amyloid plaques were starting to clear away.

A detailed analysis of this process revealed that microglia from the aging tissue were engulfing the plaques on site, but they received some long-distance assistance from the younger tissue in the dish. In fact, young microglia were secreting factors that helped old microglia rejuvenate, resume cell division and take up their work: clear the brain from plaques. One of the factors that reactivated aged microglia is called "granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor", or GM-CSF for short. The researchers found that GM-CSF alone could do the job.

GM-CSF has previously been reported to reduce plaques and improve cognition in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. However, it is not yet known if GM-CSF could potentially work as a new drug for Alzheimer's disease in humans. Caution is advised, because activating microglia may also have its downsides. Microglia secrete small proteins that induce inflammatory reactions and may harm neurons. The new model system of Tahirovic, Haass and their colleagues, however, can be explored further to search for additional factors that enhance the clearance of amyloid plaques.

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The EMBO Journal (2016) e201694591

Young microglia restore amyloid plaque clearance of aged microglia

Daria A, Colombo A, Llovera G, Hampel H, Willem M, Liesz A, Haass C, Tahirovic S

Read the paper: emboj.embopress.org/content/early/2016/12/20/embj.201694591
For three billion years or more, the evolution of the first animal life on Earth was ready to happen, practically waiting in the wings. But the breathable oxygen it required wasn't there, and a lack of simple nutrients may have been to blame.

Then came a fierce planetary metamorphosis. Roughly 800 million years ago, in the late Proterozoic Eon, phosphorus, a chemical element essential to all life, began to accumulate in shallow ocean zones near coastlines widely considered to be the birthplace of animals and other complex organisms, according to a new study by geoscientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Yale University.

Along with phosphorus accumulation came a global chemical chain reaction, which included other nutrients, that powered organisms to pump oxygen into the atmosphere and oceans. Shortly after that transition, waves of climate extremes swept the globe, freezing it over twice for tens of millions of years each time, a highly regarded theory holds. The elevated availability of nutrients and bolstered oxygen also likely fueled evolution's greatest lunge forward.

After billions of years, during which life consisted almost entirely of single-celled organisms, animals evolved. At first, they were extremely simple, resembling today's sponges or jellyfish, but Earth was on its way from being, for eons, a planet less than hospitable to complex life to becoming one bursting with it.

Earth's true genesis

In the last few hundred million years, biodiversity has blossomed, leading to dense jungles and grasslands echoing with animal calls, and waters writhing with every shape of fin and color of scale. And most every stage of development has left its mark on the fossil record.

The researchers are careful not to imply that phosphorous necessarily caused the chain reaction, but in sedimentary rock taken from coastal areas, the nutrient has marked the spot where that burst of life and climate change took off. "The timing is definitely conspicuous," said Chris Reinhard, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

Reinhard and Noah Planavsky, a geochemist from Yale University, who headed up the research together, have mined records of sedimentary rock that formed in ancient coastal zones, going down layer by layer to 3.5 billion years ago, to compute how the cycle of the essential fertilizer phosphorus evolved and how it appeared to play a big part in a veritable genesis.

They noticed a remarkable congruency as they moved upward through the layers of shale into the time period where animal life began, in the late Proterozoic Eon.

"The most basic change was from very limited phosphorous availability to much higher phosphorus availability in surface waters of the ocean," Reinhard said. "And the transition seemed to occur right around the time that there were very large changes in ocean-atmosphere oxygen levels and just before the emergence of animals."

Phosphorus at the beach

Reinhard and Planavsky, together with an international team, have proposed that a scavenging of nutrients in an anoxic (nearly O2-free) world stunted photosynthetic organisms that otherwise had been poised for at least two billion years to make stockpiles of oxygen. Then that balanced system was upset and oceanic phosphorus made its way to coastal waters.

The scientists published their findings in the journal Nature on Wednesday, December 21, 2016. Their research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the NASA Astrobiology Institute, the Sloan Foundation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

The work provides a new view into what factors allowed life to reshape Earth's atmosphere. It helps lay a foundation that scientists can apply to make predictions about what would allow life to alter exoplanets' atmospheres, and may inspire deeper studies, here on Earth, of how oceanic-atmospheric chemistry drives climate instability and influences the rise and fall of life through the ages.

Cyanobacteria, the mother of O2

Complex living things, including animals, usually have an immense metabolism and require ample O2 to drive it. The evolution of animals is unthinkable without it.

The path to understanding how a nutrient dearth would starve out breathable oxygen production leads back to a very special kind of bacteria called cyanobacteria, the mother of oxygen on Earth.

"The only reason we have a well-oxygenated planet we can live on is because of oxygenic photosynthesis," Planavsky said. "O2 is the waste product of photosynthesizing cells, like cyanobacteria, combining CO2 and water to build sugars."

And photosynthesis is an evolutionary singularity, meaning it only evolved once in Earth's history - in cyanobacteria.

Some other biological phenomena evolved repeatedly in dozens or hundreds of unrelated incidences across the ages, such as the transition from single-celled organisms to rudimentary multicellular organisms. But scientists are confident that oxygenic photosynthesis evolved only this one time in Earth's history, only in cyanobacteria, and all plants and other beings on Earth that photosynthesize coopted the development.

The iron anchor

Cyanobacteria are credited with filling Earth's atmosphere with O2, and they've been around for 2.5 billion years or more.

That begs the question: What took so long? Basic nutrients that fed the bacteria weren't readily available, the scientist hypothesize. The phosphorus, which Planavsky and Reinhard specifically tracked, was in the ocean for billions of years, too, but it was tied up in the wrong places.

For eons, the mineral iron, which once saturated oceans, likely bonded with phosphorous, and sank it down to dark ocean depths, far away from those shallows -- also called continental margins -- where cyanobacteria would have needed it to thrive and make oxygen. Even today, iron is used to treat waters polluted with fertilizer to remove phosphorous by sinking it as deep sediment.

The researchers also used a geochemical model to show how a global system with high iron concentration and low phosphorus availability combined with low nitrogen availability in ocean shallows could perpetuate itself in a low-oxygen world.

"It looks to have been such a stable planetary system," Reinhard said. "But it's obviously not the planet we live on now, so the question is, how did we transition from this low-oxygen state to where we are now?"

What ultimately caused that change is a question for future research.

Phosphorus starting pistol

But something did change about 800 million years ago, and cyanobacteria and other minute organisms in continental margin ecosystems got more phosphorus, the backbone of DNA and RNA, and a main actor in cell metabolism. The bacteria became more active, reproduced more quickly, ate lots more phosphorus and made loads more O2.

"Phosphorus is not only essential for life," Planavsky said. "What's implicit in all this is: It can control the amount of life on our planet."

When the newly multiplied bacteria died, they fell to the floor of those ocean shallows, stacking up layer by layer to decay and enrich the mud with phosphorus. The mud eventually compressed to stone.

"As the biomass increased in phosphorus content, the more of it landed in layers of sedimentary rock," Reinhard said. "To scientists, that shale is the pages of the sea floor's history book."

Scientists have thumbed through them for decades, compiling data. Planavsky and Reinhard analyzed some 15,000 rock records for their study.

"The first compilation we had of this was only 600 samples," Planavsky said. Reinhard added, "But you could already see it then. The phosphorus jolt was as clear as day. And as the database grew in size, the phenomenon became more entrenched."

That first signal of phosphorus in Earth's coast shallows pops up in the shale record like a shot from a starting pistol in the race for abundant life.

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The following people coauthored the study: Benjamin Gill from Virginia Tech, Kazumi Ozaki from the University of Tokyo, Leslie Robbins and Kurt Konhauser from the University of Alberta, Timothy Lyons from the University of California Riverside, Woodward Fischer from the California Institute of Technology, Chunjiang Wang from the University of Petroleum in Beijing, and Devon Cole from Yale University. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation (grant EAR-1338290), the NASA Astrobiology Institute (grant NNA15BB03A), the Sloan Foundation (grant FR-2015-65744) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.
Reston, VA - According to new research from the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute, state tort reform has been associated with a decrease in physician ordering of radiographs. The study, published online in the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR), examines the extent to which radiography use is influenced by malpractice liability pressure among office-based physicians.

"While physicians cite malpractice liability as an important factor driving their decisions to order imaging tests, little research has been done to examine the systematic impact of liability pressure on overall imaging," said lead author Suhui Li, PhD, a health researcher at Mathematica Policy Research in Princeton, NJ. "Radiography is the most widely used imaging procedure and therefore provides a lens into understanding how tort reforms affect imaging utilization."

Li and her colleagues examined the association between state tort reforms and radiography orders in ambulatory settings using a nationally representative dataset of patient visits to physician offices between 1999 and 2010. They found that the probability that a primary care physician (PCP) ordered radiography decreased when states enacted caps on noneconomic damages, periodic payment reforms, and the total number of tort reforms.

"We discovered that when states enact indirect tort reforms, reforms that make it harder to sue physicians have a stronger effect on radiography orders than reforms that directly reduce physicians' liability payoff for both PCPs and specialists," said Danny R. Hughes, PhD, Neiman Institute senior director for health policy research and senior research fellow. "We also found that the probability of a radiography order was lower in states with a greater number of tort reform laws."

In addition, the researchers found that PCPs and specialists respond differently to tort reforms, perhaps reflecting the underlying differences between the two physician groups in their patient mix, their office type and even their metropolitan versus non-metropolitan setting. They also discovered that physicians tend to reduce radiography orders following the enactment of tort laws and increase orders following a reversal of a tort reform.

"Our analysis suggests that reforms that make it harder to sue physicians have a stronger impact than reforms which directly reduce physicians' malpractice claim payments," noted Hughes.

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To obtain a copy of the JACR study or to arrange an interview with a Neiman Institute spokesperson, contact Nicole Racadag at (703) 716-7559 or nracadag@neimanhpi.org.

About the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute

The Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute is one of the nation's leading medical imaging socioeconomic research organizations. The Neiman Institute studies the role and value of radiology and radiologists in evolving health care delivery and payment systems and the impact of medical imaging on the cost, quality, safety and efficiency of health care. Visit us at http://www.neimanhpi.org and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Cambridge, Mass. - December 21, 2016 - When Regina Dugan, Facebook's Vice President of Engineering and head of Building 8, spoke at Harvard University on November 7, she described the discipline and architecture required for a company or an institution to sustain "a hot cauldron of activity," producing innovations of lasting impact. Common to the greatest innovations in history, the former director of DARPA said, was a shared passion for advancing "use-inspired basic research"--which is to say: "audacious science and an application that matters."

Affirming the essential value of transformative research in shaping the future, Harvard's Office of Technology Development (OTD) has established a collaborative research agreement with Facebook. This master agreement establishes a platform on which Harvard faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers can quickly and easily pursue joint or sponsored research projects with Facebook, bringing both academic and product-driven perspectives to bear on scientific questions of mutual interest. Harvard is among 17 academic institutions that have signed on to Facebook's Sponsored Academic Research Agreement (SARA), announced today.

Computer scientists, social scientists, and electrical engineers from Harvard routinely attend the same conferences as Facebook's internal researchers, each presenting innovative discoveries that inspire new lines of inquiry. The new agreement facilitates the type of interactions and collaborations that naturally arise from this intellectual cross-pollination.

"When curiosity strikes, with this new agreement in place, Harvard researchers can initiate new projects with scientific colleagues at Facebook almost immediately," said Isaac T. Kohlberg, Harvard's Chief Technology Development Officer and Senior Associate Provost. "Technological advancement poses urgent challenges and opportunities in fields such as computational science, artificial intelligence, privacy, computer vision, augmented and virtual reality, and advanced materials and manufacturing. This agreement with Facebook recognizes that the most significant, transformative solutions will be informed by university science."

The University currently has similar agreements, typically known at Harvard as strategic research alliances, with companies including BASF, Evotec, UCB, Charoen Pokphand, and a group of Tata companies, among others. These research alliances foster long-term scientific partnerships that can advance discovery in a broad area of science, drawing on strengths from across the University.

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Researchers know that the variation in leaf shapes can mean big differences in a farmer's bottom line. Now, a new discovery gives plant breeders key genetic information they need to develop crop varieties that make the most of these leaf-shape differences.

In a paper published Dec. 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, NC State researchers and colleagues from the Danforth Plant Science Center, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Cotton Incorporated describe how they used genomic and molecular tools to find the location of the DNA sequence that determines major leaf shapes in upland cotton.

The researchers also describe how they manipulated the genetic code to alter the shape of a cotton plant's leaves in potentially beneficial ways.

This discovery represents a significant step toward developing cotton varieties that produce higher yields at less cost to the farmers, said Dr. Vasu Kuraparthy, an associate professor with NC State's Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and the project's principal investigator.

Scientists have recognized that cotton plants with leaves that have five deep lobes, like the leaves of the okra plant, offer advantages to farmers over what researchers refer to as "normal" leaves. Dr. Ryan Andres, a postdoctoral researcher who worked in Kuraparthy's lab while he was a graduate student, said the so-called "okra" leaf cottons are less susceptible to boll rot than the stably yielding "normal" leaf cotton varieties.

The okra leaves also allow a spray to be more evenly dispersed across a plant and are associated with higher rates of flowering and earlier rates of maturity in cotton, Andres added.

To determine if they'd found the DNA sequence that controlled major leaf shapes in cotton, researchers infected okra-leaf plants with a modified virus that silenced the target gene. That led to a temporary production of normal leaves until the plants overcame the experimental virus and reverted to okra leaf shape.

Kuraparthy and Andres said they hope that this leaf architecture leads to an ideal cotton cultivar, or ideotype, capable of combining the advantages of the two leaf shapes.

"We were able to create our ideotype but only in a transient fashion. One day we want to able to do it in a heritable manner, and the first step in that is finding the gene and proving that this is the gene and these are the polymorphisms in the gene that cause these changes," Kuraparthy said. "This research does that."

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Note to Editors: The study abstract follows.

"Modifications to a LATE MERISTEM IDENTITY-1 gene are responsible for the major leaf shapes of Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)"

Authors: Ryan Andres, Viktoriya Coneva, Margaret H. Frank, John R. Tuttle, Luis Fernando Samayoa, Sang-Won Han, Baljinder Kaur, Linglong Zhu, Hui Fang, Daryl T. Bowman, Marcela Rojas-Pierce, Candace H. Haigler, Don C. Jones, James B. Holland, Daniel H. Chitwood, Vasu Kuraparthy

Published: Dec. 20, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

ABSTRACT: Leaf shape varies spectacularly among plants. Leaves are the primary source of photo-assimilate in crop plants and understanding the genetic basis of variation in leaf morphology is critical to improving agricultural productivity. Leaf shape played a unique role in cotton improvement, as breeders have selected for entire and lobed leaf morphs resulting from a single locus, okra (L-D1), which is responsible for the major leaf shapes in cotton. The L-D1 locus is not only of agricultural importance in cotton, but through pioneering chimeric and morphometric studies it has contributed to fundamental knowledge about leaf development. Here we show that an HD-Zip transcription factor homologous to the LATE MERISTEM IDENTITY1 (LMI1) gene of Arabidopsis is the causal gene underlying the L-D1 locus. The classical okra leaf shape allele has a 133-bp tandem duplication in the promoter, correlated with elevated expression, while an 8-bp deletion in the third exon of the presumed wild-type normal allele causes a frame-shifted and truncated coding sequence. Our results indicate that sub-okra is the ancestral leaf shape of tetraploid cotton that gave rise to the okra allele and that normal is a derived mutant allele that came to predominate and define the leaf shape of cultivated cotton. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) of the LMI1-like gene in an okra variety was sufficient to induce normal leaf formation. The developmental changes in leaves conferred by this gene are associated with a photosynthetic transcriptomic signature, substantiating its use by breeders to produce a superior cotton ideotype.
Background to the Research

The generation of fusion energy utilizes the fusion reaction that occurs inside a high-temperature plasma. In order to achieve the generation of fusion energy, we confine plasma in the magnetic field with a doughnut configuration. Together with raising the temperature and the density in the plasma's core region, it also is necessary to control the plasma in the edge region which surrounds the plasma. In the edge region of the confined plasma appears the plasma blob. Because this plasma blob moves in the direction of the confinement vessel's wall, there thus is concern that the plasma will come into contact with the wall and the plasma temperature will fall (see Figure 1). In order to control this type of plasma blob, precisely understanding and predicting the blob's movement is one of the important topics in the future achievement of fusion energy. In order to investigate in detail the complicated movements of a plasma blob, computational simulations are necessary. There are several methods for performing simulations of the gathering of particles (ions and electrons) that bear electricity. The most accurate method is that which calculates the movement of each particle that composes the plasma and calculates the electrical field thus produced. In order to accurately understand the behavior of a plasma blob, a simulation from the micro-level (particle level) is required. However, it was extremely difficult to perform such a simulation because an immense amount of calculation is required.

Research Results

Dr. Hiroki Hasegawa and Dr. Seiji Ishiguro, at the National Institute of Fusion Science, using the NIFS Plasma Simulator supercomputer succeeded for the first time in the world in conducting a micro-level simulation of a plasma blob in the "edge region" of the plasma. The Plasma Simulator has the greatest capacity in the world as a supercomputer dedicated to plasma and fusion science use. Here, in addition to newly developing a calculation program by utilizing the Plasma Simulator's capacity, they also were able to calculate the movements of one billion particles. When calculating plasmas of the same size, the number of calculations exceeded 10,000 in comparison with the method used heretofore for calculating the blob's particles as if they were a unit.

According to this simulation, finely detailed analyses that incorporated the influence mutually provided by the movement of particles and the electrical field, which had not been possible in methods used to date, became possible. Further, at the same time as we pursue the movements of a string-like plasma blob from the particle level, we were able to clarify the micro-level internal structure of particle movements inside the plasma and the temperature distribution (see Figure 2). By understanding this type of internal structure, it became possible to investigate the influence of that internal structure upon the movement of a plasma blob. Moreover, we clarified the condition in which a plasma blob carries impurities (see Figure 3).

These research results, together with greatly advancing understanding of the behavior of a plasma blob, have greatly improved prediction accuracy. These research results were reported at the 26th International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) Fusion Energy Conference held in Kyoto, Japan from October 17-22, 2016. The results have also been highly evaluated, and later were presented as an invited lecture at the thirty-third annual meeting of The Japan Society of Plasma and Nuclear Fusion Research in Sendai, Japan, held from November 29 to December 2, 2016, where the research results also garnered much attention.

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Vocabulary

1. Simulation from the micro-level

Through a simulation based on a fluid model where we understand a plasma as a whole, we can know the general behavior of a plasma through a small number of calculations. However, we cannot replicate the phenomenon that is caused by the movement of plasma particles. From the movements of all individual particles that comprise a plasma and the method for calculating the electrical field that is produced by those particles (simulation from the micro-level) we can trace the plasma's general behavior. This is compared to the following. We construct a simulation in which we follow all of the monetary transactions of every citizen in a country of one billion people. Then we can grasp the flow of money throughout the country. However, an immense amount of calculations are required.

2. Impurities

In the edge region, for various reasons impurities are generated (other than hydrogen such as carbon, oxygen, iron, and others), and when impurities enter the core plasma, the problem of the falling plasma temperature emerges. Understanding the behavior of these impurities and accurately predicting their behaviors, too, is one of the important issues in achieving fusion energy. 3. Velocity distribution

Particles, which are composed of gases such as air, and plasmas have different velocities as they fly about. Depicting the velocity of the particles on the horizontal axis and the number of particles at that velocity on the vertical axis shows the velocity distribution. The width of the velocity distribution represents the temperature. This indicates that the broader is the width the higher is the temperature.
The new species is the only coral-reef fish that lives exclusively within the marine protected area, which was recently expanded by the President

Today, scientists from the Bishop Museum, NOAA, and the Association for Marine Exploration published the description of a new species of coral-reef fish that they named in honor of President Barack Obama. The fish, which now bears the formal scientific name Tosanoides obama, was discovered during a June 2016 NOAA expedition to Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The study is published in the open-access scientific journal ZooKeys.

"We decided to name this fish after President Obama to recognize his efforts to protect and preserve the natural environment, including the expansion of Papahanaumokuakea," said Richard Pyle, Bishop Museum scientist and lead author of the study. "This expansion adds a layer of protection to one of the last great wilderness areas on Earth." The Museum is currently showcasing the exhibit Journeys: Heritage of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, featuring the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the Monument.

On August 26 of this year, at the urging of Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), conservationists, and many marine scientists, President Obama expanded Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. At 582,578 square miles, it is the largest permanent marine protected area on Earth. On September 1, during his trip to Midway Atoll within the Monument, legendary scientist, conservationist and deep ocean explorer Dr. Sylvia Earle gave the President a photograph of the fish that now bears his name. The exchange will be featured in the National Geographic global broadcast special, "Sea Of Hope" scheduled to be released on January 15, 2017.

The small pink and yellow fish is a kind of basslet, a group that includes many colorful reef fishes popular in the marine aquarium fish trade. There are two other species in the genus Tosanoides, both from the tropical northwestern Pacific Ocean. Males of the new species have a distinctive spot on the dorsal fin near the tail, which is blue around the edge and red with yellow stripes in the center. "The spot on the males is reminiscent of President Obama's campaign logo," said Pyle. "It seemed especially appropriate for a fish named in honor of the president."

"The new fish is special because it is the only known species of coral-reef fish endemic to the Monument (meaning that the species is found nowhere else on Earth). Our research has documented the highest rate of fish endemism in the world -- 100% -- living on the deep reefs where we found this new species," said NOAA scientist Randall Kosaki, chief scientist of the research cruise, and co-author on the paper. However, unlike all the other Hawaiian endemic species, which also occur in the main Hawaiian Islands, this new species is special because it is the only one that is limited to within the Monument itself. "Endemic species are unique contributions to global biodiversity," Kosaki added. "With the onslaught of climate change, we are at risk of losing some of these undiscovered species before we even know they exist."

The new fish was first discovered and collected on a dive to 300 feet at Kure Atoll, 1200 miles northwest of Honolulu. Kure is the northernmost of the Hawaiian Islands, and is the highest latitude coral atoll in the world. Deep coral reefs at depths of 150 to 500 feet, in the so-called "Twilight Zone" (also known as mesophotic coral ecosystems), are among the most poorly explored of all marine ecosystems. Located deeper than divers using conventional scuba gear can safely venture, these reefs represent a new frontier for coral-reef research. Pyle and co-authors Brian Greene and Randall Kosaki pioneered the use of advanced mixed-gas diving systems known as closed-circuit rebreathers for Twilight Zone research, and have been documenting the previously unexplored deep reefs throughout Hawai'i and the broader Pacific for the past three decades.

"These deep coral reefs are home to an incredible diversity of fishes, corals, and other marine invertebrates," said Brian Greene, an experienced deep diver and researcher with the Association for Marine Exploration, and co-author of the paper. "There are many new species still waiting to be discovered down there."

This is the second new species of fish from Papahanaumokuakea named this year. In August, Pyle and Kosaki published the description of a new species of butterflyfish (Prognathodes basabei) based on specimens collected on deep reefs at Pearl and Hermes Atoll earlier this year. President Obama also has several species from other locales named after him: a trapdoor spider, a speckled freshwater darter (fish), a parasitic hairworm, and an extinct lizard.

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The new study was published on December 21, 2016, in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, ZooKeys, and is available online at https://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=11500.

Pictures and video of the fish and its habitat can be downloaded, and videos are available on YouTube.

Original source:

Citation: Pyle RL, Greene RD, Kosaki RK (2016) Tosanoides obama, a new basslet (Perciformes, Percoidei, Serranidae) from deep coral reefs in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. ZooKeys 641: 165-181. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.641.11500

Additional information:

The Bishop Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in memory of his wife Bernice Pauahi Bishop, a royal descendant of King Kamehameha I. Bishop Museum is proud to be recognized as the principal museum of the Pacific, housing the world's largest collection of Hawaiian and Pacific artifacts and natural history specimens. In total, Bishop Museum's collections consist of more than 25 million items including over 22 million biological specimens and more than two million cultural artifacts derived from a legacy of research spanning more than 125 years. These collections also include more than 115,000 historical publications, one million historical photographs, films, works of art, audio recordings and manuscripts. More than 300,000 people visit the Museum each year, including over 40,000 schoolchildren. The exhibit "Journeys: Heritage of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands" is open to the public until January 29, 2017. Live specimens of the new butterflyfish are on public display in the Museum's Science Adventure Center. For more information, please visit http://www.bishopmuseum.org, follow @BishopMuseum on Twitter and Instagram, become a fan of Bishop Museum on Facebook, visit Bishop Museum's YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/BishopMuseum, or call (808) 847-3511.

Papahanaumokuakea is cooperatively managed to ensure ecological integrity and achieve strong, long-term protection and perpetuation of Northwestern Hawaiian Island ecosystems, Native Hawaiian culture, and heritage resources for current and future generations. Three co-trustees - the Department of Commerce, Department of the Interior, and State of Hawai'i - joined by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, protect this special place. Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument was inscribed as the first mixed (natural and cultural) UNESCO World Heritage Site in the United States in July 2010. For more information, please visit http://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov.

The Association for Marine Exploration (AME) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that conducts and facilitates innovative scientific exploration of undersea environments. Using advanced technologies, AME organizes, funds, and conducts research projects, and collaborates with other research organizations on joint projects.

Pensoft is an independent academic publishing company, well known worldwide for its innovations in the field of semantic publishing and for its cutting-edge publishing tools and workflows. Founded in 1992 "by scientists, for the scientists" and initially focusing on book publishing, it has grown to become a leading publisher of innovative open access journals, such as: Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO), ZooKeys, Biodiversity Data Journal, PhytoKeys, MycoKeys, Nature Conservation, NeoBiota, Comparative Cytogenetics, and others. Pensoft has published more than 1,000 books and over 4,000 open access articles, mostly in the field of natural history. Pensoft is a member or partner of several professional publishing organisations and data publishing platforms, including CrossRef, OASPA, PubMedCentral, CLOCKSS, Research Data Alliance (RDA), OpenAIRE, LifeWatch, DataONE, Dryad Data Repository, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Encyclopedia of Life (EoL), and others. Pensoft journal content is indexed by: ISI Web of Science, Scopus, BIOSIS, Google Scholar, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Zoological Record, CAB Abstracts, Vifabio, BHL Citebank, Globalnames, JournalMap and others, and is archived in PubMedCentral, CLOCKSS and ZENODO. In 2010, Pensoft was the first publisher to implement semantic tagging and enrichment of published articles as a routine editorial practice. The company is actively developing novel tools, workflows and methods for text and data publication and dissemination of scientific information, as well as technologies for semantic enrichment of content. In 2013, Pensoft launched the first ever, end-to-end, XML-based, authoring, reviewing and publishing workflow, as demonstrated by the Biodiversity Data Journal (BDJ) and the Pensoft Writing Tool (PWT), now upgraded to the ARPHA Publishing Platform. The company has also developed a number of tools for semantic publishing: Pensoft Markup Tool (PMT), Pensoft Taxon Profile (PTP), Pensoft Wiki Converter (PWC), the literature and data discovery tool Refindit.org, and others.

Contacts:

Richard L. Pyle, Bishop Museum

Email: deepreef@bishopmuseum.org

Phone: (808) 384-6065

Brian D. Greene, Association for Marine Exploration

Email: bgreene@hawaii.edu

Phone: (808) 313-1363

Randall K. Kosaki, NOAA

Email: randall.kosaki@noaa.gov

Phone: (808) 557-5162
In the process, Meinert will study questions such as: How did Buddhism spread in multi-cultural, multi-linguistic and multi-religious Central Asia? Which local cultures were influenced by Buddhist ideas? And how did Buddhist beliefs change following the foray into those vast regions of deserts and steppes? The project bears the title "Dynamics in Buddhist Networks in Eastern Central Asia, 6th-14th Centuries", or "Buddhist Road" for short. It is one of eight German projects in the field of social studies and humanities that were selected by the ERC.

Between archives and field work

In the course of the project, the researchers will for the first time investigate the transregional historical links between the Buddhist traditions in modern China, India and Tibet and the regional Buddhist cultures in Central Asia. Projected activities include source analyses of manuscripts in various European archives, as well as several field research trips in the regions of the medieval Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan, the Uyghur Khaganate and the Tangut Empire - regions that today are part of the territory of the People's Republic of China.

The international team from Bochum is mainly interested in the way traders and monks distributed Buddhist ideas along the Silk Roads and to what extent those ideas were adopted by native peoples.

New approaches in religious studies

So far, Buddhism in Eastern Central Asia has not yet been thoroughly studied from the point of view of interregional contacts. Carmen Meinert's team investigates it from the perspective of comparative religious studies. The academics intend to establish a new research approach that incorporates philology, art history, archaeology and religious studies. Thus, they wish to analyse the exchange of religious beliefs in Eastern Central Asia as a dynamic network.

About the researcher

Carmen Meinert studied Sinology, Tibetology and Geography at the University of Bonn, where she was awarded her PhD in 2001. She worked as a researcher at Peking University, at Sichuan University, at the University of Hamburg and at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities in Essen. In 2013, Carmen Meinert was appointed Professor for Central Asian Religions at the Centre for Religious Studies at Ruhr-Universitat. Prior to that, she had worked as visiting research fellow at the Kate Hamburger Kolleg "Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe".

Two ERC projects in religious studies

"Buddhist Road" is the second ERC-financed project at the Center for Religious Studies. In its capacity as a central research institution at Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, the Center actively supports funding applications for innovative research projects in the fields of the history of religion and sociology of religion. Since 2015, the team of the "Jews East" project has been investigating the diverse historical interactions between Jews and Christians in the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Horn of Africa and Southern India.

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WASHINGTON -- Researchers have developed a new type of light-enhancing optical cavity that is only 200 nanometers tall and 100 nanometers across. Their new nanoscale system represents a step toward brighter single-photon sources, which could help propel quantum-based encryption and a truly secure and future-proofed network.

Quantum encryption techniques, which are seen as likely to be central to future data encryption methods, use individual photons as an extremely secure way to encode data. A limitation of these techniques has been the ability to emit photons at high rates. "One of the most important figures of merit for single-photon sources is brightness -- or collected photons per second -- because the brighter it is, the more data you can transmit securely with quantum encryption," said Yousif Kelaita, Nanoscale and Quantum Photonics Lab, Stanford University, California.

In the journal Optical Materials Express, from The Optical Society (OSA), Kelaita and his colleagues show that their new nanocavity significantly increased the emission brightness of quantum dots -- nanometer-scale semiconductor particles that can emit single photons.

The researchers created the new nanocavity by using highly reflective silver to coat the sides of a nanoscale semiconductor pillar sitting on a substrate. The silver makes the light bounce around inside the nanopillar, turning it into a very small optical cavity. The researchers say that the same design concept could be used to build nanocavities from other materials that are tailored for different single-photon emitters.

Trapping light in a small space

At nanometer scales, light interacts with materials in unique ways. One example is the Purcell effect, which enhances the emission efficiency of a quantum dot or other light emitter confined in a small cavity. Systems showing Purcell enhancement will emit more photons over a given amount of time, which could enable quantum encryption systems that operate faster than is possible now.

Achieving Purcell enhancement benefits from extremely small cavities because energy is transferred between the light emitter and the cavity more quickly. It is also desirable to have a sufficiently high quality factor, meaning that the cavity's reflection allows the light to bounce around for a long time.

"We demonstrated a new type of cavity with a volume multiple orders of magnitude lower than the current state of the art in solid-state systems," said Kelaita. "The system produces strong Purcell enhancement and high light collection efficiency at the same time, which leads to an overall increase in the brightness of the single-photon source."

When the researchers tested the new nanocavities, they found that the quantum dots placed inside the nanocavities emitted more photons per second than quantum dots not located inside such a cavity.

Because the nanocavities are open on top, emitted light can travel directly into air. Similar nanocavities created previously were topped with a metal coating that was undesirable for collecting emitted photons. The emission profile from the new nanocavities also matches well with standard microscope objective lenses, allowing a high percentage of the light to enter the lens. A mismatch between the emission profile and microscope objective lenses has caused problematic light loss in nanocavity systems developed previously.

Making the tiny cavity

The team used a modified fabrication technique to overcome the challenge of coating the nanopillars with metal. Nanostructures that are tall and skinny tend to experience what are called shadowing effects because nanofabrication techniques use a process in which metal falls straight down onto the device much like snow.

"If you imagine snow falling on a tree, the snow will cling to itself and pile up on a branch in a way that it forms a larger width, or mound, than the branch itself," said Kelaita. "This also happens as metal is deposited on top of something like a pillar. As the metal clings to itself, it creates a larger mound than the pillar underneath it, preventing metal from falling underneath the parts that eclipse the pillar. In the end, this shadowing effect creates an air gap in the device."

To solve this problem, the researchers simultaneously rotated and tilted the sample to coat all sides of the pillar at once. Even with this new approach, they had to be careful about the angle at which they deposited the metal to avoid forming a connection between the metal coating the sides of the pillar and the metal on top. If a connection was formed, the final step of ultrasonically removing the metal cap on top would be difficult or impossible.

"Other groups working with metal should be interested in this technique because this shadowing effect occurs even for features that are completely encapsulated in metal," said Kelaita.

Even better nanocavities

The researchers are now working to create other kinds of nanocavities with even better characteristics. For example, they want to try to make nanocavities in diamond, which could allow single-photon sources that operate at room temperature, a key requirement for incorporating quantum encryption into consumer devices.

They also want to combine the knowledge gained from this new work with an inverse design algorithm they recently developed to automatically design photonic devices integrated onto silicon chips. With the algorithm, engineers specify a desired function and the software provides instructions for making a structure that performs that function.

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Paper: Y.A. Kelaita, K.A. Fischer, T.M. Babinec, K.G. Lagoudakis, T. Sarmiento, A. Rundquist, A. Majumdar, J. Vuckovic, "Hybrid metal-dielectric nanocavity for enhanced light-matter interactions," Opt. Mater. Express Vol. 7 Issue 1, 231-239 (2017). DOI: 10.1364/OME.7.000231

About Optical Materials Express

Optical Materials Express (OMEx) is an open-access journal focusing on the synthesis, processing and characterization of materials for applications in optics and photonics. OMEx, which launched in April 2011, primarily emphasizes advances in novel optical materials, their properties, modeling, synthesis and fabrication techniques; how such materials contribute to novel optical behavior; and how they enable new or improved optical devices. For more information, visit: OSA Publishing.

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.

Media Contacts:

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The Optical Society

randersen@osa.org

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The Optical Society

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Neurons in the brain store RNA molecules - DNA gene copies - in order to rapidly react to stimuli. This storage dramatically accelerates the production of proteins. This is one of the reasons why neurons in the brain can adapt quickly during learning processes. The recent results of a research group at the University of Basel's Biozentrum have been published in the current issue of "Neuron".

Our brain is not only the most complex organ of the human body, it is also the most flexible. But how do neurons in the brain adapt their function in response to stimuli within a very short time frame?

The research group of Prof. Peter Scheiffele at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, has demonstrated that neurons store a reserve stock of RNA molecules, copies of the DNA, in the cell's nucleus. These RNA molecules form the blueprint for new proteins. After a neuronal stimulus, the stored RNA molecules are mobilized in order to adjust the function of the neuron. The process of RNA synthesis (DNA copying) is very slow, especially for large genes. Thus, this newly uncovered mechanism for mobilization of stored RNAs saves time and provides new insights regarding the fast adaptation of the brain during learning processes.

Storage for RNA molecules

The RNA blueprint for proteins is produced by a sophisticated copying process: First, a basic RNA copy of the DNA is generated. From this copy, individual sections, so-called introns, are subsequently cut out to provide a finalized blueprint for the production of a specific protein. This process is called RNA splicing.

So far, it was assumed, that neuronal stimuli trigger the complete process for the production of new RNA molecules. However, the team of Peter Scheiffele now discovered that neurons in the brain pre-manufacture certain immature RNA copies which are only partially spliced. These RNA molecules still contain some introns and are stored in the cell nucleus. Signals induced by neuronal stimulation trigger the splicing completion of the immature RNA molecules.

"The copying process of the DNA, the so-called transcription, is already finalized in advance by the neurons. Hence, mature RNA molecules can be produced within minutes," explains Oriane Mauger, the first author.

Prepared copies save time

For large genes, the production of the initial version of the RNAs itself takes dozens of hours. "The fact that the RNA molecules are already available in an immature form and only need to be completed, shortens the whole process to a few minutes", says Mauger. "Since the transcription is very time-consuming, the storage of RNA means a significant time saving. This enables neurons to quickly adapt their function."

"This study reveals a completely new regulatory mechanism for the brain", declares Scheiffele. "The results provide us with a further explanation of how neurons steer rapid plasticity processes."

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ANN ARBOR, Michigan -- Nearly half of early stage breast cancer patients considered having double mastectomy and one in six received it - including many who were at low risk of developing a second breast cancer, a new study finds.

Many patients who chose double mastectomy demonstrated little knowledge of the lack of benefit this aggressive procedure has for most patients.

"That 1 in 6 breast cancer patients chose bilateral mastectomy is really striking. We knew it was increasing, but I don't think many of us realized just how frequent this is," says study author Reshma Jagsi, M.D., D.Phil., professor and deputy chair of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan.

Contralateral prophylactic mastectomy, in which the healthy breast is removed along with the cancerous breast, has been increasing over the last decade, in part fueled by celebrities' stories and social media sharing.

The aggressive procedure is often recommended for women with a genetic mutation that puts them at high risk of developing a second cancer. But for women at average risk, the surgery offers little benefit.

In the new study, published in JAMA Surgery, researchers surveyed 2,578 women from Georgia and Los Angeles who had surgery for early stage breast cancer in one breast. Overall, 44 percent said they considered double mastectomy.

Patients were grouped based on their genetic risk of developing cancer in the unaffected breast. A quarter of the higher risk patients underwent double mastectomy, and so did 14 percent of those at average risk.

Women were also asked whether contralateral prophylactic mastectomy improved survival or prevented cancer from returning. The answers demonstrated poor understanding of the surgery's benefits.

Among patients who considered double mastectomy, only 38 percent knew it does not improve survival for all women with breast cancer. Almost all patients said peace of mind motivated them to choose double mastectomy.

"At a time when emotions are running high, it's not surprising that newly diagnosed breast cancer patients might find it difficult to absorb this complex information. It seems logical that more aggressive surgery should be better at fighting disease--but that's not how breast cancer works. It's a real communication challenge," Jagsi says.

When patients perceived that their surgeons recommended strongly against contralateral prophylactic mastectomy, most heeded that advice: only 2 percent of these women went on to choose the procedure. The rates were higher among women who perceived no surgeon recommendation, with one in five choosing the procedure - even if they were at average risk of a genetic mutation.

Because the study asked patients to report their surgeon's recommendations, it's possible some surgeons did recommend against double mastectomy but that patients failed to hear or understand.

"As physicians, we want to be respectful of our patients' preferences and values. We don't want to alienate patients who are already in a stressful situation. We want them to trust us," Jagsi says.

"When a patient comes in saying she has already decided on double mastectomy, it can be challenging to strike that balance between respecting her preferences and adequately conveying why the medical community in general doesn't think it's necessary," she adds.

The study authors call for better communication training for physicians to help them navigate these difficult conversations more effectively.

###

Additional authors: Sarah T. Hawley, Ph.D., MPH; Kent A. Griffith, M.A.; Nancy K. Janz, Ph.D.; Allison W. Kurian, M.D., M.Sc.; Kevin C. Ward, Ph.D.; Ann S. Hamilton, Ph.D.; Monica Morrow, M.D.; Steven J. Katz, M.D., MPH.

Funding: National Cancer Institute grant P01 CA163223

Disclosure: None

Reference: JAMA Surgery, doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2016.4749, published online Dec. 21, 2016

Resources:

U-M Cancer AnswerLine, 800-865-1125

U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, http://www.mcancer.org

Michigan Health Lab, http://www.MichiganHealthLab.org
Researchers at The University of Nottingham have developed a break-through technique that uses sound rather than light to see inside live cells, with potential application in stem-cell transplants and cancer diagnosis.

The new nanoscale ultrasound technique uses shorter-than-optical wavelengths of sound and could even rival the optical super-resolution techniques which won the 2014 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

This new kind of sub-optical phonon (sound) imaging provides invaluable information about the structure, mechanical properties and behaviour of individual living cells at a scale not achieved before.

Researchers from the Optics and Photonics group in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, are behind the discovery, which is published in the paper 'High resolution 3D imaging of living cells with sub-optical wavelength phonons' in the journal, Scientific Reports.

"People are most familiar with ultrasound as a way of looking inside the body -- in the simplest terms we've engineered it to the point where it can look inside an individual cell. Nottingham is currently the only place in the world with this capability," said Professor Matt Clark, who contributed to the study.

In conventional optical microscopy, which uses light (photons), the size of the smallest object you can see (or the resolution) is limited by the wavelength.

For biological specimens, the wavelength cannot go smaller than that of blue light because the energy carried on photons of light in the ultraviolet (and shorter wavelengths) is so high it can destroy the bonds that hold biological molecules together damaging the cells.

Optical super-resolution imaging also has distinct limitations in biological studies. This is because the fluorescent dyes it uses are often toxic and it requires huge amounts of light and time to observe and reconstruct an image which is damaging to cells.

Unlike light, sound does not have a high-energy payload. This has enabled the Nottingham researchers to use smaller wavelengths and see smaller things and get to higher resolutions without damaging the cell biology.

"A great thing is that, like ultrasound on the body, ultrasound in the cells causes no damage and requires no toxic chemicals to work. Because of this we can see inside cells that one day might be put back into the body, for instance as stem-cell transplants," adds Professor Clark.

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More information is available from Professor Matt Clark in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham on +44 (0)115 951 5536, matt.clark@nottingham.ac.uk; or Emma Lowry, Media Relations Manager, on +44 (0)115 846 7156, emma.lowry@nottingham.ac.uk

Our academics can now be interviewed for broadcast via our Media Hub, which offers a Globelynx fixed camera and ISDN line facilities at University Park campus. For further information please contact a member of the Communications team on +44 (0)115 951 5798, email mediahub@nottingham.ac.uk or see the Globelynx website for how to register for this service.

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About The University of Nottingham: The University of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is 'the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with a "distinct" approach to internationalisation, which rests on those full-scale campuses in China and Malaysia, as well as a large presence in its home city.' (Times Good University Guide 2016). It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK among graduate employers and winner of both 'University of the Year for Graduate Employment', according to the 2017 The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide and 'Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers' at the Times Higher Education Awards 2015. It is ranked in the world's top 75 by the QS World University Rankings 2015/16. More than 97 per cent of research at The University of Nottingham is recognised internationally and it is 8th in the UK by research power according to the Research Excellence Framework 2014. It has been voted the world's greenest campus for four years running, according to Greenmetrics Ranking of World Universities.

Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest-ever fundraising campaign, is delivering the University's vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future. More news...
A new genetic disease which results in neurodegeneration has been discovered by experts at the University of Sussex.

In a study published today, Wednesday 21 December, in the top scientific journal Nature, the team from the University of Sussex's Genome Damage and Stability Centre (GDSC) reveal they have discovered the disease, ataxia oculomotor apraxia type XRCC1, which is caused by a genetic mutation that disrupts the repair of our DNA.

The team discovered that when single strands of our DNA are damaged, a genetic mutation in a gene called XRCC1 causes a vital DNA-repairing enzyme (known as PARP1) in our bodies to over-activate. In people suffering from the new disease the scientists discovered the speeding up of this key enzyme actually triggers the death of brain cells.

Single strand breaks are one of the most common types of DNA damage and the researchers believe it's possible the discovery of this new genetic disease could be important for scientists researching other rare DNA repair related diseases. The team also believe the findings could eventually prove significant for researchers looking into more common neurodegenerative and brain ageing conditions, such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's.

Professor Keith Caldecott, who led on the study, said: "Discovering this new disease and its cause is a huge step towards developing drug-based therapies for other rare neurodegenerative conditions.

"Drugs which target this key DNA repairing enzyme in the right way, could prove vital for treating people suffering from diseases caused by the over-activation of this protein - it is now crucial we determine what diseases these are.

"More research needs to be done - but it's also possible the cause of this newly discovered condition could contribute to the death of nerve cells in people suffering from diseases such as, Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's."

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The study entitled "XRCC1 Mutation is Associated with PARP1 Hyper-activation and Cerebellar Ataxia" has been published in Nature and can be found here http://dx.doi.org/

Communications and External Affairs | University of Sussex

T +44 (0)1273 678888 | press@sussex.ac.uk?http://www.sussex.ac.uk/newsandevents

Notes to Editors:

The University of Sussex's School of Life Sciences is one of the largest academic schools at the University of Sussex. With 96 per cent of its research rated as world leading, internationally excellent or internationally recognised (REF 2014), it is among the leading research hubs for the biological sciences in the UK. The School is home to a number of prestigious research centres including the Genome Damage and Stability Centre and the Sussex Drug Discovery Centre, where academics work with industry to translate scientific advances into real-world benefits for patients.

The University is also planning a new state-of-the-art Life Sciences building which will transform the way scientists carry out research and will provide students with a high-tech learning experience. The world-renowned School boasts two previous Nobel Prize-winning scientists, Sir Harry Kroto and Sir John Cornforth, and is known for its high quality teaching and ground-breaking research into conditions such as cancer and neurodegeneration, as well as driving major advances in areas such as ecology and conservation, neuroscience and drug discovery.
A multi-partner program coordinated by UT Extension forestry specialist David Mercker has been awarded the 2016 Family Forests Education Award by two national forest-focused organizations. The honor was bestowed by the National Woodland Owners Association and the National Association of University Forest Resources Program. The award recognizes an outstanding university-based Extension or outreach program.

The award honors Mercker's coordination of the Tennessee Healthy Hardwoods program. The program has delivered high-quality, hand-on experiential field days where landowners benefit from field observation in Tennessee state and UT forests. The field days were initiated to provide field-based forestry and natural resource education to members of Tennessee's County Forestry Associations, which Mercker helped start and sustains. These associations work to educate family forest landowners and professional natural resource managers about sustainable forest and wildlife management.

Twenty faculty and professional foresters have presented sessions at 36 field days since the program's inception in 2006. These have reached nearly 2,300 landowners who, collectively, manage an estimated 345,000 acres of forests in the state. Indicators of the success of these events are that 100 percent of participants said they understood the importance of seeking professional advice prior to making forest management decisions and, among the audience the field days reached, 24 percent said they had never attended an Extension education event before, confirming that the program is delivering services to citizens who have not previously been reached by Extension.

Another result of the program is how it has bonded the forestry community in Tennessee. Recognition of the program is high, with professionals and forest families eager to take part. The program's logo is often seen on hats, gloves, Biltmore sticks, and herbicide bottles.

The Tennessee Healthy Hardwoods has been funded primarily by the state Department of Agriculture Forestry Division and the US Forest Service. Ten grants have been secured, totaling $396,771. In kind support has been provided by the network of UT Extension county offices and the Tennessee Forestry Association.

This year there were a record number of nominations for the Family Forest Education Award, making Mercker's honor all the more noteworthy.

Based in Jackson at the West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center, Mercker has been a member of UTIA for 17 years and also has 13 years of experience as a private forestry consultant. As a UT Extension specialist, he works to educate and assist the nearly 450,000 private forest landowners in Tennessee about responsible forest management. Mercker's other program areas include the Teachers Conservation Workshop, the Master Loggers, Forest*A*Syst, crop tree release, hardwood lumber and stumpage pricing, 4-H, and bottomland hardwood restoration.

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Most conscientious adults tend to avoid making biased or discriminatory comments in the presence of children.

But new research from the University of Washington suggests that preschool-aged children can learn bias even through nonverbal signals displayed by adults, such as a condescending tone of voice or a disapproving look.

Published Dec. 21 in the journal Psychological Science, the research found that children can "catch" social bias by seeing negative signals expressed by adults and are likely to generalize that learned bias to others.

"This research shows that kids are learning bias from the non-verbal signals that they're exposed to, and that this could be a mechanism for the creation of racial bias and other biases that we have in our society," said lead author Allison Skinner, a postdoctoral researcher in the UW's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences.

"Kids are picking up on more than we think they are, and you don't have to tell them that one group is better than another group for them to be getting that message from how we act."

The research involved an initial group of 67 children ages 4 and 5, an equal mix of boys and girls. The children were shown a video in which two different female actors displayed positive signals to one woman and negative signals to another woman. All people in the video were the same race, to avoid the possibility of racial bias factoring into the results.

The actors greeted both women the same way and did the same activities with both (for example, giving each a toy) but the actors' nonverbal signals differed when interacting with one woman versus the other. The actor spoke to one woman in a positive way -- smiling, leaning toward her, using a warm tone of voice -- and the other negatively, by scowling, leaning away and speaking in a cold tone.

The children were then asked a series of questions -- such as who they liked the best and who they wanted to share a toy with -- intended to gauge whether they favored the recipient of positive nonverbal signals over the recipient of negative nonverbal signals.

The results showed a consistent pattern of children favoring the recipient of positive nonverbal signals. Overall, 67 percent of children favored the recipient of positive nonverbal signals over the other woman -- suggesting they were influenced by the bias shown by the actor.

The researchers also wondered if nonverbal signals could lead to group bias or prejudice. To get at that question, they recruited an additional 81 children ages 4 and 5. The children were shown the same videos from the previous study, then a researcher introduced them to the "best friends" of the people in the video. The "friends" were described as members of the same group, with each wearing the same color shirt as their friend. The children were then asked questions to assess whether they favored one friend over the other.

Strikingly, the results showed that children favored the friend of the recipient of positive nonverbal signals over the friend of the other woman. Taken together, the researchers say, the results suggest that biases extend beyond individuals to members of groups they are associated with.

Skinner pointed out that many American preschoolers live in fairly homogenous environments, with limited ability to witness positive interactions with people from diverse populations. So even brief exposure to biased nonverbal signals, she said, could result in them developing generalized biases. The simulations created for the study represent just a small sample of what children likely witness in real life, Skinner said.

"Children are likely exposed to nonverbal biases demonstrated by multiple people toward many different members of a target group," she said. "It is quite telling that brief exposure to biased nonverbal signals was able to create a bias among children in the lab."

The study's findings, she said, underscore the need for parents and other adults to be aware of the messages -- verbal or otherwise -- that they convey to children about how they feel about other people.

###

Co-authors are Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of the UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, and Kristina Olson, a UW assistant professor of psychology. Funding for the research was provided by the University of Washington Ready Mind Project Innovative Research Fund.

For more information, contact Skinner at 206-685-1310 or skinna2@uw.edu.

The study is available at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797616678930

For more information, contact Skinner at 206-685-1310 or skinna2@uw.edu.
The UK produces about 11m tonnes of softwood and half a million tonnes of hardwood every year in a market estimated to be worth about 2bn.

Some serious kit is needed for felling and hauling  the process has come a long way from 19th-century methods, when logging was carried out with the brute strength of humans and animals.

Large gang saws  typically requiring two men to operate  did the felling, while horses and donkeys provided the muscle to pull sleighs and wagons.

Greased-up skids or long poles were laid crossways along trails to help move cut logs, which were hauled to rivers and often shifted by boat to nearby timber mills.

See also: The machine that harvests macadamia nuts

In the 1880s, steam-powered winches came into use. Hoists and steel cables sped up the business of hauling the logs from the forest to the trail, while traction engines were used for transport and driving bench saws.

Demand for British-built equipment was high and several manufacturers exported their machines all over the world.

Eventually, tractors replaced traction engines and County and Roadless started to specialise in machines with grabs and winches.

American and Scandinavian companies developed articulated skidders (used to drag large logs from stump to road) and forwarders (also to lug logs from stump to road, but clear of the ground).

These appeared in the 1960s, at the same time as articulated technology was being used in agricultural tractors by the likes of Steiger and Wagner.

Modern-day machines

Today, the biggest names in forestry equipment are John Deere, Caterpillar and Komatsu, which acquired Valmet in 2004.

There is also a host of more specialised companies, including Ponsse from Finland, Rottne, TigerCat and TimberPro.

German company NAF provides axles and bogie systems to forestry machines, while Welte produces smaller forwarders.

Valtra no longer produces purpose-built forwarders, but provides numerous options that favour forestry work, including front pumps and auxiliary hydraulics, reinforced subframes, reverse-drive machines and a special forestry cab.

Harvesters

Ponsses Bear is the largest harvester in its range and comes with a 350hp Mercedes engine and a harvester head that alone weighs 1.2t. Eight-wheel drive and meaty 750/55 R26.5 tyres are also part of the package.

The machine first cuts the tree down before feeding it through the harvester head to strip off the smaller branches. Trees can be cut to a predetermined length, with a maximum cut diameter of 74cm and an output of up to 5m/sec. The crane will reach up to 10m.

Harvesting and felling heads play a role similar to that of a combine header. They are the first point of contact, and an effective head goes a long way to determining the output of the machine.

Komatsu provides a choice of 15 different heads, while companies such as Waratah specialise solely in harvesting heads, which are built in New Zealand and Finland.

Feller bunchers

A feller buncher is used to grab several smaller trees or saplings to cut them together. Such machines can either be wheeled with a fixed head that drives up to the trees, or have an articulating arm.

For very steep terrain, crawler harvesters and bunchers are used with self-levelling cabs, similar to the mechanism employed on hillside combines and pea harvesters.

The Canadian-made TigerCat, which is imported to Scotland by Treetop Forestry, has put several of these machines into the UK.

Forwarders

Once the trees are cut, they must be hauled out of the forest, which is the job of the forwarder. Most forwarders have a carrying capacity of 10-20t.

Ponsses biggest seller in the UK is the Buffalo, which has an 18t capacity, a steering system with 44 deg of articulation and is powered by a 275hp Mercedes engine.

Both forwarders and harvesters are highly configurable, with options including type of grapple, harvesting head, chains or tracks, and six or eight axles.

Soil compaction and damage is as much a concern in forestry as in agriculture. Ponsses Gazelle weighs 10t, but can be fitted with a fifth axle so that the machine applies ultra-low ground pressure.

Skidders

Skidders are used for hauling out bigger trees and come with either a grapple or a winch, or sometimes both. They require fast cycle times, good manoeuvrability, frugal fuel stats and decent operator comfort.

Most are twin-axled, but TigerCats top-of-the-range 635E has a 5.2m wheelbase and six-wheel drive, and is powered by a 266hp oil burner. Dual and flotation tyres are an option.

Logging intelligence

GPS systems are being used in logging, just as they are in agriculture.

They help locate the cutting area and record where the logs are left, so the hauling trucks can be guided to the right spot. Otherwise, truckers could spend hours hunting through the forest to find a pile.

Harvesting heads multiply thickness of trunk passing through with speed to calculate the quantity of material harvested per hour. John Deere also offers its Intelligent Boom Control system, which allows the operator to control the tip of the boom (rather than having to control each boom joint independently).

Co-ordinating the different machines to achieve efficient thinning or clearing of a plot requires considerable planning. Ponsse has developed a computer simulation game to help train forwarder drivers, while John Deere offers TimberOffice  a software suite for managing all the equipment.

Prices for all this sophistication equate to those of combines or beet harvesters, with the machines mentioned costing anywhere from 150,000 up to 300,000 or even more.
Rural crime has seen a worrying spike in the north of England and parts of Scotland in recent months, with thefts of farm vehicles rising sharply.

The north of England has seen quad bike theft double, according to the NFU Mutual, while in Scotland the reappearance of high-value tractor theft has quadrupled the cost of agricultural vehicle thefts.

Dark winter nights mean its important to beef-up security on rural homes, farms and other businesses to protect machinery livestock and farm equipment from thieves, said Tim Price, NFU Mutual Rural Affairs Specialist.

See also: 10 tips to cut your farmhouse burglary risk

There can be no doubt that both opportunist criminals and organised criminal gangs are targeting farms with a vengeance.

In an attempt to protect his business, arable farmer Andrew Barr has invested heavily in cameras and alarms at his Harlaw Farm in Midlothian, just five miles outside Edinburgh.

It helps that the machinery shed is very close to the farmhouse, he told visitors attending a recent Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime meeting on the farm. Even so we have seen evidence of scouting.

Prevention advice

PC Willie Johnston (pictured) of the Dundee-based Police Scotland Specialist crime unit gave a list of measures that could be taken to prevent theft (see 10 ways to keep your equipment secure).

CCTV is a great help, but make sure the images are good. It is no use just seeing a blurred image of a man in a hood driving a white van, he said.

It needs to be clear enough to see the registration number and any identifying bumps or scratches.

Livestock crime

Livestock crime, particularly sheep theft and dog worrying incidents, are also a major concern in the Edinburgh and Lothian area.

10 ways to keep your equipment secure 1 Use top quality CCTV equipment 2 Specify Cesar on new equipment including quad bikes and consider retrofitting on older equipment 3 Store tractor keys in a locked box in a separate location away from the tractor shed 4 Consider locking devices on steering rams  the best are very hard to overcome 5 Weld postcodes on trailer drawbars 6 Fit livestock trailers with Cesar and paint postcodes on the roof. Always register ownership 7 Use a large number of LED alarm lights around the farm rather than rely on one or two large spotlights 8 Keep yard gates closed, especially at night 9 Fit very loud audible alarms or sirens as part of your machinery shed security system 10 Record all machinery serial numbers

It is no coincidence that it is often around 70 lambs that go missing at a time  that is around the capacity of a large Ifor Williams-type trailer, said PC Johnstone.

The inescapable conclusion is that often these thieves have professional help from people in the agricultural world.

PC Johnstone suggested EID boluses as a deterrent where pedigree stock was being stolen. Sheep with EID boluses also had to carry a black ear tag and that visual clue could be enough to deter a knowledgeable thief.

Sheep worrying by dogs was also endemic in many of the more populated areas.

It can be a hard crime to prove, but I recommend taking a short video on your mobile phone as evidence. You can legally shoot the dog, but you should report it. Burying a dog out of sight can turn the tables altogether. Remember all dogs in Scotland should now be microchipped, warned PC Johnstone.

Hare coursing

Hare coursing was also a hard crime to stop, but Police Scotlands wildlife officer Charlie Everitt was able to report some success.

He said: We have had our first prosecution using DNA evidence. We had a report of hare coursing and after a search of the fields found a dead hare with dog saliva on it.

Thanks to CCTV we had a vehicle registration number and we were able to trace the owner. We DNA tested his dogs and came up with a perfect match.

Remember, if you see hare coursing you should phone 999 rather than 101. This is a crime taking place and we will react, he added.




Haiti - FLASH : BCEN orders the verification of 12% of minutes





Following the decision by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to reject Saturday the requests for recusal of the Electoral Advisers sitting on the Office of National Electoral Litigation (BCEN) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19554-haiti-flash-official-the-cep-rejects-the-requests-of-recusal-of-all-the-complainants.html and the referral of the plaintiffs to the Electoral Court on Monday, LAPEH, "Pitit Desalin" and "Fanmi Lavalas" finally pleaded their case, calling once again for further verification at the tabulation center of the minutes.



Me Andre Michel, LAPEH's lawyer called for the examination of 78% of tabulated PV at the Voting Tabulation Centre (CTV);



Me Gervais Charles and Me Axene Joseph,lawyers of Famni Lavalas claimed substantially the same % of verification, stating that these minutes were tabulated without taking into account of the 4 admissibility criteria stipulated in article 171.1 of the Electoral Decree. Failing to say that the CEP regulation allows the CTV to assess the minutes and makes the application of these criteria non-mandatory as confirmed during the tabulation by Robenson Cherilus, the Director General of the CTV "Article 171.1 of the Electoral Decree granting the privilege to the Tabulation Centreto decide whether or not to count a PV and that this Article is not mandatory. The 14 criteria are not mandatory," according to the regulations of the CEP https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19345-haiti-flash-already-more-than-1-700-minutes-in-quarantine-presidential.html



Me Evelt Fanfan one of the lawyers of "Pitit Dessalin" followed the same arguments and claimed, like the other two complainants, the verification of 78% of the minutes.



As for the lawyers of the PHTKthey continued to find these claims unjustified in the absence of concrete evidence of allegations of massive fraud.



Following Monday's hearings, the Electoral Court gave partially a "success" to the complainants and ordered in its decision very early on Tuesday morning, that starting today, December 20 (at 9 days of the deadline for publication of the final results) that 12% of randomly drawn presidential minutes be verified.



In its conclusion, the BCEN "orders its transport to the Votes Tabulation Centre for verification of 12% of the minutes, ie a total of 1,560 minutes, randomly", these verifications, according to the decision of the BCEN, will be carried out in the presence of the parties concerned and the national and international electoral observation organizations.



Note that, contrary to the request of the three complaining parties, only one Chamber ruled on the three cases of dispute, a situation that the complainants did not challenge this time.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19527-haiti-flash-publication-of-final-results-possible-delay.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19518-haiti-flash-bcen-hearings-postponed-sine-die.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Security : Mario Andresol receives the International Leadership Award





Monday, 19 December, the International Diplomatic Institute awarded the International Leadership Award to the former Head of the Haitian National Police (PNH) and Candidate for the Presidency of Haiti in 2015, Mario Andresol for his contribution to the democratic struggle in Haiti and his commitment against banditry and drug trafficking in the Caribbean region.



Learn more about Mario Andresol :

Former student of the Faculty of Human Sciences and INAGHEI Mario Andresol joined the Military Academy of Haiti in 1982. He graduated with the rank of second lieutenant and specializes in Fort Benning (USA) as infantry officer. In 1986, he trained in Melun (France) in the maintenance of order. On his return to Haiti, he distinguished himself in various units of the army to the rank of captain. In 1995 he joined the PNH as Commissioner of Petion-cille and then as head of the Judicial Police.



In 2001, following political persecution and assassination attempts, he went into exile in the United States for four years and returned to the country in 2005. The Haitian Parliament unanimously approves his choice as Chief of Police and renews him its confidence in 2009. At the end of his term, he devotes himself to his professional activities before becoming a Candidate for the Presidency in 2015 as an independent.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Hindus are urging all the cities and counties in North Carolina to offer free yoga classes, on the same pattern as being offered by the City of Greensboro.

City of Greensboros free yoga classes are for Every Fitness Level. Chair Yoga class is held on Tuesdays and Fridays, while Yoga on the Mat is on Thursdays and Fridays.

Calling it a step in the positive direction, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, commended City of Greensboro for coming forward with this initiative and providing an opportunity to its residents to avail the multiple benefits yoga offered.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory to work with various city councils and county commissions in the state for offering free yoga classes to the residents, thus incorporating highly beneficial yoga in the lives of North Carolinians.

Yoga, referred as a living fossil, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Rajan Zed pointed out.

Zed further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.

According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to a 2016 Yoga in America Study, about 37 million Americans (which included many celebrities) now practice yoga; and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self image. Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Rajan Zed added.

Greensboro, third largest city in the state and which won National 2016 Digital Cities Survey Award, was established in 1808. Nancy Vaughan and Jim Westmoreland are Mayor and City Manager respectively.

Source : From Our Correspondent
Ms Ourmieres-Widener, an executive at Air France before she ran fellow regional operator CityJet between 2010 and 2015, takes over next month.

She will lead the carriers expansion into London Heathrow airport. It has operating slots forfeited by British Airways.

Regional airlines lack the efficiencies of discount specialists, such as Ryanair, flying smaller aircraft between minor cities.

Under Mr Hammad, Flybe abandoned its plans to act as a consolidator for the sector across Europe, cutting routes, firing hundreds of workers, and cancelling plane orders to focus on UK services and code-sharing deals with other carriers.

Flybe will commence flights from Heathrow to Edinburgh and Aberdeen next March, using slots that IAGs British Airways relinquished to stop it having a monopoly over the services, following its takeover of the former British Midland.

Other than landing and passenger charges, the regional operator will not have to pay for the positions, which were utilised by Aer Lingus on behalf of Virgin Atlantic Airways under the Little Red brand before the plan was dropped.

Ms Ourmieres-Widener, who, at CityJet, ran the biggest operator at London City airport, where Flybe also has an expanding presence, is a rare female airline chief, though the second at a major UK carrier, alongside EasyJet CEO Carolyn McCall.

She joins from American Express Global Business Travel, having spent less than two years as head of global sales at the corporate bookings provider. Ms Ourmieres-Widener brings extensive experience of aviation and travel, as well as deep knowledge of the UK regional aviation market, said interim CEO Simon Laffin, who resumes his role as Exeter-based Flybes chairman.

Separately, CityJet said, earlier this month, that it had scrapped talks about buying rival, Stobart Air, which operates major routes for Aer Lingus and Flybe.

Stobart confirmed that talks over a potential collaboration and a possible ownership deal were at an end.

A spokesman for CityJet said it had ended the acquisition talks because of the protracted negotiations.

Bloomberg and Irish Examiner staff
Publicly-quoted investment fund Hibernia REIT bought the 1.9 acre Harcourt Square site for 70m last year and received planning permission for a total redevelopment and expansion of the site expected to cost around 100m.

However, legal proceedings began earlier this year in relation to various matters, including Hibernias full access to the site and the OPWs desire for a lease extension.

It was announced yesterday that both sides have reached an agreement.

The lack of an identified new permanent site and associated problems with a short-term move were seen as major problems facing An Garda Siochana.

Harcourt Square houses the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation unit and handles emergency calls in the Dublin area.

The new agreement which comes into play in January  will see Harcourt Square remaining as the Dublin Garda headquarters until 2023, but the OPW will now pay 6m per year in rent on the site, to Hibernia REIT, instead of the current 4.9m.

A once-off arrears payment of 500,000 is also payable.

In return, Hibernia REIT will only retake full control of the site in six years time with no development work to be undertaken until then. The company will, however, be free to pursue future tenents.

Hibernias share price was largely unmoved yesterday, but analysts were upbeat on the resolution.

This new non-renewable lease agreed would appear to be the best short-term outcome for both sides, said Colm Lauder of Goodbody.
It has written to all to all affected customers this week and will be arranging to replace and test the meters over the next number of months. If a customer has been found to have a faulty meter giving inaccurate readings, a refund will be issued.

The ESB became aware of the problem a number of months ago when it was contacted by a customer. It subsequently contacted the manufacturer of the meters on December 1 and had a meeting with them on December 8.
The actor was one of many Irish celebrities speaking out about the crisis as the takeover of Apollo House to house rough sleepers in the capital continues.

What is a refugee? Its somebody who has to move from place to place without a home to try and find some sense of existence or some sense of peace and thats what the homeless community in our country is and theyre basically refugees in their own land, he said yesterday.

The actor, who is a recovered drug user, also commented on the added hardship of addiction that some rough sleepers face.

I wasnt lying on a street corner at eight degrees at two oclock in the morning sticking a needle in between my toes, it wasnt that level of hardship. Were talking about a lot of hardship and Im not saying all homeless people are all drug addicts at all but there is a lot of that of course because its an escape. But, there go I, but for the grace of God, he said.

Farrell, who is a patron of the Irish Homeless Street Leagues, said politicians need to step up to the plate.

Our care is demonstrated with all the meetings and all the rallies that are going on and the population of our country is aghast at whats going on, he said.

The most important thing is the aftercare programme and thats what were trying to get some funds raised for  for aftercare to help all these men and women who have fallen on very, very hard times that inflicts a certain amount of inhumanity on them daily, to do the practical things: how to interview for a job, how to get off whatever they need to get off, how to deal with their emotional or their mental issues, how to take care of their healthhow to apply for work.

Musician Glen Hansard, who is involved in the Home Sweet Home initiative that took over Apollo House, also talked to Ryan Tubridy on RTE Radio One yesterday with Farrell.

Hansard explained how the Apollo House action came about: It was a bunch of friends sitting around all through the year talking about this subject [homelessness], frustrated, some more frustrated than others, other people with just a humanitarian approach just wondering if there was anything more solid we could do than handing over a cheque every year to the great work of Fr Peter McVerry or the Simon Communities or St Vincent de Paul.

Members of the public watch musicans perform during various performances by artists at Apollo House on Poolbeg Street , Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Apollo House is a disused building, sitting disused for a number of years. Its a nine-storey empty office building. When we saw it and when it became apparent that this would be the place to go into, there was a quick pow-wow with all the people that are involved in this and it was agreed upon that we could make this work and convert it. It is an office building and there is a lot of open space but there are 60 private rooms that could potentially be turned into private accommodation. The idea is to give a couple, or a single woman or a single man, their own key and say: Here you go, heres a room for you, go inside. You dont have to leave in the morning, you can make this place your home. The kitchens are being installed today. Weve the heating running, weve got the lighting running and were at a point now where its up and running.

Home Sweet Home is an initiative jointly run by the Irish Housing Network and various trade unionists.
The circuit court heard yesterday that the accuseds brother and the accused himself were arrested by gardai after an international police investigation into child pornography led to an address in Tipperary. Sentence will be passed today.

Computer equipment seized at the accuseds brothers address had 11,472 images and 67 video files of child pornography, in some of which the six-year-old boy could be identified; while 955 more image files and a video were found on a USB stick at an industrial unit used by the accuseds brother.

The accused in this case pleaded guilty to four counts of producing child pornography  offences committed between January 1, 2014, and March 20, 2015.

None of the parties involved in the case can be named, to protect the identity of the young boy. The images and videos included a male under 10 years of age being sexually assaulted and displaying his genitalia. The accused in this case was not involved in perpetrating the abuse, but in recording it.

The accused was interviewed a number of times after his arrest on March 26 of last year and made a number of admissions to gardai, that he had videoed his nephew being raped and sexually assaulted by the boys father.

The accused alleged during garda interviews that he himself was sexually assaulted when he was 10 by his brother although he had made no formal complaint to the authorities in this or any other jurisdiction. Both men are from eastern Europe.

The accuseds brother pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape and sexual assault and received a 20-year prison term. The accused in this case told gardai he was aware of [his brothers] sexual interests in children.

The court heard gardai received information, after an international investigation involving police in Australia and New Zealand as well as continental Europe, about chat records on the internet between another suspect and a person named as The Master. One of these records from July 2014 had The Master actively involved in talks about sharing pictures of his son.

Detective Garda Siobhan Doyle said investigations revealed a word document which outlined how the latter person was interested in little girls, nought to seven, but only has access to a young boy aged six. This was traced to the address in Tipperary, the home of the brother of the accused in this case and his family.

Gardai seized computer equipment from the accuseds brothers home and found the images and videos, and also searched an industrial unit being used by the accuseds brother and found a USB stick with images and a video of child pornography. Det Gda Doyle said the material represent one of the worst cases her garda unit had come across.

Judge Tom Teehan said he will give his decision today.
A court heard how first cousins Thomas Kealy and Thomas Kealy sold a power washer to a farmer living near Timoleague in West Cork for 200, and then amended the amount to 2,100 before trying to cash it at the Clonakilty branch of Bank of Ireland shortly afterwards.

However, Clonakilty District Court was told that staff at the branch knew the farmer, and were instantly suspicious. They refused to hand it back and also took the licence plate number of the mens vehicle, which was later stopped at a checkpoint once gardai had been alerted.

Thomas Kealy of 1A Fairhill, Rathkeale, in Co Limerick and Thomas Kealy, of Long Bow Caravan Park, Main St, Miltown New Lark, in England, both pleaded guilty to one charge in relation to the incident and said they wished to apologise to the elderly farmer and to the court for actions described by Judge David Waters as despicable.

Thomas Kealy, with the UK address, has a date of birth of January 29, 1992, while his cousins date of birth is May 18, 1988.

Insp Fergal Foley, prosecuting, told the court on November 24 the Kealy cousins arrived unannounced in the yard of the farmer, who lives some miles outside the village of Timoleague.

Insp Foley said a high pressure sales technique ended in the farmer writing a cheque for 200 for the power washer.

It was alleged both men went to Clonakilty where the older Kealy cousin tendered the cheque to bank staff, now bearing the amount of 2,100.

However, knowing their client, they became suspicious and retained possession of the cheque. Both men left the bank and two bank officials went to the home of the farmer and gardai were contacted. A bank official had also taken the licence plate number and the Kealys car was stopped at a checkpoint on the Clonakilty to Roascarbery road.

The Kealy cousins had been in custody since November 25.

Solicitor Myra Dinneen, defending, said the facts were as outlined by the prosecution and said: It was not a nice thing to happen.

They stupidly wrote the cheque and stupidly went into the Bank of Ireland, she said.

The younger Mr Kealy has a conviction for fraud handed down this year in Germany, while the older Mr Kealy had a previous conviction for deception which was committed in 2005.

Judge David Waters said the offences were at the high end of the district court.

Convicting both men, he sentenced the younger Thomas Kealy to three months in prison, backdated to November 24, for forging the cheque, and sentenced the older Thomas Kealy to two months, also backdated to November 24, for presenting it. Both men lodged appeals regarding the sentences.
Advantage Lithium Corp. (TSX.V: AAL) and joint venture partner Nevada Sunrise Gold Corp. (TSX.V: NEV) announce lithium brine drilling results from the Clayton NE project.

This follows successful results from the first two boreholes (see NRs dated Nov 1st and Dec 5th, 2016). Clayton NE borders the Silver Peak mine, operated by Albemarle Corporation ("Albemarle"), North America's only producing lithium mine. Hole CNE-16-03, drilled to a total depth of 591.3 metres (1,940 feet), has intersected multiple aquifer formations, including 387.69 metres of brine-producing strata averaging 243.66 milligrams per litre ("mg/l") lithium from a depth of 209.23 to 596.92 metres, including a higher-grade interval averaging 299.5 mg/l over 36.92 metres and a peak measurement of 322 mg/l.

Highlights

Strongest Results to date. Lithium brines intercepted by 3 rd drill hole at Clayton NE, CNE-16-03, showing a peak values of 322 mg/l lithium, within 387.69 metres averaging 243.66 mg/l. These results are the strongest to date at Clayton NE and are comparable to Albemarle's brine samples from their Silver Peak mining operation immediately adjacent to Clayton NE.

drill hole at Clayton NE, CNE-16-03, showing a peak values of 322 mg/l lithium, within 387.69 metres averaging 243.66 mg/l. These results are the strongest to date at Clayton NE and are comparable to Albemarle's brine samples from their Silver Peak mining operation immediately adjacent to Clayton NE. Potentially Untapped Aquifer. Hole CEN-16-03 is one of the deepest boreholes drilled in the Clayton Valley and, based on results obtained, may have hit a previously untapped aquifer.

Very Strong brine flows. Brine flows of up to 100 gallons per minute issued from borehole CNE-16-03 between 350.76 to 436.92 metres. Geochemical analysis shows this zone carries significant lithium concentrations. High brine flows are important for economic production.

100% Drilling Success Rate and 3.43km mineralized brine trend: All three holes, which are located 3.43km apart, contain significant intervals of mineralized lithium brines

More Drilling Planned. Three more holes are already permitted and the Company plans to complete these holes in 2017 to continue building towards a resource in Nevada.

Ross McElroy, Technical Advisor and Director, of Advantage Lithium, commented: "This is our strongest hole to date at Clayton NE, with robust grades, strong brine flow and wide intercepts. Even more exciting is the fact that we have drilled one of the deepest boreholes in the Clayton Valley and we may have intercepted an untapped aquifer system. Having hit with all three holes at Clayton NE over the 3.43km mineralized brine trend, we are extremely pleased with the potential of this project, as well as the expertise of our exploration team."

Drill Hole Technical Details

CNE16-03 was completed to a depth of 591.3 metres (1,940 feet), intersecting the base of the Clayton Valley salar sedimentary basin at 584.62 metres. Drilling has intersected typical Clayton Valley strata consisting of alternating layers of gravel, volcanic ash and clay. A total of 62 grab groundwater samples were collected as brine-bearing formations were encountered. Table 1 presents a compiled summary of the depths of the aquifer systems with brine interval thickness and associated average lithium grades and TDS concentrations. Anomalous lithium results with average concentration of 243.66 mg/l were obtained from brine-bearing formations intersected over a 387.69 metre section (from 209.23 to 596.92 metres) within the Main Ash, Lower Aquifer System, and Lower Gravel Aquifer. The highest grade results were obtained in the Lower Aquifer System with peaks up to 322 mg/l lithium (332.31 to 338.46 metres), and in the deeper Lower Gravel Aquifer, with peaks up to 316 mg/l (504.62 to 510.77 metres). In addition, drill cuttings were collected for each 1.5 metre interval and have been submitted for analysis. Analytical results for the drill cuttings are pending.

Table 1: Results of Brine Samples for CNE-16-03

Drill Hole Aquifer

System Interval Total

Dissolved

Solids

("TDS")

mg/l Lithium

Range

( mg/l ) Lithium

Average

Grade

( mg/l ) From

(metres) To

(metres) Width

(metres) CNE-16-03 Main Ash 209.23 246.15 36.92 72,150 to

84,970 114 to 130 124.33 Lower

Aquifer

System 246.15 436.92 190.77 87,400 to

199,000 139 to 322

267.71 including 313.85 350.77 36.92 137,000 to

181,000 279 to 322 *299.50 Lower

Gravel

Aquifer 436.92 596.92 160.00 120,000 to

165,000 181 to 316 268.17 including 461.54 526.15 73.85 126,000 to

165,000 268 to 316 295.80

Table 2: Results of Brine Samples for CNE-16-01 and CNE-16-02



Drill Hole Aquifer

System Interval Total

Dissolved

Solids

("TDS")

mg/l Lithium

Range

(mg/l) Lithium

Average

Grade

(mg/l) From

(metres) To

(metres) Width

(metres) CNE-16-01 Main Ash 168.6 170.1 1.5 68,000 94.3 94.3 Lower

Aquifer

System A 224.0 243.8 19.8 110,000 195 to 218 209.7 Lower

Aquifer

System B 326.1 365.8 39.7 130,000 to

140,000 174 to 189 181.5 Lower

Gravel

Aquifer 396.2 499.9 103.7 35,000 to

190,000 72.4 to 234 134.8 including 457.2 481.6 24.4 58,000 to

190,000 72.4 to 234 187.5 CNE-16-02 Main Ash 190.5 199.6 9.1 No Water Lower

Aquifer

System 207.3 396.2 188.9 50,000 to

380,000 72.4 to 228

164.2 including 286.5

396.2 109.7 140,000 to

380,000 151 to 227 202.8

Geochemical results for lithium are reported in mg/l rather than parts per million ("ppm") as mg/l is deemed conventional for reporting values of dissolved metals and salts in fluids. Variances in specific gravity of fluids will influence geochemical results if converted from mg/l to ppm. Previously reported values for holes CNE-16-01 and CNE-16-02 are now reported in mg/l as received from the laboratory.

About Clayton NE

Consists of 55 unpatented claims totaling approximately 1,080 acres (437 hectares);

Clayton NE is subject to an option earn-in agreement where Advantage Lithium can earn up to a 70% interest in the Project after fulfilling CDN$3.0 million in exploration expenditures on a package of five lithium properties optioned from Nevada Sunrise (for further details, see Nevada Sunrise news release dated June 20, 2016);

Nevada Sunrise is the project manager at Clayton NE on behalf of Advantage Lithium, the operator.

Further information about the company can be found at www.advantagelithium.com.

About Advantage Lithium Corp.

Advantage Lithium Corp. is a resource company specializing in the strategic acquisition, exploration and development of lithium properties and is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Common Shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "AAL". The company has signed an LOI with lithium producer, Orocobre, to acquire 100% interest in five projects in Argentina and up to 75% in a sixth, called Cauchari. Cauchari is host to a near-surface resource of 470,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) and 1.62 million tonnes of potash (KCL), and a large exploration target of 5.6mt to 0.25Mt of LCE and 19mt to 0.9 of KCL. Cauchari is located just 20 km south Orocobre's flagship Olaroz Lithium Facility. The company is also earning an interest from Nevada Sunrise Gold Corp., in a portfolio of five lithium brine projects in the Clayton and Lida Valley regions of Nevada, USA, including 70% in Clayton NE. In addition, the company has acquired 100% of the Stella Marys lithium brine project, immediately adjacent to Orocobre's Salinas Grandes project that hosts an inferred, near-surface resource, in Argentina's Lithium Triangle.

Source: Advantage Lithium
Nighthawk Gold Corp. (TSX.V: NHK) reports final drill results from its summer 2016 program on the Colomac Gold Project, Northwest Territories ("NWT") (Figure 1 - Table 1 and 2). The Company has now released results on 8,400 metres (34 holes) of drilling that successfully delineated recently discovered high-grade gold Zone 1.5 (September 13, 2016; October 12, 2016,), highlighted by 52.07 metres ("m") of 7.72 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold (uncut), and 72.65 m of 5.58 g/t gold (uncut - Figure 2), and tested other potential high-grade prospects including Zone 2.5 (November 24, 2016) highlighted by 57.00 m (37.00 m true width) of 1.47 g/t gold, including 13.50 m of 2.82 g/t gold; and Zone 1.0 highlighted by 55.95 m (40.00 m true width) of 1.09 g/t gold, including 9.00 m of 2.36 g/t gold.

Today's results report on testing the high-grade potential of Zone 3.0, and resource expansion drilling at Goldcrest (Figure 1). The last nine holes (2,430 m) of the summer 2016 drill program are presented in Tables 1 and 2 below.

"Consistent positive results strengthen our belief that Colomac will continue to deliver numerous opportunities for expansion of known high-grade zones, and overall resource growth," said Dr. Michael Byron, President and CEO. "Current drilling has effectively extended Zone 3.0 northward towards less defined Zone 2.5, emphasizing the zone's untapped potential for resource expansion and high-grade zone development laterally and to depth. Goldcrest hole G16-10 confirms continuity to depth of a previously reported gold zone, while G16-07 has intersected yet another zone of broad, potentially high-grade, gold mineralization of underexplored extensions. We are particularly excited to resume drilling at Zone 1.5, trace it to depth and test for the potential coalescence of high-grade Zones 2.0 and 1.5, a priority target area, that if proven, would become the deposits largest zone and host significant ounces of higher grade mineralization," added Dr. Byron.

Highlights: (uncut gold assays reported):

Goldcrest

Hole G16-10 (located at the northern extension of the 450 metre strike length tested in 2014) intersected 26.05 m (14.7 m true width) of 2.16 g/t gold, including 3.75 m of 12.39 g/t gold, and separate intercepts of 6.30 m (3.60 m true width) of 3.04 g/t gold, and a 11.05 m (6.40 m true width) of 1.57 g/t gold;

G16-10 confirmed the depth continuity of a high-grade zone previously intersected by G14-09 (November 26, 2014), that returned 40.00 m of 2.52 g/t gold, including separate internals intervals of 5.20 m of 7.82 g/t gold and 12.50 metres of 3.64 g/t gold, and which was previously reported to have a strike length of 125 metres;

Hole G16-07 (collared within the southern end of the sill tested in 2014) returned 9.00 m (5.90 m true width) of 3.10 g/t gold, including 5.25 m of 4.98 g/t gold. Undercut hole G16-07B intersected multiple gold intervals including 12.70 m (6.70 m true width) of 1.67 g/t gold, including 7.45 m of 2.51 g/t gold and 3.25 m of 4.41 g/t, gold, and a further 12.65 m (6.80 m true width) of 1.58 g/t gold, including 3.65 m of 4.86 g/t gold.

G16-07, -07B show characteristics of a possible high-grade gold zone, including proximity to a transverse fault, multiple 10+ metre gold intercepts, and the occurrence of several high-grade gold values, effectively highlighting this area as a candidate for broad, potentially high-grade gold mineralization, both laterally and with depth;

Colomac Zone 3.0

Drilling was directed towards exploring for a higher grade zone, expanding mineralization, and to narrow the resource gap between Zone 3.0 and the southern limit of Zone 2.5, laterally and to depth;

C16-10 intersected favorable widths of 20.18 m (12.70 m true width) of 1.80 g/t gold, including 4.53 m of 2.73 g/t gold, and 7.90 m of 2.26 g/t gold, with an internal 3.55 m of 3.53 g/t gold, while the steeper hole C16-10B, intersected 14.20 m (6.80 m true width) of 1.42 g/t or 12.05 m (5.80 m true width) of 1.50 g/t gold, including 5.30 m of 1.73 g/t gold and 4.0 m of 1.95 g/t gold. Given these widths, a high-grade domain that may lie laterally to hole C16-10 and to depth;

Results have extended the zone further northward and reduced the data gap between the lesser defined Zone 2.5 to the north, whose northern limit was recently expanded (November 24, 2016) by Hole C16-07 that returned 57.00 m (37.00 m true width) of 1.47 g/t gold, including 34.65 m of 1.88 g/t gold and an internal 13.50 m of 2.82 g/t gold.

Table 1. Colomac Sill Drill Results (uncut)

Hole ID From

(m) To

(m) Core Length

(m)* Gold

gpt Colomac Zone 3.0 C16-10 146.47 166.65 20.18 1.80 including 146.47 151.00 4.53 2.73 including 159.25 166.65 7.40 2.30 including 163.10 166.65 3.55 3.53 C16-10B 185.55 199.75 14.20 1.42 including 187.70 199.75 12.05 1.50 including 187.70 193.00 5.30 1.73 including 195.75 199.75 4.00 1.95 212.75 221.77 9.02 0.74 including 218.75 221.77 3.02 1.68

Table 2. Goldcrest Drill Results (uncut).

Hole ID From

(m) To

(m) Core Length

(m)* Gold

gpt G16-06 108.50 109.50 1.00 1.53 G16-07 131.25 140.25 9.00 3.10 including 132.75 138.00 5.25 4.98 164.50 165.00 0.50 3.24 G16-07B 91.80 104.50 12.70 1.67 including 97.05 104.50 7.45 2.51 including 97.05 100.30 3.25 4.41 111.90 112.40 0.50 34.80 169.50 172.50 3.00 1.54 176.25 188.90 12.65 1.58 including 183.00 188.90 5.90 3.14 including 186.00 188.90 2.90 5.72 G16-08 No samples. Failed to intersect quartz diorite due to fault offset. G16-09 226.75 227.25 0.50 3.92 231.50 232.25 0.75 1.10 243.25 243.75 0.50 1.06 254.50 255.50 1.00 1.47 277.60 279.10 1.50 2.75 G16-10 202.70 228.75 26.05 2.16 including 225.00 228.75 3.75 12.39 239.20 245.50 6.30 3.04 including 239.20 243.00 3.80 4.33 276.00 287.05 11.05 1.57 including 286.55 287.05 0.50 20.20 G16-11 Negligible gold. No quartz diorite was encountered. In place a later cross-cutting felsite was intersected.

*Lengths are reported as core lengths. True widths vary depending on drill hole dip; most holes are laid out to intersect the sill close to perpendicular therefore true widths are approximately 80% of core lengths

Colomac

Results for two Colomac holes are presented in Table 1, highlighting opportunities to extend the sill's known gold zones, and the intrusion's capacity to host broad zones of gold mineralization.

Colomac Zone 3.0

Two holes were drilled to test the high-grade potential of Zone 3.0, to extend the northern limits of the zone and expand its near surface resource, and to infill an untested shallow resource gap between Zone 3.0 and the southern boundary of the less defined Zone 2.5 (Figure 2). Recent drilling at Zone 2.5 has established it as a high-grade candidate, returning both broad widths of near-surface gold mineralization and extending its northern limit with hole C16-07 (November 24, 2016), which returned 44.00 m (33.00 m true width) of 1.29 g/t gold that included 16.80 m of 1.92 g/t gold. The steeper hole C16-07B returned 57.00 m (37.00 m true width) of 1.47 g/t gold, including 34.65 m of 1.88 g/t gold and an internal 13.50 m of 2.82 g/t gold.

Hole C16-10 (Figure 3) expanded Zone 3.0 northward and to a depth of 200 metres below surface, effectively reducing the data gap between Zone 3.0 and Zone 2.5, by intersecting 20.18 m (12.70 m true width) of 1.80 g/t gold, including 4.53 m of 2.73 g/t gold, and 7.40 m of 2.30 g/t gold, including an internal 3.55 m of 3.53 g/t gold. The steeper hole C16-10B, intersected 14.20 m (6.80 m true width) of 1.42 g/t gold or 12.05 m (5.80 m true width) of 1.50 g/t gold, including 5.30 m of 1.73 g/t gold and 4.0 m of 1.95 g/t gold.

Additional drilling is currently being planned for Zone 3.0 in order to evaluate the remaining untested data gaps, and to continue probing for a potential high-grade domain that may lie laterally to hole C16-10 and to depth.

Goldcrest

Nighthawk previously reported Goldcrest North drill results for eight holes (October 12, 2016; November 24, 2016). The remaining seven Goldcrest holes drilled in 2016 (Table 2) were collared within part of the sill's main section located approximately 1.5 kilometers to the south-southwest of Goldcrest North. Here drilling explored for broad, near surface, potential high-grade gold zones within relatively untested areas both north and south of Nighthawk's 2014 drilling program.

Southern Goldcrest Holes:

Hole G16-07 (Figure 1) was collared near the southern limit of the area drilled in 2014 and returned 9.00 m (5.90 m true width) of 3.10 g/t gold, including 5.25 m of 4.98 g/t gold. Undercut hole G16-07B intersected multiple gold intervals (Figure 4) including 12.70 m (6.70 m true width) of 1.67 g/t gold, including 7.45 m of 2.51 g/t gold and 3.25 m of 4.41 g/t gold, and a further separate 0.50 m of 34.80 g/t gold, and a 12.65 m (6.80 m true width) of 1.58 g/t gold including 2.90 m of 5.72 g/t gold.

Although G16-07, -07B did not encounter mineralization typical of a high-grade gold zone, it is only the second setup drilled north of a dextral transverse fault in a relatively open and sparsely tested area. Hole G14-02, located 46 metres to the northeast, returned shallow intercepts of trace gold values over core lengths of up to 10.25 m (September 25, 2014). Detailed geological models are currently being updated to help define future drilling in the area.

The proximity of G16-07, 07B to a transverse fault, multiple 10+ metre gold intercepts within the steeper hole, and the occurrence of several high gold values, upgrades this area as a good candidate for broad, potentially high-grade gold mineralization both laterally and especially with depth.

Hole G16-08, collared approximately 54 metres south of C16-07, and south of the transverse fault, encountered a brittle fault and failed to intercept quartz diorite, the principal host to gold mineralization.

Northern Goldcrest Holes:

The remaining four Goldcrest holes (G16-09 through G16-11, and G16-06) were collared to explore the northern extension of the 450 metre section of the sill tested in 2014.

G16-09 drilled quartz diorite intersecting quartz veining and visible gold returning a best value of 1.50 m of 2.75 g/t gold and a number of samples with discreet lower gold assays. Two shallower holes, G14-08, -08B (October 27, 2014, and November 26, 2014) collared 12 metres to the southwest returned multiple gold intervals including 11.00 m of 2.15 g/t gold and 10.50 m of 2.42 g/t gold. Hole G16-09 was collared at a steeper angle (-70 degrees) and encountered a gap in better gold mineralization. It may have undershot a portion of the main north plunging shoot. This is in part validated by results from G16-10 located 65 metres north-northwest of G16-09, which confirms the continuity of the gold zone with depth.

Hole G16-10 (Figure 5), a steep hole at -65 degrees, returned 26.05 m (14.7 m true width) of 2.16 g/t gold, including 3.75 m of 12.39 g/t gold, and separate intercepts of 6.30 m (3.60 m true width) of 3.04 g/t gold, and a 11.05 m (6.40 m true width) of 1.57 g/t gold. Hole G14-09 (November 26, 2014), a previous shallow hole 7 metres to the southwest, intersected 40.00 metres of 2.52 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold, including 5.20 metres of 7.82 g/t gold and 12.50 metres of 3.64 g/t gold.

Geological models are currently being updated for this Goldcrest zone, which appears to extend 125 metres in strike (November 26, 2014).

Step out holes G16-11, collared 97 metres to the northeast of G16-10, and G16-06 collared a further 80 metres north-northeast, encountered respectively, a narrow felsite (related to the quartz diorite), and a narrow, poorly developed quartz diorite. Neither hole returned significant gold values.

2017 Exploration Program

Current modeling suggests better mineralization may lie south of the recent drilling at Zone 1.0, within an underexplored 2-kilometer section between Zones 1.0 and high-grade Zone1.5. Zone 2.5 intersections are reported over significant widths and are typical of Colomac high-grade domains, but grades are more reflective of mineralization lateral to high-grade targets. Additional drilling is being planned to further explore these zones and the depth extent of high-grade Zone 1.5. Field exploration is expected to commence in early 2017 and extend through to early October, and promises to be the most extensive since Nighthawk commenced working in the Northwest Territories. Activities will focus on drilling the Colomac Gold Project, but will also employ an array of techniques, including airborne and ground geophysics, and detailed geological mapping and prospecting, to enhance target areas at both Colomac and within the highly prospective Indin Lake Gold Property.

About Nighthawk

Nighthawk is a Canadian-based exploration company focused on acquiring and developing gold mineral properties in the Northwest Territories. Including the mineral claims and leases of the Colomac Gold Project, Nighthawk's Indin Lake Gold Property comprises a total land package of 222,203 acres in the Indin Lake Greenstone Belt, located approximately 200 kilometres north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and includes an Inferred Mineral Resource estimate, prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"), of 39.815 million tonnes with an average grade of 1.64 g/t gold for 2.101 million ounces gold using a cut-off grade of 0.6 g/t gold. Nighthawk also holds a 100% interest in the property known as the Superior Project, which covers 39,015 acres approximately 85 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

Source: Nighthawk Gold
Medgold Resources Corp. (TSX.V: MED) announces it has completed its first phase drill program at the Boticas Gold Project. Drill hole assay results have been received for 1,365 m of the completed 2,516 m program. Highlights from these initial eight drill holes included the following intercepts:

MBT001: 49.13 m @ 1.43 g/t Au, from 20.87 m

MBT002: 14.60 m @ 1.13 g/t Au, from 85.60 m

MBT003: 7.90 m @ 3.40 g/t Au, from 107.00 m

MBT005: 20.70 m @ 2.54 g/t Au, from 12.95 m

MBT008: 59.0 m @ 1.30 g/t Au, from 12.00 m

(Significant drill hole gold intercepts were calculated using a 0.2 g/t Au cut-off grade, 0.2 g/t Au minimum composite grade, 3 m maximum internal dilution length, and 0.0 g/t Au minimum internal dilution grade. These intercepts represent apparent thickness. True thickness estimates are discussed below.)

Dan James, President of Medgold, said: "We have received the first batch of results from our drill program at Boticas. These demonstrate significant widths of up to 50 m in apparent thickness in the principal zones of mineralization which are frequently located close to surface. The 2,500 m program, which is fully funded by our partner, Centerra Gold, is now complete, with full results to follow in early January. We are currently reviewing the data with Centerra to identify areas for follow-up exploration which may include infill and deeper drilling at the main Limarinho Zone."

The Boticas-Chaves Gold Project

The Boticas-Chaves Gold Project, located in northern Portugal, covers an area of approximately 600 sq km. The project is centred on a regional ENE-trending shear zone. Local fault relays or jogs along the shear created crustal thinning / extension within discrete zones, facilitating the emplacement of mineralized quartz veinlets and veins into the granite host rock. Several of these zones were investigated by COGEMA and Kernow Resources in the late 1980s and in the mid 2000s, respectively. These companies completed a total of over 3,000 m of diamond drilling in two main zones: Limarinho and Limarinho South.

Surface mapping and the historical diamond drilling showed that gold mineralization is contained within 0.5 to 2 cm thick quartz veinlets and veins. Individual veins generally strike northeast, have vertical to sub-vertical dips, and pinch and swell vertically. They have individual horizontal lengths of generally less than 10 m, but create zones of en echelon vein sets within multiple parallel east-northeast corridors within the Limarinho zone. These corridors are up to 20 to 25 m in true thickness and can have strike lengths of hundreds of metres. Medgold's exploration targets are these corridors which feature much higher vein density than surrounding rocks.

Medgold 2016 drilling

The Company commenced drilling in late August, and completed 15 holes for 2,516 m of oriented core drilling by early December. Twelve holes were collared in the main Limarinho zone (2,060 m) and three holes (456 m) were collared in the Limarinho South zone. Assay results have been received for the first eight holes, and the remaining assays are expected by the end of the year. All drill holes intercepted mineralized veins. A drill hole collar table and a table of significant intercepts are given below:

Hole Length (m) Target Easting Northing Elevation Azimuth Inclination Recovery % MBT001 199.40 Limarinho 616675 4622236 545 325 -55 92.35 MBT002 113.20 Limarinho 616634 4622303 535 325 -55 73.29 MBT003 175.60 Limarinho 616593 4622143 552 325 -55 96.6 MBT004 181.55 Limarinho 616711 4622179 575 325 -55 96.64 MBT005 158.35 Limarinho 616725 4622344 555 150 -55 95.87 MBT006 172.45 Limarinho 616674 4622393 557 145 -55 94.21 MBT007 199.00 Limarinho 616796 4622413 586 155 -55 94.62 MBT008 166.15 Limarinho 616539 4622277 534 325 -55 93.37

Hole ID From

(m) To

(m) Interval

(m) True width

(est., m) Grade

(g/t Au) Individual high-grade samples (g/t Au) MBT001 20.87 70.00 49.13 27.00 1.43 MBT001 112.68 135.20 22.52 12.00 0.75 13.20 MBT001 139.25 153.70 14.45 7.27 0.23 MBT001 180.60 190.20 9.60 5.23 0.29 MBT002 9.30 17.90 8.60 4.78 0.31 MBT002 21.60 27.14 5.54 3.44 0.39 MBT002 64.40 73.30 8.90 4.60 0.95 MBT002 85.60 100.20 14.60 7.60 1.13 15.95 MBT002 106.60 111.85 5.3 2.54 0.27 MBT003 13.30 27.50 14.20 7.70 0.44 MBT003 92.10 103.45 11.35 5.92 0.31 MBT003 107.00 114.90 7.90 4.14 3.40 13.40 MBT003 122.25 126.30 4.05 2.39 0.46 MBT005 12.95 33.65 20.70 10.02 2.54 19.90, 12.00 & 11.20 MBT005 121.70 124.80 3.10 1.71 0.74 MBT006 4.00 10.65 6.7 12.96 0.91 MBT006 65.25 68.25 3.0 1.71 0.35 MBT006 72.20 75.50 3.3 1.72 0.50 MBT006 116.00 119.80 3.8 1.90 0.48 MBT006 132.00 137.00 5.0 2.57 0.91 MBT007 41.30 48.40 7.1 3.74 0.39 MBT007 85.55 104.20 18.7 8.78 0.47 MBT007 169.00 172.05 3.1 1.71 0.32 MBT008 0.50 7.60 7.1 3.70 0.72 MBT008 12.00 71.00 59.0 32.67 1.30 12.10 and 10.00 MBT008 78.70 85.90 7.2 3.54 0.73 MBT008 89.00 95.15 6.2 2.90 0.55

Significant drill hole gold intercepts were calculated using a 0.2 g/t Au cut-off grade, 0.2 g/t Au minimum composite grade, 3 m maximum internal dilution length, and 0.0 g/t Au minimum internal dilution grade.

The mineralized zones are interpreted as being vertical to sub-vertical. As all of the first eight drill holes were drilled at an inclination of -55 degrees, true thicknesses are therefore expected to be approximately 55-60% of drilled apparent thicknesses. True thicknesses, given in the table above, are estimated from the horizontal thicknesses of the intercepts in drill section, assuming that mineralized zones are vertical.

Assay results are pending for the remaining seven holes and are expected in early January 2017. The full assay results for the Boticas drill program, and accompanying geological interpretations, will be released at that time.

Qualified Person

David Clark, PGeo, consulting geologist to the Company, is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Clark has reviewed and approved the disclosure of technical information contained in this news release.

About Medgold

Medgold is a European-focused, TSX-V listed exploration and development company targeting gold properties in northwest Iberia and the under-explored gold provinces of southern Europe. Run by a highly experienced management team with a successful track record of building value in resource companies, Medgold is aiming to become a leading European gold company.

Additional information on Medgold can be found on the Company's website at www.medgoldresources.com.

Source: Medgold
Forum Uranium Corp. (TSX.V: FDC) is pleased to announce the closing of its first financing tranche and strategic investment by private equity firm Holystone Energy Company Limited ("Holystone"), a subsidiary of Holystone Investment International Company Limited headquartered in Shanghai, China. Holystone is an active international investor in clean energy projects and related companies.

Forum has closed the first tranche of its private placement previously announced on December 15, 2016. The Company has raised $192,640 through the issuance of 2,408,000 flow through common shares at a price of $0.08 per flow through share and 11,000,000 units at a price of $0.08 per unit for total proceeds of $1,072,640. Each unit consists of one common share and one share purchase warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share at a price of $0.12 for a period of two years expiring December 19, 2018. The Company issued 168,560 finder's warrants at a price of $0.08 exercisable until December 19, 2017. All securities are subject to a four month hold period expiring April 20, 2017.

Holystone has subscribed for $800,000 of the unit financing resulting in the issuance of 10 million units to Holystone. Proceeds will be used for advancing Forum's exploration properties and for working capital. Holystone further intends to maintain its pro rata ownership by participating in any future Company financings.

Rick Mazur, Forum's President and CEO commented, "Holystone's expressed vision for the Company is consistent with our strategy and approach for exploring and discovering a major uranium deposit in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin. With Holystone's financial support and Forum's extensive expertise and diverse portfolio of uranium properties, our mutual interests will greatly benefit both of our companies. On behalf of the Board, I welcome Holystone to our Company."

Dr. Howard Haugom has been appointed to Forum's Board of Directors as Holystone's nominee. Dr. Haugom is a partner at Burkehill Capital Corp, a Vancouver based private equity firm, co-owner of Quilts Etc., a national linen retail chain, and serves as an independent board member of other public companies. He has taught extensively at Simon Fraser University, worked for both the private (Canadian Pacific) and public sectors (BC Treasury Board) as an Economist, and has been a consultant to the gold resource sector. Mr. Haugom received Economic degrees specializing in international trade/finance and Resource Economics from the University of Victoria - BA and MA, 1984) and a PhD (1991) from Simon Fraser University.

In connection with Dr. Haugom's appointment, the Board has issued 150,000 options at a price of 10 cents. Ian Stalker will step down from the Board, but has agreed to continue as a member of Forum's Advisory Board. Forum thanks Mr. Stalker for his years of service as a Director and looks forward to receiving his continued guidance as a corporate advisor.

Further to this investment, Holystone has entered into a voting support agreement whereby it will vote its shares with management for a period of 2 years. In addition, Holystone has agreed to give Forum the first right to repurchase or arrange for the purchase of any of the shares held by Holystone which Holystone wishes to sell, to be exercised within 5 business days of notice from Holystone setting out its intention to sell.

About Forum Uranium

Forum Uranium Corp. is a Canadian-based energy company with a focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of Canadian uranium projects. Forum has assembled a highly experienced team of exploration professionals with a track record of mine discoveries for unconformity-style uranium deposits in Canada. The Company has a strategy to discover near surface uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan by exploring on its 100% owned properties and through strategic partnerships and joint ventures with Cameco, AREVA, Rio Tinto Exploration, NexGen and Uracan.

Source: Forum Uranium
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon



By Lee Han-soo, Park Si-soo



Outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has declared his bid for the South Korean presidency, saying he is ready to "sacrifice myself" for the country.

He made the remark during a meeting with Korean correspondents in New York on Tuesday (local time). His term as the world's top diplomat expires on Dec. 31.

"If what I have seen, learned and felt as U.N. Secretary-General would help develop South Korea, I am willing to sacrifice myself to achieve this goal," Ban told Korean correspondents at the U.N. "The public is enraged and frustrated by the lack of good politics. I have gotten personal requests about how to improve society that has exposed accumulated problems. I am in deep agony thinking about how to do my part."

He acknowledged the need for a political alliance in Korea, saying politics is not something he can do by himself.
Konkuk University President Min Sang-gi talks about the school's goal to nurture biotechnology experts during an interview with The Korea Times at his office on the university's campus in eastern Seoul, Dec. 15.

/ Courtesy of Konkuk University



By Chung Hyun-chae



Universities should lead industries by producing talent and creating new ideas that drive growth on the cutting edge, Konkuk University President Min Sang-gi said.



For this, Konkuk University has set a goal to become a pioneer in biotechnology while boosting academic-industrial cooperation.



Actually it was a goal promoted since the foundation of the school in 1946 by Yoo Seok-chang, a medical doctor whose pen name was Sanghuh. Since then, the university has strategically focused on biotechnology according to the founder's strong belief in the importance of agriculture which was the main pillar of the economy at that time.



"Now we are focusing on maximizing our biotechnology capabilities by combining them with information and communication technology (ICT)," Min said.



Konkuk Institute of Science and Technology (KIT)



As part of such efforts, the university launched the Konkuk Institute of Science and Technology (KIT), a college specializing in biotechnology and engineering, this year, after winning one of the Ministry of Education's financial support programs named PRIME project.



The university will receive about 48 billion won in state aid for the project for three years through 2018.



KIT will accept 333 freshmen next year.



The institute has eight departments  stem cell and regenerative biotechnology; systems biotechnology; integrative bioscience and biotechnology; energy; smart vehicle engineering; smart ICT convergence; cosmetics engineering; and biomedical science and engineering.



"We created those departments to meet the needs of future industries," Min said.



According to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, new growth engines include intelligent robots, electronic cars and wearable devices.



"Unlike in the past industrial era where there were many things that universities could do to develop local industries, universities now have difficulties keeping up with the trends in rapidly changing industries and have failed to meet their demands," Min said. "I hope KIT will lead the nation while contributing to the economic development by cultivating experts in each field."



KIT students will have to do internships or participate in business activities during their last semester.





A professor and students of the Department of Systems Biotechnology under the Konkuk Institute of Science and Technology pose in a laboratory on the school's campus in Seoul. / Courtesy of Konkuk University



"German professors ask students why' every time to encourage them to get the answers themselves," said Min, who studied in Germany for many years. "Likewise, interns in Germany are allowed to apply what they have learned at school in workplaces while seeking to solve problems by themselves."



In a bid to nurture a high-class workforce in state-of-the-art fields, KIT also introduced a new system under which students are able to complete their undergraduate and master's courses in five years. Such a system is the first of its kind in Korea where students who earn a bachelor's degree need to enter graduate schools to get a master's degree.



"As the four-year undergraduate studies are not enough for students to become experts in the high-tech industries, we will provide high quality education for our students so that they become prepared to satisfy the needs of industries," Min said.



According to the president, the university also plans to give about 50 percent of KIT lectures in English to help the students improve their global competitiveness.



Enhancing synergy in medical fields



Taking advantage of the school's strength in biotechnology, Konkuk also aims to lead biomedical industries, Min said.



With this aim, Konkuk established a life science college called Sang-huh Life Science this year after the founder's pen name.



There are seven departments under the college  food science and biotechnology of animal resources; animal science and technology; food marketing and technology; crop science; environmental health science; forestry and landscape architecture; and biological science.



"We plan to create a biomedical cluster by constructing a 12-story building where medical and biotechnology researchers can work together," Min said.



The construction of the new building will start in the second half of next year.



The university's hospital, Konkuk University Medical Center, together with Classic 500, a retirement home run by the university, is focusing on treatment for the elderly in Korea's aging society.



"I expect KIT and Sang-huh Life Science to support those institutions," Min said.



Marking the 70th anniversary of the university, Min said, "Konkuk will keep trying to lead innovation to become one of the best universities in the world."



Konkuk has two campuses  the main campus in Seoul and the other called Glocal campus in Chungju, North Gyeongsang Province  with about 29,000 students enrolled.



Who is Min Sang-gi?



Min Sang-gi took office as the 20th president of Konkuk University on Sept. 1.

He entered the university in 1981 and studied animal resources for two years.



He then headed to Germany and graduated from the University of Hohenheim in 1985 after studying food engineering. He also received his master's degree and a PhD in food engineering from the same university in 1988 and 1994, respectively.



Since then, Min has taught students food science and biotechnology of animal resources at Konkuk.



He also served as dean of the graduate school from September 2013 to July 2015 and head of the school's PRIME project division from August 2015 to August 2016.
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[December 21, 2016] Raytheon to produce NSA-certified encryption devices with next-generation safeguards for tactical radios

MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Navy awarded Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) a $32 million production contract for next-generation encryption devices to safeguard military tactical data transmissions across air, surface, subsurface and ground assets. The Link Level Communication Security 7M encryptor, or LLC 7M, provides enhanced security for the Link 22 tactical radio system used by the U.S. military and its allies. The LLC 7M has received the National Security Agency's only Type 1 certification for protection of information classified up to the Secret level in the Link 22 environment. Link 22 replaces the legacy Link 11 radio system, and is interoperable with the current Link 16 system, providing longer-distance, beyond-line-of-sight communications without reliance on satellites or persistent airborne relay. "With the signing of the LLC 7M production contract, and its ability to seamlessly integrate with Link 16, the Link 22 system is now ready for prime time," said Chuck Schwartz, project manager for SPAWAR's NILE project office. "We expect the system to eventually be adopted by more than 30 allied nations." The LLC 7M is being developed under contract with the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, or SPAWAR, as par of the NATO Improved Link Eleven, or NILE project, which includes international partners Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. Raytheon's $32 million contract includes a five-year base performance period with an additional five-year option. If exercised, the option could bring the cumulative value of the contract to $63 million.



"Securing our nation's critical information, while enabling communications is paramount to victory on any battlefield, and Raytheon is delivering this capability with the LLC 7M," said John Droge, director of Secure Information Systems at Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems. "The LLC 7M flexible platform is ruggedized and form-factored for easy installation, enabling Raytheon to support additional capabilities, design enhancements and expanded use cases in the future. LLC 7M is available to U.S. military operators and under Foreign Military Sales through the SPAWAR's Indefinite Delivery Requirements contract vehicle.

About Raytheon Raytheon Company, with 2015 sales of $23 billion and 61,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 94 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5I products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Follow us on Twitter @Raytheon. Media Contact

James Jackson

+1.972.952.3014

[email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/raytheon-to-produce-nsa-certified-encryption-devices-with-next-generation-safeguards-for-tactical-radios-300382293.html SOURCE Raytheon Company

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Talk on the Indonesian government relaxing its export ban on raw materials had surfaced in the market over the past year, though chatter on the issue had picked up further this quarter of the year.

I dont believe any final decision has been taken by the Indonesian government during these past months. There have been rumours in the market that Indonesia will relax or they wont relax the ban, but I think all this time this issue is still being discussed by stakeholders, a Shanghai-based metals analyst said.

The Indonesian government is drafting a regulation that could ease an export ban on nickel ore, bauxite and copper concentrates, Indonesias Jakarta Post had reported this week.

In October, Luhut Pandjaitan, Indonesias then acting mining minister, said Indonesia was finalising an overhaul of its mining rules that could give companies up to five more years to build smelters, and reopen exports of nickel ore banned since 2014.

But soon after, he was quoted in media reports saying that Indonesia would almost definitely keep in place a ban on nickel ore and bauxite exports.

For now, most market participants polled by Metal Bulletin believe that Indonesia is likely to ease its export ban on the raw materials, though this is likely to come with restrictions such as export quotas and taxes, and stricter environmental rules for miners.

The consensus in the market now seems to be shifting towards the Indonesia permitting exports. It would probably not be strange if Indonesia exports again, a Singapore-based metals analyst said.

Smelter investments  which the Indonesian government had hoped to encourage following its ban on raw material exports in 2014  have not progressed as quickly as expected. And given prolonged depressed prices in the commodities market, some smelters are hoping that they could temporarily export ore to raise funds to continuing building smelters, the analyst said.

State-owned miner PT Aneka Tambang (Antam), for one, had said in September that it hopes to export nickel ore which it is unable to process domestically and hence generate funds for smelter development.

Philippine supply

Most agree that any relaxation in Indonesias export ban on nickel ore will put downward pressure on nickel prices though the decline could be offset by potential production disruptions in the Philippines.

The Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is reviewing environmental compliance certificates (ECC) granted by previous governments. The ECC of seven projects, including those for three nickel producers, have recently been cancelled, local media reported.

This follows an eight-week government environmental audit, which concluded in September this year.

The audit resulted in ten mines being halted and another 20 mines flagged for possible suspension  responses from the latter are being assessed by the DENR and results are expected around the second week of January.

There are a lot of politics involved with whats happening in the Philippines and there seems to be some exaggeration on the mine closures there. But on the whole, the Philippines will find competition for its nickel ore if Indonesia eases its ban, a Singapore-based trader said.

Nickel prices could expect more volatility going forward when more news comes out of Indonesia and the Philippines, another Singapore-based trader said.

People just need an excuse to trade. It doesnt matter whether there is any actual impact on supply. Everybody is trading on headline news. Weve already seen that happen before, he said.

The London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price climbed above $10,000 per tonne in late June this year  a level not seen since November 2015  due to nickel ore supply concerns in the Philippines.

After easing since August, it returned to above this level on October 25 and hit $10,950 per tonne in intraday trading on Wednesday December 21, up $25 from the previous days close.
Gospel musician Florence Obinim has disclosed she has her husband Bishop Daniel Obinim's anointing but lacks the gift to perform the miracles he carries out during his church services.

The leader and founder of the International God' Way Church prides himself on doing all sorts of miracles, from healing the sick, enlarging penises, providing financial breakthrough to transforming into any animal he desires.

The bishop recently awed Ghanaians when he disclosed he had been transformed from a human being into an angel and has since his transformation been referred to by his congregation as Angel Obinim.

Speaking on Ayekoo Ayekoo on Accra100.5FM, Florence Obinim told show host Nana Romeo that I cannot perform my husband's miracles because he is an angel. Jesus said: 'I and the Father are one,' and he also said: 'He is in me and I am in Him,' and the same applies in marriage. He said: 'You and your husband are one.' So I definitely have the anointing he has, but we all have our gifts. As for the miracles he does, I cannot do them. My gift is to teach and sing.
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Kinshasa (AFP) - Talks to defuse an explosive crisis in DR Congo resumed Wednesday, a day after bloody clashes, as the Roman Catholic church appealed for a deal by Christmas over the fate of President Joseph Kabila.

The call by bishops sponsoring talks between the opposition and the ruling party came after protests erupted over Kabila's refusal to step down.

According to a UN provisional toll, 19 people were killed and 45 hurt in violence across Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, the day Kabila's second and final term ran out.

The government put the toll at 11 dead, nine in Kinshasa and two in the second city Lubumbashi, while non-governmental organisation (NGO) Human Rights Watch put the toll at 26 people killed by security forces in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Matadi and Boma.

Kabila's expiry was met without any plan for a political transition, with no election in sight.

DR Congo faces a political crisis

Tensions remained high on Wednesday, with activity resuming slowly in Kinshasa, a megacity of 10 million people, and soldiers and police posted at major crossroads.

In Masina, a neighbourhood in the south of the capital, calm had returned "but tension remains in the background," said a local community leader.

All eyes were on the resumption of the talks headed by the Episcopal Conference, CENCO, that had broken up at the weekend with no progress.

"Our wish is to end before Christmas," said CENCO chairman Monsignor Marcel Utembi. "If the political and civil society actors do not reach a compromise by then... CENCO will draw the consequences."

'Peaceful resistance'

In Rome, Pope Francis too appealed to the Congolese people to be "artisans of peace".

Supporters of DR Congo President Joseph Kabila parade his photograph in Kinshasa in November 2006

"May those who are in positions of political responsibility listen to the voice of their conscience, learn to see the cruel sufferings of their fellow citizens and have at heart the common good."

Gunfire rang out across the vast and troubled nation as the protests erupted Tuesday.

So far the mainstream opposition has called for "peaceful resistance" from the country's 70 million people, pinning its hopes on a deal at the negotiating table.

But in what Kabila's opponents dubbed "a provocation", a new government was announced overnight Monday, headed by Samy Badibanga.

The freshly appointed cabinet is part of an October deal struck between the ruling party and tiny fringe opposition groups enabling Kabila to remain in office pending elections in April 2018.

Wave of arrests

People protest in Kinshasa on December 20, 2016

However, the main opposition bloc headed by 84-year-old Etienne Tshisekedi rejects the plan. It wants elections next year -- along with a pledge that Kabila will not stand.

Maman Sambo Sidikou, the head of the UN mission in Congo, had voiced alarm on Tuesday about a wave of arrests of opposition leaders, rights campaigners and journalists since December 16.

Kabila, 45, who has ruled since 2001, is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term but under a controversial recent constitutional court order, he may stay on until a successor is chosen.

In a YouTube video, Tshisekedi launched "a solemn appeal to the Congolese people to no longer recognise the authority of Mr. Joseph Kabila, to the international community to no longer deal with Joseph Kabila in the name of the Democratic Republic of Congo".

He urged people "to peacefully resist the coup d'etat".

The message was not available in DR Congo where authorities have since Sunday imposed strict controls on social media networks -- which have become even stricter in the last few days.

Some applications which worked Tuesday were no longer available on Wednesday.

DR Congo has never witnessed a democratic transfer of power following polls since independence from Belgium in 1960.

The president has been in office since his father Laurent Kabila's assassination in 2001. He was elected in 2006, and again in 2011.

Two decades ago, the country collapsed into the deadliest conflict in modern African history. Its two wars in the late 1990s and early 2000s dragged in at least six African armies and left more than three million dead.
As the world waits anxiously to celebrate the birth of Christ Jesus on December 25, Christians at the Osu Restoration Temple of the ICGC have welcomed the birth of Christ in grand style.

Like the three wise men who came bearing gifts to honour the most high, born in a lowly manger, hundreds of congregants came bearing hymns, carols, nine lessons and dance to honour the Lord Jesus Christ.

Led by the Restoration Praise Choir, Frankincense and Myrrh, Accra Youth Choir, Wendy, the congregation witnessed an awesome night of great song ministration spiced with a tinge of poetry and choreography.

For close to three hours the lights sparkled in radiant colours, the fog from the smoke effect billowed as the voices re-enacted the birth of Christ Jesus in a glorious atmosphere.

Faiba, a great young poet whose words and delivery always evoke a silent but powerful sensation in the audience was present with his Christmas rendition and it was pleasant to ear and inspiring the soul.

Known as the inspired heaven, the church's choreography team, once again told the story of the birth of Christ in a short sketch that received a thunderous applause.

With the increasing commercialisation of Christmas celebration, many have lost the essence and solemnity of the occasion.

Head Pastor of the Restoration Temple Rev Ashford Tawiah Smith was quick with an admonition to the members of his congregation to observe the period as a moment of reconciliation.

"Tap into the spirituality of his birth and reconcile with the person to whom you are not on good terms with," he said, adding, "don't enter 2017 harbouring anger and hatred for your fellow human."

"The reason he was born was to reconcile sinners with God," he pointed out.

He also charged the congregants not to put unnecessary pressure on themselves by seeking to impress others with gifts even when they do not have the means.

He said just as Jesus was born in a lowly manger but grew up to be the owner of the world and everything within it, Christians can endure difficult times but God at his own time will be a blessing to his children.

The night was spiced with words of exhortation in nine lessons from nine scriptures by nine officers in the Lord.

Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah
Chief Fire Officer, Dr Albert Brown Gaisie, has said the Ghana National Fire Service, had plans to establish a college and training school to train its personnel.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency, on the sidelines of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at the Headquarters of the Service in Accra, Dr Gaisie said the Service had acquired a land at Duayaw Nkwanta purposely for the construction of the College.

We need a school of excellence where we shall train our personnel, build their capacity and also solicit some interventions in terms of internally generated funds, he said.

The College, which is expected to be the first Fire Service College in West Africa, would improve the professionalism and technical expertise of the firefighters.

Dr Brown Gaisie said firefighting was a highly technical area, therefore personnel needs to build their skills and technical capacities to enhance their efficiency, hence the training school.

Highlighting the achievement of the Service, Dr Gaisie said to promote gender balance; three women have been appointed as Regional Heads, adding that, that 80 per cent of Junior Fire Officers had been promoted duly for their hard work to the Service.

In a sermon, Evangelist Dr Abboah-Offei of Grace Presbyterian Church, Akropong, urged Christians to pray for Gods favour in all their endeavours.

The Carols Service saw the Fire Vibration Choir and Fire Regimental Band entertain guests with melodious Christmas chorals, which
Top 7 Vendors in the Global Data Center Power Market from 2016-2020: Technavio

Technavio has announced the top seven leading vendors in their recent global data center power market report until 2020. This research report also lists five other prominent vendors that are expected to impact the market during the forecast period.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005009/en/

Technavio publishes a new market research report on the global data center power market from 2016-2020. (Graphic: Business Wire)

One of the important drivers for the global data center power market is the increased construction of green data centers. The increase in carbon emissions and increasing electricity consumption of high capacity data centers is pushing the demand for green data centers that are energy efficient and capable of saving resources, thus reducing the overall carbon footprint.

"Apart from the demand for green data centers, increase in data center investments, increase in data center power outages, and growth in data center power density are the key drivers of this market. Together, these factors are forecast to push the market to grow to almost USD 29 billion, at a CAGR of almost 15%," says Abhishek Sharma, one of the lead market research analysts at Technavio for data center research.

Competitive vendor landscape

Vendors in this market space are focusing on power distribution units (PDUs) that are intelligent. These intelligent PDUs are essential in transferring power to the demanding infrastructure such as server, storage and network infrastructure of a data center. This type of PDUs will be the most widely adopted, providing an edge to vendors who have also integrated all data center power infrastructure solutions with DCIM software for efficient monitoring and management. Vendors are also focusing on offering software that aids in real-time monitoring of data center power consumption by any given infrastructure segment.

Request a sample report: http://www.technavio.com/request-a-sample?report=55195

Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report including the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more.

Top seven vendors in the global data center power market:

ABB

ABB provides automation and power technologies to diverse industries, including utilities, transport, infastructure, and other industries. The company sells its products in more than 100 countries. In FY2015, the company generated revenue of around USD 35 billion, where its power product revenue recorded higher growth compared to other segments. In FY2015, all the business segment revenue declined compared to FY2014 because of low lower base orders and large orders.







Delta Electronics

Delta Electronics is a global power management solutions provider. It offers energy efficient power products, including UPS and PDUs. The company has R&D facilities in various countries, including Taiwan, China, Europe, India, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and the US. In power electronics segment, it offers a comprehensive selection of high-efficiency power supplies, thermal management, and electronic components and systems for use in portable devices, cloud computing infrastructure, home appliances, and medical device applications.

Eaton (News - Alert)

Eaton provides power management services. It serves various end-markets, including agriculture and forestry, aviation, community infrastructure, construction, data centers, energy, government and military, healthcare, machine building, mining, metals and minerals, oil and gas, and residential.

It provides electrical, industrial, residential, single phase power quality, emergency lighting, fire detection, wiring, circuit protection, and lighting products and structural support systems. These products are used in commercial buildings, data centers, residences, apartment and office buildings, hospitals, factories, and utilities.

Emerson (News - Alert) Network Power

Emerson Network Power is one of the leading providers of critical infrastructure technologies and life cycle services for ICT systems. It has a presence in more than 150 countries worldwide with support from local service providers and around 3,500 infrastructure service professionals.

It provides hardware and software solutions for thermal, power, and infrastructure management, enabling efficient and highly available infrastructure. In 2015, the company reported a net sale of USD 22.3 billion. Compared to 2014, the net sales of the company were down by 2% due to reduced industrial capital spending in sectors such as oil and gas and energy-related markets, along with impact from currency translations.

GE Industries Solutions

GE Industrial Solutions provides products and services, centering the electrical infrastructure from the substation to the facility's critical infrastructure and all the power technologies between it. It works as a subsidiary of General Electric.

The company operates as the sub-segment under GE's energy management segment which focuses on providing advanced technology solutions for the management and optimization of electrical power. It provides products such as circuit breakers, relays, switchgear, arresters, repair, and panel boards for various markets which include data center, telecom, and mining. The company generated revenue of USD 7.6 billion in the FY2015, which is around 4% higher compared to FY2014.

Legrand

The company is a global leader in electrical and digital building infrastructures that include areas such as user interface, energy distribution, building systems, cable management, digital infrastructure, UPS, and installation components.

On September 28, 2015, Legrand acquired Raritan (News - Alert), one of the leading providers of intelligent PDUs for data centers worldwide. The company is also involved in offering KVM, infrastructure management, and serial solutions for data centers. Together Legrand and Raritan is involved in offering transformers, circuit breakers, measurement and monitoring solutions, UPS, capacitor banks, PDUs, DCIM software, KVM-over-IP, and serial-over-IP products.

Schneider Electric (News - Alert)

Schneider Electric is involved in offering products and services with expertise in automation management, electricity distribution, and components for energy management. It reported a revenue of USD 30.23 billion in 2015. Compared to 2014, the revenue of the company increased by around 7% in 2015, because of the steady growth in IT business and building and partner segments.

It offers critical infrastructure products and solutions for data centers worldwide, including power infrastructure solutions through its IT business segment. The product portfolio of the segment includes UPS, surge protection devices, PDUs, software management services, and more.

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About Technavio

Technavio is leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies.

Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users.

If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at [email protected].

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005009/en/
The office of former President John Rawlings has described as false and malicious a claim by the Volta Region Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Peter Amewu, suggesting a rapport between the two of them.

Peter Amewu had told Joy News that Mr Rawlings called to congratulate him on the victory of the NPP in the December 7 polls.

However, the office of former President Jerry John Rawlings in a statement also noted that they were disgusted and disappointed at the NPPs chairmans claims.

To make such untruthful and absurd claims of a follow-up telephone call which can easily be verified is foolhardy, imprudent, unbecoming of a political actor who is supposed to lead with integrity and absolutely disrespectful to former President Rawlings, the statement said.

Peter Amewu

Below is the statement

NPP CHAIRMANS STATEMENTS ON FORMER PRESIDENT RAWLINGS FALSE

The office of former President Jerry John Rawlings has noted with utter disgust and disappointment the false and malicious claims made by the Volta Regional Chairman of the N.P.P. Mr John Peter Amewu.

In an interview broadcast on Joy News TV on the 15th of December, 2016, and later carried by other affiliate news portals, the N.P.P. chairman sought to create the impression of a rapport between himself and the former President without recourse to any form of decency.

Amongst other things, Mr Amewu stated I want to say a big thank you to him (President Rawlings). Even on the night of elections when the results were coming in, he did call.

For the records, the former President has met and talked to Mr Amewu only once in his lifetime. This encounter which was in the full glare of the media took place when he led the Volta Regional executives to pay a courtesy call on the former President after he was enstooled as the Nutsifafa Fiaga of the Anlo Traditional Area.

The purpose of the visit was to lodge a complaint about the alleged attempts by non-Ghanaians across the Ghana-Togo border to vote in the just ended Ghanaian presidential and parliamentary elections. In a very brief response, the former president informed the group that their concerns would be forwarded to the appropriate quarters.

To make such untruthful and absurd claims of a follow-up telephone call which can easily be verified is foolhardy, imprudent, unbecoming of a political actor who is supposed to lead with integrity and absolutely disrespectful to former President Rawlings.

The office, therefore, demands an apology and retraction of the said falsehood in the same manner and prominence such false claims were carried.

Signed

Kobina Andoh Amoakwa

(Communications Directorate)

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | GN
Twisted thinking that seeks to use religion to legitimize hatred and discrimination against gays was recently displayed in Chad as the countrys politicians voted to criminalize homosexuality. It is not clear what the lawmakers in this central African nation wanted to achieve with this legislative move. At this stage, unless the countrys president intervenes, Chad is set to become the 73rdcountry to outlaw homosexuality.

As expected this legislative process has been trailed by the mistaken claim that the homosexual practice was western and unAfrican. As if to be authentic, African laws and policies must be categorically anti-west even when such laws end up harming Africans.

As in other African countries, religion is pervasive in Chad. About half the population are Muslims. The rest of the population professes Christianity and Traditional Religion. Although these religions have evidently different doctrines, these differences apparently disappear when it comes to the issue of homosexuality.

Religion plays a huge role in policy-making and legislative processes as shown in the reactions to the anti-gay legislation which the parliament had just passed.

In fact. a former minister described the new law, which sanctioned a fine or a suspended prison sentence for homosexuals, as a fair compromise. Fair compromise? He explained the basis of fairness in this legislation:

Homosexuality is condemned by all religions. We do not have to forgive something that God himself rejects because Westerners have said this or that The current provision of the Penal Code is a fair balance between conservative public opinion and an uncompromising international community on the protection of minorities.

Now if one may ask: In which way is this law fair? And to whom is it fair? To gays and lesbians in Chad? It is certainly not fair to homosexuals in Chad because they would henceforth be treated as criminals and not accorded the dignity which they are entitled to as human beings. So where lies the fairness?

As the minister noted, it may be the case that the teachings of Christianity and Islam disapprove of homosexual acts. But many Christian denominations are revising their doctrines and their positions on LGBT rights. Some Christian denominations have ordained gay priests and bishops. Many religious organizations are beginning to realize that treating people as criminals because of whom they love is incompatible with the religious teachings of love and neighborliness. Condemning homosexuality is gradually becoming a thing of the past and Chadians should begin to adopt and embrace the new religious realities that respect the rights of homosexuals.

So what actually does this politician mean by saying that they could not forgive or condone what God himself rejected? Ah, okay, God is a male? And he rejected homosexuality and approved heterosexuality, right? So how did the former minister know which sexual orientation God ordained or rejected? Did God disclose his or her sexual preferences to this politician?

Where did God say so? In the Bible or in the Quran? Is it not human beings who codified these norms in the name of God? Why create the impression that upholding the rights of homosexuals is doing the bidding of the West? What makes treating gays with dignity an expression of western ideology? Does that make treating gays and lesbians with indignity and disrespect African? Are Christian and Islamic religions, which most Africans profess today, not foreign faiths, introduced by missionaries and preachers from the east and west? Is it not strange that Africans have embraced Christianity that was brought by western missionaries and on the basis of this religion, they denounce homosexuality as a western lifestyle?

This latest move by lawmakers to criminalize homosexuality is a step backward and lacks any justification in terms of culture, religion and human rights. Chad cannot lay claim to protecting minorities on account of this homophobic legislation.

Chadian president should ensure that this law does not come into force and that the country does not become the '73rd country' to criminalize homosexuality. Chad stands to gain nothing but global condemnation and opprobrium from occupying this position of hate, discrimination and oppression. So in furtherance of a free, democratic and progressive Chad, I urge the countrys president, Idriss Deby, to veto this legislation.
John Kufuor, a leading NPP member and then President with Vladimir Putin at the 33rd G8 summit held 6-8 June, 2007 at Kempinski Grand Hotel in Moscow.

21.12.2016 LISTEN

Russias Ministry of Foreign Affairs has praised Ghanaian authorities for efforts at conducting successful presidential and parliamentary elections, and the electorate for showing peace and maturity at the polls held on 7 December 2016.

In an official statement posted to the website, the ministry noted that observers from the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States have recognized the election results as credible, as no serious violations that could have affected the expression of the peoples will were reported.

And it concluded that Moscow considers the national election in Ghana an important step by Ghanas society on the path toward stable social and political development.

The Electoral Commission has since declared Nana Akufo-Addo as elected president whose New Patriotic Party (NPP) earned about 54 per cent of votes while the National Democratic Congress (NDC) got 44 percent. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is a liberal democratic party and is one of the dominant parties in the national politics of the Republic of Ghana.

In the 7 December 2008 presidential elections, Nana Akufo-Addo received more votes than John Atta-Mills amassing 4,159,439 votes representing 49.13% of the total votes cast, placing him first, but not enough for the 50% needed for an outright victory.

It was the best-ever performance for a first-time presidential candidate since the beginning of Ghana's 4th republic in 1992. In the run-off elections however, Mills ultimately received 4,521,032 votes, representing 50.23%, thus beating Nana Akufo-Addo.

Russian authorities have known the NPP for about a decade and have interacted with the leading party officials previously. John Kufuor, a leading NPP member and then President of the Republic of Ghana met with President Vladimir Putin at the 33rd Group of Eight (G8) summit held 6-8 June, 2007 at Kempinski Grand Hotel in Moscow.

That was followed by an official working visit by the then Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, on 12 July 2007 on the invitation by Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov.

During the diplomatic discussion both ministers reached an understanding to raise trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. They further agreed on developing direct business contacts between Russia and Ghana.

Towards realizing this goal, Nana Akufo-Addo and Lavrov agreed to facilitate holding direct contacts between the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of both countries. Nana Akufo-Addo said that the Ghanaian side was preparing proposals concerning new projects which may become the object of joint development by companies in Ghana.

Russia is ready, using the existing potentials, to boost ties in various economic spheres with Ghana. And also some senior officials from the United Russia party, Federation Council (Senate) and State Duma (Lower Chamber of Parliamentarians) told me in separate interviews that they were ready to establish political and inter-parliamentary relations with the new government and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

This is a chance to explore opportunities and ways to strengthen the party and consolidate the economic gains. In his campaign speech, Nana Akufo-Addo reiterated a plan to build industrial infrastructure under the plan "one district one factory" throughout the country. It has attracted a keen interest in the Eurasian region.

It can be assumed that Nana Akufo-Addo, with broad experience as former Foreign Affairs Minister and a staunch top politician of the NPP, will build a pragmatic relationship with Russian government, public institutions and the business organizations that could help transform the economy of Ghana.

Russia and Ghana have accumulated a valuable experience of mutual respect and trust for nearly 60 years of cooperation in their diplomatic relations. The relations have been described as very friendly and close.

The relations here refers to the bilateral relationship between the two countries, Ghana and Russia. Russia has an Embassy in Accra and Ghana has an Embassy in Moscow. Russia and Ghana will celebrate 60 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2017. Report By Kester Kenn Klomegah
The leadership and membership of the United States branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP-USA) take this opportunity to express our heartiest congratulations to you, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on being elected to the high office of President of the Republic of Ghana. The just-ended campaign was arduous, and anyone familiar with your illustrious career and indomitable spirit would agree with us that yours is a well-deserved and long-overdue victory. We of NPP-USA were confident that you would win the elections, and it happened.

We are also confident that you will be able to put this country, which has long been haywire, back on track. We are excited by the prospect that your tenure will usher in a veritable Renaissance and Golden Age in the affairs of this dear country of ours. We know you will assemble a competent team, led by your indefatigable second-in-command, Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia  a team dedicated to translating your expressed vision and promises into reality for the ultimate benefit of the Ghanaian people.

Your overwhelming victory shows how much the people trust you to help fulfill their individual and collective hopes and aspirations. This era of accountability, sensitivity to the plight of Ghanaians, and a government that will serve the interest of all Ghanaians, is one that the NPP-USA is proud to be part of. This election has changed the dynamics in Ghanas electoral process, and will become a benchmark for elections on the African continent. NPP-USA is proud of the role it played in this landmark election. Indeed, the enthusiastic participation of the partys external branches in the election is a testimony to the fact that the huge intellectual resources of the Ghanaians in the Diaspora can be harnessed to move Ghana to the promise land.

The era of incompetence, impunity and arrogance of power is gone. This is an opportunity to showcase competence, astute political stewardship, and prudent fiscal and financial management to demonstrate to the world that NPP is the party that is destined to develop Ghana and entrench its democracy. In this era of transformation, you can count on NPP-USA as an unflinching ally.

Public Relations Committee  NPP-USA.
Our very best wishes to the Akuffo-Addo and Bawumia families, the in-coming first families of Ghana! As Ghana moves forward with a new government coming January 7, 2017, one cannot help but wonder what to expect. In his first few public appearances, Nana Akufo-Addo, the President-elect, noted that once sworn in as President, he will need time to set things in motion, and asked for help from all Ghanaians. This is laudable because as President of Ghana, he will be duty-bound to all Ghanaians from North to South, and from East to West; and he will be obliged to fulfil his promises to all Ghanaians foremost.

While many might view Nanas election promises as mere election gimmicks, one needs to take a critical look at them individually in order to understand where he might be coming from. Since Nana cannot fulfil all these promises alone, it is obvious he will delegate the work to his ministers or special task forces. From the look of things, future Presidents of Ghana will not enjoy the same privilege of simply being non-performing and get away with it, because the people who are tired of being taken for granted will not be as forgiving as they seek accountability and transparency. With Nanas government being non-exempt from this type of scrutiny, those seeking to hold leadership positions within Nanas government should brace themselves that things will not be easy. For this reason alone, those delegated to fulfil his campaign promises should expect to be applauded after they have completed their tasks. For non-performance, Ghanaians will expect them to face the music and explain what happened. No one should be allowed to piggyback on Nana Akufo-Addo/Dr.Bawumia ticket without putting in the needed work.

Nanas one village, one dam promise undoubtedly stems from his awareness that quality water supply is essential and a must for all Ghanaians. This promise should be seen from the viewpoint of recognition of barriers that towns, villages and cities in Ghana face in their efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in water supply. The key words are town or village and its environs. The Ministry that will be assigned this special project should work from the perspective of possibilities of tapping into water sources by way of water harvesting or building of water dams in villages and towns and their surrounding areas, where there is abundance of water flowing downstream into rivers, without cutting off other benefactors of the same water source. This will not be a job to envy unless one is well versed and an expert in this field. When it comes to free education for instance, even though Nana did not stress so much on this premise this time, has always been clear and simple. Ghanas education strategy should aim to enable every child to learn to participate fully in society through education. Care must be taken not to get into political vindictiveness, ie., if NPP changes anything within the education system, there being a likelihood opposing political parties will feel slighted and therefore will wait for the opportunity to change that same system again. What is it with our people? Ghanaian children should never be made a pawn in such childish political games. Ghanaians do not need that, and NPP should show the way and focus mostly on what they need to do to make the education system great and effective without any overhaul. Whether children take 12 years or 13 years to complete their education is beside the point, it should be rather a matter of restructuring the education system and equiping children with the right skill set needed to achieve self-determination and be able to compete socially, economically, intellectually and globally as well.

Nanas biggest election platform; his call for an agenda for change and jobs; and creating prosperity and opportunity for all Ghanaians was compressed into a much touted, one district, one factory. In an attempt to come up with the appropriate maxim that will explain what the NPP is going to do for Ghana, the party fell short of explaining all its capabilities. With a good budget and careful planning, one district, one factory is such a small promise when you think in terms of a whole big county such as Ghana. Ghana can do better to assist individuals with existing companies that have potential to expand. Whichever outfit will be responsible for "one district, on factory" should help create not only large scale factories, but also provide successful entrepreneurs throughout Ghana with loans and grants, and publish the names of recipients within the first 2 years and not at the end of the 4 years so that all Ghanaians will see what has been done. The emphases should be on production. It was mentioned in certain quarters that the one constituency, one million promise was going to be by far the easiest, however it is not yet clear in what form this will take. Will the one million cedis funding be provided as an award to one recipient or severally within the constituency? Will the funding be awarded to the Member of Parliament or to NGOs or to private businesses? What are the rules that will be in place to execute such a plan. Transparency will be of utmost importance.

A good leader is one that delegates. The new Ghana President should preside over all and should expect his Ministers to produce results not excuses or they should be relieved of their assigned positions. What this new government should avoid is the unnecessary arrogance that is sometimes exhibited by some politicians. They should abhor corrupt practices, avoid being their own law enforcers and leave law enforcement to the police. Most importantly, people should avoid speaking on behalf of the government, unless they have been delegated to speak, otherwise it will create an impression of weak leadership especially when the person doing the talking uses insulting language. While Ghanaians cannot completely control who become part of this new government, it is obvious they gave the mandate to only Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia.

As the nation moves forward with a new government, this is an opportunity to wish all of Ghana success in the years ahead. Merry Christmas to all!

Bellinia Asiedu-Young

Richmond Hill, Ontario Canada
21.12.2016 LISTEN

No doubt, several end-times fake prophets in Ghana today insisting their prophecies come directly from God are subjecting the country to international ridicule. The self-anointed prophets parading as true messengers of God are nothing more than religious con artists, who have self-taught themselves about the rudiments of behavioral psychology. For some reasons, these spiritual hustlers have adeptly learned how to play on many Ghanaians economic, political, and spiritual insecurities. As a result, some of these so called prophets have become experts in the exploitation of the vulnerabilities of the people who solemnly believe in them.

Hardly a day passes by that Ghanaians will not wake up to hear or see self-appointed prophets entering into what seems to be prophetic trance, supposedly directed by God. Contemporary Ghana is a flatland of mushrooming of churches and other spiritual havens. Any place of worship or church is not a bad thing in itself. More so, the expression of and the concept of religion or spirituality serve as a vehicle by which humans use to fully embrace the essence of their existence. In fact, humans insatiable quest to understand the purpose and meaning of life, as well as the efforts to understand themselves, others, and the world as a whole, including what constitutes absolute truth, are all done via spirituality.

However, the distressing but comical development is when some people slyly arrogate to themselves positions or higher spiritual callings that do not have genuine moral groundings. As explained in one of the previous articles, Ghana is now over-spiritualized to the extent that any apostate can wake up in the morning, pretends to be speaking in tongues and also claims to be in the state of prophesy. This is not to say that there are not many well-intentioned Ghanaian preachers, pastors, and other spiritual leaders who have selflessly devoted themselves to lead their followers in the service of the Most Highthe Creator.

What is sickeningly laughable in Ghana today is the phenomena of Johnny-come-lately spiritual aristocrats living comfortably off, of the fears and socioeconomic uncertainties of the gullible Ghanaians.

These prosperity and fear mongering preacher-prophets operate on the fringes of simple human psychology and a little bit of the law of probability. In our society in which socioeconomic upward mobility is almost non-existent; and the majority of the citizens have limited job opportunities and bleak future; naturally, some human parasites can easily pose as messengers of God and take advantage of the peoples hopelessness and anxieties.

Clearly, the present-day prophets and the angels-in-human-forms are having a field day in Ghana. Its not surprising that in this beautiful and natural resource-filled but superstitious country like ours, instead of finding practical solutions to the mounting problems, we timidly opt for metaphysical approaches. But some of us have come a long way to sheepishly fall victim to the wiles of those spiritual pretenders, posing as if they have direct phone line to God. To stay relevant, these spiritual imposters in Ghana always strive to reinforce the predominant belief in superstition among many people so they can keep making money at their unsuspecting victims expense. This explains why almost every unfamiliar phenomenon that befalls anyone today is given superstitious label.

On December 6, 2016, at about 11:45 p.m. Atlanta Time, I was watching an ABC-TV late-night comedy Show hosted live by Jimmy Kimmel. The host presented a mocking video on the TV screen showing Pastor Obinim putting his hands on the genital areas of the men gathered at his church and without shame, he placed his angelic hands in that part of the body with the implication that whatever ailment affecting that individual would disappear. This behavior is not only creepy and sexually provocative but also it makes Ghana looks like primordial nation full of non-serious daydreamers.

In short, the charlatans in Ghana who are boasting of having supernatural healing powers and access to heavenly revelations about other Ghanaians lives are only engaging in lies and blasphemy. It is hilariously funny to hear from some self-imposed pastors in Ghana currently going from place to place beating their chests that they prophesized long time ago about Nana Akufo Addo and his partys victory in the December 7 elections. The prophesy even if it occurred, has nothing to do with Nana Addos killer victory. Rather, the victory has a lot to do with the president-elects determination, persistency, grassroots organization, appealing campaign messaging, and the fact that majority of Ghanaians were stomach sick and tired of the Mahama-led NDCs misrule.

Critically looking at all the economic indicators and other national development metrics leading to the general elections, Nana Akufo Addos victory and President Mahamas defeat respectively, were inevitable. So, many of us do not believe it should take any divine soothsayer in Ghana to predict or prophesize about the recently held elections going in Nana Addos favor. By the same token, the claim by a sham pastor/prophet named Kwabena Owusu-Adjei of the Hezekiah Apostolic Ministry, that Nana Akufo Addos 2016 electoral success was realized because of some ritual sacrifice of the former MP for Akyem-Abuakwa North, the late Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, was absurd and replete with lies, to say the least. Its about time Ghanaians move pass these decadent thoughts and pursue common sense solutions to the challenges facing them; that is the only way the people can keep these fake prophets and angels out of their lucrative, spiritual-industrial complex enterprise all over the place.

The writer is based in the United States; he can be reached at: [email protected]
The term soli has become so synonymous with the media landscape in Ghana that, it is impossible to talk about the work of journalists without mentioning it.

Soli, as has been explained by some seniors in the media sector, is the shortened form of the word, solidarity, implying that it is a token (amount of money) given to journalists and editors as a means of maintaining goodwill and a good rapport with them, but more importantly, to get them to publish a story for an organization.

In the music industry, it is equated to payola, money given to Disc Jockeys (DJs) to get more airplay for a song. Many journalists believe the two are different due to the mode of collection and the fact that, whereas giving soli is the prerogative of the organization seeking publicity, musicians and music producers would tell you they are forced to pay payola as a condition for having their songs aired.

Soli has been viewed from many perspectives by people within and outside the media circles and the debate ranges on on its ethical appropriateness, considering its likeely influence on the objectivity and neutrality of media practitioners.

The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) ethics frown on the giving out of soli to media practitioners who attend functions, press conferences and other media engagements. The GJAs stance is obviously to insulate its members from possible influences that could affect their work and partly to save its image in the face of some journalists insistence on being given soli at programmes. It is common practice to see some journalists chasing event organizers for soli after programmes and in some instances it brings about a lot of embarrassment to the Association.

Is it ethical to collect at functions?

Some media houses have made it a policy for their reporters not to insist on taking soli when they are sent on assignment to programmes but they are not barred from taking it if it is presented to them. However, majority of the media houses in Ghana do not have any policy on it; or rather they have nothing against the collection of soli as long as they dont ask for but are presented with it.

The only time Soli can be considered unethical is when it assumes the form of bribery and becomes a means of influencing the way a story should go as against ethical principles. For instance, when you are given an amount of money as soli and being asked to do a story in any way than is right, it becomes bribery since journalists are expected to do their work ethically, fairly, objectively and without any outside influence.

Considering how soli has been given to journalists over the years, one is tempted to say that there is nothing wrong with it. The event organizers consider it as transportation for journalists when they are budgeting for it and it is done openly and across board to all media practitioners present at the event.

On another note, there are cases of organizations and event planners trying to influence journalists with soli by raising it above what is conventional. When the soli becomes very huge, journalists are in some ways compelled to reciprocate by giving the giver good publicity.

This brings to the fore the issue of whether journalists are obliged to published stories just because they have received soli. An interesting story of two friends working with private newspapers comes to mind.

They attended a programme and at the end the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the institution offered everybody soli and they all signed for it and left their contacts as is the custom. A few days later, they had separate calls from the organizers on why the story had not been published, to which they responded that, it was an editorial discretion to determine when a story should be published so they had no idea. The calls from the PRO persisted till these two friends decided to call the PRO to meet them. They met him and handed back to him the amount of Twenty Ghana Cedis (GHC20.00) they received at the programme; the man felt very embarrassed. Interestingly, a few days later my friends called the man and told him to get a copy of their newspapers because the story had been published, he was dumbfounded!

This scenario clearly answers the question of whether accepting soli at functions is ethical or not and whether it is a compelling factor for stories to be published. In my candid opinion, there is nothing wrong with taking soli at functions but it should be made very clear that, just as event organizers are not obliged to give soli to journalist at their functions, so are journalists not compelled to publish a story because they received soli at the function. If this ruled is observed in principle, the debate on soli being unethical can be put to rest.

That is why the GJA has, in the estimation of many media men, failed in their handling of the issue of soli. Instead of issuing a blanket rule on it, the Association could have defined it well and put in place the right mechanisms and guidelines on how it is applied. It is common practice to see Members of Parliament and other public officials signing for transportation for programmes they attend; so, why shouldnt the journalist? By the way, is the soli some of these organizations give, huge enough to influence how a journalist works? I doubt. Some of these PROs give out GHC20.00, GHC50.00 or GHC100.00 and think it is huge enough to solicit for good publicity. Soli is a matter of goodwill but not an automatic price for publicity.

When I see event organizers tossing journalists about after programmes just because of soli, I feel so bad and lay the blame on media owners. Some PROs dont know the favor journalists do them by publishing their stories. If they think stories are published because of soli then they are mistaken. They dont know how far their projects are enhanced by the magnanimity of media men. This is especially so for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) who need the media badly to justify the funding they receive for their programmes and projects. Some of these organizations become useless without the media doing them favor of publishing their stories and activities for them. After all, many of their stories do not deserve space or time in the media in the face of competition. Honestly, but for the goodwill emanating from the soli they give, they have no chance of having their story featured in some newspapers and media outlets.

Why has soli gained so much attention in the media?

Soli has gained so much attention in the media circles because, unknown to many, it is the end product of a serious problem in the sector, a problem most media practitioners refuse to talk about publicly.

It is very unfortunate to note that, whereas the media landscape looks glamorous from the outside, those inside work under very pathetic conditions that leave too much to desire. From the outside, the smiles on set, the nice voices on radio, the nice stories in the newspapers and the privilege of meeting prominent personality give a deception perception of journalists being some of the best professionals in the world. This is so because they are perceived to be working under the best service conditions, the reason they are always working with so much enthusiasm.

Strangely, the media sector has some of the most malnourished professionals in the country if one considers the working conditions under which they operate. The wide doors of the sector have allowed a lot of media houses to be set up without taking cognizance of the working conditions of the men who do the leg work to keep them moving on.

The constitutional provision that frowns on attempts to regularize the media, has also brought in its trail a landscape that fails to protect the welfare of the workers of the sector. The journalism training institutions in the country such as the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), the African University College of Communication (AUCC), Jayee and the rest continue to churn out journalists on a regular basis to fill the anticipated vacancies in the various media houses but the truth is that, the media sector is choked.

According to information available from the National Media Commission (NMC), the full list of authorised FM Radio broadcasting stations in Ghana as at the end of September 2016 totaled 452. Out of this number 354 stations are currently operational. The staggering number creates the impression of a growing media with more employment opportunities for trained journalists and others. That false impression is further buoyed by an uncountable number of newspapers, many of which come up and go down one time or the other.

That impression is false because most of these media houses are inundated with journalists who are not on any working condition or salary. A great number of journalists in the country are not on working conditions with their employers. Some call themselves stringers whilst others prefer the tag of freelancers. Whatever the name assigned to them, the sad fact is that they do not go home at the end of the month with a pay. The situation cuts across all the media houses from the state broadcaster, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), through the Ghanaian Times to the numerous private newspapers, television and radio stations in the country.

With the radio stations, media owners choose to treat radio presenters (many are not journalists by profession) like Arabian Kings because they make the stations and their programmes popular; as for the journalists who go for the news, they are given crumbs from the masters table. The likes of Kwame Sefa Kayi of Peace FM, Fiifi Banson of Kasapa FM and Kwame Anokye Adisi (Bola Ray) of Starr FM may be enjoying the largesse of the work, leaving a notion that those in the sector are all doing well. The newspapers just choose one or two editors and perhaps a number of journalists, leaving the rest of the media men without any salary. This is very pathetic but remains the fact on the grounds.

The situation relegates the journalists (leg workers) to no option than to unconditionally rely on soli as the oxygen to sustain them in a profession that looks glamorous from the outside but humiliating from within to them. The importance of soli to these journalists is beyond human understanding in that, without it they are condemned to death by suffocation or starvation. That accounts for the aggression with which they go after event organizers for their soli at the end of programmes such as press conferences and media interactions and virtually curse those PROs or Organizers who leave them on the excuse that they were not invited to the programme. These event organizers sideline such journalists but benefit from the stories they write for them by the way.

Leaving media men or journalists to survive on soli is dehumanizing and an insult to their professional integrity but unfortunately that is the only option left for the media house owners and the journalists themselves in a system that cares less about the gatekeeper. Many talk about media men not being ethical and taking bribes to kill stories but few consider the compelling conditions that leave the media men with a weak resistance to temptations from politicians, the corporate world and other individuals who entice them with huge sums of money. When an unsalaried journalist is tempted to kill a million dollar story for a huge sum of money, only God knows what runs through his/her mind. Honestly, in such an instance, ethics sound a bit stupid in the face of family obligations and financial burdens.

Banning soli across board is synonymous to putting off the oxygen machine to the numerous unsalaried journalists working in a frail media that is dying with no one noticing.

Indeed, the media landscape is very frail and requires serious attention to save it from being a stooge in the hands of the highest bidder. Steps had been taken to address the issue but it seems the media needs serious capital intervention from the state if it is still recognized as the Fourth Estate in the realm of government. If this is not done, then anyone who calls for the abolition of soli or calls it unethical can only be seen as a hypocrite who knows the truth but pretends not to know.

Soli is the oxygen of Ghanas frail media so lets all leave it as it is or find a better life-support system for our numerous unsalaried journalists.
Police say a woman stole baby Jesus from a Nativity scene in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and dropped the figurine off at a hospital with a note explaining that the baby had been "neglected" by his parents, "Joseph and Mary Christ."

Police say 49-year-old Jacqueline Ross told them it was a joke, but they aren't laughing. She was identified from surveillance video and is jailed on charges of theft and institutional vandalism.

Police say she went to the hospital early on Dec. 4 just minutes after stealing the $2,700 figurine from Payrow Plaza.

Police say she left a note with the porcelain baby that read, in part, "Child has broken right foot which is been (sic) neglected. Parents Joseph and Mary Christ got a warning."

Ross doesn't yet have an attorney.
The decision by the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport Company Limited (BOST) to compete with the private sector in the downstream petroleum products distribution sector has resulted in huge losses for the state-owned company.

It has emerged that between January and September 2016, BOST made GH32million (GH32,017,779) loss from its trading business.

The revelation was contained in the management accounts of BOST covering January to September 30, 2016, sighted by The Finder.

Under current Managing Director (MD), Mr Kingsley Kwame Awuah-Darko, BOST, a strategic reserve holder, last year joined the downstream petroleum industry by competing with the private sector companies in the distribution of finished petroleum products.

Expectation that joining the downstream business will make BOST profitable turned sour as trading losses have negatively affected the overall profitability of the company.

He said BOST gained a half-year profit of US$21million for 2015 and, therefore, the current loss position of the company raises serious questions.

When The Finder contacted Mr Awuah-Darko on factors responsible for the loss, he advised this Reporter to ensure that the document he was relying on for this story was authentic, adding that he did not know the source of this information.

He, however, agreed to grant an interview Wednesday morning saying he was currently engaged with transition work.

Some analyst says BOST should immediately scrap the fuel trading business and focus on its core mandate of providing the backbone infrastructure for the downstream petroleum sector while serving as the strategic stockholder.

According to them, this is necessary to ensure that BOST does not also join state-owned institutions that have accrued legacy debts which Ghanaians will be taxed to pay.

If the losses incurred by BOST were incurred by private sector companies, Ghanaians will not be taxed to pay for the loss.

They argue that with an efficient and well-managed backbone infrastructure, the private sector would deliver finished petroleum products to all corners of the nation and neighboring countries.

BOSTs entry into the downstream petroleum products distribution sector has led to the collapse of several Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs).

The goal of the supply chain is to provide maximum customer service and satisfaction at the lowest cost possible.

Currently, BOST has a network of storage and pipeline infrastructure strategically located across the country.

These are Accra Plains, Mami-Water, Akosombo, Kumasi, Buipe and Bolgatanga Depots.

Ghanas petroleum industry, though relatively young, has been touted as having the potential to moving the country from a developing country to a developed one.

The growth of the industry is highly dependent on ensuring that petroleum products produced in the downstream sector of the industry are distributed consistently and timely to consumers through an effective and efficient supply chain system.

Though this is the ideal situation yearned for by stakeholders, the sector is plagued with challenges that negatively impacts on performance.
The incoming New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has indicated it may review the recent appointments of the new heads for the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).

President John Mahama swore in Joseph Whittal as the new CHRAJ Commissioner on Tuesday and the NPP has said this was done in contravention of an earlier agreement at the Transition Committee's meeting of December 19, 2016.

He also swore into office a new Director for the (NCCE), Josephine Nkrumah.

Following this, a statement signed by Yaw Osafo Marfo, the representative of President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo on the transition team served notice that the incoming administration reserves the right to review these and other high profile appointments, recruitments and contracts being embarked upon in these final days contrary to normal conventions associated with Presidential transitions and the consultation mechanism agreed.

The incoming NPP government also condemned the appointments saying they were done in bad faith as they were to be subject to consultation with the Presidential Transition Committee.

These appointments of Chairman of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice and Chairman of the National Commission for Civic Education have been done contrary to an earlier agreement at the Transition Committee's meeting of December 19th, at which meeting it was agreed that such appointments would be done subject to consultation with the Presidential Transition Committee.

It is the view of the President-Elect's team, that these appointments coming barely 24 Hours after the agreement and less than three (3) weeks away from the inauguration of the incoming President is most disappointing and exhibits bad faith, the statement said.

President Mahama has since been sued Lawyer Philip Addison who believes the President erred in these appointments as is seeking to restrain him from using his last 16 days to make the appointment.

Find the full statement below

PRESS STATEMENT

The Team of the President-Elect on the 2016 Presidential Transition Committee has taken notice of Two (2) new Constitutional Appointments that have been made today December 20th 2016 by President John Dramani Mahama.

These appointments of Chairman of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice and Chairman of the National Commission for Civic Education have been done contrary to an earlier agreement at the Transition Committee's meeting of December 19th, at which meeting it was agreed that such appointments would be done subject to consultation with the Presidential Transition Committee.

It is the view of the President-Elect's team, that these appointments coming barely 24 Hours after the agreement and less than three (3) weeks away from the inauguration of the incoming President is most disappointing and exhibits bad faith.

We will, therefore, like to serve notice that the incoming administration reserves the right to review these and other high profile appointments, recruitments and contracts being embarked upon in these final days contrary to normal conventions associated with Presidential transitions and the consultation mechanism agreed.

Nonetheless, we shall continue to engage the Team of the Incumbent President on these and other matters which were earlier listed as matters to be consulted upon.

Signed

Ing. Yaw Osafo Maafo

( Co-Chairperson Presidential Transition Committee)



By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Welcome, Neighbor!

Thank you for sharing my journey with me. It's a bumpy ride, but hopefully you'll find it worthwhile! To reach out to me, send me an e-mail at jamesbradfordpate@yahoo.com.


Accra , 20th December, 2016  Following this years remarkable Black Friday campaign that smashed all-times sales record, Jumia Travel has launched a campaign dubbed Travel Wednesday which runs every Wednesday on the companys official website. The main objective of this campaign is to carry on readily negotiated rates referred to as Dream Deals with the aim of encouraging and facilitating travel through the year.

While initially a maximum of 8 hotel deals will run during the promotion, they will in the coming days be increased to a total of 12 deals running until every Wednesday nn and Friday. This is designed to meet our customers demand to have access to affordable travel options through Jumia Travel. Following the impressive public response on Black Friday, we want to create a new appointment for all travellers, an opportunity to get more deals that we have negotiated with thousands of hotels across Africa, noted Paul Midy, CEO of Jumia Travel.

The deals have been launched in African countries where the company has been on the forefront in providing accommodation and travel packages within the means of most travelers. They include Ghana,Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Senegal, Ethiopia and Algeria.

As in the case of Black Friday, the Dream Deals will also be co-marketed across all Jumia ecosystem in the countries they operate in. More than 25% of our Black Friday bookings came from the Jumia ecosystem. Thus, it is vital to continue working closely with our sister companies to increase the traffic of the customer, as this was the main objective of the rebranding added Midy.

Other channels through which the Dream Deals will be run include Jumia Travels social media pages, newsletters, and SMSs among others.

Claire Staal, MD of Jumia Travel in Ghana said - Ghana is a country with lots of potential in the Travel and Tourism industry. The only thing drawing this important sector of the economy back is the lack of motivation for local people to travel. As an online hotel booking website, part of our job is to encourage travel by providing amazing discounts and ensuring that travel is made less expensive and attractive for everyone. Travel Wednesday will turn many dreams into reality.

About Jumia Travel

Jumia Travel ( travel.jumia.com ) is Africa's No.1 hotel booking website, allowing you to get the best prices for more than 25,000 hotels in Africa and more than 200,000 hotels around the world.

Our ambition is to bring every bit of available accommodation online, and to create the easiest and cheapest way for customers to book it.

At Jumia Travel, we have hundreds of travel specialists constantly in touch with our customers. Our offices are located in Lagos (Nigeria), Accra ( Ghana ), Dakar (Senegal), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Algiers (Algeria), Douala (Cameroon), Kampala (Uganda), Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), Nairobi (Kenya) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia).

Before June 2016, Jumia Travel was known as Jovago.

Jumia Travel was founded in 2013 by Jumia and is backed by MTN, Rocket Internet, Millicom, Orange, Axa and financial partners.
Various printing hubs in Accra are excited about what they describe as a boom in business this festive season.

The printing hubs which hitherto complained bitterly of low productivity during the election season tell Citi Business News business has picked up.

A few months ago in the build up to Ghanas Presidential and Parliamentary elections, the printing hubs complained that the demand for business at the time despite being a demanding season for the industry, was low.

Marketing Manager, at Appointed Time Screen Printing Limited Charles Addo told Citi Business News business has picked up significantly.

This year has been good. I mean it could be more but we also try to be competitive and so we look at all these things, we look at the trend and then give a price that that we may probably gain a little. You know corporate companies can order to as much as 5,000 t-shirts in a single order, he said.

Click below to listen to full audio report



The Christmas season is known to be one of the busiest period for the printing industry.

It is during this time that most companies make huge souvenir orders.

But with the huge demands some printing hubs reveal to Citi Business News they are uncertain on meeting their targets before Christmas day.

The first half year was very tough but we were expecting much higher orders in the remaining half. It doesn't mean that nothing was done at all. This year hasn't been bad. It is an improvement over last year. We are looking at about between 15-22% better than last year. We have still not reached our target this year,

But for this years performance, Ill say the corporate orders alone have been better than last year, one printer said.

Items that are high on the orders of corporate bodies during this period mostly include diaries, calendars, pens, mugs, caps, among others as giveaways to loyal customers and staff as a sign of appreciation.

Citi Business News checks across most printing houses reveal companies can be charged between 10 and 26 cedis per unit cost depending on the preferred print design and item.

For instance a print design on a mug is going for GHc7.00, GHC7.50p for printing on a cap and between GHc16-GHc18.00 fpr calendars .

Meanwhile a diary and a pen will cost 28 and 3 cedis per unit respectively.

But unlike his counterparts, Nurudeen Mohammed who is the General Manager of Dignity DTRT, manufacturers of garments, says business has been a bit slow.

For exports the market has been overwhelming but for Christmas sales from the local market, we are fairly new so a lot of the corporate institutions and individuals are not quite aware of our operations and what our capacities are. So far it has been a quiet Christmas, he concluded.



By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
Jerry Gokah (Snr. Brands Manager) and George Nontera (DCE) commission the facility

Eagle Lager, cassava beer brand of the Accra Brewery Limited (ABL), has constructed a furrow irrigation system and a solar powered mechanised borehole for farmers in Nabio, a community in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region.

The project, which cost GH91,000, is expected to benefit over 5, 000 people in Nabio and its surrounding communities like Gia and Betui.

The farmers, who are mainly into the cultivation of millet, maize, cowpea, groundnut and rearing of animals and poultry, lack a constant source of water for domestic as well as farming activities.

The situation becomes severe during the dry season, affecting their vegetable production.

It is against this backdrop that Eagle Lager Beer, as part of its sustainable development initiatives, provided the facility to alleviate their plight.

The irrigation system initiative is the Eagle brand's contribution to ensuring that farming activities in these areas are sustained.

It further forms part of ABL's objective to help create a productive world where land is used responsibly, food supply is secure, biodiversity is protected and crops can be accessed at reasonable prices.

Speaking at the handing over ceremony at Nabio, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, George Nontera, commended the company for the innovative initiative, which would go a long way to ensure food security and further reduce poverty among residents.

Nabio is a farming community that has a population of over 5,000 people. This project will offer an alternative to rain-fed agriculture, thereby enabling the farmers to cultivate their crops during the dry season, he added.

Jerry Gokah, a Senior Brands Manager of Accra Brewery Limited, said sustainable development is a key ambition of the company and we believe that we can improve food security for small-scale farmers who supply us by helping them increase their incomes and food production.

A Business Desk report


Genet Michael with some Staff of ET and agents cutting the end of year cake

Ethiopian Airlines, the most profitable airline in Africa, has rewarded its top 19 performing travel agents in the country for helping to increase the revenue of the airline through the sale of tickets.

Three reporters from Daily Guide, Ghana News Agency (GNA) and Metro Television were also presented with free airline tickets for their outstanding reportage which put the Airline in a good light.

Some staff of the airline were also rewarded for their hard work and helping to consolidate the position of Ethiopian Airlines in Africa.

At a colorful ceremony in Accra, the airline presented cheques to the deserving travel agents.

The agents were Satguru Travel & Tours, GS Plaza Travels, Poza Travel Platinum Tours, Shivohum Travel, Afro Wings Travel, Melcom Travel and Tour, Stellar Travel, Doscar Travel & Tours, Yoshiken Travel & Tours, Blue Cube Travel, P & A Services, Venture-G Travels, Meridian Travels, Universal Travel & Tours, Tina, Travel & Tours, Travel Bureau, Kumasi Travel and Country Links Travels.

Ms Genet W. Michael, Ethiopian Airlines Country Manager for Ghana, said the awards ceremony was organized to express the airline's appreciation to the travel agents who have helped to boost its performance.

She said the airline was poised to serve its customers better with the introduction of new routes.

Ms Genet attributed the success of Ethiopian Airlines to proper utilization of information and communication technology at organizational level, safety record of the airline and reliability of Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Academy.

The rest, she said, were strong management system, dedication of the human resource, discipline in financial management, and strong brand publicity campaign on new developments.

The travel agents and the media expressed appreciation to Ethiopian Airlines for recognizing their work.

ET Expanding Network

In line with its strategic plan, Ethiopian Airlines is expanding its network rapidly.

The Airline recently commenced flight to Comoros, Moroni.

It will soon begin flights to Norway, Oslo, Victoria Falls, Singapore, Turkey, Jakarta, Indonesia.

[email protected]

By Cephas Larbi


Famine and thirst sigh like a scythe across the field of statistics and the desert is a moving mouthDerek Walcott (The Fortunate Traveler)

During the electioneering campaign, I hardly heard any political party commenting on the issue of the pollution of our river bodies through the activities of 'galamsey' operators, and the use of agro chemicals in farming near rivers and streams. For the past ten years I have had cause to write extensively about the challenges Ghana and the world, for that matter, face as far as the issue of the management of water is concerned. It looks as if I am a lone voice crying in the desert. Meanwhile, in the face of the destruction of our bodies, the desert continues to drift down south from Burkina Faso and the landlocked countries.

If the incoming Minister of Environment wants to make history for himself and the current generation, he should take the bull by the horns, damn the backlash and political gains and go all out to work to save our river bodies. The sages say history is made from bold ventures. Anytime I pass by river Birim in the Eastern Region and Pra in the Central Region and other rivers severely polluted by 'galamsey' operators, I bend down my head in shame. It seems we are collectively committing crime against humanity through our actions and inactions. As a child, I saw the Odaw river in Accra with fishes swimming happily while the river meanders her way to the sea. Today, this hitherto beautiful river is a refuse dump. Generations yet unborn will not treat us lightly if we fail to act NOW.

Before the Minister of Environment takes office I will like to appeal to him to read the following sterling record on the water situation of the world so that he can appreciate the problems ahead. The planet is 71% water and less than 3% of it is fresh. Most of that is either in the form of ice and snow in Greenland and Antarctica or in deep underground water aquifers. Less than 1% of all the earth's water is considered available for human needs: even then, much of it is far from large populations. At the dawn of the 21st century, more than one billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. Worst of all, 3.4 million people die each year from water related diseases. Scientist say the adult human body is about 75% water, with up to 85% human brain cells liquid; even teeth are 10% moisture! Very startling, eh? That is the stark reality for you!. So you see the global governmental neglect behind those numbers is the most critical failure of the 20th century and certainly the major challenge of the 21st century.

In parched Botswana, dominated by the Kalahari Desert, water is so precious that the national currency is called Pula', which means rain in the Setswana language. There the nickname of water is Blue Gold. In many sub-Saharan countries, according to the World Water Council, the average per capita use rates are 10 to 20 liter a day, which it calls undesirably low. Beset by agricultural failure, fragile ecosystems, erratic weather, war and other factors including climate change, records show 18 sub-Saharan countries face the severest problems in feeding their people. Call these a contending doom and you will not be far from right. Generally, it seems we are facing a world water gap. Scientists, water professionals, environmental campaigners and others have warned for decades that a water crisis was building but these alarm bells rang on many deaf governmental ears. Like so much of the earth's bounty, water is unevenly distributed. While people in some parts of the world pile up sandbags to control seasonal floods or struggle to dry out after severe storm, others either shrivel and die like their crops and their livestock before them. And yet others move on as environmental refugees, all because of the unavailability of this thing called water.

Back home in Ghana, we must rethink water management. The truth is that we no longer live in an era, or a world in which rivers can be endlessly dammed, aquifers relentlessly pumped, ecosystems degraded and impoverished. We have to focus on how we use water.

Unlike what is prevailing in some countries where access to adequate and unpolluted water is increasingly being viewed as a basic human right, Ghana seems indifferent to the issue. We as people have closed our eyes to this serious problem because, for now, we can get water to drink. We have not sat down to look around us and compare ourselves to countries like Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and other Saharan countries. These countries did not wake up one day to find that there was not enough water for them and their flocks. They were also having forests and wetlands until nature decided to punish them for one reason or the other.

Water, not oil, is the most precious fluid in our lives, the substance from which all lives on the earth have sprung and continue to depend on. If we run short of oil and other fossil fuels we can use alternative energy. If we have no clean, drinkable water, we are doomed. In fact Water is life. It is therefore quite appropriate for us to rethink how our water bodies are being destroyed and that is why we must heed the wake-up call by scientists to take the issue of water management seriously. The government, NGOs and local communities must address this problem as a top priority. There are many tools for doing so and the economic costs are not high compared to the costs of failing to meet these needs. Hunger and thirst are linked to political instability and low rates of economic growth.

Look at what is happening to folks in the Northern Region where guinea worms have refused to go after many years of fighting the disease? Can you imagine the man-hours lost due to the inability of those attacked by the disease to work all these years? If you are living in a big city and you have access to potable water, do not think your fellow Ghanaians living in the villages have similar advantage. In our villages, people drink from streams which are unacceptable in this 21st century. These poor folks have no alternatives but to drink this unwholesome water together with their animals. Oh, water, water, everywhere but not a single clean drop to drink!!

Eric Bawah
The suspense triggered by President John Mahama's hesitance to concede defeat at a time when it was glaring he had lost the polls inched towards boiling point.

It is standard practice to concede defeat when the arithmetic shows at a certain stage in the collation process that there is no way the incumbent can alter the outcome of the polls. When an incumbent does that, he leaves with deference not so, however, when the scenario we witnessed on December 8 is played out because the President is implored by some of his aides not to do that just yet.

The country held its breath as his lieutenants, the managers of his propaganda department, continued to stoke the fire with their mendacious we are in a comfortable lead. We have the figures.

A national security crisis was in the offing: a fact the ordinary man in the street did not appreciate at the time. Little wonder some NDC supporters allowed themselves to be used for what was akin to a theatrical performance. They were convinced that they had won the election and Ghanaians wondered the source of their confidence.

It took international diplomats and eventually the President's top Generals to ask him to concede, as Ghanaians had spoken emphatically.

He therefore had to ignore the bad counsel of his young men with sharp teeth who kept encouraging him not to concede. They were expecting some magic to reverse the reality on the ground. Having declared that he would win one-touch and had even imported victory cloth to celebrate his triumph over his opponents, he did not expect the verdict of his compatriots.

Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the party, Ade Coker, worsened the matter when he led party supporters on a victory march to the President who would have thought that he was being mocked knowing full well at this stage that he had lost the elections.

In the face of the foregone, however, some persons are seeking to present President John Mahama as a man who conceded defeat without prompting a political angel who would not hurt a fly. That is not the case. He held on for far too long until it was getting too late. To say that one was waiting for the final tally from the Electoral Commission (EC) when it was arithmetically possible to determine one's fate was to act rather irresponsibly.

He had no option than to concede anyway. After all, majority of Ghanaians had decided through the ballot box that the time was up for him to exit the seat of power.

Those who sit on radio and spew remarks which are not commensurate with the reality are not doing justice to our democracy.

We feel insulted when we are compared with countries like the Gambia. Those who do so say that President Mahama could have acted the way Yahya did. Never, we have outgrown that political stupidity. If Yahya Jammeh can reverse his concession, such cannot happen in Ghana where the power of the thumb cannot be compromised.
President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his vice Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia are said to be putting final touches to names of those to be appointed ministers of state in the incoming New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

Some prominent members of the party have been considered for ministerial positions while a number of them would be nominated as ambassadors and high commissioners.

According to sources, Nana Akufo-Addo's government wants to hit the ground running immediately it's sworn into office after on January 7, 2017 to tackle the myriad problems facing the country.

DAILY GUIDE has picked signals that Yaw Osafo-Maafo, who is heading the NPP's transition team, is likely to be selected as a senior minister supervising all the ministers, with Dr. Bawumia as head of the economic management team.

Frema Osei Opare, a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso West Wugon, is likely to become the Chief of Staff overseeing the day-to-day activities of staff at the presidency in a different mode from the existing role carved for the position.

In the exhaustive list stumbled on by DAILY GUIDE, Nana Asante Bediatuo, a private legal practitioner, is tipped to be the Executive Secretary to the President if Nana Addo takes office.

Those penciled down as likely ministers in the incoming administration are Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, MP for Anyaa/Sowutuom (Foreign Affairs); Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, MP for Manhyia South (Health); Ambrose Dery, MP-elect for Nandom (Interior) and Dominic Nitiwul, MP for Bimbila (Defence).

Boakye Agyarko, who was the Policy Advisor for the NPP 2016 campaign, has been penciled for Petroleum and Energy with Kobby Okyere Darko-Mensah, MP for Takoradi, as his likely deputy, while outgoing MP for Kwadaso, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, is expected to head the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. MP-elect for Krowor, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye or Catherine Abelema Afeku, MP-elect for Evalue Ajomoro Gwira could be deputy.

Gloria Akuffo is likely to be named the new Attorney General with Godfred Yeboah Dame  who has been the NPP's lawyer of late  as her deputy, while Ken Ofori-Atta of Databank fame, who was the head of the NPP's Campaign Finance Committee, as the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning.

Others who are likely to be selected include Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, MP for Ablekuma West as Minister of Communications; Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen as Minister of Trade and Industry and Hajia Alima Mahama, MP-elect for Nalerigu, as Local Government and Rural Development Minister.

DAILY GUIDE understands that film producer and staunch supporter of the president-elect, Socrates Sarfo, would be appointed deputy minister for Tourism and Creative Arts.

There is said to be intense lobbying for positions and the president-elect is said to have assured the party's leadership that he would make appointments based on competence to ensure accelerated development of the country.

Nana Akufo-Addo has already met the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NPP and has asked the party to give him some time to finalize the list for the party's consideration.

DAILY GUIDE has also learnt that a number of the appointees in the previous NPP government under President Kufuor who gathered a lot of diplomatic experience but have not yet been mentioned for ministerial and other local appointments, would be made ambassadors or high commissioners.

By William Yaw Owusu
Beijing (AFP) - China on Wednesday welcomed Sao Tome and Principe's decision to sever ties with Taiwan, a move that comes after President-elect Donald Trump questioned long-standing US policy towards the self-ruled island.

Taiwan, stung by the loss of one of its few allies, accused Beijing of taking advantage of the small West African nation's financial woes to impose its "One China" policy and said the move would destabilise already tense cross-strait relations.

Tensions between the mainland and Taiwan have risen since a highly unusual call from President Tsai Ing-wen to congratulate Trump, who has questioned Washington's policy towards the island.

Beijing welcomed Sao Tome's decision, but made no reference to establishing diplomatic relations with the African nation.

"We welcome Sao Tome and Principe back onto the correct path of the One China principle," the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.

"The One China principle meets the common aspiration and the trend of the times," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing, when asked about the split.

The 21 countries with formal diplomatic ties to Taiwan

The principle, she added, "is the precondition and political foundation for China to maintain relations with other countries."

Taiwan's Foreign Minister David Lee strongly criticised Sao Tome's move, saying it was seeking "astronomical" financial assistance, which Taipei refused.

"Ignoring nearly 20 years of friendship between the two countries by wavering between both sides of the strait in hope for a better deal, we express deep regret and condemn such a reckless and unfriendly decision and action by the Sao Tome government," Lee said at a press conference.

"We take a practical approach to diplomacy, and we won't engage in any money games."

The small west African nation's split comes almost two decades after it officially recognised Taiwan in 1997, when it severed relations with China.

Diplomatic tug-of-war

Sao Tome's decision leaves Taiwan with formal diplomatic ties to only 21 states, including just two in Africa, and the Vatican -- its highest profile supporter.

For years, China and Taiwan have been locked in a bitter diplomatic tug-of-war, luring away each other's allies with generous financial packages in so-called "chequebook diplomacy".

But Lee said Beijing should not take advantage of countries' financial circumstances to impose its "One China" policy.

"This kind of action does not contribute to stability in cross-strait relations," he said.

Washington's adherence to the "One China" policy has been questioned by Trump, who suggested he could use recognition of the island as a bargaining chip to extract trade deals from Beijing.

"I don't know why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade," he told Fox News earlier this month.

Diplomatic tussles between China and Taiwan had eased under Taiwan's previous Beijing-friendly government, but two months after Tsai's China-sceptic Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won landslide elections in March, China recognised Taiwan's former ally Gambia.

Tsai is preparing for a trip next month to meet diplomatic allies in Latin America, and she is expected to pass through the United States, which may irk China.

In an editorial following the announcement, the Global Times newspaper, which has close ties to China's ruling Communist Party, warned that Taiwan's DPP was committing "diplomatic suicide."

The loss of Sao Tome's support it said is "obviously a punishment... for challenging the One China principle," adding if the DPP does not changes its ways "it's going to have diplomatic relations with 0 countries."
What is being described by some as last minute appointments by the outgoing President John Dramani Mahama, has got Manhyia North Member of Parliament Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh infuriated as he expressed disappointment in the President for his latest actions.

I am disappointed in President Mahama, you are going out of power why all these appointments and contracts? What is the presidents motivation behind all that, the NDC is getting notoriety in last minute actions and it is very disappointing. Few months before last elections, this same party created constituencies and it became problems, so why is the NDC and the President doing this to Ghanaians Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh told Bright Kwesi Asempa on Onua Fm morning show Yen Sem Pa.

The representative of President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo, on the Transition team, Yaw Osafo Marfo, has raised concerns over clarity on alleged fresh recruitments into the public sector, and the awarding of fresh contracts, after the National Democratic Congress government lost the elections. He warned that such last minute deals could have far-reaching consequences for the incoming New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the President acting on advice from the Council of State, has made two fresh appointments. This included Joseph Whittal as Commissioner for CHRAJ and Josephine Nkrumah as the Director for NCCE.

But Manhyia North Member of Parliament Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh said the incoming Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo and the NPP administration reserve the right to reverse any appointment made by President Mahama if the incoming administration has any reservations on those appointments

We will reverse those appointments if we find it fit and those affected can go to court if they so wish because the president cannot go round appointing people to position when he is on his way out

He questioned if the President was aware that there were vacancies to fill before elections, but kept saying there is no money to employ people. Asking what has changed hence this rush decisions.

We have to let Ghanaians know that the president is putting stumbling blocks on the incoming government, and he must be told

Was it not agreed on by both sides of the transition teams, that any further appointment will be done in consultation, then why is President Mahama doing this to Ghana, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh querried.

If the president thinks he has the power to appoint, we also have power to reverse those appointments, I am disappointment in the President
The results of a new Cost of Hunger in Africa (COHA) study indicate that Madagascars economy loses 3.384 billion Ariary (US$1.5 billion) per year  the equivalent of 14.5% of the countrys Gross Domestic Product (GDP)  to the effects of malnutrition.

The COHA study is a project led by the African Union Commission and the New Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD), developed with the support of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the World Food Programme (WFP). The findings highlight the extent of social and economic losses caused by child malnutrition in a given country.

Mrs. Hawa Ahmed Youssouf, the African Union Commission Representative in Madagascar, today officially presented the study report to the Prime Minister and Head of Government of Madagascar, H.E. Olivier Mahafaly Solonandrasana.

During the ceremony held in Antananarivo, the Prime Minister expressed his concern about the alarming levels of chronic malnutrition in the country. In Madagascar, 47 percent of children under the age of five are affected by stunting (low growth for age).

Madagascar has the fifth highest rate of stunting in the world, said the Prime Minister. The results of the Cost of Hunger study confirm the urgency of mobilizing more resources and investment to reduce the level of malnutrition and its impact. This is one of the priorities of the National Development Plan. I call on our multi-sectoral partners to join us in this endeavor.

Under the leadership of the Prime Minister, the COHA study in Madagascar was conducted by the National Implementation Team (composed of 14 agencies and ministries) with the support of the United Nations and financial partners.

The study aims to enhance African governments awareness of child malnutrition and of the fact that this is not only a health and social issue, but one of major economic concern, said Mrs. Youssouf. The African Union supports this initiative in Madagascar because we know that the government is committed to fighting malnutrition.

Madagascar is the tenth country in Africa to have conducted the COHA study, after Burkina Faso, Chad, Ghana, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda and Swaziland. The process has revealed that African economies are losing between 1.9 and 16.5% of GDP to child malnutrition.

The official launch of the Madagascar report was followed by a presentation of the MIARO integrated project on nutrition and maternal and child health, which aims to prevent chronic malnutrition among children aged 6 to 23 months and pregnant and nursing women, while improving womens access to reproductive health services in the south of the country.

The COHA launch comes as the south of Madagascar suffers the effects of drought, exacerbated this year by the El Nino weather event. In November, WFP assisted one million people through general food distributions, cash transfers and nutritional support for the prevention and treatment of moderate acute malnutrition. WFPs ability to maintain this level of assistance over coming months will depend on the availability of funding for its operations.

Link to the report

What is malnutrition?

Malnutrition is a condition resulting from nutrient deficiencies often associated with food insecurity, poor health, poor hygiene and sanitation, and poverty. It should be noted that in Madagascar, in spite of the climactic challenges, particularly in the south, food is available in the markets. However, access to it is often an issue because of the high levels of poverty among more vulnerable households. Another factor is that good nutritional practices are not yet sufficiently established among the population. In Madagascar, 47 percent of children under 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition (or stunting). About 9 percent of children under 5 years of age across the country suffer from acute malnutrition (or wasting), although the southern part of the country is more severely affected with frequent spikes in malnutrition rates.
The Secretary-General applauds the Government and the people of Cote dIvoire for the peaceful and inclusive legislative elections of 18 December. He congratulates Ivorian political parties for their active participation in the elections and the Commission electorale independante for its efforts in ensuring the people's right to vote. He also appreciates the positive role of international and national electoral observation teams, as well as the engagement of Ivorian civil society, which enhanced the transparency and credibility of the elections.

The Secretary-General commends the immense progress achieved by Cote dIvoire with the conclusion of a free and fair presidential election in October 2015 and the constitutional referendum in October 2016. The successful conclusion of the legislative election confirms Cote d'Ivoires steady march towards lasting peace and stability.

The Secretary-General reiterates the commitment of the United Nations, including the United Nations Operation in Cote dIvoire, to continue supporting Cote dIvoire in sustaining the gains achieved in its consolidation of peace, stability and long-term prosperity.
In a message addressed to Mr Joachim Gauck, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, President Danny Faure expressed deep sorrow in this festive season following the terrorist attack which claimed lives and critically injured many others.

A truck ploughed into people at a Berlin Christmas market. In the wake of the tragedy, President Faure remarked that the Government and people of Seychelles join him in condoning all acts of terror and he expressed deepest condolences to the families of victims.

"The victims will be in our thoughts and prayers, and we urge you to find solace and courage in remembering the positive values of peace, love and harmony during the festive season," said President Faure.
Michael Teye Nyaunu

21.12.2016 LISTEN

Michael Teye Nyaunu aka MTN, a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Lower Manya Krobo in the Eastern Region, says he knows why the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) lost the December general elections.

The controversial former MP said there was no coordination in the campaign to get President John Mahama re-elected.

He told several radio stations in Accra on Monday that then the party's activities regarding the campaign was not coordinated very well.

In fact, it was not coordinated at all, because we have a national campaign team but I never knew when they even attended meetings, not even for once.

He said, When the various campaign teams moved for instance, the president's campaign team, the vice president's campaign team, the Chief of Staff's team and so on and so on, not even one day did all these groups assemble to review their activities.

Mr. Nyaunu said, We were just going on our ways like a pipe that is burst, flowing like that and not checking our back. I think that also didn't augur well for us at all.

Montie Saga

He said the Montie 3 saga hurt the NDC campaign, saying I think the clash of the executive arm and the judiciary in respect of the Montie 3 release was a factor in our defeat. The way in which we handled that issue offended the sensibility of a lot of Ghanaians.

Volta Factor

He also attributed the party's massive defeat to what he called the disrespect the party's gurus showed to people in their strongholds, especially the Volta Region which resulted in voter apathy.

Why should we be taking Volta Region for granted when they have given us their support all these years, he said, adding thatthey deserve an apology at the national level. NDC must render an unqualified apology to Voltarians.

He said, The seed of the defeat was sown during our presidential and parliamentary primaries. They refused to allow people to contest the incumbent President.

Contesting the incumbent President would have brought the finest out of him and it would have also prepared others to take up the mantle when he exit but we made things extremely difficult so we lost that opportunity.

Vote-Buying

He said some of the party's bigwigs indulged in vote-buying and that brought in wrong candidates to represent the NDC.

Money was in the hands of some popular people and these popular people happen to be the incumbent MPs and some of the Ministers. They were holding money and they were able to buy votes and influence people to vote for them but the reality on the ground was that they were not there for their constituents, they had distanced themselves and that culminated in the defeat of the President as well, he said.

One Term President

The opposition NPP's candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made sure that President Mahama became a one-term President by securing 53.85% of the total valid votes as against the President's 44.40%.

Apart from President Mahama's humiliating defeat, the NDC also lost about 49 parliamentary seats to the NPP and are now going into the next dispensation as minority of Parliament with only 104 seats against the opposition's 171.

Even when it was clear the NDC was heading to a crashing defeat, their leaders, including Kofi Adams, were in the media telling the party's sympathizers that President Mahama was in a comfortable lead.

By William Yaw Owusu
The Communication Board of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) has commended the media and the Electoral Commission (EC) for their spectacular performance in the December 7, 2016 general elections.

A statement issued and signed by G.B.K Owusu, Chairman of the PCG Communication Board, said the good performance exhibited by the media was not only remarkable, but commendable.

Despite some reportorial gaffes, the media displayed savvy, competence, objectivity and truth. I therefore entreat all media practitioners to continue the good work and live above reproach in all their deliberations, Mr Owusu stated.

He said as Ghanaians enter the New Year under the presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, we all must endeavour to open a new page in our lives and strive to embrace tolerance, reconciliation, patience and love. Media practitioners must handle words carefully  more than man handles dynamite and gun. Journalists must also use words to unite where there is disunity and where there is hatred they must strive to project love and harmony.

He urged journalists to live in peace and help build a better nation.

Journalists and politicians must know that we are all actors and actresses on a theatrical stage. After our performance we are applauded and we give way to others. Such is life, he stated.

Mr. Owusu commended President John Mahama for conceding defeat and urged him and his party to cooperate with Nana Akufo-Addo's government.

The PCG Communication Board Chairman commended chairperson of the Electoral Commission, members of the commission and the staff for living up to expectation.

Mrs. Charlotte Osei, the first female chairperson of the Electoral Commission in Ghana, has done a marvelous job and deserves tonnes of congratulations.

I pray that the Almighty God will continue to direct, guide and guard you in all your undertakings. Be bold and always seek God's guidance and He will never fail you, he told Madam Osei.
Yaa Peprah Amekudzi and Jephthah Mensah with the 2017 cocoa farmers' calendar

Mondelez International, one of the world's largest snacks companies, has unveiled the 2017 cocoa farmers' calendar aimed at helping local cocoa farmers to adopt good agricultural practices and appropriately use agro-chemicals.

The calendar is a learning tool that complements the work of cocoa extension agents who work in 446 Cocoa Life communities.

The 4th edition of the calendar, expected to be given to over 26,000 farmers, forms part of Mondelez's Cocoa Life programme.

Yaa Peprah Amekudzi, Country Lead, Mondelez International Cocoa Life, speaking at the launch of the calendar, said with the right information and support to farmers, Ghana can improve its cocoa productivity, which is one of the drivers of the country's economy.

She said Cocoa Life was to empower cocoa communities through the calendar.

Mrs. Amekudzi stated that with the calendar, farmers are able to follow the dates and keep track of critical activities that they need to implement in a particular month.

We, at Mondelez International Cocoa Life Ghana programme, are happy that the calendars have, over the years, contributed positively towards achieving our goal of transforming the lives of cocoa farmers and their communities, she said.

Jephthah Mensah, Manager of Extension and Environment, Cocoa Life, explaining how the calendar works, said there is specific information on cocoa cultivation for each month.

We have information on nursery practice, sanitation pruning, environmental management, temporal shade management, compost production and prevention and control of Black Pod disease, among others, he said.

Richard Fosu, a cocoa farmer in the Central region, shared his experience on how the calendar has helped him maintain good farming practices.

I can say the information on the calendar and the support of the extension officers have contributed to my high cocoa yield this year, he said.

Gladys Bio, a farmer in the Eastern Region, said since I started using the calendar, I have seen great improvement in my cocoa production.

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri


By 2025, Africa aims to feed its fast growing population with its own production. What is more, the world will need Africas help to feed an extra two billion people in the coming generation. So making the right investments right now is crucial to unleash the huge potential of Africas farms and agribusinesses.

The African Development Bank, as one of the leading investors in agriculture in the continent, has been firmly on track on how it has deployed US$5.5 billion in investments in agriculture over five years to 2015, the new Development Effectiveness Review on Agriculture released today shows.

Here is a brief report card of the AfDBs topline results: the Bank trained three million people on better farming practices, put 20,000 food marketing and storage into use, constructed four thousand kilometers of feeder roads, offered 150,000 microcredit loans, irrigated and built other water systems on 181,000 hectares of farmland.

The Development Effectiveness Review is mission accomplished, as the AfDB sets out an even more ambitious agenda in its Feed Africa strategy to end hunger and extreme poverty by 2025, Simon Mizrahi, Director of Quality Assurance and Results that authored the Development Effectiveness Review on Agriculture.

Making no little plans

The Review details the progress and the pitfalls to date in transforming Africas agriculture sector, and lays out what steps must be taken to catapult Africa into becoming a global agricultural powerhouse in the next decade. In recent years, agriculture has zoomed to the top of Africas policy agenda, with African countries pledging to eradicate hunger and halve post-harvest losses in under a decade.

It has become increasingly clear investing in agriculture is the best way to end hunger, malnutrition, and extreme poverty in Africa, the development report states. Given that seven out of 10 Africans earn a living from the land, agriculture can create economic growth spread more evenly across society, and extending deeper into rural areas, and helping more women, who make up 70 percent of farmers. The report also pointed out that agriculture can create jobs for the 10 million young Africans entering the labor force every year.

Africa has tremendous scope to grow and develop its farming sector and make it an engine of economic growth, the report found: Africa imports twice the food it exports, and agriculture yields in Africa are only one-quarter those of China. African agriculture makes up a mere five percent of global trade.

At the same time, improving the lot of farmers and farming is crucial to the sustainable growth and development of Africa: eighty percent of the typical household budget is spent on food, while forty percent of food produced spoils after the harvest, due to bad or nonexistent roads or lack of storage.

A more robust agriculture system is also key to ending hunger, the Development report says, since one out of four people lacks regular access to food. What is more, agricultural development must be reoriented to factor in climate change: 65 percent of Africas arable land is now degraded, and moisture and fertility losses in African soils are worsening.

Over the last five years, the report detailed how AfDB steered its investments into promoting the continents transition to commercial agriculture: building up regional transport corridors to link rural farmers to city centers and ports, providing irrigation and building canals to reduce vulnerability to drought, planting over 64 million trees to boost the lands hardiness in the face of climate change, and bringing agriculture experts together to collaborate, such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, which helps family farms across 18 African countries.

Making headway

Some of the Banks most noteworthy operations cited in the report during the period include the Africa Food Crisis Response Programme, which fast-tracked relief that raised US$1.0 billion and led to better harvests; New Rice for Africa, which boosted the hardiness, nutrition and yields of rice and improved the livelihoods of almost a quarter of a million subsistence farmers, with a large share of the development for womens groups; and the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, which reduced deforestation and degradation by producing millions of trees and agroforest saplings, involving almost 50,000 people in producing and processing non-timber forest products and creating 46,60 hectares of community forest plantations.

One of the largest contributions of the AfDB in shaping the agriculture agenda was its leading role during the Feeding Africa conference in Dakar in October 2015, helping craft a plan for Africa to transform Africas agriculture sector. The plan is designed to ramp up nutrition programs, boost agriculture productivity through research, develop farming corridors and agribusiness industrial zones to get infrastructure support, set up a risk-sharing facility, start raising US$3 billion to finance women farmers, and develop diaspora agriculture bonds based on remittances flows.

Progress report card

The sum total of these efforts showed the AfDB has made good progress on several fronts: 97 percent of the Banks agriculture projects were rated satisfactory. In the meantime, project approval times shrank to six months from nine months. Largely as a result of the Banks Integrated Safeguards on social and environmental impact and its enhanced focus on gender equality, 89% of projects had a climate-informed design, and 87% factored in gender differences, major improvements on both aspects. The number of projects managed by field offices grew to 70%, a leap from 40%, to meet the demand of member countries to working more closely with the Bank.

Doubling down

Now the AfDB is gearing up to deliver more under its new strategy through 2025 by investing US$24 billion, and boosting overall investment through equity, debt, risk and other financial means.

AfDBs new Feed Africa strategy is one of its High Five priorities, which aims to end poverty, hunger, and malnutrition by 2025 and make the continent a net food exporter. The Bank will achieve this by focusing on certain foods and growing zones, from wheat in North Africa to fish farming everywhere, and making Africas food value chains world-class by building markets, setting up commodity exchanges and linking farmers and buyers, among other means. Feed Africa will support agribusiness and innovation, climate-smart agriculture and build roads, energy, and water infrastructure.
Japan Motors and e.TV Ghana (Free-to-air television channel) has fulfilled its promise made to the Ghana Blind Union (GBU) a few months ago.

The two corporate bodies - Japan Motors and e.TV Ghana, who owns the Corporate Run Event promised the Ghana Blind Union at its last event held in September, 2016 that proceeds from the 5km run would be used to support the GBU in other to ease the financial burden on the association.

In line with that, the two bodies called on the GBU at its head offices in Adabraka, Accra on Monday, December 19, 2016 to present to them; two (2) sets of nine padded elbows, shin and knee guards, and a set of jersey.

Dr. Peter Obeng-Asamoah who received the equipment on behalf of the GBU commended the two bodies for their kind gesture and also acknowledged that the equipment will help in their training.

Meanwhile, the Executive Chairman and Group CEO of Global Media Alliance (The umbrella body of e.TV Ghana), Mr. Edward Boateng explained that Japan Motors and e.TV Ghana has been supporting the GBU since 2011.

He also noted that e.TV Ghana is the first television station to employ a visually impaired broadcast journalist  Paul Anomakodie. He, however, called on other corporate organizations to participate in years event.

The Corporate Run Event 2016 was sponsored by; Stanbic Bank, Silver Star Towers, Senkwa and Mercedez Cafe.

Follow Amisty on twitter @ElAmistyNobo

Email: [email protected]
Kampala (AFP) - A state-owned Ugandan newspaper on Wednesday apologised and retracted a cartoon about the Rwandan genocide which sparked a furore in the neighbouring country.

Ugandan daily New Vision published a cartoon Tuesday showing Rwandan President Paul Kagame sitting inside a confessional, while Pope Francis kneels outside asking forgiveness for the 1994 genocide.

The pontiff also asks for forgiveness for an assassination bid against former Rwandan army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa -- who blames Kagame for several attempts on his life in South Africa where he lives in exile.

The cartoon appeared to mock Kagame who on Friday repeated his demand that the pope apologise for the actions of Catholics implicated in the genocide which killed around 800,000.

"Today's cartoon in @NewVisionWire is more than just in bad taste. Poking fun at genocide is not funny. It is denial. Unacceptable," tweeted Yolande Makolo, communications director in the Rwandan presidency.

A series of furious tweets from Rwandans compared the newspaper to controversial French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

A source at New Vision said its managing director had personally phoned Kagame to apologise for the cartoon.

Meanwhile editor-in-chief, Barbara Kaija said the offending image had been taken down from the newspaper's website.

Since the genocide, whose victims were mostly from the Tutsi minority, the Catholic Church has been accused of being close to the Hutu extremist regime in power in 1994 and some of its priests and other clergy were implicated in the massacres.

A number of churches became scenes of mass killings as the Hutu militiamen found people seeking refuge there, sometimes turned over by the priests, with no way out.

Rwanda's Catholic Church apologised in November on behalf of all Christians involved in the genocide.

However Kagame's government has demanded the pope himself apologise, as he did to Ireland over sexual abuse by priests.

While former rebel Kagame is admired by many for uniting the country after the genocide, he is also seen as running Rwanda with an iron fist.

Several of his critics have been assassinated or come under attack in African nations where they live in exile, and a botched attack on Nyamwasa in 2014 sparked a diplomatic row between Pretoria and Kigali.
Seven Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) have stressed the need to create awareness about international trafficking and exploitation of Ghanaians.

The stakeholders made the call at a workshop on protecting migrant workers at home and abroad to commemorate the International Migrants Day 2016, marked on December 15.

According to them, Ghanaian migrants, particularly women and young girls, are increasingly recruited through licensed and unlicensed recruitment agencies for domestic work in various countries, with the majority of them returning to Ghana after few months as a result of exploitation and abuse.

Data from the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) indicate that over 2,000 Ghanaian women left for the Middle East between September 2014 and January 2015. Since then, about 350 women have returned to the country due to exploitation and abuse.

Two young women, who had travelled to the Gulf region to work as domestic workers and returned to Ghana after suffering abuse, shared their experience with the audience at the workshop.

I was not allowed to sit unless I was eating and they did not pay my salary as promised, said one of the migrants.

Ghana, which acknowledges the contributions of migrants worldwide and the plight of vulnerable Ghanaian migrants, particularly those trafficked for domestic work, signed bilateral agreement on labour issues with the Government of Jordan.

The country has also created an association of employment agencies under the supervision of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations to reintegrate those stranded in countries of destination by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The stakeholders later pledged to ensure the protection of our citizens.

They also promised to develop a Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and share protocols to assist the victims.

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri


The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) is implementing large-scale sanitary and epidemiological programmes to fight an unprecedented yellow fever outbreak in Angola and has appealed for international support. In this context, the government of the Russian Federation has decided to send humanitarian assistance to Angola as part of UNICEFs vaccination efforts.

A joint initiative by Russia and UNICEF provides for buying, delivering and distributing 3.4 million vaccine doses, the vaccination of over three million people from all age groups and a health education campaign in Angola.

Russia is a large supplier of yellow fever vaccine. The Russian yellow fever vaccine is manufactured at the bacterial and viral preparations centre of the Chumakov Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephalitis. It is also one of the four yellow fever vaccines that have been certified by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The decision to support UNICEFs project has been taken within the framework of the state policy of international development assistance (IDA). Russian assistance to Angola will help strengthen partner relations with Angola and Russias international position as an IDA donor.
Banjul (Gambia) (AFP) - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh on Tuesday declared a state of emergency just two days before he is due to step down, citing "extraordinary" foreign interference in the country's post-electoral crisis.

The declaration was necessary, he said on state television, after the "unprecedented and extraordinary amount of foreign inference in the December 1 presidential elections and also in the internal affairs of The Gambia."

The 15-nation Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) has repeatedly called on Jammeh to respect the result of the vote he lost to opponent Adama Barrow and step aside, backed up by the United Nations Security Council, African Union and several other institutions.

Jammeh said foreign powers had created an "unwarranted hostile atmosphere, threatening the sovereignty, peace, security and stability of the country," forcing him to act.

Under the Gambian constitution a state of emergency lasts seven days if the president declares it unilaterally but up to 90 days if the national assembly confirms it, which has not yet happened.

President Yahya Jammeh said foreign powers created an "unwarranted hostile atmosphere, threatening the sovereignty, peace, security and stability of the country," forcing him to take action

The terms of the declaration were left vague by Jammeh and seemed to correspond to laws already in place in a nation where human rights abuses are rife.

All citizens and residents were "banned from any acts of disobedience to the laws of The Gambia, incitement to violence and acts intended to disturb public order and peace," Jammeh said.

He then asked the security forces to maintain law and order.

The move will be dimly viewed by the international community as Jammeh's mandate runs out, but the president has shown little interest in diplomacy after rebuffing two high-level delegations by west African leaders in recent weeks pleading with him to go.

String of resignations

Gambian president-elect Adama Barrow (L), flanked by his supporters, arrives in Banjul for a meeting with four African heads of state on December 13, 2016

Meanwhile four more cabinet ministers in Jammeh's government defected, a source close to the regime told AFP on Tuesday, while citizens stream out of the country in fear of unrest.

Foreign minister Neneh Macdouall-Gaye, finance minister Abdou Kolley, trade minister Abdou Jobe and tourism minister Benjamin Roberts had all resigned, the source said, requesting anonymity for safety reasons.

Roberts was appointed to replace Kolley on Monday, meaning he spent less than 24 hours in the new post, local media said.

Gambian president-elect Adama Barrow (L), flanked by his supporters, arrives in Banjul for a meeting with four African heads of state on December 13, 2016

The latest resignations came after the high-profile defection last week of information minister Sheriff Bojang, who is now sheltering in neighbouring Senegal.

Citizens continued to pack their bags and stream out of Banjul by road and ferry for Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea, taking as many possessions as they could carry.

One traveller told AFP that those arriving at 10:00 am would have to wait until the following day to board a ferry at Banjul port to cross the river headed for Senegal, unless they bribed officials, due to huge numbers exiting the city.

The UN's refugee agency has said several thousand Gambians have crossed the border in the last few weeks to shelter with extended family while they await January 19, when Jammeh is due to hand over power.

Barrow is in Senegal, where he plans to remain until his planned inauguration on Thursday.

Asylum offer

Gambia has been plunged into political turmoil since President Yahya Jammeh disputed opposition leader Adama Barrow's December poll victory, refusing to cede power until a judge rules on his legal challenge

The spectre of a military intervention in The Gambia now seems closer than ever, following declarations by the United Nations and African Union that boots on the ground could get the green light without a rapid resolution to the crisis.

Fears of conflict were ramped up in Banjul following the weekend arrest of soldiers suspected of being sympathetic to Barrow, underlining significant disagreement within the armed forces over whom they will support come Thursday.

Elsewhere Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf hit out at Jammeh for broadcasting a conversation they held by phone on Sunday on Gambian television without her knowledge.

"Unfortunately, being the person that he is, Jammeh recorded and televised their conversation without advising her of his intent to do so," a statement from the Liberian presidency said.

Sirleaf was then quoted as saying that as of Monday "there is no change in ECOWAS position. The Constitution of The Gambia must be respected."

In Rabat, it was reported that Morocco had offered Jammeh asylum for accepting the election defeat and stepping down "in return for a golden retirement", but Banjul sources were reluctant to confirm the claim.

And in a growing sign of Jammeh's hostility to international scrutiny, seven journalists from China, Sweden and Senegal were expelled late Monday soon after they arrived at Banjul airport to cover the ongoing crisis.
Kinshasa (AFP) - Tensions ran high in DR Congo Wednesday, with police out in force in the capital and activity slowed following deadly protests against President Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down as his mandate ends.

Life very slowly resumed in Kinshasa, a megacity of 10 million, with few buses and taxis on the streets at morning rush-hour, trading slack at the market, and troops and police posted at major crossroads.

A day after at least 11 people died in street protests, eyes were on talks due to resume Wednesday that were launched by the Catholic Church in hopes of finding a peaceful way out of the political crisis.

Kabila's second and final term in office ran out Tuesday with no election on the near horizon and no sign of plans to leave power any time soon.

So far the mainstream opposition has called for "peaceful resistance" from Democratic Republic of Congo's 70 million people in hopes of clinching a deal at the negotiating table.

DR Congo faces a political crisis

But gunfire rang out across the vast and troubled nation as protests erupted Tuesday.

Officials said nine people had died in Kinshasa and two in the country's second-largest city, Lubumbashi.

Rights group Human Rights Watch said at least 26 protesters had been killed countrywide.

A day after the UN's large DR Congo mission, MONUSCO, voiced alarm over the detention of 113 opposition leaders and civil society activists in just four days, there were fresh arrests in eastern Goma.

In what Kabila's opponents dubbed "a provocation", a new government was announced overnight Monday to Tuesday, headed by Samy Badibanga.

The freshly appointed cabinet is part of an October deal struck between the ruling party and tiny fringe opposition groups enabling Kabila to remain in office pending elections in April 2018.

'Peaceful resistance'

However, the main opposition bloc headed by 84-year-old Etienne Tshisekedi rejects the plan. It wants elections next year -- along with a pledge that Kabila will not stand.

Supporters of DR Congo President Joseph Kabila parade his photograph in Kinshasa in November 2006

Kabila, 45, who has ruled since 2001, is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term but under a controversial recent constitutional court order, he may stay on until a successor is chosen.

In a YouTube video, Tshisekedi launched "a solemn appeal to the Congolese people to no longer recognise the authority of Mr. Joseph Kabila, to the international community to no longer deal with Joseph Kabila in the name of the Democratic Republic of Congo".

He urged people "to peacefully resist the coup d'etat".

The message was not available in DR Congo where authorities have since Sunday imposed strict controls on social media networks.

Tshisekedi said he hoped to continue the talks launched by the Catholic Church last week.

In Rome, Pope Francis appealed to the people of DR Congo to be "artisans of peace" at his weekly audience.

"May those who are in positions of political responsibility listen to the voice of their conscience, learn to see the cruel sufferings of their fellow citizens and have at heart the common good."

DR Congo has never witnessed a democratic transfer of power following polls since independence from Belgium in 1960.

The president has been in office since his father Laurent Kabila's assassination in 2001. He was elected in 2006, and again in 2011.

Some two decades ago, the country collapsed into the deadliest conflict in modern African history. Its two wars in the late 1990s and early 2000s dragged in at least six African armies and left more than three million dead.
The Accra Psychiatric Hospital has received donations worth over GHC 16,000 from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana.

The donation which included stationery, toiletries, bedclothes and medicine was part of the Council`s corporate social responsibility.

At a presentation ceremony at the hospital on Tuesday, the Registrar of the Council, Mr. Felix Nyante said, since the mandate of the Council is to secure in the publics interest, the highest standards of training and practice there is the need for the Council to continuously support the Accra Psychiatric Hospital to be one of the most effective health institutions in the country.

Receiving the items on behalf of the Hospital, the Deputy Director of Nursing Services, in charge of the Nursing administration of the facility, Mr. Emmanuel Pappoe thanked NMC for their kind gesture.

After the presentation, the entourage from the council also toured the various wards and directed the hospital administration to maintain the standards set by the Council.

He cautioned that the Council will not tolerate attitudes that undermine its standards.



By: Kojo Agyeman/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The Majority in Parliament has accused the Minority of not showing commitment regarding the passage of the Right to Information Bill.

According to the majority, many MPs on the minority side since Tuesday leave the chamber in their numbers when the matter comes up, denying the house the needed quorum to transact business on the important Bill.

Edward Doe Adjaho, Speaker of Parliament

Citi News Duke Mensah Opoku who was in Parliament today [Wednesday] said the Speaker had earlier given his undertaking that the House will actually work on the Right to Information Bill before getting it passed by Parliament prior to the dissolution of the House.

He was however quick to add that the Majority Chief Whip Muntaka Mubarak had given indications that the minority side was not cooperating thus delaying the passage of the bill.

Speaker, Minority Leader clash over RTI Bill

The Minoritys posture towards the passage of the said Bill can be attributed to the Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjahos failure to meet some demands by the Minority leader.

Duke reported that before issues could start with regards to the consideration of the Bill, the Minority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu had requested that some of the transitional documents have to be made available to Parliament before the passage of the said bill but the response he got from the Speaker was that the ongoing process was a presidential transition and not a parliamentary transition.

The Speakers comment, reportedly did not go down well with the Minority Leader, leading to a misunderstanding between the two, with the latter pointing fingers at the former.

It was an issue of calming tempers in the house until things came down a bit , Duke reported.

There has been pressure on Parliament to pass the Bill which is expected to grant citizens greater access to public information.

Coalition threaten demo over Right to Information Bill'

The Right to Information Coalition, had earlier threatened to stage a protest against government over the delay in the passage of the Bill.

The Coalition said they sought to impress upon the Mahama-led government to expedite action on the passage.

This was after President Mahama had stated at a UNESCO program in France that he is frustrated at the continuous delay in the passage of the Bill.

But the Executive Director for POS Foundation, Jonathan Osei-Owusu, described as unfortunate President Mahama's claims that he is clueless about the current stage of the Bill.



By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The Yuletide brings to many expectations of goodwill and an opportunity to make sometimes very ambitious resolutions. With few days to the celebration of the birth of Christ, most Ghanaians will be pondering on the best seasons wishes and resolutions.

For some patients who are due to be discharged at the Accra Psychiatric hospital, an opportunity to reunite with their families would be priceless as families reunite in celebration.

Joy News Komla Adom found some who have been abandoned for months and years who are waiting for their family members to come to their rescue and take them home.

"My time was up to go home on April 4, and I am still waiting for someone to come and take me out. The nurses say my parents have been told to come and discharge me," one patient said.

He said he has been hoping and praying for his parents to come and get him adding "The last time my father came and visited he promised coming to discharge me, it has been months and I am still waiting."

Another patient, a middle-aged man, said he wants society to accept them once they are discharged .

"I was admitted on July 15, this year, and I want to tell society that when someone is discharged from the psychiatric hospital, they should not treat the person differently from others.

"It is a condition that can happen to anyone so when they bring the person to the hospital, they do not have to reject the person but keep visiting the person regularly. They have to make the person feel human," the teary patient said.

A teenage patient told the reporter her family has abandoned her and she is praying that "God bless them to get financially sound so that they can visit me."

Meanwhile, the Evangel Heralds of Joy group of the Pentecost Church, Achimota District has donated items worth GH8,000 to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital to cushion management ahead of the Christmas festivities.

The items include toiletries, food items and some medical supplies. Elder John Teye Coffie speaks for the church.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com
The Delegation of the European Union to Rwanda has signed off on a 10 million grant payment to the Government of Rwanda. The grant will go towards the continued rehabilitation and maintenance of 200 kilometres of rural roads in Rwanda.

The Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Rwanda Ambassador Michael Ryan remarked: "Rural roads provide the backbone of economic activity for nearly 80% of Rwanda's citizens, most of who depend on farming and small scale commerce for their livelihoods. EU financial support has the ultimate objective of reducing poverty and improving living conditions for Rwandans."

The payment is the final stage of the 40 million under the framework of the Sector Policy Support Programme for the improvement of the rural road network in Rwanda over 6 years.

The road networks facilitates access to markets and basic economic and social services as well as enhancing access to food and improve rural policies at the local level.

Ambassador Michael Ryan added: "Eighty percent of our assistance is budget support, a sign of EU confidence in Rwanda's economic management. I also take this occasion to wish all Rwandans a happy Christmas and a prosperous, peaceful new year".
Mr Ellwood made his first visit to South Sudan amid a deteriorating security, economic and humanitarian situation. He met with the President Kiir, Foreign Minister Deng Alor, Acting Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to South Sudan Moustafa Soumare and fellow Troika ambassadors from the US and Norway.

The Minister called on all sides to urgently show restraint and work to build peace. He welcomed the Presidents proposed National Dialogue and call for an immediate ceasefire. He stressed that these words must be accompanied by actions that support peace: an immediate ceasefire and halt to military operations. Only this will create the necessary space for dialogue. It is essential that the Government of South Sudan allow UNMISS effectively to fulfil its mandate and that the UN Regional Protection Force is deployed quickly.

The UK has been lobbying for broad international support for a UN arms embargo and sanctions. We are also working through the UN, EU, with regional partners and other donors to make clear our concern about the deteriorating security situation, and the risk of mass atrocities being committed.

Speaking at the end of the visit Mr Ellwood said:

"On my first visit to South Sudan I have reminded the South Sudanese leadership that the eyes of the world are on them. The international community expects them to do all that they can to stop the escalating violence and human rights abuses and make real efforts to establish an inclusive political process in support of the current peace agreement."

"The Presidents recent announcement of a National Dialogue is welcome. But we must see clear action following these words. Further bloodshed, hate speech and incitement to violence cannot and will not be tolerated. The suffering of the South Sudanese people cannot continue."

"The UKs is committed to the supporting people of South Sudan. The commitment of South Sudans leaders to their own people needs to be just as dedicated. At the moment they are falling short. I have delivered a clear message that they must do better."
21.12.2016 LISTEN

Accra, Dec. 21, GNA - Miss Abena Akuaba Appiah, a Ghanaian schooling at the State University of New York in the United States, has been crowned Beauty Queen Universe in Spain, after beating 35 contestants to win the prestigious title.

About 30 countries participated in the highly celebrated and widely televised 2016 beauty pageant competition held in the Spain city of Malaga last October where only two blacks featured.

Miss Appiah was received by her fans, family members, friends, close associates and officers from the tourism fraternity at the Kotoka International Airport Monday amidst blaring of traditional music and dancing.

She told journalists she was very excited to be at home, after staying away for so long.

'I'm so excited to be back, and to bring this crown home to my country. I'm very honoured,' she said.

She said: 'it hasn't been an easy journey. It has been very challenging, especially as out of a total of 36 contestants, there were only two black women and in the history of the pageant, no black woman has ever ascended so high to lift the crown.

'I felt like it was never going to be a possibility because we were just two black contestants.

'It's amazing, I never expected that I could do this but I've done it. 'I'm just very proud and very happy that God gave me the opportunity to do this.'

Miss Appiah said she motivated herself with the sole aim of making Ghana proud. 'So I said let me make my country proud; let me try something to bring my country on the map. That's what I did. I just gathered confidence and I was able to do it,' she stressed.

She urged young women to look forward to success always, exude perseverance and never allow failure to weigh them down.

'I want to tell all my fans and everybody that I love you, keep pushing hard and the sky's the limit.'

The newly-crowned queen, who had been working with Baldwin University Foundation, which helps intelligent but underprivileged children to go school, looks to continue the work as a special project - caring and lending assistance to underprivileged Ghanaian children.

GNA
By D. I. Laary, GNA

Accra, Dec. 21, GNA - Stakeholders implementing global initiative, School Health Integrated Programming (SHIP), assembled on Tuesday to assess eye screening and deworming interventions launched in the Denkyembour District in the Eastern Region.

The meeting would afford players the opportunity to assess how the integrated school health approach has fared in the district in improving child health, document best practices and identify gaps in the implementation process for better decision making.

Mrs Getrude Ananse-Baiden, Country Programmes' Manager of Partnership for Child Development (PCD), said the initiative is being piloted in the Denkyembour District due to the area's high level of parasitic worm infections.

The global programme is being carried out with the help of the World Bank, Imperial College London's PCD and Sightsavers with funding support from the Global Partnership for Education.

The programme supports governments in Ghana, Cambodia, Senegal and Ethiopia to build and put together their school health plans and activities. ?

Mrs Ananse-Baiden said 120 head teachers and school based health coordinators of the Ghana Education Service have been trained and 12,052 school children in 60 public schools in the district have been dewormed.

She said 10,099 persons were screened for their eyes and out of the number, 68 school children and 92 teachers were given eye glasses.

She also said 3,956 children were been screened for intellectual disability and 4,753 for hearing impairment.

Mrs Ananse-Baiden said 'there is no coordination in school health interventions' and called for greater collaboration to ensure comprehensive health programming for children health - many of who are in school.

She said it is important to increase health education in schools to improve hygiene and sanitation.

'There is the need to encourage children to avoid playing in dirty areas and contaminated water'', she said and expressed worry that teacher and parent apathy challenged the implementation of the initiative.

Mrs Gertrude Mensah, Eastern Regional Director of Education, lauded the role of the interventions saying we have been able to identify more gaps in the school health sector in the district for special attention.

'Some children and particularly, teachers, did not know that they have some disability, and didn't seek interventions, the initiative has helped to identify more of such children, I am so happy that teachers were also identified,' she said.

It is expected that owing to the achievements, the SHIP would be scaled up to other districts.

Health officials say intestinal parasites have been around and common among children and are not going away, but people can control them with a proper deworming schedule.

The school health integrated programming national capacity building workshop was on the theme: 'Collaborating school health interventions for better outcome.'

GNA
By Erica Apeatua Addo, GNA

Tarkwa (W/R), Dec. 21, GNA - A former worker in the community affairs department of Goldfields Ghana Limited (GGL), Tarkwa Mine has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in hard labour for conspiracy to commit robbery.

Ahmed Adusa, the convict, pleaded not guilty to the charge, but was found guilty after trial.

Prosecuting, Detective Chief Inspector Oscar Amponsah told the court, presided over by Mr Justice Emmanuel Bart-Plange Brew, that the complainants are security officers of GGL, Tarkwa Mine.

He said on August 11, the convict, whose appointment with GGL was terminated and banned from entering the company's premises due to alleged robbery cases and his two accomplices Michael Zibone and another person whose identity was unknown conspired to rob GGL.

Chief Inspector Amponsah said on the said date around 2050 hours, Ahmed and his accomplices entered the company's premises in a Kia Pride taxi driven by Zibone.

He said the convict and his accomplices who carried two pistols one locally manufactured and the other foreign then proceeded to the Community Affairs block of the mine and broke a wooden door leading to the archives department.

Chief Inspector Amponsah said a witness in the case, who saw Ahmed in the company's branded T shirt, alerted the security guards on duty and they raised the alarm.

He said sensing danger, Ahmed took to his heels, but he was arrested by the guards at the company's old mine yard which is about 200 meters from the Community Affairs block.

Chief Inspector Amponsah said Zibone and the third accused person who were then waiting for Ahmed in the taxi parked in front of the Community Affairs block sped off to escape arrest.

He said they later abandoned the taxi at the Apinto Estate bus stop and hid the arms and ammunitions in a bush close to a wire mesh fence before they made their escape.

He said Ahmed was handed over to the police with the two pistols with 21 AAA cartridges and eight rounds of point 410 ammunitions.

GNA
By Erica Apeatua Addo, GNA

Tarkwa (W/R), Dec. 21, GNA - Stephen Prah, 19, a salesman was on Tuesday granted bail in a sum of GH 14,000.00 by the Tarkwa Circuit Court for allegedly stealing GH 18,634.00.belonging to his employer.

Prah pleaded not guilty and would re-appear before the court on Wednesday January 11, 2017.

Prosecuting, Detective Chief Inspector Oscar Amponsah, told the court that the complainant, Henry Baker, is the branch manager of Fast Telecom in Tarkwa while the accused is a former employee of the company.

Chief Inspector Amponsah said on November 28 this year, Prah was sent with GH 18,634.00 to purchase credit cards from Vodafone's office in Tarkwa.

He said after he received the money, he went into hiding and the complainant subsequently reported the matter to the police.

Chief Inspector Amponsah said one December 3, the complainant saw Prah at the Prestea police barrier and managed to arrest and handed him over to the Railways police.

He said during investigations Prah admitted the offence in his caution statement and led the police to a hotel in Prestea where an amount of GH 3,100.00 was retrieved from under the bed in the room where he lodged.

The accused person also told the police that he had given GH 10,000.00 to one Joel in Takoradi, a travelling agent to enable him travel to South Africa, but he failed to lead the police to the said individual.

GNA
By Gifty Amofa, GNA

Juaben (Ash), Dec 21, GNA - Commissioner of Police (COP) Kofi Boakye, the Ashanti Regional Commander, has given assurance that adequate security measures had been put in place to prevent crime during the Christmas festivities.

He warned miscreants out there to make things miserable for innocent people to have a change of heart because they were not going to have their way.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the newly built Juaben District Police Headquarters in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality at a ceremony.

It comes with offices for the District Commander, Crime Officer, Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Accident Squad Unit, orderly room and washrooms.

Added to this, is a residential accommodation for the District Commander.

The project was undertaken by the community with support from the municipal assembly.

COP Boakye underlined the determination of the police to sustain the fight against crime and encouraged the people to be bold to flag up criminals to the security agencies.

They would continue to remain firm, even-handed and professional in the performance of their mandate of maintaining law and order.

He encouraged the formation of neighbourhood watch committees to complement the crime fight.

Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. Andy Osei Okrah, called for increased public support for the police through useful leads, which would help them to track down criminals and bring them to justice.

He also reminded the police to do everything to protect the identity of informants.

Daasebre Otuo Serebour II, Omanhene of Juaben, said the strong presence of the police would discourage people from engaging in criminal activities and ensure peace in the area.

He spoke of plans to build housing units to provide decent accommodation for officers posted to there.

The Deputy Regional Minister and the Juaben Rural Bank donated a motorbike each in support of the operation of the newly opened police district headquarters.

GNA
By Isaac Arkoh, GNA

Kumasi, Dec 21, GNA - Mobile money deposits hit GH 697.2 million as of the end of June, this year, showing increasing public acceptance of mobile money service.

Mr. Clarence Blay of the Systems Office of the Bank of Ghana (BOG), who announced this put the previous year's total figure at GH 341.3 million.

The number of registered agents has now shot up to 108,531 from 38,400.

Mr. Blay, addressing a stakeholder conference held in Kumasi, underlined the resolve of the Central Bank to put in place strong and adequate measures to remove fraud in the system.

It was working together with the National Communication Authority (NCA) telecommunication companies and financial technology firms to protect the integrity of the mobile money business.

He indicated that the BOG would go to every length to ensure that the activities of the operators were in conformity with the laid-down regulations, to give protection to the customer.

Mr. Blay said its determination to create the right regulatory environment for convenient, efficient, safe retail and fund transfer mechanisms was total and non-negotiable.

The Bank was eager to see to it that there was transparency, fair and responsible pricing and good customer service.

He highlighted the significant role mobile money system was playing by way of extending financial services to the poor, the unbanked and the under-served population.

He asked the banks not to see mobile money operators as competitors but rather, an important channel for financial inclusion.

He encouraged them to add that service to the products they had been offering to customers

Mr. Bernard Otabil, Director of Communications at the BOG, said the Bank was keen to introduce technology into the management of mobile money service to promote efficiency, transparency and protection of the customers.

GNA
Accra, Dec. 21, GNA - The Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana, has called on Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President-Elect to seek the path of reconciliation in uniting the citizenry irrespective of political, religious or ethnic affiliation.

'The President-Elect and his able team of in-coming leadership must seek the path of reconciliation, beginning from this Yuletide period of celebrating the birth of Christ Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

'Such a noble initiative will largely promote and strengthen the desired peaceful co-existence, stability and effective cordial relationship the country requires for its sustainable growth and development,' the Church stated in a statement signed by the Right Reverend Dr. Seth Senyo Agidi, Moderator of the General Assembly.

The EP Church, Ghana, also wishes to congratulate Nana Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party for success in the December 7, General Election.

The Church also extends its appreciation to the Electoral Commission for organizing successful and peaceful polls. It also thanked the Security Agencies, National Peace Council, Election Monitoring and Observer Teams, the Media, Political Parties for a job well done.

The Church also acknowledged civil society organisations for effectively facilitating the organization of the elections by raising the bar of Ghana as a beacon of democracy among the community of nations.

The E.P. Church commended President John Dramani Mahama for his maturity and gallantry in conceding defeat, a move that averted a seemingly chaotic situation following the rising anxiety that characterized the delay in announcing outcome of the polls.

Similarly the Church expressed gratitude to the President-elect for his intervention in calling on members of the NPP to celebrate the Party's victory with decency devoid of any form of hostility and destruction of lives and properties.

The EP Church, Ghana affirms its unflinching willingness either independently or through its umbrella body, the Christian Council of Ghana to collaborate with the in-coming NPP administration in promoting peace, justice and social welfare, especially of the underprivileged in the Ghanaian society.

GNA
Access Bank Ghana has officially listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).

The bank becomes the first Nigerian bank and the eleventh bank in Ghana, to list on the local bourse.

Access bank completed its Initial Public Offer (IPO) raising 29.62 million cedis, just above the 21 million cedis regulatory requirement to list on the stock market.

Speaking at the official ceremony to list the company on the stock market, the Managing Director of Access Bank, Dolapo Ogundimu said,

We need to include Ghanaians as our shareholders because we operate in Ghana so we need to expand our operations to include other Ghanaians.

Meanwhile the bank has received firm commitments from other investors to cover shares that were not issued under the terms of offer.

It is however expecting over 96 million cedis from such investors.

Commenting on when such investments are likely to be made available to Access bank, Mr. Ogundimu intimated to Citi Business News he is hopeful all investors will fulfill their commitments by February 2017.

SSNIT has put out a statement that it has put in about 50 million cedis and there are other high net worth individuals who will be contributing to the 96 million cedis, maybe latest by February all the monies should be in, he remarked.

Meanwhile the ownership of the company following the IPO will now see about 75 percent going to the parent company of Access Bank Ghana that is Access bank PLC, 10 percent now owned by a Ghanaian pension fund while the remaining 15 percent belongs to a number of institutions and individuals.



By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
The Executive Director of IDEG is demanding an amendment of the transition act to deal with sensitive appointments during the transition period.

Dr Emmanuel Akwetey believes the last minute appointments being handed to individuals by the outgoing government does not bode well for good governance.

Speaking to Joy News Francis Abban, the governance expert believes something urgent needs to be done to the law to prevent such last minute appointments.

His comments follow the swearing in of the chairpersons of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE).

Questions have been raised about the timing of the confirmation of Joseph Whittal of CHRAJ and Josephine Nkrumah of the NCCE as substantive heads of the two institutions.

With the two positions having a security of tenure critics say the last minute appointment by the defeated John Mahama administration smacks of bad faith, an action meant to tie the hands of the incoming administration.

A suit seeking to overturn the action by the president has been filed by a member of the NPP, Patrick Buamah, with Lawyer Philip Addison as lead counsel.

The NPP transition team has also given a hint it may review some of the last minute decisions being taken by the outgoing administration.

But the outgoing administration has defended the actions taken by president John Mahama.

Environment Minister Mahama Ayariga insists the mandate of the president is still in force until midnight of the 6th of January.

He argued that to ask president Mahama not to make any appointment is to violate the dictates of the constitution which gives the president the power to take decisions until the 6th of January before handing over power.

Discussing the matter on Joy News, the Executive Director of IDEG, Dr Akwetey argued the law must be changed to take care of some of the governance defects.

He said some of the best examples from Australia can help solve some of these problems

You dont always want to do what is legally right. You should also look at the time, the fact that these decisions ideally should have been made earlier, he said.

He noted the fact that the erstwhile Kufuor government committed same errors in 2008 does not give the outgoing Mahama government to repeat same in 2016.

Two wrongs do not make a right. And if we are not careful it will lead to the breakdown of the negotiation.

The law should be looked at so that these behaviors which undermine conditions for the people and collaborative transitions would be dealt with in subsequent times, he said.

We have to evolve, he pointed out and cited a similar situation in Australia where an outgoing prime minister does launch new projects six months prior to his handing over ceremony.

-Myjoyonline
Banjul (Gambia) (AFP) - The Gambia faced prolonged political deadlock Wednesday after strongman Yahya Jammeh, defiant despite his election defeat, said he would await a court ruling likely to be long in coming before ceding power.

Jammeh, who has been in power for 22 years, stunned observers by initially accepting his defeat in the December 1 vote by opposition candidate Adama Barrow, but then flip-flopped a week later, rejecting the results.

His stance has stoked international concerns about the future of the tiny west African country, with the UN joining African leaders in calling for him to step down.

"My rights cannot be violated and intimidated to a point where I succumb to blackmail," Jammeh said in a lengthy televised address late Tuesday, referring to diplomatic efforts by the west African ECOWAS bloc.

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh initially accepted defeat in the December 1 vote by opposition candidate Adama Barrow (pictured) but then flip-flopped a week later

"Unless the court decides the case, there will be no inauguration (of Barrow) on the 19 January," Jammeh added, referring to his petition to the Supreme Court to overturn the election result.

"What we are asking for is not for the IEC (Independent Election Commission) to declare me the winner, I cannot do that," he said.

"I will not cheat but I will not be cheated. Justice must be done and the only way justice can be done is to reorganise the election so that every Gambian votes. That's the only way we can resolve the matter peacefully and fairly."

Buying time

Experts say Jammeh has bought time by taking his appeal to the Supreme Court, which has lain dormant since May 2015.

All its judges have been fired under Jammeh's orders save its chief justice, Nigeria-born Emmanuel Fagbenle. The outgoing president would have to appoint the judges who would sit on the panel and hear his complaint.

President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari (centre) arrives in Banjul on December 13, 2016, for a meeting in a bid to persuade Yahya Jammeh to step down

Complicating matters, the target of Jammeh's complaint, the Independent Electoral Commission that he says made errors requiring a fresh election, is represented by Jammeh's own attorney general.

Even Gambia's own bar association has denounced the system as "fundamentally tainted".

'Big powers' behind ECOWAS

In a fiery monologue, the 51-year-old Jammeh, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1994, denounced ECOWAS and foreign powers who support it for interference in Gambian affairs.

Leaders of ECOWAS -- including Senegal which literally surrounds the landlocked country save its coastal border -- said at the weekend they would attend Barrow's inauguration and "take all necessary actions to enforce the results", without spelling out what those measures might be.

"ECOWAS is trying to force me out," Jammeh said in the televised remarks. "It will not happen... And let me see what ECOWAS and those big powers behind them can do."

Jammeh initially warmly congratulated Barrow after results were declared on December 2.

But a week later he condemned "unacceptable errors" by election authorities and called for a new vote.

"I will not step down, because this is disrespectful of our constitution which says a transition period of 60 days. Even if he had won legally, I have 60 days of transition," he said Tuesday.

The nation's government-in-waiting said on Monday that Jammeh had no constitutional mandate to stay in office beyond January.

"Any president who loses constitutional legitimacy becomes a rebel," said Halifa Sallah, a spokesman for the opposition coalition that spurred Barrow to victory.

But the opposition has also said Jammeh would not face prosecution on leaving office.

Under Jammeh's long rule, The Gambia has remained crushingly poor but enjoyed relative stability -- though rights groups and media watchdogs accuse him of cultivating a climate of fear and crushing dissent.
The minority in Parliament says it would boycott the passage of the Right To Information (RTI) Bill if the necessary consultation is not done by the majority.

Minority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu says the rapid way government is conducting its activities few days to its handing over contravenes the Presidential Transition Act.

Refresh the page for more

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | [email protected]
21.12.2016 LISTEN

President-elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has promised to complete the National Identification card registration in his first year.

He said the project would help his governments decision to formalize the Ghanaian economy through national data.

His government would coalesce the various national identification documents such as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Passport, and the Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).

The National Identification Authority (NIA), an institution set up by erstwhile President John Kufuor in 2003 was to provide storage, protection, and management of the identities of Ghanaians and foreign nationals in the country.

However, the system has been ineffective for the past eight years, a development which many have labeled as a consequence of failing to continue what a political opponent has started.

Former NIA Executive Secretary, Professor Kenneth Attafuah, expressed worry that the Authority has been unable to complete the registration process after a lot of money has been invested in it.

He blamed it on a steady politicisation of the national identification initiative.

Contributing to a programme on Joy FM in July 2016, the criminologist said the failure of the system is one of the colossal miseries of the country.

He wondered why such an initiative could not be managed in order to sustain a credible national identification programme.

The malfunction of the Authority was one of the messages of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the lead up to the December 7 polls.

The party has accused the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) of neglecting the Authority to the detriment of the country.

But Nana Akufo-Addo who defeated incumbent President John Mahama in last two weeks election said he would retool the Authority to work again.

He said his government would also work on the tax regime from the current system which he said "is choking businesses" to a more friendly one that creates jobs.

"The new administration will shift the focus away from taxation to production," he said, adding, "we intend to make Ghana work again."

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | [email protected]
Berlin (AFP) - German police launched a manhunt Wednesday for a rejected asylum seeker suspected of involvement in a deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Officials said the suspect, 24-year-old Tunisian national Anis Amri, had already been under investigation for planning an attack, in a development certain to fuel public outrage.

Asylum office papers believed to belong to Amri, alleged to have links to the radical Islamist scene, were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry used in the attack that killed 12 people.

Prosecutors released a wanted notice with two photos of the dark-haired, brown-eyed suspect and offering a reward of 100,000 euros ($104,000) for information leading to the arrest of Amri, who they warned "could be violent and armed".

Police patrol the area near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, where a speeding lorry crashed into a packed Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring dozens

The interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Ralf Jaeger, said counter-terrorism officials had exchanged information about Amri, most recently in November, and a probe had been launched suspecting he was preparing "a serious act of violence against the state," Jaeger said.

Amri came to Germany in July 2015 but his application for asylum was rejected this June.

His deportation, however, got caught up in red tape with Tunisia, which long denied he was a citizen. The required documents only arrived on Wednesday, two days after the Berlin attack, said Jaeger.

Another conservative lawmaker, Stephan Meyer, acknowledged the suspect had been under police surveillance.

"We are apparently talking about a potentially dangerous suspect who was known to authorities and belonged to the Salafist-Islamist scene," he told reporters.

A previous suspect -- a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker -- was released late Tuesday for lack of evidence, prompting fears of a killer on the loose and further rattling nerves in a shocked country.

Deportation debate

German Federal Police Office are on the hunt for a Tunisian man identified as Anis Amri, suspected of being involved in the Berlin Christmas market attack that killed 12 people on December 19

Twelve people were killed when the Polish-registered articulated truck, laden with steel beams, slammed into the crowded holiday market late Monday, smashing wooden stalls and crushing victims.

Six of the dead have been identified as German while media reported one of the victims as an Italian woman.

Twenty-four people remain in hospital, 14 of whom were seriously injured.

The scenes revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency said "a soldier of the Islamic State" carried out the Berlin carnage "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries".

There was no evidence to back the claim, nor did Amaq identify the perpetrator.

Germany is part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

Authorities prepare to tow away the truck that ploughed into a Christmas market on December 19, 2016, near Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin

Tunisia is one of the biggest suppliers of jihadist fighters, with some 5,500 of its nationals believed to be involved in combat in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

The Berlin attack comes at a delicate time for Chancellor Angela Merkel who is running for a fourth term in 2017 but has faced strong criticism over her decision last year to open the country's borders to refugees.

The case inflamed the debate about asylum policy in general, and in particular the speed at which rejected asylum seekers can be deported.

Germany this year moved to declare Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as safe countries of origin, to raise the bar for asylum requests after last year's record influx of around 890,000 people.

But the bill has been stuck in the upper house for months over human rights concerns in those countries.

Meanwhile the country boosted security measures in the wake of Monday's attack, beefing up the police presence at train stations, airports and at its borders with Poland and France.

Germany in mourning

People mourn at a makeshift memorial with flowers and candles in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, two days after the truck attack at the nearby Christmas market in central Berlin, on December 21, 2016

A Polish man, killed with a gunshot, was found in the truck's passenger seat. The 37-year-old Pole named Lukasz worked for his cousin Ariel Zurawski's transport company in northern Poland.

Zurawski described him as a "good guy" and said his body showed signs of a struggle with the assailant or assailants including stab marks.

"One person would not have been able to overpower him," Zurawski said of the heavyset relative he had grown up with.

"We could see injuries. His face was bloodied and swollen," he told private news channel TVN 24, referring to a photo he received from Polish police.

An autopsy indicated that the driver was still alive at the time of the attack, the daily Bild reported.

Merkel visited the scene of the carnage for a minute's silence on Tuesday and then joined a service in the adjacent Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

Mourners placed flowers and candles at the site while German flags flew at half-mast and Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate was lit in the national colours in honour of the victims.

Europe has been on high alert for most of 2016, with bloody jihadist attacks striking Paris since last year and Brussels.

In Germany, two attacks in July in the southern state of Bavaria were committed by asylum seekers and claimed by IS.
21.12.2016 LISTEN



By Maxwell Ofori, Parliament House

( [email protected] )

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, Minority Leader in Parliament, has expressed worry over the delay of the Administrator General to furnish the House with a copy of the handing over notes to enable them get up to speed information on the state of the outgoing government.

He could not fathom why the legislature had not been given its copy of the handing over notes, which breaches the Presidential Transition Act 2012, Act 845.

Presidential (Transition) Act, 2012 is an Act that establishes arrangements for the political transfer of administration from one democratically elected President, to another democratically elected President, to provide for regulation of the political transfer of power and for related matters, which was assented on May 31, 2012.

On the floor of Parliament yesterday, the outgoing Minority Leader noted, quoting section 6 of the above Act that, thirty days before the Presidential elections, those handing over notes ought to have been ready and in the custody of the Administrator General.



Section 6 (1) of the Presidential (Transition) Act 2012, states that the Office of the President shall prepare a set of comprehensive handing-over notes covering the term of office, of the President as the Executive authority under article 58 of the Constitution.

It is worth noting that the section 6 of the Act provides in its subsequent subsections that the prepared handing over notes included those received by the President and the ministers on assumption of office, and notes on the activities of the Office of the President, Vice-President, Ministries, departments and agencies, as well as regional ministers and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).

However, concerns raised by the Member of Parliament for Suame Constituency, who retained his seat on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), followed business statement read by the Majority Leader and Leader of Government business in the House, Alban Bagbin, did not capture the receipt of the handing over notes as stipulated by the Act.

In his comment, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu explained, per the Act that, two months to the handing over, there should be accounts of where the State was, and Parliament should be accordingly furnished with the relevant handing over notes. The House also was to receive notes on the projections of government from November 7 to January 6, 2017.

That indeed will inform the conduct of business of this House. Mr. Speaker, so I sought to know the handing over notes because Article 7 of the Act provides that the Administrator General shall make available to a person elected as President the original copies of the handing over notes.

On the other hand, subsection (4) of section 6 stipulates that, the original and five other copies of the handing-over notes shall be presented to the Administrator-General but of the five other copies, the Administrator-General shall retain one copy, and one copy shall be sent respectively to Parliament, the Chief Justice, the Council of State, and the Public Records and Archives Administration.

So Parliament ought to be given for us to know the conduct of business between 7th January 2013 to 7th November 2016 and also know the projections in the two months i.e. between 7th November and 6th January, he stressed.

Meanwhile, the Majority Leader and MP for Nadwoli/Kaleo who also retained his seat for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alban Kinsford Sumani Bagbin, responded that it was not the mandate of Parliament to hand over notes but to receive the handing over notes, adding that if Parliament had not yet been given the handing over notes, Parliament cannot be held responsible for that delay in being given the handing over notes.

He continued that, the wheel of Government machinery must roll till the end of the four years as stated by the Constitution.

And that's exactly what we are doing. I don't know which business here is a new business unknown to this House. The businesses that we are dealing with here mostly are businesses dealing with waiver of taxes on agreements that we have already approved, he added.
21.12.2016 LISTEN

By Joyce Danso

Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood, Chief Justice, has noted that the provision of accommodation to judges continues to remain a challenge to the Judicial Service.

According to Mrs Wood, the engagement of more judges by the Judicial Service, as part of its reforms, had invariably resulted in an increase in the number of judges who required accommodation from the state.

She said: Presently, only 69 out of 143 superior court judges had been provided with official accommodation, resulting in a deficit of 74 judges without official accommodation.

The Chief Justice made this known at the inauguration of a five-storey block of executive flats for 10 High Court judges at Roman Ridge in Accra, at a cost of GH8 million.

Christened Liberty Court, each flat consists of three bedrooms, living/dining rooms, a study room, a laundry room, with two-bedroom out-house.

Standard furnishing has been provided for each of the 10 flats. Rev Seth Ayettey dedicated the building to God.

As part of conditions of service of judges, they were to be allocated fully furnished residential accommodation.

The Chief Justice recounted that the Judicial Service, in 2010, embarked on a project to redevelop some of its old bungalow sites into modern residential facilities to house judges.

She said the contract for bungalows was awarded in December 2010, adding: Sadly, the construction came to a standstill in 2013 as a result of funding constraints from the government.

However, Mrs Wood said the Judicial Service obtained authorisation from the Ministry of Finance to use part of its internally generated funds to complete the project.

She recalled that at the end of September 2013, three out of six units of four-bedroom flats were completed at East Ridge, and three Court of Appeal judges occupied them.

The second phase, involving the construction of three two-storey buildings, is in progress and expected to be completed in 2017.

However, the construction of four two-bedroom bungalows at Danyame, Kumasi, for Court of Appeal Judges has come to a standstill, due to funding challenges, the Chief Justice said.

She commended the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, the Judicial Council and constructors for good job done.

I pray that our noble justices and their families who occupy this facility enjoy this facility, Mrs Wood said.

Mr Justice Alex B. Poku Acheampong, Judicial Secretary, noted that the judiciary has had serious challenge over accommodation, noting that the newly built flats were a great gift.

Mr Kofi Arhin, Project Consultant, urged the judges hold in high esteem the maintenance culture, and alert him whenever they were any defects, adding: Early defects save cost.

Source: GNA


21.12.2016 LISTEN

By John Bediako

Drama unfolded at Ashaiman, near Tema, on Monday, December 19, 2016, when a member of suspected robbers, who had gone to rob from a phone and money transfer shop at Ashaiman was accidentally shot by one of his own colleagues, killing him instantly. The bullets pierced through his head and opened a deep gash at the back of his head.

The fallen suspected robber was later identified as a 35-year old Yaw Doamekpor, an ex-convict from Nsawam prison two years ago. The deceased, dressed in a National Democratic Congress (NDC) T-shirt, was found to be carrying SMG (Sub Machine Gun) with five rounds of ammunition.

The Tema Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Paul Manly Awini who confirmed the story to The Chronicle said his men are investigating it and that his outfit would not relent until other members of the gang had been busted.

The gangsters, according to the Regional Police boss, are suspected to be remnants of a notorious group the police, a few weeks ago, dismantled in a fierce encounter and that they might be making efforts to regroup.

Information gathered by The Chronicle revealed that at about 21:00 hours GMT, a shop attendant, known only as TT, at a container shop  COME AND SEE VENTURES -which deals in mobile money transactions and also sells mobile phones, accessories and scratch cards at Soweto, a suburb of Ashaiman, was about rounding up business for the day when 3 young men arrived on a motorbike.

Two of the robbers entered the shop while the rider remained on the get-away bike in front of the shop. The first robber entered the shop and engaged the shop attendant in a conversation, after which the second robber entered and pointed a pistol at the attendant.

At this juncture, the first robber starting picking up phones, scratch cards and money into a bag that was hanging on his neck. The gunman then joined his colleague to help in collecting the items from the bewildered attendant.

For unknown reasons, the robber brandishing the pistol started shouting at the shop attendant to leave the shop whilst at the same time urging his colleague to hurry up.

In the course of shouting at the attendant, the pistol he was holding went off and the bullets hit the deceased, sending him to the ground.

Upon seeing that his colleague had fallen, the pistol brandishing robber ran to the bike and sped off with the rider, with part of the booty.

The attendant ran out of the shop and stood on the street, looking helplessly into the shop. The shop owner, one Sylvanus, later appeared on the scene and when he asked the shop attendant what was going on, all the latter could say was attack, attack.

The shop owner quickly rushed to close the doors of the shop, so that if the robber was alive he would be trapped. When he got closer, however, he realised that the robber was lying dead in a pool of blood, with a loaded G3 military gun in his bag, together with some of the stolen items. He then called the police.
21.12.2016 LISTEN





From Issah Alhassan, Kumasi..

Members of the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regional Council of Elders of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have commended Ghanaians for their massive show of support and endorsement of the message of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

They have further commended the President-elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and his Vice, Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, as well as executives of the party, for the resounding victory in the December 7 elections.

At a joint press briefing held at the residence of the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Council of Elders, Mr. Apenteng Appiah Menkah, in Kumasi, the NPP advisory team said the efforts of the executives, from the polling station to the national level, must be fully appreciated.

They observed that the unity and cooperation within the party, which culminated in the eventual victory, must be sustained now that the party and the incoming President seek to fulfill the numerous promises made to Ghanaians.

Pledging their unflinching and continuous support for the incoming administration, the leaders appealed to Ghanaians to also rally behind the President-elect and his team, to be able to transform the countrys economy and ensure prosperity for all.

The NPP Council of Elders observed that the victory of the party signified Ghanaians resolve for change in the political and economic direction of this country.

Mr. Appiah Menkah, who also doubles as a member of the National Council of Elders, urged Nana Akufo-Addo and his team to remain focused on turning the economic fortunes of the country around, since it was the main reason why Ghanaians overwhelmingly voted the NPP into power.

The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Council of Elders further expressed joy at the enthusiasm displayed by the youth of this country towards the elections, stressing that they should be the foundation upon which the prosperity of the country must be built.

On his part, the Brong Ahafo Regional Chairman of the Council, Mr. J. K Awuah, also commended the media for its role in the elections, and urged them to continue to remain neutral in their duties.

Present at the news conference were eminent members of the council, including Mr. George Ayisi Boateng, Mrs. Mary Duodu, Mrs. Georgina Boakye Yiadom, Nana Kusi Obuodom II, who is the Regional Secretary, Alhaji Baye, J. K Osei 17, Nana Kofi Awuah and Kwame Antwi Frimpong, all representatives of the Ashanti Region.

The Brong Ahafo Regional Council was represented by its Chairman, Mr. J. K Awuah, and other members.
21.12.2016 LISTEN

Ghana's President-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday paid homage to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Akufo-Addo, who was in Nigeria for the Future of Africa Awards held in Lagos, said his visit to the Villa gave him opportunity to wish Buhari happy birthday.

Ghana's President-elect spoke with State House correspondents after meeting President Buhari. He said: I came on a private visit to Lagos on Sunday to participate in the Future of Africa Awards and I thought it is proper that I take that opportunity to come to Abuja to pay my respect to the President.

I have been elected but I have not taken the oath of office. That will be taking place on January 7. But in the meantime, I have come to introduce myself to President Buhari so that we begin to know each other.

The relationship between our two countries is so important for our countries, West Africa and Africa. I think those of us who are in positions of leadership need to know each other and have an understanding and address the main concerns of our populations.

I had the opportunity to say a belated happy birthday to the President. His birthday is an important day in my life because that day is my late mother's birthday.

We had a very good exchange. We are determined to grow the relationship between our two countries.

In a related development, the President-elect of Ghana, on Monday said he will improve on the existing relationship between Nigeria and Ghana during his tenure as president.

Akufo-Addo spoke at the Imo Day of Thanksgiving held in Owerri. According to him, Nigeria/Ghana relationship should set a good example for the rest of West Africa.

I am determined, following the mandate my people have conferred on me to do everything to establish good relations with the leadership of this great country, Nigeria because together we can work for the construction of a better Africa, he said.

Akufo-Addo said that Ghanaians valued their relationship with Nigeria which dated back to decades, stressing that the stronger the relationship, the better for the rest of Africa.

He praised the leadership spirit of his host, Gov. Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, and called on the people to give him maximum support. Credit: thenationonlineng.net




Miami (AFP) - Giving schoolgirls in the developing world lessons on puberty and free sanitary pads can help boost their attendance at school and may offer them long-term economic benefits, a study said Wednesday.

The report in the US journal PLOS ONE is based on research by the University of Oxford involving 1,000 girls at eight schools in Uganda.

At two of the schools, girls were not given sanitary pads or puberty lessons to discuss how to manage their monthly periods.

At those schools, girls tended to miss, on average, the equivalent of three and a half days per month, according to the researchers.

Their levels of absenteeism were 17 percent higher than schools at which girls received pads, puberty education, or a combination of both, said the study.

The research spanned 18 months and took place in the impoverished Kamuli district, a rural area with some of the highest illiteracy and fertility rates in the world.

"Many girls don't know about periods before they encounter their first one," said lead researcher Paul Montgomery from the University of Oxford's Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention.

"They are totally unprepared because they receive no information or training on how to manage them," he added.

"Just by giving girls lessons in puberty or a purpose-built sanitary pad means they were more likely to stay at school during their periods, minimizing the risk of disruption to their schooling."

An earlier pilot study in Ghana, also by the University of Oxford, found that the onset of menstruation appeared to set off a "sequence of negative events for girls, with implications for their health, safety, learning, fertility, community involvement, and economic autonomy," according to the authors.

Menstruation is often taboo in developing countries and girls can have difficulty finding clean material to absorb their periods, leading to shame and stigma and causing many girls to stay home from their lessons.

An education gender gap then develops, particularly in middle school and beyond.

"In Uganda, only 22 percent of girls were enrolled in secondary schools compared with 91 percent of girls in primary schools, with those living in rural areas being the least likely group to go to school," said the study.

In the Kamuli district, just 54 percent of girls at the local secondary schools are able to read, compared with 69 percent of boys, it said.

The research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council as part of a project called "Menstruation and the Cycle of Poverty," in collaboration with the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London.

"Simple interventions like these can have major long-term economic implications for women in low and middle income countries, which socially empowers them," said Montgomery.
21.12.2016 LISTEN

A group of university students in Ghana have built a machine for printing items in three-dimension.

It took two weeks for the five inventors, aged between 21 and 25, to build the device from electronic waste and environmentally-friendly local materials.

The group was motivated by repeated calls by experts for investment in such innovation as key to transforming Ghanas economy.

The group, which calls itself KLAKS 3D, comprise students of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) as well as University of Mines and Technology (UMAT).

They are Kobina Abakah-Paintsil, Emmanuel Kweku Mensah and Loic Avegnon - all from UMAT and their KNUST counterparts Ama Agyapongmaa Amponsah and Isaac Nyankum.

Leader of the group is Kobina Abakah-Paintsil. He has been sharing how the group started work.

We had a problem with packaging, since we also like practical things we got fed up from always having to imagine things our lecturers have been saying and teaching, he explained.

He continued 3D printing was an avenue for us to explore in the sense that we could actually make whatever we needed in the physical realm for us to see.

Isaac Nyankum, another group member, expressed worry at the rate of visiting factories for easy and customised educational materials.

The initiative promises to stop what has become the norm to go to industry to make something small at a very high cost which actually could just be printed, using the normal ink-jet printer.

Unlike existing 3D printers on the market, this one is made from local materials and electronic waste.

The screws, rots, square-pipes, motors from spoilt printers and photocopiers, bike tubes as well as land cables, are some of the materials collected from Agblogbloshie and other big markets around.

With the exception of the electronics which are not made in Ghana, basically everything is locally sourced including the e-waste.

What we considered was the fact that we have so much e-waste around. There is the potential of making new things out of what people have discarded as waste. So we take advantage of that.

Going this way means it reduces the cost of the printer drastically rather than having to import everything. It is a little bit cost effective, Kobina added.

According to Kobina Abakah-Painstil, the teams goal is to see the printers used to enhance teaching and learning in basic schools.

The design is an open source design. The young innovators used two weeks to improve upon it.

The team project in 5 to 10 years time that these printers will be used in every single basic school, JHS and SHS to enhance the teaching and learning experience.

Kumasi-based incubation hub, Kumasi Hive, which encourages innovators of all types, has stepped in to support the group.

Co-founder and Head of Incubator Program, Anna Lowe, believes investing in engineering businesses is critical for national development.

We need to give business support to engineering and hardware companies especially on systematisation.

KLAKS 3D does have the potential to be scaled up. The fact that it uses e-waste, it means they must secure a supply chain of components that are being recycled.

It has already sold one of the printers to a non-governmental organisation, and the team reports high demand for it.
Berlin (AFP) - German authorities triggered a Europe-wide manhunt Wednesday for a rejected asylum seeker suspected of involvement in a deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Officials said the suspect, 24-year-old Tunisian national Anis Amri, had already been under investigation for planning an attack, in a development certain to fuel public outrage.

Asylum office papers believed to belong to Amri, alleged to have links to the radical Islamist scene, were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry that rammed through the crowd, killing 11.

The twelfth victim, the hijacked truck's driver, was found shot in the cab.

Police patrol the area near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, where a speeding lorry crashed into a packed Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring dozens

Prosecutors released a European wanted notice with two photos of the dark-haired, brown-eyed suspect and offering a reward of 100,000 euros ($104,000) for information leading to the arrest of Amri, who they warned "could be violent and armed".

Tunisian anti-terrorism police were questioning Anis' family, a security official told AFP, as another source said he had been arrested several times in Tunisia for alleged drug use.

He fled to Italy after the 2011 revolution that overthrew longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and spent three years there before travelling on to Germany, the source said.

"When I saw the picture of my brother in the media, I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm in shock, and can't believe it's him who committed this crime," his brother Abdelkader Amri told AFP.

But "if he's guilty, he deserves every condemnation. We reject terrorism and terrorists -- we have no dealings with terrorists."

Deportation debate

German Federal Police Office are on the hunt for a Tunisian man identified as Anis Amri, suspected of being involved in the Berlin Christmas market attack that killed 12 people on December 19

The interior minister of Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia state, Ralf Jaeger, said counter-terrorism officials had exchanged information about Amri, most recently in November, and a probe had been launched suspecting he was preparing "a serious act of violence against the state," Jaeger said.

Prosecutors in Berlin later said that Amri was under investigation for allegedly trying to carry out a robbery to fund the purchase of automatic weapons, "possibly to carry out an attack with accomplices he still hoped to recruit".

But after keeping tabs on him from March until September this year, they failing to find evidence of the plot and stopped the surveillance.

Amri came to Germany in July 2015 but his application for asylum was rejected this June.

His deportation, however, got caught up in red tape with Tunisia, which long denied he was a citizen.

The required documents only arrived Wednesday, two days after the Berlin attack, said Jaeger.

A conservative lawmaker, Stephan Meyer, told reporters Amri was apparently "known to authorities and belonged to the Salafist-Islamist scene".

Authorities prepare to tow away the truck that ploughed into a Christmas market on December 19, 2016, near Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin

A previous suspect -- a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker -- was released late Tuesday for lack of evidence, prompting fears of a killer on the loose and further rattling nerves in a shocked country.

Six of the dead have been identified as German while media reported one of the victims was an Italian woman.

Twenty-four people remain in hospital, 14 of whom were seriously injured.

The scenes of the attack revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency said "a soldier of the Islamic State" carried out the Berlin carnage "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries".

There was no evidence to back the claim, nor did Amaq identify the perpetrator.

Germany is part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

Tunisia is one of the biggest sources of jihadist fighters, with some 5,500 of its nationals believed to be involved in combat in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

People mourn at a makeshift memorial with flowers and candles in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, two days after the truck attack at the nearby Christmas market in central Berlin, on December 21, 2016

The Berlin attack comes at a delicate time for Chancellor Angela Merkel who is running for a fourth term in 2017 but has faced strong criticism over her decision last year to open the country's borders to refugees.

The case has inflamed the debate about asylum policy in general, and in particular the speed at which rejected asylum seekers can be deported.

Germany this year moved to declare Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as safe countries of origin, to raise the bar for asylum requests after last year's record influx of around 890,000 people.

But the bill has been stuck in the upper house for months over human rights concerns in those countries.

High alert

A Polish man, killed with a gunshot, was found in the articulated truck's passenger seat. The 37-year-old Pole named Lukasz worked for his cousin Ariel Zurawski's transport company in northern Poland.

Zurawski told Polish television he was a "good guy" and said his body showed signs of a struggle with the assailant or assailants including stab marks.

An autopsy indicated that the driver was still alive at the time of the attack, the daily Bild reported.

Europe has been on high alert for most of 2016, with bloody jihadist attacks striking Paris since last year and Brussels.

In Germany, two attacks in July in the southern state of Bavaria were committed by asylum seekers and claimed by IS.
21.12.2016 LISTEN

On Monday, December 19, 2016, I received my Ghanaian passport at the Ghana Embassy in Washington, D.C. Having been disappointed by the missions services and having taken to the media to express my frustrations and that of many Ghanaians who require similar services from the embassy, I also find it extremely important to shed light on my encounter with senior embassy staff on Monday, December 19, 2016, when I returned to collect my passport.

When I returned to the embassy on the aforementioned date to pick up my passport, the senior staff of the embassy responsively engaged me to explain current operational processes and the ongoing restructuring of the processes to me. What I took out of this engagement is that they are interested in understanding user or customer experience and perception in the hopes of removing some of the bottlenecks that engender some of the frustrations I narrated in my earlier opinion piece.

I must acknowledge that the embassy in Washington, D.C., and, perhaps, many Ghanaian missions and embassies around the world are undergoing restructuring to make the acquisition of Ghanaian passports, visas, and any other consular services easily accessible and available to Ghanaians and foreigners, eliminating some of the bottlenecks that obviously frustrate their customers.

In my case in particular, it became clear after our discussion that my application was one of the test cases in a bid to establish durable protocols for the running of the biometric passport by the systems managers. As to be expected with trial cases, there were hitches that were not envisaged when a date was assigned to me to pick up my passport. Instead of contacting me with an update regarding the difficulty, the embassy failed in that direction. While this was very frustrating, I also came to appreciate the strenuous conditions under which embassy staff are operating to establish working protocols that are meant to eliminate delays within the system. From this new perspective, it is clear to me that I could have been issued with the old passport without some of the hitches I encountered. In this case, it would have saved me the frustration of having to return to the embassy many times for the same purpose. For the embassy staff, it would have saved them the unsavory media attention. This option would also mean that I would have to return to the embassy again at a later date in the near future to begin the process to acquire the biometric passport, as Ghana is moving toward a universal biometric compliance in the next few months. I am glad I do not have to return to the embassy in a short time to start another process to be biometric complaint. I thank the staff for that administrative decision.

I also acknowledge that there was an overreach on my part that placed embassy staff in a bad light. This was as a result of the frustration caused by the situation. Both sides (my side and the side of embassy staff), however, agreed that this situation was avoidable with a simple email to update all users, including me, about the process, so we do not have to travel to the embassy many times before collecting our passports or accessing other consular services. Lessons have been learnt by both sides that should go a long way to help the embassy in their continuing effort to make services to users or customers better.

Prosper Yao Tsikata, Ph.D
MARSHALL (JG-TC) -- Two people accused of killing a man and hiding his body near one of the suspect's homes in Clark County pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges Wednesday.

Karla A. Kelly and Eric A. Wycoff entered the plea to charges alleging they killed Dennis M. Bates, a 57-year old Champaign County man whose body was found in May.

Kelly, 45, of Paris and Wycoff, 46, of Marshall were first charged with concealing a homicide, and they both pleaded not guilty to those charges in June.

The murder charges were filed against both suspects last month. The charges accuse the two suspects of beating Bates with some kind of object, causing injuries that led to his death.

After Kelly and Wycoff entered their not-guilty pleas Wednesday, their trial was tentatively scheduled for March 7. Pretrial hearings on any motions filed and to review the status of the cases were set for Jan. 9.

Kelly and Wycoff were arrested on May 5 on charges of being in possession of a stolen 1993 Chevrolet pickup truck belonging to Bates and concealing his death.

The two were arrested along Illinois Route 1 in Marshall after Bates' family members reported his pickup missing to police in Tolono in Champaign County, where he lived.

According to court records, police officers subsequently located the body of Bates wrapped in a tarp in woods approximately 60 yards from Wycoff's home in rural Marshall. An autopsy determined that Bates had suffered blunt force trauma to his head and chest, and strangulation.
Banjul (Gambia) (AFP) - The Gambia's top court on Wednesday said it was adjourning until January 10 a case filed by strongman Yahya Jammeh, who is seeking to annul the results of the country's presidential elections.

The Supreme Court, presided by Nigerian-born Chief Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle, ordered the adjournment because the chief defendant -- the country's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) -- had not been summonsed to attend.

Jammeh, in power for 22 years, was defeated by opposition candidate Adama Barrow in the December 1 poll.

Barrow's inauguration is due to take place on January 19.

Jammeh initially accepted the result but then reversed position a week later, stoking international concerns about the future of the tiny west African country.

His complaint to the court is about alleged irregularities in the ballot count by the IEC and charges that in one region his supporters were intimidated.

Jammeh's lawyer, Edward Gomez, informed the court that the IEC had not been served with a summons by Jammeh, the plaintiff.

As a result, Gomez argued, it was in the interest of justice to give time for the IEC to receive the papers requiring it to attend.

'In view of the case that the Independent Electoral Commission is not served, I hereby order that the case is adjourned till 10 January," Judge Fagbenle announced.

Gomez told reporters afterwards: "Going to court is a right and is a process, and nobody should deny a party that right.

People hold a banner reading "Gambia made its choice, let's respect it" during a protest in support of Gambia by Senegalese NGOs and civil rights groups in Dakar on December 17, 2017

"That is all we are saying and at the end of the day it is the ruling of the court that matters. And I believe we will all abide by it and respect it."

Experts say Jammeh has bought time for his bid to stay in office by taking his appeal to a court that has lain dormant since May 2015 and whose judges had been fired under Jammeh's orders save Fagbenle.

Court sources said six foreign judges, excluding Fagbenle, have now been appointed by Jammeh to serve on the Supreme Court.

Out of the total seven judges, five would hear the petition. If a review of the decision is sought by one of the parties, the case would then be considered by the full seven-member panel, the sources said.
21.12.2016 LISTEN

Accra, Dec. 21, GNA - Standard Chartered Bank has announced the appointment of Kweku Bedu-Addo as CEO of the Southern Africa Region comprising Mauritius, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola and South Africa.

The appointment is subject to regulatory approval.

Mr. Bedu-Addo has worked for Standard Chartered Group for over sixteen years, six of which was as CEO for Ghana.

In October 2015, he was appointed CEO for the West Africa 2 cluster comprising Ghana, Sierra Leone and The Gambia.

Prior to becoming CEO, Mr. Bedu-Addo was a Managing Director in the Wholesale Bank Division of the Standard Chartered Bank Group during which he worked in several countries including Zambia, Singapore and across West Africa with responsibilities in origination, coverage and project management.

Commenting on his appointment, Mr. Bedu-Addo said: "It has been both a great privilege and a big responsibility as the first Ghanaian to be entrusted with the affairs of the Bank in its 120 year presence in Ghana.

'I move on to a bigger responsibility confident that I am leaving behind a strong institution that will continue to facilitate wealth creation and economic growth in Ghana.

'I thank all stakeholders for their support and cooperation during my tenure."

Commenting on Mr. Bedu-Addo's imminent departure, Board Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank Ghana, Mr. Ishmael Yamson said: "It's been a delight working with Kweku Bedu-Addo.

'He is a well respected and highly regarded professional and we wish him all the best in his new expanded role elsewhere on the continent".

With this appointment, Mr. Bedu-Addo will be stepping down from some of his other affiliations which include Chairman, Ghana Stock Exchange Council; Vice Chairman, Ghana Fixed Income Market; Vice President, Ghana Association of Bankers among others.

GNA
By William Fiabu GNA

Accra, Dec. 21, GNA - TEAM CSR Ghana, a local NGO with support from the Spinal Clinic Limited, has built a borehole for the Adomi community in the Eastern Region.

The Spinal Clinic Ltd provided the funding of the borehole through its NGO arm, Chiropractic Around the World.

Dr Bryan Cox, who is the author of the book, 'Dr. Spine goes to school', said that part of the proceeds from the sale of the book was used to provide water for needy communities.

Members of Tau Chi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity known as, 'The Ghana Ques', volunteered their time to sensitize the community on the proper use of water and sanitation in their community to prevent diseases such as cholera.

He said the joint effort would continue to be replicated in needy communities.

Mr Jonathan Akuamoah, CEO of TEAM CSR Ghana, said, his outfit would continue to highlight communities in need of water for the Spinal Clinic and other corporate bodies.

Nana Yaw Ampem Darko Junior, the Assemblyman of the community, thanked all parties and expressed the hope that other groups would follow suit in the spirit of the holidays as well as year round.

GNA
By Erica Apeatua Addo, GNA

Tarkwa (W/R), Dec. 21, GNA - Stephen Prah, 19, a salesman was on Tuesday granted bail in a sum of GH14,000.00 by the Tarkwa Circuit Court for allegedly stealing GH18,634.00.belonging to his employer.

Prah pleaded not guilty and would re-appear before the court on Wednesday January 11, 2017.

Prosecuting, Detective Chief Inspector Oscar Amponsah, told the court that the complainant, Henry Baker, is the branch manager of Fast Telecom in Tarkwa while the accused is a former employee of the company.

Chief Inspector Amponsah said on November 28 this year, Prah was sent with GH18,634.00 to purchase credit cards from Vodafone's office in Tarkwa.

He said after he received the money, he went into hiding and the complainant subsequently reported the matter to the police.

Chief Inspector Amponsah said one December 3, the complainant saw Prah at the Prestea police barrier and managed to arrest and handed him over to the Railways police.

He said during investigations Prah admitted the offence in his caution statement and led the police to a hotel in Prestea where an amount of GH3,100.00 was retrieved from under the bed in the room where he lodged.

The accused person also told the police that he had given GH10,000.00 to one Joel in Takoradi, a travelling agent to enable him travel to South Africa, but he failed to lead the police to the said individual.

GNA
MATTOON -- In the final days before winter break, Williams Elementary School students headed to the Brookstone Estates facility for senior citizens to visit with the residents living there as a part of a monthly Fit-2-Serve program.

Tuesday, a kindergarten and fourth-grade class took a trip to Brookstone to interact with the seniors, some of whom do not see many visitors. There, they talked, sang carols in time for Christmas, and made fleece tie blankets that were later be donated to Mattoon Area PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter), Salvation Army, Choices Pregnancy Center and Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA).

This, however, was not their first time visiting the facility, which was evident by some of those in the home showing an interest in seeing the elementary school students.

They have visited before in previous months as part of the Project Lifespan program, and for those like Mary Hill Dobb, Brookstone resident, it has been something to look forward to.

Weve all got grands and greats scattered around but we don't get to see them, she said.

She said seeing these students is reminiscent of seeing her own grandchildren.

As part of the program, Williams fourth-graders and kindergartners, along Mattoon High School Family Consumer Science and Child Care Occupations students, see residents of six senior living facilities once a month, Fit-2-Serve Director Bill Duey said.

During their visits, the students make crafts with the residents of the senior living place -- crafts that have shown up still hanging on the doors of some of the residents' doors.

The companionship with the kids is enlightening for those in the retirement home, said Bev Cobble, Brookstone program activities coordinator. She said many of them either don't see their family or don't have any so these activities with the youth are meaningful for them.

Beyond the benefit of company for those in the home, the program is meant to serve the students as well.

The program started in September. In partnership with Williams, Duey said he and others saw an opportunity to set up a scenario where intergenerational learning can take place. This would be a scenario in which both the younger and older would get something out of talking with one another.

Erin Clifford, Mattoon High School teacher involved in the program, said the young and the old connect with both sides getting some form of insight.

(We) recognize that our young people can be good teachers and learners, but also our seniors can be good teachers and learners, Duey said. This is a way to kind of celebrate connections across generations.

Hill Dobb said when they come, she gets reinvigorated in their generation's future, recalling a moment she saw during one of their visits.

I was amazed at this one little guy, how giving he was, she said. They were passing out some treats and there wasn't enough to go around. All of a sudden, it ran out and he took his and gave it to the next person How do you comprehend that a kindergartner has this insight?

Hill Dobb described the experience of these visits simply as "mutual joy."

Duey said the plan is for this program to continue each month. He noted he hopes this ignites interest in these students to actively seek out more community involvement later in life, potentially even by visiting a senior living facility to visit with some of those they might have spoken with.
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- The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has said it will take to the streets of Enugu in protest of President Muhammadu Buhari visit to the state

- The group said its members have unanimously agreed that Buhari is not welcomed in the South-East a region which has been termed the Bifaran land

- President Muhammadu Buhari is scheduled to attend the Economic and Security Summit with former president Olusegun Obasanjo

Members of the IPOB have vowed to protest Buhari's visit in Enugu

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has said it will embark on a protest on Thursday, December 22, in Enugu state.

The group said the protest will be in agitation of President Muhammadu Buharis visit to the region on that day.

President Buhari is set to visit Enugu for an economic and security summit alongside former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

The summit chaired by former minister of power Barth Nnaji will focus of insecurities in the region and possible ways of curbing them.

READ ALSO: Biafra: SHOW DOWN as 16 members of European parliament move against FG

IPOB said: From the foregoing, it is crystal clear that Buhari is not welcome in Biafra land because his coming is tantamount to biting off our nose to spite our face.

Therefore, we warn Muhammadu Buhari to stay away from Biafra land to avoid unpleasant consequences on him and those inviting him. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, IPOB said.

The group also listed reasons why President Buhari must never set foot in the South-East.

In a statement released by its spokespersons Emma Nmezu and Clifford Iroanya, the IPOB accused President Buhari of complacency in various attacks in the region.

The group said its members have unanimously agreed that Buhari is not welcomed in the South-East a region which has been termed the Bifaran land.

READ ALSO: FACE OFF! Buhari set to storm South-East despite IPOB's threat

We recall that on the 2nd of June, 2016, Mrs Bridget Agbahime, a 74-year old Biafran trader was beheaded at Kofar Wambai Market in Kano by five Islamic fundamentalists, IPOB said.

The group said despite the attack on Agbahime, there was condemnation from President Buhari.

To make matters worse, the killers were freed unconditionally from detention on November 3, 2016 by a Magistrate court in Kano presided over by Jibrin Muhammed.

Under the watch of Buhari, the case has been closed and the killers are free to go ahead and carry out more killings for Allah and for Prophet Muhammed.

On April 25, 500 Hausa-Fulani terrorists who go by the name Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders' Association Of Nigeria (MACBAN) invaded Nimbo Community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area (LGA) of Enugu state and slaughtered Biafrans and burnt 11 residential houses and some churches, the group said.

In addition, IPOB said, various reports gave a conservative figure of 40 Biafrans who were slaughtered in Enugu.

READ ALSO: Biafra: Nnamdi kanus supporters deny Christianity (photos, video)

The group accused the president of nonchalance to the incident even when he received a call from the governor of the state.

Till date, Buhari and his acolytes have not condemned the killings. We have to remind the public that Muhammadu Buhari is the official Grand Patron of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders' Association Of Nigeria (Macban).

According to the Vanguard Newspaper report of April 4, 2016, the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ahmad Muhammad confirmed that Hausa-Fulani terrorists invaded the community of Ohali-Elu town in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA of Rivers state, Biafraland and killed 12 people including a priest.

Prior to that incidence, on the 5th of January, 2016, the Buhari-supported Hausa-Fulani terrorists abducted the King of Ubulu-Uku Kingdom, His Royal Majesty, Akaeze Edward Ofulue III and killed him in the forest.

Typically, no words of condemnation from Buhari and his acolytes and nobody was arrested and prosecuted, IPOB said.

Source: Legit.ng
A UK court has ordered the immediate release of former Delta state governor, James Onanefe Ibori from prison on Wednesday, December 21.

The Cable reports that associates of the former governor said the court ruled that Ibori be released before his confiscation trial begins.

Vanguard also confirms that the former governor was subsequently released from custody shortly after the ruling.

READ ALSO: What Nigerians have to say about Ibori's release

According to his media aide, Tony Elumenor, Ibori was released few minutes past noon in adherence to the court order.

Ibori was sentenced to 13-year imprisonment in the United Kingdom on corruption charges in April 17, 2012.

The home office wanted the court to resolve if the politician could be released without going through confiscation trial so they went to court for interpretation and it was resolved in Iboris favour.

The confiscation trial is to determine if his assets should be seized after serving his jail term.

Meanwhile, Asaba, the Delta state capital, is still pessimistic over the release of the former governor.

Former senator representing Delta central in the National Assembly, Chief Ighoyota Amori, in a text message to journalists confirmed that the Ibori has been released from the UK prison.

He said the release is without condition just as he congratulated and thanked all Deltans for supporting the former governor all through his days in the UK prison.

READ ALSO: James Ibori to spend Christmas in prison

But when asked when is Ibori is expected to visit Delta and the preparation of the people to receive him, Amori said his coming to Delta would be soon but without a specific date

He promised to keep Deltans posted when Ibori eventually arrives the state.

However, Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, a former media aide to Olorogun Otega Emerhor, also in a text message said Ibori may return to Delta state on December 23 as a red carpet is being prepared for him.

He said Ibori will return in a chartered jet through Heathrow airport to Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos.

He added that political associates and family members will give him a red carpet reception before jetting him to Osubi airstrip from where the convoy will take off for his palatial home in Oghara in Ethiope West, Delta state.

He said political observers believe that the return of Ibori to the state will open a new page for the politics of Delta state.

He also said some political observers are of the view that he may defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) since PDP folks contributed to his travails in the United Kingdom.

Source: Legit.ng
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On the 12 days of Christmas 2016, Colombia gave me 

12 Fried Bunuelos

Imagine deep-fried doughnut holes, but orbs with no glaze, and with their wheat-and-yeast batter savored by grated white costeno cheese, a little salty to my own gringo palate, but delicious. These round brown treats, artfully stacked in pyramids, arrive on platters at Colombian holiday tables. Guests grab them fast (pickpockets train this way), but dont worryanother tall pyramid waits in the kitchen. Then another, and another. Remember the scene in Cool Hand Luke when Paul Newmans character bets that he can eat 50 boiled eggs? This holiday season, I will eat 50 bunuelos. (Not all at once  and the last few may need some butter for lubrication )

11 Stores All Playing The Same Villancicos

Christmas gets spooky in Colombia. Drop by a neighborhood pastry shop, Dulcinea, and you hear the cheerful chanting of a childrens chorus from the sound system. Walk next door to the Juan Valdez for good coffee  and you hear the cheerful chanting of a childrens chorus from the sound system. The traditional songs (villancicos) are known to every Colombian, in the same sweet, blood-curdling, slightly off-key childrens voices. The little demons cheerfully chant in the fruit market and the mall and in restaurants and  my God  They. Are. Everywhere! Is there no escape?

10 Days Without The Kids

Adelas two kids will be with their dad through Christmas Day this year. She and I tended them, out of school and out of their routines, for 20 days before that. The house felt very empty the day the small people left. Adela and I crept from room to room, disoriented. Where was the crazed practice on the snare drum? Where was the play box, emptied and scattered like an exploded Toys R Us? Suddenly childless, we pinched curtains apart and peeked suspiciously out at the world. We dared one another to leave the apartment building, then came scurrying back, giddy and breathless and a little frightened. Soon, we actually went out to a restaurant and walked arm in arm around the neighborhood looking at Christmas decorations. It felt  like a holiday!

9 Novenas

For nine nights leading up to Christmas, Colombians gather in homes with family and friends to hold novenas. These meetings commemorate the journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, and theres a formal text that many adult Colombians know by heart after attending hundreds of novenas in their lifetimes. Traditional songs, including cheerful children chanting villancicos (shudder!), raise spirits between readings, and a table loaded with holiday foods awaits at the end of the night. Warm, with true peace-on-earth spirit, novenas put the holy in the Colombian holydays.

8 Tiny Reindeer, Plus Rudolph

One apartment over from mine, an ornamental holiday reindeer jazzed up with blue lights raises and lowers its horny little head. Colombians know all about Santas tiny reindeer, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer stands apart as the one gringo Christmas tune most Colombians recognize. You even hear the original Gene Autry Rudolph playing from time to time on the radio.

7 The Day of the Little Candles

Christmas in Colombia launches on December 7, a holiday for La Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepcion, or The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. Its also El Dia de las Velitas, the day of the little candles. This wonderful celebration has no real equivalent in the States. At dusk, Colombian households line windows and balconies with skinny candlesmillions of them in Bogota, and tens of millions more throughout the country. A walk through the neighborhood feels like a stroll through the Milky Wayimagine infinite lines of light, soft and serene, glowing in every direction. The illuminations serve the same purpose as runway lights; they guide the path of the Virgin Mary to homes and hearts, where she bestows her blessings.

6 Traditional Colombian Holiday Dishes

Bunuelos? Check! Ajiaco (Colombian chicken-and-potato soup, garnished to taste with avocado, cream, rice, and capers)? Check! Natilla (a custard of simmered milk with brown cane sugar)? Check! Empanadas (fried crescent-shaped pies stuffed with ground beef or chicken, plus egg or raisin or olive or mushroom)? Check! Tamales (spiced meat or chicken wrapped in corn dough and steamed inside a plantain leaf)? Check! Sancocho (a traditional soup made with meat, chicken, or fish  plus three varieties of potato)? Check! Eat, drink, be merrytomorrow you may die(t)!

5 (Thousand) Jews in Bogota

Menorahs blaze few and far between in Colombias capital city. Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and German Jews have a presence, but the numbers are paltryBogota, with 10 million inhabitants, counts only 5,000 Jews. Why? One theory holds that a Cartagena branch office of the Spanish Inquisition in the 1700s treated Jews badly, and word spread. Another suggests Jews fled Colombia  and took their wealth  during the violence of Colombias past 100 years. Support for this second theory may lie in neighboring Venezuela. By some estimates, half the Jewish population has left that country since its 1990s socialist turn under Hugo Chavez. Happy Hanukkah to you good brothers and sisters, regardless of numbers!

4 Kinds of Holiday Drinks

From mild to wild: Consider Aguapanela as a tea made with brown cane sugar (panela) instead of tea leaves. Colombians serve it with  surprise!  cheese. You sink the queso into the sweet hot drink, and eat it with a spoon. Chocolate en leche con coco  hot chocolate  also arrives with cheese, this too dunked or drowned in the hot brew. (I consider Colombian chocolate, by the way, the standard by which all other chocolates should be judged.) Refajo can be considered a cocktail or shandy  you mix a favorite beer with Colombiana, a popular local soft drink. Finally, theres sabajon, Colombian eggnog. Brandy or bourbon for a kick? Thats for sissies! Colombians add aguardiente, a powerful alcoholic spike made from anise and sugar cane. (You WILL need a hangover remedy.)

3 FABULOUS Wise Men!

A flamboyant hairdresser on Calle 106 some years ago outrageously remodeled his salon as a French castle. This holiday, the castle added a street-side nativity scene, of a sort. The three wise men look something like Liberace, RuPaul, and Juan Gabriel. Fab!

2 Baby Jesus

In Colombia, Santa doesnt slip down the chimneys and leave gifts beneath Christmas trees. Thats the work of  Baby Jesus! Every child wakes with shining eyes on Christmas morning and rushes into the living room to see what surprises Baby Jesus brought in the night. Sometimes kids ask, just as they do with Santa, how Baby Jesus could possibly carry all those toys for girls and boys worldwide. The answer? Hes BABY JESUS! Now dont ask any more questions!

1 One Dove of Peace

In this country, Peace on Earth is not just a wish on some snowy Christmas card. Colombia has endured a civil war for nearly three generations, a conflict that has killed nearly 100 people every week for 52 years. A peace accord now rests in the hands of the Colombian legislature. Pray with us, please.

Seasons greetings to all!

Image: Ken Douglas, CC-BY

Charles McNair is Pastes Books Editor emeritus. He served the magazine as writer, critic and editor from 2005-2015.
If you could go back to the late 1700s and abduct Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, then travel back to 2016 and show them our smartphones and semi-automatics and aerodynamics and our black President Barack Hussein Obama, theyd have a massive heart attack on the spot. A defibrillator might bring them back, but then theyd see a defibrillator and have another heart attack.

These are the people of we the people. Weve been arguing with them for 240 years now, and well keep arguing because though they gave us an unbelievably strong and forward-looking foundation, a whole lot of their ideas often dont seem to make much sense anymore.

One of those ideas is the Electoral College.

For instance, theres this weird clause in the Constitution that electors cant vote for candidates on a ticket who both live in the state that the electors are voting for. In 2000, this obscure clause nearly tanked George W. Bushs election: Both he and Dick Cheney were Texas citizens. Cheney changed his residence to Wyoming in October. Otherwise, Texas electors would have been Constitutionally barred from voting Bush. The reason? There werent a lot of states at first. The founding fathers didnt want states to vote for their favorite sons.

Useful, yeah?

I want to be clear that Im not whining about the fact that Clinton lost. Of course Im upset about that. She destroyed Trump in the popular vote. Even Donald Trump thinks that in this election he was unfairly elected. But this isnt about that. Im going to lay out the fact that the electoral system is crazy outdated and has been screwing up more than the election  plus it isnt partisan. George W. Bush won the 2004 popular vote by about three million (Clintons margin, too), but he quite nearly lost the electoral vote  114,000 votes in Ohio carried him. Thats all.

Heres an outline of my argument: geography, combined with the oaths electors must take, rendered the Electoral College totally pointless long ago. This affects way more than election results, too.

It goes like this:

We can pick and choose our information; this reinforces the wall between parties

We can choose where to live: urban areas are more liberal; exurbs and rural areas more conservative

Population concentration in those urban areas has been increasing

People dont make cities liberal; cities make people more liberal

None of this has anything to do with state lines

BUT: Our electoral system breaks down along state lines

Electors are sworn to vote the way their state votes

Locks such as California and Oklahoma are ignored; swing states are incentivized and handsomely rewarded for their votes, even beyond the election

We have a problem, yeah?

You have probably had a recent refresher on the purpose of the Electoral College from some expert on cable. And of course those experts disagree. It seems to me the electoral process was pretty clearly designed to prevent the very situation we have today: the folks who wrote the Constitution were worried about a populist demagogue taking the people by storm. Understandable because theyd just fought a war against a monarch, and theyd also read their Plato: Tyranny is probably established out of no other regime than democracy.

As a democracy develops it becomes more and more democratic  Too much freedom seems to change into nothing but too much slavery. Things get so diverse and identities get so confusing that it all starts to seem incomprehensible. Thats when a demagogue can make a move, attacking the elite and rallying the people, offering a simple solution for a world thats gotten way too complicated: himself.

The Electoral College gave elites the power to prevent that bad decision.

Enter Donald J. Trump  now President-elect thanks to the very political system that was designed to stop him. What happened?

Lets go back to the first sentence of this piece: aerodynamics. The EC was devised in an era where geography more or less guaranteed most people would always live in the same general area: A line of mountains made it next to impossible to move west and a bunch of annoying rivers up and down the East Coast fenced people in by latitude. This also more or less guaranteed a states population would be politically predictable. Virginians would always be Virginians. Massachusettsans Massachusettsans. Those states would vote accordingly.

Also important: Back then the largest states by geography also had the largest populations. In 1800, Virginia  the first state with over a million people  had by far the largest population. New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina followed. Those were also the largest states at the time. Considering how many more states we have today, the population concentration hasnt changed all that much. Today NY is fourth largest, PA sixth, NC tenth, and VA twelfth.

But the ranking by area today? NY is 27; NC is 28; PA is 33; and VA is 35. This data is important because it shows that populations have become much more concentrated.

The founding fathers couldnt possibly have imagined the amount of personal freedom of movement we have today: nearly everyone owns a car, and air-travel is affordable and on-demand. Geography stopped mattering decades ago. Want to live somewhere else? Pack your things and press a pedal with your foot.

The car had a profound effect on the concentration not just of populations, but of politics. Most of us prefer to live with people like ourselves. Over the years this has warped the electoral map of the United States, literally bending the geography of the voting public. Here are some wild 2016 electoral maps that illustrate how warped the system is today. If youd looked at the same types of maps from 1800, theyd reflect the geography almost perfectly.

Thats not whats been screwing up the system, though. The problem isnt that were concentrated by state  its on a much smaller level. Liberals dont live in most of the United States; conservatives do. Clinton beat Trump nationally by nearly three million votes, but Trump took enough states to win the election. Thing is, population density has almost nothing to do with state lines. Clinton won 19 states (plus DC) compared to Trumps 31. Counties, though? Clinton won 487; Trump won 2,626.

For instance, if I told you I was a Democrat in Texas, youd probably remark how that wasnt really common. But then Id say, annoyingly, Not really Texas Texas  I live in Austin, and youd nod because that would make a little more sense. In fact, in Texas all our large cities are now overwhelmingly blue: Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Lots of red states have blue cities: Atlanta, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Birmingham, Tucson, Little Rock, and Charleston, SC.

Democrats have popular power, but the geography skews Republican. And its getting worse.

Thats a big part of the reason we didnt notice the electoral college had been a broken instrument. But the car wasnt politically significant without one more ingredient: The internet. And what the hell, throw cable news in there, too.

The information revolution of the last 20 years or so reinforced our political fences. Its more accurate, though, to say the internet made it easier for politicians to reinforce the fences. Now we can self-select where we live geographically (with people who agree with us), and we can also self-select where we live informationally (with people who agree with us). Those county divides become all the more important, as do the big open spaces in the middle. Keep in mind this doesnt mean people are getting more liberal or more conservative  it just means the fences between the two universes are increasingly higher.

(It strikes me that theres probably a little more to the Build the wall! Build the wall! chants youd hear at Trump rallies than it seems. The idea of the wall is pretty important. Trump supporters also tend to wall themselves off in terms of information and in terms of believing only what they want to believe is true.)

In two of the last five elections the candidate who won the popular vote lost the electoral vote. (This hadnt happened since 1888.) And both times it happened to the Democrat candidate. Democrats tend to live in dense population centers, thereby giving more states to Republicans. Granted, those traditionally Republican states are less populated and have fewer electoral votes (Texas excepted), but again, a ton of data shows populations are becoming increasingly concentrated in cities. Cities make people liberal.

The split between the popular vote and the electoral college seems to reflect this: It seems to hit Democrats, as wed predict, given that data.

But again there is 2004. George W. Bush destroyed John Kerry in the popular vote, nearly the same margin Clinton beat Trump. But Bush very nearly lost the electoral vote. If Bush had lost Ohio, he would have lost the election. He beat Kerry by 114,000 votes. (Clinton, weirdly, also lost the EC by 114,000 votes.)

Sound familiar? The problem is geography, yeah, but its a little more than that. And this next part has also been broken for many, many decades.

This all leads us to pledges. The premise of the EC was to put this critical decision in the hands of supposed elites as a safeguard against populist demagoguery. But states and parties  you cant blame them  wanted to cling to their political power. Long ago states started making party electors swear an oath to vote as their state voted. This is why states are winner take all. This rendered the independence of the EC pretty much useless  its blasphemous and unamerican to vote against your party.

Plus you can get fined. Even if you open the door to a toupeed tyrant.

That said, there have over the years been 157 faithless electors. Of those, 71 changed over because a candidate died before the vote. But in the era of the car? Until 2016, theres never been more than one faithless elector in an election. This year we had seven electors who acted on their conscience  and eleven tried. The last time multiple electors defected for conscientious reasons was 1836, when 23 electors from Virginia refused to vote entirely. Why? The Vice Presidential candidate had been accused of living with a black woman.

Sounds relevant to me!

This Monday, though, in a break with 180 years of tradition, five Democrats voted for a candidate other than Clinton, and two Republicans voted for a candidate other than Trump. Thats more than a little embarrassing for the anti-Trump campaign. One way to look at it is that the real story is that more people disliked Clinton, despite all the anti-Trump coverage in the media. This is a continuation of the narrative after the general election.

Another way to look at it is that Clinton electors didnt have much to lose for defecting. She was going to lose anyway. There were two symbolic votes  one from Hawaii for Bernie Sanders, and one from Washington state for Faith Spotted Eagle, an activist and the first Native American to receive an electoral vote  and three odd votes, all also in Washington, for Colin Powell.

More interesting, though, the Clinton defectors did have something on the line: They knew theyd embarrass Clinton by defecting amid all the liberal trash talk about Trump, but they didnt let it stop them. You could conclude that Democrats actually seem more willing to go rogue and change the system than the Republicans who for months squawked and parroted anyone who said without any basis the whole thing was rigged, and then magically forgot all about it (almost) when they won. The faithless Democrats knew they wouldnt affect the outcome, but when the chips were down they sent a stronger message about the election process than the rollover Republicans  not that it was #rigged, but that it was unfair and outdated.

Given that history, 2016 was a pivotal year for the Electoral College, even though the outcome didnt come close to changing.

This is why its so important to understand that the Electoral College has never really mattered until recently. When you combine those binding oaths (and punishment for defecting) with the redistributed population and partisan density, its clear theres a problem: Without voter independence, the Electoral College is pointless. Its been there all along, but in three of the last five elections the EC has not accurately reflected the will of the people. My bet is that this election will very likely lead to serious bipartisan efforts to reform the electoral process.

Is it even legal to make electors take an oath to vote the way their state votes, no matter what the national popular vote says? Doesnt that defeat the whole purpose of the Electoral College?

Sort of. The Constitution says that states alone have the power to choose electors, and they can do that In such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct. That means those oaths that states require are, sadly, Constitutionally legal.

But there might be daylight there. Last Friday, the Colorado tenth circuit of appeals appeared to point to a way out of this: Once a state chooses its electors, the Constitution says that the electors alone decide which candidate they want to vote for. That is, states cant do anything beyond choosing electors. They cant remove or punish electors who vote against the states popular vote  the so-called faithless electors were seeing pop up now.

Thats in direct opposition to what the EC was designed for: independent voters who can stand in the way of the people to stop a tyrannical populist demagogue with tiny hands.

The electoral college now works against itself. Its screwing up our elections. But its screwing up even more than that.

Theres a pretty popular argument that says the EC empowers the states with smaller populations, who otherwise wouldnt have much of a say (the opposite therefore is true; that states with larger populations are somewhat restrained). Thats misleading, though: Small states are ignored. So are many large states. And the states with smaller populations are ignored precisely because they have too much power: Theyre locks for Republicans.

The consequences of this go way beyond the fact that candidates dont come to you in your small state to talk about your problems and tell you lies about how theyre going to make everything better. There are consequences for the actual governing.

For instance, after Obama won reelection in 2012 he tried to enact a plan for investing in high-speed rail. Which states did he choose to give the billions of dollars to build that railway? California, perhaps? Lots of electoral support for Obama, and rail would make sense there with its population centers spread far apart. Or maybe the heavily-liberal northeast megalopolis from Richmond to Boston? Or maybe a cross-country rail like the Union Pacific  a Democrat appeal to blood-red flyover country.

No: He chose to offer the billions of dollars to Florida. Tampa to Orlando. Why? Its a swing state. It was a thank-you gift, to put it nicely. Governor Rick Scott knew the score and rejected it.

So its not just the small states that dont matter  its every state with a locked vote. A national popular vote would force the candidates to talk to more people, not just in three or four important states. If you think this gives heavily populated liberal states the advantage, note that even if every voter in solid-blue New York and California voted for a Democrat, thats only about 20% of the national vote. And every opposition voter in those states would now have more incentive to vote  all votes would truly count.

Even Donald Trump  not even a week after his election  said the electoral system is unfair. Really: he doesnt think hes the rightful winner of this election. And back in 2012, Trump famously called for revolution  in a tweet he recently deleted  when he mistakenly thought the same thing happened to President Obama.

Its pretty clear we have to rethink this process. Theres no perfect solution, and Im not even sure what a great solution would be  but it sure isnt simple.

Theres a project out there called National Popular Vote  its worth checking out. The idea is to get states to pledge to vote along with the national popular vote. Ten states and Washington, D.C., have reportedly passed this law (CA, DC, HI, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NY, RI, VT, WA). They say they need about twelve more states to sign on to get to a total of 270 electoral votes pledged to the popular vote. Not just blue states or big states, either. Rhode Island is on there, for instance. And just this year the Republican-dominated Oklahoma Senate passed the law  its still got to pass in the house. In that state, though, support for a national popular vote was 71 percent among Republicans, 85 percent among Democrats, and 87 percent among independents.

Things is, we run into the same problem: Electors couldnt be forced to vote that way. The Constitution still allows them to vote as they please.

Okay, so maybe we empower our electors to be truly independent. Restore the power they were supposed to have in the first place  to check the rise of an dangerous populist. Well, if independent electors start splitting their votes and no one gets to 270 the decision just goes to the House of Representatives and were back at square one in terms of party loyalty.

I dont think well be able to agree about how to reform the Electoral College. The Constitution makes it really difficult to change it in any meaningful way. The best bet  and the fair thing, too  is to try to do away with the system entirely.

Im not advocating this for partisan reasons, and I do see the argument that, going by the popular vote pounding that Republicans took this year, it would probably advantage Democrats. This is especially true as the countrys population shifts and white voters become a minority. But thatd be a problem if we kept the EC as-is, too: The minority vote is shifting Texas to the left; what will Republicans do when they lose Texas? A national popular vote gives Republicans incentive to finally broaden their reach and appeal to a wider range of Americans. Most importantly, though, a national popular vote would get more people engaged in the political process, it would spur healthy debate in places where now there isnt any, and it would finally open the door for alternative parties to get some actual traction.

The founding fathers would have a heart attack if they saw an AR-15. They would also have a heart attack if they saw who we just elected President, and how we did it.

Fairness, as it should be, is non-partisan.
At least 26 people have been confirmed dead in the horrific explosion at a Mexican fireworks market this morning, with dozens more injured.

The explosion at the open-air San Pablito fireworks market in Tultepec, about 32km north of Mexico City, sent huge plumes of grey smoke into the air.

The continuing aftermath was captured on camera and shared on social media.

Huge explosion at fireworks factory in #Tultepec, #Mexico.

 Mulitiple people dead

 Around 60 injured

Fires burning near scene

vid??televisa pic.twitter.com/IC2Jc8peOe  Navy????Brat (@RavenHUWolf) December 20, 2016



Isidro Sanchez, head of the Tultepec emergency services, confirmed the death toll and said at least 40 other people had been wounded. (NB: there are conflicting reports that the death toll has risen to 27.)



National Civil Protection coordinator Luis Felipe Puente told Milenio TV that emergency responders have no choice but to let any remaining unexploded fireworks burn off. Hes asked people not to come within 5km of the scene to avoid danger or further hamper rescue efforts.

The Governor of Mexico Eruviel Avila tweeted that his office will provide details as to how this accident occurred at a later date, but that right now its priority was to attend to the injured.

Es prioridad atender a lesionados. Mas adelante, Proteccion Civil mexiquense dara detalles de lo ocurrido.  Eruviel Avila (@eruviel_avila) December 20, 2016

Milenio TV also reports that the attorneys office has acknowledged that changes need to made to prevent similar tragedies occurring in the future.

The same market was engulfed in a fire in 2005, setting off a chain of explosions that destroyed hundreds of stands but luckily resulted in no loss of life.

Photo: Twitter.
Harry Rodda's Identity Crisis named among reviewer's 2016 best indie titles

By: Harry Rodda

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-- Upon release of his debut novel, former Lee County Commissioner Harry Rodda has immediately earned the praise of Kirkus Reviews. Writing as H.E. Rodda, the author has officially celebrated the launch of, which Kirkus has just named to its Best Indie Books of 2016 list and its Indie Books of the Month for December. In addition, the book has earned a Kirkus star, reserved for "books of exceptional merit." Dubbed "A mystery with more twists and turns than an old country road," the prestigious reviewer callsA thoughtful tale of mistaken identity, fraud, sex, murder, and transcendent friendship."American soldiers Mason Dillon and Adrian Wylde are wounded and isolated during the Vietnam War, thought dead by the rest of the world. These best friends are so alike that they are almost identical. When they finally have the opportunity to go home five years later, Mason has established a happy new life in Cambodia. Wanting his friend to escape his ordinary past, Mason encourages Adrian to take his place, enjoy his late mother's fortune and assume his position in his father's multi-billion-dollar business.Adrian takes great pleasure in his new opulent life, but a tragic accident robs him of his memory. As far as he knows, he is the true Mason Dillon. To escape an ensuing tumult of seduction, grossly illegal business practices and prosecution for crimes he didn't commit, Adrian's only hope for redemption is to remember his identitywhich is nearly impossible when nothing is as it seems.The Kirkus review effuses, "Rodda's thriller is just thatthrilling, a fast and fun read that almost casually grapples with some of the most profound metaphysical questions: are we the people we pretend to be? What sits at the center of the self? What obligation do we owe to our own prior lives? And what duty do we owe to our friends?"Kirkus Reviews, founded in 1933, is billed as the most authoritative voice in book discovery and calls"a sterling debut" that contains "echoes of both Patricia Highsmith and Randy Wayne White." Readers wishing to discover this rags-to-riches thriller for themselves can find it in paperback and Kindle formats at amazon.com/1532892667 . Distribution at book stores across Southwest Florida and nationally is pending.H. E. Rodda was born in Washington, D.C., and by age 21, he'd already sampled a half-dozen careers, been on active duty for six months with the Army Reserve, and lived in the Bahamas as a construction worker. He later specialized in residential design and construction before becoming active in local politics. Rodda resides in Fort Myers and has lived in Southwest Florida since 1956. He served on his county's planning commission and as Lee County Commissioner in the late '70s and early '80s.Rodda's writing ranges from short stories to opinion pieces to satirical nonfiction, and draws on the author's experiences as a traveler, entrepreneur, widower, father and grandfather.is Rodda's first published novel. Learn more at www.amazon.com/ author/herodda
By: Behavioral Concepts, Inc.

Colleen Canty

Contact

Steve Dubin

***@prworkzone.com Steve Dubin

End

-- Behavioral Concepts, Inc. (BCI), a company of behavioral clinicians specializing in the treatment of children with autism in Central Massachusetts, will celebrate the recent opening of its new location at 207 Authority Drive in Fitchburg with an open house on Tuesday, January 17, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.The open house will feature tours of the facility and a ribbon-cutting ceremony with brief remarks from BCI staff members, elected officials and members of the business community. Light refreshments will be served. The general public is welcome to attend."There is a great demand for services for children with autism in the Fitchburg/Route 2 corridor. Before opening this location, we were only been able to work with clients in their homes," said Colleen Canty, director of BCI's Fitchburg location. "With this office in place, we have the ability to offer the services we have in Worcester to children in Fitchburg and surrounding communities in north central Massachusetts."BCI provides much-needed services to children with autism and their families. BCI instructional programs are delivered using discrete trial training, task analysis, and systematic prompting procedures implemented by ABA therapists who have successfully completed pre-service training, on-site, and quarterly evaluations by their clinical supervisors.Instruction is provided across a variety of domains, included by not limited to: Activities of daily living, functional and augmentative communication, functional academics and community outings and safety awareness. Social skills groups with peer models are also offered as part of BCI's services. A heavy emphasis is placed on generalization and maintenance of skills, in addition to family training, so that families may implement the supports and carry-over skills in the home.To RSVP to attend the open house on January 17, please RSVP by January 10 to Colleen Canty at ccanty@bciaba.org or 508-735-9290.For questions about programs offered by BCI, please visit www.bciaba.com or call 508-363-0200.Founded in 2002, BCI provides educational, behavioral, consultative and assessment services to children with autism and their families. These services are based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and are tailored to meet the unique needs of our clients. It's BCI's goal to maximize individual potential, increase independence and enhance our clients' quality of life within their home, school and community.BCI provides center- and home-based services through health insurance and is an approved provider of Specialty ABA Services for Early Intervention in Central Massachusetts. BCI's main care center, located at 345A Greenwood Street in Worcester, Massachusetts, offers intensive treatment for young children aged 3 to 6 years of age, an after-school program for all school-aged children and a weekend social skills program. In addition, BCI will open a second location in Fitchburg, Mass., in November 2016. BCI also provides in-home services within a one-hour radius of Worcester.For complete information, visit http://bciaba.com or to arrange a consultation with a BCI clinician, please call (508) 363-0200.
By: Above Board Chamber of Florida

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-- The Above Board Chamber of Florida starts the new year with an educational luncheon meeting that pulls no punches, "Workplace Law  How to Stay out of Jail!" The Naples meeting will take place on Monday, Jan. 9 from 11:30 a.m.  1 p.m. at the Hilton Naples, 5111 Tamiami Trail North. The Fort Myers meeting will take place on Thursday, Jan. 12 from 11:30 a.m.  1 p.m. at Ter-Tini's, 1901 Crystal Drive. Reservations are required at AboveBoardChamber.com.Running a business is tricky enough without worrying about running afoul of new changes in the law. A panel of experts is prepared to give you the real deal on workplace law, the consequences of non-compliance and how you can grow your business with confidence.The Naples meeting will be emceed by Gulfshore Business Associate Publisher Rod Wardlaw and will feature a panel including Yale Freeman, Attorney at Law; Denise Perchall, business development manager at AccessPoint Human Resources; and Damian C. Taylor, partner at Coleman, Hazzard, Taylor & Diaz, P.A.The Fort Myers meeting will be emceed by WBBH NBC2 Chief Political Correspondent Dave Elias and will feature a panel including Denise Perchall, business development manager at AccessPoint Human Resources; Sarah Relch, human resources manager and consultant at Markham Norton Mosteller Wright & Company; and Christina Harris Schwinn, partner at Pavese Law Firm.Registration on or before Jan. 4 will be $25 for members, $28 for guests. After Jan. 4, registration will be $30 for members, $35 for guests.Registration on or before Jan. 5 will be $25 for members, $28 for guests. After Jan. 5, registration will be $30 for members, $35 for guests.The Naples meeting will be sponsored by Yale T. Freeman, PA and Tri-Town Construction, LLC. The Fort Myers meeting will be sponsored by Markham Norton Mosteller Wright & Company, P.A. and Tri-Town Construction, LLC.Non-members are encouraged to attend two meetings, then consider joining us to be part of the Above Board Chamber of Florida. To become a member of the Above Board Chamber, contact Jeanne Sweeney at 239.910.7426.The Above Board Chamber of Florida is dedicated to bringing people of all faiths together within the community, in the workplace and amongst one another. Their mission is to supply members with the tools that will allow them to take every aspect of their lives Above Board. For more information on the event or on how to become a member of the Above Board Chamber, contact Jeanne Sweeney at 239.910.7426 or visit AboveBoardChamber.com
Contact

America Green Solar

info@americagreensolar.com

1-800-599-1289 America Green Solar1-800-599-1289

End

-- America Green Solar's grassroots movement was set in motion on December 5, 2016 marking the state of Arizona as our 8th launch since beginning our solar initiative in 2015. Every community in Arizona will now be able to benefit from federally funded green projects available in their neighborhoods with the helpful knowledge of America Green Solar and its partnerships. The connection with Arizona will also help bring in more jobs for local installers.America Green Solar strives to inform every home and business owner their potentiality of going green by using cutting-edge drone mapping technology in order to better quotecustomers of PV system costs for their specific needs. People will be relieved to know that they are maximizing their investment while impacting the environment in a truly positive way.America Green Solar is eager to expand and build partner relationships in Arizona. We are putting our best efforts forward to connect with partners that share the same enthusiasm for solar and have a similar vision for our Planet. Ultimately America Green Solar will have partners in all 50 states.Join us in painting our country green!
In the new year, HostMySite will launch ePages' brand new ePages Now online shop software, combined with its own SMB-level expertise and excellent customer service. The new product line will further enhance the valued services that HostMySite deli

By: HostMySite

Contact

Richard Stevenson, ePages Software Ltd.

***@epages.com Richard Stevenson, ePages Software Ltd.

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-- - ePages, a leading international provider of online shop software, today announced a deal to supply HostMySite, with its cloud-driven e-commerce platform. In the new year, HostMySite will launch ePages' brand new ePages Now online shop software, combined with its own SMB-level expertise and excellent customer service. The new product line will further enhance the valued services that HostMySite delivers to tens of thousands of US companies.HostMySite, based in Newark, Delaware, is a leading web and cloud hosting provider, serving the needs of Small Business and resellers since 1997. As a division of HOSTING, a global provider of managed Cloud services, HostMySite benefits from its own datacenters and networks, and uses its carrier-class resources and facilities to deliver a high quality service at affordable prices.HostMySite is among the first providers worldwide to launch the newest ePages product  the ePages Now shop solution. The brand new cloud-based software is engineered to deliver accelerated e-commerce success via rapid and easy deployment, powerful shop functionality, and compelling, fully-responsive, shop designs. ePages Now is designed for the ambitious entrepreneur who is pressed for time and requires an all-inclusive retail solution that is sleek and easy to use.JT Urglavitch, Senior Manager, HostMySite, comments, "We work to address the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and deliver 24/7 on their online business needs. As our partner, ePages is providing us with an exciting, new solution, that offers the latest shop-management technology on the backend, and clean, modern designs, for the storefront. Everything is streamlined and made easy for anyone who manages their online business. What I really like is that the e-commerce platform is cloud-based. That means our customers will focus more on their store products and selling versus having to worry about performance problems or upgrades."Wilfried Beeck, CEO ePages, adds, "HostMySite customers already benefit from a very high quality service, and now their e-commerce capabilities will be boosted. ePages Now is a perfect fit for them  no need to learn a complex tool, just deploy it and succeed. The combination of ePages Now and expert service delivery means customers are strongly placed to win online".American e-commerce activity is at record levels, meaning the market for retail technology continues to surge. Spend on e-commerce technology in the US alone will rise to $2.1 billion by 2019 (Forrester).For many US companies, the combination of ePages' powerful and modern shop functionality, and the benefits of cloud-based Software-as-a-Service  quality, security and performance  comprises the best possible catalyst for e-commerce success.ePages is uniquely placed as the expert brand of choice for e-commerce for the web hosting and cloud industries. The platform delivers solutions for global providers including 1&1 Internet, BT, Strato, Host Europe, Aruba, Dada Group and iomart.Richard StevensonHead of Corporate CommunicationsePages Software Ltd.Jeff GreenDigital Marketing ManagerHostMySite Inc.ePages (https://www.epages.com/)is a global leader for online shop software. 140,000 companies in 75 countries run professional online shops based on ePages products; complete with up to 15 languages, search engine optimisation, individual design and optimised for tablets and smartphones. Thanks to regular updates, ePages online shops are always up-to-date with the latest e-commerce trends. The company collaborates with more than 80 technology partners such as online marketplaces, comparison shopping websites, payment providers and ERP vendors. Sales partners are hosting providers as well as logistics, telecommunications, and yellow pages' companies who provide best of breed e-commerce solutions to their SMB customer base. Both ePages partners and customers benefit from over 20 years of experience. The company headquarters is in Hamburg with additional subsidiaries in London, Barcelona and New York.HostMySite is a support-driven web and cloud hosting company based in Newark, Delaware-- serving the needs of Small Business and resellers since 1997. Solutions range from business website hosting to VPS, dedicated servers, and cloud hosting. HostMySite also offers hosting reseller services including powerful features for those with their own clients, such as private labelled hosting and billing options. The company's teams of skilled system administrators are committed to 24x7x365 support and customer service. Learn more at https://www.hostmysite.com/HostMySite is a division of HOSTING, a leader in building and operating high performance clouds for business-critical applications.
AFI Europe Romania has signed new lease agreements for over 6,000 sqm of office spaces in AFI Park 4&5 and by this have concluded 19,000 sqm leasing activity in the buildings this year. The buildings new tenants are IT&BPO provider Hexaware Technologies which is a new entry to Romania, the

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Caverion has signed an agreement with the Norwegian governments property developer Statsbygg to deliver a Large Project with technical solutions for Norways new national museum. The contract has a volume of 38.8 million. The National Museum for art, architecture and design will emerge as an iconic building, and give Norway

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Slovak investor IAD Investments, acting through its fund Prvy realitny fond o.p.f., has purchased Laugaricio Shopping Centre in Trencin. The original owners were private investors represented by Mint Investments. This sale, the largest property transaction in Slovakia this year, was brokered by Cushman & Wakefield. The purchaser was represented by

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One of the most exclusive motorcycles from Ducati, the 1299 Panigale S Anniversario Limited Edition has landed in India. The reason, one individual in Pune ordered the same. Mayur Sakpal grabbed the keys of this beast at a specially organized event at the Ducati Pune dealership.

Mayur took the keys in present of his wife and child. Also present were Ducati Pune officials, Mayurs friends and family members. Launched earlier this year in July, this bike is also the most expensive motorcycle sold by Ducati in India. Though exact price is not revealed, we believe it costs in the range of INR 55 lakh.

Ducati 1299 Panigale S Anniversario Limited Edition gets the same engine with bigger bore size (116mm  4mm hike) while stroke is unaltered (60.8mm). So the 1285cc engine produces 10 hp more, 205 hp max power at 10,500 rpm, while peak torque is bumped by 10 percent.

Ducati has made some tweaks to 1299 Panigale S Anniversario chassis to offer better handling and traction. Rake angle is made steeper at 24 degrees, consequentially caster trail is shortened from 100mm to 96mm. Swingarm pivot is lowered by 4mm for better traction.

On suspension front, new Ducati 1299 Panigale S Anniversario Edition gets upgraded Ohlins suspension, with Smart EC semi-active suspension system. It has an event-based control system that equips stepper motors on TTX shock and NIX-30 fork to actively tune shock setup based on commands from the motorcycles varied ECUs.

Electronics kit in Ducati 1299 Panigale S Anniversario Edition includes an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) as part of new 8-level anti-wheelie system that is named Ducati Wheelie Control (DWC). It works with Bosch 9.1MP ECU for cornering ABS. The IMU has a three-axis accelerometer to calculate the motorcycles roll and pitch. The bikes lean angle information is now displayed on the LCD instrument cluster. The sport bikes Race, Sport and Wet riding modes are retained. Ducati Quick Shifter now works on downshifts as well as upshifts. 1299 S gets additional switches on handlebar to make changes to DTC, DWC and EBC on the track.
The mouth and anus are not connected in the development of the embryo as earlier thought, shows a Norwegian ground-breaking study.

Animals often form either the mouth or the anus from an opening that appears in the early embryo, which is called the blastopore.

For instance, starfish develop the anus from the blastopore, but earthworms form the mouth out of it. How this happens has not been clear until now.

"Our findings demonstrate that whether the blastopore forms the mouth or the anus is a consequence of how each embryo is organized during early development. It is not a predefined attribute of the species, as previously thought," says postdoctoral researcher Jose Maria Martin-Duran, at the Hejnol Group at Sars Centre at the Department of Biology, University of Bergen (UiB).

"One of the most important conclusions of our work is that there is no necessary association of the mouth and the anus with the embryonic blastopore," says Martin-Duran.

"There is no necessary connection between the mouth, the anus and the blastopore, neither during the development of animals nor as an evolutionary step in the past."

Against the tradition

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The different fates of the blastopore have been recognized for over a century. Two major explanations have been proposed, both of them using present embryos as proof of ancestral animal forms, which is an idea strongly influenced by the famous German zoologist Ernst Haeckel and his principle that development recapitulates animal evolution.

The first scenario is the Amphistomy concept, which assumes that the blastopore was originally both mouth and anus and the formation of only one or the other gut opening from the blastopore evolved later. On the other hand, the Planuloid-Acoeloid scenario proposes that the blastopore was originally the mouth, and that the formation of the anus from the blastopore evolved secondarily.

"Importantly, none of our findings gave support to any of these traditional explanations," says Martin-Duran.

Better understanding of animal evolution

Historically, the different fate of the blastopore has been a major feature to classify bilaterally symmetrical animals, that is, those with a head and a tail, and a back and belly.

Already in 1908, the Austrian zoologist Karl Grobben proposed that bilaterian animals should be classified according to whether they form the mouth from the blastopore (Protostomia; literally "first mouth") or the anus (Deuterostomia; "secondary mouth").

Although the researchers now use other methods to unravel the evolutionary relationship between animal groups, the division of Protostomia and Deuterostomia proposed by Grobben has demonstrated to be correct, with only some minor modifications.

"This is why evolutionary biologists have given so much emphasis to the fate of the blastopore in animal evolution, and why it was so important to attain a better understanding of the developmental mechanisms controlling this embryonic process," Jose Maria Martin-Duran points out.
How do parents' cultural values affect their babies' temperament?

Maria (Masha) Gartstein, professor of psychology, is on a multi-year quest to find out.

For the past five years, Gartstein has compared the behavior of babies from around the globe to learn how parents' values and expectations influence the development of their toddlers' behavior and overall temperament.

A greater understanding of these values and their impact on temperament development will help psychologists devise fine-tuned approaches to prevent infant temperament issues from becoming behavioral problems later in life.

"The influence temperament has on developing behavioral problems likely varies from one country to another," Gartstein said. "While cross-cultural infant temperament research is a new field, our eventual goal is to determine how infant temperament is influenced by different cultural practices and whether or not these differences translate into greater risk for significant clinical problems like Attention Deficit Disorder and others."

She recently co-authored a study in the European Journal of Developmental Psychology that explores the behavioral differences between U.S., Chilean, South Korean, and Polish infants.

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Gartstein's work with developmental psychologist Sam Putnam of Bowdoin University shows U.S. babies tend to be more social and impulsive and more likely to enjoy highly stimulating activities than infants from the four other countries in this study. U.S. mothers also reported their offspring were not as likely to display negative emotions and were relatively easy to soothe when upset.

The researchers also found Chilean infants were the most active group of babies and the most likely to struggle with concentrating on one task for long periods of time. South Korean babies had the longest attention spans, and they liked to cuddle the most but were the least active. Polish babies were more likely than their foreign counterparts to display sadness, and they were the hardest to soothe when upset.

In many ways, the study results reflect the unique cultural values of parents from each country, Gartstein said.

For example, previous research suggests American society cultivates an atmosphere of intolerance for negativity, which, Gartstein said, may lead U.S. parents to actively discourage their children from expressing negative emotions.

Meanwhile, South American cultures have been characterized as demonstrating a high degree of animated engagement with their infants, which could account for their children's' energetic conduct and trouble focusing on specific tasks for long periods of time.

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Southeast Asian cultures, such as South Korea's, tend to value a high level of behavioral and attentional control in their offspring, while Polish culture is often characterized by a readiness to talk about emotions and feelings, which might lead their infants to be more comfortable displaying sadness, Gartstein said.

"If we are aiming to prevent behavioral problems which are a known precursor for more serious psychological problems, we need to know more about the values and expectations parents bring to the child-rearing table," she said.

Gartstein and Putnam's study is based on data voluntarily submitted by mothers in each country through the Infant Behavioral Questionnaire-Revised, which Gartstein and another researcher designed in the late 1990s. Putnam built on their work by following participants as their children got older.

The questionnaire asks mothers to record the frequency of 191 different behaviors their children display at six and 12 months after birth. The researchers used statistical analysis to rate babies along 14 different dimensions that range from cuddliness to vocal reactivity.

"Our questionnaire focuses on concrete behaviors in specific contexts rather than relying on global ratings of the child's traits," Gartstein said. "It gives us a powerful lens to examine the developmental interplay between persons and their environments in different cultures. What happens cross-culturally can give us tremendous information about what parents can do to support their child's ability to regulate themselves in culturally appropriate ways."

The researchers collected data from 23 countries around the world. Notably, Chile provided information about childhood temperament to the international research community in a peer-reviewed publication for the first time this year.

In 2015, Gartstein and Putnam published a related study that garnered international publicity and prompted many more parents to participate, Gartstein said. Their publisher, Routledge, also has asked them to write a book on the topic.
A new study of U.S. adolescents provides some of the best evidence to date of how violence spreads like a contagious disease.

Researchers found that adolescents were up to 183 percent more likely to carry out some acts of violence if one of their friends had also committed the same act.

But the spread of violence doesn't just stop at friends -- results suggest the contagion extends by up to four degrees of separation -- from one person to a friend, to the friend's friend and two more friends beyond.

"This study shows just how contagious violence can be," said Robert Bond, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at The Ohio State University.

"Acts of violence can ricochet through a community, traveling through networks of friends."

Results showed that participants in the study were 48 percent more likely to have been in a serious fight, 183 percent more likely to have hurt someone badly, and 140 percent more likely to have pulled a weapon on someone if a friend had engaged in the same behavior.

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Bond conducted the study with Brad Bushman, professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State. Their results appear online in the American Journal of Public Health.

These results fit in with other studies that have shown that characteristics and behaviors from happiness to obesity to smoking spread within social networks, at about the same rates found in this research.

"We now have evidence that shows how important social relationships are to spreading violent behavior, just like they are for spreading many other kinds of attitudes and behaviors," Bushman said.

Data from the study came from 5,913 young people who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (ADD Health) and who were interviewed in-depth in 1994-95 and again in 1996. The ADD Health researchers interviewed as many students (grades 7 to 12) as they could from 142 schools across the country so they could have information on social networks within each school.

Participants were asked to name up to five male and five female friends from their school at both of the two interviews. They were asked how often in the past 12 months they had been in a serious physical fight, how often they hurt someone badly enough to need bandages or care from a doctor or nurse, and how often they had pulled a knife or gun on someone.

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The researchers then analyzed whether each student's friends (and friends of friends, and so on) had said they committed the same acts of violence.

The finding that adolescents were more likely to commit acts of violence if their friends had done so is not surprising, Bond said. Much of that association is related to what scientists call a "clustering effect" -- people with similar interests, including the use of violence, tend to cluster together as friends.

But the researchers also tested whether friends could influence each other to commit more acts of violence than they might normally commit given their friendship.

They could estimate this influence effect because they had data from two different points in time, a year apart. They calculated the effect by determining whether friends had committed more violent acts at the time of the second interview than could be explained by what their shared history at the time of the first interview would suggest.

Results showed that each additional friend who had seriously hurt someone increased the likelihood that a participant had hurt someone badly by 55 percent, even after taking into account the clustering effects and other factors. If you include only male participants (who were more likely than females to seriously hurt others), then the likelihood increased to 82 percent.

After taking the controls into account, the researchers didn't find influence effects for being in a serious fight or pulling a weapon on someone. But that doesn't necessarily mean the influence of friends doesn't play a role in these violent acts, Bond said.

One explanation may be that fights are common enough among these adolescents that it is difficult to find the role of influence. On the other hand, pulling a weapon was rare enough that they may not have had a large enough sample size to determine influence.

This study is the first to show how far violent behavior may spread within a social network, Bond said. The findings showed that the influence of one person's violent act can spread up to two degrees of separation (friend of a friend) for hurting someone badly, three degrees (friend of a friend's friend) for pulling a weapon on someone, and four degrees for serious fights.

The influence declines with each degree of separation, but is still noticeable.

For example, a student in the study was about 48 percent more likely to have participated in a serious fight if a friend had been involved in one. But they were still 18 percent more likely to have participated in a fight if a friend of a friend had.

This result is particularly important because it shows the value of anti-violence programs.

"If we can stop violence in one person, that spreads to their social network. We're actually preventing violence not only in that person, but potentially for all the people they come in contact with," Bond said.
"Gotta catch them all, Pokemon!" Or in this case -- got to remember them all, Pokemon.

Weiwei Zhang, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, found that people could learn and remember more of a subject when they were already familiar with it. And the more familiar they were with the subject, the better they remembered new information related to it. In the case of new research by Zhang, we're talking Pokemon characters.

The new study, titled, "Familiarity Increases the Number of Remembered Pokemon in Visual Short-term Memory," published in the journal, Memory and Cognition, found a strong link between prior familiarity in long-term memory and visual short-term memory storage capacity.

"The human mind can store almost an infinite amount of information offline and more importantly process a vast amount of information online in everyday life," said Zhang, pointing to "online" examples such as driving routes, conversations, and to-do lists. "These amazing capabilities are supported by a core cognitive function, working memory, that holds information online for a short period of time, so that we could engage in various mental operations."

According to Zhang, for example, in active conversation, we need to remember the whole sentence in working memory to understand the other person. Working memory has a small capacity that can be maintained in the active mind. As a result, this limited-capacity working memory becomes a bottleneck, limiting cognitive abilities such as creativity and fluid intelligence (ability to solve new problems, use logic in new situations, etc.). So, the researchers asked if would it be possible to overcome the working memory bottleneck.

Zhang and Weizhen Xie, a UCR psychology graduate student, set to discover if the limited capacity of working memory could be increased by supplementing it with long-term memory. Most of the participants in the study were college students at UC Riverside, therefore they were familiar with the first-generation characters -- released about 15 years ago -- than with the more recent fifth-generation characters.

"We wanted to take advantage of the participants' previous -- almost lifetime -- experience with Pokemon characters. Specifically, to compare their working memory of Pokemon characters that they are more familiar with -- first-generation Pokemon -- with Pokemon characters that they are less familiar with, like fifth-generation Pokemon characters," Zhang said.

In the study, researchers assessed participants' familiarity with Pokemon by having them name a small set of Pokemon characters, then report how much they liked each character. In a separate working memory task -- they were flashed five random Pokemon characters for half a second, and asked to remember them in working memory and hold the memory for one second. In the subsequent test, the participants were shown a single Pokemon character, which would be one of the previously presented Pokemon characters (or "old") that they needed to remember, or a new Pokemon character -- both possibilities were equally likely. Participants had to report whether they saw a new or old Pokemon. The researchers estimated the number of Pokemon characters that participants were able to remember and related this number to participants' Pokemon familiarity.

The results showed that people remembered more Pokemon characters that they were familiar with than Pokemon characters with which they were less familiar. The more familiar they were with Pokemon, the more Pokemon characters they could remember.

"These results suggest that long-term memory, specifically familiarity, could boost working memory capacity, another example of 'practice makes perfect,'" Zhang said. "These findings could have further implications in applied settings such as classroom learning. For example, those preparation courses for MCAT or SAT may have familiarized their students with the testing procedure and the scope of assessments such that the students could perform better simply because they had better working memory for the testing materials."
New experiments have shown that it is possible for extremely high currents to pass through graphene, a form of carbon. This allows imbalances in electric charge to be rapidly rectified.

Once again, graphene has proven itself to be a rather special material: an international research team led by Professor Fritz Aumayr from the Institute of Applied Physics at TU Wien was able to demonstrate that the electrons in graphene are extremely mobile and react very quickly. Impacting xenon ions with a particularly high electric charge on a graphene film causes a large number of electrons to be torn away from the graphene in a very precise spot. However, the material was able to replace the electrons within some femtoseconds. This resulted in extremely high currents, which would not be maintained under normal circumstances. Its extraordinary electronic properties make graphene a very promising candidate for future applications in the field of electronics.

The Helmholtz-Center Dresden-Rossendorf and the University of Duisburg-Essen participated in the experiment alongside TU Wien. The international team received theoretical support from Paris and San Sebastian as well as from in-house staff (Institute of Theoretical Physics at TU Wien).

Highly charged ions

'We work with extremely highly-charged xenon ions,' explains Elisabeth Gruber, a PhD student from Professor Aumayr's research team. 'Up to 35 electrons are removed from the xenon atoms, meaning the atoms have a high positive electric charge.'

These ions are then fired at a free-standing single layer of graphene, which is clamped between microscopically small brackets. 'The xenon ion penetrates the graphene film, thereby knocking a carbon atom out of the graphene -- but that has very little effect, as the gap that has opened up in the graphene is then refilled with another carbon atom,' explains Elisabeth Gruber. 'For us, what is much more interesting is how the electrical field of the highly charged ion affects the electrons in the graphene film.'

This happens even before the highly charged xenon ion collides with the graphene film. As the highly charged ion is approaching it starts tearing electrons away from the graphene due to its extremely strong electric field. By the time the ion has fully passed through the graphene layer, it has a positive charge of less than 10, compared to over 30 when it started out. The ion is able to extract more than 20 electrons from a tiny area of the graphene film.

This means that electrons are now missing from the graphene layer, so the carbon atoms surrounding the point of impact of the xenon ions are positively charged. 'What you would expect to happen now is for these positively charged carbon ions to repel one another, flying off in what is called a Coulomb explosion and leaving a large gap in the material,' says Richard Wilhelm from the Helmholtz-Center Dresden-Rossendorf, who currently works at TU Wien as a postdoctoral assistant. 'But astoundingly, that is not the case. The positive charge in the graphene is neutralised almost instantaneously.'

This is only possible because a sufficient number of electrons can be replaced in the graphene within an extremely short time frame of several femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second). 'The electronic response of the material to the disruption caused by the xenon ion is extremely rapid. Strong currents from neighbouring regions of the graphene film promptly resupply electrons before an explosion is caused by the positive charges repelling one another,' explains Elisabeth Gruber. 'The current density is around 1000 times higher than that which would lead to the destruction of the material under normal circumstances -- but over these distances and time scales, graphene can withstand such extreme currents without suffering any damage.'

Ultra-fast electronics

This extremely high electron mobility in graphene is of great significance for a number of potential applications: 'The hope is that for this very reason, it will be possible to use graphene to build ultra-fast electronics. Graphene also appears to be excellently suited for use in optics, for example in connecting optical and electronic components,' says Aumayr.
Among the most important molecules in the living world are sugars or carbohydrates, which play a vital role in life processes. Sugars provide the main source of fuel for the body, protect muscles from damage and contribute to the immune response. They also act as the brain's key metabolite (in the form of glucose), powering basic function and influencing memory and mood. Dysregulation of carbohydrates can lead to a raft of major illnesses, including cancer.

Now, Stuart Lindsay, a researcher at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, has devised a clever means of identifying these molecules quickly and accurately. The results of his research, which appear in the current issue of Nature Communications, pave the way for a new generation of analytic tools capable of ferreting out carbohydrates for diagnosis and eventual treatment of many diseases.

Essential and mysterious

Although they represent one of the four fundamental building blocks of life, (along with proteins, lipids and nucleic acids), carbohydrates have received much less scrutiny from researchers, until now. One reason for this is that carbohydrates can occur in an astonishing variety of chemically similar forms, which are tricky to identify in biological samples.

Glycobiology -- the study of sugars -- is now seen as a critical area for improving human health as well as advancing materials science and energy research, as the National Academy of Sciences outlines in a roadmap for the next decade of serious inquiry.

"Glycobiology has been, relatively speaking, in a primitive state compared to proteomics (the study of proteins) and genomics (the study of DNA) for the simple reason that the structural information is not readily available," Lindsay says. Carbohydrates often form larger structures of great variety and complexity. "If you count up the number of possible ways you can put six sugar molecules together, it turns out to be about a trillion."

Techniques like mass spectroscopy are limited when it comes to identifying carbohydrates, as multiple chemical variants or isomers of a given sugar have identical molecular weight. Another technique, known as nuclear magnetic resonance or NMR has sometimes been used for characterization, but the technique's accuracy and efficiency are limited, requiring exceptional sample purity and a sizable amount of carbohydrate for analysis. The situation has left researchers largely in the dark.

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From noise comes clarity

The approach described in the new study involves delicately suspending a carbohydrate molecule between a pair of electrodes. When electricity is passed through the molecule, it releases a burst of current spikes, which can be measured and analyzed in order to identify the given carbohydrate. In the present study, a broad range of carbohydrate molecules are read using the new method, which Lindsay has earlier applied to rapid DNA sequencing and the identification of amino acids.

On first inspection, the current spikes produced when current passes through the molecule appear to be random noise, yet these bursts of activity actually contain vital information pertaining to the unique characteristics of each molecule. The current fluctuations seen in the experiments represent instants of high and low conductivity as the molecule quivers within the gap between electrodes and its geometry is subtly altered. Lindsay and his team were able to decode the language of this electrical activity over many iterations, identifying 10 of the most common carbohydrate molecules with an accuracy of better than 90 percent.

Building on the technique, which Lindsay calls "sequencing by recognition," will require that linear chains of carbohydrate molecules be fed through a very narrow aperture, known as a nanopore. As each molecule pokes its head through the tiny opening, current passes through it and it is sequentially read and identified. The basics of this technique can be seen in the accompanying video. (While the method shown is used to sequence amino acids rather than carbohydrate molecules, the basic principle is the same.)

A molecule of many faces

Sugar molecules are deceptively simple in their construction, consisting of just oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. When a single sugar molecule is present, it is known as a monosaccharide. Simple carbohydrates contain just one or two sugars, such as fructose, which is found in fruits or galactose, present in milk. One of the most critical monosaccharides is glucose (C6H12O6), a molecule created through photosynthesis and central for cellular respiration.

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Glucose is transported through blood vessels to the brain, crossing the blood-brain barrier and producing adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the primary form of chemical energy within cells. When neurons transmit their electrical signals, local capillaries dilate, delivering more blood, along with extra glucose- and oxygen-laden blood. Making up just 2 percent of the body's weight, the brain nevertheless consumes about 20 percent of the body's overall energy budget, making the brain an exceptionally glucose-rich environment.

Other sugars are more complex. Those containing three or more sugars are known as polysaccharides. These branched chains of carbohydrates form starches and glycogen for storing energy as well as structural polysaccharides like cellulose and chitin.

Molecular managers

All living cells are adorned with a layer of sugars (also known as glycans), providing cell- and tissue-specific identity. While these glycans are important in and of themselves, their real power in living systems comes from the ways in which they interact with other biological molecules. Through a process known as glycosylation, glycans attach to and augment the function of proteins, lipids and nucleic acids in ways researchers have only begun to probe.

Glycans are found across the web of life, in archaea, bacteria and eukaryotic organisms. Their wide spectrum of activity is crucial for an organism's development, growth, functioning and survival. Among their numerous functions in cells, they contribute to physical and structural integrity, extracellular matrix formation, signal transduction, protein folding and information exchange between cells and pathogens. They are also frequent targets for the binding of microbial toxins.

In the human immune system, pathogen-specific glycan sequences found on bacteria, viruses, and fungi, trigger an immune response. Glycans are important for cell adhesion and movement, guiding white blood cells to the site of injury or infection, for example. Glycans are therefore highly promising candidates for therapeutic drug discovery and as diagnostic markers of disease.

Agents of sickness and health

Over 50 percent of all human proteins undergo glycosylation, while aberrations in glycosylation are linked with the transformation of cells from a healthy to a cancerous state. Because recognition sequencing can finely discriminate between individual sugars at the single molecule level, the technique holds the promise of precise detection of cancer biomarkers -- early warning beacons of disease traceable through proteins found in the blood.

Aberrant glycan molecules have been clinically implicated in a range of deadly cancers including ovarian, prostate, pancreatic, liver, multiple myeloma, breast, lung, gastric, thyroid and colorectal. It is believed these abnormal glycans act to facilitate metastasis. The common presence of aberrant glycans in tumor cells makes them good candidates for disease biomarkers, if they can be accurately identified.

Additionally, glycans are involved in the discrimination of self vs non-self, which may play an important role in the pathology of various autoimmune diseases. Tumor cells, for example, produce abnormal glycans, which are recognized by a particular receptor found on the body's natural killer cells -- a critical component in the innate immune system.

Lindsay is optimistic about scientific advances now opening a window onto these vital molecules. Nevertheless, the challenges for recognition sequencing can be formidable, particularly in terms of the extreme precision required in manufacturing electrode-nanopore devices. The next phase of the project will be to combine the sequencing technology for individual carbohydrate molecules with a nanopore, allowing linear threads of sugar molecules to be read out accurately.
China Mobile Limited provides mobile telecommunications and related services in Mainland China and Hong Kong. The company offers local calls; domestic and international long distance calls and roaming services; and value-added services, such as caller identity display, call waiting, conference calls, and others. It also provides wireless Internet service, as well as digital applications comprising music, video, reading, gaming, and animation; wireline broadband services; and wireline voice services. In addition, it offers dedicated line and IDC services to corporate customers in a range of industry sectors; and basic corporate communication products comprising corporate VPMN and SMS, and tailor made solutions. Further, the company provides international telecommunications services, which includes IDD, roaming, Internet, MNC, and value added business services. Additionally, it offers telecommunications network planning, design, and consulting services; roaming clearance, IT system operation, and technology support services; value-added platform development and maintenance services; mobile data, and system integration and development services; network construction and maintenance, network planning and optimizing, and training services; electronic communication products design and sale of related products; and non-banking financial services. It also provides mobile cloud research and development services; call center services; e-payment, e-commerce, and Internet finance services; and mobile Internet digital content services, as well as operates a network and business coordination center. The company serves 950 million mobile customers and 187 million wireline broadband customers. The company was formerly known as China Mobile (Hong Kong) Limited and changed its name to China Mobile Limited in May 2006. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is based in Central, Hong Kong. China Mobile Limited is a subsidiary of China Mobile Hong Kong (BVI) Limited.
If ever there was a dog who made his peace with shelter life, it's Buster. In fact, he's made more than his peace with it. He's made a happy home with his Mama Gillian. And Mama Arielle. And Aunt Jess. And Uncle Joe. And the list of staff and volunteers who make up his family goes on and on. If Buster's life was a sitcom, it might even be called The Buster Bunch.

You see, since Buster arrived at the North Fork Animal Welfare League as an 8-month-old puppy back in 2011, no one has shown any interest in taking him home. So instead, shelter volunteers have become his family. "You know, the funny thing is, I really honestly believe he thinks that shelter is his home and we are his family," shelter volunteer Valerie Sanks, or Mama Valerie, tells The Dodo. "He's not the typical kind of dog that gets upset when he goes back. He's happy when he goes to his bed. He knows his people. He has aunts and uncles."

Although this pit bull has spent most of his doghood at the shelter, his mighty heart has bounded far beyond its gates. In 2013, Buster, who loves getting blankets as gifts, inspired Sanks to start a campaign appropriately called Blankets for Buster and His Friends. The idea? To give every shelter dog in New York state a blanket for Christmas.

Dodo Shows Faith = Restored Rescued Wild Horse Loves To Play With A Little Donkey

"With the help of 11 other angels, we got phone calls, texts and private messages and collected 150 blankets," Sanks says.

The next year, the group collected 610 blankets. The year after that? 2,200.

This year, Sanks is setting the goal at a lofty 10,000 blankets - enough to give every shelter dog in the state a toasty gift this winter.

And Buster's even got room in his heart for shelter cats - with organizers expanding the drive to ask for toys for them.

As for Buster, coddled in his own blankets and surrounded by mamas and aunts and uncles, he isn't going anywhere. Why would he? Sanks says the North Fork Animal Welfare League is a bright light among shelters.

"It is how every animal shelter should be run," she says. "Not only with the ideas and the time and effort they put into the dogs, but the love they put into the dogs. You will never find anything better than that." Buster seems to agree.

"We're all his family," Sanks says. "He looks at the other dogs and says, 'Please help them. Please help my cousins find homes.'" "He loves it," she adds. "He is my everything. I consider him my best friend. He's my soul dog." And there may be just enough of this pit bull's gentle spirit to cover an entire state.
Nancy Hutchinson still cries when she recalls the adoption application she received for a certain one-eyed cat. The best kind of tears. "After two years, this is the one," she tells The Dodo. "I was just so overwhelmed with emotions. I'm crying now. I love that cat." Hutchinson, who is the founder and president of Michigan Cat Rescue, had been fostering Apollo ever since she pulled the heartbroken cat out of a kill shelter.

She doted on him. But with each passing day, it seemed finding him a forever home grew further out of reach. You see, Apollo wasn't perfect on the outside. He was not only a senior cat, but a severe infection eventually cost him his left eye.

For a lot of people, it wasn't the stuff that adoption dreams are made of. And for his part, Apollo was still recovering from another kind of nightmare. He had already found his one-and-only. The cat's former owner had raised him since he was a kitten. They probably figured they would grow old together. Only Apollo's owner got older - and eventually had to move into a nursing home. The cat was surrendered to a Michigan shelter. That's where Apollo started to come apart. And where, just in time, Hutchinson happened to find him.

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"I just happened to go into the shelter that day just to look around and I saw this beautiful cat sitting there," she recalls. "He had been there for a while. Probably a good two months. It's a high-kill shelter and they felt sorry for him so they didn't put him down yet - they kind of kept him longer to give him extra time." But all the care in the world, it seemed, couldn't put Apollo back together again. In fact, once home with Hutchinson, he developed an upper respiratory infection. And pneumonia. His eye became badly infected. Veterinarians, medications ... nothing was working. "The eye basically ruptured in his head," Hutchinson says. And suddenly a senior - already a tough proposition to find a home for - became a senior cat with one eye.

"I recall one time in particular a lady came up to him at an adoption event," Hutchinson says. "He was sitting in a cage and she told him to his face that he was ugly. "I truly believe that he understood her because he put his head down. I could tell that he felt bad and it made me cry."

Hutchinson tried everything to find Apollo just the right home, listing the cat with adoption sites like Petfinder and sharing his plea widely on social media.

She even paid to have a post about him boosted on Facebook - an unusual effort for a cash-strapped volunteer-run rescue. That post ended up reaching 130,000 people. And a fresh wave of adoption applications came in. But Hutchinson, who adored Apollo, scrutinized each one with particular care. "We're very selective about who we give our cats to," she says. "We want to make sure they stay indoors and go to a nice family who's going to take care of them. Otherwise, we do all this for nothing."

Then The Application arrived. It was from a woman named Denise, who lived alone in Michigan. She was in her 50s, financially secure. But there was something else - something Hutchinson couldn't quite put her finger on. "I don't know what it was, but I just started crying and thought, 'This is the one,'" she says. "I called her and said, 'We've been waiting for you for so long to come along. We both started crying.'" Last week, Apollo met Denise, who was so excited she forgot her cat carrier. More tears. Again, the best kind.

And then, Apollo, the one-eyed senior cat - Mr. Unadoptable - became the lucky cat who gets to resume growing old with the second love of his life. "He waits by the door for her when she comes home from work. He sleeps next to her," Hutchinson says. "It's a happy ending for him." But not for countless more cats still searching for families who can't look past their age. "So many cats are like Apollo who need someone to come along," Hutchinson adds. "They're not perfect cosmetically, but they have beautiful hearts, beautiful souls and truly deserve a second chance."

And rescues like Michigan Cat Rescue never sleep. In fact, just days after Apollo found his forever home at last, another cat is arriving to take his place. That would be Uno, the new old cat who will be looking for a home after he gets desperately needed surgery.

The Tucker Farm


Authorities in Atlanta, Georgia, don't usually deal with stray pigs. Dogs and cats, sure. But animal control officers were at a bit of a loss when it came to the pig they brought in last month. The full-grown pig, who would eventually be named Arnold, had been roaming the busy downtown streets.

The Tucker Farm

Unsure how to find a family for a stray pig, the department didn't even feature him on its adoption page.

The Tucker Farm

It was a good thing Elizabeth LaBauve-Williams just happened to already own one very lonely pig named Charlotte - a pig who desperately needed another pig to call friend.

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The Tucker Farm

In fact, Charlotte may have never known another pig in her entire life. She had been rescued from a hoarding situation two months earlier, where she spent her days in a tiny space. She arrived at the farm sick and emaciated.

The Tucker Farm

Gradually, she got her strength back. But even on the farm, among dogs and goats and other animals, Charlotte was starting to feel like the odd pig out. LaBauve-Williams says being the farm's sole pig was wearing on her and causing her to act out, even trying to smash her way through the barn.

The Tucker Farm

"She doesn't really know how to be a pig," LaBauve-Williams, who owns The Tucker Farm in Atlanta, tells The Dodo.

The Tucker Farm

When she heard about Arnold from a friend at a local shelter, LaBauve-Williams figured he might make a good companion for Charlotte.

The Tucker Farm

But at first, LaBauve-Williams was told the stray pig weighed somewhere between 200 and 300 pounds - nearly twice as much as Charlotte. And likely too much pig for a small operation like the Tucker Farm. "I stepped back for a minute," she says. "I kind of let it go for a little while and thought on it." Then a friend from the shelter messaged her last weekend, saying a goat had arrived. The shelter needed the space. It seemed Arnold, despite being a pig, would meet the same fate as any dog who had been at the shelter too long: euthanasia. LaBauve-Williams decided to pay Arnold a visit.

The Tucker Farm

The first thing she noticed was Arnold wasn't as big as advertised, maybe only about 150 pounds. "He was very sweet," she recalls. But you can't just sign out a pig from a shelter. Arnold needed a certified rescue group to sign off on the adoption. So, LaBauve-Williams called her friend Jason Flatt, founder of Friends to the Forlorn Pitbull Rescue. Flatt hadn't rescued a pig before. But Arnold was still a life that needed saving. "I just facilitated it for a the right reason," he tells The Dodo. "To save a life. That's what I'm about." And so Arnold headed to the farm, where he would finally get to meet Charlotte. But, like a lot of good love stories, their first encounter was somewhat of a misfire.

The Tucker Farm

Charlotte was nervous. What sort of animal is this? Arnold was rash. He came on too strong. "We are taking it very slowly," LaBauve-Williams says. "Pigs can fight at first. We let them meet through fencing. That's where we're at now. He really wants to get to Charlotte."

The Tucker Farm

For now, Arnold will have to make do with Charlotte just being a snort away, albeit with a fence between them - and dreams of the big love to come.

The Tucker Farm

"He's doing great. He sleeps in his stall. But his biggest thing is that he really wants to get at Charlotte." Baby steps, Arnold. Courtship is all about patience. When these pigs finally get used to each other and maybe even form a bond, they will both be up for adoption. Maybe even together. Depending on how the whole love thing goes.

The Tucker Farm
While we spend Christmas curled up by the tree, Nick Van Berlo expects to spend the day in his Norfolk County shed packing sweet potatoes.

Weve got an awful lot of potatoes to get through, says Van Berlo, a second-generation farmer and winner of the Ontario Produce Marketing Associations 2016 Fresh Award, whose sweet crop graced 7.5 million tables at Thanksgiving alone.

Christmas is prime time for orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, prepared every which way from appetizers to dessert. Though hes increased his acreage to more than 1,000 acres, Van Berlo says he and other farmers cant meet the growing demand, filled by Southern states, such as North Carolina.

Ontarios hot, dry summer this year led to his best quality crop in a decade. He hopes to supply the market until June, packing his roots loose and in bags under the Berlos Best brand, and credits Sobeys with supporting his dream.

Ten years ago nobody knew what a sweet potato was, he says. Now its a staple item.

If youre looking for a local side for holiday meals, give Van Berlos roots a mash.

Identity theft

A true yam is a starchy, rough-skinned root from tropical South America, Africa and the Caribbean. Sweet potatoes, from a different family, were being grown by Native Americans when Columbus arrived in 1492. So why do some supermarkets call them yams? The confusion began in the 1930s when a Louisiana State University scientist named his new, improved orange sweet potato a Louisiana yam. The name stuck.

Nutrition powerhouse

Thanks to its deep orange colour, one medium sweet potato provides twice the recommended daily amount of Vitamin A. Theyre fat free, an excellent source of Vitamin C and a good source of fibre and potassium, with just 103 calories per root. Maximize nutrition by baking with the skin on.

Buy & Store

Depending on the variety, sweet potatoes may be white, orange or purple inside.

Choose firm roots with no cracks, bruises or soft spots.

Some recommend buying small to medium-sized roots for best flavour.

Store in a cool, dark, well-ventilated space for several weeks, NOT in the fridge.

Prep

Boil: Peel and cut in chunks. Boil until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and mash with a little butter or orange juice. Sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg.

Microwave: Pierce skin in several places and bake whole potato on High 5 to 9 minutes, rotating at half-time. Cut in half and drizzle with maple syrup.

Grill. Peel and cut into rounds or lengthwise into slices 1/2-inch (1 cm) thick. Grill until brown, about 4 minutes per side. Drizzle with lime juice.

Raw: Grate raw into slaw and salad or spiralize into noodles to eat raw or cooked.

Saute: Slice or dice peeled sweet potato, toss in oil and saute 10 minutes or until tender.

Steam: Steam 1-inch (2.5 cm) slices over simmering water.

Fries: Wash and scrub large unpeeled sweet potatoes. Cut lengthwise into fries or wedges. Season with salt, pepper and paprika. Toss with 1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil. Arrange in a single layer on baking sheet and bake at 400F (200C) about 35 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender and golden.

SERVE

Substitute boiled, mashed sweet potato for pureed pumpkin in pies, squares and quickbreads.

Add to a smoothie with vanilla yogurt, orange juice and a dash of vanilla extract.

Substitute for regular spuds in potato salad and add rounds to scalloped potatoes.

Make silky soups and add to stews.

Sweet Potato Pecan Bread Pudding

Ruby WatchCo chef/owner Lynn Crawford created this festive breakfast or brunch dish for Egg Farmers of Canada. Make ahead in individual ramekins or one big casserole and pop in the oven just before serving. Top with decadent bourbon caramel sauce.

2 sweet potatoes (1.5 lb/750 g), peeled, cooked and mashed

2 tsp (10 mL) butter

1 day old loaf Challah bread, cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) cubes (6 cups/1.5 L)

6 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup (250 mL) granulated sugar

1/2 cup (125 mL) maple syrup

1 tbsp (15 mL) molasses

2 tsp (10 mL) vanilla extract

1/2 tsp (2 mL) ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp (0.25 mL) ground nutmeg

Pinch of allspice

Pinch of salt

2 cups (500 mL) half and half (10%) cream

2 cups (500 mL) milk

Topping

1/4 cup (60 mL) firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup (60 mL) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup (125 mL) finely chopped pecans

Sauce

1/4 cup (60 mL) unsalted butter

1/2 cup (125 mL) pecan halves

1 cup (250 mL) light brown sugar

1 cup (250 mL) whipping cream

1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt

1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla

2 tbsp (30 mL) Bourbon

Butter a 13 x 9 inch (23x33 cm) baking dish and place bread cubes in the dish. Whisk together the eggs, sugar, maple syrup, molasses, vanilla, spices, salt, cream and milk. Add mashed sweet potatoes and blend thoroughly. Pour egg mixture over bread and press down with the back of a spoon to ensure all cubes are soaked in custard. Make up to a day ahead.

For topping, combine brown sugar, butter and pecans together in a small bowl. Sprinkle over pudding. Bake in 350F (180C) oven about 45 minutes until browned and custard is set, rotating pan at half-time for even browning.

For sauce, melt butter, add pecans and cook, stirring, 2 to 3 minutes until fragrant. Stir in brown sugar until it melts. Add cream and salt, blending until smooth. Remove from heat and add vanilla and Bourbon. Refrigerate up to 2 days, reheat and spoon over warm pudding.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

Cynthia David is a Toronto-based food and travel writer who blogs at cynthia-david.com.

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OTTAWALee Richardson, a longtime Progressive Conservative Albertan who was a Conservative MP in Stephen Harpers government, is weighing a run to become the Liberal candidate in Harpers former riding, the Star has learned.

In an exclusive telephone interview with the Star from Calgary, Richardson emphasized no firm decision has been made but acknowledged a bid for the Liberal nomination in Calgary Heritage is really what is on the table at this point.

Richardson, 69, is the former Conservative MP for the riding of Calgary Centre, now held by the Liberals Kent Hehr.

Harper, who remained an MP after his party lost the 2015 election, formally stepped down as MP in late August, setting the clock ticking on a six-month period by the end of which a byelection must be called.

Richardson, who has federal and provincial Progressive Conservative roots that go back decades, said, Its a big decision, in terms of my background and where Im from. Ive been a Progressive Conservative, but I have been a Conservative, and a moderate.

Richardson said a decision has not been made on either his or the Liberal Partys side and a nomination race has not been called. But he said, Its not a question of partisanship, its a question of who can best serve the constituents today at a time when we really need help.

Once deputy chief of staff to former prime minister Brian Mulroney, chief of staff to former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed, and an MP during two separate periods in Ottawa, Richardson is a cordial and well-known political actor in Calgary. He was an MP in Mulroneys government from 1988 to 1993, and returned to Ottawa from 2004 to 2012 after Stephen Harper took leadership of the merged PCs and Canadian Alliance.

In Harpers government, Richardson never made it into cabinet. But he was a popular chair of two key Commons committees  natural resources and international trade  and was well-liked on both sides of the aisle.

He admitted his decision could carry a personal price.

I may lose some friends on the Reform Party side, I doubt I would lose friends on the Progressive Conservative side, but those are things you consider, and its not something I can take lightly.

Asked what would Stephen Harper think of the prospect his former caucus colleague would run against his old party, Richardson said I have no idea, youd have to ask Stephen Harper about that. I have no idea, and its not something that would sway my decision one way or the other.

Im a Lougheed Tory, a centrist, a Mulroney Tory, I was never a Reform Party guy.

He said his reasons for considering a return to federal politics are two-fold.

First of all I miss it. I miss it a lot. To tell you the truth, Im sorry I ever left, he said. I came out here for a challenge really because of my old mentor and life friend Peter Lougheed who asked me to come back and help out the premier of Alberta at that time (Alison Redford) so I gave up my Ottawa life and my job as an MP. And there wasnt any job Ive ever loved more because Im a kind of constituency MP.

Richardson served as principal advisor to Redford but did not remain at the premiers office after she was replaced by the late Jim Prentice.

However, he said he believes Calgary residents are going through a difficult economic period compounded by developments in energy and environmental policy, and he believes he could represent them best within the Liberal caucus, notwithstanding whatever partisan bitterness his decision might cause.

If there is an opportunity to be a voice in the governing caucus at this time, I think that better serves Calgary now. I mean its just a byelection, were not changing the government here, its not about kicking the guys out or bringing in somebody new, its about these people have no member of Parliament and its a vacancy in a time when they have no voice and theyre in need of help now. . . . And I look at it and say OK, where are you better served? An experienced strong voice in a government party, or a new person in the opposition?

Since leaving the Alberta premiers office, Richardson said, he has enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren and doing some writing but did not do any government relations work due to conflict guidelines at the federal and provincial level.

Richardson said working as an MP on Parliament Hill for Calgary constituents was the job that gave him the most satisfaction in his career.

Two Liberal MPs were elected in Calgary in 2015 under Justin Trudeau, including Richardsons former Calgary Centre riding, now held by Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr, and Darshan Singh Kang won in Calgary Skyview.

As well as the vacancy in Harpers Calgary Heritage riding, former cabinet minister Jason Kenney resigned his seat in Calgary Midnapore to run for the provincial PC leadership in Alberta.

The Conservatives have nominated Bob Benzen as their candidate in Harpers old riding.

Benzen is a small business owner and longtime activist who last year launched a billboard campaign to thank Harper for his service to the party.

Richardson said Harpers riding is much more demographically similar although not quite as culturally diverse and socio-economically diverse as my old riding of Calgary-Centre. But yeah, it is where I think, culturally, I would be most at home, and I do have a lot of friends there.

Liberal Party of Canada spokesperson Braeden Caley said the date of the riding nomination meeting has not been set yet.

In an email, Caley said that, The Team Trudeau candidate in Calgary Heritage will be decided by local registered Liberals early in the new year.

Mr. Richardson is among a variety of talented potential candidates who have expressed interest in running for the Liberal nomination in Calgary Heritage and Calgary Midnapore, and the party is in close communication with them about the process.

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OTTAWAPrime Minister Justin Trudeau admits he may have been a little cheeky when he made a comment last week on bilingualism.

When questioned by a Radio-Canada journalist if he supported the idea of Ottawa being designated a bilingual city, Trudeau asked whether the western Quebec town of Gatineau was ready to do the same.

Is the city of Gatineau open to becoming officially bilingual? Trudeau responded, with a little smile.

Trudeau said Monday he was fully aware the comment would get him in trouble.

I knew it, he said in an end-of-year-interview with The Canadian Press. I was being cheeky, I admit it.

Trudeau said, however, he was not questioning or criticizing Quebecs law making French the sole official language in the province.

Not at all, not at all, he insisted. Quebec has to be French in order for Canada to be bilingual.

The prime minister said he is an ardent defender of the countrys linguistic duality.

I taught French in Vancouver, he said. I know how important bilingualism is.

He said any decision about whether Ottawa should become officially bilingual needs to be made by municipal leaders and not by the federal government.

Quebecs language laws state municipalities in the province can be designated as bilingual if more than half of their residents have English as a mother tongue.

According to the 2011 census, only 11 per cent of Gatineaus residents fit the criteria.

In Ontario, municipalities are either administered entirely in English or in both of the countrys official languages.

The debate over whether Ottawa should be bilingual resurfaces periodically and was rekindled due to the attention surrounding Canadas plans to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has spoken out against the idea on several occasions.

Isabelle Miron, head of an association representing Ottawa francophones, told Radio-Canada that Trudeaus original comment alienated everyone, francophones and the people of Gatineau alike.

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OTTAWAJustin Trudeau says his governments focus on bolstering the middle class is aimed at insulating Canada from the kind of populist rage that is fuelling political upheaval elsewhere around the globe.

And affordable housing will be central to his approach in the coming year.

In a year-end roundtable interview with The Canadian Press, the prime minister acknowledged that Canadians are not immune to the anxiety that is fuelling anti-globalization, anti-trade, anti-immigration and anti-government sentiment around the world.

Among other things, he said, Canadians are worried about job security, retirement security, and their childrens economic prospects.

Trudeau said that feeling of anxiety is not unique to Canada, pointing to Britains impending departure from the European Union, the rise of populist and nationalist parties in Europe, and the turn that the American election took.

The key to preventing that rage from boiling over here as it has elsewhere, Trudeau said, is to ensure that middle class Canadians feel theyre getting a fair share of the benefits from economic growth.

In the choices were making, thats the direction were taking and its a little bit heading off some of the issues being faced around the world right now where there is a lashing out at institutions for having failed. And what we see is when people lash out at policies that create growth, and you eliminate growth, not only do the wealthy suffer, but everyone else suffers even more.

So theres a careful line were trying to walk to demonstrate that growth that includes the middle class is really the only way to get out of this challenging context around globalization that were facing.

Its the same message Trudeau delivered almost three years ago at a Liberal convention, long before the impending backlash against globalization was on most political leaders radar. At the time, he warned that three decades of support for the growth agenda based on free trade would crumble because the original promise of prosperity for all hadnt materialized.

In his first year in office, Trudeaus attempt to head off the anti-globalization backlash here included billions in new infrastructure spending in a bid to create jobs and boost the sluggish economy, a more generous child benefit, and a cut in the income tax rate for middle-income earners while simultaneously boosting taxes on income over $200,000.

In the year to come, Trudeau indicated the governments plan includes investing heavily in affordable housing, including finding ways to drive down the cost of housing for low-income Canadians.

Navigating around the rising tide of anti-globalization and economic anxieties has been top of mind for senior civil servants since before Trudeau took power just over one year ago.

Canadians, especially those in the middle class, have done well based on traditional government markers, reads a report from early 2015 to the deputy ministers committee on social policy. After-tax income as of 2011 was at an all-time high, the incidence of low-income was at an all-time low, and the country was also among the world leaders in terms of intergenerational social mobility, a measure that determines the degree to which a childs earnings can be explained by their parents earnings.

But there were signs that all was not well.

The deputy ministers were told Canadas social safety net  created to meet post-war economic needs  was feeling the strain from a fast-changing economy: fewer full-time jobs, more part-time work, changing family structures and an aging workforce. The documents say younger families were facing declining returns from work because of mounting financial pressure from student debts, child care, and the need to save for education and retirement.

I believe this is a key source of the angst that has been picked up in public opinion research among the middle class and others. Its less about how they are actually doing and more about the pressure they are feeling and the insecurity coming from the sense that something will have to give, reads a copy of the speaking notes to the committee chairman.

So where is help to come from? The speaking notes say neither the federal government nor the provinces were particularly well-placed to take on more spending responsibility, and governments couldnt expect work or family to pick up the slack.

The documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act show that officials talked about whether to tweak existing programs or plan for a worst-case scenario.

Asked about the future of the social safety net this week, Trudeau pointed to housing, suggesting that putting and keeping people in homes is a key first step. He called affordable housing a fundamental building block that leads towards people being able to succeed.

Trudeaus social development minister, Jean-Yves Duclos, has also said that the employment insurance system might require an overhaul to become simpler to navigate and more flexible to meet modern demands.

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A Canadian man whose family is trapped in a militant-controlled area in the Libyan city of Benghazi is calling on Ottawa to help broker a ceasefire so innocent civilians can flee the fighting.

Ali Hamza, of Mississauga, Ont., says his 75-year-old mother, five siblings, sister-in-law and six young nieces are among about 130 families still living in the neighbourhood of Ganfouda, which is besieged by Libyan army troops that answer to a powerful military commander.

The North African nation has been plagued by violence and chaos since the ouster and death of longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi in a 2011 civil war.

Since September, Hamza says his family and friends in Ganfouda have told him that homes have been destroyed, people have been killed and residents are running out of food, water, medication and other basic necessities.

The 50-year-old is urging Ottawa to issue a statement calling for an immediate ceasefire in Ganfouda until families in the area can be evacuated.

A spokeswoman with Global Affairs Canada says the federal government is deeply concerned about the ongoing armed conflict in Libya, including the district of Ganfouda.

Canada supports the work of humanitarian partners to facilitate free and unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance and to permit civilians who wish to leave to do so in safety and with dignity, said Jocelyn Sweet.

But Hamza says thats not enough. He believes a strong public stance from Canada on the situation in Ganfouda would have an impact.

Canada is a humble country but its weight is known, he said. Thats why were asking Canada ... do a statement to protect the civilians who have been entrapped there.

Hamza said the civilians in Ganfouda, including his family, have not been able to leave the area because they have not been guaranteed safe passage.

Canada and the international communitys silence on Ganfouda has allowed armed groups to commit gross human rights violations without accountability, he said. It sends the message to Canadians that the life of my mother and my family is worthless. While they are not Canadian citizens, they are still my family.

Hamza is also part of an informal group of activists who are trying to get a shipment of aid to Ganfouda, but those efforts have been put on hold due to the precarious security situation, he said.

Amnesty International has raised the alarm over the situation in Ganfouda, saying hundreds of Libyan and foreign nationals have been trapped in the neighbourhood for months, with dwindling food and fuel supplies. The group has also expressed concern about people in the area facing possible mass punishment under the pretext that they are supporters or sympathizers of Daesh, alson known as ISIS or ISISL.

Despite a UN-brokered peace deal reached a year ago, Libya remains divided between east and west, with no effective government and rival factions and militias  each side with backing from different foreign countries.

With files from the Associated Press

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Theres one song that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he simply cant stand at the Christmas season.

When I was in grade 5 at Rockcliffe Park Public school, down the street, I was forced to dress up as a reindeer to Jingle Bell Rock for our year-end pageant, Trudeau told the Canadian Press.

To this day I cant hear that song without getting the shivers.

Trudeau deadpanned that he was not dressed as Rudolph, but Olive, the other reindeer.

My kids love that joke, he added.

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More than seven years after 18-year-old Tevon Mitchell was gunned down outside a Scarborough house party, Toronto police have arrested a suspect for his murder.

Mitchells killing on July 19, 2009 shocked the city, as it happened in the scenic, upscale neighbourhood of West Rouge. At the time, Toronto police offered a $50,000 reward to catch the person responsible.

The Grade 12 student was shot in the stomach outside a home on Rouge Hills Dr., near Port Union and Lawrence Ave. At the time, police said they believed it was a drive-by shooting.

A gravely wounded Mitchell then staggered back up the driveway to the house, where inside, revellers were celebrating a birthday. Though party guests tried attempted to help and paramedics rushed him to hospital, Mitchell died from his injuries.

A year later, Mitchells mother made an emotional plea for information, begging for gun violence in Toronto to come to an end.

Tevon was an intelligent, bright, sweet, loving boy and he was still just a boy, just 18, said Vanessa Smikle in an October 2010 press conference with Toronto police.

On Tuesday, police arrested Christopher Reauz Shaw, now 28, of Toronto. Hes charged with second-degree murder.

Reauz Shaw is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.

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High school fights are as old as high schools themselves, but filming them expressly for social media is relatively new, and worrying. York police say its a trend that has been spreading quickly. Toronto police say theyve never seen anything like it.

Two recent fights at GTA schools are the latest in a recent string of social media incidents involving young people that have left many wondering what exactly is going on with such a supposedly digitally savvy population.

You say to a young person whos done something really stupid, What were you thinking? And they answer, No, I wasnt really thinking, said York University professor Debra Pepler.

The psychology expert studies bullying, aggression and violence in youth. She says the problem is deeper than kids being stupid on the Internet.

Many youth, especially teenagers, have struggled to fully understand the consequences of their actions, Pepler says, because of the way their brains are developing.

Their brains are reorganizing and their thinking processes arent as strong as they were even when they were a bit younger, she said.

Theres also a lot of research about reinforcing deviance in young people, she says, That they really encourage each other if they have anti-social values.

Add to that the immediacy and reach of social media, and you have a very combustible mix, Pepler said.

Neighbours who saw the street fight in York Region near Cardinal Carter two weeks ago say carloads of teens were showing up in a coordinated manner, all ready to see  and film  a fight. At its height there were upwards of 50 students in the street, many wielding cell phones, neighbours said.

The same behaviour happened near Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate in Scarborough in November after students there filmed two of their classmates getting jumped and badly beaten.

Students there call their fight-video trend Friday Night Fights. Three students were charged with assault causing bodily harm following the November attacks.

The second video of the Cardinal Carter fight, showing the 52-year-old father being severely beaten by a group of teens, has since appeared on the popular fight video site WorldStarHipHop, where it has been viewed 1.4 million times.

The student who shared the York Region fight publicly said she did so because people need to understand that these are not isolated incidents.

She goes to a different school but said fights at her high school now often have their own designated videographer.

There was this one kid; everyone would say he needs to be here for this fight. Hes the video guy, she said. Thats how intense these things get now; theyre literally assigning kids to take videos of fights at schools. Thats ridiculous.

York Regional Police spokesman Const. Andy Pattenden said officers on his force are seeing similar incidents more often.

In the case of the fights, the more disturbing trend for police is that you see all these people around with their cell phones out filming it, posting it to social media, yet no one calls police about it, Pattenden said.

Anyone of those people with a phone could have called 911. We could have arrived, intervened and broken up the fight, and done whats necessary to stop it from happening.

Neighbours who saw the Cardinal Carter street fight say they did call police, but that response time was slow.

Pattenden said many York officers were busy dealing with a weapons call at a different school while the Cardinal Carter fight was happening.

High school can seem like such a blur, and for youth who are still forming their identities, the temptation to be the one with the viral video can outweigh almost all logical thought, she said.

Identity forms in a social context, Pepler said. If you are wanting to enhance your identity and be seen, although its completely the wrong thing to do, some young people think that theyre going to get a lot of attention from this, and they often do.

Research shows that groups of youth can easily reinforce delinquent behaviour among each other, Pepler explained, and when that group can instantly include pretty much everyone on the Internet, the consequences can be unpredictable.

Students say the videos of the fight and beating near Cardinal Carter Catholic originally started circulating in private channels as text messages and Snapchats.

The fight took place on a Friday, but it wasnt until one student posted them publicly on the following Monday that they gained widespread media and police attention.

The distinction between public and private channels is an important one. The student who first shared the video to Twitter suspects that whoever filmed it never intended for it to get out publicly, much less for it to remain online forever.

I believe the one person who took the video assumed it was going to be private, she said. They sent it to a few people. Those people who saw it went oh my god, I have to show these other people, and it spiraled out from there.

The Star is not revealing the students name to protect her identity. After she posted the video publicly, she received a wave of online backlash urging her to take it down.

Toronto District School Board spokesperson Ryan Bird said his board has no specific policy regarding social media.

If youre saying or doing something inappropriate in person or youre doing it online, its still inappropriate, he said.

The York Catholic board has what it calls digital citizenship embedded in its curriculum, said spokesperson Sonia Gallo in an emailed statement.

Students are taught about what is a credible source, to communicate and respond appropriately while maintaining a positive presence online, to safely participate in an online environment and protect and respect the privacy of self and others, the statement said.

Ontarios province-wide curriculum also requires instruction on cyberbullying that begins in Grade 2, and includes a week every fall where bullying prevention is the main focus.

But Pepler says none of this goes far enough in part because the technology changes so fast that parents and schools are being left behind.

If we were actually going to support young people in learning how to use this and how to think about it, wed be working on digital citizenship in kindergarten, she said.

We ourselves arent very informed about this, Pepler said. And so it really requires a lot of collaborative work getting young people to inform us and to integrate it into the curriculum.

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SCOTCHTOWN, N.S.A Cape Breton fire chief says members of his department  including one dressed as Santa  were just trying to bring some holiday cheer to a local school when they were politely asked to leave because of an ongoing labour dispute.

Raymond Eksal of the Scotchtown Volunteer Fire Department says three firefighters were visiting Greenfield Elementary School in New Waterford, N.S., to hand out seasonal treats on Monday morning as classes started.

But he says he didnt realize their presence violated work-to-rule conditions being followed by the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, which says that during the labour dispute teachers are only focused on teaching and this means no guests in the classroom.

The principal came out and just informed us she had been contacted by a representative from the union. Someone had called the union I guess and ... she was told we were in violation of the work to rule and we had to leave, explained Eksal.

He added she explained the situation very politely, and the three firefighters quietly departed.

The principal was very gracious. Its terrible the way people are going on about this. We were simply trying to be nice to the kids, to have a good relationship with the kids, he said.

Eksal says the firefighters had already handed out candy canes to students in about six classes in the primary to Grade 6 school before the principal asked them to leave.

Teachers in the province are in the third week of a work-to-rule campaign, which has included the cancellation of all extracurricular activities, field trips, concerts and sports.

The firefighter said he knew the Christmas concert was cancelled due to the labour disruption, but had incorrectly assumed dropping off goodies wouldnt pose a problem.

We normally do the parking for their Christmas concert. We knew that was cancelled due to the work-to-rule, which we could understand ... but I guess there was something lost in the translation ... we didnt realize it was also cancelling Santa Claus, he said.

The president of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union said she wasnt available for an interview, but emailed a statement.

During work-to-rule, teachers are only focused on teaching. This means guest speakers are not permitted in the classroom, said Liette Doucet in the email provided by the unions communications office.

That being said, at the discretion of the school board, there is nothing preventing Santa from visiting the students during their lunch hour.

The superintendent of the school board was not immediately available for comment.

Doucet noted both sides are back in conciliation now and the union is hopeful that a fair contract can be negotiated.

The firefighters have been visiting schools in the area to deliver Christmas treats for about 60 years, said Eksal.

He said the incident itself is unfortunate, but hes now equally upset by expanding media coverage that he says is harming the school staff and the children.

He noted the critique of the schools actions didnt begin with firefighters, but rather from a single, anonymous Facebook posting from someone who was upset the firefighters had to leave.

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The TTC board has voted to review its advertising policy after members of Torontos Tibetan community accused the transit agency of running racist posters on the subway system.

The board made the decision at a meeting on Tuesday after hearing from several Tibetan residents, who said the ads from the China National Tourist Office were an attempt to erase their culture and legitimize the oppression of their people.

The boards decision didnt go nearly far enough for Sonam Chokey, national director of Students for a Free Tibet Canada. She said she was very disappointed that TTC commissioners didnt agree to remove the ads and apologize to the Tibetan community.

Theres a difference between free speech and hate speech. What a lot of Tibetans are feeling about this is its falling into the category of hate speech, she said of the ad.

Roughly 200 of the posters have run on the subway since Nov. 28 and are scheduled to be taken down on Friday.

The ads contrast two images of Tibet: one that shows a cluster of tents in a bleak mountain valley, and another that depicts a modern city in the same mountain setting. The accompanying caption is Old Culture, New Tibet.

Chokey said the ads portray traditional Tibetan culture as backwards and undeveloped. The China National Tourist Office said theyre intended to show a Tibet that enjoys both tradition and modernity.

In accordance with TTC policy, an agency working group reviewed the ad after receiving more than five complaints about it, but determined it didnt violate any laws or internal policies.

TTC staff will now review the agencys ad policy, but its not clear if the exercise will result in any substantive changes.

The TTCs legal counsel Brian Leck told the board that the Supreme Court has set a very, very high threshold for any public transit agency to clear in order to reject an ad.

It must be truly offensive. It must be something that is absolutely discriminatory in terms of content, and (the court) used the example of something that would advocate violence and terrorism, he said.

TTC chair Josh Colle, who moved the review motion, told the meeting that he found the posters distasteful.

At the same time I understand some of the limitations that were bound by as an organization, he said.

In an interview with the Star, he said my preference would be that there be no kind of politically minded ads on the TTC.

Because I dont want to get into this situation where youre like, all of a sudden, debating world history or geopolitical events, on what is deemed controversial enough or not, or offensive or not, he said.

TTC staff are expected to report back with the findings of their review in early 2017.

Tibet has been under Chinese control since the Chinese army took over in 1950. Tibetans consider it an invasion, while the Chinese government claims Tibet is a part of China and the government liberated it.

A May 2016 Amnesty International report accused China of persecuting Tibetans who oppose the Beijing government, using methods that include unlawful detention and excessive force against peaceful protesters.

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The head of the provincial organization that funds legal aid  which recently announced major cuts to services due to a $26-million deficit  said he would welcome an external audit of his agency.

Were committed as an organization to open government, and so I wouldnt have a problem with that, Im very confident in our financial position, Legal Aid Ontario president and CEO David Field told the Star in an interview Tuesday.

Field was speaking days after LAO announced it was scaling back on services, including no more legal funding for individuals charged with crimes, but who are not facing jail time.

The move would affect thousands of people who cant afford a lawyer and who could still be fired, slapped with a hefty fine, or have difficulty travelling if convicted of a crime.

Critics have charged that the agency, which has a $440-million annual budget, mishandled its money and is spending far too much on inefficient internal growth, rather than spending more on community legal clinics and covering legal fees for private criminal defence lawyers.

We provide the attorney general with ongoing financial information about our situation, our financial statements are audited by the auditor general on an annual basis, and we have a team of internal auditors who report to the board of directors, Field said.

And so Im confident that this has not been the result of mismanagement, but really what were looking at it is a demand in our services, and not a bloated bureaucracy or anything like that.

Other changes announced by Field in a memo Friday include freezing salaries within LAO and reducing legal clinic operation budgets by $1 million.

This calls for a full and independent audit, Margaret Parsons, executive director of the African Canadian Legal Clinic, told the Star, adding she was blindsided by Fridays announcement.

Where is the oversight? I dont think the cuts should be on the backs of services. Poor people should not have to bear the brunt of this. The community should not have to bear the brunt of their gross mismanagement.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Yasir Naqvi reiterated in a statement to the Star Tuesday that the ministry remains concerned about the agencys financial situation, though did not directly respond to a question as to when Naqvi knew LAO was facing a deficit.

LAOs board is an independent decision-making body. That being said, the attorney general recently met with LAO and expressed his expectation that LAOs current challenges need to be managed in a way that maintains front-line services, said spokesperson Clare Graham.

We will continue to closely monitor this situation and are readily available to provide LAO with any guidance they need at this time.

To qualify for legal aid, a person must fall below its current household income threshold, which is about $13,000 for a single person with no dependants. Field again stated Tuesday that LAO plans to raise the threshold by 6 per cent starting in April 2017.

Even with the increase, the threshold has long been criticized as being far too low, and was called out in June by Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer in a case of a man charged with drug offences who was denied legal aid because he made about $16,000 a year.

Nordheimer stayed the charges until the government picked up the tab for the mans lawyer, noting that LAOs thresholds do not bear any reasonable relationship to what constitutes poverty in this country and wrote that Statistics Canada calculates the low-income cut-off for a single individual in a large city as closer to $25,000.

I cant disagree with Justice Nordheimer, our $13,000 is not high, by any measure, Field said. Its just that the regulations and funding are set by the province and we work within that envelope provided.

He noted that the provincial government has made a 10-year commitment to bringing the threshold up to the Statistics Canada level. Field also said that LAO will be continuing to work with the federal government to increase funding for legal aid work with refugees at asylum hearings.

There was a recent shortage of people facing jail time who were poor enough to qualify for legal aid, leaving LAO with money left over; the agency responded by expanding access to legal aid for individuals not facing jail time.

Field said in his memo that the mix of expanding financial eligibility and new types of services, however, resulted in unprecedented demand. He told the Star Tuesday he hopes the agency will one day return to offering those expanded services.

Im hoping this is temporary and that over the course of the next couple of years, Im hopeful well be able to return to providing services in those areas, he said, adding he was disappointed the agency had to make the cuts it did.

Anthony Moustacalis, president of the Criminal Lawyers Association, has criticized LAO for increasing its internal costs by hiring a large number of staff lawyers, whose duties include handling guilty pleas and bail hearings, instead of turning to the private criminal-defence bar, who can handle those matters as well as trials.

Field said one of the reasons LAO increased its capacity was because of what he described as a job action taken by the CLA several years ago when the tariff for legal aid was being negotiated.

During that time, we really were vulnerable to job action on the part of the bar and we felt that in order to provide continuity of services to our clients, we needed to increase our capacity.

Moustacalis said Tuesday it was a withdrawal of service, that criminal lawyers decided not to take on homicide cases because the tariff was so low. He said the bar today has no intention of taking similar action.

Ive always said theyre hiring for a contingency that no longer exists, he said, explaining that the criminal lawyers would like to sign a new agreement with LAO that would recognize their participation in the system and provide for a cost of living increase.

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The push to list a new carbon fee of $5 a month separately on household natural gas bills in the New Year has won the backing of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

Not flagging the charge  one of the measures funding the governments $8.3 billion cap-and-trade plan to fight climate change  undermines that effort, the business group says.

The entire premise of a cap and trade program is to place a price on carbon in order to motivate consumers to take action and change behaviour, the chamber said in a new report about the provinces energy system.

To not provide this price to consumers could make it more difficult to achieve GHG (greenhouse gas) emission reductions.

Opposition parties and Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk have been pressing Premier Kathleen Wynnes government to list the fee, which will average $5 monthly for homeowners. It was first announced last spring.

The premier and Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault have refused, saying the quasi-judicial Ontario Energy Board has ruled the fee can be buried.

Thibeault told reporters earlier this month that the board is an independent agency with sole authority over how natural gas bills are presented.

I am okay with the decision of the OEB, he said after the auditor generals annual report said more transparency is required over the fee, with a survey finding 89 per cent of respondents want it listed separately.

Officials at the energy board have acknowledged that local utilities and natural gas users have pressed for more clarity over the carbon fee.

The Progressive Conservatives and NDP have accused the government of burying the fee to quell criticism while gaining political advantage by making sure electricity bills will show the 8 per cent provincial portion of the HST is being waived starting in January.

When the issue first flared in August, Thibeaults office said, unlike natural gas bills, it has regulatory authority over hydro bills.

Not having the fee listed separately could also make it easier for the government to increase it without consumers noticing, critics have warned.

Cap and trade-related costs should be a separate line item on natural gas bills in order to provide greater transparency and a visible price signal to customers, the chamber added in its submission to the government as it develops a long-term energy plan to be finalized next spring.

Next month, Ontario joins Quebec and California in a greenhouse gas-emissions market, putting a cap on the release of carbon gases and allowing companies to trade emission credits if they are under their limits.

That gives them an incentive to reduce emissions and improve their profits, while still lowering the overall levels of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere.

Wynnes plan to fight climate change includes programs to help Ontarians make their homes more energy efficient, a 4.3 cent a litre carbon fee on gasoline and a cash-for-clunkers program to encourage low- and moderate-income drivers take old cars off the road.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray said last week that details on energy-efficiency programs will be announced early in the new year.

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Educational websites and apps commonly used by teachers across the province could be putting students personal information at risk, Ontarios privacy commissioner warns.

There is a definite growth in online educational tools that are available to teachers and schools. Many of them are very valuable in terms of teaching, communications with kids and parents, assessment and evaluation  but like anything thats online, there are always associated risks that need to be addressed, said Brian Beamish in an interview Tuesday.

His office is so concerned that it has been working with boards to alert educators to be aware of security issues with these popular online services.

While boards typically have a list of main approved digital learning services used across schools  such as Google Apps or Office 365  there are so many out there, and new ones constantly coming on the market . . . our concern was more that teachers may take it upon themselves to use a tool or have kids sign up for tools without thinking what those risks are.

The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has been working with the Ontario Association of School Business Officials to create an information pamphlet. The association also has a video for boards that cautions that when using other services  such as photo-sharing sites or platforms to post homework or quizzes  teachers need to think twice.

Student privacy has been a huge concern in a number of U.S. states, with California the first to enact strict legislation ensuring that online education services only collect certain information on any minor  covering students from kindergarten to Grade 12  and that such information cant be shared, compiled or sold.

Here in Ontario, Beamish said privacy legislation is more than adequate, but parents and teachers need to be better informed, in particular to ensure digital services used arent over-collecting data.

The main concern is that the information is being used for purposes that go beyond the educational purposes, and its going on to other markets, said Beamish. Its a potentially rich source for companies  collecting contact information for kids, an indication of their age.

They should only be collecting the kinds of information from children or parents that they need to deliver the service. That may be email addresses or what grade the kids are in, and some contact information, but they shouldnt be going beyond that.

In the video made for boards, teachers are encouraged to think about why they are using the tool, and if they do, never to use students full names  initials are fine  and are discouraged from posting photos or videos showing kids faces.

And if using sites where colleagues or parents are also given access, to keep in mind that when you give more people access to more information, you need to be cautious about what you share.

In Peel, director of education Tony Pontes sends a letter to families at the start of the school year, saying we believe that it is important to encourage and support the use of technology for instructional, assessment and evaluation practices to improve the educational outcomes for our students . . . we are providing notice to parents/guardians that some personal information belonging to students may be collected, retained and disclosed by third parties managing Internet-based programs and applications used by our staff and students.

He encourages parents to talk to teachers or the school principal if they have any concern.

Likewise, the Toronto District School Board  Canadas largest  said it does not track all the tools available.

Given the ever-changing range of software available, the TDSB does not have a list of apps for teachers to use, said spokesperson Ryan Bird.

We leave that to teachers, together with their principals, to determine what works best for their students and parents.

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LA RINCONADA, PERUStepping from a brothel into morning in Rinconada, a suppurating wound of excrement and garbage and fuel exhaust.

Rough night. No heat. No running water. Ergo: no toilet. The wooden floors and cracker-thin walls of the bordello had served as efficient sound vectors for the heavy boots of the importuning miners, orchestral hosts to their loud and meaty door-banging fists. The only detail missing was the jangle of brass spurs.

The floors of the hotel rooms  bordellos offer the only lodging in town  had been doused in germ-killing gasoline, the fumes infusing the atmosphere with acrid, lung-invading top-notes. Thus the head: woozy, thick-feeling. Can barely breathe, not that breathing in this fetid atmosphere holds much appeal.

A metre in the distance, a stream of effluent bisects the packed mud path that serves as a primary artery through town. There are no paved roads. Panfuls of slop are heaved into the street.

The mining town shakes off hours of half sleep. Morning triptych: one miner relieves himself with the force of a Clydesdale against a truck tire; one boozy adolescent sways on his pins to the sound of no music; one market woman lands a cleaver into the rib cage of a stripped and quartered lamb.

A moments silence: the compro oro  gold buying shops that litter the streets  are still shut tight.

Why here? Why this slap-down disaster of tin-shack homes and frontier shops settled at 5,200 metres in the Peruvian Andes? To the northwest lies Cuzco, the once-golden capital of the Incan empire, and beyond that, the ruins of Machu Picchu, Perus come-hither call to tourists. But here? Why on Earth?

Our off-the-grid story begins with a hitchhiker. A year prior, we had departed Ounaminthe, a Haitian garment factory town upon which a few noted economists had pinned a frail, T-shirt sewing future for that collapsed country. We were speedily making our reapproach to Cap Haitian when we spotted the backpacker and wondered: who hikes through Haiti?

The bespectacled traveller told many tales of fantastic adventures. There was a far-off land, he said, where men live higher than all others, pursuing a quest for gold under an Andean glacier, receiving no pay, until, by grace of the boss man, they are allowed to excavate for their own gain. He had journeyed from the cacophonous Peruvian city of Juliaca up to Rinconada by bus. He lasted a day. It was an execrable place, he said.

Mining for gold above the highest-known inhabited settlement in the world? Under the ice? Twenty-first century serfdom? Is there no limit to what can be born, if not nurtured, by a global gold rush?

In the bare dawn, we push higher.

Our altimeter does not work. Nor, often, do our lungs, as we try to keep our footing on slickly odorous paths, amalgams of unpleasantness in the thin air. Invisible hands compress our temples. An electrifying sensation charges through fingers and toes, sparked by the altitude medication we are taking. Having been pre-warned that working at such heights is like working with a hangover, photographer Lucas Oleniuk pondered: Im good at that. Having a hangover makes you sad and sadness makes me more perceptive.

Prior to departure, Joe Fisher, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and an international collaborator with the Altitude Research Centre in Denver, had shared his on-site experiences drawn from research work at Chacaltaya in Bolivia. At 5,400 metres, Chacaltaya is, or was, the highest ski resort in the world, but, said Fisher, while the ski lift remains and the abandoned chalet offers shelter, The glacier is pretty well disappearing.

Fishers account was chilling. A number of his research group had been afflicted with cerebral edema, including one  the team doctor, as it happened  who developed brain swelling, lung swelling and atrial fibrillation. By night the doctor grew sicker and sicker. The roads are too treacherous for night travel. The group considered that he might die. An improvised oxygen treatment system was rigged up. In the morning he was taken down to La Paz. The doctor swiftly recovered.

Its not trivial, Fisher continued. Going up acutely would be foolhardy. If I were you I would leave myself a week. . . for gradual acclimatization. Then youll have a reasonable chance of being okay. But we werent.

If we took our time, and if we were lucky, we would merely feel lousy.

Patience and journalism do not a happy mix make.

We allowed ourselves a day and a half in Juliaca, at 3,800 metres, before hopping in the truck and ascending the next 1,400 metres, all in a gulp.

So here we are, at 5,200 metres. Everest base camp is 5,364.

The sun nudges the muted greys from the sky. Hard-hatted men plod higher, past hole-in-the-wall shops selling blankets and coveralls and biscuits. The grave footfalls of the miners worry the same muddy ruts, day by day. Garbage cascades down hillsides, often beneath signs forewarning that tossing trash is punishable by, um, death.

Women pallaqueras, or scavengers, speed past, nimble as goats, murmuring in Quechua, the language of the Incas. They are kitted out in rubber boots and hard hats, their llicllas o keperinas shifting slightly on their backs. The women have tied the traditional brightly coloured blankets in the fashion of rucksacks in which they have stored gloves, tools and provisions. The pallaqueras have no patience for the careful procession of a couple of lowlanders.

Onward. Upward. Downward. Upward again. Until at last, in the lee of a mountain the locals call La Durmiente de Nieve  The Sleeping Beauty of Snow  a grim portal comes into view.

Do not imagine crushing mills and high-tech recovery systems and the lumbering architecture of large-scale industrialized mining.

Do imagine picks and shovels and hand drills and gold pans and silver slithers of mercury and pickup trucks with their cabs sheared off so they can burrow into the low-cut mountainside.

This is small-scale and artisanal mining. Globally, the numbers of such miners have swelled as the price of gold broke through $1,900 an ounce in September, before making its autumn retreat. Kevin Telmer, executive director of the Artisanal Gold Council and an associate professor in the school of earth and ocean sciences at the University of Victoria, says the decade-old estimate of 10 million miners in the sector has surged, conservatively, to 15 million. They produce about 15 per cent of the worlds gold, says Telmer, which means that collectively the small miners form the worlds largest gold mine. Theres no single producer thats larger.

These miners work in the most basic conditions: men, women, often children. Its an economic challenge. A developmental opportunity. A global embarrassment. Health and environment? It is one of the largest environmental issues that the world faces today, Telmer asserts.

Gold is extracted by hand using mercury. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining is the worlds largest demand for mercury right now, Telmer says of the toxic heavy liquid. And the second-largest emitter to the atmosphere after coal.

Artisanal mercury use for the year, globally, is expected to reach 1,500 tonnes. Peru is the worlds fifth-largest consumer, after China, Indonesia, Colombia and the Philippines.

Telmer has heard of La Rinconada, though he has never been. The town is so absurdly out of reach that it creates a logistical barrier against prying reporters, a barrier that is rarely breached.

Telmer calls Rinconada an outlier.

It is that.

It is also an ice-rimmed scar on the top of the world.

Their numbers reach, then surpass, 250, rubber boots shimmying stone against stone. Incessantly they quarry the hillside, splitting rock with picks and pieces of rebar for not a pennys pay but perhaps, if luck arrives, a speck of gold to which can be added tomorrows speck of gold until a gram of gold can be taken to the compro oro, for which the compro oro today will pay 133 Peruvian soles (pronounced so-lays), or about $50.

A single sole buys a bucket of glacial water. For two months of the year the water freezes, and life goes from horrible to unbearable.

The women rapidly fill yellow gunny sacks by their sides. The most prospective pieces are tucked into the apron pockets of the thin cotton pinnies they wear over their woollens.

Were they to lift their eyes, they would see Sleeping Beauty. The rock formation does indeed take the shape of a snowy angel in repose, her face turned toward the heavens. Who remembers that in the fairy tale Sleeping Beautys bed is embroidered with gold? Here she weeps with snow. Her rib cage has grown bare.

The women scavengers do not lift their eyes from their work.

In quieter moments, the women will say that Rinconada is a safe place by day. At night it turns dangerous.

Last March, three thieves held up one of the slicker compro oros in town. Ruben Aliaga, a miner who migrated here 30 years ago, tells the tale. The mountain is bountiful, he says, and gold buyers store considerable wealth. The gold buyers can buy almost two kilos of gold on a really successful day, he insists.

There are hundreds of compro oros. Our hotelier, busy man that he is, is a gold buyer, too. So he charges 10 Peruvian soles, or about $4, to the hookers for the use of a room. (The hookers net an average of 40 soles per encounter, 70 for the Grade A ladies.) Gold is a far bigger game: the hotel operator buys on average 60 grams a day from the miners. He takes the gold to Juliaca once a month, but he will not set a schedule so as not to reveal a pattern of behaviour to gold thieves.

The raid on Centauro Compro Oro was conducted by out-of-towners, men from Arequipa, Aliaga says. Villagers chased them down. Who tell you to come here? demanded the heated crowd. Two of the men pointed to a third. The people say burn him alive, and they did, Aliaga recounts, adding that the thieves doused their leader with gasoline, before they in turn were lit aflame.

Two weeks prior to our arrival, a truck carrying arms was turned back at the police gate at Ananea, the last-stop village before Rinconada. Six months earlier, armed robbers attacked a group of prospectors. Four were killed.

Telling the fearful immolation tale, Aliaga looks like a mining superhero, his handsome and weathered face under his gold hard hat. He was in his 30s when he arrived from the village of Huananea, at a time when the miners worked by gaslight. He recounts some roughly accurate history. Through the 60s and into the early 70s, Natomas Co. of California dredged the gold placer deposits of the Ananea basin, retrieving detrital gold worn to nuggets in glacial sediments at an altitude of 4,700 metres.

On the drive up to Rinconada, past the occasional brace of alpaca and scattered modest settlements, the skeletal wreckwork left by prior operators can be seen from the roadway  flash reminders of the nationalization, or Peruvianization, of mining interests under President Juan Velasco Alvarado, who came to power in 1968. The president said no more to international companies, continues Aliaga. Throughout the 80s, Minero Peru, a state-run company, worked the area.

Today there are a number of mining cooperatives in the region, and at least one formalized company, Corporacion Minera Ananea S.A., which was constituted in the late 90s. It is private and will prove itself to be less than friendly.

But that gets ahead of the story.

Aliaga is seated on a berm of waste rock with a clear sightline to the shaft known as Lunar de Oro. It sounds pretty, but it isnt. Lunar is mole in Spanish, and the shaft earned its name from the brown spots that once only peeked through the snow.

The glacier used to come down to where we are sitting now, Aliaga sighs, referring to the missing folds of what once were Sleeping Beautys snowy bedskirts. If the glacier disappears we wont have any more water. And once the snow disappears, they will destroy the hill for mining.

The mountain that rises behind him, the mountain they call San Francisco, is barren. There was snow there a decade ago.

We chat in the warming sun, nodding to a group of miners who sip barley juice and bottles of acid-yellow Inca Kola, offering a drop first to Mother Earth that she may bless the mountain with more gold. The men pass among themselves a bag of sage green coca leaves. They drag the leaf stems through their teeth, the leaves then chewed and softened and packed into their cheeks.

The medicinal properties of the coca leaf as understood by the Quechua: Slaking hunger, combatting the ill effects of high altitude, negating the effects of toxic gases.

A weathered crone passing the mouth of the Lunar de Oro mine shaft holds out her hand. She found no gold today. Her palm is grey as stone.

Many of the miners have abandoned agrarian lives to come here. Its a common migratory pattern in Peru, as it is in the Philippines, or Ghana, or any number of the 70 countries worldwide that find themselves on Kevin Telmers list of contributors to the 400 tonnes of gold that artisanal and small-scale mining, or ASM, produces annually. Thats $24 billion at todays prices.

To a pallaquera like Maria Margarita, who has been on the mountain for three years, this life is preferable to selling onions and potatoes in Puno. She trims a coca leaf, revealing a star decal on a front tooth. She tosses the stem to the ground, which is littered with coca detritus. It was an engineer who told her that chewing the leaves will negate the effects of the toxins from the rock, and to wear a scarf across her face to help block the inhalation of stone dust.

Margarita is 47 and has three children. She doesnt want any outsiders judgment. Though she receives no pay, and no protections, she insists she has found the better life. Her husband works in the mine. Their eldest child has been launched to university.

Most of the townsfolk are friendly, if wary. They caution that it would be unfair to poorly characterize this place, which has exploded to a population of more than 30,000. Miners, wives, children. Aliaga says the number is much higher, but there has been nothing approaching a census since gold went on its record-breaking tear.

Into the glacial shaft the miners head. The ice is smooth and scalloped as if a sculptor had set to work on an outcrop of marble. As the day warms, the miners will have to swiftly march through this portal, for the ice grows thin and rock fall is a hazard.

A miner lights a cigarette. The smoke puffs into whorls in the light of his head lamp, in the damp and the dark. Water drips in this blackened cave. The rumbling of trucks used as ore cars can be heard in the distance.

A group of young men has set to work on a shaft extension. Today they work for a local concessionaire, who has arrived to check their progress. How long they work for the concessionaire without pay depends on their productivity.

This system of payment is known as cachorreo. The men provide free labour to the concessionaire for two weeks, sometimes longer. Then they get to work for themselves for a day, or perhaps two.

The quality of the gold is very good, says Faustino Otazis Pari, who introduces himself as a supervisor. Nobody knew how fat with gold the area was. The best geologists arrived here and nobody told the truth. A company arrived from Chile and made a study. They didnt stay.

The work is gruelling and dangerous. Ruben Aliaga speaks of rock falls and of the death gas in the shafts. He calls it antimonio. It is the toxic gases the men fear the most. A shopkeeper recounts the demise of two young men last year. They were not using ventilators. They collapsed in the shaft. The shafts run hundreds of metres deep.

Inside the mine, three young men take a break on a rock ledge. Their breath forms ghostly grey vapours in the air. When they are quiet, their heads dip toward the ground, the light of their lamps casting a downward glow. And all that is heard is the drip, drip, drip of the glacial waters. Tomorrow they will work for themselves.

Consider Martine. Possessed of a confident mien, a swagger, Martine runs a rock-crushing business and is waiting, at this moment, for the stream of miners who have worked on this day for themselves and thus will be carrying down from the mountain, on their backs, 40 kilos of rock.

Martine implores them to use his service: for 25 soles, he will crush their haul in one of his two rock tumblers.

Hes happy to show off his operation. Lago de Oro, he calls it, beaming out from under his bright white ball cap as small child picks up an even smaller child and totes her above the mercury-laden muck that seeps across the ground.

Martine retrieves a small rock from the pocket of his jean jacket. The glistering gold is visible to the naked eye. He has nicked the modest prize from one of the bags the miners have ferried to his enterprise. He sounds nonchalant, though he tucks the rock back into his pocket right quick. He estimates the piece will render three grams of gold. All the wheelers do it, he insists, meaning those who run crushing operations. Im not taking from their hand. I am taking from the mountain.

The miners will take their crushed rock to one of the dozens of quimbalete operations in town. The quimbaletes are smooth stone rockers upon which miners stand singly, or in twos to threes, rocking stone against stone to mortar their crushed rock to a fine consistency. For one group of 14 miners its an especially raucous process, involving many large bottles of Trujillo beer and many blaring chicha songs and an atmosphere you might find with a group of 18-year-olds watching the Leafs game. Except instead of cheering for Phil Kessel, theyre cheering for a hoped-for gold production. One hundred grams!

For all their exuberance, the young men take a dark view. Amid the music, and the beer, and the clear abundance of gold, they say blackly that Lunar de Oro is going to kill them. There is too much antimonio in Lunar. If you are overcome, you cant get out, says Wilfredo Paredes, who followed his brother here nine years ago. It happens all the time.

The afternoon light is fading. It grows so cold.

From the quimbaletes, the resulting slurry is panned as artisanal miners have done for centuries  a swirl of mercury-infused water, the gold particles cleaving to the mercury. The weight of the gold (19 times heavier than water) and of the mercury (13 times heavier than water) settles as the water itself is tilted out of the pan. Its so beguiling, the silver liquid dancing in the pan before the miner squeezes, with his bare hands, the excess mercury through a piece of fabric as if squeezing whey from cheese curds.

What remains is a substantial nubbin of silvery amalgam, causing the miners to hike their estimation: 300 grams!

Possibly, too much Trujillo beer has been consumed.

The band of brothers marches off to a favoured compro oro on a street that has 11 shops. One is a bakery. The rest are gold buyers.

The nubbin is placed in a simple metal hooded chamber. A blow torch releases the mercury from the gold. The vapours rise up a flue before being vented to the street, transmuting from a toxic local health hazard to a global pollutant.

The mercury in the gold shops is sticky, says Telmer. The contamination hangs in the shops. Its in the air. Its in the grounds around the panning vats.

The hot gold nugget is weighed. The miners hang over the counter of the gold shop, anxiously awaiting the verdict. Sixty-five grams.

At 133 soles a gram, multiplied by 65 grams, divided among 14 miners, thats 617 soles each. $238.50.

The miners are not happy. They feel the gold seller is not giving them the best price. They will take their business elsewhere. There is a great kerfuffle out to the street. On to another shop followed by the inexplicably sudden and happy consumption of chocolate biscuits before receiving the same news: 65 grams.

After subtracting the costs of his Trujillo consumption and a small processing fee, which is set according to how much mercury is used, Wilfredo Paredes is happy to receive his 580 soles. He flares the bills in the air, like a teenager who has just cashed his first paycheque. There will be boozy hours in the town tonight. But it will be two weeks before Paredes receives any more compensation. It is the high cost of gold that has fuelled this frenzy. A decade ago, his profit would have been 40 bucks.

The math reveals an important element of the ASM story. Gold has the ability to transfer wealth directly and deeply into the rural communities, says Telmer. That makes it an excellent development opportunity in the sense that it generates wealth and economic opportunities. What other product is that true for? Even with fair trade organic coffee, the farmer is getting maybe 10 per cent or 12 per cent of the shelf price.

True, before the settling of accounts, the group of 14 was paid about 80 per cent of the international gold price. But how to bridge the economic potential with development goals? Telmer speaks about connecting with communities as a first step, and introducing smarter interim technologies, such as closed circuitry for mercury use, then mercury-free technologies.

Under the leadership of the United Nations Environment Program, a series of negotiations is being held to craft a legally binding global mercury treaty. The last round of negotiations wrapped up in early November. The next is scheduled for June.

The process of moving away from mercury will inevitably involve better organization, formalization, Telmer says. But formalization by what means? My gut feeling is that it will happen through business. Aid agencies can contribute. But theyre fickle and their resources are limited. It will happen mostly through the private sector.

The private sector is present to some degree in La Rinconada, but the scope of its mining operations is opaque.

On Day 4 of our stay we are ordered to appear before men identified to us as engineers. The mood is unsettling. Our Quechua-speaking translator takes the meeting on our behalf. He is gone for half an hour. It seems like forever. He speaks very quickly upon his return. Journalists are not wanted in the area. We had better not be journalists. We had better make a hasty exit.

The truck rumbles back to the bordello, to the rooms with the doors that do not lock. A quick pick up of gear. And a last look at the town that may always remain out of progresss reach.

Within minutes we are descending from the clouds, where Sleeping Beauty rests under a cerulean sky.

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KINSHASA, CONGOMediators urged Congos president and opposition parties Wednesday to reach an agreement before Christmas on a peaceful settlement to the countrys political crisis, saying dozens already have been killed this week amid protests over the presidents stay in power.

Enough is enough, said Monseigneur Marcel Utembi with the team of Catholic church mediators. A solution must be found as soon as possible by all political actors, but in particular by the government in order to reassure the Congolese people.

He also conveyed a message from Pope Francis following their meeting this week: I am concerned by what is happening in your country, which I wish to visit at the opportune moment. I pray for the Congolese people, who need peace so much now.

President Joseph Kabilas mandate ended this week and he is constitutionally barred from seeking another term, but a court has ruled that he can remain in power until new elections, which have been indefinitely delayed. The vote once was set for November, but the ruling party now says it wont be held until 2018.

Anger over the delay has swept the country. A heavy military and police presence remained in the capital, Kinshasa, and across the country Wednesday. The remains of barricades littered the streets after protesters burned the headquarters of the ruling party on Tuesday, the first day after Kabilas mandate expired.

Reports of the death toll in the chaos varied. Human Rights Watch said security forces killed 26 people. The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo said it had documented 19 people shot to death, 45 wounded and a very high number of arrests in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Matadi and Goma.

Congos government said nine people had been killed in the capital: a police officer, two women hit by stray bullets and six men killed in looting. The national police spokesman, Col. Pierrot Mwanamputu, said eight others died in Lubumbashi, three in Matadi and two in Boma.

Mwanamputu also said 275 people had been detained since Kabilas mandate ended.

Amid the growing frustration, the Catholic church-mediated political talks resumed Wednesday after stalling over the weekend.

Utembi, the Monseigneur, stressed that the Catholic church is not willing to accept unwarranted delays or manoeuvring, and warned that if a consensual decision on the political transition isnt reached by Christmas, it will draw all the necessary consequences.

Finding common ground between the ruling majority and the opposition coalition will be difficult. While the ruling party insists that Kabila remain in power until the elections, the opposition says it does not recognize his authority anymore.

We are trying to negotiate, but meanwhile Kabila is killing people. What well negotiate is the departure of Kabila from power, thats it, said Jean-Marc Kabund-a-Kabund, the secretary-general of the UDPS, the main opposition party.

The political impasse has fuelled fears of widespread unrest in this vast Central African nation that has trillions of dollars worth of natural resources but remains one of the worlds poorest and most unstable countries.

Police said the heavy security presence will be maintained until the end of the holiday season.

Meanwhile, Kabilas Cabinet director defended the actions by security forces. The opposition wanted to demonstrate to take power by force. What kind of state would not defend itself against such behaviour? Jean-Pierre Kambila said.

Signs of defiance continued Wednesday. Twenty activists in the eastern city of Goma gathered for a peaceful sit-in in front of the governors office, holding signs reading No one is above the law, bye bye Kabila and Protecting our constitution is not a crime. They were quickly arrested, residents said.

The head of the UN mission in Congo, Maman S. Sidikou, called on local authorities to end politically motivated detentions and asked that the UN be granted full access to detention centres.

The United States said it was greatly disappointed by President Kabilas failure to organize elections and to state publicly that he will not run again. State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the U.S. condemned the latest violence and urged all sides to participate in Wednesdays talks fully and in good faith.

This version corrects to say 20 activists were arrested in Goma, not 18 and a journalist.

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ULAANBAATAR, MONGOLIAMongolia will no longer allow the Dalai Lama to visit the country after a recent trip by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader prompted protests from China and a suspension of talks on a major loan.

Chinas foreign ministry said Wednesday that Beijing attached importance to the remarks by Mongolias top diplomat and hoped the country would honour the commitment it has made on the issue. Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to split Tibet from China.

Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil expressed regret that the Dalai Lamas visit hurt ties with Beijing, Mongolias powerful neighbour, in an interview with a local newspaper, Unuudur.

You can understand that during the full term of this government, the Dalai Lama will not be allowed to visit Mongolia even for religious purposes, he reportedly said. His comments were confirmed by the ministrys press office Wednesday.

The foreign ministers pledge underscores the effectiveness with which China wields its economic leverage over countries it seeks to influence on issues ranging from the Dalai Lamas travels to diplomatic recognition of self-ruled Taiwan.

Mongolias fragile economy is heavily dependent on China. The countries had been discussing a possible $4.2 billion (U.S.) loan by Beijing to deal with a recession.

But China delayed talks along with visits by Mongolias deputy prime minister and a group of lawmakers in response to the Dalai Lamas visit.

Munkh-Orgil was quoted as saying that both sides were working to normalize relations and resume talks and that Mongolian lawmakers were able to visit China last week.

Following the visit, China also effectively choked a border crossing with the imposition of new fees and requirements on shipments through a major border point that caused significant delays. Almost 1,000 trucks carrying copper and coal pass through that point every day.

Mongolian Buddhism is closely tied to Tibets strain and traditionally reveres the Dalai Lama. Mongolian religious figures had said the visit might have been the last for the 81-year-old spiritual leader, and some of his followers travelled hundreds of miles to see him while braving the coldest November temperatures in a decade.

The Dalai Lama has said his visit last month to the landlocked, primarily Buddhist, nation had no political purpose and that he had not publicly advocated independence for Tibet since 1974.

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BEIRUTHundreds of rebel fighters and civilians, including small children swaddled in thick blankets, were bused out of war-ravaged Aleppo in heavy snow on Wednesday as the evacuation of former rebel strongholds entered its final phase.

Scenes of buses slowly driving out of Aleppo in a shroud of white offered an evocative finale to what has been one of the most brutal chapters in Syrias civil war.

The departures from Aleppo pave the way for Syrian President Bashar Assad to assume full control there, after more than four years of fighting over Syrias largest city. It marks the most significant victory for Assad since an uprising against his familys four-decade rule swept the country in 2011.

The evacuations were set in motion last week after Syrias opposition agreed to surrender its last footholds in eastern Aleppo. Since then, about 25,000 fighters and civilians have been bused out, according to the United Nations. On Wednesday, buses began evacuating the last rebels and civilians, an estimated 3,000 people.

By nightfall, 25 buses carrying hundreds of people had driven in a rare snow storm from eastern Aleppo to opposition-held areas in the countryside near the city, said opposition activist Ahmad Primo, who was monitoring arrivals at the main drop-off point in the Rashideen district.

The evacuees got off the buses wearing thick jackets and carrying sacks with belongings. One woman dressed in a black robe and face veil carried a small child swaddled in a heavy yellow blanket. A man held a toddler whose face was peeking out from under a blanket shielding him from falling snow.

The oppositions Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday evening that with the evacuation of the last group of rebels from eastern Aleppo, Assad was in full control, save for a few positions on the western outskirts of the city that were still in rebel hands.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said patients and all those requiring medical care had been evacuated from the last hospital in the citys east.

Pro-government forces repeatedly struck medical facilities in rebel-held neighbourhoods in their push to expel the opposition from Aleppo this year. In November, the UN said it believed there were no more functioning medical facilities in the eastern part of the city.

Wednesdays bus movements came after evacuations had been suspended for 24 hours, one of several snags and delays since the first bus convoys left the city last week.

Frequent disagreements have erupted between the rebels and the government, as well as among rebel groups, over compliance with a wider deal that also includes evacuations from two rebel-besieged villages, Foua and Kfarya.

The ICRC said about 750 people have been bused out of the villages, leaving hundreds more to be evacuated.

Meanwhile, it was unclear if any UN observers were on the ground in eastern Aleppo on Wednesday  two days after a UN Security Council resolution approved their urgent deployment.

Deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said some UN staff were present at a Syrian government checkpoint outside Aleppos eastern sector, but he couldnt say for sure if any observers had been let into the one-time rebel-held area.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, fighting intensified in the Daesh-controlled town of al-Bab, where Turkish troops and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters have been trying to drive the extremists out.

Turkeys state television said 10 Turkish soldiers were killed Wednesday in three separate suicide attacks in al-Bab.

The report by TRT television came hours after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, was fighting for dear life in al-Bab, carrying out suicide bombings and attacks with improvised explosive devices.

A total of 35 Turkish soldiers have died in northern Syria since August, when Turkey sent ground troops to support the Syrian opposition forces in clearing a border area of Daesh militants and to curb Syrian Kurdish territorial expansion.

At the United Nations, the Security Council approved the delivery of humanitarian aid across borders and conflict lines in Syria for another year, in a resolution aimed at reaching thousands in need in rebel-held areas.

The resolution, adopted unanimously, noted the the continued deterioration of the devastating humanitarian situation in Syria, where more than 13.5 million people require urgent assistance.

It cited the alarming situation in besieged areas where hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped.

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JERUSALEMFormer Israeli President Moshe Katsav walked free from prison on Wednesday, five years after he was put behind bars for rape in a landmark case that disgraced the countrys political system and delivered a key victory for womens rights.

Katsav exited the Maasiyahu prison in central Israel, accompanied by his wife, Gila, and other family members.

Wearing a dark suit and skullcap, Katsav smiled, but did not comment to a crowd of reporters, before getting into a car and driving away.

His lawyer, Zion Amir, told Channel 10 TV that he had a short conversation with an emotional Katsav and planned to see him later in the evening at his home in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi.

Hes happy and confused and angry and satisfied, Amir said.

Katsav was sentenced to a seven-year term in 2011 after being convicted of two counts of raping an employee and sexually harassing other women.

Last week, a parole board accepted his request for early release, saying the disgraced politician, who has denied any wrongdoing, had undergone a change behind bars.

It had rejected previous requests for parole.

Katsavs downfall jolted Israeli politics.

Seen as a rags-to-riches success story, Katsav was born in Iran and immigrated to Israel as a child, growing up in impoverished tent camps and Kiryat Malachi, a hardscrabble town in southern Israel.

He was elected mayor of the town at age 24, becoming the youngest mayor in Israels history and launching a rapid rise in the nationalist Likud Party.

He held a series of Cabinet posts before parliament selected him to be president in 2000.

He engineered the upset victory over Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres by rallying ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties behind him.

Israels presidency is a largely ceremonial office, typically filled by a respected elder statesman expected to rise above politics and serve as a moral compass.

Most political power is in the hands of the prime minister.

Katsav was convicted of two counts of raping an employee in 1998, when he was Israels tourism minister. He was also convicted of lesser counts of indecent acts; sexual harassment involving two other women who worked for him when he was president, from 2000 to 2007, and obstruction of justice.

Katsav denied all allegations, claiming he was a victim of a political witch-hunt and suggesting he was targeted because he is a Sephardic Jew, that is a Jew of Middle Eastern origin.

In its ruling, the three-judge panel that convicted him said his version of events was strewn with lies.

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In the federal-provincial dispute over who should pay what for health care, both sides are right.

The provinces are right when they say Ottawa has a historic obligation to pay for 25 per cent of medicare.

The federal government is right to demand that if it allocates extra funds for something specific, such as home care or mental health, that money should be spent accordingly.

The two sides clashed Monday in Ottawa over how much each should pay. Since then, in an attempt to influence public opinion, they have been pitching to the media.

At base, the dispute goes back 50 years to the beginning of national medicare.

The federal Medical Care Act of 1966, passed in Parliament by a Liberal minority government with the support of the New Democrats, offered to pay half the costs of physician and hospital services for any province that met certain conditions.

Not every province was anxious to join in. When the law came into force in 1968, only Saskatchewan and British Columbia signed on.

But the lure of federal cash proved irresistible. By 1972 every province and territory was onside.

In 1977, cash-strapped Ottawa moved away from direct cost-sharing. It also offered so-called tax points to the provinces  that is to say, it lowered its taxes so the provinces could raise theirs by an equivalent amount.

At the time, these tax points were deemed to be worth roughly 25 per cent of medicare spending. Cash transfers from Ottawa to the provinces made up the remaining 25 per cent.

Over time, Ottawa slashed its cash transfers until, by the late 90s, they were paying for only 10 per cent of medicare.

Roy Romanows 2002 royal commission into the future of health care recommended this cash portion be raised back to 25 per cent  both to restore the original bargain and to give Ottawa enough financial leverage to ensure provinces abided by the conditions of medicare.

He also recommended everyone forget about tax points which, until Conservative leadership candidate Max Bernier resurrected the concept this year, most did.

So when the provinces call for the federal share of public health spending to reach 25 per cent (its currently slightly less) they are channelling their inner Romanow.

And while the provinces are being slightly devious (their calculation of public health spending includes items, such as provincial drug plans, that are outside of medicare) they are essentially correct. If Ottawa wants a national medicare system, it must be willing to pony up at least 25 per cent of the cost.

But heres the other thing: Medicare is not comprehensive. It covers doctors and hospitals only. It does not cover drugs prescribed outside of hospitals. Nor does it cover home care. Nor does it cover mental illness services provide by non-physicians.

The 2002 Romanow commission recommended that Ottawa give extra funding to the provinces on the condition they spend in these and other underserviced areas. But the provinces balked at being told how to spend and the Liberal government of the day capitulated to them.

The 2004 health accord, which is due to expire in April, provided the provinces with pots of money. But there were no strings attached. Wisely, Ottawa is trying to ensure it doesnt make that mistake again.

From this comes the federal offer to give the provinces $11.5 billion over 10 years if they agree to spend it on home care, mental health and pharmacare.

Right now the talks are stalled. The provinces turned down Ottawas initial deal. The federal government responded with the tried and true bargaining tactic of offering less.

But ultimately the country is faced with a situation where one side (the provinces) wants to receive money and the other (the federal Liberal government) wants to spend it.

An arrangement of some kind will be reached even if, as with medicare, the provinces end up agreeing one by one.

Lets hope the eventual deal meets two key criteria: first, that Ottawa cover 25 per cent of the cost of medicare; second, that medicare be expanded to include home care, more aspects of mental health and ultimately pharmacare.

Thomas Walkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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Much of the worlds anguish over Syria these days has to do with the worlds apparent unwillingness to rescue civilians from a violent crisis. But like Aleppo, there is another city that needs saving.

Libyas ongoing civil war has gone on for years, recently spilling into a residential area in the city of Benghazi called Ganfouda. Militias and foreign forces, such as the United Arab Emirates loyal to Gen. Khalifa Haftar, have laid siege to the neighbourhood for months, depriving families of food, water and medicine. The UN and Human Rights Watch have called the situation an emergency humanitarian crisis. Simply put: the world cant afford to stand around and do nothing on this one.

This disaster didnt appear out of nowhere and, like Syria, its not without its own bad actors. Libyas ongoing civil war has pit a legitimate, UN-recognized government based in the West side of the country against the Tobruk government in the East, which has allied with the brutal Khalifa Haftar, whose forces turned Ganfouda into a living hell and killed more than 60 civilians.

The official Libyan Army of the countrys legitimate government, just last week took control of the city of Sirte, a former Daesh (also known as ISIS) stronghold. Meanwhile, Haftar is busy laying waste to Ganfouda in a desperate effort to control the area under what he calls the fight on terrorism. Haftars army is willing to fight anyone who stands in his way, collateral damage be damned. It pains me greatly to note that my own 75-year-old mother, along with all my siblings and their children, are now trapped in Ganfouda. Their suffering has been unimaginable.

I, a Canadian citizen, have been trying for months to push the Liberal government to act on this tragedy. Ive met with MPs, knocked on their doors, and visited their offices, but I regret to report Ive been met mostly with silence and inaction thus far.

Unlike others in the past, our officials dont have the luxury of saying that they didnt know. I, along with many others, have communicated with Global Affairs Canada to speak out and help find a resolution to the humanitarian crisis. Were always told that the situation is being monitored. Helene Lavardiere, the NDP critic for foreign affairs, has been the lone exception for choosing to at least speak out on this conflict and to stand with the people of Ganfouda.

Out of despair at this near-uniform indifference, I drove more than eight hours (in a snow storm) to Ottawa with my family to hold a press conference on Ganfouda on Parliament Hill. Our conference was set to start at 11 a.m. and, to our dismay, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a last-minute press conference at the same time, drawing away almost all the media. We ended up speaking to concrete walls.

All this begs an important question: why the silent treatment on this issue? Its the same silence and inaction weve been witnessing by the Canadian government in relation to the tragedy in Aleppo until recently when it was really too late for the suffering there, whose people my family prays for every night. Is the reticence a political calculation? If so, what kind of arithmetic is Foreign Minister Stephane Dion struggling with in his mind right now?

Whats happening in Ganfouda is nothing short of murder. Its nothing new for Gen. Haftar, who has a prolific record of war crimes and seems intent on adding to it with each passing day. Is Canada worried about damaging their bilateral relationship with someone like this along with all the interests hes known to represent and uphold? Obviously not. So, again, why the inaction?

Ive tried many times to advocate for our government to at least call for a ceasefire and for the evacuation of civilians in Ganfouda. Recently, the Canadian Ambassador to Libya, David Sproule, finally sent out a tweet asking for unhindered access of humanitarian aid for Ganfoudas people. Global Affairs Canada referred me to this tweet as Canadas official position on the matter.

I was discouraged: have we reached the point as a nation where the governments chooses to react to a humanitarian tragedy in 140 characters? Perhaps its a way of saying that, actually, Canada really doesnt take human rights that seriously.

Ganfouda is another Aleppo in the making. Starvation, contaminated water and lack of medication are all conditions reported by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch since September, yet Canada and the international community remains silent.

Its high time the Liberal government puts its money where its mouth is. Its time for the Trudeau administration to actively prod the United Nations to resolve the crisis. And if Canada wants to live up to its own pro-human rights rhetoric, it has to help save the families in Ganfouda, whose members have a right to protection under international law  laws that our country is a party to.

AbdelRahman Ali is a human-rights activist and a founder of Voices of Liberty and Justice for Ganfouda.

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Ontario doctors find it ironic to hear Health Minister Eric Hoskins complaining this week about unilateral action by the federal government, given his own track record with the Ontario Medical Association (OMA).

It was only last week when the Minister delivered his own one-sided proposal to the OMA a mere one hour before he called a news conference to avoid any confusion about the proposal.

However, he did this without even providing the OMA with any reasonable opportunity to read the proposal, never mind analyze it and consider how to respond. Even the least seasoned negotiator knows that posturing and tactics of this sort are no way to recommence a constructive and responsible dialogue with Ontarios doctors.

Minister Hoskins should not be surprised that Ontario doctors would regard his public posturing as disrespectful, and his proposal as unacceptable, particularly since (with few exceptions) the proposal is largely the same as the tentative agreement overwhelmingly rejected by Ontarios doctors last August.

Indeed, removing all the governments rhetoric about investing in improved health-care access, its latest proposal would actually reduce government expenditures on medical care for patients in Ontario to an overall amount even lower than that in the rejected tentative agreement.

After years of edicts from on high from the Ministry of Health, nothing is now clearer than ever as a result of Minister Hoskins actions  we need a fair and independent binding arbitration process that will prevent the government from acting unilaterally, now and in the future.

It is equally clear from the ministers most recent tactics that, after successive years of cuts imposed by government, Ontarios doctors have no choice but to consider all options in order to achieve a process to resolve impasses at the bargaining table.

As doctors, we are and always will be concerned first and foremost for our patients. No doctor in this province has ever wanted to be forced into the position of having to consider the withdrawal of services in order to obtain a fair negotiation and dispute resolution process. But, as the disrespect continues and legitimate frustration mounts, what choice has the government left us?

When it comes to all other health-care providers in Ontario (including nurses), and because they provide essential services, legislation recognizes their right to strike must be replaced with the guarantee of a fair and independent binding arbitration process. Indeed, the Supreme Court of Canada has recognized that when workers providing essential services cannot strike their fundamental Charter right to freedom of association requires binding arbitration in substitution for striking. Ontario doctors deserve no less.

However, Minister Hoskins apparently believes special rules apply to doctors. He does not want doctors to engage in job action because of the important services we provide to Ontarians. Yet, at the same time he is not prepared to agree to fair and independent binding arbitration. Apparently, Minister Hoskins believes that, when it comes to doctors, and doctors alone, government should be allowed to act unilaterally.

Ultimately, we all know the forum for discussing and debating the substance of the governments latest proposal is not in the media, but at the negotiating table. But it must be a negotiating table where doctors, and the public, know that, if agreement cannot be reached, the government will not be able to impose its will, but will be required to defend its position before a neutral arbitrator. After years of arbitrary government conduct, that would be far preferable to doctors being forced to consider job action as a last resort to get a place at a bargaining table.

Contrary to the ministers claim, if anyone is endangering access to care for patients, it is the governments continued underfunding of necessary medical services, and its refusal to recognize the critical role physicians must be permitted to play as the governments partner in improving the health-care system. We need a fair bargaining process  that is, a fair and independent arbitration process. We and our patients do not need more posturing and unilateral actions by the government.

Dr. Virginia Walley is president of the Ontario Medical Association.

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ExxonMobil Corp. ( (XOM) ) CEO Rex Tillerson, nominated by Donald Trump to be the next Secretary of State, may pay a steep price for the privilege of serving his country: forfeiting as an estimated $151 million in Exxon shares that don't vest for several years, unless his new boss manages to grant him a waiver.

Pay research firm Equilar estimates that the value of Tillerson's stock that would vest upon retirement at $32 million while the stock that would vest after retirement at about $151 million.

There is a statute that gives Trump an option of issuing a waiver and allowing Tillerson to keep his shares if the president determines that the interest is not so substantial that it would affect Tillerson's services, said Washington University Law Professor Kathleen Clark. Still, under those terms, it may be a bit of a long shot.

"It would be hard, I think, to say with a straight face that $150 million in stock options is not substantial," Clark said.

Conservative and Democratic transition ethics experts agree that if Tillerson is confirmed, he will need to sever all financial connections to ExxonMobil to avoid concern that he could be acting in his own interest - rather than those of the country. That means selling his equity stake in ExxonMobil stock, forfeiting any unvested shares, and placing the proceeds into a blind trust to invest in the markets broadly.

They contend that even shares that don't vest for ten years represent an important conflict of interest, in part, because the scope of Exxon's business is so great that it would require Tillerson to recuse himself so frequently that he couldn't do his job effectively. ExxonMobil has operations in dozens of countries, including a few geopolitical hotspots, including Angola, Nigeria, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. In fact, many contend that ExxonMobil, led by Tillerson, essentially has pursued an independent foreign policy all over the world in pursuit of its energy needs.

Norman Eisen, a former special assistant and counsel to President Barack Obama for ethics and government, said that even with a waiver the "taint of conflict" would hang over everything Tillerson did relating to ExxonMobil and all of its business lines, the energy industry, Russia and Iran. "It's just too profound a conflict even if technically waived," he said.

It's also possible that ExxonMobil won't grant Tillerson the unvested shares. The ExxonMobil board will be responsible for determining whether to grant the shares. According to Equilar's analysis of Exxon compensation, Tillerson is not even eligible for much of the unvested shares until he turns 65 in March 2017. As a result, the energy giant's board compensation committee could take away all of his unvested shares if he is confirmed for the Secretary of State position. However, many believe it is unlikely the compensation committee would take away the unvested shares. In fact, it is possible that they could accelerate the vesting of those shares. An ExxonMobil spokesperson did not return calls for comment.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the waiver question.

Clark suggested that ultimately Tillerson has to choose-dump his unvested stock or recuse himself from anything Exxon-related.

Otherwise numerous conflicts would come center-stage. Tillerson, as ExxonMobil CEO, has opposed the Obama Administration's sanctions on Russia. Clark suggested Tillerson would need to recuse himself from any negotiations over U.S. decisions on whether to remove Russian sanctions if he continued to hold the unvested shares, based on the financial conflict statute.

"The question is going to be what it is that he does as Secretary of State that could, if he were to retain his Exxon stock, do that would affect the value of that stock," Clark said.

Eisen acknowledges that any move by Tillerson to forfeit his unvested stock would be "a very expensive sacrifice."
Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) has sold its controlling stake in Coca-Cola Africa to Coca-Cola (KO) for just over $3 billion, the company said Wednesday, as the world's biggest brewer continues to shed assets as a result of its merger earlier this year.

The deal will see Coca-Cola pay $3.15 billion for a 54.5% equity stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, along with bottling interests in southern Africa and Central America which will eventually be refranchised, Coca-Cola said.

"We are pleased to have reached an agreement quickly that is in everyone's best interests," said Coca-Cola Chairman Muhtar Kent. "We will move forward with our long-term strategic plan in these important growth markets. We are continuing negotiations with a number of parties who are highly qualified and interested in these bottling territories and look forward to refranchising these territories as soon as practical following regulatory approval."

AB InBev agreed last week to to sell its stake in Distell Group to South Africa's Public Investment Corp in a deal worth roughly 9 billion South African rand ($645 million), just days after dumping its Eastern European brands to Japan's Asahi (ASBRY) for 7.3 billion ($7.8 billion).

Coca-Cola shares closed at $41.66 in New York Tuesday after falling around 0.02% on the session while AB InBev added 0.22% in Tuesday trading to end the day at $102.98.
There's been a big rally in natural gas stocks including Southwest Energy (SWN) , Range Resources (RRC) and Cabot Oil & Gas (CBT) this year, but the momentum may not be finished yet.

The U.S. has a ton of natural gas, TheStreet's Jim Cramer, co-manager of the Action Alerts PLUS portfolio, said on CNBC's "Stop Trading" segment. This country has the lowest cost of production aside from Kuwait.

As companies continue to build out natural gas infrastructure and pipelines, it will create tens of thousands of jobs, he noted, as will exporting the gas.

"We are blessed with large deposits of natural gas" throughout the country that is cleaner than coal, Cramer said. So this coming year could be big for the commodity. "It is the bright light of 2017," Cramer concluded.

At the time of publication, Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS had no position in companies mentioned.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) has filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against patent lawsuit machines Acacia Research Corp. (ACTG) , and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc., accusing them of colluding with Nokia Corp. "to extract and extort exorbitant revenues" from Apple and other cellphone makers.

Apple accuses Acacia and the other companies of evading their obligation to license patents that have been incorporated into cellphone industry standards on fair and reasonable terms.

The case is noteworthy because it is the first big-time attempt by a smartphone maker to use a private antitrust suit to counterattack the patent assertion entities that are bombarding them with lawsuits. A ruling on the suit could also add some much-need court guidance on the extent to which buyers must abide by fair licensing agreements when they acquire a patent.

Apple's lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for California, is the latest salvo in the Cupertino, Calif.-based smartphone and computing giant's long-running battle with Nokia and the buyers of Nokia's cellphone patents.

Apple complained in its lawsuit that Acacia, Conversant, and many other patent assertion entities "have conspired with Nokia to use unfair and anticompetitive patent assertions to improperly tax the innovations of cell phone makers."

Shares of Apple were relatively unchanged through early afternoon trading Wednesday, trading up 7 cents to $117.03.

Apple alleges that since selling most of its cellphone business to Microsoft in 2013, Finland-based Nokia has transformed itself from a supplier of phones and other consumer products to a company "bent on exploiting the patents that remain." Nokia retained a financial interest in patents that it sold to Acacia and Conversant, companies that Apple said are Nokia's "willing conspirators" in an effort to extract exorbitant patent royalties from Apple and other cellphone makers.

A Nokia spokesperson said, "We are reviewing the statements made in the complaint about Nokia at this time," but noted that Nokia is not a named defendant in Apple's suit. The spokesperson added that Nokia is in the process of filing its own complaints against Apple addressing its failure to agree terms to license Nokia patented technologies used in many Apple products. "By failing to agree terms, Apple is seeking an unfair advantage over our other licensees and we are taking steps to protect our inventions and defend our rights," the Nokia spokesperson said.

Because Nokia is no longer in the cellphone supply business, Apple said it has no incentive to promote "patent peace" and no longer has to fear the discovery and patent costs it is now imposing on its former competitors.

Apple accused Nokia of setting in motion a plan to evade its obligation to license patents included in cellphone industry standards on fair and reasonable terms back in 2011 when the two companies settled dueling patent infringement cases and entered a cross-license agreement. The agreement excluded a list of recently divested patents but Apple wasn't concerned about their exclusion, believing they were covered by broader previous industry agreements that cellphone companies had entered in order to have their technology included in industry-wide standards needed to make providers' networks interoperable.

Those agreements require patent holders to issue licenses for the covered technology on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms, or "FRAND" terms as they are called in the technology world.

By excluding select patents from the settlement with Apple, Nokia was able "to provide the initial ammunition for an illegal patent transfer scheme that would breach FRAND obligations and bring additional patent-related abuses far beyond what Nokia could do itself," Apple said.

Acacia and Conversant are the chief players among nine patent assertion entities that have "embarked on serial, abusive and anticompetitive assertions of their former Nokia patents, Apple said. The nine players have sued Apple at least 12 times based on former Nokia patents. Acacia alone has sued Apple more than forty times based on patents from Nokia and others.

"These serial assertions and litigations have forced Apple to incur multiple millions of dollars in defense costs, precisely the sort of leverage that Acacia and Conversant intended when they agreed to conspire with Nokia," according to Apple's lawsuit.

Mark Lemley, director of Stanford Law School's law, science and technology program, said Apple was wise to take a stab at arguing an illegal conspiracy by the plaintiffs rather than a monopolization claim as has been tried in other antitrust suits against patent assertion entities. "The suits have usually not been successful, in part because it is hard to prove monopolization by an entity that doesn't itself make products," he said. "The strongest theory, if true, would be some sort of collusion between Nokia and Acacia about who is targeted."

Apple's lawsuit follows the partial loss in September of a patent case brought by Acacia. A jury in the U.S. district court in eastern Texas awarded Acacia $22.1 million after finding Apple had violated one patent Acacia owned. According to the pro-Apple blog Patently Apple, that patent was a former Nokia holding. The jury also found no violation in Apple's use of four other patents, three of which were also former Nokia IP, according to the blog.

The eastern Texas court is notorious in Silicon Valley for its eagerness to accommodate patent suits from plaintiffs with no meaningful ties to the district. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month agreed to hear a case addressing where patent owners can file lawsuits. The betting among patent experts is the justices' eventual ruling will eliminate the eastern Texas district as the favored venue for patent trolls.

Media representatives from Apple, Acacia and Conversant did not respond to requests for comment.

Eric Jhonsa and David Marcus contributed to this article.

Apple is a holding in Jim Cramer'sAction Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL? Learn more now.
Hyundai (HYMLF) fired Dave Zuchowski, the head of the South Korean automaker's U.S. sales arm.

Automotive News, a trade publication based in Detroit, reported the executive's firing at midday on Wednesday, citing multiple sources that were unnamed.

A company spokesman, Chris Hosford, confirmed Zuchowski's exit, adding that Gerald Flannery, Hyundai Motor America's chief legal and safety officer, will serve as interim president and CEO.

Zuchowski, a one-time executive at Ford, served as Hyundai's top executive since the end of 2013, when he took over from John Krafcik after his firing by the automaker. Krafcik became the CEO of TrueCar and then took over Alphabet's autonomous car project.

Zuchowski served as head of marketing under Krafcik, gaining a reputation for innovative campaigns when Hyundai and other automakers were struggling to sell new vehicles during the global financial crisis. The Automotive News story said the executive lost his job for failing to meet internal sales objectives.

Hyundai brand sales have risen 1.2% in the U.S. through the first 11 months of the year, in a market that's basically flat. The company has been scrambling to shift its mix to crossovers and SUVs and away from sedans like the Sonata and Elantra, which are harder to sell due to consumer preference for multipurpose vehicles.

The South Korean automaker, together with its Kia affiliate, have about 8.2% of the U.S. market, just behind Japanese automaker Nissan (NSANY) with 8.9%.

Hyundai most recently introduced a new luxury brand, Genesis, whose first model, the G90 sedan, was first shown to journalists in the U.S. and Canada two months ago.

Doron Levin is the host of "In the Driver Seat," broadcast on SiriusXM Insight 121, Saturday at noon, encore Sunday at 9 a.m.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.
The families of three men killed in the early morning hours of June 12, 2016, when a gunman burst into an Orlando nightclub are suing social media companies Facebook, (FB) Twitter (TWTR) and Alphabet's Google unit. (GOOGL)

The gunman was 29-year-old Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others at the Pulse nightclub, a popular LGBT venue. Mateen had pledged allegiance to the ISIS terrorist group before he was killed by police.

The families of Tevin Crosby, Javier Jorge-Reyes and Juan Ramon Guerrero filed a lawsuit on Monday claiming that Twitter, Facebook and Google's YouTube provided the terrorist group with accounts, which ISIS members used to spread their message, radicalize and attract new members.

TheStreet reached out to Facebook, Twitter and Google for comment, but the companies have not yet responded.

Lawyer Keith Altman, who is representing the families in the suit, appeared on Wednesday afternoon's "Cavuto: Coast to Coast" on Fox Business Network.

"At my firm, 1-800-lawfirm, we've been looking at this issue for quite some time," Altman said. "These sites provide material support to ISIS by allowing them to use their sites as an instrument to conduct terrorist operations, to raise money, to recruit and to radicalize individuals...which is exactly what happened here with Omar Mateen."

FBN's Neil Cavuto questioned if the organization had indeed raised the money on those sites themselves. Cavuto wanted to know if Mateen used these sites to communicate with ISIS.

"There's controversial evidence in terms of exactly what his relationship was," Altman responded. "What's not controversial is that [Mateen] reviewed information on the websites and it appears that he was radicalized in part. But the whole claim is not based on the direct relationship between Google, Facebook, and Twitter, and the Orlando shooting. [What it's based on] is that they provide material support to ISIS. And since ISIS' stated goal is to recruit and radicalize people like Mateen that makes these companies liable."

There doesn't have to be a direct link but a relationship, Altman explained further. Cavuto asked if that could be considered a stretch.

"You could be saying the same of game makers like Xbox or PlayStation that have particularly violent games that would inspire violence later on in kids who are predisposed to that," Cavuto said.

Altman disagreed with Cavuto's comparison, explaining that the ISIS mission statement is to "recruit and radicalize." One of the tools the group uses to do this, Altman argued, is social media.

"These companies know that their tools are being used for this purpose and there are things that these companies can do help lessen the ability of ISIS to use their tools. That's the connection. An Xbox game, I don't think anybody would argue that it was the intention of the creator to make people go out and commit violence," Altman said.

Back in February of this year members of a group supporting ISIS, known as the Sons Caliphate Army, released a video threatening the founders and CEOs of Facebook and Twitter for the companies' attempts to shut down accounts belonging to ISIS.

Altman referred to the companies' attempts as "weed-whacking," suggesting the companies are just dealing with the surface of the problem.

"These companies have hid behind section 230 of the communications decency act claiming 'we're not responsible for anything that goes on our site. We can act recklessly and there is nothing you can do about it,'" Altman continued.

Cavuto asked if Altman is arguing that those sites helped push Mateen to become a "crazy, murderous guy."

"What we're saying is that it contributed in part to his actions on that day," Altman responded. "Whether it was the sole cause, or partial, or contributed, that's something that will be found out down the road. And we're going to have to take a look at the entire situation. But yes it could contribute and people have responsibility."

Altman wants these companies to do "what you can reasonably do" in attempt to combat this issue, but not "just stand back and say it's not our problem."

(Both Facebook and Alphabet are held in Jim Cramer's charitable trust portfolio Action Alerts PLUS. See all of Cramer's holdings with a free trial.)
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Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. is a mortgage-focused REIT externally managed by Invesco Advisors Ltd. Invesco Advisors LTD is a subsidiary of Invesco which is a leading wealth manager and investment company for individuals, high net-worth clients, institutions, public entities, corporations, and governments. The firm created Invesco Mortgage Capital, Inc to focus its decades of experience in the mortgage markets to generate a steady stream of cash for its investors.

The company was incorporated in 2008 in order to acquire, finance, and manage a portfolio of mortgage-backed securities and mortgages. Invesco believes that achieving the full potential of the mortgage market requires a blend of discipline, structure, and creativity because of long-term structural changes in the way real estate transactions and ownership are handled. The units of Invesco Mortgage Capital tend to yield high-double-digits and have paid more than $26 per unit on a split-adjusted basis since the dividend was initiated.

The objective is to provide risk-adjusted returns through dividends and capital appreciation using the combined strengths of three key Invesco groups; the in-house real estate team, the Worldwide Fixed Income team, and subsidiary WL Ross & Co. Invesco Mortgage Capital is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. As of Q3 2022, Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc held $4.9 billion in assets, $4.7 billion of which were listed as agency RMBS.

Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. elected to be taxed as a REIT and so distributes at least 90% of its income to shareholders each year. The fund seeks to generate a high level of income while maintaining a stable portfolio and book value within a dynamic market. The investment strategy is opportunistic and not limited to a single type of mortgage security and so provides greater diversification than most other REITs as well.

Invesco invests in a blend of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) that are and are not guaranteed by a U.S. government agency or federally chartered corporation. The fund also invests in credit risk transfer securities, residential and commercial mortgage loans, and assorted real estate-related financing. Among the opportunities, the fund is pursuing are commercial real estate loan origination, securitizing residential mortgages, and risk-sharing arrangements with federal housing authorities.
The following companies are subsidiares of Tyson Foods: APF Legacy Subs LLC, Advance Food Company LLC, AdvancePierre Foods, AdvancePierre Foods Holdings Inc., AdvancePierre Foods Inc., Aidells Sausage Company Inc., Allied Specialty Foods Inc., American Proteins Inc, Artisan Bread Co. LLC, Australian Food Corporation Pty Limited, Australian Food Corporation Trust, BRF, Barber Foods LLC, Bosco's Pizza Co., Bryan Foods Inc., C.S. Grain LLC, C.V. Holdings Inc., CBFA Management Corp., Central Industries Inc., Chefs Pantry LLC, Clovervale Farms LLC, Cobb (Hubei) Breeding Co. Ltd., Cobb (Shanghai) Enterprise Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Cobb Ana Damizlik Tavukculuk Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Cobb Columbia S.A.S., Cobb Europe B.V., Cobb Europe Limited, Cobb Peru (Andina) S.A.C., Cobb-Heritage LLC, Cobb-Vantress Brasil Ltda, Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cobb-Vantress New Zealand Limited, Cobb-Vantress Philippines Inc., Coominya AFC Pty Limited, Coominya AFC Trust, DFG Foods Inc., DFG Foods L.L.C., Don Julio, Egbert LLC, Equity Group - Georgia Division LLC, Equity Group - Kentucky Division LLC, Equity Group Eufaula Division LLC, Equity Meat Corp., Flavor Corp., Flavor Holdings Inc., Foodbrands America Inc., Foodbrands Supply Chain Services Inc., Gallo Salame Inc., Global Employment Services Inc., Grow-Out Credit LLC, Grow-Out Holdings LLC, Haimen Tyson Poultry Development Co. Ltd, Hudson Foods Company, Hudson Midwest Foods Inc., Hybro Genetics Brasil Ltda, IBP Caribbean Inc., IBP Foodservice L.L.C., IBP Inc., International Affiliates & Investment LLC, Jiangsu Tyson Foods Co. Ltd, Keydutch Finance B.V., Keydutch Holdings I LLC, Keydutch Holdings II LLC, Keydutch Investments B.V., Keystone CLJV Holdings Limited, Keystone County House Road LLC, Keystone Foods, Keystone Foods (AP) Limited, Keystone Foods Holdco LLC, Keystone Foods Intermediate LLC, Keystone Foods LLC, Keystone Foods Pty Limited, Keystone Management Inc., Keystone Trading (Shanghai) Company Limited, LD Foods LLC, M & M Express LLC, M&M Restaurant Supply (MI/OH) LLC, MFG (USA) Holdings Inc., Mac Food Services (Malaysia) SDN. BHD., Madison Foods Inc., McKey Food Services (Hong Kong) Limited, McKey Food Services (Shandong) Limited, McKey Food Services (Thailand) Limited, McKey Food Services Limited, McKey Luxembourg Holdings APMEA S.a.r.l., McKey Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., McKey Luxembourg S.a.r.l., McKey VI Holdings Limited, Myung Seung Food Company Ltd., National Comp Care Inc., New Canada Holdings Inc., Oaklawn Capital Corporation, Oaklawn IT Solution Private Limited, Original Philly Holdings Inc., PBX inc., Pierre Holdco Inc., River Valley Ingredients LLC, Rizhao Tyson Foods Co. Ltd, Rizhao Tyson Poultry Co. Ltd, Rural Energy Systems Inc., Sara Lee - Kiwi Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Diversified LLC, Sara Lee Foods LLC, Sara Lee Household & Body Care Malawi Ltd., Sara Lee International LLC, Sara Lee International TM Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Mexicana Holdings Investment L.L.C., Sara Lee TM Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Trademark Holdings Australasia LLC, Saramar L.L.C., Shandong Tyson-Da Long Food Company Limited, Smart Chicken, Southern Family Foods L.L.C., Southwest Products LLC, TF 20 B.V., TF 5201 B.V., TFA Leasing LLC, TFA Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, TFI of California Inc., Tecumseh Poultry LLC, Texas Transfer Inc., The Bruss Company, The Hillshire Brands Company, The IBP Foods Co., The Pork Group Inc., TyNet Corporation, Tyson (Shanghai) Enterprise Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Tyson Americas Holding Sarl, Tyson Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Tyson Breeders Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Tyson China Holding 2 Limited, Tyson China Holding 3 Limited, Tyson China Holding Limited, Tyson Deli Inc., Tyson Europe Holding Company, Tyson Farms Inc., Tyson Farms QOZB LLC, Tyson Foods Brasil Investimentos Ltda., Tyson Foods Canada Inc., Tyson Foods Europe (Netherlands) B.V., Tyson Foods Europe GmbH, Tyson Foods France S.A.R.L., Tyson Foods Germany GmbH, Tyson Foods Group Limited, Tyson Foods Holland B.V., Tyson Foods Huadong Development Co. Ltd, Tyson Foods Iberia Alimentos S.L.U., Tyson Foods Italia S.p.A., Tyson Foods Korea, Tyson Foods Netherlands B.V., Tyson Foods Products Limited, Tyson Foods Scotland Europe Limited, Tyson Foods Scotland Sales (Europe) Limited, Tyson Foods UK Limited, Tyson Foods Wrexham Limited, Tyson Foods oosterwolde B.V., Tyson Fresh Meats Inc., Tyson Fresh Meats Sales and Distribution LLC, Tyson Global Holding Sarl, Tyson Hog Markets Inc., Tyson India Holdings Ltd., Tyson International APAC Ltd., Tyson International Company Ltd., Tyson International Holding Company, Tyson International Holding Sarl, Tyson International Service Center Inc., Tyson International Service Center Inc. Asia, Tyson International Service Center Inc. Europe, Tyson Mexican Original Inc., Tyson Mexico Trading Company S. de R.L. de CV., Tyson New Ventures LLC, Tyson Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, Tyson Pet Products Inc., Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Prepared Foods Inc., Tyson Processing Services Inc., Tyson Refrigerated Processed Meats Inc., Tyson Sales and Distribution Inc., Tyson Service Center Corp., Tyson Shared Services Inc., Tyson Storm Lake Holdings LLC, Tyson Warehousing Services LLC, Tyson of Wisconsin LLC, Uninex SA, Universal Meats (UK) Limited, WBA Analytical Laboratories Inc., Wilton Foods Inc., Xamol Consultores e Servicos, and Zemco Industries Inc..

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Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed, four servicemen were wounded, and another four - shell-shocked in the anti-terrorist operation area in eastern Ukraine over the last day.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Spokesperson for ATO Colonel Andriy Lysenko said this at a press briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed, four servicemen were wounded, and another four were shell-shocked as a result of active hostilities in eastern Ukraine in last day. We extend our condolences to relatives and friends of fallen soldiers," Lysenko said.

ish
Italy plans to allocate 1 million euros of emergency contribution to Ukraine, according to a press release by the Foreign Ministry of Italy.

Italy has approved an emergency contribution of 1 million euros [to Ukraine], reads a report.

The contribution will be divided into two funding packages: an initial 700,000 euros for the World Food Programme (WFP) to distribute food rations and cash aid to the most vulnerable civilian population, and an additional amount of 300,000 euros will be paid to UNICEF to fund a humanitarian landmine clearance project.

Thus, the Italian contribution will allow risk awareness courses to be provided for school and pre-school children living in areas where there are landmines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices.

iy
HOUSING

Existing-home sales jumped in November

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly increased in November to the highest level since early 2007, ahead of a jump in borrowing costs, National Association of Realtors data showed Wednesday.

Contract closings rose 0.7 percent to a 5.61 million annual rate, the fastest pace since February 2007. Sales increased 18.2 percent before seasonal adjustment from November 2015, when changes in mortgage regulations delayed closings.

Median sales price climbed 6.8 percent from November 2015 to $234,900, the data showed.

Inventory of available properties dropped 9.3 percent from November 2015 to 1.85 million, marking the 18th consecutive year-over-year decline.

People who had locked in their rate followed through with their purchases last month, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the Realtors group in Washington. Still, we have this inventory shortage, this housing shortage, for the past five years, hurting affordability for first-time buyers.

 Bloomberg News

TECHNOLOGY

Facebook cites rise in account data requests

Facebook said Wednesday that government requests for user account data rose 27 percent in the first half of 2016 compared with the second half of last year, with U.S. law enforcement agencies topping the list.

Government requests for account data globally rose to 59,229 from 46,710, and more than half contained nondisclosure orders prohibiting Facebook from notifying users.

Requests for content restriction, the number of items restricted for violating local laws, dropped by 83 percent from the second half of 2015, the social network said in a blog post.

For the first time, Facebooks report included information about government requests to preserve relevant user account data. The company said it received 38,675 preservation requests for 67,129 accounts.

 Reuters

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 From news services

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 From news services
SECOND-CHANCE CITY | This is part of a continuing series that examines issues related to repeat violent offenders in the District of Columbia. Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV



Photos of Will Smallwood, his ex-girlfriend Kyera Johnson, Smallwoods nephew Liam, and Smallwood and Johnsons daughters, JayNiece and Zara, displayed on a mirror in Johnson's apartment. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Within a remote federal prison, inside a barren conference room, Will Smallwood tries to explain his violent past by talking about a slice of chocolate cake.

He imagines a decadent chocolate cake with creamy frosting. Maybe as a child, he could sneak into the kitchen in the darkness of the night  when no one was watching  and open the refrigerator door. He could take a knife to cut just a sliver of cake for a midnight snack.

Youre young and you get away with it, he says.

So maybe you keep going back to the fridge, he says. Night after night. The tiny slivers turn into large slices. And it becomes a habit.

Until you get caught.

Smallwood, now 24, has plenty of time in federal prison  a 22-year sentence  to think about his past and his future, after a murder he committed in 2014 in the District. He will spend the fleeting years of his youth dressed in a baggy beige jumpsuit, sleeping in a small cell, passing the time by watching TV news and walking laps around the prison yard. His young daughters will be grown women by the time he is free.

Before Smallwood killed, there were warning signs that his violent behavior was rapidly escalating on the streets of Columbia Heights in Northwest Washington. He told The Washington Post that he robbed at least 100 people.

D.C. judges twice sentenced him  for simple assault and robbery  under the Districts Youth Rehabilitation Act, a unique law passed in the 1980s that allows shorter sentences for some crimes and offers offenders under age 22 the chance to clear their records. All the while, he says, he returned to the streets to commit more robberies and sell crack cocaine.

Its just a slap on the wrist. And then you think you can get away with bigger crimes, Smallwood says during a recent interview in prison. I look back now and I say, Damn, I f---ed up. 

[How a mercy law enables young violent criminals in the nations capital]

A previous Post investigation revealed that more than 3,000 felony sentences have been handed down under the Youth Act since 2010  the majority of them for crimes of violence or weapons offenses. The Post identified 121 Youth Act offenders who went on to be charged with murder during that time and discovered that hundreds of offenders have received Youth Act sentences more than once.

States such as Michigan, New York and Florida also have statutes that permit the convictions of young adults to remain confidential, but they exclude the most serious violent felonies. New York also limits the age to 18. Florida bars repeat offenders.

The Districts Youth Act opens the door to all offenders under 22 except murderers, puts no limit on how many times the law can be applied and allows for departures from mandatory minimum sentences for violent gun crimes.

Every time we would go to court, we would ask for the Youth Act and we got it, Smallwood says, snapping his fingers. Its like, Okay, fingers crossed  and you get the Youth Act!

In many ways, Smallwood was just the type of young man the Youth Act had been crafted to help. He had no juvenile record. He had a supportive family. His crimes were serious but not among the worst in D.C. Superior Court. Yet his story still ended in tragedy.

Despite the presence of the word rehabilitation in the name of the law, D.C. courts do not track whether participants are rehabilitated. And there are no explicit programs in federal prisons to treat Youth Act offenders. Smallwood says that outside of prison he received little help other than anger-management classes and a mentor he rarely saw. Judges can order extensive evaluations for offenders before they apply the Youth Act, including interviews with psychologists and social workers, to examine the potential for rehabilitation. But Smallwood did not get one.

[How an accused rapist kept getting second chances in D.C.]

Advocates for new approaches to criminal justice say violent offenders need more attention than they get from traditional court-ordered probation and supervision, which is enforced by officers who watch and monitor behavior and collect urine tests. To get at the roots of the problem, the advocates say, more time needs to be spent with offenders in their communities to better understand outside influences and how to address them.

In Massachusetts, a four-year program called Roca targets young men ages 17 to 24 who are at a high risk for prison. The program features relentless outreach  knocking on doors daily, if necessary  and offers intensive counseling and job and life-skills training, a spokesman said. Private donors fund the program, and the government reimburses the costs if goals are met for reducing incarceration.

In Chicago, Gary Slutkin founded Cure Violence, an organization that focuses on how violence can be treated like an infectious disease. It uses trained workers called interrupters to try to stop the spread. The model has been deployed in neighborhoods in Baltimore, New York City, New Orleans and Kansas City, Mo., among other cities, Slutkin said.

Slutkin sees Smallwoods violent patterns as akin to an untreated illness.

Its just like watching someone gradually develop tuberculosis, he says. And hes getting a little sicker until the moment hes nearly dead. Hes coughing his lungs out. Hes nearly dead, but youre doing nothing.

Youre just watching and waiting until they do something horrible.



Will Smallwoods mother, Testsa, at her apartment in the District. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Running the streets

This winter, in her two-bedroom apartment, Testsa Smallwood put up a fake Christmas tree with flashing lights and red garland. There are several wrapped gifts under the tree, but beneath the shiny paper, the boxes are empty.

Just for decoration, says Testsa, who is unemployed.

In the carpeted living room, there is no sofa, no table and no place to sit other than a single camping chair.

Every evening, just past midnight, Testsa, 45, pulls up her phone and logs on to an app called CorrLinks that allows electronic messaging for federal inmates.

Goodnight, Lil Boy, she writes to her son, 185 miles away.

Years ago, Will Smallwood lived with her here in the familys home at Columbia Heights Village Apartments, a sprawling subsidized-housing complex in Northwest.



Testsa Smallwood adjusts the angel on top of her Christmas tree. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Testsa Smallwood holds an album of photos of her son, Will. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Back then, the place seemed more like home  with Will and his younger sister, Alexis, sharing a bedroom. For a while, their maternal grandmother lived across the hall.

His parents were separated, but Smallwood says his father was active in his life, and he felt loved by both parents.

When he was 13, his father moved to North Carolina. Will started to get into trouble in junior high. He got caught selling firecrackers to other students. In the ninth grade, he struggled with his schoolwork and was suspended for 45 days when a janitor caught him about to have sex with another student in the gymnasium. He said he was held back a year.

At Cardozo High School, Will studied construction in a program offered there. He was artistic, once carving a wooden birdhouse, family members say. They also proudly tell the story of how he ran into a burning apartment to try to save a woman inside. The woman died in the flames, but neighbors called him a hero.

Smallwood says he has fond memories of his childhood. The family got by on his mothers public assistance, but he says he did not need much to make him happy.

He struggles to explain how his crimes started. Maybe he was trying to show off for girls, he says. Maybe he wanted to seem cool around the neighborhood. Maybe it was because he was tired of not having money.

His first crimes were jumping random men on the streets and punching them, just for the thrill. Then came the robberies.

I was running the streets, he says. My mind-set was, if I didnt get caught, I continued doing it.

On Sept. 21, 2007, Will, then 15, met Kyera Johnson, a 13-year-old girl in the neighborhood. She was wearing her school uniform. She had on sneakers with no shoestrings and had her hair styled in a side ponytail.

She liked him, and her sister slipped him a piece of paper with a phone number. Soon, they were dating. And too soon, they now say, Kyera became pregnant.

Kyera moved in with the Smallwoods, and the home felt even fuller. Their first daughter, JayNiece, was born on Aug. 29, 2009. At 17, Will dropped out of school to care for the baby so that 15-year-old Kyera could keep up her studies.

I regret it every day, Smallwood says of the decision to leave Cardozo. Why did I not finish?



Kyera Johnson with her daughter Zara, 2, at their apartment. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Instead, he began attending a specialized GED program at the Latin American Youth Center in Columbia Heights. But most of his focus shifted to caring for his little girl.

The hard times started when we couldnt really do nothing for the baby, like getting diapers and stuff, says Kyera Johnson, now 23.

I got to find a way, he told her.

She asked him, What are we going to do?

He told her not to worry.

Later, he came home with money. He told her that he had robbed somebody.

You cant be doing that, she told him.

But he did not stop.

It was just an easy way for him to get money instead of doing it the right way, she says.

Now, the crimes were no longer just for fun.

They were just business.

[The crimes against them were terrifying. The judicial system made it worse.]

The first arrest

At 14th Street and Columbia Road NW, a bustling 7-Eleven convenience store was Smallwoods gateway to the D.C. criminal justice system.

On Jan. 18, 2012, he says, a clerk there falsely accused him of stealing a cookie and was going to press a button to lock the front door. Smallwood says he was carrying a gun and did not want the police to catch him with it.

So he picked up a 12-pack of canned soda and, in an apparent fit of rage, threw it at the store clerk, according to police records. The injured clerk was taken away in an ambulance.

A week later, Smallwood, then 19, was identified, arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault. It was his first arrest.

The angry outburst was no surprise to his mother, his sister or his girlfriend.

Even now, Testsa Smallwood can point out the patched-up drywall in the familys living room. In two places, Will threw his phone so hard that it broke the plaster.

His sister, Alexis, remembers him ripping off the oven door after he and an aunt had a political disagreement. He would also punch the wall with his fists.

He would be huffing and puffing, she says. He would swell up. His face would turn red. And he would just be pacing back and forth.

But the aftermath was even more puzzling. He seemed to black out during the incidents. Only his grandmother seemed to be able to snap him out of it.

He would come back and he would never remember what happened, Johnson says. He would be like: What happened? Why is my hand bleeding? Why are there holes in the wall? 

Two months after the 7-Eleven arrest, Will Smallwood pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 90 days  with all of the time suspended.

Instead, Judge Marisa Demeo placed him on probation for a year under the Youth Rehabilitation Act. If he successfully served his probation, his record would be sealed.

What is it? he asked his attorney at the time.

Smallwood says his attorney explained that the Youth Act is for people who are not really into violent crime.

The judge ordered him to attend anger-management sessions and to continue working toward his GED.

Smallwood says he tried, desperately, to find a job.

He printed out resumes, cover letters, his CPR certification and other job training certificates. He hand-delivered packets to the Marshalls department store in Columbia Heights and the Armani Exchange store at the Pentagon City mall. He filled out applications for jobs at CVS, Target, Giant and Best Buy.

He did not receive any responses. So, he says, he went back to the streets for money.

The next arrest

At 7:15 p.m. on June 27, 2012, police officers responded to a robbery call near Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Columbia Heights. They discovered a male victim screaming out in pain and with a bloody and bruised eye.

The victim told police that he had placed an ad on Craigslist to sell a Sony digital camera for $1,100. He said a man had emailed and expressed interest in meeting in the school parking lot. Smallwood says that he was unaware of any Craigslist deal and that the seller approached him in the parking lot and started a conversation about the camera. Smallwood punched the man in the eye, took the camera and ran.

The next day, Smallwood was arrested and charged with robbery. This time, he was not released. It was his first stay in D.C. jail.

It was different, he says. I was looking around. I was nervous.

Smallwood pleaded guilty in August 2012. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to not charge him for additional crimes.

They said they would not prosecute him for his role in a robbery of a pizza delivery man that took place on April 7, 2012, on Irving Street NW, according to the plea deal. Nor would they prosecute him for his possession of 12 mobile phones recovered during a search of his familys apartment.

While awaiting sentencing, Smallwood knew he could be facing significant time  24 months is the statutory minimum for robbery in the District.

I would like to apologize for everything thats been going on and what I done, he told Judge Patricia Broderick, according to the transcript from the September sentencing. I dont want to do it no more. Im done with everything.

Broderick implored Smallwood to turn his life around. She issued a 24-month sentence but suspended all but six months. Again, he received a Youth Act sentence.

Apparently, upon sentencing, Smallwood made some kind of gesture or facial expression that irked the judge. He says he does not recall doing it, though he says he might have appeared nonchalant or even smirked.

I have to tell you, Mr. Smallwood, your reaction is making me feel like I made a mistake and I should have given you more time, because clearly you dont see how serious this is, she said, according to the transcript. This is a very light sentence for this serious a crime.

I understand, Miss, he said. It was just I aint, I, expected the worst but  

The judge interrupted him.

This is not the worst, she said. The worst could have been 24 months, period, no Youth Act.

I understand, Miss, he told her.

And it could have been higher than that, she said. It could have been up to 60 months.

I understand, Smallwood said.

All right? Broderick said. This is a break.

She told him that he would be under probation for three years but that she could opt to end it early if he was successful.

Were going to give you some programs so you can have a better life when you get out, she said. Someday, Im going to be really proud of you.

Broderick declined to comment for this article.



Photos of Will Smallwood, Kyera Johnson and their daughters displayed at Johnson's apartment. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Sucked back in

The Bureau of Prisons sent Smallwood about three hours away to Fairton, a medium-security federal prison in New Jersey. Testsa Smallwood says she could not afford to visit. Johnson paid $50 for a ride in a shuttle van. She wanted to take JayNiece to visit him.

It was hurtful, especially when we had to leave, Johnson says.

While at Fairton, Will Smallwood talked with D.C. inmates and learned some history about the Youth Act. Inmates used to stay in the D.C. area and serve their time at a youth center near the site of the Lorton prison complex in Northern Virginia. The prison closed after D.C. officials  on the brink of bankruptcy  agreed to a federal bailout that involved dispersing the citys inmates to federal prisons.

[How an inmate who repeatedly threatened to rape his prison guards ended up on a bus back to D.C.]

As Smallwood tells it, his brief stint in Fairton was a good chapter in his life. He says he matured.

Smallwood and Johnson considered marrying, but Johnson balked at the idea of nuptials behind bars.

I wanted it to be nice, she says. I wasnt about to get married in no prison.

At Fairton, Smallwood says, he decided the criminal life was not for him.

I was straight done, he says. Forget it.

In the winter of 2013, he moved into Hope Village  a federally run halfway house in Southeast Washington  to serve his last couple of months.

Smallwood resumed his GED program at the Latin American Youth Center. Johnson was optimistic. He seemed to be set on straightening out his life.

But then once he finally got free free and he finally got home  she says, her voice trailing off. She shrugs.

He got sucked back into the street life, she says.

In March 2013, Smallwood began his probation under the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA), the federal entity that monitors probationers and inmates who return to the District.

Following Judge Brodericks order, Smallwood would need to continue his GED preparation, attend anger-management and parenting sessions, and perform community service. He would also be assigned a mentor.

On its website, CSOSA advertises a 24-week street-level program for young offenders ages 18 to 35 in Columbia Heights, Marshall Heights and Congress Heights. It says it targets those whose criminal histories include violent-crime, weapons and drug distribution charges. It provides psychological and educational assessments, anger counseling and life coaches. Smallwood says he was never placed in such a program.

Smallwood, his mother and Johnson say CSOSAs supervision efforts were lacking and seemed mainly for show. Smallwood says he met his assigned mentor only a couple of times.

I couldnt even tell you what this guy looked like, he says.

Testsa Smallwood says she remembers a CSOSA officer asking her son to meet him in the parking lot to sign a form verifying the visit, rather than coming inside the apartment.

These people . . . they come on their accountability tours, but theyre scared, Will Smallwood says. Id be in the house waiting, but they would just call me outside.

A spokesman from CSOSA, citing federal privacy laws, declined to comment for this article.

The anger-management sessions did not seem effective, Johnson says. Smallwood says the classes were conducted in a group setting and involved responding to hypothetical scenarios.

Finding a job, he says, was nearly impossible. But he vowed not to rob anyone again.

Its the lowest form of crime ever, he says. Youre just stealing from people.

He began a new venture: hustling drugs.

I dont want this life

Smallwood says he has never used alcohol or drugs, not even marijuana. He never failed a drug test while under supervision. He says he was a model client  on paper.

He completed his 30 hours of required community service at a food pantry. In 2013, he says, CSOSA placed him on GPS supervision for a few months to monitor his whereabouts.

They thought I was doing the right thing, he says.

But Smallwood, then 21, had already begun selling crack cocaine on the streets of Columbia Heights.

He was suddenly flush with cash. Johnson saw the $100 bills, kept in a shoe box in the closet.

Everything was stocked, she says. We had diapers, clothes and shoes. The day-care fee was paid.

During that time, Johnson and Smallwoods mother say they saw dramatic shifts in his personality. His ego grew bigger. His temper grew shorter.

Johnson remembers the first time she saw him with a gun. He assured her he was just holding it for a friend.

All I could do was shake my head, she says. Im starting to think, I dont want this life right here. 

Smallwoods felony robbery conviction created a new problem for his family. His name was on the lease at the housing complex, and convicted felons were subject to eviction. The complex notified Testsa Smallwood that her son needed to stay away from the apartment or all of them would face eviction.

He and Johnson packed up and moved with JayNiece to Northeast, near Ivy City, to live in a house with Johnsons family.

Smallwood says he stopped selling drugs for a few months in 2014. Johnson recalls him hanging around the home a lot during the day, not doing much of anything. He spent a growing amount of time with Johnsons brother, Demitrich Jones.

Again, Smallwood began to slip away for hours. Sometimes, late at night, Johnson says, she heard them downstairs, talking about doing this or doing that to someone on the street.

She acknowledges that she ignored the warning signs.

Johnson also had a new, welcome distraction. The couples second daughter, Zara, was born in March 2014. To provide for the family, Johnson began working at a McDonalds on Wisconsin Avenue.

I killed somebody

The evening of June 3, 2014, was not a remarkable one for Johnson. Exhausted from caring for a 3-month-old infant, she drifted to sleep at about 9 p.m. while watching a movie.

When she awoke the next morning, Smallwood was next to her, asleep.

Over the next two days, he seemed to be stricken by illness, Johnson recalls. He vomited. He complained of a bad headache. He was having weird dreams, and he kept sobbing.

Whats wrong? Johnson asked him. Do you need to go to the hospital? Are you sick?

He said nothing.

One night, he approached Johnson in their bedroom.

I killed somebody, he said.

Boy, quit joking, she told him.

He wasnt joking, he said. He had killed a man.

She did not believe him.

The next day, police officers came to the neighborhood and started knocking on doors. Johnson opened her door to learn that there had been a homicide.

Rashard Raigns, 33, had been fatally shot. Police gave her a flier with his photo, seeking any information about the killing.

Her stomach sank. After she closed the door, she ran upstairs.

She sat alone in her bedroom for hours, staring aimlessly at the walls.

Rashard Raigns

Years before, Raigns had been a prep-football star in Maryland. He went on to play defensive end at Colgate University and even studied abroad in China.

Raigns also had several recent scrapes with law enforcement and had self-reported mental health issues.

Rashard Raigns (D.C. police)

On a summer night  June 3, 2014  Raigns lit a blue candle and spread out his belongings on a green blanket on Fenwick Street in Northeast. He had a laptop he had recently purchased.

At 10:15 p.m., Johnsons brother saw Raigns and noticed the computer. Jones went home and told Smallwood about what he had seen, according to court records.

Jones grabbed his BB gun, and Smallwood armed himself with a silver handgun. Both wrapped T-shirts around their necks. As they approached Raigns, they lifted the T-shirts to mask their faces.

Raigns resisted and tried to flee. Smallwood fired twice. One bullet struck Raigns in the chest.

The two men fled, leaving Raigns on the sidewalk.

A few minutes passed, and Jones returned to the crime scene to pick up the laptop.

Four hours later, a resident flagged down an ambulance after spotting Raigns on the sidewalk. At 2:42 a.m., D.C. police were called to the scene.

Raigns was dead. The blue candle had been knocked over, and candle wax had spilled and hardened onto Raignss clothing, his blanket and the pavement.

[Family mourns onetime athlete, academic killed in D.C. robbery]

The nightmares

Police quickly focused on Smallwood and Jones as suspects. The men had been captured on surveillance videos near the scene, and police published the videos on YouTube. A witness identified Smallwood.

Within a week of the killing, on June 10, police executed a search warrant at Johnsons house. In the early morning hours, they came inside with guns drawn and quickly handcuffed Smallwood, who was wearing only boxers and socks. Johnson was taken in for questioning.

At first, she said that Will had been with her all night. Then she said maybe he could have left after she went to sleep. Finally, police showed her parts of the surveillance video and she identified Smallwood and her brother, court records show.

Smallwood and Jones were charged with first-degree felony murder.

Daddys getting locked up again? 4-year-old JayNiece asked her mother.

After 10 months in jail, Smallwood and Jones accepted plea deals to charges of second-degree murder. Smallwood admitted to shooting Raigns.

In the D.C. jail, Smallwood lost about 40 pounds. He kept having a recurring nightmare. In the dream, he was upstairs at home with Kyera. He walked downstairs to watch a movie and saw Raigns  floating  near the top of the stairwell.

Smallwood is haunted by the fact that he left Raigns lying there, bleeding out, after he shot him.

It makes you sick to your stomach, he says. I didnt want to call an ambulance. I regret that. I found out later that he could have lived.

Before his sentencing, Smallwoods attorneys from the D.C. Public Defender Service prepared an extensive memo to advocate for leniency. They wrote that his case was a textbook example of adolescent impulsivity leading to unintended, unexpected, and, for Mr. Smallwood, previously unfathomable consequences.

The lawyers included excerpts from a New York Times article and scientific studies pointing to research about the development of the human brain.

At the time of the killing, at age 22, the very regions of his brain that would counteract such behavior were still developing, the lawyers wrote.

They asked for a 14-year sentence and argued that after Smallwood had reached his mid-30s that he would not present any real risk of committing additional crimes.

The Court need not be concerned that he will ever participate in similar conduct again, the attorneys wrote.

The memo was accompanied by letters from friends and family members, and photos of Smallwood through the years. In one picture, he is in the hospital delivery room, dressed in scrubs, as he holds his second-born daughter, Zara.

On June 26, 2015, Smallwood and Jones appeared for sentencing in Judge Jennifer Andersons courtroom.

Rashard Raigns, center, with his siblings. (Family photo)

Mr. Smallwood has been treated very leniently by the criminal justice system, and he has taken advantage of that, prosecutor Veronica Sanchez said before he was sentenced. Hes squandered the opportunities that have been given to him.

Smallwood apologized to Raignss family and expressed remorse.

I cant give them their son, their brother, their uncle, he said in court. I cant do anything like that. I wish I would. If I was able to, I would. Im extremely sorry for what I did. I understand that what I did was wrong and I deserve whatever, whatever Im getting.

The judge was stern with him.

The thought doesnt seem to have entered your head that maybe the way to take care of your family is actually to get an education and get a job as opposed to taking it from somebody else, she told him.

Smallwoods mother left the courtroom at that moment. She could not bear to hear the time he would get.

Anderson sentenced Smallwood to 22 years in prison. He was 23 at the time. Jones, then 17 years old, received 18 years.

Rehabilitation

The Allegheny Mountains can be seen from the yard of Hazelton, the medium-security federal prison where Smallwood is serving his time in West Virginia.

Smallwood can reduce his time by earning credit for being on his best behavior. He has already earned 108 days of good time credit, according to Bureau of Prisons records.

For that reason, Testsa Smallwood says she only shares positive news with her son. She does not want to upset him or cause him to act out in prison.

Currently, his projected release date is 2034. He would be 41 years old.

Johnson brings JayNiece and Zara to visit him about twice a month.

Smallwood tries to teach his oldest daughter a very simple lesson: Be good. Because when youre bad, bad things happen.

Smallwood and Johnson broke up a while ago.

I only love him because hes the father of my kids, she says. As years go by, theres no love, for real. You decided to kill somebody for what? A laptop?

That question still haunts Smallwood.

Hurting people and taking peoples life? Snagging someones life and playing God? he says. I wasnt myself.

In prison, he is trying to better himself. He says he is again studying for the GED.

The notion of rehabilitation is a painful topic.

What help did I get? he says. What were some anger-management classes supposed to do for me? Im still going to be the same person.

He recognizes that he was given leniency by the system, but he also thinks that he deserved some second chances. He says maybe a steady job could have steered him down a different path.

Are you rehabilitated now? a reporter asks him in prison.

He says he knew the exact moment he had been rehabilitated.

It was right after he pulled the trigger.


The front door and entry hall of Laura Dowling, former White House chief floral designer, are decked out for the season. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

During the six holiday seasons florist Laura Dowling devoted to staging magical White House displays, it never looked a lot like Christmas in her own home. There just wasnt time. Her Old Town Alexandria house would usually get only a simple wreath on the front door.

Dowling, who served as the White House chief floral designer from 2009 to 2015, was in charge of monumental holiday installations that were viewed by more than 100,000 visitors annually. The displays might include upward of 55 Christmas trees and thousands of ornaments, put up by hundreds of volunteers. Everything had to look fresh for about five weeks. Nothing prepared me for what it was like, with all the logistics, details and demands, Dowling says. Each year, by the time we had finished our decorating process, I felt like Id pretty much had enough of Christmas.

Former White House chief floral designer Laura Dowling holds a wreath made of peppers. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

Dowling had opened her own flower design studio specializing in French-style bouquets in 2002, after a career in government and public policy. She left the White House job in 2015, setting off a flurry of speculation. I was brought in to make change, and I did, Dowling says. It was time to start thinking about what I would do next. What that has been is lecturing, teaching classes and writing a book, Floral Diplomacy at the White House, which has just been published.

And now Christmas is back at full volume at her place. She has arranged flowers and greens in almost every room of the antiques-filled circa-1800 house she shares with husband Bob Weinhagen, senior legislative counsel for the House of Representatives. Dowlings loose, garden style of designing has always been to use lots of natural materials in unexpected ways. She can take a bag of lemons from Trader Joes and a few magnolia leaves and quickly transform them into a gorgeous arrangement.

[The rules for setting your holiday table and why they matter ]

Wreaths are an important part of her holiday look; shes had time this year to put together a number as gifts for friends. As for her own front door, its a changing panorama throughout the season. This year, I started out with a potato-and-crab-apple wreath in late November, then made a lime-and-berry version, and am closing out the holiday season with a festive large-scale wreath made from gilded fingerling potatoes, crab apples, berries and variegated holly, Dowling says.

Dowling showed us DIY ideas for five areas of the house that you can still dress up in time for Christmas.

The entrance hall

I like the idea of putting a dramatic display of flowers, plants or greenery in the entrance as a way to set a festive ambiance, Dowling says. Flowers are the easiest and quickest way to create a holiday or seasonal mood; they add color and scent to make guests feel welcomed and lift the spirits.

This years entry bouquet is an antique etched-glass vase with a mix of seasonal flowers and winter greenery. Boughs of fragrant cedar, pine, eucalyptus, nandina and trailing ivy provide a textural backdrop for the colorful Christmas blooms, Dowling says. The flowers include red amaryllis, variegated spider amaryllis, burgundy and red roses, red lilies and gloriosa lilies. The bouquet is reflected in the large oval mirror and picks up the yellow ocher and red tones in the vintage French toile slipcovers in the parlor.

(Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)

The front door

Putting a wreath on your door sets a festive tone, Dowling says. Even if you dont have the time or space for a tree, you can still do this one thing. The wreath form is not only elegant and timeless  it also conveys special holiday meaning. The shape represents eternity and serves as a reminder of the unending circle of life, she says. Wreaths of all sizes and materials can also be displayed over mantels, in windows and even on backs of chairs. This year, she included a fresh lime wreath propped up on her hearth. The limes and crab apples add a pop of Christmas color, Dowling says.

The mantel



The garland in Dowlings living room was inspired by the Greek patterns on her mantel. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

Her mantel features a magnolia-leaf-and-paper garland inspired by the hand-carved Greek key patterns. Dowling cut 14 panels (each 12 inches by 8 inches) from brown paper grocery bags and stapled several together for extra thickness. To create a strong graphic presentation, she alternated the design of scalloped magnolia leaves with a checkerboard motif made from folded green aspidistra leaves and gold paper, using a hot-glue gun to attach the leaves and paper and adding a moss border. The panels were stapled to red satin ribbon to create a garland.

A kissing ball made of lemons hangs from a front window of Dowlings Old Town Alexandria home. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

Windows

The kissing ball is a tradition that started in England during the Middle Ages, Dowling says. Small orbs of interlocking greenery were hung over the doors as a sign of welcome and goodwill. Later, in the Victorian era, kissing balls were decorated with herbs and small flowers.

I think kissing balls look great as a window decoration. The round form made of fruit and greenery, tied with ribbons or natural greens, catches the light in the window, she says. She made hers by taking a floral foam ball covered in netting (a four- or six-inch ball is perfect), soaking it in water, and covering it in white pine and cedar. She stuck lemons into the ball with wood picks, wired in crab apples and added some trailing ivy as a final touch.

Tables



Dowling made three arrangements for the dining table of her Alexandria friend and neighbor Cindy Conner. She used peach-colored flowers mixed with fresh greens to go with the colors in the Conner home. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

Creating beautiful floral displays for a dining room or coffee table is part of the fun of the holidays. Consider using a nontraditional color palette that is more wintry than Christmasy. For her Alexandria friend Cindy Conners dining room table, Dowling made three arrangements. Theres a large one in the middle, and the two smaller ones on either side are held in mirrored cube vases filled with peach-hued amaryllis, ranunculus and roses mixed with cedar and pine. The peach tones complement Conners upholstered dining chairs and napkins. The mirrored containers coordinate with the silver chargers and reflect candlelight as well as what Conner calls her vintage Target glitter snowflakes that she lays at each place setting.
People walk past a street in heavy smog during a polluted day in Weifang, China. The smog is expected to clear by Wednesday night. (Reuters)

The dense smog that has smothered much of China for five days may soon finally clear, weather forecasters and state media said Wednesday, giving relief to hundreds of millions of people breathing dangerously polluted air and struggling under the governments emergency measures.

The national weather authority forecast that nighttime winds will push out much of the pollution that has left Beijing and dozens of other cities under a five-day red alert, the highest level in Chinas air-pollution warning system. Schools were closed, flights canceled, and factories and highways shut down in attempts to improve the air quality. But the prolonged red alert disrupted the lives of many in Beijing, Chinas capital.

A grandmother and her grandson ventured outside their home Wednesday for the first time in several days. The boy had stayed home from school since Monday and was getting bored inside, said the woman, who would only give her family name of Yang.

The pollution is rather scary, so we dont go out or go very far, she said.

By the calculations of Greenpeace East Asia, the red alert affects 460 million people, with about 200 million people living in areas where the air was polluted more than 10 times above the guideline set by the World Health Organization.

China has long had some of the worst air in the world, blamed on its reliance on coal and a surplus of older, less efficient cars. It has set pollution-reduction goals but also has plans to increase coal-mining capacity. The country eased limits on production when faced with rising energy prices.

Ordinary Chinese pay close attention to air-pollution readings and government statements on smog, often with deep skepticism.

Chinas Ministry of Environmental Protection acknowledged this week that its inspectors found some factories violating antipollution orders. And despite announcements of school closings in areas under red alerts, photos shared widely on Chinese social media showed students in Henan province hunched over their desks taking an exam while shrouded in a gray haze. State media reported the school principal was suspended for causing a bad impact on society.

The shutdown of hundreds of construction sites  and a ban in some parts of Beijing on spray painting  has affected the thousands of migrants from Chinas provinces who come to the capital seeking work.

We have stopped for five days now, said one migrant worker from Henan province who gave his family name of Geng. We havent earned a penny. We live off our own savings. We spend [about $4.30] on living expenses every day that we dont work.
A procession to remember those who died homeless in the District proceeds along 14th Street NW on Dec. 17, 2015, to Freedom Plaza for an overnight vigil. Marchers carry a symbolic casket and placards with names of people who died homeless in the city during the year. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

When he learned in March that he had been awarded a voucher for an apartment after decades of on-and-off homelessness, Kanell Washington was elated.

A 60-year-old who spent many days hawking the Street Sense newspaper amid the Districts tides of commuters and tourists, Washington felt his luck had finally turned.

He was really excited that he had been through this process and it was going to pay off for him, recalled Robert Warren, a friend who had met Ward when both were homeless. Finally, he was going to get his place.

By late October, Washington was still homeless when he died from kidney failure.

Washington, as he was known to friends  his legal name was Kenneth Ward  was among those memorialized at a vigil at the Districts Freedom Plaza on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Similar gatherings, timed to coincide with the years longest night and shortest day, were scheduled in cities across the country.

Now in its fourth year, the D.C. vigil was framed as a reminder of the deadly risks endured by people who spend their lives moving between freezing streets, wind-scoured underpasses and overcrowded shelters. But it also highlighted the obstacles the homeless face getting in off the street even when bureaucracy is on their side.

According to the events organizers, about 35 men and women have died homeless in the District in 2016. Jesse Rabinowitz, an advocacy specialist at Miriams Kitchen, which helped arrange the vigil, said the mortality figure was likely to be a low estimate. Of the 35, 17 had been matched with much sought-after housing vouchers, as Washington had been, but had not managed to claim places to call home.

There are a lot of folk who have received vouchers who havent been able to match them up to units, said Warren, a 55-year-old who now lives in Anacostia. Theyll wait two, three, four months before they find somewhere to live.

The causes of their predicament remain murky, even to policy analysts and front-line advocates for the homeless. Some speculate that the citys rising rents and the influx of affluent young professionals have led landlords to turn away tenants who show up with the problems commonly associated with life on the street  criminal records, poor credit histories or addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Sometimes, more-pedestrian problems are at work, said Kate Coventry, a senior policy analyst at the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute and member of the D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Even with vouchers in hand, she said, the homeless might have trouble furnishing apartments or finding appropriate parts of the city.

Were talking about folks who maybe dont want to be in certain neighborhoods, she said. Say theyre sober  they might not want to be around people drinking outside.

The Interagency Council on Homelessness has formed a working group to analyze why it can take some people so long to use their housing vouchers, Coventry said.

I think were just figuring out what the delays are, she said.

Coventry was among those who attended the vigil, which lasted overnight Tuesday in a heated tent set up in subfreezing temperatures a stones throw from city hall.

Candles burned inside the tent, where activists and some homeless or formerly homeless people mingled in the dim light eating Popeyes fried chicken.

At last count, the District had more than 8,300 homeless people, according to data released last month by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. A new report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that the nations capital had the highest homelessness rate among 32 U.S. cities.

[The District has the highest homeless rate of 32 U.S. cities]

Patty Mullahy Fugere, executive director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, took the microphone to deliver a short speech on the importance of maintaining optimism in the fight to reduce homelessness. Behind her was a table strewn with signs  carried on a march from the vigils starting point at Luther Place Memorial Church  bearing the names of the men and women who have died homeless in 2016.

There was Larry Avents, who received a housing voucher a week before he died. Weldon Moore, who spent the last year of his life sleeping in a friends one-bedroom apartment in Northeast Washington before he vomited blood into the toilet one day and checked into the hospital.

I invite us all to choose hope, Fugere said.

It was a sentiment with which Washington  another name on the table  would have agreed. In April, shortly after receiving his housing voucher and six months before dying with it unused, he penned an article for Street Sense, a newspaper dedicated to raising awareness of homelessness, affirming that good things did happen to people who didnt give up.

Im the only one who is really not surprised when I persevere and accomplish my goals, he wrote.
The Loudoun County Sheriffs Office said it is investigating a former band director at Dominion High School after school officials in Florida, where he was recently employed, determined that he had inappropriate communications with students there. He resigned in November, soon after the Florida investigation was completed.

A Florida school districts investigation of Brian Damron, 43, led officials there to wonder about his past at Dominion, in Sterling, Va., where he worked for 2 years as a band director, according to investigative documents and school district officials. School officials in Duval County, Fla., said that they learned that Damron had been accused of inappropriate and unethical activity in Loudoun County but that they werent informed of those accusations before they hired in him in July 2015, raising questions about what information was shared as he moved from one school district to another.

Dominion High Principal John Brewer, who offered a glowing assessment of Damron in a recommendation to school officials in Florida, went on administrative leave shortly after a Florida newspaper first reported the allegations against the former band teacher. Brewer, a popular principal whose absence has raised the ire of Dominion parents and alumni, did not respond to requests for comment. The Loudoun Times-Mirror first reported that Brewer went on leave beginning Dec. 3.

Loudoun school officials declined to discuss details of Brewers absence, noting in a statement that it is common for employees to take administrative leave while an investigation is being conducted. Administrative leave is voluntary and is not disciplinary in nature.

Florida officials identified Damron publicly after determining that he engaged in inappropriate communications with students. They also released Damrons personnel file and investigative documents related to the allegations at Stanton College Preparatory School in Jacksonville, Fla.

Duval County school police investigated the allegations, but the department closed the investigation and declined to file criminal charges after a police officer concluded that Damrons behavior did not rise to a criminal level but was clearly inappropriate for a classroom, according to investigative documents.

Damron told The Washington Post that he is innocent of the allegations Florida officials have made.

According to investigative documents in Florida, a student who complained about Damrons interaction with him also told investigators that Damron showed a photo of himself with two high school band leaders and said that he had relationships with the two young men, though it was unclear whether it was when the two were students or after they graduated.

One of Damrons colleagues told investigators that Damron said he left Dominion High because of allegations of sexual harassment, according to the documents.

Loudoun authorities said they have opened an investigation as a result of new information about Damrons time at Dominion. The sheriffs office also revealed that a school staff member had alleged that Damron had given alcohol to an 18-year-old student who attended a different Loudoun high school at a music educators conference in Norfolk in November 2014. The sheriffs office forwarded the report to the Norfolk Police Department, which did not file charges.

Loudoun school officials declined to say whether the fact that Damron was investigated for allegedly sharing alcohol with a student was divulged to Duval County Public Schools when officials there were vetting him to hire him.

Wayde Byard, a spokesman for Loudoun schools, acknowledged that there were prior allegations regarding Damron that the school system investigated and then passed along to the sheriffs office.

Those allegations did not result in criminal charges or any employment action at the time, Byard said. New information has recently come to the attention of the school division administration regarding Damrons alleged conduct at Dominion High School and a new investigation has been opened.

Damron, who resigned from Stanton College Preparatory School on Nov. 1, said in an email to The Post that he is innocent in the Florida case and acknowledged the investigation during his time in Loudoun. Damron declined to elaborate on the Florida allegations.

While in Loudoun County, I was never aware of any student or parent complaints about sexual misconduct, Damron said in the email. There was an investigation about a lack of professional judgment at an activity outside of the school in another part of the Commonwealth. I formally resigned from LCPS for health and personal reasons in January 2015.

Damron arrived at Stanton with a stellar recommendation from Brewer, Dominion Highs principal, according to Duval County documents. Brewer went on paid leave shortly after the Florida Times-Union published a story about Damrons resignation, and Loudoun County schools officials declined to say why. Loudoun school officials said in a statement that it is common for employees to take administrative leave while an investigation is being conducted. Administrative leave is voluntary and is not disciplinary in nature.

According to Damrons personnel file from Duval County Public Schools, which the district released publicly, Brewer gave Damron a glowing assessment of his short tenure at Dominion. Brewer offered a strong recommendation for Damron after he left, writing in a letter that Damron had raised expectations and transformed Dominion Highs band program. The letter, prepared in March 2015, was addressed to Prospective Employer.

His ambitious agenda for Titan instrumental music demanded a renewed sense of energy from all participants, including himself and Mr. Damrons infectious personality empowered him to easily rise to this opportunity, Brewer wrote in the letter. His enthusiasm pervades every rehearsal, each performance, indeed, the innumerable daily interactions with students, colleagues and community members alike in which he engages.

The Dominion High School community has become deeply divided over the absence of Brewer, who has led the school since it opened in 2003. Even as questions about his absence at the school remain unanswered, many parents and former students have rallied in his support, with more than 1,700 people signing a Change.org petition as of Tuesday.

Amy Curran, president of Dominion Highs parent-teacher organization, pleaded tearfully with the school board last week, asking them to quickly resolve the matter to put the swirl of rumors around Brewers absence to rest.

Our community was and is still shocked by the abrupt manner by which we were informed of Dr. Brewers leave from our school, Curran said. We ask LCPS administration to quell the rumors that have arisen.

Damron also spent a decade teaching music at James Hubert Blake High in Montgomery County, Md. A Montgomery County schools spokesman said he left that job voluntarily and never had any actions taken against his Maryland teaching license.

Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of Duval County Public Schools, said officials had screened and vetted Damron just like any other teacher candidate.

We certainly took efforts to review candidate qualifications prior to hire, Vittis said. This review includes conducting a national Level 2 criminal background screening, reviewing the candidates references, and checking the [Florida Department of Educations] certification and disciplinary databases.

Some students also had gone to Brewer to complain about Damrons style, including Emily Saldanha, who graduated from Dominion in 2015 and was a sophomore when Damron was hired. Saldanha, now a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Mary Washington, said Damron occasionally teased students in front of the class, something she found humiliating. At one band concert, she recalled, Damron flipped off students on stage.

Saldanha said that the band seemed to improve under Damron, who raised expectations for the young musicians.

You had to be good, and you had to be competitive, and you had to be ruthless, Saldanha said.

Damron did not respond to requests for comment about his teaching style.

Damrons issues at Stanton College Prep began shortly after school started. Principal Nongongoma Majova-Seane disciplined him twice in October 2015, once for being verbally abusive to students and calling them names, and a second time for making inappropriate comments in front of students and for flipping off a student, according to the investigative report.

In September, a parent called Majova-Seane to complain that Damron was making sexual advances toward her son, a band student. Damron was assigned away from the classroom while officials completed their investigation.

Investigators interviewed students and colleagues as they dug into allegations that Damron had acted inappropriately with the young man. The young man told investigators that Damron had frequently hugged him and had begun having private conversations with him via Facebook Messenger. The young man said that Damron speculated about his sexuality and told him he must be bisexual because he claimed he saw the student ogling him at least four times in band camp. He said that later, when he was trying on new band uniform pants, Damron placed his hands near the boys crotch and commented on his genitals, according to investigative documents.

Vitti, the superintendent, said in the statement that the school system acted quickly after it learned of the allegations against Damron.

When our school district became aware of allegations of inappropriate behavior with students, we immediately acted and were prepared to recommend termination after our investigation of the allegations, Vitti wrote.
An illustration for Josefina and the Mariposa, the story of a young girl who gets lost to the woods but is guided to safety by a monarch butterfly. (Julia Rizzo and Kayley Galambos/Courtesy of Kathleen Britto, Park View High)

Wilmer De La O left El Salvador three years ago, taking a month-long journey to reach the United States. Now a senior at Park View High School in Sterling, Va., he still speaks in halting English, but he dreams of becoming an educator so he can someday teach his adopted language to other newcomers.

In a small way, he is already on his way. As part of a project called Viajes de Mi Vida  or, Journeys of My Life  De La O and about 70 of his classmates conceived, wrote and illustrated childrens storybooks in English and Spanish that are now in the hands of Salvadoran schoolchildren.

It feels great because youre sharing what you think, and you know that children from your own country are reading it, De La O said.

De La O, 18, and his classmates have published 15 childrens stories as part of the project, which is in partnership with the Loudoun County Public Library and funded with a grant from the American Libraries Association. The project included award-winning illustrator and author John Parra appearing at the school library for a two-day workshop. The school assembled a group of students  including English-language learners and aspiring writers and artists  to draft and illustrate the stories over several weeks.

Many of those who participated are immigrants, but others were drawn to the project because they are interested in art or writing.

The books, published in the spring, were recently delivered to schools in El Salvador and also are in Loudoun Countys libraries.

Eneida Headley teaches Spanish at Park View High, where about 35 percent of students are English-language learners  the highest percentage among high schools in Loudoun County. She said many of her students have endured difficult journeys to the United States, and were able to tell their stories, in a way, through the narratives they created for the books.

My goal was to give them a voice, Headley said.

The tales include the story of a boy in El Salvador whose family was too poor to buy him a teddy bear. But then he works hard and earns good grades, and his teacher sends a wizard who gives him one. In another, a puppy, Pablito, and his mother, Linda, lament their lives as street dogs and venture out to find a better life. In another story, Rosalinda, a young girl, struggles to adjust during her visit to Guatemala to see her grandmother.

The project was cast in the mold of One to the World, a school district initiative that urges educators to convey lessons through authentic, problem-solving projects that address real-world problems. It is intended to get students more engaged than they would be if they were just chasing a good grade or a high test score and to teach students to think creatively and work in groups.

Students across the county have tackled a wide range of issues, including pollution and hunger. In one middle school, students aimed to raise funds for local food banks.

[These kid entrepreneurs want to save food banks]

School librarian Kathleen Britto, who helped coordinate the project, said she believes students are more enthusiastic about the books project because they know other children will read their work and because it is extracurricular, with the students volunteering after school and during lunch, instead of it being a classroom assignment.

Its hard to get that kind of engagement on a day-to-day basis unless theres a real audience, Britto said. It made a lot of students think more about themselves and their abilities.

Sofia Alli, a 16-year-old sophomore who loves to write short stories, said she has long dreamed of becoming a published author. Now, The Adventures of Rosa/Las Aventuras de Rosa, a book about a cat exploring a street festival in Mexico, bears her name.

Writing has always been a passion of mine, Alli said. To be given an opportunity like this is amazing.

Keivan Malhani, a 16-year-old sophomore, said the project taught lessons that are difficult to get in a traditional classroom. He said he improved his ability to work in teams and got an inside look into the publishing process.

We didnt just learn how to just write a book. We learned the whole experience of publishing a book, cooperating with a team, he said. All these skills you cant really teach unless youre in that situation.

Headley said some students, who spoke English only tenuously at the start, were confident enough to read their books aloud in English by the end of the project.

They are proud of their journey and they are viewing the academic journey ahead with a new sense of hope and ownership and pride in a very humble manner, she said.


Yale University, in New Haven, Conn., is building two new residential colleges as it prepares to increase the size of its freshman classes, in part to accommodate growing international demand. The number of incoming foreign students at the elite school rose 46 percent from 2004 to 2014. (Stan Godlewski/For The Washington Post)

 A major increase in international enrollment in recent years has intensified the competition for entry to Americas top private colleges and universities, as ever-growing numbers of applicants angle for the limited supply of seats.

That tension is particularly evident in the eight prestigious Ivy League schools: Federal data shows that their freshman classes grew slightly from 2004 to 2014  5 percent  while the number of incoming foreign students rose 46 percent. At the same time, applications to the schools shot up 88 percent.

At Yale University, where just 6 percent of 30,000 applicants are accepted, the foreign share of the freshman class has grown from single digits to 11 percent. As Yales undergraduate enrollment has edged upward since 2004, foreigners have accounted for almost all of the growth, reflecting a deliberate strategy to deepen Yales engagement with the world.

We want to bring together an incredibly diverse student body  diverse in every way, said Jonathan Holloway, dean of Yale College. If we want to train the next generation of global leaders, we better have the globe here.

Foreign and domestic demand grew so high that Yale has embarked on its biggest expansion since its undergraduate college opened to women in 1969. Next fall Yale will open two new residential complexes, a $500 million project to lift enrollment capacity 15 percent.

[Yale to expand for first time in 40 years]

International growth has fostered an increasingly cosmopolitan culture on campuses across the country, with academic benefits for domestic and foreign students alike. It gives colleges an additional path toward ethnic and racial diversity, opening doors to students from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. But it also injects pressure into the admissions scramble that U.S. high school seniors are starting to experience this month as schools release early-admission decisions.

Harkness Tower at Yale. (Stan Godlewski/For The Washington Post)

Charles Deacon, dean of admissions at Georgetown University, said he is concerned that international enrollment could be nearing an unacceptable level at some schools by potentially crowding out qualified U.S. students.

Were in a global world, Deacon said. There certainly is an argument for the presence of foreign nationals at U.S. universities. But is there a tipping point where this is too many? That is an issue we have to reckon with.

The international share of freshmen at Georgetown rose from 3 percent in 2004 to 11 percent in 2014, on par with Yale. During that time, Georgetowns admission rate fell 5 points, to 17 percent. Deacon said those numbers are reasonable for a university in the nations capital with a school of foreign service and a global profile.

We think it works well for us, he said.

U.S. applicants to elite schools are largely unaware of the growth of international enrollment and what it could mean for their chances, said Bruce Vinik, an admission consultant in Montgomery County, Md. He said the subject could draw pretty strong reactions from students anxious about whether their top-choice schools will accept or reject them.

Some kids would probably be upset it has increased competition and made it tougher to get into these colleges, Vinik said. Others  quite a few, actually  would see the benefits of diversity.

Except for a brief period after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, international enrollment at U.S. colleges has grown for generations.

Based on history, we think the United States will continue to be a destination of choice and foreign students will continue to want to come here, for all the reasons they come here today, said Allan Goodman, chief executive and president of the Institute of International Education.

There were about 427,000 international undergraduates at U.S. colleges and universities in the 2015-2016 school year, according to the IIE. That was up 79 percent over a decade ago. The top supplier was China, followed by Saudi Arabia, South Korea, India and Vietnam.

Among these students is Yifu Dong, 21, a Yale senior from Beijing majoring in history. His father writes columns for a Chinese newspaper, and his mother is a civil engineer. They are a middle-class family, Dong said, and he receives financial aid.

Its eye-opening for me, he said. Your ideas are constantly being challenged. I really like this kind of education, the liberal arts.



Yifu Dong, 21, of Beijing, attends Yale University. (Stan Godlewski/For The Washington Post)

The foreign influx has helped offset stagnation in the annual supply of graduates from U.S. high schools. Public universities often use international recruiting to help balance budgets when states cut funding for higher education. At the University of California at Berkeley, federal data shows the foreign share of freshmen in 2014  13 percent  was four times higher than in 2004.

Many tuition-dependent private colleges have similar motives, seeking to fill seats with students who can pay full or nearly full price.

[Grinnell College weighs revenue needs and global learning in heartland]

But the calculus is different for top-ranked private schools with an abundance of qualified applicants. For these schools, going global often appears to be more of a strategic choice than a financial necessity. Some give international students significant financial aid.

Federal data on nonresident aliens shows the international share of freshmen doubled at Duke University, from 5 percent in 2004 to 10 percent in 2014. The share also doubled at Brown University, to 12 percent, and Columbia University, to 15 percent. It quadrupled at Claremont McKenna College, to 20 percent.

The only Ivy League schools with single-digit international shares in 2014 were Dartmouth College (8 percent) and Cornell University (9 percent). The share at highly ranked Stanford University was 8 percent.

At the 50 schools that U.S. News and World Report ranks as top-25 national universities or liberal arts colleges, the number of freshman seats in those schools grew 14 percent from 2004 to 2014, to about 65,000. The number of freshmen who were foreigners more than doubled, to about 6,900.

[See the sortable chart below on a separate page]

Admission rates, meanwhile, plummeted, meaning that it is far more difficult for applicants to gain acceptance. About a dozen schools routinely reject at least 90 percent of applicants, a threshold rarely reached a decade ago. Stanford, the most selective, now turns down 19 of every 20 students seeking admission.

For U.S. applicants, the increase in foreign competition adds another layer of difficulty. Theyre now up against a growing pool of the worlds best students.

The University of Chicago recently set a goal for international enrollment of 15 percent. The foreign share of its freshmen in 2014 was 11 percent, up from 9 percent in 2004. The universitys admission rate plunged in that time, federal data shows, from 40 percent to 9 percent.

The entrance to the University of Chicago quadrangle, in a file photo from 2007.

To me it would be peculiar  given the evolution of problems in the world, the challenges the world faces, and the flow of ideas and capital and everything else  if we didnt have a much more global perspective embedded within the university, said University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer.

[U-Chicago leader: Beware the speech police committee]

International students are often stereotyped as rich kids from abroad who can pay full freight. Many are wealthy. But enrollment officers at prominent schools deny that foreign recruiting is all about money.

For us, it was really philosophical, said Katharine Harrington, vice president of admissions and planning for the University of Southern California, where 18 percent of freshmen in 2014 were international, up from 7 percent in 2004. If this is truly a national and global university, we really do believe the undergraduate population ought to better mirror the world in which our students are going to live and work and make their way.

USCs admission rate fell in that decade from 27 percent to 18 percent.

At Emory University, the international share of freshmen tripled over a decade, to 17 percent in 2014. John Latting, Emorys dean of admission, said the growth reflected a spike in international applications. Fifteen years ago, he said, South Korea was big. Then China emerged.

Now we see India, big time, he said, with that country supplying 44 freshmen this year in a class of about 1,360. Thats equal to the number from Maryland.

Emory also has become more selective, this year admitting 25 percent of applicants. In 2004, it admitted 42 percent. Sure, its tougher, Latting said. Its tougher for everybody  international and domestic  to get in. The admission rate for international students, he said, is about half the rate for domestic students.

At Claremont McKenna, where international enrollment has soared, the school lets in about 1 in 10 applicants. In 2004, more than 1 in 5 were accepted. But Jefferson Huang, vice president for admission and financial aid, said foreign and domestic applicants are accepted in almost equal proportion.

If we wiped out the international student population  which would be a horrible, horrible thing to do  our domestic student population would still have a frighteningly low admit rate, Huang said.

Huang said the college draws huge interest from Pacific Rim countries because of its location in Southern California, home to vibrant Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese immigrant communities. Globalization is central to the colleges appeal, he said.: Part of the reason domestic students want to come is because of what weve done here.

At Yale, U.S. students say contact with international peers is invaluable. Zunaira Arshad, 21, a senior from Illinois, said conversations with classmates from Syria and Turkey enriched her perspective on the Syrian crisis.

Ive learned to empathize and care about people and think about other people besides myself, she said. There needs to be more of that. Please, dont let it be less.



Zunaira Arshad, a senior from Hawthorne Woods, Ill., is pursuing a double major in global affairs and molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale University. She says contact with international peers is invaluable. (Stan Godlewski/For The Washington Post)

Yales push to globalize accelerated after the school celebrated its tricentennial in 2001. The university is one of a few to say that it considers all applications, domestic and foreign, without regard to financial need and meets full need for all who enroll.

A big advantage for us from a marketing perspective, said Dean of Admissions Jeremiah Quinlan.

Several international students said they applied to Yale because of that policy. The full price of tuition, fees, room and board exceeds $65,000 a year. That doesnt include plane tickets and other expenses.

Their financial aid package was the best, said Camila Franco, 21, a junior from Buenos Aires majoring in biomedical engineering. I feel incredibly lucky to be here.

She said she chose Yale after applying to 11 U.S. schools, drawn to the universitys global atmosphere.

My roommate is from Burma, she said. It has definitely opened up my mind.

The university receives about 5,000 international and 26,000 domestic applications a year. Foreigners are admitted at a lower rate, Quinlan said.

Quinlan said he is elated to be able to offer admission to between 300 and 400 more students next year as the university prepares to open the new residential colleges.

I might be the happiest man on campus, he said. Now we will be able to open up increased spots for students from all over the world.
Amy Sherald sits in her studio at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore. Sherald, a painter whose full-size portraits of African American subjects have drawn national acclaim, won the 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

At one time, the Baltimore artist Amy Sherald intended to paint a portrait of herself as the Tin Man from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

At age 39, Sherald, a person who stops to talk  really talk  to panhandlers and who recently raised $1,600 for a friends rent, found herself desperately in need of a heart.

I blacked out in a Rite Aid, she said. The doctor told me my heart function was at 5 percent. I spent two months in the hospital waiting to have a transplant. For me, that was the end of the world.

It was also a beginning of, if not a new world, at least a new way of living in the old one.

On Sheralds coffee table now stands a photograph of the young heart donor who made the artists current success possible.

Amy Sheralds portraits are featured in the Creative Alliance show About Face in Baltimore. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

After years in which Sheralds career was derailed  first when she cared for gravely ill family members and later by her own medical emergency  her supporters say she could become one of the leading American painters of her generation.

Her work is on view at three Washington museums, and at Baltimores Creative Alliance through January.

Three Sherald paintings are included in a group show called About Face featuring portraiture that challenges racial stereotypes. (The show also includes artwork by Tim Okamura, Ebony Patterson and Iona Rozeal Brown.)

Amy is definitely an artist to watch, said Dorothy Moss, associate curator of painting and sculpture at the National Portrait Gallery.

This year, Sherald beat 2,500 other entries to win the 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, which includes a $25,000 award and a commission from the National Portrait Gallery.

Museums are calling, Moss said. Art critics are writing about Amy. Shes starting to get the recognition she deserves.

Sheralds life-size portraits pull viewers in from across the room. Her subjects are African American, but Sherald paints their skin in shades of gray. The charcoal flesh makes more vibrant objects  a two-piece yellow bathing suit, red yarn  pop like firecrackers.

We were all stunned by the fresh approach that Amy was taking to portraiture, Moss said.

Her use of gray skin tone was something wed never seen before. The paintings surfaces look flat, but the closer you get, the more dynamic they become.

Sheralds work also contains otherworldly details that wouldnt be out of place in a dream landscape, or in Oz.

In her 2011 work, High Yella Masterpiece: We Aint No Cotton Pickin Negroes, two men in white three-piece suits stare deadpan at viewers while holding enormous cones of spun pink sugar.

We loved the strength and confidence of her subjects, Moss said. They look directly at the viewer with this intense engagement. They are very self-possessed and self-assured.

The daughter of a dentist and a homemaker who grew up in Georgia, Sherald is one of those intriguing artists who more or less created themselves.

When I started school, she said, I would draw pictures at the end of my sentences: a house, a flower, a tree, a bird. Whatever was in the sentence, Id draw it.

Sheralds parents hoped she would become a doctor, and she recalls visiting a museum just once as a child.

On that sixth-grade field trip, she encountered Bo Bartletts Object Permanence, a family portrait in which the artist, who is white, painted himself as a black man.

That painting did something to me, Sherald says.

Ive forgotten a lot of things. Ive forgotten how to play the piano and how to speak Arabic, though I studied it for two years. But Ill never forget how much it meant to me to see myself in that museum.

Sherald chooses subjects who have a strong inner sense of themselves  perhaps because thats a quality she herself possesses. Shes taken charge of her career from practically the moment she picked up a brush.

I dont say this about a lot of people, but Amy was born to be a painter, said Arturo Lindsay, Sheralds mentor. From the day I met her, Amy just had this thirst to paint very, very well.

Sherald wanted to be a painter so badly that she worked free for Lindsay, her former painting teacher, for five years.

She wanted to be a painter so badly that she supported herself by waiting tables until age 38, when she could finally afford to paint full time.

And Sherald wanted to be a painter so badly that she talked the renowned figurative painter Odd Nerdrum into accepting her as a student in Norway.

So it was all the more disturbing that, shortly after returning to America, Sherald found herself, like the Tin Man, severed from her truest self.

Sheralds family had been hit by a tsunami of loss. Her father had died in 2000 of Parkinsons disease. An aunt developed a brain infection. Her great-aunt was in her 90s and fading.

Her exhausted mother asked Sherald to come home and help out.

At the age of 30, she had decided to train for a triathlon but went for a checkup first. She was stunned when the doctor diagnosed her with congestive heart failure and told her the organ was functioning at 18 percent efficiency.

I had no symptoms at all, Sherald said. The day before, I had run an eight-minute mile.

Nonetheless, she clearly was the best person to help her family. So the artist stepped away from her easel and moved back to Georgia.

For the next three years, Sherald stopped painting entirely. She wondered if she really wanted to be an artist. She told herself, Youre just another person with a masters degree in fine arts.

But her long hiatus had important payoffs.

I got to know my brother as a person, she said. We had great conversations about life and religion and philosophy.

Four years later, Sheralds brother, Michael, succumbed to lung cancer.

I made his eyes sparkle, she said. Thats what gives me solace now.

After returning to Baltimore, she slowly resumed her art. In 2010, she was featured in the publication New American Paintings. The National Museum of Women in the Arts bought a portrait.

But Sheralds disease was advancing. She lost 25 pounds. Breathing became difficult. It became increasingly obvious that medicine couldnt control her condition. Nonetheless, she wasnt considered sick enough to qualify for a transplant until the day in 2012 that she collapsed on the pharmacy floor.

Even after the transplant, it took a year for Sherald to build up enough energy to resume painting.

The experience changed her. Sherald taught art to prison inmates and began working on art projects with teens.

In 2013, she created a painting of a poker-faced luncheon guest wearing a proper navy shift and red fascinator  and hefting a white china teacup nearly as large as her head.

The result won the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.

Some works of art have a life force, Lindsay said.

Thats why people destroy them, why they go into churches and slash paintings. When the life force is there, its undeniable. You feel the presence of something great and strong. Amys work has that quality.

The Tin Woman has a new heart, and now theres no holding her back.
THE DISTRICT

Police: Ornaments

stolen by burglar

The items  some festive  seem an odd assortment for a burglary: a decorative reindeer, a wreath and a table lamp.

But those are the things D.C. police said were taken on Dec. 11 from the One Lafayette Center office building in downtown Washington, a few blocks south of Dupont Circle.

Police said they have surveillance video of the burglary, and a security guard recognized the suspect when he apparently returned to the building six days later and was arrested.

This time, police said, they got their man before any more Christmas ornaments were taken from the office building in the 1100 block of 20th Street NW.

Floyd Sellers, 54, of Southeast was charged with burglary and on Monday was ordered to be detained pending a preliminary hearing Thursday.

 Peter Hermann

D.C. keeps growing

 10,000 in a year

Census estimates released Tuesday show that the Districts population is 681,170  the highest in about four decades.

The figures, released by the U.S. Census Bureau, showed the city gained more than 10,000 residents since last year  an average of around 900 new residents per month  and around 79,000 residents since 2010, or an increase of more than 13 percent.

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) praised the news.

Our growth in population shows that Washington, D.C. continues to be an attractive place to live, work and start a family, Bowser said in a statement. Our neighborhoods continue to grow safer and stronger, and our schools continue to enroll more students and improve outcomes.

The Census Bureau said the largest factor in the Districts population growth was migration  people moving to the city from elsewhere. Almost 6,400 new residents moved to the District between July 2015 and July 2016, including more than 4,100 from abroad.

The District is in the middle of a bit of a baby boom, meanwhile, with almost 9,800 births in 2016  122 more than last year.

 Justin Wm. Moyer

MARYLAND

Suitland man charged in child-porn case

A 25-year-old Suitland, Md., man was arrested and charged Tuesday with child pornography crimes, authorities said.

Aaron C. Davis is charged with several counts of possession and distribution of child pornography, according to Maryland State Police. A state task force unit began to look into Davis after a tip from an investigator with the Worcester County Sheriffs Office.

After getting a warrant, Daviss home was searched and investigators found computer equipment with more than 100 video files of child pornography, police said. He was arrested without incident..

 Dana Hedgpeth

VIRGINIA

Woman, two children

are struck by vehicle

A woman was being treated for life-threatening injuries Tuesday after she and two children were struck by a vehicle while walking in Fairfax County, police said.

Officers went to Centreville Road and McNair Farms Drive in the Herndon area at about 3:30 p.m. and found the injured woman and children, the latter suffering from injuries that werent life-threatening, a county police spokesman said.

The accident was under investigation.

 Justin Wm. Moyer
Carly Harvey will sing at the D.C. Blues Societys New Years Eve party. (Rebecca Carroll)

D.C. Blues Society Dinner and Dance The Sol Roots Band performs with special guest Carly Harvey, a recent D.C. Blues Society competition winner who will represent the D.C. area in the 2017 International Blues Competition. The evening includes a traditional Southern-style dinner, a midnight champagne toast, a cash bar and DJ Dr. Nick. 7 p.m.-12:30 a.m. American Legion Post 41, 905 Sligo Ave., Silver Spring. 202-413-3609. www.dcblues.org. $45 in advance, $60 at the door.

Doc Scantlin and his Imperial Palms Orchestra The 18-piece swing orchestra plays American songbook tunes from the 1920s-40s at a party with hats, noisemakers, horns, pop-out streamers, a champagne toast and an optional four-course dinner. 9 p.m. Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club, 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. 240-330-4500. www.bethesdabluesjazz.com. $75-$150.

New Years Eve Masquerade Ball This party offers a four-course dinner, live music by Exit O, an open bar and door prizes. 9 p.m.-1 a.m. Olney Winery, 18127 Town Center Dr., Olney. 301-570-1907. www.olneywinery.com. $200.

Owens Ordinary New Years Eve Steampunk Masquerade Ball This costume-optional steampunk-themed party includes a photo booth, open bar, midnight toast, heavy hors doeuvres and dancing. 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Owens Ordinary, 11820 Trade St., North Bethesda. 301-245-1226. www.owensordinarymd.com. $79.
Praepitcha Smatsorabudhs business was illegal but brilliant. She would buy designer handbags from department stores, then return fake versions she had specially made in China and Hong Kong. Most of the real bags she would sell on Instagram and eBay.

Prosecutors say she also kept dozens or perhaps hundreds of high-end bags for herself. She did it all, according to court documents, because of her compulsion to have expensive handbags.

Smatsorabudh, of Arlington County, was arrested in June and sentenced Wednesday to 33 months in prison by a federal judge in Alexandria.

[Va. woman accused of buying high-end handbags, then returning fakes]

I think what you did was ingenious, Judge Bruce Lee told her. Its just stealing, but the Internet has given us so many more ways to steal. . . . I thought Id seen everything.

To avoid detection, Smatsorabudh went to more than 60 T.J. Maxx stores in 12 states, using 16 different credit cards. At one point, she was the companys biggest online customer in the world. T.J. Maxx was able to identify at least 226 fake handbags Smatsorabudh returned. Neiman Marcus found 10 more.

The scheme cost the two department stores over $400,000 in fraudulent returns. Moreover, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kellen S. Dwyer argued, some of the knockoff bags she returned were probably resold to customers who paid top dollar.

That is a very big concern, he said in court, bigger than $400,000.

Some buyers have also claimed that Smatsorabudh, 41, sold them bags online that designer stores confirmed were well-made fakes.

It all made Smatsorabudh, a preschool teacher, rich enough to drive a Lexus, fly first class and stay in luxury Miami and Las Vegas hotels, according to prosecutors.

But defense attorney Nina Ginsberg said her clients behavior was fueled by trauma, not greed.

This whole collecting of these handbags, returning of these handbags  it became a substitute for human connection, which I think is profoundly sad, Ginsberg said in court. Smatsorabudh, who grew up in Thailand, Ginsberg said, was physically and emotionally abused by her parents, who also fought regularly and openly cheated on each other. I think it was brought on by . . . extreme bouts of loneliness and isolation.

Smatsorabudh, her thin arms trembling and with tears running down her face, apologized profusely Wednesday for her crime. She was convicted of wire fraud.

What I did was so wrong, she said. I deserve to be in jail.

Along with her sentences, she agreed to pay $403,250 in restitution. Dwyer said he would recommend that the federal government first draw on any funds garnered by the sale of her car, handbags and other forfeited possessions.

When she is released, Smatsorabudh will almost certainly be deported to Thailand, both parties agreed. She was in the United States legally but is not a citizen.

Her Instagram account, called richgirlscollection, remains active. After hundreds of shots of handbags, sushi and French pastries, the last picture is a quote. It was posted around the time when her home was searched by federal agents.

What comes easy, wont last, it reads. What lasts wont come easy.
D.C. police have arrested a suspect in the Dec. 6 shooting of a man who was found dead inside an apartment in Deanwood that authorities described as a place addicts gathered to use drugs.

Witnesses told police that nine people, including the man who was killed, were inside the second-floor apartment in the 500 block of Olive Street NE, near the Deanwood Metro station, when a gunman entered to rob people of synthetic marijuana, according to an arrest affidavit filed in court on Wednesday.

Several people jumped out of a window to escape, police said. The victim, Terry Crutchfield, 45, of Southeast, was shot in the back and the abdomen and died at the scene.

Witnesses told police that they heard the gunman yell, Where the skrill at? The term is street slang for money.

[Man fatally shot inside residence in Deanwood]

Police have charged Clinton Wolmack, also known as Clinton Womack, of Northeast, with first-degree murder while armed.

Police said the 27-year-old suspect was arrested Tuesday on a warrant by a fugitive task force. Authorities and court documents state that he was released from prison in May last year after serving a seven-year sentence for assault with a dangerous weapon and using a firearm in a crime of violence.

Police said it appears that no one lived in the residence, which had no electricity. The affidavit described the apartment as nearly barren except for a mattress with no bedsheet, clothing scattered about, five-gallon buckets used for seating and car batteries powering the lights.

The apartment, police wrote in the affidavit, appeared to be a place where individuals come and go to hang out and participate in drug usage.
The Districts interim police chief has taken direct oversight of an office that helps some minority and underserved residents, saying he wants to assure them of unbiased treatment even under a new president whose divisive rhetoric has frightened some groups.

Just because things have changed at a federal level, nothing has changed for our city, the chief, Peter Newsham, said at a news conference Wednesday. Were still going to be an inclusive city. We are committed to fair, unbiased policing.

The remarks were made during what otherwise was a routine announcement about reshuffling responsibilities in the police command staff. Newsham said that he has long wanted to take more control of what is called the Special Liaison Division but that he sped the move up ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

[Democratic-leaning cities brace for fight with Trump over sanctuary policies]

We as police officers are required to be apolitical, Newsham said. We do not show favor to one particular party in an election. But we do have eyes, and we do have ears, and we have seen and heard the folks, in this region in particular, express some concern about the results of the past election.

The Special Liaison Division will now consolidate to an office in Dupont Circle. Its staff provides assistance to the citys lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations, as well as to Asians, Latinos and the deaf and hard-of-hearing. The unit assists in investigating hate crimes and helps when members of those communities are victimized or have problems with law enforcement.

Newsham said that by having the unit report to his office, instead of to the patrol chief, he can more quickly respond and reassign department resources.

Aside from rhetoric from Trump that many have deemed racist and exclusionary, the president-elect has threatened to deny federal money to what are called sanctuary cities, of which the District is one. These are jurisdictions that refuse to allow its officials, including police, to enforce federal deportation policy. It can also apply to jurisdictions that prohibit agencies from denying services or benefits to those in the country illegally.
A man injured in October at a dice game in Prince Georges County where two teenagers were fatally shot at the scene, died Monday night, police said.

[Man charged with killing 14-year-old in multiple shooting at dice game]

Police on Tuesday announced the death of Gleason Wood, 27, of Northeast Washington.

On Oct. 30 at around 2:45 a.m., officers responded to the 6800 block of Walker Mill Road in Capitol Heights for the report of a shooting, Prince Georges County police said in a statement. They found six shooting victims: 14-year-old Todd Webb of Capitol Heights and 18-year-old Brian Davis of Northwest Washington were dead at the scene and four others injured, the statement said.

The dice game began in an apartment building, police said, but moved outdoors, and involved up to two dozen people playing or watching. Davis was killed in an initial round of shooting that began for reasons still under investigation.

Webb was then allegedly killed by 22-year-old Bravon Freeman of Southeast Washington, who was charged with murder after he went inside an apartment, got a gun and shot Webb, according to charging documents.

Wood was one of four people transported to the hospital after the shooting, including two 15-year-olds and a 17-year-old.

Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to call 1-866-411-TIPS.
Thursday, Dec. 22

Veterans Home celebration Celebrate at the Charlotte Hall Veterans Home, with singing and delivering cards. Hosted by the Charlotte Hall Library. 2-3 p.m., 29449 Charlotte Hall Rd., Charlotte Hall. 301-884-8171.

Gingerbread house workshop Ages 6-11. Bring a bag of candy to share. Icing and graham crackers provided. 3-4:30 p.m. Waldorf West Library, 10405 O'Donnell Pl. , Waldorf. 301-645-1395. Free; registration required.

Ornament workshop Make festive holiday ornaments with colorful salt dough. 3-4 p.m. Charles County Public Library, P.D. Brown Branch, 50 Village St., Waldorf. 301-645-2864. Free.

Resolution Race registration open Welcome the new year with the annual 5K run to benefit mental health programs. Race begins 9 am. Jan. 1. Registration is also available the day of the race. Southern Maryland Community Network, 305 Prince Frederick Blvd., Prince Frederick. 410-535-4787, Ext. 309. or active.com. $30, age 9 and younger free.

Tuesday, Dec. 27

Lego program For all ages. Build something from the thousands of pieces provided by the library. 2-4 p.m. Charlotte Hall Library, 37600 New Market Rd., Charlotte Hall. 301-884-2211; Lexington Park Library, 21677 FDR Blvd., Lexington Park. 301-863-8188. Free.

Teen tech space program Ages 11-17. Games, computers and crafts. 4-6 p.m. Lexington Park Library, 21677 FDR Blvd., Lexington Park. 301-863-8188. Free.

Wednesday, Dec. 28

Indian Head Senior Center book club Age 55 and older. Still Life With Bread Crumbs, by Anna Quindlen. 11 a.m.-noon, 100 Cornwallis Sq., Indian Head. 301-375-7375. Free.

Noon Years Eve Party Count down to the new year with stories, songs and activities. 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Leonardtown Library, 23250 Hollywood Rd., Leonardtown. 301-475-2846. Free.

Dont Pop the Present Ages 6-11. Wrap a balloon without popping it. 2-3 p.m. Charles County Public Library, Potomac Branch, 3225 Ruth B. Swann Dr., Indian Head. 301-375-7375. Free.

 Compiled by Bonnie Smith

To submit an event

Email: smliving@washpost.com

Details: Announcements are accepted from public and nonprofit organizations only and must be received at least 14 days before the Thursday publication date. Include dates, times, address, prices and a publishable contact phone number.
The Bartlett apartment building in Arlington's Pentagon City will rent 50 of its 699 units for one or more nights. (Patricia Sullivan/The Washington Post)

Finding a place to stay in the Washington area during the presidential inauguration  or any other time  usually means crashing at a friends or relatives place, finding a seemingly trustworthy homeowner willing to rent online or shelling out for a traditional hotel room.

A major developer wants to pioneer another way, which it is describing as a luxury pop-up hotel: Visitors can rent a furnished apartment for one night or several, combining the amenities of home and the benefits of a hotel staff.

The Bartlett, a 22-story apartment tower in Arlingtons Pentagon City, will start daily rentals for 50 units Jan. 13, just in time for the inauguration.

It looks and feels like a home-share, but its run by professionals in a sizable new apartment block, said Jason Fudin, director of strategic projects for Vornado Realty Trust, the developer that owns the building, as well as much of nearby Crystal City.

The idea of WhyHotel is to find a new way to generate money from existing spaces. Fudin described the effort as a pilot project for Vornado, to experiment with how we can most efficiently use our capital investment as the apartment building fills with traditional renters.





Others call it a paradigm shift, on par with the emergence of communal-living-focused buildings such as the Vornado-owned WeLive apartments in Crystal City, the micro-units at the old Patterson Mansion in the Districts Dupont Circle (and elsewhere) and the e-lofts in Alexandria, which offer flexible units that can be used for work, a residence or both.

The push for creativity comes from changes in real estate-focused industries. Home-sharing companies such as Airbnb have taken a big bite out of the hotel market, co-working spaces are causing many companies to reduce their office footprints, and people are beginning to talk about whether it is possible to repurpose vacant office buildings for public school classrooms.

[Developer bets youll want to live and work in empty office buildings]

Greg Leisch, senior managing director of market research for the real estate advisory firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank in Washington, said that the apartment industry has been very slow, way behind the hotel and office industry in participating in the sharing economy.

Its a very ripe field, he said, pointing to the more than 100,000 temporary workers  government, military and federal contractors  who come to the area for short stays and need more than a hotel but less than a years lease. The Vornado experiment includes a concierge and other amenities that typically are not available in corporate rentals.

There have been 39,000 new apartments placed on the market in the Washington region since 2014, and an additional 25,000 are being built, said Max Peker, a market analyst with CoStar, which studies the commercial real estate market. Apartment demand has been resilient because of strong job and population growth, but the rise in competing properties means landlords have limited opportunities to raise rents.

That is one reason that using apartments for short-term rentals could be seen as a welcome and lucrative option.

The Bartlett, Arlington Countys largest apartment building, is part of a bigger development called Metropolitan Park, which will add another residential building next year. It is adjacent to the Pentagon City shopping mall and another megaproject called PenPlace.

More than 500 of the Bartletts 699 apartments are already rented, Fudin said, with most of the WhyHotel spaces grouped together on two floors.

The rentals, which during the high-demand inauguration week range from $264 to $530 per night, will have the same full kitchen and laundry as other units in the building and access to the rooftop deck, outdoor swimming pool, gym and yoga studio.

The spaces will be advertised on Vornados online site and on others, such as VRBO, HomeAway and Airbnb, Fudin said.

Unlike private home-sharing units, recently approved by the Arlington County Board, the Bartlett is constructed to higher building code standards, which require sprinklers and wider hallways, for example. Vornados customers will also pay the countys transient occupancy tax, as hotel users do.

Arlingtons planning commission and county board have agreed to allow the repurposing for two years, although Fudin said Vornado might not continue the experiment that long if demand for traditional rentals in the building continues.

Either way, he said, if the model proves successful, the company may try it elsewhere.

Erik Gutshall, the planning commissions vice chair, said the hotel-style usage will benefit the county by generating tax revenue and enlivening the streetscape in Pentagon City.

We need to keep innovating, he said. And we cant get hung up on zoning laws built for the 1950s.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the number of new apartments placed on the market in the Washington region since 2014. It is 39,000. The story has been updated.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) wrote a letter to retired teachers asking them to consider taking jobs in the school system in the city of Petersburg, wich is struggling to fill vacancies. (Steve Helber/AP)

The city of Petersburg has had a rough year. From government officials being ousted under a cloud to creditors repossessing fire department equipment during a budget crisis, its been one discouraging blow after another.

Now the Virginia school system is struggling to find 22 teachers to fill vacancies. With a cloud hanging over even basic services such as trash pickup, and with a school system beset by challenges and low graduation rates, its hard to keep teachers in Petersburg.

So Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) has stepped in with an extraordinary plea for help.

In letters that went out last week, McAuliffe asked 539 retired teachers from around the Petersburg area to consider going back to work in the citys schools. Under a little-known state law passed in 2001, retired teachers can return to service in areas of need and still draw their pensions while being paid.

That law was aimed at subject areas that can be hard to staff with qualified teachers, subjects such as math and science. This may be the first time it has been aimed at a particular locality, said Charles Pyle, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education.

The law incentivizes knowledgeable and experienced educators like you to return to the classroom and teach in schools that desperately require your expertise, insight, and talents, McAuliffe wrote. The students and schools of Petersburg need exactly the kind of experience and expertise you have to offer as a veteran teacher.

To the Virginia Education Association, though, the predicament is yet another example of how tough it is to recruit and retain high-quality teachers throughout the state.

Ultimately, this points to a much broader problem that Virginia has, said Jim Livingston, a middle school math teacher from Prince William County and president of the VEA. Were 36th in the nation in per-pupil funding and 30th in the nation in average teacher salary. Salaries in Virginia have not kept pace with the demand, with the increased workload, with the challenge  not just in Petersburg but across the commonwealth.

The average teacher in Virginia makes about $52,000, which is about $7,200 less than the national average, Livingston said. But that statewide number obscures the disparities among districts. In wealthy Fairfax, for instance, a teacher with a bachelors degree and 30 years of experience earns about $87,400. In Petersburg, that same teacher would make about $53,400, according to the VEA.

Quite honestly, people are looking for other jobs, Livingston said. He said a recent survey in Loudoun County found that even in that wealthy locality, more than half of the teachers held second jobs out of necessity.

Livingston said that the organization supports any effort to help Petersburg students get qualified teachers but that there must be a better long-term answer.

The VEA has called on the governor and the General Assembly to develop a long-range plan for addressing the salary issue for teachers and school employees to bring them up to at least the national average, he said.

The situation in Petersburg, though, is urgent. The city has so much trouble finding qualified teachers that last year 15 percent of its teachers had only provisional licenses. That is significantly above the rate in other districts; last year in Prince William County, for instance, only 5 percent of teachers had provisional licenses.

Next year the governor plans to issue a similar letter for another struggling school district: the city of Richmonds.
Imagine being trapped on a spaceship with only your lover and a robot bartender for nearly a century  there isnt a spaceship big enough or a bar that well-stocked to make that sound appealing. This is the issue at the center of the ostensibly romantic sci-fi drama Passengers, directed by Morten Tyldum from a script by Jon Spaihts.

While romance is the intended effect, the films real premise  concealed by the glossy trailers  is imbued with some seriously creepy undercurrents about bodily autonomy, consent and stalking. Instead of turning it into a horror movie, these issues are all breezily glossed over with the sex appeal of stars Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt.

The spaceship is the Avalon, 30 years into a 120-year autopilot journey to the planet colony Homestead II with 5,000 passengers on board, encased in pods that keep them in a state of suspended animation. The pod of Jim Preston (Pratt) malfunctions after a meteor hits, and he wakes up a full 90 years early. The ship remains frustratingly on autopilot, and no amount of helpful robots can put Jim back into suspended animation. The pods never fail, they claim.

Unable to engineer himself back into suspended animation, Jim partakes of the lavish accommodations the ship has to offer, which all grow tiresome after a year. He descends into a drunken, pants-less, suicidal depression, until he spots the lithe figure of Aurora Lane (Lawrence) in her pod, and develops a crush.

He checks out her profile, reads her writing (shes a journalist), eats cereal next to her. Though he wrestles with the decision, he ultimately decides to wake up his dream girl, effectively dooming her to a life and death aboard this spaceship. But before then, hes the only available guy around to date, and they fall in love. Until Aurora finds out about what Jim did, and is justifiably enraged.

The quandary of being stuck on a spaceship with only your ex and a robot bartender (Michael Sheen) is quickly tossed aside for the high stakes action as the ship starts to malfunction. As they try to troubleshoot the ship, the film takes on the tenor of a very high-stakes version of yelling at an iPad or trying to bypass an automated phone menu.

Ultimately, whats a rather intriguing premise, replete with meaty themes to chew on  time as a prison, class, colonialism, artificial intelligence  eschews all that to focus on sexy space fun times, turning Jims morally reprehensible choice into a meet cute, and a love story for the ages. The problem is that one cant help but think of better, more interesting movies based on this premise. Most glaringly, what if Aurora were the subject, not the object? This is Jims story, not hers; were to sympathize with nice guy Jim, who fell in love with her mind, he claims. But the film could have been more intriguing if it were from her perspective, or even if it were more balanced.

Tyldum and Spaihts could have steered into the inherently problematic issues at hand, creating something far darker and more complex. Instead, its all French robot waiters and champagne cocktails and sex in the cafeteria. Hell of a life, Aurora admits, conceding that the space pool is pretty awesome if she has to be trapped here.
MICHIGAN

Four charged with criminal conduct in Flint water crisis

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed more criminal charges Tuesday in the ongoing water crisis in Flint, the latest action in a nearly year-long investigation of a disaster that exposed thousands of children to dangerously high lead levels.

Schuette announced felony charges against four people, including Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, former state-appointed emergency managers who oversaw a disastrous switch of the citys drinking water source to the Flint River. Prosecutors allege that both conspired with Flint Public Works Superintendent Howard Croft and Utilities Administrator Daugherty Johnson to enter into a contract under false pretenses that bound the city to use the river, even though the local water plant was in no condition to properly deliver safe water to residents.

Even after the officials were told repeatedly that the Flint water department wasnt ready to make the switch in 2014 and that the city should keep getting its water from Detroit, investigators say Earley and Ambrose pushed the change forward in a bid to save money. The decision ultimately exposed children and other residents to lead-tainted water and resulted in the death of a dozen people from Legionnaires disease.

Its all about numbers over people, money over health, Schuette said Tuesday. Flint was a casualty of arrogance, disdain and a failure of management.

The four men charged Tuesday face felony charges of false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses. Earley and Ambrose also face charges of willful neglect of duty and misconduct in office.

 Brady Dennis

NEW JERSEY

Accused bomber pleads not guilty

The man accused of setting off bombs in New Jersey and New York, injuring more than 30 people, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to attempted murder charges in his first in-person court appearance.

Ahmad Khan Rahimi, who was injured in a shootout with authorities, shuffled slowly into court in a dark-green prison jumpsuit and wearing a white skull cap. He had to be helped into his chair in the jury box by court officers. He didnt speak during the brief proceeding.

Rahimi faces charges that he tried to kill police officers before they captured him Sept. 19 outside a bar in Linden, N.J. He also is accused of detonating a pipe bomb in New Jersey and a pressure-cooker bomb in New York City.

In October, an attorney entered not-guilty pleas when the Afghan-born U.S. citizen appeared via video link from his hospital bed in Newark, where he was hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

On Tuesday, prosecutors confirmed to the judge that no plea deal offers had been made to Rahimi. His next court date was scheduled for Feb. 28.

Rahimi faces five counts of attempted murder of a police officer as well as weapons offenses.

Authorities say Rahimi, who lived with his family in Elizabeth, about a dozen miles outside New York City, pulled a gun and fired on officers on the morning of Sept. 19 after a police officer in nearby Linden found him asleep in a bar doorway.

A running gunbattle ended with Rahimi shot and wounded. The officer who first came upon Rahimi was shot but saved by his bulletproof vest, authorities said. Another officer was grazed by a bullet.

 Associated Press

ARIZONA

State wont use midazolam in executions

Arizona has agreed to settle part of a lawsuit by promising it wont again use the sedative midazolam as part of a three-drug combination while carrying out the death penalty.

The state didnt acknowledge liability in settling the claim that the use of midazolam doesnt ensure that inmates wont feel the pain caused by another drug in the combination.

A remaining claim in the lawsuit alleges that the state has abused its discretion in the methods and amounts of drugs used in past executions.

Executions were put on hold in the state after the 2014 death of convicted killer Joseph Rudolph Wood, who was given 15 doses of midazolam and a painkiller and who took nearly two hours to die. His attorney said the execution was botched.

Executions in Arizona will remain on hold until the entire lawsuit is resolved.

 Associated Press
While scuba diving among the Pacifics deep-sea corals in June, marine biologist Richard Pyle spied a tiny fish the size of a toy race car. Googly-eyed and blush pink, the creature wore a prominent splotch of bluish red on the rear of its dorsal fin.

To Pyles expert eye, it was a peculiar marking, something the researcher at Hawaiis Bishop Museum had never seen. Intrigued, he collected the fish for careful examination at the waters surface, where he also consulted with colleagues aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel.

It was one of those eureka moments, he said this week. And he and everyone else was convinced: The creature just snatched from the far, rarely explored depths of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument was indeed a new species.

But what to call it? Pyle decided the distinguished red fleck that had initially attracted his attention looked like the logo of Barack Obamas 2008 presidential campaign  although, he acknowledged, it takes a lot of imagination to see that resemblance.

Obamas home state has not named anything in his honor during his presidency. That changes Wednesday when Pyle and two colleagues officially dub the newest member of the basslet family Tosanoides obama.

View Graphic How the Obamas changed the way we see American first families

Pyle, NOAA scientist Randall Kosaki and Association for Marine Exploration founding member Brian Greene found the species during a dive off Kure Atoll, the northernmost Hawaiian island, 1,200 miles northwest of Honolulu. Part of their motivation for its name was to persuade the president to expand the marine monument, which President George W. Bush created a decade ago.

In late August, Obama quadrupled Papahanaumokuakeas size to 582,578 square miles, making it the largest protected area on the planet. Commercial fishing and other extractive activities are banned throughout the monument.

The researchers did not seek the 44th presidents permission in advance of submitting the name to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature for approval, and four other species already have been named after him. Those include a trapdoor spider, a speckled freshwater darter, a parasitic worm and an extinct lizard.

[Hawaii cant seem to name anything after native son Obama]

Obamas immediate predecessor has also been recognized by the scientific community. In 2005, two former Cornell University entomologists named a newly discovered slime-mold beetle Agathidium bushi, after Bush, and two other insects for Vice President Richard B. Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The entomologists emphasized that they meant it as a sign of respect for the GOP leaders, and Pyle said the same sentiment applied to Obamas fish. He and his colleagues timed the announcement to coincide with Obamas last vacation on Oahu as president.

Its definitely an honor, not an insult, on our side, Pyle said.

Tosanoides obama (upper left) appears alongside presumed female (lower right, not collected) immediately prior to collection of the holotype off Kure Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. (Richard L. Pyle/Bishop Museum)

Tosanoides obamas connection to Obamas legacy is quite solid: It is the only fish known to live exclusively within the Papahanaumokuakeas confines.

Since June, scientists have located just five of them living along the limestone ledges of ancient shorelines. Scientists say there is reason to believe that the fishs primary population exists below the 300-foot depths safely explorable by divers, which could be part of the reason researchers are only now beginning to encounter them.

Though their petite size makes them a perfect snack for larger fish that roam Papahanaumokuakeas depths, these plankton-eaters swim in silence, which helps protect them from predators.

Its a tough place to be a small fish, Pyle said. Big fish will eat these guys like popcorn.

Many scientists had pushed for the monuments expansion because it would offer additional protection for species there that are at risk from climate change, fishing and other threats. Without additional restrictions, they warned, seabed mining could take place and damage the regions vibrant coral reefs.

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands  which have received federal safeguards from seven presidents since 1909  are the planets largest seabird gathering site, with more than 14 million birds from 22 species. They also are home to nearly all Laysan albatrosses and endangered Hawaiian monk seals, along with a wide array of shark species and the worlds oldest known living animal, a black coral estimated to be 4,500 years old.

[At Midway Atoll, Obama leaves his mark on the ocean]

Kosaki noted that because the newly discovered fish inhabits the outer edge of an extensive string of atolls and islands, a severe coral-bleaching event would mean theres no next place or next plan for repopulating the species.

Hawaiis aquatic diversity has been meticulously studied for well over a century, which makes the discovery of any new species in its waters highly unusual. But that is changing as researchers use advanced scuba gear to dive far deeper.

NOAA has conducted six research expeditions to Papahanaumokuakea. Kosaki said the teams brought back 75 species of algae that are probably new to science. They are just beginning to catalogue them.

Its kind of like the new frontier, he said. Youre diving on reefs that no human has ever laid eyes on.

Eilperin reported from Washington
SWITZERLAND

No terror, far-right ties seen in mosque attack

A gunman who killed himself after carrying out a shooting at a Zurich mosque that wounded three worshipers was not driven by radical Islamist or far-right motives, a top Swiss police official said Tuesday.

Authorities are still investigating the possible motive of the 24-year-old Swiss citizen of Ghanaian origin who apparently had a penchant for the occult.

The Monday incident had stirred concerns about possible extremist violence in mostly peaceful Switzerland.

The gunman, who was not identified by name but had a criminal record for a bike theft years ago, is thought to have only days earlier repeatedly stabbed and killed an acquaintance with whom he had been arguing.

Theres no indication of any kind of terrorist connection to [the radical Islamic State group] or an Islamic radicalization of the suspect, Zurich state criminal police chief Christiane Lentjes Meili said of the mosque attack. She said no links to any far-right movements were found either.

A police spokesman said Monday that the gunman stormed the mosques prayer hall and opened fire on worshipers, wounding three before fleeing.

Police suspended the hunt for the gunman on Tuesday after a body found in the vicinity was determined to be that of the assailant.

 Associated Press

JORDAN

4 police officers killed in clash with gunmen

Four police officers were killed Tuesday in an exchange of fire with wanted men in a central Jordanian province where assailants had killed 10 people in ambushes over the weekend, state media said.

Several wanted men were killed and others arrested after the firefight in Karak province, the news agency Petra reported. The report did not say how many of the alleged fugitives were killed.

State media said police came under fire during a raid of a suspected hideout of fugitives. Petra said the cell targeted Tuesday was not connected to the Sunday attacks in Karak.

Earlier Tuesday, the extremist group Islamic State asserted responsibility for Sundays shootings, which killed nine Jordanians and a tourist from Canada. The shootings were the bloodiest in Jordan in recent memory and raised new concerns about the rise of Islamist militancy in the Western-allied kingdom.

The Islamic States claim of responsibility was published on Shumoukh al-Islam, a password-protected website affiliated with the group.

 Associated Press

Authorities reduce Baghdad checkpoints: Authorities in Iraq have started removing some of the security checkpoints in Baghdad in a bid to ease traffic, a senior military commander said. The development suggests that the government is confident of its ability to secure Baghdad, even as it wages a weeks-long offensive to reclaim the key northern city of Mosul from the Islamic State. More than 25 checkpoints and 85 patrols reportedly have been removed. Hundreds of checkpoints have dotted Baghdad for years as authorities struggled to establish security.

Venezuela, Colombia reopen border: Presidents Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia have agreed to a progressive reopening of their border after a week-long closure. Venezuelan Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas said on Twitter that the leaders made the decision in a telephone call. Maduro closed the border with Colombia on Dec. 12 to combat trafficking in Venezuelan currency notes. The government later decided to remove 100-bolivar notes from circulation.

Pope grants freedom to jailed prelate in leaks scandal: Pope Francis has freed a Vatican monsignor convicted of leaking confidential documents to journalists, granting him a Christmastime clemency and ending an embarrassing episode for the Holy See. The Vatican said Spanish Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda was granted conditional freedom. Earlier this year, a Vatican court convicted Vallejo of conspiring to pass documents to the journalists and sentenced him to 18 months in prison.

Haiti panel orders partial audit of presidential vote: A Haitian electoral court ordered authorities to verify the reliability of last months disputed presidential election by reviewing a random sample of vote-count sheets. The National Electoral Litigation Office ordered an immediate audit of 12 percent of vote tallies, watched by Haitian and international monitors. Three losing candidates have alleged electoral fraud and errors in the tabulation process. Preliminary results showed a landslide win for the candidate backed by former president Michel Martelly.

 From news services
THE ASSASSINATION of Russias ambassador to Turkey on Monday might have been expected to derail a fragile detente between the regimes of Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Instead, it has served to underline a budding alliance that could have the effect of excluding the United States from the endgame of Syrias civil war and critically weakening U.S. influence across the Middle East. That, at least, is Mr. Putins clear intention.

The brutal assassination of ambassador Andrei Karlov by a Turkish police officer was a tragic sign that Russia may pay a price in blowback for its intervention in Syria. The assassin shouted, Dont forget Aleppo, where indiscriminate Russian bombing of hospitals and civilian housing paved the way for the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad to recapture the eastern half of the city.

For now, however, Mr. Putin appears to be reveling in his victory and pressing his political advantage. On Tuesday, his foreign minister hosted his counterparts from Turkey and Iran for a trilateral meeting that endorsed a road map for peace in Syria called the Moscow declaration. Mr. Putin and Mr. Erdogan meanwhile quickly agreed not to allow the assassination to harm their relations; pro-government media in both countries instead floated theories that the United States was somehow responsible for the killing.

The Syria trilateral meeting resounded with Russian triumphalism about the exclusion of the United States. All previous attempts by the United States and its partners to agree on coordinated actions were doomed to failure, said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu after meeting with Turkish and Iranian ministers. None of them wielded real influence over the situation on the ground. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who led Secretary of State John F. Kerry through months of fruitless diplomacy, pronounced that the most efficient and effective format for solving the Syrian crisis is our current trilateral format.

Its doubtful whether a Russian-Iranian-Turkish axis can really end the war. There are still more than 100,000 rebel fighters in northern and southern Syria, and many of them may soon join in an Islamist-led coalition. But Russia and Turkey could quietly accommodate each others aims: Russia and Iran wish to eliminate alternatives to the Assad regime, while Mr. Erdogan wants to prevent Kurds from establishing control over areas of northern Syria near the Turkish border. Both sides might favor a cease-fire in the short term; or they could each undertake military offensives against their respective enemies. The three parties say they will sponsor their own political negotiation between the regime and some Russian-approved opposition figures, bypassing a United Nations process; that would likely lead to a ratification of the Assad regimes political mandate.

A president concerned with preserving U.S. leadership in the Middle East would seek to counter Mr. Putins maneuvering and reverse Mr. Erdogans tilt toward the Kremlin. Sadly, it seems more likely that Donald Trump will welcome it. The result could be either the quagmire that President Obama has long predicted  so far wrongly  for Russia in Syria or a peace that will empower a string of anti-U.S. strongmen from Damascus and Tehran to Ankara and Moscow.
What a year it has been for James Comey!

At the start of 2016, the FBI director enjoyed a reputation as a public servant of high integrity, earning bipartisan acclaim for his stewardship of the nations preeminent law enforcement agency.

A year later, the FBI, after a series of blows to its credibility, seems increasingly partisan. Comey has shown himself to be an inconsistent leader. And an ugly conclusion is becoming difficult to escape: He single-handedly caused Donald Trump to win the presidency.

Doubt on that last point should have been dispelled this week, after court documents were released Tuesday that showed the justification for Comeys decision  announced to the nation just 11 days before the election  that he was reopening his investigation into Hillary Clintons emails. We now know Comeys bombshell was based on nothing: The FBI had no evidence of wrongdoing in the newly discovered emails, found on Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiners laptop, and no reason to suspect there was anything on the laptop that the FBI hadnt already dismissed as insufficient to mount a prosecution.

Yet that was the flimsy basis for Comeys letter to Congress reopening the Clinton probe. The new emails were irrelevant or redundant. But by the time Comey said, just two days before the election, that the FBI found nothing new, the damage to Clinton was done.

When an election is this close  Clinton, in the final tally, won the popular vote by 2.8 million votes  any number of factors could have shifted the outcome: Russias hacking, Jill Steins Green Party candidacy, Clintons weaknesses as a candidate, her ill-advised message of continuity in times that demanded populist change.

But Comeys intervention is one thing that almost certainly changed the result. Nationwide, voters who decided in the last week  the time when Comeys announcement dominated the news  overwhelmingly went for Trump. Late-deciders went for Trump by 17 points in Florida and Pennsylvania, by 11 points in Michigan and 29 points in Wisconsin.

I doubt Comey meant to give the presidency to Trump. All along, I maintained that he was a man of integrity. But he demonstrated poor judgment. So protective was he of his above-the-fray reputation that his attempts to guard it caused a series of bad decisions. Ironically, his attempts at preserving his reputation were what hurt him.

In June, before Comeys July statement on the Clinton email issue, 48 percent of Americans expressed confidence in the FBI and 16 percent lacked confidence, according to an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll. Now, six months later, 37 percent have confidence in the FBI, while 27 percent dont  and Republicans and Democrats are almost identical in their views.

Comeys trouble began with his announcement, on the eve of the national political conventions, that no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges against Clinton over the emails. His no-prosecution recommendation infuriated congressional Republicans. This criticism must have stung, since Comey, a former George W. Bush administration official, then took a series of actions that seemed designed to repair his reputation with Republicans.

First, he refused to join an administration statement on Oct. 7 naming Russia as the perpetrator of hacks of American political organizations. He reasoned that the FBI shouldnt be seen as injecting itself into politics so close to an election.

Comey made a mockery of such considerations when he delivered his October Surprise later that month, defying warnings from the Justice Department and ignoring long-standing guidelines by announcing that he was reopening the Clinton probe.

(Peter Stevenson,Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

It probably wasnt done to torpedo Clinton, though that was the result. The most convincing explanation: Comey feared that already irate congressional Republicans, if they were to learn that he didnt disclose the new discovery of Clinton emails, would have trashed his integrity. And Republicans were certain to find out. The Trump campaigns Rudy Giuliani, the recipient of leaks apparently originating with anti-Clinton agents in the FBIs New York office, had already signaled that big news was about to break.

Since the election, Comey has continued to protect his reputation  at considerable cost. Earlier this month, news broke that the CIA had concluded Russia intervened in the election to help Trump. But FBI officials resisted joining the conclusion.

Perhaps Comey was again trying to keep his agency and himself above the fray, but the FBIs mush helped Trump dismiss the CIAs findings. The matter turned into a partisan fight rather than the national-security concern it should be. After several days, and the intervention of the director of national intelligence, Comey finally acknowledged the obvious: that the FBI, too, believes the Russians tried to help Trump.

Did Comey mean to become Trumps elector and, now, his protector? Probably not. But in the end, motives count for less than outcomes. And Comeys have been ruinous.

Twitter: @Milbank

Read more from Dana Milbanks archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Barry Yeoman is a freelance journalist.

One of the most surreal moments during last weeks fracas at the North Carolina legislature came during a news conference called by the state NAACP. The civil rights organization was blasting the Republican legislative majority for its brazen efforts to strip authority from the incoming Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, and a state Supreme Court that tilted Democratic in last months elections.

From the back of the room came the voice of an uninvited guest: Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the state Republican Party. Im just wondering, Woodhouse said, as others tried to shush him, what about when Jim Hunt tried to fire all the Republicans in the Christmas massacre? . . . What about the Democrats stripping the lieutenant governor, a Republican, of all his power? Was that right?

Woodhouse had a point: North Carolinas Democrats have hardly been strangers to the rough-and-tumble of governance. After Hunt was elected governor in 1976, he demanded the resignation of 169 policymakers hired during the previous Republican administration and fired those who didnt comply. (That was the massacre.) Then in 1989, after Republican Jim Gardner took office as lieutenant governor, Senate Democrats denied him the right to lead their chamber.

Last week, as Republican lawmakers passed a wholesale shift in the states balance of political power  during a special session called without public notice  they justified it with various refrains of they-did-it-first. History matters, Woodhouse said in a statement.

Indeed, it does. Thats why its worthwhile to recall how Democrats ran the legislature during Woodhouses adolescence and why politicians of both parties worked together to bring that roughshod rule to an end.

I became a statehouse reporter in Raleigh in 1986, in an era when the North Carolina budget was assembled in secret by eight legislators, all of them white Democratic men. Informally they were called the Gang of Eight, or the super-subcommittee  supersub for short.

Because it wasnt a formal body, the supersub could meet without the constraints of the states open-meetings law. Once its budget was released  sometimes larded with favors for friends of the eight  it flew through the approval process with little time for study, much less debate. Lawmakers knew that defiance would cost them both plum assignments and pork-barrel funds for their districts. Democratic dissenters might also find their own bills bottled up permanently in committee. Republicans had less to lose; they were disregarded entirely.

To get along, you have to go along, Democratic lawmaker J. Ray Sparrow told me during the first session I covered. There have been some definite threats.

By then, there was already a movement afoot for more open, less vindictive government. Bumper stickers saying Sink the Supersub! Vote Republican began showing up around North Carolina. GOP lawmaker Coy Privette declared that if politicians in his county operated as the Gang of Eight does, theyd be indicted and be put in jail. In a symbolic showdown, a group of House members from both parties voted for a tax-reform measure that Democratic leaders opposed. Few people cared about the tax issue; this was a protest against autocracy.

Then, in 1989  the same year Senate Democrats defanged the incoming lieutenant governor  something entirely different happened in the House. Twenty Democrats teamed up with Republicans to oust Democratic Speaker Liston Ramsey. (Among the Democrats was Cooper, now the governor-elect.) It was a rare moment of substantive bipartisanship: a declaration that the hoarding of power is incompatible with democracy. The people of North Carolina were voting for two parties, Alex Warner, a Democratic House member, said at the time. That meant representation for all.

Since then, the best of North Carolinas legislative leaders, though not all, have presided over its chambers with an eye toward good government. But last weeks session was a reversion to the strong-arm rule that Republicans decried in the 1980s. The sweep of the power seizure is spectacular: a weakening of the governors control over the state and county election boards; a slashing of his hiring and firing powers; a Senate veto over his Cabinet picks; the transfer of authority over public education and the university system to agencies controlled by Republicans; a shift from nonpartisan to partisan Supreme Court elections; and a judicial restructuring that favors the Republican-leaning Court of Appeals over the Democratic-leaning Supreme Court.

These measures are more blatant than the abuses that provoked calls for more inclusive governance 30 years ago. Its no surprise that old-timers including former GOP governor Jim Martin have scolded their party for going too far: History matters, and the Republicans of the 1980s wouldnt recognize their 21st-century successors.
John TJ King told a Lincoln judge Wednesday after years living a life of crime and dishonesty due to addiction, he is tired of being viewed as a con artist only out for himself.

"I want you to know there is good in me," said King, who as owner of TJ King Interiors and Design cheated a couple of more than $2,500 for furniture he didn't deliver and a landscaping company out of $2,100 of work last year.

In the summer of 2015, he also wrote a $16,889 bad check for a 2007 Chrysler Aspen at a Lincoln dealership, then traded it for a 2008 Hummer H3 in Gretna, using another bad check to make up the difference.

In December of that year, King ditched a 2000 Mercedes Benz when Lincoln police tried to stop him for straddling lane lines, then drove by in a 2015 Infiniti SUV while the cops were still at the scene. When they stopped him and searched the SUV, they found an ecstasy pill in his wallet and a pencil tube with meth residue in a coat pocket in the back seat.

King, 45, later pleaded guilty to two counts of theft by deception and possession of ecstasy.

In court Wednesday, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Morgan Smith said King's life has been almost 30 years of stealing, the only breaks coming when he's in prison.

He's been to prison in Lincoln and Florida, and now has charges in Omaha and Iowa.

"He constantly swindles people of money," Smith said.

Some has to do with his drug addiction, he said. But it also has to do with his lifestyle, like the cars. That's just him wanting things, being greedy and stealing, Smith said.

"I think really the only way to protect the community from Mr. King is to incarcerate him," he argued.

But attorney Linsey Camplin said King is more than simply a con artist and understands he hurt people. She said he has struggled for years with addiction and wants eventually to become a drug and alcohol counselor.

King said in the past he's said a lot of things to get what he wants. But, this time, he actually wants to change and wants treatment.

"I don't have any more chances to get it right," he said.

But Lancaster County District Judge Jodi Nelson told King if she placed him on probation for his drug and theft charges "it would just be one more in a list of cons you've completed."

She said King is a bright, capable young man who has squandered just about every bit of that for selfish reasons. She hoped he was sincere about wanting treatment.

But saying it is easy, and he's a good talker, Nelson said.

She said incarceration was necessary to protect the public from King and his schemes. And she sentenced him to nine to 14 years in prison.
Its been called the worlds most exclusive fraternity: the men who have served in the Oval Office. Out of respect, members largely avoid criticizing one another, regardless of political party.

But now theres a new pledge, and Donald Trump is writing his own rules.

The soon-to-be 45th president took to Twitter on Tuesday to lay into Bill Clinton, saying the 42nd president had misrepresented a recent phone call between them in remarks reported by a newspaper that were sharply critical of Trump. He also tweeted that Clinton didnt know much about motivating voters in key swing states and that Hillary Clintons campaign had focused on the wrong states.

The broadsides were just the latest example of the Republican president-elect using Twitter in unprecedented ways, including provoking China and musing about possible punishments for flag-burners. This time, he and Clinton broke with a long tradition of U.S. presidents treating one another with kid gloves, at least outside political campaigns, presidential historians said.

Thats one of those many, many unwritten rules otherwise known as norms that Donald Trump has abandoned, said Thomas E. Mann, a scholar at the Brookings Institution.

(McKenna Ewen,Whitney Shefte,Dalton Bennett/The Washington Post)

Trump was apparently provoked by an editorial in the Record Review, a small-town weekly newspaper that serves readers near the Chappaqua, N.Y., home of Bill and Hillary Clinton. The papers editor, Ed Baum, wrote that he and his wife had gone into a local bookstore on Dec. 10 only to find the former president also doing what appeared to be holiday shopping.

For more than 35 minutes, Bill Clinton held court, answering question after question from patrons.

It was a setting he was comfortable in, and he felt at ease taking questions from the group, and he responded the way he wanted to, Baum said in an interview.

The article paraphrased Clinton as saying that he had received a phone call from the president-elect the day after the election and that Trump was cordial like it was 15 years ago, when the Clinton and Trump families might be seen socializing.

Then, the paper said, Clinton was asked by an unnamed man if Trump is smart. He doesnt know much, Clinton replied, according to the report. One thing he does know is how to get angry, white men to vote for him.

No one in Clintons orbit has disputed the encounter. A Clinton spokesman declined to comment.

He appeared to still be wrestling with the election results and trying to come to terms with it, said Baum, who said he stood by and observed the encounter, taking notes. Baum said that during the course of the conversation, he identified himself to Clinton as a newspaper editor. The session was not recorded, he said.

Trump fired back to his 17.6 million Twitter followers: Bill Clinton stated that I called him after the election. Wrong. The former president did offer a very nice congratulations, Trump allowed.

But then he continued the criticism. Clinton, Trump wrote,  doesnt know much . . . especially how to get people, even with an unlimited budget, out to vote in the vital swing states (and more).

They focused on wrong states, Trump added.

Trumps electoral college victory was propelled by unexpected wins in the traditionally Democratic-leaning states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin; the latter two were not frequent campaign stops for Hillary Clinton.

Later Tuesday, Bill Clinton agreed that he had in fact called Trump  not the other way around.

Heres one thing @realDonaldTrump and I can agree on  I called him after the election, Clinton said in a tweet of his own.

The level of warmth among presidents has varied, but at the very least, the relationships have been characterized by mutual respect and understanding shared among the few  all of them men, so far  who have occupied the office.

I think it comes from the empathy of having felt the pain as well as the glory, and realizing that its difficult work and its something you share with very few people on earth, said Bruce Buchanan, a presidential historian at the University of Texas at Austin. Former presidents are very sympathetic and supportive of each other.

[Trumps supporters admonish him for Twitter use but give him wide berth to govern]

But like many things during and after this campaign, the Trump-Clinton relationship is complicated in a way not fully captured by considering them only as two men in the exclusive club of presidents.

They ran in similar New York social circles after Hillary Clinton became the states U.S. senator. Over the years, Trump donated $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation and to Clinton. In turn, the Clintons attended Trumps wedding to his third wife, Melania, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in 2005. One photo capturing the foursome caught up in a moment of good humor remains an artifact of that moment in their history.

A few years later, in a 2008 interview, Trump heaped praise on Hillary Clinton after she ran for the presidency and lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama.

I think shes going to go down at a minimum as a great senator, Trump said at the time. I think she is a great wife to a president, and I think Bill Clinton is a great president.

As they faced off in the 2016 race, both sides disavowed any past chumminess. Hillary Clinton repeatedly characterized her association with Trump as casual. And Trump declared it a product of his need to sweeten up politicians on both sides of the political aisle for the good of his businesses.

Today, the election wounds are still very fresh. And it isnt clear who is most responsible for extending the olive branch: the victor or the spouse of the political loser, Buchanan said.

If Bill Clinton didnt have as his spouse the person who ran against Trump, I dont think you would have heard him talk like that, Buchanan said. The comments Trump made about Hillary  crooked Hillary and that sort of thing  really irritated Clinton.

Just Monday, Bill Clinton served as an elector in New York for his wife, tweeting afterward that Ive never been more proud to cast a vote than my vote today for @HillaryClinton.

Buchanan said Trump hasnt yet learned to adjust his style to his new job.

The incumbent has to put his deployment of the presidency on a somewhat more elevated plane than that, he added. I dont think hes going to enjoy the kind of reactions hes going to get if he acts like a defiant teenager caught up in a catfight when hes having a discussion with someone hes dealing with.

Its not unprecedented for a former president to question the views of a sitting one. Richard Nixon, for example, was openly critical of President Ronald Reagans strategy toward the Soviet Union, said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University.

But, he said, Nixon was attacking Reagans policy. He wasnt attacking his brain. Its not this kind of personal nonsense.

Asked whether Clinton started the recent spat, Mann said he shouldnt shoulder the blame.

He didnt go out and make a public statement, Mann said. It was a conversation in a bookstore. Usually, you ignore that kind of thing.

Naftali offered a similar take but said Clinton should know that, in the age of social media, comments he thinks are private can easily become public.

I think he has a right to grouse, Naftali said, but he should grouse more carefully.

More from Politics:

Welcome to Washingtons new normal: One Trump drama after another

Offer of access to Trump and family at fundraiser is pulled back, but ties remain

Trump is stoking his base on his pre-inaugural tour. But is he building bridges?
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), left, and Chuck Schumer, (D-N.Y.), center, have forged a relationship amid their calls for an investigation into Russian hacking efforts during the presidential election. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Sens. John McCain and Charles E. Schumer used to have a lousy relationship. The Arizona Republican and New York Democrat came from different backgrounds and focused on distinct legislative priorities. They were two hard-charging senators who were both aggressive in their courtship of the media.

The New Yorker and the Arizonan even broke into an open feud when, during a 2011 debate on defense policy, McCain joked that Long Island was regrettably part of the United States of America. Schumer demanded an apology: All of America saw how heroic Long Islanders were on 9/11.

Five years later, times have changed. The duo is emerging as a potentially critical force in the new world order of President-elect Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress. In the last 10 days, McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Schumer, the incoming Senate minority leader, led a bipartisan push to create a robust investigation into Russian hacking of political committees that intelligence officials say was designed to promote Trumps candidacy.

Through TV appearances and joint letters, the senators are pushing for an investigation that Trump is so far rejecting and other Republicans have been reluctant to tackle because such a probe might appear to undermine the results of the 2016 elections.

Theres no doubt [the Russians] were interfering, McCain said Sunday on CNNs State of the Union, stepping up the pressure on congressional GOP leaders. The question is now, how much and what damage? And what should the United States of America do?

An hour or so later, Schumer held a news conference in New York City echoing McCains call for a detailed investigation, and a few hours afterward the carefully choreographed effort included a formal letter from McCain, Schumer and two senior senators on foreign policy issues, Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), asking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to establish a select committee to conduct a thorough investigation.

Its unclear whether they will be successful in their quest, as McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) have said any such probe will be handled by their chambers Intelligence committees.

[Congress cant decide how to probe charges Russia aimed to help Trump]

But this latest act in a budding McCain-Schumer partnership could turn into a repeat performance in the new Trump era, on issues including national security, immigration and even the institutional work of the Senate.

Each has a more powerful perch than previous years. Schumer is taking over his caucus at a time when he will be considered the most powerful Democrat in Washington. McCain will be sworn in Jan. 3 to a seventh term after a blowout victory over his opponent that far exceeded Trumps narrow Arizona win, giving McCain a wide berth to make decisions without fear of political backlash. Additionally, Trump at times insulted McCain during the campaign, so the incumbent owes no favors to the incoming president.

Schumer and McCain could not seem much more stylistically different, but the two have a common ability to command the spotlight and shape debates inside the Capitol, something that becomes exponentially more powerful if they are working on the same side.

McCain, 80, is a hero from his time as prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, a five-and-half-year stint during which Schumer, 66, attended Harvard University, graduated and then began his studies at Harvard Law.

Schumer was elected to the House in 1980 from his native Brooklyn, and McCain came along two years later after having moved to the Phoenix area and won a Republican-leaning district. Schumers focus was always on legal matters, crime and gun control; McCains was on national security.

McCain won his Senate seat in 1986 and set off on a long march to try to become president, running unsuccessfully in 2000 and then winning the Republican nomination in 2008 before losing to President Obama. Schumer won his Senate seat in 1998 but never had any greater ambition than to become a powerful senator.

McCains early view of Schumer was as a partisan with sharp elbows. He oversaw the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and added 14 seats to the Democratic caucus in four years. When McCain suspended his 2008 campaign to fly to Washington to try to help cinch a Wall Street rescue package, the meeting ended in insults and no deal. [Senate reaches tentative deal on filibusters]

In a Senate-floor speech the next day, Schumer took direct aim at McCain and blamed him for the faltering talks. He said McCain could help in only one way: Get out of town.

The first thaw in their relationship, according to those close to the senators, came when a large group of senators started discussing Senate rules on presidential nominations four years ago, the first of two Schumer-McCain negotiations that delayed for a few more months a Democratic move to end filibusters on most nominees. A few weeks after those first talks, they joined forces again as the leaders of a bipartisan group of eight senators that wrote legislation to revamp immigration laws and increase border security, which culminated in a 68-to-32 vote approving the measure.

They spoke so much that year that Schumer knew McCains phone number by heart and blurted it out during a video interview with Politico, prompting the producers to bleep out the numbers. But their work on immigration died in the House, where conservatives would not allow a debate on the issue.

Now, theyre back together again. McCain has been careful to keep McConnell in the loop about his moves with Schumer, but he has made clear that he wont let the matter of alleged Russian interference in the elections just drop. McCain has always viewed Russian President Vladimir Putin with deep suspicion.

He is now trying to balance his work with Schumer to forcefully investigate the latest accusations while also reassuring Republicans that hes not trying to overturn Trumps win.

I have seen no evidence that the election would have been different, McCain said on CNN. But that doesnt change the fact that the Russians and others, Chinese to a lesser degree, have been able to interfere with our electoral process.

Read more from Paul Kanes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
A woman who says she was raped weeps in front of her house in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in February. Sorting out claims and denials in villages still living by a patriarchal code can prove nearly impossible. (Simon de Trey-White/For The Washington Post)

The woman cried for an hour.

She wept as she told us how one wintry day, in a field she had been tilling, her boss pushed her down to the ground and raped her. She wept as she described how shed gone to the police and they didnt believe her. She wept as she told us how the entire village turned against her.

As she spoke, she took the edge of her sequined-trimmed sari, the color of mangoes, and wiped her cheeks. She sat alone on a string cot in her front yard in a village about four hours east of New Delhi, Indias capital. A crowd had gathered a short distance away, including the father of her alleged rapist. He was laughing at her.

The villagers have all been very bad to me, the woman said. Nobody believes me. They think Im faking it. They said they will kill me if I dont go back on my words. Im helpless.

I sat near her in the fitful February sun and watched her closely. After three years reporting in villages in India, I knew enough to try to make sure her tears were real. Checked for tears. What a cynic, I wrote in my notebook.

That was not the last note I would write to myself that day. Later on, as conflicting stories rose around me from the victims family, from police, from other villagers, I would scribble helplessly, Is everybody lying?

Reporting about rape in Indian villages is not easy. The stigma of sexual assault is so pervasive that the first response to a rape is often silence, or victim shaming. Ancient caste and family alliances prevail, deals are struck, money changes hands.

But reporting about such crimes has taken on new urgency as the country engages in a debate about womens safety  in streets, schools, the workplace  following a highly publicized fatal gang rape in 2012.

The countrys overheated media has been paying far more attention to rape cases in the past four years. Under the glare of the spotlight, witness statements can change or become exaggerated. A print-journalist friend told me he was once sitting talking quietly to a rape victims family only to have them burst into dramatic sobs when the TV cameras arrived.

Only about 1 in 4 rape cases results in a conviction. At the same time, Indian courts are littered with cases of jilted women accusing men of rape to cover up a consensual relationship gone bad, or parents trying to hide  and ruin  a romance between two young lovers from different social castes.

Id been trying for months to write a story about informal village councils that step in to resolve sexual assaults and other crimes in lieu of the police  often with brutal punishments. The piece was to be the first of a year-long series called Indias Divide, which examined the tension and violence that result when a rising generation of women clashes with the entrenched patriarchy. But first, I had to find a case where I could pin down details. That was proving more challenging than I expected.

I am calling the woman in the village Bina, to make it easier to tell her story here. Her case seemed promising. When the 35-year-old widow arrived at the police station to file a complaint, she had claimed, the village leader ordered her alleged assailant to touch Binas feet (a gesture of respect), apologize and settle the matter without involving police. Authorities took her story seriously only when she went to file a complaint at regional police headquarters days later.

(Annie Gowen,Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

When I arrived in her village a few weeks after that, I went directly to the home of the village elder.

His three-story house was painted in hues of blue and orange and rose over the other modest tin-roof dwellings like a circus tent.

The man  a stocky farmer with a streak of red vermilion on his forehead, a mark of his Hindu devotion  ushered us into his courtyard, where we were brought cups of sweet, milky chai. He had just been elected village pradhan, a position similar to mayor.

It was there, sitting in the mans courtyard, as family and neighbors looked on, that we heard our first lie of the day.

Im not interfering in this matter, the pradhan said. I said let the police handle it.

The pradhan gestured grandly to a crowd of onlookers with a sweep of his hand.

If her story is true, the whole village would support her anyway, he said. Ask these people how many of them support her?

None of them did. A man of about 70 stepped forward to say: What I have heard from laborers is that there was a dispute between the boss and the woman. She did not follow his instructions. He told her off and she said, Well, Im going to the police station. She tore her own clothes and pretended she was raped.

Bina was an outsider in the community, having moved from the impoverished state of Bihar to marry at age 14. She told us with a sort of pride that her late husband had refrained from touching her until she was grown. She eventually had seven children.

As she cried, no one stepped forward to comfort her. Her young son hovered anxiously nearby, along with a limping baby goat.

She said she was resting alone in a field on her lunch break from her job working for the governments rural employment program when her boss accosted her.

When he grabbed her, she recalled, she asked him sharply what he was doing.

 Im a government servant, and Im more powerful than you. You cant say no to me,  she recalled him saying. He said, My wife is not at home  shes gone to her mothers house. Thats why Im doing this to you. 

Something about this little detail of the wife being away rang true to me. But as we spoke to others in the village, I began to have doubts. The alleged attacker was hiding from the police when we visited, but his family members and others had plenty to say in support of him.

Angry relatives gathered, as well as women who had worked with Bina in the fields. The women said the rape couldnt have happened because the area was too exposed, and they had not gone off to take their midday meal leaving her alone. Bina was not a woman of good character, they said, and she kept picking fights with everyone in the village.

Victim blaming is common after sexual assaults in rural India, where traditional notions of honor still hold sway.

And there was another possible motive for these women to lie  money. The alleged attacker was in charge of handing out places in the jobs program, and now that he was on the run, we havent had any work for days, one told me.

Things got murkier when we went to the police station, a one-story white concrete building where the officers were outside enjoying the afternoon sun. The pradhan had come to meet the victim at the station with the assailant in tow, they said, but they didnt know what kind of deal was struck.

More damningly, they said that Bina had not told them she was raped when she first went there.

They played me a cellphone video of a later interview they had with her in which she said, When I first came here, I never said I was raped or molested. I could never say it to anyone.

Yet this, too, could have an explanation. Because of the stigma, many women often dont report sexual assault right away, or at all.

And these officers too had reason to lie. A new amendment to the rape law requires authorities to register each case or face jail time of up to two years. If they hadnt taken her seriously, they might have been in trouble.

One of the officers, Pramod Kumar Yadav, gave me a quizzical look. What do you think of this? he asked me. Most cases are a misuse of rape here. Its highly unlikely they were alone in the field. There was not even a tree to hide them.

The entire village had accused Bina of lying. But I wasnt sure. What possible motive could drive her to fight to have the police take her seriously and ostracize herself from her entire community? It was, as one of my colleagues put it, a very lonely battle.

I dont want money. I just want my sanity back, she told me. Im scared if this happens to my daughters. Theres no protection.

For months afterward, Binas words haunted me: He said, My wife is not at home  shes gone to her mothers house. Thats why Im doing this to you. 

But I decided there were too many questions to write about her, at least in the traditional way. We bid goodbye to the police investigators who would be left to sort through the mess, and hit the road.

I did not envy them.

Subuhi Parvez contributed to this report.

Read more:

Have pity on me

Its not easy for women to own land in India. One woman died fighting for hers.

She was raped at 13. Her case has been in Indias courts for 11 years

An Indian teen was raped by her father. Village elders had her whipped.

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
This file photo taken on January 26, 2001 shows General Joseph Kabila taking the oath of office to succeed his slain father as president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. (FILES) (Desirey Minkoh/AFP/Getty Images)

Mediators urged Congos president and opposition parties on Wednesday to reach an agreement before Christmas on a peaceful settlement to the countrys political crisis, saying dozens have been killed this week amid protests over the presidents stay in power.

Enough is enough, said Monsignor Marcel Utembi, part of the team of mediators from the Catholic Church. A solution must be found as soon as possible by all political actors, but in particular by the government, in order to reassure the Congolese people.

He also conveyed a message from Pope Francis: I am concerned by what is happening in your country, which I wish to visit at the opportune moment. I pray for the Congolese people, who need peace so much now.

President Joseph Kabilas mandate ended this week, and he is constitutionally barred from seeking another term, but a court has ruled that he can remain in power until new elections. The vote once was set for November, but the ruling party now says it wont be held until 2018.

Anger over the delay has swept the country. A heavy military and police presence remained in the capital, Kinshasa, and across the country Wednesday. The remains of barricades littered the streets after protesters burned the headquarters of the ruling party on Tuesday, the first day after Kabilas mandate expired.

Reports of the death toll in the chaos varied. Human Rights Watch said security forces killed 26 people. The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo said it had documented 19 people shot to death, 45 wounded and a very high number of arrests in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Matadi and Goma.

The government said nine people were killed in the capital. The national police spokesman, Col. Pierrot Mwanamputu, said eight died in Lubumbashi, three in Matadi and two in Boma.

Mwanamputu also said that 275 people had been detained since Kabilas mandate ended.

Amid the growing frustration, the church-mediated political talks resumed Wednesday after stalling over the weekend.

Utembi stressed that the Catholic Church is not willing to accept unwarranted delays or maneuvering and that if a consensual decision on the political transition isnt reached by Christmas, it will draw all the necessary consequences.

Finding common ground will be difficult. While the ruling party insists that Kabila remain in power until the elections, the opposition coalition says it does not recognize his authority anymore.

The political impasse has fueled fears of widespread unrest in this vast Central African nation, one of the worlds poorest and most unstable countries.
The prosecutor Wednesday sought a life sentence for a 40-year-old Lincoln man convicted at trial of sexually abusing two girls for years.

Michael McCurdy didn't get the life sentence, but the 95- to 115-year term Lancaster County District Judge Darla Ideus did hand down likely will mean he won't live to see his parole date.

Because three of his four charges come with mandatory minimums, he won't be eligible until he's nearly 95.

McCurdy said little, asking only that Ideus consider his letter to her, which isn't public.

At trial in October, he maintained his innocence. But the jury found him guilty of three counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child, first-degree sexual assault and child abuse.

On Wednesday, attorney Matt McDonald of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy argued for concurrent sentences so the judge could more easily say when he should be eligible for parole.

"All Mr. McCurdy is asking is that you give him a chance to get out while he's still alive," McDonald said.

On the other side, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Nick Freeman asked for a life sentence to protect the public. Anything less, he said, would depreciate McCurdy's crimes and ignore his history of violence and his high risk to reoffend.

McCurdy impregnated one of his victims twice through his predatory behavior, Freeman said.

"This isn't just five times he did this to these girls," he said, referring to the counts.

In August 2015, a 17-year-old reported ongoing sexual abuse. She told Lincoln police McCurdy had sexually assaulted her repeatedly from the time she was 11 and that the assaults led to a pregnancy in 2014 when she was 15.

She said McCurdy convinced her to tell her mother she'd had sex with a boy from her school. After she got an abortion, the abuse continued, she told police.

On Aug. 7, 2015, thinking she might be pregnant again, she told her mother, who immediately reported it to police.

The girls sister then came forward saying McCurdy had abused her, too.

In court Wednesday, Freeman said the five counts cover years of abuse, and McCurdy has shown an absolute lack of remorse and still hasn't taken responsibility for what he did.

McCurdy changed the trajectory of these girls' lives, Freeman said.

"Their lives will not be what they could've been."
Marion Pritchard, a Dutch social work student who was credited with saving dozens of Jews during the Holocaust, spiriting some to safe houses, hiding others under floorboards, and, in one case, executing a Nazi before he could arrest a family of four, died Dec. 11 in Washington. She was 96.

The cause was cerebral arteriosclerosis, according to her family.

Mrs. Pritchard was recognized in 1981 by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, as one of the righteous among the nations  those gentiles who, seeking no reward, risked their lives to rescue Jews from the Nazi dragnet that claimed 6 million lives during World War II.

She was said to have fed, clothed, hidden or otherwise aided as many as 150 people, many of them children. She insisted that she could not have done her work without the assistance, overt or implied, of neighbors, friends and other members of the resistance. She observed, her son Arnold Pritchard recalled, that only rarely if ever during the Holocaust could one person single-handedly save the life of another.

Mrs. Pritchard  then Miss van Binsbergen  was 19 when Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. She credited her father, a Dutch judge who abhorred the Nazi ideology, and her mother, an Englishwoman who raised her daughter in the Anglican faith, with instilling in her a sense of justice and moral resolve.

Mrs. Pritchard with Erica Polak, whose family she helped shelter during the Holocaust. (Courtesy of Marion Pritchard/U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum )

The crucial moment for her came in 1942, she said, when she was riding her bicycle to her university in Amsterdam and witnessed the liquidation of a home for Jewish children. Deportation of Jews from the Netherlands began that year and would continue into 1944. Of 107,000 Jews taken away, all but 5,200 would perish. Less than 25 percent of Dutch Jewry survived the Holocaust, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

It was a beautiful spring morning, and it was a street I had known since I had been born, and all of a sudden you see little kids picked up by their pigtails or by a leg and thrown over the side of a truck, Mrs. Pritchard said in an interview published in the volume Voices From the Holocaust by Harry James Cargas. You stop but you cant believe it.

She watched two women attempt to stop the soldiers, only to be put in the truck with the children. At that moment, she said, she committed herself to fighting Nazi persecution in whatever way possible.

Along with about 10 friends, she helped obtain false identity documents and hiding places to help Jews evade arrest. Despite severe food shortages, they scrounged up extra ration cards and provisions. She put her social work training to use by finding host families to take in Jewish children and prepare the families for the perils they faced.

At times, she performed what was known as the mission of disgrace, falsely declaring herself to be the unwed mother of a baby to conceal the childs Jewish identity. A toddler spent several months with her before she found a safer home outside Amsterdam.

For nearly three years, Mrs. Pritchard cared for a Jewish man, Fred Polak, and his two young sons and infant daughter, taking up residence in the country home of an acquaintance where they were hidden. In case of a Nazi roundup, they perfected a routine by which the father and his children could slip beneath the floorboards within 17 seconds. They gave the baby sleeping pills to prevent her from crying.

One day, three Germans and a Dutch policeman came to search the house and left, having failed to detect the hideaway. Shortly thereafter, the Dutchman, who nonetheless suspected that something was awry, returned and discovered the hideout. Before he could make an arrest, Mrs. Pritchard grabbed a small revolver that she had kept for such an emergency and fatally shot him.

I would do it again, under the same circumstances, she told an interviewer years later, but it still bothers me.

She credited a local undertaker with helping dispose of the corpse by burying it with another body in a coffin. I just hope that the family would have approved, she said.

Marion Philippina van Binsbergen was born in Amsterdam on Nov. 7, 1920. She grew up mainly in the Netherlands but traveled frequently to England, where she attended boarding school.

When the war broke out, she was studying social work at the University of Amsterdam. She was arrested in 1941 and imprisoned for seven months after being caught at a meeting where students were transcribing Allied radio broadcasts for dissemination. Until then, I always thought I had my mothers ability to ignore fear, she remarked, according to the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.

She said it was perhaps easier for her than for others to face the dangers of rescue work, her son recalled, because she was not married at the time and did not have children of her own: She was risking no life but her own.

Among the most famous Jews who sought refuge in the Netherlands were the German-born diarist Anne Frank and her sister Margot. Mrs. Pritchard told the Los Angeles Times that she met them by chance at a birthday party before they went into hiding and were ultimately discovered, deported and murdered.

After the war, Mrs. Pritchard became a United Nations social worker in displaced-persons camps. Through those assignments, she met her husband, Anton Pritchard, a former U.S. Army officer. In 1947, they were married in one of the camps.

The Pritchards settled in Waccabuc, N.Y., and later in Vershire, Vt. Mrs. Pritchard continued her social service work in the United States, helping refugee families. She graduated from what is now the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis and ran a psychoanalysis practice for several decades. In 2006, she moved to Washington.

Her husband died in 1991. Survivors include three sons, Arnold Pritchard of New Haven, Conn., Brian Pritchard of Los Angeles and Ivor Pritchard of Washington; eight grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

Mrs. Pritchards wartime story was chronicled in books including Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust by Eva Fogelman and the documentary The Courage to Care (1985).

Most of us were brought up to tell [the] truth, to obey the secular law and the Ten Commandments, she said in a 1996 lecture. By 1945, I had stolen, cheated, deceived, and even killed.

She attributed her morals to her parents, who she said had treated her with respect and consideration from the time she was born. As a result, she observed, I grew up treating other people the same way.

Erica Polak, a Dutch psychologist, was the infant girl who survived the war in the countryside shelter with her father and brothers, thanks to Mrs. Pritchards efforts.

My whole family is so grateful to her, she wrote in an email after her rescuer died, no words will ever be enough to describe that deep gratitude we feel.
Italian police officers stand next to the body of Anis Amri, the suspect in the Berlin truck attack, in a suburb of Milan.

Dec. 23, 2016 Italian police officers stand next to the body of Anis Amri, the suspect in the Berlin truck attack, in a suburb of Milan. Reuters

The suspect in the attack, 24-year-old Anis Amri, was killed in a shootout with police in Milan on Dec. 23.

A massive black truck plowed into a Christmas market teeming with holiday revelers in Berlin on Dec. 19, killing at least 12 and wounding dozens more.

A massive black truck plowed into a Christmas market teeming with holiday revelers in Berlin on Dec. 19, killing at least 12 and wounding dozens more.

The prime suspect sought in the deadly attack on a Berlin Christmas market  a 24-year-old Tunisian migrant  was the subject of a terrorism probe in Germany earlier this year and was not deported even though his asylum bid was rejected, a senior German official said Wednesday.

The suspect  who went by numerous aliases but was identified by German authorities as Anis Amri  became the subject of a national manhunt after investigators discovered a wallet with his identity documents in the truck used in Mondays attack that left 12 dead, two law enforcement officials told The Washington Post.

Meanwhile, a clearer portrait took shape of the suspect, including accusations that he had contact with a prominent Islamic State recruiter in Germany.

German authorities issued a 100,000 euro ($105,000) reward for information leading to his capture, warning citizens not to approach the 5-foot-8, 165-pound Amri, whom they described as violent and armed.

His record, however, further deepened the political fallout from Mondays bloodshed  pointing to flaws in the German deportation system and putting a harsh light on Chancellor Angela Merkels humanitarian bid to open the nations doors to nearly 1 million asylum seekers last year.

(Victoria Walker,Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Although the vast majority of those who flooded into Europe were on the move to escape war and unrest, dozens of terrorism suspects have slipped into Germany and neighboring nations posing as migrants. Amri, officials said, was not part of the surge of migrants who entered Europe via the onetime main route from Turkey and Greece  a path that has been now largely cut off.

Rather, he came to Germany last year via Italy, where he apparently had entered as early as 2012. He applied for German asylum but was rejected in June and later faced deportation.

Amri was the subject of a terrorism probe on suspicion of preparing a serious act of violent subversion, and he had known links to Islamist extremists, authorities said.

Why a failed asylum seeker with such links and no passport was walking German streets is the question 82 million Germans probably want an answer to, said Rainer Wendt, Chairman of the German Police Union.

He added: How many more ticking time bombs are roaming around here? . . . We saw how much damage one person can do with a truck.

[Gallery: Festive corner of Berlin now a sad memorial]

The dragnet for the suspect appeared to initially focus on the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia as well as Berlin, both places where the Tunisian suspect once lived. Police units had been due to stage raids Wednesday, officials said, but they remained mysteriously on hold.

The interior minister in North Rhine-Westphalia, Ralf Jager, said the Tunisian man had bounced around Germany since arriving in July 2015, living in the southern city of Freiburg and later in Berlin.

Although authorities have sought to accelerate the deportation of rejected asylum seekers this year, there is still a backlog in Germany of tens of thousands, many of whom are able to resist because their countries of origin refuse to take them back. Amri, Jager said, was one of them.

Amri had not been deported because  like many asylum seekers in Germany  he did not have a passport. The Tunisian government, Jager explained, initially denied that he was a national and delayed issuing his passport. Pending his deportation, Amri had received a toleration status from the government.

Amris new Tunisian passport, Jager said, finally arrived Wednesday.

I dont want to comment further on that circumstance, said a visibly angered Jager.

[Berlin attack: How the events unfolded]

Importantly, authorities knew that Amri had interacted with Abu Walaa, a 32-year-old of Iraqi descent arrested in November on charges of recruiting and sending fighters from Germany to the Islamic State. Key evidence in Walaas case came from an Islamic State defector who had returned to Germany and accused Walaa of helping to recruit him and arrange his travel to Syria.

Anis Amri was engaging with extremist salafist circles in Germany, a German security official said.

According to Karen Muller, spokeswoman for the Berlin prosecutor, Amri had also been under police surveillance for several months until September of this year, because he was suspected of planning a burglary in Berlin to finance the purchase of weapons. The suspicion wasnt confirmed. He was, she said, found only to be a small-time drug dealer.



The leaking of the suspects name and photograph in the press, authorities said, may have upset attempts to find him. Germanys interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, would tell reporters in Berlin only that Germany had registered a suspect as wanted on European databases. He refused to give further details.

The two German law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive case, said investigators discovered the mans documents in the cabin of the truck that barreled into the market.

It remained unclear whether authorities believe the Tunisian man drove the truck, but police nevertheless made tracking him a priority.

Revelation of the asylum seekers background sparked outrage among conservative politicians and seemed set to damage Merkel, who is running for reelection next year.

There is a connection between the refugee crisis and the heightened terror threat in Germany, said Stefan Mayer, parliamentary spokesman on domestic affairs for the Christian Social Union party. This can also be seen in the case of this Tunisian.

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to stand by his plans to establish a registry for Muslims and temporarily ban Muslim immigrants from the United States.

Speaking outside his Mar-a-

Lago resort in Florida, Trump did not walk back the proposals after he was asked by a reporter whether he was rethinking or reevaluating them in the wake of a fresh terrorist attack in Berlin.

You know my plans, Trump said.

He went on to add that the attack on a Berlin Christmas market, which was claimed by the Islamic State, had vindicated him.

All along, Ive been proven to be right. One hundred percent correct, Trump said. Whats happening is disgraceful.

[Whats known so far about the Berlin investigation]

Germanys Bild newspaper said Amri had several aliases and was apparently born in the southern Tunisian desert town of Tataouine in 1992.

Witnesses described one man fleeing the scene after the truck  packed with a cargo of steel  roared into revelers at a traditional Christmas market. One suspect, a Pakistani asylum seeker, was arrested Monday night, but authorities later released him because of a lack of evidence.

The new information emerged as German investigators raced for clues in the hunt for Amri and other possible suspects in the assault. They pored over forensic evidence and GPS data as they sought to retrace the steps of the runaway attacker. They were re-questioning witnesses and analyzing DNA traces found in the truck, as well as on the body of a dead Polish man in the passenger seat.

The Pole worked for a trucking company and was delivering a payload of steel to Berlin. Investigators are going on the assumption that he was taken hostage by the assailant  and may even have died a hero. Jorg Radek, deputy chairman of the German Trade Union of the Police, said evidence suggested that a fight took place in the drivers cabin. As it barreled toward the crowded market, the truck was not driving straight, but in a zigzag line, he noted.

[After Berlin, security tightens at Christmas markets]

The Islamic State on Tuesday claimed responsibility for inspiring the unknown attacker  a claim as yet unproven and possibly just opportunistic. But it prompted some politicians to quickly point the finger at Merkels refugee policy, even as others pushed back, calling the accusations a politicizing of tragedy that had no place in progressive Germany.

There were also growing calls for the deployment of more police on the streets with military-style weapons  an unusual move in pacifist Germany. At the normally quaint and picturesque Christmas markets in at least three German cities  Mainz, Magdeburg and Dresden  concrete barriers were quickly erected to add security. In Magdeburg, police officers armed with automatic weapons were guarding the entrance.

Yet others argued that living in a free society was perhaps more important and that Germans were willing to accept a certain measure of risk to preserve that openness.

If we want to maintain the freedom of our society, we simply have to live with the risk contained in this decision, Die Tageszeitung said in a Wednesday editorial.

Dan Eggen in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more

The Berlin attack is no surprise. Experts have warned about trucks for years.

Flow of foreign fighters plummets as Islamic State loses its edge

Germany launches raids in 60 cities, bans group on suspicion of ISIS recruiting

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Police officers stand guard at the scene where a truck crashed into a Christmas market Monday, close to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin. (Clemens Bilan/European Pressphoto Agency)

The claim on the official Amaq media channel was short and distressingly familiar: A soldier of the Islamic State was behind yet another attack on civilians in Europe, this time at a festive Christmas market in Berlin.

The accuracy of the claim remained in question Tuesday as German authorities searched for both a suspect and a motive behind the deadly truck assault on holiday revelers. But already it appeared that the attack had achieved one of the Islamic States stated objectives: spreading fear and chaos in a Western country in hopes of sharpening the divide between Muslims and everyone else.

Terrorism experts likened the claim to a declaration of all-out war against a country that until now had seen little of the terrorist violence that has rocked its Francophone neighbors. Germany, with its large Muslim community and recent history of political discord over Muslim immigration, has long been viewed by the militant group as an important strategic target, despite the countrys reputation for tolerance.

[Manhunt seeks Tunisian asylum-seeker in deadly Christmas market attack]

Islamic State officials in recent months have urged supporters to carry out attacks in Germany by any means  including using nontraditional weapons such as trucks  with the aim of creating an anti-Muslim backlash in Europes biggest democracy. The resulting crackdown would benefit the Islamic State, the group argues, by dividing Europeans and driving wavering Muslims into the jihadists corner.

(Victoria Walker,Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

The very fact that Germany has played only a minor role in anti-ISIS efforts  but is the most important state in Western Europe  may make it a good place to sow division within the Western alliance, said Paul Pillar, a former CIA counterterrorism official and a senior fellow at Georgetown Universitys Center for Security Studies. The specter of Muslim refugees and immigrants turning on their hosts, in a country that has accepted an especially large share of such migrants, may intensify anti-

immigration sentiment not just in Germany but also elsewhere in Europe.

[Berlin attack: How the event unfolded]

The Islamic States claim of responsibility came nearly 24 hours after the attack on the Breitscheidplatz square, where an unknown assailant drove a truck through a crowded Christmas street festival, killing 12 people and injuring nearly 50.

German police initially detained a Pakistani asylum seeker who had fled the scene, but authorities later released the man after concluding that he had not been involved.

The groups statement simply attributed the attack to a soldier of the Islamic State but gave no details about the attacker. In the past, the group has claimed credit for terrorist acts committed by individuals who were inspired by its propaganda but had no direct ties to the organization or its members.

Some counterterrorism experts treated the claim with skepticism, noting the lack of authenticating detail as well as the truck drivers behavior during and after the attack. For example, unlike previous incidents in which the perpetrators seemed to have expected death or martyrdom, the driver of the Berlin truck fled the vehicle and escaped by blending in with the crowd.

[After Berlin, security tightens at Europes Christmas markets]

1 of 32 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Truck rams crowd in Berlin Christmas market, killing at least 12 people View Photos A massive black truck plowed into a Christmas market teeming with holiday revelers in Berlin on Monday, killing at least 12 and wounding dozens more. Caption The suspect in the attack, 24-year-old Anis Amri, was killed in a shootout with police in Milan on Dec. 23. Dec. 23, 2016 Italian police officers stand next to the body of Anis Amri, the suspect in the Berlin truck attack, in a suburb of Milan. Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

The easiest thing to say is, Its ISIS, but if youre conducting an investigation, you have to ask all sorts of questions and explore all sorts of possibilities, Ali Soufan, a former FBI supervisory special agent who investigated terrorism cases, said, using another name for the Islamic State. You have to follow the evidence, and it seems interesting to me that were seeing some stuff that we havent seen before.

Lorenzo Vidino, director of the program on extremism at George Washington University, said the drivers behavior suggested that the attack may have been inspired by jihadist ideology but was not connected operationally with the Islamic State.

The choice of Germany may have been simply a matter of opportunity or  if the Islamic State was truly involved  a strike against a strategically important target.

Germany is a target for obvious reasons, Vidino said. One of them, paradoxically, is its open-door policy towards Syrian refugees. From ISISs perspective, that policy takes away the natural citizens of the caliphate, showing its bankruptcy. Every refugee that is welcome in Germany is a living testament of how most Muslims want little to do with ISISs project.

On a more strategic level, he said, the attack helps fulfill the groups core objective of widening the gulf between Muslims and non-Muslims.

For any Western country they target, jihadists want more polarization between Muslims and the rest of the population, Vidino said. An attack on such a cherished, popular and Christian tradition definitely works in that direction.

The Islamic States propaganda machine has produced hundreds of messages in recent months urging followers to carry out terrorist strikes abroad without waiting for specific instruction or coordination. The volume of such messages has increased in recent weeks as the terrorist group has suffered a string of military defeats in its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

In November, the organizations French-language media outlet called on European Muslims to replicate the July 14 terrorist attack in Nice, France, in which a French Tunisian ran over scores of people along a crowded seaside promenade, killing 86. The posting featured a Muslim man vowing to take my truck and go forth, towards my enemies upon whom I will inflict a true punishment, until they are afflicted with grief.

Islamic State officials have explicitly sought to link such attacks to the larger goal of making Europe intolerable for faithful Muslims. A 2015 article in the groups English-language magazine, Dabiq, warned that the terrorists would soon begin targeting the West with the aim of deliberately provoking a backlash against Muslims living there.

Muslims in the West, the article said, will quickly find themselves between one of two choices: they either apostatize and adopt the [Western] religion . . . or they emigrate to the Islamic State and thereby escape persecution.

Read more:

The unnoticed trend that worries Europes counterterrorism agencies

Europes problem will get worse, says a scholar of Islamist extremism

45 years of terrorist attacks in Europe, visualized

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
President Park Geun-Hye of South Korea addresses her country in November. First hearings on her impeachment proceedings will begin Thursday. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

South Koreas Constitutional Court on Thursday will begin its first hearings on the impeachment of Park Geun-hye, a case that could see the countrys first female president also become its first democratically elected president to be ousted from office.

The nine judges will hear opinions from representatives on both sides, after the National Assembly voted by a huge margin earlier this month to impeach Park over her role in a corruption and influence-peddling scandal.

The hearing will be open to the public if there are no other exceptional reasons, Bae Bo-yoon, the courts spokesman, told reporters in Seoul.

Park was automatically suspended when lawmakers approved the impeachment motion Dec. 9, with the prime minister taking over her duties. The court has 180 days from that date to decide whether to uphold the motion, forcing Park from office, or to overturn it.

[South Koreas parliament votes to impeach president over corruption scandal ]

(The Washington Post)

Since South Korea democratized in 1987, the National Assembly has voted to impeach only one president  Roh Moo-hyun in 2004. The court declined to uphold the motion.

Although it agreed that Roh had committed minor breaches of election laws by openly voicing support for members of his party, contravening rules that the president should be impartial, the court decided after only two months that the offenses were not serious enough to warrant his removal from office.

But constitutional law experts say that Parks case is not so clear-cut.

Prosecutors have accused her of being an accomplice in her friends alleged plan to extort money from big business groups, including Samsung and Lotte, and of providing her with classified information. Park has refused to be questioned by prosecutors.

The friend, Choi Soon-sil, is on trial on charges that include bribery, coercion and abuse of power. At her first court appearance Monday, Choi pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The court must determine what is truth and what is mere suspicion, said Lee Kyung-jae, Chois attorney.

Prosecutors said they had conducted 52 raids and put forward 827 pieces of evidence to support their case.

Choi Soon-sil, the jailed confidante of disgraced South Korean President Park Geun-hye, center, appears Monday for her trial in Seoul. (AP)

[South Koreas political crisis could usher in bigger change]

The scandal centers on allegations that Choi, a lifelong friend of Parks and the daughter of a shadowy cult leader, was privy to classified information and that she used her relationship with the president to embezzle almost $70 million in corporate donations meant for charitable foundations.

The case has outraged South Koreans, who have been protesting in unprecedented numbers every weekend, because it involves the president directly. Previous corruption scandals have involved relatives of the president, but never the president.

But despite the protesters demands, Park refused to resign. As a result, politicians from both opposition parties and her own Saenuri party overwhelmingly supported the motion to impeach her.

Park has remained defiant, saying she would keep a calm and clear mind while the conservative-leaning court decides whether to uphold the legislatures impeachment motion.

A majority of six judges is needed to approve the motion, but two are standing down before March and are unlikely to be replaced during the current political vacuum.

In a 24-page statement to the court released Sunday, Parks attorneys said that the allegations were unproven and the president denied any involvement in the crimes that Choi has been charged with. Furthermore, they claimed that the alleged offenses were not serious enough to warrant impeachment.

[President Park Geun-hye offers to resign if lawmakers demand it]

Even if there is evidence of offenses, none are so serious to justify an impeachment, they said, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

Meanwhile, potential candidates have begun positioning themselves for the next presidential election, which would be held within 60 days of Park stepping down.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is a South Korean national and whose term expires at the end of this month, has given his clearest signal yet that he wants to run for the presidency.

I have been musing about how and where I will dedicate myself, Ban, a former foreign minister, said in New York during a final meeting with South Korean journalists.

I will determine [whether to run for the presidency] after I meet citizens from various walks of life and listen to their opinions. What is most important is citizens thoughts, he said, according to local reports.

Read more:

Scandal shows that Korean disease of corruption is far from cured

Prosecutors link South Korean president to corruption scandal

South Koreans gather en masse to protest president

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) warns the Sri Lankan working class of the serious implications of the unprecedented level of state repression unleashed by the government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe against striking port workers in Hambantota.

The government responded to the eight-day walkout by more than 480 workers to defend their jobs, by unleashing all the weapons in its armourycourt orders, ministerial ultimatums, the police and armed navy battalions, strike-breakers, state-sponsored provocations and a hysterical media barrage.

The brutal repression is a reflection of the grave economic and political crisis facing the ruling class. Hit by a deepening global downturn and the growing erosion of popular support, the government, with the active support of the trade unions and the so-called left parties, is determined to destroy all the hard-won social and democratic rights of the workers and the rural poor.

These factors point to the urgent need for the building of the new revolutionary leadership of the working class to rally and lead the rural poor and youth on the basis of a socialist and internationalist program to put an end to capitalist profit system.

The port workers walked out on December 7, demanding permanent jobs with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA). They were originally recruited as casual employees in 2013 under the previous government of President Mahinda Rajapakse and promised they would be made permanent. The workers demands for permanency took on a new urgency after the current government hastily signed an agreement with the Chinese-owned Merchant Port Holdings to transform the Hambantota port into a privately-owned joint venture. Merchant Port Holdings would have 80 percent ownership and the SLPA 20 percent in the new company.

The government first attempted to paint the port workers as supporters of the former Rajapakse regime. Its despicable attempts to isolate the strikers failed amid growing public support for the casual workers. Despite the small numbers involved, the strike rapidly brought work at the port to a standstill and prevented ships from leaving.

On December 10, the government mobilised hundreds of navy soldiers, led personally by the navy commander, Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, who brutally attacked the strikers with poles and rifle butts in an attempt to end the walkout.

Four workers were hospitalised in the navy attack but a video recording of a journalist being manhandled by Vice Admiral Wijegunaratne during the assault went viral on social media. After a squad of workers mobilised from another labour-hire firm to blackleg on the strike rejected their assignment and walked out, the government began using navy soldiers to handle port work.

On December 14, the government obtained a seven-point court order overturning the port workers right to strike. Simultaneously, Ports and Shipping Minister Arjuna Ranatunga issued an ultimatum: Any employee who did not return to work by 2 p.m., on December 15 would be regarded as a deserter.

Deprived of political leadership and a program to combat this full-scale anti-democratic assault, the Hambantota port workers were forced to abandon their struggle and return to work on December 15.

Political responsibility for this political setback lies with all the so-called left organisations that helped bring the Sirisena-Wickremesinge government to power, and the trade unions, including the Magampura Port Workers Union (MPWU), which isolated the striking port workers from the rest of the working class.

Nava Sama Samaja Party leader Wickremabahu Karunaratne, speaking for Sri Lankas pseudo-left, claimed that the brutal government assault on the workers right to strike was a mistake by the navy commander. Karunaratne made this claim even after Prime Minister Wickremesinghe publicly admitted he ordered the navy mobilisation and after Deputy Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardane justified the navy attack, declaring: Once the workers seized the ship, they were no longer protesting civilians. They became pirates.

Former President Rajapakse also attempted to hide the reactionary nature of the governments mobilisation of the navy, saying: [T]he use of the Navy by the government was a move to discredit the war heroes that defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Head of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) trade union faction, K. D. Lal Kantha, met with the port strikers, promoting illusions in the MPWU and claiming they could win their demands if they exerted enough pressure on the government. Lal Kantha remained completely silent about what his own union was going to do to support the strike.

In contrast, the Socialist Equality Party intervened to warn the strikers about the threats they faced and to discuss the necessary political preparations, particularly the need of an independent program of the working class to fight against the profit system, the root cause of the attacks on jobs and democratic rights.

Although the MPWU leadership tried to stop workers talking to the SEP, declaring that such discussions would lead to confusion, the relevance and political truth of the SEPs warnings have been proven by events.

As soon as the strike ended, the government moved to establish an armed navy battalion permanently within the port premises and refused to provide any guarantee about the future jobs of the casual workers. Meanwhile, there will be witch-hunting inquiries against those who led the industrial action.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government, under the impact of an escalating economic crisis, is imposing increasingly regressive social policies and throwing overboard its good governance posturingthe bogus rhetoric peddled by the pseudo left and which brought it to power, with US backing, two years ago.

To attract foreign investors to its planned new Free Trade Zones, the government and its support base of local cronies are taking drastic steps toward the destruction of all the social and democratic rights won by past generations of workers.

The ruling elite is in a cut-throat competition with its counterparts in the region to secure international investment. That is why it is a fatal myth for workers and the poor to believe they can secure a sympathetic hearing from any section of the capitalist class and its political representatives. The government assault and the harsh conditions facing Hambantota port workers are not an accident but the general situation confronting wide layers of the working class.

Without a political perspective and a revolutionary leadership, working people cannot defend their basic rights and past gains. This is why the SEP calls for the formation of Action Committees, independent of the trade unions, to take forward the fight for the fundamental democratic and social rights of all sections of the working class. What is required is the overthrow of capitalist rule and the establishment of a workers and peasant government to implement a socialist program as part of a federation of Socialist Republics of South Asia.

The achievement of this task depends on the building of the revolutionary party of the working class based on socialist internationalism. The SEP, the Sri Lankan section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, is engaged in the building of such a party and appeals to the most thoughtful and serious layers of workers and youth to join its ranks.
Yesterday, top Russian, Turkish, and Iranian officials met in Moscow and signed a declaration they billed as ending the US-instigated war in Syria. Coming after Russian-backed Syrian army units captured the key city of Aleppo from US-backed Islamist fighters, the deal shows that moves to improve ties between the three countries are continuing despite Mondays assassination of Russias ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov.

Today, experts are working on the text of the Moscow declaration on immediate steps towards resolving the Syrian crisis. It is a thorough, extremely necessary document, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Dehghan.

Shoigu dismissed US and European initiatives in Syria, declaring that attempts to agree on joint efforts undertaken by the US or their partners were doomed.  None of them exerted real influence on the situation on the ground.

The initiative was hailed by officials from Turkey, in a sharp turnaround from Turkeys support for US-backed Islamist opposition militias in the early years of the war. Now we are observing a very successful operation to liberate eastern Aleppo from fighters, the evacuation of the families of the opposition from Aleppo, said Turkish National Defence Minister Fikri Isk.

Meeting with his Russian and Iranian counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Javad Zarif, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said cooperation between Russia, Turkey, and Iran had brought about definite successes in Aleppo. He said he hoped to spread it to other districts of Syria.

The expulsion of the Islamist opposition from Aleppo and developing collaboration between Moscow, Ankara, and Tehran mark a major setback for Washington and its European allies. For five years, US imperialism tried to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by backing Islamist militias, a strategy it later expanded to include backing Kurdish nationalist forces in Syria, as well. While this operation was marketed as a revolution in the US and European media, it collapsed because the US-backed forces lacked any real popular support.

Though Turkey is a NATO ally of the United States, Ankara is reacting to the victory of the Syrian regime, Russia, and Iran in Aleppo by developing ever closer ties to Russia. During the launch of a Turkish-Russian joint investigation into Karlovs murder, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara and Moscow would not let anyone harm Turkish-Russian relations.

Anonymous Turkish officials told the media that Moscow and Ankara both know that the US-based movement of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind the assassination of Karlov.

This drew a protest from US Secretary of State John Kerry, who criticized rhetoric coming out of Turkey with respect to American involvement or support, tacit or otherwise, for this unspeakable assassination yesterday because of the presence of Mr Gulen here in the United States.

These events point to the deep instability in world politics and the rising danger of world war after the NATO powers setback in Syria, and the election as US president of Donald Trump, who has openly questioned whether the NATO alliance serves US interests. Turkey has been a NATO ally of the United States for six decades, with the second-largest army of the alliance. Yet, after five years of war in Syria during which the NATO powers launched a warmongering campaign against Russia, the Turkish regime is moving ever closer to Russia.

Since 2012, Ankaras NATO partners have repeatedly expressed their concern over Turkeys possible split from its Western allies, as conflict between Washington and Ankara came out over US support to Kurdish nationalists, which the Turkish government denounces as terrorist organizations.

Last year, after the territorial gains of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS), the Obama administration founded the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces. It engaged the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and its militia, the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), as its main proxies in Syria. This terrified Ankara, which views Kurdish separatism in Turkey and neighbouring Syria as an existential threat.

The deep crisis of the Turkish regimes foreign policy intensified when, in November 2015, Turkey shot down a Russian jet over Syria. While Moscow stepped up its deployment of missile units, fighters, and warships to the regionthreatening an all-out war with Turkey that could have escalated into a world war between NATO and Russiait ultimately only imposed economic sanctions on Turkey.

Amid escalating damage to the Turkish economy and fears that NATO allies, notably in Europe, might not intervene to aid Turkey in a war with Russia, the Turkish regime shifted its foreign policy. It began mentioning a possible rapprochement with Russia and the Syrian regime. In May 2016, Erdogan discharged his prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, who had previously declared that he ordered the shooting down of the Russian fighter, and apologized to Russia.

This set the stage for Washington and Berlin to tacitly back a coup attempt that nearly succeeded against Erdogan on July 15, and which Ankara blamed on Gulens movement. It was reportedly averted thanks to timely warnings from Russia. This inflamed the already explosive tensions not only inside Turkey, but above all, between Erdogans government and the major NATO powers.

The Turkish government has reacted by manoeuvring ever more desperately between its ostensible allies in NATO and the major Eurasian powers, Russia and China. In recent months, amid growing economic ties between China and Turkey, Erdogan has repeatedly declared that Turkey might join the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), claiming this would allow Ankara to act more freely.

This drew a sharp reaction from NATO. Visiting Istanbul last month for the NATO Parliamentarians Assembly, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with Erdogan and said, I am sure Turkey will do nothing that could impair the concept of joint defence  and NATO unity.

Above all, however, Ankara sought closer ties to Russia. Earlier this month, the Russian and Turkish prime ministers, Dmitri Medvedev and Binali Yildirim, met in Moscow. They agreed that the normalization of the Syrian situation is a priority task for our countries and it will definitely serve to the benefit of the whole region, not to mention Syria, which is currently in a very complicated situation.

On December 6, Yildirim criticized NATO for hesitation and foot-dragging in Syria: Nice words are exchanged about defending civilization against terrorism. But the big terrorist networks challenging us today operate across borders. He described the Turkish-Russian initiative as a push for a forceful and united international front to eradicate terrorism.

Erdogans government also seems to hope the Trump administration will take a soft line on Russia and offer Turkey more political leeway. Speaking to the pro-government Daily Sabah paper on December 5, Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said, The Trump administration is one we could cooperate with, claiming that Trump is a pragmatic person. Many of our views overlap.

Such hopes that Trumps election will stabilize the situation and dampen explosive tensions in US relations with Turkey and the Middle East are built on quicksand. Trump has announced an aggressive America first policy and is signalling an offensive against China, as well as the cancellation of the nuclear treaty with Iran. What is emerging is not a stabilization of US imperialist policy, but the eruption of even more explosive crises.
The alarms emit a shrill sound to ward off potential attackers. (Photo: Getty Images)

Authorities in Austria are hoping to avoid any assaults on the biggest party night of the year  New Years Eve. To help do so, police will distribute pocket alarms to women in Vienna. According to a report from the Associated Press, Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck said police will be handing out the devices for free around Viennas Sylvesterpfad, a busy route that goes through the inner city.

The device will emit a shrill sound when activated, reports the AP, which is expected to ward off assailants and help police locate the victim in the crowd gathered for the citys popular New Years celebration.

The AP reports that dozens of women reported being robbed and groped in the German city of Cologne last New Years Eve. Fox News reports that Cologne has increased its police presence in advance of the celebrations.

This is not the first time a device has been developed to protect against sexual crimes. In 2013, the Indian government developed a wristwatch equipped with GPS and a distress button. When activated, the watch would send texts to the owners contacts and begin automatically recording video, according to Jezebel. According to CNET, the watch was supposed to hit the market a few months later for between $20 and $50. (Shouldnt safety come at no cost?) However, we couldnt find any record of them being sold.

Although the U.S. government has only gone as far as supporting the development of apps against abuse, there have been American-bred devices that ward off attackers. For example, Athena looks like a little clip-on button and can be worn anywhere. When pressed, it emits an alarm and texts the location to the wearers emergency contacts. There is also a nail polish in development that will change colors if dipped in a drink that contains date-rape drugs, and a $179 blinged-out necklace that calls 911 for you when pressed.

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Sandy Wacker mailed about 200 Christmas cards to her business clients late last week, and on Monday, she was back at the Lincoln Post Office armed with cards and letters addressed to family and friends.

The roughly 50 pieces of mail Wacker dropped in the collection bin were part of an estimated 1.3 million cards, letters and packages mailed on Monday in Nebraska, on what the post office said is its busiest day of the year.

Many of those Christmas cards included letters with winding tales of the year, and likewise, the cards themselves were in store for a bit of a journey.

Beginning in January 2015, most of the letters, cards and packages dropped into blue collection bins, clipped to mailboxes or handed to post office employees in Lincoln began traveling 60 miles up Interstate 80.

It doesn't matter if the delivery address is Omaha. Or Oklahoma.

Or an apartment in the same Lincoln building.

Mail, as the average person knows it, goes to Omaha to get canceled, said Lincoln Postmaster Kerry Kowalski. Anything that has a stamp on it is going to Omaha to get canceled.

Between 300,000 and 400,000 pieces of mail are routed from Lincoln to Omaha's three-story, 190,000-square-foot processing center every day, Kowalski said, which has changed expected delivery times.

Prior to 2015, senders of Christmas cards could procrastinate knowing the post office would likely get their cards delivered the next day.

Once Lincolns post office processing operations moved to Omaha, together with mail from Grand Island and Norfolk, next-day delivery of first-class mail went with it.

Lincoln to Lincoln, which used to be one-day delivery, now is two-day delivery, Kowalski said.

The Journal Star tested the two-day delivery standard this month, dropping nearly three dozen letters in mailboxes across Lincoln on Dec. 7.

Of those letters dropped in boxes on time, all but one -- a letter sent from 70th Street and Pioneers Boulevard -- made it to their Lincoln destination two days later, on Dec. 9. The delayed letter arrived at a Lincoln address on Dec. 10.

Letters addressed to Blair, Blue Springs, Denton, Eagle, Garland, Omaha, York and Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, all were delivered in two days, on the same schedule as the letters returning to Lincoln.

Cards sent to Idaho, Indiana, North Dakota and even California arrived on Dec. 10. Three-day delivery is the standard for any first-class mail sent in the continental U.S.

Seven letters mailed from the main post office and Lincoln branch offices after the posted last collection -- between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. -- arrived delayed to Lincoln addresses, as expected, on Dec. 10.

The delivery schedule, however, doesnt mean that Thursday would be the last day to mail cards or letters for delivery before Christmas, Kowalski said.

The post office offers different delivery options -- albeit at graduated prices, depending on the destination and the speed of delivery desired -- to customers who may have waited a little too long to get that end-of-year-wrap-up note in the mail.

Priority Mail Express, for example, can still be dropped off at the post office on Friday.

We deliver Express mail on the holiday, said post office spokesman Rick Humphries. That takes 1-2 days, so if you mail it on the 23rd, it will be delivered on the 24th or 25th.

Elizabeth Martinez stood in a short line at the post offices Haymarket headquarters on Monday waiting to mail a package to New Zealand.

Martinez said she frequents the post office, often sending mail to her sister in the military.

While she held reservations that the Christmas gift would reach its destination on the other side of the world by the weekend, Martinez came to the post office with a plan.

Ive mailed packages to her before, and they say it takes 7-10 days, Martinez said. Usually, I mail Priority, but I feel like I need to do Express this time.

More people are sending and receiving packages through the mail, Kowalski said, with volume growing by double-digit rates in each of the last three years as shopping from the comfort of ones living room has become routine.

Kowalski estimated the number of packages delivered by Lincoln postal carriers will be up 20 percent this year -- topping the projected statewide bump of 12 percent.

Its all part of the latest change in the 240-year history of the U.S. Postal Service. In the '90s, postal carriers delivered millions of AOL discs to people with computers to help them get on the internet. In the last decade, DVDs from Netflix temporarily filled the void as email and social media connections began to take the place of cards and letters.

Then came online streaming. And online bill payments.

When I started 25 years ago, we delivered Christmas cards and the package business wasnt near what it is today, Kowalski said. Well continue to evolve and change as those realities take place, and you just never know whats going to come around the corner that will help us to evolve.

Wacker, who scanned over the packaging options on Monday, is among those sending presents through the mail this year.

I sent a package to my sister in Omaha on Friday, and she got it on Saturday, Wacker said. I didnt want her to get it that fast.
By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas plans to block about $3 million in Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood operations in the state, a legal document obtained on Wednesday showed, a move the reproductive healthcare group said could affect nearly 11,000 low-income people.

Planned Parenthood said it would seek court help to block the funding halt, which would cut cancer screenings, birth control, HIV testing and other programs.

Planned Parenthood gets about $500 million annually in federal funds, largely in reimbursements through Medicaid, which provides health coverage to millions of low-income Americans.

Texas and several other Republican-controlled states have tried to cut the organization's funding after an anti-abortion group released videos last year that it said showed officials from Planned Parenthood negotiating prices for fetal tissues from abortions it performs.

Texas sent a notice to Planned Parenthood in the state on Tuesday to alert it of the funding cut, the document showed, saying the basis of the termination was the videos.

Planned Parenthood has denied wrongdoing, saying the videos were heavily edited and it does not profit from fetal tissue donation. It has challenged similar defunding efforts in other states, calling them politically motivated.

It added that previous funding cuts in Texas have had devastating effects on healthcare for poor residents and the state rarely fills the void for lost services.

"Texas is a cautionary tale for the rest of the nation," Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood Action Fund's president, said in a statement. "With this action, the state is doubling down on reckless policies that have been absolutely devastating for women."

Republican President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to defund Planned Parenthood, and at least 14 states have tried to pass legislation or taken administration action to prevent the organization from receiving federal Title X funding.

The state investigated Planned Parenthood over the videos and a grand jury in January cleared it of any wrongdoing.

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The state took no further criminal action against Planned Parenthood after that but has repeated its accusations that the abortion provider may have violated state law.

"Governor Abbott has made clear that Texas will not subsidize an organization that admits a willingness to alter an abortion procedure in order to profit off the harvesting of baby body parts," his office said in a statement on Wednesday.

Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said politicians in Texas "are once again recycling these false accusations, regardless of how many women they hurt in the process."

Planned Parenthood has 34 health centers in Texas, serving more than 120,000 patients, 11,000 of whom are Medicaid patients, it said.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Alan Crosby)
Texas authorities are investigating the killings of a mother and her infant son after they were found in their beds Thursday night with their throats slit, PEOPLE confirms.

The bodies of Shanna Riddle Vandewege, 36, and her 3-month-old son, Diederick, were found in their Fort Worth home. They died from having their necks cut, a Tarrant County Medical Examiners office spokeswoman tells PEOPLE. Their deaths were ruled homicides.

Fort Worth police went to the familys house after receiving a call from Saginaw police reporting a man had called after finding the woman and child dead, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram 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.

Mark Riddle, Shannas father, told ABC8 his daughters husband, Craig Vandewege, found his wife and sons bodies after coming home from work. (Fort Worth police could not be reached by PEOPLE for comment.)

Shanna was a registered nurse at a nearby hospital but was on maternity leave, the Star-Telegram reports. She and Craig had recently moved from Denver, Colorado, to Texas according to a GoFundMe page started to help pay for funeral expenses.

They tried so long to have a baby, Riddle told ABC8 of his daughters growing family. She had three miscarriages prior to having one.

 Pick up PEOPLEs special edition True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America, on sale now, for the latest on Casey Anthony, JonBenet Ramsey and more.

Police have not commented on a motive, the Dallas Morning News reports. No suspects have been named.

Shanna was a beautiful soul and a dedicated nurse and mother, a friend wrote on the GoFundMe page. All our thoughts and prayers are with Shannas family. There are no words to describe how much she will be missed and how difficult this time is.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating about 1 million Dodge Durango SUVs and Ram 1500 pickup trucks over complaints that they could roll away after being parked.

The complaints involve rotary shifters, which the driver turns to select a gear instead of moving back and forth like the more familiar stick-type shifter. Drivers may have selected, or intended to select, Park, but the vehicles rolled.

NHTSA has identified 25 crashes related to 2014-2016 Dodge Durangos and 2013-2016 Ram 1500s equipped with these shifters. NHTSA is also investigating about 39,000 2012-2014 Land Rover Evoque SUVs and Jaguar XF sedans for the same concern.

In 34 of the reports to NHTSA, the engine was running at the time. This scenario is similar to the accident that killed actor Anton Yelchin. His Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled into him earlier this year, crushing him against a gate and mailbox.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which makes the Durango and Ram 1500, said its cooperating with the investigation. A spokesman added that the company joins NHTSA joins urging all drivers to use their vehicles parking brakes.

Fiat Chrysler earlier this year recalled 2014-2015 Jeep Grand Cherokees and 2012-2014 Chrysler 300s and Dodge Chargers because of a similar issue with rotary shifters that could be mistakenly left in Neutral, making rollaways possible. It fixed the issue with a software change.

For decades, automatic shift levers used the same basic design. Gears were always in the same order, and drivers could easily confirm what gear was selected with a quick glance or by feel alone. But that has changed in recent years.

Consumer Reports has repeatedly noted potentially confusing shifters in several vehicles, including BMW M models, Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac XT5, and several Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

Some automakers have said they switched to electronic shifters because they were a way to differentiate their cars.

One straightforward way to make these shifters safer would be for the transmissions to automatically engage Park when the vehicle is at a standstill and the drivers door is opened and the seatbelt unbuckled.

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Many automakers already use logic to make the vehicles automatically engage Park when the door is opened, said Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports director of auto testing. FCA should follow these best practices in all their vehicles.

Indeed, Consumer Reports auto testers have experienced safety systems that work like this in several vehicles, including models with non-conventional shifters like the Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac XT5, and Lincoln Continental.

Earlier this month, Ford announced a return to Park feature for the 2017 Ford Fusion that uses software to put the car in Park if the driver gets out of the car when its in another gear.





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.
(Corrects first, second, third, sixth and eighth paragraphs to reflect that there is no collective bargaining agreement at the Washington hotel and that workers at that hotel will be permitted to organize)

By Daniel Wiessner

Dec 21 (Reuters) - Hotels in Las Vegas and Washington owned by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump have reached agreements with their workers' unions that will bring an end to a series of cases claiming the hotels violated federal labor law, the unions said on Wednesday.

More than 500 food and beverage and housekeeping employees at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas have entered into a four-year collective bargaining agreement effective Jan. 1 that guarantees annual raises and pension and healthcare benefits, Trump Hotels and Unite Here Culinary Workers Union Local 226 said in a joint statement.

Under the agreement, the union will withdraw a series of cases filed with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board against the hotel, union spokeswoman Bethany Khan said.

Those cases had been expected to be an early test of how Trump, who as president will have influence over the NLRB, would handle concerns over conflicts of interest raised by his business holdings.

Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

Trump Hotels, meanwhile, also agreed to permit workers at the Trump International Hotel Washington D.C., which opened in October, to organize, the company said.

Last week, Democrats in the U.S. Congress called on Trump to divest from the Washington hotel, which is in a building leased from the federal government, saying the lease would pose a conflict of interest because he would essentially be both its landlord and tenant once he is sworn in.

Eric Danziger, the chief executive of Trump Hotels, called Unite Here Local 25, the union organizing workers at the hotel, which is down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, an "important partner" in a statement.

"We share mutual goals with the union, as we both desire to ensure outstanding jobs for the employees, while also enabling the hotel to operate successfully in a competitive environment," he said.

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As part of the agreement, the Trump Organization will also end its appeal of a November NLRB decision that said it violated workers' rights to organize at the Las Vegas hotel.

The Trump Organization still faces a pending case at the NLRB claiming it required thousands of U.S. employees to sign unlawfully broad confidentiality agreements.

Separately, Politico reported on Wednesday that Trump's transition team is considering the use of discretionary trusts to avoid conflicts of interest for Trump family members or administration officials.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Frances Kerry and Jonathan Oatis)
Ring in the New Year in these under-the-radar retreats the world over.

New Year's Eve marks one of the biggest spectacles of the year. In places such as New York City and Sydney millions cram together to watch fireworks displays, get doused in confetti and enjoy beloved performers sing on a live stage. But if you've already watched the ball drop in festive places across the globe, why not opt for visiting something a little more under the radar? These underrated destinations boast all of the key ingredients of a successful New Year's Eve celebration -- think: firework displays and live performances -- without the added stress, high costs or massive crowds. Read on to ring in 2017 in lesser-known locales the world over.

Grand Canyon National Park

Imagine spending your New Year's holiday in a place with awe-inspiring views and plenty of scenic trails. Ditch iconic party destinations and opt for a laid-back celebration at the Grand Canyon. Coated with snow and bathed in beautiful winter light, the South Rim is the ultimate place to reflect on the past year. If you're a hiker, spend a few days traversing the Kaibab Plateau (North Rim) trail, which weaves through lofty peaks and isolated gorges or the Boucher Trail. Best of all, you can cut costs by booking a stay at the North Rim yurt or setting up camp (with a permit).

Koh Phangan Island, Thailand

The mother of all beach parties, the New Year's Eve celebration (or full moon party) on Koh Phangan is not for the faint of heart. The all-night party, which kicks off after dark on Sunrise Beach in Haad Rin, rages until the following afternoon. Alternatively, you can opt for your own celebration on one of the isles' smaller beaches, such Thong Nai Pan and Thong Nai Pan Noi. If you're not into sleeping on the beach, stay at the luxurious Anantara Rasananda Koh Phangan Villas, which overlooks the beach at Noi.

Reykjavik, Iceland

A New Year's celebration in Iceland's capital city won't be as crowded as other iconic cities across Europe. Due to the subzero temperatures at this time of year, the party on Dec. 31 will be much more low-key. But Reykjavik still celebrates in style with fireworks displays across the city thanks to the country's relaxed fireworks law. After the spectacles, join locals at bars and clubs such as Kaffibarinn, Club Kiki and Prijo. Alternatively, for a more natural display, head north or south of the city to catch the aurora borealis. Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Natura is an ideal central spot to enjoy festive parties and the natural wonders.

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Ecuador

For an off-the-grid holiday, skip the merry-makers and crowds of Times Square, and opt for a more purge-focused New Year's celebration in Ecuador. Cities all over the country, including Quito, build giant dummies (or scarecrows) out of old clothes and newspaper. The idea behind these scarecrows is to capture all of the negative energy of the last year and destroy them before the sun rises in 2017. When the clock strikes midnight, locals set the dummies on fire to start each fresh calendar year with a clean slate. If you're headed to Quito, splurge for a stay at the five-star Casa Gangotena Boutique Hotel, which is located near the Old City.

Madeira, Portugal

If you prefer a top-notch glass of wine over a shot of whiskey, Madeira is the New Year's Eve place for you. The picture-perfect Portuguese island rings in the new year with plenty of festivity (think: fireworks over Funchal Bay and free-flowing wine from street-side cafes). But you can also still find a relatively quiet place to enjoy a seafood dinner and a hearty glass of port. Before the celebrations begin, spend the day exploring the quaint charm of the island -- from tea at Reid's to touring the island's unique waterways. And for a centrally located hotel, stay at the Vine Hotel, a boutique with gorgeous views of rolling hills.

The Caribbean

If you can't decide on just one place to celebrate New Year's Eve, why not experience the holiday in a few different locales? Consider a seven-day Eastern Caribbean cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines to ring in 2017 while island-hopping through sunny locales. Not only is the weather perfect with temperatures in the mid-80s and plenty of sunshine, but you'll get a chance to experience the unique cultures of the islands. The cruise aboard the Norwegian Escape takes you from Miami to St. Thomas, the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas, and offers a special holiday-themed dinner complete with Champagne and sparkly accessories. Fares start at $1,349 per person.

Zion National Park, Utah

With its iconic red rock canyons, deep gorges and tree-studded mountain peaks, the dramatic landscape of Zion National Park has beckoned hikers and adventure-seekers for years. To see the park in a whole new light, consider a New Year's Eve trip. Spend the morning hiking up to Angel's Landing for 360-degree views of the 147,000-acre park. And at dusk, cozy up in a room at the Zion Lodge, which hosts a New Year's Eve Celebration Package, offers a special dinner for two at Red Rock Grill, followed by a romantic reception and New Year's toast. And you can enjoy brunch in the morning, before hitting more of the park's 200-plus trails.

Abu Dhabi

Skip the usual party scene (and the crowds of glittering expats) in Dubai and visit neighboring Abu Dhabi on Dec. 31. With just as much luxury and glamour, Abu Dhabi comes alive with music, concerts and dazzling fireworks shows over the Al Maryah Island Promenade and the Khor Al Maqta. To cut costs, check the celebrations at Al Maryah Island to watch fireworks and sample authentic Middle Eastern fare. Or, for a party with a view, go to the Skylite Rooftop Lounge at Yas Viceroy, which boasts impeccable water views. If money is no object, head to the New Year's Eve Gala at the Emirates Palace for a private fireworks display.

Tasmania, Australia

Known the world over for its incredible hiking trails and pristine landscapes, Tasmania is the ultimate place to get off the grid to recharge and start the New Year on the right foot. If you're an avid hiker, hit the Overland Track, which takes you through the diverse (and challenging) landscapes of Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. And for an even more off-the-beaten-path experience, head to the South Coast Track, which is set in lush and towering rainforests, alpine heights and supreme bird-watching spots. Or, for an active adventurer, hit the rapids of Franklin River for a whitewater rafting expedition that spans five to seven days.

Orlando, Florida

For a fairytale New Year's Eve setting, spring for an all-out celebration in Walt Disney World. The park is decked out in thousands of twinkling lights and features one of the best fireworks displays in the country. The epic countdown starts at 8 p.m. and gives you a chance to celebrate at one of their many venues, including the Fantasia Ballroom. If you're traveling with youngsters, visit one of the many restaurants in the park offering menus for all ages, including the California Grill and Citricos. The crown jewel of the evening is the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks display, which erupts over Sleeping Beauty's Castle and can be seen across the park.
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LONDON  A 10-year-old girl from Northern Ireland has wowed people around the world after a video of her singing in her school choir went viral.

SEE ALSO: Father's search for autistic son's cup completed thanks to the kindness of the internet

The video of the choirs's version of Leonard Cohens "Hallelujah"  recorded at the school's Christmas show  has gained almost 170,000 views in three days.



Kaylee Rodgers, from Donaghadee, County Down, has autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but singing has helped her build up her confidence.

A ccording to the National Autistic Society, autism is a "developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with and relates to other people". The NHS defines ADHD as a group of behavioural symptoms including "inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsiveness".

People from around the world have been wowed by the little girl's voice, with hundreds of comments praising Kaylee's singing ability.

"Wow what a beautiful voice she has," wrote one commenter. "Leonard Cohen would love this!" wrote another.

Kaylee's headteacher told UTV that the video shows how far Kaylee has come since she came to the school in Primary Four (aged between 7 and 8).

"For a child who came in P4 and wouldn't really talk, wouldnt really read out in class, to stand and perform in front of an audience is amazing. It takes a lot of effort on Kaylees part"" Colin Millar, principal of Killard House, told UTV.

Bravo, Kaylee!

BONUS: NFL player saw an autistic child eating alone, so he sat down with him
At superlative Caribbean beach bars, it's easy to relax and unwind. After all, with crystal blue waters and picturesque backdrops in the distance, scrumptious island cuisine and umbrella cocktails, everything is there waiting for you. We've rounded up some of the top Caribbean beach bars where you can rest, recharge and soak in laid-back vibes and breathtaking views.

[See: The 10 Best All-Inclusive Resorts in the Caribbean.]

The Soggy Dollar

Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

Chances are, someone you know has been to the Soggy Dollar. The bar's signature drink, the Painkiller, has become a global favorite. A BVI staple, Soggy Dollar has lured tourists from the world over just to have a taste. The signature drink is a mixture of coconut cream, dark rum, pineapple and orange juice with just a bit of Grenadian nutmeg. Located on White Bay on Jost Van Dyke, this legendary bar also offers a full bar menu, with authentic Caribbean cuisine. Located directly on the beach, the Soggy Dollar is accessible by land and sea.

Rick's Cafe

Negril, Jamaica

If you're a daredevil, Rick's Cafe is for you. At Rick's, cliff-diving isn't just an activity -- it's an initiation. Here, you'll be welcomed into the club of hundreds of thousands of tourists who dare to dive off the infamous 35-foot-high cliff. And if drinking a rum punch and jumping off a cliff is not your thing, you're in luck. Rick's Cafe also offers a swimming pool, a dance floor and mouthwatering Jamaican treats.

Marcus'

Hamilton, Bermuda

If you're familiar with Chef Marcus Samuelsson, then you already know you're in for a real treat at Marcus'. His Bermuda restaurant not only boasts delicious cuisine in the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club, but a bar along the water serving up incredible Bermuda cocktails, such as the infamous Dark and Stormier (a spin on the traditional favorite) and a Colada Colada. And along with spectacular drinks and views, you can enjoy bites such as Oysters with black rum mignonette, jerk pork belly and a tantalizing fried chicken for two.

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Iggies Beach Bar & Grill

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

Located on the east side of St. Thomas, Iggies Beach Bar sits perched on St. Thomas' Bolongo Bay Beach. Whether you're in for an afternoon of fun in the sun, karaoke, dancing or a few rounds of volleyball, Iggies has it all. A favorite among locals and tourists alike, Iggies blends island culture and local traditions to give you a true taste of the Caribbean. Specialties at Iggies include oysters, mussels, shrimp, steaks and burgers.

[Read: 5 Under-the-Radar Caribbean Islands to Visit Now.]

Abi Beach Bar

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

If you're looking for a secluded beach bar, consider Abi Beach Bar. Only accessible by boat, Abi Beach Bar offers breathtaking views, refreshing rum cocktails and high-end cuisine. And if you're looking for an afternoon of fun, you can spend the afternoon sunbathing or take in some water activities, thanks to Abi Beach Bar's plethora of paddle boats, boards and kayaks for rent.

Zest at the Gansevoort

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos

If you love people-watching, Zest is the perfect beach bar for you. Located at the luxurious Gansevoort Turks & Caicos, you can enjoy a gourmet bar menu including fresh seafood, modern Mediterranean cuisine with local specialties such as conch and mahi mahi. And with outdoor seating along the resort's beach, you can sit back and sink your feet in powdery sands, enjoy the bar's fire pit and create long-lasting memories while embracing Turks and Caicos' jaw-dropping scenery.

Rum Bar at Cooper Island Beach Club

Cooper Island, British Virgin Islands

The only thing better than one rum might be more than 100 rum varieties to pick from. Featuring the largest rum selection of any bar or restaurant in the Caribbean, Rum Bar is a crowd pleaser. Not only do the bartenders serve some of the tastiest rum concoctions in the Caribbean, but they're also able to give you a background on each one. What's more, if you're traveling on a boat, you can easily dock at Cooper Island and head over to the bar.

Calico Jack's Bar & Grill

Cayman Islands

To get the best island experience, live like a local. A popular spot for both tourists and islanders, Calico Jack's is located on the northern stretch of Seven Mile Beach, just outside the hotel zone. Offering daily happy hour specials from 5 to 7 p.m., an open-mic night on Tuesdays, live music on Fridays and DJs on Saturday nights, Calico Jack's consistently offers a vibrant party scene.

Sunset Bar & Deck

Barbados

Home to Mount Gay Rum, the Sunset Bar & Deck at the Colony Club in Barbados offers top-notch cocktails. Open until midnight each day, the bar offers picturesque beach views, rum cocktails and excellent local dishes. As an added bonus, the bar features live music and Bajan steel drums so you can dance the night away. Whether you're in for a day of partying or an evening of romance, Sunset Bar appeals to a variety of traveler types and interests.

Sand Bar at Eden Rock

St. Barts

You'll find elegance and sophistication at the Sand Bar at Eden Rock. Offering casual cuisine in a contemporary seaside setting, the Sand Bar pairs great drinks with great views. Located on the pristine Baie de St-Jean, Sand Bar also offers an excellent location to jam to local island music or decompress under the sun at the bar's reserved beach chairs. From cocktails to light bites, this is where you'll want to indulge on your trip to St. Barts.

Infiniti Bar at Grace Bay Club

Turks and Caicos

If you're seeking an out of the ordinary Caribbean bar scene, Infiniti Bar certainly isn't your typical beach bar. At 90-feet-long, the Infiniti Bar is the longest bar in the Caribbean. And not only does the Infiniti Bar boast delicious cocktails, but also, as its name suggests, a dramatic infinity-edge bar. You'll want to snap a few photos at this sophisticated bar (it's located in the "no kids zone" section of Grace Bay Club) before ordering from the creative menu, which offers small tapas-style dishes.

[See: The 10 Most Affordable Caribbean Destinations.]

Turquoise Beach Bar

St. Lucia

St. Lucia is known for its striking natural surroundings, and at the Turquoise Beach Bar, you'll find plenty of picturesque views. Located on Rodney Bay, the Turquoise Beach Bar offers a premium drink selection, along with a white-sand beach overlooking the lush Pigeon Island National Park, which it neighbors. Spend the day swimming and sunbathing, while you enjoy the bar's expansive premium drink selections. The bar is open daily from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., and you can choose from an array of specially-crafted cocktails or the bar's signature drink: the Sweet Euphoria.

Kimberly N. Wilson is a NYC-based travel/lifestyle writer and social media strategist. She is the creator of GoneGirlsGuide.com, and her work has been featured in Travel + Leisure, BRIDES, Amtrak, BudgetTravel.com and more. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, and completed her JD at the Howard University School of Law. Follow her on Twitter @kimberlynatasha and @gonegirlsguide.
PONCA CITY, Okla. (AP)  The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation says two men have been fatally shot by law officers in separate incidents.

The OSBI says Ponca City officers confronted 31-year-old Ian Shea King as he assaulting a delivery man with a machete, which was previously said to be a tire iron. The OSBI says officers shot the man when he threatened them with the weapon.

In the other shooting, the OSBI says 25-year-old Colton Caloway was pulled over by an Elk City officer Wednesday, then ran into a Burns Flat neighborhood. Investigators say he tried to force his way inside a home, then turned toward the officer with a gun in his hand and the officer shot him. The OSBI initially spelled his name Calloway.

The officers involved haven't been identified.

___

This story has been corrected to change the spelling of Caloway.
WHAT WE LIKE: After a few months of road-tripping, commuting, and tooling around in the 10th-generation Civic (a.k.a. Civic X), its clear that the new cars chassis is a solid achievement on Hondas part. Its dynamic fundamentalsthings like going, stopping, and turningare near the top of the compact class, with our editors praising the responsive steering, the composed ride quality, and the progressive feel of the brake pedal. Although the turbocharged 1.5-liter inline-four may not evoke high-revving fevered dreams as did the Honda VTEC four-bangers of yore, it delivers torque low down in the rev range, which mitigates our criticisms of the continuously variable automatic transmission. Several drivers proclaimed this Civics CVT to be among the best of its kind for the way it modulates torque smoothly and unobtrusively, rarely eliciting the loud moaning from the engine that often accompanies this transmission type. Additionally, the powertrain is delivering an impressive average of 35 mpg thus far, 1 mpg shy of the EPA combined fuel-economy estimate.

WHAT WE DONT LIKE: For a new-for-2016 compact car engineered with tech-savvy buyers in mind, the Civics touchscreen interface and its active-safety systems are disappointingly behind the times. The central infotainment screen has come under fire for slow operation and overly complex menu structures. Several complaints also arose about an overly sensitive forward-collision-warning system that sounds its alert at the merest suggestion of a possible impactsuch as when a driver has already begun slowing using the brakes when approaching a stopped car. (There are three sensitivity settings for the forward-collision system, which we will continue to experiment with.)

Were also not thrilled with the amount of noise from the Firestone FT140 tires that came installed on our car, as they generate a bothersome thrum when cruising on the freeway and loud thwaps when traversing expansion joints. Wed be more inclined to forgive these transgressions in return for more dry-weather grip, but they recorded only a modest 0.83 g in our skidpad test. To prepare our Civic for snow season, we fitted it with a set of Bridgestone Blizzak WS80 winter tires that, despite their more aggressive tread, counterintuitively seemed to reduce overall tire noise.

WHAT WENT WRONG: After a routine $64 oil and filter change and tire rotation at 9800 miles (and a recall fix for new stability-control software programming), we asked our dealer to take a look at an annoying rattle coming from the rear parcel shelf. The technician determined that the shelf was distorted, and it was replaced under warranty. The rattle, which had been most obvious when listening to music with heavy bass, appears to be gone for now. (Translation: Its time to crank up the Kendrick.)

WHERE WE WENT: Although the Honda has been fulfilling its, ahem, civic duty as an efficient daily commuter, staffers arent shy to sign it out for road trips thanks to its comfortable seats and good fuel economy. It has already logged jaunts to Chicago, New York City, Louisville, Kentucky, and Columbus, Ohio, and has even ventured into the Great White North, rolling up miles during a trip into central Ontario.

Months in Fleet: 5 months Current Mileage: 11,034 miles

Average Fuel Economy: 35 mpg Fuel Tank Size: 12.4 gal Fuel Range: 430 miles

Service: $64 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0

Specifications >

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, front-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan



PRICE AS TESTED: $27,335 (base price: $19,475)



ENGINE TYPE: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injection



Displacement: 91 cu in, 1497 cc

Power: 174 hp @ 6000 rpm

Torque: 162 lb-ft @ 1700 rpm



TRANSMISSION: continuously variable automatic



DIMENSIONS:

Wheelbase: 106.3 in

Length: 182.3 in

Width: 70.8 in Height: 55.7 in

Passenger volume: 95 cu ft

Cargo volume: 15 cu ft

Curb weight: 2920 lb



PERFORMANCE: NEW

Zero to 60 mph: 6.9 sec

Zero to 100 mph: 17.5 sec

Zero to 120 mph: 28.5 sec

Rolling start, 560 mph: 7.5 sec

Top gear, 3050 mph: 4.0 sec

Top gear, 5070 mph: 4.9 sec

Standing -mile: 15.3 sec @ 94 mph

Top speed (governor limited): 126 mph

Braking, 700 mph: 179 ft

Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.83 g



FUEL ECONOMY:

EPA city/highway driving: 31/42 mpg

C/D observed: 35 mpg

Unscheduled oil additions: 0 qt



WARRANTY:

3 years/36,000 miles bumper to bumper;

5 years/60,000 miles powertrain;

5 years/unlimited miles corrosion protection;

3 years/36,000 miles roadside assistance







It's hard to believe, but it has been nearly two decades since we last conducted a long-term test of a Honda Civic. A 1997 Civic HX coupe was the most recent example of Hondas venerable compact to go through our 40,000-mile test regimen. Now, almost 19 years and four Civic generations later, were finally welcoming another one into the fold: a 2016 sedan in top-of-the-line Touring trim.

Why is this 10th-generation Civic important enough to warrant an extended closer look? First, because its a shot at redemption for Honda. The ninth-gen Civic drew critical ire, mostly for its plain styling and lack of driving verve. Early indications, including a strong second-place finish in a recent five-car comparison test, are promising. The new Civic certainly cant be called plain, no matter the body stylethe coupe, hatchback, and sedan versions all display curves and angles that are daring for a Civic. And the new Civic is a big deal for Honda in a broader sense, because this cars platform was engineered right here in the U.S.A. by Hondas Marysville, Ohio, team and will form the basis for all global versions of the Civic. It also will underpin the next Accord mid-size sedan and CR-V crossover.

Loaded to the Gills

To sample the full palette of what the new Civic has to offer, we opted for the sedans top Touring trim level. That means getting as standard the new 174-hp 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, the first forced-induction engine installed in a U.S. Honda product since the original 2007 Acura RDX. A continuously variable automatic is the only transmission choice for 2016 turbo Civicsyes, a six-speed manual is coming for certain boosted 2017 models, but we figure most stick-shift enthusiasts will wait for the upcoming Civic Si. Plus, Honda has had plenty of time to get CVTs right: even our 97 Civic HX long-termer had one as a nod to its high-fuel-economy mission.

Thats about where the similarities between 1997 and 2016 end, technology-wise. Our Civic Touring is positively chock-full of the latest equipment, including a 7.0-inch central touchscreen with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto capability, dual-zone automatic climate control, push-button start, and a digital gauge cluster with customizable information displays. Hondas full package of active-safety features is standard on the Touring, comprising adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, forward-collision warning, the proprietary LaneWatch camera (which displays a view of the passenger-side blind spot on the main screen when the right turn signal is engaged), and a few other systems to help avoid accidents. Shelling out for the Touring model also affords a few features not available on any other Civic trim level, notably LED headlights, rain-sensing wipers, heated rear seats, a power passenger seat, a 450-watt premium audio system, and slightly thicker front and rear anti-roll bars.

All told, our Civic Tourings $27,335 price might seem steep for a compact Honda. But we will say that our long-term BMW 740i, costing more than three times as much, at $96,095, is missing some of the Civics key features such as adaptive cruise, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, and remote start.

So Far, So Good

After a month of road tripping and commuting, we find that comments in the Civics logbook are mostly positive. The powertrain has proved especially impressive, averaging a stellar 39 mpga figure made all the more remarkable when you consider our car clocked a zero-to-60-mph time of 6.9 seconds. The sharp steering and composed ride quality also are strong points. Several complaints have arisen concerning the central touchscreen, which is frustrating to useas is its slider to adjust audio volumealong with the herky-jerky nature of the adaptive cruise control. The latter systems bad behavior spurred some drivers into deactivating the adaptive function in favor of good old regular cruisea handy feature not always included with these systems. Its achieved by holding down the button that adjusts the following distance.

So, yes, maybe some of the Civics advanced tech features spur more frustration than actual advancement, but well see how our opinions evolve as we live with the car. Were also curious to find out how the Hondas impressive fuel economy holds up as weather conditions change and the leadfoots around here get more time behind the wheel. But considering our initial impression of all-around goodness, at this point well simply say that, after nearly 20 years, its nice to have a Honda Civic back in our long-term stable.

Months in Fleet: 1 month Current Mileage: 2380 miles

Average Fuel Economy: 39 mpg Fuel Tank Size: 12.4 gal Fuel Range: 480 miles

Service: $0 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0

Specifications >

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, front-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan



PRICE AS TESTED: $27,335 (base price: $27,335)



ENGINE TYPE: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injection



Displacement: 91 cu in, 1496 cc

Power: 174 hp @ 6000 rpm

Torque: 162 lb-ft @ 1700 rpm



TRANSMISSION: continuously variable automatic



DIMENSIONS:

Wheelbase: 106.3 in

Length: 182.3 in

Width: 70.8 in Height: 55.7 in

Passenger volume: 95 cu ft

Cargo volume: 15 cu ft

Curb weight: 2920 lb



PERFORMANCE: NEW

Zero to 60 mph: 6.9 sec

Zero to 100 mph: 17.5 sec

Zero to 120 mph: 28.5 sec

Rolling start, 560 mph: 7.5 sec

Top gear, 3050 mph: 4.0 sec

Top gear, 5070 mph: 4.9 sec

Standing -mile: 15.3 sec @ 94 mph

Top speed (governor limited): 126 mph

Braking, 700 mph: 179 ft

Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.83 g



FUEL ECONOMY:

EPA city/highway driving: 31/42 mpg

C/D observed: 39 mpg

Unscheduled oil additions: 0 qt



WARRANTY:

3 years/36,000 miles bumper to bumper;

5 years/60,000 miles powertrain;

5 years/unlimited miles corrosion protection;

3 years/36,000 miles roadside assistance






Ask what lured him to Nebraska, and the state's new tourism director recounts two moments from a decade-ago stop in the Panhandle.

One was watching a "monster" thunderstorm roll into the Scottsbluff area, John Ricks says.

The other was feeling a rut in a rock along the Oregon Trail. "You sit there and ask, 'How many covered wagons had to go through to make a rut in a rock?'"

Ricks, a longtime tourism booster and ad agency executive, says he'll bring an "unfamiliar eye" to Nebraska's travel promotion efforts.

"What's that magic out there that we can use to draw people?" he said Wednesday. "I guarantee we'll find out new stuff here that's really exciting."

The 67-year-old has traveled all over the world: He's an Army brat who was born in the Philippines, lived in Hawaii and Japan, went to school in Wisconsin, and has worked in travel marketing in that state and in Colorado. Most recently, he spent four years as assistant director of the Colorado Tourism Office.

Nebraska tourism is a "challenger brand" by comparison, he says. "That's OK, because that just makes you hungrier."

Ricks officially takes the reins at the Nebraska Tourism Commission on Jan. 9. His annual salary will be $102,000.

He will lead an agency still shaken by a critical state audit earlier this year. Auditors revealed that the commission reimbursed alcohol purchases using government money and allowed the contract for the state's main tourism marketing campaign to be overrun by $4.4 million.

Former Tourism Director Kathy McKillip, whose salary was $86,000, was fired in May as a result. The audit also stirred questions about lax oversight by the independent commission's nine-member board.

Lawmakers are expected to consider changes to the board's makeup next year.

State Sen. John Stinner of Gering has said he is working with state travel officials on a proposal to restructure the Tourism Commission so it more closely resembles the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, with members who reflect the state's diverse geography. Stinner also hopes to include representatives from outside the tourism industry.

Stinner's effort was prompted by the audit as well as pre-existing concerns about how the commission was handling taxpayer money.

Ricks said his experience with a "fairly similar" issue in Colorado helped prepare him to be a good financial steward, to communicate with the public and the travel industry, and to effectively measure performance of the state's tourism promotion efforts.

"I'm personally thrilled that we have someone with such a great background excited about working here in Nebraska," said Todd Kirshenbaum, vice president of the Seward Area Chamber of Commerce and president of the Nebraska Travel Association.

Kirshenbaum said Ricks' resume made him the obvious pick for the job.

"The experience Mr. Ricks brings from work in Colorado, where tourism is a critical driver of the states economy, is a big victory for the Cornhusker state, said Brad Mellema, president of the Nebraska Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus.

Ricks' hiring followed a monthslong search process that included public interviews with four finalists, including two from Nebraska.

Gov. Pete Ricketts commended the Tourism Commission for its hire.

"I am hopeful that Ricks experience in state government and the tourism industry will bring new energy to Nebraska Tourism, so they can continue inviting the world to see how Nebraska is growing," the governor said.

Ricks said his early goal will be learning more about Nebraska's tourism industry and what travel opportunities the state can offer.

"I think the most important thing I can do, at least initially, is just listen."
WOBURN, Mass. (AP)  The second of Massachusetts twin sisters who pleaded guilty to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from government agencies by providing unlicensed psychological services has been sentenced to jail.

The state attorney general's office says 52-year-old Nita Guzman was sentenced last week to 18 months in jail and five years' probation, and ordered to pay $570,000 in restitution.

The Burlington woman pleaded guilty to Medicaid false claims, false claims to public agency, larceny, and unlicensed practice of psychology.

Prosecutors say Guzman and her sister, through their companies, billed Medicare, Medicaid, University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Lawrence Public Schools for mental-health services they were not authorized to provide.

Guzman's twin, Nina Tischer, pleaded guilty in February to similar charges and was given a 2 -year suspended sentence.
SAO PAULO (AP)  Authorities say four inmates have died in a prison riot in southern Brazil.

A press officer of the Prison Administration Department of Rio Grande do Sul said by telephone that the two-hour uprising began early Wednesday morning at the Getulio Vargas State Prison. She spoke on condition of anonymity because department policy does not allow officials to be quoted by name.

The press officer says the inmates died of smoke inhalation after some prisoners set their mattresses ablaze. At least 12 other prisoners were injured.

She says the inmates were protesting a work slowdown by guards that has halted family visits.
Achieving profit is no doubt a companys goal, but having healthy cash flow is imperative to its existence, development and success. This is because cash indicates a companys true financial health. It offers the flexibility to make decisions, the means to make potential investments and the fuel to run its growth engine.



In fact, even a company generating profits might succumb to failure and face bankruptcy while meeting its obligations if it has a dearth of cash flow. But one can efficiently tide over any market mayhem if it has the cash to shield it.



Therefore, to effectively find out a companys resilience and efficiency in generating cash flows, one needs to consider a companys net cash flow. While, in any business, cash moves in and out, it is net cash flow that explains how much money the company is actually generating.



If a company is experiencing positive cash flow then it denotes an increase in its liquid assets, which gives it the means to meet debt obligations, shell out for expenses, reinvest in business, endure downturns and finally return wealth to shareholders. On the other hand, a negative cash flow indicates a decline in the companys liquidity, which in turn lowers its flexibility to support these moves.



However, having a positive cash flow merely does not secure a companys future growth. To ride on the growth curve, a company must have its cash flow increasing because that indicates managements efficiency in regulating its cash movements and less dependency on outside financing for running its business.



So, to scoop up big gains, look beyond profits and select companies with dependable and increasing cash flows.



Screening Parameters:



To find out stocks that have seen increasing cash flow over time, we ran the screen for those whose cash flow in the latest reported quarter was at least equal to or greater than the 5-year average cash flow per common share. This implies a positive trend and increasing cash over a period of time.



In addition to this we chose:



Zacks Rank 1: No matter whether market conditions are good or bad, stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) have a proven history of outperformance. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.



Average Broker Rating 1: This indicates that brokers are also highly hopeful about the companys future performance.



Current Price greater than or equal to $5: This sieves out low-priced stocks.



VGM Score of B or better: This score is also of great assistance in selecting stocks. Importantly, this scoring system helps in picking the winning stocks in their individual industry categories.



Here are four out of the eight stocks that made it through the screen:



Braskem S.A. BAK is the largest petrochemical operator in Latin America and produces and sells thermoplastic resins. The company is based in Brazil. The stock has a Zacks Rank #1 and a VGM score of A. Over the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2016 and 2017 experienced an increase of 1.5% and 6.1%, respectively, to $3.37 and $2.26 per share.



Moreover, Braskem has logged in a return of 45.8% year to date, which is way better than the 18.6% gain witnessed by the Zacks categorized Oil & Gas Integrated International industry.



Cambrex Corporation CBM offers products, services and technologies that accelerate and improve the development and commercialization of new and generic therapeutics. The East Rutherford, NJ based company beat earnings thrice in the trailing four quarters, with an average positive surprise of 19.8%. The stock has a VGM score of A. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2016 earnings increased by 9 cents (3.7%) to $2.55 per share over the last 60 days.



Further, Cambrexs year-to-date return is 14.9%, marking a stark contrast to the Zacks categorized Medical-Biomedical and Genetics industrys loss of 26.0%.



FutureFuel Corp. FF is a manufacturer of diversified chemical products and biobased products comprising biofuels and biobased specialty chemical products. The company is headquartered in Clayton, MO. Currently, the stock has a VGM score of A. It has a decent earnings surprise history, having exceeded estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with an average beat of 60.6%. Also, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2016 earnings increased by 8 cents (8.0%) to $1.08 per share over the last 60 days.



FutureFuels return of 39.7% over the past six months is above the Zacks categorized Biofuels industrys gain of 30.5%.



Gibraltar Industries, Inc. ROCK, with a VGM score of B, is a leading manufacturer, processor and distributor of metals and other engineered materials for building and other industrial markets. The company is headquartered in Buffalo, NY. This company is a solid performer, having surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the past four quarters, with an average surprise of 67.3%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2016 earnings climbed 14 cents (9.7%) over the past 60 days to $1.58.



Gibraltars year-to-date return of 72.4% is significantly ahead of the Zacks categorized Building Products- Miscellaneous industrys return of 19.5%.



Get the rest of the stocks on the list and start putting this and other ideas to the test. It can all be done with the Research Wizard stock picking and backtesting software.



The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your Research Wizard trial today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out.



Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard today.



Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.



Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks portfolios and strategies are available at: https://www.zacks.com/performance.



Zacks Restaurant Recommendations: In addition to dining at these special places, you can feast on their stock shares. A Zacks Special Report spotlights 5 recent IPOs to watch plus 2 stocks that offer immediate promise in a booming sector. Download it 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



CAMBREX CORP (CBM): Free Stock Analysis Report



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GIBRALTAR INDUS (ROCK): Free Stock Analysis Report



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
The year that followed the Paris attacks saw ISIS increasingly become a cinematic trope, particularly with a proliferation of dramas centered around European youths who become surprisingly compelled to join the ranks of the Islamic State in the Middle East. But there were also pics depicting the violence ISIS militants unleash in areas they take over, or simply exploring issues at the roots of contemporary radical Islam. These are five standout titles.

Layla M  Dutch director Mijke de Jongs timely drama is about the radicalization of a young Muslim woman from a Moroccan family in Amsterdam. Layla moves to Syria to fight with ISIS, only to realize she has no place in the new, male-dominated world for which she gave up her former life. Varietys Scott Tobias called the film a plausible case study in terror recruitment, linked in no small part to Western policies of discrimination and harassment before going on to note that Layla is a fully realized character whose passion has no home in a world dominated by men.

Road to Istanbul  French-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb tackled a similar topic with his naturalistic drama about a Belgian woman desperately trying to track down her 20-year-old daughter who has run away from home to join the Islamic State in Syria. The tough mom, who makes the trek to the border between Turkey and Syria, is potently played by Belgian actress Astrid Whettnall who is present in almost every frame. The daughter instead, and consequently her motivations for joining ISIS, is largely left offscreen.

Heaven Will Wait  In French director Marie-Castille Mention-Schaars drama two middle-class French girls are recruited by ISIS, which prompts the police to break into the bedroom of one of them, 17-year-old Sonia, just as she is about to run off to Syria. After being sentenced to virtual house-arrest and forbidden to use the internet or phone, Sonia is still determined that the whole family must be together in Paradise, as she wildly tells her parents. She then undergoes a successful jihadi de-indoctrination process. Variety critic Jay Weissberg wrote that Heaven never rises above a TV issue-of-the-week broadcast. He rightly predicted that the film will likely do decent European business given its topicality. In fact, it played well in France and was widely sold internationally by Gaumont.

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The Dark Wind  Kurdish director Hussein Hassans harrowing drama reconstructs the true story of a Kurdish Yazidi woman who was captured in Iraq, auctioned off into slavery by ISIS, and subsequently rescued by her fiance in Syria. The Yazidis are a Kurdish religious community considered infidels by ISIS forces who are hardline Sunni Islamists. In 2014, when ISIS captured Northwestern Iraq they destroyed the Yazidi holy grounds and captured thousands of women who were raped and sold into slavery in street markets. This is the first pic dealing with the persecuted Yazidi minority, but what makes it potent is that there is a love story at its core. Dark Wind won the top prize at the Dubai International Film Festival in December, after opening the Duhok International Film Festival in Iraqi Kurdistan, and also playing in Busan.

Clash  Set entirely inside an overcrowded police truck packed with pro and anti-Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators in 2013 Cairo, Clash is not strictly speaking a movie about ISIS. But by forcing a cross-section of post-revolution Egyptian society into co-habitation, the powerful film gets to the roots of some of the dynamics feeding fundamentalist violence in the Arab world. In a nutshell, fundamentalism feeds off of dictatorship and vice versa. The result is ISIS, Al Qaeda, and their clones; groups that choose to see the world in black and white, Clash director Mohamed Diab noted in a guest column he penned for Variety after the Paris attacks. In his film Diab subtly works in the fact that all these people participated in the 2011 Revolution, when the heady perfume of change filled the air and, for a brief time, much of the population believed that elections could lead to an equitable democracy where opposite sides of the spectrum succeed in holding a functioning government together, wrote Jay Weissberg in his Variety review. At the end, the message is clear: any sense of national unity has disintegrated, and the escalating violence is driving Egypt over the edge into bedlam. Tom Hanks is a big fan of this film: If theres any way you can see Clash by Egyptian director Mohamed Diab, you must. You simply must. The film will break your heart, but enlighten all, he tweeted in July.

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Winter is supposed to be a buyers market, right? Fewer buyers = way less competition. After all, you have no problem trekking through the snow to find the perfect home. Let the others wait until spring. Right?

But winter home-buying assumptions can cost you. Just because the market moves slower doesnt mean there arent pitfalls lying beneath the powder. Keep in mind these six common mistakesotherwise you might just lose out on your dream space. And that would lead to a very long winter indeed.

1. Landing yourself in holiday debt

Your kiddos are clamoring for a few Hatchimals, your wonderful husband deserves the Google Pixel, and Mom and Dad desperately need a new set of artisanal kitchen knives. But dont rack up new debt buying everyone gifts.

Even if your credit is in good standing, suddenly racking up a ton of holiday shopping debt will change your debt-to-income ratio and potentially negate your pre-approval, says Alicia Brison, a real estate agent in Sacramento, CA.

Budget for your generous splurges ahead of time. Or you know what? Tell your family theyre getting the best gift of all: a new home.

2. Failing to use your imagination

Yes, the property looks a bit  drab. But dont all homes seem sad in winter, especially if theyre not charmingly covered in snow? Dont dismiss a property because of bare tree limbs and dead grass. Imagine what the home could be in all its springtime glory.

Pretend the trees are blooming and the rose bushes are covered in color. Thats the mental picture you should use to make your decision.

3. Ignoring possible closing date delays

Dont assume everything will go as planned. This will go wrong, trust us. Does the plumbing need updating? Is the wiring a little funky? These delay-causing problems are always annoying, but in winter they can create a full-on migraine. This goes double for custom or new-build homes.

While many trades will work through the winter, there are certain processes that cannot be completed during heavy snowfall or dramatically low temperatures, says Luke Sahlani, the lead project manager and director of Sensus Design & Build. This can be frustrating and particularly problematic if the home buyers closing date on their current home is coming up quickly.

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Build in some buffer time for your new homes closingor just a little snow might crash your move-in day hopes.

4. Lacking flexibility

House hunting always requires a certain level of spontaneityyou have to be ready to pounce as soon as you hear a place fitting all your criteria is on the market. But when the weathers against you, make sure to loosen your schedule even more.

Flexibility is even more critical during the winter season, Brison says. Weather can cause unexpected delays, and buyers need to be willing to plan viewings during the busy holidays.

Yes, youre excited for cousin Humberts one-of-a-kind pumpkin pie, but if 2 p.m. the day after Christmas is the only time you can check out your dream abode, you might have to skip a second serving.

5. Assuming youll automatically score a sweet deal

In the winter (generally speaking), home prices are lower. Sellers are motivated. The competitions bundled up inside, warming their hands by the fire. Bidding wars are a vestige of the summer months. Nows a great time to buy, right?

Unfortunately, the math doesnt necessarily work in your favor.

A lot of buyers assume they can get a better deal in winter because [fewer] people are competing, Brison says. Thats not usually the case. Inventory is lower, so the number of people who are competing is similar.

No, prices may not rocket to the sky-high levels seen when the weather is warm. But if you expect to score a bargain-basement home deal, you might be disappointed.

6. Lowballing your offer

If you dont get a discount on a home during the winter months, maybe you think you can create your own discount with a lowball offer. Sellers listing their homes in the winter must be desperate to sell, the theory goes.

Think again.

Not only can a lowball offer be off-putting to the seller, but sometimes they can be so offended, they will be closed to a counteroffer, says Denise Supplee, the director of operations at SparkRental.com.

Work with your Realtor to craft a competitive offer that isnt offensive. Nothing is worse than losing the home you love to another buyer because you prioritized the deal over finding a place that perfectly fits your family.

Does house hunting in the winter leave you cold? Or can you skate past these mistakes and land the cozy home of your dreams? Let us know on House Talk.

The post 6 Killer Mistakes You Cant Afford to Make When Buying in the Winter appeared first on Real Estate News & Advice | realtor.com.
NEW YORK (AP)  Seven people have been injured, two seriously, when an escalator at a New York City mall malfunctioned, causing one person to fall and set off a chain reaction down the line.

The mishap Tuesday night occurred at the Atlantic Terminal Mall in Brooklyn.

Witnesses say the down escalator was stationary when it suddenly started moving, causing the first person to tumble.

Two people were rushed to Lutheran Hospital in serious but stable condition. Officials say their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. Five others were taken to Long Island College Hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

The mall escalators were taken out of service.

Mall officials didn't return requests seeking comment.
In the United States, Christmas is an extravaganza of merriment. Mountains of presents encircle glittering Christmas trees as families gather to enjoy each other's company, consume as many cookies as possible, and soak in a spirit of togetherness and love. For many, it is -- as the song goes -- "the most wonderful time of the year."

In other countries, however, Christmas is a little more sinister.

Around the world, trolls, monsters and witches emerge from their hidey-holes in the mountains or bowels of Hell to prey on -- and sometimes kill -- misbehaved children.

Here are seven of the most terrifying characters in global Christmas folklore:

1. Krampus

Perhaps the most famous of the Christmas beasts is the mythical Krampus, who serves as a foil to the jolly, ever-loving Santa Claus. According to National Geographic, the legend of Krampus is part of a Christmas tradition in Germany dating back centuries.

Krampus is half-goat, half-demon. He wears bells and chains to herald his arrival before beating naughty children with birch branches and dragging them off to the underworld.

READ: [The 10 Most Corrupt Countries in the World]

On the night of Dec. 6, children place boots or shoes outside to see whether they will be visited by Santa Claus or by Krampus. If they were good that year, as the legend goes, they receive treats from Santa. If bad, they receive a rod from Krampus.

A more recent development of Krampus lore is the Krampus Run, which has become popular in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic. During the Krampus Run, drunken men run through the streets dressed as the demonic creature.Yikes.

2. Nisse

From Norway comes the legend of the nisse, a gnome-like creature who assists with daily farm chores in return for respect and a simple bowl of porridge with butter at Christmas. A similar character called the tomte also appears in Swedish folklore.

The nisse seems harmless at first glance, but if he doesn't get respect and the porridge with butter he craves at Christmas, there are dire consequences. In a legend called "When the Nisse Got No Butter on His Christmas Porridge," a young girl decides to trick the nisse by putting the butter on the bottom of the bowl of Christmas porridge instead of on the top. When the nisse looks at the porridge and sees it has no butter, he kills the family's best cow. Upon eating the porridge and realizing the butter was just on the bottom, he steals the best cow from the neighboring farm. Everybody wins?

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3. Zwarte Piet

Zwarte Piet, or "Black Peter," accompanies Santa Claus during his Christmas rounds and gives coal to naughty children. Not so bad, right? Wrong.

This legend from Belgium and the Netherlands takes a darker turn for particularly naughty children who do not heed Zwarte Piet's warning. The story goes that both Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Santa, and Zwarte Piet live in Spain and cross the ocean to deliver gifts to Dutch children. The nice ones get presents; the really naughty ones get dragged back to Spain by Zwarte Piet and are forced to work in his coal mines for eternity.

READ: [These Cities Spend the Most on Christmas]

It is a Dutch tradition to dress as Zwarte Piet, complete with blackface, at Christmastime, a practice that has come under growing criticism for being racially offensive.

In 2015, a United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on the Netherlands to "promote the elimination of those features of the character of Black Pete which reflect negative stereotypes and are experienced by many people of African descent as a vestige of slavery," the Washington Post reported.

The legend has been cleaned up a bit this year by calling the helper "Chimney Pete," codifying a common explanation that his face is black from soot, but many are still convinced that the character is racist.

4. Gryla

In Icelandic folklore, Gryla is the mother of the Yule Lads, a group of unruly little trolls who give treats to good children and cause particular types of mischief in the process at Christmastime. Each bit of mischief is the signature of that particular Yule Lad, with names such as Spoon-Licker and Doorway-Sniffer. The Yule Lads are generally fairly harmless, but their mother is fairly... not.

Gryla is an ogress who comes down from the mountains to abduct, boil, and eat children who misbehave. Gryla can only abduct naughty children, but if a child repents, she is forced to release them.

5. Jolakotturinn

Gryla keeps a house cat named Jolakotturinn, also known as the Yule Cat. As Icelandic legend goes, the Yule Cat is a large, black cat who eats anyone who does not receive new clothes for Christmas. It's said that those who were conscientious and worked hard received clothes, and those who were lazy did not. Giving new clothes for Christmas is still an Icelandic tradition because of the legendary cat.

6. Frau Perchta

Perchta (often shown with one large swan foot) would slit open the bellies of bad children at Xmas and stuff them with straw! @FolkloreThurs pic.twitter.com/jP67t9y689

-- Janette Leaf (@janetteleaf1)

December 15, 2016

Frau Perchta comes to the children of Germany and Austria with a piece of silver if they were good and worked hard that year.

If they didn't? She slit open their bellies, remove the organs, and replace them with pebbles and straw. What a nice lady.

People sometimes show up as Perchta during Krampus Run in Austria.

7. Joulupukki

A more menacing depiction of Joulupukki, @MichaelPDeacon pic.twitter.com/3ek1Lch3sO

-- Mary Magdalen (@Gr8LakesCzarina)

December 24, 2013

Finland's Christmas monster may be the most horrific of them all. The modern Joulopukki is now jolly and plump -- the equivalent of Santa Claus. The Joulopukki of old, however, is a horse of a different color.

Joulupukki translates to "Christmas buck," or billy-goat, and its old iteration had horns and hooves a la Krampus or Satan. He comes into houses, asks if there are good children living there, and if there are, they must give him presents. If there are naughty children in the house, Joulupukki delighted in beating them until their backsides were bleeding.

You can follow Rachel Dicker on Twitter or reach her at rdicker@usnews.com.
Donald Trump

I've written recently that Donald Trump understands the politics of jobs in a way few Republican or Democratic politicians do. He hammered home the message that his economic agenda was about creating and retaining middle-income jobs with decent and rising wages.

Most Republicans and Democrats for years failed to present an agenda organized around this goal. Trump offered an agenda that at least treats this goal as central, even if he's likely to fail to meet it.

Below, I have some ideas for how Democrats can beat Trump at his own game, especially if (as is likely) his economic ideas fail to live up to their promises for ordinary Americans.

Where Democrats have missed before

If you're supporting your family on $25 an hour, you probably support a minimum wage increase, but you don't expect it to raise your own income or living standard. You probably already had health insurance before the Affordable Care Act.

Your key economic wish isn't a new government program to help you  it's an expectation that your wages will rise steadily and your friends and relatives will have decent, well-paying work.

There is no reason a left-of-center economic agenda cannot meet these ends. It will just require some new policies and shifts in emphasis for Democrats.

Democrats should set an agenda around work with four key goals: reduce inequality by making sure workers are taking more money home in their paychecks; honor the centrality of work in American society and tie uplifting policies to work; increase workers' power in the workplace, whether or not they are unionized; and provide gains to workers that are easy to identify and understand.

A pro-work, pro-worker, pro-wage agenda for Democrats

This isn't an exhaustive list, and I'd love to hear your ideas. It's a partial list of policies that I see as likely to encourage work while increasing the rewards to work for lower- and middle-income workers.

1. Exempt the first $11,500 of every American's wage and salary income from the employee part of payroll tax. The principle here is simple: Workers should not have to pay any federal tax on the wages they need to earn simply to stay above the poverty line.

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Federal income tax is already designed in accordance with this goal, but payroll tax begins at the first dollar of income and is a significant burden on the working poor. This universal tax exclusion would raise the typical two-parent family's after-tax income by $1,750, which would mean a material increase in standard of living for the working poor and a noticeable increase for the middle class.

This near-universal tax cut would admittedly be expensive. It could be financed by expanding the payroll tax base to cover high incomes, including by abolishing the cap that currently limits Social Security taxes to the first $127,200 of income. This would be a large tax increase on the rich, but given the way economic changes over the last four decades have favored the wealthiest Americans, it makes sense to change Social Security's financing structure so the tax exclusion goes to the bottom of the income scale instead of the top.

Tax increases on the rich are popular in the abstract, but do not necessarily help Democrats who propose them because voters fear the new tax revenue will be wasted or spent on somebody else. Applying the tax proceeds directly to a broad tax cut for nearly all working Americans would answer the "What's in it for me?" question and make the government more progressive without making it any larger or more complicated.

Donald Trump

2. Enforce labor law to protect American workers from competition from unauthorized immigrants. There is no such thing as a job Americans won't do  there are only jobs Americans won't do for a poverty wage. Employers should not be allowed to undercut wages by employing unauthorized immigrants  whom they can exploit, including by paying less than minimum wage.

In particular, employers should be required to use E-verify to ensure that their employees are authorized to work in the United States. Penalties for employing workers illegally should be imposed vigorously.

In recent years, Democrats have agreed in principle that employment laws around immigration should be enforced, but have insisted that enforcement measures should be tied to a broad immigration-reform package that would offer citizenship, in time, to a large number of unauthorized immigrants. Republicans have been reluctant to push employment enforcement because it is unpopular with employers, who would like to avoid both regulatory burdens and higher wages.

This issue will be a key test for Trump. Unlike "the wall," stringent enforcement of work authorization is plausibly linked to wage growth, but it will draw strong resistance from Republican business constituencies. Is his immigration stance really about raising American workers' wages, or is it just about scapegoating Mexican immigrants?

If Trump declines to pursue the part of his immigration agenda most directly related to the interests of American workers, Democrats have an opportunity to outflank him, using a policy whose enforcement mechanism is aimed at companies, not at unauthorized immigrants themselves.

3. Provide child-care and maternity-leave benefits to working parents. There is a reason Trump co-opted these ideas from Democrats: They are popular, work-affirming policies that would make life easier for the working and middle classes.

But Trump's proposals have some significant structural flaws, and he will face a lot of skepticism about providing any such benefits at all from conservatives in Congress. This is likely to be an area where Democrats can point out Trump broke a promise to improve the lives of middle-class workers, even as he keeps promises to the wealthy.

Surprised babies child care

4. Reform disability insurance and push employers to find ways to accommodate disabled workers. Democrats should advance proposals similar to the one by MIT economist David Autor that would push employers to accommodate more of their newly disabled employees, so they can stay in the workforce instead of collecting benefits.

Social Security Disability Insurance is an important bulwark that protects American workers against destitution due to disability that may arise during their working life. Contrary to conservative narratives, SSDI is not the primary driver of declining workforce participation by prime-age Americans.

That said, SSDI is a driver of declining workforce participation. Over the last 20 years, the rise in SSDI caseloads has steadily outpaced the growth of the US population. Today, 2.7% of Americans collect SSDI, up from 1.6% 20 years ago. And people who qualify for SSDI tend to continue receiving it until they die or qualify for old-age Social Security. Returns to the workforce are rare in part because work is penalized with loss of benefits.

Under Autor's reform, employers would be charged for part of disability insurance, similar to the way they are now charged for unemployment and workers' compensation insurance. Because employers' premiums would go up if more of their employees become disabled and unable to work, they would have an incentive to accommodate workers who become affected by a disability on the job.

On-the-job disability accommodations could also be subsidized by the government, a policy that would produce net savings if it reduces the number of workers who end up collecting SSDI.

5. Give workers clarity and certainty over their job schedules. I was interested in this focus group write-up from the Institute for Family Studies, which asked white working-class voters in Ohio (most of them Trump supporters) about workplace policy ideas without identifying which party was behind them.

One of the most popular proposals was one from Democrats to obligate employers to provide greater certainty to employees about their work schedules. There are several political advantages to this idea. It has no direct fiscal cost. It appeals to the idea that workers and employers have obligations to treat each other fairly. And it directs the greatest benefits to lower-wage workers who are least likely to already have control over their time.

trump supporters

6. Bring back antitrust enforcement to reduce corporate power over both employees and consumers. Industry consolidation increases corporations' ability to raise prices and lower wages. In recent decades, the federal government has become too reluctant to block mergers, let alone break up large companies. Democrats should call for a reinvigoration of antitrust enforcement and market it as a pro-consumer, pro-worker policy.

7. Control healthcare prices, including by resisting hospital system consolidation, so less of your pay goes to health insurance and more goes to you. A great place to start the antitrust push would be in health care. Antitrust seems like an abstract issue (how does it affect me if two companies merge?), but this is an area where Democrats can draw a direct line between corporate mergers and lower take-home pay.

Hospital system mergers lead to higher health insurance premiums and therefore lower wages, because the mergers give healthcare providers more and more market power, allowing them to push healthcare prices ever higher. Democrats should be pro-fragmentation in healthcare, so consumers save.

8. Directly support places that are losing jobs. It's not good enough to tell the residents of de-industrializing cities and states to move. Many people can't move and others don't want to. There is a lot of disruptive change that is destabilizing the world. We can improve stability if we make it easier for people to stay in their hometowns if they want to.

That said, place-based policy is hard, and delaying the inevitable decline of an industry can be very expensive. I don't laugh at Trump's intervention at Carrier, as some do, but I don't believe an approach of individual incentives to individual firms is likely to be scalable or cost-effective.

One good idea, from Vox's Matt Yglesias, is to move government agencies that do not need to be in Washington away from the capital to areas that have been losing jobs and residents.

The core idea is not simply that displaced Midwestern workers could get jobs with the federal government (though some would). It's more that, by stepping in to replace core industries that have lost jobs over decades, these agencies would support ancillary employment across the economy. If the Census Bureau moves to town, for instance, it will create jobs in medicine and schools and restaurants and everything else.

In the long run, these moves would also generate savings for federal taxpayers, because it's less expensive to do business in troubled metros than in the very expensive Washington, DC, region. And they might even do something to reduce the social distance that exists between federal bureaucrats and much of the country.

NOW WATCH: 'He has a personal beef against me'  Clinton blasts Putin and says he's a reason she lost the election





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The November elections shocked the nation in many ways. Here in Nebraska attack ads and robo calls seemed to reach a new level of frequency and insult. Shadowy organizations like Americans for Prosperity, Trees of Liberty and Citizens for a Sound Government flooded the election cycle with fabricated stories and outright lies. Democrats and Republicans alike faced embarrassment and character assassination.

One of the worst attacks was launched against Senator Les Seiler, a self-proclaimed conservative Republican, who had been appointed by Governor Dave Heineman and served with distinction. Governor Pete Ricketts was not shy when reversing that support based on Sen. Seilers votes to override several of Ricketts vetoes. The Governor contributed $5,000 to Seilers opponent Steve Halloran.

The attacks against Seiler were particularly outrageous when they focused on his attendance record. Records filed with the clerk of the legislature show that Seiler had nearly perfect attendance at public hearings before the Judiciary Committee, which he chaired, missing only 2 of 17 hearings. He also chaired all 14 executive sessions of the Judiciary Committee. Senator Seilers record as a member of the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee was perfect, showing he attended all 11 public hearings and all 9 executive sessions.

It should be noted that every bill before the Nebraska Unicameral gets a public hearing and attendance by nearly every senator is exemplary. The only exception to the rule is the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. If Trees of Liberty wanted to focus on attendance, they might have looked at Senator Beau McCoy who was recorded absent for 15 of 18 public hearings and 7 of 14 executive sessions. His colleague, Senator Tyson Larson, did not perform much better, missing 13 of 18 public hearings and 7of 14 executive sessions. These two examples are the extreme exceptions to the rule of generally good attendance by senators.

Senator Seiler was not the only senator to be attacked who voted to override the Governors vetoes. Senators Johnson, Crawford, Garrett, Kolowski, Davis, and others faced the wrath of the independent committees. It is unfortunate that those who choose to vote their conscience in a constitutionally non-partisan legislature should be slandered for demonstrating their independence.

The most troubling part of the attacks is the inability of the public to follow the money. Independent committees can hide behind their non-profit status, making it nearly impossible to identify their donors. As a result, wealthy individuals and political operatives can avoid transparency and direct lies and fabricated stories against candidates. This type of campaigning undermines our democracy and discourages potentially good candidates from running for office.
Sayonara, furry nails trend! (Photo: Getty Images)

2016 was an epic year for the beauty world: CoverGirl announced its first male ambassador, Kylie Jenner solidified herself as the king of cosmetics, and Instagram proved to be the birthplace of many a beauty trend.

And while some of these trends were pretty exciting when they first launched, here are nine we cant wait to say farewell to once we enter 2017.

Pastel-colored hair

Pink hair, dont care. (Photo: Getty Images)

It was a trend that started in 2015 and continued strong (and given new life  unicorn horns anyone?) in 2016. Despite the saying, Always be yourself, unless you can be a unicorn. Then always be a unicorn, we say 2017 is the year to let go of the My Little Pony hair.

Fake freckles

Fake freckles spotted on model at Ungaro spring 2016 show. (Photo: IMAXTree)

While we love that this feature finally got the recognition it deserves (especially with so many people being self-conscious of their freckles), its time to put down the brown pencil liners and leave the freckles for those who were naturally blessed with them so you can embrace your natural features.

Using random items to curl your hair



Beauty vloggers went overboard when experimenting with their hair-curling techniques  everything from tampons to maxi pads and even cheese puffs were used in an attempt to get the perfect ringlets. Despite wasting a perfectly good bag of Cheetos on your hair (and leaving cheesy dust everywhere in the process), using these random items to curl your locks is absolutely unnecessary.

Succulent nails



Its the trend that gave having a green thumb a whole new meaning, but thankfully succulent nails are short-lived. You dont need plants growing off of your nails, people!

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Furry nails

We prefer our fur on our coats not on our nails. (Photo: Jennifer Graylock/Getty Images for CND)

Another bizarre nail trend we cant wait to be done with? Furry nails. Introduced to the fashion and beauty world by CND co-founder Jan Arnold backstage at the Libertine fall 2016 show, this nail art looks cool, but is highly impractical. Seriously, how are you supposed to ever wash your hands and keep them dry?

Snapchat filter makeup

Woof! Snapchat puppy dog filter makeup at the Desigual show. (Photo: Estrop/Getty Images)

As much as we love Snapchat filters, wearing them in real life is a questionable practice. But Desigual sent models down its New York Fashion Week runway wearing Snapchat-inspired makeup (think puppy dog and deer filters). While this made for great Halloween inspo, its a no for us on an everyday basis.

Over-the-top highlighters

DIY PIZZA HIGHLIGHTER! ???????????????? Link zum Video in meiner Bio ???????? Verlinke eine Pizza-Suchtige Person, die unbedingt so einen Highlighter braucht ????????#pizzahighlighter #pizzahighlight #pizza #diyhighlighter A photo posted by TheBeauty2go (@thebeauty2go) on Jul 31, 2016 at 6:37am PDT



Makeup junkies went glow crazy this year when it came to highlighters. From rainbow palettes to full-face sparkle, and even a homemade pizza highlighter, the strobing trend was almost as overdone as contouring. In 2017, well just stick to a subtle highlight on the tops of our cheekbones and bridges of our noses, thanks.

Instagram eyebrows

Too-perfect eyebrows are out. Natural. full brows are in. (Photo: Getty Images)

Mario Dedivanovic (aka Kim Kardashians makeup artist) has declared the Instagram brow to be dead, so you can bet well be seeing less of this in 2017. The boxy, ombre-esque brow trend, which starts off faded and finishes into a dark, long tail, is being replaced by more feathery brows that are still bold but very natural looking. Count us in.

100 layers of everything

Cant believe i spent an insane amount of time doing this ???? #polishmountain #polishmountains #100layers #marnasnails #hosmarna A photo posted by Marna Haugen (@marnas_nails) on Jun 22, 2016 at 11:44am PDT



Quite possibly the wildest beauty trend of 2016, the 100 layers challenge saw beauty vloggers pile on a hundred layers of literally everything from nail polish to foundation. Aside from being cringeworthy, the hardest part was seeing all that wonderful product go to waste.

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The first season of Stranger Things was not a highly anticipated event. It was a highly appreciated surprise. The Duffer Brothers drama, set in small-town Indiana and focused on a small boy's disturbing disappearance, appeared on Netflix seemingly out of thin air, grabbing viewers' attention due to its excellent cast headlined by veterans like Winona Ryder and Matthew Modine, newcomers like Finn Wolfhard and Millie Bobby Brown, the heart-on-the-sleeve homages to the 1980s and more.

But above and beyond its cast and cultural references, Stranger Things more than lives up to its name. It's a deeply strange show, both in terms of the content within the series itself, and also the culture that has developed around the Netflix show. (Here's looking at you, Barb.) As the year winds down, here's one last look back at one of 2016's Stranger shows, and some of the strangest fictional and cultural moments it produced.

Read more: The Duffer Brothers Are Reading Your 'Stranger Things' Reddit Theories

1. The Upside Down

As the parallel dimension in which the greatest Stranger Things scares exist, the so-called "Upside Down" is a bleak nightmare world owing at least some inspiration to survival horror video game series Silent Hill. It's an imaginative yet budget-conscious way of realizing an entirely separate plane of reality, its glowing greens and ash blacks creating an atmosphere in which the Netflix show could thrive and surprise.

Read more: 'Stranger Things': TV Review

2. The Demogorgon

Likewise, the show's central monster, nicknamed "The Demogorgon" based on a Dungeons & Dragons creature, is the stuff of pure nightmare fuel. Created and filmed using an unsettling amount of practical effects, the slick and chilling Demogorgon boasts not just a uniquely disturbing creature design, but also an unforgettable name that's worth applying to some of the other wretched monsters that rose to prominence in the past year.

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Read more: The Duffer Brothers Talk 'Stranger Things' Influences, 'It' Dreams and Netflix Phase 2

3. The Kids Are More Than All Right

As much as the creature and its dark world establish the tone and stakes of the series, it's the five kids at the heart of the narrative that turned Stranger Things into a sensation: dungeon master Mike (Finn Wolfhard), goodhearted goof Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), incredulous and courageous Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), the mysteriously vanished Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), and most notably Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), pop culture's baldest and most powerful telepath since Professor Xavier. These unique kids didn't just thrive on Stranger Things itself; since the Netflix series debuted, the actors have been everywhere, showcasing their impressive song-and-dance talents at the Emmy Awards and beyond.

Read more: Watch the Surprising Musical Talents of the Entire 'Stranger Things' Cast

4. The Rise of Steve Harrington

There's no stranger fandom within the Stranger Things community than the one built around Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), the heavy-haired popular kid who ultimately defies his archetype and bravely helps his peers face the Demogorgon. (OK, there's one stranger fandom - more on that in a minute.) Much of the love for Steve stems from Keery's eerie resemblance to Ben Schwartz, best known as Jean-Ralphio Saperstein on Parks and Recreation. Both actors have publicly embraced their shared resemblance, with spectacular results:

Read more: James Corden Investigates: Is Steve From 'Stranger Things' Jean-Ralphio's Real Dad?

5. The Tragic Saga of Barb

Not every Stranger Things castmember faced down the Demogorgon and lived to tell the tale. Enter: Shannon Purser as Barb, the ill-fated best friend of series lead Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), killed by the Upside Down's monstrous inhabitant during a party at Steve Harrington's house. Her death resulted in the start of a movement, with fans brandishing hashtags like #JusticeForBarb, the character transcending her roots and becoming the object of parody videos like the one below. Anyone hoping for a Barb comeback in season two is in for a disappointment, as those involved with the show have made it clear that she's very, very dead indeed.

Read more: Barb Takes Hollywood: 'Stranger Things' Breakout Meets Casting Directors and Lands a Movie

6. Good Grief

Really, the world and characters of Stranger Things took on such a life of their own following the show's debut in July. For example, there's this surreal video that takes the cast of Stranger Things and repaints them with a Peanuts aesthetic. (Not for nothing, Schnapp supplied the voice of Charlie Brown in the recent Peanuts movie.) It's just one of countless examples of the show bursting into the mainstream.

Read more: Stephen Colbert Spoofs 'Stranger Things' With a Little Help From Eleven

7. Stranger Sounds

Among the many reasons why Stranger Things grabbed viewers with such immediacy: the music, a heavy synth score that conjures thrillers of the 1980s, its electric vibe from decades ago providing the dissonant sensation of an uneasy cool. The soundtrack, created by the Texas band S U R V I V E, is available for streaming here.

Read more: DJ Behind Hit 'Stranger Things' Mixtape Says Show "Wears Its Influences on Its Sleeve"

8. The Babies

As it stands, the final scene of Stranger Things might be its most chilling image: Will Byers, who has been home from the Upside Down for a month, vomiting what appears to be a baby Demogorgon into the sink, and telling no one about the affliction. It's not just a disgusting visual, it also opens up thoroughly harrowing (not Harrington) possibilities about where the show's going in the second season. Speaking of which

Read more: 'Stranger Things' Star Talks "Evil Will" Predictions, Fan Reactions and Grossest Season 1 Scene

9. A Glimpse Ahead

Because one full season of Stranger Things was not enough for one year, the Duffer Brothers released a teaser trailer revealing episode titles for season two. Without context, titles like "The Pumpkin Patch" and "The Pollywog" don't amount to much, save for the seemingly endless pangs of dread in the pit of the stomach. But perhaps there's more to be gleaned after all: The Duffers have confirmed that some of the fan theories on Reddit are actually close to the truth.

Read more: Netflix Renews 'Stranger Things' for Second Season

Head to THR.com/StrangerThings for more coverage of the show.
(Repeats story from Tuesday)

* Riyadh determined to target Iranian influence

* Gulf Arab relief aid will continue

* Military support appears in question

* Trump's anti-Iran stance cheers Gulf Arabs

* Discreet talks with Trump associates

* Syrian negotiator hopeful of Trump

By William Maclean

RIYADH, Dec 20 (Reuters) - "Where are you, Oh Arabs, Oh Muslims, while we are being slaughtered?"

An old man's cry, in a video posted online from Aleppo's ruins, poses an uncomfortable question for the mainly Sunni Muslim Arab states backing rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Iran and Russia.

For Saudi Arabia, locked in a regional struggle with Iran, Assad's capture of the rebel haven reflects a dangerous tilt in the Middle East balance of power towards Tehran.

Dismayed by this boost to Iranian ambitions for a "Shi'ite crescent" of influence from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, Riyadh is determined to reverse Tehran's gains sooner or later.

Countering Iran, buoyed by its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, remains central to Gulf Arab policy but it is not clear how this might be achieved, especially when other concerns are multiplying.

Beset by low oil prices, at war in Yemen, and ties with Egypt strained, Riyadh and Gulf allies are questioning how much armed help they should now give the rebels, diplomats say.

The monarchies are frustrated with President Barack Obama's light touch approach to the war - relying on local fighters instead of large U.S. military deployments or missile strikes.

President-elect Donald Trump poses an intriguing contrast.

"MAKE A DEAL"

Seen as more decisive than Obama, Trump's choices of James Mattis, a retired Marine general distrustful of Iran, as Defense Secretary, and oil man Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, have pleased Gulf Arab energy exporters.

But much remains uncertain, not least Trump's admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, an Assad ally.

"What we have learned from the U.S. election is to wait for actions, not words," said former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal.

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A senior Western diplomat said Saudi officials were curious to see how Trump translates into policy his campaign criticism of Iran and his praise of Putin.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said he had spent time in the United States to sound out the next administration.

Officials said Gulf states were asking Trump associates about Syria, to assess whether he would pursue a U.S.-led effort with Gulf states, Turkey and Western nations to arm the rebels.

Trump has indicated he may abandon the rebels to focus on fighting Islamic State.

Gulf Arab states want to test that view, said one Western official. A Gulf state foreign ministry official described Trump as "a businessman with whom you can make a deal".

RELIEF WILL STILL FLOW

Gulf humanitarian aid will remain: Sunni Arab societies will not accept curbs on relief to the mostly Sunni country, after a war that has forced 5 million Syrians to flee and killed 300,000.

But the extent of their armed support appears in question.

Qatar, with Saudi Arabia the most enthusiastic backer of the rebels, says it would prefer to continue military aid but insists this should remain a collective effort.

Proclaiming "great faith" in Trump, Asaad al-Zoubi, Saudi-based chief negotiator for the main opposition body, the High Negotiations Council, said some rebel backers had met Trump advisers to explain their cause. "They did not receive an answer from Trump's people. They (the advisers) wanted to listen more than they wanted to answer," he said.

Sami alFaraj, a security adviser to the Gulf Cooperation Council of six Gulf Arab states, told Reuters that the Gulf countries "need to regroup, have a strategic pause and look at how we pursue our objectives in the time ahead."

"The Syrian case has not been closed," he said. They would push for a transitional administration in Syria - something neither Assad nor Tehran accepts.

LEVERAGE

Any notion of Gulf Arab leverage in future negotiations seems far-fetched, given the determination of Assad, Moscow and Tehran to carve out territorial gains.

But Jubeir told the Arab League in Cairo that if world powers failed to constrain Assad there would be no political solution to the war.

"If we cannot find an effective way to pressure the Syrian regime, we will not reach a political solution and the killing, displacement, and injustice in Syria will go on," Jubeir said.

While drawn to Trump, the Gulf monarchies feel his views are not fully formed, and they want to do nothing that might cause him to harm their interests.

AlFaraj said he expected Trump to deal favourably with Gulf states, which have the wealth to help create U.S. jobs. He believed a suggestion by Trump that Gulf states pay for safe zones in Syria was worth considering.

"If he wants to create jobs there is no better field than selling weapons," alFaraj said. "We are the only people who have surplus cash."

However, Arab resentment at Western inaction over Syria appears deep and enduring.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al Khalifa, foreign minister of Bahrain, an ally of Riyadh, told Reuters: "The whole thing in Syria was because of disengagement from world powers about how to deal with the matter. So with all the changes in the political leadership (in the West) let's hope for some new commitment for Syria."

Asked if it was realistic to back rebels who had lost their major urban stronghold, he replied: "Do you think its realistic that we should also allow such bloodshed and people dying to go on and on and on. What's the next city after Aleppo?" (Additional reporting by Katie Paul; Editing by Giles Elgood)
Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. AKBA was a big mover last session, as its shares rose over 19% on the day. The move came after the company signed a deal with Japanese drugmaker Otsuka Pharmaceutical to develop and sell vadadustat, Akebia's oral hypoxia-inducible factor-prolyl hydroxylase (HIF-PH) inhibitor to treat anemia associated with chronic kidney disease. This led to far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This breaks the recent trend of the company, as the stock is now trading above the volatile price range of $7.87 to $9.09 in the past one-month time frame.

None of the estimates for this stock were revised over the past 30 days. The Zacks Consensus Estimate also remained unchanged over the same time frame. Yesterdays price action is encouraging though, so make sure to keep a close watch on this firm in the near future.

Akebia Therapeutics currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) while its Earnings ESP is 0.00%.

AKEBIA THERAP Price

AKEBIA THERAP Price | AKEBIA THERAP Quote

A better-ranked stock in the medical-drugs space is Indivior PLC INVVY, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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(Corrects to show a shutdown of the smelter would not affect Alcoa's Australian alumina refineries, in final paragraph.)

SYDNEY, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Australia's 300,000-tonnes-per-year Portland aluminium smelter is operating at below a third of its capacity after power to the plant was temporarily knocked out three weeks ago, operator Alcoa Corp said on Wednesday.

The smelter was hit when a power interconnector between the states of Victoria and South Australia went down, cutting power to both of the plant's potlines, and raising questions about its long-term future.

"The smelter has been operating at less than 30 percent capacity since a fault on the Victorian transmission network on Dec. 1 caused a more than five-hour power outage at the plant," Alcoa said in a statement.

It said Alcoa Chief Executive Roy Harvey met with Australia's industry minister Greg Hunt in New York this week, and expressed appreciation for the extensive assistance offered to restart the smelter's lost production.

Alcoa said in May it would continue to implement cost saving measures at the Portland smelter, but its future would be decided by an ability to remain internationally competitive.

A recent rise in electricity prices had added to pressure on the smelter, which has also been battling a years-long glut in the global aluminium market.

Australia has been looking at the possibility of deploying funds from its Clean Energy Finance Corp to help build a new gas-fired power station to supply the smelter, or using wind turbines to supply the works.

Harvey said Alcoa was "committed to continue working" with Australia's federal and state governments.

A shutdown of the smelter would not affect Alcoa's Australian refineries that supply the alumina that is processed at the smelter, according to the company.

(Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Richard Pullin)
NBC/Broadway Video

President-elect Donald Trump has done such an excellent job of expressing surprise and outrage that hes been lampooned on television, its almost as if the mans completely unfamiliar with the concept. Mocking a reporters disability? Thats apparently fair play, but dont you dare suggest that the president-elect be made light of on Saturday Night Live. After all, he is a loyal viewer.

The New York Times has a fascinating profile about the details tucked into Alec Baldwins none-more-orange portrayal of the future commander-in-chief, including an interesting tidbit about how much Baldwin gets paid to play Trump. The answer? $1,400 for each appearance on the program. Considering that the dude could be voicing an animated emoji for an obscene amount of money instead, this may stick in Trumps craw and we suspect the way Baldwin describes playing Trump wont delight the former SNL host either.

I see a guy who seems to pause and dig for the more precise and better language he wants to use, and never finds it, explains Baldwin on his approach to Trump. Its the same dish  its a grilled-cheese sandwich rhetorically over and over again.

The Times piece also features worthwhile dish (the other kind) about how the project comes together. Complete with makeup and wig details!

Saturday Night Live happens at a lightning pace: Those minutes of preparation include dusting the sunset color across Mr. Baldwins face  but not around his eyes, where raccoon circles of white are drawn, he said. The wig, which on Saturday night rested high on a shelf next to the actor Kate McKinnons Hillary Clinton hair, is custom made for Mr. Baldwins head, via seven vectors measured forehead to nape, according to Jodi Mancuso, the shows hair designer. It helps him transform instantly, Ms. Mancuso said. The minute it goes on with the makeup, its like, Oh, I get it.

Sadly, the Times has neglected to devote 65,000 words on Beck Bennetts shirtless bad boy Vladimir Putin. Its definitely still worth a read, mind you. Well let Ken Burns sort Becks legacy out in a lengthy documentary.

(Via New York Times)
Evacuations from rebel-held neighborhoods in east Aleppo stalled on Wednesday, December 21, as cold weather brought snow to the area. The delays came a day after advancing government forces warned civilians to speed up the process to leave.

Media activists in and around Aleppo shared footage of the snowy conditions, both in the city and at al-Rashideen, the drop-off point just inside the rebel-controlled countryside to the west.

Ahmad Primo, who has been covering evacuations from the city, captured this footage, showing snowfall and parked convoy vehicles at al-Rashideen. Credit: Twitter/Ahmad Primo via Storyful
When Pete Ricketts, the former chief operating officer for AmeriTrade, took over as governor, hope flickered that he might be able to finally do something about the long-running failure of ACCESSNebraska.

Those hopes have become reality. The Ricketts administration deserves credit for fixing the system Nebraskans use to apply for and get Medicaid and various public benefits.

The system originally was touted as a modernization and replaced field offices with call centers and online connections.

It was a disaster. Major problems were reported as the system was phased in during 2011. People filled out applications for their ailing parents. The applications would be lost. They would have to start over. In July 2013, more than 10,000 callers experienced call wait times of 45 minutes or more.

People started calling the system NO ACCESSNebraska. In 2013, the Legislatures Performance Audit Committee said the system failed dramatically to reach its goals. The Legislature formed a special investigative committee.

State officials promised time after time that they had solved the problems and improved results were just around the corner.

Last year, the federal government warned that if Nebraska didnt start doing a better job of processing applications under the Supplemental Nutrition Program the state would lose $17 million in federal funds. Before the modernization, the state had received bonuses for its accuracy in providing SNAP benefits.

Things started to improve after Ricketts took office. And this year, the Legislature downgraded the investigative panel to an oversight committee.

This month, the committee came to the conclusion that ACCESSNebraska had improved to the point that the committee could be disbanded.

Health and Human Services CEO Courtney Phillips credited everyone just rolling up their sleeves to get it done. Her report to the committee in June supplied more detail, For example, staff began processing the mail at 2 a.m. so it could be scanned into the system and available for staff to see at 8 a.m. Procedures were simplified and streamlined. An application for heating assistance that used to take 30 to 45 days to process now can be done the same day it is received.

In a letter that served as a final report from the oversight committee, Sen. Sara Howard of Omaha reported that call wait times have continued to fall. In September, timely processing of SNAP benefits hit 99.22 percent; that was the eighth month over 96 percent.

The same sort of efficiencies and performance improvements are being reported elsewhere in the department. Phillips said Monday that the wait time for determining eligibility for services for the developmentally disabled has been cut from 69 days to 14 days. The improvements make a real difference in the life of Nebraskans. They deserve recognition and praise.
Across Austria's alpine villages, December 5th marks the arrival of Saint Nikolausa merry visitor who delivers gifts to well-behaved children. But Saint Nick doesn't come to town alone. The dreaded Krampus is by his side. For centuries, groups of men across the region have dressed as Krampus during the Christmas season. The fearsome figure appears as a horned, half-goat, half-demon who punishes children who misbehave. So be good this year! Krampus is coming to town.
Altria Group Inc. MO has been grappling with increased competition in the vapor category, declining volumes of cigarettes, strict anti-smoking regulations by governments globally and currency headwinds. However, its focus on unconventional tobacco products is likely to cushion the stock.

Although Altria marginally surpassed sales estimates in third-quarter 2016, we noted that it had posted lower-than-expected sales in the past five quarters prior to it. The main reason can be attributable to a general shift of consumption away from tobacco products.

In order to cater to the growing demand for less harmful tobacco products, Altria is offering several reduced risk tobacco products which helps it to maintain share. In collaboration with Okono A/S Altria developed innovative, non-combustible nicotine-containing products for adult smokers. Its flagship MarkTen e-cigarette brand and Green Smoke e-vapor products are some of the examples. Most of the company unconventional brands have gained market share during third-quarter 2016.

ALTRIA GROUP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

ALTRIA GROUP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | ALTRIA GROUP Quote

Altria has always remained afloat amid declining volumes in the cigarette industry with the help of positive pricing. The company has combated unfavorable tax environment with price increases. The company has repeatedly raised prices of its cigarettes in the past. The regular market share gains by the companys brands despite repeated price increase in several markets shows the companys strong business model and strength of its key brands.

Altrias stock price history reveals that it hasnt disappointed for quite sometime. In fact, so far this year, the shares of this tobacco maker have risen 15.7%, outperforming the Zacks categorized Consumer Staples industry, which has showcased a gain of 1.8%.

Although the company maintains a leadership position in the tobacco market we notice that the tobacco industry in general is facing many challenges which have put margins under pressure. Governments worldwide are imposing restrictions on tobacco companies which in turn are lowering cigarette consumption. The U.K. and Australia governments have imposed regulations regarding plain packaging for cigarettes. Such actions negatively impact margins of the company.

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However, the sinful nature of its products is an advantage for the stock. Tobacco sector in particular has always been interesting for investors, as these sinful stocks always yield handsome returns for the portfolio. Since people smoke both during times of recession as well as economic growth, such stocks are sometimes valued at a higher premium than companies that are more sensitive to economic trends. As a result, these stocks always benefit from the addictive nature of their products.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader consumer staples sector include Inter Parfums Inc. IPAR, US Foods Holdings USFD and Sysco Corporation SYY, all carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Inter Parfums Inc. has an expected earnings growth of 15%. US Foods has an expected earnings growth rate of 17.1%, while Sysco Corporation has a long-term growth rate of 8.8%.

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Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) workers in Germany will strike the company, according to a major union that has a number of members who work for the e-commerce firm.

From the union's website, via Google Translate:

Amazon employees in NRW are going through this time until Christmas

After several three-day Adventsstreiks the employees at Amazon in Rheinberg and Werne today (Wednesday, December 21) in the middle of the lucrative Christmas shop now entered a "Christmas strike". The goal of the strike until Christmas Eve is the establishment of a tariff binding to the area tariff agreement of the retail trade. The world's largest online department store Amazon has hitherto rejected any tariff binding for its employees. During the workbenches, there is always a traffic jam in front of the company. This blocks the delivery and delivery of goods for hours. "The strikes mean a tangible loss business for the company and create chaotic conditions in the delivery of wares, even if the online retailer is able to assert the opposite to the outside," explained Silke Zimmer, ver.di Director of Trade for NRW.

ALSO READ: 40 Countries the US Government Doesn't Want You to Visit

The determination of the employees now led to the fact that in Rheinberg, repeatedly unannounced from the ongoing operation was struck out. This makes it impossible to divert goods flows to other warehouses in other European countries. The trade union ver.di also reports of increased admissions in the NRW locations during the last weeks.

Amazon has faced similar problems in Germany for some time. One of the company's primary concerns is likely that a successful set of strikes in Germany might lead to labor unrest in the United States.

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(Adds details, background)

Dec 21 (Reuters) - Oil and gas producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp said it would sell certain natural gas assets in the Marcellus shale for about $1.24 billion to a unit of Alta Resources Development LLC.

Anadarko, which bought Gulf of Mexico assets from Freeport McMoRan Inc for $2 billion in September, said Wednesday's sale excluded assets of its master limited partnership, Western Gas Partners LP.

The Marcellus shale divestiture includes about 195,000 net acres, the company said on Wednesday.

Sales volumes from these assets totaled about 470 million cubic feet per day of natural gas equivalents at the end of the third quarter.

The Marcellus shale play, the largest natural gas shale play in the United States by reserves volume, runs through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and Ohio.

Anadarko's asset sale is the latest in the Marcellus region.

Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA sold its assets in the area to EQT Corp early this year, while Canadian energy producer Enerplus Corp put up its natural gas assets in the region up for sale in October.

Jefferies LLC marketed Anadarko's assets, while Sidley Austin LLP served as legal counsel.

(Reporting by John Benny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
Martin Scorseses Silence is about two Portuguese Jesuit priests, played by Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver, who travel to Japan in search of their mentor, played by Liam Neeson. The journey is harrowing and food is in short supply, so Garfield had to lose weight off his already slight frame to capture the struggle properly.

Andrew Garfield said he didnt go cold turkey to lose weight for Silence. (Photo: Yahoo Movies)

When Yahoo Movies attended the junket for Silence, our Kevin Polowy asked Garfield about his physical transformation for the part. We had to lose a lot of weight, Garfield said. And we had to look as if we had been on a long, arduous boat trip from our native Portugal.  Right at the beginning of the film, we kind of had already gone through our dysentery phase.

Andrew Garfield in Silence (Photo: Paramount)

There was never a question that Garfield was going to drop the pounds. The choice of what costume to wear is the same as losing that amount of weight, he shared. Its just a necessary thing for the reality of the piece. So that was very challenging, not eating is very challenging.

Garfield is no stranger to changing his body for a role. For his two-movie run as Spider-Man, Garfield did multiple-hour daily workouts. Obviously, the process for Silence was different. You try doing it in a safe way, and you try and do it in a way that is gradual, so that by the time you start shooting, youve leveled out as much as possible so youre not just kind of going cold turkey, Garfield noted. Because I think if that was the case, your scenes would suffer. That was always the most important thing to me  making sure I was present for the scenes. The starvation was secondary to the work.

Martin Scorsese and Andrew Garfield on the set of Silence (Photo: Studiocanal)

Weight loss wasnt the only part of it; Garfield also had to grow a beard. I let it grow out for a long time, the Golden Globe nominee said. I think theres like some pretty incredible paparazzi pictures of me out there looking like a homeless 80-year-old man. Which Im very proud of.

Yahoo Movies Top 50 Films of 2016 in 2 Minutes:

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram  or leave your comments below.
Berlin (AFP) - The Tunisian suspect in the Berlin truck attack, 24-year-old Anis Amri, was long watched as a potentially dangerous jihadist but managed to avoid both arrest and deportation from Germany.

Two days after the Christmas market rampage killed 12 people, Amri was named in European arrest warrants that offered a 100,000-euro ($104,000) reward for information and warned he could be "violent and armed".

Authorities suspect that the man with a history of petty crime and drug dealing is the killer praised in the IS-linked Amaq news agency as the "soldier of the Islamic State" behind the carnage.

Amri's asylum-office papers for a stay of deportation were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry that cut a swathe of death and destruction through the festive crowd.

The warrant said the dark-haired, brown-eyed and possibly bearded suspect had used six false names as he dodged security services and mingled with radical Islamist preachers, some of whom are now in custody.

He had already been in the crosshairs of counter-terror agencies, and a probe had been launched suspecting he was preparing "a serious act of violence against the state," said Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state.

The Berlin prosecutors, who were in charge of the case, said Amri had been suspected of planning a burglary meant to raise cash to buy automatic weapons, "possibly to carry out an attack".

Surveillance had then however shown that Amri was working as a small-time drug dealer in Berlin and once had a bar fight with another dealer, a statement said, adding that the surveillance had ceased in September.

- 'Hate preachers' -

Bild newspaper reported Amri had repeatedly contacted Islamist "hate preachers" including the Iraqi Ahmad Abdelazziz A., alias Abu Walaa, who has since been arrested, accused of supporting the IS.

Amri had searched for people to join him in an attack as early as the spring of 2016 and once tried to buy a pistol from an undercover police officer, an investigator was quoted as telling Bild.

Story continues

He had used different identities to travel between German states, said an unnamed investigator, "but apparently there was never sufficient evidence to arrest him".

Amri's family lives in the central Tunisian town of Oueslatia, near Kairouan, a holy city of Islam which became a Salafist stronghold for a time after the 2011 revolution that overthrew long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

A Tunisian security official told AFP that Amri had been arrested several times there for alleged drug use.

He fled Tunisia to Italy after the 2011 revolution. Media reports in Italy said Amri, then an unaccompanied minor, was jailed for several years there after being accused of starting a fire in a school.

Amri arrived in Germany in July 2015, at a time when tens of thousands of migrants and refugees also flocked to the top EU economy.

Germany rejected his asylum request in June this year but was unable to deport him as Amri claimed to have no travel documents.

His deportation then got caught up in red tape with Tunisia, which long denied he was a citizen. The documents only arrived on Wednesday, two days after the Berlin attack, said Jaeger.

In Tunisia, Amri's family expressed shock Wednesday when they were questioned by anti-terrorism police and learned that Amri was wanted across Europe.

"I can't believe my brother could do such a thing," his sister Najoua told AFP.

"He never made us feel there was anything wrong. We were in touch through Facebook and he was always smiling and cheerful."

His brother Abdelkader said: "When I saw the picture of my brother in the media, I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm in shock, and can't believe it's him who committed this crime".

But, he added, "if he's guilty, he deserves every condemnation. We reject terrorism and terrorists -- we have no dealings with terrorists."
This article has been co-published with USA Today/Gannett.

A $67.5 million payment by a major nuclear weapons contractor to settle claims that it illegally spent federal funds is the latest in a series of settlements stemming from allegations that firms making bombs and cleaning up the resulting debris are using federal money improperly to win support for continued weapons-related work.

Altogether, the three companies that have made such settlement payments since 2013 are involved in the operation of six of the eight active sites in the Energy Departments nuclear weapons program. Actions by the Energy Departments contractors  including any misspending  have substantial impact, since contract work consumes roughly 90 percent of the department's total budget.

The lobbying activities at the heart of the latest settlement helped one of the contractors win a $45 million award for additional cleanup work. Although work on energy generation and consumption garners more public attention and President-elect Donald Trump has nominated an oil-state politician  former Texas governor Rick Perry  to become the departments new top manager, such nuclear weapons-related work accounts for nearly two-thirds of all the departments activities.

The latest case emerged from a civil lawsuit that accused two companies of performing substandard work at a nuclear weapons-related waste site and said one of them had improperly spent government funds to lobby for more. The companies declared on Nov. 23 they would settle the allegations by making payments, mostly to the federal government, for a total of $125 million, a massive amount for alleged Energy Department-related malfeasance.

The settlement involves work by Bechtel National Inc. and its parent Bechtel Corp., and URS Corp. and its subsidiary URS Energy and Construction Inc., which together have been trying to clean up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Washington. Thats where raw uranium was enriched into fuel for nuclear bombs during the Manhattan Project and the Cold War.

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The firms have denied doing anything improper. But the settlement is part of an emerging pattern.

Lockheed Martin Corp., which operates one of three U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories  Sandia, agreed in August 2015 to pay $4.7 million to settle a complaint by the Justice Department that it used federal funds to lobby for a no-bid contract extension. Last Friday, it lost that effort when the Department of Energy selected a different contractor team, led by Honeywell International, to run Sandia for up to a decade, beginning next year. Meanwhile, Fluor Corp. paid $1.1 million in April 2013 to settle accusations that it used federal funds to lobby government agencies for more business at its Hanford training facility.

This story is part of National Security. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

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Worries about the mission being undermined

Besides overseeing the Hanford cleanup, Bechtel and URS (now owned by a company called AECOM) help operate the other two U.S. nuclear weapons labs  Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore, which perform the bulk of U.S. nuclear weapons design work. Altogether, the firms that have reached the settlements since 2013 are involved with operations at Los Alamos and Sandia in New Mexico, Livermore in California, the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee.

The recent settlement demonstrates that the Justice Department will work to ensure that public funds are used for the important purposes for which they are intended, Benjamin C. Mizer, principal deputy assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Departments civil division, said in a written statement released on Nov. 23.

Money allocated by Congress for Hanford is intended to fund the Department of Energys important mission to clean up the contaminated Hanford nuclear site, and this mission is undermined if funds are wasted on goods or services that are not nuclear compliant or to further lobbying activities, Mizer said.

Both Bechtel and AECOM in written statements said the settlements were made to avoid messy litigation and keep the waste plant project moving. We have performed our workethically and professionally, Bechtel National Inc. spokesman Fred deSousa said in a written statement, without going into details.

In its own written statement, AECOM  which acquired URS in 2014  complained that the Department of Justice joined the whistleblowers unwarranted lawsuit against URS based on events that preceded AECOMs acquisition of the company. We take our responsibilities as a government contractor very seriously and have a demonstrated track record of serving our customers with honesty and integrity, the companys statement said.

The Justice Departments involvement in the case originated in civil allegations of mismanagement and wrongdoing in Hanfords Waste Treatment and Isolation Plant project, commonly called WTP. Under its contract with the Energy Department, Bechtel designed and is constructing machinery to convert nuclear-tainted wastes there into a stable, glassy substance suitable for safe disposal.

Three whistleblowers  Walt Tamosaitis, Donna Busche and Gary Brunson  filed a lawsuit on Feb. 4, 2013, accusing Bechtel and URS bosses of mismanagement and misappropriation of funds over a dozen years that together cost the government more than $1 billion. They also said safety lapses at the site, motivated by a desire to meet Energy Department deadlines and collect financial bonuses, were serious enough to risk a nuclear accident.

The whistleblowers complaint triggered an investigation by the Energy Departments Office of Inspector General, which collected emails sent between Bechtels project leaders, the companys top congressional lobbyist for nuclear projects, and Energy Department employees. The whistleblowers attorneys subsequently obtained the emails through the civil discovery process and incorporated them into an amended complaint. The Justice Department, in turn, used the complaint as the basis for its own investigation of Bechtel and URS.

Getting $45 million in new work

In the complaint, the whistleblowers said that when they originally lodged accusations of mismanagement  several years earlier  Bechtel project leaders launched a coordinated lobbying campaign to defend their work and also to collect new revenues for additional work on the waste treatment plant project. It then billed the department for the costs of this lobbying, the complaint said.

In January 2010, it said, a Bechtel manager on the WTP project sent the companys top lobbyist for nuclear programs a letter meant to be delivered to key congressional staff to determine their anxiety level about criticisms of the companys performance. After his investigation, the lobbyist became convinced that there would be no immediate, adverse consequences, and the company decided to ask for $50 million on top of the $690 million already slated for the project, according to the complaint.

In an email sent by one Bechtel manager to another  along with a chart detailing the work that the company could say the additional revenue would finance  the manager said in reality if we did not receive the additional $50m  most of these activities would still likely happen, according to the whistleblowers complaint. The company subsequently got $45 million added to its contract.

The full emails detailing these actions have not been publicly released, by either the government or the plaintiffs, because the messages are part of an investigation that remains open and ongoing, according to Felicia Jones, spokeswoman for the Energy Department Office of Inspector General. She declined to say whether her colleagues consider the whistleblowers description of the emails accurate.

The Justice Departments statement affirmed that it had alleged that Bechtel National Inc. and Bechtel Corp. improperly claimed and received government funding for lobbying activities. But Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Nava declined to comment about the whistleblowers account of specific emails.

Lobbying Congress for new work isnt against the law. But billing the government for lobbying is, according to the federal Byrd Amendment, approved by Congress in 1989. Court records state that Bechtel will pay $67.5 million of the settlement, and AECOM will pay $57.5 million; the amount of money that will go to the whistleblowers  who are entitled to a portion of any funds they help the government recover  has not been determined yet.

Charles Curtis, who oversaw the Energy Departments nuclear weapons work from 1994 to 1997 while serving as undersecretary and then deputy secretary, said he was not aware of any improperly-funded lobbying during his tenure. But he expressed surprise that multiple contractors within the past three years have been caught doing it. These are for-profit enterprises. They can use their shareholders money for lobbying, but to use congressionally appropriated money [is] a diversion of funds, Curtis said. Its not only unethical  its illegal.

Three years ago, it was the Fluor Corporation and its subsidiary Fluor Hanford Inc., which at the time held the contract to manage the Hanford site, that agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle a separate complaint that its officials lobbied with government money from 2005 to 2010 to drum up business for a federally funded training facility there. Loydene Rambo, a Fluor employee, triggered the settlement by filing her own whistleblower suit, based on what she described as records of the lobbyists being paid with federal funds. She received a $200,000 reward, and Fluor denied any wrongdoing.

The Justice Departments August 2015 settlement with Lockheed Martin Corporation, which runs Sandia, similarly followed improper billing of the government for a more complex and elaborate lobbying effort to extend its management contract, according to a special investigation report released by the Energy Department Office of Inspector General. Lockheed agreed to pay $4.7 million in 2015 to settle the Justice Departments complaint about the billing. Like Fluor before it and Bechtel and URS since, Lockheed Martin in a written statement denied it had done anything wrong.

Asked by the Center about how the lobbying settlements have affected the departments relationship with its nuclear weapons contractors, Energy Department spokeswoman Bridget Bartol said in an email that the Department has taken and will continue to take vigorous action against any contractor who spends federal funds on improper lobbying activities.

Bechtel remains the primary contractor on the WTP project, and Lockheed Martin still holds the contract to operate Sandia National Laboratories.

Cleanup of the Hanford site was authorized 25 years ago, and as of 2000 it was expected to cost $4.3 billion and be completed in 2011. The Department now estimates it may not be fully operational until 2037, according to pleadings filed in federal court by government lawyers defending the Energy Department in a lawsuit brought by the state of Washington to force an acceleration of the cleanup. If the job is funded at its current level of about $690 million a year until 2037, the cost would exceed $15 billion.

President-elect Donald Trumps transition team is mindful of the projects problems and growing price tag. A recent memo to top Energy Department officials from the transition team he appointed asked them to describe your alternatives to the ever increasing WTP cost and schedule, whether technical or programmatic.

This story is part of National Security. 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.
The Daily Beast

GettyRussia announced Wednesday that it views Norways work with other countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as provocative, warning that Norways efforts to bolster its military in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine this year will likely be the death knell for Oslo-Moscow relations moving forward.Oslo is now among the most active supporters of NATO's involvement in the Arctic, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Wednesday, according to TASS. We cons
Don Waltons recent column, Lets not label all issues partisan (Dec. 12), urges readers to inform themselves about bipartisan issues and to focus on our role as citizens. One example he cites is the partisan divide over climate change. Walton states, It is, in part, the present versus the future  grandparents determining quality of life for their grandchildren -- and beyond.

I urge all readers to bypass partisan politics and to become better informed about the challenges and possible solutions. An excellent source of information is the non-partisan Citizens Climate Lobby. They are working to educate the public and to lobby Congress to pass legislation addressing the problem.

The Journal Star regularly publishes factual articles about climate change as well as relevant opinion pieces. Two recent examples are a letter to the editor, Be a part of climate change solution (Dec. 6) and an Op-ed, How conservatives could address climate change (Dec. 11).

With a new administration ambivalent about the reality of climate change and the need for action, we are depending on Congress to pass legislation that will address problems created by climate change. I write to our congressional representatives regularly to urge them to take action. I hope you will do the same. They need to hear from more Nebraskans that we care about the climate and we want them to be part of the solution.

Marj Willeke, Lincoln
By Melissa Fares PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Wednesday that attacks this week in Berlin and Ankara proved he was correct to propose curbing Muslim immigration to the United States. "Whats going on is terrible, terrible," Trump told reporters, when asked about the truck attack that killed 12 people at a Christmas market in Berlin and the killing of Russia's ambassador to Turkey. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Berlin killings though U.S. officials say they had seen no evidence that the militant group had directed the attack. The assassin in Turkey shouted about the war in Syria as he shot dead the envoy from Moscow, which aids Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against rebels in that country's civil war. Trump was asked by reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, if Monday's violence would affect his consideration of a ban on Muslims entering the United States or of a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries. "You know my plans. All along, Ive been proven to be right. 100 percent correct. Whats happening is disgraceful," Trump said. At one point in his election campaign, Trump called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country as a means of fighting terrorism, drawing widespread criticism at home and abroad. He later rephrased this to propose temporarily suspending immigration from regions deemed as exporting terrorism and where safe vetting cannot be ensured. However U.S.-born citizens, rather than immigrants, were involved in some of the main attacks in the United States in recent years, including the mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub in June. On Monday, Trump issued a statement about the Berlin attack in which he said that Islamic State and other Islamist militants "continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad." But when asked about his reference to Christians, the president-elect on Wednesday appeared to soften his response: "It's an attack on humanity, and it's gotta be stopped." Current and former U.S. officials had reacted with dismay to Trump's original language, saying it could inflame anti-Western sentiment among Muslims and erode cooperation from Muslim communities that they view as central to quashing such attacks. Trump has been critical of Obama, and of his Democratic rival in the November presidential election, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for what he says is a reluctance to clearly name Islamist militancy as a threat. (Reporting by Melissa Fares and Susan Heavey; Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Frances Kerry and Alistair Bell)
UPDATE: 05:50 a.m. EST  German authorities are looking for a Tunisian man named Anis A in relation to Mondays attack, when a truck plowed through a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin killing at least 12 people, based on an identity card found in the vehicle, German media reported.

Investigators said Wednesday more than one person may be involved and that they are possibly still armed. Another suspect was detained Wednesday but was shortly released.

No one will rest until the perpetrator or perpetrators have been caught, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere reportedly said. The police said they have identified over 500 leads that would help them catch the attacker.

Meanwhile, German tabloid Bild reported Wednesday that one of the victims of the attack, the trucks registered driver ukasz Urban, likely put up a struggle and was shot only after the truck came to a halt about 50 yards into the market. The tabloid, citing anonymous sources part of the ongoing investigation, said Urban probably tried to grab the wheel to prevent further killings. There must have been a struggle, a source told Bild.

Original story:

The driver of the truck, which plowed through a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin on Monday killing at least 12 people, is still at large. German officials detained a Pakistani asylum-seeker Monday night but later released him saying they had the wrong man.

We need to work on the assumption that an armed perpetrator is still on the loose, Holger Munch, the head of the federal criminal police office, reportedly said. We are on high alert and are investigating every possible angle.

The Islamic State terrorist group, also called ISIS, claimed responsibility for the attack that also left 48 people injured. The group released a statement on the ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency calling the attacker a soldier of the Islamic State.

German authorities are investigating the crash as a deliberate terror attack. Mondays attack involved a tractor trailer speeding through a popular market outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Breitscheidplatz, in the western part of central Berlin, at around 8 p.m. (2 p.m. EST).

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The attack bears a striking resemblance to the July attack in the city of Nice in France where a Tunisian-born man barreled through a crowded beachfront in the city on Bastille Day, killing 86 people.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people attended a service held at the site of the attack in memory of the victims. In attendance were leading German officials, including Chancellor Angela Merkel and Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere. A group of 60 to 70 members belonging to the local mosque were also present.

We wanted to show our solidarity and that our community stands for peace, Hasnen Ahmad, a member of the group, reportedly said.

Berlin Christmas market attack

Photo: REUTERS/FABRIZIO BENSCH

Merkel released a short statement Tuesday condemning the attack. She said it would be particularly repugnant if the attacker was an asylum-seeker given the many many Germans who have dedicated themselves day after day to helping refugees, and in the face of the many people who actually need our protection and try to integrate into our country.

Maiziere, in a press conference Tuesday, said 18 people were very seriously injured in the Monday attack. However, he urged Germans to not compromise our lifestyle, if we do that the enemies of freedom have already won. We are deeply saddened but we also fight for our freedom.

Authorities put together a timeline of events as they unfolded, based on the information they had acquired. The attacker hijacked the truck, which belonged to a Polish company and was fitted with Polish license plates, that was on its way to Berlin. He shot the trucks driver and left the body in the truck.

The attacker sped past Berlins zoo station, reaching the Christmas market at about 8 p.m. Monday. A witness told CNN the truck was travelling at 50 miles per hour. After speeding through for about 50 yards, the truck came to a halt after it struck a wooden structure. The attacker fled from the scene, reports said.

Meanwhile, the attack has intensified pressure on Merkel whose open door policy allowed nearly 890,000 asylum-seekers to enter the country last year. The anti-immigration, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party accused Merkel of importing terror to Germany over the past one and a half years.

In the U.S., President-elect Donald Trump called the crash an act of terrorism, adding the civilized world must change thinking when it comes to such attacks.

The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs urged Americans in Berlin to inform their families of their safety and to stay away from the site of the attack.

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President Barack Obamas drive to cement his environmental legacy before President-elect Donald Trump takes office has taken on an Arctic twist. On Tuesday, Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, brandishing decades-old legislative authority, indefinitely banned future offshore drilling in the bulk of the American and Canadian Arctic.

The decision, which drew predictable praise from environmental organizations and condemnation from the energy industry and Alaskan lawmakers, marks an about-face of sorts for the administration, which until recently was touting Arctic development. It could presage a months-long bitter legal and legislative battle in Washington, one of many sown by Obamas last-ditch efforts to lock-in achievements, especially when it comes to the environment.

But this wont just be a battle over oil companies access to potentially rich waters. Proponents of drilling are hoping to paint the battle in terms of national security: They argue that Washington should encourage economic activity like drilling in the not-so-frozen north to guarantee an American foothold in a part of the world that is fast becoming a geopolitical wishbone. Russia, for its part, is ramping up Arctic oil exploration and building a host of new military bases north of the Arctic Circle.

Removing Arctic lease sales will only further signal a strategic withdrawal from the region, wrote a pair of former NATO commanders, Joseph Ralston and James Jones, Obamas first national security adviser, in an op-ed this summer.

With the stroke of a pen, Obama on Tuesday designated over 115 million acres of the Arctic Ocean indefinitely off-limits to future oil and gas leasing. Trudeau, Obamas temporary liberal sidekick, matched the U.S. announcement with his own pledge to freeze offshore Arctic oil and gas leasing, with a review of Canadas decision every five years.

Tuesdays decision puts the entire U.S. Chukchi Sea, to the northwest of Alaska, and much of the Beaufort, to the north, out of bounds for future drilling. The Obama administration opened a small portion of the Chukchi and the Beaufort for oil exploration in the past, but found few takers. Shell spent $7 billion in Arctic projects before finally pulling the plug in September, 2015.

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Lawmakers in Alaska, which relies on oil and gas production and which has called for greater development of U.S. Arctic resources, werent thrilled by Obamas maneuver.

President Obama has once again treated the Arctic like a snow globe, ignoring the desires of the people who live, work, and raise a family there, said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the chair of the Senate Energy Committee. I cannot wait to work with the next administration to reverse this decision, she added.

It might be tough, according to legal experts. Obama used a 1953 law that governs offshore leases in the U.S. continental shelf. The law has no provision that allows his successor to undo anything, which environmental groups hope may block Trump from repealing it.

Nonsense, says Christopher Guith, an energy expert with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who called that idea bogus.

Theres no such thing as a permanent withdrawal, Guith told Foreign Policy. This is not an executive order, its a presidential memorandum, he said. Trump could simply issue another presidential memorandum rescinding this withdrawal, Guith added.

Trump, who loves oil, gas, and coal, has stacked his administration with climate-change skeptics or deniers, and has promised to rescind a raft of Obamas environmental rules. But its not clear when or how he could fight the political battle to reopen the Arctic, especially with oil prices staying low for the second straight year, which discourages industry interest in the area.

Trumps team is going to have a lot of priorities when he takes office, Ralston told FP. The Arctic is a long way away from Washington.

Even if Trump prioritizes rescinding the ban on Arctic drilling, environmental groups are hungering for a fight to defend the international agreement. No president has ever rescinded a previous presidents permanent withdrawal of offshore areas from oil and gas development, said Friends of the Earths Marissa Knodel in a press release issued Tuesday. If Donald Trump tries to reverse President Obamas withdrawals, he will find himself in court.

Thats one reason drilling proponents want to play the national-security card to refocus U.S. attention on the Arctic. Russia, Ralston says, is making major upgrades to its Arctic military facilities, and boosting naval activity there. But he says the United States military and coast guard footprint in the Arctic is lacking; the United States has only a fraction of the icebreakers that the Coast Guard says it needs.

Ralston says that drilling proponents will push national security front and center, because energy production will naturally draw greater U.S. presence and political interest to the region. That includes improvements  from deep-water ports to Coast Guard stations to more roads and power plants  that could underpin greater economic activity or a more robust military presence.

Until a few months ago, Obama administration officials took a similar tack. Responsibly developing Arctic oil and gas resources aligns with United States all-of-the-above approach to developing domestic energy resources, Amy Pope, Obamas deputy homeland security advisor, said at an Atlantic Council conference in October.

Obamas Special Representative for the Arctic, Robert Papp, who also spoke at the conference, said Arctic energy development and national security went hand-in-hand. We need to have the infrastructure; whether youre talking about energy security or any other form of security in the Arctic, you need to have the infrastructure in place, Papp, former commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, said. He said that encouraging Arctic development is important, because we are going to be dependent upon petroleum and gas for a long time.

Obamas change of course, which wrong footed many of his own administration officials, could be little more than an effort at Yuletide cheer for greens, who are trying to batten down the hatches before Trump takes office.

It just has the look of being a political consolation prize for Democrats and environmental groups, said retired Adm. David Titley, an Arctic expert now at Pennsylvania State University. What weve done is outsourced Arctic energy production risks, ironically, to places that have fewer environmental regulations, like Russia.

In Alaska, local leaders feel Washington ran roughshod over their concerns, unlike leaders in Ottawa.

Canada in recent years has given development decisions in the north to local governments, Mead Treadwell, former Alaska lieutenant governor told FP. They believe this is their decision, not a national decision. That wasnt the case in Alaska, he says (though some Alaskan conservation groups were, in fact, quick to praise the decision).



Its hard to understand how you could have eight years of hearings on the Keystone Pipeline and yet do this in the dark of the night with the stroke of a pen, Treadwell said. Its the worst Christmas present ever.

Photo credit: Greg A. Syverson/Getty Images
Aurora Rose/WWD/REX/Shutterstock

The beauty industry forecast for 2017 is uncertain. Just last week, Unilever announced that after buying hair care brand Living Proof, Jennifer Aniston would no longer be the spokesperson for the brand. And the beauty bombshells have continued to drop. This week brought the news that Bobbi Brown will be leaving her post at Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, and the iconic Ted Gibson Salon will be closing its doors.

According to WWD, Bobbi Brown announced this week that after 25 years, shell be leaving her namesake cosmetics company that she built from the ground up. Brown said in a statement that her 25-year milestone was one that inspired her to move onto new ventures, but she did not expand on what those new ventures might be.

The artist posted an Instagram photo Tuesday to address her fans, writing, Thank you all for your incredible kindness and support. Stay tuned

I am thankful for the extraordinary people that Ive had the privilege to work with over the years and proud of the creative endeavors and innovative products weve created together, she said, adding, and the Lauder family for the many opportunities they gave me.

RELATED PHOTOS: 8 Ways To Make Your New Years Eve Makeup Sparkle

Through the years, the makeup mogul enlisted stars like Katie Holmes and Kate Upton to star in her campaigns, plus, she created a line of eyewear and kept Hollywoods elite  and women everywhere  looking flawless every day.

On the hair side of the industry, Ted Gibson announced that Wednesday December 21st would be the final day for his salon, which has been open for 13 years. Gibson, an editorial hairstylist and colorist, was one of the first to charge upwards of $1000 for a haircut  Bloomberg reported in 2013 that his cuts were $1,200. Today, his going rate for a cut is listed as $1,500 on his website.

Gibsons celebrity clientele includes Saoirse Ronan, Priyanka Chopra and Hailey Baldwin, and the pro often shares live videos on social media during hair cuts. Today @jasonbacke and I start a new beginning #5thavenue #salon closed #reinvent the experience in #2017, he shared on Instagram of the salon closing.

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Heres to hoping 2017 will in fact bring a new beauty experience.

What do you think of the industry news? Share below.




Berlin (AFP) - German authorities triggered a Europe-wide manhunt Wednesday for a rejected asylum seeker suspected of involvement in a deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Officials said the suspect, 24-year-old Tunisian national Anis Amri, had already been under investigation for planning an attack, in a development certain to fuel public outrage.

Asylum office papers believed to belong to Amri, alleged to have links to the radical Islamist scene, were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry that rammed through the crowd, killing 11.

The twelfth victim, the hijacked truck's driver, was found shot in the cab.

Prosecutors released a European wanted notice with two photos of the dark-haired, brown-eyed suspect and offering a reward of 100,000 euros ($104,000) for information leading to the arrest of Amri, who they warned "could be violent and armed".

Tunisian anti-terrorism police were questioning Anis' family, a security official told AFP, as another source said he had been arrested several times in Tunisia for alleged drug use.

He fled to Italy after the 2011 revolution that overthrew longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and spent three years there before travelling on to Germany, the source said.

"When I saw the picture of my brother in the media, I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm in shock, and can't believe it's him who committed this crime," his brother Abdelkader Amri told AFP.

But "if he's guilty, he deserves every condemnation. We reject terrorism and terrorists -- we have no dealings with terrorists."

- Deportation debate -

The interior minister of Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia state, Ralf Jaeger, said counter-terrorism officials had exchanged information about Amri, most recently in November, and a probe had been launched suspecting he was preparing "a serious act of violence against the state," Jaeger said.

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Prosecutors in Berlin later said that Amri was under investigation for allegedly trying to carry out a robbery to fund the purchase of automatic weapons, "possibly to carry out an attack with accomplices he still hoped to recruit".

But after keeping tabs on him from March until September this year, they failing to find evidence of the plot and stopped the surveillance.

Amri came to Germany in July 2015 but his application for asylum was rejected this June.

His deportation, however, got caught up in red tape with Tunisia, which long denied he was a citizen.

The required documents only arrived Wednesday, two days after the Berlin attack, said Jaeger.

A conservative lawmaker, Stephan Meyer, told reporters Amri was apparently "known to authorities and belonged to the Salafist-Islamist scene".

A previous suspect -- a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker -- was released late Tuesday for lack of evidence, prompting fears of a killer on the loose and further rattling nerves in a shocked country.

Six of the dead have been identified as German while media reported one of the victims was an Italian woman.

Twenty-four people remain in hospital, 14 of whom were seriously injured.

The scenes of the attack revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency said "a soldier of the Islamic State" carried out the Berlin carnage "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries".

There was no evidence to back the claim, nor did Amaq identify the perpetrator.

Germany is part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

Tunisia is one of the biggest sources of jihadist fighters, with some 5,500 of its nationals believed to be involved in combat in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

The Berlin attack comes at a delicate time for Chancellor Angela Merkel who is running for a fourth term in 2017 but has faced strong criticism over her decision last year to open the country's borders to refugees.

The case has inflamed the debate about asylum policy in general, and in particular the speed at which rejected asylum seekers can be deported.

Germany this year moved to declare Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as safe countries of origin, to raise the bar for asylum requests after last year's record influx of around 890,000 people.

But the bill has been stuck in the upper house for months over human rights concerns in those countries.

- High alert -

A Polish man, killed with a gunshot, was found in the articulated truck's passenger seat. The 37-year-old Pole named Lukasz worked for his cousin Ariel Zurawski's transport company in northern Poland.

Zurawski told Polish television he was a "good guy" and said his body showed signs of a struggle with the assailant or assailants including stab marks.

An autopsy indicated that the driver was still alive at the time of the attack, the daily Bild reported.

Europe has been on high alert for most of 2016, with bloody jihadist attacks striking Paris since last year and Brussels.

In Germany, two attacks in July in the southern state of Bavaria were committed by asylum seekers and claimed by IS.
Monday evening's attack on a Berlin Christmas market did not reveal any increased terrorist threat to Germany, according to a leading global risk consultancy.

Charles Hecker, senior partner at Control Risks told CNBC's Squawk Box on Wednesday that his firm is maintaining a low terrorist rating for the country in the wake of the attacks. This is partly because the tragic event looks unlikely to materially impact domestic businesses but also partly due to the Berlin attack appearing to be the act of a "lone wolf."

In Hecker's view, the driving of the truck through an unguarded marketplace was a simplistic operation, not one that revealed a high degree of coordination, technology or multiple angles or one that signified a qualitative change in terrorist capabilities in the country.

As the search for details to help unravel the full story continues, Hecker points to discovering the identity of the individual behind the attacks as the next critical piece for the authorities, in order to determine elements such as whether the perpetrator was a recent arrival in the country and how they had been radicalized.

It would also be essential to understanding the extent of the terrorist's engagement with jihadist group, the so-called Islamic State (IS), which claimed responsibility for the attack on Tuesday.

Once deciphered, these factors would shape the agenda for both interpreting the security situation within Germany and better estimating the political fallout for Angela Merkel as she prepares to battle for a fourth term as Chancellor in next September's federal elections.

Should the perpetrator be shown to have been a beneficiary of Merkel's controversial 2015 open-door policy towards around a million refugees, the pressure on her would be significantly greater.

However, Hecker was keen to point out that large scale attacks enacted in the past 14 months in Paris and Brussels were carried out by first-generation citizens who had been raised within these cities, so observers must be careful not to jump to conclusions.

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Furthermore, he pointed to Germany's relatively strong track record of integrating refugees into its social security system.

"Germany is a country with an enormous and very secure social security net and by and large the absorption of refugees into employment, into schools and into the German social fabric is going pretty well," the risk analyst noted.

"It's kind of along that Scandinavian model, that Denmark model for anti-radicalisation and for giving people jobs, a community and a position in a new life," he explained.

Hecker also refused to point to failed multi-culturalism as the key issue, saying the evolving situation in the Middle East is a more important factor.

"I think the problem is now, whether it is migrants or local folks, the gradual destruction of IS in Raqqa and northern Iraq is going to increase the dispersal of that threat all around Europe," he posited.



Turning to the fatal shooting on Monday evening of Russia's ambassador to Turkey in the latter's capital city of Ankara, Hecker said he did not expect the event to derail the gradual rapprochement between Russia and Turkey.

While the two countries were at pains subsequent to the ambassador's murder to publicly declare their ongoing joint initiatives to battle terrorism, Hecker told CNBC that he believed this message only up to a point.

"After all they are on separate sides of the story in Syria and on Assad and so they are going to have to in the short to medium term deal with that as something that does drive a wedge between them in regional politics in the area," he highlighted.

Discussing drivers for their friendship, Hecker noted the attraction for Russia.

"Russia wants a southern oil and gas pipeline and it's going to have to go through Turkey. So they are going to have to learn to like each other no matter what happens in either of those two countries," he said.

Meanwhile, he explained that Turkey appreciated the ability to play eastern and western leaders off against one another so would tolerate just enough  but not too much  of Russia in its backyard.

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By Caroline Copley BERLIN (Reuters) - Christmas markets in Berlin stayed shut on Tuesday as the city mourned the victims of the previous evening's truck rampage, while security measures were stepped up at similar events elsewhere in Germany and abroad. Germanys interior ministry said other Christmas markets and large gatherings would not be called off, and appropriate steps to increase security should be decided at each location. Flags flew at half-mast out of respect for those killed when a truck ploughed into a crowd at a market by Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church on Monday. "No matter what we continue to learn about the exact background and motives of the perpetrators, we ... must not let them take away our freedom," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said in a statement. Michael Krzyzniewski, a security expert for big public events, said safety measures were already in place at Christmas markets though some might want to review them. He said erecting protective concrete barriers was one option. In Dresden, the tourist information service said authorities had done that around the Striezelmarkt, one of Germany's oldest Christmas markets. "This has several serious downsides, for example it is then no longer possible for emergency vehicles to access the market in case someone has a heart attack," Krzyzniewski said. "We need to make sure that we don't fall into panic and call for knee-jerk measures." In Munich, tourists visiting the Christmas market said they felt confident with a strong police presence in the city. "You see police around here everywhere so I don't feel unsafe," Scott, a visitor from Montreal, said at the central Marienplatz. HUNDREDS OF MARKETS While Germany remains the focal point of Europe's Christmas markets, visitors and shoppers also flock to hundreds elsewhere in Europe, where authorities were also on their guard. In December 2000, authorities uncovered a plot to bomb a Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg. In Italy, Interior Minister Marco Minniti ordered police to reinforce security at Christmas-related events and ceremonies and other crowded public areas, according to a statement. In France, where the Berlin incident revived memories of a similar attack on Bastille Day in Nice in which 86 people were killed, authorities sought to reassure the public about safety during upcoming festivities, saying security forces were working round the clock. "The police are everywhere. There are concrete blocks everywhere," said Ludovic Ferla, a stallholder at the Christmas market lining Paris' Champs Elysees avenue. In Nice, a Christmas village was mainly empty, with extra police personnel on patrol at the site which already had metal detectors in place. "There is nobody here," shopkeeper Frederic Maume said. "It's a dead village since this morning. We expected it. It's normal." In Brussels, where Islamist bombers killed 32 people in suicide attacks in March, no additional security measures were implemented. Interior Minister Jan Jambon tweeted on Monday night security would remain at alert level three out of four. Around the central Grand Place square and nearby Christmas market, cargo trucks continued their daily delivery routine. Resident Roger Lepers, 86, said Monday's attack did not deter him from taking his grandson to the event. "It happened in Nice, it's now happened in Berlin," he said. "It will probably happen again elsewhere, but when, we don't know." (Reporting by Caroline Copley in Berlin; additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Rome, Lucien Libert and Antony Paone in Paris and Clement Rossignol and Christian Levaux in Brussels; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
There are some leaders who can take an act of terrorism and convert the tragedy into political gain. Theyre usually leaders on a macho streak, like Recep Tayyip Ergodan of Turkey, who seems to tighten his hold on power no matter how often his cities are attacked, or Vladimir Putin of Russia, who clinched his popularity after the Moscow bombings in 1999 by promising to drown the terrorists in the outhouse.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is not one of those leaders. As Mondays terrorist attack in Berlin made clear, such tragedies only serve to expose her worst vulnerabilities. Even while police were still inspecting the truck that mowed through a crowded Christmas market that evening, killing 12 people and wounding scores of others, her rivals were piling the blame at the Chancellors feet and denouncing her openness toward refugees for effectively importing terrorism to Germany. There was not much that Merkel could do to deflect such attacks, especially after police identified the suspect on Wednesday as a Tunisian migrant, and ISIS claimed that one of its soldiers had carried out the attack.

The period of mourning and national unity that tends to follow such tragedies did not even last through Monday evening in Berlin. Marcus Pretzell, a lawmaker for the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD), sent out this tweet while the victims were still being taken to hospitals and morgues: These are Merkels dead! The leader of the partys office in Berlin, Georg Pazderski, at least waited until the next day. What happened is an outcome of the chaotic migration policy of Mrs. Merkel, he told TIME in an interview on Tuesday. She has to answer for this.

Though premature and rather callous, at least by the prim standards of German politics, these remarks seemed tame compared to the frustrations that regular citizens were expressing online. They had good reason not to feel safe, especially after they learned on Tuesday that the Pakistani refugee originally detained by Berlin police was not the perpetrator  and that the actual truck driver had evaded arrest and remains on the run. The suggestion that Merkel was partly to blame did not strike her countrymen as just a political slur.

It had been her decision to let hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees apply for asylum in Germany last year after fleeing the conflict zones of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of them came without so much as a passport to help police identify who they are and where they came from.

And a few arrived in Germany with terrorist intent or were quickly radicalized, such as the Pakistani teenager who wounded five people with an axe and a knife in the town of Wuerzburg in mid-July, or the 27-year-old Syrian who set off a bomb outside a bar in Ansbach, wounding more than a dozen people the following week. Both of those attackers used Germanys openness toward refugees to enter the country. And both of them claimed allegiance to ISIS after they arrived.

So it was no surprise that Merkel found it sickening to think that Mondays attacker might also be a refugee. I know that it would be especially hard for us to bear if someone who had asked for refuge and asylum turned out to have done this, Merkel said the day after the attack.

It would perhaps be harder still for her conservative allies. For months they have been urging Merkel to distance herself from the plight of refugees, and to focus instead on addressing her voters fears over mass immigration. This shift became a question of political survival for Merkel after those two asylum seekers committed back-to-back attacks in July. Her popularity rating dropped 12 percentage points over the following month, while the AfD continued climbing in the polls and winning seats in local legislatures.

Predictably but perhaps too slowly, Merkel responded by tacking rightward, offering her conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union, the talking points they wanted to hear. When she accepted their nomination earlier this month to run for another term, she promised the party members that she would never allow last years influx of asylum seekers to happen again. She also pulled a page from the anti-Islamic playbook of her rivals in the AfD by pledging to impose a ban, whenever legally possible, on Muslim women fully covering their faces in public.

But such belated pandering to the nativists within her coalition did not exactly make for an electrifying platform. Its like the stale beer at the bottom of your glass, Konstantin von Notz, a senior lawmaker in the opposition Green Party, told me after Merkels party convention on Dec. 6. She needs to have a good story about why she is running for a fourth time. And this is not a good story. Its old. Its flat.

Whats worse, she has struggled to tell the conservative story as convincingly as the newcomers who have outflanked her on the right. The AfD defeated Merkels party in her own home district during a local election held in September, and with close to 15% support in nationwide polls, it is almost certain to enter the national parliament for the first time during next years elections. Since the party was only founded in 2013, most of its support has come from more established forces  especially Merkels Christian Democrats, who have not been especially strong on security issues since at least the early 1990s.

After the Cold War ended and the Berlin Wall fell, We thought, Foreign policy? Security policy? All of this defense? Its not necessary at all, because we are encircled by friends, says Norbert Roettgen, a senior lawmaker in Merkels party and chairman of the foreign affairs committee in parliament. Only in the last few years has Germany been forced to part with its illusion of security, he says. Now the problems are coming to us. So we have to engage.

In the months that remain before election day, Merkels chances of winning another term will depend on her ability to engage with voters who sense a variety of threats closing in  most acutely the threats they feel from mass migration. More attacks like that on the Christmas market in Berlin will only heighten that sense of threat, which is already keenly felt. In a Pew Research survey published in July, 61% of respondents in Germany said the arrival of refugees would increase the likelihood of terrorism. People are asking about their safety and security, says Pazderski, the AfD leader in Berlin. We will be offering those answers, and for us, as a young party, this is our big advantage.
Berlin (AFP) - A kidnapped driver, a Pakistani man held then freed and a manhunt for a Tunisian suspect: here is what we know about the probe into the truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead.

- The Polish driver -

On Monday the truck's driver, a 37-year-old Pole named Lukasz, headed to Berlin to deliver a load of 24 tonnes of steel beams from Italy. But the delivery was put off until the following day, so he went to park his Polish-registered lorry in an industrial zone in the northwest of the city, the Bild daily reported.

In the afternoon he spoke briefly to his wife and the couple agreed to talk again an hour later. But they never did. According to his employer Ariel Zurawski, GPS data from the vehicle showed it had been driven, but only making small movements "as if someone was learning how to drive it".

The lorry left its parking space around 7:40 pm, driving the 10 kilometres (six miles) or so to a busy area of west Berlin where the Christmas market was being held, and ploughing into the throng of revellers.

After 60-80 metres (200-260 feet) through the market the lorry swerved to the left, crashing through a stall before coming to a halt on the avenue running along the side of the square. The change of course brings the carnage to an end.

Police found the Polish driver, shot dead, in the passenger seat of the truck's cab. According to Zurawski, his cousin, who was shown photos of the body, "his face was bloodied and swollen" and had a stab wound.

According to German media, the Polish truck driver could have been kidnapped and told to drive the vehicle into the crowd before resisting and being killed. Or, sitting in the passenger seat at gunpoint, he may have tried to seize control of the vehicle and forced it off its deadly trajectory.

- The false lead -

At first police believed they had got their man: a Pakistani asylum seeker arrested an hour after the carnage two kilometres away. But he was released 24 hours later, Tuesday evening, after investigators failed to find any trace of his DNA in the lorry's cab.

Story continues

He had been detained after an eyewitness called police to say he had seen the perpetrator jump out the truck's cab and was trailing him, while staying in contact with officers to lead them to where they could make an arrest.

In the end, according to Bild, the witness may have lost the trail of the suspect while following him. And police, relying on a description which was too vague, arrested the wrong man. "We declared victory too soon," said one investigator.

- Manhunt for Tunisian -

Police launched a manhunt Wednesday for 24-year-old Tunisian national Anis Amri, who had already been under investigation for planning an attack.

Asylum office papers believed to belong to a Tunisian were found in the cab of the truck.

Amri arrived in Germany in July 2015 but his application for asylum had been rejected.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere confirmed authorities were searching for "a new suspect", but did not say whether this person was the Tunisian asylum seeker identified by the media.

The attack has been claimed by the Islamic State group, with the IS-linked Amaq news agency saying an IS "soldier" had carried out the truck assault "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries".

Germany is part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.
When the local Farmer's Cooperative put up new silos in 2012, McCool Junction used a boost in tax increment financing revenue to give the entire village a facelift  redoing streets and sewers, refurbishing parks, even acquiring land.

Declaring it TIF, the village also kept the entire windfall rather than share it with school or county government.

That use of TIF is one of many across the state that might stretch the redevelopment tool beyond its intended limits, according to a review by State Auditor Charlie Janssen's office.

"If the intent is to TIF every possible thing, it's working," Janssen said Tuesday.

When a redevelopment project adds value to a "substandard and blighted" property, TIF allows cities to capture the additional property taxes on that added value to help pay for related improvements that have some public benefit, generally using a bond that is repaid over 15 years.

But Nebraska law is "so broad and generic in nature that it undermines significantly any attempt to place definite parameters around the use of TIF," Janssen wrote in a letter to state lawmakers.

"Such ambiguity contributes to uncertainty at best and the potential for willful abuse of TIF at worst."

Nebraska had 766 TIF projects as of last year. Janssen's office sampled 22 at the request of state senators.

Auditors said two-thirds of those projects lacked proper documentation, and another 13 projects which they hoped to examine couldn't be reviewed because of time constraints and problems getting information.

In McCool Junction's case, it appears the village never even took on debt as part the Farmers Cooperative project  even though the purpose of TIF is to help local governments pay off debt for redevelopment.

Instead, McCool Junction took extra tax dollars that would normally be shared with the local school district, the county and other entities, and used the money to pay for general infrastructure improvements.

Brian White, chairman of the village board, said McCool Junction relied on advice from its TIF private attorney.

"We went with their guidance and used it the way we were told it can be done," he said.

State Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte said TIF projects need state oversight.

"The cities have this unilateral power to confiscate other taxing entities' property taxes," he said. "It's diluting our tax base. It's just completely out of control."

Under state law, TIF projects must meet a test saying they would not be built "but for" the financing assistance. Groene argues many projects would fail that test.

He tried last year to give the state Revenue Department authority to stop TIF projects that don't comply with the law. His bill (LB445) was rejected by the Legislature's Urban Affairs Committee, but he plans to introduce something similar next year.

Omaha Sen. Sue Crawford, chairwoman of Urban Affairs, said the solution is better local oversight and record-keeping, not an "unnecessary and duplicative state bureaucracy to review TIF projects."

"The decision to utilize TIF for economic development is ultimately a local one, and we should tread carefully before eroding local control," Crawford said in a news release.

She said her office is working on its own package of TIF reform legislation for next year.

"Tax increment financing is the most important economic development tool available to municipalities in Nebraska," Crawford said, adding she hopes the auditors' work will help guide local governments going forward.

For the review, Janssen's team chose projects based on senators' requests and the auditors' own judgment.

Other projects highlighted in the report:

* The Wrap, a parking garage and student apartment complex at 18th and Q streets in Lincoln, which included $4.3 million in TIF bonds.

Auditors noted "unique" expenses included in that project, but generally agreed with the city that broad language in state law allows virtually any cost to be included in a redevelopment plan.

* North Platte used TIF to provide revolving loans to developers, some of which included significant discounts if the loans were paid off early.

* Broken Bow used TIF revenue from sites on the other side of town to pay for sewer and water extensions to a new truck repair business.

The auditors didn't attempt to say whether or not TIF works as a redevelopment tool.

"That's not our job," Janssen said. "We're just looking out for the taxpayer."
Berlin (AFP) - Should Germany's popular Christmas markets be ringed with concrete, patrolled by armed soldiers and screened with surveillance cameras?

After a truck ploughed through a crowd of holiday revellers in central Berlin, the country -- having so far been spared large-scale attacks -- is debating the balance between security and an open society.

"This attack could have been prevented if the square had been protected by concrete barriers," said Joachim Krause, head of the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University, about the attack that killed 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market Monday.

As in Israel, Germany needs "to systematically secure such places," Krause argued in business daily Handelsblatt.

"But in Germany this has been neglected, even though the IS (Islamic State group) is calling for just this kind of attack on so-called soft targets".

Some cities did quickly react to Monday's carnage -- the Christmas markets of Hamburg, Stuttgart and Dresden installed concrete bollards following the Berlin attack.

On the other hand, federal police chief Holger Muench cautioned that, no matter what measures are taken, total security doesn't exist and that "there will always be a risk".

In a similar vein, Berlin mayor Michael Mueller argued that "if we secure everything, if we carry out checks at all the entrances to all public spaces, then that will be at odds with our culture of openness".

- Army patrols? -

Nonetheless the debate is, once more, heating up.

The CSU, the Bavarian wing of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party, re-launched a campaign it initiated months ago, after less severe attacks claimed by the IS in Germany -- to authorise army troops for domestic security duties.

The Bundeswehr should be able to use its training and equipment to support police and contribute to public safety, argued CSU lawmaker Florian Hahn, in comments to media group RND.

Story continues

While the sight of armed soldiers on the streets has become common in European countries that have suffered jihadist attacks, such as France and Belgium, it remains taboo in Germany, which in the post-Nazi era set strict constitutional limits on its armed forces.

While men and women in uniform are allowed to, for example, fill sandbags during flood disasters, most Germans would object to the sight of armed troops guarding airports and railway stations.

The government recently moved to allow a first joint police-army exercise. But the country is a long way from authorising army patrols on the streets, with little will among policy-makers to push the point.

And, unlike in France, which has suffered several far deadlier jihadist attacks, no-one in Germany is currently proposing a state of emergency.

A member of Merkel's party, Klaus Bouillon, the interior minister of Saarland state, sparked controversy by speaking of a "state of war" after the Berlin attack -- only to quickly backtrack from what many criticised as a verbal escalation.

- First 'real' attack -

"The Germans have always given the impression that they believe these attacks only happen to others," wrote Barbara Kunz of the Committee for the Study of Franco-German Relations in an online column for Le Monde.

The country "has certainly experienced attacks in the past" but still "the risk seemed unreal", she argued.

Therefore the Berlin truck attack -- for which the IS claimed responsibility -- meant "for many Germans that the country has experienced its first 'real' Islamist attack".

Police union deputy chief Ernst Walter meanwhile called for more video surveillance and urged an end to "demonising" the technology, in a country that -- after the Nazi and communist dictatorships -- remains suspicious of all kinds of surveillance.

"If politicians keep hiding behind privacy protection and the notion of individual liberty, which complicates our police work, then we will continue to have problems investigating such attacks in future," Walter said on public broadcaster ARD.
Mumbai (AFP) - The acrimonious battle for control of India's storied Tata Group is set to get even dirtier as its ousted chairman launches legal action against the firm, marking the latest twist in a months-long saga sullying the 150-year-old conglomerate.

Cyrus Mistry -- the first non-family member to helm the $103 billion steel-to-salt group -- was sacked in October after falling out with company patriarch Ratan Tata.

He has refused to go quietly, making a series of allegations of mismanagement at the helm of the 150-year-old company, before filing a case in court Tuesday.

And that is where the matter becomes interesting: the Mistry family have been invested in Tata Sons for 50 years and Cyrus's father is the largest non-institutional shareholder with an 18.5 percent stake.

"My fight will actually continue, and not only continue, it will strengthen," he told Bloomberg after filing the suit.

Tata Sons says it will contest the petition, which alleges its actions damaged minority shareholders' interests.

The feud between Mistry and Tata, the 78-year-old former chairman who has taken interim charge, has already wiped nearly $9 billion from the collective stock market value of the group's eight main companies.

Experts say it is now damaging one of India's most respected brands, whose image is built on the Tata family's reputation for probity in a country plagued by corporate corruption.

"None of the Tata companies are great performers," said one Mumbai executive who has worked with the group, describing the problems raised by Mistry as a "wake up call" for investors.

"(Now), the market won't give them as much leeway for being the Tata group as they had in the past," he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Ratan, who is credited with building the conglomerate into a global behemoth, says his successor was betraying its legacy.

Under him, the organisation went on a global purchasing spree, acquiring major names from Tetley Tea to Jaguar Land Rover and the Anglo-Dutch steel firm Corus in 2007 -- a major source of pride for a company founded under British colonial rule.

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But parts of the business have been struggling, and the 50-year-old Mistry had tried to reduce its $30 billion debts by selling underperforming assets.

That is said to have irked Ratan. But Kavil Ramachandran, professor at the Indian School of Business, believes he should have given Mistry freer rein.

"When a person is retiring, he has to move out completely," he said. "It's like a relay race. The person handing over the baton has to know when and how to do it."

- Drawn-out fight -

Both Mistry and Tata are from wealthy Parsi families -- followers of Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest religions.

But executives who know both men say the similarity ends there.

"There's a stark difference in style and judgement and values between the two men," said the Mumbai executive, who worked with both at the company.

Mistry has pulled no punches since his sacking, alleging in a letter to the board that almost every aspect of the business was hampered by debt and poor management.

The European steel business, he said, faced potential write-downs of more than $10 billion, only some of which had so far been taken into account.

Mistry had planned to sell off Tata Steel's loss-making British operations, but that decision has since been reversed.

He also questioned the wisdom of continuing with the Nano, a cheap, no-frills car that was a pet project of Ratan but failed to sell.

"Emotional reasons alone have kept us away from this crucial decision," Mistry wrote in the letter, which the company says contained "unsubstantiated claims and malicious allegations".

Mistry was set to be removed from the boards of companies including Tata Steel and Tata Motors at extraordinary general meetings this week.

But he pre-empted that Monday by resigning, although he remains on the board of Tata Sons, which is not publicly listed.

Mahesh Singhi, head of investment banking firm Singhi Advisors, said the saga had "dented the image of India's largest conglomerate in ways that we have not witnessed in corporate history in the country in the recent past".

"This is definitely negative for the Tata Group," he said. "Investors will be required to brace for a long-drawn fight."
For the first time, physicists have shown that atoms of antimatter appear to give off the same kind of light that atoms of regular matter do when illuminated with lasers, a new study finds.

More precise measurements of this emitted light could unearth clues that might finally help solve the mystery of why there is so much less antimatter than normal matter in the universe, researchers say.

For every particle of normal matter, there is an antimatter counterpart with the same mass but the opposite electrical charge. The antiparticles of the electron and proton, for instance, are the positron and antiproton, respectively.

When a particle meets its antiparticle, they annihilate each other, giving off a burst of energy. A gram of antimatter annihilating a gram of matter would release about twice the energy as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. (You don't have to worry about antimatter bombs popping up anytime soon; researchers are very far from creating anywhere near a gram of antimatter.)

It remains a mystery why there is so much more matter than antimatter in the universe. The Standard Model of particle physics  the best description yet of how the basic building blocks of the universe behave  suggests that the Big Bang should have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter. [The 9 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics]

Shining light on antimatter

Scientists would like to learn more about antimatter to see if it behaves differently from matter in a way that could help solve the puzzle of why the universe has so little antimatter.

One key set of experiments would involve shining lasers on antimatter atoms, which can absorb and emit light much like atoms of regular matter. If antihydrogen atoms emitted a different spectrum of light than hydrogen atoms, such spectral differences could yield insights on other ways matter and antimatter differ, the researchers said.

Now, for the first time, scientists have used lasers to carry out a spectral analysis of antihydrogen atoms.

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"I like to call this the Holy Grail of antimatter physics,"said study co-author Jeffrey Hangst, a physicist at Aarhus University in Denmark. "I've been working for more than 20 years to make this possible, and this project has finally come together after many difficult steps."

The researchers experimented with antihydrogen, which is the simplest atom of antimatter, just as hydrogen is the simplest atom of regular matter. Antihydrogen atoms each consist of one antiproton and one positron.

Creating enough antimatter for researchers to examine has proven highly challenging. To create antihydrogen atoms, the researchers mixed clouds of about 90,000 antiprotons with clouds of about 1.6 million positrons (or antielectrons), yielding about 25,000 antihydrogen atoms per attempt using the ALPHA-2 apparatus, which is an antimatter generation and trapping system, at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland.

Chris rum and Steven Armstrong Jones work on the laser ALPHA experiment to find out the properties of light emitted by antihydrogen. CERN

After the researchers create the antihydrogen atoms, "you have to hold on to them, and that's very difficult," Hangst told Live Science. Antihydrogen is electrically neutral, which means that it cannot be held in place using electric fields, "and you have to keep it away from matter, so it has to be kept in high vacuum," he said. In addition, antimatter is best kept at temperatures close to absolute zero (minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius), so it is slow-moving and easier to hold on to than antihydrogen atoms.

The researchers trapped antihydrogen in very strong magnetic fields. "We can now hold about 15 antihydrogen atoms at a time," Hangst said. [Mystery Deepens: Matter and Antimatter Are Mirror Images]

Then, they shone a laser on the antihydrogen, which caused the atoms to give off light. The scientists then measured the spectrum of light that antihydrogen gave off with a precision of about a few parts in 10^10  that is, a 1 with 10 zeroes behind it. In comparison, researchers can currently measure these properties of hydrogen to a precision of a few parts in 10^15. "We want to measure antihydrogen with the same precision as hydrogen, and we see no reason why we can't do that in the future," Hangst said.

Currently the spectrums of light from hydrogen and antihydrogen look alike.

However, measuring antihydrogen with greater precision might ultimately reveal differences between matter and antimatter that could solve the mystery of the missing antimatter and lead to revolutionary changes in the Standard Model. "This is really game-changing work," Hangst said.

The scientists detailed their findings online Dec. 19 in the journal Nature.

Original article on Live Science.

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Christmastime conjures up beautiful images of the frozen North Pole, but if warming trends continue unabated, Santas home will look very different in years to come.

The Global Forecast System, a weather prediction system run by the U.S. National Weather Service, forecasts that the temperature at the North Pole could inch close to the melting point of 32 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday  nearly 50 degrees warmer than normal.

Its a fitting end to 2016, which is expected to be the third year in a row to set new highs for hottest year on record.

Zack Labe, a doctoral student who focuses on the global climate system at the University of California, Irvine, said Wednesday that a series of storm systems  which are moving up through the North Atlantic Ocean and off the east coast of Greenland  are drawing warm and moist air into the Arctic  especially near the North Pole.

In response, temperatures will briefly rise to values nearly 30 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit or more above normal (mainly on Thursday). Some weather models show temperatures hovering just below the freezing point, Labe told Yahoo News.

A polar bear walking on pack ice at sunset in the Svalbard archipelago, formerly known as Spitsbergen, Norway. (Photo: Arterra/UIG via Getty Images)

Record warmth has been mostly persistent in the Arctic during the fall and helped to contribute to record low extent and volume of sea ice. While temperatures are variable in the Arctic, the persistence of such warmth this year is very unusual.

Temperatures vary considerably throughout the Arctic, but there is an overall trend of gradual warming and decreasing sea ice, which has consequences for the overall climate system.

Labe added that the causes of these unusually high temperatures are likely to include the result of current weather patterns, natural climate variability and climate change.

Temperatures will begin to fall by the end of the week at the North Pole, but still remain above normal, he said.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports that the 10 hottest years on record in the past 136 years have all occurred since 2000, with the exception of 1998. This finding is largely consistent with similar research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England.

Story continues

A polar bear walking on pack ice floating in the Arctic Ocean on the North Pole at Svalbard, Norway. (Photo: Arterra/UIG via Getty Images)

Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist and the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, said 2017 is not expected to be the warmest year on record (for a fourth consecutive year), but that the big-picture trend is predicted to continue.

We have this situation where we do have these long-term trends  theyre not going away, he told Yahoo News. The trend is the main thing that we are trying to understand. Whats important for being able to predict the future is the long-term trends. Its not the details of what happens in one year or another.

According to the overwhelming scientific consensus, human activities have largely been responsible for the unprecedented changes in the global climate since the Industrial Revolution. The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide that has been emitted into the atmosphere as a result of human activities like fossil fuel use and deforestation has accelerated global warming.

In a statement, the American Association for the Advancement of Science said, The scientific evidence is clear: Global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society.

As far as NASA can estimate now, Schmidt said, 2016 is expected to go down as very clearly the warmest year on record. This official designation will depend on the numbers for the final days of December.

He said NASA and NOAA plan to hold a joint press conference on Jan. 18 to reveal data for the entire year after its processed.

The year to date, not including [this] December, was quite clearly the warmest on record. You can see that in our data sets very easily, he said. It seems inevitable that 2016 will be the warmest year on record.
German executive car maker BMW is opening a dedicated center for the advancement of autonomous driving technology as part of its ambitious plans to deliver a true self-driving car by 2021.

Based in Unterschleissheim near Munich, the new campus will be home to 2000 experts working on every aspect from software development to real-world testing. But the decision to create a base of operations in Munich is also an attempt to ensure Europe is firmly on the map as a hotspot for next-generation automotive technology development.

"The road to fully-automated driving is an opportunity for Germany's automobile manufacturing base. The decision to develop and road-test these vehicles in the Munich area illustrates how the BMW Group and the whole region can benefit from this shift in the automotive industry," said Klaus Frohlich, member of the Board of Management, responsible for Development at the BMW Group.

Detroit and Silicon Valley are also trying to establish themselves as the de facto home of the car of the future so it makes sense that European carmakers, whose legacy stretches back 130 years, would want to court and keep the world's leading experts within their own continental borders.

However, in a fully connected world, it is impossible for any single company to work in isolation. In order for BMW to bring the iNEXT -- the name it has given its self-driving car -- to fruition on schedule, it has already forged a long-term partnership with US firms Intel and MobilEye.

Intel's role in the alliance is to develop in-car processors and to help crunch through the huge amounts of data the project will create. "Highly autonomous cars and everything they connect to will require powerful and reliable electronic brains to make them smart enough to navigate traffic and avoid accidents," explained Intel CEO Brian Krzanich.

MobilEye's expertise is in sensing and localization, and its partnership with BMW is one of several it has announced in recent months. For instance, at the 2017 CES in January, MobilEye will be demonstrating the fruits of its partnership with autonomous driving tech company Delphi over a specially created real-world course in Las Vegas. The companies claim the system, called the Centralized Sensing Localization and Planning (CSLP) automated driving system, is the most advanced autonomous driving system currently in existence.

As for the partnership with BMW, officially announced in July, the companies are already on target to start testing a prototype autonomous vehicle fleet in urban conditions in early 2017.

"[This] future development site for autonomous driving will enable us to launch the BMW iNEXT, the first self-driving BMW, onto the market in 2021," said Frohlich.
The body of ex-reality TV star Lisa Marie Naegle, has been found in a shallow grave in the backyard of suspect Jackie Jerome Rogers home, several outlets including NBC4 have confirmed with L.A. County coroners officials.

Police confirmed on Tuesday that Rogers had been arrested for her murder, and that detectives and the coroners office were on the way to his home, on the 5000 block of West 106th Street in Lennox, to look for the body.

Rogers, who was one of Naegles nursing students at West Los Angeles College, was originally detained for questioning after a surveillance video showed Naegle leaving a birthday party she had been attending with Rogers and entering his black SUV.

Naegle, a registered nurse who finished fourth on the single season of 2010s Bridalplasty, was reported missing on Monday by her husband after she failed to return home from a party at the Alpine Village restaurant in Torrance, Calif., on Saturday night. She called her husband early Sunday morning around 2:30 a.m. to tell him that she would head home after grabbing a bite to eat. Her husband told KTLA that it sounded like she had had a lot to drink.

TMZ has published a photo of Naegle and Rogers, which allegedly shows them together at the Alpine Village venue on the night she was murdered. In a video of a press conference from Tuesday night also on their site, an LAPD officer confirms that Rogers had share[d] information that she was here.

Related stories

Suspect Arrested for Murder of Missing Former Bridal Reality Show Contestant
The body of a former reality show contestant who vanished on Saturday was found in the backyard of her nursing students California home, according to multiple reports.

Lisa Marie Naegle, 36, who appeared on E! televisions 2010 reality show Bridalplasty, was last seen attending a friends birthday party at a restaurant in Torrance, California, on Saturday, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson told PEOPLE.

The registered nurses remains were found at the Lennox home on Tuesday after Jackie Jerome Rogers, 34, a student of Naegles at West Los Angeles Community College, allegedly indicated to police that the womans body was buried at the location, USA Today reports.

Rogers was arrested on suspicion of murder, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Information on whether Rogers has entered a plea or retained an attorney was not immediately available.

We can confirm a body which we believe is Lisa Marie was discovered in a shallow grave at the suspects home, Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Sal Ramirez said, according to USA Today.

 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.

Naegle failed to show up to work on Monday, an LAPD spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE. Her husband, Derek Harryman, and her sister, Danielle Naegle-Kaimoana, reported her missing, according to the Daily Breeze.

The family said they spoke with Rogers who allegedly told them he and Naegle parted ways after the party, Naegle-Kaimoana told PEOPLE.

 Pick up PEOPLEs special edition True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America, on sale now, for the latest on Casey Anthony, JonBenet Ramsey and more.

However, the Naegle-Kaimoana told PEOPLE Rogers changed his story after they pointed out surveillance footage showing him and Naegle getting into his car after the party.

 sounds so weird, Naegle-Kaimoana told PEOPLE on Monday, before Rogers arrest. Right now I have no clue what to think.

Story continues

Before the discovery, Naegle-Kaimoana told PEOPLE the woman had been preparing to start a family with her husband using in vitro fertilization. The couple have been been married since 2011.

Were heartbroken, Naegle-Kaimoana told PEOPLE. This is not supposed to happen. You hear of missing people all the time but that is not supposed to happen to your family.

 With Reporting by HARRIET SOKMENSUER




Bank of America Corporation BAC is finally selling its last remaining international credit card business. The bank has announced a deal to offload its U.K. consumer credit card operations, MBNA Ltd. to Lloyds Banking Group plc LYG for $2.35 billion.



The transaction concludes BofAs efforts to exit all international consumer card operations as part of its strategy to focus on core domestic business. The deal, expected to close by the first half of 2017, is subject to regulatory approvals.



Upon closure, the transaction is anticipated to result in a marginal one-time after-tax gain for BofAs All Other division. Further, it will likely lower non-core assets in the division by approximately $8.7 billion. Nonetheless, the deal will not impact the companys global commercial card business.



Following the announcement of deal, BofAs shares rose more than 1%. Notably, the company has been witnessing unprecedented surge in its share price since the Presidential election results in November. The companys shares jumped 33.5% since the results compared with the Zacks categorized Major Regional Banks industrys growth of 21.8%.









BofA had acquired the U.K. card business through its purchase of MBNA Corp. for $35 billion in 2006. However, following the 2008 crisis, the bank began its efforts to strengthen its balance sheet and simplify operations through offloading non-core assets.



Further, BofA is putting more emphasis on consumer business. However, with no retail branches in the U.K., the company had been facing tough time enhancing its consumer banking business there. In addition, stringent regulations and rise in borrowers defaults added to the woes.



Therefore, BofA put the entire consumer credit card operations on the block. In 2011, the company sold its Spanish unit to Apollo Global Management, LLC APO and its Canadian division to The Toronto-Dominion Bank TD.



Nonetheless, the company involuntarily stopped the sale of its entire Europe card business (Ireland and U.K.) owing to poor valuation for the unit. Thereafter, it separately sold its Irish card operations to Apollo, while the U.K. business continued to remain in its books.



As the economic situation gradually improved in the U.K., BofA again put its U.K. business up for sale in May 2016. The division has around 11% share in the countrys card market. Therefore, Lloyds expects its market share to rise 26% from the present 15%.



Further, Lloyds projects annual 4% revenue growth and 10 basis points rise in net interest margin, following the completion of the deal. Moreover, the deal is expected to lead to cost synergies for the company.



Currently, BofA carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), while Lloyds has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



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The state inspector general for child welfare is investigating child sexual abuse and exploitation of children in state-licensed facilities and the child welfare system, Julie Rogers announced Wednesday.

Rogers said the investigation, prompted by an accumulation of 36 sexual abuse reports since July 2013, will show whether adequate steps are being taken by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services to prevent and respond to abuse of youth in the states care.

The sexual abuse or exploitation of children included youth placed in state-licensed facilities and group homes, and youth in foster homes and adopted from the child welfare system.

The sexual abuse cases have been reported to law enforcement and investigated. Several examples in that time period include foster parents and state facility workers who have been prosecuted for sexual assault or failing to protect a child in their care.

This year, a 34-year-old Beatrice woman was sentenced to two years in prison for negligent child abuse after her boyfriend developed a sexual relationship with her 14-year-old foster child when he stayed at her house.

A year ago, an Omaha foster father was convicted of two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child for impregnating his 13-year-old foster daughter.

And in August, a former therapist at Kearney's Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center was arrested for inappropriate sexual contact with a teen at the center. She resigned her position as a licensed provisional mental health practitioner shortly before she was arrested.

The number of reports that came to the attention of Rogers' office rose to the level of needing to do a full investigation of the system and how the state protects these children and youth, she said. The assaults and exploitations have involved foster parents, adoptive parents of foster children, group home or facility staff, and other youths in the system.

"These are horrific, or can be very horrific, situations, and there are numbers to show it's not just once in a great while," she said.

"What we're doing right now is looking to see if the system has gaps or if the system can improve to further protect these kids from sexual victimization."

She notified HHS and has asked for more data, and the office will begin to conduct interviews, gather and analyze data, and review all relevant information. The investigation will examine whether the state has enough safeguards to pick its caregivers, Rogers said.

Taylor Gage, Gov. Pete Ricketts' spokesman, said Wednesday afternoon the well-being of the children in the states care is of paramount importance.

"In every case, DHHS conducts a thorough review of reported abuse so we can improve protections for state wards, and we welcome the (Office of Inspector Generals) additional review and recommendations on how we can continue to improve Nebraskas child welfare system.

HHS spokesman Russ Reno also said the care and well-being of children in the state's custody is of the utmost importance to the agency, which has an open relationship with the inspector general. Rogers' office receives all the department's critical incident reports, and HHS has provided the requested data for the upcoming report, he said.

HHS has been working on reducing the number of out-of-home placements and to make improvements, Reno said.

Those improvements included the alternative response program, the new intensive family placement, and an assessment of services available to families. Early next year, the department will introduce new services aimed at keeping children in their homes, Reno said.

"We look forward to continue working with (Rogers) and welcome the recommendations from the report," he said.

Recommendations by the inspector general's office will be made public in September, as part of the inspector general's annual report.

We know that children and youth in the states care  both in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems  are particularly vulnerable," Rogers said. "Many have already been victims of abuse or neglect, have experienced trauma, or both."

The investigation will focus on better understanding when and why certain youth under the protection of the state are being sexually abused and victimized, she said. The purpose of the investigation is to identify areas for improvement and how Nebraska can better prevent and respond to abuse of these children, she said.

Omaha Sen. Bob Krist, who has introduced bills aimed at inspector general position functions, said the investigation is exactly what lawmakers hoped Rogers' office would do, looking at data and digging to see what is creating any unsafe conditions for children.

"One sexual abuse when we take freedoms away from youth and take them out of their homes is too many, let alone 36 in three years," he said.

If it weren't for Rogers and the inspector general position, the sexual abuse issue might not be visible, he said.

"Kudos to her for the great things she does in watching out for our youth," Krist said.

Anyone with concerns about the safety of a child should immediately call the Nebraska Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline: 1-800-652-1999. Those with information relevant to the inspector general's investigation can contact the office through an online form, by email (oig@leg.ne.gov), or by phone (1-855-460-6784).
Brasilia (AFP) - Brazil is set to exit its recession next year with weak growth and is laying the groundwork for a return to long-term stability, Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said Wednesday.

Meirelles was cautious about predicting exactly when growth would return, following two years of shrinking GDP.

"There are possibilities but also uncertainties that GDP will be positive in the first quarter of 2017. But we are not counting on it," he told a press conference.

Over the year, Brazil can expect one percent growth, according to the government. Market estimates, however, point to an even more meager 0.58 percent rise.

But Meirelles insisted that austerity reforms -- centered on a recently approved 20 year government spending cap -- meant Brazil "is doing its homework."

"We are establishing the basis for fiscally responsible administration in Brazil for at least the next 10 years," he said.

President Michel Temer is also asking Congress to pass pension reform but the measure is unpopular and only 10 percent of Brazilians think his government is doing a good job, a Datafolha poll found this month.

The economy shrank 3.8 percent in 2015 and is expected to fall 3.5 percent in 2016.
(Adds quote, background)

BRASILIA, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The Brazilian government will continue to impose conditions on cash-strapped states in exchange for federal support, Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said on Wednesday, after lawmakers watered down a debt-relief proposal.

Meirelles said President Michel Temer could veto a bill approved in Congress' lower house on Tuesday, which allows states in the worst financial condition to halt debt payments and rework commitments with the federal government..

The legislation also reduces debt payments and extends the maturity on 427 billion reais ($127 billion) of debt owed by all of the 27 states.

Lawmakers removed government-proposed measures to force states to increase pension charges on employees and forbid local governments from raising wages and creating new jobs.

The bill, already passed by the Senate, was sent to Temer for his signature.

Even if it is signed into law, the government would negotiate with each state on conditions for receiving debt relief, Meirelles told journalists.

"States will have to meet all the austerity conditions," Meirelles said, adding that he expects the state of Rio de Janeiro to apply for the program.

Meirelles added that a pension reform proposal is the priority of the Brazilian government, but authorities will continue to unveil microeconomic measures.

Tuesday's lower house vote put into question Temer's political support in Congress to approve unpopular reforms to shore up the country's finances and rescue the economy from a recession that threatens to stretch into a third year.

Temer, weakened politically by a government corruption scandal, this week agreed to release more than 10 billion reais ($3 billion) from an amnesty asset program to states and municipalities even after they scrapped his plan to impose wage freezes in exchange for the money. The move came after states filed a lawsuit to force the government to share the money. ($1 =3.33 reais) (Reporting by Alonso Soto; Writing by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and W Simon)
YouTube comedian and musician Adam Saleh shared a series of tweets Wednesday that detailed him getting kicked off a Delta Air Lines flight after other passengers reportedly felt uncomfortable with him speaking Arabic.

In one video, Saleh and an unidentified man, who works at the London airport, accused Delta of being racist. They noted the U.S.' second-largest airline had given in to bigotry in the past. Here are some times when Delta's policies were accused of supporting discriminatory practices.

1 - Delta Doesn't Believe Black Woman Is A Doctor

Tamika Cross was a young, black chief resident OBGYN at Houston's Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital and she said Delta could not believe that. Cross was heading to Minneapolis from Detroit in October when a male passenger two rows away fell unconscious. The man's wife began to call for help and the flight attendant asked if there was a doctor onboard. Cross volunteered to provide medical assistance to the ailing man, but was denied by a crewmember who, according to Cross, remarked, "Oh no sweetie, put your hand down, we are looking for actual physicians or nurses or some type of medical personnel; we dont have time to talk to you."

The flight attendant continued to prevent Cross' access to the unresponsive man, despite her attempts to prove she was a professional physician. Eventually, staff allowed a "white male" to tend to the man, still doubting Cross' credentials.

Delta apologized to Cross and issued a statement in regards to its policy in the event of a medical emergency.

We are troubled by any accusations of discrimination and take them very seriously, the company wrote.

Three medical professionals identified themselves on the flight in question. Only one was able to produce documentation of medical training and that is the doctor who was asked to assist the customer onboard. In addition, paramedics met the flight to assist the customer further, the company added.

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2 - Muslim Family Forced To Move Seats After Being Verbally Attacked

Darlene Hider was traveling on Delta Flight 1576 last year with her husband and four children, including one sick infant, when a woman sitting in front of the family complained that Hider's children were disturbing her. When Hider and her husband tried to explain the situation and failed to get the 9-month old to stop crying, the woman criticized her parenting, reportedly saying "This is America" and verbally attacking the Muslim family.

A flight attendant came and attempted to "defuse the situation" by relocating the Muslim family instead of the unruly customer. When Hider, her family and other passengers protested, the employee threatened to kick them off the plane.

I felt as if I wanted to defend myself but I couldnt because of the Islamophobia going on. Its enough that I wear a scarf. We have to prove ourselves every day to people and it gets tiring. Im not a terrorist. Im American. I was born and raised here. I have American friends, Jewish friends, Christian friends, she told Buzzfeed News.

Upon her arrival in Detroit, Hider was approached by two representatives who said they would look into the incident.

"We have had contact with the customer to offer an apology and we have left that door open," Morgan Durant, a spokesperson for Delta, told Mashable. "Obviously we dont condone any discrimination here at Delta."

3 - Delta Believes Sikh Woman's Breast Pump Is A Bomb

Attorney and filmmaker Valarie Kaur was waiting in line for a Los Angeles flight to celebrate her son's first birthday last December when a customer noticed she removed the luggage tag from her carry-on bag. The man reportedly grew suspicious and called on other passengers and airline employees to interrogate Kaur. A gate agent went up to Kaur who demanded an explanation for Kaur's breast pump. When the agent did not accept Kaur's insistence that she was a nursing mother who used the device to feed her child, Kaur was forced to remove the device and show everyone.

Kaur, who later received an apology from the airline via Twitter, said she was "shaken" as she sat on the flight and reflected on the experiences of brown, Sikh and Muslim people who have experienced profiling since 9/11.

4 - Muslim Couple Removed On Anniversary Trip

Faisal and Nazia Ali were returning to Cincinnati from their tenth anniversary trip to London and Paris July 26 when they were approached by airline personnel. The flight crew member told the Pakistani-American couple that a customer had seen Nazia, who wears an Islamic headscarf, chatting on the phone and her husband, Faisel, sweating, causing the passenger discomfort. Instead of going home to see their three sons, they were forced off the flight and back into Paris.

"We had been in our seats for 45 minutes. The ground agent said, 'Can you step out with me? We'd like to ask you a few questions.' So I said, 'Do you want us to get our things?' And he said, 'Yes, please grab all of your personal belongings. You're not going to be on this flight,'" Nazia recounted in August according to USA Today.

"It was humiliating. We were treated like criminals. I thought, 'We are American citizens. You can't do this to us,'" she later added.

Delta representatives issued a statement in response to the incident, saying it would conduct a review of what had occurred.

"Delta condemns discrimination toward our customers in regards to age, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or gender. As a global airline that brings hundreds of thousands of people together every day, Delta is deeply committed to treating all of our customers with respect. Delta continues its investigation into this matter and will issue a full refund of these customers airfare," the carrier wrote.

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London (AFP) - Britain and Argentina have signed an agreement to exhume and identify 123 Argentine soldiers buried on the Falkland Islands following mediation by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the British government said.

Graves at the Argentine memorial cemetery on East Falkland Island, known in Spanish as Isla Soledad, carry the inscription: "Soldier only known to God".

After meeting Argentine Deputy Foreign Minister Pedro Villagra Delgado in London on Tuesday, foreign office junior minister Alan Duncan tweeted: "Pleased to sign ICRC mandate... to identify Argentine soldiers".

The soldiers died in the 1982 war over the islands between Britain and Argentina -- a conflict which killed a total of 649 Argentine soldiers, 255 British soldiers and three islanders.

Red Cross personnel have already visited the site in the South Atlantic and carried out a preliminary evaluation, Argentine officials said.

Families of Argentine troops killed in the conflict have long demanded that their loved ones be identified.

The war over the islands, known as Las Malvinas in Spanish, began after Argentine forces occupied them.

Argentina argues it inherited the windswept islands from Spain when it gained independence in the 19th century.

But Britain says it has historically ruled them and that the 3,000 islanders have the right to self-determination.

In a 2013 referendum, residents voted overwhelmingly to remain part of Britain.

After years of testy relations under former leftist governments, Argentina has pursued a cautious rapprochement with Britain under current President Mauricio Macri.

The countries agreed a series of deals in September covering oil, fishing, navigation and trade in and around the islands.
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Britain and France want the United Nations Security Council to ban the sale or supply of helicopters to the Syrian government and to blacklist 11 Syrian military commanders and officials over chemical weapons attacks during the nearly six-year war. The pair have drafted a resolution, seen by Reuters on Wednesday, that also seeks to blacklist 10 government and related entities involved in the development and production of chemical weapons and the missiles to deliver them. The U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has found that Syrian government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks and that Islamic State militants had used mustard gas. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government has denied its forces have used chemical weapons. Experts from the 15 Security Council members informally discussed the draft on Tuesday, diplomats said, and Syrian ally Russia, one of five council veto powers, made clear it would not support the text. "We hope to have a vote before the end of the year," British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told reporters on Wednesday. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told Reuters on Wednesday: "It is out of the question to let these crimes go unpunished. I can't imagine the argument a country could use to close its eyes to the use of chemical weapons." Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said last month that there was "just not enough material proof to do anything" and described the French and British bid to impose sanctions as a "misplaced effort." The U.N./OPCW inquiry found Syrian government forces had used helicopters to drop barrel bombs containing chlorine gas. It found those flights came from two bases where the 253 and 255 squadrons, belonging to the 63rd helicopter brigade, were based. The proposed sanctions list includes the 63rd helicopter brigade commander and deputy commander, commander of the Syrian Air Force 63rd air brigade, commander of the Syrian Air and Air Defense Forces, and head of the Syrian Air Force intelligence. They could be subjected to a global asset freeze and travel ban by the U.N. Security Council. Also on the possible blacklist is the director-general of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center, which the draft resolution says is responsible for the development and production of chemical weapons and the missiles to deliver them. Chlorine's use as a weapon is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013. If inhaled, chlorine gas turns to hydrochloric acid in the lungs and can kill by burning lungs and drowning victims in body fluids. Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal brokered by Moscow and Washington. The Security Council backed that deal with a resolution that said in the event of non-compliance, "including unauthorized transfer of chemical weapons, or any use of chemical weapons by anyone" in Syria, it would impose measures under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter. Chapter 7 deals with sanctions and authorization of military force by the Security Council. (Additional reporting by John Irish; Editing by Clive McKeef and Lisa Shumaker)
LONDON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - British police said they would temporarily close roads around Queen Elizabeth's London residence Buckingham Palace during a military ceremony on Wednesday, bringing forward plans to do so in response to a truck attack in Berlin.

London's Metropolitan Police said that they would trial a two-hour road closure plan for three months to protect the large crowds that gather on days when the Changing of the Guard ceremony is held outside Buckingham Palace.

The road closures started earlier than had been planned by security chiefs due to the attack in Berlin on Monday, when a truck ploughed into crowds at a Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring 48.

"The road closures, which have been planned for some time, are a precautionary measure and not in relation to any specific intelligence," the police said.

Britain is on its second highest threat level, meaning an attack by militants is considered highly likely. Earlier this month, Britain's foreign intelligence chief said Islamic State militants were using turmoil in Syria to plot attacks against the United Kingdom and her allies.

(Reporting by Sarah Young)
LONDON (Reuters) - British police said they would temporarily close roads around Queen Elizabeth's London residence Buckingham Palace during a military ceremony on Wednesday, bringing forward plans to do so in response to a truck attack in Berlin. London's Metropolitan Police said that they would trial a two-hour road closure plan for three months to protect the large crowds that gather on days when the Changing of the Guard ceremony is held outside Buckingham Palace. The road closures started earlier than had been planned by security chiefs due to the attack in Berlin on Monday, when a truck ploughed into crowds at a Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring 48. "The road closures, which have been planned for some time, are a precautionary measure and not in relation to any specific intelligence," the police said. Britain is on its second highest threat level, meaning an attack by militants is considered highly likely. Earlier this month, Britain's foreign intelligence chief said Islamic State militants were using turmoil in Syria to plot attacks against the United Kingdom and her allies. (Reporting by Sarah Young)
London (AFP) - A British soldier found guilty of murdering a wounded Taliban fighter in Afghanistan was denied bail on Wednesday as he appealed against his landmark conviction.

The case of Alexander Blackman, 42, who had been identified only as "Marine A" during his trial, has fascinated and divided public opinion in Britain.

On September 15, 2011, the Royal Marine shot a Taliban fighter who had been seriously injured by fire from an Apache helicopter in Helmand province.

"There you are. Shuffle off this mortal coil ... It's nothing you wouldn't do to us," Blackman said in footage captured on a camera mounted on the helmet of another soldier, paraphrasing Shakespeare's "Hamlet" after shooting the fighter at close range.

"Obviously this doesn't go anywhere, fellas. I just broke the Geneva Convention," he said to his fellow Royal Marines, in reference to international law governing the treatment of prisoners of war.

Blackman was convicted in 2013 to a life sentence with a minimum period of time served of 10 years, which was reduced to eight years in 2014.

His wife Claire Blackman was at the Court Martial Appeal Court along with dozens of supporters.

"We are obviously disappointed by the judges' decision not to grant bail this afternoon," she told journalists.

"However we must remember that earlier this month the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) decided to refer the case back to the Appeal Courts and this is the most important step towards getting Al's conviction and sentence overturned," she added.

The CCRC, an independent body which examines possible miscarriages of justice, carried out an 11-month investigation into Blackman's case.

The Commission concluded that a number of issues, including new evidence about the soldier's mental state, raised the possibility the Appeals Court could quash the murder conviction.

- 'Overwhelmed by close combats' -

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Supporters attending the bail hearing included a former soldier who claimed to have served alongside him in Iraq in 2003.

"I'm sad. He's a good man. I expected him to make bail because of his mental state at the time. He was overwhelmed by close combats," the soldier told AFP, speaking anonymously.

Another British former soldier, Raymond Stringer, expressed his regret at the court's decision: "I'm very disappointed. It's an injustice. They should have shown compassion."

Blackman's case was the first time since World War II that a British soldier was convicted of a murder carried out on the battlefield.

He denied murder and claimed he shot the Taliban fighter once the insurgent was already dead.

The soldier's legal team ultimately aims to overturn the conviction and have the crime lessened to manslaughter, following an internal review by the Royal Navy which suggested Blackman was suffering from post-traumatic stress at the time of the shooting.

His campaign is backed by the Daily Mail tabloid and the bestselling author Frederick Forsyth.
Photo credit: (MELISSA LING)

From LennyLetter

Britta is fourteen. Her parents named her after the water filter.

"We did it so that you would be pure," her mother says.

Britta thinks that a girl named after a water filter should have pale, clear eyes that are the lightest possible shade of blue.

Her eyes are black.

Her hair should be black and wavy, but instead it is short and straight and the ends are hot pink.

"You grew up too fast," her mother says.

It's not Britta's fault that she grew up too fast, just like it's not her father's fault, not really, that he sometimes has to walk around the house with an angry crisscross of duct tape over his mouth. Britta's mother always puts it on with a smack, slapping the sides of his face as he stands still, not saying a word. He still lets his facial hair grow, even though the tape rips off pieces of his salt-and-pepper beard, leaving bright-pink patches of exposed skin.

Britta's mother should also have black and wavy hair, but she doesn't, either. Instead it is dyed blonde and curled underneath so that the ends touch her ears.

"Like Marilyn Monroe," her mother says. Britta doesn't think it looks at all like Marilyn Monroe's hair, but she is grown up enough to know when to keep her mouth shut.

Britta has a brother who never kept his mouth shut. When he wasn't talking or singing or shouting at their parents, he was eating honey. Stephen is his name. "Stevie," her mother said. "Steve," said her father, when he said anything.

When Stephen turned fourteen, he started eating honey, on its own, all the time.

He ate it only straight from the plastic honey bears, tilting his head back and squeezing it straight down his throat. Britta kept the bears. Britta kept everything. She kept Stephen's old T-shirts, the ones he bought at shows, and the trophies that he won at school and didn't want. She kept her mother's old high-school yearbook and her father's forgotten souvenirs from his semester in Paris - a sack of business cards and matchbooks with French addresses and notes from old girlfriends.

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The first time Stephen gave Britta a honey bear, their father was sitting on the sofa cutting his fingernails with a tiny, silver pair of scissors. He carefully snipped a line in the tape so that he could say, "Make sure you wash that out good, baby." Her father felt very strongly about ants. Back then the tape was just a joke, something her parents would do together. They would use masking tape and giggle as they rubbed their sealed mouths against each other. Britta thought it had something to do with sex, but she wasn't sure what.

The first time Stephen gave Britta a honey bear, their father was sitting on the sofa cutting his fingernails with a tiny, silver pair of scissors.

By the time Britta was twelve, she had 200 little bears. They stood under her bed in neat little rows, twenty to a row. There were other things under her bed - mostly dirty socks and crumpled drawings - but the bears didn't mind. Soon the bears no longer fit under the bed, so Stephen built her a wall of shelves. She had to take down her poster of Einstein (the one at the blackboard, not the one with his tongue sticking out) so that the shelves would reach up to the ceiling, the way she wanted them to. Then Britta turned thirteen and Stephen stopped eating as much honey as he had the year before.

"He's turning into a fucking druggie," her mother said.

Britta was hoping that Stephen would wait a little longer to turn into a druggie, at least until she had 1,000 bear guardians to count before she fell asleep, but he didn't. Instead, he gave her another bear, bear number 852, and told her that he was leaving.

That night Britta woke up to her mother's screaming. She threw off her covers and ran into the hallway, sliding a little on the wooden floor. Her mother was holding an umbrella, Britta's umbrella, and screaming as her brother, Steve, Stevie Stephen, dropped down to the ground. For a minute Britta thought that he was dead, or dying, but just as she felt tears push out from behind her shock, he bounced up off the floor, grabbed the tip of the umbrella, and stared their mother straight in the eye.

"You can't," Britta's mother said.

Stephen didn't say anything, just reached up and touched the blood trickling from his head. It was thick and dark and Britta could almost taste the iron tang of it in the back of her throat. Still looking at their mother, he held up his reddened fingers and smeared a streak of blood across his cheekbone, right under his eye, like a warrior, or a surfer. Britta half-expected him to flick a bead of it at their mother, to splatter the white silk of her blouse with his blood, but instead they both dropped the ends of the umbrella at the same time and took a step back from one another.

Britta was a kid when she got that umbrella. A green one, shaped like a giant frog head, with black and white flaps that stuck up at the top, like eyes. Britta wanted to run downstairs and pick her umbrella up, she wanted to save it so that it wouldn't have to lie there between her mother and her brother, flappy eyes outspread. She didn't even realize that her father was downstairs too until he moved in to pick it up - but Stephen kicked it out of his grasp, turned, threw open the front door, and ran out of the house.

She didn't even realize that her father was downstairs too until he moved in to pick it up - but Stephen kicked it out of his grasp, turned, threw open the front door, and ran out of the house.

Now Britta is fourteen, and she still has 852 honey bears. When her friend Stacey sleeps over they draw pictures or write messages and put them inside the bears. Stacey is a boy, but he is allowed to sleep over because his mother and Britta's mother have been friends since they lived with the same man, a man who was not Britta's father. Britta's father doesn't mind if Stacey sleeps over because he thinks Stacey is gay. Britta knows that Stacey isn't because sometimes they kiss and Stacey gets excited, even though he's not her boyfriend.

Britta writes on a square of notebook paper: "All is nothing. Darkness is light." She has just finished reading the Tao Te Ching and the Myth of Sisyphus and thinks she might understand the world, but isn't really sure.

Stacey pushes a scrap of paper over to her. She reads: "I got the world on a string. It ain't nothin' but a thang." Stacey has just discovered irony, but he doesn't do it quite right. They both make fun of bad rap music, but secretly Britta likes most of the jumpy lyrics and hard sounds, even if they don't go well with her pink hair and pierced nose and sparkly blue fingernails.

When Britta brought the release form home from the piercing parlor she didn't expect her mother to sign it.

"Girls are full of holes, anyway," her mother said.

She signed it and gave it back to Britta and now Britta is the only girl in the ninth grade with a pierced nose, though two other girls already have nose jobs.

Britta's mother spends most of her time on the new bears. They are small and perfect, with mink fur and real suede patches on their paws. Britta's mother started making them when Britta turned fourteen, not quite a year ago, even though she had never sewn more than a button before. Now somehow she can make these pensive-looking little bears, who start out as sheets of fur and come to life wearing neatly fitted miniature doctor jackets or ballerina outfits. Now her mother is a company - Grin and Bear It, Ltd. - and people flood her with orders because she personalizes the stuffed bears.

"People are suckers," her mother says.

Britta's mother dresses the bears in outfits, which people pay extra for. She's working on one with a fisherman's hat and waders for some fly fisherman's 50th birthday, ordered by his wife.

"I'll bet he'd rather have a blow job," her mother says, when she thinks that Britta isn't listening.

Britta's mother also embroiders messages on plump red satin hearts and stuffs them deep into the plushy bear innards. "I love you" is the most popular message; there are also a lot of people - women, mostly - who ask for "Forever," or birth dates, or their own names. People pay a lot of money for the bears with the hidden hearts that Britta's mother makes. Even Stacey sees the irony in this, but he is also grown up enough to know when to keep his mouth shut.

"I love you" is the most popular message; there are also a lot of people - women, mostly - who ask for "Forever," or birth dates, or their own names.

Britta and Stacey are trying to come up with something new for the school craft fair. Last year Stacey made T-shirts painted with the names of old punk bands: the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks, the Butthole Surfers. This is why Britta's father thinks Stacey is gay. That, and because Stacey was the one who dyed Britta's hair pink.

"She looks like a whore-in-training," her mother says.

Her father doesn't say anything, even though he doesn't have any tape on his mouth, because he isn't allowed to talk anywhere near the bears. The Grin and Bear It bears, that is. It's OK if he talks near Britta's bears, but he never comes into her room, so it doesn't matter that it's OK. He rarely leaves his office at all because he's usually working on a novel.

Nobody buys his books because they aren't very good. Even Stacey knows that because it is something that nobody keeps their mouths shut about. Britta's father once published a book that was very, very good. Better than good. Newspapers reviewed it and called him the Voice of a Generation. There had been interviews and photo shoots and invitations to speak at writing colonies and universities. And then, suddenly, he'd stopped doing all of that and moved them here, to this collection of houses that barely made up a new town.

Now, years later, critics keep reading each new book that he writes, hoping to find The Voice returned. They are always disappointed, and print the usual bad reviews: "clunky, overwrought prose," "leaden characters," "soap-opera plots." This Britta knows even though she doesn't read the newspapers because her mother cuts out every review and tapes it on the refrigerator door. Each time a new one goes up, her father stands in front of the refrigerator, staring at the tape.

Britta doesn't mind that her father is a bad writer, because he gives her a kiss on the forehead whenever he sees her, even if it isn't very often and even if his lips are covered with bumpy gray duct tape. She doesn't mind, for now, that her brother left and never came back. She knows that when she needs to, she can go and find him. And she doesn't mind that Stacey doesn't want to be her boyfriend because she doesn't want to be his girlfriend. Britta doesn't want to be anyone's girlfriend, yet.

And she doesn't mind that Stacey doesn't want to be her boyfriend because she doesn't want to be his girlfriend. Britta doesn't want to be anyone's girlfriend, yet.

Britta wants to be more alone. Or maybe she wants to find different people to be alone with. She isn't sure. She has sent away for brochures from boarding schools and signed herself up for the PSATs. Britta likes the names of the boarding schools. None of them sound like they were named after water filters. Deerfield. Andover. Choate Rosemary Hall. Every time a new brochure comes in a thick cream envelope, the school's seal printed in the corner, her mother brings it upstairs and puts it on the floor outside Britta's room. "Go," her mother says. Britta never hears that, because she's always at school when the mail comes, but it wouldn't have surprised her.

One night, just before she turns fifteen, Britta is finishing her project for the craft fair. Stacey's painting T-shirts again, but Britta has decided to make cell-phone holders out of felt. But these need something else, something extra. She slips down to her mother's sewing room, looking for the box with the red hearts. Sometimes her mother makes dozens of these "I love you" hearts all at once so that she won't have to pause after completing a fireman's suit or a little college professor's jacket.

Inside the cardboard box are the little hearts that her mother started that evening. They are still gaping open a bit at the end, because that's the part that has to be hand sewn after they've been stuffed. Britta picks one up. It makes a crunching noise. Britta always thought that the hearts were filled with the same soft plush that plumps out the furry bears, but this one seems tougher.

She reaches the tips of her fingers in and pulls out a scrap of paper like a fortune-cookie fortune. There is something written on it, but Britta can't read it in the dark. She rips open the little red heart, tears it in half right between the already-sewn "love" and "you." Then she flicks on her mother's lamp and spreads out the minuscule scraps of paper buried inside. Printed there, in neat, cursive script, are the things her mother never says:

"He's gone."

"He took everything."

"I hate him."

"I love him."

"He left nothing."

Britta snatches up the scraps of paper and the shredded satin heart, shoving them into her pocket. She doesn't cry.

The next morning Britta carries a stack of applications downstairs. They are all filled out, fitted carefully into envelopes plastered with extra stamps. She passes her father on the stairs.

"I wrote these," she says.

He nods, mouth taped, and touches his hidden lips to her forehead.

She sees her mother in the sewing room, surrounded by half-finished bears.

"Please mail these for me," she says.

Britta's mother looks up from behind her eyelashes, shakes her notMarilyn Monroe hair, and reaches for her roll of duct tape.

Britta turns before her mother can say anything and grabs her jacket. She walks to the post office, even though it's three-quarters of a mile away, and marches straight up to the counter. There are other people in line, but it doesn't matter.

"Please send these right now," says Britta.

The woman behind the counter smiles. She thinks Britta is cute, with that pink-streaked hair and baby nose ring. "How old are you?" she asks, taking the stack of applications.

"I'm sixteen," decides Britta, as she smiles back and walks out the door.

Jade Chang is the author of The Wangs vs. the World, a New York Times Editor's Choice and one of Buzzfeed's 24 Best Books of the Year. She lives in Los Angeles.
Every Christmas, foie gras producers in Bulgaria and Hungary are overwhelmed with overseas orders but while France remains their key client, the hunt for more lucrative markets is leading to Asia.

France is the top producer and consumer of the controversial delicacy. Foie gras is fundamental to a traditional Gallic Christmas dinner and France has made a habit of stocking up its own inventories with cheaper versions from Bulgaria and Hungary.

At Bulgaria's largest factory near the southern village of Milevo, dozens of women nimbly sort, clean, devein, and pack hundreds of kilos of duck livers that have come straight from the slaughterhouse.

Other workers cook and can glazed duck confit.

Virtually unknown at local Christmas dinner tables, the bulk of Volex's production will go to France.

The labels of big French brands are placed directly on the jars before they even leave the factories, although the country of origin is also indicated.

This year, Bulgaria and Hungary estimate that sales in newer markets could shoot up by around 15 percent as French exports outside the EU have been hit by repeated bird flu scares.

"If 10 years ago we sold 100 percent of our produce to France, now this share is about 80 percent," Volex factory owner Plamen Chelebiev told AFP.

- Diversifying markets -

For the past four years, his sales have been increasing in Switzerland and Japan, and more recently also in Vietnam and Thailand.

"In these markets we sell our products under our own brand names and at much higher prices, which makes it more interesting for us," Chelebiev said.

But Volex is also doing well inside the EU.

In Spain and Belgium, "we're now selling our products without passing via France," Chelebiev added.

Bulgaria and Hungary entered the lucrative trade in the 1990s by modernising large cooperative farms from communist times and using cheap hand labour.

Since then, Bulgaria has become the world's largest maker of duck foie gras after France, while Hungary holds a quasi monopoly on fattened goose liver.

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Even French producers have expressed concern over the growing competition.

"A part of Bulgaria and Hungarian products are going to third countries whose markets remain closed to us," Marie-Pierre Pe, the director of French foie gras makers' group CIFOG, said earlier this year.

Around 100 companies in Bulgaria, the EU's poorest country, are involved in the foie gras business.

Volex hatches some three million ducklings every year from French-imported eggs at an 80-hectare (195-acre) farm in the southern town of Haskovo.

Two million are sold to other Bulgarian producers, while the rest are raised and fed in collective cages before being transferred to the slaughterhouse and factory in Milevo.

Unlike France, Bulgaria never had the money to invest in single cages for the highly criticised practice of gavage, or force-feeding birds with grains to fatten their livers around four times their natural weight.

Ducks put on weight more quickly in single cages because they have no room to move -- but these were prohibited EU-wide in 2016 after protests by animal rights activists.

Bio-safety measures at farms in both Bulgaria and Hungary are extremely strict, insist producers.

The huge buildings are regularly emptied for weeks and sanitised to prevent any bacterial diseases from breaking out, say officials.

- 'As good as French foie gras' -

"The quality of our raw foie gras is the same as in France and even better, due to the good conditions during the raising of the birds," according to Volex.

But all this notwithstanding, neither Bulgaria nor Hungary have the capacity to conquer traditional French markets.

Although the bird flu crisis has slashed 25 percent of France's exports in 2016, the country has massive stocks due to overproduction in previous years.

In 2015, France produced around 19,000 tonnes of foie gras, while Bulgaria came a distant second with 2,500 tonnes and Hungary third with 2,000 tonnes.

France's exports stood at 5,000 tonnes in 2015. By comparison, Bulgaria and Hungary together sell between 3,000 and 4,000 tonnes abroad annually, according to data from producers' organisations.

However, their eyes are now focussed on the burgeoning appetite for luxury products in Asia.

"We have expanded our presence in Japan and also started recently to sell in Singapore and Thailand," said a Hungarian producer, requesting anonymity.

"They cannot match demand by solely buying from France."
This New York bandit seriously went bananas.

Read: Naked Burglar Found Napping in Woman's Home After Helping Himself to Ice Cream

After a thief broke into Long Island restaurant "Sexy Salad" at about 1:45 a.m. Saturday morning, he was caught on surveillance footage helping himself to nearly a dozen bananas.

The man then proceeded to urinate in a garbage can before falling asleep on the floor, according to a statement released by the Suffolk County Police Department.

Although he was gone by the time the restaurant opened the following morning, cops had no problem tracking him down. He had also apparently left his New York State driver's license and a watch at the scene.

"If you're gonna be broken into, you might as well get a good laugh out of it," restaurant owner John Robertson told WABC. "This guy was hysterical. I've never seen somebody so drunk."

Read: Man Wearing Bucket on His Head Caught on Video Stealing Expensive Racing Pigeons

Cops said the burglar has since made restitution to the business owner, who will not press any charges against him.

Watch: Bungling Burglar Falls Through Ceiling of Day Care Center, Steals From Children

Related Articles:
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  A California man has pleaded guilty to a charge stemming in part from the theft of more than 100 wine bottles worth more than $500,000 from a famed Napa Valley restaurant.

Federal prosecutors say a judge Tuesday accepted Davis Kiryakoz's guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to transport stolen goods. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors say the 44-year-old Kiryakoz acknowledged conspiring to steal wine bottles from the world-renowned French Laundry restaurant in December 2014.

Kiryakoz and a co-conspirator arranged to ship the wine to a buyer in North Carolina, where some of it was later discovered.

Prosecutors say Kiryakoz also conspired to steal wine from a steakhouse and a wine dealer. He is scheduled to be sentenced in March.
Moscow

A fringe group of political activists from California who want to secede from the union say they opened an embassy in Moscow, Russia, last week. Its legitimacy is dubious, at best.

The Yes California Independence Campaign held an opening for the press at the new digs on December 18, the Los Angeles Times reports. The event was promoted on social media.

Presentation to the press at the opening of the Embassy of the Independent Republic of California @CAEmbRu @YesCalifornia #Calexit pic.twitter.com/MsF56cPjvf  Bear Flagger (@LouisJMarinelli) December 18, 2016

The Yes California Independence Campaign aims to put a measure on a 2018 state ballot that, if passed, would bring California one step closer to becoming its own nation.

Far-fetched as it may sound, the "Calexit" movement picked up steam after November 8, as Californians came to terms with Donald Trump's presidential election.

A state has not seceded from the union since the 1860s, and those 11 southern states rejoined after the American Civil War. An actual Calexit is unlikely, and we have no idea what the impact of a California exit might have.

Louis Marinelli, president of Yes California, left for Russia this fall to join forces with the Antiglobalization Movement of Russia. The grassroots campaign shares Marinellis belief that a state has a right to self-determination, he told Business Insider in November.

In the case of the group's new hub, the word "embassy" should be applied loosely.

Marinelli told Business Insider the resource center will educate Russian locals on Californian history and culture, foster trade relations, and encourage tourism. He said that the embassy will not actually conduct diplomatic affairs, but will serve as a promotional front for Calexit.

Story continues

Russian media outlets have been following this story long before the US presidential election. Robert English, an expert on Russia and deputy director of University of Southern California's School of International Relations, called it "propaganda" in an interview with KQED.

Yes California Independence, Louis Marinelli

He suspects the government-backed newspapers covering the secession efforts of Yes California are doing so to spread disinformation and "exploit existing tensions in Western and US society."

Marinelli, a former English teacher in Russia, told Business Insider he received some backlash for working with the country.

He maintained that Yes California will work with any group that shares its values and supports the right of self-determination, no matter how it appears to the outside world.

"That's why we don't have a problem with me being in Russia, for example, or signing an agreement with a group in Russia. It sounds kind of controversial, but we want California to become an independent country and we're not going to hold any punches to make that happen," he said.

Marinelli envisions a network of Yes California resource centers around the world someday.

A website managed by the US Department of State does not recognize the California embassy in Russia.

NOW WATCH: People in California are calling for a 'Calexit' after Trumps victory

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Indian internet and telecoms company Reliance Communications said Wednesday it had agreed to sell its mobile phone tower business to Canadian asset management giant Brookfield for $1.6 billion.

Reliance Communications said the deal represented the largest investment by a foreign investor in Indian infrastructure and comes as Brookfield seeks to capitalise on liquidity constraints at major Indian firms.

Indian companies are struggling to acquire capital as the central bank puts pressure on lenders to address bad loans. Firms are choosing asset sales to boost coffers and reduce debt, Bloomberg has reported.

In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Reliance Communications said it was announcing the "signing of binding agreements" with Brookfield Infrastructure to sell its nationwide tower assets for 110 billion rupees.

"(Reliance Communications) will utilise the upfront cash payment of 11,000 crore rupees ($1.6 billion) solely to reduce its debt," the firm, led by Indian billionaire tycoon Anil Ambani, said in the statement.

"The transaction will represent the largest ever investment by any overseas financial investor in the infrastructure sector in India," it added.

Reliance Communications said the sale, together with its recent merger with Aircel, would help reduce its overall debt by nearly 70 percent, sending its shares on the BSE's Sensex soaring by almost nine percent.

The Indian company said that while its tower business would be demerged into a separate company that would be 100 percent owned by Brookfield Infrastructure, it would benefit financially from non-voting shares.

"The company expects significant future value creation from these class B shares owing to the 4G rollout and the expected growth of the telecom industry," said the statement.

India's increasingly competitive telecoms market is undergoing a 4G revolution as major players including Vodafone, Idea, and Reliance Jio, which is owned by Anil Ambani's older brother Mukesh, and Bharti Airtel vie for dominance.

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Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that Brookfield was in talks to take over Bharti Airtel's wireless tower business, Bharti Infratel, as it said the Canadian firm was looking to expand its Indian portfolio.

It comes as the Reserve Bank of India is forcing banks to clean up their balance sheets.

Brookfield signed a deal with the State Bank of India earlier this year and last month its South Asia head told Bloomberg that the asset management firm had struck a $1 billion agreement with Indian commercial property firm Hiranandani Developers Pvt.
(Adds reaction from groups)

By Leah Schnurr

GATINEAU, Quebec, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Broadband internet access will be considered a basic service in Canada, the country's telecom regulator ruled on Wednesday, paving the way for universal access to high-speed services in rural and isolated areas of the country.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said it was establishing a fund providers will pay into to invest C$750 million ($560 million) over five years to build or upgrade broadband infrastructure to improve access in underserved areas.

The CRTC set a target download speed of 50 megabits per second, 10 times its previous, and recommended providers offer unlimited data for fixed broadband. About 82 percent of Canadians had access to those speeds last year.

Declaring broadband an essential service means it should be available to all Canadians, though establishing high-speed access in remote areas remains an expensive proposition for providers.

"These goals are ambitious. They will not be easy to achieve and they will cost money," Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said. "But we have no choice."

The regulator did not set a price cap, which could have eroded the profits of telecom operators whose revenue from internet access has outstripped television services.

"The CRTC is putting out a call for the government to lead the way on broadband access," said Laura Tribe, executive director of advocacy group OpenMedia.

Internet revenues will now be included in the calculation of what companies have to pay for the new fund, potentially chipping away at an increasingly profitable area as consumers embrace streaming.

Companies that make C$10 million or more already contribute a percentage of their profits to subsidize basic phone services. Companies currently pay about 0.5 percent of their telecom revenue, with the fund at about C$100 million.

Companies made C$9.81 billion from the supply of internet connections in 2015, topping the C$8.92 billion they made from television subscriptions, the CRTC said recently.

Story continues

Companies that cannot meet the targets can apply for financing, but only those that receive money will be obliged to.

Blais called the fund "an important carrot" to getting companies to meet the targets.

David Watt, a senior vice president at Rogers Communications Inc, said the company "was encouraged by this reasonable plan to help increase access to Canadians in hard to reach areas of our country."

BCE Inc, Canada's largest telecommunications company, said it was reviewing the decision.

The funding will be on top of the C$500 million over five years the government allocated in its budget for improving broadband in remote communities. ($1 = $1.34 Canadian) (Additional reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto; editing by Alan Crosby, Bernard Orr)
- By Holly LaFon





Prem Watsa (Trades, Portfolio) embarked on his "largest and best" acquisition in his company's 31-year history this week, encouraged by what he views as a pro-business environment ushered in by the election of President-elect Donald Trump.





Watsa is known as the "Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) of Canada" because he operates a giant insurance conglomerate, invests the float according to value principles and allows his acquired companies to run on a decentralized basis. After years of being cautious of financial markets, Watsa poured $54 per share, or $4.9 billion, into his company, Fairfax Financials (FFH.TO)'s "transformative" acquisition of global property and casualty reinsurer Allied World Assurance Co. (AWH).

Allied's sizable footprint in the U.S. sweetened the deal because Trump's election and Republican control of the house and senate, Watsa said, has the "strong potential to make the business climate for growth in the U.S. great again."

"If President Trump can move forward policies to reduce taxes, reduce burdensome bureaucracy and regulation and incentivize much needed infrastructure spending, we believe the U.S. will see significant growth in GPD and our businesses in the U.S. including Allied World will benefit from any such economic development," Watsa said in a conference call Monday.

The president-elect has based his economic platform on expanding business, which has sparked a bullish market.

Another camp of economists and investors directly opposite the president-elect's policies, saying they could have a negative impact on the economy over the long term. The Economist wrote in November:

"The next president threatens to erect trade barriers, which would disrupt supply chains and dampen productivity growth. He wants to deport many of America's 11 million illegal immigrants, which could reduce the size of the labour force by up to 5%. And his tax plan is ruinously expensive, costing almost $7 trillion over a decade, or around half of America's outstanding national debt."

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Watsa's conviction diverges strongly from his previous caution. In recent years, he has maintained full hedging on his investment portfolio in preparation for a possible "economic storm," even though the hedges curtailed his investing gains. Watsa has held large long positions in BlackBerry (BBRY), IBM (IBM) and Kennedy-Wilson Holdings (KW) in recent years and since Fairfax's founding, Watsa has returned 8.6% annually on his portfolio investing using a value approach. In 2017, he plans to move from defense to offense, he said.

The much-followed investor also shared his investment strategy in the climate he ancitipates. He said bond rates have bottomed out and will likely continue their climb since the election, so he plans to own bonds of less than two to three years in duration. He was most optimistic about equities.

"When the biggest economy in the world is on its way up, which we think as we said earlier because of Trump's policies - very pro-business, corporate tax cuts, infrastructure spending, really smart people in charge - we just think the downside is significantly reduced and we think in a market like that, in the U.S., and perhaps elsewhere, it becomes a value-oriented stock picker's market," he said.

See Prem Watsa (Trades, Portfolio)'s portfolio here. Start a free 7-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






* Polish leaders to hold news conference at 0900 GMT * Zloty firms, Polish stocks touch eight-month high By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The zloty tested 5-week highs against the euro and Polish stocks touched an 8-month high on Wednesday ahead of a news conference by top ruling party leaders likely to address the political crisis over the rule of law in Poland.

Central Europe's healthy long-term economic growth prospects have been supporting assets in the region as the end of the year approaches, but domestic political issues have weighed on sentiment in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.

The Polish parliament lifted a temporary ban on media access on Tuesday, which has been triggering protests, but the measure did not defuse the crisis as the opposition said the government would need to do more for democracy.

Ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski will hold a news conference at 0900 GMT, along with Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and parliament speakers.

The zloty firmed 0.1 percent to 4.4045 against 6the euro by 0821 GMT and Polish government bond yields dropped 1-2 basis points, with the 10-year paper bid trading at 3.43 percent.

The Warsaw stock exchange's bluechip index touched an 8-month high in the second session in a row.

The leu also firmed, but Romanian government bonds eased a shade.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has invited political parties for talks on a new government, with the leftist Social Democrat Party, the winner of elections held on Dec. 11, expected to propose a prime minister candidate.

The president signalled earlier that he would not accept PSD leader Liviu Dragnea as a prime minister candidate because convicted earlier this year for rigging a 2012 referendum for which he received a suspended jail sentence.

Bulgaria faces early elections next spring as talks to form a new government under the mandate of a small right-wing party failed on Tuesday.

Bulgarian stocks firmed a quarter of a percent.
This year has been historically gloomy, but fortunately, stars including Chrissy Teigen and John Legend as well as Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna welcomed some adorable faces into the world to make up for it. Watch the video above to revisit the celebrity babies of 2016!

PHOTOS: Celebrity Babies 2016

Luna Simone Stephens

Teigen, 31, and Legend, 37, welcomed their first child on April 14. "She's here! Luna Simone Stephens, we are so in love with you! And sleepy. Very sleepy," the new mom announced on Instagram. The couple, who married in September 2013, previously struggled to conceive and revealed in February they'd decided to have a baby girl via IVF with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). Since Luna's birth, the Cravings cookbook author and the 10-time Grammy winner have shared plenty of adorable pictures of their daughter on social media.

Dream Renee Kardashian

The next heir to the throne! Us Weekly exclusively confirmed that Chyna, 28, gave birth to daughter Dream Renee, her first child with fiance Kardashian, 29, via scheduled C-section on November 10. While giving birth, the model, who also shares 4-year-old son King Cairo with ex Tyga, and her family did their own take on the viral mannequin challenge. A month later, the Rob & Chyna stars announced a shocking split hours before their televised baby special aired.

PHOTOS: Famous Celebrity Pregnancies: Baby Bump Hall of Fame

Dusty Rose Levine

Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo welcomed daughter Dusty Rose on September 21. "They're a very happy couple and excited to start their family," a source told Us at the time. The Maroon 5 frontman, who wed the Victoria's Secret Angel in July 2014, later joked about his naivete with fatherhood, telling Ryan Seacrest: "I've been a parent for three weeks. What do I know? I don't know anything, but it's kind of part of the beauty of it, honestly.  It's a beautiful experience."

Story continues

PHOTOS: Just Like Us: Celebrity Moms

Amada Lee Gosling

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes welcomed their second daughter, Amada Lee, on April 29. The notoriously private couple are also parents of Esmeralda Amada, who was born in September 2014. The La La Land hunk, 36, gushed over his family with the Cuban American actress, 42, in a recent GQ interview, saying, "Eva's the dream mother, and they're dream babies, and it's like a dream that I'm having right now. I'm dreaming it all."

Watch the video above to see more A-list couples (including Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, and Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds) who welcomed little bundles of joy in 2016!

Related Content:
Although Gov. Pete Ricketts is not ready to discuss details about his approaching state budget recommendations, it appeared more clear on Wednesday that the governor is focused on reducing state government while slicing taxes.

"We will cut the government," Ricketts said during an hourlong morning session over coffee and cinnamon rolls at the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce that attracted about 100 people.

Two years ago, the governor's first biennial budget recommendation would have sliced the growth of state tax-supported spending from 6.5 percent to 3 percent. Ricketts ultimately accepted a 3.6 percent growth figure.

A reduced rate of budget growth is not the language of today as the state faces declining revenue forecasts.

"There's no money," Ricketts said. "We have to make tough choices (and) tighten our belts."

And, the governor said, "we're going to tackle the income tax and the property tax," both of which have placed Nebraska in the category of "a high-tax state."

"We're not competitive when it comes to (state) income taxes," Ricketts said, and the size of local property taxes is the No. 1 concern he hears from residents at town hall meetings throughout the state.

High property taxes are the result of local school spending, he said, and that's where that issue needs to be addressed.

Asked by a member of the audience whether he might look to current state sales tax exemptions for additional revenue, particularly the possibility of applying the sales tax to purchases of soda pop, the governor said: "I'm not interested in raising taxes."

The approaching 2017 legislative session will be "dominated by the budget," Ricketts said, and he'll offer his proposal in his State of the State address next month.

Ricketts said he remains focused on growing the state and its economy and he believes the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump may be helpful in wiping out a series of federal regulations and "free up our economy."
When Charlie Hunnam agreed to play 19th-century explorer Percy Fawcett  opposite Robert Pattinson as fellow traveler Henry Costin  in the film adaptation of David Granns The Lost City of Z, he knew it wouldnt be easy. Giving Hunnam only five days between filming on King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Lost City of Z, the five-month shoot took him away from longtime girlfriend with essentially no means of contact.

The solution? A letter a day  or thats what Hunnam promised, anyway.

We went to Colombia, and the mail system doesnt really work very well, Hunnam said. Its completely unreliable. I received a letter from her, and I realized that from the tone of it and things she was saying that she hadnt received the two letters that I sent before.

With timely letters not really in the cards, Hunnam decided to go even more Method in portraying the explorer-cum-absentee father Fawcett. He stopped writing altogether. Which obviously makes me sound like a total bastard, appropriately so, Hunnam said. But I was very apologetic.

The separation, however, helped Hunnam understand Percival Fawcetts obsession. One of the things that and I felt strongly that we wanted to explore in the film, Hunnam said, was the conflict between family life and the exterior demands that are made on us and the social and economic demands that we all need to deal with in life, being balanced or in conflict with the internal drive, to be the people we want to be and achieve the things that we want to achieve.

But where does that leave things with Hunnam and the girlfriend he promised to write to? Well, while Colombian mail system failed him, the jewel market did not.

I had the benefit of shooting in Colombia, where they have rather lovely and somewhat cheap emeralds, Hunnam says. My girlfriend is a jewelry designer, so I was able to come back with an appropriately sized gift. It didnt remedy all of the trouble I was in, but it got me halfway there.

Smart man.

The Lost City of Z will be released April 21. Before that, you can see an exclusive new photo of Hunnam and Pattinson from the film above.
What happens when three families happen to book the same campsite for the same holiday weekend? Sheer chaos, as seen in the new trailer for Mad Families, starring Charlie Sheen and Leah Remini.

The Crackle original movie shows off jokes thatll be familiar to Sheen fans from his Two and a Half Men days. The three families  one white, one Hispanic, and one African-American  all refuse to give up their reservation for anyone else. Thus, the male members of the family engage in a series of contests to win rights to the ground. Cheyenne (Remini) thinks little of the competition: Do you think men ever get a POV of themselves and just go, Were really stupid?'

Also starring Finesse Mitchell (Roadies) and Naya Rivera (Glee), Mad Families, directed by Fred Wolf (Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser) and penned by him and David Spade, arrives Jan. 12, 2017 on Crackle. See the new trailer above.

Crackle
Beijing (AFP) - China on Wednesday welcomed Sao Tome and Principe's decision to sever ties with Taiwan, a move that comes after President-elect Donald Trump questioned long-standing US policy towards the self-ruled island.

Taiwan, stung by the loss of one of its few allies, accused Beijing of taking advantage of the small West African nation's financial woes to impose its "One China" policy and said the move would destabilise already tense cross-strait relations.

Tensions between the mainland and Taiwan have risen since a highly unusual call from President Tsai Ing-wen to congratulate Trump, who has questioned Washington's policy towards the island.

Beijing welcomed Sao Tome's decision, but made no reference to establishing diplomatic relations with the African nation.

"We welcome Sao Tome and Principe back onto the correct path of the One China principle," the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.

"The One China principle meets the common aspiration and the trend of the times," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing, when asked about the split.

The principle, she added, "is the precondition and political foundation for China to maintain relations with other countries."

Taiwan's Foreign Minister David Lee strongly criticised Sao Tome's move, saying it was seeking "astronomical" financial assistance, which Taipei refused.

"Ignoring nearly 20 years of friendship between the two countries by wavering between both sides of the strait in hope for a better deal, we express deep regret and condemn such a reckless and unfriendly decision and action by the Sao Tome government," Lee said at a press conference.

"We take a practical approach to diplomacy, and we won't engage in any money games."

The small west African nation's split comes almost two decades after it officially recognised Taiwan in 1997, when it severed relations with China.

Story continues

- Diplomatic tug-of-war -

Sao Tome's decision leaves Taiwan with formal diplomatic ties to only 21 states, including just two in Africa, and the Vatican -- its highest profile supporter.

For years, China and Taiwan have been locked in a bitter diplomatic tug-of-war, luring away each other's allies with generous financial packages in so-called "chequebook diplomacy".

But Lee said Beijing should not take advantage of countries' financial circumstances to impose its "One China" policy.

"This kind of action does not contribute to stability in cross-strait relations," he said.

Washington's adherence to the "One China" policy has been questioned by Trump, who suggested he could use recognition of the island as a bargaining chip to extract trade deals from Beijing.

"I don't know why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade," he told Fox News earlier this month.

Diplomatic tussles between China and Taiwan had eased under Taiwan's previous Beijing-friendly government, but two months after Tsai's China-sceptic Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won landslide elections in March, China recognised Taiwan's former ally Gambia.

Tsai is preparing for a trip next month to meet diplomatic allies in Latin America, and she is expected to pass through the United States, which may irk China.

In an editorial following the announcement, the Global Times newspaper, which has close ties to China's ruling Communist Party, warned that Taiwan's DPP was committing "diplomatic suicide."

The loss of Sao Tome's support it said is "obviously a punishment... for challenging the One China principle," adding if the DPP does not changes its ways "it's going to have diplomatic relations with 0 countries."
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - The Grinch -- in the form of devastating recession, giant corruption and unpaid salaries -- has stolen Rio de Janeiro's Christmas.

Things are so tight in Brazil's party city that the traditional giant Christmas tree on the lagoon has been canceled. There aren't even municipal holiday lights in the streets.

And in shops, would-be Santas are feeling more ho-hum than ho-ho.

"It's a really flat Christmas. People are not energized," said Daniela Santiago, 41, searching for children's presents in a store that sells cheap Chinese-made toys and decorations. "Most of my friends and family are feeling down."

Unemployed since she lost her human resources job, Santiago lives with her mother, a school teacher who hasn't received a full salary since September.

It can be hard to remember that just four months ago Rio de Janeiro was hosting the Olympic Games.

Today in the "Marvelous City" the main subjects of conversation are crime and what everyone simply calls "a crise" -- the crisis.

"A crise" is shorthand for Brazil's crippling recession, the near bankruptcy of Rio's state government, investor flight, nearly 12 percent unemployment, and a corruption scandal tainting politicians all the way up to President Michel Temer.

Customers at a hairdressers in Copacabana "talk about the crisis all the time," said barber Jorge Almeida, 41, who said his sister-in-law, a doctor, is another of those state employees who haven't been paid for two months.

Estimating that business was down 20 to 30 percent compared to the last weeks of 2015, Almeida said: "Haircuts are taking second place to what's really necessary -- like food."

- Beach blues -

Rio's New Year bash -- a party that sees about two million people pile onto Copacabana beach for the midnight countdown -- is also feeling the blues.

The city said Monday that the gigantic fireworks display, one of the most famous around the world, will be pared back by 25 percent: down to 12 minutes from the normal 16.

Story continues

At one of the beach chair rental huts, manager Elaine Maria Silva, 29, said the usual pre-New Year's buzz is missing.

"There's still no (music) stage set up. Usually by now it would have been," she said, surveying Rio's most popular stretch of sand, which even on a weekday morning teemed with sun worshippers, joggers and swimmers.

The most dramatic holiday absence in Rio this year is the 174-foot (53-meter) Christmas tree structure usually built on a floating platform at the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, site of this August's Olympic rowing and canoe events.

Bradesco Seguros, the company that used to pay for the tree and its spectacular lighting, warned city hall that it could not foot the whole bill this year. By November, with no other sponsors joining the party, officials confirmed there was no hope.

"It used to be a big event," said Fabio Ferreira de Souza, 40, who sells drinks by the side of the photogenic lagoon. "Now with no tree, there's no one coming."

Economists say Brazil should slowly climb out of recession in 2017, but few Rio residents feel optimism. Meanwhile, the corruption-fueled political mess in the capital Brasilia is only intensifying.

Jack de Haan, longtime owner of the Raul Jewelry store in Copacabana, recalled that Brazil was on a roll when he immigrated here from Holland 30 years ago. Gradually, though, the country failed to match its promise.

This Christmas period, he said, is "terrible."

"Last week I sold nothing. Five days selling nothing with such a beautiful shop," de Haan, 63, said, his melancholy words at odds with the glitter of the Brazilian topaz, agate, crystal, and other semi-precious stones he sells.

"It's a shame... Politics, corruption -- if it wasn't for that it would be a different Brazil."
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Clashes between police and a militia led by a Christian pastor in northwestern Congo's Mongala province killed 15 militiamen and three policemen, the former deputy commissioner of Mongala said on Wednesday. Police battled the militia loyal to the pastor from the Kimbanguist church, an offshoot of Christianity in Democratic Republic of Congo, on Tuesday, after he kidnapped numerous local residents, Michael Sakombi told Reuters. Sakombi said the fighting had no link to Congo's wider political struggles. Concern is growing over security in Congo, where violent protests have taken place against President Joseph Kabila's decision to stay on past the end of his second term in office on Tuesday. (Reporting By Aaron Ross; Editing by Tim Cocks and Catherine Evans)
Consider the case of Charles Delavan, an aide to Hillary Clintons campaign, who in March 2016 was forwarded the phishing email that had been sent to John D. Podesta, the chairman of the Clinton campaign. Mr. Delavan had been asked to advise Mr. Podesta if this was a real email from Google, asking him to change the password on his personal Gmail account, or a hoax, trying to hack into Mr. Podestas account.

The Clinton campaign, simultaneously, was the target of an aggressive cyberattack that relied in large part on near replicas of this same fake Google email, urging recipients to change their password. So Mr. Delavan, in an interview, said he immediately knew this was a fake. And to me, as a reporter, that was a plausible statement.

But somehow  and this action by Mr. Delavan remains inexplicable  he wrote back that the fake Google email was legitimate, leading Mr. Podesta or one of his aides to fall for the ruse. This opened up to the Russian hackers a decades worth of Mr. Podestas emails (60,000 in total), including those that contained copies of speeches Mrs. Clinton had given on Wall Street, as well as hundreds of private exchanges he had had with other close aides. All of these became public, causing a distraction to Mrs. Clintons campaign in its critical final month.
By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The FBI acted inappropriately when it announced the revival of its investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email setup days before the Nov. 8 presidential election, Clinton's lawyer said, citing search warrant documents made public on Tuesday.

The pointed criticism from Clinton attorney David Kendall followed the release in federal court in Manhattan of documents related to an October search warrant targeting emails involving the Democratic presidential nominee.

The warrant was issued two days after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey informed Congress in a letter on Oct. 28 of newly discovered emails that appeared "pertinent" to his agency's probe.

Comey's letter drew new attention to Clinton's use of the server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and roiled the campaign 11 days before the election, which Republican Donald Trump won.

Clinton has blamed Comey and his letter for her defeat.

In an affidavit unsealed on Tuesday, an FBI agent said there was "probable cause" to believe emails involving Clinton were among "thousands" found on a laptop in an unrelated probe that contained U.S. State Department correspondence.

But the documents gave no indication the FBI had any evidence at the time of Comey's letter that any of the emails on found on a laptop involved classified communications with Clinton.

Kendall said the documents showed the "extraordinary impropriety" of Comey's letter, which "produced devastating but predictable damage politically and which was both legally unauthorised and factually unnecessary."

The FBI declined to comment.

The laptop belonged to former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin who was the subject of an investigation after a report about cellphone and online messages he sent a 15-year-old girl.

The search warrant materials' release was sought by Randol Schoenberg, a Los Angeles-based lawyer, who contended that transparency was crucial given the potential influence the probe had on the election's outcome.

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In a statement, Schoenberg said he saw "nothing to suggest that there would be anything other than routine correspondence between Secretary Clinton and her longtime aide Huma Abedin."

Brian Fallon, who served as the national press secretary for Clinton's campaign, said on Twitter the search warrant "reveals Comey's intrusion on the election was as utterly unjustified as we suspected at time."

In July, Comey recommended no charges be brought over Clinton's handing of classified information in the emails, although he said she and her colleagues were "extremely careless" in handling such information.

That determination followed what the search warrant materials called a "criminal investigation concerning the improper transmission and storage of classified info on unclassified email systems and servers."

In his letter to Congress, Comey said emails potentially related to the investigation had been discovered in an "unrelated case."

Federal investigators obtained the warrant to examine the emails on Oct. 30. Two days before the election, Comey disclosed the emails did nothing to change his earlier recommendation.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York, additional reporting by Scot Paltrow and Mark Hosenball in Washington; editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Tom Brown)
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) and Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) have announced that they reached an agreement regarding the transition of the latters 54.5% equity stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) for $3.15 billion. CCBA territories include South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana and other African countries.

The companies also say they have reached an agreement in principle for Coca-Cola to acquire Anheuser-Buschs interest in bottling operations in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, El Salvador and Honduras for an undisclosed amount.

The transactions, while subject to relevant regulatory and other approvals, are expected to close by the end of 2017, and Coca-Cola intends to account for the acquired stakes as a discontinued operation for reporting purposes.

ALSO READ: 40 Countries the US Government Doesn't Want You to Visit

It looks like Coca-Cola will be one of the 2017 Dogs of the Dow. So far in 2016, the stock was down about 3% on last look, while the Dow is up more than 13%. Cokes post-election move has not been that impressive, as investors right now prefer growth and infrastructure, or those companies that can win more under the Trump plans.

Also of note, Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent will be stepping down as of May 1, 2017, to be replaced by James Quincey, currently president and chief operating officer. Quincey previously served as president of Cokes Europe Group, and as COO, he earlier this year put in place a new international operating structure and leadership team to make the company more efficient and effective at the local levels, helping operating units become faster and more agile.

Despite having more dependence on sugar-water beverages than rival Pepsi, the reality is that Coca-Cola has been diversifying away from its name brand for years. Its shares have mostly has been in a $39 to $44 trading band for the past three years. With global expansion opportunities and cost containment efforts, maybe value investors will begin to focus on what may be a defensive stock with limited downside  and it has raised its dividend for more than 50 years.

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Shares of Coca-Cola most recently closed at $41.66. The consensus price target is $45.71, and the 52-week trading range is $39.88 to $47.13.

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Istanbul (AFP) - Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, had been a Turkish police officer in the capital Ankara all his working life.

On a freezing winter evening on Monday, he walked out of room number 214 in a hotel in the Cankaya district of the city after shaving and putting on a suit.

The hotel room had been booked on December 14 and he had checked in on Sunday.

Carrying a total of 75 bullets in three magazines and also in his pockets, Altintas made his way to the Contemporary Arts Centre exhibition hall in Ankara, just metres from his hotel.

He did not go through the metal detector security check. After being told to do so he flashed his police ID and was waved through.

As Russian ambassador to Ankara Andrei Karlov was giving the opening speech to inaugurate a photo exhibition of Russian landscapes, Altintas lurked behind, away from the other vernissage guests, listening attentively.

At 7:05 pm (1605 GMT), Altintas produced a gun and fired into Karlov's back.

The ambassador flinched in pain and then crashed to the ground on his back. Altintas fired four initial shots into his back and another five when the ambassador fell to the ground.

Police later entered the exhibition centre and after a 15-minute shootout, Altintas was fatally shot at 7:42 pm.

What prompted a young policeman with no previous criminal record to commit a crime that, whatever its consequences, will forever be remembered in history?

- 'Cheerful boy' -

Altintas hailed from the quiet town of Soke in Aydin province in western Turkey where he went to school.

"He was a pleasant, cheerful boy. He caused no harm or discomfort to anyone," a teacher from his school in Soke, who was not named, told the Hurriyet daily.

He attended a special school for training future policemen and then joined the Ankara anti-riot police -- the Cevik Kuvvet in Turkish -- in 2014.

According to the Hurriyet daily, he had provided protection for Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eight times since summer this year.

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For the Turkish authorities, the motivation for the crime is becoming more and more clear -- that he was linked to the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen blamed for the 2016 failed putsch bid against Erdogan.

According to Turkish media, Gulen-related books were found at his home and he is also alleged to have attended a Gulen-backed cramming school (dershane in Turkish) in 2014 to help with exams.

A dozen people, including his closest family, have so far been detained over the murder with the authorities actively checking their possible links to Gulen.

Gulen has denied any links to both the coup and the assassination.

The Sabah daily said among those detained was Suleyman Ergen, a so-called "imam" or senior agent of Gulen who had taught Altintas at the Rustu Unsal police academy in Izmir.

According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Altintas had taken two days sick leave on the day of the July 15 coup. It remains unclear what he did on his days off, it added.

He also called in sick complaining of stomach pains on Monday -- with a note from the same doctor.

- 'Corpse unclaimed' -

But Russia, which has sent a team of 18 investigators to Turkey, have urged the authorities not to leap to hasty conclusions and said it is too early to say who was behind the murder.

Altintas shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) and "Don't forget Aleppo" as he waved his gun around at the cultural centre.

While relations between Turkey and Russia had improved drastically in recent months, there had been angry demonstrations in the country over Moscow's support of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

According to Anadolu, Altintas' body is at a morgue in Kecioren outside Ankara and the autopsy has been completed. So far, no one has come forward to claim his body.
aircraft nuclear propulsion anp crusader nb 36h jet bomber

Humanity is in a serious pinch for energy.

The world population may balloon to 9 billion people by 2040, up from 7.36 billion in 2016, and researchers believe this will translate to a 48% jump in energy consumption.

Fossil fuels could slake the world's thirst for energy, but burning more would exacerbate climate change and threaten millions. And it'd be temporary, since known reserves are expected to run out within a century or two.

Meanwhile, renewable energy like wind and solar, though key parts of a solution, are no silver bullets  especially if the world is to meet a 2050 deadline set by the Paris Agreement.

"You've got to be able to generate energy reliably. You've got to be able to generate energy on demand. And that's what wind and solar can't do, and will never be able to do," Kirk Sorensen, the CTO of nuclear energy startup Flibe Energy, told Business Insider in an episode of our podcast Codebreaker, produced with Marketplace.

Nuclear reactors fit the bill: They're dense, reliable, emit no carbon, and  contrary to popular belief  are among the safest energy sources on Earth. They currently supply 20% of America's energy, but this share may decline by 50% through 2040 as companies take decades-old reactors offline, according to a July 2016 report released by Idaho National Laboratory.

Fortunately, a powerful yet relatively unknown solution may have started with a Cold War-era airplane: "The Crusader" NB-36H jet bomber, which flew over two US states with a nuclear reactor in its belly.

The effort was part of the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program. Although it was ultimately canceled, ANP spawned the development of a radical new type of power plant, called the molten-salt reactor.

Today, engineers like Sorensen are trying to revive the molten-salt reactor, which the US abandoned in the early 1970s, and fuel it with a practically infinite source of carbon-free energy: thorium.

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A push for nuclear-powered flight

The US government in 1946 launched ANP as an effort to develop a nuclear-powered jet bomber.

It was an extreme means to a practical (and deadly) end: Fly at least 15,000 miles without refueling to give the plane a fearsome range of attack, according to Scientific American.

Physicist Alvin Weinberg, who invented the most well-known type of nuclear reactor in 1945  the light-water reactor (LWR)  rose to the occasion and began working up a solution as the director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee.

But Weinberg didn't want to put a LWR into an airplane.

LWRs, which now provide 100% of America's nuclear energy, rely on solid nuclear fuel, typically one that contains uranium-235. If this "fissile" isotope of uranium is struck by a flying neutron, it can split, release gobs of energy, and shoot out more neutrons. This process is called fission. If there's enough fuel in one place, there will be enough neutrons flying around to self-sustain a fission chain-reaction.

The problem is that solid fuel is terribly inefficient. In fact, LWRs fission or "burn up" just a few percent of their fuel before it needs to be replaced. This is because waste products slowly accumulate in the fuel, absorb more and more neutrons, and poison the process of fission.

So Weinberg instead chose to develop an idea he'd heard during the Manhattan Project, which had since become "kind of an obsession" for him: a reactor that fissioned its fuel in a fluid of molten salt.

Molten-salt reactors are unlike any commercial nuclear power plants that exist today. Instead of using solid pellets of nuclear fuel, they dissolve nuclear fuel in a stable, blazing-hot fluid.

The fluid can dramatically increase the efficiency of nuclear fission by making it easy to remove fission products. This helps it burn up almost all the nuclear fuel and boosts energy output.

Such reactors are essentially meltdown-proof, too, since the fuel is already molten. Also, the salt requires outside heating to melt. Cooling it down solidifies and expands the material, pushes fissile atoms away from each other, and slows fission to a crawl.

Weinberg and others knew such efficiency might allow engineers to shrink a reactor to fit inside an airplane. So he and his team at ORNL built a small molten-salt reactor as part of an offshoot program, called the Aircraft Reactor Experiment (ARE).

The birth of the molten-salt reactor

first molten salt reactor airecraft reactor experiment are anp ornl

By 1954, Weinberg and his team had built a working prototype: a 2.5-megawatt power plant that used a small amount of uranium-235 dissolved in molten salt made of fluorine, sodium, and zirconium.

It was the first working molten-salt reactor ever built.

Inside the ARE's molten-salt fuel, uranium powered a fission chain-reaction. The atomic heat warmed up an adjacent loop of coolant (made of molten sodium) 300 degrees, from 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Incoming air cooled the sodium, and pumps returned it to the fluid-fueled reactor core for reheating.

"The Air Force was delighted by the aircraft reactor experiment," Weinberg wrote in his 1994 autobiography, "The First Nuclear Era," since this was hot enough to drive jet engines.

The Air Force immediately began retrofitting a B-36 jet bomber ("The Crusader") to carry a nuclear reactor. It also funded ORNL's follow-up molten-salt reactor, called the Aircraft Reactor Test (ART).

heat transfer reactor experiment 3 doe

But the Air Force canceled ART in 1957 to cut ballooning costs  and instead flew a different reactor it had funded in tandem.

The reactor, which was not a molten-salt reactor but a light-water reactor, was never connected to the plane's engines, since "The Crusader" was only intended to test radiation shielding. (The Air Force planned to later incorporate it into a purpose-built nuclear bomber called the WS-125.)

"The Crusader" flew 47 demonstration flights from 1955 through 1957 over New Mexico and Texas. It weighed nearly 18 tons fully-loaded and logged 218 hours of flight, of which the reactor ran for nearly 90 hours. And the crew lived.

But strapped with high costs of about $7 billion and faced with other priorities, including the creation of intercontinental ballistic missiles and the space race, President John F. Kennedy canceled all Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion projects in 1961.

Still, by that time, Weinberg had squeezed in $1 billion and several years' worth of research on molten-salt reactors.

By 1960, with the government funding the development of commercial nuclear power plants, Weinberg poured all of that knowledge into the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE). The MSRE went critical in 1965, produced power for thousands of hours through 1969, and was hailed a success.

The next stage was to develop MSRE into something called a breeder reactor.

The death of Weinberg's dream

three mile island nuclear power plant steam towers GettyImages 110954016

Breeder reactors can create more fuel than they burn through fission, thanks to a process called neutron capture: a "fertile" atom will absorb a neutron from fission, then decay into (and "breed") the fuel. The fuel can then be fissioned to breed more fuel, and so on.

As long as fertile material is around, this can go on indefinitely. But breeding only works with a few radioactive isotopes, since it requires so many neutrons to work.

One is uranium-238, a fertile isotope which makes up more than 99% of uranium ore. It can be bred into plutonium-239, a fissile fuel and weapons material. (This is how the US made most of its nuclear arsenal.)

Another is thorium, which can be bred into uranium-233  another fissile fuel, yet one that is very difficult to handle or make into bomb-grade material.

"Right now we extract thorium inadvertently as a function of rare-earth mining," Sorensen said. "We go looking for neodymium, and other rare-earths  ironically for magnets for things like wind turbines  and we bring up quite a bit of thorium in the process, which right now is treated like a waste."

thorium metal sample w oelen wikipedia ccbysa3

But it's no waste.

According to "SuperFuel," a 2013 book on thorium energy's demise and promise by journalist and author Richard Martin:

"Thorium is around four times as abundant as uranium and about as common as lead. Pick up a handful of soil at your local park or ball-field; it contains about 12 parts per million of thorium. The United States has about 440,000 tons of thorium reserves, according to the Nuclear Energy Agency; Australia has the world's largest resources, at about 539,000 tons. Like uranium and plutonium, thorium makes a dense and highly efficient energy source: scoop up a few ounces of sand on certain beaches on the coast of India, it's said, and you'll have enough thorium to power Mumbai for a year."

Inside a molten-salt breeder reactor, which burns up almost all of its fuel and generates hundreds of times less waste than LWRs, Weinberg estimated that thorium could meet the world's energy needs for billions of years.

But the government canceled the MSRE in 1972, Weinberg retired soon after, and he never revived his research.

The US ultimately favored the LWR design for its nuclear reactors because more of them had been built, the military liked the design for nuclear submarines, and they could also make nuclear weapons material.

A push for next-generation nuclear power

flibe molten salt test tube ornl

In the 2000s, Sorensen and others (including China and India) began rediscovering the idea of thorium-fueled molten-salt reactors.

Sorensen is one of a few entrepreneurs who is trying to revive, modernize, and license his own version of the technology, called the liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR).

"The technology is viable, the science has been demonstrated," Hans Gougar, a nuclear physicist at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), told Business Insider.

But it's been rough. Developing nuclear power technology requires billions of dollars and is very slow, since it has to be proven safe at multiple stages before commercial-scale plants can be built  and the LFTR is unlike anything in service today.

"Maneuvering the licensing process is a huge challenge. The regulatory framework is not currently streamlined to support these novel innovative technologies," Rita Baranwal, a materials engineer at INL, told Business Insider.

The Department of Energy estimates it may take until 2040 or 2050 to license a full-scale and commercial molten-salt power plant. Meanwhile, America's aging yet vital nuclear power plants aren't getting any younger.

That's why, this summer, INL tapped Baranwal to direct its new Gateway for Accelerating Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) program, which is a technology accelerator and support system created for small-time nuclear entrepreneurs.

However it gets built  or whoever builds it  Sorensen is convinced that thorium-fueled molten-salt reactors are the key to solving Earth's energy blues for good.

"This is something that's going to benefit their future tremendously, it's going to lead to a new age of human success," he said, speaking to the world at large. "And if they want that, they need to be talking to their elected officials and demanding it, in fact, and saying 'we want to see these things happen.' Because only a society that decides to embrace this kind of technology is going to ultimately realize its benefits."

For more on molten salt reactors and solving climate change, listen to the "world building" episode of the Codebreaker podcast from Business Insider and Marketplace. Subscribe to the whole series on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

NOW WATCH: This Cold War-era technology could safely power the world for millions of years





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BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's government has lowered the price of Novartis cancer drug imatinib by nearly half in a bid to cut healthcare costs after failed price negotiations with the Swiss company. Novartis will be legally obliged to sell the drug, which is used to treat leukemia and other cancers, at the new price. The new cost per milligram is 44 percent less than the original price, the Colombian Health Ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday. Under the decision each 400 milligram tablet of the medication will cost 82,568 pesos ($27.6), down from 147,200 pesos ($49). The pharmaceutical company and the Andean nation attempted to set a new price together after Colombia, where about 2,500 patients currently use imatinib, asked Novartis to lower the cost. Negotiations failed and the government said its medication cost commission would set a new price. The drug, sold under brand names Glivec or Gleevec, was not under patent in Colombia between 2003 and 2012, sparking competition from generic producers whose prices are 197 percent cheaper than those of Novartis, according to the health ministry. The current patent is valid until mid-2018. The government's decision to unilaterally set a new price stopped short of a so-called compulsory license declaration, which would have overridden Novartis' patent and permitted other companies to make cheaper generic versions. (Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb and Luis Jaime Acosta; Editing by Bill Trott)
By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) - One of two teenage girls accused of plotting a Columbine-like assault on their Colorado high school last year pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy and solicitation to commit first-degree murder, a prosecutor said.

Brooke Ann Higgins, 17, admitted in Douglas County District Court that she and a classmate planned to attack staff and students at Mountain Vista High School in the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch, District Attorney George Brauchler said in a telephone interview.

Higgins and her alleged accomplice, Sienna Raine Johnson, also 17, were arrested in December 2015 after an anonymous tipster alerted authorities to the teens plans, authorities said.

Both girls were 16 at the time of their arrest, and prosecutors charged them both as adults. Johnsons case is still pending.

Defense attorneys had sought to have both cases handled by the juvenile court system, where criminal penalties are more lenient.

The full details of the plot remained under a court seal, but prosecutor Mark Hurlbert told Reuters at the time Higgins was charged that the teen was fascinated with the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, in which two students in a nearby county fatally shot a teacher and 12 classmates before killing themselves.

Higgins wrote in a journal, later seized by investigators, that she wished she could have taken part in the 1999 rampage, even taking a photo of herself in front of Columbine High, Hurlbert said.

Under a plea agreement struck with defense lawyers, Brauchler said Higgins pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count as an adult and to the solicitation charge as a juvenile.

The unique arrangement, if approved by a judge in February, would allow Higgins to serve three years in a juvenile lockup followed by four years of supervised probation on the adult charge under a so-called deferred judgment, he said.

If Higgins successfully completes her probationary sentence, she can have the adult case sealed, Brauchler said, adding that the deal struck an appropriate balance that protected public safety and provided Higgins with a chance for rehabilitation.

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Its a pretty big hammer over her head, Brauchler said, noting that if she violated the terms of her probation, she would be adjudicated in adult court.

Brauchler said there was currently no proposed resolution in the case against Johnson and that her next court hearing was set for January.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Peter Cooney)
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP)  A convicted Colorado robber who was sent back to prison after being mistakenly released decades before serving his 98-year sentence asked a judge Wednesday to set him free again, arguing it would be unfair for him to remain imprisoned after he started a family, got a steady job and reformed himself.

Rene Lima-Marin, 38, was convicted in 2000 on multiple counts of robbery, kidnapping and burglary after he and another man robbed two suburban Denver video stores at gunpoint. A judge issued him back-to-back sentences for a total of 98 years.

But a court clerk mistakenly wrote in Lima-Marin's file that the sentences were to run at the same time. Corrections officials depend on that file to determine how much time an inmate should serve.

Lima-Marin was released on parole in 2008. He held a steady job as a window glazer, got married and had a son before authorities realized the mistake in January 2014, when a team of police officers returned him to prison to complete his sentence.

First Assistant Attorney General James Quinn said the case was an unfortunate mistake but not official misconduct, as Lima-Marin's attorneys allege.

Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. did not immediately decide whether Lima-Marin should be released, saying he needed time to do more legal research. He got the case after Colorado's highest court refused to free Lima-Marin earlier this year, saying he should ask a lower court to consider his release instead.

Lima-Marin fought back tears as he told the judge he's experiencing severe emotional pain because of his separation from his wife, her son who he adopted and another son they had together during his freedom.

"I'm supposed to be the head of the household, the person who's supposed to guide and lead them ... and I've been taken away from them," he said. "I was stupid, and a dumb kid who made a mistake."

But prosecutors said Lima-Marin should not be freed because he knew about the clerk's error and never notified authorities as he set about rebuilding his life.

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Lima-Marin's co-defendant, Michael Clifton, also would have been mistakenly released early, but the error in his file was uncovered after he filed an appeal in his case. Clifton is serving 98 years in prison.

Lima-Marin filed his own appeal of his sentence in 2000 but, in a rare move, asked that it be dismissed less than a year later. Prosecutors said that showed he learned of the clerical error while in prison, and feared further court action on his appeal would call attention to the clerk's mistake.

Lima-Marin said he asked few questions when his public defender told him he would serve much less than 98 years and urged him to withdraw the appeal.

"All I knew was, my prayers had been answered," Lima-Marin said of his early release from prison.
(Peter Apps is Reuters global affairs columnist. The opinions expressed here are his own.)

By Peter Apps

Dec 21 (Reuters) - The killing of Russia's ambassador to Turkey on Monday evening might have prompted knee-jerk comparisons to the 1914 assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, but it almost certainly won't spark a World War One-type conflict. The lethal truck attack that killed 12 in Berlin a few hours later, however, could ratchet up the prospect of yet another political shock in Europe.

The year now concluding looks set to keep throwing out unexpected, often brutal surprises right to its end. If 1989 - the year the Berlin wall fell - was the point at which globalization, liberal democracy and the Western view of modernity was seen to triumph, 2016 might yet be seen as when the wheels came off.

That may be a dramatic overstatement. However, the electoral surprises of the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump - as well as dozens of other examples across the globe - are stark reminders of just how much consensus has unraveled. The next year could see a step back towards moderation. But it could equally see things spiral further out of control.

The assault on a Christmas market in the German capital has made the return of the far right to power in Germany more plausible - even if it still looks unlikely to happen in next year's national vote. The Berlin deaths could also boost the chances of far-right National Front leader Marine LePen in France's 2017 presidential election.

It is possible, of course, that the forces of moderation might stage something of a recovery next year - as we saw in Austria's presidential election, even this year extremists have not always won.

What 2016 has demonstrated most, however, is that nothing is truly unthinkable anymore - or at least, that a host of options previously judged unthinkable are much more likely than anyone previously thought.

It is also clear that we have yet to see the true implications of much that happened in 2016. President-elect Trump is not yet in the White House, but he - and particularly his Twitter feed - is already having a dramatic effect.

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It's hard to predict exactly what that might mean, but the indication so far is that this will be a very different presidency. It may well, of course, mean temporarily better relations with Russia - Trump's comments in the aftermath of Monday's attacks explicitly tied the Ankara attack to that in Berlin and suggested he intends to follow through on talk of much closer collaboration with Russia, particularly on fighting Islamist militancy. That may also imply some kind of grand bargain on Syria, particularly with the fall of Aleppo making any opposition victory even more implausible.

A Trump administration, however, may well swiftly find itself much more greatly at odds with China. Last week's spat over the Chinese seizure of a U.S. underwater drone in the South China Sea may be a sign of things to come on that front.

The one thing that has cemented Beijing into the international system over the last 25 years, after all, has been that it has benefited greatly from being part of an increasingly free international trading system - something Trump clearly intends to push back against, if not dismantle entirely.

If British Prime Minister Theresa May is to be taken at her word, then in 2017 Brexit will really begin to mean Brexit insofar as the UK will move to trigger Article 50 to quit the European Union.

No one really knows what that will mean. In part, that is because no one has any concept of what the European continent will look like politically by the end of next year. The Berlin attack, whether the perpetrator is eventually found or not, will almost certainly ramp up political pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel for her policies on migrants, just as attacks in France have boosted LePen's National Front.

It seems less likely for now, that Alternative for Deutschland - the far right party that has taken up to a third of the vote in several key German states this year - could itself topple Merkel. But the party could perform well enough that she is replaced by another more moderate figure, either from her own party or elsewhere in the political mainstream.

A European move to the far right is not inevitable; the failure of the Austrian far right to gain the presidency demonstrates that. Still, even the prospect that France, Germany and potentially other states might see the far right take a dominant if not controlling role makes the continent a very different place.

If nothing else, 2017 looks set to see a major push back against the European - and to an extent much broader - liberal ideal of open borders and trade. The EU itself may not survive that.

Nor, for that matter, can the ongoing endurance of the always troubled single currency. The Italian referendum earlier this month has left its government in a state of crisis, with the real prospect that the anti-euro "Five Star" movement might take control. An Italian exit might well spell the end for the euro - at the very least, it would make Brexit seem relatively small fry.

On Europe's eastern flank, meanwhile, Russia waits - sometimes interfering to try to exacerbate political chaos and tilt things its way. Following the Trump victory, the long-term future of NATO is also murky.

For all the worries of inadvertent conflict after Monday's assassination in Ankara, it's particularly striking that Turkey, Russia and Iran made it clear they were making common cause and continuing with the meeting in Moscow to discuss Syria. Turkey might still be a NATO member, but under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may also be moving closer to Vladimir Putin.

This has been a complicated year. Don't count on 2017 being any easier.

(Reporting by Peter Apps)
David Freiheit recently traveled all the way from Montreal to San Diego and back for the perfect salted fishor so he thought.

However, judging by the reaction of Davids family to the finished product, especially that of the familys dog, there wont be a repeat of this in the near future.

As explained by David, I did what the vendor told me to do  soaked it in water for over a day, and cooked it the way I would cook normal fish. The taste was slightly unsatisfactory, to say the least :-). Credit: YouTube/Viva Frei via Storyful
Police have identified the man they believe made off with a pot of gold from an armored truck parked on a busy New York City street in broad daylight, and are now appealing to the public to help track down the thief.

Surveillance footage caught Julio Nivelo, 53, allegedly grabbing an 86-pound bucket of gold flakes valued at $1.6 million from the back of an armored truck parked on West 48th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in midtown Manhattan about 4:30 p.m. on September 29, police said.

Read: Gold Rush: Man Scurries Away Undetected After Stealing Pot of Gold Worth More Than $1M From Armored Truck

Nivelo appears to almost walk past the truck, but after the 5-gallon aluminum pail catches his eye, he turns and grabs it, video of the alleged theft shows.

The video shows two men talking to each other in front of the truck as the suspect makes off with the fortune, appearing to struggle with the weight of the goods as he shuffles off.

Numerous tips poured in to police from the tristate area, leading authorities to identify the suspect as Nivelo, a convicted felon who authorities said has been arrested seven times and deported four times to his native Ecuador.

Read: Paralympian Begs Burglars to Return Gold Rings and Irreplaceable Video

He was thought to have fled to Florida before moving on to Los Angeles, California, where officials believe he is now.

Nivelo is 5-foot-5 and weighs about 155 pounds. He also goes by the name David Vargas, cops said.

Watch: 80-Year-Old Grandfather Jumps On Truck to Stop Thieves From Stealing His Bicycle

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BEDMINSTER, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / December 21, 2016 / CorMedix Inc. (NYSE MKT: CRMD), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapeutic products for the prevention and treatment of infectious and inflammatory diseases, announced today that, as previously reported, in an order dated October 27, 2016 the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey granted the Company's motion to dismiss with prejudice the plaintiffs' Amended Complaint in the case Li v. CorMedix Inc., et al. (Case 3:15-cv-05264), a putative securities class action filed July 7, 2015, against the Company and certain of its then current and former officers.

On December 16, 2016, the parties filed a stipulation with the Court in which the plaintiffs and their counsel agreed not to appeal, move for reconsideration, or otherwise challenge the October 27, 2016 Order. No settlement payment was made in exchange for the stipulation.

"We are pleased that the District Court agreed with our view of the insufficiency of the plaintiffs' claims," stated Khoso Baluch, Chief Executive Officer of CorMedix. "With the plaintiff's agreement not to appeal the order dismissing the Amended Complaint, we can put this lawsuit firmly behind us."

About CorMedix Inc.

CorMedix Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapeutic products for the prevention and treatment of infectious and inflammatory disease. The Company is focused on developing its lead product Neutrolin, a novel, non-antibiotic antimicrobial solution designed to prevent costly and dangerous bloodstream infections associated with the use of central venous catheters. Such infections cost the U.S. healthcare system approximately $6 billion annually and contribute significantly to increased morbidity and mortality. Neutrolin is currently in a Phase 3 clinical study in patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis via a central venous catheter. The company is planning to conduct its second Phase 3 study in patients with cancer receiving IV parenteral nutrition, chemotherapy and hydration via a chronic central venous catheter, subject to sufficient resources. If successful, the two pivotal studies may be submitted to the FDA for potential approval for both patient populations. Neutrolin has FDA Fast Track status and is designated as a Qualified Infectious Disease Product, contributing to potentially accelerated FDA review and up to 10 years of market exclusivity upon potential U.S. approval. It is already a CE Marked product in Europe and other territories. CorMedix is also seeking to unlock additional value for its taurolidine-based technology by establishing collaborative partnerships in oncology and medical device applications. For more information visit: www.cormedix.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, regarding management's expectations, beliefs, goals, plans or CorMedix's prospects, future financial position, financing plans, future revenues and projected costs should be considered forward-looking. Readers are cautioned that actual results may differ materially from projections or estimates due to a variety of important factors, including: the risk of additional litigation being instituted by others over the matters that were the subject of the dismissed lawsuit or other matters; the cost, timing and results of the ongoing and planned Phase 3 trials for Neutrolin in the U.S. and the resources needed to commence and complete those trials; obtaining additional financing to support CorMedix's research and development and clinical activities and operations; and the risks and uncertainties associated with CorMedix's ability to manage its limited cash resources. These and other risks are described in greater detail in CorMedix's filings with the SEC, copies of which are available free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or upon request from CorMedix. CorMedix may not actually achieve the goals or plans described in its forward-looking statements, and investors should not place undue reliance on these statements. CorMedix assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

For Investors & Media:

Tiberend Strategic Advisors, Inc.

Joshua Drumm, Ph.D.: jdrumm@tiberend.com; (212) 375-2664

Janine McCargo: jmccargo@tiberend.com; (646) 604-5150

SOURCE: CorMedix Inc.
Trading suspension might be underway.

A new company, COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry Co., Ltd, has been established by China COSCO Shipping Corporation group as it proceeds with the restructuring of its shipyard business, according to a media release at the SGX.

China COSCO Shipping Corporation said that the shipyard business restructuring is geared towards centralising operations and management of the shipyard businesses of the China COSCO Shipping Corporation group. The company has not yet disclosed the details of the restructuring, as various possibilities are still under consideration.

China COSCO Shipping Corporation admits that there will exist significant uncertainty as to the price of the companys securities, but assures that the restructuring plans will soon be finalised and COSCO will be notified in a month.

COSCO says that it will not be appropriate for trading in the Companys securities to continue, until the Company is notified by China COSCO Shipping Corporation Ltd of its finalised plans in relation to the proposed restructuring. The company will also make a request to the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited to transform the trading halt that came into effect on 19 December 2016 into a trading suspension. The Company will make announcements of any significant development in this matter at the appropriate junctures.







More From Singapore Business Review


Many Jews across the world will light the first candle on their menorah on Saturday evening to mark the start of the eight days and nights of Hanukkah, or Chanukah. The celebration, which is also known as the festival of lights, is often referred to as the Jewish equivalent of Christmas. This year, its start date will coincide with the Christian holiday. Here are five things to know about Hanukkah.

The Date Changes



Hanukkah and Christmas lining up as they do this year is actually a rare occurrence. Thats because the date of Hanukkah is calculated according to the Hebrew calendar. It falls on the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev, the ninth month on the Hebrew calendar. Usually, that means it occurs in December but some years it begins as early as November. In 2017, Hanukkah will commence on the evening of Dec. 12.

Not That Significant Religiously



For those who are not of the Jewish faith, Hanukkah may well be the most famous Jewish holiday. It is easily accessible due to its reputation as the Jewish version of Christmas and it has the widely known dreidel spinning-top toy. However, it isnt actually an important holiday on the Hebrew calendar. Indeed, it doesnt even appear in the Torah. It was only upon the arrival of Jews in North America in the 19th century that it began to take on significance. Increasingly it took on elements of Christmas, most obviously gift-giving, as a counter-balance to the Christian holiday and a symbol of Jewish identity.

Still A Story Behind It



While it may not be as important as Passover or other Jewish holidays, Hanukkah still has a compelling story behind it. Its origins date back to the 2nd century B.C. when Judea was ruled by Syrian king Antiochus, who outlawed traditional Jewish practices. In response, a group of priests called the Maccabees led an uprising which ended in victory and the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. To what degree this was a battle for religious freedom is disputed, however. Some modern scholars have contended that it was actually a civil war between the traditional Maccabean Jews and the reform-minded Hellenistic Jews.

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Hanukkah White House, Michelle Obama

Photo: Reuters/Yuri Gripas

Menorah Miracle



There is a reason why the menorah used for Hanukkah has eight branches, plus the middle ninth lamp, as opposed to the regular seven. Once the Second Temple had been rededicated, the Maccabees went to light the Menorah but found only enough olive oil to keep the candles alight for one day. Yet eight days would go by with the flames still flickering, enough time to find fresh supplies. To celebrate what believers claim was a miracle, a candle on the menorah is lit on each of the eight nights of Hanukkah.

Fried Food



As well as the menorah, food also plays its part in Hanukkah celebrations. And for those looking for an excuse to eat fried food, then this is the perfect holiday. Because of the menorah tale, food fried in oil is traditionally eaten on the festival of lights. The most popular foods are potato pancakes called latkes and sufganiot, deep-fried doughnuts.

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By Promit Mukherjee and Euan Rocha

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Tata Sons' [TATAS.UL] ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry, in his first legal salvo against the conglomerate, has appealed to a quasi-judicial body to either replace the company's current board, or appoint a retired Supreme Court judge as non-executive chairman.

Mistry ratcheted up his battle versus the $100 billion salt-to-software conglomerate by filing a petition with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday.

The complaint levels allegations on mismanagement and corporate governance failures within the company, while also seeking to restrain Tata Sons from issuing any new equity or altering its articles of association, according to a copy of the petition seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

After resigning from the boards of listed Tata entities on Monday, Mistry vowed to keep up the fight to improve governance norms in the nearly 150-year-old conglomerate.

Mistry's petition alleges that Tata Sons abused its articles of association by "protecting the legacy left behind" by Ratan Tata, by continuing to invest in its "doomed Nano car project" and continuing to stick by its loss-making European assets that were acquired under Tata's watch before he retired in 2012.

Tata has returned as interim chairman of Tata Sons following Mistry's ouster as chairman in October.

Mistry has filed his claims under section 241 and 242 of the Companies Act of 2013 that deal with shareholder oppression and mismanagement.

Mistry's Shapoorji Pallonji family own a roughly 18 percent stake in Tata Sons, with Tata Trusts - a cluster of public charities - owning a controlling 66 percent stake in the holding company. The Trusts are currently chaired by Tata.

Mistry, who maintains he was illegally ousted as chairman, has for weeks waged a public war against the company and Tata.

The complaint also details Mistry's allegation that Tata and his long-time aide Noshir Soonawala, both trustees of Tata Trusts, undermined group company boards by demanding a say in key internal matters years after they had retired.

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He has also alleged malfeasance in the award of certain contracts by Tata entities and fraud at one of the group's aviation ventures.

Mistry has asked the tribunal to restrict Tata Sons from initiating any new line of business, or acquiring any new business without the permission of the tribunal.

Tata Sons has repeatedly rejected Mistry's allegations and dubbed them as "baseless, unsubstantiated and malicious".

In its statement on Tuesday, Tata Sons said it had followed the highest standards of corporate governance, while adding that it "views the petition as an unfortunate outcome".

(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee and Euan Rocha; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
he US Dollar is closing back in on its 2016 highs today amid a continued rise in US Treasury yields. After last weeks FOMC meeting in which a path to three rate hikes in 2017 was outlined, markets may be starting to feel that Fed officials may be a touch dovish themselves.



After all, only some of the officials incorporated the expected impact of a fiscal stimulus bump from US President-elect Trump, meaning that some policymakers may not have adjusted their forecasts upwards enough. Furthermore, we didnt hear from Fed Chair Janet Yellen that the path of rate normalization would be gradual; at least she appears to be bracing for the possibility of an economy heating up faster than previously anticipated.



For the US Dollar, the key takeaway, as mentioned first, is the rise in US Treasury yields (more of the Trump reflation trade as weve called it since right after the election) , particularly in a world where in some places negative rates persist or rates are under control in some form. Mainly, this means the Euro and the Japanese Yen.



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China said Wednesday it hoped Mongolia could "draw lessons" from the fallout over hosting the Dalai Lama after the Mongolian foreign minister announced that the Tibetan spiritual leader would no longer be allowed to visit the country.

Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil said Tuesday that the Dalai Lama would not be allowed to visit in the future, even for religious reasons, the official Xinhua news agency cited the Mongolian newspaper Today as saying.

The Nobel laureate had met with Buddhist worshippers in Ulan Bator in November, despite Beijing's strident demands that he be barred from entering the country.

Following the visit, it was widely reported that China had taken punitive measures against Mongolia, including stopping trucks carrying coal from crossing the Chinese border, a move with heavy repercussions for Mongolian mining concerns.

At a regular press briefing on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Tibet-related issues bore on the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"We hope that the Mongolian side can draw lessons from this, respect China's core interests, honour its commitment and make efforts to improve China-Mongolian relations," she said.

Mongolia is home to devout Buddhists, whose religion is closely related to the Tibetan tradition, but the landlocked country is heavily dependent on trade with China, and Ulan Bator has tried to avoid angering its giant neighbour.

Beijing views the exiled Buddhist monk as a devious separatist bent on breaking apart China and consistently condemns foreign leaders who meet with him.

The Dalai Lama says he seeks more autonomy for Tibet rather than outright independence.

His previous visit to sparsely populated Mongolia came in 2011, in the midst of a wave of self-immolations by Tibetans in China angry about what they saw as religious repression and growing domination by the country's majority Han ethnic group.
Moscow (AFP) - Andrei Kolesnikov laid out the letters his grandfather sent home from the Stalinist labour camp where he eventually died after eight years as a political prisoner.

"It was an everyday case, so common for that period," political analyst Kolesnikov told AFP in his Moscow flat.

"My grandfather David Traub was caught up under the wheel of history."

It has been eight decades since the start of the Great Terror that saw countless innocent victims across the Soviet Union executed or sent to the Gulag camps -- and 25 years since the USSR itself finally ceased to exist.

But a fight over the historical truth -- and memory -- of the crimes of the Soviet regime still drags on in Russia as the current authorities under President Vladimir Putin stand accused of trying to minimise the dark chapters of the past in a bid to bolster their own grip on power.

Earlier this month leading human rights group Memorial -- which has been battling for decades to shine a light on Soviet abuses -- released a database with the names and some biographical details of around 40,000 people who served in the Stalin-era NKVD secret police from 1935-39.

Kolesnikov was able to find out more about the NKVD agent he had already tracked down in state archives as responsible for the 1938 arrest of his architect grandfather.

Some agents, it turned out, ended up being consumed by the very purges they had helped to conduct, arrested and executed along with their victims. Others went on to become decorated heroes in World War II.

"These people all had different fates," Kolesnikov, who works for the Carnegie Moscow Centre, said.

Kolesnikov's grandfather was accused of being a political opponent of the Bolsheviks -- his grandson guesses either to fulfil an arrest quota or due to a private vendetta. He died in the sick ward of his labour camp, leaving his wife and children.

- 'Diametrically opposed views' -

"Unity" is the current buzzword among Russia's elite -- uttered repeatedly by Putin as he tries to forge a sense of national identity that instils loyalty to the Kremlin and smothers dissent.

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The strongman leader -- and many of those who surround him -- served in the NKVD's successor organisation, the KGB, and headed its post-Soviet incarnation the FSB.

Central to their push is shaping a vision of the past that emphasises the USSR's victory in World War II and Stalin's role in achieving it while downplaying the Soviet crimes and repression.

When Memorial released its list of NKVD agents it provoked a level of interest -- both positive and negative -- that few at the organisation had expected.

In the first few days after the list was launched the website crashed as hundreds of thousands of people flooded on to search it.

"It turned out that for an awful lot of people it was terribly interesting -- for the descendants of victims and, however strange it might sound, for the descendants of those who worked in the NKVD," the group's board chairman Arseny Roginsky told AFP.

The veteran rights activist said that all these years after the repressions there was still an "empty space" in Russia's collective memory over the perpetrators.

"Our list of victims has millions of names but that never sparked such a discussion -- this one started a real public debate," he said.

From the Kremlin, however, the reaction was far from supportive.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that the issue was "very sensitive".

"There exist diametrically opposed points of view, and both of them sometimes have good arguments," he said.

Meanwhile, Memorial itself has been facing increasing official pressure as part of a broader crackdown on civil society.

In October it was blacklisted as a "foreign agent" under a controversial law that many have likened to the clampdown on Soviet-era dissidents.

- 'Repentance, catharsis' -

There have been two major waves of soul-searching over Stalin's crimes in the country.

The first came under Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev following Stalin's death in 1953 and the second under Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin as the Soviet Union crumbled and a chaotic Russia emerged in 1991.

Now under Putin, public attitudes seem to have swung in the opposite direction.

In a poll from the independent Levada centre earlier this year around 26 percent of people said Stalin's repressions could be justified, and almost 20 percent of those aged 18-24 had never heard of them.

While some steps towards keeping alive the memory of the repressions are still made -- such as the opening of a new Gulag museum in Moscow last year -- there are also controversial attempts to gloss over the past.

This month a restaurant called "NKVD" opened in the centre of Moscow -- creating a stir with its menus decorated with Stalin.

Shortly after its opening the neon sign was torn down.

Digging into the past is an important personal mission for descendants of Stalin's victims such as Kolesnikov.

He still has key questions about his grandfather's fate -- What was the real reason for his arrest? Why was he not released after his term finished?

His grandfather was posthumously rehabilitated under Khrushchev in 1955.

"It has been a long search already and once you start you want to get to the bottom of it," he said.

But more broadly he says he believes that such work will be important in the future to stand up to the historical amnesia creeping across a country that has never come to terms with its past.

"It is important for the nation, for the history of the country. So we understand that we didn't only have victories, but that the repressions were a defeat," he said.

"The country needs to go through some repentance, some catharsis and then it will become a real nation."
Denis Villeneuve's holiday plans may now include a trip to Arrakis.

The Blade Runner 2049 director is in talks to helm the Dune reboot for Legendary. The production company picked up the film and television rights to Frank Herbert's classic science-fiction novel last month.

Dune, which traverses themes of politics, religion and nature, follows Paul Atreides, whose family controls the desert planet Arrakis, which is the only producer of a highly valuable resource, spice melange. When Paul and his family are betrayed, he leads a rebellion to regain control of the desert planet.

David Lynch directed the 1984 adaptation of the 1965 novel. The $40 million film, which ultimately grossed $30 million and was a critical failure, has over the years become a cult favorite.

Thomas Tull, Mary Parent and Cale Boyter will produce the new Dune adaptation, with Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt and Kim Herbert serving as executive producers.

Villeneuve has had a busy end to 2016. The Canadian filmmaker's latest effort, the sci-fi feature Arrival, earned two Golden Globe nominations, including one for lead actress Amy Adams for her turn as a linguist put in charge of communicating with a mysterious alien race. Also, earlier this week the first trailer for Villeneuve's next feature, Blade Runner 2049, was released to cheers from the internet.

Read more: 'Dune': THR's 1984 Review
San Diego, CA-based DexCom, Inc. DXCM, a renowned medical device company, announced the U.S. FDA approval for its G5 Mobile CGM (continuous glucose monitoring) system. Notably, G5 Mobile is the only CGM system that enables daily diabetes treatment without frequent pricking of the finger. Per management, the approval is expected to establish a new benchmark in glucose monitoring for diabetes management.

For the last six months, the company has a negative return of almost 18%, wider than the Zacks categorized Medical Instruments sub-industrys decline of roughly 2.9%. However, DexCom witnessed a nominal increase of roughly 0.3% to close at $63.56 yesterday, breaking the dismal market trend.

Meanwhile, the estimate revision trend has been unfavorable as 12 estimates moved south over the past two months with no movement in the opposite direction. In fact, current year estimates for the stock decreased by a penny to a loss of 77 cents per share as another estimate moved down last month.

On the brighter side, DexComs long-term fundamentals are compelling. The company recorded a three-year CAGR of 59% for revenues, a strong positive in our view. Meanwhile, a long-term expected earnings growth of 32.5% instills investor confidence. Additionally, the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company promises sales growth of 41.9% for the current year, comparing favorably with the industrys 6.3%.

Coming back to the development, the go-ahead paved way for an appropriate replacement to the traditional finger stick glucose treatment procedures in diabetes management. Notably, in Jul 2016, a panel of experts selected by the FDA marked the G5 Mobile CGM system safe.

DEXCOM INC Price

DEXCOM INC Price | DEXCOM INC Quote

Of the other products in the CGM pipeline, the DexCom G4 Platinum product line has been a flagship and is significantly boosting the companys top line since long.

Our Take

The G5 Mobile CGM system has emerged as the first and only non-adjunctive CGM system in the U.S. We believe the non-adjunctive indication of this system should fortify the companys foothold in the continuous glucose monitoring markets. Meanwhile, the niche markets are forecasted to reach a worth of $568.5 million globally by 2020, multiplying at a CAGR of 14.8% (Allied Market Research).

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However, the market for blood glucose monitoring devices is highly competitive, subject to rapid change and is significantly affected by product introductions. On this note, DexCom competes directly with bigwigs like Roche Diabetes Care  a division of Roche Diagnostics and LifeScan, Inc.  a division of Johnson & Johnson.

Other Key Picks

Other favorably ranked stocks in the broader medical sector include Addus HomeCare Corporation ADUS, LHC Group, Inc. LHCG and IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. IDXX. Addus HomeCare and IDEXX Laboratories sport a Zacks Rank #1. Meanwhile, LHC Group carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Addus HomeCare has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of approximately 15%. Notably, the stock represents an impressive one-year return of 50.4%.

LHC Group has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 15%. The company has returned almost 22.2% in the last three months.

IDEXX Laboratories has an expected earnings growth of almost 15%. The company posted a promising year-to-date return of 62.3%.

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From Delish

Disney World's Magic Kingdom was a notoriously dry amusement park until 2012, when a single restaurant, Be Our Guest, began serving booze. But now the destination is making history by giving not one but four more eateries liquor licenses.

Beginning later this week, Tony's Town Square Restaurant, Liberty Tree Tavern, Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen, and Cinderella's Royal Table will serve alcohol during lunch and dinner hours. The boozy menus will debut on December 23, just time for all of the park's holiday visitors to get appropriately sloshed.

Apparently the change comes after years of customer requests. And, according to the Orlando Sentinel, the strict rule on no booze comes from Walt Disney himself, who was adamantly against alcoholic beverages in the park. "There was always a fear that people would drink to excess and become unruly," Scott Smith, an assistant hospitality professor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC told the Sentinel.

Though, for some reason, that hasn't stopped other parks within Disney World to serve spiked drinks-including Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot, which visitors have been getting tipsy inside for years. Plus, booze is a big moneymaker because it can get slapped with a high price tag, can be stored easily, and isn't as perishable as food.

Of course, there is a slight catch to Magic Kingdom's new mandate: only beer and wine will be served via table service. So you can't pop into a bar and walk around with pints in hand. "I don't think Walt (Disney) is going to be spinning in his grave as long as it's done tastefully," Smith added.

Here's an idea of what you can expect to order at each restaurant:

Tony's Town Square Restaurant : Italian wines and beers, including a Chianti Superiore

Liberty Tree Tavern : domestic beer, cider, and wines to go with its American menu

Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen in Adventureland: more global beverages, like Riesling wine

Cinderella's Royal Table: champagne and sparkling wine

Story continues

Cheers to a whole new boozy Disney world!

Follow Delish on Instagram.

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Two-thirds of the way through the Obamacare enrollment period that ends Jan. 31, many seeking coverage are shocked at the prices, especially the huge out-of-pocket expenses piled atop crushing premiums. As health coverage gets more expensive, even people with workplace plans can face a crushing load.

But there's an opportunity to shave those costs with another government-approved option that predates the Affordable Care Act, but doesn't get as much attention: the health savings account or HSA. You can get one on your own or may find one paired with a high-deductible health insurance plan from your employer.

"Since contributions are tax deductible, HSAs can provide an extremely tax-efficient way to cover the gap between your insurance deductible and when your benefits start kicking in," says Hampton Bourne, a financial advisor in Nashville, Tennessee.

"Whether it's for an unforeseen instance like an accident, or braces for the kids, you will eventually find a use for one, and you might as well get the tax deduction for that money," Bourne says. "Depending on your income and tax bracket, it could save you thousands in taxes."

[See: 7 of the Best Health Care Stocks to Buy for 2017.]

Around since 2004, HSAs work much like IRAs, allowing participants to avoid federal income tax on money put into the account for health care expenses. Investment gains and withdrawals for qualified expenses are also tax-free. A $10,000 health care expense could therefore cost you just $7,500, assuming a 25 percent tax bracket. An HSA won't eliminate big medical costs, but it could help a bit.

By reducing taxable income, an HSA can also help an individual or family qualify for federal subsidy with Obamacare premiums, or increase the subsidy.

There are lots of rules, of course, and it's important to be sure the health insurance you choose qualifies. Not all do, even many offered through Obamacare.

Maximum annual contribution for 2017 is $3,400 for an individual, $6,750 for a family, with an additional $1,000 allowed if the policyholder is 55 or older. The policy must have maximum out-of-pocket expenses of $6,550 for an individual, $13,100 for a family, after which the policy covers costs.

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The HSA can be used with many Obamacare plans that have an annual deductible of at least $1,300 for an individual or $2,600 for a family. Check with your health care plan to be sure it is eligible for an HSA. Generally, the HSA is used to pay out-of pocket expenses, not premiums.

If you lose or give up your high-deductible plan, you can no longer contribute to the HSA but can keep the assets and continue using them tax-free.

Money in an HSA can be "rolled over," or used in the future if not spent in the current year. This can make an HSA a better option than an employer-sponsored flexible spending account, which has a use-it-or-lose-it rule.

[See: 9 Psychological Biases That Hurt Investors.]

Money withdrawn from an HSA for non-qualified expenses is taxed as income and charged a 20 percent penalty, though policyholders 65 and older can withdraw for any purpose and pay tax but no penalty, making the HSA useful for retirement expenses after one becomes eligible for Medicare at 65.

The ideal candidate for an HSA is an individual or family with low medical expenses or an HSA available through an employer, says Justin Chidester, owner of Wealth Mode Financial Planning in Logan, Utah. People with low medical expenses benefit from having health insurance policies with high deductibles they are unlikely to pay. Those with employer-backed HSAs may get tax-free contributions from the boss.

He notes that a taxpayer's contribution to an HSA is taken as an "above-the-line" deduction that reduces adjusted gross income, making it valuable even if the taxpayer does not itemize. A taxpayer with an HSA should file IRS Form 8889 with the federal return.

As with most matters involving tax breaks, an HSA can be most valuable to a person or family in a high tax bracket, says Jason Lina, an advisor with Resource Planning Group in Atlanta who describes himself as a "huge advocate" of HSA plans.

He believes HSAs benefit people with high medical costs as well as low, and that the only people who cannot benefit are those who simply cannot afford to pay the high deductibles of HSA-qualified plans.

Greg Szymanski, director of human resources at Geonerco, a real estate developer in Seattle, says HSAs work best for people in good health with the discipline to set money aside regularly. "With no use-it-or-lose-it limitations like with a flexible spending account, account balances at year end simply roll over to the next year," he says. "Those with the discipline to save can build quite a nest egg for medical expenses."

As mentioned, an HSA can be set up at the workplace if the employer offers that option, or directly with a financial institution such as a bank. Search for "open an HSA account" to find providers.

"Best way to set up is with a bank or credit union you already have a banking relationship with," Szymanski says. "If the bank or (credit union) offer these accounts, this is the best way to avoid HSA financial institution imposed fees. There are several online banks that administer HSAs such as HSA Bank, HealthEquity, Optum Bank, but fees tend to be higher than an HSA at a financial institution you have an existing relationship with."

Your mutual fund company or brokerage may be able to connect you with a provider that allows HSA assets to be invested in mutual funds, though most experts warn against taking too much risk with money that may be needed for an emergency on short notice. "Fees are the No. 1 thing to look out for," Szymanski says.

While any tax-advantaged plan could lose its appeal if Washington changes the rules, Lina thinks that's not much of a risk with HSAs.

[See: 6 Strategies To Avoid Working in Retirement.]

"Employers like HSAs, Republicans like HSAs, and Democrats like HSAs, so I don't see much threat of them going anywhere or being paired back," he says. "The trend has to expand the benefits of HSAs so that more people use them."





More From US News & World Report


Photo credit: Hearst Communications, Inc. All rights reserved

From Cosmopolitan

A draft of a brochure obtained by TMZ explains what donors to the Opening Day Foundation will receive in exchange for contributions to their "Opening Day 2017" celebration. Donors of $500,000 or more will embark on a hunting and/or fishing trip with the two oldest Trump sons, who have repeatedly come under fire for their trophy-hunting habit.



The Foundation, created by Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Texas investor Gentry Beach, and son of a Dallas billionaire Tom Hicks, will host the event for said donors in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21, the day after inauguration.

According to the Texas-based Center for Public Integrity, the Opening Day Foundation was just created Dec. 14. Because it is classified as a nonprofit organization - the brochure for the event explains net proceeds from the event will go to unspecified conservation charities - the foundation is not required to disclose who their donors are or what theyve given.

The brochure further explains the festivities will celebrate the hunters, fishers, and shooters who supported Trumps campaign. Donors are invited to come in camouflage & cufflinks, before heading out to claim their prizes.

The lowest donation level listed is the Wild Turkey. For $25,000, donors will receive two VIP guest tickets to the inauguration, which permits early event entry and access to a VIP lounge; the "Outfitter Pro Package," an as-of-yet undefined reward that promises to include "commemorative custom details" and may vary based on donation level; and four general admission guest tickets. At $100,000 (the Marlin package), in addition to the Wild Turkey benefits, you also receive name recognition on inauguration materials. A $250,000 donation gets you a private reception and photo op with Donald Jr. and Eric, as well as a signed guitar by an unnamed Opening Day 2017 performer.

For half a million dollars, eight guests will attend a private reception with President Trump, as well as head out on a multi-day hunting and/or fishing excursion for two guests with Donald Trump, Jr. and/or Eric Trump, and team. And finally, $1 million (the Bald Eagle) gets you more tickets to the reception, pictures with Donald Trump, the same hunting and/or fishing extravaganza, four autographed guitars, more gear, 85 VIP and 200 general admission inauguration tickets, and more. Find more about the donation levels here.

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Just last week, the New York Times reported an auction to have coffee and a 45-minute private meeting with Ivanka Trump was canceled due to ethics experts raising concerns about how the highest bidder (an unnamed person offered $62,888) would receive special access to the soon-to-be president through his daughter. The money was set to go to Eric Trumps foundation for St. Judes Childrens Research Hospital.

Anyway, just a thought for those who havent yet gotten their Christmas gifts in order.

AHahahaahahahaahaha. Help.

Update 12/21/16, 9:44 a.m.: Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in an email statement Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are not involved with the Opening Day 2017 events, despite previous reports of the contrary.

"The Opening Day event and details that have been reported are merely initial concepts that have not been approved or pursued by the Trump family, Hicks wrote, per . Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are avid outdoorsmen and supporters of conservation efforts, which align with the goals of this event, however they are not involved in any capacity.



Bloomberg reports a new brochure for the fundraiser was released on Tuesday with all references to meeting with the future President and his sons removed. Eric Trump told the New York Times he and his brother would not attend the event.

Follow Tess on Twitter.

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Kinshasa (AFP) - Talks on defusing an explosive crisis in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) resumed Wednesday, a day after bloody clashes, as the Catholic church appealed for a deal by Christmas over the future of President Joseph Kabila.

The call by bishops sponsoring talks between the opposition and ruling party came after protests erupted over Kabila's refusal to step down at the end of his mandate.

According to a UN provisional toll, 19 people were killed and 45 hurt in violence across DRC on Tuesday, the day Kabila's second and final scheduled term ran out.

The government put the toll at 11 dead, nine in Kinshasa and two in the second city Lubumbashi.

The expiry of Kabila's term was met without any plan for a political transition, with no election in sight.

Tensions remained high on Wednesday, with activity resuming slowly in Kinshasa, a megacity of 10 million people, and with soldiers and police posted at major crossroads.

In Masina, a neighbourhood in the south of the capital, calm had returned "but tension remains in the background," said a local community leader.

All eyes were on the resumption of the talks headed by the Episcopal Conference, CENCO, which had broken up at the weekend with no progress.

"Our wish is to end before Christmas," said CENCO chairman Monsignor Marcel Utembi. "If the political and civil society actors do not reach a compromise by then... CENCO will draw the consequences."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday urged the government and opposition to work constructively to reach a deal.

Ban deplored the loss of life and urged all parties to "work constructively and in good faith on the outstanding issues related to transitional arrangements leading to the elections," said a statement from his spokesman which backed the CENCO-facilitated dialogue.

- 'Peaceful resistance' -

In Rome, Pope Francis too appealed to the Congolese people to be "artisans of peace".

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Gunfire rang out across the vast and troubled nation as the protests erupted Tuesday.

In Lubumbashi, governor Jean-Claude Kazembe had to turn back as he attempted to visit the scene of Tuesday's violence when he was targeted by stone-throwing protesters.

So far the mainstream opposition has called for "peaceful resistance" from the country's 70 million people, pinning its hopes on a deal at the negotiating table.

But in what Kabila's opponents dubbed a provocation, a new government was announced overnight Monday, headed by Samy Badibanga.

The freshly appointed cabinet is part of an October deal struck between the ruling party and tiny fringe opposition groups enabling Kabila to remain in office pending elections in April 2018.

- Wave of arrests -

The main opposition bloc headed by 84-year-old Etienne Tshisekedi rejects the plan. It wants elections next year -- along with a pledge that Kabila will not stand.

Maman Sambo Sidikou, the head of the UN mission in Congo, had voiced alarm on Tuesday about a wave of arrests of opposition leaders, rights campaigners and journalists since December 16.

Kabila, 45, who has ruled since 2001, is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term but under a controversial recent constitutional court order, he may stay on until a successor is chosen.

In a YouTube video, Tshisekedi launched "a solemn appeal to the Congolese people to no longer recognise the authority of Mr. Joseph Kabila, to the international community to no longer deal with Joseph Kabila in the name of the Democratic Republic of Congo".

He urged people "to peacefully resist the coup d'etat".

The message was not available in DRC, where authorities have since Sunday imposed strict controls on social media networks.

DRC has never witnessed a democratic transfer of power following polls since independence from Belgium in 1960.

The president has been in office since his father Laurent Kabila's assassination in 2001. He was elected in 2006, and again in 2011.

Two decades ago, the country collapsed into the deadliest conflict in modern African history. Its two wars in the late 1990s and early 2000s dragged in at least six African armies and left more than three million dead.
LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / December 21, 2016 / Immunovia (IMMNOV.ST) has taken key steps in both opportunities being pursued for its IMMray PanCan-d test for the early detection of pancreatic cancer. In diabetes, a collaboration with the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN), part of the US National Cancer Institute (NCI), is an important step forwards as it could lead to the start of the required clinical study. Diabetes is the larger of the two indications with 3.4 million newly diagnosed diabetes patients every year in the US and EU. In high-risk pancreatic cancer patients, Immunovia has now started a prospective clinical trial, as expected. This is a smaller opportunity (c 200k patients) but could generate initial revenues in 2018. Our valuation remains SEK155.2/share.

We have made no changes to our financial forecasts and maintain our rNPV valuation of SEK155.2 per share (SEK149.6 diluted), assuming a penetration rate of 35% in patients at high risk of pancreatic cancer and 5% in newly diagnosed diabetic patients, which targets total peak sales of c SEK2.1bn for both groups. The start of the formal clinical trial in diabetes could lead to an increase in our current 60% probability of success in this opportunity.

Click here to view the full report.

All reports published by Edison are available to download free of charge from its website www.edisoninvestmentresearch.com.

About Edison: Edison is an international equity research firm with a team of over 70 analysts, investment and roadshow professionals and works with both large and smaller capitalised companies, blue chip institutional investors, wealth managers, private equity and corporate finance houses to support their capital markets activity. Edison provides services to more than 420 retained corporate and investor clients from offices in London, New York, Frankfurt, Sydney and Wellington. Edison is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Edison is not an adviser or broker-dealer and does not provide investment advice. Edison's reports are not solicitations to buy or sell any securities.

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For more information please contact:

Juan Pedro Serrate Edison Investment Research +44 (0)20 3681 2534

Lala Gregorek Edison Investment Research +44 (0)20 3681 2527 healthcare@edisongroup.com

Contact details: Learn more at www.edisongroup.com and connect with Edison on:

SOURCE: Edison Investment Research
Ellen Pompeo will not be tuning into A&Es Ku Klux Klan-themed Generation KKK when it debuts on Tuesday, Jan. 10. And shes urging her fans to tune the controversial reality series out as well. In fact, the Greys Anatomy star is urging folks to boycott all of A&Es programming.

RELATEDWe Asked Shonda Rhimes 9 Qs About Greys Anatomy  Here Are Her Answers

Shame on you A&E, Pompeo fumed on Twitter. Hey, I have an idea, why dont we all never watch anything on A&E again  whos with me?

The actress went on to call A&E execs desperate and pathetic, adding that the networks name stands for we will try to put Anything and Everything on TV.

The eight-part documentary follows four prominent Ku Klux Klan families, each of which have a member trying to escape the cult.

Scroll down to read Pomepos still-unfolding Twitter takedown:

Hey I have an ideawhy dont we all never watch ANYTHING on A&E again whos with me????  Ellen Pompeo (@EllenPompeo) December 21, 2016

maybe @AETV you should just run episodes of @GreysABC instead we are smarter more compassionate and oh yeah way better looking   Ellen Pompeo (@EllenPompeo) December 21, 2016

So I guess A&E stands for we will try to put Anything and Everything on tv because we are a bunch of desperate pathetic tv execs  Ellen Pompeo (@EllenPompeo) December 21, 2016

Story continues

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KKK Docuseries Cancelled at A&E

A&E Changes KKK Docuseries Title In Order to Not 'Normalize the Klan'

TVLine Items: Fargo Adds Harry Potter Veteran, A&E's KKK Doc and More
CALEDONIA  After spending time at Childrens Hospital of Wisconsin, 6-year-old Cody Struble of Caledonia wanted to do something to help other children.

After his most recent trip to the Wauwatosa facilitys operating room in September, Cody thanked his doctors and nurses for everything they had done.

Then he asked what he could do to help the other kids in the hospital, said Codys mother, Sonia Ericksen. He asked what he could do to give back.

That is where the idea for the toy drive came in. In November, with the help of his mother and his sister, Cody launched a campaign to collect toys for other children having to spend time at Childrens Hospital, where he has undergone three brain surgeries over the past two years.

When Cody started collecting last month, he thought he would collect about 100 toys  101 to be specific.

One month in, he ended up collecting 518 toys, said Ericksen.

He was ecstatic, Ericksen said.

After multiple news outlets picked up the story of Codys toy drive from The Journal Times, the story went viral. He received toys from Kansas, New Hampshire and from as far away as London, Ericksen said.

Cody didnt have any connection with people in those places. The people who repsonded somehow heard about the story and felt moved to send presents, Ericksen said.

Cody received everything from toy trucks, baby dolls and Barbies to coloring books, games and crafts.

He also received stuffed animals that he will be donating to the Caledonia Fire Department for use on ambulance calls involving young children.

It was amazing, Cody said about all the gifts.

Last week, Cody delivered the toys to the hospital. He couldnt deliver them directly to patients, but he received a certificate thanking him for the donation.

Ericksen said one of the most amazing things to her was that as all the gifts came in, Cody never once asked to keep any of them.

He knew the presents were going to the kids in the hospital, Ericksen said.

And Cody has a message for everyone who helped: Thank you  it means a lot to me.
Emma Stone opens up about being anxious as a child and her interesting coping mechanism

So La La Land star Emma Stone opened up about being anxious as a child. She revealed that she had a little green monster driving her crazy, but eventually learned to quiet the voices in her head. Why is it that everything Stone says just makes us love her more?

The 28-year-old actress is the cover star for Rolling Stones January issue and shes getting real, which weve come to expect and love about her.

Stone revealed that although her career involves being in the spotlight, as a child she had serious anxiety, proving she is normal and just like us.

When I was about 7, I was convinced the house was burning down, Stone told Rolling Stone about her anxiety growing up. I could sense it. Not a hallucination, just a tightening in my chest, feeling I couldnt breath, like the world was going to end.

There were some flare-ups like that, but my anxiety was constant, she explained. I would ask my mom a hundred times how the day was gonna lay out. What time was she gonna drop me off? Where was she gonna be? What would happen at lunch? Feeling nauseous. At a certain point, I couldnt go to friends houses anymore  I could barely get out the door to school.

Emma Stone appears on our new cover. Head to RollingStone.com to read the story in full. In it, the La La Land star gets candid about her childhood, breakthrough roles and why Damien Chazelles blissful story of Angeleno dreamers resonates so much with her. Photograph by Mark Seliger (@markseliger) A photo posted by Rolling Stone (@rollingstone) on Dec 21, 2016 at 7:15am PST

The seemingly confident actress did however overcome her anxious feelings with an adorable, and strange, coping mechanism. To combat these feelings, Stone would imagine a little green monster sitting on her shoulder telling her, all these things that arent true.

And every time I listen to it, it grows bigger. If I listen to it enough, it crushes me, the Arizona native said. But if I turn my head and keep doing what Im doing  let it speak to me, but dont give it the credit it needs  then it shrinks down and fades away.

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As she got older, Stone began using acting as a way to really be able to stop her anxiety and move past it. She used the fictional worlds to escape in a sense and now shes one of the most successful actresses of her era.

You have to be present in improv, and thats the antithesis of anxiety, Stone told the publication.

Despite the fact that Stones anxiety clearly haunted her as a child, you wouldnt be able to tell based on her magnificent performances in film over the years. The most recent being La La Land which she is nominated for Best Actress at the Golden Globes for and an Oscar frontrunner.

Not too bad for the little redhead who had to fight off the little green monster all those years!

The post Emma Stone opens up about being anxious as a child and her interesting coping mechanism appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) ERIC and telecommunications company, Telstra, are slated to extend their ties, with the former gearing up to deploy indoor and outdoor small cells on the latters 4G LTE network.

Telstra has already completed the deployment of small cells in 50 rural towns across Australia, in a bid to improve the broadband experience of the residents. Small cells in 4G LTE network are known to improve quality and reliability of mobile broadband service, thus boosting customer satisfaction. These cells can enable operators to provide cost-effective services and expand LTE coverage.

Once the deployment of cells is complete, it will be able to support both individual and enterprise customers in shopping centers and large indoor venues. Leveraging on these small cells, Telstra can now offer seamless Voice over LTE, Voice over WiFi and video calls. Further, the latest agreement will help Telstra in preparing for the upcoming 5G network deployments.

Meanwhile, Ericssons Mobility Report shows that from 2016 to 2022, data traffic per smartphone will skyrocket from 1.6 Gigabytes to 11 Gigabytes per month. Such a surge will necessitate operators to boost their network data performance, both indoor and outdoor. Integrating small cells with macro networks will be a major step to accomplish this goal. Given that small cell deployment is an integral part of Ericsson's heterogeneous network strategy, the company is poised to benefit from this trend, moving ahead.

Though Ericsson is confident of its prospects, based on the impending 5G commercialization, its near-term headwinds are likely to vex investors. The company has been grappling with a host of factors, including soft mobile broadband demand, slowdown in emerging markets and weaker-than-expected benefits from cost-cutting initiatives.

Plagued by these factors, shares of the company have recorded an average negative return of 26.6% in the past six months, comparing unfavorably with that of the Zacks categorized Wireless Equipment industry average of 9.9%. With three back to back earnings misses, over the trailing four quarters, Ericsson has an unimpressive average negative earnings surprise of 23.0%.

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Further, with the Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) companys earnings estimates moving south, over the past couple of months, there is no immediate respite in sight. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2016 earnings descended from 50 cents to 33 cents, over the past two months, attributable to five downward estimate revisions compared with none upward.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the same space include Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. UBNT Motorola Solutions, Inc. MSI and Harris Corporation HRS, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Networking products and solutions provider, Ubiquiti Networks has an excellent earnings surprise history, beating estimates each time, over the trailing four quarters. It has a positive average surprise of 19.7%.

Motorola Solutions is engaged in providing communication equipments, software and services. The company has a striking earnings surprise history, for the trailing four quarters, having beaten estimates all through, for an impressive average beat of 15.7%.

Harris Corporation is an international company, focused on communications equipment for voice, data and video applications. The company has an impressive earnings surprise history for the trailing four quarters, beating estimates all through, for an average of 4.2%.

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MADRID, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The European Court of Justice said on Wednesday it had overturned a Spanish court ruling that had capped banks' liabilities for so-called floor clauses in mortgage contracts and asked them to repay customers over the whole life of the loan.

The ruling, announced in a statement, deals a blow to Spanish banks that now have to repay customers beyond what they had lost since May 2013, when Spain's Supreme Court declared these mortgages, whose rates cannot fall below a benchmark, were invalid if they had not been presented clearly.

The new charges could total between 3 billion and 4.5 billion euros ($4.68 billion), according to analysts.

The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.

Shares in Spanish banks fell after the ruling was announced, with Banco Sabadell, down 4.6 percent, leading losses.

($1 = 0.9620 euros) (Reporting by Jesus Aguado; Editing by Angus Berwick)
By Jesus Aguado and Angus Berwick

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish banks must repay customers more than 4 billion euros (3.9 billion pounds) after Europe's top court overturned on Wednesday a Spanish ruling that capped liabilities relating to a disputed mortgage clause, posing a new challenge to some lenders.

Banks will have to compensate customers for what they lost even before May 2013, when Spain's Supreme Court declared the mortgages invalid if the terms had not been presented clearly. The home loans had an interest rate that could not fall below a certain level meaning customers missed out when rates dropped beneath this level.

New charges resulting from Wednesday's ruling by the European Court of Justice could eat into bank earnings, which have already been eroded by record low interest rates and fierce competition for a shrunken loan pool, and encourage more mergers.

Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told reporters on Wednesday the country's financial system was healthy and could deal with the consequences of the ruling.

Banco Popular (POP.MC), the sector's weak link and seen as a potential takeover target, faces about 330 million euros in new charges. Its shares led losses among Spanish banks, falling 6 percent to 0.954 euros.

The ruling also knocked shares in Banco Sabadell (SABE.MC), Caixabank, BBVA and Liberbank (LBK.MC) - the banks most exposed to the "floor clauses," which were introduced as a safety net during the financial crisis.

BBVA (BBVA.MC) and Caixabank (CABK.MC) have said it could cost them 1.2 billion euros and 750 million euros respectively.

Most Spanish banks have removed the clauses from their mortgage products since the 2013 Spanish court ruling and already set aside money to cover compensation of around 5 billion euros that the court ruled had been incorrectly charged.

A Bank of Spain source said this could have an additional impact of "slightly more" than 4 billion euros on the country's banks, in line with analysts' predictions. Analysts expect an average hit of around 30 basis points on capital ratios.

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NO APPEAL

The ruling, unexpected by the banks, is final and cannot be appealed against, an EU court spokeswoman said.

The case first arose after several Spaniards said that banks had hidden the floor clauses in their mortgage contracts. The ECJ ruling could now open the door to 2 million others seeking repayment from banks, consumer lobby group Adicae said.

"It follows that national case law, such as that following from the judgement of 9 May 2013 ... ensures only limited protection for consumers," the ECJ said in its written ruling. "Such protection is therefore incomplete and insufficient."

In response to the ruling, the Spanish banking association said banks were open to renegotiating with clients but they wanted more details to know how to apply the decision under Spanish law. The Socialist party called for moves to be made to enable people to recover their money as quickly as possible.

It is still unclear, however, how the banks will go about repaying customers.

Banco Sabadell, which said its mortgages were still valid as they had been presented clearly, could be liable for new charges worth 490 million euros, according to Deutsche Bank analysts.

BBVA, Spain's second largest bank, said the ruling would knock its full-year earnings for 2016 by 404 million euros. BBVA shares were down 1.9 percent by 1300 GMT, while next largest lender Caixabank's were down 2.5 percent

Smaller lender Liberbank, which in relation to its size is the most affected, is liable for 259 million euros. Banco Santander (SAN.MC), Spain's largest bank, was among the least impacted as it did not use mortgage floors.

(Editing by Alexander Smith, Greg Mahlich)
By Julia Fioretti BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The mass retention of data is illegal, the European Union's highest court said on Wednesday, dealing a blow to Britain's newly passed surveillance law and signaling that security concerns do not justify excessive privacy infringements. The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) said its ruling was based on the view that holding traffic and location data en masse allowed "very precise conclusions to be drawn concerning the private lives of the persons whose data has been retained". Such interference with people's privacy could only be justified by the objective of fighting serious crime and access to data should be subject to prior review by a court or independent body except in urgent cases, it said. The ruling is likely to upset governments seeking to deal with the threat of attacks such as those in Paris and Brussels and, on Monday, in Berlin. Those attacks have reinforced calls from governments for security agencies to be given greater powers to protect citizens, while privacy advocates - who welcomed the ruling - say mass retention of data is ineffective in the fight against such crimes. The perpetual debate over privacy versus security took on an extra dimension after Edward Snowden leaked details of mass spying by U.S. and British agents in 2013. The ECJ said governments could demand targeted data retention subject to strict safeguards such as limiting it to a particular geographic location but the data must be stored within the EU given the risk of unlawful access. BRITISH CHALLENGE The court was responding to challenges against data retention laws in Britain and Sweden on the grounds that they were no longer valid after the ECJ struck down an EU-wide data retention law in 2014. A spokesman for Britain's interior ministry said it was disappointed with the judgment and would be considering its potential implications in the case launched before Britain voted in June to quit the European Union. "Given the importance of communications data to preventing and detecting crime, we will ensure plans are in place so that the police and other public authorities can continue to acquire such data in a way that is consistent with EU law and our obligation to protect the public, he said. When it leaves the bloc, Britain will not be subject to ECJ rulings, but with a two-year exit negotiation process due to begin by the end of March - and a potential transitional phase afterwards - it could be under its auspices for some time. A number of British politicians - including Brexit minister David Davis - filed the legal challenge against a 2014 surveillance law, part of which was suspended by a British court. Britain subsequently passed the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), which, while not directly affected by the ruling, could nevertheless be found to be incompatible with the conditions laid down by the court, lawyers said. "This is a pretty big deal for the UK, Bird & Bird partner, Graham Smith, said. A number of provisions in the IPA, such as the purposes for which data may be retained which go beyond fighting serious crime, are unlikely to pass the court's muster, laywers said. The requirement for targeted retention of communications data could be "a significant headache", said Linklaters partner Richard Cumbley, since security services often only know who is a suspect after the event. (Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in London; Editing by Alison Williams)
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Europe's top court ruled on Wednesday that the European Commission may have been correct in finding tax breaks for Spanish companies on their foreign holdings were illegal.

In a case that may give clues as to how judges will deal with more complex tax cases involving Starbucks (SBUX.O) and Apple (AAPL.O), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that the lower General Court had erred in annulling the Commission's decision in 2014.

The Court of Justice on Wednesday therefore referred the two cases in question, one involving Banco Santander (SAN.MC), back to the General Court.

The European Commission, in two rulings in 2009 and 2011,said the scheme, which applied to Spanish companies holding as take of at least 5 percent in a foreign company for at least a year, broke EU state aid rules, and ordered Spain to recover the money.

While the Spanish case is different in substance and facts from those involving Starbucks and Apple, the verdict shows the ECJ taking a wider view of what counts as state aid compared with the lower court.

The Spanish scheme allowed a company based in Spain to write down goodwill of a foreign shareholding and deduct this from its corporation tax. This did not apply to domestic shareholdings.

The European Commission had argued that the lower court was wrong to demand that it specify the category of companies that benefited unfairly from the tax breaks.

The ECJ agreed that the lower court had been wrong and that the only relevant criteria to establish whether the tax system was selective, and so unlawful state aid, was to establish if it favoured certain companies over others.

The European Commission said it welcomed the judgement, saying its state aid decisions were reinstated and that it would now work with Spanish authorities to recover the aid granted.

The court's verdict in the Spanish case on Wednesday could give insight into the ECJ's stance on high-profile rulings by the European Commission against tax breaks for multinationals such as Starbucks and Apple, which have already been appealed to the General Court by the Dutch and Irish governments.

Story continues

The Commission ordered Apple in August to pay Ireland a record 13 billion euros ($13.5 billion) in unpaid taxes, ruling the firm had received illegal state aid.

The Commission has also ruled that Starbucks, Fiat Chrysler (FCHA.MI) and 35 other companies benefited from illegal sweetheart deals with several EU countries.

(Reporting By Philip Blenkinsop; editing by Robin Emmott)
(Adds more on court reasoning, other EU tax cases)

LUXEMBOURG, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Europe's top court ruled on Wednesday that the European Commission may have been correct in finding tax breaks for Spanish companies on their foreign holdings were illegal.

In a case that may give clues as to how judges will deal with more complex tax cases involving Starbucks and Apple, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that the lower General Court had erred in annulling the Commission's decision in 2014.

The Court of Justice on Wednesday therefore referred the two cases in question, one involving Banco Santander, back to the General Court.

The European Commission, in two rulings in 2009 and 2011, said the scheme, which applied to Spanish companies holding a stake of at least 5 percent in a foreign company for at least a year, broke EU state aid rules, and ordered Spain to recover the money.

While the Spanish case is different in substance and facts from those involving Starbucks and Apple, the verdict shows the ECJ taking a wider view of what counts as state aid compared with the lower court.

The Spanish scheme allowed a company based in Spain to write down goodwill of a foreign shareholding and deduct this from its corporation tax. This did not apply to domestic shareholdings.

The European Commission had argued that the lower court was wrong to demand that it specify the category of companies that benefited unfairly from the tax breaks.

The ECJ agreed that the lower court had been wrong and that the only relevant criteria to establish whether the tax system was selective, and so unlawful state aid, was to establish if it favoured certain companies over others.

The European Commission said it welcomed the judgment, saying its state aid decisions were reinstated and that it would now work with Spanish authorities to recover the aid granted.

The court's verdict in the Spanish case on Wednesday could give insight into the ECJ's stance on high-profile rulings by the European Commission against tax breaks for multinationals such as Starbucks and Apple, which have already been appealed to the General Court by the Dutch and Irish governments.

Story continues

The Commission ordered Apple in August to pay Ireland a record 13 billion euros ($13.5 billion) in unpaid taxes, ruling the firm had received illegal state aid.

The Commission has also ruled that Starbucks, Fiat Chrysler and 35 other companies benefited from illegal sweetheart deals with several EU countries.

($1 = 0.9616 euros) (Reporting By Philip Blenkinsop; editing by Robin Emmott)
Brussels (AFP) - The EU gave Poland's rightwing government another two months Wednesday to reverse changes to its constitutional court or face sanctions, warning they posed a "substantial" challenge to the rule of law.

The move came a year after the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party swept to power and pushed through controversial legislation.

"We then invite the Polish government to react, to respond to these additional recommendations within the timeframe of two months," the European Commission's First Vice President Frans Timmermans told reporters.

The recommendations are due to be published shortly, once they are translated.

Since coming into power after eight years in opposition, the PiS has changed the way the constitutional court operates -- including the order in which cases are heard and how the chief justice is chosen -- and has put forward its own judges instead of those approved by the previous parliament.

Critics say the reforms undermine judicial independence and the system of checks and balances. They cite other PiS bids to consolidate power including moves to increase state control over public broadcasters.

At the end of July, the EU handed Poland a three-month deadline to reverse changes to the court or face sanctions, but Warsaw rejected the warning.

Timmermans said sanctions were still in "the toolbox" Brussels could use if Poland failed to solve the problems within the new deadline.

"We will not exclude any measures that we can take," Timmermans said. "But we will cross that bridge when we get there."

Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian premier who now leads the Liberal group in the EU parliament, urged the European Commission on Wednesday "to move from dialogue to action".

"This crisis has only got worse over the last months. Now, the constitutional court is under the political control of the ruling party, (and the) constitutionality of laws cannot be checked and ensured any more," he said in a statement.

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"Thousands of Polish citizens have been marching for months now. They wave the flag of the European Union and call desperately for help. We must not let them down".

The socially conservative PiS party dominates Polish politics, controlling parliament and the government. President Andrzej Duda, while formally independent, hails from the PiS and is allied with its members.

Clashes over their judicial reforms has given rise to a popular movement, the Committee for the Defence of Democracy, which has staged demonstrations in Warsaw and other cities to denounce what it calls an attack on Poland's democratic institutions.

Timmermans said that despite the earlier warning Warsaw had still not addressed EU concerns, including demands by the Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, for the constitutional court rulings to be published and implemented.

"We do believe there is a persistent problem with the rule of law," Timmermans said.

The EU recommendations amount to a second step in a unprecedented procedure that could see Warsaw's voting rights suspended in the Council of Ministers, the EU's highest decision-making body.

But in a move seen by critics as a further bid to bring the judiciary to heel, Duda on Wednesday named a PiS-backed judge to head the constitutional court.

- 'End court squabbling' -

The court's chief role is to check that Polish laws are compliant with the constitution.

Judge Julia Przylebska takes over from the court's outgoing president, Andrzej Rzeplinski, whose term expired on Monday and who was considered a symbol of resistance to the government during the long-standing constitutional feud.

The 57-year-old Przylebska, who the PiS government appointed to the court last year, will be the country's first woman to serve the nine-year term as chief justice.

Duda called on her to impose order, saying, "I want an end put to the shocking squabbling within the court".

Przylebska's designation was made possible by one of three parliamentary reforms, all of which according to Rzeplinski go against the constitution.

The court's deputy president, Stanislaw Biernat, said one of Przylebska's first moves in her new role was to order that his desk be moved to a room farther away from hers.

"It's strange that this is one of her first decisions. These are her priorities," he told reporters.

But he said no rebellion was planned by the rest of the bench: "The court will continue to issue rulings, even if it'll be under tougher conditions."
By Robin Emmott and Alissa de Carbonnel BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed on Wednesday an expansion of its customs union with Turkey to include services and most agricultural goods despite increased political tensions with Ankara since an attempted military coup in July. The Commission, in a positive gesture after months of criticism of Ankara, said it had asked EU governments to endorse its bid to revamp a limited 1996 accord that eliminated tariffs on trade in industrial goods and processed farm products. The customs union was long seen as a precursor to eventual EU membership for Turkey, but accession talks launched in 2005 moved very slowly amid concerns over human rights and other issues. Those concerns have increased sharply since Turkey's large-scale purges of state institutions following the failed coup, prompting calls for the membership talks to be frozen. One EU official cast the plans for an updated trade deal, which will include sustainable development policies and public procurement, as a way to retain influence over a geopolitically important candidate country and neighbor. Under the deal, the EU envisages an annual increase of its exports to Turkey, its fifth largest trading partner, worth 27 billion euros ($28.21 billion) and a rise in Turkish exports to the bloc of 5 billion euros, particularly useful as Turkey's economy slows. The EU is Turkey's largest trading partner. However, the deal is likely to face some resistance in EU member states and the European Parliament, which called last month for a halt in Turkey's membership talks over the post-coup purges. The Commission has also tied any deal on an expanded customs union to respect for democracy and human rights - a sensitive issue for Ankara, which says the EU showed a lack of solidarity after the coup. It says the purges are needed to root out supporters of a U.S.-based Muslim cleric it blames for the coup. Turkey has long sought to extend its free trade ties with the world's biggest trading bloc and had sought to be included in talks on an EU-U.S. trade deal, but Brussels negotiators felt that would make already complex talks even more difficult. Turkey has complained that trade deals the EU signs with other countries fail to consider Turkish interests because the customs union means more goods flow into Turkey free of tariffs. The Council of Europe, a leading rights organization with 47 member states including Turkey, said more than 125,000 Turks have been dismissed from work, as of Dec. 9, and almost 40,000 people arrested over suspected support for the coup. (Reporting by Robin Emmott and Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Brussels (AFP) - The European Union proposed Wednesday expanding its 1996 trade agreement with Turkey in a bid to improve ties that have been strained over Ankara's stalled negotiations to join the bloc.

The European Commission, the EU executive, said upgrading trade ties was in line with terms of the fragile March deal for Turkey to curb migrants entering Europe.

It said it asked the European Council, which groups the 28 member states, for a mandate to launch talks with Turkey to modernise the two-decade-old customs union.

"By making this proposal, the commission continues to deliver on the commitments it has made," the commission said in a statement.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at EU reluctance to revive membership talks and threatened to cancel the March deal which has curbed the mass influx of refugees and migrants into the 28-nation bloc.

He has also accused the EU of failing or being slow to deliver on other commitments under the March deal, such as visa-free travel and funds for refugees on Turkish territory.

The accession talks stalled after a failed coup in July by a rogue Turkish military faction was followed by a crackdown that saw mass arrests of not only officers but also journalists, activists and academics and others.

Turkey formally applied to become an EU member in 1987 and accession talks only began in 2005, even though Ankara's aspirations to become part of the bloc date back to the 1960s.

"Modernising the Customs Union to reflect current EU-Turkey trade relations would bring substantial economic benefits for both partners," the commission said.

"The modernisation and extension of the Customs Union could unlock further opportunities for EU companies in the agri-food and services sectors and the public procurement market," it added.

At about 140 billion euros ($146 billion) annually, Turkey is now the EU's fifth largest partner in goods trade that has increased fourfold since 1996, the commission said.

The EU is Turkey's main trading partner, representing 41 percent of Turkey's global trade, it said.
YORKVILLE  The Racine County Board approved selling the Ridgewood Care Center nursing home to Villa Healthcare in a tighter vote than expected on Tuesday night after concerns about the Illinois-based companys other facilities were raised.

The boards 13-7 vote to sell the nursing home for $10.5 million was the culmination of nearly a year of discussions about the Mount Pleasant facility, 3205 Wood Road, which has been plagued by financial troubles.

Supervisors Kiana Johnson, Q.A. Shakoor II, Brett Nielsen, Pamela Zenner-Richards, Janet Bernberg, Ronald Molnar, Mark Gleason, Scott Maier, Robert Grove, Thomas Roanhouse, Tom Hincz, Thomas Pringle and Mike Dawson voted in favor.

Supervisors Donnie Snow, Monte Osterman, Melissa Kaprelian-Becker, David Cooke, Russell Clark, Bob Miller and Kay Buske opposed the sale.

Alleged violations at Villa Healthcares only Racine facility, The Villa at Lincoln Park, drove the boards discussion in a meeting that was interrupted by fire alarms several times. Supervisors pointed to a recent state report they said showed some 20 violations, including for treatment of residents.

I do honestly believe that we should not be in the nursing home business, said Clark, the County Board chairman. But I really believe that I cannot vote to let Villa Healthcare run this facility.

County Executive Jonathan Delagrave, a former Ridgewood administrator who recommended the sale, acknowledged issues at Villa at Lincoln Park but noted the company also operates four- and five-star nursing homes elsewhere. He said the county keeping it could force the county to cut other services.

Before the vote, a standing room-only crowd in the County Board chambers at the Ives Grove Office Complex, 14200 Washington Ave., Yorkville, offered a mix of support and opposition to the sale.

Opponents, who expressed reservations about Villa Healthcare, called on the county hold an advisory referendum on the matter. The board voted down a referendum, 13-7.

Those who favored the sale largely pointed to the financial implications of keeping it. Ridgewood faces annual operating losses of $2 million, according to the county, which has cited escalating costs and low Medicaid reimbursement as among the factors in pursuing a sale.

Villa Healthcare

Villa Healthcare owns 22 nursing homes in four states, including four in Wisconsin. Under the resolution approved Tuesday, Villa has to own and operate Ridgewood for at least five years and take all reasonable steps to own and operate it for at least 10 years.

In a statement to The Journal Times before the meeting, Villa Healthcare officials said they take seriously the responsibility of taking over the facility. A company representative was not at the meeting.

Undoubtedly, the decision to trust another organization to provide care and services at Ridgewood Care Center is not an easy one to make, the company said. Carrying on the rich tradition of being an outstanding employer and provider of services in the Racine County area is a responsibility that everyone at Villa Healthcare takes very seriously. We are fortunate to be considered as potential buyers of Ridgewood and are excited about the opportunity for success for many years to come.

Delagrave said officials will work with supervisors to determine how to use proceeds from the sale. In a committee meeting last week, Delagrave said he would present a recommendation and mentioned pressing needs such as mental health and the demolition of the Western Racine County Service Center in Burlington slated for next year.
By Alastair Macdonald

BRUSSELS, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The EU executive reprimanded ex-commissioner Neelie Kroes on Wednesday for not declaring income that would effectively have reduced her pension, but stopped short of legal action after quickly recouping the money.

The European Commission said it had accepted an apology from Kroes in a separate matter, in which its ethics committee investigated her after a leak of Bahamas records showed she had failed to declare a directorship in an offshore company there.

On the financial issue, Kroes notified the EU nine months late about income in 2015 that should have been offset from a "transitional allowance" she was receiving after leaving office.

Kroes, 75, a former Dutch government minister, spent 10 years at the Commission until late 2014 under then-president Jose Manuel Barroso, as antitrust chief and then commissioner for digital affairs.

In August, she irked the executive, now headed by Jean-Claude Juncker, by criticising its demand for a record $14 billion from Apple Inc to repay illegal subsidies. As Kroes was an adviser to another Silicon Valley titan, Uber, her intervention was seen by critics as a conflict of interest with her previous roles.

After newspapers published leaked Bahamas documents on Sept. 21 showing Kroes had been a director of a company there since 2000, Juncker ordered an ethics inquiry.

That found she had breached the code of conduct, but accepted her apology for not realising that she still held the unpaid post when she took office in 2004.

On Sept. 20, according to a Commission document, Kroes contacted its payments department to report income for 2015. She had declared in January that she had no such income.

Commissioners are entitled to a "transitional allowance" of up to about 13,000 euros ($13,500) a month for three years after leaving office. But if, adding income from other activities, they earn more than the monthly salary of a serving commissioner - about 20,000 euros - the allowance is capped accordingly.

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"The Commission, on the basis of the information provided belatedly by Ms. Kroes, recovered immediately the money," read the Commission's legal decision published on Wednesday.

Juncker has proposed tighter ethics rules for commissioners following criticism in a number of other cases, notably that of Barroso, who took a job at the U.S. bank Goldman Sachs, fuelling criticism that the EU was run by an out-of-touch elite beholden to global business.

(Reporting by Alastair Macdonald; @macdonaldrtr; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
* EU court struck down EU-wide data retention law in 2014

* British and Swedish data retention laws challenged

* Targeted retention to fight serious crime allowed - court (Adds Britain interior ministry comment, recasts)

By Julia Fioretti

BRUSSELS, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The mass retention of data is illegal, the European Union's highest court said on Wednesday, dealing a blow to Britain's newly passed surveillance law and signalling that security concerns do not justify excessive privacy infringements.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) said its ruling was based on the view that holding traffic and location data en masse allowed "very precise conclusions to be drawn concerning the private lives of the persons whose data has been retained".

Such interference with people's privacy could only be justified by the objective of fighting serious crime and access to data should be subject to prior review by a court or independent body except in urgent cases, it said.

The ruling is likely to upset governments seeking to deal with the threat of attacks such as those in Paris and Brussels and, on Monday, in Berlin.

Those attacks have reinforced calls from governments for security agencies to be given greater powers to protect citizens, while privacy advocates - who welcomed the ruling - say mass retention of data is ineffective in the fight against such crimes.

The perpetual debate over privacy versus security took on an extra dimension after Edward Snowden leaked details of mass spying by U.S. and British agents in 2013.

The ECJ said governments could demand targeted data retention subject to strict safeguards such as limiting it to a particular geographic location but the data must be stored within the EU given the risk of unlawful access.

BRITISH CHALLENGE

The court was responding to challenges against data retention laws in Britain and Sweden on the grounds that they were no longer valid after the ECJ struck down an EU-wide data retention law in 2014.

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A spokesman for Britain's interior ministry said it was disappointed with the judgment and would be considering its potential implications in the case launched before Britain voted in June to quit the European Union.

"Given the importance of communications data to preventing and detecting crime, we will ensure plans are in place so that the police and other public authorities can continue to acquire such data in a way that is consistent with EU law and our obligation to protect the public," he said.

When it leaves the bloc, Britain will not be subject to ECJ rulings, but with a two-year exit negotiation process due to begin by the end of March - and a potential transitional phase afterwards - it could be under its auspices for some time.

A number of British politicians - including Brexit minister David Davis - filed the legal challenge against a 2014 surveillance law, part of which was suspended by a British court.

Britain subsequently passed the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), which, while not directly affected by the ruling, could nevertheless be found to be incompatible with the conditions laid down by the court, lawyers said.

"This is a pretty big deal for the UK," Bird & Bird partner, Graham Smith, said.

A number of provisions in the IPA, such as the purposes for which data may be retained which go beyond fighting serious crime, are unlikely to pass the court's muster, laywers said.

The requirement for targeted retention of communications data could be "a significant headache", said Linklaters partner Richard Cumbley, since security services often only know who is a suspect after the event.

(Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in London; Editing by Alison Williams)
London (AFP) - Populists across Europe have seized on the truck attack in Berlin as a way to criticise Germany's immigration policy but key players have held back on jumping to conclusions as the investigation continues.

Former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage, a key ally of US President-elect Donald Trump in Europe, said the attack which killed 12 people was "no surprise" and would be part of Merkel's "legacy".

"Merkel has directly caused a whole number of social and terrorist problems in Germany, it's about time we confronted that truth," he told LBC radio on Tuesday.

UKIP donor Arron Banks, who was also a key funder behind the Brexit campaign, tweeted that Merkel "might as well have" been driving the truck herself.

A 23-year-old Pakistani asylum-seeker was arrested immediately after the incident on Monday after reportedly fleeing the scene but was released on Tuesday without charge.

Police said on Wednesday they were now on a manhunt for a new suspect, identified in German media as a Tunisian citizen in his early 20s who applied for asylum in April and had a temporary residence permit.

Merkel has been criticised over her decision to let in around a million migrants -- many of them fleeing war-torn Syria -- over the past two years.

- 'Last drop of patience' -

Her policy has been polarising, not just in Germany.

Just hours after Monday's attack, far-right Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders sharply blamed European leaders for admitting asylum-seekers into Europe.

"Merkel, (Dutch Prime Minister Mark) Rutte and all the other cowardly government leaders have allowed in Islamic terror and an asylum tsunami with their open borders policy," he tweeted on Tuesday.

Wilders, who heads the anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV), also tweeted a photo-shopped picture of Merkel with her hands, face and jacket spattered in blood.

The image was not accompanied by any words, but implied she had blood on her hands for the attack.

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Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Tuesday said the Berlin attack had been "the last drop in the cup of patience" in Europe's migration crisis.

Matthew Goodwin, a senior fellow at the Chatham House think tank, said attacks such as the one in Berlin represented a "significant opportunity" for the "radical right" to emphasise the issue of security.

"Across much of Europe, the radical right is increasingly linking the migrant crisis to security," alongside their traditional anti-elite and anti-immigration campaign messages, he said.

- Merkel 'irresponsible' -

Other populist forces have been more cautious, however.

In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party steered clear of making the link between Merkel's policies and the attack.

France's National Front leader Marine Le Pen also made no connection.

But the National Front's deputy leader Florian Philippot told French TV that Islamic State group militants had infiltrated Europe along with migrants.

"When there are Islamist terrorists who infiltrate themselves in a massive influx, we have the duty to stop the influx," he said, calling Merkel's open-doors policy for migrants "irresponsible".

In Germany itself, the Islamophobic and anti-immigration populist party AfD wasted no time in laying the blame on Merkel.

"The milieu in which such acts can flourish has been negligently and systematically imported over the past year and a half," the group's co-leader Frauke Petry said in a statement, in a clear reference to Merkel's decision to let in refugees.

"Germany is no longer safe. It should be the responsibility of the chancellor to tell you this. But since she won't do it, then I'll say it," Petry said, demanding "control over our territory, no ifs and buts".
(BEIRUT)  Syrian rebels resumed their evacuation from Aleppo on Wednesday, paving the way for the government to reassume control of the war-torn city.

The Syrian opposition agreed to surrender their last foothold in the city last week, marking the most significant victory for President Bashar Assad since an uprising against his familys four-decade rule swept the country in 2011.

It followed a punishing offensive by the government and its regional allies that drove out tens of thousands of civilians from the east of the city.

The government agreed to allow the remaining residents  fighters and civilians  to leave as part of the agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey in Ankara last week.

An Associated Press TV crew said four buses from the oppositions last foothold in the city arrived to the western Aleppo countryside Wednesday, marking the first successful evacuation in over 24 hours.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 60 buses are expected to evacuate some 3,000 fighters and civilians from the oppositions last foothold in the city. It is the last convoy set to leave Aleppo before the government is expected to declare it has reassumed full control of the city for the first time since rebels carved out an enclave for the opposition in 2012.

Syrian state TV said the evacuations resumed after rebels handed over prisoners taken in previous rounds of fighting.

A dispute delayed the final round of evacuations for over 24 hours after some 20,000 civilians and fighters were bused out of the city.

Some 3,000 rebel fighters and civilians endured harsh wintry conditions overnight, waiting to board what may be the last convoy out of the east. Activists circulated photos on social media of families huddled around fires amid the sleet and snow. By midday, temperatures in the city hovered around freezing.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict through a network of activists on the ground, said 60 buses were waiting to leave.

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Rebels and the government traded blame for the delay.

Syrian state media said on Tuesday evening that differences among terrorist groups were holding up the evacuations from Aleppo and from two rebel-besieged Shiite villages in the countrys north, Foua and Kfarya. The government calls all armed opposition fighters terrorists.

The rebels are supposed to allow the evacuation of the sick and wounded from the two villages as part of a cease-fire deal reached last week to ensure the evacuation of eastern, rebel-held part of the city of Aleppo.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was prepared to facilitate the evacuations when they resume.

Spokeswoman Ingy Sedky said the ICRC had already evacuated 750 people from the twin villages. This would leave some 1,500 more requiring evacuation, according to the deal reached by rebels and the government Monday.

On Tuesday, the ICRC said it has evacuated 25,000 people from the city since operations began last week, but the Observatory says the tally is closer to 17,000.

The Observatory also said 21 buses are still waiting to evacuate the sick and wounded from the rebel-besieged Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya.

Also Tuesday, the U.N. humanitarian aid agency said Syrias government authorized U.N. plans to send about 20 staffers to monitor evacuations from eastern Aleppo. It was not clear if the U.N. monitors would arrive before the operations were complete.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, fighting between the Islamic State group on one side, and Turkish forces and Syrian opposition forces on the other, killed four Turkish soldiers, according to the state Anadolu news agency.

The report cited unnamed military sources as saying that 11 Turkish soldiers were also wounded in the fighting for the IS-held town of al-Bab on Wednesday, including one who was reported to be in critical condition. The agency reported intense clashes near a hospital in the town, saying the militants were using it as a shelter and to store arms and ammunition.

Turkey sent ground troops into northern Syria in August to support Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces in clearing a border area of Islamic State group militants and to curb Kurdish territorial expansion.

At least 24 Turkish soldiers have been killed so far in the operation, called Euphrates Shield.
Hundreds of Syrians evacuated from the towns of Kefraya and Foua arrived in Jibreen, just east of Aleppo, on Tuesday, December 20, as thousands of militants left eastern Aleppo by bus, in a deal between the Syrian regime and anti-government forces.

Eight buses carrying more than 400 evacuees, including wounded and sick, left the two towns in Idlib province on Tuesday, local reports said. On Monday, 10 buses transported nearly 600 people out of the two towns.

Syrian media said evacuation of wounded and civilians in the two Shiite-populated towns was a condition for the evacuation of militants in eastern Aleppo. Credit: YouTube/SMART News Agency via Storyful
Photo credit: undefined

From Esquire

A semi-truck barreled into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin on Monday night, killing at least 12 people and injuring 48, authorities said. Police arrested a man shortly after the incident believing he was the driver, but they released him on Tuesday due to insufficient evidence. A passenger in the truck died at the scene.

German authorities are treating the incident as an act of terrorism, and on Tuesday ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. ISIS's Amaq news agency said in a statement that "the person who carried out the truck run over attack in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition."

With the exception of some support vehicles and equipment, Germany has sat out the fight against the Islamic State, The Associated Press pointed out.

Photo credit: undefined

The black 18-wheel truck jumped a sidewalk and rammed into the Christmas market outside Berlin's famous Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church around 8 p.m. local time. The truck's windshield was smashed out on the sidewalk alongside the market, with a swarm of ambulances nearby. A large Christmas tree was toppled over nearby in the street.

Photo credit: undefined

The owner of the truck, which was registered in Poland, said the driver, 37-year-old Lukasz Urban, was stabbed and shot to death in the cabin of the truck, making him the first victim of the attack.

Photo credit: undefined

Witness Mike Fox told The Associated Press at the scene that the large truck missed him by only about three meters as it drove into the market, tearing through tables and wooden stands.

"It was definitely deliberate," said the tourist from Birmingham, England.

He said he helped people who appeared to have broken limbs, and that others were trapped under Christmas stands.

ATTENTAT BERLIN URGENT

Une video ou l'on peut voir le camion (2) pic.twitter.com/a9lzLcp2aR - Jean-Paul Ney (@jpney) December 19, 2016

Another witness, Emma Rushton, tweeted that people were crushed in the incident.

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Lorry just ploughed through Christmas market in #berlin. There is no road nearby. People crushed. I am safe. I am safe pic.twitter.com/63iWMmdSKr - Emma Rushton (@ERushton) December 19, 2016

Berlin police are encouraging people to use a Facebook safety check to learn if loved ones are safe.

The attack is eerily similar to an attack in Nice, France on July 14, when a truck plowed into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day, killing 86 people. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack, which was carried out by a Tunisian living in France. Both the Islamic State and al-Qaida have called on followers to use trucks in particular to attack public places. In November, a man who had expressed interest in driving a truck into Times Square was arrested in Brooklyn.

#BREAKING: carinage at Breitscheidplatz in #Berlin after a truck plows into the Christmas market pic.twitter.com/bQSv5FSlHV - Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) December 19, 2016

The incident in Berlin also comes less than a month after the U.S. State Department called for caution in markets and other public places, saying extremist groups including Islamic State and al-Qaida were focusing "on the upcoming holiday season and associated events." German police had recently arrested a number of young men suspected of planning attacks on Christmas markets, according to CBS News.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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By Suzanne Barlyn

(Reuters) - New York's financial regulator will delay an anticipated Jan. 1 deadline for banks and insurers doing business in the state to comply with controversial cyber security rules, a person familiar with the matter said.

The regulator, the New York State Department of Financial Services, will publish a revamped version of its cyber security rules in the New York State Register on Dec. 28, the person said.

The new effective date, following a public review period, will be March 1, 2017, the person said.

Once finalized, they will be the first rules of their kind in the United States by any state or federal agency, the regulator has said.

Banks and insurers have been fighting for an extension of the compliance deadline and other changes since New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued the long-anticipated proposed cyber security regulations in September.

The New York agency regulates state-chartered and foreign banks licensed to operate in the state, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Barclays Plc and Deutsche Bank AG, and all insurance companies that do business in the state.

On Monday, banking and insurance industry representatives expressed their concerns about the rules in a hearing before New York state lawmakers. Among their objections: The rules did not distinguish between small and large financial institutions and would possibly conflict with future U.S. government cyber security rules.

The New York regulator received more than 150 letters from banking and insurance industry groups, among others, in response to the cyber security plan.

Other changes to be included in the revised rules are unclear.

The planned regulations, in the works since 2014, followed a series of high-profile hackings of U.S. companies and three surveys by the regulator about cyber security programs at a total of nearly 200 companies under its watch.

One report the regulator issued last year revealed that a third of 40 banks it surveyed did not require outside vendors to notify them of data breaches, which could compromise bank data.

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A task force of U.S. state insurance regulators is also developing a model cyber security law, which individual state legislatures could ultimately choose to adopt.

Model laws, which cover a variety of subjects, typically lead to more uniformity among state laws. But model laws first must be finalized and approved by organizations developing them before being considered by state lawmakers.

(Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
WIND LAKE  A Milwaukee man is facing felony charges in connection to a robbery he is alleged to have committed in September at a gas station with a toy gun.

According to the criminal complaint:

Shaquille O. Stone, 23, drove to the BP gas station, 7812 South Loomis Road, Wind Lake, and walked in with what was believed to be an AK-47 assault rifle at about 2:45 p.m. on Sept. 26.

Stone, of the 2800 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, reportedly took $200 in cash and $75 in change. He was observed fleeing the scene in a stolen Toyota Corolla.

Deputies were able to relate the robbery to similar incidents that had occurred in Milwaukee County. On Sept. 27, Milwaukee County law enforcement detained Stone after a short foot pursuit, the complaint said.

Investigators reportedly found a plastic AK-47 toy gun in Stone's basement and Stone told police he had bought the stolen car for $300.

Stonewas charged Tuesday in Racine County Circuit Court with two felony charges for operating a motor vehicle with owner's consent and armed robbery. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 29 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave.
Sydney (AFP) - The proud owner of dingo 'Kimba', James Bornstein, is part of the new wave of Australian exotic pet lovers whose unconventional companions are growing in popularity.

In a country known for its unusual wildlife, Bornstein says having a sub-species of the grey wolf in his Sydney home is an opportunity to change people's negative perceptions about the native wild dog and apex predator.

"Dingoes are so intelligent. We want people to see her (Kimba) and realise they are not vicious animals, they are just like normal dogs," he told AFP.

Dingoes are infamous thanks to the dramatic case of Azaria Chamberlain -- a nine-week-old baby snatched by one of the animals during a camping trip in central Australia in 1980, which was made into a movie.

Bornstein hopes his efforts will increase support for conservation, as dingo numbers decline amid habitat loss and cross-breeding with domestic dogs.

His views are echoed by Ben Dessen, reptile manager at Kellyville Pets store in Sydney, who owned his first snake at just six.

"Now we see every six-year-old that we set up with their first reptile -- hopefully they want to go on and protect animals and have an appreciation for how amazing these creatures are," he says.

According to the Australian Veterinary Association, exotic pets are becoming "more and more popular", with residents owning millions of birds, fish, small mammals and reptiles.

Ernie Chan, a breeder who has kept up to 130 reptiles, says shrinking homes and urbanisation has seen potential owners turn to smaller pets that require less maintenance.

"You don't need to take a snake for a walk," Chan says. "Everybody's had dogs and cats for so many years and it's kind of reptiles' time to shine."

Brooke Winters is another exotic pet convert in a nation famous for koalas, kangaroos and wombats.

"I grew up with Steve Irwin as my idol, so pretty much everything that he did I just wanted to mimic," Winters said at Macarthur Pets, a large pet store in Sydney that she manages.

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"I just feel like people don't appreciate (reptiles) enough and treat them very differently just because they don't have fur."

"Crocodile Hunter" Irwin was a world-renowned conservationist whose stunts with dangerous animals drew attention to wildlife Down Under before his death a decade ago.

Despite their growing popularity, there are strict laws across Australia governing what exotic creatures can be kept as pets.

Even so, welfare officials warn of backyard breeders or buying an animal that may have been grabbed from the wild.

"Those animals can have really special needs and even if they have been bred in captivity, they are generally wild animals with long histories of living in particular environments," RSPCA Australia's Jane Speechley adds.

"They don't necessarily adapt very well to being kept as companion animals."

-- This story accompanies photos by Peter Parks --
Nicosia (AFP) - US giant ExxonMobil with Qatar Petroleum, Italy's ENI and France's Total have been selected to negotiate a licence to explore offshore Cyprus oil and gas, officials said Wednesday.

In July, eight energy giants bid for drilling rights at three blocks off the Mediterranean island's southern coast.

ENI and Total were jointly selected as preferred bidders for block 6 and ENI was picked for block 8, while ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum were chosen for block 10.

Licenses would let firms prospect in waters near Egypt's Zohr field, where ENI in August 2015 discovered the "largest ever" offshore natural gas field in the Mediterranean.

The Zohr field is estimated to hold some 850 billion cubic metres (30 trillion cubic feet) of gas.

The cabinet has the final say on granting the new licenses for the three blocks.

If "negotiations are successful, and provided that the agreed contract per individual block is approved by the council of ministers, hydrocarbon exploration licenses shall be granted," the cabinet said in a statement.

Cyprus Energy Minister George Lakkotrypis said he hoped negotiations would be finalised by February.

US firm Noble Energy made the first find off the southeastern coast of Cyprus in 2011 in the Aphrodite field, which is estimated to contain around 127.4 billion cubic metres (4.54 trillion cubic feet) of gas.

Italian-South Korean venture ENI-Kogas has so far failed to discover any exploitable gas reserves in deep-sea drilling off Cyprus.

ENI already has the right to exploit three blocks in a zone that borders Egypt's gas fields.

ENI has said exploratory drilling off the island's southern shore will begin next year. Total is also expected to do the same in 2017.

Cyprus planned to build a liquefied natural gas plant that would allow exports by ship to Asia and Europe, but the reserves confirmed so far are insufficient to make that feasible.

The Mediterranean island hopes to begin exporting gas, and maybe oil, by 2022.
Facebook FB is striving to expand its appeal to a wide range of broadcasters and publishers as a real-time media. The social media platform recently announced the launch of Live Audio that will help publishers and broadcasters to go live and reach audience with audio only.



Per Facebook media blog From interviews to book readings, were excited about the layer of interactivity that Live Audio brings to both the broadcaster and listener. Just as with a live video on Facebook, listeners can discover live audio content in News Feed, ask questions and leave reactions in real time during the broadcast, and easily share with their friends.



Moreover, Live Audio provides a low-bandwidth real-time broadcasting option to publishers from areas (like Asia-Pacific region) where the internet connection is slow. The Live Audio service will be fully available in early 2017.



Alphabets GOOGL Android users will be able to continue to listen to the live audio broadcast even if they leave the Facebook app or lock their phones. Apples AAPL iOS users cannot leave the Facebook app but they can browse other parts while listening.



Facebook stated that it will be testing Live Audio with several partners including BBC World Service (news radio), LBC (Leading Britains Conversation talk radio), Harper Collins (book publisher), and authors Adam Grant (Originals, pop psychology) and Britt Bennett (fiction addressing race).



New Features Key Catalyst



The new Live Audio service reflects Facebooks focus on expanding its real-time content offering as competition intensifies from the likes of Twitter TWTR. On Dec 13, the company introduced Live 360 service on Facebook with National Geographic, live from the Mars Desert Research Station facility in Utah. This service is also in beta and is anticipated to be fully available in 2017.



Moreover, Facebooks Virtual Reality (VR) division Oculus recently launched Rooms for the Gear VR mobile headset, with Rift support anticipated to come in 2017. Rooms is decked out like a futuristic living room, where a user can meet up with friends in a private VR hangout space. Per TechCrunch, Facebook is also launching Parties audio calls for coordinating meetups while a user is busy doing something else in VR.



Positive Stock Price Movement



We note that Facebook has outperformed the Zacks Internet Services industry on a year-to-date basis. The stocks return of 13.79% is well ahead of the industrys gain of 3.52%. The outperformance can be attributed to the companys continuous endeavor to improve user engagement through the launch of new products for Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Live.

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Moreover, current year earnings estimate has increased 2.4% to $3.38 per share, which reflects a massive 127.2% year-over-year growth. We believe that Facebooks expanding user base will drive estimates upside further going ahead.



FACEBOOK INC-A Price and Consensus

FACEBOOK INC-A Price and Consensus | FACEBOOK INC-A Quote

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By Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's hardware development division on Wednesday announced a new partnership with Harvard, Princeton and 15 other universities intended to allow swifter collaboration on technology research projects.

The agreement between Facebook's Building 8 and the universities comes as the social media company seeks to find new revenue streams in virtual reality and artificial intelligence, after the company signaled last month it had begun to hit some advertising growth limits on its network of 1.8 billion monthly active users.

Research partnerships between universities and companies typically take nine to 12 months to facilitate, but the new agreement will allow for collaboration on new ideas within weeks, said Regina Dugan, who joined the company in April to run the new Building 8 unit.

Dugan did not provide specifics to explain how the partnership will promote a quicker pace of research, but traditional negotiations between universities and companies can often take several months.

When curiosity strikes, with this new agreement in place, Harvard researchers can initiate new projects with scientific colleagues at Facebook almost immediately," Isaac Kohlberg, chief technology development officer at Harvard, said in a statement. "This agreement with Facebook recognizes that the most significant, transformative solutions will be informed by university science.

Participating universities will receive payment from Facebook, a company spokesman said, declining to specify how much Facebook would pay.

Facebook has increasingly sought to find new revenue streams outside its traditional advertising model, but products such as its WhatsApp messaging app and Oculus Rift virtual reality headset currently generate little.

David Wehner, the company's chief financial officer, said during a call with analysts last month that 2017 would be a year of aggressive investment with a substantial increase in expenses.

Other participating universities include Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Johns Hopkins University, Northeastern University, Rice, University of California-Berkeley, University of California-San Francisco, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Arizona State University, Texas A&M University, and the University of Waterloo in Canada.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
(Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Wednesday that government requests for user account data rose 27 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to the second half of last year, with U.S. law enforcement agencies topping the list. Government requests for account data globally rose to 59,229 from 46,710 and more than half contained a non-disclosure order that prohibited the social networking website from notifying users. Requests for content restriction, the number of items restricted for violating local laws, decreased by 83 percent from the second half of 2015, Facebook said in a blog post. The Paris attacks in November last year elevated the number of content restriction requests. Facebook for the first time provided information about government requests to preserve relevant user account information. http://bit.ly/2h2GcIK The company received 38,675 preservation requests for 67,129 accounts. (Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
Long mum on its inner workings and actions regarding how Facebook manages and removes content, a new report has revealed the social media giant's secret content removal policies, Digital Trends reported Tuesday.

Founder Mark Zuckerbergs social media empire, built on nearly two billion users around the world, faced and settled a lawsuit in Germany last month over how it manages hate speech. Those proceedings led German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung to release excerpts of documents given to Facebook staff and third-party content moderators that work with the site.

These new revelations, while offering a much more refined account of Facebooks content management protocols than it posts to the public, are ostensibly vague, according to Digital Trends. They also came at a time when social medias influence around the country and how it provided convoluted and fake news to users during the presidential election has come under the microscope.

In regards to hate speech, Facebook evidently disallows verbal attacks and break users down into categories based on sexual orientation, religion, gender, race, ethnicity and others, and even have sub categories for each.

Certain phrases linked to members of these categories raise red flags and Facebook attempts to then shut them down. Specifically, a phrase like [expletive] Muslims is not allowed, while the term migrant and saying migrants are dirty is ok. However, saying migrants are dirt doesnt fly.

Another report from SZ released Thursday highlighted a Facebook office in Berlin which is used to monitor content in response to criticism not only from Germany but other European countries for how it handles hate speech. The 600-member staff is poorly paid and confused about the content management policies, the report continued.

The rules are almost impossible to understand. Ive said to my team leader: this is crazy! a member of the Berlin staff told SZ. The picture is full of blood and brutality, no one should have to see that. But he said: thats just your opinion. You have to try and think about what Facebook wants. Were expected to think like machines.

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PARIS (Reuters) - Would-be bank robbers in Paris on Wednesday fitted their victim with what he and police arriving on the scene thought was a suicide vest, sparking a brief terror scare, police sources said. Two individuals who planned to steal the cash delivery fled empty-handed when the man managed to raise the alarm. But police took fright on arrival at the scene and called in bomb-squad reinforcements, before confirming that he was in fact the victim of a foiled heist and the vest was fake. Fears of attacks by Islamist militants are running high in France, where more than 230 people have been killed in assaults in two years. The fears were exacerbated by this week's carnage at a Christmas market in Berlin, where police forces are hunting for a person who mowed a large truck into crowds, killing 12. Wednesday's foiled heist occurred in the northeast of Paris. Police sources said that it was not, however, the first time that the tactic had been used to try to force employees of cash-transport companies to hand over wads of banknotes. (Reporting by French service staff; Writing by Brian Love; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
Chicago (AFP) - The families of three Orlando nightclub shooting victims have filed suit against Facebook, Twitter and Google accusing them of providing "material support" to the Islamic State group by allowing the spread of extremist propaganda that inspired the attack.

The assault by gunman Omar Mateen, who pledged allegiance to IS, left 49 people dead and 53 injured at the Pulse nightclub in June, in the deadliest mass shooting in US history.

The 29-year-old US-born American of Afghan descent was killed in a shootout with police after taking hostages.

The families of three of the dead, Tevin Eugene Crosby, Juan Ramon Guerrero Jr., and Javier Jorge-Reyes, filed sued against the internet giants this week for "knowingly and recklessly" allowing IS to exploit social media as a recruiting, fundraising and propaganda tool.

"This material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out or cause to be carried out, numerous terrorist attacks," including the Orlando massacre, the lawsuit alleges, using an alternate acronym for the jihadist group.

In using the term "material support," the suit invoked a legal term that constitutes a crime under American law. It asked for compensatory damages to be awarded at trial.

Facebook responded to the lawsuit by telling AFP the company is "committed to providing a service where people feel safe.

"Our Community Standards make clear that there is no place on Facebook for groups that engage in terrorist activity or for content that expresses support for such activity, and we take swift action to remove this content when its reported to us. We sympathize with the victims and their families," a company statement said.

A Facebook employee, who spoke with AFP on condition of anonymity, said the company "relies heavily on reports from our community" to detect and remove inappropriate content.

Google did not immediately respond to AFP's requests for comment. Twitter declined to comment.

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"What they're doing is completely ineffective," said Keith Altman, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

"We think they could be doing more," he said, such as detecting patterns of unusual social media activity that are "strongly suggestive of improper intent."

The three companies, along with Microsoft, announced in December that they were partnering to create a database of digital "fingerprints" to help identify and remove "potential terrorist content."

"There is no place for content that promotes terrorism on our hosted consumer services. When alerted, we take swift action against this kind of content in accordance with our respective policies," the companies said in a joint statement.

Twitter said earlier this year it had suspended more than 360,000 user accounts for violating the company's prohibition on violent threats and promotion of terrorism.

But the lawsuit maintains that the companies have not done enough to curb IS's use of social media.

"Since first appearing on Twitter in 2010, ISIS accounts on Twitter have grown at an astonishing rate and, until recently, ISIS maintained official accounts on Twitter unfettered," the complaint alleges.

"As with Twitter, ISIS has used Google (YouTube) and Facebook in a similar manner," it says.
CALEDONIA  A Racine man is facing seven counts of credit card fraud for allegedly using a card he allegedly took during a theft.

According to the criminal complaint:

Shane H. Landvatter, 20, of the 2800 block of Cecelia Park Drive, took the credit card during a theft on Nov. 12 in Caledonia.

The victim reportedly showed police a credit card bill on Nov. 29 that had $819.10 in purchases the victim had not made.

Police later identified Landvatter through his probation officer, the complaint said.

Landvatter reportedly walked into a community oriented policing house at about 2 p.m. on Dec. 15 and was identified as the suspect. Police questioned Landvatter, who reportedly admitted to committing the crime, according to the complaint.

Landvatter, who was charged Tuesday in Racine County Circuit Court, is scheduled for a pre-trial conference at 3:15 p.m. on Jan. 26 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave.

He remained in custody as of Tuesday at the Racine County Jail, online records showed.
By Rollo Ross LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Denzel Washington is excited. Not so much because he is an Oscar front-runner for his role in "Fences," but because bringing the award-winning stage play about blue collar African-Americans to the big screen has been a long-held dream. "It's brilliant. It's like, why would they make 'Hamlet' a movie? Why would they make 'Death of a Salesman" a movie? Because it is some of the greatest writing in the 20th century," the actor told Reuters. Pulitzer-Prize-winning "Fences," which opens in U.S. movie theaters on Dec. 25, is the first play by the late, influential black playwright August Wilson to be turned into a film. Washington and Viola Davis reprise their 2010 Tony-winning roles as egotistical garbage worker Troy Maxson and his long-suffering wife Rose in the intense family drama about lost hope, betrayal and race prejudice in 1950s America. "There's an excitement because we knew that this is permanent now. This is forever. So everybody's coming with their game," Washington said of adapting "Fences" to film, which he also directed and produced. Washington is also involved in filming all 10 of Wilson's stage plays for TV channel HBO. With strong reviews, "Fences" has put Washington and Davis front and center of a Hollywood awards season looking to redeem itself after the #OscarsSoWhite furor of the past two years. [nL1N1D41T1] Washington, 61, is seen as a leading contender for his third Oscar, while Davis, 51, is regarded by awards pundits as a shoo-in in the supporting actress race. "Every day was an acting Olympics," said Davis of the film shoot. "There was no scene where you just walked in and put down a pot." Wilson, who died in 2005, set many of his plays in the pre-civil rights era, charting the experience of African-American working men and women and their struggle for dignity and love. "He honored people that literally had been seen as invisible throughout history and he uplifts them as exactly who they are," Davis said. Stephen McKinley Henderson, who plays Troy's best friend Jim Bono, said "Fences" is timeless. "Great writers write about the capacity of being human. ... The politics is just the background of our lives. The really important things are the people who are closest to us, not the people who are in some seat of power a long way away. So (the play) is always going to speak to you, whatever period you are in," he said. (Reporting by Reuters Television; Writing by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Richard Chang)
The last few months have been difficult for the relatives of fallen Baton Rouge police officer Montrell L. Jackson  one of the three officers killed on July 17 when a lone gunman with an assault rifle opened fire in a ambush shooting that wounded three other officers.

But the veteran cops uncle, Charles Cavalier, tells PEOPLE that Christmas may end up being the hardest thing we have ever had to deal with as a family.

Thats because Jackson would have turned 33 on Dec. 23, says Cavalier.

This is gonna be one of the hardest times for us, because, of course, this will be our first Christmas without him, Cavalier starts. But his birthday is coming up, too. For the last 30 years or so, weve celebrated his birthday and Christmas together, since they were both just two days apart. Wed all go out and get dinner, have some laughs  it is going to be tough, but we are hanging in.

Jackson was gunned down along with East Baton Rouge Sheriffs deputy Brad Garafola, who was 45, and 41-year-old Baton Rouge Police Department Officer Matthew Gerald. Police killed the assailant after a brief exchange of gunfire.

The three officers were ambushed as they responded to reports of an armed man who had been seen walking down a Baton Rouge street. The ambush followed several police-involved shootings, which sparked protests all across the nation.

 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.

Days before his death, and on the day five officers in Dallas were killed in a sniper attack, Jackson took to Facebook, sharing an emotional post about the stress he was feeling as a black officer and the trepidation he faced from the community he served so faithfully.

Im tired physically and emotionally, Jackson, who had just become a father weeks before, wrote on Facebook on July 8. I swear to God I love this city, but I wonder if this city loves me. In uniform, I get nasty hateful looks, and out of uniform some consider me a threat. Ive experienced so much in my short life and these last 3 days have tested me to the core.

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This city MUST and WILL get better, he continued. Im working in these streets so any protesters, officers, friends, family or whoever, if you see me and need a hug or want to say a prayer, I got you.

Montrell JacksonSource: Facebook

 Pick up PEOPLEs special edition True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America, on sale now, for the latest on Casey Anthony, JonBenet Ramsey and more.

Jackson was married and had recently welcomed a son, who Cavalier says turned 9 months old on Dec. 17. Already, the child is exhibiting Jacksons characteristics.

Ive just been watching him grow and I can see Montrell in him, Cavalier tells PEOPLE. Hes pretty much going to be a spitting image of his father. He has all the same features Montrell had as a baby.

Montrell JacksonCourtesy of Trenisha Jackson/AP

Life goes on for those Jackson left behind, Cavalier says: It feels like it was just yesterday we lost him. We are living, you know? You have to go on. You cant give up. Its hard for us, but God had a better plan for Montrell.

Cavalier, recalling the familys last gathering for the Fourth of July, says his nephew was the kind of person everyone would get excited about if they knew he was going to be somewhere.

As their first Christmas without Montrell approaches, Cavalier says theres a bittersweet feeling among his family members.

You never really recover  I know I never will, Cavalier says. You just continue. You try to do the best you can and you do whatever you can to keep his legacy alive. That is something I will do for as long as I live, because he was just such a special kid.

Montrell had his head on his shoulders. He was strong and smart. He just wanted to be a police officer. The way he died  I just cant comprehend it. It was so senseless.




Hey, Zena, does this count as a head shot? Sorry for the beard, but I have some shooting coming up and I must have whiskers. And, my headshot is not all that current, taken long ago and Id come off vain sending along.

Toronto, huh? Damn fine town. Growing fast, all those condo towers down on the lake. Nice views, I guess. I have not been there since one of the Film Festival dates sometime back.

Christmas just days away. Are you ready?

For the record, I still find myself humming some of the music from That Thing You Do! like you. I was always partial to the songs Dance With Me Tonight and Drive Faster.

This Polaroid has been developing as I have been typing. The thing is scary 

Throw deep, always.

Tom Hanks.
London (AFP) - Top Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage faced a backlash on Wednesday after linking the widower of British MP Jo Cox, who was assassinated by a neo-Nazi, to groups he labelled as "extremists".

The row started on Tuesday when Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), blamed Monday's deadly truck attack in Berlin on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"Terrible news from Berlin but no surprise. Events like these will be the Merkel legacy," he said following the arrest in the German capital of a Pakistani asylum-seeker who has since been released.

Brendan Cox, who has called his wife's killing an "act of terror", responded pointedly on Twitter saying: "Blaming politicians for the actions of extremists? That's a slippery slope Nigel."

Asked about the retort in an interview on LBC radio, Farage responded by lashing out at Cox.

"He would know more about extremists than me, Mr Cox. He backs organisations like Hope Not Hate, who masquerade as being lovely and peaceful, but actually pursue violent and undemocratic means," he said.

Cox gave no response but tweeted a Taylor Swift song with the line: "Haters gonna hate".

Tracy Brabin, who replaced Jo Cox as MP in her northern English constituency, tweeted: "Beggars belief. A new low for Farage."

Hope Not Hate was one of three charities chosen by Brendan Cox to receive donations in memory of his wife, who was shot and stabbed to death by far-right extremist Thomas Mair a week before Britain's EU referendum in June.

Mair, who shouted "Britain first" before killing the pro-EU MP, was last month sentenced to life in prison for the killing.

Hope Note Hate, which aims to "challenge and defeat the politics of hate and extremism within local communities", published a report last week about online hate speech following Cox's murder.

It organises community meetings under the slogan #MoreInCommon, a phrase used by Cox in her maiden speech in parliament.

The organisation has begun crowdfunding for legal action against Farage, urging him to retract or apologise for the statement against them.

"That Nigel Farage made his remarks in the context of a discussion about Jo Cox, who was so brutally murdered earlier this year, makes them all the more poisonous and hateful," the group said on its website.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The federal government will spend nearly a quarter-billion dollars to finance several dozen projects aimed at easing the effects of drought in the western U.S. and restoring watersheds that provide drinking water to communities around the nation, officials announced Wednesday.

The $225 million in funding will be shared among 88 projects, from California's Central Valley to centuries-old irrigation systems in northern New Mexico and thousands of square miles of fragmented streams in Maine. More than half of the projects specifically address drought and water quality.

Jason Weller, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, said the federal funding will also generate $500 million more in spending for the projects that will be provided by state, local and private partners.

"That's important for us because no one organization has the boots on the ground, the financial resources, the technical expertise needed to deal with drought, invasive species, invasive weeds, be more energy efficient and improve the health of their forests," he said. "It's really incumbent upon us all to work smarter and more effectively together."

Weller pointed to the tens of millions of trees that have died in California due to the epic drought there and other challenges faced by communities bordering public and private forests that are overgrown and unhealthy. He said the dry conditions are putting pressure on watersheds and their ability to provide abundant and clean water.

The funding also is aimed at tackling flooding problems in places such as Merced County, California, where storm runoff in recent years has forced road closures and damaged prime agricultural land.

Officials say $10 million will go toward the design and construction of a system that will better capture and use snowmelt and precipitation from foothills while protecting infrastructure in the county.

Local partners are expected to triple the federal investment in the project.

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Nearly $18 million is dedicated to projects in New Mexico, where Hispanic families have been using acequias, or earthen canals, for centuries to water their crops.

Acequias are located in 12 of the most impoverished counties in New Mexico and many need repairs. Supporters say revitalization of the historic irrigation systems are a matter of social and environmental justice because of their cultural and spiritual importance for the region.

In Maine, $6 million is being invested in a restoration project that spans 25,000 square miles. The goal is to reconnect some of the state's high-value aquatic networks that have been damaged by roads and vehicles. The Nature Conservancy group and 18 other partners will be working on that project.

In all, the regional conservation program has invested $825 million in nearly 300 projects around the country over the last three years. The program was created by the 2014 Farm Bill.
Followers of U.S. Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen were behind the killing of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov, the Turkish foreign minister told his U.S. counterpart that Ankara believes, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu communicated to Secretary of State John Kerry that authorities were focusing their investigation on links between assassin Mert Altintas and the Gulen Movement, a name referring to supporters of Gulen, the self-exiled scholar who was once an ally of Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan before becoming a bitter enemy after a falling out in 1999. Erdogan has previously called for the extradition of Gulen, who lives in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, and blamed him for a July coup attempt in which 290 died.

Gulen released a statement Monday condemning Altintas' shooting of Karlov. His statement included criticism of the Turkish government's mishandling of the country's security forces, including massive layoffs and imprisonment. He also urged Ankara to fix the lapses in security that led to the attack.

"No terrorist act can be justified, regardless of its perpetrators and their stated purposes. It is the expectation of the Turkish people and the world that the government investigate the circumstances of this incident, identify those who aided the perpetrator and take the necessary precautions so that such an attack cannot be staged in the future," Gulen wrote.

In response to accusations he masterminded the military faction behind the coup attempt earlier this year, Gulen has denied having any knowledge or part in the event. However, he said he could not vouch personally for all of his followers worldwide. Erdogan has since purged thousands of public officials, accusing them of undermining the Turkish state on Gulen's behalf.

Despite living in self-imposed exile on his 26-acre Poconos compound, Gulen has continued to preach his Sufi-inspired, liberal form of Islam since fleeing Turkey. He has been reaching out to his millions of global followers online through his official website and emphasized studying subjects such as math, science and physics, and peaceful coexistence. He has been called "hocaefendi" or "master teacher" by his followers and is revered for his discipline in prayer, which even includes waking up in the middle of the night to pray.

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Image a car company with sales off 19% through the first 11 months of the year. Imagine a car company that routinely ranks at or near the bottom of the evaluations of Consumer Reports, J.D. Power rankings and the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Imagine a car company that routinely has 100 days of vehicle in inventory, compared to an industry average near 70. That company is Fiat, the small car division of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCAU).

Among the best measures of a car company's success, or lack thereof, is "days to turn," a yardstick of how long units stay in dealer inventory. Fiat's figure was 102 days in October, against an industry average of 72. Fiat's number has been above 100 in all but two months of the year. In June, it reached 158 days. Dealers, put simply, cannot get rid of Fiat cars.

ALSO READ: Subaru: Americas Most Successful Car Company for 2016

Fiat sales dropped 19% through the first 11 months of the year to 30,136. For its base 500 model, the figures were worse. Sales of the 500 dropped 37% to 14,026. Sales of the 500L were off 59% to 3,016. Fiat was able to take advantage of the crossover rage. Its version, the 500X, had sales that rose 40% to 10,869.

One of the best examples of how poorly the industry research firms rank Fiat was the most recent Consumer Reports evaluation of car brands. Fiat ranked dead last. Of a possible score of 100, Fiat rated a 52. It had no cars among the recommended models. Consumer Reports commented:

Fiat is an enormous Italian conglomerate that includes all of the Chrysler brands in its portfolio. The Fiat brand was reintroduced in the U.S. in 2011 with the diminutive, retro-styled 500. Despite attractive looks and a fun driving experience, various crudities limit its appeal. Reliability has been dismal. The 500L proved unimpressive in our tests and for the third straight year is among the least-reliable new cars in our reliability survey. The 500X is stylish and has a number of available safety features, but had a rather mediocre performance in our testing.

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What Fiat has found, if its management is watching, is that reliability trumps fun every time, and years of poor reliability performance kill a brand.

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In the ten years hes been directing movies, Ben Affleck has shown a rare ability to choose projects artfully and wisely, hitting creative and commercial growth rings with each new outing. His first film behind the camera, Gone Baby Gone (2007), established Affleck as a serious filmmaker with a flair for mood and performance and locale. In the soulful heist drama The Town (2010), he proved he could fashion a real yarn, even as he traced the fate of characters with a life below the surface. Argo (2012), of course, was Afflecks home run: not just a movie that triumphed at the Oscars but one that caught the national mood  it was time to look back at the 1979 Iran hostage crisis  in a way that converted a (somewhat) true story of hot-button politics into a sizzling conversation piece.

Thats a sterling track record, which is why Im far from alone in stepping up to a new Ben Affleck film with a tingle of anticipation. But his latest movie, Live by Night, a stylish and bloody gangster drama set in Boston and Tampa during Prohibition, hasnt exactly been setting the awards season ablaze, and when you see it youll know why. Based on a 2012 novel by Dennis Lehane, the film is sharply written and crafted, lavishly photographed, impeccably acted, with lots of twists and turns  yet for all that, it somehow lacks zing. I say somehow because the flaw, or limitation, or whatever it is about Live by Night isnt obvious. Its like seeing the ghost of a terrific movie: All the pieces are in place, yet as youre watching it (or thinking back on it afterwards), there doesnt seem to be quite enough there there.

In Live by Night, Affleck plays Joe Coughlin, the dashing rogue son of a Boston Irish cop (Brendan Gleeson), who falls into a life of crime after getting the moral center knocked out of him by fighting in World War I. He starts by ripping off banks and card games, at which point hes offered a job by Albert White (Robert Glenister), a hard case with scary teeth who runs the Irish Mob in Boston. Joe signs on despite the fact that hes having a passionate affair with Whites girlfriend  a cynical chippie played with brash down-market style by Sienna Miller. That Joe is willing to carry on this relationship right under a mobsters nose tells us two things about him: that he shrugs off risking life and limb; and that hes a born romantic. When the affair is discovered, his life and limbs are indeed busted apart, but the fire in his heart still burns.

After serving three years in prison, Joe goes to work for Alberts Italian crime-boss rival, Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone, suggesting Don Corleone played by Bela Lugosi), who orders him to go down to Tampa and run a multi-million-dollar bootlegging racket in Cuban rum. Its in Florida that Joe settles into his life as a killer and profiteer who runs roughshod over the competition, because whatever fear he once had was beaten out of him. When he informs a go-between that his days with the Pescatore family are over, the poor lackey (played with lived-in Southern charm by the 48-year-old  and still terrific  Anthony Michael Hall) cant believe what hes hearing; the way Joe uses words to smack him around reminds you that part of the fun of the gangster genre is listening to threats made this blithely. Joe, along with his loyal runt of a sidekick, Dion (Chris Messina), stakes out his territory with the fierce cunning of a wolf. He knows how to cozy up to the chief of police, Irving Figgis (Chris Cooper), a pious Christian who rationalizes organized crime as a branch of Southern tradition, or how to face down a member of the Ku Klux Klan, or when to speak with bullets or the butt-end of his shotgun.

But heres the thing about Joe: For all his Mob rule, hes really an upstanding guy who wants his cut, wants everyone to be happy, and hasnt stopped looking for love. Early on, he meets Graciella and Esteban Suarez (played by Zoe Saldana and the music star Miguel), a Cuban-emigre sister and brother who import the rum thats distributed up north. Graciella, whom Joe has already locked eyes with at the train station, tells him that they arent going to be lovers. And so, of course, we wait for the two of them to fall into bed.

They do more than that: They fall in love. With no complication! Graciella isnt a diva, a glorified moll. Saldana, speaking in a light Cuban accent, infuses her with a refined sensuality and makes her the soul of devotion; she even plans to open a shelter for women. And though Joes criminal career takes him into dark areas, the whole reason hes doing it is to keep his soul in the light. Which raises the question: Are we rooting for Joe to be a successful 30s crime king? Or are we rooting for him to be a good man? The film wants you to do both, but its trying to have its blood-soaked rum cake and eat it too.

A movie gangster can  and should  be a morally complex figure; its not like they all have to be Tony Montana. But watching Live by Night, its hard to shake the feeling that Affleck, who wrote the movie as well as directing it, was drawn to the material because it allowed him to express something personal  his desire, perhaps, to hold onto things of ultimate value (e.g., his family) in the face of his own propensity to walk on the wild side. He has tried to craft a moral tale of a gangsters journey, but in Live by Night what that comes down to is that hes telling the story of a vicious hoodlum who is actually a Boy Scout.

The first local to challenge Joes authority is RD Pruitt, a loathsome racist and half-crazy outlaw goon played by Matthew Maher, who uses his lisp and leer to create a real Southern-fried creep. Hes the kind of guy whos begging to be rubbed out, but he happens to be the brother-in-law of Coopers police chief, so hes got protection. This forces Joe to deal from the bottom of the deck: He has in his possession racy photographs of the chiefs daughter, Loretta (Elle Fanning), whose trip to California to become an actress didnt work out so well. The collision of racism and raunchy scandal and blackmail suggests the kind of witches brew that James Ellroy used to cook up, yet the more Joe sinks into the mud, the cleaner he becomes. He springs those photographs on the chief with a touch of honest regret (really? Joe is someone who shoots his enemies in the head). And once RD and his KKK cronies have been neutralized, Joe sets about his master plan to open a huge casino, with the hope that gambling will be legalized.

He runs into the most ironic of stumbling blocks: Loretta, back from her descent into depravity, has become a born-again crusader against sin, and that includes gambling. She turns the whole town against him. Joe is given a direct order by Maso to deal with her, but he cant. Hes too decent (or something); its like his tragic flaw. But its a flaw that comes off as a touch sappy, and it saps the movie of power.

You could fault Afflecks performance, but hes become a more commanding presence under his own directorial hand  hes focused and sharp here, and looks great in those creamy period suits  and Im tempted to say that Affleck the actor is subtly undercut, in this case, by Affleck the behind-the-camera shaper of his own image. A different filmmaker might have encouraged him to go to more ominously unexpected places. Theres a lot of surface energy to the pileup of incidents in Live by Night, but theres still something cautious and staid about the material. Lehanes story, though driven by currents of vengeance and dangerous passion, is all a little too worked out. Joe can be ruthless when he needs to, but he never does anything that shocks us (the way ambitious underworld dramas like the Godfather films, L.A. Confidential, or The Sopranos have hinged on shock). More to the point, he never does anything that shocks himself. Live by Night is full of incidental pleasures, but its so meticulously engineered it only pretends to have room for reality.

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By Elizabeth Dilts

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said it fined several Wells Fargo & Co businesses, RBC Capital Markets, LPL Financial and others a combined $14.4 million on Wednesday for record-keeping problems that may have allowed company and customer documents to be altered.

The securities industry's self-regulator found that the firms failed to keep hundreds of millions of electronic documents in a "write once, read many" format, which would have made it impossible to alter or destroy records after they were written.

The firms agreed to the fines but neither admitted nor denied the charges.

FINRA did not say documents had been changed but said the records were "pivotal to the firms' brokerage businesses," and that it relies on these files to ensure firms are following securities laws.

The regulator said it also is concerned about the security of the records because hackers in recent years have aggressively targeted banks' electronic storage databases.

The regulator fined Wells Fargo's securities and prime brokerage businesses $4 million, and the bank's brokerage and independent wealth management businesses $1.5 million. FINRA also fined RBS Securities, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Georgeson Securities Corp and PNC Capital Markets amounts ranging from $2 million to $500,000.

Wells Fargo spokeswoman Elise Wilkinson said the firm took record-keeping compliance seriously.

"We self-reported these issues to FINRA and continue to remediate as agreed," she said in an emailed statement.

RBC declined to comment. LPL and the other companies named did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Corrects spelling of Wells Fargo spokeswoman's first name in seventh paragraph)
RACINE  The Racine Civil Leaders Academy is slated to close this spring after three years of operation.

The Racine Unified School District School board voted unanimously Monday to approve terminating the districts contract with the charter school effective June 30. Thats the last day the school is expected to be in operation.

The contract termination was voted upon, along with several other items, as part of a consent agenda. There was no discussion.

The main reason for the planned closure is low enrollment, officials said.

The elementary school, located at 1325 Park Ave., welcomed its first students in September 2014 with the help of federal grants awarded by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Before opening its doors in 2014, the 4K-through-fifth grade school had more than 270 students enrolled or on a waiting list. The school, which uses project-based learning as its schoolwide instructional model while prioritizing math and science, later added a sixth grade, but never realized plans to add seventh and eighth grades.

The school had 201 students last year. Its current enrollment is 208. The equivalent of 24 full-time employees work at the school.

RUSD spokeswoman Stacy Tapp said RCLA staff will be given the chance to apply for any open positions the district may have for the next school year.

Our human resources staff is supporting them, Tapp said by email Monday.

Speaking before the start of the school board meeting on Monday, Melvin Hargrove, a local pastor and the vice president of the charter schools governance board, said school leaders started talking about closing in recent months when enrollment figures werent where they were expected to be.

It also got to the point where some of things (the school) was trying to fulfill so far as a vision were not being accomplished, so it was decided, based on a tight budget year as well, that we would have to look at closing, Hargrove said.

After speaking with district officials about the matter, the governance board began reaching out to staff and parents at the school, he said.
(Corrects spelling of Wells Fargo spokeswoman's first name in seventh paragraph)

NEW YORK, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said it fined several Wells Fargo & Co businesses, RBC Capital Markets, LPL Financial and others a combined $14.4 million on Wednesday for record-keeping problems that may have allowed company and customer documents to be altered.

The securities industry's self-regulator found that the firms failed to keep hundreds of millions of electronic documents in a "write once, read many" format, which would have made it impossible to alter or destroy records after they were written.

The firms agreed to the fines but neither admitted nor denied the charges.

FINRA did not say documents had been changed but said the records were "pivotal to the firms' brokerage businesses," and that it relies on these files to ensure firms are following securities laws.

The regulator said it also is concerned about the security of the records because hackers in recent years have aggressively targeted banks' electronic storage databases.

The regulator fined Wells Fargo's securities and prime brokerage businesses $4 million, and the bank's brokerage and independent wealth management businesses $1.5 million. FINRA also fined RBS Securities, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Georgeson Securities Corp and PNC Capital Markets amounts ranging from $2 million to $500,000.

Wells Fargo spokeswoman Elise Wilkinson said the firm took record-keeping compliance seriously.

"We self-reported these issues to FINRA and continue to remediate as agreed," she said in an emailed statement.

RBC declined to comment. LPL and the other companies named did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Dilts; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Bill Trott)
NORTH BERGEN, N.J. (AP)  An intense fire at a furniture store in New Jersey is sending up thick plumes of black smoke that can be seen for miles.

Firefighters are battling the blaze Wednesday at the store in North Bergen, on the Union City border.

North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue Chief Frank Montagne tells The Jersey Journal the fire appears to have started in the rear of the store. He says it will likely take hours to put it out.

The smoke is billowing across the Hudson River into New York City.

It's unclear if anyone was inside when it broke out. No injuries have been reported.
FREDERICK, Md. (AP)  A fire has destroyed a large nativity scene outside a historic Maryland farmhouse.

The Frederick News-Post (http://bit.ly/2hc81TY ) reports that life-size fiberglass figurines of Jesus, Mary, Joseph and others that were set atop bales of straw outside the historic Maple Homestead in Frederick were destroyed Tuesday evening. Authorities believe the fire was accidental.

Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the blaze, which threatened to ignite a dairy barn on the property. There were no injuries.

United Steam Fire Engine Co. Chief Marc McNeal says the fire was most likely caused by the electric lights that illuminated the figurines.

John Zimmerman and his wife, Naomi Zimmerman, had installed the nativity scene on the property nearly every year since 1965.

John Zimmerman's family has owned the property since 1877.

___

Information from: The Frederick (Md.) News-Post, http://www.fredericknewspost.com
Photo credit: Visual Studies Workshopundefined

From Road & Track

Look around you, at the American road. It's gravid with repugnant two-ton unibody seven-seat "crossovers." Swollen with bluff-faced, gas-guzzling SUVs blocking your sightlines, filling your rearview mirror with moronic menace, weighing down the flow of traffic with their ponderous, ignorant blind-spot swerving. It wasn't always like this, you know. Just twenty years ago, the roads were mostly filled with cars. Real cars, of reasonable size, height, and weight. Efficient, too. A lot of hundred-horsepower Accords and Cutlass Cieras that seated five in comfort. Twenty years before that, the highways of this country were almost exclusively populated by automobiles that seemed enormous to Europeans but when compared to the SUVs of today seem strangely delicate and restrained.

What changed? What made today's unpleasant, oversized automotive landscape the way it is? They'll tell you that it was "market forces" but that's a lie. They'll tell you it was "consumer preference" but that's a joke. It was the law. A stupid, inexcusable law called CAFE, which stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy. It was supposed to make cars more fuel efficient. Instead, it killed them and opened the door for today's "truck"-centric sales landscape. President Obama's actions during his presidency threatened to make that situation permanent-but President Trump has a chance to fix it, if he acts with swift certainty.

CAFE took effect in 1978. In 1979, it mandated a "fleet average" economy of 19.0 mpg for cars and 17.2mpg for 2WD trucks. 4WD trucks were permitted 15.8. But by 1985, the requirement for cars had jumped to 27.5mpg while trucks were allowed a combined average of 19.5. Over the next twenty years, this spread stayed more or less the same. The intent of the law was to recognize the simple realities of physics: it's much easier to get 27.5mpg out of an Accord than it is to get the same efficiency from an F-150.

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What broke the system was the introduction of "trucks" that served the same purpose as cars. Some of them were just trucks with more seats in them: the 1990 Ford Explorer was really just a Ranger with a cap permanently welded on. Some were cars that were rebuilt to comply with the letter of the law, like the PT Cruiser. Others were strange hybrids like the unibody Cherokee and Grand Cherokee.

No matter how these "light trucks" came into being, however, they were all permitted to consume almost half again as much fuel as a standard automobile. This was a massive competitive advantage. You couldn't get a V8 in a mid-sized GM or Ford sedan, but you could get one in a Grand Cherokee or a Land Cruiser.

The Big Three quickly abandoned any pretense of full-sized car development, moving full steam ahead with a massive variety of SUVs. But the problem was that SUVs were worse than the full-sized cars they replaced. Heavy, thirsty, unsafe in a crash, prone to rollover. You get the idea. But the CAFE advantage wasn't done with its evil work quite yet. With the arrival of the Lexus RX350, born as the "Toyota Harrier" overseas, it was proven that customers would accept an "SUV" made from a midsized car as well. Before long, the Highlander, Pilot, Murano, Edge, and Traverse were all busy laying waste to the market shares of the cars on which they were based. The CR-V, Equinox, and Escape pulled the same trick on the compact class.

Forty-one years after CAFE was passed, it's managed to change the automotive landscape entirely. But instead of creating a world of efficient commuter cars as its drafters envisioned, the legislation has managed to turn the American family car into the American family truck. We are all worse off as a result. Say what you like about "crossovers" and the like but the fact is that when you turn a car into a truck you ruin everything from the fuel economy to the handling.

Beginning in 2012, as part of President Obama's decision to drastically accelerate requirements for increased economy across the board, CAFE was divided into four categories instead of two. There are now small cars, large cars, small trucks, and large trucks. The requirements, however, remain very much separate but unequal. In 2017, small cars must meet a fleet average of 44mpg. Their crossover counterparts? 36mpg. And large trucks? 25mpg. And over time, this inequality will actually increase until the final solution in 2025: a staggering 60mpg for cars and a comfortable 30mpg for large trucks. Another way to look at it: compared to the 1979 regulations, trucks are being forced to improve their mileage by 74 percent, while cars are being forced to improve theirs by 315 percent. That's insane.

Two weeks ago, the EPA announced that it would "finalize" its 2025 regulations earlier than expected. This action has no force of law; it's merely meant to enshrine President Obama's desires in writing before President Trump takes over. There is no reason that Mr. Trump could not change these regulations as he desires. Early indications are that he's not terribly impressed by the EPA in general. He might choose to lower CAFE targets a bit. He might choose to abolish them altogether.

I have a different suggestion, one that will probably manage to enrage both the tree-huggers AND the red-state conservatives. I think he should set ambitious CAFE goals that apply to both cars and trucks equally. Instead of 60mpg for cars and 30mpg for trucks, how about 45mpg for everybody? Let's stop playing favorites and picking winners. There should be one CAFE for everybody.

The automakers could handle this by making ultra-efficient cars and subsidizing them in order to keep the full-sized truck lines rolling. Or they could make full-sized trucks more efficient. Or they could abandon two-ton crossovers in favor of reasonably-sized family vehicles. It really doesn't matter. What matters is that we stop a program of legislation that actually encourages automakers to build trucks instead of cars. If President Trump can do that, then he will have done more to improve the automotive landscape in this country than any president since LBJ. And that would really help make America great again, wouldn't it?

Born in Brooklyn but banished to Ohio, Jack Baruth has won races on four different kinds of bicycles and in seven different kinds of cars. Everything he writes should probably come with a trigger warning. His column, Avoidable Contact, runs twice a week.

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A Florida woman was arrested this week after two of her newborn babies died while co-sleeping with her despite multiple warnings the mother was given about the dangers of sleeping in the same bed with her infants, authorities said.

Erin Piche-Pitts, 25, was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child Tuesday after her 18-day-old boy died in October when Piche-Pitts fell asleep while bottle-feeding him in her arms in bed, according to an arrest affidavit from the Polk County Sheriffs Office. It was the second time Piche-Pitts had a newborn die while co-sleeping.

In 2009, the mothers 13-day-old daughter died from asphyxia after Piche-Pitts fell asleep while breastfeeding, authorities said. The first case was deemed an accident. Since then, she had received repeated warnings about co-sleeping, local authorities said.

Investigators said Piche-Pitts woke up in a panic when her son was unresponsive in October because she knew it happened again, the affidavit said.

Piche-Pitts was also charged with methamphetamine possession earlier this year while she was pregnant with her son, although that case was later dropped, the Associated Press reports.

She appeared for a bond hearing Wednesday, but the bond amount is not yet known. Its unclear if Piche-Pitts has a lawyer.
When the U.S. housing bubble burst in 2007, millions of Americans who were unable to keep up with their mortgage payments lost their homes to foreclosure. Even today, tens of thousands of homeowners go through the painful process each month. But in metros like Portland, OR, Denver, and Seattle, where housing prices are rising the fastest in the country, people whove lost their homes might actually turn a profit from the foreclosure auction. Maybe even a big profit.

With strong demand for affordable residences in those markets, many homes sold at foreclosure auctions are selling for more than what the lender is owedin some cases, quite a bit more. And once any debts, liens, and fees are paid off, that money goes back to the individuals who fell behind in their mortgage payments. Score!

Unfortunately, many homeowners arent aware that they could be in line for a windfall, and the funds may go uncollected. Denver County, CO, is sitting on nearly $1.5 million in uncollected surpluses from about 50 foreclosed homes.

This was never an issue up until [very recently] and only in a few markets, says Brandon Turner, author of The Book on Rental Property Investing.

In the past, people who lost their homes to auctions were typically underwater.  [Now] prices have risen so that real estate investors, especially at auctions, are sometimes willing to pay more than what the [homeowner] lost it for.

The metros where foreclosures can produce windfalls

The steady rise in home prices in metros like Denver and Seattle has made it more difficult for investors to find inexpensive properties they can fix and flip for a profit. And thats why the competition is becoming so fierce at the foreclosure auctions. As the economy has improved, there are fewer foreclosures, tightening the market even further.

In the Denver metro area alone, home prices have been rising at a rate of about 10% annually since early 2011, according to CoreLogic data.

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Denver is one of the hottest real estate markets in the nation right now, says Mica Ward, spokeswoman for the public trustee of Denver County, the office tasked with returning foreclosure surpluses. So when a home does have to sell at a foreclosure auction, were consistently seeing that the home is selling for more than what is owed.

She started seeing an uptick in overbids on foreclosure properties a few years ago, when the economy started to improve. Now she estimates that about 80% of foreclosure auctions in Denver County end with surpluses over the original debt.

A foreclosed home auction Joe Raedle/Getty Images

That can translate to as little as $60or as much as the $169,000 she returned to one (now) lucky foreclosee this year. In 2016, the countys average surplus through Dec. 1 was $51,231. That was a 156% jump from $20,000 in 2012.

Often this money can truly change a persons life and get a person back into a home and on the right track again, Ward says.

Overbids are also increasingly common in Miami, which was also walloped by the housing bust, says local foreclosure attorney Bruce Jacobs. Theyre typically in the range of tens of thousands of dollars. Home prices in Miami are up 6.6% in September, compared with the year before, according to the most recent data from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price indices.

Youre seeing it more and more now because property values have recovered, he says.

The auction winner might not be the only one smiling after a foreclosure auction. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Surpluses in the Seattle area, where home prices were up 11% year over year in September, typically range from $10,000 to $50,000, says Chelsea Hicks, a staff attorney at the Northwest Justice Project, which helps former homeowners reclaim that money. Shes even seen folks collect nearly $100,000 after their debts were repaid.

Shes also noticed an uptick in the number of homeowners trying to collect overbids over the past few years.

Portland foreclosure attorney Theodore Piteo, of Michael D. OBrien & Associates, has noticed the same shift in his city, where home prices rose 10.9% annually in September, according to Case-Shiller.

Two years ago, Piteo wasnt seeing any surpluses from foreclosure auctions. Now, he estimates theyre happening about 10% to 20% of the time.

As long as the property market keeps going up, there will continue to be overbids, he says.

Why people are still losing their homes in hot markets

If the market is so strong, it might seem puzzling that these troubled homeowners cant just refinance and stay in their homeor just sell it. But in most cases, those who are on the brink of foreclosure have other serious financial problemsand that makes it difficult to get a second mortgage or a home equity loan, says bankruptcy and foreclosure attorney Clark Dray, who is based in Denver.

Their debt-to-income ratio is probably not any good at that point, he says.

As for selling, if the owner doesnt have a lot of equity in the house, it may not be cost-effective. Real estate agent commissions and closing costs can eat up whatever profits might be on the table.

And some homeowners may simply be unaware of how much home prices have risen in their markets.

Plus, its only very recently that markets improved to the degree where folks who were about to lose their homes had so much equity, says Geoff Walsh, a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.

The overwhelming majority of the foreclosures that took place since 2008 involved homeowners who  were very much underwater, he says. They were just people who did not have a lot of other options.

Thousands of dollars in search of owners

Youd think that former homeowners mired in debt would be clamoring for any money theyre due. But it can be difficult for authorities to inform them of their windfall.

Some people simply arent going to read the mail we send them, because they assume its just one more bad piece of news, says Ward, of the Denver trustees office. People move, and they dont give us their forwarding address.

Winning bidder just made herself (and possibly, the previous owner) very happy. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

And when a homeowner passes away, its often hard to find their heirs. Ward often works with funeral homes to track them down.

In some parts of the country, it isnt so easy for folks to collect that money. In about half of states, lenders can foreclose on a home without any intervention by the courts. So there arent always as many safeguards to protect homeowners in distress, says Walsh.

If theres a dispute about the sale proceeds  you would have to actually file a lawsuit to deal with that, Walsh says. In other cases, former homeowners might need to go to court or file lots of legal paperwork.

But still, in most of the country, foreclosure surpluses remain the extreme exception rather than the rule.

That is still very unusual, says Richard Alderman, director of the Center for Consumer Law at the University of Houston in Texas. You need a strange combination of factors for this to happen.

The post Foreclosed On? You May Have Unclaimed Cash Waiting for You appeared first on Real Estate News & Advice | realtor.com.
ROCHESTER  Village Trustee Mike Weinkauf filed non-candidacy papers Tuesday indicating he will not run for trustee again in the spring municipal election, according to a village press release.

Weinkauf served a Town of Rochester supervisor starting in April 2003 and continued as a trustee after the consolidation of the town and Village of Rochester in 2009. His current term as trustee ends April 17.

Projects Weinkauf was involved in included the consolidation of the town and Village of Rochester, the development and adoption of the land use plan, construction of a new Village Hall, and oversight for numerous developments in the village.

Rochester residents interested in running for the trustee position are encouraged to stop by Rochester Village Hall for candidacy information and nomination papers.

Nomination and candidacy papers must be turned in to the Rochester village clerk by 5 p.m. Jan. 3 at in order to appear on the April 4 ballot. If a primary is necessary, it will be held Feb. 21.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Disgraced former president Moshe Katsav was released on parole on Wednesday after serving five years of a seven-year jail sentence for rape, in a case that stirred deep emotions in Israel and touched off a national debate on sexual harassment. Katsav, 71, had been turned down for early release twice after refusing to meet the parole board's demands to recognize his crimes and express regret for them. The board said he had finally come to regret his actions and the pain they had caused. After serving as president, a largely ceremonial role, from 2000 to 2007, Katsav was convicted in December 2010 of raping an aide while he was a cabinet minister in the 1990s and of sexually harassing two other women during his time as head of state. Katsav, who denied the charges, was jailed in 2011. His release from a prison near Tel Aviv on Wednesday was broadcast live on Israel's main television channels. Smiling and walking with his wife, Gila, he made his way through a scrum of photographers to a waiting car and sped away without speaking. In its decision on Sunday, the board wrote that since the first failed hearing, Katsav had "traveled a long path, had benefited from prison therapy services and had recognized and regretted his actions against the women and the pain he had caused them". The first criminal conviction of an Israeli president was dubbed an "earthquake" by the Israeli media and was welcomed by women's groups, which have long complained of lax attitudes to sexual harassment in workplaces. There was little public outcry over the early release of the white-haired Katsav, who had already served more than two thirds of his sentence, a point when many prisoners are granted parole. (Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Gareth Jones)
A former freshman at the College of Charleston in South Carolina has filed a civil lawsuit naming the school and one of its fraternities, alleging she was drugged and raped at an off-campus party last August.

The lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by PEOPLE, was filed with the Charleston County Court on Dec. 16. In it, the alleged victim says she was only 17 when she attended an Aug. 27 party organized by the Chi Omicron chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi, an international Jewish fraternity.

The suit alleges two of the fraternitys brothers  identified as Timothy Seppi and James West III  forced her into a bedroom and raped her.

The suit alleges that, once all three were inside the bedroom, Seppi and West locked the door before stripping her naked and forcing her to ingest illicit drugs.

The lawsuit further alleges Seppi used his cell phone camera to record the assault.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

According to the suit, both defendants allegedly became annoyed when the student kept trying to flee, and left her alone on the floor, crying on the bedroom floor with no clothes.

The suit alleges she had to be hospitalized after the attack, and continues to receive treatment for injuries. (PEOPLE is choosing not to name the alleged victim.)

Soon after the incident, the alleged victim dropped out of school and returned home to another state, where she is living with her parents.

Charleston Police arrested West and Seppi after the alleged assault.

 Pick up PEOPLEs special edition True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America, on sale now, for the latest on Casey Anthony, JonBenet Ramsey and more.

Seppi has been charged with two counts of exploitation of a minor while West faces one count of engaging a child for sexual performance.

Authorities claim more charges could be filed as the results of other testing are returned.

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It wasnt clear Wednesday if either defendant had retained legal counsel or entered a plea.

In response to the allegations, College of Charleston officials instituted a ban on alcohol at all Greek social functions.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. It alleges policies enacted by the school and the fraternity failed to protect the victim.

The Defendants negligence, gross negligence, recklessness, willfulness, and wantonness created a hazard and danger which proximately caused the Plaintiff to sustain serious personal injuries, reads the suit.

A College of Charleston spokesperson tells PEOPLE the institution does not comment on pending litigation.




Postal workers in France are about to get a day off. The country announced a test program that will use unmanned aircraft to deliver packages once per week, according to a report from Ars Technica.

The General Directorate for Civil Aviation, Frances airspace regulator, has given drones the go-ahead to take over delivery duty on a limited basis. The crafts will take flight in the southern region of Provence, where they will travel a limited, nine-mile route once per week.

Heading the trial will be DPDgroup, an international subsidiary of the French national postal service. The organization has been working on the drone delivery initiative for two years, tapping French drone startup company Atechsys to help with the technology.

During the test phase, drones will pick up packages from a specially developed delivery terminal that assists the unmanned vehicles in take-off and landing located in Saint-Maximin-La-Sainte-Beaume.

From there, the drones will take their delivers to Pourrieres in the department of Var. The area has become a hotbed for tech startups in France.

According to DPDgroup, the drones have a range of about 12 miles and can carry payloads weighing just over six pounds. The crafts will travel speeds topping out at around 18 miles per hour. The package-carrying vehicles will also come equipped with a parachute that will deploy in case of an emergency.

Frances announcement of drone deliveries comes just days after Amazon completed its first successful delivery with an unmanned aircraft in the United Kingdom. The ecommerce giant got permission to test its Prime Air service earlier this year, and has opened up a very limited beta test for deliveries in the Cambridge area.

Experiments with drone deliveries in France and the U.K. may open the door for similar ventures in the United States. Amazon has been heavily lobbying for airspace in the U.S. to allow for autonomous drones to deliver packages. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rule change implemented earlier this year also opened the door for more commercial drone ventures.

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By Kit Rees and Alistair Smout

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top share index ended little changed on Wednesday after reaching a two-month high, though a rise in Ashtead Group (AHT.L) and bottler Coca-Cola Hellenic (CCH.L) provided support.

The FTSE 100 was flat at 7,041.42 points at its close, with trading volume low.

The index had touched a fresh two month high in early deals, having posted its highest close since October 11 in the previous session.

Coca-Cola Hellenic (CCH) (CCH.L) was up 1.3 percent after Coca-Cola (KO.N) bought a majority stake in an African bottling firm from AB InBev (ABI.BR) for $3.15 billion (2.55 billion pounds).

Coca-Cola said it planned to hold all operations temporarily until they can be refranchised to other partners. Its existing bottling partners include Coca-Cola European Partners and Coca-Cola Hellenic.

Analysts said that CCH was well positioned to secure the bottling rights due to its experience in Africa, and that the deal looked like good value, coming in under expectations of $4 billion or more.

Shares in Ashtead (AHT.L) climbed 1.3 percent after Credit Suisse raised its target price for the stock, citing a boost for the stock from its U.S. exposure.

"We raise our FY18E and FY19E estimates ... reflecting a stronger demand outlook in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, along with some assumed benefit of a falling effective tax rate on the group's dominant US activities," analysts at Credit Suisse said in a note.

Oil & gas stocks retreated 0.1 percent, with Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) down 0.4 percent after oil prices edged lower on a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories. [O/R]

Falls on the FTSE 100 were broad-based, with fund firm Hargreaves Lansdown (HRGV.L) down 3 percent, health care stock Hikma (HIK.L) down 1.4 percent and Merlin Entertainments (MERL.L) dropping 1.2 percent.

Capita (CPI.L) fell after Goldman Sachs cut its target price on the stock to 595p from 771p, but recovered some of its losses to end 0.7 percent lower.

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The investment bank said it expected free cash flow to decline around by about 3 percent each year for the next two years following Capita's recent trading update. Earlier in the month the company gave its second profit warning in three months.

"In general, we see risks that the company's restructuring plan will not address the major concerns we have about bidding process and increasing cyclicality of the business model," analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note, reiterating a "neutral" rating on the stock.

Among mid-caps, QinetiQ (QQ.L) was up 4.4 percent after it agreed to buy Meggitt's defence business. Liberum said the deal would enhance QinetiQ's position in global test and aviation sectors.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout and Kit Rees; Editing by Alison Williams)
By Lamin Jahateh BANJUL (Reuters) - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh vowed to stay in power when his mandate ends in January, defying calls from West African leaders to hand over to the winner of a Dec. 1 election. Regional bloc ECOWAS hopes diplomacy can persuade Jammeh to step down but has also warned him it would take "all necessary actions" to resolve the impasse. Neighboring Senegal has indicated that military action would be a last resort. "I am not a coward. My right cannot be intimidated and violated. This is my position. Nobody can deprive me of that victory except the Almighty Allah," Jammeh, who took power in a 1994 coup, said on state television late on Tuesday. "The ECOWAS meeting was a formality. Before they came, they had already said Jammeh must step down. I will not step down," he said, referring to a mediating visit by West African leaders to Banjul last week. Jammeh's rebuff places president-elect Adama Barrow in a vulnerable position. He is due to formally end his rival's 22-year rule when he is inaugurated on Jan. 19 in a ceremony that West African leaders say they will attend. ECOWAS has pledged to provide security for Barrow but bodyguards have not yet arrived. His unexpected victory and Jammeh's initial announcement that he would step down was greeted with joy on a continent where it is extremely rare for a veteran leader to lose an election and step down willingly. It quickly became a test of regional mettle, though, when Jammeh reversed course, asserting that he was cheated and would challenge the result in Gambia's supreme court. The court has not heard cases for years but the chief justice said on Wednesday a hearing would take place on Jan. 10. with judges from Nigeria and Sierra Leone. In a show of support for Jammeh's legal challenge, the president of the African Bar Association, Hannibal Uwaifo, met him late on Tuesday and in a broadcast statement called for his case to be heard. ECOWAS has mandated Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to mediate. ECOWAS deployed troops to Liberia and Sierra Leone during civil wars in the 1990s, setting a precedent for possible regional intervention. It also sent forces to Mali in 2013. But African organizations, including the African Union, have a patchy record when it comes to putting pressure on leaders after disputed elections. TIMETABLE FOR JAMMEH Human rights groups say Jammeh's government has arrested, tortured and killed perceived opponents. A first step for raising pressure on Jammeh once the handover date passes might be targeted sanctions by ECOWAS, the United Nations, United States and European Union, diplomats said. These could involve a travel ban. Diplomats say ECOWAS would probably seek approval from the U.N. Security Council, of which Senegal is a non-permanent member, for the use of force. Senegal, which has a history of stormy relations with Gambia and sent troops there during a 1981 coup, is a likely candidate for leadership of any African intervention force given its position as Gambia's only territorial neighbor. In the interim, it may be possible to defuse the situation by offering Jammeh asylum, probably in Morocco or Saudi Arabia, diplomats said. Barrow is already grappling with preparations for governing. One crucial task is securing the support of security forces who have seized the electoral commission since the vote. Maggie Dwyer, a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh, said multiple coup attempts in the past suggest the army may be split and not completely reliable for Jammeh. (Additional reporting by Pap Saine in Banjul and Emma Farge in Dakar; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Banjul (Gambia) (AFP) - The Gambia is facing prolonged political deadlock after strongman Yahya Jammeh, defiant despite his election defeat, said he would await a court ruling delayed until January before ceding power.

Jammeh, who has been in power for 22 years, stunned observers by initially accepting his defeat in the December 1 vote by opposition candidate Adama Barrow, but then flip-flopped a week later, rejecting the results and filing a court challenge.

His stance has stoked international concerns about the future of the tiny west African country, with the UN joining African leaders in calling for him to step down.

"My rights cannot be violated and intimidated to a point where I succumb to blackmail," Jammeh said in a lengthy televised address, referring to diplomatic efforts by the west African ECOWAS bloc.

"Unless the court decides the case, there will be no inauguration (of Barrow) on the 19 January," Jammeh added, referring to his petition to the Supreme Court to overturn the election result.

"What we are asking for is not for the IEC (Independent Election Commission) to declare me the winner, I cannot do that," he said late Tuesday.

"I will not cheat but I will not be cheated. Justice must be done and the only way justice can be done is to reorganise the election so that every Gambian votes. That's the only way we can resolve the matter peacefully and fairly."

- Buying time -

Experts say Jammeh has bought time by taking his appeal to the Supreme Court, which has lain dormant since May 2015.

All its judges were fired under Jammeh's orders save its chief justice, Nigeria-born Emmanuel Fagbenle.

But court sources say six foreign judges, besides Fagbenle, have now been appointed by Jammeh to serve on the Supreme Court to hear his complaint.

Complicating matters, the target of Jammeh's complaint, the Independent Electoral Commission that he says made errors requiring a fresh election, is represented by Jammeh's own attorney general.

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Even Gambia's own bar association has denounced the system as "fundamentally tainted".

Fagbenle announced on Wednesday that Jammeh's case had been adjourned until January 10 because the chief defendant -- the IEC -- had not been summonsed to attend, dashing any hopes of a quick resolution to the crisis.

- 'Big powers' behind ECOWAS -

In a fiery monologue, the 51-year-old Jammeh, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1994, denounced ECOWAS and foreign powers who support it for interference in Gambian affairs.

Leaders of ECOWAS -- including Senegal, which surrounds the landlocked country save its coastal border -- said at the weekend they would attend Barrow's inauguration and "take all necessary actions to enforce the results", without spelling out what those measures might be.

"ECOWAS is trying to force me out," Jammeh said in the televised remarks. "It will not happen... And let me see what ECOWAS and those big powers behind them can do."

Jammeh initially warmly congratulated Barrow after results were declared on December 2.

But a week later he condemned "unacceptable errors" by election authorities and called for a new vote.

"I will not step down, because this is disrespectful of our constitution which says a transition period of 60 days. Even if he had won legally, I have 60 days of transition," he said Tuesday.

The nation's government-in-waiting said on Monday that Jammeh had no constitutional mandate to stay in office beyond January.

"Any president who loses constitutional legitimacy becomes a rebel," said Halifa Sallah, a spokesman for the opposition coalition that spurred Barrow to victory.

But the opposition has also said Jammeh would not face prosecution on leaving office.

Under Jammeh's long rule, The Gambia has remained crushingly poor but enjoyed relative stability -- though rights groups and media watchdogs accuse him of cultivating a climate of fear and crushing dissent.
Moscow (AFP) - Just when Irina Chubkovets was coming into the world, the country her parents and grandparents had lived in was slipping out of it.

Chubkovets was born in the provincial Russian city of Bryansk on December 25, 1991, the day the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, resigned and the hammer and sickle flag atop the Kremlin was replaced by the Russian tricolour.

The iconic moment drove the final nail into the coffin of over 70 years of Soviet rule and opened a new era of uncertainty that left an indelible mark on the world map and the people of Russia.

"I received a Soviet birth certificate but it wasn't clear at all what country we were in that day," Chubkovets told AFP.

In the 25 years since, Chubkovets and those of her generation have grown up side-by-side with their emerging nation.

Together they took their unsteady first steps during the tumultuous 1990s, before finding their feet as Vladimir Putin became president in 2000 and coming of age during the increasingly assertive years of his rule.

Chubkovets now is married to an army officer and the mother of a two-year-old son Viktor.

- Grandmother's tales -

For many of those who grew up after the demise of the Soviet Union their views of the lost empire are shaped by the memories of the older generations who often paint a rosy picture of life under Communism.

"My grandmother always loved to say that things were better in the Soviet Union: people were poor but equal," Chubkovets said. "Now there are all these differences."

"I would want everything to be stable so people know what it will be like in five or ten years," she said. "The outlook is still worrisome."

A recent survey by the independent pollster Levada Centre found that 19 percent of Russians between the ages of 18 and 24 regret the collapse of the USSR.

One reason for that, experts say, is the resurgent nationalism under Putin that is thrust down the throats of the population by a slavish state media.

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This month prominent pro-Kremlin talk show host Dmitry Kiselyov praised the Soviet Union as a "grandiose social experiment."

"The goal was to create paradise on Earth," he said. "We managed to accomplish a lot."

From the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine to the worst standoff with the West since the Cold War, many say the Kremlin strongman is trying to revive the lost glory of Moscow's superpower status.

Putin has called the collapse of the Soviet Union a "geopolitical catastrophe" and the Kremlin turned the USSR's victory in World War II into Russia's defining historical moment.

"The positive, nostalgic perception of the Soviet Union that is sometimes conveyed at the official level is adopted by the young generation," said sociologist Karina Pipiya of the Levada Centre.

"This is not because they know about the Soviet Union but because they are loyal to the authorities. If the authorities say it's good, then they think it must be good too."

Young Russians also grew up in cities where reminders of the Soviet Union are ubiquitous.

Monuments to Soviet founding father Lenin and eponymous streets commemorating the leader of the 1917 October Revolution still dot cityscapes across the country, and his body still lies embalmed in the mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square.

- Paternalism 2.0 -

One major change of attitude among the younger generation appears to be that they are once again relying on Russia's empowered state.

While those who cut their teeth in the 1990s usually looked to private business to make a living, those beginning their careers now increasingly eye opportunities with the state.

Vasily Koloskov, a recent Moscow graduate specialised in French literature, shares a birthday with Chubkovets.

Currently in search for work, Koloskov says that many of his contemporaries are flocking to the public sector.

"We can still feel the Soviet heritage because the state sector is strong and the private one is weaker," he said.

Sociologist Pipiya says that Russians under the age of 25 are "very paternalistically oriented" and seek state support like the one found during the Soviet era.

"It's not the case that a significant portion of the young generation grew up with an individualistic orientation and focused on business opportunities," she said.

When push comes to shove, however, few of those who have grown up in post-Soviet Russia seem like they actually want the return of the USSR.

While a fifth say they regret the Soviet empire's collapse, only three percent wanted to live under Communism.

"I like things the way they are now," job hunter Koloskov told AFP.

"I wouldn't have wanted to live back then."
By Rich McKay

ATLANTA, Dec 21 (Reuters) - A Georgia former policeman was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday after he was found guilty of murder earlier this month in the death of a suspect shocked repeatedly with a Taser while handcuffed.

Marcus Eberhart, who was a sergeant in the Atlanta suburb of East Point, and another former officer, Howard Weems, in April 2014 shocked Gregory Towns, 24, with Tasers more than a dozen times when he refused to walk to a patrol car as he was being taken into custody, prosecutors said.

Eberhart was given the life sentence and Weems, convicted of lesser offenses, including involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct, received a five-year sentence.

A grand jury indicted the two officers in August 2015 amid a heightened national debate over the use of lethal force by police, especially in confrontations with racial minorities. Towns and the two policemen charged in his death were all black.

After collapsing several times and repeated stun gun jolts, Towns lapsed into unconsciousness and was pronounced dead a short time later, prosecutors said.

(Writing by by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by David Gregorio)
RACINE  Racine Unified School District officials are hoping a change in the way the district compensates substitute teachers will result in more temporary instructors available to work hard-to-fill days of the week.

On Monday, the district presented to the School Board a plan that would increase substitute teacher pay starting in January.

According to Julie Landry, chief of human resources for Unified, the district will give a $20-a-day bonus to subs who work three days or more a week, including a Monday or a Friday.

The bonus, which would be paid quarterly, would come on top of a base wage of $130 a day.

Currently, long-term substitute teachers receive $168 a day. General substitute teachers who work less than three times a week make $128 a day, or $17.08 an hour.

Under the changes slated to go into effect on Jan. 1, all general subs would see their pay increase to $130 a day or $17.33 an hour. Long-term subs would see their base pay go up to $180 a day or $24 an hour.

Currently, the district is only able to find substitute teachers to fill between 63 and 67 percent of absences that occur on Mondays and Fridays, Landry told the board.

The increase would put the districts substitute teacher pay rate somewhere between what Milwaukee Public Schools and the Kenosha Unified School District pay its subs, and above what the Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District and South Milwaukee School District pay theirs.

The hope is that with more competitive pay, the district would be able to fill at least 70 percent of those Monday and Friday absences, and that the bonus will be an incentive to pick up a Monday or Friday shift, Landry explained.

Those are the highest days of teacher absences where we have greatest demand for substitute teachers, she said. Currently we have about 300 substitute teachers actively on our roster but they dont all work every day.

Substitute teachers interested in working for Unified must either have valid teaching credentials, such a teaching certificate, or a Wisconsin three-year substitute teacher permit. To qualify for a three-year permit, an applicant must have a bachelors degree.

Other subs

As it turns out, Unified also employs substitutes for a variety of support positions, including educational assistants, secretaries, custodians, nurses, translators and psychologists. Pay for those temporary jobs also will be increasing on Jan. 1. Increases will range between 6 and 20 cents an hour.

A substitute general educational assistant will see his or her pay go from $10.16 to $10.25 an hour. A retired secretary who comes in to lend a hand will see pay go from $12.19 to $12.25 an hour.

A substitute licensed nurse practitioner will see his her pay rise from $19.80 to $20 an hour.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Racine Unified School Board voted on a pay increase for substitute teachers, however the district administration decided to increase pay and presented the plan to the board. No vote was taken on this topic.
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police have begun searching a shelter for migrants in western Germany where a Tunisian man suspected of involvement in the truck attack in Berlin is believed to have lived, a newspaper said on Wednesday. Rheinische Post said the shelter is in the town of Emmerich, which lies some 140 kilometers (87 miles) north of the city of Cologne, near the border with the Netherlands. (Reporting by Paul Carrel; Writing by Joseph Nasr)
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police are looking for a Tunisian man after finding an identity document under the driver's seat of the truck which plowed into a Christmas market on Monday evening, killing 12 people, Der Spiegel's online edition reported on Wednesday. Der Spiegel, which did not cite its sources, said the document was in the name of Anis A., born in Tataouine in 1992. The man is also believed to use false names. (Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Michelle Martin)
* Tunisian ID found under seat of truck

* Wanted man had been rejected for asylum

* Security agencies knew he was in contact with Islamists

* Federal prosecutor offers 100,000 euro reward

* U.S. President-elect Trump condemns "attack on humanity" (Adds raid on Berlin apartments, paragraph 4)

By Michael Nienaber and Matthias Inverardi

BERLIN/DUESSELDORF, Dec 21 (Reuters) - German police are looking for an asylum-seeker from Tunisia after finding an identity document under the driver's seat of a truck that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market and killed 12 people, officials and security sources said on Wednesday.

The federal prosecutor's office offered a reward of up to 100,000 euros ($104,000) for information leading to the capture of the suspect, whom it identified as 24-year-old Anis Amri.

"Beware: He could be violent and armed!" the prosecutor's office said in a statement, in which it described Amri as 1.78 metres (5'8") tall, with black hair and brown eyes.

German police commandos raided two apartments in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg late on Wednesday but did not find Amri, Die Welt newspaper reported, citing investigators.

Amri's father and security sources told Tunisia's Radio Mosaique that he had left Tunisia seven years ago as an illegal immigrant and had spent time in prison in Italy.

In Duesseldorf, Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), said the Tunisian appeared to have arrived in Germany in July 2015 and his asylum application had been rejected.

He seemed to have used different names and had been identified by security agencies as being in contact with an Islamist network. He had mainly lived in Berlin since February, but was recently in NRW, Jaeger added.

After being turned down for asylum, the man should have been deported but could not be returned to Tunisia because his documents were missing, he said.

"Tunisia at first denied that this person was its citizen," said Jaeger, adding that German authorities started the process of getting new identity papers in August 2016. "The papers weren't issued for a long time. They arrived today."

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A judicial source told Reuters that German authorities had observed Amri over a period this year to try to determine whether he had planned a robbery to fund the purchase of automatic weapons for a possible attack with accomplices.

Authorities stopped their monitoring activities because they could not prove their suspicions, the source said.

QUESTIONS

The new details have added to a growing list of questions about whether security forces missed opportunities to prevent the attack, in which a 25-tonne truck mowed down shoppers and smashed through wooden huts selling gifts, mulled wine and sausages in the deadliest attack on German soil since 1980.

Christmas markets have been a known potential target for Islamist militants since at least 2000, when authorities thwarted a plot to attack one in Strasbourg, France. And the modus operandi in Berlin was identical to that of a Bastille Day attack in the French city of Nice in July, when a Tunisian-born man rammed a lorry through a seaside crowd and killed 86 people.

The market at the scene of Monday's attack, at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, stayed shut on Wednesday, but more than 60 other Christmas markets across the German capital re-opened under tightened security.

"We don't want to let the terrorists win. If everyone stays away, they are winning," said tourist Nicki Anning at the Gendarmenmarkt Square in central Berlin.

Berlin authorities said 12 people seriously injured in Monday's attack were still being treated in hospital.

The pre-Christmas carnage at a symbolic site - under the ruined spire of a church bombed in World War Two - has shocked Germans and prompted security reviews across Europe, already on high alert after attacks this year in Belgium and France.

The possible - though unproven - involvement of a migrant or refugee has revived a bitter debate about security and immigration, with Chancellor Angela Merkel facing calls to clamp down after allowing more than a million newcomers into Germany in the past two years.

Merkel, who will run for a fourth term next year, has said it would be particularly repugnant if a refugee seeking protection in Germany was the perpetrator.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump condemned the Berlin attack on Wednesday, blaming "Islamist terrorists (who) continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad".

"It's an attack on humanity and it's gotta be stopped," he told reporters in Palm Beach, Florida.

Police initially arrested a Pakistani asylum-seeker near the scene, but released him without charge on Tuesday.

The Polish driver of the hijacked truck was found shot dead in the cabin of the vehicle. Bild newspaper said he had been alive until the attack took place. It also quoted an investigator as saying there must have been a struggle with the attacker, who may have been injured.

ISLAMIC STATE CLAIM

Islamic State has claimed responsibility, as it did for the Nice attack.

The Passauer Neue Presse newspaper quoted the head of the group of interior ministers from Germany's 16 federal states, Klaus Bouillon, as saying tougher security measures were needed.

"We want to raise the police presence and strengthen the protection of Christmas markets. We will have more patrols. Officers will have machine guns. We want to make access to markets more difficult, with vehicles parked across them," Bouillon told the paper.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told German radio there was a higher risk of Islamist attacks because of the influx of migrants in the past two years, many of whom have fled conflicts in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The task of tracking the suspects and the movements of the truck may be complicated by the relative scarcity of security cameras in public places in Germany, compared with countries such as Britain.

The German cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft law to broaden video surveillance in public and commercial areas, a measure agreed by political parties last month after violent attacks and sexual assaults on women.

State surveillance is a sensitive issue in Germany because of extensive snooping by the Stasi secret police in Communist East Germany and by the Gestapo in the Nazi era.

($1 = 0.9589 euros)

(Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers in Berlin and Mohamed Argouby in Tunis; Writing by Mark Trevelyan and Paul Carrel; Editing by Gareth Jones and Catherine Evans)
BERLIN, Dec 21 (Reuters) - German police on Wednesday intensified a manhunt for the driver of a truck, who killed 12 people when he mowed into a Berlin Christmas market, and said they were following a number of good leads.

After releasing a Pakistani asylum-seeker arrested near the scene, authorities warned that the attacker is on the run and may be armed. They have also said it is unclear if the perpetrator was acting alone or with others.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The head of the Association of German Criminal Detectives, told German television late on Tuesday that police hoped to make another arrest soon.

"I am relatively confident that we will perhaps tomorrow or in the near future be able to present a new suspect," Andre Schulz told a talk show on the ZDF public channel.

Wednesday's Passauer Neue Presse quoted the head of the group of interior ministers from Germany's 16 federal states, Klaus Bouillon, as saying tougher security measures were needed.

"We want to raise the police presence and strengthen the protection of Christmas markets. We will have more patrols. Officers will have machine guns. We want to make access to markets more difficult, with vehicles parked across them," Bouillon told the paper.

The 25-tonne truck smashed into wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages, injuring about 45 people. Six of those killed were Germans and the Polish driver of the truck was found shot dead in the cabin of the vehicle.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will run for a fourth term next year, said that it would be particularly repulsive if a refugee, seeking protection in Germany, was the perpetrator.

Some politicians have blamed her open-door migrant policy for making such attacks more likely.

The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has won support in the last two years as Merkel's own popularity has waned, said on Tuesday that Germany is no longer safe.

Some politicians have also called for changes to Merkel's immigration and security policies after she allowed more than a million migrants to enter Germany in the last two years, many fleeing war in the Middle East and Africa.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told German radio on Wednesday that there was a higher risk of Islamist attacks because of the influx of migrants.

(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Louise Ireland)
(BERLIN)  Germany on Wednesday launched a Europe-wide manhunt for a violent and armed Tunisian man with ties to Islamic extremists who has used at least six different names and three different nationalities, saying he is a suspect in the Berlin Christmas market attack.

German authorities had considered him a possible terror threat months before the attack, put him under covert surveillance for six months this year and tried to deport him after his asylum application was rejected this summer.

Authorities issued a notice to other European countries overnight seeking the arrest of 24-year-old Anis Amri, but initially held off on going public so as not to jeopardize the manhunt. After German media published photos of him and a partial name, federal prosecutors issued a public appeal for the information.

Caution: He could be violent and armed, the notice warned. A reward of up to 100,000 euros ($104,000) has been issued for information leading to the suspects arrest.

The search prompted police in Denmark to search a Sweden-bound ferry in the port of Grenaa after receiving tips that someone resembling suspect Anis Amri had been seen there. But police said Thursday they found nothing indicating his presence.

A separate European arrest warrant from Germany obtained by the Associated Press states that Amri has at times used at least six different names and three different nationalities. He was described as being of average height and weight, with black hair and brown eyes.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere cautioned that Amris involvement in the attack wasnt yet certain even though documents in his name were found in the cab of the truck

This is a suspect, not necessarily the perpetrator, de Maiziere said after briefing Parliaments domestic affairs committee. We are still investigating in all directions.

Twelve people were killed and 48 injured when a truck plowed into a popular Berlin market Monday evening in an attack claimed by ISIS. Twelve of the wounded were still being treated Wednesday for very serious injuries and some were in critical condition, Berlin health officials said.

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The suspect apparently arrived in Germany in July 2015 and has lived in three German regions since February, mostly in Berlin, said Ralf Jaeger, the interior minister of western North Rhine-Westphalia state.

Security agencies exchanged information about this person in the joint counter-terrorism center, the last time in November, he said.

State prosecutors in Berlin told The AP that they launched an investigation of Amri on March 14 following a tip from federal security agencies.

The tip warned that Amri might be planning a break-in to finance the purchase of automatic weapons for use in an attack. Surveillance showed that Amri was involved in drug dealing in a Berlin park and involved in a bar brawl, but found no evidence to substantiate the original warning.

The observation was called off in September, by which time Amri had disappeared from his regular haunts in Berlin, prosecutors said.

Separately, Amris asylum application was rejected in July. German authorities prepared to deport him but werent able to do so because he didnt have valid identity papers, Jaeger said. In August they started trying to get him a replacement passport.

Tunisia at first denied that this person was its citizen, and the papers werent issued for a long time, Jaeger said. They arrived today.

The claim of responsibility by ISIS did not identify the man seen fleeing from the truck in Berlin, but described him as a soldier of the Islamic State who carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition.

Germanys top prosecutor, Peter Frank, told reporters the attack was reminiscent of a deadly rampage in the southern French city of Nice and appeared to follow instructions published by ISIS. He also said it wasnt clear whether there was one perpetrator or several in the Berlin attack.

On July 14, a Tunisian living in France was shot to death after mowing down 86 Bastille Day revelers with a truck in Nice.

Police in Berlin, meanwhile, said they had received over 500 tips on the Monday evening attack.

Christmas shoppers were out again in the streets Wednesday in the German capital, and Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller said it was good to see that Berliners arent being intimidated.

I dont think theres any need to be afraid, he told ZDF television. The police presence has been significantly heightened  and of course other measures taken to find the perpetrator quickly.

Mueller argued there are limits to increasing security, given the number of public spaces and events.

It wouldnt be our free and open life any more if we escalated security measures so much that people worry about going anywhere, that there are strict entry checks, he said. We dont want that. It must be appropriate and goal-oriented.
By Michael Nienaber and Matthias Inverardi

BERLIN/DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - German police are looking for an asylum-seeker from Tunisia after finding an identity document under the driver's seat of a truck that plowed into a Berlin Christmas market and killed 12 people, officials and security sources said on Wednesday.

The federal prosecutor's office offered a reward of up to 100,000 euros ($104,000) for information leading to the capture of the suspect, whom it identified as 24-year-old Anis Amri.

"Beware: He could be violent and armed!" the prosecutor's office said in a statement, in which it described Amri as 1.78 meters (5'8") tall, with black hair and brown eyes.

German police commandos raided two apartments in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg late on Wednesday but did not find Amri, Die Welt newspaper reported, citing investigators.

Amri's father and security sources told Tunisia's Radio Mosaique that he had left Tunisia seven years ago as an illegal immigrant and had spent time in prison in Italy.

In Duesseldorf, Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), said the Tunisian appeared to have arrived in Germany in July 2015 and his asylum application had been rejected.

He seemed to have used different names and had been identified by security agencies as being in contact with an Islamist network. He had mainly lived in Berlin since February, but was recently in NRW, Jaeger added.

After being turned down for asylum, the man should have been deported but could not be returned to Tunisia because his documents were missing, he said.

"Tunisia at first denied that this person was its citizen," said Jaeger, adding that German authorities started the process of getting new identity papers in August 2016. "The papers weren't issued for a long time. They arrived today."

A judicial source told Reuters that German authorities had observed Amri over a period this year to try to determine whether he had planned a robbery to fund the purchase of automatic weapons for a possible attack with accomplices.

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Authorities stopped their monitoring activities because they could not prove their suspicions, the source said.

QUESTIONS

The new details have added to a growing list of questions about whether security forces missed opportunities to prevent the attack, in which a 25-tonne truck mowed down shoppers and smashed through wooden huts selling gifts, mulled wine and sausages in the deadliest attack on German soil since 1980.

Christmas markets have been a known potential target for Islamist militants since at least 2000, when authorities thwarted a plot to attack one in Strasbourg, France. And the modus operandi in Berlin was identical to that of a Bastille Day attack in the French city of Nice in July, when a Tunisian-born man rammed a lorry through a seaside crowd and killed 86 people.

The market at the scene of Monday's attack, at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, stayed shut on Wednesday, but more than 60 other Christmas markets across the German capital re-opened under tightened security.

"We don't want to let the terrorists win. If everyone stays away, they are winning," said tourist Nicki Anning at the Gendarmenmarkt Square in central Berlin.

Berlin authorities said 12 people seriously injured in Monday's attack were still being treated in hospital.

The pre-Christmas carnage at a symbolic site - under the ruined spire of a church bombed in World War Two - has shocked Germans and prompted security reviews across Europe, already on high alert after attacks this year in Belgium and France.

The possible - though unproven - involvement of a migrant or refugee has revived a bitter debate about security and immigration, with Chancellor Angela Merkel facing calls to clamp down after allowing more than a million newcomers into Germany in the past two years.

Merkel, who will run for a fourth term next year, has said it would be particularly repugnant if a refugee seeking protection in Germany was the perpetrator.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump condemned the Berlin attack on Wednesday, blaming "Islamist terrorists (who) continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad".

"It's an attack on humanity and it's gotta be stopped," he told reporters in Palm Beach, Florida.

Police initially arrested a Pakistani asylum-seeker near the scene, but released him without charge on Tuesday.

The Polish driver of the hijacked truck was found shot dead in the cabin of the vehicle. Bild newspaper said he had been alive until the attack took place. It also quoted an investigator as saying there must have been a struggle with the attacker, who may have been injured.

ISLAMIC STATE CLAIM

Islamic State has claimed responsibility, as it did for the Nice attack.

The Passauer Neue Presse newspaper quoted the head of the group of interior ministers from Germany's 16 federal states, Klaus Bouillon, as saying tougher security measures were needed.

"We want to raise the police presence and strengthen the protection of Christmas markets. We will have more patrols. Officers will have machine guns. We want to make access to markets more difficult, with vehicles parked across them," Bouillon told the paper.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told German radio there was a higher risk of Islamist attacks because of the influx of migrants in the past two years, many of whom have fled conflicts in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The task of tracking the suspects and the movements of the truck may be complicated by the relative scarcity of security cameras in public places in Germany, compared with countries such as Britain.

The German cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft law to broaden video surveillance in public and commercial areas, a measure agreed by political parties last month after violent attacks and sexual assaults on women.

State surveillance is a sensitive issue in Germany because of extensive snooping by the Stasi secret police in Communist East Germany and by the Gestapo in the Nazi era.

(Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers in Berlin and Mohamed Argouby in Tunis; Writing by Mark Trevelyan and Paul Carrel; Editing by Gareth Jones and Catherine Evans)
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Germany has indefinitely postponed talks on development assistance to Congo after President Joseph Kabila stayed in power despite his mandate expiring this week, the German foreign office said on Wednesday. "From now on, the Congolese Government's scope for action will be restricted," the statement said. "The negotiations on development cooperation scheduled to take place next year will be postponed indefinitely. The German Government reserves the right to take further steps." (Reporting by Tim Cocks; Editing by Aaron Ross)
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f325750%2fcd4fe46a-aef3-41c1-964f-0f805ba76a60

The famed Old Faithful geyser erupts into a clear blue sky in a new video taken on Dec. 18 and shared by Yellowstone National Park.

The steam shot forth by the geyser matches the snow blanketing the ground on the frigid winter morning this was filmed, with the cold, dry air causing a billowing cloud to condense and rise high into the sky.

SEE ALSO: Watch Hawaii become a winter wonderland

Old Faithful  so named for the regularity with which it erupts  is not the largest or even the most predictable geyser in the park, but it does "erupt more frequently than any other of the large geysers," Yellowstone says on its website.

Nothing says "First Day of Winter" like an eruption of Old Faithful on a clear, zero-degree day! Video by Ranger Bach. #WinterSolstice pic.twitter.com/mAe0yjsE4d  YellowstoneNPS (@YellowstoneNPS) December 21, 2016

Geysers are hot springs that occasionally (or regularly) boil over, shooting water high up into the air.

Before erupting, steam rises up through the geyser, eventually displacing the water above it, shooting it out into the air.

"This decreases pressure on the system, and violent boiling results," according to the park's statement.

"Tremendous amounts of steam force water out of the vent, and an eruption begins. Water is expelled faster than it can enter the geyser's plumbing system, and the heat and pressure gradually decrease. The eruption stops when the water reservoir is depleted or when the system cools."

Yellowstone's Upper Geyser Basin plays host to Old Faithful along with about 300 other active geysers, according to the National Park Service.

Upper Geyser Basin is known as "the largest concentration of geysers in the world," the Park Service added.

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If you can't make it to Wyoming to see Old Faithful yourself, you can check out live streaming views of the geyser provided by a Yellowstone webcam.

UPDATE: Dec. 22, 2016, 10:59 a.m. EST This story was updated to state when the video was shot at Yellowstone National Park.
This girls response to her boyfriend giving her an empty box for Christmas is total relationship goals

Theres Worlds Best Girlfriend, and then theres this girlfriends response to her boyfriends empty box Christmas present  which basically puts her in the category of Worlds Best Human, because holy god we would not be okay with this.

21-year-old Braxton Sislo of New Orleans, Louisiana, recently found out how great his girlfriend, 20-year-old Ray, really is when he tweeted out a screenshot of texts between them that have since gone extremely viral. In the texts, Silo explained to Ray that he got her an empty box with nothing in it  adding that she could put stuff in it if she so desired  and Ray, well, responded the way we would if someone got us Hamilton tickets.

This was my girl's reaction to me giving her an empty box pic.twitter.com/g8Xs6L6gAD  6Brax (@Braxtation) December 14, 2016

According to Buzzfeed News, Sislo and Ray met on Twitter, and he decided to give her the empty box when it showed up at his job at a cell phone accessories store, thinking she could use it to store some jewelry. He sent her the texts to inform her that he was giving her the empty box  because, you know, most people receiving a box from their long-distance BF over the holidays will understandably assume said box contains something  and his Canadian love was just way, way more excited about it than he and the entire internet thought shed be.

I was both surprised and not surprised by her reaction, Sislo told BuzzFeed. Shes always been a woman that is grateful for the little things  But at the same time I wasnt expecting all of that.

Judging by how other people are responding to their significant others sending them the same texts as a joke, Sislo was right to not expect too much  most people are not huge enthusiasts of empty boxes.

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@Braxtation honestly I did not expect this from my bf pic.twitter.com/Yg3PlZR67r  Kai Roberts (@KaiRobertss) December 20, 2016

Shes a really great human, he concluded to Huffington Post. She has a lot to offer to the world and Im blessed enough to be able to call her my girlfriend.

The post This girls response to her boyfriend giving her an empty box for Christmas is total relationship goals appeared first on HelloGiggles.
The luxury label is repackaging one of its flagship products, Prisme Libre loose powder, to celebrate Chinese New Year, which falls January 28, 2017. This limited-edition release is due out in January in Givenchy sales points.

This year sees a host of beauty brands and ready-to-wear labels revisiting iconic pieces to celebrate Chinese New Year. Givenchy is paying tribute to this Spring Festival with a limited version of Prisme Libre, one of its most popular powders.

Symbolic feathers

January 28 marks the end of the year of the monkey and the beginning of the year of the rooster. In a nod to this year's sign, Givenchy has finished the outer packaging of Prisme Libre with a graphically styled feather-filled design. This is also seen in the ad campaign, due to accompany this limited-edition release.

The product's actual case pays homage to the event with red and gold hues. The vermillion red lid is highlighted with the Givenchy name in gold.

Luminous, even skin

The formulation of Givenchy's Prisme Libre remains unchanged for this special edition. It still features four complementary powder shades which, when fused together on application, enhance the complexion with a natural finish. Imperfections are blurred and skin tone evened out. The powder leaves a transparent, matte and radiant finish.

"Prisme Libre - N1 Mousseline Pastel - Limited Edition - Chinese New Year 2017" is due out in January priced 49.
On Wednesday, December 21, Givenchy unveiled the first shots of its S/S 2017 ad campaign which plays with juxtapositions of style, age, and decor: the French fashion house shows us its creativity extends to all men and women.

With its own gang of models, or rather muses as it prefers to call them, Givenchy's new ad campaign is all about juxtapositions, underscored by a clear message: "Freedom & Serenity."

Two photos are placed side-by-side: the first shows us a middle-aged model in a studio setting wearing a smart, elegant outfit, and the second features younger, more energized models, snapped against a wilder desert backdrop. These photos have two points in common: the elegance of Givenchy's creations and the natural beauty of the models.

Vittoria Ceretti is a rising star

The Italian model Vittoria Ceretti's star has been rising for several seasons now, with a raft of big fashion and beauty brands interested in working with her. In addition to this campaign for Givenchy, she recently featured in photo shoots for Alberta Ferretti and Saint Laurent, and has done catwalk work for Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu, Chanel and Valentino's S/S 2017 collections.

Vittoria Ceretti is one of the models featured in the wilder part of the Givenchy campaign. She's pictured alongside Faretta Radic and opposite the top model Lea Cerezo.

As on previous occasions, Givenchy has entrusted the photography for this campaign to the famous duo Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott.

In a contrasting style, the Givenchy campaign for F/W 2016 featured a string of high-profile models including Bella Hadid, Greta Varlese, Irina Shayk, Julia Nobis, Lily Aldridge and Mariacarla Boscono. Vittoria Ceretti was also included.
Juan Diego Botto as Javier (Photo: TNT)

Warning: This interview about the Good Behavior episode The Ballad of Santino contains spoilers.

This is the hour Good Behavior  and Juan Diego Botto fans  have been waiting for. We learned Javiers backstory as his family gathered at his sisters new restaurant, believing that the patriarch was finally ready to welcome Javier back into the fold. Instead, Javiers father wanted them all together so he could relive the reason he hasnt spoken to Javier since he was 16  Javier threw a stone at his little brother Santino on a camping trip, to stop him from starting a forest fire, and hit him in the head; Santino died because Javier didnt know not to let him sleep  and force Javier to reveal his profession to his family.

Javiers father got what he came for: Javier is now truly alone. Well, except for Letty (Michelle Dockery), who accepted the car keys from the broken hit man when he asked her to leave him, but then added that shed take him too.

Yahoo TV: When did you learn Javiers backstory?

Juan Diego Botto: That was pretty early on. Ive never done TV before this. Im used to films or theater  you have a script where you have the beginning, the middle, and the end. You know where your character is going to land; you know the whole thing. One of the things I was struggling with at the beginning was not having all the information, having read just two or three episodes. I asked [co-creator Chad Hodge], like, a hundred million questions, and I was very, very lucky because he had all the answers and he was willing to share.

So the thing about Javiers brother was something that I knew while we were doing the pilot. Its something very, very important for the character. There is something mysterious and kind of painful around Javier, and that is to do with this story.

Photo: TNT

Javiers father tries to say that Javier was a killer at 16, and hes a killer now. Javiers sister thinks Javier believed his father back then and thats what led him to become a hit man. Do you agree?

Theres this famous story about a French playwright, Jean Genet. When he was 10 years old, he stole something from his aunt, like some coins from her purse, and a family tribunal decided that this boy was a thief. They told him, You are a thief. In his memoirs, he says, And that day I became a thief. Theres something about the guilt that Javiers been carrying because his father decided that he was a murderer, and then, as he says, one thing led to another. But he somehow had to prove his father right, that theres something evil about him.



Related: Good Behavior Episode 3 Postmortem With Co-Creator Chad Hodge

Javier has made it clear that he doesnt kill innocent people. Is that the good in him trying to fight through?

We should be very careful in the definition of good regarding this matter, when you take someone elses life. But certainly, what I can say is that Javier has a moral code, and its actually a very, very strong one. And that was one of the most challenging things to me about Javier when I first read about the character, that he kills people for money. Theres no moral justification for that, but other than that, he appears to be a very nice guy, which is almost impossible. But he does have a moral code. He tries to follow the rules all the time. Hes empathetic. He cares about Letty. Hes not a psychopath at all. So how do you combine those two aspects of his life: what he does for a living and the other aspects of his personality? That was the biggest challenge about Javier, and what I think makes him a very special and unique character.

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Learning his backstory made me think that Santino is part of the reason why Javier seemed so willing to try to help Letty be with her son. He couldnt get Santino back, but Letty still has a shot to be with her boy, and he admires her for not giving up.

I totally agree with that. I think that in his mind, and his moral composition, keeping a family together and letting a young boy have a full life like his younger brother couldnt have is something very important.

And that is your real-life sister, Maria Botto, playing Javiers sister, right?

Yes, that was awesome.

How was filming that emotional goodbye scene? Did it help having your sister there, or did it somehow make it more challenging?

It really helped. I remember one day, we were doing probably Episode 2, and Chad asked me, Do you know an Argentine actress who could play your sister? And I told him, Well, my sister could. So she auditioned for the part, of course, and she got it. It was very, very helpful, because any time I looked at her whenever we say mom or dad, the whole history is there. If I see my sister crying, it moves me naturally  I dont have to do anything to be moved. I admire her a lot. Shes a wonderful actress, and we had a lot of fun working together.

At the end of this episode, theres that beautiful scene between you and Michelle, whenever Javier is trying to get her to take the car keys and leave. What do you remember about filming that?

Well, that was a very important moment, because up to that point hes the one taking care of her. Shes the one whos breaking all the time, whos having a crisis all the time, and hes the one whos always centered and focused up to that point where he just lost his family and the only people who he had a connection with, his sister and his nieces. That is the moment you could think, Well, this is as far as this Letty and Javier story goes. Hes letting her go, and for the first time, shes picking him up. That episode, it was all in one room, so we did every scene, like, a million times. We spent, like, three days crying nonstop. I was exhausted when we shot that scene from everything with Javiers family, so going back to Michelle was nice.

Javier and Letty in Episode 2 (Photo: TNT)

Watching this episode, seeing how happy Javier was to see his family and how alone he must have felt, and felt again  it made me think back to Episode 2 and that sex scene Javier and Letty have in the inn where theyre role-playing being a married couple. Watching that sex scene then, it felt playful. But now you can really feel the layers. We understand how, especially for him, the idea of being with someone for 10 years is so novel, its a turn-on.

Absolutely. I think one of the interesting things about that scene is that most couples, when they do role-play, its about being something fascinating like two detectives, something thrilling. But for them, something thrilling and new is two people whove been married for 10 years. Thats something absolutely out of the ordinary, absolutely unimaginable for them. These are two people who have been alone for a long, long time, and its very difficult, being who they are, to be able to find someone with whom they can share all their secrets, and they have so many.



Related: Good Behavior Co-Creator Chad Hodge on Charting a New Course for Michelle Dockery

This episode, we also saw Javiers past come back and haunt him when he had to shoot the nervous husband whod hired him to kill his wife in the pilot. We know that Christian (Terry Kinney) is in custody and that the feds think theres no way he committed that heist on his own. It made me wonder if this episode was about getting Javier to the point where hes truly alone in the world, save Letty, so well understand why hell go to whatever lengths he may need to when the feds come looking for her.

I cant say much about whats going to happen, but I think in this episode, we see that shes willing to stay when hes crushed, when hes really, really down. So I think were starting to see that theres more than just infatuation, more than just superficial attraction between those two.  What happens next is gonna be exciting.

Good Behavior airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on TNT.
waymo car

Google's self-driving car unit, Waymo, may work with Honda on self-driving car tech.

Waymo is in discussions with Honda about integrating its self-driving car tech into Honda cars, Honda wrote in a press release on Wednesday. As part of the collaboration, Honda may provide Waymo with vehicles for its test fleet.

A Google spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that it's in talks with Honda.

As of June 30, Google is using 34 of its "Koala" vehicles that come without pedals or a steering wheel as well as 24 Lexus SUVs retrofitted with Google's autonomous tech for its test fleet.

Waymo unveiled its latest vehicle, a Fiat Chrysler minivan modified with Waymo's self-driving tech, on Monday. Waymo has been working with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles since May 2016. The company is currently testing its cars in Mountain View, California; Metro Phoenix, Arizona; Austin, Texas; and Kirkland, Washington.

Honda could become the third automaker to collaborate with Google on creating cars for its test fleet if the discussions go accordingly.

Just last week, Google spun out its self-driving car unit into its own company, Waymo, to operate independently under Google's parent company Alphabet. At a press event for Waymo, CEO John Krafcik said the company was "getting close" to bringing the tech to consumers.

Google said at the time that it will no longer pursue self-driving cars that operate without pedals or steering wheels, but will look to integrate its tech into cars with standard driver controls. Google is still pursuing Level 5 autonomy, which is when a car can completely drive itself without any human interference or supervision.

"We can imagine our self-driving technology being used in a lot of different areas, in the ride sharing business, trucking, logistics, even personally used vehicles and licensing with automakers," Krafcik said at the Waymo press event.

Waymo is facing growing competition from Uber, a ride-hailing company that launched its second pilot program for self-driving cars in San Francisco last week. Other automakers, like General Motors and Tesla, are also putting pressure on Waymo to bring its self-driving car tech to market.

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The Information's Amir Efrati reported that Waymo will leverage its partnership with Fiat Chrysler to introduce a line of self-driving vehicles that could be used in a taxi setting by the end of 2017.

Krafcik said that Google was still in the "build phase" with Fiat Chrysler but did not provide further details about where the partnership is heading.

Honda has said it plans to release cars that are fully self-driving on highways in 2020. The automaker has been testing its self-driving cars at the Concord Naval Weapons Station in San Francisco since March 2015.

NOW WATCH: 5 awesome Google features you didn't know about





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After flying through the air with the greatest of ease, the Gulfstream G600 completed its very first test flight, having successfully taken off and touched down at Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport in Savannah, Ga., on December 17. One of Gulfstream Aerospace Corporations latest jets, first announced in 2014, the long-range aircraft can cover up to 7,135 miles at a cruising speed of Mach .85 and features a wing design and engine configuration that is up to 23-percent more efficient than its competitors.

The cabin, measuring almost 6.5 feet in height and close to 8 feet in width, is also touted as the longest in its class and accommodates up to 19 passengers in seats that are more than 2 feet wide. And the interior, accented by 14 panoramic windows, can be customized to include four separate living spaces with 10 layout selections available.

The travelling environment is further enhanced with 100-percent fresh air introduced every two minutes and a cabin altitude set at 4,850 feet, even while at a maximum height of 51,000 feet. And pilots are also pampered, as the cockpit features Gulfstreams Symmetry Flight Deck with active control sidesticks, 10 touchscreen interfaces, and a heads-up display.

The roundtrip trial run lasted 2 hours and 53 minutes and was conducted by the companys test pilots Scott Martin and Todd Abler along with engineer Nathaniel Rutland. Deliveries of the G600 will commence in 2018. (gulfstream.com)

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- By Ben Reynolds





(Published Dec. 21 by Bob Ciura)

There are two companies that dominate the U.S. toy industry: Mattel (MAT) and Hasbro (HAS).

Both companies pay dividends to shareholders. Mattel has a 5% dividend yield. Mattel may appeal more to investors looking for high yields, but its higher yield comes with significant risks.





On the other hand, Hasbro has a smaller dividend yield of 2.5%. This isn't too exciting of a dividend yield; the Standard & Poor's 500 Index on average yields about 2%.

But the advantage for Hasbro is that it is a high dividend growth stock.

Hasbro is a Dividend Achiever. To be a Dividend Achiever, a stock must increase its dividend for 10-plus consecutive years. This is no small feat.

You can see the entire list of all 273 Dividend Achievers here.

This article will discuss why Hasbro might be a good stock to put on your holiday shopping list.

Hasbro

Business overview

Hasbro has a long and rich history. Interestingly, its origins had little to do with toys.

The company was founded in 1923 and was known as Hassenfeld Brothers. The company was named after its founders Henry, Hillel and Herman Hassenfeld.

At first, the company sold textile remnants and soon expanded into pencil boxes and school supplies.

It wouldn't make its first toy until the 1940s. The first toys it manufactured were doctor and nurse kits. In 1952, the company unveiled Mr. Potato Head, which is still popular today.

Today Hasbro generates more than $4 billion in annual revenue. The company is organized into three main operating segments:

U.S. and Canada (56% of sales).

International (41% of sales).

Entertainment and Licensing (3% of sales).







Hasbro's strategy is to maximize the potential of its brands across several key categories.

HAS Brands

Source: Q3 Earnings Presentation, page 3

Hasbro focuses on its seven major brands, which together represent 52% of annual revenue. These are:

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Littlest Pet Shop.

Magic: The Gathering.

Monopoly.

My Little Pony.

Nerf.

Play-Doh.

Transformers.







Growth prospects

Hasbro has plenty of growth opportunities ahead of it, in the U.S. and abroad. Last quarter, total revenue increased 14%. All three operating segments reported growth with U.S. and Canada segment revenue up 16% year over year.

This resulted in record quarterly revenue and earnings for the company. Going forward, the company should see continued growth.

One area of future growth for Hasbro is international markets. Most of Hasbro's revenue comes from the U.S., but it does have a growing presence overseas.

HAS Currency

Source: Q3 Earnings Presentation, page 11

In 2015, emerging market revenue increased 15% excluding the impact of foreign exchange. This was a higher growth rate than Hasbro saw in the U.S. Higher growth is why the company is targeting underdeveloped economies .

Hasbro will also realize earnings-per-share growth through cost cuts and share repurchases.

Hasbro's margins have increased over the past several years. Rising margins are due to various cost-cutting initiatives.

HAS Margins

Source: Jefferies Consumer Conference presentation, page 4

With its high profitability, it can use a significant amount of cash to buy back its own shares.

HAS Share Buyback

Source: Q3 Earnings Presentation, page 21

Hasbro repurchased more than $3 billion of its own stock over the past decade. By reducing the number of shares outstanding, each remaining share receives a greater amount of earnings.

This year, the company's earnings per share increased 29% over the first three quarters. With such strong earnings growth, the company can afford to increase its dividend at high rates.

HAS Dividend

Source: Q3 Earnings Presentation, page 20

Hasbro's double-digit dividend growth makes it such an attractive stock for income.

Competitive advantages and recession performance

As a consumer products company, Hasbro's main competitive advantage lies in its brand strength. The company invests significantly in its key brands through R&D and advertising.

Hasbro's product development costs over the past three years are as follows:

2013 product development expense of $208 million.

2014 product development expense of $223 million.

2015 product development expense of $243 million.







In addition, Hasbro's advertising expense is as follows:

2013 advertising expense of $398 million.

2014 advertising expense of $420 million.

2015 advertising expense of $409 million.







Hasbro's competitive edge is enabled by its size. Along with Mattel, Hasbro has an approximately $10 billion market cap. They are two of the largest companies in their industry.

Hasbro has the financial strength to spend significantly on advertising and R&D. This spending helps it maintain its competitive advantages.

A strong brand helps the company remain profitable, even during deep recessions.

Hasbro's earnings per share during the Great Recession are shown below:

2007 earnings per share of $2.05.

2008 earnings per share of $2.00 (2.4% decrease).

2009 earnings per share of $2.48 (24% increase).

2010 earnings per share of $2.74 (10% increase).







As you can see, Hasbro suffered only a slight dip in earnings per share during the financial crisis. Its earnings quickly recovered in 2009 and were back to a new high in 2010.

Valuation and expected total returns

Hasbro stock trades for a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 23. It is slightly cheaper than the S&P 500 Index, which has an average P/E ratio of 26.

The stock is slightly cheaper than the broader large-cap index, but it is more expensive than it has been in years. Since 2000, Hasbro stock held an average P/E ratio of 14.5.

Consequently, investors should view Hasbro stock as fairly valued and perhaps slightly overvalued. With that in mind, it could be wise to wait until a minor correction before buying shares.

Still investors can earn good returns going forward, based on earnings-per-share growth and dividends.

Analysts on average expect Hasbro's earnings per share to increase 20% in 2016 and 9.5% in 2017. Based on these projections, it is reasonable to model 10% earnings-per-share growth over the long term.

As a result, future shareholder returns could be as follows:

5% to 7% revenue growth.

1% margin expansion.

2% share repurchases.

2.5% dividend yield.







Going forward, I expect Hasbro stock to return approximately 10.5% to 12.5% per year.

Final thoughts

Hasbro is seeing excellent growth in revenue and earnings per share. The company is highly profitable and returns lots of cash to investors through share repurchases and dividends.

The company should see continued growth, particularly in new geographic markets, thanks to its popular toys and games.

Hasbro is a Dividend Achiever giving the gift of dividends. The company is an example of a lower-yielding stock that can fit well into a dividend growth portfolio.

Disclosure: I am not long any of the stocks mentioned in this article.

Start a free seven-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






LONDON (Reuters) - "My tax return was on my yacht ... which caught fire" - just one of the dozens of unusual excuses the British government's tax collector said it receives each year from customers who fail to complete their returns on time.

"A wasp in my car caused me to have an accident and my tax return, which was inside, was destroyed," was another, while several blamed children, partners or colleagues for inadvertently destroying their forms.

"It's easy to see that some excuses for not completing a tax return on time can be more questionable than others," said Ruth Owen, HMRC Director General of Customer Services.

"But there will always be help and support available for those who have a genuine excuse for not submitting their return on time," she added in a statement.

Generally, taxpayers who self-assess must meet a deadline on Jan. 31 each year to complete their forms and pay outstanding sums.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs office (HMRC) said it expects to receive around 11 million self-assessment return forms this year.

"My wife helps me with my tax return, but she had a headache for ten days" was one unsuccessful appeal against the HMRC's penalty for late filing, which starts at 100 pounds.

Others, however, were more simple in their approach: "The postman doesnt deliver to my house."

(Reporting by Adela Suliman; editing by Stephen Addison)
(Reuters) - U.S. chocolate maker Hershey Co (HSY.N) named Chief Operating Officer Michele Buck as its chief executive and president, pinning its hopes on a company veteran to build on a recovery in demand in North America.

Buck, whose appointment is effective March 1, will succeed John Bilbrey, who said in October he would retire as CEO and president.

Buck, who joined Hershey in 2005, was the architect of the company's expansion into broader snacking categories and oversaw the acquisitions of Krave and barkThins brands, the company said on Wednesday.

The maker of Hershey's Kisses, which rejected a $23 billion offer from Mondelez International Inc (MDLZ.O) in August, had said Bilbrey will continue as the non-executive chairman.

Buck's promotion should not come as a surprise to investors, J.P. Morgan analyst Ken Goldman wrote in a client note.

Observers looking for deeper changes in Hershey's direction and/or culture probably were hoping for more of an outsider to take over, Goldman said. "The writing was on the wall when Ms. Buck was promoted to COO earlier this year."

Hershey said in October consumers were beginning to spend a little bit more confidently than before, with the company introducing new products to overcome weak demand in North America due to changing consumer tastes and growing competition.

Buck may also have to contend with the plans of the charitable trust that controls Hershey. The trust in July reached a major reform agreement with its overseer, the Pennsylvania attorney general's office.

Up to Wednesday's close of $103.17, the stock had fallen 7.6 percent since Hershey rejected Mondelez's offer in August. Hershey shares were marginally down in extended trading.

(Reporting by Aravind K and Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Shounak Dasgupta)
It may be the most wonderful time of the year in a child's eyes but it can also be downright hazardous: Between sparkly holiday decorations, festive gatherings with family members and friends, and thrilling gifts, the holidays are rife with unusual dangers for young children.

During the holiday season, an estimated 250 injuries occur each day that warrant a trip to the emergency room, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, and the biggest safety risks involve young children.

Part of the reason for the uptick in injuries among young kids at this time of year: "Around the holidays there are a lot of disruptions of normal routines and guests visiting and parental supervision might break down," says Dr. Gary Smith, president of the Child Injury Prevention Alliance in Columbus, Ohio. Since it's impossible to be vigilant every second of the day, it's wise to take extra precautions to prevent holiday cheer from turning to tragedy. Here's the 411 on some of the biggest holiday hazards for kids, with tips on how to safeguard against them:

Christmas Tree Dangers

You may realize that natural trees can pose a fire hazard if they're not watered regularly. For kids, there are other risks related to holiday trees: They can pull them over if they're not well-secured in a stand. Angel hair, which is made from spun glass, can cause eye or skin irritations, according to the National Safety Council, so your best bet is to avoid it. And if young children get their hands or mouths on the electric cords for lights and they have exposed or frayed wires, kids can get burned. The best precautions: Only use lights with intact cords, tape any cords to the floor and block off access to the tree (with a baby gate) when you're not present, advises Dr. LeAnn Kridelbaugh, president and chief medical officer of Children's Health Pediatric Group in Dallas.

Because they're colorful and often shiny, ornaments are also incredibly appealing to young kids -- and potentially dangerous. To prevent kids from getting their hands or mouths on them, place ornaments that are breakable or that have metal hooks, small parts or sharp edges high up on the tree. Reserve space lower on the tree for soft ornaments, which are safer for young kids.

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[See: 10 Concerns Parents Have About Their Kids' Health.]

Poisonous Plants

People often worry about having poinsettia plants in a home with young kids but these brightly hued plants aren't as dangerous as you may fear (though they can cause skin irritation or vomiting if they're ingested). Bigger worries, according to Kridelbaugh, include mistletoe, holly berries and amaryllis bulbs, all of which can cause vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration and drowsiness in kids (and pets). A reality check: Of the 668,111 plant ingestions reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers between 2000 and 2009, 81 percent occurred among children ages 5 and younger, according to a 2011 study in Clinical Toxicology. Teach your kids never to put any part of a plant in their mouths. But if there's ever any concern about whether something your child puts in his or her mouth is poisonous, call the national Poison Control Center at 800-222-1222.

Button Batteries

A 2012 study in Pediatrics found that battery-related emergency department visits in the U.S. increased significantly from 1990 to 2009, and 84 percent of these involved button batteries; kids ages 5 and younger accounted for the majority of these visits. These days, small lithium batteries (such as button batteries) are used in all sorts of toys, gadgets, electronic devices and even holiday cards (especially those with sound effects). If a child swallows one or stuffs it into an orifice, "the battery has enough charge in it to cause local tissue damage wherever it lodges -- and it can perforate the esophagus or nasal septum," Kridelbaugh says.

That's why it's important to keep these batteries stored out of the reach and sight of kids; also, make sure remote control devices have a child-resistant battery compartment that requires a screwdriver to open it. If your child swallows one of these batteries, head to the ER immediately. "This is a potentially life-threatening emergency and the clock is ticking," says Smith, who is also director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus. "There may not be any symptoms until it's too late."

[See: The 5 Latest Poison Control Threats Kids Face.]

Magnets

High-powered magnets may be super-cool toys or desktop diversions, but they can be lethal if a child swallows them. In 2014, the CPSC banned Buckyballs, a popular desktop toy consisting of small metal balls that can be arranged into patterns (thanks to their powerful magnets), because if a child swallows two or more, they can fuse inside the body: This could lead to an intestinal obstruction or pinching the walls of the intestine so strongly that it could cut off the blood supply and lead to tissue necrosis (death) and/or perforation. Following a court decision in November, Buckyballs are back on the market, even though the risks to children haven't changed. If a child swallows two or more, the outcome can be life-threatening or it can lead to permanent bowel problems, Smith warns. His advice: Don't allow these toys in your home if you have kids under age 10; keep them at your office.

Gift-Related Injuries

Toys with wheels -- scooters, skates, skateboards and bicycles -- are a huge hit with kids but there's a learning curve to being able to use them safely, Smith notes. Make sure you supervise your kids closely as they learn how to ride or use these toys. And be sure to give protective gear -- helmets, wrist guards and knee pads -- with them, advises Dr. Amy Kaji, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, to protect their bones. (Think of the latter as the gift of safety.)

Visitors' Medications

If you're hosting houseguests, politely remind them to keep their medications well out of the reach of children, not on the kitchen table or a nightstand. Blood pressure medications, blood thinners and prescription opioids are especially lethal for kids, Kridelbaugh says. "Child-proof caps are really only grandma-proof; they're not child-proof." Once again, kids ages 5 and younger are at the highest risk, given that they have the highest rate of unintentional drug-related poisonings, according to a 2012 study in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Party Fare

When young kids get a hold of spiked punch or unfinished cocktails during a holiday party, the results can be frightening and dangerous. "Because of their body weight, children require a smaller dose of alcohol for clinical effects to occur," Smith explains. "Children have low glycogen stores so when they get poisoned with alcohol, they can get altered mental status along with low blood sugar." In that case, a prompt trip to the ER is in order.

[See: 7 Health Risks of Binge Drinking You Can't Ignore.]

To sidestep this risk, keep all alcoholic beverages well out of the reach of young kids. (The same goes for chokable foods such as nuts, popcorn, grapes, hot dogs and hard candy if you have preschoolers around.) "Abandoned [cocktail or wine] glasses need to be picked up and cleaned right away," Kaji says. During a party, it's also wise to assign at least one adult (or a babysitter) to supervise the kids so you can enjoy the occasion with relative peace of mind, knowing the young ones will be kept safe.

Stacey Colino is a freelance Health & Wellness reporter at U.S. News. An award-winning writer specializing in health, fitness, psychology and nutrition, her work has appeared in dozens of national magazines, including Prevention, Health, Newsweek, Women's Health, Parents, Family Circle and Real Simple. In addition, she is the co-author of "Disease-Proof: The Remarkable Truth About What Makes Us Well" with Dr. David Katz; "Strong Is the New Skinny" with Jennifer Cohen; and "Good Food -- Fast!" with Chef Jason Roberts. She is also a certified spinning and group exercise instructor. You can connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at staceycolino@gmail.com.
In China, there is an alcohol that's been credited with improving international relations and uniting opposing empires. Described as the "drink of diplomacy," it takes five years to produce a single bottle, and for nearly 400 years it has been distilled using traditional techniques out of a single town in China's Guizhou Province. The beverage is Moutai: a strong, clear spirit that has won 14 international awards. This is the story of a fine local drink that doubles as a history book. This Great Big Story is a paid contribution by Guizhou, China.
By Alexandria Sage

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co said on Wednesday it had entered into formal talks with Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) new self-driving division Waymo to add self-driving technology to its vehicles, marking the second potential customer for the automation software.

The move comes just one week after Google spun off its self-driving unit into its own company named "Waymo" with a mandate to strike partnerships with automakers and others and commercialize the research it has been developing for over seven years.

The potential deal illustrates how automakers faced with the high costs of developing the new technology in-house are separating into those betting on developing it alone, such as Ford Motor Co (F.N) and General Motors Co (GM.N), and those turning to partnerships with suppliers to spread the costs.

Honda's announcement marks Google's second potential tie-up with an automaker over its self-driving technology. The first came in May, when the technology giant signed a deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCHA.MI) to incorporate the tech into the carmaker's minivans.

Unlike cash-strapped Fiat Chrysler, however, Honda has already committed its own resources to autonomous driving, and it said on Tuesday those efforts would continue.

While Honda has been less vocal about its plans for self-driving cars than larger rivals like Toyota Motor Corp , the Japanese automaker showed off a self-driving prototype in June it has been testing in Northern California. The carmaker foresees full autonomy on highways by 2020.

"In addition to these on-going (in-house) efforts, this technical collaboration with Waymo could allow Honda R&D to explore a different technological approach to bring fully self-driving technology to market," Honda said in a statement.

Honda said, as part of the collaboration talks, it could provide Waymo with vehicles modified to accommodate Waymo software, such as Fiat Chrysler has done with its Chrysler Pacifica minivans.

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Were a deal to be signed, Honda said its engineers in Silicon Valley and Tochigi, Japan would work closely with Waymo engineers.

A Waymo representative said the company was "looking forward to exploring opportunities to collaborate with Honda to advance fully self-driving technology and make our roads safer."

(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
DETROIT (AP)  Honda is in talks with Google to install the tech company's self-driving technology in Honda vehicles.

Honda says collaboration with the Google unit called Waymo would let researchers learn about integration of sensors, software and computers.

The automaker says that if a deal is reached, it will provide vehicles to Waymo that are modified to handle the technology. The Hondas would join Waymo's fleet that includes Lexus SUVs and Chrysler Pacifica minivans.

Honda has said it intends to put autonomous vehicles on highways around 2020.

The potential partnership would be the latest in a flurry of autonomous vehicle deals recently between technology companies and automakers.

Google has been working on software and sensors since 2009 and has been testing autonomous cars on public roads for several years.
HONOLULU (AP)  Honolulu's police chief surrendered his gun and badge Tuesday and went on paid leave from the department after receiving notification that he is the target of a federal investigation.

The investigation began more than a year ago. A federal grand jury is looking into allegations of civil rights abuses and corruption.

Stepping down was Louis Kealoha's decision, acting police commission Chairman Max Sword said.

Four other officers also received letters saying they are targets of the investigation. They are on restricted duty.

Deputy Chief Cary Okimoto is acting chief. "In this particular situation being that he's the chief of police ... if he was to be reassigned and walks around the station or is at a desk, people still see him as the chief," Okimoto said.

Earlier Tuesday, Kealoha said in a statement that he voluntarily restricted his police authority, but he didn't mention the decision to go on leave. "There is no economic advantage to my staying on as chief, but if I leave the department now, I give credence to the baseless attacks," Kealoha's statement, which was distributed by the department, said.

The paid leave is for 30 days while the commission figures out what to do, Sword said. The commissioners will meet on Jan. 4. Kealoha earns $190,408 annually.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell wants the commission to take decisive action to keep the issue from dragging on, said Honolulu Managing Director Roy Amemiya, who is acting mayor while Caldwell is vacationing abroad.

Attorney Myles Breiner said Kealoha has done nothing wrong and that the letter he received about the investigation was intended to intimidate his client.

Retired Officer Niall Silva pleaded guilty Friday to falsifying documents and altering evidence. He had testified at a 2014 trial against Gerard Puana, the uncle of Kealoha's wife, Katherine Kealoha. Puana had been accused of stealing the Kealohas' home mailbox, but the case ended in a mistrial after Louis Kealoha made inappropriate comments about Puana's criminal past. The charge was later dismissed.

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Federal public defender Alexander Silvert, who represented Puana, said the Kealohas framed his client in an attempt to discredit him in a lawsuit Puana filed accusing Katherine Kealoha, a Honolulu prosecutor, of mishandling his mother's assets. A jury later sided with Katherine Kealoha.

Now, Puana is suing five police officers and the Kealohas, who filed a lawsuit against the city's Ethics Commission and two of its former employees over investigations the couple called illegal.

"I will continue to stand up for my police officers even if it means continued criticism from those who either do not care to understand, or who are pursuing their own political agenda," Louis Kealoha's statement said.
At Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, the facility's maternity ward provides perks for new parents, such as champagne with chocolate-covered strawberries to celebrate the birth of the baby. And new parents get the option of having a "date night" with a candlelit dinner at the facility while staffers take care of the infant.

"It is important for every organization that serves the public to give the customer their best possible service," says Nancy Foster, vice president for quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association. "For a hospital, it is more than just a business imperative. Hospitals and other health care providers have a special role of serving patients and their families at some of the most challenging and critical times of their lives. Creating a soothing environment; engaging patients and family members in care decisions; enabling patients to have the support of family members and other loved ones at these times of great stress and ensuring they feel supported, informed and engaged is not only the right thing to do, it has been shown to promote healing."

[See: When Health Treatments Go From Hospital to DIY.]

I mproving the patient experience helps promote healing and makes good business sense, says Joe Leggio, director of patient and customer experience at Lenox Hill. "We've created certain experiences and amenities because our patients have asked for them," Leggio says. Patients provide input on what they'd like during their hospital stay in focus groups commissioned by Lenox Hill. "We try to give them what they want," Leggio says. "Health care is a world in which a lot of things are out of our control. One thing in our control is how we make people feel. If your mental state is good, that affects your physical state in a positive way. It's easy to be sad and depressed while you're at a hospital. If we can elevate your mood, you'll rest more, which will help you heal faster and be discharged sooner."

Providing positive experiences for patients is also good for the hospital's financial health, Leggio says. The health care field is highly competitive, and people who feel good about their hospital stay are more likely to recommend the facility that treated them. "People talk about their experiences, where they feel safe and cared for," Leggio says.

Changing the Physical Environment

In Utah, Intermountain Healthcare is developing pilot rooms designed to give patients more control over their stay. The rooms, scheduled to debut in 2017, will be equipped with an electronic tablet that lets patients control their room temperature, summon a nurse or watch a video about their diagnosis and treatment. "It's a way to give patients some sense of control over their physical environment and access to information they need about their diagnosis," says Katy Jo Stevens, director of patient information at Intermountain, which has 22 hospitals in the state.

At Sibley Memorial Hospital in the District of Columbia, Yoko Sen, an artist and musician, designed a "tranquility room" while working with the hospital's innovative hub -- a team of technology experts, product designers, engineers and Sibley clinicians who develop ways to make the hospital work better for patients and staff. The room features soothing music, aromatherapy and images of stars projected onto the privacy curtain that is standard in all patient rooms. The room is available for nurses and other staffers to use to relax; the idea is that if clinicians are well-rested, they will provide better care, hospital officials say. In the next year or so, Sibley officials plan on providing a cart or portable box to patients so they can create their own version of the tranquility room. The kit would include a laptop or tablet to project images of stars, the Northern lights or running water. Sibley officials say they believe the tranquility room could help patients feel more relaxed, which would improve their mood and promote healing.

[See: How Social Workers Help Your Health.]

Art Therapy

At the 634-bed Lenox Hill Hospital, officials provide art and music therapy for patients. Studies have shown that art therapy, such as drawing and painting, can help relieve pain in pediatric cancer patients.

At Lenox Hill, volunteers take art carts to any patient who requests one, Leggio says. Patients can use the cart to make beads and bracelets, which can be therapeutic, he says.

Lenox Hill also provides volunteer musicians, usually five days a week, depending on availability. These musicians use acoustic guitars and harps to play music for patients. "It's in such high demand, we try to have as many volunteers lined up as possible," Leggio says. And it's not just pleasant to listen to: One study, published in 2014 in the journal Cancer, found music therapy was beneficial to young adults and adolescents undergoing cancer treatment. The therapy, which included writing song lyrics and producing videos, boosted patients' resilience and ability to cope, the study found.

"It's very important for us to truly welcome people into our facility and make them feel safe, calm and cared for," Leggio says. "We're not a hotel, a luxury restaurant or resort, but we want to be pulling a page from each of their books to enhance our patients' experience here."

[See: 10 Questions Doctors Wish Their Patients Would Ask.]

Dying Wishes

Many hospitals have set up unofficial and official weddings inside their facilities for terminally ill patients. This month, staffers at Baptist St. Anthony's Hospital in Amarillo, Texas, organized a wedding for a man who was dying of leukemia. Hospital staff obtained a marriage license, and the Baptist St. Anthony chaplain officiated the wedding. The patient, who got married as he lay in his hospital bed, died 36 hours later.

In July, nurses at The Children's Hospital at Saint Francis in Tulsa, Oklahoma, quickly lined up a pastor, photographer and wedding planner after a teenager who was dying of bone cancer proposed to his girlfriend. The teenager died in September.

About a year and a half ago, at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California, staff members fulfilled the dying wish of a terminally ill cancer patient who wanted to marry his longtime girlfriend. Hospital staffers arranged for him to celebrate an unofficial wedding ceremony inside the 218-bed facility. They filled a charting room in the oncology wing with flowers and provided the bride with a bouquet and veil, says Charlene Freeman, patient relations director at the hospital. The patient died within about 10 days of the ceremony, and his family members were grateful the hospital allowed him and his girlfriend to "solidify their love," Freeman says. Weeks later, relatives of the groom shared photos of the ceremony with hospital staff members, along with a note saying how much they appreciated the event and how much it meant to have his last wish fulfilled.

A Commitment to Innovation

Thousands of hospitals nationwide have teams devoted to finding innovative ways to improve patient care and clinical work, according to a spokeswoman for the American Hospital Association. The Innovation Acceleration Program at Boston Children's Hospital, for example, provides the facility's employees a platform to come up with ideas to improve health care and make it safer and less costly.

Developing ideas to improve the patient experience is a high priority for Richard "Chip" Davis, president and chief executive officer at Sibley Memorial. The hospital's innovation hub team works in a spacious room that once held hospital records. To stimulate a "culture of innovation," Davis encourages Sibley's 2,200 employees -- from maintenance workers and orderlies to nurses and doctors -- to contribute ideas on how to improve the hospital experience. For example, a nurse developed a miniature replica of the operating room to help fellow nurses practice how to efficiently switch out instruments between operations. The operating room works on a tight schedule, and hospital officials don't have much opportunity to use it for such training, says Nick Dawson, executive director of the training hub. Davis also asks patients, their loved ones and people who live in the community for input.

Ruben Castaneda is a Health & Wellness reporter at U.S. News. He previously covered the crime beat in Washington, D.C. and state and federal courts in suburban Maryland, and he's the author of the book "S Street Rising: Crack, Murder and Redemption in D.C." You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him at LinkedIn or email him at rcastaneda@usnews.com.
Tyson Ross is drawing interest from a number of clubs. (Getty Images/Denis Poroy)

Welcome to The Stews Hot Stove Digest, our daily rundown of MLB news, rumors and gossip for Hot Stove season. Here youll find a quick recap of all the days action and other fun stuff from around the internet that we think is worth your time.

DRAWING INTEREST: About 20 teams are looking into free-agent pitcher Tyson Ross. The 29-year-old tossed just 5 1/3 innings in the majors last year before undergoing surgery to correct thoracic outlet syndrome. Though he was still under team control, Ross was surprisingly non-tendered by the Padres in December. From 2013 to 2015, Ross posted a 3.07 ERA, averaging over a strikeout per inning. He has a massive upside if he can stay healthy. The Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates are all in the mix for Ross. [@JonHeyman]

DONE DEAL: The Philadelphia Phillies acquired pitcher Clay Buchholz from the Boston Red Sox. In exchange for Buccholz, Philadelphia gave up second baseman Josh Tobias. The move is mostly viewed as a salary dump for Boston. The team already had a fair amount of pitching, and wanted to clear Buchholzs $13.5 million salary to stay under the luxury tax. Hell likely open the year in the Phillies rotation, but should be an interesting midseason trade candidate if he can stay healthy. [The Stew]

HES BACK: The San Diego Padres have resigned pitcher Clayton Richard. The 33-year-old fizzled out with the Cubs early in the year, but turned in a strong performance after going to San Diego. In 53 2/3 innings with the club, Richard posted a 2.52 ERA. [@JonHeyman]

MAKE A DEAL: The San Francisco Giants remain interested in Minnesota Twins second baseman Brian Dozier, though its unclear whether he makes sense for them. The Los Angeles Dodgers have been mentioned as a better landing spot for Dozier, and they have been the most persistent in trying to acquire him. Dozier, 29, hit .268/.340/.546, with 42 home runs, over 691 plate appearances last year. [@JonHeyman]

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Chris Colabello is looking to improve after a rough 2016. (Getty Images/Ronald C. Modra/Sports Imagery)

DONE DEAL: The Cleveland Indians have signed first baseman Chris Colabello to a minor-league deal. After a breakout season in 2015, in which he hit .321/.367/.520, Colabello was suspended early in the 2016 season after tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. He hit just .069 in 29 at-bats with the Toronto Blue Jays. He was activated after his suspension ended, but remained in the minors for the rest of the year. [@jcrasnick]

OH GOODY: The New York Yankees have traded pitcher Nick Goody to the Cleveland Indians for a player to be named later. The 25-year-old Goody posted a 4.66 ERA over 29 innings with New York last year. He was designated for assignment in order to make room for Aroldis Chapman. [@BryanHoch]

DONE DEAL: The Arizona Diamondbacks have agreed to a deal with outfielder Oswaldo Arcia. Arcia, 25, failed to catch on with four different clubs last year. He hit just .111/.149/.267 over 103 at-bats in the majors. Arcia showed power potential early in his career, but doesnt hit for high averages and is not a great defensive asset. [@JonHeyman]

COME ON BACK: The Padres have shown interest in reuniting with veteran Jake Peavy. Peavy, 35, struggled with the Giants last season, posting a 5.54 ERA over 118 2/3 innings. He began his major-league career in San Diego, and spent his first eight seasons with the club. [@JonHeyman]

YOU MADE IT: Miami Marlins pitcher Tom Koehler was excited to be featured on MLBs Instagram page Tuesday, but he probably would have preferred it happen a different way.

Tom Koehlers comment at the bottom has me dying. (CC: @CespedesBBQ) pic.twitter.com/REFBr9ZQX6  Isaac (@IB_BlueJays) December 21, 2016

More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:

      

Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) has been suffering ever since late 2015, when an E. Coli outbreak at dozens of its restaurants sickened 55 people in 11 states. The outlook for the fast-casual restaurant became bleaker after a second outbreak infected five more people, and after 80 Boston College students got sick from eating at a single Chipotle.

The bad PR has had a sustained negative effect on both the companys stock and sales. Chipotles same-store sales plummeted nearly 22% in the third quarter of 2016, and the stock has dropped nearly 25% since this time last year.

It will be tough for Chipotle to turn things around in 2017, especially since Moodys Investors Service is forecasting 2016 as just the start of a restaurant recession.

Indeed, Chipotles updated food safety protocols will not be enough to counteract the bad press its received and the troubles facing the restaurant industry as a whole. It needs to woo consumers with new menu items while also ensuring they dont associate Chipotle burrito bowls with diarrhea-inducing bacteria anymore.

The most important area of focus must be rebuilding consumer confidence and interest in the brand, Neil Saunders, managing director of Conlumino, a retail research agency, tells Yahoo Finance. That requires a strong marketing effort and initiatives like menu innovation.

Granted, Chipotle has already begun making changes to its menus. Chorizo, Chipotles newest protein, launched nationally in October and now accounts for 7% of entree sales. Continuing the trend of product innovation, Chipotle is testing two different desserts with the hopes of introducing one into the menu next year.

The company will also broadcast more TV ads to reach new customers. However, Saunders cautioned, It is unrealistic to expect such efforts to turn the business around immediately. Trust is easily lost and regaining it is a hard and prolonged effort.

This summer, Chipotle tried to ramp up its number of return customers through Chiptopia, a loyalty program that attracted 6 million members. Chipotle said the temporary program boosted sales in the second quarter. In 2017, the chain may end up using insights from Chiptopia to create a permanent loyalty program, Barclays analyst Jeffrey Bernstein wrote in a research note.

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The chain may also get more repeat customers by improving its customer service in 2017. This month, Chipotle CEO Steve Ellis revealed half of its restaurants have subpar customer service. With the restaurants focus on increasing food safety measurement, Ellis said, the focus on customers experience has decreased. Improving that customer experience will involve training on-the-ground employees to do things like picking up dirty napkins.

The company will also benefit from new high-level insights in 2017, as Chipotle named four new board members  including two who might end up calling for major changes at Chipotle since theyre aligned with activist Chipotle investor Bill Ackman.

For now, Barclays thinks the stock could hit $405 in 2017, which is a slight 3% increase from current levels. It could be a while before Chipotle gets back to a place where it was before its big E. Coli outbreak.

On the outlook of Chipotle in 2017, Saunders says, The next year will be one of recovery rather than a return to business as usual.

However, Saunders wrote in an October research note, One thing that will be helpful to Chipotle in the longer term is store expansion, which it kept up even during the crisis. Sales from these stores may generate greater profit when the recovery takes hold. However, he wrote, this is only a possibility and not a guarantee.

Even if Chipotle cant get any guarantees of a full recovery in 2017, its certain the fast-casual chain will continue making big changes to get at least some of its customers back.

See also:

The US consumer will be in particularly good shape in 2017: UBS

4 undergrad business programs more selective than Harvards MBA
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor Co's <005380.KS> top U.S. executive Dave Zuchowski has resigned effective immediately and has been replaced on an interim basis by the company's general counsel, a company spokesman said Wednesday. Trade publication Automotive News said Zuchowski, who has been chief executive of Hyundai Motor America since 2014, was fired for failing to meet sales objectives, but Hyundai spokesman Chris Hosford declined to confirm the report. Hyundai's U.S. sales are up 2 percent through November, while U.S. auto sales are up 0.1 percent. (Reporting by David Shepardson)
New Delhi (AFP) - India's central bank on Wednesday rolled back an order restricting deposits of banned rupee bills into bank accounts, after the move sparked a huge public backlash.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi unleashed chaos last month with his shock move to withdraw high-denomination 500 ($7.50) and 1,000 rupee notes from circulation, in an effort to tackle widespread corruption and tax evasion.

On Monday, just days before the December 30 deadline to swap old rupee bills for new ones, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that deposits of over 5,000 rupees in old banknotes would only be allowed once before the cut-off date.

People would also be required to explain why they had not deposited the money earlier.

The RBI reversed its decision Wednesday for all "verified" bank accounts, without giving a reason.

"On a review of above, we advise that provisions of the above circular... not apply," it said, citing the Monday order.

The restrictions had caused anger and confusion across the country, with local media reporting that some banks had declined deposits higher than 5,000 rupees.

Opposition parties had also attacked the move, with many Indians already facing a shortage of cash as ATMs run dry and long queues materialise outside banks across the country as people try to get rid of their old notes -- some 86 percent of all bills in circulation.

Modi has repeatedly defended the scheme, saying it will bring billions in so-called "black", or undeclared, money back into the formal system.

Political activist and Modi critic Yogendra Yadav lashed out at the government on Twitter.

"I was assured by the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and the RBI that there was no need to rush to the banks and that I had till 30 December for making any deposit. I believed them," Yadav tweeted.
By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's oil imports from Iran fell 19 percent in November from a record high the previous month after regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iraq raised sales to the world's third-biggest oil consumer, regaining their positions as the top two suppliers.

Shipments from Tehran, Western sanctions against which were lifted earlier this year, were about 620,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil in November, according to ship tracking data and a report compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts. That was down from 765,500 bpd in October, but well above 138,100 bpd in November 2016.

The November drop came before OPEC members and other global producers agreed to cut output in a bid to bolster weak oil prices. Iran, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), had been initially hesitant to cut production, but as Saudi Arabia - OPEC's largest producer - agreed to bear the lion's share of reductions, the landmark deal was agreed at the end of last month.

Supplies from Iran to India more than doubled in January-November to 468,900 bpd from 205,900 bpd in the same period last year, the data showed.

Overall, India imported an average 4.28 million bpd of crude in the January-November period of 2016, up 7.6 percent from 3.98 million bpd a year ago.

India's average Iranian oil imports in April-November - the first eight months of India's financial year - rose 126 percent to 532,100 bpd, the data showed. Tehran's share in overall purchases jumped to 12.5 percent from 5.9 percent.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
* Police foil planned suicide bombing, three suspects killed

* Suspects threw smaller bomb which failed to detonate - police

* One suspect captured, being interrogated by police

* Raid follows earlier arrests over planned suicide attacks

* Militants communicating with Indonesian Islamic State fighter (Recasts throughout with details, background, context)

By Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Gayatri Suroyo

JAKARTA, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Indonesian anti-terrorism police killed three suspects after a gunfight on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta, on Wednesday and foiled a suicide bomb plot, a police spokesman said.

The raid is the latest in a series over recent weeks that police say have disrupted bomb plots, raising concerns that homegrown militants in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation are getting bolder in their attempts to launch attacks.

Police said earlier this week that at least 14 people were being interrogated over suicide bomb plots targeting the presidential palace in Jakarta and an undisclosed location outside Java island. Both involved a female suicide bomber - a new tactic for Indonesian militants.

After Wednesday's raid, police said the suspects, who authorities believe are supporters of the Islamic State militant group, had planned to stab officers at a traffic post, and then detonate a "large, homemade" bomb as crowds gathered.

The attack was planned for the end of the year.

"The intention was for a suicide bomb," national police spokesman Rikwanto, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, told a news conference.

Police said a total of five bombs were found at the house in South Tangerang.

Television footage showed a bomb squad officer wearing a blast-resistant suit entering the house as locals watched from behind a police line.

"During the raid, we tried to be careful but they threw something from inside the house and it was a bomb but it did not explode. Then they fired from inside," Rikwanto earlier told Metro TV.

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He said one suspect was captured alive.

President Joko Widodo commended security forces for preventing attacks and called on the public to be vigilant against the spread of radicalism.

"We hope the public can also help fortify this country against terrorism and radicalism," Widodo said in a statement.

Indonesia has suffered several major militant attacks over the years, the worst of which was the 2002 bombing on the holiday island of Bali that killed 202 people, many of them foreigners.

That attack led to Western help and funding for Indonesia to develop an elite counter-terrorism unit, which has been effective in stamping out militant cells.

Authorities however now worry about a resurgence in radicalism, inspired in part by Islamic State.

A gun and bomb assault in the heart of Jakarta in January killed four people and was the first attack in Southeast Asia claimed by Islamic State.

Police have arrested dozens of suspected militants in recent months, including a cell in Indonesia's Batam island that planned a rocket attack on neighbouring Singapore.

Many suspects from the most recent arrests were found with military-grade explosives and police say they had been communicating with and receiving money from Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian militant known to be fighting with Islamic State in Syria.

(Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Paul Tait)
Members of Indonesias counterterrorism squad have shot dead three suspected terrorists and arrested one in South Tangerang, on the outskirts of Jakarta.

The three, who were armed with bombs, were killed during a raid in a rented house, Jakarta police chief Mochamad Iriawan told local media on Wednesday morning, shortly after the shootout. Police also found active bombs on the scene.

According to the authorities, the four suspects were allegedly planning to attack a police post near a hospital in Tangerang at the end of the year. They planned to stab police officers at the post, and when there were more officers and members of the public arriving, there would be a suicide bombing attack, said spokesman Raden Prabowo Argo Yuwono.

The suspected terrorists in Tangerang were believed to have links with 14 alleged jihadists who have been arrested in the past 10 days, including a female suicide bomber and three female accomplices; they were accused of plotting to bomb the presidential palace. The police named Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian ISIS jihadist in the Middle East, as a mastermind behind the plan to attack the palace, as well as other terrorist plots, including an attack that killed eight in Jakarta in January.

Two other terrorist suspects were arrested in two separate provinces in Sumatra on Wednesday, both of them are believed to have links with Bahrun.

Although Indonesias counterterrorism operations have had some success against jihadist groups, the Muslim-majority country remains a target of terrorist attacks. This year, Islamist militants have targeted houses of worship and police personnel in different cities. On Tuesday, police in Bali meanwhile safely detonated a low-explosive backpack bomb found in the popular tourist district of Ubud.
(Adds detail, background, shares)

Dec 21 (Reuters) - Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said its experimental Zika vaccine induced robust immune responses in an early-stage study in human volunteers who have not been infected with the virus.

The company's shares rose 6.6 percent to $7.39 in premarket trading on Wednesday.

The Zika virus has spread to more than 60 countries and territories since the current outbreak was identified last year in Brazil, raising alarm over its ability to cause the rare birth defect microcephaly as well as other neurological disorders in infants and adults.

There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the mosquito-borne virus, although a plethora of companies are racing to mount a defensive strategy to contain the virus.

Forty volunteers - inclusive of both low- and high-dose groups - demonstrated Zika-specific immune responses after one or two vaccinations, Inovio said, adding there were no significant safety concerns after 14 weeks from the initiation of dosing.

Inovio's DNA vaccine is injected along with a brief low voltage electronic pulse that induces cell membranes to open, making them more receptive, in theory, to accepting the vaccine's genetic material.

The prospect of a blockbuster vaccine has also attracted the interest of big drugmakers, including Sanofi SA, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

(Reporting by Natalie Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D'Couto)
Movie star, mogul and mom Reese Witherspoon discusses how she balances it all and how shell be spending the holidays. Subscribe now to get an inside look at how she does it, only in PEOPLE!

Whether shes borrowing from her childhood memories or creating new ones with her kids, Reese Witherspoon and her family love their holiday traditions.

Even though they are growing up, my kids already have really fond memories of our Christmas traditions, the Sing star tells PEOPLE in this weeks cover story. Gingerbread houses, and we have to have Advent calendars. These are things where you think, Oh, theyre not noticing  but then I forgot the Advent calendars this year, and Deacon was like, Mom! Where are they?! I didnt realize how important they were to him!

This year Witherspoon and her brood  daughter Ava, 17, son Deacon, 13 (from her first marriage to actor Ryan Phillippe), and son Tennessee, 4 (with her husband of five years, agent Jim Toth)  will spend the holidays traveling to see family in Georgia and Tennessee.

But no matter where she celebrates, Witherspoons southern roots are on full display. Her clothing line, inspired by her grandparents, who she writes on Draper James website taught me everything I know about gracious southern living, features a host of new holiday arrivals and gift ideas. In the photo above, Witherspoon wears Draper James Embroidered Preston Top ($185) and the Amaryllis Apron ($48) above, and below, the lines Winter Deer Skirt ($195).

Courtesy Draper James

For more on Witherspoons holiday traditions, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

Even her go-to holiday food, the down-south classic honey-baked ham, and her favorite Yuletide activities, Christmas caroling, trace back to her childhood in the south. I love Christmas caroling, she says. I remember bundling up and walking around the neighborhood. Its one of my favorite holiday memories from being a kid in Nashville.

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RELATED VIDEO: By The Numbers: Reese Witherspoons 2 Donkeys, 4 Southernized Impressions and More!

Now, the actress kids are forming holiday favorites of their own. Ava bakes tons of cookies, Tennessee likes to make waffles with me, and Deacon is such a good helper, hell help with anything, Witherspoon, wearing Draper James Wreath Witherspoon Dress ($195) below, says.

A little extra help goes a long way for Witherspoon, who can get pretty busy with raising her kids, promoting her new animated movie Sing and running Draper James, among other things.

Courtesy Draper James

Last month, she also announced the launch Hello Sunshine, a new cross-platform brand and consumer-facing content company dedicated to telling female-driven stories. Her production company Pacific Standards is now part of Hello Sunshine. The company will begin to share content in 2017 at Hello-Sunshine.com, as well as across other platforms.

So its understandable the actress and producer doesnt usually have much energy left for New Years resolutions.

I usually have the same ones everyone has. Drink more water, exercise, eat healthier  but I just break all of em, so I dont pressure myself, she says with a laugh. Im like, Im doing enough! If I do any more, Im going to fall over!




FRANKFURT, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Germany's International Campus, insurer Allianz and a European investor represented by U.S. real estate company CBRE will launch a fund to finance pan-European student housing, in a sign of continued growth in the yield-promising property sector.

International Campus, which operates around 7,200 student housing apartments in Germany and the Netherlands, said in a statement on Wednesday that the initial portfolio comprised four fully rented buildings, as well as four ongoing projects.

The investors declined to disclose the portfolio's purchase price, International Campus said, adding that the new fund called "THE FIZZ Student Housing Fund S.C.S." was preparing further acquisitions.

The Luxemburg-registered fund has a 70 percent equity ratio and will run for an initial duration of 10 years, the statement said.

Over the last year, a growing number of global investors have tapped into Germany's student housing market, tempted by yields not available elsewhere and driven by the country's popularity among international students and a lack of small apartments.

($1 = 0.9612 euros) (Reporting by Tina Bellon; Editing by Maria Sheahan)
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / December 21, 2016 / Lundin Law PC, a shareholder rights firm, announces that it is investigating claims against Abeona Therapeutics Inc. ("Abeona" or the "Company") (ABEO) 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.

Mako Research published a report on SeekingAlpha.com stating, "ABEO science is demonstrably unviable with numerous irrefutable flaws that will lead to failure." The report found that Steven H. Rouhandeh, the Company's Executive Chairman and Principal Executive Officer, was the managing director at D. Blech & Co., a brokerage firm that was the subject of SEC investigations during the 1990s, as well as a securities class action suit that ended in a $15 million investor settlement due to allegations that the firm changed the price of some biotech stocks through transactions that falsely inflated the market price of the stocks to maintain the firm's interest in these stocks. When this information was disclosed to the public, the value of Abeona fell, 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
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LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / December 21, 2016 / Lundin Law PC, a shareholder rights firm, announces a class action lawsuit against InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. ("InfuSystem" or the "Company") (NYSE MKT: INFU) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws between May 12, 2015 and November 7, 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.

According to the Complaint, InfuSystem made false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: that InfuSystem lacked effective internal control over financial reporting; that the Company's financial statements from back to the beginning of 2015 overstated the estimated accounts receivable collections, which then overstated revenues and pre-tax income by a corresponding amount; that financial statements dating back to the beginning of 2015 could no longer be relied upon; and that as a result of the above, the Company's financial statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When this news was announced, shares of InfuSystem fell in value, causing investors harm.

Lundin Law PC was founded by Brian Lundin, a securities litigator based in Los Angeles dedicated to upholding the rights of shareholders.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in certain 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
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / December 21, 2016 / Lundin Law PC (http://lundinlawpc.com/) announces that it is investigating claims against New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. ("New Oriental" or the "Company") (EDU) 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.

Reuters published an article December 2, 2016 revealing that New Oriental has been accused of engaging in college application fraud. The article states, "[e]ight former and current New Oriental employeestold Reuters the firms have engaged in college application fraud, including writing application essays and teacher recommendations, and falsifying high school transcripts." The same day, Reuters released an update claiming that, due to its earlier report detailing academic fraud allegations at New Oriental, the American International Recruitment Council ("AIRC") "will investigate the company in response to the report", and the AIRC's president-elect called the allegations "highly concerning." When this information was released to the public, the value of New Oriental fell sharply on December 2, 2016, causing investors serious harm.

Lundin Law PC was created by Brian Lundin, a securities litigator based in Los Angeles.

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
KOY SANJAQ, Iraq (Reuters) - An Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group accused Iran on Wednesday of a bombing that killed five of its fighters and an Iraqi Kurdish policeman in northern Iraq. A twin explosion late on Tuesday hit the offices of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in Koy Sanjaq, east of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region. After the first blast, a second, larger one went off as members of the group and police rushed to the spot, PDKI central committee member Asso Hassan Zadeh told Reuters. "There is no doubt that it's the Iranian regime," Hassan Zadeh said, speaking at the fighters' funerals. "But in any case we will not stop our struggle." In June and July, PDKI fighters fought Iranian Revolutionary Guards in northwestern Iran, with several killed on both sides. Hassan Zadeh said Iranian forces had initiated those clashes. He said the PDKI members involved in that fighting were not in Iran to attack the Iranian military. "They were only there conducting organizational and political activities, to be in touch with our people and to be present inside our country," he said. Irans 8 to 10 million Kurds mostly live in the northwest, close to Iraqi and Turkish Kurdish communities across the border. The PDKI says it has no official ties or shared operations with other Kurdish groups in Iraq, Turkey or Syria. No Iranian government spokesman could be reached for comment. (Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
According to IMDb, Isabelle Huppert has more than 100 movie credits, although when she came to tape the latest edition of my new video series The Actors Side, she told me she didnt think that was even possible. Whatever the number, there is probably no actor in the world more revered by her colleagues than Huppert.

And now she is reaping the fruits of that acclaim, taking numerous Best Actress awards for one of her latest films, Elle, from NY, LA and Boston critics, the Gotham Awards, and on and on. She is nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actress  Drama, and is considered a likely nominee for her first ever Oscar nomination for the risky role that several A-list American actresses turned down when the Paul Verhoeven movie  which looks at the rape of a woman from surprising points of view  was originally going to be made as an English-language film. Verhoeven recently told me at our The Contenders event that in fact the movie would not have been possible without Huppert, an actress who has proven time and again that she can tackle any kind of role and make it uniquely her own.

Huppert may be looking at her first Oscar nomination, but she is no stranger to awards, having received an astounding 15 Cesar nominations in France (with one win) and two Best Actress wins in Cannes. That record alone shows the breadth of her achievements and the range of her talent. We discussed Elle, her remarkable career which also includes an unending love for the stage, the notorious American film Heavens Gate in which she co-starred, and much more.

Elle is currently in release from Sony Pictures Classics. She can also be seen currently in Things To Come.

Check out our conversation above.



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(BERLIN)  The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Tuesday for a truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that German authorities said came right out of the extremist groups playbook, inflicting mass casualties on a soft target fraught with symbolic meaning.

The Monday night attack on the popular market by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the heart of former West Berlin left 12 dead and 48 injured  the first mass casualty attack by Islamic extremists carried out on German soil. German security forces were still hunting for the perpetrator after releasing a man from custody for lack of evidence.

The claim of responsibility carried on ISISs Amaq news agency described the man seen fleeing from the truck as a soldier of the Islamic State who carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition.

Germany is not involved in anti-ISIS combat operations, but has Tornado jets and a refueling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, among other assets.

The claim of responsibility came not long after German prosecutors said they had released a man picked up near the scene of the attack, initially suspected of driving the truck.

The man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany last year, was taken into custody based on a description from witnesses of a suspect who jumped out of the truck and fled after the attack.

Even before his release, officials had expressed doubt the man was behind the attack.

We may still have a dangerous criminal out there, warned Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt, whose office urged people to be particularly vigilant and report suspicious movement using a special hotline.

Though Germany had not seen any successful mass-casualty Islamic extremist attacks until Monday, attempts and recent attacks in neighboring France and Belgium had made many feel it was inevitable.

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Weve all been prepared that something like this could happen, so we were not surprised, said economics student Maximilian Much.

The 24-year-old Berliner said the attack hit home because hed often visited the Christmas market with his girlfriend, but that he wouldnt let himself be led by emotion.

Im not going to change my life style now, he said. The chances that I get killed in a car or bike accident are bigger.

Germanys top prosecutor, Peter Frank, told reporters the attack on the popular market was reminiscent of Julys deadly truck rampage in Nice and appeared to follow instructions published by ISIS.

There is also the prominent and symbolic target of a Christmas market, and the modus operandi that mirrors at least past calls by jihadi terror organizations, Frank said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the attack bears the hallmarks of previous terror attacks, but said U.S. officials didnt have enough information to back up the IS claim of responsibility. There is no direct evidence of a tie or a link to a terrorist organization, he said.

The man arrested near the scene denied any involvement in the attack. Under German law, prosecutors have until the end of a calendar day following an arrest to seek a formal arrest warrant keeping a suspect in custody.

Prosecutors said they decided to release him after turning up no forensic evidence proving he was in the trucks cab during the rampage, and no witnesses who were able to follow him from the scene to where he was picked up.

Among the injured was Inaki Ellakuria, who underwent surgery Tuesday for a broken tibia and fibula on his left leg. He said he knew immediately it was no accident.

It came fast, too fast to be driving off the road accidentally, the 21-year-old student from Spain tweeted only minutes after the attack. It has swept me and ran over both of my legs.

Read More: It Happened So Fast: Eyewitnesses Speak of Horror of Berlin Christmas Crash

Juan Jose Ellakuria told the Associated Press his son also suffered broken bones in his right ankle and instep, as well as damage to his hip.

Hes come out of surgery and hes making good progress, Ellakuria said.

Frank, the German prosecutor, said there were still a lot of unanswered questions.

We dont know for sure whether it was one or several perpetrators, he said. We dont know for sure whether he, or they, had support. These investigations arent concluded yet.

Witnesses saw only one man flee from the truck after it hurtled through the market for 60 to 80 meters (200 to 260 feet) before coming to a stop near the 19th-century church, which was badly damaged in World War II bombing but left standing as a memorial to the destruction of the war.

The head of the Federal Criminal Police Office said authorities had yet to find a pistol that is believed to have been used to kill the Polish truck driver who was supposed to be delivering the steel beams the truck was carrying.

The Polish owner of the truck, Ariel Zurawski, said he last spoke with the driver, his cousin, around noon on Monday and he told him he was in Berlin and scheduled to unload Tuesday morning.

They must have done something to my driver, he told TVN24.

Flags flew at half-staff on government buildings across the country Tuesday, and in Berlin the national and city flags were projected onto the Brandenburg Gate in tribute to the victims.

Authorities said that in addition to the Polish truck driver, six of the people killed were German but the others have not yet been identified.

Germans have been increasingly wary since two attacks by asylum-seekers last summer were claimed by ISIS. Five people were wounded in an ax rampage on a train near Wuerzburg and 15 were wounded in a bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, both in the southern state of Bavaria. Both attackers were killed.

Those attacks and two others unrelated to Islamic extremism in the same weeklong period, contributed to tensions in Germany over the arrival last year of 890,000 migrants.

Far-right groups and a nationalist party seized on Monday nights attack, blaming Chancellor Angela Merkel for what happened.

Under the cloak of helping people Merkel has completely surrendered our domestic security, wrote Frauke Petry, the co-chairwoman of the Alternative for Germany party.

Read More: New York City Heightens Security at Holiday Markets Following Berlin Attack

The attack also raised concerns of a possible backlash.

No question, the atmosphere in this country will change and become more tense, said Tarik Elsayed, the 22-year-old German-born son of Egyptian parents.

Of course, as an Arab I will get more hostile looks, it will get only worse now.

But Tarek Elmasoudi, an Egyptian asylum-seeker, said he wasnt afraid of repercussions. The Germans are very nice and I want to stay here.

Already under pressure for the huge influx of migrants, Merkel addressed head-on the possibility that an asylum-seeker was responsible for the carnage.

I know that it would be particularly hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that a person committed this act who asked for protection and asylum in Germany, she said in a nationally televised statement.

This would be particularly sickening for the many, many Germans who work to help refugees every day and for the many people who really need our help and are making an effort to integrate in our country.

Twelve people who were still among us yesterday, who were looking forward to Christmas, who had plans for the holidays, arent among us anymore, she said. A gruesome and ultimately incomprehensible act has robbed them of their lives.

___

Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber, Ciarian Fahey and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Aritz Parra in Madrid, Bradley Klapper in Washington and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel was looking into the possibility of bringing wounded refugees from the Syrian city of Aleppo to Israeli hospitals for treatment. Many wounded in Syria's civil war have been brought discreetly across the Israeli-occupied Golan frontline to Israeli hospitals for the past three years, although Israel and its northern neighbor are formally in a state of war. "We're prepared to take in wounded women and children, and also men if they are not combatants ... bring them to Israel, take care of them in our hospitals, as we've done with thousands of Syrian civilians," Netanyahu said at a meeting with foreign reporters in Jerusalem. "I've asked the foreign ministry to seek ways to expand our medical assistance to the civilian casualties of the Syrian tragedy, specifically in Aleppo," he said. In Syria, an operation to evacuate civilians and fighters from rebel-held eastern Aleppo has now brought out 37,500 people since late last week, Turkey said. The people are brought to opposition-controlled areas and should then choose where to go. The International Committee of the Red Cross put the number evacuated since the operation began on Thursday at only 25,000. The evacuations are part of a ceasefire arrangement that ends fighting in Aleppo, once Syria's most populous city. (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Tom Heneghan)
Ramla (Israel) (AFP) - Israeli ex-president Moshe Katsav was freed from prison Wednesday after prosectors declined to appeal a parole board decision to release him after he served five years of a seven-year term for rape.

Katsav, 71, did not speak to a crowd of journalists gathered outside the Maasiyahu prison near Tel Aviv as he left while surrounded by family.

He was convicted in December 2010 of two counts of rape, sexual harassment, indecent acts and obstruction of justice.

The Iran-born bureaucrat, who rose from impoverished origins as a child immigrant, resigned from the largely ceremonial role of president in June 2007 and became an outcast of the political establishment.

When he entered prison in December 2011, he became the first former president to be jailed in Israel since its creation in 1948.

Katsav had been rejected twice by the parole board since he became eligible for the customary one-third reduction for good behaviour.

He had maintained his innocence, and his previous applications were turned down in part because he had expressed no remorse over his crimes and undergone no rehabilitative process.

Women's rights groups had especially criticised his refusal to acknowledge the facts that led to his conviction and to express regrets.

Israeli media reported, however, that the parole board in its latest decision, announced on Sunday, found that Katsav had more recently "undergone a change".

"The prisoner was asked many questions by the committee members regarding the circumstances of the offence, the victims' positions, his attitude to the victims and his understanding of his acts and their consequences, and the committee members were impressed by the honesty of his intentions," Haaretz newspaper reported the board as saying.

Israel's justice ministry announced Wednesday that prosecutors would not appeal the parole board's decision. They had been given a one-week deadline to do so.

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- Release criticised -

Katsav will face restrictions on his movements including a ban on overseas travel and a requirement to be at home between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am.

Judiciary sources said he would also not be allowed to grant an interview for two years, the time he would have had to serve the remainder of his sentence.

The decision to free him has been criticised by a group of opposition lawmakers including the leader of the Meretz party, Zehava Galon.

"This is a dangerous message that you can attack women and get away with it with the least punishment provided you are well-connected," they said in a statement.

A member of the right-wing Likud party, Katsav in 2000 became Israel's first conservative president and the first born in an Islamic country.

For months he defied enormous public pressure to quit over the allegations before ultimately resigning as part of a plea bargain in 2007.

He was replaced as head of state by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and elder statesman Shimon Peres, his rival for the post in a 2000 vote. Peres died in September.

One of eight children, Katsav was born in December 1945 and arrived in Israel three years after the 1948 war of independence.

He was the first Israeli head of state to visit Austria, once annexed by Adolf Hitler as part of Nazi Germany, and Croatia, where an estimated 75 percent of its 40,000 Jews were killed during the World War II Holocaust.

One of Katsav's fellow inmates at Maasiyahu was former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who entered prison in February and is serving 27 months for corruption.

Olmert is the first former Israeli premier to serve jail time.
Local level restructuring: 725 units suggested in LLRCs final report

Nine months after its formation, the Local Level Reconstruction Commission (LLRC) has finally completed its report, recommending around 725 local units (village and municipal councils) in the new federal set-up.
By Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israel's ambassador to the United States issued an impassioned endorsement on Tuesday of President-elect Donald Trump's promise to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, a move that would mark a break with longstanding U.S. foreign policy. Ron Dermer, the Israeli envoy to Washington, made the statement less than a week after Trump announced his decision to nominate as ambassador to Israel David Friedman, a pro-Israel hardliner who supports continued building of Jewish settlements and the shifting of the embassy from Tel Aviv. Speaking at an Israeli embassy Hanukkah party, Dermer insisted that moving the U.S. diplomatic mission would be a great step forward to peace, rather than inflaming the Arab world, as critics of the idea have warned. Israel and the Palestinians, who are seeking a state of their own, both claim Jerusalem as their capital. Successive U.S. administrations have said the citys status must be negotiated. If Trump makes good on his campaign promise, it would upend decades of U.S. policy and draw international condemnation. Jerusalem is home to sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians. Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official warned on Friday that moving the embassy to Jerusalem would mean the destruction of the peace process as a whole. The last U.S.-backed talks on Palestinian statehood collapsed in 2014. Dermer, without mentioning Trump or his ambassador-designate by name, said the embassy move should have happened a long time ago. Among the main reasons, he told a crowd that included foreign diplomats and American Jewish community leaders: "It would send a strong message against the de-legitimization of Israel. Dermer said he hoped that next year when the new U.S. ambassador lights the traditional Hanukkah candles in his embassy, he will do so in Jerusalem. Dermers comments appeared more forceful than recent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long vowed to keep Jerusalem as Israels undivided capital. Netanyahu, who has had a fractious relationship with President Barack Obama, has welcomed Trump's election but seems to be waiting to see what policies he implements. The conservative premier is reported to have been pleased with Trumps appointment of Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer and close friend of Trump who has no diplomatic experience, and members of his right-wing government have welcomed the choice. Friedman has served as president of a U.S. group that raised money for one settlement and has advocated that Israel annex the West Bank, as it did with Arab East Jerusalem following its capture in the 1967 Middle East war in a move not recognized internationally. Liberal Jewish-American activists have sharply opposed Friedmans appointment and are urging the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate not to confirm his nomination. (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Leslie Adler)
(Recasts after parliament vote)

By Giuseppe Fonte and Valentina Za

ROME/MILAN, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Italy's parliament gave the green light on Wednesday for a 20 billion euro ($20.8 billion) plan to prop up the country's weaker banks, starting with a bailout as early as this week for the third largest, Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

The Tuscan lender, recently judged the weakest of the European Union's major banks, needs to erase a mountain of bad loans and raise 5 billion euros in capital by the end of this month or risk being wound down by European regulators.

But its hopes of raising the money from private investors, via a debt-for-equity swap and a share placement that ends on Thursday, are fading. A failure of Monte dei Paschi would rock Italy's banking system, the euro zone's fourth largest.

In the latest prospectus for the deal, the bank warned it could run out of liquidity in four months -- compared to a previous 11 months estimate published as recently as Sunday.

It also said a key investor in its rescue plan, bank bailout fund Atlante, had set new conditions for its participation.

If Monte dei Paschi's capital plan fails, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni's new government is likely to meet this week to issue an emergency decree to inject capital into it.

But that could prove to be politically explosive given that investors are required to bear losses under EU bailout rules.

Parliamentary approval for the 20 billion euro government plan was needed to allow the state to take on new debt. Italy's debt burden, at about 133 percent of annual output, is already the second highest in the euro zone after Greece.

The measure approved by parliament on Wednesday says the state can borrow money to provide "an adequate level of liquidity into the banking system" and can reinforce a lender's capital by "underwriting new shares".

The failure of Monte dei Paschi, the world's oldest bank, would threaten the savings of thousands of Italians and could undermine confidence in the country's wider banking sector, saddled with a third of the euro zone's total bad loans.

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Before the vote, Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan vowed to shield retail bank investors from losses.

"The impact on savers, if a (government) intervention should take place, will be absolutely minimised or non-existent," Padoan told parliament.

Monte dei Paschi said it expected its net liquidity position, now at 10.6 billion euros, to turn negative after four months.

It also said Atlante's plan to buy bad loans would go ahead only if the state took part in the bank's cash call for no more than 1 billion euros and without triggering state bailout rules.

The bank's shares fell as much as 18 percent on the liquidity concerns, but cut losses after news that parliament had approved the government's 20-billion euro safety net.

($1 = 0.9606 euros) (Writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Mark Bendeich)
Photo credit: Twitter/JK_Rowlingundefined

From Seventeen

Donald Trump tried to give the world an update on foreign affairs through Twitter last Saturday, sharing the news that China had seized a U.S. Navy drone from international waters.

But the message sorta got lost when the internet became preoccupied with a major spelling error in Trump's tweet: He wrote the word "unprecedented" as "unpresidented," and users immediately set to roasting him for it. Author J.K. Rowling joined right in.

When one Trump supporter tried to call Jo out for nitpicking, she nitpicked their tweet, too.

In the end, everyone knows Rowling's correction was more about her well-documented disapproval of Trump than her disdain for spelling errors. When one Trump supporter told the author to mind her own business because she doesn't live in the U.S., she reminded the user that the president affects more than just the United States.

Basically, J.K. Rowling is savagely outspoken about her opposition to Donald Trump and will not back down.

Trump eventually deleted the tweet and posted a revised version with the correct spelling of unprecedented. But screenshots are forever.

China has since returned the seized drone - even though Trump felt China should just keep it.

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We should tell China that we don't want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it! - Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2016

Talk about "unpresidented."

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Jack Bogle, founder and retired CEO of The Vanguard Group, speaks during the Global Wealth Management Summit in New York in this June 17, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/Files

"Main Street hasn't been taking its fair share."

That's according to Jack Bogle, the founder of the $3.5 trillion fund behemoth Vanguard.

He's referring to the cost of investing and the portion of investment returns that finds its way to brokers, distributors, and Wall Street at large.

Bogle has been at the forefront of the effort to change that. He launched Vanguard in 1975 and created the world's first index fund soon after. An index fund tracks the movement of an index, often the S&P 500, and charges much lower fees than funds that are actively managed.

Index investing is set to benefit from a Department of Labor rule that is meant to protect retirement savers from the conflicts of interests of financial advisers. Firms like Vanguard are expected to benefit from the new rule. With President-elect Donald Trump's win, however, the future of that rule has come under question.

Business Insider caught up with Bogle to talk about the future of the rule, index investing, and the shift in power from Wall Street to Main Street.

What follows is an edited transcript of the conversation.

Rachael Levy: What do you think will happen to the fiduciary rule under President-elect Trump?

Jack Bogle: I'm not sure if I have any great insights  it's a very mercurial administration. I don't think they have any idea what they're going to try to do.

It seems to me, pragmatically, it's very difficult to step back from a rule that's so obviously needed.

Who are you making money for  your firm or your client?

Fiduciary means putting the client first, and as I have observed in the past, the only other rule we have is the client comes second.

It seems equally clear to me that it's only a matter of time that the SEC adopts a comparable rule for all accounts. [The fiduciary rule, set to go into effect in April 2017, covers only retirement money.]

The idea that I have a retirement account with a broker and he takes good care of me, and I have a personal account [and the broker's interest comes first] just flies in the face of common sense. If his customers don't have retirement plans, he doesn't worry about things  he sticks with the whole suitability rule. [Under the current setup, advisers that have not opted to be fiduciaries only have to provide investments that are suitable, not necessarily ones in the best interest.]

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donald trump

All of this makes it seems like it will be hard to walk back this fiduciary rule into oblivion. Expenses have become a big thing with funds. Index funds are taking the huge capital inflows. Cost consciousness, that's what lies at the heart of all this. Who are you making money for  your firm or your client? Main Street hasn't been taking its fair share.

So the trend is to increase the share of stock market returns that goes to investors and reduce the share of stock market returns that goes to brokers and distributors and the whole Wall Street apparatus.

We're reducing the share that goes to Wall Street and increasing what goes to Main Street. The great thing about the fiduciary rule is it moves up the timetable.

Financial advisers [registered with the government] are already under fiduciary rule, but brokers are sellers  they live by making trades, they live by commissions. They've been operating under this so-called suitability rule. You can find a perfectly suitable investment that's too expensive.

Levy: What do you think about the criticism against the rule, that firms won't be able to service low-balance accounts because of increased compliance costs?

Bogle: I don't see why that should happen. Firms seem to me that they are dropping front-end loads, but they can get paid on a percentage of assets. There isn't a lot of cost saving there.

These are good people  they're not ill motivated. It's just how the system has worked, and the system has worked badly.

The trend is to increase the share of stock market returns that goes to investors.

Rules can be changed. I don't think the Department of Labor and ultimately the SEC are going to want a rule that deprives smaller investors of an ability to save money for the future. What we have to do here is make it so easy to do that you may not even need an adviser.

Levy: Aren't you going to be a big beneficiary of the rule because more assets would go into index funds? The rule is expected to push money out of actively managed funds into passively managed ones because the costs are easier to justify as in the best interest of the retirement saver.

Bogle: I agree with that. And I would welcome, personally welcome, many more firms to start offering index funds. When you think of the traditional index funds  and I'm leaving out ETFs  I call them TIFs, 80% of those assets are at Vanguard, 10% are at Fidelity, and 5% are spread among T. Rowe Price, JPMorgan, Charles Schwab.

Levy: So why don't more firms want to go into indexing?

t rowe price

Bogle: All the money goes to the investor rather than the manager. Thirty of the 50 largest mutual fund firms are owned by conglomerates, and they're in the business to make money for themselves. That's the American way, and it doesn't work very well in finance for the investor. So we're moving into a sea change in the way people invest.

Levy: Why are some of these firms against the fiduciary rule?

Bogle: They realize that this fiduciary idea, one of the highly likely [effects] is to have more people going into indexing without paying the high prices you get with actively managed funds.

If we have a 7% market return, those who index, which is about a third of the industry, will earn 6.95%. Those who own active funds will get 7% and take two points out of it for sales loads, etc. So they'll get 5%.

You put up 100% of the investment, you took 100% of the risk, and you got 33% of the return over a lifetime. If investors could just see that emblazoned in the lights of Times Square, this [shift to indexing] would happen even faster.

Anybody is free to compete in the index area. I think we need more competitors, but where are they?

If it's better for Main Street, it's worse for Wall Street.

If it's better for Main Street, it's worse for Wall Street.

I think there will be some bumps in the implementation for this rule. I believe they are rectifiable, and if they are justifiable they will be fixed.

Levy: What do you think in the rule needs to be fixed?

Bogle: I haven't read the whole thing  it's 300 pages or something. It's very awkward, cumbersome. A lot of data has to be kept. A lot of info has to go from the buyer and seller. There's this BIC ["best interest contract"] exemption, so it's very bureaucratic. Because it comes from a bureaucracy, that might be the only way to do it, but if there are places where the shoe pinches, well then let's fix it.

The SEC also has an opportunity here to write a tighter rule.

Levy: Why do you think there has been this pushback against the fiduciary rule?

Bogle: Sure, they're worried about the administrative burdens, but second, I think they're worried that the fiduciary rule leads to much more indexing, and they don't want to do indexing. They want to do it at a very high price, which just isn't going to cut it with investors.

The whole point of the index fund is to give the investor his or her fair share of what the stock market was generous to give us  or mean enough to take away from us.

cliff asness

Levy: What do you think of the criticism of indexing, that it leads to too much concentration, overvaluation of stocks?

Bogle: There is a lot of concentration. BlackRock is probably doing 40% of the ETF business. We're probably doing 30%. State Street is probably doing 20% or 25%. And that's a lot of concentration.

Levy: But what about the concentration in stocks?

Bogle: That's not much of a problem because these funds don't trade. The amount that goes into index as a value of the total stock market is not that big. It's not as if the market goes up, the stocks in the fund go up the same way. The turnover in index funds probably runs about 4%.

I would also add that when I was beginning in this business in 1951, the turnover in the market was around 25% a year  now it's about 200% a year. The market is turning over at [a much higher rate].

There will always be active managers who are keeping the market efficient. And if you want to read a really reasoned and well-written piece, there's one about indexing as the ultimate form of capitalism, by Cliff Asness.

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Folk-rock icon James Taylor has canceled his February 2017 concert in Manila on his forthcoming tour across Asia to make a statement against Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes war on drugs, which has left thousands dead since Duterte took office in June.

He announced the decision on Tuesday night in a statement posted on Twitter and his personal website.

I dont think of my music as particularly political but sometimes one is called upon to make a political stand, Taylor wrote. He went on to lament to scourge of addiction, but wrote that recent reports from the Philippines of summary executions of suspected offenders without trial or judicial process are deeply concerning and unacceptable to anyone who loves the rule of law.

Tickets to the show will be fully refunded. The rest of the tour, featuring shows in Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia, will carry on early next year as scheduled.

Taylor, who recently campaigned for both Hillary Clinton and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper in his home state of North Carolina, is far from the first foreigner to voice alarm over the recent rash of extrajudicial killings across the Philippines. The Western media took note of Duterte before he was even elected, mostly because it saw the crass former mayor who pledged to kill 100,000 criminals as an overblown, dystopian analog to Americas Donald Trump.

Since taking office, he has been making good on his promise. An estimated 6,100 alleged drug users or dealers in the Philippines have been murdered by so-called death squads in the last six months, prompting consternation from governments and officials around the world.
A Japanese programme aimed at accepting a small number of refugees from war-torn Syria promised Wednesday to remove language from documents which implied that pregnant women are not welcome to apply.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced in May that immigration-shy Japan, with a population of about 127 million, would accept up to 150 Syrian students over five years from 2017.

That number compares with vastly higher figures in other countries. Norway, with a population of about 5.1 million, has pledged to accept 9,000 Syrians.

Abe separately pledged at a refugee summit hosted by US President Barack Obama in September that Japan was also prepared to "warmly welcome" family members of the students.

But the Japanese unit of Amnesty International has raised concerns that the programme for Syrians virtually excluded pregnant women.

As advertised, the programme -- entitled "Japanese Initiative for the future of Syrian Refugees" -- has several requirements for applicants.

Originally, it included the line: "Pregnant applicants are not recommended to apply," according to Amnesty and the government's Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which manages the programme.

But after Amnesty and other groups expressed concern, it was changed to read: "Before the application, pregnant applicants are advised to consider carefully potential risk of health and life issues of mother and foetus."

JICA spokesman Satoshi Murakami, however, said late Wednesday that the organisation would remove the clause as it was creating "misunderstanding".

He had earlier in the day told AFP the programme's main focus was "not to rescue the underprivileged but to educate personnel" for Syria's reconstruction.

"When a pregnant woman comes to Japan and gives birth, she will have to rest for some time," he said, though stressing that the programme was not meant to exclude expectant women.

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Amnesty International had objected to that stance.

"The requirement is problematic because it narrows the window for female applicants," said Kaoru Yamaguchi, who added that it discourages refugees from applying.

In March British charity Oxfam assessed Japan should take in some 50,000 Syrians based on the size of its economy.

Last year it accepted 27 refugees, including three Syrians, after some 7,500 people from 69 countries sought such status in Japan, according to the justice ministry.
Japan and Indonesia agreed Wednesday to cooperate on maritime security at a time when both countries are embroiled in sea rows with China.

Beijing asserts sovereignty over almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea, despite rival claims from Southeast Asian neighbours.

Indonesia has no dispute with China over ownership of reefs or islets.

But Chinas expansive claims overlap with Indonesia's exclusive economic zone -- waters where a state has the right to exploit resources -- around the Natunas, a remote scattering of islands with rich fishing grounds.

In June Indonesian President Joko Widodo toured the islands on a warship, in a move seen sending a strong message to Beijing to respect his country's sovereignty.

In Tokyo, Indonesia's coordinating minister for maritime affairs Luhut Panjaitan and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida met to exchange documents to launch the cooperation framework, including in maritime security and economic development in remote islets.

"Japan highly values cooperation with Indonesia in maritime affairs," Kishida told Panjaitan.

The agreement is aimed at helping Indonesia strengthen its capacity in maritime security and promote economic development of remote islands, a foreign ministry official told AFP.

Australia has earlier said it is considering joint patrols with Indonesia in the South China Sea.

Japan, which has a territorial row with China over disputed islands in the East China Sea, has worked to strengthen ties with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, repeatedly stressing maritime disputes should be addressed according to law.

The Philippines took China to the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration, which ruled in July there was no legal basis to China's claims -- a verdict Beijing vehemently dismissed.
* Decommissioning Monju reactor to cost a further $3.2 bln

* Monju beset with accidents, missteps since construction began

By Osamu Tsukimori and Aaron Sheldrick

TOKYO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Japan on Wednesday formally pulled the plug on an $8.5 billion nuclear power project designed to realize a long-term aim for energy self-sufficiency after decades of development that yielded little electricity but plenty of controversy.

The move to shut the Monju prototype fast breeder reactor in Fukui prefecture west of Tokyo adds to a list of failed attempts around the world to make the technology commercially viable and potentially cut stockpiles of dangerous nuclear waste.

"We do not accept this," Fukui Governor Issei Nishikawa told ministers involved in the decision.

"This abrupt change in policy breeds deep feelings of distrust for the government," said Nishikawa who strongly backed the project because of the jobs and revenue it brought to a prefecture that relies heavily on nuclear installations. He said decommissioning work for Monju would not start without local government approval.

Four conventional commercial nuclear stations lie in close proximity to Monju, earning Fukui the nickname "nuclear alley."

Those like most other nuclear stations in Japan remain closed pending safety reviews or decisions on decommissioning after the Fukushima nuclear crisis of 2011 led to the eventual shutdown of all reactors in the country.

The Fukushima crisis sparked strong anti-nuclear sentiment in Japan, making it harder to pursue projects like the Monju facility which has faced accidents, cover-ups and regulatory breaches since construction began in 1985.

The plant was built to burn plutonium derived from the waste of reactors at Japan's conventional nuclear plants and create more fuel than it used, closing the so-called nuclear fuel cycle and giving a country that relies on overseas supplies for most of its energy needs a home-grown electricity source.

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With Monju's shutdown, Japan's taxpayers are now left with an estimated bill of at least 375 billion yen ($3.2 billion) to decommission its reactor, on top of the 1 trillion yen ($8.5 billion) spent on the project.

Japan is still committed to trying to make the technology work and will build a new experimental research reactor at Monju, the government said.

But critics within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) think it will be another futile attempt.

"We need to terminate the impossible dream of the nuclear fuel cycle. The fast breeder reactor is not going to be commercially viable. We know it. We all know it," senior LDP lawmaker Taro Kono said recently at a Reuters Breakingviews event in Tokyo.

($1 = 117.6100 yen) (Editing by Manolo Serapio Jr.)
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - After threatening South Sudan with a U.N. arms embargo to encourage steps toward peace, the United States wants to impose the measure, but the 15-member Security Council is split and Washington cannot even convince ally Japan. U.S. frustration with Tokyo's resistance to an embargo and additional targeted sanctions spilled over on Monday when Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, publicly questioned the reluctance of Japan, which last month deployed troops to a U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. "It's a highly questionable logic to think that the way to keep your peacekeepers safe is to not support an arms embargo," Power told reporters. "Why would it be good for your peacekeepers to have a government whose people are starving spend what little money it has on weapons  large weapons systems  instead of on food?" she said. "It is in everyone's interest, including the peacekeepers, for there to be fewer heavy weapons." U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Japan privately expressed displeasure, describing Power's remarks as "not helpful and counterproductive." Political rivalry between South Sudan President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Riek Machar, a Nuer, led in 2013 to civil war that often has followed ethnic lines. The pair signed a peace deal last year, but fighting has continued. Machar fled in July and is now in South Africa. U.N. peacekeepers have been in South Sudan since the nation gained independence from Sudan in 2011, and there currently are some 13,700 U.N. troops and police in the country. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday told the Security Council that he feared genocide was about to start in South Sudan unless immediate action is taken, renewing his months-old plea for an arms embargo. Japanese Defence Minister Tomomi Inada, though, suggested on Tuesday that now was not the right time for an arms embargo and further sanctions. To be adopted, a resolution needs nine votes and no vetoes. Diplomats say that so far seven members were in favor, with the remaining eight planning to abstain or vote no. Council veto powers Russia and China are skeptical that an arms embargo would achieve much in a country awash in weapons, but diplomats did not expect them to block the measure. They said lobbying by the United States and other Western council members has focused on Japan and African members Senegal and Angola. Power wants to put the measure to a vote by the end of the year, and she appealed on Monday for her colleagues "to prepare to vote your conscience." "Arms embargo, probably it's not the answer; we want answers to the situation in South Sudan," Angola's U.N. Ambassador Ismael Abraao Gaspar Martins told reporters. "It may not be respected, and we create other problems." (Additional reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo in Tokyo; Editing by Alistair Bell)
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday said Tokyo would boost its Coast Guard budget and add more patrol craft, as a long-simmering dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea heats up.

Since the fall of 2012, Chinese government vessels have sailed near the Senkakus almost daily, and have entered Japans territorial waters around the islands a few times a month, Abe told his ministers. The disputed islands are known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. They are administered by Japan but are claimed by China  a perennial source of friction for two neighbors still harboring scars from World War II.

Japan will increase its Coast Guard budget to 210 billion yen ($1.8 billion) to add five new patrol ships and over 200 more personnel. Its part and parcel of a steady military build up in Japan. In March, an Abe-backed law passed allowing Japan to deploy troops to use force to defend allies. One stated reason for the law? Chinas increasing maritime might. In recent years, China has increased spending on both its Coast Guard and Navy. Last year, it was noted that China frequently deployed its Coast Guard, and not its Navy, into disputed waters  thereby avoiding creating an international incident while still asserting its presence and claims to control.

Japanese Transport Minister Keiichi Ishii said that the situation in the East China Sea is becoming increasingly urgent, because China is becoming increasingly aggressive. In the summer, for example, China sent hundreds of finishing boats and government ships into waters around the islands. Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the issue should be resolved through dialogue. Japan, presumably, thinks it could be resolved by China not sending vessels around the water.

Its not just around those disputed isles. China grabbed an unmanned U.S. underwater drone in the South China Sea last week  claiming that the glider was operating on the doors of Chinese territory, though it was just off the Philippine coast.

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This is not Japans only island dispute, either. Earlier this month, Abe met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to get Russia to return the Kuril Islands to Japan. Known as the Northern Territories in Japan, the islands have been claimed by Moscow since the waning days of World War II.

While Abe and Putin are trying to deepen ties, including more economic cooperation, returning the islands to Tokyo seems like it might be a land bridge too far for the Russian leader, leaving Abe with four more islands to dispute.

Photo credit: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images
Adult male tiger killed in Bardiya road accident

An adult male tiger from Bardiya National Park (BNP) was killed in a road accident along the East-West highway in West Nepal on Wednesday evening.
Derick Dillard predicted Jinger and Jeremy Vuolo would be the next Duggar couple to have a baby but it appears he was wrong. His wife, Jill Dillard, has confirmed shes pregnant with baby No. 2.

Just hours after Jill and Derick shared the big news, newlyweds Jinger and Jeremy posted their video reaction. Fresh off their Arkansas nuptials and international honeymoon, Jinger congratulated her big sister on her new baby joining 20-month-old Israel.

Were so excited for you guys! Jinger said with a smile. Jeremy added that he was excited to meet his new niece or nephew next year. Hope that the transition is an easy one for you guys and for Israel and he doesnt get too jealous, he said.

Jinger and Jeremy were far from the only Duggars to respond to the pregnancy news. Jessa and Ben Seewald, who are also expecting their second child next year, said they were anticipating many more play dates with their children.

Of course, Jills parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, also got in on the action. The couple posted a video of them standing beside the expectant parents while discussing their new addition. Weres so excited for you guys. Yall are great parents, Jim Bob said before going on to praise the pair for being fruitful and multiplying.

Jill is expected to deliver her second child in July 2017. She and Derick announced the pregnancy on Tuesday after months of rumors she was expecting. Israels going to be a great big brother, Jill said in a video for TLC. He already loves other little babies. The only thing hell have to work on is just learning that babies that are smaller than you you have to be more gentle with.

We just look forward to growing as a family, Derick added.

Jinger Duggar

Photo: TLC

The Duggars, Dillards and Seewalds return to TLC for Season 3 of Counting On in January.

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The Jinx star Robert Durst appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday for a motions hearing related to his upcoming trial on murder charges for the 2001 death of his friend Susan Berman.

Judge Mark A. Windham appointed a special master to review the documents seized from the upstate New York home of another Durst friend, Susan Giordano, and announced a hearing at a later date to assess whether client-attorney privilege had been waived by Durst.

Dursts lawyers argued that the 60 boxes of personal Durst family documents seized from Giordanos home were protected under attorney-client privilege.

Also Read: Robert Durst Says He Was High on Meth While Filming HBO's 'The Jinx'

However, prosecutors said the documents should be fair game since producers of HBOs The Jinx were freely given access to them during the filming of the series.

In a brief press conference following the hearing, Dick DeGuerin, the real estate scions attorney, said, Bob Durst did not kill Susan Berman and he doesnt know who did.

The HBO miniseries detailed Dursts decades of bizarre tragedies, including the disappearance of his first wife, the execution-style murder of his best friend and a former neighbor that Durst admitted to killing in self-defense.

Also Read: Robert Durst Will Not Face Death Penalty in California Murder Case

In a hot mic moment while filming the HBO special, the real estate scion famously uttered, What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.

He has since pleaded not guilty to the murder of Berman.

Related stories from TheWrap:

Robert Durst Says He Was High on Meth While Filming HBO's 'The Jinx'

Robert Durst Will Not Face Death Penalty in California Murder Case

Robert Durst to Plead Not Guilty in Murder of Susan Berman on Monday
PHOENIX (AP) -- A judge on Wednesday refused to block a new voter-approved law raising Arizona's minimum wage, turning away a challenge from top business groups in the state.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Daniel Kiley rejected arguments from the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, other chamber groups and a Phoenix-area restaurant operator that the law didn't contain a source of revenue to handle increased state costs.

Kiley said the law exempts the state itself from having to pay the higher wages and there's no mandate that it pay its contractors more for work they do on the state's behalf, so the need for to a new revenue source isn't triggered.

He also noted that though the state's Medicaid program had decided to increase reimbursement rates on Jan. 1 for nursing homes, home health care aides and providers of care for developmentally disabled people, there's no federal or state mandate that it do so.

Kiley accepted an argument by state Attorney General Mark Brnovich that the Legislature isn't forced to fund the increases caused by the new law. Brnovich's office defended the law along with proponents of Proposition 206, the measure that raises the minimum wage from $8.05 an hour to $10 on Jan. 1 and to $12 in 2020.

The judge also turned away an argument that the law illegally contained two separate subjects  a minimum wage increase and a mandate that employers give workers sick pay.

An estimated 700,000 Arizonans earn less than $10 an hour now, according to federal statistics cited by backers of the law.

The raises approved by the state Medicaid program are expected to cost $48 million for six months, although all but $11 million is federal money.

Kiley's ruling turned away an effort to temporarily block the wage law pending a full trial. A trial could still be held, but it would likely be months away.

Chamber spokesman Garrick Taylor said the group's leaders will consult with their attorneys and decide whether to appeal. If filed, an appeal would likely go directly to the Arizona Supreme Court.

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"We have concerns regarding the constitutionality of the initiative and so we'll determine whether that conversation continues," Taylor said.

Tomas Robles, chairman of the group that backed the initiative, said the Chamber was claiming poverty for its members while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees.

"I'm glad that the judge chose to be on the right side of history, and really protecting democracy more than anything," Robles said. "The Chamber themselves are looking to completely disregard the will of the people, the will of the voters, because they want to keep their pockets fat."
Photo credit: undefined

From Esquire

Photo credit: undefined

There's nothing quite like the harsh, foreboding landscape of L.A. in December. It's a brutal winter wasteland of golden sunshine and starlets frolicking on the beach in bikinis. So it makes sense that Justin Bieber, a man known for calm rationality, would don a gigantic hooded fur coat to battle this American version of deepest Siberia.

That's right, that's no pack of rabid coyotes attacking Bieber-it's just his way of dealing with the fact that it's a brisk 61 degrees outside. The Biebs stepped out last night for an evening on the town wearing this monstrous(ly huge) coyote-fur coat, along with a white button-up and some bleach-splattered skinny jeans.

It's probably safe to say that, like anyone who wears a scarf in Southern California ever, it's less about sartorial utility and more about making a fashion statement. And for Bieber, that statement is clearly, "I'm wearing a ridiculous fur coat in the midst of one of the most temperate climates on earth and IDGAF."

Which, fair enough. Dude's got more money than his great-grandchildren will be able to burn through. Why not flout meteorological convention?

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Any Kanye West fans in Europe holding out hope of seeing him perform soon can now stop holding their breath. The music icon has reportedly cancelled all of the upcoming dates associated with the European leg of his Saint Pablo tour, per a new report by TMZ.

The news doesnt come as a complete surprise considering recent events surrounding West. He canceled the remaining dates of his U.S. tour  which included Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia and a New Years eve show at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn  weeks ago after a health scare landed him in the hospital for several days. The original thought was that he would postpone the international dates while he recovered. But, now it appears the slated performances in France, the United Kingdom and Germany are being taken out of consideration for the time being. None of the dates had been publicly announced and no tickets had been sold.

The cancellation brings to a close whats been strange end to a year for the superstar. Currently, he and his wife Kim Kardashian are surrounded by rumors concerning the state of their marriage. West has also displayed a bit of erratic behavior, ranging from his recent, highly publicized meeting with President-elect Donald Trump to him supposedly trying to set up a recording studio in the hospital he was located at weeks ago.

Lets hope West takes the time to focus on his rest and recovery while enjoying time with family and friends for the holidays.
Katie Couric is returning to the anchor desk at NBCs Today  for a one-week stint as co-host.

Couric will reunite with Todays Matt Lauer during the week of Jan. 2. She will fill in for Savannah Guthrie, who is on maternity leave following the birth of her son earlier this month.

Couric became household name during her tenure as co-anchor of Today from 1991 to 2006. Much of that run was alongside Lauer. She left NBC in 2006 to take the helm of CBS Evening News.

More recently, Couric hosted a syndicated talk show distributed by Disney in 2012 and 2013, and she also did some work for ABC News. Shes been global news anchor for Yahoo since 2014, focusing on interviews and newsmaker features.

The Los Angeles Times first reported the news of Courics guest-hosting stint.

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Spreading holiday cheer! Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom dressed up as Santa and Mrs. Claus for a Christmas visit to the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles this week. The hospital shared some sweet photos of the couple's visit on Facebook on Tuesday, December 20.

PHOTOS: Katy Perry's Craziest Style Moments

"Never naughty, always nice. The kids at CHLA received a much-deserved visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus  who happen to look a lot like Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom! the hospital wrote on Facebook.

The pop star and her actor boyfriend stopped by the children's hospital this week, where they joined families to sing carols, handed out gifts and posed for photos, the hospital said in a statement.

Perry, 32, and Bloom, 39, also visited the rooms of few young patients who were too unwell to leave their beds, and surprised a megafan by performing a duet.

Mom Kaitlin Bell, whose son has been in hospital, also shared a photo of the stars visit on Instagram on Monday. Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom came an (sic) sang us Christmas carols. It was so beautiful, Bell captioned a photo of herself and baby son Mason with Perry and Bloom, adding: Im so very thankful we got news we get to go home tomorrow.





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ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's state security service has detained 16 suspected members Takfir wal-Hijra Islamist group, it said on Wednesday, accusing them of "inciting religious hatred". The National Security Committee said in a statement it had carried out raids in four provinces of the Central Asian nation in order to "neutralize the cells of religious extremist organization Takfir wal-Hijra". The Islamist group, established in Egypt in the 1960s, has been banned in Kazakhstan since 2014. The security body said group members sympathized with "the actions of terrorists in Iraq and Syria and, in general, reject secular government and constitutional laws". Among other provinces, the security operation covered the Aktobe region, the site of a deadly Islamist attack last June in which 25 people, including 18 attackers, were killed. The attack targeted a national guard base and firearms shops in the city of Aktobe. It was the deadliest incident of its kind since the mostly Muslim country became independent of the Soviet Union in 1991. Last month, a local court sentenced most of the surviving attackers - described by prosecutors as Islamic State sympathizers - to life in prison. The authorities have not linked Takfir wal-Hijra to that attack. Thousands of nationals from Central Asian nations are known to be fighting alongside Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, and authorities have long warned they could return and carry out attacks on home soil. (Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Around the country, some holiday packages delivered by FedEx, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service, and other shippers are being stolen.

Detective Richard Bango of the Shelton, Conn., police department says it gets about two theft reports each week at this time of year. On Dec. 8, Shelton police arrested a 33-year-old woman who they said had stolen UPS packages in her vehicle.

She was following around the truck, Bango says.



In Sanford, Maine, the police say a homeowner, after having two packages stolen outside his house, planted an empty package on his porch to try to catch the thief. The thief managed to steal that empty package, though the burglar still hasn't been caught.

But there are steps you can take to protect your holiday packages from theft.

Give instructions to the package delivery service. Some of them let you indicate where to leave your package if youre not home. UPS, for example, offers an online tool, My Choice, as does FedEx, which offers Delivery Manager. With both of them you can instruct drivers to leave a package at a back door, with a building superintendent, or with neighbors.



You also can have deliveries diverted to another addressmaybe your workplaceor placed on hold if youre on vacation. UPS provides a list of local partner merchants, such as UPS stores, pharmacies, or convenience stores, that have agreed to accept deliveries on a recipients behalf.

Another option is to have items sent to a retailers walk-in store for pickup, which may help you save on shipping fees.

Of course, all of this assumes that the shipper follows your instructions. According to Bango, drivers have ignored directions about where to leave packages at his house. He now relies on a trusted neighbor to fetch deliveries dropped off at his door.

Many of these services are free, but some come with a fee. For example, UPS charges $5 to redirect a package to a different location.



Sign up for alerts. Some carriers offer text or email alerts so that you know when a delivery will be made. If you arent home, you might be able to get back in time so that your package isnt left outside for too long.

Story continues

Require a signature for delivery. Corporal Matthew Gagne of the Sanford, Maine, police department suggests asking retailers to require a signature to make a delivery so that packages arent simply dropped off outside a house. But even that may not be foolproof. A California music store reportedly says a FedEx driver allowed a homeless man to sign for a delivery of musical instruments this month, which then disappeared.

If Your Package Is Stolen

FedEx, UPS, and the U.S. Postal Service say they dont cover thefts of delivered shipments.

If UPS has completed the delivery, which includes driver-released deliveries to residences, UPS is not automatically responsible to reimburse the cost of the shipment, says a UPS spokesman, Matthew OConnor.

If you find your package is missing, there are some steps you should take:

Verify that the holiday package was delivered. Call the shipping company to make sure the item was left at your house or apartment and was not intercepted by someone, such as a well-meaning neighbor or building superintendent. If the package or its contents were stolen or otherwise lost while in the shipping company's possession, you may be entitled to compensation. Most packages sent by UPS, for instance, are covered for up to $100 in case of loss or damage.

Call the police. Its a good idea to call the police quickly. You will probably need a police report if youre making a claim with a retailer, shipper, credit card company, or your insurance company.

Contact the retailer. Retailers have different policies on how to handle theft. Some of them, such as Target, have fine-print clauses saying that the risk of loss passes to the buyer when the purchase is delivered to the shipping company. Still, a Target spokesman, Eddie Baeb, encourages customers to call if a package is lost or stolen. We handle such situations on a case-by-case basis and try to come up with a solution for each guest, he says.



Contact the shipping company. Shippers often require the sender, not the recipient, to initiate any claim. If the retailer wont cooperate, contact the shipper as soon as possible. You have a limited number of days to file a claim.

Check your credit card benefits. Many credit cards have purchase protection that covers lost or stolen items. If your purchase was made with a credit card, make a claim with your issuer, advises Daniel Blinn, managing attorney with the Consumer Law Group in Rocky Hill, Conn. If that doesnt work, Blinn advises requesting a chargeback from your credit card company.

Check your insurance. As a last resort, you may be able to collect from your homeowners or renters insurance. But those policies usually have deductibles of $500 to $1,000 or more, so depending on the value of the contents in the package, your insurance may not be helpful.





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  2006-2017 Consumers Union of U.S.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)  A Louisville mall is banning a woman caught on video screaming racist and vulgar insults at another holiday shopper.

The video of the unidentified woman shouting "go back to wherever the (expletive) you come from, lady" in a check-out line at the Jefferson Mall spread quickly on social media Tuesday. By Wednesday, it had been viewed more than five million times.

The mall issued a statement on its Facebook page saying that it is working to identify the woman and bar her from returning.

In the video taken by another shopper, the elderly white woman claims a Hispanic woman cut in line to join another shopper.

The white woman screams at the two women that they're "nobodies," ''probably on welfare" and tells them to learn to speak English.
AIG-led team to probe case

A day after Durga Tiwari, the district chairman of the CPN-UML-affiliated Youth Association Nepal, was shot dead in Rupandehi, the government on Tuesday formed a four-member committee led by Additional Inspector General of Police Bigyan Raj Sharma to investigate the killing.
The most recent images on Kim Kardashian's Instagram account are almost three months old, from her trip to Paris. One ominously includes a photo of her bodyguard trailing close behind her with the caption "This guy is always in my shot." Of course, he was nowhere in sight the night of October 2, 2016, when the reality TV star was held at gunpoint in her hotel room. It was that terrifying incident that prompted Kim to take an indefinite hiatus from social media and public engagements.



For the average celebrity -- one who pops into the public eye only to promote a new project -- this wouldn't be a big deal, but Kim Kardashian is not the average celebrity. Her entire empire was built on sharing the details of her personal life at all times. And by stepping out of the spotlight, Kim's business has taken a hit.

MORE: The 17 Biggest Kardashian Moments of 2016

According to Frank Spadafora, CEO of D'Marie, a social media software company that analyzes the portfolios of influencers to determine their "worth" for brand partnerships, Kim has dropped from the seventh most influential to the 57th since October. (Cristiano Ronaldo holds the top spot). Prior to the robbery, D'Marie valued a single post for Kim across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at $300,000; that number has since dropped significantly.

"The way our algorithm works and what most brands rely on is an influencer's information over the past 30 days. Kim has dropped due to not being on social media," says Spadafora. "It's definitely not zero, but her value has dropped by about $250,000." And Kim, of course, wasn't one to post sponsored content sporadically -- a source familiar with Kim's earnings told ET that Kim has missed out on close to $3 million in endorsement revenue in the past two and a half months. Now Spadafora is guiding clients toward more "reliable" influencers like Ariana Grande and Kylie Jenner.

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Details A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Oct 2, 2016 at 10:27am PDT

It's not just about loss of revenue from sponsored content on her social platforms. Kim is also foregoing public appearances, which can come with a significant payday. David Weintraub, CEO of DWE Talent, a management, film and television production company that represents the likes of Scott Disick, Brody Jenner and Ray J, is an expert in negotiating paid appearances for celebrities. He told ET that prior to the robbery Kim could expect to make anywhere from $50,000 to over $500,000 for a club appearance (and significantly higher for appearances overseas). Halloween in particular has always been a big payday for her, but this year she laid low with her two children, North, 3, and Saint, 1.

However, despite the financial hit, Kim's not exactly strapped for cash. "The appearances and the social media posting are probably only five to seven percent of her entire business," says Weintraub, who is close to the Kardashian camp. "The bread and butter is the companies that they own that sell products and the television shows." A rep for Keeping Up With the Kardashians confirmed to ET that she is in fact continuing to film the show, which she executive produces. Plus, she has maintained content on her app thanks to guest contributors.

The question now is: What's next for Kim? Ingrid Elfver, a branding expert and CEO of Born Celebrity, says this is the perfect opportunity for Kim to rebrand her image. "She can change her brand to be more private and change people's expectations of her. She doesn't need to release details about every moment of her life. I'm sure her values and priorities have changed, too -- it's less about showing off what she has and what she's doing and more about making her personal life more sacred," says Elfver. "She's achieved incredible fame, she's on the same level as Michael Jackson or Beyonce -- by pulling back she can make her brand more alluring."

MORE: Social Media Posts That Changed the Game in 2016

In fact, that scarcity could make her stock go up. "Everyone will be bidding on her first public appearance," says Weintraub. And while he believes her first appearance and social media post could score her well into the hundreds of thousands, he thinks it's unlikely she'll return to the public eye with the same vigor she once had. "That level of visibility is done," he says. "Even though it is only a little bit of work to get that money, it's not going to be worth the stress. Instead, I think her family and other businesses are going to be more the priority."

Kim put family first earlier this month when she cancelled a public appearance in New York to be by Kanye West's side after he was hospitalized for exhaustion. And friends close to Kim say she's become more focused on her family and is not the carefree attention-seeker she once was. "Kim is in no rush to get back into the spotlight," a source tells ET. "If there is one silver lining in this awful situation, it's that she has been at home with her kids this entire time."

When she is ready to return to the spotlight, Elfver says that the best thing for Kim's brand would be to make her first appearance an interview with someone like Barbara Walters -- not a paid appearance or endorsement.

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(Changes start of investigation to Wednesday from Monday in 2nd paragraph)

* Arrest warrant out for daughter of Choi Soon-sil

* Special prosecutors raid NPS, health ministry office

* Investigation linked to merger of Samsung Group affiliates

* Some 30 lawmakers break away from ruling Saenuri Party

By Ju-min Park

SEOUL, Dec 21 (Reuters) - South Korea on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for a daughter of the woman at the centre of President Park Geun-hye's corruption scandal and investigators raided the National Pension Service over possible links to the scandal.

A special prosecutor's investigation started on Wednesday into the influence-peddling scandal that threatens to make Park, 64, the first democratically-elected leader to leave office early in disgrace. Parliament has voted to impeach Park, a decision that must be confirmed or overturned by the Constitutional Court.

A court issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday for Chung Yoo-ra, the 20-year-old daughter of Choi Soon-sil, Park's long-time friend who is in custody and on trial for fraud and abuse of power.

Chung's lawyer has said she is in Germany, where she flew with her mother and child in September, according to media reports.

"We have Chung's arrest warrant on several charges including obstruction of justice and we plan to request the cooperation of German prosecutors based on these charges," Lee Kyu-chul, a spokesman for the special prosecutor's office, told a news conference.

Lee said authorities are working to invalidate Chung's South Korean passport and have asked German prosecutors for information on her whereabouts and financial assets.

Chung, an equestrian athlete who competed in the 2014 Asian Games and won a gold medal in a team competition, sparked public ire earlier this year when it emerged that she had received special treatment from the prestigious Ewha Womans University.

Her admission to the university was subsequently cancelled. She was also stripped of her high school diploma for fabrication of grades and attendance, according to the Seoul education office.

Story continues

PENSION OFFICE RAIDED

Hours earlier, investigators raided the office of the world's third-largest pension fund, the National Pension Service (NPS), over possible links to the scandal.

The special prosecutor's office is looking into NPS' decision last year to back the $8 billion merger of two Samsung Group affiliates, which was criticised for strengthening the founder family's control of the group at the expense of other shareholders.

The NPS was a major shareholder of both companies.

Investigators are also examining whether Samsung's support of a business and foundations backed by Choi may have been connected to NPS' support of the deal, a prosecution official told Reuters, declining to be named because he was not authorised to speak with media.

An office at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which administers the NPS, was also raided on Wednesday, a Ministry of Health and Welfare spokeswoman confirmed.

NPS and Samsung Group could not immediately be reached for comment.

NPS' backing of last year's merger of Samsung C&T Corp and Cheil Industries was seen as crucial to the deal winning shareholder approval. Last month, a different team of prosecutors raided offices of Samsung and the NPS.

Meanwhile, more than 30 lawmakers from Park's ruling Saenuri Party who supported the impeachment vote announced on Wednesday they plan to break from the party, a move that will undermine the party's position in the 300-member chamber.

The conservative Saenuri Party currently holds 128 seats.

Park's possible impeachment has upended politics in South Korea, where, if she leaves officer early, an election will be held in 60 days.

Park was stripped of her powers, which are now held by the country's prime minister.

(Additional reporting by Joyce Lee; Writing by Christine Kim; Editing by Tony Munroe and Michael Perry)
Istanbul (AFP) - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said the killer of Russia's ambassador to Turkey was a member of the group of Fethullah Gulen blamed for the July 15 coup, as Moscow warned against jumping to early conclusions.

Monday's murder of Andrei Karlov stunned Russia and prompted warnings of retribution from the Kremlin. But both sides responded by vowing to step up cooperation, particularly on the Syria conflict.

Off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, pumped nine bullets into Karlov at an art gallery in Ankara before he himself was killed by police in a shootout.

Pro-government press had already reported that police had discovered pro-Gulen literature belonging to Altintas, sympathisers of the preacher among his acquaintances and that he attended extra classes at a school belonging to the group.

"There is no need to make a secret out of the fact he was a member of FETO," Erdogan said, in his first clear attribution of blame for the murder.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has strongly condemned the assassination and always denied involvement in the coup.

Turkey has embarked on a massive crackdown on what it calls the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO) in the wake of the July 15 coup aimed at unseating Erdogan, arresting and sacking tens of thousands.

But Erdogan said the assassination of Karlov showed Gulen supporters were still present within the key security structures and the purges needed to continue.

"I have to say this very clearly -- this dirty organisation is still within the military, still within the police," he said.

Without expanding further, he added there could be "foreign connections" to the murder plot.

- 'Don't rush to conclusions' -

Turkey and Russia are jointly investigating the murder after an unprecedented agreement between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A team of 18 Russian investigators arrived in Ankara on Tuesday and spent the day at the crime scene after also witnessing the autopsy.

Story continues

But the Kremlin indicated it was not in the mood for rushed pronouncements on responsibility and made no mention of Gulen's purported involvement.

"In this case it is hardly worth hurrying to any conclusions until the investigation determines -- as our president said -- who was behind the murder of our ambassador," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Since the coup, Turkey has piled pressure on the United States to extradite Gulen, a one-time Erdogan ally.

"We need to let them - (the investigators) let the facts and the evidence take them where it is before we jump to conclusions," said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

Dramatic footage of Monday's assassination showed Karlov stumble and crash to the ground as Altintas brandished his automatic pistol at terrified onlookers who cowered behind cocktail tables.

The gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest") and "Don't forget Aleppo", vowing that those responsible for events in Syria would be held accountable.

Turkey and Russia stand on opposite sides of the Syria conflict, with Ankara backing rebels trying to topple Moscow ally President Bashar al-Assad.

But the rhetoric has warmed considerably since a reconciliation deal was signed earlier this year and Moscow and Ankara are now working closely together to evacuate citizens from the battered city of Aleppo.

- 'Protected Erdogan' -

Eleven people, including close family members, have been detained over the killing and are being investigated for possible links to Gulen.

In a striking detail, the Hurriyet daily said Altintas, who served with the Ankara anti-riot police, had provided security for Erdogan eight times since the July 15 coup bid.

According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Altintas had taken two days sick leave on the day of the July 15 coup. It remains unclear what he did on his days off, it added.

He also called in sick complaining of stomach pains on Monday -- with a note from the same doctor.

Karlov's body was repatriated on Tuesday and will be laid to rest on Thursday, Peskov said, adding that Putin had decided to postpone his major annual press conference scheduled for the same day to Friday in order to attend.

According to Anadolu, Altintas' body is at a morgue in Kecioren outside Ankara and the autopsy has been completed. So far, no one has come forward to claim his body.
MOSCOW (AP)  The Kremlin hopes that Donald Trump's administration will help improve the strained Russia-U.S. ties that it describes as "frozen," but it doesn't expect any immediate breakthroughs, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said Wednesday.

Dmitry Peskov told Mir TV that the Kremlin expects the new U.S. administration to take a "fresher and more constructive approach," while cautioning against "excessive optimism." He warned that Washington would be unlikely to reverse such moves as the deployment of NATO's forces near Russian borders or quickly lift sanctions against Russia.

"We have never worn rose-colored glasses," Peskov said. "We clearly understand that any U.S. president will first of all protect interests of his country. "

Peskov rejected the claims by Trump's opponents that the U.S. president-elect is too Russia-friendly, saying that was a reflection what he called "Russophobia."

"We don't know yet what kind of president Trump will be and what position toward Russia he will take," Peskov said, adding that the two nations should talk about their existing problems.

"If our partners show the readiness to conduct a dialogue to search for solutions and to take mutual concerns into account ... it will mark a new approach," Peskov added.

He rejected President Barack Obama's accusations of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election, saying that Obama has repeatedly raised the issue with Putin but the Russian leader has strongly denied the claims.

"If such accusations are made, we have the right to demand an explanation, a proof and arguments. We haven't been offered any of it," he said.

Peskov said the U.S. election hacking allegations further dented the two nations' already troubled relations.

"Dialogue with the United States has been frozen on practically all levels," he said.

Story continues

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby responded by saying that the dialogue with Russia has continued despite their differences, stressing that "diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues."

____

Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday that new sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States would damage relations between the two countries and that Moscow would respond with its own measures. "We regret that Washington is continuing on this destructive path," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call. "We believe this damages bilateral relations ... Russia will take commensurate measures." The United States on Tuesday widened sanctions against Russian businessmen and companies adopted after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the conflict in Ukraine. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Peter Hobson)
It was a tight victory for this giant panda when he went head-to-head with a snowman at the Toronto Zoo.

Read: Panda Has Some Squeaky Clean Fun in Adorable Bubble Bath Video

After a bout of snowfall at the Canadian facility, zookeepers built a snowman for Da Mao, a male panda that has been at the Toronto Zoo since 2013.

Although the snowman was meant to be an enrichment tool for Da Mao to play with, it appeared the giant panda had a bone to pick with his new icy friend.

In a video posted by the facility, Da Mao could be seen scratching at, climbing and rolling over the snowman.

But, it ended in a knockout for the snowman, as Da Mao leaped, and knocked the head off his frosty opponent.

Read: Man in Bear Suit Challenges Tian Tian the Snow-Loving Panda

The clip ends with Da Mao rolling away, appearing to be quite proud of his work.

Watch: 23 Baby Pandas, Including One That Fell off Stage, Snooze During First Public Appearance

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is looking to sell his newspaper, The New York Observer, the trade newspaper Women's Wear Daily reported on Wednesday. It was unclear how much Kushner hopes to get in a sale. Kushner bought the newspaper for $10 million in 2006, according to reports at the time. One possible suitor could be American Media Inc, owner of the National Enquirer, according to Women's Wear Daily. Kushner may be selling the Observer to focus on his political career, according to the report. His wife, Ivanka Trump, is the president-elect's eldest daughter. Both he and his wife advised Trump during his successful presidential campaign. (Reporting by Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
By Lin Taylor LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Children who flee to Europe from war-torn regions without their parents have no clear way of escaping abusive or exploitative adults as there are no unified policies in place to protect them, a European Union (EU) agency said on Wednesday. Conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and Africa has forced some 1.4 million people to head to Europe, fuelling the region's largest migrant crisis since World War Two. According to the United Nations children's agency UNICEF, nearly one in 200 children in the world is a refugee. While many children are unaccompanied, others arrive in Europe with an adult who may be an abusive relative, a smuggler or trafficker, said researcher Monica Gutierrez, who authored the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) report. Gutierrez said the key problem was the lack of coordination between member states, with cities, regions, and even reception centers devising their own protocols to deal with lone child migrants who are at risk. Children rely on human smugglers, often under a "pay as you go system", making them prone to exploitation and abuse including rape, forced labor, beatings and death, said UNICEF. But many children arriving in the EU were not informed of their rights, how to seek asylum, or how to report abuse, Gutierrez said. "It's very unlikely that a trafficked child will come forward (to the authorities)," Gutierrez said in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation. She said staff working in reception centers were not properly trained to spot signs of sexual abuse, domestic violence or trafficking. The United Nations said on Wednesday the trafficking of migrants was reaching "appalling dimensions", with the global number of trafficked children more than doubling to 28 percent in 2014 from 13 percent in 2004. Gutierrez said there were cases of accompanying adults being assigned as legal guardians without genetic testing or other assessments of the child's best interest. Child marriage was also contentious, she added, as some states will recognize the union but others will consider the marriage illegal and separate the pair. "But it may not be in the benefit of the couple. There were cases of girls attempting to commit suicide and there were lots of cases of depression - really difficult situations," said Gutierrez. Gutierrez said member states must include child protection officers when processing lone migrant children, and to work toward implementing unified protocols across the region. (Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Katie Nguyen. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, global land and property rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, women's rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories)
Berlin truck attack: Tunisian linked to market deaths - report

German police are hunting for the perpetrator of Monday's truck attack at a Berlin market which killed 12.
BERLIN (AP)  The Latest on the deadly truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market (all times local):

10:15 p.m.

A spokesman for Tunisia's anti-terrorism judicial police says they have questioned the family of Anis Amri, the suspect that German authorities are searching for in the deadly truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market.

Spokesman Sofiane Selliti told The Associated Press that officials from two specialized brigades in Tunis and Kairouan interrogated family members of the suspect Wednesday at their home in the central Tunisian town of Oueslatia.

He did not say how many people were present at the interrogation. The suspect's family lives in poverty and his parents are divorced, according to Tunisia's Mosaique FM radio.

The truck attack Monday night in Berlin left 12 people dead and 48 injured.

___

8:30 p.m.

Tunisia's Mosaique FM radio reports that the man being sought by Germany in connection with the Berlin Christmas market attack had previous convictions in Italy and his home country.

Mosaique FM quoted Anis Amri's father saying that his son left Tunisia about seven years ago and spent four years in a prison in Italy after being accused in a fire at a school.

He then moved to Germany more than a year ago. The father did not provide details and said he had no contact with his son, although his other sons did.

Mosaique FM quoted Tunisian security officials as saying that Amri was also convicted in absentia for aggravated theft with violence and sentenced to five years in prison.

___

7:20 p.m.

German authorities say the suspect in Monday's deadly truck attack in Berlin was under covert surveillance for several months this year.

Berlin prosecutors told The Associated Press in a statement Wednesday that they launched an investigation against Anis Amri on March 14 followed a tip from federal security agencies.

The tip warned that Amri, who was considered a potential threat by authorities in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, might be planning a break-in to finance the purchase of automatic weapons for use in an attack.

Story continues

Surveillance showed that Amri was involved in drug dealing in a Berlin park and involved in a bar brawl, but no evidence to substantiate the original warning. The observation was called off in September.

___

5:45 p.m.

German authorities are offering a reward of up to 100,000 euros ($105,000) for the arrest of a Tunisian man suspected of involvement in the fatal attack on a Christmas market in Berlin.

Federal prosecutors describe 24-year-old Anis Amri as of average height and weight, with black hair and brown eyes.

In a public notice issued Wednesday, prosecutors warn that the suspect could be "dangerous and armed," and urge members of the public to notify police if they see him.

___

5:05 p.m.

Berlin's city government says 12 people are still being treated for very serious injuries after the truck attack on a Christmas market.

Twelve people were killed and 48 wounded in Monday night's attack. Berlin's state health ministry said Wednesday that 12 people are still in hospital with very serious injuries, among them an unspecified number in critical condition.

However, it said that an increasing number of people with lighter injuries are being discharged.

___

4:55 p.m.

A wanted notice for a Tunisian suspect in the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin says the man should be considered armed and dangerous.

The notice, a European arrest warrant from Germany obtained by The Associated Press, indicates he has at times used six different aliases and three different nationalities.

It names Anis Amri as having Tunisian citizenship, born in the town of Ghaza. But it lists multiple aliases, many of them variants on his name, and Egyptian and Lebanese citizenship as well.

German authorities say they rejected the man's asylum request in July.

__

4 p.m.

A senior German security official says the Tunisian man being sought in connection with Monday's truck attack in Berlin had been considered a possible terror threat by German authorities.

The interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Ralf Jaeger, says "security agencies exchanged information about this person in the joint counter-terrorism center, the last time in November."

Jaeger told reporters on Wednesday that state police had launched proceedings against the man on suspicion that he was preparing a serious crime.

Separately, he says German authorities rejected the man's asylum request in July.

___

2:50 p.m.

Stephan Mayer, a lawmaker with Germany's governing conservatives who speaks on domestic security matters, says the new suspect in the Berlin market attack being sought by German authorities is thought to be a Tunisian with ties to Islamic extremists.

Mayer says the man, whose wallet was found in the cab of the truck that slammed into a busy Christmas market in the German capital on Monday evening, was apparently meant to be deported from Germany earlier this year.

Mayer spoke Wednesday after being briefed by security officials about the investigation into the truck attack that left 12 people dead and nearly 50 injured.

___

2:40 p.m.

Germany's interior minister has confirmed that authorities are seeking a new suspect in the deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere says Wednesday that a manhunt has begun in Germany and in the European Union's border-free Schengen area. He gave no details on the suspect.

He also would neither confirm nor deny details published in German media, which reported that he's a Tunisian whose documents were found in the truck that killed 12 people and injured nearly 50 as it plowed into a Christmas market on Monday evening.

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2:30 p.m.

A Tunisian official says German investigators are trying to determine the role of a Tunisian man whose identity papers were found in the cab of the truck that smashed into Berlin's Christmas market.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the German government hasn't publicly commented on the potential suspect, said Tunisian authorities are requesting more information on the German probe into Anis Amri. He declined to comment further.

A Tunisian living in France was shot to death after carrying out a similar attack on Bastille Day revelers in the southern French city of Nice, killing 86 people.

 Bouazza ben Bouazza

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2:00 p.m.

The German government has agreed on a bill that will strengthen security considerations when it comes to video surveillance.

The move has been planned for months but its approval by the Cabinet on Wednesday comes two days after a deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin that sent German authorities scrambling for footage of the suspected perpetrator.

The proposed law would make data protection commissioners give greater weight than before to "the protection of life, health and freedom" when deciding whether to permit video surveillance in public places.

Germany has traditionally had very restrictive data protection rules.

The bill needs to be approved by Parliament.

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1:00 p.m.

The top security official in Germany's western state of North Rhine-Westphalia is planning to make a statement related to the truck attack in Berlin.

Officials say the state's interior minister, Ralf Jaeger, will make a statement at 3:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) Wednesday.

German media report that police are searching for a Tunisian man whose documents were found in the cab of the truck that plowed into a Berlin Christmas market Monday, killing twelve and injuring dozens.

The man's documents were issued in Kleve, a town in North Rhine-Westphalia state on the border with the Netherlands.

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12:15 p.m.

French President Francois Hollande says French intelligence services are in "constant contact" with German counterparts about extremist threats, notably since the truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market.

Hollande signed a book of condolences at the German Embassy in Paris on Wednesday for the 12 killed in Monday's attack. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group and echoed a similar attack in the French city of Nice in July.

Hollande promised solidarity and support for Germany, just as German authorities offered help when France has been attacked in recent years.

Hollande did not provide details of French police efforts to find the driver who rammed a truck into the Berlin market and is believed still at large.

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12 p.m.

German media report that authorities have identified and are searching for a suspect in connection with the fatal truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market.

The Allgemeine Zeitung in Mainz, weekly Der Spiegel and daily Welt reported Wednesday that police found documents in the truck cab that were issued to a Tunisian man. They did not cite any sources for the information.

German authorities had to release two suspects arrested in the wake of Monday's attack due to insufficient evidence. They had no immediate comment on Wednesday's reports.

Twelve people were killed and nearly 50 were injured in the attack on the Christmas market in Berlin.

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11:40 a.m.

Germany's president has visited patients at a Berlin hospital who were wounded in Monday's truck attack. The hospital's medical director says that they are suffering from pelvic and other injuries.

President Joachim Gauck said he spoke with three patients at the Charite hospital who faced operations on Wednesday and he was impressed by their "composure." He also met a man who had rushed to help in the aftermath of the rampage and was hit by a steel beam.

The Charite took in 13 patients after the attack, two of whom died. Medical director Ulrich Frei says that, among those who are still being treated, four have "severe trauma of the lower extremities and the pelvis."

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10:40 a.m.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry says that an Israeli man was seriously wounded in the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin and his wife is missing.

Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said Wednesday that the man is in stable condition following surgery. He says Israel is in touch "day and night" with German authorities to try to find the wife.

He declined to disclose the couple's personal details, saying only that the couple was in Berlin on holiday and that their relatives had arrived in Germany on Tuesday.

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8:30 a.m.

German investigators were searching Wednesday for the killer or killers in Monday's attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market after a man arrested soon after the rampage was released for lack of evidence and the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

Police in Berlin said they had received 508 tips on the attack as of Tuesday night, but it wasn't clear whether prosecutors had any concrete leads.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- The Latest on efforts to repeal House Bill 2 in North Carolina (all times local):

11 p.m.

Outgoing North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory blamed left-wing groups for scuttling an agreement that would have repealed an anti-LGBT law.

The Republican called the special session Wednesday, but it ended without approved legislation to get rid of House Bill 2.

McCrory said in a release that "bipartisan good faith agreements" were again blocked by the political left.

Gay rights groups and others who pushed for repeal blamed Republican lawmakers for failing to keep its promise to act after the Charlotte City Council repealed its ordinance. Democrat Gov.-elect Roy Cooper says GOP leaders have broken their trust with the people of the state.

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9:30 p.m.

North Carolina Gov.-elect Roy Cooper says Republican legislators had a chance to do the right thing by repealing a contentious LGBT law, but they failed to live up to their promise.

The Democrat said Wednesday night there had been a bipartisan deal that called for a full repeal but that GOP leaders at the legislature went back on their word by adding a moratorium that he said "doubled down on discrimination."

The Senate's top leader disagreed with that assessment, saying Charlotte city leaders had already broken a promise by failing to fully repeal a non-discrimination ordinance that had led to the passage of House Bill 2 back in March.

Cooper told reporters he had worked on forging a deal for about 10 days. He says he'll keep working on repeal because the law is a "stain" on the state that's resulting in lost jobs and sporting events.

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8:25 p.m.

Lawmakers and interest groups are trading accusations after a special session in North Carolina ended without approving legislation to address the state's "bathroom bill."

Republican Senate leader Phil Berger criticized Democrats on Wednesday night for failing to support legislation that would have repealed the law known as House Bill 2. Berger told reporters it appears Gov.-elect Roy Cooper and his fellow Democrats want to keep HB2 as in issue.

Story continues

Cooper was to hold a news conference about the session later Wednesday.

The sticking point was a measure in the Senate that would have barred from local governments from passing ordinances that expanded non-discrimination protections until next summer.

Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin says Republican lawmakers are the ones that have hurt LGBT people by failing to follow through on a deal to repeal the law.

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7:35 p.m.

A deal has fallen apart to undo the North Carolina law known as the "bathroom bill" in a sign of the state's bitter political divide.

The state's legislature was called into a special session Wednesday to consider repealing the law known as HB2 after months of pressure, including lost jobs and canceled sporting events and concerts.

But the Republican-controlled legislature showed once again that it preferred to go its own way.

The latest special session was called by Gov. Pat McCrory after Charlotte gutted a local nondiscrimination ordinance that Republicans had blamed for necessitating the statewide law.

Among other things, HB2 requires transgender people to use restrooms corresponding with the sex on their birth certificate in many public buildings.

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5:50 p.m.

Two openly LGBT members of the North Carolina House are pleading with their colleagues to repeal a state law limiting nondiscrimination protections before the General Assembly adjourns its special session.

Democrats Reps. Chris Sgro (skro) of Greensboro and Cecil Brockman of High Point spoke late Wednesday as House members considered and passed a resolution laying out when the legislature would adjourn for good.

Republicans have been unable so far to craft legislation repealing House Bill 2 that enough of their House members would support. This has led to hours of waiting and closed-door meetings by House and Senate members.

Sgro said he can't go home in good conscience without the full and unequivocal repeal of HB2. Sgro is also head of the gay rights groups Equality North Carolina. Brockman said the law has been a disaster for the state. Corporate CEOs, entertainers and sports leagues have opposed HB2 as well.

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5 p.m.

Crowds at the North Carolina legislature are keeping watch on action to repeal a law that limits protections for LGBT citizens.

A repeal bill was seemingly on its way to passage in the state Senate on Wednesday before a packed visitors gallery and overflow observers watching through glass walls. The mood was much more docile than the angry demonstrations of last week.

That's when Republican legislators pushed through surprise measures that stripped incoming Democratic Gov.-elect Roy Cooper of a range of powers enjoyed by outgoing Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

Sixty-six-year-old retiree Jennifer Bremer of Chapel Hill witnessed last week's tumult and wanted to see whether lawmakers really repealed the controversial law known as House Bill 2. She says there haven't been any surprises so far.

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4:45 p.m.

Debate has been delayed on Republican legislation to repeal North Carolina's law limiting LGBT protections and directing which restrooms transgender people can use after Democrats spoke out against the measure.

The legislation considered Wednesday would get rid of the law known as House Bill 2. But it also would prevent local governments from approving ordinances affecting public accommodations and access to restrooms for six months.

Democrats oppose the moratorium as falling short of a complete repeal. Sen. Floyd McKissick of Durham says people are worried the moratorium will become a permanent ban.

Senate leader Phil Berger says the bill takes the law back to where it was before Charlotte approved a nondiscrimination ordinance that led to HB2.

Senate Republicans are in a private meeting deciding what to do next.

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3:15 p.m.

Perhaps North Carolina's most influential politician is introducing legislation to repeal a state law that has cost the state jobs and millions of dollars.

State Senate leader Phil Berger is the primary sponsor of legislation filed Wednesday that would repeal the law passed in March dictating which bathroom transgender people must use and limiting LGBT protections.

The bill adds a wrinkle: It would block local governments from passing ordinances regulating employment practices or public accommodations related to restrooms, showers or changing facilities for six months.

Republican lawmakers say they passed the law only after Charlotte expanded nondiscrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity in public accommodations. Charlotte's City Council on Monday and again Wednesday voted to eliminate the ordinance.

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11:30 a.m.

The North Carolina legislature has gaveled in its special session to consider repealing a law limiting LGBT protections that it approved nine months ago, but some Republicans still prefer to keep House Bill 2.

The House and Senate began meeting Wednesday morning but went into recess. Gov. Pat McCrory called the session after the Charlotte City Council this week gutted its expanded nondiscrimination ordinance. That ordinance led to HB2's passage in March.

GOP Rep. Jeff Collins is against HB2's repeal and on the floor Wednesday challenged whether the session had been lawfully called.

The Senate's presiding officer  Lt. Gov. Dan Forest  put out a statement saying he doesn't favor repeal and worried it would open the door for another local government to "take us down this path again." Forest only votes in the Senate when there's a tie.

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9:35 a.m.

City leaders in Charlotte, North Carolina, have held an emergency meeting and taken more action designed to get a statewide law off the books that limits LGBT rights and designates which restrooms transgender people can use in public schools and government buildings.

The Charlotte City Council voted 7-2 on Wednesday to repeal the entire city ordinance members passed in February. It's part of a deal to get the state legislature to repeal House Bill 2 in a special session later in the day.

The council already had acted on Monday to throw out parts of the ordinance addressing the expansion of protections on things such as sexual orientation and gender identity when it came to public accommodations.

But some House Republicans are unhappy that Charlotte left in place some expanded non-discrimination protections required of businesses entering contracts with the city. The council's action Wednesday is designed to address their concerns.

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8:30 a.m.

North Carolina lawmakers are meeting Wednesday to consider repealing a state law that limited LGBT rights, including which restrooms transgender people can use in public schools and government buildings.

But a last-minute obstacle has come up in the negotiations between state lawmakers and Charlotte officials, whose ordinance banning discrimination prompted the state law.

Rep. Chuck McGrady of Hendersonville says some House Republicans are concerned that the city did not repeal its entire ordinance Monday.

The city council is meeting at 9 a.m. Wednesday to discuss their nondiscrimination ordinance and HB2, as the state law in known.

The House Republican Caucus is also meeting Wednesday morning.

The parts of the city's ordinance that weren't dropped at Monday's meeting weren't affected by HB2, but there are still some concerns among some lawmakers.

___

3:30 a.m.

North Carolina's legislature is reconvening to see if enough lawmakers are willing to repeal a 9-month-old law that limited LGBT rights, including which bathrooms transgender people can use in public schools and government buildings.

House and Senate members plan to meet in the capital Wednesday for a special session called by outgoing GOP Gov. Pat McCrory.

The session is being held two days after the Charlotte City Council gutted an ordinance that in March led the Republican-controlled General Assembly to pass House Bill 2.

For months the state's Republican leaders said they were willing to consider repealing the law if Charlotte acted first to undo its expanded antidiscrimination ordinance. HB2 was a key issue in McCrory's election with Democrat Roy Cooper, who defeated McCrory by about 10,000 votes.
By Lin Taylor LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The British government must take urgent action to help end the "horrendous crisis" in South Sudan, where men have been castrated in fighting and women have drowned hiding from militias, UK lawmakers said in an open letter on Wednesday. Africa's newest nation plunged into civil war in December 2013 after a long-running feud between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar, exploded into violence, much of it along ethnic lines. The pair signed a shaky peace deal last year, but fighting has continued forcing more than 1.1 million people to flee in the biggest cross-border exodus from any central African conflict since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. "All sides ... have been complicit in the killing or castration of men and boys," wrote Stephen Twigg, chair of the International Development Committee, a parliamentary watchdog. "These are horrendous acts of violence added to a litany of other sexual and gender based violence, already endemic in South Sudan." Addressing his letter to the Department of International Development and the Foreign Office, Twigg said he was shocked at the "alarming numbers" of civilians displaced or who have fled to neighboring countries because of the violence. "Women with their babies drowning on their backs, hiding in the swamps as militia go past. That fear is so desperate that they are hiding underwater," he wrote, citing an Oxfam humanitarian advisor. On Monday, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he feared genocide was about to start in South Sudan unless immediate action was taken. Last week, the head of a U.N. human rights commission called for the deployment of a 4,000-strong protection force across South Sudan to stop a "Rwanda-like" genocide, and a court to be set up to prosecute atrocities. Some 800,000 people were killed in the Rwandan genocide by Hutu extremist militiamen from country's biggest ethnic group. The International Development Committee urged the UK government to help establish a U.N. force in the region, and to push the humanitarian crisis up the international agenda. (Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Katie Nguyen. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, global land and property rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, women's rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories)
By Lin Taylor LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The British government must take urgent action to help end the "horrendous crisis" in South Sudan, where men have been castrated in fighting and women have drowned hiding from militias, UK lawmakers said in an open letter on Wednesday. Africa's newest nation plunged into civil war in December 2013 after a long-running feud between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar, exploded into violence, much of it along ethnic lines. The pair signed a shaky peace deal last year, but fighting has continued forcing more than 1.1 million people to flee in the biggest cross-border exodus from any central African conflict since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. "All sides ... have been complicit in the killing or castration of men and boys," wrote Stephen Twigg, chair of the International Development Committee, a parliamentary watchdog. "These are horrendous acts of violence added to a litany of other sexual and gender based violence, already endemic in South Sudan." Addressing his letter to the Department of International Development and the Foreign Office, Twigg said he was shocked at the "alarming numbers" of civilians displaced or who have fled to neighbouring countries because of the violence. "Women with their babies drowning on their backs, hiding in the swamps as militia go past. That fear is so desperate that they are hiding underwater," he wrote, citing an Oxfam humanitarian advisor. On Monday, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he feared genocide was about to start in South Sudan unless immediate action was taken. Last week, the head of a U.N. human rights commission called for the deployment of a 4,000-strong protection force across South Sudan to stop a "Rwanda-like" genocide, and a court to be set up to prosecute atrocities. Some 800,000 people were killed in the Rwandan genocide by Hutu extremist militiamen from country's biggest ethnic group. The International Development Committee urged the UK government to help establish a U.N. force in the region, and to push the humanitarian crisis up the international agenda. (Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Katie Nguyen. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, global land and property rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, women's rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories)
By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) - A Google Inc (GOOGL.O) product manager has sued the company, accusing it of unlawfully prohibiting employees from sharing concerns with coworkers, shareholders or the press, and maintaining a "spying program" to prevent leaks.

In the class action lawsuit filed on Tuesday in California state court in San Francisco, the employee, identified only as "John Doe," says Google's employment agreements are illegally broad and violate various state labor laws.

The plaintiff says the confidentiality agreements that all Google employees are required to sign essentially bar workers from saying anything about the company, even to each other. The agreements define confidential information as "without limitation, any information in any form that relates to Google or Google's business that is not generally known," according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says the agreements violate state laws that provide that employers cannot bar workers from discussing their wages or disclosing information to government agencies.

A spokesperson for Mountain View, California-based Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, said in a statement that the claims were "baseless," and said the agreements were designed to protect sensitive business information and not to bar employees from discussing working conditions.

"We're very committed to an open internal culture, which means we frequently share with employees details of product launches and confidential business information," the spokesperson said.

Google is facing similar claims from an unidentified employee in proceedings before the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, which recently struck down confidentiality agreements and other employment contracts that could discourage workers from discussing concerns at T-Mobile USA Inc, DirectTV and a number of other companies.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiff says that to enforce its policies, Google forces workers to spy on each other through a program called "Stopleaks" that requires them to report the disclosure of confidential information. Employees can be fired or sued for violating employment agreements or failing to report leaks, according to the lawsuit.

Story continues

"Google continues to insist that Googlers refrain from plainly communicating with others that Google is violating the law or endangering consumers," the complaint says.

Plaintiffs in court cases are rarely allowed to proceed anonymously absent extraordinary circumstances. The Google worker says that being identified could harm his reputation at the company and his future job prospects.

The plaintiff is seeking to represent all current and former Google employees who signed the agreements. The lawsuit says the company has about 65,000 workers.

The case is Doe v. Google Inc, California Superior Court, San Francisco County, number not immediately available.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)
By Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) - Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, potentially just months away from winning power, is wrestling with a problem it thought it would never have to deal with: choosing a leader. And it is proving difficult. A maverick among Europe's band of new political parties, 5-Star has no formal hierarchy, believing instead in a horizontal structure where its supporters participate directly in decision-making through online ballots. The movement founded seven years ago, which bases its appeal on fighting corruption and cronyism, is running neck-and-neck with former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) in opinion polls. It was the big winner in a Dec. 4 referendum in which Italians rejected Renzi's constitutional reforms, forcing him from office and leading to calls from most political parties for elections in the first half of 2017, a year ahead of schedule. But forming a government would mean nominating a prime minister, and rivalries are building among likely contenders that could hamper the movement's election hopes or destabilize a future 5-Star government. Party sources say a battle for support is already in progress between telegenic 30-year-old Luigi Di Maio, until recently the favorite, and Roberto Fico, 42, a former communications expert who has taken a swipe at his rival by urging the party to resist the cult of political celebrity. A third contender has also recently emerged who may yet eclipse them both: Alessandro Di Battista, a 38-year-old deputy from Rome who shows far more passion than his rivals in decrying the corruption endemic in the mainstream parties. 5-Star is leading in some opinion polls, despite squabbles and scandals that have plagued the party's mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi. But a leadership battle is a new and risky challenge to its fragile unity. "This is a movement with no real structure and as the stakes get higher so will personal ambitions and infighting," said Francesco Galietti at political risk consultancy Policy Sonar. Before the next election 5-Star's 135,000 members will choose their prime ministerial candidate in an online vote. The date of the vote, the regulations and the candidates have not yet been fixed. So far only Di Maio has confirmed he will run. Italy's mainstream parties are trying to rewrite the electoral rules to keep 5-Star from power but they have no guarantee of success against a party that could emerge with the biggest share of votes. LIMELIGHT Di Maio was groomed as 5-Star's prime ministerial candidate by the movement's founders: comedian Beppe Grillo and internet guru Gianroberto Casaleggio, who died this year. Grillo, 68, 5-Star's spiritual head and de facto leader, has ruled out running for office, and in any case he would be barred under the movement's internal rules due to a conviction for manslaughter over a 1981 road accident. Yet he could remain a major influence over a 5-Star government. Soft-spoken, moderate and immaculately turned out in suit and tie, Di Maio was at first seen as the perfect foil to Grillo's outbursts and theatrical rants. But he did little to hide his ambition. As his public profile has risen, so has the disapproval of fellow 5-Star parliamentarians who accuse him of hogging the limelight. When he gave an interview to Vanity Fair in May, full of personal details that included his sex life with his girlfriend, he drew a rare public rebuke from his fellow deputy Fico. Some of Di Maio's colleagues also accuse him of withholding information and siding too closely with Rome mayor Raggi, who is disliked by a faction of the party's lawmakers. Di Battista, often unshaven and casually dressed, is the new idol of 5-Star's supporters. His popularity shot up after he spent the summer touring the whole of Italy on a scooter to campaign against Renzi's constitutional reforms. The bearded Fico represents 5-Star orthodoxy. He reminds his colleagues, none of who had real political experience when they entered parliament in 2013, not to forget their roots or be tempted by celebrity status. "It's so easy to find you are changing bit by bit without even realizing it is happening," he told Reuters. Fico says if it were up to him, 5-Star would not even pick a candidate for prime minister but decide everything collegially. "People are obsessed with leaders, as though one person can have the answers to everything, but then they fail one after the other," he says. "Politics has become like X-Factor." (Editing by Pravin Char)
KINSHASA (Reuters) - The U.N. mission in Democratic Republic of Congo has confirmed 19 deaths and 45 injuries from gunshots during protests on Tuesday against President Joseph Kabila for overstaying his mandate, the human rights director said on Wednesday. "We are very concerned by the excessive use of force by state agents, notably the (police), the Republican Guard, the military police and the National Agency of Intelligence," Jose Maria Aranaz, head of the U.N. human rights office in Congo, told reporters in the capital Kinshasa. (Reporting By Aaron Ross; Editing by Tim Cocks)
Tultepec (Mexico) (AFP) - A massive explosion gutted Mexico's biggest fireworks market, killing at least 31 people and injuring 72, the authorities said.

The conflagration in the Mexico City suburb of Tultepec set off a quick-fire series of multicolored blasts that sent a vast cloud of smoke billowing over the capital.

The market had been packed with customers buying pyrotechnics for traditional end-of-year festivities. Christmas and New Year parties in many Latin American countries often wrap up with clattering firework blasts.

"You just heard the blast. And everything started to be on fire. People came running out on fire," Walter Garduno said.

"People were alight -- children," he added before trailing off.

From a few kilometers (miles) away, the multiple explosions that started at 2:50 pm (2050 GMT) almost looked festive, alight in blue, red and white. They were anything but.

Of the 31 confirmed dead, "26 (died) at the scene and five in hospitals," local media reported Mexico's chief prosecutor Milenio Alejandro Gomez as saying.

Forensic experts are working on genetic analyses of the bodies because "almost all of them are impossible" to identify, Mexico state's governor Eruviel Avila told the Televisa television network.

At least 72 were wounded, the authorities said. The injured were transported to emergency rooms, and 21 have since been released.

Fire crews struggled for three hours before bringing the blaze under control.

- Entire market blown up -

The head of the civil protection service, Luis Felipe Puente, said crews had to wait for all the fireworks to finish exploding before they could extinguish the flames.

"The entire market is gone," he said. It had 300 stands.

Several of the injured were in "delicate condition," he added, saying searches were under way for more casualties in the scorched area that looked like a scene from a post-apocalyptic film, with little left standing in the smoldering ruins.

Story continues

Homes and vehicles nearby were also severely damaged. In some areas, emergency workers were gently probing for survivors under heaps of charred and twisted roofing material.

People desperately searching for family and friends shouted and gestured to rescuers about where they hoped the missing might be found.

Most of those picked up by rescuers suffered severe burns, many over their entire bodies.

The military, which is in charge of issuing fireworks sales permits, was deployed to help emergency crews transport casualties to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter.

Ambulances, fire trucks, police vehicles and army trucks all crowded the sprawling blast area.

- Everything shook -

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted his condolences to the families of those killed and his wishes for the injured to recover.

The Attorney General's Office has opened an investigation into the cause of the conflagration, which was prompted by "six pyrotechnic explosions," it said in a statement.

Some speculated the mishandling of gunpowder or other fireworks components may have set them off.

That was the cause of an explosion in September 2005 at another fireworks market set up ahead of the Independence Day holiday. That market was destroyed.

The following year, another explosion destroyed more than 200 sellers' stands. Both incidents left dozens of injured, but no fatalities.

Alejandra Pretel, a resident in Tultepec, told AFP that she didn't realize at first that the explosions were coming from the large fireworks market.

"We thought it was a nearby fireworks workshop," she said.

Minutes later, it became evident the market was being destroyed.

"My neighbors said they felt everything shake," she said, "but I didn't realize because I was running away."
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / December 21, 2016 / LED Medical Diagnostics Inc. ("LED" or the "Company") (LMD.V) announces that it is proposing a financing through the issuance of: (i) 12% senior secured debentures of the Company (the "LED Medical Debentures") in the aggregate amount of Cdn$150,000, maturing 24 months from the closing date of the financing (the "Closing Date"); and (ii) 12% senior secured debentures of LED Dental Inc. (the "LED Dental Debentures"), a wholly-owned direct subsidiary of the Company, in the aggregate amount of Cdn$650,000, maturing 24 months from the Closing Date (collectively, the LED Medical Debentures and the LED Dental Debentures, the "Debentures"). The Debentures will be issued to the Bloom Burton Healthcare Lending Trust II, as part of a non-brokered private placement. The LED Medical Debentures will be issued as units ("Units") consisting of: (i) LED Medical Debentures in the aggregate principal amount of Cdn$150,000; and (ii) a total of 320,000 common shares of the Company. The subscription price for the Units will be Cdn$150,000. The Company intends to grant a total of 1,380,000 common shares of the Company to Bloom Burton Healthcare Lending Trust II as a loan bonus in connection with the issuance of the LED Dental Debentures.

The Company intends to grant the common shares issued in connection with each Debenture as a loan bonus in accordance with Exchange Policy 5.1 of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSX-V"). The issuance of the Debentures and the common shares is subject to TSX-V acceptance.

The proceeds will be used by LED for working capital and general corporate purposes.

All securities, other than the LED Dental Debentures, issued in connection with the transaction will be subject to a hold period expiring four months and one day after the Closing Date. The LED Dental Debentures will be subject to a hold period expiring four months and one day after the later of: (i) the Closing Date; and (ii) the date that LED Dental Inc. becomes a "reporting issuer" under Canadian Securities laws in any province or territory of Canada.

About LED Medical Diagnostics Inc.

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, LED Medical Diagnostics Inc., through its wholly-owned subsidiaries LED Dental Inc. and LED Dental Ltd., provide dentists and oral health specialists with advanced diagnostic imaging products and software, in addition to the award-winning VELscope Vx tissue fluorescence visualization technology. Backed by an experienced leadership team and dedicated to a higher level of service and support, LED Dental is committed to providing dental practitioners with the best technology available by identifying and adding leading products to its growing portfolio.

The Company is currently listed on the TSX-V under the symbol "LMD", the OTCQX under the symbol "LEDIF", as well as the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "LME". For more information, call 884.952.7327 or visit www.leddental.com/investor-relations.

Investor Relations:

Glen Akselrod

Phone: 905.326.1888 ext 10

Email: glen@bristolir.com

Media Contact:

LED Dental

Chris Koch

Phone: 678.293.9413

Email: chris.koch@leddental.com

Corporate Contact:

LED Medical

David Gane, CEO

Phone: 604.434.4614 ext 227

Email: david.gane@leddental.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.

SOURCE: LED Medical Diagnostics Inc.
Let these photos of Kevin Jonas holding a duck at a holiday party put a smile on your face today

How do we know that the holidays are here? Theres the familiar music everywhere, the rosy noses coming in from the cold and, oh yeah, theres these photos of Kevin Jonas holding a duck. And not just any duck, that is the Aflac duck that is gracing Kevins lap alongside his wife Danielle. The new parents attended the #AFLACHOLIDAYHELPERS campaign launch on December 19, 2016 in New York City to support the famous duck as he plays Santas little helper for children facing cancer. Each year Aflac pairs up with Macys to sell an exclusive plush version of the quacking commercial icon, whose net proceeds are then donated to the participating childrens cancer facility nearest to where it is purchased. Its a tradition that gives back as much as it gives us the warm fuzzies, so its honestly perfect. Just look at Kevins face.

This is one lucky duck!

#AFLACHOLIDAYHELPERS Campaign Launch

Danielle Jonas swapped out the couples almost two-month old daughter Valentina for the cotton-filled version of this darling duck, whos celebrating his 16th year as a festive holiday plush. Each year, 250 Macys stores participate in selling this traditional gift across the country. And yes, if you squeeze the plush one, it does deliver its famous AFLAC!! No telling what the real duck does if you squeeze it. Probably shouldnt try and find out.

#AFLACHOLIDAYHELPERS Campaign Launch

Aflac duck meetAflac duck.

#AFLACHOLIDAYHELPERS Campaign Launch

The Jonas stopped by the event to show their support of the ongoing #duckprints campaign, which raises up to $1.5 million annually to go to childhood cancer research and treatment. Donations are made for any social activity on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #duckprints and for every viewing of a Duckprints-related video on YouTube. As if we needed a good reason to stop in from the cold to play with a duck.

<> on December 19, 2016 in New York City.

It was clear when the meet and greet was over. Hes a busy guy!

Story continues

There are the classic celebrity perks  attending award shows, wearing fancy clothes for free, making bank after one days work  and then there are the real, random celebrity perks; like playing with a duck all afternoon with your pretty wife.

The post Let these photos of Kevin Jonas holding a duck at a holiday party put a smile on your face today appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Court clears way for Caan to seize security deposit of contractor

The Patan High Court ruled on Monday that Constructora Sanjose, the dismissed contractor for the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) improvement project, had no legal right to prevent the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) from seizing its security deposit.
In a world of uncertainty, Dev Patel is hoping his latest film, Lion, leaves viewers with a sense of triumph.

In the new trailer for the movie, based on the true story of an Indian boy who got lost, was adopted by an Australian family, and found his way home 25 years later thanks to Google Earth, Patel, who stars as Saroo Brierley, says he hopes when people watch Lion, they come away feeling a sense of triumph about people and families and relationships. Thats a beautiful, positive message to be putting out to the world at this time.

Nicole Kidman, who portrays Saroos adoptive mother Sue, also appears in the trailer, praising the films portrayal of the power of mothers.

The film, directed by Garth Davis and written by Luke Davies, recently nabbed four Golden Globes nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Dev Patel, Best Supporting Actress for Nicole Kidman, and Best Motion Picture  Drama.

Lions New York premiere in November saw a surprise guest in former President Bill Clinton, who stopped by to catch the film a week after the Nov. 8 election.

Lion is in theaters now.
Democratising nationalism

Recently, one of the most powerful leaders of the CPN-UML, Bam Dev Gautam, said federalism was a poison that was driving the country towards conflict and that the moves by the government to amend the constitution were anti-national.
BOSTON (Reuters) - Maine voters have made the state the eighth in the United States to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, state officials said on Wednesday, following a recount of votes on a ballot initiative. The measure passed by 3,995 votes with the support of 381,768 people, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said in a statement. That was a slightly narrower margin of victory than the 4,073 vote gap reported following the Nov. 8 election. The measure now goes to Governor Paul LePage, who has 10 days under Maine law to issue a proclamation of the vote results. It would take effect 30 days later, setting the stage for the drug to become legal for adults over 21 beginning late next month. The result makes Maine the second state in the northeast to legalize recreational use of the drug, as voters in nearby Massachusetts approved a similar measure last month. Marijuana became legal to use and posses in limited quantities, but not yet to buy, in that state last week. LePage, a Republican, said earlier this week during a radio interview that he intended to seek legal advice before signing the proclamation, since the drug remains illegal under federal law. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has sent mixed signals about his views on it. During the campaign, Trump, a Republican, said that marijuana legalization was best left to the states. His pick for attorney general, U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, has criticized Democratic President Barack Obama's administration for not enforcing the federal ban aggressively enough. An October opinion poll by Gallup showed that 60 percent of Americans now support the legalization of recreational use of marijuana. Even more approve of the idea of legalizing marijuana for medical use, a step that 28 states have taken. In addition to Maine and Massachusetts, voters in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon, California, Nevada and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational use of the drug. (Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Frances Kerry)
A little more than a year ago, Steven Avery sat in jail, convicted for the 2005 murder of 25-year-old Wisconsin photographer Teresa Halbach. His nephew, Brendan Dassey, was also behind bars for his part in the killing. Most Americans knew nothing about the case.

But that was before Making a Murderer, the Netflix docuseries that premiered on December 18, 2015. The ten-episode series explored the evidence against Avery and Dassey, raising the possibility that they could be innocent.

Making a Murderer was a commercial and critical success, with millions of viewers. The series sparked controversy and outrage across America. More than 500,000 people signed a petition asking the White House to pardon Avery. (President Barack Obama replied that he had no authority to intervene in a state criminal case.)

However, Halbachs family has rebuked the show, claiming it was one-sided.

A year after the docuseries release, things have changed significantly for both Dassey and Avery.

Steven Avery: Still Appealing His Conviction

Avery, 53, continues to maintain his innocence and is appealing his conviction.

In August, his attorneys filed a motion to have experts test the evidence that had been used to convict him. Avery has long claimed that the evidence was planted in retribution for a $36 million lawsuit he had against the police.

In September, Avery announced his engagement to legal secretary Lynn Hartman. The couple appeared on Dr. Phil in their first television interview, speaking about how they fell in love.

 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.

Steven deserves every bit of happiness that comes his way, Averys attorney Kathleen Zellner told PEOPLE at the time. He is very much in love and happy with Lynn so we are happy for them.

But the relationship didnt work out: Within a few weeks, the couple had split.

Story continues

Brendan Dassey: Conviction Overturned

In August, a federal judge overturned Dasseys murder conviction.

PEOPLE obtained a copy of Judge William Duffins decision, in which he characterized the misconduct of Dasseys first attorney, Len Kachinsky, as indefensible.

Brendan DasseyEric Young/AP

Dassey confessed to the killing during his his 2006 interrogation, but later recanted, saying the confession was coerced. He has since denied involvement in Halbachs death.

The judges order claims the detectives who were investigating Halbachs murder promised Dassey prosecutorial leniency in exchange for his cooperation during his interrogation. Dassey is described by multiple people on the show as having severe learning disabilities.

 Pick up PEOPLEs special edition True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America, on sale now, for the latest on Casey Anthony, JonBenet Ramsey and more.

The investigators repeatedly claimed to already know what happened on Oct. 31 and assured Dassey that he had nothing to worry about, the decision reads. These repeated false promises, when considered in conjunction with all relevant factors, most especially Dasseys age, intellectual deficits, and the absence of a supportive adult, rendered Dasseys confession involuntary under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Despite the decision, Dassey currently remains in jail while prosecutors appeal the decision.

Making A Murderer: A Second Season

After the success of the first season, filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos will venture back into the case for a second season. The new installments will follow the appeals process for both Avery and Dassey.

According to a Netflix press release, the second season will provide an in-depth look at the high-stakes post-conviction process, as well as the emotional toll the process takes on all involved.

The release date and the number of episodes have not been revealed.




The victim is understood to have worked as a cleaner at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. Photo: Nicholas Yong

A Malaysian who allegedly murdered a Singaporean woman at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal in November was charged in court on Wednesday (21 December).

Ahmad Muin Yaacob, 23, appeared calm as the single charge of murder was read to him in Malay via a translator.

The diminutive Ahmad asked to speak to the judge after his charge was read to him. Addressing District Judge John Ng, he asked if he would be safe from the death sentence if he were to co-operate with the authorities.

Judge Ng replied that the decision was not up to him and added that since it was a capital offence, a counsel would be assigned to him.

Ahmad is said to have committed the offence between 12 pm and 1 pm on 24 November this year.

The victim, 54-year-old Maimunah Awang, was found dead in a drain near the terminal the following day with injuries to her neck and bruises to her stomach.

According to a police statement released on Tuesday, the accused was arrested in Malaysia by the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) on 18 December.

He was handed over to the Singapore authorities the following day.

Ahmad will be back in court on 28 December and is currently being remanded at Alpha Police Division for further investigations.

If found guilty of murder, he will face the death penalty.
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) will begin merger talks with Asian Finance Bank Bhd (AFB) in its third attempt in about two years to convert into a full-fledged Islamic lender.

The non-banking lender said in a bourse filing on Wednesday that it had received a letter from Bank Negara Malaysia in which the central bank said it had "no objection in principle for MBSB to commence negotiations with the existing shareholders of AFB".

The central bank requires that the negotiations be completed within six months, MBSB said.

AFB is co-owned by Qatar Islamic Bank, RUSB Investment Bank Inc, Tadhamon International Islamic Bank and Financial Assets Bahrain WLL.

MBSB had previously entered into talks with Bank Muamalat Bhd for a merger that would have created the largest standalone Islamic bank in Malaysia, but the talks fell through in February this year.

In January 2015, talks of a three-way tie-up between MBSB, CIMB and RHB to create Malaysia's biggest bank by assets collapsed. (Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
* Output cut part of deal between OPEC, other oil producers

* Cut would mark second year of lower output at Petronas

* Reduction to kick in from Jan. 2017 - Petronas (Adds background on Petronas' output)

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Malaysia's state oil firm Petroliam Nasional Bhd will trim crude output by up to 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2017, down about 3 percent from this year's estimated production, honouring the country's commitment to reduce supply as part of a deal agreed this month between OPEC and other global producers.

The planned output cut by the firm, known as Petronas, would signal a second straight year of production declines at Malaysia's sole crude oil producer. The cut will be implemented from January 2017, Petronas said in a statement on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers, including Malaysia, reached their first deal since 2001 to curtail oil output jointly, seeking to ease a global glut after more than two years of low prices.

OPEC countries agreed to slash output by 1.2 million bpd from Jan. 1, while non-OPEC producers agreed to lower production by 558,000 bpd.

Petronas produced 662,000 bpd in 2015, up 10 percent from the previous year, according to an economic report issued by the Malaysian government in October. But 2016 production was estimated at 648,000 bpd, a 2 percent drop, according to the report.

The company has been hit hard by the lengthy slump in global oil prices: it announced at the start of the year that it would cut spending by up to 50 billion ringgit ($11.2 billion) over the next four years amid the downturn, and has labelled the industry outlook as "gloomy" well into 2017.

The Petronas dividend to the government has also been slashed. Petronas has said it will pay the government 13 billion ringgit next year, down from 16 billion ringgit in 2016.

($1 = 4.4780 ringgit) (Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Kenneth Maxwell)
Dhaulagiri glacier shrinking, thanks to climate change

Dhaulagiri glacier has started shrinking due to melting of ice. The glaciers are becoming thin in the mountainous region of late.
DAKAR (Reuters) - The main separatist group in northern Mali, the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), has suspended its participation in a committee charged with implementing a 2015 peace accord, according to a statement seen by Reuters on Tuesday. The document, dated Dec. 19 and signed by CMA President Alghabass Ag Intalla, an elder of the Tuareg ethnic group cited rising violence and a lack of progress on reforms among other reasons for its decision. However, in a sign that the suspension might be temporary, Ag Intalla also called for a high-level encounter with mediators in order "to save the accord and preserve the credibility of the process". A statement on Twitter from a branch of the CMA group said it would continue to participate in security aspects of the peace process, without giving details. A Tuareg rebellion in 2012 that sought to create a new state called Azawad was hijacked by al Qaeda-linked militants who seized major towns in Mali's north and established sharia law. French troops drove them out a year later but they continue to launch deadly attacks from desert hideouts and have spread into areas once considered safe, despite efforts by a 13,000-strong U.N. force to keep them at bay. Many among the minority Tuareg and Arab populations in the north complain that little has been done to address the root causes of the rebellion such as poverty, a lack of investment and exclusion from the southern-based Bamako government. (Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Alison Williams)
"By the time I was finished writing the script, I liked it a lot," Manchester by the Sea screenwriter Kenneth Longergan told The Hollywood Reporter during the Writer Roundtable. "I liked the characters and I liked the setting. I had learned a lot about that part of the world. It takes place in Cape Ann, Mass. I lived with it in an enjoyable way for two years, and it wasn't a big leap to want to direct it once the idea was put to me."

Read more: Casey Affleck on Acting: "Usually If It Feels Like Fun It Ends Up Not Being Very Good" | Actor Oscar Roundtable

The twice-Oscar-nominated screenwriter (Gangs of New York, You Can Count on Me) shared his process during the Roundtable. "My first pass on it was not very interesting, so I had a year of really struggling with it and not liking it. So I started over, and it got better. It usually takes me about two years. It will take me six to eight months to write a first draft that I like and the remainder of time to make it 10-20 percent better."

More roundtables featuring actresses, actors, directors, songwriters, documentarians, 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.
Authorities are searching for a Tunisian man in connection to Mondays truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market after his identity documents were reportedly found in the vehicle used in the Monday evening tragedy, a German security official told CNN.

German police have identified the suspect as Anis Amri, 24, reports NBC. He is being sought in Germany and across Europes border-free travel zone, German officials announced.

According to CNN, the German federal prosecutors office issued a wanted notice for Amri, who they say is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs approximately 165 pounds. The office has offered a reward of up to 100,000 euros. The notice warns Amri could be violent and armed.

Anis AmriGerman police via AP

Two suspects were arrested in the wake of the attack that killed 12 and injured 48 others, but German authorities released them due to insufficient evidence, the Associated Press reports.

 Pick up PEOPLEs special edition True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America, on sale now, for the latest on Casey Anthony, JonBenet Ramsey and more.

In a brief statement Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared the incident a likely terrorist attack. ISIS has claimed it inspired the attack, according to CNN.

This is a difficult day. I am, like millions of people during these hours, horrified and shocked by what happened at the Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, she said, according to the New York Times. We must assume at the current time that it was a terrorist attack.

 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 incident happened in Breitscheidplatz in western Berlin.

Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief at Bild, a German newspaper, told CNN the market would be busy every night of the week leading up to Christmas. Reichelt also said the market is difficult to access by accident.

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It looks like something that was adapted by Nice, Reichelt said, referring to last years Bastille Day attack that killed 86 people.

CNN also reported that the truck seemed to be going about 40 mph and made no apparent effort to avoid people.




Photo credit: undefined

From Harper's BAZAAR

After rumors spread yesterday that Margot Robbie secretly wed her longtime boyfriend Tom Ackerley in Australia over the weekend, the actress took to Instagram last night to confirm the news. She shared a simple, yet brazen photo of her engagement ring (featuring the newlyweds kissing in the background). No caption needed.

And thanks to some paparazzi photos, you can catch a glimpse of her lace, off-the-shoulder wedding dress, reportedly designed by Oscar de la Renta. She ditched the veil and let her blond waves hang in a relaxed updo.

Thats how you do an Aussie wedding! @MargotRobbie and Tom Ackerley have tied the knot https://t.co/wN63zAyDq0 - news.com.au (@newscomauHQ) December 20, 2016

The nuptials took place in Byron Bay, New South Wales, according to News.com.au. Robbie arranged for the ceremony to be super private, and didn't even disclose the location to her guests. Instead, the 50 attendees were told to meet at various locations and were transported to the venue by bus. They gave up their phones and cameras upon arriving too, while "a dozen" security guards surveyed the grounds. The ceremony started at around 4 p.m. and ended at around 11 p.m., the site reports.

Robbie, 26, and Ackerley met in 2013 while filming Suite Francais and have lived together in south London for the past couple years. Congratulations to the happy couple!

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BALTIMORE (AP)  Maryland officials considered sanctioning the producers of the popular "Serial" podcast for airing Baltimore courtroom audio from the trial of Adnan Syed, a violation of state law.

The Baltimore Sun reported (http://bsun.md/2hsiS8o ) Wednesday that officials considered holding the podcast's producers in contempt. Maryland law prohibits the broadcasting of any criminal case. The paper says court officials this year reached out to "Serial" producer Sarah Koenig about how the tapes ended up in the 2014 podcast.

Koenig says an attorney gave her team incorrect legal advice about the state's rules on courtroom audio. She's agreed not to broadcast court proceedings in the future.

A Maryland Judiciary spokesman, Kevin Kane, says officials decided not to go forward with sanctions in light of the explanation.

Syed's conviction was overturned earlier this year.

___

Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com
Cuisinart

Cuisinart is under fire for recalling 8 million food processors just before the busy holiday cooking season.

The food processors are a staple of many Americans' kitchens.

Their motorized blades make some of the most painstaking cooking preparation  like chopping, grating, and dicing  a breeze, especially when preparing food in large quantities.

But some of those blades can also end up cracking, chipping off, and landing in processed food, posing a serious laceration risk, Cuisinart recently revealed.

Conair, the company that makes the Cuisinart machines, has received 69 reports of people finding broken pieces of the blade in processed food, including 30 reports of mouth lacerations or tooth injuries, according to the company's statement on the recall.

Now millions of Americans are facing a holiday nightmare, with some accusing the company of ruining Christmas and Hanukkah.

"Just dandy, the timing couldn't be worse Cuisinart," Valerie van der Gracht wrote on Cuisinart's Facebook page.

Marie Alldridge wrote: "Merry Christmas to you! Now tell me with the recalls on food processors what am I supposed to do to get my baking and cooking done? Buy another product? I know for sure that you won't send me a replacement before Christmas since I can't even get in touch with oyu via phone or internet!"

"Cuisinart ruined Christmas," one person wrote on Twitter. Another tweeted, "The Cuisinart recall that ruined Hanukkah."

Conair has offered to send affected customers free replacement blades if they call 877-339-2534 or visit www.cuisinart.com/recall online. The recall affects 8 million food processors sold between July 1996 through December 2015.

But many people have complained that they have been unable to reach the company by phone and that the recall website has been crashing.

Customers have also complained that Conair has given no indication of when the replacement blades will be sent out. Conair did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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"I am disgusted that you would announce such a huge recall using a phone number that doesn't work and a website that crashes. This is no way to treat your customers," Kate Johnson wrote.

Marsha McMichael Stutts wrote, "Like everyone else, I have a recalled blade and when I call all I get is a busy signal. It's the Christmas season and I need my food processor!"

Barb Kiebel said she's in such dire need of a processor that instead of waiting for a replacement blade, she went out and bought a new one.

But the new Cuisinart processor immediately broke.

"Before I even turned it on, just in putting the pieces together on the base; a piece of the plastic has broken off," she said.

Chef and food blogger Jason Perlow told the New York Times that the recall is the foodie version of the Volkswagen diesel scandal.

Cuisinart just screwed up the holidays for a lot of people, Perlow's wife told the Times.

NOW WATCH: Cuisinart food processors are being recalled over the metal blades cracking





More From Business Insider


To promote Matthew McConaughey's upcoming film Gold, Jimmy Fallon invited the actor to read scenes written by elementary school children. The only prompt the children were given is that the scripts had to be about gold.

In the first scene, written by a nine-year-old named Metz, McConaughey plays a man named Matthew and Fallon plays Bob. "I stole your gold just a few minutes ago," Matthew tells Bob. "I also stole your pants."

Bob starts crying. "Wait, I had no pants on this whole time?" Fallon's Bob asks, as the host tries to stifle his laughter.

The second reading (by Leo, nine) had Fallon and McConaughey using similar funny voices, with McConaughey's rich and lonely duck character intermittently quacking and raising one fake wing as he spoke.

In the finale, written by 10-year-old Nolan, McConaughey and Fallon played Darold and Harold Nugget and they burst out into a joyful "golden bean" dance. Watch the two men laugh and act below.

Read more: Nicole Kidman and Jimmy Fallon Have Another Awkward Interview About Their Missed Romance
Matthew McConaughey and wife Camila Alves are taking their three children and heading off to Brazil to visit her family for the holidays. To prepare, the Sing star says his kids are brushing up on their Portuguese.

"The kids are taking Portuguese classes for the last week," McConaughey told Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday's Tonight Show. "They already know a lot of Portuguese, but they're taking Portuguese classes five hours a day for the last week in prep for going on this trip."

According to the star, his 8-year-old son, Levi, 6-year-old daughter, Vida, and 3-year-old son Livingston already "speak much better Portuguese" than he does.

WATCH: Matthew McConaughey Talks Holiday Plans and His Karaoke Go-To at 'Sing' Premiere Family Night

McConaughey and Alves, who tied the knot in 2012, were recently in Brazil for the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, where the star couple were adorably excited to hang out and watch many of the exciting events. Luckily, the 47-year-old Oscar winner had his wife by his side to help out with the language barrier.

Speaking with Fallon, McConaughey also opened up about his upcoming adventure film, Gold. In the intense drama, McConaughey's character has to pet a tiger in order to seal a business deal with some shady investors.

While some stars would have insisted on CGI tiger for the scene, director Stephen Gaghan decided to use a real tiger, which meant McConaughey's trepidation in the scene wasn't something he had to fake.

"That's a real tiger. I was not acting in that scene," he recounted. "I was scared s**tless. That was not acting."

WATCH: Matthew McConaughey Dishes on His Recent Birthday Festivities and Gaining Weight for 'Gold'

According to McConaughey, the scene was so scary that the filmmakers decided to shoot it last, just in case something bad happened (like their star getting eaten).

"If you know anything about production, a film takes three or four months to make. Very cleverly, the producers scheduled that 'me touching the tiger' scene [as] the very last scene to shoot in the movie," shared McConaughey, who was one of the producers on the film.

Story continues

"I even looked myself in the mirror and said, 'That was pretty clever, because if something happens to No. 1 on the call sheet, we've already got all this other stuff,'" he added.

For more on McConaughey's role in Gold -- for which he put on nearly 40 pounds -- check out the video below. Gold hits theaters in limited release on Dec. 25, and opens wide on Jan. 27.

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21 Dec - Philippine bet Maxine Medina admitted that the pressure for her to repeat the victory at the upcoming Miss Universe is quite strong, though she will do her best not to be burdened by it.



According to PEP News, unlike the current Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach, who was already an experienced beauty queen when she entered the international stage, the 26-year-old Medina is a first timer in the pageant circuit.



"Dealing with this, I just want to take one step at a time and learn everything about pageants, because this is my first time. I have to learn from zero knowledge," she said.



The Quezon City beauty also shared that she has been seeking help from her mentors in Binibining Pilipinas to prepare her for the Miss Universe pageant. For now, Medina has been learning more about current events, not just locally, but also around the globe.



The Philippines is the host for the 2016 Miss Universe, to be held at the MOA Arena on 30 January. It will be the third time the country is hosting after 1974 and 1994.



The country has also produced three Miss Universe, Gloria Diaz (1969), Margie Moran (1973), and Pia Wurtzbach (2015).



As for the fact that the pageant will be held in her own backyard, Medina said, "I'm very happy that it will be held here in the Philippines. I'm just enjoying every moment that I am here right now competing for the Philippines."



(Photo Source: Maxine Medina Instagram)
Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years.
London (AFP) - Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday said she was planning to negotiate both Brexit and Britain's future relationship with the EU by 2019 but a transition period may be required after that.

Appearing before a parliamentary committee, May said companies and government might require time to adjust, in her first comments explicitly evoking a possible transition arrangement to ease Britain's EU departure.

"I would expect us to be able to negotiate a deal in the two-year period. But it may be the case that there may be some practical aspects that require a period of implementation thereafter," she said.

Finance Minister Philip Hammond has said such a deal could be "helpful" to "manage the adjustment between where we are now, as full members of the European Union, and where we get to in the future".

It "would tend towards a smoother transition and would run less risks of disruption including, crucially, risks to financial stability which must be a fairly real concern", he said last week.

- 'Cliff-edge' -

Speaking at a summit of the Confederation of British Industry in November, May had alluded to a transition deal saying: "We don't want a cliff-edge".

CBI president Paul Drechsler at the same conference said: "Businesses are inevitably considering the cliff-edge scenario -- a sudden and overnight transformation in trading conditions.

"If this happens, firms could find themselves stranded in a regulatory no man's land," he said.

A report published by the business lobby group on Wednesday called for a "barrier-free relationship with our largest, closest and most important trading partner".

The CBI report followed a consultation with its members which stressed a holistic approach to business is needed for the Brexit negotiations, reflecting fears the government could focus its attention on the financial sector.

"The Government will need to take a 'whole economy' approach to avoid leaving sectors behind," said Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director-general.

Story continues

A government spokesperson said Downing Street agrees "we want a smooth and orderly exit that works for all sectors of the UK economy".

- Brexit speech next month -

Grilled by MPs on Tuesday about the timing of the exit deal and the new trade arrangements with the EU, May said: "I am working on the basis that we will look to negotiate those in parallel.

"I think that is what makes sense," she added.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier earlier this month said the deal on Britain's departure should be brokered by October 2018 to allow for ratification times on the EU side.

He also said the EU "needs to know" the full details of Britain's plans for its long-term relationship with the EU before any interim deal was possible.

"As we don't know what the UK wants and is waiting for, it's difficult to imagine a transitional period," he said.

May also on Tuesday dismissed questions about whether the British parliament would be allowed to vote on the final Brexit deal that is negotiated, saying only it would be given time to discuss the issues.

She said she would give a speech on Brexit next month with more details of the government's plans and planned to stick to the timetable of beginning the formal procedure for Brexit by March at the latest.

"We will meet that timetable," she said.

Britain's Supreme Court is set to rule in January on whether parliament's approval is required for May to trigger the Article 50 exit process, which gives a two-year timetable for negotiating a deal unless both Britain and the EU agree to an extension.
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Instead of silently struggling to open tampons in bathroom stalls, Cass Clemmer is busting wrappers open and welcoming tampons into the world  complete with googly eyes.

Clemmer, an artist from Washington, D.C., started carrying around "Toni the Tampon" about a year ago and has been documenting the inanimate object's adventures "outside the wrapper" on Instagram.

SEE ALSO: 8 times Instagram policed women's bodies

"I went from hiding my tampon in my sleeve to taking photos of it in public," Clemmer tells Mashable.

Now, Toni and an accompanying cast of menstruation-themed friends are starring in a 20-page coloring book called The Adventures of Toni the Tampon, illustrated by Clemmer. And it's all an effort to destigmatize menstruation for the masses.

I wonder how many of my kind are wandering around in this airport.... #weareeverywhere #travelcramps #tonithetampon #menstrualcup #reprojustice #menstruationmatters A photo posted by Toni the Tampon (@tonithetampon) on Jul 10, 2016 at 7:21am PDT

Clemmer knows first-hand about problems that stem from a lack of education about periods.

The artist grew up in a missionary community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in an environment that was conservative and silent around sex education, sexuality and reproductive health.

"I didn't know what a uterus was, and I didn't know where this blood was even coming from or why," Clemmer says. "The only thing I was taught was how to clean it up so the world didn't see it  and then I was sent on my way to figure the rest out myself."

A photo posted by Toni the Tampon (@tonithetampon) on Dec 12, 2016 at 10:15pm PST

Though it would be easy to blame this lack of essential knowledge solely on the community's values, Clemmer learned very quickly that most people around the world receive very little education on menstruation.

"A lot of us are taught to keep periods to ourselves, to the point that even having a wrapped tampon outside the confines of the bathroom can feel inappropriate," the artist says. "The amount of work and ingenuity that goes into hiding this shared, cyclical experience would be comical if it wasn't distressing."

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Clemmer decided to create Toni the Tampon's Instagram account  and the new coloring book extension of Tonis social media presence  to confront global discomfort with periods. Through creativity and somewhat silly artistry, Clemmer hopes to generate more open conversations and more comprehensive education around reproductive health.

"It's a tough conversation to have with kids, especially when you consider that adults are often struggling with their own internalized period shame," Clemmer says. "But hopefully, by opening up a fun and creative gateway to discussion, my period coloring book will help make that conversation a little easier."

In The Adventures of Toni the Tampon, the characters embark on a series of unexpected adventures, from out-of-this-world space exploration to shredding it up at a skate park.

The coloring book features characters based around different forms of menstrual hygiene products  Toni the Tampon, Marina the Menstrual Cup, Sebastian the Sponge and Patrice the Pad.

Image: Cass Clemmer/Toni the tampon

Yes, Sebastian the Sponge is a man. And, yes, men do get periods.

In fact, Toni the Tampon isn't a female character either. Clemmer created the tampon, who goes by a gender-ambiguous name, as a form of representation for genderqueer people with periods. The artist was intentional about bringing diverse gender representation to the book's cast of characters, hoping to create something that was "affirming to all menstruators."

Clemmer admits the decision to include genderqueer and transgender characters undoubtedly makes the coloring book harder to market in a world that largely believes only women get periods. But risking profits and popularity in the name of inclusivity and accurate depiction was more important to the artist.

"I'd rather help just one genderqueer or trans menstruator feel like they were seen, than sell a thousand copies only to reinforce the boundaries society draws by gendering periods in the first place, Clemmer says.

Image: Cass Clemmer/Toni the tampon

Clemmer hopes the coloring book will allow people to be more candid about their periods  and maybe even inspire them to walk to bathrooms with tampons outside of their shirtsleeves. Maybe, the artist says, colorers will even be inspired to try a product they'd never heard of, like a sponge or menstrual cup.

"I'm not asking everyone to jump for joy when their cycle comes  because for a lot of people, periods really suck," Clemmer says. "But the importance of this period coloring book and Toni's Instagram is to help people talk about it, laugh about it, and even have a little bit of fun while dealing with the fact that their body is literally pushing out blood and tissue for days on end."

You can follow Toni's adventures on Instagram at @tonithetampon, or order The Adventures of Toni the Tampon online.
Cincinnati, OH-based Meridian Bioscience, Inc. VIVO, a renowned life sciences company, recently announced that its Magellan Diagnostics business has signed a distribution agreement with China-based MedCaptain Medical Technology, a leading player of infusion management, in-vitro diagnostics, and rehabilitation care. Notably, Magellan Diagnostics was acquired by Meridian Bioscience earlier in March.

Over the past six months, Meridian Biosciences has traded neck on neck with the Zacks categorized Medical Product sub-industry. The stock is currently representing a negative return of 7.19%, wider than the sub-industrys return of almost 6.05% loss. However, we are encouraged to note that the stock has gained a nominal 0.3% to close at $17.55 following the news indicating a chance of revival in the upcoming period.

Meanwhile, Meridian Bioscience has solid fundamentals both in terms of revenues and adjusted earnings per share (EPS). Notably, since the last five years, the revenues have multiplied at a CAGR of 5.2%, on the back of a solid EPS CAGR of 6.7%. Additionally, a long-term earnings growth rate of 16% and a projected sales growth of almost 5.2 compare favorably with the industrys 1.8%.

Getting back to the deal, the MedCaptain team will expand Merdian Biosciences Magellan Diagnostics LeadCare II blood lead testing system in China for quick diagnosis of lead exposure in blood. Notably, LeadCare is the only FDA and CFDA cleared blood lead testing system.

Per the terms of the deal, distribution activity with MedCaptain is scheduled to begin by Jan 2017. Additionally, MedCaptain is expected to invest in educating physicians and consumers in China about the hazards of lead poisoning through seminars and academic conferences.

MERIDIAN BIOSCI Price

MERIDIAN BIOSCI Price | MERIDIAN BIOSCI Quote

Our Take

A China-based study on the lead exposure in bloods by the PURE LIVING Indoor Environmental Solutions reveals that roughly 34% of children in China have blood-lead levels that exceed the World Health Organization standards. Additionally, more than 40% of the tested umbilical cords of newborns in Shanghai were affected by lead blood poisoning. Meridian Biosciences latest expansion move seems to be a strategic fit in the wake of the dismal scenario.

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Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Meridian Bioscience has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Better-ranked stocks in the broader medical sector include Addus HomeCare Corporation ADUS, LHC Group, Inc. LHCG and IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. IDXX. Addus HomeCare and IDEXX Laboratories sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Meanwhile, LHC Group carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Addus HomeCare has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of approximately 15%. Notably, the stock represents an impressive one-year return of 50.4%.

LHC Group has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 15%. The company has returned almost 22.2% in the last three months.

IDEXX Laboratories has an expected earnings growth of almost 15%. The company posted a promising year-to-date return of 62.3%.

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The series of explosions that devastated a popular open-air fireworks market in Mexico Tuesday was not being linked to terrorism, officials said. Six separate blasts ripped through the San Pablito market in Tultepec, outside of Mexico City, killing at least 31 and injuring 72.

Everything was destroyed, it was very ugly and many bodies were thrown all over the place, including a lot of children, 24-year-old Angelica Avila, whose brother, a fireworks salesman, was inside the market at the time and suffered burns, told Reuters.

Though officials said the explosions were not related to terrorism, the cause of the blasts was not announced. The federal attorney generals office opened an investigation to find the people responsible. Eruviel Avila, the governor of the State of Mexico, pledged that he would find and punish whoever was responsible, according to Reuters. Isidro Sanchez, the head of Tultepec emergency services, said the blame likely rests on a lack of adequate safety measures. State official Jose Manzur, however, said the market was inspected in November and no violations were found.

Its not the first time the San Pablito market has been the scene of a deadly accident. A fire swept through the market in 2005 and destroyed hundreds of stalls. A similar blaze devastated San Pablito in 2006.

Eerily beautiful fireworks could be seen detonating in the midst of the explosion in photos and videos taken Tuesday, masking the devastation taking place beneath. The market was particularly crowded that late December afternoon as shoppers geared up for holiday festivities. Tultepec Mayor Armando Portuguez Fuentes confirmed that the market was in high season and was packed with more product and customers than at other times of the year.

In addition to the staggering number of deaths and injuries, an estimated 80 percent of the markets 300 stalls were leveled. Multiple children sustained burns to more than 90 percent of their bodies and were rushed to hospitals in Galveston, Texas, for treatment, Reuters reported. As of early Wednesday, emergency workers remained at the scene. Bystanders and residents were asked to remain at least three miles away to allow rescue workers to continue.

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In 2014, the government of Mexico initiated major reforms within its telecommunications sector. Mexicos telecom regulatory authority, the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT), had taken several steps to instil competition in the highly monopolistic industry. Those reform initiatives have started bearing the desired results.

According to a recent report by The Competitive Intelligence Unit (CIU), the Mexican telecommunications sector is set to end 2016 with overall revenues of MXN 445.3 billion, up 2.1% year-over-year. Despite this favourable turn of events, the dwindling mobile telephony revenue which is likely to drop 2.4% year-over-year to MXN 243.3 billion remains a major cause of concern. However, the decline in mobile telephony revenues is more than offset by a significant surge in pay-TV revenues. Revenues from this segment are likely to be pegged at MXN 78.4 billion, up 21% year over year. Fixed telephony revenues are set to rise 1.3% to MXN 123.6 billion.

Widespread implementation of flat rate plans have resulted in a whopping 28.5% decline in mobile telephony prices year over year. Nevertheless, CIU is optimistic about future growth prospect of this industry. According to the research firm, Mexicos overall telecom revenues are forecasted to grow around 4% to MXN 463.3 billion in 2017. Mobile telephony, fixed telephony and pay-TV segments are anticipated to grow by 1.3%, 1.1% and 17.3%, respectively, in 2017.

At present, there are three nationwide telecom operators in Mexico. Mexican telecom behemoth America Movil SAB AMX and Spanish telecom giant Telefonica SA TEF are the two incumbents. Last year, the U.S. telecom behemoth AT&T Inc. T entered the fray with the acquisition of Grupo Iusacell and Nextel de Mexico. All the three stocks mentioned above currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can seethe complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Furthermore, AT&T acquired U.S. satellite TV giant DIRECTV, which had a strong Latin American presence including Mexico. Moreover, the IFT has permitted the Mexican TV broadcasting giant Grupo Televisa SA TV to enter the countrys telecom market. However, the company is yet to take any decision in this regard.

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In Mar 2016, Mexico established the Telecommunications Investment Promotion Agency through a presidential decree. The agency is responsible for the installation of the governments proposed 4G LTE shared network and provision of telecommunications services. The federal government will provide the resources to the agency that will be managed by a board of directors, headed by the Minister of Communications and Transport while the IFT will regulate it.

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Mexico fireworks market explosion fire blast

A series of explosions ripped through the San Pablito pyrotechnic market north of Mexico City on Tuesday afternoon, engulfing Mexico's largest fireworks market and sending a plume of smoke toward the capital.

Recent reports put the number of dead at 31 and injured at 72, with 12 people unaccounted for; 13 minors were reportedly sent to Galveston, Texas, to receive treatment for severe burns.

Among the 14 men killed, seven were minors, and a child was among the 16 women killed. One body remains unidentified.

The market, located in the municipality of Tultepec  which has been called Mexico's pyrotechnic capital  was the country's most well-known fireworks hub and regarded by officials as the safest such market in Latin America.

But it's not the first time devastating incidents like the one on Tuesday afternoon, the cause of which is still unknown, have happened in San Pablito.

Over the last 20 years, there have been at least eight other blasts at the market  in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, and 2012.

A blast in 1997 left three people dead, according to BBC Mundo, while a 1998 explosion in a gunpowder deposit killed a dozen people, left 50 injured, and caused extensive damage. One death occurred in a similar incident in 1999.

mexico

An explosion in September 2005, on the eve of Mexican independence celebrations, injured 128 vendors and customers, according to The Guardian.

At the time, officials blamed customers given improper permission to ignite explosives, setting off a series of explosions. The market reopened the next year, but regulations were put in place requiring stalls be built of brick and concrete and that fireworks had to be kept under glass and not touched by shoppers.

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Blasts in 2006 and 2007 destroyed the whole market, but in the wake of those explosions other safety measures were implemented to prevent chain explosions.

San Pablito fireworks market explosion blast fire

There was an explosion at a fireworks workshop in 2010, which left three people dead and two gravely injured. Two years later, another person was killed under the same circumstances.

In addition to those blasts, the last two decades have seen several fireworks blasts in other parts of the country claim scores of lives. Also on Tuesday, one person was killed in an explosion at a fireworks factory in the state of Hidalgo.

Fireworks frequently accompany celebrations in Mexico, particularly at independence day and holiday festivities. On Tuesday the San Pablito market was well stocked and packed with hundreds of customers and vendors.

Mexico fireworks explosion blast

"We are obviously in the high season," Tultepec Mayor Armando Portuguez Fuentes told the Associated Press. "There was more product than usual because we are a few days away from Christmas, a few days away from New Year's, and those are the days when the products made here are consumed the most."

At least six explosions ripped through the market, starting a little before 3 p.m. and going on for at least 25 minutes, according to MSNBC. Local media reported that there were 300 metric tons of fireworks on the scene at the time, and more than 80% of the 300 stalls at the site are believed destroyed.

"People were crying everywhere and desperately running in all directions," 20-year-old witness Cesar Carmona said.

Mexico fireworks explosion fire blast

"The earth moved," Angelica Coss, a 25-year-old resident who lives just streets away from the market, told AFP. "It felt like a plane had crashed, like bombs were being dropped."

"Everything was catching fire. Everything was exploding," Crescencia Francisco Garcia, who was in the middle of a section of stalls when the blasts began, told the AP. As she ran out of the market, she saw people with burns and cuts and lots of blood. "The stones were flying, pieces of brick, everything was flying."

"You just heard the blast. And everything started to be on fire. People came running out on fire," Walter Garduno told AFP. "People were alight  children," he added before trailing off.

Mexico fireworks market explosion fire blast

Efforts by first responders were initially stymied by ongoing blasts. The Red Cross deployed 10 ambulances and 50 paramedics to the scene, where they were joined by police, firefighters, and health officials from nearby localities.

The Mexican military aided emergency crews by transporting the injured via helicopter and ambulance.

According to Mexican news site Animal Politico, on December 12, Juan Ignacio Rodarte Cordero, director general of the Mexican Pyrotechnic Institute, said that the San Pablito market was the safest fireworks market in Latin America  "with perfectly designed stalls and with sufficient spaces so that there will not be a chain conflagration in case of a spark."

Mexico fireworks market explosion fire blast

Government sources confirmed to Animal Politico that the federal attorney general's office will assume the investigation of the incident because, as explosive materials were involved, federal crimes could have been committed.

"We are going to identify who is responsible," vowed Mexico state Gov. Eruviel Avila.

The fireworks industry is a mainstay in Tultepec, and despite regulations  like firefighters on site at the market and Defense Ministry regulation of gunpowder sales and licenses  many people produce fireworks in clandestine workshops or store them illegally.

"This is part of the activity of our town. It is what gives us identity," Portuguez, the Tultepec mayor, told the AP. "We know it is high-risk, we regret this greatly, but unfortunately many people's livelihoods depend on this activity."

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Just two days before the UKs decision to leave the EU, pundits dismissed the chance of a Brexit. And days before the 2016 US elections, pollsters gave Trump an 8% chance of winning. What are we doing wrong that leads us to make such misjudgments? This is the question Michael Lewis sought to answer in his new book, The Undoing Project. Yahoo Finance's Justine Underhill asks Lewis why the flaws of the mind show up time and time againfrom the way we judge politics to the miscalculations analysts made when observing financial markets in 2008.
(Reuters) - Micron Technology Inc (MU.O) forecast current-quarter revenue and profit above estimates as a stabilizing PC market spurs demand and boosts prices of its memory chips.

Shares of the company, which also posted its first rise in quarterly revenue in nearly two years, were up about 10 percent at $22.55 in after-market trading on Wednesday.

Micron, which makes dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips used in personal computers, is benefiting from an improving PC market at a time when supplies remain tight.

"We believe this near-term sweet spot in memory supply/demand dynamics will continue to be favorable, driving memory prices higher," Loop Capital analyst Betsy Van Hees said.

Average selling prices of DRAM chips rose 5 percent in the first quarter, while sale volumes jumped 18 percent, Micron said.

"We expect favorable supply-demand dynamics to persist in 2017," Chief Executive Mark Durcan said on a conference call.

DRAM chips accounted for about 60 percent of Micron's revenue in the latest quarter.

Market research firm IDC said last month it expected worldwide PC shipments to decline 6.4 percent in 2016, smaller than the 7.2 percent fall it previously forecast.

Micron, which closed its $3.2 billion acquisition of Taiwanese chip company Inotera this month, also makes NAND flash memory chips, widely used in smartphones to store music, pictures and data.

The company forecast adjusted profit of 58-68 cents per share for the second quarter, much higher than the average analysts' estimate of 39 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Micron said it expected revenue of $4.35 billion-$4.70 billion, above the estimate of $3.91 billion.

The Boise, Idaho-based company's revenue rose 18.5 percent to $3.97 billion in the first quarter ended Dec. 1.

However, net income attributable to shareholders fell to $180 million, or 16 cents per share, from $206 million, or 19 cents per share, a year earlier. (http://bit.ly/2hUuv98)

On an adjusted basis, Micron earned 32 cents per share, beating estimates of 28 cents per share.

Up to Wednesday's close, the stock had risen 45.3 percent this year, outperforming a 38.4 percent gain in the broader Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index (.SOX) during the period.

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
Encouraging signs from 1st round tiger count in Parsa Wildlife Reserve

The number of tigers in the Parsa Wildlife Reserve has increased to 16, according to the recently concluded first round of tiger count. During the tiger census conducted in 2014-15, the number of big cats in the reserve was 10.
By Elizabeth Piper PRESTATYN, Wales (Reuters) - When farmers, business leaders and politicians met in north Wales to discuss what Brexit meant for their community, there was barely any mention of immigration - the very issue that dominated the referendum campaign across Britain. One man did stand up to air his worries over the unfettered movement of migrants from the rest of Europe which he blamed for losing his job. But the others responded by simply rolling their eyes and quickly moving on to the next point. Most of those assembled by a British parliamentary committee in a cinema in the seaside town of Prestatyn had come to discuss their concerns about their future outside the European Union, not to revisit the arguments that led to Britain's vote in June to leave the bloc. Their response is part of a trend emerging across the country, according to opinion polls, with the immigration fears that loomed so large before the referendum being overtaken by concerns over what Brexit will mean for everyday life. In the monthly Ipsos MORI/Economist Issues Index, which asks about 1,000 people across the country "What are the most important issues facing Britain", the EU and the terms of Britain's exit led at 39 percent in November - above immigration on 35 percent. A month earlier, immigration was at 36 percent, with the EU and Brexit at 32 percent, while in June - during the run-up to the vote - immigration was at 48 percent with the EU at 32. This shift in public concerns could offer some respite to Prime Minister Theresa May as she prepares for negotiations on Britain's exit from the 28-nation bloc. She has been under immense pressure to curb free movement of people from Europe to Britain but will face fierce opposition from Brussels negotiators as she seeks at the same time to retain access to the bloc's trade and financial markets. Should the talks boil down to a trade-off between accepting a degree of movement of people from the EU in return for preferential access to the single market, as widely expected, any relaxation of public pressure on immigration could help free the government's hand at the negotiating table. Gideon Skinner, research director at Ipsos MORI, told Reuters it was still too early to say whether fears about how Britain will manage outside the EU will continue to stay high as "concern about immigration will be partly dependent on the outcomes of the Brexit negotiations". But he added: "It is certainly the case that concern about Brexit has increased significantly from the beginning of this year." POVERTY, FRUSTRATION Poverty, and frustration with a distant political and financial elite in London and Brussels, drove many in Wales to vote to leave the EU. For most of the 45 people meeting in Prestatyn this month, sitting before whiteboards and listing their priorities for a future outside the bloc, the most pressing concern was money. They wanted to know whether EU funding, or subsidies, which they say have helped transform Wales and are vital to one of the poorest regions in the bloc, will be matched by the government. "They (pro-Brexit campaigners) said subsidies would go up, but that's all up in the air again," said Peter Morton, a local city councillor, to nervous laughter. Harold Martin, a radio station director, said he welcomed the visit by the Welsh Affairs parliamentary committee aimed at helping advise the government on Brexit - because locals needed to make sure they were "not stuck at the bottom of the pile". They said they wanted to see more training and investment in an area where a clear majority voted to quit the EU. The prime minister has signalled she will prioritise border controls as she prepares for some of the most complicated negotiations Britain has entered into since World War Two. But she knows how difficult it is to rein in immigration; in her previous job as interior minister, she was responsible for fulfilling the ruling Conservatives' pledge to reduce net annual migration to under 100,000, but failed to make an impact. Net migration from the EU alone reached a new record of 189,000 in the 12 months running up to the June 23 referendum. May has already shown some flexibility since the Brexit vote by offering India a possible improved visa deal to spur talks on trade with its market of 1.3 billion people, and may be forced to offer the EU special rules on migration to meet her goal for business to "trade with, and operate within" the single market. She has ruled out an Australian-style points-based system to control immigration and this month finance minister Philip Hammond said Britain would not cut off the supply of skilled staff to the country. Hannah White, research director for think-tank the Institute for Government, said the current tiered visa scheme for non-EU migrants would most likely be extended to EU citizens, putting "a greater burden of administration on employers". A spokesman for the Home Office, Britain's interior ministry, said: "We are about to begin negotiations and it would be wrong to set out our positions in advance." One Conservative lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said immigration levels were not going fall dramatically after Brexit and that the government would have to sell relatively small falls to voters. "Politically it just has to feel different from free movement," the lawmaker said. (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Pravin Char)
The Washington Post recently broke a major story: In 2010, a U.S. military investigation concluded that Michael Flynn  then a top intelligence official in Afghanistan, now President-elect Donald Trumps choice for national security advisor  improperly shared intelligence with foreign military officers in Afghanistan.

The Posts revelation raises questions about a soon-to-be top security officials ability to protect classified information (not to mention, one who has railed publicly against this very thing). Ultimately, however, the alleged transgression caused little damage: According to the Armys investigation, Flynn didnt act knowingly and caused no harm to U.S. national security. Additionally, he reportedly disclosed the classified information, which related to CIA activities in Afghanistan, to Australians and Britons  not to Pakistanis, Iranians, or any other regional player with policies in Afghanistan that often work against U.S. interests.

Yet the Post may have buried the lede.

Sixteen paragraphs down, last weeks story noted another case in which the general may have mishandled classified material: Former U.S. officials said that Flynn had disclosed sensitive information to Pakistan in late 2009 or early 2010 about secret U.S. intelligence capabilities being used to monitor the Haqqani network, an insurgent group accused of repeated attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

This allegation, if true, is far more concerning than the more recent one, given the links known to exist between the Haqqani network and Pakistani intelligence. In 2011, Mike Mullin, then the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the Haqqani network as a veritable arm of Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistans main intelligence agency.

Several months after Flynns alleged disclosures to Pakistan about the Haqqani network, U.S. military officials blamed the group for an attack in Kabul that killed two American soldiers and a colonel.

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Herein lies a great and dangerous irony of U.S. foreign policy: One of Washingtons key security partners in Asia harbors ties to terrorists that target Americans. Islamabad has cooperated closely with Washington on security  from helping apprehend al Qaeda figures to allowing U.S. forces to use Pakistani roads to ship NATO supplies to and from Afghanistan. Yet Pakistan, which views certain terror groups as useful assets to keep its rival India at bay, also provides sanctuary to the Haqqani network. The United States and Pakistan violently disagree on many things, but several perceived shared interests  from Islamabads need for U.S. security assistance to Washingtons desire to stay on the good side of a restive, nuclear-armed, strategically located nation of some 200 million people  keep the partnership in place. There is trust (enough of it, apparently, to compel Flynn to allegedly share sensitive information with his Pakistani interlocutors) but plenty of mistrust as well. Little wonder, then, that the U.S.-Pakistan relationship is so often described as a bad marriage.

The dysfunctional U.S.-Pakistan relationship is just one of several policy conundrums that will confront the Trump administration in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. Take U.S. troop levels: Keeping American soldiers in Afghanistan helps beleaguered Afghan forces, but also gives the Taliban, which vows to fight until every foreign soldier leaves Afghanistan, an excuse not to join peace talks  the outcome that U.S. government has sought fervently. Or consider counterterrorism: In June, President Barack Obama announced measures that give U.S. troops in Afghanistan more flexibility to go after the Taliban, a move that could bring counterinsurgency successes  yet also strengthen the Islamic State, which is slowly developing a foothold in the region. By weakening the Taliban, the United States weakens an unlikely anti-Islamic State ally.

Since his election triumph, Trump has generally maintained radio silence about AfPak  even though its the backdrop for the longest foreign war in U.S. history and familiar terrain for Flynn and presumptive Defense Secretary James Mattis, both of whom spent long periods of time there while in the military.

One might reasonably conclude that Trump wont pay much mind to this part of the world. Trumps Make America Great Again mantra suggests a lighter U.S. footprint abroad, and hes indicated a preference to focus on building America, not Afghanistan. Hes also tweeted that Pakistan is not our friend.

This isnt to say the Trump administration will disengage altogether. We can expect a U.S.-Pakistan relationship that is scaled back, yet collegial. I want to get along, fellows. I love you, Trump said of Pakistan back in 2011. Lets go have a drink. But youre not getting any money. Trumps invitation to imbibe is curious given that neither Trump nor many in Pakistan, a country with many pious Muslims, consume alcohol.

Trumps strikingly convivial phone call with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last month may have been bizarre, but it also telegraphed Trumps desire to be amicable. Gen. Mattis was a vocal supporter of Pakistan when he headed Central Command between 2010 and 2013: He lavished praise on the Pakistani military in several congressional hearings. Trump, meanwhile, has endorsed Obamas Afghanistan troop plan, which presently calls for 8,500 soldiers to remain through years end. Furthermore, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, if confirmed as secretary of state, is likely to take a strong interest in the energy-focused connectivity projects proliferating across the region  from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. This isnt just because of his energy background, but also because the envisioned outcomes of these projects  more energy security, better infrastructure and regional integration, increased employment, and above all, greater stability  align with Washingtons strategic interests in the region.

However, the chief reason to expect the Trump administration to engage in Afghanistan and Pakistan is terrorism. Keep in mind that Trump attempts to project a tough-as-nails stance on jihad. Attacks are down in Pakistan thanks to a major counterterrorism offensive in its North Waziristan region, but the country continues to suffer from mass-casualty assaults. In Afghanistan this year alone, Taliban forces have attacked all 34 Afghan provinces and staged an average of 68 daily attacks, according to Mark Kryzer, a former State Department official who designs development projects in Afghanistan.

More broadly, about one-fifth of the worlds 98 U.S.-designated terror groups are based in the AfPak region. And despite devastating blows to al Qaedas leadership, the group is alive and well there. In 2015, the U.S. military destroyed a large al Qaeda training camp in southern Afghanistan. This year, American officials increased their estimated number of Afghanistan-based al Qaeda operatives from around 50 to as many as 300.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State is quietly developing a profile in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The group has claimed several major attacks in both countries in recent months, and in the eastern part of the country, Afghan officials warn, it has converted several dozen mosques into military training centers. True, the relationship between Islamic State militants in the region  most of them former Pakistani Taliban members  and the Middle East-based Islamic State central leadership is unclear. And the Islamic State will struggle to carve out a major presence in a region rife with militants aligned with its al Qaeda rival. Still, fears of the Islamic State are sufficiently strong as to have compelled Moscow and likely Tehran to intensify their outreach to the Taliban. According to one recent report, several Taliban leaders are even considering pitching a cease-fire to Kabul, to allow both sides to turn their full attention to the Islamic State.

Trump, a bottom-line guy, should be advised that his administrations policy challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan boil down to two critical questions: How to promote stability, the chief U.S. interest in the region, with a lighter footprint? And how much diplomatic, security, and financial capital to expend in pursuit of stability thats long been elusive, despite ample U.S. largesse?

Trumps foreign policy is likely to be guided by a firm whats-in-it-for-America mindset. Accordingly, expect him to seek stepped-up cooperation with Pakistan in efforts to combat al Qaeda and the Islamic State  groups that directly threaten the United States. Expect him to demand major crackdowns against Pakistani groups, like the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba, that kill Americans, and to demand dramatic aid cutbacks in the absence of results. Trump may have made a fortune through financial transactions, but hes unlikely to embrace checkbook diplomacy  much less blank checks  as president.

Trump would be wise to keep providing security and civilian assistance to Afghanistan, even if in more modest amounts. If he gets impatient, his advisors might remind him that a full U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan could usher in all kinds of nastiness. This includes a total breakdown in security that could allow al Qaeda to reconstitute itself in rapidly proliferating Taliban sanctuaries (the group controls more territory now than at any time since 2001), and enable it to plot new attacks on American soil. History could repeat itself in terrifying ways.

Finally, if Trump wants to showcase his deal-making skills, he should try to broker an accord to ease tensions between Islamabad and Kabul. Better ties would help reduce cross-border violence and terrorism, and would bolster stability along their porous border. Its a hard sell, given the enmity between the two neighbors, but far more realistic than mediating a deal between India and Pakistan, which Trump has offered to do.

The Washington Posts reporting on Flynns alleged misuse of classified information in Afghanistan has already faded from the headlines, but ultimately it still served an important purpose: For a short period, it brought Afghanistan and Pakistan back into the U.S. news cycle, where it is often given short shrift, and reoriented attention to an important part of the world that the Trump team has said little about. Americas next president should give the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, home to a forgotten 15-year-and-counting war that continues to claim American lives, the attention it deserves.

Photo credit: DREW ANGERER/Getty Images
(Reuters) - Authorities in Mississippi on Wednesday arrested an African-American man in connection with the fire and vandalism of a historic black church, in a case that was initially investigated as a hate crime.

The Greenville church was painted with the words "Vote Trump" and set ablaze a week before the November U.S. presidential election, leading officials initially to view it as a politically motivated hate crime.

Andrew McClinton, 45, was charged with arson of a place of worship for the fire at the Hopewell Baptist Church, said Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. He said McClinton was African-American.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is part of the Public Safety Department, did not say what led them to McClinton or speculate about his motive.

But Mississippi State Fire Marshal Mike Chaney said in an interview he did not think the attack was politically motivated.

"At this point we do not believe it was a politically motivated crime though it appears there were attempts to make it look politically motivated," Chaney said.

He said McClinton was still being interviewed on Wednesday afternoon, and that details about his motivation would likely emerge soon. Chaney, who also serves as the state's insurance commissioner, said the arson was not believed to be insurance-related.

Black churches in the U.S. South have long been a base of support for the Democratic Party, so the attack and the language supporting Republican nominee Donald Trump were taken as political statements.

During the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, Southern black churches were often targets for arson and bombings by white supremacists.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Calif.; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
By Rupam Jain

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A leading political ally of Narendra Modi has abruptly distanced himself from the Indian prime minister's move to scrap high-value banknotes, as broad initial support for the radical monetary reform showed signs of crumbling.

The shift by N. Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, came six weeks after Modi announced to a stunned nation that he would scrap 86 percent of the cash in circulation.

While Modi remains by far India's most popular politician, any crack in his authority could have negative implications in state elections next year that will set the tone for his expected bid for a second term in 2019.

Naidu's regional party is allied to Modi's nationalists and he heads a central committee set up to find ways to soften the impact on ordinary people of the crackdown against tax evaders, racketeers and bribe takers who rely on so-called "black cash".

"I am breaking my head daily but we are unable to find a solution to this problem," Naidu told party workers on Tuesday in the city of Vijayawada.

Modi, announcing the reform on November 8, cautioned that people would face temporary hardship. He promised to restore normalcy by the end of the year, when a deadline to deposit old 500 and 1,000 rupee banknotes expires.

His announcement enjoyed popular support at first, with many people prepared to endure hardship as long as others are forced to give up their ill-gotten wealth or pay tax.

But continuing shortages of new 500 and 2,000 rupee notes have caused tempers to rise as millions queue at banks and ATMs to draw money. With new 500 rupee notes, worth $7.50, in very short supply it is hard for people to buy necessities because of a shortage of change.

"Modi is now a one-man army, every political ally will blame him if the cash crisis does not come to an end in the next 10 days," said P. Raja Rao, a political science professor in Hyderabad.

Furious over the lack of cash, mobs attacked six bank branches in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, forcing police to rescue bank staff.

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The northern state, home to one in six Indians, is due to hold an election in early 2017 that is increasingly being viewed as a referendum on Modi's demonetisation drive.

In the last 20 days, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won several local elections in western and northern states. Party officials said the wins were a clear endorsement of the new cash policy.

"Each and every Indian understands the genuine intention behind the bold move. They trust the prime minister and we hope our political allies put an end to their doubts," said BJP spokesman Siddharth Nath Singh.

(Editing by Douglas Busvine and Jacqueline Wong)
Vanessa von Zitzewitz / Courtesy Monaco Palace

Happy holidays from Monacos glamorous royal family!

Prince Albert, Princess Charlene and twins Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella are ready for Christmas in their gorgeous holiday card, which was released on Wednesday.

The royal mom, who stuns in a glittery Ralph Lauren dress and matching Jimmy Choo heels, shares a sweet moment with the twins, who recently celebrated their 2nd birthday with a surprise party.

Vanessa von Zitzewitz / Courtesy Monaco Palace

Jacques is calm and cool in his dark sweater and white sneakers, while sister Gabriella cant hold back her excitement in a festive red dress and matching bow.

Dad Prince Albert proudly stands over his family, while a beautiful portrait of his late mother, Princess Grace, hangs on the wall behind them.

Inside the card is a sweet message that reads: May the joy and peace of the holiday season be with you in this New Year 2017.

The photo session, which took place in the palaces ornate Salon des Glaces, lasted over an hour and was taken on Dec. 3, the same day Albert opened Monacos Christmas market and received a surprise visit from his wife and kids.

While last years card showed off the familys casual side at their Roc Agel retreat, this years was more formal. But according to an attendee, the photo shoot was a very joy-filled, fun morning session.

Photograph by Christopher Morris, Courtesy Palace of Monaco

 was very cool, taking pictures on his own while the children played with the tree, the fruit, whatever there was around them, the source tells PEOPLE. It was the kids who made the magic. It was a very belle rendezvous.

Monaco-based photographer Vanessa von Zitzewitz, (who has previously shot Princess Charlene for a Paris-Match cover) took the family portrait.




MSNBCs Lawrence ODonnell has a loyal fan base that is helping the impoverished nation of Malawi, Africa, one desk at a time.

Having landed his primetime gig on MSNBC a few weeks after a life-changing trip to Africa, ODonnell started the charity KIND (Kids in Need of Desks) six years ago  and not occasionally uses his on-air job to ask viewers to help provide children there get an education.

Having this space in primetime cable carries with it, to me, a certain obligation to try to think about what you can do with it that delivers something more than just some more cable news programing, ODonnell told TheWrap. Its just worked remarkably well.

Also Read: Life Or Death Scenarios Are Faced in MSNBC's 'Split-Second Decision'

What began as a passion project has now raised over $12 million and provided countless jobs and at least a million children with a place to do school work.

When I first told the audience about it, I was hoping that we could maybe get $50,000 or something that could make a difference for a few schoolS in Malawi. In the first two months  we collected well over $2 million, ODonnell said. That amazed me.

The host and his viewers have now created an entire industry in Malawi, as it was difficult to even find a carpenter to build a single desk in the area before KIND existed.

Also Read: MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' Degenerates Into Shouting Match With Congressman Over Russia (Video)

Now there are three different factories that are doing it, providing several dozen jobs in different places around the country, he said.

While ODonnell and his viewers want to make sure that every child has a place to learn, he said the jobs are really, really important, too.

A job is a gigantically life-changing position to have, ODonnell said about the nation where earning money by legal means is extremely difficult. Each one of the factory jobs, making these desks is feeding families that otherwise would not know where their next meal is coming from.

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ODonnell explained that when his viewers donate money, it goes directly into the process of making the desks. Then, by the time the desks wind up in a classroom, its the second batch of people being helped by the initial donation. KIND also has a girls scholarship component, which ODonnell takes pride in because thats where he sees the real stories of lives being changed by the program.

If those girls are not in school, then they have no future and they know it, he said.

Also Read: MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' Rips NY Times, Washington Post: 'You Were Trying to Help Hillary' (Video)

The Last Word viewers have contributed over $1 million in the last three weeks alone. ODonnell thinks the recent uptick in donations is a direct result of whats going on in the world.

A very common comment I get on Twitter is that everything on the news is depressing, but KIND is the best thing Ive heard today, so I am contributing,' he said. Its a recurring pattern.

ODonnell knows that his viewers are making a difference, but says it was purely accidental how providing children with desks became an issue that he wanted to use his show as a platform to help.

Also Read: How MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Made History Last Week in Ratings Race With Fox News' Megyn Kelly

A friend of mine who was a public school teacher had just returned from Malawi, where she was visiting her niece, who was working as a doctor. Because shes a teacher, she visited schools and asked them what they need. All the schools said, we need chairs  a place for the children to sit,' ODonnell explained. When I heard that, in a casual conversation, I suddenly heard myself saying, well we could get them chairs, cant we?'

Sadly, providing chairs and desks was not something that could be easily accomplished from afar by simply writing a check.

I went over there on my own, a couple of months before this show started, and I had no idea what I might be able to accomplish, ODonnell said. What I thought I was going to come back with was the story of why there are no desks in Malawi  about three days into my first trip there I found someone who could make desks.

ODonnell said his discovery was a breakthrough that was only possibly by literally walking around and looking for someone with the skills and tools to build a desk from scratch.

On the first trip we were able to supply one classroom with the cash in my pocket, ODonnell said before explaining that he told the same story on one of the first episodes of The Last Word.

The audience responded in an incredible way, he said. Weve done well over 100,000 desks and have another 1000,000 in the pipeline now.

Related stories from TheWrap:

MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' Degenerates Into Shouting Match With Congressman Over Russia (Video)

MSNBC Cuts From Joe McKnight Press Conference When Sheriff Drops Homophobic, Racial Slurs (Video)

Life Or Death Scenarios Are Faced in MSNBC's 'Split-Second Decision'
Big coal is calling out President Obama over his action to permanently ban offshore drilling in areas of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. During an interview on the FOX Business Networks Mornings with Maria, Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray said President Obama is breaking the law.

Its apparent that President Obama and his supporters are going to do all the destruction they can to reliable low-cost energy in the United States of America, he said. Its not only banning the offshore oil development but also the Stream Protection Rule relative to underground coal mining. These actions are illegal.

In Murrays opinion, the regulations are ending low-cost reliable electricity and have no environmental benefit.

The Trump Administration will overturn these regulations that are passed at the twilight of Obamas administration, he said. The House and Senate will likely pass a resolution under the Congressional Resolution Act, which is rarely used, to stop these actions.

Murray Energy, he said, has sued the Obama Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.

When asked about President-elect Trumps nominee for EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, Murray said hes very bullish about his selection.

Related Articles
Janelle Monae backstage at Sugarhill nightclub in Atlanta. (Photo: Benjamin Rose/WireImage)

Janelle Monae was recently asked on social media about her fashion inspiration. Her response, pointed and succinct: Stop dressing for boys.

The musician and actress, whos in two major awards contenders this season, is a fan of tuxedoes, her look very specific and very much her own.

Once you realize that youre not for male consumption  this is not to assume that every woman who gets up and puts on clothes thinks about pleasing a man  I think there are lot of us who dont, Monae, 31, tells Yahoo Style. Mentally, once you use that as your model and you redefine what sexy is and you dont feel the pressure to appeal to the male gaze, you free yourself up to explore so many styles. If you want to be nude or fully clothed, we should all have ownership of our bodies. Women should be in control of that.

Her confidence and self-awareness are intoxicating. She knows what she wants, she stands by her beliefs, and shes focused and thoughtful in her answers. But, says Monae, its a work in progress. She was born in Kansas City, Kan., to working-class parents, and studied drama in New York City. It took her a minute to find her footing, to decide to embrace what made her unique.

Janelle Monae attends the China: Through The Looking Glass Costume Institute Benefit Gala at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City wearing custom H&M. (Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

I have not always been like this. Ive been in my share of uncomfortable positions  there are certain stylists or people within the industry who adhere to a certain ideology about fashion and being a woman that I didnt agree with. Ive had to say no to a lot of things. You just cant be afraid to say no. I wear black and white all the time. If I want to wear a tuxedo every day  not having that freedom to speak up and dress comfortably, that doesnt sit well with me. I had those conversations early on, she says.

Monae takes her work seriously. Its why shes playing NASA aerospace engineer Mary Jackson in Hidden Figures, opposite Octavia Spencer and Taraji P. Henson. The film explores the contributions of African-American women to space exploration: Project Mercury and the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon.

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I feel so thankful and so honored to be part of something bigger than myself. Im a part of two families that are touching peoples hearts and bringing people together. To me its so important especially during this time to have stories that help us empathize with each other. They celebrate the other. They celebrate the person who oftentimes is discriminated against. We all bleed the same color, says Monae.

When she did her homework and learned about the real Mary Jackson, Monae saw herself reflected in the Hampton Institute graduate.

I see tenacity, perseverance, fight. Mary Jackson and myself  we represent a part of a young generation of young people who are not going to sit back idly and allow anyone to discriminate against us because of gender and race. We believe our dreams are valid. Shes funny. I saw a lot of myself in her. Shes one of those women who had such a broad worldview and saw the great in everyone. And so do I, says Monae.

Janelle Monae attends the Critics Choice Awards in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Moet & Chandon)

Her other drama  and what she refers to as her other family  is the universally beloved coming-of-age story Moonlight, which is pretty much on every critics year-end list of best films. Monae was moved to tears when she read the script.

It touched my heart. Finally were going to have a film that shows us as complete human beings. My character, Teresa, was like a surrogate mom to this young boy trying to find himself, she says.

She has her own production company and wants to continue developing projects that matter to her. But up next for the multiple Grammy nominee: a return to her musical roots.

Im excited about storytelling. I would want to continue to tell unique, untold stories in unforgettable ways. I know that I will be putting out music. Doing these films has inspired me immensely. I took a break from working on my album that I was working on for four years. Music next year, Im itching to get music out, she says.
Every parties should own amendment proposal: PM Dahal

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said he will not push for the forceful endorsement of amendment proposal registered at the parliament.
A Muslim American YouTube star known for his viral video pranks said he and his friend were removed from a Delta Air Lines flight in London on Wednesday after passengers complained about them speaking Arabic shortly before takeoff. But according to Delta, it had nothing to do with the language they spoke  they were shouting and provoking other passengers, the airline said.

Adam Saleh posted cellphone video footage of himself and his friend, Slim Albaher, being escorted off the plane on the tarmac at Heathrow Airport. Saleh claims several passengers alerted the captain that they felt uncomfortable when he spoke Arabic while making a phone call to his mother before the New York City-bound flight took off.

Were getting kicked out because we spoke a different language, Saleh says in the video posted to YouTube. This is 2016. Delta Air Lines are kicking us out because we spoke a different language.

We got kicked out of a @Delta airplane because I spoke Arabic to my mom on the phone and with my friend slim WTFFFFFFFF please spread pic.twitter.com/P5dQCE0qos  Adam Saleh (@omgAdamSaleh) December 21, 2016

Delta initially confirmed that two passengers had been removed after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort, and said that it was reviewing the incident.

We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously, Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said in a statement. Our culture requires treating others with respect.

A spokeswoman for Londons Metropolitan Police told the New York Times that two passengers had been removed from the flight but that they didnt do anything lawfully wrong and were not arrested.

On Twitter, Saleh said he and his friend subsequently boarded a flight on a different airline and had to go through security a second time. The pair was due to land in New York City late Wednesday afternoon.

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Delta released a subsequent statement saying that after a preliminary investigation, the airline believes the pair provoked the disturbance:

Upon landing the crew was debriefed and multiple passenger statements collected. Based on the information collected to date, it appears the customers who were removed sought to disrupt the cabin with provocative behavior, including shouting. This type of conduct is not welcome on any Delta flight. While one, according to media reports, is a known prankster who was video recorded and encouraged by his traveling companion, what is paramount to Delta is the safety and comfort of our passengers and employees. It is clear these individuals sought to violate that priority.

Salehs video drew an immediate reaction on social media. Some Twitter users condemned the airline, while others remained skeptical given the alleged victims history of hoaxes, some involving planes.

In one recent stunt, Saleh claimed that with help from friends, he squeezed into a suitcase that they checked on a flight from Melbourne, Australia, to Sydney. After the airline, Tigerair, posted a statement debunking Salehs self-smuggling claim, the vlogger admitted the video was faked.

In another episode this year, Saleh  a 23-year-old who describes himself as a professional idiot  filmed himself on a different flight for a prank he titled Counting Down in Arabic on a Plane Experiment!
An elusive "ghost shark" has come out of hiding, as video has captured footage of the fish  whose face looks as if it were stitched together in a Frankenstein-like manner  for the first time in the Northern Hemisphere.

"It's a bizarre-looking fish with a pointed snout," said Lonny Lundsten, a senior research technician at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California. "It has a long, pointed, tapering tail, relatively large eyes, [and] it's almost entirely grayish-blue."

The rare, deep-sea fish  called a "ghost shark" for its appearance, but also known as the pointy-nosed blue ratfish  made its video debut after researchers recorded the animal via remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) off the coasts of Hawaii and California. The videos, six in all, provide the first evidence that this species of ratfish lives in the Northern Hemisphere, Lundsten told Live Science. [See Photos of the Bizarre Fish and Other Freaky-Looking Fish]

The videos were taken between 2000 and 2007, but it was only in October that researchers published the findings in the journal Marine Biodiversity Records, said Lundsten, who co-authored the study with two of his colleagues.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) caught footage of six different ghost-shark individuals. Notice that the fish are swimming over rocky, rather than soft sediment. Reichert, A.N. et al. Marine Biodiversity Records (2016) Creative Commons.

The first three videos, taken in 2000, were recorded before scientists had even identified the fish. It wasn't until 2002 that another group of scientists introduced the species to the scientific world, publishing in the journal Cybium. They named the fish Hydrolagus trolli in honor of Ray Troll, an Alaskan science illustrator who often draws marine animal discoveries.

Despite naming the newfound species, researcher Dominique Didier, a professor of biology at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, had never seen a live specimen. Instead, she and her colleague studied 23 dead H. trolli specimens caught as bycatch by trawlers (deep-sea fishing boats that catch marine animals with large nets) in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. These fish were all found in the Southern Hemisphere off the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and the Lord Howe Rise (a deep-sea plateau) and Norfolk Ridge formations, Lundsten said.

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But Didier did get a chance to see the MBARI videos and confirmed that the fish in the footage with wing-like fins were likely H. trolli, Lundsten said.

Fishy videos

Little is known about H. trolli, because it lives so deep underwater  between 1 mile and 1.3 miles (1,640 to 2,063 meters) under the surface, Lundsten said. Luckily, the videos have helped the researchers gather more clues about these ghost sharks, which measure between 2 feet and 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 m) long.

Another view of the pointy-nosed blue chimaera videotaped near the summit of Davidson Seamount. Copyright 2007 MBARI

For instance, the videos show H. trolli swimming over a rocky seafloor, rather than soft sediment, "which is unusual for ratfishes," Lundsten said. "[Ratfishes] are typically found above soft sediment, and the fact that these live in a rocky habitat is unique to this group."

Lundsten added that H. trolli's Frankenstein-like stiches are actually sensory organs that cover the fish's entire body, especially its face. These organs can sense minute movements and vibrations in the surrounding water, which helps the fish hunt prey, said Dave Ebert, who co-authored the study with Lundsten and Amber Reichert, a graduate student of marine science at California State University (Cal State). Ebert is also the program director of the Pacific Shark Research Center at Cal State's Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.

In addition, male ratfish "have a strange sexual-related organ that's on the top of their head," Lundsten said. "It's a club-shaped thing that has spines on it, and it's used for grasping and better positioning the female during copulation." [The 9 Weirdest Animal Penises]

Ratfish history

Ratfishes have cartilaginous skeletons, indicating they're related to rays and sharks. Just like their relatives, ratfishes have a long history. Paleontologists have found ratfish fossil remains dating from about 350 million to 375 million years ago, showing that the fishes predate the dinosaur age, Didier told Live Science in March 2016.

Earlier this year, another type of ratfish, known as a knifenose chimaera (Harriotta raleighana), caught the public's attention when one ended up in the bycatch of a fishing boat off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Moreover, there are likely more unknown ratfish out there, Ebert said. Since 2002, researchers have discovered 19 new ratfish species, including the Pacific black ghost shark (Hydrolagus melanophasma), captured on video in the Gulf of California, Mexico, by MBARI in 2003.

Original article on Live Science.

Editor's Recommendations
* N.Korea seafood exported to U.S., Japan via China

* They ban all N.Korea products regardless of origin

* China doesn't recognise such "unilateral sanctions

* China allows N.Korea fish exports if for "livelihoods"

By Sue-Lin Wong

YANJI, China, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The brightly coloured packages advertising "Walleye Pollock" at the West Market in Yanji, a Chinese city near the border with North Korea, say the fish came from China.

But 15 vendors interviewed at the market say the fish came in from North Korea to be processed, packaged and mostly sold in China. They say they buy the fish from Chinese wholesalers who deal with their North Korean counterparts at the border.

The packaged fish is also exported to countries that ban North Korean products, including South Korea, Japan and the United States, say the vendors, who are also involved in the export of their products.

"All the dried fish is from North Korea but we package it here so we say the fish is from here," said one vendor who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Smaller packets sell for around 40 yuan ($5.80) while the bigger ones which are often given as gifts sell for at least 100 yuan.

"We export everywhere, mostly to South Korea and Japan. I've even exported to the U.S.," said another vendor. "We sell some of our fish here, but we mostly export overseas."

The official newspaper of the government of Jilin province, where Yanji is located, said in a September article that North Korean and Russian seafood is processed in a town near Yanji, before being exported to South Korea, Japan, the United States and Europe.

Reuters could not independently confirm that North Korean seafood from Yanji or nearby towns is being exported to South Korea, Japan and the United States.

CUTTING EXPORT REVENUE

The United States, Japan and South Korea, ban products made inside North Korea, as well as those using North Korean ingredients produced in third countries, such as China.

The United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea this month aimed at cutting its annual export revenue by a quarter in response to Pyongyang's fifth and largest nuclear test yet in September.

Story continues

China's imports of North Korean seafood are allowed under U.N. sanctions, if they support the livelihood of ordinary North Korean fishermen.

In practice, it is almost impossible to ascertain whether the seafood that comes across the border is from independent fishermen or state-linked companies, analysts said.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang declined to respond to a Reuters question about the repackaging of North Korean fish for export.

"Beijing strongly supports the U.N. Security Council sanctions. But we have never accepted and never approved any other countries using so-called unilateral sanctions," Kang said, referring to the comprehensive bans imposed by the United States, Japan and South Korea.

South Korea's Customs Service said that since 2010 it has demanded certificates of origin on 22 items, including mushrooms and seafood coming from China and Russia.

"If the goods are found to have originated from North Korea, they are confiscated and the importers are fined," said a customs official who declined to be identified.

A Japanese customs official said in response to Reuters that Japan requires North Korea's neighbours, including China and Russia, to certify their seafood products do not come from North Korea. "We thoroughly check those items at the water's edge," the official said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Daniel Hetlage declined to comment on any North Korean seafood that may be exported to the United States. He pointed to language in the U.S. Treasury Department's website that says about the U.S. sanctions: "This broad prohibition applies to goods, services, and technology from North Korea that are used as components of finished products of, or substantially transformed in, a third country."

GROWING SEAFOOD EXPORTS

The vast majority of North Korea's exports come through China, and seafood is one of the more rapidly growing items. From January to October this year, China bought more than $156 million in North Korean seafood exports, up 74 percent from 2015, according to Chinese customs data.

Seafood exports were North Korea's fourth-largest export to China behind coal, textiles and minerals.

It's not clear from the data how much North Korean seafood processed in China was re-exported to third countries.

China has argued strongly to exempt livelihood exports from U.N. sanctions because it does not want to punish ordinary North Koreans for the actions of its government.

But it's practically impossible for a fisherman on his own in North Korea to collect fish products and then link into a distribution channel that goes to China, said Andray Abrahamian of Choson Exchange, a Singapore-based company that trains North Koreans in business skills.

"He would need to be working with, or directly for, a bigger fishery company or seafood processing company in North Korea. How those arrangements are made however, there's probably a lot of variance." (Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Additional reporting by James Pearson and Jeong Eun Lee in Seoul, Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo, David Brunnstrom in Washington and the Beijing Newsroom.; Editing by Bill Tarrant.)
By Sue-Lin Wong

YANJI, China (Reuters) - The brightly coloured packages advertising "Walleye Pollock" at the West Market in Yanji, a Chinese city near the border with North Korea, say the fish came from China.

But 15 vendors interviewed at the market say the fish came in from North Korea to be processed, packaged and mostly sold in China. They say they buy the fish from Chinese wholesalers who deal with their North Korean counterparts at the border.

The packaged fish is also exported to countries that ban North Korean products, including South Korea, Japan and the United States, say the vendors, who are also involved in the export of their products.

"All the dried fish is from North Korea but we package it here so we say the fish is from here," said one vendor who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Smaller packets sell for around 40 yuan ($5.80) while the bigger ones which are often given as gifts sell for at least 100 yuan.

"We export everywhere, mostly to South Korea and Japan. I've even exported to the U.S.," said another vendor. "We sell some of our fish here, but we mostly export overseas."

The official newspaper of the government of Jilin province, where Yanji is located, said in a September article that North Korean and Russian seafood is processed in a town near Yanji, before being exported to South Korea, Japan, the United States and Europe.

Reuters could not independently confirm that North Korean seafood from Yanji or nearby towns is being exported to South Korea, Japan and the United States.

CUTTING EXPORT REVENUE

The United States, Japan and South Korea, ban products made inside North Korea, as well as those using North Korean ingredients produced in third countries, such as China.

The United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea this month aimed at cutting its annual export revenue by a quarter in response to Pyongyang's fifth and largest nuclear test yet in September.

China's imports of North Korean seafood are allowed under U.N. sanctions, if they support the livelihood of ordinary North Korean fishermen.

Story continues

In practice, it is almost impossible to ascertain whether the seafood that comes across the border is from independent fishermen or state-linked companies, analysts said.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang declined to respond to a Reuters question about the repackaging of North Korean fish for export.

Beijing strongly supports the U.N. Security Council sanctions. But we have never accepted and never approved any other countries using so-called unilateral sanctions," Kang said, referring to the comprehensive bans imposed by the United States, Japan and South Korea.

South Koreas Customs Service said that since 2010 it has demanded certificates of origin on 22 items, including mushrooms and seafood coming from China and Russia.

"If the goods are found to have originated from North Korea, they are confiscated and the importers are fined," said a customs official who declined to be identified.

A Japanese customs official said in response to Reuters that Japan requires North Korea's neighbours, including China and Russia, to certify their seafood products do not come from North Korea. "We thoroughly check those items at the water's edge, the official said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Daniel Hetlage declined to comment on any North Korean seafood that may be exported to the United States. He pointed to language in the U.S. Treasury Department's website that says about the U.S. sanctions: "This broad prohibition applies to goods, services, and technology from North Korea that are used as components of finished products of, or substantially transformed in, a third country."

GROWING SEAFOOD EXPORTS

The vast majority of North Korea's exports come through China, and seafood is one of the more rapidly growing items. From January to October this year, China bought more than $156 million in North Korean seafood exports, up 74 percent from 2015, according to Chinese customs data.

Seafood exports were North Korea's fourth-largest export to China behind coal, textiles and minerals.

It's not clear from the data how much North Korean seafood processed in China was re-exported to third countries.

China has argued strongly to exempt livelihood exports from U.N. sanctions because it does not want to punish ordinary North Koreans for the actions of its government.

But it's practically impossible for a fisherman on his own in North Korea to collect fish products and then link into a distribution channel that goes to China, said Andray Abrahamian of Choson Exchange, a Singapore-based company that trains North Koreans in business skills.

"He would need to be working with, or directly for, a bigger fishery company or seafood processing company in North Korea. How those arrangements are made however, there's probably a lot of variance."

(Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Additional reporting by James Pearson and Jeong Eun Lee in Seoul, Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo, David Brunnstrom in Washington and the Beijing Newsroom.; Editing by Bill Tarrant.)
By Suzanne Barlyn

(Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday issued a regulation making it easier for businesses to hire former convicts by prohibiting insurance companies from refusing coverage for crime-related losses caused by employees.

The regulation, the first of its kind in the United States, will help New York businesses obtain so-called commercial crime insurance when hiring employees with criminal records.

Commercial crime coverage, a standard type of business insurance, generally kicks in when companies sustain losses in situations that involve employee dishonesty, such as forgery, theft of a customer's property, or fraudulent transfer of funds through a company's computer.

Many insurers, however, typically view ex-convicts as too high a risk. That means New York businesses wanting to hire someone with a criminal record are often denied the coverage, said New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo in a statement.

That practice has discouraged the state's businesses from hiring former convicts, Vullo said, despite their skills, and creates an "unfair barrier" to employment for the 2.3 million New Yorkers with criminal records.

New York's Department of Financial Services regulates banks and insurers that do business in the state.

The new regulation, effective July 1, 2017, allows businesses to obtain the coverage as long as they consider a set of factors in a New York law that applies to hiring people who have criminal convictions.

Businesses must consider, for example, whether a prior criminal offense is related to duties an employee will perform and the time that has passed since the conviction, among other factors, according to the rule.

(Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; Editing by Steve Olofsky)
putin erdogan

The US was not invited to a meeting held Tuesday in Moscow between Turkish, Russian, and Iranian officials aimed at solving the crisis in Syria  and it's not the first time Washington has been left out in the cold.

The US was also shut out of negotiations between Russian officials and Syrian rebel factions hosted by Turkish officials in Ankara earlier this month. Those talks ultimately led to a fragile cease-fire and evacuation deal in Syria's largest city, Aleppo, where fighting intensified in recent weeks.

Though the two countries are on opposite sides of the war in Syria  with Turkey supporting the opposition and Russia supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad  Turkish officials reportedly signed a Russian proposal to end the conflict, titled the "Moscow Declaration," during their meeting in the Russian capital on Tuesday.

"This is Turkey bending to Russia," Aaron Stein, an expert on Turkey and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told The New York Times on Wednesday. "This is putting a fine point on Turkey's policy of 'Assad must go' no longer being the policy."

The Turkish-Russian rapprochement  which has been ongoing since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for Turkey's shooting down a Russian warplane in November 2015  is likely to continue after the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, in Ankara on Monday.

Statements released by Russian and Turkish officials in the aftermath of Karlov's death suggested the countries were determined not to let the incident derail their renewed friendship, while Erdogan and Putin said the assassination had only strengthened their resolve to jointly fight terrorism.

Officials and lawmakers in both countries, meanwhile, have implied that the US may have played a role in Karlov's assassination, an insinuation the US State Department has vehemently denied.

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karlov

In any case, analysts say, those declarations both explain and foreshadow the countries' increasing coordination in the Middle East  and their evolving hostility toward the US.

At this point, "Moscow has almost everything it wants from Ankara in Syria," said Soner Cagaptay, the director of the Turkish program at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Including Turkish acquiescence to Aleppo's fall."

Forces backing Assad, including Iranian-led Shia militias and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, recently took back the rebels' last enclave in eastern Aleppo amid heavy airstrikes from Russian and Syrian warplanes.

Turkey has long been staunchly opposed to Assad but has softened its calls for him to step down, and deprioritized its support for the Syrian opposition, amid its rapprochement with Russia and fears that an autonomous Kurdish zone will be established along the Turkish-Syrian border.

Given Turkey's dependence on Russian energy and tourism, moreover  and the current tensions between Turkey and the West over its poor human-rights record and censorship of the press following an attempted coup in July  it is in Ankara's interests to maintain the pace of its diplomacy with Moscow.

"I don't think we should be surprised to see Turkey moving closer to Russia given the more immediate benefits that Russia can deliver," Michael Koplow, a Middle East analyst at the Israel Policy Forum, said in early October.

'It's just a free-for-all'

As the Turkish-Russian relationship gets stronger, US-Russian relations have reached their lowest point since the end of the Cold War. The State Department formally cut off its bilateral channels with Russia over what it called "war crimes" in Syria in early October, and President Barack Obama has threatened to retaliate against Moscow for a hacking campaign during the presidential campaign that US intelligence agencies believe was designed to help President-elect Donald Trump.

Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, that nearly all communication channels between the US and Russia had been frozen. But the State Department denied that there had been a break in dialogue.

"It's difficult to know exactly what is meant by this comment, but diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues," State Department spokesman John Kirby told Business Insider.

"That we have significant differences with Moscow on some of these issues is well known, but there hasn't been a break in dialogue," he added. "Indeed, as we noted, Secretary Kerry spoke by phone with Foreign Minister Lavrov just yesterday about the situation in Syria."

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, has continued to meet and speak regularly with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, about Syria since the State Department formally suspended negotiations with Russia over Syria in October. But the US has not been present at the two most consequential Syria meetings held in the past month in the Turkish and Russian capitals.

Russia has been quick to take advantage of the tensions between Turkey and the West.

"Russia understands that nobody gives you anything, you just have to take it, and in this environment, with the US retreating faster than the other side can advance, it's just a free-for-all," Andrew J. Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told The New York Times.

"When the Turks, the Iranians, and the Russians all agree on a process without the US being in the room," he added, "you realize there is a problem for us."

NOW WATCH: How a struggling Soviet spy became the most powerful man in Russia





More From Business Insider


No, this wasnt a viral ad for an upcoming hacker drama: Notorious hacking group OurMine took over Marvels and Netflixs Twitter accounts Wednesday morning, declaring in tweets: Dont worry, we are just testing your security.

Netflix was apparently first targeted. An initial tweet published by OurMine was quickly deleted by Netflixs social team, but the group kept posting new tweets for some time, engaging in a game of whack-a-mole with the service, according to TechCrunch.

Soon after, OurMine switched targets, and took over a series of Marvel accounts, including Twitter.com/Marvel as well as accounts for Marvel Music and Marvel characters like Dr. Strange, Captain America and The Avengers.

When you follow all individual Marvel accounts and are spammed in a row by OurMine :/ What even 2016. pic.twitter.com/vrcKdU0f3R  Nirat (@NiratAnop) December 21, 2016

This isnt the first time OurMine has taken over high-profile Twitter accounts. Previous targets included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Facenbook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and even Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Varietys Twitter account was compromised by OurMine earlier this year as well. However, other than posting a few tweets, it seems like OurMine never has caused any lasting damage.

OurMine is thought to exploit weak passwords, and possibly apps that have been granted access to Twitter, to take over accounts. The best protection against these kinds of attacks is the use of Twitters two-factor authentication, which sends a numerical text message to a users phone every time that user tries to log in from a new device. Its also a good idea to regularly check the list of third-party applications that have access to ones account.

Update: 9:40am: This post was updated with details on the Marvel account hack.

Story continues

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Flood victims present memo to PM Dahal

The flood victims in Surkhet on Tuesday evening presented a memorandum to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is on a visit here in Birendranagar to take part in the CPN (Maoist Centre) Province no 6 meeting and training programme.
Lagos (AFP) - Nigerian troops have rescued 1,880 civilians from a Boko Haram redoubt in the restive northeast in the past week and arrested hundreds of insurgents, a military commander said on Wednesday.

The Sambisa forest, covering about 1,300 square kilometres (500 square miles), is a stronghold of the notorious jihadist group, who kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in 2014.

"During our operations in the period 14-21 December 2016, a total of 1,880 civilians were rescued from Boko Haram enclaves," Major-general Leo Irabor said in a statement after a news conference in the northeastern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday.

Irabor added: "564 Boko Haram terrorists were arrested while 19 others surrendered to our troops. Also, seven suspected kidnappers and 37 foreigners were equally arrested."

He said several Boko Haram fighters were killed and a cache of arms and ammunitions was discovered in the operation, part of a military campaign launched last year to clear the area of the jihadists.

Hundreds of civilians, including women and children, have also been freed in neighbouring Cameroon, said Irabor. Eight jihadist suspects were subsequently identified among them and taken into custody.

Boko Haram seeks to impose a hardline Islamic legal system in Nigeria's mainly-Muslim north.

It has been blamed for the deaths of at least 20,000 people since 2009. The rebellion has also displaced some 2.6 million people, sparking a humanitarian crisis in the region.

The United Nations has warned that the affected region faces the "largest crisis in Africa".

The UN estimates that 14 million people will need outside help next year because of the ongoing violence, particularly in Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, the country's jihadist heartland.

Since early 2015, Nigerian military with the support of a regional force, have recaptured a swathe of territory from the insurgents.

But sporadic attacks on civilian soft targets have continued in the volatile region, including the use of female suicide bombers.

On December 9, two female suicide bombers killed 45 people and wounded 33 others when they detonated their explosives in a crowded market in Madagali, which has been previously targeted.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the blasts bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram.
By Eric Auchard and Jussi Rosendahl

BELGRADE/HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia Corp (NOKIA.HE) said on Wednesday it had filed a number of lawsuits against Apple Inc (AAPL.O) for violating 32 technology patents, striking back at the iPhone maker's legal action targeting the one-time cellphone industry leader a day earlier.

Nokia's lawsuits, filed in courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich, Germany, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, cover patents for displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets and video coding.

"Since agreeing a license covering some patents from the Nokia Technologies portfolio in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products," Nokia said in a statement.

Apple on Tuesday had taken legal action against Acacia Research Corp (ACTG.O) and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc [GEGGIM.UL], accusing them of colluding with Nokia to extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly from Apple.

Apple, Acacia and Conversant did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Nokia was not immediately available to comment on the Apple lawsuit.

The legal action by Nokia and Apple appear to mark a revival of the "smartphone patent wars" that began five years ago, when Apple filed a series of patent infringement cases against Samsung Electronics around the world, with wins and losses on both sides.

Apple's lawsuit against Acacia, Conversant and Nokia was filed only one day after Ottawa-based Conversant named Boris Teksler as its new chief executive. He had worked as Apple's director of patent licensing and strategy from 2009 to 2013, the latter half of his tenure overlapping with the lawsuits against Samsung.

Acacia is a publicly traded patent licensing firm based in Newport Beach, California. One of its subsidiaries sued Apple for patent infringement and was awarded $22 million (17.8 million) by a Texas jury in September.

Story continues

Similarly, Conversant, which claims to own thousands of patents, announced last week that a Silicon Valley jury had awarded one of its units a $7.3 million settlement in an infringement case against Apple involving two smartphone patents.

Nokia, once the world's dominant cellphone maker, missed out on the transition to smartphones triggered by Apple's introduction of the iPhone in 2007.

The Finnish company sold its handset business to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) two years ago, leaving it with its telecom network equipment business and a bulging portfolio of mobile equipment patents.

But this year, Microsoft sold its Nokia-feature phone business to a new company called HMD Global.

Nokia agreed to a 10-year licensing deal with HMD, which continues to market low-cost Nokia phones and plans to introduce new Nokia smartphone models next year.

(Additional reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco)
(Adds background on Acacia, Conversant)

By Eric Auchard and Jussi Rosendahl

BELGRADE/HELSINKI, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Nokia Corp said on Wednesday it had filed a number of lawsuits against Apple Inc for violating 32 technology patents, striking back at the iPhone maker's legal action targeting the one-time cellphone industry leader a day earlier.

Nokia's lawsuits, filed in courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich, Germany, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, cover patents for displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets and video coding.

"Since agreeing a license covering some patents from the Nokia Technologies portfolio in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products," Nokia said in a statement.

Apple on Tuesday had taken legal action against Acacia Research Corp and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc, accusing them of colluding with Nokia to extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly from Apple.

Apple, Acacia and Conversant did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Nokia was not immediately available to comment on the Apple lawsuit.

The legal action by Nokia and Apple appear to mark a revival of the "smartphone patent wars" that began five years ago, when Apple filed a series of patent infringement cases against Samsung Electronics around the world, with wins and losses on both sides.

Apple's lawsuit against Acacia, Conversant and Nokia was filed only one day after Ottawa-based Conversant named Boris Teksler as its new chief executive. He had worked as Apple's director of patent licensing and strategy from 2009 to 2013, the latter half of his tenure overlapping with the lawsuits against Samsung.

Acacia is a publicly traded patent licensing firm based in Newport Beach, California. One of its subsidiaries sued Apple for patent infringement and was awarded $22 million by a Texas jury in September.

Story continues

Similarly, Conversant, which claims to own thousands of patents, announced last week that a Silicon Valley jury had awarded one of its units a $7.3 million settlement in an infringement case against Apple involving two smartphone patents.

Nokia, once the world's dominant cellphone maker, missed out on the transition to smartphones triggered by Apple's introduction of the iPhone in 2007.

The Finnish company sold its handset business to Microsoft Corp two years ago, leaving it with its telecom network equipment business and a bulging portfolio of mobile equipment patents.

But this year, Microsoft sold its Nokia-feature phone business to a new company called HMD Global.

Nokia agreed to a 10-year licensing deal with HMD, which continues to market low-cost Nokia phones and plans to introduce new Nokia smartphone models next year.

(Additional reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Ted Kerr, Jane Merriman and Jonathan Oatis)
DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / December 21, 2016 / North American Cannabis Systems, Inc. (OTC PINK: USMJ) today announced an online presentation scheduled for tomorrow, December 22, 2016, to detail for shareholders and interested investors the comprehensive plan behind the transaction announced yesterday with Alternet Systems, Inc. (ALYI). The presentation will be available on-demand from the USMJ's website. Since the USMJ and ALYI transaction is similar to a previous USMJ deal, tomorrow's online presentation will include an update on USMJ's recent dividend issuance of Puration, Inc. (OTC PINK: PURA) common stock and PURA's overall progress since their transaction with USMJ.

Cannabis Retail Payment System In Market That Rings $7 Billion

Yesterday, USMJ announced executing an agreement with ALYI to combine resources and efforts in order to commercialize and launch a retail payment system for the cannabis sector. Forbes anticipates legal cannabis sales to ring nearly $7 billion in sales in 2016. A recent report from Bloomberg indicates legal cannabis annual sales will reach $50 billion in the next ten years.

USMJ Shareholders To Receive ALYI Stock In Dividend Distribution

In the agreement announced yesterday, all cannabis payment system efforts and resources going forward will be consolidated under ALYI. In exchange, USMJ receives ALYI controlling preferred stock. A portion of the ALYI preferred stock has been designated for a future conversion into ALYI common stock. The converted ALYI common stock is intended for distribution to the shareholders of North American Cannabis Holdings through the issuance of a dividend.

USMJ Cannabis Pilot Development, Spinoff and Dividend History with PURA

USMJ continuously pilots various cannabis sector enterprises. Pilots that prove promising, USMJ spins-off into stand-alone public companies in a transaction that includes a dividend distribution of stock in the stand-alone public company to the USMJ shareholders. The ALYI transaction announced yesterday will be the second spinoff and dividend transaction USMJ has executed since entering the cannabis sector in 2013. Last year, USMJ entered into a similar transaction with PURA. Last week PURA common stock was distributed through a dividend to USMJ shareholders.

Story continues

ALYI Financial Software Development Track Record

ALYI has a long-term track record in developing innovative financial services industry software solutions. The company is guided by a team of executives specializing in entrepreneurial endeavors, innovation, corporate strategy, financial and executive management of multi-national organizations, and a vast network of industry resources. ALYI recently developed a unique financial services solution, which was successfully sold, allowing the Company to realize a 47% ROI.

To learn more about North American Cannabis Holdings: growusmj.com

Follow the Company on Twitter: US_HEMP

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.



USMJ Contact:

Steven Rash

Phone: +1-972-528-0162

Email: Info@growusmj.com

SOURCE: North American Cannabis Systems, Inc.
By Sue-Lin Wong YANJI, China (Reuters) - The brightly coloured packages advertising "Walleye Pollock" at the West Market in Yanji, a Chinese city near the border with North Korea, say the fish came from China. But 15 vendors interviewed at the market say the fish came in from North Korea to be processed, packaged and mostly sold in China. They say they buy the fish from Chinese wholesalers who deal with their North Korean counterparts at the border. The packaged fish is also exported to countries that ban North Korean products, including South Korea, Japan and the United States, say the vendors, who are also involved in the export of their products. "All the dried fish is from North Korea but we package it here so we say the fish is from here," said one vendor who spoke on condition of anonymity. Smaller packets sell for around 40 yuan ($5.80) while the bigger ones which are often given as gifts sell for at least 100 yuan. "We export everywhere, mostly to South Korea and Japan. I've even exported to the U.S.," said another vendor. "We sell some of our fish here, but we mostly export overseas." The official newspaper of the government of Jilin province, where Yanji is located, said in a September article that North Korean and Russian seafood is processed in a town near Yanji, before being exported to South Korea, Japan, the United States and Europe. Reuters could not independently confirm that North Korean seafood from Yanji or nearby towns is being exported to South Korea, Japan and the United States. CUTTING EXPORT REVENUE The United States, Japan and South Korea, ban products made inside North Korea, as well as those using North Korean ingredients produced in third countries, such as China. The United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea this month aimed at cutting its annual export revenue by a quarter in response to Pyongyang's fifth and largest nuclear test yet in September. China's imports of North Korean seafood are allowed under U.N. sanctions, if they support the livelihood of ordinary North Korean fishermen. In practice, it is almost impossible to ascertain whether the seafood that comes across the border is from independent fishermen or state-linked companies, analysts said. China's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang declined to respond to a Reuters question about the repackaging of North Korean fish for export. Beijing strongly supports the U.N. Security Council sanctions. But we have never accepted and never approved any other countries using so-called unilateral sanctions," Kang said, referring to the comprehensive bans imposed by the United States, Japan and South Korea. South Koreas Customs Service said that since 2010 it has demanded certificates of origin on 22 items, including mushrooms and seafood coming from China and Russia. "If the goods are found to have originated from North Korea, they are confiscated and the importers are fined," said a customs official who declined to be identified. A Japanese customs official said in response to Reuters that Japan requires North Korea's neighbours, including China and Russia, to certify their seafood products do not come from North Korea. "We thoroughly check those items at the water's edge, the official said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Daniel Hetlage declined to comment on any North Korean seafood that may be exported to the United States. He pointed to language in the U.S. Treasury Department's website that says about the U.S. sanctions: "This broad prohibition applies to goods, services, and technology from North Korea that are used as components of finished products of, or substantially transformed in, a third country." GROWING SEAFOOD EXPORTS The vast majority of North Korea's exports come through China, and seafood is one of the more rapidly growing items. From January to October this year, China bought more than $156 million in North Korean seafood exports, up 74 percent from 2015, according to Chinese customs data. Seafood exports were North Korea's fourth-largest export to China behind coal, textiles and minerals. It's not clear from the data how much North Korean seafood processed in China was re-exported to third countries. China has argued strongly to exempt livelihood exports from U.N. sanctions because it does not want to punish ordinary North Koreans for the actions of its government. But it's practically impossible for a fisherman on his own in North Korea to collect fish products and then link into a distribution channel that goes to China, said Andray Abrahamian of Choson Exchange, a Singapore-based company that trains North Koreans in business skills. "He would need to be working with, or directly for, a bigger fishery company or seafood processing company in North Korea. How those arrangements are made however, there's probably a lot of variance." (Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Additional reporting by James Pearson and Jeong Eun Lee in Seoul, Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo, David Brunnstrom in Washington and the Beijing Newsroom.; Editing by Bill Tarrant.)
Oslo (AFP) - Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, has barred 15 more companies linked to coal operations, most of them American and Asian, the Norwegian central bank said on Wednesday.

Norway's parliament voted in June 2015 to pull the fund out of coal, requiring it to sell its holdings in mining and power companies that generate more than 30 percent of their output or revenue from the polluting fossil fuel due to its environmental impact.

Currently worth around 7.53 trillion kroner (835.6 billion euros, $869.3 billion), the fund first barred 52 companies and subsidiaries in April, most of them from the United States and China, such as China Coal Energy, AES, and Peabody Energy, the biggest US coal producer.

On Wednesday it added 15 more companies and subsidiaries to the list, including five from the US, three from Japan and two from China.

Eleven other companies have been placed on observation.

"Further exclusions will follow in 2017," said the central bank, which is tasked with managing the fund fuelled by Norway's state oil revenues.

Coal giants Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore are however not be affected by the regulation, because their other mining activities are so massive that their coal businesses represent less than 30 percent of their overall revenues.

The fund's investment policy is run according to strict ethical guidelines, with a focus on sustainable economic, environmental and social development.

Those rules bar it from investing in companies accused of serious violations of human rights, child labour or serious environmental damage, as well as manufacturers of "particularly inhumane" arms, and tobacco firms.

Set up to finance the future expenditure of the generous Norwegian welfare state, it invests in shares, bonds and real estate.
OSLO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Norway's central bank, which manages the country's $869 billion wealth fund, has excluded an additional 15 companies from its portfolio due to their use or production of coal, and plans further exclusions next year, it said on Wednesday.

The world's largest sovereign wealth fund also placed 11 firms under observation for potential future exclusion.

The fund removes companies from its portfolio based on a range of criteria, including the production of tobacco, nuclear arms and products that can contribute to climate change.

In total, Norges Bank has so far excluded 59 companies and placed 11 companies under observation under its so-called product-based coal criterion.

A full list of the firms excluded on Wednesday can be seen here: http://bit.ly/2hSASKg (Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Alister Doyle)
Photo credit: Facebook

From Esquire

Sure, billionaire Mark Zuckerberg wants to end literally all disease by 2100, but first, he needed to knock out his ultimate goal: getting the most soothing voice in the world to voice his artificial intelligence home assistant. That's right: Mark Zuckerberg got Morgan Freeman to voice Jarvis, which does everything from teaching his daughter Mandarin to regulating the temperature of the room.

Good ol' Zuck wrote in a Facebook blog post that he's been working on Jarvis (named after Tony Stark's AI from Iron Man) for approximately a year:

"My goal was to learn about the state of artificial intelligence -- where we're further along than people realize and where we're still a long ways off. These challenges always lead me to learn more than I expected, and this one also gave me a better sense of all the internal technology Facebook engineers get to use, as well as a thorough overview of home automation."

Oddly, he didn't mention once in the blog post about his big-shot voice actor, but when you're a billionaire, why bother highlighting something like that anyway? Luckily, the video shows Morgan Freeman's Jarvis shooting a classic Zuck gray shirt across the room, so at least we get that.

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India agrees in principle to provide more air routes

India has agreed in principle to provide more cross-border entry and exit points for international airlines, officials have said. This is one of the long-pending issues between two countries.
HONOLULU (AP)  President Barack Obama on Tuesday designated the bulk of U.S.-owned waters in the Arctic Ocean and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing.

The move helps put some finishing touches on Obamas environmental legacy while also testing President-elect Donald Trumps promise to unleash the nations untapped energy reserves.

The White House announced the actions in conjunction with the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which also placed a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing in its Arctic waters, subject to periodic review.

Obama is making use of an arcane provision in a 1953 law to ban offshore leases in the waters permanently. The statute says that the president of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf.

Environmental groups hope the ban, despite relying on executive powers, will be difficult for future presidents to reverse. The White House said its confident the presidents order will withstand legal challenge and said the language of the statute provides no authority for subsequent presidents to undo permanent withdrawals.

The Atlantic waters placed off limits to new oil and gas leasing are 31 canyons stretching off the coast of New England south to Virginia, though some had hoped for a more extensive ban that would have extended further south.

Existing leases arent affected by the presidents executive actions.

The administration cited environmental concerns in both regions to justify the moratorium. Obama also cited the importance of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in providing subsistence for native Alaskans and the vulnerability of the ecosystem to an oil spill to justify his directive.

Obama also noted the level of fuel production occurring in the Arctic. Obama said just 0.1 percent of offshore crude production came from the Arctic in 2015, and at current oil prices, significant production would not occur in future decades.

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Thats why looking forward, we must continue to focus on economic empowerment for Arctic communities beyond this one sector, Obama said.

Still, industry officials objected to Obamas memorandum, calling it last minute political rhetoric.

Instead of building on our nations position as a global energy leader, todays unilateral mandate could put America back on a path of energy dependence for decades to come, said Dan Naatz of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

And Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, an independent, said Obamas move marginalized local voices. He said no one is more invested than Alaskans in making sure Arctic habitats are protected.

To lock it up against any further exploration or development activity is akin to saying that the voices of activists who live in Lower 48 cities have a greater stake than those to whom the Arctic is our front yard and our back yard, he said in a statement.

In issuing a permanent ban, Obama appears to be trying to tie the hands of his successor. Trump has vowed a domestic energy revolution and is filling his Cabinet with nominees deeply opposed to Obamas environmental and climate change actions.

Environmental groups were calling for a permanent ban even before the presidential election, but Trumps victory has provided greater urgency for them and for businesses that rely on tourism and fishing. Trump has said he intends to use all available fuel reserves for energy self-sufficiency  and that its time to open up offshore drilling.

This decision will help protect existing lucrative coastal tourism and fishing businesses from offshore drilling, which promises smaller, short-lived returns and threatens coastal livelihoods, said Jacqueline Savitz, a senior vice president at the advocacy group, Oceana.

A key question to be answered is how difficult it will be for future presidents to overturn Obamas decision should they seek to do so.

The American Petroleum Institute pointed to 2008 when President George W. Bush used a simple memorandum to remove previously withdrawn lands and make all Outer Continental Shelf lands available for leasing except marine sanctuaries.

Fortunately, there is no such thing as a permanent ban, said the institutes Erik Milito.

But White House officials in a conference call with reporters said previous indefinite withdrawals remain in place and voiced confidence that Obamas decision will stand.

Advocacy groups were already warning that they were prepared to file suit to protect the ban during future administrations.

If Donald Trump tries to reverse President Obamas withdrawals, he will find himself in court, said Marissa Knodel of Friends of the Earth.

Frank Knapp, president of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce in Columbia, said he was extremely disappointed in the decision not to extend drilling protections to the entire Atlantic seaboard.

Knapp and his group were among a number of business groups in the southeast who had advocated for banning new drilling leases off their shores, arguing that the environmental impacts would hurt fishing, tourism and other businesses the region relies upon. Hed gone to Washington to meet with Obama administration officials, and believed the entire Atlantic was to be protected.

The decision came as Obama spends the holidays in Hawaii. Some Democratic lawmakers applauded Obama, while some Republicans were highly critical.

As President-elect Trump nominates fossil fuel allies to his Cabinet, President Obama has instead put the interests of millions of Americans ahead of those of Big Oil with these permanent protections, said Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

The extremes to which this president will go to appease special interests never ceases to amaze, countered Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources. This is not a moral calling; its an abuse of power.

__

Associated Press writers Josh Lederman in Washington, Jason Dearen in Gainesville, Florida, and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed to this report.
(This version of the Dec. 20 story corrects the travel time reduction to 0.9 minutes in paragraph 3) By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) - Some low-income U.S. patients may have an easier time choosing a hospital for emergency care thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), a new study suggests. Under the ACA, also known as Obamacare, some U.S. states expanded coverage through Medicaid  a joint federal and state insurance program for the poor  starting in 2014. That year, average travel times to the hospital for emergency department (ED) care dropped by 0.9 minutes in 17 states where Medicaid coverage expanded, while it remained little changed in 19 states that didnt make more people eligible for these benefits, the study found. The study only looked at for-profit hospitals. Previous research suggests that poor and uninsured patients sometimes travel longer distances in an emergency to avoid for-profit hospitals closer to home out of concern about the bills. Instead, they would seek treatment at nonprofit facilities that might offer free or discounted care, said senior study author John Graves of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. By focusing in particular on non-discretionary conditions such as poisoning, femur fractures, etc.  that is, conditions for which the individual would very likely have been treated in an ED regardless of insurance status  we show that ED visits for these services increased at our study sample hospitals, which were drawn from private, for-profit hospital chains, Graves said by email. This finding, coupled with our finding that Medicaid patients in expansion states traveled shorter distances, is evidence that people shifted where they sought ED care when they needed it, Graves added. For the current study, researchers examined data on more than 1 million emergency department visits for adults aged 18 to 64 on Medicaid in 2013 and 2014 at 126 investor-owned hospital emergency departments. They used zip codes for the hospitals and patients homes to estimate average travel times and examined conditions that needed immediate treatment  the so-called non-discretionary care  as well as less critical issues that might be handled in an urgent care clinic or by a primary care provider. Before 2014, the hospitals in the study had similar proportions of uninsured patients. By the end of that year, the proportion of uninsured patients seen by EDs in expansion states dropped 47 percent, researchers report in the Annals of Internal Medicine. At the same time, the number of Medicaid visits in expansion states increased 126 percent by the end of 2014, compared with an 11 percent increase in states that didnt expand coverage. For non-discretionary care in particular, the number of ED visits by uninsured patients dropped 42 percent in expansion states while Medicaid visits increased by 213 percent, the study found. Average travel time from home to the hospital decreased by 6.2 percent among Medicaid patients in expansion states, while it remained unchanged in other states. One limitation of the study is that it only looked at for-profit, investor-owned hospitals, which makes it hard to say how coverage changes may have played out at nonprofit or public hospitals, the authors note. Its also possible that the lower travel times for expansion states were mostly reduced by previously uninsured patients in cities who gained coverage that let them seek care closer to home, rather than truly statewide reductions, said Dr. Mahshid Abir, a health policy researcher at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor who wasnt involved in the study. The study also didnt touch on another key issue related to time  how long people wait for care once they get to the hospital, Abir added by email. Still, the reduced travel times may translate into better outcomes for patients, said Brendan Saloner, a public health researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who wasnt involved in the study. This is good news for patients when one considers that people who are uninsured often are required to go to a far away emergency room that will provide them with reduced cost care, Saloner said by email. Alleviating this burden is a big deal, because minutes cut down traveling to the hospital can literally make the difference for whether a patient lives or dies. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2h6qdwN Annals of Internal Medicine, online December 19, 2016.
* Brazilian companies Odebrecht and Braskem enter deal

* Global settlement with U.S., Brazilian, Swiss authorities

* Penalty latest fallout from Brazil's "Operation Car Wash"

* Bribe money routed through a network of shell companies (Recasts first paragraph, adds company comments, quotes from prosecutors)

By Mica Rosenberg and Nate Raymond

NEW YORK, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Brazil-based construction colossus Odebrecht SA and affiliated petrochemical company Braskem SA agreed on Wednesday to pay at least $3.5 billion, the largest penalty ever in a foreign bribery case, to resolve international charges involving payoffs to Brazil's state oil company and others.

Odebrecht and Braskem pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court in Brooklyn to conspiring to violate a U.S. foreign bribery law after an investigation involving political kickbacks at Brazil's Petrobras unearthed the bribery scheme.

The huge penalty was negotiated as part of a broad settlement with U.S., Brazilian and Swiss authorities.

Some of the hundreds of millions of dollars used in bribes to secure lucrative business deals flowed through the American banking system and some of the schemes were planned in the United States, enabling U.S. authorities to claim jurisdiction in the case.

Odebrecht is Latin America's biggest engineering firm. Braskem, the region's biggest petrochemical producer, is jointly owned by Odebrecht and Petrobras.

Their guilty pleas were the first in the United States following a nearly three-year investigation in Brazil dubbed "Operation Car Wash" into corruption at Petrobras, which has led to dozens of arrests and political upheaval in Brazil.

The total fines and penalties to be paid out by the companies exceeded a 2008 agreement in which German engineering company Siemens paid $1.6 billion to U.S. and European authorities for paying bribes to win government contracts.

Odebrecht and Braskem were charged with conspiring to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which is aimed at deterring companies from bribing officials overseas.

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"Odebrecht and Braskem used a hidden but fully functioning Odebrecht business unit - a 'Department of Bribery,' so to speak - that systematically paid hundreds of millions of dollars to corrupt government officials in countries on three continents," U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Suh said in a statement.

From 2001 to 2016, Odebrecht paid approximately $788 million in bribes in association with 100 projects in 12 countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, according to the U.S. charging papers.

The companies hid the bribes through carefully disguised payments routed through a network of shell companies as well as suitcases of cash left at preset locations, Suh said.

The U.S. Justice Department said the penalty to be paid by the two companies amounted to at least $3.5 billion, including $2.6 billion from Odebrecht and $957 million from Braskem. Brazilian authorities gave a lower figure for the overall deal but did not explain the discrepancy.

U.S. officials said most of the money would go to Brazilian authorities.

Both companies also agreed to continue to cooperate with authorities, implement compliance improvements and become subject to oversight by external monitors.

Odebrecht's former CEO Marcelo Odebrecht is already serving a 19-year sentence after being found guilty on corruption charges last year in Brazil, Latin America's biggest country. He turned state's witness and is expected to be freed by the end of 2017.

'TURNING THE PAGE'

"The company is glad to be turning the page and focusing on its future," William Burck of U.S. law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which represented Odebrecht, said in a statement.

Fernando Musa, Braskem CEO since May, said his company also was pleased to be settling the matter.

"We are implementing more robust practices, policies and processes across the organization," Musa said in a statement.

According to U.S. prosecutors, Odebrecht said it was able to pay $2.6 billion although it agreed the appropriate criminal fine would be $4.5 billion. The judge scheduled sentencing for April, when the deal would become finalized.

Braskem also agreed to more than $632 million in criminal penalties and fines as well as additional money to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Swiss and Brazilian authorities, the SEC said.

In the sprawling "Car Wash" investigation, named for a Brasilia gas station where some of the money-laundering took place, prosecutors in Brazil have said more than $2 billion in bribes were paid over a decade, mainly to Petrobras executives, from construction and engineering companies.

As part of the deal, Odebrecht agreed that 77 of its executives and employees would cooperate with the investigation, and they have already provided testimony expected to implicate upward of 200 Brazilian politicians.

U.S. prosecutors want to use testimony from Odebrecht employees to pursue more criminal cases that fall under their jurisdiction, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the Odebrecht deal.

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who Brazilian prosecutors say oversaw a scheme in which Odebrecht paid 75 million reais ($22.18 million) in bribes to win eight Petrobras contracts, is among those already charged in Brazil.

The scandal also contributed to the downfall of Brazil's former president, Dilma Rousseff. She was ousted by Brazil's Senate in August, ending an impeachment process that polarized her country amid the massive corruption scandal and a brutal economic crisis.

Michel Temer, Rousseff's vice president, then took over, but Temer himself has been cited in recently leaked testimony that Odebrecht officials have given, reportedly accused of accepting illegal campaign donations, allegations he has denied.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond and Mica Rosenberg; Additional reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Brad Brooks in Sao Paulo and Joel Schectman in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  A divided Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with a death row inmate seeking DNA testing on a cigarette butt found near the scene of the 1990 double murder that led to his sentence.

At issue in Tyrone Noling's case is whether a constitutional appeals process is available to death row prisoners who are denied DNA testing after a trial is over.

The court ruled 4-3 that part of a law denying that appeals process is unconstitutional. As a result, Noling and other death row inmates denied DNA testing can appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Noling was convicted of killing Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig, both 81, at their Portage County home. He maintains his innocence. Wednesday's court ruling involved Noling's appeal of a judge's 2013 rejection of his latest attempt to have DNA testing done.

Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, writing for the majority, rejected prosecutors' arguments supporting the quick enforcement of court decisions.

"Are we to take this to mean that expeditious enforcement of the death penalty is the guiding factor and goal? Are we to value speed over certainty?" O'Connor wrote. "Of all cases that cry out for certainty, it is cases that result in the extinguishing of a human life."

The solution, O'Connor wrote, was to strike down part of the law as unconstitutional and leave the rest intact.

Justice Terrence O'Donnell, writing for the minority, agreed the law was unconstitutional but said it was wrong to focus just on one aspect. The result is justices acting as lawmakers by selectively changing the wording of a law, he said.

The "authority to sever the unconstitutional part of a statute does not give this court license to rewrite it by selectively deleting words to change the meaning of the language that the legislature enacted," O'Donnell said.

But Carrie Wood, Noling's attorney, said, "The court took a much-needed step toward ensuring death row inmates can appeal in cases where DNA testing is denied. Our hope is Mr. Noling will be granted access to the information and testing needed to resolve his case fairly."

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Portage County Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci said Noling has lost numerous other appeals and he doesn't expect Wednesday's ruling to change the ultimate outcome.

"We're confident in our case," Vigluicci said.

Authorities say Noling, 44, was part of a group involved in home robberies of elderly couples. Three others in the group implicated Noling in the slayings of the Hartigs during a burglary, although they later retracted their statements, saying they had been pressured by police to name Noling as the shooter.

The original DNA tests of a cigarette butt found in the Hartigs' driveway didn't match Noling or the others in the group. But Noling contends technological advances make it possible to identify the smoker and determine whether that person was among other previously undisclosed suspects.

Prosecutors argued that Noling has no legal right to appeal decisions about post-conviction DNA tests. They said all DNA evidence that can be analyzed in the case already has been tested, and his appeals should end.

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Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/andrew-welsh-huggins
Paris (AFP) - A US-Canadian move to block new leases for oil or gas drilling in sovereign Arctic waters is designed to protect an area already severely disrupted by climate change.

A quick tour of the Arctic and what is at stake:

- THE ARCTIC -

The Arctic Circle, which starts 66.5 degrees north of the equator, marks an area where on at least one day of the year there will be no light or no night -- and that period is longer, the further north you go.

It covers more than 20 million square kilometres (7.7 million square miles), an area bigger than Russia, cutting through northern Canada, Alaska, Russia, Scandinavia and Greenland. About a third of the area is land.

The part of the Arctic Ocean permanently covered by ice has been diminishing steadily for several decades due to global warming, making the region more accessible to shipping, and thus oil and gas extraction.

The record low ice cover -- 3.41 million square kilometres in September 2012 -- was 44 percent below the 1981-2010 average.

Some of the ocean falls under the national jurisdictions of the countries it borders, but most is not subject to any national laws or regulations.

An Arctic Council created in 1996 to address territorial and political disputes has so far only dealt with peripheral issues such as protocols for sea rescue and oil spills.

- ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS -

The biggest threat -- driven by the burning of fossil fuels -- is climate change, which has pushed temperatures in the Arctic up twice as fast as the worldwide average.

Scientists have calculated that global oil, gas and coal projects already under construction or in operation will push Earth past the threshold of dangerous global warming, heating the planet by more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial era levels.

Developing even a portion of the Arctic's massive as-yet-untapped gas and oil reserves would exacerbate climate change even further.

The region's human communities and wildlife -- from polar bears to bowhead whales, from seals to sea birds -- are also at risk.

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Dozens of distinct indigenous cultures within the Arctic depend directly on the ocean and its wildlife for food and income.

Oil production, and spills, difficult to clean up in icy conditions, could threaten livelihoods by damaging fragile ecosystems. Dirty fuel from ships operating in the Arctic is also a source of pollution.

Climate change, meanwhile, has already had a major impact on these mostly coastal communities, some of which are literally falling into the sea.

- NOT ON THE SAME PAGE -

The US decision designates the vast majority of its waters in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas -- an area covering some 50 million hectares (125 million acres) -- as "indefinitely off limits" to offshore oil and gas leasing. Canada said all its Arctic waters were off limits.

Both the United States and Canada have aggressively developed other fossil fuel resources in the last two decades -- gas extracted via "fracking" and oil from tar sands, respectively.

The same is not true for Russia and Norway, whose economies depend heavily on oil, some of which is taken from the Arctic Circle.

"The economy-energy balance of the US is not the same as for Russia and Norway," notes Laurent Mayet, France's representative to the Arctic Council.

- NOT WORTH THE TROUBLE? -

In September 2015, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell abandoned exploratory drilling operations in the Alaskan Arctic, saying not enough oil and gas had been discovered to make extraction worthwhile. The licence had been granted by the Obama administration.

The British company Cairn Energy likewise gave up on its forays, said Pierre Terzian, head of French consulting firm Petrostrategies.

"There were no imminent prospection projects" before the joint US-Canadian announcement, Terzian told AFP. "Why go into the Arctic when there is plenty of oil and gas elsewhere that is technically less expensive to extract and does not carry as much risk in terms of image?"

French group Total has gone further, renouncing the exploitation of oil fields in the Arctic.

"The best insurance for the Arctic is a low price for oil," Terzian added.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Throughout the presidential campaign, the Bush family and many of its Republican allies turned their backs on Donald Trump. Now, they're finding common cause with Trump over his pick to lead the State Department: Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who has long orbited their same political, philanthropic and business worlds.

Former President George W. Bush, who has largely avoided politics since leaving office in 2009, heaped praise on Tillerson in a recent phone call to Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee lawmaker who will oversee the secretary of state confirmation hearings. Jeb Bush, Tillerson's preferred candidate in the 2016 race, called the Exxon executive a "good man and accomplished leader."

Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates  Bush's vice president, secretary of state and secretary of defense  have all offered glowing endorsements. Gates, who runs a consulting firm with Rice that represents Exxon, first put Tillerson on Trump's radar when the president-elect was dissatisfied with his more conventional options.

Despite the high-level backing, Tillerson faces obstacles in his path to Foggy Bottom. He has no government experience, having spent his whole career at Exxon. Senators in both parties have raised questions about his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a relationship that's particularly eye-catching given uncertainty about Trump's own connections to Russia.

Corker said that while the support from the highest levels of the Republican national security establishment won't wipe away senators' questions about Tillerson, it could ease anxieties.

"Most people will look at that and understand that he's not outside the mainstream," said Corker, adding that George W. Bush was "effusive" in his praise for Tillerson when they spoke last week.

While Trump was never fully embraced by more traditional Republicans, his rejection by the Bush family and its national security apparatus was particularly glaring. The family produced the last two Republican presidents and had hoped for a third in 2016. The two Bush presidencies also defined the GOP's foreign policy philosophy as one that saw overseas military intervention as a means to pre-empt attacks on the U.S. and promote democracy abroad.

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Trump has vowed to take the Republican Party in a new direction, both in style and substance. He showed no reverence for the Bush family during the campaign, blasting George W. Bush over the Iraq war and deriding his administration's focus on nation building abroad. He was particularly hard on former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who ran against Trump in the GOP primaries.

Trump transition officials say the Bush family has not coordinated its support for Tillerson with the president-elect, though Gates and Rice did directly offer their support to Trump's team.

Like the Bush family, Tillerson has strong ties to Texas and its vast oil industry. Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush ran oil companies before going into politics. Tillerson, a native of Wichita Falls, Texas, joined Exxon out of college as a production engineer before moving through the oil giant's executive ranks on his way to becoming CEO.

The bonds between Texas oilmen can run as deep as their wells. They share the same politics, bankroll the same politicians, attend the same charity balls, and, often, talk business with the same twang. It's a club of wealth, but also a culture.

"If you're a prominent family in Texas, you probably are friends with the oil business," said Peter Feaver, who worked on the National Security Council in the Bush administration and did not support Trump during the campaign. "And if you're in the oil business, you're probably friends with prominent families in Texas."

Tillerson's relationship with the Bush family dates back at least to President George W. Bush's years as Texas governor, according to people who know both men. The ties have moved beyond the political realm and into philanthropy, with some of Exxon's efforts overlapping with Bush's foundation, including on women's empowerment issues.

Tillerson's philanthropic work on behalf of Exxon has also overlapped with Jeb Bush, who promoted STEM education  science, technology, engineering and math  as governor of Florida. When Jeb Bush joined the crowded field of Republicans running for president in 2016, he quickly became Tillerson's choice. The executive donated to both Bush's campaign and his super PAC.

Campaign finance records show Tillerson has been a regular donor to other establishment Republicans who cringed at the prospect of Trump becoming the party's nominee. He gave money to Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential campaign who Trump also considered for secretary of State. He also donated to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who were lukewarm Trump supporters at best during the presidential race.

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Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC
By Rory Carroll

(Reuters) - Oklahoma's budget deficit will be $868 million next year, higher than recent estimates as sustained low oil prices, tax cuts and corporate tax credits continue to weigh on the state's finances, the Oklahoman newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Governor Mary Fallin estimated just days ago that the state would face a $600 million gap for the 2018 fiscal budget year, but Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday that the hole will be deeper.

A $900 million budget shortfall would represent nearly 15 percent of its expected $6 billion in spending power.

With less money to spend, state lawmakers could choose to make cuts to government services like education and health care or raise taxes.

"I think it's important for everybody to realize you're not cutting your way out of this situation," Doerflinger said. "We have to have a serious conversation about revenue."

A representative for Doerflinger could not be reached for comment.

The state's Board of Equalization, which is responsible for tax administration, will meet Wednesday to provide lawmakers with figures about how much the state will have to spend next year.

Like other states including Alaska and Louisiana that rely on the oil and gas sector for employment and tax revenues, Oklahoma is facing fiscal pressures that defy quick fixes.

In 2014, the collapse of oil prices contributed to a massive $1.3 billion budget deficit, which led the state to declare "revenue failure" in 2015, which triggered automatic across the board spending cuts.

The Republican-controlled state legislature earlier this year passed a series of Fallin-backed reforms to its bulging prison system aimed at reducing costs but balked at her proposal to approve a new tobacco tax and other revenue-raising proposals.

(Reporting by Rory Carroll in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
MBALE, Uganda (AP)  Seth Yonadav swaggered along a dirt path in rural Uganda, pointing toward the new synagogue where young men wearing yarmulkes lingered.

Up on a hill the synagogue stood like a crown jewel, surrounded by schools and a guest house, all owned and operated by a small community of Jewish believers in this remote hamlet founded by a single convert a century ago.

The Stern Synagogue, built largely with money donated by Americans, is a source of pride for hundreds of Ugandan Jews known locally as the Abayudaya, who have tenaciously maintained their belief despite the prejudice they have suffered over the years in this Christian-dominated country.

The community continues to pursue formal recognition from Israel, which would give it a further sense of inclusion. The Jewish Agency, a nonprofit that works closely with the Israeli government to serve Jewish communities worldwide, has recognized the Abayudaya since 2009, spokesman Avi Mayer said.

"People come here for conversion, many of them," said Yonadav, a 40-year-old teacher who serves as cantor at the synagogue. "I know 50 people right now who are ready to convert."

Yonadav recalled the day in 2013 when, crowded inside the old synagogue, the Abayudaya started to dream of a new sanctuary, complete with a Jewish ritual bath known as mikvah.

The group's leader, Gershom Sizomu, a U.S.-trained rabbi who in February won a seat in Uganda's parliament, started fundraising among friends abroad. The new synagogue is named for Sue and Ralph Stern, a Jewish couple in California who gave a sizeable chunk of the $300,000 spent on its construction, Sizomu said.

Sizomu, who believes he is the first Jew to win a parliamentary seat in Uganda, said he saw his victory as a sign that the Abayudaya are finally being accepted by an often-distrustful tribal community. In the 1970s, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin outlawed the group, which saw its numbers dwindle to a few hundred. In the 1980s, there were violent attempts to strip the Abayudaya of the land on which the new synagogue stands.

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Today the community of about 2,000 enjoys a more positive reputation. It runs a health center, two schools, a bakery project for women, a co-operative saving society and a guest house, as well as a tree-planting program.

With his electoral victory, Sizomu said, "the Abayudaya felt very accepted. This was a sign that they are accepted by our Christian and Muslim neighbors."

The Abayudaya community was founded by a Ugandan military officer, Semei Kakungulu, a convert from Christianity in the early 20th century who had many followers. When he died in 1928, he left a large piece of his land to be used by the Abayudaya in perpetuity. Sizomu, as the current spiritual leader, has legal control over the group's assets.

Many of the Abayudaya, including Sizomu and Yonadav, were born into families practicing Judaism and consider it their duty to raise their children within the Jewish tradition.

Unlike fundamentalist Christian groups that seek out converts across Uganda, the Abayudaya practice Conservative Judaism with no proselytizing. Converts have to go through a rigorous process, and so far this year none has joined.

Jacob Mulabi, 18, a yarmulke-wearing student who defied his Christian family to convert, said he would have been out of school and hopeless if he had not decided "to be like the Jewish people nearby, my best friends." His bar mitzvah was in 2014, and he is a scholarship student at an Abayudaya school where Hebrew is taught. The burglar bars on the windows are wrought to resemble the Star of David.

One recent morning, teacher Judith Horowitz of Philadelphia was among a dozen people who gathered inside the main sanctuary for prayers. Later, as the Abayudaya took off their prayer shawls and walked out, Horowitz said it was "the most amazing experience praying with Jews that I've ever had in my lifetime."

Horowitz, a Reform Jew, said she had read about the Abayudaya just as she and a friend from Boston were planning a safari to Uganda. "I had to be here. I had to come."

The sight of the new synagogue, she said, left her "amazed, thrilled" and "very happy to see that these people felt this faith in Judaism in the same way that I do."

In March, the Jewish Agency said the Abayudaya were a "recognized" Jewish community in a letter to the leader of Israel's Conservative movement.

But Israel's Interior Ministry, which oversees immigration policy and has the authority to formally recognize Jewish communities, has made no determination of the Abayudaya's religious status because it has never been asked. It described the matter as "complex."

Although any Jew is eligible for citizenship under Israeli immigration law, Sizomu said emigration is not in their plans.

"It is some kind of assurance," the rabbi said, talking about recognition by the Jewish Agency. "Assurance that we are now part of the bigger Jewish world, and that is a privilege. Anywhere where there are Jews, I am welcome."

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Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
By Rina Chandran CHENNAI, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India must pass a law granting women equal rights to land as men if the country is to ensure more food is grown for its more than 1 billion people and greater respect for the environment, a leading scientist said. M.S. Swaminathan is known as the father of India's 'Green Revolution' for developing high-yielding varieties of wheat in the 1960s that helped make the country self-sufficient in food. As a member of the upper house of parliament he drafted a bill in 2011 to protect the rights of women farmers. Although the bill lapsed when his term ended in 2013, Swaminathan, 91, has not given up hope that a similar law will be passed. "We need to increase awareness of the need for equal rights for women farmers, but we also need a law that guarantees it," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview. India's constitution gives women equal rights but rarely do they exercise those rights when it comes to land ownership - "a complex social issue that is tied to how we treat the girl child versus the boy child," Swaminathan said. "The father may say: 'I am giving my daughter dowry for her marriage, so I don't have to give her land.' They are afraid they will lose control of the land if they give it to the daughter," he said in an interview at his office in the southern Indian city of Chennai. Women make up more than a third of India's agriculture workforce, yet only about 13 percent of farmland is owned by women, according to official data. Land is usually transferred though inheritance in India, and it is almost always men who inherit land. While a Hindu woman is entitled to a share of land owned by her father, she is generally under pressure to give up this right when she gets married. Some states issue joint titles when they allocate land to the landless poor. But rarely are women added to old titles. DESTITUTION As more men from villages migrate to urban areas in search of jobs, their wives and daughters tend to the land. But land titles are almost always in the man's name, and women farmers are denied loans, insurance and other government benefits because their names are not on the titles. "Men may do the plowing, but the rest of it - including harvesting, threshing, storage - is done by women," said Swaminathan, who was named by Time magazine in 1999 as one of the 20 most influential Asians of the 20th century. Women farmers tend to grow more food crops rather than cash crops, and are more sensitive to the environment and to their children's long-term needs, Swaminathan said. "But we are slow to acknowledge the important role of women, and slow to give them rights," he said. India ranked 130 of 155 countries on the UNDP's gender inequality index, worse than countries including Cambodia and Zimbabwe, on parameters such as infant mortality and education. Swaminathan studied agriculture after witnessing the terrible effect of the 1943 Bengal famine, which is estimated to have killed more than 3 million people. In more recent years, he said he has been struck by the plight of widows of farmers who killed themselves in western Maharashtra state following crop failures. "The land is immediately claimed by his father or brothers, and the woman is left destitute. It is heart rending," he said. (Reporting by Rina Chandran @rinachandran, Editing by Katie Nguyen. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org to see more stories.)
Joshi pitches Investment Summit 17 to diplomats

Industry Minister Nabindra Raj Joshi on Tuesday called on ambassadors and other members of the diplomatic corps in Kathmandu to promote international investment in the country.
Last week, Margaret Cho revealed on comedian Bobby Lee's podcast, TigerBelly, that Tilda Swinton reached out to ask her about the whitewashing controversy over Doctor Strange. Cho characterized the conversation as "a long kind of a fight" and told Lee that she felt like "a house Asian."

When asked for comment, Swinton (via her reps) released the full email exchange between the two actresses. The "entire unedited and only conversation [Tilda] has ever had with Margaret" (according to Swinton's team), which took place on May 13, 2016, can be read in full here and is referenced below.

Dear Tilda Swinton,

You emailed Margaret Cho seeking understanding about the "diversity debate" surrounding your latest movie, Doctor Strange. I know you didn't ask me, but since I wrote a few of the stories surrounding said debate, I'd like to respond to some of the questions and points you raised, especially since the original subject - how can established actors respond to Hollywood's inclusion problems? - has somewhat turned into a tabloid story about a fresh celebrity beef.

First, some useful context on the state of Asian representation onscreen. Among the 100 top-grossing movies released last year, just 3.9 percent of characters who had lines or even names were Asian. Forty-nine (in other words, basically half) of those films had no named or speaking Asian characters at all. It should go without saying that not one lead or co-lead in 2015 was played by an Asian actor. (That's not to say there were no Asian characters. The 100th-highest-grossing film in 2015 featured a female love interest who was a quarter Chinese and a quarter Polynesian. Her name was Captain Allison Ng, the movie was Aloha, and she was played by Emma Stone.)

These statistics come from the latest study, released in September, from USC's Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative. You wrote to Margaret that diversity is your "comfort zone," i.e., a dearly held value. I highly recommend that you keep an eye out each year for USC's comprehensive reports on gender, race/ethnicity, LGBT and disability inclusivity in film. It's an excellent resource!

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As you stated, the original comics incarnation of your character, the Ancient One, is nowadays considered an offensive "wise old Eastern geezer"/Fu Manchu cliche. In your telling, Marvel wanted to avoid that trope and be gender-inclusive at the same time, but in so doing ran the risk of engaging with another racist Asian trope: the Dragon Lady. Therefore, the filmmakers switched the character's ethnic background to Celtic.

The problem is that this solution essentially throws the baby (Asian actors) out with the bathwater (racist Asian stereotypes). Skilled filmmakers rewrite characterizations, not characters. The problem with a sexy damsel in distress is not that she's a woman; it's that she is sexualized and rendered powerless. King Kong's Ann Darrow went from a terrorized Fay Wray in 1933 to a more empowered Naomi Watts in 2005 (and, presumably, an even stronger Brie Larson next year). It's hard to imagine any studio deciding to "solve" Ann Darrow by removing a woman from the story. You understand that "a woman who's a badass, over 26 and not simply bursting out of a bikini" is a rare sight at the movies - how much more so are Asians of any stripe, given the statistics above?

And yet, Hollywood continually abstains from opportunities to put Asians onscreen, none more egregiously than when the source material calls for them. Margaret referenced Scarlett Johansson's upcoming movie Ghost in the Shell in one of her emails to you. It's based on a very popular Japanese manga series, centered around a strong, action-oriented female cyborg named Major Motoko Kusanagi in all its previous incarnations. Paramount's version has cast Scarlett in the role but, as you can see from the trailer, has retained all of the "exotic" signifiers of the original's cyberpunk Tokyo setting.

You told Margaret that there is "precious little projected on contemporary cinema screens that means a great deal to [your] life." I don't know if you meant that little of what you see reflects your experience, but if so, that is exactly the sentiment that so many Asians can relate to. When we look at Ghost in the Shell or Doctor Strange, we see cinematic universes that appropriate Asian cultural elements as literal set dressing, but do not allow Asian people themselves to be seen, much less to tell the stories.

Finally, you asked how to move things forward. Supporting content that boosts Asian American voices, as Margaret suggested, is one excellent way, and I am excited that you are continuing your collaboration with Bong Joon-ho with Okja. Please keep in mind that Asian nationals may have a different experience or perspective than Asian Americans or British Asians. I'm sure your co-star Steven Yeun has many enlightening stories about the challenges facing Asian actors in English-language cinema, if he chooses to share them.

Although you were unwittingly thrust into this controversy, perhaps this will become a pivotal opportunity for you to become an even more informed ally of the diversity you champion. Whether speaking publicly from the platform that you have or privately within the artistic circles you inhabit, please share the facts about underrepresentation. Ask your agents if they represent any Asian talent, and if they know where to find some. Ask your directors if there is a role that can be filled by an Asian actor (and for the love of God, if it's an adaptation, if there were any Asians in the original source material!).

So much of our decision making is driven not by intentional prejudice, but by unconscious exclusion. So here's a cliche that is true: Awareness really is the first step.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Sun

Read more: Why Did 'Doctor Strange' and 'Ghost in the Shell' Whitewash Their Asian Characters?
Investors in Hess Corporation HES need to pay close attention to the stock based on moves in the options market lately. That is because the Dec 23rd, 2016 $47.5 Put had some of the highest implied volatility of all equity options today.

What is Implied Volatility?

Implied volatility shows how much movement the market is expecting in the future. Options with high levels of implied volatility suggest that investors in the underlying stocks are expecting a big move in one direction or the other. It could also mean there is an event coming up soon that may cause a big rally or a huge sell off. However, implied volatility is only one piece of the puzzle when putting together an options trading strategy.

What do the Analysts Think?

Clearly, options traders are pricing in a big move for Hess Corporation shares, but what is the fundamental picture for the company? Currently, Hess Corporation is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) in the Oil and Gas - Integrated - United States industry that ranks in the Top 36% of our Zacks Industry Rank. Over the last 60 days, two analysts have increased their earnings estimates for the current quarter, while three have dropped their estimates. The net effect has taken our Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current quarter from a loss of 99 cents per share to a loss of $1.01 in that period.

Given the way analysts feel about Hess Corporation right now, this huge implied volatility could mean theres a trade developing. Often times, options traders look for options with high levels of implied volatility to sell premium. This is a strategy many seasoned traders use because it captures decay. At expiration, the hope for these traders is that the underlying stock does not move as much as originally expected.

Looking to Trade Options?

Each week, our very own Dave Bartosiak gives his top options trades. Check out his recent live analysis and options trade for the LULU earnings report completely free. See it here: Bartosiak: Trading Lululemon (LULU) Earnings with Options or check out the embedded video below for more details:



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Australian star Nicole Kidman says her experience as the mother of adopted children meant she closely related to her character in the movie "Lion", tipped as an Oscar favourite.

Garth Davis's film about a young man from India adopted by an Australian family who searches for his long-lost blood relatives using Google Earth, has already received a Golden Globe nod for best drama motion picture.

It also won nominations in the supporting actor categories for Kidman and Dev Patel, with the pair repeating the feat for the 23rd Screen Actors Guild awards.

Kidman adopted two children with ex-husband Tom Cruise -- Isabella and Connor -- and said she immediately felt a connection with the woman she portrayed, Sue Brierley who adopted Saroo, played by Patel.

"She came up to Sydney and we just sat in my apartment ... and just started talking," Kidman told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ahead of the film's Australian premiere on Monday evening.

"I told her a lot about myself, and it was almost like she already knew a lot, and not stuff I had talked about publicly, but just sensations and feelings."

Brierley told the broadcaster the two women immediately bonded.

"With your children being adopted, it was important to me that someone be on my page," she said in explaining why she wanted Kidman in the role after discovering her story was going to be made into a film.

"We'd both had a tough patch. Because I lost my mother, and your (Kidman's) father passed away, really within one month, so we were rather raw emotionally at that time."

Kidman said that being an adoptive parent helped her understand Brierley's experiences.

"We have similar ways in which we wanted to adopt," Kidman said.

"I just felt ever since I was young that I was going to adopt a child. Mine wasn't the vision Sue had exactly, but pretty similar, and we both made it happen and that is weird to have the same thing."

Kidman, who also has two daughters with country music star husband Keith Urban, added that getting the role "was just meant to be, it was mapped out in the stars, so to speak".

The 89th Academy Awards are in Los Angeles on February 26.
A bipartisan Senate Aging Committee report on predatory drug pricing released on Wednesday highlights a now familiar rogues gallery of pharmaceutical companies --including Turing and Valeant - that have shamelessly jacked up the prices of life-saving drugs that they exclusively control.

These companies engaged in marketing and pricing strategies worthy of the most cutthroat private equity firms, the committee found. They typically purchased decades-old, off-patent and previously affordable drugs and then abruptly raised the prices by staggering amounts. They have raked in billions in revenues at the expense of shocked consumers, insurers and government health agencies that purchase large quantities of drugs.

Related: Want to Pay Less than Half for Your Meds? Join the Throngs and Try Canada

By now its an old story: Turing, once headed by bad-boy hedge fund businessman Martin Shkreli, raised the price of Darprim, used in treating a dangerous parasitic infection, by 5,000 percent  from $13.50 a pill to $750 per pill. Valeant, meanwhile, spiked the prices of two off-patent drugs, Cuprimine and Syprine, used to treat a rare genetic disease, from about $500 to about $24,000 for a 30-day supply.

Retrophine Inc. and Rodelis Therapeutics, the two other drug companies that came under the Senate committees scrutiny during a year-long investigation, engaged in similar practices and drove up the prices of some of their drugs by 2,000 percent or more.

Each of the companies acquired a sole-sourced gold standard drug for which there is a small but desperate market. In most cases, the companies did nothing to improve on the drug or invest in further development. They also created a closed distribution system to block competition, while they jacked up their prices, according to the report on drug pricing.

In some instances, investors actively encouraged company executives to pursue this hard-nosed strategy despite the unwelcome attention it received from the media, politicians and even federal investigators. And some of the companies were headed by senior managers hailing from the hedge fund world who lacked experience in the drug industry, the report said.

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Related: Prescription Drug Prices Headed for Double-Digit Increases in 2017

"The skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs affect every American family, particularly our seniors," Collins said in a statement. We must work to stop the bad actors who are driving up the prices of drugs that they did nothing to develop at the expense of patients just because, as one executive essentially said, because I can."

Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said the business model of many drug companies are predatory and immoral for the patients and taxpayers who ultimately foot the bill. This is especially galling, she said, because generic drug substitutes can be made for pennies per dose.

We've got to find ways to increase competition for medicines and ensure that patients and their families aren't being gouged, she said.

Drug Prices - Canada v. US

Drug price gouging and other predatory practices have triggered angry calls for congressional action from consumer advocates, insurers, politicians and others staggering under the weight of mounting health care costs. High-cost specialty drug prices are projected to increase 18.7 percent next year, after growing 18.9 percent in 2016, according to HR Consultancy Segal. At the same time, the overall cost of all drugs prescribed for employees under age 65 is expected to grow 11.6 percent next year, on top of an 11.3 percent hike this year.

Slideshow: The 10 Most Frequently Prescribed Drugs in America

During the campaign, Republican President-elect Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton repeatedly raised the issue of soaring drug prices and outlined possible solutions.

Trump told Time magazine recently after being chosen the Person of the Year, Im going to bring down drug prices. I dont like whats happened with drug prices.

But the nagging question is what can be done in a practical way to halt the unscrupulous drug pricing practices of the industry? And here, the Senate committee sidestepped the most obvious answer: government controls.

Canada, which boasts some of the lowest drug prices in the world, pioneered federal and provincial level measures for containing drug prices, including a national drug formulary to set prices and the creation of a semi-judicial body that controls factory-gate prices. Governments across the globe impose tough limitations on drug prices, and multi-national pharmaceutical companies have learned to live with them and still thrive economically.

The problem with the Senate report is that the issue is so complicated that there are no simple solutions, Joseph Antos, a health care expert with the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said in an interview today. If they wanted to say they did something, then this idea of essentially imposing price controls would certainly be popular with Democrats and some Republicans, especially in this space of older drugs that have a limited market.

Related: Trump Jolts the Pharmaceutical Industry with Vow to Bring Down Drug Prices

The risk there is that if you do that, then maybe the company that has a monopoly on that drug might say, Well, its not worth it anymore, Antos added. And then, how do you get somebody else to go in?

Instead of risking a head-on confrontation with Big PhRMA by calling for government price controls, Collins, McCaskill and other senators have urged a more back door approach. It is one that would help shake up and revitalize the market so that generic drug manufacturers would be more inclined to compete with producers of brand-name drugs.

The report provides a laundry list of ideas for spurring competition and putting heat on unscrupulous drug manufacturers like Turing and Valeant.

One approach, which already has been blessed by Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), is to remove legal barriers to the re-importation of certain drugs to this country from Canada and overseas, in order to put competitive pressure on U.S. manufacturers that currently have a lock on certain drugs. Millions of Americans have for years quietly purchased drugs from Canada and overseas to save money, and this proposal would make it legal in many cases.

Related: How Big Pharma Lobbyists Keep Medicare Drug Prices High

However, there would be numerous safety issues to deal with, including whether the government can sanction the sale of drugs in this country that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). And Trump and his campaign staff have not provided further details on the extent of their support for this idea.

The Committee believes the temporary importation may be a viable short-term solution to combat sudden price spikes, the report states, but notes that while this approach is favored by a number of academic professionals, many caution that are must be taken in structuring such a regime to avoid unintended consequences.

The committee also recommended ways to speed up FDA approval of generic alternatives to high-priced brand drugs, including limiting the review process to five months and requiring manufacturers of newly introduced brand drugs to share samples of their drugs with potential rivals. That would enable generic manufactures to conduct tests on the samples to prove that their drugs are as effective as the brand name drug.

Related: Two Big Reasons Prescription Drug Prices Are So Much Higher in the US

Finally, the committee report takes a swipe at patient assistance programs offered by major drug companies to help low-income consumers pay for their drugs. While on the face of it, drug companies appear altruistic in offering generous rebates and discounts, these activities are self-serving because they subsidize the purchase of their own products and frequently steer patients towards exceedingly expensive drugs.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Paco de Lucia is being honored with a Google Doodle, in celebration of his birthday today (Dec. 21).

The Google animation depicts the Spanish guitar hero in a typical white shirt with puffy sleeves and a black vest, with the spotlight shining on his high forehead as he plays, fingers flying.

The transcendent, pioneering flamenco guitarist would have been 69 years old. He died of a heart attack in 2014.

Hoy @google homenajea a #PacodeLucia. Hoy habria cumplido 69 anos. #gracias

A photo posted by Paco de Lucia: La busqueda (@paco_de_lucia_la_busqueda) on Dec 20, 2016 at 11:55pm PST

Google is further celebrating De Lucia, who influenced artists around the world, with a virtual exhibition on its Arts & Culture channel that will include archival photos and videos. The Internet homage was curated by De Lucia biographer Jose Tellez and produced by the Google Cultural Institute in partnership with the Andalusian Flamenco Institute.

This evening, a reception with live music inaugurating the exhibition and celebrating De Lucia's birthday will be held in Algeciras, Spain, the guitar great's hometown and the place where he was laid to rest.

Paco de Lucia, el genial guitarrista que revoluciono y enriquecio el flamenco, cumpliria hoy 69 anos. Lo celebramos con este #GoogleDoodle! pic.twitter.com/2vs1mvnKJR

- Google Espana (@GoogleES) December 21, 2016
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After an extended waiting period, a Pagan priest finally snagged the go-ahead to wear goat horns in his new Maine license photo.

As Phelan MoonSong tells the Washington Post, the ordained priest rarely removes his horns, as they serve as spiritual antennae and are part of his Pagan attire.

SEE ALSO: Why Trump's presidency will require absolutely all your courage

Still, when MoonSong visited the Department of Motor Vehicles in August, he says an employee told him he'd need to appeal his photo with the Maine Secretary of State's office. This, despite the fact that his horns do not obstruct his face.

According to the Associated Press, though MoonSong learned his photo was initially rejected in November, his request has since been accepted.

MoonSong told the Bangor Daily News that during his initial visit to the DMV, he told an employee that he is an ordained Pagan minister. However, a Maine Secretary of State's office spokesperson told the local newspaper that MoonSong did not initially cite the horns' religious significance.

"He did not cite religious reasons," she told the paper. "There are exceptions for religious headdress."

After about five months since his initial request, MoonSong finally received his new identification card in early December.

BONUS: Living in America as a black Muslim woman
Panama City (AFP) - From the Panama Papers to the impeachments of the presidents of Brazil and South Korea, 2016 was a year marked by corruption scandals, and by rising public outrage over graft.

The question is, will that translate into a lasting demand for cleaner politics?

"A new phenomenon" is being seen, said Jose Ugaz, a renowned Peruvian lawyer and the chairman of Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog, who expressed cautious optimism.

"What we are facing today is very different to what we were facing 27 years ago," when Transparency International was founded, he told AFP.

"Around the world we are seeing this kind of corruption that affects the people -- and we are seeing a mobilization of the people against it," he said.

"I think it has been a difficult year -- but at the same time it gives hope for the future."

The Panama Papers leak in April -- an unprecedented data dump -- triggered much of the outrage early in 2016.

Offshore companies used by many of the world's famous, wealthy or powerful, or kin or aides close to them, were exposed.

Among them were the leaders, or relatives of the leaders, of Saudi Arabia, China, Malaysia, Syria, Pakistan, Argentina and Ukraine.

Also implicated was a close friend of President Vladimir Putin, as well as current or former government officials in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East -- more than 140 politicians and public officials in all.

The revelations forced Iceland's prime minister to resign and embarrassed Britain's then-prime minister David Cameron.

China, although in the midst of an anti-corruption drive that has netted more than a million officials, suppressed the Panama Papers information relating to Xi's family in domestic media and online forums.

That bolstered suspicions among observers that relatives of the Communist Party elite remained untouchable in the crackdown on graft.

"There is a double standard," said Willy Lam, professor of politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

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- 'Power of transparency' -

"The publication of the Panama Papers reminds us of the rapid expansion and power of transparency," the head of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, told a London anti-corruption summit in May.

He urged more transparency, stressing that "corruption is, quite simply, stealing from the poor."

According to a recent estimate, between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion is paid annually in bribes around the world.

Research also suggests that, if a country's leaders are believed to be corrupt, ordinary citizens trend toward that path too.

Some heads of state have certainly paid a price for perceived corruption in office.

In Brazil, president Dilma Rousseff was impeached in August, just days after the Rio Olympics, following big street protests fueled by the country's deep recession.

Much of the outrage stemmed from a huge bribery-and-kickbacks scandal involving the state oil company Petrobras.

Rousseff was not impeached on the Petrobras allegations but rather on unrelated charges of cooking the government books.

But the Petrobras affair is wreaking havoc for her unpopular successor, Michel Temer. He has lost several ministers after they came under suspicion in the scandal and questions are emerging about whether he will be able to see through his term.

- Mass protests -

Impeachment also hit South Korea's President Park Geun-hye this month.

She faces a parliamentary inquiry into accusations of colluding with a longtime friend, Choi Soon-Sil, to strongarm donations from large companies worth tens of millions of dollars for a couple of dubious foundations that Choi controlled and allegedly plundered.

The scandal ignited weekly mass demonstrations, some of which drew crowds of more than a million people.

Other leaders, though, are batting away graft allegations that piling up against them.

One such official is Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whom the US alleges embezzled with his family and associates billions of dollars from a sovereign wealth fund.

Najib has shut down domestic investigations into the scandal, claiming a plot by enemies.

But tens of thousands of protestors have held demonstrations demanding his resignation.

South Africa's Jacob Zuma, nicknamed the "Teflon president" for his survival of multiple scandals, is also seeking to see his mandate through to 2019 with the backing of his ANC party, despite a court ruling he should face 783 counts of corruption.

An official report has also implicated him in graft allegations involving a wealthy Indian family.
A World Trade Organization panel on Wednesday largely ruled in favour of Taiwan in its dispute with Canada over anti-dumping duties Ottawa has imposed on steel imports.

Taiwan launched a complaint in 2014 against Canada over duties on carbon steel welded pipes that Ottawa claims are being dumped on its market.

The WTO panel, established in March 2015 to help settle the dispute, found a number of the Canadian measures breached international trade rules.

Some of Taiwan's arguments were dismissed in the highly technical ruling, but the WTO panel largely found in its favour.

It ruled that the definitive duties Canada had imposed on Taiwanese steel pipes were not in line with the WTO's Anti-Dumping Agreement, although it said Taiwan failed to show that Canada's provisional duties were a violation.

Taiwan said the duties had damaged the value of its carbon steel exports.

The WTO, which polices global trade accords to offer its 164 members a level playing field, urged Canada to "bring its measures into conformity with its obligations".

Taiwan and Canada have 60 days to appeal the ruling.

The WTO's disputes settlement body -- made up of independent trade and legal experts -- has the power to authorise retaliatory trade measures against a country found at fault.

Cases often take several years to resolve.
passengers

Sony

Passengers isnt nearly the disaster the early buzz wouldve led me to believe, but I understand the collective bemusement. The premise is so bold and the execution so timid that it almost feels like the first and second halves were written by different people. The cerebral sci-fi premise gradually devolves into a MacGuffiny chase sequence that feels rushed, shrill, and out of character, not to mention cheap (over the summer there were rumors about unfinished VFX work). After hooking you in the opening scenes, it just sort of flails toward an ending  one of several versions shot  until it gets tired and collapses, whiffing successive creative opportunities along the way (to mix a few metaphors). It feels less like a bad movie than a cautionary tale about trying to shoot before youre finished writing.

Directed by The Imitation Games Morten Tyldum from a script by Jon Spaihts (Doctor Strange), Passengers opens on Chris Pratt as Jim Preston (he does look like a Jim), a mechanic traveling on a giant space ship hurtling through the cosmos on its way from Earth to Homestead II, a planet that takes 120 years to reach. A pod malfunction wakes Jim up from hibernation early, leaving him all alone among 4,999 sleeping passengers. The opulent ship (think Titanic by way of Siri) is entirely automated and the glitch so rare that Jim is looking at 90 years with no one to keep him company except chat bots who havent been programmed to deal with his only problem. Its such a perfect sci-fi premise, simultaneously so fantastical and so relevant, like Wall-E meets a phone call with Comcast, that I can imagine it was greenlit immediately. And I dont blame them: I wouldve done the same thing, it sounds great.

With only a robot bartender (Michael Sheen) and some futuristic Nintendo Wii games to keep him company, Jim eventually faces a Sophies choice: ruin someone elses life or die alone? I suppose this next bit is kind of a spoiler, considering Passengers marketing, but you know its going to happen five minutes into the movie so screw it: He wakes up Jennifer Lawrences character, Aurora Lane, a writer from New York whose name makes her sound like Bella Swans career girl sister. Aurora is unaware that Jim woke her up at first, and if you thought this fact was going to hang over their heads for half the movie, DING DING DING, go to the head of the class.

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Obviously that had to be in there, but its also one of the least interesting parts of the story. And the script just hammers it, over and over, giving us banal moralizing instead of exploring the possibilities of this unique premise. Would he or wouldnt he? Its just not that interesting a question. Of course he would. Its human nature. Misery loves company. The first thing I do when I eat something gross is try to get the other people at the table to try it. Interstellars characters got mad at Matt Damon for luring them to a deserted planet, but they couldnt really blame him.

But Im getting ahead of myself a bit. First Aurora wakes up, then she realizes theyre stuck there, and then slowly, slooowly they start to fall for each other. Again, how long did we have to draw this out, really? If the only two awake people on a booze-filled luxury space ship to nowhere look like Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, the over/under on when they start f*cking is about 25 minutes, I guarantee you. People would screw their own family members if a camping trip went too long. Im supposed to believe two attractive single people with 100% leisure time and unlimited booze didnt instantly tear each others clothes off? Please.

Her tantrum when she inevitably finds out is equally overplayed. Because once shes furious, whats she going to do? Pout forever? Hes still her only companionship. They are each others only human connection, which isnt that different from what they signed up for, which couldve been an interesting comment on the nature of relationships. But instead it becomes this tiresome teen movie trope where the script manufactures some lame reason for the two lovers to hate each other at the end of the second act.



That being said, the setting is so compelling and the stars so attractive that youre willing to forgive a lot, and Passengers still manages some interesting moments. Like the simple wonders of living on this giant abandoned playground (with shades of 28 Days Later) and a cool depiction of what would happen if your indoor lap pool suddenly went zero g.

But there are really only two characters, and what about them? What kind of person is willing to do a hard reset on their life, to trade their every human connection for a chance to see another planet, a chance to see the future? Passengers is smart enough to ask such a compelling question, but not to answer it. Jim wants to outlive everyone he knows and travel to a distant planet hes never seen because he likes building things and wants to feel important. Gee, okay. Aurora Lane wants to go there and travel back because shes a journalist and its the ultimate story. Sure, fair enough, I guess. But there isnt anything otherwise noteworthy about their personalities? Theyre not weird loners or outcasts or eccentrics or deviants? Just pretty people with one-sentence backstories? Why write such an interesting premise if youre just going to fill it with square dorks?

Not to mention all the possibilities. What if hed fallen in love with her, woken her up, and then realized she wasnt at all what he thought, like a bad online date? What if she hated him and immediately woke up someone else? What if they woke up other people together and it ruined everything? There are so many potentially intriguing choices, but Passengers just punts, making progressively duller narrative choices after building a world so rich. It stays interesting almost to the end, but eventually the dull decisions start to add up until everyones running around trying to put the doodad into the whatchamacallit to fix the hyperwhatever and to save the people and blah blah blah. Who cares? I thought this was about companionship and mortality and difficult choices. In the end, Passengers is well, kind of like falling in love with a sleeping beauty only to find out theyre kind of dull.
Leaders call for directly elected executive head

Former prime minister and Naya Shakti Nepal Coordinator Baburam Bhattarai has called for including the provision of directly-elected executive head in the constitution amendment proposal registered in Parliament.
HELSINKI, Dec 21 (Reuters) - A petition to hold a referendum on whether Finland should leave the European Union failed to attract enough signatures by the deadline on Wednesday to move the proposal to parliament.

The "Fixit" petition was launched in June by the youth organization of the country's co-ruling, eurosceptic Finns party in the wake of Britain's referendum vote to leave the EU.

The proposal gathered less than 34,000 supporters in six months. The required number was 50,000.

According to a poll conducted by the Iltalehti newspaper soon after the Brexit vote on June 23, 69 percent of Finns opposed an EU referendum and 68 percent supported EU membership.

That suggested that Britain's vote and consequent political turmoil had strengthened pro-EU sentiment in Finland. A previous poll in March had shown 43 percent of Finns wanted a referendum and 56 percent supported EU membership.

"It's a shame we were not able to move forward this way, but we raised the discussion about Finland leaving the EU to a new level," said Sebastian Tynkkynen, head of the Finns Party Youth.

Tynkkynen said the youth organization's next goal was to make a Fixit referendum the main campaign demand for the party in Finland's next general election in 2019.

Senior lawmakers in the Finns party have also floated the idea of a EU vote as a possible campaign theme.

Finland's three-party government - which includes the Centre Party with agrarian roots and the pro-EU National Coalition Party - remains officially committed to membership of the EU and the euro single-currency zone.

Earlier this year, another petition demanded Finland's break from the euro, saying the lack of an independent monetary policy was hampering economic growth in the country of 5.5 million people.

That petition made it to the parliament debate but the proposal was afterwards ditched by a parliament committee.

(Reporting by Tuomas Forsell; Editing by Jussi Rosendahl and Mark Heinrich)
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / December 21, 2016 / Petrichor Energy Inc. (FSE: YQN) (OTC PINK: ODEFF) (TSX-V: PTP) (the "Company" or "PTP") announces that it has appointed Andre Proulx to the Board of Directors, who will take the place of Richard Switzer, who has resigned. The Board thanks Mr. Switzer for his service as a director for the past ten years.

Mr. Proulx is a founder of and served as President of Petrolia Oil Corp. from January 2002 to September 17, 2013. He also acted as President and CEO of Puma Exploration Inc. until September 16, 2010, and currently acts as Chairman of Stelmine Canada Ltd. since December 1, 2016. Andre holds a Master's Degree in Ethnology from Laval University obtained in 1974.

The Company welcomes the expertise that Mr. Proulx will bring to its Board of Directors.

For clarification, the officers and directors of the Company are now as follows:

Joe DeVries, President, CEO and Director

Richard Barnett, Secretary, CFO and Director

Jurgen Wolf, Director

Andre Proulx, Director

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD



SIGNED: "Joe DeVries"

Joe DeVries, Chief Executive Officer

Contact for further information: (604) 336-8615

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.

SOURCE: Petrichor Energy Inc.
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petrobras is selling stakes in two big offshore oilfields and two power plants to France's Total in a deal worth $2.2 billion, both companies announced.

The agreement comes under a previously announced Petrobras asset sale aimed at raising billions of dollars for the indebted group.

The transaction will see Total get pumping rights to significant parts of two deepwater, pre-salt oilfields off Brazil's southeastern coast whose discovery in 2007 was seen as a resource bonanza.

Total will pick up 22.5 percent of the Iara field and 35 percent of the Lapa field, which started operation on Tuesday.

The French company will also become 50-percent owner of two thermal energy plants, Romulo de Almeida and Celso Furtado, in the northeastern state of Bahia.

The transaction comes at a time of relatively low prices for oil -- and amid a huge corruption scandal involving Petrobras that saw the company's rating downgraded and its debt pile of over $120 billion become worrisome.

Total's CEO, Patrick Pouyanne, said in Paris that "these deals will considerably reinforce Total's presence in Brazil by giving us access to the remarkable pre-salt resources and allowing us to integrate into the promising integrated gas chain in the country."

He later told AFP that Brazil is a "land of opportunity" for Total.

"I often say that you should look for oil and gas where (we know) they are. There is a lot in Brazil, and the moment in time helps us, because in fact they are a country experiencing difficulties," he said.

"They are looking for partners. They decided to open up to foreign investment (in oil), and that gives us the chance to talk with Petrobras and see what common ground we can find."

Petrobras chief Pedro Parente said in Rio de Janeiro the deals should offer some strategic advantages and savings.

"And they should help us to reduce our debts," he stressed.
The Philippine government filed a criminal case in court Wednesday against a high-profile critic of President Rodrigo Duterte. The justice ministry accused its former chief Sen. Leila de Lima of disrupting a congressional investigation looking into her involvement in the drugs trade.

The justice ministry reportedly accused the senator of deliberately skipping the house inquiry and advising her ex-driver, also her alleged bagman, to go into hiding ignoring a legislative summons. The ministry recommended charging de Lima with obstruction of justice.

The ministry accused de Lima of violating Article 150 that deals with law on legislative summonses. If found guilty, de Lima could face a prison term ranging from one to six months in addition to a fine of up to 1,000 Philippine pesos ($20), local media reports said.

De Lima is one of the few domestic critics of Dutertes war on drugs campaign, which has killed nearly 6,000 people. Philippine newspaper Rappler puts the number of people killed in relation to the anti-drug drive at 6,095 as of Dec. 14, 2016, including 3,993 extrajudicial killings.

DUTERTE

Photo: MALACANANG PHOTO/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

She once led an investigation into alleged extrajudicial killings in relation to a similar anti-drug drive in the city of Davao when Duterte was the mayor of the southern city. However, she was removed as head of the investigation by Dutertes allies and later became the subject of a congressional inquiry where witnesses claimed she was part of the drug trade.

De Lima dismissed the allegations and filed a case in the countrys Supreme Court in an attempt to prevent Duterte and his allies from making false allegations about her private and public life.

The senator said Wednesday the criminal charges will neither affect her nor would it change the fact that people were dying in relation to Dutertes anti-drug campaign.

Story continues

Its saddening and frightening that even high-ranking public figures have swallowed hook, line and sinker the fantasy that the Duterte administration has been weaving: that a single person was single-handedly responsible for the proliferation of drugs in our country, she reportedly said, referring to the accusations against her that she is a drug lord.

Duterte recently admitted to personally killing criminals. In Davao I used to do it personally. Just to show to the guys [police officers] that if I can do it, why cant you, he said last week. And Id go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around, and I would just patrol the streets, looking for trouble also. I was really looking for a confrontation so I could kill.

De Lima and Sen. Richard Gordon, head of the senate justice committee, said this latest admission from Duterte served as grounds for impeachment.

That is betrayal of public trust and that constitutes high crimes because mass murders certainly fall into the category of high crimes. And high crimes is a ground for impeachment under the constitution, De Lima said.

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MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippine government filed a criminal case in court on Wednesday against a staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, accusing her of trying to sabotage a congressional investigation into her alleged involvement in the drugs trade. The justice ministry's case against its former head, Senator Leila de Lima, says she deliberately skipped the house inquiry and told her ex-driver and alleged bagman to go into hiding and ignore a legislative summons. De Lima is among only a few high-profile domestic critics of Duterte's campaign against drugs, which has killed about 6,000 people, roughly a third in police operations. The other deaths are classified as under investigation, many believed to be the work of vigilantes. Duterte's allies in Congress said de Lima had shown disrespect for the inquiry. The criminal case is built around breaches of an article of the law on legislative summonses. De Lima once led a Senate investigation into suspected extrajudicial killings during Duterte's drugs crackdown and a similarly bloody campaign he oversaw in Davao City when he was mayor. But she was ousted by his allies as head of that investigation and just days later came under investigation herself in a congressional inquiry in which witnesses testified to her having a pivotal role in the narcotics trade. De Lima has denied the accusations and filed a case with the Supreme Court to try to muzzle Duterte and stop him from disparaging her in public and making salacious allegations about her private life. The tide of opposition to her shows the influence Duterte has gained in his short time as president, and how domestic dissent about his drugs war has gained very little traction. The killings in the anti-drugs campaign have been condemned widely among the international community. De Lima on Wednesday said the criminal charges would have no impact on her, or change the fact that people were dying as part of Duterte's war. "It's saddening and frightening that even high-ranking public figures have swallowed hook, line and sinker the fantasy that the Duterte administration has been weaving: that a single person was single-handedly responsible for the proliferation of drugs in our country," she said in a statement, referring to the accusations against her that she is a drug lord. (Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Martin Petty, Robert Birsel)
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday urged communist rebels waging a decades-old rebellion to spend time with their families over the Christmas holidays, pledging to guarantee their safety.

His government is observing a ceasefire with the Maoist insurgents while holding peace talks to bring an end to a 47-year-old armed campaign has left tens of thousands of people dead according to official estimates.

"Leave your arms wherever you are now and you can come down to the city and visit your family," Duterte said in a speech to soldiers ahead of the long Christmas weekend.

"I guarantee you: No arrests, no oppression," he said, adding he was sure many of the guerrillas had not been with their families for years.

"No one wants to fight during the Christmas season."

The government has earlier announced Duterte was likely to grant amnesty to hundreds of detained New People's Army rebels.

He freed 18 rebel leaders earlier this year to kickstart talks being hosted by Norway, and both sides have said they expect to reach a final peace agreement by the middle of next year.

The communists' armed faction is believed to have fewer than 4,000 gunmen, down from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s, when a bloodless revolt ended the 20-year dictatorship of late president Ferdinand Marcos.

But they remain active in rural areas, where they extort money from local businesses.

They have also in recent years carried out deadly attacks on police and military forces.

Duterte said Wednesday his Christmas offer did not extend to Islamic militants in the south who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group or been abducting tourists, businessmen and seamen for ransom.

"I don't want to see you and I don't want to deal with you," he added.
MANILA (Reuters) - A Philippine provincial newspaper publisher has been shot dead after writing a column alleging official negligence over a recently discovered methamphetamine laboratory, in the first killing of a journalist during the country's war on drugs. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) condemned Monday's murder of Larry Que, publisher of a news site on the island of Catanduanes, and said it "challenged" President Rodrigo Duterte to find the perpetrators and utilize a special task force he set up to protect media. The Philippines enjoys one of Asia's most liberal media environments, and one of the most dangerous for journalists. Scores have been killed in the past three decades, with radio broadcasters who cover provincial politics among the most common victims. Investigations of killings have often been inconclusive. The NUJP said Que had run Catanduanes News Now, a new publication, for only two weeks before he was shot in the head outside his workplace. He also owned an insurance firm and previously ran for local office. His article, according to NUJP, suggested local officials were negligent when a laboratory was illegally set up to make "shabu", a methamphetamine that Duterte has vowed to wipe out, along with anyone selling it. Duterte signed an administrative order in October to create a task force of ministers, police, defense and justice officials to protect media, investigate attacks on media workers and create an oversight body to scrutinize probes. The NUJP said the presidential panel should be put to work to find Que's killers. It criticized the government for its approach towards media and for what it said was a tendency to accuse journalists of distorting the president's words. "We call on this administration to walk the talk and prove its professed respect for press freedom, not only by quickly solving these brazen assaults on press freedom but, just as importantly, by ending its penchant of falsely blaming media for deliberately misinterpreting its often inconsistent and incoherent messages," the NUJP said. Duterte's office has often issued statements that contradict the mercurial president's public remarks. After some of his most controversial comments, his communications team has said his words should be taken seriously, but not literally. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the government condemned violence against journalists and called for a thorough investigation into Que's death. (Reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Photo credit: Getty Images

From Redbook

The essential rules for holiday season survival should be evident by now: Avoid malls on the weekends, lest you want to risk getting crushed in a stampede. Order gifts at least three weeks in advance if you cancelled your Amazon Prime account last year. Limit your candy intake to once a week (cough, day). But as an only child coming from an incredibly small family  just me and my dad  there's one more rule I have to add to my wintertime playbook with increasing urgency: Get off social media. Between Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas, I urge myself to deactivate Facebook, I delete Instagram from my phone, and I don't even dream about checking Snapchat unless I want a video montage of reminders that I'm missing out...on everything.

For people with families like mine, the excessive stream of family dinner photos that inundates my feeds during the holiday season just feels exhausting and insensitive. The holidays are tough enough when you don't have extended family, and social media creates an added layer of FOMO-induced sadness that can hover over you. And though I'm sure nobody means to be malicious, it can feel hurtful. Think about it: If one of your close friends just called things off with her fiance, would she be the one you gloat to over happy hour drinks over ring shopping with your partner? Probably not. That's what perusing social media feeds feels like over the holidays for someone with little or no family. Countless hashtags like #FamilyTime and #HomeForTheHolidays come from virtually everyone you know  it's not just that one friend bragging about their great relationship when you just got dumped, but the entire neighborhood chiming in. Welcome to look-what-you-don't-have central!

Don't get me wrong, social media can be great and I'm not against it, even though studies have even linked social media usage to depression. I've live-tweeted my way through The Voice like a crazy woman and done one too many Warrior IIs to a video of a setting sun. And I'm not a total grinch; sometimes, I even find the Snaps of Charades with your family laugh-out-loud funny, despite the fact I can barely play a full-blown game of Monopoly with mine.

Story continues

I'm not asking for a a pity party. The holiday season always gives me even more reason to reflect on how lucky I am to have close relationships, an amazing dad, and a roof over my head  so I totally appreciate that you are also grateful for your family and that seeing them for the holidays is a special time. And I'm all for that! I also get that the curated photos of happiness, hot cocoa, and lit-up gingerbread homes that would put Rockefeller Center's tree decorations to shame aren't always so picture-perfect beneath their Valencia-filtered surface. But I can't help seeing those photos and feeling like I'm missing out on something really, really special.

And I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. I've had countless friends express to me their social media-infused loneliness over the holidays. I've even found myself in semi-private yoga classes on official holidays (hey, guess there's one perk of not having family holiday plans), bonding with the one other person who showed up over how tough the holidays can be when you don't have much or any family. Same goes for those with families they're estranged from, for those whom the holidays are a particularly sad time of year thanks to recent turmoil, divorce, sickness, or the anniversary of losing a loved one, and even those with families that simply don't have many holiday traditions. I can imagine lots of reasons people feel equally ostracized and sad on social media during the holidays.

More people might be feeling what I'm feeling, as one-child America is growing: There's an estimated 20 million only-child households in the U.S. alone  and with couples waiting increasingly longer to start families, more and more children are born with already-deceased grandparents or elderly grandparents who pass away early in their childhood. Families are also increasingly cross-coastal, or even continents, and many people can't afford to go home for the holidays and be with their loved ones, which I'm sure presents a comparable sting to the one I feel. There's also an increasingly diverse definition of "family:" Many gay and lesbian couples raise their own children with modern-day fertilization techniques or adopt; technology has empowered single women to work with sperm banks and raise children as single moms; 34 percent of children today are living with an unmarried parent, the list of "nontraditional" family-types goes on and on. You may think live-streaming the evolution of your Christmas dinner table spread photo is totally innocuous (and, man, does that blackberry cobbler you made from The Four & Twenty Blackbirds cookbook look delicious), but the odds are someone you care about has a panging heart, too.

I'm not asking you to forgo social media entirely; I'm aware it's 2016. I'm just asking for judgment. A single post of your grandma's epic pumpkin cheesecake? Go for it. I'll even like it! But the pre-baking apple-peeling pie post plus 17 more photos uploaded between then and your last a la mode spoonful? That's about 17 more heart-wrenching twists of the knife than feels good. Take one person's curated collection of Christmas dinner moments and multiply that by the hundreds of people you follow on social media  it's enough OCFOMO (that's FOMO for only children) to make me feel sad all day long.

This Christmas, I beg you to think about your audience before you post that ninth family mannequin challenge. Imagine sitting alone on a yoga studio bench or a local watering hole scrolling through a stream of a big family happiness you've never known on your Christmaseve, day, and the morning after. Sure, you may forgo a couple of Insta-likes  but I promise you'll earn an even bigger army of invisible likes instead.

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Ethnic organisations close to the Nepali Congress look poised to retake leadership of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (Nefin) with the backing of the faction loyal to other political forces in the ruling alliance, while a camp close to the CPN-UML is teaming up with various ethnic groups to foil the rivals chances.
(Adds more quotes about banks and background)

By Marcin Goclowski

WARSAW, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Poland expects more foreign bank owners to sell their holdings in the country in 2017 following UniCredit's sale of the country's second largest lender, Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday.

Raiffeisen has so far failed to find a buyer for its Polish unit after state-run lender Alior Bank ended talks to buy Raiffeisen Polbank.

However, Poland's state-run insurer PZU and fund PFR did agree to buy UniCredit's Pekao for 2.5 billion euros ($2.60 billion) earlier this month.

"I expect that next year we may see more financial institutions being put up for sale... we're observing this and our approach is opportunistic," Morawiecki told reporters.

The Polish government has been increasing its sway over the banking sector in what analysts have said is an attempt to gain more control over the slowing economy.

Following the Pekao purchase by PZU and PFR, Polish capital now controls the country's banking sector, which were for years dominated by foreign investors such as Commerzbank, Santander, BNP Paribas, GE, Citi , Credit Agricole, and BCP.

"We have done it at an ideal moment... This domestication makes sense," Morawiecki said, adding that Warsaw has no plans to force Pekao into any "silly credit decisions"..

Deutsche Bank was considering selling its Polish unit, sources have said, while analysts have long speculated that all banks with a market share less than 5 percent may be put up for sale sooner or later.

And a deal to buy Raiffeisen Polbank (IPO-RBP.WA) may yet be on the cards after talks with PZU-controlled Alior failed.

"It is not beyond my imagination," Morawiecki said when asked if Poland or Alior may resume talks with Raiffeisen. ($1 = 0.9625 euros) (Editing by Alexander Smith)
Protesters holding copies of Poland's constitution shout slogans during an anti-government demonstration, in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016. Opponents of the country's populist government are staging a new protest outside the presidential palace in an appeal to the head of state to protect the young democracy's constitutional order from a series of government steps they deem anti-democratic. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Over the past week, the Polish parliament controlled by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party passed legislations dismantling the current primary education system, finalizing its overhaul of the countrys constitutional court, and de facto limiting the freedom of assembly. A chaotic night on Friday has both sides of the political conflict accusing each other of a coup detat. Since then, opposition lawmakers have been occupying the parliaments main hall. Meanwhile, on the streets of the countrys cities, people have been protesting tirelessly nearly every day. The desperation is palpable: some protesters have been blocking politicians cars with their own bodies, while others are camping out in front of the parliament in the middle of Polands frigid December. Were only days away from Christmas, when Poles usually turn to the hearth. This year, for many of them, far more stressful than last-minute gift-shopping and making heaps of holiday pierogi is a political crisis for the history books. What is going on in Poland, which was supposed to be the former Soviet blocs beacon of democracy and a poster child of European Union integration?

Opposition lawmakers sing the national anthem and chant as they occupy the podium to protest in the lower house of parliament in Warsaw, Poland, on Friday, 16 Dec. 2016. They protested in a large group around the podium against the ruling party pans to limit reporters' access to lawmakers. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Lawmakers protesting in parliament.

On Friday night (Dec. 16) the political tension brewing since PiS was elected to power in the fall of 2015 came to a head in the Sejm, one of the two chambers of Polands parliament. After the party announced a plan to restrict journalists access to politicians in the parliaments buildings, opposition lawmaker Micha Szczerba, took his turn on the speakers podium bearing a sign that said Free Media. The speaker of the Sejm, Marek Kuchcinski of PiS, decided to exclude him from the legislative debate. This elicited an outcry from other opposition MPs who blocked the speakers podium chanting Free Media and No censorship.

Story continues

Amid the chaos, PiS, the ruling party, decided to leave the main parliament auditorium and relocate to a different room. When they convened, after a quick session of Christmas caroling the speaker announced the parliament was in session. Then, with very few opposition members in the roomsome in fact being blocked from entering by securitywith no media presence, no TV cameras, no electronic voting infrastructure, members of the ruling party voted to pass the countrys budget for 2017 and reject any amendments.

The opposition, journalists, and political experts question the votes legitimacy, pointing out many irregularities, including a failure to effectively inform other lawmakers that it was happening, and a lack of transparency as to who voted and how many MPs were exactly in the room (link in Polish).

Below, Opposition lawmakers trying to get in to the voting session:

Posowie opozycji nieskutecznie probuja wejsc na sale kolumnowa gdzie prowadzone sa obrady Sejmu. Nie pozwala na to Straz Marszakowska. pic.twitter.com/uyHJp9DZ7J  Wojciech Bojanowski (@BojanowskiW) December 16, 2016

Outside the parliament

Over the past year, political demonstrations have become a nearly weekly activity for many residents of Warsaw and other cities. Theyve been protesting everything from the PiS plan to de facto transform the countrys constitutional court into a political body easily controlled by the parliament, to proposals to restrict the countrys already harsh abortion law, to various efforts to ease environmental protections (link in Polish).

Heres the protest agenda for last weekend in Warsaw: On Friday, demonstrators came out to support the Free Media protest by lawmakers in the parliament, in what turned out to be a tense night that included physical confrontations with police; On Saturday, they were calling on president Andrzej Duda to veto a bill that would restrict freedom of assembly; On Sunday, they were bidding farewell to the outgoing head of the Constitutional Tribunal, viewed as a rare defender of the rule of law in Poland still in office. Many of these protests gather thousands of peoplethe anti-abortion black protest in Warsaw in early October reached 30,000 participants, according to city authorities. On Tuesday morning (Dec. 20) , police started building up barricades around the parliament on orders from the buildings security. Earlier, officers forcibly removed the protesters that were staying outside the building overnight, in a makeshift encampment.

I spoke with some of the demonstrators in front of the parliament on Saturday. One of them was Agnieszka Wolfram-Zakrzewska, who was involved with the anti-Communist underground movement in the 1970s and 80s. On Saturday, she was one of a group holding huge cardboard letters that spelled out Free Media. This is a fight to save the rule of law, she said. All the countrys democratic institutions are being eliminatedCitizens today dont have an institution that they can turn to, she added, underlining that the ruling party is trampling on the constitution.

Looks like the Warsaw protest now in thousands. Marching toward parliament pic.twitter.com/EHiNHd3mYd  Hanna Kozlowska (@hannakozlowska) December 17, 2016

Witold Nawrot came to the protest with his daughter. We are afraid of the return of the regime from before 1989, he said, referring to the four-decade rule of communists in Poland. Moments earlier, people gathered at the demonstration were singing solemn protest songs from that very era. Last week marked the 35th anniversary of the introduction of martial law by Polands communist authorities, in an effort to quash growing dissent.

I ran the references to communist repression by Wolfram-Zakrzewska who was an early member of the underground movement during that time. I dont like these comparisons to the communist era, but these two periods have one thing in common: then we had one-party rule, and now we have one-party rule. No one reckoned with the opposition then, no one reckons with it now. She referred to the controversial education reform that will swiftly eliminate middle schools, bringing back the primary education system that functioned in Poland for decades before an overhaul in 1999: I dont know why they are doing this. I personally think they hate everything that happened over the past 25 years in Poland, and now they want to destroy everything. If they could they would tear up the asphalt from highways created during the previous government.

The man behind it all

Wolfram-Zakrzewska, along with most similar-minded Poles, blames one person for the paralysis: Jarosaw Kaczynski, who is the

Kaczynski with Beata Szydlo, the prime minister.

Kaczynski with Beata Szydlo, the prime minister.

head of PiS, but other than being a member of parliament, holds no formal office. Despite this, he wields enormous power in the country. I have no idea how this will end: we are in the hands of people who are acting irrationally, and leading this group is a man who has absolutely no constitutional responsibility, hes just a member of parliament, she said. He is not responsible before anyone and anything, and everyone listens to him: the prime minister, the president, lawmakers. According to an August poll by Newsweek, 60% of Poles think Kaczynski is behind president Dudas decisions (link in Polish).

Popular support

Polish society, like in many liberal democracies in the West is extremely polarized. Although supported by observers abroad, political watchdogs, NGOs and a wide swath of mainstream media, those lamenting the crumbling of democratic institutions are largely liberal, leftist or centrist, politically engaged city dwellers who are relatively wealthy. PiS, who won both the presidential election and the parliamentary election in 2015 is still backed by about more than 30% of Poles, more than any other party in the country, with various recent polls showing only a slight decline in support following the election (link in Polish).

Pro-government activists attend a demonstration to mark the 35th anniversary of the marshal law in Warsaw, Poland, December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel - RTX2UVEZ

A man holds up a statuette of Jarosaw Kaczynskis twin brother Lech, who died in a plane crash in 2010.

A group of government supporters turned out to a counter-protest in front of the presidential palace on Sunday. They chanted Jarosaw, Jarosaw, so the name of their partys leader and God, Honor, Fatherland, according to Polish media. (link in Polish) The PiS base is galvanized by conservative rhetoric against abortion or in vitro fertilization, and fulfilling populist promises such as lowering the retirement age, signed into law by Duda on Monday (Dec. 19) or a monthly cash subsidy for every additional child in a family, a boost for low-income Poles. But with the latest events, it appears that some dissent is bubbling. A European Parliament deputy from PiS, Kazimierz Ujazdowski, criticized on Monday his partys actions over the weekend, as has a prominent conservative commentator (last two links in Polish). Several journalists from state-run television stations have left their jobs, reportedly because they didnt want their work to serve political purposes (links in Polish).

Echoes of Trumps America

As a reporter who covered this years American presidential campaign, its been hard not to notice the parallels between PiSs Poland and the changing political landscape of the US.

In some ways mirroring the allure of Donald Trump, the PiS appeal is one of populism and conservatism, geared toward a disenfranchised segment of a polarized society  a group that also turns out en masse for elections. Nearly all of its ideas fill liberals with horror. The information war is fully blown: fake news spreads with lightning speed, while many Poles say that state-run media have turned into blatant government propaganda. (link in Polish) Like in the US, the far-right is gaining a more prominent voice in the political discussion: a representative of the neo-fascist group ONR was invited to a popular radio talk show to present the organizations point of view. (link in Polish) Some of the similarities with what is going on in America are quite literal: several months ago, Polish women threatened by the prospect of further restricting their right to an abortion trolled the prime minister with messages detailing their periods  a tactic that was used against US vice-president elect Mike Pence when he was the governor of Indiana.

In many ways, the Polish government is realizing Democrats worst fears for America. While Poland has the worst air quality in Europe, the ruling party passes a legislation that eliminates restrictions on clearing trees on private properties, a move decried by environmental groups. The equivalent of the US Supreme Court is being reshaped to help those in power. Echoing Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, the Polish government wants to create a new office that would administer funds for non-governmental organizations, a solution that activists fear would disadvantage human rights groups critical of the ruling party, or those which do not share its conservative world view. Womens rights might be further threatened: the abortion law is still in the works, the government is quietly rolling back regulations aimed to help mothers give birth according to modern standards, and it is reportedly talking about backing out of a European convention on preventing violence against women, because, as one minister put it, it conflicts with the partys opinion on gender as a cultural, rather than biological concept. (links in Polish; for more parallels, check out The Washington Posts excellent dispatch from Poland).

Some of PiSs more radical ideas, like the extreme abortion restrictions, are just a smokescreen that they backtrack substantially after public outcry (much like some of Trumps campaign promises). This becomes a distraction from more fundamental changes, like the constitutional court overhaul or the worsening economic conditions in the country. But barring a decision from those in power to hold a snap election, the Polish opposition and concerned citizens have three years to figure outand find outwhat the goals of their government, aside for holding onto power, actually are. Americans have four.

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WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Tuesday that recent opposition actions in a parliamentary standoff were illegal, and called on his opponents to respect the law. "We appeal to the opposition to return to a situation in which it accepts that law is binding," Kaczynski said in a televised statement along with his closest political allies. "We are facing an acceptance of actions that are of criminal character," Kaczynski said, referring to opposition lawmakers' occupation of parliament's debating chamber. He also said that the political situation in Poland will quickly calm down. "One cannot proceed this way, this is a way to a great misfortune," Kaczynski also said. (Reporting by Pawel Sobczak; Writing by Marcin Goclowski; Editing by Toby Chopra)
A man is in hospital after he was stabbed while trying to stop a would-be burglar, who attempted to take a woman hostage in a botched robbery attempt at a Canberra club on Sunday, December 18.

According to this ABC article, the man arrived at the Calwell Club at about 2:30 am, waving a gun at staff as he demanded they get down on the floor.

After security chased him from the building, one man gave chase and was stabbed trying to stop the suspect.

Police urged anybody with information on his identity to call Crime Stoppers. Credit: Facebook/ACT Policing via Storyful
Joe Mixon didnt play in 2014. (Getty)

Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon told police that it felt like a dude hit him when he was slapped by Mia Molitor in 2014 according to police video.

Molitor slapped Mixon before he punched her in the face in a Picklemans Cafe on July 28, 2014. Video of the incident was released last week. Molitor said she suffered multiple facial fractures after the punch and she hit her face on a table as she fell to the ground.

Mixon, a five-star recruit in the class of 2014, reached a plea deal regarding the assault charges from the incident and missed the 2014 season. Per the Oklahoman, he said a man with Molitor said a racial slur while Mixon responded with a homophobic slur in his interview with Norman police three days after the punch.

The gay dude  he called me something, Mixon said in the video. He was like (slur). So then I was like, you got me messed up. And then I called him a (slur). And after that, the girl, she dropped her purse, thats when she came in my face, pushed me, and then my glasses came off, and then, like, I had, like, jumped at her, like, to watch out. And then she came in my face. I put my head down. And she swung on me. And after that, like, I was so shocked, because she hit me so hard. It felt like a dude hit me. And after that, like, my face went boom, my reaction was just right there.

[Follow Dr. Saturday on social media: Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr]

The surveillance video of Mixons punch was released by his attorneys last week following an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling. The court ruled the video must be available for public consumption as it was part of the public record. The city of Norman had fought to keep the video private, but had provided media a viewing of the tape shortly after the incident. What people saw last week with their own eyes matched the descriptions provided two years ago.

The punch was the culmination of an argument that began outside the restaurant. The Oklahoman report has more details about Mixons interview and what he said transpired that evening.

Story continues

Molitor has filed a civil suit vs. Mixon.

      

Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Maybe it was the fashion police who pulled him over.

When stopped for speeding, University of Wisconsin-Stout student Trevor Keeney told Officer Martin Folczyk he was running late for an important presentation and could not tie his tie.

Read: Cops ID Man They Say Stole Pot of Gold Worth $1.6M From Armored Truck in Daring Heist

Instead of giving the student a ticket, Officer Folczyk took pity on him and helped him out.

The officer asked the student to get out of his BMW and showed him how to properly tie the necktie.

In police dash cam footage of the November 30 incident, the officer can be heard telling Keeney: [It is] probably not the best knot but it'll work.

Keeney thanked the officer and the two parted ways, with no ticket issued.

Read: Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom Dress as Mr. and Mrs. Claus to Spread Christmas Cheer at Children's Hospital

The student told Inside Edition: "I think it was super cool that a cop was tying my tie. I have been getting lucky that I have been getting out of tickets and I thought, 'Gosh, dang it! My mom is going to be so mad at me'."

His mom, Lory, is grateful to the kindhearted cop, saying "it was a great lesson."

The officer has invited Keeney to the station anytime he needs further assistance tying a necktie.

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Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis was the toast of social media on Wednesday after successfully completing his latest groundbreaking mission: popping out of the Vatican to buy himself some new footwear.

To the barely containable delight of his many fans in cyberspace, the 80-year-old pontiff visited a pharmacy near the Holy See on Tuesday to pick up a pair of orthopaedic shoes of the kind that help reduce the pain caused by chronic sciatica, from which he suffers.

The visit was filmed and snapped on smartphones by a handful of customers who were in the shop at the time and later uploaded images to social media.

A selection of pictures was posted on a Facebook page described as belonging to Rome barmaid Martina Duarte with the caption: "A Tuesday with the Pope... my love I am incredibly proud of you!"

Most of the online comments were similarly breathless in tone, admirers appearing to share Duarte's amazement at the sight of the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics doing his own shopping, posing for pictures and blessing a crucifix belonging to one of the shop's staff.

One commenter on Italian daily La Repubblica's site called for Francis to be immediately installed as the new mayor of Rome, while another simply noted, presumably with a disbelieving shake of the head: "The greatness of this man!"

- Stepping out -

It was not the first time the former Jorge Bergoglio has created a sensation by leaving his modest lodgings in the St Martha boarding house to do a spot of shopping.

There was similar excitement in September 2015 when he was spotted at his optician near the Spanish Steps in Rome's historic centre.

That in turn recalled the general stupefaction around the time of his election in 2013 when it emerged that he not only carried his own briefcase but also paid his own hotel bills.

Many suspect an element of image construction in these well-publicised moments. But Francis's frugality and fondness for mingling with ordinary people predates him becoming pope.

Story continues

As bishop of Buenos Aires, local buses were his favoured mode of transport and his shoes were so scuffed and worn with all the walking he did that two priest friends bought him a new pair when he became pope.

A flashy pair of red loafers of the kind sported by his predecessor Benedict XVI were made for him by the papal tailors but have gone unworn - at least in public.

Shortly after he became pontiff, Francis admitted in an interview that the thing he most missed was enjoying the anonymity that would allow him to go into Rome and have a pizza.

Cynics will be reassured that not everyone was bowled over by the pope's latest outing. "The usual, narcissistic exhibitionism," commented a sceptic on www.larepubblica.it.
Prince George is already opening his Christmas presents, is all of us

Waiting till Christmas for Santa to arrive was the absolute pits as a child. Remember? The days ticked by, and presents from friends and family members started to appear under the tree, but absolutely none could be opened until that old man in the red suit delivered his bounty. Well, Prince George is having none of that nonsense and has decided to open his gifts early this year  and were totally with him.

According to a report in The Telegraph, Prince William  father to 3-year-old Prince George  was at a charity event in London this week and spoke to Kiss FM radio host AJ King about his sons mischief.

Said King,

The Duke said they were all really excited about Christmas and that George is already opening his presents. He thought it was quite funny. Thats kids for you, even the ones that are princes!

2016 Royal Tour To Canada Of The Duke And Duchess Of Cambridge - Victoria, British Columbia

Royal watchers wont be surprised to learn about Prince Georges adorably disobedient ways. Before his first birthday, Prince William revealed that his son was already charging around and opening doors and earlier this year he told the Mirror of his children, No broken bones yet, but theyre trying. Running around, pushing things, jumping. He joked, Please tell me it gets easier.

Prince William, Kate Middleton, George, and little Charlotte will be spending Christmas with Kates family in Berkshire this year, forgoing the usual royal get-together at Sandringham, the Queens country retreat. Were wishing a very Happy Christmas to all!

The post Prince George is already opening his Christmas presents, is all of us appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Nepal condemns Berlin attack

The government on Tuesday condemned Mondays Christmas market attack in Berlin, in which at least 12 people were killed.
Lima (AFP) - Peru's ex-president Alberto Fujimori returned to prison Wednesday after undergoing pancreas exams in hospital, condemning jail conditions he said are "slowly killing" him.

The 78-year-old former leader is serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses and corruption during his presidency (1990-2000).

He has had a series of health crises -- the latest one being a cyst on his pancreas, according to his doctor.

Sent back to jail after two days of exams, Fujimori lashed out at his treatment in detention.

"I don't ask for privileges, just the minimal conditions to survive in this prison, which is slowly killing me," said a message on the Twitter account kept in his name by his inner circle.

The latest hospitalization was the ex-president's second this month.

It comes against a backdrop of friction between President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and the opposition, which is led by Fujimori's daughter Keiko.

The former president's health has become a hot-button issue as Kuczynski fends off attacks from the Fujimori camp, which holds a majority in Congress.

Kuczynski has rejected calls to pardon the ex-president.

But he has said that if Congress passes a bill granting Fujimori house arrest, he will sign it.

Fujimori is remembered for ruling Peru with a populist style and authoritarian grip.

Convicted of embezzlement and bribery, he was jailed in 2007.

He was convicted again in 2009 for his role in killings by a death squad targeting supposed guerrillas.
ATLANTA (AP)  A well-known Atlanta attorney has been charged in the shooting death of his business executive wife in a case that drew widespread public interest.

Claud "Tex" McIver faces a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter and a misdemeanor charge of reckless conduct and was expected to turn himself in Wednesday, Atlanta police spokesman Donald Hannah said.

McIver's attorney, Stephen Maples, did not immediately respond to a phone message and email seeking comment on the charges.

McIver has told local news media he was riding in a rear seat of an SUV on Sept. 25 when a gun he was holding discharged and the bullet hit his wife, 64-year-old Diane McIver, who was sitting in the front passenger seat. She later died at a hospital.

Tex McIver, who's in his 70s, is a partner at a prominent labor and employment law firm and vice chair of the state election board. He also sits on the advisory committee of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Gun Violence. His wife was president of U.S. Enterprises Inc., the parent company of Corey Airport Services, where she had worked for 43 years, according to the company. They lived in Atlanta's upscale Buckhead neighborhood.

In the days following the shooting, police told local news media they were working through the investigation slowly because they wanted to get it right.

Several days after the shooting, Bill Crane, a McIver family friend, told local media that the couple was returning home from their horse ranch in rural Putnam County, about 70 miles southeast of Atlanta, when the person driving  who was later identified by media as a friend of Diane McIver  exited the highway to avoid traffic.

As the SUV near an intersection in midtown Atlanta where a homeless shelter is located, the vehicle was approached by several people. The McIvers were nervous about unrest surrounding Black Lives Matter Protests and feared a carjacking, Crane told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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The couple took out a .38-caliber snub-nose revolver wrapped in a plastic grocery bag from the center console. Several blocks later, near Piedmont Park, the SUV hit a bump and the gun fired, Crane said. Tex McIver, who was nodding off when they hit the bump, didn't remember firing the gun, Crane told the newspaper.

A few days later, Maples told the Journal-Constitution that there had been no concern about unrest. Instead, he said, the McIvers pulled out the gun as a precaution after seeing people in the street in an area where homeless people hang out.

McIver fell asleep and was jarred awake near the park, Maples said.

"I was suddenly awoken. I lurched and the gun fired," McIver told the newspaper on Oct. 6. "I must have forgotten it was in my lap. I saw a flash."

Tex McIver said he loved his wife and that the shooting was accidental and left him feeling overwhelmed with grief.

"She was my life partner," he said. "My life as I know it is ruined because of this accident."

Lee Davis, an attorney for Dani Jo Carter, who was driving the SUV, told the Journal-Constitution and WSB-TV that the vehicle was stopped at a red light when the gun fired. Davis said Carter does not believe Tex McIver intentionally shot his wife.

State Sen. Vincent Fort, an Atlanta Democrat, called for McIver to be removed from the state election board because of the initial account that he had been concerned about the Black Lives Matter movement.

"I believe Mr. McIver's actions since the tragic death of his wife have called into question his views on the African-American community, and undermine the presumption of fairness he must have to serve as a member of the board," Fort wrote in a letter to Senate leaders on Oct. 24, according to the Journal-Constitution.

Earlier this month, Tex McIver held a four-day estate sale to unload many items from his wife's lavish closet, including designer shoes and more than 100 fur coats, according to local media. Maples said McIver is the executor of his wife's estate and the sale was a step toward settling her affairs.

Roger Quillen, managing partner of Fisher & Phillips, the law firm where Tex McIver is a partner, said in a statement that McIver told the firm Monday that he will retire at the end of this year, rather than next year as planned, according to the Daily Report.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday demanded restrictions on the sale of surrogate alcohol after at least 62 people died in Siberia from drinking bath oil laced with methylated spirit in search of alcoholic highs. The mass poisoning in Irkutsk, a hard scrabble city around 2,600 miles (4,000 km) east of Moscow, is the worst of its kind in recent years and has prompted nationwide soul-searching and condemnation. Putin asked ministers to draft tighter rules for the production and sale of drinks, perfumes and other liquids with more than 25 percent alcohol content as well as medicines containing ethanol. Up to 12 million mostly poor Russians are estimated to use cheap surrogate spirits, many produced in illegal facilities, and a two-year economic slump has pushed more people into poverty. Those who died in Irkutsk had swigged a bath oil called Hawthorn whose label advertised an ethanol content of 93 percent. Investigators said bootleggers had been selling the product for a long time without any instances of poisoning, but that the fatal batch was contaminated by methylated spirit, a toxic substance found in cleaning materials and paint stripper. Russia's top investigator Alexander Bastrykhin flew to Irkutsk this week to take charge of an operation that has searched more than 1,500 points of sale and confiscated 6,500 litres of sprits, according to the Investigative Committee. "As of now, 12 people have been detained," the committee said in a statement on Wednesday. The Irkutsk region's health ministry said on Wednesday that the number of deaths from the poisoning had risen to 62 from 41 on Monday, and that 36 people remained in hospital. (Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Moscow (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered tighter regulations on alcohol as the death toll among those who drank bath essence containing toxic methanol rose to 62 in Siberia.

Putin ordered the government to introduce tougher laws by next July on the production and sale of perfumes, lotions and household cleaners containing alcohol as well as human and veterinary medicines.

In an order published on the Kremlin website, Putin also raised the possibility of changing excise duty tariffs on legitimate alcohol "with the aim of reducing demand for fake alcohol."

The measures came after the Siberian city of Irkutsk has seen a wave of deaths among those who consumed a liquid labelled as hawthorn-flavoured bath essence that contained methanol, a toxic substance used in antifreeze.

From Saturday to Wednesday evening, 62 people have died from methanol poisoning, the Irkutsk regional health ministry said, while 36 people are still in hospital.

Putin's spokesman earlier this week called the deaths a "tragedy," while the regional authorities have declared a state of emergency.

Impoverished drinkers in Russia often turn to cheap vodka substitutes such as perfumes and cleansers because they are cost far less than legitimate alcoholic drinks.

Such liquids usually contain drinkable ethanol, not methanol which is deadly even in small doses.

Investigators have detained 12 people suspected of producing and selling the bath essence.

The speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament Valentina Matviyenko said Tuesday that those responsible should stand trial for "premeditated murder."

Just 20 to 50 millilitres of methanol can be fatal and the people affected had usually drunk significantly more, Irkutsk region's chief toxicologist Alexei Tretyakov told RIA Novosti news agency.

Methanol first affects the kidneys and liver and usually causes a person to go blind as it damages the optic nerve, Tretyakov said.
London (AFP) - Queen Elizabeth II has cancelled her departure for a Christmas trip to her country estate because she and her husband have "heavy colds", a Buckingham Palace spokesman said on Wednesday.

"The queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have heavy colds and so have decided not to travel to Sandringham today," the spokesman said, referring to the estate in eastern England.

The 90-year-old monarch and her 95-year-old husband Prince Philip had been expected to take a train from London as part of a yearly tradition.

Police and staff were at the station in London waiting for the queen but photographers were suddenly told the trip would not be going ahead, British media reported.

The queen and Philip hosted their annual Christmas lunch with other royal family members at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, joined by heir to the throne Prince Charles and second in line Prince William.

The queen and Philip, who has had several health problems in recent years including an ailment in May that forced him to cancel a trip to a First World War anniversary, have been married since 1947.

She once described him as "my strength and stay all these years".

The queen was treated for the symptoms of gastroenteritis in 2013 and stayed overnight in a private hospital, cancelling an official trip to Rome.

In June last year, Buckingham Palace took the unusual step of confirming that the queen had gone for a routine medical check-up in London following social media speculation about her health.

On Tuesday, the queen's office said she would stand down as patron of 25 bodies including the Wimbledon tennis championships and the Rugby Football Union, handing over her duties to other royals.

The queen has already slightly reduced her engagements in the past year, according to estimates in British media, from 393 in 2014 to 341 in 2015.

"The queen will no longer have a formal connection to these organisations. If there is a royal engagement, then the invitation will go to other members of the royal family," a palace spokesman said.

The queen became the world's longest-reigning monarch in October this year following the death of Thai king Bhumibol Adulyadej.

In September last year she had surpassed the reign of her great great grandmother Victoria, who was on the throne from 1837 until 1901.
Photo credit: undefined

From Harper's BAZAAR

Queen Elizabeth II has given her grandson Prince Harry her blessing to pursue his new relationship with Suits actress Meghan Markle, Us Weekly reports. She's "fully supportive" of the two according to a Buckingham Palace insider, and "delighted to see Harry in a loving relationship."

Markle hasn't met Her Majesty yet, but she shouldn't be discouragedit apparently took Kate Middleton five years to meet the sovereign. The actress has already covered serious ground in meeting the royal family after only dating Prince Harry for less than a year. For starters, she met Prince William during a recent trip to London in November. Much like the Queen, the Duke of Cambridge showed his support for the new couple. The actress has reportedly made a good impression on Harry's father, Prince Charles, as well.

Photo credit: undefined

However, there are still plenty of royal family members Markle has yet to meet, namely, the Duchess of Cambridge. There have been no reports on the two meeting, but Middleton is "really keen to see what Meghan's all about," a source told Us.

Until that long-awaited union happens, Markle and Harry continue to visit each other on short trips to London or Toronto, her hometown. During her latest trip to the U.K., the two were photographed together for the first time on their way to see a show in the West End.

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Prince Harry has been photographed with Meghan Markle for the first time https://t.co/XurKUPYtxJ pic.twitter.com/D8rXXOVO4d - The Sun (@TheSun) December 15, 2016

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Get better soon, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip!

The royal couple canceled their Christmas travel plans to their residence in Sandringham on Wednesday due to illness, Buckingham Palace said in a statement. It is unclear when they plan to travel again.

"The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have heavy colds, and so have decided not to travel to Sandringham today," the statement read.

WATCH: Kate Middleton, Prince William, and Prince Harry Attend Christmas Charity Party Together -- Pics!

Queen Elizabeth, 90, is still scheduled to address the nation in her annual Christmas day speech on Sunday.

The news comes after the monarch announced on Tuesday that she was stepping down as patron of 25 organizations in order to reduce her workload. She will be handing over her patronage of certain groups to other members of the royal family including her grandson, Prince William, and Kate Middleton.

The Queen is currently the world's longest-reigning living monarch. But in June, she celebrated Prince Philip's 95th birthday with a sweet portrait by photographer Annie Liebovitz. "He has, quite simply, been my strength & stay all these years," the Queen said of her husband.

WATCH: Queen Elizabeth Went Inside a Grocery Store and Her Reaction Is Priceless

On Monday, the official Instagram account of the Prince of Wales posted a new portrait featuring the Queen posing while Prince Charles gazes adoringly at her, in honor of her 90th birthday year.

Watch below:

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Queen Elizabeth had to fight for the love of her life.

As depicted on the hit Netflix series The Crown, whispering courtiers  along with Elizabeths father King George VI  had reservations about Philip Mountbatten, a young, dashing naval officer. But the young Elizabeth only ever had eyes for Prince Philip.

Biographer Sally Bedell Smith, author of Elizabeth the Queen, tells PEOPLE in this weeks issue, She fell in love at age 18 and she never looked at anyone else.

Says Crown executive producer Suzanne Mackie: One of Elizabeths greatest achievements is being allowed to marry the love of her life. Like any marriage, it would undertake endless recalibration and navigation and re-negotiation.

For more on the real stories behind The Crown, pick up a copy of the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

The late Sir Edward Ford, who was assistant private secretary from 1952-67, has confirmed the skittishness felt by the older guard. He previously told PEOPLE, Some were very concerned. The line was slightly tenuous at that point. So, it was only natural that the older generation  friends of the King like Lord Salisbury  were concerned that who the Queen was with was totally and utterly suitable. So they were sniffing around to see what he was like.

But Ford noted that Philip always had an inner confidence. He was a perfectly natural young sailor and very much in love with the girl of the house. But he would not in any way fawn on the elders and say, What a suitable husband I am going to be. He was very much his own man.




Since early December, the number of people searching for when hell freezes over on Google has spiked dramatically. And, if one of the locations on Earth most associated with hot weather is any indicator, the phenomenon may have actually occurred, at least momentarily.

Pictures taken by an amateur photographer Monday show the dunes of the Sahara Desert covered with a dusting of snow. In the photos, the white contrasts with the crests of orange sand after just the second snowfall there in living memory. The last time snow visited that desert was way back in February 1979.

Everyone was stunned to see snow falling in the desert; it is such a rare occurrence, Karim Bouchetata, the photographer who lives in the desert town of Ain Sefra, Algeria, told the Daily Mail. It looked amazing as the snow settled on the sand and made a great set of photos. The snow stayed for about a day and has now melted away.

The Sahara Desert is one of the driest and hottest places on Earth and rests just a few hundred feet above sea level, surrounded by the Atlas Mountains. But the desert, which covers most of Northern Africa, hasnt always been that way. Around 10,500 years ago, heavy monsoon rains transformed the desert from a state similar to how it is now into habitable land that allowed people to move away from the lush Nile Valley. Humans, seeking open land away from the dense banks of the Nile River, seized the opportunity to move out west to establish settlements and introduce domesticated livestock to the area. That lush period ended between 7,300 and 5,500 years ago, prompting people to move back to the Nile and the start of the civilization we now know as ancient Egypt.

The desert may see a return to greener pastures, too. Many Twitter users saw the snowy Sahara pictures as proof that global climate change isnt taking place  much like when Republican Sen. James Inhofe famously threw a snowball on the Senate floor in 2015 to try and prove the same point about the weather, which isnt how climate works. But the gradual changes in global climate may actually push rain back into the region. Some evidence suggests that the outer areas of the Sahara are already starting to experience more rainfall, leading to greener landscapes developing.

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By Jonathan Saul and Andrew MacAskill

LONDON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland is close to selling at least $600 million worth of shipping loans from its portfolio, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

RBS, which is more than 70 percent state-owned, is still in the throes of a restructuring, which includes asset sales, job cuts and tackling multi-billion dollar charges to settle litigation and pay regulatory fines for past misconduct.

The sources said buyers of the various shipping loan tranches included Japanese financial services firm Orix Corp , Germany's Berenberg Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and asset manager Davidson Kempner.

Bank of America and Berenberg declined to comment. Orix could not be reached for comment, while Davidson Kempner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

RBS declined to comment.

The loans, which primarily come from RBS's Greek shipping business which was valued earlier this year at $3 billion, are being sold in various parcels, one of the sources said.

"Discreet sales talks have been going on for a while," the source said.

RBS announced in September it had begun winding down its global shipping finance business, abandoning efforts at that time to sell it off during a worsening downturn across the freight industry.

Around 90 percent of world trade is transported by sea but the shipping industry is stuck in its deepest slump on record, as international trade slows and freight rates fall in a market flooded with too many vessels.

German banks, which provide a quarter of the world's $400 billion of outstanding shipping debt, are struggling to recoup their loans, while many other lenders are looking at ending or reducing their exposure.

Sources had told Reuters earlier this year that Orix and Berenberg were among potential suitors that had looked at RBS's Greek shipping business.

The Edinburgh-based bank which has had eight years of annual losses was rescued with a more than 45 billion pound ($55.54 billion) bailout at the height of the financial crisis.

Story continues

Last month, RBS was the biggest failure in the Bank of England's annual stress test, partly because of a mounting legal bill and the difficulty it has selling off unwanted assets.

RBS's overall exposure to shipping exposure was 5.514 billion pounds at the end of September, down from 6.765 billion pounds at the end of June and 6.776 billion pounds at the end of 2015, RBS data showed.

RBS had previously been a top lender to the global shipping industry and its Greek office played a pivotal role. ($1 = 0.8102 pounds) (Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze in Frankfurt and Taiga Uranaka in Tokyo; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
Nepal police investigate death of girl banished for menstruating

Police in Nepal are investigating the death of a 15-year-old girl who was banished to a poorly-ventilated shed because she was menstruating.
(Repeats from Tuesday; no changes to text)

* Referendum loss prompted Dec. 7 resignation

* Rivals are vying to take over party

* Renzi still major asset to party, polls show

By Steve Scherer

ROME, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Three days after resigning as Italian prime minister and before his successor took office, Matteo Renzi typed a late-night Facebook post from his family home near Florence that seemed to cast doubt on his future.

"I have no seat in parliament, no salary, no pension... I'm starting over," he wrote.

Since stepping down on Dec. 7 after a crushing referendum defeat over his flagship constitutional reform, newspapers have conjured up images of Renzi sitting in rush-hour traffic while driving his three kids to school, writing his memoirs and entertaining lucrative job offers outside politics.

But the truth is that Renzi has set up an office in his basement where he meets advisers and spends hours on the phone with party allies plotting his path back to power, two sources close to the 41-year-old said.

Renzi staked his government on the plan designed to make Italy more governable but which almost 20 million voters rejected in the referendum. The loss left him, and his Democratic Party (PD), "navigating without a compass", one PD source said.

The former boy scout's rise from the political ashes is far from certain. But he appears determined to capitalise on his continued appeal within the PD and looks keen to shape Italy's future political landscape.

Renzi, who remains leader of the party, fears his absence could open the door to extremists on the right and left.

Any comeback would probably involve championing progressive reforms while challenging European budget austerity and migrant policy, as he did during his first - and so far only - term that lasted less than three years.

Despite the disagreements with Brussels, he wants to keep Italy at the heart of the European project, unlike the increasingly popular anti-euro 5-Star Movement which would be one of the main obstacles to a return to office.

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Even if he does succeed, it may mean teaming up with former premier Silvio Berlusconi - as the PD had to do in 2013 - to keep the 5-Star out of power.

No clear winner would emerge if an election were held now, according to opinion polls, with the PD, the centre-right and anti-establishment 5-Star each drawing a third of voters.

First, Renzi will have to reassert his hold on the fractious PD. But if that fails, he is ready to consider forming a new party, provided a new electoral law makes that advantageous, two separate PD sources told Reuters.

Unlike in Britain, where David Cameron left politics soon after losing the Brexit referendum, Italy has a history of prime ministers returning to power after defeat. Berlusconi had four terms while Christian Democrat Giulio Andreotti served five times as premier from the 1970s to the 1990s.

On Sunday, Renzi stood before more than 1,000 PD members and pledged "an extraordinary listening campaign" to electors in January as the party enters a "Zen" phase of reflection before moving forward.

Silence and meditation have never been traits associated with the fast-talker, who was Italy's youngest prime minister when he seized power in a party coup in 2014. Three months later, the PD won almost 41 percent of the vote in European elections, a level of consensus last reached by the then-dominant but now defunct Christian Democrat party in 1958.

RENZI'S POPULARITY

Renzi's return to Tuscany and a rumoured new book belie a tactical threat to PD rivals who want him to step down as party secretary and make way for new blood, PD sources said, because his retreat would leave the party severely hobbled.

The PD would win only about 10 percent of the vote if Renzi left the party and ran solo, two separate polls showed. Even after the referendum, his leadership was backed by between half and two-thirds of PD voters, two different surveys showed.

"I'm convinced that - as polls say - Renzi is the leader recognised by the PD base by a huge margin compared with other candidates," Anna Ascani, a PD lawmaker close to Renzi, told Reuters.

Roberto Speranza, a member of the minority left-wing faction of the bloc, has already said he would run for the party leadership, and two others have expressed a similar aim, but none of them has nearly the same following as Renzi.

"It's in Renzi's interest to accelerate the process and go to a vote as soon as possible to head off any internal rivals," said Federico Benini, the head of polling agency Winpoll.

It is still unclear whether there will be early national elections in the first half of 2017, or whether the legislature will head to the end of its term in 2018. Renzi has said he favours a snap vote.

But parliament is unlikely to adopt new voting rules until after a Constitutional Court ruling on the lower house electoral law, which is expected at the end of January. The court will also rule on whether to allow another referendum - this time on Renzi's labour reform - in January.

Meanwhile, Renzi is in his basement putting into practice the boy scout motto he knows well - "Be prepared". In 2009 his election as Florence's mayor proved to be a springboard to the prime ministership. Before getting there, however, he lost a 2012 primary election to party rival Pier Luigi Bersani.

"A leader is someone who admits a loss and then says, 'Let's see how we can restart again,'" Renzi said on Sunday as most of the party members in the auditorium cheered him on.

(Additional reporting by Silvia Ognibene in Florence and Massimiliano Di Giorgio in Rome; editing by David Stamp)
Carl Icahn

Carl Icahn, the hedge fund titan, will be a part of Donald Trump's administration.

Icahn will be a special adviser to the president-elect overseeing regulation specifically, according to the transition.

The investor has long been a critic of various government regulatory agencies, most notably the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Carl was with me from the beginning, and with his being one of the world's great businessmen, that was something I truly appreciated," Trump said in a release from the transition.

"He is not only a brilliant negotiator, but also someone who is innately able to predict the future, especially having to do with finances and economies. His help on the strangling regulations that our country is faced with will be invaluable."

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Icahn has already assisted the transition with vetting candidates for the EPA chief. The nomination eventually went to Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma. Icahn's experience with the EPA comes from several investments in oil and gas companies.

Icahn will also have a role in selecting the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the report.

Icahn is a longtime friend and supporter of Trump, and an advocate for the president-elect since before the Republican primaries. The hedge fund legend has said Trump will bring economic growth back to America by rolling back regulation and giving companies the ability to invest again.

"I am proud to serve President-elect Trump as a special adviser on regulatory reform," Icahn said in a press release. "Under President Obama, America's business owners have been crippled by over $1 trillion in new regulations and over 750 billion hours dealing with paperwork. It's time to break free of excessive regulation and let our entrepreneurs do what they do best: create jobs and support communities."

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The role, according to the Trump announcement, will not be an official government position and will not have any "specific duties."

Icahn is estimated to be worth about $16.7 billion, according to Forbes. Icahn's appointment adds another billionaire to Trump's top advisory team, a group that already has a net worth of well over $10 billion.

Icahn's investment fund fell 12.7% this year through the end of September, according to a regulatory filing.

NOW WATCH: Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decides to raise rates





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Lisa Murkowski gun control

A Republican Senator is claiming House GOP leaders shelved work on an energy bill just before their holiday recess in order to make it to a fundraiser in New York.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the House was not able to hold a vote on the bill because they wanted to attend the National Republican Congressional Committee's Bright Lights and Broadway fundraiser, the Alaska Journal reported.

The Speaker said Weve run out of time because they wanted to get on the party train, Murkowski told the Alaska Journal.

The bill, which senators spent two years working on and would have been the first energy reform bill in a decade, aimed to expand energy production and simplify federal regulation.

According to a statement from Murkowski, a measure regarding the expansion of liquefied gas exports still needed to be deliberated. Several senators wanted this provision included in the final bill, but it was later removed by the House, Murkowski said.

Earlier this month, House Speaker Paul Ryan released a statement saying the conferees were not able to come to agreement on various outstanding issues in time for the House to consider a conference report.

NOW WATCH: 'They haven't played by the rules': Trump accuses China of 'massive theft of intellectual property' and unfairly taxing US companies





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Rick Ross won a trademark lawsuit filed by another rapper and centered around the former's 2014 album, Mastermind.

The suit was filed by Raul Caiz, who owned the trademark for "Mastermind" and reportedly used the moniker throughout his own 17-year music career. Caiz's multi-million dollar suit claimed Ross and his label, Universal Music Group, infringed on his trademark by using "Mastermind" as the title of the album and to brand his subsequent tour, while Ross also adopted a "Mastermind" persona.

Ross ultimately won the case through a motion for summary judgement that was filed in the Central District Court of California. Per Law360, the federal judge ordered a cancellation of Caiz's trademark, ruling that consumers wouldn't immediately associate "Mastermind" with him.

"When claims are made against our clients, we litigate them very aggressively," said Ross' attorney, Leron E. Rogers. "We are happy that the court not only ruled in Ross and Universal's favor, but also took the extra step to cancel Plaintiff's trademark."

This is not the first time Ross has been sued over an aspect of his persona, however he has come away victorious both times. In 2012, the former drug dealer "Freeway" Rick Ross filed suit against the MC, claiming ownership of the name, but a Los Angeles judge ultimately dropped the case saying the reformed criminal had no case.

Ross has recently released several new songs as he preps his ninth album, Rather You Than Me, which is expected to arrive early next year. Earlier this month, he tapped 2 Chainz and Gucci Mane for the "Buy Back the Block" video, while he previously unveiled "Free Enterprise" and "Freaky Hoe," which features Juicy J, Too $hort and Big K.R.I.T.

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NEW DELHI, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Leading ride-hailing firms have praised an Indian policy blueprint on regulating the taxi industry, saying it would offer their app-based services a chance to flourish despite their concerns about price caps.

A committee set up by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways recently published its findings, stating that India needed one regulatory framework for the taxi industry to promote mobility and discourage car ownership.

It also said that aggregators, such as Uber, Ola and Meru, should be included under a "fair, uniform and transparent" regulatory framework, along with radio taxis and traditional city taxis.

The report's recommendations came against a backdrop of battles with city authorities on issues such as dynamic, or "surge", pricing that the ride hailing firms say they need to service the $12 billion taxi market reliably.

"This is an important milestone in the development of ride-sharing in India, and one that will help the industry better serve riders, drivers and cities in the years ahead," said Amit Jain, president of Uber India.

"While there are concerns on price caps and price floors, the framework will allow the industry to continue to flourish."

San Francisco-based Uber recently merged its Chinese venture, making India its priority overseas growth market. It serves 29 Indian cities and sees a path to profitability as it takes on its larger rival, Ola, which is backed by Japan's Softbank and is present in 102 cities.

The transport ministry committee, which also sought input from state officials, argued that it should be easy for private vehicles to convert and operate under a commercial permit.

It was also supportive of dynamic pricing, within a specified range, to match supply and demand during peak hours while ensuring that consumers had proper protections. It also called for a national policy on so-called "shared mobility" to reduce congestion on urban roads.

Ola did not respond to a request for comment on the report but fellow taxi-hailing company, Meru, said it welcomed the basic thrust of the new guidelines.

Meru, however, expressed concerns over inconsistencies in the proposed regulation of surge pricing of regular and deluxe taxis; of clean fuel requirements; and called for curbs on the conversion of private vehicles to taxis.

(Reporting by Douglas Busvine, editing by Louise Heavens)
If Felicity Jones is having a moment, it's the type that stretches the very definition of exactly how much time a "moment" consists of. She's been having this moment for years now, ever since she won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance in 2011 for the indie gem, Like Crazy. It's a moment that saw her earn her first Academy Award nomination in 2015, for The Theory of Everything. All that being said, 2016 may have been her best year yet, career-wise.

"Look, I have a smile permanently on my face," the 33-year-old actress recently trilled to ET, pointing to her cheeks, which were in fact dimpled in happiness. "I'm just enjoying it. I love what I do, and it's lovely to hopefully keep doing. I'm enjoying every minute. It's a real ride."

EXCLUSIVE: Felicity Jones Gets Candid About Her Iconic 'Star Wars' Line in 'Rogue One': 'I Knew It Was Momentous'

Columbia Pictures

It likely doesn't feel like a moment anymore, but the Birmingham-born actress is having quite a year: She co-starred alongside Tom Hanks in the third Da Vinci Code film, Inferno, and earned early Oscar buzz for playing a dying mother in the haunting festival darling, A Monster Calls. To cap it off, Jones saved that galaxy far, far away in Star Wars' first stand-alone "Story," Rogue One.

Director Ron Howard enlisted Jones for Inferno to play Sienna Brooks, a doctor who attempts to help our hero, Robert Langdon (Hanks), recover his memories as the two go on the run together. And run they did, through Venice and Florence and Budapest, with Jones wearing heels the whole time -- to much less fanfare than, say, Bryce Dallas Howard got in Jurassic World.

"Running in heels takes a lot of skill. But it's something that us women have to get used to," Jones told ET at the film's junket in Italy. Heels were a necessity, she explained, mimicking the confusion she would have caused had she worn flats: "Who's that midget that's running next to you, Tom?"

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Jones won the Britannia Awards' British Artist of the Year honor in October, where Hanks said of her, "Turns out, Felicity could have used the professional name of Happiness Jones. Or Eloquence Jones. Or, my favorite: Elegance Good Fortune Jones. They all mean the same thing as Felicity." The actor, yucking it up onstage, continued, "That's Felicity Jones! That's who she is!"

Getty Images

Jones took a somber turn in A Monster Calls, from visionary director J.A. Bayona, playing the terminally ill mum of a young boy (the exceptional Lewis MacDougall). The film, in theaters Dec. 23, is a powerful story of life and death, love and loss, and a monstrous tree voiced by Liam Neeson.

"It's wonderful that people have enjoyed it and have responded to it," Jones humbly replied to awards season buzz for her gutting performance. "You never know how a film is going to turn out. As an actor, you come in and you do your part. To watch it and see all the elements, the fantasy and animation and this beautiful story underlying it, it's like nothing you've quite seen before."

Thus far, the Best Supporting Actress race is proving to be tighter than ever, and both Jones and A Monster Calls have regrettably been overlooked for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations. Back during the film's press day, though, Jones' maternal side shone through as she and her onscreen son recalled bonding over a roller coaster ride on a trip to a theme park and visiting the orangutans at the zoo. She also passed on Oscars advice to him.

"Hold on tight," she smiled, leaning over to MacDougall. "Like the roller coaster!"

RELATED: Felicity Jones Opens Up About Feminism, Pay Equality and 'Star Wars: Rogue One'

Lucasfilm Ltd

Due to, as she puts it, "a very little amount of sleep and a lot of work," Jones managed to fit a third film in for this year: A little project called Rogue One. It is not her first time working on a big budget, franchise-type film -- she co-starred in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and was rumored to play Black Cat, before the franchise was canceled -- but with the inaugural Star Wars Story opening to hundreds of millions of dollars, it's certainly her most successful.

"It's very strange when you're cast in Star Wars, because you can't tell anyone," she told ET. "You're like, But I'm in the coolest franchise that's ever been and no one's allowed to know?! I'd start talking, and then I'd think, 'Oh no! I have to stop myself because I'm going to reveal something.'" She mimed zipping her lips. "Luckily, I think I managed to keep most of it under my hat."

With Rogue One now in theaters, fans now know that Jones plays Jyn Erso, a reluctant Rebel leader whose mission is to steal plans for the Empire's Death Star. Following Daisy Ridley's star-making turn in last year's The Force Awakens, Jones is but the latest strong, female lead in a Star Wars film.

"Rather than it being a trend or being something unusual, I would hope that we're in a world now where we have an equal amount of male leads and equal amount of female leads," she thoughtfully explained at the Star Wars celebration over the summer. "And that's absolutely how it should be."

Despite being undoubtedly one of the biggest stars of the year, Jones hasn't packed her upcoming slate with projects yet. She has an action flick, Collide, opposite Nicholas Hoult that will come out Feb. 3, and it was recently announced that she will host Saturday Night Live when the show returns on Jan. 14. Whatever comes after that, it's safe to say it will be tough to top Rogue One, the experience of which Jones is seemingly still trying to process.

"You walk on to set and it was, like, stormtroopers drinking coffee and smoking," she said, breaking into a laugh. "Walking on to set and seeing helicopters going past and looking up and seeing a giant monkey hanging out of a helicopter with a blaster, shooting at you. That is not something you see every day. It is not."

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London (AFP) - Roads in front of Buckingham Palace will be shut during the daily Changing of the Guard ceremony starting on Wednesday following the truck attack that killed 12 people in Berlin, police said.

The military ceremony regularly brings crowds of tourists outside the gates of the palace and previously there have only been some traffic restrictions while it takes place.

The Metropolitan Police said the closures were a "necessary precaution" because of "the event's high profile in an iconic location with a substantial military presence and attracting large crowds".

The closures had already been planned for a three-month trial period but police said this was being brought forward after a truck ploughed into a crowded market in the centre of the German capital on Monday.

"The planned implementation has been brought forward following the events" in Germany, the police said in a statement.

"Alongside the road closures, additional barriers will be in place to maintain security for the guard movements."

The police stressed the security plan was being implemented as "a precautionary measure and not in relation to any specific intelligence".

Some police forces in Britain have said they would step up checks following the Berlin attack and the Metropolitan Police have said they are keeping their security planning "under review".

The current threat level set by Britain's security services has been at "severe", meaning an attack is "highly likely", since 2014.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Witnesses expected to testify in the Los Angeles murder trial of real estate scion Robert Durst are concerned for their safety, a prosecutor told a judge on Tuesday, citing the heir's vast wealth and the deaths of people close to him.

Durst, 73, whose ties to several slayings were chronicled last year in the HBO documentary "The Jinx," is charged with fatally shooting writer and longtime confidante Susan Berman in December 2000. Prosecutors say he killed her because of what she knew about the death of Durst's wife in New York two decades earlier.

Durst, who appeared on Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court in a wheelchair wearing a blue shirt and glasses with his hair cropped short, pleaded not guilty last month to first-degree murder in the Berman case.

Deputy District Attorney John Lewin asked Judge Mark Windham to schedule a conditional hearing for February to record witness testimony, ahead of trial, saying witnesses "understandably are concerned about their safety."

He said witnesses are concerned because Durst is accused of killing Berman over what she knew about his wife's disappearance. They are also worried about the killing and dismemberment of a Texas neighbor of Durst, whom Lewin called "a witness." Durst was acquitted of murder in that case.

Lewin told the court the real estate heir has some $100 million in assets.

The prosecutor said among those he hopes to testify is an 85-year-old doctor and another unnamed witness who Lewin said could "disappear, die, be murdered."

An attorney for Durst, David Chesnoff, rejected the argument that Durst, wheelchair-bound and incarcerated, poses any threat to witnesses, calling the remarks "hyperbole."

Windham did not rule on the proposed condition examination hearing to speed up testimony.

He did, however, grant prosecutors' request that an independent expert be appointed to examine crates of Durst-related documents confiscated by investigators and determine which papers should be excluded as material protected under attorney-client privilege.

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Windham also said he would hold a hearing on the question of whether Durst waived his right to attorney-client privilege over materials seized from Durst's friend in New York State.

Berman, 55, was found dead in her Los Angeles home, reportedly shot execution style, not long after police in New York reopened their investigation into the 1982 disappearance and presumed killing of Durst's wife, Kathleen.

Durst was questioned but never charged in that probe.

After the hearing, defense attorney Dick DeGuerin told reporters that "Bob Durst didn't kill Susan Berman, doesn't know who did, and we are ready to get down the road for a trial."

Durst was formally charged with the Berman murder a day after HBO aired the final episode of "The Jinx," in which Durst was recorded muttering to himself off-camera: "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course." Durst told authorities after his arrest that he smoked marijuana daily and was high on methamphetamine during his appearance on "The Jinx," according to court records.

(Writing by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Steve Orlofsky)
LONDON (Reuters) - British engineering company Rolls-Royce (RR.L) denied a report in The Guardian newspaper on Wednesday that it had in the past sold equipment to Iran by exploiting a series of loopholes in U.S. sanctions.

"Rolls-Royce refutes any accusation that it has traded 'in secret' in Iran or that it circumvented U.S. sanctions," said a Rolls-Royce spokesman in an emailed statement.

"We conduct business in all countries, including Iran, in accordance with all relevant UK, EU or other national sanctions and export control regulations. This includes applying for export licences, when they are required, and complying strictly with their terms and conditions."

The Guardian cited a company memo from 2009 and its report said that Rolls had been selling equipment to Iran for decades despite the political risk of being seen to avoid U.S. sanctions.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Keith Weir)
LONDON (Reuters) - British engineering company Rolls-Royce denied a report in The Guardian newspaper on Wednesday that it had in the past sold equipment to Iran by exploiting a series of loopholes in U.S. sanctions. "Rolls-Royce refutes any accusation that it has traded 'in secret' in Iran or that it circumvented U.S. sanctions," said a Rolls-Royce spokesman in an emailed statement. "We conduct business in all countries, including Iran, in accordance with all relevant UK, EU or other national sanctions and export control regulations. This includes applying for export licenses, when they are required, and complying strictly with their terms and conditions." The Guardian cited a company memo from 2009 and its report said that Rolls had been selling equipment to Iran for decades despite the political risk of being seen to avoid U.S. sanctions. (Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Keith Weir)
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP)  Romania could be headed for its first female prime minister, an economist who is a member of Romania's small Muslim community.

Liviu Dragnea, chairman of Romania's Social Democratic party, which won the Dec. 11 parliamentary election, proposed Wednesday that Sevil Shhaideh take the post of prime minister. The announcement was a surprise because her name is not widely known in Romania.

Shhaideh, 52, is a party member but did not run as a lawmaker in the election. She was the minister for regional development for six months in 2015, and is currently an official in the regional development ministry.

President Klaus Iohannis is consulting with political leaders before nominating a prime minister, who Parliament needs to approve. If approved, she would also become the country's first Muslim prime minister.

Dragnea is banned from being premier because he has a conviction for election fraud.

On Wednesday, Dragnea called his April 2016 conviction "unjust" and said the law that stops him from being premier was "profoundly unconstitutional." The new Parliament could vote to change the 2001 law that bans anyone with a conviction of holding a ministerial post.

Later Wednesday, Dragnea was elected speaker of Parliament's Chamber of Deputies while the former Senate speaker, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, was re-elected.

Dragnea, who continues as head of the party, is expected to have significant influence over a government headed by Shhaideh.

"If appointed, she would be prime minister, but the political responsibility stays with me first of all," Dragnea said, praising Shhaideh for her knowledge of public administration and for being hard-working and loyal.

The left-leaning Social Democrats easily won the Dec. 11 parliamentary election but did not secure a majority and will govern with a minority partner.
* Shhaideh likely to win president support for PM

* New government to face confidence vote in parliament next week

* Leftist cabinet set to easily win parliament vote (Adds quote, detail)

By Radu-Sorin Marinas and Luiza Ilie

BUCHAREST, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Romania's Social Democrat Party (PSD) proposed a leftist woman from the country's tiny Muslim minority as prime minister on Wednesday, a close associate of PSD power broker Liviu Dragnea who was ruled out of the job after being convicted in a 2012 referendum rigging case.

Sevil Shhaideh, 52 who must be approved by President Klaus Iohannis and then get a parliamentary vote of confidence, has served under a previous leftist-led government as regional development minister.

The PSD won the Dec. 11 general election and, with its junior coalition partner and long-time ally ALDE, has an outright majority in parliament of 250 MPs in the 465-seat, two-house assembly.

"I have come up with a solution that I hope will be accepted so that a government is in place quickly to ensure we have a budget plan approved by Jan. 15," Dragnea told reporters.

Dragnea made clear he intended to be the power behind the new government.

"If appointed, she would be prime minister, but the political responsibility stays with me first of all, Dragnea said. She has work capacity, knowledge of public administration and EU fund absorption and of all ministries' operations."

Dragnea and Shhaideh, who comes from Romania's tiny Muslim community, are close. He was a witness at her 2011 wedding to a Syrian-born former agriculture ministry consultant.

"Dragnea has nominated a loyal person, whose ... flaws stem from a lack of notoriety and authority within the PSD, but that hasn't got anything to do with anything. It will be a government controlled by Dragnea," Sergiu Miscoiu, political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj said.

Iohannis, the president, started two-day consultations on forming a new government with parties present in the new parliament formed after the election. He is expected to announce a prime minister designate by Friday.

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The PSD, which promised higher wages and pensions during the election campaign, had hoped Dragnea, who keeps tight control of his party, would stand for prime minister but Iohannis made clear he would refuse any candidate with a criminal record.

Dragnea has kept his post as party chief despite being convicted earlier this year for abusing his influence in a referendum to impeach the country's former president Traian Basescu, for which he received a suspended two-year jail sentence.

(Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
BUCHAREST, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Romania's leftist Social Democrat Party (PSD) proposed 52-year-old former development minister Sevil Shhaideh for prime minister to the country's president, its leader said on Wednesday.

"I have come up with a solution that I hope will be accepted so that a government is in place quickly to ensure we have a budget plan approved by Jan. 15," Liviu Dragnea told reporters.

President Klaus Iohannis started two-day consultations on forming a new government with all political parties in the new parliament formed after a Dec. 11 national election, and is expected to announce a prime minister designate by Friday.

Together with its junior coalition partner and long-time ally ALDE, the PSD has outright majority in parliament with 250 MPs in the 465-seat, two-house assembly, allowing them to easily give their government a vote of confidence and pass legislation.

"If she will be appointed she would be prime minister, but the political responsibility stays with me first of all." (Reporting by Radu Marinas and Luiza Ilie; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Moscow (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin will attend as Russia buries slain ambassador Andrei Karlov on Thursday, the Kremlin said, days after he was gunned down in Ankara by a Turkish policeman.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said Putin had decided to postpone his major annual press conference scheduled for the same day to Friday in order to attend the farewell events for Karlov.

"The president will take part in the mourning ceremonies," Peskov told Russian news agencies.

Veteran diplomat Karlov was shot nine times in the back by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas at the art gallery opening of a show of Russian photography on Monday.

His body arrived back in Moscow late Tuesday after Russian investigators landed in Turkey to help probe the assassination.

The brazen killing stunned Ankara and Moscow, which have rowed repeatedly over the Syria conflict but had recently begun to cooperate closely on the evacuations from war-wrecked Aleppo.

The Turkish government has pointed the finger of blame for the killing at exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu telling the US that his group was "behind the attack".
MOSCOW (Reuters), - Russia criticized the Netherlands on Wednesday for allowing the United States to begin stocking tanks there, and for a court ruling that ordered Crimean treasures on loan to a Dutch museum to be returned to Ukraine rather than Russia. "It looks like the Dutch authorities have started to get a taste for deliberately destroying relations with Russia," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders called the comments "hard to understand" and said of the arrival of U.S. tanks which began last week: "It is not an aggressive but a defensive act," according to news agency ANP. Zakharova said the court order that Crimean gold artefacts should be sent to Ukraine instead of Russia - which annexed the territory in 2014 - was unjust and would end the ambitions of The Hague, home to the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, to become the world's legal capital. Russia is appealing the ruling. Relations between Russia and the Netherlands have been strained since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014 with 198 Dutch passengers among the dead. International investigators believe it was downed by Russian-backed separatists who mistook it for a military aircraft. (Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh and Thomas Escritt; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Robin Pomeroy)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed a group known as the Gulen Movement after Mondays killing of the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov. The unofficial organization, categorized as a terrorist group in Turkey, is comprised of people led by a Muslim cleric named Fathullah Gulen who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.

Karlov was killed when an off-duty police officer named Mevlut Mert Altintas shot him while he spoke at an art exhibition in Ankara. Altintas yelled Dont forget Aleppo, dont forget Syria! and shouted Allahu Akbar! during the killing.

The people he lived with before school were detained over FETO, an unidentified senior Turkish security official told Reuters, using the acronym for the Gulen organization. It was determined that the people with whom he graduated from school were from an FETO team.

Gulens followers in Turkey are believed to number in the millions, according to the BBC. The movement is known in Turkey as Hizmet, or service and is said to be based on a tolerant Islam which emphasizes altruism, modesty, hard work and education. Followers of the Muslim cleric are believed to hold powerful positions in the Turkish government. They also run schools around the world, including more than 100 in the United States. Exactly what the organization hopes to accomplish is unclear.

RTSPID3

Photo: Reuters

Hizmet has no formal structure, no visible organization and no official membership, yet it may have grown into the worlds biggest Muslim network, BBC News noted.

Erdogan and Gulen, formerly friendly, are now bitter rivals on opposing sides of the political spectrum. But a representative for Gulen, Alp Aslandogan, told Reuters there was no connection between the murder and Gulen and called it a heinous act.

The Turkish president also blamed Gulen and his followers for orchestrating a failed coup in the country in July. The cleric remains holed up in an estate in Pennsylvania where he suffers from diabetes and heart disease.

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Photo credit: Getty

From Cosmopolitan

The Russian ambassador to Turkey was shot and killed Monday during an event at a photo exhibit, where, the BBC said, the ambassador's wife was present at the time of his death.

Andrei Karlov, 62, was addressing a small audience of people at a gallery in the Turkish capital Ankara when 22-year-old Mevlut Mert Altintas, an off-duty Turkish police officer dressed in a black suit and tie, approached from behind and shot the ambassador. Witnesses scattered, seeking cover as the gunman waved his gun and shouted, "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!" An Associated Press photographer in the audience captured haunting images of the aftermath that were published and shared widely.

Photo credit: Associated Press

Among the witnesses was Marina Karlov, the ambassador's wife who, according to Russian media, had spent a "lifetime" with her husband and together they had a son CNN reported. Marina fainted upon hearing that her husband died and was hospitalized, according to The New York Times.

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android.

On Tuesday, she attended a short ceremony for her husband, whose body - which was in a coffin draped in the Russian flag - was carried across the Esenboga airport in Ankara. A plane then took the ambassador's body and his wife back to Russia.

Photo credit: Getty

Photo credit: Getty

Photo credit: Getty

With reporting from The Associated Press.

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The Social Justice and Human Rights Committee of the Legislature-Parliament has started taking suggestions from the stakeholders and experts on the proposed bill related to the National Dalit Commission (NDC).
Istanbul (AFP) - The young Turkish policeman who killed Russia's ambassador to Ankara this week had provided security for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eight times since the July 15 failed coup bid, a report said on Wednesday.

Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, pumped nine bullets into ambassador Andrei Karlov at an art exhibition centre on Monday evening, before he himself was killed by Turkish police.

Altintas, a member of the Ankara anti-riot police for two-and-a-half years, had been on duty at eight events attended by Erdogan since July, the Hurriyet daily said.

At such events he was part of the second wave of Erdogan's security after the personal bodyguard team of the president, wrote Hurriyet's writer Abdulkadir Selvi, known for his contacts in the ruling elite.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told US counterpart John Kerry in a phone call on Tuesday that Turkey believed the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who it blamed for the July 15 coup bid, was behind the assassination plot.

Turkish authorities are now investigating possible links of Altintas to Gulen, including a school he attended that was run by the cleric's group.

Hurriyet's Selvi said that on the day of the July 15 coup, Altintas had called in sick to the police. But it was not clear what he did that night.

The security forces have now detained 13 people over the attack including close relatives of Altintas, Turkish media reports said.

Meanwhile, a team of 18 Russian investigators arrived in Ankara on Tuesday to take part in a joint probe inside Turkey, an unprecedented move agreed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Aix-en-Provence (France) (AFP) - Three Russians jailed in France following clashes with England fans before their Euro 2016 match in June will be released from prison and deported next month, a lawyer said on Wednesday.

The trio, who filed a request for conditional freedom, will be released on January 9 and expelled January 16, said Alexandre Robelet, the lawyer for Alexei Yerunov, who was initially sentenced to two years behind bars for the Marseille battles on June 11.

His sentence was reduced to 18 months on appeal, while Sergei Gorbachev was jailed for 18 months, cut to 15 months after he too appealed, with Nikolai Morozov receiving the shortest sentence of 12 months.

Even if the three men are released on January 9, they are unlikely to leave prison before they are deported on January 16, according to Robelet.

They were among 43 Russian supporters rounded up in a bus three days after the turmoil surrounding the group stage fixture in Marseille.

Twenty of the Russian fans detained were expelled from France, including Alexander Shprygin, an ultra nationalist activist who heads Russia's national supporters' association.

Thirty-five people were injured in the trouble in Marseille, most of them English fans, including two men who were left in a coma.

One British man in his fifties suffered severe injuries when he was beaten on the head with an iron bar.

Six English fans were given shorter jail sentences for the violence.
When President-elect Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton a nasty woman during the final presidential debate in October, the phrase went viral and became a rallying cry for Clinton supporters.

T-shirt pressing company Google Ghost picked up on the movement, and created Nasty Woman shirts that feature the phrase written over a red heart, and released them before the debate had even finished airing. By the end of the night, the small company had sold 50 shirts.

When I woke up, I checked sales hoping for a few more and there were thousands. Turns out the shirt went viral, founders Amanda and Cameron wrote on Google Ghosts website.

They decided to donate 50 percent of all proceeds to Planned Parenthood as the perfect way to say f Trump.'

WATCH: Katy Perry Donates $10K to Planned Parenthood

Now the shirt  which has been spotted on celebs including Katy Perry  has raised over $100,000 for Planned Parenthood.

On Tuesday, they shared the milestone news on Instagram.

We donated $100,165 to Planned Parenthood! the company shared. Were still taking orders and the donations will continue! Thank you to everyone whos been a part of this crazy whirlwind.

Those donations may make even more of an impact now that Texas has announced plans to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, according to the Associated Press. Planned Parenthood says it will ask a court to stop Texas from defunding clinics in January.

Texas is a cautionary tale for the rest of the nation, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said, according to the report. With this action, the state is doubling down on reckless policies that have been absolutely devastating for women.




Riyadh (AFP) - Crowds are jamming the aisles of a Riyadh coffee and chocolate exhibition this week, as Saudis indulge the country's sweet tooth and craze for caffeine.

The International Coffee and Chocolate Exhibition, which opened Tuesday and will run to Friday, is billed as the largest of its kind in the Middle East.

In its third year, the 2016 exhibition is the biggest yet with 130 exhibitors, despite a slowing economy that has seen Saudis cut back on even routine expenditures.

Saudi Arabia has a long history with coffee -- which spread from Ethiopia to Yemen and then to the rest of the Middle East around the 15th century.

It remains an integral part of Saudi culture and now tied with chocolate.

"We use a chocolate with a coffee. So usually it's together" and often within families relaxing between evening prayers, said an exhibitor, Mohammed al-Geasyer.

"It's one of the traditions when we invite a guest to our house. One of the welcoming ways is to serve the chocolate and dates... with Arabic coffee. So there is a long relationship and also there is a strong relationship with it," said Geasyer, a consultant for the Rollanti chocolate brand manufactured in Riyadh and nearby Qassim.

Traditional Arabic coffee -- some of which was on offer at the exhibition -- blends ground beans with cardamom and saffron, giving the liquid a yellowish hue.

It takes about 30 minutes to brew in a home kitchen and is served in elegant curved metal pots.

Elsewhere at the exhibition, Sara al-Ali drew an audience as she demonstrated making Turkish-style coffee by swirling miniature metal containers of the thick black liquid in hot sand.

"It's very important. People drink coffee every day," said Ali, who recently set up a business selling coffee from a truck travelling the streets of Riyadh.

She is launching the business during a difficult time for the Saudi economy, which is struggling with the collapse of oil prices over the last two years.

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Authorities have launched a wide-ranging plan to diversify the economy but government cutbacks, including wage freezes and subsidy reductions, have hit Saudi wallets.

The Saudi passion for the two dark temptations still drew exhibitors from far afield.

Indonesian coffee producer Harmen, who uses only one name and wore a jacket coloured red like his national flag, came from the island of Sumatra to promote his mountain-grown Arafah brand coffee for a simple reason.

"The people of Saudi enjoy coffee."
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced that an Oklahoma-based oil-and-gas company has agreed to settle charges that it used illegal separation agreements and retaliated against a whistleblower who expressed concerns internally about how its reserves were being calculated.

The agency found that SandRidge Energy Inc. (SD) conducted multiple reviews of its separation agreements after a new whistleblower protection rule became effective in August 2011, yet continued to regularly use restrictive language that prohibited outgoing employees from participating in any government investigation or disclosing information potentially harmful or embarrassing to the company.

According to the SEC, SandRidge also fired an internal whistleblower who kept raising concerns about the process used by SandRidge to calculate its publicly reported oil-and-gas reserves. The employee had been offered a promotion, which was turned down. Just months later, senior management concluded the employee was disruptive and could be replaced with someone who could do the work without creating all the internal strife.

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The company had conducted no substantial investigation of the whistleblowers concerns and only initiated an internal audit that was never completed. The employees separation agreement also contained the companys prohibitive language that violated the whistleblower protection rule.

As a result, and without admitting or denying the SECs findings, SandRidge agreed to pay a penalty of $1.4 million, subject to the companys bankruptcy plan.

Shamoil T. Shipchandler, director of the SECs Fort Worth Regional Office, commented:

Ignoring a rule that protects communications between outgoing employees and the SEC, SandRidge flatly prohibited such contact in their separation agreements and at the same time retaliated against an employee who raised concerns about the company to its management.

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Jane Norberg, chief of the SECs Office of the Whistleblower, added:

Whistleblowers who step forward and raise concerns internally to their companies about potential securities law violations should be protected from retaliation regardless of whether they have filed a complaint with the SEC. This is the first time a company is being charged for retaliating against an internal whistleblower, and the second enforcement action this week against a company for impeding employees from communicating with the SEC.

Shares of SandRidge recently closed at $23.88, with a 52-week trading range of $15.75 to $26.85.

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WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - A Bumble Bee tuna executive has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to fix the prices of canned tuna, the second Bumble Bee executive to do so in a month, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.

The Justice Department said that Kenneth Worsham agreed to plead guilty to price fixing between 2011 and 2013 but did not identify the company he works for. Related civil lawsuits alleging tuna price fixing identify Worsham as a senior vice president of marketing for Bumble Bee.

Bumble Bee executive Walter Scott Cameron agreed early this month to plead guilty in the same conspiracy.

A spokeswoman for Bumble Bee had no immediate comment about Worsham's plea. Worsham did not immediately respond to a telephone call seeking comment.

Worsham agreed to pay a fine and to cooperate with the probe, the Justice Department said, without specifying the amount of the fine.

The canned tuna market in the United States has long been dominated by three companies: Thai Union's Chicken of the Sea, Bumble Bee and StarKist.

About a year ago, the U.S. Justice Department told Thai Union Group Plc, the world's largest canned tuna producer, that it would file a lawsuit to stop its planned $1.5 billion acquisition of U.S. rival Bumble Bee. Thai Union scrapped the deal.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
An Idaho womans incredible kindness continued when she used some of the money donated to her by a Secret Santa to give back - again.

Hope Larson was given $5,000 cash and $2,000 in gift cards by a couple wishing to remain anonymous after she was nominated for the award by a friend.

Read: Secret Santa Gifts Woman Medical Supplies So She Can Walk Again

Larson has been taking care of her three younger siblings since her mother died of cancer three years ago, all while going to school and working.

Now 21, she has custody of her two younger brothers, 12 and 13, and takes care of her younger sister, 17, who also lives with her.

In the emotional, surprise moment captured by East Idaho News, Larson broke down in tears at the gesture.

I had no idea. When I opened the door I saw a camera and a microphone I was scared. And then I found out all I could do was cry like a baby, Larson told InsideEdition.com.

She says she had no choice but to take responsibility after her mother's death to keep her siblings from going separate ways.

Id rather have my family together than have them go to foster care. I couldnt just see my family go away, Larson said. "That would make me a horrible person.

Read: Man Claims He Was Thrown Out of Amusement Park for Looking Like Santa Claus

But, instead of using the money for her own family, Larson donated the gift to three other families to ensure they would have a nice Christmas as well.

Ive always wanted to do that, I just never have the money during Christmas, Larson said.

Watch: Secret Santa Surprises Parents With Headstone for Daughter Who Died in Crash

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susan collins

The Senate's year-long investigation into drug pricing wrapped up in the form of a 131-page report released Wednesday.

The report details the instances of four drug companies that made headlines in September 2015  including former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli's 5,000% price hike of the anti-parasitic drug Daraprim.

However, the committee was clear to make a distinction between the cases of companies that just hike up prices and drug companies developing new drugs. Republican Senator Susan Collins told The New York Times that she didn't think the solution would be for the government to set drug prices.

But at the same time, "I dont think we can ignore the market failures that have occurred. The answer is to figure out how we can revitalize the market so that generic drug producers have incentives to compete with companies that are buying up drugs and jacking up prices to make quick, exorbitant profits," she told The Times.

Here's what you need to know about the report:

It looked at the four companies that made headlines in September 2015 for drug price hikes: Turing Pharmaceuticals, Retrophin, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and Rodelis Therapeutics. The report came to the conclusion that the four companies essentially all had the same business model at the time when the price hikes occurred.

That business model centered around a few key factors:

Making sure the company was the only drugmaker producing the drug. Setting that drug as the "gold standard" in the industry. Entering just a small market. Selling the drug through a "closed distribution system" (those are the specialty pharmacies). Setting the price as high as possible.

Citing an email sent to former Turing CEO Martin Shkreli, the report summed up the sentiment before price hikes made headlines: "Funny that these small companies still haven't realized you can raise price aggressively and nobody gets too upset?"

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The report also listed out policy solutions to price gouging instances like this, including incentivizing generic competition, allowing for importation of drugs in some cases, prevent patients assistance programs and copay coupons for being misused (these systems often make the US spend more on prescription drugs), and increase transparency on drug prices so that consumers can see how much other groups in the drug supply chain spent on the drug.

Where are they now

A year later, of the four companies, Rodelis Therapeutics was the only one to return its drug, cycloserine, back to its previous owner where the price returned to $500 per 30 pills, instead of $10,800.

Retrophin, which owns Thiola, a drug that treats a rare kidney disease, raised the price of the drug by 2000% in 2014. That list price hasn't gone down since, thought there haven't been any further price increases. In a statement, Retrophin pointed to a line in the committee's report that acknowledge the difference between the time when the company was being run by Shkreli (who was fired in October 2014), and the way it stands now.

"Today, Retrophin is a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company dedicated to delivering life-changing therapies to people living with rare diseases who have few, if any, treatment options," Retrophin said in an emailed statement. "We are focused on the development of our pipeline, with continued investment in R&D that has resulted in the advancement of two novel therapies."

Valeant CEO Joseph Papa told the committee that the company had not reduced the prices on Cuprimine and Syprine, two drugs that are used to treat rare diseases that have shot up in price while owned by Valeant. Cuprimine in particular is one of the most expensive drugs in the US, costing $39,800 for a one-month supply. Papa told the committee that the company was focusing on its patient assistance programs for the drugs.

"We have established a Patient Access Pricing Committee, hired an experienced executive team, improved transparency through our new segments, increased R&D investment by 38% over last year, and advanced our pipeline. These tangible improvements to the new Valeant give us great confidence in our ability to advance our bold mission to improve patient's lives with our healthcare products," a Valeant spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The price of Daraprim, the drug infamous for its 5,000% price increase in September 2015 has not decreased in list price, though Turing, the company that sells it, did offer discounts to hospitals up to 50% off the list price of $750 per pill. Shkreli, who founded Turing, resigned as CEO in December 2015.

"It is disappointing that the report takes out of context and selectively highlights certain comments, including from past employees that are not reflective of Turings current commitments and efforts to emphasize both patient care needs and the companys investment in future products to support those patients," Turing said in a statement emailed to Business Insider.

Drug pricing in 2017

Drug stocks were among the biggest gainers in the wake of Donald Trump's election, with biotechnology stocks rallying 13.3%. Investors had been skittish about what a Hillary Clinton presidency would mean for regulation of drug development and pricing, and she often sent drugmakers' stocks falling with her comments on Twitter.

But there is still uncertainty about what the Trump administration will do for the drug pricing debate, and that could be why biotech stocks have surrendered most of their post-election gains.

In an interview with Time magazine in December the president-elect offered his thoughts on drug prices.

"Im going to bring down drug prices. I dont like whats happened with drug prices."

Some analysts think that Republican control in Congress will shield pharma and biotech companies from any drug price legislation, but there's still a lot of uncertainty about what will happen in January.

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By Tim Cocks and Aaron Ross KINSHASA (Reuters) - Security forces shot dead several protesters who had gathered in the streets of Kinshasa on Tuesday to demand that Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila step down after his mandate expired overnight. Scattered protests started on Tuesday, and opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi called on the Congolese people to peacefully resist Kabila, who has remained in power beyond his constitutional mandate with no election to pick a successor. Gunfire crackled in several districts of the capital Kinshasa, a city of 12 million, as measures to thwart dissent raised fears of bloody repression. "On the issue of deaths, it looks bad," the U.N. human rights director for Congo, Jose Maria Aranaz, told Reuters. "We are reviewing allegations of up to 20 civilians killed, but it (the information) is pretty solid." At least two civilians were killed overnight when soldiers opened fire during clashes in the neighbourhood of Kingabwa, two witnesses said. The government spokesman could not be reached for comment and a police spokesman had no information. With a ban on demonstrations in force and a heavy military presence, Kinshasa's normally busy main boulevards were for the most part deserted as pockets of youths gathered in sidestreets only to be dispersed by volleys of teargas. By sunset, the city was calm, although littered with debris and burned tires from earlier rioting. Scores of people were arrested, especially in the eastern city of Goma, rights groups said. Reuters witnesses saw more than a dozen young men who had been arrested seated in the back of a military truck near the university. "I'm gravely concerned by the arrests of those who seek to express their political views," the head of the U.N. mission Maman Sidikou said in a statement, adding that U.N. staff had not been able to consistently gain access to jails to gather information on how many people had been arrested. He called on Congo to end "politically-motivated detentions".U.N. peacekeepers in armoured personnel carriers patrolled the streets, at one point cheered on by a crowd shouting: "Kabila, know that your mandate is finished!" In Lubumbashi, in the heart of Africa's richest copper mining area, police and Kabila's elite Republican Guard fired live bullets to prevent demonstrations, Gregoire Mulamba, a local human rights activist, told Reuters. Local activist Jean-Pierre Muteba reported at least one death, a 14-year-old boy shot by police. A police spokesman said he did not have enough information to comment. The mayor of Lubumbashi, Jean Oscar Sanguza, told Reuters security forces had intervened to stop looters. In the city of Kananga, in central Congo, fighting between security forces and a local clan militia shut down the airport. FEARS OF ESCALATION In a video posted on YouTube, opposition leader Tshisekedi called on people to "not recognise the ... illegal ... authority of Joseph Kabila and to peacefully resist (his) coup d'etat."Authorities have blocked most social media. Western powers are nervous of a repeat of the conflicts between 1996 to 2003 that killed millions, drew in half a dozen neighbouring armies and saw rebel fighters rape women en masse. Congo has never experienced a peaceful transition of power.The United States and European Union have called for Kabila to respect the constitution. Congo's former colonial master Belgium said on Tuesday it would "re-examine" relations with Kabila and France urged the European Union re-examine its links with Congo.Kabila, who has ruled since 2001, rarely speaks about the issue in public, but his allies say the election was delayed because of logistical and financial problems. The constitutional court has ruled Kabila can stay on until the vote takes place. (Reporting by Tim Cocks; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
Milan (AFP) - Stock in Monte dei Paschi di Siena tumbled again on Wednesday as investors feared the troubled Italian bank's efforts to find billions of euros quickly are all but doomed.

BMPS, the world's oldest bank and Italy's third-biggest, is racing against the clock to raise five billion euros ($5.2 billion) or face a government bailout.

It announced late Wednesday that a debt-for-equity swap offer raised slightly over two billion euros.

The stock fell to a record low of 15 euros in morning Milan trading, before rebounding and then dipping again to finish the day -- several hours before the debt-for-equity results were announced -- 12.08 percent lower at 16.30.

Company directors held a crisis board meeting that ran late into the night.

"Markets wait with bated breath the latest on Monte dei Paschi's struggling recapitalisation efforts to avoid collapse," said Michael van Dulken at Accendo Markets.

The bank itself has admitted it has only four months' worth of liquidity left.

If the bond conversion plan falls short, "an official bailout request for the bank is likely", Van Dulken said.

The results of the capital increase are to be released Thursday.

But the bank late Wednesday acknowledged that "benchmark investors" had failed to show interest. It had been hoping for a big takeup from Qatari, Chinese or US funds.

"The weak appetite rings the alarm bell as the year-end deadline approaches at a threatening speed," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at LCG.

"Failure to save the bank could aggressively shake up the Italian and the European banking sector."

- Banking crisis -

BMPS is at the heart of an Italian banking crisis which has cost it over 80 percent of its market capitalisation in the past year, and it posted the worst results in a stress test in July by the European Banking Authority.

Last week it launched a last-ditch attempt to find, through private investors, the funds the ailing lender needs to shore up its balance sheet and stave off a government intervention.

Story continues

The plan entails selling off 27.6 billion euros in bad loans.

A first debt swap offer raised over 1 billion euros.

Monte dei Paschi needs to complete the five-billion-euro funding drive by the end of December after the European Central Bank refused to grant its request to extend the deadline to mid-January.

New Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni confirmed last week that the government was prepared to come to its aid if the private rescue fails.

- 'Too many banks' -

If it came to that, it would use a move known as "precautionary recapitalisation", meaning shareholders and holders of junior bonds, a risky class of debt, must contribute to saving the bank.

On Wednesday, the Italian parliament approved Gentiloni's plan to set aside 20 billion euros to help Italy's ailing banking sector which is buckling under bad loans estimated at a combined 360 billion euros, around a third of the eurozone's total.

But analysts said this is not enough to sort out Italy's banking problems.

"Whatever happens in the next few days, whatever plan is implemented won't resolve the underlying problem in Italy, which is it has too many banks and too much bad debt, across the entire sector," said Michael Hewson at CMC Markets.

Data compiled by Bloomberg suggest that Italian banks need at least 52 billion euros to clean up their balance sheets.

But Finance Minister Carlo Padoan said Wednesday that the Italian banking system "is solid, even if there are some crisis situations".

He said the funds set aside would strengthen the system's capacity to "consolidate and develop", in remarks to parliament. The 20 billion euros are "sufficient", he said.
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Among the items on Wiffle Balls Christmas list this year are McDonalds french fries and Pup Cups from Starbucks.

Hell get all those things and so much more thanks to a family who adopted the pup with terminal cancer, according to WGN TV, who reported the story.

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The adorable pooch has been plagued with health problems since he arrived at the Richmond Animal League in Virginia. The 5-year-old terrier mix tested positive for heartworms (he had a very severe case) and later came down with pneumonia. Once he improved, the doctors next discovered he had lymphoma.

There came a point when the shelter decided it was time to just make the pup happy, no matter how long he had left.

Wiffle Ball has survived so much since coming to RAL, but now he has cancer he is not going to overcome, says a Facebook post shared on Dec. 16, with a video of the dog going to the McDonalds drive-thru. The least we could do is give Wiffle Ball a very good day at the end of a very bad year. That day was today.

Wiffle Ball devoured the french fries and seemed to enjoy the car ride  and in the second part of the Facebook message, there was a little hope.

Someone is coming to meet Wiffle Ball on Sunday and wants to adopt him, it read. Were going to do all that we can to make sure he has many more good days in the coming weeks. Thank you all for supporting us and making days like today possible. Love.

A few days later RAL posted a photo of Wiffle Ball with his new family, which received over 700 likes. Heres a Going Home photo we all love! Merry Christmas, Wiffle Ball! it said.

The dogs friends couldnt be happier that hes found a place to spend the rest of his days. If any animal deserved a great home its Wiffle, wrote Ellen Mickey on Facebook. This baby has been through so muchheartwormsand now cancerand yet is one of the sweetest dogs I know. Have a great life baby, you deserve every minute of it.




By Jonathan Saul LONDON (Reuters) - The shipping industry faces the threat of paying a levy to the European Union on its greenhouse gas emissions as lawmakers from the bloc grow increasingly impatient with the slow progress being made by the global effort to tackle the issue. The industry, which accounts for around 90 percent of goods transported globally, has rejected unilateral moves by the EU, arguing it would distort world trade and instead wants the issue handled through the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nation's shipping agency. Last week EU lawmakers voted in favor of including shipping in draft reforms of the bloc's carbon emissions trading system (ETS), which could see the establishment of a fund set up to compensate for the industry's carbon footprint. The proposals will go to a plenary vote in February and the EU's three law-making bodies - member states, the Commission and Parliament - will start talks next year to thrash out a reform deal. Simon Bennett, of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) industry association, said the EU's ETS market which was developed especially for the power, steel and cement sectors, had been "an abject failure" and was not suitable for shipping. "Its unilateral application to global shipping would create market distortion while generating trade disputes with China and other Asian nations," Bennett said. "We hope that EU governments and the European Commission will see sense." A spokeswoman for the European Commission said it was closely following the discussions in both the European Parliament and the Council of member governments, but had no specific comment at the moment. Shipping now accounts for 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 ICS's Bennett said shipping fully accepted its responsibility for CO2 cuts via the IMO, which last month laid out a "road map" toward the adoption of final CO2 reduction commitments in 2023. However, Allard Castelein, chief executive of the major European port of Rotterdam, said the IMO plans were "not challenging enough" and "far too late", urging the EU to "keep up the pressure" on the agency. In response IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim said tackling the issue was a matter of "urgency" and it would continue its work to find a global solution for controlling greenhouse gas emissions "by working together and not leaving anyone behind". (Editing by Greg Mahlich)
IPO activity bounced after a lacklustre 2015.

The year 2016 showed signs of life in terms of equity listings in Singapores stock exchanges, a report by Thomson Reuters said. So far, Singapore-listed equity offerings (combined IPO and follow-on offerings listed in Singapores stock exchanges) totaled US$4.1 billion, a 84.0% increase in proceeds after a slow year in 2015.

The 84% is composed of IPO proceeds amounting to 40.9% of the market share and follow-on offerings listed in the city, representing 59.2% market share.

The top IPO this year was Frasers Logistics and Industrial Trust (USD951.3M) in the SGX Mainboard, the biggest since 2013.

Thomson Reuters adds that SGX Mainboard also witnessed an IPO listing from China this year, China Jinjiang Environments US$146.1 million IPO. Meanwhile, ten companies headed for the SGX Catalist board and raised a total of US$71.1 million so far this year.







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The list. A Pentagon memo outlining the incoming Trump administrations top defense priorities identifies defeating the Islamic State, eliminating budget caps, developing a new cybersecurity strategy, and finding greater efficiencies as the president-elects primary concerns. But the memo, obtained by Foreign Policy, does not include any mention of Russia, which has been identified by senior military officials as the No. 1 threat to the United States, writes FPs John Hudson, Paul McLeary, and Dan De Luce in an exclusive get.

The memo reflects the four-point list of priorities conveyed to the department by Mira Ricardel, a former Bush administration official and co-leader of Trumps Pentagon transition team, and ignores Russia despite years of top cabinet officials at the Defense Department and the intelligence community citing Moscow as the foremost threat because of its vast nuclear arsenal, sophisticated cyber capabilities, recently modernized military, and willingness to challenge the United States and its allies in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and other regions.

Long distance runaround. Secretary of State John Kerry called the Russian and Turkish foreign ministers Tuesday to talk Syria and discuss Mondays assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey. It was the only way Washington could get an update since the two diplomats pointedly did not invite him to participate in talks being held with Iran in Moscow to hash out next steps in Syria.

Gritted teeth. State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday that the ministers provided the Secretary a sense of how the discussions went, but if not having us in the room can lead to finally a cessation of hostilities that can actually matter, then Kerry  publicly, at least  is ok with that. But Washingtons exclusion is a profound rebuke after two years of American bombing, and months of fruitless diplomacy between Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

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The cost. The new role Russia is playing in the Middle East comes with a price tag. And the Wall Street Journals Yaroslav Trofimov pulls the thread on what it means for Moscow in the long run. Moscow may be a new power broker in the region, but the assassination of Russias ambassador to Turkey on Monday, however, highlighted the flip side of this dizzying rise. As Americas influence has shrunk, Russia has taken the place the U.S. long occupied in the minds of many people in the Middle East: an alien imperialist power seen as waging war on Muslims and Islam.

While protests against Washington have dwindled in Middle Eastern capitals, tens of thousands of protesters converged this month outside Russian missions from Istanbul to Beirut to Kuwait Citywhere the chanting, led by local lawmakers, was clear: Russia is the enemy of Islam.

Hack flak. Republicans in the U.S. Senate are heading for a split on investigating the theft of emails from the Democratic party and one of Hillary Clintons top advisers during the presidential election. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) told Politico he would introduce a bill that would mandate a new select Senate committee on cybersecurity to investigate the issue.

The move could intensify pressure on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who so far has resisted appointing a select committee on cybersecurity. He insists the chambers traditional committees, led by the intelligence panel, should handle the issue. GOP Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), along with incoming Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) have already called for a special panel.

Sanctions game. The Kremlin on Wednesday pushed back against a new round of sanctions imposed by Washington. We regret that Washington is continuing on this destructive path, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding, Russia will take commensurate measures. Another person who doesnt like the sanctions that Washington and its European allies have slapped on Moscow after its 2014 annexation of Crimea is Rex Tillerson, the ExxonMobil CEO nominated by Trump to be his Secretary for State. The New York Times hashes out how Tillerson went from being a critic of Moscow in 2008 to claiming to have a very close relationship with Putin just last year. A hint: billions in oil contracts might be involved.

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

PEOTUS

President-elect Trump held a summit with big tech companies like Apple and Facebook last week, but the presence of relatively small-fry Palantir raised some eyebrows. Thats because Peter Thiel, Palantirs chairman, was a big Trump supporter during the presidential campaign and in attendance for the tech meeting. The company makes software that allows users to visualize large data sets and has won big contracts with the Army. Observers say that Palantirs presence at the summit is a sign that its already strong political power in Washington may only increase under the Trump administration.

Three former Navy SEALs tell the Intercept that former SEAL Team 6 member Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), Trumps pick for secretary of interior, filed fraudulent travel reimbursement requests in order to receive payment from the government for traveling to Montana to renovate his home. The SEALs did not formally punish Zinke or seek criminal charge against him but allegedly kicked him off the team. He stayed in the Navy for years after that, where he was promoted and retired in 2008.

North Korea

North Koreas Musudan road-mobile ballistic missile system has been a big priority for the hermit kingdom, the subject of eight tests and much attention from the countrys engineers. Seven of those tests have been failures, and 38 North reports that much of the missiles troubles can be traced to North Koreas decision to depart from the design characteristics of the Soviet R-27 missiles the Musudan is based on. North Koreas designs took the original Soviet design and elongated it, reducing the stability of missile in flight  a design choice which later necessitated the application of grid fins.

Syria

Syria isnt a member of the International Criminal Court, which means the myriad war crimes carried out throughout its civil war arent subject to prosecution by the court. But the New York Times reports that diplomats at the United Nations are pushing to at the very least preserve evidence of war crimes committed in the conflict. The move is designed to collect evidence of atrocities in the event that prosecutors in another national or international court can find jurisdiction in order to punish offenders.

Iran says its now sharing a base with Russia in Syria. Irans Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani told Iranian media that its advisors in Syria are working out of a shared facility with Russia. The subject of Russian bases and Syria has been a touchy one for Iran ever since Russias revelation that its jets had used an airbase in Iran to support its air campaign over Syria. Iranian officials reacted strongly to the announcement, saying that the Russians violated their trust and revoking their access to the facility.

Happy Xmas (War is over)

Its official. The U.S. air campaign to oust the Islamic State from its last stronghold in Libya is now over. U.S. Africa Command released a statement on Tuesday declaring that Operation Odyssey Lightning has ended, following the internationally-recognized Libyan government in Tripolis declaration that its operations in Sirte, where the Islamic State had holed up, have wrapped up. The U.S. carried out a total of 495 airstrikes during the air campaign.

Photo Credit NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/Getty Images
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Winter has arrived in Beijing, and residents are struggling to escape the heavy smog that has settled on the city.

This season the air pollution in China  stemming from power plants, factories, vehicles and other sources  has grown so bad during the past five days that it has put the safety of half a billion people at risk.

Since polluted areas of north and central China were put under red alert from Friday until Wednesday by authorities, the haze has thickened, impacting everyday life and causing tens of thousands of "smog refugees" to evacuate.

SEE ALSO: The smog smothering India is so thick you can actually see it from space

On Friday, Xinhua, an official news agency in China, reported that road construction has been halted, several schools have suspended classes and residents have been advised to remain indoors until conditions improve.

According to The China Daily, the smog has been so disruptive to travel that severe flight cancellations and delays have taken place at local airports. Ctrip, Chinas leading online travel agent, expected 150,000 people to flee the smog by traveling to places like Australia, Indonesia, Japan and the Maldives.

See how heavy #smog descends on Beijing on Friday, as the Chinese capital issues 2016s first red alert for air pollution (Xinhua/Jiang Yan) pic.twitter.com/yQP9zjDnuv  China Xinhua News (@XHNews) December 16, 2016

Wondering what northern China's #airpocalypse really feels like? This was the view in suburban Tangshan, Hebei province, yesterday afternoon pic.twitter.com/hsJS2w8NZF  Greenpeace East Asia (@GreenpeaceEAsia) December 20, 2016

Had both air purifiers in bedroom for the night so kitchen and living room had hazardous levels in the morning. pic.twitter.com/kTv6MKnIDT  Lauri Myllyvirta (@laurimyllyvirta) December 19, 2016

State media reported that 169 flights were canceled at Beijing Capital International Airport, where visibility fell to 300 meters (984 feet) at one point. In Tianjin, a nearby city, authorities also canceled 350 flights and closed all highways in the municipality, which made it extremely difficult for unhappy residents to escape.

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Many people, such as Jiang Aoshuang, decided to take cover in smog-free regions of China, which became quickly packed. Aoshuang told the Global Times she evacuated with her husband and 10-year-old son to stay safe from the smog and protect their lungs.

The family headed to Chongli, a ski resort about three hours north-west of the Beijing, where they discovered they weren't the only ones with the idea. "It really felt like a refugee camp, Aoshuang said.

181 flights to and from Beijing Capital Int'l Airport canceled due to #smog; highways closed as air pollution red alert continues pic.twitter.com/dJ6BGVrBwN  CCTVNEWS (@cctvnews) December 20, 2016

Priorities. In Henan, children take an exam outdoors in the smog. https://t.co/gK58PteksN pic.twitter.com/yyhjJ5fR7k  Chris Buckley  (@ChuBailiang) December 20, 2016

huge area of smog in China's #airpocalypse easily seen from orbit pic.twitter.com/qOG6jQ9m03  carl parker (@parkertwc) December 21, 2016

On Saturday, after pollution levels soared to more than 10 times the safety limit, Beijing and 22 other Chinese cities were forced to impose emergency measures such as banning vehicles from the road and ordering factories and schools to close. Some teachers went so far as to live-stream lessons to children in their classes.

Beijing was also issued smog-related red alerts in 2015, and India has also dealt with serious smog as recently as November.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

BONUS: First red smog alert is issued in Beijing
PM rules out local polls in old set-up

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has ruled out local body elections in the existing local structure.
Aleppo (Syria) (AFP) - The last convoys of rebels and civilians were preparing Wednesday to evacuate Aleppo, clearing the path for Syria's army to take full control of the city after four years of war.

Around 30,000 people have left the one-time opposition stronghold of east Aleppo since Thursday, including all of the wounded and sick in critical condition, the International Committee of the Red Cross told AFP.

President Bashar al-Assad's government is waiting for the end of the evacuations so it can declare the completion of the offensive to recapture the one-time rebel stronghold.

The retreat from Aleppo -- which had been divided into a rebel-held east and government-controlled west since 2012 -- marks the biggest victory for Assad's forces in nearly six years of civil war.

It follows a month-long army offensive and weeks of siege that killed hundreds of people and left rebels with less than 10 percent of the territory they once controlled in the city.

Despite a snowstorm on Wednesday, the evacuations continued during the day using dozens of buses and other vehicles.

The evacuations -- agreed under a Russian and Turkish-brokered deal reached last week -- also faced delays as they have been plagued by repeated holdups.

Red Cross spokeswoman Ingy Sedky said the "last convoys were still waiting to be evacuated from east Aleppo", and that the operation would involve "multiple" trips.

A Syrian military source said the evacuations were progressing without any obstacles.

"The announcement of the end of the operation will take place when it is completely finished," the source told AFP.

Ahmad Qarra Ali of the powerful Ahrar al-Sham rebel group said bad weather had caused delays.

"Civilians and insurgents have not yet got on the buses," he told AFP.

- 'Dire' conditions for evacuees -

There was no precise estimate as to the number of people remaining in the city's last rebel pocket.

Story continues

During the delays, the evacuees spent hours in freezing temperatures waiting in the buses to depart, as snow blanketed Aleppo and swirled through its crumbled buildings.

"The buses are not heated. The passengers, including women, children and elderly people, are suffering from the cold. They don't have food or water," said Ahmad al-Dbis, who heads a team of doctors and volunteers coordinating evacuations.

The charity Save the Children warned that those fleeing the shrinking rebel enclave face "dire" conditions, sleeping in unheated buildings or tents in sub-zero temperatures.

It said thousands of people had arrived in rural Aleppo and Idlib over the last few days, but heavy snow was hampering efforts to give them aid.

"The thousands of young children and babies among them are extremely vulnerable, particularly as many children are weakened and malnourished after months under siege without proper food," it said.

The delays on Wednesday appeared to be connected with a parallel evacuation of residents taking place in the villages of Fuaa and Kafraya in northwestern Syria.

The two Shiite-majority villages are under siege by the rebels, who are mainly Sunni Muslims.

Shiite-dominated Iran, another key Assad ally, was reported to have insisted on the evacuations of Fuaa and Kafraya for the Aleppo withdrawal to go ahead.

Delays in the evacuations were also reported there, but state television reported later Wednesday that four buses, and two ambulances carrying wounded, had been able to leave.

The evacuation of Aleppo's rebel sector is a pivotal moment in a war that has killed more than 310,000 people and triggered a major humanitarian and refugee crisis.

- Russia, Iran, Turkey take lead -

As well as handing a major victory to Assad, it has given fresh impetus to international efforts to end the conflict.

Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed this week to guarantee Syria peace talks and backed expanding a ceasefire, laying down their claim as the main powerbrokers in the conflict.

Repeated attempts have failed to resolve Syria's conflict, but UN envoy Staffan de Mistura has said he hopes to convene new negotiations in Geneva in February.

The United States, another supporter of the opposition, has for years been a key player in the diplomatic efforts but has been largely excluded from involvement in the evacuation.

With President Barack Obama in his final weeks in office, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday praised the Turkey-Iran-Russia format on Syria as the "most effective" way forward.

Ankara in August began an offensive in northern Syria aimed at pushing back the Islamic State group and Kurdish militias in the border area.

On Wednesday, 14 Turkish soldiers were killed and 33 wounded in clashes with IS in Al-Bab in the military's highest single day toll of the four-month campaign.
The first state to legalize recreational marijuana use is on track to see total sales top $2 billion by 2020. Colorado's medical marijuana sales for this year are projected at $438 million, and recreational sales are forecast to reach $739 million. By 2020, medical cannabis sales are forecast to reach $663 million and recreational sales are expected to hit $1.34 billion.

Massachusetts, where voters last month chose to add recreational sales to already legal medical sales, is forecast to post sales of $1.07 billion in 2020, up from just $52 million in estimated medical cannabis sales in 2016.

The data were reported Wednesday by New Frontier Data and Arcview Market Research in separate reports on the cannabis markets in Colorado and Massachusetts.

Arcview CEO Troy Dayton said:

The naysayers said the sky would fall in Colorado and that the tax money and jobs wouldn't ever really materialize. The naysayers were wrong. Colorado's market has surpassed almost everyone's expectations in terms of sales and societal benefits. It's one of the reasons that national public support for adult-use legalization has skyrocketed to 60%.

ALSO READ: More Than Half in Marijuana Industry Concerned About Trump Administration

Regarding the new market in Massachusetts, New Frontier founder and CEO Giadha Aguirre DeCarcer said:

As one of only two states on the East Coast to legalize cannabis for adult use, Massachusetts represents a significant opportunity for business owners and entrepreneurs in the space. The law does not limit product forms nor does it cap retail dispensary licenses, which are both factors that will positively contribute toward the billion dollars in sales projected by 2020.

The state report on Massachusetts projects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 113%. The Colorado CAGR is forecast at 20%.

These estimates could be negatively affected by a more restrictive environment under the incoming Trump administration. Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions has made his objections known to both legal medical and recreational marijuana. Tighter enforcement of regulations that the Obama administration chose to overlook could have a chilling effect on the cannabis industry.

Related Articles
After a rough month consisting of beef and legal issues, Soulja Boy has caught a break. Gun charges against the rapper, whose real name is DeAndre Cortez Way, were dropped after the 26-year-old was arrested for violating his probation last Thursday (Dec. 15).

"I am looking forward to focusing back on the music and new business for 2017," he said in a statement to XXL. Soulja Boy's rep did not immediately respond to Billboard's request for comment.

Last week, Soulja Boy was arrested after cops found a gun in his Hollywood Hills home stemming from a Crime Stoppers tip called into the police department about him threatening other rappers online with guns. He was later released on a $35,000 bail.

In 2014, the rapper was given two years of probation for carrying a loaded firearm.

Earlier this month, Soulja Boy found himself in the middle of a number of beefs. Not only did he clash with Hollywood actor Shia LeBeouf, but he also dissed Lil Yachty and Migos' Quavo.

According to Twitter, the "Crank Dat" rapper is working on his new album. "In the studio finishing my new album. #BigSoulja Dec.25," he shared.

In the studio finishing my new album. #BigSoulja Dec.25

- Soulja Boy ---- (@souljaboy) December 21, 2016

Billboard reached out to Soulja Boy's rep for comment.
SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean court has issued an arrest warrant for Chung Yoo-ra, the daughter of President Park Geun-hye's friend, Choi Soon-sil, who is in custody and on trial in an influence-peddling scandal that led parliament to vote to impeach Park. Lee Kyu-chul, a spokesman for South Korea's special prosecutor's office, told a news conference on Wednesday they would be asking for the cooperation of German prosecutors to arrest Chung, who they believe is in Germany. Chung faces several allegations, including obstruction of justice, Lee said. Lawyers for Chung could not be reached immediately. (Reporting by Ju-min Park and Christine Kim; Editing by Paul Tait)
By Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for a daughter of the woman at the center of President Park Geun-hye's corruption scandal and investigators raided the National Pension Service over possible links to the scandal. A special prosecutor's investigation started on Wednesday into the influence-peddling scandal that threatens to make Park, 64, the first democratically-elected leader to leave office early in disgrace. Parliament has voted to impeach Park, a decision that must be confirmed or overturned by the Constitutional Court. A court issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday for Chung Yoo-ra, the 20-year-old daughter of Choi Soon-sil, Park's long-time friend who is in custody and on trial for fraud and abuse of power. Chung's lawyer has said she is in Germany, where she flew with her mother and child in September, according to media reports. "We have Chung's arrest warrant on several charges including obstruction of justice and we plan to request the cooperation of German prosecutors based on these charges," Lee Kyu-chul, a spokesman for the special prosecutor's office, told a news conference. Lee said authorities are working to invalidate Chung's South Korean passport and have asked German prosecutors for information on her whereabouts and financial assets. Chung, an equestrian athlete who competed in the 2014 Asian Games and won a gold medal in a team competition, sparked public ire earlier this year when it emerged that she had received special treatment from the prestigious Ewha Womans University. Her admission to the university was subsequently canceled. She was also stripped of her high school diploma for fabrication of grades and attendance, according to the Seoul education office. PENSION OFFICE RAIDED Hours earlier, investigators raided the office of the world's third-largest pension fund, the National Pension Service (NPS), over possible links to the scandal. The special prosecutor's office is looking into NPS' decision last year to back the $8 billion merger of two Samsung Group [SAGR.UL] affiliates, which was criticized for strengthening the founder family's control of the group at the expense of other shareholders. The NPS was a major shareholder of both companies. Investigators are also examining whether Samsung's support of a business and foundations backed by Choi may have been connected to NPS' support of the deal, a prosecution official told Reuters, declining to be named because he was not authorized to speak with media. An office at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which administers the NPS, was also raided on Wednesday, a Ministry of Health and Welfare spokeswoman confirmed. NPS and Samsung Group could not immediately be reached for comment. NPS' backing of last year's merger of Samsung C&T Corp <028260.KS> and Cheil Industries was seen as crucial to the deal winning shareholder approval. Last month, a different team of prosecutors raided offices of Samsung and the NPS. Meanwhile, more than 30 lawmakers from Park's ruling Saenuri Party who supported the impeachment vote announced on Wednesday they plan to break from the party, a move that will undermine the party's position in the 300-member chamber. The conservative Saenuri Party currently holds 128 seats. Park's possible impeachment has upended politics in South Korea, where, if she leaves officer early, an election will be held in 60 days. Park was stripped of her powers, which are now held by the country's prime minister. (This version of the story was corrected to change start of investigation to Wednesday from Monday in second paragraph) (Additional reporting by Joyce Lee; Writing by Christine Kim; Editing by Tony Munroe and Michael Perry)
The Christmas and year-end holiday season is the busiest time for airlines, globally. Hence, it goes without saying that technical problems during this period are the worst nightmare for both passengers and carriers. Southwest Airlines Co. LUV faced a major issue on Dec 20, as its website and mobile app stopped functioning for several hours due to a glitch, per media reports.

Nonetheless, the company announced a few hours later that it had solved the issue and that its website was functional again. We believe that it is unlikely for this issue to significantly impact the companys stock price as flights have not been cancelled but only delayed. However, if such glitches reoccur might result in stock price depreciation, especially considering the high volumes during the holiday season.

We note that Southwests stock has outperformed the broader Zacks categorized Transportation-Airline industry. The company 37.88% while the industry gained 16.65% over the past three months.

Impact of Issue

Per FlightAware, over 940 flights of the company were delayed on Dec 20. This accounts for 24% of the total scheduled flights. However, none of the flights were cancelled. The issue mainly affected the website and app as passengers were unable to check in, book or change flights, which resulted in delays. Passengers had to check in through Southwest Airlines kiosks at airports or at the counter. The airline apologized for the incident on its website and took immediate measures to ensure that the issue was resolved. The company also declared that passengers travelling with the airlines through Dec 21, would not be charged penalty for changing their travel plans.

Notably, this is the second time this year that Southwest Airlines operations have been impacted by technical issues. In July, the company faced a technical outage which resulted in several delays and cancellations. As a result, the companys operating revenue per available seat mile (RASM) was impacted by 0.5 points on a yearly basis for the third quarter.

Story continues

Zacks Rank

Southwest Airlines carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The airline faces tough competition from peers like JetBlue Airways Co. JBLU, Alaska Air Group Inc. ALK and Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL.

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By John Geddie

LONDON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Spanish government bond yields hit five-week lows on Wednesday as investors shifted money out of similiarly rated Italian debt where bank bailouts and political uncertainty have made what ING strategists called a "dangerous cocktail".

The gap between yields on Spanish and Italian 10-year debt nudged back above 50 basis points (bps), a level last breached in the days after a failed constitutional reform vote triggered the resignation of Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi.

While Renzi plots his path back to power, possibly in an election that could come as early as next year, his successor Paolo Gentiloni is trying to get a grip on the ailing banking sector.

The most immediate concern is Italy's third-largest lender Monte dei Paschi which seems destined for state aid as a private recapitalisation flags. The government is expected to seek parliamentary approval for 20 billion euros of extra borrowing powers on Wednesday.

Strategists at ING said the combination of possible snap elections next year and higher bond issuance to prop up Italy's ailing banks "arguably make for a dangerous cocktail" for Italian bonds in 2017.

A trend that should only help neighbouring Spain where a fragile minority government has managed to keep recovery from a deep recession on track.

"Given that Italy's banking sector is in the headlines at the moment, investors would appear to be giving preference in the periphery segment to the Iberian peninsula," DZ Bank strategist Sebastian Fellechner said.

Spain's 10-year bond yields fell as much as 3 bps on Wednesday to hit 1.31 percent, the lowest since Nov. 10.

Most other euro zone yields were also lower on the day, including Italy's.

But the premium Italy pays to borrow over Spain and benchmark euro zone borrower Germany has risen over 10 bps over the past week.

Shares in Monte dei Paschi plunged 8 percent on Wednesday after a document on its website showed Italy's third largest lender could run out of liquidity after four months.

Monte dei Paschi has raised about 500 million euros as of Tuesday in a voluntary debt-to-equity offer that is a key part of a last-ditch attempt to raise 5 billion and avert state intervention, a source close to the matter said.

For Reuters new Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets (Editing by Louise Ireland)
By Aaron Ross

KINSHASA, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Sporadic gunfire echoed across Democratic Republic of Congo's capital on Wednesday, the day after security forces killed at least 26 protesters demanding President Joseph Kabila step down after his mandate as elected leader expired.

A government spokesman could not be reached to comment on the nationwide death toll, compiled by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), which said it was yet to give a final tally.

The United Nations human rights director for the vast central African state said it had "solid" reports of at least 20 dead civilians in the capital, Kinshasa.

Some Kinshasa residents ventured from their homes on Wednesday morning but most streets were clear of traffic and public transport was extremely limited.

Africa and the West fear the political crisis around Kabila could spiral into a broader conflict, triggering a repeat of the 1996-2003 wars that killed millions and sucked in half a dozen neighbouring countries' armies.

The former Belgian colony has never experienced a peaceful transition of power.

The main opposition bloc gave mixed signals about whether it would return on Wednesday to talks mediated by Congo's Catholic bishops, with a final decision expected during the morning.

Protests had erupted in the early hours of Tuesday, moments after the expiry of Kabila's mandate cast the nation of 70 million into the constitutional unknown. Elections to choose a successor were delayed from November this year to mid-2018.

Gangs of mainly young men burned tyres in the streets of Kinshasa and threw stones at riot police and soldiers who responded with live rounds and teargas.

Clashes also happened in the southeastern mining city of Lubumbashi and the western port cities of Matadi and Boma, and Goma in the east, next to the border with Rwanda.

Scores of arrests were made in Kinshasa and other cities.

A police spokesman said he did not yet have information on the number of deaths or arrests.

Story continues

Kabila's government blamed delays in the election on problems with registering millions of voters, and the constitutional court ruled in May that Kabila could stay in power until the delayed vote in April 2018.

However, the main opposition faction in parliament refused to endorse the deal to allow him to stay on. Opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi called on Congolese people on Tuesday to peacefully resist Kabila.

The opposition says Kabila is deliberately delaying the poll in order to cling to power - a charge he denies.

(Editing by Ed Cropley and Louise Ireland)
Police arrest 3 in connection with Tiwari murder

District Police Office in Rupandehi has arrested three persons in connection with the murder of Durga Tiwari, the district chief of the CPN-UML-affiliated Youth Association Nepal (YAN).
* President Kabila's legal mandate ran out on Tuesday

* 20 people arrested in east Congo's Goma over sit-in

* Fears of wider conflict echoing 1996-2003 wars (Adds Lubumbashi casualties, U.N. count, crisis talks)

By Aaron Ross and Tim Cocks

KINSHASA, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Security forces arrested 275 people and 21 died during protests demanding that President Joseph Kabila step down, police said on Wednesday, although counts by rights groups suggested a higher death toll.

Figures on the numbers of dead, wounded and arrested trickled out as anti-Kabila protests that began in the early hours of Tuesday appeared to be dying down.

Earlier in the day sporadic gunfire echoed across the capital Kinshasa, and security forces repressed a protest in the southeastern mining hub of Lubumbashi, leaving 10 dead and 47 wounded in two days of clashes, King Kasongo, a lawyer and activist for the NGO Humanism and Human Rights (HDH), said.

Mobs also wounded a policeman and attacked government offices, health centres and gas stations, he told Reuters.

African and Western leaders fear the political crisis could spiral into broader conflict, risking a repeat of the 1996-2003 wars in this vast, chaotic country that killed millions and drew in the armies of half a dozen neighbouring states.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) earlier said that at least 26 people were killed across Congo, including one in Lubumbashi, though it had yet to provide a final tally, while the director of the United Nations human rights office in Congo Jose Maria Aranaz said he had confirmed 19 deaths with 45 wounded.

Police spokesman Colonel Pierre Mwanamputu put the nationwide death toll lower, at 21 civilians and one police officer. He said many civilians were either looting or hit by stray bullets. Two-hundred-seventy-five had been arrested, he said, of whom 116 were still being detained.

"The heavy security presence will remain in place until the end of the year," he added.

"CRUEL SUFFERING"

Story continues

Protests erupted moments after the expiry of Kabila's mandate cast the nation of 70 million into the constitutional unknown. Young men started fires in the streets of Kinshasa and threw stones at riot police.

Elections to choose a successor were delayed from November this year to mid-2018, with the government citing problems registering millions of voters.

As an uneasy calm returned, some Kinshasa residents ventured from their homes on Wednesday, but the city's normally hectic traffic had slowed and buses were limited.

Authorities arrested 20 members of the activist group LUCHA on Wednesday for sitting in front of the office of the governor of North Kivu province in the city of Goma, the group said on Twitter.

Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa's biggest miner of copper and metals used in gadgets such as cobalt, has not known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Armed groups have repeatedly clashed over Congo's land and mineral wealth and used mass rape as a strategic weapon.

The main opposition bloc showed up to the resumption of talks mediated by Congo's Roman Catholic bishops, but Jean Marc Kabund, the leader of one of the parties in the bloc, the UDPS, told reporters he was only there to insist on Kabila quitting.

The church has assumed the responsibility of trying to prevent the crisis spinning out of control.

"Those of you with political responsibility, listen to the voice of your own conscience, recognise the cruel suffering of your people and take to heart the common good," Pope Francis told his weekly audience on Wednesday, addressing Congo leaders.

Many Congolese are similarly hoping the crisis can be resolved peacefully.

"They should go to dialogue to find a solution," said Maggie Munanango, selling peanuts in a Kinshasa market.

Yet it is unclear how much room for compromise there is. The constitutional court has ruled that Kabila can stay on until the 2018 vote, but the opposition accuses Kabila of shelving the vote to cling to power, a charge he denies.

(Additional reporting by Kenny Katombe, Amedee Mwarabu Kiboko, Benoit Nyemba in Kinshasa and Crispian Balmer in Rome; editing by Mark Heinrich)
- By Ben Reynolds





(Published Dec. 20 by The Financial Canadian)

Luxury businesses can be good sources of shareholder returns.

By selling goods or services well above the cost of production, luxury businesses benefit from high profit margins. They also benefit from higher-than-average consumer loyalty.

In the hot beverage industry, no brand says "luxury" like Starbucks (SBUX) does.





Starbucks benefits from the traits I mentioned earlier - it has high profit margins for its industry, fantastic consumer loyalty and a tremendous record of creating value for shareholders. For dividend investors, its yield might be lower than desired, but its dividend is growing at a rapid rate.

Starbucks has also increased its dividend consistently. Dividends have grown every year since the company started paying them in 2010. If the company continues increasing dividends every year (which is likely), the company will become a Dividend Achiever in 2020.

The Dividend Achievers are a select group of stocks that have paid increasing dividends for 10-plus consecutive years. You can see the full list of all 273 Dividend Achievers here.

This article examines the investment prospects of Starbucks in detail.

Business overview

Starbucks was founded in 1971 with the intent of delivering ethically sourced coffee to the masses. Its first store was located at 1912 Pike Place in Seattle, and this heritage is commemorated by Starbucks' Pike Roast, one of its most popular blends of coffee.

Early Starbucks locations were very different from the locations we see today. The company initially sold only roasted coffee beans, not brewed coffee sold to drink immediately.

However, once CEO Howard Schultz joined the company, he was captivated by a transformational trip to Italy. He wanted to emulate the Italian coffee shop's ability to create a sense of community and belonging among its customers.

Story continues

Today Starbucks is a large player in the food and restaurant business, second only in market capitalization to McDonald's (MCD). With sales of $21 billion in fiscal 2016, the company is a globally diversified provider of premium coffee.

Growth prospects

Historically, Starbucks has done a tremendous job of growing its business. It has compounded earnings per share at a phenomenal 17.9% rate over the past decade.

This has resulted in tremendous total returns for investors.

Starbucks Performance Comparison Graph

Source: Starbucks 2016 10-K

As a large corporation with a market cap of ~$80 billion, it might not be obvious that Starbucks still has fantastic forward-looking growth prospects.

Starbucks is facing the beginning of a new era, making management changes and strategic investment to ensure the company's future growth.

It was announced earlier in December that Schultz will be succeeded by Kevin Johnson.

Johnson has been on the Starbucks board of directors since 2009 and joined the company's executive team in 2015 as president and chief operating officer.

This change was positively received by investors as Johnson's technology background (he is a former Microsoft [MSFT] executive) will serve him well in building Starbucks' brand as not just a coffee provider but a social area where customers enjoy a sense of community and belonging.

Meanwhile, Schultz (a Starbucks founder and long-time executive) will be taking on a reduced role as executive chairman and chairman of the board of directors. This will shift his focus to the innovation, design and development of Starbucks Reserve(R) Roasteries around the world and the expansion of the Starbucks Reserve(R) retail store format.

These locations will serve coffee in the $10 to $12 range and will be far less numerous than the traditional Starbucks locations.

The first Starbucks Reserve location was opened in Seattle two years ago amid much positive response from consumers. The company is on pace to roll out new locations in Tokyo, New York and Shanghai over the next two years.

With Schultz's track record, investors can be confident that Starbucks Reserve will be an additional driver of growth for the company.

Another growth driver for Starbucks is its focus on expansion into international markets. Starbucks is targeting China as an area for future growth, both in same-store sales and by opening new locations.

Starbucks Importance of China Market

Source: Starbucks Investor Presentation

Over the next five years, Starbucks is aiming to open an additional 5,000 stores in China. This will allow it to double its store count and triple both its revenue and operating income in one of its largest markets.

Starbucks China Growth Opportunity

Source: Starbuck Investor Presentation

With the company's focus on technology under Johnson's leadership, the introduction of Starbucks Reserve and its focus on expanding its operation in China, the company is well positioned to continue growing in the years to come.

Competitive advantage and recession performance

Starbucks' competitive advantage comes from three components - its brand, its consistency and its focus on technology.

The Starbucks brand is well known. The Starbucks logo with its iconic siren is one of the most recognized images in the world. Consumers around the world are likely to seek out a Starbucks to satisfy their coffee cravings simply because of the company's brand familiarity.

Starbucks also has a fantastic degree of consistency across its global operations. This comes from both its service and its product.

Starbucks' employees demonstrate an incredible amount of consistency when it comes to polite service, timely order fulfillment and the ability to create a positive social environment. Starbucks' products also have a great degree of consistency that is appreciated by its customers.

Anecdotally, I've seen this consistency firsthand. I've tasted Starbucks coffee in multiple cities across Canada, and it always tastes the same (delicious). The service is also pleasantly consistent.

Starbucks also enjoys a distinct competitive advantage from its investments in technology, which will pay it dividends in the years to come.

Starbucks Digital Flywheel

Source: Starbucks Investor Presentation

Starbucks markets its technology channel as the "Digital Flywheel," which is composed of three major components:

Rewards: By offering customers Star Points for making purchases at Starbucks locations, there is incentive for consumers to return.

Payments: Starbucks' customers are able to place and pay for orders using only their cell phones, which reduces labor costs and payment processing fees

Personalization: Customers who use the Starbucks app receive personalized offers with the goal of increasing sales and improving the customer's experience.







The best part?

Starbucks Mobile Opportunity

Source: Starbucks Investor Presentation

There is still a sizable opportunity for Starbucks to increase its mobile engagement with its customers. Only 60% of its customers are aware of the benefits of using Starbucks' mobile applications.

This kind of mobile engagement is rare in the restaurant industry and provides Starbucks with a distinct competitive advantage moving forward.

Valuation and expected returns

Based on 2016's earnings per share of $1.91 and Starbucks' current stock price of ~$57.65 (as of Dec. 19), the company's stock currently trades at a multiple of 30.2 times last year's earnings.

Analyst consensus for fiscal 2017 earnings per share for Starbucks is $2.15. This means that Starbucks trades at a multiple of 26.8 times next year's expected earnings.

Starbucks Valuation Analysis

Source: Value Line

Starbucks' recent valuation is higher than at any point since before the financial crisis. This is justified given its attractive growth prospects and promising total return opportunities.

On Dec. 7, Starbucks presented its "Five-Year Plan for Strong Global Growth Fueled by a Robust Pipeline of Innovation" at the Biennial Investor Conference.

In the presentation, the company announced its performance goals for the next five years:

Opening 12,000 new stores globally (to a total of 37,000).

10% annual revenue growth.

15% to 20% EPS growth.

Mid-single-digit annual growth in same-store sales.







If management fulfills its guidance outlined in its five-year strategic plan, then Starbucks' expected returns will be composed of:

Current dividend yield of 1.7%.

EPS growth of 15% to 20%.







That means total returns of 16.7% to 21.7%.

Keep in mind that the company currently trades at a premium relative to the Standard & Poor's 500 (which trades at 26 times earnings).

As Starbucks grows, the growth premium associated with its stock will likely disappear, resulting in a valuation reduction. Further, if management has difficulty in reaching its 15% to 20% EPS growth guidance, this will take away from Starbucks' returns.

Thus the 16.7% to 21.7% annual returns are likely a best-case scenario, and returns have the potential to be lower than that in reality.

Final thoughts

Starbucks is a fantastic business with a strong brand that provides a distinct competitive advantage.

The company has attractive growth prospects, mostly from its new Starbucks Reserve initiative and its focus on opening new locations in unpenetrated worldwide markets. It also has a unique technology platform that is unlike any of its peers.

While the company trades at a premium relative to the overall market, this is likely justified because of the business' strong growth prospects.

Starbucks is trading around fair value right now, but the company's earnings growth will likely outpace its share price growth - resulting in valuation contractions.

With all this in mind, I expect the total return of Starbucks to outpace the overall market over the long-term (five-plus years). This makes Starbucks a compelling addition for dividend investors focused more on future growth than current income.

Disclosure: I am not long any of the stocks mentioned in this article.

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This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has approved the possible sale to Norway of five P-8A surveillance aircraft and associated support worth an estimated $1.75 billion, a Pentagon agency said on Wednesday.

Boeing Co is the lead contractor in the sale, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement, adding that it notified the U.S. Congress of the possible sale on Tuesday. Other participants include BAE Systems PLC, General Electric Co, Northrop Grumman Corp and Raytheon Co, it said.

(Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
* Court orders Kosovo Telecom to pay 30 mln eur to smaller carrier

* The new country faces more arbitration court decisions

* Kosovo remains one of the poorest countries in Europe

By Fatos Bytyci

PRISTINA, Dec 21 (Reuters) - State-owned Kosovo Telcom might face bankruptcy after an arbitration court ruled it would have to pay 29.6 million euros ($30.8 million) to local mobile telecoms service provider Z-mobile for breach of contract, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Agron Mustafa said his company would appeal against the case and asked the government for help following the decision by the London Court of International Arbitration.

Once the country's most profitable state-owned company, Kosovo Telecom suffered a 63 percent drop in net profits in 2015 to 6 million euros ($6.2 million).

"This is one of the most dangerous decisions taken by a court at the expense of Kosovo Telecom and seriously threatens the future of the corporation - even with bankruptcy," Mustafa said in an email to Reuters.

Privately held Z-mobile won a contract in 2008 as a mobile virtual network operator to use Kosovo Telecom's network and technology but complained that the state company did not issue sufficient SIM cards and has refused to offer 3G and 4G mobile Internet services.

No one at Z-mobile could be reached for immediate comment.

Kosovo Telecom employs some 2,300 people and is the country's biggest mobile phone services provider with a 54 percent market share. Z-mobile has around 8 percent of the country's 1.88 million mobile subscribers.

The second-largest mobile operator is IPKO, owned by Telekom Slovenije, with a 38 percent market share.

Kosovo abandoned an attempt to privatise Kosovo Telecom in 2013 when its parliament blocked a sale to German telecoms and technology investment firm ACP Axos Capital Gmbh and U.S.-based investor Najafi Companies for 277 million euros.

A previous group of would-be investors walked away when corruption charges were filed against Kosovo Telecom managers and directors. The people were later cleared of the charges.

Axos is suing Kosovo's government over the failed sale and local media say it may win between 50 and 100 million euros from one of Europe's poorest countries. ($1 = 0.9613 euros) (Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Georgina Prodhan, Greg Mahlich)
Holiday travelers hoping to avoid a white Christmas better beware of areas across the U.S. that are expected to receive snow, because the Weather Channel predicted a slew of states across the North that are likely to see snowfall on Christmas Day.

Parts of the Northwest, through the Northern and Central Plains, Upper Mississippi Valley, Great Lakes and Northeast could see additional snowfall during the holidays while existing snow in those areas will continue to stick due to a persistently cold pattern remaining throughout the North.

Light snow may spread into the Northern Plains and northern Great Lakes region as early as Wednesday, thanks to a low-pressure system moving eastward from the Northwest. Although conditions will remain fairly mild, Upstate New York and northern New England may see increased snowfall as early as Wednesday night while another low-pressure system forming in the Southwest is expected to bring rain in areas like Pheonix and Los Angeles, the Weather Channel reported.

Temperatures will remain average across the country on Thursday, with mostly dry conditions in the Plains and the South while East Coast states from Maine to Florida will get a dry day Friday when the low-pressure system moves offshore. As for the West, a strong frontal system will bring rain and mountain snow in areas of Oregon and Washington on Friday.

Plenty of states are expected to receive rain on Christmas Eve including Texas, Louisiana and up to the Ohio Valley while Northeast and Southeast states like Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and the Carolinas may get freezing rain mixed with sleet and snow. As for the West, areas of the Rockies, Sierra, High Plains and possibly the higher terrain of the Four Corners may experience a winter storm, bringing cold and wet conditions on Saturday. The storm system will continue to move east, bringing rain to the Central and Southern Plains by Saturday night.

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As for Christmas Day, a storm system could bring heavy snow to middle America while the Rockies, Northern Plains and Upper Midwest could see a mix of snow and rain throughout the day. Farther south in the Plains, including areas of Oklahoma and Texas, could see a few thunderstorms on Christmas.

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The secret meeting was brief at the White House, and it involved a U.S. President and a King, of sorts. And even today, it generates more interest at the National Archives, in terms of image requests, than the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.

So why are people so obsessed with what happened on December 21, 1970, when presidential aide Egil Bud Krogh walked Elvis Presley into the Oval Office to meet Richard Nixon?

The seemingly spontaneous appearance at the White House had stunned Nixon staffers earlier in the day, when the rock legend appeared unannounced at the White Houses gates. Presley and the leader of the free world chatted for a few minutes, posed for pictures, and then Presley, his two aides and Krogh grabbed lunch at the White House dining room, in front of a bemused crowd.

The King soon left after getting a special badge from Nixon. The story was kept quiet for 13 months, at Presleys request. But columnist Jack Anderson broke the story nationally, and since then, the Nixon-Presley summit has become a legend.

One of the photos taken from the session has also achieved iconic status. It is available from the National Archives in various formats. (Unfortunately, the coffee mugs and T-shirts are out of stock online at the National Archives web store.)

There have been a few books written about the summit, one comedy movie filmed about it, and a new movie starts shooting this winter with Kevin Spacey starring as Nixon.

The whole idea of people popping into the White House was common back in the early 1800s. In one incident, Thomas Jefferson held an open house on New Years Day in 1802, which so inspired him that he finished a document called the Danbury letter that defined the separation of church and state in constitutional law. Another open house involving Andrew Jackson in 1829 ended up in a drunken riot of sorts.

But New Years Day receptions had ended in 1932 and the time had long past when someone could show up at the White House gates and request to see the President  unless you were Elvis Presley.

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Jerry Schilling was with Elvis on that fateful day, and it recounted it in 2010 in a panel discussion at the National Archives with Krogh. Schilling was a former Presley employee who was working at Paramount studios.

Apparently, Schilling said Elvis had a disagreement with his family in Memphis over the number of Christmas gifts he was buying, and on a whim, he grabbed an American Express card and jumped on a plane to meet Schilling, after a brief detour to Washington.

Jerry, I need you to come to Washington with me, Presley told Schilling. Schilling arranged for the day off, called Graceland to tell Presleys family he was safe, and the two grabbed a red-eye flight. Schilling didnt know why they were flying to Washington.

On the flight, Presley bumped into Senator George Murphy, and he sat back down with Schilling. Presley wrote a handwritten note on American Airlines stationary, addressed it to President Nixon and requested a meeting at the White House.

At 6:30 a.m., Presley walked out of a limo and went up to the White Houses northwest gate, and handed the letter to the guards, who recognized Presley in his purple outfit.

Krogh said he then got a call from Dwight Chapin, Nixons scheduling secretary, saying, the King is here. Chapin had called Krogh since Krogh was working on drug policy issues for Nixon and Presley wanted to help President Nixon solved the illegal drug use problem. Kroghs response was, what King, there arent any kings on the schedule.

Chapin sent the letter to Krogh, who called Presleys hotel to confirm it was really Elvis who wanted to see President Nixon. Chapin also sent a memo to Bob Haldeman, who responded, you must be kidding. Nevertheless, Haldeman approved the summit.

Presley, Schilling and Presleys bodyguard, Sonny West, then met with Krogh at the White House. Presley spoke about how he wanted to be made a federal agent at large and help in the war on drugs.

Krogh wrote talking points for the meeting, called Presleys team and asked them to come over at 11:45 a.m. The Secret Service then took possession of a gift of a gun from Presley to Nixon when it screened the visitors.

The meeting happened at 12:30 p.m., with just Nixon, Presley and Krogh in the Oval Office, along with a photographer. Presley showed Nixon some family photographs and his collection of law enforcement badges.

Krogh took notes as the two men spoke. Presley talked about how anti-American the Beatles had been recently, his study of Communist brainwashing techniques, and his desire to get a Narcotics Bureau badge. After Nixon agreed to get the badge for Presley, he surprised everyone by hugging President Nixon.

Nixon then agreed to meet Schilling and West briefly, and more pictures were taken. Presley and his friends received some cufflinks as a gift from Nixon. The summit ended, and the Presley entourage went to the White House mess.

Krogh said jaws dropped in the dining room as Presley entered and sat down to eat as they waited for the badge to be delivered. Then Elvis left the building after receiving the badge.

Several years later, Nixon recalled the meeting in a 1990 TV interview.

He was very flamboyant. I didnt know much about him except what I read. He was a very shy man. Flamboyance was covering up the shyness, Nixon said, who called Presley a very sincere and decent man.

Schilling summed up the appeal of the brief summit. I saw the most powerful man in the world,  and I saw in a meeting the most popular person in the world. 

The two connected and I think they really got the loneliness of their positions in the world, Schilling said, adding that Nixon and Presley kept in touch after the meeting.

If there is ever a true American story, I think that is one at the top.

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LAGOS, Nigeria (AP)  People danced in the streets in southern Nigeria on Wednesday, celebrating news that a British court has ordered the release of a former governor convicted of stealing more than $70 million from Nigeria's treasury.

James Ibori, governor of oil-rich Delta State from 1999 to 2007, was halfway through serving a 13-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to money-laundering and fraud.

British High Court Judge Juliet May on Wednesday ordered his immediate release based on supported allegations that police investigators took bribes and prosecutors covered it up.

In Nigeria, where corruption is endemic, Ibori supporters danced for joy and set off fireworks, saying they hoped he would be home for Christmas. His supporters say Ibori did good things in his state, and argue that his incarceration is unfair while other Nigerians accused of much worse crimes walk free. They point to a former national security adviser and others charged with diverting $2.1 billion meant to fight the Boko Haram Islamic insurgency that has killed more than 20,000 people and allegedly used for bribes to support former President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election.

Jonathan lost to President Muhammadu Buhari, who campaigned on a platform to end the gross corruption that emptied Nigerian coffers. Wednesday's judgment is another blow to Buhari's anti-corruption campaign in which hundreds have been detained but no one has been successfully prosecuted.

It was unclear Wednesday night if Ibori, 57, was free or under house arrest. Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper published photographs it said showed him free. A telephone operator at Bedford Prison, where he was held, said no officials were on duty to confirm his release.

The BBC reported that Home Secretary Amber Rudd did not intend to deport Ibori until he handed over 18 million pounds ($22 million) in "proceeds of crime." It said his release could complicate ongoing court proceedings to confiscate property including a $500,000 1962 Mercedes-Benz Maybach vehicle paid for in cash, a $2.6 million mansion in South Africa and a $383,000 British country property in Dorset.

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It's not known how much other money could have been hidden by Ibori, who has been linked to four offshore bank accounts including one in Switzerland used to buy a $20 million private jet, according to reports from the leaked Panama Papers.

Judge May criticized the "quite extraordinary" attempts by British officials to hold Ibori. "Why doesn't the secretary of state just send him back (home)?" the BBC quoted her as asking the court. "He wants to go. She wants him to go."

Ibori, who was a cashier in a do-it-yourself shop in London before he returned home and suddenly became incredibly wealthy, was a test case for the British Department for International Development's initiative to prosecute corrupt foreign officials. He was acquitted of corruption in Nigeria in 2009, arrested in Dubai in 2010 and extradited to Britain.

His prosecution was "highly politically motivated," Casely Omon-Ihabor, one of the lawyers who represented Ibori in his Nigeria trial, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

---

Associated Press reporters Bashir Adigun in Abuja and Hilary Uguru in Warri, Nigeria, contributed to this report.
This past October, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a report predicting that approximately one third of borrowers who had rehabilitated their federal student loans would default again over the next two years. The statistic is startling, especially if you consider the substantial effort borrowers must exert to complete the rehabilitation program to begin with and the significant consequences of defaulting again.

The Student Loan Ranger agrees with the bureau's estimate -- in fact, it may even be a little low.

[How to use rehabilitation to recover from student loan default.]

The real root of the problem, though, is not just a flawed transition between the successful conclusion of the rehabilitation program and the borrower's new repayment plan, as detailed in the bureau's report. Unfortunately, the Student Loan Ranger thinks t he very regulations that dictate rehabilitation may be setting borrowers up to fail.

Under rehabilitation , defaulted borrowers make nine consecutive, on-time payments in an amount agreed to by both the borrower and the loan holder, which at this point is either a collection agency or a guaranty agency, both of whom are working on behalf of the federal government.

Once the borrower has made those payments, the loan is back in good standing and is transferred back to a loan servicer. It is again eligible for things like income-driven repayment options, deferments and loan forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

[Know when it's OK to postpone your student loan payment.]

Two of the most beneficial aspects of rehabilitation are the removal of the default line from the borrower's credit report and the reduction of collection costs to 16 percent -- from as high as 24 percent for straight collections. In fact, if you start the rehabilitation program within 60 days of your initial default, there won't be any collection costs at all.

Under rules that came into effect last year, the borrower has two options for payment. The first requires the borrower to submit proof of income, at which point the loan holder determines a payment equal to 15 percent of the borrower's adjusted gross income minus an amount equal to 150 percent of the poverty line for the borrower's family size. This is the exact calculation that is used under the income - based repayment plan that most nondefaulted federal loan borrowers are eligible for.

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[Learn the timeline of federal student loan delinquency, default consequences.]

If the borrower can't afford that amount, the loan holder is required under the new rules to offer a recalculated amount based on the borrower's expenses and income. This option allows the borrower to submit a financial hardship form, where the borrow fills out his or her current expenses, including housing, food, clothing, etc.

Those expenses are taken into account and a new, often lower, payment amount is offered. The payment under either option can be as low as $5 per month.

And here lies the breakdown and the real issue with the anticipated redefaults. Once the borrower is finished with his or her nine-month rehabilitation payments and resumes regular repayment with a loan servicer, the borrower has no repayment options available for nondefaulted loans that will take expenses into account when determining the borrower's required monthly payment amount. Income is considered but not expenses.

Consider that, under the rehabilitation plan, the first calculated payment is the same as for an income-driven repayment plan -- often one of the lowest payment options available for nondefaulted loans -- and that the borrower has stated she can't afford . As such, she's essentially set up to fail after rehabilitation by being given the lower, recalculated payment amount in the rehabilitation plan because she will not be able to duplicate that payment once out of default.

If she does default again , collection costs are charged again for a total that can result in almost half of the loan balance and the inability to rehabilitate that loan a second time.

It's important to note that the recalculated rehabilitation amount was recently enacted with good intentions for the consumer. Advocates of the change wanted to ensure that rehabilitation options and benefits were available to all borrowers regardless of financial situation.

Full disclosure: The Student Loan Ranger was one of the negotiators at the negotiated rulemaking session that put this rule into place. While we voiced our concerns about setting borrowers up to redefault, we certainly agreed with the intent behind the rule change.

We agree with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that the transition between the conclusion of a successful rehabilitation program and the borrower 's new servicer and payment plan needs additional hand-holding, but we feel strongly that this alone will not stop the predicted redefaults.

We urge borrowers at the beginning of the rehabilitation process to ensure they know what their payments will be after default and determine if they can afford them. If not, it may actually be better for the borrower to stay in default for a little while longer, until his or her financial situation improves, rather than risk the consequences of defaulting a second time.

Betsy Mayotte, director of consumer outreach and compliance for American Student Assistance, regularly advises consumers on planning and paying for college. Mayotte, who received a B.S. in business communications from Bentley College, responds to public inquiries via the advice resource "Just Ask" and is frequently quoted in traditional and social media on the topics of student loans and financial aid.
Probe Pariyars death, says NHRC

The National Human Rights Commission said on Tuesday that it had made a ground observation on the death of Laxmi Pariyar of Kavre district and urged the government to provide compensation to her family.
Calista Flockhart might reprise her role as Cat Grant in the latter half of Supergirl Season 2.

Although Flockart is not currently confirmed to appear in any additional Season 2 episodes of the CW series, TVLine recently reported that theres talk for the Golden Globe-winning actress to have a short-term comeback on the Melissa Benoist-led show in the spring.

Cat was last seen in Season 2, episode 2, titled The Last Children of Krypton. At the end of the episode, Cat decided to take a leave of absence from CatCo Worldwide Media to find bigger and better things to do. Before she left CatCo, Cat promoted James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) to be her stand-in while shes away.

Flockhart was a series regular in Season 1, but after the production of the show was moved from Los Angeles to Vancouver, she and Warner Bros. TV reached an agreement that she would only return for Season 2 as recurring guest star.

According to Deadline, keeping Flockhart onboard with the new filming location had been an issue as the Ally McBeal alum was not willing to move with her family from Los Angeles to Vancouver. Although she was not obligated to continue, Flockhart decided not to quit, so the studio will fly her to Vancouver every few weeks or so.

Supergirl wouldnt be Supergirl without the amazing Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant, said executive producer Andrew Kreisberg in a statement. We are so excited Calista has agreed to continue on the show when she can. We and the audience love to see her on screen.

Would you like to see Flockhart appear in more episodes of Supergirl this season? Let us know in the comments below!

Supergirl is currently on its midseason hiatus. Its next episode (Season 2, episode 9), titled Supergirl Lives, airs on Monday, Jan. 23, 2017 at 8 p.m. EST on The CW. Check out a sneak peek from the Kevin Smith-directed episode below:

Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant

Photo: The CW

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PARIS (AP)  The Tunisian now wanted throughout Europe has six aliases, three nationalities  and links to the same brand of Islamic extremism that has drawn at least 6,000 of his countrymen to jihadi networks.

Anis Amri, who turns 24 on Thursday, is in grim company with other Tunisians claimed by the Islamic State group. One of them includes the man who mowed down 86 Bastille Day revelers in the southern French city of Nice last July and another who gunned down dozens of tourists on a beach in Tunisia.

At least 6,000 Tunisians have left home to join Islamic State extremists, forming the single largest nationality of foreign fighters for the group. Many trained at IS camps in neighboring Libya. Others made their way to Syria and Iraq.

It's still not known whether Amri had direct links to Islamic State, but the extremist group claimed responsibility for the Monday night truck attack on the Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead and 48 injured.

Amri's wallet was found inside the cab of the truck, and German authorities on Wednesday issued a warrant for him, listing three different nationalities and six different names and birthdays that he presumably provided.

His birthdate is officially listed in the warrant as Dec. 22, 1992, according to a version obtained by The Associated Press. In a pair of photos, he has a sparse beard and no mustache.

Tunisian anti-terror police interrogated Amri's relatives Wednesday in the central Tunisian town of Oueslatia, a spokesman, Sofiane Selliti, told The Associated Press. He did not say how many family members were present.

Amri's father told Tunisia's Mosaique FM radio that his son left his homeland about seven years ago, spent four years in a prison in Italy after being accused in a fire at a school there then moved to Germany more than a year ago. The father said he had no contact with his son, although Amri's brothers did.

Mosaique FM cited security officials as saying that Amri had been convicted in absentia for aggravated theft with violence in Tunisia and sentenced to five years in prison. No dates were given.

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After his prison time in Italy, Amri was ordered expelled, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. However, Tunisian authorities didn't finish all the paperwork in time, so Amri never was sent back to Tunisia.

The suspect's family lives in poverty and his parents are divorced, according to Mosaique FM radio.

State prosecutors in Berlin launched an investigation of Amri on March 14 following a tip from federal security agencies, who warned that he might be planning a break-in to finance the purchase of automatic weapons for use in a possible future attack.

Surveillance showed that Amri did deal drugs in a notorious Berlin park and was involved in a bar brawl, but no evidence was found to substantiate the original warning.

The surveillance measures were called off in September.

Separately, Amri's asylum application was rejected in July. German authorities prepared to deport him but weren't able to do so because he didn't have valid identity papers.

As for the Berlin attack, it's not the first time a suspect has discarded identifying documents in a vehicle. The attackers who carried out the 2015 massacre at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris did so, as did one of the Nov. 13 attackers in Paris and the Tunisian truck attacker in Nice, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. In all of those cases, the attackers were killed.

"It could be to kind of leave a trace and strengthen potential claims of responsibility," Otso Iho, an analyst with IHS Jane's, said of the abandoned ID documents.

Amarnath Amarasingam, a scholar at George Washington University's program on extremism, says he believes Amri did have ties with the Islamic State group.

"The fact that ISIS took credit for the attack before the attacker was arrested signals to me that he was in direct communication with someone in ISIS," he wrote in an email to the AP. "We can probably expect a video or a statement from the attacker himself fairly soon."

___

Bouazza Ben Bouazza in Tunis, Elaine Ganley in Paris and Frances D'Emilio in Rome contributed.
The suspect German police were pursuing this week in connection with a truck attack that killed 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market Monday had links to a Salafist preacher, according to German media reports. German authorities found an identity document belonging to a Tunisian man, named only as Anis A., who entered Germany and applied for asylum in July 2015 having initially arrived in Italy in 2012, reported Suddeutsche Zeitung.

The suspect was believed to have previously come to the attention of German authorities because of links to Salafist groups in western Germany, including to Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A, known as Abu Walaa, or the faceless preacher. Abu Walaa was arrested last month as part of a crackdown by German authorities on extremist Salafists, who they believe were radicalizing young Muslims in the country. Abu Walaa is alleged to have given sermons encouraging people to travel to Syria to fight for the Islamic State group.

The rise of ISIS in recent years has sparked fresh awareness of Salafism. The word salaf in Arabic means ancient one, which offers a key insight into the ideology behind the movement. The followers of the ultra-conservative branch of Sunni Islam seek a return to the ancient traditions of Islam, to purify it of anything that wasnt explicitly condoned by the Prophet Muhammad or upheld by his immediate followers. The rules are strict and pertain to all matters of daily life. Gender segregation is also strict and the rights of women extremely limited.

German truck attack

Photo: Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch

But Salafism in itself is not violent or even political. Indeed, historically, Salafists shunned political involvement and criticized political groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, with the movement instead focused on the purification of their individual lives.

However, in the wake of the Arab Spring and the power vacuum that emerged in several countries across the Middle East, Salafist political groups sprung up as did networks of Salafist-jihadists.

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The extreme form of Salafism rejects both involvement in modern politics and all forms of Western influence, but advocate extreme violence in their attempts to create a society that returns to a centuries-old version of Islam.

In the aftermath of the Tunisian revolution six years ago a growing Salafist problem emerged in southern Tunisia. The suspect in the Berlin truck attack is reported to have been born in the southern Tunisian city of Tataouine.

Meanwhile, German authorities last month reported that the total number of Salafists in the country had risen to 7,900. However, Germans have been urged not to see all Salafists as violent.

We make a distinction between the purist Salafists, who live out their ideology for themselves, and who romanticize it a little, then there are the missionary Salafists, who officially reject violence," Aylin Yavas of Ufuq, an organization which provides education about Islam and aims to counter Salafist extremism told German outlet Deutsche Welle."Then the third group are the ones that are prepared to carry out violence - but not even all of those are necessarily jihadists. They might join violent protests, but would not carry out terrorist attacks. It's a relatively small scene  both the violent and the non-violent Salafists  but they do have a big reach, at least on social media.

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A suspect in the disappearance of former Bridalplasty contestant Lisa Marie Naegle has been arrested, and the case is being treated as a homicide, TheWrap has learned.

LAPD detectives and the L.A. Coroners office headed to the suspects home on Tuesday afternoon, where Naegles body is expected to be found, according to the LAPDs public information office.

Jackie Jerome Rogers was detained for questioning by police after Naegle was reported missing on Monday. Security camera footage from the restaurant where she was last seen reportedly showed Naegle getting into Rogers car early Sunday morning.

Also Read: Former 'Bridalplasty' Contestant Goes Missing, Police Detain 'Person of Interest'

According to TMZ, Rogers confessed to killing Naegle with a hammer and burying her in his backyard in Inglewood, California.

Naegle disappeared after attending a birthday party at the Alpine Village Restaurant in Torrance, California, on Saturday night. She did not return home that night, and did not show up to her job as a nurse the following day.

Also Read: A&E's 'Generation KKK' Docuseries Ignites Backlash Before It Even Airs (Video)

Naegles husband, Derek Harryman, told KTLA that his wife sounded drunk when they spoke on the phone, and that he and her family reported her missing on Monday after reviewing the security camera footage from the restaurant. Theres video footage that was just discovered from Alpine Village within the last hour showing my wife getting into a black SUV, Harryman said.

TMZ reported on Tuesday that Rogers, who was at the bar with Naegle on Saturday, was being held on suspicion of murder. LAPD confirmed that they had detained and questioned a person of interest in the case, but did not release any further details.

Also Read: LAPD Arrest Suspect for Vandalizing Donald Trump Walk of Fame Star

Naegle competed on the E! reality series Bridalplasty in 2010. The widely criticized show saw 12 brides-to-be competing for a wedding and a complete plastic surgery makeover.

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Related stories from TheWrap:

Former 'Bridalplasty' Contestant Goes Missing, Police Detain 'Person of Interest'

Judge Reinhold Released From Jail After Dallas Airport Arrest

'Young and the Restless' Alum Corey Sligh Arrested for Child Molestation
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  Ikea, the leading home furnishings retailer, has warned that teenagers who have illegal sleepovers in their stores are guilty of trespassing.

Spokeswoman Johanna Iritz says Ikea has recorded about 10 such incidents in the past year in the United States, Canada, Britain, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, Australia and Poland.

Swedish media say the trend likely started when teenagers spent the night in an Ikea store in Belgium in August, then posted a video of their exploits.

Iritz told The Associated Press Wednesday trespassers often hid in wardrobes when stores close. She said Ikea takes the sleepovers "seriously" and that "we can't guarantee safety."

Iritz said the fun was "overrated," adding a night at Ikea ends with "getting into trouble with the law."

It was unclear whether anyone had been prosecuted.
ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's Office of the Attorney General has convicted the Brazilian company Odebrecht SA and one of its subsidiaries of inadequate corporate organisation in connection with the Petrobras affair, it said on Wednesday.

"The conviction, which takes the form of a summary penalty order, is part of a coordinated conclusion to the proceedings, initiated by Switzerland and also involving Brazil and the USA," the OAG said in a statement.

Odebrecht and its CNO unit have to pay Switzerland 117 million Swiss francs (92.29 million pound). Swiss proceedings against another Brazilian company, Braskem SA, have been dropped but the company will pay compensation of 94.5 million francs, it added.

(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Michael Shields)
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A seven-year-old Syrian girl who drew global attention with her Twitter updates from besieged Aleppo met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at his palace in Ankara on Wednesday.

Photographs released on Erdogan's official Twitter account showed the president hugging Bana Alabed as she sat on his lap.

Bana and her mother Fatemah were evacuated safely along with 25,000 other people from the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo this week. Turkey has supported rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"I was pleased to host @AlabedBana and her family at the Presidential Complex today. Turkey will always stand with the people of Syria," Erdogan said on his official Twitter account.

Helped by her mother, who manages the @AlabedBana account, Bana Alabed has uploaded pictures and videos of life during the nearly six-year-old Syrian war, gaining around 352,000 followers on the micro-blogging site since September.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said when Bana and her mother were evacuated from Aleppo that she would be brought to Turkey with her family. [nL5N1EE4A9]

The eventual departure of thousands left in Aleppo's insurgent zone will hand full control of the city to Assad, the biggest prize of the nearly six-year-old civil war. [nL5N1EG27D]

(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by David Dolan and Mark Heinrich)
Ankara (AFP) - Seven-year-old Bana al-Abed, whose Twitter account gave a tragic description of the bombing of Aleppo in Syria, on Wednesday met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his palace in Ankara after her evacuation from the city.

Erdogan hugged the girl emotionally and also held Bana and her brother as they sat on his knees flanked by the president's wife Emine.

"Very happy to meet with Mr Erdogan," Bana wrote on a tweet above a picture of her nestling up to the cheek of the smiling Erdogan.

The young Syrian girl was one of thousands of people evacuated from once rebel-held areas of Aleppo in the last days under a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia.

She was evacuated on Monday and Turkish officials promised then she would come to Turkey with her family. But it was not clear when she had crossed over.

"Thank you for the help in saving the children of Aleppo from the war. I love you very much," Bana told Erdogan according to the presidency.

- 'Stand by Syria' -

For her 330,000 online followers, Bana is a symbol of the tragedy unfolding in Syria, although Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has slammed her and her mother's nearly daily tweets as propaganda.

Her mother Fatemah, who runs the account @AlabedBana, was also in attendance on Tuesday, the Turkish presidency said.

"I was pleased to host @AlabedBana and her family at the Presidential Complex today," Erdogan said in his own tweet.

"Turkey will always stand with the people of Syria," he added.

Turkey is hosting some 2.7 million refugees from the Syria conflict but has made clear it now prefers to look after those recently displaced, who are not injured, on the Syrian side of the border.

However it makes exceptions for special cases and the wounded. It was not immediately clear if Bana would be staying in Turkey.

Bana's account has posted pictures of the destruction in Aleppo including her rubble-littered street, while people have tweeted messages of support and concern, notably fearing for her life when tweets became less frequent.

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At least 15,000 children are among the more than 300,000 people who have been killed in Syria's near six-year war.

In her last tweet with her mother Fatemah before the evacuation, Bana made an appeal to Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to put a fragile ceasefire back on track after frequent delays.

"We have brought the hope and symbol of the children of Aleppo, Bana, and her family to our country," tweeted Cavusoglu. "What could be more beautiful than the smile of a child?."
Ruling parties yet to invite CPN-UML for dialogue

As time ticks on the timeframe handed by Speaker Onasari Gharti to three major parties to end the current impasse in Parliament, resuming House business appears to be a tough nut to crack as formal talks between the government and the main opposition have yet to start.
By J.R. Wu and Ben Blanchard TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Taiwan accused China of using Sao Tome and Principe's financial woes to push its "one China" policy after the small West African state ended ties with the self-ruled island, with Taipei saying the move would not help relations across the Taiwan Strait. China's claims to Taiwan have shot back into the spotlight since U.S. President-elect Donald Trump broke diplomatic protocol and spoke with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen earlier this month, angering Beijing. Trump has also questioned the "one China" policy which the United States has followed since assuming relations with Beijing in 1979, under which Washington acknowledges China's position that Taiwan is part of China. The election of Tsai from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party earlier this year infuriated Beijing, which suspects she wants to push for the island's formal independence, though she says she wants to maintain peace with China. Taiwan Foreign Minister David Lee said Taipei would not engage in "dollar diplomacy" after Sao Tome's decision. "We think the Beijing government should not use Sao Tome's financing black hole ... as an opportunity to push its 'one China' principle," Lee told a news conference in Taipei on Wednesday. "This behaviour is not helpful to a smooth cross-Strait relationship." Taiwan's presidential office said China's use of Sao Tome's financial woes to push its "one China" policy would harm stability across the Taiwan Strait. "This is absolutely not beneficial to the long-term development of cross-Strait relations," it said in a statement. In Beijing, China welcomed the move, without explicitly saying it had established formal relations with the former Portuguese colony or making any mention of a request for financial aid. "We have noted the statement from the government of Sao Tome and Principe on the 20th to break so-called 'diplomatic' ties with Taiwan. China expresses appreciation of this, and welcomes Sao Tome back onto the correct path of the 'one China' principle," the ministry said in a statement. China says Taiwan has no right to diplomatic recognition as it is part of China, and the issue is an extremely sensitive one for Beijing. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan at the end of a civil war in 1949 and Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. In Africa, only Burkina Faso and Swaziland now maintain formal ties with Taiwan. President Tsai will visit Central American allies Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador next month. "We now have 21 allies left. We must cherish them," Lee said. China and Taiwan had for years tried to poach each other's allies, often dangling generous aid packages in front of developing nations. But they began an unofficial diplomatic truce after signing a series of landmark trade and economic agreements in 2008 following the election of the China-friendly Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan's president. Sao Tome and Principe's tiny island economy is heavily dependent on cocoa exports but its position in the middle of the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea has raised interest in its potential as a possible future oil and gas producer. Diplomatic sources in Beijing have previously said Sao Tome was likely high on China's list of countries to lure away from Taiwan. In 2013, Sao Tome said China planned to open a trade mission to promote projects there, 16 years after it broke off relations over Sao Tome's diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. (Editing by Lincoln Feast)
Kabul (AFP) - Taliban gunmen stormed the residence of an Afghan lawmaker in the capital Kabul on Wednesday, with casualties feared in the ongoing gun battle that follows a recent lull in violence.

It was not immediately clear if Helmand MP Mir Wali was in the compound when the attack began on Wednesday evening, but local media reported some members of his family may have been killed or taken hostage, citing security officials at the scene.

The Taliban in a statement said their suicide bombers raided the house to disrupt an "important gathering of security officials".

Sporadic gunfire and explosions were heard from the house as Afghan forces cordoned off the property after launching a clearance operation.

Security officials were tight-lipped about the attack, which underscores the worsening security situation in Afghanistan.

The Taliban are escalating their insurgency despite the onset of winter, when fighting usually ebbs, even as international efforts intensify to restart stalled peace talks.

Fifteen years and hundreds of billions of dollars since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the security situation in the country remains fraught and Afghan forces are struggling to contain the conflict.
Flip or Flop stars Christina and Tarek El Moussa were open about dating other people since they announced their split Dec. 13, but some were surprised to find out Tarek was dating Alyssa Logan, a nanny. The common misconception was that she was a nanny for the El Moussas two children, Taylor and Brayden. While Logan is a nanny, she never took care of the 6-year-old and 16-month-old for the HGTV stars.

Yes, he dated a nanny, an insider told People Magazine Saturday. To be clear this was someone he hired to help when he had the kids after the separation. This was not the nanny theyve had for years. The source added: Christina feels awful that people think its her nanny.

The rumor started with TMZ Saturday, who first reported Logan, 23, took care of the children and performed household chores. The publication noted it wasnt scandalous like Jude Law or Gavin Rossdale, who famously hooked up with their nannies, because Logan and Tarek didnt get together until September, 4 months after he split from Christina.

More, Tarek supposedly fired Logan when he started to have feelings for her. After she wasnt an employee, their romantic relationship blossomed, TMZ wrote.

The new couple was spotted together for the first time in public at Florida Georgia Line in October. But theyre not together anymore. The couple broke up last month.

The El Moussas didnt immediately announce their May breakup because they arent Hollywood in the spotlight kind of people, an insider told People Magazine in a different article from Dec. 15.

They waited until Monday to make their split public Dec. 13. Like many couples, we have had challenges in our marriage, the pair said in the statement. We had an unfortunate misunderstanding about six months ago and the police were called to our house in an abundance of caution. There was no violence and no charges were filed. During the process, we are committed to our kids and being the best parents we can be.

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Tarek El Moussa x

Photo: Getty Images

Follow me on Twitter @mariamzzarella

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By Hugh Bronstein BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Protesters and police clashed on Wednesday outside a courthouse in northern Argentina where a social activist is on trial for offenses including corruption, while her lawyers asked the Supreme Court to free her on human rights grounds. Fists flew as supporters of Milagro Sala, leader of the Tupac Amaru social welfare group in Jujuy province, tried to push past police who used choke holds to keep the crowd at bay. It was part of a series of hearings on charges ranging from intimidation to corruption. She has denied the allegations and said she is a victim of political persecution. Sala's lawyers asked the Supreme Court in Buenos Aires to free her based on recommendations from United Nations and Organization of American States human rights committees that said she has been arbitrarily detained for nearly a year. The case, and the international attention it has gathered, has been a headache for President Mauricio Macri as he tries to improve Argentina's image and attract foreign investment needed to help pull the country out of recession. Sala, whose organization is allied with Macri's predecessor and political foe Cristina Fernandez, has long been accused by opponents of skimming public housing monies that she had received in cash under the previous Jujuy governor. Soon after Macri ally Gerardo Morales became governor a year ago, he changed Jujuy's welfare distribution system to tighten controls. Sala was protesting the change in January when she was arrested by provincial authorities and charged with sedition. Rights groups branded this a violation of free speech and the sedition charge was quickly replaced by accusations of corruption. But Sala's allies said the switch looked like a maneuver aimed simply at keeping her behind bars. "Like everyone else, Milagro Sala should be prosecuted if she has committed serious crimes, but the Jujuy justice system must ensure that her basic due process guarantees are respected," Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of Human Rights Watch, told Reuters. Early this month, the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights called on Argentina to release Sala. The commission, part of the OAS, said Argentina should "give prompt attention" to recommendations from a U.N. body in October that called Sala's pre-trial detention "unwarranted and arbitrary." The case threatens to dent Macri's authority as one of the region's chief critics of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom he accuses of holding political prisoners. Macri's government has said the Sala case is a local one to be resolved in Jujuy. But if the Supreme Court rules that Sala's initial detention was unlawful, it could turn up the pressure on Macri to find a solution. Eduardo Tavani, coordinator of Sala's legal committee told Reuters in a telephone interview that "the court will have to make a ruling on the arbitrary nature of Milagro's detention." Leftist activists stopped rush hour traffic on Buenos Aires' main avenue Nueve de Julio in a protest supporting Sala late Wednesday afternoon. Macri fanned the controversy early this month when he said "the majority of Argentines" believe Sala should be tried for "a number of important crimes" but the president did not provide evidence for his assertions. "Macri says Milagro is in jail because most people think she should be," said Hector Recalde, a congressman from Fernandez's Victory Front party. "That's about the same as a lynching." (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; editing by Grant McCool)
By Thanarith Satrusayang BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand and China are in talks about building military production facilities in Thailand, a Thai defense ministry spokesman said on Wednesday, the latest sign of warming relations between China and America's oldest ally in Asia. Relations between Thailand and the United States cooled following a May 2014 military coup that the Thai military said was necessary to end months of unrest, including street protests that led to the ouster of an elected government. The United States has said relations cannot return to normal until democracy is restored. The generals running Thailand have promised an election for 2017. Since the coup, the military government has sought to counterbalance U.S. ties by developing relations with China and Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan met his Chinese counterpart, Chang Wanquan, during a visit to Beijing last week. "The defense minister told his Chinese counterpart that we are interested in setting up facilities to repair and maintain the Chinese equipment we currently have in our arsenal," ministry spokesman Kongcheep Tantravanich told Reuters. "We will also look to their expertise in producing small arms and other security-related equipment like drones," he said. Thailand has also held talks with Russia about setting up similar production facilities, said Kongcheep, without giving details. Following the 2014 coup, the U.S. froze security and defense aid to Thailand. It has also scaled back annual military exercises citing concern about Thailand's political development. Donald Trump's election victory has also raised questions about prospects for a U.S. "pivot" toward Asia, a central policy of outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama. "If the U.S. is unable to back up its regional role ... the regional states have no other choice but to accommodate Beijing," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political science professor at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. Kongcheep said military relations with the United States were expected to get back on track after Thailand's election. "The relationship is not yet perfect," he said. "Once Thailand returns to democracy, I expect the relationship to return to normal." (Reporting by Thanarith Satrusayang; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre, Robert Birsel)
Swiss envoy calls on DPM Nidhi

Swiss Ambassador Jorg Giovanni Frieden paid a courtesy call on Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Bimalendra Nidhi at the latters office in Singha Durbar on Tuesday.
STONEHENGE, England (Reuters) - More than five thousand pagans, druids and revelers gathered at Britain's ancient monument Stonehenge on Wednesday to celebrate the winter solstice. The sun rose at the site of the famed standing stones in the southwest English county of Wiltshire at 1:09 p.m. ET, beginning the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. People played musical instruments, while others sang and took photographs of the rising sun which will provide just under eight hours of sunlight on Wednesday, said English Heritage, which protects the historical site. Thursday marks the start of longer days before the summer solstice in June. "I am from South Africa, I came for the solstice, especially for the solstice. I am a Pagan, a witch and this is about the best place to be," one woman said. (This version of the story was refiled to fix a typo in the second paragraph) (Writing by Patrick Johnston; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
By Ellen Francis and Lisa Barrington BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appeared close to victory in Aleppo on Wednesday, but United Nations and rebel officials denied that an operation to evacuate fighters and civilians from the city had been completed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war, said Assad had control of Aleppo after the last fighters were brought out of the city and only one small position on the western outskirts remained in rebel hands. But a U.N. official in Syria, asked about the Observatory report, told Reuters: "That is not something we can confirm. Evacuations are still ongoing." A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army rebel alliance, Osama Abu Zaid, told an Arab news channel that evacuations had been slowed by bad weather and would continue into the night. Aid workers also said the evacuation was not yet finished, while in Washington the State Department said it could not confirm that all rebel fighters had left. For Assad, the biggest prize of Syria's nearly six-year-old civil war would be the fighters' departure, ending a battle which the Observatory said had cost the lives of 21,500 civilians in and around the city. Earlier, buses carrying civilians and fighters began leaving Aleppo's last rebel-held enclave after being held up for a day. People had been waiting in freezing temperatures since the evacuation hit problems on Tuesday, when dozens of buses were stuck in Aleppo, and the evacuation of two Shi'ite villages outside the city, al-Foua and Kefraya, also stalled. Rebels and government forces blamed each other for the hold-up. Charity Save the Children said heavy snow was hampering efforts to help injured children. "Many have had to have limbs amputated because they did not receive care on time, and far too many are weak and malnourished," a statement said. One 5-month-old girl had two broken legs, a broken arm and an open wound in her stomach, the statement said. Many of those who had escaped Aleppo were sleeping in unheated buildings or tents in sub-zero temperatures. Children have been separated from their parents in the chaos as they run to get food when they get off the buses, the charity said. EVACUATION PLAN With obstructions to the evacuation plan apparently overcome, a news service run by the Lebanese group Hezbollah said 20 buses carrying fighters and their families moved from east Aleppo on Wednesday toward rebel-held countryside. Syrian TV said a number of buses arrived in government-controlled parts of the city from al-Foua and Kefraya. Government forces had insisted the two villages must be included in the deal to bring people out of east Aleppo. So far, about 30,000 people have been evacuated from Aleppo, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Aleppo's rebel zone is a wasteland of flattened buildings, rubble and bullet-pocked walls, where tens of thousands lived until recent days under intense bombardment even after medical and rescue services had collapsed. Rebel-held parts of the once-flourishing economic center with its renowned ancient sites have been pulverized in a war which has killed more than 300,000, created the world's worst refugee crisis and allowed for the rise of Islamic State. But in the western part of the city, held throughout the war by the government, there were big street parties on Tuesday night, along with the lighting of a Christmas tree, as residents celebrated the end of fighting. Syrian state TV said on Wednesday the army would enter the last remaining rebel-held sector of Aleppo as soon as all fighters had left. That would be a major victory for Assad, and his main allies Iran and Russia, against rebels who have defied him in Syria's most populous city for four years. U.N. MONITORS EVACUATION The United Nations had said it had sent 20 more staff to east Aleppo to monitor the evacuation. Assad's government is backed by Russian air power and Shi'ite militias including Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and Iraq's Harakat al-Nujaba. The mostly Sunni rebels include groups supported by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies. For four years, the city was split between a rebel-held east and government-held west. During the summer, the army and allied forces besieged the rebel sector before using intense bombardment and ground assaults to retake it in recent months. Russian air strikes enabled Assad's forces to press the siege of eastern Aleppo to devastating effect. Shi'ite militias from as far afield as Afghanistan also played an important role. But even with victory in Aleppo, Assad still faces great challenges. While he controls the most important cities in western Syria and on the coast, armed groups including Islamic State control swathes of territory elsewhere in the country. (Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Writing by Angus McDowall and Peter Millership; Editing by Giles Elgood)
Indonesian police have foiled plans by an IS-linked group for a Christmas-time suicide bombing after killing three suspected militants Wednesday and discovering a cache of bombs, authorities said.

A firefight erupted at a house in South Tangerang 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of the capital Jakarta, with police saying the alleged militants had opened fire at officers.

"We asked the three men to surrender but they fought, with one of them throwing a bomb (at officers). Thankfully the bomb didn't explode and we took firm action against them," said national police spokesman Rikwanto, who goes by one name.

He said the group to which the three belong, which is linked to the Islamic State group (IS), had planned to stab a police officer at a police station and wait for crowds to gather before launching a suicide bomb attack around the Christmas holidays.

The targeted location is near a private hospital west of Jakarta, police added.

Bomb squad officers in protective gear have so far detonated six bombs seized from the house and more are expected to be blown up before investigators can enter the building. Police have yet to disclose the total number of bombs discovered on Wednesday.

The plot was disclosed by a group member who was arrested earlier on Wednesday and tipped off police about the three militants and their whereabouts, police said.

The raid came less than two weeks after police arrested four Islamic militants including a female suicide bomber in Bekasi east of Jakarta. They were plotting to bomb one of the guard posts at the presidential palace.

Police said the men in South Tangerang have links to the Bekasi group and to Bahrun Naim, a leading Indonesian militant fighting with IS in Syria who was allegedly responsible for several botched assaults in his homeland.

"These groups are linked to ISIS. Some recruit, some donate, some assemble the bombs and some carried out the attack," another national police spokesman Martinus Sitompul said, using another acronym for IS.

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- Easy target -

A security analyst said Indonesians fighting for IS in Syria appeared to have designated the Philippines the safe house for IS-related groups in the region. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, had become the main target of terror attacks.

"Indonesia is easier to be a target because (the militants) think it's easier here. Law enforcement is weak and it's easy to get a fake ID," analyst Al Chaidar told AFP.

Police said investigations are continuing into the larger network and its agenda.

In separate raids police also arrested two suspected militants on Sumatra island. It was not clear whether they were part of the group that plotted the Christmas attack.

Nearly a year ago a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Starbucks cafe while others blew up a police post and attacked police in Jakarta's main thoroughfare, in the first attack claimed by IS in Southeast Asia.

The attack killed four civilians and four militants.

Indonesia suffered a string of deadly homegrown attacks during the 2000s -- including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed over 200 people.

A sustained crackdown has weakened many of the most dangerous extremist networks but there have been fears of a resurgence in militancy.
By Tulay Karadeniz and Orhan Coskun ANKARA (Reuters) - Clashes between Turkish-backed Syrian rebels and Islamic State militants intensified around the northern Syrian town of al-Bab on Wednesday, killing 14 Turkish soldiers and 138 jihadists, the army said. The fighting, in which 33 Turkish soldiers were also wounded, is some of the deadliest yet in Turkey's nearly four-month-old "Euphrates Shield" operation in northern Syria. "The operation to control al Bab, which is being besieged under the Euphrates Shield Operation, is ongoing," the army said in a statement. The military had said earlier that the rebel forces, which have been launching attacks on Islamic State fighters in al-Bab for weeks, had largely established control over the strategic area around the town's hospital. "Once this area has been seized, Daesh's dominance of al-Bab will to a large extent be broken," it said in an earlier statement on Wednesday, using an Arabic acronym for the group. Islamic State was using suicide bombers and vehicle-borne explosives intensively, it added. Turkey's military was pressing on with the operation after its foreign minister and his Russian and Iranian counterparts said in Moscow on Tuesday that they were ready to help broker a deal to end Syria's almost six-year-old war. The talks came as Syrian government forces neared their biggest victory in the conflict, closing in on the last rebel enclave in the long-embattled city of Aleppo. Some 30 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the course of the operation, which was launched to push Islamic State and a Kurdish militia away from Syria's border with Turkey. The military had said that some of the intensive fighting on Wednesday had been centred on a hospital area, on the slope of a hill overlooking al-Bab that had long been used by Islamic State as a weapons and ammunition store. Turkish air strikes on Wednesday destroyed 67 Islamic State targets, the military said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported fierce clashes at the southwestern edges of al-Bab, with some rebel advances there. It said that Turkish air strikes in the area had killed seven people in al-Bab. Islamic State has killed a total of 42 fighters from Euphrates Shield, including at least 10 Turkish soldiers, the Observatory added. The Euphrates Shield operation is largely focused on combating Islamic State, but Ankara is also determined to prevent the Kurdish YPG militia, which it sees as a hostile force, from linking cantons it controls along the border. (Additional reporting by Ellen Francis and Lisa Barrington in Beirut; Writing by Daren Butler and David Dolan; editing by Ralph Boulton; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Gareth Jones)
Tilda Swinton has responded back to comedian Margaret Cho's claims that the two engaged in a "fight" during an open discussion they had over the issue of whitewashing in Hollywood.

Cho previously revealed on Bobby Lee's TigerBelly podcast that Swinton had reached out to her to gain a deeper understanding about the public backlash surrounding her casting as the Ancient One in Doctor Strange, a character that is originally Tibetan.

"Tilda eventually emailed me and she said that she didn't understand why people were so mad about Doctor Strange," Cho said. "She wanted to talk about it, and wanted to get my take on why all the Asian people were mad. ... It was so weird."

She continued, "She was like, 'Could you tell them not to [be so mad?]' and I was like, I can't tell them ... ? I don't have a yellow phone under a cake dome!"

The comedian told Lee that she and Swinton had disagreements during their back and forth conversation. "It was a long - kind of a fight - about why the part should not have gone to her," she said. "It ended with her saying, 'Well, I'm producing a movie and Steven Yeun is starring.'"

Cho said that Swinton told her not to tell anybody she had reached out, and that the discussion left her feeling "like a house Asian, like I'm like her servant."

On Dec. 16, Swinton cleared the air by releasing the email chain, dated May 2016, between her and Cho to several publications.

In the email exchange, which can be read in full on Vulture, Cho explains that she's a "big fan" of Swinton's and the two appear to end the conversation on good terms.

"I believe there are some ironies about this particular film being a target, but I'm frankly much more interested in listening than saying anything much," the first email from Swinton reads. "I would really love to hear your thoughts and have a - private - conversation about it."

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Cho responds, "Our stories are told by white actors over and over again, and we feel at a loss to know how to cope with it. Protest seems to be the only solution - we just want more representative images of ourselves in film."

Another email from Cho reads, "I think that talking about the issue frankly - as you have done with me is the right way to go. It's hard I know - people get very angry and it's difficult to know what to do to get around that anger. But you should know that it's anger built up over many many years of invisibility within film/tv/media that's just exploded now with this film."

Swinton thanks Cho and ends the exchange by telling her she hopes her upcoming film Okja, which stars Yeun and will be directed by Snowpiercer director Bong Joon-ho, will "be a big deal and help the landscape somewhat. ... I hope and believe it will."
Dining_Tanza

I recently relocated to Los Angeles from New York City and took the opportunity to draw up a laundry list of things to finally get around to doing. New city, new goals, (almost) new year.

As I settled into my apartment  which, at a slightly higher cost than my NYC apartment, is much bigger and equipped with a washer/dryer and dishwasher  I checked in on my to-do list progress and noticed the one item I'd been putting off for years was still incomplete: signing up for renters insurance.

I've heard enough horror stories from acquaintances over the years to know that it's a silly, and potentially dreadful, mistake to skip out on renters insurance. Yet, according to a 2015 Insurance Information Institute poll, only 40% of American renters said they had insurance. Interestingly, California, my current state of residence, had the highest percentage of insured renters among all the states at nearly 54%.

To be clear, your landlord typically covers the cost of any damage to your building (if you live in an apartment) in the event of a fire, leak, break-in, or weather-related catastrophe. Renters insurance covers the belongings inside, including electronics, furniture, clothing, and jewelry. Actually, your belongings are covered whether they're in your home, car, or hotel room  everything you own is protected.

And while fires and break-ins (hopefully) aren't regular fare, if and when they happen, they could put you in deep financial ruin if you're not insured.

Business Insider's Libby Kane describes it best: "Having insurance is a lot like carrying an umbrella with you at all times: Most of the time it feels burdensome, but boy, are you glad to have it when the rain comes."

Suffice it to say, I'm happy to fork over $20 a month for peace of mind.

Twenty minutes or less

After leaving a browser tab open on the State Farm homepage for a few days, I eventually sat down to fill out the form and get a quote. I chose State Farm in part because they ranked highly on J.D. Power's 2016 renters insurance survey, but I'll admit their commercials are pretty good.

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Living room_Tanza

I entered in my name, address, social security number (optional), the number of roommates I live with (two), and the amount of coverage I want (I don't own expensive clothing or jewelry, and I'm buying a policy for my belongings only, not my roommates', so I chose the lowest coverage option at $18,500).

I also checked off boxes for whether or not my apartment has specific security measures, like deadbolt locks, a fire extinguisher, sprinkler system, alarm system, and smoke alarm. Because I do have several of these, it translates into a $58 "discount" annually.

Within seconds, I got a quote for a premium of $17.25 a month, or $207 a year, with a $500 deductible. That price also includes $100,000 of personal liability protection, meaning I'll have coverage if someone is injured in my apartment.

What it doesn't include, however, is earthquake insurance, which I'd have to sign up and pay for separately. Thankfully, I grew up in California and know that earthquakes of home-destroying magnitude are extremely rare, so I'm OK to hold off on that for now.

I entered my credit card information on the spot and set up my effective date for January 1, 2017. After I stopped dragging my feet, the whole process took me less than 20 minutes to complete.

Now, I'm paying less than $20 a month  really, less than 60 cents a day  for peace of mind and protection.





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The FBI is reportedly reviewing the spate of harassing emails and tweets that have slammed residents of the small town of Whitefish, Mont., after the neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer put out a cyberhit on several members of the Jewish community there last week.

The call to take action against Jews in the small ski resort town was issued after Whitefish resident and property owner Sherry Spencer, mother of prominent white nationalist figure Richard Spencer, told the local ABC News affiliate earlier this month that mounting backlash over her sons controversial political views had forced her to consider selling her property downtown. According to Spencer, pressure from Whitefish real estate agent Tanya Gersh and members of the local human rights group Love Lives Here caused her financial harm.

Last week, the story was picked up by the Daily Mail, drawing the attention of neo-Nazi blogger Andrew Anglin among others. In a post on the white supremacist Daily Stormer website Friday, Anglin urged readers to TAKE ACTION! against Jews targeting Richard Spencers mother.

Richard Spencer speaking at Texas A&M earlier this month. (Photo: David J. Phillip/AP)

The post, which is filled with anti-Semitic and sexist language, lists the names and contact information for people either mentioned in the Daily Mail story or associated with Love Lives Here  which Anglin falsely calls a Jew terrorist group  as well as members of their families. He also posted photos of some of them, along with a gold Star of David, the symbol of Judaism the Nazis forced Jews to wear as a badge of identification and of stigma.

After publishing the phone numbers, emails, Twitter handles and even home and work addresses of people in the group  whom he described as part of a vicious, evil race of hate-filled psychopaths  Anglin warned against any violent actions or threats of violence.

Just make your opinions known, he wrote. Tell them you are sickened by their Jew agenda to attack and harm the mother of someone whom they disagree with.

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The local ABC News affiliate, KFBB, reported late Monday that the Whitefish police said they are not aware of any local threats being made to people called out in the article, but there have been many harassing emails and social posts from outside of the state, which they are forwarding to the FBI. According to KFBB, a spokesperson for the FBIs Salt Lake City field office (whose jurisdiction includes Montana) said the FBI is aware of the issue, and is reviewing to determine if theres a violation of federal law.

Calls from Yahoo News to the Whitefish Police Department and the FBI office for comment on this story were not returned.

Those named in the Daily Stormer post were also reluctant to speak, with some citing concerns for the safety of their family. But a review of some of their recent Twitter mentions offers a sense of the kinds of messages being received.

Tanya Gersh, the realtor who, according to Sherry Spencer, urged her to sell her building in downtown Whitefish and donate the proceeds  or risk drawing hundreds of protesters and national media attention  received a flood of hate-filled and angry tweets. Told to move back to Israel by one tweeter, another promised I AM GOING TO MAKE IT MY LIFES MISSION TO TURN WHITEFISH, MT INTO A HAVEN FOR WHITE PEOPLE ONLY! Still another told Gersh she belonged in jail.

Nasty tweets also were directed at Gershs minor son, whose Twitter account appears to have recently been deactivated. And Ina Albert, the Jewish 81-year-old co-founder of Love Lives Here, came in for a particularly vicious anti-Semitic online backlash. Filthy Jews! Get out of America! tweeted one angry Twitter account holder. Another made a Holocaust reference: sounds like you need to soften the reading light. TRY A LAMPSHADE. And another, in an increasingly common tactic among white nationalists, sought to turn the criticism of Spencers views on its head, asking Why are Jews so hateful and racist?

Though police have said theyre not aware of any in-person threats, the Daily Stormer troll storm appears to have moved beyond those listed in the original post, targeting several local businesses with a flood of negative Google reviews  many of which seek to tie the owners to Love Lives Here.

Andrew Richardson via Google.

Andrew Richardson via Google.

Andrew Richardson via Google.

The flood of invective is the latest controversy straining this tiny ski resort town as a result of the growing public profile of one of its part-time residents: Richard Spencer, head of the white nationalist think tank National Policy Institute and founder of the so-called alt-right movement.

According to the Forward, Love Lives Here has been an outspoken critic of Spencer since at least 2014, when the group led an effort to ban him from conducting business in Whitefish, and won a broad city ordinance against hate groups.

At the time, Spencer was a little-known figure on the political fringe. But in recent months, hes become widely recognized as the face of a resurgent white nationalist political movement bolstered by the successful presidential campaign of Donald Trump. A video of Spencers keynote speech at the annual NPI conference in Washington, D.C., last month showed attendees giving Nazi salutes and yelling Heil victory! in celebration of Trumps win.

Earlier this month, Whitefish Mayor John Muhfeld signed a city resolution declaring that the views espoused by Spencer and others associated with the so-called alt-right are a direct affront to our communitys core values and principles.

Muhfeld did not respond to a request for comment, but Montana Sen. Steve Daines has condemned the Daily Stormers call to action against Jews in Whitefish, tweeting, this is not acceptable in Montana. We will work together to fight this repulsive ideology.

Spencer appears to be embracing the troll storm on his own Twitter page, which was recently reinstated after a brief suspension last month. His mother has denounced the kind of cyberharassment thats been incited on her behalf.

I strongly urge that everyone stays within the bounds of respectful, civilized discussion of this matter by refraining from abusive comments or targeted harassment of any of the parties involved, or their families, Sherry Spencer wrote over the weekend, in an addendum to an earlier Medium post about her own alleged harassment by Gersh and members of Love Lives Here. I disavow the harassment that anyone faced as a result of these events first being brought to light by the media even prior to this publication of my side of the story. After all, my own family and I have faced  and continue to face  numerous threats and bullying on social media as well.

Over the weekend, Sherry and husband Rand penned an op-ed in the Daily Inter Lake under the headline, Appeal to Whitefish: Live and Let Live.

We are not racists. We have never been racists. We do not endorse the idea of white nationalism, they wrote, adding that as parents we love our son but we are not accustomed to the spotlight. Furthermore, we feel we we are not part of the story, nor do we wish to be a part of the story, as our son is a grown man.

Rand later confirmed in an email to the Inter Lake that Sherry had decided to sell her building in response to pressure from the community. Love Lives Here co-founder Ina Albert told the local ABC affiliate that the group has no problem with his mother conducting business in town, insisting, We dont cause financial harm to anybody.

Unfortunately for the Spencers  and their neighbors  their sons growing political platform may make it difficult for them to escape the spotlight anytime soon. This week, Spencer tweeted that he is seriously considering a run for Congress to replace Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, Donald Trumps pick for interior secretary, if Zinke is confirmed.
President-elect Donald Trump's administration does not consider Russia a top defense priority and instead is focused on other goals such as fighting terror, bolstering cybersecurity and eliminating budget caps, a Department of Defense memo leaked Tuesday by Foreign Policy magazine showed. Defense officials under the current administration have repeatedly called Russia the No. 1 threat to national security.

The document, dated Dec. 1, was written by Acting Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Brian McKeon. He said in the transmission that the information had been communicated to him by Mira Ricardel, a President George W. Bush administration defense official and member of Trump's presidential transition team. It lists four points reportedly representing the incoming administration's greatest concerns. However, it does not mention Russia, which military officials have called "an existential threat" to the U.S. Moscow has also been accused of trying to influence the results of the U.S. presidential elections.

Trump's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin was a source of media speculation throughout the billionaire businessman-turned-politician's presidential campaign. Democratic candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton often criticized Russian foreign policy while Trump praised Russia and shared warm words with its leader. Since winning the election, Trump has pledged to reverse a low point in relations between the two nations that occurred under President Barack Obama's presidency and work with Moscow on global issues including the fight against terrorism.

Obama and Putin found themselves at odds on a number of major foreign policy issues, including conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. The Obama administration also witnessed a severe escalation in tensions between NATO and Russian forces this year, which both mounted one of the most massive European mobilizations since the Cold War. Trump has dismissed criticism of the Kremlin and referred to Russia as a partner in the war against the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, in Syria and Iraq. Russia has said Trump is more committed to fighting terror than Obama.

While officials from the incoming administration have not commented on Russia's ranking on Trump's list of defense concerns, they said the leaked document did not comprehensively describe the full range of issues the new administration would tackle.

"For the media to speculate that this list of issues represents all of the president-elects priorities is completely erroneous and misleading, Jessica Ditto, a transition spokesperson, told Foreign Policy.

The list of the administration's priorities included: "1) Develop a strategy to defeat/destroy ISIS, 2) Build a strong defense [Eliminate caps from Budget Control Act; improve force strength/size/readiness], 3) Develop a comprehensive USG cyberstrategy, 4) Find greater efficiencies [pursue/build on 'great work' led by DSD Work; open to new ideas from the Department]."

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Washington (AFP) - President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday condemned the Christmas market attack in Berlin as an "attack on humanity."

Trump emerged from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to speak briefly with reporters, who asked him to elaborate on a statement made just after the attack in which he described it as an Islamist attack on Christianity.

"It's an attack on humanity. That's what it is," he replied. "An attack on humanity and it's got to be stopped."

Trump was also asked if in the wake of the German attack and the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey if he had spoken with President Barack Obama.

He replied that they had spoken two days ago.

"Terrible. Terrible. What's going on is terrible, terrible," Trump said.

"In fact we have intelligence here right now but whats going on is terrible. Terrible. Terrible."
VC appointment at KU marred by politics

Political interests and differences among the search committee members have stalled the selection of the vice-chancellor at Kathmandu University.
By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) - Hotels in Las Vegas and Washington owned by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump reached agreements with their workers' unions that will end a series of cases alleging the hotels violated federal labor law, the Trump Organization and unions said on Wednesday. More than 500 food and beverage and housekeeping employees at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas entered into a four-year collective bargaining agreement effective Jan. 1 that guarantees annual raises and pension and healthcare benefits, Trump Hotels and Unite Here Culinary Workers Union Local 226 said in a joint statement. Under the agreement, the union will withdraw a series of cases filed with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board against the hotel, union spokeswoman Bethany Khan said. Those cases had been expected to be an early test of how Trump, who as president will have influence over the NLRB, would handle concerns over conflicts of interest raised by his business holdings. Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Alan Garten, general counsel of the Trump Organization, said in an interview the company was moving to resolve legal disputes that could raise concerns about conflicts. "(It is) certainly better to avoid distraction, but were going to continue to move forward on matters where we think were in the right," Garten said. Trump Hotels also agreed to permit workers at the Trump International Hotel Washington D.C., which opened in October, to organize, the company said on Wednesday. Last week, Democrats in the U.S. Congress called on Trump to divest from the Washington hotel, which is in a building leased from the federal government, saying the lease would pose a conflict of interest because he would essentially be both its landlord and tenant once he is sworn in. Eric Danziger, chief executive of Trump Hotels, called Unite Here Local 25, the union organizing workers at the hotel, which is down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, an "important partner" in a statement. "We share mutual goals with the union, as we both desire to ensure outstanding jobs for the employees, while also enabling the hotel to operate successfully in a competitive environment," he said. As part of the agreement, the Trump Organization will end its appeal of a November NLRB decision that said it violated workers' rights to organize at the Las Vegas hotel. The Trump Organization still faces a pending case at the NLRB claiming it required thousands of U.S. employees to sign unlawfully broad confidentiality agreements. (Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, N.Y.; Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson in Honolulu; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney)
obama air force one

WASHINGTON, DC  US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday met the CEOs of defense contracting giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin, whose programs he has criticized in recent weeks.

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg  whose company is under contract with the US Air Force to develop and manufacture the next presidential aircraft fleet  said the price will be less than a near-$4 billion estimate.

"We're going to get it done for less than that, and we're committed to working together to make sure that happens," Muilenburg said after meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

"I was able to give the president-elect my personal commitment on behalf of the Boeing Company. This is a business that's important to us. We work on Air Force One because it's important to our country and we're going to make sure that he gets the best capability and that it's done affordably."

Trump described the cost for Boeing's Air Force contract to develop the next presidential fleet as "out of control" in a December 6 tweet.

"The $4 billion is a theoretical estimate of the life of the program, which is approximately 30 years," a Department of Defense spokesman told Business Insider.

Considering the US Air Force contract with Boeing is in very early stages, it is entirely possible for that figure to be adjusted, the spokesman added.

Trump also met with Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson on Wednesday.

boeinglmt

On December 12, Trump said the cost for Lockheed Martin's fifth-generation stealth F-35 Lightning II jet was also "out of control."

The message sent Lockheed Martin's stock down from $251 at the opening bell to $245.50, before it rebounded to a little more than $253 a share.

"We're trying to get costs down ... primarily the F-35, we're trying to get the cost down. It's a program that is very, very expensive," Trump said after meeting with several generals and admirals on Wednesday.

Story continues

Trump said the negotiations with Lockheed Martin were "just beginning" and described it as "a little bit of a dance."

The F-35, valued at an acquisition cost of $379 billion, has become one of the most challenged programs in the history of the Department of Defense. It has experienced setbacks that include faulty ejection seats, software delays, and helmet-display issues.

"I appreciated the opportunity to discuss the importance of the F-35 program and the progress we've made in bringing the costs down," Hewson said in a statement. "The F-35 is a critical program to our national security, and I conveyed our continued commitment to delivering an affordable aircraft to our U.S. military and our allies."

"This program is not out of control," Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, head of the F-35 Joint Program Office, said during a December 19 briefing with reporters, just days after Trump tweeted criticism of the program.

"If given the opportunity I would like to try and explain to the new administration that this is a vastly different program from 2011," Bogdan said. "I'll just lay the facts out on the table and I'll let them make their own judgments because I don't think the program cost wise is out of control nor do I think that it's out of control schedule wise."

f35a

On Monday, the F-35 Joint Program Office released the finalized price for the most recent production contract for America's fifth generation stealth fighter. The ninth Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP-9) contract for 57 F-35 jets was valued at $6.1 billion.

In LRIP-9, the price of the Air Force and Marine Corps' variants saw a reduction of $5.9 million and $2.4 million respectively, the Navy model saw an increase of $3.2 million.

Trump and his transition team were not briefed by the F-35 Joint Program prior to the December 12 tweet. Since then, Bogdan said Trump's team has asked for a briefing about the program, though nothing has been scheduled yet.

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(Updates with details about Air Force One, additional Trump quote, comment from Lockheed Martin CEO)

By Melissa Fares

PALM BEACH, Fla., Dec 21 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump extracted a promise from Boeing Co's chief executive on Wednesday that the cost of replacing Air Force One would not exceed $4 billion, his latest move to use the bully pulpit to pressure companies to help advance his economic agenda.

Trump met with Dennis Muilenburg of Boeing and Marillyn Hewson, chief executive of Lockheed Martin Corp - two defense companies he has made an example of since his Nov. 8 election, sending defense shares tumbling with his complaints about projects he said are too expensive.

He paraded the two CEOs in front of the cameras at the ornate front door of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, where he is spending Christmas.

"Trying to get the costs down, costs. Primarily the (Lockheed Martin) F-35, we're trying to get the cost down. It's a program that's very, very expensive," Trump told reporters after meeting with the CEOs and a dozen Pentagon officials involved with defense acquisition programs who he said were "good negotiators."

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has vowed to address government procurement costs as part of his industrial policy, which also includes taking a hard line on Chinese trade practices and renegotiating multilateral trade deals.

Also on Wednesday, Trump named economist Peter Navarro, an economist who has urged a hard line on China, to head up his White House team on industrial policy.

He also appointed billionaire investor Carl Icahn as a special adviser on regulatory issues, and said Icahn would help him choose the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

'PRODUCTIVE' MEETINGS

Muilenburg, whose company was caught off guard by Trump's broadside earlier this month on the costs for replacing aging Air Force One planes, called his meeting "productive" and spoke admiringly of Trump's "business head-set."

Story continues

Trump has said Boeing's costs to build replacements for Air Force One aircraft - one of the most visible symbols of the U.S. presidency - are too high and urged the federal government in a tweet to "Cancel order!"

"I think we're looking to cut a tremendous amount of money off the price," Trump said on Wednesday.

The Boeing 747-8s are designed to be an airborne White House able to fly in worst-case security scenarios, such as nuclear war, and are modified with military avionics, advanced communications and a self-defense system.

The company is currently under contract for $170 million to help develop plans for the planes.

Trump has said the planes, which are in the early stages of development and are not expected to be ready until 2024, would cost more than $4 billion.

"We're going to get it done for less than that, and we're committed to working together to make sure that happens," Muilenburg said, telling reporters he gave Trump a "personal commitment" that costs would not run out of control.

Trump has publicly pushed other corporations to change tack, taking credit for forcing United Technologies Corp and Ford Motor Co to alter plans to outsource jobs abroad. Ford, however, said it had no plans to close any U.S. plants.

Asked whether he had secured concessions from Lockheed Martin on its F-35 fighter jet program, which he has complained was "out of control," Trump said it was to soon to know.

"It's a dance, you know, it's a little bit of a dance. But we're going to get the costs down and we're going to get it done beautifully," he told reporters.

Lockheed Martin CEO Hewson, who left Mar-a-Lago without speaking to reporters, said in a statement that her meeting was "productive" and gave her the opportunity to talk about progress in cutting costs.

"The F-35 is a critical program to our national security, and I conveyed our continued commitment to delivering an affordable aircraft to our U.S. military and our allies," Hewson said.

The costs of the F-35s, used by the Marine Corps and the Air Force, and by six countries, have escalated to an estimated $400 billion, prompting it to be described as the most expensive weapon system in history.

Among the Defense Department officials who met with Trump was Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, the F-35 program chief for the Pentagon.

(Writing by Roberta Rampton; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Alistair Bell)
Donald Trump

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday tapped Peter Navarro, an economic adviser to his campaign and an outspoken China hawk, to lead a newly formed White House National Trade Council.

Navarro is well known for his tough-on-China stance, which matches up with Trump's rhetoric from the campaign trail and along his "thank you" tour, during which he said the nation was the root cause of the greatest "jobs theft" in history.

Navarro has authored books such as "Death by China" and "Crouching Tiger: What China's Militarism Means for the World." He has advocated a more aggressive stance in what he has warned is an economic war with China.

"I read one of Peter's books on America's trade problems years ago and was impressed by the clarity of his arguments and thoroughness of his research," Trump said in a transition release. "He has presciently documented the harms inflicted by globalism on American workers and laid out a path forward to restore our middle class. He will fulfill an essential role in my administration as a trade adviser."

In announcing the trade council, the release said its purpose would be to advise Trump on trade negotiations, coordinate with other agencies, and assist unemployed workers. It will also lead Trump's "Buy America, Hire America" program, which is aimed at boosting jobs in infrastructure and defense sectors. The council will work with the National Security Council, National Economic Council, and the Domestic Policy Council.

"Peter Navarro is the best person President-elect Donald Trump could have chosen to head his National Trade Council," Commerce Secretary-designate Wilbur Ross said in the release. "We were a great team during the campaign, and we will be a great team during the administration."

A potential Ross-led department is expected to take on an outsize role regarding trade. Trump has not yet named his US trade representative, the administration official tasked with trade negotiations.

Story continues

"I am deeply honored for the opportunity to serve the president-elect and this nation and to advise on policies to rebalance our trade, rebuild our industrial base, and restore America's comprehensive national power by making America great again," Navarro said in the release.

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By Eric Beech (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump named Peter Navarro, an economist who has urged a hard line on trade with China, to head a newly formed White House National Trade Council, the transition team said on Wednesday. Navarro is an academic and one-time investment adviser who has authored a number of popular books and made a film describing China's threat to the U.S. economy as well as Beijing's desire to become the dominant economic and military power in Asia. Trump's team praised Navarro in a statement as a "visionary" economist who would "develop trade policies that shrink our trade deficit, expand our growth, and help stop the exodus of jobs from our shores." Trump, a Republican, made trade a centerpiece of his presidential campaign and railed against what he said were bad deals the United States had made with other countries. He has threatened to hit Mexico and China with high tariffs once he takes office on Jan. 20. Navarro, 67, is a professor at University of California, Irvine, and advised Trump during the campaign. He has authored several books including "Death by China: How America Lost its Manufacturing Base," which was made into a documentary film. As well as describing what he sees as America's losing economic war with China, Navarro has highlighted concerns over environmental issues related to Chinese imports and the theft of U.S. intellectual property. While Trump in the statement praised the "clarity" of Navarro's arguments and the "thoroughness of his research," few other economists have endorsed Navarro's ideas. Marcus Noland, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, likened a tax and trade paper authored by Navarro and Wilbur Ross, who has been named as Trump's commerce secretary, to "the type of magical thinking best reserved for fictional realities" for what he said was its flawed economic analysis. 'DON'T POKE THE PANDA' Navarro has also suggested a stepped-up engagement with Taiwan, including assistance with a submarine development program. He argued that Washington should stop referring to the "one China" policy, but stopped short of suggesting it should recognize Taipei, saying: "There is no need to unnecessarily poke the Panda." China considers Taiwan a renegade province and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. After his Nov. 8 election win, Trump stoked China's ire when he took a telephone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in a break with decades of precedent that cast doubt on his incoming administration's commitment to Beijing's "one China" policy. In an opinion piece in Foreign Policy magazine in November, Navarro and another Trump adviser, Alexander Gray, reiterated the president-elect's opposition to major trade deals, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. "Trump will never again sacrifice the U.S. economy on the altar of foreign policy by entering into bad trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement, allowing China into the World Trade Organization, and passing the proposed TPP," Navarro and Gray wrote. "These deals only weaken our manufacturing base and ability to defend ourselves and our allies." Trump has vowed to pull the United States out of the TPP, a free-trade pact aimed at linking a dozen Pacific Rim nations that President Barack Obama signed in February. It has not been ratified by the U.S. Senate. The president-elect has also vowed to renegotiate the NAFTA pact with Canada and Mexico, saying it had cost American jobs. (Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington; Additional reporting by Mohammad Zargham and David Chance in Washington; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Peter Cooney)
President-elect Donald Trump emerged from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday afternoon to briefly address questions from reporters about this weeks deadly attacks in Europe. And Trump appeared to stand by his plan for both a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States and the creation of a registry of Muslims who live here.

Trump was asked whether Mondays violence in Germany and Turkey had caused him to rethink or reevaluate his plan to create a Muslim registry or a ban on Muslim immigration.

You know my plans, Trump replied. All along, Ive been proven to be right  100 percent correct. Whats happening is disgraceful.

Following the 2015 terror attacks in Paris, Trump called for a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the United States, a database tracking American Muslims, and expanded surveillance of certain mosques. But following sharp criticism from both Democrats and Republicans, he appeared to soften his stance, saying the proposals were just a suggestion until we find out whats going on.

In June, after the deadly mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., Trump said the profiling of U.S. Muslims might be part of his counterterrorism plan.

Members of his transition team have since stated that they intend to suspend immigration from regions where it cannot be safely processed or vetted and impose extreme vetting on immigrants who are allowed to enter the United States.

Some Trump aides and advisers have suggested that the proposed database of the U.S. Muslim population will not in fact be created, but the proposal for the ban remains on the Trump campaign website and its unclear which statements reflect the incoming administrations current thinking.

Related: Trump portrays Berlin attack as onslaught against Christians

Following Mondays truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, Trump issued a statement suggesting ISIS had carried out the attack as part of its continued slaughter of Christians in their global jihad.

Story continues

But on Wednesday, Trump appeared to be unaware of his own on-paper assertion that Christians were the target.

Who said that? Trump said.

I believe you said it in a press release, one of the pool reporters replied. Im wondering how this might affect relations with Muslims.

Its an attack on humanity, Trump replied. Thats what it is. An attack on humanity, and its got to be stopped.

_____

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Updated December 21 at 2:45 p.m. ET

Not every crucial climate-change story begins with a protest, or a heroic scientist, or a melting ice cap. Some, alas, begin with a brief historical introduction to U.S. natural resources law.

In the autumn of 1948, President Harry Truman made an important declaration about who controlled the huge seams of oil and gas hidden beneath the seafloor around the coast of the United States.

The federal governmentaware of the long-range world-wide need for new sources of petroleum and other mineralswould try to encourage the development of those resources, he said. It would do so by itself controlling and administering the seabed which would bring forth that black gold. The Supreme Court had set the stage for Trumans proclamation a year earlier when it ruled the federal government, and not coastal states, owned the seabed.

Congress ratified Trumans proclamation. Five years later, in 1953, it sought to clarify its terms and restore some rights to the states. It adopted the Continental Outer Shelf Lands Act.

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Under that law, the president can sell leases for the right to mine federal oil reserves in the outer continental shelf, a legally defined area that begins three miles from shore and extends to the 200-mile international-waters boundary. Under a twin statute passed in the same year, the Submerged Lands Act, individual states could offer oil leases for land within three miles of their coastlines.

Now, there is a new long-range world-wide needand it is not for new sources of petroleum. If the world hopes to stave off catastrophic climate change, it must begin to roll back its usage of fossil fuels like petroleum. It must leave huge seams of oil and natural gas in the ground, permanently untapped.

President Obama has acted on this new reality, and now there is going to be a big fight about that 1953 law.

Story continues

On Tuesday, President Obama unilaterally blocked oil drilling in some parts of the Atlantic Ocean and almost the entire American-controlled region of the Arctic Ocean. The White House described the ban as indefinite.

The Obama administration made the announcement in tandem with the government of Canada, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would also prevent drilling throughout Canadian-controlled Arctic waters.

Obama took the action under the Continental Outer Shelf Lands Act, that 1953 law. It appears to grant the president two different powers to manage the seabed.

In the 63 years since it was passed, almost all presidents have focused on using the first: formulating five-year plans that dictate how new leases will be offered. This March, Obama announced a new draft of his 2017 to 2022 plan, which temporarily blocked new drilling in Virginia and North Carolina. He is expected to finalize that plan before his term ends.

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The second provision has been less well known. It reads as follows:

The President of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf.

To most water-law experts, it seems like Congress has given any president the ability to permanently retire undersea lands from its continental-shelf portfolio.

This text has never been tested in court, and it has only been invoked by presidents a handful of times. In the late 1950s, several years after the law was adopted, President Eisenhower used this provision to permanently block drilling in a 75-square-mile area of seabed off the Florida Keys. Eisenhowers order still standsa testament to this authoritybut it has also never been challenged in court. (An unnamed White House official cites this same precedent in an unusually skeptical New York Times article about the ban.)

More recently, Presidents George H. W. Bush and Clinton have used the same provision to temporarily pause all new federal offshore drilling leases in certain areas for 10 years.

Bureau of Ocean Management handout

Most experts seem to think that President Obamas order, given the unilateral power delegated by this particular area of law, could only be overturned by an act of Congress.

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I think it was quite a realistic thing that Obama did, and it should be upheldbut who knows, said John Leshy, the former solicitor general to the Department of the Interior during the Clinton administration. Leshy is a professor emeritus of real property law at the University of California Hastings.

I dont think those designations by President Obama are going to be that easily undone, said Robin Kundis Craig, a professor of law at the University of Utah and a leading expert in modern water law. President Trump couldnt just come in and unilaterally undo it, because its a delegated authority from Congress to deal with federal property.

Craig compared the continental-shelf provision to a similar one in the Antiquities Act of 1906, which lets the president permanently set aside federally owned lands as a conservation-protected federal monument. Obama has used this law to preserve tens of thousands of acres of forest in Maine. He has also invoked it to significantly expand a marine monument off the coast of Hawaiione originally created, using the same powers, by President George W. Bush.

In both the Antiquities and the Continental Shelf acts, Congress delegates to the president some of its own constitutionally granted power to manage public land. Once delegated, Congress must act again to reclaim that power: The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the power of the president across the board in cases involving the Antiquities Act, Craig said.

I think the strongest interpretation is that, since the authority to create the reservation came from Congress, it would take an act of Congress to undo it, she added.

Notably, both of these laws only work in one direction. The president can giveth land to conservation, but he or she cannot taketh it away. In other words, presidents can unilaterally conserve land (or withdraw [seabed] from disposition), but he or she cannot unilaterally un-conserve it or re-offer a withdrawn lease. Only Congress can undo it.

Even if the court overturns the ban, experts thought that the steep economics of operating in the Arctic Circle may effectively halt oil exploration there. Last year, Royal Dutch Shell stopped drilling in the Chukchi Sea after a second oil-exploration project there found too little crude to warrant further investment.

Bureau of Ocean Management handout

Theyve spent a couple billion dollars on a dry hole, Leshy told me. Theres no market up there. Its incredibly costly. Its perfectly clear to everyone, including the oil industry, that theyre going to have to leave a lot of stuff in the ground, and thats the first stuff youd leave in the ground.

That didnt mean the ban would go over well with some Arctic communities.

The industrys going to scream bloody murder, and then Alaskas going to scream bloody murder, because Alaska regards itself as totally dependent on the oil industry, Leshy said. But Alaska can still drill in state waters, three miles out.

Experts seemed split on whether the industry would first fight the ban in the courts or try to undo the work through Congress. Trump has made fossil-fuel extraction core to his domestic economic plan, stocking his cabinet with former oil executives and officials from oil and gas-rich states, so he might be looking for a court fight.

And while a Congressional act undoing the ban would almost certainly be successful, it would require getting a law through the Senate, where Republicans do not hold enough seats to overturn a filibuster (at least as the filibuster stands today).

While American environmental advocates rejoiced at the Obama announcement, their Canadian counterparts seemed to scoff. There are no ongoing oil or gas drilling projects in the Canadian Arctic, and Canadians had not anticipated seeing one anytime soon.

Theres no activity taking place in the Canadian Arctic right now, Michael Byers, a professor of law at the University of British Columbia, told CTV News. Saying no doesnt require telling anyone to stop.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
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Washington (AFP) - President-elect Donald Trump's transition team on Tuesday denied a report that his sons were seeking donations of up to $1 million in exchange for possible post-inauguration access.

The Center for Public Integrity, an award-winning group that addresses ethics and other policy issues, said a non-profit foundation was set up last Wednesday making discreet potential pay-for-play possible.

According to the CPI report, the "Opening Day Foundation" was planning to hold a fundraising event on January 21, the day after the inauguration and Trump's first full day in the White House.

The report said major donors would receive: a "private reception and photo opportunity for 16 guests with President Donald J. Trump," a "multi-day hunting and/or fishing excursion for 4 guests with Donald Trump Jr. and/or Eric Trump," "autographed guitars by an Opening Day 2017 performer," and other goodies.

"Unlike political committees, such non-profits aren't required by law to reveal their donors, allowing sponsors to write seven-figure checks for access to the president while staying anonymous, if they choose," the CPI report warned.

The foundation's directors are Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Dallas investor Gentry Beach and Tom Hicks Jr., a Dallas billionaire's son, the report said, posting a copy of the legal documents certifying the formation of group.

The funds would be donated to unnamed "conservation charities," according to a copy of a brochure for the event obtained by TMZ.com.

"Opening Day is your opportunity to play a significant role as our family commemorates the inauguration of our father, friend and President Donald J. Trump," the brochure said.

Trump's transition team issued a statement denying that the president-elect's sons were behind the event.

"Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are avid outdoorsmen and supporters of conservation efforts, which align with the goals of this event, however they are not involved in any capacity," Trump transition spokeswoman Hope Hicks said.

Story continues

"The Opening Day event and details that have been reported are merely initial concepts that have not been approved or pursued by the Trump family," she said -- without mentioning the sons' registered roles in the filed paperwork.

Larry Noble, general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center pro-reform group, voiced dismay.

"This is Donald Trump and the Trump family using a brand new organization to raise $1 million contributions for a vague goal of giving money to conservation charities, which seems a way of basically just selling influence and selling the ability to meet with the president," he was quoted as saying in the CPI report.
President-elect Donald Trumps $25 million settlement with former students who claimed they were defrauded while admitted into the Trump University's real estate seminar program has won preliminary court approval.

U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel issued the order Tuesday evening and set March 30 as the date to hear any possible objections in order to determine if the settlement is "fair, reasonable, and adequate" to the former students.

The payment of the $25 million to complete the settlement must be made by Jan. 18, two days before Trump is scheduled to be sworn into office.

The deal reimburses students roughly 50 percent of the fees paid by them. Students had paid about $1,500 for a three-day seminar or up to $35,000 for a mentorship program, according to Politico. But students who have previously received refunds would either be excluded from the deal or will be given reduced payments.

The settlement also resolves another parallel fraud case filed in 2013 by New Yorks attorney general General Eric T. Schneiderman as $4 million of the $25 million is awarded in the other case, according to Salon.

The victims of Trump University have waited years for todays result and I am pleased that their patience  and persistence  will be rewarded by this $25 million settlement, Schneiderman said after reacting to the news of the settlement, according to FoxNews.

Former class members had alleged in their lawsuits that the program was marketed "deceptively." Trump himself had revealed in a deposition that the assertion that he hand-picked the teaching staff seen in promotional material was false, according to the New York Times.

During a Republican presidential debate in March, Trump famously declared that I dont settle cases. I dont do it because thats why I dont get sued very often, because I dont settle, unlike a lot of other people.

When the settlement was announced in November, Trump tweeted the following:

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The soon to be 45th president of American also recently shot off a tweet regarding the lawsuit.

Related Articles
By Nicole Mordant VANCOUVER (Reuters) - A small Canadian miner is confident Donald Trump's U.S. presidential win will let it proceed with an application for a copper and gold mine in Alaska that has been stalled almost three years by environmental regulators aiming to protect the world's biggest sockeye salmon fishery. Ronald Thiessen, chief executive officer and president of Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd, said he expected the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to announce in the first quarter of 2017 that it will let the application process proceed for the controversial project. He said the company has held discussions with Trump's transition team, including Myron Ebell, who heads the EPA transition. Shares in Northern Dynasty, which owns the massive Pebble deposit in southwest Alaska's Bristol Bay region, have more than doubled since the U.S. election on Nov. 8. The shares surged 23 percent on Nov. 9 alone. In February 2014, the EPA took the unusual action of blocking a mine before the project owner applied for a development permit. The company has estimated that removing that pre-emptive veto could happen three to four months after an EPA announcement. This would allow Northern Dynasty to seek a deep-pocketed partner and resume permitting the project, one of the world's biggest undeveloped copper and gold deposits. Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Trump's staff did not respond to email requests for comment. According to the EPA, the Bristol Bay watershed supports the world's largest fishery of sockeye salmon. Environmental groups oppose the mine, as do many native residents who rely on the fish as a subsistence food. Many commercial fishermen and sport fishermen are also opposed. Last year, U.S. President Barack Obama used a trip to the area to try to cement his environmental legacy. Overturning the EPA veto would be a potent symbol of Trump making good on his promise to remove regulations stopping the expansion of drilling and mining. "It is one of the most stunning projects in the world but there has been this giant bull's-eye on our back. Nobody wants to get into this fight with the government," Thiessen said in an interview. Northern Dynasty launched legal action against the EPA in May 2014. This October, the two sides agreed to mediation to try to end their dispute. Northern Dynasty wants a partner to replace Anglo American Plc, which spent more than $500 million on the project before pulling out in 2013 as gold and copper prices fell. Two months after the EPA's 2014 veto, another global miner Rio Tinto, at the time Northern Dynasty's biggest investor, said it would give its 19.1 percent stake to charity. With prospects reviving for the project and big, long-life gold and copper deposits increasingly hard to find, "any large gold or copper mining company is going to be looking at the Pebble project," said Chris Mancini, research analyst at Gabelli Funds, which owns shares in Northern Dynasty. Copper miners such as U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan and Canada's Teck Resources might take a look at the project, independent mining analyst John Tumazos said. Freeport and Teck declined to comment. A rally in copper prices since late October has also helped make the project more valuable. Yet opponents remain determined to stop Pebble, and Alaska governor Bill Walker has said he is skeptical of the project."If Northern Dynasty is excited about Trump taking office, I don't know what their crystal ball is showing them," said Kimberly Williams, director of Nunamta Aulukestai, a non-profit group of tribal governments and village corporations in the Bristol Bay area. "The people in our area are still overwhelming opposed to this project." (Additional reporting by Valerie Valcovici and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)
What after resettlement?

For over two decades, Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, has generously hosted some 120,000 Bhutanese refugees.
A pay-to-play soiree offering the ultra-wealthy access to newly inaugurated President Donald Trump is unraveling  after the Center for Public Integrity on Monday revealed that Trumps adult sons are registered directors of the new, Texas-based nonprofit organizing the event.

Since then, Eric Trump told the New York Times that he and his brother will not attend the Jan. 21 event in Washington, D.C., despite promotional material originally promising their participation as honorary co-chairmen  and a bonus hunting and fishing trip with one or both of the brothers.

Event organizers, meanwhile, distributed revised descriptions of the event that removed references to Donald Trumps attendance. It also removed mention of the multi-day hunting and fishing trip for sponsors who ponied up $500,000 or more.

And while all three Trump names are still prominently featured on the events promotional materials, the nonprofit behind the event, known as the Opening Day Foundation, on Tuesday amended its incorporation documents. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are no longer named as directors.

The hunting-themed Opening Day 2017 affair (dress code: camouflage and cufflinks) is the latest in a series of potential conflicts to surface for the incoming administration, prompting additional questions about the rules Trump will put in place to avoid any appearance of influence-peddling, something he frequently decried on the campaign trail.

This story is part of Buying of the President 2016. Tracking the candidates, political committees and nonprofits that are making this presidential election the most expensive in history. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.

Don't miss another Politics investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email.

Here's how the Opening Day 2017 event sprung into existence  and fell apart almost as quickly:

The brochure for Opening Day 2017, listing sponsorship packages ranging from $25,000 to $1 million, first surfaced on website TMZ.com.

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It offered big-dollar donors the chance to attend a private reception and photo opportunity with the freshly inaugurated Trump, as well as a multi-day hunting and/or fishing excursion with Donald Trump Jr. and/or Eric Trump and team, plus other event tickets and benefits.

The brochure didnt spell out who was organizing it or who would benefit, saying only that net proceeds would be donated to unspecified conservation charities. Rather, interviews and documents reviewed by the Center for Public Integrity revealed the organizer was a new foundation called the Opening Day Foundation, incorporated in Texas on Dec. 14.

The paperwork for the Opening Day Foundation listed four directors: Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Dallas investor Gentry Beach and Tom Hicks Jr., the son of a Dallas billionaire. Beach and Hicks are reportedly close friends with Donald Trump Jr., and both men helped raise millions of dollars for Trumps campaign. Beach is also the godfather to one of Donald Trump Jr.s children, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Related story: Donald Trump's sons behind nonprofit selling access to president-elect

Trump officials  as well as Beach and Hicks  initially stayed silent, ignoring repeated requests for comment.

But on Tuesday, the Trump transition team issued a statement. It read: "The Opening Day event and details that have been reported are merely initial concepts that have not been approved or pursued by the Trump family. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are avid outdoorsmen and supporters of conservation efforts, which align with the goals of this event, however they are not involved in any capacity."

The nonprofit filings, Trump officials said, would be amended and the brothers names deleted. Anonymous transition officials told the Washington Post that the names of Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump had been included on the documents without their permission.

Mark Brinkerhoff, a spokesman for the Opening Day 2017 event, said Tuesday night in an interview with the Center for Public Integrity that Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are invited to the event, but their participation isnt confirmed.

The inauguration weekend event would be the first for the Opening Day Foundation, which Brinkerhoff said is currently seeking official recognition from the Internal Revenue Service to operate as a 501(c)(3) charity. This status would allow donors to deduct contributions on their taxes.

Such nonprofits also arent required by law to disclose their donors, meaning pro-Trump contributors to the Opening Day Foundation could ostensibly do so anonymously. Political committees such as candidates campaigns and super PACs, in contrast, must reveal their donors in periodic reports to the Federal Election Commission.

Brinkerhoff said the goal is for the Opening Day Foundation is to distribute proceeds to conservation charities  similar to what the United Way does for other charitable organizations.

The new documents outlining sponsorship opportunities said that until the IRS grants the Opening Day Foundation tax-exempt status, the Opening Day Foundation will operate as a project of the Boone and Crockett Club Foundation Inc., a wildlife conservation group based in Montana.

A spokesman for the Boone and Crockett Club Foundation, however, told the Washington Post that the group has not decided whether to participate in the Opening Day 2017 fundraiser.

Asked Tuesday night about the Trump brothers involvement with the creation of the foundation, Brinkerhoff said he didnt know whether they had agreed to have their names on the original nonprofit documents.

Ultimately, he said, The foundation creators determined among themselves that the founders of the foundation will not include Eric or Donald Jr.

In interviews with the Dallas Morning News and Washington Post this week, Hicks Jr. and Beach disagreed over who first had the idea to create the Opening Day Foundation.

Hicks attributed the idea to Donald Trump Jr. and Beach.

Don't miss another Politics investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email.

One of the most important things for Don Jr. and Eric is conservation, and we wanted to help them organize a party to celebrate conservation, Hicks told the Washington Post. After the president-elect won, we got focused on this. Don Jr. and Gentry have been spearheading it.

But Beach told the Dallas Morning News that he and Hicks thought of the idea for the foundation in early December.

Beach also said that after the nonprofit was registered, lawyers advised the foundations committee to remove the Trumps names.

It became clear that we needed to go in a different direction. So we took Don Jr. and Eric out of the foundation completely, Beach said.

In response to requests for comment from Beach and Hicks, Brinkerhoff issued a statement to the Center for Public Integrity: The group is committed to and supportive of conservation causes, and excited to create positive change.

Ethics experts say the incident  and others, including a canceled plan to raise money for charity by auctioning off coffee with Trumps daughter, Ivanka, and Trumps inauguration itself  highlights the need for Trump and his administration to set clear guidelines and rules governing conflicts of interest and pay-to-play issues.

The whole thing adds up to an unprecedented assault on the constitution on ethics and on frankly on taste, said Norman Eisen, who was a top ethics lawyer in the Obama White House, referring to the series of questions about potential conflicts of interest and ethics issues. Its like the appetizer at the corruption banquet. Ive never seen anything like it.

This article was co-published by TIME.

This story is part of Buying of the President 2016. Tracking the candidates, political committees and nonprofits that are making this presidential election the most expensive in history. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.

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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.
Dr. Harold Bornstein in his office. (Photo: NBC News)

It has been just over a year since Dr. Harold Bornstein, President-Elect Donald Trumps personal physician, released a now famous letter declaring that, If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.

Bornsteins profile exploded, in part because he shared his patients penchant for excessive verbiage (his letter also paid homage to Trumps astonishingly excellent lab test results and extraordinary strength and stamina) and his kooky appearance: shoulder-length hair, round tortoise-shell glasses and a rotation of black turtlenecks that would put most beatniks to shame.

In a new interview with STAT News  his first since the election  Bornstein lived up to his eccentric reputation, sounding off on everything from the virility of the president-elect to the fate that awaits his interviewer.

He also casually shrugged off the interviewers suggestion that Trumps age (at 70, hes the oldest president-elect) could present problems when he becomes commander-in-chief.

If something happens to him [Trump], then it happens to him. Its like all the rest of us, no? Thats why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying, he said.

Heres a sampling of the craziest revelations from that exclusive interview:

On Trumps age:

It never occurred to me that he was the oldest president, not for a second, Bornstein said, adding that Trump isnt an old man the way grandfather was an old man. (This apparently runs counter to Trumps former opponent, Hillary Clinton, who he deemed an old lady.)

On rivalries:

Bornstein told STAT he ran into Dr. Lisa Bardack, Hillary Clintons physician, during the campaign and was ready with a gift for her: a Trump pin.

On whether presidents have an obligation to regularly share details of their health:

Ronald Reagan had pre-senile dementia. I mean, seriously, did they share that one with you, or did Nancy just cover it up?

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On his clout in the media industry:

Five days after his interview with the STAT reporter, Bornstein tried to stop the article from being published, saying, I happen to have known the Sulzbergers [the family that publishes the New York Times] for 50 years. Im going to make sure you dont ever work again if you do this.

On adult education:

Bornstein revealed he sought out women on Craigslist to teach him Italian, taking private lessons weekly for 10 years. The back of his business card reads dottore molto famoso, meaning very famous doctor.

On his endeavors outside of medicine:

Bornsteins high school band, Doc Bornstein and the Interns, played dances, weddings and private parties. (Bornstein was earlier outed by STAT as an amateur poet who signed his verses as Count Harold.)

On doctor-patient nepotism:

Bornstein told STAT that aside from a photo of him and Trump in his office, he didnt publicize their relationship or use his celebrity adjacency for any perks, and that hes only asked Trump for one thing: a job for his 18-year-old son volunteering with the campaign.
UPDATED: 1:01 p.m. EST Law enforcement authorities in Germany are offering a reward of up to $105,000 for the arrest of Anis Amri, the Tunisian asylum seeker who has become the police's primary suspect in Monday's Christmas market truck attack in Berlin.

German authorities have alerted the public that the 24-year-old suspect's height and weight was of average size and that he had black hair and brown eyes. Federal prosecutors urged anyone who might have information about Amri or his whereabouts to notify the police.

UPDATED: 11:14 a.m. EST The German police have issued a wanted notice for the main suspect in a deadly Christmas Market truck attack in Berlin on Monday, according to ABC News. The notice, a European arrest warrant from Germany, warned that the 24-year-old Tunisian suspect known as "Anil A," among other aliases, was considered to be armed and dangerous. It also said he has used six different aliases and three different nationalities, citing information listed on the temporary-stay permit that was found in the truck used in the attack.

The suspect had previously been denied asylum in Germany but still secured a residency permit.

UPDATED: 10:14 a.m. EST  The latest suspect in an apparent terror attack in Berlin was on the radar of German intelligence officials before Monday's deadly truck-driving rampage into a crowd of people, the Associated Press reported.

The subject of an ongoing manhunt is a Tunisian national who "security agencies exchanged information about ... in the joint counter-terrorism center, the last time in November." It was not immediately clear when the suspect, who officials believe is 24 years old, first came to the attention of German intelligence. The suspect had unsuccessfully applied for asylum in Germany and instead was granted a permit for residency.

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Original story:

German police intensified their manhunt Wednesday for a Tunisian man in connection to the Christmas Market attack in Berlin that left 12 people dead and 48 injured.

Twenty four-year-old Anis A, a Tunisian asylum-seeker, became the main suspect of Monday's suspected terror attack after police found his identification documents in the truck used to drive into the crowd of holiday revelers, according to USA Today Wednesday.

Anis A, who was born in the Tunisian city of Tataouine in 1992, had extensive ties to Islamist extremist. Tataouine is widely known as a hot bed for jihadi fighters, Fox News reported Wednesday. He was a follower of Abu Walaa, an Iraqi citizen and Islamist preacher who was arrested in November by German officials for allegedly recruiting ISIS fighters. Walaa is alleged to be the head of the Islamic State faction in Germany.

Anis A goes by eight different aliases, according to his multiple identity documents that list him under different names and different birth dates. Anis A was previously known by the German police after being arrested in August in connection to a case involving physical assault, but was never charged because he abruptly disappeared earlier this month, the Telegraph reported Wednesday.

We have a strong lead at the moment and our officers are out on the street, a senior German law enforcement official told the Washington Post Wednesday.

Anis A was granted toleration status from the German government in April 2015, which meant he was not granted full asylum but was able to live in Germany legally.

A manhunt was underway in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia where Anis A had been issued temporary asylum from the government, according to the temporary-stay permit that was also found in the truck.

Police said Anis A may have suffered injuries during the attack. Law enforcement was subsequently scouring every hospital in Berlin in case he might be hiding among the injured. One theory that has emerged from German investigators is that Anis A was wounded during a physical altercation he had with the original driver of the truck as it was being driven into the busy town square.

German police found Lukasz Urban, a Polish citizen Lukasz Urban, dead in the passenger seat with gunshot and stab wounds after the attack suggesting that he may have tried to grab the steering wheel in an attempt to prevent the attack from happening. Urban was delivering a cargo of steel to Berlin when he was taken hostage by the attacker, Jorg Radek deputy chairman of the German Trade Union of the Police said.

The Islamic State claimed on Tuesday that one of its militants carried out for the attack, but German police said it had not found evidence directly linking the terrorist act to ISIS.

Prosecutor Peter Frank said the manner in which the terrorist act transpired suggested a connection to Islamist extremism because it targeted civilians. The incident was similar to previous attacks claimed by ISIS in July when a truck rammed into pedestrians in Nice, France, during a Bastille Day celebration. That attack killed 84 people on July 18.

Heiko Maas, Germany's justice minister, told local reporters that the investigation had be turned over to federal prosecutors who handle terrorism cases.

German police on Tuesday released the previous sole suspect in the attack, a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker named Naved B, when prosecutors could not find sufficient evidence linking him to the killings. Officials had detained him in close proximity to the attack but he adamantly denied any involvement.

As of Tuesday night, German police said they had received more than 500 tips about the attack.

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By Thomas Escritt AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Turkey has summoned home a senior diplomat who was accused of compiling a list of Dutch Turks who might have sympathised with July's failed coup, the Dutch government said on Wednesday. Yusuf Acar had been religious affairs attache at Turkey's embassy and the head of the Dutch arm of Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs, a situation ministers said could amount to an unacceptable mingling of politics and religion. The development comes amid heightened concern at what Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders has termed the "long-arm" activities of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian government. Acar told a Dutch newspaper last week that he had compiled a list of "Gulenists" in the Netherlands. In a letter to parliament, ministers said Ankara had withdrawn the diplomat after receiving a protest from The Hague. Ankara accuses supporters of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen of backing the short-lived coup in which over 240 were killed. Acar's information-gathering was "undesired and unacceptable interference in the lives of Dutch citizens", foreign minister Koenders and social affairs minister Lodwewijk Asscher wrote in their joint letter to parliament. In Turkey, over 100,000 people have been detained, suspended or sacked in the aftermath of the coup and tensions have spread within the 500,000-strong Dutch-Turkish community, with some suspected Gulenist sympathizers facing death threats. In a sign of widespread concern at Ankara's intelligence activities in Europe, a Turkish man was arrested in Hamburg last week on suspicion of spying on Kurds for Turkey. Ankara accuses Berlin of harbouring Kurdish separatist militants. (Reporting By Thomas Escritt)
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey-backed Syrian rebel forces besieging Islamic State-controlled al-Bab have gained full control of the highway linking the town to Aleppo with intense ground and air fire support, the Turkish military said on Wednesday. In its daily round-up of the near four-month-old "Euphrates Shield" operation to push Islamic State away from the border area, the army said Turkish warplanes had destroyed 48 IS targets and killed 15 militants. Four Turkish soldiers were slightly wounded when the vehicle they were traveling in was damaged by a roadside blast, it added. (Reporting by Orhan Coskun; Editing by Daren Butler)
Trump DC hotel

Two Trump hotels reached critical agreements with their workers on Wednesday, following a bitter fight that played out during President-elect Donald Trump's campaign.

In Las Vegas, around 500 workers at the Trump International Hotel will get union contracts for the first time. According to a press release from Culinary Workers Union Local 226, the four-year contract, which begins on January 1, will provide food and beverage and housekeeping employees with annual wage increases, pensions, family health care, and job security.

This concludes a year-long struggle that began when workers voted to unionize last December. Over the past 12 months, employees said Trump International Hotel  which the Trump Organization has a 50% stake in  had refused to acknowledge or negotiate with the union.

"He says he's a big negotiator, but [Trump] doesn't negotiate with the workers," Elsabeth Moges, who has worked as a Trump International housekeeper in Las Vegas for four years, told Business Insider in November.

Also on Wednesday, Unite Here Local 25 and the recently-opened Trump International Hotel Washington, DC, announced they had reached an agreement to permit an orderly organizing campaign for employees, opening the door for workers to unionize. The Trump hotel in DC in owned and operated by the Trump Organization.

"Unite Here Local 25 is an important partner in Washington, DC," Eric Danziger, CEO of Trump Hotels, said in a statement. "We share mutual goals with the Union, as we both desire to ensure outstanding jobs for the employees, while also enabling the hotel to operate successfully in a competitive environment, and to establish a reputation as one of the finest hotels in the world."

Culinary Workers Union

Unite Here, the national hospitality workers' union, emerged as a major critic of Donald Trump throughout his campaign.

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Due to Trump International's ongoing refusal to negotiate with Las Vegas employees, the union launched a national boycott of Trump Organization businesses in September. Actions in the weeks leading up to the election included staging a protest at the grand opening of the Trump International in Washington, DC and organizing taco trucks to form a "wall" outside of the Trump International in Las Vegas.

Now that Trump has been elected, his relationship with the hotels and their workers present a whole new set of problems and potential for conflicts of interest.

The Kuwaiti embassy recently moved the location of a February event from the Four Seasons to Trump International Washington, DC, with liberal website ThinkProgress reporting that the change was driven by political pressure. It's a move that ThinkProgress says is part of a "larger effort by the Trump Organization to lure lucrative diplomats to the Trump International Hotel," allowing the business  which Trump says he will hand over to his adult sons  to profit from the Trump presidency.

Trump's hotels also stand to benefit from legislation he promotes and people he appoints during as president.

For example, the National Labor Relations Board played a major role in forcing Trump International Las Vegas to negotiate with its workers, certifying the union and dismissing hotel claims that the vote to unionize had been unfair. Now, Trump is in the position to fill two vacant seats in the five-member board immediately, and replace another member in December 2017.

Trump's history with the NLRB has raised concerns that he will appoint members who will protect the Trump Organization's business interests at the expense of workers' rights.

NOW WATCH: 'I'm asking you a simple question': Fox News host confronts RNC chair over Trump's denial of Russia hacks





More From Business Insider


By Liz Hampton HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. pipeline regulators on Wednesday ordered Belle Fourche Pipeline Co to improve leak detection, along with other actions, after a Dec. 5 incident that spilled about 4,200 barrels of oil in North Dakota. Of that total, an estimated 3,100 barrels of crude oil entered the Ash Coulee Creek near Belfield, North Dakota. That oil has been contained. As of Tuesday, an estimated 1,805 barrels had been recovered from the creek, which flows into a tributary of the Missouri River. The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued a corrective action order to Belle Fourche, which is owned by True Cos. Besides improving leak detection, the company must enhance patrols and remediate any pipeline in unstable land areas before resuming operations. Data from the agency shows the spill was the sixth-largest pipeline incident this year. A True Cos spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The incident occurred about 150 miles from the site of protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, which was halted in early December following months of opposition from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others who said a spill could contaminate drinking water. The Belle Fourche leak occurred on a 6-inch line that is part of the company's Bicentennial Pipeline system. The affected segment has capacity to move up to 2,400 barrels of oil per day and runs intermittently. Last week a company spokesman said that equipment did not detect the leak, probably because the line does not flow continuously. (Reporting by Liz Hampton; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
By Nate Raymond and David Ingram

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday accused a former portfolio manager at New York state's retirement fund, the third largest in the United States, of steering $2 billion in trades to two brokerage firms in exchange for gifts such as cash, drugs and prostitutes.

Manhattan federal prosecutors announced charges centered on the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which was shaken by another pay-to-play scheme a decade ago that sent the state comptroller to prison and sent shock waves through the pension fund world.

In the latest case, Navnoor Kang, the former director of fixed income at the New York State Common Retirement Fund, was charged in federal court in Manhattan along with Deborah Kelley, a former Sterne Agee Group Inc managing director.

Both face charges that include securities fraud and wire fraud and were also sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a related civil lawsuit.

Kang was arrested on Wednesday morning at his home in Portland, Oregon. Kelley surrendered to authorities in San Francisco, prosecutors said.

Gregg Schonhorn, a broker-dealer at FTN Financial Securities Corp, secretly pleaded guilty to paying bribes on Dec. 15, authorities said. FTN fired him on Wednesday when the firm learned of the allegations, a spokeswoman said.

Prosecutors said that Kelley and Schonhorn lavished Kang with cash, entertainment, luxury gifts, prostitutes and drugs valued at about $100,000 in exchange for fixed-income business.

"This was an age-old and classic tale of quid-pro-quo corruption," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told reporters.

On weekend trips to Montreal in 2014, Schonhorn paid for cocaine, meals and travel expenses for Kang and another fund employee, according to court papers. They communicated via the WhatsApp smartphone app.

Kelley bought Kang a ticket to a Paul McCartney concert in New Orleans in 2014, and a ski trip to Park City, Utah, for him and a girlfriend in 2015, according to authorities.

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In exchange, Kang steered $2 billion in fixed-income business to FTN and Sterne Agee, from which Kelly, Schonhorn and their employers earned millions of dollars in commissions, prosecutors said.

New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli denounced Kang's alleged actions in a statement, saying the fund has "absolutely no tolerance for self-dealing, and we are outraged by Mr. Kang's shocking betrayal of his responsibilities."

Brian McEvoy, Kang's lawyer, declined to comment. Lawyers for Kelley and Schonhorn, who is cooperating with the prosecution, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Kang worked at the $184.5 billion fund from January 2014 to February 2016, when the state says he was dismissed, and was responsible for investing over $55 billion in fixed income assets, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He previously worked at Guggenheim Partners Asset Management and Pacific Investment Management Co after beginning his career at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, according to the profile.

Kelley worked as a managing director at Sterne Agee from 2012 to 2015, and left not long after Stifel Financial Corp acquired the company, according to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records and LinkedIn.

In August 2015, Stifel said that Kelley had been discharged for providing gifts or entertainment to an unnamed portfolio manager at a public pension fund and misrepresenting the nature of expenses she submitted for reimbursement.

FINRA disclosed in September 2015 that it was conducting an inquiry into the matter. Kelley currently works at Seaport Global in San Francisco, according to her LinkedIn profile page.

From 2003 to 2005, former New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who was the sole trustee of the fund, approved a $250 million pension investment in exchange for nearly $1 million in benefits from a California businessman. Hevesi pleaded guilty to corruption charges and went to prison for a year.

The wrongdoing revealed how politics and placement fees resulted in favored treatment by pension funds nationwide, and led to eight people pleading guilty.

The Common Retirement Fund is the investment arm of the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement System and the New York State and Local Police and Fire Retirement System.

The case is U.S. U.S. v. Kang et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-cr-837.

(Additional reporting by David Ingram; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Alan Crosby)
By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Florida construction equipment exporter's owners were arrested on Wednesday on charges they illegally transferred over $100 million from businesses largely in Venezuela to U.S. and foreign bank accounts belonging to Venezuelan government officials and others.

Luis Diaz Jr., 74, and his son, Luis Javier Diaz, 49, were charged in a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to commit money laundering and operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.

Both men, who run Miami Equipment & Export Co, according to their firm's website, were arrested in Miami, said a spokesman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The case came amid U.S. Justice Department investigations that have focused on individuals tied to the Venezuelan government and their suspected roles in various bribery and drug-trafficking schemes.

According to the complaint, the family's company, beginning in 2010, facilitated hundreds of hundreds of transmissions of funds into the United States on behalf of an unnamed large consortium of Venezuelan construction companies.

Those Venezuelan companies transferred at least $100 million to the family's company, which forwarded funds to bank accounts around the world on behalf of the Venezuelan consortium's employees and associates, the complaint said.

At the consortium's request, they also transmitted money to unnamed Venezuelan government officials, including one who oversaw the award of certain contracts on which the Venezuelan companies bid, the complaint alleged.

For example, in 2012, the family's firm received $4.36 million from the Venezuelan consortium, $1.45 million of which was to go to a Portuguese shell company controlled by a Venezuelan with ties to Venezuelan government officials, the complaint said.

That payment, according an email from a Venezuelan executive, was described in an invoice as being for "partial payment of advice on procurement, testing, precommissioning and commissioning," the complaint said.

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Of the remaining funds, nearly $2.55 million went to a British Virgin Islands shell company controlled by executives at the Venezuelan consortium, while the family's company received a $87,218 fee, according to the complaint.

During the period in question, the Portuguese shell company controlled by the individual linked to Venezuelan officials received at least $17 million, the complaint said.

A further $41.4 million was transferred to three shell companies controlled by employees at the Venezuelan construction companies, according to the complaint.

The case is U.S. v. Diaz, et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-mj-8150.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney)
By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The number of U.S. executions fell to a quarter-century low in 2016 as new death sentences plummeted, indicating capital punishment is on the decline, a study released on Wednesday showed.

The number of U.S. executions in 2016 was 20, the lowest since 1991, according to the study from the Death Penalty Information Center, which monitors capital punishment.

While 31 states have the death penalty, only five held executions in 2016. Georgia carried out the most at nine while Texas was next at seven, it said.

The number of new death sentences in 2016 is expected to hit 30, a low not seen since the U.S. Supreme Court declared existing death penalty statutes unconstitutional in 1972, it said. That figure is down by more than 90 percent from a recent high of 315 in 1996.

Legal battles and a sales ban on execution drugs will likely hold down the number of executions next year while the high costs of death penalty cases is set to keep capital punishment prosecutions down as district attorneys instead seek sentences of life in prison without parole, legal experts said.

"America is in the midst of a major climate change concerning capital punishment," said Robert Dunham, the center's executive director and the report author.

States have been scrambling to find drugs since European drug makers imposed a sales ban about five years ago due to ethical concerns. The problem was exacerbated when pharmaceutical giant Pfizer imposed a sales ban this year, cutting off the last major U.S. source of the drugs.

Ohio, which has executed 53 inmates since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, had a U.S. judge this week delay plans to end its nearly 3-year execution hiatus in 2017 to examine its drug procurement secrecy.

Capital punishment advocates have said expenses or drug shortages should not be a factor, arguing the death penalty is an instrument of justice and must used for those who deserve it.

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Jordan Steiker, a University of Texas Law School professor and director of its Capital Punishment Center, said states looking to resume executions are going to face stiff legal challenges.

"We are on a path toward constitutional abolition. The length of that path will be dictated by uncertainties concerning the Supreme Court's composition and how much the withering of the death penalty continues," he said.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Alan Crosby)
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 21 (Reuters) - A United Nations internal inquiry released on Wednesday found that "multiple types of munitions deployed from more than one aircraft and aircraft type" struck an aid convoy in Syria in a deadly September attack.

The inquiry said it was unable to identify the perpetrator, though it noted that only Syrian, Russian and U.S.-led coalition aircraft had the capability to carry out such an attack, not opposition forces. It said it was "highly unlikely" that U.S.-led coalition aircraft were involved in the attack.

The inquiry said at least 10 people died and some 22 people were injured in the September attack on the U.N. and Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy at Urem Al-Kubra near the northern city of Aleppo, which also destroyed 17 trucks.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Leslie Adler)
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote on Friday on whether to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan, even though the U.S.-drafted measure is likely to fail despite warnings by U.N. officials of a possible genocide, diplomats said on Wednesday. The resolution also proposes blacklisting South Sudan opposition figure Riek Machar, army chief Paul Malong and Information Minister Michael Makuei by subjecting them to an asset freeze and travel ban. To be adopted, a resolution needs nine votes and no vetoes. Diplomats say that so far seven members were in favor, with the remaining eight planning to abstain. The United States has requested that a vote be held on Friday. "Council members will need, each of us, to own our decisions. So the United States urges you to prepare to vote your conscience, and to vote to stand with the people of South Sudan," Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the council on Monday. The United States has been unable to win over its ally Japan, which last month deployed troops to a U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. It is focusing lobbying efforts on Senegal and Angola, diplomats said. "We urge all our council colleagues to vote in favor of that resolution on Friday. I don't know whether enough of them will do so," British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told reporters on Wednesday. Political rivalry between South Sudan President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and Marchar, his former deputy, led in 2013 to civil war that often has followed ethnic lines. The pair signed a peace deal last year, but fighting has continued. Machar, a Nuer, fled in July and is now in South Africa. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday told the Security Council that he feared genocide was about to start in South Sudan unless immediate action is taken, renewing his months-old plea for an arms embargo.U.N. peacekeepers have been in South Sudan since the nation gained independence from Sudan in 2011, and there currently are some 13,700 U.N. troops and police in the country. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols Editing by W Simon)
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote on Friday on whether to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan, even though the U.S.-drafted measure is likely to fail despite warnings by U.N. officials of a possible genocide, diplomats said on Wednesday. The resolution also proposes blacklisting South Sudan opposition figure Riek Machar, army chief Paul Malong and Information Minister Michael Makuei by subjecting them to an asset freeze and travel ban. To be adopted, a resolution needs nine votes and no vetoes. Diplomats say that so far seven members were in favor, with the remaining eight planning to abstain. The United States has requested that a vote be held on Friday. "Council members will need, each of us, to own our decisions. So the United States urges you to prepare to vote your conscience, and to vote to stand with the people of South Sudan," Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the council on Monday. The United States has been unable to win over its ally Japan, which last month deployed troops to a U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. It is focusing lobbying efforts on Senegal and Angola, diplomats said. [nL1N1EF10A] "We urge all our council colleagues to vote in favor of that resolution on Friday. I don't know whether enough of them will do so," British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told reporters on Wednesday. Political rivalry between South Sudan President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and Marchar, his former deputy, led in 2013 to civil war that often has followed ethnic lines. The pair signed a peace deal last year, but fighting has continued. Machar, a Nuer, fled in July and is now in South Africa. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday told the Security Council that he feared genocide was about to start in South Sudan unless immediate action is taken, renewing his months-old plea for an arms embargo. [nL1N1EE1LJ] U.N. peacekeepers have been in South Sudan since the nation gained independence from Sudan in 2011, and there currently are some 13,700 U.N. troops and police in the country. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols Editing by W Simon)
By Francois Murphy and Shadia Nasralla VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog's chief, Yukiya Amano, will secure a third term in office since his most likely challenger has chosen not to run against him, according to diplomats who follow the Vienna-based agency. Amano, a 69-year-old career diplomat from Japan, has headed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 2009. He said in September he would seek to stay on, emphasizing the importance of continuity in policing Iran's nuclear deal with major powers, among other issues. "There will be no other candidate," a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity, adding that Amano enjoys broad support. "It's a done deal." Amano was expected to be challenged by Argentine diplomat Rafael Grossi, a Vienna veteran who recently chaired the Nuclear Suppliers Group, an export control body. But with an end-of-year deadline for bids approaching, he had bowed out, diplomats said. Argentina has decided to wait until the end of what would be Amano's third term, in 2021, to put Grossi forward as a candidate, another diplomat familiar with the matter said. Grossi was not immediately available for comment. Amano was first elected by the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors with the support of Western countries looking for a more pliant successor to Mohamed ElBaradei of Egypt, who frequently clashed with U.S. officials over Iran. ElBaradei and the IAEA were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, two years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Officials from the George W. Bush administration, which was in power at the time, accused ElBaradei of being too lenient towards Iran. Amano, a more low-key figure known for his guarded statements, regularly emphasizes that the IAEA's work is technical, striking a deliberate contrast with ElBaradei's more political style. Diplomats say he has established himself as a competent leader through episodes like the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan - a tough test for the IAEA, which is tasked both with nuclear safety and with promoting nuclear energy. He has also overseen inspections of Iran's nuclear programme, a role that continues under the landmark deal with major powers reached last year, which restricts Iran's atomic activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against it. With U.S. President-elect Donald Trump - a vocal critic of the deal - due to take office next month and his future policy towards Iran uncertain, many see the need for a safe pair of hands. "Amano does not generate any enthusiasm but is seen as a figure that does not rock the boat," said one diplomat who is critical of him. Amano's second four-year term runs until November. The Board of Governors is due to meet during the year to elect the next director general. (Writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday returned Taobao, China's most popular consumer-to-consumer shopping website, to its blacklist of "notorious marketplaces" known for the sale of counterfeit goods and violations of intellectual property rights. The move by the U.S. Trade Representative's office against the online bazaar run by Alibaba Group Co Holding Ltd followed complaints from U.S. and international trade groups for apparel and luxury goods that Taobao was not doing enough to police sales of fakes and pirated products. Inclusion on the blacklist does not carry any direct penalties but is a blow to Alibaba's efforts to shed perceptions its websites are riddled with fakes - a key to gaining a bigger international customer base and taking market share from global competitors such as eBay Inc and Amazon.com. The company expressed disappointment with the move. Taobao was put on the USTR blacklist in 2011 but removed in 2012 after it made efforts to address concerns of intellectual property rights holders and committed to cut the number of pirated and counterfeit goods on its website. In unveiling its 2016 list, USTR acknowledged that Alibaba had taken steps to combat piracy, including addressing the misuse of brand keywords, blurred trademarks in product images and developing technology to prevent counterfeit sellers from reopening under new names. USTR said, however, the current levels of reported counterfeiting and piracy were "unacceptably high," with such goods posing a "grave economic threat" to U.S. creative and innovative industries and posing public health threats in some cases. "One large motor vehicle manufacturer reported that at least 95 percent of the merchandise bearing its companys brand names and trademarks found on Alibaba platforms is suspected to be counterfeit," USTR said. Alibaba Group President Michael Evans said in a statement the company was "very disappointed" to be put back on the list as it was far more advanced in protecting intellectual property rights than it was four years ago. He added that the decision ignored Alibaba's work to remove more than twice the number of product listings this year than in 2015. "We question whether the USTR acted based on the actual facts or was influenced by the current political climate," Evans said. Alibaba touts Taobao as China's largest online shopping destination by gross merchandise volume and among the top five websites in China and top 15 globally. Alibaba shares fell 0.7 percent on the New York Stock Exchange to $89.25 (Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Peter Cooney)
By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday returned Taobao, China's most popular consumer-to-consumer shopping website, to its blacklist of "notorious marketplaces" known for the sale of counterfeit goods and violations of intellectual property rights. The move by the U.S. Trade Representative's office against the online bazaar run by Alibaba Group Co Holding Ltd followed complaints from U.S. and international trade groups for apparel and luxury goods that Taobao was not doing enough to police sales of fakes and pirated products. Inclusion on the blacklist does not carry any direct penalties but is a blow to Alibaba's efforts to shed perceptions its websites are riddled with fakes - a key to gaining a bigger international customer base and taking market share from global competitors such as eBay Inc and Amazon.com . The company expressed disappointment with the move. Taobao was put on the USTR blacklist in 2011 but removed in 2012 after it made efforts to address concerns of intellectual property rights holders and committed to cut the number of pirated and counterfeit goods on its website. In unveiling its 2016 list, USTR acknowledged that Alibaba had taken steps to combat piracy, including addressing the misuse of brand keywords, blurred trademarks in product images and developing technology to prevent counterfeit sellers from reopening under new names. USTR said, however, the current levels of reported counterfeiting and piracy were "unacceptably high," with such goods posing a "grave economic threat" to U.S. creative and innovative industries and posing public health threats in some cases. "One large motor vehicle manufacturer reported that at least 95 percent of the merchandise bearing its companys brand names and trademarks found on Alibaba platforms is suspected to be counterfeit," USTR said. Alibaba Group President Michael Evans said in a statement the company was "very disappointed" to be put back on the list as it was far more advanced in protecting intellectual property rights than it was four years ago. He added that the decision ignored Alibaba's work to remove more than twice the number of product listings this year than in 2015. "We question whether the USTR acted based on the actual facts or was influenced by the current political climate," Evans said. Alibaba touts Taobao as China's largest online shopping destination by gross merchandise volume and among the top five websites in China and top 15 globally. Alibaba shares fell 0.7 percent on the New York Stock Exchange to $89.25 (Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Peter Cooney)
TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States and Japan held a ceremony on Wednesday marking the U.S. military's return of nearly 10,000 acres (4,046 hectares) of land on Okinawa island to the Japanese government, the largest transfer since 1972. Resentment on the southern island has simmered for years among residents opposed to the U.S. Marines' Futenma air base there. They want the base moved off the island but the central government aims to relocate it to a less-populated part of Okinawa. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, attended the ceremony in Tokyo, with another event on Okinawa planned for Thursday. The U.S. military said in a statement Japan had made sufficient progress in building helipads and access roads to consolidate military training in other areas and allow for the return of the 9,909 acres. The returned land is part of the Northern Training Area, or Camp Gonsalves or the Jungle Warfare Training Center, and is the largest U.S. installation in Japan with 19,300 acres of land. Okinawa, which was under U.S. occupation until 1972, hosts the bulk of the approximately 50,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan. Although agreed in 1996, the return of the land was delayed by protesters blocking the construction of helipads. The Japanese government recently resumed work at the site. Japan's top court on Tuesday ruled in favor of the government plan to relocate the Futenma base to another part of the island, dealing a blow to islanders' efforts to get rid of it altogether. Tension between Okinawa authorities and the U.S. military increased this month when a MV-22 Osprey aircraft crashed southwest of Okinawa, the first accident involving the aircraft in Japan. Okinawa residents worry about crashes in populated areas. Japanese media reported Okinawa governor Takeshi Onaga planned to skip the ceremony on Thursday and instead attend a protest against the U.S. military presence on the island. (Reporting by Reuters Televison; Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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LONDON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Britain's Queen Elizabeth, 90, and her husband Prince Philip, 95, delayed their Christmas travel plans on Wednesday because they are both suffering from heavy colds, Buckingham Palace said.

Elizabeth, the world's longest-reigning living monarch, and Philip had been due to catch a train from London to their Sandringham country residence in Norfolk, eastern England, where they traditionally spend Christmas.

"The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have heavy colds, and so have decided not to travel to Sandringham today," the royal office said in a short statement.

The couple, who have been married for 69 years, were well enough on Tuesday to host members of the royal family for a lunch at Buckingham Palace in London attended by heir to the throne, Charles, his son Prince William, and grandson Prince George, third in line to succeed the Queen.

After six decades on the throne, the Queen has cut back on international tours but still regularly performs official duties around Britain, although she said on Tuesday she would reduce the number of her patronages.

Although Elizabeth's father, George VI, died at the relatively young age of 56, her mother, who was known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, lived until 101 and was still appearing in public almost up until her death in 2002.

Both the Queen and Prince Philip's good health has allowed them to remain very much in the public eye, despite their age.

The Times reported on Wednesday that Philip carried out more public engagements last year than did his grandsons Princes William and Harry, and William's wife Kate combined.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Stephen Addison)
(MANILA)The United Nations human rights commission has urged the Philippines to launch a murder investigation into President Rodrigo Dutertes claims he killed three people as mayor of Davao City, and into the killings in his war on drugs, which has led to more than 6,000 deaths.

Since July when Duterte assumed the presidency, there had been 6,000 people killed in the governments war on drugs, about a third died in police anti-narcotics operations and the rest by motorcycle-riding masked men and vigilante groups.

Duterte told a gathering of businessmen last week that as mayor of Davao City he personally killed criminals as he prowled the streets.

He later admitted killing three men, who were involved in a kidnapping case, during a police gunfight in late 1980s.

The Philippines judicial authorities must demonstrate their commitment to upholding the law and their independence from the executive by launching a murder investigation, said Zeid Raad Al Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, in reference to Dutertes claims.

The killing described by President Duterte also violates international law, including the right to life, freedom from violence and force, due process and fair trial, equal protection before the law and innocence until proven guilty, Zeid said in a statement.

He also said there is surprisingly little information on actual prosecutions over recent killings, despite police investigations into thousands of killings by vigilantes.

Credible and independent investigation must be urgently re-opened into the killings in Davao, as well as into the shocking number of killings that have occurred across the country since Duterte became president, Zeid said.

Dutertes allies in Congress said the president was immune from any lawsuit and cannot be investigated for actions he had done before he assumed office. He can only face an inquiry after he is removed from power, they added.

In fact, then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had investigated such cases and came up with no actionable offences, said Congressman Rodolfo Farinas.

The president could only be impeached by acts or omissions committed as president.
Photo credit: undefined

From Popular Mechanics

Ride-hailing giant Uber is blaming a computer glitch for overcharging a "handful" of customers, including one Philadelphia woman whose bank blocked an attempt to charge her more than $28,000 for a ride.

Philly.com (http://bit.ly/2hVlyMB ) says that woman first said she got an email from Uber warning her that her financial information had been hacked. Six days later, Uber sent another email telling her that was wrong and that Uber's engineering team was aware of the error and fixing it.

The San Francisco-based company says its engineers are working to ensure a similar glitch doesn't happen again.

Uber says the woman's bank was never charged the $28,639.14, but a hold for that amount was placed on her account.

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Washington (AFP) - The United States denied Wednesday an Israeli claim that US-supplied armored vehicles seen being operated by Hezbollah in Syria had been given to the Islamist militia by Lebanon's official army.

Last month, footage emerged of Hezbollah fighters operating M113 armored personnel carriers in Syria, where the militia -- blacklisted by Washington as a terrorist organization -- is fighting in support of Bashar al-Assad's regime.

On Wednesday, a senior Israeli military official speaking on condition of anonymity said Israel believes these vehicles were drawn from stocks supplied by Washington to the Lebanese Armed Forces.

But, in Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said US officials have investigated and do not believe that Lebanon has violated its agreement not to transfer on US-supplied equipment.

"When this allegation was raised in November, the Department of Defense did a structural analysis of the armored personnel carriers in question at that time and concluded that these vehicles were not from the Lebanese Armed Forces. Our assessment remains the same now," Kirby told AFP.

"As we noted when this first came up, the Lebanese Armed Forces stated publicly that the vehicles depicted online were never part of their equipment roster," he added.

"The LAF fully complies with end use monitoring requirements, continues to have an exemplary track record with US equipment and remains a valued partner in the fight against ISIL and other extremists," he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

- Captured APCs -

The United States supplies Lebanon's official army with arms on condition they are for official use and would be obliged to review military ties if it were proved the APCs ended up in Hezbollah's hands.

Pentagon spokesman Gordon Trowbridge told AFP that Hezbollah does indeed have a "small number" of M113 armored personnel carriers in its inventory.

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"They've had them for a number of years," Trowbridge said. "They could have come from a variety of sources because it's a relatively common vehicle in the region."

Neither US spokesman said where Hezbollah's M113s might have come from if not from the Lebanese army.

But last month some officials noted that Hezbollah is thought to have captured armored vehicles from the defunct South Lebanon Army, an Israeli-backed Christian militia that collapsed in 2000.

Earlier, the anonymous Israeli military official had told reporters that Israeli intelligence had "recognized these specific APCs... as those given by the US to Lebanon".

He said new information had been shared with the United States "a few weeks ago" but did not specify how many armored personnel carriers were involved.

Israel fought a devastating war with the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah in 2006, and closely monitors the group's activities.

More recently, the Iranian-funded Lebanese Shiite movement has been fighting alongside Assad's forces in Syria's civil war.

- Sporadic sorties -

The APCs were probably handed to Hezbollah as part of a deal with the Lebanese army, the Israeli official said, asserting that the group had "tightened its grip" over Lebanese institutions.

Images shared on social media in recent weeks showed Hezbollah staging a military parade in the Syrian town of Qusayr, which it retook from rebels in 2013 in its first major victory since it intervened.

Photographs of armored vehicles and anti-aircraft batteries displaying the movement's yellow flag could be seen.

Washington said last month that the United States would be "gravely concerned" if military equipment it supplied to the Lebanese army ended up in Hezbollah's hands.

According to the Israeli official, Hezbollah has "about 8,000 people in Syria," estimating that 1,700 of its fighters have been killed there since the war began in 2011.

Watchtowers built by the Lebanese army on the Israeli border were constructed according to Hezbollah instructions and the country's military and Iran-backed Shiite militiamen conduct joint patrols, the Israeli official said.

Israel has sought to limit its involvement in the Syrian conflict, but has carried out sporadic sorties against Hezbollah inside Syria.

Israel says it reserves the right to stop the group acquiring sophisticated weapons from Syria and Iran and threatening the country from both its Lebanese base and positions in Syria.
A shooter opened fire outside the U.S. Embassy in Ankara hours after the Russian envoy to Turkey was shot dead by a gunman in an art gallery nearby, local media reports said. No one was injured in the incident.

The man allegedly tried to enter the embassy armed with a pump action shotgun. He fired at least eight bullets before being apprehended by security guards. Videos circulated online show the shooter, identified by local media as Sahin S., yelling at the authorities while being led to the police car after the shootout.

U.S. Embassy in Ankara and Consulates Istanbul and Adana closed for normal operations today. Visa appointments will be rescheduled, the embassy announced on Twitter.

The embassy is located about 2.5 miles from the art gallery where Ambassador Andrey Karlov was assassinated Monday by an off-duty Turkish police officer, Mert Altintas.

Karlov was speaking at an exhibition in Ankara when he was shot and killed. Altintas shouted Allahu akbar, or God is great, before opening fire on Russias ambassador to Turkey.

Altintas also yelled: Dont forget Aleppo! Dont forget Syria! As long as our brothers are not safe, you will not enjoy safety. Whoever has a share in this oppression will pay for it one-by-one.

He was later gunned down by security forces, local media reports said.

The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs warned Americans to avoid the Embassy area following the Monday attack. The department later asked citizens to avoid the area till Tuesday morning citing police activity.

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There is some good news for those currently experiencing a desperate panic over whether they can still get Christmas gifts to their loved ones: Mail will be delivered this Christmas Eve. However, be warned that United States Postal Service locations will be running limited hours the day before Christmas.

Post Offices that normally open Saturdays will do so this Christmas Eve, but will close at noon. Mail will also stop being picked up from collection boxes at that time. But packages will be delivered as usual on the day, giving everyone the chance to provide friends and family with a welcome last-minute surprise or save some people from some very uncomfortable conversations on Christmas morning.

Although the deadline has now passed for first-class mail, priority mail should still make it by Christmas if delivered Wednesday. And for the real procrastinators, Dec. 23 is the absolute final chance to get packages delivered on time. The procrastinating will prove costly, however.

By Friday, only Priority Mail Express, which has an overnight-delivery guarantee, will be available. The speediest option comes with a price tag of $22.95, although it is a flat rate for up to 70-pounds.

While catering for the last-minute rush, for the U.S. Post Service, Thursday is expected to be the busiest day. An estimated 30 million packages will be delivered on that day across the 50 states. That follows the busiest mailing day of the year Monday, when it was believed that 611 million cards, letters and packages were posted. The online servers are also besieged at this time of the year, with the USPS website thought to have been visited by 7 million people Monday.

US Postal Service Christmas

Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The USPS, though, expects to take the workload in its stride.

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We plan all year for this, spokeswoman Sue Brennan told the New York Times Monday. This is something that weve done for 240 years-ish, so were pretty good at doing it.

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BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian iron ore miner Vale (VALE5.SA) said on Tuesday it signed a non-binding agreement with BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) to allow the use of its Timbopeba pit to deposit tailings from iron miner Samarco when that company restarts operations. The deal, which will become definitive pending commercial negotiations and government approvals, is the latest step for Samarco to resume operations suspended in 2015 after the collapse of a dam holding mining waste, or tailings. The rupture killed 19 people and caused Brazil's worst environmental disaster.

Samarco is jointly owned by Vale and BHP Billiton.

In compensation for the transfer of the pit, Samarco will supply Vale with non-processed ore for some time, Vale said in a statement.

Samarco expects to receive a preliminary environmental licence in the first quarter, an important step in its effort to resume operations by mid-2017, Chief Executive Roberto Carvalho said in an interview on Dec 6.

A return to operations is vital for Samarco to repay its mounting debt and negotiate with creditors.

(Reporting by Alonso Soto; Editing by Peter Cooney)
SYDNEY (AP)  A van carrying gas cylinders exploded outside the headquarters of a Christian lobbying group in Australia's capital, though there did not appear to be any political or religious motivations behind the incident, police said Thursday.

The driver, a 35-year-old Australian man, was the only person injured in Wednesday night's explosion, which seriously damaged the van and blew out windows in the two-story building, Australian Capital Territory police said.

The driver ignited several gas cylinders that were inside the van, causing the explosion, Deputy Chief Police Officer Mark Walters said. He then walked to a hospital, where he was in critical condition with serious burns. Police have not released his name, saying only that he was not previously known to authorities.

"As a result of our conversations with the man, we have been able to establish that his actions were not politically, religiously or ideologically motivated," Walters told reporters in Canberra.

Walters declined to elaborate on why they have ruled out any sort of political motive, and would not say whether the man had any connection to the Australian Christian Lobby, a conservative advocacy group. An investigation into what prompted him to ignite the cylinders was underway, Walters said.

The head of the Australian Christian Lobby said his group had received anonymous threats over the past year because of its opposition to gay marriage and equality for transgender students.

"I don't know the motivation of last night's attack, but the context of what I see here is in the context of multiple death threats and threats of violence that my staff have endured over the course of this year," managing director Lyle Shelton told reporters.

The group has locked the building for most of this year after never doing so for at least eight years, Shelton said, calling the incident a "truly shocking situation."

Police said they were investigating the threats against the group.

The van was removed from the scene early Thursday morning.
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican said on Tuesday it hoped China's communist government would give Catholics there "positive signs" that would help them have faith in a push by Pope Francis to heal a decades-old rift with Beijing. Chinese Catholics are divided between those who are loyal to the pope and those who are members of a government-controlled official church. The Vatican has been seeking a compromise with Beijing on the appointment of bishops but some see that as selling out those who have remained loyal to the pope. The Chinese government says bishops must be appointed by the local Chinese Catholic community and refuses to accept the authority of the pope, whom it sees as the head of a foreign state that has no right to meddle in Beijing's affairs. A statement said the Vatican was "certain that all Catholics in China are waiting with trepidation for positive signals that would help them have trust in dialogue between civil authorities and the Holy See and hope for a future of unity and harmony." In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China had always been sincere in wanting to improve relations with the Vatican and had worked hard to that end. "We are willing to meet the Vatican half way to promote constructive dialogue so the process of improving bilateral relations can continue to make new progress," she told a daily news briefing. The two sides have been at loggerheads since the expulsion of foreign missionaries from China after the Communists took power in 1949. Prospects for a deal were set back this month after Lei Shiyin, a government-backed bishop excommunicated by the Vatican, participated in the ordination of new bishops. His presence angered and worried Catholics loyal to the pope.. The statement, its first official comment since the incidents involving Lei, said Lei had created anxiety and unease among many Catholic and that the Vatican "shared this pain". (Reporting By Philip Pullella; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Steve Mayou was dumbfounded when he was told hed have to take courses in introductory physics and basic math on his path to a bachelors degree in sustainable building science and technology. Over a 14-year career in the Navy, Mayou had already worked as a nuclear reactor operator on three submarines. Yet just about the only thing his college offered in exchange for that experience was one credit for physical education.

Not only did I do a physics class as part of my training, I had the ultimate lab, he said, the anger still evident in his voice. I was splitting atoms every day.

Mayou fought back and ultimately got some additional credit for his training and experience at the three different higher-education institutions he attended in Washington StateEdmonds Community, Olympic, and South Seattle collegesincluding for that physics class. But hes seen many fellow veterans who didnt.

The frustration comes down to, weve already done this, he said. We shouldnt have to bully the schools into giving us credit for it.

While some states, a few universities and colleges, and the military itself are slowly working to improve this process, a large portion of veterans remain unable to turn their experience and training into academic credit, said Barrett Bogue, vice president of Student Veterans of America, which advocates for vets seeking higher educations.

There are numerous reasons for the gap. Often, the descriptions for military training and civilian academic courses dont align, creating a challenge for institutions trying to apply one framework to the other. Nor are the standards about transfer credits uniform; what schools accept varies widely from one university or college to another. So does institutions willingness to even check.

Theres not one consistent standard, Bogue said. The only thing that is consistent is that student veterans continue to struggle to translate their military service into college credits.

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This despite the fact that many colleges and universities are actively recruiting veterans and the $11 billion a year in GI Bill benefits they collectively spend. Yet while at least 773,000 veterans are now using the GI Bill to go to college, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Bogue said theres a large portion of that population that has military experience that has not been successfully applied for credit.

The result is that taxpayers are on the hook for educations they already paid for: the training given veterans when they were serving and the added cost of veterans languishing in college for longer than theyd planned. Some of these vets are forced to re-take so many courses that they run out of GI Bill money before they graduate. Some quit altogether.

Repeating coursework also slows down the pace at which veterans get the degrees they need to qualify for high-demand jobs, including in health care. Illinois, for instance, is facing an imminent shortage of registered nurses, according to the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, or CAEL, which advocates for helping veterans get credits. It also needs nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, and emergency medical technicians.

Theres a huge supply of qualified new workers for these fields, CAEL points out: the estimated 35,000 veterans returning to Illinois each year, many with training and experience as Army medics, Navy corpsmen, or Air Force medical technicians.

The recognition of potential solutions like that has begun to prompt change. Illinois is one of 13 states that have signed onto the Multi-State Collaborative on Military Credit, joining Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin in trying to make it easier for veterans and service members to convert their experience into academic credit.

Employers are beginning to realize the value of having veterans in their companies, said Danny Eakins, education, employment, and policy administrator for the Ohio Department of Veterans Services and an Army combat veteran who served in Iraq. We dont need to teach a medic who was doing tracheotomies on the battlefield how to do CPR. And the American people and society in general want to do something. They dont want to hear that veterans are coming back and not getting credit for anything.

At a time when enrollment is leveling off and even falling, colleges and universities have an incentive to help now, too: Making life easier for veterans might attract their dependents, their spouses, maybe other veterans, said Sara Appel, the Multi-State Collaboratives project coordinator. Word of mouth in the veteran community is very, very powerful.

That doesnt mean the problem is easy to fix, involving as it does two of what can seem the most impenetrable bureaucracies in the United States: higher education and the military.

To decide whether students should get credit for their past experience or educations, colleges and universities typically review not only transcripts, but details of specific classes they completed. And military transcripts can consist of indecipherable acronymsthe military alphabet, one university administrator calls it, rattling off a list of numbered and lettered forms and coursesand some are even confidential. Further complicating this is the fact that the curriculum for a particular class may be different in each of the military branches.

It can be overwhelming, Appel said. It takes a lot of time, and if you have a lot of veterans at your institution, that just compounds the issue.

Even if a college registrar finally masters the particulars of a program, the military might change it, requiring the entire process to begin again. And training and experience acquired in the field depends on an officer to record it, which may leave lapses.

We have the same goals. We dont speak the same language, said Connie Beene, director of federal initiatives for technical education at the Kansas Board of Regents.

How complicated this is was evident at a CAEL conference in Chicago in November, which brought together college administrators and others trying to get more credit for veterans to recognize their training and experience.

Margherita Clark, the dean of health and human services at Lansing Community College in Michigan, recounted trying to do this beginning in 2001 after meeting a veteran who was being forced to start from scratch in a program to become a paramediceven though hed been an Army medic.

It took her nearly 12 years to correct that, for just this one program, at one college, which now has a formal process for military medics to get paramedic certification in half the usual time. The board of trustees agreed to assess the previous military credit for free; other universities and colleges charge a transcription fee of as much as half the price of the courses that are waived.

It is hard, Clark said. You have to have dedicated staff at a time when there are cuts, cuts, cuts. And your administration has to support veterans and understand what that means.

The military has been trying to address these obstacles, too. Its introduced a new digital training management system to keep track of soldiers schooling. And it has consolidated health care education for all the services into the single Medical Education and Training Campus, or METC, at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, which works with some colleges and universities to match up its courses with theirs.

Were moving in the right direction, said Lieutenant Commander Melanie Ellis, who oversees strategic partnerships at the METC. The universities will still have to extend some effort, but its going to be a lot easier for them.

This still assumes that institutions will, like Lansing Community College, go to the bother, said Suzan Bowman, METCs standards and evaluation chief. And she said there are more that dont call than do.

But Bowman said shes increasingly hearing of examples of veterans such as Mayou, who are fighting for their credits themselves. More and more students are not taking no for an answer and they have been going into their schools and saying, Wait a minute, Ive done this.

Another was John Johnston, who spent eight years on active duty as a Navy cryptologist. When he began work on a bachelors degree in marketing at Metropolitan State University of Denver, he said, he was also offered only credits for phys ed.

I looked at them and I was, like, Are you kidding me? If I had been a cartoon you would have seen the steam coming out of my ears, Johnston said. I knew that I was worth more than a P.E. credit.

He eventually got not all of the credits he demanded, but enough to shave more than a semester off his time in college  including for a global diversity requirement he was told hed have to meet.

That was the one that really lit my fire, he said. Again the smokes coming out of the ears and Im thinking, If Im not globally diverse, who is? Ive been around the world three times.

The process was a nightmare, said Johnston, who graduated in the springhe was the universitys marketing student of the year last yearand now works in sales at Kelloggs.

Bogue, the veterans advocate, said the onus shouldnt just be on schools or veterans, but the military, too.

If youre that base commander whos got schools coming onto your base for a military education fair, you need to be asking them very pointed questions, such as, How does time as an infantryman transfer into college credit? he said. Theres a lot at stake.

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Read more about higher education.
VIENNA (Reuters) - Vienna State Opera will be headed by a former pop radio boss and record company executive, Austria's Culture Ministry said on Wednesday, hoping to attract a younger audience to Austria's flagship music venue. Bogdan Roscic, 52, will take up the post in 2020, moving from Sony's classical music unit which he has headed since 2009. Before then he worked at Decca Music Group and an Austrian pop music station, but has never been director of an opera house before. He will replace Frenchman Dominic Meyer whose tenure, which started in 2010, has been marked by clashes with star conductors Franz Welser-Moest and Bertrand de Billy. With one of the largest repertoires of any opera house, the Vienna State Opera caters to an audience of whom about a third are tourists. Many of them like to see three different operas in three days, a pressure some say has hurt innovation. (Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Vin Diesel wants to make Paul Walker proud.

Diesel, 49, paid tribute to his late friend on social media on Tuesday, while addressing the fate of Fast 8  the first film in the Fast & Furious series since 2006s Tokyo Drift not to feature Walker.

Recalling the arduous road to production and the challenging task of filming the latest installment of the franchise without his close friend, Diesel said it was Walkers memory that helped him during those especially hard times.

You Pablo have given me strength purpose and resolve, he wrote. I promised you we would make something you would be proud of and I pray that we have miss you.

The heartfelt message was posted alongside a photo of the pair at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards, where they won the prize for the best on-screen team for their work in the original Fast and the Furious movie.

Family above everything! he concluded.

Walker, who was 40, died in a car accident on Nov. 30, 2013, when the Porsche he was riding in crashed and exploded in Santa Clarita, California.

RELATED VIDEO: Vin Diesel Delivers a Tear-Jerking Speech at the Peoples Choice Awards

In the days following the third anniversary of his death, Diesel admitted that he still struggles with the loss.

It was a lot of tissues, he said. It was a hard morning for me yesterday because I was here. But the irony is the whole cast reached out and his daughter, Meadow, reached out and all that stuff helps you get through it.

Weve felt the loss, Diesel continued. The last three years have been some of the hardest of my life because of losing my brother like that.




PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP)  President-elect Donald Trump declared Wednesday that the deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Germany was "an attack on humanity and it's got to be stopped." He also suggested he might go forward with his campaign pledge to temporarily ban Muslim immigrants from coming to the United States.

"You know my plans. All along, I've been proven to be right, 100 percent correct," Trump said when asked if the attack in Berlin had caused him to reevaluate the proposal. "What's happening is disgraceful."

Trump proposed the Muslim ban during the Republican primary campaign, prompting criticism from both parties. He shifted his rhetoric during the general election to focus on temporarily halting immigration from an unspecified list of countries with ties to terrorism, though he did not disavow the Muslim ban. A transition spokesman said later Wednesday that Trump's plans "might upset those with their heads stuck in the politically correct sand."

"President-elect Trump has been clear that we will suspend admission of those from countries with high terrorism rates and apply a strict vetting procedure for those seeking entry in order to protect American lives," said spokesman Jason Miller.

But transition officials did not comment as to whether Trump could also push for the overarching ban on Muslims. The proposal remains on his campaign website.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for Monday's attack in Berlin that left 12 people dead and 48 injured. On Wednesday, German officials launched a Europe-wide manhunt for a "violent and armed" Tunisian man suspected in the killings.

Trump was spending the final days of 2016 huddling with advisers at his palatial private estate in South Florida. He also met Wednesday with the heads of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, companies with high-dollar government contracts that Trump has criticized. Boeing has a contract to build two new Air Force One planes and Lockheed Martin builds the F-35 fighter jet.

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Trump, who briefly spoke to reporters outside Mar-a-Lago, said of his meeting with Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, "It's a little bit of a dance. We're trying to get costs down."

Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing, said his company was committed to working with Trump to lower costs on the Air Force One project.

The president-elect was also finalizing his senior White House team, wrapping up a decision-making process that has been dogged by infighting among rival factions within Trump's organization. Some of Trump's original campaign aides have expressed concern to the president-elect himself that they are getting boxed out in favor of those more closely aligned with incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus, former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Among the early advisers who will not be joining Trump at the White House is Corey Lewandowski, his combative first campaign manager. But the operative won't be far away  Lewandowski announced plans to start a political consulting firm with offices just a block away from the White House.

Lewandowski oversaw Trump's campaign through the Republican primaries, but he clashed with the candidate's family and was fired. Still, he remained close to Trump, talking with him frequently and showing up occasionally at the president-elect's offices during the transition.

Lewandowski said he was offered "multiple opportunities" to join the administration, though people with knowledge of the process said those opportunities did not include senior positions in the West Wing.

The president-elect announced plans to hire economist Peter Navarro to run a new National Trade Council that will be housed in the White House. Navarro, author of "Death By China," has endorsed a hard line approach toward relations with Beijing.

In a statement, the Trump transition team said the creation of the council "demonstrates the president-elect's determination to make American manufacturing great again."

Trump also named billionaire investor Carl Icahn as an adviser on regulatory reform, though the transition team said Icahn would not be serving as a federal government employee.

Transition officials said additional announcements on White House jobs were expected this week.

Trump opened his day by boasting anew about his Nov. 8 election victory, tweeting that his win in the Electoral College was more difficult to pull off than winning the popular vote would have been if he had tried. Democrat Hillary Clinton won at least 2.6 million more votes than Trump, an apparent sore point for the president-elect. "

"I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote - but would campaign differently," he tweeted.

___

Follow Lemire at www.twitter.com/JonLemire and Pace at www.twitter.com/jpaceDC
PARIS/MILAN (Reuters) - Vivendi's (VIV.PA) Chief Executive Arnaud de Puyfontaine will meet Italian financial markets regulator Consob in Rome on Friday following complaints over the French media group's stakebuilding in TV broadcaster Mediaset (MS.MI), said two sources close to the matter.

Since revealing it held a 3 percent stake in Mediaset last week Vivendi has rapidly increased its shareholding, becoming the group's second biggest investor after former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's family.

Vivendi, led by billionaire Vincent Bollore, said on Tuesday that it now owned a 25.75 percent stake in Mediaset, giving it 26.77 percent of the voting rights.

Berlusconi's Fininvest family holding company, which owns a 38.3 percent stake in Mediaset, filed a complaint with Consob on Monday alleging market abuse and last week it lodged a criminal complaint alleging market manipulation.

In the meeting with de Puyfontaine Consob will reconstruct the share price movements, the source said, adding that the market authority could also meet with representatives from Fininvest and Mediaset.

The other source said that Vivendi's chief executive would confirm that the French group has built up its stake in the last week following all existing market rules.

The source added that the French media giant still remains hopeful of resuming talks with Mediaset, given that Italy is a key country for Vivendi's long-term strategy in South Europe.

Acquiring stakes in Mediaset fits in with Vivendi's broader strategy of creating a southern European media and content conglomerate to compete with the likes of Rupert Murdoch's Sky (SKYB.L) and video-streaming giant Netflix (NFLX.O).

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Gwenaelle Barzic in Paris, Giancarlo Navach in Milan; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Greg Mahlich)
black lives matter shirt

Walmart pulled a Black Lives Matter shirt and hoodie from its online store Wednesday after police accused the retailer of helping third-party sellers profit "from racial division."

The hoodie and shirt that were pulled featured the slogan, "Bulletproof: Black Lives Matter," and were being sold through Walmart Marketplace, the retailer's website that features millions of items from third-party sellers.

On Tuesday, Chuck Canterbury, the national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, wrote a public letter to Walmart calling out its Marketplace site for selling merchandise that promotes the Black Lives Matter movement, which organizes protests across the US to draw attention to racism and police brutality.

"Commercializing our differences will not help our local police and communities to built greater trust and respect for one another," Canterbury wrote in the letter.

In response, Walmart said in a statement that it would remove apparel that said, "Bulletproof: Black Lives Matter," from its online store.

Old Glory

"Like other online retailers, we have a marketplace with millions of items offered by third parties that includes Blue Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter merchandise," Walmart said in a statement. "After hearing concerns from customers, we are removing the specific item with the 'bulletproof' reference."

The "Bulletproof" shirts are made by Old Glory, an apparel retailer based in Centerbrook, Connecticut that also sells "All Lives Matter" and "Blue Lives Matter" shirts through Walmart's website.

The retail giant's website will continue to offer items including t-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats bearing the words "Black Lives Matter," created and sold by third-party retailers. Walmart's website also features apparel that read "All Lives Matter," "Blue Lives Matter," "Homeless Lives Matter," and "Journalists Lives Matter."

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Walmart BLM

As of Wednesday at 11 a.m., the "Bulletproof" shirt could no longer be accessed on Walmart's website, but other "Black Lives Matter" merchandise remained available.

Breitbart, a right-wing website that has been critical of the Black Lives Matter movement, published an article last week calling out Walmart for selling "Black Lives Matter" merchandise on its website. Following the publication of Brietbart's article, a number of people took to social media to complain about the shirts.

NOW WATCH: The most surprising brands millennials love





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President-elect Donald Trump broke with GOP orthodoxy during the 2016 campaign by endorsing the idea of opening U.S. borders to the re-importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and other countries as a method of bringing down health care costs and discourage price gouging by the pharmaceutical industry.

Trump outlined his support for this move  vigorously opposed by the drug industry and the Food and Drug Administration, among others  in a seven-point health care reform plan unveiled last March. Trump also embraced another idea that was favored by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to authorize Medicare officials for the first time to negotiate with drug manufacturers to sharply reduce their prices.

Related: Prescription Drug Prices Headed for Double-Digit Increases in 2017

Congress will need the courage to step away from the special interests and do what is right for America, the Trump campaign plan stated, in promoting market-based solutions to containing health care costs. Allowing consumers access to imported, safe, and dependable drugs from overseas will bring more options to consumers.

Drug re-importation refers to the idea of importing back to the U.S. prescription drugs that were originally manufactured in this country and then exported for sale in other countries. Many U.S. drug manufacturers market their products throughout the world and negotiate different price structures in virtually every country.

The idea of lowering barriers to overseas drugs has been around for a long time, fueled by reports showing that Americans pay some of the highest prescription drug prices in the world. Countries like Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, South America and India pay far less because prices are typically dictated by the government. According to the International Federation of Health Plans, Americans pay anywhere from between two and six times what the rest of the world pays for brand name prescription drugs.

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For instance, last year Gleevec, a cancer treatment drug, cost Americans and their insurers $6,214 per month for treatments, while Canadians paid only $1,141 and residents of Great Britain paid $2,697 per month, as CNN reported. It was a similar situation with Humira, a drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis that cost U.S. residents $2,246 per monthly treatment compared with $881 in Switzerland and $1,102 in England.

Slideshow: The 10 Most Frequently Prescribed Drugs in America

A December 2015 international drug cost survey by Bloomberg concluded that prices for brand-name drugs are typically much higher in the U.S. than in other developed countries, even when factoring in the discounts and rebates that pharmaceutical companies frequently provide to insurers, government agencies such as the Veterans Administration and Medicaid. Even with discounts of as much as 50 percent to 60 percent, seven out of ten top-selling brand name drugs were still much costlier in the U.S. than overseas.

Drug Prices-Canada v. US

Those drugs included Crestor, a pill to lower cholesterol; Lantos, a long-acting insulin; Advair, an asthma inhaler; Januvia, a pill to treat diabetes; Sovaldi, the wonder drug for treating the Hepatitis-C virus; Humira, a rheumatoid arthritis drug self- injector; and Herceptin, an infusion for the treatment of cancer.

In the case of Sovaldi, manufactured by Gilead Sciences in California, one pill for treating Hep-C cost $1,000 in the United States but only $4 in India, where the manufacturer agreed to lower the price in exchange for volume sales.

As the cost of prescription drugs in this country continues to mount, millions of Americans appear to be taking matters into their own hands and looking overseas for relief  even if that may require breaking the law. It has long been known that many Americans routinely purchase prescription drugs on the Internet or while traveling to Canada, Mexico or other countries.

Related: Trump Jolts the Pharmaceutical Industry with Vow to Bring Down Drug Prices

Pricey specialty drug prices are projected to increase 18.7 percent next year, after growing 18.9 percent in 2016, according to HR Consultancy Segal. Meanwhile, the overall cost of all drugs prescribed for employees under age 65 is expected to grow 11.6 percent next year, on top of an 11.3 percent hike this year, as The Fiscal Times reported recently.

A new Kaiser Family Foundation national poll conducted in November found that eight percent of those interviewed said they or someone in their household had imported a drug at some point. That would be the equivalent of about 19 million adults, based on current census estimates.

Those people ranged from college students in their 20s to retirees in their 80s, according to the analysis. Some purchased medication to treat high blood pressure and other chronic conditions. Others acquired the drugs to treat acute problems like sinus infections and acne.

Those numbers, if accurate, indicate a major surge in the number of Americans seeking bargain-basement drug prices from neighboring countries or overseas  or at least an increase in the number of people willing to openly discuss it. Previous government surveys dating back to 2011 suggested that the share of Americans buying prescription drugs from other countries was about two percent, according to the report.

Related: How Big Pharma Lobbyists Keep Medicare Drug Prices High

Some people may have been reluctant to talk about their health care costs or admit that they have turned to overseas markets for better deals, according to experts.

But with Trump and some prominent Democrats and independents endorsing the idea of drug re-importation as a cost-saving measure, average Americans may feel more comfortable about admitting that they have been quietly engaging in those transactions for years.

It is illegal for individuals to import drugs into the U.S. for personal use, according to the Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Customs officials. The basic argument that federal authorities use against drug re-importation is one of safety. That is because many drugs from other countries that are available for purchase by individuals here have not been formally approved by the FDA for sale in the United States  and may not be safe for use.

FDA cannot ensure the safety and effectiveness of drugs that it has not approved, the agency says on its website.

Related: Two Big Reasons Prescription Drug Prices Are So Much Higher in the US

Thats a far-fetched argument to make in discouraging drug purchases from countries like Canada or Great Britain whose health care standards are on par with those of the United States. However, it may have more sway in arguing against buying drugs from other countries in Europe, Latin America, South America and Asia, or from acquiring drugs on through the internet.

The pharmaceutical industry  which has long opposed drug re-importation because of the adverse impact it would have on its profits in this country cites World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10 percent of medicines worldwide  and up to 50 percent of the drugs consumed in developing nations  are counterfeit.

Without proper FDA oversight and enforcement of laws designed to protect patient safetywhich importation undermines these products could infiltrate the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain, with life-threatening consequences, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the drug industrys chief lobbying arm, has argued.

However, the FDA and customs officials have not been overly aggressive in enforcing the law  although U.S. border inspectors have broad discretion in deciding whether to destroy the drugs if they are discovered at a point of entry. And the FDA says that it typically does not object to personal imports of drugs that FDA has not approved under certain circumstances.

For example, the FDA makes exceptions for a drug needed for a serious condition for which effective treatment is not available in the United States, or in cases where there is no commercialization or promotion of the drug to U.S. residents.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
my first time DJing for Migos. this what happened when I played Bad & Boujee in Lagos, Nigeria. pic.twitter.com/AJPP99m8aJ  Dapper Daddy (@JohnTheDapperDJ) December 21, 2016

Migos knows no boundaries or limitations. The reunited rap trio have already broken the boundaries between rap and classical music and rappers and good acting performances. It would be foolish to think theyd let half a world of distance stand in their way either. Thats how you get clips like this one, where a crowd in Lagos, Nigeria absolutely lost its mind to their Lil Uzi Vert-assisted hit Bad and Boujee.

DJ John J  who was performing with Migos for the first time at the Christmas concert in the countrys largest city  tweeted out a surreal 60-second clip of the venue absolutely exploding when the song kicks off.

The video spread quickly because energy levels that high cant help but be infectious and just about everyone was ready to admit they missed the best show of 2016.

Migos performing their hit single "Bad and Boujee" in Nigeria

This is how every crowd should be pic.twitter.com/f2VcWBkC6W  lord quavo (@ohmylordquavo) December 21, 2016

migos performing bad and boujee in africa. nigeria lit as fuck. pic.twitter.com/85u46cSSnF  (@6PAPl) December 21, 2016

Im really hoping this Rae Sremmurd concert in Amsterdam is anywhere near as lit as that Migos in Nigeria concert  Papo Sandiego (@Jo_Pa_Po) December 21, 2016

That video of Migos performing in Nigeria is fucking  V. (@__Adoreher) December 21, 2016

If someone asked me what I'd do with a time machine, at this point I'd just use it to go to this show https://t.co/GkKTIGlAVl  Austin Vesely (@AustinVesely) December 21, 2016

Migos's 2016 performance in Nigeria has already been more culturally significant than Woodstock  bsage (@bsageATL) December 21, 2016

And at least one fan took it upon themselves to give the group a lesson in exchange rates.

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Quavo don't even know he's holding like $15 US, but Nigeria showing Migos love >>>>> pic.twitter.com/du5pl4DIgs  #LawrenceHive (@YoShowtime) December 21, 2016

Were still waiting on No Label 3, but if its because Migos are too busy staging shows like this, then its probably forgivable. Check out a bit of their performance of Dat Way below and if youre still feeling uncomfortably energetic, work some of it off with their Young Thug collab Cocoon.
If Chinas looking for a way to win back U.S. trust after a rough few months, it should send more pandas. That clearly worked for Canada.

On Wednesday, the Toronto Zoos Giant Panda Cam captured one of its furry inhabitants playing with a giant snowman. Da Mao, Canadas sole male giant panda on loan from China, was caught on camera trying to simultaneously hug, claw, climb, and decapitate a giant zookeeper-built snowman.

Enjoy:

In addition to being an instant Youtube star, Da Mao is also a savvy (and cuddly) instrument of Chinese diplomacy. China has sent pandas as envoys to other countries since the 1950s in a move thats come to be known as panda diplomacy. Its an effective tactic because, well, who doesnt love pandas?

In 2013, China loaned Da Mao and another female panda, Er Shun, to Canada as a part of a 10 year, $10 million agreement on panda conservation and breeding between the two governments. The Canadian government rolled out the red carpet for their new furry friends; then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper even greeted them at the airport when they arrived. Two years later, the panda pair became the proud parents of two new (and equally adorable) panda cubs.

China has benefitted from the warm-and-fuzzy panda PR, but its also caused a few awkward diplomatic dust-ups in the past. In 2009, President Barack Obama reportedly personally lobbied Chinese President Hu Jintao to keep a leased panda cub, Tai Shan, at Washingtons National Zoo for longer than the lease. The Chinese, unfortunately, said no.

Sadly, Washington National Zoos other favorite panda, Bao Bao, has to move back to China in early 2017. No word on whether President-elect Donald Trump will push to keep her stateside, since hes apparently getting tough on China.

Photo credit: Associated Press/Toronto Zoo
In the past year, Pusha T has been more vocal than ever before about his opinions towards prison reform. The months leading up to the presidential election found Push making stops at various shows like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and opening conversations with vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine. Whenever he has the opportunity, Pusha T works to bring more awareness to the need for prison reform and organizations like FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimum).

Pusha T recently sat down with director Ava DuVernay to discuss her documentary titled 13th which focuses on the issue of mass incarceration in the United States. Now he returns to partake in a new video series called #MySentence. Pusha, along with other musicians and actors like Ludacris, Monica, and more take turns reading the self-written true stories of formerly incarcerated citizens. The videos were produced by Fictionless Films in association with FAMM, Can-Do Clemency, American Civil Liberties Union, and American Civil Liberties Union.

Pusha T reads the story of Norman Brown, a man who was sentence to life without parole for a non-violent offense of crack cocaine distribution. Brown was incarcerated at 22 years old and released at 47 years old after his sentence was commuted by President Obama. Ludacris reads the words of Jamal Hanson, who was sentence 17 years for a non-violent offense of crack cocaine. While Monica read the words of Telisha Watkins, a woman who took a plea deal for the mandatory minimum of 20 years for being part of a drug conspiracy.

Watch Pusha T's video above, and the rest below.

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Wells Fargo is facing a multimillion-dollar film-finance fraud lawsuit, capping off a 2016 of legal woes for the banking giant.

British financiers Vandermolen Film Co. and Bridgeworks Media Capital claim Wells Fargo employees conned them into funding bridge loans and they're owed at least $14 million, according to a complaint filed in Florida state court last week.

"Upon information and belief, the brazen and repeated acts of fraud, theft, conversion, and negligence on the part of the WELLS FARGO DEFENDANTS detailed in this Complaint are the result of systemic defects in the way the WELLS FARGO DEFENDANTS manage, train, supervise, hire, reward, and punish their employees," writes attorney Roy Altman in the complaint.

The suit notes that earlier this year Wells Fargo made headlines when it was revealed its employees had opened more than 2 million accounts that may not have been authorized by customers in order to meet sales goals. That resulted in $185 million in fines and a $5 million payout to customers.

Here, the financiers claim they were purposely misled into agreeing to participate in short-term loans to fund films and the defendants stole and diverted their money as part of an "extensive fraudulent enterprise."

It was supposed to work like this: The financiers would deposit funds worth half the budget for a film into a Wells Fargo account that would remain untouched until Forrest Capital, a purported film production financing and investment business, had deposited the other half from its own assets. Then, Wells Fargo would issue a line of credit for the full amount. Half of that credit would be used to pay back the financiers and the other half would be used as equity to finance the remaining cost of the film.

Vandermolen and Bridgeworks say they were assured that Wells Fargo had successfully funded many similar lines of credit with Forrest Capital, that Forrest had access to hundreds of millions in assets at Wells Fargo, and that their funds could not be withdrawn from the accounts without their express written consent.

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According to the complaint, none of those assurances were valid.

The suit names three individual bank employees as defendants: Benjamin Rafael, Hernan Bermudez and Paul Zoch. It also claims there have been no fewer than eight civil lawsuits related to similar schemes involving Forrest Capital - five of which named the Wells Fargo defendants in this complaint.

The financiers say they are owed more than $14 million in unpaid principal from five loans, plus interest, and are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

Wells Fargo declined to comment on the suit at this time.
Wes Anderson posted a video on Monday to formally announce the large voice cast for his upcoming animated movie Isle of Dogs.

The cast includes many of the usual suspects, as well as some unexpected names: Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, F. Murray Abraham, Harvey Keitel, Akira Ito, Akira Takayama, Koyu Rankin, Courtney B. Vance, Liev Schreiber and Yoko Ono round out the ensemble.

Isle of Dogs is Andersons first film since 2014s The Grand Budapest Hotel and his second foray into animation after 2009s Fantastic Mr. Fox. The directors video announced the cast, confirmed the title and included an appearance from Norton in the background.

Anderson gave a three-second sideways glimpse of Rex, the dog that Norton is voicing. The actor said in response, I think its terrific. Anderson did not reveal any of the plot details. Reports about the project began emerging late last year.

Production companies are Annapurna Pictures and Indian Paintbrush. The film has not yet been given a release date.

Andersons three-minute video also contains a fundraising pitch via a contest with proceeds going to the Film Foundation, Martin Scorseses film preservation organization. Anderson has teamed up with the Crowdrise platform for the contest. The winner will receive a trip to London to tour the set and voice a character. Entering the contest requires a $10 donation.

Watch Wes Andersons announcement below:

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Berlin Attack

The hunt continues for the person responsible for the deadly truck rampage that killed 12 people, and injured dozens on Monday. Authorities decided to release the suspect they original thought was responsible for the attack on Tuesday  citing insufficient evidence. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack and German police have now set their sights on a Tunisian male asylum seeker whom they believe is connected to the incident.

What challenges await Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel? Dont miss Making Money with Charles Payne, today at 6pm ET for expert insight and analysis.

Dow 20K Watch

The Dow is inching closer to the 20000 mark, breaking records along the way. With less than 100 points away, will today be the day? Tune in to Countdown to the Closing Bell, live from the New York Stock Exchange today at 3pm ET for the latest updates on all things Wall Street!

Paying Back Student Debt

If your Social Security check seems a little lighter as of late, dont worry, youre not crazy. According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, the federal government has been reducing peoples Social Security checks to pay back unpaid student debt leaving thousands of disabled and retired Americans in poverty. The report indicates an increasing number of baby boomers who retire with student debt, and over 100,000 people have had their Social Security benefits reduced in 2015 to offset the cost.

Fox Business Reporter Peter Barnes breaks it all down, live from the DC Bureau.

Firework Explosion

A large open air fire market exploded Tuesday in Mexico, killing 12 people and injuring many more. Mexico suffered a similar tragedy at the same location in 2005.

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The Christmas Day weather forecast has become hot topic among people as they are looking forward to seeing snow covered areas because of the early arrival of the Polar Vortex. However, a White Christmas may not be likely this year.

Meteorologists define a White Christmas as having at least one inch of snow on the ground Christmas morning, and it does not have to be snowing on the holiday. Weather forecasts reportedly suggest that there will be an above-average warmth build across much of the nation by Christmas day.

After a frigid couple of weeks across the eastern half of the U.S., a shift in the pattern is anticipated this week and into the upcoming holiday weekend, AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Rossio said, adding that parts of the central and northern Plains will reach their highest temperatures since early December by Wednesday.

However, it will still remain cold enough in much of the western mountains, northern Plains, Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and interior sections of the Northeast to retain snow cover through the weekend, making it a White Christmas for those areas, the Weather Channel said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Amy Seeley pointed at areas most likely to show bare ground on the morning of Dec. 25.

Obviously, areas south of I-80 (who haven't had as much snow), have a better chance of not seeing a White Christmas. Snow depth in those areas are maybe around 3 inches, and I think those could be melted," she said.

Seeley also said that areas north of I-80, including downtown Chicago, have received heavier snowfall in the last few weeks, increases chances for these locations to keep snow on the ground during the forecasted warm up and until the holiday.

The area really in question is north of I-80, and specifically north of I-88. Snow depths in those areas range anywhere from 3-9 inches. While temperatures will be slightly above normal, the real melting may be on Christmas Day, so it could start out white on that day," she said.

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North Dakota, Wisconsin and the upper parts of Michigan and New York seem to have the best odds of seeing measurable snow on Christmas. However, neighborhoods that start with a White Christmas may not end with one due to warmer temperatures and forecasted rain.

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The robots arent coming to take our jobs...at least not all of them. But a new report from the White House warns that unless the U.S. is smart about preparing for a future in which many, many more jobs are automated, the country runs the risk of a severely unequal distribution of the benefits from the increased efficiency that automation brings.

To a great degree, automation has already had a dramatic effect on the U.S. labor market. Political rhetoric aside, manufacturing output in the United States is at historic highs. But automation of many factory processes has made it possible to increase output with fewer workers.

Related: The Robot Revolution Could Wipe Out 5.1 Million Jobs by 2020

The report, a combined effort by the Council of Economic Advisers, the National Economic Council, the Domestic Policy Council, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Chief Technology Officer, says that further automation is not only going to continue, but advances in artificial intelligence (AI) make it likely that it will accelerate in coming years.

These transformations will open up new opportunities for individuals, the economy, and society, but they have the potential to disrupt the current livelihoods of millions of Americans, the report finds.

Citing a recent CEA report, the authors note, there is growing concern about a general reduction in competition among firms for workers and a commensurate shift in the balance of bargaining power toward employers. Market concentration resulting from the development of AI has the potential to worsen these trends. A displacement of workers from industries being disrupted by AI-driven automation would also create slack in the labor market in the short to medium-run, which is likely to depress wages.

The report calls for a strong policy response to assure that workers are able to share in the economic growth that results from increased automation. That would include strengthening the social safety net and empowering labor unions in negotiations with employers. (Both steps that would be extremely difficult to achieve in the current political environment.)

Story continues

Related: Robots Muscle in on the Gig Economy

Overall, the White House report advocates a three-pronged approach to preparing for a future remade by AI that includes aggressive investment in the very research and technology that is expected to disrupt the labor market.

If care is taken to responsibly maximize its development, AI will make important, positive contributions to aggregate productivity growth, and advances in AI technology hold incredible potential to help the United States stay on the cutting edge of innovation, the report finds. Government has an important role to play in advancing the AI field by investing in research and development.

Automation

Alongside investment in research and development, the report suggests, the country should also prioritize education and training that prepares workers for a world in which simple tasks are increasing automated, making educational achievement vital to employment prospects. For example, the report estimates that more than 80 percent of jobs that currently paid an average of $20 or less per hour in 2010 are likely to be automated in the future.

As AI changes the nature of work and the skills demanded by the labor market, American workers will need to be prepared with the education and training that can help them continue to succeed, the report finds. Delivering this education and training will require significant investments.

Related: Will the US Unleash an Army of Killer Robots? Ask Clinton or Trump

The report calls for funding of robust educational programs from childhood on, so that all families can prepare their students for continued education, as well as investing in graduating all students from high school college- and career-ready, and ensuring that all Americans have access to affordable post-secondary education.

Finally, the report recognizes that increasing automation will inevitably lead to disruption, particularly for low-skilled people already in the workforce. This will require, among other things, modernizing the social safety net, including unemployment insurance, Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

The authors of the report take a hopeful stance toward the ability of public policy to address the most disruptive effects of increasing automation.

Technology is not destiny; economic incentives and public policy can play a significant role in shaping the direction and effects of technological change. Given appropriate attention and the right policy and institutional responses, advanced automation can be compatible with productivity, high levels of employment, and more broadly shared prosperity.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Clergy are worried that they may face penalties. (Photo: Getty Images)

On Dec. 12, 2016, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a suit challenging a component of a Florida law set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2017, that would require any person or organization that advises a person seeking an abortion to provide state-mandated information about abortions, to have all persons providing such counsel to register with the state and face criminal penalties for failing to do so, and to inform the parents of any minor seeking their counsel (which would break with current Florida legal precedent).



Six of the plaintiffs in the ACLU suit are clergy members  three rabbis and three ministers  who claim that the law, passed as part of the H.B. 1411 anti-abortion legislative package signed by Gov. Rick Scott in May, violates their First Amendment rights to freedom of religion, as well as their First Amendment claims to free speech.

Nancy Abudu, the director of legal operations at the ACLU of Florida, tells Yahoo Beauty that this law being challenged within H.B. 1411 isnt so unlike many of its counterparts in other states; for example, Ohio Governor John Kasich just signed a 20-week abortion ban in his state last week.

Nancy Abudu, the director of legal operations at the ACLU of Florida, tells Yahoo Beauty that the clergy plaintiffs in their suit are all individuals who, as part of their responsibility to their congregants, might enter into situations in which they provide counseling to someone who might, for any reason, be thinking about terminating a pregnancy. Given the way the law is written, she explains, a strict reading of the statute could be interpreted to mean that the counseling services clergy regularly provide would be directly impacted by the law  making all religious leaders who provide counsel potentially liable for criminal charges.

She adds, however, that the claims brought forward in the Florida suit are somewhat unique in that they represent a First Amendment challenge to such abortion restrictions.

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This is an effort to target and prohibit the way abortion is accessed  by making this not about the women seeking abortion, but those from whom they seek counsel, says Abudu. This is about putting pressure on those who provide information to women, that in turn results in a real impact on the way women can then exercise their rights.

Often women who are part of a religion who are faced with these kinds of decisions look to their faith leaders for guidance, Abudu says. And now those leaders are facing threats for helping their own members.

Abudu explains that the component of H.B. 1411 being challenged in the suit only targets those who provide information about termination of a pregnancy. It is not geared toward those who dissuade the people they counsel from termination or fail to counsel them about termination as an option, as is the case with the crisis pregnancy centers that exist throughout the state.

The new law would run counter to existing Florida law, which stipulates clearly that if a teen is pregnant and is able to establish for the court that it would be harmful for her to inform her parents of her pregnancy, she can gain a judicial bypass absolving her of the mandatory notification of her parents or guardians before she can terminate a pregnancy. H.B. 1411, however, runs in direct opposition to the law already on the books, requiring without exception that anyone who provides a minor counsel about termination also inform the minors parents.

Rabbi Gayle Pomerantz has been a rabbi at Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach since 1994; her colleague, Rabbi Gary A. Glickstein, is one of the plaintiffs in the ACLU suit.

There is precedent in Jewish law that the mothers life takes precedence over the fetus, Pomerantz tells Yahoo Beauty. We feel that we are able to counsel people in situations where the mothers life is endangered, whether that be to her mental or physical health. She has the foundation of her faith behind her in making that difficult choice.

As such, Pomerantz adds that H.B. 1411s requirement for those who provide counseling about termination of a pregnancy infringes on the sacred relationship between clergy and congregant, and could restructure the way we could counsel somebody. She explains that this would particularly influence the requirement that they notify a parent whose minor child is seeking them out for counsel, even in cases where we knew that a parent might be abusing a child or might potentially harm a child if they had this knowledge.

Pomerantz says that she is concerned that the component of H.B. 1411 being challenged in the ACLU suit, puts the synagogue or church in a very compromising situation. If we have to advertise that we are counselors on this kind of issue, it puts us at risk for further hate crimes that it feels like the whole country is feeling more vulnerable to right now. And for us to be providers of medical information that we have little to no knowledge of  it really compromises our ability to act as the kinds of advisers and spiritual counselors we are meant to be. Someone is not coming to their rabbi or priest for medical information. They are coming to us because they are seeking counsel for a spiritual issue they have to face. Its unreasonable that a clergy person would advise someone about a medical procedure versus a spiritual decision.  We really view the sacred space in which we meet people as just that  sacred and intimate. There is not a place for us to be pressured into disseminating information that is not a part of what we have been trained to do. Pomerantz added that this would corrupt the relationship between a congregant and their rabbi, diluting the sense of confidentiality and trust that exist between a rabbi and their congregants.

Says Pomerantz, As a person of faith, I really see this very difficult decision [about terminating a pregnancy] as a decision between a person, possibly her partner, and with God  the state doesnt have a place in making this decision. I feel that womens rights are being chipped away at. It is very frightening. Its often the more right-wing, faith-based faith leaders whose voices are heard. I think its really important that progressive voices are also heard, and that we dont allow the far-right leaders to co-opt the conversation. We also have a voice  and we will also make it heard.

Lets keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
- By Sangara Narayanan





NVIDIA's (NVDA) revenue has grown at such a rapid pace in the last three quarters that its stock price has more than tripled during that time. The pace of growth has been so furious that valuation multiples have skyrocketed.

There are several reasons why NVIDIA will be able continue its revenue acceleration for the next several quarters so let's take a closer look at the company's data center segment, which looks all set to threaten the No. 1 revenue-earning position enjoyed by NVIDIA's gaming segment.





In the last eight quarters NVIDIA's lead earner nearly doubled its revenues while the data center segment nearly tripled its revenues. Being a newer segment and smaller in size, it's understandable that growth will be faster.

That doesn't mean gaming revenue growth is slowing down. It has been a long-time breadwinner for the company and a more mature market as well. But it still grew on the back of Pascal-based GPUs, accelerating growth to 63.45% in the third quarter over the prior period. Second-quarter growth was a mere 18.33% over the prior period.

Though the segment's above-50% growth rate might continue for some more time, it will be difficult to sustain that kind of top-line growth over a long period of time. Nevertheless, the company's leading position in the gaming market will provide it enough room to keep things moving at a rapid pace.

The growth in the data center segment is even more aggressive, driven by NVIDIA's GPUs that address artificial intelligence, hyperscale supercomputing and the cloud industry as a whole.

Leading cloud companies such as Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and IBM (IBM) have been watching their cloud revenues grow above 50% for the last several quarters. Microsoft wants to hit $18 billion in cloud revenue in the next few years, nearly double its commercial cloud revenues from last year. Clearly, this segment is growing fast and will continue that momentum for the next few years at the very least.

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NVIDIA's list of hyperscale and AI clients is long - Facebook (FB), Microsoft, Amazon, Alibaba (BABA), Baidu (BIDU), etc. - underscoring the company's lead in the segment over its competitors. Intel (INTC) recently made it clear that it wants to compete in the AI segment but may be several years away from challenging NVIDIA.

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"Cloud GPU computing has shown explosive growth. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and AliCloud are deploying NVIDIA GPUs for AI, data analytics and HPC. AWS has recently announced its new EC2 P2 instance, which scales up to 16 GPUs to accelerate a wide range of AI applications, including image and video recognition, unstructured data analytics and video transcoding." - NVIDIA third-quarter earnings







AI and cloud computing are inseparable, feeding off each other's growth in a cyclical manner. As the push for AI heats up, it drives more demand for hyperscale computing. Conversely, the rapid expansion of data center presence by the world's top cloud companies provides the infrastructure necessary to drive growth in AI.

"NVIDIA GPU is accelerating progress in AI. As neural nets become larger and larger, we not only need faster GPUs with larger and faster memory but also much faster GPU-to-GPU communication as well as hardware that can take advantage of reduced-precision arithmetic. This is precisely what Pascal delivers," said Yann LeCun, director of AI Research at Facebook.

According to a Tractica forecast, AI revenue worldwide will grow from the current $643.7 million this year to $38.8 billion by 2025.

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With no clear competition for NVIDIA in this segment, the company is poised to take significant market share before other companies get ready, thus providing enough runway for NVIDIA to keep its data center segment revenues growing for the next several quarters, if not several years.

But investors need to stay away from the company for some more time and allow things to cool off before jumping in. NVIDIA is already trading above nine times sales, pricing in most of the future growth and leaving no margin for error.

Disclosure: I have no positions in the stock mentioned above and no intention to initiate a position in the next 72 hours.

Start a free seven-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.










Wine consumption continues to rise in the U.S. every year, with retail values reaching upward of $55.8 billion in 2015. Recent projections show that the wine industry will continue to grow this year, according the statistics from the Wine Institute.

But the problem for some drinkers is they find themselves having that wine headache or other type of allergies after drinking it. Some researchers say thats due, in part, to the extra sulfites that winemakers are adding to the drink for storage purposes.

Wine makers will add up to a hundredfold more sulfites artificially. These are completely synthetically derived chemicals, James Kornacki, founder of Ullo, a wine-purifying system designed to remove sulfites, told FOXBusiness.com.

The FDA estimates that 1% of the U.S. population has a sulfite allergy. Kornacki says its the man-made ones that are causing drinkers the most problems, not the naturally occurring ones that are developed during the fermentation process.

The problem with those sulfites is that they cause a lot of reactions in people and they are known to be toxic and they taste really, really bad as well, he added.

Kornacki, a scientist, founded his Chicago-based startup, Ullo, because both he and his aunt suffered from sulfite allergies. He hopes his new wine-purifying device will be the solution for wine lovers who have similar issues.

It takes the sulfites right out of the wine and its the first product to do that, he said. What enables this product is the select sulfite-capture technology that I developed which treats sulfites more as like something that can be pulled out with a magnet.

He said the biggest challenge was finding a way to remove the sulfites and nothing elseand making sure the wine did not lose its flavor.

We dont screw up the wine chemistry, he said. Wine is one of the most complex beverages that we know ofthere are about 1,000 compounds in there.

Ullo costs around $80 per device and $3 per filter, which needs to be replaced each time it is used. Retailers like Bloomingdales and Brookstone started selling the product after it entered the market in 2014.

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The companys kickstarter campaign, which launched last year, has helped it raise over $150,000 and really helped it gain market validation, according to Kornacki.

The Wine Institute, a public policy advocacy association of California wineries, declined to discuss the new technology to FOXBusiness.com. But the group did say that sulfites have been an integral part of winemaking throughout the world for centuries.

A small percentage of the population, mainly people who are highly asthmatic (about 5 percent of all asthmatics), may have an allergic reaction to sulfites in wine and other food products, such as fish, cheese and fruit concentrates, the Wine Institute said.

Sulfites have been a hot-button issue for a lot of Americans since the FDA identified them as an allergen in 1986, following a rash of asthma cases reported around that time. Sulfites were banned from raw fruits and vegetables, and a warning label was added to the back of wine labels if sulfites were found to be above natural levels. Natural levels are about 10 to 20 parts-per-million threshold. Currently, federal regulations permit up to 350 parts per million of sulfites in wine.

Organic wines are also another good option for consumers who need to avoid the extra chemicals. But wine experts say that problem with them is that without sulfites do they not age properly.

In the 1990s, Cornelius Ough, a former professor at the University of California at Davis and author of Winemaking Basics, concluded after years of research that wine made with added sulfites is far more superior in taste, color and stability than wine without it.

Kornacki said he continues to fight against a lot of skepticism.

Were not demonizing sulfites, we understand and respect their use, he said. Once wine makers understand that, this product will really expand their market.

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Some witnesses in the pending trial for real estate heir and alleged murderer Robert Durst are concerned about their safety, a Los Angeles prosecutor said Wednesday during a hearing.

Los Angeles County Deputy District attorney John Lewin told a judge he was worried about the safety of the witnesses because of three deaths allegedly linked to Durst.

Two of the three were murdered because they are witnesses, alleged Lewin.

Citing Dursts purported financial resources, Lewin added, Witnesses are concerned about their safety.

Defense attorney David Chesnoff scoffed at Lewins statement, pointing to Dursts frail health.

Suggesting somehow that a man in a wheelchair is somehow a threat  is just hyperbole, Chesnoff said.

Durst is charged in the December 2000 death of friend Susan Berman. Prosecutors believe Durst killed her because she knew too much about the 1982 disappearance of Dursts first wife, Kathleen, whose body has never been found.

In 2001, Durst admitted he killed his Texas neighbor, Morris Black, but he claimed self-defense. He was later acquitted for the decapitation killing.

Lewin told the judge that he wanted to interview two witnesses  an elderly man and a secret witness  in February before the preliminary hearing.

 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.

Also, during the hearing, the judge allowed a special master to determine whether any papers seized by authorities after Dursts arrest were subject to attorney-client privilege.

Some of the papers seized were examined by filmmaker Andrew Jarecki for the HBO documentary, The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.

During a police interview with Durst, Lewin said he was surprised that Durst allowed the filmmakers full access to his files, which included documents between him and his attorneys.

 Pick up PEOPLEs special edition True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America, on sale now, for the latest on Casey Anthony, JonBenet Ramsey and more.

I was trying to be-and I just figured-and-and the way they made All Good Things, it made me a sympathetic person, as opposed to a super-aggressive person  which is pretty much correct, Durst said during the police interview.

Story continues

He added, That they would see me as an acceptable human being, as opposed to all of this other stuff. And that I couldnt get them to see me as an acceptable human being if I was covering things up.

During the police interview, Durst also said he was high on meth while filming The Jinx and said doctors told him he will likely only live five more years.




Photo credit: Instagram

From Cosmopolitan

A woman was killed and five others were injured when a large eucalyptus tree fell on a wedding party taking photographs at a Southern California park Saturday, authorities said.

Several people were trapped under the tree at Whittier's Penn Park, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.

Video from the scene showed fire crews using chain saws to cut through the downed branches.

Four of the injured suffered scrapes and bruises, officials said. A 4-year-old girl was listed in critical condition due to head trauma, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Witnesses described hearing a loud crack and seeing people run from the area.

The tree could have been weakened by California's ongoing drought and recent heavy rain could have contributed to its fall, officials said.

An arborist will assess the area Sunday, officials said.

Update 12/19, 11:00 p.m.: A relative has confirmed Monday that the woman killed by a falling tree during a wedding party in Whittier's Penn Park was 61-year-old Margarita Mojarro, the mother of the bride.

Coroner IDs woman killed by a falling tree in #Whittier as 61-y/o Margarita Mojarro. Friends say she was mother of the bride. 11:30 on @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/mtNUIVBgBe - Chelsea Edwards (@abc7chelsea) December 19, 2016

Margaritas daughters loved their mom so much, they were always calling her and she was always there to help with anything, the woman's son-in-law, Guadalupe Cuevas, told People. She was a very supportive mother, friend and neighbor.

Since the incident occurred, the park has been closed until officials can determine if it is safe for visitors and no other trees are at risk of falling.

Related:

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android.

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Arbil (Iraq) (AFP) - Mohammed Abdulrazzaq was gathering water in Mosul when shrapnel tore into his legs, making him one of a growing number of wounded from the battleground Iraqi city putting huge strains on hospitals.

Iraqi forces launched a massive operation on October 17 to recapture Mosul, the country's last city held by the Islamic State group, and while they have advanced into its east, large parts remain under jihadist control.

Abdulrazzaq said his arms were loaded with jerry cans of water when the shellfire struck with "a huge boom" that left him deaf in one ear.

He then "saw the blood squirt" from his legs.

His legs covered in bandages, Abdulrazzaq is now hospitalised in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region that is located around 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Mosul.

"There, it is a terrible street war," said the bearded 43-year-old.

At the hospital, "every day, I see dozens of wounded arrive. We are already being crammed in and there will be many more," he said.

- 'They are not humans' -

His wife, five children and 80-year-old mother are still in Mosul, where IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the group's cross-border "caliphate" in 2014.

Saddam Georgis, who was also wounded by shelling in Mosul, lived for two weeks in an area "liberated" from IS's brutal rule.

Like others he welcomed the arrival of Iraqi forces in the city's Al-Alam district.

But while the jihadists had been pushed out of the area, it was still within range of their mortar rounds.

"They are not humans, not Muslims, they strike civilians, aim at houses," the 45-year-old said from intensive care.

Georgis remembers the sound of the explosion and the shock of the shrapnel -- "like a stone that hit me in the thigh" -- the spurting blood, being transported on a makeshift cart.

After that, he recalls nothing until he woke up in hospital.

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"I don't even know if my four children were able to reach relatives in Mosul," he said, his wife sitting at his bedside.

Zainab, a 10-year-old girl, was also hit in the legs by shrapnel, as was her two-and-a-half-year-old sister.

"Our neighbourhood has been liberated but the firing continues," their mother said.

- Looming 'disaster' -

Human Rights Watch has said that IS is "indiscriminately" attacking Mosul residents who refused to retreat when it did, and that Iraqi and US-led coalition forces are also putting civilians in danger.

"Residents said (IS) members told them in person, by radio, and over mosque loudspeakers that those who stayed behind were 'unbelievers' and therefore valid targets along with the Iraqi and coalition forces," the rights group said.

The hospital where Zainab, her sister and the two men are being treated is facing a wave of patients, said Rauf Karim, its head nurse.

"Some days we receive 25 new patients, others more than 30," including children, Karim said.

The growing number of wounded adds to "several crises" already burdening the medical sector in Kurdistan, said Saman Barzanji, the head of the Arbil health department.

It has already had to contend with the arrival of large numbers of people displaced by the war with IS as well as wounded members of the Kurdish security forces, all while the region faces major economic challenges.

"Our operating rooms are facing severe shortages of instruments and equipment," he said, adding: "This is a crisis and soon we could have a disaster."

"How long can we hold on?"
GENEVA/OTTAWA (Reuters) - A dispute panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO) largely ruled in favor of Taiwan on Wednesday on its complaint over anti-dumping duties imposed by Canada on some of its steel goods. The ruling, related to certain carbon steel welded pipes and certain provisions of Canada's underlying legislation, found that Canada had contravened WTO's Anti-Dumping Agreement but that Taiwan had failed to establish some points. Canada slapped duties on some imports of carbon steel welded pipes from Taiwan in 2012 and Taiwan brought the complaint to the WTO in Jan 2015. The annual value of Taiwan's exports of carbon steel welded pipes to Canada dropped from around $19 million before the anti-dumping duties were imposed to around $5 million, Taiwan officials said at the time of the filing. A spokesman for Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada will review the decision before deciding whether to appeal. Both sides have 60 days to decide whether to appeal any of the panel's findings. "Canada takes its WTO trade obligations seriously and is also committed to maintaining a strong trade remedy system," spokesman Alex Lawrence said in an email. The panel found that Canada acted inconsistently with certain obligations under the WTO and recommended that Canada bring its measures into conformity. Joseph Galimberti, president of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, said the group is "disappointed but not surprised" by the ruling. Galimberti said the impact of the decision on Canada's steel industry is not hugely significant but declined to quantify the impact. The group's member companies produce about 13 million tonnes of primary steel as well as over 1 million tonnes of steel pipe and tube products annually, for sales of about $4 billion. "We would not want speculate on an amount of business on which Canadian companies could conceivably lose out or how market shares would shift as a result of the ruling," Galimberti said in an email. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Leah Schnurr in Ottawa; Editing by Toby Chopra and Chizu Nomiyama)
WWE Network

Tonight, on the With Spandex WWE Smackdown Live open discussion thread for December 20, 2016:

Tonight, Luke Harper will look to unleash his dark brand of retribution into The Ambrose Asylum. Plus, following the injury that Zack Ryder suffered in the No. 1 Contenders Battle Royal last week, dont miss a Wild Card Triple Threat Match to determine the new No. 1 contenders to The Wyatt Family.  via WWE.com

Our five-point preview:

1. Once again, Luke Harper is getting a big showcase singles match. Granted, hes just going to lose to greasy ol Dean Ambrose, but its definitely nice that hes a more-or-less upper-card guy now. Turns out being super talented and associated with some of the characters that get the most television time can pay off!

2. After Zack Ryders very unfortunate knee injury last week, were in need of new No. 1 tag team contenders all over again, so were getting a Wild Card Triple Threat Match, which I can only assume will feature the Birds of War from Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. WILD CARD!

3. Yes, we still dont know who attacked Nikki Bella. Yes, apparently were still supposed to care. Its like every week theyre making the intrigue less and less intriguing. Eventually, Jim Duggan is just going to find this storyline while going through the trash, and well never speak of it again.

4. Our special guest this week is Ryan Phillippe, who is literally the star of USA Networks Shooter, a totally decent Mark Wahlberg movie thats now our generations Renegade. (I assume. I havent watched it, but I hear that characters are welcome, so it has that going for it.)

5. Its supposedly set to happen tonight, but at this point, we can just assume that James Ellsworth is never getting that title match against AJ Styles. Im just going to believe this is in order to keep Ellsworth fresh to be Undertakers opponent at WrestleMania 33, where he becomes the No. 2 behind the 2 in 23 and 2.

Also happening tonight is the hot new show dedicated entirely to cruiserweights, 205 Live:

Tonight on WWE 205 Live, Neville teams with The Brian Kendrick to battle WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann and TJ Perkins.  Via WWE.com

Feel free to use this as your one-stop party shop for Tuesday night wrestling shenanigans, an
By Joseph Menn

(Reuters) - Yahoo Inc's secret scanning of customer emails at the behest of a U.S. spy agency is part of a growing push by officials to loosen constitutional protections Americans have against arbitrary governmental searches, according to legal documents and people briefed on closed court hearings.

The order on Yahoo from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) last year resulted from the government's drive to change decades of interpretation of the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment right of people to be secure against "unreasonable searches and seizures," intelligence officials and others familiar with the strategy told Reuters.

The unifying idea, they said, is to move the focus of U.S. courts away from what makes something a distinct search and toward what is "reasonable" overall.

The basis of the argument for change is that people are making much more digital data available about themselves to businesses, and that data can contain clues that would lead to authorities disrupting attacks in the United States or on U.S. interests abroad.

While it might technically count as a search if an automated program trawls through all the data, the thinking goes, there is no unreasonable harm unless a human being looks at the result of that search and orders more intrusive measures or an arrest, which even then could be reasonable.

Civil liberties groups and some other legal experts said the attempt to expand the ability of law enforcement agencies and intelligence services to sift through vast amounts of online data, in some cases without a court order, was in conflict with the Fourth Amendment because many innocent messages are included in the initial sweep.

"A lot of it is unrecognizable from a Fourth Amendment perspective," said Orin Kerr, a former federal prosecutor and Georgetown University Law School expert on surveillance. "It's not where the traditional Fourth Amendment law is."

But the general counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Robert Litt, said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday that the legal interpretation needed to be adjusted because of technological changes.

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"Computerized scanning of communications in the same way that your email service provider scans looking for viruses - that should not be considered a search requiring a warrant for Fourth Amendment purposes," said Litt. He said he is leaving his post on Dec. 31 as the end of President Barack Obama's administration nears.

DIGITAL SIGNATURE

Reuters was unable to determine what data, if any, was handed over by Yahoo after its live email search. The search was first reported by Reuters on Oct. 4. Yahoo and the National Security Agency (NSA) declined to explain the basis for the order.

The surveillance court, whose members are appointed by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, oversees and approves the domestic pursuit of intelligence about foreign powers. While details of the Yahoo search are classified, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters it was aimed at isolating a digital signature for a single person or small team working for a foreign government frequently at odds with America.

The ODNI is expected to disclose as soon as next month an estimated number of Americans whose electronic communications have been caught up in online surveillance programs intended for foreigners, U.S. lawmakers said.

The ODNI's expected disclosure is unlikely to cover such orders as the one to Yahoo but would encompass those under a different surveillance authority called section 702. That section allows the operation of two internet search programs, Prism and "upstream" collection, that were revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden more than three years ago. Prism gathers the messaging data of targets from Alphabet Inc's Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple among others.

Upstream surveillance allows the NSA to copy web traffic to search data for certain terms called "selectors," such as email addresses, that are contained in the body of messages. ODNI's Litt said ordinary words are not used as selectors.

The Fourth Amendment applies to the search and seizure of electronic devices as much as ordinary papers. Wiretaps and other surveillance in the internet age are now subject to litigation across the United States. But in the FISC, with rare exceptions, the judges hear only from the executive branch.

Their rulings have been appealed only three times, each time going to a review board. Only the government is permitted to appeal from there, and so far it has never felt the need.

PUBLIC LEGAL CHALLENGES

The FISCs reasoning, though, is heading into public courts. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Dec. 5 cited FISC precedents in rejecting an appeal of an Oregon man who was convicted of plotting to bomb a Christmas tree lighting ceremony after his emails were collected in another investigation.

Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are fighting the expansion of legalized surveillance in Congress and in courts.

On Dec. 8, the ACLU argued in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a lawsuit by Wikipedias parent group against the NSA should not have been dismissed by a lower court, which ruled that the nonprofit could not show it had been snooped on and that the government could keep details of the program secret.

The concerns of civil libertarians and others have been heightened by President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of conservative Representative Mike Pompeo of Kansas to be director of the CIA. Pompeo, writing in the Wall Street Journal in January, advocated expanding bulk collection of telephone calling records in pursuit of Islamic State and its sympathizers who could plan attacks on Americans. Pompeo said the records could be combined with "publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a comprehensive, searchable database."

Yahoo's search went far beyond what would be required to monitor a single email account. The company agreed to create and then conceal a special program on its email servers that would check all correspondence for a specific string of bits.

Trawling for selectors is known as "about" searching, when content is collected because it is about something of interest rather than because it was sent or received by an established target. It is frequently used by the NSA in its bulk upstream collection of international telecom traffic.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an appointed panel established by Congress as part of its post-9/11 expansion of intelligence authority, reported in 2014 that "about" searches "push the program close to the line of constitutional reasonableness."

A glimpse of the new legal arguments came in a FISC proceeding last year held to review NSA and FBI annual surveillance targets and four sets of procedures for limiting the spread of information about Americans.

Judge Thomas Hogan appointed Amy Jeffress, an attorney at Arnold and Porter and a former national security prosecutor, to weigh in, the first time that court had asked an outside privacy expert for advice before making a decision.

Jeffress argued each search aimed at an American should be tested against the Fourth Amendment, while prosecutors said that only overall searching practice had to be evaluated for "reasonableness." Hogan agreed with the government, ruling that even though the Fourth Amendment was all but waived in the initial data gathering because foreigners were the targets, the voluminous data incidentally gathered on Americans could also be used to investigate drug deals or robberies.

"While they are targeting foreign intelligence information, they are collecting broader information, and there needs to be strong protections for how that information is used apart from national security," Jeffress told Reuters.

ODNI's Litt wrote in a February Yale Law Review article that the new approach was appropriate, in part because so much personal data is willingly shared by consumers with technology companies. Litt advocated for courts to evaluate "reasonableness" by looking at the entirety of the government's activity, including the degree of transparency.

Litt told Reuters that he did not mean, however, that the same techniques in "about" searches should be pushed toward the more targeted searches at email providers such as Yahoo.

Although speaking generally, he said: "My own personal approach to this is you should trade off broader collection authority for stricter use authority," so that more is taken in but less is acted upon.

This position strikes some academics and participants in the process as a remarkable departure from what the highest legal authority in the land was thinking just two years ago.

That was when the Supreme Court's Roberts wrote for a majority in declaring that mobile phones usually could not be searched without warrants.

After prosecutors said they had protocols in place to protect phone privacy, Roberts wrote: "Probably a good idea, but the Founders did not fight a revolution to gain the right to government agency protocols."

With little evidence that the Supreme Court agrees with the surveillance court, it remains possible it would reverse the trend. But a case would first need to make its way up there.

(Reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco; additional reporting by Dustin Volz, Mark Hosenball and John Walcott in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Grant McCool)
Via Tidal

After a slight delay, Dec 99th, the duo formed by Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, and artist Ferrari Sheppard, has finally released their new LP, December 99th, or everyones listening pleasure.

December 99th was created while Bey was detained in South Africa for the past several months before finally being granted permission to leave the country under the condition that he never return. The whole ordeal began when he reportedly tried to enter South Africa using a false travel document.

The album was originally announced as a December 9th release but was temporarily delayed and includes track like N.A.W. and Seaside Panic Room that popped up online over the past year.

December 99ths arrival comes as Bey is set to appear at the world famous Apollo Theater on Thursday, December 22nd with the show being livestreamed exclusively on Tidal. The show will be one of his final performances after he recently announced his decision to retire from performing. For his return to New York, Beys expected to perform material off his past and upcoming albums as well bringing a few special guests with him.

Tidal subscribers can listen to the full project right now while members and non-members alike can stream Blade in the Pocket for free below.
Rooster papercut, year of the rooster, year of the chicken, 2017

Heres to new beginnings in 2017, which will be the Year of the Rooster. With the Chinese New Year falling on 28 Jan, Chinese astrology has suggested that the new year bodes well for those born in the year of the Horse and Ox.

Read on to find out what 2017 has in store for your Chinese zodiac sign.

Rat

Montage of the Chinese year of the Rat

Career-wise, your luck is pretty good. Plenty of opportunities will come your way, and youll meet people who are happy to help you. However, your money sign is weak, so dont invest in risky stocks or lend money to others. 2017 will be a slow year when it comes to social activities and relationships. Try to make an effort to maintain relationships and go out regularly to bring in good fortune.

Ox

Montage of the Chinese year of the Ox

Everything looks set to go smoothly in 2017, but avoid being close-minded and conservative. Stay clear of unrealistic goals and stressing yourself out too much. Your love life will experience an uptick. If youre single, youll meet a great match.

Tiger

Montage of the Chinese year of the Tiger

2017 will be a fruitful year for the Tiger, but youll need to spend time on cultivating these rewards. Make sure to set targets and seize the day. Pay attention to your health this year, especially your respiratory health.

Rabbit

Montage of the Chinese year of the Rabbit

The Rooster brings with it plenty of career opportunities for the Rabbit, but you should carefully assess your options before taking on a new job. Your hard work will reap good results in autumn, and you can take a rest after achieving your goals. However, your social relationships and love life may be a little dismal this year.

Dragon

Montage of the Chinese year of the Dragon

The new year bodes well for the love life of a Dragon  youll find a good and worthwhile partner. Focus on building a healthy long-term relationship with plenty of communication and compromise.

Snake

Montage of the Chinese year of the Snake

Its a good year for achieving fame, money, and success in your career, but your romantic relationships may not fare so well. Take good care of your health, especially your vision and respiratory system.

Horse

Montage of the Chinese year of the Horse

2017 is a fantastic year for the Horse who is willing to work hard, as fame, wealth, and career will come together. Take care not to become too competitive and argumentative as it will be drain your time and resources. People looking for love will find it only if they are willing to put in effort.

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Sheep

Montage of the Chinese year of the Sheep

Since youre versatile and talented, you will find good fortune come September. Before that, youll have to work hard towards your goal. Itll be worth it. Youre likely to have good luck in love this year, too!

Monkey

Montage of the Chinese year of the Monkey

While it may not be such a good year for your love life, youll get a big opportunity and plenty of good fortune. Keep your eyes on your goal and work towards it, particularly when it comes to your career.

Rooster

Montage of the Chinese year of the Rooster

Roosters tends to pursue perfection, which is generally great but be careful not to pressure yourself too much. Your financial luck will be good, but youll have to work for it. Dont lend money and be conservative when it comes to investments  the risk is not worth it. Your social life will get a boost as long as you are humble and polite.

Dog

Montage of the Chinese year of the Dog

The Year of the Rooster brings money-making opportunities to the Dog, but if youre already busy with your current work, its best not to try and bite off more than you can chew. Its best to take this year to rest and enjoy your life.

Pig

Montage of the Chinese year of the Pig

Youll come across plenty of potential opportunities, but be patient and consider the interests of others before you act. If you face any quarrels or conflict, its best to negotiate and compromise instead of trying to win.
New York (AFP) - A Yemeni-American YouTube star from New York, Adam Saleh, called for a boycott of Delta Airlines after charging he was removed from one of its flights on Wednesday for speaking Arabic.

Delta said he was asked to leave the London to New York flight on Wednesday morning following an unspecified "disturbance."

"We spoke a different language on the plane, and now we're getting kicked out," the 23-year-old prankster, who has more than 2.2 million YouTube followers, said in a video filmed as the incident unfolded, and posted on Twitter.

Saleh said he had been talking to his mother on the phone when fellow passengers complained, and he was told to leave.

"You guys are racists. I spoke a different language and you say you feel uncomfortable! I can't believe my eyes. We spoke a different language and now there are six white people against us bearded men."

Several passengers could be seen voicing their support for Saleh, with one calling out the airline staff in protest, but others at the rear of the aircraft seemed to approve, waving him off and saying "Good Bye."

After an hours-long delay involving more security checks, Saleh said he was finally able to board a flight to New York with a different airline -- and would head straight to see his lawyer.

Three hours after it was posted, Saleh's video had been retweeted more than 200,000 times, and the hashtag #BoycottDelta -- which he included in a subsequent tweet -- was trending on Twitter.

It was the latest of several cases in the past year in which passengers have run into trouble on American flights for speaking Arabic -- or in one case for writing mathematical equations that passengers mistook for Arabic.

In a statement on the incident, the airline said it was investigating allegations of discrimination.

"Two customers were removed from this flight and later rebooked after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort," it said.

"We're conducting a full review to understand what transpired. We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect."

Delta declined to provide further comment when contacted by AFP.
Photo credit: undefined

From Good Housekeeping

Calligraphy enthusiasts, rejoice: Cursive is officially making a comeback. Arizona is to become the first state with foundational writing standards, making cursive a curriculum-sanctioned area of study in public schools.

According to the state's recently amended College and Career Ready Standards - a revision to the federal Common Core - Arizona classrooms are expected to teach cursive through the fifth grade. At the third grade level, students are expected to read and write cursive letters in both upper and lower cases.

Time to start practicing those tricky Zs.

"This is a proud day for Arizona," Diane Douglas, state Superintendent of Public Instruction, told CBS News. Cursive is but a small part of Douglas' curriculum overhaul - teachers, parents and anti-Common Core experts (education specialists that seek to change federal education guidelines) were all consulted on the rewrite that altered standards on language arts and mathematics by 48% and 40% respectively.

Photo credit: undefined

Including cursive in school education requirements has been the subject of debate for quite some time now. For a while there, we thought the curly script was a goner.

In a digital day and age, parents and policy makers are looking beyond cursive to scrutinize handwriting as a whole. Do we need to focus on a child's handwriting if the majority of their written communication will be done electronically via keyboard?

Virginia Berninger, a professor at the University of Washington, has published copious research on the subject; she told the Washington Post that it's a "myth" that handwriting, cursive included, is dead. "That's not what our research is showing," she said. "What we found was that children until about grade six were writing more words, writing faster and expressing more ideas if they could use handwriting - printing or cursive - than if they used the keyboard."

Arguments for keeping cursive in schools' curricula include opinions that the style gives kids a better understanding of how words work together, wrote the Post. Cursive's constant flow - only picking up a pen to move on to another word - is thought to help propel kids' ideas in ways that typing or plain old print can't.

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Arizona isn't the only state to include cursive as a foundation to curriculum. North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, California, Georgia and Kansas have all fought (and won) to reinvigorate the dying style in schools, reported the Independent Journal Review.

Looks like it's time we refresh our memories - at least enough to remember how to connect a cursive "o" to an "n." All the cool school kids are doing it.

[h/t CBS News]

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By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lisk, the decentralized blockchain application platform based in Berlin, said on Wednesday it has opened its financial records to the public in the interest of transparency and to demonstrate to its thousands of investors its intent to make its project work. The company's founder and chief executive officer, Max Corden, said the disclosure of its books was made possible after it registered a foundation - the Lisk Foundation - in Zug, Switzerland to further grow and develop its business. The foundation will secure and administer funds for the Lisk project. As of Wednesday, the Lisk Foundation controlled approximately $10 million in bitcoins and Lisk tokens, which are the company's own crypto-currency. "We want to open our books to the public because we are a blockchain company," said Corden in an interview with Reuters. "I think the users and investors should have an insight into our financials. The books will show how the company is performing, how much the company is spending compared with its market cap." Blockchain technology refers to a ledger of transactions maintained by a network of computers on the internet without the need of a central counterparty. It has gained immense popularity worldwide because it is an immutable proof and record of all transactions across practically all industries. Opening the company's books meant that it is making its bitcoin and Lisk address public. Its Lisk address that contains current totals of its own tokens is 5726759782318848681L, while all their bitcoin are in this address: 3HsSR84zReeBt5fTMESWJ2y18pMo5gz2Sq. Corden said the company's finances this year will be disclosed before Jan. 1. In March, Lisk raised about 14,000 bitcoins in a novel financing scheme called an "initial coin offering." Under an ICO, start-ups operating in the blockchain space bypass traditional venture capital financing, generating capital by pre-selling their own crypto-currency even before their projects are developed. At the time of Lisk's coin sale, the bitcoin were worth about $8 million. With the surge in bitcoin, those 14,000 bitcoins are now estimated to be worth $10 million. On Wednesday, bitcoin hit a nearly three-year high of $830.01. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Alan Crosby)
Overall the British defence ministry as lost at least 1,000 government laptops, computers and USBs since May 2015 (AFP Photo/LOIC VENANCE) (AFP/File)

London (AFP) - Britain's defence ministry has lost more than 700 laptops and computers over 18 months, according to figures released on Wednesday.

A total of 759 laptops and computers were lost and an additional 32 were stolen between the May 2015 election and October 2016, records released by the Press Association show.

A further 328 CDs, DVDs and USBs were lost by the defence ministry over the same period, according to the data requested under Britain's Freedom of Information Act.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said information security is "a top priority" and all incidents of missing equipment are "thoroughly investigated".

"The MoD promotes a culture where security is the responsibility of all staff and personnel are required to report all security incidents. This can result in figures appearing higher than comparable organisations," a spokeswoman said.

Overall at least 1,000 government laptops, computers and USBs have been reported lost or stolen since May 2015.

The Department of Work and Pensions reported 42 missing encrypted laptops or computers and eight USBs up to August, saying most of the losses and thefts either ocurred during break-ins or while the user was travelling.

Other government departments to respond to the request include the Treasury, which recorded eight missing laptops, one of which was recovered, and one missing memory stick.

One ministry created less than six months ago by Prime Minister Theresa May -- the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy -- said six laptops have already been lost or stolen since July.

A further 49 laptops were recorded missing by other government departments, although the overall figure could be much higher as many ministries refused to release their figures.

They include the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health, which all claimed releasing such information would be useful to criminals.

Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, criticised their response: "The fact the Ministry of Defence felt able to answer makes it very implausible that these civilian departments cannot" do the same.
Galaxy S8 rumor season is in full swing, in spite of Samsungs efforts to contain leaks. A new report reveals that Samsung is looking to trademark a new type of feature: Beast Mode. Yes, this is serious, and given the companys efforts to trademark this particular name, its likely itll be found on its flagship devices, including next years Galaxy S8.

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Found by Dutch site GalaxyClub.nl, the application isnt very revealing, so we dont know exactly what Beast Mode will be. But its probably safe to assume that a phone will offer the best possible performance with Beast Mode enabled.

Beast Mode sounds like the opposite of the Battery Saving Mode found on Samsung phones and other Android devices. That probably means the phones processor will run at full power, which also means it may consume extra charge while in Beast Mode.

Samsungs Galaxy S8 is expected to come with more efficient chips. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 and a new Samsung Exynos chip should equip the Galaxy S8 versions next year, and theyre both built on 10nm process technology. Thats the same chip technology that Apple is believed to be using for next years iPhone 8.

That said, itll be interesting to see what this Beast Mode will look and feel like. Perhaps its what Samsung needs to beat the iPhone in performance tests next year. Historically, Samsungs Galaxy smartphones have never been able to outperform the iPhone. Will a Beast Mode change that, even if it sounds a little silly?

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In 2011, acclaimed tech writer Steven Levy published In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. The book not only chronicled Googles rise to tech dominance, but also provided readers with an unprecedented look at how the higher ups at Google think and operate. One of the more interesting and broader themes of the book is that Google is beholden to cold hard data and finely tuned algorithms.

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As applied to its ubiquitous search engine, Google remains steadfast in its belief that search results should be prioritized by its algorithm and its algorithm alone. This is all well and good, but its recently been brought to light that a number of hate-oriented websites have managed to game Googles algorithm such that the top search results to certain questions yield patently false web listings.

As a prominent example, if a user types in Did the Holocaust happen?, the top non-paid listing is from a White Supremacy Neo Nazi website, as evidenced via the photo below.

holocaust-google-search

While Google understandably claims that search is a reflection of the content that exists on the web, the issue above is particularly problematic because if Googles stated mission is to organize the worlds information, its failing miserably if its algorithm is structured such that it directs users to patently false information.

Another problem recently brought to the surface is that some Google queries autocomplete with hateful phrases. As an example, the phrases Are Jews and Are women were, up until recently, auto-completed with the word evil.

As the issue has picked up more traction in the press, Google now appears intent on figuring out how to address it.

The BBC reports that search engine expert Danny Sullivan recently met with Google to discuss the issue.

Im as horrified and disappointed by the results as many people are, he told the BBC.

However, he said Google  which processes five billion searches a day  was keen to come up with a solution that was broadly applicable across all searches, rather than just those that have been noticed by users. Its very easy to take a search here and there and demand Google change something, explained Mr Sullivan, and then the next day you find a different search and say, why didnt you fix that?'

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Writing on his own site, Sullivan added that Google is aiming to find solutions that are generally defensible, are rooted in policy and can be implemented through algorithms as much as possible.

For as much flack as Facebook seems to be getting for disseminating fake news, somehow Google is escaping criticism for directing users to hateful opinion sites masquerading as news sites.

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By Pak Yiu HONG KONG (Reuters) - Kung fu master Wong Yiu-Kau stands in a Hong Kong studio and waits as his black suit is covered head to toe in reflective markers to capture his every motion. The lights dim and Wong launches a flurry of hand strikes, blocks and leg moves as two directors watch his movements displayed on computer screens. The 56-year-old kung fu master is part of the world's first three-dimensional martial arts archive, a project that hopes to digitally preserve a tradition that experts fear is at risk of being lost forever. "When I was a student, I was taught the moves and given a manual to just read. Now there is this where it's recorded and preserved with precision," said Wong, a master of the Southern Dragon style of kung fu. There are hundreds of differing fight styles classed as kung fu, which soared in popularity globally following a series of films featuring U.S.-born and Hong Kong-raised actor Bruce Lee, who died in 1973. But as kung fu's popularity waned in recent years, practitioners worried about passing the martial arts form to future generations. The 3D project, known as the Hong Kong Martial Arts Living Archive, aims to capture and preserve more than 400 different kung fu styles. About 50 have been recorded so far. "Hong Kong is a very important city in the Chinese martial arts world," said Hing Chao, executive director of the Hong Kong Guoshu Association, a martial arts group working on the project with Hong Kong's City University. "It has protected the resources and so far managed to preserve the different types of martial arts, but today, there are fewer people passing this tradition on," Chao said. Project organizers say the 3D archive will not only preserve a discipline central to Hong Kong's heritage, it also offers newcomers a more easily accessible visual learning experience. "We can have a richer content of kung fu styles," said Lau Chi Fung, the project's technical director. (Editing by Darren Schuettler)
Ron Burgundy is in the White House.

No, thats not the plot to Anchorman 4, but the work of Dmitry Shapiro, founder and CEO of San Diego-based augmented reality startup GoMeta. Shapiro placed a virtual version of the notorious news anchor in the Oval Office when he recently demoed his app to Variety. Now, anyone visiting the President of the United States just has to open the Metaverse app to discover Burgundy, ready to talk nonsense.

Metaverse is an app that works similar to Pokemon Go in that it lets users discover characters ranging from Burgundy to talking aliens in the real world simply by going to places and pointing their phone camera at the world around them. But unlike Pokemon Go, Metaverse wants to be more than a game. Shapiros ambitious plan is to allow anyone to build their own phone-based augmented reality experiences.

Malls could be learning experiences for children, he said, painting a picture of math problems lurking around every corner as part of a gigantic educational treasure hunt. People will be able to use Metaverse to annotate the real world, turn their morning walk into an augmented reality fitness parkour, collaborate on maps of public restrooms, or even build their own Pokemon Go clones based on their favorite characters. Get ready for the long tail of interactive, he said.

This isnt the first time that Shapiro is trying to empower the long tail. Back in 2005, Dmitry Shapiro was one of the early pioneers of online video. Shapiros site Veoh debuted a few months after YouTube with pretty much the same idea, allowing anyone and everyone to upload their own videos and present them to a global audience. When you allow everyone to publish, magical things happen, Shaprio recalled during a recent interview.

In Veohs case, a few bad things happened as well: In 2007, Universal Music sued Veoh for copyright infringement. The label lost the drawn-out court case in 2013, but mounting legal costs had forced Veoh into bankruptcy in 2010, leading to a fire sale. Shapiro went on to work for Myspace and then Google. Now, hes back to once again power self-publishing  only this time, he isnt empowering people to create and distribute videos, but augmented reality experiences.

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GoMeta first launched its Metaverse app in October, and has since gradually given a small but growing number of users access to features that allow them to build their own augmented reality experiences. The easiest way to do so is via the mobile apps experience builder, which basically allows users to leave virtual objects or characters where ever they are.

Experiences are public by default, but can also be shared with only select contacts. Metaverse offers a built-in library of objects and avatars, including Ron Burgundy, but users can also upload their own graphics. And a simple scripting mechanism makes it possible to build multiple-choice quizzes, or treasure hunts that require users to visit certain places in a pre-defined order. There are also rewards, and a rudimentary in-game currency.

The in-app builder is fairly bare-bones at this point, but users have already built a number of interesting experiences with it. A Los Angeles-based Metaverse user recently created augmented reality experiences for the local Zoo. Users who install Metaverse on their iPhone are being alerted of the experiences at each exhibit, with a virtual zookeeper called Steve dishing out information about the animals and even engaging them in simple multiple-choice quizzes. Another user turned famous Los Angeles film locations into an augmented reality experience. And some people just use the app to leave their friends notes at bus stations and other meeting spots, said Shapiro. Its like reading post-it notes.

An augmented reality experience at the Los Angeles Zoo, built with the Metaverse app. Courtesy of GoMeta

To be fair, Metaverse is a lot less polished than Pokemon Go. Where the latter challenges users to catch twitchy Pokemons that may dodge your Pokeballs, Metaverse simply presents augmented reality experiences without much of a game-like challenge. Creators can make users hunt for clues, and even require them to collect certain virtual goods before they can unlock the same clue, but individual experiences are a lot less addictive than a world-encompassing game like Pokemon Go.

Of course, with that long tail also comes a possible myriad of problems. Pokemon Go maker Niantic Labs repeatedly struggled with issues around real-world privacy, with in-game locations luring players in peoples backyards. Add thousands of publishers to the mix, and youll inevitably end up with a plethora of similar issues.

Shapiro acknowledged that this could be an issue, but seemed to put the onus on the creators of Metaverse experiences, as well as its users. He did say that Metaverse would eventually filter experiences to show users only the things that are relevant to them, much in the same way that Facebook moderates its news feed. Its very similar to a social network.

That comparison may not console everyone, as social networks have been increasingly scrutinized for their failures to deal with harassment, fake news and a number of related problems.

Then again, bringing some of the discussions that have happen on social networks back to the real world may also make people care more about that world. Already, one user resorted to Metaverse to protest the recent election. Expect more of this in the coming months. After all, not everyone is okay with someone like Ron Burgundy being in the White House.

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The first season of season of HBOs True Detective was some of the most riveting and compelling television to have aired over the past few years. Featuring an intriguing storyline set in the backwoods of Louisiana, Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson delivered A+ performances as they brought Nic Pizzolattos eery and incredibly unique script to life.

Unfortunately, season 2 of True Detective was nothing short of a disaster. It wasnt just that it failed to live up to the first season, it was that the second season was so boring, uninteresting and muddled that it was hard to believe it was even penned by the screenwriter.

While it remains to be seen if there will be a third season of the acclaimed show, McConaughey recently explained that hed be extremely interested if not downright eager his role as Rust Cohle.

During an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, McConaughey explained that he was immediately taken by Cohels character and that Cohle really speaks to me.

When asked about a third season, McConaughey couldnt contain his excitement.

EW notes:

I hear that all the time now, said McConaughey. You said you were going to do season 3. When is it coming? He went on to add that the balls not advanced at all. Ive talked to the creator Nic Pizzolatto whos taking a little break from it. Not all hope is lost, though. If that thing was written well and it came up again, I wouldnt hesitate for a second, he admitted. Oh, Im open to it for sure.

Hopefully HBO and Pizzolatto can reach an agreement and get the ball rolling on season 3, if only to erase the sour taste left behind by season 2.

Now as to why True Detectives follow-up season was such a grave disappointment, HBO President Michael Lombardo admitted that he put too much pressure on Pizzolatto to deliver a script on an arbitrary timetable rather than letting his creative juices flow organically.

And I think in this particular case, Lombardo said, the first season of True Detective was something that Nic Pizzolatto had been thinking about, gestating, for a long period of time. Hes a soulful writer. I think what we did was go, Great. And I take the blame. I became too much of a network executive at that point. We had huge success. Gee, Id love to repeat that next year.

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Well, you know what? I set him up, Lombardo added. To deliver, in a very short time frame, something that became very challenging to deliver. Thats not what that show is. He had to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Find his muse. And so I think thats what I learned from it. Dont do that anymore.

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Nokia filed a number of complaints against Apple accusing the company of infringing on Nokia patents, it announced Wednesday, just after Apple filed an antitrust lawsuit against Acacia Research Corp. and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc. accusing them of conspiring with Nokia.

Nokia filed a number of complaints against Apple in the U.S. and Germany accusing the company of infringing on Nokia patents, it announced Wednesday.

In a statement, the head of Patent Business at Nokia, Ilkka Rahnasto, said:

"Through our sustained investment in research and development, Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products. After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights."

Nokias lawsuit derives from a disagreement with the Cupertino company over licensing for Nokia technology.

Apples Lawsuit Against Acacia and Conversant

Meanwhile, Apple filed an antitrust lawsuit against Acacia Research Corp. and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc. on Tuesday accusing them of conspiring with Nokia.

Acacia, Conversant, and many other patent assertion entities have conspired with Nokia to use unfair and anticompetitive patent assertions to improperly tax the innovations of cell phone makers, the complaint stated.

Apple said in the lawsuit that Acacia and Conversant were its chief conspirators. The documents state :

With its cell phone business dying, Nokia began to seek out willing conspirators and to commence its illegal patent transfer scheme in full force; that scheme has continued in full effect to the present. The driving force behind Nokia's strategy was to diffuse its patent portfolio and place it in the hands of PAEs.

Nokia says in its lawsuit against Apple that the company headed by CEO Tim Cook has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products.

The Finnish company has filed complaints in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich in Germany and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The lawsuit covers 32 patents which cover technologies such as display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets and video coding.

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Nokia said its in the process of filing more legal action in other jurisdictions.

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Nokia was the world's leading mobile phone maker from 1998 until 2011 when it bet on Microsoft's Windows mobile platform, which proved to be a flop (AFP Photo/Irene Stachon) (Lehtikuva/AFP/File)

Helsinki (AFP) - Nokia announced Wednesday it is suing Apple in German and US courts for patent infringement, claiming the US tech giant was using Nokia technology in "many" products without paying for it.

Finnish Nokia, once the world's top mobile phone maker, said the two companies had signed a licensing agreement in 2011, and since then "Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products."

"After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights," Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Nokia's patent business, said in a statement.

The complaints, filed in three German cities and a district court in Texas, concern 32 patents for innovations related to displays, user interface, software, antennae, chipsets and video coding. Nokia said it was preparing further legal action elsewhere.

Nokia was the world's leading mobile phone maker from 1998 until 2011 when it bet on Microsoft's Windows mobile platform, which proved to be a flop. Analysts say the company failed to grasp the growing importance of smartphone apps compared to hardware.

It sold its unprofitable handset unit in 2014 for some $7.2 billion to Microsoft, which dropped the Nokia name from its Lumia smartphone handsets.

Meanwhile Nokia has concentrated on developing its mobile network equipment business by acquiring its French-American rival Alcatel-Lucent.

Including its 2013 full acquisition of joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia said the three companies united represent more than 115 billion euros of R&D investment, with a massive portfolio of tens of thousands of patents.

The 2011 licensing deal followed years of clashes with Apple, which has also sparred with main rival Samsung over patent claims.

At the time, Apple cut the deal to settle 46 separate complaints Nokia had lodged against it for violation of intellectual property.
Its like its 2009 all over again. Nokia earlier today announced that its suing Apple in Europe and in the United States for patent infringement. In a press release detailing the suit, Nokia says that it decided to take Apple to court after several years of negotiations failed to yield a mutually beneficial licensing agreement over an assortment of mobile technologies. All told, Nokia is asserting 32 patents against Apple.

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Apple, of course, has never been shy about fighting back on the legal front and filed an antitrust lawsuit of its own today, alleging that Nokia is leveraging patent assertion entities as a means to bully Apple into inking licensing deals at a cost far higher than the fair-market value of the technology at issue.

Apples antitrust suit was brought to light by Florian Mueller and reads in part:

Apple brings this action to remedy a continuing anticompetitive scheme. Acacia Research Corporation and its subsidiaries (collectively, Acacia) and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc. (Conversant) and its subsidiaries have respectively colluded with Nokia Corporation (itself and through its affiliates Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy and Nokia Technologies Oy to obtain from Nokia thousands of patents as part of a plan to extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly and anticompetitively from Apple and other innovative suppliers of cell phones, and ultimately from the consumers of those products. Acacia, Conversant, and many other patent assertion entities have conspired with Nokia to use unfair and anticompetitive patent assertions to improperly tax the innovations of cell phone makers. This conduct is all the more pernicious because it unfairly and anticompetitively evades binding commitments that Nokia made to license declared standard essential patents on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

The patents Nokia is suing over include a wide array of mobile-oriented technologies relating to areas such as display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets and video coding.

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Incidentally, Nokia said that it plans to file additional patent lawsuits against Apple in other jurisdictions in the near future.

Nokia previously sued Apple for patent infringement in 2009, sparking a global legal battle that ultimately resulted in a settlement agreement in 2011.

Update: Nokia has since filed additional lawsuits against Apple in a number of other countries.

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Rogue One is a tremendous hit. Its making a lot of money for Disney, having opened to record numbers for a Star Wars story thats not about the Skywalkers, and its been praised in reviews. The ending is one of the movies great moments, one that Disney thankfully didnt manage to ruin.

Because, you see, the initial Rogue One story had a totally different ending, one that was scrapped  thankfully, since that move alone saved the movie. Read on if youve seen the film already. Some major spoilers will follow.

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It turns out I was right. A few days before Rogue One debuted I said that every member of the Rogue One team should somehow meet their maker by the end. Even the cute new robot. No one can survive as these heroes arent part of A New Hope, the first Star Wars movie ever. Thats exactly what happened. Every character dies by the end of the film. The one thing that I didnt see coming was Leia. I didnt expect Rogue Ones end to actually be the beginning of A New Hope.

Fast forward to today and a new interview from Empire reveals that the initial Rogue One script had a happier ending in place. Director Gareth Edwards said that in the first version, the characters did not die. Apparently, everyone thought Disney would not allow it.

The very first version, they didnt, Edwards said. In the screenplay. And it was just assumed by us that we couldnt do that. Theyre not going to let us do that. So I was trying to figure out how this ends where that doesnt happen. And then everyone read that and there was this feeling of like, Theyve got to die, right? And everyone was like, Yeah, can we?

We thought we werent going to be allowed to but Kathy [Kennedy, President of Lucasfilm] and everyone at Disney were like Yeah it makes sense/I guess they have to because theyre not in A New Hope. And so from that point on we had the license, he continued.

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I kept waiting for someone to go, You know what? Could we just film an extra scene where we see Jyn and Cassian, theyre okay and theyre on another planet? And it never came. No one ever gave us that note, so we got to do it.

Disney, however, changed other things in the movie. Just revisit the Rogue One footage released in trailers now that you know what happens. Youll notice various scenes that are nowhere to be found in the movie.

The end result is great, however, which means the reshoots were probably needed. Its great, though, that Disney went along with this darker type of ending, but the only one that made sense of the film.

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Will Apple release two iPhone 8 models next year or three? The company isn't telling but a reported leak might.

A user on Chinese site Sina Weibo leaked what's claimed to be two manufacturing documents for the iPhone 8. The documents, which reportedly come from Apple's supply chain, make reference to three models  D20, D21, and D22. As noted by AppleInsider, the person claims Apple's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus came with the D10 and D20 moniker, however, so it's unclear why the company would use the same in the iPhone 8.

Regardless, the leak contends the highest-end version is called "Ferrari," Twith the D20 and D21 versions delivering only modest upgrades and could be known as the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus.

MORE: iPhone 8 Rumors: What to Expect from the 10th Anniversary iPhone

That means the big update for 2017 will come in the form of Ferrari. And according to the leaker, the manufacturing specs suggest the version will deliver an OLED screen and come with the long-rumored edge-to-edge design. Other high-end features planned for this Ferrari model include wireless charging and an invisible home button, which will likely move to under the display. All of these features have been floated in previous iPhone 8 rumors.

Apple also apparently wants a new internal design for the phone that separates the logic board into separate units  one with the processor and storage, the other with the Wi-Fi and cellular parts.

This drawing, reportedly from leaked iPhone 8 documentation shows how the phone's internal parts would be rearranged. (Image from Weibo.com)

This drawing, reportedly from leaked iPhone 8 documentation shows how the phone's internal parts would be rearranged. (Image from Weibo.com)

This isn't the first time we've heard that the iPhone will come in three different models. KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo raised that idea last month. And this latest leak echos a rumor floated on Japanese site Macoctakara that Apple was planning to release modest iPhone 7s and 7s Plus updates alongside a more substantial iPhone model in 2017.

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Apple, of course, hasn't commented on its future plans and won't even say that another iPhone is coming next year. However, the 2017 iPhone will be the 10th anniversary of the company's handset and with the iPhone 7 replicating the design of 2015's iPhone 6s, speculation abounds that Apple has something big up its sleeve for next year.

See also : The Best iPhone 8 Concept Videos So Far
FILE - In this Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014 file picture, a Russian military truck carries a MSTA-S self-propelled howitzer about 10 kilometers from the Russia-Ukrainian border control point at town Donetsk, Rostov-on-Don region, Russia. Russian howitzers and rocket launchers regularly pounded Ukrainian positions across the border in the early stages of the war in eastern Ukraine, according to an analysis of hundreds of attack sites published by open source investigative group Bellingcat. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

PARIS (AP)  Russian howitzers and rocket launchers regularly pounded Ukrainian positions across the border in the early stages of the war in eastern Ukraine, according to an analysis of hundreds of attack sites published Wednesday by the open source investigative group Bellingcat.

The 43-page report adds to the pile of evidence suggesting the still-smoldering conflict pitting the Ukrainian government against separatist forces in eastern Ukraine was stage-managed from Moscow  a charge the Kremlin has denied.

"This was an intentional and large-scale attempt to destroy Ukrainian military units that were cutting off separatist supply lines," one of the report's authors, Sean Case, said in a telephone interview.

Russian officials did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Bellingcat's investigation matched up satellite imagery to a military forensic technique known as "crater morphology."

Traditionally used in the field by soldiers seeking to determine the direction of incoming fire, crater morphology uses the geometry of craters and the pattern of debris ejected by exploding shells to draw lines back to the guns that fired them. Tracing the trajectories from thousands of craters in Ukraine back into Russian territory, the investigators documented more than 500 burn marks from outgoing fire  including the distinctive comet-shaped scorches left by multiple rocket launchers. In many cases, the images showed tracks left by vehicles and, sometimes, Russian artillery positions with guns pointing toward the Ukrainian border.

The investigators said the evidence showed that Russian artillery was used against Ukrainian forces a minimum of 149 times during the summer of 2014  a critical period during which the Ukrainian military came close to cutting the rebels off from the Russian border before being thrown back by a withering counteroffensive.

Case, a former environmental science student who produced the report with the help of a pseudonymous co-author, describes the 149 figure as conservative. The comprehensive figure, the report said, would most likely be higher.

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Bellingcat's analysis struck independent experts as credible.

Sean O'Connor, the principal imagery analyst with IHS Jane's, said in an email that the work looked "solid."

Jonathan Drake, the senior imagery analyst at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said he had used similar techniques to identify artillery strikes carried out by Sri Lankan government forces in 2009. He called Bellingcat's work impressive and said the over-and-over-again overlap between the geometry of the craters in Ukraine and the orientation of the firing positions in Russia left little doubt about the group's conclusions.

"What you've got there are two independent observations that are consistent with one another and that are consistent over a pretty broad swathe of territory," Drake said in a telephone interview.

Bellingcat's report provides more support for the argument that Russian forces are intimately involved in the fighting in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that pits separatist fighters against the central government in Kiev and has claimed at least 9,600 lives since it broke out in April 2014.

Although the Kremlin acknowledges that many Russians have fought in Ukraine as volunteers, it firmly denies sending its troops across the border or arming the rebels  let alone shelling Ukrainian troops from its territory. Moscow has accused Ukrainian forces of firing into its territory.

Those on the ground tell a different tale.

Separatist fighters regularly confirm getting clothing, ammunition and other equipment from Russia and Associated Press reporters have routinely spotted scores of armored vehicles trundling across eastern Ukraine from the direction of the Russian border.

In 2015, the AP spoke to dozens of rebels who said Russian armed forces spearheaded some major separatist offensives, withdrawing before they could be too widely noticed. The scale of these secret deployments could well be vast; earlier this year, a Russian soldier who said he fought in Ukraine said in a rare interview that his entire brigade of 120 troops and 31 tanks had crossed into the country without insignia or any documents that might identify them as Russian. Some estimates have put the peak number of Russian soldiers secretly aiding separatists in Ukraine at more than 10,000.

Although the report Wednesday deals with events now more than two years old, Case said it was still relevant given the Kremlin's continuing denials.

"Our report proves that Russia was involved in the Ukraine conflict and on a massive scale," he said, "and that what the Russians have been saying is completely not true."

___

Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed to this report from Moscow.

___

Online:

A summary of the report: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2016/12/21/russian-artillery-strikes-against-ukraine/

___

Satter can be reached at: http://raphaelsatter.com

Vasilyeva can be reached at: https://twitter.com/NatVasilyevaAP
A team of scientists from the U.K.s Queen Mary University of London have discovered the secret behind what makes reindeer antlers so tough.

In a report published Monday in the ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, the team said it used X-ray techniques and computer modeling to get a closer look at the antlers. The team also examined the antler structures at a nano level, which measures at roughly one thousandth of the thickness of a hair strand, in order to identify what makes them so strong.

SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FOUND FIFTH FORCE OF NATURE

Scientists were keen to discover why reindeers antlers can endure impacts during fights. First author Paolino De Falco from the universitys School of Engineering and Materials Science explained their durability on the schools website. The fibrils that make up the antler are staggered rather than in line with each other, said De Falco. This allows them to absorb the energy from the impact of a clash during a fight.

This discovery has provided insight and filled a previous gap in scientists understanding of the structure modeling of bone, according to the university, which added that the information could be used in the future to create damage resistant materials.

Ettore Barbieri, a co-author of the report, said the next steps include creating a 3D printed model with fibers arranged in staggered condition and linked by an elastic interface.

WEASEL SHUTS DOWN WORLDS LARGEST ATOM SMASHER IN SWITZERLAND

The aim is to prove that additive manufacturing  where a prototype can be created a layer at a time  can be used to create damage resistant composite material, said Barbieri.

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Tensions between the United States and Russia are undeniably heating up, especially in the wake of the U.S. election which many in the government now say was influenced by Vladimir Putin. So, its probably a good idea to keep an eye on what kind of military technology theyre packing, right? Thanks to a new reveal by a Russian aircraft manufacturer, we can do just that. This is the T-50, Russias new stealth fighter jet.

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Built by Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association, the T-50 has been in development since 2009 with an expected introduction by 2018. This new reveal showcases a new prototype of the platform, dubbed the T-50-8, and shows the jet taxiing along a snowy runway.

The plane carries a rather large $50 million price tag, but Russias state-owned media has been extremely vocal about the planes superior capabilities, suggesting that its worth every penny. The T-50 has a ranger of nearly 3,500 miles and a top speed of around 1,500 miles per hour. The fighters cannon is also a much-talked-about feature, capable of a fire rate of 1,800 rounds per minute, which Russia claims is the best such performance for this type of weapon around.

Americas F-35 stealth fighter platform, which was just formally introduced in 2015 with the F-35B, carries a price of around $100 million per unit, and its stated specs are largely inferior to those Russia claims of the T-50. The plane is expected to enter full production next year, and Russia has already committed to buying at least one squadron of the planes from the first batch.

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Surface Pro 5 spec rumors are starting trickle in, as the latest report from Germany suggests the inclusion of eSIM technology. Find out how this might make Microsoft's 2017 tablet a great business device.

Surface Pro 5 spec rumors have been surprisingly light, but one of our first semi-concrete updates has arrived via the well-known German Microsoft blog, Dr. Windows. Sources close to the publication say the Surface Pro 4 successor will support eSIM for its assumed release in March.

The main focus of the story is that Microsoft has partnered with Transatel, a global mobile provider, to sell eSIM packages on the Microsoft Store. The curious facet of this story is that specific devices must support eSIM for these plans to be useful. Neither the Surface Pro 4 nor Surface Book feature the hardware.

That being said, the publication suggests Surface Pro 5 and Surface Book 2 will have an eSIM, provided that my (in the past accurate) source is correct. Dr Windows is a premiere tech outlet thats known to have journalists with insider connections.

For those not so aware of how eSIM works, there are plenty of benefits it could have for mobile contracts. While its taken some time to catch on, the purpose of eSIM is to standardize SIM cards in mobile devices based on hardware. In the long term, this unity would allow consumers more freedom and less obligation when choosing a data provider.

For a Surface Pro 5 the perks would be twofold. Firstly, it allows internet connection without having to tether to a hotspot. The second upside relates to how eSIM helps with international travel. Because the cards are universal, it means you dont have to buy a second SIM when spending time overseas. Possible roaming charges are avoided between two plans because eSIM automatically switches to the plan in the country where the user is located. These advantages may not be worth it for the average consumer, but they could be a boon for the business professionals Microsoft products often attract.

Beyond that theres not much we know about the Surface Pro 5. Considering it wont release this year, the assumption is that the 2017 tablet will include the latest Intel Kaby Lake CPUs alongside possible modern accoutrements like USB-C.

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Back in October, insiders with Windows 10 preview builds noticed many passing references to Windows 10 version 1703. Following typical Microsoft naming convention, the current belief is that the so-called Creators Update, formally known as Redstone 2, is planned to launch on March 17, 2017. In relation to a hypothetical Surface Pro 5, Redstone 2 was supposedly delayed so it could support the next wave of Windows 10 devices. That would most notably allude to new Surface tablets. Ergo, while messy, the dots seem to connect to a March or spring 2017 arrival.

Until then, the Surface Pro 4 is available now.



What do you think of these spec rumors? Does eSIM matter in your dream version of the Surface Pro 5? Tell us in the comments section!

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Popular YouTube prankster Adam Saleh is waging a war on Delta Airlines after he says he was kicked off his flight just for speaking Arabic to his mom on the phone. Saleh, who posted a video on Twitter showing he and his friends being escorted out of the flight as fellow passengers sarcastically wave goodbye, says the police were brought in after the incident, and that hes consulting a lawyer on the best course of action.



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Saleh, who has over three million subscribers on YouTube on his multiple channels, and a robust social media following, was able to generate over 200,000 retweets in just a few hours with the damning video, which you can watch below.

This of course wouldnt be the first time that racial profiling raised its ugly head, and in the video it certainly seems that no other passengers or crew are debating his assertions that he was being kicked off for no reason.

That being said, Saleh has something of a history when it comes to airline uproar. The YouTuber, who is known for his pranks, once claimed that he rode from Melbourne, Australia, to Syndey in the baggage compartment of a plane. Video evidence later proved that he in fact rode in his seat just like everyone else.

Perhaps more damning, Saleh was also forced to apologize in 2014 after he posted a video showing himself being singled out for harassment by NYPD officers who stop and frisk he and his friend. The men were wearing traditional Muslim clothing at the time, and they initially claimed they were being racially profiled. Saleh later admitted that the video had been staged, but insisted that such things had indeed happened to him in the past.

Delta Airlines issued the following statement in regards to the video:

Two customers were removed from this flight and later rebooked after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort. Were conducting a full review to understand what transpired. We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect.

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UPDATED 2:33 PM: Texas electors secured for Donald Trump the Electoral College win, with all but two votes going his way putting him over the 270 vote threshold. Despite pleas to electors from some Hollywood celebrities, and Michael Moores offer to pay the fines of any jumping ship, it was a day of few surprises on the domestic front, though much drama and violence on the international stage.

Its a relief tonight, certainly. Rep Chris Collins/Trump Transition Team surrogate told CNN. Its a shame its overshadowed by all the tragedy in Germany. Certainly our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those. But we are going to be moving on now. Donald Trumps cabinet is all but full.

Collins did mention the other big news that had pushed Trumps victory lap to the wings in todays news cycle. But, after hitting the 270 threshold, Trump issued a statement:

Today we offer our condolences to the family and loved ones of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov, who was assassinated by a radical Islamic terrorist. The murder of an ambassador is a violation of all rules of civilized order and must be universally condemned.

Previous: Electors in Texas were poised to push Donald Trump over the threshold to officially be named our next POTUS, but bloody developments internationally pushed Trumps headline into the TV news cycle side wing.

At 12:42 PM PT, NBC News broke in to its network schedule with a special report when a truck that plowed into a Christmas crowd in Berlin, killing at least nine and injuring at least 50 more. That mass killing had followed by a few hours the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey at an art gallery in Ankara by an off-duty police officer. Video of the incident showed the gunman shouting, Do not forget Aleppo, do not forget Syria! after shooting Ambassador Andrey Karlov multiple times.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said of the attack, per Reuters translation, A crime has been committed and it was without doubt a provocation aimed at spoiling the normalization of Russo-Turkish relations and spoiling the Syrian peace process which is being actively pushed by Russia, Turkey, Iran and others,

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In this screen grab taken from video, emergency services attend the scene, after an attack by a truck at a Christmas market, in Berlin, Monday, Dec. 19, 2016. German media are reporting a truck has run into a crowded Christmas market in the center of Berlin, causing multiple injuries. Both the Berliner Zeitung newspaper and the Berliner Morgenpost reported the truck ran into the market outside the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Monday evening. (AP)

Berlin authorities quickly told U.S. cable news outlets the truck slaughter was being investigated as a terror incident, though they cautioned it had not yet been officially classified as such. A suspect believed to be the driver quickly was apprehended, cable news networks began reporting at 12: 52 PM PT. TV news networks bailed on other stories to focus on the scene, which was packed with ambulances and holiday shoppers. By 12:30 PM PT, CNN intelligence and security analyst Bob Baer already was describing it as a Nice-like attack.

RelatedTruck Attacks Kills Dozens On French Riviera

In July, France extended its state of emergency for three months after what French President Francois Hollande said was obviously a terrorist attack in Nice, perpetrated by a driver in a truck. That attack left at least 84 people dead and hundreds injured, 52 of those critically, per French prosecutors, after a truck smashed through barriers and accelerated into a crowd gathered for a fireworks show to celebrate Bastille Day.

Meanwhile, at least three others were injured in the art-gallery assassination in Ankara. The assailant was killed by other officers in a shootout. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement calling it a despicable attack, which was also an assault on the right of all diplomats to safely and securely advance and represent their nations around the world.

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The army says a relief exercise involving over 2,700 UPDF troops replacing those who have worked in Somalia for the last one year, has ended successfully without any mishap.

According to the army spokesperson Lt Col Paddy Ankunda, the last flight of Battle Group 20 from Entebbe arrived in Mogadishu yesterday with one hundred and forty nine troops on board and took back an equivalent number, marking the end of a three weeks long rotation exercise.

The commander of Battle Group 17, Col Bob Paciesky Ogiki led the last troops on the flight manifest from the mission area (Somalia), that landed in Entebbe Airport last evening.

Ankunda says before his departure, Battle Group XVII Commander, Col Bob Ogiki handed over the area of operation to Col. Bernard Tuhame, the commander of the new force, Battle Group twenty.

The handover ceremony was presided over by Uganda Contingent Commander Brigadier Sam Okiding, who is also due for rotation out of the mission area.

Battle group XX has taken over areas of Barawe in lower Shabelle Region in Somalia and its surroundings.
The investigating officer in the case in which city rally driver Desh Kananura is accused of assaulting his employee Badru Kateregga to death has told the High Court that the scene of crime where Kateregga was allegedly assaulted from was tampered with.

Desh together with his brother Raymond Kananura and his private security guards Cyrus Maganda, Samuel Muzulewa and Jacob Onyango are accused of g tried for murdering Kateregga over a tip of 30,000shs he reported got from a customer.

Seventh prosecution witness D/ASP Grace Davis Pande told presiding Judge Joseph Murangira that on September 30, 2012 he visited the scene of crime, at Panamera bar in Naguru-Kampala, and discovered traces of blood near a pile of empty crates of beer which they had tried to wash away.

Panda said they also discovered a wallet and a stick that could have been used in the assault, before they took the body of the deceased that was lying in one of the unfinished rooms at Panamera bar premises to Kiira road police station.
Makindye General Court martial has pushed the hearing of treachery charges against Nakawa Municipality MP Michael Kabaziguruka and 25 others to 18th January 2017.

The case had been scheduled for yesterday but court has already broken off for the festive season that ends at the beginning of January 2017.

According to the General Court Martial Registrar Major John Bizimana, all the cases that were scheduled to be heard yesterday have been pushed to January.

During his last appearance in at the army court, Kabaziguruka through his lawyer Medard Ssegona asked that his trial be halted until the matter he filed before the Constitutional Court challenging this courts powers to try civilians is disposed of.

However, the Judge Advocate Lt Col Gideon Katinda advised Kabaziguruka to seek an interim order from the Constitutional Court halting this trial.

Kabaziguruka and 25 others including UPDF soldiers allegedly plotted in Kampala, Wakiso and Luweero districts, to overthrow the government by force of arms.
The Parliamentary select committee investigating the mismanagement of Uganda telecom limited has placed a temporary ban on the sale of this companys assets.

The move comes after members learning that managers were planning to sale properties amidst the ongoing investigations.

This ban has been announced by the chairperson of the committee Okin Ojara after interacting with the top management of this company led by executive director Shoe Bridge the on their role in the mismanagement of UTL.

Members resolved that no property should be sold until; all investigations are done to avoid jeopardizing the process.

Now the committee has asked the mangers to avail the inventory of all company properties
Marines are free to use the PMAG at last.

In welcome news for many a Marine (and Magpul employee), the Marine Corps has finally approved the high-performing PMAG magazine for use on the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, as well as the M16A4 and M4 carbines.

As readers of this blog are well aware, the magazine is one of the best on the market and has long been used by special operations forces and soldiers.

The Corps banned the product in 2012 because of compatibility issues with the first-generation version of the magazine and the IAR.

The announcement to reverse this decision leaked out Monday. But it's important to understand why -- and as my colleague Matthew Cox explains over at Military.com -- the reason is because the M27 with its existing magazine ran into reliability problems with the Army's newer M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round.

To be clear, the decision was to ensure that some Marines receiving the M855A1 who are headed downrange wouldn't face those reliability issues.

As Cox reports:

"The reason they did that is because when Marines are deploying forward, they are sometimes receiving M855A1, and we need to ensure they have the ability to shoot that round," Chris Woodburn, deputy branch chief for the Marine Corps' Maneuver Branch that deals with requirements, told Military.com in a Dec. 20 telephone interview. "In terms of the cause analysis and failure analysis, that has not been done, but what we do know is that the PMAG works," he said.

Officials at Magpul Industries Corp. were excited, to say the least.

"In light of the results from an enormous body of reliability and durability testing and 4 years of combat use, today it was announced that the PMAG 30 AR/M4 GEN M3 Window, in Black and Medium Coyote Tan (MCT), would be the official magazine of the entire United States Marine Corp," the company said on its social media accounts on Monday.
NPS urged to adjust retirement age for each generation



By Yoon Ja-young



Korea should consider adopting automatic adjust mechanisms (AAMs) in its pension system such as adjusting the retirement age for each generation. That is what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommends for Korea amid rapid aging of the population and growing concern that its pension fund will be depleted in a few decades.



In the report titled "Automatic Adjust Mechanisms in Asian Pension Systems?" the International Monetary Fund (IMF) noted Asian economies, including Korea, are aging quickly, with significant implications for their pension systems finances.



It cited the Korean authorities' latest official forecast, according to which the National Pension Service (NPS) system will turn into an overall fiscal deficit in 2044 and the pension assets will be fully depleted by 2060. According to the National Assembly Budget Office, the depletion is expected to come in 2058, which is two years earlier than the government estimation.



"The long-term outlook for NPS' finances suggests that there could be a pension-led fiscal cliff driven by the aging population if remedial actions fail to be placed in time," the IMF noted.



The countries that went through a similar transition thus adopted AAMs, which preset pension systems to respond to demographic, macroeconomic and financial developments. For instance, they can automatically adjust the retirement age according to life expectancy.



AAMs are helpful as they prevent "the need for sharp adjustments in the future, increasing the predictability and inter-generational equity of pension systems and enhance confidence," the IMF notes.



It pointed to three broad categories that can be adjusted using AAMs: benefit levels, eligibility criteria and contribution rates. Japan, for instance, chose to decrease benefits, while Germans decided to pay more pension premium and in Denmark retirement age was delayed.



"Every five years, the retirement age is reviewed, opening the possibility for retirement age increases if the public scheme's financial position so requires," the report explains.



Korea has a relatively young pension system but is also one of the fastest aging countries in the region, which would significantly increase the fiscal burden in the future.



"While Korea currently has one of the youngest populations among OECD countries, the expected speed of its population aging in the coming decades is one of the highest, resulting from low birth rates and high life expectancy. For Korea's NPS  the world's third largest pension fund next only to Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund and Norway's Government Pension Fund Global  population aging poses a particularly severe challenge," it said.



Currently, Koreans contribute 9 percent of their income to the pension fund.



Among the schemes of AAMs, the IMF recommended Korea to link retirement age to changes in life expectancy.



"This could allow the retirement age to be continuously adjusted without being confined by a likely outdated ceiling (for example, 65 years of age), and yet allow sufficient lead time for various age cohorts to incorporate pension benefits in their retirement planning."



It also pointed out that it could help minimize potential cross-cohort fairness issues that retirement age reforms can bring about, for example by entitling less life-time average benefit payouts to newer retirees than to older ones.



Other types of AAMs, such as reducing benefits or increasing contribution rates, meanwhile, involve more difficult tradeoffs, it noted.




The United States will regularly deploy its strategic military assets to South Korea to better defend the Northeast Asian ally from North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, Seoul and Washington said Wednesday following joint defense cooperation talks.



The commitment was reaffirmed at the inaugural meeting of the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group (EDSCS) in Washington on Tuesday (U.S. time). In a bid to step up deterrence against Pyongyang, the allies launched the dialogue process dedicated to exploring extended measures during the meeting of the two countries' foreign and defense ministers in Washington in October.



South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam and Deputy Minister for Defense Policy Yoo Jeh-seung headed the South Korean side with Washington being represented by U.S. Acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas Countryman and David Shear.



"In response to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, the officials reaffirmed the commitment of the U.S. to regularly deploy U.S. strategic assets for the defense of the Republic of Korea," the allies said in their joint statement following the talks.



They will also "enhance such measures and identify new or additional steps to strengthen deterrence," according to the statement.



Earlier in the year, the U.S. dispatched multiple B-52 strategic bombers and stealth fighter jets to South Korea in a show of force after North Korea conducted two nuclear tests in the face of strong warnings by the international community.



"The U.S. in 2016 demonstrated its commitment and resolve to the ROK by exercising extended deterrence through measures to enhance missile defense capabilities and through clear demonstration of the U.S. nuclear triad," the statement said, referring to the U.S.' nuclear-armed fighter jets, intercontinental ballistic missile and ballistic missile submarines.



In their recent discussion to guard against North Korea, "The U.S. reiterated its ironclad and unwavering commitment to draw on the full range of its military capabilities, including the nuclear umbrella, conventional strike and missile defense to provide extended deterrence for the ROK," the two sides stressed.



The U.S. also "reaffirmed the longstanding U.S. policy that any attack on the U.S. or its allies will be defeated and any use of nuclear weapons will be met with an effective and overwhelming response."



Washington emphasized that it will provide "immediate support" to South Korea in the event of an emergency.



South Korea's foreign ministry later said in a press release that such U.S. commitments will remain steadfast even after the upcoming administration change in Washington.



"Even after the Trump administration takes office, I expect the EDSCG will continue on," Vice Foreign Minister Lim told reporters in Washington following the talks. "The latest meeting played a role bridging the Obama administration with the Trump administration."



Sources said that during the latest gathering South Korea appealed for permanent deployment of U.S. strategic assets on the peninsula, but the two sides failed to reach an agreement on the point. (Yonhap)




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ANGOLA  Free moral reconation therapy will be offered starting in January, made possible by a grant to Women In Transition from the Steuben County Community Foundations Womens Fund and support from Steuben Countys Fraternal Order of Police.

Moral reconation therapy is widely offered as a way to help youths and adults reprogram their activities and thoughts for a more satisfying and productive life. It is often used to curb recidivism in juvenile and young adult convicts.

The grant will allow classes to be offered for free at WIT and Turning Point homeless shelter in Angola. There are a variety of MRT subject focuses, and it is not just for those who have gotten into trouble.

Its more self exploration, said certified MRT trainer Crystal Havins, a licensed therapist with Whittington Homes, which is based in Fort Wayne and will soon open an Angola office.

MRT classes can be expensive, said Havins. For those who have hit bottom with addictions or who dont even have a bed to sleep in, paying counseling costs is not an option.

Women In Transition wrote a grant that allowed representatives from Turning Point and WIT to be certified in MRT. They included Shelly Allen, executive director of WIT, WITs Melody Hathaway, and Shannon Hentzell, director at Turning Point.

The FOP provided funds to purchase workbooks for the first participants.

Allen said she was very thankful for what the FOP and Community Foundation have done to help the initiative.

I am really excited about this, said Hentzell. I cant say enough about the MRT program. Ive seen a lot of people grow.

At Turning Point, Hentzell plans to incorporate the Simply Spiritual and job readiness MRT programs. Classes will start in January with a schedule still to be determined.

At WIT, Staying Quit and Thinking For Good will be the topics. Classes start Jan. 8.

MRT programs are created to take participants through a series of introspections. It works best in a group setting, said Havins.

Collaboration is what makes it effective, she said. They cant just show up.

At this time, the free classes are for adults 18 years old and older. The WIT classes are for women only, per the policy of the recovery house.

Havins said she would like to see it extended to youth at some point, to try to help juveniles who show signs of becoming delinquent before they get in trouble.
ALBION  Thanks to nearly 85 percent of its membership allowing their bills to be rounded-up each month to the nearest dollar, Noble REMCs Operation Round Up continues to make substantial donations to area charities.

Since the beginning of the program in 2002, more than $655,000 has been given back to local communities. The money has been used by organizations who serve all sectors of the community; youth, seniors and everyone in between.

The grantees from the October distribution of the Noble REMC Operation Round Up Trust were:

 Rome City Park Board, $1,000, playground equipment

 Central Noble Jr./Sr. High School, $500, reading program

 PARC Inc., $250, first aid supplies

 Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana Inc., $1,000, farm wagon mobile pantry program

 Central Noble Agriculture Department, $1,500, food science lab stations

 Albion Volunteer Fire Department, $1,000, carbon monoxide meter

 Ligonier Public Library, $1,500, projector equipment

Noble REMC expressed its gratitude for the people who are willing to serve others.

The Noble REMC Operation Round Up Trust Fund is accepting grant applications until Jan. 3 for the next grant cycle. Operation Round Up is an ongoing charitable fundraising program benefiting area nonprofit community organizations, projects and events.

Nonprofit community-based organizations in Noble, DeKalb and adjoining counties, where Noble REMC serves, are eligible to apply. Applications are available at its office in Albion or downloaded from its website at nobleremc.com.
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A La Crescent Township couple will begin their home winery after receiving a conditional-use permit from the La Crescent Township Board of Supervisors at its Dec. 12 meeting. The township planning commission recommended the approval to the board.

Art and Colleen Stender of La Crescent plan to use their farm winery to sell their products to wholesale buyers and not to retail sellers.

All fruit in the wine is locally grown, with the grapes and berries coming from Kathan's Homestead Berries. They are also buying as much of the other products locally as possible. The Stenders use frozen berries from Kathan's in order to avoid buying fruit juices from New York like most wineries do.

The planning commission recommended the approval to the board after its meeting on Dec. 5, and zoning administrator Larry Hafner was also supportive after going out and visiting the Stender residence to check out the plans.

"It's a very clean operation. Everything is stainless steel ... and it's very clean, neat and well done," Hafner said.

Colleen Stender attended the meeting and addressed the board.

"We had been making wine as a hobby and we had several people approach us about selling it," she said.

The Stenders got the idea from grape farmers who used to use wine as a way to sell their product. With tighter regulations, 51 percent of the winery's output needs to be made from a Minnesota product in order to promote Minnesota agriculture.

The permit granting permission passed unanimously and the Stenders will begin work at their winery.

In other news

The board discussed building up the embankment along Pine Creek Road with a clay, sand and dirt filling because there is worry that the embankment is deteriorating. The board decided to review the issue in the spring now that the area is frozen for the winter.
A peek into 1890s local newspapers reveals both good and bad behavior of the era. Then as now, Santa Claus had some decisions to make. Have a look:

Dec. 3, 1895: Mary LaFore, 15-year-old daughter of Mrs. Ella Bly, who conducts a restaurant on Copeland Avenue, is committed to the State Reformatory for Girls in Milwaukee. It is said that the girl is thoroughly bad, that she is disobedient, steals, wont go to church, and mingles with bad company.

Dec. 9, 1895: The prime talk around town is the flight of Professor Arno, the clairvoyant, after he flimflammed a local businessman out of $400 for worthless information regarding the location of a bogus $250,000 supposedly buried on a nearby farm. Arno had been in La Crosse for some time telling fortunes and selling medical syrups.

Dec. 18, 1895: Sixteen-year-old Carl Zielke, 2416 Main Street, is arrested by the sheriff after Zielkes neighbors register complaint that the boy is an idiot who does malicious pranks such as entering their barns to molest and injure their horses.

Dec. 19, 1895: It is said that a well-known citizen suffered a coughing spell on the street this week, which resulted in his false teeth flying out of his mouth into a sewer grate. A city worker was given a nice reward for retrieving the choppers.

Dec. 24, 1895: A new woman Santa Claus, dressed in red bloomers with a pack on her back and riding a mans bicycle, has been a prominent and startling feature on La Crosse streets the past couple days. Under the disguise is Harry Gilles, who represents a local business.

Dec. 24, 1895: A Christmas Eve snow leaves La Crosse covered with a 10-inch deep white blanket. The streetcar sweepers and snowplows have considerable difficulty in clearing the tracks because of heavy drifts.

Dec. 4, 1896: Martin Erickson, proprietor of the Park Bakery, 322 5th Avenue S., beats one of his employees, Mons Asland, and then has him arrested and put in jail. Ericson was mad at Asland because he had borrowed a bakery horse without permission and involved it in an accident, causing the horse to break a leg.

Dec. 5, 1896: A young lad living in the vicinity of 15th and Vine streets has been in the habit of stealing chickens from his neighbors. As a result, several shotguns loaded with salt and pepper now await his next appearance.

Dec. 11, 1896: A wild melee occurs outside the Fourth Ward School, 102 N. 8th Street, during recess when boys from the First Ward School, 601 Vine Street, do battle with the Fourth Ward boys. The fight began with snowballs and eggs and soon escalated into the use of fists, clubs, and stones. Black eyes and bruised heads were numerous and the wounded soon retired from the field of carnage in large numbers. Fourth Ward teacher Carl Ulrich tried to intervene in the battle, but also received rough treatment from the First Ward boys.

Dec. 23, 1896: Christmas parties are held in the public schools with many rooms adorned with Christmas trees, blackboards covered with drawings of Santa Claus, and Christmas stockings filled to the brim. Many pupils and teachers exchanged gifts.

Dec. 4, 1898: An overflow crowd, with people seated in the aisles, packs St. James Church, 1102 Caledonia Street, for a memorial Mass honoring soldiers who died in the Spanish-American War. Out of respect to the memory of the dead, the church was draped in black and white along with an abundance of stars and stripes.

Dec. 8, 1898: Dr. Christian Christensen uses a stomach pump to revive Mrs. Charles Sorenson, 523 Market Street, after she accidentally drinks a mixture containing bedbug poison.

Dec. 23, 1898: Employees of the Rubber Mills are given a dance in the new addition recently built to the factory on Indian Hill. The dance, attended by 150 couples, was appropriately named the Rubber Ball.

Dec. 26, 1898: J. E. Willing gives away 300 bags of candy and popcorn to children who call at his clothing & shoe store, 115 S. 4th Street. Yesterday, Willing gave away 120 chickens to the poor of the city for use in Christmas dinners.

Dec. 26, 1898: The Northside Bottling Works, 903 Rose Street, sends out a holiday wagon so heavily loaded with gifts that it breaks down. It took four horses to pull the load which was decorated with evergreens and topped off with Santa Claus himself.

So, be careful about being naughty or nice. Santa Claus and the newspapers of many eras are watching.

Merry Christmas from the La Crescent Area Historical Society.
A 62-year-old Black River Falls man faces felony drug charges after nearly striking a city of Black River Falls patrol vehicle Dec. 1.

Roy A. Simplot is charged with possession of marijuana and possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. According to the criminal complaint, a pickup truck driven by Simplot nearly collided with a patrol car at the intersection of Main Street and North Water Street. The complaint says the suspect vehicle was operating with a broken upper brake light.

Police initiated a traffic stop and identified the driver as Simplot. The complaint says police could detect the odor of raw marijuana coming from the vehicle. Police asked Simplot to turn over any marijuana in the vehicle, and Simplot handed over a blue pill bottle that contained a green, leafy substance which was later identified as 14 grams of marijuana.

When told the vehicle was going to be searched, Simplot directed police to two more pill bottles under the seat of his pickup. The pill bottles contained nearly 70 grams of marijuana divided among 28 individually wrapped bags, according to the complaint.

After police told him he was under arrest, the complaint says Simplot produced two joints from his jeans pocket.
Winter can be one of the hardest times of the year for families as they see their expenses rise.

During this time many lean on the support of food pantries to help with some of those costs, which means the food pantries need our support even more during these times as well.

Allied Cooperative, a cooperative based out of Arcadia, partnered with Land OLakes together to raise $24,000 to support 12 different food pantries from Adams-Friendship to Wisconsin Dells.

We were pleased to be part in helping feed our communities, said Karmen Bernacchi, Director of Marketing Communications with Allied Cooperative.

Each pantry received $2,000 to help provide for the families in their respective communities, Friends Sharing Food Inc. in Black River Falls was the recipient of one of these donations.

Land OLakes has been running programs like this for several years, but this is the first time that theyve donated in Jackson County.

Weve been doing a lot more business in Jackson County and when we ran this program last year they asked if we could keep them in mind the next time, Bernacchi said.

Friends Sharing Food Inc. helps serve the majority of Jackson County which is what lead to them being chosen for a donation and board member Amy Willette says this kind of generosity is important, especially this time of year.

There are many, many households that rely on Friends Sharing Food Inc to provide for their families, Willette says, Donations like this make a huge difference between families being able to provide for themselves or having to go without.

All of the money received from the donation will go towards purchasing food for the pantry and helping families put food on the table.

This exceeded our expectations, when I talked with Karmen and she mentioned the $2,000 it was 10 times what I thought we would get, Willett says.

Bernacchi says this is her favorite time of year getting to help out these organizations with donations, but says the praise should go to the volunteers.

The real heroes are those who give of their time and energy week after week to help feed the hungry in our communities, Bernacchi says, Their efforts are so important and greatly appreciated.

According to a USDA study around 15.8 million American households are considered food insecure which means at some point during the year the family had some trouble in providing enough food for all of its members.

To help donate to Friends Sharing Food Inc. donations can be dropped off at the Jackson County Bank or mailed to their P.O. Box 344 Black River Falls, WI 54615.
BLACK RIVER FALLS  Seven criminal charges against a former Jackson County district attorney will continue, according to a judges ruling Wednesday in Jackson County Court.

Monroe County Judge David Rice rejected a request to dismiss the charges against James C. Ritland of Black River Falls. Rice said there was reasonable inference in the criminal complaint in support of the charges.

Ritland, 62, is charged with three felony counts of solicitation of prostitutes and a felony count of maintaining a drug trafficking place, which have a combined maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Ritland, who started practicing law in Black River Falls in 1978 and served as district attorney in 1981 and 1982, also faces three misdemeanor counts of prostitution-nonmarital sex.

No date has been scheduled for a preliminary hearing. The case is being prosecuted by Vernon County District Attorney Timothy Gaskell.

Ritland is accused of posting cash bonds for women and paying for their drugs in exchange for sexual favors, according to court records.

An investigation started in February 2015 after a woman reported Ritland paid her $50 to $80 for oral sex in 2013 at his office, 320 Main St., according to the complaint. He also gave her $20 to $40 five to 10 times for her to expose her breasts.

According to the criminal complaint:

A woman who retained Ritland to represent her on a criminal case told police in April that Ritland in 2012 and 2013 paid her $40 for oral sex and many times gave her money for heroin she used in his office.

In March 2015, Ritland received oral sex at his office after he posted her $250 cash bond for her release from the La Crosse County Jail. She estimated he gave her cash to pay her legal fees or posted her bond in exchange for oral sex on multiple occasions.

The woman also said she met heroin dealers outside his law office and that Ritland would pay her $100 to bring other girls to him.

A third woman also told police that Ritland paid her cash for oral sex and to see her breasts so she could buy heroin.

Ritland was a candidate for Jackson County judge in 2015 but lost in the primary election.
MADISON  Gov. Scott Walker is now considering who should lead the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs once current Secretary John Scocos leaves office Jan. 7.

Scocos resigned in November.

Walker has solicited input from veterans statewide on who should replace Scocos. Last week, the governor met with six veterans service organizations: the American Legion, AMVETS, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Vietnam Veterans of America, Disabled American Veterans and the Military Order of the Purple Heart, according to Walker spokesman Tom Evenson.

Walker also plans to meet with representatives from the County Veterans Service Officers Association of Wisconsin on Wednesday to hear their recommendations for the position, according to the group.

Walkers office has confirmed a list of resumes received so far for the position.

Candidates who do not work at WDVA:

David Kurtz  Kurtz, of Portage, is the current chief administrative officer and chief financial officer at the Wisconsin chapter of the American Legion. He has been in that position since 2009, according to his resume. Prior to that he was a commercial and residential real estate broker and managed properties, according to his resume. He is a U.S. Army veteran, according to his resume.

William Bissonette  Bisonette, of Tomah, is a current ambassador for the Army Reserve in Wisconsin and has been in the position since 2014, according to his resume. Prior to that position he was a post command sergeant major at Fort McCoy. He has held a variety of positions within the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C., Georgia and overseas. He is an Operation Iraqi Freedom U.S. Army veteran, according to his resume.

Jamie Guttenberg  Guttenberg, of Taylor, is a current health care executive at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and has several years of experience in the health care industry and in law enforcement, according to his resume. He briefly served as a director, overseeing health care for veterans at the New York Department of Veterans Affairs in 2013, according to his resume. He also served as a manager at Fort McCoy and as chief of police at the U.S. Army base.

Christopher J. Banks  Banks, of Hartford, is a current operations manager at Red Bull Distribution Company in West Allis, according to his resume. Prior to that role, he was a logistics and facility manager for five years with the Wisconsin Army National Guard in Mosinee, according to his resume. He served in the National Guard in Iraq, according to his resume.

Tom Rhatican  Rhatican, of Madison, is currently the assistant deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. He is a former division administrator and legislative liaison at the state Department of Veterans Affairs. He also served as chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald from 1995 to 2004, according to his resume. He is a U.S. Army veteran.

Matthew O. Foley  Foley, of Norfolk, Virgina, is a military attorney and current judge in the U.S. Navy. He has been a private practice attorney in California but has spent most of his career in the Navy in various legal roles, according to his resume. He attended the University of Wisconsin and Marquette University Law School, according to his resume.

Candidates employed at WDVA:

Kathy Marschman  Marschman, of Sun Prairie, is the current deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs. She has been with the agency since 2013 and has been deputy secretary since 2015, according to her resume. She is a U.S. Army and Wisconsin Army National Guard veteran serving in multiple capacities and leadership roles since 1986, according to her resume. She worked as an Assembly and Senate staffer in the state Legislature from 1994 to 2005, overlapping the period during which Walker served in the Assembly.

Dan Buttery  Buttery is the current assistant deputy secretary at the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs. He has served in that role since 2015 and has been with the agency since 2014. Prior to coming to WDVA, Buttery founded and led a marketing firm, HVT Marketing, based in Muskego, according to his LinkedIn profile. He founded Fisher House Wisconsin, a home on the grounds of the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee for families of veterans treated at the hospital to stay, according to his resume. He is a U.S. Army veteran and served in Iraq, according to his resume.

Kenneth Grant  Grant, of Waunakee, is currently a division administrator of veterans services at WDVA. He has served in that position since 2011 and has worked in state government throughout his career since 1985, according to his resume. Prior to working at WDVA, he spent most of his career with the state Department of Military Affairs and also worked for the state Department of Workforce Development, according to his resume.
The following editorial appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal on Dec. 18:

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett understands the value of having cameras on his citys police officers.

The Milwaukee County district attorney last week charged a patrol officer with first-degree reckless homicide in the fatal shooting of Sylville Smith. Video captured by cameras on the patrolmans and his partners uniforms was key to the investigation, the mayor said.

If this case had occurred 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, we would not have that evidence, Barrett told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Similarly, if the case had occurred in Madison  not decades ago, but today  video evidence from cop cameras wouldnt exist, and the officer almost certainly would not be charged. Thats because, unlike Milwaukee and so many other cities, Madison continues to resist even a small test of cameras on police uniforms.

Madisons finance committee favored $75,000 to buy cameras for officers on the North Side in October. But the full City Council rejected that modest proposal last month, claiming the devices lacked public support and could lead to the deportation of undocumented immigrants.

In reality, surveys suggest the public overwhelmingly supports cameras on officers because theyve been shown to improve the behavior of police and the public. And if government officials really want to find people who are living in the U.S. without permission, using grainy images from uniform cameras would be an odd and ineffective way to go about it.

Other cities have adopted clear policies on how and when cop cameras will be used to allay legitimate privacy concerns.

The Madison City Council should learn from Milwaukees experience. Milwaukee has been equipping all of its patrol officers with body-worn cameras since last year. And when Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown, 24, shot Smith, 23, as Smith ran from a traffic stop, uniform cameras showed Smith was carrying a gun, turned toward the officer and raised the weapon.

But after Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm watched footage from the encounter, he saw something else. The officers first shot hit Smiths arm, and the gun Smith was carrying went over a fence, according to the criminal complaint. The officers second and fatal shot hit Smith in the chest while Smith was unarmed.

The officer said he fired a second time because he thought Smith was reaching for his waistband and possibly another weapon. But according to the criminal complaint: A review of the body camera footage shows that at no time after the shooting did Heaggan-Brown or any other officer search Smith for a second firearm. In fact, when Smith demonstrably reaches for his waistband after being shot the second time, Heaggan-Brown does not discharge his weapon, but moves Smiths hand away with his own hand.

That doesnt mean Heaggan-Brown is guilty of a crime. As Milwaukees police chief has noted, the officer had to think quickly under a lot of stress. The second shot came less than 2 seconds after the first, the video shows.

Ultimately, a jury may decide the officers fate. And if it does, it will be able to watch for itself  along with the public  what happened.

Thats about the strongest evidence possible. And cameras on police officers made it possible.
SPARTA  Deloris M. Tracy, 92, of Sparta died Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016, at Mulder Health Care Facility, West Salem. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday at St. Patricks Catholic Church, Sparta, with visitation from noon to time of Mass. Burial will be in Cataract Cemetery. Lanham-Schanhofer Funeral Home, Sparta, is assisting the family with funeral arrangements.
The organizers of a campaign to revitalize La Crosses North Side business district are reassuring supporters that the project is on track after severing ties with a community organizer who last week admitted redirecting funds for another project.

In a letter to members of the North La Crosse Business Association and city staff, NLBA President Nick Roush said Andrew Londre, founder of the local crowd-funding project known as SOUP, has stepped away from the planning effort for the neighborhood being rebranded as Uptowne as well as Urbanlocity, the design firm hired to spearhead the project.

Roush, who co-owns a Caledonia Street yoga studio and contributed $5,000 to the Uptowne project, said he has reviewed Urbanlocitys accounting, which was handled by the firms president and founder Adrian Lipscombe.

Keep the faith. Good things are coming and we are working hard to make them happen, Roush said Wednesday. Lets not let an unfortunate incident from someone who was associated with the project spoil a really great effort.

Lipscombe said Wednesday she founded Urbanlocity before moving to La Crosse from Austin, Texas, and that as sole proprietor she had control over the funds raised for the Uptowne project.

She said Londre is no longer with the firm, where he had served as director of social architecture and strategy, and that she is focused on moving ahead.

My main concern is doing my project, making sure we are transparent as much as possible, Lipscombe said. How can we make this correct?

Along with his letter, Roush released a budget detailing how the $24,465 raised through a Kickstarter campaign has been spent. According to the document, Urbanlocity received just over $9,800 for organizing and running the three-day October summit and generating a report  expected to be released in the coming weeks  outlining the goals and strategies laid out by participants.

The budget shows nearly $3,650 is slated to be returned to the NLBA, which Roush said can be applied to carrying out some of the plans recommendations. The balance of about $11,000 went toward the event itself, Kickstarter fees and a fundraising video.

La Crosse Mayor Tim Kabat said Wednesday the city, which has pledged $5,000 in support, stands behind the project in light of Roushs letter.

I dont have any concerns, Kabat said.

In 2015, Londre used the online site Kickstarter to raise more than $11,000 for 10 civic improvement projects proposed by University of Wisconsin-La Crosse business students. Last week he informed donors that he had used $8,500 of that to help fund a local segment of an online reality show promoting young entrepreneurs, including himself.

Londre has since said he is working to refund donors who want their money back.

Until these funds are returned and this issue is resolved Im stepping away from everything, he said. Im basically putting everything on hold. I will decide for myself what I want to do when this is done.
CANNON BALL, N.D.  Despite the harsh winter, people opposed to the Dakota Access oil pipeline remain camped out on federal land along the Missouri River south of Bismarck.

Police have stopped manning a roadblock near the camp in what they said is an effort to de-escalate tensions.

But law enforcement authorities are still facing intense criticism, including a class-action lawsuit after a number of protesters were injured during confrontations.

For months, the Backwater Bridge has been the line of scrimmage between protesters and police. About three quarters of a mile north of the main protest camp, the small concrete span carries North Dakota Highway 1806 over a narrow creek. The highway is the shortest route to Bismarck, about 41 miles to the north, but it remains closed to all traffic.

Police have blocked the bridge with barbed wire and concrete barriers, and even though theyve ended their round-the-clock presence, theyre still threatening to arrest anyone who sets foot on it.

In late November, just before police left the bridge, they used a PA system to warn one protester.

Sir, please move to the south off of the bridge to the south side of the bridge, an officer said. The bridge is clearly marked that it is closed. Being there right now you are trespassing and subject to arrest.

Police did not arrest the man. He eventually ambled away. But the situation 10 days earlier, on Nov. 20, was much more tense.

With temperatures just below freezing, independent filmmaker Jake Westly Anderson of Utah had his camera rolling when police started dousing protesters with water from a fire hose mounted atop a vehicle. Several dozen people, many holding makeshift plywood and plastic shields, were about 15 feet from the roadblock when officers launched what appear to be tear gas canisters directly at them.

A number of protesters were hurt that night. In a class action lawsuit, nine self-described water protectors claim police projectiles caused injuries ranging from lacerations and bruising to broken knuckle bones.

Vanessa Dundon of Arizona, a member of the Navajo Nation and the lead plaintiff, said a tear gas canister struck her in the face, blinding her in the right eye.

I have a less than 5 percent chance of seeing some form of light from this eye, but Ill never see again, Dundon said. I dont know what I ever did to Morton County, because Ive been here a very long time, and Ive been on those front lines a very long time, and I have always been one to pull back my people from being agitators.

Sophia Wilansky, 21, whos not part of the class action, nearly lost her arm that night. She has undergone multiple surgeries to save it. At a news conference at Hennepin County Medical Center last month, Wayne Wilansky described his daughters injuries.

The force of the explosion blew the bone out of her arm, Wilansky said. And all of the arteries and all of the muscle that supports her arm. It just blew out. It wasnt caused by a fire or anything else. This was a grenade. This was a weapon of war.

Wilansky said police threw the grenade; authorities strongly dispute that.

There were explosive instruments being handled by people on that bridge that night, Laney said. Whether their intent was to throw them at us or whether their intent was to blow up that truck, I dont know. But I do know that they were handling explosive devices and they handled it wrong and something happened.

Many protesters contend law enforcement is over-militarized. But Laney said a small segment of the movement is looking for a fight, and officers must defend themselves with helmets, shields and bulletproof vehicles.

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said the ATF and North Dakotas Bureau of Criminal Investigation are looking into what caused Wilanskys injury.

Theres tear gas, theres pepper spray, Kirchmeier said. We dont have rubber bullets, theres sponge rounds, and then the beanbag rounds.

Kirchmeier said hes unaware of any use by police of non-lethal flash-bang or stun grenades.

Even though police and protesters who were at the Backwater Bridge Nov. 20 have widely divergent views about what happened, one outside observer whos experienced with street protests said law enforcement has been overly aggressive.

Norm Stamper was Seattle police chief in 1999, and he authorized the use of tear gas on demonstrators gathered there to protest World Trade Organization meetings. Stamper said he regrets that decision, and contends a combative response to peaceful protesting can escalate violence.

Had we not used tear gas against passive resisting protesters, the vandalism, the violence that did in fact erupt might well have been avoided, Stamper said.

Police in North Dakota say theyve shown restraint even in the face of violence. Theyre quick to point out that one protester, Red Fawn Fallis, 37, of Denver, is facing a federal firearms charge after a handgun she was allegedly carrying discharged as police arrested her during another incident at the Backwater Bridge in October.

Fallis, whos one of more than 570 people arrested since August, is being held in the Stutsman County Jail. The federal public defenders office said Fallis could face trial as soon as February.
WASHINGTON (TNS)  Republicans in Congress plan to deploy a powerful tool soon after Donald Trump is inaugurated to scuttle a host of rules put in place in the last months of Barack Obamas presidency, yet they must act quickly for the tactic to work.

A number of rules will be targeted using the Congressional Review Act, a law passed 20 years ago after Republicans took House control for the first time in four decades that provides an expedited procedure for canceling rules issued in the final months of an administration. Its been used successfully only once, and top GOP lawmakers say they have about four months to act.

The regulations facing repeal includes a measure unveiled Monday by the Obama administration to protect streams and groundwater from pollution caused by coal mining. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said hours later hell introduce a resolution next month to overturn a rule he called a regulatory assault on the coal industry in his home state of Kentucky.

Other targets include rules enacted this year that would blacklist federal contractors with labor-law violations, make it harder for companies to avoid paying some taxes, and boost energy-efficiency standards to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.

During just the first six years of the administration, federal regulators added an average of 81 new major regulations per year, or nearly 500 in total, said Mike Long, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California. We need to unshackle job creators from this mess of over-regulation.

Congress has until early May to act, according to Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, who leads the Senate Republican Policy Committee. This month, he released a list of almost a dozen rules that Senate Republican leaders see as top targets.

The House is likely to make a rules rollback a top priority next month, although theres no agreement yet on the details and whether each rule will need its own vote on disapproval, Long said. The Senate isnt ready to announce a plan, said Don Stewart, spokesman for McConnell.

A fast-track provision limits Senate debate on disapproval resolutions to 10 hours, and members could agree to a shorter debate period. Still, Randy Johnson, a senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said a lack of time in the Senate may be the biggest challenge.

The Senate will be rushing to confirm Trumps Cabinet, begin rolling back the Affordable Care Act and voting on other legislative priorities. Leaders also may determine they have to pass a separate resolution of disapproval for each rule, Johnson said.

The Congressional Research Service said it views the law as requiring each rule to be voted on separately, though the House and Senate parliamentarians would be the final arbiter on such questions. Combining multiple rules into a single vote in a bid to save time could also have a downside, since that would risk sinking the effort if a few of the 52 Republican senators dont agree on the entire package.

The review act requires agencies to submit major rules to Congress, and lawmakers have up to 60 congressional working days to overturn them. A reset period at the beginning of a two-year session, combined with a new president, can let lawmakers torpedo the previous presidents most recent rules.

Republicans also are urging Trump to make a much broader effort to scrap or rethink a long list of regulations. Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus sent a wish list of more than 200 federal rules for Trumps consideration, governing matters as diverse as ending the U.S. Export-Import Bank and axing new ceiling-fan energy-efficiency standards.

When the American people spoke on Nov. 8, they provided conservatives with an opportunity to restore order in our government and to remove the out-of-control bureaucratic red tape that so often stunts the growth of otherwise successful Americans, said Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, who leads the conservative Freedom Caucus.

The Congressional Review Act has been used successfully once, when Congress ditched a workplace ergonomics safety rule in 2001. It was issued under Democratic President Bill Clinton in November 2000 and dispatched months later under Republican President George W. Bush and a new Republican Congress. Congress passed five other resolutions to disapprove rules, and all were vetoed by Obama.

Unified control

Republicans unified control of the White House and Congress in 2017 means that not only can Republicans count on Trump to sign disapproval resolutions he receives, but it takes only a simple majority in the House and Senate to pass them.

Democrats warned that Republican moderates would be taking political risks by voting to dismantle environmental and consumer protections.

Theyd be voting to let Wall Street run wild, to allow companies to evade their taxes, and to make the environment less safe, said Matt House, spokesman for incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. Republicans have the votes to erode these protections, and theyll be the ones to bear the blame if they succeed.

Federal contractors

Barrassos target list of rules to be rescinded includes one issued in August that requires federal contractors to report violations of up to 14 labor laws to the federal government, and risk losing out on further government work if theyre out of compliance. In October, a federal judge in Texas temporarily halted it hours before it was to take effect.

Others include energy-efficiency rules governing dehumidifiers, battery chargers and ceiling fans that are part of Obamas climate-change strategy, and a Treasury Department rule designed to stop U.S. companies from shifting income overseas to curb their tax liability.

Republicans are thinking ahead to other regulations Obama might still try to complete before he leaves office, including a pending rule barring states from blocking funds to Planned Parenthood.

In the House, Republican leaders have a more expansive list of almost 50 rules that the Congressional Research Service says were issued by the Obama administration since a point in the summer when the review acts clock would start. It includes Interior Department rules governing oil drilling on the Arctic outer continental shelf; new employee sick-leave requirements for federal contractors; and a crackdown on Wall Street banks ability to evade Dodd-Frank Act restrictions by moving some swaps trades overseas.

Chamber of Commerce

Johnson, of the Chamber of Commerce, said the review act bars agencies from reviving any regulation overturned by Congress without a law permitting it to do so. For business, he said, that would be particularly helpful in the case of the contractor blacklisting rule, a perennial goal of organized labor.

Meanwhile, the clock already may have run down on one of Republicans top targets, a new overtime rule geared toward steering extra pay to as many as 4 million U.S. workers. While the House cast its last votes of the year on Dec. 8  within 60 legislative days of when that Labor Department rule was published  other House pro forma session days this month have pushed it beyond the deadline.

One House Democratic aide who requested anonymity said the House parliamentarian has ruled that the overtime rule now falls outside the review acts 60-day window.

The Congressional Research Service said it views the law as requiring each rule to be voted on separately, though the House and Senate parliamentarians would be the final arbiter on such questions. Combining multiple rules into a single vote in a bid to save time could also have a downside, since that would risk sinking the effort if a few of the 52 Republican senators dont agree on the entire package.
Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday his 2017-19 budget will increase spending authority for public schools, include a $10 million back-to-school sales tax holiday and hike park fees for the second budget in a row.

In a year-end interview with the Wisconsin State Journal at the Governors Mansion, Walker ruled out toll roads as an option in the upcoming budget to address a shortfall in the states transportation budget, though he didnt close the door on that option for future budgets if Congress acts to allow tolls in the state. He said borrowing for roads will not exceed the $500 million included in the Transportation Departments budget request. He has previously said he doesnt support increasing the gas tax and other fees to pay for roads.

Walker also said he wont cut funding to the University of Wisconsin System in his next budget, but he may try to reduce tuition. And he rejected a Republican lawmakers suggestion that the state withhold funding from UW-Madison if it doesnt drop a course on race relations called The Problem of Whiteness.

I could certainly as a citizen or as a father who pays part of my kids tuition roll my eyes and raise concerns about some of the classes, Walker said. But our focus in the budget should be on overall performance and not individual classes.

In the wide-ranging interview, Walker also maintained that he would not announce his decision about running for a third gubernatorial term until after the budget is finished. He ruled out any possibility of running for president in 2020 if he is re-elected and President-elect Donald Trump chose not to run for a second term.

Trump addressed Walker during his recent victory tour speech in Wisconsin and said its going to be your turn very soon, before adding you and (Vice President-elect Mike) Pence are going to have to fight it out. Walker said he has heard nothing to suggest that Trump wont run for a second term in 2020.

I just chuckle because that came out of thin air, Walker said. I fully anticipate hes running.

Plan due in February

Walkers 2017-19 budget proposal is due out in February. Walkers task in presenting a balanced budget as required by state law wont be as challenging as two years ago when he proposed a $300 million cut to the UW System. Part of the reason for that is projections of continued tax collection growth and less growth in Medicaid costs, both due to the economic recovery.

The Legislature will take the proposal, make changes and send it back to Walker for approval for a late June deadline.

Walker said increasing funding for K-12 education is his top priority in the budget.

He said he will increase the state-imposed limits on school district spending and then provide enough additional state aid to cover those increases, in order to keep property taxes lower than they were in 2010. He didnt specify how much the increase would be, but said it would be lower than the $200 per pupil requested by the Department of Public Instruction.

Walker told the Associated Press public schools would see a sizable increase in state aid, and that he is specifically targeting rural schools for more money.

He also said he isnt interested in a proposal to randomly drug test high school students in extracurricular activities, a legislative idea the State Journal reported this month is under consideration.

Walker told the State Journal he has not made a decision yet on whether to lift the 1 percent cap on the number of students in a school district that can participate in the statewide voucher program in which taxpayers fund the tuition for students at private schools.

The sales tax holiday would establish a period of time in late summer during which sales taxes on certain goods would be lifted.

College costs an issue

Walker said one of the concerns he heard most during invite-only private meetings with business leaders, citizens and local elected officials around the state this year involved the cost of college.

The UW System has asked for a $42 million increase in funding, which Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said he would like to fund as much as possible. Walker also said he would like to increase funding, and while he didnt set an amount, he said he would like to tie it to performance measures, similar to what was done with the Wisconsin Technical College System in the previous budget.

Those measures could include, he said, how many students enroll and graduate, how long it takes them to get a degree, and the kinds of jobs they get.

Walker said he is eyeing a modest increase in state park fees in the $5 to $10 range. The Department of Natural Resources recently provided the Legislatures budget committee a list of possible revenue increases to address a deficit in the parks budget after Walker cut tax support for parks in the most recent state budget.

Walker said even a $5 to $10 increase would still be one of the best bargains in the country. He also distinguished the fee increase from his reluctance to increase the gas tax.

When I was county executive, some of the parks fees went up for boat slips and things like that because those are direct user fees and you dont have to use them, unlike a tax where you have no choice, Walker said.

Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling said in response to Walkers proposals that Democrats plan to focus on lowering student loan debt, making child care more affordable and strengthening retirement security in the next budget.

Rather than shifting more costs onto working families while expanding tax breaks for the wealthy, we should be working to grow the middle class and jump-start local job growth, she said.

Youth prison mistakes

Walker also told the Associated Press mistakes were made at the troubled Lincoln Hills juvenile prison, which remains under federal investigation. He said he doesnt know whether any charges should be filed.

He said significant action has been taken to improve the Department of Corrections since Jon Litscher took over as secretary in February. He also defended having never toured Lincoln Hills, saying he hasnt been to any of the prisons as governor.

You dont see anything on a visit anything different than what youre going to hear about, he said.

He told the State Journal that he will not be proposing to close the facility in his budget and any decision to do so would have to be a long-term discussion. He said he doesnt support the state funding a juvenile facility with 36 beds proposed for Milwaukee County unless its big enough to accommodate all of the countys juvenile offenders.

I think to make it work it has to be all or nothing, he said.

Walker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday that he is considering a Republican lawmakers proposal to divide the DNR into two separate agencies, one dealing with environmental regulation and the other with recreation.

George Meyer, director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and a former DNR secretary, said splitting the agency would weaken it, create unneeded bureaucracy and cost taxpayers more money.

Two departments would mean double the number of top executives pulling in $100,000 a year or more while making it much harder for fisheries experts in one agency to work closely with water pollution regulators in the other, Meyer said.

Former DNR Secretary Scott Hassett said keeping both functions under one department has historically protected DNR from cuts because such proposals typically face opposition from both liberal conservationists and conservative hunters.

State Journal reporter Steven Verburg and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

I could certainly as a citizen or as a father who pays part of my kids tuition roll my eyes and raise concerns about some of the classes. But our focus in the budget should be on overall performance and not individual classes. Gov. Scott Walker on UW-Madison
One of my favorite parts of my job is visiting western and central Wisconsin communities to talk directly with residents, small business owners, and local officials about their concerns. This past week I had the pleasure of spending the day in Viroqua.

I started my day with a small business stop at Cowboy Davids Cookies and Cakes to sample some of their delicious products and talk with Cowboy Joe and Nora Roughen-Schmidt of the Viroqua Chamber about the holiday pop-up shops. Cowboy Davids Cakes and Cookies is one of the Viroqua Chambers four pop-up shops open for two months ahead of the holidays. We had a good conversation about some of the work we are doing to make it easier for small businesses to grow and create jobs.

Following that I went down the street to tour the new McIntosh Memorial Library and recently remodeled Western Technical College. Thanks to Trina Erickson, library director, for showing us around. I was very impressed by the building and all the new resources it has made available to residents and students.

The last stop of the day was Vernon Memorial Healthcare. With a lot of uncertainty right now about what is going to happen with Affordable Care Act it is important that our hospitals are still able to provide people with access to quality affordable health care. This will be an ongoing issue that I will be focused on in the coming year.

It was a great day in Viroqua and I look forward to coming back soon. In the meantime if you have any questions, concerns, or ideas you would like to share reach out to my office at 1-888-442-8040 or visit kind.house.gov.
Heres the fact: Reindeer cant fly.

And before you helicoptering mommies and daddies get your overprotective undies in a bunch, any kid precocious enough to be reading the newspaper is precocious enough to apprehend that simple fact without undue emotional distress  and ought not be believing in Santa in the first place.

Its not good for people to believe in things that just arent so. Its even worse when entire countries fall into the habit.

Welcome to our new fantasy-based reality where facts are always optional and as long as your pumpkin patch is sufficiently sincere, what you believe is what you get.

Which I believe is going to get us into deep, deep do-do. Just remember, what those folks believed they really, really believed, but it was too late for Heavens Gate when they learned there was no space ship waiting for them behind comet Hale-Bopp.

Over the years, the more rational among us have learned that facts have a nasty habit of asserting themselves whether we want them to or not.

Take gravity, for example  as George Carlin summed it up, not just a good idea, but the law... And for generations of clever, wing-wearing boys climbed atop the barn roof  and when they fought the law, the law won.

It happens all the time. Some folks learn from it. Some folks dont. The brighter bulbs learn early on to consider the source before betting life and fortune on the latest oddball notion to come their way.

And what may have been best source yesterday may not hold that status tomorrow. When Bishop James Ussher sat down to figure out how old the earth was, the best source he had was an oft-translated collection of Bronze Age manuscripts. Its not to disparage Holy Scripture to observe that the state of paleontology in the 16th century wasnt quite what it is today, and had the good bishop contemporary information available to him, he may well have concluded that the earth predated Oct. 23, 4004 B.C.

Or maybe not.

They just opened the replica Noahs ark in Williamstown, Kentucky. Where they came up with all the gopherwood is anybodys guess  neither Menards nor Home Depot stocks it. Anyway, those folks insist that the Flintstone lifestyle is historically accurate, right down to the bronto burgers and house breaking Dino. And folks believe it  believe it to the tune of $40 a pop.

Id remind folks that we live in a time when men have visited the moon ... but somebody would just point out that was all done in a Hollywood studio and all the tens of thousands of Project Apollo employees and contractors have kept mum about it for the past 50 years.

Besides, we all know the moon consists of green cheese  an over-ripe Camembert to be precise.

Believe the one, you may as well go for the other.

And you wont believe it if I tell you Al Qaeda was behind 9/11  not the CIA.

Or that the only thing in Area 51 are a bunch of tourist traps for gullible suckers.

Or that vaccines prevent disease, not cause it.

Or the Masons dont really rule the world.

That there are no witches.

Really.

Thats what the facts say. But who listens to facts anymore?
Matthieu Finot knows a lot about wine. He sees it as a combination of science and art. From watching the weather and checking the soil, to testing grapes for sugar levels and acidity and then deciding when to harvest, Finot says nature and winemaker must work together.

So what I do is I change grapes into wine. So, that's the easy part of it. But my job is a blend of farming, of science and arts because we need Mother Nature to ripen the grapes and to make grapes good to make good wine. So, that's the natural part.

"I need science to understand all the fermentation part and the aging part and everything that happens to the wine, and I need the artistic part that is what makes each wine maker unique and what makes brings the human factors into producing wine. And that is the reason why wine is being considered, very often, as, you know, is a kind of art. And there's a sense of artistic feeling to winemaking that I really appreciate.

Finot comes from a family of viticulturists and wine lovers. It was a natural for him to follow that path. He began his study early on his grandparents farm.

I was very proud of my roots of being a farmer and that's what I wanted to be. So, coming from northern Rhone area in France in Crozes-Hermitage, and the family farm was apricots, cherries, pear and vines. That's my roots. I mean we had like goats, we had a lot of things like that in my grandmother's house. But like, you know, when I came in a bit later in age, when after high school when I had to decide what I wanted to do for a living, I was passionate about wine and that's my father's side, too. My father loves wine, and when I was a kid my father make me try good wine and I really loved that.

Finot knew studying winemaking would be a good link between his love of wine, his love of dirt and his roots in farming.

So, I've study viticulture and oenology and I went to Beaune in Burgundy to study that. Its a school in Beaune that give you training and practice about how to take care of a vineyard and how to make wine out of it.

After graduating in 1995, Finot worked in many different wine regions around France to learn all he could about wine.

"I've traveled a lot in France to go get into plenty of different wine regions. So, I've been in the Burgundy area, I've been in the Rhone area, been in Jura, I've been in Provence. I've been in Bordeaux area. So, I've been traveling a lot in France to learn different techniques of winemaking. And, for me, traveling was a part of learning, not only learning about winemaking, but you also learn a lot about yourself and that's the best part of traveling. And you learn that not everybody thinks the way you do and you learn to listen to people, and it's not all about you. And that's a very good thing that I've learned.

Matthieu Finot has also worked in Italy and South Africa to learn about winemaking and to gain international experience. In 2003, he came to the United States and he settled in Virginia.

"I wanted to go to New Zealand. But before going to New Zealand, I wanted to come to the United States. And, that was in 2003. I was planning to stay here for six months and then go to the southern hemisphere and go to New Zealand. It happened that I'm still here 13 years after. So, I guess I've been stuck here for some reason. When I first arrived here, I didn't know where was Virginia on the map, to be honest. I'd never been to United States before. That was my first time here. I had to look where was Charlottesville on the map, too. Never heard of it. I really had no expectation. It turned out to be that I'm loving it here and it's a great place to live.

Matthieu works at King Family Vineyards. He says winemaking is new to the state of Virginia.

So here in Virginia and at King Family Vineyards, Virginia is a fairly new wine region. So, we are still working a lot about experimenting, to try to see what fits the best (in) our climate. We are a hot and humid climate. And so it's not the most ideal weather to ripen grapes. Grapes like usually more dry, dry weather so we are still experimenting with what does well for us here. But at King Family Vineyards and in central Virginia we do like to work with white wine, we do like to work with viognier. We do like to work with chardonnay. I think that works very well for us here. And when it comes to red, most of the grapes that grows in Bordeaux, grow very well here also. So, that's what we do at King Family vineyards.

Matthieu Finot says one does not have to know a lot about wine to understand or enjoy it.

If you go to an art show, you don't need to have a lot of knowledge to say if you like this painting or if you like this one. And you might have one that you're not going to like at all because, like all, I found that completely ugly. But, at the same time, some people would say like, oh no that's wonderful. That's a nice piece of art. With wine, it is the same. It's not because your neighbor is going to like this specific wine that you have to like it. I think people think they need to learn a lot about the wine to see if they like it or not. What really matters, on a tasting, is what do you like.

Making wine is a process. Finot says the process for making red and white wine is different for each one.

There's basic rules. I say that on a white wine, the basic rule is you're going to press the grapes, get some juice, and then ferment the juice in liquid form. And, that you're going to change grape juice into wine white.

"The reds you want to get some tannin and the color. And tannin and color are in the skin, not in the pulp, in the skin. So, you need the skin. So, what we do for the reds, we ferment the red with the whole berries. So, this fermentation process take two or three weeks, and sometimes even more, to get the color and the tannins out of the berries. So, it's two different process(es).

"If you ask me what tannin means, tannin is what's good for your heart, and that's the reason why people saying, like, drinking wine is healthy; that's mainly the tannins that are very strong antioxidant. And what tannin is, if you don't drink wine, if you don't drink wine I hope you drink tea, and if you drink tea and if you let your tea being infused for too long, the drying sensation that you've got out of the tea leaves are tannins."

Matthieu Finot says there is something important for all drinkers to remember about wine: it is meant to be enjoyed.

Wine is just a way to have a good time. If you lose this idea of having a good time while youre drinking wine, then what's the purpose of wine? I mean if it's not your job, like mine.

"(The) purpose of wine is just to make you happy. So, at the end it's not something serious. I mean we can take it seriously, and I make a living out of it. So, in some way, it's serious for me, but wine it's not something serious. It's just a way to enjoy life. And I think people should just drink what they like. At the end of the day you should be happy with having a glass of wine. If you force yourself to drink a glass of wine and you don't like it, don't drink it. Drink something else."

Im Marsha James.

Marsha James wrote this story for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

Next time on People in America, meet Neftalie Williams, educator and chairman of Cuba Skate.

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Words in This Story

blend - n. something produced by mixing or combining different things

ripen - v. to become ripe (fully grown and developed) and ready to be eaten

fermentation  n. the process of going through a chemical change that results in the production of alcohol

unique - adj. very special or unusual

viticulturists  n. people who study grapes and the growing of grapes

passionate - adj. having or showing strong emotions or beliefs

oenology n.  the study of wines

practice - n. the activity of doing something again in order to become better at it

humid - adj. having a lot of moisture in the air

ideal - adj. exactly right for a particular purpose or situation

ugly - adj. not pretty or attractive

tannin n. a reddish acid that comes from plants, is used in making ink and leather, and occurs in various foods and drinks (such as wine)

pulp  n. the inner juicy part of a fruit or vegetable

antioxidant - n. a substance that is added to food and other products to prevent harmful chemical reactions in which oxygen is combined with other substances

infuse  v. to allow something (such as tea or herbs) to stay in a liquid (such as hot water) in order to flavor the liquid
The United States has lost millions of manufacturing jobs in recent years.

Some American businesses have turned to robots or other machines to do manufacturing work once performed by humans. Trade agreements are believed to be another reason for the job loss.

Most of these positions no longer exist. That leaves many Americans unemployed or in jobs with low pay and little chance for better wages.

At the same time, some companies say they have good-paying jobs but cannot find workers with the skills needed to perform them.

Many companies in other countries have apprenticeship programs to train workers, but most American companies do not. Apprenticeships often combine classroom training with practical work experience. Over a few years, a worker slowly gains the skills needed to perform complex jobs.

But a large American company is using apprenticeships to develop a high-tech workforce. That company is Newport News Shipbuilding in the eastern state of Virginia.

Jordan Lacy is in the first year of his apprenticeship at Newport News Shipbuilding. He is joining parts of a nuclear-powered attack submarine.

It starts as a pile of pieces. When it leaves, it is a finished unit.

Lacy has also helped build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Newport News Shipbuilding has been training apprentices for almost 100 years in the many skills needed to build modern warships.

"How about a machinist, what does a machinist do?

Lacy is also learning other skills in class. He works in the companys shipyard a few days a week, then attends classes. He wants to learn how to design ships, not just assemble them.

The Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding has more than 700 students. They are all receiving wages from the company. In other words, they are being paid to learn.

Everett Jordan started as an apprentice. He is now the schools director of education.

I think its an education with a purpose, really.

Jordan says combining classroom education and work-related training creates the workers the company needs.

That graduate has been down in the tanks, the bowels of these ships, they know these complex plates and assemblies, they know what it takes to be a test electrician, theyve done it and they take that experience with them the rest of their career.

Edward Alden has written a book called Failure to Adjust. It tells about problems in the American workforce. He says apprenticeships are more common in Germany, Denmark and other countries than the United States.

Apprenticeships are essentially an investment by companies in their future, and in the future of their communities. And we saw over the decade of the 2000s a 40 percent decline in apprenticeships being offered by private companies.

Everett Jordan says apprenticeships could help many Americans who once worked in manufacturing positions. His school offers 19 basic programs and many advanced classes for workers who show strong skills and ability.

Elise Feldt is one of his students.

I love what I do and I think the best part about it is the problem solving and having to learn and understand so much of what Im getting into.

The shipyard has about 20,000 workers. Three-thousand of them attended the apprentice school.

Im Marsha James.

VOA Correspondent Jim Randle reported this story from Newport News, Virginia. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted the story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

practical  adj. real, as opposed to theoretical or something taught in a classroom; relating to what can or should be done in an actual situation

pile  n. a group of things that are put one on top of another or in one area

unit  n. a set of similar pieces of something that are attached or joined

assemble  v. to connect or put together the parts of something, such as a machine

bowels  n. the deep inner areas of a place

adjust  v. to change in order to work or do better in a new situation
China suffered its worst air pollution of the year recently.

More than 70 Chinese cities released warnings to citizens in the last few days about pollution reaching dangerous levels.

The poor air quality led the government to order factories, some power plants and schools to close. But there were reports that some local officials were not obeying the orders.

In one city in northern Hebei province, people wrote on social media that schools were kept open although the area had the highest pollution threat. Media reports in the central province of Henan also showed pictures of students completing school activities in the dirty open air.

State-run news agency Xinhua reported that an official in Henan province said factory production was continuing. The official said up to 4,000 factories had not stopped or limited production as ordered by the government. Records of power use at the factories showed little change in the amount of production.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a statement Monday that only a small number of businesses had not taken the bans seriously and continued operations.

Driving restrictions were also put in effect and hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled in Beijing because of poor visibility.

The ministry said more than 100,000 drivers in Beijing had been fined for violating the traffic bans.

The World Health Organization measures air quality by the amount of small, particles in it, known as PM2.5. Small particles of this size are easily breathed in and can damage the lungs.

The WHO identifies a safe level of air quality as containing 10-25 micrograms per cubic meter of PM2.5. Beijing reached dangerous levels of more than 400 micrograms per cubic meter this week.

Weather officials were predicting that nighttime winds could finally push out much of the pollution from Beijing and other cities by Thursday.



Ma Yongliang is a professor with Tsinghua Universitys school of environment. He said temporary government restrictions will not solve the nations pollution problems over a long period of time.

In the long run, the pollution problem can only be eased by adjusting the countrys industrial structure, or accelerating the upgrading of [polluting] industries, so as to cut down the emission sources of pollutants, Ma said.

The professor praised the governments efforts to reduce carbon-dioxide after an action plan was started in 2013.

But the increased use of coal in winter for heating homes is still a big problem. Reducing these emissions will remain difficult for Chinas government as it attempts to find cleaner energy alternatives.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Joyce Huang reported this story for VOANews.com. Bryan Lynn adapted it for Learning English, with additional material from the Associated Press and Reuters. Mario Ritter was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

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Words in This Story

visibility  n. how far or well you can see

lung  n. an organ used by people to breathe air

accelerate  v. speed up

emission  n. the sending of gas, heat, light, etc. into the air

alternative  n. another option chosen instead of something else
The Republican Party now holds more power in the United States than at any time since the 1920s.

Since 2000, the Republicans have sharply increased the number of legislatures and governorships they control. That is part of a movement that began in 1938.

Since then, the number of Republican state lawmakers has increased more than 64 percent. The partys influence at the state and national level has continued to rise since President Barack Obama took office in 2009.

Because of the 2016 elections, Republicans will control Kentuckys House of Representatives, and the Iowa and Minnesota Senates beginning in January. In addition, the top Democrat in the Kentucky House, Greg Stumbo, and the top Democrat in the Iowa Senate, Mike Gronstal, were both defeated for reelection. Gronstal is also the president of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

The Democratic Party had controlled Kentuckys House for 94 years. It was the last legislative chamber under the Democrats control in the South. In January, there will be 64 Republicans in the 100-seat Kentucky House.

The NCSL reports that Republicans will soon control both chambers of the legislature in 32 states -- the most in the partys history. Democrats will control both chambers in 15 states. Control will be split in three states.

Before the election, Republicans controlled both parts of the legislature in 30 states. Democrats controlled both in 12 states, while control was split in seven states.

One state, Nebraska, has a unicameral legislature -- in other words it has just one chamber, not a house and senate.

NCSL researcher Tim Storey told dailysignal.com that Republicans have taken full advantage of their (power) in the states -- including implementing tax cuts in a number of places, imposing stricter limits on abortion and voting rights, and combating controversial issues like gun control.

While Democrats attempted to keep control of the presidency, Republicans worked at the state and local levels. That work has helped the party take control of a large majority of state offices.

The Washington Post newspaper said that with this election, (Republicans) cemented their dominance. The paper added that about 80 percent of Americans now live in a state either totally or partially controlled by Republicans.

Amy Walter is the national editor of the Cook Political Report. She said that because of the recent elections, Democrats are going to be hurting for a long time.

This month, Democrats got even more bad news. In the state of Louisiana, the Republican state treasurer, John Kennedy, won election to the U.S. Senate. President-elect Donald Trump campaigned for Kennedy. A large majority of voters in Louisiana supported Trump in the November election.

Kennedy strongly opposes the health care program known as Obamacare. He supports the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which gives Americans the right to own guns. And he opposes abortion, the medical operation in which a womans pregnancy is ended.

In January, Republicans will hold 52 seats in the U.S. Senate. Democrats will control 46. There are two independent senators. They usually vote with the Democrats.

Im Christopher Jones-Cruise.

VOAs Christopher Jones-Cruise reported this story and wrote it in VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.

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Words in This Story

chamber  n. a usually large room where members of a government group (such as a legislature) have meetings

implement  v. to begin to do or use (something, such as a plan); to make (something) active or effective

impose  v. to cause (something, such as a tax, fine, rule or punishment) to affect someone or something by using your authority

controversial  adj. relating to or causing much discussion, disagreement or argument

cement  v. to make (something) stronger
Some of the most successful technology business owners in Silicon Valley are immigrants. Silicon Valley is an area of northern California that is home to major technology companies like Apple, Google and Facebook.

For some immigrants, just living in the United States is the goal. But others have bigger dreams, like Qasar Younis.

Younis is the chief operating officer of Y Combinator. Y Combinator is an investment company. It gives money to new technology businesses in return for part ownership.

If the company is sold or offers its shares for sale to the public, Y Combinator can make a lot of money.

Younis is from the Punjab area of Pakistan. He says he was just a normal child. But, he says he believed from an early age that he could be successful in the U.S.

Another Pakistani immigrant, Dilawar Syed, owns the software company Freshdesk. It provides customer support services.

Syed said the people who live in Silicon Valley create big opportunities for themselves and each other.

The idea of making an impossible, possible is the way we operate.

And, he thinks Silicon Valley is unlike any other place.

"I think the valley is unique. In that ecosystem, there is an interesting mix of enabling factors that allow people to develop themselves, to push themselves, to take risks, fail often and then succeed quite often in a spectacular fashion.

Many entrepreneurs around the world dream of coming to California and starting a business. But how do they do it?

There are organizations that can help.

Mohammad Ibrahims Leaders is one such group. It invites leaders of start-ups from the Palestinian territories to attend a one-month program in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley experts provide training and advice to the visitors.

They learn how to market and grow their businesses. They find ways to increase sales. And Ibrahim says Leaders can connect the start-ups that need money with investors.

Google has a similar program called Launchpad Accelerator. It offers problem-solving for people who started businesses in parts of Latin America and Asia. Those who come to the program spend two weeks at Googles headquarters and then get access to Google experts for six months.

Another way people get their start is through internships. Internships are mostly unpaid training positions at companies. Interns can gain valuable connections as well.

The tech company Mozilla, known for their web browser, offers three-month paid internships. Some Silicon Valley interns earn as much as $5,000 per month.

Nichole Gibson finds interns for Mozilla.

So here at Mozilla we are looking for the best and the brightest, but we also focus on diversity and inclusion. So, we have a wide range of interns that we actually hire. Since we are an international company, we can hire interns from all over the world, which is great. We hire into non- technical and technical roles so we have a wide range of positions that they can apply for.

Im Dan Friedell.

Dan Friedell adapted this story for Learning English based on reporting by VOAs Vina Mubtadi and Saqib Islam. Caty Weaver was the editor.

Will you come to Silicon Valley to start a business one day? We want to know. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

start-up  n. a new business

opportunity  n. a chance to do something or act

spectacular  adj. causing wonder and admiration; very impressive

unique adj. used to say that something or someone is unlike anything or anyone else

accelerator  n. an organization that helps a business improve

entrepreneur  n. a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money

diversity  n. the state of having people who are different races or who have different cultures in a group or organization

inclusion  n. the act of making something or someone part of a group
Some refugee aid organizations in the United States are working to help people who fled Syria and will soon come to America.

The groups are working hard because they believe that president-elect Donald Trump may stop Syrian refugees from entering the United States when he takes office.

During the presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump criticized American government policies that let Syrian refugees enter the United States.

The small city of Rutland, in the northeastern state of Vermont, will be one of the first American cities to receive Syrian refugees in 2017.

About 16,000 people live in Rutland. VOA recently visited a refugee aid group in the city.

So these just arrived...

In a room at a church, Marsha Cassel is opening a box full of homemade hats. The people who made and sent the hats also sent a card.

We have knitted these hats with love and hope they help your heads and hearts feel warm

Marshas organization is called Rutland Welcomes. Volunteers have donated household goods, furniture and clothing to help the Syrian families who are to arrive early next year.

We have some really active volunteers -- about 200 volunteers -- who are willing to step up to provide transportation, to set up houses, to collect household goods and furniture, to do tutoring

Italian, Greek, and Polish immigrants built Rutland. More than one hundred years ago, there were many factories in the city. But today, its economy is poor and businesses cannot find the workers they need.

Mayor Christopher Louras showed VOA a very old photograph of factory workers in the city.

Look around them. There is a lot of short, undersized guys with dark skin working in that factory.

In memory of the immigrants who built Rutland, Louras created a plan to bring 100 Syrian refugees to the city each year for the next several years.

We saw refugee resettlement as an opportunity not only to do the right thing, the compassionate humanitarian thing, but also from a very self-serving perspective as a community, provide population growth to fill our jobs.

But not everyone agrees with the mayors plan. City Treasurer Wendy Wilton says the city does not have enough money to support 100 refugees a year.

When I add refugee resettlement and its impact on education and community development and planning, it looked to me like it would be a 35 percent tax increase for Rutland city residents. Thats a lot of money.

Mayor Louras says Wiltons estimate is not correct.

The numbers were frankly fabricated, not just on the municipal budget side, but also on the school side as well. And it is unfortunate that she chose to use such erroneous numbers.

Some city legislators are also unhappy with the mayors plan. Sharon Davis says the mayor never talked about his plan with city officials or the community.

I think that if the mayor had taken the opportunity to respect and support the folks he represents, we wouldnt be in this discussion at this time.

Although not everyone supports the plan, the first refugees are expected to arrive in Rutland in early January.

Im Jill Robbins.

VOA Correspondent Jeff Swicord reported this story from Rutland, Vermont. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted her report for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

knit  v. to make (a piece of clothing) from yarn or thread by using long needles or a special machine

step up  phrasal verb. to say openly or publicly that you are the person who can do something

tutor  v. to teach a single student; to teach someone as a tutor

compassionate  adj. feeling or showing concern for someone who is sick, hurt, poor, etc.; having or showing compassion

perspective  n. a way of thinking about and understanding something (such as a particular issue or life in general)

fabricate  v. to create or make up (something, such as a story) in order to trick people

municipal  adj. of or relating to the government of a city or town
Here's a look at each major dictionary's "word of the year," and what they all mean.
His more recent films have proven that Matthew McConaughey is more than a rom-com and action movie trope who wears too much tanning oil and al
An electrical short is suspected as the cause of a Tuesday afternoon fire.

Members of the Lexington Volunteer Fire Department were paged at about 1:22 p.m. with a report of a fire on W. River Rd.

Responders were on scene by 1:34 p.m. and found a singlewide trailer on fire with no one at home. It was later determined that someone left the residence shortly before calls of the fire came in.

Assistant fire chief Bo Berry said numerous reports of the fire were received by emergency dispatch, all from passers-by on I-80.

Berry said the fire was easily brought under control within the first five to seven minutes of being on scene. At that point, firefighters focused on hot spots and scene preservation to be able to determine the fires cause.

Berry said the fire was traced to an electrical short caused from a nail on the outside of the residence, used to secure siding. It was an old nail, but time finally caught up with it, said Berry.

He said 12 firefighters responded to the call and they were assisted by the Dawson County Sheriffs Office and the Nebraska State Patrol. Lexington Police Department and Dawson County Emergency management were also on the scene.

Firefighters left the scene at 2:45 p.m.

It is estimated there was $10,000 damage to the trailers contents and another $7,000 in property damage.
 III  2022         ,            8      ,    - 2,2  .
(Faith Spotted Eagle, by the way, is a Native American activist who opposes the Keystone pipeline. The others you probably recognize.) But that actually understates the level of dissent from the Electoral College yesterday because it doesnt count electors who resigned or were replaced before voting or whose votes were invalidated after the fact under state law.

One elector in Maine was ruled out of order after voting for Sanders, and he changed to Clinton on the second ballot. In Colorado, one tried to vote for Kasich and was replaced. In Minnesota, one tried to vote for Sanders and was replaced. In addition to the two Texas defectors shown above, one resigned before the vote rather than vote for Trump. (Three other Texans apparently had to be replaced because they learned at the last minute they were ineligible to be electors, but that report didnt say why.) So it seems more accurate to say there were 11 actual or attempted faithless electors, but officially there were seven.

There were also some defections (apparently also seven) in the vice-presidential vote. All the Washington defectors voted for someone different, meaning that Elizabeth Warren, Maria Cantwell, Susan Collins, and Winona LaDuke each got one VP vote. Warren also got one VP vote in Hawaii, and one Texas elector reportedly voted for Carly Fiorina instead of Mike Pence. Also, the guy in Minnesota voted for Tulsi Gabbard for VP, but that was invalidated.

These arent the highest numbers of defections ever, but theyre up there. In fact, the number of presidential defections is the highest ever for an election in which the candidate who ran for president wasnt dead when the electors voted. (In 1872, Horace Greeley died after losing the general election, and 63 of his electors jumped ship.) Thereve been two or three elections in which more electors picked a different vice-president, and in one of those the candidate had also died. So far, no defection has changed the outcome of an election, though, and this year was no exception.

Ultimately, the vast majority of electors seem to have concluded that they should follow the results of the popular vote in their respective states. Thats fine, and it seems like a good idea, actually; but as I wrote yesterday, to me it seems plain as day that they dont have to do that if they dont want to, and that state laws interfering with or limiting their choicesmuch less punishing them for voting the wrong wayare unconstitutional. The Colorado judge I mentioned yesterday didnt agree with this, or at least wouldnt grant a TRO, and I saw that the TRO ruling was affirmed by the Tenth Circuit. That court didnt rule out the constitutional challenge, though. Other lawsuits are also still pending, which might make a difference in future elections.

The Supreme Court has never ruled on this specific issue, though it has held a state can require its electors to sign a pledge in a primary election saying theyll support the partys nominee. (Weirdly, in doing that it reversed a decision by the states own supreme court that the requirement was unconstitutional.) This isnt quite the same thing as saying a state could actually punish an elector who broke such a pledge (other than maybe precluding him or her from serving again) but its pretty close. And again, to me it seems totally wrong. As Justice Jackson wrote in dissent in that case:

No one faithful to our history can deny that the plan originally contemplated, what is implicit in its text, that electors would be free agents, to exercise an independent and nonpartisan judgment. This arrangement miscarried. Electors, although often personally eminent, independent, and respectable, officially became voluntary party lackeys and intellectual nonentities. If custom were sufficient authority for amendment of the Constitution by Court decree, the decision in this matter would be warranted. But I do not think powers or discretions granted to federal officials by the Federal Constitution can be forfeited by the Court for disuse.

Right. We expect electors will generally follow the popular vote, and its been that way for a long time now, but that just isnt what the Constitution says or what it was meant to create. Seems like we should fix this situation, one way or another. It may not be our first constitutional priority over the next few years, of course, but still.
Daya, kuch to gadbad hai.

You might have heard this line a million times between 1998 and now but chances of hearing the signature line of one of the most popular television characters ACP Pradyuman (Shivaji Satam) from CID, one of Indias longest-running television thrillers, again are slim to none. If Internet rumors were to be believed, then the 26 December episode of the long-running series would show the ACP suffering from a heart attack. It is also believed that the character would succumb and bring the show to an end.

Read: CID's ACP Pradyuman suffers heart attack; actor Shivaji Satam becomes target of death hoax

Although a pilot episode was aired in 1997, CID officially debuted on 21 January 1998, and completed 18 years on air earlier this year. Created by BP Singh, who also writes the show on occasions, CIDs retinue of writers include Rajat Aroraa and Shriram Raghavan besides Christabelle D'souza, Virendra Shahney, Nitika Kanwar, Naila Chogle, and Prabal Baruah to name a few. The long-standing show has captured the fancy of millions of viewers and some of them have dedicatedly followed the show through its nearly two-decade-long run.

The committed fan following notwithstanding, CID aficionados also never let go of an opportunity to poke fun at the series. So, what is about CID that endeared itself to the viewers? How could it inspire a cult-like following even as it could easily pip even the rambunctious saas-bahu fare when it came to being tacky on television? To put it in the parlance of our times, it would suffice to say that CID had the feel.

To get an idea of why people got hooked on to CID one needs to know a bit about the people who initially might have caught on to the show. The show debuted in an era that was a kind of middle-ages for Indian television. This was a time before saas-bahu took over the imagination, before superstars such as Amitabh Bachchan or Salman Khan descended upon the smaller screen and much before the era of Netflix, torrents and such. But it was also a time when Doordarshan had lost the grip it had on the millions of viewers. For almost half a decade since the advent of satellite television in India in 1992 where Zee TV had for the first time offered a real alternative to the audiences, and yet a certain segment of the viewer did not have a go-to show. CID was a deviation from what was on television and in a way it was trying to replicate the popular police procedural and mystery shows of the early 1990s such as The X-Files or NYPD Blue in an Indian context.

Also read: Five characters on Indian TV who rose from the dead

CID clicked with the people who belonged to the generation that had first experienced the genre on Doordarshan with Karamchand and followed the adventures of a Byomkesh Bakshi (1993) and Sam DSilva in Tehkikaat (1994). The former created a new kind of television star, perhaps the first-ever authentic TV superstar in the form of Pankaj Kapur, and the latter resurrected a forgotten filmmaker, Vijay Anand, for a newer generation even though Goldie sahab was just acting as the super sleuth. Nestled in between, Byomkesh Bakshi that was directed by Basu Chatterjee had Rajit Kapur playing the character created by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay and still remains by far the best rendition of a private eye in Indian television. With the believable lead in the form of Shivaji Satam, and a supporting cast that included Aditya Srivastava as Senior Inspector Abhijeet and Dayanand Shetty as Senior Inspector Daya, CID was different from the others. It also had a revolving cast that included some familiar faces like Ashutosh Gowariker (who was yet to become a colossus with Lagaan) as Inspector Virendra, Ashwini Kalsekar as Inspector Asha, Tushar Dalvi as Inspector Jayant and later in the early 2000s even Rajeev Khandelwal featured briefly on the show as ACP Prithviraj.

The show might have been tacky but it followed the basic tenets of a whodunit and included classical elements of noir as well as things that were happening in the world. It is a show that began when most Indians did not own a cell-phone and by the time it ends (that is, if it does end) it has not only witnessed a transformation of the nation but also at times included some of the socio-political milestones into the narrative. The more popular the show became, the bigger the habit it became with many. The late night reruns of the show became a staple for those who wanted to indulge in some mindless television till their eyelids drooped. The police detective show somewhere also became a game with people who would try to guess what would happen next. Much like the works of writer Asrar Ahmad, better known as by his pen name Ibn-e-Safi, whose mystery novels were a rage between the1940s and 1980s, the characters, and one-liners used by them in CID also entered the everyday lexicon. CIDs popularity saw an increase in budget and like Ibn-e-Safis Ali Imran, the comical secret agent, CIDs super cops, too, traveled to exotic locations such as Uzbekistan, Paris, and Switzerland to solve a crime. At times, it also tied-up with big budget films where characters from the film came on as special guests like the time Taalashs (2012) Surjan Singh Sekhawat (Aamir Khan) crossed over and joined ACP Pradyuman on a case.

In a way the show also transformed into its own parody, a sign of the level of popularity it enjoyed. This often overshadows some of the interesting things that the shows creators did from a technical point of view that pushed the envelope. In 2004, the show set a record where the episode number 111 was filmed in a single shot that lasted 111 minutes, or 1 hour and 51 minutes, and was shot in real time and even telecast without a break.

CID has now become a cultural reference point and everyone who ever saw the show has his or her own memory of Team CID as does this writer. Someone I once knew, who at that point in time was working on CID, had gotten married and at the reception, the entire CID cast was invited. This was in early the 2000s and CID had just broken through. Being a television writer myself, I used to write episodes for a law series called Siddhanth; I had more than a fair idea of just how big CID had become. I reached early and was already nursing a drink at the bar when the Shivaji Satam and Dayanand Shetty walked in. They managed to make it to the bar and ordered a round. Satam as well as Shetty and others had come directly from the shoot and they seemed to still be in character. Satam and yours truly exchanged a glance. What do you do when ACP Pradyuman gives you the look? I nodded, raised my glass and Satam gave a wry smile. He turned to Daya and I swear he was about to go, Daya, kuch to gadbad hai.
It's a boy for Kareena and Saif, but the news doesn't end there. Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi is already a star, thanks to the controversy around his name.

What controversy, you ask?

Taimur's parents unwittingly created a bit of a buzz on naming him after Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur. Kareena Kapoor Khan's pregnancy was mired in enough buzz as it is, and with the announcement of the baby's name, social media went into a bit of an overdrive.

Here are some comments on a Firstpost report of the delivery:

Twitter wasn't too far behind (thank god for some logic, though):

Words Of #Taimur From His Book 'Tuzk-e-Taimuri', Describes How He Orderd The Massacre Of 1,00,000 Hindus In Delhi #TaimurAliKhan @TarekFatah pic.twitter.com/Ok8QpyFE2w  Dr Amit Pandey (@dr_amitpandey) December 21, 2016

Hatred, wishing death for a just born kid because they didn't like the Name #TaimurAliKhan given to new born by their parent. That's Sanghis pic.twitter.com/yQ5OTHrbFq  Joy (@Joydas) December 20, 2016

1000 apologies but when I saw #TaimurAliKhan trending I thought they found out the truck driver who ran over people in Germany.  Gabbbar (@GabbbarSingh) December 20, 2016

Saif Ali khan named his son #Taimur Ali Khan, such outdated name, should have gone for Osama..!!#TaimurAliKhan  Aagam Shah (@aagamgshah) December 20, 2016

If this stupid logic about #TaimurAliKhan works, then everyone will name their kids Sachin or Virat. But it never works..  Imagine Singh (@prabhateinstein) December 21, 2016

Nirbhaya Rape Prime accused was named "Ram" did he behaved like one? Then what make u idiots think that #TaimurAliKhan will be a warmonger?  Abbas Haider (@abbas_haiderr) December 20, 2016

The most obvious response to this brouhaha is that social media is a breeding ground for rampant hatred towards multiple religions, but if your first thought on reading the name Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi is that he used to be a mass murdering Persian conquerer, then we would suggest you google Islamophobia, because you have it.

Now, we'd understand a perfectly humorous tweet on how the name Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi is rare, or unheard of, but for yet another thing to be made into a communal fight, especially given we are veterans at outraging about anything, is just plain stupid.

It's the holiday season. Go buy a plum cake or something.
New Delhi: RBI governor Urjit Patel will be called later by a Parliamentary Committee for a briefing on demonetisation, as the Veerappa Moily-headed panel has decided to first seek details on the issue from top Finance Ministry officials.

Patel was earlier scheduled to come for the briefing on Thursday, but Finance Ministry officials will now brief the Standing Committee on Finance first, sources said. "We thought it's appropriate to take brief from the Finance Ministry. The RBI governor would be called some other time," a source said.

Finance secretary Ashok Lavasa and other senior officials will brief the panel on "demonetisation of Indian currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 and the impact thereof". Other experts too are likely to give their opinion on demonetisation which came into effect from 9 November.

Following the decision to scrap old high denomination notes, people are thronging banks to deposit invalid currency and also get valid once to meet their requirements. RBI has put withdrawal limit of Rs 24,000 per week for individuals but due to the shortage of currency, many bank branches are compelled to ration it further.

There has been slew of changes in the rules and regulation both by RBI as well as the government in the last six weeks increasing hardship for both public and bankers.

Latest in the series of changes in rules, RBI rolled back its directive restricting deposits of demonetised notes more than Rs 5,000 in bank accounts till 30 December, the last date to return such currency to banks.
In a fresh twist to the government's previous announcement on cash deposits in the banks, the Reserve Bank of India has issued a fresh notification, withdrawing restriction on Rs 5,000 deposits for KYC compliant account holders.

The fresh notification by the RBI, following a massive public backlash, comes just two days after the central bank had said individuals can deposit over Rs 5,000 in old currency bills only once until December 30 and that too after explaining why it had not been done so far.

The central bank said that on reviewing its notification of December 19, it is advising banks to withdraw the two conditions for fully KYC-compliant accounts.

After banning old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on 8 November, the government had allowed all of the cash holdings with any person to be deposited in bank accounts till December 30.

There was no limit on the quantity or value of the junked notes that could be deposited. However, the government on 17 December issued a gazette notification putting restrictions on deposits henceforth.

On 19 December, the central bank had said that now-defunct notes in excess of Rs 5,000 shall be credited to only KYC-compliant accounts and if the accounts are not KYC-compliant, credits may be restricted up to Rs 50,000 subject to the conditions governing the conduct of such accounts.

The equivalent value of specified bank notes tendered may be credited to an account maintained by the tenderer at any bank in accordance with standard banking procedure and on production of valid proof of identity, the RBI had said."The equivalent value of specified bank notes tendered may be credited to a third party account, provided specific authorisation therefore accorded by the third party is presented to the bank, following standard banking procedure and on production of valid proof of identity of the person actually tendering," it added.

The above restrictions shall not apply to tenders of SBNs for the purpose of deposits under the Taxation and Investment Regime for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016.

Meanwhile, in a notification, the Finance Ministry had said: "There shall not be any limit on the quantity or value of the specified bank notes that are tendered for payment and deposit made under the Taxation and Investment Regime for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016".

With PTI inputs
New Delhi: Following the huge success seen in its first edition, E-Merge, IMI, New Delhi will be organising its second annual Start-up summit: E-Merge 2017: The Start-up Confab scheduled to take place on 7 January, 2017 at IMI, New Delhi. E-merge, positioned to be one of the biggest consortium on startups across all business schools in the country, is a one of its kind annual affair dedicated to providing a platform for discussion on upcoming trends in the startup ecosystem. A flagship one day event, E-Merge witnesses the participation of several founders, co-founders and senior executives from leading startups in the form of Panel discussions and Entrepreneurial talks.

Panel discussions

While no one can question the governments intentions to foster startup ecosystem in India, but in light of so many new initiatives in recent times, eyebrows are being raised regarding the transparency and clarity of these initiatives. Apart from startups self-inflicted ethical mess, another major deterrent is the grassroots-level corruption. With that in mind, the first panel discussion focuses on answering the question, are we ready to face the challenges of fostering home-grown startups?

The other panel discussion will focus on the recent wave of consolidation among new-age companies in the entrepreneurial ecosystem wherein with the funding drying up has resulted in over a dozen buyouts of young startups in the past four months. Many startups that have barely managed the second round of funding are opting to acquire their weaker peers.

Some of the eminent personalities who would be brainstorming on these topics include Dhruv Arora (Senior VP, Grofers), Gaurav Munjal (Founder, Unacademy), Sagar Daryani (Co-Founder and CEO, Wow Momo), Saurabh Kochhar (Founder, Foodpanda) and Angad Bhatia (Founder, MensXP and Head, Times Internet).

Entrepreneurial talks

The startup summit would also have a series of entrepreneurial talks by Ankur Warikoo (Founder and CEO, Nearbuy, formerly Groupon) and Arvinder Gujral (Business Development Head for Asia Pacific, Twitter). The talks give an insight into the enticing journey of entrepreneurship and are a source of inspiration for budding entrepreneurs.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has done well by removing restrictions on deposits above Rs 5,000 for the remaining days of this month when the deadline to surrender old, invalidated currency expires.

Though Wednesdays RBI notification is silent on the reasons for reversing the move, it is obvious that the decision is triggered by widespread criticism against its earlier directive that required anyone who wanted to deposit over Rs 5,000 in old currency to face questions by two bank officials on why he/she didnt do it earlier.

Even if one makes multiple deposits that add up to more than Rs 5,000, the restrictions would have kicked in.

This was a breach of promise and lacked logic as this writer said in an earlier Firstpost column.

The new RBI notification, which says the old directive will not apply for KYC compliant accounts, would mean that almost all genuine customers will escape the unnecessary scrutiny, since majority of bank accounts are now KYC compliant. The only exceptions, perhaps, are Jan Dhan accounts which were opened with loose KYC norms and fraudsters.

The Rs 5,000 limit was absurd looking at the purpose (tackling tax cheats) from any angle. Any large deposit in any kind of account should naturally trigger scrutiny by bankers and taxmen to check likely money laundering. For this the government and the RBI didnt need to trouble all customers and bank officials at a time when the common man is already feeling the pain of an artificial cash crunch.

Besides, such a restriction contradicted the repeated promises of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that people do not need to rush to bank branches to deposit their old currency since there is time till 30 December.

In hindsight, the many flip-flops by the RBI and the government show the lack of planning and coordination among the top authorities who handle the demonetisation implementation. There are reasons to believe that the central bank isnt in control of the situation and experts have pointed fingers at the erosion in the credibility of the central bank, an institution that is known for its ability to drive the economy through even worse phases with skill and conviction.

It was clear the Rs 5,000 deposit rules will hit the common man hard. Those who would have waited for the queues at the banks to get shorten to deposit their old currency savings, were taken by surprise with this rule. Remember, a number of time rules have changed for the common citizens on cash withdrawals and deposits. Last month, the government had abruptly stopped the currency exchange facility at bank counters after initially promising until 30 December. Bankers, at one point, even inked customers to ensure people dont withdraw cash beyond certain specific limits, reminding one of war-time rationing. All this created more panic and confusion among the public.

Demonetisation, in the scale the Narendra Modi government has undertaken (pulling out 86 percent of the currency in circulation), has no parallel among major economies.

The entire world is watching this episode in India as a rare case study of a botched up economic reform plan. No one has a clue on where this is taking the Indian economy - the fastest growing major economy in the world - in the days ahead. In this backdrop, there is a closer scrutiny on the Indian central bank and government by global economy watchers and investors on each and every stage of demonetisation.

Here frequent flip-flops in rules only does damage to the credibility of the economy and its political and economic institutions.

As of now, there are a few missing links in the demonetisation plan that the central bank needs to clarify, including the number of new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes printed, giving guidance to the public on until when the cash crunch will last and what is the cost of the exercise to the economy.

Except for assurances there is enough cash in the system, the RBI hasnt offered specific details of the currency operation that is underway to ease panic. The RBI assurances do not reflect on the ground as still ATMs run dry and bank branches ration money. So far, since the 8 November demonetisation announcement, there have been 60 circulars issued by the finance ministry and the RBI. This points to a lack of planning and hold of the situation.

The RBI should make up its mind and guide the economy and the general public through this uncertain phase. Though demonetisation began as a political decision, the responsibility to ensure that this does not harm multiple spheres of the economy equally lies with the central bank which is the authority of monetary policy and currency in circulation. Its high time the RBI came out of the trance and took control of the situation.
New Delhi: Reliance Communications (RCom) Wednesday signed binding agreements with Canada-based Brookfield Infrastructure and institutional partners to sell its tower business for an upfront cash payment of Rs 11,000 crore.

RCom will "also receive B Class non-voting shares in the tower company, providing 49 per cent future economic upside from the business based on certain conditions", the company said in a statement.

RCom will utilise the cash proceeds solely to reduce debt, it said.

The tower business will be demerged into a separate company, to be 100 percent owned and independently managed by Brookfield Infrastructure. The deal represents the largest-ever investment by an overseas financial investor in the infrastructure sector in India.

The Anil Ambani-promoted RCom, and brother Mukesh Ambani's 4G telecom venture Reliance Jio will continue as major long-term tenants (of the tower company).

"RCom expects significant future value creation based on growth in tenancies from accelerating data consumption," the statement added.

Giving details, RCom said the combination of its wireless business with Aircel and monetisation of tower operations will together reduce the company's debt by Rs 31,000 crore ($4.6 billion), or nearly 70 percent.

"RCom will continue to hold 50 percent stake in Aircel JV and 49 percent upside in tower business to be monetised at an appropriate time to further reduce debt significantly," it added.

Reliance Communications further said that monetisation of towers is a "major step" forward in its deleveraging and asset light strategy for future growth transactions, subject to stipulated approvals.

It may be recalled that in mid-October, RCom had announced the signing of a non-binding term sheet with Brookfield Infrastructure Group for sale of the nationwide tower assets and related infrastructure.

Yesterday, in fact, Fitch Ratings had downgraded credit rating of Reliance Communications saying that it feels that ongoing joint venture plan of the company with Aircel and proposal to sell stake in its mobile tower arm will be negative for creditors.
By Mirwais Harooni

| KABUL

KABUL Tha Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on the house of an Afghan member of parliament on Wednesday night that officials said killed at least five people and wounded a number of others.A security official said one attacker blew himself up at the house of Mir Wali, a member of parliament from the volatile southern province of Helmand, killing three security guards and allowing two other gunmen to get into the compound, where a meeting was underway.Mir Wali was wounded by shattered glass and other guests were also hurt in the attack, in which at least two civilians were killed.

Among the dead was Hafiz Barakzai, son of another prominent member of parliament, who was shot and killed while helping people to escape from the compound, his brother told Reuters.The incident underlined the fragile security situation in Kabul, which has seen repeated attacks by suicide bombers and gunmen in recent months. Helmand, one of the strongholds of the Taliban and source of much of the world's opium, has fallen increasingly under insurgent control over the past two years.

The main Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for Wednesday's incident. He said "an important military meeting" of officials from Helmand was underway when the attack took place.Officials said police special forces were at the scene and were concentrating on evacuating people from the house and nearby areas.

The surviving gunmen were still believed to be inside the house, with local news station Tolo News quoting local residents as saying the sound of gunfire and explosions could be heard. (Reporting by Mirwais Harooni; writing by James Mackenzie; editing by Ralph Boulton)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The dreaded Class X exams are back. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday approved a proposal to reintroduce compulsory Class X board examination from the 2017-18 academic year. And, apart from English and Hindi, students may also have to study another Indian language, according to reports.

The decision was taken during a meeting of the CBSE governing body in New Delhi, sources said, adding that the first exam will be conducted in 2018.

Back to exams

The Class X board examination for CBSE schools was made optional by the Congress government from 2011 under the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system mandated by the Right to Education Act. The exams were replaced with year-round tests and a grading system to reduce pressure on students. Though students preferred the CCE as school exams are considered easier than the board exams, the schools reportedly were against it as couldn't be implemented well.

A large group of principals, teachers and parents favour the board exam. The CCE provided a chance identify a students talent but that required skilled teachers which many schools could not get, said Ameeta Mulla Watta, a school principal in New Delhi, told Hindustan Times.

According to sources, in the Class X board exams, 80 percent weightage will be given to the marks scored in the examinations while 20 per cent weightage will be given to school-based evaluation, India Today said.

Earlier, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar had announced making the CBSE board exams compulsory from the academic session 2017-18.

Three language formulae up to Class X, eligibility tests for principals

In the meeting, the highest governing body of the CBSE also resolved to make it compulsory for all schools affiliated with the board to introduce the three-language formulae up to Class X, a source said. Currently, schools are meant to follow this up from Class VI to Class VIII.

Officials added that the board also favoured sending a recommendation to the Centre that those languages which are listed in schedule VIII of the Constitution should be taught under the 'three language formula', while languages which are "purely foreign" should be taught as a "fourth language as an elective subject."

"The National Education Policy and NCERTs National Curriculum Framework clearly suggest that the three-language formula should be implemented in secondary education and, hence, the decision is in line with that. Private schools currently offering foreign languages will have to treat it as a fourth language, but the three-language formula has to be followed strictly, said a member of the governing body told The Indian Express.

However, according to Hindustan Times, schools aren't very happy with the decision, stating that it's not in line with the demands of the age of "globalisation" and that "if someone wants to take up a foreign language, that should be allowed too".

The three language formulae was first implemented in 1968, and reiterated in the 1986 and 2005 education policy. However, most schools continued to ignore the directives. In 2014, it emerged into a major controversy when the HRD ministry-run Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV) discontinued German as a third language, and replaced it with Sanskrit. The decision was taken by the ministry under the leadership of Smriti Irani.

The governing body also introduced an eligibility test for principals of all its schools.

The decision of the governing body will be conveyed to the government for its approval. And after the proposal is cleared by the Ministry of HRD, all schools affiliated with the CBSE will have to carry out the proposals including the Class X exams.

With inputs from agencies
The Income Tax (I-T) Department officials on Wednesday raided the home of Tamil Nadu chief secretary P Rama Mohana Rao. "The raids have commenced at Tamil Nadu chief secretary's residence," a senior IT official told IANS.

Chennai: IT raid at Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Rammohan Rao's residence in Anna Nagar  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

IT raid at Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Rammohan Rao's residence in Anna Nagar(Chennai) pic.twitter.com/A0otFuXI8Y  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

The raids at Rao's Annanagar residence in Chennai started at 5.30 am. However, sources told News18 that no seizure has been made till now. Report also said that the raid was conducted based on information received from some road contractors who were detained for questioning based on previous raids. In a major shuffle after the re-election of AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu, Rao was appointed chief secretary in June this year.

The IT department recently seized a total of 177 kg of gold and cash amounting to Rs 96 crore in withdrawn Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 rupee notes and Rs 34 crore in the new denomination from three businessmen  J Shekhar Reddy, Srinivasalu and Prem.

The big fish is said to be Reddy, a contractor and who has done work for the Tamil Nadu government.

"A total of 13 premises are being searched," a senior official said, adding the premises connected to Rao's son and other relatives are part of the operation. It is understood that the official residence of the Chief Secretary in the state capital here has also been brought under the said operation.

Rao was appointed the top state bureaucrat in June this year by the state government.

The searches, they said, are related to the department's probe in the biggest haul of cash and gold here post demonetisation, in which over Rs 142 crore unaccounted assets have been recovered so far. The total seizure in the case is over Rs 170 crore in a single case related to action against sand mining operators in the state and few others including S Reddy, who was also on the panel of a religious shrine body. The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a money laundering complaint in this case after the tax department shared official documents with the agency.

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi: All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) has registered a protest to RBI on bank officers being assigned investigative role for customers depositing in excess of Rs 5,000, and demanded complete withdrawal of the order as the staff are facing public wrath.

Even as RBI partially modified its deposit guidelines, the union will be holding demonstrations all over the country in front of Reserve Bank of India offices later on Wednesday to press for withdrawal of the notification.

The RBI on Wednesday modified guidelines saying KYC compliant account holders can deposits more than Rs 5,000 in old currency notes without being questioned by bank officials.

Earlier this week, the RBI issued a notification directing banks to conduct due diligence of customers who wish to deposit more than Rs 5,000 in old currency till 30 December.

"The credit in such cases shall be afforded only after questioning tenderer, on record, in the presence of at least two officials of the bank, as to why this could not be deposited earlier and receiving a satisfactory explanation," RBI had said.

"The instructions issued vide the RBI communication dated 19 December must be withdrawn forthwith as the banker shall not carry out the duties of CBI/ED/IB at the busy counters," AIBOC General Secretary Harvinder Singh said in a representation to RBI Governor.

No accountability should be fixed on the bank officers in this respect as they are thrust with a role not expected of them, it added.

"Having demanded this, we strongly feel that withdrawal of the instruction itself will only confirm the Prime Minister's statement to the public on November 8 and improve public confidence in the banking system and reduce the hardships faced by the officers at counters," it said.

Pointing out that the banking system itself is losing credibility because of frequent changes in RBI/Government policies, Singh said customer dissatisfaction is increasing because of chaos and confusion created in implementation of the scheme.

"Bank Officers are being subjected to the anger, anguish and wrath of customers or general public due to short supply of currency notes to the banks, particularly to Public Sector banks," it said.
In a further push to cashless economy, the Central cabinet has approved the ordinance for paying wages via electronic means  which means that the government has given its nod for cashless salary. Accordingly, the government approved to amend Section 6 of the Payment Of Wages Act. The new ordinance will be applicable to public sector, with the private sector coming under the purview of the new move later, CNN News 18 reported.

"The Union Cabinet today approved the ordinance route to amend the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, to allow employers of certain industries to make payment through the electronic mode and cheques," a source said. Employers will also have the option to pay wages in cash, the source added.

As per practice, the government introduces ordinance to amend laws for immediate implementation of new rules. An ordinance is valid for six months only. The government is required to get it passed in Parliament within that period.

Govt approves ordinances on enemy property bill and payment of wages act: Sources  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

According to CNN-News18, companies can pay their employees only through cheque or through electronic means. All wage workers, who earn less than Rs 18,000 will be come under the new ordinance. However, the specific sectors where the rule will be applicable will be notified later.

Payment of wages through cash, coin and online also in proposal(ordinance on payment of wages act): Sources  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

The state government will additionally have the discretion whether to pay employees via cheques or electronic transfer. According to reports, the government aims to check under-reporting of salaries, bring transparency in transactions and end exploitation of wage workers.

However, the Opposition lashed out at the government for the ordinance. "Nothing can distract people from the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government have failed. Government should trust people and they cannot move without proper infrastructure", the Congress party said.

"It will create a problem for the employees as withdrawal from the banks is difficult. Cashless society is not possible. We will move amendment in the Parliament," Gurudas Dasgupta, CPM leader told CNN-News 18.

Renuka Chowdhary: They waited for Parl to get over and then do this; There is no money in bank  News18 (@CNNnews18) December 21, 2016

Wages, as opposed to salaries, have traditionally tended to be cash payments. The Payment of Wages Act covers employees whose wage does not exceed Rs 18,000 per month. The new procedure will serve the objective of "digital and less-cash economy", the Bill stated. Introduced by Bandaru Dattatreya in the Winter Session of Parliament, the passage of the Bill was disrupted as the government and opposition clashed over demonetisation.

It will also allow state governments to specify industrial or other establishments that adopt cashless modes for salary payments. The new procedure will serve the objective of "digital and less cash economy", the bill states. Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Kerala and Haryana have already made provisions for payment of wages through cheque and electronic transfers after making state-level amendments to the Act.

The original Act had come into force on 23 April 1936, providing for payment of wages in coin or currency notes, or in both. At present, with the written authorisation of an employee, wages can be given through cheque or transferred to his or her bank account.

With inputs from agencies
Ahmedabad: Gujarat Government on Tuesday said Governor OP Kohli has given a "positive" response to granting approval to an ordinance that seeks to tighten rules against sale and consumption of alcohol in the State and enhance punishment for offenders.

The ordinance, seeking to make necessary amendments in the Gujarat Prohibition Act, was approved by the Cabinet on December 15 and sent for the Governor's nod. The decree proposes stringent action against bootleggers, tipplers and unscrupulous officials.

Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja told reporters at Gandhinagar that Raj Bhavan is very "positive" about the ordinance and it was likely to be signed and returned to the Government with approval by Wednesday.

"As the Government is keen to implement the new Act as early as possible, Raj Bhavan has shown a positive view on the ordinance and conveyed to us that the Governor would sign it and return to us by tomorrow.

"As soon as the ordinance gets approval, the new Act will come into force with immediate effect," said Jadeja.

Some of its key provisions include a significant increase in the penalty as well as jail term for those involved in the purchase, sale and transportation of liquor in Gujarat, where total prohibition is in force.

Under the proposed law, accused in such cases would face up to 10 years in jail and a fine of Rs 5 lakh instead of the three-year punishment under the current Act, an official release said.

Similarly, the liquor den operators, as well as those helping them, would face imprisonment up to 10 years. In another major amendment, people who create ruckus or harass others in inebriated condition would face a jail term of not less than one year and up to three years.

Currently, the punishment for such behaviour is just one to three months in jail and a fine of Rs 200-Rs 500.

As per the ordinance, officials found guilty of helping bootleggers escape raids would attract a punishment of seven years in jail and Rs one lakh fine.

For effective implementation of the new Act, the Government would form a 'Monitoring Cell', which will have a toll free number.

Using that number, people can inform police about any illegal activities related to liquor trade or consumption, said Jadeja.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) MS Dagur along with DGP PP Pandey on Tuesday held a video conference with all District SPs and Range IGs to make them understand new provisions as well as powers given to police, said the release.
In a setback to Indian travellers, Hong Kong has withdrawn the visa-free entry facility for Indians and they will now have to complete a pre-arrival registration from January. There is also some good news in store  Thailand has halved the visa on arrival fees for Indian tourists.

"The pre-arrival registration for Indian nationals will be implemented from 23 January, 2017. The online service for it is now open," the Hong Kong immigration department said in an announcement on its official website.

"Indian nationals must apply for and successfully complete pre-arrival registration online before they can visit or transit the HKSAR visa-free (if seeking to enter the HKSAR during transit). Pre-arrival registration is not required for Indian nationals in direct transit by air and not leaving the airport transit area," it said.

This is a major set back for over half a million Indians who visit Hong Kong for business, trade and holidays.

Till now Hong Kong, which is now a Special Administrative Region of China, has permitted Indians to enter with valid passport for a period up to 14 days without a visa.

Indian officials say that Hong Kong is using the asylum seekers as a pretext to deny the visa-free entry to Indians who are one of the largest spenders contributing to the local economy.

There is also concern whether the move is being brought about by Hong Kong due to pressure from China.

For Indians visiting Thailand, the visa on arrival fees will now be 1,000 Baht (about Rs 2,000). The change was announced less than two months after visa fees was increased to 2,000 Baht on 27 September.

Thailand's economy relies heavily on foreign tourists. The move is intended to boost tourist arrivals, which is a key economic engine for the country.

"The fees will be cut to 1,000 Baht," the Thailand Tourism Ministry announced.

Thailand currently offers visa on arrival for citizens of India, Andorra, Bulgaria, Bhutan, China, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet extended to 10 years from one the long-stay visa for foreigners aged 50 or more.

However, they must report to immigration police every 90 days.

The visa will be valid initially for five years and could be renewed for another five, Col Apisit Chaiyanuwat, vice-minister at the Prime Minister's Office, said.

The visa fee was set at 10,000 Baht (Rs 20,000), he said.

Apart from the age requirement, the visa requires eligible foreigners to have a monthly salary of at least 100,000 Baht or a bank deposit of at least 3 million Baht, to be maintained for at least one year after receiving the visa.

Besides, they must have health insurance coverage for at least $1,000 for outpatient care and $10,000 or more for inpatient care per policy per year.

The revised rule aimed to promote medical and wellness tourism in line with the government's policy.

Indians can avail of visa on arrival facility in 43 countries, barring Hong Kong. Some of the countries that allow Indians to get a visa on arrival are Indonesia, Maldives and Cambodia in Asia; Mauritius and Seychelles in Africa; Ecuador in South America; Georgia and Macedonia in Europe and several tiny islands in the Atlantic and Pacific.

With inputs from PTI
India's economy for the first time in more than a century has overtaken that of the United Kingdom, Forbes magazine reported.

Akshay Shah, a researcher at Tsinghua University, who wrote the article adds, "This dramatic shift has been driven by Indias rapid economic growth over the past 25 years as well as Britains recent woes, particularly with the Brexit."

While India's economy was expected to overtake the United Kingdom by 2020, the weakening of the Pound Sterling speeded up the process, the report said.

It is interesting to know that the UK-based policy group, Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), had predicted in December 2011, that India would become the fifth largest economy by 2020, but it has already crossed the landmark, The Times of India reported.

According to Foreign Policy, the country's economy now ranks fifth in the world. "India may have a large population base but this is a big leap," Foreign Policy quoted Minister of State Kiren Rijiju as saying.

The Forbes report noted that the latest milestone implies the arrival of India on the world stage and might significantly change the power dynamics between New Delhi and the West.
Appointment of Lieutenant General Bipin Rawat as the next Chief of Army Staff superseding Lieutenant General Praveen Bakshi and Lieutenant General PM Hariz has got the self-appointed social media critics going ballistic on the internet. It has also given enough to feed the monstrous hunger that the media has for breaking news. Many writers have mentioned that there has been precedence of such supersession. Having known all the three officers closely, one is at a loss to explain ones feelings. Lieutenant General Bakshi is an intellectual, straight shooter, dynamic and a thoroughly professional officer who is a dear friend and a course mate.

Lieutenant General Hariz is again a very competent officer and a junior in service but became the author's boss due to residual service requirements. A mature and simple officer, he conducts himself with dignity. Lieutenant General Rawat, took over the command of the corps from this author. He is a humane, mature, professionally sound and a second generation officer. Appointments Committee of the Cabinet would have had a tough time picking one among them as the next COAS of the Indian Army. Since the supersession issue mainly pertains to these three officers, other officers considered are not mentioned here.

Be that as it may, the procedure followed is very simple and has been alluded to by some writers. A panel of all eligible army commanders and vice chief of army staff is sent to the defence ministry by the army headquarters. The defence minister makes his recommendations and sends it to the Appointments Committee of the cabinet. Previously, the appointments committee of the cabinet used to comprise of the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Foreign Minister, Defence Minister and the Finance Minister. Under this government, it has been simplified and reduced to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister. A thorough 360-degree review of the individual is carried out for all promotions to and above the rank of Major General. Similarly, in this case too such a review would have been done. One is confident that all three would have been above board. After the panel is drawn and recommendations are made by the defence ministry it is purely the call of the appointments committee of the cabinet to make the selection of the next Chief of Army Staff. Needless to say that it is the prerogative of the government of the day to select the COAS of its choice.

A quick glance at the selection procedure of other democracies would be highly perceptive at this time. The organisational structure of many of the advanced countries is different from that of our country. The USA follows a theatre commands system whose commanders directly interact with the Secretary of the State for Defence and the President. In the USA, a Chief of Staff is considered to be the equivalent of the Chief of Army Staff in India. UK follows the system of a Chief of Defence Staff who has an advisory role and a Chief of General Staff who commands the army directly. Australia has a Chief of Defence Staff and a Chief of Army. Pakistan also follows a system of a Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and a Chief of Army. Sri Lanka follows a similar system to ours. One cannot compare China and other communist countries with India on this subject as "political correctness" plays a major role in such selections and the system is different.

In the USA, the selection of Chief of Staff (COS) is governed by the rule "10 US Code 3033  Chief of Staff". Unlike the COAS of the Indian Army, the Chief of Staff of the Army is an administrative position and does not have operational command authority over the army. The COS is recommended by the Secretary of the Army, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. In the UK, the equivalent of the COAS is the Chief of General Staff. The Ministry of Defence headed by the Secretary of State for Defence, recommends the names for Chief of General Staff and he is nominated by the Prime Minister. By the exercise of Royal Prerogative Powers, powers to appoint the senior leaders of the services is vested in the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Defence. The Queen, remains the ultimate authority. A similar system is followed in the Australian Army. In Germany, the Army Chief is designated as the Inspector of the Army (Generalinspekteur derNationaleVolkarmee). In peacetime, and in a state of tension, command of the Armed Forces is vested in the Federal Minister of Defence. It is only in a state of defence, which can be declared only with a two-third majority in the Bundestag (Lower House), that the power of command over the Armed Forces is passed to the Federal Chancellor.

While the systems may differ in various countries, the underlying principle in appointing the Chief of Army remains the same. That is, the political dispensation holds the privilege of choosing the person it likes to have as the Chief of its Army.

There has been disappointment and anger in some quarters about the supersession particularly those who are close friends of Lieutenant General Bakshi and Lieutenant General Hariz. This is but natural. Once the dust on this issue settles down and it dawns on people that the civilian governments supremacy is to be respected, things will return to normal. Already, it has appeared in the media that things have reverted to normalcy and Lieutenant General Bakshi is back to his regular work schedule. Nothing less would have been expected from the true soldier that he is known to be. Similarly, Lieutenant General Hariz can also be expected to do the same. If these two generals who were directly affected have behaved in a manner befitting their stature and reputation, it behoves on all others to behave in a like manner. There are also rumours making the rounds that they will be accommodated as Permanent Chairman of Chief of Staff and Vice Chancellor, Indian National Defence University respectively. Again, it is required to keep in mind that it is the prerogative of the government to take a decision on these appointments. There is also a need to have confidence in the government that it will take the decisions in the best interests of the country.

This author has closely watched two of the COASs functioning and is convinced that every COAS works hard for the army. Therefore, we should hold the hands of Lieutenant General Rawat and support him in all his endeavours to take our famed army to higher glory.

The author is a retired lieutenant general of the Indian Army.
New Delhi: Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi, who was superseded along with another senior officer in selection of the new army chief, met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday, amid speculation that he may seek premature retirement or will be given a new role by the government.

Defence Ministry officials termed the meeting as a "courtesy call".

They said the meeting was sought by Lt Gen Bakshi, contrary to initial claims by army sources that Parrikar had sought the meeting. Lt Gen Bakshi also met with Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag after meeting Parrikar.

Dalbir Singh is set to visit the Eastern Command in Kolkata shortly as part of his farewell tour. The army chief will hang his boots on 31 December.

A section of military experts feel that Lt Gen Bakshi may seek premature retirement. However, the process may take a month or two, sources said, adding that during this period he may go on leave.

Lt Gen Bakshi was initially the front runner for the post of the army chief. However, keeping aside the trend of seniority being the lone criteria, the government appointed Vice Chief of Army Lt Gen Bipin Rawat, a batch junior to Lt Gen Bakshi, as the new chief.

Lt Gen Rawat, an infantry soldier, was found best suited among three officers to deal with challenges like cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and the situation with Pakistan, both areas which the government felt will be under focus for the next two-three years.

Another section of military experts claimed that Lt Bakshi may become the new Chief of Defence Staff, a post that has been hanging fire for the last many years.

While the creation of such a post is in "active consideration" of the government, it is unlikely that it will happen soon, they claimed.

The Centre had on 17 December appointed Lt Gen Rawat as the new army chief superseding his two senior officers  Lt Gen Bakshi and Southern Command Chief Lt Gen PM Hariz.
In a shameful manifestation of public apathy and the influence of local thugs in Uttar Pradesh's Mainpuri district, a woman was reportedly molested and later beaten up along with her husband in broad daylight as bystanders stood and watched, while some even chose to film the assault.

The video, which has gone viral on social media, since Tuesday shows a group of men brutally caning a woman and a man while a pack of bystanders watched the incident. The woman was seen bleeding from the head, yet no one from the crowd intervened.

According to reports, the couple's young daughter was also present when the incident took place, however, the attackers fled the scene before the police arrived, according to a report in Jansatta.

The main culprit, identified as Anand Yadav, a resident of Kishani, Mainpuri district, was nabbed on Wednesday morning based on the video and eyewitness account and a case has been registered against him and two unknown miscreants, according to Dainik Bhaskar.

According to a report published in Patrika, Vandana Tiwari and Ashwin Tiwari were asking for directions to an address in Kishani Bazaar area when a local resident tried to grab the woman's neck scarf and grope her. The couple tried to resist, after which they were badly beaten up.

Another report in Zee News, said Vandana and Arvind have registered a complaint with the local police and threatened to shoot themselves if the culprits were not arrested soon.

Meanwhile, this is not the first incidence being reported from the area. In another shocking incident from July this year, a Dalit couple was murdered by a local shopkeeper after a spat because the couple owed him Rs 15. In August, two labourers were reportedly beaten to death by some local cops as they refused to give bribe at a checkpoint.

Mainpuri is just 20 km away from Saifai, the hometown of the ruling Akhilesh Yadav family. With Assembly elections nearing, a gruesome incident of attack and molestation in the Samajwadi Party bastion could hamper UP Chief Minister's claims of an improving law and order situation.
New Delhi: Human waste being splattered on houses from airplanes while landing, on Monday led the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to slap a fine of Rs 50,000 on the airline whose aircraft empties toilet tanks on air.

The NGT directed aviation regulator DGCA to issue a circular to all airlines, whose planes are involved, to pay Rs 50,000 as environmental compensation.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar passed a slew of directions while disposing of a plea of a retired army officer alleging dumping of human excreta by aircraft over residential areas near the IGI Airport here.

Normally, the waste in the aircraft tanks is disposed of by ground handling personnel once the plane lands. However, there are cases where lavatory leaks occur in the air.

The tribunal asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue circular to all ground handling services and airlines to ensure that they do not release waste from human waste tanks while landing or anywhere near the terminals of the IGI Airport.

"DGCA shall also issue directions that aircraft on landing shall be subjected to surprise inspection to see that human waste tanks are not empty. If any aircraft is found to be violating such circular or (their) tanks are found empty on landing, they shall be subjected to environment compensation of Rs 50,000 per default," the bench said.

The direction came on the plea of Lt Gen (Retd) Satwant Singh Dahiya who has sought action against the airlines and levy of hefty fines on them for endangering the health of residents, terming their act as a violation of the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'.

While issuing directions, the green panel also said it was "surprised" to note the stand taken by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) that on analysing the samples taken from the petitioner's house, it could be ascertained that it was excreta but its source could not be known.

"We are surprised to note the stand of CPCB to the extent of coliform and the kind of splashes created on the houses of the petitioner as well as others clearly demonstrate that it was human excreta," the bench said.

It added that the amount collected shall be deposited with CPCB for using it for environment protection and a quarterly report shall also be submitted by DGCA before it.

DGCA was also asked by the tribunal to set up a helpline so that similar complaints can be addressed and the helpline number, as well as email address, be kept in public domain.

During the hearing, DGCA told the bench it has issued a circular to constitute a committee to investigate the matter.

The NGT had earlier slapped a cost of Rs 5,000 on the Environment Ministry and the Ministry of Civil Aviation for their failure to file inspection report on the plea.

It had also directed CPCB to depute a senior environmental engineer to inspect the petitioner's house and check the existence of human excreta on its walls and if excreta was found, samples should be collected for analysis and the report placed before the tribunal.

In his petition, Vasant Enclave resident Dahiya had sought the creation of a 24-hour helpline for immediate reporting of such incidents and a monitoring mechanism to check that no aircraft drops "human soil or excreta" while landing.

The Ministry had opposed the argument and said plane toilets stored the waste in special tanks which are normally disposed of by ground crews once the plane lands. However, aviation officials acknowledge that lavatory leaks can occur in the air at times.
New Delhi: Former IAF chief SP Tyagi on Wednesday sought bail from a special court on the ground that there was no apprehension of him fleeing from justice as all evidences in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam case were documentary in nature and have already been seized by the CBI.

"Please let me (Tyagi) go home," Tyagi's counsel urged before the Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar who put up the matter for further hearing on 23 December.

The court heard the arguments from the counsel of Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan, all three accused in the case, and adjourned the matter after the probe agency said it needed time to argue on the bail pleas.

While seeking relief, Tyagi's advocate Maneka Guruswamy said "my client cannot languish in jail for an indefinite period for no reason. He has voluntarily cooperated to the best of his abilities. My client has appeared on every date (when he was) summoned by CBI and even without the summons.

All evidences are documentary in nature and already in the custody of CBI."

She also told the court that Italy's top court has ordered retrial of ex-Finmeccanica executives in the chopper scam case which makes CBI's stand weak in the current case.

"Even his wife, daughter, daughter-in-law and her mother were called by the probe agency and interrogated even before his arrest," the counsel said.

Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey, appearing for Khaitan, also sought the relief claiming that the "allegations against me (Khaitan) is of money trail and that part is already being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). I cannot be put in jail twice for the same offence... They (CBI) have encroached my personal liberty for nothing."

Sanjeev Tyagi's counsel too sought bail, saying "if granted the relief, my client will not try to flee from the justice and tamper with the evidences."

The court had on 17 December sent all the three accused to the judicial custody till 30 December.

71-year old Tyagi, who had retired in 2007, his cousin Sanjeev and Khaitan were arrested on 9 December by the agency in connection with the case. The accused have alleged that the "CBI was trying to extract the confession using force".

The defence counsel also claimed that there was no apprehension of them fleeing from the justice or tampering with evidence.

"My client is a 72-year-old decorated war hero. He suffers from heart and eye diseases and several other ailments. He has deep roots in the society after 44 years of distinguished career," SP Tyagi's counsel said.

The case relates to procurement of 12 VVIP choppers from UK-based firm during the UPA-2 regime.

The CBI had said it was a "very serious" and "a very high-profile" case requiring interrogation to unearth larger conspiracy as the "interest of the nation was compromised". It had submitted that "one part of the crime was committed in India while various other angles are in foreign land."

Tyagi's counsel had earlier claimed that the decision to procure VVIP choppers from AgustaWestland was a "collective" one and Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was also a part of it.

CBI had alleged that Tyagi had "abused his official position" and when he was the Air Chief Marshal, he had made huge investments in land and other properties and had not disclosed the source his income.

It was also alleged that Khaitan was the "brain" behind how the bribe money reached India and how several firms through which the money travelled came into existence, while Sanjeev was known to the alleged European middleman Carlo Gerosa.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, whose party had boycotted a function involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, will attend the public function in Mumbai on 24 December to be addressed by Modi.

The Prime Minister, after laying the foundation stone for two Metro rail projects, elevated rail corridors project, the Mumbai Trans Harbour link and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off Arabian Sea, will address a public function in suburban Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).

"There will be only one function to lay the foundation stone for these projects and Uddhav Thackeray will attend the proceedings at the MMRDA grounds in BKC," a close aide of the Sena chief told PTI on Wednesday.

On 11 October last year, Modi had laid the foundation stone of a grand memorial to Babasaheb Ambedkar at the Indu Mills compound in the heart of Mumbai, a function which was boycotted by Shiv Sena whose chief Uddhav Thackeray was not invited.

Sena is a part of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre as well as the BJP-led Maharashtra government.

Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar is in Delhi and will attend the birthday celebrations of Ajit Singh, former union minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief on Wednesday.

"Pawar saheb will attend the function to lay thefoundation stone of Pune Metro in Pune if invited. His office in Mumbai has not received an invite," one of the aide of the Maratha strongman said.
Vita Daravonsky Busyra, a young lecturer in London School of Public Relations in Jakarta, adds a curious suffix to her name, MLA, that connotes her education degree, master in liberal arts and not her political status like in India. She is only one among a group of 30-odd students and teachers who heard about demonetisation in India. Others know about India through its Bollywood movies and stars.

She asks a very innocent question, I have seen in videos that people lining up in queues outside banks for their money while some people are splurging money in lavish marriages. How come this paradox exists? In TV news, she had seen the outrageously ostentatious marriage of Karnataka politician Janardan Reddys daughter after the demonetisation move.

In a few sentences, Busyra conjured up the image of India that was quite discomfiting in presence of Ambassador Suresh K Reddy who is given special assignment of leading Indian mission to ASEAN (association of south east Asia nations). Reddy is a diplomat with redoubtable reputation. He was instrumental in rescuing nurses and hundreds of Indian workers who were trapped in Iraq and Syria during the height of conflict through his unparalleled persuasive skills with a dash of flamboyance. Apparently he is given the unenviable task of leveraging Indias soft power in the region to expand Indias strategic and economic influence.

But that objective gets substantially eclipsed by an imagery of India that people like Janardan Reddy put across. It rather makes task of Ambassador Reddy difficult. Yet the cultural and civilisational ties with India are so deep that one can discern India everywhere in Indonesia. At Monas in Jakarta, along with the citys monument exists a magnificent chariot of Arjunas driven by Lord Krishna with nearly over a dozen horses beautifully sculpted on stones.

In the entire Islamic world, Indonesia is still seen as a peaceful multicultural society. With its largest Muslim population, there has been a consistent attempt to keep the culture away from the religion. You see Islam in Indonesia came from India and it was distinctly different from the Islam followed in Arab world said a respected editor-in-chief of The Jakarta Post Endy M Bayuni. However he acknowledges that there is a distinct sign of the society getting radicalized and inspired by an ideology which promotes puritanism and intolerance.

Of late there are reports of 500-odd youth from Indonesia joining the Islamic State (IS) to fight for Islamic Caliphate. On the streets , there are daily protests and marches by clerics and radicals to protest against bombing by US and Russia against Islamic fighters. Most of these fighters who after a stint in Iraq and Syria return to Indonesia and get a heros welcome as there is no law in the country to detain them. It is an uphill task to deradicalise them though the state has been grappling with that said an Indian diplomat.

But the most brazen case of growing clout of Islamists in Indonesia relates to prosecution of a hugely popular Christian Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama Ahok of Chinese descent. Known popularly as Ahok , he is regarded as no-nonsense governor who single handedly transformed Jakartas social life for better. But his faith and his chinese descent proved to be his nemesis as Islamists attacked him for being a non-Muslim who, according to Quran, is incapable of leading the Muslims. Ahok made the cardinal mistake of contradicting Muslim clerics and invited blashphemy charges. In all probability, Ahok will be convicted and jailed ahead of gubernatorial elections to be held in the next month.

There is little doubt that Indonesian president Joko Widodo has been grappling with an extremely difficult situation and maintaining a delicate balance between extremism and liberalism that characterize the society. Given the fact that Indonesian constitution recognizes six religion- Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Protestantism, Catholicism and Confucianism  Widodo has beem making a determined attempt to resist the radicalisation that threatens to fall apart the inherent resilience of Indonesian society.

Referring to a unique feature of cohesiveness of Indonesian society, Ambassador Reddy says that the interdependence of various communities has made the society a cohesive unit. This unique characteristic has enabled Indonesia to run its effective governance in its vast territory he said. Indonesia has control over 11000-odd islands across Indian ocean. It has emerged as the most powerful economic force in the grouping of 10 Asean nations. Despite its disputes with China and neighbouring countries, Indonesia has not let these hostilities come in the way of its economic development. China has been exercising overweening influence in the region on account of its economic clout. Chinese investment in infrastructure projects across the region has grown manifold.

According one official estimate, Asean has emerged third largest economy after China and Japan with a combined GDP of 2.5 trillion US dollars. By the end of 2030, it is projected as fourth largest economy after EU, US and China. Obviously the region is seen as a bright spot where India has immense potential to grow. With India making an emphasis on manufacturing and service sector, the Asean offers a huge market.

Though India set up its embassy to engage with Asean, a collection of nations with features of struggling democracies like Indonesia and Malaysia, semi-democracies like Singapore, military Junta like Thailand and Kingdom like Cambodia, only last year, its age-old cultural ties with the region reaffirms Indias civilisational connect. In words of an Indian diplomat, you will find India everywhere but at the same time it is nowhere. The implicit message is that the civilization connect is meaningless in absence of economic clout.

At a time when Narendra Modi has been making an attempt to use Indias soft power to extend its area of influence in the Asean region, the spectacular marriages like that of Janardan Reddys daughter are certainly bad advertisement for the country. In fact, Busyras innocuous query on the paradox of long queues outside banks after demonetization and marriage extravaganza in India hugely is reflective of Indias predicament in the region.

Disclosure: The author was in Indonesia as part of the Asean Media Exchange tour organised by the Ministry of External Affairs
Kolaghat: Upping the ante against the Narendra Modi government, which she has been targeting over demonetisation, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday dared the Centre to arrest her and warned it against "touching" state government officers.

"You don't have to touch anybody. You arrest me. I challenge you, if you have the guts you arrest all of us, nothing will deter us from raising out voice against demonetisation. Demonetisation is a big scam. We want to know what is the deal. We will say it thousand times," she said at a public meeting.

Banerjee alleged that to weaken the state governments, the Centre was targeting its officers warning, "If you try to touch any of our officers, you will not be allowed to go scott-free. You have the laws, the state government too has laws in its hands."

"We must win the battle as people are with us. As long as I live, I shall fight alone if required," she said.

Earlier in the day, she criticised the Modi government over the I-T raid at the residence of Tamil Nadu chief secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, saying such a "vindictive and unethical" act by the central agencies devalued the institution of head of the civil service. Why this vindictive, unethical, technically improper action? Is it only to disturb the federal structure? Why do not they raid Amit Shah and others," she said.

Attacking the Centre, she said, "They pose as sages and are dubbing others as thieves."

Strongly criticising the "harassment of Opposition leaders, government officials and general people by the

central agencies like CBI, ED and IT", Banerjee said such actions would not deter her from criticising it.

Meanwhile, slamming Banerjee for her "unconstitutional comments" against Modi, BJP hit back, saying "Those who are prime accused in chit fund scams should not talk big about corruption".

"What about Saradha and Rose Valley scam? They should be ashamed of themselves. The TMC are an apt example of the proverb 'the mother of thief shouts the loudest'," BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh said.

Banerjee also alleged Modi and Shah were "destroying" the country and its democracy with "communal instigation, revenge politics and anti-people policies". She said demonetisation has dragged the poor and middle class people into a difficult situation and made their lives "miserable".

"People are not being able to withdraw money against 100 days' work. This should not be paid through Paytm. Centre cannot dictate people where to keep their money," Banerjee said.

"The worst sufferers are those in the unorganised sector. Rural economy is mostly dependent on cooperative banks, but these banks are not getting supply of money," she said. She called upon the people to drive away "Modi government to save the country, its democracy and people from utter destruction".

The chief minister, earlier, inaugurated and laid foundation stones for a bunch of projects for East Midnapore district here. These projects included, among others, a power sub-station, kisan bazaars, a marketing hub, a fire station, solar powered irrigation projects, government offices, a host of road projects, CCTV control room for Digha, road projects, river bank renovation projects and godowns for agricultural produce.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took on Narendra Modi at the prime minister's home turf in Mehsana, Gujarat, accusing Modi of having taken money from the Sahara conglomerate. He also accused Modi of being against the honest people of India, saying the demonetisation exercise will not nab the corrupt people or the black money hoarders.

A few days back, Rahul had alleged, "Modi is very scared because I have personal information on the prime minister." On Wednesday, he followed up that by saying Modi got money from Sahara back when when he was chief minister of Gujarat.

#BREAKING -- After 170 hours, Rahul presents 'proof' says, PM got money from Sahara when he was Gujarat CM. Sahara said it paid Modi 9 times pic.twitter.com/193ZF5HJeR  News18 (@CNNnews18) December 21, 2016

The Income Tax Department had raided Sahara Company on 22 November, 2014. Rahul said as per the records, Rs 2.5 crore was given to Modi on 30 October, 2013; Rs 5 crore on 12 November, 2013; Rs 2.5 crore on 27 November, 2013; Rs 5 crore on 29 November, 2013. He added that entries showed Rs 5 crore given to the prime minister on 6 December, 2013; Rs 5 crore on 19 December, 2013; Rs 5 crore on 13 January, 2014; Rs 5 crore on 28 January, 2014, and Rs 5 crore 22 February, 2014.

As per record with IT,Rs2.5 cr was given to PM Modi on 30 Oct '13;Rs 5cr on 12 Nov '13;Rs 2.5 cr on 27 Nov '13;Rs 5cr on 29 Nov '13: RGandhi pic.twitter.com/5nVqjO5FyB  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

Entries showed Rs 5cr given to PM Modi on 6 Dec 13;Rs 5cr on 19 Dec 13;Rs 5cr on 13 Jan 14;Rs 5cr on 28 Jan 14;Rs 5cr 22 Feb 14-RGandhi pic.twitter.com/11S1jvF2Nh  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

Similarly, as per documents with I-T department, the Birla group also paid Rs 12 crore to Modi when he was the Gujarat chief minister.

The Congress vice-president said Modi has divided the country into two parts: 1 percent comprising the rich, and the 99 percent population of labourers, farmers, small-time traders and the middle class Indians. He alleged that because of Modi's policies, the 1 percent population has amassed 60 percent of the country's wealthy, while the 99 percent of the population of labourers, farmers, small-time traders and the middle class Indians were burdened with demonetisation.

"All cash is not black, all black money is not in cash," Rahul told the crowd in Mehsana, using a line he had last said at his Madgaon rally on Saturday. Black money is not with the 99 percent, but is being hoarded by the 50 rich families hobnobbing with Modi, he said.

He accused the BJP government of taking land from the adivasis of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and that the Dalits are living in a state of fear. "The Patidars of Gujarat carried out their movement in a non-violent manner, but the BJP government tried repressing with violence," he said, adding that only six percent of the black money is in cash, while 94 percent is in the form of real estate.

During his Lok Sabha election campaign, Modi had promised to bring black money back to India, Rahul said. He said most of the black money is stored in off-shore accounts, and the Modi government had promised to recover it. He added that though the Switzerland government has shared a list of people holding accounts at Swiss banks with the prime minister, Modi never brought it up in Parliament. He also said that after demonetisation, Modi had changed the narrative a number of times. Initially, it was against black money, then it became a fight against counterfeit notes, and now it's all about cashless economy.

Rahul said that because of demonetisation, sectors like engineering, construction, powerloom, transport and textile have all been crippled. "It was not a surgical strike on black money, but firing bombing on the farmers, labourers and middle-class Indians," he said.

Rahul also alleged that Modi is protecting the 50 richest families in India. He said that it is the 1 percent rich who have taken loans worth Rs 8 lakh crores from the public sector banks that the prime minister is trying to protect. Rahul also mentioned Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya, and asked why were they not brought back to India. He said that Modi did not waive off farmer loans, but waived of loans of industrialists.

Meanwhile, the BJP slammed Rahul and claimed that all allegations are false. BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said he will soon hold a press conference and clarify all points raised by Rahul Gandhi.
Mumbai: In a relief for Maharashtra Women and Child Welfare Minister Pankaja Munde, the Anti-Corruption Bureau has give her a clean chit in the chikki case pertaining to alleged irregularities in awarding contracts for materials worth Rs 206 crore for school children.

"The ACB has closed the case. There was nothing to substantiate allegations against her," an ACB official said today. He said ACB's Additional CP Keshav Patil had, in a letter to MPCC spokesperson Sachin Sawant, informed the Congress leader that no "truth" was found in the allegations against Munde.

Sawant had last year lodged a complaint with the ACB demanding an inquiry into the allegations against Munde and submitted a file of documents purportedly supporting the charges.

The minister was accused of flouting procedures in awarding contracts for supplying items like chikki, mats, notebooks, water filters, etc, for school children.

Munde had earlier rubbished the charges and said she was prepared for any inquiry. "This is a scam of words. The allegations against me are politically motivated," Pankaja, the daughter of late Union minister Gopinath Munde, had said.

The earlier Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra had purchased similar items at a cost of Rs 408 crore, she said. "You term that a 'purchase' and call our procurement a 'scam'," she had said.

Claiming that the items were purchased at a higher price by the previous government, Munde said the charges against her were totally baseless.

Munde had accused the opposition of pinning the scam on to a BJP minister, and said there was nothing wrong in the purchases made through the rate contract system.

Sawant had said "Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has a habit of giving clean chits and he has said that prima facie, he did not find anything wrong. Thus, we submitted all the documents we had as evidence to the ACB," Sawant had earlier said.
The Election commission (EC) of India made a strong plea to the government last Sunday (18 December) asking for a ban on anonymous contribution to political parties above Rs 2000. The Prime Minister of India appears to have endorsed the plea in his address at a political rally at Kanpur on Monday. Although no government notification has been issued yet, the prime ministerial form of democracy in India today would ensure that the prime ministers wishes would be actualised, sooner than later.

Many political commentators, especially the BJP spokespersons, have gone to town hailing the EC recommendation and the PMs endorsement of it as a major step for political reform in India. It is being seen as a continuation of the effort of the current government to unearth the unaccounted-for money.

But the appearances are often deceptive. The current move may clearly be seen as a sop to hoodwink the masses. The Election Commission, with its vast reservoir of practical experience and raw data, ought to know that the very provision of anonymous donation  be it Rs 20,000 or Rs 2000  is a ploy of the political class to keep itself beyond the pale of law; it is a loophole that political parties of all ideological persuasions  left, right and centre  have used to legitimately launder black money.

Under the current law, political parties are required to declare all the donations above Rs 20,000 under section 29C of the Representation of the People (RP) Act, 1951. This has resulted in a queer situation: whichever corporate bodies or wealthy individuals wish to contribute Rs 20,000 or above to the coffers of a political party on record are mentioned by name in the submissions of the political parties to the Election Commission and the income tax department. Those who wish to part with some of their ill-gotten wealth to curry favour with a political party conveniently remain anonymous under this provision.

The data compiled by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) tells us that donor identification is made for just about 25 per cent of the annual income of the two major national parties in Indian politics: the BJP and the Congress. About 75 percent of their respective income comes from anonymous sources.

The percentage of anonymous contribution to the treasury of most other national and regional parties is even higher. Take for instance the case of the Bahujan Samaj Party; it has declared year after year an annual income of about Rs 300 crore but it has been claiming that all of it has been a summation of small contributions of less than Rs 20,000. So, all the contributors to the BSPs kitty remain anonymous.

This has been, more or less, the practice adopted by most other parties.

This situation will hardly change if the Election Commissions new fiat is enforced by reducing the scope of anonymous contribution to Rs 2000. Regional parties like BSP will continue to claim that all their earnings come from donations of less than Rs 2000. Major national parties like the Congress and the BJP would continue to claim that, apart from the on-record big contributions from the business houses, the majority of their earnings came from small contributions of less than Rs 2000.

The Congress government, while it was in power, had deliberately kept this loophole to facilitate the receipt of large amount of black money that came its way as the ruling party. The smaller parties then did not protest as they were also the beneficiary of the ill-gotten wealth, however small in comparison.

When the BJP-led government came to power at the Centre in 1999, it, no wonder, did not do away with the Section 29C of the PR Act; rather it vigorously resisted all attempts to make the electoral process more transparent. When the Supreme Court of India, while adjudicating upon the petition filed by the ADR, made it mandatory for all candidates to declare their income and assets, along with other relevant personal information (2 May, 2002), the ruling BJP joined hands with the Congress and every other party in Parliament to pass an amendment to the PR Act so as to override the Supreme Courts decision. Credit must be given to the tenacity of the SC bench which declared such an amendment ultra vires of the Constitution.

If Atal Behari Vajpayee, as prime minister, sought to reinforce, rather than negate, the Congress legacy of a opaque political and electoral process, can and will Narendra Modi be any different?

There is a clear difference between the two BJP prime ministers  Modi speaks about corruption-free India more often than Vajpayee did. But will those words ever turn into meaningful action?

The demonetisation of high denomination currency notes (8 November) was initially touted as a surgical strike against black money. But within a few weeks, the goalpost changed; it is now being seen more as a move to usher in a cashless India.

If Prime Minister Modi genuinely wants to see a corruption-free India, then he has to strike at the root of all corruption  political funding. In order to do so, he has to go beyond supporting the rather limited recommendation of the EC; he must take the big step to ban all anonymous donations to political parties.

The Narendra Modi government just needs to make one amendment to the Peoples Representation Act: that all political parties -- to be eligible to contest elections and field candidates -- will have to declare all their earnings and all their expenditure to the Election Commission on a monthly basis. By doing so, the Modi government would have struck a lethal blow to the mother of all corruption.

Will Narendra Modi do it? Well, that would depend how does he want to go down in history  as a great saviour of Indian democracy or as its false icon?
Russias Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov was assassinated by Mevlut Altintas in Ankara on the evening of 19 December. Karlov was speaking at an exhibition of photographs in the Turkish capital when Mevlut, a 22-year-old Turkish riot police officer succeeded in gaining entry to the venue, got behind the ambassador and shot him repeatedly in cold blood.

Mevlut cried out, Allahu-Akbar after killing Karlov. He also shouted, Dont forget Syria, dont forget Aleppo. According to one report Mevlut also said, You will not taste safety unless our fields are safe. Only death can get me out of here. Whoever has a share in this tyranny will pay for this one by one. Mevlut was gunned down by the Turkish police in a shoot-out at the scene of the crime.

There is no doubt that Karlovs killing is an affront for Russia. This is all the more as Mevlut was a policeman. Although not on duty, he was able to enter the exhibition venue easily with his weapon. While the Russian foreign ministry correctly called it a terrorist act, President Vladimir Putin reacted soberly. Significantly, Russia did not blame Turkey for failing in its responsibility to protect the ambassador  under international diplomatic conventions, the security of diplomats is the responsibility of the host government. Instead, Putin said that the assassination was undertaken to damage the Russian, Turkish and Iranian peace process to settle the Syrian conflict and also to harm the normalisation of Russia-Turkey relations.

Bilateral ties between the two countries had hit rock bottom last November when a Turkish fighter aircraft had downed a Russian plane, an incident in which a Russian pilot had died. There is no doubt that Putin is thinking strategically in terms of strengthening Russian interests in West Asia, and therefore his restrained reaction to Karlovs death. In particular, Putin did not wish to jeopardise a Russian-Turkish-Iranian foreign ministers' meeting on the Syrian issue which was scheduled for 20 November, 2015. That meeting went ahead.

Despite the unhappiness of western countries and Turkey, Russia has succeeded over the past two years in sustaining Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in the ongoing brutal civil war in that country. Under pressure and sanctions on its involvement in Ukraine, Russia has defied the West and has been active militarily and diplomatically in West Asia. Western countries have criticised Russia for taking steps in Syria that have contributed to the suffering of the people. However, Russia has shrugged it off and asserted that its target is the Islamic State which is the greatest threat to international peace and security. On its part, Russia has accused the West of being soft on the IS.

President-elect Donald Trump has a special understanding with Putin and has indicated that he considers IS to be a far greater threat than the Barack Obama administration has considered it to be. He has also talked of the need for Russian and US cooperation to counter IS. This, notwithstanding Putin's wishes to act with Turkey and Iran to promote a resolution of the Syrian imbroglio.

It is uncertain if the Russian-Turkey-Iran trilateral effort will make real headway because the three countries have pursued different objectives in the Syrian civil war. Turkey has implacably opposed Assad, supported the Syrian Opposition and overlooked the dangers that the IS represents. Its basic objective has been to prevent the Kurds from gaining strength. On the other hand, Russia and Iran have provided assistance and militarily intervened to ensure Assads survival. Their target has been the IS. Iran has assisted the Iraqis and the Syrians on the ground to roll back the IS threat while Russia has largely used air power to do so.

Even if the trilateral effort does not fully succeed, it marks a major move to bypass western countries from imposing their will in a crucial part of the Arab world.

How will Trump react to these moves? Will he change the US stance towards Assad?

The Karlov assassination also puts the spotlight on the rise of Islamism in Turkey. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has worked hard to promote Islamic values in Turkey. He has moved away from the secular and modern ideals of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. It was inconceivable till some years ago that the Turkish security forces which were the guardian of Attaturks values would become infiltrated by Islamists who would not hesitate to take kill an ambassador for whatsoever reason. But the Turkish army is now under Erdogans control.

A section of the Turkish army attempted a coup in July. It was an amateurish attempt and was bound to fail. Erdogan used it to cement his own power and purge large numbers of defence and civil service officials. Although Erdogan may want to bring in only moderate Islam the move from Ataturks secular values has obviously unleashed a genie that may not easily go back in the bottle.

The Karlov assassination once again shows that the turmoil in the Islamic world is far from subsiding. The negatives that are emerging from it are going to continue adversely impacting on all countries, including India.

The author is former Indian ambassador to Afghanistan, Myanmar and Thailand, and headed the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran desk at the Ministry of External Affairs
Washington: US President Barack Obama has permanently banned offshore drilling in areas of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.

According to the White House, Obama's move on Tuesday will prevent future leasing of certain offshore areas for oil rights, CNN reported.

His successor, Donald Trump, who has promised a policy allowing more US energy production, would face legal challenges if he attempted to reverse Obama's order.

The White House said Obama was declaring the entire US portion of the Chukchi Sea and the vast majority of the Beaufort Sea "indefinitely off limits for future oil and gas leasing", citing critical protection for the marine mammals, ecological resources and native populations.

Canada also announced on Tuesday that it will freeze its offshore oil and gas exploration in its Arctic waters.

The US is also declaring 31 canyons off the Atlantic coast off-limits for drilling, citing "critical and irreplaceable ecological value".

The White House said the decision was for "a strong, sustainable and viable Arctic economy and ecosystem."

It cited native cultural needs, wildlife concerns, and the "vulnerability" of the region to oil spills as some of the reasons for the ban.

The decision relies on the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, that allows presidents to withdraw lands from future leasing, the CNN said.

It has been used by past administrations to restrict oil exploration on the West and East coasts, though each time the ban on leases was given an expiration date.
By Tulay Karadeniz and Orhan Coskun

| ANKARA

ANKARA Clashes between Turkish-backed Syrian rebels and Islamic State militants intensified around the northern Syrian town of al-Bab on Wednesday, killing 14 Turkish soldiers and 138 jihadists, the army said.The fighting, in which 33 Turkish soldiers were also wounded, is some of the deadliest yet in Turkey's nearly four-month-old "Euphrates Shield" operation in northern Syria."The operation to control al Bab, which is being besieged under the Euphrates Shield Operation, is ongoing," the army said in a statement.The military had said earlier that the rebel forces, which have been launching attacks on Islamic State fighters in al-Bab for weeks, had largely established control over the strategic area around the town's hospital."Once this area has been seized, Daesh's dominance of al-Bab will to a large extent be broken," it said in an earlier statement on Wednesday, using an Arabic acronym for the group. Islamic State was using suicide bombers and vehicle-borne explosives intensively, it added.

Turkey's military was pressing on with the operation after its foreign minister and his Russian and Iranian counterparts said in Moscow on Tuesday that they were ready to help broker a deal to end Syria's almost six-year-old war.The talks came as Syrian government forces neared their biggest victory in the conflict, closing in on the last rebel enclave in the long-embattled city of Aleppo.Some 30 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the course of the operation, which was launched to push Islamic State and a Kurdish militia away from Syria's border with Turkey.

The military had said that some of the intensive fighting on Wednesday had been centred on a hospital area, on the slope of a hill overlooking al-Bab that had long been used by Islamic State as a weapons and ammunition store.Turkish air strikes on Wednesday destroyed 67 Islamic State targets, the military said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported fierce clashes at the southwestern edges of al-Bab, with some rebel advances there. It said that Turkish air strikes in the area had killed seven people in al-Bab.Islamic State has killed a total of 42 fighters from Euphrates Shield, including at least 10 Turkish soldiers, the Observatory added.The Euphrates Shield operation is largely focused on combating Islamic State, but Ankara is also determined to prevent the Kurdish YPG militia, which it sees as a hostile force, from linking cantons it controls along the border. (Additional reporting by Ellen Francis and Lisa Barrington in Beirut; Writing by Daren Butler and David Dolan; editing by Ralph Boulton; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Gareth Jones)

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German police on Wednesday intensified their manhunt for the truck driver who killed 12 people when he mowed into a Berlin Christmas market, and said they were following a number of good leads.

After releasing a Pakistani asylum-seeker arrested near the scene, authorities warned that the attacker is on the run and may be armed. They have also said it is unclear if the perpetrator was acting alone or with others. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The head of the Association of German Criminal Detectives, told German television late on Tuesday that police hoped to make another arrest soon. "I am relatively confident that we will perhaps tomorrow or in the near future be able to present a new suspect," Andre Schulz told a talk show on the ZDF public channel.

Wednesday's Passauer Neue Presse quoted the head of the group of interior ministers from Germany's 16 federal states, Klaus Bouillon, as saying tougher security measures were needed. "We want to raise the police presence and strengthen the protection of Christmas markets. We will have more patrols. Officers will have machine guns. We want to make access to markets more difficult, with vehicles parked across them," Bouillon told the paper.

The 25-tonne truck smashed into wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages, injuring about 45 people. Six of those killed were Germans and the Polish driver of the truck was found shot dead in the cabin of the vehicle.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will run for a fourth term next year, said that it would be particularly repulsive if a refugee, seeking protection in Germany, was the perpetrator.

Some politicians have blamed her open-door migrant policy for making such attacks more likely.

The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has won support in the last two years as Merkel's own popularity has waned, said on Tuesday that Germany is no longer safe. Some politicians have also called for changes to Merkel's immigration and security policies after she allowed more than a million migrants to enter Germany in the last two years, many fleeing war in the Middle East and Africa.

Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann told German radio on Wednesday that there was a higher risk of Islamist attacks because of the influx of migrants.
By Nate Raymond

| NEW YORK

NEW YORK The FBI acted inappropriately when it announced the revival of its investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email setup days before the Nov. 8 presidential election, Clinton's lawyer said, citing search warrant documents made public on Tuesday.The pointed criticism from Clinton attorney David Kendall followed the release in federal court in Manhattan of documents related to an October search warrant targeting emails involving the Democratic presidential nominee.The warrant was issued two days after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey informed Congress in a letter on Oct. 28 of newly discovered emails that appeared "pertinent" to his agency's probe.Comey's letter drew new attention to Clinton's use of the server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and roiled the campaign 11 days before the election, which Republican Donald Trump won. Clinton has blamed Comey and his letter for her defeat.In an affidavit unsealed on Tuesday, an FBI agent said there was "probable cause" to believe emails involving Clinton were among "thousands" found on a laptop in an unrelated probe that contained U.S. State Department correspondence.

But the documents gave no indication the FBI had any evidence at the time of Comey's letter that any of the emails on found on a laptop involved classified communications with Clinton.Kendall said the documents showed the "extraordinary impropriety" of Comey's letter, which "produced devastating but predictable damage politically and which was both legally unauthorised and factually unnecessary."The FBI declined to comment.The laptop belonged to former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin who was the subject of an investigation after a report about cellphone and online messages he sent a 15-year-old girl.

The search warrant materials' release was sought by Randol Schoenberg, a Los Angeles-based lawyer, who contended that transparency was crucial given the potential influence the probe had on the election's outcome.In a statement, Schoenberg said he saw "nothing to suggest that there would be anything other than routine correspondence between Secretary Clinton and her longtime aide Huma Abedin."Brian Fallon, who served as the national press secretary for Clinton's campaign, said on Twitter the search warrant "reveals Comey's intrusion on the election was as utterly unjustified as we suspected at time."

In July, Comey recommended no charges be brought over Clinton's handing of classified information in the emails, although he said she and her colleagues were "extremely careless" in handling such information.That determination followed what the search warrant materials called a "criminal investigation concerning the improper transmission and storage of classified info on unclassified email systems and servers."In his letter to Congress, Comey said emails potentially related to the investigation had been discovered in an "unrelated case."Federal investigators obtained the warrant to examine the emails on Oct. 30. Two days before the election, Comey disclosed the emails did nothing to change his earlier recommendation. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York, additional reporting by Scot Paltrow and Mark Hosenball in Washington; editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Tom Brown)

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Washington: The days of capital punishment may be numbered in the United States, with sharp reductions in new death sentences and executions carried out amid waning public support, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The Death Penalty Information Centre, a Washington-based nonprofit organisation, said statistics point to a continued record decline in the use of killing as punishment.

"America is in the midst of a major climate change concerning capital punishment," said Robert Dunham, DPIC's executive director and the author of the report.

"Whether it is concerns about innocence, costs, and discrimination, availability of life without parole as a safe alternative, or the questionable way in which states are attempting to carry out executions, the public grows increasingly uncomfortable with the death penalty each year."

Though two-thirds of US states still allow the death penalty, this year is expected to end with 31 new death sentences, the DPIC said in a year-end report.

That would be a steep 37 percent drop even from 2015, when 49 death sentences marked a 40-year low.

Executions declined to 20 this year, the lowest number since 1991 and well below the 1999 peak of 98 executions, stoking hopes for opponents of the death penalty.

The 2016 executions would be the fewest since 1972, when the US Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional. It reinstated the death penalty four years later.

Public opinion polls measured support for capital punishment at a four-decade low this year, the report said.

Still, the possibility that the Supreme Court will once again outlaw the death penalty faded after Republican Donald Trump was elected president last month.

Trump, who takes office on January 20, is expected to fill the vacant seat on the nine-seat Supreme Court with a conservative judge, tipping the court to a conservative majority.
GENEVA Buses carrying evacuees started leaving the last rebel-held enclave of Syria's Aleppo again on Wednesday, aid agencies said, raising hopes that a last minute hold-up had been resolved.Civilians have been waiting in freezing temperatures since plans to get them out of the war-battered city hit problems on Tuesday. Sixty buses were stuck there, a war monitor said earlier on Wednesday, as TV pictures showed vehicles covered in snow.But a U.N. official in Syria told Reuters by email at 1400 GMT that buses had started moving again from east Aleppo. "We hope that this continues so that people can be safely evacuated," the official added.Government forces agreed the evacuations as part of a deal that also included the evacuation of people from Shi'ite Muslim villages besieged by rebels in Idlib. Eight buses en route to Aleppo from those villages of al-Foua and Kefraya had also been held up since Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

More U.N. staff have arrived in east Aleppo to help monitor the evacuation, in line with a resolution unanimously adopted by the U.N. Security Council on Monday, U.N. spokesman Jensen Clarke said in Geneva.Syrian TV said that four buses and two ambulances arrived in government-controlled Aleppo from al-Foua and Kefraya in Idlib, while 15 buses containing fighters and their families had started to leave East Aleppo.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is running the operation with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), confirmed that the evacuation had resumed. Weather conditions were "harsh" and people "exhausted", it said earlier in a tweet."All patients have been evacuated, al-Quds hospital (the only remaining hospital in the enclave), is now empty, and all other urgent medical cases have now been evacuated," ICRC spokeswoman Kris Armstrong told Reuters in Geneva.

Footage which Syrian state television said was of the buses waiting to leave Aleppo, showed falling snow and snow-covered ground around the buses. (Reporting and writing by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; additional reporting by Lisa Barrington and Ellen Francis in Beirut; Editing by Toby Chopra and Andrew Heavens)

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JERUSALEM Disgraced former president Moshe Katsav was released on parole on Wednesday after serving five years of a seven-year jail sentence for rape, in a case that stirred deep emotions in Israel and touched off a national debate on sexual harassment.Katsav, 71, had been turned down for early release twice after refusing to meet the parole board's demands to recognise his crimes and express regret for them. The board said he had finally come to regret his actions and the pain they had caused. After serving as president, a largely ceremonial role, from 2000 to 2007, Katsav was convicted in December 2010 of raping an aide while he was a cabinet minister in the 1990s and of sexually harrassing two other women during his time as head of state. Katsav, who denied the charges, was jailed in 2011.His release from a prison near Tel Aviv on Wednesday was broadcast live on Israel's main television channels. Smiling and walking with his wife, Gila, he made his way through a scrum of photographers to a waiting car and sped away without speaking.

In its decision on Sunday, the board wrote that since the first failed hearing, Katsav had "travelled a long path, had benefited from prison therapy services and had recognised and regretted his actions against the women and the pain he had caused them".

The first criminal conviction of an Israeli president was dubbed an "earthquake" by the Israeli media and was welcomed by women's groups, which have long complained of lax attitudes to sexual harassment in workplaces.There was little public outcry over the early release of the white-haired Katsav, who had already served more than two thirds of his sentence, a point when many prisoners are granted parole.

(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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BANJUL Gambian President Yahya Jammeh said he would not step down and condemned mediation by West African regional bloc ECOWAS that aims to get him to leave power after he lost a Dec. 1 election to challenger Adama Barrow.The comments on state television late on Tuesday were a hardening of the veteran president's position after days in which hopes mounted he could be persuaded to hand over power at the end of his mandate on Jan. 18, when Barrow is due to be inaugurated."I am not a coward. My right cannot be intimidated and violated. This is my position. Nobody can deprive me of that victory except the Almighty Allah," Jammeh said.

"Already the ECOWAS meeting was a formality. Before they came, they had already said Jammeh must step down. I will not step down," he said.Jammeh initially accepted the results of an election whose outcome was seen across Africa as a moment of hope. He is accused by human rights groups of the detention, torture and killing of perceived opponents during his 22-year rule.

On Dec. 9, he reversed his position and said he would challenge in the country's Supreme Court the results of an election he said was riddled with irregularities.

(Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Bethlehem, West Bank: Christmas is approaching and pilgrims and tourists have begun to arrive, crowding the souvenir shops that line the narrow streets and alleys of Bethlehem, the biblical town revered as Jesus' birthplace.

But when visitors choose to take a piece of the Holy Land back home with them, they better check the labels. Many souvenirs  including the West Bank town's trademark rosary beads  are imported from abroad, mainly China.

A small number of souvenir shops are now trying to fight the trend, stocking their shelves almost exclusively with locally made products. Shopkeepers say that while their wares may be more expensive, the quality is much better and they give an important boost to the struggling economy.

"I've got nothing that is made overseas except for one thing, that's the magnets. It's something that sells for cheap and people want them," said Bassem Giacaman, owner of the Blessings Gift Shop and The Olive Wood Factory. "Everything else is made locally so I can keep the local economy working."

Some 120,000 people are expected to visit the Holy Land this holiday season, half of them Christian, according to Israel's Tourism Ministry.

Many will visit Bethlehem, where globalisation has left its imprint like everywhere else. Foreign-made crafts, especially Chinese ones, have come to represent a big part of the market here, including Christmas souvenirs. While there are no official statistics, local officials and businessmen estimate that nearly half of the products, perhaps more, are imported.

Giacaman keeps just a few imported products in his store, most of them hidden in a small box beneath a counter. He takes them out to show customers and compare them to Palestinian-made ones.

"This is a plastic Jesus baby made in China and this is a ceramic one made in Bethlehem, and these are the olive wood rosaries that I make and the Chinese ones," he said, proudly showing what he said was the superior craftsmanship of the locally made goods.

Bethlehem is in the West Bank, occupied territory the Palestinians hope will be part of their future state. Tourism remains strong, but the rest of the economy has long languished, in part because of Israeli restrictions. Tourists must pass through a checkpoint in Israel's separation barrier to reach the town.

The "Visit Palestine Center," located in a 200-year-old house along a stone stairway just a few hundred metres (yards) from The Church of the Nativity, promotes a "Made in Palestine" label.

"There's a big influx of imported products and a lot of traditional crafts are declining gradually," said Samy Khoury, the center's founder and general manager.

The Visit Palestine Center, which started as an online store and travel guide five years ago, works with nearly 100 workshops and home-based artisans throughout the Palestinian territories and in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan.

It features Palestinian traditional crafts, including Christmas-related ones like olive wood rosaries and mother of pearl ornaments. The center targets independent travelers and takes a fair trade approach to its business.

Trying to sell only Palestinian-made products comes with challenges.

"Maintaining consistency and quality, the right lead time, figuring how much production capacity the producers can give," are some of them, explained Khoury.

Then there's the issue of price.

Maher Canawati, owner of the Three Arches souvenir shop, sells locally made gifts and even has a wood workshop in the back. But he keeps room for imports as well.

"We have to carry all kinds of merchandise in our shop because we have different markets and different pilgrims with different budgets," said Canawati, whose family has provided services to pilgrims since the 16th century.

Canawati said he wants to give his customers options, and he is clear about the differences.

"A dozen of made-in-China rosaries sell for $4 while a dozen of locally made sell for $25," he said. "The made-in-China Jesus babies sell for $20 and the Bethlehem ones sell for $64."

While craft workshop owners grumble about foreign imports, not everyone believes the imports have seriously threatened local merchants and artisans.

"It's a business," said Samir Hazboun, Chairman of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce. "I'm not aware of anyone running out of business because of the imports."

Ali Abu Srour, director general of the Palestinian Tourism Ministry, said the government is trying to update its tourism laws to protect local producers and merchants.

Under the proposed regulations, shopkeepers would be required to carry 70 percent locally made products, with clear labels that distinguish between imports and "Made in Palestine" ones.

Muhammad Yusuf, a wood craftsman with The Olive Wood Factory, scoffs at the imports.

"It's not good, this is better," he said with a smile as he worked on a figure of the Virgin Mary.

Back at the Blessings Gift Shop, Julie Deler, 24, a tourist from Germany, bought a small olive wood camel made by a Palestinian craftsman.

"I prefer locally made because I want to support the locals," she said.
United Nations: Paying tributes to Cuba's late leader Fidel Castro, India said Cubans under him have achieved notable success in areas like education and health despite "outside pressures" and Havana's "significant voice" for the cause of the Global South brought the two countries together.

"Fidel Castro indeed towered on the global stage. Under his leadership the people of Cuba achieved notable development successes in areas such as education and healthcare, despite outside pressures," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said at a special commemorative meeting in the General Assembly yesterday to pay tribute to the late commander of the Cuban revolution. Akbaruddin said Cuba gave a "significant voice" for the cause of the Global South, and this is what drew India and Cuba together.

Over the years, the two nations have worked together closely at the UN to promote the aspects of economic equity and social justice in international relations, he added. Nearly 30 envoys representing regional groups and nations paid tributes to Castro, who died at age of 90 on November 25, and his indelible legacy during the ceremony, presided over by General Assembly President Peter Thomson. While speakers included Russia, South Africa, Iran and China, there were no representatives from Western nations. Akbaruddin said Indians learnt about Castro's demise last month "with a sense of loss."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had described Castro as one of the most iconic personalities of the 20th century and had captured the emotions of India's one billion people when he stated that the country mourns the loss of a "great friend", Akbaruddin added.

As a mark of respect to the legendary leader, members of both houses of the Indian Parliament had paid tributes to the late leader. The Indian envoy told the General Assembly that India was one of the first countries to recognise Castro's government after the Cuban revolution in 1959. "Fidel Castro was a stalwart of the Non Aligned Movement during the Cold War years, when India and Cuba commenced their close partnership to advance the interests of developing countries," Akbaruddin said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in his message on the occasion said, Castro was "one of the most important Latin American leaders of the 20th century" and "the most influential shaper of Cuban history since his own hero, Jose Marti, struggled for Cuban independence in the late 19th century."

The outgoing UN Chief said as president, Castro turned Cuba into a "regional model of access to education and public health" and "until his last days he was deeply concerned about the future of humanity and challenges of the current times." Castro left "a major imprint on his country and global politics," Ban said in remarks read by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca. Lauding Castro's "charismatic and wise leadership," Akbaruddin said India will always "remember and cherish our friendship" with the "strong leader of a resilient nation."
By Alana Wise

| NEW YORK

NEW YORK Delta Air Lines Inc (DAL.N) removed two men from a plane at London's Heathrow Airport before takeoff on Wednesday, and one of the men accused the airline of acting on passenger complaints that he had been speaking on a phone in Arabic.Adam Saleh, a Muslim American, appeared in a Twitter video retweeted more than 440,000 times. Speaking from the plane, he said: "We're getting kicked out because we spoke a different language...Six white people against us bearded men."It was not immediately clear what took place before the recording began. Saleh has posted what he calls "experiment" videos in the past showing him speaking Arabic on planes. In a statement, Delta said two customers were removed from Delta Flight 1 after a disturbance in the cabin prompted more than 20 customers to express their discomfort.

The airline said it spoke to the two passengers it removed and rebooked them. Delta said it would speak with the crew and other passengers when the flight landed at New York's Kennedy Airport on Wednesday afternoon.It said the airline had an obligation to ensure a safe environment and promised an update once it had more information.

"We take all allegations of discrimination seriously and we are gathering all of the facts before jumping to any conclusion. Our culture requires treating everyone with respect," the statement said.Airlines have in recent months battled negative publicity over incidents in which Muslim passengers were removed from flights.

In November, a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump was allowed to stay on a domestic U.S. flight after going on an expletive-filled rant. He was later slapped with a lifetime ban from Delta flights. (Reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by Howard Goller)

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Washington/Colombo: A Tamil diaspora group in the US has appealed to President Barack Obama to de-proscribe the LTTE as a terror outfit in the country, saying this could give a "little relief" to the community which faces problems while travelling abroad.

The group 'Tamils for Obama' claimed that the LTTE has been defunct with no activities since 2009.

In a statement, the group have said that many Tamils are "suffering" because of the listing of the LTTE as a terror group in the US.

"Because of the listing of Tamil Tigers, it creates pain for many US Tamils when they travel to abroad and when they return to the US," the statement said.

"They have to go through many hours of interrogation. Some US Tamils have asked us to convince Obama to help us by removing Tamil Tigers from the list. Obama can give Tamils a little relief by de-listing the Tamil Tigers during this Christmas and giving season. There is no reason to keep them on the list," it said.

The group said it was a "mistake" by the George Bush's administration to support the Sri Lankan "genocidal war against the innocent Tamils".

The Tamil groups also hope that the European Union would also de-list the LTTE.

The US banned the LTTE in 1997 followed by UK and the EU.

The UN has estimated that 40,000 people died, many of them civilians, during the three-decade-long civil war that ended in 2009. It was under President Mahinda Rajapaksa's tenure that the Sri Lankan forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the separatist group that waged armed insurgency against the government.
Manila: The Philippines said that President Rodrigo Duterte's killing of three people in the 1980s was part of a police operation, after the United Nations rights chief urged Manila to investigate him for murder.

In several speeches last week, Duterte recounted how in 1988, early in the first of his several terms as mayor of the southern city of Davao, he and local police ambushed and killed three suspected kidnappers. UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement that Duterte's killings, by his own admission, "clearly constitute murder" and Philippine judicial authorities must launch a murder investigation.

Duterte spokesman Ernesto Abella said today Zeid's comments were nothing more than "his (Zeid's) opinion". "Again, let me just remind one and all, that the incident referred to by the president was actually covered by media and it was (a) legitimate police action," Abella added.

He did not address Duterte's possession and discharge of a firearm while not a policeman. Duterte has said he routinely carried a gun during his early years as mayor of Davao to protect himself in a high-crime environment. He has not said if the weapon used in the ambush was licensed.

He won the presidential election by a landslide in May, largely on a vow to kill 100,000 criminals to stop the country's slide into a "narco-state".

According to the UN, nearly 6,100 people have been killed since Duterte took office in late June. Philippine police put the figure at about 5,300 violent deaths, with Duterte consistently rejecting allegations his incendiary comments could be encouraging police to commit murder.

While mayor of Davao, Duterte was investigated by the independent Commission on Human Rights over allegations he ran

death squads that killed more than a thousand petty criminals in the city. Duterte has variously denied or confirmed the allegations.

The commission did not file any criminal charges after completing its inquiry. Zeid called for "credible and independent investigations" to be immediately reopened into the Davao killings. And he demanded similar probes into the "shocking number of killings that have occurred across the country since Duterte became president".

"The perpetrators must be brought to justice, sending a strong message that violence, killings and human rights violations will not be tolerated by the State and that no one is above the law," Zeid said.
Seoul: South Korea's Constitutional Court will, on Wednesday, start hearings into whether to confirm the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye, with her ruling conservative party deeply split on the issue before a likely fresh election.

The court has up to 180 days to decide whether to uphold or reject Parliament's impeachment of the country's first female president on charges ranging from bribery to abuse of power.

Park has been suspended from her duties since the impeachment vote on 9 December, with the prime minister taking over.

If the judges back impeachment after hearing from both sides, she will be formally ousted and a presidential election held within 60 days. But any split in the Saenuri Party would drastically reduce its chances in such a poll.

More than 30 Saenuri lawmakers who have been at odds with Park have vowed to leave, arguing that the party's current leadership refuses to embrace reforms despite the corruption scandal and impeachment crisis.

"We've reached a conclusion that conservatives' reform through the Saenuri Party is impossible", prominent lawmaker Yoo Seung-Min told journalists.

A split would also complicate any potential presidential run by outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who had been widely expected to compete on the Saenuri ticket.

Thirty-five lawmakers have agreed to break away from theparty on 27 December, the dissident group said, adding they will try to persuade more legislators to join them.

Their departure will leave the party with some 90 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament, relegating it to second place behind the left-leaning Democratic Party.

The group crossed party lines to join opposition parties in passing the motion to impeach Park.

Park is accused of colluding with her confidante Choi Soon-Sil to coerce large companies like Samsung into handing over tens of millions of dollars to two dubious foundations which Choi allegedly controlled and plundered.

Park is also accused of ordering aides to leak state documents to Choi, who has no official title or security clearance, and allowing her to meddle in state affairs including the appointment of top officials.

Investigators on Wednesday raided the state-run National Pension Service in a widening probe into the scandal.

A special prosecutor has been investigating whether Samsung bribed Choi to win state approval for a controversial merger of two of its units last year.
Tokyo: A Japanese programme aimed at accepting a small number of refugees from war-torn Syria is under fire for implying that pregnant women are not welcome.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced in May that immigration-shy Japan, with a population of about 127 million, would accept up to 150 Syrian students over five years from 2017.

That number compares with vastly higher figures in other countries. Norway, with a population of about 5.1 million, has pledged to accept some 9,000 Syrians.

Abe separately pledged at a refugee summit hosted by US President Barack Obama in September that Japan was also prepared to "warmly welcome" family members of the students.

But the Japanese unit of Amnesty International has raised concerns that the programme for Syrians virtually excludes pregnant women.

As advertised, the programme  entitled "Japanese Initiative for the future of Syrian Refugees"  has several requirements for potential applicants.

Originally, they included the line: "Pregnant applicants are not recommended to apply," according to Amnesty and the government's Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which manages the programme.

But after Amnesty and other groups expressed concerns, it was changed to read: "Before the application, pregnant applicants are advised to consider carefully potential risk of health and life issues of mother and foetus."

JICA said today the programme's main focus was "not to rescue the underprivileged but to educate personnel" for Syria's reconstruction.

"When a pregnant woman comes to Japan and gives birth, she will have to rest for some time," JICA spokesman Satoshi Murakami told AFP, though stressing that the programme is not meant to exclude expectant women.

"Its focus is to educate people who will contribute to the country's reconstruction and be a bridge between Japan and Syria in the future.

"This is a context different from protecting refugees."

Amnesty International objects to that stance.

"The requirement is problematic because it narrows the window for female applicants," said Kaoru Yamaguchi, adding it discourages refugees from applying.

In March British charity Oxfam assessed Japan should take in some 50,000 Syrians based on the size of its economy.

Last year it accepted 27 refugees, including three Syrians, after some 7,500 people from 69 countries sought such status in Japan, according to the justice ministry.
By Melissa Fares

| PALM BEACH, Fla.

PALM BEACH, Fla. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was scheduled to meet on Wednesday at his Florida resort with the chief executives of two defence contractors he has criticized over project costs.Dennis Muilenburg, of Boeing Co (BA.N), and Marillyn Hewson, from Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), arrived at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort where he is spending Christmas.Since winning the Nov. 8 election, Trump has complained about the companies in Twitter broadsides and speeches for costs he said are too expensive, sending defence shares tumbling.Trump has said Boeing's costs to build replacements for aging Air Force One planes - one of the most visible symbols of the U.S. presidency - are too high and urged the federal government to "Cancel order!"

Trump has said the planes, which are in the early stages of development and are not expected to be ready until 2024, would cost more than $4 billion. The company is currently under contract for $170 million to help develop plans for the planes.Muilenburg had told Trump that the costs could be lowered if the Air Force changes its requirements.

Similarly, Trump said Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet program was "out of control," writing on Twitter that "Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th," the date he takes office.The costs of the F-35s, used by the U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force, and by six countries, have escalated to an estimated $400 billion, prompting it to be described as the most expensive weapon system in history.

Trump also has taken credit for forcing United Technologies Corp (UTX.N) and Ford Motor Co (F.N) to change plans to outsource jobs abroad. (Reporting by Melissa Fares; Writing by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Alistair Bell)

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The World Tourism Organization Headquarters in Madrid, Spain, hosted today the presentation of the 3rdUNWTO World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism. The event will be held in Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain, on 8-9 May 2017.

The Forum is organized by UNWTO in collaboration with UNWTO Affiliate Member, the Basque Culinary Center, as part of the activities of the UNWTO Gastronomy Network. The third edition will be dedicated to the links between gastronomy tourism and sustainability in the framework of the 2017 International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.

The first edition of the Forum took place in DonostiaSan Sebastian, the second edition in 2016 in Lima, Peru, and in 2017 the Forum will return to DonostiaSan Sebastian, where it is to be held every two years.

The presentation was attended by UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, the State Secretary of Tourism of Spain, Matilde Pastora Asian Gonzalez; the Vice Councilor of Commerce and Tourism of the Basque Government, Isabel Muela; the Director of Tourism of the County Council of Gipuzcoa, Maite Cruzado and the Councillor of Donostia-San Sebastian, Ernesto Gasco and the Director General of the Basque Culinary Center, Joxe Mari Aizega.

"The relation between food and culture has become a major motivation for travelers, but also a great catalyst of sustainable tourism as gastronomy tourism brings out the most authentic features of each destination" said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai at the presentation of the Forum.

"Gastronomy tourism has an immense potential and is a priority for Spain's tourism promotional strategy due to its increasing relevance, particularly in rural destinations. In 2015, 8.4 million international tourists, representing 12.3% of the total, engaged in some activity related to gastronomy" said Matilde Pastora Asian Gonzalez, Secretary of State for Tourism of Spain.

The event will bring together leading experts in gastronomy tourism to discuss latest trends and to share case studies and innovative products. Topics will include the so-called 'farm to table' processes, sustainable product development, successful public policies and the benefits of gastronomy tourism.

"Gastronomy tourism is a flourishing phenomenon and our objective is to create a space to share, to reflect, to analyze and to work to improve tourism in this area" said Joxe Mari Aizega, Director General of the Basque Culinary Center.

The panel presentations will be complemented by working sessions giving all participants the opportunity to interact and share ideas. Parallel to the official programme of the Forum, a wide range of events will be conducted at a number of gastronomic hubs showcasing the rich variety of products offered.

On the occasion of the Forum, UNWTO will release the second volume of the Global Report on Gastronomy Tourism. The publication analyses current trends in gastronomy tourism and the methodologies involved in product development.

About The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations specialized agency fostering tourism as a vehicle for equal, inclusive and sustainable development. Working with its Member States, international organizations and the private sector, UNWTO promotes safe and seamless travel for all. UNWTO also works to make tourism the foundation of trust and international cooperation and a central pillar of recovery. As part of the wider UN system, UNWTO is at the forefront of global efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including through its ability to create decent jobs, promote equality and preserve natural and cultural heritage.

Follow UNWTO on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin.

Rut Gomez Sobrino

Principal Media Officer

(+34) 91 567 81 60

UNWTO
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ARCO  In an advisory ballot measure last month, 57 percent of Butte County voters said they supported giving national park status to Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.

Now, a local group that has pushed for the Craters name change for two years hopes the evidence of local support will help finally secure the Idaho Legislatures blessing of its proposal.

This county wants this to happen, said Helen Merrill, one of the organizers of the national park push.

Advocates say changing Craters from monument to national park would bring a higher tourism profile to the region, drawing more visitors through the struggling rural towns of Arco, Carey and Mackay. Yet there is powerful opposition to the idea, in the form of the Idaho Farm Bureau. The organization is worried about added federal restrictions under the national park name, including limitations on hauling hay via U.S. 20/26 that passes through the monument.

Merrill, an Arco chiropractor, and another name-change organizer, County Commissioner Rose Bernal, said they are hopeful the Legislature passes a resolution supporting the name change in the coming session. Idahos congressional delegation has said it wants state support before taking up the proposal.

Data show national park in the name makes a difference. Three national monuments that changed to national parks since 2003 boosted visitation by an average of 28 percent, according to the National Park Service. Craters has averaged about 200,000 annual visitors in recent decades, and last year reached nearly 250,000.

Craters staff members arent allowed to take a public position on the name change. But they previously noted that Craters is rarely on the radar of tourists headed to Yellowstone or Grand Teton national parks. National monuments arent always listed in atlases and guidebooks, where national parks are featured prominently.

People know what a national park is, Merrill said. They do not know what a national monument is.

Despite high hopes, there was no legislative action on a name-change resolution in the last session. In 2015, a resolution passed the Senate but was held up in the House just before the session ended.

Merrill and Bernal say Sen. Jeff Siddoway of Terreton has committed to pushing a resolution in the Senate this year. Siddoway could not be reached for comment.

In the House, Leodores Merrill Beyeler was a leading proponent of the name change and sponsored it in 2015. But he was defeated by challenger Dorothy Moon in the May primary. Moon said she was just starting to study the issue and planned to meet with advocates in the coming days.

Merrill and Bernal say they expect to find ample support for the idea in both houses, similar to 2015, and will make regular trips to Boise to discuss the proposal with legislators in the coming weeks.

But Farm Bureau spokesman John Thompson said the organization and its lobbyists plan to fight the proposal. In the bureaus annual meeting at the end of last year, and again late last month, delegates from around the state voted to oppose the national park proposal, he said. A primary concern is that hay transported on the highway through the monument from eastern Idaho farms to Magic Valley dairies might face extra restrictions. Name-change proponents counter that the highway is owned by the state and wouldnt be affected by a national park designation.

But Thompson points to restrictions placed on U.S. 191 running through Montana and Yellowstone National Park, where he said hay is required to be covered and certified weed-free.

He said there is also distrust about what amendments might be made once a name-change bill hits Congress  possibly introducing some sort of provision that impacts agriculture in or around the park.

Thompson admits the name-change backers have worked hard and have a good reason for their efforts. We believe the folks out there have good intentions in terms of stimulating their economy, he said.

Merrill said shes repeatedly tried telling Farm Bureau members that the only change would be in the name. Were actually on the same side as you, she said. We dont want something thats going to manipulate or hurt our farmers or the agriculture in our area.

Theres this widespread fear of the government, Bernal added. Its irrational when it comes to this topic.

The national park designation would apply only to the original 54,000 acres proclaimed by President Calvin Coolidge in 1924 as a monument. Management of the rest of Craters roughly 700,000 acres, expanded by President Bill Clinton in 2000, would remain the same, with hunting and grazing still allowed in certain areas.

Backers are aware name changes have been tried before and failed. In the late 1980s, then-U.S. Rep. Richard Stallings got so far as to introduce a bill that would have changed the monuments status to national park. But it didnt go anywhere  in part due to similar concerns over added federal restrictions raised by hunting and grazing groups.

Still, advocates hope they can finally move a big step closer to Craters of the Moon National Park in the next few months, with backing from the Legislature.

I think the odds are awesome, Merrill said.
KETCHUM  The Environmental Resource Center will offer three birding field trips and three tracking workshops this winter.

Silver Creek Birding: 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Dec. 28, Jan. 7 and Feb. 4.

Local birder and artist Poo Wright-Pulliam will lead a snowshoe tour around The Nature Conservancys Silver Creek Preserve to investigate winter bird residents.

Meet at the intersection of River and Bullion (Park and Ride) in Hailey at 10:30 a.m. to carpool to Silver Creek. At the Preserve, participants will eat lunch and learn about the Silver Creek Preserve and The Nature Conservancy before venturing out on the snow.

Bring water, lunch, warm clothes and snowshoes. Suggested donation is $10 for ERC members and $20 for others. Register: 208-726-4333 or alisa@ercsv.org.

Winter Tracking Workshops: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Dec. 30, Jan. 14 and Feb. 11.

Longtime Wood River Valley resident Ann Christensen will lead the tracking workshops to investigate winter animal residents.

The program begins at the ERC office (471 Washington Ave. N. in Ketchum), introducing participants to the animals, their life histories and winter adaptations, while laying out basics about animal tracking. Participants then head out on a snowshoe tracking adventure through the fields and woods north of Ketchum.

Bring snowshoes, warm clothes and water. Suggested donation is $10 for ERC members and $20 for others. Register: 208-726-4333 or alisa@ercsv.org.
TWIN FALLS  Vason Lee Widaman, the 15-year-old Canyon Ridge freshman killed in a drive-by shooting, was murdered by two Buhl men over an $800 drug debt, police said.

The suspected killers, arrested Tuesday, were formally charged with the murder Wednesday, and new court documents in their cases show detectives were on their trail almost immediately after Widaman was gunned down May 7 in a brazen daylight shooting.

Over the months that followed, police used cellphone records, forensic evidence, witness testimony and a confidential informant to build their case.

Jose Daniel Alvarez, 20, and Gerardo Raul Chavez, 19, were arraigned in Twin Falls County Magistrate Court on felony counts of first-degree murder and intimidating a witness.

Chavez, who was in and out of police custody on probation violations since the killing, also threatened to kill Twin Falls Police Detective Ken Rivers, according to a sworn affidavit written by the veteran detective. Rivers was the lead investigator in the case.

According to several people who spoke to police in the days after the murder, Chavez was upset with Widaman because the Canyon Ridge freshman had failed to deliver Xanax pills he had promised Chavez in exchange for between $700 and $800.

A friend of Widamans who was unnamed in the affidavit told Rivers that Widaman had been involved in a number of drug deals and he had begun ripping people off.

Austin Dobbs, the son of Twin Falls School District Superintendent Wiley Dobbs, was Chavezs roommate. The younger Dobbs told police that he and Chavez in April had pooled around $700 or $800 to buy Xanax, and they went to Canyon Ridge High School to pay the person who would get the drugs for them. But when the pills were never delivered, Chavez promised to deal with the person responsible.

Dobbs said that several days before the homicide he was speaking with Chavez, who told him that he was going to kill someone for the missing drugs, Rivers wrote in the affidavit. Dobbs said this conversation occurred at the residence he shared with Chavez. Dobbs was playing a video game when Chavez said, Look at me. Dobbs said he looked at Chavez. Chavez said he was going to kill the person who stole their money.

Days after the killing, on May 10, Dobbs, Alvarez and Chavez were all detained for questioning. Chavez was arrested on a misdemeanor warrant for probation violation, while Alvarez and Dobbs were released. After Chavez posted bond, he and Alvarez took Dobbs to the Devils Corral area on the north side of the Snake River Canyon  an area where all three men had gone on a previous occasion to shoot a 9 mm handgun  and the two murder suspects interrogated him about what he had told law enforcement.

Dobbs said that during this questioning, he thought they might kill him, Rivers wrote in the sworn affidavit. Dobbs said that Chavez asked him about what he had told law enforcement and Alvarez yelled at him for even speaking with law enforcement.

Prosecutors charged Chavez and Alvarez with intimidating a witness based on that incident, and Magistrate Judge Roger Harris entered no-contact orders between the two suspects and Dobbs.

Police also say Chavez talked about the killing in October while he was drunk and threatened to kill the detective.

I just wanted to let you know, that kid who stole our money, I handled it, Chavez allegedly told Dobbs. Im also going to get Ken Rivers, and when I say something is going to happen, it does.

It apparently wasnt the first time Chavez talked about the killing, though. In July, an inmate at the Twin Falls County Jail contacted police telling them that Chavez, in jail on a probation violation, was talking about Widamans murder.

I met with this inmate who was upset about the homicide of a 15-year-old person and wanted to assist the Twin Falls Police in our investigation, Rivers wrote. This inmate became a confidential informant  and agreed to record conversations between himself and Chavez  (He) recorded a conversation between himself and Chavez where Chavez said the victim in the homicide owed him $700.

Cellphone data showing contact between Chavez and Widaman also helped investigators zero in on the suspects, while data from cellphone towers showed Chavezs phone in the area of the shooting at the time it was reported.

Several witnesses also identified the suspect vehicle as a dark Dodge Charger, which police linked back to Alvarezs gray 2014 Dodge Charger. And several people who knew Widaman mentioned Chavez and Alvarez as possible suspects because of their feud over the Xanax that was never delivered.

At the scene of the shooting, police recovered five 9 mm shell casings, which were sent to a lab in Utah, court documents said. The forensic analysis showed Alvarezs DNA  or the DNA from another male in his family  was on the casings.

Alvarez and Chavez are both being held without bond because of the gravity of their case and made their initial court appearances Wednesday via video from the jail. Alvarez was represented by the Twin Falls County Public Defenders office, while Doug Nelson from the Roark Law Firm was at the hearing on Chavezs behalf.

Nelson told the judge he would pick a different time and day to address the court when I know more about the case.

Both Alvarez and Chavez face 10 years to life in prison on the murder charges, and they could potentially face the death penalty. Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs office has 60 days to decide whether to seek it.

Both suspects are due back in court Dec. 30 for preliminary hearings.
BURLEY  Police say a Burley man stole a car and led police on a high-speed chase through a residential area and hid out in backyards until he was captured.

James Michael Connor III, 20, is charged with felony counts of grand theft and attempting to flee or elude an officer in a motor vehicle and misdemeanor charges of unlawful entry and resisting or obstructing officers.

His juvenile passenger, who also tried to flee from police, was charged with resisting and obstructing an officer.

Police said an officer spotted a silver 1998 GMC SUV with an expired license plate about 3:15 a.m. Friday on 18th Street and Almo Avenue. When the officer pulled the driver over and approached the vehicle, Connor accelerated and drove the vehicle down an alley and through Burley streets at a high rate of speed.

Police said Connor drove the vehicle in a manner that was dangerous to people and the property of others.

Connor ditched the car in the 1600 block of Normal Avenue, and he and the juvenile ran off in opposite directions.

A second deputy spotted Connor, who was wearing a red jacket, hiding in a backyard. Connor bolted again. Officers found footsteps in the yard leading to a shed, and he was apprehended.

When Connor was searched, police found two knives and a stun gun.

Connor told police that the son of the cars owner had given him permission to take it.

The owner said he does not have any children and does not know either suspect.

Connor could face more than 15 years in prison if convicted on all counts. A preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 30 in Cassia County magistrate court.

He is being held at the Mini-Cassia Criminal Justice Center on a $150,000 bond.
PICABO  Elk grazing in a mountain meadow is one thing, but hundreds of elk looting and plundering stack yards full of hay meant for ranch cattle is quite another.

Driven by the continuing spread of urban development and heavy mountain snowfall last winter, a massive herd of elk has pushed onto Blaine County ranches, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage to haystacks.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game saw payments for crop damage spike last winter, from the average $250,000 a year to $359,100 statewide. So this year, the department spent about $500,000 to buy fencing materials to keep marauding elk out of about 100 enclosures statewide.

In response to last winter, the department said lets do a big push and help those folks out, Sal Palazzolo, Fish and Games private lands program coordinator, said in an IDFG statement.

Last winter, 800 elk descended from the Pioneer Mountains into the Carey-Picabo-Bellevue triangle.

Weve had depredation issues for quite some time  but typically youll see elk in small bunches of 20 or 30, said John Guthrie, landowner-sportsman coordinator with the IDFGs Jerome office. Last winter, landowners spent a major amount of time keeping the elk out of their stacks.

Ranchers fought a losing battle keeping the elk away from the haystacks, Guthrie said. In addition to the cost of the lost hay, it costs extra man hours to patrol the stack yards.

We were working 24-hour hours a day and hazing elk every two hours to keep them at bay, Picabo Ranch manager Elliott Nachtman told Fish and Game. When youre out all night in 14-below-zero weather, it was a lot of work, I can tell you that.

The ranch was invaded by about 600 elk over the winter.

Preventing crop depredation  by elk, deer and pronghorn  is getting more attention and funding, thanks to partnerships such as IDFG and Blaine County, Guthrie said.

Fish and Game worked with the county on a $40,000 grant funded by Blaine Countys Land, Water and Wildlife Program that paid the cost to construct 14 enclosures on 12 different landowners properties, including two at the 4,300-acre Picabo Ranch.

It wouldnt have happened without the landowners cooperation, Guthrie said in a statement. Landowners contributed more than $13,000, or one-quarter of the construction costs to the project.

With the haystacks out of reach, Guthrie said, the elk are more likely to stay out of the valleys, off the highways and away from traffic.
Cornelius Cornie Marten Lanting

TWIN FALLS  Visitation Tuesday December 20, 2016 from 5:00 P.M. To 7:00 P.M. at Parke's Magic Valley Funeral Home, Twin Falls, Idaho. Funeral service at 2:00 P.M. Wednesday, December 21 2016 at Parke's Magic Valley Funeral Home, Twin Falls, Idaho.

Douglas W. Larson

TWIN FALLS  Douglas W. Larson of Twin Falls, Services at 11 a.m. Wednesday December 21, 2016, at the Harrison St. S. LDS Chapel. Visitation is on Tuesday December 20, 2016, from 6-8 p.m. at Rosenau Funeral Home.

Rodney R. Hobbs

TWIN FALLS  Rodney R. Hobbs of Twin Falls, celebration of life with military honors at 1 p.m. Wednesday, December 21, 2016, at Serenity Funeral Chapel Life Celebration Center & Cremation Services of Idaho, 502 2nd Ave. North, Twin Falls. Parking is available at Magic Valley High School on Main Street across from the funeral home.

Jay Floyd Eilers

TWIN FALLS  Jay Floyd Eilers of Twin Falls, and formerly of Rupert, funeral at 11 a.m. Wednesday, December 21, at the Hope Community Church (formerly First Baptist Church), 25 N. 4th E., in Paul. Visitation is from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, December 20, at the Rasmussen Funeral Home, 1350 E. 16th St., in Burley.

Garneta Gee

HANSEN  Garneta Gee, 82, of Hansen, visitation will be held on Wednesday, December 21, 2016 from 5 - 7 P.M. at Parke's Magic Valley Funeral Home, 2551 Kimberly Rd in Twin Falls. Funeral services will be held on Thursday, December 22, 2016 at 1:00 P.M. the Kimberly Stake Center at 3857 N. 3500 E., Kimberly, with viewing one hour prior. Burial will follow at the Oakley cemetery. Arrangements are under the direction of Parke's Magic Valley Funeral Home of Twin Falls.

Betty Dawn Porter

TWIN FALLS  Funeral services for Betty will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at the 15th Ward LDS Church, 2085 South Temple Drive, Twin Falls with Bishop Mark Lambert conducting. Burial will follow at 2:00 p.m. at the Oakley Cemetery in Oakley, Idaho. A viewing for family and friends will take place on Wednesday morning from 10:00 a.m. until 10:45 a.m. at the church. Services are under the direction of Reynolds Funeral Chapel, Twin Falls.

Keith P. Critchfield

OAKLEY  Keith P. Critchfield of Oakley, funeral services at 11 a.m. Thursday, December 22, 2016, at the Oakley Stake Center, 355 North Center in Oakley. Visitation from 6-8 Wednesday, December 21, 2016, at the Oakley Stake Center and from 10:00 - 10:45 Thursday, at the church prior to the service. Arrangements under the care of Morrison Payne Funeral Home in Burley.

Cynthia Forthun

RUPERT  Cynthia Forthun of Rupert, funeral at 11 a.m. Thursday, December 22 at the First Baptist Church, 2262 Hiland Ave, Burley. A visitation will be held from 6 until 8 p.m. Wednesday, December 21 at the Rasmussen Funeral Home, 1350 E 16th St., Burley and at the church on Thursday one hour prior to the service.

John C. Merrill

BURLEY  John Churchill Merrill of Burley, funeral at 11 a.m. Friday, December 30, at the Rasmussen Funeral Home, 1350 E, 16th St., in Burley. Military honors will be provided by the Mini-Cassia Veterans Organization.

Terry Torwan

SHOSHONE  Terry Torwan of Shoshone, visitation will be held on Thursday, December 22, 2016 from 5 - 7 p.m. at Parke's Magic Valley Funeral Home, 2551 Kimberly Rd in Twin Falls. Funeral service will follow on Friday December 23, 2016 at 2:00 P.M. at the Funeral Home.
Despite their victories in the House, Senate and White House, Republicans still spend their time lamenting the medias unfairness and complaining that Democrats are acting hypocritically. The thin-skinned President-elect Donald Trump and his media boosters are no better. They seem to bristle at every criticism, no matter how slight or how valid.

Fox Non-News host Bill OReilly whines that Democrats didnt care about Russia until the hacking episode. Thats false, of course. (Both parties have been outraged over Russian aggression. Hillary Clinton spent a good deal of the election mocking Trump for his pandering to Vladimir Putin.) Moreover, the question is easily reversed: Why did Republicans care about Russian mischief until the November elections?

Trumps bizarre post-election behavior, we grant you, is hard to defend, but Obama skipped briefings, too is not sufficient to justify Trumps dereliction. Obama treated the presidency like a never-ending campaign doesnt justify Trump spending his time at rallies patting himself on the back when he could be getting up to speed on policy.

This sort of reasoning would lead to all sorts of oddball contentions:

Hillary and Bill Clinton sold access, so it is OK when the Trump sons do the same. (Prospective million-dollar donors to the Opening Day 2017 event  slated for Jan. 21, the day after inauguration, at Washington, D.C.s Walter E. Washington Convention Center  receive a private reception and photo opportunity for 16 guests with President Donald J. Trump, a multi-day hunting and/or fishing excursion for 4 guests with Donald Trump, Jr. and/or Eric Trump, and team, as well as tickets to other events and autographed guitars by an Opening Day 2017 performer.)

Frankly, there are not many Republicans or Democrats who are willing to be as tough on their own side as they are on the other. That goes for voters, media figures and activists who consider themselves to be on Team D or Team R. Thats part of the hyper-partisanship that has gripped politics since the Newt Gingrich era. (Speaking of hypocrisy, impeaching Bill Clinton for lying about infidelities when carrying on his own affair may still be the worst case of political chutzpah in my lifetime.)

Corruption, inattention and irresponsibility are not the sole provinces of either party, but continually ascribing ill motives to the other side and virtuous ones to your own has a way of skewing ones judgment. Its easy to assume that the other side is motivated by hate and up to no good while ones own side has only the best intentions. Put yourself in a media cocoon where your own opinions are rarely challenged, and soon its hard to notice anything wrong with your own side or anything sympathetic about the other.

To be blunt, we dont care whether Obama did it, too or Democrats didnt complain when Hillary Clinton did it. Clinton is spending her time hiking in the woods, and Obama wont be president a month from today. Trump and the new Congress should not get graded on a curve. Judge them on their own behavior, hold them to the same standard youve used for your own team and let the chips fall where they may. Is this really that hard?
A growing geopolitical role comes at a price in blood, as Russia was forcefully reminded on Monday when its ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was shot in an Ankara art gallery. Russia might not be paying that price had it kept out of the Syrian conflict but, paradoxically, it has now joined the West in footing this bill.

In 2012, when Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, was killed by a mob in Benghazi, Russian propaganda outlets lectured the U.S. for meddling in the Middle East. It was on Washingtons urging that NATO intervened in the conflict in Libya, Russian state television editorialized. But warnings that sooner or later this would produce a boomerang effect were drowned out by sloganeering about a victory for democracy in totalitarian countries.

After Karlovs murder, Russia got a taste of the same medicine from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, who tweeted: 1/2 Russia has been responsible for horrendous violations of human rights & the murder of thousands innocent people in Syria & Ukraine.

He then added in a follow-up that this was no excuse for killing the ambassador.

Callous as such statements are, there is some truth to them. Ambassadors are assassinated because they represent their countries, and they dont do it in the same abstract way as innocent victims of attacks like the one in Berlin on Monday night. Diplomats are conduits for their nations policies. That sets them up as targets for those who want to make a statement against those policies.

Between 1968 and 1979, five U.S. ambassadors were killed in the line of duty, three of them in the Middle East, one in Cyprus and one in Guatemala  both countries where the U.S. was accused of meddling. In 1981, France lost its ambassador in Beirut as revenge for Frances role in the Lebanese civil war. The list goes on, and it includes dozens of lower-ranking diplomats.

Russia has been extraordinarily lucky in this respect. In 1829, its ambassador in Tehran, one of Russias most revered authors, Alexander Griboedov was killed in a riot against Russias outsized influence and perceived arrogance after it won a war against Persia; to atone, the Shah sent the Russian czar an enormous diamond. After that, Russian ambassadors were only killed by White Russian officers as revenge for the Bolshevik takeover of power. One explanation could be that the Soviets took the security of their diplomats extra seriously, turning embassies into fortresses and closely guarding the ambassadors. Another reason is that the Soviet Union often sided with the same violent parties that killed Western diplomats.

Now, however, Russia finds itself in a new, unaccustomed position. It is still not part of the West as far as the West is concerned, but it is Western enough, godless enough to hundreds of Islamist terror groups. The Turkish policeman who shot Karlov was apparently a strong backer of the rebels whom the Syrian Army, with Russian support, has just defeated in Aleppo.

Broadly, Western powers meddling in the Middle East today face the same dangers as they did in the 1970s and early 1980s, when the majority of ambassadors were assassinated. The region is once again a powder keg, only this time the wars have displaced tens of millions of people. Its a war in which every representative of the secular world is a target for someone.

That, perhaps, is why there is no visible rift between Russia and Turkey. On Tuesday, the two countries foreign ministers laid flowers together in Moscow in memory of the murdered ambassador. If the assassination is a casus belli at all, it should be one against Islamist radicals on all sides of the Syrian bloodbath.
Every person who lobbies in Idaho has to register with the Secretary of States Office, and, not surprisingly, the list is awfully long. Last year, 420 people registered. A list of their names and who they lobby for is 46 pages long.

Add one more name to the list this year: The Blaine County School District has hired its own lobbyist to represent its interests in the legislative session that begins next month. According to the state, it is the only district in Idaho individually lobbying lawmakers.

We think this is a dumb, and potentially dangerous, idea.

For starters, the district is using taxpayer money to pay for its lobbyist. As first reported in the Idaho Mountain Express, Phil Homer, a former superintendent and Idaho Association of School Administrators lobbyist, will be paid $3,300 per month. Considering a typical legislative session runs about three months, Homer stands to make about $10,000.

We can think of plenty of other, more useful ways the district could spend that money.

What the district thinks Homer will accomplish is unclear. Districts are already collectively represented by lobbyists in the legislature, including by the group Homer used to work for. What will one more lobbyist accomplish for Blaine County schools?

That Homer is also the former superintendent seems especially shady, and his hire shifts responsibility away from the board and puts a wedge between it and state lawmakers. The job duties of being a school district administrator and school board member include communicating with legislators. Here, Blaine County schools have outsourced that responsibility.

The idea was first floated by current Superintendent GwenCarol Holmes, who has her share of detractors in the Wood River Valley. One group has even sued the school district, claiming Holmes is helping to cover up decisions and manipulating individual school board members.

Two board members deserve credit for voting against this terrible idea: Cami Bustos and Elizabeth Corker.

It just, it does not sit right with me to be paying or using (district) funds for political purposes, no matter how good we think they are, Corker said, according to the Express.

We couldnt have said it better.

Reading between the lines, it appears the district is worried the Legislature could strip some of its funding as it seeks to rework how Idaho schools are funded. As Holmes put it, sometimes were envied for our resources.

If thats the case, the district is shooting itself in the foot. Nothing would make the district appear to lawmakers as if it is overfunded like hiring your own lobbyist.

Perhaps most disturbing is the precedent this sets. There are 115 school districts in Idaho  and hundreds upon hundreds of other taxing districts. What if they all hired lobbyists?

That list in the Secretary of States Office would be a heck of a lot longer than it already is.
Moroccan and European Union officials have welcomed the ruling announced this Wednesday by the European court, which rejected the appeal lodged by the Algeria-backed Polisario separatists, challenging the EU-Morocco agriculture accord.

Last April, the European court cancelled its former verdict on farm deal with Morocco in the appeal filed by the EU. This new ruling deals a hard blow to the Polisario secessionists and their advocates who were hoping to block to EU-Morocco trade accord.

The court battle was triggered in 2015 when the European General Court partly upheld a challenge to the bilateral 2012 farm trade deal, arguing the deal included the Sahara provinces within its scope.

The court had then said the EU had not carried out its duties to ensure it considered all aspects of the trade deal, including its impact on the Sahara inhabitants.

Following this ruling, the EU lodged an appeal and won its case. However, the Polisario refused to accept defeat and challenged the decision but again it lost this Wednesday all its attempts at a high cost, as the plaintiff has been made liable for payment of all incurred legal expenses.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini had promised to protect the global trade pact which lowered tariffs on Moroccan agricultural exports to the bloc, vowing that the European Unions international commitments will be respected.

Ms. Mogherini had also underlined the importance of the EUs ties with the North African country.

For his part, Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar had called on the European Union to move quickly to fix the problem to preserve the Morocco-EU partnership.

The 2012 trade deal lowered tariffs on dozens of Moroccan agricultural exports to the EU in exchange for scrapping of tariffs on some European exports to the North African country.

The agreement was part of EU efforts to encourage democratic reforms in the region following the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011.The EU has extensive ties with Morocco on trade, political and security matters.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced a tripartite agreement dubbed the Moscow Declaration after separate meetings of foreign and defense ministers from Iran, Russia and Turkey in Moscow.

The declaration announced the readiness of these three countries to serve as guarantors and to facilitate the drafting of an agreement that would be a product of ongoing negotiations between the Syrian government and the opposition. Russia and Iran strongly support Assads government while Turkey is against having a powerful Kurdish militia or state near its border but they nevertheless invited all other countries with influence over the situation on the ground to help in reaching an agreement after more than five years of war and rampage.

Russias foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the approach of the three countries presents the most effective means of ending the Syrian war. Lavrovs remarks came a week after he described talks with the US as fruitless. Washington wants President Assad to step down from power. Defense minister Shoigu added that all previous attempts by the US and its partners to agree on coordinated actions were doomed to failure, as he claimed that none of them wielded real influence over the situation on the ground.

On Tuesday, Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani revealed from Tehran that Iran has established joint military headquarters with Russia in Syria, without specifying its location.

According to alarabiya.net, Shamkhani made the statement following the visit of a representative of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to Tehran and his meeting with some Iranian officials.

We have initiated a joint work plan in cooperation with some countries in the region to fight terrorism. It is a field and diplomatic work; it needs counseling to overcome some of the obstacles, Shamkhani was quoted by al-Arabiya.net as saying.

We have established a joint military headquarter with Russia in Syria with the help of the Syrian army and the resistance forces and we have provided counseling services too, he said.

The Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council also talked about the military cooperation between his country, Russia and Iraq saying, We are undertaking a joint military action in the axis formed by Iraq, Syria, Iran and Russia to combat terrorism.

Russia and Iran have played an influential role in defending the Assad regime, ever since the eruption of the Syrian revolution. The Iranian regime started supporting the Assad regime at the intelligence level. Tehran later on sent its militias into Syria after the progress made by the opposition forces.
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.
Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has irked the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) after he sent a close aid to mediate in the post-electoral crisis in Gambia.

The crisis flared up after defeated President Yahya Jammeh rejected the December 1 election results, few days after he admitted his defeat and congratulated his challenger.

The ECOWAS has made it clear it would not allow any attempt by President Jammeh to overstay in power following his rejection of his December 1 defeat against opposition candidate Adama Barrow.

The regional organization failed to rein in the Gambian ruler but is determined to push forward to allow democracy prevail in the small West African country.

The crisis was discussed during the organization summit in Abuja, Nigeria, early this week.

The Mauritanian leader, according to the Gambian State House, sent Sunday his close aid and Presidential Secretary, Moulay Ould Mohamed Laghdof, to conduct mediation in the crisis and bolster ties with Gambia.

The move is deemed controversial by several African media outlets which wondered why Mauritania tried to outshine the ECOWAS and what are the motive behind the diplomatic game being played by the head of the Mauritania authoritarian regime.

Laghdof, a veteran and skilful diplomat, is known as the man of difficult situations.

President Ould Abdel Aziz was among the world leaders and figures who congratulated the President-elect Barrow for his win over Jammeh.

A support of Nouakchott for Banjul will inevitably cause further rift between the regional organization and the North African country, which left the organization in 2000 for cultural reasons.
The most wanted man in Guinea, Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite, has been arrested in Senegal on Tuesday after seven years of hide-out.

Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite, alias Toumba Diakite, former leader of the red berets is accused of connection with a 2009 stadium massacre that killed more than 150 people in the West African tiny nation.

A police communique circulated by the Senegalese police says the operation started over a month ago after they had a tip off. Twelve members of the section of the gendarmerie worked around the clock. Toumba, very discreet, lived in Dakar in a bourgeois district close to the citys African Monument De Renaissance statue.

Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite, aide-de-camp of former President Moussa Daddis Camara, had gained weight and was hardly recognizable. He used a Guinean license with the name of Aboubacar Barry to pass through the checks, the police said.

Upon his arrest, Aboubacar Diakite acknowledged his identity, confirmed by documents found in the apartment he rented.

Ibrahima Beavogui, spokesman for Guineas justice ministry, confirmed Tuesday that Diakite had been arrested and was expected to face trial back home in Conakry.

The United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, also welcomed the arrest saying that that arrest of Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite represents an important milestone in on-going efforts by the Government of Guinea to establish the truth and ensure accountability for the crimes committed in September 2009, including sexual violence crimes.
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Posted on: Dec 21, 2016





The Story of Sai - 5

And the lessons for you and me



Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 06 || Part 07 || Part 08

The antiquity of The Ramayana, The Mahabharata, and The Bhagavatha is unquestionable and indecipherable. Yet in India they are as fresh and alive in people's consciousness as the stories of their own families. Rama, Krishna, Radha, etc. are almost a part of their daily life and living. What makes these legendary tales contemporary in every age? Rama's paintings and sculptures or Krishna's images and carvings, poems on Rama's glory or discussions on Krishna's message, are as passionately done now as they happened in 3 AD or 13 AD or 1300 AD. What makes them defy time and be relevant to every society over ages? Is it the incredible heroics of Rama? Or the delightful and miraculous sport of Krishna? Or the awesome plot of these captivating poetic narrations? While all this is true, what makes these epics eternal is something more fundamental.

91st Birthday Celebrations Logo - Download

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are like the heart and the head of India, and are as vital to India as the heart and the head are to a human body, Bhagawan says and goes on to state what makes these epics so vital: Sathya and dharma are not related to merely one person, one period of time, or one country; they are related to all people, all periods of time, and all countries... It is because these tales are nothing but beautiful elaborations of Truth and Righteousness, that they have stood the test of time and circumstance. But this essence can be grasped only if these epics are read not as scintillating stories but as reinvigorating treatises on how to lead a life anchored to Truth and Righteousness.

As much as this is true for these ancient epics, it is the same with the current Sai Bhagavatha too. Every scene and character, sequence and incident, twist and turn in the Sai Saga is for the purpose of divinising man through the practice of Truth, Righteousness, Peace and Love. But to assimilate this deeply and internalise it intensely so that it can be translated into real action, the Story of Sai needs to be not just read but meditated upon assiduously. This series, started in November 2016, commemorating Bhagawan's 91st Birthday is an attempt in this direction. We hope this will help us to reflect more profoundly on the Sai Bhagavatha and implement the lessons learnt more powerfully in our day-to-day existence.

His Story

For generations, the Ratnakaram Raju family was known for its piety. The transformation in the character and mind-set of the family was often traced to the saintly ancestor Sage Venkavadhuta. He was in fact the family deity. Sri Kondama Raju always felt a deep connect with him. Apparently he had seen Venkavadhuta in person and had the opportunity to serve him food, and directly listen to him. It is the powerful influence of these priceless moments that inspired Kondama Raju to lead a pure and simple life, one that is always tuned to the Divine.

It is not surprising that Kondama Raju frequently referred to Venkavadhuta in his conversations. The Sage was believed to have come to Andhra Pradesh from Maharashtra. One afternoon under a Banyan tree, he is said to have communed with Kondama Raju and revealed, The earth is in deep distress...Narayana Himself would come.

Whenever Kondama Raju described the Avadhuta it would be in such words:

No face could ever be gloomy in his presence for he was always smiling, and jovial. No door ever closed as he passed by because everyone invited him in. People everywhere claimed him as their kinsman but he himself refused to accept any relationship or ties with anyone. He was hungry only when another in his presence was hungry. He wore clothes only when they were wound around him. He carried his body as if it were a dress put on him; he had no attachment to it. So the rain washed it, the Sun dried it, and sleep visited it occasionally and left whenever it was unwelcome. When he looked, his eyes shone bright. When he spoke, his voice was steady and soothing. When he placed his hand on the head of someone, that touch was a prelude to paradise. He was like a breeze... a cloud... a bird on flight from earth to heaven... no one knew anything about him... none could guess where he came from and to where indeed he went. He was here, there, anywhere, everywhere for more years than anyone could calculate or guess.

Legend has it that the Venkavadhuta went into Jeevasamadhi (eternal communion with the Divine), about 300 years ago. This took place in the village Chowdeswaripura. However since 1846, it has been known as Hussainpura because of the nomenclature change instituted by the then Nawab of Hyderabad. Currently, it is in the Pavagada Taluk of the state of Karnataka, a few kilometres from the border of Andhra Pradesh.

The story goes that one day the bullocks of Mukkarollu, a peasant, fell into a well. Many people tried to rescue the animals but in vain. Venkavadhuta was then passing by and looking at the chaos there, remarked, Why do you all struggle so much? No need to pull them. The bullocks will come out on their own.

The next second he lovingly called out to the bullocks, and up they came  walking! The villagers were flabbergasted! They realised he was no ordinary holy man. So they requested him not to leave their place. The grateful Mukkarollu offered a hut to the revered saint. In that space, which served as the saint's residence for many years, stands today a historic temple dedicated to this enlightened being.

There is another tale of how after his Jeevasamadhi, a few Muslims complained to the Nawab of Hyderabad that the Avadhuta's body was buried in the middle of the village. The Nawab then ordered that the tomb be removed.

A soldier was assigned the task of uncovering the tomb. As he did this, what he saw left him completely bedazzled and befuddled  all the puja material were neatly laid out and the lamps were still burning, bright and steady! Horrified and humbled, he instantly closed the tomb and transformed into a devotee.

Not only him, the entire community there, once and for all, surrendered to the sacredness of that shrine. In fact since then, many including the soldier, contributed generously towards the development of this temple. The people of that area even now confide how on several occasions they have spotted saintly personages come and disappear from that holy enclosure.

It is probably because of his intense devotion to Venkavadhuta that Sri Kondama Raju named his two sons Venkama Raju (the prefixes, 'Pedda' and 'Chinna' in all likelihood came later to distinguish them). Providentially, both of them inherited not only their fathers musical, literary and dramatic virtuosity, but also his piety and simplicity.

Reflection

On May 23, 1940, when Pedda Venkama Raju, intensely frustrated with the puzzling and paranormal behaviour of young Sathya angrily exhorts Him to reveal who He truly is, for the first time, the 14-year old Sathyanarayana uncovers His identity and declares, I am Sai Baba... I belong to Apasthamba Suthra and I am of Bharadwaja Gothra... Then He adds, I have come because Venkavadhuta and other saints prayed for My coming.

It is evident that the Transcendental Reality encases Himself in an earthly body more as a response to the prayer of His devotees than anything else. Rama came because the sages then prayed to the Almighty to arrive on earth. Krishna descended because countless pure souls beseeched the Lord to descend for their deliverance. When Prahlada called out to Him, the Lord had to take a grotesque-looking human-lion form because of Hiranyakashipu's mighty powers, but He did come.

Especially when the good and godly pray, God always arrives because they undoubtedly seek the larger good of the world. For them, He can go to any length. Thus, He comes because they ask for His coming. If they had asked for only destruction of evil or protection from a particular calamity or the granting of a certain boon, the omnipotent Lord could have done that for them in a million ways, without having to assume an earthly vesture. But when the devotees miss Him, He comes down in a mesmerising form. It is the same that happens within us too. When the pangs of separation from Him grow into an unbearable pain and emptiness in our heart, He manifests within, most magnificently, melting all our sorrows in an instant into unspeakable ecstasy.

Therefore, the Avatar comes only to fill our starved hearts with love. In fact this is what Baba said on Krishna's Birthday in 1988: You should note that the Divine comes as an Avatar only to teach mankind the way of Love... because only through love, and the practice of love as sacrifice, can man realise the Divine. It was the same in the present era too. So many evolved souls like Venkavadhuta prayed for His presence and the Lord consented.

Sri Aurobindo, for instance, withdrew himself from his disciples considerably from the beginning of 1926. From the trend of talks he delivered before and after August 15, 1926 it was becoming clear that the importance of a link between the highest Supermind and mind was being emphasised; he called it the Overmind. During those six years (1920-26), it was also apparent that he had gone much further not only in the ascent and into the Higher Consciousness but also in bringing about its descent into Nature. Several times in early November, his evening talks turned on the possibility of the descent of the Divine Consciousness and its process. Finally on November 24, 1926 (just the day after Baba's birth) Sri Aurobindo called for a special assembly of all his disciples. He was looking unusually radiant that day.

What followed next was a session of deep meditative silence for about 45 minutes, and then he blessed all of them, profusely and joyously. Later he revealed: It was (the day of) the descent of Krishna into the physical. Explaining more he said, The descent of Krishna would mean the descent of the Overmind Godhead preparing, though not itself actually bringing, the descent of Supermind and Ananda.

Sri Aurobindo with his disciples

Perhaps Sri Aurobindo was referring to the descent of bliss (Ananda) in the hearts of devotees which would happen with the descent of Krishna into the physical. In fact Baba Himself wrote in a letter to His brother in 1947: I have a Task: to foster all mankind, and fill peoples lives with Ananda.

However, it is truly difficult to decipher the words and acts of Avadhutas (self-realised souls) and evolved beings like Sri Aurobindo. Nevertheless what is clear and confirmed by Bhagawan Himself is that He came because enlightened and pious beings intensely longed for Him.

What is also interesting to note is that Venkavadhuta is believed to have come from Maharashtra, the state which witnessed the first incarnation of the triune Sai Avatar. It almost seems like he was God's messenger pleasantly doing the task of preparing the space selected by the Lord for His second incarnation in flesh and blood. Perhaps, this preparation begins with God's name pulsating in the breath of the members of the Ratnakaram household, and singing His glory becoming their life-blood. Because Divinity can manifest only in a milieu of purity. Thus, the touch of Venkavadhuta transformed Sri Kondama Raju's life into a saga of devotion and servitude. And it is this sacred blood that flowed into the veins of his sons, preparing them to eventually become the earthly Father and Uncle of the Sri Sathya Sai Avatar.

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 06 || Part 07 || Part 08

 Bishu Prusty

Radio Sai Team


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If an emergency department is open 24 hours a day, why would patients be charged extra for coming in "after hours"?

Good question, say experts who help patients decipher and dispute their medical bills. "After-hours surcharges," as they're sometimes called, should be included in the regular fees charged by emergency physicians for an emergency department visit, they argue. But instead patients sometimes find an additional charge, generally between $30 and $200, tacked onto their bill for visiting overnight.

Although not commonplace, the use of such surcharges may be on the rise. "We've definitely been seeing these surcharges a lot more this year than in the past," said Candice Butcher, vice president of Medical Billing Advocates of America in Roanoke, Va., which provides medical billing resolution services to individuals and companies.

She pointed to a recent example last September in which an uninsured man visited a hospital overnight in Texas to have an abscess on his finger drained. The emergency physician's bill totaled $1,697: $910 for evaluation and management services, $749 for draining the abscess and $38 for receiving services between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.

In this case, as in others, the after-hours surcharge was a tiny fraction of the total bill. But it rankles people.

"People ask, 'Why are they charging me this extra fee for a facility that's open 24 hours a day?'" said Butcher.

Insurers may refuse to pay the extra charge, and if they do rule the charge ineligible for payment, typically patients don't have to pick it up.

"Aetna does not reimburse for an 'after-hours charge' if it is associated with an emergency room visit code or in an urgent care center as these facilities are usually open after routine office hours," said Ethan Slavin, a spokesman for Aetna.

The rationale for an after-hours surcharge is to cover the extra costs associated with operating and staffing a facility outside normal working hours, including generally higher salaries for overnight work, said Richard Gundling, a senior vice president at the Healthcare Financial Management Association, an industry group for executives. It's used to varying degrees by emergency physicians, he said.

It's legitimate to charge patients extra for visiting the emergency department during overnight hours, said Dr. Rebecca Parker, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians. "You're paying people to be on staff during nighttime hours, and there are potentially extra costs there," she said. Still, she said, emergency physicians rarely use it.

2016 Kaiser Health News

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A simple blood test may better predict which patients diagnosed with liver cancer will experience disease recurrence, according to new research from Weill Cornell Medicine scientists. The findings may help physicians determine who would benefit most from a liver transplant.

Depending on disease severity, oncologists may recommend liver transplantation for patients whose tumors have not yet metastasized. Physicians have traditionally used a special set of criteria, based on the size and number of tumors, to assess patients' risk of cancer reoccurrence if they receive a new organ  the findings from which ultimately determine if transplantation is the appropriate treatment.

In their study, published Sept. 16 in the Annals of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine investigators demonstrate that measuring the concentration of molecules in the blood that increase in the presence of liver cancer can discern which patients will experience disease relapse more effectively than the current model. The scientists say the new criteria, known as the Model of Recurrence After Liver Transplant  or MORAL score  can help ensure that those who are selected for liver transplants have the best chance of staying cancer-free after surgery.

"At the end of the day, our goal is to use better predictors to provide patients with improved treatment options," said Dr. Robert Brown, the Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-creator of the MORAL criteria. "By using pre-transplant biomarkers focused more on the growth and aggressiveness of liver cancer, we can determine which patients will do better with a liver transplant and which patients would benefit from more aggressive pre-transplant therapies to control their cancer."

In conjunction with surgeon Dr. Karim Halazun, an assistant professor of surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine, and other surgeons from NewYork-Presbyterian, Brown prospectively studied a cohort of 339 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who had undergone liver transplantation to determine whether the MORAL criteria, compared with the traditional Milan criteria, could better predict cancer recurrence. Measuring common blood tests  including the breakdown of the white blood cells, specifically the neutrophil and lymphocytes, and the amount of a tumor marker protein, the alpha-fetoprotein, in the blood  correctly predicted cancer recurrence 91 percent of the time, while the Milan criteria only yielded a 63 percent accuracy rate, Brown said.

"Using our MORAL score, we want to help patients lead longer lives," said Brown, director of the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation and a hepatologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center. "By combining this score with therapies we are developing to selectively change immune suppression in high-risk patients, we would be able to tell patients the risk of their cancer returning and at the same time tell them we have a plan for reducing that risk  that we can do something about it."
Credit: Tel Aviv University

A new Tel Aviv University study finds that a popular food supplement called phosphatidylserine may be instrumental in reversing the detrimental effects of Familial Dysautonomia (FD), a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that affects approximately 1 in 31 Jewish people of Eastern European, or Ashkenazi, ancestry. FD affects aspects of the autonomic nervous system such as swallowing, sweating, and pain sensitivity, and places patients at increased risk for pulmonary and gastrointestinal complications.

The research, led jointly by Prof. Gil Ast and Prof. Eran Perlson of TAU's Sackler School of Medicine, generated a mouse model of FD to examine the neuron degeneration caused by FD and to observe the positive effects of the novel therapy. The study was published in PLOS Genetics.

Trucks, highways, and neurons

"Neurons are the longest cells in our body," said Prof. Ast. "'Highways' along our neurons allow 'trucks' with 'cargo' to supply our neurons with essential supplies. In most neurodegenerative diseases these highwayscalled microtubulesand the axonal transport process are impaired. Our study demonstrates that alterations in the stability of microtubules and disruptions in the transport may lead to FD."

The research team, including Shiran Naftelberg-Blonder and other TAU students, generated a mouse model of FD. The mice exhibited symptoms similar to those experienced by human patients with FD, including developmental delays, sensory abnormalities, unstable microtubules, and impairment of axonal retrograde transport of nerve growth factor.

"We found that in neurons from our FD mice, the microtubular highways were impaired by elevated levels of an enzyme called HDAC6," said Prof. Ast. "This impairment removed the adhesive that connects the 'bricks' of the highway. This led to less stabilized highways and to the slower movement of cargo along it."

Once the mouse exhibiting FD symptoms was generated, the researchers administered a phosphatidylserine treatment, which lowered the level of the enzyme that removed the "glue" from the "bricks" of the microtubular highways. Phosphatidylserine contains both amino acids and fatty acids and is known to be effective in slowing down long-term memory loss.

Finding a "path" to treatment

The researchers found that the treatment with phosphatidylserine enhanced the stability of the microtubular "highways" and improved the movement of "cargo" along these pathways. "We identified the molecular pathway that leads to neurodegeneration in FD and demonstrated that phosphatidylserine has the potential to slow progression of neurodegeneration," said Prof. Ast.

"Phosphatidylserine can repair the activity in neurons from the FD mouse by reducing the amount of the enzyme that removes the 'glue' from the 'bricks,'" Prof. Ast continued. "This elevates the stability of the 'highways' and increases essential cargo movement along these neurological pathways."

The researchers are currently researching ways of improving the delivery of phosphatidylserine to the nervous system. Teva Pharmaceuticals contributed support for this research through the National Network of Excellence.

More information: Shiran Naftelberg et al, Phosphatidylserine Ameliorates Neurodegenerative Symptoms and Enhances Axonal Transport in a Mouse Model of Familial Dysautonomia, PLOS Genetics (2016). Journal information: PLoS Genetics Shiran Naftelberg et al, Phosphatidylserine Ameliorates Neurodegenerative Symptoms and Enhances Axonal Transport in a Mouse Model of Familial Dysautonomia,(2016). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006486
When Kacie Mormance was born in May, she weighed just 14 ounces - slightly more than three sticks of butter - but the smallest surviving preemie to be born at Northwest Community Hospital already has found a way to give her parents a present for the holidays.

"It's the best Christmas gift ever," said Chris Mormance, Kacie's father, thanking hospital staff, many of whom wiped away tears, as he and his wife, Randa Mormance, bundled up Kacie and her twin sister, Naomi, to head home.

Dozens of nurses and doctors gathered Thursday afternoon to wish the family well as they left, for the first time as a quartet, through the Arlington Heights hospital's doors. Naomi and Kacie Mormance were born at 25 weeks gestation - roughly 15 weeks early, with Kacie being what hospital officials described as the smallest preemie born at the hospital to ever survive.

"We have had other preemies born at a similar gestational age, but they were not that small," said Dr. Joel Fisher, a neonatologist at the hospital who oversaw the twins' care during their stays.

Kacie weighed less than a pound and measured 11 inches long when she was born, but on Thursday, she left the hospital weighing 10 pounds, said Don Houchins, the executive director of the suburban Chicago hospital's Women and Children's Services.

"When Kacie was born, she could easily fit into your hand, which is really on the low end of weight for preemies that survive," Houchins said. "Her twin, Naomi, was only 800 grams at birth, but she was twice as big."

After spending nearly three months in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, known as the NICU, Kacie's sister Naomi was released from the hospital, and has been home with her parents since August, where she is thriving, said Fisher.

"It's been a real roller-coaster ride, but the nurses and doctors here have made it a great journey," Randa Mormance said.

The ride began in May, when Randa Mormance gave birth to the two girls nearly four months shy of full term. Randa Mormance, who had a high-risk pregnancy, was being treated by a maternal fetal medicine specialist when it was discovered that one of the twins was growing more than the other, Houchins said.

"If they wanted to save both babies, the doctors decided they had to do a C-section early," Houchins said, adding that doctors gave her steroids to help mature the babies' lungs as much as possible prior to the girls' birth. He said the hospital has treated preemies born at 24 weeks' gestation.

Once the babies arrived, doctors had a slew of risks to manage.

"When they're so small, there are so many things that can go wrong," Houchins said. "Obviously, the first thing we have to do after they're born is stabilize them. But after that, we have to constantly monitor them to ensure they're getting enough oxygen, that they are properly hydrated, and we try to protect them from intra-ventricular hemorrhages in the brain."

Houchins said among the medical issues facing premature babies is their lungs are not as developed as they would be if the pregnancy had gone to full term, typically around 40 weeks.

"They can't be too cold or too hot," Houchins said, "and (they) have to have just the right glucose, sodium and potassium levels."

A common cold could end up developing into pneumonia in a premature infant, Houchins said. Vision problems also are common among premature babies, he said, and many are at risk for cognitive developmental delays.

The family said they were thankful for the team of physicians, nurses and hospital employees who took care of the girls during their stays.

"If it wasn't for you guys, I don't know what would have happened," Chris Mormance told the hospital staff members.

After Naomi's release from the hospital in August, Kacie required four more months in the hospital's NICU, as well as a five-week stay at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, where she was treated by a pediatric retinal specialist for possible eye conditions that can require surgery, Fisher said.

"We're very happy with Kacie's growth, and to have gone from 400 grams to 4,800 grams in seven months is remarkable," he said. "But with her being born 15 weeks early, we still have to account for the prematurity when we assess her future development, like her speech, and adjust the milestones for her age."

As two of the 257 babies who received care and "graduated" from the hospital's NICU in 2016, Kacie and Naomi will be scheduled for follow-up appointments at the hospital's Neonatal Development Follow-up Clinic every six months until they turn 2 years old, Fisher said.

Kacie went home Thursday equipped with oxygen, a feeding tube and a special heart and breathing monitor that will alert her parents with a warning alarm if her respiration or heart rates drop, Fisher said.

The feeding tube, which is laced through Kacie's nose and goes down into her esophagus, ends with a tip in her stomach, providing extra nutrition, Fisher said.

The Mormances were also trained on how to adjust the equipment - Fisher said he anticipates that Kacie will tug at the tubes at some point - and were also taught how to perform CPR.

"We're just thrilled that Kacie's going home, and that she's so healthy," Fisher said. "When she was first born, she was very sick, and she still has some residual lung disease. But we're just thrilled to get her to this point."

The Mormances said they're already enjoying Kacie's personality.

"She's a flirt and a bundle of joy," Randa Mormance said.

She said after the family's seven-month-long ordeal, they are now looking forward to enjoying Christmas with their twin daughters at home, where the babies' presents are already wrapped and waiting under the tree.

"The kids need to be away from other people as much as possible so they don't catch anything, but we can't wait to have them both at home," Mormance said. "We got our strength first from God, then from the NICU nurses and Dr. Fisher, who are all amazing. It's probably going to be a pretty hectic Christmas for us, with lots of happy screaming from the twins."

2016 Chicago Tribune

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
David Lo is a distinguished professor of biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine at UC Riverside. Credit: I. Pittalwala, UC Riverside.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestine that includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. It is commonly treated with one of several available biological drugs that block an inflammatory molecule called Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha (TNF-alpha), but not everybody is helped by this treatment.

New research by a team of biomedical scientists at the University of California, Riverside, led by David Lo, M.D., Ph.D., now offers a valuable tip that could help make these drugs more effective.

TNF-alpha is a protein produced by the body's cells. It signals other cells that then produce additional inflammatory factors. But Lo's lab discovered earlier this year that TNF-alpha also induces specialized immune surveillance cells, called M cells, which both promote inflammation and suppress it. In other words, TNF-alpha plays a role in the destruction and the healing of tissues - a double-edged sword.

"M cells normally help the immune system detect microbes in the gut, but in the case of IBD, these may also help bacteria enter tissues and worsen the inflammation," explained Lo, a distinguished professor of biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine.

His lab now reports that that while there are two receptors for TNF-alpha, only one receptor, TNFR2, induces M cells. Currently, TNF-alpha-targeted drugs block both TNFR1 and TNFR2.

"Newer therapies might be more effective by targeting only TNFR2," Lo said. "As an analogy, if a soldier knew her enemy was hiding in one of two caves, she would not debate which cave she should target; she might blow up both. But if she knows her enemy is in Cave A, then why would she waste ammunition and risk innocent bystanders by attacking Cave B as well?"

Study results appear online in the Journal of Crohn's and Colitis.

The body's intestinal lining has epithelial cells that form a barrier so that bacteria in the gut do not pass on into the rest of the body. During inflammation that occurs in IBD infection, TNF-alpha triggers an increase in the number of M cells along the colon. The M cells act like selective gates and serve as a conduit for pathogens to get across the barrier and into the body.

"The question is if you have more M cells, do you have better immune surveillance or do you have more bacteria getting across the barrier?" Lo said. "From a therapeutic point of view we might want to tamp M-cell production down just enough so that the immune system can do its job without having a whole lot of bacteria pass into the body from inside the gut."

Lo explained why not everybody with IBD benefits from anti-TNF drugs.

"These drugs target both TNRF-alpha receptors: TNFR1 and TNFR2," he said. "But our research identifies a distinct inflammation-inducible M-cell population that is dependent on TNFR2 signaling, but not TNFR1. If too many M cells are being produced, then the anti-TNF drug being used is not sufficiently blocking TNRF2, which induces the M cells, and is instead blocking the other receptor. If we understand why there are two receptors, then instead of drugs doing a global blockade, more focused therapeutic approaches could target only one of the receptors, resulting in a more efficient suppression of the inflammation we see in IBD."

An ongoing challenge for biomedical scientists doing IBD research is gaining a full understanding of the role M cells play in chronic inflammation. It remains unclear whether M cells help promote continuing inflammation or whether they are critical to initiating immuno-regulatory mechanisms.

"Knowing these roles should lead to more specifically targeted therapies that will promote the regulation and resolution of chronic intestinal inflammation," Lo said.

More information: Erinn A. Parnell et al. Inducible Colonic M Cells Are Dependent on TNFR2 but Not Ltr, Identifying Distinct Signalling Requirements for Constitutive Versus Inducible M Cells, Journal of Crohn's and Colitis (2016). Erinn A. Parnell et al. Inducible Colonic M Cells Are Dependent on TNFR2 but Not Ltr, Identifying Distinct Signalling Requirements for Constitutive Versus Inducible M Cells,(2016). DOI: 10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjw212
(HealthDay)Having a 24/7 intensivist in pediatric intensive care units (ICUs) is associated with improved patient outcomes, according to a study published in the Dec. 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Punkaj Gupta, M.D., from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, and colleagues used data (455,607 patients from 125 hospitals) from the Virtual Pediatric Systems Database (2009 to 2014) to assess the association of 24/7 in-house coverage with outcomes in children with critical illness.

The researchers found that after adjusting for patient and center characteristics, the 24/7 group was associated with lower mortality in the intensive care unit (ICU), compared to the no-24/7 group (odds ratio [OR], 0.52; P = 0.002). Around-the-clock coverage was also associated with a lower incidence of cardiac arrest (OR, 0.73; P = 0.04), lower mortality after cardiac arrest (OR, 0.56; P = 0.02), a shorter ICU stay (mean difference, 0.51 days), and shorter duration of mechanical ventilation (mean difference, 0.68 days).

"We demonstrated that pediatric critical care provided in the ICUs staffed with a 24/7 intensivist presence is associated with improved overall patient survival and survival after cardiac arrest compared with patients treated in ICUs staffed with discretionary attending coverage," the authors write.

Copyright  2016 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Georgias imports, exports surge 22% in January-November

Georgias external trade has grown 22 percent in the first 11 months of the year, reaching $10.83 billion, shows latest data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).Between January and November 2016, the value of Georgias exports dropped five percent to $1.92 billion, while the value of imports increased 29 percent to $8.91 billion, said Geostat.Georgias trade deficit equalled $6.99 billion in the first 11 months of 2016, which was a 65 percent share of the country's total trade turnover, showed the latest data by Geostat.Trade deficit is an economic measure of a negative balance of trade in which a country's imports exceeds its exports.Import without Hepatitis C medicaments equalled $6.51 billion, one percent less compared to the same period of the previous year.
The News in Brief

Reforms are aimed at EU and NATO integration as well as Georgias transformation as a new country  PM



Support provided by the West is very important to restrain Russias ambitions in the region, Georgias Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has told Die Zeit.



According to him, the Georgian government is resolute in its aspiration to gain NATO membership and are confident Georgia will be successful.



He also stated that Georgias decision to become a part of the Euro-Atlantic space is irreversible.



We want to be closer to NATO and EU membership as much as possible. We face certain obstacles, for example in terms of visa liberalization, but our friends are doing their best in Brussels to accelerate the processes. The reforms are aimed at Georgias EU and NATO integration, as well as its transformation into a new country and the improvement of citizens' living standards, he has said.



According to Kvirikashvili, the process itself is far more important than the goal.



We are improving our defense structure. Security is an important precondition for economic growth and foreign investments in Georgia. The support from the West is also significant to restrain Russias ambitions throughout the region, Kvirikashvili remarked.



As for relations with the U.S, the Georgian PM says he does not expect any strategic changes.



We enjoy support in the Congress and Senate; both of them back Georgias territorial integration. It is of crucial importance for us, he stated. (IPN)







Locals rescue two youths from the snow after avalanche



Two young people were pulled out of the snow alive Monday evening after being caught by an avalanche in a mountainous part of Georgias Adjara region.



Locals helped the two survive the ordeal. They did not have life-threatening injuries but were taken to hospital.



The head of the Khulo municipality told Interpressnews that the avalanche struck at a time when there was clean-up work ongoing in the village Bodzauri.



The youth were standing near the car, waiting for the road to be cleared when the avalanche came and covered them, Besik Bauchadze said.



There were at least five avalanche reports in Adjara on Monday, most of them in Khulo municipality. No-one else was injured. Many villages are experiencing cut off roads and no power supply.



Georgias Road Department has made it mandatory for cars without four wheel drive to use snow chains in the mountainous parts of Adjara. (df WATCH)







Georgias candidate for UNWTO top job presented in Spain



Spains capital has hosted an official ceremony wherein Georgia presented its candidate for the vacant post of Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) for 2018-2021.



The ceremony was held last night as part of the election campaign of Georgia's candidate Zurab Pololikashvili to Secretary General of the UNWTO.



The event was attended by Georgian Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze, the UNWTO Secretary General Taleb Rifai, Spains Secretary of State for Tourism Matilde Asian, Head of the Georgian National Tourism Administration Giorgi Chogovadze, representatives of the diplomatic corps, as well as political cultural and business communities of Spain.



The current UNWTO Secretary General Taleb Rifai welcomed Georgian Minister and Georgian delegation and said candidate Pololikashvili had already shared his visions to Rifai.



I have been the UNWTO Secretary General for almost seven years. Now my mandate expires and I do hope the best candidate would continue my job here, who would further increase the importance of this organisation worldwide, said Rifai.



At the ceremony Georgian Minister delivered a speech where he talked about the steps taken by Georgian Government for the development of tourism and stressed the tremendous role of the UNWTO in this process. Furthermore, Janelidze highlighted the UNWTOs role in economic growth and inclusive advancement of Georgia.



The Minister believed Georgian candidate Pololikashvili would make a significant contribution to the achievement of ambitious aims and goals of the UNWTO.



Pololikashvili currently served as a Resident Representative of Georgia at UNWTO and Ambassador of Georgia to Spain.



The Secretary General position at the UNWTO for 2018-2021 will be selected in May 2017 by an Executive Board comprised of 33 nations. (Agenda.ge)




Georgians spend $75m on domestic tourism in Q3 2016

More domestic travellers are seeking out ways to explore the beauty of their home country, reveals the latest data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).About 1.23 million locals of age 15 and older ventured away from their homes and visited another region in Georgia in the third quarter (Q3) of 2016. Collectively these travellers spent almost 200 million GEL (about $75 million/70 million*) while traveling in Georgia.People aged between 31 and 50 were the most avid domestic travellers (366,500 travellers), while the least people willing to travel were the elderly (60,500 travellers).In terms of gender, more women (568,300) travelled around Georgia than men (416,300) in Q3 of 2016.Where do domestic travellers go in Georgia?Tbilisi was the most visited area, while the Imreti region in the countrys west was the second most popular place to visit.Here are top five most visited areas:1. Tbilisi - 261,500 domestic travellers2. Imereti - 249,500 domestic travellers3. Adjara - 161,900 domestic travellers4. Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti  103,400 domestic travellers5. Kakheti - 88,400 domestic travellersWhy do Georgians travel around their home country?Most people travelled to another region in Georgia to visit friends or relatives, while the next most common reason was for holidays.The top reasons for internal travel included: Visiting friends/relatives - 600,100 travellers Shopping - 144,500 travellers Holiday, Leisure, Recreation - 228,100 travellers Health and Medical Care - 109,100 travellers Visiting another house (cottage, etc.) - 81,600 travellers Business or Professional - 45,600 travellers Religion/Pilgrimage - 15,300 travellers Education or training - 4,400 travellers Other - 9,500 travellersHow much do people spend while on holiday?Georgians spent the largest proportion of money on foods and drinks, said Geostat.On average, the total amount spent in Q3, 2016 per category was: Foods and drinks  76.9m GEL Shopping  46.4 million GEL Transport  29.4m GEL Accommodation  17.2 m GEL Holiday, leisure, recreation, cultural and sporting activities  5.7m GELOther expenditure  23.3m GELAre locals happy to travel internally?The monthly average number of visits made by visitors of age 15 and older by satisfaction level is as follows: Very Dissatisfied - 5,000 Dissatisfied - 21,800 Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied - 178,900 Satisfied - 606,100 Very satisfied - 420,000Furthermore, 6,400 travellers did not know or was hard to answer whether they were satisfied of dissatisfied with traveling in Georgia, said Geostat.
The News in Brief

Another Georgian dies in Syria



Another Georgian citizen, 20-year-old Ramzan Baghakashvili has been killed in Syria. As reported, he died as a result of airstrikes in the Iraqi town of Raqqa.



He reportedly left for Syria in the spring of 2015 together with a companion, Muslim Kushtanashvili, who was underage.



When their departure for Syria became known, a special operation was conducted on June 14, 2015. Several people were detained on terrorist charges, including Aiup Borchashvili. They were accused of sending Muslim Kushtanashvili and Razman Baghakashvili to Syria, Kvirispalitra.ge reports. (IPN)







Planned Amendments to the 2016 State Budget



The government has submitted a revised draft of the 2016 state budget to Parliament, which cuts the economic growth forecast from 3% to 2.7%.



According to the planned amendments, revenues will be reduced from GEL 8.555 billion to GEL 8.546 billion and expenditures will be increased from GEL 8.543 billion to GEL 8.671 billion.



The revised draft leaves GEL 7.98 billion in tax revenues unchanged, but reduces forecasted revenues from foreign grants by GEL 8.2 million to GEL 246.8 million.



Funding of separate agencies will be reduced and GEL 40 million mobilized from this reduction will be added to funding of universal healthcare program, according to the revised draft. Thus, funding of the Ministry of Healthcare will increase from GEL 3.162 billion to GEL 3.202 billion in 2016.



According to the governments explanatory note, GEL 570 million was allocated for universal healthcare program this year, but it became necessary to allocate additional GEL 35 million from the governments reserve fund, as GEL 600 million had already been spent as of November 2016. As a result of budgetary amendments, the Ministry of Healthcare will receive a total of GEL 610 million for this program  according to the draft of the 2017 state budget, GEL 660 million is envisaged for the universal healthcare program. The government says that it plans to modify the program next year, including through restricting state insurance for the citizens having private insurance policies.



Funding of the Defense Ministry will increase from GEL 670 million to GEL 750.4 million.



The revised budget also increases funding of the Ministry of Energy by GEL 69.5 million to GEL 204.5 million and the Economy Ministry  by GEL 300 thousand to GEL 95.4 million.



Funding of the following ministries will be cut:



Ministry of Education and Science  GEL 952 million (cut by GEL 25.8 million);



Ministry of Agriculture  GEL 311.1 million (cut by GEL 10.2 million);



Prison system ministry - GEL 144.8 million (cut by GEL 9 million);



Finance Ministry  GEL 86.5 million (cut by 3.5 million).



Funding of Parliament and governments administration will also be reduced by GEL 2 million each to GEL 50 million and GEL 18 million, respectively.



The Parliament plans to approve amendments to the 2016 state budget before December 23, after endorsing the draft of the 2017 state budgetthis week. (Civil.ge)







Whats behind a one-man protest outside the government office?



For two days, Nika Cherkezishvili has spent the night outside the government office in Tbilisi, refusing to leave until he gets a meeting with Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili.



What caused Cherkezishvili begin a one-man protest is that he claims he was illegally fired from a job at the Foreign Ministry, and now he demands to get back his job back.



Monday, he asked the Public Defender and the Prime Minister to study the case. He also met government lawyers, who promised to help but have still not gotten back to him.



Cherkezishvili was fired in October 2015, before the end of his six month conditional term. He was told that he is unprofessional and has a conflict personality, but he claims that he used to work at the Justice Ministry for 11 years and it is nonsense that he doesnt have experience.



Cherkezishvili believes that the stated reasons are untrue and that his firing was illegal. Before he began the protest, he tried taking the case to court, but it was delayed and in the end the court ruled against him.



After receiving the courts decision, which was made on December 5, he plans to pursue his case in the Appeals Court, but the lawsuit is causing problems for him in finding another job.



Activists from Tbilisi Solidarity Network Monday evening gathered at the government office to show support, while the Foreign Ministry promised a meeting and asked him to stop the protest. (DF watch)




@NewsbySmiley

As a handful of well-known players decide whether to run for the Miami commission seat to be vacated this November by Frank Carollo, a fourth candidate has officially joined the race.

Daniel Suarez, a long-time member of the city's Civilian Investigative Panel, told the Miami Herald he resigned from the board Tuesday and opened up a campaign account the following day (Miami law requires candidates resign from city board positions in order to run). The 27-year-old Naval reserve petty officer said his time on the police watchdog agency convinced him to run.

"I want to make some real change in the city. I want to move forward with real police oversight and engage our youth," said Suarez, who expects to make transparency and community involvement staples of his campaign.

Suarez said he plans to only raise money in small donations from residents, and get his name out by pounding the pavement.

"I have no problem walking every single block in my district introducing myself to everyone," he said.

Suarez joins a race that already features declared candidates Alex Dominguez, Alfonso "Alfie" Leon, and Miguel Soliman.

Among those who say they're on the fence: Zoraida Barreiro (the wife of Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro), former state Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Tommy Regalado (the son of Mayor Tomas Regalado), and former Miami Commissioner Joe Sanchez.

A fifth rumored candidate, former Miami Mayor Joe Carollo (Frank's brother), declined to say Wednesday whether he has any interest in the seat, or if he'd rule out a run.
@ByKristenMClark

Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott sent a letter to Cuban President Raul Castro on Tuesday, calling for him to change course and allow a new era of freedom and opportunity for Cuba.

Scott referenced the celebrations in Miami after the death of Fidel Castro last month, saying the demonstrations represented the hope for an end to the decades of torture, repression, incarceration and death that you and your brother have caused the people of Cuba.

But, Scott noted, Raul Castro appears to be continuing his brothers legacy  with recent examples that include the arrest of Cuban artist Danilo El Sexto Maldonado, who mocked Fidels death in an online video.

After Pope Francis trip to Cuba, you suggested that you may return to the church and pray again. My prayer for you and the Cuban people is that you listen to Pope Francis and focus on bringing absolute freedom and democracy to Cuba, Scott wrote. I pray that you open Cuba to freedom of the press and religion; release all political prisoners; provide unfettered access to the internet; allow ownership of land; provide reparations to those whose property was confiscated; bring all Cuban military home and allow for free and fair elections with international supervision.

Full story here.

Photo credit: Walter Michot / Miami Herald
For picture posts from 2010 and earlier, see the Earlier Picture Posts Page
Harlan Wells is resigning from representing Ward 2 on the Missoula City Council to take a job as director of business services for incoming Secretary of State Corey Stapleton.

Stapleton, a Republican, announced his executive team Tuesday.

Im thrilled to have a dynamic, capable team coming with me to the Secretary of States office, stated Stapleton. Together, we look forward to serving the people and our state.

Stapleton will be sworn in on Jan. 2.

According to the Secretary of State's website, Business Services works with in-state and out-of-state business owners, who want to start, expand or close a business in Montana.

They also file commercial and agricultural liens.

Wells was elected to the city council in November 2015 and had said he planned to run for Missoula mayor, challenging incumbent John Engen.

He painted himself in a recent talk as fiscal conservative who would make property taxes a key issue if elected to the top job next year.

Wells also works as the development coordinator for the Missoula Housing Authority, along with his wife Kari, who is a finance specialist.

At Monday's city council meeting, Wells accepted congratulations from the council for his new job and thanks for his service.

"My wife and I are absolutely beside ourselves," he said.

He'll commute to Helena, coming home to Missoula on the weekends.

Wells did not respond to phone messages seeking comment on Tuesday.

City Public Information Officer Ginny Merriam said the city clerk and council President Marilyn Marler are working on drafting applications that will be available online and at city hall soon.

Marler said at Monday's city council meeting that they'll accept applications from interested Missoulians from Dec. 28 to Jan.6, before interviewing and voting in a replacement.

The only requirements are that the person live in Ward 2, be 18 and registered to vote.

***

Stapleton defeated Democrat Monica Lindeen, who was the state auditor, with 56 percent of the vote. Lindeen was term-limited from running for auditor, as was outgoing Secretary of State Linda McCulloch, a Democrat.

"There's no more important function than picking good people," he told a small group in the second floor of the Capitol on Tuesday.

At the news conference, Stapleton said he would try to create consistency in Montana's elections and streamline business services offered by the Secretary of State.

He added that he "anticipates having a good working relationship" with Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock's office. The governor and secretary of state's offices and the Legislature are the three main tenants of the Capitol.

He added that the election results show "the people have spoken and we have a mandate to do things now."

Stapleton said he's excited to work with the Legislature, which is controlled by Republican majorities in the House and Senate. That body convenes Jan. 2.

Stapleton said he wants to introduce legislation to remove ambiguity in how the state would fill a vacant U.S. House seat, something that is expected to happen after recently re-elected U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., was nominated as Secretary of the Interior by Republican president-elect Donald J. Trump.

Stapleton estimated holding an election to fill Zinke's seat could cost $2 million.

He also said he wants to look at the popularity of absentee voting by mail and ways to capitalize on that, and explore standardizing how satellite voting offices are added.

Other staff appointments include:

 Christi Jacobsen, chief of staff: She was most recently the central services division administrator for the Department of Justice. She previously worked as central services administrator for the state auditors office. She has a master's in public administration from the University of Montana.

 Stephanie Hess, chief policy adviser: Hess served as a representative for HD 28 and lost re-election to Democrat Jacob Bachmeier in November. She was elections specialist to the Secretary of States Office from 2007-2009 and is a graduate of Olivet Nazarene University.

 Derek Oestreiche, elections director: Oestreicher has a law degree from UM. He has worked with Davis, Hatley, Haffeman & Tighe, P.C., a civil litigation firm in Great Falls.

 Susan Ames, office manager: Ames is returning to the Secretary of States office after working as executive assistant to former Secretary of State Brad Johnson. She also worked for Denny Rehberg when he was lieutenant governor, Gov. Marc Racicot and Gov. Judy Martz.

 Morgan Darlington, communications director: Darlington is a graduate of Montana State University. She has worked for both the U.S. House and Senate.

 Julie Lake, human resource director: Lake, a graduate of MSU, was previously human resource generalist for the Montana Department of Justice.

 Will Selph, project manager: Selph has worked for U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, and was part of the recent effort to re-elect Zinke. Selph is a graduate of UM.

 Jeff Hindoien, chief legal counsel: Hindoiens private practice has been focused on providing counsel and representation to Montana school districts in all aspects of public school and governmental operations. Hindoien is a Great Falls native and a graduate of MSU and the University of Wyoming College of Law.
The father of a major Butte meth dealer was sentenced Tuesday to three years in federal prison, followed by another three years of supervised release, by U.S. District Court Dana Christensen in Missoula.

Larry Oxendine, 58, previously pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of firearms under an agreement with prosecutors in which his other charges were dismissed. His felon status is from 1978.

Court documents show Oxendine moved west after being laid off from a long-term factory job in North Carolina in 2008. He first came to Montana from the Bakken oil fields after 2013.

According to North Dakota arrest records, his son Lester Oxendine was in the Bakken as early as 2014, and the two would later move to Butte, with Larry Oxendine staying in his son's home.

Lester Oxendine told police after his arrest in December of 2015 on drug and weapon charges that he had trafficked more than 40 pounds of meth into Butte from Las Vegas in the last six months with accomplices including his father. He is set to be sentenced next year, and faces life in federal prison. Larry Oxendine is the first of three of his son's accomplices to be sentenced, all of whom testified against one another.

In a December 19 sentencing memorandum, Larry Oxendines lawyer David Mattingly disagreed with the prosecutions quadrupling of a possible sentence from 18-24 months to 87-108 months in prison, calling it disproportionate and negating of Oxendines presumption of innocence.

Mattingly said an appropriate range by his calculations was 10-16 months, and Oxendine requested six months with a year of supervised release.

The sentencing hearing lasted more than two hours, with the brunt of the arguments between prosecution and defense focused on Oxendines role in removing guns from the house where he and his son lived shortly before police raided the home in December 2015, and whether his sentence should include the possession of those weapons.

A neighbor who  despite saying he had been friendly with Oxendine  had been passing information to a detective about the meth dealing at the house. The day of the raid, the neighbor said one of the Oxendines co-defendants, Clifton Stack, came over to his house to say Lester had been arrested and he needed to help get guns and other items out of the Oxendine home, threatening to shoot him if he didnt comply.

The man said he went to the house and told Larry Oxendine what had happened. Oxendine ran upstairs and recovered three rifles from a bedroom before returning to the neighbor and giving them to him. The neighbor went outside and, after an argument with Stack, put the guns against a nearby concrete wall before he was spotted by officers and ordered to the ground. He was arrested but not charged in the incident.

In court, Mattingly said he didnt buy the neighbors story, indicating he believed the man had been involved in dealing drugs with the Oxendines.

He had a lot more information than just being a neighbor and seeing things, he said. This goes way beyond the level of a concerned citizen.

Mattingly showed several text messages between the neighbor and the detective that he was looking to be paid as a confidential informant.

An equally plausible scenario of what happened the day of the drug raid was that the neighbor kicked in the door and recovered the weapons himself, Mattingly said.

At Oxendines request, Christensen said he would recommend he be placed at a federal prison in North Carolina. As part of his supervision he will be required to complete a substance abuse program and be subject to random drug testing.
BONNER  Bonner School officials and the parents of a student there cannot agree about the use of religious songs in music class.

Early this school year, Shelly Hall-Crobar and her husband, Erin Crobar, said their son came home from school saying some of the songs in music class made him uncomfortable because they were religious.

"I was raised very Christian, but I do think it's a little much for public school," Hall-Crobar said.

She emailed the school in September, expressing her son's concerns and pointing out that religious music should not be used in a public school, saying it violates the separation of church and state.

She asked that the songs be removed from the class, and that if the teacher continued to use them, that her son be excused.

In an email a month later, Hall-Crobar says the religious songs were not removed, and her son was "asked to stand in the hallway."

The parents and school administration met in November. In an email following the meeting, the school declined to remove the religious songs.

Hall-Crobar said if the school refused to remove all religious music from the curriculum, she asked that her son be allowed to read in the library during that time.

"There's not a hard and fast rule," said ACLU of Montana executive director Caitlin Borgmann. "The key thing for a school to think about when doing this is that religious speech, symbols and celebrations are allowed if done in an educational way, and not as an actual practice of religion."

A handy guideline, she said, is "teach, don't preach."

***

Bonner School superintendent Jim Howard said that songs with religious references make up less than 5 percent of the textbook, "Share the Music," used in the class.

He said the textbook includes "African-American spirituals ... music from the 19th century, and music representing Mexican, Italian and Jewish as well as American cultural traditions." Hall-Crobar also reviewed the textbook and found that 11 percent is religious music  the majority of which she said is Christian, and a small portion Jewish.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent the school a letter on Nov. 17 asking that the religious songs be removed from the curriculum. AU cited several cases, including S.D. v. St. Johns County School District, a Florida case in 2009 in which the court found that it was unconstitutional for an elementary school to expect students to perform "In God We Still Trust" at an end-of-year assembly.

In a prepared statement, Howard said "no child is required to perform music to which he or she may object" and "no student is punished for objecting."

Howard said the songs that the parents object to are included for their historical and cultural significance, citing a 1963 case, School Dist. of Abington Township, Pa. v. Schempp, which says material with religious messages is not unconstitutional "when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education."

Ian Smith, Americans United staff attorney, said in an email to school officials that Howard's explanation that the songs are used in a cultural and historical context is "nonsense."

"The religious content is unconstitutional and we expect you to remove it," Smith wrote.

***

Bonner School's policy says, "Staff members may teach students about religion in history, art, music, literature, and other subjects in which religious influence has been and continues to be felt. However, staff members may not teach religion or advocate religious doctrine or practice. The prohibition against teaching religion extends to curricular decisions which promote religion or religious beliefs."

"The inclusion of religious music, symbols, art or writings is permitted, if the religious content has a historical or independent educational purpose which contributes to the objectives of the approved curriculum."

Hall-Crobar told the Missoulian that she sees nothing wrong with Christianity or holiday music in general. Rather, it's the use of any religious music in a public school.

The ACLU's Borgmann said, "It's the line between educating students and proselytizing or practicing. Part of that is how you treat the subject, part is what all is included and what isn't."

She said including context and history around Christianity may not be enough if other cultures and religions are not included.

"One of the things you sometimes hear is ... why are we learning about Native American religions, the implication being that there should be equal time given to all religions," she said. "I think that's misguided as well. Part of the reason we teach about certain kinds of cultures, like Islam or Native Americans, is they can be very often misunderstood and subject to stereotyping  precisely because students tend to have less access to them and less direct contact with them in their personal life.

"It doesn't mean Christianity has to be excluded from school curricula, but it should be part of the sensitivity of staff ... on how to incorporate Christianity into them."

***

Smith sees it as more cut and dried, saying religious music in public schools is unconstitutional.

"I get a little worked up about this, religious music especially, in a situation where you have school districts stripping down arts programs," he said. "They're removing art, music, drama for budgetary reasons and standards-testing reasons. A lot of times public school choir programs are the only way in which a lot of people will ever get the chance to sing in a choir or to engage with music in any kind of academic fashion.

"To me, it closes off an opportunity for all their students to engage equally in the program. It's a level of stubbornness that blows me away. It's easy to fix; just sing non-religious songs."

While the parents initially asked that their son be removed from class if religious songs are sung, Smith argued that removal "looks like punishment."

This issue is "not an unusual conundrum" in public schools, Borgmann said, "especially in a state like Montana where we have a very high Christian population and we're not as diverse as lots of other states."

Because this is a debate over the curriculum, rather than a single holiday event, it's "potentially more problematic," she said.

"If it's going on all year long, I'd want to know more about whether it's being done in an educational way," she said.

If the school includes music from a variety of religions and provides cultural context, it likely doesn't need to change that practice, Borgmann said.

"Really all I want is for them to stop singing religious music at a public school and ostracizing my son," Hall-Crobar said. "I don't want Bonner School to suffer, I just want this resolved."
It may seem hopeless at times, this effort to convince our suicidal friends, family and neighbors to hold on another day. Especially in Montana, which has the highest per capita suicide rate in the nation  and especially in Missoula County, which has a suicide rate three times the national average, and where the number of suicides is on track to reach a record high this year  its little wonder the struggle to stop this epidemic may sometimes seem futile.

After all, if previous attempts at suicide prevention have not been successful in reversing this tragic trend, why continue?

The answer is, because it does make a difference. It provides hope, both to individuals in the depths of depression and to the communities struggling to reach them before its too late. And each time even one more person chooses to live even one more day, thats a victory.

This month, the folks collaborating on western Montanas newest and largest suicide prevention program gathered together to breathe new life into their campaign. They announced a major rebranding of the Western Montana Suicide Prevention Initiative, along with new partnerships and a renewed outreach effort.

Its called Project Tomorrow Montana.

Because Montana is number one in the nation for suicide, and because the suicide rate in Missoula County is at a record high, we felt an urgent need to expand and raise the profile of our suicide-prevention work, especially as the holiday season approaches, explained Susan Hay Patrick, chair of Project Tomorrow and chief executive officer of United Way of Missoula County.

The United Way of Missoula County, which has held the reins of the initiative since it was launched in 2014, will continue its collaboration with the Missoula City-County Health Department, the University of Montana, LivingWorks Education and many other members throughout western Montana too numerous to name here, including local businesses, nonprofits and volunteer groups. A $10,000 grant from Wells Fargo will be used to support a multi-media outreach campaign to raise awareness and push for prevention.

According to the Missoula City-County Health Department, the rate of suicide in Montana (more than 21 per 100,000 people) has been in the nations top five for nearly four decades. The national average is 12 per 100,000 people. In Missoula County, the suicide rate is 33.8 per 100,000 people. And the number tends to spike each January.

These high numbers are due to Montanas mix of relatively high alcohol use, isolation and lack of access to mental health care, among other factors. In Montana, a majority of completed suicides involve firearms, followed by prescription medications.

One immediate way to make a difference in the suicide rate is to make sure all firearms and prescriptions are stored in a secure, locked location at all times. Studies have shown that removing ready access to the most common means of suicide does save lives.

Project Tomorrow is dedicated to sharing information like this throughout Montana, so everyone can do their part to help. It is also aimed at reaching those most at risk of suicide and connecting them to the resources they need to get help.

We can all applaud this ongoing effort to find a solution to suicide that works for Missoula. Applaud, and join it.

Today brings the annual Winter Solstice, which marks the longest night of the year. Its a good time to take a few moments to deepen your understanding of suicide  the warning signs and recommended responses  so that you can be better prepared to help others remember there are brighter days ahead, if they only hang on till tomorrow.
Since there is considerable evidence piling up that Russia is now contributing to the downfall of America, it has become plain to me that I am (and have been for years) an unwitting dupe of these nefarious scoundrels  namely, that I use (and have for years) Kaspersky anti-virus software on my computer. How could I be so daft? If I had only researched this properly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Kaspersky), I would have known better. I am so ashamed.

However, I'm not the only one taken in by this subterfuge. No less than that bastion of unbiased opinion, NPR's Morning Edition, openly and publicly proclaims, without any attempt to hide its wrongdoing, that it receives support and funding from, you guessed it, Kaspersky. How these truth-seekers and valiant defenders of the American Way get away with their treason is completely beyond me.

Not only that, but now it seems that the Russians are also responsible for the current wave of bitterly cold, arctic air sweeping over much of North America. Unbelievable, yes, but its true. How do I know this? I saw it on NBC News the other day. Preposterous, you might say, but NBC (or their local affiliate, NBC Montana) actually aired a graphic showing where the cold air originated from: Siberia.

Huge amounts of cold air come out of Siberia (controlled by Vlad Putin, of course), sweep over the North Pole, and then wreak havoc over large areas of the United States. When will the Democrat Party, John McCain, or Chill-airy Clinton (pardon the pun, I just had to do it) start talking about this. When will Barack Obama stand up to this aggression and tell Vladimir Putin to cut it out?

Obviously, all of this is sarcasm. No one should mistake it for fake news or take it literally.

Roger Mitchell,

Stevensville
POLSON  Ethan McCauley goes before the Eagle Scout Board of Review Tuesday night to find out if he will achieve Scoutings highest honor.

Its hard to picture the Polson seventh-grader being turned down.

His Eagle Scout project was unveiled late Monday afternoon in the Lake County Courthouse  an 11-foot-wide mural that will hang there for years to come.

McCauley didnt paint it (that was done 103 years ago). He didnt save it from the trash pile (grocers in East Glacier did that in the 1950s). He didnt restore it this year (Joe Abbrescia Jr. of Kalispell took care of that).

What McCauley did do was convince the Hockaday Museum of Art to loan the mural to Lake County, and convince the Lake County commissioners to back his project.

Oh, and then he went out and raised more than $11,000 to pay for the restoration and framing of the mural. And he did all this in less than 11 months.

Not bad for a 13-year-old.

***

The mural is one of 15 that spent six decades stored in garages across Montana after being cut from their frames and discarded on the lawn outside Glacier Park Lodge in East Glacier in the 1950s during a remodel/repair project.

A granddaughter of the grocers who stumbled on them, and took them home, found them in her parents garage in Billings in about 2000.

Water-damaged, and too large to fit on the walls of most homes, Leanne Goldhahn eventually donated 14 of the 15 murals her grandparents had rescued to the Hockaday. Goldhahn kept one for herself, but it will go to the Hockaday one day as well.

Another 36 murals taken out of Glacier Park Lodge apparently were trashed.

The museum restored four of the ones that were rescued to hang itself, but wasnt interested in keeping the rest hidden in storage after all the years theyd spent in garages.

The museum said it would entertain proposals from around Montana to display some of the murals, all scenes from inside Glacier Park, in public places.

McCauley read that, and thought bringing one to Polson would make a great Eagle Scout project. That was 329 days ago.

***

Hockaday executive director Tracy Johnson was hoping to drum up interest in restoring and displaying the murals, but didnt expect it to come from a seventh-grader.

I was shocked, Johnson said. Its not something most 13-year-old kids are doing.

But she liked the idea of involving a young person in the 1913 murals, which are unsigned. The artist who did them for railroad tycoon Louis Hill, the builder of Glacier Park Lodge, remains a mystery.

McCauley picked out one of the largest of the murals for his Eagle Scout project  an 11-foot-wide and 5-foot-deep painting of St. Mary Lake in Glacier.

Once the museum and the Lake County commissioners were on board, the Scout began sending out emails, and making presentations to local groups, as he sought donations to pay for the restoration and framing.

An uncle steered him toward two Texans he knew who had become Eagle Scouts when they were younger, and McCauley sent off emails to them explaining the murals history, and his plans for displaying one in his hometown.

They thought it was a pretty neat project, McCauley said. One wrote a check for $3,000  the largest single donation  and the other kicked in $1,000.

***

McCauley appears to have sold the project well.

I think we bought in pretty fast, Lake County Commissioner Gale Decker said.

Another commissioner, Bill Barron, said one person questioned why wed put a picture from Flathead County up in Lake County, but its a national park and a national treasure. Were proud to have it here.

After the first four restored murals went up in the Hockaday, the next two were installed in the OShaughnessy Center in Whitefish. The Polson mural is the seventh to return to the public.

Johnson said the museum is in discussions with the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana about the possibility of displaying one of the murals there, although nothing concrete has been decided.

The largest of the murals is actually too large (16 feet wide) to fit through the door to Abbrescias studio, and Johnson said no solution has been arrived at for restoring it.

Long-term loans from the museum run for five years, but can be renewed, meaning the mural of St. Mary Lake could hang in the Lake County Courthouse for a long time to come.

It was hung in the courthouse atrium on Dec. 13, and McCauley says it was so heavy it took half a dozen sheriffs deputies, a county commissioner or two and others to help hoist the mural.

But it never would have gone up were it not for a 13-year-old Eagle Scout hopeful.
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County and community officials toured the sprawling MSE industrial complex south of Butte this week  a site among a handful of locations in the running to possibly house the county shops.

The shops behind the Butte Civic Center must be moved to make way for removal of the contaminated Parrot tailings; that project is slated to begin next summer.

The debate about where to relocate the county shops has been ongoing.

In July county officials considered a proposal that would have moved the shops north of the Civic Center, across the street from their current location. However, the proposal fell flat after 14 people spoke against the site during a council meeting, requiring the county to look elsewhere for a new location, including at the MSE complex.

Helen Joyce, chief executive officer at MSE Technology Applications Inc., led Tuesdays tour.

Tour-goers were taken to Building 60, which boasts 30-foot high ceilings, good for storing tall equipment, Joyce said.

She also showed the 12,000-square-foot fabrication shop, formally occupied by Headframe Spirits, which is moving part of its operations to the county-owned Kelley Mine Yard.

During this portion of the tour, MSEs President Tom Burkhart called the fabrication shop a blank canvas, while Joyce noted that MSE rented the space at $6.50 per square foot per year to the Butte-based distillery, while the county will be charging 60 cents per square foot per year at the Kelley Mine Yard.

One of my frustrations has been competing against the county for building land sales, said Joyce.

Last up on the tour was a 5,000-square-foot machine shop, one of the dozen or so buildings that reside on MSEs sprawling 53-acre campus.

Joyce called MSE an under-used asset.

I think that we should utilize the assets we have in our community before we build more assets, Joyce told The Standard during the tour. Lets get them into productive use.

And MSE could use a few more tenants.

The complex started as a joint venture between the federal government and a not-for-profit group to test clean coal technology. About $168 million has been invested in it over the years, including federal earmarks approved by Congress.

However, as public support for earmarks has waned, the faculty has seen less federal money come its way.

Since then MSE has faced a variety of obstacles, including in September when the Granite Mountain Bank put the facilitys remaining debt from a $5.2-mllion loan on the market.

Landing the county shops would certainly bring new life to the complex, which currently has five tenants.

But MSE, despite its tall buildings and ample space, could come with a few drawbacks for the county.

District 1 Commissioner Cindy Perdue-Dolan said in a phone interview that shes received several calls from constituents about the MSE location.

She said a majority of the callers have expressed concern that the location, which is about a 15-minute drive from Uptown Butte and Montana Tech, could cost the county more in time and money than a more centralized location.

However, Perdue-Dolan said she hopes that residents will also take into account the size of the facility, noting that it would be large enough to house Buttes hot plant and crusher, enabling the county to hit two birds with one stone.

Chief Executive-elect Dave Palmer also said the site is appealing for the hot plant and crusher. He contended the distance is a concern, but that the county could install satellite shops to solve the problem.

Still, Palmer said MSE remains a good candidate.

Id say its still in the running.
DAUGHTER THREATENS MOM

Butte resident Nova White, 19, was arrested and charged with partner-family member assault with reasonable apprehension at about 8:45 a.m. Tuesday. White threatened to kill her mother and burn the house down, police said. The victim is a 42-year-old female.

RAW FOOD MAKES HER SICK

A Butte homeless woman, Michelle Pehringer, 47, ate raw hamburger and raw shrimp and chased it down with lemonade-flavored beer at Stokes Market at 1301 Harrison Avenue 8 p.m. Tuesday. Police arrived to arrest her for shoplifting. She was eating the food and drinking while still in the store. She also took a Bud Light Chelada and ate half of a deli sandwich. Police found Pehringer extremely intoxicated. She reported feeling sick. Pehringer faces shoplifting charges.

DOORSTOP IS WEAPON

Butte police arrested Thayne Allen, 38, at about 4 p.m. Tuesday in the 200 block of West Silver Street for assault with a weapon. He got into an argument with his downstairs neighbor over the use of his car. When another male showed up, Allen went upstairs, took a rock being used as a doorstop and threw it at the female victim, who was still downstairs. The victim, 29, received an injury to her forehead and was transported to St. James Healthcare due to reports of dizziness.

BUMPER CAR

Butte police arrested Anaconda resident Joseph Fuller, 25, for DUI refusal at about 2 a.m. Wednesday at Utah and Front. Police spotted Fuller speeding in a white pickup truck in the 500 block of South Main St. Police followed Fuller for several blocks and saw the truck bounce off of snow piles and almost hit a parked car. Police gave him a field sobriety test but he refused to take a Breathalyzer. In addition to being charged with DUI refusal, he was also charged with an open container, speeding and changing lanes in an unsafe manner.
A Butte woman is facing a felony theft charge after she turned herself in to Butte police Friday on a warrant for embezzling from her workplace, the Southwest Montana Community Health Center, 445 Centennial Ave.

Police said the woman, Amy Serich, 48, had access to the clinic's payroll system and was caught in an audit revealing she was redirecting checks to her name earlier this year.

According to a complaint filed by the Butte-Silver Bow County Attorney's Office in October, Serich stole over $10,000 between April of 2015 and February of 2016. Felony theft by embezzlement carries a sentence of at least one year and no more than 10 years in the state prison system and a fine of up to $50,000.

Deputy County Attorney Anne Shea said Serich's case will be transferred from the Justice Court to Butte's state District Court in January.

Serich was released after turning herself in, police said.
Gov. Steve Bullock said Tuesday that a southwest Montana veterans' home in Butte is a key priority in the infrastructure plan he has prepared for the Legislature.

About 50 veterans came out to hear Bullock discuss his spending goals at the Marine Corps League building. Top priority for them is the veterans' home.

The facility could have been built years ago, Rep. Jim Keane, D-Butte, told The Montana Standard after the meeting. The state has $5 million to put toward the project. The holdup is the federal government, which is expected to provide the additional money, said Keane. The 60-bed facility now requires $16.5 million to be built, said state budget director Dan Villa.

Bullock is proposing borrowing the money needed through a bond in order to initiate construction. The federal government has put Montana on a waiting list, prioritizing veterans homes planned for larger urban areas, said Keane.

The state eventually will get back the millions promised by the federal government, said Keane.

Its unjust to these veterans whove served their country and live in a rural state, said Keane.

Part of the urgency to move forward is connected to the land. Longtime Pepsi bottler Don Harrington donated a 10-acre parcel south of Three Bears Alaska grocery store off Continental Drive before he died. That land, held under a trust, has a 10-year sunset window. The clock began ticking on that window six years ago.

Once its built, the assisted-living care facility would create about 100 jobs, according to Villa.

Making good on a campaign promise made at Stodden Park last spring, Bullock also spoke of money going to two other buildings  $25 million for Montana State University's Romney Hall and $27 million for a new Montana Historical Society museum in Helena.

Money would also be spent on roads, bridges, water infrastructure, sewer systems, and schools across the state.

Bullock said the money would come from a responsible combination of cash and bonds.

The veterans who came for Bullocks speech seemed happy to hear Bullocks proposal.

The oldest member of the Marine Corps League  91-year-old Phillip Lyons  spoke to Bullock after his speech. Having served in both World War II and the Korean War, Lyons said he has waited a long time for a veterans' home to arrive in Butte.

The Butte native lives alone. He would like to see the home built so he would have a place to join other veterans.

They better hurry up, Lyons told The Standard Tuesday. This old vet wont be around for long.

But state Republicans may not be agreeable to Bullocks spending plan.

State Sen. President Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, told The Montana Standard Tuesday that state Republicans are not opposed to infrastructure spending, but, it needs to be a critical need to get the fluff out.

Sales said the last time he checked the states budget, most of the cash is gone.

Sales also said the state GOP might be more amenable to splitting the legislation into multiple bills instead of one omnibus legislation.

We want a level of accountability when we start talking hundreds of millions of dollars, said Sales.

Bullock said the infrastructure needs he is championing, are far, far too important to fight over.

The budget fight got off to an ominous start last week when state Republicans proposed funding needed road work and state troopers' positions by reallocating some $12 million Bullock has earmarked for early childhood education.

"Pitting 4-year-olds against road construction is not a constructive step," Bullock told The Montana Standard Tuesday.
BILLINGS  Butte Sen. Amanda Curtis is the first Democrat to express interest in running for Montanas lone U.S. House seat should Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke become President-elect Donald Trumps interior secretary.

Curtis told The Billings Gazette this week that she will seek her partys nomination when county-level central committee members convene to select a candidate.

That meeting wont take place unless Zinke is confirmed by the U.S. Senate sometime after the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration.

Once Zinke resigns from the House, Montana will have 85 to 100 days to fill his vacancy through special election.

District Judge Russell Fagg and Bozeman builder Eugene Graf IV expressed their interest in running to be the Montana Republican Party nominee.

Curtis said she's been having conversations with folks who would like to see me do it, and with my family. Its a life-changing situation whether you win or lose.

A Butte educator, Curtis was the Democratic Partys replacement candidate in Montanas 2014 U.S. Senate race. Her campaign launched mid-August after Democratic Sen. John Walsh withdrew after being caught in a plagiarism scandal.

With less than two months before Montanans began voting by absentee ballot, Curtis went from being a relative unknown to capturing 40 percent of the popular vote. For perspective, Democratic candidate Denise Juneau received 41 percent of the vote in her bid to unseat Zinke this year.

Most of the committee people who selected Curtis in a four-candidate nominating convention in 2014 would be making the selection again this year.

A Democrat successful in winning Montanas at-large seat in a special election would enter a Republican controlled House working with a Republican president and Senate. But Curtis said theres opportunity. Democrats and Republicans in Montana dont see the federal government working for them, Curtis said, which is a sentiment she shares.

President-elect Trump has said he would like to save Social Security and Medicare. Curtis would like to work with the Trump administration toward that goal. Curtis begins her second term in the Montana Legislature in January.

A district judge for 22 years and a former Republican Montana legislator, Russell Fagg, said he has eyed a congressional run for years. Now, with his children grown, the time seems right.

I am considering running for the special election Congressional seat, Fagg said. Many factors to consider, including my family, my current position, which I love, and where I can best serve in the future. I've been talking to people I respect and praying about it.

Fagg, who describes himself as a right-of-center conservative, would have to decide whether running for U.S. House was worth resigning as a Yellowstone County District Court. Its a decision Fagg said he would have to make before culling favor with central committee members in advance of a party nominating convention.

Fagg also pens a monthly Ask the Judge column for The Billings Gazette. In fairness to other candidates, he would no longer be allowed to contribute to The Gazette should he choose to run.

Bozeman builder Eugene Graf IV pushes the list of potential Republican candidates to six. Graf is a past president of the Montana Building Association and Southwest Montana Building Industry Association. He is the fifth generation of a Bozeman business family that has over the years developed more than 4,000 parcels in the Gallatin County.

It was as a member of the executive board of the National Association of Homebuilders that Graf worked closest with Congress, raising money for the homebuilders political action committee and meeting the lawmakers about legislation.

Ive been interested in this for a long time and I have been participating at that level with congressmen and senators with the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, said Graf.
U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen sentenced the father of a major Butte meth dealer in Missoula federal court Tuesday to three years in federal prison, followed by another three years of supervised release.

Larry Oxendine, 58, previously pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of firearms under an agreement with prosecutors in which his other charges were dismissed. His felon status is from 1978.

Court documents show Oxendine first came to Montana from the Bakken oil fields after 2013, having moved cross country after being laid off from a long-term factory job in North Carolina in 2008. According to North Dakota arrest records, his son, Lester Oxendine, was in the Bakken as early as 2014, and the two would later move to Butte, with Larry Oxendine staying in Lesters home.

Lester Oxendine told police after his arrest in December 2015 on drug and weapon charges that he had trafficked over 40 pounds of meth into Butte from Las Vegas in the last six months with accomplices including his father. He is set to be sentenced next year and faces life in federal prison. Larry Oxendine is the first of three of Lesters accomplices to be sentenced, all of whom testified against one another.

In a Dec. 19 sentencing memorandum, Oxendines lawyer David Mattingly disagreed with the prosecutions quadrupling of possible sentencing from 18-24 months to 87-108 months in prison, calling it disproportionate and negating of Oxendines presumption of innocence. Mattingly said an appropriate range by his calculations was 10-16 months, and Oxendine requested six months with a year of supervised release.

The sentencing hearing lasted more than two hours, with the brunt of the arguments between prosecution and defense focused on Oxendines role in removing guns from the house in Butte he and his son lived in shortly before police raided the home in December 2015, and whether his sentence should include the possession of those weapons.

A neighbor who  despite saying he had been friendly with Oxendine  had been passing information to a detective about the meth dealing that was happening at the house, documents show. The day of the raid, the neighbor said one of the Oxendines co-defendants, Clifton Stack, came over to his house to say Lester had been arrested and he needed to help get guns and other items out of the Oxendine home, threatening to shoot him if he didnt comply.

The man said he went to the house and told Oxendine what had happened. Oxendine ran upstairs and recovered three rifles from a bedroom before returning to the neighbor and giving them to him. The neighbor went outside and, after an argument with Stack, put the guns against a nearby concrete wall before he was spotted by officers and ordered to the ground. He was arrested but not charged in the incident.

In court, Mattingly said he didnt buy the neighbors story, indicating he believed the man had been involved in dealing drugs with the Oxendines.

He had a lot more information than just being a neighbor and seeing things, he said. This goes way beyond the level of a concerned citizen.

Mattingly showed several text messages between the neighbor and the detective that he was looking to be paid as a confidential informant.

An equally plausible scenario of what happened the day of the drug raid was that the neighbor kicked in the door and recovered the weapons himself, Mattingly said.

At Oxendines request, Christensen said he would recommend he be placed at a federal prison in North Carolina. As part of his supervision he will be required to complete a substance abuse program and be subject to random drug testing.
Wednesday, Dec. 21

POWER OUTAGE

NorthWestern Energy has scheduled an approximately three-hour power outage for the Kennedy Elementary School area on Butte's North Side beginning at 1:30 p.m. This outage will affect 358 customers from Zarelda Street south to Woolman Street; and from Western Avenue east to Clark Street.

CAR SEAT CLINIC

A childrens car seat clinic will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Uptown Fire Station, Montana and Galena. Details: Mary Jo Stosich at the Butte-Silver Bow Health Department, 406-497-5087.

DIABETES LUNCH, LEARN

This months Diabetes Lunch and Learn will be at Metals Bank, Park and Main, at noon. Discussions of healthy eating and surviving the holidays with diabetes are on the agenda. Details: Ida Reighard St. James Healthcare, 406-723-2960.

CLUBS AND MEETINGS

BUTTE

Warped Weavers meet 6 to 8 p.m. at the Butte Public Library, 226 W. Broadway St., third floor. Curious about weaving? Come watch, ask questions; there may be a loom for you to try. Details: 406-782-5784.

Bingo will be played at 7 p.m. at the Elks Lodge, Montana and Galena. Players are urged to come early to get a good seat.

American Legion Post #1 and the auxiliary will celebrate the holidays at their monthly dinner tonight at the Legion Hall on Motor View Dr. Prime rib, salads and desserts will be served. Cost for the dinner will be $8. Hall opens at 6 p.m., and dinner is served at 6:30 pm.

Butte Kiwanis meets at noon at Perkins Family Restaurant. Shannon Isakson. a heart therapist, will be the speaker.

Al-Anon meetings: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Gold Hill Lutheran Church; 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Sharing and Caring, 1500 Cobban.

Overeaters Anonymous meets at 6:15 p.m. at the Gold Hill Lutheran Church, 934 Placer St. Details: 406-533-5454.

ANACONDA

Anaconda Sportsmans Club meets at 7 p.m. in the AOH Hall. A dues increase will be discussed.

DILLON

The Dillow Kiwanis meet at noon at the Beaverhead Brewery, 218 South Montana Street in downtown Dillon. Guest speaker is Laura Malesich, spokesperson for Dillon Area Love Inc., a Christian non-profit organization that coordinates resources to meet individual needs in Beaverhead and western Madison counties.
While Congressional Republicans plan their strategy to repeal the Affordable Care Act, most Americans probably dont know that the ACA is responsible for changes that have improved maternal child health, trained more primary care doctors and helped new doctors, dentists, physician assistants and nurse practitioners repay education loans.

Seventy percent of funding for community health centers, such as those operated by RiverStone Health in Billings, Worden, Joliet and Bridger is provided through the ACA. If the ACA is repealed, RiverStone wouldnt have the resources to continue present services to all its 20,000 patients.

Community health centers care for 25 million patients nationwide, including 100,000 in Montana.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., visited RiverStone Health in Billings recently, and heard how ACA repeal would affect the clinic:

Low-income patients would have to pay full-price for prescriptions now subsidized through the ACA.

The Montana Family Medicine Residency would reduce its class sizes back to pre-ACA levels. Instead of training eight family doctors per class year, it would train six, cutting the number of residents from 24 to 18. Seventy percent of MFMR grads are practicing in Montana. Fewer graduates means few doctors for Montana.

A dozen RiverStone professionals are getting help repaying educational loans through the ACA. Without the ability to offer ACA loan repayment, RiverStone would be much less competitive in recruiting providers who can make higher salaries at private clinics.

About 3,000 of RiverStones 20,000 patients would lose marketplace insurance or Medicaid coverage.

The new coverage is much better for the patients, according to Shawn Hinz, RiverStone vice president for public health. For example, women who previously qualified for Medicaid only when they were pregnant, can now have coverage even if they arent pregnant.

Before the ACA, young families went without preventive services they couldnt afford, Hinz said. Now the ACA requires first-dollar coverage for such things as cancer screenings. Just one cancer case that is detected early can save hundreds of thousands of dollars, said John Felton, RiverStone CEO.

Having insurance also encourages people to get the health care they need when they need it. RiverStone doctors told Tester about ranchers and small business owners who had no insurance putting off knee replacements and other surgery till they were old enough to qualify for Medicare at age 65. Some of those folks tried to get by with painkillers, such as opioids.

Tester had his own story of waiting for Medicare eligibility to get definitive treatment. My oldest brother had a heart issue and waited till he got on Medicare, Tester said.

Even if repeal legislation is written with a delayed effective date two or three years from now, there will be immediate repercussions. For example, the residency and loan repayment programs funding must be continued this year or they will end.

Tester understands that the ACA benefits Montanans, but needs improvement. While the rest of our Congressional delegation continues to call for repeal, Montanans should ask Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., about the losses to public health. Montana needs more doctors. We must work on preventing illness and injury  like the 36 nations who spend less on their health care and have healthier populations that the United States.

Repeal of the ACA will rip Montanas safety net.

 The Billings Gazette
HELENA  The administrator of Montana's state parks has left his position after eight years.

An email sent to Fish, Wildlife and Parks staff Tuesday says Chas Van Genderen is no longer employed by the department, effective immediately.

The email's author, FWP chief of staff Paul Sihler, writes that the Van Genderen's departure is a personnel issue and he will not comment on it.

FWP spokesman Ron Aasheim says he has no additional information. A phone number listed for Van Genderen appears to be disconnected.

Van Genderen became the parks division's administrator in 2008.

Sihler's email says two employees, Tom Reilley and Melissa Baker, will alternate each month as acting division administrator until the position is permanently filled.

Sihler writes that it is a difficult period for everybody involved, and asks staff to be sensitive and patient.
You are notified that there is now on file in the office of the Clerk of Court for Muscatine County, a petition to terminate parental rights in case number JV006170 which asks that your parental rights be terminated as it relates to your child born on the 5th day of April, 2016, in the State of Iowa. For further details contact the clerk's office. The petitioner's attorney is Joan M. Black, Assistant Muscatine County Attorney, Muscatine County Attorney's Office, 420 East Third Street, Muscatine, IA 52761, 563-263-0382.

You are notified that there will be a prehearing on the petition to terminate parental rights before the Iowa Juvenile Court for Muscatine County, at the Courthouse in Muscatine, IA on the 19th day of January, 2017, at 8:30 o'clock a.m. and a termination of parental rights hearing on the 9th day of February, 2017, at 1:30 o'clock p.m.

You are further notified that unless on or before this time and date of hearing, you appear, or, you serve, and within a reasonable time thereafter file, a written special appearance, motion or answer, in the above-named Court at the Courthouse in Muscatine, IA, judgment by default will be rendered finding your parental rights to be terminated as demanded in the Petition.

You are further notified that you are entitled to be represented by an attorney. If you are unable to employ counsel, you may apply to have counsel appointed by filling out an affidavit of your financial situation. You should do this immediately.

Jeff Tollenaer

Clerk of the

Juvenile Court

Muscatine County Courthouse

Muscatine, Iowa 52761

Dates of Publication:

December 7, 2016

December 14, 2016

December 21, 2016
MUSCATINE, Iowa  A 13-year-old was arrested Thursday morning for disorderly conduct after officers from the Muscatine Police Department responded to a call and found the juvenile with a fake gun.

At 10:15 a.m. Thursday (Dec. 15), officers responded to a report of an armed subject at the GM Minimart on Lucas Street according to the Muscatine Police Department report.

Lt. Jeff Jirak of the Muscatine Police Department stated that upon arrival at the scene officers found the 13-year-old in possession of a fake gun.

Jirak said the juvenile did not present the firearm in a manner indicative of robbing the store, but was arrested for disorderly conduct.

There was not threat to the public, Jirak said.

The Muscatine Police Department was assisted by the Muscatine County Sheriff's Office.

Emily Wenger of the Muscatine Journal
WAPELLO, Iowa - Salary increases approved in June by the Louisa County Board of Health (BOH) for some staff of the Louisa County Public Health Service (LCPHS) are continuing to rub wounds with the Louisa County Board of Supervisors.

The issue came up again Tuesday at the supervisors regular weekly meeting during a wide-ranging, general discussion on a county compensation board meeting later in the day, department budgets and possible board appointments.

Where are we going with (public health salaries)? supervisor Randy Griffin asked supervisors Paula Buckman and Chris Ball, the supervisors BOH representative.

Buckman suggested the issue may have been partially settled after LCPHS Administrator Patti Sallee accepted a new position in Henry County and LCPHS Nurse Roxanne Smith agreed to serve as interim administrator.

(Smith) is making less than Sallee, Buckman said, adding the BOH had also agreed to drop a performance evaluation program that possibly could have raised salaries.

Griffin however said county residents he talked to felt reports they had read about the issue painted a different story and he agreed with them.

From what I read in the papers, it looks like we lost, but I dont that it is over, he said.

Ball said he felt the supervisors had two options and both centered on a budget amendment the BOH apparently needs to add revenue and expenses related to grant funding awarded this year to the LCPHS.

BOH officials have indicated if the amendment is not approved, services may need to be cut.

According to officials, the amendments must be approved by the supervisors by Jan. 15. Auditor Sandi Elliott warned the board Tuesday if amendments were going to be approved the process needed to begin soon.

We can either sit tight and not accept any amendment or we shut down and not amend, Ball said.

Buckman, who will be going off the board of supervisors at the end of the year after losing in her re-election bid, said the supervisors should wait until two new BOH members are appointed at the start of the year to make any decision. She also reminded the other two that supervisor-elect Brad Quigley was researching Iowa law to determine what public health services were required.

She also warned if amendments were not approved, the county might be liable for repaying an entire grant award, some of which was already included in the BOH budget and has been spent.

Griffin indicated that could mean the supervisors hands were tied for this year, but next years budget would be a different story.

I think you need to take back to the board of health that we would like to see a zero increase, flat budget. I hope this is not over, he told Ball.

Well take care of some of this after the first of the year, Ball assured him.

In other action, county engineer Larry Roehl told the board he had recently talked with Iowa Department of Transportation District Engineer Jim Armstrong and learned a public meeting on the proposed U.S. Highway 61 Bypass route around Wapello would likely be held in mid-February.

The board also met with Louisa County Conservation Board (LCCB) Executive Director Katie Hammond for her regular monthly update on LCCB activities.

The board also approved a $164,260 office information software changeover and $269,525 in claims.
Last Christmas I spent the day boating on the Clermont Chain of Lakes in Lake County, Florida. My husband Brian and I were thrilled to have visitors for the Christmas holiday. My cousin and her family used the holiday to plan a Disney vacation. It was an unusually warm December day even by Florida standards, and the lake was busy.

A stark contrast to how I will spend this years holiday. We actually had planned to travel to Iowa for the holidays this year, but what we hadnt planned on was bringing all of our belongings with us. Well except my winter shoes. They seemed to not make the moving truck as they are nowhere to be found and I finally had to give up my flip-flops mid-December.

Many of our readers may know that I rejoined the Muscatine Journal staff in May of 2016 as general manager, but as I get out and about, I realize that few actually know why or how I ended up returning to a state where the air hurts your face.

I had left my role as advertising manager of the Muscatine Journal in the fall of 2014 for a publisher position in Clermont, Florida. At the time, I had begun dating a nice man from the small Iowa town of Ainsworth who was employed as a meat inspector with the federal government. He had applied for a promotion to the area and on a whim, I applied for a few gigs in the area, too. Months later I received a call out of the blue from the company asking me if I would be interested in interviewing for their top job in another nearby community. During the on-site visit, they drove me by the lakeside tiki bar I would later live next to and I think I decided then and there to take the job. Instead of moving for my boyfriends career, we would move for mine. He would soon propose to me at an Iowa tailgate and we would get married on the beach in Boca Grande. We thought we were living our happily ever after when he got word of a transfer to a beef plant near Clermont just in time for the wedding. We would return from our honeymoon and he would start work in Florida.

For almost two years we got to live on the outskirts of Orlando and loved every minute of it. But then things changed. The plant where he was assigned suddenly closed and was up for sale. The government transferred him to various plants all over the state. We both decided to start applying for other jobs when we learned his plant would not soon re-open. Our goal was to get to an area where he could easily transfer to, and within a few weeks I was a finalist for a position in Kentucky where there were many open inspector jobs. Once again we would have to gamble that a position would come through for him in a timely manner.

A simple check of my references started the chain of events that would instead lead Brian and I back to my hometown of Muscatine, Iowa. It was not an easy decision, but it was hard to say no to the opportunity to come back and make a difference in a town that had done so much for me. I knew in my heart that I was the right person to come back and help implement many of the positive changes you see here in the pages of the Muscatine Journal. My husband knew an inspector at his former plant in Iowa was retiring so he decided to go for it. Our families missed us, so we thought it might be the right thing at the right time.

Anyone who has been away from family on a holiday sees it with a bit different perspective. It teaches you to appreciate the ability to easily gather with family and friends. Its easy to get overwhelmed by the hectic schedule that the holidays provide. But this Christmas, I will live more in the moment. I will hug my relatives just a little bit longer and take a few more pictures of the kids with Santa.

Now I joke quite a bit about missing the beach, warm temperatures and sunshine, but its funny that when you are in those places you just wish you could share it with everyone you love. I love Muscatine, and I hope you all have a very merry Christmas. Maybe, just maybe, Santa will be kind and bring me some winter shoes.

Jaime Limoges is general manager of the Muscatine Journal. 563-262-0552; jaime.limoges@muscatinejournal.com.
You might still catch them on TV or doing work behind the scenes, but these actors have said goodbye to the silver screen (at least for now).
Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi []
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 []
NAPA  Waving signs and chanting slogans like We reject/ the president elect, a group of about 70 Napans marched through several downtown blocks at mid-day Monday.

The group, called Rise Up, Napa (RUN), began and ended its march at Veterans Memorial Park on Main Street.

RUN supporters chose Monday for their protest because it was the day the Electoral College cast its ballots to officially select Donald Trump the next U.S. president.

Our mission is to protest the electors who may cast their ballots for Trump and to stand up against hate, discrimination, and intolerance, wrote one of the organizers, Ermilita Bruce Gulliksen, in an email to the Register.

After sharing some initial remarks via a portable microphone, the group, with some marchers pushing strollers or walking with children, wound its way out of the park towards Third Street.

Love not hate/ makes America great, they chanted, walking up Third Street past a real estate office and the old courthouse.

Pedestrians and drivers paused to take in the group.

Were people/united/and were going to fight it, the marchers chanted.

Some people honked horns in support, but not everyone was persuaded.

A man driving a car on Second Street shouted an obscenity at the protesters.

Oh, liberals, said a female pedestrian crossing the sidewalk on Main Street.

RUN was created due to the surprising post-election results, wrote Bruce Gulliksen.

Its members are primarily Napa mothers who have organized for our childrens future, she wrote. We need to stand up for each other, protect our communities, and stand up for injustices, and intolerances that may potentially happen during the Trump reign.

In addition, We want to spread the word that there are like-minded people like us in town.

After the presidential election, we were feeling confused and angry, said another RUN organizer, Leslie Lew of Napa.

It hasnt gotten any better since then, she said. President-elect Trumps cabinet choices are frightening, Lew said.

We have a president who doesnt represent our beliefs including human rights, civil rights, tolerance and inclusion, said another RUN organizer, Jennifer Simi.

I realized complacency is no longer an option. We have to get off our couches and out of our houses and organize to stand up for what we believe, said Simi. This is not politics as usual.

Speaking for her children, Simi said, I want them to grow up in a world that believes in tolerance.

Im not going to just sit around and let the president spread all this hate, said Jordan Simi, an eighth grader from Napa.

I dont stand for what this president says and does, said Tessa Tibbits, also in eighth grade. Its not something I want to go along with.

Electing a president reminiscent of a James Bond villain or a character from a bad action movie  it seems like something youd read in a science fiction book, said eighth grader Ike Rubin.

Beth Mattei of Napa said she came to the march to support the RUN group.

She wished the Electoral College would vote for somebody whos fit for the office, not a demagogue and possibly under the influence of a foreign power.

Holding the hand of his young daughter, Napa resident Justin Godey said he came to the protest because were scared about some of the directions this country could be going. Theres been a lot of hate and intolerance. Thats not the United States I want to live in.

The RUN group will continue to have more events, said Simi. As of Monday, specific dates or plans have yet to be announced.
Five years ago, while visiting a remote island in the Philippines, Agnes Pease of Angwin encountered a family whose son was having a seizure. It was an experience she would long remember.

He was lying on the ground and his skin was covered in cellulitis, the worst case I had ever seen, Pease remembered. And they were shaking the boy, to get him to stop his seizure.

Pease, who had served nine years in the Navy as a medical technician, told them to stop. Then she held the boy in her arms to comfort him until his seizure was over.

She told the family they needed to get the boy to a doctor. She gave them some money to help them with the cost of conveying the lad, but later discovered that the family had not followed through.

It was too expensive for them, she recalled. They would have had to take him by outrigger to get him to a doctor.

Because Pease knew something about medicine, the villagers asked her to help with other ailments. Pease asked them to bring their first-aid kit, but what she found was just a rusty old metal box with little of use inside.

The Angwin woman had grown up in a part of Metro Manila but said, Id never seen that level of poverty. And so I started thinking about ways to help.

I want these villages to have a good first-aid kit, she said. And to get some basic medical training so they might better be able to take care of themselves. I want them to rely upon themselves for basic medical care.

Pease, a longtime resident of Angwin and a physical therapist, is the owner of the Napa Valley Tea Company. She is a certified Level III Tea Master and sells her uniquely blended teas at the farmers markets up and down the Napa Valley. At the same time, she promotes her personal cause for the Philippine villagers on the remote islands.

People at the farmers markets who place money into her tip jar are told that it will go toward buying and distributing medical kits to villages such as that island she visited in the Philippines. As that tip jar has filled, she says, shes separated out the money for that purpose. But now shes at a critical juncture in her mission.

Right now, I need advice and connections to help me find ways to purchase the kits and get them distributed where theyre needed. Someday I want to start a nonprofit to help. But right now I need to focus on my business, and most of all, I need to connect to people or organizations that can help me get kits to the islands.

Pease said the best way to connect with her is via email at agnes@napavalleyteacompany.com. Or stop by her booth at the Calistoga Farmers Market, adjacent to the Calistoga Police Department, held every Saturday morning.
Nancy Fireman admits it  she doesnt like to say no.

It doesnt seem to be in my vocabulary, she said. I do better having lots of balls in the air.

Juggling her time, Fireman, 72, volunteers regularly for a number of local nonprofits such as the Teacher Resource Center of the North Bay, Friends of the Library, Napa Valley CanDo, and The Table. She also created an organization to serve Tibetan children.

Its almost as if Fireman is making up for lost time.

While working for many years as a project manager in the computer industry, Fireman said she was able to make donations to worthy causes, but her volunteer hours were limited.

I always felt like I didnt do my part, she said. When I retire, I will volunteer, she determined.

After she officially retired in December 2000, Fireman started a nonprofit called Tibetan Living Communities. Working with Tibetan monks, she helped raise money for education and health care for Tibetan children. She served as the executive director until 2008.

In 2010, she attended a meeting for the Drug Take Back of Napa Valley CanDo program.

The group needed someone to take unused medications once a month to the proper waste management facility for disposal.

It certainly was a manageable time commitment, she figured.

However, Firemans can-do attitude got the best of her, she said.

I went to the meeting and walked out as manager of the disposal project.

One of her biggest projects is helping produce the Give!Guide for Napa Valley CanDo.

It takes nine months to put it together, she said.

Thinking about the number of people the guide ends up helping inspires her to stick with the project, said Fireman.

In addition to that significant undertaking, Fireman produces a newsletter for the Friends of the Napa Library, is on call for The Table and helps at the Teacher Resource Center. Using her computer skills, Fireman has also created basic websites for some of her volunteer groups.

Depending on the time of year, she contributes 20 to 30 hours a week of her time, Fireman estimated.

Staying busy keeps her motivated in life, said Fireman.

If I dont have very much to do, I dont do anything. If I have a lot to do, I get it done.

That doesnt mean Fireman doesnt ever think about cutting back on her commitments.

When I want to quit something, Fireman said, she tells herself its not about me  its about the people Im helping. That is why I do what I can do.

Shes not in it for public accolades.

I dont care if anyone knows my name, Fireman said. She likes the hands-on work, she said.
Napa County is free of U.S. Department of Justice oversight on how it reaches out to Spanish-only speakers during elections, though that doesnt necessarily mean the county will stop its bilingual ballot efforts.

County Registrar of Voters John Tuteur attributes the countys 82 percent Nov. 8 election turnout in part to its Spanish-language outreach. One of his primary responsibilities is to make certain every registered voter can cast a vote in an informed manner, he said.

Were sticking with that goal, Tuteur told the county Board of Supervisors at its Tuesday meeting.

Still, with this and other recent elections developments, Tuteur wants to hear from supervisors and the community. Hes tentatively scheduled a Board of Supervisors election workshop for Feb. 28.

The U.S. Bureau of the Census in 2011 informed Napa County it would have to provide ballot materials in Spanish as well as English. Thats because the mix of limited English proficient voters and educational attainment had triggered Section 203 of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Napa County began providing ballots and elections materials in separate English and Spanish versions. But that didnt satisfy the Department of Justice.

On May 31, the county and the Department of Justice reached an agreement. Among other things, it called for bilingual ballot materials and bilingual volunteers at voter assistance centers. The federal agency had six monitors in Napa County for the November election.

Federal oversight of Napa Countys bilingual outreach efforts was to last through 2018.

But a few weeks ago, the Bureau of the Census announced Napa Countys demographics no longer made it subject to this Voting Rights Act section. That put in question the status of the countys Department of Justice agreement.

In a Dec. 16 letter, Department of Justice Voting Section Chief T. Christian Herren, Jr. told the county it is released from its obligations under the May 31 agreement. He also wrote that Napas outreach efforts appeared to be beneficial to a significant number of limited English proficient voters.

That leaves the question of what Napa County does next.

It just happened the Census Bureau said we were in in 2011 and were out in 2016, Tuteur told supervisors. And, just remember, we could be back in in 2021, the next time this goes around.

Tuteur has another matter he wants to discuss with the Board of Supervisors and public on Feb. 28.

Napa Countys use of vote-by-mail ballots is about to accelerate even further. About 94 percent of voters used this method in the November 2016 elections, as opposed to getting their ballots at polling places.

California law mandates statewide voting-by-mail for the 2020 elections. Napa County is a designated pilot county for all vote-by-mail ballots in the June 5, 2018 election.

The Election Division will engage with the Board of Supervisors and the community as we move forward with this new voting process, Tuteur said.
It doesn't matter how many articles of clothing Phelan Moonsong puts on before walking out the door each day: If he's not wearing his favorite pair of goat horns, the Pagan priest might as well be naked.

Unless the 56-year-old Millinocket, Maine, man is sleeping or bathing, his beloved horns are rarely far from his scalp.

It's been that way since he first laid eyes on the horns at a Pagan men's group gathering in 2009. A friend whose goat had recently died offered the horns to group members. Nobody else wanted the dead goat's hardware; Moonsong couldn't believe his luck

So he took the horns home, drilled small holes in each one and attached them to his forehead using stretchy, 50-pound fishing line that he wrapped around his head like an invisible skull cap.

His life was never the same.

"As a practicing Pagan minister and a priest of Pan, I've come to feel very attached to the horns, and they've become a part of me and part of my spirituality," Moonsong said, noting that he periodically soaks the horns in patchouli and cedar oil to keep them fresh and leathery. "The horns are part of my religious attire."

Moonsong feels so attached to his horns that he refuses to take them off for anyone - including the state of Maine. In August, Moonsong said, officials at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in Bangor told him that he would need to remove the horns to receive a state-issued ID.

When he tried to explain to bureau employees that he is a "Priest of Pan" - one who considers the horns his "spiritual antenna" - they were not moved. They told that the horns would have to be approved by Maine's secretary of state.

"She told me that I had to send in some documentation or religious text to show why it was required for me to have my horns on," Moonsong said. "I said, 'OK, I'll go ahead and do that,' but it seemed like an onerous requirement."

Moonsong said he sent the state a personal essay explaining the importance of his horns, along with four scholarly works, including one titled "Pagan Religions: A Handbook for Diversity Training."

Though he didn't realize it at the time, Moonsong had joined a religious freedom battle that is being fought in DMV offices around the country.

At least 30 states offer residents high levels of constitutional protection for religious expression, some of them even higher than the protection offered by the Constitution's First Amendment, according to Charles Haynes, the founding director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute.

"Generally speaking, even in states without a high level of protection, officials have to have a pretty good reason for saying no to a religious accommodation for a driver's license photo," Haynes said. "How strong that reason needs to be depends on where you live."

But it also depends on the quality of the citizen's case, Haynes said. When people argue for the right to cover their faces in a driver's license photo - such as a Muslim woman who believes it's immodest to uncover her face - states often have the upper hand because it's in the interest of the state to assist police in being able to identify people.

"However," Haynes added, "if the person's religious garb doesn't cover the face or obstruct law enforcement, those folks are likely to win."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a Christian woman who accuses DMV officials of discriminating against her by refusing to make a religious accommodation. Yvonne Allen says she was forced to remove her headscarf - which she wears for religious reasons - to have a photo taken for her driver's license, according to the complaint.

"When Ms. Allen explained her religious beliefs," the complaint states, "the county officials responded with a remarkable claim: They admitted that there was a religious accommodation available for head coverings, but contended that it applied only to Muslims."

"They also ridiculed Ms. Allen's sincerely held religious beliefs, with the Chief Clerk informing her that she was herself a Christian and did not cover her head," the complaint adds. "Left with no choice if she wished to renew her license, Ms. Allen - with tears in her eyes and feeling sick to her stomach over the violation of her religious beliefs - removed her head covering."

Heather L. Weaver, senior staff attorney for the ACLU's Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said DMV offices sometimes rule in favor of one faith and against another not because of bigotry so much as ignorance.

"Sometimes it comes down to them not understanding certain faiths," Weaver said. "That's when we come in to educate DMV officials about particular religious headgear and explain that something is a legitimate religious belief that should be accommodated in the same way you might accommodate a Jewish yarmulke."

Allen's case is ongoing, but Moonsong said he managed to avoid hiring a lawyer and filing a lawsuit.

After several months of waiting to hear from the state's motor vehicle office following his initial visit, he says he informed the bureau that he was in touch with the ACLU. His ID arrived in the mail days later, he says.

A spokeswoman for the Maine secretary of state told the Bangor Daily News that Moonsong had not mentioned that the horns were religious in nature during his initial BMV visit.

"He did not cite religious reasons," said the spokeswoman, Kristen Muszynski. "There are exceptions for religious headdress."

The newspaper reported that the state of Maine follows American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators guidelines, which state that license photos "may only show the cardholder with headgear, if the cardholder is a member of a religion requiring the wearing thereof and provided that the headgear does not present as an obstruction or present a shadow and render the portrait inadequate for the identification of the cardholder."

Moonsong, who changed his name earlier this year, said he was "elated" with the result of his BMV battle - not only for himself but for others who quietly share some of his beliefs.

"A lot of Pagans are in the closet and - as with the LGBT crowd - there's a lot of misconceptions and discrimination that they face," he said.

"Many practicing Pagans are afraid of being public," Moonsong added, "but when they see my horns it reminds them it's okay to be yourself."

There are personal benefits to having an ID as well, he noted. Though he doesn't drive, Moonsong will finally be able to use his ID to board a plane to California, where some of the best Pagan festivals are found.

"I'm very excited," he said.
My mother, who has dementia, resides at the Berkshire Senior Care Facility. It was a wonderful surprise to visit her Sunday morning and enjoy a concert by the Napa High School Choir. The residents all thoroughly enjoyed this great performance, seeing these young faces and hearing their beautiful voices. I think that it touched not only the residents, but the students as well.
Im a father to two daughters and one son and I will attend the Women's March on Napa Valley, Jan. 21 at 10 a.m., from Oxbow Market to Veterans Memorial Park.

Why? Like others, I believe that womens rights are human rights; it should be both self-evident and a reality. I share the aspirations of women who seek their place at the table, who wish to preserve equality in our lifetime. Historically, women are taught to stand by your man. I think its time to stand by the women in solidarity for womens rights.
The St. Helena Planning Commission voted 2-1 Tuesday to approve a tasting room on Adams Street, over objections that its close proximity to schools could endanger students.

The permit will allow Ladera Vineyards to open a tasting room at 1234 Adams St., occupied by the Go Vino offices and previously a tasting room for Tamber Bey Vineyards.

Brian Russell, speaking on behalf of Ladera, said the tasting room would be a high-end, low-volume operation that wouldnt draw big crowds.

Commissioner Bobbi Monnette voted against the project because she was concerned about childrens safety, since people would be driving away from the tasting room after drinking. She cited the close proximity to St. Helena Elementary School, the Carnegie Building, Sun and Stars Montessori, and the First Presbyterian Church.

There will be people driving in and out of the driveway, potentially during school hours when there are so many children there, Monnette said, adding that there is no safe level of alcohol to drive.

Monnette said she might be more inclined to support the application if the tasting room would be closed during school hours.

One member of the public who didnt mention her name had the same concern. She said it was inappropriate to put a wine bar near a school, and also criticized the Davies Vineyards Winery tasting room across from St. Helena High School.

I just dont know when the city of St. Helena lost all incentive to protect our children from intoxicated drivers, she said.

Russell responded that Ladera was proposing a tasting room, not a wine bar. He said Ladera would serve alcohol responsibly and comply with the requirements of the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).

Obviously we would never serve anybody to the point of illegal intoxication when theyre going to get into a car, he said. Almost all of the people that would be visiting the tasting room are either walking on the street and already visiting other establishments here in St. Helena or have another mode of transportation besides driving themselves.

Commissioners Tracy Sweeney and Grace Kistner voted in favor of the tasting room. Sweeney said the space was previously given a use permit for the Tamber Bey tasting room, so it would be inconsistent not to support Laderas application.

Sweeney said she was confident Ladera would comply with state regulations about responsible alcohol service. They cant keep their (ABC) license if they dont follow those rules and restrictions, she said.

Kistner said the commission has to abide by the citys zoning code, which does not restrict tasting rooms near schools. The commission should explore that topic when it overhauls the zoning code, but for now the appropriate place for that discussion is with the ABC and not with the St. Helena Planning Commission, Kistner said.

One seat on the commission is vacant and Commissioner Sarah Parker recused herself due to a personal relationship with the applicants family, leaving only three commissioners left to discuss the matter.

Before the hearing, City Attorney Tom Brown said Commissioner Monnette had expressed certain opinions about the project prior to the public hearing (that) cast doubt on whether (Monnette) would be able to be fair and impartial as the law requires.

However, since Monnettes recusal would have left the commission without a quorum, Brown said the applicants were willing to waive any objections and let Monnette vote on the project, as long as she disclosed her previous comments and pledged to judge the project impartially. If she had recused herself, the vote would have been postponed until the City Council fills the commissions open seat.

In response, Monnette said she had made various public comments over the years criticizing the concept of direct wine sales near schools. She called her specific comments criticizing the Ladera application regrettable.

Since the city had already designated tasting rooms as an acceptable use in the Central Business zoning district, the best place to challenge that use is through the ABCs permitting process, not the Planning Commissions public hearing, Monnette said. She said she would give the project a fair hearing.

Russell said the applicants were satisfied with Monnettes statement and were willing to let the public hearing go forward. Monnette went on to cite the same concerns during the hearing.

Mayor Alan Galbraith offered a statement about the situation on Wednesday morning.

I am deeply disappointed that Commissioner Monnette allowed her objectivity to become subject to serious legal question, Galbraith said. She put the city in the position of asking that the applicant waive its due process rights. This is unacceptable. Our processes need to be fair, and perceived to be fair. We failed here.
Cal Fire has awarded more than $15 million in grants to agencies looking to help prevent the spread of wildfires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. More than $219,000 of that grant money will benefit Napa County residents.

The Dry Creek-Lokoya Volunteer Fire Department was awarded two separate grants totaling $152,000 for fuels treatment. That means that the money will be used to help fund projects focused on clearing dead and dying vegetation, particularly along roadways, said Joseph Nordlinger, Mount Veeder Fire Safe Council Board chairman and volunteer firefighter at Dry Creek-Lokoya.

Oftentimes, youll have dense forest vegetation that comes right up to the road, Nordlinger said. In the event of a fire, those fallen trees and branches act as fuel, possibly contributing to the spread of the fire. By getting rid of that fuel, the fire doesnt spread as quickly or as far.

Clearing that vegetation also increases survivability and access, he said.

The Cal Fire grants, which were spread across 34 counties, were awarded using state funds and fees collected from homeowners who live in Californias urban-wildland interface. The main idea of the grants is that by removing dead and dying trees and thinning fuels that could otherwise worsen wildfires, the threat to the public will be reduced.
After 22 years with the St. Helena Police Department, Corporal Ramon Jovel has walked his last beat.

Jovel spent his entire law enforcement career in St. Helena before retiring last week. His last shift was Dec. 11.

His family emigrated from El Salvador to Napa when he was 7. He went on to serve in the Marine Corps and work on submarines at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. When it closed in the 1990s, he got into law enforcement, joining St. Helenas police force in 1995.

Jovel became known for his outgoing personality and easy smile.

Im going to miss the kids  and the parents of those kids, said the father of two. Some of those kids, Ive seen their mothers pregnant and all of a sudden theyre teenagers. A couple of them are married with their own kids already.

On one of his last shifts he responded to a barking dog call. One of the neighbors, who had heard he was retiring, urged him to come in and say goodbye to her daughter, who was having a birthday party.

I walk in and theyre all watching TV. This girl, 13 years old, jumps up and gives me a big hug  she doesnt want a high five anymore, shes too old for that. I took a picture with them. Ill miss stuff like that.

There are a few things he wont miss, such as wearing his bulletproof vest and working graveyard shifts from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Graveyards suck, he said. I wont have to stay up all night anymore.

His only plan now is to relax.

Enjoy life, stay at home, take care of my wife, he said. Sooner or later Im sure Im going to get antsy-pantsy and want to volunteer to do something. But no goals yet other than to relax.
The 8-unit Brenkle Court affordable housing project on McCorkle Avenue won final approval from the City Council on Monday.

The Planning Commission had approved the project in November, but the council needed to approve the tentative subdivision map and authorize the use of city funds to pay an in-lieu fee to offset the projects water use.

The $31,500 in-lieu fee will be transferred from the citys affordable housing trust fund (which will have about $500,000 left) to a fund dedicated to water conservation programs.

The project will use about 968 gallons of water per day. Mayor Alan Galbraith said the citys water system is well under its safe annual yield of 1,950 acre-feet, and the council has discretion to allocate available water for projects that are in the public interest, such as affordable housing.

Developers typically retrofit toilets elsewhere in town to offset their own projects additional water use. Planning Director Noah Housh said Brenkle Courts use of an in-lieu fee will be more efficient because the money will be used to replace lawns with drought-tolerant landscaping  a method that generally saves more water than toilet retrofits.

The project was designed by the nonprofit Our Town St. Helena, which worked closely with neighbors to minimize opposition. Nobody spoke against the project at Mondays hearing.

The project, named after retired Catholic priest and longtime housing advocate John Brenkle, offers the rare opportunity for low-income families to own their own homes in St. Helena. The eight families that were selected have an average household income of $51,000. The families will provide the bulk of the labor themselves  a financing model known as sweat equity that dramatically reduces construction costs.

The city bought the half-acre lot for $700,000 in 2013, with the intention of using it for affordable housing, and sold it to Our Town for the token sum of $1. The city has contributed more than $1 million to the project, between the value of the land, fee waivers, subsidies, and the water fee.

The council voted 4-0 in favor of the project, with Councilmember Peter White absent. It was the first major issue to be voted on by newly elected Councilmembers Geoff Ellsworth and Mary Koberstein.

The approval helps St. Helena comply with the terms of a legal settlement from 2014 that requires the city to approve more affordable housing.

City manager update

Also during Mondays meeting, Mayor Galbraith announced that the council selected an interim city manager after a series of interviews in closed session on Monday morning.

Galbraith said the council directed outgoing City Manager Jennifer Phillips to negotiate a contract with the candidate, who has not been identified publicly. Galbraith said he expects a contract to come before the council on Jan. 10.
Citizens have until Tuesday, Jan. 3 to submit written comments on the Culinary Institute of Americas plans to expand enrollment at the Greystone campus and build new dorms on Pratt Avenue.

The city of St. Helena released a mitigated negative declaration on Dec. 9 determining that, with the help of mitigation measures, the project wont have any potentially significant environmental effects that would trigger a full environmental impact report.

The project will come before the Planning Commission at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17, at Vintage Hall.

The school wants to expand enrollment from 200 to 300 students, remodel its interior educational facilities, close the Wine Spectator at Greystone Restaurant and replace it with a smaller part-time student-run restaurant, build a 4,468-square-foot underground storage cave, and install three modular storage units on the campus. The exterior of the 128-year-old Greystone building would not be altered.

The CIA also wants to expand its dorms at 830 Pratt Ave. to accommodate 224 students, a net increase of 123. The net increase is more than the number of new students because some existing students who live in regular rental housing in the area would move into the dorms.

The project came before the City Council in a pre-application review last spring. At the time neighbors and councilmembers identified water, sewer and traffic as factors that deserved close scrutiny during the environmental review process. Neighbors in the Pratt area also said they were concerned about the massing of the new dorms and their visibility from the street.

At the time Tom Bensel, managing director for the CIA at Greystone, said the CIA wants to take students out of the housing market and reduce commuting traffic by housing more students at the dorms, where they can use a shuttle to get to and from the campus.

The changes also reflect operational changes at the campus. Many staff members are moving to the old Copia facility in Napa, which the CIA bought in 2015 and plans to use for a lot of the events and conferences it used to hold at Greystone.

The projects mitigated negative declaration states that water and wastewater demand would increase at the dorms and decrease at Greystone, due to improvements in water efficiency, the use of a well for landscaping, the smaller restaurant, and the relocation of staff and programs to Copia.

The overall water use  would be 20.49 acre-feet/year, which is below the current water allotment of 23.1 acre-feet/year, the report states. The CIA wants to rescind the two separate water agreements for the campus and the dorms and readjust the allocations, resulting in the same total allotment of 23.1 acre-feet per year.

The campus sewage is treated at a private facility, but the dorms are hooked up to the citys wastewater system. The new dorms would increase sewage flow to 9,520 gallons per day, a net increase of 1,960 gallons.

The report states that even though St. Helena is under regulatory pressure to improve the standard of treatment at the wastewater treatment plant, the plant has sufficient operating capacity to handle the additional flows. The CIA will still have to pay a sewer mitigation fee.

To mitigate the impact on traffic, the report says tour buses should comply with size limitations and be required to make advanced reservations before visiting the campus. To address the traffic generated by the new dorms, the CIA would be required to microsurface Pratt Avenue in front of the dorms and add a Class II bike lane along Pratt between the dorms and Main Street.

The three new dorms would total more than 40,000 square feet, with a maximum height of 40 feet.

Comments should be mailed to Lilly Bianco, contract planner, 1480 Main St., St. Helena, CA 94574, or emailed to LBianco@cityofsthelena.org.
Current military members, veterans and their families and friends gathered at the Veterans Memorial Grove Cemetery in Yountville on Saturday to place wreaths against the headstones of fallen veterans as a way to honor and remember them.

The Veterans Home ceremony was just one of more than 1,100 wreath-laying ceremonies occurring around the world on Saturday  National Wreaths Across America Day.

Through this program, we seek to recognize veterans, active duty military and their families, said Wayne Wolfman Soltys, a Navy veteran with the Gateway Chapter of the Rough Riders Motorcycle Club of Napa/Solano counties. Our goal is to remind the public to remember the veterans, honor their service and teach children the value of freedom.

Ceremonial wreaths were placed in honor of the United States Navy, Marines, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines and Prisoners of War/Missing in Action.
Obviously, that carved rhino horn for sale at a foreign marketplace should not come home with you. Nor should the leopard skin, the narwhal tusk and the whale meat. But what about the queen conch from your Caribbean holiday or the caviar from the London airport duty-free shop? Not so obvious, is it?

Travelers - and that special subgroup of shoppers who travel - need know which wildlife items are permitted into the States and which ones are banned. The exotic animal test is unreliable. Many less toothy animals, birds, reptiles, plants, fish and shells are legally protected. Choose your souvenirs unwisely and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could confiscate your purchases upon your return.

The issue has implications beyond simply wasting money. Wildlife trafficking threatens the sustainability and survival of hundreds of species worldwide. Many nefarious individuals and groups, such as poachers, corrupt government officials and organized crime syndicates, benefit from these illegal sales. Buying that $4 tortoise ring doesn't seem so innocent anymore.

"There is no way the general consumer has any way of knowing how it was obtained," said Ann-Marie Holmes, a senior wildlife inspector with the agency.

An array of state, federal and international laws regulates the wildlife trade. One of the most prominent accords is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which counts nearly every country as a member. Species listed under CITES Appendix I are the most at-risk, and the treaty has placed a near-total ban on commercial goods exploiting these animals. Members of this club include sea turtles, cheetahs, tigers and black rhinos.

There is more wiggle room with species categorized under Appendix II and Appendix III, as long as the traveler obtains the proper permit or certificate. For instance, under the personal baggage exemption rule, you can carry a "reasonable" amount of an item. But some species are not eligible for this exemption and not all countries recognize it.

Wildlife protection experts advise travelers to familiarize themselves with the laws before upcoming trips. Start with the service's "Traveling to the Caribbean" and "Tips for Travelers," and the International Fund for Animal Welfare's "Stopping the Illegal Wildlife Trade." Sample advise: Under the heading "Please Don't Buy," IFAW urges people to avoid handbags, shoes, watch straps and belts made of reptile skins. For any lingering questions, contact the Fish and Wildlife Service office at your return port.

Of course, much of the thrill of shopping involves spontaneous discoveries. Before you departed for Australia, you probably didn't know how great the Crocodile Dundee hat would look on your head. Reputable retailers should know the legal status and origin of the wildlife items they are selling and provide you with a document to present at customs. Unfortunately, employees might not always be well-versed in the laws governing their clothing, crafts or jewelry. But that won't stop them from attaching a price tag to the object.

"Just because it's for sale," Holmes said, "doesn't mean it's legal."

To avoid the risk, the agent offers a simple solution: "Don't buy wildlife. Buy a magnet, buy a T-shirt."

To learn from other travelers' mistakes, here are some examples of banned items that are now the property of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Crocodile Dundee leather hat with saltwater crocodile hide and teeth

Where you can buy it: Australia

Why it is regulated: All crocodile species fall under CITES I or II; some species are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Threats include illegal hunting, international trade in skins and habitat loss.

When it is permitted: Personal baggage exemption

Hermes Birkin bag made of American alligator hide

Where you can buy it: Paris, Milan, London and other cities with a luxury retail market

Why it is regulated: CITES II. Threats include hunting, illegal trade, habitat loss and pollution.

When it is permitted: Personal baggage exemption

Queen conch shell

Where you can buy it: Caribbean, Latin America

Why it is regulated: CITES II. Threatened from overfishing for conch meat and bait and the sale of shells in the tourist trade

When it is permitted: Personal baggage exemption for up to three shells

Hair accessory carved from hawksbill shell and taxidermic hawksbill

Where you can buy it: Mexico, Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, Africa

Why it is regulated: All sea turtle species are listed under CITES I and are considered threatened or endangered under the ESA. Threats include illegal trade in meat, eggs and skins, habitat loss, pollution, and tourists and lights disturbing nesting habitats.

When it is permitted: Items certified as "pre-convention" (predates the CITES listing) may be eligible for CITES permits. Items certified as "pre-act" (before ESA listing) or antique items (older than 100 years) may be exempt.

Shahtoosh/ring shawl made of Tibetan antelope hair

Where you can buy it: India, Switzerland and high-end stores in fashion capitals. If you can pull the fine wool scarf through a ring, it is likely a shahtoosh, not a pashmina.

Why it is regulated: CITES I; endangered under the ESA. Threats include poaching for the animals' shorter guard-hairs.

When it is permitted: Same requirements as sea turtles

Caviar from sturgeon or paddlefish

Where you can buy it: Airport duty-free shops, global gourmet food markets

Why it is regulated: All sturgeon and paddlefish species are categorized as CITES I or II, and some species are listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA. Threats include overfishing for meat and roe for the caviar trade, habitat loss and pollution. The illegal caviar trade is often associated with transnational organized crime.

When it is permitted: Personal baggage exemption for up to 125 grams (small tin), unless derived from species banned under the ESA

Drum head made of monitor lizard skin and decorated with cowrie shells

Where you can buy it: Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, sub-Saharan Africa

Why it is regulated: All monitor lizard species fall under CITES II. Threats include the live pet trade, harvesting for meat and skins, and habitat loss.

When it is permitted: Personal baggage exemption

Red coral necklace

Where you can buy it: Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, Pacific islands, Asia

Why it is regulated: CITES III. Threats include overharvesting for the aquarium and jewelry trade, illegal collection or destruction by recreational divers, habitat degradation, rising ocean temperatures and pollution.
While most of the United States is currently experiencing cold temperatures, Keith Urban has headed off to his homeland of Australia where its warm and sunny. For us that means Christmas came early, as Urban was spotted frolicking on the beach with his wife Nicole Kidman. Oh, and did I mention that the tattooed Aussie was shirtless and spectacular?

Merry Christmas to us, indeed.
(Natural News) That any of Californias manic Left-wing Democrats  all of whom support just about any form of abortion you can think of  would propose a bill of rights for kids is so hypocritical as to be sickening. I guess if you make it out of the womb in the Golden State this may be some kind of reward or something.

But theres even more hypocrisy here than meets the eye: The state senator who is proposing the legislation is the same one who led the charge to strip parents of their right to vaccine choice in the state.

This California legislative notice, SB 18  introduced by Sen. Richard Pan, a vaccine-pushing pediatrician whose campaigns have been financed by Big Pharma (along with the other Democratic lawmakers in the state who backed a recent vaccine mandate), and called the Bill of Rights for Children and Youth in California  essentially makes the state the primary caretaker and caregiver of children, over the rights of parents.

This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to expand and codify the Bill of Rights for Children and Youth of California to establish a comprehensive framework that governs the rights of all children and youth in California, outlines the research-based essential needs of Californias children, and establishes standards relating to the health, safety, well-being, early childhood and educational opportunities, and familial supports necessary for all children to succeed, says a summary.

This is nothing but an attempt by power-hungry California legislators to further degrade the rights of parents

Further, it would empower the state Legislature, by 2022, to pass legislation ensuring that the childs bill of rights applies evenly, equitably, and appropriately to all children and youth across the state.

Overly broad? Of course it is, but you get the point: This measure isnt about ensuring basic rights for kids; its about giving California lawmakers and big government nanny-state bureaucrats the power to decide what is and is not equitable for the states kids. And it wont matter a bit what their parents think  or want.

How do we know that? Because we know Sen. Richard Pan. Hes tyrannical, in that he believes that only he and the state know what is best for kids  not their parents. He doesnt trust parents to do the right things for their kids. And he doesnt believe parents should have a bill of rights giving them, and not a faceless, all-powerful bureaucracy the power to make decisions for their own children.

And, as Natural News has reported, we also know that Pan is dishonest. Hes been caught lying about vaccines, as we noted in August 2015:

Carrying out the job that Big Pharma paid him to do  which we recently proved by publishing information about the industry cash hes received  Senator Richard Pan recently posted a Facebook status citing a completely fraudulent article denying the existence of mercury in vaccines, which also made blatantly false statements about Natural News Mike Adams.

Any lie is okay as long as it smears a truth-teller and political opponent

That article, by Politifact Georgias April Hunt, attempted to mainstream a series of lies, including claims that the writer had attempted to contact Adams regarding his views on mercury in vaccines. In fact, no one had attempted to contact Adams, as he clearly stated.

Its a blatant lie that Pan regurgitated in a pathetic attempt to attack the founder/editor of Natural News, while distracting voters from the fact that he had received campaign contributions from some of the same Big Pharma companies promoting his vaccine mandate legislation (SB 277) in the state.

In February of last year, when vaccine propaganda was reaching its peak after the Disneyland measles outbreak, Politifact falsely stated that Adams declined to speak with the publication about his conclusions regarding mercury, and that he instead referred them to studies published on NaturalNews.com.

It is an allegation that is patently false.

That caused us to demand not only a retraction from Politifact but also an apology from the publication and Sen. Pan, since both used false reports in an attempt to smear Adams character.

Pan is no friend of liberty, and he is no friend of parents in his state.

Sources:

NaturalNews.com

Leginfo.legislature.ca.gov

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) In the weeks since Donald J. Trump handily vanquished his Democratic presidential foe, two-time loser Hillary Clinton, by winning majorities in states that havent voted for a Republican in decades, the angry, unhinged Left has been working overtime to intimidate and threaten members of the Electoral College into changing their vote and denying the billionaire businessman his rightful victory.

On Monday, however, they were once again unsuccessful, as the majority of GOP electors did their duty and selected Trump to be the 45th president of the United States.

But even up to the final day  Monday, Jan. 19  when votes were to be cast, electors were under siege by the so-called mainstream media, by Left-wing academics, by legal institutions and by the billionaire financiers who helped fund all of the summers violence against Trump supporters.

One way electors were being targeted right up to the end included the planting of fake news stories and phony polls. For instance, a YouGov poll allegedly shows that more than half of Americans, or 52 percent, wanted the electoral college vote delayed until electors could be briefed on supposed intelligence that Russia hacked the election in favor of Trump.

As noted by Hot Air, the polling was skewed (intentionally) because the questions were skewed (intentionally). For one, the questioning did not even explain what exactly Moscow has been accused of doing or what exactly Moscow is believed to have done to influence the outcome of the Nov. 8 election. At first, the story was, fake news planted in alternative media sites by Russian propagandists is what destroyed Clintons chances of winning and helped Trump. When this lie was exposed as completely made up, the next lie became, The Russians hacked the election. Yet no one has ever bothered to explain just how that happened, and what Moscow actually did to alter the elections end result.

Threats and voter intimidation should be investigated and prosecuted

In addition, these purveyors of hate and discontent went so far, even, as to threaten the lives of some electors, which appears to be blatantly illegal on its face, but also violates federal rules against voter intimidation. If threatening someone over their decision to honor a pledge to cast a ballot for a president-elect isnt voter intimidation, then it doesnt exist. Hopefully the incoming law and order administration of Trump will rectify this issue with some arrests and prosecutions.

The Associated Press reported Monday that it wasnt likely Trump would be denied the Oval Office; only one GOP elector, Chris Suprun from Texas  who is nothing but a massive fraud and not a 9/11 first responder to the Pentagon, as he claimed  had said publicly that he would change his ballot. Given his lies about his past, its quite obvious that this is someone without much integrity in the first place.

Still, its the effort at discrediting both Trump and the election results that is most troubling  not just for the incoming administration, but for the country in general. We dont want to create the impression that because one side lost the election the other side does not have the legitimacy and moral authority to govern. Yet the Left is attempting to create this very impression using the argument that Trump is not legitimate because he lost the popular vote.

He did lose the popular vote  by about 2.5 million votes. All of which were in California. So what does that mean? In this case, according to James E. Campbell, a distinguished professor of political science at the University of Buffalo-SUNY, it means that the Electoral College system worked exactly as our founders envisioned it.

Hey, whiny Leftists: Our election system worked just like the founders envisioned

The Left is claiming that the ECs creator, Alexander Hamilton, believed that electors should not be constitutionally bound by the popular vote to cast their lot in with the election winner if they thought him a fool or otherwise not fit to be president (this is not the case with Trump despite the Lefts claim that he is unfit). But what Hamilton also envisioned as a role for the Electoral College is that it would give equal voice to smaller states. Hamilton explains:

Donald Trumps election is difficult for many Americans to accept, but there is no good reason to question its democratic legitimacy. For better or worse, Trump won the presidency by constitutional and sensible democratic rules that guided both campaigns and were known to any politically conscious citizen. He also won the national popular vote cast outside of the single state of California. Moreover, Clinton won all of Californias 55 electoral votes despite the fact that 4.3 million of the states voters voted for Trump. That big winner-take-all advantage for Californias Democrats and Clinton was certainly felt, but it wasnt enough to override her losses in many other states. Under our electoral-vote system, American voters elected a national president, not Californias choice.

In other words, just because California is a large state does not give it outsized authority to literally choose our presidents. Besides, if we had no Electoral College and presidents were elected by popular vote, both Clinton and Trump would have campaigned differently instead of just concentrating on battleground states.

Now that Trump has been duly awarded the presidential prize he won fair and square Nov. 8, the pathetic, shrill and childish Left will not simply go away and allow him to govern. They will continue to obstruct, challenge and undermine him at every turn. Expect more shrillness, more insanity and more threats.

Sources:

AVAAZ.org[PDF]

HotAir.com

Freedom.news

CBSNews.com

MarketWatch.com
(Natural News) Donald J. Trump secured a decisive electoral victory this week as electoral voters across the country cast their votes for Trump despite being subjected to a coordinated, well-funded campaign of death threats, stalking, intimidation and strong-arm influence tactics. Yesterday, President-elect Trump achieved an even greater landslide victory than anyone thought possible, clocking in 304 electoral votes (losing just two) while Hillary Clinton was betrayed by four electoral voters from her own party, sliding her down to 228.

The net result is that, despite all the death threats and intimidation attempts, Donald Trump expanded his lead against Hillary Clinton by two more electoral votes, giving him an even greater commanding victory over the defeated Clinton.

Hillary Clinton is a four-time LOSER who represented a party of losers who still cant accept that they lost

This victory makes Hillary Clinton a four-time loser who lost the 2008 nomination to Barack Obama, lost the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump, lost the 2016 Jill Stein recounts, and has now lost the electoral college vote.

No doubt democrats are now going to roll out yet another chapter of delusional insanity by somehow claiming the Russians rigged the electoral vote! In reality, it was Soros-funded democrats who mounted an aggressive campaign of social pressure, death threats and delusional conspiracy theories played out across the front pages of the now-discredited Washington Post and New York Times. And still they couldnt alter the outcome by any meaningful degree.

All the desperate efforts to fabricate false intelligence sources, generate fake news on CNN and whip up mass hysteria across the country failed miserably. They couldnt even steal away enough electoral votes to drop Donald Trump below 300, much less push him below 270, which was their goal.

Everything on the left is either fabricated or rigged and now the real truth is finally coming out

The Trump victory is now locked in, despite the ludicrous claims of a radical left-wing law professor who was widely quoted in the media, claiming as many as twenty faithless electors would dump Donald Trump. Remember, these are the same delusional leftists who, before the election, almost universally proclaimed Hillary Clinton would be the landslide winner because she was winning in all the polls (which we knew all along were completely fabricated).

Its all the same pattern, of course: Rigged elections, faked polls, fabricated news reports, rigged debates, staged town hall questions, knowingly falsified predictions and a lame attempt to shape the outcome of political events by controlling the narrative. Now that theyve lost control of the narrative, theyre rolling out fake news accusations backed by Facebook censorship systems that will only cause tens of millions of people to ditch Facebook and go somewhere else for their news.

(Hint: Im launching a Censored News website in just a few days that will carry all the real-time headlines from all the main news websites censored by Facebook and Google. It will become the new portal for all the millions of people who are leaving Facebook and ditching Google News.)

The unhinged left is losing everything and now theyve lost their minds to boot

Since the Nov. 8 election, the unhinged left has lost almost everything. They lost the White House, the House and the Senate. Theyll lose the Supreme Court as Trump picks new justices, too. Theyve lost state legislatures, governorships and mayors. Theyve lost the recounts and now the electoral college votes, too. All along the way, people on the left have simultaneously been losing their minds, either acting like whiny little six-year-olds or emotionally investing themselves in utterly fabricated delusional conspiracy theories involving the Russians. But they made it all up themselves! The radical left has achieved nothing other than demonstrating a kind of twisted of self-traumatization.

Even worse  and this is only now becoming apparent to people  the unhinged left has lost its credibility.

Leftists are now synonymous with conspiracy theorist tin foil hat wearing nut jobs. Left-wing media has become synonymous with fabricated news. Left-wing political analysts have all been made into complete fools, including the one-time darling of political prognosticators, Nate Silver.

The left has lost its voter base, lost its political future, lost its leaders (its over for Hillary) and lost its way. Thats all because democrats became too arrogant, too corrupt, too delusional and too smug for the rest of America to tolerate any longer. While the democrat elite were sipping lattes and sunning on the beaches, congratulating themselves for the election victory they were certain theyd already sufficiently rigged with fraudulent votes, Donald Trump was working the campaign trail, strategically investing his resources to attain the electoral college victory that determines the winner of the presidential election.

Thats why Donald Trump won. Hes smarter, hes tougher, hes more dedicated and hes a far more diligent worker than Hillary Clinton could even dare to ever become. Donald Trump didnt need the Russians; hes got the kind of personal fortitude and determination that comes from running your own successful businesses decade after decade. Trump survived in the real world the unforgiving world of relentless competition where only the strong survive. Hillary Clinton wouldnt know anything about that: Shes been coddled and given endless unfair advantages all her life; by the media, the delegates, fundraisers, the intelligent community and more. She never really had to work to attain power, so she became lazy and arrogant.

Political Darwinism: How leftists became lazy, stupid and arrogant

Democrats are weak because life has been too easy for them. Theyve never had to compete in the real world. Theyve never had to really work for anything. They live on either low-income handouts or high-dollar cronyism handouts from their government friends. This has made democrats lazy and stupid, all while independent-minded people like Trump became increasingly sharp, efficient and masterful in their command of large organizations.

I call it political Darwinism. It simply means that people who have to succeed in the real world end up learning to adapt and overcome, while those people who have had political success handed to them without any real effort end up becoming lazy, privileged, arrogant and extinct. Hillary Clintons election loss wasnt due to the Russians it was due to natural selection that is removing losing leftists from the political gene pool.

And thats exactly the way it should be. Liberals are losers precisely because their ideas dont work. Their beliefs are rooted more in cultism and fiction than anything resembling reality. Their tactics of disruption, death threats and censorship are truly abhorrent. They deserve no political power whatsoever in America, and I wouldnt lose a bit of sleep if the entire democrat party just disbanded and retreated to the history archives of failed ideas.

We dont need democrats any longer to Make America Great Again. In fact, all we really need is to democrats to get out of the way and let the adults in this country start healing, rebuilding and restructuring this economic nightmare that Obama almost completely destroyed over the last eight years.

I suggest that all leftists who are still whining and crying for mommy surrender your U.S. passport and move to Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea or Communist China, where youll feel right at home. From now forward, America belongs to the patriots the mature adults the real men and women who have no more time to deal with crybabies, snowflakes and gender-confused social engineers. All you crybabies go home, sip your hot cocoa and play with your Play-Doh leave the rebuilding of America to the real-world conservatives and libertarians who actually know how to get things done.
(Natural News) Schools in Blackpool, England, will now be offering fluoride-infused milk at school, but there are many questions about such a practice.

After approving the program early in 2016, the northwestern coastal town announced that they would be distributing the fluoridated milk to the towns some 8,000 school-aged children. The milk will be doled out via Blackpools free school breakfast program. Supposedly, the fluoridated milk program serves to address the issue of poor dental health among children in the community. Officials say that half of all 12-year-old children in the town have at least one missing, decayed or filled-in tooth, while the average for England as a whole is around 33 percent. About 41 percent of Blackpools children that are 5 years of age have tooth decay  a staggering 15 percent about the national average. Dental health is clearly a major concern for the community, but is mass fluoridation really the way to solve it?

Fluoride is the only substance that is used to mass-medicate entire populations of people. As is the case with water, there is no telling how much milk each child will drink. Consequently, this endeavor could indeed be putting children at risk. The Waking Times reports that Blackpool intends on placing 0.8mg of fluoride in every 189ml carton of milk. This equates to 4.2 parts per million (ppm). Its worth noting that in the U.S., the recommended safe level of fluoride in water is 0.7 ppm. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) reduced it from the range 0.7to 1.2 ppm, due to concerns about the potential danger associated with maintaining the higher levels. If the HHS is concerned about it, you know it has got to be pretty toxic.

Blackpool Councillor Tony Williams commented, There is a lot of conflicting evidence about adding fluoride to milk, including that it cancels out the good effects of calcium. You cant mass medicate children, which is what they are doing. Who is going to monitor how much fluoride children will have in them?

There are many issues surrounding fluoride. For one, it is a neurotoxic compound that is in no way essential for human health. Not even tooth decay is caused by fluoride deficiency. The sole benefits in protection against tooth decay are from topical application of fluoride  such as in toothpaste  not from consumption. The CDC itself has acknowledged this point, and yet for some reason the myth that fluoride consumption somehow provides health benefits continues to persist.

The toxic effects of fluoride are expansive, as it tends to accumulate in bodily tissues. Some believe that dental fluorosis may actually be an indicator of wider, systemic consequences of fluoride exposure. Its often considered simply a cosmetic issue, but dental fluorosis is a permanent condition that is the result of too much fluoride during the first eight years of life. The tooth enamel is permanently damaged thanks to increased porosity. The porousness of the enamel can increase so much that the teeth begin to erode and crumble.

Teeth are not the only body parts affected by fluoride exposure. The bones, pineal gland and arteries can also accumulate fluoride. Fluoride can also damage the brain, leading to developmental neurotoxicity, reduced IQ and other ill effects. Children, unsurprisingly, are particularly susceptible to the toxic effects of fluoride.

And Blackpool plans on loading up its childrens milk with many, many times the amount that even the U.S. government considers safe for human consumption. While it is noble of them to be concerned about the dental health of kids in their community, perhaps it would be better to fund further education on natural ways to promote dental health, such as regular cleaning and avoiding sugary foods and beverages.

Sources:

WakingTimes.com

FluorideAlert.org

FluorideAlert.org

NaturalNews.com
Tuesday, December 20, 2016 by: Daniel Barker Tags: JAMA Pediatric Study , opioid epidemic , USA This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author

(Natural News) Americas opioid epidemic and the corresponding increase in the rate of overdose deaths among adults has received a lot of attention in the media lately, but the news often ignores the less obvious effects of the epidemic on societys most vulnerable members  our children.

A new study has been published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics showing a rise in the number of infants born with opioid dependency, particularly in rural states.

From ABC News:

Rates of infants dependent on opioids, identified as neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS, rose dramatically between 2004 and 2013, most noticeably in rural areas, according to this study. 

NAS occurs in newborns, who are exposed to opioids either in utero or shortly after birth. Symptoms are manifested by central nervous system irritability, autonomic overreactivity, and gastrointestinal tract dysfunction, according to the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The findings were based on hospital discharge data of 24,000 infants obtained from a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services database. Researchers from several institutions analyzed the data and found that although the rates of NAS had risen in both urban and rural areas, the rise was far more pronounced in rural settings.

In rural areas, the rate of NAS rose from 1.2 cases per 1,000 births in 2004, to 7.5 cases per 1,000 births in 2013.

In urban areas, the rates were 1.4 NAS cases per 1,000 births in 2004 to 4.8 cases per 1,000 births in 2013  a significantly slower increase than in rural areas.

These findings are consistent with other studies that have shown higher rates of opioid abuse in rural areas, said the studys co-author, Dr. Stephen Patrick, of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

NAS an example of public health problems other than overdoses caused by opioid abuse

The study underscores the fact that the opioid epidemic has a wide range of effects on society beyond mere overdose statistics:

NAS is another example of the how the opioid crisis is also causing other public health problems, including additional strains on foster care from children born to drug users, according to Dr. Caleb Alexander, co-director for the Johns Hopkins Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness.

The findings also call attention to the need for further investigation into why people living in rural areas are more susceptible to opioid abuse, so that effective strategies can be developed to combat the problem.

Many women may not be aware of the effects of opioid use on unborn children, according to Dr. Alexander, and others may not have access to treatment or know where to seek it.

This one it is particularity heartbreaking because these newborns are societys most vulnerable members, he said.

Big Pharma largely responsible for opioid epidemic that killed more than 55,000 Americans in 2015

Much of the blame for Americas opioid crisis can be laid squarely on Big Pharma. Not only are half of opioid overdose deaths caused by prescription painkillers, but more than 75 percent of new heroin users first became addicted to prescription painkillers, such as Oxycontin.

Opioid abuse rates in America began spiraling after Big Pharma introduced a number of powerful opioid painkillers in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Aggressive marketing techniques and incentives for physicians to prescribe more of these deadly drugs directly contributed to the crisis we are experiencing today.

The number of heroin overdoses has now surpassed firearm homicides as a cause of death in the U.S., and the number of overdoses each year continues to rise  there were more than 55,000 overdose deaths in 2015.

If those who peddle lethal drugs can be considered murderers, then the Big Pharma executives who created the nations opioid epidemic should all be tried and imprisoned on charges of homicide  or at least wilful manslaughter.

Sources:

ABCNews.go.com

JAMANetwork.com

ASAM.org[PDF]




FFX-II batch II is the first South Korean warship to be fitted with DRS Hybrid Electric Drive system



Contacted in June by Navy Recognition, a DSME reprensentative said that first ship of the class ROKS-818, Daegu will be delivered to ROK Navy in late 2017 and will be commissioned in late 2018.



FFX-II batch II is not fitted with Mk 41 VLS buth with KVLS meaning it will deploy Korean missiles (most probably designed by LIG Nex 1 such as the Cheolmae-2 medium-range air defense missile, Hong Sang Eo anti-submarine rocket, and possibly the Hyunmoo-3 series of land attack cruise missiles). The two FFX-II vessels will be the third and fourth in the series. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) launched the lead ship of the new Daegu-class FFX-II (also known as FFX batch II) frigate for the Republic of Korea Navy (ROK Navy) on June 2, 2016. Key updates of the Batch II over the ASW-focused Batch I include VLS and full electric propulsion system, as well as a larger hangar that can accomodate a 10-ton helicopter.FFX-II batch II is the first South Korean warship to be fitted with, coupled with Rolls-Royce MT-30 gas turbine engine for CODLAG integrated full-electric propulsion. This configuration is shared with the US Navy's LCS and Zumwalt destroyers, as well as with the Royal Navy's QE aircraft carriers and future Type 26 GCS. In terms of engine technology and acoustic reduction technology, this makes FFX-II one of the most advanced and 'reduced accoustic signature' ASW frigates among western navies.Contacted in June by Navy Recognition, a DSME reprensentative said that first ship of the class ROKS-818, Daegu will be delivered to ROK Navy in late 2017 and will be commissioned in late 2018.FFX-II batch II is not fitted with Mk 41 VLS buth with KVLS meaning it will deploy Korean missiles (most probably designed by LIG Nex 1 such as the Cheolmae-2 medium-range air defense missile, Hong Sang Eo anti-submarine rocket, and possibly the Hyunmoo-3 series of land attack cruise missiles).
Facing international scrutiny, a professor steps up to defend the truth of the Holocaust. While intensely training for the Olympic Trials, an Emory undergraduate insists on continuing his advanced studies in math. Determined to help young people, a theology student becomes the university's oldest graduate of 2016.

Staring down the curse of Alzheimer's disease, a family joins in Emory research so that others may benefit. After surviving a horrific accident, an Emory employee reaches out to thank the colleagues and physicians who supported her.

The heart of Emory is the people who come here to learn, teach, work, help and heal. Meet 10 of the individuals and families from across the university who inspired us this year.

It would have been easier to say nothing, simply to ignore a preposterous assertion. But in the face of public claims by British Holocaust denier David Irving that the atrocities never happened, Emory University professor Deborah Lipstadt knew she couldnt stay silent.

As a leading scholar of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies, Lipstadt instead chose to challenge what she considered a deep distortion of an unassailable historical truth. Irving sued her for libel, and in 2016, "Denial," a major feature film inspired by Lipstadt's internationally publicized legal battle, opened in theaters across the country and abroad.

When Haley Reid was accepted into the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, she knew it would be a life-changing experience. As a first-generation graduate, her academic accomplishments were a source of pride for the whole family.

But during her two-year journey toward becoming a nurse, she experienced a series of personal tragedies that threatened to derail dreams and would have caused many people to give up. Two weeks after Reid started nursing school, her father unexpectedly passed away. His death caused financial hardships that included the loss of her childhood home. A year later, her mother was diagnosed with cancer through a routine screening. Despite it all, quitting wasnt an option, says Reid.

Hurl Taylor first experienced prison ministry in Heidelberg, Germany, at the end of an impressive 20-year career in the U.S. Army. He served as president of an Army organization called Protestant Men of the Chapel, a group that traveled regularly to German prisons housing English speakers.

Fast-forward three decades and a second successful career as a lawyer: Taylor, age 77, graduated in May in the first class of students to earn Candler School of Theologys newest degree, the Master of Religion and Public Life. The oldest graduate in the Class of 2016, Taylor believes his Candler degree is the perfect way to help expand the calling that has been percolating since his days in Germany: providing Christian education to incarcerated youth.

Sylvia Ennis, a clinical business manager at Emory School of Medicine, was driving to work on a cool morning in January 2013 when the unthinkable happened: a towering pine tree crashed down on her car, a limb piercing her torso and pinning her to the seat.

For more than three weeks, she was kept in a medically induced coma; she endured multiple surgeries and faces ongoing nerve damage. But three years after an accident that many would consider unsurvivable, Ennis reached out to thank the Emory colleagues and physicians who supported her throughout her ordeal.

For most of her life, 19-year-old Jordan Stinchcombs parents thought she had cerebral palsy. Jordan was born by emergency Cesarean section with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, and had to be resuscitated. Her parents assumed that lack of blood flow and oxygen at birth had damaged her brain, causing her inability to walk and speak.

Pam and Tony Stinchcomb had two more children, Jenna and Jake, who were born without similar difficulties. Then when Jordan was 13, her youngest sister Jessie was born, and soon showed similar signs of neurodevelopmental issues. Referred to Emory, the family finally got a diagnosis: Both girls have N-glycanase-1 deficiency, a rare disorder that only recently had been identified.

In 2006, MaKendra Umstead's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her mother's journey through the treatment process had a profound effect on Umstead's academic trajectory. Inquisitive by nature, Umstead was inspired to research cancer after her mother's experience  from the initial diagnosis to approaching 10 years of being cancer-free  generated more questions than answers.

Today, Umstead is a graduate student in Cancer Biology, a sub-program of the Laney Graduate School's Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. Her research is focused on processes that might lead to better cancer treatments.

Alzheimer's disease often runs in families, but the risk that runs through the Chastain family's bloodline is higher than researchers have encountered before. Faced with what some would consider a genetic curse, family members are determined to help others.

So many have participated in Emory studies of Alzheimer's disease  close to 200 so far, with about 100 being actively monitored  that it has become nearly a family pastime. This family sees very clearly what is happening and is motivated to help us discover what causes the disease, says Allan Levey, director of Emorys Alzheimers Disease Research Center. We owe them a large debt, one I hope we will be able to repay someday."

The image soars high above the ground  a young man frozen in a joyful, belly-first leap, arms thrown back, a thick rainbow of birds exploding from the soles of his dark sneakers. And the message soars, too, simple and inspiring: Rise Above...

For acclaimed artist and Emory PhD student Fahamu Pecou, the public art installation at Atlanta's King Memorial MARTA station easily represents his largest canvas yet, offering an opportunity to explore true public scholarship, create art that engages area residents, and stimulate both thought and dialogue.

Ask Oxford College biology professor Eloise Carter how she was drawn to study the natural world and she pauses, as if both considering her answer and savoring the thought of this, her life's work. "I often wonder that myself," Carter acknowledges with a soft laugh.

In truth, the rolling, wooded hills of northwestern Georgia where she played as a child were her first classroom. And for more than 30 years, Carter has taken her love of experiential learning with her into both conventional classrooms and the fields and mountains of Georgia  her other classrooms  as a biologist, botanist, ecologist and educator.

With only days to go before the 2016 Olympic swim trials last summer, Emory senior Andrew Wilson stood among the nations top-ranked swimmers in the 100-meter breaststroke, recording the fastest time in a U.S. pool in 2016, and ranked sixth in the 200  an almost-unheard-of feat for a Division III swimmer who wasn't even a top recruit when he joined Emory's swim team.

But as he took a year off from classes to train for the Olympic trials at the University of Texas at Austin, one of the nations top NCAA Division I programs, Wilson  a double major in physics and applied math  didn't want to leave his studies behind, choosing to continue tutoring with Emory math professor Ken Ono. And when his times fell just short of making the Olympic team, Wilson headed back to Emory to complete his degree and continue setting NCAA swimming records.
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Cancer cells transition can drive tumor growth, UF Health researchers find

As cancerous tumors fester in the body, they need an ever-increasing blood supply to deliver the oxygen and nutrients that fuel their growth. Now, a team led by University of Florida Health researchers has established how some tumors bolster their own blood supply.

Certain cancer cells can convert into blood vessel-supporting cells that drive tumor growth, according to the researchers findings. The results were published recently in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The findings shed new light on how tumors are able to maintain themselves and grow: A subset of cancer cells get reprogrammed into more mobile cells that are essential to a tumors steady blood supply. That process  known as epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, or EMT  was first recognized in the 1980s. The UF Health-led study is the first to elucidate how that process sustains blood vessels.

Our study shows that through the EMT process, cancer cells are virtually converted into blood vessel-supporting cells and support tumor growth. This is certainly a novel discovery and may change our thinking and therapy in this field, said Jianrong Lu, Ph.D., an associate professor in the UF College of Medicines department of biochemistry and molecular biology and a member of the UF Health Cancer Center.

Using human and mouse breast cancer cells in mouse models, the researchers found that a small number of cancer cells undergo EMT. Lu said this allows them to associate with cells that constitute the inner layer of the blood vessel wall and begin stabilizing vessels that nourish tumor growth.

Our work shows that this mechanism supports tumor growth. Because this small number of tumor cells become blood vessel-supporting cells, they allow the majority of tumor cells to grow faster, Lu said.

Now that the researchers understand more about how tumors develop a blood supply, they can begin the challenging work of assessing new treatments to block that process. Cells that have undergone EMT are expected to be harder to kill because they are associated with blood vessels, said Brian K. Law, Ph.D., a co-author of the research paper, an associate professor in the department of pharmacology and therapeutics and a UF Health Cancer Center member.

One possibility is someday designing a treatment that inhibits the transition of cancer cells into blood vessel-supporting cells and providing it as a supplement to traditional chemotherapy, Lu said.

Next, Lu wants to learn more about why transformed EMT cells have a much higher chance of surviving anti-cancer treatments and how that may lead to relapses. Inhibiting the EMT process may be one way to overcome or delay the emergence of treatment-resistant cancer cells, and he plans to test that idea during future research.

The research was supported by grants from the Florida Department of Health and the National Institutes of Health. Researchers from the California Health Sciences University and the University of Massachusetts collaborated on the work.
Merging neuroscience and education research to personalize multimedia and online learning

University of Florida education technology researcher Pavlo Pasha Antonenko has never been afraid to take risks and go against convention. His pioneering spirit emerged in the 1990s in his Ukraine homeland, where personal computers were scarce and there was no internet connection. Today youll find him leading groundbreaking studies on a radical new approach for advancing and personalizing the still-fledgling field of online learning.

Setting the stage

Antonenkos journey to UF started in the late 1990s when he was a high school teacher. He became fascinated with computers at a time when his hometown of Nizhyn, Ukraine had no internet connections and few computers. He began building and selling computers to supplement his income while he earned a masters in linguistics in English and German languages.

I was one of the first people in my hometown to get an internet connection, but it wasnt very good. I started building websites even before I had internet, but they were just sitting on my computer, he recalls.

His career path changed dramatically in 2002 when he traveled to Orlando to work as an interpreter at a conference on education technology, a discipline that wasnt even recognized in Ukraine. But Antonenko had found his passion: exploring ways computer technology can improve education.

Everything I heard there and the people I met, I said wow, this is what I want to do as my graduate education and job,' he says.

Within a few months, he and his wife, Yuliya, moved a half-world away to settle in Ames, Iowa, where he spent five years at Iowa State University earning a doctorate in curriculum and instructional technology and human-computer interaction.

Along the way, Antonenko worked with Iowa State neuroscientists on one of his personal research intereststhe use of electroencephalography, or EEG, to monitor brain activity known as cognitive load, which is the amount of mental effort expended by the working memory during a learning task. EEG, which records the brain's electrical activity, is most commonly used in medicine as a first-line, non-invasive method of diagnosing stroke and other brain disorders.

It would have been intriguing to monitor Antonenkos own brain activity as he thought to himself, Hmmm, I wonder if EEG might be a reliable way to study the mental processes underlying learning. He wrote his dissertation on the topic and became one of the first education researchers to use EEG to measure the cognitive dynamics of learning.

The stars begin to align

After earning his doctorate and serving five years on the education technology faculty at Oklahoma State University, Antonenko joined UFs ed. tech faculty in 2012. His appointment coincided with the education world's identification of personalizing online learning as a global challenge and a top research priority of the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation.

UF administrators also targeted research of personalized e-learning for investment of state preeminent university funds, which enabled the College of Education in 2014 to recruit top ed. tech scholar Carole Beal from Arizona State University, where she was conducting her own pioneering neuro-education studies. Beal became the first director of UFs new campuswide Online Learning Institute.

The College of Education made a priority of integrating neuroscience with education research to improve online learning at all levels. Pivotal developments during the 2015-16 academic year made that push a certainty.

Merging neuroscience and education research at UF

In 2015, Antonenko, Beal and UF education technology colleague Kara Dawson attracted vital grant funding to lead novel interdisciplinary research projects using wireless EEG brain monitoring and other neuro-technology to study how multimedia learning can be impoved for all students, not just those who test well on academic exams. These studies focus on education in the STEM disciplinesscience, technology, engineering and mathareas in which the use of multimedia learning tools has far outstripped the ability of research to keep pace with, says Antonenko.

Their focus on custom-tailoring instructional design for individual learner differences, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, is a distinctive feature of their studies.

Virtually all research on multimedia learning methods has been performed on high-achieving students at elite research-intensive universities, where studies like this usually occur. We are evaluating these methods with more diverse student populations and those with special needs, Antonenko says.

NSF study focuses on community college students

Antonenko heads a team of highly specialized researchers drawn from multiple institutions on a three-year study, supported by a $765,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The researchers are gauging how effective technology-assisted learning practices are for a diverse group of community college students, which now constitute nearly half of all U.S. higher education students.

In 2015, Antonenko became the first UF education faculty researcher to win 5 NSF grants in the same year.

The team, dubbed the Science of Learning Collaborative Network, includes top scholars in education technology, neuroscience, STEM education, neuropsychology, computer science and educational measurement. They hail from UF, the University of Massachusetts-Boston and Washington State University.

Some 120 students from three collegesSanta Fe College in Gainesville, Bunker Hill Community College in Boston and SUNY Buffalo State in Buffalo, N.Y.are participating in the study. The students are screened for demographics and learning differences, such as working memory and visual attention levels, to ensure a varied test group.

Team specialists in cognitive neuroscience are employing EEG and other high-tech methods, including functional near infrared spectroscopy (to measure neural changes in blood oxygenation) and eye tracking (to understand visual attention) to assess the students attention and mental processes while they learn using multimedia materials that include text, images, videos, animations and audio.

The researchers hope to land follow-up NSF grants by demonstrating the effectiveness of their networks organization, infrastructure and integration of diverse research strategies, along with their unique approach to personalized learning.

Working with scholars from other disciplines and other institutions is really exciting but its also challenging because each discipline and each person has a different way to work, Antonenko says. We have to make sure everyone is invested and feels valued and make sure we pull all of the expertise together in a way that makes sense."

UF co-researchers are faculty members Dawson and Beal, and psychology professor Andreas Keil. Co-principal investigators are computer science and STEM education scholars Matthew Schneps from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Marc Pomplun from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and Richard Lamb of SUNY Buffalo State, who focuses on science education and measurement.

Adapting digital media for students with dyslexia

Professor Dawson heads an educational neuroscience study focused on multimedia learning for students with dyslexia, the most common language-based disability. People with dyslexia typically have difficulty reading and processing words.

Dawson was awarded $85,000 for the one-year project from UFs Office of Research, which awards Research Opportunity Seed Fund grants to UF scholars for the merit and potential of their research proposals. Antonenko is a co-principal investigator.

The study involves 72 college students with dyslexia, each participating in one of four multimedia learning settings while wearing wireless EEG headsets to monitor and record brain activity during the multimedia exercise and comprehension assessment. The student volunteers are drawn from four institutions: Santa Fe Community College and the universities of Central Florida, North Florida and South Florida.

While neuroscience-based methods are central to the study, Dawson is quick to make one thing clear: In no way am I a neuroscientist.

To me, this is not about neuroscience, she says, I am interested in what neuroscience techniques can tell us about the learning process. That is what its all about for me.

Dawson and her team will use their findings to evaluate the validity of merging EEG and behavioral measures and, ultimately, to develop new instructional strategies and materials that teachers can personalize for individual students with varied learning traits and backgrounds.

Besides Dawon and Antonenko, the research team includes UF colleagues Beal and Albert Ritzhaupt, dyslexia diagnostic specialist Linda Lombardino from UFs special education program, and UF neuropsychologist Keil. Doctoral students participating are Kendra Saunders from school pyschology and Nihan Dogan, Jiahui Wang, Li Cheng, Wenjing Luo and Robert Davis from the School of Teaching and Learning. Matthew Schneps from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysicists also is collaborating.

We all share this mutual goal of figuring out how technology can help all types of learners, Dawson says. We need to make technology work so everyone feels they can learn and be smart and successful.

Much promise but not yet ready for prime time

The researchers describe both educational neuroscience studies as exploratory, but Antonenko says he expects them to yield solid preliminary findings that may lead to follow-up NSF research proposals.

EEG appears to be a great tool for educational research that can produce important implications for teaching and learning in education. he says. Our focus is on helping people who need additional support as they learn using 21st century online and multimedia tools in education.

That is what I find most rewarding.
Paytm has announced introduction of a new category of self-declared merchants who can accept payments up to Rs. 50,000 directly in their bank accounts. This move is in line with the RBI circular on Special Measures to incentivize Electronic Payments dated Nov 22nd 2016. To self-declare as merchants, one needs to tap on 'Accept Payment' in the updated Paytm app, select 'Bank Account', enter bank details and confirm. Next is a self-declaration where the merchant confirms that he/she is the owner of a business and want to accept payments directly in his/her bank account. Post confirmation, the merchant's bank account would be linked to his/her Paytm account and can start accepting payments directly in his/her bank account. A self-declared merchant can accept payments up to Rs. 50,000 in a month. Wallet balance of a self-declared merchant should not exceed Rs. 20,000 post which, the amount is settled directly to the merchant's bank account. "We are on a mission to bring the benefits of digital payments to every merchant in the country. With this new enhancement, the aim is to offer our merchants greater flexibility in handling their money while presenting them with a quick and affordable merchant payment system. We are confident this will enable millions of small and medium merchants to register with us and instantly start accepting digital payments," said Sr. VP Paytm, Nitin Misra. Merchants across India can start accepting Paytm at zero extra cost. Currently all Paytm users can transfer money from Paytm to their bank account at zero percent fee till 31st December 2016. With the launch of the Paytm Payments Bank, the company has promised to allow its users to transfer money from Paytm wallet to their Paytm Payments Bank Account at zero percent. The company is confident that the option to transfer money directly into their bank account is likely to introduce thousands of new merchants to join the Paytm ecosystem. (ANI)
Though home grown automaker, Tata Motors introduced its Nano car within a price bracket of Rs. 1.5 lakhs to two lakhs for middle class buyers, but in a way it disturbed urban road transport by only adding to the traffic congestion, Union Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Mansukh L Mandaviya said at an ASSOCHAM event held in New Delhi today. "We need to promote research and innovation for devising a sustainable urban road transport model that is suitable for India and should not ape the west," said Mandaviya while inaugurating an ASSOCHAM conference on 'Sustainable Urban Road Transport.' "Everyone talks about promoting use of bio-fuel, renewable sources of energy, electric/hybrid vehicles, automation and other such techniques, all of this is important but we need to come up with own model based on traditional and indigenous ways and means as that would be more apt for Indian conditions," said the Union Minister. "It is not necessary that a model which has been successful in a particular country will also prove to be fruitful for India, we need to devise our own model to tackle our problems," he added. He said that increasing number of celebrities and VVIPs should ride bicycles to promote a more sustainable and friendly form of urban mobility. "More influential people should begin to embrace the bicycle as an alternative for stimulating a more sustainable urban mobility," he said. The Union Minister further emphasized upon the use of bicycles linking it to positive values such as social equity, environment friendly and healthy mode of transport. (ANI)
Industrialist Nusli Wadia on Wednesday said he will not attend the extra-ordinary general meeting (EGM) of Tata Steel, where he is expected to be removed as an Independent Director of the company. Tata Steel has convened an EGM to decide whether or not to remove Wadia as an Independent Director on its Board. The agenda of the EGM was to take shareholders' approval for the removal of Tata Sons ousted Chairman Cyrus Mistry and Independent Director Wadia from its Board of Directors. On Monday, Mistry had stepped down from his position as a member on the Board of Directors of Tata Steel. "What is at stake now is not whether I am removed or not but the fate of the very institution of the Independent Director that has been created in law and by SEBI to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders," Wadia said in a letter to the shareholders of Tata Steel. "It is in your hands to vote with your conscience for what is right for your company and more important for the institution of Independent Directors," the letter read. "I have chosen not to attend the meeting as I understand that recent meetings held of other Tata Companies have been inappropriately and shamefully stage-managed by the requisitionist controlling the entry into the hall as also in the selection and choice of the speakers as never before seen in Indian corporate history." Wadia observed that he has outlined events relating to various decisions of the company's Board, especially with regard to Tata Steel's investment in Corus and events that have led to the impairment of approximately Rs 35,000 crore and a capital employed in the region of Rs 75,000 crore. "The recent public statements that have been made on Tata Steel Europe just to protect 11,000 British jobs is a matter of concern that needs to be addressed by all shareholders as such support has now become unaffordable and is detrimental to the interest of the shareholders," the three-page letter said. "Equally important is the fact that the capital employed in Tata Steel Europe today could have been invested in three steel plants across India with substantial returns making Tata Steel the number one steel company of the country while providing employment to a million Indians." "I have raised the issue on the actions which I believe to be inappropriate and in violation of the SEBI Insider Trading Regulations by the promoter Tata Sons and the Trustees of the Tata Trusts: as also the manner in which they have and continue to influence and direct the affairs of your company. A role that is solely the responsibility of your Board," Wadia said. According to Wadia, the issue at hand was about the 'very independence of an Independent Director and his ability to perform his fiduciary duties and responsibilities without fear or favour'. "The ability of a promoter to remove an Independent Director through the brute force of its holding in an ordinary resolution on which it can vote is a serious and major dichotomy and contradiction that needs to be and must be addressed urgently," he added. Wadia has also approached the Bombay High Court. On December 16, the Bombay High Court declined relief to minority shareholders of three Tata Group companies seeking to restrain promoters from voting at EGMs between December 21-23 on a resolution to remove Wadia as an Independent Director. However, the Bombay High Court has barred Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Chemicals from filling up the vacancy on the Board of Directors till further orders in the matter. Wadia's support for Tata Sons ousted Chairman Mistry has led several Tata Group companies to call for their respective EGMs to decide whether or not to remove Wadia from their respective Boards. --IANS rv/dg ( 640 Words) 2016-12-21-18:12:29 (IANS)
A number of government bank officials here on Wednesday protested against the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) demanding, among other things, supply of sufficient cash in small value currency notes. Bank officials from Syndicate Bank, State Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), Corporation Bank and Union Bank of India (UBI) protested outside the office of Lead District Manager's (LDM) office in Sector 31 here. Satish Vats, Joint Secretary of Syndicate Bank Officers Association (SBOA)-Delhi Zone, former Director of Syndicate Bank Suresh Rastogi and Vijay Aggarwal were leading the protest. They said bank officials and employees guilty of corruption and mismanagement must be punished but it is wrong to say that all bank officers and employees are not doing their duty well. "It has been decided by our confederation to hold demonstrations on Thursday in front of RBI or somewhere near its offices all over the country against the vague and contentious instructions issued, shifting the entire responsibility to bank officials," the protestors said. They said: "We demand smooth supply of small denomination notes to mitigate the sufferings of our customers and immediate action against dishonest officials. The media should be informed at the earliest." The demonstration was held in front of the LDM office in Sector 31, as it is a local representative and no RBI office is situated at Gurugram. LDM R.C. Nayak told IANS that Gurugram needs at least Rs 2,000 crore daily but the city's 715 banks are getting a very small share against the demand. Nayak said that on Wednesday Rs 60 crore were provided to banks till the afternoon. He further added that after the demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes on November 8, Gurugram banks received at least Rs 18 crore on Nov 9 and about Rs 350 crore on Nov 10. He added that Gurugram banks have received a total of Rs 4,147.16 crore since then. "Six chests of the Gurugram banks received Rs 1,360 crore, of which Rs 558 crore were provided to 76 branches of HDFC bank," Nayak said. --IANS pradeep/vgu/dg ( 353 Words) 2016-12-21-20:50:13 (IANS)
In a bid to help students, a recent study shows that traditional university lectures may not be building the skills students are hoping to acquire and their future employers have come to expect. The study has been published online in the journal of Higher Education. Problem solving was defined as person's capacity to use their brain power to resolve a real, cross-disciplinary situation in which a solution was not immediately obvious. The findings showed that traditional university lectures may not be building the skills students are hoping to acquire and their future employers have come to expect. "There is strong evidence that different methods of teaching can heavily influence the development of problem-solving skills," said study author Andis Klegeris from University Of British Columbia Okanagan Campus in Canada. "It does not appear that the traditional, lecture-style of information delivery is well suited to helping students build those skills," Klegeris added. The team of researchers developed a testing system to measure the problem-solving abilities of students in various stages of their undergraduate degrees. They adapted a test used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), so that students could be assessed in 15 minutes. The test was written by nearly 1,000 students at various stages of their undergraduate degree, with one problem-solving test given at the beginning of first semester and the other at semester's end. The study concluded that only first-year students saw significant improvements in their problem-solving abilities. Their data shows that while freshman students see their problem-solving skills increase by nearly 10 percent in their first semester, students in the majority of disciplines experience little-to-no improvement in all the semesters that follow. "As problem-solving is becoming an increasingly sought-after skill, it is likely post-secondary institutions will need to adapt their teaching styles to ensure students are able to better participate in a skill-based economy," says another researchers Heather Hurren. "If they haven't already, professors will need to move from traditional lectures and expectations of memorisation to approaches that see small groups of students actively discover knowledge on their own," Hurren added.(ANI)
Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of shifting gears frequently from threatening to impose a 200 percent fine to giving 50 percent white money in lieu of black money declaration, the Congress party on Wednesday alleged that the Centre is now "rolling out red carpet for black money hoarders". "Since demonetisation has been declared by the Prime Minister, they have changed the decision almost 59 times in 35-40 days, which shows that the government was not prepared to take this kind of demonetisation decision and that is the reason why everyday they are changing their decisions. It shows that everything has failed," Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Raju Waghmare told ANI. Asserting that the government has changed its stance from black money to cashless economy, the Maharashtra Congress spokesperson said, "There is no black money as they are not talking about black money. Now, they have changed their language from black money to cashless." On Tuesday, counter attacking Prime Minister Modi for accusing opposition parties of stalling parliamentary proceedings during the winter session, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said those are and were hollow words. "There should be gravity in Prime Minister's words. The Prime Minister had said and promised to the nation that you can deposit their money in banks till December 30. But the government changed the rules again yesterday; they have changed rules 125 times; and gave a message to the nation that our Prime Minister's words are hollow," Gandhi told ANI. The Prime Minister had said you can change your money till December 30, but the government yesterday said you could not do it till December 30. So, there is no gravity in Prime Minister's words; those words are hollow. And, we will show it to you in coming days that how his words are hollow," said the Congress vice President. (ANI)
"Demonetisation is not our will and wish hence our state people are also facing several problems," said Naidu while addressing a party function of Telugu Desam Party in Vijayawada here.

Highlighting the problem faced by the people due to the move, Naidu said people's income has decreased and the Centre is unable to provide funds.

"Income has decreased and fundings are also not coming from the Central Government," he said.

However, a day after the Prime Minister announced the decision to ban high-denomination notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister had extended his support and called it "a moral victory for the TDP."

The party also recalled the letter Naidu wrote to the Prime Minister on October 12 urging him to ban currency notes of denomination 500 and 1,000.

He had also echoed the voice of the government on November 29, that the problem related to demonetisation are temporary but its gains and benefits will be fruitful. (ANI)
The Delhi Police will on Wednesday conduct a lie detector test on missing Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Najeeb Ahmed's room partner Kazim. The Crime Branch unit of the Delhi yesterday entered into its second day of search operations at the JNU campus. More than 600 police personnel have been deployed at the University for the searches including the District Commissioner of Police and a dozen other senior cops. The Crime Branch team on Monday reached the JNU to begin its probe into missing student Najeeb Ahmed's case. The students of JNU have criticised the Delhi Police over the delay in tracing Najeeb, who has been missing from the campus after allegedly being beaten up by a mob of 20 students comprising mostly the ABVP members. JNUSU president Mohit Pandey last month told media, "The police has not taken any action for finding Najeeb. They have not followed the procedures and responsibilities. Those who had beaten him were not interrogated. Najeeb's family has so far been critical of the police for not being able to locate him. Denying reports that Najeeb was taking anti-depressant medicines, his sister had earlier alleged that the police was trying to give a different direction to this case. "We hope the Delhi Police works on the right path to find him and not defame him. Please don't try to defame Najeeb.The Delhi Police needs to go in the right direction. We have also requested for a CBI probe," she said. The Delhi Police had last month increased the reward from Rs. 2, 00,000 to 5, 00,000 for the person, who provides information about the missing JNU student. Earlier on October 14, Ahmed was allegedly slapped by an ABVP member canvassing for the hostel elections. The first year M.Sc Biotechnology student has been missing from the next day. Since then, the students along with Najeeb's family members have been protesting at the campus against the alleged police inaction and demanding the arrest of ABVP members. A police complaint was earlier filed under Section 365 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person, and a proctorial inquiry was also initiated by the varsity. (ANI)
With barely a week to go before Christmas and New Year, festivity is in the air. Whiffs of freshly baked Christmas cakes and brewing of hot cups of cocoa and coffee, beautifully decorated Christmas trees and carols playing in the background are all set to bring in the cheer and lift our spirits. Whether your celebration is a simple evening with friends and family, or a grand party at the most happening bar in town, what's common to this season is a lot of memories and laughter. And Google Pixel is your perfect companion to make the holiday season even more special and joyous. Be it a cosy dinner at home with family or going out for a party, the Google Assistant will help you plan a memorable celebration. You just need to ask and you'll get all the answers from the party venue, music to the menu, the Google Assistant on Pixel has got you covered. Every celebration is incomplete without pictures. And the Pixel camera is just what you need to make your photos pop. With great pictures even in low light and unlimited photo and video storage in Google Photos, Pixel is your perfect camera phone. Even if you are in another part of the world, you can still be a part of the celebration with your family and friends with Google Duo which comes pre-installed on the Pixel. You can video call with a single click and come face to face from anywhere and at anytime. Pixel is available in India in two sizes of 5" or 5.5" with memory configurations of 32GB and 128GB sizes. You can buy the phones from Flipkart and across 1,000+ organized and multi-brand retail stores including Bajaj Electronics, Croma, Ezone, Jumbo, Poorvika, Reliance Digital, Sangeetha and Vijay Sales. (ANI)
Fire brigade sources said that on getting a call around 2230 hrs yesterday at Sankil building, fourteen fighters were rushed to the spot.

While fighting the flames, fireman Ashok Bane sustained head injuries, while heavy smoke suffocated another person. He was being treated in Nair hospital, sources added.

According to Preliminary reports, the fire started due to a cylinder blast. Further investigation was on.UNI ST NV SB 1317

-- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-1074587.Xml
Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of Chief Minister's Office said Mr Badal gave nod to this effect by clearing the file in this regard.

The formal orders related to the appointment of Mr Singh would be issued by the concerned administrative department shortly, the spokesperson added. UNI XC SV SB 1319

-- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0292-1074562.Xml
Officials of the Income-Tax department today conducted simultaneous raids at the residential and office premises of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao and his family members in the city. The searches which began at around 0530 hrs this morning beginning with Mr Rao's Anna Nagar West residence, were currently continuing in about 13 places, including at his son Vivek Vishnu's house and office premises and atplaces belonging to their family members and others. Later, searches were also conducted at the Chief Secretary's office locatedat the second floor in the State Secretariat. Accompanied by central para military forces as security, about 20 officials landed at the Secretariat to conduct the searches. This was for the first time in Tamil Nadu the residence of a Chief Secretaryand his office at the State Secretariat were subjected to searches by the IT department. A large posse of CRPF police personnel were deployed at Mr Rao's house,Secretariat and at the office of the Income-Tax department in the city. Police forces were also deployed at the Secretariat complex , especially at Gate No.6 through which the IT officials entered the premises, in view of the raids. Certain properties of Mr Rao at Chitoor and Bengaluru were also being searched, sources said. MORE UNI GV 1450 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-1074774.Xml
NATURAL WITH ENGLISH SPEECH DURATION: 1.36 SOURCE: ANI TV AND WEB RESTRICTIONS: NO ACCESS ARD/BBC Trump's "one China" comments will help our cause, says exiled Tibetan government KEYWORDS: Donald Trump, US, China, Tibet, Dharamsala, Taiwan, Dalai Lama Tibetan government-in-exile says US President-elect Donald Trump's recent remarks on "one China" principle will help the mountain kingdom highlight its struggle against Beijing on the global platform. SHOWS: DHARAMSALA, HIMACHAL PRADESH, INDIA (DECEMBER 15, 2016) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ANI - NO ACCESS ARD/BBC) 1.A GATE 2.VARIOUS OF BUILDINGS 3.A WOMAN COMING OUT OF THE BUILDING 4.A BOARD READING IN ENGLISH 5.WOMEN WALKING 6.(SOUNDBITE) (English) SECRETARY OF DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF TIBETAN GOVERNMENT-IN-EXILE, DHARDON SHARLING, SAYING: "I am sure that ever since that statement was made, US-China ties are in the spotlight and that also kind of brings Tibet on to the global attention. So, which means it does serve a good purpose for us to highlight or to have our say in this whole bilateral US-China ties." 7.WHITE FLASH 8.(SOUNDBITE) (English) SECRETARY OF DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF TIBETAN GOVERNMENT-IN-EXILE, DHARDON SHARLING, SAYING: "Like the former US presidents, we hope that he (Donald Trump) will continue to engage on the middle way policy and call for dialogue between the envoys of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese representatives and like how series of US presidents have met with the Dalai Lama. We really hope that a meeting will take place very soon." 9.SHARLING USING HER PHONE 10.CLOSE OF SHARLING STORY: Tibetan government-in-exile on Thursday (December 15) said US President-elect Donald Trump's recent remarks on "one China" principle will help the mountain kingdom highlight its struggle against Beijing on the global platform. Last Sunday (December 11) Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to stick to its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of "one China". Trump's comments came after he prompted a diplomatic protest from China over his decision to accept a telephone call from Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen on December 2. "I am sure that ever since that statement was made, US-China ties are in the spotlight and that also kind of brings Tibet on to the global attention. So, which means it does serve a good purpose for us to highlight or to have our say in this whole bilateral US-China ties," said Secretary of Department of Information and International Relations of Tibetan government-in-exile, Dhardon Sharling. Trump's call with Tsai was the first such contact with Taiwan by a U.S. president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part of "one China". Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province and the subject is a sensitive one for China. Sharling added the Tibetan government was hopeful of a meeting between Trump and the Dalai Lama. "Like the former US presidents, we hope that he (Donald Trump) will continue to engage on the middle way policy and call for dialogue between the envoys of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese representatives and like how series of US presidents have met with the Dalai Lama. We really hope that a meeting will take place very soon," said Sharling. China describes the incorporation of Tibet into its territory in 1951 as "peaceful liberation", and says it has brought development to what was a backward region. The Dalai Lama, who fled from Tibet into exile in India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, says he wants genuine autonomy for Tibet, not independence. China says Tibet already has genuine autonomy, and exile groups seek to split the country. Tibetans accuse China of eroding their Buddhist culture and flooding the region with ethnic Han Chinese.
NATURAL DURATION: 2.05 SOURCE: ANI TV AND WEB RESTRICTIONS: NO ACCESS ARD/BBC Shutdown halts normal life in Indian Kashmir KEYWORDS: Srinagar, Shutdown, Burhan Wani, Jammu and Kashmir, India Separatist shutdown, against the killing of a militant leader, affects normal life in India's Kashmir. SHOWS: SRINAGAR, JAMMU AND KASHMIR, INDIA (DECEMBER 16, 2016) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ANI - NO ACCESS ARD/BBC) 1.VEHICLE PLYING ON A DESERTED ROAD 2.POLICE VEHICLE PARKED /MOTORCYCLE PLYING 3.VARIOUS OF CLOSED SHOPS 4.CLOSED SHOPS AND A CAR PLYING ON A DESERTED ROAD 5.MORE OF POLICE VEHICLE PARKED 6.AN AUTO RICKSHAW PARKED AT ROADSIDE 7.SOLDIER PATROLLING 8.MORE OF SOLDIERS STANDING/MEN WALKING ON ROAD 9.VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS STANDING AND WALKING 10.AN AUTO RICKSHAW PLYING ON A DESERTED ROAD WITH CLOSED SHOPS 11.SOLDIER WEARING HELMET 12.CAR PASSING BY A MAN WALKING ON ROAD 13.CLOSED SHOPS 14.MORE OF CLOSED SHOPS AND A POLICE BARRICADE 15.MAN WALKING BY CLOSED SHOPS STORY: Separatist shutdown, against the killing of a militant leader, affected normal life in India's Kashmir on Friday (December 16). India's northernmost Jammu and Kashmir province plunged into its worst unrest in six years after the killing of a field commander of separatist militant group Hizbul Mujahideen, Burhan Wani, by security forces on July 08. Commercial establishments remained closed and very few people and vehicles were seen out in the streets and on roads. In a statement issued on Thursday (December 14), Hurriyat Conference, the main separatist alliance, asked people to observe the shutdown - in its sixth month now - only on Fridays and Saturdays for the next two weeks. The scaling down comes amid mounting pressure from cross section of society, including traders and transporters, whose livelihood was hit by the prolonged shutdown. Nearly 100 civilians have been killed and over 6,000 wounded in months of street clashes between protesters and security forces. Almost 100 security personnel too have sustained injuries in the violence. However, the clashes and protests have almost entirely subsided with the unrest in the Valley losing intensity over time. Wani was the leader of Hizb-ul Mujahideen (HM), a group fighting Indian control of the Muslim-majority region. His social media videos showed him wearing military fatigues and calling for jihad. Son of a headmaster, Wani was idolized by some youth and was a prominent member of HM in a region that has been at the centre of a strategic tussle between India and Pakistan for decades.
NATURAL WITH HIINDI SPEECH DURATION: 2.30 SOURCE: ANI TV AND WEB RESTRICTIONS: NO ACCESS ARD/BBC Fog impedes trains, flights in northern India KEYWORDS: India, fog, winter, New Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Dense fog enveloping parts of northern India disrupts travel plans of people as trains and flights are delayed or cancelled owing to reduced visibility. SHOWS: LUCKNOW, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA (DECEMBER 16, 2016) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ANI - NO ACCESS ARD/BBC) 1.EXTERIOR OF RAILWAY STATION 2.PAN OF PASSENGERS SEATED IN WAITING AREA 3.MAN LOOKING AT A BOARD SHOWING TRAIN TIMINGS 4.CLOSE OF A BOARD SHOWING TRAIN TIMINGS 5.PASSENGERS GATHERED AT ENQUIRY COUNTER 6.BOARD READING (English) 'LUCKNOW' 7.A TRAIN ARRIVING AT A PLATFORM 8.MORE OF TRAIN ARRIVING 9.PASSENGERS WALKING 10.(SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) A PASSENGER, AJAY SINGH, SAYING: "I have to go to Dehradun. Train is delayed by five to six hours. I am here since early morning, but there is no information of the train." KANPUR, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA (DECEMBER 16, 2016) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ANI - NO ACCESS ARD/BBC) 11.EXTERIOR OF KANPUR RAILWAY STATION/PASSENGERS RUSHING 12.BOARD READING (English) 'KANPUR CENTRAL' 13.BOARD SHOWING TRAIN TIMINGS 14.PASSENGERS GATHERED INSIDE THE STATION 15.PASSENGERS GATHERED AT ENQUIRY COUNTER 16.A FOGGY PLATFORM 17.(SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) A PASSENGER, SUNNY, SAYING: "I have to go to Farrukhabad for (police) recruitment, but my train has been delayed by an hour and there is no information," NEW DELHI, INDIA (DECEMBER 16, 2016) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ANI - NO ACCESS ARD/BBC) 18.PASSENGERS WALKING WITH THEIR LUGGAGE 19.MORE OF PASSENGERS WALKING WITH THEIR LUGGAGE 20.A BOARD SHOWING FLIGHT TIMINGS 21.CLOSE OF A BOARD SHOWING FLIGHT TIMINGS 22.PASSENGERS SITTING INSIDE AIRPORT 23.PASSENGERS ENTERING AIRPORT STORY: Dense fog enveloping parts of northern India on Friday (December 16) disrupted travel plans of people as trains and flights were delayed or cancelled owing to reduced visibility. Chaotic scenes played out at the railway stations across Uttar Pradesh state as clueless passengers waited for their trains at platforms blanketed by fog. Passengers complained that the authorities were of no help. "I have to go to Dehradun. Train is delayed by five to six hours. I am here since early morning, but there is no information of the train," said a passenger in Lucknow city, Ajay Singh. "I have to go to Farrukhabad for (police) recruitment, but my train has been delayed by an hour and there is no information," said a passenger in Kanpur city, Sunny. People donned layers of clothing to shield themselves against the cold. A group of students headed for police recruitment were stranded in Kanpur city. "I have to go to Farrukhabad for recruitment (in police) but, train have been delayed by an hour and there is no information," said a student, Sunny. Meanwhile, flights were delayed by hours due to poor visibility at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport. South Asia's winters are not as cold as other regions such as North America, but the millions of poor here are hit harder because they live in the open and do not have enough warm clothes.
Additional Sessions Judge Vikash Dhull allowed the anticipatory bail plea of Sajjan Kumar, accused of instigating a mob to kill two Sikhs -- Sohan Singh and son Avtar Singh -- in Janakpuri here on November 1, 1984.

The case was taken up recently by a Special Investigation Team.

Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed, mostly in Delhi, in riots that followed the 1984 assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards.

Some Congress politicians, Sajjan Kumar included, have been accused of leading the killer mobs.

--IANS akk/mr

( 124 Words)

2016-12-21-15:26:13 (IANS)
Noting that India and Kyrgyzstan share common concerns on the threat of terrorism, extremism and drug-trafficking, President Pranab Mukherjee has expressed confidence that the visit by Kyrgyz President Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambaev to the country would give a fillip to the efforts to enhance the multi-faceted relations between the two countries. Welcoming Mr Atambaev and Raisa Atambaev at Rashtrapati Bhavan yesterday, the President said India values its longstanding friendly relations with Kyrgyzstan. "India has had civilisational ties with Central Asia, especially countries which were part of the ancient Silk Route, including Kyrgyzstan. Political ties with the Kyrgyzstan have been traditionally warm and friendly. Next year, India and Kyrgyzstan will celebrate the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations,'' the President said. Welcoming Mr Atambaev to India, the President complimented him on the successful conduct of the parliamentary elections in October, 2015 and for successfully steering a referendum on constitutional amendments earlier this month. Subsequently, in his speech at the banquet in honour of Mr Atambaev, Mr Mukherjee said India has always considered the Kyrgyz Republic to be an important part of its extended neighbourhood. "Bishkek is closer to New Delhi than many major cities of India. New Delhi is the closest world capital to Bishkek. Our proximity is not only geographical but also historical and civilisational. We have a shared past, reflected in many elements of our culture. Our friendship flourished during the Soviet era and our Parliamentarians and leaders have maintained regular contacts since then. After Kyrgyzstan became an independent state, it was but natural for India to continue and strengthen its long standing co-operative relationship,'' the President said. The President said India was happy to see that Kyrgyzstan has progressed so well in the last 25 years. "One of its finest achievements is its steadfast preference for and adherence to democracy. We, in India, believe that a democratic system represents much more than just the periodic exercise of voting in elections. Another commonality which binds us is our commitment to secularism. "Both our nations, being pluralistic societies, share the view that harmonious co-existence of citizens of diverse faiths and ethnicities is vital for a nation's progress and growth. The success of our mutually beneficial partnership in diverse sectors of our common interest demonstrates the power of friendship between nations,''the President said. He expressed confidence that working together, India and Kyrgyzstan can achieve much for the betterment of not only our two peoples and our region but also of the world. UNI AR SW SNU 1537 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0092-1074830.Xml
In the wake of request from Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang and a delegation of Manipur-based United Naga Council (UNC) seeking Home Minister Rajnath Singh's intervention to bring the situation in Manipur under control, the Centre has rushed 1500 additional central forces to the north eastern state. Sources said this was in addition to 2,500 paramilitary personnel rushed last week to Manipur in view of the economic blockade on the two National Highways connecting the state. Mr Zeliang in a letter to the Union Home Minister had sought the intervention of both the Centre in securing the lives and property of Naga people in the Imphal Valley of Manipur. The UNC has enforced "economic blockade" on National Highways between Imphal and Dimapur -- that bisects through Nagaland capital Kohima and adjoining villages and also the national highway connecting Imphal with Jiribam. These two Highways serve as lifelines for the landlocked Manipur. Violence have been reported after passenger vehicles on the Imphal-Ukhrul road were vandalised leading to subsequent imposition of curfew in and around Imphal. A delegation of United Naga Council yesterday met the Home Minister here and demanded imposition of President's Rule to help normalcy return. "Whatever is happening in Manipur, is due to the mess created by the Chief Minister," senior UNI leader L Adani has said. "The Chief Minister's decision to create new districts bifurcating the existing four hill districts is not guided by administrative necessities, but pure political game coming months ahead of assembly polls," alleged another Naga leader L Siro. Meanwhile, Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) also appealed to all concerned to desist from adopting a policy of confrontation. The apex Naga Hoho based in Nagaland state condemned violence in Manipur and has expressed dismay over the "action against Nagas" living in Manipur.UNI DEVN SW SNU 1515 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0445-1074789.Xml
While PM is visiting Varanasi, his Parliamentary constituency, Rahul will be in Bahraich.

Earlier, on December 19, the Prime Minister was in Kanpur, while the Congress ice-President was in Jaunpur of the state.

According to the officials, the PM would reach Varanasi at 1030 hrs tomorrow and address a party workers meeting at DLW Grounds here.

Around 32,000 party workers of 1700 booth-level committees falling in five Assembly segments -- Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantonment, Sevapuri and Rohaniya -- have been invited for the meeting, where Mr Modi will formulate a strategy to win the elections.

During his stay in the temple city, PM will inaugurate the Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Cancer Centre and Shatabadi Super Specialty Hospital besides an ESI hospital.

Mr Modi will also attend the national cultural fest. He is expected to return back to New Delhi at 1530 hrs after staying in his Parliamentary constituency for around five hours.

On the other hand, Congress Vice-president Rahul Gandhi will hold his second 'Jan Akrosh' rally in Bahraich's Gendaghar Ground.

UP Congress Vice-president and In-charge of Media Cell Satyadev Tripathi said that Mr Gandhi would reach Bahraich at around 1400 hrs, stay there for around one hour and return back to New Delhi.UNI MB RJ SNU 1510

-- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-1074729.Xml
In order to make popular digital bankingpractice among the villagers under Savings Bank CashlessTransactions Scheme (SBCS), banks have decided to adopt eightvillages in Mandya and four in Ramanagaram districts. This move is to end problems faced by rural population in thewake of demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs. 500 notes and the bankshave decided to help at least 80,000 people of 12 villages in Mandyaand Ramanagaram districts by making their localities to go cashless. While Vijaya Bank which made Chandagalu the first cashlessvillage in Mandya district in April this year has adopted HosaHolalu and Thubinakere villages, State Bank of India and State Bankof Mysuru have each decided to help three villages to go cashless. Cash transactions at eight villages will end after educating the populationabout digitization of banking activities that is safe and speedy.The banks will provide infrastructure free of cost to the villagersfor this purpose, N.G. Prabhudev, Manager, Lead Bank of Mandya(Vijaya Bank), said. According to B. Prakash, Manager, Lead Bank of Ramanagaram(Corporation Bank), the Bank of Baroda has selected Vandaraguppe todevelop. The remaining three villages will be adopted by other banks shortly. The banks are aiming to push for digital transactions since thedemonetisation came into effect, B.R. Mamatha, Deputy Commissionerof Ramanagaram, said. According to the officials concerned, the banks will provide andenhance knowledge on the Electronic Payment System [Internet andmobile banking] to at least 80,000 account holders of 12 villages inMandya and Ramanagaram districts. ATM counters will be set up and high-speed Wi-Fi facilities willbe offered in the villages. While account holders will be provideddebit cards and Rupay cards, vendors and merchants [even petty shopowners and pavement vendors] will be provided with swiping machinesto provide cashless banking services to their customers, Mr.Prabhudev said. The Vijaya Bank has already launched a drive to create awarenessamong the villagers for the success of the scheme.UNI BSP RS CS 1504 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0284-1074742.Xml
The meeting between the two came days after Lieutenant General Bakshi, who headed the Eastern Command, was superseded by Lieutenant General Rawat for the top post.

The opposition has questioned the government's decision and demanded an explanation regarding the appointment.

The government has, however, clarified that Lieutenant General Rawat was found best suited to deal with emerging challenges including a reorganized and restructured military force in the north, continuing terrorism and proxy war from the west, and the situation in the North-East.

According to Ministry of Defence (MoD) sources, Lt. Gen Rawat has tremendous hands on experience of serving in combat areas and at various functional levels in the Indian Army over the last three decades. Lieutenant General Rawat is also known for his balanced approach towards soldiering, compassion and connect with the civil society.

He has handled various operational responsibilities in many areas including along the LoC with Pakistan, the LAC with China and in the North-East. (ANI)
Shoppers will be able to help protect some of the world's most endangered species this Christmas by buying gifts for their loved ones from The Body Shop. It's so simple, every specially selected gift a customer buys will help protect endangered animals in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia and endangered habitat in Vietnam with 1 square metre protected per specially selected gift. The Body Shop's successful Bio-Bridges programme aims to regenerate 75 million square metres of forest by 2020 in locations which are rich in biodiversity and home to some of the world's most endangered animals, helping to protect them from exploitation such as poaching and unsustainable logging. The Body Shop has today extended this pioneering project from its original location in Vietnam to two additional locations in Malaysia and Indonesia exclusively for Christmas, enabling customers to do their bit in helping endangered species. The Body Shop has always been passionate about tackling some of the world's most pressing environmental and humanitarian issues and empowering consumers to understand how they can make a difference, from Save the Whale in 1986 to Stop Sex Trafficking in 2013. Malaysia and Indonesia, in addition to Vietnam, were selected as the sites for the new Bio-Bridges projects due to the growing threat of habitat loss in these areas causing animals and habitats to become more fragmented than ever before. Some of the world's most significant habitat loss occurs in Malaysia and Indonesia, with 11 million hectares of forest - an area the size of Denmark - lost between 2000 and 2010. The Body Shop's customers around the world can participate in the Bio-Bridges project and do their bit to combat habitat loss and help our animal friends. Each time a customer purchases a specially selected gift throughout the campaign from 1 November until 24 December 2016, they will protect 1 square metre of habitat and endangered animals. The Body Shop is aiming to donate 2,00,000 pounds this Christmas period. The funds will be split between the three projects, with 58 percent going to Vietnam and 21 percent each to Indonesia and Malaysia. Christopher Davis, International Director of Corporate Responsibility at The Body Shop says, "Due to popular demand we are extending the Bio-Bridge programme into Christmas 2016 and adding two additional locations in Indonesia and Malaysia. We've been delighted with the response to our original Bio-Bridges programme earlier this year and in particular, our customers' reaction to our campaign to help Reggie, the Red-shanked Douc, find love. This Christmas, which we're promoting as "The Wildest Christmas Ever", we will fund projects to help protect endangered species such as the Orangutan, Sumatran Tiger, Malayan Tiger and the Asian Elephant" Indonesia project: In Indonesia The Body Shop will work with Orangutan Land Trust (OLT) which focuses on supporting the preservation, restoration and protection of forests in areas where orangutans naturally exist or have existed in the past. The funds raised will support the establishment of a Forest Management Unit in Sumatra, to help protect the southernmost population of a critically endangered and incredibly rare species of orangutan and other endangered species in the Batang Toru forest. Malaysia project: In Malaysia The Body Shop is working with Wildlife Conservation Society Malaysia (WCS Malaysia), a subsidiary of international charity the Wildlife Conservation Society. WCS's goal is to conserve the world's largest wild places in 15 priority regions, home to more than 50 percent of the world's biodiversity. In Malaysia, WCS Malaysia monitors Malayan tigers in their habitats and works with stakeholders to protect them via anti-poaching patrols and securing critical habitats (bio-bridges) for them and their prey. The aim is to increase the population of the endangered Malayan tigers and to protect their native habitat which will allow them and other wildlife to roam in a larger protected landscape of Endau Rompin. Vietnam project: Launched in summer 2016, the ongoing Vietnam project is based in the Khe Nuoc Trong forest in North Central Vietnam, partnering with World Land Trust and local partners Viet Nature. World Land Trust (WLT) is an international conservation charity, which protects the world's most biologically important and threatened habitats acre by acre. This Christmas, funds will also be allocated to biological surveys and community engagement projects to raise local awareness of the endangered species, in particular the Red-shanked Douc ("Reggie"). Davis says, "Bio-Bridges is our programme to restore and protect wildlife corridors within landscapes that are damaged or under threat. All three locations for our Christmas Bio-Bridges - Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam - are located within biodiversity hotspots and contain key endangered species of flora and fauna. Just by buying a Christmas gift, our customers are doing something amazing to protect endangered wildlife and endangered habitat in one of three precious parts of the world." "We want to raise awareness of endangered animals in these areas. The Body Shop has always been committed to fighting cruelty against animals - we're a vegetarian brand and were the first brand to campaign Against Animal Testing for cosmetics - and we know our customers are passionate about cruelty to animals too," he added. The programme is being promoted through The Body Shop's Christmas in-store and digital marketing campaign, 'The Wildest Christmas Ever". The Bio-Bridges programme is one element of The Body Shop's Enrich Not Exploit Commitment, which aims to make The Body Shop the most ethical and truly sustainable global business in the world. The Body Shop's commitment to changing attitudes towards sustainable business does not stop at Bio-Bridges. When visiting one of The Body Shop's stores over the festive season, customers who choose a 'create your own' gift box will be given the opportunity to choose a selection of unique gift boxes and bags from Get Paper Industry, one of The Body Shop's 27 Community Trade suppliers. Get Paper Industry is a cooperative in Nepal making environmentally-friendly handmade paper and paper products, with their profits reinvested in the community. (ANI)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu reiterated that he had advocated for the demonetisation of 1000 and 500 denomination currency notes. Addressing the District Collectors conference here today, he said that he had spoken with RBI Governor on the steps to be taken to ease the currency crisis. Mr.Naidu, who is the Chairman for the five member committee, which is formed by Centre to monitor the expansion of cashless transactions and ease the post demonetisation crisis, said that the committee meeting would be held on December 28. It may be mentioned here that on December 20, the Chief Minister, addressing a party meeting here, said that demonetisation was not his wish but it had taken place,and he expressed his anguish over the problems being faced by the people to withdraw money even after 40 days.UNI DP CS 1808 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-1075226.Xml
Kerala government today sought financial aid from the Centre under Union Government's Jawahar Lal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) project for Kerala Urban Road Transport Corporation (KURTC) which runs 5,000 buses in the state. Addressing an ASSOCHAM conference on 'Sustainable Urban Road Transport' in New Delhi, State Transport Minister A K Saseendran said ''we have again present some proposals to get some financial aid for this sector. In other four cities we are also trying to introduce the JNNURM buses and for this, we are asking the Central government to lend some financial help," he said a statement here. He said the state government has introduced bio-fuel in few petrol pumps to make public transport system economic and pollution-free and added ''now we are planning to introduce this in 69 centers in state." Mr Saseendran informed that while metro rail in Kochi is expected to be commissioned within a year, the land acquisition for light metro in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode has been initiated. Stating the establishment of suburban railway project is in the anvil, he said a legislation to establish a unified Metropolitan Transport Authority in the state is in pipeline. It proposes to connect all types of transport services under a Metropolitan Transport Authority, he added. Highlighting the importance of promoting freight movement through inland waterways, he said the state government has initiated various projects for that purpose. Separate routes are to be introduced for transport vehicle and those vehicles carrying dangerous substances including explosives and fuel, said Mr Saseendran. The Minister said that though, there are no super highways across Kerala, the state government is working hard to create four-lane roads and bye-passes in the cities and towns. He said state government has mooted to amend the Kerala Road Safety Authority Act, 2007 thereby satisfying various aspects of comprehensive mobility planning as the present law does not cater to various demands put forward by legislators and general public and called for a concerted effort by various government departments like transport, public works, police, local self government and others to achieve the goal. Mr Saseendran also said that in due course, the public transport system in Kerala will be run by CNG (compressed natural gas) and LNG (liquefied natural gas) fuels that are environment-friendly and cost effective. "We have started the work to establish CNG and LNG bunks and distribution centres at major cities in the state," the Minister added. He also invited private companies to invest in manufacturing automobiles with alternate energy resources and sought measures to encourage usage of solar energy in water transport system.UNI PCH CS -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0300-1075072.Xml
They prevented the director and other officials from leaving the campus on Tuesday night.

The protestors, mostly research scholars, plan to strike indefinitely until the director himself addresses them.

--IANS sgh/vm

( 68 Words)

2016-12-21-18:40:20 (IANS)
Trinamool Congress (TMC) secretary general and state Education Minister today said Reserve Bank of India has become Modi Bank of India. Addresses a press conference at Trinamool Bhavan, Mr Chatterjee said, "This is the darkest chapter of Indian politics." He said Centre is indulging in vindictive politics. The TMC secretary general said Central agencies have been turned into party agencies by Centre. Mr Chatterjee said, people of Bengal will reject the hypocrisy of Modi babu, the goondaism of Amit Shah. "The PayTM salesman and his associates are looting the country. They want to sell off the country," he alleged. "We cannot silenced by using fear tactics. Our movement against demonetisation, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will continue," Mr Chatterjee remarked. He alleged, the Centre is trying to intimidate Trinamool workers. Meanwhile, All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) Rajya Sabha member and party's national spokesperson Derek O'Brien today said, "Mamata Banerjee draws her strength from people. Yes, so strong she can clean bowl out the BJP." "BJP should take action against their own people instead of advising others," he said.UNI BM AKM 1902 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0213-1075388.Xml
Aam Adami Party's (AAP) chief ministerial candidate Elvis Gomes today said if the party comes to power, it will ensure that respect and dignity of every citizen of the state are restored. Addressing a press conference in city, he said, ''There is no dignity of Goans in the state. Governance is missing for the last 25 years. If AAP comes to power, governance will be restored. We will try to give corruption-free government. How will people get respect and dignity if the corruption prevails. "People are not getting justice. It is a common knowledge that the kind of money that people pay and had paid to get jobs. I will stop this. Those who will run the government will be men of merit and integrity. Once this is done, automatically people will get respect and dignity.'' Mr Gomes, who was interacting with media for the first time after his name was declared as the chief ministerial candidate by AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a public rally atCuncolm on December 19, said, ''We have been interacting with the people through Goa dialogues. Till now we have conducted about 300 Goa dialogues. Today, I read in a newspaper that a party will be consulting people for preparing manifesto. For the last five years you have been ruling the state, then what is need to consult people now?'' Stating that during Goa Dialogue job creation had emerged as a main issue in the state, he said priority of his government would be to create job opportunities for the youth. ''We provide all facilities to private sector companies but what should we get in return. We require job. Whatever companies will come, first question would be how much job will we get. Company which cannot provide jobs will not be allowed. Facilities will be provided to those companies which provide job with decent salary,'' he said. The former bureaucrat said the party would provide a direction to tourism industry in the state. ''Our focus will be on the type of tourism which will benefit local people. The image of Goa has got totally distorted. Now people look at Goa as capital of drugs, casinos, sex and lot more. We will strengthen our government and police machinery. We have already made clear our stand on casinos. We do not require casions. There is total lawlessness on the beaches,'' he said. Mr Gomes accused political parties of influencing, pressurising and intimidating the voters and creating vote banks and vote bank culture and said AAP would not indulge in this sort of activities. He assured that if AAP comes to power, then it would not discontinue the welfare schemes of the present government but only streamline them so that people would not be forced to approach elected representatives to avail the schemes. UNI AKM SS SW 1840 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0171-1075294.Xml
Noted industrialist and independent director of Tata Steel, Nusli Wadia, today skipped extraordinary general meeting of the company, which was called to take a decision on the directorship of Mr Wadia. In a statement to the Tata Steel shareholders, Mr Wadia termed such a meeting as 'inappropriately and shamefully stage-managed'. He asked the shareholders to vote against the proposal and continued his scathing attack on Tata Sons and criticised the group's continued investments in steel in Europe. He said, ''I have chosen not to attend the meeting as I understand that recent meetings held of other Tata companies have been inappropriately and shamefully stage-managed by the requisitionist controlling the entry into the hall, as also in the selection and choice of speakers as never before seen in Indian corporate history.'' Lashing out at the actions of Tata Sons, he said: ''What is at stake is not whether I am removed or not, but the fate of the very institution of independent director that has been created in law and by Sebi to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders. If independent directors can be removed at the whim and fancy of a promoter, then their role will be reduced to that of 'yes men'.'' The ability of a promoter to remove an independent director through the brute force of its holding in an ordinary resolution on which it can vote is a serious and major dichotomy and the contradiction needs to be and must be addressed urgently, Mr Wadia wrote. He continued his attack on board of Tata Steel, specially drawing attention of the shareholders to the continued investments by the firm in Europe. ''I have outlined events relating to various decisions of the board. Most important of all to Tata Steel investment in Corus and events that have led to the impairment of approximately Rs 35,000 crore and a capital employed in the region of Rs 75,000 crore in which it is highly unlikely that shareholders will ever see anyreturn,'' he said. Mr Wadia also said the recent public statements that have been made on Tata Steel Europe just to protect 11,000 British jobs is a matter of concern that needs to be addressed by all shareholders as such support has now become unaffordable and is detrimental to the interest of the shareholders, he added.UNI ST SS NP1856 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0171-1075342.Xml
Continuing its aggressive stance, the Sri Lankan naval forces reportedly arrested 29 Indian fishermen and impounded five fishing trawlers in three separate incidents on charges of cross border fishing, sending shock waves among the fisher-folk, here today. The Sri Lankan Navy in its official website tonight claimed that in the first instance, it had assisted Sri Lanka Coast Guard to arrest 12 Indian fishermen along with two fishing trawlers for poaching in Sri Lankan waters South of Thalaimannar, this morning. The arrested fishermen were remanded to judicial custody. The 12 fishermen hailed from Pamban coastal hamlet in Rameswaram Island in Tamil Nadu. In the second and third incidents, the Sri Lanka Coast Guard arrested 17 Indian fishermen along with three fishing trawlers, poaching in Lankan waters North West and South West of Delft Island this evening. All the 17 fishermen along with the boats were handed over to the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Jaffna for onward action. Of the 17 arrested, 13 fishermen belong to Rameswaram and four were the native of Pudukottai district. Meanwhile, tension gripped Rameswaram and coastal districts of Pudukottai following the mass arrest of innocent fishermen. Talking to newsmen, here B.Seshu Raja, Secretary of Tamil Nadu Coastal Mechanized Boats Fishermen Association said if the Central government did not act immediately for the release of all the incarcerated fishermen and their boats from the custody of Sri Lankan government, they will stage a massive protest in coordination with fishermen of other coastal districts in the State. UNI GSM CJ 2145 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0098-1075716.Xml
Keeping an eye on the coming election Akhilesh Yadav Government in Uttar Pradesh has proposed HRA benefit for both husband and wife working in aided schools and autonomous bodies besides proposed special allowance for junior engineers working in development projects. The state cabinet which met here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav proposed these decisions. The husband and wife duo working in aided schools and autonomous bodies like Nagar Nigam will now be entitled for separate House Rent Allowance (HRA). Earlier only one of them used to get HRA benefit while a couple working in state government both get HRA benefits separately. "With this decision the aided schools and autonomous bodies have been brought at par as now husband and wife would both get HRA. This was a long pending demand of different associations of the teachers and Nagar Nigam and it has been accepted," a government official said here. In another decision Government has reduced VAT on e-rickshaw from existing 12 per cent to 4 per cent. An e-rickshaw costs between Rs 60,000 and 80,000 and with reduction in VAT government has passed on benefit between Rs 5000 and Rs 7000 to the rickshaw owner. The state cabinet approved a special benefit of Rs 400 per month for junior engineers working in different development schemes. "The government believes that JEs should get an award for working overtime to complete development scheme. So, cabinet has approved a special financial benefit for them," official said. The famous Jawhar bagh of Meerut that had witnessed violence in which a senior police officer lost life will now be developed in line of Lohia park of state capital. State cabinet approved inclusion of more land for developing this region as Lung of Mathura. In another decision government has decided to give backward caste benefit to Bhurtia caste. After this decision people belonging to this caste will get benefits in government jobs and educational fields as enjoyed by other notified backward castes. The government has approved a proposal to include 197 villages in Lucknow's city and has also announced special package to distribute diesel pump sets in Bundelkhand. Government has also proposed. Government has also agreed to give free land for construction of AIIMS like hospital in Gorakhpur. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had earlier announced that government will provide free land but no cabinet approval was taken for this. Government has also approved a proposal to purchase scorpio cars for Raj Bhawan. Interestingly, CM has called another cabinet meeting on Thursday where government will give final shape to the construction of Purvanchal Samajwadi Expressway. Interestingly, CM will lay foundation stone of this expressway in the evening.UNI MB SHK 2210 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0098-1075723.Xml
The Border Security Force today apprehended two persons with cash of over Rs. 29 lakh in new currency notes in Meghalaya's West Garo Hills district. The currency notes were meant to be handed over to a coal exporter at Gasuapara in South Garo Hills district by a cloth merchant from Mankachar in Assam through the two arrested men - Nasib Miya and Bilal Hossain . The duo arrested from Nokchi area, are residents of Mankachar in South Salmara district in Assam and were apparently taking the money to a coal exporter. "A total amount seized from the two stood at Rs 29,73, 205. The seized money had a huge number of Rs 2000 denomination notes along with few Rs 500 and Rs 100 notes as well," a BSF official said. The BSF men have also seized their mobile phones and motorcycle used by them in ferrying the currency notes. Gasuapara is the export hub of coal for the Garo hills region with huge amounts of coal going to neighbouring Bangladesh through international trade on an annual basis. UNI RRK SJC -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0212-1075777.Xml
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Tugrul Turkes, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu as well as a number of Russian and Turkish officials, foreign diplomats, and political figures attended the ceremony on Tuesday.

"Karlov became an immortal symbol of Turkey-Russia friendship," the Turkish deputy prime minister said in the speech, Xinhua reported citing state-run Anadolu Agency.

He said that assassination of Moscow's ambassador "was another provocation of those who target Turkey-Russia friendship."

"Our determination is as great as our pain; Turkey-Russia relations will remain as strong as ever," Turkes vowed.

The Russian ambassador's spouse and family attended the ceremony where farewell speeches and prayers were held.

Karlov's body was placed on board an special aircraft for repatriation to Russia after the ceremony.

On Monday, Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov was delivering a speech at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in Ankara's central Cankaya district when an off-duty Turkish police officer opened fire, critically wounding him.

Karlov was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

An 18-member Russian delegation composed of security officials, prosecutors and experts arrived in Ankara on Tuesday to probe the killing.

Turkish police arrested six people over Russian envoy's murder so far.

--IANS pgh/

( 233 Words)

2016-12-21-03:54:13 (IANS)
Russia has taken serious objection to the 'leak' by the Pakistani authorities, in their media, about the visit of Alexander Bortnikov, Head of the Russian External Intelligence service, or the FSB, to Pakistan between November 25-27, 2016. The visit which was designed to garner Pakistani support for operations in Allepo, Syria, was compromised by pro-Saudi factions within the Pakistani establishment, according to informed sources. According to leaks in the Pakistani media, during this visit, Bortnikov besides discussing Allepo held consultations with Pakistani military and intelligence agencies, showed interest in Russia joining the CPEC project, proposed that Russia and Pakistan initiate bilateral cooperation vis-a-vis the Gwadar port, especially with regard to transfer of goods and services, and also requested Russian access, to this port. Russia sees CPEC as a major challenge to its area domination by China and is working on Pakistan to open avenues for Moscow to get involved in the Gwadar gateway, something which has been a Russian dream for decades and was the prime reason for the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 as a first step towards reaching Gwadar. While some elements within the Pakistan Army are keen to get involved with Russia, the predominant mood is against Moscow, given its antagonistic relationship with Saudi Arabia. Sources say that the Pakistan Army is against having a close relationship with Russia as Saudi Arabia is and has been a tried and tested friend. It was this influential section of the establishment which reportedly leaked the highly secret visit to Pakistan by the head of Russia's premier intelligence service. (ANI)
After releasing a suspect, the German authorities have intensified their manhunt for the culprit who plowed a tractor-trailer truck into a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market leaving 12 dead and 48 injured, even as ISIS claimed that it inspired the attack. CNN reports that the police said they didn't have enough evidence to hold the Pakistani national they'd earlier described as a suspect in the Monday night truck assault. General prosecutor at Germany's Federal Court of Justice Peter Frank told the media that there may be more than one suspect at large who could be armed and dangerous. The ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency released a statement saying Monday night's attack was carried out by "a soldier of the Islamic State" in response to calls by the group's leadership to target citizens of international coalition countries. German authorities are investigating the attack as an act of terror. Chancellor Angela Merkel told journalists that we must "assume this is a terrorist attack." "The results of the investigation thus far have not produced imminent suspicion against the accused," the general prosecutor said in a statement. Investigators had initially described the asylum seeker they detained as a suspect. But a day later, they seemed to be backing off that claim. "We possibly need to assume that we have not arrested the right one. We do not know if there was one perpetrator or several perpetrators yet. We do not know if there was support given to the perpetrator," Frank said. Meanwhile, the Berlin police has turned to the public for help and tweeted that they'd received 508 leads, also asking citizens to upload any digital video and photos of the incident or possible suspects. (ANI)
One of two teenage girls accused of plotting a Columbine-like assault on their Colorado high school last year pleaded guilty to conspiracy and solicitation to commit first-degree murder, a prosecutor said.Brooke Ann Higgins, 17, yesterday admitted in Douglas County District Court that she and a classmate planned to attack staff and students at Mountain Vista High School in the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch, District Attorney George Brauchler said in a telephone interview.Higgins and her alleged accomplice, Sienna Raine Johnson, also 17, were arrested in December 2015 after an anonymous tipster alerted authorities to the teens' plans, authorities said.Both girls were 16 at the time of their arrest, and prosecutors charged them both as adults. Johnson's case is still pending.Defense attorneys had sought to have both cases handled by the juvenile court system, where criminal penalties are more lenient.The full details of the plot remained under a court seal, but prosecutor Mark Hurlbert told Reuters at the time Higgins was charged that the teen was fascinated with the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, in which two students in a nearby county fatally shot a teacher and 12 classmates before killing themselves.Higgins wrote in a journal, later seized by investigators, that she wished she could have taken part in the 1999 rampage, even taking a photo of herself in front of Columbine High, Hurlbert said.Under a plea agreement struck with defense lawyers, Brauchler said Higgins pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count as an adult and to the solicitation charge as a juvenile.The unique arrangement, if approved by a judge in February, would allow Higgins to serve three years in a juvenile lockup followed by four years of supervised probation on the adult charge under a so-called deferred judgment, he said.If Higgins successfully completes her probationary sentence, she can have the adult case sealed, Brauchler said, adding that the deal struck an appropriate balance that protected public safety and provided Higgins with a chance for rehabilitation."It's a pretty big hammer over her head," Brauchler said, noting that if she violated the terms of her probation, she would be adjudicated in adult court.Brauchler said there was currently no "proposed resolution" in the case against Johnson and that her next court hearing was set for January. REUTERS SHS PM0903 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0329-1074394.Xml
Japan's top court ruled in favour of a government plan to relocate a US military base on the island of Okinawa, dealing a blow to islanders' efforts to get rid of the base altogether.The government and Okinawa authorities have been at loggerheads for years over the US Marines' Futenma air base as resentment has simmered among residents who bemoan what they see as an unfair burden in supporting the US military presence in Japan.Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga has led the campaign to get the base off the island while the central government has proposed moving it away from the urban area where it is located to a less populated part of the island called Henoko.As part of his campaign, Onaga rescinded approval for land reclamation work, issued by his predecessor, to clear the way for the base relocation.But a high court ruled his decision illegal and yesterday the Supreme Court upheld that ruling.The defence ministry, which is overseeing the plan to relocate the base, said it would resume work as soon as it was officially cleared to go ahead."We plan to do our utmost for the transfer of the Futenma air base to Henoko to prevent the air base from becoming fixed at the current location and to remove the danger posed by the base," Defence Minister Tomomi Inada said in a statement.The US State Department applauded the ruling."We welcome the decision by the Japanese Supreme Court," State Department spokesman John Kirby said. "The United States and Japan remain committed ... to the plan to construct the Futenma replacement facility at the Camp Schwab-Henoko area and adjacent waters."The Futenma base is surrounded by schools, hospitals and shops and residents worry about air crashes. Crime by US servicemen has also on occasion inflamed anger.A US military tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey aircraft came down in the sea off Okinawa last week.Onaga has indicated he will maintain his opposition to the relocation of the facility to the current the site of the Camp Schwab Marine Corps base.REUTERS VS 0429 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-1074350.Xml
Taiwan Foreign Minister David Lee expressed regret today after Sao Tome ended ties with the self-ruled island, and said Taiwan would not engage in "dollar diplomacy".Taiwan was unable to satisfy the small West Africa nation's financial shortages, Lee told a news conference in Taipei.China earlier welcomed the move, without explicitly saying it had established formal relations with Sao Tome.REUTERS VS 0706 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-1074371.Xml
Taiwan's presidential office said today China's use of Sao Tome's financial woes to push the "one China" principle will damage stability across the Taiwan Strait.The presidential office made the comments after the small West African nation said it would end formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan. REUTERS VS 0759 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-1074379.Xml
Israel's ambassador to the United States issued an impassioned endorsemen of President-elect Donald Trump's promise to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem, a move that would mark a break with longstanding US foreign policy.Ron Dermer, the Israeli envoy to Washington, made the statement less than a week after Trump announced his decision to nominate as ambassador to Israel David Friedman, a pro-Israel hardliner who supports continued building of Jewish settlements and the shifting of the embassy from Tel Aviv.Speaking at an Israeli embassy Hanukkah party, Dermer insisted that moving the US diplomatic mission would be a "great step forward to peace," rather than inflaming the Arab world, as critics of the idea have warned.Israel and the Palestinians, who are seeking a state of their own, both claim Jerusalem as their capital. Successive US administrations have said the city's status must be negotiated. If Trump makes good on his campaign promise, it would upend decades of US policy and draw international condemnation. Jerusalem is home to sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians.Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official warned on Friday that moving the embassy to Jerusalem would mean the "destruction of the peace process as a whole." The last US-backed talks on Palestinian statehood collapsed in 2014.Dermer, without mentioning Trump or his ambassador-designate by name, said the embassy move "should have happened a long time ago."Among the main reasons, he told a crowd that included foreign diplomats and American Jewish community leaders: "It would send a strong message against the de-legitimization of Israel."Dermer said he hoped that next year when the new US ambassador lights the traditional Hanukkah candles in his embassy, he will do so in Jerusalem.Dermer's comments appeared more forceful than recent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long vowed to keep Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital.Netanyahu, who has had a fractious relationship with President Barack Obama, has welcomed Trump's election but seems to be waiting to see what policies he implements.The conservative premier is reported to have been pleased with Trump's appointment of Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer and close friend of Trump who has no diplomatic experience, and members of his right-wing government have welcomed the choice.Friedman has served as president of a US group that raised money for one settlement and has advocated that Israel annex the West Bank, as it did with Arab East Jerusalem following its capture in the 1967 Middle East war in a move not recognized internationally.Liberal Jewish-American activists have sharply opposed Friedman's appointment and are urging the Republican-controlled US Senate not to confirm his nomination. REUTERS VS 0816 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-1074387.Xml
"Where are you, Oh Arabs, Oh Muslims, while we are being slaughtered?"An old man's cry, in a video posted online from Aleppo's ruins, poses an uncomfortable question for the mainly Sunni Muslim Arab states backing rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Iran and Russia.For Saudi Arabia, locked in a regional struggle with Iran, Assad's capture of the rebel haven reflects a dangerous tilt in the Middle East balance of power towards Tehran.Dismayed by this boost to Iranian ambitions for a "Shi'ite crescent" of influence from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, Riyadh is determined to reverse Tehran's gains sooner or later.Countering Iran, buoyed by its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, remains central to Gulf Arab policy but it is not clear how this might be achieved, especially when other concerns are multiplying.Beset by low oil prices, at war in Yemen, and ties with Egypt strained, Riyadh and Gulf allies are questioning how much armed help they should now give the rebels, diplomats say.The monarchies are frustrated with President Barack Obama's light touch approach to the war - relying on local fighters instead of large U.S. military deployments or missile strikes.President-elect Donald Trump poses an intriguing contrast."MAKE A DEAL"Seen as more decisive than Obama, Trump's choices of James Mattis, a retired Marine general distrustful of Iran, as Defense Secretary, and oil man Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, have pleased Gulf Arab energy exporters.But much remains uncertain, not least Trump's admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, an Assad ally."What we have learned from the U.S. election is to wait for actions, not words," said former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal.A senior Western diplomat said Saudi officials were curious to see how Trump translates into policy his campaign criticism of Iran and his praise of Putin.Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said he had spent time in the United States to sound out the next administration.Officials said Gulf states were asking Trump associates about Syria, to assess whether he would pursue a U.S.-led effort with Gulf states, Turkey and Western nations to arm the rebels.Trump has indicated he may abandon the rebels to focus on fighting Islamic State.Gulf Arab states want to test that view, said one Western official. A Gulf state foreign ministry official described Trump as "a businessman with whom you can make a deal".RELIEF WILL STILL FLOWGulf humanitarian aid will remain: Sunni Arab societies will not accept curbs on relief to the mostly Sunni country, after a war that has forced 5 million Syrians to flee and killed 300,000.But the extent of their armed support appears in question.Qatar, with Saudi Arabia the most enthusiastic backer of the rebels, says it would prefer to continue military aid but insists this should remain a collective effort.Proclaiming "great faith" in Trump, Asaad al-Zoubi, Saudi-based chief negotiator for the main opposition body, the High Negotiations Council, said some rebel backers had met Trump advisers to explain their cause. "They did not receive an answer from Trump's people. They (the advisers) wanted to listen more than they wanted to answer," he said.Sami alFaraj, a security adviser to the Gulf Cooperation Council of six Gulf Arab states, told Reuters that the Gulf countries "need to regroup, have a strategic pause and look at how we pursue our objectives in the time ahead.""The Syrian case has not been closed," he said. They would push for a transitional administration in Syria - something neither Assad nor Tehran accepts.LEVERAGEAny notion of Gulf Arab leverage in future negotiations seems far-fetched, given the determination of Assad, Moscow and Tehran to carve out territorial gains.But Jubeir told the Arab League in Cairo that if world powers failed to constrain Assad there would be no political solution to the war."If we cannot find an effective way to pressure the Syrian regime, we will not reach a political solution and the killing, displacement, and injustice in Syria will go on," Jubeir said.While drawn to Trump, the Gulf monarchies feel his views are not fully formed, and they want to do nothing that might cause him to harm their interests.AlFaraj said he expected Trump to deal favourably with Gulf states, which have the wealth to help create U.S. jobs. He believed a suggestion by Trump that Gulf states pay for safe zones in Syria was worth considering."If he wants to create jobs there is no better field than selling weapons," alFaraj said. "We are the only people who have surplus cash."However, Arab resentment at Western inaction over Syria appears deep and enduring.Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al Khalifa, foreign minister of Bahrain, an ally of Riyadh, told Reuters: "The whole thing in Syria was because of disengagement from world powers about how to deal with the matter. So with all the changes in the political leadership (in the West) let's hope for some new commitment for Syria."Asked if it was realistic to back rebels who had lost their major urban stronghold, he replied: "Do you think its realistic that we should also allow such bloodshed and people dying to go on and on and on. What's the next city after Aleppo?"REUTERS SHS PM1214 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0329-1074512.Xml
Public prosecutor Alejandro Gomez said 31 people died at the scene of the tragic incident that took place on Tuesday in Tultepec and five others later died in hospitals, Efe news reported.

Of the victims, only two - a man and a 10-year-old girl - have been identified.

Government official Jose Manzur told the local media that "in many cases, bodies are burned", which makes it difficult to identify them.

The number of injured was put at 72 -- 37 men, 25 women and 10 minors. They were transferred to hospitals near the fireworks market in San Pablito where there were six explosions just minutes before 3 p.m.

According to a witness, "a rocket was lit and it (headed) to where there was a lot of fireworks".

Mexico State Governor Eruviel Avila said three children who have suffered serious burns will be transferred to a hospital in Texas in the US.

--IANS ksk/mr

( 181 Words)

2016-12-21-12:58:12 (IANS)
Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil said the Dalai Lama's visit to Mongolia will not be allowed in the future even for religious purposes, Xinhua news agency cited a Mongolian daily as saying.

The Mongolian reaction was made on Tuesday.

Last month, the Dalai Lama, who China accuses of secessionist activities in Tibet, visited Mongolia and met Buddhist worshippers despite Beijing's strong objections.

Last week, Mongolia said China has closed a key border which affected the movements of trucks. It was seen as a tit-for-tat move by Beijing.

Mongolia had sought India's help in overcoming the economic crisis caused by the high tariff levied by Beijing on Mongolian trucks.

The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959.

--IANS gsh/soni/mr

( 160 Words)

2016-12-21-13:36:12 (IANS)
Amid escalating tension between the two nuclear-tipped states, Commander Southern Command Lt General Amir Riaz has invited India to join the China Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) and 'share the fruits of future development by shelving the anti-Pakistan activities and subversion'. The commander's 'invite' to New Delhi came in his speech at an award distribution ceremony at Balochistan FC Headquarters yesterday, a report in the Express Tribune from Quetta said today. "India should shun enmity with Pakistan and join the CPEC along with Iran, Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries and enjoy its benefits", the report quoted Lt Gen Riazas saying at the function. He said Balochistan was on the path to economic development and the common people could not be misled by the self-exiled leaders. "Their catchy slogans will not work because the people are aware of their designs and they cannot be misled," the officer said. He praised services of the FC personnel in the fight against terrorism and subversion in Balochistan saying that around 700 FC personnel had laid down their lives defending the country. The commander said that Balochistan has faced terrorism and subversion on a huge scale during the past 10 years and the militants have imposed their ideology on the common people. Lt Gen Riaz said that the FC and its personnel have fought back separatist elements bravely and have lost around 700 lives in fighting foreign-sponsored terror and subversion.UNI XC SS -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0089-1074714.Xml
Three Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes near the Islamic State-controlled town of al-Bab in northern Syria, to which Turkey-backed rebels are currently laying siege, Turkey's military said today.Eleven soldiers were wounded in the clashes there and one of them was in a critical condition, the statement said. REUTERS AKC AN1454 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-1074756.Xml
Saudi Arabia's state budget for 2017, which is expected to be released on Thursday, will boost spending to support economic growth while raising domestic energy prices to ease the government's subsidy burden, sources told Reuters.The government is expected to announce its budget deficit fell sharply this year to 297 billion riyals ($79.2 billion), the sources, who are familiar with the budget planning, said on Wednesday.That would allow Riyadh to claim substantial success in its battle to reduce a huge deficit caused by low oil prices. The deficit totalled a record 367 billion riyals in 2015, and the original budget for this year projected a 326 billion riyal gap.The finance ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. The sources said the numbers which they quoted were not final and could still be modified, but that they did not expect any major changes.Government revenues totalled 528 billion riyals in 2016, slightly higher than the 514 billion originally projected, while spending was 825 billion riyals, slightly lower than the 840 billion in the original plan.The 2017 budget plan sets spending of 890 billion riyals, 6 percent higher than the original projection for spending in 2016. Revenues next year are projected at 651 billion riyals, up from 514 billion.The higher spending would permit gross domestic product growth to accelerate to 2.0 percent in 2017 from an estimated 1.7 percent this year, the sources said.Revenues may be boosted next year by higher oil prices. After a global deal among oil producers to cut output to prop up prices, Brent crude oil is trading near $56 a barrel, up from an average of under $45 so far this year.The 2017 spending and revenue numbers imply Saudi Arabia would reduce its deficit further next year to 239 billion riyals. The government has said it aims to eliminate the deficit by 2020.The 2016 budget raised domestic prices for fuels including gasoline, cutting the government's subsidy burden, and the 2017 budget will increase energy prices further, the sources said.They did not specify the size of the increases or which forms of energy would be affected. However, they said energy product prices would eventually be linked to global market prices through a formula, which they did not disclose.The neighbouring United Arab Emirates has linked its domestic fuel prices to international prices but gasoline remains much cheaper than it is in most other countries.The budget plan also includes a new programme to provide financial aid to low- and middle-income Saudis who have been hurt by austerity policies, the sources said, without disclosing details. REUTERS AKC AN1538 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-1074842.Xml
Would-be bank robbers in Paris today fitted their victim with what he and police arriving on the scene thought was a suicide vest, sparking a brief terror scare, police sources said.Two individuals who planned to steal the cash delivery fled empty-handed when the man managed to raise the alarm.But police took fright on arrival at the scene and called in bomb-squad reinforcements, before confirming that he was in fact the victim of a foiled heist and the vest was fake.Fears of attacks by Islamist militants are running high in France, where more than 230 people have been killed in assaults in two years. The fears were exacerbated by this week's carnage at a Christmas market in Berlin, where police forces are hunting for a person who mowed a large truck into crowds, killing 12.Today's foiled heist occurred in the northeast of Paris. Police sources said that it was not, however, the first time that the tactic had been used to try to force employees of cash-transport companies to hand over wads of banknotes.REUTERS SDR AN1723 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-1075118.Xml
One of Netflix Inc's Twitter accounts was hacked today by an entity calling itself "OurMine".Several mocking tweets were sent from the Netflix US Twitter account (@netflix). "World security is shit. We are here to prove this :)," said one tweet. Some of the tweets were deleted in less than 10 minutes.Netflix could not be immediately reached for comment.However, the company's verified customer support twitter handle tweeted: "We're aware of the situation and are working to get it resolved." OurMine is well known for breaking into high-profile social media accounts, including those of Twitter Inc CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook Inc's Mark Zuckerberg and media outlets Forbes and TechCrunch.Contacted by Reuters through email, OurMine said it had taken control Netflix's Twitter account three hours earlier. REUTERS SDR BL1937 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-1075489.Xml
A Moroccan man has been arrested in Germany and charged with being a member of the Islamic State cell that carried out deadly attacks in Paris last year, the Federal Prosecutor's Office said on Wednesday.Redouane S. was detained in Lower Saxony on Tuesday, prosecutors said. By convention, suspects in Germany are identified by the first name and initial.The 24-year-old man was accused of renting flats in Turkey and Greece between October 2014 and Spring 2015 that were used by cell members to plan the attacks.Prosecutors said he knew about a meeting of cell members in Verviers, Belgium on January 15, 2015 where Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a main coordinator of the attacks, chaired a meeting to plan the attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 last year."Even after his return to Germany in May 2015 he was in contact with the group led by Abaaoud and showed readiness to take more orders," they wrote in the statement. REUTERS CJ 2205 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0098-1075739.Xml
- A vehicle carrying gas bottles was driven into the headquarters of a Christian lobby group in the Australian capital of Canberra, causing an explosion, local media reported on Thursday.Lyle Shelton, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby Group, tweeted a photograph of a burned out van and said that no staff were injured."A vehicle has rammed our office in Canberra & exploded all staff are safe," he posted on Twitter "I do not know the condition of the driver. Prayers appreciated."A man is believed to have driven the van towards the group's building, according to news.com.auThe explosion destroyed the vehicle and blew out some of the windows of the office building, it said.The ACL lobbies national and state/territory governments on Christian values. Most recently it has been campaigning against same-sex marriage.Australian Capital Territory Police did not immediately respond when asked to comment. reuters cj 2224 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0098-1075757.Xml
Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang (L, back) speaks at the central rural work conference in Beijing, capital of China. The conference was held from Dec. 19 to 20. Chinese State Councilor Yang Jing (R, back) presided over the meeting. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- A central rural work conference has stressed the need for better quality and efficiency in agriculture, focused on farmers' incomes and produce quality.

The two-day meeting stressed product mix, management and regional planning as top priorities in supply-side agricultural structural reform, according to the statement released after the conference on Tuesday.

China will seek new growth engines in agriculture and rural areas to improve productivity and competitiveness, said President Xi Jinping at a previous political bureau standing committee meeting.

The idea of a structural overhaul in the sector was first floated at the same meeting last year and is high on next year's agenda.

China has plenty of ordinary produce, but very few high-quality, branded agricultural products, so market-oriented reform must meet new consumer demands, said Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu.

The country will rationalize the relationship between the government and market, injecting vitality into the market, the statement said.

The meeting also required more targeted efforts to get another 10 million people out of poverty in 2017. Per capita disposable rural income grew only 6.5 percent in the first three quarters this year, the slowest in almost 13 years and failing to outpace GDP growth for the first time since 2004.

Han pointed out that Chinese farmers face high costs and price ceilings, while over-exploitation of resources has rendered traditional farming practices untenable.

"We have to improve agricultural structure and management to make the sector's supply more responsive to the market and more productive," Han said, adding that the government will promote better and safer agricultural products, more cost-effective resource allocation and technological managerial innovation.

The government will continue to ensure zero growth of fertilizer use and work of a subsidy mechanism to encourage green agriculture.

Efforts will be made to develop technological solutions to agricultural productivity and to reform rural property rights, creating new entities in production and services.

Grain output dipped 0.8 percent in 2016, ending a 12-year rising streak, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

The drop is a result of supply-side reform, as unbalanced supply and demand among grain varieties made many areas reduce corn planting in favor of soy and used the grain for feedstuff and oil, according to Huang Bingxin, a senior statistician with NBS.

Corn production will be further cut, and more high-quality dairy farms built. Specialty produce with local characteristics will be encouraged.

"Ensuring enough food for our people is the top priority for us," said Han, adding that China seeks no grain output increase, but will not allow big drops next year.

Three bottom lines of agricultural supply-side reform are no decline in grain production capacity, no change to the income growth trend for farmers, and no problems in rural stability, the statement said.
Visiting Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (R) shakes hands with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson before the eighth China-UK Strategic Dialogue in London, Britain, on Dec. 20, 2016. The eighth China-UK Strategic Dialogue, co-chaired by visiting Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, was held in London. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

LONDON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China and Britain on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to a "golden era" for Sino-British bilateral ties amid Brexit uncertainty.

The latest mutual reassurance emerged as the eighth China-UK Strategic Dialogue was held in London. The dialogue was co-chaired by visiting Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

Yang said that China stands ready to fully implement the important consensus reached by the two countries' leaders along with the British side. The two sides should strengthen strategic communication, enhance political mutual trust and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation to promote the development of the bilateral ties as well as world's peace, stability and development, he said.

Chinese and British leaders met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in China in September, months after the Brexit referendum and British government reshuffle. Leaders of the two countries reassured each other of commitment and confidence in a "golden era" for bilateral relations.

Yang said that the two countries should have frequent exchanges at all levels, and advance pragmatic cooperation in various areas such as investment, trade, finance, innovation and infrastructure construction.

He also urged both countries to push forward people-to-people exchanges, and strengthen communication and coordination within a multilateral framework to solve regional and international issues.

On his part, Johnson said that his country is "unswervingly committed" to developing a strategic partnership with China and building the "golden era" for bilateral relations.

Johnson said Britain is willing to strengthen strategic communication with the Chinese side as well as advance bilateral cooperation in areas including economy and trade, investment, aviation and infrastructure construction.

Both sides also exchanged views on international and regional issues of common concern.

The two sides issued a joint declaration on the Afghanistan issue after the dialogue.
HARARE, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe has so far released bond notes worth 29 million U.S. dollars into the market since their introduction on Nov. 28, the country's central bank said Tuesday.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said in a statement that it was pleased with the smooth circulation of the notes.

It also doubled daily withdrawal limit of the notes to 100 per day or 300 per week to make it easy for the public to transact during the festive season.

The central bank said all tobacco growers who sold their tobacco this year had now been paid 5 percent of their export incentive through the bond notes.

The bond notes, backed by a 200-million-U.S.-dollar facility from African Export-Import Bank, were introduced to address cash shortages which began early this year.

They are trading at par with the U.S. dollar, the main currency circulating in the economy after the country adopted multiple currencies in 2009.

The central bank said a total of 6.2 million bond notes had so far been deposited by the public at banks as at Dec. 16, adding that the notes would go a long way in mitigating the cash shortages.

"Bond notes shall fortuitously and subserviently go a long way to mitigate cash shortages within the economy. Clearing of cash queues at banks can never be an overnight event. It is a process," the central bank said.
by Keren Setton

JERUSALEM, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The quiet, narrow, curvy road that leads to the Jewish settlement of Amona is misleading.

Only at the end of it, the muddy road is dotted with posters critical of the Israeli government, warning of its demise should an eviction occur.

But in a last minute turn of events, scenes of scuffles between Jewish settlers and Israeli forces have been evaded -- for now.

Hundreds of Amona residents were preparing themselves for a court ordered expulsion set to take place by Dec. 25.

Days before the deadline, the residents accepted a government plan to move them to a nearby plot which the Israeli government said is not privately owned.

The Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu skirmished to find a solution that avoids a violent expulsion.

For those currently living in Amona, the ordeal symbolizes the betrayal of the government they voted for in order to prevent such cases and further enhance the settlements.

For Palestinians, the sprawling caravans and Israeli government funded infrastructure is a constant reminder of a growing obstacle to their coveted statehood.

In 2014, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the outpost settlement is illegal and must be evicted by the end of December 2016. This came after years of petitions and deliberations.

The eight Palestinian petitioners convinced Israel's highest court that the land is theirs, with the Israeli government confirming that the settlement was built on privately owned Palestinian land.

The court's ruling put the government led by Netanyahu in an uncomfortable position.

Netanyahu leads a right-wing government which supports Israel's settlement of the West Bank, which was captured by Israel from Jordan during the 1967 Mideast War.

Amona's residents have now agreed to move to an adjacent hill which Israel has ruled "abandoned property", land that was abandoned by its Palestinian owners prior to and after the 1967 war.

The government has reportedly agreed to build the settlers new homes and public buildings.

This is a complicated interpretation of the law. Yesh Din, an Israeli organization dealing with human rights in the West Bank, represents the Palestinians in the Amona case. It has also helped Palestinians file a petition against the attempted use of nearby land for the relocation of the outpost.

But for Elad Ziv, a resident of Amona for the past 18 years, the law is not the main issue.

"These two and a half dunams (about 0.6 acres) that someone claims ownership of but has not proven that ownership -- one does not take apart people's lives for that. You do not make people refugees in their own country," he said.

"What we see is that the government of Israel is doing everything to circumvent the ruling by the Supreme Court rather than implement it," said Attorney Neta Patrick, the executive director of Yesh Din.

"We are challenging all these solutions, we consider them, each for its own reasons to be illegal," she adds.

The scenes of a right wing Israeli government forcefully evicting settlers from the West Bank may very well have translated into an electoral beating for Netanyahu and his main coalition partner, the Jewish home party.

The majority of the Netanyahu-led coalition believe that it is Israel's biblical right to populate the West Bank with Jewish settlers.

Nir Aviv, a 40-year-old Israeli from a nearby settlement, also came to Amona to support its residents.

When asked what would happen to the government, he said an evacuation would be the end of it.

"A lie will not last. Those who go against the will of the lord, they will not last," said Aviv.

Perhaps this is the main reason that Netanyahu and his coalition partners went out of their way to appease their constituents.

The construction of a new settlement will most certainly spark renewed international criticism towards Israel.

Sitting outside his home, looking at acres of green land dotted with Israeli settlements and neighboring Palestinian villages, Elad Ziv said he will not vote for the Jewish home party again.

It is such sentiment that Netanyahu is trying to avoid.

His government has recently begun promoting a bill in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, intended to retroactively legalize such outposts like Amona.

Dubbed the regulation bill, it is highly unlikely that it will pass the test of Israel's Supreme Court.

It is an attempt to find a loophole that will make settlements built on privately owned Palestinian land kosher and appease the right-wing voters.

"It's wrongful, it's immoral, it's illegal and it shouldn't be promoted through the Knesset. People came, they built their homes, without a permit, they built it on someone else land and now they are going to just receive a carte blanche saying that it's OK that they are there," said Atty. Patrick.

Even if the bill passes, it will be too late for the residents of Amona, who have agreed to move.

The picturesque vineyards that surround the outpost are not a testimony to a violent eviction that took place in 2006 after a previous ruling by the High Court ordered the homes to be demolished.

For the Palestinians and the international community, any Jewish presence in the West Bank is currently illegal.

The Palestinians consider the West Bank an integral part of their future state, together with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

However, Elad Ziv is convinced the settlers have the upper hand.

"We will be the ones who determine what will be in this country. We were here from the first human being and we will be here till the complete redemption, we are the people of Israel," he said with conviction.

As long as the prolonged stalemate in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians remains, Israeli settlements in the West Bank are here to stay.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) - Prosperity has not been shared by all and the world needs to show human solidarity to address gaps in development, said Ban Ki-moon in a message on Tuesday.

To mark the International Human Solidarity Day, which falls on Tuesday, Ban noted inequalities, extreme poverty, unemployment, social exclusion and environmental degradation continue to be prominent features of societies around the world.

"At a time of divisiveness on many key global issues, from armed conflict to forced migration, people need to turn toward each other in common cause, not away from each other in fear," said Ban.

He also asked the international community to ensure inclusiveness and equality by implementing the sustainable development agenda as well as the Paris climate deal to build lives of dignity for all.

International Human Solidarity Day is observed annually on Dec. 20. This year's celebration calls for implementing the 17 sustainable development goals to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and ensure dignity for every person.
LUSAKA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank has approved a 40-million-U.S.-dollars credit to help Zambia in its economic diversification program, the bank said in a statement on Tuesday.

The credit is for the agribusiness and trade project that is expected to benefit 4,000 farmer households and 300 small and medium entrepreneurs. More than 30,000 people are estimated to be directly benefited.

The project aims to contribute to increased market linkages and firm growth in agribusiness in ten provinces.

"This project comes at a time when Zambia needs to diversify out of copper into other key economic sectors such as agriculture, tourism and services," Brian Mtonya, World Bank Senior Private Sector Specialist, said in the statement.

The statement said agriculture employs the majority of Zambian people, adding that more effective policies in agribusiness and trade would be instrumental in achieving broad-based growth and economic diversification for the country.

Ina Ruthenberg, World Bank Country Manager for Zambia, said the project would greatly aid in tackling poverty through improved job opportunities, particularly for women and youth.
KHARTOUM, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Sudan and South Sudan on Tuesday agreed to extend the financial arrangements agreement in the oil field, which was signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2013, official SUNA news agency reported.

"This agreement was set for three years. We have agreed to extend it for another three years," the agency quoted Mohamed Zayed Awad, Sudan's Minister of Petroleum and Gas, as saying.

He explained that South Sudan's oil transit fees through Sudan's territories would remain as it is with 20 U.S. dollars per barrel.

South Sudan's Minister of Petroleum Ezekiel Gatkuoth, for his part, expressed happiness over the two countries' agreement to extend the oil financial arrangements deal, the report said.

He reiterated his country's commitment to implementing all items of the agreement, saying that the two sides have agreed to cooperate in the oil filed and re-operate the stopped oil fields in addition to training, capacity building and research and laboratories via the oil training center.

The oil deal, signed between Sudan and South Sudan in September 2012, stipulates that Juba would pay three billion dollars as assistance to Sudan in a period of three years, besides that South Sudan's government would pay about 20 dollars as oil transit fees per barrel.

Before the signing of the agreement, Sudan suggested allotting a portion of South Sudan's oil as transit fees instead of specifying a figure, but South Sudan then dismissed the proposal and insisted on determining a figure, which is 20 dollars per barrel.

Juba seems to have found itself forced to cut on its financial expenditure under the declining global oil prices and dropping of the South's oil production to about 160,000 barrels a day due to the ongoing civil war in the new-born state since 2013.
ALGIERS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Algeria and Mauritania on Tuesday inked as many as 16 cooperation agreements in various fields, as part of the visit of the Mauritanian Prime Minister Yahya Ould Hademine.

The agreements pave the way for deepening bilateral partnerships between Algiers and Nouakchott in the fields of justice, ICT, vocational training, health, housing, urban planning, water resources, youth, assistance for people with disabilities, and religious affairs.

The agreements were signed during the 18th session of the Algerian-Mauritanian high joint commission co-chaired by the two nations' prime ministers.

The Mauritanian prime minister arrived on Monday in Algiers for a three-day visit. During his stay, he held talks with senior Algerian officials, including President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Federal and regional authorities in Iraq, together with the UN Children's fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), have launched a 12-day campaign to immunize some 800,000 children under the age of five against polio, rubella and measles, a UN spokesman told reporters here Tuesday.

"The campaign started on 19 December and targets children in Anbar, Salahaddin, and Kirkuk governorates, as well as newly retaken areas in Ninewah governorate, including displaced children living in camps," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

The campaign forms part of the vaccination strategy in the context of the ongoing Mosul operations; some 45,000 children affected by the Mosul operations will be receiving vaccines. Iraq was removed from the list of polio-infected countries in May 2015, but there remain resurgence risks due to surveillance and immunization coverage gaps in conflict zones, the spokesman said.

"This will be the first time in two years that some of these children are receiving vaccines," Dujarric said.

On Oct. 17, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is also the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, announced the start of a major offensive to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city, in a bid to liberate the northern Iraqi city, the last major Islamic State (IS) stronghold in Iraq.

Mosul, some 400 km north of the 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.
KHARTOUM, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) and the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on Tuesday announced the release of three UN staff members who were abducted in Sudan's Darfur last November, Sudan Tribune reported.

"Three UNHCR staff members including two Nepalis, who were abducted on Nov. 27 from El Geneina, Sudan, have been released safely on Monday," Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, was quoted as saying in a statement.

The UN official commended the Sudanese government, UN hostage management team and other stakeholders' effort in ensuring the release of the hostages.

"At this time, our immediate focus is on the health and well-being of our colleagues, as well as that of their loved ones following this ordeal. We are doing everything possible to ensure they are being well taken care of," the report said.

Last Nov. 27, unidentified gunmen kidnapped three UNHCR workers, a Sudanese and two Nepalese, in El Geneina, the capital city of Sudan's West Darfur State.

Sudan's Darfur region has witnessed a series of abductions of UN humanitarian workers and peacekeepers by armed groups and bandits, usually for ransom.

The Sudanese government says it refuses to pay any ransom to kidnappers.
LIMA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- A totle of 12 police officers were killed in a bus accident in the remote Peruvian Andes on Tuesday morning, the Perubian Interior Ministry said.

"This situation pains us very much. We have coordinated with the Ministry of Defense so that it can provide us with two helicopters to transfer the (13) injured police officers, and a plane to transfer the most critical to Lima," Interior Minister Carlos Basombrio said.

In an earlier statement, the ministry had reported at least seven deaths and 18 wounded from the incident early Tuesday, in which the bus plummeted off a cliff in the mountainous region.

The bus had left a police base in Abancay, capital of southeast Apurimac region, at 4:20 a.m. local time (0920 GMT) with 55 police officers on its way to Antabamba, where they were to provide security for a meeting between officials from the presidency of the council of ministers and representatives of local communities.

The commercial bus veered off the road between the towns of Achioja and Matara, plummeting some 300 to 500 meters, and being completely destroyed.

Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who was attending the end-of-year ceremony at the National Police Academy in Lima Tuesday morning, called for a minute of silence in honor of the officers killed in the crash.
ANKARA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Turkey held a brief state ceremony on Tuesday at Ankara's Esenboga Airport ahead of the departure of the body of assassinated Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov, who was shot dead on Monday, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Turkish deputy prime minister Tugrul Turkes, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu as well as a number of Russian and Turkish officials, foreign diplomats, and political figures attended the ceremony.

"Karlov became an immortal symbol of Turkey-Russia friendship," the Turkish deputy prime minister said in the speech.

He said that assassination of Moscow's ambassador "was another provocation of those who target Turkey-Russia friendship."

"Our determination is as great as our pain; Turkey-Russia relations will remain as strong as ever," Turkes vowed.

The Russian ambassador's spouse and family attended the ceremony where farewell speeches and prayings were held.

Karlov's body was placed on board an special aircraft for repatriation to Russia after the ceremony.

On Monday, Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov was delivering a speech at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in Ankara's central Cankaya district when an off-duty Turkish police officer opened fire, critically wounding him.

Karlov was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

An 18-member Russian delegation composed of security officials, prosecutors and experts arrived in Ankara on Tuesday to probe the killing.

Turkish police has arrested six people over Russian envoy's murder so far.
by Mahmoud Fouly, Emad al-Azrak, Wang Xue

CAIRO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Through 56 colorful paintings hanging on the classy walls of Horizons Hall attached to Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in downtown Cairo, Egyptian internationally-recognized painter Mohamed Abla told ancient Chinese tales and highlighted China's Silk Road revival initiative to visitors of his art gallery dubbed "On the Silk Road."

"The purpose of the exhibition is to show that I as an artist am interested in this topic, which led me to read a lot about China and its civilization," the renowned artist told Xinhua while standing near the largest and most colorful painting at the gallery.

Proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, the Belt and Road initiative, which is highly supported by Egypt, seeks to revive ancient trade routes to link China with over 60 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe through the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road.

"The exhibition is an invitation to the whole world, because China's proposed Silk Road revival is a cultural, economic project and the relations between China and the Arab world and the West is part of the idea," Abla explained.

On one of the walls of Horizons Hall, a painting features a ship with a couple of people on board swinging in the middle of a rough sea with blue and white waves on a windy day, while an angel in the sky stretches hands towards the ship.

"The angel represents hope for their rescue, which is a life theme, as life has a lot of ups and downs but there is always hope in the end," Abla explained while pointing to the picture.

The artist, who has a lot of fans including professional and amateur artists in Egypt and abroad, said that most of his paintings at the exhibition are inspired by tales and myths from the Chinese culture, "for China is one of the world's oldest civilizations, like Egypt."

Another painting shows two stone-made knights riding two stone horses, each being on top of a broken tall column, while they both try to reach each other for a fight. "They are not convinced they are made of stones and they insist to engage in a war, just like what happens in real life today."

Abla said that even the colors and papers he used for the displayed paintings were all Chinese-made. "I was looking for a thinner, lighter kind of paper for my paintings of this gallery and I found that the Chinese papers were what I wanted. In addition, the pigment of Chinese-made oil is very high."

Zahara, a student of fine arts, said she admired Abla's use of Chinese colors and natural symbols from the Chinese culture, referring to two side-by-side paintings in the gallery; one is of an abstract face of a lady with Chinese features and yellow dress and the other is of an abstract face of an Egyptian-looking man wearing traditional Nubian Egyptian garment and holding a flower in his hand.

Among the visitors were also an old American couple, industrial psychologist Fred Brower and child psychologist and child book writer Mandy Brower, who both said they loved the depths of Abla's works so much that they bought three of his paintings before.

The American man said that the Silk Road was made famous for the people of the West by traveler Mark O'Polo, describing the Chinese revival of the ancient routes as "a very very interesting idea."

"I know it's now being revived and re-established. This connection is something I am looking at as being very interesting. It's about connecting East and West by land, not just by flight. So, yes, we know the Silk Road and the beauty that it exchanges between the two cultures," Brower told Xinhua at the art gallery.
British Prime Minister Theresa May (R) meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi in London, Britain, on Dec. 20, 2016. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

LONDON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China and Britain on Tuesday pledged to enhance their pragmatic cooperation and join hands to combat the climate change.

The latest development came as visiting Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi met with the British Prime Minister Theresa May after the 8th China-UK Strategic Dialogue held in London.

Chinese and British leaders met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in China in September, months after the Brexit Referendum and British government reshuffle. Leaders of the two countries had reassured each other for the commitment and confidence in the "golden era" for the bilateral relations.

Yang said that the mutual reassurance had injected fresh momentum into the Sino-UK cooperation. China stands ready to maintain frequent exchanges of high-level visits with the British side and also deepen their pragmatic bilateral cooperation in areas including nuclear power, high-speed railway, finance and innovation, he said.

The senior Chinese official also called on the two sides to strengthen their communication and coordination to solve major international and regional issues, jointly push forward the open, inclusive economic globalization and combat the global challenges such as the climate change.

On her part, May said her country is expecting to strengthen pragmatic cooperation with China in various areas and promote global free trade.

She said Britain is willing to address common challenges such as the climate changes with other countries in a concerted manner.

Related:

China, Britain reaffirm "golden era" for ties amid Brexit uncertainty

LONDON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China and Britain on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to a "golden era" for Sino-British bilateral ties amid Brexit uncertainty.
ROME, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Italian coast guard was named new Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday, as recognition for its efforts in rescuing thousands of minor migrants and refugees.

In a ceremony held here in the afternoon, President of Italy's National Committee for UNICEF Giacomo Guerrera said the coast guard was worth such appointment because "it represents the spirit of solidarity that should guide all those who care about the fate of the children in the world."

Italy's coast guard carries out daily rescue operations, and coordinates all missions in the central Mediterranean involving naval forces from various European Union (EU) countries, humanitarian groups, and from the EUNAVFOR Operation Sophia.

"This UNICEF designation fills with pride all of our 11,000 women and men," Coastguard Admiral Vincenzo Melone said at the ceremony.

"It is proof of the commitment of our staff in a highly dramatic scenario such as the central Mediterranean."

A cooperation agreement to strengthen support activities to unaccompanied minor migrants was also recently signed between UNICEF-Italy and the coast guard, officials said.

The deal would allow UNICEF pedagogues and cultural mediators to be embedded on board of three coast guard naval vessels during rescue operations.

According to the UN agency, this would help "ensure an adequate support in contexts related to psychological and legal assistance to unaccompanied minors from the very beginning."

Child friendly spaces for small children will be set up on board of the three selected vessels, UNICEF added.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy Tuesday called on the international community to fight against trafficking in persons in conflict areas and protect rights and interests of women and children in a joint endeavor.

Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, made the appeal at a Security Council debate on the topic of trafficking in persons in conflict situations.

Wu said with conflicts breaking out and dragging on, women and children become vulnerable groups who are subjected to violence and crime.

Therefore, he noted that countries need to deepen international cooperation in areas like border control, financial regulation and judicial assistance to combat this transnational organized crime.

At the debate, the Security Council adopted a resolution which asked UN member states to investigate and dismantle networks involved in trafficking in persons in areas of armed conflict.

Outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned the council that extremist groups like the Islamic State, Boko Haram and Al Shabaab are using trafficking and sexual violence as a weapon of terror as well as an important source of revenue.

He urged countries to adopt dedicated anti-trafficking laws and national action plans and consider creating law enforcement units to address this threat.
ANKARA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told his U.S. counterpart John Kerry on the phone call Tuesday that Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) was behind Russian envoy's assassination, local media reported.

During the phone conversation, Cavusoglu briefed Kerry on Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov's murder, who was shot dead on Monday evening, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Kerry offered condolences to Cavusoglu and expressed sorrow about the incident.

The two top diplomats also discussed the trilateral meeting that took place Tuesday in Moscow between Russian, Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers.

The Russian ambassador was killed during a speech at an exhibition in Ankara on Monday evening by a gunman dressed as a guard.

Late Tuesday, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said that it is a great disrespect and defamation for the Turkish police to be involved as the perpetrator of Russian envoy's assassination.

"The connections behind this attack will also come to light," Bozdag said in a speech at the Turkish Parliament.

He vowed that "the investigations will reveal all the ties of the attacker."

The U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen is accused by Turkish government of conducting the July 15 failed coup attempt.
U.S. President Barack Obama (L) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk before an economic leaders meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit at the Lima Convention Centre on November 20, 2016 in Lima. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Tuesday slapped additional sanctions on eight more entities and seven individuals linked in relation to the conflict in Ukraine.

The fresh sanctions target companies including Crimean Ports, Crimean Railway and Institut Stroiproekt, a Russian highway construction company, according to a statement by U.S. Treasury Department.

Also blacklisted are seven Russians, six of whom were accused by the United States of helping to offer assistance to Bank Rossiya, which was sanctioned in 2014, or Bank Rossiya's two affiliates, which were also been sanctioned.

The seventh man, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, "has extensive business dealings with the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense," said the statement.

The United States also identified 26 subsidiaries that are owned 50 percent or more by previously sanctioned Russian companies to provide additional information to assist the private sector with sanctions compliance.

Since 2014, the United States, the EU and some of their allies have imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia for the country's role in the Ukraine crisis.

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russia's TASS News Agency that Russia would respond to U.S. expansion of sanction.

"We retain the right to choose the time, place and form of our responsive actions in a way that suits us," said Ryabkov.
COPENHAGEN, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- No more than 300 foreigners sought asylum in Denmark in November, the lowest number in a single month since August 2011, according to the Ministry of Immigration and Integration on Tuesday.

The Scandinavian country has registered 284 asylum seekers in November, significantly lower than the same month last year when about 5,100 foreigners sought asylum, according to the ministry.

November's number is also the lowest in a single month since August 2011, when 274 foreigners sought asylum.

"The figure is significantly lower than the same month of the previous two years, and it shows that our tight immigration policy with the joint initiatives at EU level works," said Immigration and Integration Minister Inger Stoejberg in a statement.

"The government has recently been expanded to three parties that have made a common government platform with a focus on foreign policy," the minister added.

Denmark has ushered in border control measures since January 4 and it was extended numerous times since then.

Other measures to deter migrants from coming to the country include a controversial rule allowing police to confiscate their valuables to help pay for their accommodation, and legislation to allow police to turn back asylum seekers at its borders.

The Danish government has previously estimated that about 6,000 people would seek asylum by November. In 2015, the country has received 21,300 asylum seekers, while the figure was around 14,800 in 2014.
MELBOURNE, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Australia's oldest scientists will continue to work in 2017 after a West Australian university reversed its decision to fire him.

Doctor David Goodall, a 102 year old honorary research associate in ecology at Western Australia's (WA) Edith Cowan University (ECU), will continue his career of more than 70 years after the university was able to find space for him.

The university told Goodall in August that he would have to work from home in 2017 because he posed a significant health and safety risk, saying that Goodall's 90-minute each-way journey on two buses and a train to the university's Joondalup campus was of particular concern due to his age.

However, the university said that it has been able to find office space for Goodall at its Mt Lawley campus, an arrangement ECU vice-chancellor Steve Chapman said involved compromise on both sides.

"It is better in many ways," Chapman told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Wednesday.

"First of all it's closer to his residence and it's easier for him to commute.

"Secondly, there's an office very close that's manned all the time so we will be able to keep an eye on him that he's okay.

"Thirdly, he's agreed to inform us when he comes in so that if he didn't arrive we could check what had happened.

"All round I think it's a better solution for him and a better solution for the university."

Goodall, whose plight attracted international attention and prompted a debate about the value of older people in the workplace, said while he was disappointed to be leaving his original office, he was grateful the university had found room for him.

"Given that I had to move, this is satisfactory," Goodall told the ABC.

"I hope to continue with some useful work in my field in so far as my eyesight permits. But I still think the emphasis on safety was unnecessary."

"I think people were rather sympathetic to me as a centenarian who wanted to continue life in society.

"I prefer to be on campus because there are other people around and people who potentially are friends."
CANBERRA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Foreign Minister has on Wednesday advised Australians who travel overseas during the busy festive season to have a terror "exit plan" if they decide to attend busy public gatherings such as Christmas markets.

Following Monday's deadly Berlin truck attack, in which 12 people died after a truck slammed into a Christmas market, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said travelers need to be aware that places of mass gatherings are often a target for extremists.

She told the Nine Network on Wednesday that if Australians have plans to attend places of mass gathering over the course of the Christmas and New Year period, aside from taking "normal precautions" they should formulate an "exit plan" in case of an attack.

"We ask people to take care, to take the normal precautions, but if they are visiting places like a Christmas market, to ensure they have an exit plan worked out should there be a security incident of this type or worse," Bishop said.

The foreign minister also offered her condolences to the people of Germany, and said Australia stands in solidarity with the German government following the "terrifying" attack.

"It's a shocking incident and it must have been terrifying to have been present at the time of this attack. It certainly has all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack, although the German authorities have not yet confirmed the motive behind the incident," Bishop said.

"We stand with the German people and government in the fight against terrorism, particularly where civilians are targeted. But the motive behind this is still not yet confirmed."

The foreign minister also said Australia's official home terror alert level remains at "probable" but she ensured Australians that counter-terror and law enforcement agencies were "doing all they can" to prevent an attack on Australian soil.

"I can assure the Australian people we are doing all we can to give our security, law enforcement intelligence agencies the resources they need, but no government can give a guarantee," Bishop told the Nine Network.

"We have thwarted about 11 attempted terror attacks in the past two-and-a-half years, but you can't guarantee such an event won't occur.

"All we do in ensure police have all the resources and power they need to act in the interest of Australians and try to keep up as safe as possible."
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday banned future oil and gas drilling in most of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, the latest move to cement his environmental legacy before he leaves office next month.

Using his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that allow presidents to withdraw areas from oil and gas leasing and exploration, Obama has protected the entire U.S. Chukchi Sea and the vast majority of the U.S. Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean and 31 canyons in the Atlantic Ocean from drilling, the White House said.

Canada will also freeze offshore oil and gas leasing in its Arctic waters, to be reviewed every five years through a climate and marine science-based assessment, according to the White House.

"These actions, and Canada's parallel actions, protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other region on earth," Obama said in a statement.

"They reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region's harsh conditions is limited," he said.

Obama believed "it would take decades" to fully develop the production infrastructure necessary for any large-scale oil and gas leasing production in the region.

The withdrawal areas announced on Tuesday encompass 3.8 million acres in the north and mid-Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast and 115 million acres in the U.S. Arctic Ocean, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.

"The withdrawal will help build the resilience of these vital ecosystems, provide refuges for at-risk species, sustain commercial fisheries and subsistence traditions, and create natural laboratories for scientists to monitor and explore the impacts of climate change," said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.

Including previous presidential withdrawals, Tuesday's action protects nearly 125 million acres in the offshore Arctic from future oil and gas activity.

Analysts said the incoming administration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump could not simply reverse the action, as the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act doesn't include a procedure for a new president to undo actions by a predecessor.

But Congress could pass legislation lifting the ban, which likely would require 60 votes in the Senate, a high hurdle for many controversial issues.
MELBOURNE, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Using commercial mouthwash daily could slow the spread of gonorrhoea, an Australian study has found.

The study, released by the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre on Wednesday, found that using Listerine, a popular brand of mouthwash, daily can help slow the growth of bacteria responsible for the sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the mouth.

The researchers said that the discovery could prove to be significant as the rising rate of gonorrhoea worldwide increases the risk of an antibiotic-resistant strain of the infection developing.

"If daily use of mouthwash was shown to reduce the duration of untreated infection and/or reduce the probability of acquisition of gonorrhoea, then this readily available, condom-less, and low cost intervention may have very significant public health implications in the control of gonorrhoea in men," said the report, published in online journal Sexually Transmitted Infections on Wednesday.

Since its initial release in 1879 the manufacturers of Listerine have claimed that the antiseptic mouthwash claimed it could be used to cure gonorrhoea, but that hypothesis had never been tested in published research.

For the laboratory tests, different dilutions of Listerine products were applied to cultures of gonorrhoea to see which, if any of them, would curb the growth of the bacteria, while a saline solution was also applied to gonorrhoea cultures as a means if comparison.

The trial, which included 196 gay and bisexual men who had previously tested positive for gonorrhoea in their mouth and throat, found that the Listerine dilutions significantly reduced the gonorrhoea populations whereas salt water solutions did not.

Among the group of men who were given the Listerine solutions, the proportion of viable gonorrhoea in the throat was reduced to 54 percent after one minute of gargling compared to 64 percent in those who used the salt water.

The men using Listerine were also 80 percent less likely to test positive for gonorrhoea in their throat five minutes after gargling than the men using the saline solution.
BERLIN, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Bayern Munich defender Jerome Boatang successfully underwent a surgery, the German giants confirmed in an official statement on Tuesday.

Doctor Andreas Imhoff has operated Boateng on his right chest muscle on Tuesday.

The 28-year-old defender complained about pain in his chest since last week and was unable to take part in the encounter against last-placed Darmstadt on Sunday.

According to the club's doctor Volker Braun, Boateng will be sidelined for six weeks. "The operation went very well. In case of optimal healing process, Jerome Boateng will be available in about six weeks."

The German international may return to the pitch on February 4, when Bayern Munich play Schalke in the 19th round of Bundesliga.

Bayern Munich sit currently on the first place of the Bundesliga standings. The front-runners will meet runners-up Leipzig for the top clash on Wednesday.
BERLIN, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Julian Weigl has extended his contract with Borussia Dortmund for another two years, the 'BVB' announced in an official statement on Tuesday.

The 'BVB' employ Weigl, a much-courted German youngster, as an offensive midfielder. He penned the two-year contract extension ahead of schedule, which will keep him in Dortmund until June 2021.

"We are very pleased that Julian has decided to stay with us for the long term," Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc said, adding that "he is already a personality despite his young age. He has managed to establish himself at the BVB in a very short time and is only at the beginning of his career."

Weigl joined Dortmund from second division side 1860 Munich in the summer of 2015. He immediately made a breakthrough into the first team, making an overall 39 appearances since his arrival. His performances with the 'BVB' in the Bundesliga earned him a spot in Germany's national team, where he made his debut in May 2016 against Slovakia.

"I feel very well cared-for in Dortmund as well as in the club," Weigl said, "It was a logical decision for me to extend my contract."

Dortmund currently sit in 4th place of the Bundesliga standings. They will face struggling Werder Bremen on January 21 after the winter break.
By Yoo Seungki

SEOUL, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Transfer in South Korea of presidential power from the ruling bloc to the opposition is expected to cause a dramatic change in the country's diplomacy and policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), experts here said.

"Depending on who is elected in (next) presidential election, (South) Korea's foreign policy will obviously get different (in consequence)," Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, said in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.

Moon Jae-in, former chairman of the biggest opposition Minjoo Party who is now the frontrunner in recent presidential polls, is forecast to consider the re-opening of the Kaesong Industrial Complex if he is elected, the expert on security and diplomacy said.

The inter-Korean factory park in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong was unilaterally shut down by South Korea in retaliation for Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test in January and the launch in February of a long-range rocket, which Seoul saw as a disguised test of a long-range missile.

Moon is former chief of staff to late President Roh Moo-hyun who had inherited a "sunshine policy," or rapprochement approach to its northern neighbor, from his predecessor late President Kim Dae-jung. Both Roh and Kim held summit talks with late DPRK leader Kim Jong Il.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye and his predecessor President Lee Myung-bak adopted a so-called "strategic patience" on the DPRK's nuclear issue, which had done little to encourage Pyongyang to return to a dialogue table and had used pressures and sanctions alone.

Early presidential race is expected to come as President Park was impeached on Dec. 9 in the parliament with an overwhelming support. The constitutional court has up to 180 days to deliberate, and a presidential election must be held within 60 days if the impeachment is justified.

The transfer of power to the opposition bloc could bring about not a few alterations in the country's foreign and security policies as ruling and opposition parties approach those issues from different perspectives.

If the ruling bloc wins back the presidency, there would be no big transformation in South Korea's DPRK policy, said the research fellow who forecast the inter-Korean relations would be a big issue in the upcoming presidential race.

Conservative voters here traditionally favor a hard-line policy toward the DPRK, while liberal voters tend to support the sunshine policy to defuse tensions on the Korean Peninsula and increase exchanges and cooperation between the two Koreas.

The opposition bloc, the expert said, has made out its case for the re-examination or the stop of the deployment of a U.S. missile shield in South Korean soil, the signing of the military intelligence pact with Japan and the agreement with Japan on comfort women victims.

He advised the next South Korean administration to consider both positions of China opposing to the THAAD deployment as well as of the United States and Japan which are concerned about the re-examination of their agreements with South Korea.

Under the Park Geun-hye administration, Seoul and Washington announced their plan in July to install one Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in southeastern South Korea by the end of next year despite strong oppositions from China and Russia.

South Korea signed the accord with Japan on Nov. 23 to exchange military intelligence on the DPRK's nuclear and missile programs despite strong objections here to such deal with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe-led cabinet which has yet to apologize for past brutalities during its 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul also reached a "final and irreversible" agreement last December with Tokyo on the victims of comfort women, a euphemism for Korean women who were lured or forced into sexual slavery for the Imperial Japan's military brothels before and during the World War .

The frail comfort women victims and advocate groups have held a rally every Wednesday in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul to protest against the agreement and demand Japan's sincere apology and its acknowledgement of legal responsibility.

WHO IS LIEKLY TO BE ELECTED AS PRESIDENT

Given that the scandal involving President Park destroyed support for the conservative bloc, a candidate from opposition parties is highly likely to be elected as next South Korean president, said Jang Seok-joon, vice president of the minor opposition Justice Party's Future Politics Center.

Former Minjoo Party chief Moon Jae-in, a runner-up to Park in the 2012 presidential election, has ranked first in recent presidential surveys since the presidential scandal erupted in October.

Moon is a safe choice for voters, the political expert said, as he is now the frontrunner of the biggest opposition party amid higher possibility for presidential power to be transferred to the opposition bloc.

If Moon becomes a winner in the Minjoo Party's primary, he will garner more support from liberal voters in their protest vote against the ruling Saenuri Party, Jang predicted.

Jang, however, cast doubts on whether Moon can expand his support base further because of his longtime exposure to searing criticism from political enemies and conservative media outlets that resulted in widespread public opinion against him.

Moon was trailed by outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, whose two, five-year terms are set to end by the end of this year. The career diplomat has never officially declared his run for president, but he has been seen as hope for conservative voters in the absence of powerful presidential contenders in the ruling bloc.

The expert on politics said Ban emerged as the only remaining choice in the conservative bloc as there is no other notable alternative from the ruling Saenuri Party, of which popularity was almost ruined by the impeached president.

Ban would not become the Saenuri Party's candidate, the expert predicted. Instead, Ban is expected to join either a new political party, which may be created by the Saenuri's anti-Park faction, or a so-called "third playing field" where non-mainstreamers from both ruling and opposition blocs compete to field a single candidate.

The absence of experience in domestic politics was cited as Ban's weakest point in running for president. The expert said that if the Minjoo Party puts forward a single candidate via primary, divided support among separate contenders will be centered on the single choice amid surging wish for transfer of power to the opposition bloc.

Lee Jae-myung of the Minjoo Party, mayor of Seongnam, a city to the southeast of capital Seoul, made a meteoric rise in recent surveys, moving into a third place for his active participation in candlelight vigils and his popular social welfare services including free postnatal care to new mothers, free school uniforms to secondary school students and cash handouts to all of the 24-year-old youths.

Mayor Lee, the expert said, has recently done the most talented performance as he aggressively sought to represent the public fury in candlelit vigils over the Park Geun-hye administration in contrast to Moon Jae-in who initially took cautious stance on the weekend protest rallies.

In addition to his political competence, Lee has proven his administrative capability as Seongnam mayor through progressive social welfare policies, which can broaden his appeal to traditionally conservative voters, said the expert who described Mayor Lee as a dark horse in the early presidential race.

Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor opposition People's Party came in fourth in presidential surveys. Ahn, the rising star in the 2012 election who withdrew his presidency to throw his support behind Moon, defected from the Minjoo Party and created the People's Party in February this year to take his own line.

The political commentator said Ahn suffered from relatively heavy damages from the impeachment as public support tends to be cut into two extremes under a political instability, noting that his party was launched as an alternative political power separately from both Saenuri and Minjoo parties.

Ahn represented public wish for new politics in the 2012 presidential election, but he has currently become one of the established politicians who cannot stir up a "new wind" in the political arena any more, said the expert.
JAKARTA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale jolted Maluku in eastern parts of Indonesia earlier Wednesday, but there were no tsunami alert issued and a report of casualty, officials disclosed here.

The quake rocked at 0017 GMT with epicenter at 184 km northeast Maluku Barat Daya and the depth at 173 km under sea bed, an official of meteorology and geophysics agency said.

"We did not issue a warning for tsunami. This quake is not dangerous as its center is deep," the official told Xinhua by phone.

The intensity of the quake was felt at 2 to 3 MMI (Modified Mercally Intensity) in Tual town and 1 to 2 MMI in Saumlaki town, the official revealed.

"So far, there is no a report of damages or casualty," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of national disaster management agency told Xinhua via phone.

Indonesia lies on a vulnerable quake-hit zone so called "the Pacific Ring of Fire," making it prone to quakes.

More than 100 people were killed with over 700 others sustaining injury as a shallow-and strong under-land quake, 6.5 magnitude, rocked Aceh province in northern tip of Sumatra Island earlier this month.
MELBOURNE, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Lethal overdoses on prescription painkillers in Australia have almost doubled in ten years, a study has found.

The study, published by Melbourne's Penington Institute on Wednesday, revealed that opioid-based painkillers were responsible for 71 per cent of all drug-related deaths in Australia in 2014.

It also found that the use of opioid-based painkillers in Australia quadrupled between 2004 and 2014.

Benzodiazepines, such as Valium or Xanax, killed 438 Australians in 2014 while oxycodone, morphine and codeine overdoses killed 411 compared to just 188 deaths linked to ecstasy and amphetamines.

John Ryan, the CEO of the Penington Institute, said that Australians aged 30-59 represented 78 per cent of all painkiller overdose deaths in Australia.

"These figures challenge the conventional wisdom that it is young urban people who are most at risk of dying of overdose in Australia," Ryan said in a media release on Wednesday.

Ryan said there had been a significant increase in accidental overdoses in Australia from 2004 to 2014.

"Accidental deaths from overdose reached 1,137 in 2014, a rapid rise from 705 deaths in 2004 and a 61 per cent increase in a decade," Mr Ryan said.

"Between 2013 and 2014 overdose deaths smashed through the 1,000 deaths mark, with a rise of 14.5 per cent in one year alone, from 993 to 1,137.

"These grim figures underscore how severe the overdose crisis is in Australia... It is now time for significant investments to be made to reduce the human toll from accidental overdose.

"Comprehensive investments have been made to reduce the road toll. The question is therefore: why isn't a similar level of investment being made into overdose prevention and awareness?"

Painkiller-related deaths were particularly prominent in rural areas, with 5.7 deaths per 100000 being attributed to painkiller overdoses in 2014, an 83 per cent increase from the 3.1 deaths per 100000 recorded in 2004.
PARIS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- France respects the one-China principle and is committed to the unity of China, a French Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman said Tuesday.

"The French stance is constant and unambiguous: France is committed to the principle of the unity of China," Alexandre Giorgini said at a daily press briefing.

"France is in favor of peace, dialogue and cooperation between the two shores and supports any initiative in this way," he added.

Asked about France's ties with Taiwan, which is part of China, Giorgini said France has an office in Taipei to facilitate and promote economic, cultural and scientific exchanges.

Related:

Chinese, French FMs hold phone talks over ties, one-China principle

BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday held a telephone conversation with his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault on bilateral ties and the one-China principle.

In the phone call, Wang said China, which views France as a significant strategic partner, is willing to work with it to make earnest efforts to respect and accommodate each other's core interests and to implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, so as to promote the in-depth development of the China-France comprehensive strategic partnership. Full story

French FM says Trump's remarks over one-China policy "not clever"

PARIS, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's remarks questioning the one-China policy principle "is not clever," French Foreign Minister Jean Marc Ayrault said Wednesday, calling the upcoming Trump Administration "to avoid things spiralling out of control."
BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The International Management Group (IMG) announced on Wednesday that the Color Run, also known as "The Happiest 5K on the Planet," will return to China in 2017 with a brand new theme: Dream World Tour.

Fresh elements of magic, dreams, and color will be placed on the track to offer color runners an unprecedented 'run of dreams.' The inaugural event of the Dream World Tour in China will take place in Hangzhou at Xianghu National Tourism Resort on May 6.

The Color Run is the largest running series held worldwide. Since its debut in the United States in March 2011, it has generated enthusiastic support and participation from people who value health, happiness and individuality.

Dream World Tour will take runners to a magical world. Every year, the Color Run adopts a unique theme to create the most unforgettable experience for runners around the world. Following the "Tropical World Tour" in 2016, the "Dream World Tour" is set to kick off in 2017.

Surrounded by giant unicorns, puffy color clouds and hot music, color runners and their family and friends will partake in a dreamy 5K race where everything and anything is possible. The vibrant colors combined with a fully decorated course are guaranteed to offer a relaxing, joyful and magical atmosphere.

Color runners are able to express both uniqueness and individuality through the events.

The Color Run does not involve winners or rankings. Runners are encouraged to enjoy the sport and the happiness invoked by running with colors.

IMG strictly regulates materials used in the events to ensure the safety and health of participants. More than 500 Color Run events have been held, involving over 4 million runners.
VIENNA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- European populist parties, with the help of social media, have effectively harnessed many people's uneasiness and fear about globalization, former EU Commissioner for Agriculture Franz Fischler told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Populist parties have managed to advance themselves mainly through simplifying matters, and giving a simplified answer and solution to current problems, said Fischler, who is also the president of the European Forum Alpbach, a non-profit association based in Vienna.

Their slogans sound favorable to a wide sub-section of voters, but they are actually wrong, Fischler said.

Populists are not concerned whether these slogans and proposals are practically impossible to be implemented, what they are concerned with is to seek out and stir the public's emotions and enthusiasm, he said.

Fischler admitted that populism is widespread to some extent, saying that if centrist European political parties claim they do not have populist elements, it is not true.

Populist parties themselves, with the help of and the use of populism, have proposed their own political strategy to achieve their purpose, Fischler said.

Compared with traditional political parties, populist parties, especially the right-wing ones, are more adept in using social media to spread their claims and attract more followers, he said.

For example, Heinz-Christian Strache, chairman of the Austrian right-wing populist Freedom Party, releases Facebook posts at a frequency about three times higher than that of Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, Fischler said.

In a recent survey of 15,000 people, Germany's Bertelsmann Foundation found that 45 percent of European Union citizens view globalization as a threat. As many as 55 percent of Austrians hold this view.

In addition, 25-30 percent of the European people have lost trust in the traditional ruling parties and governments, and turned to both right- and left-wing populists, he said.

These people do not believe that the government can solve current problems and challenges, oppose the existing political system as well as traditional parties, and subsequently shift their support toward populist parties, Fischler said.

In Fischler's view, globalization will continue. In a digital world, in the "Industrial 4.0" era, it is difficult to imagine a small nation-state based isolation. "A large part of our affluence comes from exports, and we benefit from globalization," he said, adding the question now is how to shape globalization rationally.

Fischler believed that the sustainability of the economic system is very important, saying that people can not accept uncontrolled and unregulated globalization, and rules of global scale are needed.

The basic tenets of such rules should incorporate the United Nations sustainable development agenda of 2030, which includes 17 sustainable development goals and 169 related specific objectives, he said.

Fischler said in future, non-compliance with, or violation of the rules of globalization, should be punished accordingly, otherwise the system could not be said to be fair.

Transparency is also very important, what a country or a society is doing or not doing must be clear, and the rule-making process for globalization must also be based on multilateral consultations, Fischler said.
BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday expressed appreciation over Sao Tome and Principe's decision to break so-called "diplomatic ties" with Taiwan.

Noting the Chinese side has noticed a relevant announcement made by the government of Sao Tome and Principe on Tuesday (local time), ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said China welcomes the country to be back on the right track of the one-China principle.

The one-China principle, which concerns China's core interests and the 1.3 billion Chinese people' feelings, is the political basis and premise on which China is to develop friendly relations of cooperation with foreign countries, Hua said.

Hua added the principle, which was acknowledged in the Resolution 2758 adopted by the UN General Assembly in October 1971, has become universal consensus in the international community.
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's petroleum giant Petronas said on Wednesday that it will voluntarily cut up to 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil starting from January in line with the oil producers' move to shore up oil prices.

Petronas said the adjustment followed the pact made earlier this month in Vienna between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers.

Petronas did not say how long the adjustment will last, but said in a statement that the voluntary adjustment was based on the prevailing market conditions and prospects.

In a historic deal reached on Dec. 10, OPEC and non-OPEC producers agreed to curtail global oil output jointly and lift oil prices from a quagmire which saw oil price tanked for more than two years.

As one of the non-OPEC countries participating in the deal, Malaysia also agreed to the decision of output reduction of 558,000 bpd.
Policemen stand guard near the site where police force shot dead or captured suspected militants in Tangerang of Banten Province, Indonesia, Dec. 21, 2016. An anti-terror squad of the Indonesian police on Wednesday shot dead three suspected militants and captured another, who planned to commit a suicide bombing attack on a police post. (Xinhua/Zulkarnain)

JAKARTA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's anti-terror squad on Wednesday shot dead 3 suspected militants, captured another and seized one big active bomb in a firefight and raid in an outskirt city of Jakarta, police said here.

Adang was captured at 09:30 in his hide out, a rental house in Babakan village of South Tanggerang district, but three of his fellows were dead in the house after exchanges of fire between the squad and the suspected terrorists, Brig. General Rikwanto, national police spokesman said.

"We were informed by Adang that 3 suspected terrorists equipped with bombs were still inside the rental house. And suddenly they threw a bomb and shot the squad members but the bomb failed to explode," Rikwanto said during a live interview with a local tv.

"After a counter shooting, 3 of the militants were found dead. Their initial are O, I, and H," said Rikwanto.

The spokesman revealed that the suspected militant have links with those arrested in Bekasi town near Jakarta days ago.
Incoming UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (R) meets with President of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) Meng Hongwei to discuss ways of cooperation in global security, in New York, the United States , Dec. 20, 2016. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- President of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) Meng Hongwei met with incoming UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday to discuss cooperation on global security.

Meng congratulated Guterres on becoming the next UN secretary-general and stressed that the Interpol will support him to fulfill his responsibilities as the UN chief.

Meng said the Interpol is willing to enhance strategic communication with the UN on major issues concerning global security and stands ready to work with the UN to maintain international security and stability.

Guterres spoke highly of the long-term partnership between the two organizations and is looking forward to deepening cooperation with Interpol on counter-terrorism, cyberspace security, peacekeeping operations and the fight against human trafficking.

He acknowledged that it is of great significance to strengthen cooperation between the two organizations in face of global security challenges.

The Interpol was established as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC) in 1923. The international agency chose Interpol as its telegraphic address in 1946, and made it its common name in 1956.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday applauded the government and people of Cote d'Ivoire for the peaceful and inclusive legislative elections held on Sunday.

In a statement issued here by Ban's spokesman, the secretary-general said the successful conclusion of the elections confirms the West African country's "steady march toward lasting peace and stability."

Ban congratulated Ivorian political parties for their active participation in the elections and the Independent Electoral Commission for its efforts in ensuring people's right to vote.

"He also appreciates the positive role of international and national electoral observation teams, as well as the engagement of Ivorian civil society, which enhanced the transparency and credibility of the elections," the statement said.

The secretary-general commended the immense progress achieved by Cote d'Ivoire in holding a free and fair presidential election in October 2015 and the constitutional referendum in October 2016, the statement said.

"The secretary-general reiterates the commitment of the United Nations, including the United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire, to continue supporting Cote d'Ivoire in sustaining the gains achieved in its consolidation of peace, stability and long-term prosperity," it said.

The election of candidates into the legislature in Cote d' Ivoire started peacefully on Sunday with a large turnout of voters

The legislative elections were held amid tensions and inadequate preparations months after the end of violence in the West African country following the presidential polls in November 2010.
BRASILIA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian government on Tuesday condemned the terrorist attacks unleashed in Jordan and Germany.

"By expressing its condolences and solidarity with the families of the victims, the Brazilian government reiterates its firm condemnation of all acts of terror, regardless of the motive," the The Brazilian Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

The attack in the Jordanian city of Karak on Sunday killed 10 people, including a Canadian tourist. The city is located about 140 kilometers south of the capital Amman, and popular with tourists for its Crusader castle.

The attack on a Berlin Christmas market resulted in the deaths of 12 people on Monday evening.

The Islamic State on Tuesday proclaimed responsibility for both attacks.
NANCHANG, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Zhou Wenbin, former president of a key university in east China's Jiangxi Province, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for bribery on Wednesday.

According to the second trial verdict issued by the Jiangxi higher people's court, personal assets worth 1 million yuan (143,874 U.S. dollars) should be confiscated from him, and the bribes he took should be recovered.

Zhou was found guilty of accepting cash in various currencies worth 19.7 million yuan (about 2.8 million U.S. dollars) as well as shopping cards worth 24,000 yuan, and a Cartier watch worth 38,600 yuan.

On December 2015, Zhou was sentenced to life in prison for bribery and embezzlement of public funds by the Intermediate People's Court of Nanchang City, capital of Jiangxi.

According to the Jiangxi higher people's court, the first trial conviction for public funds embezzlement was inappropriate, and evidence was lacking for the conviction for bribery worth 1.6 million yuan.

The court said Zhou showed a good attitude when confessing and repenting during the second trial, and most of the bribe money has been recovered, so a lenient sentence was given.

Zhou, born in 1960, became president of Nanchang University, the top university in the province, in late 2002. He was arrested in 2013.
by Saud Abu Ramadan

GAZA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Marks of joy were visible on the faces of Akram Abu Khousa, the 42-year-old farmer from Gaza, and his four brothers once they heard that Israel decided to allow farmers to export this season's produce of strawberries directly from Gaza to Europe through Israeli seaports.

When Israel made the announcement two weeks ago, Abu Khousa, his four brothers and their children rushed to their 7-dunum (1 dunum is equal to 1,000 square meters) strawberries field and began to pick up the red mature fruit and packed it in soft boxes.

"Over the past two years, we depended on local markets in Gaza because we were not able to export our strawberries due to the Israeli restrictions, therefore we were happy that this year we will be able to export our produce to Europe to compensate our loss," Abu Khousa told Xinhua.

Before the Israeli large-scale military offensive weighed on the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014, which lasted 50 days, strawberry farmers cultivated 1,000 dunums in the Gaza Strip, he noted, adding that due to the destructions and the lack of export, 400 dunums were cultivated with the fruit this year.

"We have been growing strawberries for 15 years for living and we found out that the local markets in the Gaza Strip can't bring profits, but only loss," said Abu Khousa, while filling a soft box with fresh and red strawberries. "The price of 1 kilogram in local market is 8 Israeli Shekels (1 U.S. dollar is equal to 3.83 Shekels)."

Gaza Ministry of Agriculture informed Abu Khousa and other farmers in the coastal enclave that before loading the strawberries on trucks for export, the price for each kilogram for export must be 12 Israeli Shekels, and a sample of the produce has to be examined at Israeli laboratories and make sure it is clear of chemicals.

Tahseen al-Saqqa, chairman of marketing department in the Gaza Ministry of Agriculture, told Xinhua in a telephone conversation that the first two trucks of strawberry were exported to Europe and Russia early this month.

"On Dec. 5, the first shipment of 2 tons of strawberry were exported to Europe, including Spain, through the Israeli-controlled commercial crossing point of Kerem Shalom, then the shipment will be transported to an Israeli seaport and then will be shipped to Europe," said al-Saqqa.

He reminded that last year, the Gaza Strip produced 160 tons of strawberry, and most of it were sold in the local markets of the Palestinian territories, or Gaza and the West Bank, adding that "the Ministry of Agriculture hopes that this year, exporting abroad would help boosting the deteriorated economy of Gaza."

The farmers and the strawberry export association in Gaza said the process of exporting strawberries abroad should go through several procedures, such as checking the strawberries that it doesn't include chemical remains, and should meet the European criteria of safe planting and packing.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Ghaben, director of the Gaza-based Agricultural Cooperative Association for Strawberry Growers, told Xinhua that the total cost for each dunum cultivated with strawberries is 3,000 U.S. dollars each year. His Association coordinates between farmers and the Israeli side to check the samples.

Ghaben and other exporters of strawberry, flowers and various kinds of green herbs and vegetables, complained that the Palestinians have to export their products through Israeli companies.

"We hope one day we may have our seaport and airport in order to be able to export and import products directly, without an Israeli mediator," said Sami al-Shafe'i, chairman of Gaza fruits and vegetables association, adding that "in this case our loss will be certainly much less than exporting through Israel."
By Xinhua writers Zhang Zhongkai, Wang Xiuqiong

BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- China was once a gold mine for foreign firms, but the country's economic slowdown is making it harder for multinationals to make easy money.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Chinese mainland slowed in the first 11 months compared with last year, official data shows.

A recent survey of German firms in China showed that the current economic situation is one of the most difficult in recent years, and about 25 percent of the firms expect shrinking profits this year.

However, others have pointed out that the Chinese market poses huge opportunities as long as companies are digging in the right areas.

"We are upbeat about the outlook of the Chinese market, one of our fastest growing markets globally. China's new two-child policy and consumption upgrading means growing demand for high-quality toys," said Amon Wang, marketing vice president with LEGO China.

The Danish toy maker opened its first factory in Asia in eastern China's Zhejiang Province in November, just six months after it opened its largest ever store, at the Shanghai Disney Resort. LEGO aims to set up outlets in 40 Chinese cities by 2020.

As trade and investment slows, consumption is playing a bigger role in driving China's economic growth, contributing to over 70 percent of total GDP in the first three quarters.

While facing a dwindling workforce and rising labor costs, China is also offering more high quality talent, according to business social network LinkedIn.

LinkedIn's registered users in China grew from about 4 million in 2014 to over 28 million today.

"Chinese people are increasingly eager to learn knowledge and share expertise. They are more innovative and looking for changes, lending momentum to emerging sectors like the sharing economy," said David Yu, vice president of LinkedIn China.

While the workforce are seeking to improve themselves, China's companies are also busy optimizing their management and operations.

Digitalization is an ongoing trend among Chinese enterprises, and about 92 percent of surveyed companies are using IT solutions to upgrade their business, according to Ken Ho, director with CA Technologies China.

Official data showed that China's high-tech and strategic emerging sectors grew over 10 percent in the past 11 months. Growth of foreign direct investment flowing into computer application services more than doubled from a year earlier.

In addition to consumption, the Internet economy and high-tech services, China's urbanization and smart city drive also offer plenty of business opportunities for reform-minded foreign companies in traditional sectors.

According to Gao Yan, CEO with Thyssenkrupp Greater China, their elevator business in China outperforms many other markets, and their R&D investment in China has been growing steadily in the past five years.

The German company decided in mid-December to build the world's largest automobile steering system production base, in eastern China's Jiangsu Province, to cater to China's growth in automobile use due to greater urbanization.

Caterpillar looks forwards to more share of businesses using China's outbound strategy of the Belt and Road Initiative, as it views the strategy as "an open and inclusive" framework allowing all countries along the routes to participate in project construction.

The U.S. construction and mining equipment producer has seen rapid growth in business related to the Belt and Road projects in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Russia this year.

"An additional 1 percent GDP growth for China means trillions of yuan in volume growth, so China still offers a remarkable huge market," Gao Yan said.

China will strengthen its efforts to introduce foreign investment in 2017, build a law-based business environment and prompt foreign-funded businesses to play a bigger role in stimulating the real economy, said a statement issued after the Central Economic Work Conference Friday.

"Foreign firms should also do their own homework and keep up with Chinese market changes," Gao added.
PHNOM PENH, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia on Wednesday released the details of the haul of elephant tusks, wild animal bones and pangolin scales found at a dry port on the western outskirts of Phnom Penh on Saturday.

According to a customs report on Wednesday, the animal parts found at the Royal Railway Phnom Penh dry port totalled 1.58 tons, including 640 pieces of ivory weighed 1.36 tons, 82 kg of wild animal bones, 137 kg of pangolin scales and 4.9 kg of elephant tails.

Un Vannarith, deputy chief of the Phnom Penh Forestry Administration cantonment, said Monday that the animal parts were stuffed inside the logs which were shipped from the southern African nation of Mozambique.

He said the raid was made following a tip-off from the NGO Regional Intelligence Liaison Office of the World Customs Organization.

The intended destination of the haul was unknown as an investigation was underway to find out the smugglers, he added.

In August, some 613 kg of elephant tusks shipped from Africa were found concealed inside a corn container at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in southwest Cambodia's Preah Sihanouk province. Enditem
HANOI, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- People's Court in Vietnam's capital Hanoi on Wednesday sentenced officials of the state-run Vietnam Waterway Construction Corporation (Vinawaco) up to 13 years in prison for charge of taking bribery.

After a three-day first instance trial, the court sentenced Pham Dinh Hoa, born in 1973, former Vinawaco market planning manager, to 13-year imprisonment and Ho Thanh Nghia, born in 1979, former Vinawaco project board manager, to eight years and six months in prison for the same charge of "taking bribery."

Upon request of Hoa and Nghia, local Tan Viet company gave them some 800 million Vietnamese dong (over 35,800 U.S. dollars) in order to gain the bid, the state-run news agency VNA quoted the indictment as saying.

Meanwhile, both Trinh Van Thang, born in 1982, former director of Tan Viet company, and Vu Thanh Huyen, born in 1967, former Chairman of the Managing Board of Tan Viet company, was sentenced to 24 years and 22 years in prison, respectively, for the same charge of "giving bribery" and "fraudulent appropriation of assets."

According to the indictment, Thang and Huyen had given money to Vinawaco officials to win the bid. While implementing the project, they made fraudulent appropriation of nearly 7.9 billion Vietnamese dong (354,200 U.S. dollars).

In addition, other four defendants who used to be officials of Vinawaco Maritime Management Unit faced sentences of 20 to 24 months in prison for the charge of "irresponsibility causing serious consequences."
TEHRAN, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday started his tour to three Caucasian and central Asian states, Armenia's Yerevan Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Press TV reported.

A high-ranking political and economic delegation is accompanying Rouhani to discuss ways of improving mutual relations.

Ties with the three countries are highly important to Iran in the light of mutually-beneficial economic potentials, Rouhani said upon his departure.

"We are pursuing economic relations featuring preferential tariffs and ultimately free trade with these countries," Rouhani was quoted as saying.

Cooperation with the three countries will contribute to the Islamic republic's national security, Rouhani said, adding that talks with these countries will also focus on the issues of terrorism and insecurity in the region as well as unity among the nations concerning regional issues.

During his day-long visit to Armenia's capital Yerevan on Wednesday, Rouhani will hold talks with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on the expansion of cooperation, and senior Iranian and Armenian officials will sign several trade and economic cooperation documents.

Rouhani will then leave Yerevan to the Kazakh capital, Astana, for a one-day visit.

Rouhani is scheduled to meet with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and attend a joint press conference with him while high-ranking delegations of the two countries will hold a meeting and senior officials will sign documents for further cooperation.

On the last leg of his regional tour, Rouhani will head to Bishkek to hold talks with Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev and senior officials of the country.

Iranian and Kyrgyz officials will sign agreements to improve cooperation in different fields while business people from the two countries will attend a meeting.
BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese engineering team consisting of 109 peacekeepers departed Beijing Capital International Airport in a UN chartered plane to Sudan's Darfur on Wednesday for a one-year peacekeeping mission.

The peacekeepers are part of a 225-member team, which is the 13th group to be sent to the Darfur region. The rest of the team is scheduled to depart on Dec. 27.

The team will take on a number of tasks, including building makeshift airports, roads, bridges and defense works.

China now has more than 2,000 peacekeepers serving in UN missions in nine regions, including South Sudan, the Darfur region of Sudan, Mali and Liberia.
CAPE TOWN, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The South African Police Service (SAPS) on Wednesday condemned a violent protest outside the embassy of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), calling the protest "unlawful".

"As the SAPS, we have always respected the right to peaceful protest; but such protest must be approved by authorities beforehand and the organizers must acknowledge that responsibilities accompany rights," said Lieutenant General Khomotso Phahlane, the SAPS Acting National Commissioner.

He was referring to a protest in front of the DRC embassy in Pretoria on Tuesday.

At Tuesday noon, two buses arrived at the DRC embassy, carrying approximately 250 people. The protest turned violent when stones were thrown at the embassy building and at SAPS members. One police officer was disarmed by protestors during this incident. His stolen firearm was later recovered.

Windows and the front gate of the embassy were damaged as the protestors attempted to gain entry to the embassy.

Police dispersed the crowd and arrested nine persons on various charges including malicious damage to property and public violence, according to Phahlane.

The protest was staged in solidarity with widespread protests in the DRC to demand the resignation of President Joseph Kabila after his mandate expired.

Phahlane said the protest in front of the DRC embassy in Pretoria was not authorized and the crowd which gathered unlawfully attempted to gain access to the embassy with the apparent intention of setting it alight.

"The crowd was violent, caused damage to property, attempted to besiege an embassy under our protection and overpowered a police official, robbing him of a police firearm during the chaos. This can never be condoned and the SAPS roundly condemns such conduct," he said.

SAPS members will remain on duty and urge all in South Africa, citizens and visitors alike, to respect the laws of this country, Phahlane said.
DAMASCUS, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) --A seven-year-old girl who has garnered plenty of worldwide attention tweeting in English about the ongoing war in Syria has been evacuated from Aleppo and is said to be en route to Turkey.

"I escaped from East #Aleppo," Bana Alabed tweeted on Tuesday, confirming news announced earlier by the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), a Turkish charity organization.

Pictures of smiling Alabed with an aid worker were published by the IHH twitter account on Monday morning.

On the account created by her mother Fatemah, Alabed has been tweeting details of life in the war-torn Aleppo using photos, videos and periscopes, winning the focus of the world with replies from politicians and celebrities.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday said that Bana and her family would be brought to Turkey.

Fatemah on Sunday posted a tweet begging Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Cavusoglu to "make the ceasefire work and get us out."

She also has appealed to the U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to help her family escape war.

A United Nations resolution adopted on Monday called for the evacutations in Aleppo to be monitored.

Reports said that nearly 15,000 people, including rebels, have evacuated eastern Aleppo since the operation started last Thursday.

The rebels captured eastern Aleppo in 2012, and the government forces and allied fighters have recently captured 99 percent of the region, as part of a wide-scale offensive to completely drive out the militants from the city.

With the last evacuation of the rebels from eastern Aleppo, the Syrian army will be on control of the entire city, a victory seen as a new chapter in the ongoing war, according to President Bashar al-Assad.
ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian Airlines on Wednesday announced that it would start flight services to Jakarta, Indonesia, in June 2017 using the ultra-modern Boeing 787-800.

Jakarta is Indonesia's economic, cultural and political center, and Indonesia is the 4th most populous country in the world, and with this new service Ethiopian will have service to all 5 of the most populous countries on earth, said a statement from the airline.

With regard to the new service, Group CEO Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde GebreMariam, said Ethiopian Airlines is working very hard to connect Africa with the major trading centers of the world.

"As the fastest growing airline in Africa, Ethiopian is pleased to offer the opportunity to business people as well as tourists to explore Jakarta's potential both for investment and leisure," noted the CEO.

"This move will further increase our presence in Asia, connecting Africa to the Asia region and in turn strengthening the tourism and trade ties between the peoples of Africa and Asia," he said.
BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday urged Mongolia to keep its promise not to allow the Dalai Lama to visit the landlocked country again.

"China hopes Mongolia will learn lessons from the Dalai Lama's visit last month and respect China's core interests," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a regular news briefing.

Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil on Tuesday expressed regret over the negative impact of the Dalai Lama's visit on Mongolia-China relations, saying the Mongolian government will not allow future visits, even in the name of religion, according to local media.

"China attaches importance to the Mongolian foreign minister's explicit statement... China urges Mongolia to honor its commitment and make efforts to improve bilateral relations," Hua said.

The Dalai Lama, a political exile with ambitions to split Tibet from Chinese territory under the guise of religion, paid a visit to Mongolia on Nov. 18-23.

Tibet-related issues involve China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and are part of China's core interests, the spokesperson said, adding that China's stance on these issues is firm and clear.
Police stand guard near the site of a lorry crash at a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany, Dec. 19, 2016.(Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

BERLIN, Dec. 21(Xinhua) -- German police is searching nationwide for a 23-year-old man under suspect after a lorry ploughed into a crowd at a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday night, killing 12 people and injuring many others.

According to information of German media Die Welt, the man who drove the truck to the Christmas market should come from Tunisia. In the footwell of the driver's cabin of the truck, identity documents of Anis A. were found.

The report said, the 23-year-old, born in 1992 in the Tunisian city of Tataouine, is said to be using at least four names and is considered a threat. Moreover, he allegedly has a residence in Berlin and in German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

As local newspaper Bild reported, the documents were issued in the district of Kleve in North Rhine-Westphalia. Security circles assumed "imminent action" by the authorities in the state.

German Federal Public Prosecutor's Office announced on Tuesday evening that the suspect who had been temporarily arrested since late Monday evening due to the attack, was freed.

According to Die Welt, the Berlin police had admitted that they had arrested the wrong person. The real perpetrator is still "armed and still at large", and can cause new damages, the police was quoted as saying.

"We must assume it was a terrorist attack,"German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday during a press conference, adding that the act will be clarified and punished "as hard as our laws require".

A series of attacks occurred in Germany this summer, raising concerns over the safety of the country.
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- One pilot was killed while three officers were injured in a plane crash on Wednesday at a Malaysian air force base in Butterworth in the northern Penang state, the Star reported on Wednesday.

The plane was a Beechcraft twin-turboprop Super King Air 200T and was reported to be conducting an exercise when it crashed at around 5:20 p.m. local time.

A Facebook user, called "Rjuna Rjuna," posted some pictures believed to be showing the accident in which a military rescue worker was checking the wreckage of the plane while another showed a column of smoke emit from the scene.

It is reported that the three injured officers have been sent to the hospital.

The Royal Malaysian Air Force has not disclosed the cause of the accident.
A file photo taken on Oct. 9, 2016 shows Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (L) speaks during the second presidential debate with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at Washington University in St. Louis, the United States. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The final popular vote count was released Tuesday showing Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton with a near 3 million lead over opponent Donald Trump, who secured his presidency one day earlier as the Electoral College voted 304 to 227 in his favor.

The rare phenomenon of a candidate winning the popular vote -- this year by a record breaking margin -- but losing the election has sparked heated debate on whether the electoral college system, which was devised by the country's founding fathers, should still be part of the presidential election.

There are unprecedented signs that the electoral college system is losing attraction.

This year saw the largest number of faithless voters in U.S. history. Seven electoral voters voted for someone other than the candidate who won their respective states' popular vote - two Texas republicans dumped Trump while five Democrats opted not to choose Clinton.

Even more wanted to vote against their designated candidate but were obstructed by rules from doing so.

It is yet unclear of the precise motives behind the faithless voters this year, but records show that some of the faithless voters were driven by the belief that the electoral voting system is no longer suitable for a modern U.S. society.

"I wanted to make a statement about the Electoral College. We've outgrown it. And I wanted to point up what I perceive as a weakness in the system," Margarette Leach of West Virginia said after casting her electoral vote in 1988.

The sentiment against the electoral college seems to be shared across the country. Jan Brewer, a Republican who served as the governor of Arizona, said it's time to scrap the electoral college.

The system had "served its purpose" but "it's pretty disappointing when you think that just a few states really determine who's been elected president," the governor said. "And they get all the attention."

The New York Times, a left-leaning newspaper, ran an editorial Monday bluntly titled "Time to End the Electoral College". In the article, the paper claimed "by overwhelming majorities, Americans would prefer to elect the president by direct popular vote, not filtered through the antiquated mechanism of the Electoral College."

The piece argued that the system is a living symbol of America's original sin. When slavery was the law of the land, a direct popular vote would have disadvantaged the Southern states, with their large disenfranchised populations. Thus politicians proposed a middle way of letting individual states decide how electors in their states should vote.

As recent elections indicate, Democratic party supporters are usually urban dwellers, most of whom reside along the two coasts, leaving the pro-GOP voters to hold on to the vast inland states.

Under this political landscape, the Democrats can easily match the Republicans with popular votes but have a tougher time drawing as many electoral votes as the Republicans, since Democratic supporters are more concentrated in geography than Republican supporters.

In both recent cases where a candidate won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote, it was the Democratic candidate that lost the election.

Wounded by the defeats, the NYT editorial lamented that "it's hard to understand why the loser of the popular vote should wind up running the country."

But John Cochrane, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, said that the electoral voting system is vital in uniting the country from dividing further.

"The electoral college force candidates to attract geographically dispersed support. Moving a swing state from 45 percent to 55 percent is much more important than moving a solid blue or red state from 75 percent to 85 percent."

If presidential candidates prioritize the popular vote, then political views in red or blue states will be solidified and the trench between states will deepen, creating a rift that may result in the repetition of the Civil War, he warned.
MANILA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's increased progress in structural reform will enable Beijing to achieve its annual growth target in the coming years, a senior economist with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said.

Zhuang Juzhong, deputy chief economist at the ADB, made the comments Tuesday in an interview with Xinhua. He noted that China has made "very encouraging" progress in phasing out excess capacity.

Phasing out excess industrial capacity properly was made a clear priority by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in the government work report this March.

In November, Li announced at a State Council's executive meeting that China has met this year's target of retiring 45 million tonnes of steel and 250 million tonnes of coal production capacity, meeting both goals ahead of schedule.

China's just-concluded Central Economic Work Conference has further highlighted the importance of the continued structural reform, Zhuang noted.

In the conference, while making stability as the basic tone for next year's economic planning, China has pledged to push for "substantial progress" in supply-side structural reform.

China's economy expanded 6.9 percent year on year in 2015, the slowest in a quarter of a century, weighed down by a property market downturn, falling trade and weak factory activity.

The Chinese government has been making great efforts to shift the economy from the previous mainstay of exports and investment toward services and consumer spending.

China's 13th five-year plan on national economy (2016-2020) aims to keep medium-high growth in the next five years. By 2020, the size of China's economy is expected to exceed 90 trillion yuan (13.8 trillion U.S. dollars), compared with 67.7 trillion yuan in 2015.

The challenges facing China's economy can be counteracted, the expert said, stressing that China has the potential to achieve its targeted average annual economic growth which is set at above 6.5 percent in the next five years.
BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Wednesday sent a message of condolences to German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the terrorist attack on a Christmas market in central Berlin on Monday.

Li said he was shocked to learn that a terrorist attack took place Monday evening in Berlin which has resulted in heavy casualties.

"On behalf of the Chinese government, I express my deep condolences to the victims, send sincere sympathy to the families of the dead, and wish the injured an early recovery," said Li.

Li said China firmly backs Germany in its effort to crack down on terrorism and safeguard national security and is willing to strengthen cooperation with the international community including Germany to jointly safeguard peace and tranquility.

A truck ploughed into a Christmas market in central Berlin Monday evening, killing at least 12 and injuring several dozens of people.
MANILA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Four Filipino crew members of a fishing boat were declared missing, and believed abducted, off Celebes Sea in Sulu on Tuesday morning, the military's Western Mindanao Command reported Wednesday.

Wesmincom spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan said military units have been already alerted to search the missing victims, including the boat's captain, the marine diesel mechanic and two crew members.

Tan said the boat made its last radio contact with a sister boat around 3 a.m. local time Tuesday, and when the latter one proceeded to the signal location at around 5 a.m. they found all crew members missing, with the VHF Radio/GPS stolen, while other belongings are intact.

Tan said the military's Joint Task Force Sulu has deployed forces "to conduct search" while the Naval Task Group Sulu "was instructed to initiate appropriate action," referring to interdiction operations.

The four victims were possibly abducted, he added. Asked if terrorist group Abu Sayyaf was behind the feared kidnapping, the official said: "As to the group that took them, we are still validating."

The Abu Sayyaf is still keeping around 20 foreign and Filipino kidnap victims in Sulu. The military has intensified its operations against the group in July in line with President Duterte's thrust to end the Abu Sayyaf problem during his term.
Turkish soldiers were killed and dozens more wounded on December 17 in a suicide car bombing blamed on Kurdish militants targeting off-duty conscripts, the latest in a string of attacks to rock Turkey in recent months. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

ANKARA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Four Turkish soldiers were killed and another 15 were wounded Wednesday during clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants in Northern Syria's al-Bab region, Turkish General Staff stated.

Turkish General Staff also said 15 soldiers are being treated at hospitals inside Turkey and one of the wounded soldiers was in critical condition, adding that clashes with militants in the region were ongoing.

The Turkish military said that over 40 IS terrorists were "neutralized" and 24 IS positions were also hit by Turkish warplanes in the Al-Bab area.

Turkish military often used the word "neutralized" to imply the terrorists in question were captured, heavily wounded or killed.

On Aug. 24, the Turkish Armed Forces launched the Euphrates Shield Operation against both IS and the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the military wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

Turkey regards the YPG and the PYD as terrorist organizations due to their links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
JERUSALEM, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Israel Prison Service said that former president Moshe Kastav would be released on parole soon on Wednesday, after serving five of his seven-year sentence for rape and other sexual offenses.
TOKYO, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Over half of U.S. military northern training area in southern Japan's Okinawa will be returned to Japanese control on Thursday, announced Japan and the United States on Wednesday.

The U.S. will return to Japan about 4,000 hectares of land of the U.S. military training area on Okinawa's main island, announced Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy.

Kennedy said the land return "demonstrates our continuing commitment to reducing our impact on the citizens of Okinawa while maintaining our deterrence commitment to the entire nation of Japan."

The handover of about 4,000 hectares at the site was agreed by Japan and the United States in 1996, with a prerequisite of the relocation of helipads in the training area. The construction of new helipads was completed in mid-December.

The land return came as the U.S. military in Japan resumed use of its Osprey planes Monday afternoon, less than a week since a major accident occurred off Okinawa.

Worried about safety, local people, however, want the U.S. aircrafts to keep grounded, while the local government has urged the central government to forbid the resumption of Osprey flight operations.

Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga decided to absent himself from Thursday's land return ceremony and to attend a citizens' rally on Thursday to protest against central government's decision on the Osprey issue.

The Japanese and U.S. governments have been seeking to move the Futenma base from Ginowan to the less-populated Henoko coastal area of Nago.

However, the people of Okinawa, on safety concerns, have been demanding the Futenma base to be relocated outside the prefecture.
BRUSSELS, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- NATO has approved about 390 million U.S. dollars in a trust fund implementation plan to support the Afghan force, the organization said in a press release on Wednesday.

The plan will fund more than 37 projects for the Afghan army, including salaries and incentive pay, infrastructure sustainment, logistic sustainment and more. The funding also covers medical supplies and training.

Welcoming the adoption of the 2017 Afghan national army trust fund implementation plan last week, Marion Aubry, spokesperson for the NATO senior civilian representative, said, "This highlights the continued commitment of NATO allies and partners to support the financial sustainment of the Afghan national defense and security forces."

At Warsaw summit in July, NATO allies decided to continue the resolute support mission in Afghanistan beyond 2016 and confirmed funding for Afghan forces until 2020.
SARAJEVO, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Denis Zvizdic and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif agreed here on Wednesday to strengthen bilateral ties in various fields.

At a joint press conference after their meeting, Zvizdic said that it was high time that the two countries should take their bilateral terms to a new high.

BiH and Pakistan have identified several sectors as a significant potential of economic cooperation, namely agriculture, textile and military industry, according to Zvizdic.

Nawaz Sharif said his meeting with Zvizdic was very productive and focused on entire spectrum of bilateral relations, as well as further cooperation in trade, investment, defence, culture and education.

He expressed satisfaction with that the two sides agreed to sign an agreement for abolition of visas for holders of diplomatic and official passports.

Nawaz Sharif arrived here on Tuesday to start a three-day official visit to BiH.
KATHMANDU, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's apex body of manufacturing and service industries, Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), is organizing the "Second Nepal Infrastructure Summit 2017" to be held on February 19-20 next year in Kathmandu.

The CNI said on Wednesday that it was going to organize the event in coordination with Nepalese government and Youth Community for Nepalese Contractors.

CNI President Hari Bhakta Sharma said that investors, consulting service providers, builders, experts, government agencies, diplomats, lawmakers and media from various countries including Nepal, China and India will take part in the event.

According to the organizer, the summit is aimed at facilitating discourse on indispensability of private sector in infrastructure development.

"The primary objective of the summit is to attract large scale private investment in areas of Nepal's core needs, forge stronger networks and alliances in the region for seamless connectivity, and raise awareness on why investment in infrastructure is a must," said the CNI.

The summit will showcase the project bank developed by Investment Board Nepal (IBN) comprising around 50 viable infrastructure projects and investment would be sought in those projects.

The organizer has also planned to collect various infrastructure ideas from different sectors of the communities to come up with a creative and an innovative ideas to solve the infrastructure related problems in the areas of transportation, irrigation, energy, housing, digital sectors.

The CNI organized the first infrastructure summit in November 2014.
DUBAI, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said Wednesday it welcomed the move by the Gulf Arab sheikhdom of Dubai to share its experience in implementing smart-city objectives.

ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao said in an e-mailed statement that "the lessons learned in Dubai's efforts to evolve into a smart sustainable city will be of great value to other cities, because they encourage local smart-city innovation."

As a special agency and affiliation of the United Nations, the ITU handles issues the global information and communication technologies.

Dubai was the world's first city to join ITU's Key Performance Indicators (KPI) pilot project in 2015, and then followed by cities of other countries, including China's Wuxi. The pilot project will help ITU refine the indicators with data and insights that each city gathered from their application.

Collaborating with private sector and government partners, Smart Dubai charged with facilitating Dubai's citywide smart transformation, to empower, deliver and promote an efficient, seamless, safe and impactful city experience for residents and visitors.

Residents of the emirate and visitors can pay parking tickets through applications on their smartphone and they can pass the border at international airports with a special chipcard instead of their passports.

"Dubai must be commended for its efforts to share its smart-city experience with the international community," said Chaesub Lee, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau.

ITU currently has a membership of 193 countries and almost 800 private-sector entities and academic institutions, according to its website.
MOGADISHU, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were killed and two others injured after fighting between locals and Al-Shabaab militants near Kismayo town in lower Jubba region, southern Somalia, officials said Wednesday.

Deputy Governor of Kismayo town, Abdullahi Mohamed told reporters that an unidentified number of Al-Shabaab fighters were killed during the confrontation.

"Al-Shabaab terrorists killed three local pastoralists and wounded two others after facing resistance from the locals northwest of Kismayo, there are casualties on terrorist side, but we did not gather the information," Mohamed said.

He said Jubbaland State forces are backing the locals in the fight against Al-Shabaab in the region and there is possible war with terrorists any time.

"Our forces went to the area to back the locals and fight Al-Shabaab militants who are taking illegal taxes (Zakawat) from residents who are in a very hard situation at the moment", the deputy governor added.

This is the second clash between Al-Shabaab militants and locals in lower Jubba region in southern Somalia since start of the week.
ALEPPO, Syria, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Five buses carrying rebels and their families left the last remaining rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo city in northern Syrian on Wednesday, state TV reported.

The buses, part of 60 buses that entered on Tuesday, left toward the rebel-held town of Rashidien in the western countryside of Aleppo, the report said.

The 60 buses entered the remaining rebel-held areas in Aleppo on Tuesday to evacuate the last batch of rebels and their families from the city.

The evacuation is part of a deal concluded recently between Russia and Turkey. It included the evacuation of civilians from the Shiite towns of Kafraya and Foa, which are besieged by the rebels in the northwestern province of Idlib.

Nearly 15,000 rebels and their families have so far been evacuated from eastern Aleppo amid ongoing operation to evacuate the rest.

The evacuation of the rebels from Aleppo and the civilians from the Shiite towns is designed to take place simultaneously, which explained the delay in the evacuation process.

The move comes as the Syrian military forces and allied fighters have captured 99 percent of eastern Aleppo, as part of a wide-scale offensive to drive out the militants from the city completely.

With the last evacuation of the rebels from eastern Aleppo, the Syrian army will be on control of the entire city, a victory seen as a new chapter of history, as President Bashar al-Assad recently said.
TIRANA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Albanian authorities on Wednesday signed an agreement with representatives of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) AG in order to renegotiate the agreement on the natural gas TAP project, the Albanian ministry of energy said in a press release.

According to the ministry, the reason why the Albanian authorities requested the renegotiation was to guarantee Albania has similar benefits as those enjoyed by the other countries involved in the TAP project, namely Greece and Italy.

Albanian Energy and Industry Minister Damian Gjiknuri and Ian Bradshaw, managing director at Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG, signed the revised agreement on Albania's benefits from the project, with the commitment to the development of the gas market and provision of maintenance services for TAP pipeline system in the Albanian territory, the press release said.

As the ministry explained, the agreement will bring numerous direct benefits to Albania, and it will be subject to legal procedures and then be approved by the government and the parliament here.

The review of the fiscal stability period grants Albania the right to receive higher profit tax, which during the operational lifetime of the project is estimated to create positive effect of around 60 million euros (63 million U.S. dollars), the ministry said.

Albania also benefits from doubled funds for training in the natural gas sector from 350,000 to 700,000 euros.

TAP is seen as a project that will play a major role in developing Albania's energy market and facilitating the governments objective of becoming a gas hub in the Western Balkan region. (1 euro = 1.04 U.S. dollars)
SKOPJE, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Macedonia's Administrative Court decided on Wednesday to allow a re-run of the general election in one polling station.

The court said that it accepted the complaint filed by the main opposition party SDSM (Macedonian Social Democratic Union), which requested a re-voting in a poll center in the commune of Tearce in northwestern Tetovos region due to irregularities occurred during the Dec. 11 election.

The re-voting could alter the results, as the gap between the two main parties, the ruling party VMRO-DPMNE and opposition party SDSM, is very slim.

Data published by the State Elections Commission (SEC) show that VMRO-DPMNE won four parliamentarian seats in this constituency, while SDSM garnered 3.

So if SDSM wins another seat in this constituency, the general result of the elections would change.

VMRO-DPMNE declared Tuesday night that it would not participate in the re-voting process.

According to VMRO-DPMNE led by Nikola Gruevski, the decision to hold a re-voting in Tearce was an attempt to take away the victory that his party got in the Dec. 11 elections.

Spokesperson of VMRO-DPMNE considered the ruling of Administrative Court as a decision based on political motives.

VMRO-DPMNE has said clearly that it would not recognize the result of the re-voting to be held on Sunday.

Actually, parties of SDSM and BESA filed a total of 16 complaints to the SEC, which turned down 15 of them.

According to preliminary results, VMRO-DPMNE won 51 seats, while SDSM got 49 seats.
Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav (L), 71, is accompanied by his wife Gila (C-R), as he leaves prison on December 21, 2016 in Ramla. (AFP/Xinhua)

JERUSALEM, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Israel's former president, Moshe Katsav, was freed on parole on Wednesday afternoon, after serving five of his seven-year sentence for rape and other sexual offenses.

Live television and radio broadcasts showed Katsav walking out of the Maasiyahu Prison, east of Tel Aviv, where about a dozen of family members and supporters were waiting for him. He hugged his wife, Gila, and entered a car that took him to his home in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi.

His release came about an hour after the State Attorney Shai Nitzan said that the prosecution would not appeal the Parole Committee's decision to grant Katsav an early release.

Under the terms of his parole, Katsav would have to join a prison service rehabilitation program. He would also have to stay under house arrest every night, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., until the end of his parole period.

The committee also imposed restrictions on speaking to the media and forbid him to hold a job position in which he will have woman subordinates.

Katsav, 71, was born in Iran and became the first president who was born in a Muslim country. He served as Israel's seventh president between 2000 and 2007. In 1977, at the age of 30, he first became a parliament member with the right-wing Likud party.

In November 2011, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed his conviction on two counts of rape of a former employee during his term as a tourism minister in the 1990s, indecent sexual assaults and sexual harassment of two other women while being president, and obstruction of justice.
BRUSSELS, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The European Police Office (Europol) on Wednesday signed an agreement with EURid, the European Commission-appointed internet registry manager, to enhance internet security cooperation.

According an Europol press release, the cooperation aims to engage in joint efforts related to fighting cybercrime.

EURid is the registry manager of the .eu domains upon appointment of the European Commission in 2003, responsible for the verification of registrars.

EURid also developed a working partnership with Belgian law enforcement to fight cybercrime, the statement added.
TALLINN, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Estonia aims to maintain European Union (EU) unity during negotiations of Britain's exit from the EU, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid said according to media reports on Wednesday.

Kaljulaid maintained that EU unity represents the biggest challenge, noting: "It is important for negotiations to end successfully and for the European Union to remain united."

Her comments came after Estonian officials met with European Commission's chief negotiator for Brexit Michel Barnier, Estonian Public Broadcasting reported.

Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas said free movement of people, services, products and capital of the European single market were not up for negotiation.

Barnier, who also met Estonian Minister of Finance Sven Sester, is touring every EU member state to introduce his team and the upcoming process, as well as ask about the member state's wishes in the matter.

Brexit negotiations will be launched once Britain invokes Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon by formally notifying the EU of its intent to leave.
MOSCOW, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. policy is unlikely to undergo instant and radical changes under the new administration of Donald Trump, the Kremlin said Wednesday.

"We are not expecting to solve all the problems. We are not expecting America to suddenly decide not to expand NATO or to bring NATO military infrastructure closer to our borders," Russian media quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying in an interview with the Mir TV channel.

He added that Moscow also did not expect Washington to suddenly lift economic sanctions imposed on Russia over its annexation of Crimea and alleged involvement in the conflict in Ukraine.

However, Peskov added that Trump's statements about the necessity to jointly fight terrorism was in line with Moscow's position.

Peskov said the dialogue between Moscow and Washington's outgoing administration of Barack Obama was minimal, practically "frozen at all levels."

The United States on Tuesday slapped additional sanctions on eight more entities and seven Russian citizens it said were linked to the conflict in Ukraine.
VIENTIANE, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Laos Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith has sent a message to the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany to extend the Lao government's condolences over the tragic event that occurred in Berlin, Germany on Monday.

"We have learned with deep sorrow about the tragedy that occurred at the Christmas market in the heart of Berlin, Germany on Dec. 19, which killed many victims and injured others. We strongly condemn such acts of terror perpetrated against Germany," state-run Vientiane Times on Wednesday quoted Thongloun as saying in the massage.

A truck ploughed into a Christmas market in central Berlin Monday evening, killing at least 12 and injuring several dozens of people.

On his own behalf and representing the Lao government and people, the prime minister expressed his deep condolences and sympathy to the government and people of Germany as well as the bereaved families affected by the barbaric act.

Meanwhile, Lao Minister of Foreign Affairs Saleumxay Kommasith also sent a message to his Russian counterpart to extend condolences over the assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov.

"I have learned with the deepest sadness of the barbaric assassination of His Excellency Ambassador Andrei Karlov on Dec. 19, 2016, while attending the opening of a photo exhibition in Ankara," Saleumxay said in the message.

In the message, Saleumxay noted the government's strong condemnation of such terrorist acts against Russian diplomats.

"On behalf of the Lao government and people, and on my own behalf, I would like to convey our profound condolences and sympathy through Your Excellency to the Russian government and people as well as the bereaved family," the foreign minister added in the message.

The Russian ambassador was shot dead by an off-duty Turkish policeman at an art exhibition in Ankara late Monday evening.
HO CHI MINH CITY, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said here on Wednesday that Cambodia always attaches importance to reinforcing cooperation and friendship with Vietnam, including Ho Chi Minh City.

He made the statement when meeting with Secretary of the municipal Party Committee Dinh La Thang, Vietnam News Agency reported.

For his part, Thang described the prime minister's visit to Vietnam as a demonstration of the countries' sound neighborliness and also a chance to expand bilateral partnerships, including collaboration between Ho Chi Minh City and Cambodia.

Thang asked the Cambodian prime minister to continue providing favorable conditions for Vietnamese businesses, including those from the city, to do economic, trade, cultural and tourism activities.

Also on Wednesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen met with over 200 former Vietnamese officers and soldiers who voluntarily performed international duties in Cambodia.
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Dec. 21Xinhua) -- Brunei government has been planning to establish a special economic zone in order to attract more foreign direct investments (FDIs), a senior financial official told Xinhua Wednesday afternoon.

Awang Yusof, Managing Director of Brunei's central bank, Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam (AMBD), said that Brunei has been providing favorite policies to foreign investors, including tax deductions and exemptions for government recognized "pioneer industry companies," which can last 11 years or even longer.

As for a question on whether Brunei will set up a special zone like China's Shenzhen with comprehensive incentives for FDIs, Awang Yusof gave a confirmative answer.

"I think they have that special economic zone in the plan actually. I don't know the location, but I think they have identified one zone, probably in Muara or in the city," he said.

Brunei's Muara area has witnessed a number of Chinese companies coming into business in the country, including several state-owned Chinese engineer companies and a multi-billion U.S dollars refinery and petrochemical plant project launched by Zhejiang Hengyi, which is also the single biggest Chinese investment here so far.

"We must have that(special economic zone), you know, otherwise we can't turn Muara port into international shipping harbor," Awang Yusof added.

With a strategic geographic position, Brunei is rich in oil and gas resources. In recent years, the Brunei government is actively diversifying its economy and has introduced a number of measures to attract foreign investments, which have played a very important role in the Brunei's economy, bringing job opportunities and dynamism to the country.
FRANKFURT, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- It is more important for investment to bring mutually beneficial results for both parties, rather than where an investor comes from, Gordon Riske, Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Kion Group, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The head of the leading industrial trucks manufacturer and supply chain solutions firm, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, spoke highly of Kion's Chinese shareholder Weichai Power as an "anchor investor" since 2012.

IMPORTANT ACQUISITION

"The faith that Weichai has in Kion's management team is demonstrated by the fact that it has gradually increased its shareholding from 25 percent to its current level of around 43 percent," Riske told Xinhua.

In fact, Kion has benefited from Weichai Power's support in its recent acquisition of the Luxembourg-headquartered automation and supply chain optimization company Dematic. Kion thus extended its product portfolio ranging from forklift trucks to fully automated material handling systems.

"The group is therefore ideally placed to tap into the attractive and profitable growth that is being driven by mega trends such as Industry 4.0, digitalization and e-commerce," Riske said, adding these ideas were advancing in China too."

PRESENCE IN CHINA

Kion has been present in China for over 20 years through its brand company Linde with more than 3,000 local employees. "China is part of the DNA of the Kion Group," said the CEO.

Riske said the partnership improved access to the Chinese market, "the biggest individual market for our products anywhere in the world."

The firm has begun installing Weichai engines into the trucks of its Chinese brand company Baoli.

WIN-WIN PARTNERSHIP

The partnership with Weichai has been very positive and German politicians at both national and regional level have been very interested and supportive of the process, Riske said.

After the announcement of Weichai's investment in Kion, the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Bavaria, called the partnership a win-win for both parties.

"It is generally not important where an investor comes from. The key question is whether the investment brings mutually beneficial results for both parties, as is the case with the partnership between Weichai Power and Kion," Riske said.
GAZA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Hamas and Fatah Party lawmakers said Wednesday that a recent decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to strip five parliament members of their immunity was "unlawful and inconsistent with the constitution."

Lifting the parliamentary immunity requires the consent of two thirds of parliament members and should come after a series of legislative measures, according to a statement issued after a joint session in Gaza.

The session was attended by Hamas parliamentarians for the first time since 2007.

The Palestinian law "guarantees special immunity for parliament members that does not expire after they leave the parliament," the statement said.

The lawmakers deplored Abbas' decision, saying it was a blatant intervention in the legislative authority.

Abbas decided on Dec. 12 to lift the parliamentary immunity from five Fatah members of parliament, according to a statement by Legal Advisor Hasan Al-Oury.

Prior to the decision, the Palestinian Constitutional Court issued a decision allowing Abbas to lift parliamentary immunity in a controversial move that spurred criticism by several rights groups.

The Palestinian Legislative Council was elected in 2006, but its work stopped since 2007 after the Islamic Hamas movement violently took control of the Gaza Strip.
YEREVAN, December 21 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hasan Rouhani flew into Yerevan on Wednesday at the invitation of his Armenian counterpart to pursue furhter cooperation, Armenian president's press office announced.

The visit comes at an interesting moment when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Armenia's archenemy Azerbaijan last week.

Iran has largely held a neutral position in Armenia's longstanding border dispute with Azerbaijan and has developed friendly relations with both countries.

During President Rouhani's visit, Armenia and Iran signed a number of cooperation agreements in areas of medicine, culture, economy and others, aiming at further deepening their economic ties following the lifting of international sanctions against Iran, the press office said in a statement.

Since 2012, with the help of the Asian Development Bank, Armenia has built a 556 km high-speed road stretching from its border with Iran to the northern border with Georgia. Armenian government hopes the route will become a transit path for cargo from Iran to the Black Sea ports of Georgia.

The overall trade turnover between the two countries in 2015 was 280 million U.S. dollars. Despite having just a 42-km-long border with Iran, Armenia has maintained warm relations with Tehran since its independence in 1991.
KIEV, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine on Wednesday has returned Italy 17 paintings, which were stolen by armed robbers from the Castelvecchio museum in Verona last year, the Ukrainian presidential press service said in a statement.

The paintings with a combined estimated value of 16.7 million U.S. dollars were found by Ukrainian border guards in May this year hidden in plastic bags near the Ukraine-Moldova border.

The masterpieces, which include works by Rubens, Bellini, Pisanello, Tintoretto and other famous European artists, were handed over by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini during a ceremony in Kiev.

While addressing the ceremony, Poroshenko praised Ukrainian officers for their work in recovering the paintings.

"The efficient cooperation of the prosecution, investigation, border guards and other Ukrainian law enforcement officers has enabled us not only to eliminate the channel to smuggle art values, but also to find these priceless works of art and return them to our Italian friends," Poroshenko said.

For his part, Franceschini thanked the Ukrainian authorities for their efforts to bring back the stolen paintings to Italy.

"We had a strong fear that we will never return these extraordinary masterpieces," Franceschini said.

Three armed thieves have stolen the paintings from the Castelvecchio in November 2015, when the museum was closed to public. The Italian police have arrested 12 suspects in connection with the heist.
MOMBASA, Kenya, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan authorities said Wednesday that they are investigating Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) officials over latest seizure of ivory worth 1.97 million U.S. dollars.

A multiagency team has launched a probe to apprehend custom officials and clearing agents who might have colluded to sneak out the two containers in October.

KRA Commissioner Rashid Ali told journalists that the two containers had a total of 334 pieces of ivory, weighing 1.09 tonnes, stashed in wooden logs destined for Colombia.

"We have launched investigation with hope of arresting the mastermind of ivory at the port. It's very clear that our officials might have colluded with poachers to sneak out the containers," Ali said.

The containers were intercepted in Singapore and reshipped back to the country.

"It's a sad day to see that quite a number of animals are killed and transported. It's a wipeout of number of elephants. We are going to continue to fight this menace," said KRA Commissioner David Yego.

Sources indicate that the same clearing agent was behind the smuggling of 12 ivory-concealing containers that were seized in Vietnam early November after also being spirited away from the port of Mombasa.

Conservationists say poaching has destroyed large numbers of African elephants, prompting experts to warn the species could be wiped out within decades.
Zebras are seen at the world's famous Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, on Nov. 29, 2016. (Xinhua/Pan Siwei)

NAIROBI, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to intensify marketing efforts to woo more Chinese visitors into the country, the tourism promotion agency has said.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) Director of Marketing Jacinta Nzioka-Mbithi told Xinhua on Wednesdaythat the East African nation has just completed phase one of marketing campaign in China.

"We are working with the main tour operators of China in a joint tour promotion and the industry has reported a 40 percent increase in Chinese tourists visiting Kenya," Nzioka-Mbithi said.

"We want to focus our efforts in China because it is a very resilient market compared to traditional source markets of North America and Europe," she said.

Nzioka-Mbithi noted that China is a big market and has already been identified by the World Tourism Organization for their high spending tourists. "We are positioning Kenya so that we get a share of Chinese tourists spending," she added.

Government data also indicated that between January and October, 41,400 Chinese tourists visited Kenya, up from 25,300 in a similar period last year.

Last year, 1.18 million tourists globally visited the East African nation.

Nzioka-Mbithi said China is now the fifth largest source of tourists in Kenya and amongst the fastest growing markets.

The KTB said Chinese tourists can play a big role in developing a robust tourism industry which is very vulnerable to global economic conditions.

Currently, Kenya Airways and China Southern Airlines offer direct fights between the two countries.
LUSAKA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Zambia Red Cross Society said Wednesday that it had deployed 350 volunteers and staff at border entry points with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in readiness for an influx of refugees.

Tensions are high in DRC following the refusal of President Joseph Kabila to step down after his term expired on Monday midnight. Protests have erupted in major cities, and about 20 people were reportedly killed in Kinshasa, the country's capital.

Bruce Mulenga, public relations manager of the humanitarian organization, said the volunteers have been deployed in eight identified entry points along the border to render assistance to the refugees.

He said the agency has secured emergency response materials such as tents, blankets, mosquito nets and food for those in need at the time of entry and before they are taken to refugee camps.

According to him, the humanitarian organization has provided assistance to over 1,000 refugees from DRC in recent weeks, adding that the number of refugees in need of humanitarian assistance was likely to increase due to increased political instability in that country.
ATHENS, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The lifting of capital controls in Greece may release 1 billion euro ( 1.04 billion U.S. dollars) investments within six months, "Kathimerini" (Daily) newspaper cited a study by the National Bank of Greece (NBG) on Wednesday.

Experts with the bank say in the study that the controls are harming the ailing economy, as the Greek government was still negotiating with the debt-ridden country's international lenders the terms of the third bailout.

According to the study, which sampled 1,200 medium size businesses, about one in every three Greek companies has put aside plans for investments during 2016 due to the capital controls.

And the rate of those who believe they will spend more than a year to return to normality has almost tripled from 6 percent at the end of 2015 to 17 percent today.

The study warns that the continuation of the capital controls will have an impact on the companies' structural operations, and suggests the lifting of the controls soon to avert structural problems in particular for the small size ones, which appear to have exhausted their reserves.

The capital controls were imposed in the summer of 2015, when Greek government came to the end of its bailout extension period without having come to an agreement on a further extension with its creditors.

The controls were introduced to prevent the collapse of the banking system from the hit of increasing outflow of capital amid concern over a rift with creditors that could lead Greece to disorderly default and Grexit.

As a result, Greek banks were forcibly closed for about 20 days and depositors were not allowed to withdraw cash more than 60 euros with one card a day.

Though the controls have gradually been eased since then, they are still affecting the operation of enterprises.
RAMALLAH, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Palestinians are pushing with sizable effort at the UN Security Council (UNSC) against Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank by year end, Palestinian officials said on Wednesday.

Riad Mansour, the Palestinian representative at the UN, told the Palestinian official radio station the Palestinian delegation is restlessly working with all parties at the UNSC to finish the draft resolution and submit it before the end of 2016.

Mansour added that there is nearly a consensus by UNSC that settlement activity is illegal and a hinder to the peace track, underlining that this is the right time to pass this resolution before the membership of closely friendly states expires.

The issue of settlements is considered one of the most complicates issues of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and a reason for freezing peace talks between the two sides.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Wednesday that the Palestinian side is determined to submit the resolution for voting before the end of the year.

"We are working with all our efforts to finalize that," said Malki in radio statements, hoping to get support from Arab states to finalize this mission.

He explained that "we are not seeking nine votes only, but for the 15 votes and this is why we are talking to permanent members, including Britain and the U.S., about that."

The top Palestinian diplomat said "we requested from Britain and the U.S. to give their comments on the draft resolution that was previously distributed in order to see if it was possible to include their comments, and in that case, we might get the votes of 15 member states in favor of the resolution."

He added that the Palestinians are trying to avoid the veto as much as possible.

The Arab Quartet convened in Cairo last Monday and formed a new three-way committee to contact UNSC member states to know their final responses regarding the draft resolution against Israeli settlements.

The committee is composed of Egypt, the current Arab member state at the UNSC, Tunis, the chair of the Arab group at the UN in New York, and Palestine.

The draft resolution calls for "stopping all settlement activity immediately and honor full legal obligations, and avoiding violence, terrorism, destruction and provocations by settlements, especially against Palestinian civilians and their property."

It also calls for punishment of "perpetrators committing illegal actions" and for both parties to work in line with international law and former obligations to maintain calm and self-restraint, and cessation of provocative action, threat and incitement rhetoric with the aim of putting down tensions."

In order for the resolution to pass, at least nine member states must vote in favor, provided none of the permanent members states uses the veto.

Political Science lecturer at Al-Quds University Ahmad Rafiq Awad said the Palestinian venture in that direction at this time is required because the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has nothing to lose.

Awad told Xinhua that in light if the continuation of the Israeli government's settlement activity and the impasse in the peace process, the PNA has nothing to do or lose except complain to the UNSC, especially that it is part of its political program and strategy to take diplomatic and political confrontation with Israel.

The West Bank-based scientist anticipated that the current American administration, which has previously stood by Israeli settlement activity, would strike the Israeli policy in a sudden move, highlighting the possibility of succeeding in convincing big states like Britain and France to vote in favor or at least abstain.

In December 2014, an Arab backed draft resolution calling for the end of the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories by 2017 failed to get the nine necessary votes to pass.

The resolution back then called for a negotiated peace settlement based on the two-state solution and the 1967 border, honoring security agreements and Jerusalem as a capital for both states.

It also called for halting any unilateral moves that would undermine the two-state solution, including settlement construction.
TEHRAN, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Iran and Armenia on Wednesday signed five memorandums of understanding (MoU) for cooperation in tourism, museum, sports, emergencies and border security, official IRNA news agency reported.

The documents were signed on the sidelines of a meeting of the presidents of two countries in Armenia's capital of Yerevan.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday started his tour to three Caucasian and central Asian states, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

A high-ranking political and economic delegation is accompanying Rouhani to discuss ways of improving mutual relations.

Ties with the three countries are highly important to Iran in the light of mutually-beneficial economic potentials, Rouhani said upon his departure.
ABUJA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- A recent communal clash between local herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria's northeastern state of Taraba has led to 20 deaths and displacement of 10,000 others, an official said Wednesday.

Sa'ad Bello, coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency in the northeast region, told reporters the displaced persons were mostly women and children.

The clash broke out earlier this week when local herdsmen reportedly launched reprisal attack on farmers in Dan-Anacha village in Gassol district of Taraba. It was alleged the farmers had killed some shepherds on their farmlands.

Several houses and farms worth thousands of U.S. dollars were said to have been set ablaze by the attackers.

Bello said the displaced persons were relocated to four camps within the state.

According to him, the number of injured persons had not been ascertained.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) holds talks with Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 19, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling)

OSLO/BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- China and Norway on Monday decided to normalize their relations after six frozen years, ushering in a new era for the development of bilateral ties.

The thaw of relations, as many observers expected, would inject new impetus into bilateral practical cooperation and global trade in general, as the two sides have agreed to resume free trade negotiations and to promote trade and investment.

Commenting on the normalization of ties with China, Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg said Monday that opportunities are opening up for her country's cooperation with China.

"On the basis of a joint declaration we establish, from today, a full normalization of our political and diplomatic relations with China," Solberg said in a speech to the Storting, Norway's national parliament.

"Norway has had no political contact with China since 2010. This has been challenging for us in many international contexts and in many individual cases. It has also been challenging for Norwegian industry," she said.

China-Norway relations deteriorated since the Oslo-based Nobel Committee conferred the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on convicted Chinese criminal Liu Xiaobo. Liu was sentenced to 11 years in jail on Dec. 25, 2009, after a court in Beijing convicted him of engaging in activities designed to overthrow the government.

"The fact that we now have been able to normalize our relationship is the result of a long and painstaking diplomatic work at many levels to restore confidence between our two countries," Solberg said in the speech.

The Norwegian prime minister noted that the two countries have a long common history and Norway was one of the first countries that recognized the People's Republic of China. "We have built a broad and close cooperation in almost all areas for more than 50 years," she said.

"We now look forward, on the opportunities that are opening up for cooperation with China. China is the world's second largest economy and a permanent member of the UN Security Council. It is important for us to have a cooperation on many international issues that we are concerned about. From climate and sustainability goals to many other topics on the international agenda," Solberg said.

According to the statement issued in Beijing earlier on Monday, the Norwegian government reiterates its commitment to the one-China policy, fully respects China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and attaches high importance to China's core interests and major concerns.

"China and Norway recognize that our two countries share broad common interests and have great potential for increased cooperation in many important fields," the statement said.

In his meeting with visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende on Monday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the two countries' foreign ministers had candid and in-depth talks, and reached an agreement on the normalization of bilateral ties.

China hopes to work together with Norway to open a new chapter in bilateral ties, and push forward a sustained, healthy and stable relationship, Li said.

China appreciates the new Norwegian government's adherence to the one-China policy and its wish to improve and develop ties with China, said the premier.

The two economies are highly compatible, Li said, adding China is ready to negotiate with Norway on an FTA, to send out a clear signal of trade and investment liberalization.

Brende, in his turn, said the normalization of relations is of historic significance, and has sent a positive message to the international community.

Norway hopes to take the opportunity of normalization of ties with China to enhance high-level exchanges, boost bilateral FTA negotiation and expand win-win cooperation in such areas as investment, hydropower, and offshore oil and gas exploitation, Brende said.

"The new Norwegian government does not want to bear the burden of history. It took a more pragmatic approach and was eager to improve relations with China," said Cui Hongjian, director of the department of European studies at the China Institute of International Studies.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump talks with the media at Mar-a-Lago estate where Trump attends meetings, in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., December 21, 2016. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to destroy radical terror group Islamic State (IS) after an attack this week in Germany that left a dozen civilians dead. But while he may go harder against the terror group than the current administration, experts said such a plan could risk boosting civilian casualties.

Earlier this week a truck slammed into a group of civilians at a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 and injuring 50. While police in Germany are still investigating, Trump said he believes the attack was perpetrated by radical Islamist terrorists.

"[Islamic State] and other Islamist terrorists continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad," Trump said in a statement on Monday. "These terrorists and their regional and worldwide networks must be eradicated from the face of the earth."

President Barack Obama's administration has been blasted for what critics describe as using kid gloves to handle the radical terrorist organization, as the U.S.-led coalition has been bombing the radicals for two years and has not yet defeated the militants. Critics say there are not enough bombing raids, and that there are too many rules of engagement that make the bombing less effective than it could be.

Experts said that while Trump may attack IS harder than the administration of President Barack Obama, it may lead to more civilian casualties.

"I expect Trump to be very tough on (IS) and unleash the full power of the American military on it. He can bomb more heavily and not worry about civilian harm," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

"If Muslims believe the United States is engaging in a war on Islam, it will provoke additional terrorist attacks in various places around the world," West said.

"Obama was more restrained in fighting (IS) because he did not want to hurt civilians and did not want to provoke Muslims around the world. Trump has to be careful that his escalation against ISIS doesn't create new problems down the road," he said.

Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua that Trump seems to suggest a harder push against IS.

The push will be far more muscular than the Obama Administration's in terms of a willingness to increase the tempo of airstrikes, relax rules of engagement that slow targeting authorization for commanders, and emphasize the importance of defeating IS in Syria, he said.

Given the early indications that the Berlin attack may have been carried out by a Muslim refugee, Trump will tie his proposed harsher stance on immigration, refugee resettlement, and Muslim entry into the United State to his effort on IS, as well as the domestic policy ramifications, Mahaffee said.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday urged political leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to de-escalate tensions and create an environment conducive to holding of timely elections.

Protests erupted in Congolese capital Kinshasa and elsewhere as President Joseph Kabila's mandate has expired on Dec. 19 and the country has failed to hold elections in time to choose a successor.

In a statement released by his spokesperson, Ban deplored the reported loss of life in confrontations between the security forces and protesters, stressing the need for the national security forces to exercise the utmost restraint in the maintenance of public order.

"The Secretary-General calls on all political actors, including the opposition, to exercise maximum restraint in their actions and statements and urge their supporters to refrain from violence," said the statement.

"He urges the authorities, once again, to promote and protect human rights and to uphold the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Constitution," it added.
Drilling company not paying rent

Mahabir said the drilling company had decided to use the Gulf of Paria to cold stack their rigs due to several factors including the areas stability and its proximity to a number of oil producing regions.

When these massive expensive drilling rigs are not in use the owners usually they park them up in a place where there are no hurricanes big waves tsunamis and so they can park quietly and they can get rid of most of their staff  Mahabir said.

They have decided the Gulf of Paria is the ideal place for two reasons - one it doesnt have the danger of hurricane and two it is near to a lot of oil work - Trinidad Guyana Suriname and Venezuela  he continued adding that the parking arrangement had been made with the Peoples Partnership government and renegotiated with the current government.

That arrangement has already been made negotiations have been completed several months now but government has not received or not asked for or have not gotten any of the foreign exchange from rent  he said. Mahabir said there were two issues at stake - transparency in government and the loss of a significant amount of Forex which he said could be in the range of almost US$1 million.

There is a shortage of foreign exchange and every time we get an opportunity to get foreign exchange we should seize it jump on it and we are a little surprised that this has not happened  he said.

Meanwhile former Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine confirmed that the cold stacking had been done through the Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Transport under the previous administration.

There are about nine drill ships out in the Gulf of Paria and I am told that more are coming to be parked in the Gulf of Paria well be having more and more of this type of business  Ramnarine said adding  they are not here to drill they are just here to park. In a recent article in an international business news magazine the ships were described as hightech deep-water drill ships which had been parked 12 miles off the coast of Trinidad & Tobago for several months. Meanwhile Mahabir said the forex shortage was also affecting those families who were unable to travel abroad to visit their children or siblings
Man in court for Shannons murder

A subdued Seecharan wore an orange and black t-shirt and grey jeans when he appeared before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar in the Eighth Court, where the charge that on a date unknown between December 4 and December 9, he murdered Banfield at IAM and Company was read.

Seecharan of Constantine Road, St Helena, was not called upon to enter a plea for the charge, which was laid indictably, but his attorney Larry Williams sought disclosure of evidence which he said was in the possession of the police.

Crucial to the defence, according to Williams, is alleged fingerprint evidence which he said was needed so the defence can conduct its own independent expert testing. Williams also asked that he be provided with photographs which he said were not shown to him during his visit with his client.

I have been advised that the police are in possession of a fingerprint belonging to the accused but I dont recall seeing that photograph at all, Williams said in his application for disclosure. The first time my client was in custody, fingerprints were not taken but when he was arrested the second time, on an unrelated matter for which he was not charged, fingerprints were taken and suddenly they end up with fingerprints on his third arrest, Williams said. The lawyer also asked that he be provided with full video recording retrieved from IAM and Company as opposed to the three ten-second clips he said he was shown. Seecharan was charged earlier yesterday morning, after he was arrested for a third time just before 9 pm on Monday, at his St Helena apartment. The case was adjourned to January 17 and the accused was remanded into custody.
Guardian reporter fined $20,000

Alibey was spared a jail term by Port-of- Spain Magistrate, Christine Charles, who told him that as a well qualified person academically, it was no excuse to say he relied on bad advice.

Alibey has been given until Friday to pay $5,000 and the balance of the fine by January 30.

If he fails to pay the fine, he will be sentenced to two years in prison.

He was also ordered to repay to the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) the sum of money he fraudulently recovered in VAT by March 29 or spend two years in prison if he fails to do so.

Alibeys company Agro Aggressive Organisation and Maintenance Services was reprimanded and discharged by the magistrate.

Alibey was before the court on a charge of recovering VAT although his business was not registered with the BIR.

He pleaded guilty to the charge laid by the Criminal Tax Investigation Unit of the BIR when he appeared before Charles last week.

As director of Agro Aggressive, Alibey received a contract for $832,703.50 on July 1, 2013, to carry out refurbishment and maintenance work at the Valencia Community Centre by the Ministry of Sport. The company issued an invoice in the sum of $253,000 to the Sport Ministry for payment which was approved and received on September 6, 2013.

It was later revealed that Agro Aggressive was not registered to collect VAT despite billing the Ministry $33,000 for VAT on its invoice.

Alibey was expected to register his company with the BIR when his company exceeded the vatable threshold of $200,000 and had failed to do so when he acquired the $832,730.50 contract for the work on the Valencia Community Centre.
Court to rule on its powers in contempt matter

Attorneys representing the three, who were issued subpoenas last week, yesterday raised the issue of the courts jurisdiction as well as provisions under the Constitution which permits the members of the court to refer to the High Court, any allegation of constitutional impropriety.

Presiding over yesterdays proceedings were Industrial Court president Deborah Thomas- Felix and members Larry Achong, Ramchand Lutchmedial, and Albert Aberdeen.

According to attorney Christopher Hamel-Smith, SC, who represents the Chamber and its chief executive, there are serious questions that arise on whether the court could embark on the contempt enquiry at all.

He said the court could not be prosecutor and judge in the same matter.

Also raising questions on the courts jurisdiction was Senior Counsel Fyard Hosein, who represents Mouttet.

He said the subpoena issued to his client was extra ordinary and also raised the issue of freedom of expression and self incrimination as his client was asked to furnish the court with copies of all reports, interviews, inserts, programmes, audio visual clips and CCTV footage in prints and electronic, inclusive of blogs, and commentary pertaining to a breakfast meeting held by the Chamber on November 30, under the theme The Impact of Industrial Court Judgements on your Business. Hosein asked that the jurisdiction and constitutional points be heard before the court embarks on any contempt proceedings.

The Court has to ensure that its reputation is enhanced and maintained. Let us clarify those issues first, he said. Attorneys representing the three are expected to file their applications by December 29 and their submissions by January 31. The matter has been adjourned to February 10. Senior Counsel Reginald Armour, who represents Ali, also raised the issue of the courts jurisdiction as well as the constitutional claims. He appears with Vanessa Gopaul, while Senior Counsel Elton Prescott appears for the Law Association, which has been granted permission to make submissions on the matter.

At the panel discussion hosted by the Chamber, Mouttet and Ali were critical of the court.

Mouttet blamed the Court for low productivity in the country and described the court as harsh and oppressive in its judgments, favouring workers and unions against employers while Ali called for a lobby for pro-business judges on the Industrial Court bench.

Earlier last week, the National Trade Union Centre issued a statement challenging Mouttet for his statements while head of the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM), Ancel Roget, on Wednesday, demanded a retraction. Roget said the comments by Mouttet showed a gross disrespect for the court.
More Chinese nationals detained

The management of the restaurant was advised by health officers to close down until they can address several health and safety violations. Officers of the CTU are expected to interview several Chinese nationals who were taken into custody during the search. Deputy Director of the CTU, Alana Wheeler, told Newsday that the immigrants working at the restaurants may not only be victims of poor living conditions but poor labour conditions as well.

Human trafficking is not just about sexual exploitation, human trafficking is also about labour issues, said Wheeler. For example what you would find here is that some people are being paid below minimum wage. If their sleeping or living conditions are not up to a certain standard, those are also violations and we are seeing that there are persons that live on the compound. On Monday, ten persons were detained and taken to the CTU office on Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain, after CTU officers, health inspectors, immigration officers and police officers conducted a search of Me Asia on Ariapita Avenue.
Procedural appeal

Partap had appealed his conviction and when the matter came up for hearing in October, the prosecution sought permission from the court to introduce additional evidence as it relates to field sobriety testing.

The appeal on Monday, also sought to do adduce the additional evidence.

Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) George Busby has been given until December 29 to file and serve his submissions in the procedural appeal which was adjourned to January 27.

Justices of Appeal Allan Mendonca, Prakash Moosai and Judith Jones presided over yesterdays hearing.

Partaps attorney Ravi Rajcoomar submitted that the issue was better suited for the substantive appeal.

In August 2012, then junior national security minister was charged with refusing to submit himself to the test outside the Zen Nightclub at Keate Street, Port-of -Spain. According to the evidence presented during his trial before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar, police claimed that they saw Partap drinking from a bottle of alcohol while leaving the nightclub.

They testified that Partap got into his SUV, turned on the flashing blue lights and attempted to drive away before they stopped him. Police claimed that Partap refused several requests to submit to a breathalyser test as he said he would wait to speak to then Police Commissioner Stephen Williams and his lawyer.

Partap was eventually taken to the Belmont Police Station where he had the test, which he passed, after speaking to Williams.

Partap was fired from Cabinet by then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, after he was charged. In July 2013, Ayers-Caesar found Partap guilty of the offence and fined him $5,000.

Ayers-Caesar had noted that by taking an oath of office as an MP and minister, Partap had sworn to uphold the laws of TT and had no excuse not to take the test.

It was open for him to comply and then complain. He was called upon to display a higher standard of behaviour than what was displayed in the evidence, Ayers-Caesar said as he noted that the police officers who testified against him were credible, reliable and compelling.
YTC break-in

The items were seized from inmates of the YTC during routine searches.

Scantlebury made a report to the Arouca Police Station and officers under Sergeant Joseph along with finger print experts went to the scene and secured workable prints from a window in the Superintendents office.

It is believed that entry was gained by sliding a window which allowed the intruder or intruders to gain access to the office.

The prints found on the window will be matched with those on file and police believe an arrest is imminent. Several of the dormitories which housed the inmates were searched for the stolen items but nothing was recovered up until yesterday.

Investigators believe it is an inside job.
THERE IS A GOD

This was the view of Ag Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) and Head of the Homicide Investigations Bureau Wayne Dick on the successful completion of investigations into the murder of Republic Bank employee Shannon Banfield which ended in a man being charged for her murder and taken to court yesterday.

At a press conference convened at Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain, Ag DCP Dick confirmed that Dale Seecharan, an employee of IAM & Co Limited was re-arrested and formally charged for 20-year-old Banfields murder. An autopsy showed that the young woman was smothered.

It was a very painstaking investigation that entailed alot of patience and commitment from members of the Homicide Investigations Bureau supported by members of the Special Branch, Criminal Gang and Intelligence Unit, Port-of-Spain Task Force and the Criminal Records Office, which led to the arrest of one Dale Seecharan, who was then an employee at IAM and Company Limited, located at Charlottte Street in Port-of-Spain, Ag DCP Dick stated.

Dick thanked all officers involved in the investigations, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard SC, Director at the Forensic Science Centre Arlette Lewis and a special thanks to Ishmael Ali, owner of IAM & Co and the management of Pennywise Limited for their input in the successful investigation. He alluded to an effective partnering between the Police Service and the business community which led to a successful outcome.

Banfield was found dead on a shelf in a room on the third floor of IAM & Co Ltds warehouse store on December 8, three days after she was reported missing by her family after she failed to return to their Santa Cruz home. Two men were immediately identified by police as persons of interest in the case and arrested. Both were later freed while one of them was rearrested only to be freed again.

Asked about the strength of the States case, Ag DCP Dick responded, My experience in Homicide affords me the opportunity to say to you...the case is strong. The Director of Public Prosecutions in whom I have great respect, will not in any way give directions or advice on the prosecution of someone, if the standard burden of proof required to bring a charge against a person, is not met. The top cop also denied widespread rumours that Banfields body was found eviscerated (internal organs removed). There is absolutely no truth to that claim, he said. Ag DCP Dick also rubbished rumours of skeletal remains being found in IAM & Co.

On the conduct of the investigators, Dick said: I would personally like to commend the officers in this investigation. I am pleased with the manner in which the investigators conducted their enquiries. I am pleased with the support of the executive officers of the police service and I am indeed pleased with members of the public along Charlotte Street and in other areas. Investigators ended up in Laventille...

so wherever they got information they went and pursued leads. He revealed that only an hour before yesterdays press conference, was the crime scene on the third floor of the warehouse store was handed back to IAM & Co management because, when we take charge of a scene, we are in full control of that scene until its properly explored. That entire store was properly explored, properly searched. So while it may appear as if youre going back because you didnt do (a thorough job), its not because of that. Its because its a big store and a thorough search was done. The arrest and laying of a murder charge came hours after Shannons mother Sherry Ann Lopez led a justice march on Monday evening through the streets of Port-of- Spain in Shannons honour.
Arrest warrant for mother

Magistrate Nanette Forde John did not say if bail will be granted to the 43-year-old woman when she is arrested.

The magistrate has been presiding over the case in which the stepfather who is 53, is charged for indecently assaulting his step-daughter on June 17, 2014. The allegation is that the stepfather who is from Penal, touched the childs breast. Teachers from a school where the child attends, made a complaint to police which led to the charge being laid.

The accused man has been attending the San Fernando Magistrates court and so to has the mother and child. During several hearings that were conducted, the mother had been taking the child to the courthouse. Two other women who are witnesses for the police, have also been attending. They trial is yet to start.

When the case was called on November 10, neither the accused mans wife nor his step-daughter (the virtual complainant) were in court. The two women were present and so to was the accused stepfather.

Magistrate Forde- John issued a summons for the mother to attend court to explain why she had refused to bring the child to court. The summons was served on the woman on November 26. The case was adjourned to yesterdays date.

When the case was called yesterday, the stepfather appeared along with his attorney Jeevan Andrew Rampersad.

The two women sat in court as witnesses.

Magistrate Forde-John observed that once again the mother and the virtual complainant were not present and she enquired from court prosecutor PC Cleyon Seedan, about this absence. PC Seedan said that despite the summons that was issued, the mother still refused to attend. He then asked that a warrant be issued for her arrest.

Attorney Rampersad told the magistrate that because of the continued absence of the main witness (the virtual complainant) the case against his client should be dismissed.

Magistrate Forde-John stood the case down for a few minutes.

When the matter resumed, PC Seedan told the court that the police was requesting that a warrant be issued for the arrest of the victims mother.

Woman Police Constable Cooper was then called and asked to go into the witness box. WPC Cooper took the oath and testified that she had sworn to the summons and served same to the victims mother on November 26. Magistrate Forde- John then obliged the prosecutors request and signed a bench warrant for the arrest of the victims mother.

The case was then adjourned to January 17.
9 months jail for touching girl

Security guard Ashumba Francois, 26, of Pleasantville appeared before Senior Magistrate Nanette Forde-John in the San Fernando First Court to answer the charge.

The charge alleged that on October 6, while inside the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) outlet at Library Corner in San Fernando, Estate Constable Francois, who was a customer in the fast food outlet, placed his hand under the school uniform of the child and grabbed her private parts.

The child immediately told her mother who was standing nearby trying to place a food order. A report was made to the San Fernando Police and detective constable Brent Noel began enquiries and subsequently arrested and charged Francois.

Told of the charge and how he wanted to plead, Francois said he was guilty as charged. Magistrate Forde-John then imposed the custodial sentence on the accused and ordered hard labour.
IAM & Co owner relieved

I feel much better now. It gives me a little peace of mind that the police have made an arrest. My staff, my entire family are feeling so good that the police have made an arrest. I think the whole of Trinidad is feeling a sense of relief, Ali said. He told Newsday yesterday that on account of the incident, his business and family including his grandchildren at school, have suffered. Over 100 staff were also affected.

Yesterday, he said, Ag Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Wayne Dick paid him a visit at his Trincity office and they held discussions. The keys to the Charlotte Street branch, Ali said, were returned to him but Ali added that he would not reopen this branch for the rest of this week leading up to the Christmas weekend. I have to tidy it up. Some of the workers will be scared to go back there, so we will do a little prayers for the place. We will get a priest to bless the building and then reopen, Ali said.

Asked if he had made contact with Banfields parents, Ali said he was trying to make arrangements through a priest who was at the funeral as to how he will go about meeting with Shannons relatives them. Though he reiterated that he wants to help the family, Ali admitted, I have not offered anything as yet.
Men found at sea

According to a media release,. the men were rescued at about. 9.15 am yesterday after leaving. for a fishing expedition almost 24. hours before.

Newsday understands that. Othneil Ramsey, Anderson. Smart and Christian Mitchell left. Tobago to fish. While in the water,. their vessel __ a 22-foot-long. pirogue named Ocean ONeil. began experiencing mechanical. problems and went adrift.

The men were reported missing. after they did not return to shore. and officers of the coast guard. in the Coast Guard Vessel TTS. Brighton (CG24), conducted a. search in the ocean while the Air. Guard Helicopter (AG 313) provided. air support. When the men. were found, they were examined. by a physician on the coast guard. boat and they were towed, along. with their vessel, back to Store. Bay, Tobago.

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St Croix Rd fire victim in need of a home

She presented reports from the Fire Service, the police and also from the Princes Town Regional Corporation regarding her house.

I visited the office of the MP for Princes Town, Barry Padarath and he told me that eh will help, but after six months I did not get any help whatsoever, she said.

Padarath said his office arranged for her to meet with the Social Welfare Division of the Ministry to get assistance.

As an opposition MP I have to make representation to the Ministry which I did, Padarath said, adding that the Ministry has been slow in helping and he is at their mercy with respect to assistance.

He also said that an application was being made for Self Help to assist Deonanan but up to this time nothing has been forthcoming from the Ministry. He promised to raise this matter again on behalf of the constituent with the Ministry.

Deonanan said she is a domestic worker and her sons work with local builders in Princes Town.
Make statement on David West

Speaking with Dillon on Monday opposite the new building housing the Besson Street Police Station, Seales who was not invited to the opening ceremony said there are three ministers in the Ministry of National Security and not one of them commented or defended the police service when West called them gangsters. Not only the police service was hurting from Wests statement, he claimed, but parents, grandparents, and children were also hurting.

I hope that you together with the Prime Minister make a statement in relation to Mr David Wests statement that the police are gangsters, he said. Noting that the PSWA has rejected Wests apology because the damage has already been done, Seales told Dillon, This is your ministry. Nobody said anything for over seven days. We are totally hurt. The PSWA, Seales said, was happy that police officer Ian Karty, who was brought before the courts in relation to the March 23, 2015, total policing day that the ministry should have stood up for them but did not.

Referring to the opening of the brand new facility and not being invited, Seales said, Three ministers plus the Prime Minister had not the courtesy to invite him.

My members are expected to perform there, he said. You all cannot ignore the existence of the police association who represent its men for terms and conditions of work, Seales said. Police officer who stood outside with him, he said, represented the rank and file of the police service and wanted to help, but if they are treated like the bastard child they would not be able to help.

The police continues to be the whipping boy in terms of the whole scheme of things, he said adding, Everybody talk about crime to get them into office. When they get into office, what happens after that?
Colm: Tax doesnt hurt growth

He said that in the United States from 1930 to 2012 the study noted a direct correlation between the top marginal taxrate and economic growth. In the US, as the top marginal rate grew, growth grew. That is fact, not speculation, Imbert said.

The bill approved a new taxrate for million-dollar earnings by companies and individuals, the seven percent tax on online purchases and a rise in the ceiling of Governments bond-issues from $300 million to $2 billion.

Imbert defended the online tax, denying Opposition claims of legislative gaps. He said the bill says the end-user of an item is defined in the Electronic Transaction Act, meaning the online tax will be spared from a small business or a relative who brings in an item for someone.

Its crystal clear how this Act is to be imposed. He rejected Opposition Senator Gerald Ramdeens complaint that the Government borrowed at a high interest-rate to reduce its overdraft.

If he did two minutes of research hed see the repo rate is 4.75 percent, the rate the Central Bank charges the Government on the overdraft. So once we borrow below the repo rate, we are borrowing at a lower figure than we are charged on the overdraft by the Central Bank. Imbert said the Government borrows at 4.5 and 3.8 percent, below the 4.75 percent repo rate.

He defended a net marginal rise in the Public Debt, which had initially fell from $85 billion in September 2015 to $79 billion last April, with it now up to $88 billion (due to the Governments US Roadshow to raise $7 billion).

He hit the former Peoples Partnership (PP) government for raiding $14 billion from the National Gas Company, and spending billions of dollars in savings and in credit at the Central Bank.

They bankrupted the NGC and took out money from every place they could find. He said the PP had spent $7 billion from the Government account and ran up an overdraft of $9 billion, in total spending of $16 billion. The PP regime had also borrowed $30 million, plus $400 million by State enterprises
Permanent Secretary on suspension

According to reports, the perm sec in question was informed of his suspension last week Thursday and immediately vacated his office.

It remains unclear why the perm sec was placed on suspension, however, sources revealed there was an issue which resulted in an investigation and at the end a decision was taken to have him suspended. Yesterday, news also circulated that the perm sec was also the subject of a police investigation by officers of the anti-corruption bureau.

Efforts to reach this perm sec for comment proved futile however, the line Minister who worked with the perm sec said he too was told that the public servant was indeed suspended.

The Minister said he was also informed officially that he will be getting a new permanent secretary soon.

Asked by Newsday if he was aware of why the perm sec was suspended, the Minister said he did not have a clue. Asked again if the perm secs suspension had anything to do with wrong doing in public office, the Minister said, all he knew was that there was an issue and the perm sec was no longer on duty.

The minister said he was not even aware that the perm sec was the subject of any police investigation.

Earlier this year, the perm sec reported to police that the tyres to his vehicle were slashed at the Ministry compound by two employees who were subsequently arrested and charged for the offence.
Tax can harm growth

Shrikissooon supported the Governments seven percent online tax, but said urged better administration of it. Shrikissooon called for a comprehensive plan for TTs development, to address the countrys illiquidity issues, overdraft and economic growth, rather than sporadic measures .

Im unsure whether the twiddling and tweaking of policy like this can actually deliver Trinidad and Tobago from the economic turmoil that it is in. Shrikissoon also expressed deep concern if long-term bonds under debate yesterday are used to fund mere current consumption .

Is it going to be used for Budget support? he pressed. He queried the proposed hike in the borrowing limit/ceiling from $300 million to $2 billion, saying a similar bond-issue last December for US$1 billion had signalled the use of debt-financing to raise revenues .
Law permitting backdoor acquisition of property stirs controversy in J&K

Jammu And Kashmir,National,Kashmir,Immigration/Law/Rights, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Srinagar, Dec 21 (IANS) It's a law ostensibly meant to aid the recovery of debts but could result in the back-door acquisition of property by non-Kashmiris in Jammu and Kashmir. Little wonder then that it's stirred a hot debate in the state, where only Kashmiris are permitted to acquire property.

The Jammu and Kashmir government contended in the High Court that the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act that parliament passed in 2002 wasn't applicable in the state due to its special status under Article 370 of the Constitution.

The ruling came in 2015 on a challenge to a State Bank of India decision to enforce the act to recover its dues from a defaulter. The Supreme Court overturned this last week.

What, then, is the contentious act all about?

Passed by Parliament in 2002, it states: "If borrower of financial assistance makes any default in repayment of loan or any installment and his account is classified as non-performing asset by secured creditor, then secured creditor may require before expiry of period of limitation by written notice to the borrower for repayment of due in full within 60 days by clearly stating amount due and intention for enforcement."

"Where he does not dischage dues in full within 60 days, then without intervention of any court or tribunal secured creditor may take possession (including sale, lease, assignment) of secured asset, or take over management of business of borrower or appoint manager for secured asset or without taking any of these actions may also proceed against guarantor or sell the pledged asset, if any," the act says.

State Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Abdul Haq Khan has previously clarified that in case of distress sale of assets of defaulters by financial institutions, only permanent residents of the state would be permitted to bid for and own such assets.

In legal and public circles a hot debate has since been raging over the larger implications of the apex court's decision.

"The state government should have legislated on this and passed its own act accommodating all the good things of the central act while safeguarding the special status of the state," lawyer Abdul Samad told IANS.

"The apex court decision could open the floodgates for extension of acts passed by Parliament through the judicial route bypassing the legislative powers of the state," he added.

The separatists have also criticised the apex court decision, saying that their assertion that the special status of the state existed only on paper had been proved right.

Confused over whether the larger implications of the apex court decision would benefit or harm his interests, the common man is ambiguous in his comments. "Big sharks have taken huge loans from banks and are now not paying these back," bank employee Irfan Ahmad, told IANS.

"They would definitely be opposing the Supreme Court decision, but if the decision compromises the special status of the state, then it must be appealed against," he added.

While delivering its verdict, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton Nariman also rejected the High Court's view that the state's Constitution was equal to the Constitution of India. The state's residents are "first and foremost Indian citizens", the apex court said.

"It is, therefore, wholly incorrect to describe it as being sovereign in the sense of its residents constituting a separate and distinct class in themselves. The residents of Jammu and Kashmir, we need to remind the High Court, are first and foremost citizens of India, permanent residents of the state of J&K are citizens of India, and that there is no dual citizenship as is contemplated by some other federal Constitutions in other parts of the world," the court said.

It pointed out that it was constrained to observe that in at least three places, the High Court, in its judgment, "has gone out of its way to refer to a sovereignty which does not exist".

Referring to article 370 of the Constitution, the high court division bench said: "This provision clears the constitutional relationship between people of rest of the country with the people of J&K."

"The citizens of State of Jammu and Kashmir have their own constitution and their sovereign character which cannot be challenged, altered or abridged.

"The power of Parliament to make laws in respect of State of Jammu and Kashmir is circumscribed and it can make laws for it only where permitted by State and not other side, and that too in accordance with mechanism prescribed by Article 370 of Constitution of India.

"The sovereignty of the State of J&K under the rule of Maharaja, even after signing of Instrument of Accession and in view of framing of its own Constitution, thus legally and constitutionally remained intact and untampered," the High Court had contended.

As the public and legal circles are agog with confusing opinions, the controversy is unlikely to settle down any time soon in Kashmir.

(Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in)

--IANS

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Now pay at Amul outlets with MobiKwik

Delhi,National,Technology,Business/Economy, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) Domestic mobile wallet platform MobiKwik on Wednesday tied up with Indian dairy co-operative Amul to help customers make cashless payments at its outlets.

The facility can be used at 7,000 Amul outlets and three lakh Amul multi-brand outlets and retailers across the country, the company said in a statement.

"This tie-up will help us provide remunerative and quick returns to our 3.6 millions farmers or milk producers whose livelihood depends upon the sale of milk to the Amul cooperative structure," said R.S. Sodhi, Managing Director, Amul.

With MobiKwik, 15-20 per cent of transactions at Amul stores are expected to go digital.

MobiKwik has added 150,000 retailers to its network in November and has a network reach of over 250,000 retailers in India.

MobiKwik and the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) recently teamed up to empower over 30 lakh street vendors from 25 states to use digital transactions.

--IANS

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Will never let in Dalai Lama again: Mongolia

Mongolia,Politics,Diplomacy, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Ulan Bator, Dec 21 (IANS) After inviting Beijing's wrath for hosting the Dalai Lama, Mongolia has said it will never again allow the Tibetan spiritual leader to visit the country.

Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil said the Dalai Lama's visit to Mongolia will not be allowed in the future even for religious purposes, Xinhua news agency cited a Mongolian daily as saying.

The Mongolian reaction was made on Tuesday.

Last month, the Dalai Lama, who China accuses of secessionist activities in Tibet, visited Mongolia and met Buddhist worshippers despite Beijing's strong objections.

Last week, Mongolia said China has closed a key border which affected the movements of trucks. It was seen as a tit-for-tat move by Beijing.

Mongolia had sought India's help in overcoming the economic crisis caused by the high tariff levied by Beijing on Mongolian trucks.

The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959.

--IANS

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I've had a miscarriage: Azealia Banks

United States,Cinema/Showbiz,Hollywood, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Los Angeles, Dec 21 (IANS) Rapper Azealia Banks has revealed over Facebook that she recently suffered a miscarriage.

Banks shared the news with her fans on Tuesday, reports usmagazine.com.

"So I've just had a really major life event happen and I want to talk about it because this wouldn't be an Azealia Banks page without loads of over sharing right?" Banks wrote.

"Any who, I've just had a miscarriage and am pretty taken aback by it all and really confused and in shock and guilty and a bit depressed and like a failure and very ashamed," she added.

Banks later urged her fans to share words of wisdom regarding the topic, as a way to heal.

"The self-loathing bit is a real struggle for me at the moment so share any words here. They will be greatly appreciated," she added.

Later in the afternoon, Banks, who was last linked to actor Jesse Bradford in 2015, followed up with a plea to spark a dialogue about her relatable ordeal.

"This is a women's health issue that many others may or may not be able to relate to. Please don't f**k up an opportunity for clear, open and beneficial discourse between women," she said.

When a follower suggested that she should stop revealing personal details to the public, Banks replied: "I'm fine. Obviously not every women has had a miscarriage and that coupled with the fact that my psychiatrist is a male... No one else in my family has had that and reading accounts on the web isn't enough."

--IANS

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German Chancellor Merkel visits Berlin attack site

Germany,Politics,Defence/Security,Terrorism, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Berlin, Dec 21 (IANS) German Chancellor Angela Merkel has visited the site of the terror attack that struck a Christmas market here, killing 12 persons.

The head of government, during her visit to the attack site on Tuesday, was accompanied by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, Foreign Minister Franz-Walter Steinmeier and the governing mayor Michael Muller, Efe news reported.

The German dignitaries laid flowers at the site where citizens had left messages of condolence.

An assailant on Monday drove a truck into a crowd of people who had gathered at the Christmas market in Breitscheidplatz, Berlin.

In a conference held earlier at the German Chancellery, Merkel expressed her shock, sadness and indignation at the attack, adding that she thought it would be particularly repugnant if the perpetrator was someone who came to country seeking refuge.

She said the nation should refuse to live in fear because of the events.

Following the attack, a Pakistani asylum-seeker was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the alleged terror attack.

However, head of Berlin police Klaus Kandt has since said they have doubts that the detainee, who denied any involvement in the incident, was in fact the assailant.

Further, federal prosecutor Peter Frank said they were not ruling out the possibility that the attack was committed by a group of people.

--IANS

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RBI withdraws one-time deposit norm for KYC accounts

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) In a U-turn, the RBI on Wednesday withdrew its order barring people with KYC-compliant bank accounts from depositing over Rs 5,000 in old currency more than once until December 30.

But the notification stands for bank accounts which are non-KYC. The upper limit of Rs 50,000 also stays for non-KYC bank accounts, the Reserve Bank of India said.

The central bank said that on reviewing its December 19 notification, it was advising banks to withdraw the one-time deposit condition for amounts above Rs 5,000 for fully KYC-compliant accounts.

On December 19, the RBI had announced that deposits of demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in excess of Rs 5,000 will be allowed only once till December 30 -- that too after strict scrutiny.

The decision created massive confusion even after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley contradicted on Monday night the RBI notification, saying people will not be questioned if any amount of old currency was deposited at one go. But repeated deposits may invite scrutiny, he said.

The RBI decision on Wednesday came after the one-time deposit condition drew widespread flak.

Both the opposition and bank customers hit out at the government's flip-flop over deposit of old notes following the November 8 decision to recall the high-value currency bills.

According to the December 19 notification, if a person deposits more than Rs 5,000 in withdrawn currencies, the account will be credited only after questioning him or her, in the presence of two bank officials, as to why the money was not deposited earlier.

The bankers were to keep the explanatory statement on record for future audit trail.

Even if the deposits were less than Rs 5,000 at a time but cumulatively exceeds the amount, then also the bank officials were told to get on record an explanation from the depositor.

The condition vis-a-vis non-KYC compliant accounts remains, the upper limit of deposits restricted to Rs 50,000.

Officials said the curbs were meant to encourage deposits of the demonetised currency under the Taxation and Investment Regime for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016.

The Finance Ministry had also said earlier that the decision was meant to end the seemingly unending queues in banks.

--IANS

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S.Korean ruling party MPs to defect after Park's impeachment

South Korea,Politics, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Seoul, Dec 21 (IANS) Scores of South Korean ruling party lawmakers on Wednesday agreed to defect from the Saenuri Party as strife deepened between factions loyal to and against impeached President Park Geun-hye.

Thirty five legislators of the Saenuri's anti-Park faction agreed to bolt from the party on December 27, Xinhua news agency reported.

Intra-party fighting got stiffer after the bill to impeach Park was passed through the National Assembly.

Almost half of 128 Saenuri lawmakers voted for the impeachment, indicating more anti-Park faction members may choose to leave the ruling party in the near future.

A new party that will be created by the anti-Park faction could surpass the number of 38 parliamentary seats the minor opposition People's Party garnered in the April general elections.

The biggest opposition Minjoo Party has 121 lawmakers, while there are six legislators with the minor opposition Justice Party and seven independent lawmakers.

The anti-Park faction's new party will become one of floor negotiation bodies in parliament as it meets the requirements of over 20 lawmakers, raising the total number of floor body to four.

The four-party regime would emerge for the first time since 1988 when four political parties formed their respective negotiation bodies on the floor.

Attention is expected to be paid to whether the People's Party, mostly composed of defectors from the Minjoo Party, and the anti-Park faction's party would form a "third playing field", where non-mainstreamers in both ruling and opposition parties compete to field a single candidate in the next presidential election.

If the constitutional court justifies the presidential impeachment for as long as 180 days, a presidential election is required to be held within 60 days.

--IANS

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When I look in the mirror, I throw up: Schwarzenegger

United States,Cinema/Showbiz,Hollywood, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Los Angeles, Dec 21 (IANS) Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he "throws up" when he looks at his reflection in the mirror.

The 69-year-old actor and former bodybuilding champion, who first claimed the title Mr. Olympia at the international competition Joe Weider's Olympia Fitness and Performance Weekend in 1970, says he has always been critical of himself, even when he was in his best shape, and is still repulsed by his appearance, reports femalefirst.co.uk

"When I look in the mirror, I throw up. I was already so critical of myself, even when I was in top physical shape," Schwarzenegger told Cigar Aficionado magazine.

Despite winning the title over seven consecutive years, he used to doubt why he was crowned champion every time because he felt he was "lacking" something.

"I'd look in the mirror after I won one Mr. Olympia after another and think, 'How did this pile of s**t win?' I never saw perfection. There was always something lacking," the "Predator" actor said.

Although he Isn't happy with his looks, Schwarzenegger says he doesn't feel like he will soon be turning 70-years-old because he has maintained the same lifestyle he enjoyed two decades ago.

"I don't feel my age. I do everything exactly the same as I did 20 years ago," he said.

--IANS

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Sleeping pill use linked to more hospital visits

United States,Health/Medicine, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New York, Dec 21 (IANS) A class of drugs frequently prescribed or purchased over the counter for chronic conditions including sleep problems, depression, anxiety, pain, allergy and incontinence in the elderly is linked to an increased rate of emergency department and hospital utilisation, says a study.

The findings suggest that drugs with anti-cholinergic properties could be harmful.

"Individuals taking anti-cholinergics should talk with their doctors or pharmacists about possible alternatives," said lead researcher Noll Campbell from Indiana University Center for Aging Research in the US.

While taking a drug with mild anti-cholinergic effect daily increased the likelihood of in-patient admission by 11 percent over a year, using a drug with a strong anti-cholinergic effect daily increased the likelihood of inpatient admission by 33 percent over a year, the study said.

Sleeping pills, one of the most common medications used by elders, are in this category as are anti-histamines, which are available without prescription, according to the study of 3,344 Americans aged 65 and older.

"Anti-cholinergics, the medications that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have previously been implicated as a potential cause of cognitive impairment, by us and by other researchers," Campbell pointed out.

"This new study provides stronger motivation to design and conduct de-prescribing studies to determine safe ways to take individuals off anti-cholinergic medications in the interests of preserving brain health and decreasing healthcare utilization rates and their potential costs," Campbell noted.

The findings appeared in the journal Phamacotherapy.

--IANS

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India, Kyrgyzstan concerned about terrorism: Mukherjee

Delhi,National,Terrorism,Diplomacy, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) India and Kyrgyzstan share common concerns on the threat of terrorism and extremism, President Pranab Mukherjee has said.

"India values its long-standing friendly relations with Kyrgyzstan. India and Kyrgyzstan share common concerns on the threat of terrorism, extremism and drug-trafficking," President Mukherjee said on Tuesday after receiving Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambaev at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

The President also hosted a banquet in honour of the visiting Kyrgyzstan President who is here on a four-day visit.

"Atambaev's visit will give a fillip to the efforts to enhance the multi-faceted relations between the two countries," a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique on Wednesday cited Mukherjee as saying.

India and Kyrgyzstan will celebrate the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations next year.

In his banquet speech, Mukherjee said: "India has always considered the Kyrgyz Republic to be an important part of its extended neighbourhood. Our proximity is not only geographical but also historical and civilisational. We have a shared past, reflected in many elements of our culture."

Mukherjee also complimented the Kyrgyzstan President on the successful conduct of the parliamentary elections in October last year and for successfully steering a referendum on constitutional amendments earlier this month.

"One of its finest achievements is its steadfast preference for and adherence to democracy. We, in India, believe that a democratic system represents much more than just the periodic exercise of voting in elections. Another commonality which binds us is our commitment to secularism," Mukherjee said.

--IANS

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Putin postpones presser to attend Karlov's funeral

Russian Federation,Politics,Terrorism, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Moscow, Dec 21 (IANS) Russian President Vladimir Putin has postponed his annual press conference to attend the funeral of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, a Kremlin spokesman said on Wednesday.

Dmitry Peskov explained that Putin decided not to conduct the news conference on Thursday as the funeral for the slain ambassador was set to be held on the same day, Efe news reported.

"The President would hold the annual press conference now on December 23, instead," Peskov said.

Following the announcement of the assassination of Karlov, Putin stressed that the crime was "without doubt a provocation aimed at spoiling the normalisation of Russo-Turkish relations".

It was also aimed at "spoiling the Syrian peace process which is being actively pushed by Russia, Turkey, Iran and others".

Karlov was shot while speaking at an art exhibition by an assailant identified by Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek as a 22-year-old policeman.

Karlov, 62, was named Russian envoy o Turkey in July 2013 after serving as ambassador to North Korea from 2001 to 2006.

--IANS

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Hong Kong to ban local ivory trade by 2021

Hong Kong,National,Environment/Wildlife, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Hong Kong, Dec. Dec 21 (IANS) Hong Kong on Wednesday announced a proposal for a three-step plan to prepare for a blanket ban on the local ivory trade by 2021.

The Hong Kong government proposed the plan for the preparation of amendments to the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants ordinance in a single legislative exercise.

Hong Kong's Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing said it will be tabled in the Legislative Council next year.

"Hong Kong is determined to stem illegal ivory trade.Our goal is to completely eliminate local ivory trade by the end of 2021," Wong said.

He added that it was necessary for the government to take these measures in view of ivory smuggling and worldwide calls for closing down the ivory trade.

--IANS

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WB to finance improved waterway connectivity in Bangladesh

Bangladesh,Indo-Pak/Pakistan,Business/Economy, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Dhaka, Dec 21 (IANS) The Bangladesh government on Wednesday signed a $360 million financing agreement with the World Bank to improve the navigability of 900 kms of inland waterways and connecting routes.

The accord will enable year-round safe transport for passengers and cargo along the country's busiest waterways, Xinhua news agency reported.

Mohammad Mejbahuddin, senior secretary of Bangladesh's Economic Relations Division, and Qimiao Fan, World Bank country director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides.

The Bangladesh Regional Waterway Transport Project-1 will help reduce travel time and cost for cargo and passenger transport, and boost national and regional trade, said the Washington-based lender.

--IANS

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Tara raises funds for cancer-stricken children

Maharashtra,Cinema/Showbiz,Bollywood,Health/Medicine, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Mumbai, Dec 21 (IANS) Actress-turned-producer and host Tara Sharma Saluja has raised funds for children suffering from cancer.

Tara was recently approached by the Cuddles Foundation to help raise funds for their Not So Secret Santa campaign, wherein funds are collected for nutritious food baskets which are gifted to children afflicted with cancer.

"I am honoured to be part of the Cuddles Foundation's Not So Secret Santa campaign this month and gift nutritious food baskets to children with cancer.

"I have learnt from them that good nutrition and of course, good care and treatment assure a very high full recovery rate, and hence if our small efforts of helping provide food baskets will help these kids, I am 100 per cent there for them," Tara said in a statement.

Tara visited Sion hospital on Tuesday to spend time with the children.

--IANS

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Army Chief-designate meets Defence Minister

Delhi,National,Politics,Defence/Security, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) Lt. Gen. Bipin Rawat, who is set to be the next Army Chief, met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday.

The meeting, which lasted for about 25 minutes, was described as a "courtesy call" by sources.

Rawat later also met outgoing Army Chief General Dalbir Singh.

Rawat was named as the new Army Chief on Saturday, superseding two more senior Lieutenant Generals -- Eastern Army Commander Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi and Southern Army Commander Lt. Gen. P.M. Hariz.

Rawat would take over as the new Army Chief on December 31.

--IANS

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FIR against IAS officer, 15 others in Bihar SC/ST scholarship scam

Bihar,National,Crime/Disaster/Accident, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Patna, Dec 21 (IANS) An IAS officer, along with 15 other officials, was booked on Wednesday for alleged irregularities in disbursement of post-matric scholarship among SC/ST students pursuing technical education outside Bihar.

"An FIR has been lodged against IAS officer S.M. Raju and 15 others in the vigilance police station," Ravinder Kumar, Director General of Vigilance Investigation Bureau, Bihar, said.

"The bureau has found evidence against Raju for wrongly distributing SC/ST scholarships worth crores of rupees among students when he was Secretary of the Welfare Department in 2013-14," an official said.

The Vigilance Investigation Bureau launched its probe into the scam in March this year after the opposition BJP raised the issue in state assembly.

--IANS

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Wadia not to attend Tata Steel's EGM

Maharashtra,Business/Economy, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Mumbai, Dec 21 (IANS) Industrialist Nusli Wadia on Wednesday said he will not attend the extra-ordinary general meeting (EGM) of Tata Steel, where he is expected to be removed as an Independent Director of the company.

Tata Steel has convened an EGM to decide whether or not to remove Wadia as an Independent Director on its Board.

The agenda of the EGM was to take shareholders' approval for the removal of Tata Sons ousted Chairman Cyrus Mistry and Independent Director Wadia from its Board of Directors.

On Monday, Mistry had stepped down from his position as a member on the Board of Directors of Tata Steel.

"What is at stake now is not whether I am removed or not but the fate of the very institution of the Independent Director that has been created in law and by SEBI to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders," Wadia said in a letter to the shareholders of Tata Steel.

"It is in your hands to vote with your conscience for what is right for your company and more important for the institution of Independent Directors," the letter read.

"I have chosen not to attend the meeting as I understand that recent meetings held of other Tata Companies have been inappropriately and shamefully stage-managed by the requisitionist controlling the entry into the hall as also in the selection and choice of the speakers as never before seen in Indian corporate history."

Wadia observed that he has outlined events relating to various decisions of the company's Board, especially with regard to Tata Steel's investment in Corus and events that have led to the impairment of approximately Rs 35,000 crore and a capital employed in the region of Rs 75,000 crore.

"The recent public statements that have been made on Tata Steel Europe just to protect 11,000 British jobs is a matter of concern that needs to be addressed by all shareholders as such support has now become unaffordable and is detrimental to the interest of the shareholders," the three-page letter said.

"Equally important is the fact that the capital employed in Tata Steel Europe today could have been invested in three steel plants across India with substantial returns making Tata Steel the number one steel company of the country while providing employment to a million Indians."

"I have raised the issue on the actions which I believe to be inappropriate and in violation of the SEBI Insider Trading Regulations by the promoter Tata Sons and the Trustees of the Tata Trusts: as also the manner in which they have and continue to influence and direct the affairs of your company. A role that is solely the responsibility of your Board," Wadia said.

According to Wadia, the issue at hand was about the 'very independence of an Independent Director and his ability to perform his fiduciary duties and responsibilities without fear or favour'.

"The ability of a promoter to remove an Independent Director through the brute force of its holding in an ordinary resolution on which it can vote is a serious and major dichotomy and contradiction that needs to be and must be addressed urgently," he added.

Wadia has also approached the Bombay High Court.

On December 16, the Bombay High Court declined relief to minority shareholders of three Tata Group companies seeking to restrain promoters from voting at EGMs between December 21-23 on a resolution to remove Wadia as an Independent Director.

However, the Bombay High Court has barred Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Chemicals from filling up the vacancy on the Board of Directors till further orders in the matter.

Wadia's support for Tata Sons ousted Chairman Mistry has led several Tata Group companies to call for their respective EGMs to decide whether or not to remove Wadia from their respective Boards.

--IANS

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JNU students to face lie detector test, say police

Delhi,National,Politics,Crime/Disaster/Accident,Education, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) Failing to get any clues about missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed after a two day search of the sprawling campus, Delhi Police will now make 10-12 students face the lie detector test.

The Crime Branch has prepared a list of 60 questions to be asked in the test at the Forensic Science Lab (FSL) at Rohini to trace the whereabouts, if he is alive, of Najeeb, who went missing over two months ago.

Around 10-12 students have received notices from the police to join the investigation, Saurabh Sharma, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) Joint Secretary, told IANS.

At least four of them are from the Left groups and the rest belong to the ABVP (Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad), he said.

"I am not sure whether those from ABVP will join the investigation as many of them are not even in town," Sharma said.

He said two ABVP members and JNU students -- Vikrant and Ankit -- were contacted by police on phone and asked to join the investigation.

Vikrant and Ankit are two of the students found guilty of beating Najeeb just before he disappeared on October 15. The ABVP has denied any involvement in Najeeb's disappearance.

Another student, Qasim, who was Najeeb's roommate, was taken to the FSL by police and briefed about the impending interrogation.

"They just briefed me on the situation. They told me to be prepared and be clear in my mind about the sequence of the events and be able to recall them," Qasim told IANS.

"They didn't tell me when the lie detector test will take place. I was the only one taken there today," he added.

Some students who have left the campus during the Christmas holiday will also get notices to appear in the lie detector test, a police officer said.

"We are prepared for any interrogation," Mujeeb, Ahmed's cousin, told IANS.

Some 1,000 police personnel mounted a two-day search on Monday and Tuesday in the sprawling JNU campus in south Delhi to get clues about Najeeb.

Najeeb's family is critical of the police operation, which followed a order from the Delhi High Court.

Ahmed, 27, went missing after a brawl on the night of October 14 with a few activists of the ABVP, the RSS student wing.

Najeeb was last seen at the campus main gate while hiring an auto-rickshaw to reportedly go to Jamia Millia Islamia campus.

--IANS

vn/sp/mr/vd
Wild Barking Deer comes to Delhi forest after centuries

Delhi,National,Environment/Wildlife, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) In a rare case -- perhaps the first time in 400 years -- a free ranging Barking Deer has made its way to Delhi's Yamuna Biodiversity Park (YBP), becoming the second recent unlikely guest from the wild after a leopard.

According to Faiyaz A. Khudsar, the scientist in-charge of Yamuna Biodiversity, the deer has been living here for over a week and has been pictured by camera traps twice.

Unlike leopards, who can live in different terrains, the presence of a Barking Deer or Kankar, in the thorny scrub and semi-arid vegetation of Delhi is quite unusual.

"It's very unusual and rarest of the rare incident to spot a Barking Deer here. It has been spotted for the first time," Khudsar told IANS.

He added that just like the leopard which was relocated on December 10, the deer could have made its way to Delhi through the corridor along the Yamuna river from Kalesar National Park in Haryana or some other region.

According to Professor C.R Babu, head of the Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems (CEMDE), the "top herbivore" is living in Phase-2 of the park, which is moist deciduous.

"Barking Deer existed here some 400 to 500 years ago. This is perhaps the first time since then," Babu told IANS.

He added that since Phase-1 of the park is open to many green corridors stretching from Rajaji in Uttarakhand to Kalesar, the deer must have entered that area and then shifted to Phase-2, which is more like a Terai region, where Kankar live.

"Barking Deer or Kankar are found in thick forest and prefer living either in a pair or isolation unlike other deer. It's presence at YBP is a sign that the park is healthy," said Terai region based wildlife expert V.P Singh.

"From the pictures from night vision camera traps, its (deer) antlers were not visible, which means that its a healthy female. We will install more cameras to get some front pictures," said Khudsar.

Oldest among the deer family, Barking Deer are extremely shy, hard to spot and nocturnal in nature -- which means they are mostly active during the night.

The presence of the animal in the YBP spread over 457 acres has also given hope to ecologists like C.R Babu here, that their commitment to take back the forests of Delhi to their historic glory could be achieved.

Meanwhile, the officials have requested the Delhi Development Authority to cover Phase-2 by a 12-feet fencing for better conservation of the animals.

--IANS

kd/sm/bg
Konica Minolta unveils cloud-based data management system

Delhi,Business/Economy,Technology, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) Japanese technology company Konica Minolta on Tuesday launched e-bizVAULT, a cloud-based web Document Management System (DMS) solution which offers support for popular browsers and mobile devices.

"e-bizVAULT protects organisations against data loss, system failure and unauthorised system access. It is also accessible on a notebook, in the organisation's network, over the web, in the cloud or in a smartphone as well as a tablet, ensuring maximum agility for a business," the company said in a statement.

The solution also eliminates the need for setting up servers or configuring applications for a business, reducing expenditures significantly.

"e-bizVAULT is a perfect offering for organisations eyeing a scalable and secure DMS solution over the cloud to fetch more agility and operational efficiency. It will also help businesses reduce their operating expenditures significantly," said Yuji Nakata, Managing Director at Konica Minolta India.

--IANS

sku/na/bg
Washington D.C. mayor signs assisted suicide bill

United States,Immigration/Law/Rights,Politics, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Washington, Dec 21 (IANS) Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has signed a controversial physician-assisted suicide bill.

The bill, if it goes through Congress, will allow terminally ill but mentally capable patients, aged 18 years or older, to legally end their lives, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the bill, which the D.C. Council approved in November, doctors will be allowed to prescribe fatal medication to patients with less than six months to live. These patients must make two requests over a period of two weeks and ingest the drugs themselves.

Mayor Bowser signed the legislation on Monday, clearing it to be sent to Capitol Hill for a 30-day review, according to the Washington Post.

However, it is unclear if Congress will approve the legislation, said the report, noting that local opponents of the law have vowed to press the Republican-controlled Congress to void the bill.

Under the US Constitution, Congress has to sign off on all D.C. laws. If approved, the earliest date the law would take effect would be next October.

"Every terminally ill adult should have the freedom and liberty to make their own decisions about how they want to die in comfort and peace, in consultation with their family, physicians and spiritual leaders," said Donna Smith, an organiser with the national right-to-die advocacy group Compassion and Choices.

Since 1998 when Oregon became the first US state enacting physician-assisted suicide law, the practice has now been considered legal by a court ruling in Montana while by similar laws in the states of Washington, Colorado, Vermont and California.

--IANS

ksk
Modi to visit Varanasi, to inaugurate projects

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit his parliamentary constituency Varanasi on Thursday and lay the foundation of various projects.

The projects include the Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Cancer Hospital and a Centenary Super Specialty Hospital at the BHU campus. He is also expected to address a gathering of BJP workers.

The Prime Minister's visit comes ahead of assembly elections in the state.

Modi will lay the foundation of an ESI hospital with 150 beds, official sources said.

Modi is also likely to attend the Rashtriya Sankriti Mahotasava organised at the BHU campus by the Ministry of Culture.

He will also visit Kabir Nagar and inspect the work of underground electric cabling, being implemented under the Integrated Power Development Scheme.

This will be Prime Minister Modi's first visit to Varanasi after November 8 demonestisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

--IANS

bns/mr
Congress seeks probe into bribe charge against PM

Delhi,National,Politics, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) The Congress party on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should get a fair probe done into allegations that he took money from two corporate houses -- Birla and Sahara groups.

At a press conference called within an hour of a BJP press conference, where the ruling party dismissed allegations against the Prime Minister, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the BJP should have answered whether Modi took money or not.

Surjewala said the BJP was "perturbed" and that "they did not answer whether or not Modi took money".

The Congress spokesperson sought a probe, but added: "CBI cannot probe the Prime Minister."

While not demanding Modi's resignation directly, Surjewala cited the example of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who had resigned when the office of profit issue came up in 2006, and BJP veteran L.K. Advani had resigned as an MP in 1996 following allegations of his involvement in the infamous Hawala scam.

"We are asking valid questions. Do not get angry, just answer the questions. The Prime Minister should come forward and answer whether he took money from Birla and Sahara or not," he said.

At a public rally in Gujarat's Mehsana, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that the Sahara Group paid Rs 40 crore to Modi during his tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad soon after dismissed the allegation calling it "baseless" and added that Gandhi was "frustrated" because of repeated electoral losses and was trying to divert attention from the AgustaWestland scam.

--IANS

ao/nir/dg
IT raids TN Chief Secretary, leaders want him sacked

Tamil Nadu,National,Politics,Crime/Disaster/Accident, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Chennai, Dec 21 (IANS) Income Tax officials on Wednesday raided the house and office of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao, triggering calls for his dismissal from service.

A senior official in the Income Tax Department said cash in new currency was seized from the raided premises, including the Secretariat.

Searches were also conducted in several other places connected to Rao, his son and others.

Ironically, Rao holds the additional charge of Vigilance Commissioner and the Commissioner for Administrative Reforms.

Rao was appointed to the post overlooking the seniority of several IAS officials.

Informed sources said the searches of Rao's residence and office were linked to the earlier IT raids on the residence of businessmen J. Shekhar Reddy, Srinivasalu and Prem.

The IT department recently seized 177 kg of gold and cash totalling Rs 96 crore in old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes and Rs 34 crore in new currency from the three.

A contractor, Reddy had reportedly executed a lot of work for the Tamil Nadu government. The CBI arrested all three on Wednesday.

Leaders of the DMK and PMK demanded the immediate dismissal of Rao.

Former IAS officer and social activist M.G. Devasahayam told IANS that the government had the power to summarily dismiss an IAS officer under Article 311 of the Indian Constitution.

Speaking to reporters here, DMK leader M.K. Stalin said the Chief Secretary should immediately resign.

He said it was important for Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam to appoint a new Chief Secretary. He also demanded a detailed statement from the Chief Minister.

Terming the raid as a disgrace, PMK founder S. Ramadoss demanded Rao's dismissal and legal action against him.

Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan refuted the charge that the central government was using the raid as a political tool and said the raids were conducted based on information gathered by the IT department.

Former IAS officer Devasahayam told IANS: "The raids have opened a Pandora's box. Corruption cannot happen in the government without the connivance of corrupt bureaucrats."

He also found fault with the central government.

"Rao superceded several senior IAS officers when he was appointed the Chief Secretary. Even today there are 18 IAS officers senior to him working in the state or in the central government," Devasahayam said.

The IAS cadre comes under the central government, which was silent when Rao became the Chief Secretary.

"The raid on Rao's residence is a great, great shame for the IAS cadre," Devasahayam said.

--IANS

vj/mr
Germany issues European arrest warrant against new suspect

Germany,Terrorism,Crime/Disaster/Accident, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Berlin, Dec 21 (IANS) The German Interior Minister on Wednesday announced that a European arrest warrant has been issued against a new suspect in connection with Monday's Berlin terror attack.

At the end of an extraordinary meeting of the German parliament's interior committee, Thomas de Maiziere stressed that this wanted person, of whom he did not provide details, remains a suspect, Efe news reported.

The 'wanted' was not necessarily the author of the attack in which a truck ploughed through a crowd in a Christmas market, killing 12 persons and wounding 48 others, Maiziere said.

He also said that a lot of information was disseminated.

Earlier in the day, the police in Germany was reportedly searching for a Tunisian man in relation to the attack.

He was identified by Der Spiegel magazine as Anis A., a 24-year-old Tunisian who could be using two different aliases.

A residence permit was found in the truck that on Monday ploughed through the crowd.

--IANS

in/dg
Rijiju asks NDRF, police forces to spread message of digital payments

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday asked the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) as well as central and state police forces to spread the message of digital payments and adopt cashless transactions.

"The Central Armed Police Forces and State Police Forces personnel must take the lead and use their vast reach as our nation is poised to join the leading economies of the world," he said while addressing a workshop on cashless transaction organised by the NDRF.

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged the citizens to switch over to the "less cash" transactions and aimed to take India from being the world's fifth largest economy at present to among the top three in the next ten years.

The minister said that though it was difficult to move to digital payments initially but once started, one could easily adapt to the cashless mode of payment.

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant also expressed similar views on the occasion, saying the "time is here to make a transition to cashless transactions".

"India cannot afford as high as 95 per cent of its economy making cash transactions if we are to take our economy from $2 trillion to $10 trillion by the year 2030. Besides, only one per cent of the more than 1.25 billion population pays Income Tax.

"With an aim to push India among the top economies of the world the Government has enrolled nearly 26 crore people under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and more than 20 crore RuPay cards issued," Kant said.

NDRF Director General R. K. Pachnanda said that cashless transactions not only make everyday life easier but is also gainful as the government has introduced several incentives to make the cashless transactions popular.

He asked the NDRF personnel to also imbibe the principle, "Each One, Teach One" to spread the message across a wider cross section of people.

--IANS

rak/vd
40-year-old held for abducting, killing eight-year-old girl

Haryana,National,Crime/Disaster/Accident, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

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Gurugram, Dec 21 (IANS) The Crime Branch of Gurugram police has arrested a 40-year-old Nepali man for abducting and killing an eight-year-old girl, police said on Wednesday.

The Crime Branch of Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) unit has arrested Tika Ram from Punjab's Barnala for allegedly kidnapping a minor girl from Gurugram's Baas Kusla village.

According to the police accused Tika Ram abducted the daughter of his neighbour Rajender Kumar on the night of July 27.

The police said the accused took the minor to an isolated plot in the area and tried to sexually assault her but the girl started crying.

To avoid arrest, as he was known to the minor's family, he strangled her and abandoned the body.

The police said the accused was arrested on the basis of technical evidence and was produced before a court which remanded him in police custody.

"We are grilling the accused Tika Ram," a senior police officer said.

--IANS

pradeep/lok/bg

null
Cabinet passes ordinance for salaries' e-transfer, trade unions question move (Third Lead)

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) The union cabinet on Wednesday passed an ordinance to facilitate digital transfer of salaries by employers across the country. However, several trade unions associations and parties opposed the move, calling it impractical.

The government, while moving the ordinance to amend Section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, clarified that the option of cash payment of wages would continue to exist.

"An additional way of payment has been introduced through this ordinance. The old system of cash would also remain," a senior official said following a meeting of the Cabinet.

"This is being done to facilitate the employers from making payment of wages using the banking facilities in addition to the existing modes of payment of wages in current coin or currency notes," he added.

The Labour Ministry, in a statement, clarified that the proposed amendment would not make mandatory the payment of wages only through cheques or account transfers.

"The proposal is an additional facility of crediting the wages in the bank account of the employees or payment through cheque along with the existing provisions of payment in current coin or currency notes," it said.

Also, the appropriate government (centre or state) will have to come up with the notification to specify the industries or other establishments where the employer shall pay wages through cheques or by credit the wages in the employees' bank account, it said, adding that that the proposed amendment would also ensure that "minimum wages are paid to the employees and their social security rights are protected".

"The employers can no longer under-quote the number of employees employed by them in their establishments to avoid becoming a subscriber to the EPFO or ESIC schemes," it said.

However, most trade unions refused to buy the government's arguments.

Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) General Secretary Tapan Sen wondered as to why the government was so rushed that it needed to bring an ordinance.

"The government is rushing with the amendment to Wages Act. What is the hurry? The whole banking system is in disarray right now. Couldn't the decision be put on hold for a while?" Sen told IANS.

He said that said that the employees' right to decide the mode of his payment should not be withdrawn and said the government action "is not above doubt".

Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) too opposed the move and threatened to call for a strike.

"We strongly oppose this move. This is not practical," INTUC President G Sanjeeva Reddy told IANS.

"What would happen in places where banks don't exist or workers are without bank accounts? The contract workers should be paid their wages in cash," he said.

Some opposition parties too questioned the practicality of the move.

Janata Dal-United leader K.C. Tyagi said that it was not possible or even practical to go entirely cashless in a country like India, noting even the US is only around 40 per cent digital.

However, the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) welcomed the decision and said that it was demanding it for some time.

"This is a good move. It would end the two register system. Some employers would pay less payment to workers and show it more in their registers. This practice would end with transfer of salary in bank accounts," said BMS General Secretary Virjesh Upadhyay.

--IANS

mak/vd
Kejriwal announces hike in guest teachers' salaries

Delhi,National,Politics,Education, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced a substantial hike in the salaries of guest teachers in government schools, a move that is expected to benefit around 17,000 teachers.

Kejriwal made the announcement at Chhatrasal stadium at Model Town here where he was addressing the heads as well as the guest teachers of government schools.

"Primary teachers, who earlier got Rs 17,500 a month, will now get Rs 32,200. Similarly, the salary of TGTs (Trained Graduate Teachers) has been increased from Rs 20,000 to Rs 33,120 and of PGTs (Post Graduate Teachers) from Rs 22,500 to Rs 34,100," he said, adding that guest teachers will now get the same facilities as regular teachers.

"Two years ago we had made two promises. One to make guest teachers permanent and the other to give equal pay for equal work," the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.

He added the government wanted to make the announcement before Diwali but had to wait due to "resistance by the system to the government's move".

He said that the government has now sent the file to the Lt Governor for his approval.

"We will make sure, salary hike and proposal of making guest teachers permanent is approved by the LG at the earliest," Kejriwal said.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the hike in salaries was just the first step to bring a revolution in education system of Delhi.

"We want to change the lives of 16 lakh students who study in government schools...we are already working on construction of 8000 classrooms which will be ready by March 2017. We have decided to build 8,000 more classroom taking the total count to 16,000," he said.

After the event, hundreds of guest teachers staged a protest against Kejriwal outside Chhatrasal stadium blocking the Ring Road which led to huge traffic jam.

The protesting guest teachers - both male and female - raised slogans against Kejriwal and said they were disappointed with the government.

"We came here with hopes that the government will make some announcement about implementation of the order regarding our salary hike but they made us wait for several hours just to tell the same thing which we have been hearing for last two years," Ramveer Singh, a guest teacher at a government school in Najafgarh told IANS.

Another protesting guest teacher S.K. Singh told IANS that the government do not need Lt Governor's approval for so many other things but when it comes to teachers' rights they make the execuse of it.

Kejriwal later told reporters that it was not the guest teachers who staged the protest but the "BJP goons".

--IANS

vv-am/vd
Italian government to protect retail investors, savers in any bank salvage

Italy,Politics,Business/Economy, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Rome, Dec 21 (IANS/AKI) The Italian government will shield retails investors and savers from the effects of a bail-out of its ailing banks, Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said on Wednesday.

"The government reaffirms its commitment to ensure the maximum protection for retail investors allowed under European law," Padoan told the Italian parliament.

"If a (government) intervention is necessary, the impact on savers will be absolutely minimal or non-existent," he added.

Italy's lower and upper houses of parliament on Wednesday approved a government request to increase the public debt by up to 20 billion euros to fund a rescue package to prop up its struggling lenders, starting with Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), the world's oldest bank.

The 20-billion-euro sum "is sufficient" to solve the problems of an Italian banking sector that "is solid, healthy, with some well-known critical cases with specific characteristics for each," Padoan said.

MPS, founded in 1472, is struggling to complete a 5-billion-euro recapitalisation by the year's end, as required by the European Central Bank after it came bottom in recent stress tests.

The Tuscan bank said it had only four month's worth of liquidity left in an updated filing on its rights issue, down from 11 months communicated last week.

Many investors expect that the Italian treasury will have to salvage MPS as early as this week to stop it being wound down by European regulators.

MPS was due to close a four-day recapitalisation bid on Thursday amid strong expectations it would fall short of the 5-billion-euro target.

--IANS/AKI

vd
Three more arrested for robbing businessman of lakhs in new currency

Goa,National,Crime/Disaster/Accident,Business/Economy, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Panaji, Dec 21 (IANS) The Crime Branch of the Goa Police late on Wednesday arrested three more persons in connection with a robbery case in which a Mangluru-based businessman was robbed of Rs 10.20 lakh in new currency earlier in December.

Police said on Wednesday that Atmaram Malwankar, 31, Gautam Korgaonkar, 31, and Pritesh Agarwadekar, 21, all residents of Pernem sub district in North Goa were arrested in the case and in all, Rs 8 lakh out of the Rs 10.20 lakh in new currency were recovered.

On December 14, Deepak Gadekar, a self-styled president of the Anti-Corruption and Crime Control Committee, was booked by police along with two police constables attached to the Calangute police station, on charges of dacoity and criminal conspiracy, after they allegedly robbed the businessman.

The businessman had come to Goa to meet Gadekar and exchange the new currency notes for old ones from Gadekar, when he was allegedly robbed by Gadekar and his police accomplices near Baga beach in North Goa.

"We have recovered Rs 8 lakh until now from Rs 10.20 lakh cash which were stolen," Superintendent of Police (Crime Branch) Karthik Kashyap told reporters here.

--IANS

maya/lok/vd
Uber cab driver held for molestation

Delhi,National,Crime/Disaster/Accident, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) An Uber cab driver has been arrested for molesting a woman passenger, police said on Wednesday.

The accused, identified as Rajiv, 36, has been arrested from his residence following the woman's complaint.

Police said the 32-year-old woman who works in the ground staff at the IGI airport had hired a cab for going to her residence in Palam area after finishing work.

"Rajiv, instead taking the route from Aerocity, took the cab towards Mahipalpur area," said Deputy Commissioner of Police Surendra Kumar.

When the woman objected, Rajiv said he had to give a lift to some other passenger who also booked the cab. As she told him that she had not booked the cab on a sharing basis, he did not listen but continued driving in the other direction.

As they came to a T-point, the woman asked him to stop the car. As she tried to get out, he caught hold of her hand and tried to pull her in.

The victim informed the police control room and police reached the spot and registered a case against the cab driver, said the officer.

--IANS

sp/vd
Facebook takes on Google Doodle with new programme

United States,Technology, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

New York, Dec 21 (IANS) To educate people, Google has been serving users a new Doodle on every special day. But now social media giant Facebook has come up with a similar programme that will serve the same purpose that Google's service has been fulfilling.

"We are introducing a marketing programme to invite people to share and talk about events and moments that are happening in their communities and around the world," Gary Briggs, Chief Marketing Officer at Facebook, wrote in a post.

Similar to a Google Doodle, which is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepage that is intended to celebrate holidays, events, achievements and people, messages from Facebook will appear at the top of News Feed about a specific event or moment.

The goal of the message will be "to give people ways to connect and share with friends during holidays and events".

The programme will also help people discover fun and interesting cultural moments and celebrate moments in history that continue to make the world more open and connected.

"Users will start seeing a message from Facebook in their News Feed wishing them Happy Holidays. People will be invited to share a holiday card with their friends on Facebook and choose from a set of 18 custom-designed cards," the post read.

--IANS

sku/sm/vm
The US Africa Command headquartered in Stuttgart announced Tuesday that it ceased the air campaign against the Islamic State group (IS) in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte five months after it joined the Libyan unity governments push to take back Muammar Gaddafis hometown.

In partnership with the Libyan Government of National Accord, the operation succeeded in its core objective of enabling GNA-aligned forces to drive Daesh (IS) out of Sirte, the US militarys Africa Command said in a statement.

US Africa Command announced August 1 that it was heeding the call of Head of the Government of National Accord (GNA) to assist in ending the reign of IS, which seized the city last year in June.

The command launched Operation Odyssey Lightning also meant to protect American interest. Drones, gunships and warplanes were used in the odyssey and close to 500 strikes were conducted against IS positions.

We are proud to have supported this campaign to eliminate ISILs hold over the only city it has controlled outside Iraq and Syria, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters.

The GNA backed by militia forces from Misrata launched the takeover campaign in May. GNAs Faiez Serraj on Saturday announced that the campaign was over.

Despite the official announcement, the US command indicated it would continue targeting the terrorist group across Libya in the event the GNA makes a request.

The fall of Sirte is a major blow to the terrorist group, which is also scrambling in Iraq and Syrian under international coalition bombings.
A 25-year old Moroccan seeking asylum in Austria has been arrested for membership with a terrorist group planning attacks for end of 2016, reports say.

The man was arrested Monday near the German border small town of Fuschl, in a small center for asylum seekers, French AFP reports.

The young man is accused by the office of the Austrian Chief Prosecutor of belonging to a terrorist organization, which has been allegedly planning terrorist attacks in the city of Salzburg around Christmas and the New Year.

Search in the residence of the suspect enabled security forces to seize 8,000. No evidence of eminent action was discovered, the Chief Prosecutors office added.

Investigation on the man, the group and the alleged terrorist plan started in November, AFP said.

The EU member state was a transit zone for several members of the Islamic State group (IS) cell that carried out the Paris 2015 attacks. An Algerian and Pakistani who allegedly wanted to join the cell were arrested in Salzburg in December last year. They had been later deported to France.

Another Moroccan and an Algerian also deemed accomplices of the deportees are waiting for their trial slated for February next year, the French news agency notes.
The Islamic State group (IS) Tuesday claimed it masterminded the Monday lorry attack in Berlin Christmas market which killed 12 people.

A soldier of the Islamic State group carried out the Berlin operation in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries, the IS-linked Amaq news agency said.

The group did not release the name or the citizenship of the attacker.

Though Germany does take direct actions into the international coalition campaign against the IS group, it has been targeted by minor attacks.

The European country witnessed two attacks in July carried out by asylum seekers. One asylum seeker, reportedly an Afghan, attacked passengers with an axe on a train. A Syrian refugee also blew himself up injuring 15 people six days after the first attack. Both attacks were claimed by IS.

Police said in October they had foiled a plot by a Syrian refugee to bomb one of Berlins airports.

German authorities are still searching for the author of the Monday attack. They believe the suspect is armed and at large.

Authorities firstly arrested a Pakistani asylum seeker suspected for being behind attack. He was arrested on Monday after reports said he jumped out of the lorry.

He has been released for lack of sufficient evidence connecting him to the attack.

There are many indications that this person who was released is not a suspect, not involved in the attack, Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere said. That means, he added, that from the very beginning, Berlin police, and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) not only followed this one lead, but followed others as well, from the very start, therefore it cannot be ruled out that the perpetrator may still be on the run. Security forces are following several lines of investigation, he said.

Monday a lorry whose actual driver was a Polish man smashed wooden stalls and crushed victims in a Christmas market near Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church. The Polish driver was found dead on the passenger seat, reportedly with gunshot and stab wounds. Some 50 people were injured in the attack.
Memento mori. Photo: Joe Marino/NY Daily News via Getty Images

Donald Trumps well-coiffed personal doctor is not worried about the health of the president-elect, because if he dies, hell just be replaced.

If something happens to him, then it happens to him, Harold Bornstein said in an interview with Stat News. Its like all the rest of us, no? Thats why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying.

In the lengthy interview with the medical news site, Bornstein revealed the abuse hes taken since he was outed as the doctor who channeled Trumps over-the-top locution and asserted that he would be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency. One woman yelled at him on the street, saying, Youre Donald Trumps doctor. I hope he dies!

In the interview, Bornstein sought to shed the wack-job-in-a-lab-coat image thats stuck since he became part of the presidential campaign. But instead, he revealed that his business card says dottore molto famoso, Italian for very famous doctor; he has a naked-doll doorstop in his office; and he never once thought about Trumps advanced age making him the oldest incoming president ever. He also revealed some questionable opinions regarding age and gender.

Bornstein said that Trump isnt an old man the way my grandfather was an old man; meanwhile, of Clinton, he said: Shes an old lady. Shes an old lady. Its funny, isnt it?

The rest of the interview is about Bornsteins life (Anne Bancroft is former patient) and his distaste for Obamacare. Its not the kind of thing youd ask a reporter not to publish and then threaten him over. And yet, theres this:

But five days after STATs visit to his office, in phone calls and text messages, Bornstein said he was angry and did not want the article or any photographs of him to be published.



I happen to have known the Sulzbergers for 50 years, Bornstein said in the second conversation, referring to the family that helms the New York Times. Im going to make sure you dont ever work again if you do this.

He and Trump were made for each other.
Climate change is perhaps the gravest challenge of this generation. And yet, its sharpest consequences are often local: The tens of thousands who have to flee the flames of a California wildfire. The generation that loses its livelihood after a lake dries up in Bolivia. The Staten Islanders who see a super storm sweep away their homes. And as Michael Bloomberg, and Carl Pope, the former executive director of the Sierra Club, argue in a forthcoming book, Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet, solutions can also be local  and cities, businesses, and everyday citizens play the most critical role in the fight against global warming. We are writing this book because we believe that its time for a new type of conversation about climate change, co-authors Bloomberg and Pope explain. The book, due out April 18, 2017, from St. Martins Press, tackles this crisis with urgency, and lays out practical advice and solutions so communities and companies take action  and fast.
Bad teacher. Photo: Ramin Talaie/Corbis via Getty Images

Late Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel  who Donald Trump notoriously said would not be able to do his job because he is of Mexican descent  gave his preliminary okay to a $25 million settlement for fraud lawsuits relating to Trump University, a predatory scam perpetuated by the president-elect.

Trump bragged on the campaign trail, I dont settle cases, I win cases; but when it comes to his recent Trump University lawsuit, at least, he absolutely did settle, and will now have less than one month to raise $25 million to pay off the ex-students of his fraudulent university. If Trump University isnt able to come up with the cash, then Trump himself will be legally bound to pay the settlement out of his own pocket.

Trump University has a 98% approval rating. I could have settled but won't out of principle!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 29, 2016

The plaintiffs are Trump University students who paid anywhere from $1,500 for a three-day seminar up to about $35,000 for an in-person mentorship that promised to teach them the secrets to succeed in business. It has since emerged that Trump University employees were encouraged to target poor and desperate people and encourage them to max out their credit cards to pay for the courses, courses taught students to lie to increase their credit limits, and Trump himself did not have a hand it developing curriculum.

Under the deal, which was negotiated in November and was officially filed on Monday, written complaints and objections to the settlements from the plaintiffs can be submitted by March  so even if the settlement ultimately gets final approval, appeals could keep the money from actually being handed out for a long time.

When the funds are distributed, 6,000 people in New York and California will be awarded money. If the $25 million settlement stands, students will be able to recoup about half of what they spent in Trump U fees, and $1 million will go to New York State for violating education laws.

In a written statement regarding the settlement, a Trump spokesperson wrote:

We are pleased to announce the complete resolution of all litigation involving Trump University. While we have no doubt that Trump University would have prevailed at trial based on the merits of this case, resolution of these matters allows President-Elect Trump to devote his full attention to the important issues facing our great nation.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman had a slightly different take:

In 2013, my office sued Donald Trump for swindling thousands of innocent Americans out of millions of dollars through a scheme known at Trump University. Donald Trump fought us every step of the way, filing baseless charges and fruitless appeals and refusing to settle for even modest amounts of compensation for the victims of his phony university. Today, that all changes.
Swamp creature. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Corey Lewandowski is starting a political-consulting firm with the goal of ensuring the priorities of the Trump administration become reality, he announced Wednesday. Donald Trumps former campaign manager and an unwavering advocate for the president-elect on CNN is starting the firm, called Avenue Strategies, with Ben Carsons former campaign manager Barry Bennett.

In a statement, Lewandowski framed his new role as an advocate for the Trump administration outside the formal structure of government. Bennett is also quoted in the statement saying that hes excited to help the causes and clients I care about raise their voices in Washington.

In D.C., thats called lobbying and its an ironic turn for Lewandowski, who spoke during the campaign as if lobbyists were the lowest form of swamp scum. Now hell be doing just what he criticized  selling his connections for cash. As Lewandowski notes in the announcements, his new office will be within a block of the White House. While its unclear if Lewandowski will once again register as a lobbyist  he lobbied in the 2000s  Bennett told the Washington Examiner that hell attach the dreaded L-word to his name.
Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A federal court Tuesday released a partially redacted copy of the search warrant that allowed the FBI to dig through a laptop belonging to Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin just days before the November election. The warrant sheds some light on why the FBI resumed the investigation into Clintons emails, a move that, along with Bureau director James Comeys announcement of the resumed investigation, is thought to have hurt Clinton on election day.

So, what did the FBI find that justified the search? Abedins laptop contained emails between her and Clinton that were sent around the same time as previously uncovered emails containing classified information. The bureau argued that this constituted probable cause to search the computer, which belonged to Abedins sleazy husband, Anthony Weiner, who was under investigation for allegedly sexting with a minor.

The request was approved by U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox and unsealed after a lawsuit from a Los Angeles lawyer, who says the request for the search warrant should have never been granted. I am appalled, E. Randol Schoenberg told the Washington Post.

Hes not the only one. The Huffington Post spoke with three legal experts who say the warrant should have been denied.

The legal experts argument against the validity of the subpoena boils down to this: The FBI had already publicly announced that it could not prove Clinton intended to disclose classified information. Without that intent, and without evidence of gross negligence, there was no case. The warrant offers no suggestion that proving those elements of the crime would be made easier by searching new emails.



The essence of the warrant application is merely that the FBI has discovered new emails sent between Clinton and Abedin.

The unsealing of this warrant and the less-than-convincing case it makes for reigniting the investigation into Clintons emails will only further fuel the belief that Comey cost her the election. Its a theory that the former secretary of State herself buys into and one that got a little support from a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that shows the top reason people voted for Trump was to keep Clinton out of the White House.
The funeral of a woman who died from an opioid overdose. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

During the worst year of the HIV/AIDS crisis, 43,000 Americans lost their lives to the virus. In 2015, 52,000 died of a drug overdose. Never in recorded history had narcotics killed so many Americans in a single year; the drug-induced death toll was so staggering, it helped reduce life expectancy in the United States for the first time since 1993.

It also, arguably, helped put a demagogue with authoritarian tendencies into the Oval Office.

The opioid epidemic is a disaster with several authors. Economic stagnation may have played a role: Research by Angus Deaton and Anne Case found especially high rates of overdose among non-college-educated whites in economically disadvantaged regions of the country. Separately, a well-intentioned desire to treat chronic pain  an increasingly prevalent symptom in an aging population  was doubtlessly a factor.

But a great deal of blame belongs to our system of pharmaceutical patents, and the sociopathic greed that it incentivizes.

There is an irony to this: Drug patents ostensible reason for being is the virtuous incentives that they create. Pharmaceutical research is an expensive and uncertain endeavor  a company can invest millions in a potential treatment, only to see it fail during clinical trials. And yet, those investments are critical for the advancement of public health. Thus, the government provides pharmaceutical companies with a motivation for researching new drugs  and a means of recouping losses from failed experiments  by offering those companies a temporary monopoly on newly discovered medications.

This formula for pharmaceutical innovation has many downsides, the most well-appreciated being the price-gouging that patent monopolies enable. The American public is well aware that drug prices are too damn high. When breakthrough Hepatitis C treatments retail at $28,000 a month, or the price of an EpiPen shoots up 400 percent, the costs of patent-driven innovation are unmistakable. These stories have inspired such widespread political support for price controls on pharmaceuticals, drug companies spend upwards of $200 million a year lobbying Congress to ensure that no such controls  or any other profit-reducing regulations  are imposed on them.

But a less-well-understood hazard of the patent system is the enormous incentive it gives drug companies to conceal the harmful effects of their products: When you can sell a prescription painkiller at a price orders of magnitude higher than the cost of production, you end up with a multibillion-dollar motivation to ignore  or suppress  evidence that your drug does more harm than good.

For the past two decades, the makes of OxyContin have done just that, and generated $35 billion in revenue in the process.

American doctors have been free to prescribe morphine and other generic opioid painkillers since the early 20th century. But they started prescribing such narcotics at drastically higher rates in the mid-1990s, when Purdue Pharma patented OxyContin, and began aggressively marketing the drug to doctors and patients.

The company held all-expenses-paid conferences for specialists, in which they treated the assembled physicians to fine food and wine  and seminars on OxyContins capacity to relieve chronic pain with little risk of engendering abuse or addiction.

Purdue conveyed that same message to patients in lay terms through media advertisements. The Drug Enforcement Agency would later claim that this aggressive, excessive and inappropriate marketing very much exacerbated the abuse of OxyContin. And in 2007, Purdue and three of its executives pleaded guilty to federal charges of misbranding drugs  and were forced to pay a $635 million fine (a sum far lower than $35 billion). But by then, 29,600 Americans had already died of OxyContin overdoses  and the notion that opioids were a low-risk treatment for chronic pain had become widespread.



A recent study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that the total cost of OxyContin abuse in the U.S. between 1998 and 2007  as measured by spending on abuse treatment, medical complications, productivity loss (minus mortality), and criminal justice proceedings  totaled $38.6 billion.

In other words: The cost of incentivizing Purdue Pharma to innovate in the painkiller market can be measured in tens of thousands of American lives and tens of billions of dollars. (If the company hadnt been granted a highly profitable patent monopoly, it likely would not have had the resources to wage the aggressive marketing campaign that helped fuel the overdose epidemic).

And that cost is ever-growing. While American doctors have soured on the medication in recent years  prescriptions for OxyContin have dropped by nearly 40 percent since 2010  Purdue has buffered profits by enabling our countrys least responsible physicians, and aggressively marketing their wares overseas.

Last weekend, the Charleston Gazette-Mail revealed that, over a two-year period, out-of-state drug companies had shipped nearly 9 million hydrocodone pills to a single pharmacy in a West Virginia town with a population of 392 people. (Its true that both hydrocodone and oxycodone are now available in generic form. The point here isnt that generic painkillers havent contributed to the opioid epidemic, but rather, that the widespread use of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain can be traced to Purdues initial marketing of OxyContin for that purpose).



In the states Wyoming County, shipments of OxyContin doubled over that period, even as the countys overdose death rate became the highest in America. And as the opioid epidemic grew in severity, Purdue sent fewer low-dosage OxyContin pills  and more and more high-dosage ones  a clear sign that its customers in the state were growing more addicted and dependent on the substance.

The proximate responsibility for this grotesque overprescription of opioid painkillers lies with West Virginias doctors. But no conscientious wholesaler could look at how many painkillers they were shipping to low-population areas of the state  and at how many people were dying from overdoses in those areas  and not realize that they were enabling a deadly epidemic.

Photo: Radius Images/Corbis

Meanwhile, Purdue is working to export Americas opioid crisis to Europe and the developing world. All around the globe, Purdues international brand, Mundipharma, is working to overcome opiophobia  its term for foreign doctors mistaken belief that prescription opioids carry a high risk of abuse. According to the Los Angeles Times:

For generations, physicians have been taught that opioid painkillers are highly addictive and should be used sparingly and primarily in patients near death. Mundipharma executives and consultants call this opiophobia and top company officials have said publicly that success in new markets depends on defeating this mind-set.

Thus, in Brazil, China and elsewhere, Mundipharma is running training seminars where doctors are urged to overcome opiophobia and prescribe painkillers.



At the same time, the company is spending millions encouraging potential patients to recognize their chronic pain as an illness that requires lifelong opioid use.

Seeking new patients in Spain, Mundipharma chose ambassadors guaranteed to attract attention: Naked celebrities. A string of topless actors, musicians and models looked into the camera and told fellow Spaniards to stop dismissing aches and pains as a normal part of life. Dont resign yourself, Maria Reyes, a model and former Miss Spain, said in the 2014 television spot.

These tactics are nearly identical to those the company deployed in the United States in the mid-90s. If the effects of that marketing prove identical, the results will be catastrophic; many of the developing countries that Mundipharma is targeting have far fewer resources than America does for providing drug treatment and rehabilitation.

To be sure, there is untreated pain, here and abroad, that can and should be relieved by opioid medications. Each year millions with terminal cancer and AIDS die in needless agony, according to the United Nations. Providing such people with potent painkillers is a legitimate goal for policy makers and drug companies to pursue.

But Purdue Pharma has farther-reaching ambitions. While the company does provide pain relief to the dying, its core business is the treatment of chronic pain  a focus that derives from the fact that generic morphine works pretty well for terminal patients, and the reality that it is difficult to make large sums of money off of customers who arent going to be around for very long.

The problem with this focus is that theres little evidence that treating chronic pain with opioids is effective  and a lot of evidence that its dangerous. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have concluded that there is insufficient evidence that opioids provide effective pain relief when taken for a period of longer than three months.

The CDC has also concluded that roughly a quarter of those who use opioids on a long-term basis become addicted. But you can make a lot of money selling dope to addicts; and Mundipharma has shown little deference to the CDCs findings.

When one fully accounts for the costs of our system of incentivizing pharmaceutical research, the virtues of simply funding that research through direct public investment become apparent. There are multiple ways we could do this. Nobel Prizewinning economist Joseph Stiglitz has suggested a prize system in which the government buys up the patents of drugs that prove themselves effective, and then allows them to be retailed as generics. Economist Dean Baker has made the case for directly financing drug research:

The United States already spends more than $30 billion a year on publicly funded biomedical research through the National Institutes of Health. If this sum was tripled, it could likely replace the funding now being supported through patent monopolies and then all new drugs could be sold at generic prices.

The fact that our elected leaders have so little interest in alternatives to our current system  despite its exorbitant costs, in both lives and dollars  suggests that Americas wealthiest drug dealers have gotten our political system hooked on their money.
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trump will become the president of the United States next month because he won 80,000 more votes than Hillary Clinton did in three Midwestern states. Eighty thousand votes, in an election where 130 million ballots were cast  and where Clinton can lay claim to 2.8 million more of them than her opponent.

The contingency of Trumps victory is unbearable for his detractors. When history reveals itself to be a game of inches, one becomes acutely aware of how many different ways defeat could have been averted: had James Comey not sent that letter; had the Clinton campaign not sent her to Arizona; had Access Hollywood sat on that tape for a couple weeks more.

But the defeated arent the only ones who find this contingency unbearable: The president-elect has spent much of the past month telling bald-faced lies about the immense size  and, thus, the inevitability  of his electoral triumph.

Trump has described his election as one of the great victories of all time, a historic electoral landslide, and a massive landslide victory. When the Electoral College ratified his win on Monday, Trump thanked the American people for their overwhelming vote.

There is no sense in which this is true. Even if one ignores the popular vote  and the narrow margins by which Trump secured his Electoral College majority  the president-elect still lays claim to only the 46th-largest Electoral College margin in American history.

But Trump has spent much of the past month disputing this fact, along with any other that undermines the righteousness of his claim to power.

Clintons popular-vote advantage? Supplied entirely by illegal immigrants.

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

A hostile foreign power may have bolstered his candidacy? You cant trust anything the American intelligence community tells you.

This Trump transition team statement on the CIA assessment of Russian interference is just stunning... pic.twitter.com/vtP7J2s8NH  Marcus Baram (@mbaram) December 10, 2016

On Wednesday, Trump sought, once again, to dispute the legitimacy of Clintons claim to a popular-vote win.

Campaigning to win the Electoral College is much more difficult & sophisticated than the popular vote. Hillary focused on the wrong states!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2016

I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote - but would campaign differently  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2016

I have not heard any of the pundits or commentators discussing the fact that I spent FAR LESS MONEY on the win than Hillary on the loss!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2016

Here, the president-elect makes his case in uncharacteristically rational terms. Considering Trumps historic unpopularity  particularly among demographic groups that are underrepresented in swing states  it seems highly improbable that Trump would have won the popular vote, had both candidates campaigned with that goal in mind. But it is not wholly implausible. And the same can be said for a world in which Trump spent as much on his campaign as Clinton did on hers.

But one phrase still tips over into the Orwellian: I would have done better in the election, if that is even possible.

Trumps mendacity on this subject is unsettling for many reasons. If he is incapable of accepting the reality of a narrow victory, how might he respond to that of a narrow loss? When the president-elect has so little tolerance for inconvenient truths, how might he use the enormous power of his office to disempower the inconvenient truth-tellers  or to disenfranchise the inconvenient voters?

Trump won plaudits on Election Night for pledging to be the president of all Americans. But surely, the bare minimum a president can do to represent a citizen is to acknowledge the reality of her vote. But Trump has resolutely refused to do this for 48 percent of the American electorate.

Meanwhile, Trumps supporters in right-wing media have dutifully amplified his lies. This week, one Breitbart editor justified his outlets commitment to vilifying any Republican that defies Trumps will by telling Politico, If any politician in either party veers from what the voters clearly voted for in a landslide election  we stand at the ready to call them out on it and hold them accountable.

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. The Voters Clearly Voted for Trump in a Landslide Election.
Trump is thanking his supporters in part to keep them mobilized to impose his will on Washington. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Eight years ago, the 44th president of the United States prepared to take office after winning a clear majority of the popular vote and 365 electoral votes. Though he had won the presidential nomination of his party via a protracted contest with Hillary Clinton, his party was relatively united and enjoyed a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and a comfortable margin in the House. And Obama himself was at the head of a grassroots army that was as large and enthusiastic as anything seen in national politics since the 1960s.

Within a year or so, that grassroots army, theoretically transferred to a new organization called Organizing for America, had melted away to virtual irrelevance. Centrist Senate Democrats were successfully extorting the White House for concessions in exchange for their support for the Affordable Care Act, and Democrats from energy-producing states were sabotaging the administrations climate-change legislation in both chambers of Congress. By the end of 2009, the big grassroots politics story was not about Obamas legions, but about the right-wing tea-party movement, which ultimately claimed partial credit for a big Republican midterm victory.

Flash forward to the present, and Donald Trump, having executed what can only be described as a hostile takeover of the Republican Party, followed by a popular-vote loss and a narrow Electoral College win secured by 77,000 votes in three states, continues to struggle with underwater favorability ratings. The big mystery in Washington is whether hes secretly planning a quick start in January, or is so far behind the learning curve that he will be hopelessly swamped by the responsibilities of the office from the get-go.

Yet the president-elect is benefiting already from a well-organized base of rabid supporters who are already intimidating congressional Republicans into awaiting instructions from Trump and swallowing enormous misgivings about the new administration. Heres how Politico describes this phenomenon:

Since the election, numerous congressional Republicans have refused to publicly weigh in on any Trump proposal at odds with Republican orthodoxy, from his border wall to his massive infrastructure package. The most common reason, stated repeatedly but always privately: Theyre afraid of being attacked by Breitbart or other big-name Trump supporters.



Nobody wants to go first, said Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), who received nasty phone calls, letters and tweets after he penned an August op-ed in The New York Times, calling on Trump to release his tax returns. People are naturally reticent to be the first out of the block for fear of Sean Hannity, for fear of Breitbart, for fear of local folks.

I dont recall reading anything similar about congressional Democrats in late 2008 or early 2009.

There are, of course, some key differences in circumstances between the Obama and Trump transitions. Obama was dealing with an ongoing national and global economic crisis at this point eight years ago. The way he chose  or was forced  to deal with that crisis through cooperation with the very bankers and other Wall Street figures many of his base supporters thought should instead be in leg-irons unquestionably sapped grassroots enthusiasm for the new administration.

There was no (and still there is no) progressive equivalent to Breitbart, a frantically active and abrasive outlet for the new presidents point of view, respecting few of the inhibitions of traditional journalism and happy to serve as a Trumpite commissar lashing Republicans into line. And while Twitter existed eight years ago, it had yet to mature into the rapid-reaction instrument it has now become. And it is simply impossible to imagine Barack Obama availing himself of Twitter to organize vengeance against critics and disciplinary action toward ostensible allies.

Arguably Obama did not use the tools he did have at his disposal. In a bitter commentary after the midterm debacle of 2010, Obamas 2008 campaign blogger complained he had left his grassroots network on the sidelines.

[A]t seemingly every turn, Obama has chosen to play an inside game. Instead of actively engaging supporters in major legislative battles, Obama has told them to sit tight as he makes compromises behind closed doors 



During the health-care battle, rather than rallying the grass roots behind a public option - a provision Obama repeatedly supported and a clear majority of Americans backed - supporters were told to voice generalized support for reform. In an e-mail from OFA, I was asked to call my senator, Chuck Schumer, a clear champion of the health-care plan that included a public option. Why not ask people to target centrist Democrats who were blocking reform, such as Max Baucus?

That is not a choice Donald Trump seems likely to make.

Before we conclude that Trump and his minions will rule the streets and social-media channels next year or beyond, the $64,000 question is whether something like the tea party will arise on the left. There is certainly enough passionate opposition to Trump out there to provide the fuel for a big grassroots fire. It could manifest itself in simple opposition to Trumps agenda and base of support, or could instead mainly operate to ensure Democrats dont compromise or fold. The bigger imponderable is whether progressive leaders can ignite such a movement and provide it with some direction, or at least coordination. Either way, Beltway insiders of every persuasion may be looking nervously over their shoulders for ambushes as the New Year begins.
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Last week Donald Trump canceled a press conference at which he was set to explain how his business would be handled once he took office. He tweeted that his two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, would manages his businesses and promised to explain more at another press conference in the near future. Its unclear when this event will take place. In the meantime, it seems Trump has decided to address ethical concerns on a case-by-case basis, if there are sufficient complaints.

Just days after an auction to grab coffee with Ivanka Trump was canceled, the soon-to-be First Family is distancing itself from an inauguration event that raised similar ethical issues, but on a grander scale. Over the weekend, a brochure circulated for an Opening Day party on January 21, advertising that those who paid $1 million would get a private reception with the newly inaugurated President Trump, in addition to a multi-day hunting or fishing trip with Eric and Donald Jr. Proceeds would go to unspecified conservation charities.

On Tuesday, the Trumps pushed back, claiming that they had no knowledge of the event, though their names appear on Texas incorporation records for the nonprofit hosting the fundraiser. According to a statement from the Trump transition office:

The Opening Day event and details that have been reported are merely initial concepts that have not been approved or pursued by the Trump family. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are avid outdoorsmen and supporters of conservation efforts, which align with the goals of this event, however they are not involved in any capacity.

So why do the Texas records say that the Opening Day Foundations board of directors consists of the Trump brothers and two top Trump campaign fundraisers, who are close friends of Donald Jr.? Eric told the New York Times that while his name appeared on a draft of the invitation, he had no role in the creation of the charity and would not attend the party.

Opening Day contradicted Trumps version of events. Tom Hicks Jr., one of the foundations directors, told the Washington Post that Donald Jr. was involved in planning the event. One of the important things for Don Jr. and Eric is conservation, and we wanted to help them organize a party to celebrate conservation, Hicks said. After the president-elect won, we got focused on this. Don Jr. and Gentry have been spearheading it.

Event spokesman Mark Brinkerhoff said the Trump sons should not have been listed as directors of the nonprofit, but he told Bloomberg, Eric and Donald Jr., who are honorary co-chairman, are invited guests and will be there. He said he could not confirm whether the president would attend.

A final version of the invitation was put out on Tuesday, and while Donald Jr. and Eric are listed as honorary co-chairmen, other references to the future First Family have been removed  or possibly just obscured. The introduction says, Opening Day is your opportunity to play a significant role as our family commemorates the inauguration of our father and friend, President Donald J. Trump. Now, for $1 million, attendees get a private reception and photo opportunity for 16 guests with VIPs and celebrities associated with the event, but not President Trump specifically. Theyll also receive a multi-day outdoor excursion for four guests, but it wont be with Donald Trump Jr. and/or Eric Trump, and team.

Brinkerhoff told the Post that the Opening Day Foundation is seeking IRS recognition as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, but for now its activities will benefit the Montana-based Boone and Crockett Club Foundation. However, a spokesman for the club said the group was still considering whether it would participate in the fundraiser.

A transition official told the Times that the family had been focused on addressing conflicts of interest involving the Trump Organization, but in light of controversies over the Opening Day party and auctioning off a coffee date with Ivanka, they are turning their attention to how to handle fundraising for charities.

Bloomberg notes that its common for top campaign donors to get access to the First Family during inauguration activities, but it would be unusual for them to participate in a post-inauguration fundraiser.

Its not as though inaugurals were bastions of populism, said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan ethics watchdog. In the past, I think candidates and politicians have been a little ashamed of the unseemliness of selling access. Now theres no longer anyone pretending that this is not what it is.

The are no clear rules on how the presidents family members should handle fundraising activities. (They are barred from holding paid positions in federal agencies, but Trump may test that law for Jared Kushner, Ivankas husband.) The last two presidents decided to set policies that discouraged or explicitly forbade family members from fundraising for charities, particularly when it involved selling access.

We kept it simple. We did not allow the first family to be auctioned off, which is what is happening here, Norman Eisen, who served as White House chief ethics counselor under Obama, told the Associated Press.

As for the Trump familys current predicament, Eisen asked, How many times are they going to have to stub their toe? adding, If you continually have to reverse course and improvise, what is the point at which it becomes a sign of recklessness instead of willingness to do good will?
Photo: Norbert Michalke/F1online/Getty Images/F1online

While the media often make it sound like violence is random, isolated, and intractable, researchers continue to find that violence is social  it moves along networks of people, not unlike disease, or, for that matter, gaining weight or quitting smoking.

The latest data comes from Ohio State University communications scholars Robert Bond and Brad Bushman. In a study out this week in the American Journal of Public Health, they find that, among middle and high schoolers, having a friend commit a violent act dramatically increased the likelihood that you would, too.

As in: If your friend had done the same, then you were 48 percent more likely to get into a serious fight, 183 percent more likely to hurt someone badly enough that they needed medical attention, and 140 percent more likely to pull a weapon on someone. Also, having a sibling whod seriously hurt someone led to a 78 percent increase in doing the same.

The researchers drew on data from a national survey of adolescents that conducted interviews with almost 6,000 youths in 142 middle and high schools between 1994 and 1996.

The study further supports the notion that violence is more an epidemic than a monster. A 2015 study of gunfire in Chicago lead-authored by Yale sociologist Andrew Papachristos found that 70 percent of nonfatal gunshot injuries  an index of participation in violence  happened in a network of people equivalent to less than 6 percent of the citys total population. His 2013 study of gang homicides in Boston and Chicago found that violence is often socially symbolic: an act of personal retribution, collective memory, or status seeking.

This also supplies clues for transformation: Changing networks means changing communities, he told Science of Us. You cant arrest your way out. Instead, he says, you need a public-health push. Take weight, for instance: Thanks to a coalition starting with Michelle Obama, Americans are eating way better than before and, in a promising sign, babies are getting slimmer. The same thing could happen with violence, too.
Photo: Constance Bannister Corp/Getty Images

The Big Five model is a very big deal to psychologists, and has been for decades. At the moment, it is the most respected, widely studied method for accomplishing the tricky task of summing up someones personality. It consists of five dimensions, and as the University of Oregon social psychologist Sanjay Srivastava explains on his website, each is perhaps best understood as containing a bundle of traits:

Extraversion. The broad dimension of Extraversion encompasses such more specific traits as talkative, energetic, and assertive.



Agreeableness. Includes traits like sympathetic, kind, and affectionate.



Conscientiousness. Includes traits like organized, thorough, and planful.



Neuroticism. Includes traits like tense, moody, and anxious.



Openness to Experience. Includes traits like having wide interests, and being imaginative and insightful.



Researchers developed these five dimensions through statistical analysis  they found that people who plan a lot tend to also be organized, for example, and people who are sympathetic also tend to be kind. These dimensions are mostly stable at the individual level. If you take a bunch of 20-year-olds and rank them on extraversion, and then wait 20 years and measure them again, youll find the people who scored highest at age 20 will tend to be high at age 30, explained Christopher Soto, a personality psychologist at Colby College. That said, there are definitely also changes  people can certainly become more extraverted or less neurotic over their lifespan.

So: How good a grasp do you think you have on your own personality, in Big Five terms? In the below test, you can find out. First, youll first be asked to rank yourself on each of the Big Five, on a scale of 0 to 100. Then youll take a short version of the test designed by Soto and Oliver John of the University of California, Berkeley, after which the test will reveal how you rank, your approximate percentile relative to the data Soto and John have collected from previous test-takers, and how your score compared to your estimate and to the average score from Soto and Johns data.

How well do you understand your own personality? PART 1: Guess your results On a scale of 0 to 100, how much of each trait do you think you have? Extraversion 50 Agreeableness 50 Conscientiousness 50 Neuroticism 50 Open-mindedness 50 Save your guesses PART 2: Take the quiz Please indicate if you agree with the following statements on a scale of 1 to 5. I tend to be quiet. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am compassionate and have a soft heart. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I tend to be disorganized. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I worry a lot. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am fascinated by art, music, or literature. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am dominant and act as a leader. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I have difficulty getting started on tasks. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I tend to feel depressed or blue. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I have little interest in abstract ideas. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am full of energy. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I assume the best about people. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am reliable and can always be counted on. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am emotionally stable and not easily upset. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am original and come up with new ideas. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am outgoing or social. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I can be cold and uncaring. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I keep things neat and tidy. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am relaxed and handle stress well. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I have few artistic interests. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I prefer to have others take charge. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am respectful and treat others with respect. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am persistent and work until the task is finished. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I feel secure and comfortable with myself. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am complex or a deep thinker. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am less active than other people. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I tend to find fault with others. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I can be somewhat careless. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree I am temperamental and get emotional easily. 1

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5 Strongly disagree Neutral Strongly agree See your results Your result Your guess Average Extraversion 50 80 This is what my level of extraversion means. Agreeableness 50 80 This is what my level of agreeableness means. Conscientiousness 50 80 This is what my level of conscientiousness means. Neuroticism 50 80 This is what my level of neuroticism means. Open-mindedness 50 80 This is what my level of open-mindedness means. Facebook Twitter SMS

How should you interpret your scores? Theres some potentially useful information there  in fact, one reason psychologists are very into the Big Five is that its dimensions seem to correlate with some rather important life outcomes. It was designed to be a useful summary of a wide spectrum of traits that matter in human social relations, said Srivastava. So while you can certainly go into much more depth (either with more nuanced trait measures, or with a totally different approach to personality besides traits), theres quite a range of information packed into those 5 scores.

In 2006, the UC-Riverside psychologists Daniel J. Ozer and Veronica Benet-Martinez published a review of the literature on these correlations in the Annual Review of Psychology. Among other links, they found that higher extraversion is correlated with a lower prevalence of depression; agreeableness is correlated with enhanced longevity and a lower risk of heart disease; and neuroticism  unsurprisingly  is correlated with lower subjective well-being (you can view the table running down their findings here). Sometimes things arent that clear-cut: as of the papers publication, researchers hadnt found links between the openness dimension and outcomes dealing with social and family relations, for example. And some dimensions, like extraversion and agreeableness, are correlated with an increased likelihood of some personality disorders, but a decreased likelihood of others.

Overall, its important to keep in mind that while these correlations are meaningful at the population level, just because you score high or low on a given dimension isnt reason to think youre fated for any particular outcome. That is, there are plenty of highly neurotic people who are happy, and there are plenty of highly extraverted people who are unhappy.

As for the relationship between peoples personalities and what they think their personalities are, here things are a bit more complicated. Generally speaking, people are okay but not great at this sort of self-evaluation. In one 2010 paper from Social and Personality Psychology Compass, for example, the psychological researchers Simine Vazire and Erika N. Carlson reviewed a bunch of the past literature on this question and found that overall, peoples perceptions of their own personality are certainly more accurate than random guesses would be, but they are substantially far from perfect.

Soto explained that there are certain patterns to how people misfire when evaluating their personalities, and in some cases your friends, family members, or co-workers might possess a more accurate sense of who you are than you do. Some kind of behavior and aspects of personality are highly observable by others, like extraversion, and for those peers are generally better, he explained. Other things are more about your internal emotions and thoughts, and there the self is better. In other words, it isnt hard for your friends to tell whether or not you talk to a lot of people at parties, so if you have a false sense of your own level of extraversion, the truth of the matter is evident to observers. For traits like neuroticism, on the other hand, external observers have a lot less to go on, so in most cases you will be a better judge than people who know you.

Taking a Big Five test like this one is simply a good way to better understand yourself. It can also help put things in context  as Srivastava put it, through the feedback, you get to find out where you stand relative to other people. Everybody has ideas about what theyre like, things like Im kind of reserved or Sometimes I get pretty anxious. All of those things are on a spectrum of human experience, and getting standardized feedback tells you where you are on that spectrum. In other words, a test like this turns what can sometimes be guesswork about who you are into something a bit more scientific and concrete.

BFI-2 items copyright 2015 by Oliver P. John and Christopher J. Soto. Reprinted with permission. For more information about the BFI-2, visit the Colby Personality Lab website at http://www.colby.edu/psych/personality-lab/.
Photo: Mike Cernovich/Facebook

Vic Berger IV is not  and this is going to sound weird, but bear with me  involved in an online pedophilia ring. If you take one thing away from this story, it should be that. Berger is a Tim & Eric collaborator and video editor who recently made something of a name for himself publishing surreal videos built mostly from presidential campaign footage. Yet a disturbingly large number of people have sent him hundreds of tweets and messages accusing him of being connected to a nonexistent Twitter pedophilia ring.

The reason for this is that Mike Cernovich, a leading alt-right and manosphere figure, has implied as such, over and over and over, in tweets and Periscope videos. He appears to have done so because he is mad at Berger over a Twitter fight. Berger has, indeed, repeatedly made fun of Cernovich. Cernovich has responded by escalating their insult war into accusations of horrible crimes, and weaponizing his hundreds of thousands of followers into a sustained campaign of harassment and threats. This is the 2016 internet.

Maybe the first thing to understand about Cernovich  in the context of this story, at least  is that he has a tendency to accuse people he dislikes, whether politicians or the subjects of his online disputes, of terrible sexual predilections. He does it really, really frequently, and is particularly obsessed with pedophiles and their enablers and cover-uppers: Cernovich believes they are absolutely everywhere, that the world is awash in pedophile conspiracies. Once hes identified someone he believes is a sex criminal (or, in rare cases, an actual sex criminal), he will demand that various people in their orbit then vocally denounce that person. If they dont, then as far as Cernovich is concerned they are suspect, too. News outlets that run stories about the science of pedophilia, meanwhile  and this is an active, important area of study for sex researchers  are pro-pedophile.

Heres a partial sampling of Cernovichs pedophilia-related tweets just since April:

Full disclosure: Cernovich gave me the same treatment, though he accused me of different sorts of predation and made a Google-threat:

Far from being an eccentricity on the part of a prominent commentator, the wild and far-flung accusations of pedophilia are a core component of Cernovichs broader online strategy. In a New Yorker profile this year, he proudly touted his ability to make damaging rumors about people he doesnt like go viral (he was one major source of the sick Hillary rumors that found their way into the mainstream media). On his blog, he wrote a post with a headline that stated that some of the leaked John Podesta emails Reveal Clintons Inner Circle as Sex Cult with Connections to Human Trafficking. In that post, he wrote that we should focus less on Clinton Cash style corruption and more on the Clinton Foundations sale of children to Saudi pedophiles. There and elsewhere in his online writings and Periscope videos, Cernovich helped push the idea of a massive conspiracy involving the Democrats and/or Clinton and child sex trafficking. That conspiracy, of course, helped fuel the more specific Pizzagate conspiracy theory that culminated in a gunman opening fire inside the restaurant earlier this month. (Cernovich quickly took to Twitter to dispute any connection between himself and Pizzagate, and theres no evidence the gunman was inspired by Cernovich in particular as opposed to any of the many other online figures who helped spread conspiracy theories about Democrats and sex-trafficking and pedophilia.)

This gonzo conspiracy theorizing about Hillary Clinton, Podesta, and other big names in the Democratic Establishment (not to mention a number of other wild Cernovich beliefs, including attributing certain mystical properties to semen) was what first brought Cernovich to the attention of Berger, who last month made the Gorilla Mindset author the butt of a series of jokes and videos on Twitter. Cernovich, in turn, challenged Berger to a debate; Berger wasnt interested, as he indicated cheekily in a response he posted on Twitter:

"Weird Mike" Cernovick has been begging me to debate him. Okay, I accept. @Cernovich pic.twitter.com/a7vM23K5Gk  Vic Berger IV (@VicBergerIV) November 17, 2016

This exchange appears to have given Cernovich license to pursue his particular obsession; by Cernovichs logic, the fact that Berger found it strange that Cernovich would call him a child molester out of nowhere could only be evidence that Berger was hiding something, so Cernovich passed this message on to his followers:

Berger was annoyed at the pedophilia tweets, but didnt think much of them at the time  this was still firmly in the category of someone being a dick on Twitter during an ongoing squabble. Berger continued to taunt Cernovich; Cernovich blocked him; and then  in the manner of braggadocious Twitter insult wars of this kind  Berger encouraged his readers to contact Cernovich further.

Boy oh boy, does this sting! Please write @Cernovich and ask him to unblock me. 1st amendment is very important. Thanks! #PeriodJuice  Vic Berger IV (@VicBergerIV) November 21, 2016

That was it for a while. But [o]ne month later, wrote Berger in an email, someone tells me I need to check Cernovichs twitter because he was tweeting insane shit about me. Insane shit, naturally, about Bergers connection to a supposed online network of pedophiles:

(I should note that, over the weekend, before I had any plans of writing about this, Cernovich emailed me out of the blue three times in a little over two hours to ask me, as a friend of Bergers, to comment for a story he was working on about all this. As I pointed out to Cernovich, I didnt know Berger at all  I had never even tweeted at him, and he had never tweeted at me. Cernovich initially accepted this, but it wasnt the last I would hear from him.)

This was an escalation far beyond vague child-molester vibe jokes: This was Cernovich, weeks after a man had opened fire in a pizza restaurant based on online conspiracy theorizing, openly drawing a connection between Berger and an active pedophile ring.

What was this ring? Well, it was a series of people who, after Berger tweeted encouragement for his followers to get in touch with Cernovich, DMed him crude, sometimes sexual insults involving a photo of his newborn child. @PedosforTrump, for example, sent Cernovich that photo and asked did you rape this baby? asking for vic. Then, two messages later: oh and also much love from the Berger Bois. @PedosforTrump also tweeted cum at Cernovich with a photo of his kid and some vaguely semen-looking streaks painted on digitally. Another user, @gurdubu, DMed Cernovich only the word cum, and more than a half hour later sent a photo of his kid  but one that had no sexual connotations whatsoever. (Cernovich would later claim, incorrectly, that @gurdubu had captioned a baby pic with the word cum.) In a DM, @gurdubu said  Im clearing up the formatting a bit  Oh, I just sent it to bug him and afterward I saw he tweeted that picture with his kid saying mfw when people think I get mad online or something so I drew on that and sent it too almost an hour later then he acted like cum was a caption for that and had people threaten to doxx me. This timeline is backed up by the screenshot Cernovich sent me (Im blacking out the photo of his child):

Now, by any standard of normal behavior, none of this is defensible  its counterproductive, gross, and over the line. But those DMs arent from Berger, and as an experienced commentator on Gamergate like Cernovich no doubt knows, its common for trolls seeking to stoke drama to affect affiliation with groups or people currently engaged in online conflict, and say or do provocative things.

Nevertheless, on Periscope, where he unspooled his theories, Cernovich insisted on connecting what he says is a wave of pedophilic harassment to Berger. Over and over and over. The first video that follows is a highlight reel  for severe lack of a better term  put together by Berger, while the next three offer fuller clips of Cernovichs rants about Berger.

Theyre connected to this guy, Cernovich says in the second video, before spelling out Bergers handle twice. Stuff like this wont intimidate me, he insists, but they might be harming children, right? They might be going after vulnerable people. Theyre not going to get to me, get to me, bother me, Im very conscientious about that. But who knows what the hell theyre doing? Do they live in a school zone? Are they around children ever? At one point, he points the camera at Bergers profile and says So this is the guy, you know, thinks its funny  hahaha, cum, baby  you know. The video is something of a call to arms: We need to monitor these people, go through all of their notifications, find out whats going on, who these people are, what their connections are. Cernovich even suggests that Berger himself could be operating the accounts that are tormenting him. Were definitely going to bring the full resources that I have available to me  private investigator and everything  and investigate these people, he assures his viewers. Find out their backgrounds. Theres something going on.

Cernovich is no dummy. Hes been a social-media personality and mens rights commentator for long enough to know that a call to investigate a group of people has a completely different valence than Bergers more tongue-in-cheek exhortation for his followers to ask Cernovich to unblock him. But in the videos, Cernovich repeatedly insists this is more than just standard troll wars: This isnt, Oh, I got trolled, I got trolled, they got me. This isnt about me  this is about, are these people ever around children? Are they ever around children and those are the types of questions that we need to ask. Who are his friends? Who are Vics friends? Do they all know that he is surrounding himself with pedophiles? Thats what we gotta know, thats definitely what we gotta know. There is, of course, no evidence Berger is surrounding himself with pedophiles, and even this is a serious accusation, but Cernovich doesnt let that stop him.

***

All the videos and tweets had their inevitable effect: A wave of people attacked Berger as a pedophile. Id say at least 200 - 300 tweets, he said in an email. It was a lot. These tweets were people calling me a pedo, threatening me, asking me to prove Im not a pedo, death threats and people saying they hoped I was killed, people mocking me and laughing at me for being upset that Cernovich was calling me a pedo, people saying they have my home address, people telling me theyd be hacking my website and so on. I got messages on Facebook, Instagram, my email, YouTube comments on my channel, some guy made a Craigslist ad in my name as if I were looking for sex.

@VicBergerIV likes to photoshop 10 year old boy incest.  And he's close friends w/ people who make pedo jokes about newborns. #Pizzagate https://t.co/8lEbEJRbhh  Stephanie Costello (@Stello_Official) December 19, 2016

@VicBergerIV it is serious and horrifying, we gotta get sick pedo fucks like you to sign out of life  purposly (@purposly) December 20, 2016

pedo pedo pedo pedo pedo  Douglas moore (@Finallyfree423) December 19, 2016

@VicBergerIV you're a fucking douchebag who is mad you're getting called out for 'likely' and 'allegedly' being a pedo  Gab.ai/Cowbell (@tonsmorecowbell) December 19, 2016

Berger wrote that as for actual death threats, Id say 4 or 5 that legitimately worried me. I count the one where he said hes going to stab me in the eyes so I should watch my back as a death threat. I got a few watch your back, pedo messages. Some guy told me he cant wait until I end up dead under a bridge.

Cernovich, meanwhile, maintains that Berger is the aggressor. In one of his emails to me, he said that Berger had @-mentioned Cernovich after Cernovich had blocked him, in violation of Twitters TOS. But in actuality theres no mention of the word block or any of its variants in the Twitter terms of service. In emails to Berger, Cernovich also pointed out that someone had doxxed him, albeit at an old address, and has demanded Berger no longer @-mention him and only contact him via his lawyer. I currently view you as a threat to myself and my family, one email concludes, as your followers have sent me pedophile messages and attempted to dox me. Cernovich also sent me another email on Sunday in which he complained about my dishonest tweeting. Do forward our email to NY Mags legal department, he wrote. Its time for adults to talk about this, as you clearly are not one. I genuinely didnt understand why he was asking me to forward our correspondence to lawyers, so I didnt do it  but in light of his mention of lawyers, I sent a request for comment not to Cernovich, but to his attorney. Neither Cernovich nor his attorney responded. Earlier this week, Cernovich posted a Periscope video with the title When is someone responsible for what his or her fans do?

Berger, meanwhile, now has to deal with the reality that a corner of the internet  a corner whose members tend not to score strongly in the critical-thinking department  thinks he may be involved in a pedophile ring. He said his employer, the online video network Super Deluxe, recognized that the hit to his image may reflect back on the company and has taken his concerns seriously. Berger also said he had his lawyer send a letter to Cernovich asking him to stop implying he is a pedophile.

In one sense, this exchange highlights the total-war ethos of the alt-right. Think of how this all went down: Berger said Mike Cernovich is an idiot  go tweet annoying things at him. Oh, and heres a video of him cut with fart noises. LOL. Cernovich, in response, launched an investigation into whether Berger is maybe part of a sprawling online pedophilia network. The two sides were not operating on the same level, and thats a microcosm for how these fights have gone down in general. Cernovich and Berger were both, to be fair, hit with online abuse as a result of the spat, but only one side was hit with the sort of abuse that can do real damage to ones career and reputation.

Perhaps more important, this incident demonstrates, in a rather disturbing manner, just how easy it is these days for anyone with a big audience to, well, Pizzagate someone they dont like. Pizzagates disseminators conjured, out of thin air, an insane conspiracy theory from fragmentary clues that only extremely conspiracy-addled people could construe as evidence of a giant pedophilia ring run by some of the most powerful people in the country.

On the internet, theres never a shortage of conspiracy-addled people. So Cernovich did the same thing to Berger  he Pizzagated him. He just repeated outrageous half-truths and innuendo over and over and over and over, likely knowing that eventually, his viewers and readers would start to believe them. We seem to have reached a point where anyone with a big enough microphone can make up anything about anyone, and some people will believe it. Some of those people, terrifyingly, will have guns.

Cernovich, for his part, just cant seem to shake his fixation on the pedophile ring that his fertile imagination had birthed:

A Soros funded organization is defending the pedophiles who attacked me and my newborn daughter. Truly evil.  Mike Cernovich  (@Cernovich) December 20, 2016

So you can bet there are more tweets and videos and blog posts to come. Given that weve already seen one instance of gunfire discharged inside a pizzeria as a result of the conspiracy theories Cernovich has helped to spread, it feels safe to say that, eventually, someone is going to get hurt.
Roberta Mancino. Photo: Courtesy of Roberta Mancino

Perhaps youve seen the videos. Some lunatic strapped in to a bright-red wingsuit, jumping off a cliff in the Alps and gliding across majestic landscapes at blurring speeds  inches from a sheer cliff wall, or a meter over jagged rocks. Theres really nothing like it on earth. Shared on social media, its the type of clip that pulls your eyelids over your forehead and reminds you that you havent really lived.

Roberta Mancino is one of the sports greats. Shes a rare woman in an aggressively male sport, but what sets her apart is her creativity and her desire to execute jumps that others would never dare, like splitting two skyscrapers in Panama City or flying over an active volcano in Chile  the first person ever to do so. She isnt particularly shy, either, having recorded several skydives completely au naturel. And she swims with crocodiles and tiger sharks for kicks.

The Italian extreme athlete just wrapped up the latest round of RedBull Aces  a thrilling mid-air competition pitting wingsuit pilots against each other in a slalom race around gates suspended by helicopters. And now shes off to train for her next big stunt: jumping out of a plane, and skydiving back into the same plane. Yes, for real. We got her to pause long enough to talk to us about her life as an airborne adventure junkie, including one near-death encounter with a cliff in Switzerland.

How did you discover wingsuiting?

Ive been skydiving since 2000, and I started wingsuiting in 2009. It makes you feel like youre flying much more than just falling, like in skydiving. I always wanted to fly, that was my dream since I was very little. I started with paragliding but my real dream was to go skydiving and learn how to fly.

How do you graduate from skydiving to wingsuits?

In general it takes about 200 skydives to start to wingsuit, but I started much later just because I wanted to be really safe. I already had thousands of jumps before I started to wingsuit, but from 2009 on I never stopped. All my skydiving training was mostly to train for BASE jumping  to be able to jump off different things like a building. When you proximity fly, when you BASE jump and fly by something, then you can really feel the speed, and you feel like youre flying like a bird. Its a beautiful sensation that gives you lots of freedom. I mean, you feel part of nature when youre in the mountains flying over rocks, trees, and beautiful locations with waterfalls. And even in the city it looks and feels cool.

Can you describe the sensation of flying by a building at 160 mph?

You know, I always say you kind of feel like youre in a Bond movie the whole time, thats what its like for me. Its very exciting and I love this feeling of speed and freedom. Right now we have one of the best competitions in our sport in RedBull Aces. Its all about speed and flying. We have to go around gates that hang from helicopters. So we curve around those gates with four people competing and the fastest one wins the competition.

Do you race at the same time, or is it one-by-one?

We race four people together. We are in a big helicopter and when it starts, we all jump together. Then we start to look for the gates hanging from four helicopters up in the sky, and we have to go around them. So, you hit the first gate, for example, on your left, then the second one on the right. Then, the third one on your left and then the last gate, the finish line is on the other side. So, its a really cool competition. We feel like Formula One drivers in the sky. And everything is 180 miles per hour. We are all flying to the same point, and there can be a collision with the other jumpers so you have to be careful. It could be dangerous because you can hit each other. Maybe just a black eye or you get a little bit sore, but nothing crazy.

How do you go faster? If you can explain it to somebody whos never done the sport.

You want to stretch the wingsuit, so you stretch your whole body horizontally. You have to push from the shoulder to the toes, and stretch as much as you can. Then you have to find the right angle of your body to not be too flat  because if you go too flat you glide and you dont go fast. But if you go too steep then you just go straight down, so you have to find the right glide. It takes thousands of jumps to understand. Every little movement makes a change in the angle of your body  like if you look up, for example, you slow down. If you put your head down then you go steep and you go faster.

Is speed the best part about BASE jumping?

Yes, yes. Its all about speed. When youre skydiving you dont understand how fast youre going because you dont have anything related to you to look at. But when you BASE jump you can see it. When you fly next to a wall, you see the wall go by and you know youre going very fast.

Are there many female racers?

There are only two girls right now in those races. There are no other girls just because its a hardcore race. I mean, the guys are fast and aggressive and it can be scary.

Tell us about the jump you did in Panama City, flying between two buildings. How did you decide on that?

I lived in Dubai for three winters, and I was looking at the buildings out there and just thinking how amazing it would be to fly in between those buildings and do something in the city. It was a dream of mine. You always want to find something that can push your limits and to see how precise you are when you fly. I wouldve loved to do it in Dubai but it was very hard because Im a woman. It was impossible. They wouldnt let me do it. So I contacted some friends, my students who were in Panama. Then I went there a few times to scout locations and found those two buildings, and it was easy to get permission. The gap in between the buildings was not too small  I needed to have enough space to have somebody follow me on the side.

We had some crosswind that made it more dangerous. A storm was coming and the wind was picking up and thats why on the video you can see my face at one point, as soon I pass the buildings I just kind of scream. I got scared because I didnt expect such push from the crosswind. Thats okay after you pass the buildings and theres nothing there, but you dont want that to happen when youre in between.

What about being the first person to fly over an active volcano? Where did you get the inspiration to do that jump?

Okay. So, all those jumps I do can be dangerous, but theyre stunts. Theyre not jumps that you do over and over again. You train all year and then you go and you do a first jump thats very safe, like flying high above, just to check the place. And then the second jump you go much lower. Something can always happen, but theres lots of preparation. At the volcano, weather conditions can change and make the jump more intense, but we were so lucky, we had the best conditions and there was no wind at all. The only thing is, when you fly above it you feel the turbulence from the heat, because the volcano is really hot inside. All the hot air comes up and its almost like you feel the lift. The flight was pretty much like any other jump, except the landing spot was far away, so we had to fly out and glide for a while before pulling the parachute. And the landing can be technical because the terrain is unique, there are rocks in some places.

To fly over a volcano is just incredible and unique, and it looks crazy because you see all the fire inside. People asked me if I was worried that it might explode when I was flying by, and I was like, no way. I mean, how unlucky could you be? But a few weeks later we heard from friends that the volcano was firing the whole night. So we laughed a little bit.

When we flew there nobody had done it before, so we had no idea what to expect. Thats why those are the best projects, because you dont know whats going on until youre there and you find out. Its all about the adventure, and thats what we do. And then theres the connection with nature and beauty. I mean, flying is such a good feeling  when you fly with your body, its not the same as in an airplane. Its you, you are the airplane.

Whats the most scared youve ever been during a wingsuit BASE jump?

I was in Switzerland and I was standing on top, at the end of the cliff. The day before and all that morning it had been raining a lot, so the tall grass where I was standing was very, very wet. When I stepped to push to jump out, I lost my balance. So instead of jumping off I just fell off the cliff in a completely wrong body position. You always want to jump out far and straight, but I crashed with my butt on the rock I was halfupside down. I have to say it was the scariest experience Ive ever had.

How did you recover?

I recovered with just instinct I think. I have almost 9,000 skydives, so Ive been in the air a lot, and thats why you want to jump so much. You want training in those situations, and if I didnt have that experience I probably wouldnt be here now telling you the story. Its happened to other people and they have not been so lucky.
Lion Internet Cafe in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Jean Chung/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Next time youre cursing Verizons name, dangling halfway out a window to hold your laptop in that one spot in the alley between your building and the next where you can actually read your email, ask yourself: Does life have to be this way? And, more pressingly, do you still have a valid passport?

Cloud-services company Akamai released its latest State of the Internet report for the third quarter of 2016 last week. If youre considering embracing an ex-pat lifestyle to chase down the dream of a better browsing experience, these countries  ranked by average connection internet speed in Mbps, megabits per second  are your best bets:

1. South Korea: 26.3

2. Hong Kong: 20.1

3. Norway: 20.0

4. Sweden: 19.7

5. Switzerland: 18.4

6. Singapore: 18.2

7. Japan: 18.0

8. Finland: 17.6

9. Netherlands: 17.3

10. Latvia: 16.9

11. Denmark: 16.6

12. United States: 16.3

South Korea is far and away the winner, with America clawing its way to a semi-respectable No. 12. (On the bright side, our national average connection speed is up nearly 7 percent since the previous quarter.) To put these numbers into perspective, the global average speed is 6.3 Mbps.

Within the U.S., D.C. outranks any single state for average connection speed. The top ten is composed almost entirely of states on the East Coast, with the notable exception of second-runner-up Utah. We see you, Beehive State.

1. District of Columbia: 24.8

2. Delaware: 21.4

3. Utah: 21.4

4. Massachusetts: 21.1

5. Rhode Island: 20.7

6. Maryland: 19.7

7. New Jersey: 19.4

8. New York: 19.0

9. Virginia: 19.0

10. Pennsylvania: 17.8

Why plan your next vacation around beaches, restaurants, or museums when you could build an entire itinerary around hunting down Google Fiber?
What did we ever do before two-day shipping? To help you navigate the waters as the clock counts down, we combed a few sites that offer the service in these last few hours of the holiday rush  and actually found some deals to boot. Just order by 12 noon Eastern Standard Time, tomorrow, December 21 (if Macys, order by 5 p.m.), and youll still be a hero in time for the holidays.

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Photo: Andre Wagner

Despite not initially being considered for the role, when Genevieve Angelson read the part of Patti for Amazons Good Girls Revolt, she knew it was meant for her. Ive never gotten to play the messy, wild, outspoken girl, she says. I really wanted to play her. Good Girls Revolt is based on Lynn Povichs 2012 book that chronicles the landmark sex-discrimination lawsuit she and 45 other women filed against Newsweek in 1970.

Photo: Andre Wagner

Dress by Marco de Vincenzo, price upon request at Marco de Vincenzo.

Angelson, whose previous credits include parts in Army Wives, The Good Wife, House of Lies, and Backstrom, began acting professionally at 22 (ancient by Hollywood standards). She cites an irrational sense of confidence as the motivation to keep auditioning when most of her contemporaries had been on set since they were preteens. I knew there was a chance I could be bad at acting, but I was afraid that if I didnt try, Id end up an alcoholic, she says. I dont know where I got this ridiculous voice in my head, but its gotten me jobs. Like for Backstrom, I was the female lead opposite Rainn Wilson when I had no credits as a series regular. I just walked into that room being like, You know what? Youre welcome. Here I am to solve your casting problem. Im the solution. I guess Ive always had this pair of balls.

Photo: Andre Wagner

Dress by Michael Kors Collection, price upon request at Michael Kors.

While shes proven herself to be a fearless and adept actress, Angelson is quick to admit that such prowess doesnt translate to getting dressed. When I was 10, I moved to New York and showed up on the first day of school wearing a turtleneck from Talbots Kids and white Velcro sneakers, with a skirt that was so long it was dragging. And I could just tell everyone around me thought I was a dork. Two girls turned to each other and said, We have to adopt her. Shes a fashion victim.

Angelson brings that sense of being charmingly flawed to the character of Patti: She may not always make the best decisions, but shes firmly in the drivers seat. It was just so interesting because I think at that moment as an actor, I was bottoming out with trying to be perfect, she says. But Im never going to be perfect. Im never going to be Meryl Streep. All I can do is be honest and available and tell [my characters] truth. Patti came along at this moment where I was ready to be totally messy.

Photo: Andre Wagner

Dress and Jacket by Fendi, price upon request at Fendi.

Earlier this month, Amazon canceled the highly acclaimed series (ironically, the decision was made without the input of one woman). The Atlantic called the cancellation infuriating, while several media outlets agreed. Good Girls creator Dana Calvo even openly admitted on Twitter that the decision not to renew the show included no women in the conversation and told BuzzFeed, Eighty percent of people who watched the first few minutes of the pilot stayed until the last minutes of the finale. We had twice the audience of Transparent. Angelson tweeted, @Amazon I dunno what to tell women, scared of their own president, who ask why you canceled a hit feminist show 30 days in. Thankfully, Sony Pictures Television is already in talks to pick up Good Girls Revolt, and Angelson herself has a renewed motivation to fight for womens rights offscreen.

Photo: Andre Wagner

Dress by Chanel, price upon request at Chanel.

She a political force on Twitter, sharing ways to take action against Donald Trumps cabinet picks and posting information about womens reproductive rights, which are currently at risk in the president-elects administration. I think the work [ahead of women] has so much to do with our own attitudes towards ourselves, she says. Were going to have a president who has openly admitted to molesting women, yet he was voted in by women. To believe that Donald Trump is what we deserve  its devastating. The resolution lies in self-love and empowerment (at the risk of not sounding corny).

Photos by Andre Wagner, Styling by Lindsay Peoples, Makeup by Rommy Najor, Hair by Jerome Cultrera.
An illustration for Resist! Photo: Laura Murray

When Francoise Mouly, the art director of The New Yorker, heard that Donald Trump had been elected president of the United States, she says, I was in a state of shock. The cover image shed been planning for the weeks issue  which played on the theme of the first woman president  had to be scrapped. Instead, for the magazines November 11 issue, she chose an image of a brick wall stacked almost to the top of the page. And then, like so many Americans trying to adjust to their new reality, she had to figure out what to do next.

Thats when Gabe Fowler, who publishes the quarterly comics anthology Smoke Signal, got in touch. He asked Mouly to edit a special issue of the anthology that would feature work from women and LGBTQ artists in response to Trumps election. Mouly said she hesitated at first  her plate was full to the point of overflowing  but in the end she and her daughter, Nadja Spiegelman, agreed to work on the paper, which they called Resist! There was a need to be making something rather than sitting around feeling helpless, Spiegelman says. And this felt like a way of giving voice to something that needed to exist.

Photo: Ghazaleh Rastgar

The same day her mother approached her with the idea, Spiegelman launched a website for Resist! along with a call for submissions. Within days, theyd received an outpouring of responses, and by the time their deadline hit, Spiegelman says theyd gotten more than 1,000 submissions from artists across the country. And although they were adamant about funding the paper themselves, they also received about $4,000 in donations  enough to print and distribute more than 30,000 copies of Resist! on inauguration weekend. By elevating the voices of women and other marginalized artists, Mouly and Spiegelman say they hope to galvanize those opposed to Trump. I think that pictures have a way of searing themselves into your brain and cutting through the hypocrisy, Spiegelman says. And constant and immediate reaction through pictures is a necessary form of political resistance.

Spiegelman says her mother had been playing with the idea of creating something grassroots, rough, raw, new before the election, but she hadnt considered a free newspaper as a viable option. When Fowler contacted her, however, she began to see potential in a concrete, visual format. As a young girl living in Paris, she was a dedicated reader of the left-wing Hara-Kiri Hebdo and once said she was expelled from school something like 24 or 25 times because I was trying to drag everyone into demonstrations. In France, the voice of my generation was that rag  that free newsprint tabloid that was an equal-opportunity taboo-breaker against the powers that be, she says.

Photo: Anne van der Linden

And its not just the format, but the nature of the art that makes Resist! (and comics in general) effective. You see the hand of the artist moving, Mouly says, referring to comics handmade nature. Its like seeing someones diary. So through the deep alienation of the election, you create something that feels connected.

The images on Resist!s website are indeed searing. Some depict a dystopian future under President Trump, others protest government control of womens bodies, and still others illustrate grim hopelessness and defeat. Almost every submission on the site is by a woman, and Spiegelman said there was a marked divide between what they received from women and LGBTQ creators and what they received from men.

When you go through the submissions by women, you see women, she says. You see women talking about how they felt that day, you see women drawing themselves, drawing crowds of women, drawing their uteruses and their ovaries and their bodies. And when you go through the submissions by men, you see Trump.

Photo: Jazmine Boatman

Ultimately, Mouly thinks the more introspective response of female artists will unify those who oppose Trump. I think womens voices will be his downfall, she says. Its much easier to unite people against something. Its the cheapest and most effective trick in the book, and its the one Trump uses. Its much harder, but ultimately the only solution, to define what we stand for. So it was gratifying to see the voices that came back to us were not so much a denunciation of Trump as an affirmation of the alternative.

Ultimately, Spiegelman says, she doesnt think someone in a red state wearing a Trump hat will read Resist! and change their mind  instead, the newspaper is meant for people who see themselves reflected in it. As she puts it, I hope people read it and feel less alone.
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Oil prices are probably already high enough to spark a rebound in shale production.

The IEA says that in the third quarter of 2016, the U.S. shale industry became cash flow neutral for the first time ever. That isnt a typo. For years, the drilling boom was done with a lot of debt, and the revenues earned from steadily higher levels of output were not enough to cover the cost of drilling, even when oil prices traded above $100 per barrel in the go-go drilling days between 2011 and 2014. Even when U.S. oil production hit a peak at 9.7 million barrels per day in the second quarter of 2015, the industry did not break even. Indeed, shale companies were coming off of one of their worst quarters in terms of cash flow in recent history.

That all changed around the middle of 2015 when the most indebted and high-cost producers went out of business and consolidation began to take hold. E&P companies began cutting costs, laying off workers, squeezing their suppliers and deferring projects that no longer made sense.

By 2016, oil companies large and small had shed a lot of that extra fat, running leaner than at any point in the last few years. By the third quarter, oil prices had climbed back to above $40 and traded at around $50 per barrel for some time, replenishing some lost revenue. That was enough to make the industry cash flow neutral for the first time in its history. Related: Who Won The 2016 Oil War?

(Click to enlarge)

That suggests that moving forward, the shale industry could move into cash flow positive territory. Oil prices seem to be trading safely above $50 per barrel for the time being, and OPEC cuts could induce more price gains. The industry is now focusing on shale plays that have lower breakeven prices, namely, the Permian Basin and some parts of the Bakken. That has companies like Concho Resources, Murphy Oil, Devon Energy, Pioneer Natural Resources and EOG Resources all stepping up their spending levels heading into 2017.

Wood Mackenzie suggests that $55 per barrel is a sweet spot for the oil and gas industry to rebound, a level that is only slightly above todays prices. At $55 per barrel, the shale industry is cash flow positive and will grow accordingly. "If we stay (at $55 a barrel), the world's biggest oil companies start to make money again. If we go back down to $50 (or lower) in 2017...then those companies are in the negative territory and they go back into survival mode where they have been in the last two years," Angus Rodger, WoodMacs research director for upstream oil and gas, said in a report. He estimates that OPECs cuts could succeed in pushing oil prices sustainably up to $55 per barrel. Even taking into account some cheating, WoodMac concludes that a 75 percent compliance rate with the promised cuts would get the markets to that price level.

Related: Rosneft To Ramp Up Global Expansion Under Trump

Still, the seeds of disappoint have already been sown  it is just a question of whether or not they will sprout. The U.S. dollar is at its strongest level in nearly a decade, which will weigh on global crude oil demand. Also, hedge funds and other money managers have staked out the most bullish position on oil futures in more than two years. That has succeeded in running up prices this month, but it also sets up the market for downside risk. Should data emerge in the coming months that some OPEC members are cheating, the net-long positions could unwind. Those liquidations tend to happen quickly, so a sharp fall in oil prices is not out of the question.

"If confidence around the compliance with cuts wavers, the market will necessarily correct lower, considering that it also faces the twin headwinds of resilient U.S. production and a stronger dollar environment as the Fed begins to hike rates," Harry Tchilinguirian, an analyst with BNP Paribas, told S&P Global Platts.

And while the financial markets present risk, the physical market is also up in the air. Of course, OPEC cheating is a possibility. But with U.S. shale producers already stepping up drilling, production could come back quicker than many expect. Weekly EIA data shows gains of nearly 300,000 bpd since the end of summer. On top of that, disrupted output from Libya and Nigeria  two countries not subjected to the OPEC cuts  could begin to come back. An oil tanker docked at Libyas largest oil export terminal, Es Sider, this week, was the first tanker to load up Libyan oil from that terminal in more than two years. Libya hopes to add another 300,000 bpd in output in 2017 after adding as much in 2016.

Even with those negative risks in mind, the shale industry is getting back to work. If oil prices can stay roughly where they are right now, the industry could become cash flow positive for the first time ever next year.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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The Koch brothers are taking on a proposed border tax that could crop up in the Republican plan for a monumental tax overhaul, arguing that such a tax would hurt American motorists by leading to a spike in gasoline prices.

The Koch brothers do not typically wage huge fights against the Republican Party, and they are keen to see the promised overhaul to the U.S. tax code proceed, which could lead to huge corporate tax cuts. But the Republicans are also considering a provision that would tax imports in order to provide a jolt to American manufacturing for export. In a Koch-funded report released last week, the so-called border adjustability proposal that Republicans are considering would lead to a 30 cent per gallon rise in gasoline prices. The Koch brothers said the border tax could be devastating to the economy.

If passed, the tax would have huge consequences for the U.S. oil industry, the report from The Brattle Group says. Exporting tax-free would mean that U.S oil producers would rather export than sell to domestic refiners, which would be subjected to tax. The tax for domestic sales would mean that oil companies would demand a higher price from refiners to sell domestically. Ultimately, those higher costs would be passed on to consumers in form of higher prices at the pump. In other words, the border adjustment tax would increase gasoline prices. Related: Oil Prices Edge Lower On Crude Inventory Build

That would certainly be a political headache for Republicans and the Trump administration, but Trump has also vowed to champion the U.S. domestic energy industry. And the border adjustment would certainly be a boon to U.S. oil drillers, who would receive a windfall from the higher prices that they could command from refiners. The refining industry, however, would not be as excited about the policy change. It should not come as a surprise then, that the Koch brothers oppose the measure.

But the effects of a border adjustment tax are even more complex than outlined above. As Bloomberg Gadfly notes, the tax would have global ramifications as well. The resulting higher prices for domestic U.S. oil producers would definitely lead to more drilling and more output. That could add to global supplies, suppressing crude prices. However, cutting down on U.S. imports and boosting exports could also strengthen the U.S. dollar, which would have a depressing effect on U.S. exports, but also on commodity prices more generally.

The debate could be a moot point if the border adjustment tax proves to be too much of a political hot potato. The Republican Party has traditionally been very pro free-trade, so the tax would be a departure from Party orthodoxy, and it might not even be legal under WTO trade rules. It therefore, could be an uphill climb in Washington. The Koch brothers have laid down a marker on this issue, hoping to scare Republicans away from moving forward.

By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com

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Will climate change spark a financial crisis? It may not seem like an obvious connection but that was exactly the warning from the deputy head of the Bank of England a few months ago, a warning that is all the more stark as we are set to close the books on the worlds hottest year on record.

It is potentially a systemic risk, Paul Fisher, the deputy head of the Bank of England, said in October. "You dont need to believe in climate change, you dont need to believe that it is man-made," he added. "You just need to believe that governments are going to do stuff and that is going to affect your business. And then it is a material risk." That echoes the voice of Mark Carney, Bank of England Governor, who expressed similar sentiments last year.

The Paris Climate Change agreement was a signal that the world intends to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, even if the accord was relatively unambitious. Nearly all countries signed it, and although President-elect Donald Trump could decide to pull the U.S. out of the treaty, the world is moving on. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions necessarily means burning less oil, coal, and gas. Energy companies often have very lofty valuations, at least when commodity prices are high, but action on climate policy could undercut those valuations if fossil fuels are forced to be left in the ground.

That is not in immediate danger in the U.S., where the incoming administration has promised a drilling frenzy. One could argue that as the worlds second largest emitter, the non-involvement from the U.S. could shift global action. But there are few reasons why that line of argument does not hold water. First, the U.S. is slated to reduce emissions anyway as renewable energy becomes cheaper than coal and natural gas in large parts of the U.S. The solar industry just had a record quarter, installing 1 megawatt on average every 32 minutes. Moreover, 2016 will mark the first year that utility-scale solar outpaced all forms of new electricity generation. The future has already arrived for clean energy, the only issue is how quickly it will displace fossil fuels. Donald Trump could try to throw some assistance to the coal industry, but the economics of renewables are getting stronger.

Additionally, as technologies, renewable energy costs will only decline, while as extractive resources subject to scarcity, the same cannot be said for oil, coal and gas. Clean tech is a tough nut to crack, but our knowledge of how quickly clean energy will see costs decline and adoption ramp up is limited. It is not hard to imagine the energy industry being taken by surprise. After all, the iPhone did not exist a decade ago and now it is ubiquitous.

Electric vehicles will be key to displacing oil, and to be sure, they are much further behind in transportation than solar and wind are in the electric power sector. Still, new models are coming online, and adoption of EVs could see a J-like curve upwards. The estimates vary, but there is a general consensus that EVs will cut off several million barrels of oil demand in the coming decades. Related: Musks Space X: Down But Not Out

Of course, that is far away, but it wont take much to upend fossil fuel assets. Just look at the extensive damage that small increments of solar and wind are already doing to the finances of major utility companies.

(Click to enlarge)

There are a few other reasons why a Trump presidency may not rescue fossil fuels from a financial squeeze. He wont be president forever, so a future president could kick start climate action once he leaves office. More to the point, future policy is uncertain, and a sudden natural disaster could focus minds and force an abrupt shift in taxation or regulation. Paul Fisher warned that there is a chance of a system-wide repricing of assets happening quite suddenly."

Climate change is a genuine investment risk, Andrew Gray said at a Citigroup Inc. conference in Sydney in October.

One example of a shift in policy is the Obama administrations sudden decision to ban offshore drilling in the Arctic and parts of the Atlantic Ocean. The announcement on December 20 was made in conjunction with the Canadian government, which also placed the Arctic off limits. The U.S. Arctic is thought to hold nearly 30 billion barrels of oil and it was not too long ago that Royal Dutch Shell was drilling an exploration well in the Chukchi Sea and several major oil companies were gearing up for seismic testing in the Atlantic. Now those reserves are off limits. Obamas move apparently cannot be undone by the next administration  it is a permanent ban that could only be reversed by an act of Congress. Of course, that is possible with Republicans in control, but the point is that policy changes can occur suddenly.

The investigation by the U.S. SEC into ExxonMobil is also illustrative. Federal regulators, along with several state attorneys general, are trying to figure out if the company is misleading shareholders about the companys value. The allegation is that Exxon understands the ramifications of climate change and the inevitable restrictions on future extraction, but is misleading shareholders into thinking that all of the oil and gas reserves on its books will be produced. If that is not the case, then Exxon is a much less valuable company than the markets currently believe. It could be a blockbuster investigation, but it could also go nowhere in the Trump administration. Rex Tillersons nomination to the State Department is the cherry on top for the company as it enjoys a new dawn in America. Related: Why Oil Markets Dont Have To Worry About Libya

The threat of a financial crisis from climate policy has grown in salience and credibility in just the past few years, but it is also built on a lot of assumptions. Dismissing the theory earlier this month in the pages of the Wall Street Journal was Daniel Yergin, a notable oil historian and Vice Chairman of IHS. He points to several pieces of evidence about why the link between climate policy and a financial crisis is just babble. First, he notes, most of the value of an oil company comes from proved reserves, which are projects that will come to fruition within the next decade or so, which offers some degree of certainty about their ability to reach completion. More importantly, Yergin argues, the industry has gone through a significant stress-test over the past two years with the collapse of oil prices, which erased $1.4 trillion off the books of 82 global oil companies. That did not spark a financial crisis, and since climate policy will be more gradual, there is little reason to worry.

That may be true, but the effects of climate change will only grow stronger over time. It is hard to imagine governments sitting idle while that happens. Even the most bullish oil driller recognizes that cleaner technologies will eventually take over. The debate is about when, not if. A gradual shift could avoid a financial crisis, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that there will be substantial financial turmoil in the energy industry in the years ahead.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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Is it possible that killer whales could cut into the long-term growth of Canadas oil sands?

Environmental groups are suing the Canadian government over its recent approval of Kinder Morgans Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, a crucial project that could allow for the growth of oil sands production. The Trans Mountain Pipeline already runs from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia. Kinder Morgan wants to build a twin line that runs parallel to the existing one, which would triple the systems capacity to nearly 900,000 barrels per day.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave the greenlight to the Trans Mountain expansion late last month, knowing that doing so would rile up opposition from First Nations and environmental groups. In the same announcement, he rejected the Northern Gateway Pipeline, a more controversial project that would have run through sensitive rain forest.

But the Trans Mountain expansion, even with the support at the highest levels of the Canadian government, still faces obstacles. Ecojustice, an environmental outfit, is suing because the federal governments decision will impact killer whales in the shipping lanes where oil tankers will dock to load up on oil coming through the pipeline. The ones that we are concerned about are the Southern Resident killer whales, Dyna Tuytel, a lawyer with Ecojustice, told Bloomberg. The Trans Mountain expansion will result in seven times more tankers, which contribute to noise and interferes with hunting and communication. The tankers would also threaten salmon populations, which the whales feed on. Related: U.S. Shale Is Now Cash Flow Neutral

A spokesperson for the pipeline, however, says that the extra tanker traffic represents just 7 percent of the volume of commercial vessels moving through the area, so will have a minimal impact on the whales.

In addition to the lawsuit, environmental groups and First Nations have vowed to protest the project, hoping to turn it into a national flashpoint in the style of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access protests. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged that his decision to support the project would spark protest, but he sounded undeterred in a recent visit to British Columbia. Thats fine, he said. People are more than willing to express their opinions, to campaign against me, and to support politicians who will agree with them, and not agree with me. Thats fine. This is all part of our democratic process.

The Trans Mountain Expansion will be a crucial conduit for Albertas oil sands producers, an industry that is having trouble building long distance pipelines to get their product to export markets. A shortage of pipeline forces Canadian oil to trade at a discount to WTI (as does its quality), which means pipeline problems are cutting into upstream revenue. Ultimately, the lack of pipeline capacity could cut into long-term production targets. According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Canadas pipeline system can handle 4 million barrels of oil per day (mb/d), but in 2015, the system was nearly full, running 3.981 mb/d.

That highlights the importance of the Trans Mountain expansion not just to Kinder Morgan, but also to Canadas entire oil sands industry.

By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com

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Iraq added more uncertainty to the integrity of the OPEC deal this week, hinting that it would not make cuts to oil production immediately next month as the agreement requires.

Iraqs State Organization Marketing of Oil (SOMO), the state-owned oil marketing company, said that it would cut production by 200,000 to 210,000 bpd, in line with what Iraq agreed to as part of the Nov. 30 OPEC deal. However, SOMO said in a statement that those reductions would occur in the first half of 2017, which would fly in the face of the January 1 deadline that OPEC has promised.

Iraq was one of the most hesitant OPEC members in the lead up to the Vienna meeting, arguing that it needed to produce as much oil as possible in order to finance its war with the Islamic State. The willingness of Iraq to sign on to the cuts was crucial to success in Vienna. Now that commitment is being called into question.

Adding more fuel to the fire of speculation is the fact that BP just reported that production at the Rumaila oilfield in southern Iraq is rising. BP said Rumailas output is now at 1.45 million barrels per day, the highest rate in 27 years. The field has now produced 3 billion barrels of oil since its joint venture with PetroChina and South Oil Company of Iraq began in 2009. The consortium achieved this goal by a massive water injection program in order to boost reservoir pressure.

Related: Geothermal On Steroids: Drilling The Worlds Hottest Hole

The ratcheting up of output is evidence that Iraq may not adhere to its commitment by January. Argus Media reports that the export schedule out of southern Iraq shows no indication that state-owned marketer Somo plans to cut January production from its Basrah stream. Moreover, exports slated for January are estimated to be higher than the record level of exports  3.41 mb/d  achieved in November, just ahead of the OPEC meeting.

Complicating matters is that unlike Saudi Arabia, Iraq has a significant private sector presence. BP is one of a several international companies operating in Iraq. The Iraqi government will likely have to cut output from state-owned fields rather than order international firms to cut back, which would not only scare away investment but also require compensation. Nevertheless, higher private sector production will require deeper cuts from state-owned fields. The dilemma raises questions about Iraqs willingness to meet its promised cuts as part of the OPEC agreement.

This is the first sign of potential cheating. If Iraq misses its target and a few others follow suit, the effectiveness of the OPEC deal could start to unravel.

By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com

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Since spring of 2014, Like Minds Brewing business partners Chef Justin Aprahamian of Sanford and John Lavelle have tackled myriad challenges together  including legal hurdles and logistical battles  to make their dream of establishing their brewery a reality.

And those dreams came to fruition  first in the form of a successful brewery in Chicago, and later in the small Milwaukee-based production brewery and brew pub, which opened at 823 E. Hamilton St. in 2016.

But after much deliberation, Aprahamian has made the decision to step away from his ownership stake in both the brewery and restaurant.

Aprahamian says the decision comes, in part, from a desire to dedicate more time to his family. He and his wife Sarah, co-owner and operator of Sanford, are expecting a second child in early 2017. He says he didnt want to give short shrift to any of his responsibilities.

"For me, its a timing thing," says Aprahamian. "The demands and expectations of whats on the table just got out of balance. It wasnt an easy decision, and I labored over it for some time. Im really proud to have been a part of Like Minds evolution. And Ill always have a kinship to it. But in all fairness, I cant sell them short. They deserve someone who can make a full-time commitment to that vision, and unfortunately I cant at this time."

Aprahamian says that hes confident Lavelle will continue to carry on the mutual dream the two business associates shared for both the brewery and restaurant.

"John has made some amazing and unique beers," he says. "And what he has planned on the horizon has the potential to be incredible, in particular, the sour program of beers that looks to hit its stride with production quantities in early in 2017."

Lavelle expressed a mutual admiration for Aprahamian on the phone this afternoon, noting that he wouldnt be where he is today without his friend and business partners knowledge and input.

"I owe so much to Justin for what I know in brewing  for all the knowledge hes passed along to me in terms of balance and flavors," Lavelle says. "And Im hoping well continue those conversations."

Lavelle says that both the brewery and restaurant will remain open and operating, and that Chef Paul Funk will take a lead role for the restaurant portion of Like Minds.

"Our goal all along was to make food that goes along with beer," Lavelle says. "And hes the guy who will continue to lead us in that direction."

Aprahamian says he has confidence that Like Minds is in good hands.

"I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for the crew that weve assembled at the restaurant and brewery," he says. "I am particularly honored to have worked closely with Paul Funk in the Like Minds kitchen and for that reason am excited about the trajectory of the brewery and restaurant."

Like Minds is open Tuesday through Friday from 4 p.m. to close, Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.
Last week, I was bragging about the airfare deal of a century: a $66 round-trip ticket from Milwaukee to Ft. Myers, Florida.

Yesterday, I was eating my words, since my flight home was delayed from Saturday to Monday (not complaining there), then cancelled completely on Monday, with no reasonable option on how to get home.

Granted, getting stuck in Florida in the middle of the Wisconsin winter is a pretty good problem to have  until its time to leave, get back to work and see your family. And with Frontier only flying once a day, every other day, from Ft. Myers to Milwaukee, it was starting to get ugly. First-world problem? Definitely; we had a nice and relaxing few days on the beach. But at some point, everyone has to go home.

Frontier cant control the weather, but it wasnt about weather on Monday. The gate agents explained that Frontier didnt have enough staff and pilots to recover from Saturdays snowstorm. Unlike all the other airlines in the sky, they were canceling flights all over the country. We werent the only ones stuck in the airport.

The problem was finding a way to get home. The discount carrier doesnt have a codesharing agreement with other airlines, so they couldnt rebook us on a different airline. Or even that day. Or the next.

Frontier told me that they could rebook us for Wednesday, but that flight was now pretty full, too. All of their other flights in Florida were sold out or cancelled. That wouldve pushed us to Friday. Looking around at the bewildered, mostly older passengers also standing in line, I helped explain what was going down. Frontier offered us a one-way reimbursement ($33), but thats it.

With no other options, I hopped on my phone and bought two one-way tickets on Southwest Airlines, for $499 each. So, after reimbursal, that $66 trip turned into a $532 one, plus the extra days of hotel, car rental, etc. Fortunately, we could swing that. The dairy farmer kid from Hartford, next to us at the gate, could not. I have no idea if hes even home yet.

Flight delays and even cancellations happen, but transparency matters most. My biggest issue, really, was the complete lack of customer service on Frontiers part. The gate agents reminded us that they didnt actually work for Frontier, so they could be of no help and, thus, couldnt offer any compensation. The Frontier pilots were not impressed, either:

"Frontiers private investors, led by William Franke and Indigo Partners, must decide whether they want to run a reliable airline or loot it," Frontier pilot union's head Brian Ketchum said in a statement. "If its the former, they must invest in the infrastructure and front-line employees who are trying to succeed without corporate support."

In other words, even the pilots admit that it wasn't weather that caused Frontier to cancel some 30% of their flights on Monday. Said Ketchum, on Denver's debacle, specifically:

"This most recent meltdown by Frontier Airlines is due to the same executive mismanagement and misplaced focus on cost-cutting that has placed Frontier near the very bottom of the industry in operational performance and customer satisfaction. Leaving passengers and even their own cockpit and cabin crews stranded for hours without information is outrageous  even more so when this quarter was one of the airlines most profitable ever financially."

Frontiers customer service Twitter account didnt respond to numerous requests, nor did its Facebook account. At no point did I get an offer for a voucher or money toward our unexpected $998 upcharge to get home three days later than planned.

While I'm not looking forward to cold weather, not digging this flight-hour flight delay, either. Please help, @FrontierCare! @FlyFrontier  Andy Tarnoff (@AndyTarnoff) December 19, 2016

For obvious reasons, Ill never fly Frontier Airlines again  and you shouldnt, either.

Remember, this was the company the bought and dismantled Midwest Airlines, the pinnacle of customer service in the air. Now its stripped down to an undermanned skeleton crew that cant make its commitments or even explain why. The email they sent while I dropped a grand to get out of Florida was a nice apology, but that wont cut it.

You take a big risk on cut-rate airfare. Its cheap for a reason. But that doesnt mean it should be absent of responsibility. Ive learned a lesson about getting what you pay for.

When it comes to Frontier Airlines, you dont get very much.
China's Sixth Plenum held in end-October provides the first hints as to what and where the Communist Party of China (CPC) is heading. The Chinese media has noted 12 keywords that are important from the party's point of view and are therefore worth analyzing. The central aspect to be noted is that President Xi Jinping has been identified as 'core' leader of the party and this indicates that his anointment four years into office is a self-driven ambition more than anything else. The major keywords or phrases analysed below have been extracted from the Sixth Plenum's Communique.

The first keyword of note is 'Comprehensive, strict governance of the CPC'. Given China's present political and economic situation this means that the party will be required to stick to its principles and the leadership will monitor progress on all fronts on a regular basis. Xi Jinping's thinking in this regard could be interpreted to mean that individuals who violate party discipline shall face punishment. At the same time, the party organizations and disciplinary authorities in charge of supervising the party cadres bear the responsibility of ensuring that things move smoothly; in other words dissent will not be tolerated.

The second keyword is 'Xi as the party's Core'. Note here that Xi Jinping is not the first CPC leader to be designated as 'core'; what is different is that this has occurred in his fourth year in office and he still has a long way to go. This is upward climb for supremacy in the party and he has almost reached the top. Undoubtedly, Xi is inspired by the likes of Mao, but the circumstances are different today. Again, the point of note is that his designation as 'core' in the run up to the 19th Party Congress suggests that he wants the party to faithfully put a stamp on his actions.

The third keyword of phrase is 'political life within the party'. This too indicates a sharp focus on the working of the party itself. The first keyword was 'strict governance'. Now we come to life inside the party. The focus clearly will be on intra-party supervision. While it may be okay to assume that this will be the usual 'keeping an eye' on cadres, the phrase used in the Sixth Plenum rings out a new truism that a certain amount of self-discipline is needed for these trying times.

The next keyword is in fact 'intra-party supervision' clearly indicating some logical thinking within the party. The whole issue here is focus on the survival of the party and therefore it stands to reason that for this purpose 'nothing will be out of bounds' and anything could be done to set things right. This sounds a little ominous and hints at a purge if there is resistance to Xi Jinping in the run up to the 19th Party Congress. It can be safely assumed that supervision within the party will be according to 'regulations' and it will work both ways, from top to down and bottoms up. This is because the need for intra-party coherence for Xi is today of paramount importance. This is actually a new way of looking at the anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi. In fact, the next keyword 'strict discipline' is in fact a euphemism for the anti-corruption drive.

The fifth keyword 'strict discipline', applies to every party member, and is "a precise incision" for comprehensive and strict governance of the CPC in the new era. The plan seems to be that individuals must maintain strict discipline and this applies to all parts of the government including the PLA. That was objective of the anti-corruption campaign, to rein in those with sphere of influences outside the prevailing party structure and those wielding influence on account of older leaders like Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao.

'Intra-party democracy' is the next keyword. This, of course, may seem like a contradiction after having gone through the earlier keywords. This pays lip service to the need for the CPC to be seen as a democratic institution. However, party cadres have been instructed to seek people's 'opinions' before coming to a decision. The party will also allow cadres to inform higher authorities if someone breaks the party's rules or conventions.

The focus on the anti-corruption campaign remains in the party with the next keyword, which is 'anti-graft.' The party will thus continue with its zero-tolerance policy in its fight against corruption. As far President Xi is concerned the anti-corruption has a beginning but no end.

It should not come as a surprise that the next keyword is 'senior cadres'. After all a great deal of responsibility rests on senior leaders of the party. If they were not to fulfill their roles and allow the party to fall into disrepute, for e.g. Bo Xilai, then the party would have a problem. That is why the Sixth Plenary session asked senior cadres to take the lead in all respects, and set the bar high, so that party members and the public can follow the example.

The ninth keyword is 'power supervision'. The Sixth Plenum approved two documents on the norms of political life within the party and intra-party supervision. The objective was to ensure that power wielded by officials was indeed put to good use and not misused. The tenth keyword is 'mass line', which is a continuation of Xi Jinping's mass line campaign. The eleventh keyword is 'democratic centralisation'. Following its establishment, the CPC identified democratic centralism as its organizational principle of the party, using it as a guideline for all of its activities.

Mao Tse Tung stated democratic centralism "is at once democratic and centralized, with the two seeming opposites of democracy and centralization united in a definite form." He also said, "There is no impassable gulf between democracy and centralism." According to Mao Tse Tung, democracy is correlative with centralism, and freedom is correlative with discipline. They are the two conflicting sides of a single entity.

The 12th and final keyword is 'selection and appointment', which is the key to the understanding President Xi's views on who he is going to appoint to the next Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee. What we don't know is whether the Plenum decided that they would adhere to the existing conventions regarding selection and appointment of candidates or there would be a change. The central point here is that mention of this indicates that President Xi is likely to move towards a via media between convention and appointing his own candidates to the PBSC.

There are thus two main keywords of phrases that one should watch out for in the months to come. The first is Xi as the 'core' leader and the other is 'selection and appointment'. Xi's tactics as party head and President in selecting and appointing a new Politburo will determine his stature as a 'core' leader. While that is still some time away constant monitoring of this process will shed light on the new leadership of China. Watch this space!
From Reader Supported News



Chris Christie

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New Jersey governor Chris Christie last week vetoed and angrily denounced a measure that had passed the state legislature that would have limited the use of solitary confinement in New Jersey's prisons. Using the euphemism "restrictive housing," Christie said that solitary was nothing like opponents had described it, and he promised that there would be no curbs on the practice. For the record, the vetoed law would have restricted solitary confinement to no more than 15 consecutive days or 20 days in any two-month period. It would also have banned the practice for pregnant women, the mentally ill, and children. Also for the record, the United Nations has declared that solitary confinement, as it is practiced in the U.S., is "torture."

Christie, a career prosecutor, can't seem to break the mold. Every prosecutor wants to be governor. Every governor wants to be president. And no matter how low one's approval ratings are -- 21 percent in Christie's case -- they always think that being "tough on crime" will be their golden ticket to higher office. But I can tell you that Christie is either disingenuous or he's brain-dead.

Solitary is exactly what it sounds like. A prisoner is kept in a small cell, usually six by 10 feet, alone, for 23 hours a day. For one hour a day, he may be taken into a similarly-sized cage outside, where he can walk in circles before being taken back inside. The idea is to keep the prisoner from having any human interaction. Even the outdoor cage can usually be opened and closed remotely.

State prison systems across the country, as well as the federal Bureau of Prisons, use solitary confinement to destroy people. Those who have been through it call it a "living death." Prisoners in solitary routinely experience "intense anxiety, paranoia, depression, memory loss, hallucinations, and other perceptual distortions," according to The New York Times.

Many Americans think that solitary is reserved for the worst and most dangerous criminals in the country. In most cases, that's simply not true. Solitary is used not for the safety of inmates or prison guards, but as a punishment and as an expression of power by guards.

For example, a prisoner can be sent to solitary for "insolence" or for "investigation." What does that mean? It means anything the guard wants it to mean. Talk back to a guard? Insolence! Take more than 15 minutes to eat your meal? Solitary! An anonymous source accuses you of gambling? You go straight to solitary, likely for weeks or even months.

And what happens, in those and almost all other cases, is that the prison's internal investigators will begin an investigation. They are supposed to have 90 days to do it, after which the prisoner would be released back into the prison's general population. But, in fact, the investigators can keep renewing the 90-day solitary period for a full year. That's an entire year living in a small grey room the size of a walk-in closet with no human contact. It would make just about anybody crazy.

If the prisoner is fortunate enough to have an attorney, or a family that cares about him, who can press prison authorities on the prisoner's behalf, the prison will simply transfer him to another facility, where the whole solitary count starts all over again. That really is torture.

A year ago, President Obama banned solitary confinement for juveniles. That's a good start. But Donald Trump can overturn that policy with the stroke of a pen. Besides, the real problem is at the state level. And until each and every state legislature is willing to address this issue as one that is counterproductive to a safe and progressive prison environment and as a human rights issue, there won't be any real change. In the meantime, the Chris Christies of the world, regardless of how unpopular they may be, will win out.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
By Garrett Jennings

On September 9th, the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, over 20,000 prisoners across 24 states began the largest prison strike in United States history against what Michelle Alexander calls "the New Jim Crow". In a criminal justice system where the 13th Amendment allows the forced labor of human beings convicted of crimes, these inmates have been pushed to the brink and are now taking a stand against unsafe living conditions and unfair labor practices. Despite corporate-owned news willfully ignoring the ongoing protests, this represents an important moment which highlights the failures of the US government to protect and uphold human rights in both public and privately-operated prisons alike.

These injustices have recently led the Justice Department to announce the phase-out of federal contracts with for-profit prison companies, such as the Corrections Corporations of America (CCA), due to major safety concerns for both inmates and staff. This is major progress for justice at the federal level and a blow to corporate profits at CCA and other private prison groups. However, the fight to end corporate power is far from over given the industry's massive spending on lobbying elected officials especially in states where their foothold is stronger than ever.

The top three private prison companies: CCA, the GEO Group, and Management and Training Corp (MTC) spend millions of dollars influencing politicians to support policies which increase incarceration rates and their profits. Since 2000, they have spent a combined $32 million lobbying Congress. Several members of Congress even own shares of CCA stock.

The industry also has a history of giving money to the two major presidential candidates. Hillary Clinton received over $100,000 from private prison groups during her 2016 presidential campaign while the main super PAC supporting Donald Trump received $50,000 from the GEO Group in August alone. With so much money flowing between for-profit prisons, Congress, and the presidential campaigns, it's clear this corporate scheme has negatively affected our criminal justice system along with our democracy.

The United States leads the world in incarceration, housing over 2.3 million people in its prison system; with roughly 5 percent of the world's population, the US holds nearly 25 percent of its prisoners. Incarceration rates in the US also take on a stark racial dimension: despite being the largest racial group (64%) in the US population, white people are significantly under-represented among its prison population compared with their Latinx (16%), Black (13%), and Native (1%) peers. Black people in particular are over-represented in prisons, making up 40% of the US prison population compared with 39% white, 16% Latinx, and 1% Native prisoners (also grossly over-represented).

The racial disparities of private prison operators like CCA and the GEO Group are even more disturbing. Housing roughly 128,000 people (based on 2010 estimates), their populations are overwhelmingly people of color according to a recent UC-Berkeley study. Not only are people of color grossly over-represented, they are also significantly younger, with private prison contracts deliberately excluding prisoners with high medical care costs which are typically white men over 50.

Expectedly, private prison companies will cut corners to increase profit at the cost of human well-being since money is their highest priority, but even government operated prisons are not immune to certain pitfalls. As highlighted by the recent protests by inmates, conditions have deteriorated to such a degree in Alabama prisons that the Department of Justice has decided to launch a statewide investigation to determine if physical safety standards are being met.

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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.

From Alternet

A Turkish police insider claims Erdogan's politicized firings created a massive security void.

Co-written by *Ken Klippenstein



Russia's ambassador to Turkey Ambassador Andrei Karlov was shot viewing a photo gallery in Ankara, Turkey.

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The video is as gruesome as it is surreal: A man in a black suit appears to be standing guard behind Russia's ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, for several minutes as Karlov addresses an art exhibition in Ankara. The man then steps forward, fires multiple shots into the ambassador's back and launches into an extended rant. "Don't forget Syria! Don't forget Aleppo," the assassin declares, referring to the Syrian city that has been the subject of intense fighting between Islamist rebels including Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham -- the Syrian franchise of Al Qaeda -- and the Syrian government, which has been bolstered by Russian airpower.

The shooter has been identified as 22-year-old Mevlut Mert Altintas, a Turkish police officer who has allegedly been on the force for two and a half years. He was killed after fulminating and pacing around the site of the killing uninterrupted for 15 minutes.

Was Altintas assigned to a security detail for the Russian ambassador, an obvious target after fierce protests led by extremists waving Al Qaeda flags surrounded the Russian consulate in Istanbul? How was this character hired by the police in the first place, and did he enjoy any relationship to the government of Erdogan, which has pumped immense amounts of weapons and funding to extremist rebel factions in Syria?

The Turkish government has attempted to pin the blame on its exiled arch adversary Fetullah Gulen, claiming that Altintas was a member of Gulen's FEPO cell. The mayor of Ankara, Melih Gokcek, has even suggested Altintas bellowed out Islamist slogans to implicate Erdogan's conservative, Islamist-oriented Justice and Development Party, or AKP. Gulen, for his part, is a fervent opponent of Turkey's support for Islamist rebels in Syria.

But Ahmet Yayla, a former high-ranking Turkish law enforcement official, told AlterNet it is the Erdogan administration that has filled Turkish law enforcement with extremist elements. Yayla would know about the internal affairs of Turkey's deep state; he served as chief of counter-terrorism in the Turkish National Police at the Turkey-Syria border city of Sanliurfa from 2010-2012 and chief of police until 2014, work that entailed identifying extremists attempting to cross the border into Turkey.

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Reprinted from www.psychologytoday.com

Larry Colburn, who just died, helped stop the My Lai massacre in 1968. We can learn two lessons from him.

What is integrity in a war situation? Larry Colburn and his colleagues showed us.

The My Lai massacre involved a platoon of American soldiers (Charlie Company), led by Lieutenant William L. Calley. The platoon raped and massacred around 500 unarmed civilians (mostly women, children and elderly). The helicopter crew who came upon the scene, included Larry Colburn and was led by Chief Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr.. They tried to intervene. They marked with flares the civilians who were wounded but still alive but then noticed that on their return they had been murdered by the American soldiers. The crew confronted Lt. Calley, who refused to stop the slaughter. Positioning the helicopter between the troops and surviving villagers, they collected a few remaining survivors and had them flown to safety.

Although the killings of civilians were a war crime by international standards, the consequences were minimal and many participants received military honors. It took decades for the helicopter crew to be recognized as heroes.

When the helicopter crew members were awarded the Soldier's Medal at a ceremony 30 years later in 1998, Mr. Colburn justified their intervention with a quote from General Douglas MacArthur: "The soldier, be he friend or foe, is charged with the protection of the weak and the unarmed. It is his very existence for being."

The quote marks a basic sense of connection to other humans, whatever side they are on. A sense of connection that acknowledges relational responsibility for human welfare generally. A similar attitude of connection to humanity generally is apparent in the Christmas truce actions of enemy soldiers in 1914. They put down their arms and celebrated Christmas together.

Relational responsibility is undermined by rhetoric that describes others as objects (in the Vietnam war, calling Vietcong "gooks"). Such rhetoric, used by superior military officers, works to inflame soldiers to kill identified enemies. Making others into threats downshifts one's morality to self-protectionism--"get them before they get us!"

All of us are born with primitive survival systems (fight, flight, freeze, faint) and basic mammalian emotions (anger, fear, panic/grief, lust, seeking) that can be tuned up by early trauma (or undercare--lack of the evolved nest). But these can also be triggered by immersion in rhetoric of danger and threat, as occurs in military situations.

When you feel threatened, physiologically, blood flow shifts to mobilize you for self protection. So, compassion can go out the window. This likely occurred for troops in the Charlie Company platoon who carried out the massacre at My Lai. They likely were suffering from PTSD, as they had lost 40 members of their platoon since their arrival in Vietnam three months prior, including a popular sergeant a few days prior to the incident. American soldiers at the time were also typically young whose executive functions (self-control mechanisms) were still under development (till around age 30).

We all have the capacity to downshift to self-protective mechanisms and get into a "flow" of power over others. This was evident in Rwanda's massacre of 500,000 Tutsis (and reluctant Hutus) by Hutus (Dallaire, 2004). It was also apparent in the Columbine School massacre where Dylan and Kleibold got into the flow of killing (Bailey, 2002).

Although the actors can feel good and right about their actions in that flow of primate, prehuman energy, outsiders see it as immoral or at least questionable.

Do we ourselves have to worry about downshifting? Yes, downshifting to feeling powerful over others and pushing them away contemptuously is always a danger. It is easy to harm others when you feel superior to them.

So there are two lessons we can learn from Larry Colburn. One is, attend to your relational responsibilities as a human being. Humans are in this together. We are all vulnerable. There is really no "us against them" except briefly when war games make it necessary.

The other lesson is to stand up against authority when it is wrong--when it harms the human fabric.

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December 21, 2016

Introduction

While Greg Palast tweeted his ''like'' of my article addressing 1constitutional change for the democratization of the U.S., his gesture was ironic, as discussed later.

This follow-up article expands upon and concludes the initial piece, to inspire a constitutionally-minded platform for Senator Sanders's party-to-be, while including an initial policy concern. Nothing could be more appealing to all disenfranchised citizens (which represents about half of eligible voters), in the aftermath to and consequences of Sen. Sanders and Donald Trump's respective campaigns.

Senator Sanders's budding party platform for democracy: The survey

A - Senator Sanders should endorse a broad survey, the answers to which would serve as confirmation of populist support for his party, including validation of its programme, while at the same time implicitly reflecting a rebuke of the 2 corporate-funded parties and the system upon which their domination is dependent.

B - The survey must respond to whether citizens are happy with the present system of government, while seizing the opportunity to also weigh-in on a major issue to which a democratic system would have responded years ago (based on long-since conducted surveys).

The survey:

Part 1

To join the Western nations that enjoy parliamentary democracies, the survey must ask if the respondent favours:

Choice #1 - No change to present non-parliamentary 2-party system.

Choice #2 - On the voting ballots, voters must select his/her favoured candidate, along with a second-choice-candidate; if the riding does not produce a candidate with 50% or more of that sector's votes, a majority would result via a second count which would follow the elimination of the party with the least votes. (If there are more than 3 parties, then the run-off would only include the top 2 parties.)

Choice #3 - Here, representation corresponds to the popular vote: This is favoured in most democracies (and the result is voter turnouts of about 75%).

In the example of choice #2 above, and as is the case in *Canada's present (but promised to change) parliamentary system, a minority government is possible. It is the 1POSSIBILITY of ( allowance for ) a minority government which assures the existence of democracy.

However, in a parliamentary democracy where representation corresponds to the popular vote (choice #3), coalition governments replace minority governments; this ONLY refers to circumstances where the ruling party achieves less than 50% of the popular vote.

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Putin: Russia Will Respect Ukraine Vote -- News from Antiwar.com

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The "Bear" has been centric to the world stage for over a decade now, and his persona seems to be gaining ground on celebrity scale rather than that of a leader, especially if you are from Russia or former USSR. If he is a savior to his nation, the biggest surprise remains that the same is viewed by his foes, narrating him as resolute, defiant and unwilling to compromise no matter how much the stakes may be. Syria has been his greatest test of all, as it involved moving out from the familiar line of action and proximity which comes to his and his apparatus advantage. The most prominent of them included Chechnya, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Crimea. Middle East has a legacy to attract, engage and fascinate visitors from medieval times, and the age of "Black Gold" has made it even more costlier than ever. 20th century has seen the entire region in turmoil in one form or the other, and with 21st century and the fall of twin towers it has evolved into the essential for governing the globe and its affairs.

With Arab spring culminating into the "Syrian Spring" by 2011, the Bear took the moral route for conquest into Arab sand. The turf was already rough, with GCC states being abandoned by its Western friends over backlash at home. Washington, London, Paris and Berlin had already found it hard to explain the "wars of liberation" turning in Iraq and Libya into symbols of destruction and bloodshed for the present century. This uncertainty from the latter coalition was translated by Bear as his moment in the Middle East, almost after three decades of utter silence from his predecessors towards the region.

Obama's reluctance to take Syria head-on seriously dented its ties with its Gulf partners, and its long-held credibility of being the policeman for the Middle East. But this time around he had stopped his men and resources from venturing into Syria, whereas Bear was seen as the real successor who has carried the day for the "Just War" in Syria.

With Aleppo liberated, the Bear might be viewing himself as this century's "Lawrence of Arabia", with his eyes now settling upon more territory than the Europe they lost back in 1989 (collapse of USSR). However, quite unusual for its appetite, the bear venturing into Arabia has been carefully lured into the trap that was used brilliantly by the same actors over three decades back in the unforgiving terrain of Afghanistan. The war of Syria (post 2011) was never limited to the sovereignty or the territorial boundary of a state, as it was fuelled by the most lethal weapon of "sectarian divide", which has been tragically the most devastating hunter since the past 13 centuries in the region. Bear isn't saving Assad, as Assad had already lost the role and control of Syria (the State) when he introduced the "Sectarian" foreign card as a last resort, with Tehran spearheading the "de Facto" campaign through regular as well as irregular involvement (Militia). The victory in the battles of ideologies or faith only lies in maintaining or sustaining "peaceful coexistence", not through siding with one against the other.

So the "Bear" has naively manoeuvred himself and his fortunes in the middle of a perfect storm, with one force using it as the buffer and the other striking it as the invader. In short, it is a master stroke on being at a wrong place, at the wrong time.

Syrian war has no end in sight whether Aleppo has fallen or not, because the overwhelming 74% population will be subjected to foreign presence (regular/ irregular as far as from Afghanistan), which has evolved on sectarian call and the presence of this force will never let the "Peaceful Coexistence" to evolve. Bear mistake in assessing the gravity remains the ignorance towards the calls for war that had rallied his allies as well as opponents to the war front of Syria, unfortunately.

* Readers are requested to replace "Bear" with President of Russia for a better insight and understanding.
It's impossible to read Volker Ulrich's remarkable biography, "Hitler, Ascent: 1889-1939," without being struck by the parallels between Adolph Hitler and Donald Trump.

1.They were both charismatic political leaders. Watching grainy newsreel footage of Hitler speaking, it's difficult to imagine what a hypnotic spell he cast on his pre-war German audiences. Just as it's difficult to understand the impact of Trump rallies on his devotees.

Ulrich says that Germans were captivated by Hitler's passion and authenticity. That's what Trump followers say about him.

2. Both men gave voice to the zeitgeist of their times. In Munich, Hitler claimed that Germany had been betrayed at the end of WWI, "stabbed in the back" by Jews.

Trump has give voice to the "Alt-Right"/Tea-Party perspective that America has been tyrannized by Obama and the liberal elite. Trump spoke to the "Alt-Right"/Tea Party when he said, "I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves."

3. Both blamed the "fall" of their countries on a particular group. For Hitler this was Jews. For Trump this is immigrants.

Hitler conflated Jews, communists, and intellectuals. Trump conflates undocumented immigrants and Muslims. One of the reasons he gives for building "the wall" is to keep out terrorists. (Trump's national-security adviser, Mike Flynn, claims there are Arabic road signs at the southern border.)

4. Hitler and Trump repeated two principal themes. Hitler claimed that Germany had been betrayed by Jews. He added that for Germany to achieve its historical greatness it had to expand to the east, lebensraum.

Trump believes that America has been betrayed by its liberal leadership and undermined by immigrants. He claims that previous Presidents didn't know how to negotiate deals and promises he will renegotiate everything, including agreements such as NAFTA and the Iran nuclear disarmament.

5. After building broad support among under-educated white voters, Trump and Hitler cut a deal with capitalists. Although Hitler ran the National Socialist German Worker's Party (NSDAP), he made it clear to German business leaders that his aims were not those of traditional socialists but rather to exterminate the threat of communism, which he claimed was led by Jews. In 1933, when Hitler became German Chancellor, he had the support of most business leaders.

Although Trump initially started out as an outsider, after he secured the Republican nomination for President he cut a deal with conservative business leaders such as the Koch brothers, Robert Mercer, and Wall Street billionaires.

6. Both men had a penchant for telling outright lies. Hitler blamed the 1933 Reichstag fire on communists even though a single deranged man, Marinus van der Lubbe, was caught at the scene. After the December, 2015, San Bernardino shootings, Trump blamed the killings on Muslims, in general, and called for shutting down entry of Muslims into the United States as well as starting a registry of American Muslims.

Observers described Hitler as a consummate actor who varied his message depending upon the audience. Before partisan crowds he would make extreme statements about "the Jewish problem." Before business leaders, or the press, Hitler would moderate his message.

Trump's most inflammatory statements have come during his speeches. When speaking to the press he will moderate his message. For example, Trump has told crowds that global climate change is "bunk" or "a hoax." When speaking to the press, he claims to have an open mind on the issue.

7. Hitler and Trump condoned violence. From his earliest Munich beerhall days, Hitler was surrounded by the S.A. (Sturmabteilung, storm troopers), thugs and hooligans who beat hecklers and members of the political opposition.

Trump has condoned violence at this rallies, occasionally calling for hecklers to be beaten. His Alt-Right supporters believe that the Obama Administration is tyrannical and have sanctioned armed response.

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Outside of Madaya, Syria



Four year old Manal and three year old Mohamand-Kamal shown above in better days. Like literally hundreds among the thousands of children still trapped in Madaya, the children are fading fast from malnutrition and related illnesses without much to eat, a

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Because there are only three medical attendants to treat approximately 40,000 Madaya residents, one being a veterinarian and the other two dental students, and without medicines or equipment, the tentative decision was made to amputate Ghina's badly shattered leg. According to former dental student Mohammad Darwish, he and his two colleagues have been forced to do amputations on many patients because of lack of equipment and medical knowledge, and they were simply unable to effectively treat Ghina's leg and thigh splintering wound caused by an exploding bullet, A media campaign about her case and urging medical evacuations from Madaya was successful in getting Ghina out of Madaya and into a Damascus hospital. She is now much better and is learning to walk again with help from younger sister Nagham and Syrian Red Crescent Society (SARCS) supplied crutches.



Nagham and Lucy with their new puppy, 'Lucy' on December 6, 2016. Ghina's leg is much better and she is also receiving physical therapy in Damascus.

(Image by Franklin Lamb) Details DMCA



Those remaining is mountainous Madaya, 5000 feet above sea level, which last week got its first snowstorm of the December-February snow season, and where there continue to be more reported cases of death threatening starvation, sniping by militia manning the towns 65 checkpoints, and dozens of attempted suicides, some resulting in death, continue.

Two recent sniping victims were 30 year old Mohammad al-Mowwil who, this past month on Saturday November 12th was walking to his home in Madaya on Saturday November 12, when a sniper's bullet pierced his abdomen and he died due to lack of emergency medical care. Three days later a 13 year old boy, by coincidence from a Madaya family known to Sahar, was killed by another sniper bullet. And the killing of innocent civilians continues as sectarian hatred spreads and intensifies in Syria and the region.

Noted below are a few current cases here, involving Shia-Sunni sectarian politics and hatred raging across the Middle East that may seal the fate of Manal and Mohammad-Kamal trapped inside Sunni Madaya as well as countless others in East Aleppo as well as Shia in other areas.

For example, Iran's IRGC (al-Quds Force) leader Qasem Solemani has reportedly arrived in Aleppo to oversee a population transfer that would move Sunnis from Madaya and nearby Zababani on the outskirts of Damascus near the border with Lebanon approximately 220 miles north to the Shia villages of Foah and Kefraya. The Shia residents of these villages would be uprooted and transferred south to Sunni Madaya and Zabadani. Over the past 18 months all four villages have been under siege either by militia supporting the government or the opposition.

Why is Solemani insisting on the population swap before East Aleppines can be evacuated? Because Iran expects that when the carnage in Syria finally ends, the geopolitics in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon will have been deeply altered and the nascent Shia crescent will become fortified from this population transfer. This will help assure Iranian free access from the suburbs of Damascus 30 miles West to Lebanon's Bekaa valley, and on down to South Lebanon and the border with Palestine.

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The legend of Santa Claus lives on in many children, until the day where the false beard of uncle Thomas at Grandma's Swarovski earring catches. I remember knowingly, that Santa Claus for the first time with us at home showed up when I was four years old. For fantasy, a four has a lot of space in their heads, but in this case was the Santa Claus of flesh and blood. He stapfend came to the door, walked directly towards me, leaned down and asked me with a dark, sonorigen voice whether I've been a good child throughout the year. Because my parents and other adults also repeatedly told me that Santa Claus is not necessarily nice, but only if one is dear to himself, came to answer me, not in the sense I was not good. Like any kid, I was not so good as I sold it to the Santa Claus. I've bluffed so. Santa Claus will have didn't get sure about.



If so any off grid with would be incorporated in the assessment, which came over me, If it was about to go to bed, eat the plate, to clean up my room or not constantly away to take their toys in the kindergarten of the stupid Tina, then, then I had probably not so feistes grin from Santa Claus, like this evening. After I my poem that I had learned for this visit extra down had rattled in hectic tone, I got my gifts as a reward. Phew, that was easy. And this Christmas I had as a scared? Unintelligible in hindsight. My belief in Santa Claus stopped abruptly at the age of six. Who must see on Christmas Eve as Santa Claus all of a sudden is convicted, because a glued Wrinklies on the earring of the Grandma catches as his own uncle and slip, which is first shaken.



Something for all outsiders seems at first glance although unintentionally funny, but I could not laugh about it at all. With six years one is not clear, that one of the adults the last two months of the year when all Children are the Christmas fever - with the words if you're not good, then you get the rod to feel instead of beautiful gifts from Santa Claus"technical education being blackmailed is. If now fails this argument as a bargaining chip for the parents towards their children, well, then good night dear parents. Maybe I should have told all my friends about my experience, as revenge for the bullshit. I did not. It has remained very present this evening with me, I also realize I still know exactly what at the time were all for gifts under the Christmas tree. Me and my sister got bracelets by Swarovski, which of an array of different colour end passed rhinestones. For more information see Frank Fu. I recently saw the same bracelet at random in the Internet shop. Despite this disaster of Santa Claus, I carried it very much. My mother has received a two-week cruise through the Caribbean from my father. Since my parents have never really honeymoon, in the following was brought after summer. And all should Santa Claus really have these great things in your luggage? Eyes lock on honest children, then you are no longer open to blackmail.
Russian investigators to probe assassination of Russian ambassador in Turkey

A team of Russian investigators arrived in Turkey on Tuesday to probe the assassination of Moscow's ambassador in an Ankara art gallery, as both sides pledged the murder would not damage improving relations.



Veteran diplomat Andrei Karlov was shot nine times in the back by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas at the opening of an exhibition of Russian photography on Monday.



The brazen killing stunned Ankara and Moscow, which have rowed repeatedly over the Syria conflict but in recent weeks have begun cooperating closely on the evacuations from war-wrecked Aleppo.



An unprecedented three-way meeting on Syria between the foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia and Iran went ahead in Moscow Tuesday despite the assassination, with the diplomats backing a widening of a truce.



Six people have been detained over the Karlov assassination, including the sister, mother, father and uncle of the 22-year-old Altintas, Turkish media said.



Adding to the jitters, with Turkey already on high alert after a string of deadly attacks, an individual also fired outside the US embassy in Ankara overnight.



In response to the killing, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered his top diplomat and spy chiefs to look into boosting security at Russian diplomatic missions around the globe.



A Russian investigative team visited the scene of the attack at the Contemporary Arts Centre in central Ankara on Tuesday as part of a joint probe with Turkey.



Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul that he and Putin agreed in a phone call after the murder that our expanding areas of cooperation with Russia, particularly on Syria, will not be hampered by this attack.



Dramatic footage of Monday's assassination showed Karlov stumble and crash to the ground on his back as Altintas brandished his automatic pistol at terrified onlookers who cowered behind cocktail tables.



Altintas did not go through the metal detector security check when he entered the exhibition and was warned by a security officer, according to the Cankaya municipality where the exhibition centre is located.



But after showing his police ID, he was allowed to proceed, it said.



The Hurriyet daily said Altintas, who had worked for Ankara's anti-riot police for the last two-and-a-half years, had stayed at a nearby hotel to prepare for the attack, shaving and putting on a smart suit. He was killed by police after a 15-minute standoff.



Ankara mayor Melih Gokcek, known for his outspoken comments, speculated on Twitter that the gunman may be linked to the group of exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed for the July coup aimed at toppling Erdogan.



His suggestion was also repeated in the pro-government press. We have started to work out the links, said Erdogan, without specifying further.



Gulen, who denies having any involvement in the failed coup, issued a statement condemning in the strongest terms this heinous act of terror.



Hours after the assassination, an individual fired outside the main gate of the US embassy in Ankara. The mission said in a statement that no-one was hurt and the individual was detained but the embassy and consulates in Istanbul and Adana were closed for normal operations.



US President-elect Donald Trump had on Monday condemned the envoy's assassination.



Karlov's body, draped in a Russian flag, was given a ceremonial farewell with full state honours on the tarmac of Ankara's Esenboga Airport before being put on a Russian plane for Moscow. Watched by his widow clutching a candle, an Orthodox Russian priest read the last rites and swung incense over the coffin.



Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced in Moscow that the street where the embassy is located would be named after the 62-year-old envoy, a career diplomat who had notably served as ambassador to North Korea.



The killing came after days of protests in Turkey over Russia's role in Syria, although Moscow and Ankara are now working closely together to evacuate citizens from the battered city of Aleppo.
The mathematical (and other) thoughts of a (now retired) math teacher,








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LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares?



























Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano...



Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos:



Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias.



Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera.



No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje.



En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio.



Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida.



Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella.



Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal.



Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista.



Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen.



Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che?



Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio.



Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora.



Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo.



Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo.



Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania.



No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar.



Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga.





Alguna duda?



Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino



Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia.



OZ1



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OZ4



Homenaje a Jason Galarraga



La Victoria de Samotracia



Odalisca



Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008



























La Sierra Nevada de Merida



Nuestro precioso Churum Meru



Homenaje a Picasso



Autoretrato



Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola?

La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.

Mi profesion?

Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.

Sal en la Coca Cola?

A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.

De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:

Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto

Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)

azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)

Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas

Mucha Cafeina

Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio

Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe

Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion

El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.

Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.

Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.

En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).

Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.

La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.

Bebidas Light?

Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el

Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.



Publicado por loretahur



En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur

MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina:

1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias.

2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina.

3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard.

4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos.

5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla.

6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos.

Ahora... sobre la margarina:

1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) .

2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias.

3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno).

4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer.

5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna.

6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo.

7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina.

Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas:

* No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo).

* No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!!



No a la guerra, Si a la Paz



Misterios de la ciencia...



Los costos de la guerra



medicos y capitalismo...



Capitalismo...



medicos (2)



Quien educa a nuestros hijos?



Los Medios...



Sin Palabras...



Chistes feministas

- Cual es el problema, Eva?

- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz...

- Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.

- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...

- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.

- Que es un hombre?

- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.

- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.

- Cual es el truco?.

- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.

- Cual?

- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.





Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Ellas...



Ellas (2)...



Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1

Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije:

-Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro.

Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria.

Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre?

-Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa!



VENGANZA NUMERO 2

Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris.

A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita:

- Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!!

Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta.

La mujer paso quince dias en Francia.

El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla.

Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es:

- Y amor me trajiste mi francesita??

- Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina.



VENGANZA NUMERO 3

El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion.

- No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo.

- Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz.

Te quiero confesar algo.

- Esta bien, esta bien. Habla!

- He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga.

- Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!!



machismo y cibernetica



Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston.

-Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide.

-Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!.



.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.

Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos.

Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco.

Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas



Gol !!!!



Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso!



Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy!


The soon-to-be 11-year-old left the Washington University School of Medicine lab with an instruction manual for her new robotic arm. Don't get it wet. Turn it off when not in use. Change the two 9-volt batteries.

But for a girl who has adapted to living a life with a left arm that ends just past her elbow, there's no instruction manual for how to incorporate this new technology into her day. That will be up to her to figure out.

And researchers at the biomaterials laboratory will be studying her, trying to figure it out, too.

Delanie Gallagher of Spanish Lake is the first of 10 children researchers plan to enroll in a study trying to determine how to develop a prosthetic that is useful for children born with all or part of a limb missing, or who lose a limb through trauma or surgery.

Most end up living without a prosthetic because it lacks function and only gets in the way. Of the more than 540,000 Americans living with upper limb amputations, only about 20 percent use a prosthetic.

Delanie's new arm incorporates myoelectric technology - sensors that detect when muscles in the stump contract and signal parts in the prosthetic to move. Prosthetics with this technology typically cost from $25,000 to $50,000, making them unfeasible for fast-growing children.

The WashU lab created a hard plastic arm using a 3-D printer at a cost of just a few hundred dollars. The myoelectric technology was kept simple enough to keep the prosthetic low-cost and lightweight, with one sensor that signals the hand to either open or close, or the wrist to turn.

Nick Thompson, a scientist in the lab, hopes the simple route will make arm prostheses more accessible and useful to children.

"Tons of people are doing this now, but they are reaching for the fruit high in the tree, trying to develop something with the most functionality that is the closest you can get to your biological limb," Thompson said. "We are going the opposite. We are looking for something quick that can be made and modified quickly. That is our goal."

But the big question is how useful it will be. Delanie is proof of how children overcome. She had difficulty thinking of something that she can't already do.

What does she hope her new prosthetic will help her do?

"I don't know," Delanie said. "I don't know what I can do."

ROSY PINK PETUNIA

Delanie's mom, Janet Gallagher, remembered when Delanie was a baby and got her first prosthetic to help her crawl. "She just dragged it along," Gallagher said. It was quickly tossed aside.

Delanie has had two other prostheses, used only to help her steady and steer her bike, hold up a fishing pole or brace her bow and arrow.

"It didn't help her," Gallagher said. "She could do better without it."

Using her stump, Delanie figured out how to color, use scissors, tie her shoes, braid her hair, put her hair in a ponytail and play the piano.

On a recent day at school at the Gateway Science Academy in south St. Louis, she needed no help. She carried her books in a shoulder bag rather than a backpack. She held a pencil sharpener in the crook of her elbow as she turned her pencil.

She played with a piece of clay, molding it into a flower between her stump and hand. She twirled her hair with her stump, raised it high when the teacher sought answers from the class.

At lunch, Delanie ripped open bags with her teeth and braced her Capri Sun against her body so she could stab it with a straw.

When the English teacher read a book aloud, no one batted an eye at a quote by a character who lost part of her leg from a land mine: "Every day, I wished I had it back."

Delanie's fifth-grade classmates say they are excited about her new robotic arm, but they are used to how she is. "It's going to be cool, but she does so much without it," her best friend, Georgia Collier, said. "It's going to be different."

Gallagher said Delanie sometimes worries about her future. She wonders how she will drive a car, if she will be able to take care of children.

As she enters her preteen years, she's figuring out new things like how to hold a blow dryer, put on makeup and curl her hair.

Delanie definitely likes how the new arm looks. She asked that it be pink, engraved with her initials. She named it Rosy Pink Petunia Gallagher.

Dr. Charles Goldfarb, a WashU orthopedic surgeon at St. Louis Children's Hospital who cares for children with amputated limbs, said a prosthetic can have social benefits.

"Can we help her do more things a little similar to her peers?" Goldfarb said. That may become more important as she gets older. "A teenager wants to be like any other teenager," he said.

SYDNEY SYNDROME

The Minimally Invasive Surgery Biomaterials Lab opened on the medical campus just over three years ago. Its focus was using a 3-D printer to create and test bioabsorbable surgical mesh.

In 2014, the lab learned of three engineering students whose senior project involved using a 3-D printer to create a prosthetic for 13-year-old Sydney Kendall who had lost her arm six years earlier in a boating accident.

That sparked the start of the lab's work with prosthetic arms. "We asked, 'Can we take this up and improve what the students have worked on?'" Thompson said.

A wire in the arm the students created for Sydney was connected to a sensor in her shoulder. Shrugging her shoulder caused the hand to open or close. The wire was cumbersome, she told the scientists, and difficult to use.

So, the lab printed a prosthetic with a myoelectric sensor inside its socket that could move the hand and wrist and gave it to Sydney. She found it needed a stronger grip and was heavy. They refined it again, printing her another last spring. The process offered promise.

"It justified to do this type of study on pediatric patients," Thompson said. "That's where we are now."

Scientists hope a study of more children will give them feedback on how to overcome what they refer to as "Sydney Syndrome" - the prosthetic sitting in a drawer collecting dust.

Participants will complete questionnaires three months, six months and a year after getting their prostheses.

"Now we feel we have a design that is of high enough utility to try on multiple patients to see if there's any benefit from using them," Thompson said. "The patients will tell us what directions we need to go in to make it better."

SUPERHERO ARMS

The study is funded by a $10,000 grant from the St. Louis Children's Hospital Foundation. Low-cost 3-D printing makes it feasible.

A 3-D printer works like a regular ink printer, but instead of ink, it prints layers of heated plastic to create models designed with a computer program.

The technology dates to the 1980s and was used in manufacturing to make machine parts. In the 2000s, consumers began buying home printers to make jewelry or toys.

In the past several years, surgeons have created models of organs and tumors to plan for surgeries. And researchers are experimenting with using materials to print heart valves, stents and skull fragments.

The science is advancing rapidly. "The concept of 3-D printing has flipped the prosthetic world over," Goldfarb said, not just in terms of the possibilities, but also in its purpose.

"For forever, our goal with a prosthetic has been to make something unobtrusive and unnoticeable with the same skin tone. But it doesn't do much," Goldfarb said. "These prostheses look nothing like your arm. They look like superhero arms. They are bold and distinctive looking.

"The difference philosophically is we're making arms that say, 'Hey, look at me. I've got a great, cool arm; and I'm not trying to hide it. It's part of who I am.' ... It's a different concept, and it's helpful for a lot of kids."

LEARNING CURVE

Back in the lab, as technicians tested the myolectric sensor in Delanie's new arm, the sensor wasn't consistently picking up the signal to move the wrist.

After more than an hour of trying to find the problem, they determined Delanie will have to figure out how to best position the arm so the sensor picks up the signal from her muscle.

"That's the learning curve for her. No one can do it except her," Thompson said. "As she wears it more and more, she'll figure out how it feels when it's in the best spot."

Delanie's dad, Joe Gallagher, joked she's not allowed to hold eggs with it yet.

"If she gets to move it three times out of 10, that's a good thing," her father said. "It's a learning process."

While the family is wondering how the robotic arm might help Delanie with what she can already do, they don't have expectations that the science will be life-changing - at least for her.

But with Delanie's help, scientists could someday develop a useful prosthetic for a child who suddenly loses an arm. Or one that a child with a congenital defect could use as a toddler.

Delanie is excited, her parents said, mostly about helping other kids.

"She says, 'I'm helping make an arm for people who lose it or for people who are born like me,'" her mom said. "She's looking at it as, 'I'm making history, and helping makes lives better.'"

2016 St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The compound view shows a new ALMA Band 5 view of the colliding galaxy system Arp 220 (in red) on top of an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (blue/green). With the newly installed Band 5 receivers, ALMA has now opened its eyes to a whole new section of this radio spectrum, creating exciting new observational possibilities and improving the telescope's ability to search for water in the Universe. This image is one of the first taken using Band 5 and was intended to verify the scientific capability of the new receivers. The ALMA image includes data recording emission from water, CS and HCN in the galaxies. Credit: ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

ALMA observes radio waves from the Universe, at the low-energy end of the electromagnetic spectrum. With the newly installed Band 5 receivers, ALMA has now opened its eyes to a whole new section of this radio spectrum, creating exciting new observational possibilities.

The European ALMA Programme Scientist, Leonardo Testi, explains the significance: "The new receivers will make it much easier to detect water, a prerequisite for life as we know it, in our Solar System and in more distant regions of our galaxy and beyond. They will also allow ALMA to search for ionised carbon in the primordial Universe."

It is ALMA's unique location, 5000 metres up on the barren Chajnantor plateau in Chile, that makes such an observation possible in the first place. As water is also present in Earth's atmosphere, observatories in less elevated and less arid environments have much more difficulty identifying the origin of the emission coming from space. ALMA's great sensitivity and high angular resolution mean that even faint signals of water in the local Universe can now be imaged at this wavelength.

The Band 5 receiver, which was developed by the Group for Advanced Receiver Development (GARD at Onsala Space Observatory, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has already been tested at the APEX telescope in the SEPIA instrument. These observations were also vital to help select suitable targets for the first receiver tests with ALMA.

The first production receivers were built and delivered to ALMA in the first half of 2015 by a consortium consisting of the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) and GARD in partnership with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO, which contributed the local oscillator to the project. The receivers are now installed and being prepared for use by the community of astronomers.

To test the newly installed receivers observations were made of several objects including the colliding galaxies Arp 220, a massive region of star formation close to the centre of the Milky Way, and also a dusty red supergiant star approaching the supernova explosion that will end its life.

To process the data and check its quality, astronomers, along with technical specialists from ESO and the European ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) network, gathered at the Onsala Space Observatory in Sweden, for a "Band 5 Busy Week" hosted by the Nordic ARC node (alma.se/" target="_blank">www.nordic-alma.se/). The final results have just been made freely available to the astronomical community worldwide.

Team member Robert Laing at ESO is optimistic about the prospects for ALMA Band 5 observations: "It's very exciting to see these first results from ALMA Band 5 using a limited set of antennas. In the future, the high sensitivity and angular resolution of the full ALMA array will allow us to make detailed studies of water in a wide range of objects including forming and evolved stars, the interstellar medium and regions close to supermassive black holes."

Provided by ESO
The plasma blob takes a thin and long form and follows the magnetic field lines. This blob is composed of numerous plasma particles (ions and electrons). However, due to the magnetic field lines and the influence of the electrical field inside the plasma, the blob flies in the direction of the confinement vessel wall. Credit: Dr. Hiroki Hasegawa

At the National Institutes of Natural Sciences National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) a research group using the NIFS 'Plasma Simulator' supercomputer succeeded for the first time in the world in calculating the movements of one billion plasma particles and the electrical field constructed by those particles. Further, they clarified from the particle level (micro-level) the movements of the plasma blob that appears in the edge regions of high-temperature plasmas.

Background to the Research

The generation of fusion energy utilizes the fusion reaction that occurs inside a high-temperature plasma. In order to achieve the generation of fusion energy, we confine plasma in the magnetic field with a doughnut configuration. Together with raising the temperature and the density in the plasma's core region, it also is necessary to control the plasma in the edge region which surrounds the plasma. In the edge region of the confined plasma appears the plasma blob. Because this plasma blob moves in the direction of the confinement vessel's wall, there thus is concern that the plasma will come into contact with the wall and the plasma temperature will fall (see Figure 1). In order to control this type of plasma blob, precisely understanding and predicting the blob's movement is one of the important topics in the future achievement of fusion energy. In order to investigate in detail the complicated movements of a plasma blob, computational simulations are necessary. There are several methods for performing simulations of the gathering of particles (ions and electrons) that bear electricity. The most accurate method is that which calculates the movement of each particle that composes the plasma and calculates the electrical field thus produced. In order to accurately understand the behavior of a plasma blob, a simulation from the micro-level (particle level) is required. However, it was extremely difficult to perform such a simulation because an immense amount of calculation is required.

(a) Temporal changes in the 3-D spatial distribution of a plasma blob (time passes from right to left) are shown. A plasma blob (Plasma Filament) is expressed with the permeated tube in green, and at the four cross-sections in different places the high-density region is shown in red and the low-density region is shown in green. Together with the passage of time the plasma blob is moving (to the left) toward the vessel wall.(b) The velocity distribution of plasma particles (electrons) [vocabulary 3]. The width of the velocity distribution represents the temperature. By understanding the micro internal structure such as a velocity distribution, it becomes possible to investigate the influence that the structure gives to the plasma blob's movement. Credit: Dr. Hiroki Hasegawa

Research Results

Dr. Hiroki Hasegawa and Dr. Seiji Ishiguro, at the National Institute of Fusion Science, using the NIFS Plasma Simulator supercomputer succeeded for the first time in the world in conducting a micro-level simulation of a plasma blob in the "edge region" of the plasma. The Plasma Simulator has the greatest capacity in the world as a supercomputer dedicated to plasma and fusion science use. Here, in addition to newly developing a calculation program by utilizing the Plasma Simulator's capacity, they also were able to calculate the movements of one billion particles. When calculating plasmas of the same size, the number of calculations exceeded 10,000 in comparison with the method used heretofore for calculating the blob's particles as if they were a unit.

According to this simulation, finely detailed analyses that incorporated the influence mutually provided by the movement of particles and the electrical field, which had not been possible in methods used to date, became possible. Further, at the same time as we pursue the movements of a string-like plasma blob from the particle level, we were able to clarify the micro-level internal structure of particle movements inside the plasma and the temperature distribution (see Figure 2). By understanding this type of internal structure, it became possible to investigate the influence of that internal structure upon the movement of a plasma blob. Moreover, we clarified the condition in which a plasma blob carries impurities (see Figure 3).

These research results, together with greatly advancing understanding of the behavior of a plasma blob, have greatly improved prediction accuracy. These research results were reported at the 26th International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) Fusion Energy Conference held in Kyoto, Japan from October 17-22, 2016. The results have also been highly evaluated, and later were presented as an invited lecture at the thirty-third annual meeting of The Japan Society of Plasma and Nuclear Fusion Research in Sendai, Japan, held from November 29 to December 2, 2016, where the research results also garnered much attention.

Time is passing from right to left. The tube in green is the surface of the plasma blob. Areas where impurities are great are in blue and areas where impurities are few are in purple, and both colors appear. When a plasma blob invades an area where impurities are many, the impurities are carried in the right-hand side direction. Credit: Dr. Hiroki Hasegawa

Provided by National Institutes of Natural Sciences
Close-up view of layered sedimentary rocks representative of those used in this study. Each layer records a snapshot of the Earth system over millions to billions of years. Credit: Georgia Tech / Yale University: Reinhard / Planavsky

For three billion years or more, the evolution of the first animal life on Earth was ready to happen, practically waiting in the wings. But the breathable oxygen it required wasn't there, and a lack of simple nutrients may have been to blame.

Then came a fierce planetary metamorphosis. Roughly 800 million years ago, in the late Proterozoic Eon, phosphorus, a chemical element essential to all life, began to accumulate in shallow ocean zones near coastlines widely considered to be the birthplace of animals and other complex organisms, according to a new study by geoscientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Yale University.

Along with phosphorus accumulation came a global chemical chain reaction, which included other nutrients, that powered organisms to pump oxygen into the atmosphere and oceans. Shortly after that transition, waves of climate extremes swept the globe, freezing it over twice for tens of millions of years each time, a highly regarded theory holds. The elevated availability of nutrients and bolstered oxygen also likely fueled evolution's greatest lunge forward.

After billions of years, during which life consisted almost entirely of single-celled organisms, animals evolved. At first, they were extremely simple, resembling today's sponges or jellyfish, but Earth was on its way from being, for eons, a planet less than hospitable to complex life to becoming one bursting with it.

Earth's true genesis

In the last few hundred million years, biodiversity has blossomed, leading to dense jungles and grasslands echoing with animal calls, and waters writhing with every shape of fin and color of scale. And most every stage of development has left its mark on the fossil record.

The researchers are careful not to imply that phosphorous necessarily caused the chain reaction, but in sedimentary rock taken from coastal areas, the nutrient has marked the spot where that burst of life and climate change took off. "The timing is definitely conspicuous," said Chris Reinhard, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

Reinhard and Noah Planavsky, a geochemist from Yale University, who headed up the research together, have mined records of sedimentary rock that formed in ancient coastal zones, going down layer by layer to 3.5 billion years ago, to compute how the cycle of the essential fertilizer phosphorus evolved and how it appeared to play a big part in a veritable genesis.

They noticed a remarkable congruency as they moved upward through the layers of shale into the time period where animal life began, in the late Proterozoic Eon.

"The most basic change was from very limited phosphorous availability to much higher phosphorus availability in surface waters of the ocean," Reinhard said. "And the transition seemed to occur right around the time that there were very large changes in ocean-atmosphere oxygen levels and just before the emergence of animals."

Phosphorus at the beach

Reinhard and Planavsky, together with an international team, have proposed that a scavenging of nutrients in an anoxic (nearly O2-free) world stunted photosynthetic organisms that otherwise had been poised for at least two billion years to make stockpiles of oxygen. Then that balanced system was upset and oceanic phosphorus made its way to coastal waters.

1.9 billion-year-old marine sediments from the East Arm of the Great Slave Lake, Canada. Thousands of samples for this study were collected from the few places on Earth that have such remaining slivers of ancient seafloor. Credit: Yale University / Georgia Tech: Planavsky / Reinhard

The scientists published their findings in the journal Nature on Wednesday, December 21, 2016. Their research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the NASA Astrobiology Institute, the Sloan Foundation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

The work provides a new view into what factors allowed life to reshape Earth's atmosphere. It helps lay a foundation that scientists can apply to make predictions about what would allow life to alter exoplanets' atmospheres, and may inspire deeper studies, here on Earth, of how oceanic-atmospheric chemistry drives climate instability and influences the rise and fall of life through the ages.

Cyanobacteria, the mother of O2

Complex living things, including animals, usually have an immense metabolism and require ample O2 to drive it. The evolution of animals is unthinkable without it.

The path to understanding how a nutrient dearth would starve out breathable oxygen production leads back to a very special kind of bacteria called cyanobacteria, the mother of oxygen on Earth.

"The only reason we have a well-oxygenated planet we can live on is because of oxygenic photosynthesis," Planavsky said. "O2 is the waste product of photosynthesizing cells, like cyanobacteria, combining CO2 and water to build sugars."

And photosynthesis is an evolutionary singularity, meaning it only evolved once in Earth's history - in cyanobacteria.

Some other biological phenomena evolved repeatedly in dozens or hundreds of unrelated incidences across the ages, such as the transition from single-celled organisms to rudimentary multicellular organisms. But scientists are confident that oxygenic photosynthesis evolved only this one time in Earth's history, only in cyanobacteria, and all plants and other beings on Earth that photosynthesize coopted the development.

The iron anchor

Cyanobacteria are credited with filling Earth's atmosphere with O2, and they've been around for 2.5 billion years or more.

That begs the question: What took so long? Basic nutrients that fed the bacteria weren't readily available, the scientist hypothesize. The phosphorus, which Planavsky and Reinhard specifically tracked, was in the ocean for billions of years, too, but it was tied up in the wrong places.

For eons, the mineral iron, which once saturated oceans, likely bonded with phosphorous, and sank it down to dark ocean depths, far away from those shallowsalso called continental marginswhere cyanobacteria would have needed it to thrive and make oxygen. Even today, iron is used to treat waters polluted with fertilizer to remove phosphorous by sinking it as deep sediment.

Reinhard, Planavsky, and colleagues sample pieces of ancient seafloor in the field in order to reconstruct the long-term evolution of ocean-atmosphere chemistry on Earth. Credit: Yale University / Georgia Tech: Planavsky / Reinhard

The researchers also used a geochemical model to show how a global system with high iron concentration and low phosphorus availability combined with low nitrogen availability in ocean shallows could perpetuate itself in a low-oxygen world.

"It looks to have been such a stable planetary system," Reinhard said. "But it's obviously not the planet we live on now, so the question is, how did we transition from this low-oxygen state to where we are now?"

What ultimately caused that change is a question for future research.

Phosphorus starting pistol

But something did change about 800 million years ago, and cyanobacteria and other minute organisms in continental margin ecosystems got more phosphorus, the backbone of DNA and RNA, and a main actor in cell metabolism. The bacteria became more active, reproduced more quickly, ate lots more phosphorus and made loads more O2.

"Phosphorus is not only essential for life," Planavsky said. "What's implicit in all this is: It can control the amount of life on our planet."

When the newly multiplied bacteria died, they fell to the floor of those ocean shallows, stacking up layer by layer to decay and enrich the mud with phosphorus. The mud eventually compressed to stone.

"As the biomass increased in phosphorus content, the more of it landed in layers of sedimentary rock," Reinhard said. "To scientists, that shale is the pages of the sea floor's history book."

Scientists have thumbed through them for decades, compiling data. Planavsky and Reinhard analyzed some 15,000 rock records for their study.

"The first compilation we had of this was only 600 samples," Planavsky said. Reinhard added, "But you could already see it then. The phosphorus jolt was as clear as day. And as the database grew in size, the phenomenon became more entrenched."

That first signal of phosphorus in Earth's coast shallows pops up in the shale record like a shot from a starting pistol in the race for abundant life.

More information: Evolution of the global phosphorus cycle, Nature, nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature20772 Journal information: Nature
The California Energy Commission has passed energy-efficiency standards for computers and monitors in an effort to reduce power costs, becoming the first state in the nation to adopt such rules.

The regulations promise to reduce energy consumed by computers by about one-third, saving power customers about $373 million in utility bills by 2027, and figure to have effects far beyond California.

Computers and computer monitors in the state use an estimated 5,610 gigawatt-hours of electricity, representing up to 3 percent of residential electricity use and 7 percent of commercial use.

"Such efficiency improvements are good for consumers, good for the electric system, good for the environment and frankly good for the green credentials of the manufacturers," said Andrew McAllister, a commission member who helped guide the new rules through a four-year process of consultations with industry that culminated in Wednesday's 5-0 vote in Sacramento.

The first of the new standards will start Jan. 1, 2018, to be completed in stages by July 1, 2021.

One of the rules' chief targets is desktop computers, which use about four times as much power as a typical laptop or notebook computer.

Sometimes called "energy vampires" by efficiency experts, desktops are switched on 77 percent of the time but sit idle for 61 percent of those minutes, according to a recent study from a research team at the University of California, Irvine.

Under the new rules, desktops must reduce how much power they draw by about 30 percent when idle by the beginning of 2019 and nearly 50 percent by mid-2021.

Most computer monitors will also be affected, with the new rules establishing thresholds for the amount of power a monitor or display can consume even when they are in sleep mode.

The standards also apply to laptops, but it's estimated that about three-quarters of notebook computers on the market already meet the requirements.

By 2021, the commission estimates, the new rules will make each desktop about $14 more expensive, but consumers would save more than $55 over five years in reduced energy bills.

Monitors will cost about $5 more but are expected to lead to $30 in savings over seven years, the commission said. It said laptops will cost about $1 more, but that energy savings in four years will be more than $2.

The Consumer Federation of America praised the regulations and said the cost savings more than make up for the increase in prices.

"Believe me, the average consumer who can barely get 2 percent on his CD today, that's a pretty darn good investment," Mark Cooper, the federation's director of research, said in a teleconference after the commission passed the rules.

Representatives from Intel Corp. and HP Inc. also took part in the teleconference, with HP environmental compliance manager Paul Ford calling the energy limits "ambitious but achievable."

The California Energy Commission has emphasized that manufacturers will have flexibility to meet the standards.

The rules apply only to computers in California, but the state's share of the computer market is so formidable - California by itself accounts for 25 million computer monitors, 23 million laptops and 21 million desktops - the new standards almost certainly will have ripple effects.

"It will have a global impact and significantly change the way future energy-efficient desktops and all-in-one computers are designed and manufactured," said Andrea Deveau, vice president of state policy and politics for TechNet, a trade group whose members include Cisco Systems and Microsoft among its members.

But Adrian Moore, vice president of policy at the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank based in Los Angeles, questioned the commission's cost savings estimates and said consumers already have a built-in incentive to buy energy-efficient computers: keeping their utility bills low.

"It's always easy to say, 'Hey, this is a really cheap way for people to save a lot of money,' but for some reason, (consumers) just aren't doing it," Moore said. "So we, the energy commission, being all wise and powerful here in Sacramento, can make this happen for them. Because we know as the energy commission, we know far more about computer markets than dumb old computer makers, much less dumb old computer consumers."

The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, worked closely with the commission to develop the new standards.

Pierre Delforge, the group's director of high-tech-sector energy efficiency, said the savings estimates are "relatively conservative" and that rules will lead to huge reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, helping California meet its aggressive climate goals.

By California Energy Commission estimates, the efficiency standards will save 2,332 gigawatt-hours per year - the equivalent of the power used by households in San Francisco and San Luis Obispo counties combined.

2016 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The strong electric field of the highly charged ions is able to tear dozens of electrons away from the graphene within a matter of femtoseconds. However, because graphene is able to transport high electric currents, the positive charge can be rapidly neutralised. Credit: TU Vienna

New experiments have shown that it is possible for extremely high currents to pass through graphene, a form of carbon. This allows imbalances in electric charge to be rapidly rectified.

Once again, graphene has proven itself to be a rather special material: an international research team led by Professor Fritz Aumayr from the Institute of Applied Physics at TU Wien was able to demonstrate that the electrons in graphene are extremely mobile and react very quickly. Impacting xenon ions with a particularly high electric charge on a graphene film causes a large number of electrons to be torn away from the graphene in a very precise spot. However, the material was able to replace the electrons within some femtoseconds. This resulted in extremely high currents, which would not be maintained under normal circumstances. Its extraordinary electronic properties make graphene a very promising candidate for future applications in the field of electronics.

The Helmholtz-Center Dresden-Rossendorf and the University of Duisburg-Essen participated in the experiment alongside TU Wien. The international team received theoretical support from Paris and San Sebastian as well as from in-house staff (Institute of Theoretical Physics at TU Wien).

Highly charged ions

'We work with extremely highly-charged xenon ions,' explains Elisabeth Gruber, a PhD student from Professor Aumayr's research team. 'Up to 35 electrons are removed from the xenon atoms, meaning the atoms have a high positive electric charge.'

These ions are then fired at a free-standing single layer of graphene, which is clamped between microscopically small brackets. 'The xenon ion penetrates the graphene film, thereby knocking a carbon atom out of the graphene  but that has very little effect, as the gap that has opened up in the graphene is then refilled with another carbon atom,' explains Elisabeth Gruber. 'For us, what is much more interesting is how the electrical field of the highly charged ion affects the electrons in the graphene film.'

This happens even before the highly charged xenon ion collides with the graphene film. As the highly charged ion is approaching it starts tearing electrons away from the graphene due to its extremely strong electric field. By the time the ion has fully passed through the graphene layer, it has a positive charge of less than 10, compared to over 30 when it started out. The ion is able to extract more than 20 electrons from a tiny area of the graphene film.

This means that electrons are now missing from the graphene layer, so the carbon atoms surrounding the point of impact of the xenon ions are positively charged. 'What you would expect to happen now is for these positively charged carbon ions to repel one another, flying off in what is called a Coulomb explosion and leaving a large gap in the material,' says Richard Wilhelm from the Helmholtz-Center Dresden-Rossendorf, who currently works at TU Wien as a postdoctoral assistant. 'But astoundingly, that is not the case. The positive charge in the graphene is neutralised almost instantaneously.'

This is only possible because a sufficient number of electrons can be replaced in the graphene within an extremely short time frame of several femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second). 'The electronic response of the material to the disruption caused by the xenon ion is extremely rapid. Strong currents from neighbouring regions of the graphene film promptly resupply electrons before an explosion is caused by the positive charges repelling one another,' explains Elisabeth Gruber. 'The current density is around 1000 times higher than that which would lead to the destruction of the material under normal circumstances  but over these distances and time scales, graphene can withstand such extreme currents without suffering any damage.'

Ultra-fast electronics

This extremely high electron mobility in graphene is of great significance for a number of potential applications: 'The hope is that for this very reason, it will be possible to use graphene to build ultra-fast electronics. Graphene also appears to be excellently suited for use in optics, for example in connecting optical and electronic components,' says Aumayr.

More information: Elisabeth Gruber et al. Ultrafast electronic response of graphene to a strong and localized electric field, Nature Communications (2016). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13948 Journal information: Nature Communications
Novartis bolsters ophthalmology pipeline through acquisition of Encore Vision, Inc.

Details Category: More News Published on Wednesday, 21 December 2016 10:02 Hits: 1584

Novartis confirms its leadership in ophthalmology by entering a new therapy area. Acquisition of Encore Vision, Inc. to add first-in-class disease modifying topical treatment for presbyopia patients to the Novartis ophthalmology pipeline in an area of high unmet medical need and high prevalence

Presbyopia is an age-related loss of near distance vision affecting approximately 80% of people over the age of 45; characterized by a progressive inability to focus on objects nearby, making everyday activities such as reading challenging; current therapies only provide optical correction without addressing cause of vision loss

BASEL, Switzerland I December 20, 2016 I Novartis announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Encore Vision, Inc., a privately-held company in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, focused on the development of a novel treatment in presbyopia. This acquisition would add a first-in-class disease modifying topical treatment for presbyopia to the Novartis ophthalmology pipeline, providing a potentially disruptive innovation to patients in a new therapeutic area of high unmet need and high prevalence. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval. The financial details of this transaction are not disclosed.

"There is a large need for innovative, effective and safe treatment options for people with presbyopia, and there is currently no disease-modifying treatment available at all," said Vasant Narasimhan, Global Head, Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer, Novartis. "Novartis confirms its leadership in ophthalmology by entering another new therapy area. The addition of this topical disease modifying treatment to our portfolio, if successful, will provide affected people with a new option to improve and maintain their vision and quality of life."

Encore Vision's lead investigational product, EV06, is a first-in-class topical treatment for presbyopia. Presbyopia is a common age-related loss of near distance vision characterized by a progressive inability to focus on objects nearby, making everyday activities - such as reading - challenging. It is estimated that more than 80% of adults over the age of 45 develop presbyopia[1]; currently there are no safe, effective and well-tolerated topical treatments available that could stop progression of or even reverse this condition.

In a phase I/II masked, placebo-controlled proof of concept study, 50 patients were treated daily for 90 days with topical EV06 and 25 patients with placebo. EV06 showed a statistical significant difference to placebo in distant corrected near vision at all time points measured (from day 8); at day 90, 82% of participants treated with EV06 had 20/40 near vision (or 0.30 LogMAR) versus 48% in the placebo group. Near vision of 20/40 allows for majority of near vision tasks in most people[2].

About Novartis Ophthalmology

Novartis is the leading ophthalmology company, with therapies that treat both front and back of the eye conditions, including retina diseases, glaucoma, dry eye and other external eye diseases. In 2016, Novartis combined its retina medicines business with the Alcon pharmaceuticals business, now operating as one Ophthalmology franchise under Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

About Novartis

Novartis 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.

References

[1] Brien A. Holden et al., Global Vision Impairment due to Uncorrected Presbyopia (Arch Ophthalmol. 2008;126(12):1731-1739).

[2] Yuliya Bababekova et al., Font Size and Viewing Distance of Handheld Smart Phones (Bababekhova et al 2011)

SOURCE: Novartis
This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the American Authors Association

Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the Military Writers Society of America.
QUEENSBURY -- A Vermont woman who pleaded guilty to a felony charge for using a stolen credit card at a store in Queensbury has been sentenced to up to 3 years in state prison.

Lynn M. Campeau, 39, of Rutland, pleaded guilty to second-degree forgery and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property in connection with charges made at the Wal-Mart store on Quaker Ridge Road earlier this year, according to the Warren County Sheriff's Office.

The charges amounted to nearly $1,900, police said.

Campeau has also been charged with using stolen credit cards at stores in Washington County. Police said the cards were stolen from parked cars in western Vermont.

Warren County Judge John Hall imposed a 1.5- to 3-year state prison term.
LAKE GEORGE  Lynne Rutnik said she feels the energy at Lake George Central School District.

Rutnik has been spending some time at the district, meeting with administrators and staff before she starts work next month as superintendent.

Im just beyond excited. The meetings have been very affirming that we are a perfect fit for each other  the district and myself. I can feel the excitement walking through the halls, she said.

Im tired but Im so invigorated and I actually miss it when I leave, she added.

Rutnik is coming to the district from Niskayuna, where she has spent the last eight years as director of special education.

Rutnik said the quality of the discussions has made apparent to her the love that people have for Lake George. The district is doing some exciting things, such as teaching computer coding in elementary school and moving from a teacher-directed classroom to a student-centered classroom.

Rutnik said she is hearing about pockets of greatness throughout the district. The next steps are for those to be replicated everywhere and shared with the community.

Make sure that were all working with a common vision and making sure were communicating what were working on, she said.

One of the common themes Rutnik said she is hearing is about a focus on STEM  science, technology, engineering and math  and STEAM, which adds the arts component.

Rutnik said she will take all this feedback and present it to the board, which will help as it develops a strategic plan. The district will be working with the Capital Area School Development Association on the a three- to five-year plan, which she said, should be completed this summer and in place for the 2017-2018 school year.

Rutnik owns a home on Glen Lake. When she heard about the opening, she reached out to staffers and past graduates she knew before making the decision to apply.

Being a special education director, I interface, support and engage with every aspect of a school, she said.

She said she knows the educational journey students take even as early as preschool because she oversees preschool students in her current job.

She said not a lot surprises her. Because of her position, she works with students with significant academic and mental health needs.

I really have to be able to stay calm, bring people together. I also look outside the normal box of a public education system to make sure were meeting the needs of our most special needs learners. When youre a special ed director, you really need to work collaboratively with all the academic directors.

Before her time in Niskayuna, Rutnik was an academic administrator for special education at Shenendehowa from 2006 to 2008. She served as principal for special programs with Capital Region BOCES from 2000 to 2006. Those two years helped her learn more about high school students and graduation requirements, she said.

Im included in a lot of initiatives that have given me a broader understanding about New York state standards and systems to support both teachers and students of all ability. In most cases, whats good for a student with special needs is good for any student, she said.

She began her career in 1997 as a special education teacher at Bethlehem Middle school and then at Cairo Elementary School.

School officials must stay focused on students, she said.

We serve students best when we work together and we keep focused on teaching and learning, she said.
GLENS FALLS  Major David Dean has spent most of the last month trying to get more volunteers for the Salvation Army of Greater Glens Falls annual Red Kettle campaign.

The weather has really hurt us. We are down $10,000 from last year, Dean said Tuesday. And our toy donations are down too.

But none of that mattered to Dean and his staff Tuesday, as they handed out food, toys and clothing to hundreds of needy people at the Broad Street facility.

When it comes to Christmas, we just do it and worry about it later, he said. The Red Kettle campaign is our annual maintenance campaign. It may impact what we do next year, but for Christmas, we will do what we have always done.

Dean said his group will be serving 440 families, which will include 565 children for the toy shop. Food went out as well, with each family getting a packed grocery bag, as well as potatoes, bread and other items.

The Salvation Army is one of three major providers of food and gifts in the Glens Falls area, though a number of other social services agencies also provide holiday support.

Kim Sopczyk, executive director at Family Service Association of Glens Falls, said her group has had a wonderful year with sponsors, donations and happy families.

By the end of the week, Sopczyk estimates Family Services will provide gifts and toys to more than 600 children and provide food for the holidays for about 500 families.

The Moreau Community Center did the bulk of its distribution Monday and helped 200 families comprised of about 500 individuals.

All three agencies will be helping families who have emergency needs over the next few days.

Volunteer groups

Many groups volunteer yearly at the Salvation Army and some even do Thanksgiving and Christmas. On Tuesday, there were volunteers from the Adirondack Health Institute and Glens Falls Rotary, and students from Hartford Central School.

The toy room included some of the 765 stuffed animals collected by the Adirondack Thunder.

Donations from some usual groups were down, Dean said, but the YMCA of Greater Glens Falls donated 641 toys, which was double last years total. The two Wal-Mart stores in Queensbury combined for nearly 1,000 toys.

We are really blessed to have a community that is so generous, Major Cynthia Dean said.

Combined, between Christmas and Thanksgiving, David Dean said the Salvation Army would help about 800 families.

On Tuesday morning, other nonprofit groups were coming in for toys and other items that they would be distributing themselves.

It was pretty crazy around here early (Tuesday) morning when we were distributing to the agencies, David Dean said. It was 1 degree out there, and it was just brutal.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia  A rail-thin woman named Dawt Lian Mawi earns $1.24 an hour in this steamy tropical metropolis 1,800 miles from Burma.

She shares a bedbug-ridden bedroom with two other young women.

And she waits. It has been six years now, going on seven. She wants to move to Buffalo, where her brother built a better life.

Blame the wait on math. The U.N. says 1.2 million people need to be resettled in one of the few advanced countries that welcome refugees. But last year, only 107,100 were resettled, 66,500 of them to the United States.

Most refugees remain stranded in camps and urban slums. In Kuala Lumpur, refugees crowd into shabby apartments with no air conditioning in a city where the daily high tops 89 degrees year-round.

Chin refugees  Christians who endured persecution in Burma  started fleeing to Malaysian cities three decades ago. So did Rohingya Muslims. Now there are more refugees from Burma  about 135,000  in Malaysia than there are in the 10 refugee camps set up for them in Thailand.

The Chin often wait here the longest. Refugee leaders said the U.N. gives priority to the Rohingya, thinking their circumstances are more dire.

The process has always been very slow, said John Bawi Luai Thang, president of the Falam Refugee Organization, a Chin refugee group in Kuala Lumpur. Now it is worse. People wait five, six, 10 years.

Now 28, Dawt Lian Mawi spent years working 10 hours a days in a clothing store in Kuala Lumpur and shares a

10-foot-by-10-foot room with two friends.

I have no choice, she said.

She doesnt go out much. She is afraid of gangs and the Malaysian police, who frequently stop refugees to check their U.N. ID cards. One time a cop stopped Dawt Lian Mawi and demanded $370  more than a months income. More than a dozen Chin and Rohingya refugees interviewed in Malaysia recounted instances of the police stopping them and demanding money.

Dawt Lian Mawis brother, Sui Lian Thang, waited in Kuala Lumpur for six years before coming America in 2008. He moved to Buffalo two years later. He has a good job at New Era now, and he and his wife and children are happy in Buffalo. He said he wishes his sister could join him soon.

I want to come to America, she said. Youre not going to get arrested for no reason in America.
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The charity event which lasted for close to 5 hours at the 37 branch of Max Mart saw several kids from the home show up and gave them the opportunity to play around, dine with Becca and the Zylofon Media team as well as dance to some hit Ghanaian songs.

Speaking on her reasons for putting together such an event, the Hw3 hit maker said

Most of the time people visit the Childrens home and make donations in all forms but are never there to know what really happens afterwards. Some of the donations in the form of clothes, cash, etc on most occasions are not given to the kids.

So this time with the support of Zylofon Media, we have gone to bring them from the home, so they can get to play with all these toys and games here. After, we serve them with the variety of food, have some fun, make some donations and finally say good bye to them with some Christmas presents.

True to her words, the event was hugely successful and these kids were really happy to have the opportunity to play outside their usual environment and dine with one of their role models.
The presiding judge, Aboagye Tandoh, said the convict who had admitted the offence, would be sentenced on his own guilty plea.

READ ALSO: US authorities seek authors of hateful letters to mosques

The lawyer for the accused Andrew Kudjo Vortia had earlier pleaded with the judge to deal leniently with his client because he (client) did not waste the time of the court.

The judge, therefore, said the court would balance Seidus conduct with his plea for leniency.

READ ALSO: Two dead in gun battle in Tinga

He was charged with unlawfully possessing narcotics and his sentence earlier deferred to October 17, for the substance to be tested.

The prosecutor of the case DSP Mario narrated that Seidus wife operates a drinking spot at Dome in the Greater Accra region and he had been peddling narcotics in and around the spot.

At about 7:30 am on September 23, this year, the wife of the complainant found her younger sister, Latifah Ibrahim, deeply asleep at the spot.
However an eyewitness who spoke to a local radio station in Bole said the incident occurred when residents of the area engaged in a shootout with suspected armed robbers.

He narrated that a store keeper also returned fire killing two of the suspected robbers.

This is the second time in a week armed robbery incident has been recorded in the community. The first happened a couple of days ago.
Judges in Ghana are supposed to be allocated fully furnished residential accommodation as part of their conditions of service.

However, the Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood speaking during the handing over ceremony complained that provision of accommodation to judges continues to remain a setback to the Judicial Service.

She said the engagement of more judges by the judicial service as part of its reforms had resulted in the increase in the number of judges who are expected to be given accommodation by the state.

According to her, Only 69 out of 143 superior court judges had been provided with official accommodation, resulting in a deficit of 74 judges without official accommodation and led to a deficit.

She said even though the contract for bungalows was awarded in December 2010, Sadly, the construction came to a standstill in 2013 as a result of funding constraints from the government.

READ ALSO: 19 Judicial Staff caught in Anas expose sacked

She, however, recalled that at the end of September 2013, three out of six units four bedroom flats were completed at East Ridge out of the internally generated fund, and three Court of Appeal judges occupied them.

The second phase, involving the construction of three two-storey is in progress and expected to be completed in 2017.

However, the construction of four two-bedroom bungalows at Danyame, Kumasi, for Court of Appeal Judges has come to a standstill due to funding challenges, the Chief Justice said.
So, what were the top trends of 2016? This is a Pulse.com.gh special review of the year on Twitter.

Ghana vs Kenya

Ghanas longstanding Twitter feud with Nigeria once again happened this year. However, the one with Kenya was perhaps the highlight of Ghanas Twitter year. Ghanaians on Twitter and the powerful Kenyans on Twitter squad battled it out Twitter; taking digs at each other with memes and jokes. However, the trend took an ugly turn when for some reason both sides saying one side was darker skinned than the other as if that was supposed to be an insult. Nonetheless, if you are bored anytime, just take a look at the #GhanavsKenya

READ ALSO: Top 10 hit songs of 2016

Kanta vs godMC

Another feud that stormed the Twittersphere was Kanta vs godMC. For the uninitiated, there is a debate about who is the better rapper between the commercially successful Sarkodie and artsy M.anifest. Kanta (by Sarkodie) and godMC (by M.anifest) are the diss songs the two rappers used to claim their superiority over Ghanaian hip-hop. Both sides continue to claim victory.

CNN Get It Right

While this happened late in the year, it makes this list because the interest it generated broke Twitter's bounds into mainstream Ghanaian media and even the international press (including the BBC) reported on it. It followed inaccurate reporting by CNN that gravely exaggerated the countrys economic woes. The report, published after Nana Akufo-Addo was declared the winner of presidential polls, suggested that there was a shortage on food and other life essentials in Ghana. Ghanaians on Twitter took the international broadcaster to the cleaners for what they claimed was an agenda (albeit a conspiracy theory) by the foreign press to portray African countries as backward. CNN eventually made corrections to the story.

Thank You - Abraham Attah

Radio presenters Lexis Bill and Jay Foley had to apologise to the award-wining child star, Abraham Attah after they were accused of mocking his way of speaking English. The teenager did not have to do much defending as Ghanaians did all the work for him.

The drawing child

Another youngster who become a worldwide sensation was four-year-old Jake Amo. A photo taken of Jake in serious drawing mode went viral after it was used as the subject of thousands of memes. A crowdfunding campaign was launched to support Jake and his peers see them through school. It has so far raised 13,500 dollars out of its goal of 20,000 dollars.

Ignore Gabbys post  John Mahama
He said this is because his late mother shares the same birthday with Nigerias Buhari.

He said this after he met Buhari behind closed doors in Abuja.

Nana Addo who described his meeting with Buhari as successful said he took the opportunity to formally introduce himself and also wished him a happy birthday. President Buhari celebrated his 74th birthday on December 17, 2016.

I have come to introduce myself to President Buhari so that we begin to know each other.

I had the opportunity to say a belated happy birthday to the President. His birthday is an important day in my life because that day is my late mothers birthday."

READ ALSO: Nana Addo appoints Nana Asante Bediatuo as Executive Secretary

We had a very good exchange. We are determined to grow the relationship between our two countries.

Nana Addo said he also expects that the relationship between Ghana and Nigeria is strengthened during their tenure.
He, therefore, called on potential government appointees who have the dream of making money through corrupt means in his government to either change their minds or count themselves out.

I have said it and I will repeat it again those who are coming into this administration thinking that it is an avenue for making money are going to be disappointed.

They better go to the private sector that is where people make money, not in government.

Nana Addo was speaking to members of the private sector at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

Many Ghanaians have often accused government appointees of making money through corrupt means when they are in power.
Mr Kyeremateng, together with other yet to be confirmed ministers are expected to work towards strengthening the countrys economy and making it stable.

Meanwhile, Nana Akufo Addo at the said meeting reiterated that his government is not a money making avenue for any of the officials he will appoint.

He, therefore, called on potential government appointees who have the dream of making money through corrupt means in his government to either change their minds or count themselves out.

I have said it and I will repeat it again those who are coming into this administration thinking that it is an avenue for making money are going to be disappointed.

They better go to the private sector that is where people make money, not in government.

Many Ghanaians have often accused government appointees of making money through corrupt means when they are in power.
Nana Addo is expected to pay courtesy calls on religious and traditional leaders and thank them for supporting him during the December polls. President-Elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will tomorrow Thursday, December 22, 2016, begin paying courtesy calls on prominent chiefs in the Northern Region.

READ ALSO: Nana Addo confirms Alan Kyeremateng as Trade Minister

The President-Elect will call on the Nayiri, the paramount chief of the Mamprugu Traditional area in Nalerigu before proceeding to Upper East region.

He is also to pay a courtesy call on the two regents in Yendi, the Kampakuya Naa and the Bolinlana.

He is also expected to proceed to Damongo where he will pay courtesy call on the Yagbon Wura, Paramount chief of the Gonja traditional area before proceeding to the Upper West region where he is expected to make similar courtesy calls.
A statement signed by Yaw Osafo Marfo, spokesperson for president-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo on the joint transition, said that such appointments have been done in contravention of an earlier agreement at the Transition Committees meeting of December 19, 2016, that such appointments would be done subject to consultation with the Presidential Transition Committee.

It is the view of the President-Elects team, that these appointments coming barely 24 Hours after the agreement and less than three weeks away from the inauguration of the incoming President is most disappointing and exhibits bad faith, the statement said.

It said it would like to serve notice that the incoming administration reserves the right to review these and other high profile appointments, recruitments and contracts being embarked upon in these final days contrary to normal conventions associated with Presidential transitions and the consultation mechanism agreed.

President John Mahama appointed Joseph Whittal and Josephine Nkrumah as heads of the CHRAJ and NCCE respectively early on Tuesday.

Many say the appointments were made to deliberately place the incoming government in an uncomfortable situation since the presidents term ends on January 7.

The NPP has since filed a suit challenging the authority of the President to make such last minute appointments.

Below is the full statement:

The Team of the President-Elect on the 2016 Presidential Transition Committee has taken notice of Two (2) new Constitutional Appointments that have been made today December 20th 2016 by President John Dramani Mahama.

These appointments of Chairman of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice and Chairman of the National Commission for Civic Education have been done contrary to an earlier agreement at the Transition Committees meeting of December 19th, at which meeting it was agreed that such appointments would be done subject to consultation with the Presidential Transition Committee.

It is the view of the President-Elects team, that these appointments coming barely 24 Hours after the agreement and less than three (3) weeks away from the inauguration of the incoming President is most disappointing and exhibits bad faith.

We will, therefore, like to serve notice that the incoming administration reserves the right to review these and other high profile appointments, recruitments and contracts being embarked upon in these final days contrary to normal conventions associated with Presidential transitions and the consultation mechanism agreed.

Nonetheless, we shall continue to engage the Team of the Incumbent President on these and other matters which were earlier listed as matters to be consulted upon.

Signed

Ing. Yaw Osafo Maafo
Many say the appointments were made to deliberately place the incoming government in an uncomfortable situation since the presidents term ends on January 7.

Yaw Osafo Marfo, the spokesperson for president-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo on the joint transition says such appointments have been done in contravention of an earlier agreement at the Transition Committees meeting of December 19, 2016, that such appointments would be done subject to consultation with the Presidential Transition Committee.

He says the NPP government may be forced to review some of the new appointments and contracts.

Pulse.com.gh brings you a list of some of the last minute contracts and appointments by the NDC government

Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority

The Director General, Richard Amamoo has been accused of single-handedly promoting some workers. This has created confusion at the countrys maritime hub as most workers say they have been denied promotions due to their perceived political affiliations.

NSS appointment and allowance increment

The outgoing NDC government has increased National Service allowance by 60 percent.The increment is expected to take effect from January 1, 2017. According to a memo, signed on December 14, 2016, by the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance, and cited by Pulse.com.gh, the new monthly allowance is 559.04 cedis.

Until this increase, the national service allowance was etched at 350 cedis. Ghanaians on social media have since expressed mixed reactions to the increment.

Again on Wednesday, December 20, a circular signed by Mrs Mariam Tannor-Akyemvi, Assistant Director of Administration of the National Service Scheme (NSS), said substantive District Directors of the Scheme have been appointed to fill vacant districts.

CHRAJ, NCCE Appointments

President John Mahama on Tuesday appointed Joseph Whittal and Josephine Nkrumah as heads of the CHRAJ and NCCE respectively.

The NPP argues that the appointments were made to deliberately place them in an uncomfortable situation since the presidents term ends on January 7.

The party feels it should have been consulted before those appointments were made, but the government has called the bluff of the NPP saying it cannot be restrained from exercising its powers even if it has some few days to leave office.

COCOBOD recruitments

The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) is believed to be recruiting workers. This has been confirmed by a letter to a Deputy Director at the Legal Department of COCOBOD. The letter is said to have asked him to sit on the interview panel.

Security agencies

The President-elect transition team has also raised concerns over some last minute recruitments in the military.

The spokesperson for the National Democratic Congress transition team, Hanna Tetteh, has since explained that it was unlikely that the recruitment exercise will be concluded before January 7, in which case the incoming administration will have the responsibility and have the oversight to see how the exercise is concluded.
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!
Mrs Ayade said this in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Calabar by her media aide, Mr Fred Abua.

She said the platform would be provided through an exposition in Calabar in collaboration with her NGO, Mediatrix Development Foundation (MDF) and Citenigeria.com, a lead tourism exposition platform.

According to her, the event billed for Thursday in Calabar is aimed at supporting the tourism niche that Cross River is known for.

This platform seeks to showcase the viability of the fashion industry in the state and an opportunity to exhibit the essence of the building a garment factory in our state, she said.

According to the statement, Mr Peter Ofuka, the Chief Executive Officer of Citenigeria.com, also said that fashion designers are free to sell their brands to an expanded event attendees.

He urged fashion designers and enthusiasts to use the forum to showcase their best to an international audience.
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!
Vanguard reports that Prophet Oluboyode, who owns a white garment church in Odode, Idanre area of the state, is currently in police custody and has confessed that he is responsible for his daughters seven-month-old pregnancy and was pushed into temptation by the devil.

But residents of the town think otherwise as they believed he must have carried out the act to renew his spiritual powers as it was realized that Prophet Oluboyodes church located at Oke-Ijebu Street in the town, always records high traffic of miracle-seeking worshippers from far and near on a regular basis.

A source close to the church revealed that the prophet is a specialist in bathing women in streams to ward off evil spirits and those tormented by spiritual husbands and preventing who prevent them from getting married or having babies.

Reports have it that the suspect lives alone with the daughter after the wife left him years back and all efforts by the estranged wife to take her daughter along with her were thwarted by the father who insisted that he needed her around to run errands and take care of him in the interim.

A family source also hinted that the suspect had refused to remarry after the wife left and had preferred sleeping with his daughter instead.

It was also gathered that the victim had stopped going to school when signs that she is pregnant was becoming evident while her schoolmates who went to look for her were told by the father that she had moved over to Lagos to continue her education.

Police sources said that when the girl became pregnant for her father and informed him, he allegedly prepared some concoctions for her to drink to terminate the pregnancy but the baby refused to be flushed out.

It was when Prophet Oluboyode contemplated smuggling the victim out of the house to a private clinic for an abortion that she refused and threatened to raise an alarm.
The local government staff, an engineer, was identified as Kunle Enisan.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that Enisan, a father of two, was in his early 40s.

Sources told NAN that he was an employee of Ido/Osi Local Government Area of Ekiti, and was killed in the wee hours of Monday at Housing Estate area, along Afao Road, Ado-Ekiti.

Relaying how the incident happened, the deceased in-law, Mr Adeoye Aribasoye, said the victim was returning home with his wife in his Toyota Highlander Jeep and stopped over on the way, while the wife dropped and headed home.

When it was getting too long, the wife became agitated because the deceased dont keep late nights.

The wife started looking for him. Just a few metres from home, she and the search party saw his car parked few metres from home and the doors were opened

But because of the fear, they could not see him on the ground on the other side of the car, they later came and saw his lifeless body beside where his car was parked, he said.

Aribasoye added that the family immediately reported the matter to the police.

Ekiti Police Command Public Relations Officer, Mr Alberto Adeyemi , confirmed the incident.
They protested the lack of power supply and exorbitant electricity bills for nearly a year now. The protesters also stormed the Niger State House of Assembly Complex, protesting the lack of power supply in their area and incessant crazy bills from officials of the energy provider.

Some of the protesters said that the high monthly bills (from N6,000) did not reflect the epileptic power supply.

There are three major dams in Niger state. The Kainji Dam built in 1968, Jebba Dam built in 1985 and Shiroro Dam built in 1990. These are all hydroelectric dams that have been privatised since 2013 with hollow promises of bumper harvests according to the protesters.

On Saturday, December 17, 2016, in Abuja President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, said that the Senate would look into disbursement of the N213 billion power sector intervention fund by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Saraki made this known in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Sanni Onogu.

Saraki, according to the statement, spoke during a special stake holders meeting to proffer solutions to the worsening electricity generation in the country.

He said the upper chamber would verify claims and counter claims of non-remittance of revenues between the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET), Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) and Generation Companies (Gencos).

Saraki urged the Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy to conduct a public hearing on this funds as well as on the declining electricity generation which currently stood at 3,000 megawatts.
Read her story here:

"My name is Loveth, a 28-year-old lady. I am in a dilemma at the moment and I do not know how to tell my childhood friend, Joan, that I have been sleeping with her fiance, Tobi, for over two years now.

I know many of your readers will rush to condemn me or even call me unprintable names; I do not have control over that but I will beg you to kindly take it easy with me because I have blamed and castigated myself so much in the past few months.

I know if Joan gets to know what I have been doing with Tobi, she would never forgive me and could call off her relationship, something I do not pray for.

I have come to realise my mistakes and I wish I could have the courage to confess to Joan and ask for her forgiveness because the guilt is really eating me up.

Joan and I grew up together in Enugu and we became very good friends all through our primary and secondary schools, only to be separated when we got into the university but we kept in touch.

During the holidays, we interchanged visits, swapped stories, especially boyfriend stories and kept each other abreast of what we missed out.

We had planned that we would be each others lady of honour whenever we get married. Our relationship grew from strength to strength and when she met Tobi, I was the first person she told.

She was head over heels in love with Tobi and the way she spoke about him made me jealous, though in a friendly way. I swear that I never ever imagined that a time would come when Joans boyfriend would ever appeal to me sexually though we had crushes once in a while on one anothers brother and we always laughed over it.

But when I met Tobi finally, I knew there was going to be trouble. Tobi is this hunk of a guy that has what it takes to sweep any woman off her feet, and there was little wonder that Joan was crazy about him.

I tried all I could to avoid a situation where I would be alone with Tobi without Joan being there but it happened on the day Joan had to travel on a very short notice to see her sick father in the village.

She had this habit of preparing Tobis meals and taking them to his house and she begged that I should help her make some meals and take it to him.

I did not see anything wrong with Joans request so when I closed from work, I made some fried rice and took to Tobis house.

After eating the food, I took the plates to the kitchen to wash before going home. I was still at the sink when I felt Tobis hands on me. I turned with a mixture of surprise and anger only to behold the fire in his eyes and despite myself, I melted as he planted his lips on me.

The kiss Tobi gave me was out of this world, as if I had never been kissed in my life. Within minutes, Tobi had carried me to his bedroom and made love to me.

For the first time in my life, I experienced what real orgasm was. We spent the night making love and since then, it has been so. I sneaked behind Joans back to have sex with Tobi at every opportunity I have.

In fact, I have been so much into Tobi that making love to my own boyfriend has become a chore. Tobi is engaged to be married to Joan in a few months time but we still find time to have sex on a regular basis.

I know what I am doing is very wrong but I cant seem to help myself.

Loveth.

The teaser for the day was:

How Nigeria voted:

Yes, I will confess so she can forgive me - 23%

No, I will keep it a secret - 3%

I wont tell him/her but stop the affair immediately - 74%
A farm in the Paraiba valley of Rio de Janeiro state in southern Brazil has been restored as a slave plantation and is now open to the public.

While this isn't any big news, the fact that black people have been hired to play the roles of slaves who will attend to tourists.

If you are interested in staying at the plantation for a few days or week, a bunch of people dressed as slaves will be at your every beck and call. These slaves will bring you tea, serve you food and act as your guide on the plantation.

Elizabeth Dolson who owns the restored plantation is doing this purely for profit and tourism reasons while neglecting the brutality of the slave trade and the suffering of slaves in plantations.

Throughout your trip, on the plantation, there is not a single reference to Brazil's dark history. During the slave trade era, Brazil imported more African slaves than any nation in the world. After the abolishment of the slave trade, Black Brazilians were treated as second class citizens at best.

The hesitation to integrate African-Brazilians into mainstream society led many of them to create settlements in cities popularly known as favelas. Till today, Brazilians with African ancestry are still discriminated against in the South American country.

The opening of the plantation has led to serious reactions online but it is still business as usual in the former slave plantation.
Reports say President Buhari has ordered a full scale investigation into the allegations of mismanagement of funds meant for IDPs by the SGF.

According to Daily Post, the group said they support the probe of the SGF and called on Nigerians to rally behind President Buhari.

Also, the ACF National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim, said It is not in the character of ACF to take sides on allegations of corruption against any government official or private individuals without proper investigation. The rule of natural justice demands that before you pronounce any body guilty of an allegation, you must give him a fair hearing.

The anti-corruption war cannot be applied selectively, all are subject to thorough investigation. Those found culpable are punished in accordance with the law.

We therefore support the courage of President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate allegations of corruption against top government officials of his administration. This clearly demonstrates his total commitment to do what is right irrespective of who is involve.

It is our hope that the Attorney General of the Federation will avail the officials concerned a fair hearing in the interest of justice.

ALSO READ:Senate tells Babachir Lawal to resign immediately over misuse of IDP funds

ACF is equally calling on Nigerians to support President Buhari in this very difficult anti corruption war. The challenges are enormous which requires collective duty to put all hands on deck to save our dear country from insecurity and corruption.
The soldiers, who are among those fighting Boko Haram in the North-East, also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to come to their aid.

However, the army, in response, said that the incident happened six months ago and had since been resolved.

The attention of Nigerian army has been drawn to a video clip circulating on social media of soldiers alleging lack of food and water, Army spokesman, Sani Usman said in a statement.

We wish to state that the video clip was shot more than six months ago by some mischievous and disgruntled elements when 29 task force brigade captured Alagarno Forest and environs in Borno state.

It is disheartening that some mischievous elements have decided to circulate it now, creating the false impression that it is a recent occurrence.

We wish to state further that the matter was conclusively investigated at the time, several months ago. The board of inquiry actually showed that, as at the time of the incident, the units water tanker still contained water, but a soldier mischievously concealed it. That soldier was charged and punished accordingly.

In addition to the units water tanker, a borehole was subsequently drilled at the location and it is still serving both the military and adjoining communities," he added.

ALSO READ: Boko Haram kills 30 in twin suicide attacks in Adamawa
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, made the remarks at the UN Security Council Open Debate on Trafficking in Persons in Conflict Situations on Tuesday.

We are pleased to state that Boko Haram has been militarily defeated and while some success has been achieved in liberating a good number of the women and girls they held as hostage.

We shall not relent until all of their hostages are freed and reunited with their loved ones, Onyeama told the Council.

The Minister commended the role of the Multi-national Joint Task Force in degrading the destructive Boko Haram insurgents.

We acknowledge the important role our neighbours  Cameroon, Chad and Niger  are playing in the fight against Boko Haram.

According to him, conflict situations expose civilians, especially women and girls, to grave dangers such as human trafficking, sexual violence and slavery.

Terrorist groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram, operating with complete disregard for international law and international humanitarian law, have introduced a new dimension to trafficking in persons and sexual exploitation of women and girls.

Their outrageous acts of depravity have shocked the world and drawn unprecedented attention to the plight women and girls in conflict situations.

The war crimes and crimes against humanity that they commit must not go unpunished, the Minister said.

The Minister said the concept note on human trafficking raised very significant issues and shared Nigerias perspectives on some of them.

On how the Security Council can better integrate the issue of human trafficking in conflict situations in its work, Nigeria believes that this could be achieved through enhanced engagement of the Council with UN Office on Drugs and Crime, International Organisation for Migration, the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee and other relevant actors.

On how the UN system can work closely together to fight human trafficking in conflict situations and in the context of terrorism while delivering their respective mandates, our view is that this could be facilitated by improved coordination.

Onyeama said as different agencies have different capacities in terms of expertise, a coordinated approach would enhance the overall effectiveness of the UN in the fight against human trafficking and terrorism.

Concerning how member states can better implement applicable legal obligations to combat human trafficking, we see a need for greater commitment to the implementation of relevant international instruments.

The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children is a case in point.

It not only provides the first agreed international definition of trafficking in persons, it also establishes a framework of obligations and standards for member states to elaborate national responses to fight human trafficking, the Minister said.

According to him, applying these international instruments and relevant domestic laws is crucial in ensuring accountability for those who engage in human trafficking in conflict situations.

For humanitarian action to effectively support the victims of human trafficking and sexual violence, we see a need for humanitarian agencies to engage the services of relevant experts, while paying special attention to the gender dimension of the problem.

The The fight against human trafficking in conflict situations is beyond the capacity of any one state.

It requires concerted action at the global and national levels complimented by strong leadership by the Security Council.

We seize this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to continue to work with all stakeholders at the multilateral and bilateral levels in our common fight against human trafficking, Onyeama said.

The Minister commended the Security Council for organising the debate and pledged Nigerias commitment to the implementation of relevant instruments to combat human trafficking.

Mr President, the Nigerian delegation thanks you for organising this open debate and for the wellresearched concept note provided to guide our discussion.

We also thank our distinguished briefers for sharing their perspectives on this important subject.

Earlier, Onyeama, who led the Nigerian delegation, had said Nigeria strongly condemned the assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, in Ankara on Monday.
According to a report by TheCable, the angry youths in the southern part of Kaduna threw stones at the governor's convoy on Tuesday, December 21, 2016 on his way to Jemaa local government area.

Gov El-Rufai alongside his deputy, Barnabas Bantex were reportedly in the convoy when the attack occured.

It was also reported that the angry youths were protesting the continuous killings allegedly perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen in the state.

It was further reported that tension has risen high in Kafanchan after a 24-hour curfew imposed by local government authorities.

ALSO READ: Atiku is a liar  Governor says

Speaking at the palace of Muhammadu Muhammadu, emir of Jemaa; the governor said: I and the deputy governor took oath of office to protect lives and property of all citizens and we are committed to ensuring that this is achieved.
A statement by Mr Samuel Aruwan, Special Assistant to Gov. Nasir El-Rufai on Media and Publicity in Kaduna, listed the areas as Zangon-Kataf, Kaura and Jemaa.

The statement stated that the State Security Council also endorsed ban on processions and unlawful assembly in any part of the state.

It stated that the council took the step based on credible intelligence reports about risks to lives and property in the affected areas.

It said that after an emergency Security Council meeting on Wednesday, it was resolve to take the decisions.

The statement added that security agencies had been empowered to arrest and prosecute any individual or groups that violate the orders.

The Council urged security operatives to ensure best practices in enforcing the directives.

Gov. El-Rufai chaired the meeting with the his Deputy, Barnabas Bala and was attended by the State Commissioner of Police, Agyole Abeh and Director of DSS, Mohammed Wakili.
Fayose said this while countering the INEC boss, Professor Mahmood Yakubus comments on the reason for renewed electoral violence in Nigeria.

The Governor said Yakubu should stop lamenting and return the electoral body to the way it was before he assumed office.

According to Daily Post, he said Violence returned to our electoral process because of INEC partisanship and manipulation of the electoral process in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Fayose, in a statement signed by his adviser on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said There were elections in Nigeria between 2011 and 2015, and those elections were credible, such that Nigerians were sure that popular candidates and parties would emerge victorious because votes were allowed to count. Then, violence was no longer part of our electoral process. But sadly, this present INEC has destroyed all those gains and returned Nigeria to the era of ballot box snatching.

Adding that By returning to the old system of accreditation and voting at the same time, and destroying the credibility of our electoral process, such that unpopular candidates are now having edge over and above those acceptable to the people, INEC by itself caused the electoral violence witnessed in the last 12 months.

Even judges that will sit on election matters are now pre-arranged and picked even before the election, such that after using INEC and security agencies to pervert the will of the people, tribunals are used to authenticate the electoral fraud.

The reality therefore is that only INEC can put an end to electoral violence and the only way to do it is for the commission to be neutral.

He also described a shameful, the current practice where voters now wait at the polling booths to protect their votes because of lack of trust.

Fayose also warned the INEC boss to rid the organisation of any form of partisanship, adding that Buhari would not have become President if Prof. Attahiru Jega handled the electoral body badly.
According to Daily Post, the ACF National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim said it will hold a security summit in partnership with Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation to discuss issues threatening the nations peace.

Ibrahim said We are very concerned and worried about the recurrent communal clashes between farmers and herdsmen in some Northern States like Zamfara, Taraba, Benue and Kaduna.

This seemingly intractable security challenge in the North which have continued to hinder our socio-economic development is disturbing and unacceptable.

The recent communal clashes in some communities in Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State and that of Jamaa and Kauru local government areas in Southern part of Kaduna State where innocent lives were killed and property destroyed, is worrisome and condemnable.

So, in consideration of these and other insecurity situations in the region, ACF in collaboration with Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation is proposing to host a Northern Security Summit in February next year that will address the numerous issues of cattle rustling, kidnapping, communal clashes, amongst others. The Summit is aimed at complimenting the efforts of government to finding lasting solutions to the problems.

ALSO READ:Delta youths engage Fulani herdsmen in gun battle

We commend the efforts of the affected state governments in their unwavering commitment to the pursuit of peaceful co-existence through dialogue and peace building processes among the communities in their States.

We urge the Security Agencies to step up surveillance and intelligence gathering to forestall future occurrences.
Ibori was released today, December 21, 2016, after being jailed on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 by the Southwark Crown Court.

He was arrested in Dubai on May 13, 2010, and extradited to the UK in April 2011 after being declared wanted by the UK Metropolitan Police.

Below are six expensive assets which were seized from the former governor:

1. A house in Hampstead, North London worth 2.2million.

2. A property in Shaftesbury, Dorset for 311,000.

3. A fleet of armoured Range Rovers valued at 600,000.

4. A 120,000 Bentley Continental GT.

5. A 3.2m mansion in Sandton, near Johannesburg, South Africa.

6. A Mercedes Benz Maybach, bought for 407,000 cash, that was shipped direct to his mansion in South Africa.

However, despite being freed from prison, Ibori might not be able to return to Nigeria yet.
Ibori was released on Wednesday, December 21, 2016, following a court order to that effect.

He was released unconditionally by the court, I have been monitoring the situation in the UK through his lawyers, the aide, Sunny Areh told The Sun.

That case was on before now, it was a different trial. But it has nothing to do with the present release because even the judge handling that case had declared that there was no evidence that his property was acquired by stolen fund.

That case also led to the earlier freezing of his account by the court but like I said, there is no evidence to show that his personal properties were acquired with public fund.

So as I speak with you, Ibori is a free man. When eventually they re-open the confiscation case, he does not need to present during court proceedings but his lawyers will be in court.

His travel documents must have expired by now. He needs time to renew the documents and perfect his plan to return back home. So its going to take some time before his coming to Nigeria, he added.

Ibori was jailed on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 by the Southwark Crown Court of the United Kingdom after pleading guilty to ten counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud.

He was arrested in Dubai on May 13, 2010, on an international warrant after being declared wanted by the UK Metropolitan Police.

Ibori was subsequently extradited to the UK in April 2011, and tried on 23 counts of money laundering, forgery, and fraud.

He was accused of laundering more than $200 million but he only admitted to taking $50 million.

Iboris sentence was commuted to six and a half years and further reduced to four and a half years after the 645 days he had already spent in detention was taken into account.
Ibori was jailed in the United Kingdom on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 after pleading guilty to ten counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud.

He was released today, December 21, 2016, following a court order to that effect.

However, despite being freed from prison, Ibori might not be able to return to Nigeria yet.

This is due to a pending case concerning the confiscation of his assets worth tens of millions of dollars.

He will also be expected to report to the Police once a week and is currently restricted to his St. Johns Wood residence.

Ibori will return to court in January 2017 for the determination of the assets confiscation case following an order from presiding Judge, Mrs. Justice May.

The former governor was arrested in Dubai on May 13, 2010, on an international warrant after being declared wanted by the UK Metropolitan Police.

Ibori was subsequently extradited to the UK in April 2011, and tried on 23 counts of money laundering, forgery, and fraud.

He was accused of laundering up to 200 million pounds but he only admitted to taking 50 million pounds.

Iboris sentence was commuted to six and a half years and further reduced to four and a half years after the 645 days he had already spent in detention was taken into account.

News of his impending return has caused excitement in his hometown of Oghara in Delta State where he is known as the Odidigborigbo of Africa.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the government had promised to clear the backlog salaries of all the genuine workers and pensioners in the state by Dec. 20.

NAN Correspondent, who monitored the development, noted that bank premises and ATMs in Lokoja metropolis were crowded with civil servants waiting patiently with excitement for their turn to get cash withdrawals.

Some of them who spoke with NAN, expressed gratitude to the governor for fulfilling his promise to clear their backlog salaries.

Mr Al-Hassan Jimoh, a worker at the Ministry of Information, said he was very happy that he got 9 months salary alert on Tuesday.

In spite of all the hardships, I believed in Gov. Bello because I was convinced that he was doing the right thing, Jimoh said.

A Level 12 officer, at the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Monday Eleshin, said he received alert for 10 months salary backlogs on Tuesday.

This government has really tried through the screening because some people were collecting up to 30 persons salaries which is what they are investigating. I am grateful to our governor, Eleshin said.

Mrs Kemi Dada, a Sanitation Board official, said though the screening was painful for a while, it has finally yielded positive results.

We thank Gov. Yahaya Bello for his commitment to making good his promises by paying all genuine workers in the state; my salary has been paid up to December, Dada said.

However, some local government workers and pensioners in the state told NAN that they were yet to receive any payment alert.

Munirat Oju, a worker at Lokoja Local Government, said she had not been paid since February even when her name had been cleared during the screening since August.

She urged the state government to prevail on the local government administrators to clear the salary backlog of all the genuine workers at the local government level.

A pensioner, Mr Usman Jimoh, said he had not been paid for 12 months in spite of his clearance during the screening and verification.

Jimoh, who is a retired Permanent Secretary, said he retired in active service as required by law in July 2016, after 35 years of active service but had never received any pension till date.

The government is owing me 12 months salary backlog; Seven months salary in active service from Jan. to July and 5 months pensions from Aug. to Dec. 2016. I have been living by peoples help.

Though the government is doing a good job to clear the mess in the civil service, a lot of people have suffered unnecessarily in this case.

If you are looking for ghost workers, I do not think the permanent secretaries should be the target; it is unfair, we are suffering unnecessarily, Jimoh said.

Isaac Adeleye, another pensioner, said the last pension he received was in February 2016 in spite of being screened thrice.
Among the 140 returnees were 74 adult females, 52 adult males, one female child, two male children, three female infants, two male infants and six unaccompanied kids, out of which five are female and one male.

Alhaji Muhammad Sani Sidi, Director General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), facilitated their journey back into the country.

Sidi, who was represented by Dr Onimode Bandele, Deputy Director, Search and Rescue, NEMA said:

What makes this special is that we have four minor accompanied among them.

We have to do proper training to see that these people are united with their families.

We have three medical cases on board and our doctors are aware of their cases and waiting to attend to them, he said.

The director general thanked the IOM that made it possible for the Nigerians to return home and the Nigeria government who mobilised different agencies for the exercise

He advised the returnees to stop running away from the country, adding that they should stay to develop the country together with their compatriots.

My advice for you is to sit down at home, struggle and lets develop our country. The country you are running to, their citizens developed it. If all of us run out of the country, who will develop it.

So let stay back, struggle, work hard and ensure that our country is a better place for us, he said.

Head of Lagos Office of IOM, Dr Nahashon Thuo, said most of the returnees were trying to cross to Europe without valid immigration papers.

Thuo said they were arrested by Libyan Immigration.

He, whoever, said the returnees indicated their interest to return to Nigeria, adding that they would be given 50 dollars each by the organisation.

One of the returnees, Mrs Ifeoluwa Adeosun said she sold all her property to travel to Germany when her husband, Adeosun died.

Ifeoluwa is an indigene of Owo in Ondo State.

She said she decided to go abroad in search of the means to take care of her children after the demise of her husband.

She thanked IOM and Federal Government for her trip back to Nigeria, adding that she suffered a lot in Libya.

Adeosun appealed to the Federal Government to evacuate other Nigerians in Libya, adding that they were suffering there.
Usani disclosed this while addressing newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said that the ministry was determined to complete all projects awarded by the previous administration but were abandoned in order for them to become beneficial to the people of the region.

According to him, a situation where over N400 billion was spent on projects awarded by the ministry since inception with only 12 per cent execution would no longer be tolerated.

He said this administration would hold contractors responsible to ensure that all projects initiated in the region would not be abandoned.

The minister noted that most of the contractors were from the region that collected the project money and disappeared, thereby resulting to avalanche of project abandonment, hence depriving the people of enjoy the projects.

Usani said that the ministry, under him, inherited outstanding liabilities of N34 billion on projects implemented as at last year.

He added that payment to contractors for any certificate for project execution would be strictly determined by the use of the audit report of the ministry.

It is difficult to say the exact amount required for the projects execution because the introduction of projects into our implementation plan is of course more sacrosanct, knowing that even training of youths and vocational training are all projects.

Besides, it is useful to know that on the daily basis, as payments are being made, it is equally accessing the balances on accounts on the projects.

But one thing I know is that as at the end of last year, the ministry had outstanding liabilities on projects of more than N34 billion.

So to conclude all we have in the ministry, we will be talking towards N800 billion to N1 trillion. That is my calculative imagination, he said.

The minister, however, said works on the section 5 of the 388 Kilometre dual projects cannot take off now due to some identified technical flaws arising from the designing of the project.

Usani said apart from the faulty alignment on the design, while the project cost was negotiated in Naira, the contract was signed in Dollars, hence making the entire transactions questionable.

On the ministrys flagship project, which is the East-West road dualisation, he said that it had mobilised the contractors handling the four sections of the highways to the project sites.

This is upon completion of the work of audit committee, which audited all projects awarded by the ministry in the region, he said.

The minister said that the ministry was able to mobilise contractors to various sites after payment of N4 billion to them.

He promised that more funds would be provided to them as the ministry still expected more funds accruing to it from the 2016 budgetary allocation.

Usani reassured that the ministry would ensure the training of more non militant youths in the areas of ICT, agriculture, fishery and also ensure completion of the skill acquisition centres in the region.

He said the ministry had made provision in the 2016 budget for the training of 150 youths, particularly in the area of ICT.

According to him, the training will commence very soon.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the ministry recently graduated youths in agriculture, ICT and seafarers.

We have over 269 youths from the region that have benefited in the mobile phone assemblage.

We have 130 youths who were trained in the International Skills Acquisition Centre in Israel and have been empowered with the sum of N1million, in collaboration with the Bank of Agriculture.

The ministry also trained 30 youths as Seafarers to bridge the skill gap in the maritime sector and very soon they will graduate to be awarded with certificates of international standard,  he said.

He underscored the importance of youths in the socio-economic and political development of any country, assuring that the ministry would continue to initiate programmes that would equip the youth for future challenges.
EFCC spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, who disclosed this in a statement, said the signing ceremony took place at the commissions head office in Abuja.

Under the MoU, EFCC officials are expected to closely monitor the implementation of WFP intervention programmes, including distribution of food aids to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-East.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the development is coming amid reports of diversion of relief materials meant for IDPs by government officials.

In September, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the police to arrest officials accused of involvement in the act.

The EFCC Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, pledged the commissions support for WFP to ensure that its donations and those of the government reached their beneficiaries free of corruption.

Magu stated that the EFCC-WFP partnership would greatly help in alleviating the sufferings of internally displaced people especially in the northern part of the country.

We assure you that we will follow you to every nook and cranny of the North Eastern states such as Yobe, Borno and Adamawa.

We will be with you whereever you need our attention. If there are no operatives where you are, we will send you operatives from here.

We will support and work with your intervention to reach its beneficiaries without any threat of corruption, the statement quoted him as saying.

Earlier, Mr Bernadin Assiene, the WFP Director of Inspections and Investigations, noted that that the MoU was an important aspect of WFPs intervention in Nigeria.

Its main objective, according to him, is to ensure that all the support mobilised by the programme does not only effectively reach the target beneficiaries but also corruption-free.

Assiene described the MoU as first of its kind and a confirmation that the EFCC was the right partner to help WFP to establish specific assurance mechanisms in Nigeria.

EFCCs expertise, reputation and track record of successful engagements in the fight against fraud and corruption in the utilisation of foreign assistance is well recognised, both nationally and internationally, he said.

Mr Sory Ouane, the WFP Representative and Country Director, explained how the WFP had provided intervention to the North-East through its intervention programme, assuring that it would continue.

The ongoing conflict in northeast Nigeria has the potential to cause further displacement and increase food insecurity.

Therefore, WFP is revising its emergency operations to implement a robust scale up and an integrated response to meet the overwhelming needs in northeast Nigeria.
This is contained in a statement signed by its Director of Public Relations and Information, Group Capt. Ayodele Famuyiwa, and made available to newsmen in Abuja.

According to Famuyiwa, the graduands comprised five officers and 200 airmen who graduated recently from the Regiment Training Centre (RTC), Kaduna State, having undergone 5-month Basic Regiment Courses for officers and airmen respectively.

He explained that the objective of the basic courses was to impact the participants with basic regiment skills and knowledge to enable them meet the complex demands of emerging security challenges.

BMATT handled the airfield defence and force protection aspects of the training that lasted for 6 weeks.

Among the graduands are additional 35 members of Defence Headquarters Special Forces trained in rappelling to impact in them the basic insertion/extraction skills for special operations, he said.

Famuyiwa explained further that earlier in the year, the RTC in collaboration with BMATT, had graduated two batches of students totaling 313.

This, he said, included NAF officers, airmen and airwomen as well as personnel from the Nigerian Navy and Defence Headquarters.

Famuyiwa said that the new graduands were expected to be deployed to the North-East to boost the current strength of personnel involved in the fight against the insurgents.
In a report by ThisDay, the cross section of the European Parliamentarians stated that Kanu's ordeal was part of gross human rights abuses going on in Nigeria.

This was stated in a letter addressed to the High Representative of the union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Ms. Federica Mogherini, on December 19, 2016.

The report also noted that the 16 MEPs also complained bitterly about the continued violence towards IPOB supporters as perpetrated by the Nigerian government, citing the killings of protesting Biafran activists by security agencies.

It is clear that the fundamental human rights of Kanu, Madubugwu and Nwawuisi are being grossly violated. Human Rights Watch have reported of the violation of the defendants rights, including their right to a fair trial, the MEPs said.

Continuing, the letter read: On behalf of the EU, especially in respect to the EU-Nigeria partnership, the Nigeria EU Joint Way Forward, the developments of the sixth Nigeria-EU ministerial dialogue and the fact that Nigeria is a recipient of EU aid, we call upon you to: advocate the immediate and safe release of Kanu and his co-defendants, Benjamin Madubugwu and Nwawuisi.

ALSO READ: IPOB says FG plotting to kill their leader

Nnamdi Kanu has been detained since October 14, 2015 despite being acquitted of all charges brought against him.
This is according to a communique signed by Mr Francis Johnson, PENGASSAN; Falonipe Amos, Ministry of Petroleum; Isa Inuwa, NNPC; and Udom Inoyo, Mobil.

Aggrieved oil workers of ExxonMobil on Monday shut down the companys corporate head office in Lagos to protest alleged attempts by the company to sack over 100 workers.

In a swift reaction, the company stated that the affected workers would be paid special benefits in line with existing labour agreements.

According to the communique: The management action on the union members impacted in the involuntary separation programme is hereby suspended.

This is pending the submission of the report by the ministerial committee and the determination of the issues arising from the report by the honourable minister.

It was further agreed that the management is free to implement for non-represented employees and any voluntary cases already signed onto.

That union members involuntarily impacted by the separation program will remain on Mobil payroll but shall not return to work pending the conclusion of the review of the ministerial committee.

It went on further to state that all unresolved issues related to employment separation and all matters related thereto shall be catalogued by the committee and forwarded to the honourable minister of state for resolution.

Both parties recognise their obligations under the CBA and there shall be no retribution by either party.

The strike action embarked upon by PENGASSAN/MPN branch is hereby suspended.
Idris made the promise when the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, paid him a condolence visit in Abuja on Wednesday.

I want to assure you and the country that we will not leave any stone un-turned to prosecute those behind the dastardly act, he said.

He said that the officers were killed in the line of duty to their fatherland.

The I-G said that the situation in Rivers called for the contribution and support of government and party leaders.

The incidents in Rivers show that we need the support of the people in the areas where elections were held.

The situation in Rivers has shown that we must say no to election violence in the country, he said.

He said that four suspects had been arrested in connection with the killings, while investigations were ongoing to get to the root of the matter.

Idris said that the severed bodies of the killed policemen had been found.

He said that the police would hold any of its officers involved in election fraud in Rivers responsible.

Idris said that the panel to investigate incidents in Rivers elections would be inaugurated on Thursday.

He said that forensic experts from outside the county would assist the panel to analyse the alleged audio recordings.

The I-G urged Nigerians to appreciate the efforts of the police and INEC officers in conducting elections in the country.

We need the support of government and members of the political parties of the states where elections are held," he said.

Earlier, the INEC Chairman, Yakubu, said that there could never be peaceful elections in the country without adequate security.

INEC cannot conduct free and fair elections without the Nigeria Police Force, he said.

He said that the commission would continue to work with security agencies in the county to conduct peaceful elections.
Lucky Irabor, commander of Operation Lafiya Dole said this while speaking at a press conference in Maiduguri, Borno state.

This dismissal is coming after several claims by the Army that Shekau had been killed.

Unconfirmed reports have it that Shekau had been captured by some local hunters in the state.

Dismissing the report, the army chief said: The military does not have Shekau in its possession and only read about the supposed capture in some media reports.

I also heard about it that some local hunters reportedly captured Shekau and I said, okay, when they bring him, well see him, he noted.
"Ayamma," a never-before-seen musical, reminiscent of a Disney movie but laced with the distinct, authentic African flavour, will premiere in cinemas nationwide on Friday, December 23, 2016.

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Set in a fictitious village somewhere in Ibibio land in beautiful Akwa Ibom state, Ayamma is the story of Ihuoma, (Adesua Etomi) the poor but beautiful village maiden with the voice of an angel. Her voice coming out of the forest, so haunts Prince Daraima (Wale Ojo) the handsome heir to the throne that he does all he can to reach her so as to claim her hand in marriage.

His efforts are however, constantly thwarted by the envious Princess Ama (Theresa Edem) a princess from a neighbouring village, betrothed to Prince Daraima and who will stop at nothing to secure her rightful place as his bride. All this is played out under the watchful gaze of his younger brother Ekong (Majid Michel) who harbours his own dark secret. "Ayamma" is a sweeping epic that transports us into a magical world of music, dance and drama.

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The movie stars Wale Ojo, Majid Michel, Adesua Etomi, Theresa Edem, Ime Bishop Umoh, Moses Armstrong, Ekere Ekanga and many more. Produced by the award winning producer, Emem Isong, who constantly continues to set trends and push the barriers in areas of creativity in film making, Ayamma promises to be a creative feast for all to watch and enjoy.

The movie was directed by ace director, Chris Eneaji, assistant Director was Ansa Kpokpogiri, associate Producer was Misodi Akama, story/screenplay was by Vivian Chiji, director of Photography was Dawid Pietkiewicz, lighting was by Christian Epps and music is by George Nathaniel and Evaezi.
The information was recently announced by the organisation which stated that those who "do not demonstrate inclusivity in their production practices will no longer be eligible for the Outstanding British Film or Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer awards at the annual BAFTAs".

According to Slate News, eligible projects must fall under any of the following parameters:

"On-screen characters and themes, senior roles and crew, industry training and career progression, and audience access and appeal to underrepresented audiences."

This is not the first time the academy has made efforts to improve equal representation within the films industry.

Many will agree with the strict rule recently introduced following the backlash that followed the 2016 Oscars which brought up the #OscarsSoWhite campaign.
Fayose made the allegation via a statement released by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka on Wednesday, December 21.

The statement reads:

Violence returned to our electoral process because of INEC partisanship and manipulation of the electoral process in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Rather than lamenting, the INEC chairman should return the electoral commission to what he met by detaching it from the APC, which INEC has obviously merged with.

If INEC is neutral as it used to be before APC took power, there wont be electoral violence. There were elections in Nigeria between 2011 and 2015, and those elections were credible, such that Nigerians were sure that popular candidates and parties would emerge victorious because votes were allowed to count.

Then, violence was no longer part of our electoral process. But sadly, this present INEC has destroyed all those gains and returned Nigeria to the era of ballot box snatching.

By returning to the old system of accreditation and voting at the same time, and destroying the credibility of our electoral process, such that unpopular candidates are now having edge over and above those acceptable to the people, INEC by itself caused the electoral violence witnessed in the last 12 months.

Even judges that will sit on election matters are now pre-arranged and picked even before the election, such that after using INEC and security agencies to pervert the will of the people, tribunals are used to authenticate the electoral fraud. The reality therefore is that only INEC can put an end to electoral violence and the only way to do it is for the commission to be neutral.
Akinyele, who lost in the Dec. 3 Ifako-Ijaiye Federal Constituency by-election in Lagos, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that internal rancour and factions had disintegrated the party.

According to him, the fragile unity in the Lagos chapter that enabled the party to win some House of Representatives seats in the 2015 General Election has broken down.

I feel we need to get back on the drawing board to look for ways to come together desperately; if not done immediately, I dont see the Lagos State Chapter of PDP lasting for another six months.

We have the local government elections due in a few months time; how do we rally ourselves together?

The lesson of my election should be learnt for possible correction within the ranks of the party.

Leaders are polarised; no funding either from their personal pockets or from the state or national level, Akinyele said.

According to him, the party is in serious need of new and promising young leaders that can make the needed political movement.

We need people with passion and zeal, who are not in the party for their own personal interest alone.

I hope a new rebranding, reshaping or something is quickly put together for our party to hold together, he said.

Akinyele urged the party leadership to make concerted efforts to institute internal democracy in its primaries.

He commended PDP chieftains such as Chief Bode George, Prince Kola Balogun, Sen. Moshood Salvador, Mr Segun Adewale, Chief Taiwo Kuye, Mr Tokunbo Kudehinbu and Alhaji Akeem Balogun, among others, for their belief in the party.
Ikoiwak told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt on Wednesday that the Dec. 10 elections in the area were marred by violence.

He said elections were scheduled for a state assembly seat and House of Representatives for Etche/Omuma constituency.

He said elections did not take place in up to 30 per cent of the Local Government because hoodlums disrupted activities in the area.

In Etche, elections did not take place in up to 30 per cent of the area. Even when deployments were made on the eve of the election, hoodlums went there and stopped INEC officials from going to the polling units.

Since they did not allow elections to be completed in Etche, that constituency will have to wait.

This is because INEC will not go back immediately. Materials have already gone into the field.

Some were snatched and destroyed. We need to plan for another election in the area, Ikoiwak said.
Why I said so is very clear. If you can have an invasion for ordinary legislative rerun elections in Rivers state, then I have my fears for 2019," the governor said over the weekend, according to Daily Times.

You saw the kind of invasion we witnessed in Rivers state on December 10 by security agencies, Police, Army and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. It is clear that with what we saw in Rivers if the President (Muhammadu Buhari) declared that he wants to run in 2019.

So we should expect a tsunami; anybody that does not want it should go away. There will be fighter jets. The only thing that was not deplored to the state on December 10 was Fighter jets. We may see that in 2019 if the President says he wants to contest the presidential election.

This is why I said anybody thinking of election in 2019 is wasting time. It will be like war. If you dont agree we bomb you. If you can bring 28, 000 policemen, three helicopters, 20 gunboats and then train special military all for legislative rerun elections in Rivers state then I have my fears and worries for 2019.

You cannot believe it that that Divisional Police Officers, DPOs were all transferred on the eve of the December 10 election. They brought a Special Anti Robbery Squad outside the state, all for legislative rerun that had to do with only a state. So you can see what a presidential election will be like. If a fighter jet does not come out then something is wrong.

They must bomb everybody that says no to the presidential aspiration, if you dont die before the election you must die on the day of the election. This will be the fate of anybody that does not agree.

Did they say I spoke to electoral officer or they said I spoke to a third party, so I know what to answer? Who can show me where I spoke to electoral officer? Tell me. What did I say, what did I threaten. I never said anything; I never spoke to any electoral officer.

It is unfortunate that this is a cover up to the atrocities that they committed. Assuming though not conceding that I threatened an electoral officer, that if you dont do the right thing this and that will happen, does that give you room to go and do the kind of things you did. This is what we call total nonsense. I did not speak to anybody; no electoral officer can say I spoke to him or her. I never spoke to anybody.

The major thing is that did INEC, Police, Army compromise during the election. Let us all face the realities and not shadows. The various agencies compromised their roles during the elections. I can set up equipment now and you see what will be done with voice. What cant this government do? I dont have a Chief Security Officer (CSO), Camp Commandant. They have now detained the policemen that followed me to stop criminals who wanted to hijack results.

Even the Police officer that was caught on video they have told him to go. What kind of country is this? The one (Police officer) caught on camera doing funny things during the rerun elections, what have they done with him.

It was the entire Rivers people that went on the protest to the Police headquarters. The man (police officer) has done what they sent him to do. Having fulfilled that, he should leave us and then the Police should send us those that can protect lives and property if that is the role of the police. He (police officer) has delivered, taken lives and delivered.

What we will continue to do is to allow the public know what is happening. Now nobody is saying we (PDP) are causing trouble. Tell them (INEC) to show you the server of all uploaded results on the e-election show the e-voting and see if APC got up to ten percent. What kind of system are we operating?

Where have you seen where they move CSO without a governor knowing. My security is God. Look at what they did; look at the armory they brought into the state. How can you go into election without campaigning and expect to win. They gave to each APC leader ten, fifteen security men. My Secretary to State Government had no security.

What kind of politician are you who cannot win Assembly seat in your area. When I campaigned I gave the people projects they saw. What did you (APC candidates) tell them? You told them you will clean up Ogoni, which day? You took lives to get one seat.

It pains me. It means they just came to take lives because of one Senatorial seat and five House of Assembly seats. Those of them who caused death of the innocent people, God will judge them.

I have never seen this kind of election before. 350 Hilux vehicles were sent to the state; all to come and do their bidding. Now INEC is not talking over the deaths because they know what happened. They are now dumb. If it was the other way round, you would have heard them shouting that the state is too violent.

No matter how you go and concoct story those things are medicine after death. The more you come out with might to rig elections, the more people will resist and it will turn violent. They wanted to change results in Port Harcourt City local government.

They did it in Ikwerre local government, chased out agents. Where have you seen where they collate results without party agents? The rerun election was a case of David killed Goliath. I am David and the Federal Government was Goliath, he added.

ALSO READ: Wike caught threatening to kill INEC officials over Rerun Election
In a new video posted on an Instagram account called @famousblogng, the founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide says that tithing qualifies a believer for God's blessing.

He says, "Everybody believes that God has an open Heaven order of blessings for His people. But you see it takes your tithing to qualify for it. So, if you only know the promise but you don't know the condition, you will die frustrated."

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In an attempt to prove his point, Oyedepo goes on to add that all promises come with demands.

In his words, "Now Christ has redeemed us from the curse of sin, from poverty, from death, but what does it take to get there, it takes faith in the demands. People just believe the promise but you need to believe the demands. It is believing the demands that entitles you to the fulfilment of the promise. There is no provision in the Scriptures without conditions attached. Even salvation as free as it is, you need to repent before you can be saved. There is nothing provided for without conditions to meet."

ALSO READ: 10 Bible verses on sowing and reaping

This message with received mixed feelings. While there are supporters of these statements, there are others who disagree strongly.

Popular OAP and critic, Daddy Freeze, falls into this second category.

In an Instagram post, he says, "This is absolutely not true! the richest man on earth doesn't pay tithe, , the youngest billionaire on the top 10 doesn't pay tithe, the richest man in Africa is while , the foremost and most successful Nigerian blogger doesn't believe in or pay tithe.Please be careful what you let these men teach you. Jesus only mentioned tithe once in the bible, in passing, and he never linked it with success or salvation. Jesus, the head of the church never collected tithe and his disciples, our first pastors didn't collect tithe either.According to historical records the first church set up by the disciples didn't collect tithe, and tithe was not collected by any church for 600 years after the death of Christ."

This reaction has gotten over 100 comments.

Fun Fact: Most Catholic churches do not collect tithes. Does that mean Catholics do qualify for God's blessings?
This is aimed at ensuring accountability, transparency and management of resources, according to a report by Vanguard News.

Buhari mentioned this at the maiden convocation of the Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI) Ebonyi state.

He was represented by Professor Rasheed Adamu Abaubakar, the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC).

His speech was focused on the zero tolerance of corruption by his administration, especially in the education sector.

No room for corruption in the academic sector.

"Very soon, we will take tour of all projects executed by our new federal universities to ensure that funds allocated to them are judiciously utilized.

Our Universities must be example in good governance and financial management. So, no room for corruption in the academic sector.

ALSO READ: President commissions University in Edo state

In his note, Professor Chinedum Nwajiuba, the Vice-Chancellor of the institution advised the graduating students to represent the university in a good manner.
Facebook Live, the social network's video live stream feature, was launched in April 2016 and the upcoming Live Audio feature seems to be an audio version of that. Something like an online radio.

With Facebook Live Audio, broadcasting and live podcasting will definitely take new forms. Facebook currently has 1.7 billion potential users for the soon-to-be-launched feature.

"From interviews to book readings, were excited about the layer of interactivity that Live Audio brings to both the broadcaster and listener. Just as with a live video on Facebook, listeners can discover live audio content in News Feed, ask questions and leave reactions in real time during the broadcast, and easily share with their friends," says Facebook in a blog post.

The social network says it will be testing out the feature with media companies and publishing houses like the BBC and it will be available for full release next year.

Live Audio will join a growing list of new features that Facebook has been incorporating into its platform. Some of them include Facebook Live, Facebook 360, and the most recent Slideshow, a feature that lets you merge music and pictures in a slideshow for your feed.
He does this through a project known as the Healing On Purpose and Evolving (H.O.P.E) center, which opened on December 15, 2016.

It is an extension of the First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York, where Walrond engages in his pastoral duties.

Speaking to the DNA Info regarding the initiative, he said, Theres a normalization of trauma in this community,

We dont engage it, we dont address it.

H.O.P.E seeks to help people suffering from a variety of issues such as depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, trauma, sexual abuse and domestic violence.

The project is already gaining support state wide.

Chirlane McCray, the wife of New York Mayor, Bill de Blasio, was at the ribbon cutting ceremony of H.O.P.E held on Thursday, December 15, 2016.

She thinks supporting the government in its responsibility to offer help to mentally ill people can assist in exterminating the problem.
The gunman, who is Swiss, and is believed to have Ghanaian roots, stormed into the Islamic center near the main train station in Zurich. He opened fire on the people praying, injuring three of them.

He was later found dead, a few minutes walk away from the mosque. He had apparently shot himself with his own weapon, according to the police.

Why did he do it?

Investigators are still puzzled about his motive to commit the attack, and while they were still investigating this, they found another connection.

He is now suspect in the killing of an acquaintance of South American origins whose body was found in a playground.

Still, head of criminal investigations for the Zurich cantonal police, Christiane Lentjes Meili, told a news conference,

"He is Swiss and we don't know anything about the motives."

The three victims of the mosque attack, all men, aged 30, 35 and 56, and two of them were seriously injured in the attack. a rare case of gun violence in Switzerland, while a third sustained less severe injuries.

Gun violence is very rare in Switzerland and this has come as a shock to many communities.

Speaking on this, the spokesman for the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland, Onder Gunes, said;

"All Muslims are of course shocked that people praying came under fire. This would be equally shocking if done by a Muslim, Christians, Hindus or any other religious group. We all have to stand together for peace. This cannot be allowed to escalate."

Investigations have revealed that the shooter quit his job the Friday before the attacks, and that perhaps, he had some interest in the occult sciences, but the details are still sketchy.
The bounty offer was posted on ISIS' social media platforms which was translated in various languages.

In the mean time, Palani is being held under incarceration at a prison in Denmark while also facing trial for going against a 12-month travel ban enforcement in June 2015.

If convicted, she is expected to spend two years in prison for infringing against the law which was developed to restrict the movement of terrorists from Denmark to the Middle East.

According to the India Times, Palani has been a subject of ferocious attack by ISIS who have made their criticism of her both online and offline.

There has always been a sort of doggedness about Joanna Palani. She was born in a refugee camp in Ramadi, Iraq during the first Gulf War.

At a young age, she suspended her politics degree to join the Kurdish revolution in its battle against Islamic extremists, ISIS.

She has fought with the Kurdish People's Protection Units in northern Syria and Peshmerga forces in Iraq.
Two days after the Christmas market rampage killed 12 people, Amri was named in European arrest warrants that offered a 100,000-euro ($104,000) reward for information and warned he could be "violent and armed".

Authorities suspect that the man with a history of petty crime and drug dealing is the killer praised in the IS-linked Amaq news agency as the "soldier of the Islamic State" behind the carnage.

Amri's asylum-office papers for a stay of deportation were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry that cut a swathe of death and destruction through the festive crowd.

The warrant said the dark-haired, brown-eyed and possibly bearded suspect had used six false names as he dodged security services and mingled with radical Islamist preachers, some of whom are now in custody.

He had already been in the crosshairs of counter-terror agencies, and a probe had been launched suspecting he was preparing "a serious act of violence against the state," said Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state.

The Berlin prosecutors, who were in charge of the case, said Amri had been suspected of planning a burglary meant to raise cash to buy automatic weapons, "possibly to carry out an attack".

Surveillance had then however shown that Amri was working as a small-time drug dealer in Berlin and once had a bar fight with another dealer, a statement said, adding that the surveillance had ceased in September.

'Hate preachers'

Bild newspaper reported Amri had repeatedly contacted Islamist "hate preachers" including the Iraqi Ahmad Abdelazziz A., alias Abu Walaa, who has since been arrested, accused of supporting the IS.

Amri had searched for people to join him in an attack as early as the spring of 2016 and once tried to buy a pistol from an undercover police officer, an investigator was quoted as telling Bild.

He had used different identities to travel between German states, said an unnamed investigator, "but apparently there was never sufficient evidence to arrest him".

Amri's family lives in the central Tunisian town of Oueslatia, near Kairouan, a holy city of Islam which became a Salafist stronghold for a time after the 2011 revolution that overthrew long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

A Tunisian security official told AFP that Amri had been arrested several times there for alleged drug use.

He fled Tunisia to Italy after the 2011 revolution. Media reports in Italy said Amri, then an unaccompanied minor, was jailed for several years there after being accused of starting a fire in a school.

Amri arrived in Germany in July 2015, at a time when tens of thousands of migrants and refugees also flocked to the top EU economy.

Germany rejected his asylum request in June this year but was unable to deport him as Amri claimed to have no travel documents.

His deportation then got caught up in red tape with Tunisia, which long denied he was a citizen. The documents only arrived on Wednesday, two days after the Berlin attack, said Jaeger.

jpegMpeg4-1280x720In Tunisia, Amri's family expressed shock Wednesday when they were questioned by anti-terrorism police and learned that Amri was wanted across Europe.

"I can't believe my brother could do such a thing," his sister Najoua told AFP.

"He never made us feel there was anything wrong. We were in touch through Facebook and he was always smiling and cheerful."

His brother Abdelkader said: "When I saw the picture of my brother in the media, I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm in shock, and can't believe it's him who committed this crime".
The Extraordinary African Chambers, a body created by Senegal and the African Union, sentenced Habre to life in jail in May, an unprecedented conviction hailed as a blow to the impunity long enjoyed by repressive rulers.

Marcel Mendy, the court's spokesman, said the process "will begin on January 9 at 9 am (0900GMT)."

The verdict against Habre brought closure for relatives of up to 40,000 people killed and many more kidnapped, raped or tortured during his 1982-1990 term as president of Chad.

It set a global precedent as the first time a country had prosecuted the former leader of another nation for rights abuses.

In July, Habre was further ordered to pay up to 30,000 euros ($33,000) to each victim who suffered rape, arbitrary detention and imprisonment during his rule, as well as to their relatives.

Known as a skilled desert fighter and often dressed in combat fatigues to fit the role, Habre fled to Senegal after his 1990 ouster by Chad's current President Idriss Deby.
In view of notifications from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany and the Province of Overijssel in the Netherlands.

It has banned the import of poultry meat and products, including poultry eggs, from the two areas, the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of Hong Kongs Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said.

The ban, with immediate effect, aims to protect public health in Hong Kong, the CFS said.

According to a CFS spokesperson, in the first 10 months of this year, Hong Kong imported about 8,400 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and 2 million poultry eggs from Germany.

It also imported about 7,800 tonnes of frozen poultry meat and 7.3 million poultry eggs from the Netherlands.

The CFS has contacted the German and Dutch authorities over the issues and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE on avian influenza outbreaks in the two countries concerned.
The call by bishops sponsoring key talks between the opposition and the ruling party came a day after deadly protests erupted over Kabila's refusal to step down at the end of his mandate Tuesday.

According to a UN provisional toll, 19 people were killed and 45 hurt in violence across Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday.

The government put the toll at 11 dead.

Tension remained high on Wednesday, with activity resuming slowly in Kinshasa, a megacity of 10 million people, and troops and police posted at major crossroads.

All eyes were on the resumption of the talks headed by the Episcopal Conference, CENCO, that had broken up at the weekend with no progress.

"Our wish is to end before Christmas," said CENCO chairman Monsignor Marcel Utembi. "If the political and civil society actors do not reach a compromise by then... CENCO will draw the consequences."

'Peaceful resistance'

In Rome, Pope Francis too appealed to the people of DR Congo to be "artisans of peace".

"May those who are in positions of political responsibility listen to the voice of their conscience, learn to see the cruel sufferings of their fellow citizens and have at heart the common good."

Gunfire rang out across the vast and troubled nation as the protests erupted Tuesday.

So far the mainstream opposition has called for "peaceful resistance" from the country's 70 million people, pinning its hopes on a deal at the negotiating table.

But in what Kabila's opponents dubbed "a provocation", a new government was announced overnight Monday, headed by Samy Badibanga.

The freshly appointed cabinet is part of an October deal struck between the ruling party and tiny fringe opposition groups enabling Kabila to remain in office pending elections in April 2018.

Wave of arrests

However, the main opposition bloc headed by 84-year-old Etienne Tshisekedi rejects the plan. It wants elections next year -- along with a pledge that Kabila will not stand.

Maman Sambo Sidikou, the head of the UN mission in Congo, had voiced alarm on Tuesday about a wave of arrests of opposition leaders, rights campaigners and journalists since December 16.

Kabila, 45, who has ruled since 2001, is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term but under a controversial recent constitutional court order, he may stay on until a successor is chosen.

In a YouTube video, Tshisekedi launched "a solemn appeal to the Congolese people to no longer recognise the authority of Mr. Joseph Kabila, to the international community to no longer deal with Joseph Kabila in the name of the Democratic Republic of Congo".

He urged people "to peacefully resist the coup d'etat".

The message was not available in DR Congo where authorities have since Sunday imposed strict controls on social media networks.

DR Congo has never witnessed a democratic transfer of power following polls since independence from Belgium in 1960.

The president has been in office since his father Laurent Kabila's assassination in 2001. He was elected in 2006, and again in 2011.
Several others were also injured in the outbreak.

The fire broke out at the Bindal Palaza Hotel in the states Gondia district, which was almost fully occupied as members of a marriage party were staying there.

Six bodies have been brought out of the hotel by rescuers, he said, on condition of anonymity.

The death toll may go up later in the day as several people are feared trapped inside the hotel, the official said.

Some 15 fire tenders have been pressed into service to douse the flames and evacuation of those trapped is underway.

Those who sustained injuries in the fire have been rushed to nearby hospitals, where the condition of some is said to be serious, he said.

Local TV channels reported that the hotel is located in a congested area that made it difficult for fire engines to reach the spot soon after the incident.

Quoting eyewitnesses, the report said that locals were the first to rush to the rescue of those trapped.
The presidential coalition -- named the Houphouetist Rally for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) in tribute to the country's founding president -- won 167 seats in the 254-seat National Assembly, results showed on Tuesday.

Provisional results released by the authorities put turnout at 34 percent, said the head of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) Issouf Bakayoko.

The ruling coalition was seeking an absolute majority in the face of numerous dissidents and opposition candidates in the country, which was rocked by deadly unrest after the 2010 presidential election that saw Ouattara oust then leader Laurent Gbagbo.

He is being tried by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity. His wife Simone Gbagbo is on trial in Abidjan on similar charges over the post-2010 election violence.

Ivory Coast was long the star economic performer in the region until hitting years of political strife but is now back on the rails.
Thirty one people are known to have died in the Tuesday blast -- 26 at the scene and five more in hospital. Forensic experts are working on genetic analyses of the bodies because nearly all are impossible to identify.

Rescue workers were still searching for bodies -- or survivors -- in the smoldering wreckage of the market in the Mexico City suburb of Tultepec, which was packed with customers buying pyrotechnics for traditional end-of-year festivities.

Another 72 people were injured in the blast. Fifty-one remained in hospital on Tuesday night, many with severe burns covering their bodies. Another 21 people with lesser injuries were treated and released.

Three badly burned children were due to be transferred to a specialist hospital in Galveston, Texas.

Residents were left traumatized by the cataclysmic scene.

"You just heard the blast. And everything started to catch fire. People came running out on fire," said Walter Garduno.

"People were alight -- children," he added before trailing off.

From a few kilometers (miles) away, the multiple explosions almost looked festive, alight in blue, red and white. They were anything but.

Desperate search

The scorched remains of the San Pablito market looked like something from a post-apocalyptic film, with little left standing in the smoldering ruins.

The explosion sent a vast cloud of smoke billowing over the capital. An acrid smell hung in the air well into the night.

Fire crews struggled for three hours before bringing the blaze under control.

The head of the civil protection service, Luis Felipe Puente, said crews had to wait for all the fireworks to finish exploding before they could extinguish the flames.

"The entire market is gone," he said. It had more than 300 stands.

Several of the injured were in "delicate condition," he added.

Small explosions continued to startle locals through the night. Authorities said they were controlled blasts to eliminate remaining gunpowder.

Homes and vehicles nearby were also severely damaged. In some areas, emergency workers were gently probing for survivors under heaps of charred and twisted roofing material.

People desperately searching for family and friends shouted and gestured to rescuers about where they hoped the missing might be found.

The military, which is in charge of issuing fireworks sales permits, was deployed to help emergency crews transport casualties to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter.

Ambulances, fire trucks, police vehicles and army trucks all crowded the sprawling blast area.

Six initial explosions

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted his condolences to the families of those killed.

The attorney general's office has opened an investigation into the cause of the blast, which it said was prompted by six initial explosions.

State and federal investigators were combing through the burnt remains of the market.

jpegMpeg4-1280x720Some locals speculated the mishandling of gunpowder or other fireworks components may have been to blame.

That was the cause of an explosion at the same market in September 2005 ahead of the Independence Day holiday.
December 19: Truck attack in Berlin

A Polish-registered truck laden with steel beams ploughs into a busy night-time Christmas market in central Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring at least 48.

The following day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel describes the assault as a "terrorist attack." German police arrest a Pakistani asylum seeker but release him for lack of evidence.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency later says "a soldier of the Islamic State" carried out the attack "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries."

August 6: Machete attack in Belgium

A machete-wielding man shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) attacks two policewomen in Charleroi, southern Belgium, badly injuring one in the face before being shot dead by a third officer.

Investigators give the initials of the assailant as K.B., describing him as a 33-year-old Algerian who had been living in Belgium since 2012.

The following day, IS says the attacker acted "in response to (its) calls to target citizens" of countries in the US-led coalition bombing IS in Syria and Iraq.

July 26: French priest killed

Attackers slit an elderly priest's throat in a hostage-taking at his church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

Abdel Malik Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, both 19, pledged allegiance to IS in a video made before the attack.

July 24: German suicide blast

A failed Syrian asylum-seeker blows himself up outside a music festival in the German city of Ansbach, wounding 15 others. The Bavarian interior minister says the man "pledged allegiance" to IS, while the jihadist-linked Amaq news agency said he was a "soldier" of the group.

July 18: German train attack

A 17-year-old asylum-seeker, believed to have been Afghan or Pakistani, attacks passengers on a Bavarian train with an axe, injuring five people, two of them critically. He is shot dead by police.

July 14: Nice lorry attack

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rams a 19-tonne truck into people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 86 people and wounding more than 400.

IS said Bouhlel staged the attack "in response to calls to target nations of coalition states" fighting the jihadist group.

June 28: Istanbul airport attack

A triple suicide attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport kills 47 people and leaving more than 260 injured. Authorities blame IS, though there is no claim of responsibility.

June 13: French police couple killed

A man claiming allegiance to IS stabs a police officer to death before slitting his partner's throat in front of their young son at their home in Magnanville, west of Paris.

June 12: Orlando gay bar shooting

A gunman claiming allegiance to IS opens fire inside a gay bar in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people in the deadliest mass shooting in US history.

March 22: Brussels attacks

Suicide attacks claimed by IS kill 32 people and wound more than 340 at Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro station, near the European Union headquarters.

The attackers have links to the cell that carried out the November 2015 jihadist attacks in Paris.

- March 19: Israelis killed in Istanbul

Three Israeli tourists and an Iranian are killed by a suicide bomber at an Istanbul shopping centre. Turkish authorities attribute attack to IS.

January 12: 12 Germans killed in Istanbul

Twelve German tourists are killed in a suicide attack in central Istanbul. Islamic State held responsible.

December 2, 2015: San Bernardino shooting

Syed Farook and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik open fire at a Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people. IS hails the attack, but does not claim direct responsibility.

November 13, 2015: Paris attacks

Coordinated suicide attacks in Paris kill 130 people and wound more than 350 at a concert hall, cafes and the national stadium. IS claims responsibility.

October 31, 2015: Russian jet bombed

An Airbus passenger jet owned by a Russian company crashes in the Sinai desert after a bomb rips a hole in the plane, killing all 224 people on board. IS claims responsibility.

June 26, 2015: Tunisia beach attack

Gunmen kill 38 people, including 30 British tourists, at a beach hotel in Sousse, a little more than three months after a similar attack at the Bardo museum in Tunis kills 22 people, including 21 foreign tourists. IS claims both attacks.

January 7-8, 2015: Paris shootings

Gunman Amedy Coulibaly, claiming allegiance to IS, kills a policewoman in a Paris suburb before attacking a Jewish supermarket the next day, where he kills four more people. He is killed in a police assault.
On a freezing winter evening on Monday, he walked out of room number 214 in a hotel in the Cankaya district of the city after shaving and putting on a suit.

The hotel room had been booked on December 14 and he had checked in on Sunday.

Carrying a total of 75 bullets in three magazines and also in his pockets, Altintas made his way to the Contemporary Arts Centre exhibition hall in Ankara, just metres from his hotel.

He did not go through the metal detector security check. After being told to do so he flashed his police ID and was waved through.

As Russian ambassador to Ankara Andrei Karlov was giving the opening speech to inaugurate a photo exhibition of Russian landscapes, Altintas lurked behind, away from the other vernissage guests, listening attentively.

At 7:05 pm (1605 GMT), Altintas produced a gun and fired into Karlov's back.

The ambassador flinched in pain and then crashed to the ground on his back. Altintas fired four initial shots into his back and another five when the ambassador fell to the ground.

Police later entered the exhibition centre and after a 15-minute shootout, Altintas was fatally shot at 7:42 pm.

What prompted a young policeman with no previous criminal record to commit a crime that, whatever its consequences, will forever be remembered in history?

'Cheerful boy'

Altintas hailed from the quiet town of Soke in Aydin province in western Turkey where he went to school.

"He was a pleasant, cheerful boy. He caused no harm or discomfort to anyone," a teacher from his school in Soke, who was not named, told the Hurriyet daily.

He attended a special school for training future policemen and then joined the Ankara anti-riot police -- the Cevik Kuvvet in Turkish -- in 2014.

According to the Hurriyet daily, he had provided protection for Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eight times since summer this year.

For the Turkish authorities, the motivation for the crime is becoming more and more clear -- that he was linked to the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen blamed for the 2016 failed putsch bid against Erdogan.

According to Turkish media, Gulen-related books were found at his home and he is also alleged to have attended a Gulen-backed cramming school (dershane in Turkish) in 2014 to help with exams.

A dozen people, including his closest family, have so far been detained over the murder with the authorities actively checking their possible links to Gulen.

Gulen has denied any links to both the coup and the assassination.

The Sabah daily said among those detained was Suleyman Ergen, a so-called "imam" or senior agent of Gulen who had taught Altintas at the Rustu Unsal police academy in Izmir.

According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Altintas had taken two days sick leave on the day of the July 15 coup. It remains unclear what he did on his days off, it added.

He also called in sick complaining of stomach pains on Monday -- with a note from the same doctor.

'Corpse unclaimed'

But Russia, which has sent a team of 18 investigators to Turkey, have urged the authorities not to leap to hasty conclusions and said it is too early to say who was behind the murder.

Altintas shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) and "Don't forget Aleppo" as he waved his gun around at the cultural centre.

While relations between Turkey and Russia had improved drastically in recent months, there had been angry demonstrations in the country over Moscow's support of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
Finding Peace of Mind: Discover These Five Places in Europe to Unwind
A Davenport man will spend the rest of his life in prison for fatally stabbing 62-year-old Claude S. Hanson in July 2015, a Scott County judge ruled Tuesday.

Robert Earl Carter, 55, dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, declined to make a statement before Judge Mary Howes handed down the sentence for first-degree murder.

Its a mandatory sentence, but I think its extremely appropriate here, Howes said during a short sentencing hearing in Scott County District Court. It was a planned, vicious and violent attack.

She also sentenced Carter to up to 25 years in prison, which will run at the same time as the life sentence, on a first-degree burglary charge. He also must pay $150,000 in restitution to Hansons family, Howes ordered.

One of his appointed attorneys, Mike Adams, told the judge Tuesday that he intends to file a notice of appeal. He has 30 days to do so.

Carter was found guilty of the charges in November after a trial lasting several days.

Prosecutors argued at trial that Carter sneaked into Hanson's apartment at 3831 Bridge Ave., stabbed him and stole cash out of his wallet when Hanson returned from washing clothes in the apartment complex's laundry room on the night of July 15, 2015.

Carter lived two doors down from Hanson, and his apartment was visible from a window in the laundry room.

Hanson died six days later from complications from a stab wound to the abdomen. He was not able to tell police who attacked him.

Several swabs of blood collected from Hanson's apartment were sent to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation lab for analysis.

Prosecutors said Carters DNA was found on Hansons wallet, inside his sweatshirt pocket and on the doorknob on the front door. He also could not be excluded from the DNA profile found underneath the fingernails on Hansons right hand, according to prosecutors.

Hansons brother, Brad Hanson, said Tuesday in a prepared statement to the judge that in the past 17 months, thoughts of the murder and the surrounding events have been on my mind on a daily basis.

Even though we have tried very hard, my wife and I find it extremely difficult to return to life as we knew it prior to Claudes death, he said. Its even more difficult dealing emotionally with his violent death knowing what a kind, gentle, non-violent and caring person Claude was.
The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a Davenport man serving up to 25 years in prison for a drunken driving crash in September 2014.

In a short opinion released Wednesday, the court said there was substantial evidence to support a Scott County jurys verdict that Robert M. Aguirres intoxicated driving was the cause of Teangelo Garrards death.

The court also ruled Aguirres trial attorneys, public defenders Phil Ramirez and Amy Christen, were not ineffective for not asking the presiding judge to instruct jurors on the scope of liability.

On Oct. 2, 2015 Aguirre, 63, was convicted of homicide by vehicle (operating under the influence) and operating while intoxicated.

According to police, Aguirre was driving a 2009 Saturn Aura XE east in the 2800 block of West Locust Street when he turned left into the path of a motorcycle operated by Garrard, 24, of Rock Island, about 6 p.m. Sept. 20, 2014.

Garrard, who was wearing a helmet, died from multiple blunt-force injuries at Genesis Medical Center-East Rusholme Street, Davenport.

A Davenport Police crash scene investigator estimated that Garrard was driving a minimum of 30 to 37 mph before the crash, based on tire marks and other evidence the scene. It did not appear that Aguirre came to a full stop in the turn lane before driving into Garrard's path, the investigator testified at trial.

Aguirre had a blood alcohol content of .238, almost three times the legal limit to drive, according to trial testimony. He told an officer after the crash that he drank seven or eight beers between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. that day.
A 19-year-old Bettendorf man has been identified as the person who was shot by police during a disturbance Monday night at Home Depot in Bettendorf.

Joshua G. Price sustained what police believe are non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, and he remains hospitalized at University Hospitals, Iowa City, according to a news release issued by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, or DCI.

The incident occurred at 11:35 p.m. at the Home Depot store at 920 Middle Road, Bettendorf.

After receiving a call of a disturbance, police arrived and engaged Price, who was armed with what was believed to be a handgun, according to a news release from the city of Bettendorf.

Investigators later learned that Price had a soft-air gun, which resembled a handgun, according to the DCI. Price also presented suicidal tendencies in front of the officers, according to the DCI.

No officers or employees of Home Depot were harmed or injured.

Our associates were shaken, and weve provided on-site counseling, Stephen Holmes, director of corporate communications for Home Depot, said in an email Tuesday. But, were all extremely thankful no one else was injured.

He confirmed Price is a former employee, but he didn't know how long Price had worked at the store.

Holmes said the store was not open for business at the time of the shooting. He referred all other questions about the incident to police.

The officer involved, whose name will not be released until an interview is conducted, has been placed on administrative leave, per the departments policy.

The Davenport Police Department, Iowa State Patrol and the Scott County Attorneys Office assisted in the investigation.

Bettendorf Police Capt. Keith Kimball said Tuesday that the incident is not related to a shooting earlier this month at Duck Creek Plaza.
SPRINGFIELD  Illinois top leaders arent meeting to discuss the state budget, but a group that includes rank-and-file lawmakers from both parties has been meeting more frequently in recent weeks to come up with a plan to overhaul the way the state funds public schools.

Despite the standstill over the broader state budget, members of Gov. Bruce Rauners education funding reform commission say theyre optimistic that the group, which has been meeting since summer, will be able to come up with at least the outlines of what a new school funding formula should look like.

When the first-term Republican governor announced the group in July, he set a Feb. 1 deadline for it to complete its work. The commissions next meeting is set for Wednesday.

Weve made meaningful progress on an incredibly difficult issue, said state Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, a member of the commission and a leading voice in his caucus on school funding issues.

If reform is going to occur, Barickman said, the group  and ultimately the General Assembly  will have to come to a consensus on complicated issues such as property taxes and achieving parity among school districts, from Chicago Public Schools, the nations third largest, to tiny rural districts.

Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, the point person for the Senate Democrats on school funding issues, said he thinks the group will be able to complete at least a set of specific recommendations that could be the framework of legislation.

I personally believe that we can produce a bill before Feb. 1, Manar said, adding that others on the commission might disagree.

Barickman said he thinks the more likely scenario is a series of separate bills based on the commissions recommendations.

None of those recommendations has been put to paper yet, but Manar said he thinks theres agreement that the states new approach to school funding needs to take into account the varying needs of individual districts.

Rauner and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle acknowledge that Illinois is among the worst states in the nation when it comes to providing equitable funding for students in its poorest school districts.

A recent report from Advance Illinois, an education advocacy group, notes that under the current formula, Illinois spends 81 cents educating students from low-income families for every dollar it spends educating kids from wealthier ones.

That is just upside-down from what we know needs to happen, said Ginger Ostro, Advance Illinois executive director.

So far, however, long-term proposals aimed at fixing the problem havent been approved because they would either take money away from wealthier districts or vastly increase state spending on public education, both of which are politically challenging.

Despite the political issues inherent in the debate over education funding and the heated political environment in Springfield in the lead-up to and aftermath of a contentious election, both Barickman and Manar said the commission has managed to keep partisanship out of its work.

Manar said he credits Beth Purvis, Rauners education secretary.

Shes done a fantastic job of leading the commission and keeping us on task, he said.

The governors office did not make Purvis available for comment.

A complicating factor in the groups work is Rauners recent push for a freeze on local property taxes, which are the primary source of school funding in the state.

Although elementary and secondary education is funded through the rest of the school year, a stopgap spending plan for other state operations expires Dec. 31. Rauner has said he will sign another short-term spending plan only if lawmakers approve a property tax freeze and a referendum on amending the Illinois Constitution to create term limits for elected officials.

Under Rauners plan, school districts and other local governments would need permission from voters to raise property taxes.

Ben Schwarm, deputy executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards, said there is a lot of concern (among members) about what that would look like and what that would do to their local school budgets.

A property tax freeze might be workable if the state shouldered a greater share of the responsibility for funding schools, Schwarm said.

It all works together, and until we know how the rest of these parts are going to move, we dont know what the ultimate impact would be, he said.
The Quad-Cities' two major hospitals said Tuesday they both are entering into contracts with IlliniCare for 2017, avoiding the prospect that thousands of Illinois Medicaid patients might have seen a big change in their insurance coverage next year.

More than 10,000 people in Rock Island, Henry and Mercer counties are covered by Westmont, Illinois-based IlliniCare, one of about a dozen managed care companies that handle a large part of Illinois' Medicaid population.

Genesis Health System has been accepting those patients, but negotiations on renewing a contract dragged into the "11th hour," as one Genesis official put it, and the hospital system said it could not continue to take IlliniCare patients on its own.

UnityPoint Health-Trinity had been part of IlliniCare's network in 2015 but dropped out for this year. Both Genesis and UnityPoint complained that IlliniCare doesn't have an adequate provider network, so patients ended up in the emergency room. Genesis officials said last month the additional Illinicare patients had cost it $1 million in 2016.

Medicaid typically has low reimbursement payments, far less than private insurers and even Medicare.

In an emailed statement Tuesday, Genesis president and chief executive Doug Cropper said: "We have said all along that we could not be the only safety net provider. Both hospital systems in the region needed to participate in providing service to this population of patients. It is a given that this Medicaid contract doesn't even come close to covering our cost, but our first consideration is to improve the health of people in the region."

UnityPoint spokesman Brian Boesen confirmed the hospital is re-entering into an agreement that will take effect Jan. 1. But he said, for now, there would be no further comment. Previously, UnityPoint Health president and chief executive Rick Seidler said the hospital was committed to serving all segments of the community.

Illinois hospitals, however, have complained about delayed Medicaid payments and bureaucratic tangles getting approval for procedures. The state of Illinois' budget woes also have weighed on the system. Crain's Chicago Business reported in June that the state owed the 13 Medicaid managed care companies more than $570 million.

IlliniCare is one of two managed care companies that handle the bulk of Medicaid patients in this area overseen by a managed care company. The other is Meridian Health Plan.

An email seeking comment from IlliniCare's parent company, Centene Corp., was not immediately returned Tuesday.
This article was updated Jan. 4, 2017, with new language about the focus of the ruling.

The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled against the City of Davenport over Iowa Open Records Act violations and remanded a case back to Scott County District Court.

In 2015, the Scott County District Court ruled against Dr. Allen Diercks and Patricia Lane after they alleged Davenport had ignored Freedom of Information Act requests and signed contracts with Deloitte & Touche without City Council approval during the city's attempt to purchase the Rhythm City Casino.

Although Davenport City Clerk Jackie Holoceck and former City Administrator Craig Malin also were named as defendants in the suit, the Court of Appeals decision did not determine that either withheld documents. The decision focused on two documents that had been held by City Attorney Tom Warner and others who were not city employees.

After the court denied the plaintiffs' motion to amend the court's decision on March 6, 2015, their attorney, Mike Meloy, appealed the decision.

The Court of Appeals analyzed the city's obligations to produce four items: Deloitte & Touche due diligence work product, a February 2013 invoice, the Deloitte Scope of Services document and a Jan. 9, 2013 legal memorandum from the city's legal consultant John Hintze.

The Court of Appeals reversed the Scott County District Court's decisions for two of the documents including the February 2013 invoice.

Davenport had contended it did not refuse to produce the bill because city attorney Tom Warner had deleted the email in which it was contained.

It also was the city's contention the invoice provided no insight into the city's decision-making, but the Court of Appeals disagreed.

It found both Warner and Hintze had an email containing the bill and the Information Technology Department could have recovered the deleted email.

"Further, we are not persuaded the city 'substantially complied' with the request or the invoice provided 'no insight' into the Citys decision-making activities," the court documents state. "The plaintiffs sought 'all invoices' from Deloitte. The invoice provided before the task was complete disclosed the amounts the city was spending incrementally at taxpayer expense and the Citys willingness to continue said expense."

Meloy, the plaintiffs' lawyer, said the courts were correct in finding that Davenport had a statutory duty to produce financial information to Diercks.

"The public has a right to access to a $207,900 bill from the Deloitte accounting firm which Davenport taxpayers were ultimately on the hook for," Meloy said. "The bill was important because it disclosed the amounts Davenport was spending incrementally at tax-payer expense for a casino.

The Court of Appeals also has ruled against the city in its failure to produce Hintze's Jan. 9, 2013 legal memorandum.

Davenport had argued the document was subject to attorney-client privilege, but the Court of Appeals ruled the burden for pleading an exemption was upon the city.

"Based on the parties apparent agreement the City did not argue this issue before the district court, the city cannot now maintain this exemption on appeal," the court documents stated. "The city has failed in its burden."

Meloy stated that the memorandum was clearly a public document.

"The legal memorandum to Davenport disclosed that the Deloitte due diligence was probably a public record because Davenports two agents had access to it," Meloy said.

As for the due diligence agreement and scope of services document, the Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's findings.

In the previous trial, the Scott County District Court agreed with the city's contention that Deloitte's work product was not specifically sought in the public records requests.

"The plaintiffs request for public records was not a request for documents in the sole possession of Deloitte," the court documents state. "Therefore, we need not address the question of whether the City delegated a duty to Deloitte or whether any due diligence work product in the sole possession of Deloitte were public records."

The same was true of the scope of services document.

"The plaintiffs have failed to show by a preponderance of the evidence under these circumstances the Citys failure to produce the documents was a 'refusal' as required by chapter 22," the court judgment states.

City of Davenport officials did not responded to a request for comment.
MAQUOKETA, Iowa  The city of Maquoketa will be looking for a new city manager.

With little comment, six of seven Maquoketa City Council members accepted the resignation agreement and release document from City Manager Brian Wagner Monday night. One councilman, Kevin Kuhlmann was not at the meeting.

Wagner listed his resignation date as Jan. 31, but if the council wants him to stay until May 31, there will be an agreement for severance pay. Wagner has been city manager since 1997.

In the seven-page document, which Wagner signed Dec. 16, it says, "The City Council and Wagner have mutually agreed that Wagner will resign his employment with the City, that Wagner desires to pursue employment options elsewhere, and that the City Council desires to find a new City Manager."

When asked after the meeting, if the mayor and council had asked Wagner to resign, both Wagner and Mayor Don Schwenker declined to comment.

"I want to make it clear the severance isn't my first priority," Wagner said in presenting the document during the public meeting. "I will work with the council until a new city manager is found. There will be a positive outcome for the city and me. I'd like to think in the 19 years I've been here, I've helped a lot of people."

Wagner thanked current and past employees, councils and mayors for their service.

Schwenker said, "You've done a fantastic job. You've kept me out of trouble."

Council member Amy Moore thanked Wagner and wished him the best of luck. No other council members made comments.

Friday, Moore, who is a member of the Personnel Committee, said she had been meeting alone and privately with Wagner for a few weeks "to talk about his options."

After Monday's meeting, the mayor was asked if there were meetings among council members about the city manager.

"There was no violation of any (open meetings) law," he said.

Schwenker declined to say how the discussion of Wagner leaving came about. He said Moore was selected to talk with Wagner because she's on the Personnel Committee. He declined to say how she was selected or who asked her to talk with Wagner.

"Tonight was to salute Brian for 19 years," Schwenker said. "I have no further comment. He resigned."

Wagner declined to respond to questions following the meeting.

In the agreement, it states the city's elected officials and department heads agree to consider Wagner's departure to be "an amicable parting" and they are not to publicly disparage Wagner.

Wagner also agrees not to sue the city for any issues. The document, prepared by Roberts, Stevens and Prendergast Law Firm, said signing the agreement doesn't mean there are any acts of discrimination or wrongdoing against Wagner.

The mayor said there will be a meeting to discuss the council's options for a new city manager.

"I think we need to hire a head-hunter," Schwenker said.

Wagner was one of five people interviewed by Maquoketa council members following a search by an out-of-state firm in 1997.
A recent survey on Skyscanner, the search engine for cheap flights, has revealed that are 66prozent of passengers for the use of body scanners. 66% of the respondents were of the opinion that body scanners at airports are useful: accelerated flight safety control and increased security at airports. e. 30% voted against the introduction of body scanners, mainly due to health reasons or because they fear that their privacy could be violated. 4% of the low-cost flight search engine users abstained from her voice. More than 400 people had participated in the poll the result clearly shows that a majority of travellers is positive towards the controversial body scanners. In the future more and more flights from the body scanner issue will be affected, including flights to New York, Sydney and Tokyo.



Barry Smith, co-founder and Managing Director at Skyscanner, Europe's leading search engine for cheap flights and Low-cost travel, says: as long as the devices are safe and possible concerns regarding the threat to privacy, can be overcome, travelers with all seem to agree, what makes flying safer and the security control. And if a body scanner saves me to take off my shoes, to empty my pockets and take off the belt then also I am." The Skyscanner poll has also shown that travellers mainly due to health reasons express concerns over body scanners and the associated x-rays. If you book flights to Berlin, could see body scanner may also at the Berlin airport, in the foreseeable future, for national and international flights operating. According to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration TSA, travelers have but no need to worry: the technology in the body scanners is perfectly safe.



The amount of rays here given is also minimal when compared to the charge, of which each passenger automatically put out if he choose to travel by plane. In just two minutes of flight, more radiation than at the control already met him with a body scanner. Some participants of the survey questioned that body scanners actually increased the safety on board; Skyscanner user Vasco Sotomaior declares on Skyscanner's Facebook page even, why he is opposed to the introduction of body scanners: they are useless. While is a threat, but that is so low that it does not justify the introduction of body scanners. What is currently undertaken for the safety when flying, is already more than enough." Body scanners are currently used for test purposes, already at selected airports and train stations in Europe and the United States, in Germany the tests should start at the earliest in summer of this year. Who is planning so soon about a trip to New York, Florida, California, for the security control via body scanners could soon become a reality. The technology in the scanners can it faces during the scanning process to be defaced so that passengers on the images is not detected. Moreover, the images are tested by employees in extra shielded rooms from where they have no perspective on the travelers at the security check. About Skyscanner: Skyscanner.de is the most influential and most flexible flight search engine in Europe and convinced with the direct price comparison for more than 670,000 routes with more than 600 airlines. Skyscanner offers simple navigation users, without having to provide a specific flight or destination information. Skyscanner is available in more than 20 languages, including French, Spanish, and Italian.
Being South Dakotas lone voice in the U.S. House of Representatives has been the honor of a lifetime. With the current administration in place, progress on big issues  like tax reform and the repeal and replacement of Obamacare  has been slow, but Im confident change will come soon. Still, many things have been accomplished. In fact, during the 114th Congress, we were able to come together on the more than 240 bills that were signed into law.

For example, we passed legislation, including provisions I authored, that allocated more resources for survivors of human trafficking, offered more tools to go after traffickers, and created a framework for law enforcement to better intervene and prevent human trafficking.

Changes were made to correct No Child Left Behind, most notably empowering states and localities to make more decisions about our childrens education and making sure the federal government cant force states into adopting Common Core.

Legislation to help address the countrys mental healthcare crisis was also signed into law. It included important provisions for tribal communities, an addition that occurred after I brought the bills author to South Dakota to see the challenges we faced. The legislation also included new resources to help expand mental health access for rural communities.

The first long-term infrastructure bill in a decade was also signed into law, offering much-needed certainty for states and localities. Additionally, the legislation cut red tape and gave states more flexibility to organize infrastructure programs in a way that best suits their local needs.

In addition to the new laws, we made headway in critical policy areas. The Indian Health Service, for example, has been poorly managed for years. In consultation with tribal communities and healthcare providers throughout South Dakota, I wrote and introduced legislation that would make comprehensive structural changes to how IHS operates, addressing both the medical and administrative challenges. This legislation pushed a critical conversation, one that will continue in earnest in 2017, into the national spotlight.

I also helped introduce changes to the wetland determination process, which has frustrated many South Dakota farmers and ranchers in recent years. With the policy now written, were already working to make sure it is included in the next Farm Bill.

Moreover, we put forward ideas to hold the IRS accountable to taxpayers. Weve advanced legislation to expand the Black Hills National Cemetery and put pressure on the EPA to strengthen the Renewable Fuel Standard and reverse their controversial Waters of the U.S. rule.

Weve gotten legislation signed into law to put restrictions on the Forest Service in an effort to prevent something like the devastating Pautre Fire in the future. Weve helped draft a blueprint for tax reform that will serve as an outline for upcoming negotiations. Weve protected DC Booth, helped prioritize the Lewis & Clark Water System, demanded answers from the VA about plans for the Hot Springs Hospital, and introduced reforms to incentivize work and fight poverty.

And on an individual level, weve personally helped more than 400 South Dakotans as theyve fought through federal bureaucracies to receive care from the VA, a passport from the State Department, or their Social Security benefits, among many other things.

Theres so much more to do, but Im optimistic that the work weve done in recent years has set us up for success when the new administration takes office in January. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve.
PIERRE  Two lacquer radio transcription discs, held in the collections of the South Dakota State Historical Society-Archives at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre, broadcast the June 7, 1941, double christening and launching of the battleship USS South Dakota from the New York Shipbuilding Corporation ways at Camden, N.J.

The digital audio recording of the christening of the South Dakota can be heard on the South Dakota Digital Archives website. Visit history.sd.gov/archives and find the link on the right to USS South Dakota. A transcript of the recording is also available on the website. The audio recording run time is just over 21 minutes.

The two discs were recently sent to the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Mass. The conservation center used its touchless optical scanning technology, called IRENE, to retrieve the sound from the two discs.

At 1:20 p.m., on June 7, 1941, First Lady Vera Bushfield, official sponsor of the battleship christening ceremonies and wife of South Dakota Governor Harlan J. Bushfield, christened the battleship with a full-size bottle of Cooks Imperial American champagne across the waiting prow of the United States Navys newest battleship South Dakota. A second half-sized champagne bottle, donated by Pierre resident Genevieve Trask, was also used in the ceremony  a special double christening.

After a brief delay, the South Dakota traveled down the ways into the Delaware River. As proclaimed by radio announcer Lewis Fischer, There she goes  Mrs. Bushfield has just smashed the christening bottle and majestically the South Dakota is going down the ways. You can hear the crowd yelling, the flags are flying and the whistles blowing. It is a magnificent sight.

The Sioux Falls Washington High School band performed at the event and played Anchors Aweigh as the ship drifted into the Delaware River. The band played the national anthem later in the ceremony.

The main speaker for the event was U.S. Secretary of War Frank Knox. He said, There are fewer stirring views, nor moving sites, than that which you just witnessed. To see a great battleship leave the spot on the land and take to her native element. And to know that great ship will make a tremendous contribution to the safety of our country and all the people in it is a moving thought.

Secretary Knox emphasized that day on June 7, 1941, exactly six months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the necessity of preparing the military for the future, saying We must, if we are to play our part in the world of the future, establish and maintain the greatest sea power the world has ever seen and along with that predominant sea power, and auxiliary service, civil supplemented and make it all powerful everywhere.

He continued, Unhappily we seem to be living in a time, when affairs are moved by force, when destinies are controlled by force and since we know now that at this time in the world, which for some time in the future we must live. Then we Americans must have that force, which is first essential to protect us in our security and safety and finally to support those elements and those ideals in humanity and civilization that will bring finally peace to this war in the world.

Knox concluded, On your behalf I say, to the good ship South Dakota, God go with you, because after all, your mission, the mission for which we built you, is not war, but the prevention of war as God wills. Thank you.

A recording of the ceremony was made by radio station WCAU of Philadelphia. The recording was sent via airmail to WNAX in Yankton, which broadcast the ceremonies. Arthur J. Smith, program director of WNAX, presented the transcription discs to Governor and Mrs. Bushfield, who then transferred them to the South Dakota State Historical Society.

The 17th Virginia Class nuclear submarine, the USS SOUTH DAKOTA (SSN 790), will be christened in the summer of 2017. The submarine is scheduled to join the fleet in August 2018.

The SSN 790 will be the third boat commissioned with the name South Dakota. The first was the Armored Cruiser USS South Dakota (ACR-9). The second was the Battleship South Dakota (BB-57), one of the most decorated battleships in World War II.
The Pennington County budget could be about $50,000 short for a portion of the budget this year that covers court-appointed attorneys for abuse and neglect cases.

Whether the shortfall is due to an unexpectedly high number of cases could not be determined by county Deputy State's Attorney K.J. Peterson on Tuesday.

Peterson, who works on only the accounting side of the issue, said the $50,000 shortfall is the worst-case scenario and as of right now the budget for court-appointed abuse and neglect attorneys is only $2,769.41 overdrawn. The office will not know the total amount until the end of the year, when all vouchers are filed.

The shortfall could be covered by two separate funds in the court budget, but because it's so late in the year, the needed supplement could not be completed without a special meeting, Peterson said Tuesday.

The commissioners ultimately authorized a contingency transfer of $13,320. That was the amount remaining in the contingency fund. The goal of the transfer was to "partially address the issue to the best of our ability within current budget restraints," Peterson said.

Another $20,000 had to be authorized as a budget supplement to the States Attorneys Office to cover activities necessary to comply with the newly passed constitutional amendment known as "Marsys Law."

The supplemental funds came from the general fund unassigned-fund balance. Previously, the money had been authorized to come from the 2016 contingency fund, but officials discovered the balance was only $13,320.

Commissioner Ron Buskerud used the moment to question whether the four new full-time equivalent employees were actually needed in light of state Attorney General Marty Jackleys recent directions regarding the laws implementation. Buskerud said the requirements may not be as stringent as first expected.

I think it wasnt as onerous in the attorney generals opinion as we thought in the beginning, Buskerud said.

However, Peterson said the four new positions authorized by the commission to comply with the law had already been filled.

Presiding 7th Circuit Judge Craig Pfeifle was present at Tuesdays meeting and offered his understanding of the current state of affairs for Marsy's Law.

I will for the record indicate that I know there is a disagreement with the states attorney general and the state's attorneys in Pennington County and other counties, Pfeifle said.

He said throughout the state, there are some differing interpretations as to what has to happen.

He said because the referendum is a constitutional amendment, the judiciary will make the final determination.

Pfeifle added that the reason Pennington County State's Attorney Mark Vargo is making the calls is only to help the county avoid any possible liabilities.
Editor's note: This is the latest in a series of profiles of United Way-backed agencies and the people they help.

Noel and Jennifer Browns new Habitat for Humanity-built house is made of the usual construction materials  concrete, wood, glass, paint and shingles.

But Noel Brown firmly believes the homes real foundation, walls and roof are made of a steadfast faith and the Word of God.

This is our rock, said Noel, holding his well-read King James Version Bible. This is why we have this house.

The two-story home Brown shares with his wife, Jennifer, and their 8-year-old son, Brandon, has few decorative embellishments.

The wooden steps and a small exterior deck leading to the front door still emit the smell of fresh varnish. Gleaming hardwood flooring and new woodwork contrast with the plain white paint adorning the walls and ceiling.

The home, on Lemmon Avenue just off East North Street in Rapid City, may be plain, but its clean, new and  most important  theirs after nearly 10 years of toil.

The Browns will celebrate their first Christmas Eve in their new home, which they wouldnt have thought possible a decade ago, when both Noel and Jennifer were caught in a desperate struggle against chronic alcoholism.

Noel, a Cheyenne River Sioux from Eagle Butte, met Jennifer, a full-blooded Navajo, in Albuquerque, N.M., 25 years ago.

Noel had a knack for working with numbers, and being a U.S. Army veteran helped him earn a business degree from Sinte Gleska University in Mission.

Preparing tax returns and other jobs allowed him to eke out a scant living, but his drinking robbed him of steady employment, he said.

Drinking and partying took over their lives, and home for the couple meant a couch or small space begged from relatives, cramped trailer homes, rent-by-the-month motel rooms, tents, sheds, their car  when they had one  and homeless shelters, including the Cornerstone Rescue Mission in Rapid City.

They even slept in a cardboard appliance box.

We lived in a lot of bad places, Noel said. We really struggled a lot.

Noels lifeline, then as now, was his faith in God, nurtured at The Church of God in Eagle Butte, where he had attended services as a boy.

He yearned to return to his old church but was often too drunk or sick to attend Sunday services. He prayed for God to deliver him from alcohol and to give Jennifer a child.

His wife had quit drinking, but a medical condition was thought to be preventing her from bearing a child.

However, a doctors test for medication to treat her condition revealed that she was indeed pregnant.

She (the doctor) came back and said, 'Congratulations,' Jennifer said. I found out on Valentines Day.

Despite support from his Eagle Butte pastor, the Rev. Addie Morris, Noel still struggled with his addiction.

A vodka binge one night landed him in a Bismarck, N.D., hospital with a blood-alcohol level of 0.67 percent, he said.

The doctor said you must have a high tolerance for alcohol, Noel recalled. He said most people die with a BAC (blood-alcohol content) of 0.35, and I had double that.

(The legal limit to drive in South Dakota is 0.08 percent.)

The end finally came when a social worker heard Browns name broadcast on a police scanner and demanded he undergo a re-evaluation that could have resulted in him and his young family being evicted from their low-income housing.

Brown recalls the date he finally became sober, Sept. 29, 2008. I said, 'I quit, I quit, I quit. I kept saying it over and over, he said.

They moved to Rapid City, staying at first with relatives, then at the Cornerstone Rescue Mission and later at the South Dakota Rose Motel, where they struggled to pay the rent.

His chance donation of an infant car seat they had received after Brandon was born helped them obtain a grant administered by Love, Inc., to pay their rent, then qualify for Section 8, low-income housing.

An evaluation at Career Learning Center revealed Jennifer had an aptitude for working with computers. After classes at Western Dakota Technical Institute she landed a job at Rapid City Medical Center processing medical records.

Noel learned of the Habitat for Humanity program while attending an introductory meeting at the Rapid City Public Library.

They took financial classes on family budgeting and debt resolution through Love, Inc of the Black Hills, and Consumer Credit Counseling, eventually paying off nearly $20,000 in delinquent student loans and other bills.

Qualifying for a Habitat home requires months of application. They were both required to perform 250 hours in the classroom to learn to budget for mortgage payments and other expenses.

They were also required to do physical work, called sweat equity, including 100 hours of actually building their own home or other Habitat projects.

If theyre able-bodied, were really going to hold them to that 100 hours on the job site, said Scott Engmann of Habitat of the Black Hills.

That labor component and understanding whats in your house is really the sauce that makes Habitat work, he said.

Those hours of labor took their toll on Jennifer, who found it difficult to take time off from work for classes and construction tasks.

Noel had done construction work before, but such physical labor was all new to Jennifer. She learned to work in demanding weather and to deal with the mess involved with some tasks, including spreading tar to seal a foundation on another Habitat house in Summerset.

Some days I almost quit, Jennifer said. My son kept me going. I wanted him to have a future, a place to call home.

Even with the family settled in for several months, the new home doesnt seem real to Jennifer.

"Its another luxurious motel or hotel that were just living in, like its not ours, she said.

The biggest benefactor of the move, Jennifer said, has been Brandon.

He never saw us as alcoholics, but we tell him about it, she said. "He'll have a stable home unlike (what we had)."

Brandon is a student at General Beadle Elementary, where his favorite class is math.

He said he is really, really, really glad, to be living in the new house.

I have my own yard, he said.

Noel is working toward becoming a certified public accountant, taking classes through Black Hills State University at the University Center in Rapid City.

He also wants to help other Native men who are struggling with substance abuse and perhaps become an evangelist.

His office on the second floor of their home includes that large-print King James Bible, with its many passages highlighted in yellow, or underlined.

Brown has read the New Testament six times and is currently reading the Old Testament for the fourth time. He uses an hourglass to clock what he calls quality time for his Bible devotions, faithfully logging the books and verses he completes in a composition book.

Thats the center of why we are here, said Noel, pointing to his Bible.

This house is like a fortress, a high tower. Its a rock, a foundation from God.
Our U.S. Senator Mike Rounds is brimming with enthusiasm about the prospects for our "new president" and "reinvigorated Congress" to get to work next year.

Published last week in the Rapid City Journal, his glowing projections for the newly installed Trump administration's commitment to "moving infrastructure into the fast lane" reflected some politically mandatory enthusiasm for the Republican-controlled federal government and its plans for "investing in infrastructure across America."

Actually, I'd guess most Americans are plenty gung-ho about infrastructure investment, though Trump's proposal to make private financing the cornerstone of the plan should raise a few questions.

Rounds himself stood by while one of the largest public-private projects he endorsed during his administration as South Dakota's governor a few years back, the failed beef plant in Aberdeen, blew up into the EB-5 scandal. That fiasco directly cost South Dakota $2 to $3 million, probably more when you add in lost local and state taxes that bankrupt investors didn't pay. If that venture didn't make Rounds a bit more circumspect about his unabashed enthusiasm for Trump's public-private concept, the rest of us should be paying attention.

An analysis of the Trump plan by the conservative free-market thinkers at the American Action Forum uses words like "fantasy on steroids ... nonsense ... there is no infrastructure Genie" to lambaste Trump's supposedly revenue-neutral plan for providing investors with tax breaks that will be offset by taxes on wages of new construction workers, along with corporate profits earned by builders and contractors.

Meanwhile, the vastly more liberally-oriented Washington Post calls it a "trap ... a tax cut plan for utility investors ... that doesn't directly fund infrastructure" and could provide tax breaks for "investors in previously planned projects."

The American Society of Civil Engineers in 2013 identified numerous infrastructure projects that need repairs and upgrades in South Dakota. The total bill over the next couple of decades is in the hundreds of millions.

Given the numerous bridge, road and water projects, among others identified by ASCE, that are crucial to our state's economy, getting a workable infrastructure program going under the Trump administration is high priority stuff for our state's Congressional delegation.

The traditional approach of direct government investment and oversight can be tailored by our elected officials to avoid excessive red tape, which is where the deliberative energy should be focused.

I hope Mike Rounds will show some more independence and analysis on this before going along with whatever the Trump administration hands him as his marching orders.
That civil asset forfeiture, allowing law enforcement to seize money or property without criminal charges or convictions, has run amok is something that has produced bipartisan agreement but little action.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP, the American Conservative Union Foundation and the Americans for Tax Reform have sought federal reform to no avail.

Among the states, Iowa is a prime offender, earning a D-minus from the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit, libertarian public interest law firm. South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana earned the same grade in the report, while North Dakota received a F and Nebraska a C-minus.

State legislators have failed to thwart this affront to civil liberties, but bureaucrats reined in one aspect recently. The Iowa State Patrol disbanded its so-called "interdiction" unit stopping motorists suspected of involvement in drugs or other crimes.

Meanwhile, in a supposedly unrelated action, the Iowa Appeal Board announced a $60,000 settlement with two California gamblers in their lawsuit after two state troopers seized $102,000 during a warrantless search in 2013.

After a stop supposedly for not using a lane-turn signal, the troopers found a small amount of marijuana, although the gamblers had a California license for its medical use. The state previously returned $90,000.

Civil asset forfeiture was a creation of the anti-drug frenzy of the 1980s that birthed such draconian laws as the mandatory sentencing guidelines that have made the U.S. the world leader in incarcerations.

A 1984 amendment to the 1970 Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act gave law enforcement additional tools to pursue drug kingpins by letting agencies keep 80 percent of the booty seized. The intent was to pursue money-laundering activities by drug kingpins.

States followed suit, but the law soon was adapted to confiscate valuables in a variety of cases.

The Iowa Code stipulates law enforcement agencies must show the property was likely obtained as a result of criminal conduct or intended to facilitate criminal conduct. Criminal charges, indictments or convictions aren't required before property can be confiscated.

Consequently, you're guilty until proven innocent  without the right to an attorney.

The Des Moines Register found state law enforcement agencies annually confiscate cash, cars and real estate from at least 1,000 people as part of the program compared to the 1980s when there were fewer than two dozen cases annually. Among the more notorious cases:

Michael Sanchez-Ratliff left Chicago to attend a California community college with $14,000 from his grandmother and $5,000 from his savings. A Pottawattamie County sheriff's deputy stopped him for driving 5 mph over the speed limit. He had no drugs, but it took him two years and $7,000 in attorney's fees to get his money back.

California businessman Phillip Flora is suing Pottawattamie County law enforcement officials after a 2015 traffic stop for supposedly going 4 mph over the speed limit, seizing $120,000 after allegedly finding drugs and "destroying the purported evidence" without filing criminal charges.

Iowa divides 90 percent of the assets seized among agencies involved. The state Attorney General's office and public safety departments get the remainder.

Four of Iowa's 99 counties  Polk, Pottawattamie, Scott and Black Hawk  have accounted for nearly 60 percent of the more than $55 million confiscated under Iowa's forfeiture law since 1985. According to the Register, Iowa civil asset forfeiture has resulted in:

More than $55 million in cash  from 34 cents to nearly $2.6 million  being seized from 19,000 people since 1985.

More than 4,200 automobiles, trucks and motorcycles confiscated since the state began tracking such vehicles in 1991.
Ex-Russian student charged with trying to join ISIS apologizes to her parents

MOSCOW, December 21 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  Varvara Karaulova, a former student of the Moscow State University, who is to be sentenced Thursday on charges of attempting to join the Islamic State militants in Syria apologized to her parents, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Karaulova said that she was not a terrorist and never intended to be a terrosist. I was not going to fight Only at the border I realized that it all was a big mistake, she said. Karaulova added that despite spending last year in detention she was glad that events turned out the way they did because she is alive and well and has hope for the future.

According to Karaulova, her own egocentrism is at fault and events that had happened were just a mistake and an attempt to escape from home.

Prosecutors demanded a five-year jail sentence for Karaulova, while defense lawyers asked the court for acquittal.

Karaulova went on trial on October 5. Her parents, friends as well as teachers of the Moscow State University have been questioned in this case.

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 banned in Russia, and secretly started off for Istanbul on May 27, 2015, 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. In October 2015, she was put in jail. She pleaded not guilty.

In October 2016, Karaulova was expelled from the university.
Antonov aircraft plant appeals recovery of $2.8 mln in favor of Russian Defense Ministry

MOSCOW, December 21 (RAPSI) - Ukrainian aircraft plant Antonov has appealed against a court ruling to collect 180 million rubles ($2.8 million) from the company in favor of Russias Defense Ministry, RAPSI learnt from the Moscow Commercial Court on Wednesday.

The Defense Ministry filed the suit in July 2015 seeking 357.4 million rubles ($5.5 million) from the Ukrainian plant as a penalty for failure to meet the time limit for execution of two work phases within the An-70 aircraft development contract signed in 1989.

The Moscow Commercial Court granted the claim in part in November.

Antonov is implicated in several other disputes in Russia.

Notably, Antonov won a $2.9 million judgement in July against Aviacor Aviation Plant in the Commercial Court of Samara Region. The trademark infringement suit was heard behind closed doors. The judgement was upheld in October by the Eleventh Commercial Court of Appeals.

However, Antonov failed to collect 146.4 million rubles ($2.4 million) in royalty payments under a license agreement from OJSC Voronezh Aircraft Joint-Stock Company. The Commercial Court of Voronezh Region dismissed the suit.

Antonov airline manufacturer was founded in 1946 at the Novosibirsk aircraft plant. Since 1952 the company is based in Kiev. The concern has developed about 100 types of aircraft.
Transfer of dispute between Google and FAS to IP Court gets repealed

MOSCOW, December 21 (RAPSI)  The Moscow District Commercial Court has repealed a ruling on transfer of a dispute between the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) and Google to the Intellectual Property Court (IP Court), court documents read on Wednesday.

Initially Google filed an appeal with the Moscow District Commercial Court but the court transferred the case to the IP Court.

On December 12, the Moscow Commercial Court postponed until January 9, 2017, a hearing in a lawsuit lodged by Google Ireland Ltd. against the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) over a 500,000 ruble ($8,000) fine.

Google is to file missing documents by the deadline. Otherwise, the lawsuit would be dismissed.

The watchdog held that Google Ireland Ltd. and Google Inc. had violated anti-monopoly law by abusing their dominance on the Russian market of mobile applications.

The Moscow City Court dismissed a lawsuit against the watchdog in March. On August 17, the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.

On November 2, the watchdog fined the companies 500,000 rubles each for their failure to comply with its order.

On November 30, FAS announced that it had filed a lawsuit with a commercial court against Google, forcing it to follow the order.

Yet in September, Igor Artemyev, the Head of FAS, stated that the agency was ready to fine Google every two weeks if the company failed to comply with the order.

In case we see the process is dragged out, we will meet every two weeks to impose new fines on them for failing to comply with the order, Artemyev said. It will continue until the final victory [is achieved - ed.] and final court judgement [is passed - ed.], according to Artemyev.
The competition is on!

Corvallis and Hamilton have had a healthy, mostly collegial, competition for years.

Corvallis Schools Food Services Director Kathy Martin said that the article in the Ravalli Republic on Sunday about an anonymous philanthropist paying off all the overdue lunch accounts for Hamilton schoolchildren inspired a Corvallis alumni to do the same for Corvallis students.

They would like to remain anonymous as well, but paid $1,000 to help families in need, Martin said.

The Corvallis school lunch program receives some funding from the Montana School Nutrition Program through the Office of Public Instructions Health Enhancement and Safety Division.

The Corvallis school also has another donor that covers the price when children fall behind in their lunch account.

Fortunately the Greater Ravalli Foundation has helped us, Martin said. We can use those funds throughout the school year. It works great when a family hasnt yet filled out a Free and Reduced application, but eats meals.

Martin explained that once the family is approved for Free and Reduced meals the funds pay forward but do not cover previous charges.

The money from the foundation allows us to cover those costs, Martin said. There are many loopholes in the Montana lunch program. If a child brings a lunch but just want a milk with their packed lunch that costs, so does giving a milk to the younger kids during snack time.

Martin said the $1,000 donation will impact about 15 percent of the students at Corvallis Schools in all grades.

These are needy families and the money will go beyond Free and Reduced, Martin said. It is incredible to be part of such amazing acts of giving; we truly live in a beautiful place!
When Karen Sanchez moved to the Bitterroot Valley five years ago, she was hoping to find something where she could make in a difference in other peoples lives.

Almost the minute that she walked through the door of Stevensvilles Pantry Partners food bank, Sanchez knew she had found that place.

I just fell in love with all of these people who volunteer their time to help others, Sanchez said. I wanted to be part of the community and this was where I found it.

Sanchez currently serves as the president of the organization that Tuesday distributed thousands of pounds of food to 355 families in need.

She was joined by nearly 100 volunteers from the food bank, Bitterroot Backcountry Horsemen and students from Stevensville and Florence to fill and distribute 600 boxes with all the food necessary for a Christmas dinner, including the turkey and all the fixings.

As young and old worked side-by-side to fill boxes, Sanchez said shes been overwhelmed by the generosity of the community leading up to the annual event thats occurred for at least the past 15 years.

We have had so many people dropping off turkeys and fresh vegetables, Sanchez said. Its just been amazing to see how this community comes together every year to make this happen.

Pantry Partners spends between $7,000 and $8,000 to pay for the food thats provided to those in need in the holiday season.

Betty Brock was first in line this year.

As a relatively new single person, Brock said its been hard to make ends meet while living on a Social Security check.

I had a can of stew on Thanksgiving, she said. That wasnt very Thanksgiving like. This is a really nice thing that people do here.

Brock had moved to the Bitterroot from Yakima, Washington.

I dont think they did anything quite like this there, Brock said. I think its great to see the kids here helping out.

Kat Riel and Tyler Woods of Stevensville High School were two of the students from both Stevensville and Florence who spent the morning ensuring that boxes were filled with everything necessary to provide a nice Christmas dinner.

I just want to be able to give back to my community, Riel said. I enjoy helping other people.

Over against the back wall, Lisa Menery wore a festive hat while sorting out the nearly 400 turkeys that had been either donated or purchased for the event.

The largest turkey weighed 29 pounds and will go to a family of 11.

I just hope that they have a large enough oven to cook that bird, Menery said. This is my first time helping out. Seeing all these people come together to make this happen is wonderful. Everyone really seems to be enjoying it.
Some might call it a Christmas miracle.

Last week, Beth Perkins was almost certain the Stevensville Christmas Share Tree program was going to come up short this year.

Last Thursday, they still had 61 children who hadnt found a sponsor to provide some warm clothes and a few other gifts to put under their familys Christmas tree.

Distribution day was Tuesday.

As the longtime program coordinator, Perkins had never faced a situation where there were so many kids without a donor that late in the year.

But all of that changed Friday morning after an article about the situation appeared in the Ravalli Republic and Missoulian.

My phone started ringing at 6:30 a.m. and it didnt stop until midnight, Perkins said. People were calling wanting to help.

By the time the weekend was over, the program had raised $12,000.

The Stevensville-based Hunting Shack donated $5,000. Farmers State Bank gave another $3,000.

The money that came in was enough to not only meet the needs for this year, but could fully fund the program next year as well.

It wasnt just money, Perkins said. The donation of clothes was simply unbelievable. We got bags and bags of coats, boots and jeans.

One woman brought 30 pairs of adult jeans. A couple from California called and offered to help. People were calling to say that they couldnt afford much, but they could buy a pair of pants or some warm socks for a child in need.

They knew that their neighbors were hurting this year.

Stevensvilles largest employer, Selway Corp, announced reduced hours and layoffs affecting 100 of it 120 employees last month. Perkins said there were a lot of families in the area struggling this year.

Some of those families in need saw the article as well.

Over the weekend, the program added another 30 kids to their list.

They were all older kids, Perkins said. Many of them needed adult sized clothes and boots. That all costs moreSo instead of serving an additional 60, we ended up helping 90 more this year.

When the final tally was added, the program served 423 children from infants to 17 this Christmas.

Thats amazing when you consider that we had 320 last year, Perkins said. The response from the community was just incredible. It just goes to show you that people want to help, but sometimes they just dont know where its needed most.

That generosity is the kind of thing that makes memories during the holidays.

While the communitys generosity has been overwhelming this year, Perkins said there was one story in particular that summed it all up for her.

She was in the Rocky Mountain Bank in Stevensville when one of the banks customers noticed that there was just one tag left hanging on that businesss sharing tree.

The woman asked Perkins what was being asked for on that last tag.

It was for a 9-year-old girl, Perkins said. She had asked for a coat and a Hello Kitty. The woman teared up and wrote me a check right there. She said she didnt have time to shop, but asked me to make sure that I got the kitty and, especially, the coat.

The woman called Perkins a few days later to ask her about the gifts.

She wanted to tell me that when she was growing up, her family didnt have very much money, Perkins said. Their clothing was handed down from one sister to the next.

The woman was the middle sister. Her older sister had married and moved away. That Christmas, her little sister had asked for a coat of her very own.

When her parents couldnt afford it, the oldest sister made a point of buying her that coat.

She told me that she would never forget the look on her sisters face when she opened up that package, Perkins said. She said she wanted to be able to pass that feeling on to someone else. As long as I live, Ill never forget that story.
HELENA  Montanas three votes in the Electoral College went Monday to Republican nominee Donald J. Trump, as expected.

This years proceeding was different from those in years past, with Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch allowing audience members to speak before the electors, two of whom were alternates, filled in their ballots.

Montanas electors had said before Monday they would vote for Trump. Though the odds of an Electoral College upset were minuscule, nationwide there had been calls for electors to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote by almost 3 million, while others asked electors to select anyone but Trump.

McCulloch told those gathered that the electors were bound by Montana law to cast their vote for Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, and she couldnt accept ballots that did otherwise.

Before electors Thelma Baker and alternates Vondene Kopetski and Becky Stockton voted, a handful of Montanans spoke in support of and against Trump. About 35 attended.

Susan Reneau, who came over from Missoula, said she was proud to stand in support of Trump. She started to say that President Barack Obama had been an abomination to our military and everything economic in our entire country before McCulloch reminded her to keep her comments positive.

Lee Malcheski, of Helena, asked the three to hold off on voting until an investigation into Russian interference in the election was made public.

Dan Avery of Butte, said he didnt believe the demonstration would change any of the Montana electors minds, but he felt compelled to come.

Ive been so frustrated with this whole process, I felt that even if it doesnt do any good, I want to be there to express my feelings, Avery said. Im afraid for the country and afraid for the world with that guy.

McCulloch said she made the choice to allow comment, saying at other public meetings shed attended that day the audience was allowed to speak.

It is a public meeting and I believe the public should have access, she said.

Elector Nancy Ballance, a Republican state representative from Hamilton, choose Monday to let an alternate take her place. Ballance said this was because state law says lawmakers cannot hold civil office. She said electors in other states with similar laws had been threatened with legal challenges. She said she consulted with the attorney general and others over what defined a civil office, but couldnt find a clear answer.

In Ohio, state Rep. Christina Hagan resigned as an elector after a Democrat sued over her dual roles as lawmaker and elector.

In my mind it wasnt worth taking a chance to have the vote thrown out later, she said.

Ballance told her grandson, Jack, 8, who spoke in support of Trump before the vote that he should look back on the day with pride.

To my grandsons who are here today, who came to see their grandma participate in this historic event, I say to them When we look back and America is truly great again, we will know that we were part of something bigger than ourselves.

Controversial elector Dennis Scranton, from Miles City, did not attend. McCulloch did not say why. Parts of Interstate 90, which is between Helena and Miles City, were closed due to a blizzard the last few days.

Scranton, 92, had made comments disparaging gay marriage on a Facebook post earlier this year. He told The Billings Gazette in November, misstating his age: Dont forget, Im 93 years old. I come from a different era. I hadnt heard of anyone being homosexual until I joined the Navy, and then I encountered them. We were raised with good morals.

Elector Thelma Baker, the only non-alternate to vote Monday, said she received hundreds of phone calls and emails, both from those who supported Trump and people calling on her to cast her vote for someone else. About 75 percent of those who telephoned, Baker said, told her they didnt vote in the election.

This is Bakers fifth electoral vote. She said she received some comment before the 2000 election in which Republican George W. Bush won the electoral college but lost the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore, but received no comments in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

Alternate Thomas Tuck also did not come to the vote. If enough electors had not shown up, McCulloch said, she would have had to appoint someone from the audience.

Earlier Monday morning, 30 protesters gathered on the steps of Montanas Capitol ahead the states electors casting their votes.

I fear his skill with public speaking and charisma with a crowd has blinded people to elect someone who is not truly qualified, the Rev. Cathy Barker said. There are serious questions about the Russian involvement, hes refused to share his taxes, his conflicts of interest and his integrity. These things break my heart.

Standing in a circle in 20-degree temperatures, the protesters struck a somber tone as they voiced their fears about a Trump administration, including climate change denial and nuclear weapons policy, sexual-assault allegations and foreign business interests.

The liberal media, one protester said facetiously, failed to investigate Trump sufficiently.

Jon Gengler of Helena said he wanted to challenge the assertion that Trumps win was either historic or a mandate, pointing to his loss of the popular vote and average margin in the Electoral College.

While he hoped to reach Montanas electors, Gengler said he spoke to anyone who would listen, including Trump supporters.

Radical individuals believe Trump speaks for them, and he must show that he is not willing to accept the support of racists or other exclusionary groups for political gain, he said.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Jumping at the chance to own a large potential development site near the Cuyahoga River, local investors have purchased 7.7 acres and eight buildings in the Flats from Forest City Realty Trust, Inc.

Public records show that an investor group led by Joel Scheer paid $3.5 million Tuesday for a motley collection of industrial buildings and roughly 500 parking spaces along Stones Levee, West Third Street and Canal Road. The properties, south of Tower City, sit in the shadow of the Lorain-Carnegie (Hope Memorial) Bridge and near the end of the East Ninth Street Extension.

Publicly traded Forest City, based in Cleveland, acquired many of the parcels in the early 2000s to provide parking around the now-demolished Tower City Amphitheater. The decade-old outdoor concert venue closed in 2011, after Forest City sold the amphitheater site and surrounding land to an affiliate of Michigan businessman Dan Gilbert's casino-gaming operation.

Scheer doesn't have a specific development plan or timeline for building on the properties. But, he said, "it's not in my nature to wait. I seem to be relatively impatient."

If cleared, the site could accommodate 1,000 cars, based on a document circulated by Forest City. Scheer said parking is a "definite safety valve," a fallback option that mitigates his risk. His intention isn't to add more pavement to that part of the Flats, though.

He's considering both new construction and restoration of the existing buildings, some of which are partially leased to storage tenants and other businesses.

"It just seems to scream for some activity, some development, whether it be housing, whether it be retail, any type of development," Scheer said. "We're going to investigate what makes sense for the city, the whole neighborhood. So I think it's pretty exciting."

The purchase was a sizable one for Scheer, who also owns the former Sammy's building on the east bank of the Flats and an empty building at 2338 Canal Road. And the transaction is notable for downtown Cleveland because of the acreage involved.

But the sale was negligible for Forest City, a real estate investment trust that has its headquarters here but its attention turned to Boston, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Over the past few years, Forest City has sold off most of its downtown Cleveland assets, including the bulk of the Tower City complex. The company still owns a significant chunk of land on Scranton Peninsula, on the west bank of the Flats, but is staying mum about development or sale prospects for that property.

Selling the east bank property was a logical move after Forest City's other dispositions at and around Tower City, said Jeff Linton, a company spokesman.

"It was something that was acquired at a different time and in a different place for the company," he said of the site. "It was in support of another asset - the amphitheater - and it made sense to go ahead and take the step of finding a buyer and getting rid of it."

Plus, Linton added, "as we've always said, we're not doing new development here. We're focusing new development on other core markets."

The properties Forest City sold are located at 401-601 Stones Levee; 1902-1950 W. 3rd St.; 1968, 1978 and 1986 W. 3rd St.; and 2484 Canal Road.

Rico Pietro, the real estate broker who represented Scheer, said proximity to the river, views looking north toward Tower City and the property's proximity to Progressive Field and Quicken Loans Arena added to the appeal. He doesn't view nearby industrial uses as barriers to eventual development, whatever that development might look like.

"We like this site. There's enough revenue coming in the door to cover most of the expenses. Long-term, it could be office, housing, retail, industrial, mixed-use, or institutional," said Pietro, a principal with Cushman & Wakefield/Cresco Real Estate in Independence. "It's in an emerging market with really nice infrastructure access and pretty substantial views. ... We don't know what it's going to be, but I think it's going to be something special."
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Guwahati : General Officer Commanding (GoC) 4 Corps Amarjeet Singh Bedi on Tuesday called on Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at the latter's office chamber in Assam Secretariat.

Lt. General Bedi after taking over the charge as the Chief of Gajraj Corps, Tezpur, gave a customary call to the Chief Minister and discussed with him the prevailing security scenario in the State.

Issues like insurgent activities and threats from them have figured in their discussion.

Sonowal asked him to maintain constant surveillance on all activities that have the potential to cause security problem in Assam.

Sonowal also urged him to maintain a close coordination with the GOC 3 Corps and develop a synergy to build up a deterrent against anti-national forces in the State and its periphery.

He also asked Lt. General Bedi to ensure that no militant organisation can indulge in subversive activities in the garb of 'ceasefire'.

Sonowal also assured all cooperation from the State Police as well from the Government to help the army to carry out its duties that is mandated to them.

Irrigation Minister Ranjit Dutta, Commissioner and Secretary to Chief Minister Sanjay Lohia were present at the meeting.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Guwahati : Violence continues in North Eastern Indian state Manipur as mob torched a church in Imphal East district.

According to the reports, a mob burn down a church at Pangei Nepali Basti, Imphal East on Monday night.

On December 18 and December 19, angry protesters torched at least 30 vehicles including several passenger buses in different places of the state.

On the other hand, police used tear gas on bandh supporters in imphal on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, following reports from the SP of Thoubal police that the situation is volatile, the District Magistrate of Thoubal district has imposed prohibitory orders under CrPC 144 with effect from Tuesday until further others.

On the other hand, heavily armed militants suspected to be cadres of KNF (N) had fired several blank rounds of bullets at around 11 am at Maphou dam Kabui Khul area, under Lamlai police station, which panicked the locals though there is no report of any casualty.

On the other hand, mobile internet services were snapped till December 25 in Imphal East and Imphal West district.

Meanwhile, Nagaland based student organisation Naga Students Federation had imposed indefinite economic blockade on all Manipur bound vehicles.

In a statement sending to media, the student organization had declared indefinite blockade on all Manipur bound vehicles.

The student organization accused to the Manipur government for present crisis in Manipur and said that the blockade will not be lifted till the assurance for safety of Nagas in Manipur.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
sacw.net - 21 Dec 2016

SERENA: Welcome to the Peace Buzz for August 26, 2016.

This is your host, Serena Blaiz, coming to you from Oklahoma City, where our sponsoring organization, the Center for Conscience in Action is located. For many, this may sound like a remote outpost in the peace community, but in fact we have a lot of activity and resources here to draw from, and one of those is Nyla Ali Khan, who teaches at the University of Oklahoma.

Professor Khan comes from Kashmir, which is a region under the control of India, which has a very interesting recent history, and currently a good bit of turmoil, that needs to be better understood and addressed by the rest of the world. Having Professor Khan nearby gives us an opportunity to try to remedy that, and we spoke with her at length back in April. Sadly, things have not improved for Kashmir, and today we check in again with Nyla to see what is happening, and what we might be able to do to help the pro-democracy movement there find peaceful solutions to decades of mistrust and resentment.

The interview was conducted on August 19th. Transcribed by Siddhartha Garoo.

I want to welcome Nyla Ali Khan back to Peace Buzz, and what I wanted to do was to get an update from her on what is going on in Kashmir. We talked to her earlier this year and, unfortunately, things havenat really improved in this region. So, we are going to find out whatas going on and what events have occurred, but first I am going to ask you, Nyla, for those who didnat hear the previous podcast, just give us the brief introduction about the region and politics there.

NYLA: Hi Serena, I am delighted to be back on Peace Buzz.

So, Jammu and Kashmir is currently a state in the Indian union. The entire state, parts of which are in Pakistan, small parts in China, is politically disputed territory.....and militarily an armed insurrection erupted in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir in 1989. The state has been politically turbulent since then because of the forces of armed insurrection as well as counter insurgency. Intergovernmental organizations as well a human right organizations have been critical of the human rights violations that have taken place in the state since then.

There has been attempt by the government of India to resuscitate the political process as well as political institutions by holding elections every six years. But the problem remains the alienation of the people from the mainstream--- mainstream politics. The problem remains the anger, the rage of the younger generation, in particular, that has grown up during the years of armed insurgency and counter insurgency.

The government of India can do a lot more to lessen the alienation and the resentment by, perhaps, restoring the autonomous status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. You see, when Jammu and Kashmir acceded to what was then the dominion of India in 1947, it was a princely state, so when the monarch of the state signed the Instrument of Accession to India, it was done with the understanding that the government of India would have control over three areas a foreign affairs, communications, and defence. And the other areas would be under the control of the state government.

But since 1953, which is the year when the democratically elected government of the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who was my maternal grandfather, was arbitrarily dismissed, and the Sheikh was ousted and arrested by Prime Minister Nehruas government, Kashmir has been volatile. The reason he was ousted and arrested was because even after becoming Premier he did not give up the demand for self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. So the result was that he was ousted; so a democratically elected government was undemocratically removed.

And since 1953, the government of India has consistently and systematically eroded the constitution of the state as well as the autonomous status of the state, leading to great disillusionment. Now the disillusionment of the populace and the sense of alienation of the younger generation in particular was worsened by the government of Pakistan, which added fuel to the fire and aided and abetted the militant resistance, morally, psychologically, economically, by providing arms and ammunition. They aided and abetted that resistance without a blue print, without looking into how that kind of resistance was unsustainable.

SERENA: And would it be correct to say that because Pakistan and India, of course have been hostile nations to each other, Pakistan has been using that political situation to get it at India?

NYLA: I think that is absolutely correct ...I think that is absolutely correct.

SERENA: And when we say J&K, itas Jammu and Kashmir?

NYLA: Absolutely.

SERENA: When I spoke to you earlier this spring, an incidence has happened that provoked.......I think what you refer to as counter insurgency and there were worldwide visuals. Is the current situation, still part of that event?

NYLA: Thatas a good question.

The problem with the response of the government of India to the militant movement in Kashmir is that they have chosen to respond belligerently, aggressively employing military means, instead of employing political diplomacy and initiating a dialogue with all stakeholders and negotiations. There is a large section of the populace of Jammu and Kashmir that is still ecumenical; a large section of the populace that would still veer away from the forces of radicalization or any kind of monocultural identity.

SERENA: India is primarily Hindu and Pakistan is primarily Muslim?

NYLA: Absolutely. The difference between the two in terms of their respective constitutions is that Pakistan is now a theocratic country or an Islamic republic and India constitutionally is a secular republic, although the current federal government in India subscribes to right wing Hindutva ideology and is ultra nationalistic, and that ideology is clearly reflected in the response of this government to any signs of dissent or insurrection in Kashmir.

SERENA: And I think Americans can relate this to right wing reactions in the United States to acts of terrorism that the media responds......militarized rather than deal with criminal prosecution or when diplomacy is needed etc...

NYLA: Yes, like transitional justice...

SERENA: we saw this after 2001...... other incidents that happened that kind of spurned immediate militaristic and belligerent reactions that in the long term do not have positive effects. I am just trying to get myself and other people basis for understanding what is going on in Kashmir.

NYLA: I think that is a very good analogy....Itas a very good analogy.

SERENA: I am guilty of this as much as anybody....Americans know so little of the rest of the world and this area of course.....I mean the United States is as far as I know, not militarily in Jammu and Kashmir but certainly has a role in Indian and Pakistani conflict and in the general region.....of course in Afghanistan and the wider region. And that is one of the reasons I asked you, when we talked in between our visits, how does the situation there play into the greater situation in global politics in terms of fighting consultant war on terror?

Does that....your recent article, aBelligerent leaders using nationalistic and religious rhetoric to mask geopolitical aimsa , that was published in South Asian Citizenas web....

NYLA: As well as Counter Punch in this country....

SERENA: Right....and you seem to be saying that there is a danger in the reaction that has been used and a better approach would be to give autonomous self-determination to these regions.

NYLA: I think the problem with the reaction of and to militant resistance in Kashmir....and just real quick for your listeners, I would like to tell them that couple of months ago, a young militant commander, a 22 year old militant commander was killed by Indian paramilitary personnel and the reaction to his killing was overwhelming. There was a lot of anger, fury, protest marches and demonstrations that were taken out by ordinary people, who were not connected with militancy or necessarily with the militant movement.

Now I think that the people involved in those protests and demonstrations, all of them might not have been angry just about the death of this militant commander...but I think, it was the simmering alienation to which fuel was added by the killing of this young man, who had become a social media icon more than anything else.

Now, I am very critical of any attempt to romanticize militancy, but when a nation state, particularly one as powerful as India, which is a growing military and economic power, responds to the insurgency in one of its units in a belligerent way...the result is that the forces of radicalization gain legitimacy because ordinary people are pushed to the wall and even those who have been resisting the discourse and forces of radicalization and who are lot more ecumenical in their politics and culture, when they see this kind of militaristic response, they think, where do I turn ?

SERENA: And you use the term simmering, which is perhaps being too kind, because you are going back to 1953, and I happen to know that is a long time because I was born in 1953. And, so if your region, your nation, your unit is waiting that long for some kind of political resolution, I mean little good can come from that, especially when there are difference. I mean look at our country, differences in faith, in culture, in race, and those things become elements in promoting resentment and soliciting violence on one side or the other and the same thing . . . human beings are the same wherever you are. Can the US or can even the peace movement globally have some kind of impact in seeking and addressing particular people or nations about the situation to prompt better activity ?

NYLA: I think that is really a good question, but before I reply to that I would like to go back to your earlier question about India and Pakistan using Kashmir as a bargaining chip. I think that is a very valid point because a lot of Kashmiris raise the slogan of self-determination or plebiscite with sincerity, but for a lot of people in Kashmir---military officials, political actors, mainstream as well as separatists, bureaucrats and also military and bureaucratic officials in India and Pakistan---the slogan of self-determination or plebiscite has simply become rhetorical.

It has become a way to---itas become a bargaining chip---the slogan of self-determination or autonomy for Kashmiris have become rhetorical. There are times when India gets belligerent and tells Pakistan that they need to vacate the portion of Kashmir that they hold; that they need to demilitarize the portion of Kashmir, which they hold, and give human rights and liberties to Kashmiris on their side of the border; Pakistan decides to respond just as aggressively and screams itself hoarse about the Kashmiri peopleas right of self-determination, and then both countries, whenever there is a spell of camaraderie or they decide to establish an amicable relationship, then put the Kashmiri peopleas right of self-determination on the back burner.

So, there is a lack of sincerity, lack of political will on both sides of the border to resolve the issue. One of the biggest problems that exists within Indian-administered Kashmir as well as Pakistani-administered Kashmir is that, in order to gain legitimacy, any political actor must enjoy the support, must enjoy the blessings of the establishment. So a political actor, particularly a mainstream one, in order to be successful in Jammu and Kashmir requires the blessings as well as patronage of the government of India. Separatist politicians in Jammu and Kashmir would require the patronage of the government of Pakistan and the military of Pakistan. In the Kashmir on the Pakistani side, no political actor is eligible to run for office unless he or she enjoys the patronage of the Pakistani military and the deep state or high-level elements within the intelligence services.

You see, so the depoliticization of the indigenous political space and criminalization of dissident politics on both sides of the border is particularly troubling and has led to the brutalization of Kashmiri society. It has clearly and will continue to have long term damaging effects.

When excesses, whether they are military, or religious, or political are not curbed, they have terrible long term damaging effects. And when religion and politics are conflated, especially self-determination, that is a problem. The rest of the world---the world community turns a blind eye to those movements for self-determination that are presented in the garb of religion or religious discourse in which there is no separation of religion and politics, particularly in this day and age of the growth of ISIS, Taliban, etc. If religion and politics are not deliberately and carefully separated in a movement for self- determination, the world community becomes suspicious. So we need to make sure that the political dimension of the movement for self-determination is highlighted, showcased, and YES, peace activists can do a lot by highlighting human right violations that occurhuman right violations for which the government as well as militant organizations are responsible.

Of course as responsible citizens, we need to hold up a mirror to the state government as well as to the federal government and we can do that more easily because they are accountable to us in a democratic setup, more accountable than militant organizations are---but human right violations on both sides need to be highlighted, need to be showcased.

SERENA: Right. So, who are the agents that would---a movement, or organization may be amnesty international---who are the agents they could address in seeking some solutions?

NYLA: The current response of the government of India to Amnesty has not been very favourable. It has not been very amicable---the government of India has made it clear to Amnesty that they donat want them to interfere in Kashmir. And the United Nations Human Rights Commission sought permission from the governments of India and Pakistan to probe into complaints of human right violations in Indian-administered Kashmir as well as Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

A couple of days ago, or may be yesterday, the government of Pakistan made a statement that the United Nation Human Rights Commission was welcome to go to their side of Kashmir and was welcome to probe complaints of human right violations on their side of Kashmir. Now, I donat know if that statement was simply rhetorical---there has been no follow-up---but the government of India has denied the United Nation Human Right Commission the permission to enter their side of the Kashmir or the permission to probe into any complaint of human rights violation. So right now the government of India is calling the shots as far as that goes.

SERENA: You are listening to Peace Buzz.

We are speaking to Nyla Ali Khan about the unrest in Kashmir and surrounding area,s where people are releasing years of pent up frustration about the lack of democratic governmental accountability. The region controlled primarily by India is being impacted by the negative situation within India itself.

At this point in the interview I asked about how the regional branch of Amnesty International was dealing with things? It was a very timely question because just a day or two before, coerced by ultra right-wing protests in Bangalore or Bengaloru, India has forced the local Amnesty International office to close for the safety of its staff. The protests were directly related to the relationship between India and Kashmir. We paused to look up breaking news on the incident, and Nyla read from news report by providing context about various players.

NYLA: ABVP protests against Amnesty International---ABVP is a ultra right -wing nationalist organization that is affiliated with the party that is currently in power in India. And that organization tried to enter Amnestyas Bangalore office, but they were stopped by the police. They have been staging protests against Amnesty and this organization even filed a complaint against Amnesty alleging that an event it held in Bangalore on the on-going crisis in Kashmir valley was antinational. A sedition case has been filed against Amnesty. Although it denied the charge, acting on the advice of the Bangalore police, Amnesty has shut its office in the city.

SERENA: So it highlights what are talking about?

NYLA: So the head of Amnestyas India division said that the federal government needed to uphold the freedom of expression guaranteed in the Indian Constitution. He added that the sedition law was being misused by several state governments to silence activists, who are critical of government policies, which highlights what I am saying, and which is why the international community needs to get involved. And, I think the onus to get the international community involved lies on the populace of Kashmir; the onus lies on those who claim to lead the political movement for self-determination to separate religion and politics and to present this movement in a more ecumenical form which world activists would like to take forward, without any allegation being levelled against them, because in this day and age, the growth of bigotry, the growth of fanaticism . . . and I am not just talking about organizations like ISIS and Taliban but Christian fanaticism, Hindu fanaticism, Jewish fanaticism. We see those fundamentalisms rearing their ugly heads the world over---that is a reality, and in the wake of 9/11, the world has become increasingly polarized. There is a divide between ausa and athem,a a very carefully constructed divide between the acivilized worlda and the abarbaric world.a That is the paradigm within which we operate, so that needs to be kept in mind when we seek to take political movements for peopleas rights forward.

SERENA: Right, so hopefully in a more positive thing, you went back within the last couple of months . . . you went back to the area, and I saw on facebook that you gave some lectures, you talked to people, you visited universities and I think community groups. Can you tell us a little bit about that, about some of the positive things that you did and learned?

NYLA: So, I spent 6 weeks in Kashmir this summer and I went to quite a few colleges. I went to a couple of university campuses more than a couple of times, and all of these institutions are in rural areas. A couple of them are in the backwaters, and I went to these places as an academic. I met with a lot of students---girls as well as boys. I talked with them about their academic ambitions, I talked with them about their projects, I talked with them about applied theory, about learning to find ways to converge literary/ cultural theory and politics.... ground realities, pragmatic politics and literary theory. and I had very interesting conversations with a lot of students as well as faculty.

I saw in these rural areas, even in backwaters, a healthy curiosity and inquisitiveness---a desire to know more about the outside world, to explore, to find parallels between cultural situations that those kids are living in and other parts of the world to forge boundaries across religious divide and ideological divides---so as to find common ground between agendas of groups affected by conflicts in other parts of the world and those students.

So there is a lot of intelligence, ambition there, an unquenchable for knowledge, a desire to reach their full potential in those parts, despite everything that those children have been going through for the past 26 years now---and they are dealing with not just militarization and brutalization caused by governments, but they are also dealing with a militant movement. They are dealing with an attempt to conflate politics and religion.

Now religion is a very important aspect of South Asian societies, as it has become an important aspect of American society as well in this day and age. So religion being such an important aspect of South Asian societies, it cannot be written off. It has to be recognized as a force. It has to be recognized as an important dimension of South Asia. Any sensible, intelligent statesman will find ways to accommodate religious identities within a secular framework so that religious discourse does not become exclusionary but is inclusive; so that religious discourse recognizes the need for an ecumenical political framework; so that people are able to practice their religious faiths, which they hold very dear, within a political and cultural framework that is amenable to positive and constructive outside influences.

SERENA: And so there is tolerance for the differences.....right?

NYLA: Absolutely.

SERENA: So, what is the situation in terms of opportunity for education for girls, even younger than college and university students, you were meeting with? Is it difficult for girls to get educated in that area?

NYLA: Well, the literacy rate for women, for girls is relatively high in Kashmir. I am not talking about the quality of education. I am not talking about opportunities or lack thereof after they graduate. But the literacy rate is relatively high. Of course, Kashmir is a conservative society, so girls have always faced cultural barriers, and there is a lack of cultural empowerment even though women in that part of the world are politically empowered in terms of the constitution giving them the right to vote, the right to run for public office, the right to an equal education, and equal work for equal pay. So they enjoy those constitutional rights, but to what extent those rights are implemented is the million dollar question.

You see, it is now that we see a woman presidential candidate in the United States, even though women have enjoyed constitutional rights for decades. So, it has taken a long time for this to come about. Likewise, Kashmiri women enjoy these political rights and, currently, we have a woman head of government, who clearly is not very successful given the political turbulence in the state. But there are cultural barriers that women run into and then there are also regressive interpretations of religions. Not every interpretation of religion is enlightened. Not every interpretation of religion is emancipatory.

SERENA: And that is true everywhere.

NYLA: That is true everywhere. So there are some interpretations that limit the growth of women.

SERENA: So, when you go back there.....you have a status, a noted academic and author in the United States and back there. Are you somewhat unique? Are you a rarity? Are there other women like you, who have that kind of status and ability to go around and speak to young people?

NYLA: My mother is a retired professor of English, who taught at a womenas college in Srinagar, Kashmir for 34 years. There are quite a few women academics in Kashmir and quite a few Kashmiri women academics in other parts of the world as well. Now, I have been very fortunate to enjoy the emotional and political support of the progressive people not just in my home state but in my adopted country as well and that has given me a lot of exposure and has put me in touch with people who espouse democratic principles, who espouse emancipation of women, who espouse a liberatory discourse that would facilitate the self-determination of the people, particularly women.

And I have been fortunate to get published by very reputable presses in this country. I have been writing for national newspapers as well as local English newspapers in Kashmir since 2005 now. That has helped me to put my name out there and, then to be very honest with you, the fact that I have a political background piques curiosity and interest, and I probably am more mobile than a lot of women academics, who live in Kashmir. And so my mobility gave me access to educational institutions that were removed from the capital city, which is where my family lives, and I was able to go to those places to meet with people, to make presentations, deliver lectures, etc. So the mobility factor helped a lot, which not everyone enjoys.

SERENA: Well, again not just there

NYLA: And not just there...absolutely.

SERENA: And there is one thing that I think, I am pleased to see that for the last 20 years or so, education of women worldwide is such an important thing for the development of undeveloped countries and to bring economies along.

NYLA: I think it is important for people to realize, especially those who subscribe to bigoted views, that no such society can grow, no society can evolve without the full participation of educated women. I think a fear that a lot of religious societies have is that educated women will veer away from or will undermine religion, but as we have seen historically, a movement for independence for self-determinations---even in the movement for Indiaas independence from the British [I am talking about pre-partition Indiaas fight against the British colonial power] we saw that liberated and emancipated women, who fought shoulder to shoulder with men for independence and to build their nations, developed their political identities within a religious and familial framework, so the two are not mutually exclusive.

SERENA: Itas just the fear...

NYLA: Absolutely.

SERENA: Fear of change is overwhelming.

NYLA: Exactly.

SERENA: Well our time is up. Nyla, thank you for sharing again. Keep us informed of what is going on in Kashmir.

NYLA: Thank you so much!

SERENA: Hopefully, we can raise some interest and some activity in the global peace and human right movement.

NYLA: I always enjoy talking with you and I, specially, appreciate the fact that you are able to draw analogies between situations in the United States and other parts of the world. There are a lot of commonalities, and the more common ground we are able to create, the faster and more efficiently will we be able to resolve conflicts a political as well as religious.

SERENA: Well that is certainly one of our goals here at Peace Buzz. Thank you again.

NYLA: Thank you Serena, bye bye.
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Since the announcement four years ago that Disney would buy Lucasfilm and begin making new Star Wars movies, this moment has been inevitable: excepting Kevin Kiner's fine, fun work on the briefly-theatrically-released Clone Wars pilot, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the first Star Wars feature film with music composed by someone other than John Williams.

To film music fans in general, and John Williams fans in particular, the effect would have been unsettling regardless of the quality of the work. We got something of a preview of this sensation last fall with the release of Bridge of Spies, the first Steven Spielberg film since The Colour Purple not to feature a Williams score (Williams was ill at the time). And not to put too macabre a point on it, but sooner or later the continued roll-out of Star Wars movies was going to run into a Williams-free movie in one way or another. The man is 84, after all.

Naturally, the person stepping onto the podium in John Williams' stead for Rogue One is Michael Giacchino. I say "naturally" because, based on Giacchino's bona fides, it's such an obvious choice that it's somewhat surprising that Giacchino, in turn, is filling Alexandre Desplat's shoes after Desplat left the project due to scheduling difficulties. Rogue One is, to a very real extent, the job Giacchino has been auditioning for since he got into this business.

It's also frankly astonishing that a work of composition this complex, and weighted with genuine consequences for fans' ability to embrace the "anthology" instalments of the new Star Wars franchise, was the result of a late-day composer switcheroo, with minimal lead time.

No matter in this composer's case, of course. Giacchino is so prolific as to be slightly terrifying. Alongside his natural strengths as a musician, he is also our current master of musical pastiche. He can step into the rhythm and tonality of other eras of music so precisely that it's often hard to tell the difference between original examples and Giacchino's work. (Giacchino's closing-credits music for Cloverfield, for example, is so specifically on-model for kaiju films of the 1960s that it plays like a recently-unearthed Akira Ikufube track.)

He also does space opera better than anyone (besides Williams) in the business. His scores for John Carter and Jupiter Ascending accomplish more than the films they accompany in conjuring up the magic of galaxies far, far away (or in both cases, weirdo aliens within our solar system) and the thrill of swashbuckling Flash Gordon-style heroics. He's having a ton of fun with Star Trek, too.

So if anyone were going to ease us into the waters of a Williams-free Star Wars world, it makes sense that it would be Giacchino. Naturally, the result is a head-baking experience - no opening theme, some "cameo" themes and quotes from the existing Star Wars canon, and a lot of new composition - and unpacking the work has been fascinating fun.

In the absence of the Star Wars fanfare and opening march, we are brought into the world of the music with a very Giacchino-ish "slam," followed by the traditional twinkling off-melody sounds of the orchestra warming up to the vastness of space. "He's Here For Us," the first track on the album, gives us our first puzzle right away: Director Krennic's theme.

It's not specifically Director Krennic's theme according to the track titles. The signature will get a full orchestral treatment in track 20, "The Imperial Suite," which tells us that this is the Empire's new motif for Rogue One... but... why?

Not only does the Galactic Empire sport what is, arguably, one of the two or three most recognizable musical cues in cinema history (you're humming it right now, aren't you?), but that theme - Darth Vader's march - also appears at critical moments Giacchino's score for Rogue One. And to make matters even more confusing, Giacchino also does the extraordinary, and resurrects the other Imperial motif written by John Williams, and chucks it into Rogue One as well.

This little-remembered cue, used in the original Star Wars and never since (remember: Darth Vader's theme was composed for The Empire Strikes Back), is a trembling woodwind riff which Giacchino lovingly dredges back up in "Krennic's Aspirations," the cue covering the Director's visit to Darth Vader's lava castle and the introduction of the Sith Lord proper.

So: Rogue One is a score with three musical themes for the Empire.

It would make a kind of weird sense if what I've called the Krennic theme was just Krennic's theme, and the Imperial motif from Star Wars stood in for the rest of the Empire (Darth's theme can stay Darth's theme), but it seems to be the other way around. This confuses the frick out of me, though I will admit that the scene in Vader's castle is also the moment I began to love Giacchino's score here. (I was on the record saying that if he incorporated that particular motif from Star Wars, I was going to cry. He did not disappoint.)

Vader's theme, meanwhile, is kept largely on the sidelines until Giacchino unleashes it in a full, no-fucking-around rendition at the end of the picture (track 18, "Hope") - aptly accompanying a scene wherein Vader does no fucking around. It's one of an unexpectedly small number of moments in the film where Giacchino leans directly on the established Williams motifs. Restraint seems to have been the watchword. There are more needless cameos by original trilogy stars (Threepio and Artoo at Yavin? Puh-lease) in this film than there are direct musical citations.

But the tension between base-tapping the original Williams work and inventing something wholly new is with us throughout the Rogue One score, regardless. Giacchino's title slam for the film - heard at the end of track 2, "A Long Ride Ahead" - is a great musical fake-out. The first two notes are taken directly from the Star Wars theme, and given that it accompanies a yellow-against-starfield title card, we expect it to play out in full; but from that beloved launching pad, Giacchino propels us higher (the Star Wars theme stumbles down three tones from here before lifting its spirits again) and rolls out what we might call "The Rogue One Theme." The motif captures the rebellious spirits of the film's protagonist, Jyn Erso, and her mission - both to bring down the Death Star, and to light the spark that will become the Rebellion.

Giacchino pulls a similar trick later in the first act, when introducing the leitmotif for the Guardians of the Whills (which gets a full orchestral treatment as the final track on the album). Closely aligned with the Jedi, the Guardians' musical cue starts off sounding like a retread of the Force theme, before it - like the Rogue One theme - wanders off in its own direction.

Again, we might sense intention here: the rogues are like the heroes of the original trilogy, but different; the Guardians are like the Jedi, but different. Rogue One, itself, is like Star Wars, but different, and Giacchino is using the music to drive this idea as openly as Gareth Edwards is varying the staging of the film itself from its forbears.

Giacchino becomes his most Giacchino-ish when treating the relationship between Jyn and her father, Galen, in tracks 8 and 9 - if you feel like you're hearing strains of LOST in their pained, piano-driven accompaniment, you are, but all of Giacchino's "go for the heart" cues tend to sound like this, from John Carter to Let Me In.

But there's no sameyness at all in the bombastic cues for the spectacular starfighter sequences in the film, from the bombing run on Eadu (track 9) to the attack of the Rebel Fleet in the finale (tracks 14 and 15). Here, Giacchino is a master of dynamic range, jumping from bracing full-orchestra thunder to quiet undertones and back again to drive tension skywards while the X-wings plunge towards the earth.

In fact, the soundtrack as a whole seems most comfortable when dealing with the heroics of the Rebellion in one form or another, as though Giacchino has been composing music for the rebels in his head since he was ten years old. (It's not unlikely.) The mobilization of Rogue One and the Alliance towards the final battle is accompanied by brassy pomp, recalling (without directly quoting) the Resistance March from The Force Awakens. Track 13, "Cargo Shuttle SW-0608," which covers Rogue One making planetfall on Scarif, nicely mimics some of the orchestration of the Rebel Fleet themes from Return of the Jedi without directly quoting any of the motifs. (Listen to track 9, "Alliance Assembly," on the Return of the Jedi complete score for comparison.)

Or, in the score's best direct connection to the film that follows its final moments, "Hope" contains a few moments (1:02-1:15) that exactly mirror cues in the Imperial attack in Star Wars (the opening bars of track 3 on the A New Hope complete score).

And I admit that at least half my fondness for the finale of Rogue One (not the Vader stuff; the death-on-the-beach stuff) comes from Giacchino's wrenching, mournful musical accompaniment. Track 17, "Your Father Would Be Proud," might be an example of on-the-nose Hollywood scoring, but it's really good on-the-nose scoring. It lands a beat that the film itself has trouble landing, as underdeveloped lead characters Jyn and Cassian give their all to transmit the Death Star plans to the rebels before the Death Star wipes them off the planet. There's real pathos, and a sense of sacrifice, to the music.

It also comes from a musical language subtly different from much of what's come before in Star Wars (only "The Jedi Steps" in The Force Awakens has been quite so thrillingly modern in its approach to melody, compared to the rest of the work), and feels like one of the few moments in Rogue One where Giacchino is truly innovating, making the work his own, rather than doing a grandly kickass take on "a Star Wars-type score."

It's an important development, if only because the continued musical health of this franchise will depend on less and less pastiche and more and more authorial ownership, as audiences begin to warm to the idea that John Williams isn't the only person who can give Star Wars its soul.



Destroy All Monsters is a weekly column on Hollywood and pop culture. Matt Brown is in Toronto and on Letterboxd.


Toni Erdmann, a German dramedy about a father-daughter relationship that won rave reviews at Cannes this year, is coming out in theaters on Christmas Day here in the States. This exceptionally written and acted film is director Maren Ade's third feature. It's a perfect holiday movie, packed with full of surprises and uproariously funny moments. I haven't had this much fun at the movies in a long time. It is definitely my favorite film of the year.

I had the pleasure of talking to three principals from the film -- writer/director Maren Ade (Everyone Else), actress Sandra Huller (Requiem) and Peter Simonischek (October, November) -- when they were in town for the New York Film Festival in October. They were a raucous team, speaking over one another and finishing each other's sentences. Their lively demeanor, comradery and bad jokes filled the cold hotel room in the Upper Eastside with laughter and joy.

Screen Anarchy: My first question is for Maren. Its been quite a while since your last film. EVERYONE ELSE (ALLE ANDEREN) came out in 2008. How come it took a long time for you to do another film?

Maren Ade: I didnt spent all of the time doing Toni Erdmann, but lets say about five years or so. It took a while to write it and to research it. Its also pretty long. And I became a mother and had two children in between. I know its actually its not a good excuse. (laughs)

But I really worked a lot for this. Its just a film that had so many different topicsfor me it was a big luxury because I never had to leave a certain phase of happiness doing it. I mean, only thing that would bother me sometimes is that its always the same thing over and over. It takes time to shoot and edit and do all these different things but at the end, preparing for Cannes, I couldnt even look at it anymore.

How long was the process for you guys?

Sandra Huller: About a year.

Peter Simonischek: Yeah about a year, maybe a little longer.

MA: Yeah we started casting in May and we started shooting in June the next year.

Its funny because from my limited knowledge of both of your work, youve done some serious stuff. Ive seen OCTOBER, NOVEMBER with you, Peter and of course, REQUIEM with you, Sandra. So it was a complete surprise for me to see you in very comedic performances.

PS: Im more of a theater actor. I dont have an impressive film career per se. I didnt do horrible, shitty things--

(Sandra and Maren start to laugh)

But I did things like TV series 20 years ago. The thing is, there are not many opportunities - there are not many good roles or directorsand everything must fit. In a small country like Austria, there are not many opportunities

MA: But you did comedies in theater, no?

PS: Yes.

SH: He is much more familiar to comedy than I am.

PS: Yes, I did a lot of comedies too. When I went in to theater fifty years ago, I never thought of doing TV or film, I just wanted to go on stage. Maybe I did 5 or 6 good films but the rest is middle measure. Maybe two or three bad ones.

How was the casting process? How did you end up with these two?

MA: Its a father-daughter dynamics and I believe in casting very much also. I obviously only invite actors who are good first. But often its very important how the constellation is, even when two people are just seating next to each other, a story comes in your mind. So sometimes it's really about suitability. Sandra and Peter were the last combination I tried but I knew right away that I would cast. They had different partners before. I was very excited to bring them together. Actually even before you two met, I thought it would be a good constellation.

SH: Thats not what she told me. It took like 3 or 4 weeks.

MA: No.

SH: Yeah yeah, you took a lot of time to decide.

MA: No it was not that long.

SH: Ah ok.

MA: I swear to you it wasnt more than 3 to 4 days

SH: Lets not fight.

MA: Ok. Between the first casting and the next one it took some time but--

SH: But not after we got on board--

MA: yeah.

What did you guys first think about the script when you guys first read it?

PS: After I read it, I said, "my god whats this?"

(everyone laughs)

I thought jeez, this is wonderful and so crazy and so great. Its so extravagant and out of the ordinary. I was very curious who the writer was. I was at this big theater and others had read the script and then they called me. Everyone was like, Did you read this? Oh god its great, lets do this!

Everyone who read the script was elec-- how do you say it? Electrified? So I took the invitation for the casting. Its not usual for my generation of actors doing auditions like that like everyone else because of our age and so on but it was never a problem for me. I had some bad experience in theater working over agreement without auditioning. Horrible. Ill never do that again.

SH: We also needed to find out whether we could work together.

MA: Yeah that was very important.

SH: Also because it was such a long shoot (3 month) for a German film.

MA: Its not always clear that two actors who can get along together and what kind of performance can they get out of each other. I mean--

PS: It was the very very first lucky experience for me. With you (Maren) and you (Sandra). It was absolutely fantastic. It wouldve been very very sad after the first casting together and then if you said to me ,Im sorry Peter but it wont work. I was very disciplined with my emotions and said to myself, She will tell me, maybe or not.

How about you, sandra?

SH: Well no I wanted to work with Maren for few years. I did an audition for the last film she did but I didnt get it. But I really wanted to work with her. When I read Toni, I knew it was a good script and really enjoyed it but thought I couldnt do it. it was too complicated and the whole business world was so strange to me. But then we had a conversation and we started the casting process and then I learned some things about Ines that was really interesting to me. It was a big challenge to shoot such a long time and I was doing theater and I had a child who was three at the time and I know you said it was an excuse but--

MA: I know!

SH: It was a really difficult situation in my private life. So I wasnt really sure but we found out that we worked very well together and wed probably have a good time together for three months.

Ines is a very cold and business like. And the things she talks about in business jargons I didnt really get. Was there a lot of research involved?

SH: Maren did a lot of research. I knew nothing of that world. Id find it interesting to meet those people of my generation whod do these things. In the beginning, Id create a map like youd do in school with the CEO on top, like a tree. I was never interested in that world before. Now I think I can read the economy section of the newspaper.

(Peter claps loudly, another laughter from everyone)

It was important for me that the film really spends some time in the work environment because it was so important to Ines which is basically her life. We all spend our lifetime with our work and in films its often so reduced. Usually its boring and hard to find a story there. So it took us a while to find a project I can take over from a consultant that we met and we transformed it to fit the story better. It was necessary for me to have an example that really existed.

Was it difficult for you to play that part of Ines?

SH: Yes it was because it was really far away from my own experiences. You can attach yourself to a character in an emotional way. But almost in every scene she makes decisions that I wouldnt have made. Im much more sentimental than she is. I had to learn how to skip some of the impulses I have in the first place. But I liked that. I learned a lot from her. Sometimes its best not to do what you feel like to do and sometimes its better.

Yeah, I had to read a lot and had to watch some movies about this kind of business. Really. there are some really nice documentaries, like Work Hard Play Hard and stuff, where you can see the same kind of body language that they all have that doesnt say anything about their personal lives. Its really crazy but also interesting to find out.

It was interesting to me. For me, the movie is about people putting on some sort of a mask to function in the society: Ines has a very cold facade because she has to present herself like that in that environment in order to survive and Winfried is confronting her with another facade which is snaggle toothed Toni. Because she has a role that she needs to play and its not natural, so the father is putting on the mask himself to kind of offset that.

It is interesting that there is also a generational gap thats going on, not only the German society but in general, that there is a rift between the hard working, go getter type of Iness generation and kind of happy go lucky of Winfried generation. I am wondering if that was intentional take on your part?

MA: For me he is a typical post war generation who was very political and who was fighting a lot for human values and raise their children with that in mind. They had a kind of hostile relationship with the generation before them. They believed in the free world, world without borders and also economy without borders. And now it ended up with globalization where rich is really rich and poor's really poor. But he lost Ines to that world that he preached. She has all those values that her dad taught her but she is using it in a different way in her business world. She is independent, she is determined but still curious about other things if shes given a chance.

For me it was the feeling that I have that in my generation that things became so complicated, we don't know who to blame, whos responsible and for what. Its complicated to tell whos a friend and whos an enemy- there are so many angles on everything.

It's like the father stands for the system of values that is almost like an island that is slowly sinking. We are not allowed to see things like that anymore. It was much simpler back then.

I dont want to give an answer to the question. Its just something I felt when I was writing and reflecting on my thoughts.

Its not like the father is teaching her how to live but its more like father reminding her whats already inside her - that the fun part is already inside her. I thought the turning point for Ines to show her funny side is not in the Whitney Houston scene (even though that is a fantastic scene) but even way before that when she is having sex with her lover. That her father brought out something in her with the unfortunate pastry incident.

SH: 'The Pastry Incident'. Im gonna write that down!

I never saw it as teaching. Im still too close to Ines, I dont know. But they are fighting with each other actually. It was a challenge for both of them. When they are sitting in the kitchen in the beginning of the film, she asks him, What are you gonna do with your life, except playing with whoopie cushions?" or whatever. So it was an invitation for him to think about what he wants to do with the rest of his retired life. And he comes up with this character and he can do anything, like a superhero. I dont know. So Its not that she is only learning from him. I think its both ways.

MA: I think its also got to do with deciding what is happening by accident and what is on purpose. His purpose was to be close to his daughter. He was at a dead end and he didnt know how to communicate with her. So if you had asked Winfried- this is always a question that I ask myself, if I could really get an answer from the character, He wouldve said, Yeah I didn't know. I just went in the bar and I thought we maybe could talk again and she comes in the limosine and well have some fun with my Ines and that's how it would end.

PS: "The flight was cheap."

MA: "The flight was cheap. I missed the flight back!!" (laughs)

He is also giving that answer at the end. He doesnt believe in what he did before. He doesnt even know what he gave her. He doesnt even understand what the outcome of that naked party was. I mean he still has the feeling that he owes her an answer to that.

Was it difficult for you to play basically two characters?

PS: It was one gig to play two.

MA: Actually you play a bad actor. And thats a good thing. That's some thing you said during the production that you are playing one character.

PS: Sure. One person. Winfried. He disguise himself as Toni to be funny and risky. It is a very courageous thing to do for a person who is not an actor. Not bad. But not only in the shop where nobody knows him but he acts in front of colleagues of Ines and also in front of her boss. Not bad. "But this is not your daughter." Pfffw.

MA: It was really interesting to direct that because its forcusing on what good acting is - is it not real enough or good enough or bad enough, or good-bad acting, you know?

SH: It mustve been really tough for Peter because if you look at his personal journey- he is Elvis andeverybody else all at the same time. Winfried wasnt really allowed to do that.

PH: There were a lot of possibilities for sure.

MA: We did go, some times, the full way, really going overboard. And then we would pull back.

I see.

PS: Shopping center (starts to laugh to himself, shaking his head)

MA/SH: Yeah.

SH: In there Peter played very American version of Toni. The Texas version.

(They all laugh)

PS: You see, really, it was a lot of fun.

Why Romania?

MA: Why Romania?

Yeah, why Romania? And did you guys enjoy shooting there?

MA: Umm, yeah it was very nice place and we had very good team there. It suited to the story because there are a lot of multinational companies in Romania. After the end of communism, there was a big sellout and everyone was trying to get something out of the country. I was interested in this hierarchies of German companies in Romania.

I dont want to make a comparison but there is a Romanian movie the is out playing at the festival as well. BACALAUREAT (GRADUATION) . I havent seen it yet ** but from what I hear the movie also deals with a father-daughter relationship.

MA: Yeah I want to see it.

If it was a Hollywood film, it wouldve ended when father and daughter embrace each other in the park.

SH: Yeah tell me how would that look like?

MA: who plays who?

Probably like, the late Robin Williams and I dont know Kate Mara or someone like that. They would hug and that would be the end of the film. But this doesnt end that way. It goes on. I found that interesting. Did you want to make a point that the life goes on, that its not a big life-changing, revelatory experience and everyone becomes happy and whatnot?

MA: I dont believe so much in big transformations or 'you have to get over yourself' or something. I mean they are possible but not for a film. The time frame of the film is too small. You know what, this is such an obvious moment to put the credits. I did try it, just as a joke. I knew I would never end a movie like that but just to prove that it is really wrong, I did it. It was so stupid. It would been so disappointing because its simply not true.

SH: Thats what its about? Its about hugging in the park in Bucharest?

MA: I also like that he is really struggling in the (Kukeri) coustume and she doesnt see that. And he is alone. Because thats not the end of the story. If it doesnt end like that, in Hollywood films, they would meet 20 years later.

SH: They are all old and say to each other that they can share the secret then.

Toni Erdmann opens Christmas Day in New York and Los Angeles.

**Got a chance to see Christian Mungiu's Bacalaureat after this interview. It's another great film from Mungiu, sharply observing ordinary Romanians dealing with the country's monstrous bureaucratic system. But it's a very different film than Toni Erdmann. Although the film has a father-daughter relationship, their similarities remains on a very superficial level.

Dustin Chang is a freelance writer. His musings and opinions on everything cinema and beyond can be found at www.dustinchang.com
Alfred Hitchcock once said, 'Drama is life with the dull bits cut out'. To twist that a bit, Pedro Almodovar's new feature film Julieta is a slice of life with the drama cut out.

The story of one woman's journey through life, love, motherhood, and grief, it sadly lacks any great new insight into these states, nor does it follow through on the few intriguing narrative twists it does offer. Almodovar may once have lay claim as Spain's answer to Douglas Sirk, but in this new film, he has abandoned the drama for the mellow, or perhaps more accurately (as Hitchcock would say), the dull.

Julieta (Emma Suarez) is about to move to Portugal with her partner Lorenzo (Dario Grandinetti) when she runs into Beatriz (Michelle Jenner), the childhod friend of Julieta's long-estranged daughter Antia. Visibly shaken, Julieta returns to her flat, abandons her move, and proceeds to write a letter to Antia, telling her the story of her father, their romance, and the subsequent entanglements and disasters, hoping for a long-awaited reunion.

Throughout the film, there are moments that could have made this into a melodramatic thriller, much like some of Almodovar's earlier films Matador and The Law of Desire. When we meet the younger Julieta (Adriana Ugarte), she is on train trip, where a man she brushed off commits suicide, and she begins to blame herself. But that mystery is abandoned in favour of the love story and her first night with Antia's father.

Fair enough, but when a few months later she shows up at the house of her lover, there is a strange Mrs. Danvers-vibe with the housekeeper (Rossy de Palma); that story arc too is abandoned, in favour of Julieta's inner monologue about her love-striken heart. Later, an affair is revealed, a dramatic death occurs, and still, we are trapped inside Julieta's ramblings, which provide little drama and almost no momentum. As the story shifts to Julieta's relationship with her daughter, both its strength and ultimate weakness are never explored, leaving little room for sympathy for the main character.

Almodovar adapted his screenplay from work by Alice Munro, one of the great short story writers of our time (she won the Nobel Prize in 2013), and a personal favourite of mine. Her stories are quiet, insular, ambiguous, in which actions and inner thoughts are laid out without flair, and emotion is contained beneath a thin surface; often nothing exactly 'happens' in her stories, but they are tales that creep up on you.

In other words, these stories are most definitely not melodramatic. They are the opposite of melodrama, the opposite of Almodovar. Not that there is anything wrong with wanting to adapt these stories, but you can't make Almodovar-style-dramatic that which is, by its nature, more subtle and subdued.

It's no fault of the actors; Ugarte and Suarez fit perfectly into the Almodovar mould, but they are given little to do except look either beautiful or depressed, with no chance to create a deeper or richer character arc. And certainly, the film looks beautiful; it is unmistakably the Spanish auteur's work, with red, oranges and yellows on prominent display, with art and literature as a focal point for themes of love and loss.

One of the key points to remember in film, something that Almodovar seems to have forgotten, is that it is better to show than to tell. Any of the dramatic turning points above (and a few others besides, with the best left and abandoned in the last few minutes of the film, but I will hold back on spoilers) could have been used both to spice up the film and to show how Julieta changes and grows. His masterpiece, All About My Mother, is a perfect example of this, how you can have both dramatic events and characters whose identites are revealed and adapted through those events.

But Almodovar seems to have lost all sense of what makes interesting drama and character development. This might be an attempt to muse on one woman's depression and loneliness, but what works on the page does not always translate to the screen, and Almodovar seems content to let his past strengths wither in favour of banality.

Review originally published during the Cannes Film Festival in May 2016. The film opens tomorrow in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles and will then expand to other cities in the coming weeks.
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December 21, 2016

DPIC releases year-end report highlighting "historic declines" in use of the death penalty in 2016

This press release from the Death Penalty Information Center, titled "Death Sentences, Executions Drop to Historic Lows in 2016," provides a summary of the DPIC's 2016 year-end report on the administration of the death penalty in the United States. Here is the text of the press release:

Death sentences, executions, and public support for capital punishment all continued historic declines in 2016. American juries imposed the fewest death sentences in the modern era of U.S. capital punishment, since the Supreme Court declared existing death penalty statutes unconstitutional in 1972. The expected 30 new death sentences in 2016 represent a 39 percent decline from last years already 40-year low of 49. The 20 executions this year marked the lowest number in a quarter century, according to a report released today by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). National public opinion polls also showed support for capital punishment at a 40-year low. America is in the midst of a major climate change concerning capital punishment. While there may be fits and starts and occasional steps backward, the long-term trend remains clear, said Robert Dunham, DPICs Executive Director and the author of the report. Whether its concerns about innocence, costs, and discrimination, availability of life without parole as a safe alternative, or the questionable way in which states are attempting to carry out executions, the public grows increasingly uncomfortable with the death penalty each year. For the first time in more than 40 years, no state imposed ten or more death sentences. Only five states imposed more than one death sentence. California imposed the most (9) followed by Ohio (4), Texas (4), Alabama (3) and Florida (2). Death sentences continued to be clustered in two percent of counties nationwide, with Los Angeles County imposing four death sentences, the most of any county. But death sentences were down 39 percent, even in those two-percent counties. This years 20 executions marked a decline of more than 25 percent since last year, when there were 28 executions. Only five states conducted executions this year, the fewest number of states to do so since 1983. Two states -- Georgia, which had the most executions (9), and Texas, which had the second highest number (7) -- accounted for 80 percent of all executions in the U.S. Although Georgia carried out more executions than at any other time since the 1950s, juries in that state have not imposed any new death sentences in the past two years. State and federal courts continued to strike down outlier practices that increased the likelihood a death sentence would be imposed. The United States Supreme Court struck down practices in Florida, Arizona, and Oklahoma that had disproportionately contributed to the number of death sentences imposed in those states. And state courts in Florida and Delaware ruled that portions of their statutes that permitted the death penalty based upon a non-unanimous jury vote on sentencing were unconstitutional. Americas deep divisions about capital punishment were reflected in voters action at the ballot box this year. Voters in California and Nebraska voted to retain the death penalty and Oklahoma voters approved a constitutional amendment regarding capital punishment. At the same time, prosecutors in four of the 16 counties that impose the most death sentences in the U.S. were defeated by candidates who expressed personal opposition to the death penalty or pledged to reform their countys death penalty practices. In Kansas, pro-death penalty groups spent more than $1 million to defeat four state supreme court justices who had voted to overturn several death sentences, but voters retained all four justices. DPICs review of the 20 people executed in 2016 indicated that at least 60 percent of them showed significant evidence of mental illness, brain impairment, and/or low intellectual functioning. This suggests that, in spite of the constitutional requirement that the death penalty be reserved for the worst of the worst offenders, states continued to execute prisoners whose mental illness or intellectual disabilities are similar to impairments the Court has said should make a person ineligible for the death penalty.

I have reprinted above the DPIC graphic emphasizing the continued decline in the number of death sentences imposed each year because, as I have said before, I view that metric as the most significant and consequential in any serious discussion of the present status and future prospects of capital punishment throughout the US.

December 21, 2016 at 12:14 PM | Permalink

Comments

The report notes that "Whether its concerns about innocence, costs, and discrimination, availability of life without parole as a safe alternative, or the questionable way in which states are attempting to carry out executions, the public grows increasingly uncomfortable with the death penalty each year.

I also think a contributing cause of the decline is prosecutorial misconduct, of which the the public (Jurors) are becoming increasingly aware. Such misconduct (e.g, hiding Brady material) is "epidemic" according to Alex Kozinski, the former Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit.

Posted by: Michael R. Levine | Dec 21, 2016 1:19:53 PM

"deep divisions"? Only among the chattering classes and the courts with the ever changing "mother, may I?" approach.

Posted by: federalist | Dec 21, 2016 1:48:20 PM

Federalist, I think the latest Pew poll supports the existence of "deep divisions" regarding the death penalty.

Pew Research Center

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

Support for death penalty lowest in more than four decades

BY BAXTER OLIPHANT5 COMMENTS

As the Supreme Court prepares to hear the first of two death penalty cases in this years term, the share of Americans who support the death penalty for people convicted of murder is now at its lowest point in more than four decades.

Only about half of Americans (49%) now favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, while 42% oppose it. Support has dropped 7 percentage points since March 2015, from 56%. Public support for capital punishment peaked in the mid-1990s, when eight-in-ten Americans (80% in 1994) favored the death penalty and fewer than two-in-ten were opposed (16%). Opposition to the death penalty is now the highest it has been since 1972.



Though support for the death penalty has declined across most groups, a Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 23-Sept. 2 among 1,201 adults finds that most Republicans continue to largely favor its use in cases of murder, while most Democrats oppose it. By more than two-to-one, more Republicans (72%) than Democrats (34%) currently favor the death penalty.

Two decades ago, when majorities in both parties favored the death penalty, the partisan gap was only 16 percentage points (87% of Republicans vs. 71% of Democrats).

And, for the first time in decades, independents are as likely to oppose the use of the death penalty (45%) as they are to favor it (44%). The share of independents who support capital punishment has fallen 13 points since last year (from 57%).

This shift in views among independents is particularly pronounced among those who lean toward the Democratic Party (a 10-point decrease in support) and those who do not lean to either party (down 16 points). Support for the death penalty among independents who lean toward the GOP is little changed from March 2015 (73% now, 70% then).

Even as support for the death penalty has declined across nearly all groups, demographic differences remain: Men are more likely to back the use of the death penalty than women, white Americans are more supportive than blacks and Hispanics, and attitudes on the issue also differ by age, education and along religious lines.

More than half of men (55%) say they are in favor of the death penalty and 38% are opposed. Womens views are more divided: 43% favor the death penalty, 45% oppose it.

A 57% majority of whites favor the death penalty for those convicted of murder (down from 63% last year). But blacks and Hispanics support it at much lower rates: Just 29% of blacks and 36% of Hispanics favor capital punishment.

There are only modest difference by age and education in support for the death penalty, with 18- to 29-year-olds somewhat less likely to support it (42% favor) than those in older age groups (51% of those 30 and older). Those without a college degree are more likely than those with at least a college degree to favor the use of the death penalty in cases of murder (51% vs. 43%).

White evangelical Protestants continue to back the use of the death penalty by a wide margin (69% favor, 26% oppose). White mainline Protestants also are substantially more likely to support (60%) than oppose (31%) the death penalty. But among Catholics and the religiously unaffiliated, opinion is more divided: 43% of Catholics favor capital punishment, while 46% oppose it. And while 50% of those who are religiously unaffiliated oppose the death penalty, 40% support it.

A more detailed study last year of attitudes toward capital punishment found that 63% of the public thought the death penalty was morally justified, but majorities said there was some risk of an innocent person being put to death (71%) and that the death penalty does not deter serious crime (61%).





Posted by: anon | Dec 21, 2016 3:28:55 PM

Not really anon---most people opposed to the death penalty really don't care that much. However, the media, a significant number of judges, academics and hard-core leftists are seriously opposed to it--thus the "controversy" is more inside baseball than anything else.

I recall an op-ed a few years back when South Dakota was going to give some murderer the big jab that entreated South Dakotans to "reflect" on the enormity of it all. Yeah, because people with lives to live and families to support etc. should spend their precious time about some scum who committed a horrible murder. Out. Of. Touch.



What is amazing to me--the above-mentioned groups tend to get more worked up about zapping a capital murderer (oh, the humanity) than they do about sucking the brains out of a perfectly viable and healthy 8-month old fetus.

I think the death penalty is dying. Why? Because of the opposition of the judiciary to the practice. This is why I think it's a fight worth having---the Constitution allows the death penalty, which means that the society, as part of its right to govern itself, has the right to impose it. The "death by 1000 cuts" approach of the courts is fundamentally anti-democratic (and anti-freedom). When federal judges, with zero basis, get to call execution procedures a high school science experiment, that evinces a fundamental disdain for our right to govern ourselves. It also calls into question the fitness of those judges for judicial office. That the bar utters not a peep is telling.

People like you, anon, will trade our right to govern ourselves for an outcome you like, and for what, the benefit of a few capital murderers? Thus, and this is not an insult, just the truth, you are un-American.

Posted by: federalist | Dec 21, 2016 4:31:26 PM

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December 20, 2016

New report spotlights that majority of condemned Oregon murderers have mental impairments

In this post earlier this year, I noted the initiative emerging from Harvard Law School's Charles Hamilton Houston for Race & Justice and its Criminal Justice Institute called the Fair Punishment Project (FPP). And, as regular readers now know, FPP is now regularly producing notable reports and research on the administration of various sentencing systems in various parts of the nation. The latest report from FPP is titled "Oregons Death Penalty Disproportionately Used Against Persons with Significant Mental Impairments," and here are parts of the start and heart of the document:

Oregon retains capital punishment mostly as an exorbitantly expensive legal fiction. In practice, as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy recently noted, the State falls on the abolitionist side of the ledger because Oregon has suspended the death penalty and executed only two individuals in the past 40 years. More revealing still: Over the past 10 years, Oregon juries have imposed an average of just one death sentence per year, which translates into less than 1.25% of homicides, a rate far lower than that which prevailed nationally in 1972 when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White concluded that the infrequent use of the death penalty meant that the punishment had ceas[ed] to be a credible deterrent or measurably to contribute to any other end of punishment in the criminal justice system. By all functional measures, Oregonians have abandoned the death penalty. And yet, 35 condemned inmates remain on Oregons death row. What do we know about those people, and about the quality of justice that resulted in their death sentences? This report examines the cases of the condemned men and women in Oregon to see how they ended up there, and what patterns, if any, emerged. We examined legal pleadings and opinions, trial testimony, and media reports, and consulted with several legal experts in Oregon who are familiar with the individuals on death row. Heres what we found: In Oregon, two-thirds of death row inmates possess signs of serious mental illness or intellectual impairment, endured devastatingly severe childhood trauma, or were not old enough to legally purchase alcohol at the time the offense occurred. The pervasiveness of these crippling impairments among Oregons death row population is important because though all murders are gruesome and deserving of serious sanction, the Constitution limits the death penalty to the most heinous murders; and even then only when the person who commits the crime is someone who appears to be more culpable than the typically developing adult.... Our research indicates that approximately one-quarter of individuals on Oregons death row may have some form of intellectual disability or brain damage. Nine of the 35 (26%) presented evidence of significantly impaired cognitive functioning as evidenced by low IQ scores, frontal lobe damage, and fetal alcohol syndrome.... Approximately one out of every four individuals on Oregons death row exhibits symptoms of mental illness, or has a confirmed diagnosis. Some exhibited signs of psychotic disorders with delusions and hallucinations at the time of the crime, one had been in a state run treatment program for individuals with mental illness, and another had signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Furthermore, the vast majority of the individuals exhibiting signs of mental illness, also presented evidence of secondary impairments such as intellectual disability, extreme childhood trauma, and youthfulness.... [A]pproximately one-third of Oregons death row prisoners suffered some form of severe childhood or emotional trauma. One individual was born in prison, another suffered childhood sexual abuse, and several of the individuals were in and out of the foster care system. In many cases, this trauma led to, or was compounded by, other disabilities, such as fetal alcohol syndrome.

December 20, 2016 at 06:01 PM | Permalink

Comments

Prof. Berman's academic performance is 100% brain based. He should not receive his half decent salary and high level of respect because it was mostly involuntary, and he had diminished responsibility in achieving it. Sure he worked hard, but so did the criminal.

Mental illnesses increase dangerousness. So the incapacitation purpose of the criminal law must be applied doubly if public safety if the aim, and not other lawyer games. If any mental condition reduces culpability in a retributionist world, then high brain function should reduce compensation.

Same goes for the pitcher, who is one in 100,000 people, who can pitch at 96 mph. Same for composers that wrote songs beloved by millions of people.

Criminal conduct is no more nor less biologically based than any other. It is no more or less a product of effort than any other.

Posted by: David Behar | Dec 20, 2016 7:45:53 PM

David, you are completed deluded if you truly believe one word of what you have written. I'm sure there must be a blog somewhere where similar minded persons congregate, but this is not one of them happily. You offend, not inform or contribute usefully to any debate. Go and join federalist (that is, if you are not he in disguise and he will accept you). This nonsense is tiresome.

Posted by: peter | Dec 21, 2016 5:58:09 AM

What did I write that is not true?



Posted by: David Behar | Dec 21, 2016 8:54:01 PM

One of four random pedestrians will have a major mental illness if interviewed well.

Posted by: David Behar | Dec 23, 2016 3:28:59 PM

To kill someone for committing a serious crime is a killing. Quit calling it an "execution" or "death penalty". The Sixth Commandment forbids killing. America wants this Y'all Can Exception. If the state does the killing it is done by all of you who are citizens. So, when you get your interview with Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates and you are asked about your killing of humans back in your home State of Texas you will have to give a good reason. Otherwise it is straight to Hell in a handbasket.

Posted by: Liberty1st | Dec 23, 2016 7:38:04 PM

Lib: 30 Biblical exhortations to kill. You need to start listening to the Word of God.

http://www.alternet.org/30-most-violent-exhortations-bible-torah-and-quran

Posted by: David Behar | Dec 24, 2016 9:13:23 AM

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The families of three of the people killed in the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando in June  Tevin Eugene Crosby, Juan Guerrero, and Javier Jorge-Reyes  filed suit this week in federal court in Detroit against tech giants Google, Twitter, and Facebook, contending that the three companies facilitated "the explosive growth of ISIS," and "knowingly and recklessly provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts to use its social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds, and attracting new recruits." As Reuters notes, such suits  of which this is not the first of its kind  have "faced an uphill fight because of strong protections in U.S. federal law for the technology industry."

As the Washington Post explains, the suit not only contends that the three companies provided material support to terrorists like shooter Omar Mateen, but that they indirectly profited from ISIS postings and accounts "through advertising revenue."

It's been well established, including by statements from Mateen's wife, that Mateen often viewed jihadist content on YouTube.

Read the text of the entire filing here.

A similar lawsuit was filed against the same three companies this past June by Reynaldo Gonzalez, the father of 23-year-old student Nohemi Gonzalez who was killed in the terrorist attack in Paris last November.

Another case against Twitter noted by the Washington Post, filed by families of two US government contractors who were victims of an attack in Jordan, was dismissed by a federal judge in Northern California last month at Twitter's request. The judged dismissed claims that Twitter was liable either for providing accounts to ISIS members, or for allowing them a platform through which to send direct messages to each other.

Despite legal protections for technology platforms when it comes to liability for the content posted or shared by its users, lawmakers were quick to point out, following the Orlando attack, that shooter Omar Mateen was using Facebook to celebrate his act and broadcast his affiliation with ISIS while the attack, and his three-hour standoff with a SWAT team, was still underway.

Related: California Parent Of Paris Attack Victim Suing Twitter And Facebook For Providing 'Material Support' To ISIS


A lawsuit filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco on Tuesday on behalf of a former Google employee identified as a "John Doe" alleges that the Mountain View-based tech company insists upon internal privacy policies that violate labor laws, constituting a "spying program" that prevents employees from discussing potential regulatory, legal, and workplace conditions violations and encouraging employees to report on their colleagues who might do so.

The Information reported on the suit, filed under Californias Private Attorneys General Act, which allows Doe to sue on behalf of his coworkers and provide, in the event he should win the case, a serious payout that would go to the State of California and the 65,000 employees and former employees affected by the allegedly illegal policies.

Google defines confidential information incredibly broadly, the suit claims, while failing to make plain in its many policies surrounding confidentiality that employees are legally allowed to speak with outsiders, including government agencies and the press, about the company under certain circumstances. One privacy policy at Google allegedly defines confidential information as without limitation, any information in any form that relates to Google or Googles business that is not generally known," and per the company's Code of Conduct Policy, confidential information is everything at Google.

The extent of the supposedly draconian privacy restrictions at the technology company borders on the absurd: Writing "a novel about someone working at a tech company in Silicon Valley, without authorization from Google, for instance, would be prohibited, or so the lawsuit alleges. The suit even describes a "Stop Leaks" program that asks of employees that they turn over "suspicious activity reports relating to strange things you observe or strange things that happen to you  like someone asking you really detailed questions about your project or job.

Further, the suit contends that employees are instructed, bluntly, Dont send an email that says I think we broke the law or I think we violated this contract. Google even "instructs Googlers to suppress information about dangerous products, and "advises Googlers to delete paragraphs from emails that suggest there are serious flaws in Google technology."

The lawsuit comes from the same former employee of the company who filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in June, which the Information reported on at the time, and per the recent lawsuit Google has amended its Data Classification Guidelines as a result of that initial complaint. From that earlier coverage, we learn that the employee in question, Doe, was fired from Nest, a company that sells internet connected smoke alarms and other products which is owned by Google. Nest's products drew scrutiny as news stories detailed their failings, and Recode summarizes what seems to have happened to the employee in the wake of that negative coverage: Basically, he posted internal communication about Nest, perhaps including some nasty memes, and got canned.

"Googles motto is dont be evil. Googles illegal confidentiality agreements and policies fail this test, the lawsuit reportedly claims, which is an incredibly complicated way of alleging that Google is evil. Anyway, if you were hoping for a novel about a tech company written with the inside experience of a Google employee, you'd better just read The Circle, which seems all too apropos given the allegations of the suit.

Related: Watch The Trailer For The Film Adaptation Of Dave Eggers' 'The Circle' Starring Emma Watson


A teen who tried to evade a group of Market Street muggers was sadly unsuccessful Tuesday, as he was beaten and robbed even after seeking shelter in an area eatery.

It was 9:42 p.m. Tuesday when a 19-year-old male walking down Market Street realized a menacing group of people was following closely behind, according to the San Francisco Police Department.

Seeking safety, the teen "tried to go into a restaurant" just off Market at Eddy Street, police say, but members of the gang "grabbed him."

The suspects, which included a man and woman aged 18-20, punched and kicked the victim, then robbed him of his backpack and an unknown amount of cash.

The suspects then fled in an unknown direction, police say. The victim was transported to San Francisco General Hospital for treatment of injuries sustained in the attack, which police say are not life-threatening. The suspects remain at large, police say, and no arrests have been made in this case as of publication time.

Related: Muni Passenger Thwarts Backpack Theft
In a scathing email posted publicly on LinkedIn, Oracle senior staff member George Polisner announced his resignation in protest of co-CEO Safra Catz's decision to join the Trump transition team after meeting with the President-elect along with other technology leaders last week.

Catz, an alumnus of Wharton Business school like Mr. Trump, was born in Israel to Jewish parents who emigrated to Massachusetts. She's been an executive at Oracle since 1999 and a board member of the company since 2001. After serving as Co-President and CFO beginning in 2011, she and colleague Mark Hurd were named co-CEOs of the company when Larry Ellison stepped down in 2014, presumably to spend more time with his yachts and private island.

Polisner's letter of resignation, which is addressed to Catz, cites her as saying, before the tech summit, "I plan to tell the President-elect that we are with him and are here to help in any way we can." That was something Polisner could not abide, he writes.

I am not with President-elect Trump and I am not here to help him in any way. In fact  when his policies border on the unconstitutional, the criminal and the morally unjust  I am here to oppose him in every possible and legal way.... Therefore I must resign from this once great company.

Polisner writes that he began with Oracle in 1993 and "was proud to work among some of the best software development and operations engineers in the world. Ive made significant contributions to Oracle along the way in my various roles ranging from consulting, product development, customer advocacy, program management and now in Cloud." The senior staffer's objections to Trump are numerable and shared by many Americans.

Trump stokes fear, hatred and violence toward people of color, Muslims and immigrants. It is well-known that hate crimes are surging as he has provided license for this ignorance-based expression of malice. He disrespects Gold Star military families, women and the disabled. He seeks to eviscerate environmental protections, the public education system, LGBTQ rights and womens rights.



According to Business Insider, Polisner is not seeking new employment at this time. "Right now I'm less concerned about income and more concerned about doing something that impacts society in a positive way," he told the publication.

In an effort to magnify the influence of his resignation, Polisner invites fellow Oracle employees to "Join me in saying: Donald Trump is not who America is, and he is not who Oracle Corporation is." On the website of the anti-Trump political action committee "Not Who We Are," Polisner writes that "As a member of the Oracle Corporation community, I invite all members to stand together against the racial, religious and other intolerance that Donald Trumps policies and rhetoric promotes." So far he has received 100 signatures in solidarity. As one signatory, Christine W., wrote to the page under the "reasons for signing" section, "I am deeply disappointed that my company could in any way support this horrible human being. I'm deeply disappointed in you, Safra."

Related: Tech Executives Yuck It Up At Private Trump Tower Meeting


A driver who beat a pedestrian for making contact with his car remains at large today, following a SoMa confrontation that sent the victim to the hospital.

Police say that the 50-year-old male pedestrian was crossing the street at the intersection of 10th and Harrison Streets at 7 p.m. Tuesday when the confrontation occurred. According to the San Francisco Police Department, the victim crossed in front of a brown 4-door sedan that apparently extended into the intersection, "and tapped on the vehicle."

The driver, a man in his 20s, hopped out of the car and chased the pedestrian down "and punched him, knocking him to the ground," police say.

The driver then fled in an unknown direction, leaving his victim injured on the ground.

The pedestrian was transported to San Francisco General Hospital for treatment of injuries police say are not life-threatening. The suspect and his brown car remain at large, and neither have been tracked down as of Wednesday afternoon.

Related: Hit-And-Run Driver Leaves SoMa Pedestrian With Life-Threatening Injuries
 Expand Photo Courtesy of Renaissance Theaterworks

Renaissance Theaterworks has made a name for itself by producing high-quality theater that prioritizes giving roles to women in all aspects of the creative process. In the past few years, the company has expanded its scope by creating feedback and staging opportunities for new plays by female playwrights. Beyond their highly regarded Br!NK program, Renaissance has now launched Groundworks (to broaden our range of work and cultivate the next generation of theatre artists) with a stellar production of Jen Silvermans Still. The show ran for two nights in the newly opened Urban Harvest Brewery (located in the space formerly occupied by Theatre Unchained and, earlier, Carte Blanche). The opening night audience, sipping delicious complimentary craft brews, received the show with all the laughter and engagement this punchy script and production deserved.

Forty-one-year-old mother, Morgan (Marti Gobel), grieves the stillbirth of her son, Constantinople (Joe Piccheti), while her midwife, Elena (Ericka Wade), faces loss of license. Constantinople, though dead, is far from gone. Rather, he wanders the city seeking his mother by the disembodied sound of her crying and finds Dolores (Molly Corkins), a pregnant 18-year-old dominatrix, instead. Although the premise is fantastical, all of Silvermans characters are deeply realistic. This is no pandering story about finding resolution after tragedy, but rather about learning to live with grief and communicate honestly with those who can help.

Under Alexander Coddingtons stage direction and in the hands of this impeccable cast, all the deception, vulnerability and humor that each character carries are fully realized. Gobel brought all the necessary strength and snark to the figure of the mother and handled the humor of her lines impeccably by delivering even the most fantasticalat one point, she describes moss covering her basement in the time she will spend cloistered there eating sympathy casserolein utmost earnest. Piccheti gave the wandering spirit of her baby a great sense of wonder and a generally charming childlike vocal affectation. As Elena, Wade produced a powerful character arc, moving the midwife from a place of extreme self-doubt and deference to others to one of strength, optimism and even whimsical thinking; when she appears in Dolores dom clothes, its as if were seeing a different person entirely. Finally, as the 18-year-old runaway, Corkins did a fantastic job embodying the simultaneous insecurity and chutzpa of a highly intelligent and very lonely young woman at the end of her rope.

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We can only hope to see this production staged again in the future and given a deservedly longer run. For now, let the anticipation build for Groundworks next offering.
Last week, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm charged former MPD officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown with first degree reckless homicide for killing Sylville Smith in the Sherman Park neighborhood in August. Smiths deathalong with the sense of powerlessness that many Milwaukeeans feel at the hands of the policeled to a weekend of violence and unrest that we hope is never repeated.

Now, the prosecution begins in earnest. Of course we dont want to try Heaggan-Brown in the press. He is entitled to a fair and impartial trial and is innocent until proven guilty of all charges brought against him. (In October, Heaggan-Brown was fired and charged with three felonies and two misdemeanors in a sexual assault case not related to the Smith shooting.) But from the evidence presented in last weeks criminal complaint, we support Chisholms decision to bring charges. According to the complaint, Heaggan-Brown shot Smith once in the bicep while Smith was raising his gun upward to throw his gun over a fence into another yard. Smith then fell to the ground and Heaggan-Brown shot him in the chest and killed him. It was the second shot that Chisholm argues was a crime.

Chisholm has a good idea about what happened between Heaggan-Brown and Smith because Heaggan-Brown and his partner were both wearing body cameras. Chisholm was able to view the footage, but the public has not and likely will not during the prosecution.

We believe that Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission has a good body camera policy in place for the MPD, which requires officers to turn on their cameras when they are engaged in investigatory or enforcement actions. That policy must be enforced. However, we would like the commission to craft a policy that requires the MPD to release video footage of an officer-involved fatal shooting as quickly as possible, and not wait for the district attorney to make a charging decision, which can take months. Other departments release footage earlier in the interest of promoting transparency and improving trust between the police and community. For example, Cincinnati, whose police department is a national model for good policing, releases its footage about 24 hours after an incident, if possible.

Although video footage doesnt always answer every question about these incidents, we believe that its better to release the footage quickly and not withhold this information from the public. Thats how resentment, misinformation and frustration sets in. Were asking law enforcement to trust the public with this information as quickly as possible.
Its hard to overstate the danger to America from the revelation by U.S. intelligence agencies that the nations historic adversary Russia, directed by President Vladimir Putin, covertly interfered in the U.S. election to help put incoming President Donald Trump into office.

The danger increases exponentially when most Republicans appear profoundly undisturbed by enemy intervention into American democracy as long as theyre the ones benefitting.

Former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell called the unprecedented Russian interference the political equivalent of 9/11. Morell said it was an attack on our very democracy  A foreign government messing around in our elections is, I think, an existential threat to our way of life.

Trump doesnt exactly allay fears he could be a Russian puppet when he takes Putins side against his own nations intelligence services.

Trump attacked the conclusion by the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies as ridiculous and belittled those intelligence professionals as the same people who justified George W. Bushs invasion of Iraq by falsely claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

Now Trump wants to reduce the intelligence briefings he receives as president to avoid being confronted with facts and analyses he doesnt like.

Meanwhile, Trump fills his cabinet with Putin pals like Secretary of State-designee Rex Tillerson, the ExxonMobil chairman Putin awarded Russias Order of Friendship after he negotiated an enormous oil deal with Putin, and National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who was Putins guest of honor at a gala Moscow dinner in 2015 after Flynn gave a paid speech in Russia.

Seriously, did someone travel back in a time machine and do something terribly wrong to alter history so that the Cold War with the Soviet Union, which threatened the entire world with nuclear annihilation throughout the 1950s and 60s, has been completely erased from the consciousness of conservative Republicans?

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GOP Cozying Up to Reagans Evil Empire

The next Republican president is eagerly cozying up with President Reagans Evil Empire. Putin seems to think if he blows a few kisses to Trump he can get away with grabbing other countries anywhere he wants. I wonder where he got that idea.

Weve actually seen this movie before. Its called The Manchurian Candidate. The original version, released in 1962, was the perfect Cold War political thriller. We didnt realize it also was a visionary documentary about the 2016 election.

The film starred Frank Sinatra as an Army intelligence officer and Angela Lansbury as Vladimir Putin in drag before she became a nosy old lady solving murders in Murder, She Wrote.

The film was about an intricate communist plot to make one of their own the president of the United States. Their vehicle was a simple-minded politician talking incendiary trash about defeating Americas enemies who really had a secret plan from his evil wife, Angela, to suspend the Constitution under emergency war powers that would make martial law seem like anarchy.

Other fun twists involved assassination and brainwashing. In Trumps case, as someone once said about George Romney, Mitts dad, when he claimed he was brainwashed on Vietnam, Trump didnt require brainwashing. A light rinse would suffice. Trump already openly expresses admiration for the strong political support achieved by totalitarian dictators like Putin. Or else.

The alliance between Trump and Putin may not even be ideological. As with Tillerson, it might just be a business deal.

Since Trump still refuses to release his tax returns, we can never know the real motive behind anything he ever does. Is there some benefit to the nation or is it simply to increase Trumps own personal wealth?

Donald Trump Jr., one of the sons who will continue handling the family business, said in 2008: Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets  We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia has been described as a kleptocracy, literally rule by thieves. Its a corrupt government that exploits the country to make billionaires of political leaders and their friends.

Thats an environment in which the multibillion-dollar Trump real estate empire, just like Tillersons ExxonMobil, can make out like a bandit by working deals with a corrupt government.

The lack of concern among so many Republicans about U.S. election sabotage is short-sighted and self-serving. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell oppose any independent, nonpartisan investigation that cant be controlled by Republicans.

In Ryans words, As we work to protect our democracy from foreign influence, we should not cast doubt on the clear and decisive outcome of this election.

President Obama expressed amazement at a recent poll showing more than a third of Trumps Republican voters had a positive view of Putin, a development he correctly noted would cause Reagan to spin in his grave.

How long can Republicans support anti-American attacks on democracy simply because it hurts Democrats without losing their own country in an unholy alliance with a ruthless, KGB-trained, Russian dictator?
In this time of deep polarization, how often do you engage folks with whom you disagree? Truly engage with them and recognize their humanitynot fight with them, cut them out of your life or troll them on the Internet?

Now think about this: When is the last time you served someone, made a sacrifice for someone, with whom you absolutely disagree?

Engaging and serving and finding the humanity in your enemy has to be done if were going to build a stronger, more peaceful and inclusive community.

And an unlikely pairing of Milwaukee activists is showing us how it can be done.

Its Up to Us

Pardeep Kaleka and Arno Michaelis are such close friends they can finish each others sentences and crack each other up in a heartbeat. But theyve only known each other for four years, when a mass murder brought them together.

Kaleka, a former Milwaukee police officer turned therapist, is the son of Satwant Singh Kaleka, the president of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek. On Aug. 5, 2012, the elder Kaleka and five others were murdered by a white supremacist, Wade Page. Another member of the temple was paralyzed; an Oak Creek police officer was gravely injured.

At the time, the killing of the innocent Sikhs was the worst racially motivated mass murder in the U.S. since Ku Klux Klan members killed four African American girls in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. It took less than three years for the terrible Oak Creek milestone to be surpassed, when Dylann Roof murdered nine African American members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., in June 2015. (Roof was convicted last week.)

Right after his father and fellow Sikhs were murdered, Kaleka says the temple members and families held strong as they coped in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.

We were just trying to put a brave face on for people, Kaleka said. We knew right away that we cant let them win, whoever them was. But at the same time, you do have to face reality.

As he tried to cope with the enormity of his loss, Kaleka searched for answers.

What we wanted to know was what happened, where did it happen, why did it happen? Kaleka said. But we werent getting a lot of answers because the shooter was dead. Then the FBI was tight lipped about their part, the Oak Creek Police Department was tight lipped about their part. So it was like man, somebody explain to me what the hell happened? I kind of knew but I wanted someone to explain it to me. And I wanted to know what to do about it.

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Lacking information from law enforcement, he turned to his network of allies. Through the global think tank Against Violent Extremism, he was connected with Michaelis, a former white supremacist in Milwaukee whose old life was filled with hatred, violence and chaos. As detailed in a 2010 Shepherd profile, Michaelis left his old life in the mid-90s after becoming a dad and wanting a better life for his daughter that was far removed from hatred and violence. He also received a number of random acts of kindness, including being told by an African American cashier who saw the swastika tattoo on his finger, Youre better than that. Michaelis slowly had a change of heart, wrote his memoirs (My Life After Hate) and devoted his life to practicing peace, forgiveness and tolerance.

On Monday, the cable network A&E announced that beginning Jan. 10, 2017, Michaelis will be featured in its new eight-part series, Generation KKK, in which he and two other anti-hate activists encourage Klan members to leave the white power movement.

Kaleka and Michaelis hit it off immediately.

We sat down and talked and realized that we have way more in common than we have different, Kaleka said. I didnt know at the time how much that first meeting was going to impact us going forward, four years later.

Michaelis said hed experienced tremendous guilt over the Sikh murders. He wondered if hed recruited or known Pagehe didntbut felt sickened over murders committed by someone in his former white power gang, the Hammerskin Nation. He also felt conflicted by doing interviews on violent extremism when the invitations were the result of the deaths of innocent people.

I told him I feel bad, I feel like Im profiting from talking about your dad and talking about these other people, Michaelis said. And Par said, I dont want you to ever stop talking about my dad. Its up to us to transform this into something thats going to counter the hate and violence that made this happen. If we dont talk about it, were not going to do that.

Kaleka invited Michaelis to speak with him at Cudahy High School in December 2012. The feedback was phenomenal. They continued speaking but wanted to find a way to put their ideas about nonviolence into action. Enter Serve 2 Unite.

Serve Water to Our Enemy

To understand Serve 2 Unites work with youth, you have to understand Kaleka and Michaelis approach to peacemaking. Both are highly intelligent, passionate and able to talk about esoteric religious and philosophical concepts in depth as thoughtfully as they can discuss the latest dumb memes circulated by Internet trolls. Theyre quick to laugh and eager to swat down preconceived notions about peacemaking, politics and whatever else is preventing us from seeing each other as human beings with shared interests that bind us.

For Kaleka, overcoming hatred and trauma is rooted in service, including serving those with whom we disagree, which is an important principle for Sikhs. As Kaleka explained it, even during battle we must serve water to our enemy.

Kaleka, who earned a masters degree in community psychology from Alverno College this past summer and provides trauma-informed counseling at D&S Healing Center on Port Washington Road, said that lesson can be applied to todays conflicts, whether its protesting the incoming Trump administration, dealing with a bully or trying to talk to those with radically different viewpoints.

We can battle, we can protest, but at the same time serve, too, Kaleka said. Thats not saying were compromising or were going against our beliefs. Your beliefs are your beliefs. They are going to stick with you. But youre basically planting the seeds. And with that seed even if that person doesnt agree with youwell, heres a cup of tea. Are you thirsty? That seed will go with that person wherever they go.

Michaelis said small doses of kindness can ultimately change hardened hatred into love. It did, for him, back when he was covered in white power tattoos and suffering inside.

The more random acts of kindness that are out there the better the chances that the horrible person who is suffering is being reached, said Michaelis, now a practicing Buddhist. And I wholeheartedly believe that had Wade Page experienced the right act of kindness at the right time that could have prevented [the temple shooting] from happening.

Serve 2 Unite reflects their paths to peace. The organizationwhich was founded in the aftermath of the temple shooting by Kaleka and other young professionals from the templehelps young people become leaders and peacemakers through the arts and being of service to others.

Theres definitely a need for youth, and for everybody, to be heard and to be recognized and to grow from even their bad experiences and trauma, Kaleka said.

For Michaelis, Serve 2 Unite provides a positive way to counter the kind of hate he used to revel in.

What we are doing, bringing all of these kids together with different backgrounds, is like the worst blow you could deal to my old buddies, to the Wade Pages of the world who killed Pars dad and five other people on August 5, said Michaelis, who is Serve 2 Unites facilitator. Coming at them with more violence or aggression is what theyre trying to provoke. But if you respond to them by bringing little black, white, yellow, red and brown kids together and getting them to work together and see each other as human beings and love each other and care for each other, that is far and away the most devastating blow you can deal them.

Serve 2 Unite launched a pilot program in 2013 in two Milwaukee Public SchoolsFernwood Montessori in Bay View and Westside Academy 2 on the near North Sidebut as a project of the nonprofit Arts@Large its grown to establish chapters in 10 MPS schools with additional chapters in other schools. Now, more than 600 student leaders participate in Serve 2 Unite per year.

Teri Sullivan, founder and CEO of Arts@Large, said Serve 2 Unite isnt always interested in selecting established student leaders to participate in school chapters.

Were looking for emerging leaders, Sullivan said. Were looking for those students who may not be as engaged, but through this program become so involved and so engaged that they become dramatic leaders in their schools, promoting peace not only in their school but globally. We really are looking to build their skills as leaders in their school community as well as in the greater Milwaukee community.

In addition to creating a peaceful, inclusive school community, Serve 2 Unite also connects its student leaders to global mentors whove coped with the impact of violence in their lives. These 18 global mentors include former Islamist extremists, peace activists and the mother of a victim of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack. They Skype with the Milwaukee students to discuss tough topics and, on occasion, visit.

Last Thursday, during the frigid polar vortex, Los Angeles-based Serve 2 Unite global mentor Dydine Umunyana launched her memoir, Embracing Survival, about living through the 1994 Rwandan genocide and making sense of its aftermath, with discussions at three MPS schools and a book signing at Arts@Larges Walkers Point gallery. Embracing Survivals cover is a reprint of a piece of art created by Serve 2 Unites student leaders at Washington High School of Information Technology. The artwork is made of patches of denim, in honor of Denim Day, which promotes awareness of sexual violence. The student artists also made denim portraits of other women of influence: tech activist Vivian Graubard, Queen Rania of Jordan, actor and womens rights activist Emma Watson and Nobel Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai.

At her book signing at Arts@Larges gallery, Umunyana spoke movingly about how dehumanization of the other led to a horrific genocide, in which 800,000 people were murdered in 100 days by Hutu extremists. More personally, the emotional trauma impacted Umunyana and her family for years, until she found healing by forgiving those who committed the atrocities.

Not every child is going to see themselves in Dydine or her story but maybe you might see some of yourself in someone else by understanding the journey that they took, Kaleka explained. The inspiration for getting global mentors into these classrooms is to say no, youre not all alone. These problems are different but at the same time they do have similarities to what you are going through. Theres some healing, theres some hurt, theres some pain.

Bring This Challenge

Kaleka and Michaelis are uniquely positioned to understand this moment in our culture. Both deeply understand the impact of hatred and violence, bullying and division, peacemaking and personal transformation, on a very intimate level. They say that protesting bad ideas has a role in bringing about change, but its more important to find the humanity in someone we oppose, plant seeds of peace and become a positive force in the world.

Kaleka said its vital to connect to those we oppose to learn more about them and try to build bridges, but warns that its going to get messy before it gets better.

Part of me looks forward to the next four years, Kaleka said. Part of me is like bring this challenge. Because in the 60s, people changed civil rights laws and they fought tooth and nail to do that. It wasnt convenient and it wasnt pretty. But we didnt change essential mindsets. This is our turn. This is our generations turn to say OK, what are we going to do with those mindsets? At the same time, all of those discussions need to happen with people we disagree cold-heartedly with.

Michaelis said its essential to see beyond labels that divide us and not feed into the kind of confrontation that so many people are seeking these days just to get attention. For example, he said, a bully has the potential to be a leader and a positive influence on others if theyre given a chance to do something positive. And building connections is the best way to bust myths that keep us separated, he said. He recalled being on the phone with someone who was spewing hate about Muslimsat the same time he was helping Messmer Catholic High School Serve 2 Unite student leaders and members of local mosques to organize food and clothing drives for homeless vets. He said the act of charity ultimately will have a greater impact than the hateful rhetoric.

Do something for someone who needs help and get everybody together in on it and let that speak, Michaelis said. To me thats protest. Thats saying whats happening is wrong.

Kaleka said that despite the dangers a Trump presidency poses to the most vulnerable in our society, hes optimistic about the future.

Trumpism, and everything that comes with it, is a challenge that were facing, Kaleka said. I feel like people are up to this challenge. Youve got to realize that the other person is hurting and theres a lot of stuff behind that and then ask yourself, How do I help them?
SIOUX CITY  Fans of Townhouse restaurants are in luck, as the family behind the metro Sioux City dining staple are cooking up something new.

The Wheelhouse Bar & Grill is set to become the third dining establishment operated by the Dominowski family, purveyors of Townhouse Pizza & Lounge, 2701 Floyd Blvd., in Sioux City, and a similarly named location at 100 Marie Ave. in North Sioux City.

The familys latest offering will be located at 4501 Southern Hills Drive, Suite 1, at the Southern Square Shopping Center. The new restaurant is expected to open in spring 2017. It will occupy a 10,000-square-foot storefront that formerly housed Dakota PC Warehouse.

While the Wheelhouse will operate under a different banner than the Townhouse restaurants, it promises to offer the same well-known pizza and wings as its predecessor with a few new soon-to-be favorites.

Jennifer Rose Bass and Arlene Curry, brokers for Century21 ProLink in Sioux City, represented Southern Square in the transaction. Wheelhouse was represented by Beau Braunger of NAI United.

The Wheelhouse Bar & Grill be a great addition to the center, Bass said. We are excited for them to open and become a neighborhood gathering place.

Editor's note: Corrects an earlier version of this story to reflect the real estate official who represented the Wheelhouse in the transaction.
DANBURY, Iowa | Splendid signs welcome visitors to Danbury. They boast of the town's moniker, "The Gem City of Northwest Iowa."

The Danbury Review has the slogan at the top of the front page.

My question: What is the origin of this slogan?

Longtime locals Madelon "Tootie" Seuntjens, Jim "Twitch" Twitchell and Lynn Buth believe the slogan was coined by the late Fred "Piney" Freeman, who operated the Danbury Review throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

It is said that the subscription cost during Freeman's 23-year tenure as editor never changed. He sent a free copy of the Danbury Review to each local soldier serving in the military during World War II.

But, as far as gems, I can't find how or why Freeman used this term to describe his town.

"I checked the old papers at the Danbury Library and it is used as the subtitle on the front page of those newspapers," Seuntjens said.

I persisted: But, why?

"Well, it is a gem!" said Seuntjens, whose declaration halted me for a moment.

"I've heard that's why Danbury is called a 'gem city' because you're all such gems," Buth said.

Street signs also have the impression of a jewel, further playing off the theme.

Twitchell, Buth and Seuntjens all raved about the work Freeman did during his time in Danbury. Twitchell said the editor in the 1940s used his position to advocate for the town's fire department.

"He had a campaign that said, 'A penny a day for a fire truck,'" Twitchell said, noting how coffee cans or buckets were positioned at various businesses in an effort to collect pennies and other loose change for a fire truck purchase.

"He'd have an item in the paper saying, 'We made 12 cents this week,'" Twitchell said.

Ultimately, the city purchased a 1946 used 4-wheel drive truck from the Army. The unit served the fire department for years.

And, for years, the old fire station in town was called Freeman Hall. It is now the city's maintenance shed, serving the "Gem City of Northwest Iowa."

Danbury was named for founder Dan Thomas. Rather than call it Dan's Town, as it may have been for a time, locals merged Dan with the last part of Woodbury County, hence Danbury.
ABOUT THE DONOR: Knoepfler Chevrolet Co., of Sioux City, offers a full line of Chevrolet vehicles, sales and service. The company, at 100 Jackson St., has been in business since the early 1920s. The Knoepfler Chevrolet companies employ more than 90 people.

DONOR COMMENT: "Our company has a long history of philanthropy because we feel very blessed," said Charlie Knoepfler. "This is our way of saying thank you to our customers and employees while making the holidays merrier for the community's children."
SIOUX CITY | For 56 years, Mildred Davis has relished helping people carry out their vote.

"I like meeting the people...I just love doing the work. It just fits me," Davis said Tuesday.

Davis, a Woodbury County precinct election worker, started staffing the polls in 1960 when John F. Kennedy won the White House over Richard M. Nixon.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate on Monday honored Davis as the states longest serving precinct election worker. Pate said Davis has done well in aiding Iowans to vote and ensure the integrity of the elections.

"Serving in this capacity for 56 years is a remarkable achievement and I cannot thank Mildred enough for all she has done to help Iowans vote over the years," Pate said in a statement.

Davis said she didn't realize her tenure was longer than anyone else in the state.

"I just knew I had worked a lot of years," she said.

Pate invited Davis as his special guest Monday at the state capitol, for the official casting of Iowas six electoral votes for president. The Republican electors confirmed President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the state in the November election.

Pate presented Davis with the National Association of Secretaries of State Medallion Award.

Davis, 93, was pleased to receive the award at the ceremony, which was also attended by Gov. Terry Branstad and Woodbury County Auditor Pat Gill, the county's top election official.

"It was a loo-loo, real excited," she said.

"It was a long day but she was a trooper and enjoyed it immensely," Gill added.

Gill said Davis exemplifies how election official should perform.

"She has always been conscientious and enthusiastic while performing her duties at the polling place, and it is that dedication to duty that positively impacts her fellow workers and the voters she serves, said Gill.

Also accompanying Davis and Gill to Des Moines was Woodbury County Supervisor Jackie Smith, of Sioux City. Smith's mother, longtime Democratic Party activist Betty Strong, encouraged fellow Democrat Davis to become a poll worker in 1960.

"(Betty Strong) asked me to help out. I am still helping out," Davis said.

Davis said she enjoyed several roles over the years of working at Woodbury County polls. Her favorite was in recent years as leader of the team at Precinct 8 at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Sioux City.

Davis had a career as a cashier at the Salvation Army store. She is long retired from that work, but isn't sure that she is done with poll working.

"If they are short of help, which they usually are, and I am available, I will do it," she said.

In August, Davis spoke briefly about her work with the Woodbury County supervisors, who commended her for her more than five decades of service.

Pate said Davis is among the Iowans who provide a needed help in elections.

Precinct election officials are the backbone of our election day system. Long before a voter shows up on election day and long after the polls close, precinct election officials are hard at work," he said.
SIOUX CITY | The Woodbury County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday took action to carry out governmental entity plans to deliver tax incentives to the expanding to Gelita USA Inc. business south of Sioux City.

Gelita is planning a $22 million expansion at its Port Neal manufacturing complex, which would create at least 21 new jobs.

Gelita was approved for $885,000 in state financial assistance toward the expansion project in November. The county board also previously voted to provide a $500,000 local match for the project.

The city of Sioux City opted to cooperate with efforts by the county board to offer property tax incentives to an expanding manufacturer located just south of the city limits. The City Council voted Monday to allow the county to expand a tax-increment financing (TIF) district to include land within two miles of the city boundaries.

The county supervisors on Tuesday voted to approve an intergovernmental tax incentive agreement. That enables the county to add the Gelita property into the Grow Woodbury County Urban Renewal Area and proceed with the tax incentives.

Woodbury County Rural Economic Development Director David Gleiser said he is pleased the county is able to help Gelita grow.

The facility is in an unincorporated portion of the county along Port Neal Road, south of Sioux City and Sergeant Bluff. Since the Gelita facility lies within two miles of the Sioux City limits, the city is required by state law to form an agreement with the county before the county can expand the district.

Courthouse improvements



In other business on Tuesday, the supervisors approved the low bid for a project to update steam traps in the Woodbury County Courthouse downtown.

County building services director Kenny Schmitz in recent months has explained how non-functioning steam traps hurt the ability to control space temperatures in buildings. That can result in higher energy costs.

The supervisors pinpointed planned work in the courthouse of $287,000 for steam traps. Three hundred traps were found in the courthouse and a large number of them have not been serviced in 20 years.

The supervisors approved the low bid of $113,806, from Rasmussen Mechanical Services, of Sioux City. They received four bids, ranging to the highest at $311,300.

Raise for director, jail projects



Also in the meeting, the supervisors approved a 5 percent raise for Schmitz, who was hired to succeed Mark Elgert as director in 2015. The increase of $3,975 moves the annual salary of Schmitz to $83,478.

County human resources department director Ed Gilliland said Schmitz had done well in his position.

The supervisors also approved hiring The Baker Group as construction manager for three renovations at the Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center, at 407 Seventh St.

Schmitz said the projects are needed to keep the building modern and functioning well.

The work includes an estimated $75,000 to improve the kitchen preparing inmate meals, $40,000 to renovate a main floor conference room and $80,000 to remodel offices in the sheriff's wing.
The president-elect stumbles over the protocols of geopolitics and war, tweeting all the way.

It's not just insane. It's awkward.

"Since 1979," The Guardian points out, "the U.S. has acknowledged Beijing's claim that Taiwan is part of China, with relations governed by the 'One China' set of protocols."

But here's what Donald Trump did: He took a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen. In so doing, he became the first U.S. president or president-elect to speak directly to the Taiwanese leader in 37 years. Furthermore, he referred to her as the president of Taiwan, not the president on Taiwan, seemingly implying that the island province is actually an independent nation, totally freaking out mainland China -- and jolting our relations with that country big time. You don't want the wrong preposition to start World War III.

Furthermore: "Weeks before President-elect Donald Trump's controversial phone call with Taiwan's president," the Guardian story continues, ". . . a businesswoman claiming to be associated with his conglomerate made inquiries about a major investment in building luxury hotels as part of the island's new airport development."

These claims "add to growing concerns about potential conflicts of interest between Trump's business empire and U.S. foreign policy."

This is the emerging framework for a Trump presidency: He's a geopolitical know-nothing who refuses to sever ties to his vast array of business interests, turning the American presidency into an endless opportunity for conflicts of interest and, in the process, endangering national and global security. That's the "insanity" part.

But the "awkward" part is even more disturbing. The arrogant one revealed it in his own self-defensive Tweet afterward: "Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call."

Say what?

Well, yes, the Obama administration authorized a $1.83 billion arms sale to Taiwan last year, Reuters reported. The package included lots of missiles, two frigates, amphibious assault vehicles, guns and ammo, all courtesy of two of America's military-industrial stalwarts, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

So while no U.S. president has talked to the leader of Taiwan since 1979, or carelessly used an inappropriate preposition in referring to him or her, we've been selling high-tech weapons of war to the Chinese province all along. Six years ago, there was an even bigger arms deal, totaling $6.4 billion, including 60 Black Hawk helicopters and $2.85 billion worth of missiles. How can this be?

It's simply the world we live in: preposterously volatile but at the same time lucrative and dispassionately self-justifying. Here's how Max Fisher explained it in The New York Times a few days ago: "By selling Taiwan arms, the United States ensures that the island can deter an invasion from the mainland's far larger military. This maintains a balance of power that, while fragile, is intended to prevent war."

Our One China policy turns out to be a tad strange. In establishing ties with mainland China, we've gone so far as to acknowledge that there is a single entity that is China and that entity includes Taiwan. But because Taiwan is also our ally and a fellow democracy, we have also honored, over the years, an obligation to "protect" it by selling it lots and lots and lots of weapons. This is called the Taiwan Relations Act.

"United States arms sales to Taiwan have indeed been controversial, particularly with Beijing," Fisher acknowledged: "But they are an approach intended to maintain the status quo."

Trump's behavior, on the other hand, by "granting Taiwan's leader informal recognition . . . is different because it disturbs the status quo."

So there you have it. But pardon me if I sit and ponder for a moment, with open-mouthed incredulity, the status quo being explained to me. The weapons sales, unsurprisingly, do push China to the edge of fury, but . . . they're weapons. Presumably, they're also what keep that fury contained. So it's all neat and clean: This is the volatile peace of Planet Earth, a.k.a., the status quo, maintained by billions of dollars of weapons circling the planet annually, mostly thanks to the U.S.A., which accounts for nearly half the planet's annual weapons sales.

"Arms deals are a way of life in Washington," William Hartung wrote recently at TomDispatch. "From the president on down, significant parts of the government are intent on ensuring that American arms will flood the global market and companies like Lockheed and Boeing will live the good life. From the president on his trips abroad to visit allied world leaders to the secretaries of state and defense to the staffs of U.S. embassies, American officials regularly act as salespeople for the arms firms. And the Pentagon is their enabler. From brokering, facilitating, and literally banking the money from arms deals to transferring weapons to favored allies on the taxpayers' dime, it is in essence the world's largest arms dealer."

This is the status quo: dark, quiet . . . lucrative. The Obama administration has approved the sale of more than $200 billion worth of weapons during its tenure, some $60 billion more than George W. Bush did. Generally, weapons sales aren't seriously questioned, or even discussed, except at the political margins. They come wrapped in the language of salesmanship: They ensure the safety of the customer; they ensure everyone's safety, including our own. No matter the weapons of war circulate the globe endlessly and keep everyone armed, friend and foe alike.

Trump, who of course is married to the status quo in his own special way, nonetheless saunters clumsily and cluelessly through the corridors of power, exposing its volatile secrets as he goes. Maybe this is how the world changes -- in spite of itself.
AAR Corp. provides products and services to commercial aviation, government, and defense markets worldwide. The Aviation Services segment offers aftermarket support and services; inventory management and distribution services; and maintenance, repair, and overhaul, as well as engineering services. This segment also sells and leases new, overhauled, and repaired engine and airframe parts, and components; and provides inventory and repair programs, warranty claim management, and outsourcing programs for engine and airframe parts and components, as well as performance-based supply chain logistics programs in support of the U.S. department of defense and foreign governments. In addition, it offers airframe inspection, maintenance, repair and overhaul, painting, line maintenance, airframe modification, structural repair, avionic and installation, exterior and interior refurbishment, and engineering and support services; and repairs and overhauls components, landing gears, wheels, and brakes. The Expeditionary Services segment provides products and services supporting the movement of equipment and personnel by the U.S. and foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations. This segment also designs, manufactures, and repairs transportation pallets, and various containers and shelters; and provides engineering, design, and system integration services for command and control systems. The company serves domestic and foreign passenger airlines; domestic and foreign cargo airlines; regional and commuter airlines; business and general aviation operators; original equipment manufacturers; aircraft leasing companies; aftermarket aviation support companies; and domestic and foreign military customers. It primarily markets and sells products and services through its employees and foreign sales representatives. AAR Corp. was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in Wood Dale, Illinois.
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.
Embraer S.A. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells aircrafts and systems in Brazil, North America, Latin America, the Asia Pacific, Brazil, Europe, and internationally. It operates through Commercial Aviation; Defense and Security; Executive Jets; Service & Support; and Other segments. The Commercial Aviation segment designs, develops, and manufactures a variety of commercial aircrafts. The Defense and Security segment engages in the research, development, production, modification, and support for military defense and security aircraft; and offers a range of products and integrated solutions that include radars and special space systems, as well as information and communications systems comprising command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems. The Executive Jets segment develops, produces, and sells executive jets. It also leases Legacy 600 and Legacy 650 executive jets in the super midsize and large categories; Legacy 450 and Legacy 500 executive jets in the midlight and midsize categories; Phenom family executive jets in the entry jet and light jet categories; Lineage 1000, an ultra-large executive jet; and Praetor 500 and Praetor 600, disruptive executive jets in the midsize and super midsize categories. The Service & Support segment offers after-service solutions, support, and maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for commercial, executive, and defense aircrafts; provides aircraft components and engines; and supplies steel and composite aviation structures to various aircraft manufacturers. The Other segment is involved in the supply of fuel systems, structural parts, and mechanical and hydraulic systems; and production of agricultural crop-spraying aircraft. The company was formerly known as Embraer-Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica S.A. and changed its name to Embraer S.A. in November 2010. Embraer S.A. was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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
(CNN) How do you monitor a skeleton of a city bereft of its citizens, who have been bused out after seeing their homes bombed to pieces by barrel bombs from the Syrian regime and bunker busters from their Russian supporters?

And what will be left to watch when  and if  the monitors ever arrive?

In the best-case scenario, the United Nations observers in Aleppo may find out.

In a rather realistic one, the world will never know.

At long last, the United Nations Security Council has been able to agree on something.

That something is the monitoring of the evacuation of the children and parents, men and women left alive in Aleppo, after the siege of their city  starved on the ground, bombed from the sky and sealed in without any refuge or non-lethal path to escape  grew inhuman enough to prick the world's conscience and puncture its longstanding indifference to Syria's carnage.



Too Grotesque to Ignore

The YouTube war finally became too grotesque to ignore.

An overnight crisis, years in the making, finally grew impossible to overlook.

The UN resolution called for "adequate, neutral monitoring and direct observation on evacuations" and demanded that all sides provide the monitors "with safe, immediate and unimpeded access."

But in reality, the French-backed resolution that finally won Russian and Chinese support says that those observers can only enter after they consult with "interested parties," a verbal umbrella which is likely to include a bevy of forces backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, from Iran to Russia.

By the time these neutral observers do make it in, eastern Aleppo likely will be cleared of the parents who called the city home and found themselves forced to flee when they could no longer send their children to play on their own streets or attend the city's schools.

Starved into submission, stripped of medical supplies in hospitals left without power, anesthesia and, increasingly, doctors, who could survive the bombardment of the Syrian regime and its Russian air supporters? They could bear no more. Who could?

Even the remains of the fractured international community couldn't take its impotence being called so painfully and embarrassingly to account by the images coming out of Aleppo.

How many pictures of grieving parents reaching toward the sky and dust-covered babies bombed to the ground could the world stomach?



Syria Is The War That Has Run Out Of Adjectives

Words long ago failed to describe its depravity -- or to rouse the international community to do anything other than look away and wait for it to end.

UN officials themselves have called out their institution's ineffectiveness in the face of Aleppo's brutality.

"Since September, the Security Council has failed to adopt three resolutions that could have enabled a humanitarian truce, evacuation of civilians and the entry of lifesaving aid," said Ban Ki-moon, who just stepped down from the UN helm.

A UN release noted that on "8 October, Russia vetoed a resolution that would have called for an end to military flights over Aleppo; and on 5 December, a measure calling for a seven-day ceasefire in the beleaguered city failed to pass after negative votes by both China and Russia. In all, Russia has vetoed six texts on the Syrian conflict, while China has vetoed five of those six."

As he took leave of UN leadership last week, Ban said that "Aleppo is now a synonym for hell."

He also noted: "We have collectively failed the people of Syria."

He is right on both counts.

Can the UN's next leader do any better?

The question is whether his successor, Antonio Guterres, can do any better, given that the Syrian regime, along with Russia and Iran, have now shifted facts on the ground dramatically in their favor.

And now, with Aleppo's fall, they have successfully implemented their starve-versus-surrender strategy in Syria's major cities.

Years ago, as the head of the UN's Refugee Agency, Guterres said he had run out of descriptors for Syria's civil war.

Today he is the head of the United Nations, facing the task of implementing this latest resolution.

The UN Security Council's unanimity breakthrough is months, if not years, too late for this resolution to make a difference for the 4 million made refugees, the more than a quarter-million dead and the millions displaced inside the country, who have absolutely no place safe to turn and no place outside the nation's borders eager to offer them safety.

Syrian activists and those inside the Obama administration who favored greater intervention in the conflict both tell me they fear the fate of those fleeing Aleppo to the town of Idlib, which is likely to be next in Assad's crosshairs.

And they wonder how it took this much death to finally see Syria seize the global stage?

"I never thought we would be forced to leave our homes," Khokoud Helmi, a founder of the Syrian underground newspaper Enab Baladi, told me.

"Shall we have lost all these lives to finally have people standing with us? It is too late, dear, but late is better than never."
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.




Post Time with Mike and Mike, presented by BetAmerica, is proud to announce the guests for the Thursday. December 22 program, which will begin at 7 p.m. (ET).

Mike Bozich went in-depth with each of the three candidates who declared their candidacy for President of the USTA. Hanover Shoe Farms Vice President Russell Williams, President of the Florida Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association Joe Pennachio, and Ryan Macedonio, the host of the popular harness racing Trotcast, will talk about their vision for the sport of harness racing going forward, and the steps they would take as USTA president.

The Stable's Anthony MacDonald will also join the program to reflect on The Stables first open house, which took place a few weeks ago. MacDonald will also talk about whats coming up at The Stable in 2017.

Also,the shows on-going series with Pompano Park will continue this week with track announcer Gabe Prewitt. Prewitt will review the past week of racing action, and preview what's ahead at Harness Racing's winter capital.

The show can also be heard on-demand at betamerica.com/barn.

(Post Time with Mike and Mike)
The well-bred and beautifully conformed son of Muscle Hill Whataworkout 4,1:52.4 ($77,653) has been retired to stand stud at Morrisville College Equine Institute in New York in conjunction with his owner, Lindy Farms.

Sold as a yearling for $155,000, Whataworkout is the first foal of Southwind Sofia, a half-sister to Breeders Crown winner Southwind Serena ($388,224), the dam of $1.6 million winner Mission Brief.

Whataworkout displayed talent during his limited racing career which saw him notch victories in his Valley Victory elimination and the Kindergarten Stakes as a two-year-old. He only made two starts at three, which included a 1:54.3 victory at the Meadowlands Racetrack.

This year at four he earned his lifetime mark of 1:52.4 while winning at the Meadowlands after having finished second, by a neck, in a leg of the Graduate series at Tioga Downs. His career was brought to a premature end due to a racing injury.

A beautiful horse, Whataworkouts sire is Muscle Hill, who has very quickly become the leading trotting sire in North America.

Whataworkouts introductory fee will be $3,000.

To book, or for further information, visit morrisvillesale.com, or please contact Erin Shantal, institute manager, at 315-684-6355 or [email protected].

(Morrisville College Equine Institute)
The essential component of totalitarian propaganda is artifice (het toepassen van kunstgrepen. svh) . The ruling elites, like celebritie...
Snow fell over the northern part of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, December 20, 2016.

You dont believe me? Look at these pictures and videos captured by residents of different towns in Northern Borders Region, close to Jordan.

After Algeria and the Sahara Desert, it is now the northern part of Saudi Arabia that is covered by snow Another weather anomaly!

Heavy snow fall suspended daily life in northern areas as temperature fell below freezing point on December 20, 2016 afternoon.

According to reports, snow fell in Turaif, Qurayyat, Hail region and other areas of the country.

Saudi Meteorologist department suggested the citizens to avoid unnecessary journey outside.

The Meteorological office said that the current wave of cold will remain for more 24 hours in the area.

Snow fall covering the desert is anomalous; Everyone, even experts, converge on that one point.

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It's Election season and our editor's mailbox is overflowing. Who do your neighbors support? Read about it here.
Longview drivers left school zone traffic cameras in their rear-view mirrors Tuesday.

Tuesday was the last day of operation for the unpopular photo enforcement program that issued tickets to drivers speeding through Longview school zones.

Over the course of the five-year program, drivers incurred 61,569 tickets  nearly 28,000 from the Mark Morris High School zone alone  that raised $5.7 million in revenue through November this year.

More than half the revenue went to covering the cost of the program, including $1.6 million that went to Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions, which rented the cameras to the city. The city earned about $2.3 million, of which an estimated $1.1 million will be used to remodel the police station.

The city used some of the revenues to install flashing school zone warning signs and radars to alert drivers to their speed. These improvements will remain in place.

Ultimately it was the large contribution to the out-of-state company that spurred Councilman Ken Boteros vote against continuing the camera contract in June, despite his support of the program itself. The council unanimously ended the program at a June 16 council meeting.

The contract expires Dec. 31. But the cameras dont run when school is out, and Christmas vacation started Tuesday and continues into the new year.

Botero said he would have favored keeping the program  a good tool for the safety of our kids  if the city had found a local company to provide the camera services. But ultimately it was important to listen to the public, he said.

A lot of the citizens complained about that, Botero said. It was time to get rid of it and move it along.

Fines ranged anywhere from $124 (for driving 1 to 10 mph above 20 mph school zone speed limit) to $250 (for driving 26 mph or more over the limit).

Then number of tickets issued significantly decreased from 2015 to 2016; from January to November 2015, more than 14,000 tickets were issued in the Mark Morris speed zone alone. Longview Police Department Administrative Manager Mary Chennault said violations also tended to increase after a school break.
Along with her parents, an 11-year-old girl molested by an elderly man is suing the mans wife and estate for emotional damages, alleging that the wife knew about the sexual abuse and didnt report it.

Longview resident William Pohll, then 89, pleaded guilty Oct. 31 to molesting a then 10-year-old girl between January and August 2015. Due to his poor health, a judge approved putting Pohll on electronic home monitoring on Nov. 17. Pohll died four days later.

Pohlls 86-year-old wife said Tuesday that shes going to fight the lawsuit because she said shes innocent. She declined further comment.

Duane Crandall, the lawyer representing the girl and her parents, said as a family member, Pohlls wife is required by law to report abuse (other mandatory reporters include nurses, teachers, counselors and police officers).

Theres usually someone who knew. The only question is, is the person who knew in the position to thwart the molestation? he said. Crandall said Pohlls wife was in that position.

According to court documents, Pohlls wife told a forensic interviewer that her husband had told her had sexual contact once with the girl and that he was sorry. Pohlls wife told the interviewer that from then on she tried to keep an eye on Pohll and the girl, though there were times when the two were left alone together.

She also told the interviewer that sometime around August 2015 she told the girls parents that she was concerned Pohll had touched the girl inappropriately.

The lawsuit was filed this month. Crandall estimated 90 percent of these cases are settled out of court. If it goes to trial, Crandall said jurors will likely hear from a forensic psychologists who will help estimate how much in damages should be awarded to the girl. The girl is being represented by a guardian ad litem.

In November, family and friends wrote 10 letters to Superior Court Judge Gary Bashor in support of Pohll. They expressed their disbelief that Pohll, a former teacher and administrator in Klamath County, Oregon, would ever molest a child. His wife and friends blamed his actions on brain deterioration, which one friend identified as dementia.

He would never of done anything like this if he was in his right mind, his wife wrote. How sad that he was lucky enough to live to a ripe old age and (then) do something horrible like this ...
Greater Mekong Region, one of the worlds most unexplored regions has privileged scientists with the discovery of 100+ new and incredible species during an ecological survey. According to the reports published by World Wide Fund on Monday, ecologists have discovered 163 new species in Greater Mekong Region including a rainbow-headed snake, a dragon-like lizard and a newt that looks like a Klingon from the Hollywood Blockbuster Star Trek.

It is quite surprising for the scientists to believe that the ecologically diverse but endangered area of Greater Mekong could have housed such a large number of unknown species. As the Mekong River streams down from the Tibetan Plateau towards South Vietnam, it winds through untouched territories of rainforest where the number of mysterious and unknown plants and creatures is huge.

In the report, titled as Species Oddity, scientists stated that 9 amphibians, 11 fish, 14 reptiles, 126 plants and 3 mammals also have been uncovered by researchers. In the WWF report hail from Asias Greater Mekong region, scientists have highlighted the complete details of the newly discovered species, which eventually revealed a surprising idiosyncrasy among natural species. Among the entire discovery, a rainbow-headed snake is also spotted having a number of resemblances to David Bowies Ziggy Stardust alongside a newt that looks alike to a Klingon from Star Trek.

Along with these two entirely new and strange species, the discoveries also included a gecko in Laos with light blue pelt and an exceptional banana creature. Both creatures are found in Northern Thailand which is believed to be extremely endangered due to its rising deforestation.

As show up in the Hollywood blockbuster Star Wars, in coming days, the general public will chance to recognize species, like the Lakaru, Drabata, Tongnath, and Gigoran. The new survey report from the WWF also highlighted how Science is still far away from multiple creatures and species located in remote parts of the planet in the mid-21st Century.

Splitting lights on this matter, Jimmy Borah, a member of WWFs Greater Mekong team said, The Greater Mekong Tracts and its absurd, uncharted locations always hinted us about the availability of many unknown and unidentified species and plants. And this indication led us to new findings each year. It is not because of the intention to put light on undiscovered and new creatures but also to protect them before they vanish.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) iconic Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has beamed back stunning image of two festive-looking nebulas this festive season which is a delight for stargazers and space enthusiasts.

The two nebulas are so close to each other that they appear as one. Scientists explained that they reside in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is a satellite of our Milky Way galaxy. These nebulas are glowing in red color resembling the festive season on Earth. According to researchers, intense radiation from the brilliant central stars is heating hydrogen which is the prime reason behind such illumination.

Scientists have named them as NGC 248. They were discovered in 1834 by the astronomer Sir John Herschel. NGC 248 is about 60 light-years long and 20 light-years wide. It is among a number of glowing hydrogen nebulas in the dwarf satellite galaxy, which is located approximately 200,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Tucana.

The image is part of a study called Small Magellanic Cloud Investigation of Dust and Gas Evolution (SMIDGE). Astronomers are using Hubble to probe the Milky Way satellite to understand how dust is different in galaxies that have a far lower supply of heavy elements needed to create dust. The Small Magellanic Cloud has between a fifth and a tenth of the amount of heavy elements that the Milky Way does. Because it is so close, astronomers can study its dust in great detail, and learn about what dust was like earlier in the history of the universe.

It is important for understanding the history of our own galaxy, too, explained the studys principal investigator, Dr. Karin Sandstrom of the University of California, San Diego. Most of the star formation happened earlier in the universe, at a time where there was a much lower percentage of heavy elements than there is now. Dust is a really critical part of how a galaxy works, how it forms stars, said Sandstrom.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.

The telescope was launched in 1990 and since then it is the largest telescope in space. HST has helped scientists in exploring the deepest corners of the universe and has beamed back millions of stunning shots in its entire career. However, HST will be replaced by the James Webb Telescope in 2018 as it has thrice larger lens when compared to HST.
tech2 News Staff

The three biggies of the tech world  Apple, Google and Microsoft  have reportedly partnered with LG for the development of fold-out display technology.

These foldable displays will not even enter production till 2018, so you can forget about those dreams of playing with a flexible phone any time soon. Its likely that these companies are simply investing in the technology to maintain a toehold in innovative display technology.

Korean news agency ETNews reports that LG is developing these display panels for smartphones. LG has already made a prototype, reportedly, and its apparently of very high quality.

The report goes on to explain that it was Samsung that came out with the original flexible OLED panel, but production issues have prevented the display from seeing mass-market acceptance. LG appears to be facing the same issues.

Apple is widely rumoured to be preparing an iPhone 8 with a flexible display in 2017. If true, the supplier is likely to be Samsung.

A representative of the display industry in South Korea told ETNews that the Korean industry was focussed on the performance and quality of their panels. He added that China was expected to be the first to cheaply mass-produce the display, however.
tech2 News Staff

The European Commission has alleged that Facebook gave misleading or untrue answers during the investigation to approve the WhatsApp acquisition by Facebook in 2014. The European Commission evaluated various issues with regard to the acquisition, and also sought feedback from rivals. The acquisition was approved by the European Union considering the various issues involved, and the new investigation will have no impact on the decision.

The European Commission has an issue with the response Facebook gave when asked for information on linking WhatsApp user data with that of Facebook. Facebook had indicated that there was no way to reliably link the two databases, and use the phone numbers registered in WhatsApp with Facebook profiles. The European Commission cleared the acquisition, but did not rely on the information provided by Facebook while allowing the deal to go ahead.

In August this year, Facebook updated the privacy policy of WhatsApp to allow sharing of numbers with the database of the Facebook social network. This was an about turn even for consumers as WhatsApp had indicated that the acquisition would not affect the privacy policy. The move was not received well by government bodies and privacy advocates, although Facebook indicated that the information would not be used to deliver targeted advertisements.

The move was met with an imposition of conditions by the Delhi High Court in India. Italy launched an investigation into the move, to check if the data sharing imposed unfair conditions on the users. Germany asked WhatsApp to delete the data, and that Facebook was not authorised to use the data. Following widespread concerns across Europe, WhatsApp temporarily halted sharing data with Facebook.

Now the European Commission says that Facebook was already aware of the capability to match WhatsApp user data with Facebook accounts using software automation, and had mislead the original investigation at the time of seeking approval for the acquisition in 2014. This is a serious charge as companies are obliged to provide information they know to be truthful. Facebook has till 31 January 2017 to respond to the allegations. Under the merger regulations, the European Commission can slap a fine of 1 percent of the annual turnover of Facebook. For 2017, Facebook revenues almost touched 18 billion dollars, which could work out to a fine in excess of 180 million dollars, considering the year on year increase in Facebook revenues.



Find more statistics at Statista

"Companies are obliged to give the Commission accurate information during merger investigations. They must take this obligation seriously," said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy. " Our timely and effective review of mergers depends on the accuracy of the information provided by the companies involved. In this specific case, the Commission's preliminary view is that Facebook gave us incorrect or misleading information during the investigation into its acquisition of WhatsApp. Facebook now has the opportunity to respond."

The European Commission contends that Facebook already had the technical capabilities of automatically matching the WhatsApp database with the Facebook Database. The responses provided by Facebook during the investigation of the merger are in breach of the obligations by Facebook during EU merger investigations. The Statement of Objections does not amount to a judgement on the matter, and Facebook can send a written response or request an oral hearing. There is no stipulated legal deadline for winding up the investigations.
tech2 News Staff

A recent policy change made by search giant Google in June has now resulted it in being branded as a 'serial privacy violator'. Consumer Watchdog and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse according to The Washington Post have now filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stating that Google had made changes in its policy in the said month in order to gain more data from its users.

The same consumer advocacy groups branded the move as "highly deceptive" and state that Google did not make it clear as to what had changed, which may have lead to plenty of its users blindly accepting those policy changes. Google has said that the changes were made after global testing hinting that a few users did know about the change.

Back in 2011 Google was involved in a similar privacy related incident that resulted in a consent decree with the FTC. Google was fined $22.5 million in 2012 after allegations that the search giant was discovered tracking users using Apple's Safari browser.

No consumer out there would like it if their private data is being used to generate money, and this is more to do with them knowing about it than anything else. However, the issue at hand arises from the fact that Google did little to let its users know that things had changed.
tech2 News Staff

Googles flagship Pixel and Pixel XL devices appear to be suffering from static distortion issues with its speakers.

Reports of this issue initially popped up in late October. Mark Buckman noticed the issue on his Pixel XL and contacted Google. He claims that Google immediately issued him a replacement, and not once, but three times. His fourth Pixel XL as well as his wifes Pixel are both still suffering from the same issue.

As Buckman demonstrates here, the speakers on the phone start distorting at high volumes. His phone is running Android 7.1.1 at the time of the test.

When the same audio track is played at full volume on a Nexus 6, theres no distortion.

Frustrated with the issue, Buckman also set up a poll where he asked users to vote. At the time we checked, almost 70 percent of the 503 people who voted reported the same audio issues.

Android Authority did speculate that this was a hardware issue, which would mean a major headache for Google. However, a software fix doing the rounds indicates that this is just a software bug in the Pixels Android ROM. Google should be able to fix this with an update.

The unofficial patch is available here and essentially replaces the Pixels audio driver with a custom one.

As you can see below, the difference between the stock ROM and the modded one is night and day.

Google is yet to acknowledge the error or issue a fix.
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The FBI acted inappropriately when it announced the revival of its investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email setup days before the Nov. 8 presidential election, Clinton's lawyer said, citing search warrant documents made public on Tuesday. The pointed criticism from Clinton attorney David Kendall followed the release in federal court in Manhattan of documents related to an October search warrant targeting emails involving the Democratic presidential nominee.

The warrant was issued two days after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey informed Congress in a letter on Oct. 28 of newly discovered emails that appeared "pertinent" to his agency's probe.

Comey's letter drew new attention to Clinton's use of the server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and roiled the campaign 11 days before the election, which Republican Donald Trump won. Clinton has blamed Comey and his letter for her defeat.

In an affidavit unsealed on Tuesday, an FBI agent said there was "probable cause" to believe emails involving Clinton were among "thousands" found on a laptop in an unrelated probe that contained U.S. State Department correspondence.

But the documents gave no indication the FBI had any evidence at the time of Comey's letter that any of the emails on found on a laptop involved classified communications with Clinton.

Kendall said the documents showed the "extraordinary impropriety" of Comey's letter, which "produced devastating but predictable damage politically and which was both legally unauthorised and factually unnecessary." The FBI declined to comment.

The laptop belonged to former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin who was the subject of an investigation after a report about cellphone and online messages he sent a 15-year-old girl.

The search warrant materials' release was sought by Randol Schoenberg, a Los Angeles-based lawyer, who contended that transparency was crucial given the potential influence the probe had on the election's outcome.

In a statement, Schoenberg said he saw "nothing to suggest that there would be anything other than routine correspondence between Secretary Clinton and her longtime aide Huma Abedin." Brian Fallon, who served as the national press secretary for Clinton's campaign, said on Twitter the search warrant "reveals Comey's intrusion on the election was as utterly unjustified as we suspected at time."

In July, Comey recommended no charges be brought over Clinton's handing of classified information in the emails, although he said she and her colleagues were "extremely careless" in handling such information.

That determination followed what the search warrant materials called a "criminal investigation concerning the improper transmission and storage of classified info on unclassified email systems and servers." In his letter to Congress, Comey said emails potentially related to the investigation had been discovered in an "unrelated case."

Federal investigators obtained the warrant to examine the emails on Oct. 30. Two days before the election, Comey disclosed the emails did nothing to change his earlier recommendation.

Reuters
Aditya Madanapalle

There is a spate of International Space Station (ISS) sighting opportunities going on, with the ISS appearing every day in the evening for four consecutive days. This will allow skygazers in India to spot the ISS for a few minutes every evening, and opens up a window of opportunity for taking videos or photographs. Long exposure photographs taken during these timings will result in a trail of the ISS.

According to an article in Mid-Day, the 21 December sighting will see the ISS pass between Mars and Venus as seen from the Earth. The space station will pass between Mars and Venus on 22 December as well. Hitesh Gusani, a photographer who conducts workshops and lectures in educational institutes across India suggests the use of the ISS Detector Satellite Tracker app for sighting the space station, and keeping track of when it will appear next. The application can be configured to alert you when the Space Station is about to appear. The app shows the angle and direction of the appearance, as well as the timing. There is a radar component, that just points to the direction of the ISS, similar to a compass. The application can also be used to track Iridium satellites, also visible with the naked eye.

Stellarium is a software with a plugin loaded but not activated by default, that can be used to track man made objects in orbit and check if and when they will appear in the proximity of particular stars, planets or moons. The feature is particularly helpful for photographers. NASA maintains an ISS sightings page to track sightings of the ISS near your location, and can be configured to notify you when sightings are imminent.

Apart from setting up alerts for when the ISS is about to come into view, the information can also be shared on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. On December 22, the ISS is going to be brighter and clearer because of improved visibility conditions. The spacecraft will pass directly overhead sky-gazers in in India. The space station will be visible with the naked eye, and can be videographed with a basic camera. Recently, a sky-gazer in Shilma caught the ISS on video.

Nasa broadcasts live video from the Space Station almost around the clock. The view switches between internal and external cameras on board the ISS. You can learn more about the ISS through the 4K walkthrough of the ISS released by Nasa.
Kunal Khullar

OnePlus is having a spectacular year. The OnePlus 3 turned out to be a stunner of a smartphone and now the new buffed up OnePlus 3T is becoming quite a seller. Reuters recently reported that the demand for the OnePlus 3 and 3T has grown so much, that the Chinese smartphone maker is planning to manufacture the OnePlus 3T in India.

Vikas Agarwal, General Manager, OnePlus India told Reuters, We actually probably have lost, I would say, maybe 30 percent of sales because of stock-outs. The focus is on trying our best to meet the demand.

While the company is not very vocal about its numbers, technology researcher IDC has ranked OnePlus as the third-biggest seller of premium phones priced $300 (Rs 20,000) and above in India right behind Samsung and Oppo. About one third of the global sales for OnePlus comes from India, so it doesn't come as a surprise that the company wants to start manufacturing in the country.

According to a OnePlus representative, the company hasn't finalised any plans but discussions between the Chinese and Indian teams are on. OnePlus discontinued a 2015 contract manufacturing deal with Foxconn in India earlier this year to discontinue the manufacturing of the OnePlus X smartphone. There is a possibility that OnePlus will strike a new deal with the same manufacturer however, it said that it is open to other handset manufacturing companies provided they maintain quality standards.

OnePlus is also planning to open a so-called experience centre in Bengaluru, where customers can come and see OnePlus smartphones. I personally think that won't help the company much. Rather, it should start diversifying its sales channels, maybe add more online partners and move to offline sellers.

Ofcourse for that it would need a good supply of units. Manufacturing in India would not only help in meeting consumer demands, it could also bring a sense of acceptance as the company will join many other international manufacturers who are adhering to the Make in India initiative.
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Leading ride-hailing firms have praised an Indian policy blueprint on regulating the taxi industry, saying it would offer their app-based services a chance to flourish despite their concerns about price caps. A committee set up by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways recently published its findings, stating that India needed one regulatory framework for the taxi industry to promote mobility and discourage car ownership.

It also said that aggregators, such as Uber, Ola and Meru, should be included under a "fair, uniform and transparent" regulatory framework, along with radio taxis and traditional city taxis. The report's recommendations came against a backdrop of battles with city authorities on issues such as dynamic, or "surge", pricing that the ride hailing firms say they need to service the $12 billion taxi market reliably.

"This is an important milestone in the development of ride-sharing in India, and one that will help the industry better serve riders, drivers and cities in the years ahead," said Amit Jain, president of Uber India. "While there are concerns on price caps and price floors, the framework will allow the industry to continue to flourish."

San Francisco-based Uber recently merged its Chinese venture, making India its priority overseas growth market. It serves 29 Indian cities and sees a path to profitability as it takes on its larger rival, Ola, which is backed by Japan's Softbank and is present in 102 cities. The transport ministry committee, which also sought input from state officials, argued that it should be easy for private vehicles to convert and operate under a commercial permit.

It was also supportive of dynamic pricing, within a specified range, to match supply and demand during peak hours while ensuring that consumers had proper protections. It also called for a national policy on so-called "shared mobility" to reduce congestion on urban roads. Ola did not respond to a request for comment on the report but fellow taxi-hailing company, Meru, said it welcomed the basic thrust of the new guidelines.

Meru, however, expressed concerns over inconsistencies in the proposed regulation of surge pricing of regular and deluxe taxis; of clean fuel requirements; and called for curbs on the conversion of private vehicles to taxis.

Reuters
Andrei Karlov, Russia's ambassador to Turkey, was shot dead on Monday while giving a speech at a gallery by a former police officer who shouted "Don't forget Aleppo" and "God is greatest."



Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said the attack was an attempt to undermine the country's relations with Russia, which have recently been tested thanks to the ongoing conflict in Syria.

According to Wolfango Piccoli, co-President of Teneo Intelligence, Monday's attack could hurt the progress made in Russian-Turkish relations.



"The attack, in the center of Ankara, will throw a wrench in the progress of a fragile Russian-Turkish rapprochement, especially as Ankara has been the main international supporter of the forces affiliated with the Free Syrian Army which have recently been forced to evacuate Aleppo," Piccoli said in a note Monday night.



"Since the rapprochement with Moscow in June, Erdogan has attempted to avoid criticizing Russia directly although the pro-government media has been outspoken in its condemnation of the civilian casualties as the result of alleged Russian air strikes in Aleppo," Piccoli added.



Monday's shooting took place while large demonstrations against Russia's bombing of Aleppo were happening outside the Russian consulate in Istanbul.



The relationship between the two countries has been fragile since a Russian airplane was shot down last year. At the time, Turkey argued that the plane had entered its airspace without authorization.

This week, Russia's ambassador to Turkey was murdered by an Islamofascist who was apparently a police official. The question at this point is, where will Russia decide to go after this? According to this news , the relations may not be that good after all:Oh? Isn't Erdogan and his bunch of hypocrites the ones who've been pushing an Islamist narrative that led to this tragedy? And he knows it.That Turkey would commit such a heinous act just shows what their true image really is. Russia shouldn't be leading relations with Turkey, because they'll exploit them to the fullest to build up their own Islamofascist agenda. Unfortunately, it looks like they're set on making serious mistakes about whom to associate with.

Labels: dhimmitude, islam, jihad, political corruption, racism, Russia, syria, terrorism, turkey
Russia, Iran, Turkey ready to broker peace deal for Syria

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister (centre), hosted his Iranian and Turkish counterparts at an unprecedented summit in Moscow.

Reuters , Moscow :

Russia, Iran and Turkey said they were ready to help broker a Syrian peace deal after the three countries held talks in Moscow on Tuesday and adopted a declaration which set out the principles any agreement should adhere to.

The countries made the announcement after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hosted talks with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu held parallel talks with his Iranian and Turkish opposite numbers.

The document, which Shoigu called the "Moscow Declaration", said the trio were confident it would revive the moribund peace process. It also backed an expanded ceasefire.

"Iran, Russia and Turkey are ready to facilitate the drafting of an agreement, which is already being negotiated, between the Syrian government and the opposition, and to become its guarantors," the declaration said.

"They (Iran, Russia and Turkey) have invited all other countries with influence over the situation on the ground to do the same [help get a deal]," it said.

The move underlines the growing strength of Moscow's links with Tehran and Ankara, despite the murder on Monday of Russia's envoy to Turkey, and reflects President Vladimir Putin's desire to cement his country's growing influence in the Middle East and beyond.

It also shows how fed up Russia is with what it sees as long and pointless talks with the Obama administration over Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week dismissed those talks as "fruitless sitting around".

President Putin said last week that he and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan were working to organise a new series of Syrian peace negotiations without the involvement of the United States or the United Nations.

He said those talks could take place in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, a close Russian ally.

Russia says that the talks, if they happen, would be in addition to intermittent UN-brokered negotiations in Geneva.

Lavrov said on Tuesday he thought what he called the Russia-Iran-Turkey troika was the most effective forum when it came to trying to solve the Syria crisis.

Shoigu said only Russia - which has backed President Bashar al-Assad with air strikes, special forces and military advisers - and Iran and Turkey were able to make a real difference.

"All previous attempts by the United States and its partners to agree on coordinated actions were doomed to failure," Shoigu said. "None of them wielded real influence over the situation on the ground."

Russia and Iran both back Assad, but Turkey, a Nato member, has long made clear it would prefer him to step down. Ankara has however moderated its rhetoric on Assad in recent months, and Lavrov said all three countries agreed the priority was to fight terrorism rather than to remove the Syrian leader.
Scotland unveils plan to stay in EU single market after Brexit

Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon would prefer Scotland to be \"an independent state within the EU\".

AFP, Edinburgh :

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon unveiled plans Tuesday for Scotland to stay in the EU's single market after Brexit but said she would prefer the country to be an independent state within the bloc.

Sturgeon said Britain's June referendum decision to leave the European Union meant semi-autonomous Scotland could demand more powers from London over immigration.

Scottish citizens voted strongly in favour -- 62 percent to 38 percent-of staying in the EU, opening up a divide with the British government, which has pledged to exit, come what may.

"We are determined to maintain Scotland's current position in the European Single Market," Sturgeon said in the introduction to a paper containing the proposals, entitled "Scotland's Place in Europe".

A "differentiated option", such as the rules that apply to non-EU members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the European Economic Area (EEA), could apply to Scotland.

"The Scottish people did not vote for Brexit and a 'hard Brexit' would severely damage Scotland's economic, social and cultural interests," Sturgeon said, adding that 80,000 Scottish jobs were at risk if Britain were to leave the single market.

Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are in EFTA and the first three are also part of the EEA, which provides free movement of persons, goods, services and capital within the single market.

British Prime Minister Theresa May later told a parliamentary committee that the government would "look very seriously" at the proposals but warned there could be some that were "impractical".

"If Scotland were to become independent, then not only would it no longer be a member of the European Union, it would no longer be a member of the single market of the European Union and it would no longer be a member of the single market of the United Kingdom.
Idea generation contest at AIUB

Vice Chancellor of American International University - Bangladesh, Dr Carmen Z Lamagna is seen at an idea-generation competition to find the best \"Innovative Development Efforts and Actions for Sustainabilitya at a ceremony held at the University c

Campus Report :

American International University - Bangladesh (AIUB)'s Social welfare club "AIUB Shomoy Club" under the guidance of the Office of Students Affairs of the University organized an idea-generation competition to find the best "Innovative Development Efforts and Actions for Sustainability (IDEAS)". In this connection the AIUB Shomoy Club brought together teams of bright minds in the competition from various schools and colleges around the city. Following a buzzing week of registration for participants from multiple fields of study, day-long finale was held on the university premises recently.

Capt (retd) AB Tajul Islam, a Member of the Parliament and the Chairman of the Standing Committee in the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs graced the occasion with his presence as the Chief Guest, together with Bikash Kishore Das, the Additional Secretary of the Statistics and Informatics Division of the Ministry of Planning, who acknowledged the hard work of the talented participants at the competition.

The event also played host to the Vice Chancellor, Dr Carmen Z Lamagna, and the Vice President for Student Affairs, Nadia Anwar, who presided over the opening ceremony together, along with the different faculty deans, directors, department heads, and other administrative officials.

The event showcased the project submissions from around 20 different institutions, comprising of over 125 participants. Each team exhibited and presented their ideas through either handmade posters or model prototypes, addressing a particular social issue, based on some of the 'Social Development Goals (SDGs)' of the United Nations.

A panel of judges evaluated each idea on a number of criteria, ranging from their feasibility to their creative implementation.

The panel held both internal and external judges, including faculty representatives, Farheen Hassan and Dr Tabin Hasan, along with noteworthy guest judges.

The projects were also voted upon by visiting faculty members, students, and administrative officials, which contributed to the final results. After careful considerations, calculations, and comments, the final scores put the winning teams at an intensely close match. The 3rd place was taken by the 'Team Explorer' from Safiuddin Sarker Academy and College for the Project Prototype on Climate Change.

'Team Mobin' from BAF Shaheen College won the 2nd Place for their Project Prototype on Quality Education. But in the end, it was 'Team Quark' from Notre Dame College who truly proved their mettle and won the 1st Place for their Project Prototype on Climate Change.

The Pro-Vice Chancellor awarded the certificates to all the participants and the crests and prize money to the winning teams in the closing ceremony, held at the end of the day in the AIUB Auditorium.


BAUET students visit Mahini Nabil Jute Mills

Campus Report :

Department of Business Administration of Bangladesh Army University of Engineering and Technology (BAUET) organized an Industrial Study Tour at Bogra Mahini Nabil Jute Mills Ltd recently for the 1st Batch (2nd Semester) students.

Students visited production units of the jute mills physically with the closed supervision of the guided technicians.

This study tour will cover the relevant courses of their syllabus like production, packing system, marketing, Human Resources Management, Financial management and over all management system of the factory.

Md. Abdul Munnaf, Managing Director, Mahini Nabil Jute Mills Ltd and ATM Nurullah, VP and Relationships Manager, Bogra Branch exchange of views with students.

Prof Dr Md. Shah Alam, Head & Professor (Adjuct) of Department of Business Admnistration, Syed Md Nazmul Huda, Assistant Professor of Accounting, Md. Abdur Rashid, Assistant Professor of HRM were present during the industrial study tour. Among others, Md. Ashraful Islam, Deputy Registrar (Academic) and Md. Ibrahim, Admin Officer were also present.
KTRK-TV(PEARLAND, Texas) -- A group of Good Samaritans helped rescue a man trapped inside a burning car off a highway in Pearland, Texas, this weekend, according to police.



The man, who has not been identified, had been traveling northbound on State Highway 288 on Sunday morning, when his car suddenly slid across the freeway, veered off the road and struck a tree, bursting into flames, said Officer Jason Wells, public information officer for the Pearland Police Department.



A handful of motorists on the highway immediately pulled over and helped drag the man out of the car just before law enforcement arrived on scene, Wells told ABC News Tuesday.



"If it weren't for these people, this could have been catastrophic," Wells said. "The gentleman had significant injuries and would not have been able to get out of the car on his own."



Most of the rescuers left before police were able to get their names, Wells said. However, ABC station KTRK-TV in Houston was able to track down one of them: Nick Villalona.



Villalona told KTRK-TV that he "was just doing the right thing at the right time."



Villalona said he drove right up to car after seeing the flames and smoke. He said that he "ran right up there and tried to pull on the door a couple of times," but it appeared to be locked.



Fortunately, another bystander on the scene had a wooden club, which Villalona then used to break open the driver's side window, he said.



"I just swung for the fences," he said. When the glass finally shattered, Villanova and a handful of other people were able to get a hold of the driver and pull him out, KTRK-TV reported.



A witness recorded the daring rescue on video and shared it with KTRK-TV.



One of the Good Samaritans seen wearing a yellow jumpsuit in the video appears to be an off-duty sheriff's deputy, Wells said.



"I was very happy to see that these motorists went out of their way to stop and assist this man," Wells said. "But I will say that it's not uncommon for people in this area to go out of their way to help others. It's what people here do."



By the time police arrived on the scene, the vehicle was "engulfed in flames," Wells said. Local firefighters responded and helped extinguish the blaze, he added.



Medics also responded and transported the man to a nearby hospital, Wells said. The man broke a few bones but is expected to be OK, he said.



Authorities are still investigating what caused the man to slide across the freeway and what caused a fire to break out after he crashed, Wells said.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Increase agricultural productivity to eradicate poverty

Economic Reporter :

With increasing agricultural productivity, farmers must have smooth access to markets to get proper benefit of their crops production.

"If we want to eradicate poverty, growers should be given fair prices of their produced crops," Abul Barkat, professor, Department of Economics of Dhaka University told a meeting at BRAC Inn centre on Tuesday.

"Although agriculture production has increased in many times but farmers are not getting proper benefit from their crop production. This unfair practice is hampering poverty reduction efforts in rural areas," he added.

Prof Barakat observed that Bangladesh's economy is more resilient than many middle income countries in the world. "Nearly 75 percent people are living in rural areas, of which 90 percent people are directly involved in agriculture sector. So, we have to give more focus on development of agriculture sector to accelerate economic progress in the country," he added.

Inter Press Service (IPS) organized the multi-stakeholder knowledge sharing meeting on "Communicating for Development: Rural Transformation".

Additional Secretary of Economic Relation Division (ERD) Shahidul Islam, Director General of IPS Farhana Haque Rahman, communication and development experts and officials and representatives of different local and international organizations, among others, addressed the meeting.

Other speakers said smallholders are the backbone of rural development and economic growth in Bangladesh. Smallholder farmers and rural communities need access to information so that they can make contribution in policy making process, which eventually expedite economic growth in the country.

Six on-going Projects of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) were highlighted at the meeting. These projects are - Participatory small-scale water resources sector project, Char development and settlement project IV, Hoar infrastructure and livelihood improvement project, Coastal Climate resilient infrastructure project (CCRIP), Promoting agricultural commercialization and enterprise project (PACE), National Agriculture technology programme II.
Increase agricultural productivity to eradicate poverty : Barakat

BSS, Dhaka :

With increasing agricultural productivity, farmers must have smooth access to markets to get proper benefit of their crops production.

"If we want to eradicate poverty, growers should be given fair prices of their produced crops," Abul Barakat, Professor, Department of Economics of Dhaka University told a meeting at BRAC Inn centre on Tuesday.

"Although agriculture production has increased in many times but farmers are not getting proper benefit from their crop production. This unfair practice is hampering poverty reduction efforts in rural areas," he added.

Prof Barakat observed that Bangladesh's economy is more resilient than many middle income countries in the world. "Nearly 75 percent people are living in rural areas, of which 90 percent people are directly involved in agriculture sector. So, we have to give more focus on development of agriculture sector to accelerate economic progress in the country," he added.

Inter Press Service (IPS) organized the multi-stakeholder knowledge sharing meeting on "Communicating for Development: Rural Transformation".

Additional Secretary of Economic Relation Division (ERD) Shahidul Islam, Director General of IPS Farhana Haque Rahman, communication and development experts and officials and representatives of different local and international organizations, among others, addressed the meeting.

Other speakers said smallholders are the backbone of rural development and economic growth in Bangladesh. Smallholder farmers and rural communities need access to information so that they can make contribution in policy making process, which eventually expedite economic growth in the country.

Six on-going Projects of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) were highlighted at the meeting. These projects are - Participatory small-scale water resources sector project, Char development and settlement project IV, Haor infrastructure and livelihood improvement project, Coastal Climate resilient infrastructure project (CCRIP), Promoting agricultural commercialization and enterprise project (PACE), National Agriculture technology programme II.


Senior Vice-President of Bangladesh Volleyball Federation AH Aslam Sunny addressing a press conference at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Indoor Stadium in Mirpur on Wednesday.
Rohingya talks with Myanmar soon: Asad

BSS, Bandarban :

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday said Bangladesh government will sit for talks with the Maynmar government over the Rohingya issue very soon.

"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is keeping a close eye on the Rohingya issue . . . Bangladesh government will discuss the Rohingya issue with Myanmar very soon," he told journalists after inaugurating Roangchhari Police Station and Extension Building of Balaghata Police Lines School in the town.

Replying to a query, the home minister said the present government vows to show 'zero tolerance' against the use of illegal firearms and terrorist activities.

"The law enforcement agency continues its special drive keeping that entire thing in mind," he added.

The minister later attended the annual Raj Punnah, the biggest colourful traditional festival of the Bohmong tribe, that began here yesterday.


Tunisian linked to market deaths

BBC Online :

German police are hunting for the perpetrator of Monday's truck attack at a Berlin market which killed 12.

Germany's Spiegel Online reports that investigators are looking for a Tunisian after an ID card was found in the truck. Police have not commented.

Officials released the only detained suspect on Tuesday, saying there was no evidence to link him to the attack.

They now say more than one suspect may be on the run, possibly armed, and security has been stepped up.

So-called Islamic State (IS) said one of its militants carried out the attack, but offered no evidence.
MPO receiving colleges without students

A recent news item published in The New Nation has exposed the ugly loopholes of our education system. It said, the government approval to 204 colleges may be cancelled due to zero students at Higher Secondary level and for no pass in different public examinations. These colleges are running under six education boards includes Dhaka Board, where no inspection could detect the open cheating. Otherwise allowing them to siphon government allocation running these colleges in name-sake essentially under protection of politically influential persons.

Citing the Ministry sources the news report said, Education Ministry is preparing show-cause notices for sending to the respective colleges asking to explain as to why their approval will not be cancelled. Disclosure said out of the 204 colleges, no student was admitted into 184 colleges at Higher Secondary level and the candidates did not pass in the HSC examination from the remaining 20 colleges this year.

Teachers, students and managing authority compose an educational institute and get government's approval. Without a single student how nearly 200 colleges could obtain approval of Education Ministry and continue is a mystery. Definitely, there is a strong ground that some underhand dealings played a vital role in these abnormal approvals. No student could pass in HSC examination from 20 colleges is also a shameful reality of our education system. After 10 years of continuous study in schools and passing SSC examination one gets admission in colleges and then study for two years before sitting for HSC examination. Then if none of the students of 20 colleges could cross the pass mark how we can explain it. Suspicion arises whether or not they are fake students enrolled for cheating. Again are these really educational institutes worthy of name? Is there no mechanism in the Education Ministry and Boards to monitor educational activities of the colleges? Most of the 204 colleges now under fire are receiving allocation of MPO programme of the government. That means the lion's share of salary of these college teachers comes from government exchequer and some people have taken away much of this money. Government is paying money for promoting educational activities, but not checking what is going on there; it is not acceptable.

We often say that education is backbone of a nation. But in practice we probably do not mean it seriously. This is no secret that our total education system is riddled with corruption and indiscipline at every level. In the case of 204 colleges we can apprehend how deep the irregularities are. We must say the irregularity must be properly investigated and wrong-doers must be sternly dealt with.
Santals must get their land back

Over 1200 Santal families evicted from their land in Gobindaganj of Gaibandha district are now homeless and living in the shelter of others while many of them are also harassed in false cases. Media report on Wednesday said rights activists have protested the plight of the indigenous people and held a human chain in front of Jatiya Press Club to draw the attention of the authorities concerned to withdraw all false cases against them and return their ancestral land to them. We also join our voice and demand that injustices meted out to the Santal community must immediately end and the fate of the land must be quickly cleared that the Santal villagers are demanding of their forefathers.

Earlier report said local MP, Upazila and Union Parishad chairman were among the influential people who have joined hands to grab the land on the basis of a lease arrangement from Rangpur Sugar Mills. The land was acquired in 1962 by Pakistan government to grow sugarcane for the newly built sugar mill. The original lease document provided for return of the land to owners if the land remains vacant or put to production of other cereals. Since the sugar mill is only using part of the land the locals have taken over it provoking protest of the Santals.

Some of them moved to part of the land from 2012 and four months ago others occupied over 100 acres and built makeshift sheds and homes on the plea that the land belonged to their forefathers. On November 6, local vested quarters attacked the Santal homes with the help of police and sugar mills employees. In the process the entire village was evicted and left abandoned. Santals' homes were gutted and property destroyed. Despite the High Court orders to local administration to give safety to the community, speakers of the Santal community said they are still unsafe and floating as refugees while many of them waiting to return homes.

What appears quite sensational is that a video footage of the attack on the Santal village that showed a police man was setting fire on a home accompanying the local ruling party men. As it went viral, protest is pouring in from all directions. What is highly slanderous is that despite the video footage showing policeman's involvement, the government is yet to order a probe into how he became part of the attack and what role the local administration played in it. Three Santals died in the attacks and several injured but the demand for investigation is still ignored.

It appears that we are witnessing an erosion of tolerance against our ethnic and marginalized people. The attacks on Hindu homes at Nasirnagar and eviction of Santals fit into a pattern how powerful people are working to grab land of the weak and helpless. In our view this tendency can't go unchallenged.




DMP bans use of firecrackers ahead of Christmas eve

UNB, Dhaka :

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has banned the carrying of all types of explosives, crackers and explosions of fire crackers in the city from 6pm on December 24 till 12am on December 25 on the occasion

of Christmas. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia issued the notice as per his officio according to the DMP Ordinance-76 of section 28, said a media release of DMP.

The decision was taken for protecting the sanctity of the Christmas Day and to ensure security so that the Christian community could celebrate their festival smoothly.
Dhaka calls UK for lifting ban on direct cargo flights

UNB, Dhaka :

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on Wednesday sought a 'strong pursuance' from British Prime Minister's Trade Envoy Rushanara Ali to her government for lifting the temporary ban on direct cargo flights from Dhaka to London.

He also hoped that Bangladesh would continue to enjoy the same or better facilities for duty free-quota free (DFQF) market access to the UK market for 'Everything but

Arms' product and services even after Brexit comes into force. During the meeting with Rushanara, the Foreign Minister congratulated her on being appointed as the British Prime Minister's Trade Envoy for Bangladesh. Mahmood Ali expressed his satisfaction over the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Bangladesh Railway and British company DP Rail Ltd for setting up a 240-km rail line between Dhaka and Payra seaport in Patuakhali's Kuakata in her presence. Mahmood Ali has the deal signed between the government and British company would be the major breakthrough in the public-private partnership area in Bangladesh. "This is the biggest ever foreign direct investment," said the Foreign Minister. Referring to the UK which is the third largest country for Bangladeshi export, Foreign Minister Ali requested the British Trade Envoy to exchange trade delegations between the two countries to tap in the huge business and investment potential that Bangladesh delivers.

Besides, the bilateral relationship between Bangladesh and the UK, regional connectivity and other international and regional issues were discussed at the meeting.
SUST closed following BCL factional clash

Our Correspondent, Sylhet : The authorities of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) have asked students to vacate their residential halls following a clash between two factions of the Awami League's student front.

On Tuesday, two factions of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) fought running battles on the campus with locally-made bombs.

Police raided the three residential halls for male students after the clashes and

seized local weapons, crude bombs and bullets. "The halls have been vacated for 16days due to tension between the two Chhatra League factions. All classes and exams will remain suspended also," SUST Acting Proctor Munshi Naser Ibne Afzal said. Students said a running battle erupted on the campus between BCL activists loyal to SUST unit General Secretary Imran Khan and Senior Vice President Abu Sayeed Akanda.

At least 15 crude bombs were exploded and bullets were fired during the clash, according to witnesses. Several rooms of the Shah Paran Hall were ransacked as well.

Police raided the three halls-Shah Paran, Syed Mujtoba Ali and Bangabandhu Hall between 12am and 4am on Wednesday. Iron rods, sharp weapons, crude bombs and three rounds of ammunition were recovered from the Shah Paran Hall, said the hall's Provost Md Shahedul Hossain. No one has been detained. Nothing was found in the two others residential halls. The university authorities issued an instruction to vacate the halls at 8am, which triggered protests by students.

Demonstrations and processions have been held in the halls after the announcement. Authorities said security concerns prompted the decision. "It has been done to avoid further clashes and for the sake of students' security," said Proctor Hossain.
CTTCU to probe PM`s flight incident

Case record says the accused had assassination plan, Court asks to submit report by Jan 12

Special Correspondent :

The DMP's elite Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit [CTTCU], which is specialized in intelligence-led proactive investigation, has been assigned to initiate a full-scale probe into the incident of emergency landing of PM's plane in Turkmenistan.

The CTTCU will especially investigate whether it was an act of 'sabotage', for which the VVIP aircraft Boeing-777 Ranga Pravat was forced to make an emergency landing at Ashgabat International Airport on November 27, officials told The New Nation on Wednesday.

Deputy Commissioner of CTTCU Mohibul Alam said the Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Asaduzzaman Mia has assigned CTTCU to investigate the case. "We'll start investigation soon after getting case docket from the Airport Police Station," he said.

Earlier on Tuesday late night, Director [maintenance and engineering] of Bangladesh Biman Wing Commander [retd] MM Asaduzzaman filed the case with Airport Police Station against its nine suspended staff, including eight engineers and one technician. Besides, some other unknown persons have also been implicated in the case.

The number of the case is 21, which has been recorded under 109, 118, 120 [kha] and 278 of CrPC and 15 [3] articles of Special Power Act 1974, officials said. Assistant Commissioner [Airport Zone] of DMP Md Ruhul Amin said the case has been recorded with the concerned police station and the accused will be arrested by the assigned law enforcement agency once the investigation starts.

The nine persons who are directly charge in the case are: Chief Engineer [production] Debesh Chowdhury, Chief Engineer [quality assurance] SA Siddique, Principal Engineer [maintenance and sustem control] Billal Hossain, Engineers SM Rokonuzaman, Samiul Haque, Lutfor Rahman, Milon Chandra Biswas, Zakir Hossain and Technician Siddiqur Rahman. When contacted, Officer-in-Charge of Airport Police Station Noor-e-Azam said last night that they were taking preparation to transfer the case to the CTTCU. "We will hand over the relevant documents of the case to the CTTCU on Thursday," the OC said. "In the case documents, the permanent and present addresses of the accused persons were not given in details. So, we're now collecting their particulars. In the case filed by Biman authority, it has been mentioned that the suspended nine officials in connivance with some other unidentified persons have planned to assassinate PM Sheikh Hasina," the OC further said.

Earlier on Wednesday morning, a Dhaka court fixed January 12 to submit probe report in a case filed in connection with emergency landing of the aircraft carrying PM Sheikh Hasina. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Golam Nabi fixed that after hearing in the case.

The court ordered OC of Airport Police Station Nure Alam Mia to submit probe report within January 12.

The VVIP plane had faced difficulty when a nut of a bolt in the oil passing pipe in engine no-01 was slacked almost in half with dropping the lubricant at zero level. It was noticed after the plane crossed Karachi flying at an altitude of 30,000 feet. The plane changed its route. After repairing, the flight reached Budapest in four hours delay.

After returning country, the PM told the Parliament on December 9 that Boeing Co. had informed them such an incident never happened in their 6,000 planes flying around the world. "It was created by humans, not a technical fault," the PM said.

Echoing the same, Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon also told the National Parliament that "human involvement" was behind the technical fault in the VVIP plane.


NCC polls today

Port city under security blanket

Poll materials being taken to N\'ganj centres on Wednesday.

Staff Reporter :

All stage is set to hold the Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) election today (Thursday) amid tight security.

Voting will begin at 8am and continue till 4 in the afternoon without any break.

Over 4.79 lakh voters are expected to cast their ballots to elect the city mayor, 27 ward councillors and nine women councillors (reserved seats) under the party symbols for the first time.

The candidates, especially those of the Awami League (AL) and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) vying for the mayor's post, went all out to win over voters with attractive promises.

Both the AL-nominated mayoral candidate, Selina Hayat Ivy, and the BNP's

Shakhawat Hossain Khan passed busy time over the last few days, going from door to door across the city to woo votes.

Ivy is confident about her reelection as she thinks people will gracefully evaluate 'huge development' activities she carried out in the last five years in her city.

Shakhawat, on the other hand, is very much confident of a better show as he thinks people will stage a silent 'vote revolution' by casting their ballots in favour of him as a mark of their protest against the government's 'repressive acts and misdeeds'.

Meanwhile, members of different law enforcement agencies put up a security blanket over Narayanganj city in order to ensure smooth and peaceful voting.

Three-tier security blankets have been thrown over Narayanganj City Corporation with deployment of 9,500 law enforcers including Ansar, police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), coastguard, and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to hold the elections peacefully.

Plainclothes police personnel alongside with uniformed police have been asked to perform with utmost sincerity and professionalism to maintain the law and order.

The Election Commission (EC) has already sent polls materials to voting centres in Narayanganj for the city corporation elections.

The candidates ended their campaigns officially on Tuesday night, two days before the voting.

"All preparations have already been completed to hold a free, fair and acceptable election to the Narayanganj City Corporation. On the matter of security, special attention will be given to 137 centres identified as vulnerable. Stern actions will be taken to thwart untoward incidents," said Returning Officer Nuruzzaman Talukder on Wednesday.

He added law enforcers have already been deployed by three times higher in comparison with other elections to hold the polls in a peaceful and festive manner.

The members of elite force Rapid Action Battalion were found on Wednesday deploying its dog squad and bomb disposal unit as part of the security measures. It has also set up security checkpoints at several locations.

"As many as 600 RAB personnel have been deployed along with police and the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) as the 'strike force' for Thursday's voting," the Returning Officer said. In the last mayoral elections in 2011, Ivy ran and won against then Awami League-backed Shamim Osman by around 1 lakh votes as an independent. The BNP-backed candidate Khandaker Taimur Alam had withdrawn at the eleventh hour.
The first week of January each year I make a range of predictions about whats to come. The last week of December each year, I look back at my predictions and call myself out as to whether I was right or wrong. So here were the predictions made back in January:

PayPal will be a primary acquisition target in 2016.

Urmmmmm . no, although many pundits propose that Apple, Amazon, Google, MasterCard, Visa and others should buy them. Meanwhile, PayPal entered the Fortune 500 in 2016, and continues its global expansion with acquisitions and partnerships with Visa and MasterCard.

Facebook will launch basic banking and payments as part of their mobile app services.

Launched in September, but only in the USA right now.

Alibaba starts to expand its payments, lending and wealth management operations to Europe and the US.

No brainer.

A number of key mergers and acquisitions will take place with banks targeting to absorb the Betterments and Stripes of this world into their own operations.

Well, I suppose Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company investing in Stripe, Group BPCE buying Fidor and BBVA acquiring Holvi and taking a 29.5% ownership of Atom Bank could be examples of this.

Whilst UK and USA remain global leaders in FinTech in 2016, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Australia will show strong offerings, whilst Africa, Israel, Luxembourg and the CEE region will also have an impact.

Confirmed, but rather obvious. Nevertheless, Id say that China and Singapore have been the stand out countries for me this year. China due to its leading role in FinTech investments and innovation in 2016; and Singapore because the MAS has done a stellar job of creating leadership in this space for South East Asia culminating in the FinTech Festival in November, where over 10,000 people gathered. Not bad for its inaugural meeting.

The P2P lending model expands into new asset classes of credit risk with LendingClub announcing a new P2P mortgage lending offer.

P2P firms are expanding, as evidenced by Zopa announcing that theyre getting a banking licence, but the sector has been suffering somewhat this year, as evidenced by Zopa saying theyre taking no more deposits as people arent borrowing enough. The problem with the P2P model is that nearly all margin is made on originations, which means they must focus upon generating as many lenders as they can. Thats a treadmill that is exhausting when the market becomes testier. Hence its not just Zopa that needs to become a bank, but Lending Club too, as the pure P2P model doesnt work. Oh, and in case youre wondering, there are several companies offering P2P mortgages.

Insurance has been a quiet Fintech area so far, but a raft of new startups appear in 2016 with at least 100 digital insurance startups funded throughout the year.

InsurTech has certainly become mainstream in 2016, with CB Insights stating that $4.74bn (470 deals) has been invested since 2011, most happening in 2016. As in banking, peer-to-peer is hot in insurance with older players like Friendsurance and newcomers such as Lemonade, InsPeer, InSured, and Teambrella. Another interesting area in InsurTech is item-specific, event-specific, and on-demand coverage  smart insurance such as Trov, who have recently partnered with AXA to create on demand insurance. Aside from InsurTech startups, the Internet of Things (IoT) is also poised to change the insurance industry in the coming months.

RegTech will become a big area of focus, aligning regulatory technologies with Fintech areas, particularly Peer to Peer Lending and Crowdfunding.

Again, pretty obvious, but the RegTech realm has been hot, hot, hot in 2016 with sandboxes appearing everywhere from London to Sydney. Its not surprising really as the potential market is huge. Big banks, such as HSBC, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan, spend well over $1bn a year each on regulatory compliance and controls and BBVA recently estimated that 10% - 15% of all bank staff are dedicated to this area.

Bitcoin will be overtaken by a large corporate-backed digital currency, fully hedged by traditional assets.

This didnt happen, as bitcoin has flourished in 2016 thanks to Brexit, Donald Trump and general uncertainty about economic and political developments around the world. Nevertheless there have been many developments in digital currencies from the launch of zcash to Sweden aiming to be the first country with a fully digitalised currency.

Identity management startups built on consensus ledger technologies begin to flourish.

This is one of the major use cases, as I blogged about in August. Again, its not surprising as the average bank spends 40 million a year on KYC (Know Your Customer) activities (bigger banks spend as much as 300 million a year) and still do it really badly. According to a Thomson Reuters survey, 89% of corporate customers had not had a good KYC experience, and 13% changed their bank as a result.
The same group of hackers that caused the power outage across several regions in Ukraine last Christmas holidays might have once again shut down power supply in northern Ukraine during the weekend.According to Ukrainian energy provider Ukrenergo, a cyber attack on Kyiv's power grid may have caused the power outages in the country on Saturday, December 17, near midnight.The blackout affected the northern part of Kiev, the country's capital, and surrounding areas, Ukrenergo Director explained in a post on Facebook.Shortly after the incident, Ukrenergo engineers switched to manual mode and started restoring power in approximately 30 minutes in an effort to deal with the cyber attack. Power was fully restored after just an hour and fifteen minutes of the blackout.According to Kovalchuk, the one responsible for the weekend outage could be anhowever, the company's cybersecurity experts are investigating the incident and will provide more information soon.Although the reason for the outage is not yet confirmed, authorities believe that the unexpected power outage could be the latest in the series of cyber attacks that managed to strike the Ukrainian electric grid and financial infrastructure in December 2015.The 2015 energy blackouts were caused with the help of a malware attack, known as, which was distributed through boobytrapped Word documents and tricked recipients into enabling macros to activate the malicious payload.Last year, the Ukraine's state security service SBU blamed Russia for causing outages by planting malware on the networks of several regional energy companies.Also, the United States Cyber firm iSight Partners identified the perpetrator as a Russian group of hackers known as " Sandworm ."While security experts have found no hard evidence that links these attacks on Ukrainian energy grid to Russia, they believe that the attackers appear to be a nation state with significant resources.SCADA system has always been an attractive target for cybercrooks, given the success of Stuxnet malware that was developed by the US and Israeli together to sabotage the Iranian nuclear facilities a few years ago, and " Havex " that previously targeted organizations in the energy sector.
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Sean Bresnahan of the Thomas Ashe Society Omagh argues that imperialism can best be confronted through open and critical debate, leading ultimately and in turn to the democratic all-Ireland republic.

Add caption

Imperialism has traditionally exploited the state to project and impose its capitalist paradigm, something that, in my view, can best be tackled by transforming the democratic process, empowering local communities over the centralised state  whose power is to be broken down and broken up  through a devolving of decision-making capacities to the margins of the power system.Some, such as the anarchists, argue a need to dismantle the state entire, an argument that no doubt can be made. But while perhaps that should be our long term aim it remains beyond our present abilities. Instead, we must begin with the achievable and build from there. What we most certainly cdo at this time is to analyse the state of itself and determine how and for whom the state and state power operates. This, in turn, can allow us to determine how and where change, whether incremental or revolutionary, might realistically be engendered.In a wider sense, if we truly intend on confronting capitalist imperialism then the most powerful and immediate contribution we can make is to effect change here in Ireland, by removing from power those who do its bidding and are its willing minions. But to challenge capitalism we must first understand how it impacts our everyday lives. Only then can we learn how to fight back.We need to discuss then, together, how capitalism impacts on society today and from there determine effective means to resist. Resistance can be as simple as buying vegetables from the door-to-door grocer or a local stockist. It can be as basic as banking with the Credit Union or ensuring the clothes on our back are manufactured according to principles of fair trade. It can be taking the time to promote and learn of our own culture and heritage.Beyond that, at a wider level and moving ahead, our greater aim should be to establish a sovereign republic, using as much as the vehicle to dismantle the workings of imperialism here in Ireland. Indeed a truly sovereign republic would already have rejected the imperialist system in the first instance. Thus, it remains our principal aim and object, the ultimate goal for which we strive.Such a republic, where sovereignty extends not only to territory but to the decision-making process, to our natural resources and to the money supply, would be an example to others of what can be achieved when ordinary workers can shape decisions that impact their lives, facilitated in so doing by a constitution born of key republican concepts as liberty, fraternity and equality.A sovereign and democratic republic, working with likeminded nations and peoples, would immeasurably advance the welfare and condition of all its citizens. But it would also, and just as importantly, be an example to those elsewhere intent on societal change. It could be the first blow in the battle to come that finally, and permanently, lays waste to the hideous system of rapacious greed that is modern capitalism  the enemy of all peoples the world over. Onward to that certain day.
The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now.

Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market.

In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender.

India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex.

Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted.

But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted?

Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner.

If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems.

I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now.

I want more variation in masturbation

I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own.

If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end.

What is sex toys for Indian?

Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation.

It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms.

They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable.

Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner.

The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner.

It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past.

In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping.

Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order.

In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing.

Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome.

Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own.

But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance.

More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around.

Sextoy situation in India

Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years.

In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India.

Mumbai

Kolkata

Bangalore

Delhi

Chennai

Hyderabad

These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India.

In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well.

If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too.

If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it.

What are Sextoys for beginner?

Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms.

Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy.

I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion.

I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy.

If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma.

Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it.

Advantages of using sextoy for Indians

There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians

You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways.

Can have stimulating sex

Can develop new sexual zones

If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern.

However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways.

You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation.

Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever.

There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure.

This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it.

When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems.

It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms).

For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles

[Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou...

Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India.

Sextoy for beginner men in India

So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners.

For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men!

The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men

Masturbator

Cock rings

Love Doll

Sex Lubricants

Toys for the prostate

Lets check each one in detail.

Masturbator

The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products.

It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands.

Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands.

They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.)

Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much.

Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! !

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Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood.

If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here

Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ...

[For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien...

Cock Ring

A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis.

It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow.

It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber.

In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection.

Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction.

It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it.

Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time.

Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function.

Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy.

You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect.

[Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat...

Love Doll

Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex.

There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women.

Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price.

The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true.

You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste.

There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice.

You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls.

If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here

Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to...

Sex lubricants

Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules.

It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution.

Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse.

There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent.

Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent.

If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here.

What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many...

Toys for the Prostate

Another sextoy for men is prostate toys.

The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line.

Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men.

Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men.

What is the prostate?

The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm.

You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus.

By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms.

Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.)

The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation.

Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure.

sextoy for beinner women in India

The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy.

The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy.

Vibrator.

Dildo

Electric Masserger

Lets check out what each one is in detail.

If you want to check out womens toys, click here.

[BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm...

Vibrators

A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator.

Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy.

It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy.

Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women.

For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators.

Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex.

Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself.

This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual.

Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men.

When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons.

Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most...

Dildo

A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis.

It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass.

A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it.

They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well.

It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device.

A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo.

Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands.

For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis.

This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one.

To learn more about dildo, please click here.

What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th...

Electric Masserger

A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores.

It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low.

Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels.

Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation.

It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure.

For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm.

It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out.

If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager?

To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here.

What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th...

How to choose a sextoy for Indian

Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one.

Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points:  Does the size fit you (the partner)?

Does the size fit you (your partner)?

Is the environment able to produce sound without problems?

Price range

First of all, the choice of size is quite important.

Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women.

For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage.

Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems.

Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise.

If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level.

Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it.

Finally, there is the price range.

The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest.

Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy.

Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy?

I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance.

For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics.

If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out.

How to buy sextoys in India

The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping.

For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below.

Sextoy is one of them.

Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping.

SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India.

They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry.

Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card.

To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy.

ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal.

Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on.

Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture.

Cautions for Indians using sextoy

When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind

Keep sex toys clean

Watch out for electrical leakage

Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy

As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone.

Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there.

It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case.

In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness.

Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful.

If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it.

You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly.

Summary

What did you think?

In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India.

The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future.

As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values.

However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health.

If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try?

Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women.

I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it.
Billy L. Harris, 52, of Carbondale was sentenced this week to 12 years in state prison after pleading guilty to residential burglary, according to a Wednesday news release from Jackson County States Attorney Michael Carr.

In the early morning hours of Aug. 28, Harris entered into a residential apartment unit on West College Street in Carbondale without permission, the release states. A laptop was taken from the apartment.

The resident was home and called the Carbondale Police Department and, within minutes, officers located Harris walking near the residence. Harris was in possession of the residents laptop that had been taken, and the resident positively identified Harris as the man in the apartment.

 The Southern
SPRINGFIELD  Illinois top leaders arent meeting to discuss the state budget, but a group that includes rank-and-file lawmakers from both parties has been meeting more frequently in recent weeks to come up with a plan to overhaul the way the state funds public schools.

Despite the standstill over the broader state budget, members of Gov. Bruce Rauners education funding reform commission say theyre optimistic that the group, which has been meeting since summer, will be able to come up with at least the outlines of what a new school funding formula should look like.

When the first-term Republican governor announced the group in July, he set a Feb. 1 deadline for it to complete its work. The commissions next meeting is set for Wednesday.

Weve made meaningful progress on an incredibly difficult issue, said state Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, a member of the commission and a leading voice in his caucus on school funding issues.

If reform is going to occur, Barickman said, the group  and ultimately the General Assembly  will have to come to a consensus on complicated issues such as property taxes and achieving parity among school districts, from Chicago Public Schools, the nations third largest, to tiny rural districts.

Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, the point person for the Senate Democrats on school funding issues, said he believes the group will be able to complete at least a set of specific recommendations that could be the framework of legislation.

I personally believe that we can produce a bill before Feb. 1, Manar said, adding that others on the commission might disagree.

Barickman said he believes the more likely scenario is a number of separate bills based on the commissions recommendations.

None of those recommendations has been put to paper yet, but Manar said he believes theres agreement that the states new approach to school funding needs to take into account the varying needs of individual districts.

Rauner and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle acknowledge that Illinois is among the worst states in the nation when it comes to providing equitable funding for students in its poorest school districts.

A recent report from Advance Illinois, an education advocacy group, notes that under the current formula, Illinois spends 81 cents educating students from low-income families for every dollar it spends educating kids from wealthier ones.

That is just upside-down from what we know needs to happen, said Ginger Ostro, Advance Illinois executive director.

So far, however, long-term proposals aimed at fixing the problem havent been approved because they would either take money away from wealthier districts or vastly increase state spending on public education, both of which are politically challenging.

Despite the political challenges inherent in the debate over education funding and the heated political environment in Springfield in the lead-up to and aftermath of a contentious election, both Barickman and Manar said the commission has managed to keep partisanship out of its work.

Manar said he credits Beth Purvis, Rauners education secretary.

Shes done a fantastic job of leading the commission and keeping us on task, he said.

The governors office did not make Purvis available for comment.

A complicating factor in the groups work is Rauners recent push for a freeze on local property taxes, which are the primary source of school funding in the state.

While elementary and secondary education is funded through the rest of the school year, a stopgap spending plan for other state operations expires Dec. 31. Rauner has said hell only sign another short-term spending plan if lawmakers approve a property tax freeze and a referendum on amending the Illinois Constitution to create term limits for elected officials.

Under Rauners plan, school districts and other local governments would need permission from voters to raise property taxes.

Ben Schwarm, deputy executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards, said there is a lot of concern (among members) about what that would look like and what that would do to their local school budgets.

However, a property tax freeze might be workable if the state shouldered a greater share of the responsibility for funding schools, Schwarm said.

It all works together, and until we know how the rest of these parts are going to move, we dont know what the ultimate impact would be, he said.
BENTON  Franklin County agricultural leaders have reserved feelings about what their industry will look like after Jan. 20, 2017.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, China imported $20.2 billion in U.S. agricultural products in 2015 and the countrys exports to China have increased by 200 percent over the last decade. With President-Elect Donald Trumps strong words toward China on the campaign trail and since winning the election in November, Larry Miller, District Director for the Illinois Farm Bureau, said he is concerned what strong actions against China could mean for his industry and for those farmers he represents in seven Southern Illinois counties.

Im afraid that if  there is a tax on products coming into the United States then they are going to retaliate, Miller said.

He thinks Trumps ideas about bringing back industrial jobs to the U.S. are important, but wants to make sure that need is balanced against the needs of rural America.

Yeah, youve got to protect the American worker, Miller said. But the American farmer has been the backbone of our markets and our economy in this country.

Leon McClerren, the Franklin County Farm Bureau president, agreed. McClerren and Miller both conceded, though, that there is the chance that in an effort to improve industrial infrastructure in America, agriculture may have to languish for a time.

Neither liked the idea, but McClerren was hopeful it will work out in the end.

I think that any segment of our society, no one wants to be the one who has to pay the price for the good of the whole, McClerren said.

He remains hopeful for now, though.

At this point I think most people look at what they are seeing going on in the news, theres a lot of rhetoric ... but we really are not seeing anything concrete that is saying OK, we are going to upset the applecart, McClerren said of Trumps talking points these last few months.

Both are hopeful, though, that a Trump presidency will mean a more hands-off approach in the Environmental Protection Agency. McClerren said this is what he would want most to talk to the president-elect about were he given the chance. He said he wants more common-sense solutions given to farmers instead of EPA regulations.

Every farmer is an environmentalist, McClerren explained, adding that each farmer has a duty to protect the land he uses. He and Miller both want more trust to be put on the farmer.

Miller and McClerren both hesitantly cast their ballot for Trump in November. Miller said he hopes Trump acts on the behalf the rural Americans.

I think hes got to remember how he got elected, and I think he will, he said.

McClerren admits that he does not know how a Trump presidency will shake out.

Im not sure that he is what we need, but I just didnt feel like we needed anymore of what we had, McClerren said. I cant tell you that I think Donald Trump will be a great president, but he will be a different president.
SPRINGFIELD  A battle of words has broken out between Illinois' former and current comptrollers after Democrat Susana Mendoza said her new offices felt "looted" and Republican predecessor Leslie Munger threatened a lawsuit.

Mendoza tells WLS-AM radio's "Connected to Chicago" show in an interview that airs Sunday that when she took over for Munger this month furniture had been removed, documents were missing and keys didn't match locks. Mendoza defeated Munger in the November general election.

"There's not a single piece of paper or paper clip left in any of the offices that have been vacated," Mendoza said. "It did kind of feel like the place was looted."

Mendoza said she couldn't make a "definitive statement" about if "pilfering" was involved. Mendoza said her employees would "do our best over the next few weeks to hopefully find all of these things."

In response, Munger called Mendoza's claim "outrageous."

"She's making claims that she has no support for, and she's doing it to damage my image, and if she continues it, I intend to sue her," Munger told the Chicago Sun-Times. "We did not go in and ransack everything."

Munger said there was a full inventory of the two comptroller offices in Springfield and one in Chicago with no missing items belonging to the state.

"Comptroller Mendoza has honestly responded to questions about the lack of documents she found and the items that appeared to be missing upon taking office after her requests for transition meetings were ignored," Mendoza spokesman Abdon Pallasch said in response to Munger's statements.

Munger said she didn't have anything to share with Mendoza.

"I have nothing to leave her a note about other than to say, 'Good luck to you. You asked for this,' " Munger told the newspaper.

Rauner hand-picked Munger to be comptroller when former comptroller Judy Baar Topinka died in December 2014. Mendoza will finish out the last half of the four-year term.
Social service providers suing Illinois over lack of payment during the budget impasse have appealed their case to force immediate payment.

A Cook County judge dismissed the lawsuit in August, saying it belonged in a higher court. The group requested intervention from the Illinois Supreme Court, but the state's highest court denied it last month.

The group's complaint this week with the Illinois Appellate Court alleges a "breakdown of constitutional government." The budget stalemate is in its second year.

About 60 organizations remain in the Pay Now Illinois coalition, down from roughly 100. They've claimed they're owed over $160 million because Illinois didn't honor contracts.

The lawsuit names Gov. Bruce Rauner and agency leaders.

One provider is the Chicago-based Ounce of Prevention Fund, which is run by Rauner's wife, Diana.

 The Associated Press
MARION  Debbie Gunter said she has never participated in any political marches or protests.

But the Marion woman, a retired professor of forestry and self-described "granny" said this past election cycle has made her angry enough and concerned enough that she intends to do whatever it takes to join the Jan. 21 Womens March on Washington in the nation's capital.

Shes one of several Southern Illinois women who have signed up to leave on a rally bus from Carbondale on Jan. 20, the day of president-elect Donald Trumps inauguration. That bus  along with the dozens of others from around the country  is scheduled to arrive in Washington at about 8 a.m. on Jan. 21.

The bus is scheduled to leave that same day at 8 p.m., and arrive back in Carbondale just before midnight on Jan. 22. The Carbondale bus is still tentative at this point; 32 more people have to sign up to fill it, according to rallybus.net. Thats the website of a company called Rally, which is not directly associated with the grassroots march but describes itself as a bus company specializing in the use of crowd-powered travel to mobilize communities. Tickets cost $250 per rider, according to the site.

There are buses leaving from a multitude of other locations in Illinois and other surrounding states. Gunter said she hopes to join the Carbondale bus, but will travel to find another one if necessary. The march is expected to begin in front of the U.S. Capitol and be the largest demonstration taking place around the inauguration, according to national media reports. March organizers say anyone who supports women's rights is welcome, and that includes men.

I would like to encourage people to use their voice to be heard, Gunter said. The only way to fight the fear is to fight and be vocal.

Gunter, a white woman, said she remembers vividly when her public school was integrated in Pearl, Mississippi. She was in the fourth grade when the first black children were allowed to attend her all-white school.

Gunter said she remembers the horrible things that were said and done to black families during the Civil Rights era in her home state, and how private all-white schools sprang up at the protestant churches in Pearl and elsewhere in response. Gunter said this past election cycle brought her back to her childhood, and she said it seemed as though Trumps rhetoric on the campaign trail embolden some people to say horrible nasty things about women and minorities in similar ways.

I can remember how hysterical and afraid and horrific people were about that, she said of integration of her Mississippi school in the mid-1960s. Of todays offensive actions and language, she said, Its the same type of people, the same type of language. Gunter met her husband at Mississippi State, where they were both professors of forestry. When her husband retired, they moved to Southern Illinois. Hes originally of McLeansboro.

Gunter said that her top concern about a Trump presidency is that hes indicated a desire to roll back climate change regulations established by the Environmental Protection Agency. Some corporations, farmers and coal companies have complained of onerous regulations hurting their industries. But she said that rolling back environmental protections, if Trump is successful in doing so, is going to hurt us in ways that we dont even conceive of.

She said her other top concerns are what she sees as Trump's demonization of minorities, women and people in the LGBTQ community, and the abandonment of American principles that afford equal rights to all. She also said she fears an attack on womens reproductive rights.

On the economic front, she said she understands why many people feel angry and betrayed throughout Middle America who have lost manufacturing and coal mining jobs. Gunter said that she also knows many wonderful people throughout Southern Illinois who support Trump and who are not engaging in hate speech. She said she respects their opinions, even though she finds them misguided.

But Gunter said shes heard too many concerning statements come from Trumps mouth not to make some noise about it.

This old granny is standing up, she said. Theres a lot of women who never thought theyd be in this situation and they are afraid enough to do something.

Additionally, there are numerous events being organized in various cities to coincide with the Womens March on Washington. Planning for one is underway in Carbondale, and you can follow developments regarding that demonstration scheduled to begin at noon on Jan. 21 at the Carbondale Civic Center by searching for the event Southern Illinois Womens March on Facebook.

Carla Simmons, of Creal Springs, an administration assistant at The Pavilion of the City of Marion, said she plans to travel on the bus to Washington if one leaves from Carbondale. Otherwise, Simmons said she will be at the Carbondale rally. Saturday is an important deadline in determining whether a bus can leave from Carbondale, because that is the last day to ask for refunds from Rally, she noted.

Simmons said she wants to join the protests because she believes the way the election season polarized Americans was troubling. Both Simmons and Gunter said they cast a ballot for Democratic nominee Hilary Clinton. But both also said they believed that the Democratic Party made missteps, and that party leaders need to do a better job of reaching out to rural Americans who are struggling economically in the face of job losses.

But those missteps do not justify hatred toward women or minority groups, Simmons said, adding that there has to be a better way of bringing everyone to the table and making changes that better America.

The tone and tenor of the election cycle has gotten me in a place right now where Im not necessarily angry or worried, but I feel like I need to add my voice to speaking out and standing up against the hatred, the racism, the misogyny, all the anti-Muslim and anti-gay speech that came out of this election season, she said.

Simmons added: Im a big believer everyone has a right to their own opinion and voice. I dont like that it has gone ugly and that it has turned to hatred.
DENMARK -- Jim Harrisons work lives on not just through his art, but the love he had for his rural hometown.

Harrison died June 18 at the age of 80. He is being remembered as a person who loved Denmark and significantly contributed to its fabric and character.

Not only did Bamberg County lose a human being, but we lost a friend of all people of Bamberg County. Mr. Harrison spent the majority of his life trying to promote Bamberg and the City of Denmark and make it better. The biggest impact has not been just losing him as a person and entrepreneur, but we lost a great champion of Bamberg County, County Councilman Trent Kinard said.

He was a well-known artist throughout not only the local area, but the entire Southeast and nation. His death left a void and we obviously lost a person that could express himself with not only art, but though storytelling as he did with some of his books, Kinard said.

Harrison received a number of local, state and national awards, including the Order of the Palmetto in 2008. The recognition is the state's highest civilian honor.

He was just somebody who invested in the community. He invested not only in Denmark, but all of Bamberg County. By losing that, its been an impact, Kinard said.

He noted that Harrison was instrumental in helping secure funds for Denmarks downtown revitalization project.

Denmark Mayor Gerald Wright said, He contributed in a very significant way to the character of Denmark. And, of course, weve got a park downtown thats named after him. So he was a big presence.

A number of the buildings downtown belong to him, and all of the businesses that were operating in them are still operating. So I dont see that theres been any change in that respect, the mayor said.

Wright said, He had been involved in the tourism effort along the Heritage Corridor. Some of those things, I guess, will not be effective immediately, but later Im sure his absence will be felt.

In 2014, the General Assembly named the intersection of U.S. Highways 321 and 78 the "Harrison Crossroad." Harrisons art gallery is situated at that intersection in downtown Denmark.

Jim Harrison Gallery General Manager Teri Harrell said business is going well.

Of course, we miss Jim and it makes a big difference not having him here. Our online sales have picked up a good bit. We dont have quite as many people coming in here as we used to have, but we still do have people that just come because they admire the work, Harrell said. We have a lot of those, and we have our regular customers that still come.

Harrell said the gallerys prints signed by Jim Harrison are limited and are going fast.

I still have some original paintings and things he drew remarques on. They were a little colored sketch on the painting. Those are special and cost a little bit more than the others. Weve been selling a lot of the big gamecock, which was one of the last things he did. Weve sold a lot of those for Christmas presents this year, she said.

Harrell said Harrison had several projects in mind to help enhance local tourism, including his Denmark Coca-Cola Sign Project, which would have included Coca-Cola outdoor advertisements and wall bulletins that visitors and residents could view and study on an easy walking tour.

Harrell said, That would have been a great project for Denmark. The town had his heart. He always had ideas, and he was very persistent about getting things done.

Harrisons love for the Coca-Cola trademark began as a teen when he served as an apprentice to a sign painter. They painted Coca-Cola advertisements on the sides of barns and stores.

He ended up getting his own contract with the beverage company to do what he always called the Coca-Cola paintings.

Harrell said she hopes to host local artists work at the gallery as has been done in the past to generate more activity.

I hope that maybe we can get this going starting in January or February. Wed like to get people who really hadnt had their stuff out before, new people, but it takes some doing. But that would be good for the community, she said.

Even if youre not in the market for the art, the gallery is a great place to go for a field trip to learn about things. Jim has got an interesting story when you talk about the Coca-Cola logo. I get a lot of churches and schools on field trips, and they can look around and see and hear Jims story, Harrell said.

I think people enjoy coming and seeing this town. Small towns are full of good people.
PORTLAND, Maine  President-elect Donald Trump has tapped ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to serve as his secretary of state. If confirmed by the Senate, where opposition is emerging, the move could have broad consequences for U.S. environmental policy and affect the role the U.S. plays in multinational discussions about climate change.

Here are some questions and answers about the selection of Tillerson.

Q. What's his background?

A. Tillerson, 64, is a Texas native and has spent his entire career at Exxon after graduating from the University of Texas with a civil engineering degree. He started as a production engineer and rose to become general manager of the company's oil production division in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas in 1989. He was named president of Exxon Yemen in 1995 and was later put in charge of Exxon's operations in Russia and the Caspian Sea. After being named president of the corporation in 2004, Tillerson became chairman and CEO in 2006. He was expected to retire next year in line with the company's mandatory retirement age of 65.

Q. What's his relationship to Trump, and who was in the running for the post?

A. Trump has said he believes Tillerson's role as an international businessman for Exxon makes him uniquely qualified for the cabinet position. He has cited Tillerson's experience in "global enterprise" as evidence that Tillerson can represent U.S. interests around the world. The two share an established network of contacts in international government and business, while both lack public policy experience. Tillerson's selection for the nation's top diplomatic job came after former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney emerged as early favorites. John Bolton, a member of President George W. Bush's cabinet, was also mentioned.

Q. What is Exxon's environmental record?

A. Eleven million gallons of oil spilled when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989. The accident fouled birds and marine life and left a lasting stain on Exxon's reputation. Tillerson last year described it as a turning point that ushered in a new "culture of safety." Nevertheless, accidents and violations of pollution regulations have continued. Since 2006, Exxon's pipelines have spilled roughly 350,000 gallons of oil, costing $158 million in property damage and repairs, including major spills in Montana's Yellowstone River and in Mayflower, Arkansas. The Environmental Protection Agency lodged at least 73 enforcement cases against Exxon and related companies in the same period, resulting in $11.3 million in assessed penalties and $436 million in compliance costs, according to an Associated Press analysis.

Q. How has Exxon's position on climate change morphed?

A. Exxon was long considered a leading opponent of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels that scientists say is responsible for climate change. That changed over the past decade, coinciding with Tillerson's leadership and shifting energy markets, said David Levy, a management professor at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. The company now supports imposition of a "carbon tax" that would put a price on each ton of carbon emitted. Criticism lingers. "While the world needs to go one direction, he's been hell-bent as CEO trying to go the other direction," said U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat.

Q. How would Tillerson interact with other countries on climate change?

A. Tillerson would be responsible for representing U.S. interests in international meetings on climate policy and in dealings with world powers about issues that overlap with climate, such as energy, security and environmental protection. John Kerry has put a focus on climate change as secretary of state, in keeping with the agenda of Obama. The selection of Tillerson signals to other countries that the Trump administration is changing diplomatic priorities, said Varun Sivaram, director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change at the Council on Foreign Relations. But he added it's important to note Tillerson has acknowledged that the world is warming. "There certainly is symbolism to nominating the CEO of the biggest oil company in the world as secretary of state," Sivaram said. "I think it's important to separate the man from the symbolism."
South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham is a leading voice on foreign affairs, and his assessment of President-elect Donald Trumps diplomatic team will matter.

Graham is among those coming forward to say Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson could face difficulty in the confirmation process as secretary of state based on his longtime connections with Russia.

Graham said: Mr. Tillerson is a talented businessman with a great deal of international business experience. I look forward to meeting Mr. Tillerson and discussing his world view  especially his views of the U.S.-Russian relationship. Based upon his extensive business dealings with the Putin government and his previous opposition of efforts to impose sanctions on the Russian government, there are many questions which must be answered. I expect the U.S.-Russian relationship to be front and center in his confirmation process.

The senator will play an appropriate role in the confirmation process, working to be sure there are no legitimate reasons that a presidential nominee should not serve.

Concern centers around Tillerson being awarded Russias Order of Friendship in 2013 for a partnership with the state-owned oil company on an Arctic drilling program. That program was put on hold a year later when the United States and its allies slapped sanctions on Russia in the wake of the Crimea invasion. Tillerson has criticized the sanctions.

But Tillersons positions as the longtime head of a major oil company should not be taken as those he will espouse as secretary of state. As the CEO of a major oil company doing business with the Russians, he would logically be representing the interests of his stockholders in keeping the doors to business open. Give him credit for doing his job and being willing to speak out in doing so.

We look forward to Tillerson bringing that kind of commitment to fighting for U.S. interests as secretary of state. His lack of government or diplomatic experience should be more than offset by his experience around the world and with world leaders.

Some big names agree he is a good choice:

 Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state: Rex Tillerson is an excellent choice for secretary of state. He will bring to the post remarkable and broad international experience; a deep understanding of the global economy; and a belief in America's special role in the world.

 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: "Rex Tillerson's decades of experience have been widely recognized for forward-looking strategic planning, managing international partnerships and risk, and focused leadership around the world.  He will bring this critical skills, knowledge and capabilities into an important role after eight years of the Obama administration's uncertain leadership.

 Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Mr. Tillerson is a very impressive individual and has an extraordinary working knowledge of the world. I congratulate him on his nomination and look forward to meeting with him and chairing his confirmation hearing.

 Newt Gingrich: Getting Rex Tillerson to serve as secretary of state is a great achievement by President-elect Trump. He will help make America great again.

Trump looked at a number of candidates for secretary of state, including politicians, bureaucrats and diplomats. He decided on Tillerson, knowing full well the nomination would face criticism and scrutiny.

But lets remember the president-elect is doing exactly what he promised: Picking people who are not from the Washington inner circles.

In the case of Tillerson, its hard to see the Senate going to the mat in opposing one of the new presidents most crucial nominees. And by every indication, it should not.
NORWAY -- The setting was festive on Saturday, Dec. 17, as around 100 area residents came out to enjoy the first Norway Community Christmas Dinner sponsored by the Three Crosses Ministry.

The tables were decorated with poinsettias, and the serving tables were laden with covered-dish offerings. There was no reason for anyone to leave hungry as participants enjoyed a variety of meats and side dishes and a multitude of desserts.

Music was provided by a men's chorus from Shires Chapel Baptist Church.

Bragg Williams of Three Crosses Ministry offered the blessing for the meal, prefacing it by citing the need for not only the Norway community, but all communities, to recognize and support their neighbors to help foster well-being and prosperity for all. He noted that God has commanded all people to love one another, to be kind to everyone and to help others whenever possible.

Three Crosses Ministry plans to make the Norway Community Christmas Dinner an annual event designed to promote unity and fellowship.
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By Azernews

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijans state energy giant SOCAR signed licensing agreements with such companies as Technip, Univation Technologies, Axens and Sinopec Tech as part of the project on construction of Gas Processing and Petrochemical Complex (GPC) in Azerbaijan.

Under the agreement, SOCAR will get a license on the use of relevant technologies provided by the companies, while licensors, in turn, will provide certain engineering and design solutions for the project.

The financing of the project will be carried out within the Chinese Silk Road Economic Belt project.

SOCAR launched the GPC project to maximize added value of the upstream-midstream-downstream oil and gas chain and create a cutting-edge standard processing industry in Azerbaijan.

The primary purpose of the project is to provide the end users in the country with purified natural gas and ensure production of high value added polymers. Under the project, gas processing, and petrochemical plants will be built in Garadagh, 15 km south of Baku.

A gas processing plant will remove carbon dioxide and other toxic components. A petrochemical plant will comprise of a steam cracker, swing polyethylene unit and other units, while approximate annual production will amount to produce approximately 600,000 tons of polyethylene and 120,000 tons of propylene.

Polyethylene and polypropylene produced in Azerbaijan, which will meet the highest international quality standards are planned to be exported to Turkey, the EU, China and other countries.

The project is deemed to mark the beginning of a new era in development of Azerbaijans petrochemical industry and turn the country into a major player in the industry.
By Azernews

By Amina Nazarli

An Association of Turkish businessmen and entrepreneurs is being created in Azerbaijan, said Erkan Ozoral, Turkish Ambassador to Baku.

Ozoral made the remark during a meeting with Turkish entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan, the TRT TV channel reported on December 20.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkey amounted to $2.12 billion in January-November 2016, including $1.05 billion accounted for the export to Turkey, according to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee.

Turkey, which has always held leading positions among the foreign trade partners of Azerbaijan, ranks the second in Azerbaijani imports and the 14th  in the exports. Azerbaijan mainly imports various equipment, electrical appliances, household items, cars, while Turkey imports oil and oil products and gas.

The economic projects jointly implemented by Azerbaijan and Turkey, particularly in the energy sector, have made a significant contribution to the development of the strategic partnership between the two countries.

The partnership between the two countries has turned into a driving force forming policy and economy of the region. Azerbaijan's investments in the Turkish economy are expected to reach some $20 billion by 2020, while the current figure exceeds $6 billion.
By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

The leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries try to contribute to the solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by using their authority.

Russian Ambassador to Baku Vladimir Dorokhin made the remark while talking to reporters on December 20.

Today, the OSCE Minsk Group is dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution, and only one country in this group is represented in CIS  it is Russia. However, the CIS is aware about this conflict," the ambassador said.

The envoy added that the position of the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and other countries is known  they want to contribute to the solution of the conflict.

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 resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of 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 tension high in the region.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has offered condolences to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a lorry ploughed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing and injuring scores.

We were deeply saddened by the news of heavy casualties and injuries as a result of a bloody terror attack in Berlin, the President said in his message.

We are outraged by this tragic event, condemn this act of brutality against civilians and deem it significant to unite efforts in the fight against terrorism.

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to you, the bereaved families, the loved ones of those who died and the people of Germany, and wish the injured the swiftest possible recovery, the Azerbaijani President added.
By Trend

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday that Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) was behind Russian envoy Karlov's assassination, Anadolu reported.

According to Turkish diplomatic sources, Cavusoglu and Kerry had a phone conversation, during which the Turkish foreign minister informed his U.S. counterpart on Andrey Karlov's assassination and the assailant Mevlut Mert Altintas.

Cavusoglu informed Kerry that terrorist group FETO was behind the assassination of Russian envoy to Ankara, according to the sources.

The sources added that Kerry offered condolences to Cavusoglu and expressed sorrow about the incident.

Andrey Karlov died after being shot multiple times at an art exhibition in Ankara on Monday evening.

Karlov was delivering a speech when the assailant, 22-year-old policeman Altintas, opened fire on him.

U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen and his terrorist group FETO is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltrating Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming a parallel state.

Two top diplomats also talked about the trilateral meeting that happened today in Moscow between Russian, Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers.

In the meeting, a joint declaration was agreed on to find a solution in Syria.
The Jaish al-Fatah armed coalition, spearheaded by the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate the Nusra Front, has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, TASS news agency reported on December 21 with reference to the Alsumaria TV network.

Karlov died after receiving fatal wound in an armed assault at an art gallery exhibition opening in Ankara late Monday. Three other people were injured in the attack. The killer, Turkish off-duty police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas, has been eliminated. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the incident an act of terrorism.
This post is prompted by a number of things that have left me pondering how as Christians we are to bring about change in our churches. When we strongly b...

7 years ago
I have a distinct memory of my days at Ashford International Railway Station in Kent, southeast England, more than a decade ago. Some afternoons, I used to watch the undersea train bound for Paris speed by. I would marvel at the sleek high-speed Eurostar train, which showcased the then state-of-the-art rail technology.

Technology has since evolved pretty fast. There's been a geographic shift too in the balance of railway technology power.

Now, high-speed trainssome call them bullet trainsare ubiquitous in China. High-speed railroads spanned 19,210 km at 2015-end, accounting for more than 58 percent of the world's total. Some 1 billion passengers traveled by high-speed trains in China last year, more than half of the world's total.

China is moving on to invest in magnetic levitation or maglev trains next. Maglev trains in Qingdao, Shandong province, can reach operational speeds of up to 600 km per hour.

Over the last few years, China has demonstrated its competitive edge in high-speed rail technology. Its bullet trains run in various climates, ranging from tropical to alpine conditions, as well as across various geological and geomorphic conditions. And, in the global context, China-made high-speed trains sport bargain price-tags.

For China, it is a good time to be a bullet train manufacturer in the world market.

There is surging demand for such trains, advanced railway infrastructure, passenger services and regional connectivity in many countries, especially those covered by the Belt and Road Initiative.

It is believed investment in state-of-the-art railway networks would also create jobs, boost commerce and have a knock-on effect on the economy.

Against this background, China Railway Rolling Stock Corp, the country's largest train-maker, is eager to enhance the country's ability to ship high-end rail products.

It has plans to build bullet trains and provide related services in both developing and developed markets, including Malaysia, South Africa, Turkey and the United States. In doing so, it will compete with established rivals from Germany, Japan and Canada.

International bidders had to measure up to new standards for Indonesia's Jakarta-Bandung Railway project last year. China was awarded the contract, beating Japan's bid. What stood out was China's offer to construct the line without any official loan guarantee nor funding from Indonesia. China's bid also assured the project would be operationalized by 2019, four years ahead of 2023 that Japan had promised.

Exports of high-speed as well as regular rolling stock to over 120 countries and regions demonstrate China's commitment to help improve infrastructure the world over, using its high-tech but affordable technologies, rich experience and strong financing ability.

The Chinese approach is marked by an outlook for mutual benefit and shared prosperity. Helping other countries develop their infrastructure would also keep China's rail sector in good stead. There is evidence to this effect. Exports of high-speed rolling stock, signaling systems and other equipment have generated good returns so far.

A case can be made for China to apply its experience in railways to other products, technologies, markets and investments.
Otokar, a major automotive manufacturer in Turkey, recently signed a technology and license deal with an Iranian company on the export and sale of its Navigo buses, said a report.



The Otokar agreement with Iran's Afshan Industrial and Manufacturing Company (OGHAB) covered a three-year period with an option to extend by two years, added the Iran Daily News report.



Otokar further claimed that the deal could generate around $14 million annually.



Otokar is set to export Navigo buses as CKD to OGHAB to be mounted in Iran.



The mounted vehicles will then be sold and marketed by OGHAB as Otokar brand.



Based on the agreement, for the periods after the first year of the contract, a minimum of 500 vehicles will be secured on the condition that the vehicle complies with local legal requirements, added the report.
GE Oil & Gas said that it was recently honoured at the In Kingdom Total Value Add (Iktva) Excellence Awards program that marked the first anniversary of the launch of Iktva, Saudi Aramcos value creating contribution to Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program.



GE Oil & Gas was awarded with the Best in Supplier Development recognition, said a statement from the company.



The iktva Excellence Awards recognise demonstrated excellences in local value creation, and value added local content in Saudi Arabia.



Awardees are recognised local value creation partners of Saudi Aramco.



HRH Prince Saud bin Nayef Al-Saud presented the award to Rami Qasem, president and CEO, GE Oil & Gas, Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, and Rod Christie, CEO, Turbomachinery Solutions, GE Oil & Gas.



Among GEs key initiatives that supported the goals of iktva in strengthening the Saudi supply chain are the opening of the second phase of the GE Manufacturing Technology Center (Gemtec) in Dammam that manufactures heavy duty gas turbines in the kingdom.



GE Oil & Gas has already delivered 12 high-efficiency gas compression trains for the Phase 1 of Saudi Aramcos Master Gas System expansion project, which were assembled fully at Gemtec.



The GE Oil & Gas Pressure Control Manufacturing Facility at Modon in Dammam 2nd Industrial City is another investment by GE that supports the local supply chain. It already has the full competency to manufacture all ranges of wellhead equipment in the Kingdom to the highest specifications. The Pressure Control facility has now tripled its capacity to manufacture wellheads, valves and other equipment for the oil and gas sector in Saudi Arabia, as well as for exports.



GE Oil & Gas also contributes to the iktva program with the GE Oil & Gas Multi-Modal Manufacturing Center, a manufacturing, assembly, repair, services, and training facility in Dammam that will create 100 high quality jobs. It will serve as a hub for the full portfolio of businesses under GE Oil & Gas, including digital solutions, downstream technology solutions, turbomachinery solutions, subsea and surface, as well as all services of the recently acquired Alstom Grid business.



Further, GE, Saudi Aramco and Cividale SpA are jointly working to build the Mena regions first-of-its-kind, world-class Forging & Casting manufacturing facility, which will supply the kingdom and global markets with forged and cast materials for the marine and energy industries. With a total investment of $400 million, the facility will be operational by 2020 and create over 2,000 new local jobs.



Through this award, GE is recognised for its efforts in developing the capabilities of in-kingdom suppliers in a number of areas, such as technical capabilities, technology transfer, quality improvement and integration into the international supply chain. Other considerations included GEs costs in supporting development of local supply-chain capabilities, said the award citation by Saudi Aramco.



Qasem said: Winning the first iktva Excellence Award is a great honour for us, and a strong testament to GEs continued commitment to localisation not only in Saudi talents but also in building the SME ecosystem of the kingdom.



We empower our Saudi suppliers to strengthen their technical competencies, help build an assured market for their products, create new jobs for Saudi youth, and also drive exports growth, contributing to the increased competitiveness of the economy, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has officially inaugurated a 400/132-kilovolt (kV) substation at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.



The Dh275-million ($75 million ) substation has a conversion capacity of 1,515 megavolt amperes (MVA), said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, the managing director and chief executive of Dewa, at the launch ceremony held in the presence of senior officials from Swiss firm ABB, the main contractor of the project, and Dewa.



One of the first projects of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the substation will transmit and transform electricity produced from solar energy and connect it to Dewas grid.



The substation is also the first of its kind in the UAE to integrate clean energy with the traditional energy grid, he stated.



Al Tayer, accompanied by ABB officials, toured the site of the project, which consists of four sections. The first includes a 400-kV substation with 11 gas-insulated switchgear (GIS).

The second section converts from 400 kV to 132 kV with a conversion capacity of 1,515 MVA. It includes three 400/132 kV interconnecting transformers. The third section has 21 GIS, while the fourth section houses the control and safety facilities.



ABB cooperated with a number of companies, including Energo and Comodor, to complete the project.



Frank Duggan, the president of Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA) at ABB, said the company was pleased to support Dubais clean energy vision by being a technology partner to Dewa at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.



"As a leader in the energy revolution, ABB is perfectly positioned to support growth of renewables in the UAE energy mix and strengthen its power infrastructure," remarked Duggan.



According to him, it will be the first 400 kV station in the UAE connected to integrate solar energy, facilitating reliable and efficient transmission of clean power.



"We look forward to continuing to support Dewa, which has earmarked sustainability as a key focus area to complement federal development plans for a green UAE economy," he added.



Dewa said the project was completed within a record time of 26 months taken for construction of power stations with a capacity of 400 kV. Also, no injuries or accidents were reported during the construction of the substation, which accumulated a total of 2.6 million man-hours.



"This reflects Dewas commitment to implement projects with efficiency, following up with operations, and monitoring the progress of all projects," noted Al Tayer.



Dewa is now working on increasing the transmission capacity of the substation, and its efficiency, through three 400 kV GIS bays, one 400/132 kV transformer (ICT) with a capacity of 505 MVA, nine 132 kV GIS bays, and four 132 kV shunt reactors, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
The UAE is staking its global leadership in securing smart city services and protecting critical national infrastructure, said an expert.



In the interconnected Internet of Things era, the UAE is one of the worlds best-prepared countries in cybersecurity, ranking 17 out of 105 countries by the United Nations International Telecommunications Union.



The Dubai government also recently launched its cyber security strategic plan to enhance protection of government services.



"As more Smart City and government services become digitized, the Internet of Things is a cyberattack force multiplier, with critical national infrastructure especially at risk," remarked Andrew Calthorpe, the chief executive of UAE-based smart city consultancy Condo Protego.



Condo Protego (Latin for storing and protecting) is a leading regional consultative solutions provider for

enterprises to SME-sized customers.



The company focuses on data storage, virtualization, security, and data protection  providing not only 24x7 support coverage, but also unprecedented 30-minute response time.



"The UAE government is at the global forefront of protecting Smart Cities and providing residents with peace of mind while using government services," noted Calthorpe.



With the number of connected devices more than doubling from 23 billion in 2016 to 50 billion by 2020, cyberattacks will shift to 'disruptive' and 'destructive' attacks, especially on the hybrid cloud, mobile devices, and critical national infrastructure, according to a report by cybersecurity firm RSA presented at a recent industry conference in Abu Dhabi.



As a result, Condo Protego is seeing strong UAE public sector demand for cybersecurity solutions with advanced threat detection and response, such as RSAs Security Analytics.



Channel partners are vital for guiding public sector adoption of cloud or on-premise solutions to future-proof services, and the cybersecurity solutions with the full visibility, analysis, and action to prevent cyberattacks in real-time, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
A US federal jury in New York awarded American Airlines $5.1 million on Tuesday in an antitrust trial against the travel technology company Sabre Corp, a report said.



The lawsuit alleged that Southlake-based Sabre forced US Airways to sign a contract that prevented the airline from providing airfares to travel agents through direct connections, reported Star-Telegram.



The contract also barred the airline from offering discount fares to consumers on its website, it said.



American Airlines, which merged with US Airways in 2013, issued the following statement:



We are very pleased with the jurys decision and greatly appreciate the time and effort they expended during the course of this eight-week trial. We have long contended that the contractual provisions at issue  provisions that Sabre has made a condition to participate in its global distribution system  have reinforced Sabres market power, stymied competition, and harmed us and the travelers we serve.



Now that the jury has agreed with us, we hope to see changes in the way our services are sold, and we expect technology and innovation will create even better and more transparent ways for us to distribute our products.



The jury awarded $5.1 million, which by law will be trebled. The company will also be awarded its reasonable costs and attorneys fees.



The verdict was the result of a lawsuit filed by US Airways in 2011 and focused on the US Airways contract with Sabre that expired in 2011. American settled a separate lawsuit against Sabre in 2012.



American Airlines and American Eagle offer an average of nearly 6,700 flights per day to nearly 350 destinations in more than 50 countries.
Turkish Airlines has inaugurated its Havana (Cuba) and Caracas (Venezuela) flights from Istanbul, increasing its destinations in the Americas to 17.



The inaugural flight from Istanbul got water cannon salutes in both airports with a ceremony graced by Mehmet Buyukeksi, member of the board of Turkish Airlines and the senior bureaucrats.



Beginning December 20, Havana and Caracas flights will be operated three times per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays in both directions.



Introductory round trip fares are available from Istanbul to Havana - the capital and largest city of Cuba - and to the Caracas - the capital and largest city of Venezuela.



Flying from Jose Marti International Airport and Simon Bolivar International Airport, the brand new services will also connect passengers departing from Havana and Caracas to 102 worldwide destinations.  TradeArabia News Service


Emirates airline has enhanced comfort in the air with a host of exclusive, new products introduced to its First and Business Class cabins.



Customers will travel in luxury with new additions including First Class lounge wear, luxury blankets, skincare from VOYA and a new range of amenity kits from Bulgari, the airline said.



"Emirates ongoing investment in product reinforces its emphasis on comfort, enhancing the travel experience. The airline has partnered with experts in their respective fields and no attention to detail has been spared in the luxury product overhaul," it said.



For a comfortable nights sleep on board the aircraft, Emirates has introduced the worlds first moisturising lounge wear designed for an airline. It will be available in the First Class cabin on overnight long haul flights. In partnership with Matrix, the suits use Hydra Active Microcapsule Technology designed to keep skin hydrated during the flight. The patented technology uses billions of capsules applied to the fabric which gently releases naturally-moisturising Sea Kelp during movement.



Sea Kelp, a brown sea algae or seaweed normally found in the Antarctic Ocean, is known to be rich in nutrients that hydrate skin while retaining moisture, especially useful in an aircraft environment, it said.



The Microcapsule Technology of the lounge wear locks in the moisturiser for up to 10 washes so customers can re-use them. The suits include matching slippers and eye mask and come in a stylish felt pouch.



For added comfort, Emirates offers a plush, faux sheep-skin blanket in First Class. The soft and luxurious comforter is on board and also sold at the Emirates Official Store.



Business Class customers can also look forward to newly-introduced soft duvets in charcoal grey on their next flight, the airline said.



To complete the relaxing travel experience, a new range of luxury spa products are now available both on board and on the ground from award-winning Irish brand VOYA. Created exclusively for Emirates, this skincare line includes shampoo, conditioner, body wash, cleanser, body moisturiser, hand wash, soap and hand cream. It will be available in the signature A380 shower spa on board and selected products in Emirates airport lounges. The hand and body cream can also be found in the First and Business Class washrooms.



The range for Emirates includes three different fragrances: rosemary & mint (Revitalise range), lavender & rosemary (Tranquility range) and lime & mandarin (Soothing range). VOYAs line of skincare is made from sustainable organic seaweed which has been hand harvested in Sligo, Ireland. The brand is a mainstay in luxury boutique spas worldwide and is now available in the skies on Emirates.



Emirates has also partnered with luxury Italian brand Bulgari for its latest designs of the airlines exclusive kit bags. The new set of amenity kits for both First and Business Class feature Bulgaris woody floral fragrance  Eau Parfumee au the noir - and contain skincare essentials to keep customers feeling fresh and pampered throughout the flight.



The First Class kit bags, made from fine leather, come in eight designs in charcoal grey for men and pale grey for women. Eight additional designs are available in Business Class  four for men and four for women. The amenity kits are available on long-haul overnight flights.



Emirates was named Worlds Best Airline at the prestigious Skytrax World Airline Awards earlier this year, a testament to its continuous investment in products and services. -TradeArabia News Service


Residents of Saudi Arabia can now apply for visas to Belgium and Luxembourg at a visa application centre launched for the Embassy of Belgium for the first-time in the Middle East.



Visa applicants can visit the centrally located VFS Global centre located on the First Floor at Dove Plaza, Umm Al Hamam Street, Umm Al Hamam, Riyadh, to submit their visa applications and enrol for biometrics.



Services at the centre commenced on December 12.



The well-appointed centre caters to the growing needs of outbound travellers from the country. With Belgium and Luxembourg emerging as popular travel destinations, the new centre will offer applicants greater convenience and enhanced quality of services when applying for their visas, said a statement.



Since commencing visa processing operations for Belgium in 2006, VFS Global serves the client government in 10 countries from 51 visa application centres across the globe. In Saudi Arabia the company currently serves 21 client governments, from 67 visa application centres located across the country.



Speaking at the launch of the centre, Geert Criel, Ambassador of Belgium in Riyadh, said: We are very happy to work with VFS Global in Saudi Arabia. Travellers to Belgium will not be required to come to the Embassy for their visa application anymore, but will be able to introduce their applications in the VFS centre, initially only in Riyadh, but later also in other parts of the country. This will ensure a client-friendly and efficient service. We are looking forward to an increase of business and tourism travellers from Saudi Arabia to Belgium.



Srinarayan Sankaran, COO  Middle East, VFS Global, said: It is an honour for us to extend visa services for the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium to applicants in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The centre will help make the visa procedure faster, smoother, and more convenient, significantly contributing to the advancement of travel to Belgium and Luxembourg from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We are confident that our centre will be successful in providing accessible and world-class services to our applicants. - TradeArabia News Service


So when they butt-stroked me to the head from an AK-47 and I was bleeding down the side of my face and they threw me back in the cell I could
Students wont be able to return to classes at Midwest School until next fall, more than a year after an oil well leak forced the school to evacuate and close indefinitely, officials said Tuesday.

A radon-like mitigation system is being designed and will be built and installed by April. The system will take air beneath the school and pump it out into the atmosphere above Midwest. Alarms and monitoring stations will also be positioned around the school, and there will be periodic testing for at least two years, officials said.

In late May, the school was evacuated and later closed indefinitely because of the leak. Testing revealed high levels of carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds, which can be found in paint, aerosol cans and oil and gas wells.

Students and staff reported headaches, sore throats and other symptoms, and a state report released last month said the symptoms were likely caused by the leak.

Midwest students finished the last school year in Casper, and principal Chris Tobin had hoped to be back in Midwest after the summer. That hope faded and was replaced by a plan to have students spend only the fall semester in Casper, a round-trip bus ride of more than 80 miles, and then be back in Midwest by winter 2017.

Kelly Eastes, spokesman for the Natrona County School District, said that timeline was constructed before experts from Geosyntec, which is designing the mitigation system, arrived and warned that it would take longer.

So more than 100 students in kindergarten through eighth grade will continue busing to the old Westwood Elementary building, and around 55 high school students will finish the year at Pathways. Both schools are in Casper.

Its been a challenge for everybody. Parents, students, staff, Tobin said. We handled it well, we are handling it well, but a person can only take so much change.

The travel time  students leave for school at around 6:45 a.m.  leaves elementary students tired in the mornings, but Tobin proudly said the kids were champions.

Though there remains a risk of future leaks, she said she isnt interested in moving permanently to a new building or school.

When we went back to get our supplies (for the second semester), teachers were like, Oh, I miss this place, she said. Its home. We need to be back here.

Tobin said that even if there was interest in building a new school and funds were available to do it, a new building erected away from the Salt Creek oil field that surrounds Midwest would take the school farther from the town.

The school is the heart of the town, she explained. Many in the town of more than 400 have a connection to the school and will come out to cheer on Midwest at sporting events.

With the more than 150 students gone for nearly 12 hours a day, some residents have said Midwest feels like a ghost town.

Still, the schools location isnt ideal.

I dont have blinders on, she said. We live in an oilfield. Nobody can say with certainty that this wont happen again.

Oilfield school

The school is surrounded by the Salt Creek oilfield, which is operated by FDL Energy. After the leak was reported, FDL plugged the responsible well. Testing taken two days after Midwest was evacuated revealed benzene at 200 times safe levels.

Benzene poses short- and long-term health risks. Breathing it in can cause dizziness, headaches and confusion. Inhaling extreme concentrations can cause death, and long-term exposure can increase the risk of cancer.

Federal officials have said they cant guarantee the safety of students and faculty in the future. Officials are hoping the measures that will be put in place this spring will prevent further leaks. FDL is footing the bill for the mitigation system, including Geosyntecs design.

Theyve been incredible at working with us, said Audrey Gray, the health preparedness manager for the Casper-Natrona County Health Department. Theyve been very cooperative ... Theyve been very good at hand-holding with us.

The company has deep roots in the Midwest area, Tobin said, and many in the town work for the company. Her husband, son and son-in-law all work in the oil field, so she trusts their safety standards.

But she acknowledges theres no way to say for certain that a leak wont happen again.

Despite the circumstances and inconvenience of the move, Tobin said only three families have left Midwest School. At this point, the students who stuck with the school through the past year are likely to stay, she said.

Students are excited to get back to Midwest, even the kids that live in Casper, said Tobin, who splits her time between Pathways and Westwood. Were all under the same roof (at Midwest). Its just a closer-knit environment.

Before students can go back to the school next fall, Gray said the building has to pass a series of tests. Then there will be periodic testing; should those examinations continually show clean air, the testing will become less frequent over a two-year period.

Tobin said there was some concern in the community about the long-term effects of the leak, and others wondered how long the well had been leaking gas into the building. In November 2014, an odor was detected and two Midwest kitchen workers became sick. One had to be flown to Casper for treatment.

Local, state and national health officials then conducted what they described as an exhaustive investigation.

We couldnt find anything, Gray said in June. It was inconclusive.

In June, a recent Midwest graduate told the Star-Tribune that shed had hives and worried about the health of her newborn. Another mother said her two sons had experienced fatigue, headaches, grogginess and a loss of appetite.

Gray said the risk for long-term health problems, like cancer, is very low.

Tobin said she wouldnt let students back in if she didnt think it would be safe. She repeated that she couldnt be certain that it wouldnt happen again, but she was confident in the work being done and the safeguards being installed. Shes ready to go back.

Its old and we love it, she said. And its home.
Wyoming will be obligated to provide enough water to fill a large Montana reservoir under a ruling from a special master appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But the ruling would provide the state only minimal compensation from its long-running legal dispute with its southern neighbor. It also would block Montanas bid to be reimbursed for some costs related to the case.

Montana claimed in a 2007 lawsuit that it had been shorted on water flowing down the Tongue River from Wyoming during 15 years over the past several decades, hurting the agriculture industry in the arid region.

As the case stretched across the tenures of three attorneys general, Montana officials racked up more than $4.6 million in legal and consulting fees and other expenses through May 2014, according to information released by the state at the request of The Associated Press.

Justice Department spokesman Eric Sell said Wednesday that only some of those costs were recoverable. He did not have a precise figure.

The Supreme Court must approve this weeks ruling from Special Master Barton Thompson Jr., a Stanford University law professor.

Ranchers and farmers in both states depend on the Tongue River, which flows north from Wyoming and eventually joins the Yellowstone River. Montana argued in its lawsuit that Wyoming for years had broken a 1950s-era water compact by allowing irrigators, oil and gas companies and small reservoir owners to take too much water from the Tongue and Powder rivers.

The claims on the Powder River were eventually dismissed.

Going forward, Thompsons ruling would require Wyoming to ensure enough water passes over the state line to fill the Tongue River Reservoir near Decker, Montana, to near capacity.

Despite being rebuffed on the legal fees, Montana Attorney General Tim Fox declared victory. The decision was a big win because it forces Wyoming to recognize Montanas right to water for the reservoir, he said in a prepared statement.

But after justices in March concluded shortages had previously occurred in just two of the years Montana claimed, Thompson said Montana deserves less than $36,000 in compensation. Wyoming could alternatively provide an equivalent value in water for the Tongue River Reservoir, said Thompson.

Thompson also said Montana was not entitled to costs incurred since February 2010, when he issued his preliminary recommendations in the case.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said he, too, was pleased with the decision, adding that he looked forward to bringing the decade-long dispute to a close.

Either side can appeal the ruling.
CHEYENNE  Both the Wyoming State Hospital in Evanston and the Life Resource Center in Lander would see major changes under schematic designs taking shape for the facilities.

The designs were discussed Tuesday at a meeting of the Joint Legislative-Executive Task Force on Department of Health Facilities in Cheyenne.

The state hospital and Life Resource Center are mental health facilities owned by the state Department of Health. Both are in need of upgrades due to a number of factors, including age and capacity issues.

The renovations are part of a larger plan to transition the state hospital to a short-term care facility and the Life Resource Center to a long-term facility, with the campuses better complementing one another.

Under the current design plan, the state hospital would largely be relocated to a large addition onto the Adult Psychiatric Services building, which is the newest on the hospitals campus.

A new parking lot would be built, and the architecture of the new construction would match what is already on the campus, said Arien Cartrette of Architecture Plus, a firm assisting with the design.

Originally, some of the existing state hospital buildings would be demolished as part of the renovation. However, demolition has been shelved for the time being in order to give the Evanston community time to come up with an alternate solution to tearing the buildings down.

Some of the buildings on the state hospital campus are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Not demolishing the older buildings would not delay the new construction.

At the Life Resource Center, many of the buildings on the campus would be demolished to make way for new facilities, including new cottages, or residence buildings.

Cartrette said the redesigned Life Resource Center would retain its pedestrian-oriented campus.

The state has budgeted $145 million for the entire Wyoming State Hospital/Life Resource Center renovation project. But there is concern construction costs could go over the projects budget, and as a result, the task force will review the plans to see where savings can be gained.

I think were going to need to look at scope reductions, said David Hart of MOCA, a consulting firm assisting with the project.

Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, the chairman of the task force, said changing the scope of work was the logical thing to do.

Other options the task force has are to only renovate the state hospital, which is a higher priority than the Life Resource Center, or renovate the state hospital and then use leftover budgeted money on the Life Resource Center.

Officials have said renovating both properties at the same time, though, is the most efficient option, rather than saving more work for later.

The task force plans to have a design nailed down in time for the Legislature to approve construction during the 2017 session. If that happens, construction could begin in 2018.
PHOENIX  A judge declined this afternoon to block the voter-approved hike in the minimum wage from taking effect as scheduled on Jan. 1.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Daniel Kiley rebuffed arguments by business interests that Proposition 206 should have been split into two separate measures, one to set the minimum at $10 an hour and the other to require that employers give workers at least three days of paid personal leave.

Kiley also said there was no merit to the claim that the initiative violates a state constitutional provision that requires any voter-approved measure to have a separate source of revenues to cover the costs.

The judge said it may be that the state's Medicaid program will increase what it pays to private contractors which offer nursing home and in-home services that now need pay workers only $8.05 an hour.

But he said nothing in the initiative mandates the higher expenditure. And he pointed out that both Arizona law and the contracts with Medicaid providers have provisions saying the state does not have to spend money it does not have.

Today's ruling is unlikely the last word.
Business interests are using arguments supplied by the Ducey administration in their bid to quash the minimum wage hike approved last month by voters.

But the governors press aide said his boss, who opposed Proposition 206, is not trying to kill in court the wage hike for hundreds of thousands of Arizona workers that he could not defeat at the ballot box.

In legal arguments Tuesday, attorney Brett Johnson, representing the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, cited claims by officials of the states Medicaid program that it has a legal obligation under federal law to pay its private contractors more once the minimum wage goes up on Jan. 1 to $10 an hour. Johnson said without the state increasing what it pays contractors, they will default because they cant afford to pay their workers more than the $8.05 an hour now required.

What that means, Johnson told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Daniel Kiley on Tuesday, is the state will be in default of its obligations to the federal government, which picks up much of the cost.

He said that proves his claim that Proposition 206 violates a provision of the Arizona Constitution that says voter-approved measures requiring increased state spending must have a dedicated funding source, like a new tax or fee. There is no such source of dollars in the initiative.

It isnt just the claims of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, whose director reports to Gov. Doug Ducey, that Johnson is using to try to convince Kiley to void the voter-approved law. He also had the benefit of arguments of the state Department of Administration and the state Industrial Commission, both agencies run by Ducey appointees, who claimed in their own legal filings that they, too, would incur additional costs.

But Daniel Scarpinato, press aide to Gov. Doug Ducey, said theres nothing political about the claims.

They are providing objective facts about the operation of Medicaid and Prop. 206s effect on the existing law, he said.

But no one from AHCCCS or the Governors Office immediately responded to questions of when the agency had reason to know that the initiative, whose signatures of support were submitted in July, would have a financial impact. What is clear is that argument was never made by foes to voters.

Tuesdays legal arguments put the Ducey administration at odds with Attorney General Mark Brnovich, whose agency is defending the constitutionality of the law.

Assistant Attorney General Charles Grube did not dispute that AHCCCS may be moving to increase what it pays its contractors to keep them on board. But he told Kiley that the constitutional provision being cited by foes as a reason to overturn the initiative only makes it illegal if it proposes a mandatory expenditure of state revenues for any purpose.

He said that language was designed to ensure that voters did not enact new or expanded programs without coming up with a way to pay for it. Grube said while AHCCCS may believe it needs to pay its contractors more, nothing in the initiative actually mandates it.

Ditto, he said, of claims by the Industrial Commission that a new requirement in Proposition 206 for companies to provide workers with at least three days of paid personal leave will force that agency to hire people to enforce that.

Hanging in the immediate balance is whether Kiley issues an order blocking the wage hike from taking effect as scheduled Jan. 1 while foes prepare legal arguments to quash it permanently.

Of note is that its not just state agencies that Johnson wants protected from having to spend more. He is asking Kiley to rule that even private companies unaffected by state contracts should be excused from hiking the pay of their workers or providing them paid leave.

That would affect hundreds of thousands.

Campaign chairman Tomas Robles said figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show about 770,000 Arizonans  close to a quarter of the labor force  are making less than $10 an hour and would get an immediate pay boost on Jan. 1 if the measure is allowed to take effect. He also estimated about 934,000 Arizonans are in jobs where employers provide no paid sick leave.

Kiley did not say when he will rule. But the judge is working not only against the Jan. 1 effective date of the new law but the certainty that whoever he rules against will seek immediate Supreme Court review.

On paper, the initiative is simple enough. It says employers must pay workers at least $10 an hour beginning next year, rising to $12 by 2020. Companies whose workers earn tips can pay $3 an hour less, but only if they prove their employees take in at least that much.

There also is the new mandate for paid leave.

Voters approved it on a 58-42 margin.

Last week, AHCCCS announced it would have to increase what it pays companies that provide in-home and nursing care for the needy and those with disabilities. Grube said thats a decision of the agency, not anything mandated by the initiative. And he cited several Arizona laws which say that the state cannot be forced to spend money it does not have.

But AHCCCS attorney Logan Johnston, in his court filing, said federal law requires AHCCCS to establish payment rates (for contractors) that are sufficient to ensure that eligible persons have adequate access to care.

It is also AHCCCS position that the net effect of Proposition 206 on payment rates is to impose a requirement of the expenditure of state revenues that would not be necessary but for Proposition 206, Johnston wrote.

Johnson seized on that statement to argue to Kiley that the initiative does, in fact, mandate the state spend more money.
A national financial-services firm that specializes in retirement, college and health-care savings is opening a Tucson office with plans to hire up to 170 associates.

Ascensus, based in Pennsylvania, will open its office at the UA Tech Park at Rita Road, on the citys southeast side.

Tucson was selected as the site of its new office, following a national search, because of the citys workforce and the facilities at Tech Park.

The time zone will also allow Ascensus to add more clients in the Pacific Time Zone, said Roberta Hess, vice president of marketing and communications. It is the companys first location in the West.

Positions to be filled include service-center representatives, actuaries, account managers and software developers.

The company will initially hire about 50 people and is to open in mid-2017. Most positions will require a bachelors degree.

Tucson is experiencing incredible economic growth as a result of industry-leading companies like Ascensus creating hundreds of high-quality jobs in the region, Gov. Doug Ducey said in a statement. We could not be more pleased to welcome Ascensus to Arizona and congratulate them on their success.

Founded in 1975, the company specializes in record-keeping, administrative and program-management services. It supports more than 46,000 retirement plans and 3.8 million 529 college savings accounts.

We have absolutely enjoyed working with the community leaders weve met so far and we are looking forward to moving into the community, Hess said.

Bruce Wright, associate vice president and chief executive officer of Tech Parks Arizona, said Ascensus will lease the second floor of an existing building, about 22,000 square feet.

We look forward to our future growth together, he said.
After 13 years of serving up eggs Benedict with handmade hollandaise and ribs slathered in the house special chipotle prickly pear barbecue sauce, Todds Restaurant at Ryan Airfield in Three Points is officially closed.

The restaurant, 9700 W. Ajo Way at the edge of the airfield, has been unofficially closed since late September. Thats when owners Todd and Shari Scott moved everything out of the building, from the kitchen equipment to the artwork on the walls, to make way for a $120,000 Tucson Airport Authority renovation project.

Work  which included a new roof, new booths and maintenance on the air conditioning and heating systems  stretched through the month of October and into early November, when the couple had anticipated signing a new lease and reopening. But the Scotts and the TAA couldnt come together on one issue: operating hours.

The airport wanted the restaurant to be open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.; the couple wanted to continue opening at 8 a.m.

They just didnt want to (open early). From all indications we have, that is a big deal with people who want to use that restaurant, said TAA spokesman David Hatfield, the senior director of business development and marketing.

Shari Scott said the extra two hours wouldnt have done much for the restaurants bottom line. She and her husband had been struggling since the economic downturn, which was partly to blame for the loss in 2008 of one of Ryan Fields biggest tenants  a flight school with 250 students from around the globe.

It was a bit challenging, Scott said. Theyve never replaced any of these tenants, but we managed to get through.

The TAA has received three inquiries from Tucson restaurant operators interested in the space. Hatfield said the agency hopes to have a restaurant open again in January.

Scott said she and her husband have no immediate plans to open a restaurant, but they are considering working on bottling their barbecue sauce, which was a hit with diners.
Scott Girod is changing the name of his downtown pizzeria after learning that Monello is trademarked by a San Diego restaurant.

The new name: Anello.

Monello is Italian for brat or street urchin; Anello is Italian for ring, as in come full circle, which describes Girods journey from the kitchen of award-winning pizzaiolo Chris Bianco to opening his own pizzeria.

Girod worked for Bianco for several years in Phoenix and Tucson, where Bianco had Pizzeria Bianco at 272 E. Congress St., for two years before closing in September.

Girod on Monday said he is shooting for a late January/early February opening for Anello, 222 E. Sixth St., downtown.

Monello in San Diego is an upscale Italian restaurant that serves hand-cut charcuterie and housemade pastas including a lobster spaghetti that goes for $35.

Anello in Tucson will serve hand-tossed pizzas for around $11 and most other menu items wont top $6.

Ryan Field seeks new restaurant vendor

Todds Restaurant at Ryan Field in Three Points is officially closed and the airfield is officially in the hunt for a new restaurant vendor.

As of early this week, Tucson Airport Authority, which oversees Ryan and Tucson International Airport, had inquiries from three possible vendors, said TAA spokesman David Hatfield. They hope to reopen the restaurant sometime in January.
PHOENIX  Local officials cannot use federal laws outlawing marijuana to refuse to provide necessary zoning for dispensaries, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

In their unanimous decision, the judges acknowledged the federal Controlled Substances Act makes the possession and sale of marijuana a felony. And they noted that the zoning sought by White Mountain Health Center was specifically to be able sell the drug from a shop in an unincorporated area of Sun City.

But Judge Donn Kessler said Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery had no legal basis to claim that federal law trumps the 2010 voter-approved Arizona Medical Marijuana Act.

He also rejected Montgomerys contention that having county officials issue the required zoning would mean they were aiding and abetting in the violation of federal law.

Montgomery vowed to seek state Supreme Court review.

The fight has its roots in the 2010 initiative that allows those with a doctors recommendation and a state-issued ID card to obtain up to 2 ounces of marijuana every two weeks. That law also set up a network of state-regulated, privately run dispensaries to sell the drug.

Before issuing a permit for a dispensary, state health officials need certification from the local government that the site is properly zoned. White Mountain Health, seeking to locate in Sun City, sought the necessary certification from Maricopa County.

But Montgomery instructed county officials not to respond. He argued that doing so would make them guilty of violating federal laws that prohibit not just the possession and sale of marijuana but doing anything to facilitate either.

And he contended that anything the state does cannot preempt federal law.

Kessler said there are several flaws with that argument. He said nothing in the Controlled Substances Act prohibits states from having their own drugs laws.

Kessler said the fact that Arizona has chosen to legalize the possession and sale of marijuana simply immunizes those involved from being prosecuted under Arizona law.

Arizona, like all other states, has the power to decriminalize certain acts and exempt certain actors for purposes of state law, Kessler wrote. He said there is no conflict with federal law because nothing that Arizona does precludes the federal government, if it wants, from enforcing its own laws.

The Arizona Medical Marijuana Act does not otherwise purport to shield anyone or any act from federal prosecution, Kessler wrote.

And the court rejected Montgomerys contention that county officials would be guilty of aiding and abetting others to violate the Controlled Substances Act.

To aid and abet, a person must associate himself with the venture and participate in it as in something that he wishes to bring about and seeks by his actions to make it succeed, Kessler noted. He said there is no way to conflate the simple zoning matter as actively aiding and abetting in the sale of the drug.

Kessler also pointed out that a provision of a 2015 federal appropriations act specifically prohibits the U.S. Department of Justice from using any of its funds to prevent Arizona from implementing its own laws on the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana. That, he said, eliminate any basis to argue that county officials who are simply doing what the 2010 Arizona law requires might find themselves facing charges of violating federal laws.

The dispensary has since been built, with state health officials using earlier court rulings to conclude that they did not need to wait for the county certification. But Tuesdays ruling undermines future attempts by local governments to try to use federal laws to derail marijuana dispensaries.

This isnt the first time Arizona courts have rejected arguments by prosecutors that federal laws trump what voters approved in 2010.

Three years ago, the Arizona Supreme Court ordered the Yuma County Sheriffs Office to return marijuana that had been seized from a patient.

That case involved a California medical marijuana patient whose drugs were confiscated at a Border Patrol checkpoint near Yuma. The Border Patrol declined to prosecute, turning the drugs over to the sheriffs office.

No charges were brought by the county because the woman was a legal medical marijuana user in California and the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act specifically recognizes laws of other states.

But Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot refused to return her drugs, contending that would put him in violation of federal law.

The Court of Appeals ordered Wilmot to hand the drugs over, saying he could not be prosecuted under federal law.

Both the Arizona Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court refused to disturb that ruling.
A 2008 Chevrolet Silverado truck used by two armed masked men who robbed Nico's Taco Shop on the city's north side was recovered Wednesday morning.

The stolen truck with 22-inch rims was found before 9 a.m. on the street near North Los Altos Avenue and East Blacklidge Drive, said Sgt. Kimberly Bay, a Tucson Police Department spokeswoman.

No one was inside the truck, and no further information about the robbers was released. The investigation is continuing and detectives ask that anyone with information call 88-CRIME, Bay said.

The robbers entered Nico's Taco Shop on Tucson's north side early Tuesday morning and restrained three employees before causing damage and taking money from the fast-food restaurant, police said.

The robbery occurred between 3:30 and 4 a.m. at the restaurant at 2965 N. Campbell Ave., according to a Tucson Police Department Facebook post.

Once the employees freed themselves, they called police. One of the workers was assaulted during the robbery and suffered minor injuries. The other two workers were not injured, police said.

The robbery occurred when one of the workers went outdoors through a rear door of the business. One of the assailants approached him and led him back inside, said police.

The assailants then restrained the employees and damaged the restaurant before leaving with an undisclosed amount of money.
Principal's letter about flag

Dear MHS Parent/Guardian:

I am writing to you to share a new development on our campus. As happens in any community, there are times when we must enact standards regarding issues where individual actions affect the well-being of the members of the greater community.

Over the past month we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of students and staff sharing concerns and students feeling unsafe as a result of the Confederate flag on the Marana High School campus. We have also had parents calling and expressing their concerns. We have a wonderful community of students and families who come from diverse backgrounds, and with diversity comes many opinions about the messages conveyed by symbols and other forms of speech in our nation and world. From the differing parties, I have heard messages of support for the presence of the flag and messages urging me to remove it from the campus. There are advocates on each side of this issue who have passionate feelings.

I want to be clear that as a public school that serves this diverse community, we are not making judgements about the validity of either side; however, we are absolutely responsible to do what is in the best interest of protecting student safety and the well-being of all students. When an element of student speech, whether by symbolic representation or explicit utterance, presents a significant potential for disruption to the education of students and the work of the adults on campus, we are responsible to address the situation. To that end, we concluded, that the display and possession of the Confederate Flag poses a reasonable barrier to feelings of safety and sense of well-being for a large number of our students and staff. As a result, we worked in consultation with legal counsel to ensure we proceeded appropriately. In an effort to keep all students safe, a new rule has been put in place to eliminate this potential disruption on the Marana High School campus. As of Dec 13, the Confederate flag will only be displayed on campus as part of classroom curriculum.

This action represents our efforts to provide a safe and supportive educational environment for all students, with recognition that the Confederate Flag, as a symbol, represents many things. We have a responsibility to teach critical thinking skills necessary as part of our citizenship. To that end, I want to make clear that the Confederate flag is not banned from the academic perspective of our educational efforts. The role of the Confederacy and the symbolic role that the Confederate flag occupies in our discourse as a society is important, and will continue to be present in our curriculum.

Thank you for your ongoing support of our outstanding Tigers and your partnership with our great school.

Sincerely,

Dr. David Mandel

Principal Marana High School
Tucson has joined more than three-dozen cities stating they are willing to fight the incoming Trump administration on behalf of illegal immigrants, as local leaders called for the humane treatment of immigrants and condemned any plans at mass deportations proposed by the president-elect.

Citing a rise of hate crimes and generalized fear in the community about the possibility of widespread deportations, Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said Tucson will continue to stand up for the civil rights for all of its residents.

Tucson remains an immigrant-welcoming community with resources available to help visitors, permanent residents and those seeking to become naturalized U.S. citizens, and none of that is going to change, said Rothschild.

Rothschild said he has received mixed signals out of Washington, D.C., about what steps the Trump administration will take on immigration enforcement. Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail to build a border wall and conduct mass deportations of illegal immigrants.

Any unconstitutional actions, Rothschild said, would be challenged in court.

He noted during a press conference that the city fought SB 1070, Arizonas anti-immigration law, as an example of the citys willingness to fight what local leaders see as unconstitutional measures.

Vice Mayor Regina Romero spoke at a press conference Tuesday night in English and Spanish, telling the public the citys Police Department will not act as federal immigration officers.

This mayor and council is committed to a safe and supportive community for all families and individuals, regardless of status, origin, faith, background, or color, said Romero. We want to send a clear message that the Tucson Police Department is here to protect and serve. We will not act as a deportation force.

The city will not, however, use taxpayer money to help illegal immigrants fight deportation, even though several cities have reportedly already set up similar legal defense funds, using taxpayer money and private funds.

City officials handed out information during the press conference outlining existing services already available in community to illegal immigrants, including legal services.

The entire City Council backed a resolution later Tuesday night reinforcing its commitment to humane treatment of immigrants and condemning any threats of mass deportations.

The resolution, however, carries no force of law.
A Tucson doctor has surrendered his medical license over issues with prescribing and his supervision of liposuction procedures.

Laurance Silverman signed documents to voluntarily give up his license Nov. 10, following a medical board investigation that began in 2015, board documents show.

The investigation was triggered by Silvermans disclosure on his medical license renewal in 2015 that in May 2014 he had surrendered his U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) certificate to prescribe controlled substances.

Silverman had surrendered his DEA certificate for providing controlled substance prescriptions to patients without performing an exam, Arizona Medical Board records say.

The investigation also found that Silverman admitted to allowing a nonmedically licensed individual to perform tumescent liposuction procedures on patients at the med spa where Silverman was medical director.

An agreement with the medical board that is part of the surrender says Silvermans conduct, uncovered in the investigation, constitutes unprofessional conduct.

The Arizona Medical Board can accept the surrender of the license of a physician under investigation if the licensee is either unable to safely engage in the practice of medicine or has committed an act of unprofessional conduct, board officials say.

Silverman had been licensed to practice medicine in Arizona since 1992 and the state medical board lists his areas of interest as physical medicine and rehabilitation.

The Arizona Medical Board documents do not provide a timeline for the unprofessional conduct, do not name the med spa, and the complete investigative file on the case is not public record.

Reached by telephone, Silverman said he feels he was a victim of circumstance as the unprofessional conduct was related to a time when he was supervising a medical assistant named Gustavo Nunez.

Nunez, who is in his 50s, is in jail and awaiting trial on charges that he performed liposuction procedures without a medical license. He was arrested in 2013 after a DEA investigation into his clinic, called NuTec, in an industrial warehouse at 1656 N. 15th Ave.

Silverman had previously been Nunezs medical director when they worked together at LaserOne, a salon day spa in Tucson. Silverman worked there for four years and left in 2012, he told the Star. While working there he had assumed Nunez was qualified to perform the procedures he was doing, he said  although LaserOnes co-owner says Silverman would have had to vet Nunezs background before agreeing to hire him.

In a court filing thats part of the states criminal case against Nunez, prosecutors say that Silverman and Nunez performed about 12 liposuctions together at LaserOne.

Silverman told the Star he will testify for the state against Nunez in the criminal case.

According to my contract, everyone who worked there under me was supposed to be licensed and qualified to do procedures, Silverman said. I am upset with LaserOne. He declined to answer any follow-up questions.

Callie Cox, co-owner of LaserOne, said she has no knowledge of the medical board investigation. Silverman was the medical director when Nunez was hired, so he would have had to both approve his hiring and know his background, she said.

She said that Nunezs arrest was related to events that occurred after he left the day spa.

I would not even have brought Gustavo on board if Dr. Silverman did not approve of him, Cox said. Everything we did when Dr. Silverman was here was on the table as far as I know. There was no funny business here.

Nunez left LaserOne at the end of 2012 to focus on providing services at his own clinic, the court filings say. In a 2014 interview with the DEA, Silverman said that when he left he did independent examinations for insurance companies.

Silverman had an issue with Arizona Medical Board once before for a problem while he was supervising Nunez.

In 2011, the board reprimanded Silverman after a patient, a 55-year-old women, complained that the lip injections she received in 2010 caused severe swelling and necrosis. The board documents dont specify where Silverman was working at the time, only that he was supervising Nunez.

Nunez performed the lip augmentation with a dermal filler, the boards investigation found. The woman said she called Silverman after business hours because of the swelling but was unable to reach anyone, the records say.

An outside medical consultant hired by the board found that Nunez had no record of being certified as a medical assistant, though he did meet the minimum standards for acting as a medical assistant under Arizona law.

However, the outside medical consultant found that in plastic surgery and dermatology it is not accepted practice to allow even certified medical assistants to perform sensitive cosmetic filler injections.

Thats because their training for injections does not include those for cosmetic purposes, and weekend courses and company-sponsored training do not qualify as recognized formal training or certification, the consultant said.

The board in 2011 also found that Silverman violated the standard of care by failing to have after-hours phone support available to patients. The standard of care is to provide such support in the event of complications after cosmetic procedures.
Help India!

By Rajeev Khanna, IANS

Anand : As the Charotar belt in central Gujarat, home to a large number of NRIs and known for agriculture and dairies, votes Sunday, the Congress is trying hard to regain the ground it lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) five years ago.

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Lack of any emotive issue and an apparent failure of Chief Minister Narendra Modis development plank are making it difficult for the BJP to repeat its performance : in the December 2002 poll, it had won 15 of the 17 assembly seats from this region, wresting away the Congress traditional stronghold.

The 2002 poll, however, was fought amid sharp communal polarisation in the aftermath of the train-burning tragedy at Godhra and the sectarian violence that ensued.

This region too had witnessed large-scale violence, particularly in villages around the towns of Anand, Nadiad, Mehmdabad and Kheda. Many Muslims who had fled their homes in the rural pockets are now living in resettlement colonies located on the outskirts of Anand, about 70 km from Ahmedabad.

The BJP is banking on what it sees as Modis charisma. Moreover, a large number of families in Charotar, particularly in Nadiad and Anand, have at least one relative abroad, mostly in the US, and the party hoes that its support base among the Gujarati diaspora would fetch it votes in this region.

Before 2002, this primarily rural belt  famous for the successful cooperative movement in the dairy sector reflected in brands like Amul  had supported the Congress. The party could be on a comeback trail as it did well here in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

There has been no development since the BJP came to power in the state. There is an industrial zone but there are no industries. Modi talks of foreign investments in the state and industrial development but none of those is visible here. Whatever infrastructure you see was developed by the Congress before it lost power, Congress leader Rajendrasinh Vaghela told IANS in Mahtar.

Manubhai Patel from an adjoining village added: As a farmer my only grudge is that the government has failed to deliver regular power supply it had promised. The supply is erratic and not dependable.

However, BJP workers counter these allegations. The power situation has improved over the years and the farmers are getting power for 10 to 12 hours for irrigation, said Jaimin Patel of BJP.

The BJP also claims that the safety and security situation in the area has improved during the Modi rule. When asked about the communal clashes in the region in 2002, Jaimin Patel said: The Godhra (incident) was in 2002. There has been no violence after that.

But the BJP would be worried about the caste equations here. Kshatriyas, an Other Backward Class (OBC) caste, make up for as many as 50 percent of the voters followed by Patels  most of whom are from the Leuva community to which former chief minister Keshubhai Patel of the BJP belongs.

Keshubhai Patels unhappiness with the party was reflected in the thinly veiled criticism of Modi for his autocratic ways. He refrained from casting his vote in the first phase Tuesday and appeals issued by his outfit to voters to vote for change can cost the BJP heavily here.

Two ministers from Modis cabinet, C.D. Patel from Petlad and Dilip Patel from Anand, have been denied the BJP ticket.

Dinsha Patel, a central minister who is contesting the Maninagar seat from Ahmedabad against Modi, represents Kheda in the Lok Sabha, while Anand is represented by Bharatsingh Solanki, the state Congress president and one of the possible chief ministerial candidates in case the party wins.

The voter turnout will be an important factor in deciding the outcome though people here seem to be little interested in the election despite the shrill campaign.

A Muslim vendor in Anand commented: Who cares who comes to power? For me life will revolve around selling coconut milk and trying to make ends meet.
Help India!

By IANS,

Kolkata : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Saturday alleged that the Election Commission (EC) was indifferent to the complaints against the Trinamool Congress violating the model code of conduct (MCC) in West Bengal.

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The party lodged a complaint with the state chief electoral officers Office in this regard.

The EC is indifferent to our complaints of violation of MCC by the Trinamul Congress. It has pulled down posters and banners of our student wing  Students federation of India (SFI), which is not a political party. Its unfortunate that EC has taken double standards in case of implementing MCC, Rabin Deb, CPI-M state secretariat member told reporters.

Deb also said the party will take legal action against Election Commissions double standards.

No steps have been taken by the EC though it was informed that Trinamool Congress activists had put up banners in lampposts and railings beside roads which are public properties. During road shows of Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee, her party supporters had put up posters in railings besides road and dividers, he said.

Admitting that they have received a letter of complaint on the issue, Additional Chief Electoral Officer N.K. Sahana said it will be sent to the ECs office in New Delhi.

The EC will take the decision. No one can block traffic and put political posters in public properties during campaign, he said.
Help India!

New Delhi : Failing to get any clues about missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed after a two day search of the sprawling campus, Delhi Police will now make 10-12 students face the lie detector test.

The Crime Branch has prepared a list of 60 questions to be asked in the test at the Forensic Science Lab (FSL) at Rohini to trace the whereabouts, if he is alive, of Najeeb, who went missing over two months ago.

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Around 10-12 students have received notices from the police to join the investigation, Saurabh Sharma, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) Joint Secretary, told IANS.

At least four of them are from the Left groups and the rest belong to the ABVP (Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad), he said.

I am not sure whether those from ABVP will join the investigation as many of them are not even in town, Sharma said.

He said two ABVP members and JNU students  Vikrant and Ankit  were contacted by police on phone and asked to join the investigation.

Vikrant and Ankit are two of the students found guilty of beating Najeeb just before he disappeared on October 15. The ABVP has denied any involvement in Najeebs disappearance.

Another student, Qasim, who was Najeebs roommate, was taken to the FSL by police and briefed about the impending interrogation.

They just briefed me on the situation. They told me to be prepared and be clear in my mind about the sequence of the events and be able to recall them, Qasim told IANS.

They didnt tell me when the lie detector test will take place. I was the only one taken there today, he added.

Some students who have left the campus during the Christmas holiday will also get notices to appear in the lie detector test, a police officer said.

We are prepared for any interrogation, Mujeeb, Ahmeds cousin, told IANS.

Some 1,000 police personnel mounted a two-day search on Monday and Tuesday in the sprawling JNU campus in south Delhi to get clues about Najeeb.

Najeebs family is critical of the police operation, which followed a order from the Delhi High Court.

Ahmed, 27, went missing after a brawl on the night of October 14 with a few activists of the ABVP, the RSS student wing.

Najeeb was last seen at the campus main gate while hiring an auto-rickshaw to reportedly go to Jamia Millia Islamia campus.


Late Monday night saw devastation just a week before Christmas, when a 7-tonne truck ploughed through a Christmas market in Berlin. The devastation occurred outside the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz, a major public square in the inner city of Berlin. With information limited about who could have carried out such an atrocity, it is best to remember those who have lost their lives.

Questions raised over the reaction from police as they rushed to arrest a local asylum seeker from Pakistan and raided a large shelter of asylum seekers overnight.

Lack of information

The Berlin police have a lack of information as they rushed to arrest an individual and whilst the attack is reminiscent of Nice they arrested a Pakistani man, who has sought asylum, with very little information to go on. If it is confirmed that this was a terrorist attack by an asylum seeker, then it will increase the pressure on Angela Merkel and her asylum policy. However, an unknown police source has told Welt Newspaper we have the wrong man and this means the situation is different. The real culprit is still armed and can commit further atrocities.

Police have urged people to remain vigilant and to report any suspicious activity, but the individual who was arrested, was picked up about 2 kilometres from the scene.

Despite the police source saying that the individual in question was the wrong man, it is unclear whether they have released him yet. During the night time raid of the asylum shelter, it is confirmed that 4 men were questioned but not arrested.

Merkels reaction

Ms Merkel made a brief appearance on Tuesday morning saying that she was horrified, shaken, and deeply sad and that those who are behind the killings will be deeply punished as severely as our laws demand.

She was dressed entirely in black to commemorate the victims of this horrific act just a week before Christmas. She also stated that the attack would be particularly "repugnant" if it was carried out by an asylum seeker.

Germanys Interior Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, confirmed that the driver fled the scene, one of the 12 who have died includes the truck driver, who was found in the passenger seat and that the man arrested was not on any databases of terror suspects, who also denies being involved in the incident.

According to The Guardian ISIL have claimed responsibility for the attack, however, with no evidence to suggest that this may be true de Maiziere is not giving much attention to the message.

Questions raised

There will be questions raised over how the police reacted to the attack by raiding the asylum shelter and arresting the individual of Pakistani origin. Whist the Nice attack shook France and the world, it must not be assumed that those of a specific origin have a connection in this manner. This would further fuel anti-immigration stances and increase the pressure on the likes of Angela Merkel, who is standing for another term as Chancellor.

Whilst new information slowly becomes known, we must not jump to conclusions until it is confirmed as to who carried out these attacks. This time should be spent mourning and remembering the victims of this deeply saddening attack, where a vigil is being held for the victims at the scene.
Following the Berlin Christmas market attack, Nigel Farage has found himself in hot water following an exchange on Twitter with Brendan Cox, the late Jo Coxs husband. He faces legal actions over a tweet he sent blaming Angela Merkel for the recent devastating news that a 7-tonne lorry ploughed through a Christmas market in Berlin.

Nigel Farage said in a tweet Terrible news from Berlin but no surprise, he wrote. Events like these will be the Merkel legacy.

Hope Not Hate

The charity may choose to take legal action against Nigel Farage after he faced accusations of political smearing after Brendan Cox tweeted blaming politicians for the actions of extremists? That's a slippery slope Nigel. To which Farage replied on his LBC radio show well, of course, he would know more about extremists than me, Mr Cox.

He backs organisations like Hope Not Hate, who masquerade as being lovely and peaceful, but actually pursue violent and undemocratic means.

Despite the police admitting that they arrested the wrong suspect and they are currently searching for the culprit, Farage still places blame on Merkels asylum policy despite there being little evidence to suggest it was an asylum seeker. Equally though, there is no evidence to suggest it wasnt an asylum seeker either. With little information currently known, it is best wait for the everything to come to surface before speculating over who and why they did it.
This year, 2016, has not been an easy year. Europe continued to be the focus of several terrorist attacks; the Middle East conflict is just getting worse while the entire world is watching the horrors of the Syrian war. Brexit brought out the worst of the UK with its immigration policies; the far right is rising and gaining peoples support with their discriminatory and racist policies; and the world is fearing for its safety thanks to an orange man with zero political experience who has recently become the official President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump.

So now what?

2016 might have shaped peoples mind for good or for bad, but it has definitely shown us the possible outcome voting for the far right might have. Social media helped us to understand how cruel war can be while we are watching how everything crumbles from the comfort of our house. 2016 showed us, twice, that what might seem as a joke can become a reality and that we will need to live with it; that people vote for an option they thought might never happen, making us question their integrity and their understanding of how powerful their vote can be.

There is still hope

For me, 2017 will bring with it a new opportunity for change, a new opportunity to dream big and make the world a better place.

We will need to stand up against any discriminatory policies and block the increasing popularity of the far-right. We will need to embrace tolerant and inclusive policies, and oppose to those which do not promote those values. 2016 has been a year that makes us realise that if we do not change our approach to politics and get involve making a positive change, we will be witnesses of how our frontiers will be closed and we will no longer be able to freely move around the world, while xenophobic attitudes might become the norm. So let us make the most out of next year and lead a positive change, stand against hate speech and embrace inclusive policies. After all, we are here to make the world a better place.
Former Labour leader Ed Milliband has demanded that the government blocks Rupert Murdoch's bid for the whole of Sky during a speech to MPs today. Milliband, who resigned as Labour leader in 2015, argued that the Media landscape has not altered since the media behemoth attempted to takeover Sky five years ago.

Not for the first time

Ed Milliband stated Murdoch's latest 11.2 billion bid "shows that the Murdochs have learned nothing and think that they can get away with anything they so desire". In 2011, when Milliband was still leading the Labour party, a previous bid by Murdoch's 21st Century Fox was withdrawn amidst the phone hacking scandal.

At the time, politicians stated that they would support a motion to prevent the takeover from going ahead. Murdoch recently ranked in the Forbes top thirty list of the world's most powerful people.

In his impassioned speech, Milliband said: "Nothing material has changed since his [Murdoch] previous bid. They are seeking to turn the judgement of the house, regulator and the government on its head. If it was wrong in 2012, it is still wrong in 2016". Several Labour MPs responded by stating that Murdoch's audacious bid must be delayed until the conclusion of the Leveson inquiry into allegations of corruption in the relationship between the media and the police.

In the dust of the phone hacking scandal, Rupert Murdoch's company News Corp determined to divide its television and film assets from their newspaper and publishing assets.

James Murdoch is now the chief executive of 21st Century Fox, which owns 39 percent of Sky, where James Murdoch is also the chief executive.

Karen Brady, the culture secretary, stated that she would refrain from commenting due to her "quasi judicial" role in the takeover. Ed Milliband, now the MP for the Doncaster North constituency, sought to find reassurance that Murdoch's bid would't be passed until parliament returns from recess on the 9th of January.

In 2011, Milliband argued for the breakup of Murdoch's media empire, suggesting Murdoch possessed too much power over public life.

Milliband said that, in 2011, politicians took a stand against the Murdochs' power in the media before urging prime minster Theresa May to adhere to her pledge to stand up for the voiceless and powerless. A potential Murdoch takeover of Sky raises serious concerns about the future of an independent media in the UK.
Beijing, China experienced a horrifying incident today involving a minivan that crashed into a crowded farmers market. At least four people were killed and dozens have been injured. The scene is vivid in the mind as people recall that just days ago the death truck terror attack in Berlin at a Christmas market left at least 12 dead.

Driver of the minivan that crashed into the market was arrested

CCTV China English service broke the news shortly after the incident on their Twitter account. It was later picked up by the Sun who reported that it is too early to say at this stage whether this is a terror-related incident or just a dreadful and tragic accident.

#BREAKING 4 people dead, many injured after minivan drove into a farmers market in Beijing this afternoon, police say pic.twitter.com/gVUxQJ67bo  CCTVNEWS (@cctvnews) December 21, 2016

A spokesperson for the Public Security Bureau of the Beijing Municipality said that the injured have been taken to hospital for treatment. However, there is no indication yet that this might be related to any kind of terror attack and all they would say is that the police are investigating the incident.

China's State TV reported that the driver of the van has been arrested. Other reports coming in seem to suggest that the incident may not have happened in the middle of the city, but about 40kms away in a rural suburb outside the main city at Chikou Town in the Changping District.

The Changping farmers markets are well known for their good quality organic foods.

Terror attacks in China do happen but no proof this incident was one yet

In the current climate of terror, it is very often assumed that incidents such as this are possibly terror related. However, while there are acts of terror in China, they are by definition often different to how the western world perceives terror to operate.

Most of the terrorist acts in China seem to occur in the northern area of Xinjiang. In 2014 a horrifying attack that killed 31 people happened and AFP reported that "attackers ploughed two vehicles into an open-air market and threw explosives in Urumqi."

The last time there was a major terror incident reported in Beijing was in 2013 when a car blew up into flames in Tiananmen Square. At the time the Chinese Police said that the incident which killed five people and injured dozens was a "premeditated terrorist attack." They later made five arrests in connection with the attack.
To provide real-world data on Japanese patients with overactive bladder (OAB) initiating treatment with the 3 -adrenoceptor agonist, mirabegron. This study examined prescribing patterns, adverse drug reaction (ADR) incidence, and treatment effectiveness.

Full medical histories, including prior/concomitant drug use, were collected before initiating mirabegron treatment. After 12 weeks mirabegron, physicians assessed ADR incidence and treatment effectiveness. Residual urine volume was assessed and patients completed the Overactive Bladder Symptom Score (OABSS) and International Prostate Symptom Score-Quality of Life (I-PSS QoL) surveys at Baseline and 12 weeks. Data were collected between April 2012 and July 2014.

Of 9795 OAB patients (46.8% male; 80.8% 65 years), 71.7% had coexisting disease [notably benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH, 32.4%), hypertension (31.9%), and diabetes mellitus (9.4%)] and 53.4% reported concomitant drug use (27.8% 1 -antagonists, 6.3% anticholinergics). The incidence of total ADRs was 6.07% [including constipation (0.97%), thirst (0.47%), and dysuria (0.44%)], of serious ADRs, 0.21%, of cardiovascular ADRs, 0.48% and of urinary retention, 0.31%. Incidence of total ADRs in patients with concomitant cardiovascular disease was 10.09% and of those related to urinary retention in men with untreated BPH, 0.88%. After 12 weeks treatment, physicians judged mirabegron as "effective" in 80.7% of patients, 63.6% of patients achieved the three-point minimal clinically important change from Baseline in the mean OABSS, and the I-PSS QoL decreased significantly from Baseline (-2.1  1.77; P < 0.001).

In the clinical setting, mirabegron is well tolerated, with no unanticipated ADRs, and is an effective treatment for Japanese patients with OAB.

Lower urinary tract symptoms. 2016 Nov 17 [Epub ahead of print]

Yumiko Nozawa, Daisuke Kato, Hiromi Tabuchi, Kentarou Kuroishi

Medical Science, Medical Affairs, Astellas Pharma Inc., Tokyo, Japan., Medical Research, Medical Affairs, Astellas Pharma Inc., Tokyo, Japan., Japan-Asia Data Science, Development, Astellas Pharma Inc., Tokyo, Japan.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27860325
Since defeating Hillary Clinton to become the new president-elect, Donald Trump has only increased his presence on social media. Despite vowing to be "very restrained" on Twitter, Trump has continued to receive backlash for his questionable outrage.

Trump tweets

One of the reasons why Donald Trump was able to connect with millions of his supporters was due to his controversial use of Twitter. With over 17 millions followers, the billionaire real estate mogul has carved out his own niche on social media. In the weeks since Election Day, Trump has lashed out at the cast of the musical "Hamilton," while also engaging in a feud with "Saturday Night Live." The former host of "The Apprentice" has also targeted union leaders, select media outlets, and even the entire country of China.

Trump's latest grievance is with critics who are pushing for electors to switch their vote before the offical electoral vote takes place on Monday. Trump expressed his anger by returning to Twitter for the first time in nearly 24 hours on December 18.

If my many supporters acted and threatened people like those who lost the election are doing, they would be scorned & called terrible names!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2016

"If my many supporters acted and threatened people like those who lost the election are doing, they would be scorned & called terrible names!," Donald Trump tweeted Sunday evening. Trump's comments come jut 48 hours after he openly admitted that his own supporters were "violent," "nasty," "mean," and "vicious" during his "Thank You Tour" speech in Orlando, Florida.

Earlier in the campaign, Trump rallies would often result in violence, as protesters clashing with supporters became the norm. One rally in Chicago last March became so intense that local law enforcement were forced to cancel the event.

Do electors have to vote according to popular vote results in their states? Not necessarily. https://t.co/afbj29WBPQ  The New York Times (@nytimes) December 18, 2016

Protest push

In addition to the electors that are on the fence about going rogue and refusing to vote for Donald Trump, multiple protests are being planned in Washington, D.C.

for Inauguration Day on January 20. One of the loudest voices to oppose Trump has been liberal filmmaker Michael Moore.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, posted shortly before Trump's tweet, Moore pleaded with the electors to vote against the president-elect. "I'm simply asking you to vote your conscience and PLEASE do not put our nation in danger by choosing Donald J. Trump," Moore wrote on his social media account.
FRANKFURT - It is more important for investment to bring mutually beneficial results for both parties, rather than where an investor comes from, Gordon Riske, Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Kion Group, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The head of the leading industrial trucks manufacturer and supply chain solutions firm, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, spoke highly of Kion's Chinese shareholder Weichai Power as an "anchor investor" since 2012.

Important acquisition

"The faith that Weichai has in Kion's management team is demonstrated by the fact that it has gradually increased its shareholding from 25 percent to its current level of around 43 percent," Riske told Xinhua.

In fact, Kion has benefited from Weichai Power's support in its recent acquisition of the Luxembourg-headquartered automation and supply chain optimization company Dematic. Kion thus extended its product portfolio ranging from forklift trucks to fully automated material handling systems.

"The group is therefore ideally placed to tap into the attractive and profitable growth that is being driven by mega trends such as Industry 4.0, digitalization and e-commerce," Riske said, adding these ideas were advancing in China too."

Presence in china

Kion has been present in China for over 20 years through its brand company Linde with more than 3,000 local employees. "China is part of the DNA of the Kion Group," said the CEO.

Riske said the partnership improved access to the Chinese market, "the biggest individual market for our products anywhere in the world."

The firm has begun installing Weichai engines into the trucks of its Chinese brand company Baoli.

Win-win partnership

The partnership with Weichai has been very positive and German politicians at both national and regional level have been very interested and supportive of the process, Riske said.

After the announcement of Weichai's investment in Kion, the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Bavaria, called the partnership a win-win for both parties.

"It is generally not important where an investor comes from. The key question is whether the investment brings mutually beneficial results for both parties, as is the case with the partnership between Weichai Power and Kion," Riske said.
BEIJING - New Zealand's latest investigation into Chinese galvanized steel is "discrimination" and will not help solve problems in the NZ steel industry, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on Tuesday.

The remarks came after the New Zealand government began an anti-subsidy probe on Monday into galvanized sheet steel from China.

Wang Hejun, head with the trade remedy investigation department with the MOC, said that the products involved only account for 2.5 percent to 4 percent of New Zealand's domestic market, causing no harm to the domestic industry.

New Zealand's imports of galvanized steel from China have remained around 4,000 tons, worth $3.2 million. By contrast, imports from other sources have doubled in the past two years.

Investigating such a small amount of Chinese products while ignoring imports from other sources is discrimination, he said.

It will not help to solve the problems in New Zealand's steel industry and will hamper Sino-New Zealand trade, Wang added.

China has been New Zealand's biggest source of manufactured goods for years, and now China's imports from New Zealand are growing steadily.

Wang said faltering global recovery and shrinking demand are cause of the difficult situation of the steel industry worldwide, and called on all countries to cooperate during tough times.

Protectionism is not the answer for New Zealand's steel industry and will only deal a further blow to international trade, he said.

China hopes New Zealand will use trade remedy measures in a prudent and restrained way and work with China to resolve trade issues through dialogue and communication, he said.
One-China principle gains more support from int'l community: spokesperson

Xinhua | Updated: 2016-12-21 10:58

BEIJING - The Chinese mainland's stance on adhering to the one-China principle and opposing "Taiwan independence" is unswerving, and it will gain more recognition and support from the international community, a spokesperson said Wednesday.



An Fengshan, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks when asked to comment on an announcement by the government of Sao Tome and Principe to break the so-called "diplomatic ties" with Taiwan.
Artists perform to celebrate the 10th birthday of Hip-Hop Fusion. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Hip-Hop Fusion, a Shenzhen-based company dedicated to promoting hip-hop culture in China, celebrated its 10th birthday at Beijing's Post Mountain Space, a live house venue in the capital recently.

Meanwhile, the company also launched a collaboration with Beijing-based Taihe Music Group, which will see Chinese hip-hop artists give live shows across the country in 2017.

Founded by Li Haiqin, a veteran Chinese hip-hop culture promoter, also known as Come Lee, Hip-Hop Fusion has been holding an International Hip-Hop Culture Festival annually in Shenzhen since 2012.

Related:

Chinese songwriter sings the blues in Beijing
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R), Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (L) and South Korean President Park Geun-hye attend the sixth China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting in the South Korean capital of Seoul, Nov 1, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

For China-Japan-Republic of Korea relations, arguably the most important trilateral relationship in the region, this year has not been good. The recent impeachment of ROK President Park Geun-hye, besides dealing a heavy blow to her political career, has delayed the trilateral leadership meeting that was originally scheduled for the end of 2016.

Things started getting more complicated after Seoul allowed Washington to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system on the ROK soil, which Beijing is vehemently opposed to. While Seoul's decision on THAAD has further strained China-ROK ties, the ongoing political drama in the ROK is not at all conducive to rebuilding trust among the three neighbors.

China-Japan relations have not seen any improvement either. Instead, they have become more strained after Tokyo sought to meddle in and play up the South China Sea disputes between China and some ASEAN member states. And by scrambling its fighter jets after Chinese air force planes had passed through Miyako Strait recently, Japan has added a grave twist to the already strained bilateral ties.

Add to all the unexpected twists in ROK-Japan relations and you get a picture of a region full of uncertain-ties. At the end of last year, Seoul and Tokyo agreed to settle their long-standing differences over Korean "comfort women", a misnomer for women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army before and during World War II. Less than a month ago, they signed an agreement to share military intelligence.

The high point of trilateral cooperation (and probably the only one) this year has been the first Trilateral High-Level Dialogue on the Arctic in Seoul in April. Increasing security-oriented frictions, along with disputes left behind by history, ideological differences, and clashes over national interests, have thwarted the three countries from seeking common ground.

Because of stalled high-level communications and escalating tensions, strategic mutual trust appears to have suffered the most in the trilateral relationship. That Japan and the ROK are cooperating more closely with the United States in military and economic matters is a case in point.

The simmering tensions in Northeast Asia reflect the major changes in the regional security situation. Since taking office in 2012, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been relentlessly building up Japan's armed forces after reclaiming the right to collective defense by muscling through constitutional revisions in parliament. He has also continued to intensify defense cooperation with the US in pursuit of making Japan "a normal state".

Abe is scheduled to visit Pearl Harbor with US President Barack Obama on Dec 26, which will make him the first sitting Japanese leader since the end of World War II to do so.

Japan has to realize that full reconciliation among Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo is unlikely unless it truly faces up to its past. Abe has neither visited Nanjing, where more than 300,000 Chinese were massacred by the invading Imperial Japanese Army from December 1937 to January 1938, nor has he apologized to the Chinese people for the atrocities they suffered under the occupying Japanese forces. And this is what makes Abe's intentions, including the reason behind visiting Pearl Harbor, highly suspicious.

Japan-ROK ties have indeed been improving not because of deepening mutual trust but because of the Obama administration's "rebalancing" to the Asia-Pacific strategy and the deployment of THAAD, which makes them feel more secure.

But if Japan and the ROK continue to excessively lean on the US' shoulders, they would thwart future negotiations on a China-Japan-ROK free trade agreement, a possible game-changer in trilateral ties. So whether the three neighbors can fix their problems will largely depend on the importance they attach to the trilateral relationship. The resumption of trilateral leadership meetings will signify that importance.

The author is a researcher at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. The article is an excerpt from her interview with China Daily's Cui Shoufeng.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Taiwan's Kuomintang party leader Hung Hsiu-chu in Beijing on Tuesday. [WU ZHIYI / CHINA DAILY]

Asked whether it has studied a mainland scholar's recent suggestion that Beijing may not oppose a "creative alternative" to the 1992 Consensus, Katherine Chang, the director of Taiwan's mainland affairs council, replied, "Yes of course", her institution is focusing on "breaking the present impasse".

Via authorized semi-official representatives, a historic cross-Straits consensus was reached in 1992 in which both sides agreed to the principle of one China.

While easing the historical enmity and injecting unprecedented warmth into cross-Straits interaction, the 1992 Consensus has been a thorn in the flesh for the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party under Tsai Ing-wen. Cross-Taiwan Straits ties have been in deep freeze since Tsai became the island's leader in May because of her refusal to embrace the 1992 Consensus.

Despite the mainland scholar's message, the scholar himself and the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council have emphasized, whatever a new consensus could be, it cannot go around the 1992 agreement that both sides of the Straits are part of one China.

That being said, there is little room left for maneuvering agreement on an alternative consensus. It will entail extraordinary creativity on both sides, and the shared will, to accomplish such a task.

Rephrasing, paraphrasing the 1992 Consensus and giving it a new name, such as the "2017 consensus", might not be acceptable to Tsai and her party unless they simply want to get rid of a key hallmark of the previous Kuomintang leadership on the island. And there will be no deal if the principle of one China is left out because Beijing will not, and should not, allow it.

Did the scholar's suggestion win Beijing's tacit appreciation? If so, it was a show of goodwill as well as flexibility. It would signal that decision-makers in the mainland remain interested in maintaining the thaw in ties that had been engineered before Tsai began to freeze them again.

Such a signal might be of critical significance considering the damage that could be potentially unleashed if United States president-elect Donald Trump continues along a path he signposted with his provocative Dec 2 phone talk with Tsai.

It would be good if both sides of the Straits shared an interest in avoiding the worst-case scenario.

Yet redoing the tried-and-true consensus would take a lot of in-depth communication and interaction, in addition to unusual flexibility and imagination, the conditions for which remain regrettably absent.
Flag-wrapped coffin of late Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is carried to a plane during a ceremony at Esenboga airport in Ankara, Turkey, December 20, 2016. [Agencies]

The assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey will not undermine Russia-Turkey relations, according to political analysts.

The actual impact of the incident on bilateral relations and the Syrian situation, they believed, will be quite limited, nor will it jeopardize their cooperation.

MOTIVES BEHIND FATAL SHOOTING

The incident occurred when ambassador Andrei Karlov prepared to address an art exhibition ceremony in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Monday. He was shot dead by a member of Ankara's riot police squad who shouted words including the Syrian city of "Aleppo" at the scene.

The top leaders of Russia and Turkey had a conversation via telephone immediately after the incident, expressing their willingness to jointly investigate the assassination and intensify their cooperation in anti-terrorism.

After the incident, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan strongly condemned the assassination of Russian ambassador to Ankara, describing it as a "provocation" aimed at ruining Turkey-Russia ties.

"Turkey-Russia relations were vital for the region and those who aimed to harm ties were not going to achieve their goals," Erdogan said in a televised message.

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed with his Turkish counterpart, pointing out the killing of Karlov was a provocation aimed at derailing Russia-Turkey ties and the peace process in Syria.

"This murder is clearly a provocation aimed at undermining the improvement and normalization of Russian-Turkish relations, as well as undermining the peace process in Syria promoted by Russia, Turkey, Iran and other countries interested in settling the conflict in Syria," Putin said in a statement.

Putting the incident in perspective, the Russian Foreign Ministry also saw the connection between the killing and Tuesday's meeting of foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey in Moscow.

"We will take measures at this meeting (in Moscow) that will make it impossible for those who nurtured the people who ordered and organized this crime to realize their plans," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a statement.

The Russian media had reported that the meeting would mainly focus on the latest development of situation in Syria after the withdrawal of Syrian anti-government forces from Aleppo.

Syrian Social Nationalist Party representative Tarek Ahmed told Russian news agency Sputnik that this attack was an act aimed at damaging relations between Russia and Turkey as well as preventing a stronger alliance between Russia, Turkey and Iran and Syria.
BERLIN - A Pakistani asylum-seeker arrested on suspicion of killing 12 people by mowing through a Berlin Christmas market in a truck may not be the attacker and the real perpetrator could still be on the run, German police and prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The truck smashed into wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, one of west Berlin's most famous landmarks, around 8 pm on Monday. Forty-five people were injured, 30 severely.

News of the arrest of the 23-year-old Pakistani led politicians in Germany and beyond to demand a crackdown on immigration, but others warned against jumping to conclusions.

Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters: "There is much we still do not know with sufficient certainty but we must, as things stand now, assume it was a terrorist attack."

"I know it would be especially hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that the person who committed this act was someone who sought protection and asylum," she added.

In a dramatic twist, police later said the suspect had denied the offence and might not be the right man.

"According to my information it's uncertain whether he was really the driver," Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt told a news conference.

Berlin police tweeted that they were "particularly alert" because of the suspect's denial.

Die Welt newspaper quoted an unnamed police chief as saying: "We have the wrong man. And therefore a new situation. The true perpetrator is still armed, at large and can cause fresh damage."

The truck belonged to a Polish freight company and its rightful driver was found shot dead in the vehicle. The Polish truck driver had arrived hours earlier in the German capital and spoken to his wife about 3 pm, according to his cousin.

When she called again an hour later, there was no answer.

"At 3.45 pm you can see the movement on the GPS (Global Positioning System). The car moved forward and back. As if someone was learning to drive it," said the cousin, Ariel Zurawski, who was also the boss of the trucking company.

"I knew something was wrong."

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said a pistol believed to have been used to kill the Pole had not yet been found.

German media said the arrested man had jumped out of the driver's cab and run down the street towards the Tiergarten, a vast park in central Berlin. Several witnesses called police, including one who chased the suspect while on the phone, constantly updating officials on his whereabouts.

State of war

Security officials in Germany and Europe have warned for years that Christmas markets could present an easy target for militant attacks. In 2000, an al-Qaeda plan to bomb the Strasbourg Christmas market on New Year's Eve was foiled.

There were no concrete barricades at the Berlin Christmas market, as have been installed at a similar venue in Britain.

The attack fuelled immediate demands for a change to Merkel's immigration policies, under which more than a million people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere have arrived in Germany this year and last.

"We must say that we are in a state of war, although some people, who always only want to see good, do not want to see this," said Klaus Bouillon, interior minister of the state of Saarland and a member of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).

Horst Seehofer, leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, said: "We owe it to the victims, to those affected and to the whole population to rethink our immigration and security policy and to change it."

The record influx has hit Merkel's ratings as she prepares to run for a fourth term next year and has boosted support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD). On Twitter senior AfD member Marcus Pretzell blamed Merkel for the attack.

AfD leader Frauke Petry said Germany was no longer safe and "radical Islamic terrorism has struck in the heart of Germany".

The incident evoked memories of an attack in Nice, France in July when a Tunisian-born man drove a 19-ton truck along the beach front, mowing down people who had gathered to watch the fireworks on Bastille Day, killing 86 people. That was claimed by Islamic State.

The influx of migrants to the European Union has deeply divided its 28 members and fuelled the rise of populist anti-immigration movements that hope to capitalise on public concerns next year in elections in France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico said the latest attack would change perceptions of migration. "I think that the cup of patience is beginning to spill over and Europe's public will rightly expect rather stronger measures," he said.

"Keep on living, Berliners!"

On Tuesday morning, investigators removed the black truck from the site for forensic examination. People left flowers at the scene and notes, one of which read: "Keep on living, Berliners!" One woman was crying as she stopped by the flowers.

Bild newspaper cited security sources as saying the arrested man was Naved B. and had arrived in Germany a year ago. In legal cases German officials routinely withhold the full name of suspects, using only an initial.

A security source said the suspect had been staying at a refugee center in the now defunct Tempelhof airport. Police special forces stormed a hangar there early on Tuesday.

Merkel said Germans must not be cowed by the attack.

"We do not want to live paralysed by the fear of evil," said Merkel, who discussed the attack by phone with US President Barack Obama and convened a meeting of her security cabinet.

"Even if it is difficult in these hours, we will find the strength for the life we want to live in Germany - free, together and open."

Several hundred mourners joined a church service near the site of the attack on Tuesday evening to remember the victims.

Other European countries said they were reviewing security.

Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka called for biometric and fingerprint checks to be introduced along the Balkan route used by many migrants arriving in Europe in order to better control foreign jihadist fighters' movements.

London police said they were reviewing their plans for protecting public events over the festive period.
US retailers and brands are being advised to upgrade their Chinese consumer strategies and tactics and heed changes in market factors, such as currency exchange rates, to court Chinese travelers, the world's largest group of spenders.

Chinese tourists are projected to spend $349 billion per year by 2020 when the number of Chinese overseas tourists is expected to reach 186 million, according to a report recently released by Fung Business Intelligence Centre (FBIC), a Hong Kong-based retail and technology think tank, and China Luxury Advisors (CLA), a US consulting firm.

The report is based on a survey conducted from March 28 to April 12 of 877 Chinese Internet users, who, in their 20s and 30s, had net annual household income of $9,432 or more.

The report noted that the US was the most popular travel destination among those surveyed, with 13.2 percent of them saying that their most recent trip was to the US. Last year's survey showed that number at 3.2 percent.

The increase was a result of "the relaxed visa regime and the US-China joint marketing effort to increase tourism", according to the report. The two countries declared 2016 the US-China Tourism Year after agreeing to extend the duration of visas for short-term business travelers, tourists and students to 10 years in 2014.

The increase in the number of travelers to the US is a key reason the average retail spend per trip has increased year after year, said the report, which shows that Chinese travelers to the US spent 46.6 percent more per trip than the average Chinese overseas tourist did.

Despite the surging numbers of Chinese consumers shopping overseas, the consulting firms said the average spend per tourist could stagnate in coming years through 2020, though not in the immediate future.

Major brands and the Chinese government are taking measures to decrease the price differential between markets, providing fewer incentives to stock up when traveling; on the other hand, cross-border e-commerce is making it easier for Chinese shoppers to buy the brands they want at overseas prices without leaving the country, said the report.

While rising middle-class incomes position millions of Chinese to take their first overseas trips, the per-capita spending growth is likely to moderate with the expected increase in middle-income tourists, according to the report.

"Chinese consumers now care a lot more about overall experience and authenticity. They want to purchase brands that are authentic to the local culture. Brands should focus on its own heritage and customer service when engaging Chinese visitors," said Charlie Gu, director of China Luxury Advisors.

The draw of the national parks is taking Chinese visitors off the beaten path, bringing new business growth to locations beyond the US gateway cities of Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, said the report.

Salt Lake City, Utah, was a good example, which has enjoyed a surge of Chinese tourists passing through en route to Yellowstone National Park, one of the most aspirational attractions for Chinese travelers visiting the US.

Retailers are also advised to continually upgrade their Chinese consumer strategies to ensure that they are not relying on outdated methods that ignore the rising number of experienced, young individual travelers.

They are encouraged to use digital customer acquisition strategies to capture Chinese travelers' attention even before these tourists go abroad. Companies should continue to leverage digital platforms, such as WeChat, to augment the in-store customer experience and provide after-sales customer service, said the report.

Currency exchange rates also are an important factor to adjust pricing strategies in different regions accordingly.

"Exchange rate is often a key consideration for Chinese travelers when planning a trip abroad. A favorable exchange will definitely incentivize Chinese travelers to visit certain destinations," said Gu.

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com
British Prime Minister Theresa May (R) meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi in London, Britain, on Dec 20, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

LONDON -- China and Britain on Tuesday pledged to enhance their pragmatic cooperation and join hands to combat the climate change.

The latest development came as visiting Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi met with the British Prime Minister Theresa May after the 8th China-UK Strategic Dialogue held in London.

Chinese and British leaders met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in China in September, months after the Brexit Referendum and British government reshuffle. Leaders of the two countries had reassured each other for the commitment and confidence in the "golden era" for the bilateral relations.

Yang said that the mutual reassurance had injected fresh momentum into the Sino-UK cooperation. China stands ready to maintain frequent exchanges of high-level visits with the British side and also deepen their pragmatic bilateral cooperation in areas including nuclear power, high-speed railway, finance and innovation, he said.

The senior Chinese official also called on the two sides to strengthen their communication and coordination to solve major international and regional issues, jointly push forward the open, inclusive economic globalization and combat the global challenges such as the climate change.

On her part, May said her country is expecting to strengthen pragmatic cooperation with China in various areas and promote global free trade.

She said Britain is willing to address common challenges such as the climate changes with other countries in a concerted manner.
China is hoping the international community continues to support and assist Afghanistan in its efforts towards peace and development.

The remarks came from Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, at an open meeting of the UN Security Council on the current situation in Afghanistan on Monday.

The international community needs to help Afghanistan national security forces with its capacity building with regard to counter-terrorism, trans-national crime measures and drug trafficking, Wu said.

"To advance the national reconciliation process in Afghanistan, there should be an inclusive process, led and owned by the Afghan people," he said.

He said the international community needs to make great efforts to help Afghanistan push forward national reconciliation and deliver on its aid promises.

While great progress had been made in Afghanistan, a better future for that country would not be possible without an inclusive peace process that involves Afghans from all strata of society, Tadamichi Yamamoto, special representative of the Secretary General for Afghanistan and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, told the Security Council on Monday.
ANKARA - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told his US counterpart John Kerry on the phone call Tuesday that Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) was behind Russian envoy's assassination, local media reported.

During the phone conversation, Cavusoglu briefed Kerry on Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov's murder, who was shot dead on Monday evening, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Kerry offered condolences to Cavusoglu and expressed sorrow about the incident.

The two top diplomats also discussed the trilateral meeting that took place Tuesday in Moscow between Russian, Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers.

The Russian ambassador was killed during a speech at an exhibition in Ankara on Monday evening by a gunman dressed as a guard.

Late Tuesday, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said that it is a great disrespect and defamation for the Turkish police to be involved as the perpetrator of Russian envoy's assassination.

"The connections behind this attack will also come to light," Bozdag said in a speech at the Turkish Parliament.

He vowed that "the investigations will reveal all the ties of the attacker."

The US-based cleric Fetullah Gulen is accused by Turkish government of conducting the July 15 failed coup attempt.
Andrei Karlov's widow Marina (L front) and mother Maria (C) weep over the body of Russia's Ambassador to Turkey, delivered to Vnukovo International Airport by a charter flight. Karlov was shot dead on December 19, 2016 in Ankara's Contemporary Art Centre. Pictured in this image are Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (L back) and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov (R). [Photo/IC]

MOSCOW - A chartered flight carrying the body of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, who was assassinated Monday in Ankara, landed in Moscow Tuesday night.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu came to the Vnukovo airport to pay tribute to the late ambassador and met with Andrey Karlov's widow and his mother, who were taken back from Ankara.

A unit of the 154th Preobrazhensky Regiment Preobrazhensky with the Russian Armed Forces proceeded with the coffin, which was covered with the Russian national flag.

Karlov was shot dead by an off-duty Turkish policeman when attending an art gallery in Ankara late Monday, which Moscow has described as a terrorist act.
SEOUL - South Korea's ruling Saenuri Party is expected to be cut in half in the near future as scores of lawmakers with one of the two party factions agreed on Wednesday to defect next week after the presidential impeachment.

A group of 35 legislators of the so-called anti-Park faction, who are not loyal to impeached President Park Geun-hye, reached an agreement to leave the party on Dec 27 during a televised emergency meeting.

Intra-party strife stiffened between anti-Park and pro-Park factions after the bill to impeach President Park was passed on Dec. 9 through the National Assembly with an overwhelming support.

Almost half of 128 Saenuri lawmakers voted for the impeachment motion, indicating additional Saenuri lawmakers could join the defection move in the foreseeable future.

The division in the ruling bloc blurs the prospects for next presidential election as it raises possibility for turning the election into a four-way race.

The minor opposition People's Party, which is composed mostly of former members of the biggest opposition Minjoo Party, was launched in February and gained 38 parliamentary seats in the April general elections.

A new party that will be created by the anti-Park faction may surpass the number of People's Party-held seats in the unicameral assembly. The Minjoo Party has 121 lawmakers, while there are six legislators with the minor opposition Justice Party and seven independent lawmakers.

The opposition bloc has already been divided, while the anti-Park faction's group defection from the Saenuri Party will split the ruling bloc.

Attention is expected to be paid to whether the People's Party and the anti-Park faction's party would form a so-called "third playing field," where non-mainstreamers in both ruling and opposition parties compete to field a single candidate in next presidential election.

South Korea seems to have entered an initial phase of presidential race after the presidential impeachment.

If the constitutional court permanently removes Park from office after deliberation for up to 180 days, an election to select the country's new leader must be held in 60 days.

The court is forecast to reach a final conclusion as early as mid-March given that two of the nine judges are scheduled to step down by that time. The two-thirds of approval are required for the final decision.

The greatest variable would be outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, whose two, five-year tenures are set to end by the end of this year.

Ban has never officially declared his run for presidency in his home country, but the career diplomat has been viewed as the only remaining hope for conservative voters as there is no outstanding contender in the upcoming presidential election.

The 73-year-old is known to have been close to President Park and her party, but he is less likely to become the sinking party's candidate. The Saenuri's approval rating continued to decline in tandem with rising public fury over the impeached president.

Ban can either make his choice between the People's Party and the anti-Park faction's new party, or create his own party.

The People's Party seems to have most aggressively appealed to Ban to scout him as one of contenders in the party's primary.

The party's floor leader Park Jie-won told reporters that he had heard from the Ban side that the UN chief has great interest in the People's Party, according to local media reports. Park has offered to Ban participating in the People's Party primary, adding that nothing has been decided yet.
TOKYO - Japan plans to oppose a United Nation's proposal pushed by the United States for arms embargo against South Sudan, local media quoted government sources as saying on Wednesday.

The Japanese government is concerned that if the arms embargo resolution is adopted by the UN Security Council, South Sudan will take revenge against UN representatives on the ground, particularly peacekeepers, including Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) members from Japan, Kyodo News quoted a diplomat as saying.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power on Monday criticized Japan's reluctance to the draft resolution.

"The arms embargo is a tool not only for protecting the people of South Sudan," she said. "It is also a tool for protecting peacekeepers."

According to the UN resolution drafted by the United States, for one year after the resolution's adoption, all member states are to immediately take "necessary measures" to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of arms or related material into South Sudan.

Since 2012, Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force unit has been deployed to build infrastructure in South Sudan as part of the UN mission.

Last month, Tokyo assigned its troops controversial new security task in peacekeeping operations in South Sudan, allowing Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time in seven decades, including rescuing UN staff and others under attack, in accordance with Japan's controversial new security legislation that came into force in March.

However, critics fear the changes could erode the pacifist Constitution and embroil Japanese troops in overseas military actions for the first time since the end of World War II.

The new duties, however, have been controversial among people in Japan who believe Self-Defense Force members, in light of the Constitution, should stay away from missions that essentially assume the use of weapons.
China hopes Mongolia will "actually learn a lesson" and honor its promise to stick to the One-China policy, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday.

Hua made the remarks in a press conference in Beijing after Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil told media that his country would no longer invite the Dalai Lama for visits and support the one-China policy.

He also ruled out the Dalai getting into Mongolia through religious channels during the current Mongolian government's term.

Tsend Munkh-Orgil said Mongolia regrets that the country's ties with China have suffered in the wake of the Dalai's visit in November.

In response, Hua said China values the Mongolian foreign minister's declaration, and hopes Mongolia will keep its promises.

Issues over Tibet concern China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as China's core interests, and China's stance on such issues has been firm and clear, Hua reiterated.
Google has announced that it is changing terms to be able to release the identity of its users in its advertising. Beginning Nov. 11, the search giant wants permission to use names, photos and product reviews in advertising that it sells to businesses.

That means the reviews of restaurants, shops and products that are created by users would be fair game. Content, including songs that are purchased in the Google Play store could also be included in ads that are displayed to friends, connections and the public general as they conduct Google searches. These new ad features are being called shared endorsements.

As an example, Google may have a user named John Doe. John may write a review detailing his weekend stay at a resort in the Daytona Beach, Fla., area. That resort may decide to advertise with Google. As the ad appears on the screen, a photo of John Doe and his review could appear underneath it, sort of as an endorsement to recommend the resort to his friends and family. What if someone doesnt want their photos and information shared? They can opt out. Google has some 390 million users who are active each month.

When explaining the changes, Google said, We want to give you  and your friends and connections  the most useful information. Recommendations from people you know can really help.

Instead of opting out, if a user wants to limit an endorsement to specific friends or business circles, that restriction will be respected in any ads that use an endorsement, according to the company.

Googles move follows on the heels of a similar move by social networking site Facebook. Back in August that company said it would show the faces and names of users who clicked like for products in ads. Privacy groups were very critical of the proposal and asked the Federal Trade Commission to look into the proposal farther.
The government is ready to support Air India, but wants the airline to improve its performance.

Arindam Majumder reports.

Air India will get only Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million) as additional budget support in the current financial year from the government -- way below its demand of Rs 2,200 crore (Rs 22 billion).

Air India's Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani had written to the government that lack of funds might derail the turnaround process at the airline.

"The finance ministry accepted the civil aviation ministry's argument that additional funds was necessary for the airline but expressed its inability to accept the full demand," said a senior civil aviation ministry official.

According to Air India officials, the Rs 80 crore being offered is too negligible an amount to be invested in an airline.

While the government has said it is ready to support the airline, for that to happen the airline also needs to improve its performance.

"The money comes from the Consolidated Fund of India. Every company has to show some performance to get more funding," said an official in the civil aviation ministry.

Lohani had written to the civil aviation ministry last month saying that because of the airline's huge debt burden, a reduced equity infusion would put the airline's expansion plan in jeopardy.

The airline, he added, would be forced to raise temporary loans from the banks to bridge the liquidity gap, thus endangering the liquidity and survival of the company.

Air India has debt of Rs 46,000 crore (Rs 460 billion) and has an annual interest outgo of around Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion).

The challenge before the Air India management is reducing debt.

High interest and maintenance expenses have resulted in the airline posting a net loss of Rs 3,837 crore (Rs 38.37 billion) in FY16.

Air India received Rs 1,713 crore (Rs 17.13 billion) in equity in the Union Budget in February against its requirement of Rs 3,900 crore (Rs 39 billion).

The airline was expecting that the remainder Rs 2,200 crore would be released in the supplementary budget, but the finance ministry has turned down the airline's request.

Lower equity infusion could result in increased finance costs and impact the turnaround plan, the airline told the government.

Air India is on a Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) government bailout package and has till now received Rs 23,993 crore (Rs 239.93 billion) in equity including Rs 1,713 crore investment this year.

The infusion is meant to take care of cash deficit and to be used for loan repayment.

The airline was hoping to retire debt with equity infusion in 2016.

Air India was also looking at ways to reduce the debt and was discussing restructuring debt worth Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) under the scheme for sustainable restructuring of bad assets floated by the Reserve Bank of India.

Simultaneously, sources said the airline was in talks with the Life Insurance Corporation for a loan of Rs 10,000 crore for acquisition of aircraft.

Air India posted an operating profit of Rs 105 crore (Rs 1.05 billion) in FY16, but has succumbed to losses in the first two quarters of the current financial year.
And we can't get enough of these whimsical creatures.

Dasher, is that you?

At home in Rovaniemi, Finland, Santa Claus needs his trusty reindeer as Christmas draws closer.

Photograph: Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters

The Cairngorm Reindeer Herd in Aviemore, Scotland, brings cheer to the holiday season.

They were introduced to the area in 1952 by a Swedish Sami reindeer herder, Mikel Utsi, and this is still the United Kingdom's only reindeer herd.

Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Fun fact: They are the only species of deer in which both the male and the female grow antlers.

Tourists visit the area in the holiday season to frolic with the reindeer and often get the chance to feed them.

Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Starting with just a few reindeer, the herd has grown in numbers over the years and is currently at about 130.

The herd rages on 2,500 hectares of hill ground between 450 and 1,309 metres, staying above the tree line all year round regardless of weather conditions.

Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

For many reindeer herders this is the time of the year to make money by renting out these magical creatures for Christmas events, but for those in remote Arctic regions like Krasnoye in the Nenets Autonomous District of Russia they are an integral part of day-to-day life.

Photograph: Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters

Apart from Russia, there are only eight places on earth that practice traditional reindeer herding -- Alaska, Canada, China, Finland, Greenland, Mongolia, Norway, and Sweden.

And as winter descends, reindeer herders here get to work.

Photograph: Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters/strong>

Here the reindeer is not a Christmas accessory. They are raised for transportation and food.

In fact, the reindeer is believed to have played an integral role in the survival of many cultures in the harsh winters -- temperatures here drop to as low as -40C -- of the Arctic region.

Photograph: Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters

But with every passing year, the ravages of climate change are reducing the numbers of these Christmas icons in their native habitats.

Can we save Rudolph?

Photograph: Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters

What do you want for Christmas?
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Top government leaders from Vietnam and Cambodia have expressed their desire to cement and develop bilateral ties in the spirit of good neighborliness, traditional friendship, all-faceted and long-lasting cooperation.



During talks with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Hanoi on December 20, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen said his visit aimed to promote traditional friendship and all-round collaboration with Vietnam in a solid and extensive manner.



The Vietnamese PM, for his part, expressed his belief that the visit would be an important milestone elevating the two countries friendship and cooperation for the sake of their people.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc receives Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen in Hanoi__Photo: VNA



He hoped that the two countries would work more closely, respect each others legitimate interests, jointly settle remaining issues, maintain an environment of peace and stability, and strengthen friendship between the two peoples.



On economic, trade and investment ties, the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce and the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade will soon conduct negotiations for the signing of the Vietnam-Cambodia border trade agreement.



The host suggested stepping up transport and electricity connectivity, tourism, telecommunication and banking within the framework of a master plan on connecting Cambodian, Lao, and Vietnamese economies.



The two countries will direct their transport ministries to chair negotiations on the governmental-level agreement on transport cooperation strategy as mentioned in the agreement adopted by the 14th session of the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Committee on Economic, Cultural and Scientific-Technological Cooperation.



The ministries are required to negotiate the signing of a deal to build a highway connecting Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh on the occasion of a meeting between the two PMs next year, as well as survey the model One door- one stop which is expected to be launched at Moc Bai - Ba Vet border gate.



Host and guest committed to maintaining the principle of not allowing any hostile forces to use ones territory to sabotage security of the other, as well as jointly fight smuggling, illegal immigration, crimes involving drugs, human and weapon trafficking, trans-national and cyber crimes.



PM Phuc thanked the Cambodian government for partnering with Vietnam in the search and repatriation of volunteer Vietnamese soldiers who sacrificed their lives in Cambodia. He asked his counterpart to instruct relevant Cambodian agencies to complete the construction, repair and restoration of Vietnam-Cambodia friendship memorials.



Hailing the signing of the education cooperation agreement for 2016-2020, the two leaders underscored the importance of improving training quality and living expenses for students sent overseas for study.



With regard to border issues, the Joint Committee on Land Border Demarcation and Marker Planting was assigned to work quickly to complete land border demarcation with fair, appropriate and acceptable measures and settle emerging issues at border areas in line with existing mechanisms and the spirit of neighborliness between the two countries.



On the subject of overseas Vietnamese affairs, the Vietnamese host hoped that Hun Sen would continue directing agencies to accelerate the settlement of legal papers involving Vietnamese nationals in Cambodia, making it easier for them to settle in and contribute to bilateral ties.



Following the talks, the two PMs witnessed the signing of an agreement on judicial assistance in criminal matters between the two governments; an agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons between the two countries; and another between Vietnams Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs and the Cambodian Ministry of Cults and Religion. -(VNS/VLLF)

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HCM CITY  With or without the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement, trade between Viet Nam and the US would continue to rise, a conference heard in HCM City yesterday.

Speaking at Viet Nam-US Trade Interaction after 2016, Le Thanh Liem, deputy chairman of the city Peoples Committee, said the two countries enjoyed average trade growth of more than 19 per cent a year for the past 10 years.

The US is Viet Nams largest export market, he said.

According to Mary Tarnowka, the US consul general in the city, bilateral trade nearly tripled in the last eight years and now tops US$45 billion.

US exports to Viet Nam surged 44 per cent in the first half of this year, making Viet Nam the fastest growing export market for the US.

The US is encouraged by Viet Nams recent resolution on international economic integration, reaffirming Viet Nams intention to continue its economic reforms and further open its economy, with or without TPP.

This resolution is an important signal to trading partners that Viet Nam is moving to establish a level playing field for US companies looking to invest and compete in Viet Nam.

These reforms would promote fair, transparent and predictable regulatory systems that enable innovation, attract trade and investment and promote Viet Nams continued integration into the regional and global supply chains, she said.

"Viet Nam is already the 11th largest export market for US agricultural products," she said.

We can continue to promote these exports. We can also take steps to meet Viet Nams growing demand for state of the art agricultural technology and equipment, as the country strives to improve food safety and develop its food processing industry.

She also spoke about co-operation between the two countries in other sectors like education and travel as well as US support for Viet Nams preparations for the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and others.

Le Quoc An, former president of the Viet Nam Textile and Apparel Association, said the TPP would enable Vietnamese firms to boost exports to the US.

However, there is no problem if there is no TPP. Our exports to the US were still very good [in the past] without the TPP.

He also urged businesses to make more efforts to offer products and services of the best quality to global consumers, especially those in the US, to boost their exports.

Delegates agreed that whoever is president of the US, Viet Nam would continue to develop and integrate.

Tran Ngoc Chau, vice president of the Viet Nam-US Friendship Associations HCM City chapter, said: We believe trade between Viet Nam and US will reach $57 billion in the next five years, with exports from the US doubling from now, whether the TPP comes into being or not.

Liem said HCM City has welcomed many large US companies seeking opportunities arising from the countrys deeper integration.

The US currently ranks 11th among countries and territories investing in Viet Nam, and I hope the US will soon become the citys largest foreign investor.

Le Hoai Quoc, director of the Saigon Hi-Tech Park, the largest technology cluster in Viet Nam, was optimistic that US tech companies like Intel would continue to grow their business in Viet Nam irrespective of the TPP.

Intel is increasing its products and volumes of productions in the high-tech zone. In 2016 its exports from Viet Nam will reach $4 billion.

Organised by the Viet Nam-US Friendship Association, the conference attracted around 200 delegates, including diplomats, policy makers, entrepreneurs and economists.  VNS
HA NOI  A group of engineers from Gamota JSC won the US$80,000 FbStart award, creating a social network management application that came out the victor at the Facebook Hackathon contest.

The contest was co-organised by Facebook and UP Co-working Space in Ha Noi.

The award includes VN20 million in cash, Facebooks services and sponsors for startups.

Nguyen Tai Tue, the group leader, told VietnamPlus that instead of spending time filtering comments, the application allows fanpage managers to read only important comments based on a keyword-filtering algorithm.

In addition, the application can also filter spam and rude comments by automatically blocking accounts that repeat comments many times.

Especially, the application can help users track rival fanpages to detect photo copyright infringement.

In the 24 hour contest, the team could only finish the beta version of the product with basic functions, said Tue, adding that he plans to finish the product in the future.

Viet Nam is emerging as a major innovation centre between programmer community and enterprises, said Alice Wei, head of Facebooks strategic product partnerships in the ASEAN region.

Facebooks purpose for organising Facebook Hackathon was to help startup teams to define their scope and targets to develop products, she said.

Facebook would also support programmers to access more than 45 million Facebook users in Viet Nam to achieve their business goal, she added.  VNS
HA NOI  Vietnamese exporters must understand and take advantage of the regulations on the origin of goods in dealing with the Republic of Koreas (RoK) market, said Tran Minh Trang, Deputy Head of Origin of Goods Division of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

Trang strongly advised Vietnamese businesses to focus on the procedure and conduct of product origin from Viet Nam to the RoK in order to be eligible for preferential import tax.

She spoke at a conference in Ha Noi yesterday on the implementation of the Korean-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (KV-FTA) by the Korea Trade Promotion Corporation (KOTRA) and the KV-FTA Support Centre, in collaboration with the Korean Customs Service.

Another speaker at the conference was Choi Dae Kyoo, Tariffs and Customs procedures expert from the the KV-FTA Support Centre. Choi also stressed the needs for proof of origins of goods for Vietnamese producers to benefit from the KV- FTA, as only proven goods with Vietnamese origin would receive tariff reductions under the bilateral trade agreement.

The conference was aimed to summarise and share peer experience in the application of the KV-FTA in order to better aid both Vietnamese and businesses from the RoK.

Representatives from exporting and importing companies in both countries exchanged questions and answers on matters regarding the origins of goods with representatives from the MoIT at the conference.

According to the rule on the origin of goods, as stated in the trade agreement, goods must meet four basic conditions: being included in the KV-FTA duty structure, being imported from the RoK, being directly transported from the RoK to Viet Nam under the regulations of the MoIT; and meeting the KV-FTA regulations on origin of goods, in addition to having certificates of origin according to regulations by the MoIT.

A year after the official enactment of the KV-FTA and the reduction of 11,679 tariff lines for Viet Nam including the countrys key exports like shrimps, crabs, frozen and canned fish, and 8,521 tariff lines for the RoK, the trade flow between the two countries had been on a steady increase.

In order to achieve the goal of US$70 billion in 2017 in bilateral trade, authorities and agencies will continue to provide businesses with technical and legal support in applying the KV-FTA to daily business.

According to a recent official report by KOTRA, RoKs year-on-year exports to Viet Nam increased by 11.8 per cent as of October 2016.  VNS
HA NOI  The upcoming free trade agreement between Viet Nam and the European Union (EVFTA) will open new opportunities for Viet Nam to access modern technologies and learn management skills, Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Tran Quoc Khanh said at a conference in Ha Noi yesterday.

The conference, organised by the Ministry and Industry and Trade and the European Trade Policy and Investment Support Project (EU-MUTRAP), was aimed at providing information on industrial sectors which have potential for investors, as well as the expected investment trends of European businesses once the EVFTA takes effect.

"The EU is one of Viet Nams most important trade partners, and will be more so once the EVFTA, scheduled to be signed in 2017, takes effect in 2018," Khanh said.

EVFTA is expected to create a momentum to promote investment and trade between the two parties, Khanh said.

Accordingly, the total importexport turnover between Viet Nam and the EU is expected to increase by around 50 per cent in the first years after the agreement takes effects. Nearly 40 per cent of European firms in Viet Nam plan to increase their investment in the upcoming years.

He said the agreement ensures benefits for both Viet Nam and EU. The pact facilitates trade, services and investment, as well as new approaches to protectionism and investment disputes. The agreement is considered the top commitment which Viet Nam has reached in FTAs so far.

With its high quality, EVFTA is expected to be an important momentum for trade promotion between Viet Nam and the EU, especially for key Vietnamese products, such as garment and textile, shoes, agricultural products and for European goods suh as equipment, auto and alcohol.

Bui Huy Son, director of the ministrys Trade Promotion Department, said the EU has 1,089 projects with a total registered capital of US$23.16 billion, accounting for 8 per cent of the total registered capital in Viet Nam.

EU investors are particularly interested in manufacturing, real estate trading and electricity distribution, he added.

EVFTA is expected to attract more investment from the EU to Viet Nam with new technologies and transfer in areas which the country has committed to open, such as garment and textile, leather shoes and wood production, Son said.

He also suggested that local firms carefully prepare, in co-operation with foreign investors, to welcome investment inflows, absorb new technologies and management skills. Vietnamese companies could be trusted partners of foreign firms, especially from the EU, he said.  VNS

In the first five years after the signing of EVFTA, Viet Nam will consider allowing foreign investors to open more than one retail unit in the country based on economic demand. After 2030, Viet Nam will consider approving the units without checking economic demand.

The country will still maintain its rights to implement distribution planning without differentiation.

The checks of economic demand are designed to protect local firms. After joining the World Trade Organisation, Viet Nam committed to totally opening its markets to foreign retailers. However, they have to meet with check of economic demand if they want to establish a second retail unit.

Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, director of the WTO and Integration Centre under the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said abolishing the checks of economic demand would help European retailers expand their operations in Viet Nams retail sector.
HA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has decided to set up a steering committee that will resolve problems with 12 huge projects under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The committee will be headed by Deputy PM Vuong inh Hue and will have members from concerned ministries and sectors. It aims to minimise the risk of losing investment capital and affecting the human and financial resources of the State.

Five of the ineffective projects are those picked by the National Assembly deputies during its second session last month. These include inh Vu Polyester Fibre Plant; Phuong Nam Pulp Production Plant; Phase 2 expansion of a plant run by Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel Corporation; Dung Quat Bio-Ethanol Plant; and Ninh Binh Nitrogenous Fertiliser Plant.

These plants had investment capitals of between VN1.9 trillion (US$83.37 million) and VN12 trillion; the Ninh Binh plant had the highest investment capital.

Seven other projects have been added to this list: Ha Bac Nitrogenous Fertiliser Plant; DAP No.2 Lao Cai Fertiliser Production Plant; DAP No.2 Hai Phong Fertiliser Production Plant; Binh Phuoc Ethanol Plant; Phu Tho Ethanol Plant; Dung Quat Shipbuilding Plant; and Quy Sa Mine Project, a joint venture between Lao Cai Mineral Company and its partner.

At a meeting held at the Government Office in Ha Noi on Tuesday, Hue said the committee would have to address the issues of these plants and projects, while adhering to Resolution No.5 of the 12th Party Central Committees fourth plenary meeting. He asked committee members to study the National Assemblys resolutions and the Governments instructions on restructuring State-owned enterprises.

The committee must solve the problems resolutely, promptly, systematically and unanimously, ensuring a drastic change in these projects by the end of 2017 and their completion by the end of 2018, the Deputy PM said, adding that the solution would aid the countrys development.

All relevant ministries, sectors, businesses and project management boards will have to honestly report the real situation so that the committee can arrive at a practical solution. The committee will assign concrete tasks and deadlines to every ministry, sector, organisation, unit and individual. These projects will not remain delayed or undeveloped, Hue said.

The committee will check the progress of these projects, assess the situation, estimate the volume of loss, and send its report to the Prime Minister.

Projects that have production capability will be restructured in terms of production, human resources and management. Those that cannot be restructured will be auctioned, divested, dissolved or declared bankrupt as per the laws, Hue said. The State will not use its budget to compensate for losses or support these factories and projects anymore.

He has also asked the auditing agency and inspectors to investigate, define the responsibilities and propose strict action against organisations and individuals who have violated any law.  VNS
HA NOI  FPT Corporation, Viet Nams largest information and technology (IT) group, will conclude the selling of its retail unit FPT Shop next year, ICTnews reported yesterday.

Nguyen Bach iep, CEO of FPT Shop, told ICTnews that FPT Corporation (FPT) will reveal its divestment plan at the end of 2016, however, selection of potential investors could be completed in the first quarter next year.

The delay might be due to missing required documents, or perhaps FPT is in talks with potential investors, she said.

FPT will not sell entire its stake in FPT Shop, at least at the moment, iep added. However, she is uncertain about the future plan of the IT group.

FPT is now an IT group that works in several fields, including IT, telecommunication, retail and distribution.

The deal--if it comes into practice--will help FPT become a pure IT group that works only in the IT and telecommunication sectors, which may boost the value of the group in the international markets and increase its returns in the future.

iep said that FPT will cut its ownership in the retail business to below 50 per cent and it will co-operate with individual investors to make sure it still has the control over FPT Shop.

FPT Shop will seek financial investors who have experienced e-commerce, good administrative skills and broad international relationships, she said, noting that the process of selecting investors will take a lot of time, as the company wants to ensure benefits for its current shareholders.

While the identities of the investors have not been released yet, FPT will continue to make investments in FPT Shops business projects, she said.

The group will continue investing in FPT Shops feasible business projects to increase the value of the retail business unit, which will benefit shareholders more.

The divestment of FPT from two of its business sectors, FPT Trading and FPT Retail, was approved by shareholders at the end of last year. The search for investors was confirmed by FPT in March and it was expected to finish at the end of this year.

At the end of November, FPT recorded a combined revenue of VN35.87 trillion (US$1.59 billion), similar to last years figure and a pre-tax profit of VN2.63 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 8 per cent.

FPT targets a revenue of VN45.8 trillion and a pre-tax profit of VN3.15 trillion for this year. Thus, after 11 months, FPT has accomplished 78 per cent and 83 per cent of its targeted earnings.  VNS
HCM CITY  The Institute for Nanotechnology-Viet Nam National University HCM City said yesterday that it has made a system to automatically monitor salinity in rivers in the Mekong Delta and set off an alarm if the level is too high.

The system integrates a specialised probe to monitor and warn in case of high salinity for famers and aquaculturists to take preventive measures.

It continuously monitors the water salinity and temperature.

Information about high salt levels is sent via mobile phone to official agencies and farmers, Dr oan uc Chanh Tin of the institute told a workshop on the use of high technology in agriculture held in Ben Tre Province.

Solar panels are integrated to power the system, he added.

ang Mau Chien, the institutes head, said when the salt level falls below 2/1000, the system would activate a pumping system to supply water to ponds.

Nguyen Van Buoi, deputy head of the Ben Tre Province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, told Viet Nam News that the province is also affected by salt intrusion.

The system could help the province fix the problem, he said.

The department and the Department of Science and Technology have recommended that the province Peoples Committee should install the system, he added.

This year more than 160,000ha of agricultural land were affected by salinity in the delta. VNS
HA NOI  Twenty-eight-year-old backpacker Hoang Le Giang will be the first Vietnamese to join a 300km winter adventure to the Artic circle next April hosted by the Fjallraven Polar website.

Fjallraven Polar offers a unique opportunity for those who have not spent much time outdoors during the winter to go on the adventure of a lifetime.

According to the organisers, the participants will have a chance to navigate a dog sled on their own in what appears to be inhospitable wilderness  across barren tundra and frozen lakes and through mountain forests glistening with snow.

They will spend nights in a tent or under the stars, perhaps accompanied by the northern lights.

The journey starts at the edge of the Norwegian fjords in Signaldalen and finishes at the Jukkasjarvi area in Swedish Lapland.

Giang was selected among 13 participants, who received the most votes online from people in their countries including Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Hungary, Slovakia, Denmark, Finland and Germany.

The organisers will choose another 13 people from countries or groups of countries including Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Hungary, Slovakia, Denmark,Finland, Germany, Norway, South Korea, Sweden, UK, and USA.

Giang received 113,890 votes in total and also became the first in Southeast Asia to join the trip.

Besides winning the most votes from their native country, the participants are required to have a reasonable level of fitness and be over the age of 18 and have an open and flexible mind-set.

Giang graduated from Jonkoping University in Sweden. Though he was obese and suffered from asthma as a child, the HCM City-based man has been trekking since 2011. He has trekked in the Himalayas seven times and travelled to 30 countries.

I used to be a badly behaved boy at school, he recalled, When I studied at Le Hong Phong Gifted School in HCM City, once my literature teacher asked if we felt moved by any interesting works of literature, I answered no. Then after mountain trekking a number of times, I became more mature. Trekking often takes a long time, which made me think twice about my behavior and feelings.

In April 2015, a huge earthquake struck when I was climbing up a mountain in Chhomrong, Nepal. I was not scared at all but I suddenly thought about my parents. What would happen if I lost my life there and left them.

After that time, I changed my travel principle. I should prepare for the trip as well as I can. I persuaded my friends to train physically very thoroughly before departure.

When we are young, many of us want to be rich, he said, But the most important things in our life may not involve finance. I highly appreciate the feelings when I walk along a beautiful beach, conquer a high peak, meet someone who can share feelings when I need or simply a deep and sound sleep.

Young and single people should travel as much as they can. Yet everyone should remember to do physical exercises regularly to maintain good health, and research the road map carefully together with companions before departing.  VNS
HCM CITY  A book collection on the HCM Citys revolutionary literature has been released, after five years of work by staff from prestigious research centres and associations.

The collection, Mot The Ky Van Hoc Yeu Nuoc, Cach Mang TP HCM (A Century of HCM Citys Patriotic and Revolutionary Literature), includes 25 books totalling more than 20,000 pages.

The books were edited by a group of veteran authors, cultural and literary researchers led by Prof Mai Quoc Lien, director of the Viet Nam Writers Associations Centre of National Culture.

The collection features 1,560 literary works in different styles, such as novels, short stories, dramatic plays, reports, poetry, and theory and critism, by 400 writers of the 20th century.

The works, written between 1900 and 1975, depict the citys heroic history, culture and lifestyle, focusing on the patriotic struggle of local residents against foreign invasion.

Issued between 1975 and 2000, the works focus on the citys changes and development for renewal in economy, culture and society since the the fall of Sai Gon (former name of HCM City) on April 30, 1975.

According to the collections chief editor, Prof Lien, all of the works in the 25 books will be invaluable for young generations.

Through these books, people can learn more about the countrys history and culture and improve their love and respect for the country and older generations, he said.

The collection received financial support from the citys government. VNS
Famous actress Nguyen Minh Trang left Viet Nam in 1998 to live in Singapore with her husband. She recently returned to Viet Nam to take part in a soap opera entitled Chieu Ngang Qua Pho Cu (Walking on Old Street in the Afternoon) produced by the Viet Nam Television Film Centre.

She was born in Ha Noi but moved to HCM City in 1987. Trang was trained as a professional stage artist. Her 1979 debut in the drama Ha Mi Cua Toi (My Ha Mi) catapulted her to fame. She then participated in various films, TV series and dramas. For her devotion, she received the title Excellent Artist and two gold medals at national staging arts festivals.

She talks with Culture Vulture about her return to showbiz.

Why did you decide to take part in the TV series after nearly 20 years living away?

Actually, I joined a few film projects in HCM City in recent years but this is the first time I returned to Ha Noi after many years.

I come from Ha Noi and thats the reason I decided to take part in this TV series. I was impressed and agreed to join the project immediately when director Trinh Le Phong gave me the screenplay. Its a story about a family living in Ha Nois Old Quarter. When the parents pass away, a conflict develops among four siblings about whether to sell the old house which is full of memories but could fetch a lot of money.

Reading the screenplay, I was overwhelmed with emotions and memories of childhood. I found images of my mother, my generation and myself in this story.

You had to shuttle between Ha Noi and Singapore for this film project. Would you share something about the filming process?

Its like a child living far from home for a long time and then coming back. I felt like a fish out of water. But thanks to the directors instruction and support from the cast and crew, I believed that I completed my part well. The soap opera is currently broadcast on VTV1 on Thursdays and Fridays and has high ratings.

In a scene, actor Bui Bai Binh slapped my face rudely. That take was repeated three times to receive the directors nod. I hurt until now.

You are among the few northern actresses who received accolades from southern audiences. What made you so successful?

At the beginning, I tried to integrate with the community of southern colleagues and audiences by learning to speak in a southern voice and accent. But I couldnt. Actually, my instructor liked the northern voice.

I decided that I couldnt do something which is not me. I preserved the voice and luckily, the audience sympathised and loved my roles. I became a phenomenon as the only person speaking with a northern voice and accent in dramas with southern casts.

You were a stage star and a big name on the screen, but you decided to leave your career behind to take care of your family. Have you ever regreted it?

I love acting and I always try to come back to the stage if I have a chance. I felt lucky to have a happy family. Like many other women, I wake up early in the morning to make my husband a cup of coffee and bring my 10-year-old daughter to school. I named her Ha Mi, after my character in the drama Ha Mi Cua Toi to remember the pinnacle of fame in my career. Shes both my past and present and I treasure the happiness I currently have.  VNS
Parliamentary supervision should not impede localities by demanding too much time and effort away from their regular work, members of the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo Nguyen Dan

HA NOI  Parliamentary supervision should not impede localities by demanding too much time and effort away from their regular work, members of the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed yesterday.

They also agreed that the NAs supervisory work should be compact and more economical.

The NASC met in Ha Noi yesterday morning to discuss draft regulations on the parliaments supervisory work.

Most members agreed with a proposal to fix annual quantitative limits for NA and NASC supervising teams, including the maximum number of supervising teams, the number of subjects to be supervised, or the number of localities subject to supervision.

NA Deputy Chairman Phung Quoc Hien noted that local authorities and organisations had to receive many supervising teams from the NA every year, not to mention those from the Government or auditing agencies.

"The fact that localities and organisations have to spend a lot of time for these inspections and assessments seriously affects their operational efficiency," he said.

He suggested that when the NA or the NASC supervise implementation of a certain law or policy, they should select a few localities, not all 63 city and provinces nation-wide.

He added that the Deputy NA chair in charge of supervison should co-ordinate with responsible bodies to ensure that each locality receive a maximum of 2-3 supervising teams a year.

Dont be pompous

Supervising teams should also avoid pretentiousness in conducting their activities, Hien said.

For example, we should limit the number of cars used for travelling, avoid wasteful things like welcoming banners or slogans, or organising too many conferences and seminars, he said.

NA General Secretary Nguyen Hanh Phuc cited the example of a supervision team visiting as many as 34 provinces and a dozen industries and sectors.

The numbers look impressive, but the effectiveness was modest, he said.

NA Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong suggested the application of advanced IT technologies to simplify and increase the efficiency of supervisory activities.

Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, NA Chairwoman, proposed changes in rules on persons subject to formal questioning by NA deputies.

Under current regulations, senior officials including ministers are not allowed to authorise his or her inferiors to answer questions on their behalf during an NA working session.

Ngan suggested that the rules be made more flexible in order to avoid situations when the person has other, very important matters to attend to.

The regulation should grant the NASC authority to decide whether another person can stand in after the responsible person makes a request, she said.

Specially for Ha Noi

Also yesterday, the NASC discussed a draft decree offering special financial and budget management mechanisms for Ha Noi, granting it greater leeway in making decisions.

The decree aims to replace a similar one issued in 2004 that no longer matches new socio-economic development challenges faced by the city.

Under the draft decree, Ha Noi will be allowed to overspend its budget to invest in medium-term investment plans approved upon by the citys Peoples Council.

The quota for overspending will be decided annually by the NA while the specific amount will be decided by the city Peoples Council in conformity with the ceiling that the NA has set.

The overspending will be compensated by domestic loans from issuing local bonds, reborrowing from Governments loans and other sources. The city is not allowed to borrow from foreign sources to make up for budget overspending.

For some important projects on the environment, transportation and irrigation that exceed its financial capacity, Ha Noi can ask for the support from the State Budget.

The Government will also prioritise Ha Noi in terms of allocating Official Development Assistance (ODA) and other preferential capital to invest in programmes and projects to build infrastructure, protect the environment or enhance social welfare.

Every year, if Ha Nois budget revenues exceed the Governments forecast/target for the city, it will be allowed to retain 30 per cent of the extra revenue for investing in development projects .

Some members of the NASC suggested that this percentage be increased to make it conform with the Law on Capital, which regulates that the capital city can retain a majority of the extra revenue it generates.

They also voiced concern that the draft decree is not very different from existing laws and regulations on financial mechanisms for the capital city.

In fact, some of the regulations are less favourable to Ha Noi than existing ones, according to inh Van Nha, Vice Chairman of the NAs Finance and Budget Commmittee.

Chairman of Ha Nois Peoples Committee, Nguyen uc Chung, asked the Government to consider granting the capital city more authority to decide on important transportation and environmental projects to tackle the serious problems that the city is facing.

He also asked the Government to allow the capital city to keep the money collected from equitisation of State-owned enterprises that the city is in charge of, and to use land-use fees collected to supplement the citys budget.

Acknowledging the very important position of Ha Noi as the capital city, NA Chairwoman Ngan wanted the Government to take in to account the opinions of NASC members in formulating a decree that creates much more favourable conditions for Ha Noi than current laws and regulations.

Otherwise, we do not need a new decree, she said.  VNS
Le Hai Binh

HA NOI  Viet Nam expressed its condolences to the victims and families of the terror attacks in Germany and Switzerland and denounced the violence against innocent people, Le Hai Binh, spokeman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said yesterday.

He was responding to a question about Viet Nams reaction to the deadly truck attack in Berlin on Monday night and a gun attack in Zurich, Switzerland on the same day.

Asked whether there were Vietnamese victims in the German attack, Binh said there had not been any information on Vietnamese being affected. The Vietnamese Embassy in Germany had set up a hotline to receive information and assist Vietnamese victims if there are any, he added.  VNS
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc meets with Canadian ambassador Ping Kitnikone.  Photo baochinhphu.vn

HA NOI  Canada and Viet Nam have a great opportunity to promote ties, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told Canadas new ambassador to Viet Nam Ping Kitnikone.

The PM was referring to ties in trade, investment, official development assistance (ODA), education-training and people-to-people exchange

At a meeting with the diplomat in Ha Noi on December 20, PM Phuc reaffirmed Viet Nams commitment to creating favourable conditions for Canadas investment projects in the country, suggesting the two sides bolster trade links in the time ahead.

While expressing his delight at the positive results of Viet Nam-Canada relations, he said Canada is a reliable ODA provider and the two countries need to closely coordinate at regional and international forums, including the UN.

Appreciating PM Phucs commitments, Ping Kitnikone affirmed her country will expand cooperation with Viet Nam, especially in economy, trade and investment.

Canada is willing to work with Viet Nam to address challenges in climate change adaptation and food safety, she said.

She revealed that a delegation of Canadian enterprises specialising in aerospace will conduct a fact-finding tour of the country in the near future to seek cooperation opportunities with Vietnamese counterparts.

Viet Nam is now Canadas largest trade partner in ASEAN, with two-way trade value reaching US$3 billion following the first nine months of 2016. The two countries have also effectively co-operated in education and training. At present, about 5,000 Vietnamese students are pursuing their study in Canada.

Qatars newly-appointed ambassador to Viet Nam Mohammed El-Emadi is welcomed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.  Photo baochinhphu.vn

The same day, PM Phuc also hosted a reception for Qatars newly-appointed ambassador to Viet Nam Mohammed El-Emadi, during which he suggested strengthening co-operation between the two nations in trade, investment, and labour.

He said Viet Nam considers Qatar a potential partner, especially in infrastructure development, and hopes to promote export to the country and other Arabian nations.

He called on the diplomat to work to foster links in the above-mentioned fields, contributing to enhancing bilateral relations.

For his part, Mohammed El-Emadi pledged to do his best to step up relations between the two countries, especially in the fields suggested by the PM.

Qatar is willing to receive more Vietnamese skilled guest workers, he stated.  VNS
HA NOI - Ha Noi Department of Health has sent doctors, nurses and medical workers from central level hospitals to district level facilities to help share advanced professional techniques.

The plan aims to shorten the professional capacity gap between medical staff at central and district levels.

Due to limited capacity of doctors at grassroots-level hospitals, many patients infected with serious diseases must be transferred to central hospitals, causing overcrowding. Meanwhile, grassroots-level hospitals struggle to attract patients.

Doctor Nguyen Kha0c Hien, director of the citys Health Department, said that this year 35 medical facilities in the city have sent 55 doctors, eight nurses, technicians and midwives specilising in various major fields, from internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics to ear-nose-throat and teeth to grassroots-level hospitals.

The mobilised healthcare workers have strong professional qualifications. Many are heads and deputy heads of clinical departments of central hospitals.

Until now, 133 techniques have been transferred through direct guidance.

The technique transfer has widened opportunities for city dwellers to access better healthcare services.

Thanks to the transfer, My uc Hospital doctors are able to do ovarian cyst endoscopic surgeries. Quoc Oai Hospital can do kidney dialysis.

In addition, doctors at Chuong My Hospital are able to operate on thryroid gland lumps and conduct urinary analysis. Since the transfer started in 2014, more and more patients in the district and from surrounding areas flock to the hospital. The number of tables offering medical examinations has risen from nine to 14 to meet increasing demands of local patients.

The hospitals 350 beds are always full, with peak times having up to 400 inpatients.

Nguyen Quang Mau, director of Phuc Tho Districts Hospital, said that conducting surgeries was very rare in the hospital before July 2014. However, the hospital now conducts more than 100 surgeries each month. Each day, there are up to six or seven operations, equal to the whole months surgeries in previous years.

Earlier, the hospital doctors never thought of endoscopic surgeries. Now the technique is applied for ectopic pregnancy and appendicitis surgeries, he said.

According to the plan of Ha Nois Health Ministry, there will be additional 15 medical workers sent to 25 grassroots-level medical facilities next year. - VNS
The Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health yesterday issued a warning of disease outbreaks due to prolonged flooding in central provinces.  Photo sggp.org.vn

HA NOI  The Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health yesterday issued a warning of disease outbreaks due to prolonged flooding in central provinces.

The ministry asked the health sector in the central provinces to carry out surveillance of diseases including sending mobile teams to flood hit areas.

Additionally, the sector must provide chemicals for each household to disinfect the environment and water sources. Contagious diseases such as diarrhea, pink eye, respiratory problem, skin diseases, influenza, cholera, dysentery and typhoid should be handled properly.

Residents in flood hit areas should eat boiled food and water, and wash hands regularly with soap and use provided chemicals to disinfect water for cooking.  VNS
The Ministry of Health has given the green light to E Hospital in Ha Noi to open four hi-tech centres to meet patient demand.  Photo vtv.vn

HA NOI  The Ministry of Health has given the green light to E Hospital in Ha Noi to open four hi-tech centres to meet patient demand.

The four centres include a cardiology centre, a digestive centre, a bone-muscle centre, and a tumor centre. The cardiology centre is expected to be the leading one in performing complicated cases of congenital heart problems in the country.

The hospital yesterday broke ground for building a treatment unit and a modern unit for outpatients as well as set up a childrens unit.

The treatment unit and the unit for outpatients are built on an area of 13,000 square metres at a total cost of VND358 billion (US$15.7 million). It is expected to serve 2,000 patients a day.

The two units will be opened in 2018.  VNS
QUANG TRI  While thousands of locals await clean water, a nearly-complete water supply project in central Quang Tri Province has been delayed for over a year due to the lack of funding.

The project aims at providing clean water to over 1,700 households from Hai Lang Districts Hai Chanh Commune and other houses in neibouring Hai Son Commune.

We have been looking forward to accessing clean water supply for years. We used to carry cans of water from the river for daily activities, Thao, a local, told the Bao phap luat Viet Nam (Viet Nam Law) newspaper.

We were delighted on hearing that a water supply plant was being built, but it hasnt finished even after many years, she said, adding that residents had complained to competent agencies several times but no action had been taken.

Bui Van Sinh, deputy chairman of Hai Chanh Commune, said eight out of 11 villages were in need of clean water because the wells had either gone dry or were contaminated with alum.

Some 300 households in My Chanh Village often did not even have water for daily use for the past six months, he said.

Those who lived near My Chanh Market were forced to buy clean water from Thua Thien-Hue Provinces Phong ien District and neighbouring communes to cook their meals, he said.

The newspaper reported that most of the infrastructure-related projects, such as the management room, pumping station and mud treatment storage tank, were complete. However, with the project suspended since March last year, some areas had got damaged by the weather.

Worse still, locals were using the plant as a place to breed cows.

The project was approved in 2010 and was expected to be completed in 2012. However, due to problems in capital allocation, construction of the Ha Chanh Water supply project, with total estimated capital of nearly VN31 billion (US$1.36 million) started in mid-2014 and was due to finish by the end of the following year.

Of this capital, VN19 billion ($835,000) was to come from the State budget, VN3billion ($132,000) from the Quang Tri Water Supply and Construction One Member Limited Company and the rest was funded by the Italian government.

Tran Quynh, deputy director of Quang Tri Water Supply and Construction One Member Limited Company, the projects investor, said in accordance with the signed contract, the Italian government was to support capital for purchasing water pipes and other equipments for the plant.

However, the Ministry of Finance has not yet allocated this sum of money for the province.

Meanwhile, just one third of the VN22 billion investment ($966,000), or VN7.5 billion ($330,000), has so far been disbursed, leading to suspension of the project, he said.  VNS
BAC GIANG  Bac Giang Peoples Procuracy on Tuesday freed Han uc Long, 57, who was earlier sentenced to death for murder and raping children 11 years ago.

A lot of the evidence against Long did not have a strong foundation, the Peoples Procuracy said.

Long has returned to his hometown and reunited with his family in Yen Ly Village, Phuc Son Commune, Tan Yen District.

Earlier, on May 16, 2005, while returning home from work, Son and Lieu, a couple from Phuc Son Commune, discovered their five-year-old daughter was missing. Her body was found the next morning in a field with evidence pointing to her being raped.

Following four months of investigation, the provincial police could not find a suspect, so they called on residents for assistance.

Ngo Thi Khuyet, Longs neighbour, then informed the police that Long had raped her and her daughter. She claimed Long had also raped Son and Lieus daughter.

Long was subsequently sentenced to death. But during hearings in different courts, Long all along maintained his innocence and said that he was forced to confess he was guilty.

Following a thorough investigation, Bac Giang Peoples Procuracy decided to release Long.  VNS
BINH INH  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday requested provincial authorities to urgently support residents in rebuilding houses and repairing those on the verge of collapse.

In a tour to examine the living conditions of flood affected residents in the central Binh inh Province yesterday, he also encouraged local residents to overcome difficulties and restabilise their lives.

The PM visited residents of the inundated An Xuyen 3 Hamlet in the provinces Phu My District, as well as residents of Luat Le Hamlet in Tuy Phuoc District who were suffering from the erosion of the Ha Thanh River dyke.

Five major floods have hit the province since last month, inundating 11 districts, towns and cities in the province, according to the provincial Peoples Committee.

The floods killed 39 people, injured 10, pulled down 551 houses, submerged 97,000 and incurred a loss of some VN1.9 trillion (US$83.5 million).

On the same day, Vice President ang Thi Ngoc Thinh visited flood affected residents in the central Phu Yen Province.

At a meeting with the provincial Peoples Committee, she highly appreciated the provinces efforts in dealing with and overcoming the natural disasters.

She asked the authorities to take care to avoid post-flood accidents and attend to the living conditions of the flood affected residents, especially when the Lunar New Year is only a month away.

Two major floods occurred in Phu Yen Province since last month, incurring a loss of nearly VN500 billion ($22 million).

Reservoir control

Water leakage sites were discovered at 23 reservoirs in the central province of Binh inh on Tuesday, the result of the heavy downpours and flooding that have afflicted the area since the beginning of the month.

The Centre of Flood and Storm Prevention in the Central and Central Highlands region reported the province is strictly monitoring the situation at these reservoirs.

The province also said erosion in the lower part of Hoai An District Van Hoi reservoir has been repaired, while three dam outlets were plugged yesterday.

According to the latest reports from the centre, three outlets released the water level down to 38m via a safe spillway, and a duty team was put on 24 hour alert at the dam.

The central province, which was the most damaged locale in the flooding, has a total of 166 reservoirs built in the 1980-90s, of which 46 are in poor repair.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade reported on Tuesday that 70 out of 250 reservoirs at hydro-power plants and irrigation lakes in the region continue to discharge water through spillways. Most of the reservoirs are 80 or 95 per cent full.  VNS
HCM CITY  Many young Vietnamese couples seem to deliberately avoid pre-marital health screenings for fear that these will find health problems and ruin their budding marriages, a survey found.

Dr Bui Duy Luat from the Department of Kidney Surgery and Transplant under 115 People Hospital, said he and his colleagues were quite surprised to learn that of 400 young couples surveyed, only 2 per cent were willing to undergo premarital health tests for genetic and infectious diseases.

The survey is not a comprehensive statistical research given its small scale and the fact that it was conducted during a talk on reproductive health held at the hospital, but the results are quite alarming, he said.

According to the survey, 85 per cent of the participants said they had never even heard of premarital health examinations, while 10 per cent said they had but dont know what these entail.

Luat attributed the lack of awareness of such testing to the fact that authorities have not explained their importance to young people. Some were concerned about the price of such tests, he added.

Another reason could be embarrassment. According to a report released three years ago by the Maternal and Child Health Department, a third of Vietnamese below 18 thought using a condom was "inappropriate" behavior, and 16 per cent said condoms were for prostitutes and adulterers only. That attitude might also pertain to the issue of premarital health examinations.

But Dr Luat also revealed that during the talk, 70 per cent said youngsters are worried that the diseases discovered would rion their marriage plans. A partner who brings up the issue of check-ups will likely be misunderstood as lacking trust in the other, undermining the relationship.

According to Dr Vuong Thi Ngoc Lan from the Department of Gynecology at HCM City Medical University, couples who are fully in the know about each others health before tying the knot will be more prepared, psychologically and physically, for long-term plans.

For example, couples with detected reproductive health issues will be able to take measures to increase their chances of pregnancy.

Furthermore, even if one or both partners are found to have certain conditions, these can be remedied. For example, if semen analysis shows some abnormalities, it does not necessarily mean he is completely infertile. Most conditions are amenable to early diagnosis and treatment, Dr Lan said.

Dr Luat added that if health problems were detected, experts would be readily available at medical centres to provide counseling and treatment.

According to Dr Luat, husbands and wives-to-be registering for premarital checkups will be provided with diagnoses, treatments and preventive measures for a range of conditions.

Conditions related to potential infertility are part of the testing for bride and groom, and disease common to both sexes are also tested, such as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), tuberculosis, hepatitis type B and type C. Risks of rubella, tetanus, chickenpox, blood disease and birth defects, among others, for the babies born to these couples will also be assessed and appropriate solutions are put forward.

Ho Ky Thu Nguyet of Tu Du Hospital said the ideal time to get checkups is three to six months prior to marriage  enough time for the treatment of average conditions.

Five basic pre-marital checkups available in Vietnamese hospitals

- HIV and STDs tests

- Blood tests

- Thalassemia (an inherited red blood cell disorder resulting in birth defects and stillborn births)

- Fertility analysis (semen analysis for men and ovulation test for women)

- Other chronic or genetic disease.

 VNS
KHANH HOA  Officials from Khanh Hoa Provinces Health Department said the province has decided to invest nearly VN260 billion (US$11.5 million) to develop a health system for the island districts in the province from 2017.

Under the plan, some VN10 billion ($400,000) will be invested in the 87 Military Hospital in Nha Trang City to upgrade its equipment and facilities and human resources. The emergency department of the hospital will be upgraded into an emergency centre.

Another focus of the plan is to train emergency teams on the Spratly Island District.

The 486 medical team of Military Zone 4 will be upgraded into the 486 Military Hospital with a capacity of 100 beds.  VNS
By Nguyen Hang

For many years not, the HCM City administration, which governs the nations largest city with a population of more than 8.5 million people that is forecast to increase rapidly, has been grappling with the problem of traffic congestion.

The estimated losses suffered by the city because of traffic congestion is not trivial at around VN23 trillion (approximately US$ 1 billion) a year.

A few days ago, the municipal Transport Department proposed to the administration that some major streets are turned into one-way streets. If this proposal is approved, it might take effect early next year.

The streets include Cong Hoa, Hai Ba Trung, Hoang Van Thu, Le Quang inh, Le Quy on, Pham Ngoc Thach, Phan Van Tri, Tran Quoc Thao and Truong Chinh.

Understandably, the proposal has generated heated debate among residents, including those living along the streets and those whose small business activities could be affected if the streets are made one-way.

Road users who suffer the gridlock every day have also weighed in, of course.

The owner of a shop on Hoang Van Thu Street said his business will suffer if it became one-way, because most people would hesitate to take a detour to buy something at a shop.

Nguyen Thi Chung of Tan Phu District felt otherwise: Im okay with one-way streets and ready to drive a longer distance as long as traffic congestion is reduced.

In this city, traffic congestion seems like an endless nightmare.

As residents debate and the administration considers the proposal, several officials have welcomed it.

A representative of Binh Thanh District told the Tuoi Tre (Youth) Newspaper that he agreed with the transport departments proposal.

He said both Phan Van Tri and Le Quang inh in the district experiences high traffic flow and frequent traffic congestion. And since the Citys current master plan did not mention broadening these streets, making them one-way was a solution worth trying.

He said the district would assist the city administration in persuading local residents if the proposal was approved, he said.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Hai of the citys Police Department also felt one-way streets would allow for a smoother traffic flow, and traffic jams reduced.

Developed Asian countries like Singapore and Japan have also turned many city-centre streets one way, and despite high traffic density, vehicles moved smoothly, he said.

However, several experts also advised authorities to make careful calculations before applying this solution so as to minimise losses for residents doing business on the targeted streets.

In an article penned for Tuoi Tre, Associate Professor Nguyen Le Ninh of the HCM City Fatherland Front said the transport department should carry out additional surveys to decide which streets qualified most to become one-way streets.

Once this is done, the information must be given to locals so that they can give their agreement, he wrote.

We all know that traffic gridlocks are a problem in many countries. In the ASEAN region, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines are also struggling to find solutions.

Personally, I welcome the proposal. Although some households doing business along the streets might suffer, the city should give it a try.

Of course, there cannot be a single solution to this problem. Ways have to be found to reduce the number of vehicles, both motorbikes and cars, on the streets, because it not just a question of traffic jams, but also of severe air and noise pollution.

Whatever the issue, it is impossible to find a perfect solution that satisfies everyone.  VNS
CARACAS  Thousands of Venezuelans crossed into Colombia on Tuesday to buy food and medicine after their government partially reopened the border following a messy crackdown on what it called currency hoarders.

The border with Brazil was also partially reopened, officials in Brasilia said.

"Thank God the border is open again," said one 29-year-old, Christian Sanchez.

"A lot of people have come to shop on the other side, because we cant find food, diapers for our babies, medicine," he said.

Sanchez was preparing to enter a pedestrian crossing over the Simon Bolivar Bridge linking the cities of San Antonio in Venezuela and Cucuta, Colombia.

But while foot traffic was permitted, trucks carrying needed goods remained blocked.

Venezuela also reopened its main border crossing with Brazil after talks between officials at the Brazilian embassy and Venezuelas foreign ministry, officials in Brasilia said in a statement.

The crossing is open for pedestrians, but only within limited hours for vehicles.

Local press reported that some 200 Brazilians, mostly local tourists, were prevented from returning home when Venezuela closed the border.

President Nicolas Maduro had ordered the borders with Colombia and Brazil be closed on December 12 as part of a currency reform that involved removing the 100-bolivar note from circulation.

Maduro alleged "mafias" abroad were hoarding the banknotes to try to suffocate the Venezuelan economy.

But looting and clashes broke out over the weekend as many people were left without cash. At least three people were reported killed, and around 300 people arrested.

Bolivar was the state hit hardest by the unrest. A curfew has been in force there since Saturday, and more than 3,000 troops are patrolling the streets.

Maduro eventually reversed course and said the currency will remain legal tender until January 2 while new, higher denomination bills are printed and circulated.

Late Monday, he and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spoke by telephone and agreed to reopen the border "progressively," according to Venezuelan information minister Ernesto Villegas.

While visiting the border town of Cucuta on Tuesday, Santos said in a televised speech that better cooperation "on both sides" was needed to crack down on contraband.  AFP
BERLIN  German police on Wednesday stepped up their hunt for the driver of a truck that rampaged through a Berlin Christmas market, in a deadly assault claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

The sole suspect - a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker - was released late Tuesday for lack of evidence, prompting worries of a killer on the loose and further rattling nerves in a shocked country.

"We cant rule out that the perpetrator is on the run," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told German broadcaster ZDF.

Twelve people were killed when the Polish-registered articulated truck ploughed into the crowded market on Monday, smashing wooden stalls and crushing victims.

Twenty-four injured remained in hospital, 14 of whom were in critical condition, according to de Maiziere.

The scenes instantly revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency said "a soldier of the Islamic State" carried out the Berlin carnage "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries".

There was no evidence to back the claim, nor was the perpetrator identified.

Germany is part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

De Maiziere said several lines of inquiry were being pursued, but "we should let the security services do their job."

"No-one will rest until the perpetrator or perpetrators have been caught," he told ARD public television.

The attack comes at a sensitive time for Chancellor Angela Merkel who is running for a fourth term in 2017 but has faced strong criticism over her decision last year to open the countrys borders to refugees.

Dangerous criminal

In a blow to investigators, federal prosecutors announced they had to release the only suspect in custody after finding no forensic evidence to link him to Germanys deadliest attack in recent years.

The Pakistani man was arrested late on Monday after he was reportedly seen jumping out of the truck and fleeing the scene.

But officials had expressed growing doubts over whether they had the right suspect in custody.

"We may have a dangerous criminal in the area", Berlins police chief Klaus Kandt said, adding that security would be boosted while urging "heightened vigilance".

Following the suspects release, Kandt told ARD television "one or more" perpetrators were believed to be on the run and possibly armed.

Images from the aftermath showed the mangled truck with its windscreen smashed, a trail of destruction in its wake, while survivors recounted harrowing stories of near misses and bloody carnage.

A Polish man, killed with a gunshot, was found on the trucks passenger seat, said de Maiziere. He was believed to be the initial driver of the Polish-registered vehicle.

Merkel visited the scene of the carnage for a minutes silence on Tuesday and then joined a memorial service in the adjacent Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

Mourners placed flowers and candles at the site while German flags flew at half-mast.

Berlins landmark Brandenburg Gate was lit in the national colours in honour of the victims, and foreign leaders, led by US President Barack Obama, sent their condolences.  AFP
LONDON  Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday said she was planning to negotiate both Brexit and Britains future relationship with the EU by 2019 but a transition period may be required after that.

Appearing before a parliamentary committee, May said companies and government might require time to adjust, in her first comments explicitly evoking a possible transition arrangement to ease Britains EU departure.

"I would expect us to be able to negotiate a deal in the two-year period. But it may be the case that there may be some practical aspects that require a period of implementation thereafter," she said.

Finance Minister Philip Hammond has said such a deal could be "helpful" to "manage the adjustment between where we are now, as full members of the European Union, and where we get to in the future".

It "would tend towards a smoother transition and would run less risks of disruption including, crucially, risks to financial stability which must be a fairly real concern", he said last week.

Cliff-edge

Speaking at a summit of the Confederation of British Industry in November, May had alluded to a transition deal saying "We dont want a cliff-edge".

CBI president Paul Drechsler at the same conference said: "Businesses are inevitably considering the cliff-edge scenario - a sudden and overnight transformation in trading conditions.

"If this happens, firms could find themselves stranded in a regulatory no mans land," he said.

A report published by the business lobby group on Wednesday called for a "barrier-free relationship with our largest, closest and most important trading partner".

The CBI report followed a consultation with its members which stressed a holistic approach to business is needed for the Brexit negotiations, reflecting fears the government could focus its attention on the financial sector.

"The Government will need to take a whole economy approach to avoid leaving sectors behind," said Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director-general.

A government spokesperson said Downing Street agrees "we want a smooth and orderly exit that works for all sectors of the UK economy".

Grilled by MPs on Tuesday about the timing of the exit deal and the new trade arrangements with the EU, May said: "I am working on the basis that we will look to negotiate those in parallel.

"I think that is what makes sense," she added.

The EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier earlier this month said the deal on Britains departure should be brokered by October 2018 to allow for ratification times on the EU side.

He also said the EU "needs to know" the full details of Britains plans for its long-term relationship with the EU before any interim deal was possible.

May also on Tuesday dismissed questions about whether the British parliament would be allowed to vote on the final Brexit deal that is negotiated, saying only it would be given time to discuss the issues.

She said she would give a speech on Brexit next month with more details of the governments plans and planned to stick to the timetable of beginning the formal procedure for Brexit by March at the latest.

Britains Supreme Court is set to rule in January on whether parliaments approval is required for May to trigger the Article 50 exit process, which gives a two-year timetable for negotiating a deal unless both Britain and the EU agree to an extension.  AFP
Virginia Tech is one of 17 institutions to have signed Facebooks sponsored academic research agreement, known as SARA. The agreement streamlines the process for joint technology projects between the commonwealths most comprehensive research university and the one of the worlds leading technology companies.

Virginia Tech is excited to partner with Facebook, university President Tim Sands said. In keeping with our land-grant mission, we emphasize innovation with an eye toward bringing knowledge into communities around the world. Facebooks tremendous reachits influence on how we communicate todayhas profound implications. We welcome the opportunity for joint-technology research with them.

Facebook reported 1.79 billion monthly active users as of September 30. The SARA was created by Facebooks Building 8 team, which focuses on scientific research and product development. The team is led by Regina Dugan, who formerly headed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Dugan earned bachelors and masters degrees in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.

In a Dec. 21 post, Dugan said the SARA is designed to make it easier and faster for (Building 8) to work with university researchers. Not in the 9-12 months thats typically required. But within weeks.

Others involved in the initiative are Arizona State; California Institute of Technology; Georgia Tech; Harvard; Johns Hopkins; Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Northeastern; Princeton; Rice; Stanford; Texas A&M; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, San Francisco; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and University of Waterloo.

Virginia Tech Vice President for Research and Innovation Theresa Mayer said agreements such as the one with Facebook are essential to effective collaboration between industry and higher education. She said Virginia Tech has made it a priority to reach agreements with a variety of leading companies. In November, the university announced it had reached such an agreement with Lockheed Martin.

These agreements are critical, Mayer said. New technologies are being developed at rapid pace. To be effective partners, companies and universities must be nimble enough to respond quickly to new opportunities.
WATERLOO  The Waterloo-Cedar Falls metro areas November unemployment rate was 3.9 percent, down from 4.2 percent in October but up from 3.7 percent in November 2015, according to figures released by Iowa Workforce Development.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls metropolitan statistical area, which includes Black Hawk, Bremer and Grundy counties, still has the highest jobless rate of the states urban areas, which ranged down to 1.7 percent in Ames. The state jobless rate was 3.8 percent.

Black Hawk Countys November jobless rate was 4.1 percent, compared with 4.4 percent in October and 3.9 percent from November 2015. Just 13 of Iowas 99 counties had an unemployment rate equal to or higher than Black Hawks. Scott County, which includes the cities or Bettendorf and Davenport on the Iowa side of the Quad Cities, also weighed in at 4.1 percent, while Wapello County had a state-high jobless rate of 6.6 percent. All three counties have major John Deere operations.

The November rates were calculated after announced layoffs of 115 Waterloo John Deere workers in late September. The September Deere layoff announcement was in addition to some 660 Waterloo Deere workers still on indefinite layoff following a pair of major workforce reductions announced in fall 2014 and spring 2015 that initially idled about 1,000 people, according to figures from United Auto Workers Local 838, which represents union-wage Deere employees. Some employees have been called back.

Employment in Waterloo-Cedar Falls is down 1,300 jobs from a year ago, the state reported. Despite the Deere layoffs, manufacturing had a net gain of 100 jobs over the year, the state reported, as did financial activities and the leisure and hospitality trade. State officials said manufacturing on the whole has been resilient in the area and food manufacturing has also been strong. State government and retail trade accounted for the largest portion of the area job loss.

November unemployment rates for Northeast Iowa counties, with the October rates in parentheses, are: Benton, 2.9 (3.3); Black Hawk, 4.1 (4.4); Bremer, 3.3 (3.6); Buchanan, 3.3 (3.7); Butler, 3.9 (4.0); Chickasaw, 3.3 (4.0); Clayton, 3.7 (3.8); Delaware, 2.9 (3.4); Fayette, 3.8 (3.9); Floyd, 2.9 (3.3); Franklin, 2.9 (3.2); Grundy, 2.9 (3.3); Hardin, 3.3 (3.6); Howard, 2.5 (3.0); Mitchell, 2.0 (2.7); Tama, 3.3 (3.8); and Winneshiek, 2.3 (2.7).
CHARLES CITY -- A Charles City man was sentenced this week to more than 10 years in federal prison on a methamphetamine charge.

Mark Allen Ackley Jr., 27, pleaded guilty August in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

Ackley conspired with others between 2014 and Oct. 21, 2015, to distribute five grams or more of pure methamphetamine, according to court documents.

He was sentenced to 121 months in federal prison. There is no parole in the federal system.

Ackley also was ordered to serve five years of supervised release after his prison term ends and to pay a $100 special assessment.
WATERLOO  A Waterloo police officer who last week was honored for heroism is facing criticism over a warrantless vehicle search in which he seized a loaded gun.

The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that officer Mark Nissen's 2014 search was unreasonable. It overturned Ezekiel Phillips' conviction for illegally carrying weapons, ruling the evidence inadmissible.

Nissen and another officer approached Phillips' parked car because it was playing loud music. Phillips was standing outside, and Nissen saw a vehicle passenger try to conceal something inside.

Nissen drew his Taser and handcuffed the passenger. After seeing an alcoholic beverage in the car, officers searched it and discovered a loaded revolver.

The court says the search wasn't allowed because there was no driver and the vehicle wasn't moving.

The city recently paid $170,000 to settle cases in which Nissen slammed a teenager and stunned a man at a late-night party. Police Chief Daniel Trelka has defended Nissen as an active officer who patrols high-crime areas.

Nissen is still recuperating from injuries he received in November when he reportedly stopped a drunken driver going the wrong way on a highway. He was honored Dec. 14 with a medal of valor.

Trelka said he was contacted by a motorist on U.S. Highway 20 behind Nissens squad car when the suspects pick-up truck collided head-on with Nissens vehicle.

The person commented that he felt Officer Nissen was beyond being a hero, for if Officer Nissen had not done what he did in stopping the suspect vehicle, this person would have been one of the next vehicles meeting the suspect vehicle, Trelka said.

The crash happened early Nov. 29. Authorities in Grundy County to the west of Waterloo had received several reports of a driver traveling east in the westbound lanes of Highway 20 around 4:30 a.m.
INDEPENDENCE  A woman who was abused for several years as a child said she still has panic attacks and goes to therapy years after the abuse stopped.

Josh has taken so much from me. He took my childhood. He took my ability to trust anyone, the woman wrote in a statement read in court Tuesday as Joshua Jarrett Sr., 39, was sentenced to prison for second- and third-degree sexual abuse and flight to avoid prosecution in Buchanan County District Court.

He is a pedophile, a predator, a monster  Hes mentally ill, and I hope him going to prison gets him the help he needs, the woman wrote in her statement.

Prosecutors said Jarrett abused the girl starting in 2002 when she was 6 years old, and the abuse continued for eight years. In August 2014, Jarrett fled the state when he realized he was under investigation, and he remained at large until March 2015 when he was arrested in Texas and fought extradition, said Assistant Iowa Attorney General Scott Brown, who prosecuted the case.

Jarrett was convicted during an October trial.

Judge Brad Harris sentenced Jarrett to a total of 35 years in prison, which included consecutive 25- and 10-year sentences for the sexual abuse charges and a concurrent five years for flight. He also will have to register as a sex offender for life and will be placed on lifetime parole when he is released from prison.

Harris said he stacked the sentences because of the ongoing and long-term nature of the abuse.

This was not a one-time event. It happened on several occasions, on regular occasions, for an extended period of time, Harris said.
WATERLOO  The city is reversing course on a gaming grant to buy a new animal control van.

Waterloo City Council members voted 6-1 Monday to accept up to $25,000 from the Black Hawk County Gaming Association to pay for half the costs of a new all-wheel-drive van for its animal control officers.

Council members turned down the grant in June on a 3-3 tie vote with opponents contending the department should find a cheaper vehicle option. Similar concerns were raised when the measure returned for another vote.

We dont need a $50,000 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter to pick up dead raccoons; we can buy a Ford Transit for ten grand, said Councilman Tom Lind. I dont know why we would try to get a $25,000 grant for a dogmobile.

But Sandie Greco, who oversees the animal control operations, said she is looking at cheaper options in the $20,000 range and is planning to have the van equipped in house to keep the price down.

The $25,000 is the max (grant), Greco said. But were not going to spend that much.

An animal control officer no longer employed by the city wrecked the former animal control vehicle, so the van being used now is in very poor shape.

Right now we are driving an older building maintenance van, Greco said. The only backup we have is an older building maintenance van that needs a new engine.

Councilman Steve Schmitt ultimately cast the only vote against the grant after saying the citys animal control operation is not working properly.

Schmitt cited an issue last month when residents contend animal control dropped the ball and allowed a mistreated dog to die on Upton Avenue. Animal rights activists later called for Greco to be removed from overseeing animal control.

We really need to step back and take a look at this whole operation, he said. Somethings wrong. I think we need to sit down and go back to square one.

Schmitt also took issue with the Black Hawk County Gaming Association, which distributes grants from earnings at the Isle Casino Hotel Waterloo to local projects.

I dont know if the gaming commission is doing a very good job of vetting their projects, said Schmitt, suggesting the grants arent providing promised property tax relief.

Mayor Quentin Hart defended the gaming association as being a great partner with the city and suggested the proper time to review animal control operations is during upcoming budget discussions.

I think we have an immediate need to have a pretty decent vehicle to transport animals, Hart said.

Councilman Tom Powers, who was elected after a failed vote on the grant in June, supported the animal control van.

The vehicle we have is getting close to not road-worthy, he said. I dont think we should be cutting back on the value that we have for our employees that are out in these kinds of weather conditions and road hazards that are out there.
Off-road vehicle registrations due

WATERLOO  Owners of off-highway vehicles have until Dec. 31 to renew their annual registration to avoid a penalty.

Black Hawk County Recorder Sandie Smith said owners of off-road utility vehicles, off-road motorcycles and snowmobiles can still renew registrations after the deadline but would pay a $5 penalty.

Snowmobile owners also are required to display a user permit on their snowmobile to operate lawfully on any public land or ice in the state. User permits also are available in the Recorders Office on the second floor of the courthouse.

The office is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday but will be closed Dec.26-27 for the Christmas holiday.

Holiday garbage collection set

WATERLOO  City of Waterloo offices will be closed this Friday in observance of the Christmas holiday. Fridays garbage collection has been moved to Saturday. Residents should place their garbage carts curbside by 6 a.m. Saturday.

Also, the city Sanitation Department will pick up Christmas trees curbside on normal garbage route days from Jan. 10 to 20. Place trees clear of garbage carts to eliminate interference with automated garbage pickup.

Trees of more than 6 feet in length must be cut in half. Trees should not be wrapped in plastic bags, contain any metal, wire, plastic, decorations or bases. Flocked trees, artificial trees, trees with decorations/lights/garland will not be collected. Wreaths and other manufactured products containing wire should be disposed of through regular garbage service.

For more information, call 291-4455.

Area foundation awards grant

CEDAR FALLS  The Community Foundation of Northeast Iowas board of directors has awarded a $25,000 grant to The House of Hope as a contribution to its Build Hope Campaign.

The House of Hope supports single mothers and their children through a two-year transitional housing arrangement. With the aid of staff and volunteers, The House of Hope provides safe housing, case management and meets basic needs for the families as they work through the obstacles before them. Currently, the organization houses 10 families but has a waiting list as long as 50 families.

Care for Yourself registration open

WATERLOO The Care for Yourself program at the Black Hawk County Health Department has immediate openings for women seeking their annual pap smear and mammogram. Enrollments are being accepted through May 1. Qualified women can obtain screening at the provider/location of their choice.

The program covers: well woman physical; pap smear and/or pelvic exam; mammogram; diagnostic testing if needed.

To qualify women must: be between the ages of 40-64; live in Black Hawk, Buchanan, Fayette, Tama or Grundy counties; have no insurance or have a high deductible/co-pay on their insurance; meet income guidelines (household of two can make up to $39,825/net per year).

For more information or to enroll in the program, women are encouraged to contact the Care for Yourself program at 292-2225. Women who live outside of these counties can call (866) 339-7909, and they will be directed to the program serving their county. The toll-free number does have Spanish interpreters available, as well.
CEDAR FALLS  A nervous energy filled the River Hills School gymnasium Tuesday as students, staff and volunteers anticipated the arrival of a very special guest.

The Hudson High School choir took to the stage, singing Christmas carols and getting the audience in just the right mood for the big entrance.

Students swayed in their seats, some singing along and others letting out yelps of joy as the big moment approached.

Partway into a rousing rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to Town the sound of sleigh bells could be heard, and the jolly old elf himself appeared on stage with Mrs. Claus at his side.

The room erupted in cheers and applause as Santa greeted the students. Merry Christmas, he said. Ive been waiting all year to see you.

Soon students were lined up waiting for a personal audience and photo op with the man in red. Some stood shyly, smiling nervously for the camera. Others, their eyes wide with awe, just stared. And some couldnt keep their emotion and curiosity in check, throwing their arms around Santas neck, laying their head on his shoulder, reaching out to stroke his beard or touch the trim on his fur-lined suit.

Every one of these kids, whether they are 6 or 16, still believes, said Rita Congdon, who, with her husband, Richard, appear throughout the community at various events as the holiday couple. Theyve been coming to River Hills for about 10 years. This is the most important one of all. The kids are so sweet, so innocent, so sincere. Its very rewarding for us.

It is wonderful to see their eyes light up when they see me, Richard Congdon said. For some of them, this is the highlight of their year. We look forward to it as much as they do.

Tuesday marked the 13th year for the schools Lunch with Santa event, which is hosted by The Covenant Foundation and Variety-The Childrens Charity.

Every year this is just about celebrating the children, said Amy Hetherton, public relations and marketing coordinator at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare and Variety board member. Its about seeing the magic in their eyes. Its a very special treat.

After meeting with Santa, students could choose an activity at one of several workshops set up around the perimeter of the gym. Offerings included coloring a Christmas scene, making a picture frame or getting a temporary tattoo.

This was Hudson High School ninth-grader and choir member Harley Schleys first time attending Lunch with Santa. She helped students create Snowmen on a Stick using cotton balls at one of the activity stations.

The kids are very excited, she said. They really like the idea of making something for a family member. It has been really fun getting to work with them. Its the funnest Christmas activity Ive done in a long time.

Students also enjoyed a lunch provided by Hy-Vee, ConAgra, Kwik Star and Wal-Mart. As an added treat this year, each student received a Grin to Go bag courtesy of UnitedHealthcare Childrens Foundation filled with toys and activities.

Nancy Lind, chief operating officer at UnitedHealthcare, was on hand to help distribute the bags.

The kids just love them and knowing they get to take them home, that thats their bag, she said. Weve been delivering bags to children in hospitals and schools across the United States since June, and today we delivered our 1,000th bag. We want them to have projects to do in their down time and have some fun things to do.
All these principles are related and under attack.

Conservatives believe human beings are fallible and prone to ambition, passion and selfishness. They (actually, we) tend to become swaggering dictators in realms where we can act with impunity  a DMV office, a hostile traffic stop, a country under personal rule. It is the particular genius of the American system to balance ambition against ambition through a divided government (executive, legislative and judicial). The American system employs human nature to limit the power of the state  assuming every branch of government is both dedicated to the common good and jealous of its own power.

Conservatives believe finite and fallen creatures are often wrong. We know many of our attitudes and beliefs are the brains justification for pre-rational tendencies and desires. This does not make perception of truth impossible, or truth itself relative, but it should encourage healthy self-examination and a suspicion of all forms of fanaticism. All of us have things to learn, even from our political opponents. The truth is out there, but it is generally broken into pieces and scattered across the human experience. We only reassemble it through listening and civil communication.

And conservatives believe a just society depends on the moral striving of finite and fallen creatures who treat each other with a respect and decency that laws can encourage but not enforce. Such virtues, often rooted in faith, are what turn families and communities into the nurseries of citizenship. These institutions not only shape good people, they inculcate the belief human beings have a dignity, while often dishonored, that can never be effaced. In the midst of all our justified skepticism, we can never be skeptical of this: the reason for politics is to honor the equal value of every life, beginning with the weakest and most vulnerable. No bad goal  say, racial purity or communist ideology  outweighs this commitment. And no good goal  the efficiency of markets or the pursuit of greater equality  does either.

So how do we get this set of beliefs and commitments when they seem in short supply? It is hopeless to demand results from an organic process  to order the grass to grow faster. But this type of conservatism  a conservatism of intellectual humility and moral aspiration  also has the advantage of being an organic process. It grows with tenacity in hidden places, eventually breaking down the cement and asphalt of our modern life. It appeals to people who would never call themselves conservatives  who probably wouldnt use words like nadir and zenith  who provide examples of hard work, personal responsibility, unfailing decency, family commitment, quiet faith, inspiring compassion and resilience in adversity. They are the potential recruits of a humane political conservatism.

This is not the political force that has recently taken over the Republican Party  with a plurality in the presidential primaries and a narrow victory in November. That has been the result of extreme polarization, not a turn toward enduring values. The movement is authoritarian in theory, apocalyptic in mood, prone to conspiracy theories and personal abuse, and dismissive of ethical standards. The president-elect seems to offer equal chances of constitutional crisis and utter, debilitating incompetence.

The plausible case that Russian espionage materially contributed to the election of an American president has been an additional invitation to anger. Now, not only the quality but also the legitimacy of our democracy is at stake. This extreme threat would seem to require a commensurately radical response  some way to change the outcome.

But what is the proper conservative response? It is to live within the boundaries of law and reality. There is no certain way to determine if Russian influence was decisive. And no serious constitutional recourse seems to remain. While open to other options, I see none. It will now fall to citizens and institutions to: 1. Defend the legislature and judiciary from any encroachment. 2: Defend every group of people from organized oppression, including Muslims and refugees. 3. Expand and defend the institutions  from think tanks to civil liberty organizations  that make the case for a politics that honors human dignity. And pray for the grass to grow.
Column response

KATE McELLIGATT

WATERLOO  In Don Millers guest column Dec. 12, the author appears to be blind to the effects of institutional racism and white privilege on the black family. Throughout American history, whites have constructed systems that grant privileges to white people, starting with our Constitution which considered slaves property, continuing with giving white women the vote and enacting laws that maintained inequality. White privilege has granted us privileges and benefits that are not universally available.

Purely on the basis of color, doors are open to us  housing, employment, loans  because we belong to a favored group. Research has documented decades of public policy and private action that systematically exclude people of color  especially black people  from good neighborhoods, jobs and wealth-building opportunities. These policies created and perpetuated poor, racially segregated neighborhoods and schools, tough on crime politics that have resulted in one in three black men being incarcerated during their lifetime and voter ID laws disproportionately and unfairly impacting low-income, racial minority voters.

How can we not see people of color experience life very differently than white people? Whites should challenge social injustice  primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination  and promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural diversity if we want to create a better world for our children.

Hollywood woes

BOB KAISER

CEDAR FALLS  Why arent there a bunch of houses for sale in Hollywood? I thought I heard so many of them say they were leaving for Canada. Canada probably didnt want them either. I would mention some of their names, but I dont even want to give them that satisfaction.

What is so hypocritical is they pay very little in taxes because their costs are considered expense items in their industry, and yet from hearing them you would think they are paying their fair share. Another tax law that needs to be changed. Think flat tax.

By the way, have you ever wondered why they think their opinions are worth more than yours or mine? In most cases I have written to vent or to get you thinking again and not because I think am an authority on anything. Not to be a dead horse, but do you know 94 percent of the monies taken in by a certain charity that is no longer under investigation is considered expenses? Meaning 6 percent actually goes for benevolent causes. You ought to be glad she will not be your president.

Forfeitures

HERMAN LENZ

SUMNER  Thanks to The Courier for letting the public know about the government abuse of power in its editorial Dec. 16. Thats why law enforcement personnel make drug enforcement their top priority. Enforcement for profit. Was this practice voted in by the common citizens or was it lobbied by LEP and our lawmakers dont have the backbone to say no?

Was it any worse than this in the old Soviet Union or before the American Revolution? Would the Founding Fathers tolerate such big government tyranny?

Its no wonder why LEP doesnt want medical marijuana legalized. They wouldnt be able to confiscate the money and property from someone that smoked a joint.
MASON CITY  A Sheffield man arrested after a high-speed chase near Mason City last month has been sentenced to up to two years in prison.

Jared Joseph Hill, 27, received that sentence Friday for a misdemeanor count of eluding. A $625 fine was suspended. He also was sentenced to 365 days in jail for misdemeanor interference with official acts and fined $315. Hill pleaded guilty to both counts.

Law enforcement began receiving complaints at 5:22 a.m. Nov. 24 about a vehicle driving through peoples yards, according to Mason City Police Sgt. Greg Scott.

At 5:48 a.m. a police officer spotted a vehicle matching the description at Thrush Avenue and the Avenue of the Saints, according to Scott.

When the officer attempted to stop Hill, he took off at a high rate of speed and headed west on the Avenue, Scott said. The vehicle allegedly reached speeds of 100 mph during the pursuit.

Hill took the off ramp at U.S. Highway 65, crossed the highway and went back onto the Avenue, according to Scott.

He abandoned the vehicle at the bottom of the off ramp and took off on foot, Scott said. Officers found him in a bean field a short distance away.

Man sentenced in kidnapping

OSAGE  Nicholas Lenz was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Tuesday after a Mitchell County jury found him guilty of first-degree kidnapping in October.

Lenz, 23, of Mitchell, confined and beat a woman he was romantically involved with over the course of two days in March, according to prosecutors in the case, Iowa Assistant Attorney General Coleman McAllister.

At one point Lenz took the victim from her home in Mitchell to a cold, unheated camper, tied her up with zip ties and left her there, prosecutors said.
By The Associated Press Dec. 20, 2016 | 05:07 PM | BERLIN, GERMANY





The Islamic State extremist group is claiming responsibility for the truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people and left nearly 50 injured.The Islamic State group's Amaq news agency said in a statement Tuesday that ``the person who carried out the truck run over attack in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition.''German police are still hunting for the driver of the truck, which slammed into the downtown Christmas market Monday night.Germany is not involved in anti-IS combat operations. But it does have Tornado jets and a refueling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean.The State Department says U.S. officials don't have enough information to back up the group's claim that it's responsible.
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A gunman shouts slogans about the bombarded Syrian city of Aleppo after fatally shooting Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov at a photo gallery in Ankara on Monday. [Photo/Agencies]

China calls on world to make combating violence a priority

The bloody attacks in Turkey, Germany and Switzerland on Monday might be related to the situation in Iraq and Syria, Chinese experts said, adding that global terrorism risks will increase next year.

Beijing called on Tuesday for the world to make combating terrorism a priority and to properly settle regional hot spot issues to contain the spread of terrorism.

"Combating all kinds of violence and terrorist acts should become the common duty and priority of regional countries and the global community," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news conference.

In Ankara, the Turkish capital, Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov was shot dead on Monday by an off-duty Turkish police officer who shouted slogans about Aleppo, a Syrian city where Russian bombardments have targeted rebel factions. The gunman was later killed by police.

In Berlin, a truck plowed into a Christmas market and killed 12 people. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that the incident was a "terrorist" attack likely committed by an asylum seeker.

In Zurich, three people were wounded when a gunman opened fire in the prayer hall of a mosque frequented by Somali immigrants.

Hua extended deep condolences for the deaths of the Russian ambassador and other victims. As of press time, the Chinese Embassy to Germany had found no reports of Chinese casualties in the Berlin attack.

She said China resolutely objects to all terrorist activities. She called for the global community to strengthen anti-terror cooperation, abandon "double standards" on the issue and let the United Nations play a leading role.

Li Wei, director of the Institute for Security and Arms Control Studies of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said that although there apparently was no direct connection between the attacks, the one in Turkey was related to the situation in Syria, while the one in Berlin likely targeted Christians, which is in line with the thinking of religious extremism.

"And the attack in Zurich possibly was targeted at Muslims, a move that might be related to the rising ultraright forces in Europe. And the forces have been spurred by the refugee crisis and terror attacks."

He said that in 2017, efforts to fight the Islamic State group will continue, and as a result, terrorist attacks in Western countries might increase.

Li Shaoxian, director of the China-Arab Research Institute at Ningxia University, said that "the three attacks coming at the end of the year also sent a signal".

"I'm afraid that there might be very serious terrorism risks in 2017."

Sun Zhuangzhi, secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that Russia will thoroughly investigate the case and harshly punish anyone involved.

However, the recently repaired Russia-Turkey relations are unlikely to be hampered, he added, since improved relations benefit both sides.

Ruan Zongze, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said that despite the terror attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin won't retreat on the Syria issue.

"He will seek further consensus with Turkey and possibly send more forces to Syria to stabilize the situation," Ruan said.
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HENDERSON, NV, December 21, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Sharon Moyer, Author, Recording Artist, Motivational Speaker, and Interpretive Dancer, has been recognized as a Distinguished Professional in her field through Women of Distinction Magazine.



Dating back to 2004, Sharon Moyer began writing short stories, completing a total of 82 booklets over the span of the next seven years. With the help of her husband, Bob Moyer, they were able to compile all of them and have them turned into seven books through Glory Bound Publishing from 2011-16. The publisher even released Bob's own book, entitled 'Bulldog Faith', in 2011.



To date, Moyer has written more than 570 Restoration of America booklets since January 2015, which are all copywritten and printed by her husband. She has written seven books to date: 'His Radiant Glory'; 'Explosive Prayer'; 'Restoration of David's Tabernacle'; 'Outpouring of Healing'; 'Jesus' Blood is a Shield'; 'Latter Rains of Glory'; and her latest, 'Survival Revival'.



"I have always loved writing," Moyer said about her years of collaborating short stories and other books. "My husband has always encouraged me to pursue my dreams and has supported me in all my endeavors. More than anything, I give praise to Jesus Christ for giving me favor, opening many doors for me, and fulfilling my destiny."



Through His Radiant Glory, Moyers' ministry of restoration, the vision is to evangelize nations by bringing down racial walls, promoting unity, and bridge building in the Body of Christ. Sharon Moyer presents teachings through her ministry as well, entitled 'Restoration of the Tabernacle of David'.



Moyer teaches at Glory Bound Writers events in Las Vegas, Nevada regularly. She also sings leadership worship in churches, has ministered across American and Canada, has sung, taught, and done worship dance ministry, called 'Reflections of Praise' for 22 years. She formerly taught Hebrew Dance Workshops in Las Vegas and in other locations, is a former tap and ballet instructor, and is now singing and dancing in Stage Shows in Las Vegas. During the month of December 2015 and October 2016 she sang in 'Stars Showcase' in Explorer's Lounge in four shows with other Las Vegas entertainers on Princess Cruises. Moyer is a finalist with THE VOICE on Princess Cruise and she sang solo with six others in competition in Princess Theater for an audience of 2,000 on October 14, 2016. She also recently released a new CD recording, 'Sharon Sings Classics Las Vegas Style', by JPM Productions, in September 2016.



Becoming an Ordained Pastor through World Wide Ministries in Fresno, California in 1992, Moyer later graduated from the International Seminary in Orlando, Florida in 1996 alongside her husband. She is active with several organizations, including Choraliers Concerts, Karaoke Club, International Cultural Club Connection, Tappers, and Performing Arts, has been mentoring women of trauma through Healing Streams Outreach in her home twice monthly since 2013, has received a host of awards and accolades, has been featured on Christian Talk TV for her work, and has hosted several radio shows.



For more information, visit www.gloryboundpublishing.com or www.hisradiantglory.com.



About Women of Distinction Magazine:

Women of Distinction Magazine strives to continually bring the very best out in each article published and highlight Women of Distinction. Women of Distinction Magazine's mission is to have a platform where women can grow, inspire, empower, educate and encourage professionals from any industry by sharing stories of courage and success.



Contact:

Women of Distinction Magazine, Melville, NY

631-465-9024 [email protected]



# # #
Dec 20, 2016 | By Benedict

A division of the Korean government has announced an agreement with 3D content provider 3Dupndown to distribute 3D printable items relating to Koreas cultural heritage. The 3D printable models will include recognizably Korean historical artifacts such as celadon and white porcelain.

With its ability to transform physical artifacts into digital 3D models, 3D scanning technology is radically changing the way historians approach the delicate art of preservation. Using either stationary of handheld 3D scanning equipment, it is now possible to digitally preserve and replicate entire museums worth of precious historical pieces. Once the 3D scanning has taken place, files can be uploaded to the internet and shared with people from all over the world, giving casual observers and committed researchers equal chance to get up close and personal with some of historys most incredible objects.

South Korea, usually ahead of the curve in terms of technology, has just taken a huge step towards making its cultural heritage digitally accessible to all, both in the form of online 3D models of historical artifacts and even 3D printed replicas of those same items. It was recently announced by the K-ICT Born2Global Centre (Born2Global), a major Korean government agency under the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning (MSIP), that 3Dupndown Co., Ltd, a member of Born2Global, would introduce digital, 3D printable items of Koreas cultural heritage. Many of the items were published online on December 17, and more are due to follow.

The 3D models of Korean historical artifacts, which were obtained using 3D scanning technology, will be distributed, sold, and commercially utilized across the world, as per an agreement between 3Dupndown and Koreas Culture Information Service Agency, which is an affiliated organization of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. The 3D printable models, which will vary in price (from completely free) depending on their size and significance, will include recognizably Korean items such as celadon and white porcelain, stoneware, and wooden furniture.

There is plenty of international interest in Korea's cultural heritage which was 3D printed and displayed at Pangyo Startup Campus," said 3Dupndown CEO Alex. P. Hong. A lot of people around the world will download it, as 3D printers have already been commercialized abroad. We hope that this will be an opportunity to promote Korea's cultural heritage through 3D printing and contribute to the development of the 3D printing industry.

According to a recent press release, 3Dupndowna global platform in Asia that provides a 3D printable content service in eight languageswill steadily publish around 2,000 pieces of Korea's cultural heritage to its website, all of which will be 100% 3D printable. Individual pages for each 3D printable model contain information about the items material, origin, museum location, and purpose.

Koreas decision to cooperate with a 3D content company in order to publish digital versions of its museum collections could set an important precedent in terms of global attitudes toward 3D scanning and 3D printing. Should the collaboration prove successful, other nations proud of their cultural heritage could be tempted to follow suit.

Posted in 3D Design

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Dec 21, 2016 | By Tess

Czech Republic-based 3D printer developer Prusa Printers published a warning to other small but quickly growing businesses after online payment company PayPal froze over $1 million of its funding. The company, which unveiled its newest RepRap-style Prusa i3 MK2 3D printer in May of this year, says it can no longer send money, transfer it to another bank, or even refund clients.

Sadly, this is not the first time a 3D printer company has suffered from having funds frozen by PayPal, as earlier this year Gizmo 3D Printer announced that the payment service was holding $80,000 of its Indiegogo crowfunding money for an unspecified amount of time. According to Gizmo, and now Prusa, PayPals current system is not well set up for crowdfunding or for small but fast growing companies, so other startups should take heed.

According to a post by Prusa founder Josef Prusa, PayPal has frozen the funds largely because the 3D printer manufacturer has seen a quick growth in funding and does not ship its goods out immediately (as is becoming the norm for many tech startups). Of course, PayPals methods are in place to protect the consumer and to stop as much fraud as possible, but the lengths of their limitations in these cases do seem unproductive.

Josef Prusa

According to Prusa, his whole experience with PayPal has been a logistical nightmare. He writes: Right after you sell more than $100,000 monthly, everything above that will be held for 21 days. Once a month you can ask for increasing the release amount, but you will be ignored for a couple of months. They will eventually increase it by $50k and you have to ask again and again 

Once they do increase the release limit, they also institute what they call a rolling reserve, which means that they withhold a certain percentage of the funds for a 60 day period. When the rolling reserve goes beyond several hundred thousand dollars, however, PayPal apparently blocks all funds completely. They even block the option to refund customers who ask for it, for example when they change their minds during waiting, added Prusa.

According to the company, it was aware there would be some bumps in dealing with PayPal after the release of the MK2 3D printer, so they warned the service about a significant growth in sales and sent them the Make magazine edition that explained the new 3D printer. Still, this did not make a difference, and PayPal insisted on seeing historical records rather than considering how many people work for Prusa, whether they are shipping their products on schedule, and how many parts they need to stock.

Prusa i3 MK2 3D Printer

Right now we dont have any new information but last information was that they will release funds for printers we shipped. Because our delivery dates are 5-6 weeks it might seem like a reasonable thing but customer can dispute undelivered goods for up to 180 days on PayPal. What Paypal is doing right now would make sense only if we are about to go bankrupt or running away with the money, writes Prusa.

Fortunately, for anyone who has bought a new Prusa i3 MK2 RepRap 3D printer, it is not as though the company is going under after this set-back. Having prepared for its growths in many ways, Prusa Printers ensures that it will still be able to meet orders without too much difficulty. The companys long, wary post, therefore, is meant more as a warning to other startups who depend on PayPal for access to their funds.

The post also lays out a few steps that can be taken to avoid future problems with PayPal, including working with various payment processors, transferring funds to your bank account as often as possible, and having a backup processor prepared.

Posted in 3D Printer Company

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Proteus wrote at 12/25/2016 8:50:53 PM:Should we assume that PayPal is using that "hold" time to use the money for their own investment money making? Some companies solely make their money that way. PayPal may say it is for customer protection, but I'd be curious to see what they've done with the funds.sam wrote at 12/23/2016 2:23:59 PM:avoid paypal by all means, stopped using paypal as payment processor about 5 years ago. they are stuck in their own monopoly position, however today it's no longer needed to just stick with paypal. f them, let them bleed and stay away from it as a business and all customers will follow suit. they practically begged us to stay by lower all sort of fees and commision but they are just incompetent as a company.Ian wrote at 12/22/2016 8:12:44 AM:And of course, when they do release the money, what about all the interest that those funds accumulated while being held?Coso wrote at 12/21/2016 11:45:56 PM:Open further paypal accounts and shift the payments. Freezing problem solved.Richard. wrote at 12/21/2016 2:32:05 PM:Personally, I would recommend not working with PayPal if at all possible. While the buyer protection plan sounds good on paper, in practice it means that PayPal errs on the side of the purchaser. Crooked buyers have learned how to game the system to rip off sellers. PayPals policies helps crooked buyers. I was ripped off at a time when I desperately needed the money by two crooked buyers when I tried to sell a collectors item camera. PayPal finally released the funds minus a fee from one of the crooked buyers only after I learned that the purchaser was operating under a stolen identity. I contacted the victim who didnt know that the identity was stolen, whose lawyer then contacted PayPal to shut down the account. The other crook got his money back when PayPal didnt follow its own internal policies. In short, PayPal ripped me off. It was a nightmare that lasted over four months. I have not dealt with PayPal, nor its parent company at the time eBay, since. Now if a company says it accepts payments only through PayPal, I dont buy from that company. In short, dont deal with PayPal if you can avoid it. Especially if you are a seller. Thats my experience.Alan Gallery wrote at 12/21/2016 11:54:21 AM:When I buy my next i3 from Prusa I will not be using PayPal. Nor will I use paypal for large payment I do not want the bloodsucking bastards at paypal to get to hold on to my money and prevent growing tech companies like Prusa from getting it. BOYCOT PAYPAL NOW!




Dec 21, 2016 | By Tess

Chinese 3D printing company Farsoon Technologies has just announced that it will, as of now, be offering its direct-to-consumer metal additive manufacturing solutions to the North American market through its new branch, Farsoon Americas.

Founded in 2009 as Hunan Farsoon High-tech Co., Ltd, Farsoon had staked its place within the metal additive manufacturing field, largely through its laser sintering 3D printing systems. The companys founder, Dr. Xu Xiaoshu, helped pioneer laser sintering technology, and with over a decade of experience in the field, has been crucial to the advancement of SLS 3D printing.

Farsoon Americas, which will further expand the scope of the Chinese 3D printing company, will be headed by one Bob Evans, who is described by the company as an industry veteran with knowledge and experience that covers the full spectrum of technologies, materials, and industrial applications. Evans will be based in the U.S. in order to introduce and promote sales for Farsoon Technologies on the North American continent. Specifically, Evans and the Farsoon Americas team will be pushing the companys line of metal additive manufacturing systems, which have gained a reputation globally.

Evans expressed excitement about the upcoming opportunity, saying: I am excited to be a part of Farsoon and to bring their products to the American market. Farsoon is able to deliver a superior product at a price that competitors cant matchI know the American market is hungry for it. From the beginning, I was impressed by Farsoons metal machinesto be able to offer systems of this caliber for [under $400,000] is going to make Farsoon a power player.

Farsoon Technologies, which has developed a number of metal and plastic additive manufacturing systems, also recently partnered with Germany-based Laser Sintering Service (LSS). The new partnership, which was announced at industrial 3D printing expo formnext 2016, established LSS as Farsoons European distributor, service support, and its European Research and Development Center. Farsoon Technologies also debuted its newest 403P series plastic laser sintering system, specially designed to process PA6 material, at formnext.

Other recent Farsoon partners include Sinopec Baling Petrochemical Company, with whom Farsoon is working on developing new and innovative additive manufacturing materials, and Prodways, whose Promaker P series of industrial 3D printers was developed with Farsoon.

Farsoon's FS271M metal additive manufacturing system

Posted in 3D Printer Company

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Dec 21, 2016 | By Tess

Last year, Italian 3D printer company Northype launched a Kickstarter campaign for its Adam All-in-One 3D printer, CNC mill, laser cutter, 3D scanner. Unfortunately, the startup was unable to meet its funding goal at the time, and we havent heard much from the company since, until now. Northype, which seems to be starting a little bit smaller this time, has just released Flatforce, a new and innovative 3D printer build plate.

The 3D printer build plate, which is still patent-pending, offers users a solution to warped 3D printed parts without having to resort to using adhesive materials like spray, glue, or even tape. According to Northype, not only can the Flatforce build plate be used without additional adhesives, but it can also work with lower temperatures than is traditionally common. That is, while you might have to print at a minimum of 115C to get ABS to adhere to your standard build plate, with Flatforce, you should be able to print at as low as 65C (for small parts) or 90C for larger prints.

With a thickness of 2.55mm, the Flatforce build plate can reportedly be installed with any desktop FDM 3D printer, replacing your glass build plate, and can be used with a wide range of materials including ABS, Nylon, Nylon Carbon, HIPS, PETG, and more. As the company states Flatforce is the very universal build plateSimply install Flatforce on your printer and start printing.

So, what sets Flatforce apart from standard built plates and adhesive materials? Northype explains that rather than opt for a smooth, glasslike surface for the build plate, makers can benefit from having a rougher, grippier surface, which allows fresh prints to adhere better, reducing the risk of warping. Northype has not released many specifics about the grip technology they have used with Flatforce, presumably because the technology is still awaiting a patent.

To test their new product, Northype teamed up with 3D printing filament manufacturer Treed Filaments, which used Flatforce with their range of technical filament materials. In addition to testing the Flatforce build plate, Northype also announced it will be releasing a new 100% Polypropylene filament and an accompanying build plate (the Lene build plate) in partnership with Treed Filaments in the next few weeks.

The new Flatforce build plate, for its part, is available in a wide range of sizes and shapes and has been shipping as of December 15, 2016. Its cost ranges from about 34 to 88 ($35 to $91 USD) depending on size.

The company writes, The world of FDM focuses a lot on 3D printing materials, extruders, firmware, etc. But often leaves out a very important thing: the build plate, the component that can determine the success of our 3D prints. Flatforce fills this gap.

Posted in 3D Printer Accessories

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Dec 21, 2016 | By Benedict

Maker Bodo Hoenen has used 3D printing to make a robotic elbow for his daughter, Lorelei. After being diagnosed with AFM, a rare, polio-like condition, Lorelei suffered near-total paralysis of her upper left arm, but the 3D printed device is helping in her rehabilitation.

The wellness of ones children is every parents number one priority. So when young and healthy Lorelei one day became ill, fighting to breathe and unable to move her body, her father Bodo was understandably incredibly fearful. Lorelei pulled through, but was diagnosed with AFM, a polio-like condition that causes elevated brain and spinal pressure, and suffered near-total paralysis of her upper left arm. Sadly, success in rehabilitating the body after AFM is rare, but Bodo and the family have worked tirelessly to help Lorelei regain as much of her former strength as possible.

My daughter Lorelei got a rare illness, a viral infection was causing swelling on her spine and brain, Bodo writes. Over the course of a few hours, she turned from being the cheeky, playful girl she has always been, to a girl who was struggling to breathe, and whose body was being paralyzed. By the time I got to her in the hospital she had lost the use of her left arm, her core muscles were seriously weakened, she could not walk, stand, or sit, and struggled to breathe and speak.

Bodo, a tech wizard, decided that one important way he could try to help young Lorelei was with a 3D printed prosthetic device for his daughters elbow. Incredibly, the dedicated father attracted interest in the project from all over the world, with experts from far and wide contributing knowledge and ideas for the device. (Bodo gave a talk about this unusual collaborative process at the recent Hackaday SuperConference.) Now, the wearable 3D printed prosthesis uses a myoelectric sensor system to detect weak signals from Loreleis bicep and tricep to control an actuator which moves her arm, helping her to relearn normal movement.

Creating a 3D printed prosthesis for Lorelei presented a big challenge for Bodo, and for many reasons: For one, the device had to remain incredibly light. Lorelei is, after all, only five years old, and her already weakened limb can only take the smallest amount of extra weight. Given this restriction, Bodo calculated that the prosthesis could only weigh a maximum of 150 grams. Secondly, the actuator of the device needed to be powerful enough to move Loreleis roughly 400 gram forearm, while around five hours of battery life was the minimum requirement for the device to be practical for everyday use.

Although Bodo had no experience of making prosthetic devices, he had a partner helping him along the way: Lorelei herself. The keen youngster helped her father research similar projects online in order to find out how people were taking muscle signals and using them to move things. Help was also provided by strangers, some of whom assisted in the 3D scanning of Loreleis arm to ascertain the shape and dimensions of the problematic limb. Later, a company from Canada provided a number of actuators for the prototype.

After a few weeks, we had a pretty good understanding of all the components we needed to get something working, Bodo recalls. With a tight budget, we went shopping... we bought an Arduino, an EKG board, various sensors and built an arm rig to test it all out on.

Early versions of Loreleis 3D printed elbow had their problems. When Bodo and Lorelei tested out the EMG sensors on one early prototype, they discovered that the muscle signals from the youngsters damaged arm were almost completely lost in the noise. Because of this, the father-and-daughter duo implemented a clever seventeen-sensor method, provided by another helpful company, that uses machine learning to find those signals. This process has even been turned into a video game of sorts, with Lorelei able to move her arm while watching a digital representation of the movements on a television screen.

The newest version of the 3D printed prosthetic device was assembled with the help of Fischer Technik, an educational toy company from Germany, which demonstrates just how much interest Loreleis story was able to generate in the online community. Once the design was finalized, the family duo then 3D printed a lattice out of PLA that had been precisely modeled on the 3D scan of Loreleis arm. This lattice was printed flat, before being submerged in boiling water to soften it, then molded to a full-size cast of the arm.

Amazingly, some rehabilitative progress has already been made using the 3D printed arm devicethis despite the rarity of AFM sufferers ever regaining their original bodily capabilities in affected areas. Perhaps just as amazing, however, has been the huge wave of supportboth technical and motivationalfrom people all over the world who have been following the Hoenens project. Loreleis progress goes to show just how much can be achieved when everybody pitches in to help.

Right from the start of this project my daughter and I knew that we wanted to do this, not only for us but for all the kids we have gotten to know who are also paralyzed by this illness, Bodo writes. We hope that soon this prototype will be reliable enough to share with thousands of children like Lorelei.

Join Bodo and Lorelei's mission to develop an even better 3D printed myoelectric device at the Our Kids Can Do Anything Facebook page.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Shabnum wrote at 12/21/2016 8:14:08 PM:Great story, i somehow landed on this page. We are also a 3D printing company in Toronto. and recently we are also trying to bring a smile to a special young girl Makayla. You can check it out on the following link. http://www.customprototypes.ca/single-post/2016/12/15/3D-Printing-a-Smile-This-Christmas Regards, Shabnum




Dec 21, 2016 | By Tess

The Canadian manufacturing industry is about to get a boost thanks to a $7.3 million advanced manufacturing initiative. The project, called the Southern Ontario Network for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation (SONAMI for short) is the result of a partnership between Niagara College, Mohawk College, Sheridan College, and McMaster University.

Vance Badawey, Mike Granston, Paul Clipsham, Marc Nantel, Dan Patterson

The $7.3 million in funding for the new project was announced this week at Niagara College, and is sourced from FedDev Ontarios Investing in Commercialization Partnerships Initiative. Vance Badawey, who announced the funding for the SONAMI initiative, says the advanced manufacturing project will create roughly 186 high-quality jobs while helping to turn out over 150 proof-of-concept prototypes as well as 85 new products for commercialization.

On a larger scale, SONAMI is an effort to help boost Canadas manufacturing sector and help adapt it to more technological and automated manufacturing trends. As Badawey states, Were witnessing a new industrial age. To keep up with this new age, innovative changes and advancements will inevitably need to take place. In the Southern Ontario region at least, SONAMI could be a solution.

SONAMI is being established to help foster collaborations between academic research and manufacturing industries. Notably, each of the academic institutions involved in SONAMI has a particular focus on an emerging manufacturing field. For instance, Niagara College has excelled in research surrounding 3D technologies and plastic additive manufacturing; Mohawk College, which has the only AM lab in Ontario, specializes in metal part additive manufacturing; Sheridan College has a focus robotics and flexible manufacturing; and McMaster University has expertise in tooling and advanced materials.

Niagara College Advanced Manufacturing Lab

In terms of its links with industry, SONAMI will reportedly encourage partnerships between the educational institutions and industries in three ways. First, SONAMI will help turn the colleges and universities into viable research options for manufacturing companies. Second, it will help to prepare students for the work force once they finish school, specifically for high-quality jobs in the manufacturing sector. Lastly, the initiative will help to advance Canadas manufacturing industry as a whole and make it a stronger global competitor.

Following Badaweys announcement about SONAMI, Mike Granton, a student of mechanical engineering technology, spoke about how promoting advanced manufacturing has affected him. The facilities at his college, which include state-of-the-art tools and software, have allowed Granton to manufacture prototypes for real-world clients, including a commercial cleaning industry device, a storage system for the hospitality industry, an electronics enclosure device for the deep mining sector, and some innovative tools for the medical sector.

Its these tools paired with the knowledge gained in the classroom that allowed me to effectively turn ideas into physical products read to be tested in real world conditions, said Granton about his access to 3D printing technology, reverse engineering tools, and more.

Time will tell what effect the SONAMI initiative has on the Canadian advanced manufacturing industry, though it does seem very promising.

Posted in 3D Printing Technology

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How to watch, what to know about South Dakota State at Northern Iowa

SDSU
U.S. fatty alcohol market size is expected to be an attractive segment due to increasing natural products demand and stringent environmental regulations. Europe is anticipated to grow at a sluggish rate due to the uncertain economic situation.

Global fatty alcohol market share is fragmented in nature. Key companies include BASF SE, Emery, Croda International, Oleon, Eastman Chemical Company, Kuala Lumpur Kepong, Ecogreen, Kao Chemicals, Sasol, and Musim Mas. Abundant raw material availability such as corn and soy in Malaysia, China, and Indonesia is expected to encourage several chemical manufacturers to commence operation in these countries.

Asia Pacific fatty alcohol market share was the largest segment in terms of production as well as consumption, and accounted for more than 37% of total demand; it is anticipated to witness growth of 4.8% from 2016 to 2023. The regional industry is characterized by a slew of new capacities, and volatility in palm kernel oil (PKO) prices.

Major benefits of this oleochemical include controlling unwanted cholesterol in human body and various skin benefits. The global oleochemicals market size is expected to grow to over USD 30 billion in 2023, up from over USD 20 billion in revenue in 2015. Fluctuating fatty alcohol market price trend due to increase in raw material cost is likely to hinder growth.

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C11-C14 was the largest product segment, accounting for around 55% of the fatty alcohols market share in 2015. It is used in sodium laureth sulfate production, a key foaming formula primarily used in shampoo and body washes formulations. C15-C22 is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 4.5% over the forecast period. Increase in hygiene products demand accompanied by increasing consumer awareness is likely to drive the personal care industry.

Increasing consciousness among consumers pertaining to the benefits from bio-based products owing to the toxicities caused by petrochemicals-based alternatives has encouraged consumers to adopt natural products.

Fatty alcohols are a cost-effective petrochemical substitute as well as biodegradable in nature. Industries are shifting their focus towards chemicals derived from bio-based raw material in order to avoid petrochemicals dependency and reducing carbon footprint. Increasing concerns regarding the effect of petrochemicals on the environment and price volatility is likely to enhance bio-based products demand.

U.S. fatty alcohol market size is expected to be an attractive segment due to increasing natural products demand and stringent environmental regulations. Europe is anticipated to grow at a sluggish rate due to the uncertain economic situation.

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Applications are segmented into soaps & detergents, surfactants, personal care, and industrial solvents. Soaps & detergents were the dominant segment, accounted for more than 50% of the total fatty alcohols share. Growing natural emulsifiers and surfactants demand in soaps & detergents industry is anticipated to boost demand in this segment over the forecast period. Personal care industry which includes shampoo and body lotions is expected to be an attractive segment due to rise in standard of living. Increasing consumer preference towards organic products is likely to increase penetration in this segment.

This latest Fatty alcohol Market research report offers in-depth analysis, key industry insights, market sizing & forecast on a granular level for key products, applications across number of regional markets. The report also analyzes the Fatty alcohol Market industry from business strategy perspective, describing in detail growth drivers, pitfalls &challenges for participants, accompanied by a detailed competitive benchmarking including company market share analysis and detailed business profiles.

Browse key industry insights spread across market data tables, figures & charts from the report, Fatty Alcohol 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), Downstream Application Development Potential, Price Trend, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2016  2023., in detail along with the table of contents.

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/fatty-alcohol-market

Key Insights in this Report

Global Fatty alcohol Market size & forecast by product & application

Growth drivers, pitfalls & industry challenges

Key Fatty alcohol Market growth opportunities & emerging business models

Competitive benchmarking with market share analysis and company profiles

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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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Increase in the incidence of various types of depression,rapid technological advancement, and increasing awareness of therapy is anticipated to accelerate the global industry growth through the forecast timeframe.

Light Therapy 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 Potential, Competitive Market Share& Forecast, 2016  2024

Global light therapy market size is largely driven by increased prevalence of skin diseaseand growing adoption of therapy to treat psoriasis, cancer, acne, seasonal affective disorder, and neonatal jaundice.

According to WHO, Psoriasis affects approximately 2% of the world population with nearly two thirds of people have mild form while others have extensive involvement of skin.Psoriasis prevalence among the developed countries ranges between 1.5% to 5.0%.

Light Therapy Market Size is forecast to grow above 4.5% CAGR from 2016 to 2024 and reach over USD 980 million by 2024.

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This therapy is used to treat Seasonal Effective Disorder (SAD) and other specific disorders by making use of artificial light. SAD is a type of depression that islinked to changes in seasons. Brightness in this therapy is more than indoor lighting but less than sunlight. It is a specific wavelengthwhich uses LED, fluorescent lamps, polychromatic polarisedor full-spectrum administered for a certain amount of time during a specific time of the day.

Increased adoption of boxes to treat SAD has acceleratedlight therapymarket growth. It is the primary treatment method to treat neonatal jaundice, eczema and psoriasis. Photo oxidation is believed to provide these beneficial effects.Narrow band ultraviolet (UVB) and broad band UVB phototherapy isused to treat various skin disorders. Increased applications, favorable reimbursement policies, and insurance for such treatments will boost demand.

Based on the products, light therapy boxes market share is expected to dominate sales due to its application in various sleep disorders.Visor market is gaining traction due to its applications in treatment of SAD. The head-mounted portable lighting devices intended to increase convenience and flexibilityof use, are suitedfor novel applications such as in-flight treatment.

LED has become popular due to its various applications on aging epidermis. It enables healthy blood circulation which augments the skins natural radiance and improves skin elasticity and surface. Infrared LED is used to treat acne vulgaris. These factors will drive growth.

Blue fluorescent products are widely across thelight therapy market. Rising demand for blue therapy for treatment of skin disorderssuch as psoriasis, eczema and SAD will maintain industry growth with blue light therapy market share expectedto dominate by 2024.

U.S. light therapy market size contributed to majority of North America revenuein 2015, and is anticipated to increase owing to growing prevalence of psoriasis and other dermatological diseases.According to American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), psoriasis remains a common skin ailment in U.S. affecting 7.5 million people.

Germany contributed considerably to European revenue in 2015, mainly due to the adoption of innovative technologies to treat skin diseases. Favorable public and private reimbursement policies are encouraging patients to access novel therapies to treat dermatological diseases.

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AsiaPacific is expected to grow rapidly during the forecast periodmainly due to steady economic development in the region.As per IFPA, more than 43 million people living with psoriasis in Asia Pacific.China light therapy market size is anticipated to hold majority regional share due to high geriatric population and rise in prevalence of dermatological diseases.

Key operating participants in the global light therapy market shareincludeNorthern Light Technology, Verilux, Inc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., PhotomedexInc, Zepter International, Beurer, Nature Bright, Chal-Tec-GmbH, Lucimed SA, Lumie, Aura Daylight, Sphere Gadget Technologies.Major strategies adopted by these players include agreements, contracts, strategic partnerships, R&D investment, and mergers and acquisitions to consolidate market share.

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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.

Media Contact

Company Name: Global Market Insights Inc.

Contact Person: Arun Hegde

Email: sales@gminsights.com

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Address:29L Atlantic Avenu, Suite L 105

City: Ocean View

State: Delaware

Country: United States

Website: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/light-therapy-market


Gold Mineralisation Identified at Ironstone Gold Project

Perth, Dec 21, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - White Cliff Minerals Limited ( ASX:WCN ) ("White Cliff" or the "Company") is pleased to report that it has identified gold mineralisation in air-core drilling at the Ironstone gold project part of the Merolia gold project, near Laverton Western Australia.



Key Points:



- Drilling identifies broad zones of gold mineralisation



- Mineralisation open along strike and at depth



- Further drilling to commence in January 2017



The Company recently completed a 2,000 metre drilling program targeting a substantial gold in soil anomaly 200 metres west of previous drilling.



The drilling identified multiple broad mineralised zones from shallow depths that remain open at depth and along strike. Results include:



- 4 metres at 1.8 g/t gold within 12 metres at 1.1 g/t gold



- 4 metres at 1.3 g/t gold and 5 metres at 0.6 g/t gold



- 4 metres at 0.79 g/t gold and 4 metres at 0.77 g/t gold within 12 metres at 0.66 g/t gold



In addition to the main mineralised intersections there are wide zones of +0.2 g/t gold mineralisation that indicates the presence of a large mineralised system and alteration halo.



The Company is particularly encouraged by the higher grade intersections in the weathered zone as drilling at the adjacent prospect identified substantially higher grades in the fresh rock below similar gold results in the weathered shallow zone. The Company has planned additional air core drilling to test the target further in January 2017. The drilling will be carried out in conjunction with drilling testing the adjacent Comet Well gold in soil anomalies.



Managing Director Todd Hibberd commented that "The first phase of drilling at Ironstone has revealed some intriguing geology, quartz veining and more importantly significant gold mineralisation.



Follow up drilling will test the mineralisation at depth and along strike and help to clarify the relationship between the new gold mineralisation and the high grade gold mineralisation (4 metres at 5 g/t gold and) identified 200 metres west of the current drilling.



We believe the Merolia project has great potential for a major gold discovery and the ongoing drill programs are the first phase of a broader exploration strategy aimed at delivering on that potential."



To view tables and figures, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/5J7I52L3



About White Cliff Minerals Ltd





White Cliff Minerals Ltd is a Gold, Copper, Cobalt, Nickel resources and mining company listed in Australia (ASX:WCN). The Company is focused on developing low cost high value mineral deposits that have near term cash flow potential.

Major projects include the Aucu gold deposit that contains 484,000 ounces of gold (3mt at 5.1 g/t) starting at surface and Chanach copper deposit that contains 64,000 tonnes of copper (17.2Mt at 0.37% copper). Both projects have substantial blue sky potential with drilling covering only 5% of the known structures. In Australia the company is developing the Coronation Dam cobaltnickel deposit where a maiden resource will be announced in the late 2018.
Committed to its promise of bringing a womans inner glow to the fore and enhancing her confidence, Parachute Advansed Body Lotion has launched its latest digital campaign.

The brand highlights the importance of confidence in a young womans life. Anchored yet unafraid, modest yet sensuous, it represents the kind of woman who believes in her ideals. The campaign stresses on the fact that it is solely a womans choice to wear what she wants or the amount of skin that she shows, and nobody else has the right to dictate it.

The digital video portrays how society comments on the choices the modern day woman makes. It begins with people along the street ogling at a girl wearing a short skirt, to another girl wearing a sleeveless tee-shirt. It transitions to the next scene where the girl is advised to cover herself with a dupatta as the voiceover goes: Sunoh, issey dupatta pehnao. The campaign then portrays different scenes, wherein the modern woman faces scrutiny. From wearing backless clothes, to revealing dresses, to tops that attract attention, the judgement keeps pouring in. It ends with a girl being judged for wearing aunty wale kapde as she dresses conservatively, and finally a woman wearing traditional clothes rides away on a motorcycle as the voiceover goes: zyada bano matzyada tano mat. Through the subtle sarcasm, the campaign communicates that the judgement of society should never stop women from being their real selves, rightfully capturing the essence of Parachute Advansed Body Lotion.

Commenting on the launch of the digital campaign, Anuradha Aggarwal, Chief Marketing Officer, Marico, said, With this campaign, Parachute Advansed Body Lotion reinforces the belief that she has the freedom to wear what she wants and be truly confident in her skin, both literally and metaphorically.

Suraja Kishore, National Head Planning, McCann, added here, India is changing. At the heart of the change are its women. When we met with women across big and small towns, we realised that women have changed, the society has not. The revelation was that women are making changes despite odds and social hypocrisy. They are increasingly becoming comfortable and confident with their new-found identities and newer roles. In a culture like ours, brands have to move on from being an enabler to a believer. Parachute Advansed Body Lotion believes in the fact that todays women are confident in their skin. They are confidently wearing what they please. As a believer brand, we are celebrating this new narrative and we are certain this will bring the brand closer to our consumers.

Campaign credits:

Brand: Parachute Advansed Body Lotion

Creative agency: McCann

Chairman Asia Pacific, CEO & CCO India: Prasoon Joshi

Vice Chairman & MD: Partha Sinha

National Planning Head and Branch Head Mumbai: Suraja Kishore

National Creative Director: Pradyumna Chauhan

Creative Team: Sanket Pathare, Amod Dani, Amit Thakur, Sandesh Kargutkar

Executive Business Leader: Sujala Martis

Business Director: Amitabh Sreedharan

Account Management: Manjiri Bhopatkar, Shambhavi Singh

Planning Director: Pearl Vas

Films: Vrushali Samant

Production Team:

Director: Vijay Sawant

Producer: Dharam Valia

Production House: Hungry Films

Music Director: Shubhojit Mukherjee
Bombardier Commercial Aircraft has delivered the first of three Q400 turboprops ordered by Irish leasing company Elix Aviation Capital Limited.





The aircraft, which was delivered in a 78-seat configuration, is scheduled to enter service with Hawaii Island Air, Inc. (Island Air) in early 2017. Island Air is Hawaiis alternative regional airline and second oldest carrier.



We are delighted to welcome Island Air to the growing family of Q400 aircraft operators and are proud that the airline selected the Q400 as it re-fleets and looks to enhance inter-island connectivity, said Fred Cromer, President, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. The technologically advanced, environmentally friendly Q400 aircraft is ideal for operations in Hawaiis hot, humid, topographically diverse landscape and will serve Island Air well as it strives to achieve its business objectives.



As we look to expand our regional route network and connect local residents and visitors across the islands, the reliable, operationally flexible and cost efficient Q400 turboprop is the perfect choice to take our airline to the next level, said David Uchiyama, Chief Executive Officer and President, Hawaii Island Air. Additionally, the comprehensive support from Bombardier in acquiring the aircraft and integrating them into our network reconfirms our decision to utilise this manufacturer and superior product for our fleet renewal and expansion strategy.



"The modern Q400 turboprop is a valuable asset in our portfolio because it is ideally suited to meet the needs of diverse regional airlines worldwide," said Antonis Simigdalas, Chief Executive Officer, Elix Aviation Capital Limited. This latest aircraft acquisition will figure prominently in our plans as we continue to grow and we are pleased to see that the Island Air network will also benefit from this transaction.


Bristol Airport is implementing a queue and flow management solution from Denmark-based BLIP Systems to help enhance the passenger experience and improve operational efficiency.





The solution, called BlipTrack, measures passenger flow and dwell times, which enables the airport to understand how travellers move through and use the airport.



Passenger numbers exceeded the seven million milestone for the first time in Bristol Airports history in 2016. To ensure the passenger experience remains positive as volumes increase, the airport has enlisted the expertise of software specialists Gentrack to implement BLIP Systems BlipTrack Kerb-to-Gate Solution. The technology will provide the airport with a cohesive picture of guest experiencesfrom the moment they arrive, to when they leave, and everywhere in between.



It will enable Bristol Airport management to retrieve both live and historical information about specific patterns, such as walking routes, entrance and exit usage and time spent in specific areassuch as car parks, check-in, security, lounges, gates and more. Managers will be provided with an understanding of how disruptions or changes affect standard behaviour, and how to optimise each and every area to operate optimally.



As the solution collects data in real-time, it is able to provide early warning if congestion occurs. This rapid information allows the airport to take fast, proactive measures before the situation escalates.



From a travelers perspective, when the last phase of the central search development is complete the airport will be able to provide a positive travel experience by displaying accurate queue times on screens. This will allow passengers to reduce frustration by creating realistic wait time expectations.



The solution consists of dedicated WiFi/Bluetooth sensors and a sophisticated analysis platform. Bristol Airport is able to extract any combination of data, both real-time and historically, to provide the desired output. For example, management can review how long a typical customer spends in the check-in area. This pattern can be averaged over a day, a week, a month, as well as for a specific carrier, destination, time of day and more.



Paul Davies, Operations Director, Bristol Airport said: We wanted to introduce a state-of-the-art technical solution to the challenges airports face in improving customer flow management in the terminal. We had very high expectations prior to the introduction of the system, and I am very happy to say that the outcome has proved very successful. The system has capabilities of further enhancements which will provide other long term solutions in the future.



To understand and improve individual areas of airport operations, it is important that the travelers journey is seen as a single process, rather than as a string of isolated events. The understanding that all individual events influence each other is key to unlocking potential gains. Accurate flow and dwell time information helps to understand, optimise and improve airport process and to maintain acceptable waiting times says Christian Bugislaus Carstens, Marketing Manager at BLIP Systems.



Airport queues are amongst the most frustrating passenger experiences during a journey. By implementing BlipTrack, Bristol Airport will be able to analyse the situation in real-time as well as predict any potential issues and act accordingly," said Ilya Burkin, Business Development Manager at Gentrack.



Bristol Airport joins a host of other UK airports, including Manchester, Dublin and Edinburgh, who are using the solution in optimisation efforts. BlipTrack is also deployed in the city of Portsmouth and the Port of Dover to help ease traffic woes. Internationally, more than 30 international airports use the Danish technology, including Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, JFK Airport in New York, Copenhagen, Oslo, Brussels, Geneva, Cincinnati and Auckland.


A.M. Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of a+ of Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG (Switzerland). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) remains stable.

The ratings of Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG reflect its supportive risk-adjusted capitalisation and the expectation of good operating results. The companys risk management and business profile benefit from its close integration with the specialty (re)insurance operations of Sompo Canopius AG (Sompo Canopius). In addition, the ratings reflect Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AGs strategic importance to Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance Inc. (SJNKI), as its specialist global reinsurance platform outside of Lloyds, and an unconditional parental guarantee provided by SJNKI. An offsetting rating factor is the companys exposure to natural catastrophe losses, which is expected to contribute to volatile underwriting performance over the longer term. This factor is mitigated partly by strong catastrophe risk management within Sompo Canopius.

Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG was incorporated in Switzerland on 23 November 2015, following the redomiciliation of Canopius Reinsurance Limited from Bermuda. As of 30 September 2016, the company had shareholders funds of USD 503 million. A.M Best expects SJNKI to inject approximately USD 400 million of capital into Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG over the next three years to support growth.

The company underwrites third-party reinsurance business through a network of branches in Switzerland, Bermuda and, prospectively, the United States and Singapore. Property and casualty reinsurance is expected to contribute the majority of Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AGs reported gross revenues in 2016. The companys business generation benefits from existing relationships and expertise within Sompo Canopius and the wider Sompo group. However, strong competition makes this a difficult time to operate in the global reinsurance market.

In A.M. Bests opinion, the Sompo group remains committed to Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG. However, the planned takeover of Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. by SOMPO Holdings Inc., and the potential reshaping of the Sompo groups international reinsurance operations, are likely to influence Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AGs business volumes. A.M. Best will monitor closely the development of Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AGs operations through 2017.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on A.M. Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see A.M. Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Understanding Bests Credit Ratings.

A.M. Best is the worlds oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2016 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005458/en/

A.M. Best

Alvise Argenton, +44 20 7397 0293

Financial Analyst

alvise.argenton@ambest.com

or

Timothy Prince, +44 20 7397 0320

Associate Director, Analytics

timothy.prince@ambest.com

or

Christopher Sharkey, +1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159

Manager, Public Relations

christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

or

Jim Peavy, +1 908 439 2200, ext. 5644

Director, Public Relations

james.peavy@ambest.com
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An AJC leadership delegation met with Argentine President Mauricio Macri yesterday in Buenos Aires.

The private meeting was the centerpiece of a two-day visit that also included meetings with the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Gustavo Slauvinen, U.S. Ambassador Noah Mamet, and Israeli Ambassador Ilan Sztulman.



The AJC group was led by CEO David Harris and Chair of AJC's Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs (BILLA) Mario Fleck, a prominent businessman and Jewish leader from Sao Paulo, Brazil.



Among the principal topics of discussion were: (a) expanding U.S.-Argentinian bilateral and hemispheric relations; (b) ongoing efforts by the Macri administration to implement economic and other reforms; (c) deepening Argentinian-Israeli ties; (d) regional security challenges; and (e) the tragic legacy of the 1992 and 1994 terrorist attacks against the Israeli Embassy and AMIA in Buenos Aires, as well as the circumstances of the unresolved death in 2015 of Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor in the 1994 AMIA bombing case.



"Argentina is a country with substantial regional and global potential," said Harris, who has been traveling regularly to Buenos Aires for three decades. "Under President Macri it is making impressive strides to fulfill that potential, including deepening links with the U.S. and Israel. We were there to acknowledge the progress that's been achieved and discuss ways of enhancing it still further."



The visit was organized by BILLA, in cooperation with AMIA, AJC's longstanding institutional partner in Argentina. It was AJC's second trip to Buenos Aires in the past four months alone, reflecting the importance the global agency attaches to the country. BILLA is led by its Washington-based director, Dina Siegel Vann.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ajc-meets-with-president-of-argentina-300382512.html

SOURCE American Jewish Committee
BOARDMAN, Ohio, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- The world is currently in the middle of the busiest travel time of the year. People who are flying into new cities to visit family or friends may find themselves in need of transportation for an extended period of time, and for those in the Boardman and Youngstown areas, great deals on rentals are available at Boardman Nissan.

Needing a set of wheels to drive around town when traveling is a common reason for renting, but it's not the only situation that may warrant a rental. If drivers find that their current ride requires extensive repairs and need to carry on with their lives while the repairs are taking place, or if they simply want to take a new Nissan model on an extended test drive, customers have the option to do so at Boardman Nissan.

Vehicles are available to rent for as little as $18 per day. The rental page on the dealership's website includes a user-friendly form for prospective renters to fill out with their contact information and inquiries about available rentals. The rental car hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information about renting a new vehicle from Boardman Nissan, customers are encouraged to call 888-848-6354 or visit www.boardmannissan.com.

Media Contact: Matt Wickwire, Boardman Nissan, 866-879-5141, mwickwire@boardmannissan.com

News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com

SOURCE Boardman Nissan
Regulatory News:

BONE THERAPEUTICS (Brussels:BOTHE) (Paris:BOTHE) (Euronext Brussels and Paris: BOTHE), the bone cell therapy company addressing high unmet medical needs in the field of orthopaedics and bone diseases, today announces its financial calendar for 2017.

Bone Therapeutics  Financial Calendar 2017:

17 January 2017  Q4 2016 Business Highlights and Cash Position Update

16 March 2017  Full Year Results 2016

19 April 2017  Annual Report 2016

11 May 2017  Q1 2017 Business and Financial Highlights

26 May 2017  Annual General Meeting 2017

31 August 2017  Half Year Results 2017

9 November 2017  Q3 2017 Business and Financial Highlights

This schedule is indicative and subject to change. The calendar is also available on the Bone Therapeutics website under the heading Investors.

In addition, Bone Therapeutics announces that it will participate in the following investor conferences in January 2017:

6 January 2017  Oddo Midcap Forum, Lyon (France)

26 January 2017  Invest Securities BioMed Event, Paris (France)

-Ends-

About Bone Therapeutics

Bone Therapeutics is a leading biotechnology company specializing in the development of cell therapy products intended for orthopaedics and bone diseases. The current standard-of-care in this field involves major surgeries and long recovery periods. To overcome these problems, Bone Therapeutics is developing a range of innovative regenerative products containing osteoblastic/bone-forming cells, administrable via a minimally invasive percutaneous technique; a unique proposition in the market.

PREOB, Bone Therapeutics autologous bone cell product, is currently in pivotal Phase IIB/III clinical studies for two indications: osteonecrosis and non-union fractures, and in Phase IIA for severe osteoporosis. ALLOB, its allogeneic off-the-shelf bone cell product, is in Phase I/IIA for the treatment of delayed-union fractures, lumbar fusion for degenerative disease of the spine and revision spinal fusion. The Company also runs preclinical research programs and develops novel product candidates.

Founded in 2006, Bone Therapeutics is headquartered in Gosselies (South of Brussels, Belgium). Bone Therapeutics regenerative products are manufactured to the highest GMP standards and are protected by a rich IP estate covering 10 patent families. Further information is available at www.bonetherapeutics.com.

Certain statements, beliefs and opinions in this press release are forward-looking, which reflect the Company or, as appropriate, the Company directors current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions could adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. A multitude of factors including, but not limited to, changes in demand, competition and technology, can cause actual events, performance or results to differ significantly from any anticipated development. Forward looking statements contained in this press release regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. As a result, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any update or revisions to any forward-looking statements in this press release as a result of any change in expectations or any change in events, conditions, assumptions or circumstances on which these forward-looking statements are based. Neither the Company nor its advisers or representatives nor any of its subsidiary undertakings or any such persons officers or employees guarantees that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are free from errors nor does either accept any responsibility for the future accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release or the actual occurrence of the forecasted developments. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161220006143/en/

Bone Therapeutics SA

Thomas Lienard, Chief Executive Officer

Wim Goemaere, Chief Financial Officer

Tel: +32 (0)2 529 59 90

investorrelations@bonetherapeutics.com

or

For Belgium and International Media Enquiries

Consilium Strategic Communications

Jonathan Birt, Jessica Hodgson, Lindsey Neville and Hendrik Thys

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3709 5701

bonetherapeutics@consilium-comms.com

or

For French Media and Investor Enquiries

NewCap Investor Relations & Financial Communications

Pierre Laurent, Louis-Victor Delouvrier and Nicolas Merigeau

Tel: + 33 (0)2 44 71 94 94

bone@newcap.eu
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

To be the Prime Sponsor for the 10th Anniversary of Batu Caves Murugan Temple

Leading Indian consumer goods company Cholayil, makers of the famed Medimix brand of personal care products (http://cholayil.com/brands.php), are on an expanding spree in Malaysia and other countries in the Fast Eastern region.

As a part of their commitment to the Malaysian market, the company will be the prime sponsor for the upcoming 10th Anniversary celebrations of world renowned Batu Caves Murugan temple. The Batu caves Murugan temple is home to the 2nd tallest statue in the world, and also the world's tallest Murugan idol, standing at 42.7 metres (140 feet). The temple was unveiled in January 2006 during the Thaipusam Festival. The 10th temple anniversary is being celebrated on 23rd December 2016.

Commenting on the plans for the Malaysian region, Pradeep Cholayil, MD and CEO, Cholayil Ltd said, "In our overall strategy, overseas markets play a key role; we see this as a huge opportunity to promote traditional Ayurvedic values, which are at the core of our brands. The world at large is awakening to the power of Ayurveda in healthcare. It's our endeavour to reach these values to every corner of the globe."

"The brand association with the Batu Caves Lord Murugan temple is a small and first step by Medimix to associate with the rich cultural heritage of Malaysia, and its people," he added. "The decision to associate with the 10th anniversary celebrations is in line with our traditional heritage here at Cholayil. This is just a beginning, and we will be looking at more such associations in Malaysia and other countries in the region".

About Cholayil

Carrying on the rich tradition of reaching the benefits of natural health care and Ayurveda, Chennai headquartered Cholayil, are makers of the Medimix brand of products, a household name in parts of the country. Cholayil's Medimix is now the largest selling Ayurvedic soap in the world. For more details, visit http://cholayil.com/company.php

For More information please call

Muralidharan Dhanapalan

+91-9962511180

Venkat Devarajan

+91-9600063748


PATCHOGUE, N.Y., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Lounge Lizard is globally recognized as a top New York website design company within the website and mobile app development industry. Lounge Lizard's brandtenders are creative, tech-savvy, and passionate in developing innovative strategies that drive conversion for both startup and established clients of all industries, making them the "best of breed since 1998."

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161208/447301LOGO

Web developers have no easy task, especially with ever-changing technology and concepts. Tools that can save time, create efficiency, assist in collaboration, and provide real-time testing, are invaluable to developers. New York website design company, Lounge Lizard, discusses five helpful tools for web developers.

1. Pixate Pixate is a mobile-first website prototype tool that allows developers to create mobile apps without code. Designs can be created on a developers desktop and then demonstrated for testing or for offering a preview to clients, on mobile devices. Pixate allows for testing in a real-life environment and makes designing for mobile use simple.

2. Marvel Marvel is another code-free tool that is great for prototyping as well as collaboration. Marvel transforms sketches and images into interactive prototypes that mimic real environment apps and websites. The Marvel tool also utilizes timers for developing slide or page transitions which will help to create a better user experience.

3. Frontify Frontify software is a huge help in the beginning design phases for creating branding and style guides that the development team can work with. The Frontify prototyping tool, Workspace, allows all members of the design team to share designs and comments, create presentations, and implement changes. Frontify organizes design information such as colors, fonts, and more for ease of collaboration and consistency in execution.

4. Bugherd Many developers look into tools to help with prototyping, testing and more, but don't always worry about what comes next. Bugherd is a great follow up tool for developers to ensure that they are still attentive to quality control and the user experience once a site or app has launched. Bugherd eliminates the annoying barrage of emails regarding feedback and instead organizes user feedback into a simple tool. Bugherd allows developers to easily address bug fixes, requests, and other user issues through a single interface, impacting efficiency and the speed in which issues can be resolved.

5. Brackets Brackets is a time-saving code editor that eliminates many repetitive tasks such as, browser reloading, editing an element's CSS, and function searching. With Brackets, developers can work on CSS selectors with inline window use to work on code side by side, view CSS and HTML changes instantly with real-time browser connections, and can use Quick Edit and Live Highlight with LESS and SCSS files.

Lounge Lizard Web Design Company is an award-winning, high-end design boutique specializing in website and mobile app development, UX/UI, branding, and marketing. Lounge Lizard excels in creating the ultimate brand strategy, fully loaded with expertly crafted visuals that work together to increase sales and effectively communicate a client's unique personality.

Media Contact: Scott Darrohn, fishbat, 855-347-4228, press@fishbat.com

News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com

SOURCE Lounge Lizard
NEWTON, Mass., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In response to staffing cuts that have jeopardized safe patient care in the emergency department and medical surgical units, the registered nurses of Newton-Wellesley Hospital (NWH) delivered to the hospital president on Tuesday a petition of no confidence in Chief Nursing Office Karen Conley signed by more than 80 percent of staff nurses.

NWH nurses, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), have vigorously objected to reductions in staffing that have left patients with fewer nurses to care for them. Conley has refused to address nurses' concerns, despite numerous meetings with front-line RNs and a multi-part effort by nurses requesting that Conley, the rest of hospital leadership and corporate owner Partners HealthCare ensure safe patient care.

"We have lost confidence in our nursing leadership. The administration is ruining what was once a great community hospital," said Laurie Andersen, co-chair of the MNA Local Bargaining Unit and a nurse in the emergency department at the hospital. "Newton-Wellesley Hospital and its patients are suffering. Nurses have seen the quality of care diminish over the last few years. The emergency department alone has lost more than 15 experienced nurses, seriously impacting our ability to provide safe and effective patient care."

For a copy of the letter delivered with the petition to NWH President Dr. Michael Jaff, contact Joe Markman at jmarkman@mnarn.org.

In addition to the 15 ED nurses who left on their own, most of whom were not replaced, NWH has cut ED staffing three times in less than two years, even though patient volume and acuity have been steady or rising: In January 2015 , one nurse from the regular ED staffing was cut 24 hours per day, seven days a week for a total of 168 hours per week. In September 2016 , another 80 hours per week were eliminated from front-line nurse staffing. This is a total of 248 hours a week or 36 hours a day of fewer nurses at the bedside in the ED. In addition, the hospital eliminated a nurse from the regular ED staffing pattern from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. seven days a week and also from 3 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays .

This fall, Conley and her team increased the number of patients medical-surgical nurses regularly care for at one time, from four patients to five patients. On night shifts, nurses are now regularly caring for seven patients. These changes have been made despite front-line nurses' vocal concerns and despite numerous academic studies that show additional patient assignments for nurses means a higher risk of harm for patients.

Nurses have become increasingly concerned about patient safety at the hospital over the last few years. During two sets of contract negotiations in 2015 and 2016, NWH nurses picketed outside the hospital and held overwhelming strike authorization votes over patient safety issues. Since reaching an agreement with the hospital this spring, averting a one-day strike, nurses have continued to voice concerns.

This fall, nurses waged a campaign for safe patient care following the staffing cuts. They met repeatedly with management to voice their concerns and have held meetings among themselves to discuss ongoing safety issues. Nurses placed two advertisements in local newspapers highlighting staffing cuts and calling on hospital leadership to make improvements. They also sent a letter to NWH President Dr. Michael Jaff and the hospital's board of trustees. Every request by nurses to address the situation has been rebuffed.

"We want to save our hospital," said Nancy Anderson, a longtime RN at NWH and co-chair of the MNA Local Bargaining Unit. "For that to happen, we need to see dramatic change from management. We, the nurses, have a simple goal: We want to provide safe, quality care to our patients in a safe environment."

The text of the petition follows:

The MNA bargaining unit nurses of Partners HealthCare/Newton-Wellesley Hospital are signing a petition of no confidence in Partners/NWH Chief Nursing Officer Karen Conley.

We, the RNs at NWH, believe that under the direction of Karen Conley, our hospital has suffered unwarranted cuts to ED staffing and increased patient assignments for charge nurses on the med/surg floors, which has resulted in a deterioration in the quality and safety of patient care. In addition, we feel that Karen Conley has ushered in a new culture at Newton-Wellesley Hospital that does not respect or respond to the concerns of front-line nurses, or ensure the high-quality care our patients expect and deserve.

We, the undersigned nurses, affirm that we have no confidence in Karen Conley's ability to lead the hospital.

MassNurses.org  Facebook.com/MassNurses  Twitter.com/MassNurses

Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/newton-wellesley-hospital-nurses-deliver-petition-of-no-confidence-in-chief-nursing-officer-for-staffing-cuts-that-endanger-safe-patient-care-300382675.html

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association
Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into Platinum Partners.

On December 19, 2016, the founder of Platinum Partners, Mark Nordlicht, and seven executives and affiliates were arrested and charged with participating in an approximately $1 billion fraud. The indictment states that, since 2012, Nordlicht and his colleagues schemed to defraud Platinum investors by overvaluing illiquid assets held by its flagship fund, which caused a severe liquidity crises that Platinum tried to remedy through insider loans and new sales to repay increasingly worried investors. The indictment further alleges that, in 2014, the former CEO of Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations LLC, an energy company that was controlled by Platinum from 2010 to 2015, Jeffrey Shulse, helped Platinum usurp assets owed to third-party bondholders of Black Elk.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a parallel civil action on December 19, 2016.

If you invested in Platinum Partners and/or held bonds in Black Elk, and have suffered losses, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com).

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161220006098/en/

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, 1-877-515-1850

Managing Partner

lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com


VIENNA, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Last year, sequences believed to be permanently lost from what is arguably the most important Austrian silent movie, THE CITY WITHOUT JEWS, were discovered by a coincidence at a Paris flea market and subsequently acquired by the Film Archive Austria.

The film, based on a novel by Jewish writer and journalist Hugo Bettauer and shot in Vienna in 1924, is eerily prescient in its portrayal of a society that is both intellectually and economically impoverished due to the expulsion of its Jewish population.

The newly discovered sequences not only allow us for the first time to see the movie in its entirety, but also cast fresh light on it. Hitherto unknown scenes show Jewish life in a society in which hatred of Jews is being stoked. These scenes bring into much sharper focus the political message of the movie with its depiction of the vituperative antisemitism of interwar Vienna.

Owing to its advanced age, the highly inflammable nitrate material of the film rolls formerly thought to be lost evinces the beginnings of decomposition. Saving the film by transferring it to safety film must be given top priority. The film will then have to be restored and integrated into the already existing version. Since the financial support from the public sector was insufficient to accomplish the urgent task of preserving the material, the Film Archive Austria launched the largest cultural crowdfunding initiative in Austrian history in order to save THE CITY WITHOUT JEWS from perdition. The campaign, which ended December 10, was a success. More than 700 supporters made it possible to rescue the film by contributing more than 86.000 Euro.

After completing the restoration, the movie will be screened in late autumn 2017 in the original version last seen more than 90 years ago. In addition, THE CITY WITHOUT JEWS will be given center stage in an exhibition organized by the Film Archive Austria. The opulent show at the Metro Kinokulturhaus will open in late autumn 2017 and explore the relations between cinema and Jewish culture in the period 1918-1938.

Press photos: http://www.filmarchiv.at/presse

Contact information:

Filmarchiv Austria

Larissa Bainschab

00436643883013

presse@filmarchiv.at

Obere Augartenstrae 1e

1020 Vienna, AUSTRIA



http://www.filmarchiv.at
YUMA, Ariz., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Yuma drivers in the market for a new Toyota vehicle can now take advantage of special discounts thanks to Bill Alexander Toyota's participation in Toyotathon. Going on now until January 3 2017, consumers can finance or lease a qualified Toyota vehicle at a discounted rate. For example, well-qualified buyers can finance a new 2016 Highlander at Bill Alexander Toyota at 0 percent APR financing for 60 months with $16.67 per $1,000 borrowed or 1,5000 bonus cash with approved credit from Toyota Financial Services. For buyers interested in a sedan, Bill Alexander Toyota is offering 0 percent APR financing for 72 months with $13.89 per $1,000 borrowed plus $1,000 bonus cash with approved credit from Toyota Financial Services.

Those who would rather lease have specials available as well. During Toyotathon, well-qualified individuals can lease a 2017 Camry for $199 per month for 36 months with $2,199 due at signing or a 2016 Highlander for $269 per month for 36 months with $3,699 due at signing. Offers do not include taxes, license, title fees, insurance and dealer charges. Drivers who are able to pay cash upfront for a new vehicle during Toyotathon will receive a cash back discount ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 depending on the model.

For additional information about Bill Alexander Toyota's Toyotathon specials, the public is encouraged to contact the dealership directly by calling its sales number at 928-344-1170 or stopping by the dealership at 889 E 32nd St Yuma, AZ 85365. Those interested can also visit the dealership at its website at www.myalexandertoyota.com.

Media Contact: Mark Howard, Bill Alexander Group, 928-344-1170, mhoward@myalexandertoyota.com

News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com

SOURCE Bill Alexander Group
An Airmans evolution

Swimming has never been a problem for me in the past, but this time was different.



As I walked out of the locker room and saw the line of Soldiers and Sailors waiting and watching as fellow participants struggled to complete the swim, a feeling of anxiousness started to overwhelm me.



Ive never had to swim in full uniform. I also had physical training gear on underneath, because not only was I supposed to swim 100 meters, I also had to shed my battle uniform in the deep end of the pool while treading water.



What have I gotten myself into? I thought. Then it was my turn.



I jumped in and the proctor yelled, Graders ready? Participants ready? Go!



I took a deep breath and went under. As I pushed off the wall, all those negative feelings went away.



This test was just one of several at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, that was required for Airmen, Soldiers and Sailors to earn the German Armed Forces Proficiency Badge.



The badge is a symbol that the recipient met standards set forth by the German military in physical fitness, marksmanship and first aid; designated through bronze, silver and gold achievement levels.



Joint Base Langley-Eustis hosted a qualification program Nov. 1-4, for approximately 50 participants.



When my supervisor brought the opportunity to earn the badge to me, I was excited because it gave me a chance to challenge myself physically and mentally.



The beginning



The GAFPB program was comprised of a series of evolutions spread over four days that tested a participants physical and mental stamina.



Day 1 entailed the initial fitness test that would determine what level I could qualify for. The test involved an sprints, flexed-arm hang and a 1,000-meter run.



Day 2 started with a written test on first-aid knowledge, then we moved into a go or no-go test of donning a gas mask within nine seconds. After the gas mask test, all participants headed to the Anderson Field House pool and completed the 100-meter swim and de-robe evolution.



On the third day, I had to face the most intimidating evolution by far -- the road march with a 35-pound ruck.



The road march



In my short military career, I never attempted a road march, so I had no idea how to pace myself, when I should run or walk, or how fast I needed to go. With the blow of a whistle the march started. Since I had no idea what I was doing, I just fell behind the rest.



As I made it to the first turnaround, I had banded with an Army specialist and sergeant major whom helped push me. They made sure I would finish the nine kilometers in the one hour and 30 minute time limit allowed to earn silver.



The specialist would call out the time, distance and pace we were going. Knowing the time and distance helped mentally when I started to feel the blister on my foot and the muscles in my legs burned. All I wanted to do was walk in, but having the two Soldiers next to me pushing me to run was a tremendous motivational factor.



An Airman evolved



The final day was pistol qualification. In order to qualify for bronze, I had to hit all three targets at least once. For silver, I had to have five shots on target. Luckily for me, I am a pretty good shot.



Even though I doubted my ability to complete all evolutions to earn the GAFPB bronze, silver or gold, I felt I did exceptionally well. While the final results are still pending, Im anticipating silver.



I also learned the type of people that are in the Army. No matter what the situation is, they will be there to help and keep motivating a fellow service member.



After this experience, not only will I have earned the GAFPB, Ive also gained valuable insights about myself and my career. No matter the situation, learning to overcome self-doubt, pushing myself to physical limits, and trusting Wingmen or Battle Buddies will help me achieve whatever I set my mind to.


All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) has registered a protest to RBI on bank officers being assigned investigative role for customers depositing in excess of Rs 5,000, and demanded complete withdrawal of the order as the staff are facing public wrath.

Even as RBI partially modified its deposit guidelines, the union will be holding demonstrations all over the country in front of Reserve Bank of India offices to press for withdrawal of the notification.

The RBI modified guidelines saying KYC compliant account holders can deposits more than Rs 5,000 in old currency notes without being questioned by bank officials.

Earlier this week, the RBI issued a notification directing banks to conduct due diligence of customers who wish to deposit more than Rs 5,000 in old currency till December 30.

The credit in such cases shall be afforded only after questioning tenderer, on record, in the presence of at least two officials of the bank, as to why this could not be deposited earlier and receiving a satisfactory explanation, RBI had said.

The instructions issued vide the RBI communication dated December 19 must be withdrawn forthwith as the banker shall not carry out the duties of CBI/ED/IB at the busy counters, AIBOC General Secretary Harvinder Singh said in a representation to RBI Governor.

No accountability should be fixed on the bank officers in this respect as they are thrust with a role not expected of them, it added.

Having demanded this, we strongly feel that withdrawal of the instruction itself will only confirm the Prime Ministers statement to the public on November 8 and improve public confidence in the banking system and reduce the hardships faced by the officers at counters, it said.

Pointing out that the banking system itself is losing credibility because of frequent changes in RBI/Government policies, Singh said customer dissatisfaction is increasing because of chaos and confusion created in implementation of the scheme.
The Election Commission is set to write to the Income Tax authorities asking it to look into the finances of over 200 political parties it has delisted over a period of time for not contesting elections.

The Commission has, over a period of time, identified various parties which have not contested polls since 2005 and has delisted over 200 of them.

The poll panel believes that most of them exist on papers to help people convert their back money into white by accepting donations.

In the next few days, the Commission will send the list of the delisted parties to the income tax authorities seeking action against relevant laws if they are found to be involved in money laundering.

While the poll watchdog has the mandate to register a political party, it lacks power under electoral laws to de-register any party.

As its demand to get power to de-register a party is pending with the Law Ministry, the Commission used its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution to delist parties for being dormant and not contesting elections for a long time.

There are over 1780 registered, but unrecognised political parties in the country. Besides, there are seven national parties  BJP, Congress, BSP, TMC, CPI, CPI-M and NCP  and 58 state parties.

Seeking to stem flow of black money in elections, the Commission has proposed a slew of electoral reforms but most are pending with the government.
German police are searching for a Tunisian man in connection with the deadly truck attack on a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market, media reported Wednesday.

The man is aged 21 or 23 and known by three different names, according to reports in the daily Allgemeine Zeitung and the Bild newspaper.

Both said asylum office papers believed to belong to the man were found in the cab of the truck.

The documents, which announced a stay of deportation, were found under the drivers seat of the 40-tonne lorry that barrelled through the Christmas market in the heart of the German capital.

Police were reportedly searching for the suspect, who was born in the southern Tunisian city of Tataouine, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Twelve people were killed in what German authorities have called a terrorist attack in Berlin late Monday, including the Polish driver of the truck.

The scenes instantly revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency said a soldier of the Islamic State carried out the Berlin carnage in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries.

There was no evidence to back the claim, nor was the perpetrator identified.

Tunisia is one of the biggest suppliers of jihadist fighters, with some 5,500 of its nationals believed to be involved in combat in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, whose party had boycotted a function involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, will attend the public function in Mumbai on 24 December to be addressed by Modi.

The Prime Minister, after laying the foundation stone for two Metro rail projects, elevated rail corridors project, the Mumbai Trans Harbour link and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off Arabian Sea, will address a public function in suburban Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).

There will be only one function to lay the foundation stone for these projects and Uddhav Thackeray will attend the proceedings at the MMRDA grounds in BKC, a close aide of the Sena chief said on Wednesday.

On 11 October last year, Modi had laid the foundation stone of a grand memorial to Babasaheb Ambedkar at the Indu Mills compound in the heart of Mumbai, a function which was boycotted by Shiv Sena whose chief Uddhav Thackeray was not invited.

Sena is a part of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre as well as the BJP-led Maharashtra government.

Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar is in Delhi and will attend the birthday celebrations of Ajit Singh, former union minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief on Wednesday.

Pawar saheb will attend the function to lay thefoundation stone of Pune Metro in Pune if invited. His office in Mumbai has not received an invite, one of the aide of the Maratha strongman said.
In a bid to provide alternative source of livelihood to Victoria carriage owners, Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar put forth three suggestions, including one-time financial assistance to them.

The final call on these suggestions will be taken after a meeting with all the stakeholders.

In June last year, the Bombay High Court had ordered that the use of horse-drawn carriages in Mumbai, popularly known as Victorias, shall be completely stopped after a year. A city-based NGO had alleged cruelty to horses by using them for joyrides. The HC had granted further time to the state to comply with its earlier order banning the carriages.

The government later set up a cabinet sub-committee headed by Mungantiwar to discuss steps to rehabilitate the owners of Victorias.

Mungantiwar said that while it was necessary to rehabilitate the horses, it was also imperative that carriage owners are not robbed of their livelihood.

He suggested that the carriage owners could be given a hawkers licence, which will be issued after a survey as per the law, which would require around eight months.

Another suggestion is that the owners be given Rs 2 lakh to each family as final settlement amount, he said.

He also suggested that they could be given financial assistance to buy a cab to operate for taxi services like Ola/Uber after finalisation of the new law by the state government for online cab aggregators.

Mungantiwar said, Horses can be purchased from the owners by NGO People for Animals (a petitioner in the case along with PETA) or any other NGO as well at market value or they can also be handed over to the Animal husbandry or state Tourism department.








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JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA  Everyone knows that youth are the future of Africa, and once every year, South Africans get an opportunity to honor extraordinary young Africans from across the continent.

From dusk until dawn on this December 31st, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome will be providing a massive free celebration, intended to give Christians time to reflect on the past year and allowing them to dedicate themselves to God for the upcoming year. In what is now an annual tradition, Pastor Chris and Christ Embassy will host a grand event to usher in the New Year. The December 31st Service will be held in Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, an arena capable of holding more than 36,000 worshippers.

This event will not be limited to those in attendance  the December 31st Service will also be broadcast live over radio and the internet, and also over LoveWorldTV, the worlds first 24-hour Christian satellite television network.

It will be a night of worship, prayer, singing, and dancing, but perhaps the most important aspect of the event will be the distribution of the Future African Leaders Awards (FALA); these awards have also become a tradition sponsored by Chris Oyakhilome. The FALA project is meant to honor and encourage outstanding young citizens of Africa who  in one way or another  have managed to make their continent a better place.

The Future African Leaders Awards gives scholarships and grants to those young people who are selected; past winners have gone on to achieve great things for the continent of Africa, including speaking in front of a panel of U.N. and international leaders. By working in conjunction with the United Nations, 2015 FALA winner Rose Salaka managed to have several thousand tons of food donated to the impoverished citizens of the nation of Malawi, a country with one of the lowest life expectancy rates in the world.

Other winners have gone on to speak out about womens rights, won awards for artistic projects, organized fund-raising concerts to benefit homeless children, donated textbooks to remote and impoverished areas, and created youth empowerment and mentoring programs. Truly, this is a worthy group of award-winners, and an award-program that should be supported. FALA has only been in existence since 2014, but it has already changed many lives, and should be respected as the centrepiece of this important New Years Eve event.

If you wish to support FALA, you can contact them by calling +234 8093 595 868. Information about the December 31st New Years Service held by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome can be obtained by calling 011 781 8341/2/3/4. Tickets for the event are available for free, and free transportation to Orlando Stadium will be available from various locations throughout Johannesburg.
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Mostly clear. Low 52F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low 52F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
Texas-based Airbus Group affiliate to provide spares, material and engineering support to Army and National Guard units operating Lakota helicopters

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas

Airbus Helicopters Inc. has been awarded a Contractor Logistics Support contract by the U.S. Army to provide spare parts, material and engineering support for the Armys UH-72A Lakota fleet of utility and training helicopters.



The contract includes a base year and four one-year options, with a potential five-year value of more than $967 million. Airbus Helicopters Inc. will provide the support at Army and National Guard bases in 43 states as well as in Kwajalein, Guam, Puerto Rico and Germany. The U.S. bases include Fort Rucker in Alabama where the UH-72A is operational as the Army initial-entry training helicopter. An initial contract installment of $17.4 million has been exercised.



The CLS contract with the Army is one of the largest performance-based support contracts managed by Airbus Helicopters worldwide. The new agreement is a follow-on contract to successful completion of 10 years of CLS support by Airbus Helicopters Inc. During that 10-year period, Airbus Helicopters Inc. has consistently performed on time, on budget and exceeded contract requirements for parts fill rate.



This contract shows that the people of Airbus Helicopters have proven that we can and will meet our commitments to provide high-quality helicopters and outstanding support to the men and women that serve our country in the U.S. Army, said President Chris Emerson. For a decade we have continuously delivered helicopters, spare parts, and other support to the Army on time and on budget. We will continue to meet the Armys requirements.



We are honored that the U.S. Army has chosen to renew its support & services contract with Airbus Helicopters Inc., said Matthieu Louvot, Executive Vice President Customer Support & Services of Airbus Helicopters. This contract underscores how Airbus can provide the highest service level to deliver the fleet availability rate required by the demanding missions of the U.S. Army. 



Management of both UH-72A production and logistics is conducted out of the companys headquarters in Grand Prairie, Texas, with production performed in Columbus, Miss.



To date, 393 UH-72As have been delivered to the Army and are in use in support of vital missions including training, air medical transport, and search and rescue, with Army National Guard units flying Lakotas in support of Customs and Border Protection operations on the Southwestern border. The Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Md. operates five Lakotas and the Royal Thai Army six.



The Army has contracted for 423 Lakotas, including those for the Naval Test Pilot School and the Royal Thai Army.



The UH-72A is one of just four helicopter models the Army will operate for the foreseeable future. The Lakota platform is a highly capable, commercial-off-the-shelf twin-engine aircraft with modern glass-cockpit, flight control, and navigation systems. The Lakota is the Armys lowest cost twin-engine helicopter to buy, own and operate, and has a mission availability rate of more than 90 percent.







About Airbus Helicopters Inc.

Airbus Helicopters, Inc. is the U.S. affiliate of Airbus Helicopters, the largest helicopter manufacturer in the world, and a subsidiary of the Airbus Group. Airbus Helicopters, Inc. manufactures H125 and UH-72A helicopters and markets, sells and supports the broadest range of civil and parapublic helicopters offered in the U.S. The product line represents the industrys most cost-effective, technologically-advanced helicopters serving all markets and missions. The companys headquarters and main facility are in Grand Prairie, Texas, with a large manufacturing and production facility in Columbus, Miss. For more information, visit www.airbushelicoptersinc.com.

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Qatar Airways Cargo will launch twice weekly Boeing 777 freighter operations to four new destinations in the Americas, starting in early February 2017.

The freighters will fly to the South American cities of Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Quito (the latter subject to governmental approval) and Miami in the US.

They will depart from the Middle East cargo carriers Doha home base, via Luxembourg, its European hub, with stops at Sao Paulo in Brazil, Buenos Aires in Argentina and Quito in Ecuador.

On the return leg, the freighters will stop in Miami, Florida and Luxembourg before arriving in Doha.

These new freighter services aim to meet the growing demand for import and export trade in the region and will supplement the belly-hold cargo capacity on Qatar Airways daily flights to Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Miami.

Ulrich Ogiermann, Qatar Airways chief officer cargo, said: These new destinations will connect the burgeoning import and export markets in the Americas region with the rest of the world. Through our expertise in specialised solutions, namely QR Pharma for pharmaceuticals and QR Fresh for perishables, we are able to offer our customers a seamless and an unbroken cool chain for their temperature-sensitive products via our state-of-the-art fully automated hub in Doha.

The launch of new freighter routes brings the carriers total freighter destinations in the Americas to 12 while offering belly-hold services to 13 cities on the continent.

Major commodities out of Sao Paulo, Bueno Aires and Quito comprise of fresh flowers, perishables and pharmaceuticals, whilst imports into South America include a wide variety of products ranging from medicines, automotive, chemical products to high tech commodities and equipment for the oil and gas industry.

Miami will serve as the airfreight distribution hub to and from the Latin American and Caribbean regions.

Qatar Airways, the worlds third largest cargo carrier, recently took delivery of its 11th B777F, taking the total fleet to 21, including eight Airbus A330Fs and two Boeing 747Fs.

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December 20, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Just two days after President Mahmoud Abbas decided Dec. 12 to strip five members of parliament in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), including dismissed Fatah leader and parliamentarian Mohammed Dahlan, from their parliamentary immunity in preparation for their prosecution on charges of misappropriation of funds and trade of weapons, the Palestinian Corruption Crimes Court issued a judgment in absentia against Dahlan on charges of embezzlement and sentenced him to three years in prison and a $16 million fine.

The courts decision came as no surprise to many in the Palestinian street, in light of the exacerbating struggle between Abbas and his rival Dahlan. The dispute surfaced after the death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in 2004, when Dahlan  a high-level Fatah official back then  and Abbas exchanged accusations of assassination, collaboration and corruption.

The judgment further inflamed the already heated feud between the two men, prompting Dahlan to reject this sudden judgment in a press statement Dec. 14 to Amad news website, which is close to Dahlan, and to call for an impartial national commission of inquiry to examine the charges leveled by the Corruption Crimes Court, noting that he will accept any decisions to be taken against him by the commission.

Also on Dec. 14, Dahlan accused Abbas from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through various media outlets of embezzling $6 million from a $20 million donation deposited in one of the Palestinian banks by an Arab country, initially allocated to the Palestinian security services for the purchase of equipment, back when Dahlan served as Abbas' national security adviser in 2007-2008.

On Dec. 16, Paltimes news website published a document dated Nov. 19, 2014, sent by the Palestinian Anti-Corruption Commission in Ramallah to Abbas calling for his approval on procedures to expedite the indictment and prosecution of Dahlan.

In this context, Abdel Hamid al-Masri, a dismissed member of Fatah's Revolutionary Council and close friend of Dahlan, told Al-Monitor that within a few days, Dahlan will resort to media platforms to reply to his indictment by the Corruption Crimes Court, which he sees as a mere tool in the hands of Abbas.

Masri said, Abbas has been, for a long time, exploiting the judiciary and all of the Palestinian Authority and PLOs bodies for personal objectives. He has never hesitated to mobilize the judiciary and security agencies, and all of the power components against his opponents.

He added, President Abbas and his sons have embezzled the PA funds the most, pointing out on another note that Abbas has undermined the Palestinian judiciary by forming the Constitutional Court in 2016, which allowed him to revoke parliamentarians immunity even if contrary to the Palestinian Basic Law.

Abbas Zaki, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, told Al-Monitor that the judiciary has received numerous legal reports and files including charges against a number of members of parliament, which prompted the Constitutional Court to give Abbas the power to lift the immunity of the accused parliamentarians in order to investigate them.

He explained that if the charges against Dahlan are not proven, his parliamentary immunity will be restituted, pointing out that this is a procedure applied in all nations across the world and stressing that no members of parliament should be above the law.

For his part, Hassan Khreisheh, the second deputy speaker of the PLC, told Al-Monitor, We were shocked by President Abbas decision to lift immunity of five members of parliament. The next day after this decision one of these parliamentarians was sentenced to three years in prison and a colossal fine estimated at $16 million.

He added, All expectations were that Abbas decree on April 3 on the formation of the Constitutional Court aimed to dissolve the PLC, or take other steps related to the amendment of laws without referring to the PLC. But President Abbas surprised everyone and decided to revoke the immunity of some lawmakers  from among his political opponents.

Khreisheh asserted that the Palestinian Basic Law does not include any legal justification for entitling Abbas to lift the immunity of a member of parliament, calling on all parliamentarians to take collective measures to stop Abbas illegal practices.

Article 53 of the Palestinian Basic Law states, A Member of the Legislative Council shall not relinquish parliamentary immunity without the prior permission of the Council. Immunity shall not lapse after membership in the Council ceases but shall be subject to the limits prevailing during the membership period.

Salah Abdel Ati, a legal expert and the director of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies - Masarat, told Al-Monitor, Revoking the parliamentarians' immunity and the trial of member of parliament Dahlan on charges of embezzlement are not permissible by virtue of the law, since there are clear provisions in the Palestinian Basic Law concerning the immunity of members of parliament specifying that no parliamentarian may be stripped of parliamentary immunity or questioned in civil or criminal proceedings.

He explained that the immunity of a member of parliament does not expire by the end of the parliaments mandate but with the formation of a new Legislative Council, which has not happened since the last legislative elections in 2006 in light of the Palestinian internal division. He noted that the trial of a member of parliament deprived of his immunity is an encroachment by the executive power over the legislative and judicial powers.

Abdel Ati warned that if Abbas keeps issuing decrees and decisions unilaterally without referring to the Palestinian official institutions or the law, the entire Palestinian political regime would be undermined, pointing to the trial of a parliamentarian only one day after revoking his immunity.

In this context, Riyad al-Astal, a political science professor at Al-Aqsa University in the Gaza Strip, was surprised by the prosecution of Dahlan and the decision to revoke his immunity along with that of four other members of parliament, against the backdrop of a Fatah internal administrative issue that has nothing to do with public institutions. He told Al-Monitor that he finds no justification for dismissing parliamentarians from their positions outside Fatah, since they were brought to these positions by the people through elections.

Astal said, The decision of the Court of Corruption against parliamentarian Dahlan is another attempt by Abbas to topple his rivals. He pointed out that the rift within Fatah is getting wider with such steps that some Fatah members had expected after Fatahs seventh general conference at the end of November.

Questions were raised in the Palestinian street about whether the PA will ask Interpol to arrest Dahlan, currently a resident of the UAE, if the PAs bid for membership to Interpol is accepted.
December 21, 2016

On Dec. 12, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for tighter counterterrorism laws and expressed frustration with the countrys legal system, which he said makes it difficult to prosecute suspects. His statements were made at a state funeral for 24 Coptic Christians killed in an explosion at St. Marks Coptic Cathedral complex the previous day.

Egyptians are still reeling from the shock of the attack  the deadliest on Coptic Christians since the Jan. 1, 2011, bombing of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria that claimed the lives of 23 worshipers and injured nearly 100 others. In an online statement, the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the latest act of violence against Egypts Christian minority  estimated to be around 10% of the country's population. The Dec. 11 church attack was carried out by a suicide bomber, as IS vowed to continue its "war against the apostates," in reference to Coptic Christians.

IS' warning sent shock waves throughout Egyptian society. While violence has become all too common in Egypt since the overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi during military-backed protests on July 3, 2013, most of the attacks have targeted members of the security establishment and have been largely confined to the Sinai Peninsula, where rebels supportive of Morsi and IS-affiliated militant groups are staging an insurgency.

The cathedral bombing marks an escalation in violence and signals a dramatic shift in the militant groups strategy toward targeting civilians  in particular, Coptic Christians, who are perceived by these groups as "state agents" because of their support for Sisi. But many of the Christians who had given Sisi their backing in the May 2014 presidential election  seeing him as their savior from Islamist rule and counting on him for protection  have since become increasingly disaffected. In protests outside the cathedral the day after the latest church bombing, hundreds of angry Christians chanted anti-government slogans and called for the downfall of the regime.

Attacks against Christians are not new. Coptic Christians have always felt vulnerable as a minority in the conservative Muslim-majority country and have often borne the brunt of extremist attacks, Mina Thabet, a researcher on minorities and vulnerable groups at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, told Al-Monitor.

He recalled the scapegoating of Coptic Christians following the crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood supporters in August 2013.

Christians were targeted by radical Islamists following the forced dispersal by security forces of the Muslim Brotherhood sit-in at Rabia Square in August 2013. Churches and Coptic property were torched and vandalized in the Upper Egyptian provinces of Menia, Sohag, Assiut and elsewhere in the country to avenge the evacuation of the Rabia encampment, he said.

Coptic Christians who had felt more hopeful about their situation with the election of Sisi in 2014 had their hopes dashed when sectarian violence continued unabated under his rule. The violence, ranging from arson attacks on churches and looting of Christian property to physical assaults on individuals, peaked in May when an elderly woman was stripped naked by a mob and paraded through the streets of Karama, a village in the southern province of Menya. Seven Christian homes were ransacked and burned in the village in the violence that was sparked by a rumor that the womans son had had an affair with a Muslim woman.

Perpetrators of such crimes have gone largely unpunished, said Thabet.

He cited the case of four Christian teenagers who were sentenced to five years in prison in September for defaming Islam after they had released a video mocking executions by IS as an example of "the unfair treatment Christians suffer." The teenagers, who were tried in absentia, have fled the country, seeking asylum in Switzerland. Besides blasphemy convictions, Coptic Christians in Egypt also complain of other forms of discrimination against them, including their inability to gain employment  particularly in the public sector  and being prevented from obtaining promotions and high positions. Moreover, they continue to be underrepresented in senior military positions and the police force.

Meanwhile, a law on the building and renovation of churches passed by parliament Aug. 30 has been criticized by rights groups for giving the absolute authority to the executive branch in approving or denying permits to build churches. Human Rights Watch said the law runs counter to suggestions by some priests to transfer authority to an independent body.

Thabet blamed the continued sectarian violence on the governments security approach, which he said fails to address the root causes of terrorism.

Reform of the educational system with the aim of instilling and promoting a culture of tolerance and nonviolence, creating an inclusive society where all citizens feel valued and have their basic needs met, and involving youth in community development and in the decision-making process [rather than marginalizing them] are some of the ways in which the government can counter radicalization, he suggested.

Parliament member Tamer El Shahawy, a member of the Defense and National Security Committee, blamed last weeks cathedral bombing on the intelligence agencies of foreign powers seeking to destabilize the country. In the wake of the attack, he has submitted a draft law to parliament that would allow the president to refer all terrorism-related cases to military tribunals. For the law to be passed, Article 204 of the Egyptian Constitution would need to be amended, as it stipulates that only civilians involved in direct attacks on the military (whether on officers, camps, vehicles or weapons) may be tried in military courts. Proceedings in military courts often lack basic due process rights and do not satisfy the requirements of independence and impartiality of courts of law, according to Human Rights Watch.

The government appears intent on intensifying its crackdown on dissent, which rights groups fear is contributing to rather than curbing the radicalization of young Egyptians. The imprisonment of tens of thousands of opposition supporters, the torture of some political detainees and the shrinking space for free expression are among the factors fueling the insurgency, they say.

Hasm (Arabic for "decisiveness"), a militant group that claimed responsibility for a deadly attack that killed six policemen and injured three others on the main Cairo road leading to the Giza Pyramids on Dec. 9, has warned there will be no safety or security as long as we hold our weapons in jihad for God; there is either victory or martyrdom.

It is an ominous warning of what might happen if the current policies remain unchanged.

Editor's note: This article has been updated since its initial publication.
December 21, 2016

Turkey has not yet recovered from the shocking murder of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov on Dec. 19. The mystery surrounding the motives of the perpetrator, police officer Mevlut Altintas, and whether the countrys notorious deep state had any role in the episode will not be resolved for a while.

Amid such troubling uncertainty, pro-government media outlets have offered the Turkish people a respite with coverage of the Dec. 20 opening of the Eurasia Tunnel in Istanbul. The daily Star headlined its story Service continues in spite of scoundrels, a reference to the masterminds suspected of ordering Karlovs assassination to derail Turkeys progress with the economy and in building infrastructure. Likewise, Yeni Safak saw the opening as The most beautiful response to those who would like to cause chaos and disorder in their country.

Meanwhile, Turkiye, which often sides with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), emphasized the Eurasia Tunnels unique status (together with the Marmaray Tunnel) as a connector of the continents of Europe and Asia.

Interestingly, some pro-government media outlets ran their coverage of the tunnel opening on their front pages alongside the ongoing talks in Moscow over Syria between Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian and Iranian counterparts. Both Yeni Safak and Yeni Akit underscored how Cavusoglu, together with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, called upon the international community to respect Syrias territorial integrity and mapped a way to end that countrys horrific civil war. The pro-AKP medias message was consistent: Karlovs assassination was a foreign plot. Ankara would not succumb to such machinations and would carry out its duty to work for regional peace.

But not everyone is impressed with the AKP government and its supporters attempts to portray terror attacks as a plot to undermine Turkey. For example, Nurcan Baysal, a columnist for the opposition website T24, warned her readers that not everything bad that happens in Turkey is a foreign-inspired scheme to prevent [Turkish people] from riding rapid trains. (High-speed trains are one of the AKPs signature development projects.)

Baysal also referenced a tweet by a Turkish citizen pointing out how Altintas was merely eight years old when Erdogan and the AKP had come into office in 2002. The man's point, that the ruling party and its leader are responsible for creating such religious extremists through their project of raising devout and revengeful youth, is a common view. As Al-Monitor writer Zulfikar Dogan pointed out a while ago, the term devout and revengeful youth comes from Erdogans past statements calling for the creation of a religious generation in Turkey and specifically advising his young supporters not to lose their anger in the face of injustices that they suffered at the hands of Turkeys past secular regimes.

The Eurasia Tunnel and similar projects will likely help Erdogan and the AKP keep their base happy until the Turkish president has his way in creating an executive presidency next year. But whether those accomplishments could stop domestic opponents and international observers from raising serious questions about latent extremism in Turkey is another matter.
December 21, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  On a hilltop in the Shajaiya neighborhood in the eastern part of Gaza City, which was extensively damaged by the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in July-August 2014, lives Ansam Raed Saleh al-Wadiya. The teenager has turned the walls of her house into murals in an expression of her emotions and imagination, attracting visitors despite the piles of stone and rubble they must pass in the streets to get there.

The eyes of Ansam, 16, show hope and strength, and her paintings carry the viewer to a world of peace and calm. She has worked on the murals for many long nights, and spent much time creating the drawings that she included in her painting booklet and on the walls of Dalal al-Mughrabi High School. The walls of her house are covered in about 20 paintings each, which include architectural shapes, nature scenes and cartoon characters.

She told Al-Monitor, I started drawing on walls after the Israeli warplanes shelled our house two years ago. I tried to find a place to shelter my dreams through painting. I could not find it in Gaza, and I decided to realize my dreams between the rubble and sand, and transform our house into a [giant] painting that everyone would visit.

Despite the tough economic situation  due to rising unemployment and lack of job opportunities that have taken a toll on Ansams family of 12  her mother, Sahar, is her biggest supporter. She gave Ansam her painting kit to help her develop her skills and keep her dreams alive through drawing.

When asked about how she got into painting, Ansam said, I [perfected] the art [technique] when I was 10. But I wasn't as good as I am now. I would redraw paintings until I perfected them. I only used crayons at the time. Later, my mother bought me many other kinds of coloring materials such as oil paint and gouache, and this helped me improve [my skills].

Ansams goal, other than painting on walls, was to make visitors to the house feel welcome and at ease. Each painting engages the viewer for quite some time, as they notice landmarks such as Al-Aqsa Mosque that portray the Palestinian identity and people's resilience. The nature scenes emit comfort and calm.

Ansam said, I participated in several drawing competitions in the Gaza Strip and won first place with my expressive and innocent paintings. I took part in the 2016 Human Rights Competition and won first place in eastern Gaza City for my painting called 'Jerusalem' that I painted with charcoal. I also won the 'Inni Khtartouka Ya Watani' ['I Chose You, My Country'] competition that was held in al-Saraya compound and included painters from all over Gaza. I drew a resistance painting on the land of freedom and used acrylic paint on canvas.

The two competitions Ansam participated in were organized by local organizations in al-Saraya compound, in al-Rimal neighborhood.

Could Ansams dream of becoming an international artist be fulfilled? She said that she dreams of going to Italy, the country of art and artists. She added that she wants to send a message to the world through her paintings  that Gaza is full of people like herself, but unfortunately there is no opportunity to achieve their dreams and no one cares about their talent.
December 21, 2016

In a Dec. 18 interview, Ali Akbar Velayati, the Iranian supreme leaders foreign policy adviser, described the developments in eastern Aleppo as "the most important victory during the past five years in which Syria has been entangled in the war on terrorism, adding that they are a prelude to future victories. On the same day, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani said in his meeting with visiting Russian special envoy on Syria Alexander Lavrentiev that the advance in eastern Aleppo was the outcome of initiatives by Iran, Russia, Syria and the resistance front.

Observers have noted that the Syrian governments victory in the northern city is not limited to Aleppo, but could also influence the future of the war. The conflict has been continuing for close to six years now, and has impacted not only Syria but the entire Middle East, pitting regional players against each other. But who are the winners and losers of this lengthy war?

Saeed Laylaz, a prominent analyst and a professor at Tehrans Shahid Beheshti University, told Al-Monitor, The biggest winner of this conflict is the United States.  The policy that Washington has been implementing in the Middle East for decades has pitted regional powers against each other  eroding their energy, money and power  without inflicting any costs on the United States or its interests.

But if the situation truly is as Laylaz describes, then why do Western officials appear so worried about the Syrian governments advances in Aleppo? Speaking at the United Nations Security Council on Dec. 14, Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, called for Russia to feel ashamed about what was going on in Aleppo. Moreover, addressing a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels on Dec. 15, UK Prime Minister Theresa May condemned what she described as atrocities being carried out by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with the backing of Russia and Iran. US President Barack Obama joined this condemnation during his last end-of-the year press conference Dec. 16, holding Assad's regime, Iran and Russia responsible for what he described as the carnage in Aleppo. Obama also called for the deployment of international observers to the Syrian city.

Commenting on the Wests deep concern about the situation in eastern Aleppo, former Iranian Ambassador to Jordan Nosratollah Tajik told Al-Monitor, If the United States claims to be supporting the civil demands of the Syrian people, why does it not do this in Jordan, Yemen or Bahrain? The reality is that US policy in Syria and the Middle East is not transparent.

In this vein, Iran's Ambassador to the United Kingdom Hamid Baeidinejad wrote on his Instagram page Dec. 18, Everyone knows that Western countries are unhappy with the liberation of Aleppo, but they need to be honest and search for [the cause of] this unhappiness in their previous wrong policies. What the media is reporting about Aleppo these days is not news, it is propaganda. The reality is that those who were fighting in Aleppo in recent years have gradually left Syria, and takfiris, Salafists and various al-Qaeda branches have taken their place instead.

But what does the shift in Aleppo mean for the crisis in Syria? Prominent Iran expert Vali Nasr said in an interview with NPR on Dec. 16, The winning of Aleppo is not just winning of Aleppo or winning of Syria. It really confirms Russia's ability to operate in the Middle East and reach its strategic objectives without resistance. And  that translates into order of power, and that's likely to allow them to do a lot more in other places.

One source in the Iranian Foreign Ministry told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, We never sought hegemony in the Middle East. Our policy in regard to Syria was clear from the beginning and based on political dialogue. It was the West and some regional countries that were trying to turn the conflict into a military one. Therefore, it was natural that we remain beside the legitimate government of Syria and liberate the country from terrorist control.

He added, The liberation of Syria now is an indication of changing equations in the future of the Middle East and its fight against terrorism.

Echoing this sentiment, Tajik said, The United States mistake was that it entered the Syrian crisis with the 'rotten rope' of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. This was a strategic mistake for them [the Americans], because due to false evaluations they thought they could easily dismiss Assad and manage the equation the way they wanted to.

In his Nov. 11 interview with The Wall Street Journal, US President-elect Donald Trump tacitly stated that his focus is on fighting the Islamic State rather than ousting Assad  a point that he had also stressed during his campaign. Thus, can Damascus latest maneuvering, with the aid of Iran and Russia, be viewed as a pre-emptive move before Trump takes office to force him to face a new situation on the ground in Syria? In his Dec. 16 interview, Nasr confirmed this and said, I think [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin set out a long time ago to make sure that northern Syria falls before there's a new president in office because that would basically settle the Syrian conflict by and large.

Commenting on the bigger picture, Laylaz said, With Trump in office  and of course the decreasing strategic value of the Middle East for the United States  Washingtons sights will be set more on China and we will no longer witness a heightened US presence on matters such as Syria.

As much of eastern Aleppo has been reduced to rubble, the militant opposition in Syria is getting weaker by the day. Meanwhile, the countries that have aligned against Assad are becoming increasingly engaged with the other crises that have stemmed from the Syrian conflict. Indeed, not a week goes by in Turkey without a bombing. If anything, the wager that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan thought he could win  making him the sultan of the Middle East  has now engulfed him with severe domestic security issues as the Syrian conflict has seeped within Turkeys borders. Saudi Arabia, which in addition to Syria has engaged itself in Lebanon and Iraq as well as the war in Yemen, is facing a severe budget deficit, and after years of tensions with Iran within the OPEC is now being forced to reduce its production in an effort to increase oil prices, while at the same time agreeing to increased production by Iran.

Yet, despite all this, viewing Iran as the sole winner of the Syrian crisis is simple-mindedness. Tehran has paid a heavy price for support of its regional allies in the past five years. However, unlike most of its rivals, it has at the very least been able to achieve the result it wanted in Syria.
December 20, 2016

BAGHDAD  The Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), which the Iraqi parliament voted to fully legalize Nov. 26, are now seeking to control the Iraqi-Syrian border stretching from the city of Qaim in Anbar province, in western Iraq, all the way to Rabia, west of Mosul.

Mohammed al-Basri, a PMU leader, was quoted in the Iranian Fars News Agency on Dec. 18 as saying, The PMUs main goal is to cut supply routes in the western Mosul area and secure the border with Syria.

Abboud al-Issawi, a member of parliament for the State of Law Coalition, said in a media statement Oct. 17, The PMU is an official security institution and is capable of maintaining the Iraqi border and there is no harm in cooperation with the rest of the security services [in the country] to this end.

Issawis statements were general, whereas the PMU emphasized that it wants to maintain Iraqs border with Syria, in particular. This raises several questions. Is this demand part of the plan to secure the route Iran wants to establish from its border with Iraq all the way to the Syrian-Iraqi border?

Sattar al-Saidi, a leader in the Iraqi Hezbollah party, was quoted in several media outlets as saying that the PMU made an official proposal to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, demanding that the PMU be allowed to help secure Iraqs border with Syria.

Abadi, who is also the general commander of the Iraqi armed forces, has yet to give an answer. He does not seem to want to rush such a decision that might further complicate the political situation in Iraq.

Hadi al-Amiri, a leader in the PMU and head of the Badr Organization, said that the Islamic State (IS) has been expanding through the Iraqi-Syrian border. Amiri said Nov.1, Our mission is to liberate the country and impose tight security measures on the border.

Badr Razzak al-Haidari, a member of parliament for the Badr bloc, also called for the PMU to secure the Iraqi border. It is of paramount importance for the PMU with the coordination with the countrys security services to secure the border to prevent terrorists from entering the liberated areas, Haidairi said.

During a press conference Nov. 15, Abadi said, There is a dire need to strengthen security measures on the Syrian-Iraqi border to prevent the reinfiltration of terrorists. This statement opened the door for the PMU leaders to demand they be allowed to officially maintain security there; indeed, this is already happening on the ground as PMU troops have been controlling the border for weeks in some of the areas in Tal Afar that are under their control.

The PMU wants to control the borders with Syria to ensure the safety of more than 600 kilometers (373 miles) stretching from Qaim in Anbar province to Rabia in Ninevah province and to forbid IS from using these borders as a starting ground to attack Iraqi cities.

Spokespeople in the PMU are afraid that IS might use weapons it has hidden along the Iraqi-Syrian border to launch new attacks on Iraqi cities. Therefore, the forces are deployed along the borderline to tighten the noose on IS, whose military presence in Iraq is dwindling.

PMU control of the Syrian border would include part of the road Iran wants to build from the eastern Iraqi-Iranian border to the western Iraqi-Syrian border, in addition to facilitating the infiltration of Shiite militants fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

On Oct. 7, the Iraqi government deployed a military force affiliated with the Ministry of Defense toward the borders with Syria to secure them. The force included around 3,000 soldiers, indicating the importance of these borders for Iraq and the potential risks in case they are not secured.

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the vice president of the Popular Mobilization Committee, had previously suggested that the PMU handle blocking the borders with Syria to prevent any supplies from reaching IS.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry, which has the Iraqi Border Police under it, is responsible for securing Iraqs borders. For the PMU to handle border security, Abadi must give it authority to do so. Even if the commander agrees to hand over border enforcement to the PMU, the Ministry of Interior might object, thus leading to problems and conflicting interests over the geographical regions where Iraqi security formations operate.

Several questions must be asked. Can the PMU secure the borders? Does it have the trained forces and the right weapons to control the borderline? Will Iraqs allies, including the United States, be OK with the PMU, which is allied with Iran, being in charge of a 600-kilometer border?

Abadi might not agree to the PMUs request. He might grant the PMU the opportunity to stay close to the border to back the forces in charge, but he may not give the PMU the privilege of managing the boundary. The security as well as economic importance of these borders cannot be undermined.
December 20, 2016

The past week was one of the hardest time periods in the short history of the Arab Joint List, and especially for its chairman, Ayman Odeh. It all began on Dec. 16 when Adal Amar, the head of Maki (the Communist Party faction within Hadash, which itself is part of the Joint List alliance), publicized a statement congratulating Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for conquering Aleppo. The statement generated a tempest even among the supporters of the Joint List. Two days later, it was revealed that Knesset member Basel Ghattas (of the Balad Party, also part of the Joint List) is suspected of smuggling cell phones to Palestinian security prisoners in the Israeli Ketziot jail; this, of course, delivered a significant blow to Odehs attempts at building bridges between Jews and Arabs. But an even more severe a problem from Odehs vantage point was that sections of the Arab sector also wondered aloud whether their Arab Knesset representatives were indeed serving the interests of Arab citizens of Israel, or whether their representatives had, instead, become a millstone around their necks.

There is no doubt that members of the Balad movement  one of the four parties that make up the Joint List  are viewed by the Arab public as the bad boys of the forced political union. The partys founder, former Knesset member Azmi Bishara, even fled to Qatar in 2007 after coming under suspicion of transferring information to Hezbollah. Three Balad Knesset members today  Jamal Zahalka, Haneen Zoabi and Basel Ghattas  have long since adopted a radical platform that differs greatly from the positions of the other Joint List members. Hardly a month goes by without a public storm initiated by one of the Balad members, who are responsible for creating more and more deep fissures in the Joint List, in the Arab sector and in Jewish-Arab relations. In an attempt to maintain the Joint Lists political unity, Arab Knesset members from other factions feel compelled to toe Balads line.

Lack of space prevents me from enumerating the list of controversies provoked by Balads members in the Knesset and outside it. In the past year (June 29), Zoabi called Israel Defense Force soldiers murderers from the Knesset podium. In this way, she helped create the public atmosphere that facilitated the ratification of the Dismissal Law. This law allows Knesset members to oust a fellow member from the Knesset after winning a special majority vote and after a relatively complicated process. Meanwhile, the entire Joint List felt obligated to stand at Zoabis side  although behind closed doors, many of them admitted that they felt that Zoabi had crossed a red line.

Ghattas also forced Joint List members to close ranks with him. On Sept. 14, while former President Shimon Peres was fighting for his life in the hospital, Ghattas publicized a malicious Facebook post in which he wrote, Let us remember his true essence as a tyrant. He was directly responsible for various atrocities and war crimes which he committed against us.  He is completely covered with our blood. This post forced all the Arab Knesset members to later boycott Peres funeral, thus leading to a large public protest within Arab society and causing an additional rupture between Jews and Arabs.

But now, so it seems, Ghattas has become embroiled in something far more serious than an infuriating statement. He is under suspicion of smuggling 12 cell phones to Palestinian prisoners, one of whom is life prisoner Walid Daka, murderer of soldier Moshe Tamam (August 1984). If the suspicions against him are confirmed, this act of an Arab Knesset member will inflict great harm on the Arab citizens of the State of Israel. True, it would be a criminal act of one Knesset member out of 13 members of the Joint List. However, the Jewish public would grasp this as incontestable proof of the veracity of the accusations coming from the right (including from Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman) that Arab citizens are not loyal to the State of Israel. And so, right-wing Knesset members have already asked Knesset speaker to conduct body searches of the Arab Knesset members prior to entering Knesset chambers, claiming that they might try to smuggle in demolition charges.

Clearly, these accusations of disloyalty and treason have not a grain of truth in them. Instead, Odeh and fellow Knesset members Ahmad Tibi, Aida Toma-Sliman, Yusuf Jibrin and others are fighting for their right to preserve their Palestinian identity while remaining faithful citizens of the State of Israel.

As aforementioned, the Ghattas incident was not the only bombshell visited on the Joint List in recent days. While atrocious photographs were streaming from Syrian Aleppo showing mass murders of civilians by the hands of the Syrian army, Amar found time to congratulate Assad. This statement by Maki's secretary-general in turn stirred up the Hadash faction and turned large swaths of the Arab sector against him; all these viewed Amars statement as support of the acts of a mass murderer.

I have been a Hadash member for three decades, an Umm al-Fahm resident told Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity. I have never been as ashamed as I was this past week. Assad murdered hundreds of thousands in cold blood; he operated planes and tanks and heavy weapons to kill his citizens, only to protect his regime. Suddenly, along comes the Hadash senior official to congratulate him. How does he dare speak in my name?

Amars statement forced Odeh to release a second, moderating statement in his attempt to tone down the rhetoric and conduct damage control. Odeh called Assad "a tyrant, and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) and the Islamic State savage groups. The Joint List chairman also said that it is inhumane to take the side of these forces of darkness. However, the public damage to the party had been done.

A protest rally, organized by the anti-racism Tag Meir movement, took place Dec. 18 in Israel against the carnage in Syria. Hundreds of people formed a human chain between the US and Russian embassies in Tel Aviv, calling on the world powers to put an end to the massacres. They held photos of dead children and pictures of Assad with blood-stained hands. In the past, Hadash activists would take part in demonstrations such as these; Hadash is a socialist party that worked hard over the years to show the world that it is a social rights-humanist movement struggling for social justice. But this time, Hadash's voice was muted; its activists have vanished. Therefore, those who claim that Arab Knesset members inflict damage on their constituents and create deep ruptures between Jews and Arabs are not far from the truth.
December 20, 2016

Writing that Culture Minister Miri Regev has asked Education Minister Naftali Bennett to stop funding the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design because of a poster by a first-year student is a dog bites man story. But in fact, this is what happened this week, when a poster showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a rope swept the social networks. Its hardly surprising that the culture minister, who is proud of never having read Chekhov, doesnt understand the difference between a poster displayed in the stairwell of an arts school and incitement against asylum seekers in the town square (as she did in 2012, when she called African asylum seekers a cancer). And then again, maybe she does understand and even knows that the school assignment of an 18-year-old student, posted on the web by some anonymous hand, is hardly a security threat to the prime minister. But Regev, as always, never misses an opportunity to pick up a few more likes from her fans.

Many on the political right, and even on the left, did not like the posters depiction of Netanyahu next to a hangmans noose. Others saw in it a legitimate form of criticism against Netanyahu, one of the prime instigators of the violent incitement that preceded the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. They read the substitution of Barack Obamas 2008 campaign poster image and the word HOPE with a picture of Netanyahu with the word ROPE as a portrayal of Netanyahu killing the hope for peace. In art, the interpretation is in the eye of the beholder. As Eli Petel, the head of the fine arts department at the academy, said, An exercise by students at an academy is not a call for action. The aim of art education is providing an opportunity to ask questions about the personal, social and cultural  and inevitably the political  space in which we live.

The resilience of a democracy is measured, among other things, by its ability to restrain itself and withstand criticism. The meaning of a defensive democracy is not just dealing with incitement to violence, but also protecting the public space against those who would silence criticism in the name of fighting incitement. In the storm over the Bezalel poster, two of the most senior gatekeepers of this space have now called in the police on behalf of the government to penetrate the very heart of the art and culture world. State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan decided there was sufficient cause to launch an investigation of the student and her department head on suspicion of incitement. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit found the time, in between reviewing the examinations of the prime ministers doings that have piled up on his desk, to approve the questioning of the student and her teacher.

And what about opposition leader Isaac Herzog? Maybe he had a few words of support for the Bezalel students whose halls were invaded by police? Not really. Herzog issued a condemnation of the artistic display and explained that freedom of expression is important and necessary, but it should not be used to incite toward harming public leaders from the right or the left. Perhaps the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid, sent a message of encouragement to the students of Bezalel? No, he didnt. It seems that he preferred leaving this task to students of the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design who held a solidarity protest with their friends on the streets in Ramat Gan.

Lapids contribution to the public debate was an artistic critique of the poster as bad art and a description of the work by an 18-year-old student hung in a school hallway as an ugly and dangerous attempt to grab headlines through violence.

Even President Reuven Rivlin, a stalwart champion of democracy, did not save the day this time. Instead of addressing the blatant crossing of lines by the state prosecution and the police, he wrote on his Facebook page that the students work was a clear crossing of the lines.

In an interview with Haaretz daily on the day after he was questioned by police, Petel said he can see that the artistic community in Israel feels under great pressure. We will soon be marking the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Bauhaus. Bezalel is based on a very similar teaching concept. And when one thinks about what happened in 1933, it rings a realistic bell for us these days. Petel was referring to the Gestapo takeover of the school and the flight of most of its lecturers from Germany.

That being said, theres no danger of a forced government takeover of Bezalel and a subsequent flight of its staff in the foreseeable future. Regev achieves the goals of the Netanyahu government in a more democratic manner. Or so it would seem. Her way was quintessentially summed up last July during a Cabinet debate about the fate of Israels public broadcasting, in general, and the proposed new public broadcasting corporation, in particular. Whats the point of having a corporation if we dont control it? The minister should control it. What, well provide funds and then theyll broadcast whatever they want? she said. One can easily replace the word public broadcasting with theaters, the cinematheque, festivals, media, as well as the courts and even the school system.

At some point one should tell Regev about British General Sir Evelyn Barker, who was sent to British Mandatory Palestine to put down a revolt by the pre-state Jewish underground groups  Etzel and Lehi  and made the famous anti-Semitic comment that the British would hit the Jews in a way the race dislikes as much as any, by striking at their pockets. But the Barker-Regev method works. The funding benefits for theaters willing to put on shows in Jewish settlements in the occupied territories and the threat to defund the recalcitrant ones led recently to a performance by the Habima National Theater in the community center of the Jewish settlement town of Kiryat Arba. The repertoire of the performing arts center in the settlement town of Ariel includes productions by the Cameri Theater, Beersheba Theater, Gesher Theater and even the avant-garde Tzavta Theater (with the political satire "Angina Pectoris," which is hardly complimentary to the settlers).

On the other hand, Regev has announced that organizers of ceremonies, such as the annual Ophir cinema awards, seeking funding from her office will be required to present her with a detailed program of the event in advance. The former military censor explained that the decision stems from her desire to ensure professional standards and national criteria. And who will determine whether an artist is up to professional standards and adheres to national criteria? You guessed correctly.
December 20, 2016

Starting in January 2017, the State of Israel will open a savings account for every child eligible for a child allowance and deposit 50 Israeli shekels ($13) in it every month until the child is 18. These funds will be disbursed in addition to the child allowance received by his or her parents. Under the plan, Saving for Every Child, the funds in the name of the child will be put in a retirement account or a bank account, according to the parents wishes. In addition to investment plans at banks and retirement funds, ranked by degree of risk, parents can also select from two other options: a savings plan that conforms to Halakhah (Jewish law) and a plan that conforms to Sharia (Islamic law).

Jewish and Islamic law have something in common when it comes to borrowing and lending with interest. Lending with interest is one of the gravest transgressions in the Torah, and therefore, one of the greatest mitzvoth [good deeds] is lending without interest, Rabbi Abraham Fine, from the Court for Interest in Jerusalem, explained to Al-Monitor. Similarly, Ibrahim Salma, imam of the Ajami Mosque in Jaffa, told Al-Monitor, In Sharia, interest is a grave sin, and a Muslim must not pay or receive interest, even a pittance.

The Jewish and Islamic savings plans for children are supposed to guarantee that no interest is earned. Practically, Sharia favors investing in retirement plans, and Halakhah makes it possible to put money in banks as well as retirement plans. The big problem with having money in banks is that every deposit is essentially a loan to the institution, which then pays interest to the depositor. Even if a depositor requests not to receive interest on his or her money, the bank uses the depositors funds to loan with interest to others, which would be in violation of religious law.

Judaism found the solution to interest-bearing bank accounts in exemption contract, agreements that legally change the status of a loan. Through this mechanism, when someone deposits money in a bank, he actually becomes a partner in the banks investments, for which he receives agreed-upon profits rather than compound interest. This situation is also in force when the transaction is reversed, when the bank is the lending party.

Islam has a similar solution, musharka, whereby the lender and borrower are considered partners who share the risk of any investment. Islamic banking that allows such contracts is not practiced in Israel.

Salma said the Jewish solution of an exemption contract is unacceptable in Islam. We see an exemption contract as a purely legal status that doesnt change the essence, he explained. The essence is that you receive a certain sum and return more. The difference is forbidden interest. Salma acknowledged that many Muslims obtain mortgages and other loans from banks, which he sees clearly as interest-bearing transactions, but said, When reality forces us to do so, we cant prevent people from doing it.

Fine, however, asserted, An exemption contract is absolutely not a verbal trick, since it has full legal force, and it is signed under a valid legal umbrella. Judaism has succeeded in fitting Jewish law to modern banking and doesnt allow a situation where things are permitted only because theres no other choice. On the other hand, Fine clarified that there are many people from the ultra-Orthodox sector who dont rely on the exemption contract.

Nurdin Shubash, imam of Kefar Kama and a member of the Israeli fatwa committee, explained that according to Islam, every dealing with banks is problematic. With every overdraft you get embroiled in interest, he told Al-Monitor. When you deposit money in a bank and dont receive interest, the money is used to lend with interest to others. So the bank takes interest from your money and sins with it.

The imam said that Islam has solutions similar to the exemption contract and that banks in Islamic banks in Europe and Saudi Arabia employ them. Shubash clarified that the fatwa committees recommendation is to use the Israeli postal bank, where one cannot overdraw, and there are fewer problems with interest.

Ibrahim Zouabi, a pension adviser from Nazareth, believes that Muslims in Israel are far less observant of the interest issue than Muslims elsewhere. The number of Muslims who make sure to abstain from interest in Israel is negligible, Zouabi told Al-Monitor. Our permission to be lenient is tied to the fact that we dont live in an Islamic country, so the existing banking situation is forced on us, and we have no choice. We have no other option for receiving the child allowance, for instance.

He noted that in contradiction to Sharia, most Muslims in Israel freely pay and receive interest. For instance, they obtain car loans and make use of check discounting and bank credit.

Judaism and Islam have other unique limitations on investment. According to Judaism, one should avoid investing in retirement funds that hold shares of companies that work on the Sabbath and sell chametz (non-kosher-for-Passover food) for Passover. In Islam, one should not invest or benefit from the sale of alcohol, marijuana or tobacco.

The desire to abstain from receiving or paying interest has given rise to the fascinating and flourishing phenomena of free-loan societies in Israel, especially in the Jewish sector. Many people do not care to receive even a symbolic amount of interest on their money from a bank and prefer instead to lend their money to others without interest. Another development is the new job of financial kashrut supervisor, the person in investment houses who checks every investment component in plans and decides which to authorize and which to reject based on Halakhah and Sharia.

Although there may be huge rifts between Jews and Muslims on almost every other social issue in Israel, at least on religious matters, it seems they at least have some elements in common.
December 20, 2016

Arab League summits have a poor track record of success, usually underlining rifts rather than accord. Thus, under normal circumstances, the convening of the Arab summit in Amman on March 29 would be a less-than-ordinary event. These, however, are not even normal times for the region. The annual meeting of the heads of the 22 member states had originally been scheduled for Yemen, but that has been precluded by the bloody civil war raging there with no end in sight. King Abdullah II offered in October to change the venue to his capital.

The last time Amman hosted an Arab summit was in June 2001, a few months before the 9/11 al-Qaeda attacks on the United States and the ensuing war in Afghanistan. For further perspective, it was nearly two years before the invasion of Iraq and nearly a decade before the eruption of the Arab Spring. In those days, summit resolutions were predictable: condemnation of Israel and its occupation of Palestinian lands and meek criticism of Washingtons use of its veto power in the Security Council against a draft resolution to allow UN monitors to operate in the occupied territories.

For Jordan, a moderate pro-Western kingdom with a unique relationship with Israel and the Palestinians, managing Arab summits has always been challenging. For decades, Jordan supported Arab consensus and unity  something that has more recently been lacking at many crucial junctures. In November 1987, the late King Hussein headed an extraordinary summit in Amman that ended the Arab boycott of Egypt implemented after Cairo signed a unilateral peace treaty with Israel in 1979, supported Iraq in its war with Iran and brought about Arab reconciliation. It was a major achievement for the host country.

Jordan has consistently called for reforming the 70-year-old Arab League, of which it is a founding member. It has avoided being sucked into proxy confrontations and inter-Arab rivalries as it was during the first Gulf crisis and war (1990-91), when it paid the hefty price of being penalized by the Gulf states for ostensibly siding with Saddam Hussein following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

The coming summit will be a test for Abdullahs ability to craft a semblance of unity among Arab leaders. The line between utter failure and spectacular achievement will be thin. As head of the summit, Abdullah will have to deal with complicated challenges and issues: the Syrian crisis and relations with the Damascus regime, Irans growing regional threat, the widening sectarian rift in Iraq, the war on militant Islamist radicals, the civil war in Yemen and Libya and the stagnant peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. The summit will convene against shifting international and regional backdrops, namely, a new and unconventional US president, Russian expansion in the Middle East and the potential triumph of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his more than 5-year-old war against an insurgency.

At this point, it looks as if Syrias seat at the summit will remain vacant in accordance with an Arab League resolution adopted in November 2011 suspending Syria's membership. Jordanian Minister of State Mohammed al-Momani announced on Dec. 8 that Amman will not be inviting Damascus to attend the meeting, despite Jordan being among a handful of Arab countries still maintaining diplomatic relations with the Assad regime.

In addition to the above, the summit will be held at a time when relations between two major Arab states, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are showing perceptible signs of tension and distrust. It remains to be seen whether King Abdullah, who has close ties with the leaders of the two states, will attempt to broker conciliation. That will primarily depend on the level of attendance, which will not be known until the last minute. Only seven heads of state attended the previous summit, held in Mauritania in March of this year.

The king will be expected to play a key role in reconciling relations between Iraq and its Gulf neighbors, in addition to pushing various Iraqi Sunni and Shiite groups to end the political impasse in Baghdad, which has increased sectarian tensions in the country.

The question of Syria  in light of the recent fall of Aleppo to government forces and the possible change in policy toward Syria under a Donald Trump administration  will remain a divisive issue. A number of Arab countries, including, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq and Oman, oppose giving Syrias Arab League seat to the opposition and want to allow Damascus to reoccupy it. Even in Jordan, a number of politicians and professional union heads have demanded that Amman invite the Syrian government to the summit, but Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar, would almost certainly have opposed such a move, dooming the meeting from the start.

Another challenge for Jordan, and the other Arab League members, will be the possible reversal of the United States' decades-old policy on East Jerusalem and West Bank settlements. Aside from condemning such measures, if they occur before March, Arab leaders will have no realistic response to what will certainly mean the demise of the two-state solution.

Meanwhile, as head of the summit, Abdullah will speak on his kingdoms economic woes, made worse by playing host to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. In light of low oil prices and the economic challenges facing Gulf countries, Jordans appeal for additional aid is unlikely to be heeded.

Arab summit resolutions have historically had little impact on the region and rarely have they risen to the expectations and aspirations of millions of Arabs. Despite the extraordinary regional circumstances that will surround the March meeting, the general mood of the public in Amman, and perhaps elsewhere in the Arab world, reflects the usual mixture of pessimism and apathy. Attempts to end the deep Arab rift are unlikely to bear fruit.
December 20, 2016

RAMALLAH, West Bank  Palestinian security services raided the International Red Cross office in Ramallah on the evening of Dec. 18, hours after three parliamentarians decided to stage a sit-in there to protest President Mahmoud Abbas' decision to strip them of their parliamentary immunity. The decision affected these three parliament members  Jamal Tirawi, Najat Abu Bakr and Shami Shami  as well as dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan and Nasser Juma.

Abu Bakr told Al-Monitor they wanted to stage their sit-in in the Palestinian Legislative Council, but were unable to do so given the deployment of security forces around the parliament building, so they and a fourth parliamentarian, Jihad Tamliyah, decided to head to the IRC.

She added, Security forces stormed the IRC headquarters and attacked us, taking us out by force into the street. A spokesman for the security services said in a Dec. 18 press release, The Palestinian police were notified that four citizens had broken into the IRC office in the city. The police had to take action to ensure the safety of the facility and to empty it of any person there without permission or justification, according to the law.

Hassan al-Ouri, Abbas legal adviser, told Al-Monitor that the five affected lawmakers are all members of Fatah. He explained, Abbas decision to strip the immunity of the MPs is in line with the Constitutional Court's interpretation that the president is empowered to strip the immunity of MPs when the Palestinian parliament is not in session. The Palestinian Legislative Council has not convened since 2007 as a result of the internal Palestinian division.

He said that Palestinian Attorney General Ahmad Barrak had sent a letter to the president requesting that he revoke the immunity of the parliamentarians in question. Barrak claimed to have evidence that they committed violations for which they must be questioned and said that revoking their immunity would allow him to interrogate them.

He refused to disclose the reasons put forward in the attorney general's request, saying, The attorney general gave reasons for his request to lift immunity, and stated the charges leveled against each MP, but we are not authorized to disclose them.

On Dec. 12, AFP quoted anonymous sources as saying that the decision was a prelude to opening investigations into the parliamentarians for misappropriation of funds and illegal arms trafficking. The attorney general declined to give Al-Monitor any details.

On Nov. 3, the Constitutional Court formed by Abbas in April 2016 ruled that the president is authorized to revoke the immunity of any parliament member when the parliament is not in session.

Legal experts and politicians affiliated with Palestinian factions such as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and others slammed the courts decision, complaining that the Constitutional Court has not met the requirements for its formation and that the decision did not meet the necessary legal conditions. One of them is that the courts president must take the constitutional oath before the parliament speaker as well as the president. The head of the court had only taken the oath before Abbas.

Abu Bakr told Al-Monitor, We were not notified of the decision to strip us of our parliamentary immunity. President Abbas is not entitled to do so by virtue of the Basic Law. She added, The steps taken by the president are illegal, and accused the president's advisers and others of violating the Basic Law for political ends.

Article 26 of Law No. 10 of 2004, which regulates the obligations and rights of parliament members, determined the mechanisms for revoking the immunity of parliamentarians. The article reads, The attorney general appointed by the president shall send to the parliament speaker a written request to lift immunity, with an attached memorandum stating the type, place and time of the committed offense as well as the evidence proving the need to take legal action.

The parliament speaker shall refer the request to lift the immunity to the Legal Committee and notify the parliament. The committee shall examine the request and submit its report to the parliament, which will make its decision to lift the immunity subject to a two-thirds majority, after hearing the opinion of two approving MPs and two opposing MPs.

Attorney Daoud Daraawi told Al-Monitor, Revoking the immunity of MPs is a violation of the Basic Law, as part of an ongoing series of violations of this law, aimed to constrain the three branches of power and to strengthen the influence of Abbas, head of the executive branch, over these branches. He stated that the Constitutional Court was established with the purpose of facilitating such violations of the Basic Law.

Palestinian human rights and civil society institutions spoke out against the decision. The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council of 12 human rights organizations and the Palestinian NGO Network of 132 human rights organizations said in a joint press statement Dec. 14, The decision to lift the parliamentary immunity of MPs is an act of aggression against the popular will, which is the source of all power. It is  a violation of constitutional principles, especially the principle of the rule of law as a basis for good governance and the principle of separation of powers.

Hamas parliamentary bloc also denounced the move. The deputy head of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Ahmed Bahar, said in a press statement Dec. 13, President Abbas does not have the right nor the legal and constitutional powers to lift the parliamentary immunity of any MP. The decision is arbitrary and violates the Palestinian Basic Law.

Abu Bakr told Al-Monitor that the lawmakers stripped of their immunity may be arrested and subject to investigation at any moment by the public prosecutor.

She noted that the five parliament members have sent letters to the parliaments of various countries so that the world will know what happened to them. She said that protest actions are being considered, without giving further details.

Abbas' decision seems to have been issued to complement previous measures such as the Oct. 22 recommendation of Fatah's Anti-Delinquency Committee. That body called for the dismissal of 17 Fatah members for having participated in a conference that day in Ramallah's Al-Amari refugee camp, describing them as delinquents, a term used for followers of Dahlan.

The repercussions of the decision not only undermine the separation of powers in the political system, they may also produce clashes on the Palestinian street between supporters of the lawmakers and the Palestinian security services.

Those who oppose Abbas decision fear he may be assessing the possibility of dissolving the Palestinian Legislative Council. Second Deputy Speaker of the PLC Hassan Khreisheh told Al-Monitor, I think President Abbas will take further steps after lifting the immunity of the five MPs and filing legal actions against them. I think this is the beginning of the end of the legislative council.

Although the Palestinian Legislative Council has been inoperative since June 14, 2007, amid clashes between Fatah and Hamas, stripping parliament members of their immunity threatens to put the legislative power in the hands of the executive branch, which may now be able to enact laws and prosecute parliamentarians as a prelude to the dissolution of the parliament.

Editor's note: This article has been updated since its initial publication.
December 20, 2016

As soon as the first Palestinian intifada came to an end in 1993, Hamas embarked on a campaign of suicide bombings against Israeli targets in the cities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Nahariya and Netanya, killing dozens of Israelis. The operations followed fatwas issued by Sharia scholars, most notably Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Qaradawi, head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, said that such operations are the greatest type of jihad and should not be considered suicide operations but heroic martyrdom.

However, the same Qatar-based Qaradawi, now one of the most prominent scholars in the Islamic world, said Nov. 24 that such operations are no longer appropriate in Palestine. He said they were previously allowed out of necessity as Palestinians had no weapons. But Palestinians now have other ways to fight.

Al-Monitor conducted interviews with Hamas officials and religious authorities. While some understood Qaradawis fatwa, others rejected it.

Hazem Kassem, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, seemed reluctant to directly address Qaradawis fatwa. He told Al-Monitor, Hamas adopts all forms of resistance, and the Israeli armys possession of a large arsenal made Hamas devise new ways to protect our people, deter the occupation and complete the journey of liberating the land and the people. Hamas reserves the right to use all methods of resistance.

Sheikh Yousef Farhat, preaching and guidance manager at Gaza's Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, told Al-Monitor, Qaradawi is not familiar with the Palestinian reality and the continuation of the Israeli occupation. I believe he is facing political pressure. I wish he had not issued this fatwa. Hamas had decided to carry out martyrdom operations because it was forced to, given the lack of weapons to face the Israeli military force. And although Qaradawi is a respected scholar, he is not the only one who issues fatwas in the Islamic nation, as there are other scholars who firmly believe that martyrdom operations are allowed. Farhat did not name the party he thinks may be placing pressure on Qaradawi.

There have been many fatwas allowing such operations, including those issued by Syrian Allamah Nasiruddin Albani in 2007, Egyptian scholar Abu Ishaq al-Huwaini in 2008, Mauritanian Allamah Muhammad al-Hassan al-Dido in 2013 and Saudi scholar Saleh al-Tarifi in 2015.

However, Sheikh Mustafa Shawar, head of the Palestinian Scholars League and professor of Islamic law at the University of Hebron in the West Bank, told Al-Monitor, It is up to the fighters to take a position on Qaradawis fatwa. Although it could be a fatwa of merit based on a certain logic, since fatwas vary according to Sharia interpretations, the reactions that they could provoke must be taken into consideration before a tool of jihad is adopted.

Qaradawi, the highest Sharia authority of the Muslim Brotherhood, has close ties with the leaders of Hamas, especially Khaled Meshaal, head of the movements political bureau. Qaradawi visited Gaza in May 2013 and was warmly welcomed by Hamas leaders. Ismail Haniyeh, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, even kissed his hands May 9, 2013, all of which indicates the sheikh has a certain influence on the movement.

Husam Badran, a Qatar-based spokesman for Hamas and former commander of Hamas military wing in the northern West Bank, told Al-Monitor, Hamas did not stop the suicide bombings against Israel. Our [decisions] are not dependent on Qaradawis fatwas. Rather, we consider martyrdom operations a strategic weapon for responding to the Israeli occupation's crimes, which include assassinations and massacres, and we proceed with our policy based on Sharia principles. We have a great religious legacy that allows us to carry out such operations, but these operations depend on military conditions on the ground.

Israel showed intense interest in Qaradawis fatwa, probably because of his stature with Hamas.

The Israeli military's radio station claimed Nov. 25 that Turkey is behind Qaradawis fatwa banning Palestinian suicide bombings. Nasya Shamir, a lecturer at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, welcomed Qaradawis fatwa in a piece for Israel Hayom Nov. 30, while respected Israeli commentator on Arab affairs Reuven Berko wrote in the same newspaper Nov. 29 that the fatwa came because the Palestinians now have other weapons such as missiles that allow them to dispense with suicide operations against Israel.

Tzipi Ihzquili, Arab affairs editor at Israel's Channel 10, said Dec. 2 that Qaradawi's fatwa bodes well for the political realities in the region, considering the Palestinians declining status among the Arab countries.

Qaradawis new fatwa comes as Hamas has stopped carrying out suicide bombings against Israeli targets, but whether the movement stopped for religious reasons or for military factors remains unclear. Meanwhile, the Israeli website Walla reported in December 2015 that Israel is concerned about Hamas returning to suicide operations.

Alaa al-Remawi, a Palestinian scholar of Israeli affairs and director of Al-Quds TV in the West Bank, told Al-Monitor, There are Israeli reports that Hamas is preparing to carry out martyrdom operations, and the Israeli lists of indictment against Hamas members in the West Bank confirm that the movement has been willing to return to carrying out these operations for three years. But security conditions in the West Bank have not been ready, although most of the Hamas religious authorities urge the implementation of such operations.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, The resistance uses its tools depending on the nature of its interests, circumstances and needs, and the practices of Hamas Izz ad-Din al-Qassam military wing are not arbitrary. Qaradawis new fatwa has nothing to do with the stopping of martyrdom operations." He went on, Ever since its inception 29 years ago in 1987, Hamas has been using religious and Sharia references.

Qaradawis new fatwa may have shaken Hamas internally, as it could deprive the movement of its Sharia justifications should it decide to return to such operations against Israel. However, the movement has not taken any public position regarding the fatwa, possibly given Qaradawis considerable stature.
December 21, 2016

GAZIANTEP, Turkey  We could hear their voices threatening to rape women and girls and arrest all the men, said Fatima al-Ansari, a Syrian woman from Bustan al-Basha Street in eastern Aleppo. Ansari told Al-Monitor, The people of Aleppo are coming to terms with the idea of death, aware that we could end up dying here. The world needs to know that we have endured until the last moment. We have endured siege, hunger and shelling.

Ansari and around 50,000 other civilians, including children and wounded people, were trapped from Dec. 16 to Dec. 19 in the eastern district of the city of Aleppo, waiting in line for evacuation to Aleppos western countryside or to the city of Idlib in northwest Syria.

On Dec. 19, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for international monitors to be dispatched to Aleppo to oversee the evacuation process. The evacuees began arriving in al-Rashidin in Aleppos western countryside, and from there departed for other areas that are still under the armed oppositions control in Aleppos western countryside and Idlib.

Walid Abdel Kader, a young man from the Salahuddin neighborhood in eastern Aleppo, was supposed to be evacuated to Aleppos western countryside on Dec. 16. Speaking by phone, he told Al-Monitor, The bus moved and we had two cars escorting us, one from the International Committee of the Red Cross and another from the Turkish Red Crescent. When we reached the regimes Ramouseh crossing in central Aleppo, an officer and some soldiers approached us and ordered the drivers to return to where they came from.

On the same day, many activists from eastern Aleppo and journalists who oppose the Syrian regime posted videos of an exchange of fire in the Sukkari neighborhood of eastern Aleppo between a group of gunmen loyal to the regime and others from the opposition. Civilians were running away for fear of arrest while trying to leave the city.

The evacuation of civilians and rebels was then suspended after some pro-regime forces demanded the evacuation of the wounded from the pro-regime villages of Kefraya and al-Fuah in Idlibs province. However, on Dec. 18, opposition gunmen set fire to five buses as they headed to the two villages.

Angie Sidqi, spokeswoman for the ICRC in Syria, told Al-Monitor, It is not our job as a humanitarian organization to blame this or that party. Our priority right now is to save the thousands of civilians stuck in the city, waiting in fear.

Sidqi urged all parties to the conflict to respect the cease-fire, adding, The parties to the conflict should provide buses to evacuate civilians, and the civilians interests should be put above any other political or military gains. What happened on [Dec. 16] was in clear violation of the cease-fire, especially since the lives of thousands of civilians were put in danger.

Salim al-Wawi, who arrived a few days ago into the regime-controlled al-Jamiliyah neighborhood in western Aleppo, told Al-Monitor, When we escaped al-Zabadiya neighborhood in eastern Aleppo, we were jumping over dead bodies. My daughter was traumatized.

He added, When we reached the regimes checkpoint, the inspection procedures were quite complicated. They kept asking my name and the names of my wife and young daughters, Rima and Tima. When I realized they were stalling, I bribed them with 1 million Syrian pounds [$1,000] for them to let us through.

Sidqi noted, All of Dec. 15 until dawn on Dec. 16, the Syrian Red Crescent teams and the ICRC evacuated around 10,000 civilians, including about 100 wounded and people in critical condition.

She added, On Dec. 18, we moved about 5,000 people on 75 buses from Aleppo toward the citys western countryside. The evacuation process is ongoing for all those who wish to leave.

About those still trapped inside eastern Aleppo, she said, We do not have exact numbers, but there are definitely thousands of civilians currently stuck at the front lines, fearfully waiting in the cold for evacuation.

Salah al-Ashqar, a journalist who was trapped in eastern Aleppo, told Al-Monitor via Facebook video, I remember when I participated in the protests against the Syrian regime back in the spring of 2011. We demanded the ousting of [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad and we called for a democratic Syria.

Today, six years later, Salah added, I am a Syrian citizen from Aleppo. They forced me to leave my home and my country. Tears filled his eyes but he managed to continue. I was forced to leave my city and so was everyone else. Aleppo is being emptied of its residents.

Salah is now in the town of Abizmu in Aleppos western countryside and planning to move from there to Turkey.

Photos and videos posted by activists and journalists from eastern Aleppo show the devastation from the regimes fast advance on Nov. 28 and almost complete control of the city, where homes have been turned to rubble.

Ammar al-Salmo, director of the Syrian Civil Defense in Aleppo, also known as the White Helmets, told Al-Monitor that Dec. 13 and 14 were Aleppos darkest days, saying, There were over 100 dead bodies around al-Zabadiya neighborhood in eastern Aleppo that we were unable to remove from under the rubble as battles between the regime and the opposition intensified there.

Wissam Mahmoud from eastern Aleppo said that he has been waiting with his family in the cold but with little hope for a chance to leave. I do not feel safe about leaving Aleppo after the bus was attacked on Dec. 16. I have lost faith in all countries and parties involved in the cease-fire agreement and the evacuation process. I am really afraid we would be shot dead. We are not even allowed to flee.

Sidqi said, The civilians who wish to leave will be evacuated to safer regions. Those who do not want to leave can stay. These are the principles of international humanitarian law. Evacuation is done depending on the desire of civilians and the wounded themselves.

The slow evacuation process continues as buses transport the residents of eastern Aleppo to other areas, a process that the ICRC expects will continue over several days. Thousands of civilians and rebels are still suffering in the freezing cold as they wait.
JIUQUAN -- China launched a carbon dioxide monitoring satellite via a Long March-2D rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gobi Desert at 3:22 am Thursday.

China is the third country after Japan and the United States to monitor greenhouse gases through its own satellite.

The 620-kg satellite TanSat was sent into a sun synchronous orbit about 700 kilometers above the earth and will monitor the concentration, distribution and flow of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, said Yin Zengshan, chief designer of TanSat at the Chinese Academy of Sciences micro-satellite research institute.

The satellite will help understanding of climate change and provide China's policy makers with independent data.

On a three-year mission, TanSat will thoroughly examine global CO2 levels every 16 days, accurate to at least 4 ppm (parts per million).

This was the 243rd mission of the Long March series rockets. Besides TanSat, the rocket also carried a high-resolution micro-nano satellite and two spectrum micro-nano satellites for agricultural and forestry monitoring.

FIRST-HAND DATA

The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased from 280 ppm to 400 ppm over the past 150 years, leading to an increase in average global temperatures of about 0.7 degrees Celsius over the last century, according to Lu Naimeng, TanSat chief scientist.

The new satellite will enable China to obtain emissions data first-hand and share it with researchers worldwide, Yin said.

The Paris Agreement on climate change came into force on Nov. 4, with more than 100 countries committed to reducing their carbon emissions. The satellite can trace the sources of greenhouse gases and help evaluate whether countries are fulfilling their commitments. TanSat means a louder voice for China on climate change, carbon reduction and in negotiations with a bigger say on carbon trading.

Research on the CO2 flow will improve understanding of the carbon cycle, generate more accurate and reliable predictions of climate change.

China's CO2 emissions are to peak around 2030, with emissions per unit of GDP cut by 60 percent of 2005 levels by the same date.

A national carbon trading market will open next year.

WORLDWIDE SCOPE

Many countries are reducing emissions, but calculating how much they are actually doing is difficult. Ground-based monitoring cannot collect accurate data on a global scale, so satellites offer the best means of measuring CO2. Japan and the United States have their own monitoring satellites, but two are far from enough to assess the whole world.

"Since only the United States and Japan have carbon-monitoring satellites, it is hard for us to see first-hand data," said Zhang Peng, TanSat application system commander and vice director of the National Satellite Meteorological Center.

"Before, all our data came from ground stations. That kind of data is both local and limited, and does not cover the oceans," Zhang said.

"The satellite has worldwide scope and will improve data collection. Observing atmospheric CO2 by satellite demands cutting-edge technology, so TanSat is a major technological achievement for China," Zhang said.

"We hope TanSat will work with carbon-monitoring satellites of other countries and provide ample data for studying climate change," said Li Jiahong, chief engineer of the National Remote Sensing Center.

Researchers took almost six years to develop TanSat and its high-resolution CO2 detector.

"The TanSat has very good "vision," and can distinguish changes in atmospheric CO2 as small as 1 percent," said Yin. Cloud and aerosol detectors minimize interference, making observations more accurate.

The satellite has different modes for observing oceans and land, and can constantly adjust its orientation and position. To ensure the accuracy of TanSat, six ground-based observation stations will calibrate and examine observational data.

"We can now collect carbon data from all over the world, all year round, and record the carbon contributed by both developed countries and the developing countries," said Lin Chao who was involved in developing the detectors.

"As for China, we can have detailed analysis on emissions in different regions, provinces and cities, thanks to the satellite," said Lin.
December 20, 2016

The fall of Aleppo has left the staunchly Sunni Islamist support base of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey with a deep sense of defeatism and resentment, and it has even prompted calls for revenge to be wreaked on Turkish Alevis.

Delays over the Turkish-Russian brokered evacuation of Aleppo, and attacks on buses carrying the refugees, reportedly by Iranian-backed Shiite militias, have merely increased the hatred for Iran.

In contrast with this is the discernible attempt to keep Russia out of the line of fire of this loathing, no doubt because Erdogan and the AKP set great store in ties with Moscow in order to counterbalance Turkeys deteriorating ties with the West.

The fact that Ankara has been noticeably mute over Russian involvement in the defeat of rebel fighters in Aleppo, and all the atrocities this has entailed, does not sit well with all of Erdogans supporters. The general tone toward Russia among these supporters has nevertheless been one of restraint.

Iran, however, has emerged as the archenemy, and the vitriol against that country is laced with religious and historical imagery that clearly reflects sectarian sentiments.

Calls by pro-government opinion-makers in the media for protests outside Irans missions in Turkey have also been heeded. This has resulted in a formal protest by Tehran, which indicates that the two countries may be heading for fresh tensions in their already strained ties due to Syria.

The government of Prime Minister Binali Yildirim is nevertheless refraining from accusing Iran directly, given that Turkey is currently engaged in a trilateral process involving Russia and Iran aimed at stabilizing the situation in Syria.

Statements following high-level meetings between the two countries  such as the one by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu after his visit to Tehran at the end of November  stress that Turkey and Iran are working together to resolve the Syrian crisis.

The murder of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov in Ankara Dec. 19 by an off-duty policeman clearly shows, however, just how agitated Turkeys Islamists  spurred by Islamist and pro-government opinion-makers  are over Aleppo.

Not surprisingly, Irans ambassador to Turkey, as well as Iran's missions and their staff, have been placed under increased protection following the murder of the Russian envoy.

Ankara is keeping channels of dialogue open with Tehran, but it is not hard to imagine that the resentment toward Iran is also shared by government officials and AKP deputies.

Can Acun, an analyst for the Ankara-based Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETAV), which is close to the AKP, set the tone in a recent interview with the Star daily.

Acun believes that predominantly Shiite Iran is driven by geopolitical ambitions, which aim to not only re-establish the Persian Empire, but to satisfy a 1,500-year-old desire for revenge after being defeated politically and military by Islam, from which it has never recovered. His reference to Islam should of course be read as Sunni Islam.

Ufuk Ulutas, who writes for the pro-government daily Aksam, and who heads the foreign policy research department at SETAV, is more forthright in his choice of words for vilifying Iran.

Iran has not had its fill of Syrian blood yet, according to Ulutas, and is spreading across the whole region like a cancerous cell by using sectarian massacres as a geostrategic instrument.

Ulutas also believes that Iran is motivated by feelings of revenge for events that happened 1,500 years ago. He says it is pursuing this policy by also using its agents in the media across the Middle East, including Turkey, who are on its payroll.

Ulutas appears to be a referring to opponents of Erdogan and the AKP government in Turkey who undoubtedly also include many Alevis. He argues that these agents pose the greatest threat to the regions future.

Yusuf Kaplan, a columnist for the pro-government Yeni Safak, argued that Iran has become the prime instrument of the West, which is trying to break the backbone of the Islamic world by driving Iran into a confrontation with Turkey.

Irans path is a very dangerous one and therefore it must be stopped, Kaplan said. He maintained, however, that the way to do this is not by war or falling into the sectarian trap, but by intelligent strategies and diplomatic steps.

Kaplan said, If Iran cant be stopped, the region will face an unimaginably bloody and dangerous future.

Ibrahim Karagul, Yeni Safaks editor-in-chief, likened Iran to the Crusaders who occupied Jerusalem and killed all its Muslim inhabitants in the 11th century, and the Mongolians who destroyed Baghdad in the 13th century.

He said Tehrans aim is not to simply protect the Syrian regime. It has gotten hold of Iraq, and now wants to grab Syria and extend its borders to the shores of the Mediterranean, according to Karagul.

Kenan Alpay of the Islamist daily Yeni Akit argued that anyone who defends Iran today is merely committed to sullying President Erdogan and Islamic sensitivities.

Alpay also castigated those who have foolishly latched on to arguments about brotherhood among sects  when Iran has unleashed what is turning into a genocide against Sunnis. He also encourages demonstrations outside the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul.

This is only a sampling of what is being written in the pro-government Islamist press against Iran. The cold-blooded murder of the Russian ambassador provides an example of what this kind of agitation can lead to.

An example of a much more potentially dangerous outcome was provided by a radical Sunni lecturer named Abdulkadir Sen from the Mus Alparslan University in Mus province in eastern Turkey. In a number of Twitter messages before Assad regained control of Aleppo, Sen openly called for revenge to be wreaked on Turkeys Alevis, who are cousins of the Syrian Alawites, if the city fell.

Sens university promptly suspended him after the opposition brought his tweets to the attention of parliament, and asked the government what steps it planned to take against this kind of provocation.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus came out later saying they did not approve of the kind of language used by Sen. We must not fall prey to such games within our borders when we are trying to calm the sectarian conflict beyond our borders, Kurtulmus said.

Many believe this was a relatively weak response by the government to a dangerous situation that is emerging as a result of the angry goadings by pro-government opinion-makers.

It is also noteworthy, however, that the animosity toward Iran is also forcing some influential pro-government analysts to come up with suggestions they would normally be loath to voice.

Burhanettin Duran, the general coordinator of SETAV, for example, argued in his column in the daily Sabah that in order to prevent further advances by Iran-backed Shiite militias in Syria, Turkey should negotiate with the US and Israel and also maintain a policy that aims to capitalize on differences between Russian and Iranian interests in Syria.

Duran also suggests that after Donald Trump assumes the US presidency, an agreement between Moscow, Washington and Ankara that aims to counter Irans expansionist aims is not as outlandish as it sounds.
These are good times in Anniston, some say, with a promise of better to come.

Yesterday city leaders announced a "major" retail development along Quintard Avenue which city officials say involves several regional and nationally-recognized restaurant chains and retail stores.

Last week, federal officials gave the final approval for a new 63,000-square-foot, $38 million federal courthouse, to be built on one of three sites downtown to be determined.

And the city is still waiting to see if the Obama Administration will designate historical sites in and around Anniston as a national monument to the 1961 Freedom Riders movement. In October, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell toured the sites, along with other officials.

Add to that several other projects being discussed, such as a senior living apartment complex, and the future is looking much better for the Model City.

"We've got a longterm plan, and so far, it seems to be working," said City Manager Kent Davis, who is also the city's director of economic development.

Discussion on the Quintard project began more than a year ago, Davis said. The partnership between the city, Harbert Realty, Alabama Power and Wells Fargo, will involve retail space on the block at where Quintard and Wilmer Avenues meet 9th and 10th Streets, adjacent to the Anniston-Calhoun County Central Library.

Talks involved a private landowner as well as Alabama Power, and picked up speed over the last six months. Next month, city officials will consider voting on an incentive package which should involve some sales tax abatements over a multi-year period. The city should also enter talks with the Alabama Department of Transportation as the property adjoins Alabama 21, or Quintard.

Quintard development, along with revitalization efforts along Noble Street, is a priority. 2016 saw the opening of Hotel Finial, a 61-room boutique hotel along Quintard.

The last year also saw the opening of the Anniston Eastern Bypass, which links up U.S. 431 with Interstate 20 at Leon Smith Parkway in Oxford. This has shuffled much of Anniston's heavy truck traffic away from Quintard. City officials are still waiting for traffic studies to see what the numbers look like now, Davis said.

"We think it will make our downtown more passenger vehicle friendly," he said.

The Quintard development could be completed by late next year, taking advantage of any new traffic patterns.
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A crew filmed shots Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016, in Anniston as part of a documentary on Audrey Marie Hilley.

(Anniston police)

Audrey Marie Hilley

Anniston police said a documentary crew was in town today from Discovery ID filming shots to tell the story of a notorious 40-year-old murder case that stretched from Alabama to New England.

The crew was gathering footage for a show on the "Black Widow," Audrey Marie Hilley, a woman accused of poisoning her husband to death and later attempting to do the same to her daughter.

Her story has already been told in books and a 1991 television movie, "Wife, Mother, Murderer," starring Judith Light.

To Alabamians of a certain age, the story of Hilley's crime and escapes long ago took on the aura of legend.

Her first husband Frank died in 1975 after a sudden, unexplained illness that was thought to be hepatitis. Three years later, her only daughter Carol began exhibiting similar symptoms. At the same time, Marie was arrested for passing bad checks.

Doctors at UAB Hospital eventually determined Carol was suffering from heavy metal poisoning, and that while in the hospital, Marie had secretly given her injections.

Authorities later determined Marie had poisoned her husband with arsenic to get insurance money and tried to do the same to Carol. She was also believed to have poisoned her mother and her mother-in-law, who survived.

Hilley was arrested on murder charges but fled in 1979 while out on bail. She went to Florida, living under the name Robbi Hannon, where she married a man named John Homan in 1981. The two moved to New Hampshire. She then left on a trip to attend to "family business" in 1982.

She returned later that year having assumed another identity, as Robbi's twin sister, Teri Martin, having dyed her hair and shed some weight. Robbi, she said, had died. Police, believing she had faked her own death, eventually arrested her and discovered her true identity. She was convicted in Anniston in 1983 of Frank's murder and drew a life sentence.

But in February 1987, Hilley received a weekend furlough from prison and escaped again, only to turn up on the porch of a Calhoun County home in a cold rain four days later. She died of hypothermia.
Etowah County law enforcement is looking for two men after authorities say police officers found a cache of synthetic marijuana and counterfeit money in a vehicle.

Etowah Drug Enforcement Unit Commander Randall Johnson said on Sunday, Gadsden police stopped to assist a stranded motorist on North 12th Street in Gadsden.

When officers pulled up, two black men left the vehicle, a grey Dodge Caravan, and ran west on Meighan Boulevard.

Once officers did an inventory of the vehicle, they found two large bags of spice, totaling two pounds, and a "large sum" of counterfeit money, mainly in twenties.

Deputy Commander Phil Sims said agents are working to identify the two individuals who ran. Anyone with information is asked to call the tipline at (256) 546-3131 or the ECDEU office at (256) 549-5465 to speak to an agent.
Leesburg search

A boat readies to go out onto Weiss Lake to search for a body in a recovery operation Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016.

(William Thornton / wthornton@al.com)

One week after an SUV went into Weiss Lake carrying seven people, crews are still out trying to find the body of a man presumed killed in the incident.

Cherokee County Coroner Jeremy Deaton said there has been no sign of Bobby Shore, a man in his 40s, in the week since.

Last Tuesday night, a 2009 Saturn Outlook carrying seven people went into the water at Leesburg Landing off U.S. 411, killing four others and injuring two. Robert Hardin, Christy Hardin, Dale Steven Keener and Cheryl Hobson died of drowning following the accident that happened before 7 p.m. last Tuesday.

Since then, drones, cadaver dogs, the Alabama Marine Police and the Cherokee County Rescue Squad have been used to look for Shore, who apparently made it out of the vehicle before disappearing, according to witnesses.

The search has also been hampered by winds, rain and cold temperatures.

Authorities are also continuing to investigate the incident, after reports that the act may have been intentional.
Nearly two dozen people were arrested on drug charges in Jasper, an operation that was moved up because of a rash of recent heroin overdoses in Walker County.

On Monday, said Jasper police Chief J.C. Poe, officers carried out an operation to round up more than 30 people with felony drug warrants. The warrants stemmed from several months of undercover operations, he said.

The effort included the city of Jasper and fanned out countywide. Of those sought, 21 people were taken into custody. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency assisted in the operation, Poe said.

The warrant roundup was already in the works, but police moved up their time frame following a spate of drug overdoses. On Friday, Dec. 9, 18 overdoses were reported across the county, which led to one death, according to Walker County District Attorney Bill Adair and Jasper police Lt. David Mize. In all, authorities responded to 22 overdoses in a span of just three days.

Most of the arrests Monday dealt with heroin and methamphetamine, Mize said. One search warrant led to the seizure of heroin and meth, each packaged for individual sale.

Mize said bumping up the time frame for the arrests was crucial following the unusual amount of overdoses in such a short period of time. "This is something we could do to make a dent and slow things down,'' he said. "We haven't seen as many as what we were seeing. We're hoping we'll see a bigger drop."

The investigation into the spate of overdoses - many of which are believed to be linked to the same dealer - remains ongoing.
AshlynnSparksArrests.jpg

Adam Decoreyea Smith, Courtney Devaugn and Richard Martinez are charged with capital murder in the Dec. 7, 2016, shooting death of 18-year-old Ashlynn Sparks.

(Jefferson County Jail)

Two more men and a woman are now behind bars in the shooting death of an 18-year-old McCalla teen slain during a robbery attempt two weeks ago.

Jefferson County sheriff's officials and Lipscomb police on Wednesday morning announced the arrests: Adam Decoreyea Smith, 23, of Bessemer; Richard Steven Martinez, 20, of Lipscomb; and Courtney Brianna Devaughn, 22, of Center Point. All three are charged with capital murder in the Dec. 7 death of 18-year-old Ashlynn Sparks, and attempted murder in the wounding of Sparks' boyfriend, Jabarae Lagarde.

On Friday, authorities announced the arrest of 20-year-old Anthony Dewayne Smith of Fairfield, and Lipscomb police Chief Steve Carey promised at that time there would be more to come.

"Right now we have four suspects and two weapons,'' Carey told AL.com on Wednesday. "We don't know if there are any more involved. We're still ironing out the details."

The robbery was a set-up, he said.

Carey said they believe Adam Smith was the shooter, but the investigation is ongoing. Adam Smith, he said, is not cooperating, but the other suspects are being interviewed. "They are starting to talk,'' he said.

"We've got a great start," Carey said. "I feel confident we're going to get a conviction."

Chief Deputy Randy Christian said Sparks' boyfriend was meeting people in Lipscomb to buy drugs. He said he doesn't know if Sparks was knew that or not, but would like to think she didn't know.

Sparks, who just turned 18 last month, was shot Wednesday, Dec. 7, in Lipscomb while in the car with her boyfriend of about two years. The shooting happened about 10 p.m. on Circle Avenue in Lipscomb. Sparks and her boyfriend were in a car at that location when two gunmen approached them, possibly to rob them.

Lagarde tried to back up in an attempt to escape, and the assailants opened fire. Bullets peppered the car. Lagarde was struck in the arm or shoulder area. Sparks was struck in the hands - in what family believes are defensive wounds - and in the head.

The couple fled and was en route to the hospital when they stopped at the Kangaroo Express on 14th Street and called for help. Multiple law enforcement agencies responded to the scene and both were taken to UAB Hospital.

Sparks was pronounced dead Thursday, Dec. 8 at 11:27 a.m. Her funeral was held Friday afternoon at McCalla Memorial Funeral Home with burial following at Cedar Hill cemetery.

Christian said once deputies learned the shooting happened in Lipscomb, they turned the probe over to them but did help process the scene and collect evidence.

On Dec. 13, Lipscomb police asked for assistance with the investigation, he said. Sheriff's detectives began talking to potential witnesses and reviewing the evidence in the case. A suspect was developed from information provided.

That led to the capital murder warrant and Smith's Friday arrest.

On Monday, detectives obtained the warrants for the three newer suspects. Devaughn was arrested at the Bessemer Police Department when she arrived to be questioned about an unrelated matter, Christian said. Smith and Martinez were arrested on Tuesday. All four suspects remain in the Jefferson County Jail with no bond.

Sparks' mother, April Curb, has previously said her daughter was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Neither she nor her boyfriend were armed, though Curb had warned her daughter to stay out of that "dangerous" area with her boyfriend. "I taught her to be street-wise. She knew the dangers that were out there, but she was naive," she has said. "The main thing I want to say is that I want kids to stay out of the streets."

Investigators said the deadly shooting was senseless. "This beautiful young girl was no threat to these bunch of thugs that murdered her. Her boyfriend was trying to drive away. He was no threat to them,'' Christian said. "It's like the taking of a life is no big deal to them. "

"They have a mentality that they take what they want when they want it and if you get in the way that's just your bad luck,'' he said. "It's completely without heart and it's void of even the least bit of morals or respect for life, respect for anything."
AlexisShot.jpg

Bessemer police donated $500 to Alexis Davis and her family from their "Feed the Pig" fund, which they use to help those in need.

(Contributed Photos)

A 6-year-old Bessemer girl shot in the back while she was sleeping in her home last home was released from the hospital on Tuesday, almost at the exact moment city leaders were presenting her grandparents with a $500 check in honor of the little victim.

"We're just excited to try our best to bring a little cheer to that family, knowing they went through such a horrendous experience,'' Bessemer police Chief Nathaniel Rutledge told AL.com.

Alexis was asleep on the couch of her family's home in the 400 block of 30th Street in Bessemer Thursday night. Gunfire peppered their home shortly after 11 p.m. on Nov. 17, but family members and police didn't realize Alexis was shot in the back until more than two hours later when she got up to use the restroom. That's when she complained of pain in her stomach, and blood was found on her and the couch.

She was taken to Children's of Alabama where she underwent multiple surgeries during her month-long stay.

About 11:10 p.m. that night, officers were dispatched on a shooting at the Dartmouth Avenue Convenience Store, located at 2931 Dartmouth Avenue. Police spokesman Sgt. Cortice Miles said officers found a black male lying outside the store on his back with a single gunshot wound to the arm. The victim told officers he was shot in the arm while inside of the store by a person that he knows. He was taken to UAB Hospital, but was released a short time later.

Police charged Deanthony Siquan Billingsley, 20, of Bessemer, and Cardamlen Demun Braxton Cooper, 21, of Hueytown, with two counts of attempted murder and one count of shooting into an occupied dwelling. Police have said Billingsley and Cooper shot the male victim at the store as part of an ongoing dispute.

Miles said their investigation shows that Billingsley and Cooper intentionally shot into the home where Alexis was sleeping because they knew their intended victim - the man shot in the arm - had associations with that home.

Rutledge, Deputy Chief Mike Roper and Lt. Mazeroski Brown presented the check to Alexis's grandparents at the Bessemer City Council meeting on Tuesday night. The money was raised through the department's "Feed the Pig" fund, which was established by Brown.

The way it works, the chief said, is that officers and other city employees are asked to drop pocket change or other donations into a bucket that is at the city jail as they feel led to do so. When a need arises, they go to the "Feed the Pig" fund to use the money to help someone else.

In the past, they have used the fund to bicycles for children in need, and helped families who have lost everything in house fires.

Rutledge said the grandparents were appreciate of the donation. "It was emotional,'' he said. "We hope this little gesture will make a big difference."
The director of Fayette Animal Shelter resigned today, following a post on social media that claimed all animals in the shelter would be euthanized on Christmas Eve.

Misti Bellar's resignation was effective at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, a county commission spokesperson said.

Allison Black Cornelius, CEO of the Greater Birmingham Humane Society, said in a Facebook Live video that Bellar was ordered to issue a code red earlier this week, meaning all animals would be killed in the coming days.

Cornelius called the situation a "Christmas nightmare that deserved a Christmas miracle."

The GBHS, along with other shelters, traveled to Fayette County and took in all of the dogs in the building. Of those dogs rescued, 10 were brought back to the GBHS.

The website for the Fayette shelter says that all pets will be euthanized after being at the shelter for 7 days.

The GBHS is asking for donations to offset the cost of the Fayette rescue. The organization is accepting food, towels, toys, blankets, and monetary donations. You can donate by clicking here. The GBHS also has an Amazon wishlist, which can be viewed here.
A federal smokejumper deployed to Alabama to help battle last month's wildfires throughout the southern region has died following a fall on Birmingham's Southside.

Ray Fernandez Rubio, 52, was a longtime smokejumper with the Deschutes National Forest in Oregon and one of many sent to help battle the drought-fueled blazes. He was injured Nov. 22 when he was walking back to his hotel from a restaurant in the Five Points South area, said Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates.

It was just before midnight when Rubio was walking alone in the 2100 block of 11th Avenue South. Friends have said he had completed his most recent smokejumping assignment and was about to return to Oregon.

Authorities said he fell over a concrete railing into a parking garage that was one story below ground level. Yates said Rubio fell 12 to 15 feet, suffering a head injury and a broken knee. It wasn't immediately clear how he was found, but he was taken to Grandview Medical Center because UAB Hospital was on trauma diversion.

Rubio, a husband and father, remained in the Intensive Care Unit until he died at 5:45 p.m. Monday. Yates said forestry officials have had a support team in Alabama to help Rubio's family during his hospital stay.

Rubio was a specially-trained firefighter who would parachute into wildfires to battle them from within. According to a GoFundMe account, which has raised nearly $34,000, Rubio served in the U.S. Army as a member of the 82nd Airborne. He worked for the federal government for more than 25 years.

"During this time, Ray has been an influential and admirable leader in the fire community, developing connections and mentoring firefighters from Alaska to Alabama and on,'' his friend wrote on the fundraising site.

Rubio began his career as a smokejumper in Redmond, Oregon in 1995. "Smokejumpers are a tight community, spending long hours together on assignments, for weeks at a time. And Ray is involved deeply in all aspects of smokejumping,'' the GoFundMe reads. "Ray remains invaluable to his coworkers and friends, on the fire line and off the clock. He is the person who shows up every day; ready to go anywhere he is needed, and takes on the most challenging tasks. He is a committed and caring father. He is a close friend to countless smokejumpers and members of the wildland firefighter community."
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Adam Lee Anderson, who resigned in November from the Ashville Police Department, is charged with four counts of possession of child pornography.

(Blount County Jail/ City of Ashville Facebook)

A former police officer in St. Clair County is under arrest on multiple child porn charges.

Adam Lee Anderson, 37, was taken into custody Tuesday, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Anderson was a police officer with the Ashville Police Department until his resignation last month. It wasn't immediately clear whether he resigned because of the pending investigation or for other reasons.

Anderson, who lives in Ashville, is charged with four counts of possession of child pornography. ALEA's Special Victims Unit led the investigation, and was assisted by the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office, the Etowah County Sheriff's Office and the FBI, said Senior Trooper Chuck Daniel.

Authorities didn't release any additional details, and the court records aren't yet available. Anderson is being held without bond in the Blount County Jail. He is being held in Blount County at the request of the St. Clair County sheriff so that he wouldn't be jailed in the county where he formerly worked.

Daniel said the investigation is ongoing.
Alabama judges sentenced three men to death in 2016, the fewest in nearly four decades and a decline that mirrors a nationwide trend, according to the annual report issued this morning by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Alabama also was one of just five states to execute a prisoner in 2016, a year in which executions fell nationwide to their lowest point in 25 years, according to the report.

""It's been an extraordinary year nationally and an extraordinary year in Alabama," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center.

With only days left in 2016 the report says there are 30 new death sentences in 2016 nationwide, a 39 percent drop from last year's already 40-year low of 49. For the first time in more than 40 years, no state imposed ten or more death sentences. Only five states imposed more than one death sentence. California imposed the most (9) followed by Ohio (5), Texas (4), Alabama (3) and Florida (2).

The three in Alabama were:

Dennis Hicks

Justice Knight

Stephon Lindsay

It was the fewest new death sentences imposed in Alabama since the death penalty was reinstated in the late 1970s. The number of new death sentences has varied widely in Alabama since that time, with a high of 25 in 1998. But over the past decade the state hasn't imposed 10 or more in any given year.

"This year's events signal a continuation of the United States' movement away from the death penalty," the report states. "As the public grows increasingly skeptical of capital punishment and courts strike down outlier practices that have inflated the numbers of executions and death sentences, the death penalty's failures become ever more evident."

John Carroll, law professor and former dean at the Cumberland School of Law, said the drop in the number of new sentences suggests two things.

One reason that prosecutors may be bringing fewer death penalty cases and more judges are going along with jury recommendations, Carroll said. Mistrust by jurors may also be a reason, he said.

In the past few years there has been uncertainty swirling around court decisions over the use of chemicals for lethal injections and judicial override in Alabama - the only state now that allows it that may also affect prosecutors pursuit of the death penalty, Carroll said. "I think the uncertainty is one thing," he said.

Carroll said he has talked to prosecutors who say juries are not as trusting of government prosecutors and are demanding more evidence at trial, making it harder to get a conviction of someone on a death eligible capital crime.

Jurors mistrust is emblematic of people's general mistrust in government institutions, including skepticism of police and the judicial system, Carroll said. "I think the mistrust is amplified when the prosecution is saying we want you to take someone's life," he said.

Carroll also said the death penalty is no longer a hot political topic.

The death penalty was a big political issue in the 1970s and early 1980s. Carroll noted Charlie Graddick's purported statement in a speech in a run for Alabama attorney general that the state should "fry (murderers) until their eyes popped out..." - a quote Graddick later denied.

"Far more issues have arisen and people are not worrying about the death penalty," Carroll said.

Other items from the center's report include:

Alabama was one of five states that executed inmates in 2016. Alabama executed two -

Nationwide, executions continued a historic decline in 2016, with 20 executions carried out in the five states - the fewest executions in the U.S. since 1991 and the fewest number of states carrying them out since 1983.

Alabama's two executions in 2016 were its first since July 2013. Only Georgia, with 9 executions, and Texas, with 7, had more this year. Executions had been delayed as Alabama looked for a new drug combination after drug manufacturers stopped supplying drugs to states for executions and because of inmate lawsuits challenging the new drug cocktail.

Alabama and Georgia reported problems with executions in 2016. During Alabama's execution of Smith, he gasped, coughed and his chest heaved upward for 13 minutes after the midazolam was administered. Similarly, one witness to Christopher Brook's execution reported seeing his eye pop open after midazolam had been administered.

The report also noted that voters this year replaced the prosecutors in four of the 16 counties, including Jefferson in Alabama, identified as national "outliers" in a Harvard Fair Punishment Project study for having imposed the most death sentences in 2010-2015.

Jefferson County has two elected District Attorneys, both of whom were ousted in the November general election. Voters in the Birmingham division of the county replaced incumbent Brandon Falls with challenger Charles Todd Henderson, who has criticized Alabama's judicial override policy that permits trial judges to impose death sentences even when a jury has recommended life. Lynneice Olive-Washington became Alabama's first African-American woman to be elected as District Attorney, narrowly defeating the incumbent, Bill Veitch in the DA race in the Bessemer division. Both Henderson and Olive-Washington have indicated that they are personally opposed to the death penalty.

The center's review of the 20 people executed in 2016 also indicated that at least 60 percent of them showed significant evidence of mental illness, brain impairment, and/or low intellectual functioning. "This suggests that, in spite of the constitutional requirement that the death penalty be reserved for the 'worst of the worst' offenders, states continued to execute prisoners whose mental illness or intellectual disabilities are similar to impairments the Court has said should make a person ineligible for the death penalty," according to a statement from the center.
A Sumiton man died in a two-vehicle accident in Walker County on Tuesday, Alabama State Troopers said.

Christopher Alan McGuire, 31, was killed when the 2003 GMC Yukon he was driving collided with a 1993 Ford F-150 on Alabama 5 at the intersection of Firetower Road at 12:15 p.m. McGuire, who wasn't wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the vehicle. He was transported to Walker Baptist Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The driver of the F-150, John William Hunt Jr, 68, of Jasper, was also transported to the hospital.

Additional details about the wreck were not released since troopers are still investigating the crash.
Typically it's the appeals that bring back memories of the 1996 "cellphone murders," but this time, it's another "senseless" killing.

Candy Wilson

When 42-year-old Candice Wilson was stabbed to death in Huntsville last month, memories of one of the city's most heinous crimes surfaced for prosecutors, victims, families and friends of those involved.

The suspect in Wilson's death is 43-year-old Corey Johnson, who's commonly known for his role in the execution-style killings of four people in Huntsville two decades ago.

"It changed lives forever," said Paige Edwards, a friend of the victims and perpetrators. "Every time I drive past the house where it happened, I remember it like it was yesterday."

Bryan Carter, 21; Michael Beaudette, 19; Johnny Couch, 18; and Lamar Hemphill, 21, were fatally shot in the house on U.S. 72 near Providence on Sept. 25, 1996.

Two others were injured by gunfire, and a third victim ran away to safety. Michelle Hayden, then 17, was shot in her face, elbow and abdomen. Ashley Rutherford, then 22, was shot in the back of the head and survived by pretending he was dead.

Johnson later would be convicted along with Nick Acklin and Joey Wilson.

Wilson, Acklin and Johnson went to the house to confront Hemphill about a police report he filed. Hemphill had listed Johnson as a suspect in stealing his cellphone, and Johnson reportedly had also taken marijuana from the house.

Nick Acklin (top left), Joey Wilson (bottom left) and Corey Johnson

"Basically they had the victims all corralled in a room," said Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard, one of the prosecutors in the original trial. "It went on about an hour with the suspects tormenting them, assaulting them and humiliating them. One was stripped to his underwear, another's ponytail was cut off. They punched and hit one with a whiskey bottle in the face."

But, according to Broussard, that torment and assault is as far as Johnson's involvement went.

"Joey Wilson said, 'We're going to cap their asses,' and that's when he and Nick Acklin took out pistols. Nick Acklin had a pistol to the back of a guy's head and started it," Broussard told AL.com. "But, Corey Johnson did not fire. In fact, he told the others that they didn't need to kill anybody."

That's why Johnson was convicted of murder and released from prison in 2011 after serving 15 years. Acklin and Joey Wilson, on the other hand, both remain on death row because they were convicted of capital murder.

"Corey Johnson was not guilty of capital murder," Broussard said. "He was engaged in a felony, whether burglary, or even assault, at the time of the deaths, but there was no intent. That's felony murder."

In the death of Candice Wilson, though, Johnson won't ever be released again, if convicted. Court records recently released in the case show Johnson is charged with capital murder in her death. Initially, the charge was murder. But, Alabama law says anyone who's been convicted of murder the past 20 years, shall be charged with capital murder upon second offense.

Family ties

Perhaps the strangest part of Wilson's death is her connection to each of the killers from the 1996 crimes.

She's the sister of Joey Wilson, and she had a child more than 20 years ago with Nick Acklin.

"If we were in Hollywood, they would run us out the door saying that's a ridiculous screenplay," Broussard said. "It's crazy. I can't tell you I've ever had a case like this, one that's intertwined and wraps back around to more crime like this."

Edwards said she wasn't "besties" with Candice Wilson, but she remembers quite a few of their interactions.

"I knew her only through Joey," Edwards said. "He's always been a jerk and a violent person, but she wasn't like him."

"Candy -- she was just a person who made some bad decisions that may have cost her life," Edwards continued.

Those bad decisions included sticking by Johnson's side for the past 20 years, Edwards said.

"They had dated on and off, and she was kind of a go-to for Corey because she knew everything about the cellphone murders," Edwards said. "Corey and I used to be really close -- like a brother. But once he got on drugs and started being around Joey all the time, he became violent."

Johnson had a young daughter, whom he loved, Edwards said.

"And he wasn't a bad person," she said. "Corey just became a carbon copy of everything he didn't like about Joey."

Second chance

As for Johnson, his life path raises questions about the rehabilitative role of the criminal justice system. Five years after being released from prison, it seems he was more violent than he had been before he went in, based on the new accusations against him and Broussard's account that Johnson didn't actually kill in 1996.

"I don't know if it says as much about the system as it says about people," Broussard said. "You have a certain element amongst us whether it's destiny or whatever you want to call it, they make bad choices. "It's pretty obvious he had every chance to turn it around. But instead he makes a choice that puts him right back on a path that he already spent 15 years in."

If convicted in Candice Wilson's death, Johnson will face life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty -- the only sentencing options for capital murder.

"You've got as close and personal to mayhem and criminal activity of the highest level, and you learned nothing from it," Broussard said. "We incarcerate you for 15 years, you get out and you've learned nothing. You make choices and you go right back to it."

Edwards said she initially felt shocked when she heard about Candice Wilson's death. But, at the same time, it wasn't that surprising.

"I just burst into tears," she said. "I told everybody this is a mistake -- a huge mistake. It took a few years, but he showed his true self. When Corey got out, I thought maybe the remorse was real. But deep-down, I knew it wasn't. I don't know if prison did it to him, but he was a monster.

"It really breaks my heart for Candy's family," Edwards continued. "They've got one that's never getting out of prison and now another that's dead because of a senseless killing."

The Wilson family did not respond to a request for comment for this story, but the father, Robert Wilson, told WAFF-48 the family found Candice's body shortly after she was killed in their Del Norte Drive home.

When Robert Wilson walked into the home, he saw Johnson covered in blood, and asked him, "What happened to my daughter?" and all Johnson said was, "I'm sorry," WAFF reported.

Robert Wilson said he then walked into the house and found his daughter face down on her bed, covered in blood and not breathing, the TV station reported.

He described his daughter as a kind and loving person, the type of person who was calm and easy to talk to, according to WAFF.

The old crew

Edwards said looking back at the 1996 murders has been difficult. Since the news of Candice Wilson's death and Johnson's arrest broke, it's been even worse.

"It's like we're reliving the nightmare of '96," she said. "It's crazy because that was 20 years ago. We have children, careers; we're grownups now. It just seems like it's never going to go away."

Edwards remains in contact with the survivors of the cellphone murders. One has moved out West, though the others still live in north Alabama, she said.

"We all still talk," Edwards said. "We were such a tight-knit group."
SANTA CLAUS

Stock photos of Santa Claus

(MO)

The state of Alabama was trying to play the Grinch this Christmas, according to one Montgomery man.

For the past six years, Dave Reid, who is a professional Santa, had Saint Nick's favorite phrase, "HO HO," on his Alabama specialty wildlife license plate.

This year, though, when he tried to renew plates, the Alabama Department of Revenue deemed it offense, Reid told WSFA. His local probate office denied him the plate, and he had to leave the office that day with just a standard plate.

"I have a 1999 4Runner that across the back glass says 'My other ride is a sleigh' with a wildlife license plate that says 'HO HO,'" Reid told the TV station. "How offensive is that? People drive by me on the interstate so everyone can wave and take a picture. Who is offended by that? It's ridiculous."

He said he just couldn't let it go and continued to investigate the issue.

He searched for available personalized plates on the Department of Revenue website and found that while "HO HO" was denied, a person could get a tag that reads: "UA HOE."

Reid said this was a case of the government overstepping.

"When you live with the spirit of Christmas year round, when you project that spirit to the children, where ever you meet them, whenever you meet them, it's a slap in the face when a government entity says that's offensive," Reid told WSFA. "How far do we go with that? It's really crazy."

This story does have a happy ending, though.

A Department of Revenue spokesperson told AL.com that after a review, Reid's license plate was approved.

Reid said he was "thrilled." He was able to pick up a temporary "HO HO" tag, and will receive his permanent tag in about 10 days.
Jabo Waggoner

State Sen. Jabo Waggoner

The Birmingham Water Works lawsuit that challenged the legality of expanding the water board membership beyond the Magic City was an attempt to preserve city power at the expense of the suburbs, the state senator who authored the laws told AL.com on Tuesday.

"To me, it was all about control the city had over the entire service area," said state Sen. Jabo Waggoner (R-Vestavia Hills.)

Birmingham, he said, "had all the appointments prior to this legislation, but most of the customers live outside the city of Birmingham. The water works serves Blount County, Walker, St. Clair. Shelby and Jefferson, but most of the customers live outside of the city of Birmingham."

A Jefferson County Civil Court judge, despite the protests by the water board, ruled Monday that the bills sponsored by Waggoner are constitutional.

The legislation increases the number of board seats from five to nine and now requires that three members be selected from outside the city of Birmingham. The board's attorneys argued that the legislation unfairly targeted the utility and that the bills were local laws masquerading as general laws.

"Of course, I was very pleased with the ruling," Waggoner said. "I didn't see how the court could have said it was a local bill that pertains to five counties. In my opinion, it had to be a general bill."

But Waggoner said the lawsuit had more to do with who controlled the board and less to do with the technical, legal arguments.

Board member Kevin McKie declined to comment, while a spokeswoman for Water Works General Manager Mac Underwood said he would not comment on the ruling. Other board members contacted by AL.com did not respond to requests for comment.

But at the time the bills were passed in 2015 and this year, board members argued that changing the board structure could negatively impact the utility's bond rating because rating agencies may perceive the new makeup as instability.

Under the legislation, the Birmingham mayor makes two appointments to the board and the Birmingham City Council gets four appointments. The Jefferson County Mayor's Association and the Blount and Shelby County commissions get one appointment apiece.

Critics of the laws say that the new structure dilutes Birmingham's power on the board, which takes actions on behalf of 750,000 water customers. Meanwhile, Blount County, which has 300 water works customers, has disproportionate influence on the board under the new legislation, critics say. Shelby County has 15,000 customers, St. Clair County has about 2,000 and Walker County has roughly 30 Birmingham Water Works customers.
Spencer Collier.jpg

Former ALEA Sec. Spencer Collier says state officials purposely cooked an internal investigation to defame and destroy him.

(Sharon Steinmann)

A former director of the Alabama's largest law enforcement agency has added two new defendants to his lawsuit against the governor, his successor and others.

On Wednesday, Spencer Collier, the former secretary of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, named ALEA investigator April Bickhaus and ALEA lawyer Michael Robinson as defendants. In the complaint, he alleges that the two ALEA officials took part in a conspiracy to smear him after Collier publicized details of a state capital sex scandal between Gov. Robert Bentley and the governor's then-political adviser, Rebekah Mason.

The amended complaint adds another twist to the scandal, which has echoed with accusations and recriminations since Collier went public earlier this year.

Last March, after Bentley fired him from ALEA, Collier held a press conference making his knowledge of a sexual relationship between the governor and Mason public. In that press conference, and in court filings since then, Collier alleged that Bentley and Mason became angry with him after he refused to obstruct the prosecution of Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard. That conflict escalated, leading the governor to first put Collier on medical leave, ostensibly so Collier could deal with back problems he had suffered since a having a car wreck the previous year.

However, at ALEA, the lawsuit says, Collier's interim replacement, now-ALEA Sec. Stan Stabler, Robinson and Bickhaus began an investigation meant to discredit and destroy Collier.

Frequently the governor and his staff have leaned on the results of that investigation as justification for firing Collier, but a subsequent grand jury investigation conducted by the Alabama Attorney General's office all but exonerated Collier. In a firmly worded press release, Attorney General Luther Strange said there were never any grounds to investigate Collier, much less prosecute him.

"In the course of the investigation, no witness provided credible evidence of criminal 'misuse of state funds,'" the Attorney General said in a press release. "No witness provided credible evidence of any other criminal violation on the part of former Secretary Collier. Finally, no witness established a credible basis for the initiation of a criminal inquiry in the first place."

Even the ALEA report itself, written by Bickhaus, suggested that the investigation had been influenced by higher-ups, specifically Robinson. In the report, Bickhaus wrote that she had wanted to interview Collier and another ALEA official, J.T. Jenkins, but that Robinson had instructed her not to. Further, Robinson, who serves as the in-house legal counsel at ALEA, sat in on at least some interviews during the investigation.

Robinson assumed his current when Stabler appointed him to it during the shake-up last March.

In the amended lawsuit, Collier goes further to accuse Mason of editing the reports to make them seem more damning.

While Bentley has cited the ALEA investigation as his reason for firing Collier, the report itself shows that the investigation was, at most, just beginning when Bentley terminated his cabinet appointee.

Later, the governor's office made the report public when turning over documents to an Alabama House impeachment committee investigating Bentley. While the governor's office made those documents public, it has refused to do the same with a second batch of documents it turned over to the committee. Last week the governor's office refused public information requests from the Alabama Media Group and other media across the state.

A lawyer for Collier, Kenny Mendelsohn says that is just further evidence that the governor is out to destroy his client.

"ALEA has strict policies about not turning over their case files without a subpoena or a court order," Mendelsohn said. "The governor released it to a committee that he says has no power over him."

Collier's lawsuit has been held up in state court ever since Mason invoked her Fifth Amendment rights, citing a possible ongoing criminal investigation.

Efforts to reach Robinson and Bickhaus for comment Wednesday have been unsuccessful.

Spencer Collier Amended Complaint against Bentley, et al by Kyle Whitmire on Scribd
The head of the Southern Baptist Convention's public affairs division is apologizing for statements he said were interpreted as criticism against evangelical Christians who voted for Donald Trump.

He isn't backing down on his criticism of the President-elect, however.

In a Christmas-themed blog post, Russell Moore, president of the Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said his pre-election comments - made in a September op-ed column in the New York Times - could have been misinterpreted.

"There were...pastors and friends who told me when they read my comments they thought I was criticizing anyone who voted for Donald Trump. I told them then, and I would tell anyone now: if that's what you heard me say, that was not at all my intention, and I apologize," Moore said.

"There's a massive difference between someone who enthusiastically excused immorality and someone who felt conflicted, weighed the options based on biblical convictions, and voted their conscience."

Moore had drawn criticism during the general election for calling Trump support by evangelicals and other conservatives "illogical."

"To back Mr. Trump, these voters must repudiate everything they believe," Moore said.

On election day, however, white evangelical voters turned out in huge numbers for the Republican nominee, with 80 percent backing Trump over 16 percent for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Those numbers were the highest evangelical vote for any candidate since 2004 when they overwhelmingly supported President George W. Bush.

Several Southern Baptist organizations have called for Moore's office to be defunded in the wake of his comments. One organization, the Louisiana Baptist Convention, recently passed a resolution calling for the group's ties to the ERLC to be reexamined and others have indicated they may soon follow suit.

Moore: 'Sin against my own conscience'

While saying he didn't intend to criticize all Trump voters, Moore said he didn't vote for either candidate.

"When I went to the ballot box this year, for the first time in my life my conscience wouldn't allow me to vote for either major party candidate. For me, to vote for either candidate, I felt, would be to sin against my own conscience," he said.

Moore warns, however, against judging those who did vote for either major party candidate.

"If you voted but your conscience wouldn't allow you to vote for either major candidate, don't stand in judgment over a Christian who prayerfully came to a different conclusion. Remember, whether it was concern for the unborn, the Supreme Court, or any number of other issues, most often it was a commitment to biblical convictions that motivated his or her vote," Moore wrote.

He did not back down from his criticism of Trump himself, saying the 2016 election season had been "fraught with ugliness, much of which couldn't be left unchecked."

"In my personal situation, there were some outrageous moments in the midst of the campaign that I felt compelled by my job to address," he said. "It is precisely because Southern Baptists are pro-life, pro-family, pro-religious freedom, pro-racial reconciliation, and pro-character-in-public-office that I felt it was my responsibility to speak out on those issues. For me, to remain silent--rightly or wrongly--felt negligent."

Now that the election is over, Moore added, Christians "owe it to Donald Trump to pray for him...and give honor to whom it is due.

"And as responsible citizens we owe it to him to work with him for the common good everywhere possible."
jamie lee wallace.JPG

Jamie Lee Wallace was sentenced to 25 years Monday, November 7, 2011, for killing mother and attempting to kill grandfather. (The Birmingham News/Tamika Moore)

( )

Testimony during the trial over mental health care in Alabama prisons focused on increasing rates of suicide on the same day state officials announced the suicide death of a plaintiff at Bullock Correctional Facility.

Prison employees found Jamie Wallace dead and hanging from a piece of cloth in his cell on the night of Dec. 15. Officials from the Alabama Department of Corrections announced his death almost five days later.

On Dec. 5, Wallace testified on the opening day of the trial that he suffered from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and ADHD and struggled to get treatment for serious mental illness. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to murdering his mother and attempting to murder his grandfather.

After Wallace's testimony, when he became very agitated and had to be removed from the courtroom, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson urged attorneys for both sides to get an independent psychiatric evaluation for the inmate, according to testimony. The evaluation did not happen before his death.

Maria Morris, senior supervising attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said Wallace was placed on suicide watch on Dec. 10, which was discontinued on Dec. 13. A day later, he received medical treatment for self-inflicted wounds, she said. One day after that, he committed suicide.

Access to razor blades and other means to commit suicide is one of the issues at the heart of the trial, which alleges inadequate mental health care in Alabama prisons.

Morris said suicide rates at Alabama prisons have been increasing since October 2014. Ruth Naglich, associate commissioner for health services at the Alabama Department of Corrections, said she noticed the increase about a year ago.

"Historically, we have been below the national average for suicides," Naglich said. "In the last 12 months, we have seen an increase we have not seen before."

Naglich has been testifying for several days and is one of the named defendants in the lawsuit, alongside Jeff Dunn, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections and MHM Services, Inc. - the company that provides mental health treatment to prisoners.

Naglich said the suicide rate has been about three times higher in the last year than it had been in previous years.

Attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program filed a lawsuit in 2014 alleging inadequate mental health and medical care for inmates in Alabama prisons. Thompson split the case into two parts and began hearing the mental health portion this month. The non-jury trial is in its third week and is expected to continue for several weeks in January.

Near the end of the day, the testimony focused on services to inmates on suicide watch and whether Alabama follows national guidelines for preventing suicides in prison. Correctional health guidelines call for constant observation of inmates who have attempted suicide or discussed a plan to kill themselves.

Naglich said not all correctional facilities are equipped to observe inmates on suicide watch. Tutwiler Prison is equipped with a camera used to monitor suicidal inmates, and a few other facilities also have cameras, Naglich said. She could not name the other prisons with surveillance equipment in isolation cells.

"You haven't ever worked with MHM to establish a constant watch process, have you?" Morris asked.

"No," Naglich said.

At Donaldson Correctional Facility, isolation cells for suicidal inmates cannot be watched from nursing stations in the medical unit, Morris said.

Thompson asked Naglich whether the department had ever "taken MHM to task" for failing to meet suicide watch guidelines. She said many of the problems with suicide watch can be traced to the layout of prisons and the lack of corrections staff.

"As a result of lack of correctional staff, someone could die?" Thompson asked.

"Yes sir," Naglich said.

Bullock Correctional Facility is the main mental health facility operated by the corrections department and the prison where Wallace was held. That prison contains a stabilization unit for severely mentally ill inmates in crisis.

After Morris learned about Wallace's suicide, she questioned how he got access to fabric in a unit specifically designed for inmates who might be dangerous to themselves or others.

"He was in a stabilization unit, which is the highest level of care they have," Morris said. "It's not clear why he had access to a sheet with which to hang himself."

Judge Thompson said the Alabama Department of Corrections should start immediately looking into ways to improve monitoring of inmates on suicide watch.

"I don't know the circumstances of Mr. Wallace's death," Thompson said. "But as long as there is a risk of harm in the system, I think we need to talk about it. This is the associate commissioner's testimony. If there is a problem, it is a problem that needs to be addressed this afternoon."
Bad news Gadsden.

As we learned yesterday, Gadsden is the Alabama metro area with the lowest life expectancy in the state. Even worse, a study by 24/7 Wall Street found life expectancy in Gadsden is the lowest in the country.

Now for the good news.

24/7 Wall Street also identified the city in each state with the longest life expectancy.

The average life expectancy in the Daphne/Fairhope/Foley area is 78.2 years, the longest in the state.

While people in the Daphne live longer than anywhere else in Alabama, life expectancy there is still below the U.S. average of 78.8 years. Of all the cities with the highest life expectancy in their respective states, only six - Canton, Ohio (78.1 years); Nashville, Tennessee (77.8 years) Dover, Delaware (77.6 years); New Orleans, Louisiana (76.7 years); Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (76.4 years); and Jackson, Mississippi (75.9 years) - averaged fewer years than Daphne.

Just in case you're curious, the longest life expectancy in the U.S. is in San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara, California at 83.3 years.

Welcome to Wednesday's Wake Up Call. Let's see what's going on:

Lawsuit says McDonald's value meals are no real value

An Illinois man is suing McDonald's alleging the restaurant chain's value meals are no value.

James Gertie of Des Plaines, Ill., has filed a consumer fraud class action suit against a Chicago-area McDonald's franchisee. Gertie's suit alleges the pricing of McDonald's "Extra Value Meal" - which includes two cheeseburgers, fries and a drink - is more expensive than if the items were ordered separately.

The Extra Value Meal in question is $5.90. If purchased individually, the items would total about 41 cents less, Gertie contends.

Superbug may have spread outside hospitals

Six people in Colorado have recently become infected with a "nightmare" superbug that has previously been limited to hospitals.

The superbug, known as CRE or carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, is resistant to powerful antibiotics and therefore difficult to treat. In the past, it's only been seen in those with long-term stays in healthcare facilities but the none of the new cases involve anyone who has been in a medical facility for more than a year or had undergone a medical procedure. CRE kills up to 50 percent of infected patients.

The six patients were all initially diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. All survived, according to the CDC.

Secret Service will protect Trump

The Secret Service will provide protection for Donald Trump, contrary to reports the President-elect would use a private firm during his term.

Trump spokesperson Jason Miller said a report that Trump would rely only on private security was "complete nonsense." He added, however, that Trump's personal head of security will serve as an adviser during his presidency.

Trump's personal security, as well as Secret Service, accompanied the President-elect on the stops at his recent thank you tour.

Auction winner gets to keep moon rocks

An Illinois woman will get to keep a bag of moon dust she purchased at auction.

Nancy Carlson spent $995 to buy a bag at an auction held by the U.S. Marshals Service. The bag was one of several items found at the home of a man convicted of stealing and selling artifacts from a space museum in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Carlson sent the bag to NASA to be tested for moon dust. Those tests came back positive and the U.S. space agency quickly identified the bag as coming from the historic flight of Apollo 11. NASA seized the item but a judge later ruled that Carlson has purchased it in good faith and now has the title to the bag.

Until tomorrow.
It looks like Democrats want someone new to run for president in 2020.

A USA Today/ Suffolk University poll released Wednesday showed 66 of people who identified themselves as Democrats and independents said they would be "excited" if someone new ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020. Only 9 percent said they would prefer an unknown individual not run.

The next choice among Democrats was Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who sought the Democratic nomination this year. The poll showed 44 percent would be "excited" if Sanders made another run for office; 38 percent thought he shouldn't run. If he did run again, Sanders would be 79 years old.

Vice President Joe Biden, who opted not to run in 2016, was the next most popular choice. Forty-three percent said they would be "excited" if Biden ran for the Democratic nomination while 31 percent said he should not. If elected, Biden would be 78 years old when sworn into office.

Other contenders were Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren (34 percent said they'd be excited if she ran, 27 percent said she shouldn't) and former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick (10 percent said they'd be excited if he ran, 15 percent said he shouldn't, 54 percent had never heard of him.)

Sixty-two percent of those polled - the highest for any candidate - said this year's Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - should not make another run for the White House.

Only 23 percent, the lowest for any potential candidate other than Patrick, said they'd like to see Clinton run again.

The future of another potential Democratic nominee was considered in a separate question.

Fifty-three percent of those polled said First Lady Michelle Obama should not run for elective office in the future as compared to 39 percent who said she should.

Mrs. Obama is adamant she doesn't want to run for the president.

"If I were interested in it, I'd say it," she said in an interview last week. "I don't believe in playing games. It's not something I would do."
Trumpspeaks.jpg

President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016, in Mobile, Ala. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

(Evan Vucci)

President-Elect Donald Trump's campaign team "did not specifically demand anything" related to a Christmas tree displayed during Saturday's rally, Chief of Staff Colby Cooper said late Tuesday.

"During the stadium preparations, we discussed the President-elect's theme and message," said Cooper. "It was very much Christmas themed and future of America focused. I suggested the Christmas tree as a possible backdrop to coincide with his messaging and podium sign that said 'Merry Christmas' and 'Thank you.'"

He added, "I did this based on my professional experience supporting event preparations for a President, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. The world was watching and we needed to do better than the aged and worn out scoreboard behind the President-Elect."

Cooper's comments come after City Attorney Ricardo Woods, following Tuesday's Tree Commission meeting, said it was his understanding that the Trump campaign team requested the large Christmas tree that served as a back drop to the rally.

Cooper said that is not accurate.

"The President-Elect's team was very professional and courteous," Cooper said. "We aimed to make sure this was the best event we could put on for President-Elect Trump so his opinion of Mobile was as favorable as possible. Our understanding was the President-Elect's team was very pleased with the outcome and that bodes well for Mobile."

Cooper has come under criticism in recent days after, in what he said was an "overzealous" reaction in preparing for the rally, requested that a large cedar tree be cut down in a public park and transported to Ladd-Peebles Stadium to serve as a prop.

Emotional concerns

Fallout, especially on social media, has been intense. Cooper has since apologized for his role in ordering the tree to be removed. He followed up by saying on Twitter that he will pay the costs to plant three new trees at Public Safety Memorial Park.

Woods suggested that politics is driving the attention toward the issue. The matter has generated extensive media coverage in recent days.

"A tree being removed from a public park for the 45th President of the United States is mainly why people are concerned," Woods said. "You can see that in the back and forth on social media, you can see that in the emotion. We understand, holistically, why people are concerned. It was a successful event. This detracts and takes away from it. Will that likely happen again? No. The 45th President of the United States isn't likely to come back here again and ask for a Christmas tree."

The cedar displayed during Saturday's rally was approximately 50 feet high, and was large enough to block the scoreboard at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

"Whether the tree covered up a scoreboard is not something (the Trump team) particularly asked for that I'm aware of," Woods said. "But the scoreboard is unsightly."

Legal authority

Woods' comments came after the city's tree commission, whose members are appointed by the Mobile City Council, met and acknowledged that it has no jurisdiction over the matter.

Woods said that legally, nothing was done inappropriately - the commission's jurisdiction is only on public right-of-way and not within the city's parks, which are overseen by the mayor's administration. Woods also said the employees who removed the tree were acting in an appropriate manner.

"The city cannot cut any tree it wants to anytime it wants to," Woods said. "But, specifically, in a park ... that's why this happened and it was done in a legal manner. The employees were authorized to do so."

Woods said that Cooper did "exactly what he was asked to do" in coordinating Trump's visit that included, among other things, coordinating public safety with the U.S. Secret Service and logistics.

Cooper approached the city's urban forester about cutting down the cedar tree within Public Safety Park. The forester then authorized the tree be removed.

According to city spokesman George Talbot, in a statement to a local TV station, the tree had some termite damage to it.

Stimpson, meanwhile, has since publicly acknowledged that he has accepted Cooper's apology and that the city is "moving forward" beyond the controversy.

Woods declined to say the extent of the mayor's knowledge about the tree's removal.

Meanwhile, some tree commissioners have been critical of the Stimpson administration for past actions taken to have trees removed and a lack of planting new trees in public right-of-way - which is the area between a sidewalk and a curb.

The most notable controversy, before the Trump rally, was the removal of nine oak trees near downtown's Bienville Square to make room for a hotel parking lot. Blame was directed at the Stimpson administration, though the mayor's office said the trees were removed on public property.

City officials said that "less than 10" new trees have been planted in city right-of-way within the past year.

"That tells me where we are going with where the tree commission is concerned," said Commission Rip Pfeiffer.

On Tuesday, the commission denied permit requests to remove trees near a Mardi Gras societies' property in downtown Mobile, and another to have trees trimmed along bustling Airport Boulevard.

The Mardi Gras group requested trees removed from Conception Street because of breaks they were causing to the sidewalk, among other concerns.

"If that is a legitimate reason (to remove trees), we'd have about 50,000 trees to remove in the city," said Pfeiffer.

This story was updated at 8:49 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016, to include comments from Chief of Staff Colby Cooper who said that the tree displayed during Saturday's rally did not come at a request of President-Elect Donald Trump's campaign team.
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Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson (right) and Chief of Staff for the City of Mobile Colby Cooper (left) await President-elect Donald Trump at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016. Trump ended his post-election "Thank You" tour in Alabama. The cedar tree in the background was cut down at Public Safety Memorial Park off Government Street in midtown Mobile for Trump's rally. (Lawrence Specker/lspecker@al.com)

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said he was "ready to move on" on Tuesday from a controversial decision by his chief of staff to cut down a tree at a public park for use as a prop during President-elect Donald Trump's rally on Saturday.

Others, however, were not moving on from what various officials dubbed as "Treegate." And the matter continued to receive extensive coverage by national media.

Some City Council members said that it could be time to review local ordinances in order to prevent the mayor's office from wielding unilateral authority to order trees cut down.

And at least one longtime tree commissioner said that Stimpson's staff has shown "no support whatsoever" toward his group and claimed that the mayor - who was the chief financial officer of a lumber company until he ran for mayor in 2013 - views trees as a nuisance.

"Let's face it, we have a mayor who made his living cutting down trees for lumber," said Dr. Rip Pfeiffer, who has served on the city's tree commission for about 25 years. "He's made it clear there won't be any more trees planted in (public) right-of-way. There is nothing we can do about it."

'Make it right'

There has been swift fallout from Friday's decision by Chief of Staff Colby Cooper to have a mature cedar tree cut down at Public Safety Memorial Park and transported to Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

The tree, which was decorated with ornaments, served as a backdrop during Trump's final rally as part of his post-election "Thank You" tour. It also covered up the stadium's scoreboard while national TV cameras honed in on the president-elect.

Cooper, on Sunday, issued a public apology for having the tree felled. On Monday, Stimpson accepted Cooper's apology and said there was a plan in place to replant three cedar trees within the park.

Cooper, also on Monday, announced on Twitter that he was going to personally pay for the three replacement trees.

Stimpson, during the council's meeting Tuesday, said the tree displayed during the Trump rally will be "re-purposed." He left the council meeting early and did not provide additional information.

Cooper, who remained at the council meeting until it ended, declined further comment.

"We are committed to doing our best to make it right," Stimpson said during his public remarks.

'Community concerned'

President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016, in Mobile, Ala. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The council did not publicly address the issue during its meeting but afterward, in interviews with local media, some of the members hinted at a need to legally ensure something similar doesn't happen again.

"I hope the council can amend the law that ... no individual can have the authority anymore to order someone to cut a tree down in the city," Councilman Fred Richardson said. "If a citizen had driven up to that park with their pickup truck and cut that tree down, they'd still probably be in jail."

Councilman Levon Manzie, while saying that Cooper had "appropriately apologized," said he believes the council will deliberate over whether a stronger ordinance is needed after the first of the year. "The citizens of my community are very concerned," said Manzie. "They were alarmed the tree was used in this manner."

Other council members believe that it's up to Stimpson to handle the situation going forward.

"This was an administrative decision and the council didn't have anything to do with it," said Council President Gina Gregory. "It was a mistake. In my opinion, it was not a good decision but Colby has apologized and the mayor has accepted it."

Added Councilman John Williams: "This was a completely avoidable situation and it resulted after an unknown number of people made poor decisions. Disciplinary action either taken or not taken (is up to the) mayor. It's completely in his hands. I'm satisfied with whatever he decides, but I trust it will never happen again."

Cooper, in offering his apology, said he became "overzealous" in making sure the Trump rally went off without a hitch. Cooper accepted "full responsibility" for having the tree cut down.

Stimpson, in Monday's statement, said Cooper "made a mistake by directing our employees to cut down a tree" from the city park and having it installed at the stadium.

Stimpson said in the statement, "Vibrant public parks are central to my vision for making Mobile the most family-friendly city in America, and we are committed to safeguarding our signature trees."

'Silly, stupid'

But Pfeiffer said he hasn't seen much action from Stimpson since he took office to make him feel confident that the city's trees are protected.

Pfeiffer noted that Stimpson, as mayor, has authority over the commission to remove trees that are within the public right-of-way, or the area between public sidewalks and curbs. The commission also has no jurisdiction of public property such as parks, said Pfeiffer.

"The state law allows him to cut down trees on the right-of-way, and it was put in there for mainly emergency purposes like a hurricane where you don't have the time to go through the tree commission for these decisions," said Pfeiffer. "He's used that cut down trees when there was no legitimate reasons to remove them." He specifically mentioned cuttings on the sidewalks lining the History Museum of Mobile and Gulf Coast Exploreum.

Controversy erupted in July 2015 when nine oak trees were cut down near downtown's Bienville Square to make room for a hotel parking lot. Blame was directed at the Stimpson administration amid a flurry of phone calls made to local newsrooms and government agencies in protest.

Pfeiffer, who said the commission isn't a group of "tree huggers," added that he understands the rationale behind removing a tree that can have "detrimental" impact on its surroundings.

But he said the positives "far outweigh" the negatives, including the potential to increase neighborhood property values.

"The aesthetic benefits of trees are tremendous," said Pfeiffer. "No one talks about how great billboards are or the wastewater treatment plant is in Mobile. They talk about the trees."

Pfeiffer said the tree commission is without teeth to act on tree removals such as the one that occurred ahead of Trump's rally. "People misconstrue that we can do something about it," he said. But there is nothing we can do. We can sometimes voice an opinion about it ... this is a silly, stupid thing to do for a little backdrop for President-elect Trump."
Staying at home being afraid is the wrong way to handle this thats what these people attacking us want.

Berlin, Germany  Some Berliners say they will still go about their business  with defiance. Others fear more attacks are coming  and vow to alter their routines.

But most agreed that a murderous rampage in Berlin on Monday night has left their lively, fun-loving city shaken to its core, and said they were determined to defend their way of life here in spite of it.

The city feels heavy-hearted in the Berlin fog this morning  I am watching commuters and coffee shop dwellers greet each other with concern about colleagues and friends, said Alice Romeril, 24, a marketing specialist, on the morning after the deadly incident.





In the office, the main discussion is of those who may have lost loved ones. But it is also one of [determination]  not to stop coming together to celebrate in the last days before Christmas.

On Monday evening, a truck plowed into stalls and people celebrating the holidays at a Christmas market just off iconic Kurfurstendamm avenue, known locally as the Kudamm and West Berlins main shopping street, killing 12 and injuring almost 50 people .

German authorities, meanwhile, continued to hunt for the man who allegedly drove the truck into the market. Late on Tuesday, December 20, they released a 23-year-old Pakistani refugee seeking asylum in the country, saying they lacked evidence to link him to the carnage.

Instead, authorities say the driver of the truck jumped out of the vehicle after the attack, leaving behind a dead Polish man, found with gunshot and stab wounds in the passenger side of the cab. Since the truck reportedly had Polish licence plates, security officials believe the Polish man was the driver of the truck and the suspect had likely hijacked the vehicle.

READ MORE: ISIL makes Berlin attack claim amid hunt for suspects

Official reactions

As the search for suspects and answers goes on, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday expressed what many in Germany felt in the aftermath of the killings.

Like millions of people in Germany, I am horrified, shaken and deeply saddened by what happened last night in Berlin on Breitscheidplatz, she said. Much of what we know about these events is still uncertain but as things stand, we have to assume that this was an act of terrorism.

I know that it would especially difficult for us all if it turns out that the person who committed this act had asked for protection and asylum in Germany.

This would be especially repugnant toward the many, many Germans that are involved in refugee aid on a daily basis and toward the many people that actually need our protection and are making an effort to integrate in our country.

Soon after the attack, the far right, anti-Muslim Alternative For Germany (AfD) party  which has been making gains in German legislatures for the past year  sprang into action, claiming the open-door asylum policies of Merkel were to blame for the threat to Germany, and the deaths.

When will the German state strike back, asked Marcus Pretzell of the AfD on Twitter. When will this cursed hypocrisy finally stop? These are Merkels dead!

Life must go on, or the terrorists win

Still, beyond the investigations and blame, the quiet drama of shock and grief played out on the streets of Berlin. Near Kudamm, signs mourned the victims: In sadness and sympathy for the victims and their loved ones, read one at a subway station.

Germany is strong and has good infrastructure for catching whoever did this by Thomas Kahn

During the day Tuesday, Berliners laid flowers at makeshift memorials around the market while inside, investigators continued to gather evidence and pieces of the truck. At noon, people gathered at the next door Kaiser Wilhelm memorial cathedral to light candles, pray and pay respects to the victims  including a group called Muslims for Peace, wearing shirts reading, Love for all, hate for none.

At 3pm the city observed a minute of silence.

And on the Kudamm, pedestrians spoke in hushed voices. And as people walked by the scene amid a backdrop of festive holiday lights and decorations on the street and on shop windows, they shook their heads gravely.

Germany is strong and has good infrastructure for catching whoever did this, said Thomas Kahn, 34, of Berlin. But still, its very sad.

Around town, some Christmas markets were actually fuller than they usually are during the day, as people remained determined not to let fear overtake their daily lives. At Gendarmenmarkt Christmas Market in the city centre, people shopped for gifts at wooden stalls, snacked on wursts and lebkuchen (gingerbread), sipped hot Gluhwein (spiced mulled wine), and spoke about why they came.

This can happen anywhere, any time, so why shouldnt we be here? said Peter Knoll, of Berlin, sipping hot Gluhwein with a few friends on the grey, cold Berlin winter day. Besides, we look forward to these all year.

Christmas markets are a much-loved tradition in Germany, with every town in the country hosting at least one from late November until Christmas Eve. Its a place where friends, colleagues or family head to in the evenings and weekends, an integral part of the social fabric of the holidays.





At the same time, the market hit on Monday on Breitscheidplatz on the Kudamm is one of the smaller ones in Berlin, but very busy because Kudamm is the citys biggest shopping street, and a draw for tourists staying at dozens of hotels in the district  and Christmas markets are high on their must-see lists.

On Tuesday most markets, meanwhile, closed early, as requested by city officials. One in northern Berlin upped security, and refrained from playing music out of respect for the victims but remained open for those wanting to defy fear.

Many said life must go on, or the terrorists win.

My thoughts are first and foremost with the families. I cannot imagine the devastation of losing a loved one so violently during such a time in the year, said Nadia Ali, 26, an Iraqi who has adopted Berlin after she arrived to complete her studies.

I am confident the German government will make necessary adjustments to security precautions and learn from this horrible event, she added. But we will not cower and allow fear to control us. As people, we need to be wary of divisions and look out for one another more than ever. Today we mourn, but tomorrow the work begins.

Fear abounds, but hope prevails

Still, fear abounds. Germans have braced themselves for attacks since those on the offices of Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish grocery store in Paris in January 2015, and later in central Paris in November 2015.

Then came New Years Eve 2015 in Cologne, when hundreds of women were assaulted, allegedly by foreigners. Fears were compounded by attacks this summer in southern Germany reportedly perpetrated by refugees.

Many say they expected another attack sooner or later.

With this supposed attack on the Christmas market in Berlin, our worst fears have come true, said Stephan Mayer, a politician in the Bundestag. Now the safety of every Christmas market in Germany has to be examined  even to the point where we ask ourselves whether they can even still take place.

Still, Ann-Kathrin Hipp, 23, a student who was Christmas market-hopping on Tuesday said she encountered a lot of people going for more than the usual shopping or mulled wine, and that she was glad people were fighting their fears.

There were some people going there wanting not to be afraid of the attack, she said.

I think that staying at home being afraid is the wrong way to handle this situation because thats what these people attacking us want. So we should try to live our lives as normally as possible even though it is really sad and horrible what happened.

Meanwhile, some said that they worry about other things affecting their way of life more.

Its sad, but I dont feel any less safe, said Lea Cassebaum, 28, a brand consultant in Berlin. I think my values and my way of life are much more threatened by the rise of right-wing parties like the AfD than by terrorists.

Nikolia Apostolou contributed to this report from Athens.
UN warns of ethnic cleansing under way in South Sudan, survivors recount how they escaped as violence erupted in Wau.

Wau, South Sudan  Looting, killing, beatings and sexual assault were the hallmarks of ethnically motivated attacks against civilians by South Sudanese government forces in the town of Wau earlier this year, according to the personal stories of those who witnessed and endured them.

Houses were routinely ransacked and dozens were killed, including a three-year-old child, a 50-year-old teacher and a man in his 60s. Some of the dead were so disfigured that they could only be identified by the clothes they were wearing.

The attacks bear all the characteristics of the war crimes that have been a tragic feature of South Sudans brief history.

In the space of just a few days, at the end of June, tens of thousands of people were displaced from their homes in Wau, one of South Sudans largest towns and a key trading hub, as government troops and plain-clothes militia went from house to house attacking civilians with machetes, guns, sticks and spears.

The attacks were perpetrated by members of the Dinka tribe, the largest tribe in the country and that of President Salva Kiir. They were predominantly carried out against members of a group of tribes known locally as the Fertit, denoting inhabitants of the former state of Western Bar el-Ghazal who are not Dinka, Luo or Arab.

Those fleeing sought sanctuary wherever they could: in the grounds of churches, schools, a Red Cross compound, and around the perimeter of the local UN base.

INTERACTIVE FEATURE: South Sudan, five years since independence

St Marys Cathedral and Holy Family Church, Nazareth

Mary Luka

Twenty-six-year-old Mary Luka, from the Zande tribe in Western Equatoria, sat in the grounds of St Marys Cathedral a few days after the attacks.

In steady tones, Mary recounted the story of how soldiers came to her house, murdered her husband and sexually assaulted her.





When the attacks began Mary was at her home in the Haya Salam area in the west of Wau with her husband, Sadam Ali, and six-year-old son, Alex Sadam.

We heard heavy shooting of guns, so we decided to come to the church, she said. We were afraid, there was shooting of guns close by on all sides and we saw people running.

As they left the house with two other women and their four children, 12 armed men stopped them.

Two of them were wearing uniforms and had guns, she said. The others had machetes, knives and sticks. They were all Dinka. The two soldiers were in charge. They were only young, around 30 years old.

First, they killed my husband. The soldiers told him to run. While he was running they shot him in the head. My son was there, watching as his father was shot.

Then they took me inside a room and they took a knife out. One of the soldiers tore my skirt with a knife. They wanted to have sexual intercourse with me. They wanted to use me. They harmed my vagina with a knife.

There were five men in the room with me. Four of them were without uniform. The one wearing the uniform cut me. He held a knife to my vagina. He was intending to kill me.

They wanted money, my mobile phone, and all my possessions. They put all my things in the street. I said Id go out to bring money and, as soon as I got out, I started running. I dont know why they didnt kill me.

READ MORE: The 3-year-old victim of renewed fighting

Elizabeth

In one of the nearby buildings in the grounds of St Marys, Elizabeth sheltered from the heat surrounded by four of her five children. Her six-month-old daughter was receiving treatment in a local hospital.

It is not the first time Elizabeth has suffered the tragic consequences of ethnic violence in South Sudan.

In December 2012, her husband, a Zande from Western Equatoria, was one of hundreds murdered by government soldiers who went from house to house, slaughtering people they suspected of being Nuer, the second-largest tribe in the country and that of Salva Kiirs adversary in the civil war, Riek Machar.

When her husband was killed, Elizabeth returned home to her community in Wau. But the violence followed her.

The attacks in Wau were a chilling echo of what happened in Juba, and also of the violence meted out by troops loyal to Machar in Unity state, in April 2014.

Elizabeth and her children abandoned their house in the Souk Salam market area in northwest Wau at around midnight on 24 June. They were on the move for 11 hours, before they found shelter.

There was huge shooting of guns, she said. We didnt know what was happening. I was afraid. We ran all through the night.

Five days later they returned to Wau to find that their homes had been stripped of all their possessions.

Utensils, mattresses, childrens clothes, cooking flour, everything had gone, she said.

IN PICTURES: Nowhere to run for the children of South Sudan

Father Natale Gurucho

Mary and Elizabeth were among more than 10,000 people who sought refuge at St Marys.

From a chair overlooking two rows of unmarked graves, Father Natale Gurucho, a priest at the cathedral, describes the unfolding horror of the attacks on June 24.

Night was falling, and I had just rung the big bell for a special 7pm prayer, when I saw a group of young people in the street by the church, he said.

They were armed with machetes and sticks and spears. There were more than 20 of them, maybe more than 30. They were beating their sticks against the wall. They were talking in Dinka.

Throughout the night, we heard a lot of gunshots from around the town. I spent the whole night awake. We opened the church gates to the people who were fleeing.

By the next morning, people were arriving at the church in their hundreds. They were very fearful, said Father Natale. They told us people in military uniform and others with spears, machetes and sticks came into their houses.





They took everything from the houses: clothing, mattresses, cooking utensils, phones, laptops. If they refused them entry, they threatened to shoot them or cut them.

We saw some of them marching along the street in front of the church with their loot on their heads.

Soon, it was not just those fleeing who were arriving at the church, but bodies.

The first body to arrive was a three-year-old baby, said Father Natale.

Her grandmother Mariana came running with the dead child in her arms. We dont normally bury people here, but we agreed to. We dug a hole, there was a prayer, a blessing and then we buried her.

Over the next few days, the bodies of numerous others slain in their homes or in the street were brought to the church for burial.

On Saturday evening, a young man called George, a volunteer in the church youth group, came carrying his dead father with three other men, said Father Natale.

Father Natale drove his pick-up truck to collect more bodies from the local hospital for burial at St Marys.

The room was full in the hospital  they were putting dead bodies on top of each other, he said. It was a really terrible scene. Some of them had been there for two or three days. They were rotten and smelling.

Those that the relatives could identify were brought here from the hospital. It was not easy to look at. Some of them were disfigured because they had been shot in the head, but they were able to identify them from the clothes they were wearing.

Sixteen people were buried at the church, said Father Natale, pointing to the two lines of dirt mounds each marked with a small wooden markers. They were all Balanda, one of the Fertit tribes, according to Oliver, a priest in training at the cathedral.

One grave stands empty. We dug that for three other bodies, but the government took them away, said Father Natale.

In numbers

According to official government figures, 39 civilians and four policemen were killed in those attacks, although the figure has not been independently corroborated and may well have been higher.

Some of the local police force, along with members of other armed local authorities, opposed the attacks or provided protection to the sites offering sanctuary to those displaced.

Within a week almost 50,000 people were displaced within the town, according to estimates from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In addition to the 10,000 people sheltering at St Marys, another 17,000 sought refuge in two local schools, and 2,000 in two other churches.

Within 10 days of the attacks, more than 22,000 people were living in cramped conditions on a site adjacent to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) base.

The Red Cross compound provided refuge to about 5,000 people in the first three days after the attacks, according to Leon Archangelo, director for the South Sudan Red Cross in Wau. The compound is only meant for 20 people, he said.

Mary Mario

In the south of the town, civilians fled to the Holy Family Church in an area called Nazareth. The church provided sanctuary to about 5,000 people.

Forty-five-year-old Mary Mario was one of them. Her husband, Angelo Tadeo, was murdered in the attacks and her eight-year-old grandson, Wilson Angelo, was also shot.

It happened on Friday, at 4pm, she said. There was a mixture of people. Some of them in army clothes, some of them in normal clothes. They were in big numbers. They came and surrounded the area.

Mary and her family tried to run to the church, but they were captured. They beat my husband on the back with a stick and then they shot him in the left side of the chest, she said. He was 64. He died on the spot.

My grandson was shot in his right hand. Local police helped carry him to a hospital at the army barracks.

Father Archangel

When Father Natale and his colleagues visited Nazareth on the weekend of the attacks, they found the rotting bodies of three other men.

Elias Khamis Kpoyo, a 50-year-old teacher working in the ministry of education, was killed in his compound along with his son, Louis.

Eliass neighbour, 45-year-old Gabriel Joseph, heard the gunshots and ran into the compound. He, too, was shot dead.





Their bodies were already swollen, covered in flies, said Father Natale. The blood around them had turned black. We just decided to bury them there.

A fourth man, Thomas, was also shot dead and buried in his compound, said Father Archangel, a pastor at the Holy Family Church.

All four men were Balanda, all of them were killed by government soldiers, according to Father Archangel.

During the incident, we buried around 17 people, he said. They were all killed in this area. All of the houses were looted.

The perpetrators were a mixture of SPLA and plain-clothed militia, said Father Archangel.

If someone is carrying a gun, you assume they are a soldier, but not all of them were in uniform, he said. They had pangas [machetes] and spears. They were not from around here. They had the intention of coming to loot.

From a small room inside the church grounds, Father Archangel reached for a laptop and brought up photographs of the sprawling, bloodied bodies of Elias, Louis, Gabriel and Thomas.

The bodies were already rotten, so we had to bury them in their homes, he said.

Besides those seeking shelter in the church grounds, Nazareth was almost completely deserted. Father Archangel spoke in hushed tones, saying he was wary of Dinka informers.

The government has announced that people should go home, but they have nothing to go back to, he said. The neighbourhood is not safe and people have nothing to sleep on because the houses have been looted.

Nazareth was not the only empty part of town. Driving through the west of Wau revealed swaths of deserted residential areas. NGO staff said that armed patrols made them unsafe to visit.

On the main roads, heavily-armed soldiers stood around, machine guns mounted in the open backs of Toyota trucks.

Government soldiers prevented access to the main road leading from the west of the town. Those wishing to use the only alternative would have to pass through an armed checkpoint, at which NGOs are routinely harassed, some of those affected told Al Jazeera.

Protection of Civilians (POC) camp beside the UN base

Mina Lawrence

At the hastily constructed Protection of Civilians (POC) camp beside the UN base, 29-year-old Mina Lawrence sheltered under a tree from the scorching midday sun.

On Saturday, there were two people killed outside my compound in Loko Loko, he said. One of them was Clinton Lemi, from Eastern Equatoria. He was South Sudanese, but had been a refugee in Uganda.

He was shot on Saturday morning. On Wednesday, we buried him with a second body in a hole between my compound and the road, because the dogs and chickens were eating the bodies.

I tried to go to my house the following Thursday, but wasnt able to get there. There were six dead bodies nearby  three covered with a tent and three others. I tried to go again on Friday and the bodies were gone.

My mothers house has been looted, and the houses of six other neighbours. When my friend James, a Zande from Western Equatoria, went to get my motorcycle from Haya Fezata, he was beaten in the road by soldiers and they took the motorcycle and his phone.

READ MORE: New life for South Sudan refugees in Nyumanzi, Uganda

Comboni Catholic hospital

Fatna Jol Magas

Some casualties of the fighting sought treatment at the towns overstretched hospitals.

Fatna Jol Magas, a 31-year-old single mother of six, lay in a bed in the ward of Daniel Comboni Catholic hospital, her foot wrapped in bloodied bandages.

That morning, 10 days after the first attacks, she was shot in the street by government soldiers.

Me and my neighbour were near the gate of the University of Western Bar el-Ghazal, where I work as a cleaner, when two soldiers stopped us, she said.

They asked me whether I was Balanda, and I said no, I am Jur Chol [another name for Luo]. They were going to kill me, but instead, they took my money and my phone and they shot me in the foot.

Fatna had fled her home in Nazareth on the second day of attacks. They were shooting my neighbours. Four men were killed. All of our things have been taken.

Her youngest child is with her at the hospital, but she has had to leave her other five children at St Marys Cathedral.

It has been challenging for the hospital to continue to treat patients, said Sister Rosemary, the head of the Daniel Comboni facility.

The hospital went into a bit of a crisis because the staff fled, she said. Ten of the staff stayed and worked four days non-stop, between Friday and Monday.

Red Cross compound

Pio John

Sitting on the ground of the Red Cross compound in the north of the town, 69-year-old Pio John tells his story of the attacks.

Originally from a village to the north of Wau, but educated in England, Pio is the local land and logistics coordinator for the Catholic church.

A trained motor vehicle engineer, he worked for 36 years as the director of administration in the state physical infrastructure ministry. But he has no pension and now hes homeless.

In my area of town, the shooting was very bad, he said. We saw two guys killed down the road next to my house, local citizens. The ones shooting were dressed in the usual uniform of the government.

The attacks were deliberately targeted against certain tribes, said Pio.

The shooting is all directed to the western part of the town where the Fertit community lives, so it seems like theres something behind it, he said.

Its an ethnic problem. The people who are now the ruling party are only from one tribe. I think they want their own united kingdom. They want to eliminate the rest of the small ethnic groups.

Aid workers

The view that the killings were ethnically motivated is widely shared in Wau.

Theres a kind of hidden agenda that the Fertit people are done away with, said Father Archangel. Only this side has been looted; the other side hasnt been touched.

In South Sudan, it is 63 tribes against one [the Dinka], and the one is trying to dominate, said an Equatorian aid worker in Wau, speaking off the record in order to preserve the organisations relationship with local authorities.

Its no surprise that these people are in such a bad situation, said a local aid worker in Mboro, a small town west of Wau, referring to the hundreds of displaced who sleep in the nearby forest in an effort to stay safe. They have been forced here by the government. Its a deliberate policy.

The government denies that the attacks were tribally motivated. Brigadier-General Lul Ruai Koang, a spokesman for the SPLA, told Al Jazeera that the SPLA mobilised to defend the town in response to an attempted rebel incursion.

None of those spoken to by Al Jazeera could confirm this version of events, although several witnesses said that there had been a build-up of rebel troops in the area in the preceding months.

Ethnic cleansing concerns

The antagonism between Fertit and Dinka dates back to the 1980s, when Fertit tribesmen fought on behalf of the Khartoum government against the SPLM/A.

In the past few years, these historic tensions have been inflamed many times, particularly since 2012 when the government sought to move the capital of Western Bar el-Ghazal away from Wau.

But, recent events in Wau are also part of a broader trend. The battle lines in South Sudans civil conflict have always been always fluid, but, since Kiir and Machar signed the peace deal in August 2015, they have multiplied.

In the past year, local militias across the country  particularly in Central and Western Equatoria and Western Bar el-Ghazal  have taken up arms against the government.

They have done so for a host of reasons, including a desire to have a stake in post-peace South Sudan, local grievances, and defence against the encroachment of the army or Dinka tribesmen into their territory.

The conflict is expanding geographically, said Jonathan Pedneault, South Sudan researcher for Human Rights Watch . It has morphed into something closer to insurgency and sometimes brutal counterinsurgency, by mostly Dinka soldiers on behalf of the government, against populations deemed to be supportive of the rebels.

The events in Wau seem to fit squarely with this new phase in the war.

READ MORE: UN  South Sudan on brink of ethnic civil war

There is overwhelming evidence that the governments actions in Wau amount to war crimes.

Direct attacks against civilians, degrading treatment and murder all feature among the list of war crimes included in the statute establishing the International Criminal Court. All were witnessed in Wau.

The allegations of what happened in Wau in June are extremely concerning and, in some cases, could amount to war crimes by the SPLA, said Pedneault.

Whether it is part of a strategy or not, there has been a forcible removal of people from their houses, concentrating them in points that are easier to control and weakening rebel forces.

Almost six months later, about 40,000 people are still displaced within Wau town, 83 percent of them are women and children, according to OCHA. Entire sections of the town are still deserted, and barriers to the delivery of aid remain.

Meanwhile, the brutality continues. In early December, government forces began an offensive in Yei River state in former Central Equatoria, forcing civilians to flee their homes to escape air strikes and artillery fire.

There is credible information that the South Sudanese government is currently targeting civilians in Central Equatoria and  preparing for large-scale attacks in the coming days or weeks, said the US representative at the UN Human Rights Council, Keith Harper, on November 30.

South Sudan stands on the brink of an all-out ethnic civil war, warned the head of a UN human rights commission on December 14. The stage is being set for a repeat of what happened in Rwanda and the international community is under an obligation to prevent it.

There is little optimism that the conflict will be resolved any time soon. Sitting on a mat at the Red Cross compound in Wau, Pio is despondent. I dont expect this situation to calm down in the next two or three years, he said.
The president-elects appointments make it clear that we cannot rely on the government to protect the planet.

Lauren Carasik is the Director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Western New England University School of Law.

President-elect Donald Trumps cabinet is shaping up as a nightmare for environmentalists and others committed to bold action on climate change. Trump tapped Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, the biggest publicly trading oil company in the world, as secretary of state, where he would head the agency in charge of negotiating international climate agreements.

His selection rounds out a cabinet filled with climate sceptics, and signals a resurgence of oil and gas power inside the Beltway that is poised to dictate foreign policy while ignoring the staggering social costs of carbon.

Trump recently reaffirmed his hostility to climate protections, vowing again to cancel the restrictions on the production of American energy including shale, oil, natural gas and clean, beautiful coal.

Kathy Mulvey, the climate accountability campaign manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists, denounced the choice. [T]heres a real concern that President-elect Trump is creating a government of, by, and for the oil and gas industry, Mulvey said. The analogy of the nomination of Rex Tillerson for secretary of state would be akin to nominating a tobacco CEO as surgeon general, she added.

Scott Pruitt and Rick Perry, selected to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) respectively, are avowed climate sceptics.

Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general and loyal friend to the oil and gas industries, is set to take the helm of an agency whose legacy he appears determined to dismantle. Touting himself as a leading opponent of the EPAs activist agenda, Pruitt helped spearhead state-led opposition to the Obama administrations Clean Power Plan, which is key to meeting the countrys commitments under the Paris climate agreement.

Pruitt wrote in the National Review that scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind.

Moreover, former Texas governor Rick Perry will head the DOE, an agency he once vowed to abolish, after committing the memorable faux pas of forgetting its name in a presidential debate.

Perry, who hails from a state with a powerful energy sector, sits on the board of Energy Transfer Partners, developer of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline. Both are expected to advance Trumps anti-regulatory, pro-extraction agenda.

Fox guarding the henhouse?

Tillerson is cast as a pragmatic, experienced businessman who possesses a skillset seamlessly transferrable to statecraft. Yet, the oil magnates globetrotting has been in service of corporate profit, not advancing the public good.

The elevation of an oil baron as the nations top diplomat lays bare Trumps priorities. As Steve Coll observes in The New Yorker, American power is best understood as a raw, neocolonial exercise in securing resources. Tillersons ties with Vladimir Putin, and by extension with Russias energy industry, have caused consternation, and he has promoted the companys interests abroad despite the significant human costs of doing so. Activists are alarmed by Tillersons presumed loyalties and his companys conduct on climate change.

Tillerson's relative moderation cannot mask the irony that one of the cabinet nominees with the least extreme position on climate made his fortune by extracting carbon fuels. by

ExxonMobil has come under fire for covering up what its scientists have long known about the dangers posed by carbon emissions. Separate reports by the Los Angeles Times and InsideClimate News last year prompted the attorneys general of Massachusetts and New York to investigate whether ExxonMobil committed consumer or securities fraud by failing to disclose to its shareholders what it knew about climate change.

The company claims it has not suppressed evidence of climate change, and Tillerson conceded it was real shortly after he ascended to the companys top position in 2006.

But the oil giant is aggressively fighting the investigation into its conduct, calling the effort politically motivated and even suing the attorney generals for violating the companys free speech and other constitutional rights.

Others have joined the effort to hold the oil giant to account. On December 14, the Pace Environmental Law Clinic filed a petition on behalf of the Waterkeeper Alliance to suspend ExxonMobil from contracts with the government, citing its pervasive pattern of deceptive and damaging conduct related to environmental issues generally and climate change issues in particular.

INFOGRAPHIC: Whos who in Donald Trumps administration?

Dispirited activists derive some small satisfaction from the fact that Tillerson may have to testify in confirmation hearings about what Exxon knew and when, potentially circumventing the companys obstructionism.

Tillerson espouses faith in technological advances and adaptation to remediate deleterious climate effects, and promotes the continued use of fossil fuels as a bridge to more sustainable resources. In so doing, he avoids the urgency of immediate action to curb emissions by deferring to the forces of the free market to fix the problem.

The company also justifies cheap energy as the key to alleviating poverty. Yet some anti-poverty institutions have a different view, including the World Bank, which concluded that avoiding climate risks is the route to sustainable development.

ExxonMobil endorses the Paris climate agreement, along with a carbon tax, yet it continues to support institutions and politicians that oppose both.

It already begun

The chasm between words and deeds highlights the fact that it derives much of its income from the continued extraction of fossil fuels despite the imperative of keeping most of those resources in the ground.

Trumps transition team raised yet more alarm bells when it sent a questionnaire to the DOE asking for the names of people who had worked on initiatives to curb greenhouse emissions. An unbowed DOE refused to comply. After ensuing outrage, the Trump team claimed the questionnaire was unauthorised, but the chilling effect is clear.

The Washington Post reported that concerned scientists have begun a feverish attempt to copy reams of government data onto independent servers in hopes of safeguarding it from any political interference.

Tillersons relative moderation cannot mask the irony that one of the cabinet nominees with the least extreme position on climate made his fortune by extracting carbon fuels.

Trumps appointments make it clear that we cannot rely on the government to protect the planet: that stewardship will be up to civil society.

Lauren Carasik is a clinical professor of law and the Director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Western New England University School of Law. She has provided legal support for the water protectors.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Through distraction, rival elimination and fears of the Sunni population, ISIL seizes opportunities of Aleppos war.

Alia Brahimi is a specialist in terrorism and political trends in the Middle East and North Africa.

The United Nations Security Council on December 19 overcame intense divisions and voted for UN observers to monitor evacuations from the besieged city of Aleppo.

Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, referred to the French-drafted resolution as just another part of the continued propaganda against Syria and its fight against terrorists. He added: The last terrorists in some districts of the eastern part of Aleppo are evacuating their strongholds and Aleppo this evening will be clean.

Indeed, Syrian officials and their allies have consistently described the fierce government offensive as aimed at cleansing the city of terrorists.

In an interview with Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad explained that you have to keep cleaning this area and to push the terrorists to Turkey  Aleppo is going to be a very important springboard to do this move.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has also spoken repeatedly of clearing the city of terrorists. He reiterated on December 8 that Russia aimed to fight terrorists in Syria till the end.

These sweeping depictions of the Aleppo offensive as a successful counterterrorism operation, however, gloss over a number of troubling realities.

Rescuing civilians from terrorists?

Firstly, it is both logically and morally problematic  absurd, even  to deliberately target a civilian population in the name of rescuing it from terrorists.

Yet, over the course of the past few months, eastern Aleppo has been indiscriminately pounded by

thermobaric weapons (vacuum bombs), flying improvised explosive devices (barrel bombs), explosive bomblets (cluster bombs), and bunker busters (earthquake bombs).

In the summer, when the government tightened its siege of the city  raising the spectre of mass starvation  and intensified its bombardment, Save the Children estimated that 35 percent of all casualties in Aleppo were children.

Last month, the last childrens hospital in Aleppo was reportedly vacuum bombed while in the process of treating the child victims of a chlorine gas attack.

Last week, the UN reported that civilians, including women and children, were being shot on the spot in their homes and on the street by pro-government forces entering eastern Aleppo.

In both intention and effect, therefore, it is doubtful whether the governments campaign in Aleppo can be meaningfully understood as a counterterrorism operation.

Government-allied foreign militia

Moreover, the Syrian government relies upon militia comprising foreign nationals who are committing politically motivated violence against non-combatant targets.

Many of their actions are designed to intimidate or coerce  essentially, to terrorise  the civilian population.

Deployed alongside these foreign militiamen  a mix of conscripts, mercenaries and ideological volunteers from Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan  are deeply alarming sectarian narratives which dehumanise Sunni Muslims.

Beyond the urgent moral issues in play, the Aleppo campaign has yielded the very dangerous combination of an empowered ISIL and a majority Sunni population further alienated from, and terrified of, the Assad regime. by

To be sure, in recent years, the rebel movement in Aleppo became heavily influenced by jihadist factions.

Some of the fighters involved are Sunni foreigners who played an outsized role in snuffing out a great deal of the organic Syrian opposition, and who have committed grave crimes against the civilians of rebel-held and government-held Aleppo, and Syrian government troops.

These excesses, when they occur, are deplorable. However, ultimately there can be little equivalence between the actions of a self-defined rebel movement  largely hijacked by thugs and jihadis, who are widely condemned as illegitimate  and the responsibilities of a government which has a seat at the UN and claims the mantle of sovereign authority.

But perhaps most importantly, the governments current campaign grips Aleppos civilians in a pincer of foreign terrorism: on the one hand, the grisly and unaccountable foreign-dominated rebel groups and, on the other, marauding, government-allied foreign militia.

Driving extremism

Additionally, the brutalisation of civilians, particularly children, only drives extremism.

It is likely that the effects of the Syrian governments military campaign, and the intense onslaught against Aleppo specifically, will be felt for a generation  in Syria and beyond.

OPINION: Mosul and Aleppo  A tale of two cities

Some terrorists may be killed and their weapons seized. But social and political trauma of this order only drives radicalisation more broadly.

After all, modern jihadism evolved from the crushed bones of political opposition movements across the region in the 20th century  ever more radical with each bloodletting.

No defeat for ISIL

Aleppo is no defeat for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. ISIL is the most formidable and global of all the terrorist players, which has attracted tens of thousands of fighters from more than 50 countries, manufactured chemical weapons, minted its own currency, and run a substantial proto-state.

ISILs fighters have barely held a presence in eastern Aleppo since they were pushed out in 2014 by a disparate coalition of rebels.

Developments in Aleppo can be easily interpreted by ISIL as something of a victory: because of the distraction factor (in recent days ISIL was able to re-take Palmyra, in an offensive led by Abu Talha al-Tunisi); because of the annihilation of ISILs rivals and opponents (including important remnants of the non-jihadist opposition); and because of the clear statement that Sunni civilians have much to fear from the government in Damascus.

Beyond the urgent moral issues in play, the Aleppo campaign has yielded the very dangerous combination of an empowered ISIL and a majority Sunni population further alienated from, and terrified of, the Assad regime.

From a strategic point of view, then, the Assad regime may yet win Aleppo, but lose Syria.

Alia Brahimi is a specialist in terrorism and political trends in the Middle East and North Africa.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Expected departure of last rebel fighters will hand full control of bitterly contested city to Assad government.

Evacuations from the last rebel-held enclave of Aleppo have resumed despite heavy snowfall after being stalled for a day, according to aid officials and pro-government media reports.

Obstacles hindering evacuations from eastern Aleppo and from two villages besieged by opposition fighters outside the city had been overcome on Wednesday, clearing a path for Syrias army to take full control of the devastated city.

The operation would be completed within hours, according to a news service run by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian government.





The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights network said in the evening that the last batch of opposition fighters evacuated from the city.

The eventual departure of the thousands from the rebel-controlled zone will hand full control of the city to President Bashar al-Assad, the biggest prize of Syrias nearly six-year-old civil war.

Buses are now moving again from east Aleppo. We hope that this continues so that people can be safely evacuated, a UN official in Syria told Reuters news agency.

People had been waiting in freezing temperatures in east Aleppo since the evacuation hit problems on Tuesday.

Dozens of buses were stuck in Aleppo and the evacuation of the two Shia villages, Foua and Kefraya, also stalled.

Rebels and government forces blamed each other for the hold-up.

With obstructions to the evacuation plan apparently overcome, the Hezbollah news service said 20 buses carrying fighters and their families had moved from eastern Aleppo on Wednesday towards rebel-held countryside.

READ MORE: Palestinians trapped in Syria face humanitarian crisis

Syrian TV said four buses and two ambulances arrived in government-controlled parts of Aleppo from Foua and Kefraya.

Government forces had insisted the two villages be included in the deal to bring people out of east Aleppo.





These [refugees] people arrive in the rebel-held areas in a very bad shape, Al Jazeeras Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from Gaziantep, said.

Many of them sat in those buses for 30 hours waiting to be evacuated  not even allowed to use toilets. It is a very grim situation.

So far, about 25,000 people have been evacuated from Aleppo, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A UN official said 750 people had so far been evacuated from Foua and Kefraya.

For four years, the city was split between a rebel-held eastern sector and the government-held western districts.

During the summer, the army and allies forces besieged the rebel sector before using intense bombardment and ground assaults to retake it in recent months.

Control of Aleppo would be a major victory for Assad and his main allies Iran and Russia militarily backing him against rebels who have defied him in Syrias most populous city for four years.
Kremlin official says Andrey Karlovs assassination a serious blow as Turkey focuses on possible links to Gulen network.

Vladimir Putins spokesman has described the murder of Russias ambassador in Turkey as a serious blow to Turkey, according to Russian news media.

Dmitry Peskov, the Russian presidents spokesperson, has been further quoted as saying that Turkish authorities should not rush with any theories on who is behind the assassination of Andrey Karlov before the investigation produces results.

This is certainly a blow to the countrys prestige, Peskov was quoted as saying on Wednesday by the RIA news agency.

Karlov was killed on Monday evening at a photography exhibition in Ankara by Mevlut Mert Altintas of the Turkish capitals riot-police squad. He was then killed in a police operation.

Peskov said Russia did not believe Altintas acted alone, but refused to explain the reasons for the suspicion.

READ MORE: Ankara focuses on Gulen links in Karlov assassination

We should not rush with any theories before the investigators establish who were behind the assassination of our ambassador, he said.

Officials from both Russia and Turkey had said after the murder that they would work for mutual relations not to be affected.

Russia has flown a team of 18 investigators and foreign ministry officials to Turkey to take part in the inquiry. Karlovs body and his family have been returned to Russia.

A senior Turkish government official told Al Jazeera on Monday that Turkey was focusing on possible links to what officials call the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO).

Possible Gulen links

The network, led by self-exiled Turkish Muslim leader Fethullah Gulen, is accused by Turkey of orchestrating the July 22 failed coup, and is seen by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a terrorist organisation.

Gulen has denied the accusations.

A Turkish official said on Tuesday evening that Mevlet Cavusoglu, Turkeys foreign minister, spoke to John Kerry, US secretary of state, by phone and provided information on the assailant.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Kerry was told that both Turkey and Russia know that the network led by Gulen was behind the attack.





Turkey is pressing the US to extradite Gulen to Turkey to stand trial for his alleged role in the coup attempt.

During the phone call, Kerry raised concerns about some of the rhetoric coming out of Turkey with respect to American involvement or support, tacit or otherwise, for this unspeakable assassination, John Kirby, Kerrys spokesperson, said.

It is a ludicrous claim, absolutely false, Kirby said.

Much of Turkeys media, both broadcast and print, has reported claims that the assassin had links to the Gulen network, including reports of Gulen literature being found in his home, and of him having studied at a Gulen-run school.

For his part, Erdogan, speaking in Ankara on Wednesday, said: There is no need to make a secret out of the fact [Altintas] was a member of FETO.

He said the assassination showed Gulen supporters were still present within the security forces.

I have to say this very clearly  this dirty organisation is still within the military, still within the police, Erdogan said.

We of course are continuing and will continue to carry out purges. We will do this with sensitivity.
Reward of 100,000 euros offered by Germany for information on Anis Amri, who had previously been under surveillance.

Germany has launched a Europe-wide manhunt for a violent and armed Tunisian man, saying that he is a suspect in Mondays Christmas market attack in Berlin.

A reward of 100,000 euros ($104,260) was offered on Wednesday for information leading to the arrest of the man, who allegedly used at least six names and three nationalities.

The suspect has been named as 24-year-old Anis Amri.

Amri was under covert surveillance for several months this year, German authorities said, but stopped watching him because they were unable to prove their suspicions.

A judicial source said Amri was then suspected of planning a robbery to fund the purchase of automatic weapons, Reuters news agency said.

His identification papers were reportedly discovered in the truck that struck the Berlin market.

This is a suspect, not necessarily the perpetrator, Thomas de Maiziere, Germanys interior minister, said after briefing parliaments domestic affairs committee.

We are still investigating in all directions.

Serious injuries

Twelve people were killed and 48 injured in the Christmas market attack, responsibility for which has been claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Twelve of the wounded were still being treated on Wednesday for very serious injuries and some were in critical condition, health officials in Berlin said.

De Maiziere would not give further details on the suspect, but committee members said Amri had spent time in pre-deportation detention.

A German security official said that authorities had considered him a possible threat previously and had been trying to deport him after his asylum application was rejected this summer.

Germany issued a notice to other European countries overnight seeking the arrest of Amri, but initially held off on going public so as not to jeopardise the manhunt.

After German media published photos of Amri and a partial name, federal prosecutors went public with the information.

Violent and armed

Federal prosecutors described Amri as being of average height and weight, with black hair and brown eyes.

Caution: He could be violent and armed! the federal prosecutors notice warned. A reward of up to 100,000 euros has been issued for information leading to the suspects arrest.

The suspect apparently arrived in Germany in July 2015 and has lived in three German regions since February, mostly in Berlin, said Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of western North Rhine-Westphalia.

Police in Berlin, meanwhile, said they had received more than 500 tips on the Monday evening attack.

READ MORE: Berlin attack  Community spirit and resilience prevail

Amri fled Tunisia to Italy after the 2011 revolution that overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisias longtime leader, and spent three years there before travelling on to Germany, a security official told AFP news agency.

Tunisian anti-terrorism police questioned Amris family in the North African country, the security source told AFP, adding that the man had been arrested in Tunisia for drug use.

When I saw the picture of my brother in the media, I couldnt believe my eyes. Im in shock, and cant believe its him who committed this crime, his brother Abdelkader Amri told AFP.

But if hes guilty, he deserves every condemnation. We reject terrorism and terrorists  we have no dealings with terrorists.





Amris sister, Najoua, said: I was the first to see his picture and it came as a total shock. I cant believe my brother could do such a thing.

He never made us feel there was anything wrong. We were in touch through Facebook and he was always smiling and cheerful.

Some politicians have blamed Chancellor Angela Merkels open-door migrant policy for making such attacks more likely.

The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has gained support in the past two years as Merkels popularity has waned, said on Tuesday that Germany is no longer safe.

Joachim Herrmann, Bavarian interior minister, told German radio there was a higher risk of attacks because of the influx of refugees and migrants in the past two years.

Sergey Lagodinsky, a Berlin-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera that Mondays attack places great pressure on Merkel, and that those on the right will be using and abusing this topic.

I would assume she will try and move to the right, and speak to the centre, he said.

This could be fatal for her if she does not find the right way. Her priority now will be to demonstrate herself as a security chancellor.
Obama made the move under an obscure provision of a 1953 law with no way for future presidents to roll it back.

The United States and Canada will freeze future oil and gas drilling in their Arctic waters, a move applauded by environmentalists but denounced by the energy industry.





The White House said on Tuesday that US President Barack Obama is making the most of the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea, bordering Alaska, off limits to offshore oil and gas leasing.

Canada, meanwhile, will make all Canadian Arctic waters no-go zones for energy drilling, but will review the decision every five years.

These actions, and Canadas parallel actions, protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other region on Earth, Obama said in a statement.

He noted that, even with high safety standards, the risks of an oil spill in the fragile and remote environment were too high.

Obama made the move under a provision of a 1953 law that allows the president to remove areas from offshore drilling, and there is no provision for future presidents to roll it back, US officials said.

Unique and vibrant ecosystems

The move aims to protect the incredibly unique and vibrant ecosystems, the interests of indigenous people, and to minimise oil spill risks.

Obama will also ban new oil and gas leases along the US Atlantic coast from New England to Virginia.

Sally Jewell, interior secretary, said the move would help support fishing and protect the marine resources of Alaska native communities.

READ MORE: Trump taps climate change denier to head EPA

She said it recognised the vulnerable marine environments in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, their irreplaceable ecological value, and the unique role that commercial fishing and subsistence use plays in the regions economies and cultures.

Greenpeace praised Obama and said he should do more to stop any new fossil fuel infrastructure that would lock in the worst effects of climate change.

We know now, more clearly than ever, that a Trump presidency will mean more fossil fuel corruption and less governmental protection for people and the planet, so decisions like these are crucial, spokesman Travis Nichols said.

Significant steps

David Miller, president and chief executive of World Wildlife Fund  Canada, called the actions significant steps toward the protection of the Arctics unique ecosystems.

He named ice-dependent wildlife  including polar bears, narwhal, seals, walrus, and beluga and bowhead whales  as some of the animals that will benefit.

The moves do not affect existing leases, and exclude one area near shore in the Beaufort Sea that is adjacent to existing leases, a senior US official said.

The decision should have minimal impact on US industry because little drilling is going on in the region and development is expensive and would take years, the official said.

But the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said the move was short-sighted and endangered national security.

READ MORE: Oil in the Arctic

Our national security depends on our ability to produce oil and natural gas here in the United States, API director Erik Milito said.

IPAA: Pres. Obama chose to keep our nations abundant energy supplies away from those who need it the most by keeping them in the ground. https://t.co/kmApnMUJkp  IPAA American Energy (@IPAAaccess) December 20, 2016

He claimed there is no such thing as a permanent ban and said the industry would work with the new administration to reverse it.

READ MORE: The Battle for the Arctic

The move seems designed to tie the hands of Obamas right-wing successor Donald Trump, who has named several officials close to the oil industry to his cabinet.

Trump picked a renowned climate change denier and fossil fuel industry defender last week as his top environmental official.
Yahya Jammeh reiterates he wont hand over power to President-elect Adama Barrow despite growing international pressure.

Gambias president has reiterated he will not step down despite losing the December 1 election, as West African leaders and Western powers urge him to hand over power peacefully.

Yahya Jammeh initially conceded defeat on state television after 22 years in power, but a week later, reversed his position, denouncing the election results and demanding a new vote.

Unless the court decides the case, there will be no inauguration on January 19, Jammeh said on Tuesday.

His political party has lodged a complaint with the Supreme Court to overturn the December 1 vote result.

READ MORE: Gambia president-elect Adama Barrow talks to Al Jazeera

Last week, Gambian troops took over the Independent Electoral Commission office in the capital, Banjul, and instructed its chairman to leave while barring other employees from entering.

Jammehs pledge to stay, which broadcast on state television, indicated a hardening of his position.

It came a day after President-elect Adama Barrow said he was ready to take office on January 18  the day Jammehs mandate ends.

I am not a coward. My right cannot be intimidated and violated. This is my position. Nobody can deprive me of that victory except the Almighty [God], Jammeh said.

No prosecution

Jammeh condemned West Africas regional bloc, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), for what he termed meddling in Gambias affairs.

The political crisis in Gambia will be settled internally and peacefully, Jammeh said, adding he would maintain his position of challenging the election result.

A spokesman for the opposition coalition that backed President-elect Barrow assured, on Tuesday, that Jammeh will not face prosecution on leaving office.

Jammehs government has been accused of detaining, torturing and killing opponents.

ECOWAS wanted to know whether the incoming administration plans to prosecute outgoing President Yahya Jammeh, spokesman Halifa Sallah said, after talks with ECOWAS on the peaceful transfer of power.

There is no indication of a threat [of prosecution] or the need to threaten outgoing President Yahya Jammeh.

President-elect Barrow says he is going to treat outgoing President Yahya Jammeh like a former head of state and would consult him for advice.

Backing the opposition candidate, French president Francois Hollande said the results of the December 1 polls were indisputable, and Barrow must be installed as soon as possible.

READ MORE: Gambians seek justice after a 22-year reign of terror

Last week, ECOWAS said Jammeh must step down when his term runs out and vowed to take all necessary action to enforce the results of the poll, without spelling out what those measures might be.

Jammeh, who came to power in 1994 as a 29-year-old army officer following a military coup, had won four previous polls.
Fears grow after Human Rights Watch reports at least 26 people killed in demonstrations as Joseph Kabila refuses to go.

Security forces in Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 26 demonstrators and arrested scores more amid growing protests against Joseph Kabilas hold on power, according to a human rights group.





Despite the bloodshed overnight, the situation was calm early on Wednesday.

The killings on Tuesday were the first reported since Kabilas mandate to rule ended on Monday at midnight after 15 years as president. He has refused to cede power until new elections are held, which may not happen until 2018.

Protesters set fire to the headquarters of the ruling party in the capital, Kinshasa.

Military and police forces fired live rounds, raising fears more people may have been killed, New York-based Human Rights Watch said.

Its researcher, Ida Sawyer, said on Twitter the killings took place in Kinshasa, the southern city of Lubumbashi, and elsewhere.

Residents also told the group Republican Guards were carrying out door-to-door searches and arresting young people. Authorities have also blocked most social media.

Political talks between the ruling party and opposition, which stalled over the weekend, were expected to resume on Wednesday with mediators from the Catholic church.

End of the match

Kabila, who took office in 2001 after his fathers assassination, is constitutionally barred from seeking another term, but a court has ruled he can remain in power until new elections, which have been delayed indefinitely. The poll was meant to be held in November, but the ruling party said it needs more time  until 2018, at least.

The leader of Congos largest opposition party, Etienne Tshisekedi, urged peaceful resistance to what he called Kabilas coup detat.

In a statement posted on YouTube on Tuesday, he called the presidents actions treason and appealed to the Congolese people and the international community to no longer recognise Kabilas authority.

The political impasse has fuelled fears of widespread unrest in the central African nation, which has vast natural resources but remains one of the worlds poorest and most unstable countries.

READ MORE: Congolese IDPs in North Kivu face Bulengo camp closure

Negotiations have stalled over a date for new elections and the release of political prisoners.

Both are key demands of the opposition parties, along with the dropping of criminal charges against opposition leader Moise Katumbi, who fled the country as authorities announced plans to prosecute him for allegedly hiring mercenaries.

Katumbis supporters say the charges are politically motivated.

Dozens of people were killed in September when the opposition took to the streets after the electoral commission failed to schedule the presidential election.

Western powers are nervous about a repeat of the conflicts between 1996 and 2003 that killed millions, drew in half a dozen neighbouring armies, and saw rebel fighters rape women en masse.

Congo has not experienced a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.
Perpetrator on the run after ramming truck through Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 and wounding dozens.

German police intensified a manhunt for the driver of a truck, who killed 12 people when he drove through a crowded Berlin Christmas market at high speed, while concerns about the political and social fallout mounted.

After releasing a Pakistani asylum-seeker arrested near the scene, authorities warned on Wednesday the attacker is on the run and may be armed. They also said it was unclear if the perpetrator was acting alone or with others.

The 25-tonne truck smashed into wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages, injuring about 45 people, many seriously. Six of those killed were Germans and the Polish driver of the truck was found shot dead in the cabin of the vehicle.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

German police were planning an imminent operation in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia related to the truck attack, security sources told the German press agency dpa on Wednesday.

The information came shortly after media reports said police were hunting for a Tunisian suspect in his 20s whose immigration papers were found inside the truck.

ISIL makes Berlin attack claim amid hunt for suspects

The head of the Association of German Criminal Detectives told German television late on Tuesday police hoped to make news arrests soon.

I am relatively confident that we will, perhaps tomorrow  or in the near future  be able to present a new suspect, Andre Schulz told a talk show on the ZDF public channel.





Wednesdays Passauer Neue Presse newspaper quoted the head of the group of interior ministers from Germanys 16 federal states, Klaus Bouillon, as saying tougher security measures were needed.

We want to raise the police presence and strengthen the protection of Christmas markets. We will have more patrols. Officers will have machine guns. We want to make access to markets more difficult, with vehicles parked across them, Bouillon told the newspaper.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will run for a fourth term next year, said it would be particularly repulsive if a refugee, seeking protection in Germany, was the perpetrator.

Some politicians have blamed her open-door migrant policy for making such attacks more likely.

The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has won support in the last two years as Merkels own popularity has waned, said on Tuesday that Germany is no longer safe.

Suspect in Berlin Christmas market attack released

Yascha Mounk, a lecturer at Harvard University and a Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy of the German Marshall Fund, told Al Jazeera Mondays deadly incident will have serious repercussions on the fabric of German society.

After the attack, things are going to get worse for ethnic minorities within Germany and much worse for establishment parties and politicians, said Mounk. I think we are now in a very dangerous political moment that will change the country.





He said Germans will associate foreigners with the attack, noting Merkels popularity has plummeted since she allowed hundreds of thousands of refugees into the country over the past two years.

The influx of refugees has already taken a huge toll on Mekels popularity  She has paid dearly for her moral courage, Mounk said. Without a doubt, we are going to see a real test to the German political system.

Backlash feared

The sole suspect, a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum-seeker, was released late on Tuesday for lack of evidence

ISILs Amaq website said a soldier of the Islamic State carried out the Berlin carnage.

Europe has been on high alert for most of 2016 with attacks striking France and Belgium.

Weve all been prepared that something like this could happen, so we were not surprised, said economics student Maximilian Much, 24.

READ MORE: Berlin attack  Community spirit and resilience prevail

The attack also raised concerns about a possible backlash.

No question, the atmosphere in this country will change and become more tense, said Tarik Elsayed, a 22-year-old German-born son of Egyptian parents. Of course, as an Arab, I will get more hostile looks, it will get only worse now.

But Tarek Elmasoudi, an Egyptian asylum-seeker, said he was not afraid. The Germans are very nice and I want to stay here.
Police in Jakarta kill three allegedly planning a suicide attack over the Christmas and new year period.

Indonesian police say three suspects who were planning a suicide bombing on Christmas Day or New Years Eve were killed when a gun battle erupted during a raid on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta.

It was the second imminent attack to be foiled in less than two weeks.

After Wednesdays raid, police said the suspects  supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant  had planned to stab officers at a traffic post and then detonate a large, homemade bomb as crowds gathered.

The intention was for a suicide bomb, national police spokesman Rikwanto, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, told a news conference.

OPINION: The returning jihad  ISIL in Southeast Asia

Every year, Christmas and new year events are the target of terrorists to carry out amaliyah, Rikwanto said, using an Arabic term to describe suicide bombings in armed group circles.

Police said a total of five bombs were found at the house in the South Tangerang suburb.





Television footage showed a bomb squad officer wearing a blast-resistant suit entering the house as locals watched from behind a police line.

Rikwanto said one suspect was captured alive after the firefight.

The raid was the latest in a series over recent weeks that police say have disrupted bomb plots, raising concerns that homegrown attackers in the worlds largest Muslim-majority nation are getting bolder in their attempts to engage in violence.

Police said earlier this week at least 14 people were being interrogated over suicide-bomb plots targeting the presidential palace in Jakarta and an undisclosed location on Java island.

Both involved a female suicide bomber.

OPINION: Islam and politics  Indonesias identity crisis

President Joko Widodo commended security forces for preventing attacks and called on the public to be vigilant against the spread of radicalism.

Indonesia has suffered several major strikes over the years, the worst of which was the 2002 bombing on the holiday island of Bali that killed 202 people, many of them foreigners.

That attack led to Western help and funding for Indonesia to develop an elite counterterrorism unit, which has been effective in stamping out armed-group cells.

Authorities, however, now worry about a resurgence in violence inspired in part by the ISIL group.

A gun-and-bomb assault in the heart of Jakarta in January killed four people and was the first attack in Southeast Asia claimed by ISIL.
President admitted last week to personally killing three men as mayor of Davao City during a gunfight in the 1980s.

The UNs human rights chief has urged Philippine authorities to investigate President Rodrigo Dutertes claims that he killed three people while mayor of Davao City, as well as the growing carnage in his war on drugs.

Since July when Duterte assumed the presidency, there have been 6,000 people killed in the governments anti-drug campaign  about one third died in police operations and the rest were killed by motorcycle-riding masked men and vigilante groups.

READ MORE: Duterte cites Hitler, wants to kill millions of addicts

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Husseins call for an investigation  made in a statement issued in Geneva on Tuesday  was sparked by Dutertes recent remarks that as a town mayor in southern Davao city in 1988 he killed three suspected kidnappers in a firefight while he was backed up by three police officers.

Philippine judicial authorities must demonstrate their commitment to upholding the rule of law and their independence from the executive by launching a murder investigation, Zeid said.

He added that its unthinkable for any functioning judicial system not to launch investigative and judicial proceedings when someone has openly admitted being a killer.

Dutertes allies in Congress said the president is immune from prosecution and cannot be investigated for actions allegedly committed before he assumed office.

INTERACTIVE: Philippines  Whos liable for the mounting death toll?

He can only face an inquiry after he is removed from power, they added.

In fact, then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had investigated such cases and came up with no actionable offences, said Congressman Rodolfo Farinas.

The president could only be impeached by acts or omissions committed as president.

Duterte previously threatened to withdraw the Philippines from the United Nations for its criticism of his drug crackdown, describing the world body as futile in the face of genocidal killings in other places.
About 12,500 people have been detained since state of emergency was declared in October in Oromia and Amhara regions.

Ethiopia says it is releasing nearly 10,000 people detained under its ongoing state of emergency but plans to charge almost 2,500 others accused of destabilising the country.

Authorities have held about 12,500 individuals since declaring the state of emergency on October 9 after months of anti-government protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions.

Human rights groups, which accused the government of using excessive force in the protests, said hundreds were killed in the demonstrations in some of the countrys worst violence since the ruling party came to power in 1991.

Under emergency rule, detainees could be sent to rehabilitation centres without charge, the government had previously said.

[The detainees] have been given lots of trainings that were meant to give them lessons so that they wont be part of the destructive trend that we have seen in the past, Zadig Abraha, government spokesman, said on Wednesday.

The state of emergency has brought about a tremendous change in the peace and security of the country. We have now returned to the status quo that we had before the violence.

The mass release began amid growing concerns for the health of those arrested and calls from the international community for the government to release political prisoners.

On Tuesday, Samantha Powers, US ambassador to the UN, in a tweet called on the Ethiopian government to release leaders of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused security forces of killing more than 500 people in the unrest since November 2015.

The government, which is led by the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front, has disputed that number but has denied UN requests for an international monitor.

Hailemariam Desalegn, Ethiopias prime minister, denied in October that the police used extreme violence against protesters, but vowed that the the government would investigate reports of excessive force.

The state of emergency included curfews, social media blocks, a restriction on opposition party activity, and a since-lifted ban on diplomats travelling more than 40 kilometres outside the capital without approval.

Year of protests

Ethnic Oromos initially took to the streets in Oromia to protest against proposed land seizures that would add to the area of Addis Ababa and force farmers from their land surrounding the city.

Protesters said the plan would also expand the capitals administrative control into the territory.

The demonstrations soon spread to the Amhara territory in the countrys north, where locals argued that decades-old federal boundaries cut off many ethnic Amharas from the region.

Protesters called on the government to end arbitrary arrests and respect regional autonomy and constitutional rights.

Demonstrators took to the streets with renewed passion following a stampede during a protest at a religious festival in the town of Bishoftu, around 40km south of Addis Ababa, on October 3.

WATCH: What is triggering Ethiopias unrest?

At least 52 people were crushed to death trying to flee when security forces fired tear gas into the crowd.

In the following days, protesters torched several mostly foreign-owned factories and other buildings which they claimed were built on seized land.

The unrest has been inflamed by underlying ethnic tensions. The Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups make up 60 percent of Ethiopias population.

Both groups say that the ruling coalition, which has been in power for a quarter of a century, is controlled primarily by the Tigray ethnic group, who accounts for only 6 percent of the countrys population.

Protesters have alleged that the majority population of the Oromos and Amharas has created a natural threat to the government, who they say has repressed them in response.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had urged Desalegn to allow for the protests and said police response should be proportional during a visit to Addis Ababa two days after the beginning of the state of emergency, which is expected to last through April.
Delta launches review after YouTube star says he was forced off plane with a friend after speaking Arabic on the phone.

An American social media celebrity says he was removed from a New York-bound plane in London with a friend after speaking Arabic on the aircraft.

Adam Saleh posted video of the incident on Wednesday to his Twitter feed.

Delta airlines kicked us out for speaking Arabic to my mom on a plane, Saleh tweeted.

By the time of publishing, a recorded clip he posted had been shared more than 300,000 times.

Were getting kicked out because we spoke a different language, Adam Saleh says in the clip. This is 2016. Delta airlines are kicking us out because we spoke a different language.

Addressing one his fellow passengers, he can be seen saying: I spoke a word [of Arabic], and you said you feel uncomfortable?

Real talk: Adam Saleh is obnoxious and I wouldn't be surprised if it is a prank BUT that doesn't discount this happening on the daily.  Sailor Mer(Kaye)ry (@gildedspine) December 21, 2016

Saleh had been due to fly from London to New York with his friend Slim Albaher.

Saleh said that they were later placed on another flight, having been re-checked by security.

Saleh is a YouTube star, with more than 1.5 million subscribers. Many of his videos feature him carrying out practical jokes.

Delta takes allegations seriously

A statement from Delta Air Lines, posted to its website, read: Two customers were removed from this flight and later rebooked after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort.

The airline has launched a review to understand what happened.

We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect, the statement continued.

If Adam Saleh was on a plane pranking just hours after a terrorist attack in Berlin, he deserved to be kicked off.  Rasha Al Aqeedi (@RashaAlAqeedi) December 21, 2016

In a final message before taking off, Saleh told his 257,000 Twitter followers that he would be visiting his lawyer when he arrives in New York, apparently over the incident that had just taken place.

Several people have been removed from planes over the past two years.

READ MORE: Muslims ordered off plane after ISIL accusation

In August, Delta removed a Muslim couple travelling from Paris to Cincinnati after a member of staff complained of feeling uncomfortable with them on board.

Also in August, British Muslim siblings were removed from an easyJet plane travelling from London to Naples after fellow passengers accused them of being members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group.

In November 2015, an American Muslim cited Islamophobia after being removed from a Lufthansa plane from Newark Liberty International Airport to Istanbul for further questioning.

https://twitter.com/HIMANSHU/status/811592339403788288

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American Relations, told Al Jazeera that the civil rights group was reaching out to all parties to investigate Wednesdays incident involving Saleh.

Were very concerned about reports of this kind. If the allegations are true, they fit a pattern of these kinds of incidents over the years, he said.

He said everybody just needs to use their common sense when it comes to security.

Despite world events, the world is a diverse place where people speak different languages, wear different attire and look different. Thats not justification for removing someone from a plane.

Follow Anealla Safdar on Twitter: @anealla
Legal battles and the shortage of drugs needed for lethal injection meant just five of 31 US states executed inmates.

The number of executions in the United States fell to a quarter-century low in 2016 as new death sentences plummeted, indicating that capital punishment is on the decline, a study released on Wednesday showed.

Twenty people were executed in the US this year  the lowest since 1991, according to the study from the Death Penalty Information Center, which monitors capital punishment.

While 31 US states have the death penalty, only five carried out executions in 2016. Georgia did the most with nine, while Texas was next at seven, it said.



How many innocent people has the US executed?

The number of new death sentences handed down in 2016 is expected to hit 30, a low not seen since the US Supreme Court declared existing death penalty statutes unconstitutional in 1972, it said.

That figure is down by more than 90 percent from a recent high of 315 in 1996.

Legal battles and a sales ban on execution drugs will likely hold down the number of state-sponsored killings next year, while the high costs of death penalty cases is set to keep capital punishment prosecutions down as district attorneys instead seek sentences of life in prison without parole, legal experts said.

America is in the midst of a major climate change concerning capital punishment, said Robert Dunham, the centres executive director and the report author.

Drug shortage stalls lethal injections

States have been scrambling to find execution drugs since European drug makers imposed a sales ban about five years ago over ethical concerns. The problem was exacerbated when pharmaceutical giant Pfizer imposed a sales ban this year, cutting off the last major US source of the killer drugs.

Ohio, which has executed 53 inmates since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, had a US judge this week delay plans to end its nearly three-year execution hiatus in 2017 to examine its drug procurement secrecy.

Capital punishment advocates have said expenses or drug shortages should not be a factor, arguing the death penalty is an instrument of justice and must used for those who deserve it.

Jordan Steiker, a University of Texas Law School professor and director of its Capital Punishment Center, said states looking to resume executions are going to face stiff legal challenges.

We are on a path toward constitutional abolition. The length of that path will be dictated by uncertainties concerning the Supreme Courts composition and how much the withering of the death penalty continues, he said.

READ MORE: Death penalty in US  New Mexico defies nations mood

However, the number of executions in the US could jump dramatically in the coming years depending on how a legal battle in California ends.

A ballot initiative approved by voters to speed up death penalty appeals was put on hold on Tuesday by the California Supreme Court to consider a lawsuit challenging the measure.

The court issued a one-page decision staying the implementation of all provisions of Proposition 66 and set a timeline for filing briefs that the court will consider before deciding to hold a hearing.

Proposition 66 would change how appeals are handled with the goal of expediting them so murderers are actually put to death. There hasnt been an execution in California for more than a decade, and 750 inmates remain on death row.

California has the highest number of death row inmates in the country.

The measure would appoint more lawyers to take cases, putting certain types of appeals before trial court judges and setting a five-year deadline for appeals to be heard.

Currently, it can take longer than that for an attorney to be assigned to a case and more than 25 years to exhaust appeals.

California voters faced two death penalty measures in the November election.

They rejected a measure that would have abolished it, and narrowly approved Proposition 66. That initiative also included a provision that would funnel a large portion of inmates meagre income to victims.
Abrupt move to break diplomatic relations condemned by Taipei as main rival China gleefully welcomes the decision.

Taiwan has condemned the tiny African nation of Sao Tome and Principes sudden move to break formal diplomatic ties with the self-ruled island, a decision that was warmly welcomed by rival China.

Taiwan regrets the Sao Tome and Principe governments abrupt and unfriendly decision, and condemns this action, a statement said on Wednesday.

Chinas foreign ministry said it welcomed Sao Tome back onto the correct path of the one China principle, according to which Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory.

However, the ministry did not say explicitly that China had now established relations with the former Portuguese colony.

READ MORE: Rocky Taiwan-China relations roil tourism industry

Just 21 countries and governments now have official ties with Taiwan. Most of the world and the United Nations do not formally recognise the island as a condition of maintaining relations with China.

Taiwans presidential office said Chinas use of Sao Tomes financial woes to push the one China principle will damage stability across the Taiwan Strait.





Beijing and Taipei have competed for allies for most of nearly seven decades since the end of Chinas civil war in 1949, when the defeated nationalist government fled across the Taiwan Strait and based itself on the island.

Tense relations

Relations between China and Taiwan have been tense since the December 2 telephone conversation between US president-elect Donald Trump and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen.

It was the first such contact with Taiwan by a US president-elect or president since Jimmy Carter adopted the one China policy in 1979 and broke off formal diplomatic relations with the island.

The Trump-Tsai call infuriated China, which accused Taipei of playing a trick and later warned Trump about challenging Beijing on the issue of Taiwan.

Chinas foreign ministry did not mention the call in its Wednesday statement, saying only that its one-China policy was the political foundation for China to maintain and develop friendly and cooperative relations.

Sao Tome and Principe is an island nation off the coast of central Africa, with a population of almost 200,000. The impoverished former Portuguese colony relies heavily on foreign aid.

OPINION: Trump era has Beijing on edge

Taiwanese Foreign Minister David Lee accused Sao Tome of demanding an astronomical amount of financial help, though he did not say how much. A Taiwanese foreign ministry statement accused Sao Tome of trying to gain a higher price by lingering on both sides of the strait.

As its economic, military and political clout has grown, China has become more successful in pulling away governments in an effort to diplomatically isolate Taiwan, though countries such as the US maintain strong unofficial ties with Taipei.

Washington is Taiwans most important political ally and sole arms supplier, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties.
Turkish military announces loss of 16 soldiers in clashes around Al-Bab town where fighting has intensified.

Clashes between Turkish-backed Syrian rebels and ISIL fighters have intensified around the northern Syrian town of Al-Bab, resulting in the deaths of 16 Turkish soldiers, the militarys highest single-day toll of its four-month campaign inside the country.

Wednesdays battles, in which another 33 Turkish soldiers were wounded and 138 ISIL members were also killed, were some of the deadliest yet in Turkeys Euphrates Shield operation in northern Syria, according to the army.

The operation to control Al-Bab, which is being besieged under the Euphrates Shield Operation, is ongoing, the army said in a statement.

The military had said earlier that rebel forces, which have been launching attacks on ISIL fighters in Al-Bab for weeks, had largely established control over the strategic area around the towns hospital.

Once this area has been seized, Daeshs dominance of Al-Bab will to a large extent be broken, it said in an earlier statement on Wednesday, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

Aleppo victory

ISIL was using suicide bombers and vehicle-borne explosives intensively, the Turkish military said.

Turkeys military was pressing on with the operation after its foreign minister and his Russian and Iranian counterparts said in Moscow on Tuesday that they were ready to help broker a deal to end Syrias almost six-year-old war.





The talks came as Syrian government forces neared their biggest victory in the conflict, closing in on the last rebel enclave in the city of Aleppo.

About 30 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the course of Euphrates Shield, which was launched to push ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, and a Kurdish militia away from Syrias border with Turkey.

Turkish air strikes on Wednesday destroyed 67 ISIL targets, the military said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported fierce clashes at the southwestern edges of Al-Bab, with some rebel advances there.

It said that Turkish air strikes in the area had killed seven people in Al-Bab and that 15 Turkish-backed rebels had been killed in fighting on Wednesday.

The Euphrates Shield operation is largely focused on combating ISIL, but Turkey is also determined to prevent the Kurdish YPG fighters, which it sees as a hostile force, from linking cantons it controls along the border.
ISIL claims the Christmas market attack in Berlin and the far right blames Chancellor Merkel for her refugee policy.

Germanys Christmas markets are world-renowned. But an attack in Berlin on Monday changed one from a scene of holiday cheer to one of death and destruction.

A truck rammed into crowds and stalls. Twelve people were killed, and 48 injured. And police scrambled to find the person responsible.

They arrested a Pakistani refugee, but released him through lack of evidence. Then they began to search for a Tunisian man whose ID was found in the truck.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group has claimed the attack, but its role remains unclear and unverified.

So what are the political and security ramifications from this latest atrocity?

Presenter: Sami Zeidan

Guests:

John Duke Anthony, founding president of the National Council on US-Arab Relations

Raphael Bossong, research associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs

Imad Khchifati, a Syrian refugee who was granted asylum in Austria
We explore how Salah Ed-Din unified the Muslim states and recaptured the holy city of Jerusalem from the crusaders.

The Crusades: An Arab Perspective is a four-part documentary series telling the dramatic story of the crusades seen through Arab eyes, from the seizing of Jerusalem under Pope Urban II in 1099, to its recapture by Salah Ed-Din (also known as Saladin), Richard the Lionhearts efforts to regain the city, and the end of the holy wars in 1291. Part one looked at the First Crusade and the conquest of Jerusalem. In part two, we explored the birth of the Muslim revival in the face of the crusades. And part three looks at the Battle of Hattin, Saladins siege of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade.

By 1164, almost seven decades had passed since the first crusaders arrived in the east. Their initial success had been crowned with the fall of the holy city of Jerusalem.

But within half a century, the Zengids, a Turkic dynasty ruling the northern Levant, took command of the Muslim revival and managed to recapture Edessa, the first crusader state founded in the east.

After this first big defeat for the crusaders, two powers set out to conquer Egypt in 1164. The troops of both, Nour Ed-Din Zengi and Amalric I, the crusader king of Jerusalem, fought for control of the Nile valley.

After years of struggle, Nour Ed-Dins Kurdish general, Shirkuh, managed to expel the crusaders from Egypt.

With Nour Ed-Din now in control of Egypt, the dream of reconquering Jerusalem seemed very close. But the mission of liberating the holy city was soon passed on to his Kurdish deputy in Egypt, Salah Ed-Din, the Ayyubid, known in the west as Saladin, who had succeeded his uncle, Shirkuh, as vizier.

Salah Ed-Din declared Egypts loyalty to the Sunni Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad, making it an integral part of the Zengid state. Now Egypt was large and strong enough to carry out Nour Ed-Dins grand plan to expel the crusaders.

In 1174, both Nour Ed-Din and the king of Jerusalem died. When a succession issue arose after Nour Ed-Dins passing, Salah Ed-Din set out from Egypt, heading for the Levant to eventually bring the Zengids under his command by force.

There was no doubt that Salah Ed-Din was the legitimate heir of Nour Ed-Dins mission. He came to Damascus specifically, even though he didnt need to. He made it his capital because he wanted to realise Nour Ed-Dins liberation plan, says Ibrahim Baidoun, Islamic history professor at the Lebanese University.

The two words jihad and Jerusalem were on the lips of all Muslims. And scholars in Damascus, Cairo, Aleppo, Mosul and all the Muslim cities were preparing the Islamic nation for a glorious day. by Muhammad Moenes Awad, professor of history at Sharjah University

Meanwhile, with King Baldwin IV, a leprous boy on the throne of Jerusalem, a struggle broke out among the nobility over who should be the regent. Raymond III, the count of Tripoli, took the prize and quickly signed a truce with Salah Ed-Din.

Salah Ed-Din realised the time was not yet right to fight the crusaders, so he entered into a truce with Raymond, the count of Tripoli, for 10 years, 10 months and 10 days, as it was the custom back then. He started putting his internal house in order, in view of the tense political situation at the time. It required Salah Ed-Din to go into battle against small warring princes for 33 months, says Qassem Abdu Qassem, head of the history department, Zaqaziq University.

For another eight years, Salah Ed-Din continued his efforts to reunite the territories of the Levant and Mesopotamia under his command. And when Aleppo finally surrendered, Salah Ed-Din became the mightiest ruler of the Muslim world  the Sultan of the Ayyubid state, a dynasty that ruled for another seven decades.

As the Muslim front was uniting, the King of Jerusalem faced problems controlling his vassals, who were endangering the truce with Salah Ed-Din.

Raynald of Chatilllon, who controlled Kerak Castle, allied with the Knights Templar, the most powerful and extreme of the crusader military orders. Their goal was to lay waste Islams most sacred sites  the Kaaba and the Prophets tomb in Hijaz.

Salah Ed-Din was able to thwart this attempt and it was regarded as a major religious achievement for the Muslims. Someone had attacked the holy Muslim lands, and they were protected by Salah Ed-Din who was gaining in fame and glory, says Mahmoud Imran, professor of European medieval history.

When King Baldwin IV died, the throne was passed to his sister. She married Guy of Lusignan who became King of Jerusalem in 1186.

The new king could not control his vassal nobles, who finally succeeded in destroying the kingdoms truce with Salah Ed-Din by brutally attacking and looting a commercial caravan.

Salah Ed-Din felt he had gathered enough troops, and that the time and military conditions were right, and the opposite was the case on the crusaders side. He thought it was the right time to start a war, says Imran.

The Battle of Hattin

In July 1187, Saladin mobilised his army, crossing the River Jordan into the heart of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Salah Ed-Din chose the time and place of the battle. If he could take the fight to the heart of Palestine, hed defeat the crusaders. So, he besieged the fortress of Tiberias. This was not an easy operation because the Kingdom of Jerusalem mobilised the biggest army since their arrival in the region in 1098, recounts Muhammad Moenes Awad, professor of history at Sharjah University.

The crusaders held a war council in Ain Safouriah, debating whether to wait for Salah Ed-Din to attack them or preemptively attack his troops. The crusader armies, under the command of King Guy of Lusignan, decided to march towards a decisive battle against Salah Ed-Din.





It was a fatal error which brought disaster to the crusader kingdom. They had to travel around 20 kilometres under the scorching July sun. They had no water and hadnt set up any supply lines, says Awad.

In his camp around Tiberias, Salah Ed-Din was waiting for the crusaders as they carelessly walked into the trap he had set for them. When the thirsty army finally camped at Hattin, Salah Ed-Din had already blocked the way to the only water source, the Sea of Galilee.

On July 4, 1187, the two parties confronted each other in a key battle considered to be the most decisive in The crusades history. By the end of the battle of Hattin, the vast majority of the crusader forces had been either captured or killed.

He smashes the Frankish army, he captures the king of Jerusalem, he seizes the True Cross. And this is the great military victory that will open the way to recapturing Jerusalem itself, says Jonathan Phillips, professor of history, University of London.

Salah Ed-Dins recapture of Jerusalem

Within two months of victory at Hattin, Salah Ed-Dins forces had taken most of the Levantine coast and, in September 1187, he arrived with his army before the walls of Jerusalem.

Saladin was famous throughout history for his generosity, his justice, and his ability to inspire his people. This earned him respect on the Christian side and Muslim side. by Jonathan Phillips, professor of history, University of London

After a 10-day assault on the city, Balian of Ibelin came out to meet Salah Ed-Din to offer unconditional surrender. On October 2, 1187, the Muslims entered Jerusalem peacefully.

The scene is a complete reverse of the bloody massacre of July 1099. The crusaders were allowed to leave. Noble families and commoners did so in a peaceful convoy without being harassed by the Muslims, says Qassem Abdu Qassem, head of history, Zaqaziq University.

Salah Ed-Din, the Kurdish officer, now the greatest Muslim Sultan, had liberated Jerusalem after 88 years of crusader occupation  fulfilling a dream he inherited from his master Nour Ed-Din Zengi.

However, newly liberated Jerusalem was not to be Salah Ed-Dins final target. In November 1187, he commanded his army to march to Tyre and put it under siege. But for two months the heavily fortified city held out.

Tyre was the sole harbour remaining in the hands of crusaders. And Tyre began to put pressure on Acre, and they imposed a siege on Acre that would last more than two years says Abdu Qassem.

The Third Crusade

The fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187 caused a seismic shock in Western Europe. The pope was said to have died when he heard the news. This is something that arouses Christendom in a way thats never happened before, says Phillips.

Europe mobilised its armies, and its three greatest monarchs set off towards the east: Frederick I, the Holy Roman Emperor known as Barbarossa; Philip II of France, known as Philip Augustus; and Richard the Lionheart, King of England.

All the brave kings and rulers of the west have to take the cross; they have to go to try to recover Jerusalem from the Muslims. This is whats known as the Third Crusade, arguably the greatest crusading expedition of the crusading age, says Phillips.

While Barbarossa died in Asia Minor on his way to the Holy Land, Philip Augustus and Richard the Lionheart arrived safely by sea. Their armies immediately joined the crusaders who had been besieging Acre for two years.

Unable to break the siege of Acre, the Muslims surrendered in July 1191.

Philip Augustus soon returned to France, leaving Richard the Lionheart in sole command of the Third Crusade. It was the spark that rekindled his dream of glory through the recapture of the holy city of Jerusalem.

He by Qassem

wanted to return home, but with a victory of some kind. That victory proved farfetched on the battlefield, so he thought he could realise it in the field of diplomacy.]

With his throne in jeopardy back in England, Richard the Lionheart established a truce with Salah Ed-Din, which became known as the Ramla reconciliation.

The Ramla reconciliation kept the situation as is. Richard was unable to change the military situation on the ground. The lands Salah Ed-Din had conquered remained under his control, while the crusaders only kept Tripoli, Antioch, which was already under their control, and had not been fought over, as well as Acre, which they had managed to capture, says Abdu Qassem.

After more than a year in the east, Richard the Lionheart returned to Europe without the keys to Jerusalem. Hence, the Third Crusade had ended in failure.

On March 4, 1193, Salah Ed-Din passed away, but he left a long lasting legacy.

The Islamic jihad movement led by Salah Ed-Din was able to defeat the best Latin troops and recover Jerusalem, the symbol of the long-standing struggle. But the problem was that Salah Ed-Dins successors were not of the same calibre, so the life of the crusaders settlements extended for almost another 100 years, says Abdu Qassem.
In the aftermath of a deadly attack on a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, UF students and professors with ties to Germany mourned the loss of life  while urging others not to blame the attack on refugees.

A tractor trailer crashed through a crowd at the market Monday night, killing 12 people and hospitalizing 48 others, some with serious injuries, according to CNN. German authorities had arrested a 23-year-old Pakistani refugee as a suspect Tuesday, but no proof linked him to the crime, and he was later released, The New York Times reported.

The Islamic State of Syria, also known as ISIS, released a statement Tuesday through its news agency describing the truck driver as a soldier, according to the Times. The group did not clarify who the driver was, if he was directly involved in the organization or if he was sympathetic to it.

Since 2005, about 20 UF students a year have travelled to Berlin for a two-week photography study-abroad program lead by John Freeman, a UF photography professor. Although the university has the ability to cancel study-abroad trips in unsafe areas, Freeman said he doesnt think the attack will affect future programs.

After a similar attack in Nice, Paris, last year, two students dropped out of the Berlin trip, but their spots were quickly replaced, he said. Freeman said he isnt afraid to return to a city hes previously lived in for three years.

Berlin has always been safe, he said. I wondered last year if all of the Syrian refugees might cause any issue for safety or concern in Berlin. We got there last year and everything felt absolutely the same as it had for the previous 11 years.

Students last travelled to Berlin in May and passed through the western part of the city, where the attack happened, he said.

I was heartbroken because the city has been through so much, Freeman said. This was like a punch in the gut.

When Jonathan Ortiz, a UF economics sophomore born in Germany, heard about the attack Monday night, he followed it on German and American news sites, he said. None of his family or friends were in Berlin, but he remembered going to similar Christmas markets when he lived in the country.

Ortiz, who lived in Germany for about 17 years, said the markets are unlike anything in America, packed with people shopping at small booths, eating candy and drinking hot mulled wine called Gluhwein. He said he was saddened when he realized the attack happened during one of Germanys Christmas traditions.

Its one of the best things about Christmas, he said. Especially around this time of year, its just so tragic that people go out and do these types of things.

Ortiz said as disheartening as the attack was, Germans should resist blanketing blame on foreigners in the country.

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The policy, implemented by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, allowed more than a million migrants and refugees to pour into the country.

I just think these sort of knee-jerk reactions are ridiculous, the 19-year-old said. It just doesnt make sense to get people riled up over things that you have no idea whether or not those were the facts

Ann-Kathrin Thiessen, a UF German graduate teaching assistant, wrote in an email that even if the Pakistani refugee committed the act, it does not reflect on other asylum seekers living in Germany.

There are always crazy people in this world who are willing to do horrible things, she said. That should not let us stop to help all the other people who (have to) flee their countries for various reasons.

Franz Futterknecht, a UF German professor who was born and raised in Germany, wrote in an email that the country's right-wing press will use the attack in Berlin to prove that immigrants are evil and criminal people.

Personally, I am as saddened about the mindless killings in Berlin as I was about the mindless killing in Nice, he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, third from left, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, fourth from left, and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, second from right, visit the site of the attack in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016, the day after a truck ran into a crowded Christmas market and killed several people.










ACTUALITES Nigeria: Au moins 12 enfants ont ete tues a l'occasion de l'anniversaire du prophete

Alwihda Info | Par Daily Trust - 21 Decembre 2016



At least 12 children were killed when a pickup van ran into a procession of students marking the birthday of Prophet Muhammad in a town in Gombe state yesterday.



The incident happened in Malam Sidi town 20 kilometres away from Gombe, the state capital.

A witness, who craved for anonymity, said the driver was coming from Gombe on a high speed when he lost control and ran into the Maulud procession.

The event was staged by hundreds of Islamiya School pupils some of whom came from neighbouring villages.

A witness said he counted about 20 corpses, adding that over 30 children were injured and taken to the Cottage Hospital in Malam Sidi.

He said angry mob killed the driver and set the vehicle ablaze before police arrived the scene.

Confirming the incident, the Gombe State Command Public Relations Officer, DSP Ahmed Usamn, said the accident occurred at 12 noon when a driver travelling alone in his car from Gombe to Bajoga lost control and ran into the children procession.

DSP Usman said eight were confirmed dead and 19 others were evacuated by the police medical team to Federal Teaching Hospital and Gombe Specialists Hospital for treatment.

He said the police had launched an investigation into the incident and that they were also on the trail of those that killed the driver and burnt the car.

The police spokesman added that the combined operation of military personnel and Mobile Police Rapid Response Unit has restored law and order and normalcy had since returned to the town.

Meanwhile the funeral prayer for 12 of the children that lost their lives was held around 5:00pm at the premises of the Cottage Hospital, Malam Sidi.

The medical officer-in-charge of the Cottage Hospital, Malam Sidi, Dr.Ibrahim Dawaki, told Daily Trust that 24 injured victims were brought to the hospital. He said 12 of them who were critically injured had been taken to Gombe for further medical attention.

Malam Muhammad, the father of one of the victims still receiving treatment at the hospital, narrated to Daily Trust how he learnt about the accident.

My son left home in the morning with other students from his school to join other neighbouring villages to attend the Maulud procession in Malam Sidi.

Around 12:30pm I was at home when information reached me that my son was involved in an accident. I quickly rushed to Malam Sidi devastated but fortunately he is not injured, he only got some bruises, he said.

According to Malam Muhammad Usman resident of Malam Sidi, he was at the road side watching the procession in which his seven-year old daughter was participating, when suddenly a car rammed into it.

My daughter was among the children in the procession when the driver lost control of his car and run into them. He marched many of them before he finally packed the car and attempted to run.

But he could not escape he was apprehended by angry mob who set both him and the car ablaze, Malam Usman explained.





Read more at http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/van-kills-12-children-in-gombe-maulud-procession/177013.html#CgahQoUd81ehsAhH.99





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English News Normalization of China-Norway ties indicates basic diplomatic principles

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 21 Decembre 2016



The ups and downs China-Norway ties over the past years have showcased the basic principles of international relations. Mutual respect, equality and care for each other's core interest and major concerns are the basis for any bilateral relationship to be healthy.

By Zhong Sheng from Peoples Daily China and Norway issued a statement on the normalization of ties during Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brendes visit to Beijing on Monday, which marks that the bilateral ties return to a right track after Norway has made explicit commitment on how to deal with future relations with China.



China-Norway relations deteriorated since the Oslo-based Nobel Committee conferred the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, a jailed Chinese dissident. Liu was sentenced to jail due to engagement in activities designed to overthrow the government.



Such disregard of Chinese law and interference of China's internal affairs received a strong protest from Chinese government and people, arousing wide-spread criticism among the international community.



Under such circumstance, Chinese government chose to safeguard its core interest and the fundamental principles of modern international relations.



China and Norway used to share a sound relationship. On January 7, 1950, Norway became the second Western country to acknowledge the People's Republic of China. Thirteen years later, the two countries signed a cultural agreement, which was the first one of its kind between China and a Western country.



Norway recognized China's market economy status in 2007 and initiated negotiations on free trade agreement with China in 2008. In addition, the Arctic Yellow River Station, China's only arctic research station, is located in Ny-Alesund, Spitsbergen Archipelago of Norway.



However, Norway's negligence of China's core interest and major concerns six years ago led to a stall of bilateral cooperation. All those who cherish the China-Norway ties felt the pain due to the damage of political conflict.



Six years later, the Norwegian government chose to meet China halfway with sincerity, making it possible for the two to usher in a new chapter of bilateral ties.



Norway's commitment is the premise of the resumption of China-Norway relations. In the joint declaration on Monday, Norway promises to adhere to the one-China principle, to respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, to highly value China's core interest and major concerns and oppose the practices violating them, and to prevent damages of bilateral ties in the future.



China has protected its core interest during the past years. Meanwhile, the resumption of a bilateral relationship is also in line with the national interest of Norway. Aiming high in dealing with foreign affairs, Norway relies heavily on external cooperation for its domestic economic development. It spells a loss for Norway if it misses the opportunity to cooperate with China.



The ups and downs China-Norway ties over the past years have showcased the basic principles of international relations. Mutual respect, equality and care for each other's core interest and major concerns are the basis for any bilateral relationship to be healthy.



With the aim to seek sound relationships with every country, China has always shown generosity when dealing with international affairs. However, China has vowed its determination in safeguarding its bottom line on the issues related with its core interest and major concerns.



As long as Norway keeps its promise to promote cooperation with China and to benefit the two peoples, the two countries will enjoy a sound development of bilateral ties in the future.





Dans la meme rubrique : < > China enhances efforts to promote biodiversity conservation China stress its commitment to push ahead peace and development for humanity at 20th CPC National Congress CPC's governance experience is worth learning from Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)
President-elect Donald Trump has suggested he wants to impose 45% retaliatory tariffs on China and other trading partners if they cheat on their obligations. To find examples of cheating, he could do worse than to look at China's payment card market.

The People's Bank of China's recent directive to Chinese banks not to renew China UnionPay cards cobranded with foreign networks, such as Mastercard and Visa, forcefully reminds us that China isn't living up to the letter or spirit of its 2001 World Trade Organization commitment to completely open up its domestic payment card market by 2006.

China played the U.S. Trade Representative, as well as both the Bush and Obama administrations, for fools. The central bank's directive aims to further disadvantage foreign networks.

Payment networks and processors created and domiciled in the U.S., for the moment, rule the roost. But they only have toeholds in China, the world's second-largest electronic payments market.

By administrative decree in 2002, the PBOC established China UnionPay  which is owned by banks, the largest of which are state-controlled  as a national card-network champion. The central bank requires that payment cards processing renminbi transactions be cleared through CUP. Moreover, the PBOC establishes system rules and price controls. Both the current and previous chairmen, as well as the current vice chairman of CUP, are all PBOC alumni.

Yet it took a while for U.S. officials to speak up about China's payment card protectionism. The USTR's 2007 report on China's WTO compliance didn't even mention the payment network market. U.S. networks didn't complain because they feared retaliation and believed that playing nice could earn preferential access.

In 2010, the U.S. finally brought a WTO action against China for flouting its 2001 payment card commitment. In 2012, the U.S. substantially prevailed and China said it wouldn't appeal. Nevertheless, there still hasn't been a single domestic Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover or JCB transaction in China.

Trump should act early in 2017 to direct tariffs towards China's foreign payment card policy. U.S. card leaders  Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover  are household names. Doing so would therefore be a high-profile way to make the point with American voters and the Chinese government that he was serious about fair trade policy and about responding to countries that do not honor their obligations.

The payment network industry is also the perfect sector in which to retaliate. Unlike other industries where disputes with China are over industries' cost bases or the appropriate exchange rate, which are almost always subject to debate, China's exclusion of U.S. payment networks for the last decade and a half is black and white.

In stark contrast to American networks trying to compete in China, CUP and Chinese e-commerce and mobile commerce titans Alipay and Tenpay have unfettered access to the U.S. market. CUP and Alipay are building U.S. acceptance. No Washington regulator has instructed banks not to issue CUP cards.

Just as open and fierce payment network competition benefits American consumers, merchants and banks, it would be good for Chinese consumers, merchants and banks, albeit not CUP.

In November 2014 the PBOC established a standards hurdle for foreign networks, mandating "PBOC 3.0"  a security protocol performing the same function EMV does in the rest of the world.

In April 2015, China announced it would establish a licensing regime for foreign payment networks to compete for domestic transactions. Wall Street hailed Mastercard's and Visa's revenue opportunity. Finally, in June of this year, the China Banking Regulation Commission announced network licensing rules. With a straight face, the central bank declared, "In the future, there will be  many bankcard brands competing on a level playing field." But the "future" was due more than a decade ago. Neither Mastercard nor Visa has yet applied for a license.

The Chinese government is still stonewalling. The longer Trump lets that continue, the harder it will be for American networks to win business in China.

If and when foreign networks obtain genuine access to China's domestic payments market, huge competitive challenges will remain. It's not 2001 when US networks might well have conquered the market. But without access, foreign networks have no chance in China. Even with unfettered access it will be a long, hard slog for them to match CUP acceptance in China and persuade banks to issue and promote their products for domestic use.

China has flagrantly ignored its payments trade obligations. If the Trump administration wants to compel fairer trade policies, the electronic payments market would be a good place to start.

Eric Grover is principal at Intrepid Ventures, a corporate development and strategy consultancy advising payment issuers, networks and processors, and other payments companies.
New York Community in Westbury will clearly get bigger with its purchase of Astoria Financial, but will it be any better off?

The $49 billion-asset company has long wanted a significant acquisition to make the leap and become a systemically important financial institution. Adding the $15.2 billion-asset Astoria certainly accomplishes that goal.

Some have been quick to call the acquisition a transformative deal, but it is equally easy to argue that the $2 billion purchase doesn't qualify since it merely adds size without expanding the buyer's geography or meaningfully diversifying its product mix. From that perspective, the company might have missed out on a rare opportunity to reinvent itself and move away from its reliance on multifamily lending.

Such concerns surfaced during a Thursday conference call to discuss the deal's mechanics, when Collyn Gilbert, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, openly wondered if Astoria was the right partner at the moment for New York Community.

"How did you guys balance buying another real estate centric company versus something that is more diversified?" Gilbert asked. "It just seems like an odd time to me to get even more concentrated on real estate assets."

Joseph Ficalora, New York Community's president and chief executive, gave a response that focused on familiarity.

"We have a very high level of confidence with regard to the kind of product that we are in fact inheriting in this transaction," Ficalora said. "You have a really good asset that is not likely to lose money or is less likely to lose money than the alternative assets.  More of a good thing in a bad time is certainly good to have."

Ficalora also asserted that buying Astoria would make for an easier integration and provide more low-cost deposits. "It is a straightforward business model," he said, adding that his company plans to shed nonperforming assets and "higher-risk loans" to proactively address concerns about credit quality.

By buying a bank similar to itself, New York Community should understand the underwriting and may have a clearer path to regulatory approval, some industry observers said.

Bob Ramsey, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, took issue with the pricing, noting that New York Community is paying about 1.5 times Astoria's tangible book value and about 30 times the seller's earnings per share. That seems high  most deals are closer to 20 times earnings  especially since most of the deal accretion will come from cost-cutting and an aggressive restructuring of New York Community's balance sheet, he said.

"New York Community has always done well when it has stuck to its game," Ramsey said. "The issue is more with price. I'm surprised New York Community is paying as much as they are for Astoria."

Ficalora said during the conference call that the company was likely to cross the $50 billion threshold in the second quarter of next year, absent an acquisition. Getting increasingly closer to the SIFI threshold could have motivated Ficalora to finally pull the trigger on a big deal.

New York Community, which would have nearly $64 billion of assets, said it expects to complete the acquisition by December 2016. Ficalora said during Thursday's call that his team had been in "extensive dialogue" with regulators for several years as the company neared $50 billion in assets.

It is likely that the company's timeline was influenced by the fact that deals, such as M&T Bank's purchase of Hudson City Bancorp, have taken a long time to gain regulatory approval, said Craig Miller, a lawyer at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. "You can always exceed expectations, but it is better not to fall short of them for shareholders," he said.

An acquisition of this size is likely to face additional scrutiny, Miller said. Compliance with Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering laws, opposition from community groups and capital management are typically the biggest sticking points in getting approval, he added.

The expected closing date isn't particularly far out, given the various moving parts, Ramsey said. Not only is the deal large, but New York Community is looking to prepay roughly $10 billion of wholesale borrowings this quarter.

New York Community is addressing capital concerns with plans to raise $650 million. A reduced dividend is planned to help offset dilution tied to the planned stock offering, management said during the conference call.

New York Community and Astoria have likely vetted each other already to make sure there are no lurking regulatory issues, especially over BSA or anti-money laundering compliance, industry experts said. Still, they are likely to face pressure from community groups.

"There's always a reaction from community groups," Ramsey said. "There's no reason to believe this will be any worse or different."
U.S. Bancorp in Minneapolis has promoted Beth McDonnell to chief marketing officer.

The $448 billion-asset company announced McDonnell's promotion on Tuesday and it did not identify who previously held the position. McDonnell will be based in Minneapolis.

McDonnell "will push us to continue to be our customers' most trusted choice and carry our brand far into the future," Kate Quinn, chief strategy and reputation officer, said in a news release.

McDonnell joined U.S. Bancorp in 2014 as head of brand strategy and reputations. She will now oversee all corporate and business line advertising and marketing initiatives, and lead all brand, reputation, social and sponsorship activities.

McDonnell previously was vice president of brand, advertising and marketing at Anthem, a health insurance company in Indianapolis.
Concerns that not all of the unions will agree to ratify their labor agreements have caused rail shippers and other transportation industry stakeholders to push President Joe Biden to act.
Taking a long historical view, the videotaped assassination of Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is disturbing for more reasons than its public and shocking nature. Few modern nations have fought as frequently or as viciously as the Russians and the Turks, and you do not have to be a historian to understand the role assassinations have played in provoking conflict. While right now it seems unlikely that Karlovs murder will result in an open clash between Russia and Turkey, it is hardly something to discount, and reemphasizes the fraught situation that will face president-elect Trump when he takes the reigns from his largely feckless predecessor.

At least the historical animosity and tension between Russia and Turkey is not Obamas fault. Between the 16th and 20th Centuries the Turks and Russians have fought a dozen times, most recently during World War I. Russia views Istanbul, the Bosporus, the Dardanelles, and even Anatolia itself within its sphere of influence, if not former imperial territories. Russia sees itself as the rightful heir of Byzantium (which by many historical measures it legitimately is.) That empire controlled those aforementioned places until the Turks finally conquered Constantinople in 1453. It is hardly an accident that the first Russo-Turkish war erupted little more than a century later. Thus, taking a very long historical view, it might be said the Russians and the Turks have been fighting since the 11th Century, when the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert. That battle was fought very near modern-day Syria. The Seljuk Sultan Arp Arslan marched from Aleppo, a quite modern battlefield, not far from where Russian and Turkish forces sit today near Syrias northern border.

While ultimately the succeeding Ottoman Turks completely defeated the Byzantines, most of the subsequent Russo-Turkish wars went in Russias favor, as the Ottoman Empire weakened and eventually collapsed. Those conflicts, though relatively far from Western Europe, greatly interested the major powers there, provoking questionable interventions (as in the Crimea) and campaigns (as in the Dardanelles in World War I.) Those cautionary tales bear remembering today.

The assassination of an ambassador is no small thing, though perhaps you would not know it from the Obama administrations negligence in protecting its ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens or the subsequent falsification of the causes for the murder. A less recent but perhaps more apt example of how these things can spin out of control is the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador to Britain by Palestinian-Arab terrorists in 1982. That served as a casus belli for the Israel invasion of Lebanon allowing the Israelis to rout the PLO and dismember Syrian forces stationed there. While things went well for Israel at first, the subsequent Lebanese quagmire, in which Hizballah replaced the much less capable PLO, ultimately worsened Israels position.

Vladimir Putins response to the assassination has so far been measured, and Russias reaction will likely be something between the flaccid approach of the Obama administration and the extremely aggressive Israeli one. Conventional wisdom suggests that the attack is as much against the Turkish government as it is Russia, as the two countries have steadily improved relations since the nadir reached in the wake of the Turkish shootdown of a Russian warplane in November 2015. After shooting Karlov, his killer ranted about Russias role in the Syrian civil war, to which the Turks have of late, offered little if any opposition. Putin arguably would be playing into the hands of those that oppose him in Syria by allowing the attack to undermine improving Russian relations with Turkey.

Still, one cannot discount the possibility that Putin will take advantage of the situation to aggrandize Russias position in the region even further. Along with the airplane shootdown, the assassination of Karlov will take its place in a catalogue of insults that Putin might -- with an unforeseeable future event -- use to justify some sort of direct military action against the Turks.

Were something like this to occur, or if Putin should act more aggressively than seems likely at this point, Turkey could invoke the Atlantic Charter and call on NATO for support. That would be a risky gamble for Putin, but much less so than in the past. American political, military and diplomatic influence in the region since the end of World War II has probably never been lower, thanks in large part to the policies and incompetence of the Obama administration. The 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, for example, is a shadow of its former self.

Whether Putin has much to fear from Donald Trump, who has been conciliatory to the Russian leader, and somewhat dismissive of NATO, is a great unknown. Perhaps Russian intelligence has a better idea than most of the rest of us. Not because they put Trump in office as hysterical Democrats would have it, but because they are good at what they do.

The assassination of Karlov is highly unlikely to lead to war in the short term, but should American influence in the region continue to wane, and with a militarily weak Europe preoccupied with existential internal problems, there remain a world of possibilities open to a man of Putins intellect and daring. And he has a good bit of history on his side.
The conversation on the nomination of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions is a good indicator that the left learned nothing from the 2016 election. Race-baiting is their bread and butter, and it will continue to shape their politics going forward. This much is clear.

I hope all Americans, whatever their political affiliation, continue to reject it as emphatically as they did in the last election.

As a Hispanic myself, I am ashamed by the phoniness of it all. A recent Fox News op-ed piece started out making the Jeff Sessions is a racist charge by making fun of the distinguished senators name. The name Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III sounds like a character in a Civil War drama, was the first sentence of Raul Reyes piece. How ironic and embarrassing.

But here is the good news. The lefts lies have caught up with them. Calling every Republican a racist does not work anymore. Thats how they derailed Jeff Sessions judicial nomination in 1986, despite what the clear evidence showed. However, it wont work this time.

They want to define a man based on some off-the-cuff comment, while ignoring an entire lifetime of public service because he disagrees with them on policy.

The reality is that for more than 40 years, since he first served in the United States Army Reserve in 1973, Sen. Sessions has served the American people with distinction.

He spent two years as Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama (1975-1977) and then served for 12 years as the United States Attorney for Alabamas Southern District (1981-1993). He was then elected Alabama Attorney General in 1995, serving until being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1997, where he has served ever since.

Others have written about his positive record in several civil rights cases. Liberal publications, like the Atlantic, have had to admit the facts, even as they try to do their part to spin the record according to the lefts marching orders.

The Atlantic does not dispute that Sessions, brought the first anti-voter suppression lawsuit in the history of the Department of Justice, in the 1983 case U.S. v. Conecuh County, when Sessions sued white Conecuh County election officials, including the Chair of the local Republican Party. Sessions is indeed listed on the filing, they admit. But then they try to minimize his involvement because he was not the lead in the case. They try to do the same with other cases, like U.S. v. Dallas County Commission, where Sen. Sessions helped the civil rights cause.

Thats when you know facts do not fit the narrative they are trying to create. Even the ultra-liberal Salon had to acknowledge some of the facts, running this headline: Calling Jeff Sessions racist conveniently ignores the work hes done for Alabamas black community, highlighting yet another part of the rich history of compassion in public service that Sen. Sessions has not only talked about, but lived.

Sessions stellar record was highlighted in a powerful letter by former attorneys general, including Ed Meese, William Barr, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, and Michael Mukasey. They wrote:

Senator Sessions has been intimately involved in assuring that even as the Department combats the scourge of illegal drugs, the penalties imposed on defendants do not unfairly impact minority communities.  As the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, Senator Sessions worked hard to protect vulnerable victims, particularly children.

It is why prominent civil rights figures have come out to support him, despite the incredible pressure to conform to the left, which media allies always put on minority leaders to toe the line.

Alabama Democratic Senate minority leader Sen. Quinton Ross said, Weve spoken about everything from Civil Rights to race relations, and we agree that as Christian men our hearts and minds are focused on doing right by all people.

Dr. Alveda King, niece of the great civil rights leader and reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., defended Sessions and said, Playing the race card used to work because nobody could find out the truth behind the matter.

Amen to that. The charges of racism from the left are hollow to the core. They have actually hurt the cause of civil rights, and I hope the American people continue to reject them by supporting the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be our next U.S. attorney general.
Is there a neurological or psychological reason that explains the left's complete meltdown at losing an election, compared to the Right's historic general acceptance of loss? Since Donald Trump's upset win on November 8th, a vast number of angry voters on the Left have become unhinged, delusional, depressed. And they act out, like spoiled children when they do not get the toy they want. Many of our elite media left remain, like Ken Burns, in a "fetal position."

When Barack Obama won his second term, conservatives were distraught about the certainty that the damage already done by Obama would continue for another four years. Obamacare would continue to destroy what was once the best health care in the world. The EPA would continue to destroy jobs and businesses with pride and glee, without a moment's thought for those devastated by their thousands of new regulations.

Iraq was already a disaster because, by removing all US troops, Obama left it as an open invitation for Al Qaeda and ISIS to take over. Libya was gone, our ambassador dead. Syria was being systematically destroyed by its own barbaric leader. Samantha Power, who once passionately opposed genocide sat by quietly for years as Assad continued to murder his own people by any means, no matter how inhumane. Obama, despite his "red line" threat, did nothing. So subservient to Iran, he did nothing to stop the murder of all Christians in the Middle East. Conservatives knew it was going to be bad and it was. But they never acted like the sore loser Left we have been seeing and reading these past six weeks. The Right did not try to overturn the election by threatening and stalking the electors.

From the top of the legacy media chain, the New York Times, Washington Post, New Yorker, CNN, MSNBC, there is nothing but anger and accusations. Someone must be blamed for their loss and it must not be their candidate. No way. There has to be a nefarious, outisde-of-the-campaign cause. It was Comey, it was Russia, it was Wikileaks. They never address the fact that Comey would never have been part of the problem if Clinton had not operated an illegal private server for her State Dept. business. They don't want to discuss the content of those Podesta emails, leaked by someone who gained easy access to them, probably too easy for Russia -- most likely an inside job. If the CIA knows, it is not telling. It "concludes" but reveals no evidence. But Hillary was at 48% before the Wikileaks and she lost at 48%. She was an awful candidate who, like most of the Left, has nothing but contempt for a majority of the American people, especially those who would even consider voting for Trump. So graceless is Hillary Clinton, she cannot bring herself to admit she lost due to her own failures. She took far too many voters for granted; she never gave them a thought and has not for decades.

There is an abyss between how the Left and the Right accepts loss. What explains this? The Left will produce countless "studies" that "show" they have bigger brains, are a more advanced species and that conservatives are truly mentally impaired. That is what they do. Nothing makes them feel better than demeaning their ideological opponents on pseudo-intellectual grounds.

Everyone knows it is the self-appointed morally superior Left that is behind the tyrannies of multiculturalism, political correctness, a genderless society, man-made global warming, the promotion of homosexuality and gay marriage, the crusade against all religions but Isalm, the most violent and intolerant faith on the planet. Not all Muslms are violent and intolerant of course, but 99% of all terrorist acts are committed by radicalized Muslims. And the Left's knee-jerk response is to protect the jihadis and blame the Right for their crimes.

The Left loved Castro, and Stalin and Mao -- they still do. What explains that? It seems sheer moonbattery to anyone on the Right. They were psychopathic killers, each of them. Castro killed tens of thousands of his own people, imprisoned and tortured countless others. And still he is a hero of the Left. Now that he is dead, his brother is doubling down on the repression that is the blighted island's history since 1959. Obama's "opening" has improved exactly nothing for the Cuban people.

There is a huge disconnect between how the Left and the Right see the world, America, and people, especially those who do not embrace the same rigid anti-values they do. The results of this election have broken up families and friendships and it is the people on the Left who break up with those who voted for Trump. Tis a mystery.

We live in the greatest, most successful, least racist, most sane, welcoming and productive country on the planet. The Left should get with the program and stop being the sorest losers ever. They should stop melting down and shaming the 62 million people who voted for Trump. He just might be a great President.
The time has come to reassess, readdress, and readjust the course of action in Western foreign policy in respect with Iran.

Last years nuclear deal between the international community and Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has proven flawed on the global position over human rights and worldwide security.

In fact, after the JCPOA signing and subsequent United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, various institutions, member states, companies, NGOs, think-tanks by the hundreds, especially from Europe, have engaged in an unprecedented competition in reaching out to Iran by signing hundreds of MOUs and declarations of intent while negotiating in practically every field of economic activity. This trend is continuing with Shell risking political unknowns and signing a preliminary oil agreement with Tehran.

The JCPOA has proven to be the best opportunity for those who have vested interest in a supposedly lucrative Iranian market, to spread a distorted and manipulated narrative about the true nature of the Iranian regime.

According to this flawed account, Rouhanis Iran is no longer considered a threat to international or regional stability. Senior European Union representatives, heads of government, and ministers put aside all concerns and remained silent when the very same Iranian officials they meet are seen threatening the Wests allies in the Middle East, supporting international terrorism, violating human rights and being involved in crimes against humanity in Syria, Iraq and across the region.

We also should not forget Irans support for the Lebanese Hizballah and Shiite militias, organized, financed, and led by senior Revolutionary Guards commanders. These proxy groups are active in the ethnic cleansing of Sunni communities and religious minorities in Mesopotamia and the Levant, as we have so unfortunately witnessed recently in Aleppo.

This is the reality and absurdity of this engagement policy with Iran and every official in this regime.

Such an approach has emboldened the mullahs to a tremendous extent. It has reinforced their conviction that Iranian supremacy in the region and crackdown of all dissent at home is fully acceptable to their Western interlocutors.

Citizens of the West should remind their leaders, civil societies, journalists and media networks, of their responsibilities. We are all morally obligated to support the promotion of human rights throughout the world.

What is the practical action that the West in general should undertake with Iran? Underscore human rights and fundamental freedoms, and very importantly, include in all agreements on trade and cooperation with Iran a clause on human rights. This standpoint stipulates that human rights are central to Tehrans relations with the West.

While the West has been busy reaching out to normalize relations with Iran, the mullahs in Tehran have reacted quite strangely, coldly to say the least. Important voices within the regime have actually expressed their distaste:

If the E.U. wants to establish close contacts with human rights advocates so they can ensure the process of human rights implementation, they should know that the judicial system in Iran would definitely not allow such a nest of corruption to be established in Iran, said Mohammad Javad Larijani, head of the Iranian Judiciary Human Rights Council, said in relation to the EU opening a branch office in Tehran.

Concerning the human rights situation in Iran, time and again the United Nations secretary-general has issued damning reports expressing grave concerns about the mullahs practices, and there is no need for elaboration.

The international community should end its policy of providing concessions to the regime in Iran. Silence in the face of the Iranian regimes crimes inside the country and throughout the Middle East must come to an end. The Iranian peoples quest for freedom deserves respect.

Even for those seeking relations with the mullahs, the issue of respecting human rights should be a central subject in meetings and agreements on aid and economic trade relations with Iran.

Any further economic or political progress involving the Iranian regime must be firmly linked to a credible improvement of the human rights situation. Otherwise, this will only render human rights a victim of trade and realpolitik.
For months, we listened as the polls, the media, and the general public opinion all vocally favored Hillary Clinton to win this years presidential election. The transition was already starting to happen, and even the most confident Trump supporters couldnt help but start preparing for a loss. Yet, Trump ended up with 306 pledged electoral college votes to Clintons 232. It wasnt the biggest landslide in election history, but it was an unprecedented margin of victory for a candidate that was almost written off.

But was this a fluke? Was it the strange alignment of random variables that allowed this to happen, or was Donald Trump destined to win from the beginning?

The What-If Scenarios

Since being confronted with the elections surprising results, liberals and media figures have been scrambling to pinpoint a root cause for the upset, as if it was some single trigger that caused a reversal of momentum. These people have been playing out various what-if scenarios to uncover what, if anything, could have gone differently.

For example, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid recently suggested that the FBI Director James Comeys actions during the election were responsible for both the presidential and congressional election outcomes. Comey ignored intelligence of Russian interference, and arguably mishandled the investigation of the Clinton email scandal. Had he not taken these actions, Clinton would have had a stronger lead.

One of the biggest reasons why Donald Trump won was his specific targeting of older, working-class white males, a strong but neglected demographic. Had Clinton made more of an effort to target and relate to these people, some commentators hold, he might not have had as strong of an edge.

But these what-if stories dont stand even as hypothetical scenarios; the truth is, almost nothing could have stopped the Trump victory.

Natural Progressions

With enough information, anything can be predicted. Even death, an event thought to be surprising and unpredictable, can be statistically pinpointed to some degree with the right information. And sure enough, some sources accurately predicted that Trump was going to win the election, after examining those statistical factors. For example, the strongly left-wing Michael Moore predicted Trumps victory fairly accurately before the election results were even announced.

So what factors were responsible for Donald Trump becoming unstoppable?

White male response . After eight years of a black president and the prospect of a woman president, white males felt robbed of power and fought back to try and retain it. Not all white male voters voted for this reason, but the effect was large enough to have a substantial bearing on turnout and decisions of swing voters.

. After eight years of a black president and the prospect of a woman president, white males felt robbed of power and fought back to try and retain it. Not all white male voters voted for this reason, but the effect was large enough to have a substantial bearing on turnout and decisions of swing voters. Voter apathy . Many Democrats who favored Bernie Sanders were too depressed or too outraged to get out and vote. Other Democrats voted for third-party candidates due to their dislike of Clinton. Even Clinton supporters stayed home instead of voting due to their perceived margin of victory. Too few voters showed up to give the Democrats a chance.

. Many Democrats who favored Bernie Sanders were too depressed or too outraged to get out and vote. Other Democrats voted for third-party candidates due to their dislike of Clinton. Even Clinton supporters stayed home instead of voting due to their perceived margin of victory. Too few voters showed up to give the Democrats a chance. Clintons reputation . Once Hillary Clinton was chosen, the Democrats fate was sealed. Over 56 percent of voters had an unfavorable impression of Clinton, and no amount of desperate campaigning was going to make a difference.

. Once Hillary Clinton was chosen, the Democrats fate was sealed. Over 56 percent of voters had an unfavorable impression of Clinton, and no amount of desperate campaigning was going to make a difference. Celebrity . Lets face it: Donald Trump had a huge advantage for being a volatile celebrity figure. With years of visibility as a business mogul and TV show host, theres an undeniable amount of novelty and charisma attached to him, as if hes a cartoon character. These qualities arent his most presidential, but theyre enough to guarantee a massive number of votes.

. Lets face it: Donald Trump had a huge advantage for being a volatile celebrity figure. With years of visibility as a business mogul and TV show host, theres an undeniable amount of novelty and charisma attached to him, as if hes a cartoon character. These qualities arent his most presidential, but theyre enough to guarantee a massive number of votes. Catharsis. The working class has been neglected for many years; there is no middle class anymore, especially not for blue collar workers. Working class families are angry to the point of outrage at the government, and in walks a political candidate who seems to be the exact opposite of the political machine were used to. Trumps anger and lack of convention was cathartic and a breath of fresh air for these voters, and nothing was going to change that.

These factors, and the fact that the media and polls were unable to pick up on them before the end of the election, tell us much about our current political system and cultural zeitgeist. Our journalists and reporters arent doing a good enough job of getting the full story. Our echo chambers are blinding us to worlds outside our own bubbles. Were underestimating the effects that celebrity can have, and were making too many broad assumptions about the feelings of the general public. Regardless of how you feel about Trump, this election holds valuable lessons for us. Lets work harder and pay more attention to the world around us -- and not just the worlds were used to or the worlds we want to see.
A Maine man credits the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for his winning a battle with the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles over his insistence that his ID card photo include goat horns on his head.

Phelan Moonsong, 59, of Millinocket, a practicing pagan minister, had wanted a new photo on his state-issued ID card to go with his recent name change.

As a practicing Pagan minister and a priest of Pan, Ive come to feel very attached to the horns, and theyve become a part of me and part of my spirituality, Moonsong told the Washington Post. The horns are part of my religious attire.

When the BMV balked, Mr. Moonsong, who also wears furry goat legs and hooves, turned to the ACLU, which often makes news at this time of year for legal campaigns to wipe out vestiges of Christian heritage such as Nativity scenes from public places.

Last week, an ACLU threat forced city officials in Knightstown, Indiana to take a cross down from atop a Christmas tree in a public park.

As for Mr. Moonsong, [a]fter several months of waiting to hear from the states motor vehicle office following his initial visit, he says he informed the bureau that he was in touch with the ACLU, the Post reported on Saturday. His ID arrived in the mail days later, he says.

Mr. Moonsong obtained the goat horns at a pagan mens gathering in 2009 from a friend whose goat had died.

So he took the horns home, drilled small holes in each one and attached them to his forehead using stretchy, 50-pound fishing line that he wrapped around his head like an invisible skull cap, the Post reported. His life was never the same.

During his first visit to the BMV, he did not mention the religious aspect, according to the Maine secretary of states office, but he later insisted that the horns were his spiritual antenna and sent the office some materials about pagan religious rituals.

Since the horns did not obscure his face, Mr. Moonsongs situation differs from other headgear cases, such as a Florida Muslim womans claim in 2003 to have the right to a drivers license photo taken with a veil over her face, leaving only eye slits.

The ACLU took up Sultaana Freemans case, saying the state was violating her right to religious freedom.

The Florida circuit court judge, however, ruled that Ms. Freeman had to remove the veil for the photo, saying the state has a compelling interest in protecting the public from criminal activities and security threats and that photo IDs are essential to promote that interest.

Mr. Moonsong, on the other hand, appears to be thrilled with his win and new ID, which the Post said will allow him to board an airplane to California, where some of the best Pagan festivals are found.

Robert Knight is a senior fellow for the American Civil Rights Union.
Perhaps, in this holiday season, the nation can reflect upon lessons learned and resolve never again to elect a community organizer to high office. God knows there wasn't any excuse the first time round, let alone the second.

I believe that it was no less an authority than Thomas Sowell who warned us that community organizers never organize communities. Lots of people do: explorers, settlers, pioneers, real estate developers, religious organizations, even surfers. Instead, what community organizers are all about is disorganizing communities by organizing their grievances.

And that's all Barack Obama has done.

He's disorganized us by organizing black against white, rich against poor, city against country, gays and trans and what have you against Christians. He's set citizens against immigrants, women against men, the formally educated against the practical, businessmen against workers, taxpayers against tax-takers. He's organized them to sharpen their knives in the hope of revenging themselves for past slights, present slights, imaginary slights, unconscious and accidental slights, slights no one would notice without them being carefully explained. It's all about a need that, it goes without saying, he and his were always happy to oblige.

What a way to run a family!

Obama has even gone overseas, spread his arms before a world that should get down on its knees and thank God for America, and apologized for it. Confessed to all manner of unsuspected blemishes and encouraged tin-pot little dictatorships and brutal theocracies to look down their noses at the land of Washington, Lincoln, and the Statue of Liberty. He's encouraged them to catalogue their own lists of grievances against Lady Liberty.

This is the reason Trump won. Because while Hillary offered more of the same divisiveness and negativity  indeed, intended to celebrate her election as the new leader of the grumblers, with three million dollars of fireworks fired off in the North River on election night, Trump's message was that all Americans (well, almost all) are amazing. Blacks, whites, Hispanics, Evangelicals, women, coal miners and the military, carpenters and the Little Sisters of the Poor. Amazingly smart, big-hearted, and caring. So he told the nation, let's all get together, put the victim nonsense aside, do some smart things, yuuuge things, fun things, get our jobs back, get rich together, become bigger together, happier, greater together, just as Providence and the Founding Fathers intended us to be.

And the nation nodded.

It's all in much the same manner as when, in Atlas Shrugged, Hank Rearden nodded after he met Ragnar Danneskjold and the pirate explained to Reardon why they never had to take creatures who loot the human soul seriously. It's okay to ignore them, to laugh and build and love.

In today's America, I would add, it's okay to wish each other a merry Christmas again.

So merry Christmas to all.

Richard F. Miniter is the author of The Things I Want Most, Random House, BDD. See it here. He lives and writes in the colonial-era hamlet of Stone Ridge, New York; blogs here; and can also be reached at miniterhome@gmail.com.
The release of the FBI's warrant, dated October 20, 2016, to seize and search a laptop computer related to Hillary's emails again confirms and reminds us that Hillary put our national security at "exceptionally grave danger" by her use of a private email server to conduct State Department business. Obama knew about her use but did nothing to stop it.

The application for the warrant contains an affidavit of probable cause that details the reasons for the warrant.

Paragraph 20 of the affidavit states that Hillary turned over to the State Department 30,499 emails in response to a records request from the State Department. The Department then reviewed these emails in response to a FOIA request. After review, the State Department announced on February 20, 2016 that 2,115 emails contained "classified" information; 2,028 of the 2,115 contained "confidential" information; 65 of the 2,115 contained "secret" information; and 22 of the 2,115 contained "top secret" information.

Paragraph 21 of the affidavit states that the U.S. government concluded that the unauthorized disclosure of the 2,028 "confidential" emails could cause "damage" to national security, unauthorized disclosure of the 65 "secret" level emails could cause "serious damage" to national security, and unauthorized disclosure of the 22 "top secret" emails could cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security.

We do not know the contents of the 33,000 emails Hillary destroyed. But the inference is she destroyed them because she considered them damaging to her.

Obama, Hillary, and their cheerleaders in the MSM have bombarded us since the election with claims of Russian "interference" with our election. They claim that this endangers our national security. In plain English, this means that Obama and Hillary are upset that someone hacked and released the emails of John Podesta and the DNC that show that Hillary lied, that Obama lied when he said he learned from the TV news about Hillary's use of the private email server, and that Hillary sold access to the State Department.

Hillary and Obama view informing the public of their lies and corruption as "interference" with the election that endangers our national security. The Democrats, aided by the usual suspects John McCain and Lindsey Graham, demand an investigation about the hacking.

Hillary, according the U.S. government, put our national security at risk for "damage," "serious damage," and "exceptionally grave damage." Obama knew that Hillary was using a private email server that endangered our national security. But Obama, Hillary, the Democrats, and the MSM complain that someone released emails that show that Hillary and Obama lied and Hillary sold access to the State Department. This level of hypocrisy is beyond description.

In this alternative universe, informing the public about the truth of Hillary and Obama is a serious offense. Hillary believes that the hacking and release of the emails is an attack on her campaign that is the same as an attack on our country, and Harry Reid believes that it is the same as the September 11 attack.

Hillary and Obama risked "exceptionally grave danger" to our national security, which did not even disqualify Hillary from being the nominee of the Democratic Party for president. Thank God for Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and the other battleground states.

Hillary should have been indicted.
In his recent book-launching lecture for Palestine... It Is Something Colonial, anti-Israel academic Hatem Bazian stood in the sanctuary of Berkeleys Zaytuna College before an audience of around fifty students and faculty and, in an amazing feat of historical prestidigitation, eliminated thousands of years of Jewish history in the Middle East.

Bazian, director of the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project at the University of California, Berkeley and co-founder of Zaytuna, a self-described Muslim liberal arts college, maintained that Zionism involved erasing existing Palestinian history and forging a new history as to claim the land and expel the population. Such efforts at Jewish historical elimination are consistent with UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, which recently denied the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Bazian bemoaned the constant attempt for [sic] erasure of everything related to Palestine.

Even worse, Bazian justified contemporary Arab-Muslim terrorism against Israel by relieving the perpetrators of personal responsibility: Palestinian violence is a byproduct that was set and situated upon them.

Accordingly, Bazian placed the sole burden for the Arab-Israeli conflict on European and Jewish settler-colonialism. You created your colonial box, and you need to clean it yourself, he declared.

Stigmatizing Israel as a European implant in the Middle East, Bazian admonished the Jewish people and their Western allies that one cannot have a liberation movement that is in partnership with colonial powers and then seek to dispossess and supplant the population that historically had no role in any type of antagonism or anti-Semitic discourses relative to the Jewish population [emphasis added].

Bazians assertion that Arab-Muslims assumed no role in anti-Jewish repression in the Middle East beggars the historical imagination. One need only look at the Hebron Massacre of 1929 or Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseinis rabidly anti-Jewish rhetoric and the violence he encouraged with the 1936-39 Arab revolt.

Bazians analysis exemplifies what author Manfred Gerstenfeld dubbed humanitarian racism, a form of prejudice whereby privileged academic elites and others infantilize non-Europeans by refusing to hold them responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their own behavior.

With considerable audacity, Bazian described Zionism, the movement for Jewish self-determination, as a form of anti-Semitism because it allegedly involved a plot to pawn off European Jews onto the Ottoman Turks. It was a means, he claimed, of hitting two birds with one stone: while ridding Europe of its Jews, it advanced British imperial designs against the Ottomans.

In an act of historical supersessionism, or political replacement theology, Bazian argued that if in the past we had the Jewish Question, then today we have the Muslim Question in France, the Muslim Question in England, and with our new election, we have the Muslim Question in the U.S.

Perhaps if Bazian researched the history of Jews and Christians under the boot of Arab and Muslim imperial rule from the seventh century until the fall of the Ottoman Empire, he would develop a more accurate view of who is occupying whom in the Land of Israel, if not the greater Middle East.

It all too common among contemporary scholars of the Middle East that in seeking to recover the purportedly lost history of Palestine, they deny the ancient Hebrew connection to the land. Until the field of Middle East studies relinquishes ideological anti-Zionism, the politics of outrage will continue to undermine its objectivity and erode its reputation. Its time for a new generation of scholars to replace the anti-Israel propaganda of their mentors with rigorous, reasoned scholarship.

Michael Lumish is an analyst on the Arab-Israeli conflict and the proprietor of Israel Thrives. He holds a Ph.D. in American history from the Pennsylvania State University and has taught at Penn State, San Francisco State University, and City College of San Francisco. This article was sponsored by Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.
The warmist thumb on the scale at the Department of Energy

The Obama administration fired a scientist, intimidated staff at the Department of Energy, and allegedly ordered officials to obstruct Congress  all in order to push its climate change agenda, a House committee report asserted. The Washington Free Beacon detailed Tuesday a report released by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, which is chaired by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. The report charges that senior Obama administration officials retaliated against the scientist, Dr. Noelle Getting, who was manager of a radiation research program, and devised ways to block a congressional inquiry into the radiation research.

"Instead of providing the type of scientific information needed by Congress to legislate effectively, senior departmental officials sought to hide information, lobbied against legislation, and retaliated against a scientist for being forthcoming," Smith said in a statement, the Free Beacon reported. "In this staff report based on lengthy record before the committee, much has been revealed about how senior level agency officials under the Obama administration retaliated against a scientist who did not follow the party line." The scathing analysis comes in the wake of a report that the Department of Energy refused to turn over to Donald Trump's transition team the names of its staff members who worked on climate change issues for the Obama administration. The Free Beacon reported that the analysis goes into congressional efforts to regulate the Low Dose Radiation Research Program, which aimed to test the impact of radiation on human beings. The program, started in the 1990s, was meant to support research into waste cleanup and the impact of nuclear weapons. Lawmakers introduced the Low Dose Radiation Act of 2014 late that year to regulate the program and minimize harmful side effects, the Free Beacon noted. During an October 2014 briefing on the matter, Getting testified, and less than a month later, she was "removed ... from federal service for allegedly providing too much information in response to questions posed by" Congress during the briefing, the report stated.
For all his pre-election talk about restoring Americas standing in the world, international respect is an(other) area in which Barack Obama has failed.

Its clear enemies think hes a powderpuff (North Korea test-firing missiles, Syrias Assad laughing at red lines), and our allies  lets just say they arent bubbling over with respect for the man.

Highest on the list of less than impressed allies is England. From the queen handing Obama a very public, highly embarrassing smack-down by letting him know his overly pompous six-helicopter caravan is no longer welcome at her home to British citizens filing excessive noise complaints over his visits, its safe to say theres little love lost between B.O. and the Brits.

The final straw in the destruction of the relationship may have come when Obama threatened the British people prior to the Brexit vote. Injecting himself into the self-governing decisions of a sovereign nation was widely disapproved of.

But the first straw came back in 2009 during his first weeks in office.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attack on America, then-British prime minister Tony Blair presented President George W. Bush with a bronze bust of the U.K.s famed and beloved World War II leader, Sir Winston Churchill. Bush placed the bust in the Oval Office, where it remained until Obama took over. Then, claiming that the Oval Office was looking too cluttered, Obama promptly sent the bust back.

Apparently President-Elect Trump is planning to change all that. In what could signify a thawing of whats become, at best, a frosty relationship with the British, Trump indicated his intentions earlier this week.

United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage said on Tuesday that the Churchill bust will take back in its rightful place in the White House as a show of solidarity with the U.K.

Farage told Express U.K., At the end of our time with Trump we asked him if the bust of Sir Winston Churchill that Obama had removed from the Oval Office could be put back in its rightful place. He enthusiastically thought that was a good idea. Need I say more?

Another step in Trumps promises to make America great again? It certainly cant hurt.

The British widely viewed Obamas decision to remove the bust of Churchill (it was returned to the British Embassy) as a snub, and it was widely reported by the U.K. press as such. Insult was added to the injury when, after the bust was returned, the Obama administration lied about it.

When reports initially surfaced of Obamas decision to kick Churchill out, then-communications director Dan Pfeiffer said, This is one hundred percent false. The bust is still in the White House. In the Residence. Outside the Treaty Room. The White House backed up the story that Sir Winston had merely been relocated, not removed.

The problem was that British officials knew that the bust had been returned, as it was sitting in the residence of Sir Peter Westmacott, Britains ambassador to the U.S. at the time. While its true that a Churchill bust remained outside the Treaty Room, that was a different one, given as a gift to President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. The White House then attempted to smooth over the rift by claiming that the bust was removed as part of usual changeover operations, further citing the appropriateness of Churchills replacement image, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., given that the Oval Office would now be occupied by the nations first black president.

The returning of the bust set the tone for Obamas relationship with our European ally, and things never got much better. But it now appears that President-Elect Trump is poised to begin repairing the break, and frankly, that bridge cant be built fast enough.

Derrick Wilburn

Rocky Mtn Black Conservatives

www.RMBlackConservatives.com
A recent opinion article in the Washington Post, entitled "Howard U. paper scrubs fake news story from site," by Erik Wemple, celebrates a little known student newspaper's deletion of a true story on Danney Williams. The original story is archived here for the time being.

The story in question does not state as fact that Danney Williams is Bill Clinton's son. In fact, it has a question mark in the headline, "Justice for Danney Williams, Son of Bill Clinton?," that can't be ignored. The article also states that Danney Williams "claims to be the illegitimate son of former President Bill Clinton" and that Danney "claims Bill Clinton had gifts and child support delivered to him" and does not make any false claims or unbalanced pronouncements. The article concludes with "Williams hopes for success with the DNA from Lewinsky's dress," again portraying Danney's wishes accurately.

The retraction of the Hilltop student newspaper, which does appear to be on the Hilltop's site itself, according to the Washington Post states that "there is absolutely no proof or evidence that Williams is Bill Clinton's son, as well as no proof or evidence that Williams has ever been financially supported by the Clintons," and that "[t]he Hilltop sincerely regrets this error in it's [sic] reporting." Yet as mentioned, the original article makes clear that Danney is claiming to be the son of Bill, and to a reasoned mind, it is clear that Danney presents no hard evidence of his claim. Therefore, there appears to be no need for a retraction, or to add such additional words to the piece when it is clear that Danny was only claiming to be Bill's son.

Another Washington Post claim that can be disputed is the oft-mentioned claim that a DNA test was conducted in the 1990s and was found negative. For example, Erik Wemple's article states that, regarding the blood samples, "[t]here was no match. Not even close, concluded the Star, according to Time magazine." Yet the aforementioned Time Magazine article only quotes an unnamed source from this tabloid, stating, "'There was no match. Not even close,' says a Star source." No one has gone on the record, therefore. As well, there was never any article in the Star releasing the results of the test they had done on Danney Williams, even though the issue of the test was on the cover of this tabloid on January 5, with the headline "Bill Clinton in new sex charge shocker." Nor did the writer of the piece, Richard Gooding, ever say on the record that there was no match. Yet the Washington Post still reported Star's unnamed source as representing the magazine as recently as October 2016, stating, "'But there was not a match. "Not even close,' Star said at the time," in an article by the Post's Callum Borchers.

The Washington Post must immediately become more clear regarding what we know and don't know about Danney Williams's DNA test and specifically note that the Star magazine has never published an article regarding the results of the Danney Williams test, nor has anyone on record from that magazine stated that he has seen the results of the test and that they are negative. In fact, the editor of that tabloid at that time now says he never saw the results, stating, "I don't remember ever seeing any laboratory test that was done on Clinton's DNA." He just took the word of the writer, Richard Gooding, who had let him know the results, stating, "[W]hen Gooding told me it wasn't a match, I wouldn't have taken any interest in looking at the report."

It is time citizens expect more balanced writing from the Washington Post.
The Citadelle Laferriere, located on top of a mountain in northern Haiti, is one of the largest fortresses in the Americas. The Citadel was built by Henri Christophe, who played a key role in the Haitian Revolution that eventually led to the country gaining independence from France in 1804. The fortress was built immediately after the revolution, between 1805 and 1820, and was part of a system of fortification designed to resist any attempt by the French to recapture the newly independent nation of Haiti.

The Citadel was built several miles inland atop a 3,000 feet-tall mountain called Bonnet a LEveque, 17 miles south of the city of Cap-Haitien. From the fortress, one can see all the way to the Atlantic coast, and on clear days, you can even glimpse the eastern coast of Cuba, located some 90 miles away.

Photo credit: Rados AG/Panoramio

The military compound covers 10,000 square meters and is surrounded by a battery of 365 cannons. Enormous stockpiles of cannonballs still sit in pyramidal stacks at the base of the fortress walls. Inside, there are living quarters, cisterns and storehouses designed to store enough food and water to sustain 5,000 soldiers for up to one year. The fort also had a royal quarter reserved for the king and his family, if they happened to need shelter.

Rather than fearing a French invasion, which never happened, King Henry had reasons to fear his own people. He was an unpopular, autocratic monarch whose feudal policies of using forced slave labor didnt sit well with a lot of his populace. In 1820, shortly after the Citadel was completed, King Henry, at the age of 53, committed suicide by shooting himself with a silver bullet rather than risk a coup and assassination. His loyal followers buried him in one of the Citadel's interior courtyards to prevent others from mutilating the corpse.

The Citadels strength were never tested; its cannons never fired. Today, this colossal structure is the symbol of Haiti. It is featured on currency, stamps, and on tourist ministry posters. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1982.

Photo credit: Mariposalinda/Panoramio

Photo credit: Remi Kaupp/Flickr

Photo credit: Alex Proimos/Flickr

Photo credit: Stefan Krasowski/Flickr

Photo credit: Ksenia Novikova/Flickr

Photo credit: Steve Bennett/Flickr

Photo credit: Kent MacElwee/Flickr

Photo credit: Kent MacElwee/Flickr

Photo credit: Kent MacElwee/Flickr
Googles motto has long been Dont Be Evil, but it was thought unfitting for the companys transition to an identity as Alphabet. Perhaps a bit too subjective, perhaps a bit too broad, but whatever the case, an anonymous product manager over at Big G filed a complaint earlier this year with the National Labor Relations Board stating that they have not exactly been living up to that. The employee told tales of a high degree of internal secrecy, information suppression, and even spying by higher ranks. Now, hes bringing that complaint higher up  to the San Francisco court system, where he has officially filed suit against his employer.

According to this anonymous disgruntled insider, the company encourages monitoring and ratting out other employees whose behavior indicates that they may leak any confidential information. While this is a bit draconian, its generally encouraged at any business that handles any kind of confidential information. Naturally, the punishment for being the one to do the leaking is termination, and in most cases rightly so. The issue here is threefold  for starters, Google officially defines confidential information as anything at Google, according to the product manager behind the lawsuit. Additionally, employees are constantly monitored, their behavior scrutinized, to the point of creating an oppressive company culture. Third, Googles policies on the handling of such information include keeping it from authorities, even when the information in question is a report of illegal activity taking place. Instead, employees are encouraged to go to their supervisor, who will decide from there what to do.

The alleged information suppression provisions even prevent Googlers from writing a novel involving a typical Silicon Valley worker, common fiction and autobiographical fare among local wordsmiths, without Google giving final approval. The protections in place to prevent leaking, according to this inside source, are also meant to keep proper authorities out of Googles hair and keep them from being accountable to the public for any ethical violations. Some say that Google topping best place to work lists and successfully marketing themselves as an amazing workplace for talented and creative people is all down to careful information control, and this lawsuit seems to allege that this and then some is true. If the case goes through as the employee intends, Google could wind up paying a grand total of about $3.8 billion to their employees, on top of having to reform the policies that caused the problem in the first place.
With Christmas eve just a few nights away, its no surprise to find people rushing to make their final purchases for everyone on their list. If youre still trying to find the right gadget to give as a loved ones Christmas present, youll be pleased to know that Google will make things a bit easier for you. Instead of going to a mall to pick up a tech gift to give away, you can make the purchase through the Google Store.

Earlier today, Google announced that they will be extending their services to provide free expedited shipping. The offer covers any order made until December 21 at 3 PM Eastern Time. With this, you can expect your orders to arrive right before Christmas. Since the offer covers all orders on the Google Store, you can easily take your pick out of the many devices they have available on the website. They have featured devices like the Google Pixel smartphone, the first device with Google Assistant built-in. The Google Pixel C tablet is also highlighted on their website and is one of the devices you can pick up for a friend or family member who deserves a new Android tablet this season. In addition to smartphones and tablets, Google enlists other accessories such as Google Home, Google Wifi, Daydream View VR headsets, and Chromecast. The offer covers free shipping for these devices too.

On Googles support page, they explain things further by stating that orders placed on the website before 11 AM in their local time zone may start counting from the day the order was placed. As for orders that were placed after 11 AM in their local time, counting the shipping days start a day after the order was made. The offer is only until December 21, 3 PM Eastern Time. If you place an order after this, it will no longer be covered by the free expedited shipping offer. Apart from the devices mentioned, there are tons of other great stuff you can find at the Google Store. So if youre still trying to find a gift for a loved one this Christmas, might as well order it directly from Google.
After the holidays, most people head back to the gym as part of their New Years Resolution. In fact, the most popular resolution for the new year is to get back into shape. But for most people, that only lasts a few weeks, if that. With technology these days, many people are able to stay motivated a bit longer than they used too, especially if they are wearing a fitness tracker that is telling them to be more active, to run another mile, to lift another 10 pounds, etc. And one of the best fitness trackers on the market right now is the Samsung Gear Fit2.

Samsung sells the Gear Fit2 in black, blue and pink. It will work with just about any Android smartphone, although youll get the best experience with it paired to a Samsung device. The Gear Fit2 does run on Tizen, like Samsungs other wearables, and it also has a heart rate monitor. Allowing you to see just how far you are going in your workouts and to see if you do need to push yourself a bit more. Samsung has also included built-in GPS, so you are able to map your run with the Samsung Gear app on your device. Much like the other fitness trackers available out there, the Gear Fit2 can track your step count, calories burned, sleep quality and so much more.

Where the Gear Fit2 stands out though, is in notifications. While it is paired to your smartphone, you can get your notifications for calls and texts right there on your wrist, and also respond to them. So if someone is texting you, there is the ability to quickly respond to them without pulling out your smartphone. Now unlike the Gear S3 Frontier, there is no option for LTE connectivity. At the time of writing this, the Gear Fit2 is on sale for just $129, which is about $50 off of the regular price and the lowest price it has ever been. It will also arrive in time for Christmas, but only if you have Amazon Prime. However, if you dont have Prime, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial using the link below.
These are turbulent times for online privacy advocates. Close on the heels of the shock revelation that global FOTA software provider ADUPS had been secretly collecting user data from millions of Android smartphone owners, comes the news that Redwood City, California-based online ad-server Turn Inc. has settled out-of-court in a long-standing case with the Federal Trade Commission. In settling without an admission of guilt, Turn has agreed to provide internet users with information about its tracking habits and policies when it serves advertisements either on browsers or within apps. The company was accused of tracking users even when they had disabled cookies and opted out of targeted advertising services. The firm is believed to have been using Verizons infamous supercookies, for which the carrier was fined $1.35 million by the FCC earlier this year.

According to the FTCs announcement, Turn will now have to provide an effective mechanism to opt-out of tracking altogether, in case users do not want their browsing habits tracked by third-parties for advertising or any other purposes. The company will also have to place a prominent hyperlink on its home page to take users to a page that discloses all details about what information the company collects and disseminates to third-parties and for what purposes. Turn, on its part, has released a statement, claiming that it has been in complete compliance with FCC requirements since mid-2015, which is when the whole issue with Verizons errant supercookies came to a head. According to the statement, the company takes its obligations regarding consumer privacy very seriously and complies with applicable law and industry standards and regulations.

In case youve been wondering about Verizons supercookie and how the technology signifies a clear and present danger to unsuspecting internet users, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) described Verizons controversial tracking methodology as a cookie-like tracker that used to be injected in an HTTP header called X-UIDH and sent to every unencrypted website people visited through their Verizon connection. Not only did it allow big red to expand its advertising programs at the cost of its unsuspecting subscribers, but more worryingly, it also potentially allowed unscrupulous third-party advertisers and websites to build up a permanent profile of peoples web browsing habits without them having an inkling of whats going on.
As far as Uber is concerned, self-driving vehicles will replace human drivers in the not-too-distant future and the company is adamant to benefit from that technological advancement. Following that train of thought, Uber has been one of the largest investors in autonomous driving technology in recent years. After initially testing self-driving vehicles in Pittsburgh earlier this year, the company recently expanded its autonomous car program to its home turf, San Francisco. However, not long after that expansion took place, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) stated that the ride-hailing company is clearly violating the law by testing autonomous vehicles on public roads without a valid permit.

More specifically, Brian Soublet, DMVs Chief Counsel asserted that Uber had to apply for an autonomous vehicle testing permit if it wanted to bring such cars to San Francisco roads. While Uber is arguing that its vehicles arent autonomous but only self-driving, the DMV clearly isnt interested in arguing semantics, which is why the said state agency urged the ride-hailing company to cease all related activities until this situation is resolved. One week later, it seems that the two parties are now trying to settle this dispute. Namely, according to a recent report from the San Francisco Business Times, Ubers lawyers are scheduled to meet with the DMV legal team and the California Attorney Generals office later today. Unfortunately, no further details on the said meeting were given, and none of the involved parties agreed to comment on this report.

Regardless of that, we can reasonably presume that Miguel Neri and Fiel Tigno, California Supervising Deputy Attorney Generals, will be attending the said meeting. This duo sent a letter to Uber last Friday, asking the company to either cease all testing of autonomous vehicles or face an injunction and related penalties. So, all in all, the said meeting is bound to be a tense one. It remains to be seen whether Uber will now be willing to play ball with state regulators or stick by its stance that it doesnt require an autonomous driving vehicle permit to test self-driving vehicles on public roads in California. In any case, more information is expected to follow shortly.
The Galaxy Note 7 fiasco that resulted in two recalls and a discontinuation of Samsungs latest phablet is bound to cause a lot of issues for the South Korean tech giant for the foreseeable future. In the short-term, the Seoul-based conglomerate lost approximately $3 billion as a direct consequence of launching the said device. However, looking at the broader picture, the damage to the Samsung Galaxy brand may be far greater, especially seeing how the general public keeps getting reminded of Samsungs faulty device. A couple of months ago, the Galaxy Note 7 was banned from virtually all flights worldwide. Seeing how the said phablet repeatedly demonstrated its liable to catch fire, melt, and explode under certain conditions, that was an expected turn of events.

Earlier this week, the public was once again reminded of Samsungs defective flagship after a prankster decided to name their mobile Wi-Fi hotspot Galaxy Note 7. As Serenity Caldwell, the managing editor of iMore revealed on Twitter, the incident occurred on an unnamed flight this Tuesday. After arriving at an airport yesterday, Caldwell found out that her flight had been canceled following numerous delays. While moving in a crowd of understandably angry people, she overheard the plane crew talking about a canceled 9 AM flight. Namely, the said plane was allegedly already mid-flight after an attendant realized that one of the passengers is using a Galaxy Note 7 hotspot. This resulted in the flight being canceled, and it reportedly took two hours for the situation to be resolved. As it turns out, the said hotspot was named by someone with a poor sense of timing looking to make a joke.

All in all, Samsung would certainly prefer people stop making jokes and reminding other people about the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, especially seeing how the said flagship already managed to ground a plane a few months ago. Between this type of distasteful jokes and people turning the Galaxy Note 7 into an in-game grenade for Grand Theft Auto V and a Halloween costume, the Samsung Galaxy brand has certainly seen better days. Not surprisingly, Samsung decided to not comment on this report which has yet to be verified.
Members of Indiana University's African American Dance Company stretch during a lecture and demonstration under the direction of their director, Iris Rosa (standing, lower left) at China University of Mining and Technology Beijing, Dec 18, 2016. [Photo by Anne Ruisi/chinadaily.com.cn]

An Indiana University African American dance group is on a one week cultural exchange with China University of Mining and Technology Beijing's (CUMTB) School of Law and Humanities.

The visit came about after Yingli Zhou, a visiting scholar, saw the African American Dance Company and was so impressed she thought it would be a great idea to bring the group to China for a cultural exchange, said Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, chair of IU's Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies.

This marks the first time the group has been to China, said Iris Rosa, the dance company's director since it's founding in 1974.

"It's incredible, the reality of being in a place like this and seeing our students in a place like this," Rosa said. "We're happy to be here."

None of the company's student members is a dance major; their studies span the spectrum of IU's academic disciplines, such as biochemistry, neuroscience, human biology and fashion design.

The program is a structured course for college credit and students attend three-hour classes twice a week, Rosa said. The course syllabus includes rehearsal and performance.
The Hong Kong-based third-party logistics provider has agreed to purchase the freight forwarding business of customs broker and forwarder Bofill & Arnan, the company said in a statement.



Kerry Logistics Network Ltd. will acquire the freight forwarding business of Barcelona, Spain-based customs broker and forwarder Bofill & Arnan, S.A., the company said in a statement.

The Hong Kong-based third-party logistics provider said the purchase is part of the companys global development strategy and will expand its forwarding capabilities in and around Spain.

Established in 1920, Bofill & Arnan provides air and ocean freight forwarding, customs brokerage and door-to-door logistics services, specializing in the China, Taiwan and India trade lanes.

As part of the deal, financial terms of which were not disclosed, Kerry Logistics will acquire Bofill & Arnans sales force, as well as two offices in Valencia and Alicante in addition to its current facilities in Madrid and Barcelona.

Thomas Blank, managing director of Kerry Logistics Europe division, said the newly acquired forwarding businesses of Bofill & Arnan will be managed by Sebastian Bernardo, Kerry Logistics managing director, Spain.

Spain is the home to some of the worlds biggest fashion retailers and some of our global key accounts, the company said of the purchase. Kerry Logistics will continue to invest in this key market in Europe and strengthen its service capabilities and network, ensuring best-in-class supply chain solutions are provided to its clients, in particular in the fashion and lifestyle industry.

The combined resources and expertise will significantly enhance our position and service capabilities in Spain and expand our market reach, added Blank.
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.
Berlin massacre stuffing: why the truck nut did it

After the slaughter (Daily Express) by a truck nut (Daily Star) at a Christmas market in Berlin, the Star surveys the carnage (Daily Mail) and declares on its front page: Murdering scum told: Get stuffed just like the turkey. That is turkey with the small k. The Star doesnt do subtle. But it nails it. Defiant Brits have stuck two fingers up to Christmas terror, says the paper, and told them You can get stuffed.

Over pages 4 and 5, the Star repeats its seasonal message: XMAS KILLERS CAN GET STUFFED.

Brilliant, isnt it. Spot on.

At least one of the killers who murdered so many as they shopped for seasonal bits and bobs is on the run. We dont know why he / she and any accomplices did it. All we know is that 12 people are dead, including trucker Lukasz Urban. Rather than speculate, the Star makes a statement. Get stuffed. Perfect.

Over in the Mail, the focus is on fear. So much for Peace and Goodwill to All Men, says the paper below a picture of armed police guarding the nativity scene at Canterbury Cathedral. But who are the coppers on the look out for? Islamic State has, were told, claimed responsibility for the mass murder in Berlin. The Mail tells of fears IS will call a lone wolf from any of the 400 militants who have returned here from fighting in the Middle East. Not a lone wolf at all, then, rather a suspect whose part of a global murder cult on a mission from god. The paper adds, Experts warned that a lone wolf attack would be very difficult to prevent.

Readers are told that special forces and police have rehearsed the very difficult task of stopping a vehicle running amok.

Its more Were stuffed than Get stuffed in the Mail.

And the fear keeps coming.

BRIT IS CELL LINKED TO TRUCK HORROR, thunders the Sun on its front page. This cell may have been groomed by IS commanders who plotted the Berlin massacre. Or to put it another way, they may not have been. We have no idea. And whats this groomed balls? Is it right to harness the language of child sexual abuse  the countys obsession  to describe grown men murdering strangers? Dont give the bastards an excuse. Theyre no victims. The Sun that once yelled GOTCHA as the enemys ship was holed has lost its swagger.

Over pages 6 and 7, we read that the bungling cops arrested the wrong man. The true killer is armed and still at large. Unless  get this  those famously inefficient Germans let him go in the hope hed lead them to his groomers. Or right now hes in a cell having secrets leached out of him? Or maybe because the Germans let so many migrants in unchecked they have no idea who theyre looking for? Maybe the killer is Hans from Bavaria? We dont know. But its exciting to guess.

On page 8, we hear more of Lukasz Urban, the aforesaid Polish trucker. He is now brave Lukasz who fought to the end. We dont know how he died. All we know is that he was stabbed and shot. But the media like to portray victims as heroic, so the man whose battered body was found in the truck that killed so many is kidnapped anew, this time to become the face of courage.

More fear on the Mirrors cover. TRUCK KILLER COULD STRIKE AGAIN, chills the headline. He could. Will he?

On page 12, the Mirror tells its readers hate cant fight hate. Maybe not. But if a jihadi is trying to kill you and yours, lobbing flowers at him will only be enough if theyre tied to a sharp brick atop an F16. The Mirror says we can show solidarity with the victims by refusing to be infected by the poison of terrorism and not turning on each other or sharing the bigotry of those who destroy lives for paranoid political ends.

We know nothing of the victims, save that they were murdered at the shops. Showing solidarity with the dead speaks only of the livings needs. And the killer did it for political ends, not for militant Islam or because, as the papers says, he is a maniac? The Mirror is sure of that.

The paper than says the Far Right are milking the massacre. The papers angle is that if you now worry about migrants and militant Islam, you are on the same side as the Nazis. Youre a facist. Oh, get stuffed. Not feeling the love does not make you a deviant. Criticising Islam does not make you an Islamophobic race rioter-in-waiting. Warning us about our response to terror is absurd. It paints us as fools and untrustworthy. We wont be groomed by extremists on any sort. We can think for ourselves.

The final word comes to readers via the Express: Ill destroy IS terrorists says Trump. The US President-elect says the people behind the massacre should be eradicated from the face of the Earth. He adds: ISIS and other Islamist terrorists continually slaughter Christians as part of their global jihad.

So much for the stuff of politics. Now for the culture

Paul Sorene

Posted: 21st, December 2016 | In: Reviews, Tabloids Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
(ANSA) - Rome, December 21 - Italy should build on its position as a leading player the Mediterranean area, according to EY Italia. "The regions that look onto the Mediterranean account for around 15% of world GDP, so it is an important area where Italy plays a central role," Donato Iacovone, EY Italia's CEO and managing partner of the Mediterranean area, said in Rome.

The CEO explained that the firm, one of the world's big four accounting companies, intends to help put Italy in a position to be the driving force.

Iacovone said the debate centres of business opportunities "for all the countries that commit to this area", pointing out that "job creation is the only real antidote to the unpleasant events that are occurring, from the problem of refugees to terrorism". For this reason EY Italia is organising the second Strategic Growth Forum Mediterranean in the capital on February 9 and 10.

"The top business operators, international institutions and government representatives are taking part, with the precise aim of seeking to identify opportunities together," Iacovone stressed. "We want to be as concrete and possible, so the focus is on specific issues: logistics, transport, which companies, banks and financiers will discuss; renewable energies, an area where Italy is one of the countries with the greatest know-how; cyber security and physical security, linked to the acts of terrorism; and digital issues, the effects of new technologies on business and civil services". The previous Forum focused more in the Mediterranean in the strict sense.

EY said that now the region is considered a bridge. "We go as far as China and India, two countries that invest a great deal in the EU and the Mediterranean basin," he said.

Iacovone said this was borne out by an EY study that showed "all the investments in the EU in 2016 generated 220,000 jobs (up 14% with respect to the previous year) and China is the second-biggest investor after the United States".


(supersedes previous)(ANSA) - Rome, December 20 - An Italian woman is missing in Berlin in the wake of last night's attack on a Christmas street market that claimed at leat 12 lives and injured 48 more.

Further, an Italian national was wounded but is not in serious condition, investigative sources told ANSA. Separately, authorities are combing Berlin hospitals in search of a second Italian who may also have been injured, other sources said.

Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, a 31-year-old native of the central Italian town of Sulmona who lives and works in Berlin, failed to show up for work this morning.

Her cell phone was found at the scene of the attack, where a lorry ploughed into the busy market at high speed.

Her mother and brother have departed for Berlin where they are awaiting the results of a DNA test.

Her father Gaetano, a post office employee in Sulmona, told ANSA on Tuesday he "has no illusions" as to his daughter's fate.

"We knew it was over by 01:30 last night," he told ANSA. "From what my son in Berlin is saying there shouldn't be any more doubts. He's there with my wife and they're waiting for DNA results - we're waiting for confirmation, but I have no illusions".

Italian Ambassador Pietro Benassi earlier stated he could not confirm or "absolutely exclude" that there has been an Italian victim. He said the embassy is working closely with German officials to track down any missing and injured.

He was echoed by Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, who said Tuesday that the possibility that an Italian was a victim of Monday's suspected terrorist attack in Berlin could not be ruled out.


(ANSA) - Rome, December 21 - The father of Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, a 31-year-old native of the central Italian town of Sulmona who has been missing since Monday's suspected terror attack in Berlin, has said he holds little hope of seeing her alive again.

Di Lorenzo's cell phone was found at the scene of the attack, where a truck ploughed into the busy Christmas market at high speed, killing 12 people and injuring dozens, including 18 seriously. The woman, who has lived and worked in Berlin for several years, failed to show up for work on Tuesday.

Her father Gaetano, a post office employee in Sulmona, told ANSA on Tuesday he "has no illusions" as to his daughter's fate.

"We knew it was over by 01:30 last night," he said. "From what my son in Berlin is saying there shouldn't be any more doubts. He's there with my wife and they're waiting for DNA results - we're waiting for confirmation, but I have no illusions".

Separately, investigative sources told ANSA an Italian national was wounded but is not in serious condition, while other sources said authorities were combing Berlin hospitals in search of a second Italian who may also have been injured.


(ANSA) - Rome, December 21 - Premier Paolo Gentiloni said Wednesday that the government will hold talks with Italy's political parties later in the day to discuss the security situation after Monday's attack in Berlin. "The government is not unaware of the risks, it is working on security and this afternoon we will hold talks on security with the ruling majority and opposition parties at the premier's office," Gentiloni said as he opened a new area at Rome Fiumicino airport. Gentiloni said the world must not respond to terrorism by closing in on itself. "We like an open world, communications, transport and travel," he said.

"Today the world is under attack, threatened. This airport is one of the symbols of the values, of the way of life, that we do not want to give up and will not give up".


PALERMO - The tradition of the living nativity has returned to the "village of villages" - Sambuca di Sicilia, known in ancient times as Zabuth - the town that was voted this year as Italy's "Most Beautiful Borgo".



The living nativity scene will be staged across an area filled with narrow streets, alleys, and courtyards, and involves many of the village's residents.



From the town's central square, Piazza Navarro, a path leads to the grotto, located near the ancient stone caves. The scene will include a metalsmith, street vendors, a stonemason, washerwomen, a pastor with his flock who will prepare the "zabbina" (a Sicilian dialect word of Arabic origin for "ricotta"), and a blacksmith with horses ready to be "shoed".



Choirs will sing traditional folk songs and Christmas carols throughout the village.



The living nativity will take place on four evenings from 18:30 to 22:30 December 27 and 28, and January 3 and 6.
Fighting renews south Jordan, four policeman killed King Abdullah takes charge of running operations

(ANSAmed) - AMMAN, DECEMBER 21 - Four policemen were killed and several other people were injured on Tuesday near southern city of Kerak during clashes with armed men wanted in connection with attack on the city, security sources said.



Meanwhile, state media said King Abdullah, former army general is personally supervising the battle between security forces and IS members south the kingdom. Abdullah had earlier met with top army and security chiefs to learn about latest developments in the fighting south the kingdom.



According to official media, the incident occurred when policemen tried to arrest two men suspected of being members of the Islamic State (IS) cell that attacked security forces one day earlier.



The two men are believed to be on the run after escaping in a car following the shootout in the city, security source confirmed to ANSA by phone.



Earlier in the day, IS claimed responsibility for Kerak castle attack, saying its members attacked security forces and killed a number of them as part of its global war against pro-west regimes.



The killings come one day after 10 people were killed and 30 injured in fighting with IS members in town of Kerak, who were all killed. (ANSAmed).




- BERLIN - German police are looking for a 21-year-old Tunisian man "in relation to the attack" on a Berlin Christmas market on Monday, according to a tweet posted Wednesday by terrorism expert Holger Schmidt of the German public broadcaster ARD, citing police sources.



The news was also reported online by German dailies Bild and Der Spiegel.



As part of their manhunt, police are searching among the wounded in Berlin hospitals, said regional public broadcaster RBB.



It said it had information that "prior to the attack there was a fight in the driver's cabin" of the lorry.



RBB's website said "investigators believe the attacker is wounded. In the lorry cabin DNA samples were taken, which is why in recent hours police have searched all hospitals in Berlin and Brandenburg", the region surrounding the German capital.


- ISTANBUL - A Syrian Islamist armed coalition group, which includes the Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham extremist group (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra), on Wednesday claimed responsibility for the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, Turkish media quoted the Iranian news agency ISNA as saying. The ambassador was shot and killed on Monday evening at a photography exhibition in the Turkish capital by Turkish former policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas. The latter was subsequently shot and killed by security forces.



ISNA said that responsibility for the act had been claimed through a jihadist publication that said that the assassination had been organized with the help of ultra-nationalist fringe groups close to the 'Grey Wolves' and the Islamic Turkmen Party.



The rebel forces of the Jaish Al-Fatah coalition, set up in early 2015 and led by Sunni fundamentalists, have been involved in fighting against the Syrian regime and the Islamic State in northern Syria. In recent days, their siege of two small regime-supporting towns - Fuaa and Kefraya - in the Idlib province had been at the center of controversy as part of the on-again-off-again implementation to evacuate the eastern, opposition-held and besieged area of Aleppo.
UNICEF calls for blankets on #AleppoDay tomorrow Demo at 11 AM in Rome's Piazza del Popolo

(ANSA) - Rome, December 21 - The Italian branch of UNICEF is holding #AleppoDay on Thursday to raise awareness on the conditions of children in Aleppo and other war-ravaged areas of Syria. A demonstration will be held at 11 AM in Piazza del Popolo in Rome. ''We ask everyone to come to Piazza del Popolo and to bring a blanket as a gesture symbolizing human warmth and protection.



And we ask all those who cannot be physically present to hang blankets on the balconies of their homes and offices on Thursday for the entire day. Blankets are what these children need and are part of a UNICEF campaign,'' spokesman for UNICEF Italia Andrea Iacomini said. ''We need to break down the wall of indifference that has surrounded this terrible war for almost 6 years. We would like to thank all those who are taking part in #AleppoDay and we once again urge everyone to stand firmly on the side of children in Aleppo and Syria. We cannot forget them,'' he added. (ANSAmed).




ROME - UNICEF Italy has launched a programme called "One UNICEF Response" in collaboration with the Italian Interior Ministry that will provide about 6,000 unaccompanied foreign minors in Italy assistance with housing, education, and cultural integration.



The programme spans from first arrival accommodation through housing in smaller, more stable residency structures, as well as educational and cultural integration in communities throughout the country.



Giacomo Guerrera, president of UNICEF Italy, said the programme is part of "concrete actions for living in Italy and building a future", speaking on the sidelines of the presentation of the documentary film "Invisible: It's not a journey, it's an escape".



Guerrera said in the first 10 months of the year, 80% of minors that arrived in Italy took the journey by themselves.



Italy's Labour Ministry said there are more than 22,000 unaccompanied minors registered in Italy, with nine out of 10 of them males aged 15-17, the majority from Egypt, Albania and Sub-saharan Africa.



Compared to 2015, in 2016 Syrian minors were almost completely absent.



Over 6,000 have disappeared from the system, headed for other European countries to reunite with family and friends.



"What we have before us today on the Italian and European coasts of the Mediterranean is at the same time a humanitarian emergency and an epic change that involves the entire society and requires an unprecedented ability to respond and manage," Guerrera said.



In Italy, UNICEF will apply its own methodologies and interventions from child protection programmes already in place in non-European countries.



A pilot programme is already planned for transferring unaccompanied minors from temporary reception centres to host families.
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Inside Greg Gutfelds Love Story With Wife Elena Moussa and Why Fans Thought He Was Gay Greg Gutfeld is a seasoned American television producer whose career in the media industry has spanned over a decade. He is a man of many talents who makes extra income through comedy, journalism, and editorial works. Gutfeld regularly appears on Fox News Channel as a panellist and co-host of the political talk show The Five ...

Works That Made Bo Burnham A Household Name and How Much He Is Worth Now One of YouTubes first viral stars and the worlds most exciting young comedian, Bo Burnham, has always amazed critics and comedy aficionados alike. Often regarded as the Justin Bieber of comedy, thanks to his fresh looks, floppy blond hair and hoodies, he has a multi-faceted career bigger than many comedians twice his age. It wouldnt ...

Is Louie Anderson Gay And What Is His Net Worth? Louie Anderson has one of the most abstract faces in the industry and equally knows how to use it to his advantage. He is not only a stand-up comedian but also an actor and television host who is known for his distinctive comic wits. Some of his notable projects include Family Feud, where he was ...

Is Don Lemon of CNN Gay, Who is His Partner and What Is His Salary? Don Lemon has risen to become one of the most recognizable faces on CNN over the past few years. The fiery journalist, who anchors CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, is liked and somewhat disliked for his strong and candid opinions on a variety of matters that do not just include politics but also race, significantly, matters that ...

Is Rachel Maddow Gay, Who is the Wife and How Much Does She Earn in Salary? Rachel Maddow is an award-winning American journalist, political commentator, and television news anchor. She is best known for hosting the popular nightly TV show The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. Prior to this, she hosted a talk radio program on Air America Radio from 2005 to 2010. As of now, the TV sensation co-anchors MSNBCs ...

Demystifying Pokimane  Her Real Name, Ethnicity & Boyfriend Like most social media celebrities in this digital era, Pokimane Thicc is one of those stars who took advantage of the internet to make a name for herself. Given the unlimited potentials which the social media space offers, many people have been instantly propelled to fame just by posting creative online contents. Not only has ...

A Breakdown of Kris Jenners Net Worth, Sources Of Income and Relationships Over The Years Standing outside and looking in, Kris Jenner looks like the oil that greases the wheels of the entire Kardashian/Jenner machine. She has been dubbed a momager and rightfully so because she seems to have had a part to play in the trajectory of each and every one of her daughters individually and the Kardashian brand ...

Pursuits That Brought Liza Koshys Fame To its Zenith and Her Love Life Since David Dobrik Liza Koshy is an American actress who has leveraged YouTube as a platform to promote her comedy while also serving as a television host on occasions. She is talented and funny and has gathered a lot of fans from around the world. Koshy started on Vine in high school and was able to get millions of ...

Alex Aiono Biography  Inside The Life Of The American Singer Not everyone who started from the streets has attained the heights where Alex Aiono is currently. His story could be referred to as the perfect definition of rising from Grass to Grace. He came into the limelight after he started out as a YouTuber, singer, and producer. One fascinating thing about the young YouTuber is ...

Virginia Vallejo Biography And Her Love Story With Pablo Escobar Virginia Vallejo can be referred to as one of the oldest whistleblowers in history after her involvement with Pablo Escobar which made her famous. Over the years, many questions have been raised about her relationship with the drug lord and why she endangered her life to be with him despite his notorious acts. The death ...

Princess Love Bio  Ethnicity, Real Name & Parents For many people, Princess Love is simply Ray Js wife but there is so much more to this feisty lady than meets the eye. She is a star in her own right and has many feathers on her cap. Princess Love is a reality TV star, a model, video vixen, and fashion designer. She and her ...

Who is Papa Franku Also Known As Filthy Frank or Joji, Where is He Now? The social media as we all know today has given people the opportunity to be creative and innovative and at the same time, make something of themselves. YouTube is one of the known social platforms we have today that makes it possible for people to express their God-given talents and post videos they created to ...

Who Is Molly Qerim, How Did She Become a Famous Sports Anchor and Who Is Her Husband? Molly Qerim is an American sports anchor popularly known for moderating First Take, a highly rated sports talk show, on ESPN. Prior to joining ESPN, Qerim hosted Fantasy Live and NFL AM on NFL Network. It is quite obvious that the widely acclaimed television personality is in a class of her own when it comes ...

Safiya Nygaard  Height, Parents & Net Worth Safiya Nygaard is an American YouTuber, writer, content producer, and director who is popular for posting makeup, beauty and fashion videos on YouTube. Her videos regularly top at least one million views, thanks to her lively character as well as her willingness to experiment with outrageous outfits and different beauty products. Here are the things to ...

The Rigors of Sunlen Serfatys Career Journey Until CNN and Fun Facts About Her Personal Life CNN correspondent, Sunlen Serfaty is an Emmy Award-winning journalist known for covering a broad range of breaking news stories, national news, and Washington politics. She has been able to garner widespread recognition for herself which even goes beyond the sphere of her work. Her profile also increased with the extensive work she did in covering ...

Demystifying Jazz Jennings Real Name, Boyfriend & Family Of One The Youngest Transgenders Jazz Jennings is an unusual personality who became famous as a transgender activist and was recorded as the youngest documented public figure to be seen as transgender. She is also a YouTube personality and spokesmodel for brands, her fans, and other transgenders. She fought for acceptance in her high school with her super supportive family for over ...

Inside Fred Armisens Life  Ethnicity, Romantic Relationships and Gay Rumors Fred Armisen is an award-winning American comedian, he is also a writer, an actor as well as a musician. He was a cast member of the legendary comedy show, Saturday Night Live for 13 years and also one of the brains behind the successful satirical show Portlandia. Find out more about this incredibly talented guy ...

Ed and Lorraine Warren Biography: Cases, Kids, and Family Life Have you ever woken up with fear you could not explain, or felt a strange presence that made the hair at your nape rise or even experienced strange occurrences around you? Well, these were some of the promptings that made the well-known paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren delve into trying to explain the ideas ...

Truth About Tony Romos Wife, Kids and Life Since His NFL Retirement Tony Romo grew from the field as a quarterback to the screens as an American Football Analyst. He was a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys in the richest football league in the world (NFL) before retiring. As a junior, he was honored as an All-Ohio Conference Member, an Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year and ...

Who is Brittany Venti, The Controversial Game Streamer and YouTuber? In recent times, many people live stream themselves playing video games. This has become a popular pastime on the internet and many highly skilled gamers have become internet celebrities through this means. However, some of them rather than becoming renowned for their gaming skills and great commentary, have become controversial and infamous. A good example ...

Rob Dyrdeks Family: His Kids And Relationship With Wife Bryiana Noelle Flores A multi-talented star and an elite pro skateboarder, Rob Dyrdeks success story began at a remarkably young age. Yet another proof that schooling doesnt always correlate with success, Rob has established himself not just as a phenomenal sportsman but also as a successful entrepreneur. Besides perfecting his skill as a natural talent on the board, ...

xChocobars  Biography and Everything You Should Know About Her Having distinguished herself and recorded massive successes in an industry notably dominated by men, it is very safe to say that Xchocobars deserves all the attention and cash she makes from her career. A household name on Twitch (a smart live streaming video platform), the online-gamer is popularly known for streaming classic games such as Stardew ...

Everything To Know About Mary Padian, Her Boyfriend and Net Worth Mary Padian is a famous American television reality personality best known for her involvements on the Reality show Storage Wars. She also has her own shop called Mary finds where she displays her antique collections. Since her childhood, Padian has been a creative learner. At the time, she used to create new items out of reusable ones and ...

Betsy Woodruffs Family Life: Is She Married or Related To Bob Woodruff? An old name in the world of journalism, Betsy Woodruff has warmed her way into the hearts of many with her impressive talents. Through hard work, Woodruff has carved a niche for herself in a very competitive field. Betsy has strong family and work values and is also an advocate for equal opportunities for everyone ...

Matpat (Matthew Patrick)  Wife, Height & Net Worth As far as internet business is concerned, Matpat remains one of the most dynamic and seasoned figures. He boasts a wealth of experience that has helped him in growing his business from one level of greatness to another. Like most successful people, MatPat started out small but today, he makes millions of dollars from his ...

Facts About Ricegum  His Girlfriend, Real Name & Net Worth Ricegum is an online gamer and YouTube sensation who ditched college; took advantage of the digital era, and made a name for himself on the internet. Though he began as a gaming YouTuber, Ricegum soon gained recognition as a controversial internet star following his many diss tracks. Here is everything you need to know about the youngster ...

Joy Taylor Once Married MLBs Richard Giannotti  Inside Look At Her Love Life and Family The erosion of the sexist idea that women have no business in sports broadcasting created a host of women celebrities who attained fame outside of modeling and acting. One of them, Joy Taylor, a radio personality and TV host for Fox Sports 1, has been in the industry since 2009, becoming one of the most ...

What To Know About Conan OBriens Wife, Kids & Family Today The name Conan OBrien is one that jumps right at you almost immediately you start talking about the most popular television hosts in the USA and this is no surprise because the man behind that name has risen to become one of the most admired men in the business. Known for hosting the late-night talk ...

David Letterman  Net Worth, Wife & Son In all of American, one man whose face has been seen frequently by late night TV talk show lovers is none but David Letterman. The comedian and TV show veteran has been hosting late night talk shows for more than three decades. His Late Night with David Letterman show began on February 1st, 1982 aired ...

Demystifying Sssniperwolfs Family Background And The Boyfriends Shes Had Since she launched her eponymously named channel in 2013, Sssniperwolf has been on the rise when it comes to video game influencers. She is one of the biggest names in the online gaming subgenre of YouTube videos. Real name Lia Shelesh, she started with Call of Duty: Black Ops II but has diversified with other ...

Lester Holt  Wife, Family & Net Worth Lester Holt is a multiple award-winning journalist, newscaster, reporter, and actor who has worked for notable media houses like WCBS TV, CBS, MSNBC and among others. His remarkable feat in journalism has endeared him to the hearts of many and earned him some awards and recognitions. Read on to get acquainted with his biography, ethnicity, ...

What Is Louis C.K. Doing Now, Where Are His Family And How Much Is His Net Worth? It is not easy to make it in comedy. It takes more than a funny bone and the ability to elicit a few giggles from a listening audience. For all the complexities that go into making a successful career in comedy, Louis C.K, the Washington D.C-born comedian, did it. For years, he was at the ...

The Progression of Hoda Kotbs Career, Her Ancestry and Family Life Hoda Kotb gained fame as a television host and news anchor for NBC. She anchors the shows signature show Today, and it has been an excellent vehicle for her skills in front of a camera. Kotb has won several awards, including Daytime Emmys and Peabody Awards. Simply put, she is one of the most successful ...

Jerry Seinfelds Family: All About The Amazing Comedians Wife and Kids Apparently one of the highly important entertainers in America, Jerry Seinfeld is a man of many talents. A very funny man, he is considered to be one of the most successful comedians in the USA who has been in the business as a professional rib-cracker for more than 40 years. As an actor, he has ...

The Rigors Of Sarah Silvermans Rise To Prominence And Rundown Of The Men She Has Dated A comedian, writer, and actress, Sarah Silvermans art and craft is as unique as you would ever find. Her poignant use of comedy to discuss social issues such as race, sexism, politics, and religion has gained her an impressive following. As unorthodox as her style is, so is her life experiences. She previously suffered from epiglottitis ...

Who Is Hannibal Buress, Does He Have A Wife or Girlfriend & Why Was He Arrested? Making people laugh when they are tense or not in the mood is a tough order and to ply the trade, it must indeed take some guts and expertise, this is what the humor maker, Hannibal Buress has been able to achieve and sustain after his inital teething process. The African-American is a screen writer, stand-up ...

The Success of John Mulaneys Career Efforts Since His Work On Saturday Night Live and Facts About His Wife John Mulaney had been working as a professional comedian for years before Saturday Night Live changed his status for life and like many who are now his fans, you probably did not know of him then. However, that changed when he joined the sketch comedy show in 2008. Since then, he has been one of ...

Jeff Dunham  Wife, Children and Net Worth Ventriloquism is a very subtle method of making an inanimate object (like a puppet, doll or dummy) appear to be saying words which are actually coming from the person (holding the inanimate object). In effect, the individual throws his/her voice to the puppet and can even appear to be having a conversation with it. Not ...

Ellen DeGeneres  Net Worth, Wife  Portia de Rossi & Parents Ellen DeGeneres is an American female standup comedian who has proven that whatever a man can do, a woman can also do. Since her journey as a standup comedian started in 1981, she has held swirl as one of the finest comedians America and the world at large has seen. She is often referred to ...

Revisiting Joan Rivers Death  The Daughter, Husband & Net Worth She Left Behind Joan Rivers was a renowned American comedian, TV host, writer, and actress. Her brand of comedy consisted of scathing one-liners and no individual or topic is spared. She hosted her own talk shows in the 80s and 90s and was a pioneer for women in stand up comedy. She was the first woman to host a late night ...

The Struggles of Margaret Chos Childhood, How It Influenced Her Career Growth and Love Life Margaret Cho is best described as a comic star who knows how to maneuver everything related to life into a rib-cracking joke. She is also known to criticize every social and political problem, especially those involving race and sexuality. Apart from her talents as a comic actress, she does amazingly well as a singer and ...

Where Is Eric Bolling Today? Who Is His Son & What Is His Net Worth? Eric Bolling who was once a notable figure on Fox News, is an American TV personality, an author, and versatile Journalist. As a political and financial analyst/commentator, he anchored discussions bothering on finance for Fox Business Channel. Here is everything there is to know about his career, family, and allegations that led to his exit ...

Who Is Chelsea Handler and Does She Have A Husband or Boyfriend? Chelsea Handler is one of Americas top female comedians. She is also an actress, writer, television host, producer, and activist. She is known to be very outspoken even with things that are very personal. In separate interviews with The New York Times, Handler revealed that she had an abortion twice when she was 16. She has authored five books ...

How Did Laura Lee Achieve Fame, How Much is She Worth and Who is Her Husband? Laura Lee is a popular American YouTuber, make-up artist and beauty blogger. From posting videos of her makeup routines on Instagram, Lee has transformed into a beauty influencer and a YouTube sensation. Today, her YouTube Channel has over 630 million views and 4.5 million subscribers. Asides having millions of followers across all social media platforms, ...

Madison Gesiotto Bio  Ethnicity, Parents & Measurements Madison Gesiotto is no ordinary woman; although she excelled in quite a number of pageants and competitions while she was in school, it is her views on politics and issues in America that has made her name known to most people. She possesses beauty and intelligence in a seemingly equal measure and has been able ...

Who Is Lil Tay? Parents, Brother, Sister, Age, Net Worth, Ethnicity Child stardom is nothing new in the entertainment world. With the advent of social media, we have seen more stars made from the internet than ever before, and Lil Tay is one of them. Her uploaded rap videos trademark is cursing, swearing, cash-throwing, and use of obscene languages. Her fame went wild after she dropped ...

What To Know About Tig Notaros Wife, Kids and Family Today Tig Notaro is an American stand-up comic star, writer, actress, and radio analyst. Since she started her career in 2001, she has become one of Americas best comedians, particularly when it comes to observational comedy. One prominent aspect of her routine involves her family, which includes a wife and two children. Interestingly, Tig Notaro is part ...

Who Is Chantel Jeffries? What To Know About Her Age, Ethnicity & Net Worth Chantel Jeffries is a lady of many talents. Beyond being celebrated as a DJ, she has fared well as a model, an actress, musician, and as an artist. She first rose to fame on Instagram where she has a large following. However, in recent times, she has hit the spotlight for her rumored relationships with some ...

Is Ellen DeGeneres Married, Who Is The Brother  Vance DeGeneres and Family Members? Ellen DeGeneres is one of a kind celebrity in todays world as she has used her wealth for the greater good for many people. She has served a host of famous awards shows like the Grammy, Primetime Emmy and Academy Awards. Moreso, she is probably one of the most decorated entertainment personalities around the world and ...

Carli Bybel Bio  Height, Boyfriend & Net Worth Video blogging is now on the rise and YouTube is the place where most of it happens. If you are a lady who cares about her looks or a guy who likes to help his woman out with her looks, then one person whose name rings a bell when it comes to giving beauty tips ...

Who Is Lexy Panterra? What To Know About Her Ethnicity, Boyfriend & Net Worth Lexy Panterra is one of the YouTube personalities whose breakout came through the Twerk dance videos she posted on her social media handles and YouTube which has so far generated over 13 million views for her. From there on, she created her LexTwerkOut workout program in 2014. She is sure very talented as she as moved ...

Who Is AnneMunition? What Is Her Ethnicity & Does She Have A Girlfriend or Boyfriend? AnneMunition is a professional gamer and content creator of American origin. She is one of the most sought-after streamers on Twitch  a popular online platform for watching and streaming videos, especially video games. AnneMunition has almost half a million followers on Twitch and her channel has accumulated at least 13 million views. Her favorite games ...

Norm MacDonald  Former Wife, Son & Net Worth Recently, 59-year-old former Saturday Night Live stand-up comic Norm MacDonald caused a not-so-funny stir when he expressed his personal opinion about the #MeToo movement speaking in defense of Louis CK and Roseanne Barr. Following the backlash of his actions, he is diligently doing damage control for his questionable opinion by posting a public apology on ...

Inside Iliza Shlesingers Life With Husband and How Much She is Worth Now Witty, spontaneous, and truly humorous, Iliza Shlesinger is an American comedian who is clearly proving that the stereotypical claim that women are not really funny is not only incredibly wrong but completely outrageous. Having been in the game for more than 10 years, Shlesinger has grown bigger with each step, stunning fans with her incredible ...

Who Is Nessa Diab? Details of her Parents, Ethnicity & Relationship With Colin Kaepernick Nessa Diab has gained more fame as the girlfriend of different footballers than in her career. She is currently with the popular National Football League (NFL) player, Colin Kaepernick, and has stood by his side during his most trying times. Also known for her mononym, Nessa, she recently engaged in a tweet battle with the ...

Samantha Bee  Inside the Life of Full Frontal Comedian and Presenter We have over the decades seen various brands of humor and personalities who have walked the ropes. One of the formidable forces in the world of comedy is no other than the iconic Samantha Bee of the Daily Show who now runs her own television show on TBS channel. She is a Canadian-American political commentator, ...

What Happened To Jessica Williamss Boyfriend And Which Are Her Best Works? Jessica Williams is a woman who has a lot of feathers in her cap  and keeps acquiring more. The former senior political correspondent of the comic Daily Show, who is also a comedian and actress whose recent movie appearance include starring as a playwright just recovering from a recent split with her boyfriend, Damon, and ...

Who is Nicole Byer? Here are 5 Facts You Need To Know About The Comedian Nicole Byer, an American comedian, actress, and writer, made a name for herself after she played supporting roles on MTVs prank show Ladylike and the reality show Girl Code. The latter was a series that featured comedians who analyzed in minute details, all the issues that young women deal with daily, from period to dating, to weird friendship dynamics and questions about sex. Currently, ...

A Closer Look At Bart Kwans Ethnicity, Height & Personal Life Bart Kwan is one of few Asians who is known for being successful in the comic industry at an international level. His fame broke out after the YouTube channel which he created with his close pal Joe Jo garnered up massive followings. The talented duo has been running the channel since 2007 and their success ...

Heres How VanossGaming Achieved Fame Online, His Worth and Other Facts About The Gamer For many years, the decision to drop out of college to pursue an online career was considered to be foolish and self-destructive by conventional wisdom. It was no different when Evan Fong, popularly known as VanossGaming, dropped out of college to pursue a YouTube career. However, that radical move paid off, and he stands shoulder to ...

Desi Perkins  Ethnicity, Net Worth & Husband YouTube is littered with videos of makeup tutorials by different people but if you are interested in learning how to do your makeup like a pro, there is just one person on that platform who you must follow. She is none other than Desi Perkins! She is a popular make-up artist, Instagram star, and vlogger. Desi, ...

The Phases of Casey Neistats Pursuits and His Love Story With Candice Pool YouTuber, vlogger, filmmaker, and creator extraordinaire; these are just a few hats that Casey Neistat wears and the story of how he got here is incredible. A native of Connecticut, Neistat started out by making refreshingly-authentic short films and videos that featured content that was based on everyday life and called attention to serious issues. He ...

Connor Franta  Inside The Life of American YouTuber YouTube has produced a lot of young celebrities in modern times and Connor Franta happens to be one of them. Apart from being a YouTuber, the young American is also an entrepreneur, entertainer, and writer. His journey to fame began almost a decade ago when he started a self-named YouTube channel where he uploads content ranging ...

Rhett and Link  Bio, Who are Their Wives, Net Worth and Family Facts Rhett and Link refer to an American comedy duo who are very popular on YouTube. They are known for their comic songs, viral commercials, skits and the daily show, Good Mythical Morning. Good Mythical Morning is the most watched daily show online, averaging 100 million views in a month. The show has featured guests such ...

A Walk Through The Maze of Ryan Higas Career Pursuits And Relationship With Arden Cho Ryan Higa is not only celebrated as a YouTube star, but he is also famed for appearing on television screens as an actor and comedian. Nigahiga, his Youtube channel, has gathered over 20 million subscribers and billions of views with his different comic acts, short films, and music videos uploads. With the rise in his career, ...

What to Know About The Shows That Made Craig Ferguson a Star and His Family Ties Rising to the top of your profession can sometimes be a hard and difficult process. It requires days and nights of working consistently hard to be better than what you were yesterday. It requires not giving up when all of your experiences seem to be pushing you to quit. It is because of these challenges ...

David Dobrik Married Liza Koshy for One Month  Inside His Family and Relationships David Dobrik is a YouTube sensation who has garnered fame not just for his vlogs but his love life too. Given his career as a YouTuber, his channel is one place where he shares his romantic escapades. With a cute boyish look like his, this Slovakian young man is definitely a good catch, and not ...

Merrell Twins Bio  Ethnicity, Parents & Boyfriend One of the beautiful things about modern life is social media. As rudimentary as it might seem, it could turn out to be the greatest thing that would be invented in the next 50 years because of its impact on human life. Very few tools have revolutionized human behavior and culture as much as social ...

Who Is Bunny Meyer, Is She Married & What Is Her Net Worth? Bunny Meyer is a YouTube celebrity who has amassed over 8.8 million subscribers with 1.5 million viewers on her channel. She is popularly known as Grav3yardgirl and is one of the highest-paid YouTubers in the world. She initially started out as a fashion designer and later chose the path of a YouTuber. Grav3yardgirl has used her knowledge on fashion, makeup, ...

Ninja  Inside The Life of The American YouTuber and Internet Personality Ninja is a talented video game player known for his mastery of Fortnite and other seemingly difficult games he plays with ease. The video gamer made a career out of what is ordinarily the hobby of many people and has since then amassed a huge online following. Find out about him here, including the controversies that ...

What Is Eva Gutowskis True Sexuality and How Did She Rise So Fast As an Influencer? Ever since Eva Gutowski joined YouTube in 2011, it has been an interesting journey for her, moving from one milestone to the other. Backed by an army of young women and teenage girl fans known as Evanators, she has risen to become one of the most-talked-about personalities in the digital stratosphere. She has also leveraged ...

Emma Chamberlain Biography  Age, Height & Net Worth Before now, people in the entertainment industry could only achieve popularity after many years of dedication and hard work but since social media came into the scene, massive success and overnight popularity became possible. That is the story of Emma Chamberlain who encountered fame as a fifteen-year-old. Emma is one of the many young people who became ...

Anna Akana  Ethnicity, Boyfriend & Net Worth There is a new crop of YouTubers known by their different contents with a very strong uniqueness that stands every one of them out, some upload video games, some fashion while some others have comedy video contents to showcase on their channels. Anna Akana has used her platform to showcase her comedy contents to the ...

Revealing Truths About Lilly Singhs Ethnic Background, Family and Her Relationship With Yousef Erakat Lilly Singh is an Indian-Canadian YouTube personality, actress, and comedian also known as Superwoman. She kicked off her YouTube career in 2010 with the launch of her channel IISuperwomanII and followed it up with a vlog channel in 2011. This paved the way for her fame and success which led to a world tour. The ...

Who Is Andrea Constand, Is She Married and What Is Her Connection With Bill Cosby? Many people got sexually molested but could not voice out due to the stigma victims suffer and what will become of them thereafter. Very few of the victims danm every consequence to seek justice and bring the perpetrator to the book, like Andrea Constand. She never got any media buzz, not until her friend cum molester; ...

Who Is Lazarbeam (Lannan Eacott)? Here Are Facts You Need To Know Lannan Eacott became a person of interest after his YouTube channel, LazarBeam pulled him to the limelight. Initially, he started with uploads of Madden Challenge videos before deciding to build his own channel in January 2015. Within the space of three years, his YouTube channel had gathered over 7 million loyal subscribers. Today, he has not ...

Puzzling Facts About Wengies YouTube Success and More About Her Fiance Among the many YouTubers who have succeeded in winning the hearts of millions of people is Wengie. She is a Chinese-Australian YouTube personality, vlogger, singer, and voice actress. Wengie is famous for a lot of things, from her simple life hacks, DIYs, craft ideas to fun experiments, tricks and pranks. Her content portfolio also includes hair tutorials, diet & fitness tips, lookbooks, ...

Is Jeffree Star A Billionaire and How Much Does He Make On YouTube? If looks can be deceptive then theres no other person who proves this maxim better than Jeffree Star. A quick look at Stars pictures would likely leave you wondering whether or not to tag him a male or female. But who says being controversial has to be a curse? For Star, his looks have caught ...

The Place of Rosanna Pansinos Career Hats In Her Rise To Fame and Facts About Her Personal Life There are a few phrases that could summarize Rosanna Pansinos rise to fame. None of them can do it better than the famous axiom, no knowledge is lost. Her popularity YouTube comes out of her foray into other professions, specifically acting. Although acting now occupies one of the major professional hats in Rosannas resume, it was ...

Muselk (Elliott Watkins) Biography  Age, Girlfriend and Net Worth The new and best in-thing in terms of career is video gaming and we have over time seen young men and women make massive income from an activity that was purportedly designed to serve as a hobby or a relaxation activity. One of such individuals is the Australian-born YouTube Celebrity and Twitch streamer, Muselk, whose ...

PopularMMOs Biography: 5 Interesting Facts You Need To Know We have over the years seen social media millionaires, especially on the YouTube social platform. These celebrities cum millionaires have made names for themselves after carving out niches on the internet, and a typical example of one of such exciting media personality on the YouTube is American Minecraft gamer and YouTube star, PopularMMOs whose channel ...

Jason Nash Once Married Marney Hochman  What To Know About His Ex-Wife and Kids The now-defunct video-sharing app Vine was the path that led Jason Nash to fame. With it, he built an audience of over two million followers, which he parlayed into a significant YouTube career. That move has seen him become one of the most popular personalities on the internet, with the cash income to go with ...

Where Does Dantdm Live? What Do We Know About His Net Worth, Wife and Brother? Most parents buy video games for their kids to occupy their time leisure, while other parents frown at their kids when they play video games. Despite the disparity, every parent would be proud of their child if he/she eventually turns a celebrity or millionaire through playing video games like Dantdm. Biography of Dantdm Dantdm was born Daniel ...

LaurDIY  Biography: 5 Facts You Need To Know About The YouTuber LaurDIY is the YouTube channel of Lauren Riihimaki which she created on December 1, 2011, when she was still a college undergrad with the sole aim of giving Do It Yourself (DIY) as well as practical fashion and beauty tips to her followers. She has used the channel to establish herself as a YouTube personality ...

Lachlan Ross Power  Bio And Family Life Of Australian The YouTube Star It is amazing the varied sources of income that the internet has made possible in this day and age. Internet fame can get its holder a whole lot of monetary and social benefits, but it must be noted that it does not come easy or cheap. For those who desire fame, content is the sacrifice ...

Alfie Deyes  Bio and Net Worth: Everything You Need To Know Alfie Deyes is one internet personality you definitely would like to know about. He boasts of over 10 million subscribers on three of his YouTube channels and has three bestseller books to his name. He is probably the most renowned young personality on YouTube today and his vlogging empire continues to grow by the day. ...

Colleen Ballingers Love Story With Husband Erik Stocklin and How Much She Is Worth Now Colleen Ballinger is an American comedian and YouTuber who is a very funny, adventurous, and highly talented woman. She is also an actress, singer, and writer. Collen is widely known for her work on YouTube where she posts content on her channel, Miranda Sings. The comedian has gained many subscribers over the years and has ...

Who Are The Dude Perfect Members and How Much Are They Worth? Entertainment in the 21st century can be digested in many forms and with platforms like YouTube, the creators and purveyors of entertainment have been democratized. Today, one of the most popular platforms to exhibit ones creative talents is YouTube, even though there are other platforms like Twitter, Facebook, who suffer in comparison to YouTube because ...

Who Is Rudy Mancuso, What Is His Earning Power and What Do We Know About His Girlfriend? Rudy Mancuso started his internet journey on Vine. He would later transition to YouTube where he solidified his place among the internets most beloved comedic creators. He is now regarded as one of the renowned internet personalities in the world, with a presence in mainstream TV and film projects like Comedy Centrals Drunk History and ...

Vsauce (Michael Stevens) Biography and Net Worth: All You Need To Know The advent of YouTube and the internet as a whole revolutionized how human beings consume information. With each passing year, the percentage of learning that is done in a traditional classroom decrease as a seismic shift to internet-based learning happens in our education industry. From open courses online to YouTube classes and videos, there are ...

How did Jake Paul Make His YouTube Big Break and Who is His Wife? One of the most interesting Social Media personalities of the 21st century is the young and popular Jake Paul whose elder brother is the famed Vine star, Logan Paul. Jake has utilized the power of the internet to bring himself to the limelight with a channel named JakePaulProductions that has amassed up to six billion ...

5 Facts You Need To Know About Reaction Time (Tal Fishman)  The American YouTuber Before 2015, the leading meaning of reaction time was the amount of time it takes to respond to a stimulus, until Tal Fishman started his channel, Reaction Time on YouTube and the dominant meaning changed. Today, a google search of Reaction Time would deliver Tal Fishmans videos and YouTube channel link with a few physics ...

Grace Helbig  Net Worth, Boyfriend and Family Life of The YouTuber Grace Helbig is an American internet personality, comedian, actress, and writer. She became popular due to her daily vlog series, DailyGrace, which ran on My Damn Channel from 2008 to 2013. Helbig is also popular for her own indie series on YouTube, ItsGrace, which she launched in 2014. Her vlogs which feature random stuff such as ...

Mark Wiens Bio  Ethnicity, Wife and Parents Food is a great way to connect with people. We all love to eat, if not for the pleasure of food, the satisfaction of quenching hunger, and the very process of providing and sharing that food is part of the strongest bonds that bind humanity together. Maybe it is our historical connection to food, where ...

Is Filthy Frank Dead, What Happened To Him and How Much Is He Worth? As George Kusunoki Miller, he was a nobody. However, as Filthy Frank, George was one of the most famous internet personalities on the planet. The Filthy Frank Show, a sketch series on his YouTube channel, TVFilthyFrank, was one of the platforms most influential creations. He is the reason a crazy dance song, Harlem Shake, made it ...

CaptainSparklez Bio  Net Worth, House and Cars of The Famous YouTuber Sometimes, what society wants from its citizens is quite different from what the citizens want for themselves. This is evident in the life and career of video blogger and American YouTube personality, Jordan Maron famous for his YouTube channel CaptainSparklez. He dropped out of school after discovering his talent in playing an online game called Minecraft. ...

Who is Simply Nailogical (Cristine Rotenberg)? Here are Facts You Must Know Canadian Youtube personality, Simply Nailogical (Cristine Rotenberg) originally started out polishing and designing nails even before it became a trendy culture in the social media. Simply Nailogica started out her showbiz career in her early days as a child actress, acting in commercials for game and toy companies. Aside from acting, she is blogger, vlogger, specializing ...

5 Interesting Facts You Need To Know About Huda Beauty In the world of entrepreneurship, it is interesting when an individual has a mentor who he/she looks up to, this yield more productivity on the part of the individual. The iconic and rich American beautician and makeup artist Huda Kattan nicknamed Heida is the founder of the Huda Beauty blog which is number one Instagram beauty blog ...

Is Dino MasterChef Gay? Details About His Ethnicity, Girlfriend, Where He Is Now Food, for the better part of the early years of human life, was nothing more than what we needed for survival. There was no artistry or curation to the method of cooking. The scarcity of food left no room for artistic expression until we figured out agriculture and we could make as much as we ...

Who Is Gabbie Hanna And How Did She Become Famous? As the world shifts to digital media and depends more and more on streaming services for its news and entertainment content, YouTubers have become one of the leading creators in the new media world. Their understanding of the online audience: how to create, maintain, and increase followers, are all handy skills that have primed them ...

Jacksepticeye  Height, Girlfriend & Net Worth Jacksepticeye is a YouTuber and actor who gained popularity with a series of gaming videos he uploads on his channel to the delight of millions of his subscribers. He is Known primarily for his comic video game series titled Lets Play and his vlogs. His channel was formerly ranked 46th in the list of most subscribed ...

Chris Heria Personal Details: About His Wife, Height & Ethnicity Background In this generation, keeping fit has become one of the major criteria for being hale and hearty. In fact, most occupations these days are majorly concerned with ones body mass, weight and looks. Unlike the past where most people have to register in a gym to keep fit, social media has made it quite easy ...

Everything You Need To Know About Game Grumps Gaming is becoming incredibly popular on YouTube these days with game vloggers make millions of dollars out of them yearly. One of the most popular up-coming gaming YouTube channels is Game Grumps. The Lets Play series was created in 2012 and celebrated its fifth anniversary on July 18th, 2017. In six years of its existence, the ...

Daithi De Nogla Biography, Girlfriend and Net Worth YouTube has created an avenue for many to make wealth and become famous from the comfort of their homes while having fun. Many have built a career out of the platform, uploading numerous videos that have earned them the admiration of viewers across the globe. For Daithi De Nogla, he is loved for his humorous commentary on ...

Does Phoebe Robinson Have A Boyfriend or Husband and What Do We Know About Her Family? Phoebe Robinson is a New York-based comedian, writer, and actress. She is best known as the co-creator and co-host of the WNYC Studios podcast 2 Dope Queens. Just like some other female comedians, she never had any original plans of becoming a stand-up comedian even though, according to her, she took a class on a whim at Carolines on Broadway. After ...

Who Are Lex and Alana from Listed Sisters? What Is Their Ethnicity & Is the Show Cancelled? America is a country built on diversity. Everywhere you look all over the country, a countless number of immigrants or children of immigrants have become an integral part of the fabric of the country. From entertainment to business, immigrants are creating a niche for themselves and climbing to the summit of their respective professions. One ...

Riveting Facts About Danielle Lombard And What She Is Best Known For The American entertainment industry is one that provides many avenues for aspiring hopefuls to express their talents and become famous. From films to television shows and game shows, there is no shortage of ways for men and women who desire fame to pursue and earn it in the United States of America. Another tested medium ...

Unearthing New Details About The YouTube Success And Personal Life of Alex Burriss of Wassabi Productions Wildly hilarious and truly audacious, Alex Wassabi is an American YouTuber who has become a very popular face on the video-sharing platform after having garnered millions of subscribers over the years by keeping people glued to his channel with his witty parody video releases. If you have always loved parody videos, there is every chance ...

Everything You Need To Know About H2O Delirious H2O Delirious whose full birth name is reported to be Jonathan Gormon Dennis has successfully kept himself mystified by hiding his face behind the masks leaving his loyal fans speculating who he really is for many years. The American YouTube star is easily identified by the Jason Mask Style with make-up which he wears on his ...

Who Is HolaSoyGerman and What Happened To Him? German Garmendia has certainly seen it all when it comes to internet success. His channels, HolaSoyGerman and JuegaGerman are in the top twenty most subscribed channel on YouTube. The Chilean YouTuber found a way to tap into one of the worlds greatest inventions and make a living from it. He has been able to build ...

Who Are Glenn Becks Family, What Is His Net Worth And What Happened To Him? The American political commentary space is filled with different personalities. A few of them, through their rhetoric, charisma, and resources have been able to build a large following of men and women who listen to them for insight and direction for various political and social issues in the United States. For Conservatives, the story is ...

Following Charissa Thompsons Rise Through The Ranks Of Sports Casting and All About Her Boyfriend Superstar TV host and sportscaster, Charissa Thompson, has been hailed as one of the highest-profile women journalists in America, and the reason is there for all to see. She has worked for popular establishments such as Versus, Yahoo! Sports, ESPN, GSN, and Big Ten Network. She currently hosts the popular pre-game show, Fox NFL Kickoff, ...

Is Chris Kattan Gay or Does He Have A Wife? What Is His Net Worth? Chris Kattan is a popular American comedian and actor. He has appeared in several comic movies and TV series such as The Middle, A Night at the Roxbury and Bunnicula. Kattan is, however, most popular for his six-year stint as a cast member of Saturday Night Live. During his time on the legendary show, he ...

Everything You Should Know About the Rise of Insta Star Claire Abbott and Why She Gave It All Up A lot of young Americans have shot into the limelight for uploading different kinds of videos on YouTube. Some of these young stars include Connor Franta, Desi Perkins, Emma Chamberlain, the Dolan Twins (Ethan and Grayson), and Claire Abbott. The latter became a social media celebrity for uploading sexy bikini pictures of herself on social media. Apart from ...

5 Facts You Need To Know About The YouTube Channel  h3h3Productions H3h3Productions is a YouTube channel that specializes on Comic responses or reactions of other contents or trendy stories. The celebrity couple that created the channel has over time racked up sizable views for their commentaries and contents. Even though they had their own fair share of copyright cases, thankfully they scored an unprecedented victory in all ...

Lilypichu Bio  Height, Brother and Love Story With Albert SleightlyMusical Chang Like most popular internet celebrities, Lilypichu is one of those Twitch streamers who spend their lives on camera. From daydreaming about the possibility of becoming a full-time professional streamer, she grew to live out her dreams on the popular live streaming platform where people play games, make crafts, and showcase their day-to-day activities. Given the rise of ...

KSI  What To Know About His Girlfriend, Brother  Deji Olatunji & Net Worth Assuredly, when Internet inventors Vint Cerf and Bob Khan created the technological masterpiece, they probably did not know how massive the creation will be harnessed by many for different purposes including as a platform for earning money through content creation. One of such person who smiles to the bank regularly today for spending time creating ...

The Interesting Progression and Highlights of Carrie Keagans Career as a Host and Actress Carrie Keagan has garnered huge fame through her various stints on television. She is not just your regular TV host but one with a difference. Keagan has hosted several high profile events and TV shows, including VH1s Big Morning Buzz Live and Fox News Channels Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld. However, not many know she ...

The Gist On Elise Jordans Marriages And Her Rise To Prominence Political commentaries tend to be boring when it is handled by someone who does not have a knack for it. However, when you see the likes of Elise Jordan run the same commentary, you will have a lot of reasons to look forward to watching her again as the journalist is well-versed in the field ...

What Is Timmy Thick Best Known For and How Successful Is The Star? Thanks to the internet, many people whose talents would have ordinarily gone unnoticed have become famous. A very good example of this modern-day internet celebrity is Timmy Thick, an American social media star. He became popular on Instagram due to his penchant for posting raunchy pictures of himself. He also often posted videos of himself ...

What Does Heather Storm Do For a Living and Who Is She Dating? Reality Television is a great way to make a name for oneself as well as amass a fortune. Heather Storm can attest to this as she is one of those who have made a name and earned a lot from reality TV. She made her name appearing on shows like Car Fanatics, Awesome Autos, and, ...

Matt Carriker Biography  Net Worth, Wife & Height Unlike your regular veterinary doctor next door, Matt Carriker chose to spice up his noble profession with the unusual. Though he is known to many as a medical practitioner, Carriker is better renowned as a YouTube star and an animal lover. Having recorded huge successes on his various YouTube channels, the vet doctors name and ...

Jillian Mele of Fox News Career Achievements, Husband & Measurements There are quite a good number of presenters on radio and television who listeners and viewers may never wish to miss any of their shows because of their sensational golden voice, beauty or the special way or artistry they anchor their shows. Jillian Mele is one of such. She has been at the top of ...

Who is Gillian Turner of Fox News? Her Fiance or Husband and Net Worth Gillian Turner is well-known as a news correspondent for Fox News Channel but before she became a TV personality, she built an intimidating resume working for different institutions, including the American government. She served in different capacities at the White House National Security Council during the administration of former US Presidents  George W. Bush and Barack Obama. ...

Gloria Govan Bio  Age, Ethnicity & Height Even as Gloria Govan is famous as an American actress, author, a TV host, and reality television star, shes more popular as the wife of the former NBA player, Matt Barnes. She became known after appearing on the Florida version of the reality television series, Basketball Wives and later, Basketball Wives: LA  after Matt was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. Sadly, ...

Michael Fishmans Interesting Start as an Actor and Why He Divorced His Wife of Many Years When one door closes, another one opens. As silly as that axiom may seem, it is the story of the resurgence of Michael Fishman, who plays D.J Conner on the popular show, Roseanne. Having played the character for several years as a child actor into his teenage years; when the show originally ended, Michael did ...

Who Is October Gonzalez  Tony Gonzalezs Wife? All You Need To Know October Gonzalez is a popular American TV host and media personality. Additionally, she is also a model. Gonzalez has hosted several TV shows such as Beat Shazam, Entertainment Tonight, and Rachel Ray. She has also featured in several reality TV shows. Gonzalezs fame is not just due to her profession but also because of her ...

Who Is Tony Berlin  Harris Faulkners Husband: His Children and Family Facts Tony Berlin is a popular American media guru. He has variously worked as a reporter, anchor, and producer for some of the biggest TV networks in America. They include CNN, CBS, NBC, and ABC (where he hosted the popular Good Morning America). Berlin has now diversified into public relations and owns his own PR firm. ...

The Progression of Gianna Tobonis Journalism Career and Details About Her Marriage to Kyle Buckley Gianna Toboni may not be your ideal newscaster but her unusual reporting is what made her a household name. The American journalist is renowned for her hard-hitting and authentic reportage. A motivator and activist for total press freedom, Gianna loves to explore pervasive cultural issues. Not only does this unique and ambitious journalist call for all ...

Dog The Bounty Hunters Family Including Details of His Late Wife and Kids Popularly known as Dog, a name which he got from the television series, Dog The Bounty Hunter, Duane Chapman, an American bounty hunter, and one-time bail bondsman, went from being convicted for a felony to being a reality TV star. He was brought to the limelight following the capture of the convicted criminal, Andrew Luster in 2003 and this eventually made ...

Vicky Karayiannis, Chris Cornells Wifes Bio, Children and Family The world of showbiz is made up of different people who serve different roles, and function in a variety of capacities, and one of the most important people are those in the background. Publicists are undoubtedly one of these background people yet they are vital to the life and fame of most of our favorite ...

Joe Rogan Has A Step-Daughter and 2 Other Kids With Wife Jessica Ditzel  Meet His Family Joe Rogan is a popular American stand-up comedian and TV host. His journey to stardom began in the late 80s and has seen him host several shows, the most popular is the game show titled Fear Factor. The exciting show dares contestants to face some of their greatest fears and embark on challenging stunts. The ...

Josh Gates and Wife Hallie Gnatovich Have 2 Kids But Who Has the Higher Net Worth? Best known for his explorations and adventures, Josh Gates, is a television presenter with a voracious appetite for seeing the world and the beauties in it. Some of that beauty, however, is in his home, in the form of two children he shares with his wife, Hallie Gnatovich. Not excluded is their marriage which has lasted ...

Holly Sonders Wiki, Plastic Surgery & Why She Divorced Her Husband  Erik Kuselias After trying everything within her capacity to have a low key wedding, Holly Sonders was drawn to the public because of her husbands controversy at his workplace. Well, the two are rumored to be divorced but the article below will give more light on how true these rumors are. Meanwhile, Holly Sonders is yet to ...

Nadeska Alexis Bio  Age, Boyfriend & Net Worth Journalism is one diverse profession that allows the practitioners to choose their area of specialty, build a career on it by reporting the truth and facts which in the long run will distinguish them as deserving commendation and recognition among their peers. Some choose to specialize in political journalism, while to others it is sports ...

Media Platforms Charlamagne Tha God Has Explored and All The Controversies He Has Courted Charlamagne Tha God is an American on-air personality, radio presenter, and more recently, author. He is popularly known as a co-host on New York radios nationally syndicated show, The Breakfast Club, a program he has been hosting alongside DJ Envy and Angela Yee since 2010. However, his early years had no connection to his current career ...

A Look At Jimmy Fallons Net Worth and Family Including His Wife & Kids Sometimes, a childs passion for something is a pointer to what he/she would become in the future. As a child, Jimmy Fallon was literally obsessed with watching the late-night comedy program, Saturday Night Live (SNL). Then, his parents would tape the clean parts for him to watch and later, he and his sister would re-enact sketches from the ...

Kay Adams Biography  Does The Sportscaster Have A Husband or Boyfriend? When you hear the phrase sports enthusiast, women are hardly the first group that comes to mind. Well, thats changing pretty fast. Especially with the rise of female sports analysts and broadcasters like Kay Adams who is famed for knowing more about sports than most men do. And why not, shes paid handsomely for it ...

Ben Shapiros Family  Meet His Wife, Kids and Sister Who is Popular for the Wrong Reasons A multi-talented man, Ben Shapiro is a man of controversial nature, an attribute that has made him an unusual public figure. An intellectual whose career path was clearly defined even before he became a man, the Jewish conservative commentator has always had his way with words. He became popular by sharing his critical and often ...

QVC Shawn Killinger Bio  Husband, Net Worth & Facts To Know Shawn Killinger is a prominent TV personality who has worked her way to the top. Though not initially a journalist by training, she defied the odds and today has established herself as a household name, as well as, worked alongside some industry legends. More than just being a reporter, newscaster, and anchor, heres all you ...

Liv Lo  Dissecting the Ethnicity, Parents and Personal Life of Henry Goldings Wife While many are aware that Liv Lo is the better half to Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding, only a few understand why his beautiful wife appears increasingly endearing to fans. A former model turned TV personality, and fitness star, Liv has an impressive resume which when combined with that of her statuesque spouse is considered a perfect ...

Stpeach Age, Husband and Other Facts About The Twitch Streamer Lisa Vannatta, famously known by her online alias, STPeach is a Canadian video game streamer cum vlogger who has garnered fame through her appearances on different video-sharing/social networking platforms such as Youtube, Instagram, Twitch, Reddit, and Twitter. The beautiful lady got her career to a start in August 2015 when she joined the live streaming video platform, Twitch. She rose to ...

Insights into Seth Meyers Wife, Family and What His Net Worth Is Celebrities are mostly remembered and known for the work they do. For Seth Meyers, his career as a comedian, writer, actor, TV host, and producer is his biggest identifier. He was on Saturday Night Live SNL show as a head writer and cast member for more than ten years during which he built a reputation ...

Who Is Jessica Gadsden  Age, Net Worth & All About Charlamagne tha Gods Wife Jessica Gadsden is an American fitness coach as well as a personal trainer. She is better known as the spouse of popular American media personality, Charlamagne Tha God. Charlamange Tha God is a well-known TV and radio personality in the U.S. He has featured in several shows (both on the radio and TV) and is ...

Who Is Collins Tuohy  Michael Ohers sister ? Her Wedding, Husband & Net Worth Collins Tuohy is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, blogger, and social media personality. She is also better known as the adoptive sister of NFL player, Michael Oher, whose life story inspired the Hollywood blockbuster The Blind Side. The Blind Side tells the true life story of Oher who grew up in an impoverished background consisting of a ...

Eye-Popping Facts About The Personal Life And Career Success Of Sportscaster Heidi Watney Heidi Watney is a media personality who has created a niche for herself as a sportscaster. Starting out as a radio presenter, the brilliant young lady has gone on to work for several prominent sports networks, and currently, she is with the MLB. The sportscaster is also known to have been an avid sports lady right ...

Marty Lagina Bio  Siblings (Martina and Rick Lagina), Net Worth and Wife Marty Lagina is an American engineer and businessman who has risen to fame as a reality TV star. This is thanks to his involvement in the adventure TV series, The Curse of Oak Island. The Curse of Oak Island is a long-running TV series which airs on the history channel. The show aims to solve ...

Is Jordan Schlansky Just A Character or a Real Life Person and What Does He Do? The world of late-night television is an interesting one. Shows during that time are geared towards giving viewers comedic relief from a long day at work through interviews and comedy sketches. The often charismatic host of this show requires the balancing talent of a producer whose primary job is to deliver great episodes. It is ...

Heres How Wealthy Jimmy Kimmel Is From All The Phases of His Career, Marriages and Sons Health Jimmy Kimmel is a renowned late-night talk show host known for his charm, wit, and the A-list guests he features on his show. As the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! On ABC, Jimmy has been serving comedy to television viewers for years which played a pivotal role in launching him into mainstream fame and enabled ...

Natasha Bertrand Biography  Is She Married? Who Is the Husband & What Is Her Age? Natasha Bertrand is not just a young prominent journalist but a first-rate investigative reporter. With her natural beauty and smile, Natashas sharp, insightful political commentary also makes her a thorough reporter. Her sound political perspective and coverage in the country have made her a force to be reckoned with in the profession. Renowned for her ...

What Happened to Shane Kilcher? His Injury Update, Net Worth and More Shane Kilcher is well-known thanks to the Discovery Channel series Alaska: The Last Frontier. It is a show that documents the daily lives of the extended Kilcher family, people who live without plumbing or modern heating. The episodes follow their routines as they rely on hunting and farming for their nutritional needs as well as ...

Is Stephanie Gosk Gay or Lesbian, Who is the Wife or Partner  Jenna Wolfe? In August 2013, NBCs Today viewers were greeted with two shocking news. Today weekend anchor, Jenna Wolfe, announced that she was as a lesbian, introducing her partner as NBC News correspondent Stephanie Gosk, and said the two are expecting their first child. A long time has passed since then and certainly, a lot of things ...

Nikki Mudarris  Bio and Net Worth: 5 Interesting Facts You Need to Know Nikki Mudarris, also known as Miss Nikki Baby, is a reality television star, model and fashionista. Shes best known for VH1s reality TV series Love & Hip-Hop: Hollywood. Her entrepreneurial skills enable her to create and run a successful lingerie line Nude by Nikki. Not only that, but Nikki has also successfully run the Las ...

5 Interesting Things You Need To Know About Kelly Nash Ever heard of the lady who gained national prominence for taking a selfie with a dangerous ball just a few inches away from hitting her? Its no other person than Kelly Nash, an American sports broadcaster currently working as host of The Rundown show which airs on MLB Network every weekday at 2 pm ET. ...

Understanding The Height of Fame John Oliver Achieved With The Daily Show and How He Met His Wife Without knowledge of who he is and his exemplary career, John Oliver cuts an unassuming figure of a regular man but he is one of the most influential personalities in America, especially on television. Since he began his career in 1998, he has been a loud and unapologetic agent of change, using his wit and ...

Why Did Big Chief Leave Street Outlaws, Where Is He Now And Why Did He Divorce His Wife? Justin Shearer, otherwise known by his professional name Big Chief is a famous street racer and television personality. He is famously known for being one of the main characters on the racing reality television series, Street Outlaws. Justin, who had been a significant part of the show since its premiere in 2013, appeared in a ...

Who is Josina Anderson of ESPN? Her Husband and Family Facts There has been a gradual paradigm shift in the world of sports which has today produced the likes of Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, and other female athletes that are pulling great feats in different sporting fields. Their achievements have also been followed by the emergence of female sports journalists such as Jillian Mele, Eboni Williams, ...

Is Brittany Wagner Married, Who Is The Husband, How Old Is She? Brittany Wagner has been an inspiration to a lot of sports youngster. She has won the hearts of many athletic students with her role as a life coach and an academic counselor. She is well groomed in her career and has worked over a decade for The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and The National ...

Tati Westbrook Bio  Age, Husband & Net Worth With five videos dished out every week, alongside running her own brand, beauty guru, and YouTube superstar Tati Westbrook has proved to the world that theres utterly no impossibility or limit to whatever one is passionate about. Tati is best known for being the owner and manager of the worlds most-viewed beauty and lifestyle YouTube channel, ...

Cathy Areus Long Road to Becoming a Freelance Journalist and What to Know About Her Kids An American freelance journalist, news analyst, and author, Cathy Areu has built a lasting reputation for herself on cable television. Popular for her skillful and sassy presentation of professional views on varying topics including cultural and feminist issues, Cathy is an inspiration to many women across the globe. In addition to being a journalist, she ...

Tucker Carlsons Love Story With Wife Susan Andrews, their Children and Net Worth Today On the TV screens, Tucker Carlson is that fiery fellow who passionately dishes out his conservative and often controversial views on issues of national importance. Such brazenness has fetched him many enemies, especially on the left-wing, but it has also helped him cement a reputation as one of the foremost broadcast journalists in America. His ...

Paige Wyatts Net Worth, Boyfriend and Where She Is Now Paige Wyatt became popular after the Wyatt family began running the reality television show, American Guns. The Wyatt family comprises Rich Wyatt (father), Renee Wyatt (mother), Paige and Kurt Wyatt (children). Rich Wyatt originally ran a gun shop, the Gunsmoke Guns in Wheat Ridge, Colorado which is outside of Denver. The business which he ran together ...

The Progression of Howard Sterns Career As A Media Personality And Why He Divorced His First Wife Howard Stern is a legendary American radio host, who has also done some notable work as an actor, producer, author, as well as photographer. The radio personality achieved worldwide fame as a result of his self-titled radio program, The Howard Stern Show. As a professional radio personality, he has worked in different radio stations. Since 2006, ...

Lisa Joyners Biography  Ethnicity, Net Worth and Other Key Facts Lisa Joyner is an American Journalist, TV talk show host, and actress. Some of her well-known works are her correspondences for the Los Angeles based TV KCBS, inFANity show, Find My Family Show including her film and television appearances in Brimstone, American Sweetheart, The Bold and The Beautiful among others. Lisas passion for reconnecting people with their biological families ...

Amanda Balionis Rise Through the Ranks of Sportscasting and the Identity of Her Boyfriend Amanda Balionis is an American sportscaster currently working as a golf broadcaster for CBS Sports. Among so many of her works in the field of sports reporting, Amandas PGA Tour coverage seems to be the most popular so far. She covered the Super Bowl working with CBS Sports social media team in Atlanta, where she ...

Dissecting Charles Paynes Sexual Allegations, Its After Effects and More About His Wife Charles Payne had a respectable career as an analyst on Wall Street before he made the transition to television and became a contributor and later a host on Fox. In that time, his expertise has come under scrutiny, and he has been at the center of at least one major controversy. The major controversy in question ...

Erik Asla And Tryra Banks Split: Everything You Need To Know Tyra Banks and Erik Asla have called it quits! The couple, who began dating in 2013 and have a son named York Banks Asla, has decided to end what everybody taught was the perfect relationship. Neither person has come out to give a reason for the breakup, but what is obvious right now is that ...

What to Note About Dr Terry Dubrows Qualifications, TV Works and Marriage to Heather Kent In the realm of people that we expect to see regularly on our screens, medical doctors are closer to the bottom of the list. Aside from the fact that their work has little correlation with TV, they are presumably too busy to pursue life as TV personalities. Yet, a few of them have usurped this ...

Jessica Goch  Bio: 5 Things You Didnt Know About Ninjas Wife Jessica Goch is the Schofield-born American Social Media Influencer who has worked as a model but is now better known as a host and interviewer of prominent Electronic sports celebrities at popular gaming events/tournaments. The screen queen also serves as the manager of her famous husband Ninja aka Tyler Blevins whose exploits on Twitch and Fortnite has ...

CNNs Chris Cuomo Biography  Wife, Family & Net worth Chris Cuomo needs no elaborate introduction as he has starred graced many prominent Television cable networks and his voice has been heard through acknowledged radio shows. He is a television journalist and Lawyer who has previously worked for ABC News as Chief law and justice correspondent as well as a co-anchor on 20/20. If you still ...

Neil deGrasse Tyson  Family, Religion & Net Worth Neil deGrasse Tyson is a distinguished American astrophysicist and author who has been able to achieve so much after falling in love with astronomy at the age of 9. He has since attended and become an alumnus of prestigious universities such as Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia, and also recorded numerous achievements in his field of ...

Is Simon Cowell Gay? Does He Have A Wife or Girlfriend and Why is He Famous? Simon Cowell is a well-known talent show judge, TV producer, entrepreneur and one of the most popular TV personalities that Britain has ever produced. In conjunction with his company, Syco, Cowell is the brain behind hugely successful talent hunt shows such as The X-Factor UK, The X-Factor US, Britains Got Talent, Americas Got Talent and ...

Everything To Know About Joanna Gaines Life With Chip Gaines, Their Business Pursuits and Kids Joanna Gaines and her husband Chip Gaines became celebrities after their television show Fixer Upper began airing back in 2013. The show which was about home renovation and decoration ran for about 6 seasons with a total of 79 episodes before the couple bade farewell to it in April 2018. Apart from their appearances on ...

Who Is Larry The Cable Guy? What To Know About His Wife And Net Worth Larry the Cable Guy is a self-professed country kid renowned for his trademark Southern accent and sensational catchphrase Git-R-Done! The famous comedian who talks about anything under the sun has gone on to become one of the most memorable characters in comedy history. Join us in unearthing lesser-known facts about the former on-air-personality, standup comedy superstar, movie ...

Who Is Patrick Starr, What Is His Net Worth and Gender? The make-up industry over the years has grown to become a billion dollar industry not just because there are probably more women wearing make-up but because a whole lot of men, especially the young ones, have become bold enough to wear it unlike before. A few of these men, like Patrick Starr, have even gone ...

How Did Chris Jansing Become a Senior Correspondent at MSNBC and Who Is Her Husband? An award-winning American television news reporter and journalist, Chris Jansing has succeeded in carving a spectacular niche for herself in the field of TV journalism. Outstanding for not just her excellence in journalism, Chris is also cherished for her incredibly gorgeous looks post 60! For close to four decades, Jansing has continued to soar in her ...

Jaclyn Glenn Biography  Age, Height & Ex-Boyfriend American Youtuber, Jaclyn Glenn, rose to prominence through her self-titled YouTube channel Jaclyn Glenn. She has remained an acclaimed atheist and continues to air her views on hot issues from politics, religion, animal rights, to atheism. During the heated 2016 US Presidential elections, Glenn featured in Hump Trump: Official Donald Trump Song. Her parallel acting career ...

Is Pat Sajak Married to a Wife or is He Gay With a Partner? Pat Sajak is one of the most popular TV game show hosts in America. He commenced his career as a radio disk jockey as well as a TV weatherman before being tapped to host Wheel of Fortune, the longest-running syndicated game show in the United States. Sajak has hosted the popular game show from 1983 ...

Nayyera Haqs Bio  What To Know About Her Husband, Parents And Family Nayyera Haq can take anyone on political debates as well as discussions on social issues affecting many. Her ability to masterfully deliver her stance on every issue or political debate has made her a regular face in morning and evening news media platforms. This is not a common feat especially for someone from her kind ...

Inside Guy Fieris Family With Wife, Kids and Sister Who Died of Cancer Over the years we have seen men dominate the kitchen and churn out amazing delicacies from it. Some do it way better than their female counterparts and one of such men is Guy Ramsay Fieri  an American TV host, celebrity chef, restaurant owner, bestselling author of four culinary books, and game show host. His ...

Meet Phil Mudd of CNN  The Former CIA and FBI Exec, Is He Married, Who Is The Wife? When it comes to discussing issues surrounding terrorism, American Counterterrorism and National Security Expert, Phil Mudd, occupies a globally significant position. He has voiced his interest in the fight against terrorism and insecurity on many popular media platforms, both print and broadcast, such as CNN, BBC, CBS, MSNBC, al-Jazeera, ABC, NBC, Fox, The New York Times, ...

Jim Hoffer: Biography, Wife  Mika Brzezinski, Children and Net Worth Jim Hoffer is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who works as an investigative reporter for Eyewitness News, New York City. In his over two decades of investigative journalism, Hoffer has been at the front lines of several crucial stories from the 9/11 attack to the crash of American Flight 587 to the 2003 Blackout. On top of ...

The Ups and Downs of Erin Mcpikes Journalism Career and Other Facts About Her Personal Life Erin McPike is a journalist working for the Independent Journal Review (IJR) as a White House Correspondent but she gained widespread recognition for her coverage of general news. Whether its breaking news or some mainstream story, McPike has a reputation of baring the facts. As a journalist, her work as a White House Correspondent for Independent ...

Bert Kreischer Is Married To LeeAnn Kreischer With 2 Kids  Meet His Family Those familiar with Bert Kreischer mainly have the image of a large-bellied party man whose college life inspired the National Lampoon film, Van Wilder. It is an image that one would not naturally associate with a wholesome family. The standup comedian still maintains his wild party animal image on stage. But, back at home, he is ...

How Brendan Greene Became a Game Designer to Look Out For and Facts About His Failed Marriage The name Brendan Greene may not easily ring a bell in the larger society but for gaming enthusiasts, he is considered a god and this is because of his invention of the video game, Player Unknowns Battlegrounds, also called PUBG. Based on the popular last-man-standing/battle royale concept, Greenes creation has taken the gaming world by ...

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ANSAmed - Today's events in the Mediterranean

(ANSAmed) - ROMA, DECEMBER 21 - The following are some of the main events scheduled for today in the Euro-Mediterranean area: BERLIN - visit by Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano.



TURIN - Training seminar on ''Migration, Sustainable Development and Inclusion: how to build good cooperation projects', organized by the TECLA association.



SOUSSE (TUNISIA) - Networking event organized by The NextWomenTunisie, a professional network of female executives in Tunisia.



(ANSAmed).




BRUSSELS - The lorry attack on a Christmas market in Berlin that left 12 people dead and 48 wounded has once again triggered alarm across Europe and unleashed anger among Eurosceptics who hope to definitively turn their backs on Europe through elections in 2017 in the Netherlands, France and Germany.



Their position, however, doesn't take into account studies that show the aging continent's need for migrants, or the fact that the most violent attacks - in Paris, Brussels, and Nice - were all committed by European citizens.



In Germany, the leader of 'Alternative fur Deutschland', Frauke Petry, attacked the government claiming that "the environment in which such an act can take place has been culpably and systematically imported over the past year and a half," in a clear reference to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open door migrant policy starting in the summer of 2015.



Merkel was also the target of criticism by Geert Wilders, the Islamophobic and ultra-nationalist leader of the Netherlands' Party for Freedom (PVV). On Twitter, Wilders posted a digitally altered image of Merkel with blood on her hands and face, and criticised "Merkel, Rutte and the other cowardly government leaders" for having "caused the tsunami of asylum and Islamic terrorism by opening the borders".



In France, Marine Le Pen has asked for the borders to be "closed immediately", reiterating the association between migrants and terrorism and calling for a "strategic alliance against Islamic fundamentalism" between "Washington, Paris, and Moscow".



Nigel Farage, former leader of Ukip in London, tweeted: "Events like these will be the Merkel legacy".



Meanwhile, police and interior ministers across Europe are making efforts to increase security measures for the Christmas holidays.



In Italy, following a meeting at the Interior Ministry in Palazzo Viminale with new Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti, a directive was sent to all prefects and police chiefs asking them to "strengthen checks in crowded areas" both for events and ceremonies as well as in high-density tourist areas.



In London, Scotland Yard announced that it will revise its security plan for the capital taking into account the copycat method used in Nice and Berlin, while the Met Police said it already had "detailed plans" and recalled that the anti-terrorism alert in the United Kingdom is still "very high" with the threat level at severe, indicating that an attack is "highly likely".



In Paris, which has already been reinforced and in a state of emergency for over a year, it was announced that "police services, including undercover police, are completely mobilised in this year's end".



The new French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux, who on Tuesday night announced strengthened security for Christmas markets, directed a message to all French citizens, in which he said that protection "is guaranteed, have fun, but be prudent".



"Of course, there are agents, but citizens also have an important role," Le Roux said.



"I asked each of you to be prudent, but to avoid a climate of fear".



That message was similar to one in Belgium, where Interior Minister Jan Jambon kept the threat alert level at 3 out of 4, without new security measures, but calling on local police to be more vigilant and to possibly reinforce security at Christmas markets by using cement blocks.



Jambon said that even "without Berlin, we knew that the risk existed."


If youre considering a subscription to the Disney Plus streaming service, you may be wondering how much it costs. The service is available on both
Under the new codeshare agreement, Etihad Airways will place its EY code on Precision Air flights between Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro, Mwanza, Mtwara, Nairobi, Zanzibar, Pemba, and between Nairobi and Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.



Precision Air will place its PW code on Etihads daily services between Dar es Salaam and Abu Dhabi, strengthening ties between East Africa and the United Arab Emirates.



Kevin Knight, Etihad Airways chief strategy & planning officer, said: Precision Air is an innovative and award-winning airline and this new codeshare agreement demonstrates Etihad Airways growing ambitions to strengthen its operations across the East African region.

This is a further example of our strategy of working with partners to extend our reach, and provide business and leisure travellers with more choice.

Sauda Rajabu, group managing director and CEO at Precision Air Services PLC, said: This is a new dawn for Precision Air and we are delighted to be working with Etihad Airways in this way. We look forward to welcoming Etihad Airways passengers on board our flights, and are excited about exploring additional opportunities to expand the relationship in the future.

With this new partnership we are making it easier for passengers from across our domestic network to travel to Abu Dhabi, with convenient onward access to over 100 destinations on Etihads network, in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas.

Passengers will be able to book flights via travel agents from 21 December 2016, or through the airlines sales offices and contact centres, for travel from 11 January 2017 onwards.
With large swathes of the country still in the grip of civil war, it may not seem the ideal time to think about setting up a scheduled airline service in Iraq. However, Iraq Gate believes that the countrys business fundamentals could be sufficiently sound to make the venture worthwhile.

Iraq Gate was set up in 2013 as the first executive charter company in the troubled nation. Created by executive aircraft operator Arab Wings, from neighbouring Jordan, as a joint venture, it operates under an Iraqi air operators certificate (AOC) and now has six aircraft on the Iraqi register  three Bombardier CRJ200s, two Hawker 800XP mid-size executive jets and a Beechcraft King Air 200 turboprop.

Arab Wings has seconded some staff to Iraq Gate to get the young operation off the ground and has appointed others within the country.

But why did Arab Wings, a well-established business jet operator, aircraft management and handling company, decide at the height of unrest in the country that it was a good time to set up shop in Baghdad?

Although the [security] situation is not as we would like it to be, there is a demand for charter and business aircraft operations there, explained Sameer Hdairis, Arab Wings business development manager.

There are a lot of people who need travel in and out of Iraq, plus there are oil and gas companies present there who need transport for their own staff, both to other countries and within Iraq itself.

It is the oil and gas sector that provides much of the work for the CRJ200s, which most people would regard as unusually large aircraft for this type of charter work. The aircraft, which formerly operated with Spanish regional carrier Air Nostrum, are still in their 50-seater airline configuration. The first began service in Iraq in March 2015, with two other aircraft following later that year.

Oil and gas companies do move a lot of people around and these aircraft suit their requirements, said Hdairis. It is not unusual for these companies to fly groups of 30 or 40 personnel at a time. Government personnel make up another significant share of Iraq Gates market.

We would like to enhance the operation and extend it to scheduled, or other types of services. We would like to grow, he added.

At present, the market has its ups and downs, but its going, said Hdairis. The security situation in Iraq obviously required careful watching on a daily basis, he added.

Any military activity in an area into which the company was due to fly required careful briefing for the crews and extra efforts in terms of security planning. Crews were kept at the airport for security reasons.

Iraq Gate and Arab Wings have put in place a higher level of protocols and audits. This has gained them approved status from several major oil and gas companies that allows them to transport the companies personnel.

Meanwhile, back in Amman with Arab Wings, business is going well, said Hdairis, despite the relative austerity in many parts of the region brought about by the slump in oil prices over the past couple of years. We continue our operations. Of course, there are difficult times in terms of lower demand than usual.

The diversified nature of Arab Wings business helps here. As well as flying executives and government officials around the region and beyond, the company has a portfolio of services, including aircraft management, ad hoc charters, its own handling and maintenance facility and even air ambulance flights.


Under UNOOSAs leadership, the forum delivered concrete recommendations in the form of the Dubai Declaration, which will contribute to the United Nations event UNISPACE+50, to be held in Vienna in June 2018 , which will mark the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

The Dubai Declaration urges all parties to further utilize the space sector as a driver for economic and social development, emphasizing that strengthening socio-economic development will require an integrated approach among the space industry and other sectors to understand and meet the needs of users and the society at large. The recommendations emphasize the need for building stronger international cooperation and coordination in the peaceful uses of outer space at all levels, and the need for broadening access to space. The declaration asserts that space exploration is a long term driver for innovation and strengthening international cooperation on an all-inclusive basis and creating new opportunities for addressing global challenges. It also affirmed the need to strengthen youth and women's involvement in the space industry.

Participants of the Forum also declared that space economy, space society, space accessibility & space diplomacy constitute the main pillars of the Space2030  the global space agenda that will emerge from UNISPACE+50.

This Declaration and what we have learned at this Forum have provided us with an understanding of how we should move forward in utilising space for development, on the need to get open access to space for an increasing number of countries and in assisting States to attain the sustainable development goals, said Simonetta Di Pippo, Director of UNOOSA. Ms Di Pippo also thanked MBRSC for their excellent work in organizing the Forum.

Dr. Khalifa Mohammed Al Romaithi, Chairman of the UAE Space Agency, said: The hosting of the UNOOSA High Level Forum in Dubai reflects the UAEs standing within the global space community as one of the states to enjoy an advanced and ambitious space program.

He continued: The hosting of the forum comes as part of the UAE Space Agencys strategic goals of building and strengthening international relationships and partnerships in the field. This stems from a belief in the importance of international cooperation and of developing relationships with the most important stakeholders in the global space sector. These approaches are in line with the strategic plans and visions for the state to establish strong international cooperation and exchange knowledge with other nations around the world."

Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Chairman of the Board of Directors at MBRSC, said that the UAE has established a solid foundation for sustainability preparing itself for the post oil era, making innovation one of the key indicators in all fields. We have laid the basis for a truly diversified economy, relying on integrated infrastructure and efficient Emirati national talent.

Al Mansoori added: The UAEs experience in space has been inspirational to many countries in the region. We are pursuing our ambition for space exploration, integrating space technology in our national development projects, developing a regulating legal framework for the space sector, establishing specialized research centers and developing knowledge transfer programs, hoping that this will contribute to our national goal in positioning the UAE as one of the best nations in the world.



"The topics discussed at the forum are highly important and essential to achieving a sustainable future for the space sector; and the "Dubai Declaration" gave recommendations that enhance and activate the role of space science and technology in achieving comprehensive economic and social development," Al Mansoori concluded.

Yousuf Hamad Al Shaibani, Director General of MBRSC, said: "The Dubai Declaration is of historical significance for the global space sector as recommendations and trends delivered therein will contribute to a more flourishing future for the global space sector."

Al Shaibani added: "Hosting this forum in the UAE and the issuance of the Dubai Declaration affirms the UAEs attractive positioning for key stakeholders in the global space industry, and the trust placed in the UAE by the global space community."

Al Shaibani stressed on the importance of continued compliance with these trends and future courses that aid harnessing space technology and applications to address any challenges for the greater good of humanity. He added: The UAE has always supported UN trends with respect to the optimal use of space as a core sector and a driver for socio-economic sustainable development.

"For many years, there have been close ties and coordination between MBRSC and UNOOSA on space issues. For instance, the Centre has previously hosted the United Nations /United Arab Emirates Symposium on Basic Space Technology, Al Shaibani concluded.
The largest purpose built facility of its kind in the world, the terminal is poised to be a game changer in the business aviation sector, offering VIP customers a seamless travel experience, coupled with time and cost efficiencies within a thriving aviation ecosystem.

Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum said: The launch of the VIP Terminal at Dubai Souths Aviation District is yet another significant step towards realizing Dubais vision of becoming the aviation capital of the world. With the opening of the worlds largest facility for private aviation, Dubai South has raised the bar on luxury travel, redefining the passenger experience. A significant milestone for Dubai South and for aviation industry as a whole, the opening of the VIP Terminal will cement our position in the world of private aviation, bringing us a step closer to becoming the regions premier aerospace hub. The world-class facility is complimented by first-class services and experiences, all adding to an exemplary travel experience.

The 5,600 m2 VIP Terminal, minutes away from the Al Maktoum International, the largest airport in the making, is Dubais new and prestigious gateway for VIP travelers, offering hitherto unseen superlative services and connectivity.

With incomparable experiential retail as a core attraction, the VIP Terminal boasts stylized luxurious interiors, designed to maximize privacy and serenity, while engaging the passengers with specially curated, bespoke high-end shopping products.

Inspired by the aerodynamic fluid lines of an aircraft wing, the VIP Terminal facade is an architectural beauty that mirrors the aviation heritage of Dubai South. The seamless lines of the structure and the logo are replicated in the interiors that are classically designed with luxurious material including solid oak paneling. Louvered screens coated in a special bronze and gold metallic finish, allows the play of light to lend depth, perspective and privacy. The interiors and exteriors of the VIP Terminal use lighting and space to create drama and heighten the sense of opulence. Take for instance the handcrafted, 1000 piece post-modern chandelier in the main hall, a spectacular inclusion that is befitting piece of art at the VIP Terminal.

Inherently structured to maximise and revolutionize the customer experience, the VIP Terminal offers luxury product placements, experiential advertising, discreet promotions, limited editions bespoke and specially curated products. The strategic shift away from traditional product promotion, will result in passenger led engagement driving the duty free retail showcase. This includes a wide array of products from the arts and culture with paintings, sculptures and priceless artefacts, to cars, watches, real estate, super bikes, adding to the immersive experience.

The VIP Terminal currently hosts three FBOs including Falcon Aviation, Jetex and Jet Aviation.

The VIP Terminal saw its first private jet take off in April this year, since then to date the terminal has witnessed 1,000 flight movements with the number anticipated to grow to 4,000 movements in 2017.

As the worlds first master-planned airport city, Dubai South is concentrating on building state-of-the-art infrastructure around the Al Maktoum International, thus creating a thriving aviation ecosystem. The Aviation District provides a specialized business environment that meets all the needs of the aviation industry. Spanning an area of seven square kilometers, this district is the new permanent home of the Dubai Airshow and caters to all practical aspects of private and commercial aviation.




Amsterdam Light Festival is an annual light art festival in the Netherlands that presents the rapidly developing concept of light art in all its forms. After five successful editions, the festival will return to Amsterdams city center for the 2017-2018 edition. From artists to designers, engineers to architects, and professionals to students, the festival invites creators from around the world to submit their creative interpretations of the theme EXISTENTIAL. Amsterdams world-renowned canals and various waterfronts offer visitors a unique way to experience multidisciplinary light artworks.

Amsterdam Light Festival presents two exhibitions, following two routes in Amsterdams city center, each with its own unique interpretation of the festivals theme.









Water Colors boat route

Amsterdam Light Festival champions artworks that connect the essential elements of light and peoples EXISTENTIAL needs and dreams, making people more aware of their existential being. For the Water Colors boat route, we are looking for monumental proposals on, above or in the water that connect with the city, its inhabitants, and its visitors.







Illuminade walking route

For the Illuminade walking route, we hope to see beautiful interpretations and installations that bring the EXISTENTIAL qualities of light back to the basics and provide a stage for natural miracles and occurrences. We are looking for artworks that you can touch, walk through, connect with and react to.







Deadlines & Schedule 2017

Tuesday 31 January 2017 (11:00 CET)

Deadline submission round 1 - curatorial selection. Late entries are not accepted.





Friday 17 February 2017

Notification whether the curatorial team has selected your submission for round 2 and presentation to the jury.



Friday 17 March 2017 (11:00 CET)

Deadline submission round 2 - jury selection.



Tuesday 4 April 2017

Announcement of approximately 30 artists selected by the international jury members.



Tuesday 18 April  Friday 21 April 2017

The artists who are selected by the jury visit Amsterdam for the kickoff meeting and site visit (2 days). These dates are subject to change.



Please fill out the form on www.amsterdamlightfestival.com/en/cfc to request the Artist Briefing.

Any questions can be sent to [email protected]
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Russia will suspend the ongoing talks with Turkey over visa free regime for Turkish citizens, Izvestia reported citing a foreign ministry source of Russia.

Turkey needs to continue serious works of ensuring the security of people arriving in the country, and provide thorough inspection guarantees for people who plan to visit Russia. In regard to the latest tragic events, as well as several other incidents of this year, Moscow is not currently ready to provide a visa free regime for Turkish citizens, Izvestia reported.

Russias Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was gunned down on December 19 during a cultural event in Ankara.
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The Artesia Police Department reports an Artesia man is in custody in connection with a shooting incident early Tuesday that left a second local man dead.

Daniel Aguilera, 22, is in the custody of the El Paso Police Department at a hospital in El Paso, Texas. Aguilera, who also suffered two gunshot wounds to the torso in Tuesdays incident, is now listed in stable condition and stands charged with one count of murder in the first degree, a second-degree felony count of aggravated burglary, and a fourth-degree felony count of aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony.

Aguilera has been out on bond since being bound over to district court in October 2015 in connection with the July 5, 2015, murder of Andres Rojo in Artesia. At the time of his binding over last October, Aguilera was charged with second-degree murder and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in the shooting death of Rojo, 27, and the injury of Rojos brother, Luis Rojo, 23.

Officers were dispatched at 1:39 a.m. Tuesday to the Abo Apartments, 700 N. 10th St., in reference to shots fired. Upon arrival, they found two individuals suffering from gunshot wounds.

Otis Chavez, 22, was wounded in the torso and was pronounced dead at the scene. Aguilera was transported to Artesia General Hospital before being airlifted to El Paso.

Cmdr. Lindell Smith of the APD says Aguilera has not yet been booked or arraigned but will be upon his release from the hospital.

The charges against him carry a maximum penalty of 28-and-a-half years in prison, heavy fines, or both. Aguileras bond from the Rojo murder case has also been revoked.
Bogdan Roscic, 52, will take up the post in 2020, moving from Sonys classical music unit which he has headed since 2009. Before then he worked at Decca Music Group and an Austrian pop music station, but has never been director of an opera house before. He will replace Frenchman Dominic Meyer, whose tenure, which started in 2010, has been marked by clashes with star conductors Franz Welser-Most and Bertrand de Billy.
The students in question come from a education priority zone, and their teacher complained (on Facebook, of course) that middle-class white students could make noise without getting yelled at.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian-Iranian centuries-old friendly relations were further strengthened and were supplemented with rich legal base within the last 25 years since Armenias Independence, reports Armenpress.

The Islamic Republic of Iran on December 25, 1991 officially recognized Armenias Independence. A declaration on establishing diplomatic relations between Armenia and Iran was signed on February 9, 1992. The same day the declaration on the principles and goals of the relations between Armenia and Iran was signed by which the sides affirmed their tendency to establish friendly relations.

The opening ceremony of Irans Embassy in Yerevan was held in April 1992. In December 1992 Armenias Embassy was opened in Tehran.

The two states have signed 70 documents (agreements, contracts, MoUs) on a number of sectors.

After Armenias Independence, close relations at all sectors gradually started to be established with Iran. A productive cooperation was established in the fields of energy, transport, natural protection, healthcare, agriculture, science, education, culture.

Strategic projects came into force. The agreement on construction of Iran-Armenia gas pipeline was signed in 1995.

Both the Iranian and Armenian sides are confident that the bilateral trade turnover is not enough compared to the existing potential.

In 2015 Armenia-Iran trade turnover comprised 276 million 360.7 thousand USD. Irans share in the total trade turnover of Armenia was 5.8% in 2015. As for the export and import rates, last year 78 million 22.6 thousand USD goods were exported from Armenia to Iran, which however, decreased by 6 million 953.2 thousand USD compared to 2014.

182 million 460.6 thousand USD goods produced in third countries were imported to Armenia from Iran, and 198 million 338.1 thousand USD Iranian goods were imported to Armenia.

The main imported goods from Iran to Armenia were animals, food, mineral products, molybdenum, chemicals, objects from stone, plaster, cement, automobile, machinery and industrial products. The major exported goods were mineral products, wood, food, power.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Parliament Speaker Galust Sahakyan sent a letter of condolences to President of the German Bundestag Norbert Lammert, press service of the Parliament told Armenpress.

I am deeply shocked by the terror attack in Berlin. Every crime against human life is condemnable and impermissible.

The civilized community must jointly fight against such phenomena by not allowing intolerance and extremism to spread.

On behalf of the Parliament and personally myself, I express deepest condolences to the relatives of the victims and wish a speedy recover to the wounded.

Your Excellency, please accept the assurances of my highest esteem, the letter reads.
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A cargo ship is being built at a private shipyard on the bank of the Yangtze River in Yichang, central China's Hubei province, April 13, 2015. [Photo / IC]

In a recent interview with the media, Cao Dewang, chairman of Fuyao Group, the largest automotive glass supplier in China, said he is setting up a factory in the United States with a total investment of $1 billion, citing concerns over high taxes and rising costs back in China.

Cao's plan has caused heated debate over whether China still enjoys manufacturing cost advantages over the US.

A 2015 report published by the Boston Consulting Group comparing manufacturing costs between China and the US found that China's advantage over the US declined from 14 percent in 2004 to 4 percent in 2014. It also cited increased salaries, the yuan's upward exchange rate against the US dollar and rising energy prices as three major factors putting increasing cost pressures on China's manufacturing sector.

Undoubtedly, as the head of a leading manufacturing company, Cao's complaints about the rising costs such enterprises now face in China should attract attention from decision-makers. In the context of China's demographic dividend gradually fading, ever-growing manufacturing costs have become a major concern amid the country's economic transformation and upgrading.

The measures drummed up by US president-elect Donald Trump to prompt US manufacturing operations to return to the US territory and the rise of manufacturing in Asian countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and India have further exacerbated concerns over the prospects for China's manufacturing sector, which is facing fiercer international competition with the tangible disappearance of its demographic dividend.

The rise in China's labor costs, a reflection of Chinese people sharing the fruits of their country's fast-growing economy, should be encouraged. In the meantime, the authorities should address the high energy costs and heavy tax burden that seriously hinder the global competitiveness of the Chinese manufacturing sector.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. The escalation of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict will become a serious threat for the entire South Caucasus region, Defense Minister of Armenia Vigen Sargsyan said in an interview with Lenta.ru, reports Armenpress.

In response to a question which said whether the resumption of military operations is possible in the region or not, the Minister stated: The resumption of military conflict with Azerbaijan is possible. A trilateral format (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh) agreement over ceasefire was signed in 1994. Unfortunately, Baku torpedoes the peace process within more than 20 years since 1994. Moreover, all efforts of the international community, in the face of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs aimed at finding ways for conflict settlement are being consistently failed.

The Defense Minister stated that in early April of this year Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military adventure against Nagorno Karabakh which resulted in a fiasco.

We are constructing our work on the presumption that resumption of military operations is possible. Moreover, it is quite obvious that the possible escalation of the conflict is not beneficial for Armenia and other regional countries. Yerevan, being as the guarantor of the NKRs security, will have to be involved in the clash if there is so. At the same time it is understandable that the resumption of war will become a serious threat for the entire South Caucasus, Vigen Sargsyan said.
RCom to receive upfront cash payment of Rs 11,000 crore to utilise proceeds solely to reduce debt.

Mumbai: Reliance Communications (RCom)today signed binding agreements with Canada-based Brookfield Infrastructure and institutional partners to sell its tower business for an upfront cash payment of Rs 11,000 crore.

RCom will "also receive B Class non-voting shares in the tower company, providing 49 per cent future economic upside from the business based on certain conditions", the company said in a statement.

RCom will utilise the cash proceeds solely to reduce debt, it said. The tower business will be demerged into a separate company, to be 100 per cent owned and independently managed by Brookfield Infrastructure.

The deal represents the largest-ever investment by an overseas financial investor in the infrastructure sector in India. The Anil Ambani-promoted RCom, and brother Mukesh Ambani's 4G telecom venture Reliance Jio will continue as major long-term tenants (of the tower company).

"RCom expects significant future value creation based on growth in tenancies from accelerating data consumption," the statement added. Giving details, RCom said the combination of its wireless business with Aircel and monetisation of tower operations will together reduce the company's debt by Rs 31,000 crore (USD 4.6 billion), or nearly 70 per cent.

"RCom will continue to hold 50 per cent stake in Aircel JV and 49 per cent upside in tower business to be monetised at an appropriate time to further reduce debt significantly," it added.

Reliance Communications further said that monetisation of towers is a "major step" forward in its deleveraging and asset light strategy for future growth transactions, subject to stipulated approvals.

It may be recalled that in mid-October, RCom had announced the signing of a non-binding term sheet with Brookfield Infrastructure Group for sale of the nationwide tower assets and related infrastructure.

Yesterday, in fact, Fitch Ratings had downgraded credit rating of Reliance Communications saying that it feels that ongoing joint venture plan of the company with Aircel and proposal to sell stake in its mobile tower arm will be negative for creditors.
Kriti may have been fortunate to be accepted by the industry and audience but she feels star kids have an edge over others.

Mumbai: For someone who does not have filmy parents to fall back on or a Godfather who could launch her career in Bollywood, actress Kriti Sanon is doing remarkably well. Although she accepts that the industry as well as audience have accepted her, the actress asserts that nepotism is an integral part of the showbiz industry.

In a recent interview with Mid-day, the actress spoke about how Bollywood is inclined towards aspiring actors with star parents. "Star kids always get an upper hand at the start of their career. People in the industry often know them from the time they were toddlers, so they show support to them when their film is about to release. Besides, actors with celeb parents have better accessibility [to opportunities]. The industry serves as a support system for them, unlike in the case of other actors," said the actress who recently wrapped up Ashwiny Iyer Tiwaris Bareilly ki barfi.

But, Kriti opines, the industry has opened its doors for outsiders like her. "The industry today is far more accepting of outsiders. I chose this career knowing this reality [that star kids are favoured]. I get to take credit for my achievements for which I am pretty proud of myself," added Kriti. The actress will next be seen in Raabta with rumoured boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajput.

When asked about the reason behind her opting out of Lucknow Central, the slender actress said, We were trying to sort out the dates for the longest time, but eventually, it didn't work out. Besides, at times, if things aren't working, maybe it's for a reason. Beyond a point, it is better to let go of it."
A close source reveals, Nadiadwala was in talks with choreographer-turned-director Ahmed Khan to direct the sequel.

Firoze Nadiadwalas Hera Pheri 3, the sequel to the 2006 hit comedy Phir Hera Pheri has been in the news for its many hiccups.

Firoze Nadiadwalas Hera Pheri 3, the sequel to the 2006 hit comedy Phir Hera Pheri has been in the news for its many hiccups.

Now we hear is that another venture by the same production house, Awara Pagal Deewana 2 has been scrapped too. A close source reveals, Nadiadwala was in talks with choreographer-turned-director Ahmed Khan to direct the sequel but now he has no funds to make the film and has dropped the idea.

This follows the debacle of Hera Pheri 2. First it was Suniel Shetty who walked out of the film owing to the delay in its shoot schedule. Then it was Abhishek Bachchan who distanced himself from the project citing similar issues. We were the first one to inform you that work on the film has been stalled since the first half of 2015. In fact actors had completed shooting the first schedule of the film in early of 2015 in Dubai, but there has been no progress since.
The authorities took action after more than 40 students of first year MBBS course filed a complaint on Tuesday.

Malappuram: As many as 21 students of a government medical college in Manjeri in Malappuram have been placed under suspension for allegedly ragging their juniors, college authorities said on Wednesday.

Following a joint complaint from over 40 students of first year MBBS course, on Tuesday the authorities took action against the pupils who were in second and third year course.

The first year students in their complaint had alleged that they were stripped naked and forced to clean toilets at the college hostel and were also also compelled to drink polluted water.

A three-member committee has been constituted to inquire into the incident, the authorities said.

The college's anti-ragging committee will take further action after the submission of report by the inquiry committee, they said.

The incident comes a few days after eight students of a government polytechnic college in Kottayam district were booked for allegedly ragging their juniors in the hostel.

The students, accused of ragging first year students in the hostel attached to the polytechnic, were booked early this month, police had said.

They have also been suspended from the institution at Nattakom.
The jibe from the opposition came in response to RBIs partial reversal of its Rs 5000 deposit restriction.

The Congress took a dig at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by saying it has become the 'Reverse bank of India'. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Continuing its attack on demonetisation, the Congress took a dig at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by saying it has become the Reverse bank of India after the apex bank partially relaxed its Rs 5000 deposit restriction on Wednesday.

"Reserve Bank of India has become Reverse Bank of India. In last 43 days of demonetisation, they have changed the norms 126 times now. On December 17, they said you cannot deposit more than Rs 5,000 up to December 30 violating their November 8th notification," said Congress leader Randeep Surjewala.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday had announced that deposits of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes exceeding Rs. 5000 shall be accepted only once per account until December 30. The credit in such cases shall be afforded only after questioning the tenderer, on record, in the presence of at least two officials of the bank, as to why this could not be deposited earlier and receiving a satisfactory explanation.

However, in a u-turn today, the Central Bank partially reversed its rule saying that the restriction does not apply to Know Your Customer compliant accounts.

Surjewala said the latest relaxation provided to the KYC account holders is discriminatory and divides the bank accounts into those of the rich and poor.

"The restriction of Rs. 5000 will continue to apply on those poor people who have not been able to connect their accounts to an Aadhaar card or PAN card. So, you have two kinds of accounts in this country - If you're poor or semi-illiterate and you have not connected your bank account and converted it into KYC account, you can't deposit more than Rs. 5,000, while the rest can," he said.

The consecutive changes in the policies related to the currency ban have raised uncertainty among the masses and criticism from the opposition.

Former finance minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday had took a potshot at the government saying that neither RBI nor Jaitley have credibility.

"Breaking PM's promise of Nov 8 and FM's assurance of Nov 11, RBI makes new rule on deposit, FM contradicts. Who should citizen believe? Neither has credibility," he had tweeted.

Echoing similar sentiments, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had earlier said, "RBI is changing rules like the PM changes his clothes," in a tweet.
Now, such deposits can be made by KYC compliant account holders, without questions being asked, said RBI.

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday issued a notification partly withdrawing its earlier order disallowing deposits of over Rs 5000 to be made into banks more than once till December 30.

Now, such deposits can be made by KYC compliant account holders, without questions being asked, said RBI.

RBI had on Monday imposed stiff restrictions on depositing more than Rs 5,000 in the scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, mandating that it can be deposited only once per account till December 30, that too after explaining to bank officials the reasons for not having done that so far.

Stipulating that restrictive conditions will also apply on the cumulative deposit of such notes in a single account when it exceeds Rs 5,000, RBI said that defunct currency up to any amount can be deposited under the new black money amnesty PMGKY scheme.

"It has been decided to place certain restrictions on deposits of SBNs into bank accounts while encouraging the deposits of the same under the Taxation and Investment Regime for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016," RBI said in a notification.

Under the PMGKY scheme, black money holders can deposit unaccounted cash in account which will be subject to 50 per cent tax and 4-year interest free lock-in for the remaining 25 per cent of the amount.

RBI said old notes in excess of Rs 5,000 into a bank account will be received for credit only once during the remaining period till December 30, 2016.
The arrest comes a day after TN CM asked the Centre to send a firm message to Sri Lanka over continued apprehension of fishermen.

Rameswaram: Twelve Indian fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in their territorial waters.

The arrest comes a day after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam asked the Centre to send a "firm message" to the island nation over continued apprehension of the state's fishermen.

Yesterday, seven persons from Pudukottai district were detained for allegedly fishing in their waters and taken to Kangesanthurai Port, along with their boats.

Three groups of fishermen from Pamban near here were arrested last night by the naval men for fishing off Thalaimannar and were detained at the police station there, fisheries department officials said today.

Twenty fishers who had set out for fishing from Pamban in two mechanised boats and a country boat were rounded up by the Lankan authorities while they were fishing in the south sea using the banned fishing nets, Rameswaram Fisheries Department Assistant Director, Gopinath said.

While fishermen in one of the boats managed to get away in their boat, twelve others were caught and taken to Sri Thalaimannar, Lanka, he said.

In his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Panneerselvam had said that a permanent solution to the fishermen's issue would be in restoring India's sovereignty over Katchatheevu islet.

"It is the consistent stand of the government of Tamil Nadu that a permanent solution to this vexatious problem faced by our fishermen will be possible only by restoring India's sovereignty over Katchatheevu by securing the right to fish in traditional waters," he had said.
The Congress leader accused Modi of receiving money from the Sahara group when he was the Gujarat CM.

Mehsana: Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and demanded an independent inquiry into it, a charge BJP rejected as an attempt to divert attention from the AgustaWestland probe in which the names of Congress leaders and the "family" were coming up.

Addressing a rally here in the prime Minister's home state, he alleged that in the I-T records there are notings of Sahara officials' claims that they had paid 9 times to Modi between October, 2013 and February, 2014.

Read: Unfazed by counter-attack, Cong says PM should face inquiry

Gandhi said the documents in this regard were with IT department which had raided the company when Modi was Gujarat Chief Minister.

Similarly, as per documents with Income Tax department, the Birla group also paid Rs 12 crore to Modi when he was Chief Minister.

Wondering as to why there has been no probe in the matter so far, Gandhi demanded an independent inquiry.

Last week, Gandhi claimed that he had evidence of "personal corruption" of Prime Minister but he was being prevented from speaking in the Lok Sabha because it would cause an earthquake.

Reacting to Gandhi's allegations, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in New Delhi that the charges are "baseless, false, shameful and mala fide" and an attempt to divert attention from the AgustaWestland probe as names of Congress leaders and the "family" are coming up.

Party spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said Gandhi was immature and was just indulging in bluff and bluster because people are not taking him seriously.

"People of India have stopped taking him seriously. Rahul Gandhi is just bluff and bluster. There is no substance in what he says. He is just showing his and his party's incompetence," he said.

Gandhi said he was raising the issue on behalf of the country which needs answers over the questions raised against the Prime Minister.

"PM Modi takes bribes and then shamelessly foists Demonetisation on Indians under the garb of 'fighting Black Money," Congress tweeted after the rally quoting its Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.

"Rahulji asks if Modiji received this money from Sahara or not? If this document is with Income Tax, will Modi now investigate it?," tweeted party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.
The BJP said issues related to the defence forces should not be politicised.

New Delhi: A 15-minute meeting between defence minister Manohar Parrikar and Eastern Army commander Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi on Wednesday set the corridors of power in South Block abuzz with intense speculations as to whether the officer had indeed put in his papers.

Lt. Gen. Bipin Rawats appointment as Indias new Army Chief ahead of Lt. Gen. Bakshi and Southern Army commander Lt. Gen. P.M. Hariz on Saturday also sparked a fierce political row between a section of the Opposition and the government.

While concrete details of the one-on-one crisp meeting remained elusive with top ministry and Army officials preferring to remain tightlipped, ministry sources claimed the meeting to be a courtesy call requested by Gen. Bakshi.

It led to speculation that he might have come to express his intention to resign on December 31 rather than serve under a junior. Lt. Gen. Rawat, currently vice-chief of the Army Staff, is set to take over from General Dalbir Singh Suhag on December 31.

On the other hand, the possibility of offering Gen. Bakshi a yet-to-be set up post of the chief of defence staff (CDS) has also been talked about, although defence ministry sources ruled it out.

It is unlikely at this point of time as the process of setting up such a post is still a very long way off nor has a final decision been taken, a top source told this newspaper.

With the prevalent strict hierarchical nature of the 13-million-strong Army with its fierce ethos of regimental loyalty and honour, there has been just one exception to the seniority norm till date.

In 1983, General A.S. Vaidya was made the Army Chief overlooking the seniority of Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha. Soon enough, the latter promptly put in his papers rather than take orders from his junior.

Without doubt, while the latest appointment has ruffled certain sections in the Army, the official stand is that it is the governments prerogative to choose the most suitable officer from a panel of five commanders.

According to sources, new Army Chief-designate Lt. Gen. Rawats wide experience in counter terrorism and insurgency weighed in his favour.

The Congress and the Left asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday to spell out the compelling reasons behind the choice, while the government said it followed standard norms, and did not require the permission of 10, Janpath (Congress chief Sonia Gandhis residence) for the same.

The BJP said issues related to the defence forces should not be politicised.

The slugfest also came at a time when the Opposition is bitterly opposed to the governments demonetisation move, disrupting an almost entire Parliament session.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. The official welcoming ceremony of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was held in Armenias Presidential Palace on December 21, press service of the Presidential administration told Armenpress.

Photos by Gevorg Perkuperkyan

Irans President had a private meeting with President Serzh Sargsyan, which was followed by an extended format meeting with participation of official delegations of the two states.

Dear Mr. President, I am pleased to welcome you in the Republic of Armenia. You are awaited and desirable guest by the Armenian people, and we hope that Your first official visit as Irans President will give new impetus to our cooperation. The Armenian-Iranian relations are based on centuries-old friendship, and based on this firm base, we have established inter-state relations in 1992. Today, after 25 years, I am very happy to state that during this period there has not been such a case that could negatively impact our relations. We are grateful to the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran for their careful attitude towards our relations. We as well have always been straightforward and honest in our relations and are ready to continue in that way. Taking this opportunity, please convey my deepest respect and best wishes to Supreme Leader of Iran. Welcome to Armenia, President Serzh Sargsyan said.

Honorable President, I am very grateful and very happy that today I visited the Republic of Armenia, a beautiful Armenia and capital Yerevan. We consider the Republic of Armenia as our friendly state and want to further intensify and develop our bilateral relations. We, both countries belong to the same culture and civilization. The relations of the two people have always been warm and friendly, Irans President said.
Sources said that issues related to the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 were among the issues discussed.

New Delhi: An inter-ministerial group, headed by Union home minister Rajnath Singh, met on Wednesday to asses various aspects related to constituting the proposed anti-corruption body Lokpal. Other senior ministers present in the meeting were finance minister Arun Jaitley, I&B minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and minister of state in the PMO Jitendra Singh among others.

Sources said that issues related to the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 were among the issues discussed.

The report submitted by the parliamentary standing committee that reviewed the Lokpal Act was also examined by the group of ministers (GoM). According to the provisions of the Lokpal Act, the Centre has to set up the Lokpal while states have to constitute Lokayuktas to investigate cases of corruption among public servants.

A Bill to amend the Lokpal Act was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 18, 2014 following which it was subsequently referred to a parliamentary standing committee that submitted its report in December 2015.

One of the important amendments to the Act was to allow the leader of the largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha, in case there was no Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, to be part of the selection panel that would appoint the chairperson and members of Lokpal.

The selection committee, headed by the Prime Minister, has as its members the Lok Sabha Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Chief Justice of India or a judge of the apex court nominated by him as well as an eminent jurist who could be nominated by the President or any other member.
The earlier circular had said people can bank more than Rs 5,000 in old notes only once till December 30.

In a fresh circular, the RBI said people can deposit demonetised currency above Rs 5,000 multiple times in accounts verified with know-your-customer (KYC) documents, and will not need to explain any reason to bank officials.

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) partially withdrew its Mondays circular for banks to question those depositing more than Rs 5,000 in junked currency, as the move had quickly led to mounting criticism both by the public and Opposition parties.

The circular had diluted the governments earlier assurance that banks would accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes  scrapped last month  by December 30, and people should not rush to deposit them. Bank officials had also told Indias central bank to retract the order as it was not possible to investigate angry customers.

In a fresh circular, the RBI said people can deposit demonetised currency above Rs 5,000 multiple times in accounts verified with know-your-customer (KYC) documents, and will not need to explain any reason to bank officials. However, customers with non-KYC accounts will be subjected to stiff conditions earlier imposed by the RBI.

The earlier circular had said people can bank more than Rs 5,000 in old notes only once till December 30, subject to questioning and a satisfactory explanation for scrutiny at a later stage. The government had then said it wanted to reduce queues at banks, already facing crowding after the recall of high-value bills led to a cash crunch.

The central bank did not provide any reason for the withdrawal. The government told us to withdraw the circular, news agency Reuters quoted an RBI official as saying.

This is one of the many circulars withdrawn by the RBI after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to a stunned nation on November 8 that he would scrap 86 per cent of the cash in circulation to fight black money and fake currency.

The RBI is now the Reverse Bank of India, changing demonetisation norms 126 times in 43 days, said Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala. The RBI is behaving like a headless chicken. Now we can see the damage Raghuram Rajans removal (as RBI governor) has done, tweeted senior Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan.

After Mondays circular, many banks started refusing to accept demonetised currency above Rs 5,000 fearing that they could later face questioning from the income-tax department (I-T) or the enforcement directorate (ED).

This resulted in inconvenience to the general public, and several of them questioned why after asking people not to rush to deposit cash the government was now seeking an explanation.

The All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) had demanded complete withdrawal of the order as bank staff faced public wrath.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had on Monday and Tuesday assured people that there would be no questions asked to customers who would make one-time deposits above Rs 5,000. However, in the absence of any written order bank officials were forced to follow the RBI guidelines.
The court directed setting up of a committee for the purpose of a regular exercise of monitoring and redressal.

New Delhi: Voicing concern over the attacks on students from Northeast in the national capital and certain parts of India, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre and states to sensitise children against racial discrimination by including this as a subject in curriculum in schools and colleges.

Giving this direction in a recent judgment, a three-judge bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thamkur and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and L. Nageswara Rao said mere policing against such hate crimes would not suffice. It said there is an urgent need for changing peoples mindset against such racial abuse as both the Centre and States have a non-negotiable obligation for ensuring the Constitutional obligation of racial equality.

Disposing of a writ petition filed by an advocate Karma Dorjee in the wake of attacks on people of Northeast, the Bench said, Involvement of the law enforcement machinery is alone not sufficient to resolve the problem. Mindset have to be changed, including in the universities, colleges and educational institutions, places of work and in society. It said sensitivity and inclusion have to be fostered and in order to achieve this greater awareness of the history and the rich cultural traditions of the north-east is required to be inculcated.

Writing the judgment Justice Chandrachud said, Sensitivity and inclusion have to be fostered. In order to achieve this, greater awareness of the history and the rich cultural traditions of the north-east is required to be inculcated. The problems faced by persons from the north-east traverse a whole range of issues, from the mundane issues of daily life to matters of education, employment, social security and the fundamental right to live in dignity. The government both at the Centre and the States have a non-negotiable obligation to take positive steps to give effect to Indias commitment to racial equality.

The court directed setting up of a committee for the purpose of a regular exercise of monitoring and redressal. It said the work of the Committee should be widely publicised in the electronic and print media, including in the north eastern states. The Committee should be accessible to grievances, suggestions and complaints.

The court also reminded that India was a signatory to the The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 21 December 1965. It said in order to enhance a sense of security and inclusion, the Union Home Ministry should take proactive steps to monitor the redressal of issues pertaining to racial discrimination faced by citizens of the nation drawn from the north-east.
The government also sought a vote-on-account for the financial year 2017-2018.

Lucknow: There was no bonhomie, no customary farewell speeches, no exchange of phone numbers and no thank you either.

The brief last session of the 16th Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday began and ended with protests and slogan shouting.

The BJP was in the Well of the House demanding the resignation of parliamentary affairs minister Azam Khan, who was recently indicted by the Supreme Court for his statements on the Bulandshahr rape case.

The Congress followed into the Well demanding discussion on demonetisation which was causing widespread discontent among the people.

The BSP legislators came wearing caps with slogans against the Akhilesh government and RLD members joined in with their charter of demands for farmers.

Pandemonium prevailed in the House as soon as the session began and the entire question hour was washed out.

Senior ministers who had been sacked by the chief minister, including Shivpal Singh Yadav, Om Prakash Singh, Narad Rai and Shadab Fatima, did not attend the proceedings of the state Assembly and visions among SP MLAs were palpable as most of them kept to themselves and did not interact with the senior ministers.

Amidst noisy scenes, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav presented the governments supplementary demands of grants amounting to Rs 1683.11 crores.

The government also sought a vote-on-account for the financial year 2017-2018. The government has made provision of Rs 1,000 for Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway Project while a sum of Rs 79 crores has been allocated for state highways.

The government has earmarked Rs 5 crores for the Yash Bharti awards, Rs 100 crores for the UP Information department and Rs 6 crores has been set aside for Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur.

Leader of opposition Gayacharan Dinkar later told reporters that the government did not mean business and had convened the session only to get the supplementary budget passed.



BJP legislature party leader Suresh Khanna said that after being pulled up by the apex court, Mohd Azam Khan has lost the moral right to sit in the state assembly.



The state government does not want the opposition to raise issues concerning the people ad neither is it keen on any discussion. The last session is a mere formality and traditions are also being set aside, he said.
BJP said these charges were not new and had been debated and refuted for quite some time now.

Mehsana/New Delhi: Bringing the battle to Prime Minister Narendra Modis doorstep, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused him of taking money from the Sahara and Birla groups when he was Gujarats chief minister, a charge the ruling BJP strongly refuted.

Mr Gandhi made the allegation while addressing a rally in Gujarats Mehsana after he claimed last week that there would be an earthquake if he was allowed to speak in Parliament as he had proof about Modis personal corruption. While Mr Gandhi demanded an independent probe into the matter, the BJP said these charges were not new and had been debated and refuted for quite some time now.

The Congress leader alleged that the income-tax (I-T) department had notings of Sahara officials claim that they had paid at least Rs 40 crores in nine installments to Mr Modi between October, 2013 and February, 2014. He further alleged that as per documents with the I-T department, the Birla group also paid Rs 12 crores to Mr Modi when he was Gujarats CM.

NGO Common Cause had filed a PIL in the Supreme Court, leveling the same charges against the PM, but a bench headed by CJI-designate Justice J.S. Khehar refused to take up the matter, saying there were only allegations, and no evidence. Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad defended the PM and said, Modiji is as pure as the Ganges.

West Bangal CM Mamata Banerjee congratulated Mr Gandhi for exposing the PM in public and demanded a probe. AAP supremo and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal demanded Mr Modi must resign till he was cleared of all charges.

While there were speculations in the Congress and other outfits whether this was the earthquake Mr Gandhi was talking about, some of his party colleagues claimed that the earthquake is yet to come.

At the Mehsana rally, Mr Gandhi said, You (Modi) did not allow me to speak in Parliament. I did not know why you did not want to face me in the House.

Mr Gandhi then read out his charges against Mr Modi in the rally. In six months there are nine entries in Sahara diaries, where its recorded that money was paid to Modiji, he said.

Same record is there with the Birla group of companies in which the total amount mentioned was `25 crores of which `12 crore had been paid, Mr Gandhi read out. He also gave a breakdown of the amounts paid.

Mr Gandhi said that he was raising the issue on behalf of the country which needs answers to questions raised against the PM. PM Modi takes bribes and then shamelessly foists demonetisation on Indians in the garb of fighting black money, the Congress tweeted after the rally quoting Mr Gandhi.

The BJP continued its tirade against Mr Gandhi and called him as the biggest patron of corruption during the 10-year UPA rule. Ridiculing him, the BJP said, Rahul is lost and defeated.

Mr Prasad claimed that nobody takes Rahul Gandhi seriously anymore. The BJP also rejected the charge and described this as an attempt to divert attention from the AgustaWestland probe in which the names of Congress leaders and the family were coming up.

BJP spokesperson G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said Mr Gandhi was immature and was just indulging in bluff and bluster because people were not taking him seriously.
UP CM said that he would ask for votes on his image and work done by his government and not on caste issues.

Lucknow: UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has said that he is ready to go into elections on the strength of two Ds  development and demonetisation.

These D factors will work in Samajwadi Partys favour in the upcoming elections which will see the demolition of caste and communal factors, he told reporters on Wednesday.

Stressing that the family feud was no longer a factor and all issues had been relegated to the wings after demonetisation, Mr Yadav said, That is a thing of past now. We are working together to win the elections. Issues have changed and post demonetisation nobody remembers that (family feud) anymore. All the other issues have been left behind and demonetisation has emerged as the key issue.

The chief minister said that he would ask for votes on his image and work done by his government and not on caste issues. We already had development on our side and now the BJP has given us demonetisation too. The work done by us in the past five years and the problems faced by the people due to demonetisation will dominate the elections and both will work to our favour, he added.

Mr Yadav said that people had lost faith in the BJP as well as the BSP.

The Modi government has done nothing for UP even though the state gave them the largest chunk of MPs. The Prime Minister, home minister and defence minister represent UP but the state has not benefited, he alleged.

The chief minister said that people were also not interested in getting statues of elephants installed all around by voting for the BSP.

Asked about the talks of an alliance with the Congress, Mr Yadav said that the party president Mulayam Singh Yadav would take the final call on the issue but he felt that an alliance with the Congress will help in crushing the communal forces.
The House of Houdini, a museum in Budapest's historic Castle district, seeks to shed light on the illusionist's roots

The museum displays Houdini's handcuffs and other artefacts, many photographs about his life and performances, and also a Bible from 1883, which belonged to his family. (Photo: AP)

Even almost 100 years after his death, the name Harry Houdini is synonymous with escapology, but less is known about his first great escape - how he left his Hungarian home as a child for a new life in the United States.

The House of Houdini, a museum in Budapest's historic Castle district, seeks to shed light on the illusionist's roots with a display of memorabilia and a research team tracking down documents about his life."He was of course the greatest escape artist history ever had ... but I believe his secret lies from deep inside from his Hungarian roots, when as a poor Jewish family they escaped Hungary," museum founder David Merlini said.

"That was maybe his first escape: to America, in the hope of a better life."

For Merlini, 38, himself a Hungarian escape artist who advised actor Adrien Brody about Houdini for a mini-series in 2014, Houdini has been a major inspiration. Merlini opened the museum this year as a tribute to the artist who was born in Budapest as Erik Weisz into a Jewish family in 1874. He left with his family for the United States in 1878 and became an American citizen. When he became a magician, Houdini started to call himself Harry Houdini after the French magician Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin.

He went on to become the most famous escape artist of his day, captivating massive audiences with his daring escapes. He died in 1926 from a ruptured appendix. "We are all a little bit Houdinis because everybody has a secret dream that is just waiting to be fulfilled," Merlini said.

The museum displays Houdini's handcuffs and other artefacts, many photographs about his life and performances, and also a Bible from 1883, which belonged to his family.
The 735 dogs on Rajesh Shukla's farm are fed 200 kg of rice and chicken every day and have trained vets to attend to them.

The engineer pays 93% of the daily Rs 50,000 spent on their well being (Photo: Facebook)

Bengaluru: Adorable and warm animals which we grow to love after bringing them in as pets, can easily become family for us in a very time.

While being surrounded by dogs in your house is the stuff of a pet lovers fantasy, an engineer in Bengaluru is actually living the dream as he has a family of not four or five, but a staggering 735 dogs.

As soon as Rajesh Shukla arrives at his large farm just outside the city, the air is filled with sounds of hundreds of barks as Shuklas beloved canines rejoice the arrival of their father. As the dogs jump around him, Shukla responds with affection.

Rajesh Shukla decided to move to Bengaluru with his wife 10 years back after having lived in Delhi and US, to start his own company. Having travelled the world and done everything money enabled him to, Rajesh decided to get someone to care for.

Shukla started by taking in stray dogs and expensive pedigreed dogs who had outgrown their value as well as those which were abandoned by their owners. Among these were 22 pedigreed dogs whose owner had been shot dead, and many abandoned due to ailments.

The canines are fed 200 kg of chicken and rice everyday on the farm, where they have ample space to run around and ponds to swim in. They are attended by 10 people including trained veterinary assistants who give daily medical attention. All this costs around Rs 50,000 a day, of which 93% is paid by Shukla.

While many complain that so many dogs cause disturbance and activists have demanded access to the farm, Shukla is unfazed and committed to take care of his family.
The Crime Branch unit of the Delhi on Tuesday entered into its second day of search operations at the JNU campus.

Missing JNU student Najeeb's mother participates in protest march while holding her son's poster in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi: The Delhi Police will on Wednesday conduct a lie detector test on missing Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Najeeb Ahmed's room partner Kazim.

The Crime Branch unit of the Delhi on Tuesday entered into its second day of search operations at the JNU campus.

More than 600 police personnel have been deployed at the University for the searches including the District Commissioner of Police and a dozen other senior cops.

The Crime Branch team on Monday reached the JNU to begin its probe into missing student Najeeb Ahmed's case.

The students of JNU have criticised the Delhi Police over the delay in tracing Najeeb, who has been missing from the campus after allegedly being beaten up by a mob of 20 students comprising mostly the ABVP members.

JNUSU president Mohit Pandey last month told media, "The police has not taken any action for finding Najeeb. They have not followed the procedures and responsibilities. Those who had beaten him were not interrogated.

Najeeb's family has so far been critical of the police for not being able to locate him. Denying reports that Najeeb was taking anti-depressant medicines, his sister had earlier alleged that the police was trying to give a different direction to this case.

"We hope the Delhi Police works on the right path to find him and not defame him. Please don't try to defame Najeeb.The Delhi Police needs to go in the right direction. We have also requested for a CBI probe," she said.

The Delhi Police had last month increased the reward from Rs. 2, 00,000 to 5, 00,000 for the person, who provides information about the missing JNU student.

Earlier on October 14, Ahmed was allegedly slapped by an ABVP member canvassing for the hostel elections. The first year M.Sc Biotechnology student has been missing from the next day.

Since then, the students along with Najeeb's family members have been protesting at the campus against the alleged police inaction and demanding the arrest of ABVP members.

A police complaint was earlier filed under Section 365 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person, and a proctorial inquiry was also initiated by the varsity.
Najeeb has been missing since 15 October after a scuffle at his hostel, allegedly with some ABVP students.

New Delhi: The massive search operation by the Delhi police to trace Najeeb Ahmed, with the help of sniffer dogs, has raised questions within the police force as to whether it could yield any results after two months of the JNU student having gone missing. A senior police officer, requesting anonymity, said that had this mammoth drive been conducted immediately after the student went missing, it could have helped the force to trace the student. But we are following the Delhi high courts direction to trace the missing student with the help of sniffer dogs inside the university campus.

On Tuesday, the Delhi police ended the two-day long search operation in the JNU campus to get clues that could help them trace MSc student Najeeb Ahmed, who has been missing for over two months now.

The men and women of Delhi police resumed their search around 11 am under the supervision of DCP (Crime Branch) G Ram Gopal Naik. A team revisited the Mahi-Mandvi hostel where Najeeb stayed and took help of the sniffer dogs, who smelled Najeebs clothes. We received complete cooperation from JNU students and the administration. The search operation has been completed. We didnt find any clue that could help the police to trace the missing student, said Mr Naik.

Najeebs family and friends questioned the purpose of conducting this search operation two months after his disapperance. They called it merely a formality that the police is doing after the high court strictly ordered them to find Najeeb.

On the second consecutive day, a police team searched my room. I welcomed them and showed them every corner of my room. The drama finally ended after 48 hours. It was presumed that the search operation after two-month will never serve the purpose, said a hostelite.

Najeeb has been missing since 15 October after a scuffle at his hostel, allegedly with some ABVP students.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Tigran Sargsyan and Chairperson of Russias Federation Council (upper house of Russian Parliament) Valentina Matvienko discussed the urgent issues related to the Eurasian integration, as well as the role of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in the global economy, press service of the EEC told Armenpress.

Matvienko said the EAEU today represents as a modern integration unit, and its establishment is in compliance with the global economic trends.

The EAEU attracts not only the Union member states, but also other countries. The agreement on free trade zone with Vietnam came into force, more than 40 countries show interest towards the cooperation with the EAEU. I hope this mutual cooperation will expand and will enable to implement the idea proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin which is the idea of the Eurasian wide partnership. All conditions and opportunities exist for that, Matvienko said.

The EEC Board Chairman Tigran Sargsyan expressed gratitude to Matvienko for the attention she puts on the integration unity, stating that currently there are a number of major directions for the EAEU development.

The establishment of trade-economic relations with third countries and economic entities is a priority for us, here there exists a potential for economic growth. If we succeed in achieving such regimes in trade talks that will take into account our business interests, it is obvious that the export volumes will increase. Such approach will boost the economic growth in the EAEU states, will help to create new jobs, Tigran Sargsyan said.

He added that at this moment active dialogue is being carried out with China, Israel, Serbia, it is planned to start talks with India, Iran, Egypt, South Korea and Singapore, which must be completed by signing of trade-economic agreements.

Speaking about domestic issues on which the EEC is working, Tigran Sargsyan attached importance to the elimination of obstacles and restrictions within the EAEU. We have developed the so-called White book which includes all obstacles and restrictions that currently exist between the Unions member states. We are developing a step-by step schedule on eliminating the restrictions based on the stances agreed by the governments of the EAEU states, he said.

The sides also stated that they agree on deepening the cooperation within the EAEU in order to strengthen positions in the global economy.

The Eurasian Economic Union is our response to global challenges, which enables the countries to maximally utilize the existing potential. It is obvious that doing it within the frames of one country is more difficult. Together it will be easier for us to response to those challenges, Tigran Sargsyan said.
Rao suffers the ignominy of being the first chief secretary of a state to be raided by the income tax department.

The raids, which began at the crack of dawn, at around 5.45 am, at Mr Raos residence in Anna Nagar and continued till late into the evening, were conducted in connection with suspected amassing of wealth, which is disproportionate to the known sources of income. (Photo: PTI)

Chennai: Income-tax raids sent shock waves across the corridors of power on Wednesday as sleuths swooped down on the home of the Tamil Nadu chief secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao. I-T officials raided his house in Anna Nagar as well as his office at the secretariat.

Handpicked for the top job by the former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, who superseded 17 IAS officers to make him the top babu, Rama Mohana Rao came off in poor light as significant seizures were made at the home of his kin  at least Rs 30 lakh cash and 5 kg gold. However, the I-T department was tight-lipped on the seizures from his residence and office.

As many as 13 premises belonging to the chief secretary, his son and relatives in Nellore and Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh and in Karnataka were searched leading to more seizure of cash and gold across south India. The raids, which began at the crack of dawn, at around 5.45 am, at Mr Raos residence in Anna Nagar and continued till late into the evening, were conducted in connection with suspected amassing of wealth, which is disproportionate to the known sources of income. Mr Rao suffers the ignominy of being the first chief secretary of a state to be raided by the income tax department.

Sources in I-T department said the raids on Mr Rao came after their interrogation of former TTD Board member Sekhar Reddy and seizure of Rs 131 crore cash and 177 kg gold from premises belonging to him two weeks back. This newspaper had on December 9 reported that Reddy was linked to a top bureaucrat at the Fort St George and that he was known to be the safe-keeper of his benami cash.

Raos office at the secretariat, the seat of power of the Tamil Nadu government, was also not spared as I-T sleuths raided his chamber for close to five hours. Later, two of his personal assistants at his office  Sekar and Kumar  were taken for questioning.

The searches were conducted based on documents and statements from Reddy. Searches were the natural procedure we have to follow. Such searches will help us to build up the case, an income tax official said. Documents seized during the searches conducted in the premises of Mr Reddy had reportedly led the I-T sleuths to the doors of the chief secretary.

Mr Rao was appointed the chief secretary in June this year by late Jayalalithaa. He had served as private secretary to Jayalalithaa during 2011-2016 and had a meteoric rise to the post of chief secretary.

High drama prevailed outside Mr Raos residence in posh Anna Nagar as paramilitary was called in during the time of the raid. It is understood that the I-T department sought the help of the force since a chief secretary was involved and that he could have influenced the state police if they were called in.

The Enforcement Directorate also registered a money laundering case against Reddy after the income tax department shared documents with the agency. It may be noted that the CBI had registered a case against Reddy, his business associates Srinivasalu and Prem and few unnamed bankers on Tuesday after Rs 34 crore of the total Rs 131 crore cash seized from his premises was found to be new Rs 2,000 notes.
Chidambaram, who spoke about Indian economy and biggest challenges it faces, chose to not speak about demonetisation in his lecture.

Mumbai: Former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram during his lecture on Tuesday at Mumbai University on 25 years of economics reforms and the challenges ahead severely criticised demonetisation in the interactive session with students, professors and other guests

Mr Chidambaram, who spoke about Indian economy and biggest challenges it faces, chose to not speak about demonetisation in his lecture.

It all started when a student asked him a question about demonetisation and its effect on the Indian economy. Asked to explain the Centres move in terms of efficiency, output and social justice, Mr Chidambaram called demonetisation be a monumental tragedy made by man. Speaking about Indian economy, Mr Chidambaram said the people implementing demonetisation didnt know elementary economics and should go back to undergraduate college.

Replying to the student, Mr Chidambaram stated that not all cash is black money and hence whoever came up with the idea does not know elementary economics. He also explained that all black money is not cash, stating that only 6 per cent of it is in the form of cash and keeps flowing. This step is, instead, becoming a reason of suffering for many who have to stand in queues.

Giving an example, Mr Chidambaram said there is over Rs 15 lakh crores in old notes, which has to come back to banks, and the government had achieved hardly anything until now.

He said, Imagine a doctor conducted a surgery but there was no information about the patients illness. The doctor did not know which part of the body of patient is affected but the surgery was conducted on some completely different part. It is tragic how farmers, self-employed people and small-scale businesses are the ones that are worst affected due to this move. The government should get sensible about it.
She has translated 700 Bhagavad Gita shlokas from Sanskrit to English.

Mumbai: Indrani Mukerjea  who is accused of killing her own daughter Sheena Bora (25) in April 2012 along with her then driver Shyamwar Rai and her first husband Sanjeev Khanna  made an oral request on Tuesday before a special CBI judge to allow her to get a book published. She told the judge that she has already translated 700 shlokas (versus) of the Bhagavad Gita from Sanskrit to English while in jail, and now wants these to be converted into a book.

After hearing her oral request, the special judge H.S. Mahajan asked Indrani to make a written application in this regard in order for him to consider it. She said that during her stay in jail, she had read various versions of Bhagavad Gita and had translated around 700 shlokas from Sanskrit to English.

Indrani further said that she wanted these translations to be converted into a book. She added that she wants to give 50 per cent of the earnings from this book to International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) and the remaining 50 per cent to women abandoned by their families because of being arrested.

Indrani was overheard outside the court saying she has now personally experienced how families abandon women after their arrest, and family members distance themselves from these under-trial women. Hence, she wanted to help these unfortunate women, Indrani said.

Through her lawyer, Gunjan Mangala, the accused filed an application on Tuesday seeking interim bail for two weeks to visit her native place because of her fathers death. Her father, Upendra Kumar Bora, died on Thursday and a CBI officer informed her about the same on Monday. The judge is expected to decide on her application on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, special public prosecutor Bharat Badami concluded his arguments on framing of charges, saying that there is enough evidence to prove charges against the accused persons and the court should frame charges on them.

Referring to a telephonic conversation between Peter Mukerjea and his servant Pradeep Waghmare (who was the caretaker of his Marlow bungalow at Worli in Mumbai), advocate Badami said that the day Rahul had gone to Marlow bungalow searching for Sheena, Mukerjea had called Waghmare enquiring if Rahul had come there and had told Waghmare not to mind Rahuls behaviour as Indrani had separated him and Sheena, which is why Rahul was tense. Advocate Badami also said that the call records show that Indrani came to know about Rahuls visit to Marlow and informed Peter, and this proves that Mukerjea knew everything and was part of the conspiracy to kill Sheena.

Advocate Badami also claimed that Mukerjea took benefit of the fact that Indrani had a soft corner for her daughter Vidhi, and had gone off to London to show that he did not know anything about the murder.
Special teams have been formed to identify and arrest the robbers.

The GRP have begun a search for these robbers based on the physical features of five of the ten robbers, received from the robbed passengers. (Representational Image)

Mumbai: A group of 10 robbers infiltrated the Mumbai-Patna LTT Patliputra train 12141, at Kalyan on Tuesday, at around 12.40 am. After robbing 5 passengers of their cash and valuables worth Rs 29,000 in a general bogey, the robbers, whose faces were partially covered with hand-towels and some armed with knives, got off at Khardi as the train slowed near a crossing.

The Government Railway Police, (GRP), have begun a search for these robbers based on the physical features of five of the ten robbers, received from the robbed passengers, and are examining CCTV footages procured from Kalyan railway station. 19-year-old Sakinaka resident, Mohammad Abdul Salam. was one of the five victims of robbery.

Special teams have been formed to identify and arrest the robbers. Sources informed that the robbers might have a criminal background. A senior official of GRP, said, The complainant informed us that there were total 10 boys but he gave description of only five, so as of now we have registered the FIR against these five and are searching form them through CCTV. We will be able to draw a conclusion on the total no. of robbers and their previous crime record, only after their arrest.

Sources said that, Mr Salam, (19), was travelling to Patliputra from Lokmanya Tilak terminus to perform the last rites after his fathers demise. Mr Salam boarded the train around 11.35 pm, on Monday.

Mr Salam, in his police statement, informed the officials that, almost ten boys boarded the train from Kalyan and started creating ruckus inside. These boys were allegedly looting money from the passengers at knifepoint. Salaam also stated that, as many as five boys threatened him at knifepoint. The unidentified robbers had allegedly snatched Rs 8,000 (four notes of Rs 2,000), and one Samsung galaxy phone worth Rs 8,000 from him, informed the officials.According to a senior GRP official, Rs 4,000 were snatched from one Uma Shankar Shah, Rs 1000 from one Nemat Mokin Khan, Rs 5000 from one Asibul Rehman and Rs 2,500 from Mohammad Maskin Niyahujjidin.

Train robbery

Accused Age

1 20 year

2 22 year

3 23 year

4 19 year

5 24 year
Agency opposes her bail plea, says she can pray for her father from prison.

Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has opposed the interim bail application of Indrani Mukerjea, a chargesheeted accused in the April 2012 Sheena Bora murder case, who sought it in order to attend her fathers last rituals at Guwahati.

While opposing her application, the CBI argued that whatever rituals she wants to perform for her deceased father can be conducted within the jail premises.

CBI counsel Bharat Badami, while opposing the application on Wednesday, also expressed fear that she may escape while traveling to Guwahati. He further argued that charges are about to be framed in the Sheena murder case and there is a possibility that Indrani may harm eyewitnesses if released on interim bail. The CBI counsel also showed an email of Mikhail Bora, who is Indranis son, in which Mikhail stated that Indranis father Upendra Kumar Bora had legally adopted him as a son, therefore he had performed his grandparents last rituals. He also stated in the email that he had been taking care of his grandparents without any financial and mental support from Indrani for three years and requested CBI not to allow her to come to his Guwahati home. Mikhail also stated that if Indrani comes to Guwahati, it would create chaos and also disturb his life.

Opposing Indranis application, Mr Badami said, On November 1, 2015 her mother Durga Rani Bora, had died but Indrani did not seek permission to attend her last rituals. Further, in Tuesdays application she wrongly mentioned the date of her mothers death. It shows how close she was to her mother. The court after hearing both the sides, reserved the order till Thursday.

Special CBI court judge H.S. Mahajan was hearing an interim bail application filed by Indrani in which she sought two weeks leave to attend her fathers last rituals at Guwahati. Her father Upendra Kumar Bora had died last Thursday and CBI officers had informed her on Monday. On Tuesday, when Indranis counsel has filed the application, the court asked CBI to file its reply on Wednesday.

Gunjan Mangla, counsel for Indrani, had argued that if CBI doesnt want to allow her to go to Guwahati then she can be allowed to go to Nashik or any other place near Mumbai to perform her fathers last rituals.
Speakers lauded Castro for bringing Cuba's illiteracy and infant mortality rates to among the lowest in the world.

Nearly 30 representatives of various groups and countries lauded Castro, who died Nov. 25 at the age of 90. But there were no speakers from Western nations. (Photo: AFP)

United Nations: The president of the UN General Assembly called Fidel Castro "one of the 20th century's most iconic and influential leaders" at a memorial tribute Tuesday to the late commander of the Cuban revolution who led his country for nearly 50 years.

Peter Thompson told the ceremony in the assembly chamber that for many people Castro "embodied the struggle of the global south for independence, justice and development."

He said Castro's "activism in pursuit of a fairer and more just world made him a symbol of resistance and inspiration to people across the world in Latin America, Africa and beyond."

Nearly 30 representatives of various groups and countries lauded Castro, who died Nov. 25 at the age of 90. But there were no speakers from Western nations.

Outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Castro "one of the most important Latin American leaders of the 20th century" and "the most influential shaper of Cuban history since his own hero, Jose Marti, struggled for Cuban independence in the late 19th century."

Castro left "a major imprint on his country and global politics," Ban said in remarks read by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca. "Until his last days he was deeply concerned about the future of humanity and the challenges of our times."

Speaker after speaker lauded Castro for providing Cubans with free health care and education, and for bringing Cuba's illiteracy and infant mortality rates to among the lowest in the world.

Venezuela's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Samuel Moncada, speaking on behalf of the Nonaligned Movement, recalled that Castro was a founding member of the organization which now represents 120 mainly developing countries.

"President Castro was a true defender of the south and the new economic international order, as well as the establishment of a peaceful, prosperous, just, equitable and multipolar world," Moncada said.

"He will always be remembered as an emblematic icon of the Cuban Revolution, as a prominent figure in Latin America, and as a leader committed to the just causes of the world, and with amazing capacity to connect with the vulnerable," he said.

Cuba's UN deputy ambassador Ana Silvia Rodr guez Abascal thanked all those who paid tribute to Castro and drew loud applause when she said he "forever will be the commander and leader of the Cuban revolution."
Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil that the Dalai Lama would not be allowed to visit Mongolia even on religious grounds.

Ulaanbaatar: Mongolia's foreign minister says the Dalai Lama will no longer be allowed to visit his country after a visit by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader prompted protests from China and a suspension of talks on a major loan.

China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it "attached importance" to the Mongolian diplomat's statement and hoped the country would "honor the commitment" it has made on the issue.

On Tuesday, the Mongolian newspaper Unuudur carried remarks by Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil that the Dalai Lama would not be allowed to visit Mongolia even on religious grounds.

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to split Tibet from China.

Mongolia's economy is heavily dependent on China. The countries are discussing a possible $4.2 billion loan by Beijing to deal with a recession.
The smoking, burned out shells of vehicles ringed the perimeter.

Local policemen walk through the scorched ground of the open-air San Pablito fireworks market, in Tultepec, outskirts of Mexico City, Mexico, Tuesday. (Photo: AP)

TULTEPEC: A massive explosion that gutted Mexico's biggest fireworks market on Tuesday left at least 26 dead, an official said. "We recovered 26 bodies at the scene of the incident" in the Mexico City suburb of Tultepec, Mexico state prosecutor Alejandro Gomez told reporters at the site.

The conflagration, in the suburb of Tultepec, set off a quickfire series of multicolored blasts and a vast cloud of smoke that hung over Mexico City. Federal police said on Twitter that at least 70 people were injured.

"My condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this accident and my wishes for a quick recovery for the injured," said President Enrique Pena Nieto via Twitter.

Sirens wailed and a heavy scent of gunpowder lingered in the air after the afternoon blast at the market, where most of the fireworks stalls were completely leveled. The smoking, burned out shells of vehicles ringed the perimeter, and first responders and local residents wearing blue masks over their mouths combed through the rubble and ash. Firefighters hosed down still-smoldering hotspots.

Crescencia Francisco Garcia arrived in the afternoon to buy fireworks and said she was near the middle of the grid of stalls when the explosions began around 2:30 p.m.

"All of a sudden it started booming," the 41-year-old Mexico City resident said. "I and the others surrounding me all took off running." Eventually Garcia was able to find her daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren who were waiting in a car just inside the perimeter fence. The Mexican Red Cross said it sent 10 ambulances with 50 paramedics to the scene.

National Civil Protection Coordinator Luis Felipe Puente told Milenio television that some nearby homes were also damaged. The scene remained dangerous and he asked people not to come within 3 miles (5 kilometers) to avoid hampering the emergency response.

Fireworks continued to pop off long after the blast, and Puente added that there was no choice but to let any unexploded fireworks be consumed.

A fire engulfed the same market in 2005, touching off a chain of explosions that leveled hundreds of stalls just ahead of Mexico's Independence Day. A similar fire at the San Pablito Market also destroyed hundreds of stands in September 2006. Many in Mexico traditionally celebrate holidays - including Christmas and New Year's - by setting off noisy firecrackers and rockets.
The families accused the companies of providing material support to the self-radicalised gunman.

The three families claim Twitter, Google's YouTube and Facebook provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts they use to spread extremist propaganda, raise funds and attract new recruits. (Photo: AFP)

Orlando: The families of three men killed at Orlando's Pulse gay nightclub have sued Twitter Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google and Facebook Inc in federal court, accusing the companies of providing "material support" to the self-radicalised gunman.

The gunman, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people and wounded 53 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group before police fatally shot him after the June attack, officials said.

The lawsuit was filed on Monday in Detroit federal court by the families of Tevin Crosby, Javier Jorge-Reyes and Juan Ramon Guerrero, who were killed during the massacre.

Similar lawsuits in the past have faced an uphill fight because of strong protections in US federal law for the technology industry.

The three families claim Twitter, Google's YouTube and Facebook "provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts they use to spread extremist propaganda, raise funds and attract new recruits."

The suit alleges the "material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out or cause to be carried out, numerous terrorist attacks."

Facebook said on Tuesday there is no place on its service for groups that engage in or support terrorism, and that it takes swift action to remove that content when it is reported.

"We are committed to providing a service where people feel safe when using Facebook," it said in a statement. "We sympathize with the victims and their families."

Twitter declined to comment. In August, the company said it had suspended 360,000 accounts since mid-2015 for violating policies related to promotion of terrorism.

Representatives of Google could not immediately be reached.

The three companies plus Microsoft Corp said this month they would coordinate more to remove extremist content, sharing digital "fingerprints" with each other.

Technology companies are protected from many lawsuits under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which says website operators are not liable for content posted by others.

Monday's lawsuit claims that the companies create unique content by combining ISIS postings with advertisements to target the viewer. It also says they share revenue with ISIS for its content and profit from ISIS postings through advertising revenue.

The families in the case in Michigan, where one of the victims is from, are seeking damages and for the court to rule that the sites have violated the Anti-Terrorism Act in the United States.
The talks appears to have not made much headway as China on December 12 said there is no change in both the cases.

Beijing: Indias move to chargesheet Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar in the Pathankot terror attack appears to have not made much of an impact on China as Beijing said on Wednesday that any move by New Delhi to bring about a UN ban on the militant group leader must be in line with rules and procedures laid down by the UN Security Council.

On the question of listing in the 1267 Committee, I have expressed the Chinese position many times, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in response to a question on Indias National Investigation Agency (NIA) listing Azhar, the head of Pakistan-based terror group JeM, as a terrorist in the chargesheet on the attack on an Air Force base in Pathankot, Punjab, in January 2016. Listing in the 1267 Committee must be in line with the relevant resolutions of the UNSC and the rules of procedure of the Committee, Mr Hua said in a written reply here.

The NIA filed a chargesheet against Azhar, his brother and two others on Monday for hatching the conspiracy of the attack that killed seven personnel and injured 37 others.

Mr Huas reply came as Chinas second technical hold in the UN, blocking Indias move to list Azhar as a terrorist under the 1267 Committee rules of the UNSC, is set to expire towards the end of December.

On March 31, China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, had blocked Indias move to impose a ban on Azhar under the Sanctions Committee of the Council.

China was the only member in the 15-nation UN body to put a hold on Indias application with all other 14 members of the Council supporting New Delhis bid to place Azhar on the 1267 sanctions list that would subject him to an assets freeze and travel ban.

Officials here say that India may have to apply again to the 1267 Committee with the chargesheet details to press for its case as its present application will lapse following Beijings two technical holds.

The two countries have been holding talks on Chinas blocking Azhars case as well as Indias application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

The talks appears to have not made much headway as China on December 12 said there is no change in both the cases.

As for Indias application for Nuclear Suppliers Group and listing issue pursuant to resolution of 1267 (to list Azhar as terrorist), Chinas position remains unchanged, another Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Geng Shuang, had said.

His assertion that Chinas stand remained unchanged on both NSG and Azhar was made while answering a question on Indian foreign secretary S. Jaishankars remarks last week at an India-China thinktank forum in New Delhi that China should not give a political colour to New Delhis efforts to access civilian nuclear technology, in reference to Beijings Opposition to its NSG bid.

Mr Jaishankar had also expressed dismay over the two countries not being able to come together on the issue at critical international forums, a reference to China blocking the ban in the UN on Azhar.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan on December 21 held a meeting with the representatives of enterprises conducting major foreign direct investments in Armenia, press service of the Government told Armenpress.

The PM stated that the Government attaches importance to the increase of investment volumes in Armenias economy and is ready to discuss the joint steps on that path aimed at achieving progress.

The PM was introduced on issues related to the activity of enterprises carrying out investment projects in IT, mining industry, energy, agriculture, food industry, education, transportation communication sectors. Those issues related to the tax and customs administration, the diversification of transportation routes. During an exchange of opinions, the options of solving those issues were discussed.

PM Karapetyan urged the foreign investors to submit those proposals to the interested Ministries to jointly discuss and consistently follow the implementation of the agreements.
The black-clad assailant committed suicide after Monday's spree and his body was found on a nearby river bank, police said.

Police secure the area in front of the Islamic center, in Zurich, Monday, Dec. 19, 2016. A Zurich police official says a gunman has injured several people in Switzerland's largest city. (Photo: AP)

Geneva: The man who went on a shooting rampage at a Muslim prayer hall in Zurich before committing suicide was already a killer and appeared obsessed with the occult, Swiss police said Tuesday.

The black-clad assailant, identified as a 24-year-old Swiss national of Ghanaian origin, committed suicide after Monday's spree and his body was found on a nearby river bank, police said.

Christiane Lentjes Meili, police chief for the canton of Zurich, told reporters that the unnamed gunman had stabbed a former friend to death at a playground only the day before.

"There is no doubt that this man, who shot himself nearby after the attack on the mosque, is responsible for the two acts," she said.

"We don't know anything about the motives," she said, adding that the shooter appeared to be deeply interested in the occult.

"Corresponding symbols have been found at his home," Lentjes Meili said, without elaborating.

According to investigators, there was no indication that the gunman had any links to terrorism or far-right movements. He also had no known connection to the Islamic Centre.

They said it remained unclear if he was suffering from mental problems.

The man burst into the centre and opened fire on Monday evening, injuring three worshippers, aged 30, 35 and 56, who were among around a dozen people inside at the time.

Two were seriously hurt, but Lentjes Meili said that after surgery, all three men were now in stable condition.

Shortly after the attack, a body was found a few hundred metres (yards) from the scene on a river bank under a bridge.

Lentjes Meili confirmed that the body belonged to the gunman, and that he appeared to have turned his weapon on himself after his rampage.

Police had launched a manhunt after finding forensic evidence linking him to Sunday's stabbing of a 24-year-old Swiss man with Chilean roots, who was killed with several knives.

She said the two men had been friends.

Police had secured DNA evidence at the scene of the playground killing and were able to match it with DNA samples taken seven years ago from a youth who had stolen a bicycle.

But despite having identified the murderer and deploying numerous resources to find him, police were unable to track him down before Monday's shooting, Lentjes Meili said.

Investigators believe that the gunman lived alone. He had been working at an undisclosed shop, but had left his job last Friday, police said.

The man did have a legal permit for the gun used in the attack, Lentjes Meili said.

However, gun ownership is widespread in Switzerland, where citizens are allowed to keep their army-issue weapons at home outside periods of mandatory military service.

The law allows any citizen aged over 18 to possess arms under certain conditions and there are an estimated two million weapons in private hands among Switzerland's population of about eight million.

The Islamic Central Council of Switzerland issued a statement condemning Monday's attack and urging politicians and the media to "finally take Islamophobia seriously"

The shooting, it said, was "an alarm signal" that should prompt action to ensure that "Islamophobia is pushed back to the margins of society, where racism and anti-Semitism once were relegated".

It called on Swiss authorities to dish out public funds to secure mosques and other Muslim institutions.

Monday's shooting was not the first such attack in Switzerland.

In 2004, a Frenchman of Tunisian origin suffering from serious psychological problems stabbed the imam at a Lausanne mosque as he spoke before some 200 worshippers.

And in 2007, a 23-year-old Swiss Muslim, also suffering from psychological issues, opened fire in a Muslim prayer hall in Crissier, not far from Lausanne, seriously injuring one worshipper.
Aziz said that Pakistan will share dossiers on India's 'involvement in subversive activities' with the UN.

Islamabad: Pakistan on Wednesday said it is gathering "more evidence" from the alleged RAW spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and will share dossiers on India's "involvement in subversive activities" with the UN.

While briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs here, Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz also regretted the "Indian aggression" on the Line of Control (LoC).

Interrogation of Jadhav is underway and more evidences are being collected from him, he said.

"Dossiers about Indian involvement in subversive activities in Pakistan will be presented before the UN and other important countries after completion of investigation from Kulbhushan Jadhav," Radio Pakistan quoted him as saying.

Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary said there are several UN resolutions on the Kashmir dispute and that the international community should exert pressure on India for the implementation of these resolutions.

He claimed 45 Pakistani civilians have been killed due to "unprovoked Indian firing" on the LoC and Islamabad has informed the UN in writing about these 'violations'.
by Shafique Khokhar

Lahore (AsiaNews)  The Cecil and Iris Chaudhry Foundation (CICF) in Youhanabad, a Christian area in Lahore, yesterday handed out Christmas gifts to poor pupils attending its educational facility.

The students sang Christmas carols and performed theatre plays under the attentive eyes of their parents.

For CICF president Michelle Chaudhry, it was a great pleasure to attend performances and listen to the message they carry."

This time of year, said the daughter of Pakistani Air Force pilot and Catholic activist Cecil Chaudhry, "there is a lot of talk about the spirit of Christmas, which is actually made up of love, peace, harmony, sharing, and acceptance of all that is needed".

However, for her, the Christmas spirit "is not something that we show with bells, lights, tinsel, and decorations; neither is it something that we put away in boxes after the Christmas season is over. The Christmas spirit should last forever! So lets try to carry the Christmas spirit in our hearts and be part of the wonderful changes that follow."

The traditional Christmas event, which the CICF holds every year, included a man dressed as Santa hand out gifts to the children. The presents were collected thanks to the Christmas Toy Drive launched by Sonia Rehman, who was able to bring smiles and happiness to extremely deserving children, the CICF president said.

Many poor children study at the Foundations educational facility. "We are proud that our children study here where they receive a quality education, said Ms Parveen, a Christian mother. The constant support of the CICF helps our children increase their potential in terms of both education and talents. They are on the path to a brighter world."

Youhanabad is one of the most populated Christian colonies of Pakistan, said Barkat Masih, a Christian father. Unfortunately, there is not a single government school in the whole colony for our children where they could get a good education for lower fees. For this reason, We are very thankful to the CICF for its efforts to provide a quality education to Christian children for a low fee.

Masih was not able to get an education himself, but he is happy that his son can go to school. "Jesus is our best provider, he said, and we celebrate him full of joy. I pray to God that he may bring smiles on the face of our poor children."
by Piero Gheddo

The birth of Jesus in a suburban parish in the Chadian capital of Ndjamena shows the sheer joy Christians unleash in song, dance, drums and balafons. It is the discovery of an "original way to proclaim the Gospel in Africa".

Rome (AsiaNews) - The Christmas wish I make to all of you, dear friends, is the one the angel made to the shepherds on the Holy Night, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a saviour has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord (Lk. 2: 10-11). Other angels appeared praising God, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests." Immediately, the shepherds travelled to Bethlehem to see and adore the Child and tell what they saw and heard to all those they knew (Lk. 2: 13-16).

The Christmas message is that God loves us and brings us his gifts: peace in our hearts, peace in and between families, peace within and between nations! Worldwide, there are still 23 wars. We men seek peace in so many ways, but peace comes first of all from God, for it is He who created us and it is to Him that the Virgin Mary gives birth at Christmas in Bethlehem. The second person of the Trinity, the Child Jesus, became man to die on the cross at the age of 33 and then rise again to save us from sin and give us eternal and happy life with God, thats heaven! Let us ask Jesus for peace in our hearts and be "men and women of peace" so that we can show that we forgive offenses we received, not judge and never speak ill of anyone, pray when there is a conflict, be it a small or great war.

Why did the angel bring the good news to the shepherds and not to others? Because the shepherds were simple, humble people, willing to listen to God's word and pass it on to others with joy and enthusiasm. Christmas brought to them a new life. They were the first disciples of the Lord Jesus.

We too are called to be reborn to a new life.

Now in our path,

his light shines.

Jesus, sun of grace,

calls us to new life.

(Hymn of pre-Christmas Lauds)

At Christmas we have to rediscover the joy and enthusiasm of faith. How? Pope Francis is a "missionary pope" because he comes from a young Church founded by the missionaries. He has the passion to bring Christ to the endless throngs of nations that still do not know him. That is why he often says that he wants the "Church to go out" and that all the baptised "be missionaries."

This is how things happen in the missions, where the Church is born, and the breath of the Holy Spirit is felt at times in moving ways. Christmas makes neophytes enthusiastic and spontaneously missionary. They understand that they cannot keep for themselves and their families the great gift of faith in Christ; that it must be communicated to others in their own ways. This is the "new life" that Christmas 2016 asks us, believers in Christ.

In 1976 I experienced the Holy Christmas in Chad, a poor country just south of the Sahara Desert. Most Chadians are Muslim or animist; Christians are a small minority. The capital Ndjamena is a desert town, heat and sand is everywhere, even at Christmas, but climatically it is the best time of the year.

The parish church in Ndjamenas Kabalaye district, built and run by Jesuits from the Italian region of Lombardy (whose guest I was), is an imposing building in the style of an amphitheater, with an oval dome with bold metal ribbing, walls of reinforced concrete, and a roof in plastic sheets. On Christmas Eve 1976, the vast courtyard and the church gradually filled with worshipers, some from faraway villages. Well before Midnight Mass, the church was full to capacity, and hundreds of faithful stood in the courtyard.

The joy of the celebration and coming together exploded. Christians, after a year of isolation, toil, and misery, broke out into song, dance, drums, balafons, and pipes. Inside the Kabalaye church it was like a stormy sea. People sang all together, many danced, trying to make as much noise as they could, clapping their hands and stomping their feet rhythmically to accompany the choir, whose songs are our oldest carols translated into local languages. The joy was overflowing and contagious, the dust was acrid and thick; this was the stench, the "scent" of a poor humanity, the rhythm of drums and rousing balafons.

In the sacristy we were four priests ready to go out for Mass. How could we do it in that indescribable bedlam? The huge and towering Brother Antonio Mason went to the altar platform, grabbed the microphone, and made compelling signs of silence and shouted, "Silence! Thats enough!" in the three or four African languages he knew, as well as in French. But his powerful voice, magnified to a deafening level by a good sound system, was overwhelmed by the noise of hundreds of Africans together. The whole thing reminded me of the roar of the falls at Iguacu and Niagara. The churchs dome and walls shook, giving the impression that the whole amphitheater was going to collapse.

Brother Anthony came back to the sacristy defeated, sweaty, and out of voice. "Lets let them let it out for a while, he said. We could not do anything else. Meanwhile, the source of the mad decibels from Kabalaye parish attracted a throngs of Muslims and animists from the city, curious about what was going on. They came to see the explosion of joy that Christmas arouses in Christian people. "That is an original way to proclaim the Gospel in Africa, said the pastor, Father Corrado Corti. I am convinced that this authentic expression of a peoples unity and joy was worth more to Muslims and animists than all of our Christmas sermons."
Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Syrian government and other parties present within Parliament accepted resolution 2328 voted on last December 19 "unanimously" by the UN Security Council, which is to send 20 independent observers in Aleppo East.

They will be tasked to monitor and supervise the evacuation of the city. Since 15 December at least 25 thousand people have fled the eastern sector, long controlled by rebel groups and jihadists, although violence and clashes have disrupted operations on several occasions and shaken the agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey.



At the same time, the United Nations expect all parties to the conflict, the government and rebels, to authorize the distribution of humanitarian aid to Aleppo, divided into two parts for over four years: West, home to 1.2 million people, under government control; the eastern area, with about 250 thousand people, in the hands of rebel groups and jihadist groups.



Since last July thousands of civilians have been living under siege conditions.



The UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed having received "permission to send 20 national and international officers" to Aleppo, to cover "a key role in surveillance." Having access to those who "need humanitarian aid," he adds, "is urgent."



A United Nations team is ready at Ramouseh dam, controlled by government. "The protection of civilians who abandon these areas - said the UN official - remains our priority."



Meanwhile, Russia, Iran and Turkey agree on the need to extend the truce in Syria as much as possible. The leaders of the three countries want to work to ensure the success of the peace talks and strengthen the ceasefire in areas where there is still fighting.



In a joint statement released yesterday after the meeting in Moscow, Tehran and Ankara say they are ready to "contribute to the preparation of an" agreement between the Syrian government and opposition and to fill the role of "guarantor." Finally, they ask for "free access" for humanitarian relief and "free movement of civilian aid throughout the Syrian territory."



Jihadist groups including the Islamic state and the Fatah al-Sham, a former Front for the Nusra Front, a branch of al-Qaeda in Syria are excluded from the agreement to the truce.



After the meeting the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised the new axis that is forming on Syria, although Moscow and Tehran will support Damascus and Ankara is close to the galaxy of the rebel movements. The cooperation, Lavrov added, "has not only allowed the evacuation of civilians," but also the transfer "of most of the combatants of the armed opposition" through "agreed routes." For the future, the goal is to "enhance cooperation".
Jakarta (AsiaNews) - Indonesian police have killed three terrorists who were about to carry out an attack in Jakarta. A fourth man was arrested. The plan, according to the agents, involved the stabbing of a police officer and as the crowd had thronged to watch, a suicide attack with explosives.



The terrorists target were police officers engaged in ensuring the security of Christmas celebrations in the capital.



Police raided a house in the residential district Puri Serpong 2, in South Tangeran (Banten province, south-west of Jakarta). The terrorists resisted arrest by opening fire on the officers and throwing explosives.



Police inspector general M. Iriawan, says that authorities have searched the house and confiscated a lot of evidence, including a pipe bomb, guns and backpacks containing other explosive. The role of the three terrorists killed is yet to be verified, but according to investigators they are linked to a terrorist cell in Solo (Central Java) who had also planned an attack on the presidential palace, foiled a few weeks ago.



Like every year, around the Christmas holidays, the Indonesian police step up security measures. Even the anti-terrorism squad Densus 88 is involved in terrorism prevention operations. A few days ago, the team arrested another 10 members of the Solo cell. According to the police this was founded by Bahrun Naim, chief suspect for the January attacks on Jakarta, who now fights in Syria with the Islamic State.
The two countries are set to work together in many fields to make Central Asia a region of sustainable peace, stability and prosperity.

New Delhi (AsiaNews)  Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev Sharshenovich met yesterday in the Indian capital where they signed a bilateral investment agreement.

During the talks, the two leaders also decided to strengthen ties in defence, security, mining, information technology, agriculture and energy.

In the area of defence, centred on counterterrorism, Modi said that work on a Kyrgyz-India Joint Military Training Centre in Kyrgyzstan had commenced.

We discussed how we could work together to secure our youth and society against the common challenges of terrorism, extremism, and radicalism, Modi said.

The Indian leader described Kyrgyzstan as a valuable partner in Indias pursuit of making Central Asia a region of sustainable peace, stability and prosperity.

Stating that people are at the centre of such initiatives, Modi noted, "We shall give special emphasis to youth exchanges in our technical and economic cooperation programme with the Kyrgyz Republic."

The two leaders welcomed the ratification of the Paris climate pact by a number of countries. The pact entered into force on 4 November 2016.

India announced in late September that it would ratify the pact. Kyrgyzstan has already done so on 21 September.
Antananarivo (AsiaNews) - The increasing presence of Chinese enterprises in Madagascar, including the giant Jiuxing mining cooperation, has caused widespread protests by citizens in an escalation of tension and discontent.

Behind the demonstrations, the Chinese underground gold mining project that could last for the next 40 years; according to local people, this activity would have disastrous affects on agriculture.



Every Thursday Soamahamanina - a small village located at the center of the island  was the scene of vocal protests. The Chinese are increasingly seen as a hostile presence.



"Madagascar belongs to the Malagasy - says a student - not the Chinese or foreigners. Forty years of underground exploitation means selling the country. " Much of the population has taken this position, although some farmers who have accepted money from the Chinese in exchange for the land have been bitterly exploited.



Already in 2011 the police had intervened in the Chinese district of the capital to prevent a riot. In any case, the Chinese company disputed by the Malagasy finally decided to withdraw.



The spokesman Jiuxing Star Adriamamonjy said: "The company has the right to stay but preferred to withdraw to calm things down. We hope to return on a new basis and rectify past mistakes. " Today, China is the largest trading partner of Madagascar. There are more than 800 companies and about 60 thousand Chinese citizens in the country. So far Beijing has invested in more than 740 million dollars Madagascar but despite this, over 90% of the population lives below the poverty line.
by card. Oswald Gracias*

In Mumbai there are about 80 thousand tribal. Their conditions are precarious. They are often victims of exploitation and marginalization. Even the holy family was refused at the inn, but found "refuge in a stable in Bethlehem, full of hospitality that radiated from the shepherds great heart."

Mumbai (AsiaNews) - Card. Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai, will celebrate Christmas with tribal migrants of his diocese. The cardinal, who is also president of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC), has already decided to devote the pastoral service to the spiritual care of the many migrants who live and work in Mumbai, often in precarious conditions and exploitation.



In the capital of Maharashtra in all about 80 thousand tribal live originally from the Chota Nagpur plateau, a region that lies between the states of Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand. They emigrated because of a lack of employment opportunities or to escape poverty. They live in undignified housing conditions, accept menial jobs to survive, women are often victims of abuse, children are marginalized by the companions of the wealthy class. Here is the Cardinals Christmas message of the.

Each year the Christmas greetings not only impart good wishes and hopes for us all, but they also hold out to us something of the stories of Mercy lived, loved and experienced in ministries across the world that flow from the Infant Child Divine.

The paradox of Christmas is captured in the homeless family that found that there was no room in the Inn, but could find it in a small dingy backroom stable in Bethlehem, replete with the abundance of hospitality radiating from the large hearts of shepherds and wise searchers, who were sensitive to the deeper meaning of God in the Infant lying in the manger.

When does the work of Christmas begin?

When the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins:

It begins when we heal the broken hearted with the touch of Gods Mercy : when we feed the hungry, when we bring the promise of hope, the forgiving love and the restoring compassion of God to those crippled with fear of terror, plagued with the anxiety of uncertainty and imprisoned in darkness of sin and death.



Those who have visited Mother Teresas creches for vulnerable infants in the crib of her homes for the handicapped and shelters for the suffering in the year of Mercy, testified that they were spurred to generously offer their gifts, but more than anything else were edified and touched by the words of the Missionaries of Charity: Thank you so much for helping us find resources so we can bring God's mercy to the suffering people.

Bringing Gods mercy to a suffering people is at the core of the Christmas story. To re-member the Christmas story is to bring hope to a world in need. In the words of Pope Francis: Always keep hope alive. Demonstrate that with welcome and hospitality a window to the future can be offered.



In this season of Christmas of gift-giving and receiving, may we be richly blessed and may we continue in the aftermath of the year of Mercy to serve one another with the gifts we have received from Him.

May the Mercy and Grace of the Infant Jesus fill your hearts with Peace, Love and Joy this Christmas.

X Oswald Cardinal Gracias
by Mathias Hariyadi

The detentions came on the 55th anniversary of the military campaign that led to the annexation of the province to Indonesia. Hundreds of people have been accused of "separatism" because they were demonstrating peacefully and calling for a new referendum.

Jakarta (AsiaNews)  Mass arrests marked the 55th anniversary of the military campaign that led to the annexation of Papua to Indonesia.

On Monday, police detained hundreds of people across the country on charges of "separatism for participating in protests against the government.

Veronica Koman, who represents Papua pro-independence movement known as Filep Karma, said that most arrests were made in Jakarta, on Sulawesi and in Papua.

Police raided the offices of the Papua pro-independence movement in the provincial capital of Jayapura in Papua. Some 50 activists who were demonstrating peacefully were arrested in Jakarta.

For a long time, Papua (the western part of New Guinea) was the only province that remained under Dutch control.

In 1969, through the so-called Act of free choice, the population opted for annexation to Indonesia, followed by an Indonesian military campaign. However, many believe that the "referendum" was orchestrated by Jakarta.

Existing separatist movements have called for Papuas independence. These groups argue that the province is the scene of a "slow-motion genocide" against ethnic minorities and Christians.

Locals complains about bad governance in one of Indonesias least developed province in terms of communications and transportation. Local villages speak different dialects and remain isolated from the rest of the province.

Separatist activists are calling for a new referendum to allow Papuas indigenous population to vote. Jakarta has always rejected this demand, claiming that it is the result of pressures from foreign powers interested in Papuas immense underground wealth (oil, gas, gold, etc.).

Last October, Indonesian President Joko Widodo decided to introduce price controls for petrol in Papua where, for logistical reasons, costs are 14 times higher than the rest of the country.

The decision has angered Pertamina, Indonesias state oil and gas company, but was greeted with joy by locals.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenia proposes quite favorable conditions for the Iranian businessmen, Chairman of the Union of Armenias Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Arsen Ghazaryan told reporters at the Armenian-Iranian business forum in Yerevan, reports Armenpress.

He said being a small market, Armenia is a partner with serious potential for Irans investors. Ghazaryan said the forum will enable to start a number of infrastructure projects with Iran, one of which is the construction of alternative gas pipeline. Due to this gas pipeline, Armenias transit role will increase, he said.

Ghazaryan stated that the trade turnover between Armenia and Iran reaches to nearly 300 million, however, as a result of right cooperation it can reach to one billion. It is necessary to intensify the Armenian-Iranian economic ties through launching production in Armenia, producing good in Armenia and exporting it to a third country, he said.

Arsen Ghazaryan recommended the Iranian businessmen to be courageous in their further steps. We attach a great importance to the work with Iran in the region since during the 90s Irans friendly ties allowed us to avoid product starvation, Iran was an alternative way for Armenia during the years of blockade, Ghazaryan said.
Tyler Oakley Shares His Favorite Designers, Brands & Products

Let YouTube Star Tyler Oakley Help You Become 2017's Best Dressed Man

Tyler Oakley, best known for being a Youtube personality with over 8 million followers, has transcended multiple channels and roles. Extremely active and popular on social media, hes also a New York Times best-selling author, a talk show host, a vocal advocate for social rights, and a style icon.

Hes even starting his fashion debut with a Warby Parker lenswear collaboration. The lenswear collection features modern glasses in versatile colors, perfect for any outfit. The Wilder in Jet Black Matte makes you look seriously cool while the Stockton in Eastern Bluebird Fade adds a pop of color thatll make heads turn.

Theyre also affordable, starting at $95, and come with one of three black-and-white lens cloths that double as pocket squares. Whats even better? For every pair you buy, a pair is donated to someone in need.

This collaboration is another success for Tyler and shows off his style skills. Now lets get to know him.

Whats your full name?

Mathew Tyler Oakley

Where can our readers find/follow you?

All over the internet, just search @tyleroakley!

#tbt to that one time a year ago when youtube put me in cute clothes for a couple days of photo shoots for billboards & commercials - pretty sure i never posted this one!! (styling by @ashleypweston) A photo posted by Tyler Oakley (@tyleroakley) on Sep 7, 2016 at 9:36pm PDT

Describe your style in 3 words.

Simple, Black, Denim

When did you first get interested in fashion?

When I had to start walking red carpets  you're forced to learn quickly.

Who is your biggest style/fashion influence?

I follow so many great gay fashion bloggers  my favorite is Justin Livingston.

What celebrity is killing the fashion game right now?

Jim Chapman is a style icon.

What is your favorite piece of clothing you own?

I have a black t-shirt from American Apparel that I love so much that I went back & bought 40 pairs.

so proud to announce my new line of glasses & sunglasses with @warbyparker!! click the link in my bio to watch the behind-the-scenes of my photoshoot for the line & check out #WPxTO to see my friends sporting their new pairs!! ?a (styled by @ashleypweston, hair by @kylekriegerhair) A photo posted by Tyler Oakley (@tyleroakley) on Nov 29, 2016 at 4:58pm PST

What is the boldest outfit youve ever worn? And where?

Probably my polkadot suit from my Warby Parker photoshoot!

Whats something you cant live without? (lifestyle related: clothes, grooming, beauty,etc.)

I love my Kiehl's Men's Oil Eliminator Deep Cleansing Exfoliating Face Wash.

Who/what is your favorite designer/brand?

I love Nicola Formichetti.

Whats an up-and-coming designer/brand you want the world to know about?

Common Culture by Connor Franta.

Whats your best style advice for our readers?

Less is more!

great night catching up with & celebrating so many incredible creators at the #Streamys. love this community. (styled by @ashleypweston, suit by @topman) A photo posted by Tyler Oakley (@tyleroakley) on Oct 4, 2016 at 7:56pm PDT

If you could kill one fashion trend right now, what would it be?

Any type of cultural appropriation.

Whats something every man should have in his wardrobe?

A basic denim jacket.

NEW VIDEO hanging out with @hillaryclinton!! LINK IN BIO!! tag a hillary fan in the comments below ??a??? A photo posted by Tyler Oakley (@tyleroakley) on Nov 7, 2016 at 11:56am PST

For a man starting to change his style game around, whats his first step?

Donate everything you barely wear. Clear out your closet!
REPORT: Whats happening to cherries?





Cherry production and cherry exports are booming in Australia and especially in Tasmania. In 2006-7 production in Tasmania was 2000 tonnes of which 300 tonnes were exported; in the 2015-6 season Tasmanian orchards are estimated to have produced 5000 tonnes of which 2994 tonnes were exported, earning AUD $52million.

China bought 650 tonnes of Tasmanian cherries, while Hong Kong took another 650 tonnes of the cherries exported from Tasmania.

A happy convergence of factors has made Tasmanias cherry farming the focus of keen interest from China:

Tasmanias late-ripening cherries are timed perfectly for sale as gifts for Chinese New Year and spring festival

Tasmanias status as pest and disease-free allows air freight export direct to mainland China

Tasmanian cherries can be delivered within 48 hours of picking whereas Chilean cherries can take as long as 48 days to reach China by sea transport

Almost every cherry orchard in Tasmania has been expanding, and production is expected at least to double again by 2020 to meet the ongoing growth in demand from beyond Australian shores.

Difficulties obtaining the best cherries here

With some growers fetching AUD $20 per kilo for first-grade cherries in China, that leaves mainly the seconds and small, first-grade cherries for the domestic market. Australians are unwilling to match the premium export prices.

Meanwhile, Australias large supermarket chains are trying to push prices downwards or subsidising consumers with special offers on cherries. Last year, growers were unhappy with offers received from supermarkets to keep prices as low as $8 per kilo.

Hungry markets need reliable suppliers

The growth in Tasmanian cherry exports is shaping a pattern of investment in cherry farms that now includes Chinese investors. Of the last six orchards sold recently in Tasmania, five have passed to Chinese owners.

Coal Valley Orchard, a company which has acquired two cherry and mixed fruit sites in the Coal River valley northeast of Hobart since 2015, is owned by a Harbin (Manchuria) businessman who has been quoted as saying that there is another substantial and untapped market in northern China with massive potential for growth.

Tasmanian irrigation could enhance cherry greenfield opportunity

Tasmania enjoys a temperate climate. It represents just 1 per cent of Australias land area but generates approximately 12 per cent of Australias water runoff (about the same as the entire Murray-Darling Basin).

However, because it experiences regular dry spells in spring, summer and autumn when evaporation exceeds rainfall, Tasmania has a long history of irrigated agriculture.

Over the past 5 years, Tasmania has created new irrigation water rights for what were once dry land farming areas. It has done so by utilising the dams that were built to generate hydro-electric power.

Even though the hydro-electricity is part of Australias national electricity grid, and forms an important green energy resource, this does not preclude the release for irrigation of the plentiful water for irrigation purposes rather than manufacturing or industrial purposes that were contemplated at the time most of Tasmanias dams were built some decades ago.

Better cultivation and labour-saving systems

Because cherries are a tree fruit, harvesting has traditionally been a labour intensive and therefore expensive operation.

However, the natural growth of fruit trees is now modified by the use of specialised trellises and electronically-controlled drip systems designed to enhance access to sunlight and protection from unsuitable weather and pests and to:

Allow the trees to fill their allocated space early

Restrict the effect of overcrowding which usually occurs with high densities

Reduce tree spacing within the rows

Encourage high early yields, and

Restrict the height of the trees to allow for ground-level harvesting.

The extra capital costs are recouped by the reduced labour costs of harvesting, the high early yields, and the ability to fine tune production for harvesting at particular times when prices are at a premium, earlier or later than the concentrated peak period of the growing season.

Investment reshaping agriculture in Tasmania

In November 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping, visited Hobart where he signed major investment agreements and witnessed the signing of a landmark memorandum of understanding for a China-Tasmania fruit industry partnership program.

The blossoming of the cherry industry in Tasmania is clearly evidence of strong progress in the implementation of the program.

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Tasman Butchers new direction





Tasman Butchers are shaking things up with a rebrand and new products targeted at the ethically-minded consumer.

The Victorian-based butchers chain has updated its logo in a way designer Harry Corsham says emphasises Tasmans brand manifesto.

The manifesto is an articulation of the core promise that Tasman Butchers will provide our community with the best meat at the best price, said Harry Corsham, Director of communications agency, Town Square.

We changed the name from Tasman Meats to Tasman Butchers but have stayed true to who Tasman Butchers is and what it values. The Tasman DNA is still at the core, it just comes with a more contemporary feel, said Harry.

At the same time as updating its logo, Tasman Butchers is now selling free range lines which Tasman Butchers Chief Executive Officer, Matt Swindells, says includes Lilydale Chickens and Flinders Lamb.

The foundations of what makes Tasman Butchers such a respected household name will remain the same, said Swindells.

Our dedication to the best produce, an equal society and our strong commitment to our communities will continue, however, our new look and feel will ensure that we stay fresh, contemporary and relevant to our discerning vendors and buyers in Victoria, he said.

Tasman Butchers is the largest independent butcher in Victoria, with 18 stores located across metropolitan Melbourne, Geelong, Shepparton, Traralgon and Bendigo. It has been in operation since 1956.

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YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. In a meeting with President of Iran Hassan Rouhani in Yerevan, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan presented the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs aimed at ensuring progress over the settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, reports Armenpress.

After the meeting with his Iranian counterpart, President Sargsyan told reporters he has presented Hassan Rouhani the steps aimed at eliminating the consequences of the Azerbaijani aggression against Nagorno Karabakh in April, 2016, as well as implementing the agreements reached at the Vienna and St. Petersburg Summits.

We highly appreciate Irans balanced stance over the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict based on in the international law, Armenias President said.

He added that at the meeting they have reaffirmed that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict cannot have a military solution and stated that any step aimed at escalating the situation and spreading instability in the region is impermissible.

Serzh Sargsyan said they have also discussed a number of urgent international issues. We have exchanged views on the implementation of historical agreements over Irans nuclear program. I am confident these will open new development horizons for Irans hard-working and creative people by boosting the cooperation in Armenia, as well as in the region. We have discussed the situation in the Middle East, the fight against terrorism and the international efforts aimed at settling the situation. In this sense the adoption of the resolution over the humanitarian situation in Aleppo by the UN Security Council is important. Of course, Armenia is first of all concerned over the security provision issue of the Armenian community in Syria and especially in Aleppo, the Armenian President said.
Top hospitality trends predicted to boom in 2017





Fermented foods, boutique coffee roasts, and Asian pancakes are some of the major hospitality trends set to boom in 2017 according to Silver Chefs latest annual Hospitality Industry Success Index report (HISI).

Exploring the Australian hospitality sector, the latest HISI report examines the biggest trends to hit Australia in 2016, as well as whats expected to be the next big thing in 2017.

Top 9 hospitality trends predicted for 2017

The reports top nine hospitality trend predictions for 2017 are as follows:

Food trucks

With new liquor licensing laws dictating that food must be served with alcohol, food trucks have become a very handy supplier indeed. With nifty setups and minimal staff (how many can fit in a truck?) you can create anything from gourmet burgers to wood fired pizzas on the go.

Smoked meats

From the heart of America comes one of this years hottest trends  smoked meat. Low-cost, easy, and accessible; smoking meat allows cheap cuts of meat to be reinvented with a delicious variety of flavours and sides.

Fermentation

Healthy AND delicious, the fermentation fad is showcasing everything from kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, pickled veggies, and kefir. Make your own in-house, or opt for one of the amazing local, artisan brands that are popping up everywhere.

Outlandish desserts

A milkshake. Topped with doughnuts. Topped with whipped cream. Topped with a chocolate bar. Topped with chocolate sauce. Topped withwhatever your imagination desires! As far as desserts trends go, this year is all about going over the top.

Multiple coffee roast options

The average Aussie coffee drinker now knows more than ever about where their coffee came from, who made it, what it tastes like, and where the proceeds go. Its very hard to roast a coffee that is good for both black and milk based drinks. So the bigger trend is offering three grinders; one for milk based coffee, one for black and one for invitational (guest roast). This showcases your business as a serious contender in the industry and your customers will love having a choice.

Night/ street markets

The countrys increasingly strict lockdown on drinking and late-night venues has caused a happy accident: the flourishing of night markets. A wonderful opportunity for the local community to gather and sell their wares, its also a booze-free, safe, and family-friendly environment to attract new visitors, too.

Asian pancakes

Peking duck pancakes have been a staple of most Chinese restaurants for years, but recently they have been stepped up to a whole new level. Everywhere from laneway eateries to modern, edgy inner-city restaurants are trying their hand at the savoury pancakes, which are cheap to make and delicious to eat.

Burgers

Once upon a time, burgers were the domain of fast food outlets or highway truck stops. Not anymore. From wagyu beef patties to freshly baked buns, the humble burger has had a major makeover in recent years. Think gourmet  and dont skimp on the truffle mayo, either.

Local artisan foods

Thanks to the Internet, home-run local businesses are cropping up everywhere. Using seasonal produce, local labour, and often innovative concepts, you can be sourcing artisan and gourmet foods made with local produce  AND support your local community.

Silver Chef provide funding for commercial restaurant and kitchen equipment. The company was established in 1986 and was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in 2005. Silver Chef operates in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

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Whats the latest on barramundi?





Such is the demand for barramundi in Australia that most of the fish described in Australia as barramundi is imported. Questions could be asked whether the barramundi on your plate actually matches the menu description, but that is another issue. This report looks at the real barramundi industry in Australia.

Although well known to coastal tribes of Australian aboriginal people, who created rock carvings depicting the fish, barramundi did not reach the average non-indigenous Australian plate until about the late 1960s.

At that time, the only barramundi available in Australia was from wild harvest, the object of a commercial in-shore gillnet fishing industry which produced mainly plate fish for the restaurant trade. The Broome area in the Kimberley in the northeast of Australia is renowned for its Broome wild barramundi.

Barramundi is a premium fish marketing name, but unlike many foods with native origins, the Australian government and the fishing industry in Australia have been slow to take advantage of international treaties that might offer greater legal protection to recognise unique Australian origins of the wild species.

Other indigenous food names have been protected, but in the case of barramundi a great deal of the fish sold in Australia as barramundi is in fact fraudulently offered.

Commercial farming of barramundi

Barramundi farming as an acquaculture industry began in Australia in the mid-1980s and is now well established with approximately 100 licenced farmers producing approximately 5,000 tonnes of product annually.

Barramundi under culture will commonly grow from a hatchery juvenile, between 50 and 100 mm in length, to a table size of 400-600 g within 12 months and to 3.0 kg within 1824 months.

Barramundi is farmed in all states of Australia except Tasmania. Most of production comes from outdoor fresh or saltwater pond operations or sea cages in North Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.

Recirculation systems, using thermal spring water or fresh water, operate mainly in southeast Queensland and the southern states.

Australias largest barramundi farm is at Humpty Doo, established in 1993 on the Adelaide River between Darwin and Kakadu. It recently expanded with the construction of a new nursery. Humpty Doo Barramundi Farm sends 30 tonnes of fish to market of which 5 tonnes are classified as plate-size.

Victoria boasts a large barramundi farming operation, Mainstream Acquaculture, near Werribee.

Established in 2004, on the site of a pristine geothermal water source, in 2007 Mainstream developed a hatchery in Townsville, Queensland capable of producing more than 5 million Barramundi fingerlings per year.

In 2012, Mainstream began construction of a hatchery in Melbourne, designed to produce more than four times the output of the Townsville facility.

Recreational fishing of barramundi

Highly prized by anglers for their good fighting ability, barramundi is also reputed to be good at avoiding fixed nets and is best caught on lines and with fishing lures.

In Australia, barramundi is used to stock suitable freshwater reservoirs for recreational angling and sport fishing which are now valuable components of the tourist industry.

These impoundment barramundi, as they are known by anglers, have grown in popularity as a catch and release fish, although some of these fisheries allow anglers to take home one fish each per day. However, a constant hazard for the fishermen is the presence of crocodiles in these waters.

Popular stocked barramundi impoundments include:

Lake Tinaroo near Cairns in the Atherton Tablelands;

Peter Faust Dam near the Whitsundays;

Teemburra Dam near Mackay;

Lake Moondarranear Mount Isa;

Lake Awoonganear Gladstone and;

Lake Monduran south of Lake Awoonga.

Another impoundment, established in 2012 with funding from the West Australian government, is Lake Kununurra, 55 kilometres long, which cuts through the picturesque gorge country of the East Kimberley. The lake was created as part of the Ord River regional irrigation scheme in 1963.

However, a government-funded stocking program which began in 2012 ended a few years later. The locals, keen to establish Kununurra as a bigger tourist destination, are examining the rate of replenishment required in order to maintain fish stocks as mature fish make their way down the lower Ord River to mate in salt water.

The future

Today, more than 2 billion people worldwide derive almost 20 per cent of their average per capita intake of animal protein from fish and a further 4 billion people with 15 per cent of such protein.

Given current population growth projections and per capita consumption of fish products, the global output of acquaculture will need to treble to 300 million tonnes by 2050.

At present, Australian producers, both fishers and farmers, face significantly greater costs than their southeast Asian counterparts due to the remoteness of many of the farming and fishing sites, as well as the stringent environmental and food safety standards placed on them by government.

The market will determine which varieties of fish are produced but the demand for barramundi in Australia will certainly continue to grow.

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A task force has been formed by the International Bar Association (IBA) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to help lawyers fight against corruption.The joint effort will develop professional conduct standards and practice guidance for lawyers involved in establishing and advising on international commercial structures and recommended actions for governments.The formation of the task force follows the London Anti-Corruption Summit which took place in May 2016 and the existing OECD-IBA Memorandum of Understanding. Under te memorandum, the parties agreed to work together on a number of areas including corporate social responsibility, competition, trade and investment, taxation, financial services and migration.Called the OECD-IBA Task Force on The Role of Lawyers and International Commercial Structures, the effort aims to takle the possibility that lawyers may be unwittingly helping clients in asset concealment or money laundering as demonstrated by the release of the Panama Papers earlier this year.It is undeniable that lawyers must play a central role in complex offshore financial transactions. To ensure that they do not unwittingly facilitate economic crime, it is imperative that lawyers ask the right questions of their clients, vet them sufficiently, understand who are to be the ultimate beneficiaries of their clients actions, and have an understanding of sovereign laws, said David Rikin.In practice, inevitably complications arise. For example, what are a law firms obligations when conflicting sovereign laws apply in cross-border transactions? Recent events have shown that existing international and professional standards may not provide sufficiently clear guidance to lawyers who handle such transactions. Recent actions also present the danger that in their anti-corruption activities, governments may ignore the need for lawyers to advise their clients in confidence, the IBA president added.For this reason the IBA has partnered with the foremost inter-governmental organisation analysing and promoting economic policies, the OECD, to create appropriate standards while, at the same time, respect the fundamental rules applicable to the profession that are a key element of the rule of law. Each organisation will bring its relevant expertise to the project.Meanwhile, Nicola Bonucci, OECD Director for Legal Affairs commented: Lawyers play a key role in our societies and the best way to ensure that they can continue to fulfil such a role is to work together on the design of good professional standards which can be used by all lawyers irrespective of their countries of origin or operation. Mere formal respect of the law is a necessary but not always sufficient condition and experts from the OECD and from the IBA will confront their point of view and work together in order to ensure that these professional standards meet the expectations of the various stakeholders. This pioneering work will not substitute or conflict with existing international and national requirements and will complement other ongoing OECD work on the role of tax intermediaries.Bonucci and Rivkins successor Martin Solc, who begins a two-year tenure as President of the IBA on 1 January 2017, will lead the task force.
So the Partner, the applicant, has asked the DIBP to withdraw the sponsorship whilst on 309 due to relationship breakdown.



* OK what is the problem here? The applicant does not want the sponsor anymore.



The DIBP has not contacted the sponsor.



* Ok why should they? DIBP are not known for good communication skills - show me a single thing where they must contact a sponsor for ANYTHING ever!!!! please show me!



Is this normal, what's the outcome?



* yes - you are no longer part of an application and therefore have no right to know anything.



The sponsor can't see the application anymore on his immi account



* because you have been withdrawn - think about it as (removed)









now read my replies to your actual words.
Quite honestly I think you would really struggle to get the evidence you'd need to accumulate for a partner visa in just three months, even if you marry. If you're married you won't need to prove you've lived together for 12 months (like defacto couples do), but you still have to provide evidence evidence of joint finances (joint bank accounts are the most straightforward way to do this) and combined lives. And the question is... is 3 months of evidence of this going to be enough for Immi? And there's no straight answer to that - it might be, it might not be. It would be a gamble, in my opinion. It's really better to be able to give them at least 6 months worth of evidence if you can. And then there's the fact that if you get a NFS condition on his tourist visa that you won't be able to apply for an onshore partner visa anyway.



I think if I were you, I'd apply for the tourist visa first. Keep in mind he's required to be a genuine tourist - he would need to be coming over with the intent to stay temporarily, see Australia, visit you, and leave. If I were you, I'd do that and see what happens. If he gets a six month tourist visa that doesn't have an NFS clause, perfect. You're golden. Open a joint bank account and start saving evidence when he gets here. While he's here, he could decide he'd like to stay, and that he therefore wants to apply for a partner visa, and you could apply toward the end of his six month tourist visa using all the evidence you've accumulated while he's here.



If on the other hand he does get a 3 month tourist visa with an NFS clause and it's clear you're going to have to do an offshore application anyway, well - honestly if I were in a similar situation I think I'd decide to err on the side of caution and apply for a Prospective Marriage Visa instead. It's more of a pain in the butt (speaking of someone who went through it) and more expensive these days, but it also has less stringent requirements for evidence than a partner visa, so it won't be a gamble like the other option might be. Do keep in mind you will have had to have met in person before you apply for it, though, so make sure you get that visit in beforehand.



Just my two cents.



You can also always have a consultation with one of the great registered migration agents that hang out on this forum to run through your best options - they are great!
G'day to all of you.

I am currently in a very frustrating situation. I am an Aussie, married with a non Australian and we have a kiddo. Mum and bub are currently in Australia with valid tourist visas, and almost 30 days ago we logged 2 different applications : i) for mum (my wife): a partner visa , ii) for bub : Australian by descent.

My wife has been granted a bridging visa , almost straight away and all hunki dori for her, but our bub has not granted anything yet and his tourist visa is going to expire very soon!!!!

My question is : what should we do????

According to the immigration website the processing time for Australian by descent is approximatelly 30 days, but what if this processing time takes a bit longer?

As far as I am concern, I have 3 options : i) pay for a visa extension, ii) go overseas with the bub without mum (he has a multi-entry visa, valid for 12 months, 3 months stay each time, she has to apply for another bridging visa if she wants to come with us, otherwise she will lose the current one...) and iii) bub overstays until the decision from the immigration.

I spoke in the phone with an immigration officer but I did not have much help... the answer of my questions was : pay for the extension... but what it will happen if the decision for Australian by descent turns up the next day after I have paid the money for the extension ?? ....maybe a "bad luck mate"?

What will happen to bub if he overstays less than 28 days after his visa has expired ? Does the 28 days "Grace period" apply in his case?

When my wife did her medical for the partner visa, the bub had to do his medical as well and he was listed under the "Partner Visa". We did not involve the kiddo with the Partner Visa, but why he had to do his medical under this Partner Visa?

Thank you very much for your time to read my thread and every ideas, thoughts, suggestions are more than welcome and much appreciated!



All the very best!

A VERY frustrated dad
@JandE, ampk: Thanks a lot buddies. Really so thankful of the help@ampk, WRussel: The visitor visa was rejected on funding grounds."You have not provided acceptable evidence that you have access to sufficient funds to cover the cost of your travel to and stay in Australia. As such, I cannot be satisfied that you intend a genuine visit to Australia as I find that the cost and duration of your stay in Australia is not consistent with your personal circumstances. As you have not demonstrated that you have access to sufficient funds to support yourself during your stay in Australia, I am also of the view that you may have significant incentive to work in Australia in breach of your visa conditions. Based on the above considerations I am not satisfied that you have a genuine intention to visit Australia temporarily for tourism purposes." All funds related documents were shown viz. my previous salary slips and bank balance and other stuff (more than $30k). She also mentioned credit card availability, students grant (>$1k/Month), availability of students loan, and some cash-amounting to $9k. We stated that she intends to stay for 2.5 months. Despite my invitation and assurance, they didn't take it into account
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian delegation led by Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan on December 21 arrived in Georgia on an official visit, press service of the Ministry told Armenpress.

After the official welcoming ceremony in Tbilisi, the private meeting between the Defense Ministers of Armenia Vigen Sargsyan and Georgia Levan Izoria was held that was followed by an extended format meeting with participation of the delegations of the two defense ministries.

During the meetings, the Armenian-Georgian military cooperation and further projects were discussed. The sides also discussed regional security issues.

The talks were ended by the signing ceremony of bilateral cooperation 2017 program between the Defense Ministries of Armenia and Georgia.

The two Defense Ministers held a joint press conference by summarizing the results of the talks.
Company sees success of its mild-hybrid technology in India as a springboard to full hybrids.

The countrys largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, plans to ramp up its hybrid game. The company recently hinted at a wider adoption of hybrid technology for its cars in the future, eventually leading to a full hybrid vehicle.

In order to meet future fuel efficiency norms, you will see a lot of hybridisation coming from Maruti Suzuki, said C. V. Raman, executive director R&D, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, on the sidelines of the unveiling of Marutis new compact crossover, the Ignis, in Mumbai.

It is evaluating the introduction of the 'Smart Hybrid Vehicle by Suzuki' or SHVS technology for more cars in the country, thanks to the encouraging response it has received for vehicles equipped with that technology.

We will definitely consider mild hybrid for further models and you will see more models coming with that technology. We look at this as a stepping stone for future hybrid technology because this step will help people to understand a full hybrid, said Raman. In fact, it is studying the possibility of offering the mild-hybrid tech on the new generation Swift, slated to be introduced in India in mid-2017.

The company, which currently offers the mild-hybrid version of the Ciaz and the Ertiga diesel, has sold over 1,00,000 units of such vehicles so far.

Interestingly, Maruti Suzuki has outlined the enhancement of capability in the field of electric vehicle/ hybrid electric vehicle as one of the points in the future plan of action in its Annual Report for 2015-16, released earlier this year.

However, Raman expressed concerns over the acquaintance of the technology amid the car buyers. He said more work needs to be done to educate people over the functioning of the technology in order to boost the acceptance and the benefits of the SHVS system.



As far as mild hybrid is concerned, we believe that we need to start the education process for our customers to see how it works. Most of the time we have seen drivers not actually understanding that regeneration will not happen if you have your foot on the clutch pedal. Similarly, when the engine shuts down, people feel there is something abnormal. We need to propagate that the system is helpful, he said.

Raman said the carmaker for now has no plans of introducing the Ignis, which is launching in January 2017, with the mild-hybrid technology. While he did not specify the reason, it could be the current duty structure which does not provide for a lower tax rate for small cars with hybrid technology. At present, small cars and hybrids, both attract a similar excise duty of 12.5 percent in India.

However, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has suggested that for electric, hybrid and other alternative fuel vehicles, the rate should be at least 8 percent less than the standard rate under the upcoming GST. If implemented, it could encourage Maruti and other auto companies to consider extending their hybrid technology to smaller cars.
The French brand has revealed the definitive version of the 2017 C3 WRC, which will first pass the start line at the 85th edition of the Monte Carlo Rally.The event will be held in January, and is one of the most difficult stages on the calendar because the racers often experience shifting weather that makes tire choices difficult.Rally fans already had an idea of how this car will look, because Citroen revealed it at the 2016 Paris Motor Show , where it was displayed as a concept. Evidently, Citroen took the general and put it on the WRC-specification car. You will observe that the WRC car has a mid-mounted single exhaust, along with different tail lights.The reveal of Citroens racing model takes place after M-Sport showed us their 2017 rally car , and Toyota has already done the same with its Yaris . Hyundai is the last manufacturer to reveal its racing model, and it is also considered by many as the favorite for the title next year because of Volkswagens departure from the sport.The strict regulations of WRC will not leave much room for surprises, so we already know that Hyundais contender will have a massive rear wing, along with other aerodynamic components.Sadly, the current regulations do not mandate for a production model that would have a similar design to the rally car (think homologation specials). If those still existed, Citroen would have been compelled to offer a tricked-out C3 for the road, and automakers like Hyundai, Toyota, and Volkswagen would have been forced to do the same.Just like its competitors, the C3 WRC comes with a 1.6-liter gasoline engine, which has a restrictor on its turbocharger. Power is similar to all competitors because of strict regulations, but the cars come with an electronic differential, which is a first for this sport. Thanks to this solution, the racing models could handle thanks to the possibility of selecting various setups.
NHTSA

Starting with the bigger of the two, the American automaker issued a recall for the 2017 F-Series Super Duty , a pickup truck that costs as much as $80,000 in its plushest specification. These workhorses are being called back to fix a missing reinforcement [that] could lead to a fuel tank strap separating from the frame. The worse case scenario is a fuel leak from the gas tank, a circumstance that could lead to a vehicle fire.8,069 vehicles are affected, i.e. 2017 Ford F-Series Super Duty trucks manufactured at the Kentucky plant from August 10 to September 17, 2016. To remedy this mess-up, Ford instructed its dealers to inspect the presence of a reinforcement bracket on the crossmember at the front of the fuel tank strap attachment. If no such bracket is found by the service technician, dealers are obliged to install one at no cost to the affected owner.The second recall announced today involves certain 2016 and 2017 Ford and Lincoln vehicles equipped with the 3.5-liter GTDI V6. To be more specific, these vehicles include the MKT , Flex, Explorer, Police Interceptor Utility, and Taurus . The problem these nameplates share comes in the form of potentially leaking turbocharger oil supply tubes due to inadequate brazing.In the presence of an ignition source , the turbocharger oil could ignite, thus increasing the risk of fire. 1,352 vehicles are affected by the said condition, most of them built at the Chicago and Oakville plants from October 15 to November 12, 2016. In the Police Interceptor Utilitys case, make that November 2, 2016. The fix, as you might think, is simple: replace the tubes.To find out if your car is affected, use thes look-up by VIN tool.
Occasionally, things go wrong, mistakes get made, and nobody notices them until something bad happens. This is the case of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway in Hawaii , which did not account for right turns in its design.The said problem with right turns is that the space that was necessary for these turns was not considered for the project, which will need an extension of the funding, along with a delay of the completion date.Right turns were not apparently considered for linking the highway to existing roads, which otherwise meet it perpendicularly. Evidently, because authorities do not want people to stomp on their brakes on the high-speed road to perform a sharp turn to the right, the road needs to be widened with curved sections to allow a safe deceleration.According to West Hawaii Today , the delays will add up to 14 months, and historic places were already affected by construction equipment, which breached 19th-century curbstone horse trails. Apparently, the problem was caused by an incorrect identification of the protected sites in the field.Before construction equipment was dispatched in the area, it appears that the historic trails were not included in the projects map that was supposed to accompany the documentation. However, they were present in the grading plan, which means that someone knew about their existence, and even accounted for it in the original project.Unfortunately, because authorities did not accurately map those historic trails, the entire project will cost more than initially intended, and long delays will exist.Furthermore, this massive oversight raises the need for an investigation to discover the responsible individuals for the mistake, which should be penalized somehow. The estimated costs of this error are in the range of $100 million, but this is just a ballpark figure.
Effective immediately, Hyundai fired U.S. head honcho Zuchowski because he failed to meet sales objectives. Thats what Automotive News claims, citing sources familiar to this sales-related mess-up. In Zuchowskis place, Hyundai Motor America higher-ups named Jerry Flannery as temporary head honcho. Until today, he filled the roles of executive vice president and general counsel.The report underlines that the automakers dealer body was informed Tuesday night of the decision. An official announcement of the whole deal is due to be made today. The more pressing question is, why did the big boys over at Hyundai Motor America resort to this apparently radical solution?I mean come on, something is amiss here. To make my point, its best to quote the titles of the latest sales reports: Hyundai Motor America reports record November sales, Hyundai Motor America delivers October sales record, and Hyundai Motor America reports record September sales.Clearly, something is off with this picture. But on the other hand, I understand what made Hyundai react so severely. From the three sales reports mentioned earlier, the U.S. arm is proud of the Tucson Santa Fe , and Santa Fe Sport.Indeed, these are all crossover SUVs, which means that small cars and sedans dont fare exactly great as far as sales are concerned. Genesis sold 1,306 units in November 2016, which is not a lot for a brand with two cars in its lineup. By comparison, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class outsold the G80 and G90 last month in the United States, with 1,475 units to its name.Whatever happened behind closed doors, we might never know. But as things are at the present moment, Hyundai Motor America has a steep hill to climb. Until 2020, the South Korean automaker plans to introduce 14 alternative-fuel models, as well as a flurry of Genesis-branded sedans and SUVs. Speaking of which, the BMW 3 Series-rivaling Genesis G70 sedan will look gorgeous!Hyundai Motor America confirmed the news and, as expected, didn't say a word on why Zuchowski was fired just before Christmas.
The second high-riding model coming from Sant'Agata Bolognese is set to enter production in 2018, a year that will mark one decade from the moment when Lamborghini introduced the Estoque concept. The four-door coupe one-off could easily eat the Urus alive in terms of the looks and yet the perspective of Lamborghini showrooms accomodating a four-door coupe seems as distant as it has been over the past couple of years.So, in order to quench our thirst for such a Raging Bull, we've brought along a rendering that transforms the Aventador S we met online earlier this week into a four-door coupe.The pixel arrangement, which comes from digital artist X-Tomi , gifts the 740 hp Aventador with a pair of suicide doors.Given the popularity of the Mazda RX-8 and its emission-forced demise, it's difficult not to think of the Japanese sportscar name when mentioning such a door layout.And there's no issue with connecting the rotary-animated Mazda to the V12 Raging Bull , especially since the extra doors were one of the top assets of the Japanese model.Returning to the Aventador rendered here, the Italian automaker's range has been crying to a Grand Tourer return for longer than we can remember and a proposal such as the one we have here could fill the GT shoes with might.Nevertheless, the visibility of the Aventador would have to be improved for the machine to become a ture GT, while its city traffic-hating ISR single-clutch transmission is another area that would require serious changes for such a coziness-focused role. But this tech discussion is another story for another time.
The first Veneno had red accents and went to Antoine Dominic, owner of Lamborghini Long Island. The second went to Kris Singh, whose 4-million-dollar 750-hp masterpiece was delivered with green pinstriping. There's a rumor that says Singh also owns the acid green Veneno Roadster.Unfortunately, nobody knows who bought the third car, and it will probably stay like that. However, we can definitely identify this as the Veneno prototype Lamborghini owns.So what's it doing in London? Well, the Veneno made its maiden trip to Britain because HR Owen Lamborghini London was the number one dealership in Europe this year. In place of a Christmas tree or a bonus, the Italians shipped their precious toy. Word got out beforehand, and people flocked to the scene to check out the car.We have a video from Shmee150, who didn't miss the opportunity to pimp out his Ford Focus RS and Aston Martin. So half the vlog is useless and annoying. The rest of it... is about an exotic car you saw several years ago.My obsession with the Veneno is never going to go away because while everybody called it ugly, I was defending the Audi R18 styling. How can you like a fin that goes over the middle of a V12 engine?The styling is undoubtedly more uniform than on some hypers that are out there, especially Koenigsegg Agera. Lamborghini built several other rarities, like the Egoista Asterion , and Centenario . But people barely talk about them.Your typical Veneno owner has a yacht, a helicopter and a fleet of vehicles. But who needs 400 cars when you can have something that looks this good. Did we mention it's got the same engine as the Aventador SV and will do 0 to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds? Of course, nobody has ever driven one to the limit and there are no reviews... if you ignore the ones in Gran Turismo 6.
Honda and Motul, who already have various agreements with other teams and disciplines, are to strengthen their partnership with Monster Energy Honda Team for next year's Dakar race.Motul was there to help Honda in its comeback to the Dakar Rally after a twenty-three-year absence from the legendary race that puts both man and machine through their limits over every imaginable terrain type.The internationally renowned French lubricant maker will be backing the official Honda factory team for the fifth consecutive time now as part of a reciprocally beneficial relationship.With top products including 300V Factory Line lubricants, coolants, brake fluids, chain cleaners, additives and fork lubricants, Motul offers a wide-range of products which will protect and safeguard the Honda CRF450 Rally bike and the Monster Energy Honda Team throughout all competitions.In the toughest of all motorcycle races, that being the Dakar Rally, Motul will likewise be present in the bivouac with a wide variety of products for riders and mechanics, who will also benefit from the brand's technical specialists.Monster Energy Honda Team will compete with 2017 CRF450 RALLY factory machines updated through last season's experiences, ridden by Joan Barreda (Spain), Paulo Goncalves (Portugal), Michael Metge (France) and Kevin Benavides (Argentina) joining from Honda South America Rally Team.The Dakar Rally 2017 gets underway on 2nd January 2017 from Asuncion, Paraguay, with a 9000 kilometer journey going through Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay, after which it will conclude back in Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires two weeks later. On route riders and crew will get a day off in La Paz, Bolivia on Sunday 8th January.Hondas Motorsports website will be featuring video reports and articles throughout the Dakar Rally.
The latest discussion was started in Italy, where Sergio Marchionne spoke to the journalists of La Repubblica . Among other discussions, the Alfa Romeo name was put on the table, and Formula 1 was mentioned yet again.This time, instead of simply talking about considering Alfa Romeos return to Formula 1, Mr. Marchionne spoke about possible development directions for the team.Instead of challenging Ferrari, another brand owned by the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles group, but turned into a separate entity, the Alfa Romeo team would have a different role in Formula 1.According to Marchionne , the team could become a proving ground for F1 juniors. A reference was made to the Italian driver Antonio Giovinazzi, who will undertake a third driver role for the 2017 season at Scuderia Ferrari.Giovinazzi would be the first Italian driver in many years to sign a deal with Ferrari. The last Italian to race a Ferrari in Formula 1 was Giancarlo Fisichella, who stood in for Felipe Massa in 2009, after the Brazilians injury.The discussed Formula One entry for Alfa Romeo could bring more Italian drivers in Formula 1, as long as they prove talented enough to get a chance at the most expensive division of motorsport.It is unclear whether Mr. Marchionne wants to focus on promoting junior Italian drivers, such as Antonio Giovinazzi, or if the intentions with the said Alfa Romeo team for Formula 1 will go further. While Alfa Romeo is an Italian brand to its core, it would be slightly discriminatory just to choose drivers because they are born in the same country.Since Mr. Marchionne leads a multi-national consortium between an American and an Italian corporation, one could never suspect the FCAs chairman of such discrimination.Instead, if the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ever comes back under Sergios rain, the drivers could be chosen on their talent, which might do some good for the brand, along with the benefits brought to the sport
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. At the invitation of Armenias President Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani arrived in Armenia on an official visit on December 21 accompanied by high-ranking delegation, press service of the Presidential administration told Armenpress.

Within the framework of the visit, Hassan Rouhani had a meeting with President Serzh Sargsyan and Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan.

During the talks the two Presidents exchanged views on political, economic, cultural, regional and international issues. The sides assessed the Iranian Presidents visit to Armenia as an important step aimed at expanding the bilateral ties. They also reaffirmed their commitment to further expand those ties.

The two Presidents attached importance to the activity of the joint inter-governmental commission of the two states, in particular, the agreements reached at the sessions of the joint inter-governmental commission in Yerevan on December 22-24, 2015 and in Tehran on December 4-5, 2016.

They have underlined the necessity to implement those agreements in terms of increasing the trade turnover volumes, developing infrastructures, raising the level of cooperation in energy, transportation, communication, industry and other sectors.

They also attached importance to the inter-parliamentary cooperation which always contributed to the development of Armenia-Iran friendly ties.

They both stressed the importance of expanding and developing the transportation capabilities of Armenia and Iran. In this context the Presidents emphasized the necessity on using the international transportation and transit routes connecting the Persian Gulf with the Black Sea through the territories of Armenia and Iran within the framework of North-South international corridor.

They attached importance to the implementation of economic, transportation, scientific-technological, humanitarian projects, the expansion of bilateral and multilateral cooperation in gas and energy sector, as well as the increase in the volumes of gas supplied to Armenia from Iran.

The sides appreciated the ongoing talks between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union over trade agreement with privileged conditions and in this context Armenias assistance. The two Presidents welcomed the elimination of visa regime between the two states aimed at expanding the business ties, boosting economic and investment cooperation, as well as tourism.

Referring to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the two Presidents stated that this conflict must be settled through peaceful means based on the UN Charter, the fundamental norms and principles of the international law.

The leaders of the two states attached importance to the implementation of provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty.

As for Syria, they highlighted the need of quick establishment of peace, prevention of further increase of humanitarian issues.

Coming to international terrorism, the two Presidents expressed their readiness to jointly fight against such threats.

Irans President Hassan Rouhani invited Serzh Sargsyan to visit Iran, and the Armenian President thanked for the invitation.

As a result of discussions and talks held within the framework of Rouhanis visit to Armenia, the a number of documents were signed.
Boeing and Saab flew their T-X trainer for the first time on Tuesday and officially entered the race to provide the Air Force with its next generation training platform. The single-engine twin-tailed jet took off from Boeings facility in St. Louis for a flight that lasted 55 minutes and covered basic flight characteristics. Boeing lead test pilot Steve Schmidt was joined by Chief Pilot for Air Force Programs Dan Draeger, who was in the rear instructor seat. The aircraft met all expectations, said Schmidt. Its well designed and offers superior handling characteristics. The cockpit is intuitive, spacious and adjustable, so everything is within easy reach. Draeger said his back seat view was ideal. I had a great all-around view throughout the flight from the instructors seat, which is critical during training, he said.

The Boeing/Saab offering is the third official entrant to a competition that hasnt even been officially approved. The Air Force needs a replacement for the 60-year-old T-38, which cant teach all of the skills the pilots of F-35s and F-22s need. The Air Force has put off the procurement repeatedly but it will happen eventually. When it does, there will be at least five contenders besides the T-X. Lockheed Martin, Korean Airspace Industries, Northrop Grumman and Textron Airland are all in the hunt.
As 2016 stumbles to the finish line, it will close with one dubious achievement: A record number of U.S. companies have been bought by foreign investors and leading the charge is China. According to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., just three years ago, Chinese interests acquired 43 companies. In 2015, the total was 103, according to the Rhodium Group, which tracks such things.

For 2016, China interests invested $40 billion by the first quarter alone, more than twice the total for all of 2015. This weeksannouncement that Chinas Wanfeng Auto Holding Group bought a controlling share in Diamond Aircraft Industries in London, Ontario, makes us recall that the U.S. general aviation industry is dominated by Chinese holdings.

Lets review: In 2010, Chinas AVIC International bought Continental Motors for $186 million; Superior Airparts, a major PMA supplier, was bought later that same year by a Chinese technology group; Cirrus was bought by Chinas Aviation Industry General Aircraft in 2011 for $210 million; a private investment consortium including the Meijing Group bought Mooney in 2013 for an undisclosed amount; the bankrupt Thielert Aircraft Engines was bought by Continental Motors and became Chinese-owned in 2013; in May of 2015, Continental scooped up Danbury Aerospace, the parent of Engine Components International, a major PMA house; in 2012, Glasair Aviation was bought by Fang Tieji, chairman of Hanxing Group Ltd.

This doesnt count Chinese investment in U.S. aviation companies that arent admitting it, nor does it include the major joint ventures such as GEs partnering with AVIC and Airbus manufacturing position in China. Diamond manufactures in China, too. Some deals have gotten away for security and regulatory reasons. China sniffed around Hawker Beechcraft, for example, but that deal collapsed. So, Im sure, have lesser deals we havent heard about.

Whats one to think of all this? The first thought is this: The Chinese have drawn a bright line between what industries they think represent the future and what U.S. investors believe in. Chinas economyis centrally planned and the last five-year plan, the 12th, emphasized infrastructure, including aviation. Chinas Xi Jinping has been quoted as saying certain industriestechnology, information systems, aviation, alternative energyrepresent the high ground of the 21st century.

I dont know about you, but I cant think of anyone whos saying general aviation is a high-ground industry in the U.S. Its closer to a sunset than a green shoot. Its different in China. Aviation at all levels there is emerging and even if its not growing as fast as many in the U.S. hoped it would when they developed their China plans a decade ago, the potential remains. Westerners working in the Chinese-acquired companies have told me the Chinese have a long view and realize that building a general aviation infrastructure will take years and billions of yuan. And if they buy it at fire sale prices from a countrythat would be us more interested in short-term gains from credit default swaps and securitized mortgages, why wouldnt they? To me, its just about that simple. I dont have much animus for the companies that sell because I know most have tried other options to raise capital.

Even ahead of the recently concluded election, the political class has expressed some alarm at the level of Chinese investment. Once 2016s numbers are tallied, expect to hear a sustained howl. The incoming administration has made a campaign touchpoint of both containing China and tilting toward protectionist economic and industrial policy. That means the next year four years are going to get interesting.

Recall that Cirrus shopped the company for several years before the Chinese stepped up. Western and even Middle Eastern investors were evidently looking for a bigger return than Cirrus could ever deliver. Same applies to Mooney. If the Chinese ATM hadnt disgorged, do you think Cirrus could have completed its jet project or Mooney would have embarked on a factory remodel and the new M10 trainers? Both of those projects, Ill point out, created jobs in the U.S., even if theres no guarantee theyll stay here. Also, note that Diamond says it will review its suspended D-jet program following the new investment.

Well now see if new U.S. economic policy can entice onshore capital to invest in industrial expansion more widely, including aviation.Im all for limiting foreign investment in sensitive areas of the economy where it could erode key U.S. strengths and competitiveness, but if protectionist policy squeezes investment dollars, wheres the money going to come from? I doubt if the government will be investing, so that leaves commercial and private capital which, heretofore, has viewed little airplane projects as the cute money pits they often are. Its no stretch to say Chinese investment, palatable or not, has been instrumental in keeping GA manufacturing alive in the U.S. On the commerical side, in September, Boeing said China will buy more than 6800 aircraft during the next 20 years. Thats more than $1 trillion in business.

And that leads to the full-circle portion of todays commentary. Remember the mid-1980s when we were all freaking out because the Japanese were buying U.S. real estate? It was quite the panic. Then the bubble burst and the Japanese lost their kimonos. Thats another way of saying just because certain investors see GA as a poor risk, doesnt mean theyre wrong. The Chinese are buying airplane companies for reasons other than handsome P&Ls. Our kids will get to see if the long game pays off, if they even care enough about airplanes by then to notice.
Iran will increase exports of natural gas to Armenia and deepen broader economic ties with its Christian neighbor, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said during an official visit to Yerevan on Wednesday.

Rouhani also called for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after talks with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian. The latter again praised Tehrans balanced stance on the unresolved conflict.

We consider the Republic of Armenia a friendly country and want to make our bilateral relations even warmer and closer, Rouhani said in his opening remarks at the talks. Our countries belong to the same culture and civilization. Relations between our peoples have always been cordial and friendly.

In an ensuing joint statement, the Armenian and Iranian presidents said they reaffirmed their determination to further expand bilateral relations. They singled out joint energy projects planned or already implemented by the two neighboring states.

We must do everything to utilize the full potential of Armenian-Iranian relations in the coming months and years, Rouhani told a joint news briefing with Sarkisian. We currently have good relations in the energy sector but have decided in the course of this visit to further develop cooperation in this area.

In particular, he said, the two sides agreed to increase Iranian gas supplies to Armenia. Iran will also serve as a transit route for Armenias gas imports from Turkmenistan, added the Iranian leader. He did not specify the volume of additional gas supplies sought by Yerevan.

Armenia currently imports up to 500 million cubic meters of Iranian gas annually through a pipeline built in 2008. By comparison, its gas imports from Russia total around 2 billion cubic meters.

The Armenian government signaled plans to buy more gas from Iran earlier this year. A government delegation met with representatives of Irans National Iranian Gas Export Company for that purpose in Tehran on October 31 and November 1.

Armenia has until now paid for Iranian gas with electricity delivered to the Islamic Republic. This swap arrangement is due to be expanded significantly after the construction of a third transmission line connecting the Armenian and Iranian power grids. It is slated for completion by 2019.

Sarkisian and Rouhani stressed the importance of the new line in their joint communique. The statement also reaffirmed Yerevans strong support for the signing of a free-trade deal between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union, a Russian-led trade bloc which Armenia joined two years ago.

One of the five Armenian-Iranian agreements signed during Rouhanis visit calls for a joint use of the sole border crossing between the two countries. It was not immediately clear whether this has to do with a free economic zone which is expected to be created along Armenias border with Iran. Armenian officials have said that Iranian entrepreneurs will be able to set up manufacturing firms in the tax-free zone.

Rouhani and Sarkisian also discussed regional security -- and the Karabakh conflict in particular -- at their meeting held before the two men opened an Armenian-Iranian business forum in Yerevan.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are our partners and we hope that it will be possible to achieve a lasting peace in Karabakh through negotiations, Rouhani told the press. Such a peace is in the interests of all regional states. There is definitely no military path to achieving peace.

We highly appraise Irans balanced position on the solely peaceful resolution of the Karabakh problem based on international law, Sarkisian said for his part. We reaffirmed that there can be no military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and emphasized the inadmissibility of any action aimed at spreading tension and instability in the region.
21 December 2016 11:20 (UTC+04:00)

The Armenian armed units shattered ceasefire with Azerbaijan a total of 43 times throughout the day, Azerbaijan`s Defense Ministry reported on December 21.

The Armenian armed forces, stationed in Armenia`s Parakavar, Azatamut villages and nameless hills in Ijevan district, Voskevan village in Noyemberyan district and nameless hills in Krasnoselsk district subjected to fire the positions of the Azerbaijani armed forces located in Gushchu Ayrim and Jafarli villages in Gazakh district, Kohnegishlag village in Aghstafa district and nameless hills in Gadabay district.

The ceasefire was also violated in Chilaburt village in Tartar district, Garakhanbayli, Ashagi Veyselli, Ashagi Seyidahmadli and Horadiz villages in Fuzuli district, Javahirli, Shurabad and Yusifjanli villages in Aghdam district as well as nameless hills in Goranboy, Tartar, Fuzuli and Jabrayil districts.

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 resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of 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 tension high in the region.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
21 December 2016 15:34 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

No matter how many churches the Armenian government builds in the country the number of believers do not increase in Armenia. On the contrary, more and more Armenians turn away from the Church and head to sects which are also in great diversity in the country.

This is evident from the recent study of the Center for rehabilitation of victims of destructive cults. The survey gave disappointing and even frightening results. It turned out that almost a third of the Armenian population is adherents of the Armenian Church just in words  they prefer various sects and cults in practice.

Approximately 350,000 people are involved in sects in small Armenia, while 250,000 of them are followers of destructive sectarian organizations, the head of the Center, Alexander Amaryan, told reporters. He noted that 54 of 65 religious organizations registered in the country are sects. Moreover, over 200 sectarian organizations operate in Armenia illegally, without registration.

This means that most of the adult population of Armenia is somehow involved in sectarian activities. Amaryan admitted that there are settlements in Armenia with population entirely attending sects.

The case is no more surprising in Armenia as the Armenian Church is a political, economic and criminal structure, but not a spiritual one. The Church does not imply any holiness for the population anymore.

Moreover, there are enough facts that the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and his relatives are actively involved in the robbery of the wealth of Armenia, and lead dissolute and immoral life.

In this context, it is noteworthy to mention the interview of an Armenian web designer Momik Vardanyan to Epress.am.

Vardanyan said that he once joined seminary because of despair, but then left it. I'm from a small town of Sisian, I didnt have money to enter somewhere else, he said.

However, the life of ordinary priests is not that nice. They are dissatisfied with their lives  they have just a minimum of food and shelter, Vardanyan said.

He also spoke about the Armenian Catholicos, saying that he sends priests who can easily negotiate with oligarchs to the events where the Armenian Church has chances to gather additional money to its budget.

Poor Armenian citizens are annoyed by too big privileges the government gives for the Armenian Church. The churches are not taxed, priests at military units get salaries more than military officers, etc.

Moreover, the number of churches in Armenia actively grow even in areas where they are not needed at all. There are not enough schools, kindergartens, basic housing for the poor in Armenia, while the government constantly builds new churches.

The main reason of such godliness of the Armenian government is its favorite business  laundering of money. The last year story about more than one million dollars that were found at the Catholicos Karekins account in a Switch bank also shows the dishonesty of the Armenian Church.

In this context, the fact that more and more Armenians join sects seems logical  they trust neither the government nor the Church. in such situation, the Armenian society may soon become totally covered with sects and covered with destructive sectarian ideas.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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21 December 2016 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijan intends to achieve a significant GDP growth through the implementation of measures envisaged in the Strategic Road Map for the development of heavy industry and machinery.

The country plans to create some 7,700 new working places and increase its GDP by 1.56 billion manats ($0.89 billion) until 2020.

A lions share of growth (1 billion manats ($ 0.57)) is planned to be achieved through the development of mining industry and metallurgy, while some 250 million ($142.6) will be provided by the enhancement of efficiency in the sector.

The Road Map comprises short-term (until 2020), medium-term (until 2025) and long-term measures (post 2025) to be implemented in the sphere. Investments worth 2.9 billion manats ($ 1.65) will be required to implement measures envisaged in the document with some 2 billion manats (1.14 billion) falling to a share of mining industry and metallurgy.

Moreover, the document also covers creation of joint ventures in the defense industry sector in 2017-2018.

Some three strategic objectives were defined in the document to provide diversification of the economy by means of development in non-oil sector. The objectives include optimization of asset utilization, creation of competitive sector and provision of financial assistance, as well as implementation of international cooperation.

The resource-rich country also intends to revive the sphere of petroleum engineering to strengthen its industrial potential, improve the business environment, promote export and minimize dependence on import.

Musa Suleymanov, Chairman of the board in B.Sardarov Machine Building Plant earlier told Trend that the country possesses wide opportunities to restore its positions in the sphere of petroleum engineering. He mentioned that projects to be implemented in the Caspian basin and their economic efficiency necessitate urgent actions in this direction.

Talking about main objectives in the sphere, Suleymanov said that the measures should be taken to prevent brain drain and to return qualified staff to the country, minimize expenditures on the purchase of oil-field equipment, used by SOCAR and other oil companies, thus preventing outflow of currency from the country, create new working places, and develop allied fields.

He further said that the countries of the Caspian region are expected to invest some $1.56 trillion in the developing of fields in the Caspian region, while some $150 billion falls to a share of Azerbaijan.

The total volume of oil and gas resources of the Caspian are estimated at 335 billion barrels of oil and 105 trillion cubic meters of gas according to British Petroleum estimates.

The gross market value of the resources given the current prices amounts to some $24 trillion.

Suleymanov said that the gross market value will stand at $150 billion, should the countries realize some 10 percent of investments to be made in the Caspian Basin.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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21 December 2016 10:17 (UTC+04:00)

Baku will host the 6th meeting of economy ministers of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council).

The Azerbaijani Economy Ministry reported that the meeting will be attended by more than 50 representatives from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

During the meeting, a report of the working group will be presented, as well as the opportunities to expand economic cooperation among Turkic speaking states will be discussed.

The Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) was established in 2009 as an international intergovernmental organization, with the overarching aim of promoting comprehensive cooperation among Turkic Speaking States.

Its four founding member States are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey.

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21 December 2016 11:07 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

The main participants of the export market of agricultural products in Azerbaijan are about 110 entrepreneurs, and only six of them provide more than 50 percent of total exports.



This conclusion is based on the results of a joint research conducted by the Agriculture Ministry and the FAO held in late 2015 and early 2016.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture Seyfaddin Talibov announced about this during the presentation of the e-trade portal azexport.az in Baku on December 20.

The reason of such a low rate of business involvement in the export operations, according to the deputy minister, is a lack of awareness.

"We believe that creation of the e-trade portal will help to increase export potential and can turn into a very good user mechanism for entrepreneurs. Recently very serious work was carried out to enhance the export potential of the agricultural sector. Over the past 15 years, the export potential of the country's agricultural sector has grown approximately by five times, in 10 years by 56 percent and over five years, the growth amounted to 30 percent," he said.

Talibov is sure that the current figures do not correspond to the existing potential of the country. We can see that about 90 percent of the export potential falls to the Russian market, what is due to the high quality of the Azerbaijani agricultural products," the deputy minister said.

Experts believe that with the further development of production of high quality agricultural goods, Azerbaijan will be able not only increase the supply to neighboring countries, but also enter markets in Eastern Europe.

As for the azexport.az portal, Talibov noted that the technical possibilities of the portal contribute to the formation of logistics infrastructure and create important environment for rapid and adequate response of the entrepreneurs to the processes occurring in the world.

He agreed that the portal will eliminate the most basic challenges currently facing the business such as the low level of logistics and the high level of producer prices.

The agricultural sector is of significant importance for Azerbaijan, which is keen to diminish its dependence on the oil sector. Azerbaijan, being engaged in increasing its export potential and boosting and protecting the population's food security, sees the agricultural sector as a central direction in a bid to diversify the national economy.

The goal of azexport.az, managed by the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication is to provide information about products of Azerbaijani origin and becoming the beneficial platform for their sales in foreign and domestic markets.

Azexport.az, integrating with the most popular electronic trading networks of Azerbaijan makes the products available to potential buyers from anywhere in the world.

To carry out this mission, the leading global and local transport and logistics companies integrated into azexport.az. The portal offers fast and secure payment to VISA, Master Card and American Express cards owners.

Regularly updated, easy-to-use, affordable, safe, fast and convenient portal makes the national brand "Made in Azerbaijan" closer to everybody.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. At the conclusion of the Armenian-Iranian negotiations, which took place at the Presidential Palace, the Armenian and Iranian Presidents signed documents aimed at deepening the cooperation between Armenia and Iran in a number of sectors, press service of the Presidential administration told Armenpress.

In particular, the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and the Ministry of Sport and Youth of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Field of Sport, Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Armenia and the Ministry of Interior of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the Cooperation in the Field of Emergency Situations, Memorandum of Understanding between the History Museum of Armenia and the National Museum of Iran on Museum Cooperation, and Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Tourism between the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments of the Republic of Armenia and Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the Joint Use of Meghri and Nurdooz Land Border Gate were signed. The sides also adopted a Joint Statement.

The Presidents of Armenia and Iran summarized the results of the negotiations in the statements they made for the representatives of the mass media.

***

Statement of President Serzh Sargsyan for the mass media in the wake of the meeting with the President of Iran Hassan Rouhani

Distinguished Mr. President,



Esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen,



It is a great honor to host in Armenia the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran and my good colleague, Doctor Hassan Rouhani.

It would be impossible to explicate the entire depth and scope of the Armenian-Iranian relations describing them as solely friendly. There are only few nations who were destined for millennia to walk down the crossroads of history side by side and today too continue to work closely together, holding in high esteem each others cultures.

Armenia, and I am confident Iran too, is interested to further strengthen and develop friendly relations anchored in the traditionally rich ties. It is testified to by the high level of our relations with Iran after Armenias independence, joint programs, dynamic reciprocal visits and, of course, the present visit of my esteem colleague, His Excellency Mr. Hassan Rouhani to our country. There is no doubt that the documents to be signed today and agreements which we have reached will give a new impetus and elevate the Armenian-Iranian cooperation to a qualitatively new level.

Today, we have held comprehensive and substantial discussions on different issues of the bilateral agenda; we have reiterated our commitment to the joint implementation of the development programs, stressed the importance of holding regular political consultations, discussed issues related to the development of cooperation in the areas of trade and economy, energy, transport, agriculture, education, healthcare, culture, ecology and tourism, and enhancement of contacts between the business circles. With the Honorable Mr. President, we have also referred to the process of implementation of the agreements reached at the 14th session of the intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation.

I express deep gratitude to my colleague for the distinctly respectful and thoughtful attention of Iran towards the Armenian cultural heritage, as well as traditionally caring attitude towards the Armenian community of Iran.

As a result of the agreement reached by the Republic of Armenia and Islamic Republic of Iran the swaps of natural gas and electrical energy between us continue. Taking into consideration the necessity to provide for the necessary volumes, which stems from the mentioned above swaps and quadripartite agreements reached in Yerevan, we have also spoken about the use of the Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Russia energy corridor.

We have also exchanged views on the program related to the establishment of a Persian Gulf-Black Sea transport and transit corridor, which will facilitate the transportation of international cargo, will provide the opportunity for the Iranian goods to enter the European market at the minimal transportation cost, as well as will allow to use it as a transit route for cargos from other countries. This will be not only the shortest and the safest passage via Armenia for the Iranian vehicles but will also become a very serious impulse for the growth of the turnover between our countries.

We have also exchanged views on the regional integration processes and stressed the importance of the opportunities for cooperation which are provided by Armenias membership to the Eurasia Economic Area.

The works on the improvement of the business climate and investment regulations for the businesses of the two countries are in progress. With this regard, I would like to stress in particular the importance of the visa free regime for the citizens of our countries. I am confident that mutual recognition of our two nations will also promote the deepening of the trade and economic ties.

With this regard, I am very glad that today concurrently with the visit there will take place a large business forum in Yerevan.

At the meeting, we have certainly discussed pressing regional and international issues. We have exchanged views on the implementation of the historic agreements on Irans nuclear program. I am confident that they will open new horizons for the hardworking and creative people of Iran and will become a new stimulus for the invigoration of our bilateral as well as a wider regional cooperation.

We have discussed the situation in the Middle East, fight against terrorism and international efforts aimed at the resolution of the situation. With this regard, the resolution adopted two days ago by the UN Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Aleppo is important. There is no doubt that Armenia is first of all concerned with the safety of the Armenian community in Syria, particularly in Aleppo.

As always, this time too I have presented to my distinguished colleague the efforts of Armenia and the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group aimed at moving forward the process for finding a peaceful resolution for the Nagorno Karabakh problem, agreements reached at the summits in Vienna and Saint Petersburg and aimed at the elimination of the consequences of Azerbaijans aggression against Artsakh in April.

We highly value Irans balanced position on the resolution of the NK problem through the exclusively peaceful means, based on international law. We have reiterated that the Nagorno Karabakh problem has no military solution and stressed the inadmissibility of any step meant to escalate the situation in the region and surge of instability.

We agreed with my colleague to continue with this good tradition of having high level meetings.

I thanked the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the invitation to visit Iran next year and said that I would certainly come with pleasure because our relations are simply compelling. Thank you very much.
21 December 2016 10:38 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

The World Banks Board of Executive Directors approved a $400 million loan for Turkey and a $400 million loan for Azerbaijan for the implementation of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) Project.

We are very pleased to be part of a coalition of partners supporting TANAP, a component of the transformational Southern Gas Corridor, which will bring natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe. said Cyril Muller, World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia..

Muller stressed that TANAP will not only boost competitiveness and create economic opportunities for people in Azerbaijan and Turkey, it will also support regional trade, improve connectivity, and support energy security in Turkey and in Europe.

The recipients of funding are the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Closed Joint Stock Company with the guarantee of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Boru Hatlari Ile Petrol Tasima Anonim Sirketi (BOTAS) with the guarantee of the Republic of Turkey.

The WB Project will finance infrastructure investments for the TANAP Pipeline System.

TANAP project, which is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, will transport natural gas from a gas field in Azerbaijan to and across Turkey, and further to Europe, aiming to diversify Azerbaijans gas export markets and improve the security of the energy supply in Turkey and South Eastern Europe.

Given the importance of the SGC for all countries involved, the project enjoys support of a number of international financial institutions, including the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the World Bank Group (WBG).

The Shah Deniz 2 gas field is being developed to produce 16 bcm per year and the revenues that will be generated from gas production and transportation will be very important for Azerbaijan and its citizens.

The project will contribute to achieving the strategic objectives of the Banks partnership with Azerbaijan, in particular, supporting stronger economic competitiveness, by integrating Azerbaijan with regional and European energy markets, strengthening its connectivity and transit role, and increasing its exports.

The construction process of TANAP is currently on track, while the project is completed by almost 55 percent. Some 19 underground passages have so far been built as part of the project.

TANAP shareholders are Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR (58 percent), BOTAS (30 percent) and BP (12 percent).

Azerbaijan became a WB member in 1992. As of September 2016, the Bank allocated loans to the country worth $3.99 billion, while the funds were used to finance more than 70 projects.

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21 December 2016 12:27 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijans state oil fund SOFAZ, which accumulates and manages oil and gas revenues of the country, may get technical assistance from the World Bank (WB).

The sides discussed the issue during the meeting of the Multi-stakeholder Group (MSG) on implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Azerbaijan on December 20. The assistance is expected to cover the use of EITI Mainstreaming mechanism within the implementation of the initiative.

Other issues on Agenda included 2015 EITI Report, the EITI Boards decision and corrective actions for Azerbaijan, EITI Terms of Reference, as well as implementation status of Work Plan for the current year, defining the objectives of the 2017 Work Plan and agreement of the policy on the access, release and MSG policy on the re-use of EITI data. The World Bank team held a workshop for the MSG members on EITI Mainstreaming mechanism.

EITI is a special multilateral and voluntary initiative, supported by a coalition of companies, governments, investors and civil society organizations and global standard for improved transparency in the oil, gas and mining sector.

Azerbaijan, joining EITI in 2003, received the "2009 EITI Award" for its commitment to EITI principles and criteria and achievements in its implementation.

In April 2015, Azerbaijans EITI status was downgraded from compliant to candidate. The international EITI Board took the decision at its meeting in Brazzaville, Congo following the EITI Validation Report.

The Candidate status was maintained in the 35th EITI Board Meeting held in Astana, Kazakhstan on October 24-26, 2016. The EITI Board agreed that Azerbaijan had made meaningful progress with implementing the EITI Standard with considerable improvements across several requirements compared to the first Validation in 2015.

Azerbaijan joined the WB in 1992. The bank has allocated more than $1.85 billion for implementation of various projects since the beginning of its cooperation with Azerbaijan.

Assets of SOFAZ as of October 1 stood at $35.82 billion, with some $33.95 billion accounting for the investment portfolio and 1.87 billion falling to a share of manat account. The Fund plans to increase its assets by $1 billion in 2017.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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21 December 2016 12:53 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

A total of 13 state properties were sold on December 20 at the auction for privatization of state objects in Azerbaijan.

The auction was held by Azerbaijan's State Committee on Property Issues. The privatized state objects included three small enterprises and facilities, seven non-residential areas, and three vehicles.

One of the privatized small facilities is located in Baku, while other two are in Tartar and Zagatala regions. As for the non-residential areas, five are in Baku, and two others are located in Agjabadi and Oghuz regions.

The most expensive out of the privatized objects was a pavilion in the Nasimi district of Baku  it was sold for $140,000.

The Committee informed that the next auction will be held on December 27. It will involve 115 state objects, which are 24 joint stock companies, 57 non-residential areas, 24 small enterprises and facilities, as well as 10 vehicles.

The list of these object is available at http://www.privatization.az/index.php/az/component/content/article?layout=edit&id=1032

The third stage of privatization in Azerbaijan started in the framework of the presidential decree dated May 19, 2016. Under the decree, the acceleration of the state property privatization process has been defined as an important direction of the economic policy.

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.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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21 December 2016 13:06 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

The Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) intends to boost mutual trade between the member countries as the current level is far below the existing potential.

Azerbaijans Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev said that the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkic Council states amounted to $1.9 billion in January-October 2016, with some $1 billion accounting for imports, and $900,000 accounted for exports from Azerbaijan.

Speaking at the 6th meeting of economy ministers of the Council on December 21, Mustafayev said that the share of the Turkic Council countries in the total trade turnover of Azerbaijan amounted to 14 percent, while the share of these countries accounted for 13 percent in the exports from Azerbaijan and 15 percent in the imports. He said that more than 2,700 companies from Turkic Council member countries are registered in Azerbaijan.

As for the influence of global economic slowdown to the trade turnover between the countries, Mustafayev said that the processes taking place in the global economy influenced trade relations.

Decrease is observed in the trade turnover between our countries as a result of the global economic processes. However, despite this fact, we have great opportunities to increase mutual trade. Therefore, I propose to analyze the range of products our countries sell. For example, if the goods imported by Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are present in the list of products exported by Azerbaijan, these countries could import these goods directly from Azerbaijan and vice versa, said the minister. He underlined that the issue will become one of the topics of discussion between Azerbaijan and Turkey and invited Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to join in as well.

Talking about the legal base for cooperation Mustafayev said that the countries have already signed MoU in the areas of investment promotion, investment environment, investment statistics, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. Moreover, more than 300 agreements were signed on a bilateral basis between the Turkic Council countries.

Azerbaijan is about to be a net investor in Turkey, and already has such status in Kazakhstan.

Mustafayev said that Azerbaijan has well-developed mutual investments with Turkey and Kazakhstan, so these ties should be developed with Kyrgyzstan as well.

Investments of Azerbaijan in the economy of Kazakhstan stands at $190 million. One of the main investment projects between the countries is the establishment of a logistics center in the special economic zone in Aktau Seaport. The cost of the project is estimated at $15 million. Another large project realized with the participation of Azerbaijan is Aktau Energomash plant on the production of transformers and cables (worth $50 million). Kazakhstan, in turn, invested some $67 million.

Spokeswoman of the Kyrgyz Ministry of Economy and antimonopoly policy Ayday Kurmanova, addressing the event said that Turkic countries are also among the main investors in the economy of Kyrgyzstan. She said that the country spares no effort to create favorable business environment in the country, mentioning that the special liberal system, convenient for doing business, was set up in Kyrgyzstan.

She underlined that all spheres of Kyrgyz economy are open for foreign investors. Kurmanova said that main objectives of the country include the provision of economic growth, establishment of competitive economy and poverty reduction.

Establishment of economic alliance

Turkeys Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci, in turn, said that the member countries should create an economic alliance, switch to the regime of free trade and expand customs benefits to widen cooperation.

Population of member countries of the Council is about 115 million people, while total volume of the national income stands at $1.2 trillion. Total volume of foreign trade turnover in the countries amounts to $600 billion, but the turnover of mutual trade between the member-countries accounts for only 2 percent of the sum. We should bring the figure to the level of 5-10 percent. He added that the countries will be able to strengthen overall ties by means of strong economic cooperation.

Furthermore, the minister said that Turkic Speaking States should use their national currencies in trade operations, noting that Turkey plans to switch to calculations in national currency in mutual trade with Azerbaijan. Turkish authorities believe that the mechanism may increase demand for the national currencies and result in their strengthening. Moreover, it will help to avoid the dependence on fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate and avoid additional costs, associated with the conversion. He went on saying that Azerbaijan and Turkey also intend to simplify customs procedures for trade of certain goods.

Furthermore, he said that the countries will sign franchise trade agreement within the VI meeting of the Turkey-Azerbaijan High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council, which is scheduled for the first part of 2017. He mentioned that the sides are currently working on the list of preferential goods. He also said that Turkic Council states should enhance economic ties, in particular, in such spheres as tourism, healthcare and others, mentioning that the meeting would play an important role in the development of economic cooperation.

Azerbaijan has so far invested $8 billion in the Turkish economy, some $6.7 billion of which accounted for such projects as the Petkim Petrochemical Complex, the Star Oil Refinery and the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), and the remaining part of $1.3 billion was allocated for other spheres. Azerbaijan plans to bring the total volume of Azerbaijani investments to Turkey to $18-20 billion by 2020. Turkey, in turn, invested nearly $10 billion in Azerbaijans economy, with $2.6 billion of which being provided for the development of non-oil sector. The countries plan to bring the volume of trade turnover to the level of $15 billion in the coming years. Turkey, which has always held leading positions among the foreign trade partners of Azerbaijan, ranks the second in Azerbaijani imports and the 14th in the exports. Azerbaijan mainly imports various equipment, electrical appliances, household items, cars, while Turkey imports oil and oil products and gas.

Transport sphere

Member countries of the Council have also wide opportunities to connect transport routes passing from China to Europe, as well as from north to south.

Deputy Economy Minister of Kazakhstan Aydar Arifkhanov said that the issues of transport cooperation are among the priority areas that are discussed on a regular basis, recalling the fact that historically the region was a part of the great Silk Road. He mentioned that the facilitation of customs procedures is necessary for successful cooperation in the sphere of transport and logistics.

The deputy minister also provided an insight into business and investment opportunities in Kazakhstan, as well as its transport and transit potential, saying that the country is currently implementing a number of programs aimed at the development of non-oil sector. He called on the countries to enter Kazakh market, which in turn will open ways to the markets of the Eurasian Economic Union and China, mentioning that such cooperation is beneficial for all participants.

Arifkhanov underlined that his country supports the activity of the Council and stressed the importance of the Council in expanding relations among these countries.

The Council was established in 2009 as an international intergovernmental organization, with the overarching aim of promoting comprehensive cooperation among Turkic Speaking States, while its four founding member states are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey.

By promoting deeper relations and solidarity amongst Turkic-speaking countries, it aims to serve as a new regional instrument for advancing international cooperation in Eurasian continent, particularly in Central Asia and Caucasus. Activities of the Council are also supported by its related and affiliated organizations as Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking Countries (TURKPA), International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY), Turkic Academy, Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation and Turkic Business Council.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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21 December 2016 16:01 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Camal

The transnational companies operating in Azerbaijan tend to pay higher wages to its foreign workers. Still, the wages of local workers in the transnational companies is less than those of foreigners occupying the same positions.

Chairman of the Azerbaijan Trade Unions Confederation, MP Sattar Mehbaliyev raised the issue at the meeting of the Confederation on December 21, voicing concern over the trend.

Mehbaliyev mentioned that the local workers also benefit less social services offered by these companies.

Lack of trade unions in branches of the transnational companies such as BP, Statoil, AMOCO, McDonalds and Coca-Cola, as well as Bazarstore store chain negatively affects the provision of social-economic rights of those working for these companies, he said.

The extension of working schedule of local workers, refusal to provide paid vacations have become commonplace, Mehbaliyev clarified. Workers, who temporarily lost ability to work, those who got occupational disease or injury are not paid allowances and compensations.

Id like to mention another worrying issue that allowed to ensure more efficient protection of labor rights of workers, prevention of violations of law, labor, social and economic rights and freedoms, provision of a more secure environment. Toughening penalties for forcing people to work before the labor contract took effect become the key factor in the prevention of non-formal labor relations, he said.

Mehbaliyev further mentioned that over the past three years, the labor law inspectors carried out more than 550 cases of monitoring and research in this field.

The results were discussed with the executive authorities and relevant measures were taken further. The major aim is to ensure proper conclusion and termination of labor contracts, provision of workers vacation and holiday rights, as well as additional vocation days, benefits of disabled, workers aged below 18 and women, in accordance with the countrys legislation, he said.

Labor law inspectors may also appeal to the courts for protection of the rights of workers, according to Mehbaliyev.

Over the past three years, our inspectors took 40 cases to the courts, and achieved reinstating 23 workers in their previous jobs, he said adding that the trade unions also face violation of property rights.

He mentioned that over the past three years the Confederation received 36,007 applications and complaints on labor rights.

Of them 9,912 related to the labor legislation, including 2,350 about lost job place and 872 of them were reinstated, he concluded.

A total of 4,915 million economically active people were recorded in 2015, while 4,672 million of them were engaged in different fields of economy and 243,700 persons were registered as unemployed.

Over 2, 356 million persons or 50.4 persons of the total number of employed population in economy were engaged in production fields (agriculture and fishing, industry, construction) and over 2,315 million persons or 49.6 percent of the employed population were in the field of service. Some 1,503 million people or 32.2 percent of the total number of employed population in economy were hired workers in 2015.

In 2005 to 2015 average monthly nominal wage of employees increased by 3.8 times to 466.9 manat (over $261).

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21 December 2016 17:05 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

The government of Azerbaijan plans to attract alternative sources of financing to the sphere of heavy industry and mechanical engineering. The measure is reflected in the Strategic Road Map for the development of heavy industry and machinery.

Under the document, the financing will be provided by means of ventures and trust funds, as well as business angels also known as angel investors (wealthy individuals who invest their personal capital in companies in return for an equity stake).

Furthermore, the government plans to create a new private equity fund by 2020.

The country will also consider the possibility of creating a platform of projects in the sphere of heavy industry, which are ready for alternative financing. The platform will contain information about expected volumes of investments, scheme of financing and other requirements.

Attention will also be focused on the facilitation of procedures on the connection of enterprises to gas and energy supply networks, permissions on construction and allocation of land plots.

The document, which is one of the 12 road maps prepared to define the countrys development goals and priorities and ensure their implementation, will require some 2.9 billion manats ($ 1.65 billion) to be realized.

The road map is expected to provide a GDP growth by1.56 billion manats ($0.89) until 2020.

A lion's share (one billion manats ($0.57)) will be achieved through the development of mining and metallurgical industry, another 250 million manats ($ 142.6 million) will be provided by improving productivity and efficiency of the industry. Some 145 million manats ($ 82.7 million) will be ensured through the support for import substitution, 105 million manats ($ 59.9 milion) will be provided by promoting alternative financing mechanisms and transfer of experience.

About 45 million manats is expected to be achieved through the creation of a central registry of assets and the existing potential, while 15 million manats ($ 8.55 million) will fall to a share of Azerbaijans participation in the regional value chains in terms of demand.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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21 December 2016 11:43 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Personal belongings of the People's Artist of Azerbaijan, Latif Karimov were donated to the National History Museum of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS).

Karimovs grandson Azer Safarov donated the great artists personal items to the Museum. They will be stored in the Museums Fund of gifts and memorabilia.

Latif Karimov, the eminent carpet master and scholar, had meticulously researched the history of Azerbaijani carpets and systematized 144 styles based on geographical regions (cities, towns, villages).

He was true protector of the national art and used to conduct courses on carpet weaving to introduce Iranian techniques that were not known to the Karabakh weavers. For students who were illiterate and could not take notes, he even composed goshmas (poetic genre) to get them to remember weaving procedures.

In addition to carpets, Karimov successfully designed jewelry, wood carvings, china and fabric patterns, as well as interior decoration patterns for buildings.

Genius designer wrote a number of books classifying and describing various designs of majestic Azerbaijani rugs.

He, together with Rustam Mustafayev, was hired to design the Azerbaijani hall of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition.

In 1945 he was appointed head of the Department of Fine Arts at the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan Institute of the Arts. Between 1947 and 1977 he compiled the Dictionary of Oriental Music. In 1950 he received the Stalin Prize, the highest ranking award in the Soviet Union.

In 1954, Karimov organized his first personal exhibition which featured carpets, architectural ornaments, wood carvings, china vases, jewelry, and graphic items.

His efforts and enthusiasm led to the establishment of the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum in 1967, first one of this kind in the world.

The Azerbaijan Carpet Museum was named in his honor in 1991.

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21 December 2016 18:21 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Iran hopes for a speedy resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in Yerevan, news.am reports.

Rouhani arrived in Armenia for a one-day official visit on December 21.

"Azerbaijan and Armenia are friendly countries for Iran, and Iran hopes to see the establishment of peace and stability in the region," he noted.

Rouhani added that this will benefit the entire region. The issue has no military solution, and we would like to see it resolved peacefully.

Iran backs peaceful resolution of the conflict and has numerously expressed its wish to become another mediator to assist in resolving the long-lasting conflict in the South Caucasus.

French senator and vice-chair of the Senates Foreign Affairs Committee, Nathalie Goulet considers that Rouhanis visit to Armenia may be very instrumental to finding an agreement on the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.

"Iran, which has fully repaired relations with its neighbors and Azerbaijan, is able to push a fair solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue," Goulet told Trend on December 21..

She added that Iran may play a central role in this issue, with 40 million Azerbaijanis and a huge Christian Armenian population living in the country.

"Iran may also help Armenian economy, which is collapsing, and make a fair arbitration in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Goulet said.

She believes that Iran as a regional power and Azerbaijans neighbor would be, if wanted, the best tool to bringing Armenia to reason and freeing the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, as well as finding a common ground for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts settlement.

I am sure Iran would be more efficient in this matter than the [OSCE] Minsk Group, Goulet added.

In turn, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministrys spokesperson Hikmat Hajiyev told APA that one of the fundamental principles of Azerbaijani-Iranian relations is non-interference of the states in the internal affairs of each other.

He reminded that Armenia leads a destructive policy in the region, makes territorial claims to its neighbors and commits aggression and occupation against Azerbaijan. As a result of the Armenia's bloody ethnic cleansing policy in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, more than one million Azerbaijanis still have to live as refugees and internally displaced persons, the spokesperson noted.

"Armenia is a country that looted, destroyed and abused the material and cultural monuments of the Azerbaijani people in the occupied territories, including mosques belonging to the Islamic religion," Hajiyev added.

Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

After that, the UN Security Council adopted four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the occupied Azerbaijani territories, as well as OSCE created the Minsk Group to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. However, the lands are still occupied by Armenian armed forces.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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21 December 2016 15:47 (UTC+04:00)

The OSCE mission conducted a monitoring on the line of contact of troops in Azerbaijan`s Gazakh region on December In accordance with the mandate of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, 21.

The monitoring ended without an incident, according to the press service of Azerbaijan`s Defense Ministry.

The monitoring was held, on the Azerbaijani side, by field assistants of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Jiri Aberle and Simon Tiller.

On the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenian troops, the monitoring was carried out by field assistants of Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ghenadie Petrica, Hristo Hristov and Peter Svedberg.

Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal, but they have not been enforced to this day.

The OSCE Minsk Group, the activities of which have become known as the Minsk Process, works to find a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for over two decades, but in vain.

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21 December 2016 18:02 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

A documentary Irevan: Hidden Truth was presented in Baku on December 21.

The film (in Azerbaijani, Russian and English languages) was shot as part of cooperation between Virtual Karabakh Information-Communication Technology Center, the Institute of History of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and the Youth and Sport Ministry.

The coordinator of Virtual Karabakh Information-Communication Technology Center, chair of the Public Council for Youth Affairs Nuraddin Mehdiyev, speaking at the ceremony, said the film aims to increase the international community`s awareness of the cultural legacy of the ancient Azerbaijani city of Irevan.

Mehdiyev said that the documentary Irevan: Hidden Truth shows that the city of Irevan, which is one of the ancient cultural centers of Azerbaijan, belonged to Azerbaijani Turks and Armenians tried to conceal this truth for years.

No architectural and historical monuments, which are over 200 years old, except one mosque, remained in the modern Yerevan  they are wiped out from the face of the earth, Mehdiyev said.

He noted that the film, bringing historical facts and descriptions, tells about the founding of the city of Irevan, the Turkic-Muslim power in the city, the Irevan fortress, mosques, squares and caravanserais, trade stalls, baths, gardens, as well as about the capture of Irevan by tsarist Russia and the demographic situation, destruction of the cultural heritage of Azerbaijanis in Irevan, their deportation from the city, and the Azerbaijani cultural heritage in modern Yerevan.

Presidential Assistant for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov described the film as a serious project.

It is an important project, but it is not enough. We should give an updated description of the history of the ancient city of Irevan, as well as mosques, monuments there. Postcards, booklets depicting these should be made, and then handed out to tourists so that they see how Armenians destroy Azerbaijan`s history. Our diplomats, who travel abroad, our fellow countrymen, who live in foreign countries, as well as our young people, should contribute to the promotion of this film worldwide, he said.

Sometimes we explain the pro-Armenian circles in the Christian world, but they show doubt towards us against the background of the Christian-Muslim discrimination. Therefore, we have to do a lot in order to reveal the Armenians frauds, he clarified.

The official went on to say that neighborhood with Armenians has given Azerbaijan only problems, danger of destruction of Azerbaijani culture and threats to security.

While speaking about the massacres committed against the Azerbaijani people over the last 200 years, national leader Heydar Aliyev said that the neighborhood with Armenians always puts a geopolitical task in front of Azerbaijan that we shouldnt forget, said Hasanov. Usually neighboring countries benefit each others development, but the neighborhood with Armenians has given us only problems, danger of destruction of our culture and threats to our security, and there has been genocide against our people.

The top official emphasized that Azerbaijans geopolitical task is to protect our history, culture, physical existence and future development from the Armenians.

Minister of Youth and Sport Azad Rahimov, in turn, said Armenians destroy intangible, cultural history of the Azerbaijani people in the occupied lands.

These atrocities had previously been committed in Irevan, then in Zangazur, Goycha, Verdibasar and other historic Azerbaijani territories. But Irevan suffered the most damage, he said.

Rahimov said there is probably no other city in the world that was destroyed so much as Irevan. Hundreds of historic monuments were destroyed. The remaining two or three monuments are shown as belonging to other nations, the minister added.

The Minister stressed that the presented film is a good way to bring scientific research to the masses.

The Azerbaijani people will never forget the atrocities of the Armenians. The Irevan khanate, Zangazur, Goycha mahal are our historical lands, and we, Azerbaijanis, will return to these lands, Rahimov 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. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia still controls fifth part of Azerbaijan's territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

Overall, since the beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and occupation of Azerbaijani territories, Armenian aggressors destroyed 1,200 historical and architectural monuments, looted 27 museums, over 100,000 items were exported to Armenia. In addition, the Armenian occupiers destroyed 152 religious monuments and 62 mosques, 4.6 million books in 927 libraries, including the Holy Quran and rare Islamic manuscripts.

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YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenian MP in the Parliament of Iran Karen Khanlaryan says Iranian President Hassan Rouhanis visit to Armenia is an important steps for the development of Iran-Armenia mutual relations. He says as a result of the visit certain achievements will be recorded.

Of course, from regional perspective I attach importance to this visit especially when considering the ongoing political developments, this period of tension of mutual relations. I think this visit can bring certain elements for stability in the region, the MP said in an interview with Armenpress.

He also talked about the sectors where he sees prospects to expand cooperation with Iran. Those are communication, alternative transportation sectors. In near future Iran can become a transit hub which in its turn will contribute to the development of transit tourism in the country. From this perspective Armenia can benefit, can take steps and move on developments. There can also be certain developments in the cooperation sectors, for instance, in the fight against terrorism, security, as well as political sectors. I dont rule out the scientific, educational, business sectors since the businessmen are interested in various agricultural, industrial sectors. Why not, there can be also a development in the IT sector taking into account Armenias achievements in this sector, Karen Khanlaryan said.

On December 21 Irans President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Armenia on an official visit.
21 December 2016 09:57 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has offered condolences to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a lorry ploughed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing and injuring scores.

We were deeply saddened by the news of heavy casualties and injuries as a result of a bloody terror attack in Berlin, the President said in his message.

We are outraged by this tragic event, condemn this act of brutality against civilians and deem it significant to unite efforts in the fight against terrorism.

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to you, the bereaved families, the loved ones of those who died and the people of Germany, and wish the injured the swiftest possible recovery, the Azerbaijani President added.

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21 December 2016 14:49 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received a delegation led by Minister of Economic Affairs of Turkey Nihat Zeybekci in Baku on December 21, Azertac reported.

President Aliyev hailed the importance of the meeting of economic ministers of member states of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States to be held in Baku.

The head of state emphasized that the visit of Zeybekci was of pivotal importance both in terms of participating in the Council's meeting and holding discussions on the development of economic relations between the two countries.

Zeybekci, in turn, conveyed greetings of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to President Ilham Aliyev.

Pointing to friendly and brotherly ties between the two countries, the minister noted that Azerbaijan strongly supported Turkey during July 15 events.

Describing Azerbaijan and Turkey as the two closest brotherly countries, the head of state hailed both countries' support for each other as natural.

They underlined the importance of Azerbaijan-Turkey High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council's meetings in strengthening bilateral ties, and exchanged views on the development of economic cooperation between the two countries.

The head of state thanked for the greetings of President Erdogan, and asked Nihat Zeybekci to extend his greetings to the Turkish President.

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21 December 2016 17:45 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan and Turkey will multiply joint efforts in the fight against terrorism.

The need to boost cooperation in this sphere was noted by Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Turkeys Deputy Foreign Minister Umit Yalcin during a meeting in Baku on December 21.

The Azerbaijani minister once again offered condolences to the government and people of Turkey over the recent terror attacks in the country.

Yalcin expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan for the resolute position with regard to the recent events in Turkey.

Mammadyarov informed the Turkish diplomat about the negotiation process on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and praised Ankaras fair and resolute position in this issue.

Turkey became the first state to recognize Azerbaijan, which declared its independence in 1991.

The Azerbaijan-Turkey relations are multifaceted and at strategic level. Intense high level contacts are the main driving main force of the bilateral relations. Visiting each others countries immediately after assuming the office or in the wake of developments with symbolic importance became a tradition.



With the aim of further strengthening bilateral relations, the High Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSC) mechanism was established in 2010 at the Presidential level. The Council was convened five times so far and the last round was held this March in Ankara.

Turkey contributes to efforts aimed at the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within Azerbaijans territorial integrity and sovereignty through peaceful means.

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21 December 2016 13:03 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijani oil, which is supplied via the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa and was delivered by land to Belarus, was one of the most thought through options but not the only one.



Belarusian Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov told Reuters in an interview.

Since July, Russias Transneft has been pumping about 40 percent less oil to Belarus than in the second quarter of 2016.

Since the beginning of the year, Russia and Belarus had been unable to reach an agreement concerning how much Belarus should pay for Russian gas and the conditions for co-operation in the oil sector.



Belarus want to decrease the price set by Russian Gazprom at $132 per 1,000 cubic metres is too high.

Belarus has been trying to secure oil supplies from other sources and received test shipments from Azerbaijan.

In his last visit to Baku Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko expressed his interest in alternative supplies of oil from Azerbaijan and establishing a long-term partnership with the country's oil industry.

Lukashenko and President Ilham Aliyev also discussed bilateral cooperation in trade, agricultural, and culture speheres. The two sides aim to increase bilateral trade turnout to $700m by the end of next year.

In 2010 and 2011, Belarus bought almost 1.5 million tons of Venezuelan and Azerbaijani oil, which was shipped through the oil terminal of the Odessa port.

This time Belarus bought the raw materials for securing enough oil for its refineries, which need constant processing.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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21 December 2016 17:30 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Malaysias PETRONAS oil and gas company has announced that it will voluntarily adjust the country's crude oil output.

The company reported that following the pact made in Vienna, Austria on December10, 2016 between OPEC and non-OPEC producers, PETRONAS will make a voluntary adjustment to Malaysias crude oil production starting from January 2017.

This voluntary adjustment, taking into consideration prevailing market conditions and prospects, is expected to involve up to 20,000 barrels per day of crude oil from the countrys 2016 average production, said the company.

Petronas, established in 1974, conducts business in 35 countries. Currently, Petronas ensures about 40% of incomes in the country. The company has turned into an internationally recognizable symbol for Malaysia.

In Azerbaijan, Petronas owns 15.5 percent stake in the project on the development of Shah Deniz gas and condensate field, 15.5 percent stake in the South Caucasus Gas pipeline and 12.4 percent in the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company (AGSC).

The world's largest producers agreed to curb production for the first time since 2008 in a bid to support prices after the Vienna meeting on November 30. The OPEC, which accounts for a third of global oil supply, agreed to cut production from January by around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), or over 3 percent, to 32.5 million bpd.

Iraq, OPEC's second largest producer which had previously resisted cuts will cut output by 200,000 bpd to 4.351 million bpd. Saudi Arabia said it would take the lion's share of cuts - reducing output by almost 500,000 bpd to 10.06 million bpd - to get the deal done. Iran was allowed to boost production slightly from its October level.

Non-cartel states decided to cut oil output by 558,000 barrels per day with Russian participation standing at 300,000 bpd.

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21 December 2016 10:30 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday that Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) was behind Russian envoy Karlov's assassination, Anadolu reported.

According to Turkish diplomatic sources, Cavusoglu and Kerry had a phone conversation, during which the Turkish foreign minister informed his U.S. counterpart on Andrey Karlov's assassination and the assailant Mevlut Mert Altintas.

Cavusoglu informed Kerry that terrorist group FETO was behind the assassination of Russian envoy to Ankara, according to the sources.

The sources added that Kerry offered condolences to Cavusoglu and expressed sorrow about the incident.

Andrey Karlov died after being shot multiple times at an art exhibition in Ankara on Monday evening.

Karlov was delivering a speech when the assailant, 22-year-old policeman Altintas, opened fire on him.

U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen and his terrorist group FETO is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltrating Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming a parallel state.

Two top diplomats also talked about the trilateral meeting that happened today in Moscow between Russian, Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers.

In the meeting, a joint declaration was agreed on to find a solution in Syria.

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21 December 2016 10:24 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Russia, Turkey, and Iran agreed on a "joint declaration" to find a solution in Syria, Anadolu reported.

Lavrov's remarks came following a trilateral meeting on Syria with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts, Javad Zarif and Mevlut Cavusoglu in Moscow.

He said a joint declaration was agreed on to find a solution in Syria.

"Turkish-Russian-Iranian cooperation ensures the evacuation of civilians and armed groups from eastern Aleppo," said Lavrov.

He said he hoped evacuations would end in one or two days.

Lavrov said the trilateral format was effective.

"The most efficient and effective format for solving the Syrian crisis is our current trilateral format," he added.

Turkeys Mevlut Cavusoglu said a total of 37,500 people have been evacuated from Aleppo so far.

"The best solution is a political solution. We believe in this. We have to focus on this," said Cavusoglu.

Cavusoglu said the countries will continue their efforts for Syria.

"We will continue together to pursue our efforts to stop bloodshed in Syria, spread a permanent cease-fire throughout the country, and unhindered humanitarian aid," he added.

He said they discussed expanding the cease-fire to the entire country.

"We can reach a solution in Syria if we sincerely implement the decisions taken," said Cavusoglu.

He reiterated that Turkey supports the national unity and territorial integrity of all of its neighbors.

Irans Zarif said the international community should cooperate on counter-terrorism and that violence in Syria needs to be prevented.

"The evacuation of civilians and armed groups from some regions has succeeded thanks to the collaboration between Russia, Iran, and Turkey," he added.

Zarif said he hoped a political solution could be reached in Syria. "We will strive to ensure territorial integrity and sovereignty," he said.

In recent weeks, numerous reports have emerged of violence being perpetrated against civilians in Aleppo, once considered an opposition stronghold.

The evacuation process was temporarily suspended on Friday after pro-regime foreign terrorist groups attacked a civilian convoy leaving the city, resulting in a number of evacuees getting killed.

It resumed Monday under an earlier deal brokered by Turkey and Russia according to which some 20,000 civilians and fighters are to be evacuated from eastern Aleppo on Monday and Tuesday.

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21 December 2016 13:41 (UTC+04:00)

The energy cooperation prospects between Turkmenistan and Bangladesh were discussed during a meeting with Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Bangladesh to Turkmenistan (with a residence in Tehran) Mahbur Rahman in the Turkmen Foreign Ministry.

The Turkmen Foreign Ministry reported that Turkmenistan and Bangladesh expressed interest in establishing contacts between the business circles of the two countries.

According to the message, the sides also stressed that Turkmenistan and Bangladesh have all the possibilities to intensify partnership in agriculture, textile industry, political, trade-economic spheres.

Earlier, it was reported that Bangladesh is considering the possibility of joining the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) project, promoted by the Asian Development Bank.

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21 December 2016 15:23 (UTC+04:00)

Caution should be exercised in jumping to conclusions amid an ongoing investigation into the assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on December 21.



"Moscow believes that one should wait for the results of the joint investigative team's activity, Peskov told reporters, Sputnik reported. You know that it began its activities in Ankara yesterday. In this case, of course, it is hardly worth rushing to conclusions before the investigation establishes, as our president said, who was behind the murder of our ambassador,"



Karlov was shot and killed at an art gallery exhibition opening in Ankara on December 19. The Russian envoy was delivering a speech at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in the Cankaya district when an assailant opened fire on the diplomat before shooting into the air.

Police Special Forces neutralized the attacker, identified as 22-year-old riot police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it considered the attack a terrorist act.

Following the assassination of the Russian envoy, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke via telephone and both leaders described the act as "provocation" to undermine relations Turkey and Russia carry in Syria.

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21 December 2016 16:15 (UTC+04:00)

The Jaish al-Fatah armed coalition, spearheaded by the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate the Nusra Front, has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, TASS news agency reported on December 21 with reference to the Alsumaria TV network.



Karlov died after receiving fatal wound in an armed assault at an art gallery exhibition opening in Ankara late Monday. Three other people were injured in the attack. The killer, Turkish off-duty police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas, has been eliminated. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the incident an act of terrorism.

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BRUSSELS - The Council of the European Union (EU) on Monday decided to extend the sanctions against Russia for another six months, until July 31, 2017.

The Council said in a press release that after assessing the implementation of the Minsk agreements at the EU summit on Dec 15, the EU leaders paved the way to renew the sanctions.

The sanctions include limiting access to EU primary and secondary capital markets for five major Russian majority state-owned financial institutions and their majority-owned subsidiaries established outside of the EU, as well as three major Russian energy and three defense companies.

The sanctions also involve imposing a trade embargo on arms, an export ban on dual-use goods for military use or military-end users in Russia, and curtailing Russian access to certain sensitive technologies and services that can be used for oil production and exploration.

The EU slapped the sanctions on Russia in July and September 2014 in response to an alleged role that Russia had played in conflicts in east Ukraine.

In March 2015, EU leaders decided to align the existing sanctions to the complete implementation of the Minsk agreements.

Taking stock of the situation in east Ukraine, the EU in July extended the sanctions against Russia until Jan 31, 2017.

In response, Russia imposed a year-long embargo on food imports from Western countries in August 2014, and extended the anti-sanction measures for one more year in June 2015.

In late June, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to extend embargo on food imports from the EU and other countries until the end of 2017.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. During 25 years of Armenias Independence, Armenia and Iran have established warm and close relations, Irans President Hassan Rouhani told reporters in Yerevan after the meeting with President Serzh Sargsyan, reports Armenpress.

Our peoples have always lived together within millenniums and are under one common civilized unit. Within the frames of Irans current Governments activity, the relations of the two states have achieved progress. We had an opportunity to host Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in our country after the Presidential elections, and I have always had a wish to visit in Armenia. I am happy that today I am here in your country, the Iranian President said.

He said Iran and Armenia has a great cooperation potential. Some part of that potential is already being utilized, and the remaining part must be used in the upcoming months and years. Especially in the energy field we witness a very close cooperation between the two countries. We must make efforts aimed at further deepening that cooperation, Rouhani said, adding that the works on connecting the Persian Gulf with the Black Sea must be completed. We must have a route connecting the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea through a railway. By this we will create favorable conditions for our people, as well as those of other regions, he said.

We have good cooperation in educational and scientific sectors. By using the daily technological opportunities, we manage to continue the close cooperation on that path, the Iranian President said.

Within the framework of regional integration processes, Iran is trying to use the opportunities provided by Armenias membership to the Eurasian Economic Union. Hassan Rouhani said Iran is taking steps on signing free trade agreement with the EAEU.
21 December 2016 17:26 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

At least 25 percent of shares of the biggest national companies of Kazakhstan will be privatized through the IPO (initial public offering) planned program.

Deputy Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan Aidar Arifhanov made the remark on the sidelines of the 6th meeting of economy ministers of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States in Baku on December 21.

Arifhanov recalled that partial privatization of the biggest Kazakh companies will be carried out within the IPO program until 2020.

These companies are KazMunayGas, Kazatomprom, Samruk-Energy, Kazpost, Air Astana.

The deputy minister noted that in Kazakhstan, the level of the governments involvement in the economy is quite high, up to 60 percent.

Our goal is to reduce it to the standards of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, to 15 percent, said Arifhanov.

He said that the Kazatomprom, Kazpost and Samruk-Energy national companies will be the first to be privatized through the IPO in late 2017-early 2018. The consultants who prepare the privatization program of these companies have been attracted.

Other companies will be privatized through the IPO until 2020, he said.

We are open to the participation of foreign investors in the IPO program, he said.

Arifhanov recalled that the current privatization program, which started in 2014 and will last until 2020, includes 783 companies, both big and small ones.

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PRIMe trial included 452 women at 27 centers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

Based on the outcome of the MammaPrint test, 28.4% of patients treatment plans were changed, compared to conventional clinico-pathological tests; preventing under and overtreatment

Confidence provided by gene expression-based tests meant that physicians and patients strongly adhered to the results

Irvine, CA, USA and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, December 21, 2016 / B3C newswire / -- Agendia, Inc., a world leader in personalized medicine and molecular cancer diagnostics, has presented new prospective data1 demonstrating the strong impact of its 70-Gene Breast Cancer Recurrence assay, MammaPrint, and the corresponding 80-Gene Molecular Subtyping Assay BluePrint, in clinical decision-making for patients with early-stage breast cancer in Germany.

The PRospective study to measure the Impact of MammaPrint on adjuvant treatment in hormone receptor-positive HER2-negative breast cancer patients (PRIMe) study was undertaken by the West German Study Group (WSG). It included 452 patients from 27 centers and evaluated the impact of gene expression-based tests MammaPrint and BluePrint, compared to conventional clinico-pathological factors, in deciding whether or not patients would benefit from, and should therefore be treated with adjuvant chemotherapy.

The results, presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference last week showed a 28.4% change in patients treatment plans, originally based on clinico-pathological factors, as a direct result of the data provided by MammaPrint and BluePrint.

Prof. Nadia Harbeck, MD, PhD, PI of the PRIMe study, Scientific Director of the West German Study Group and chair for Conservative Oncology at the Department for OB&GYN of the University of Munich (LMU), Germany, said: The discordance between conventional clinico-pathological assessment and the results of gene expression-based tests like MammaPrint is substantial. Our study demonstrated that, in Germany, physicians not only welcomed these tests but showed a strong adherence to the test results, even actively changing their previous treatment plans. The > 90% adherence rate to the MammaPrint results regarding adjuvant treatment decisions demonstrated the confidence of physicians in these gene-expression results.

Bastiaan van der Baan, Chief Clinical and Business Development Officer at Agendia said: The final analysis of the WSG PRIMe study makes plain the importance of gene expression-based tests like MammaPrint, in giving physicians in Germany, and beyond, the definitive results and the confidence they need to provide the safest and most effective treatment plans for their patients.

As the data shows, the current clinico-pathological approach leaves a significant number of women in an unpleasant situation where they are under or over-treated. We believe strongly that early-stage breast cancer patients and their physicians in Germany should be able to access the benefits of a gold-standard gene-expression test like MammaPrint, to enable individualized treatment based on quantitative, reliable, genomic data.

The clinical performance of MammaPrint and its ability to accurately inform and guide treatment decisions was definitively proven by the publication of the MINDACT trial in the New England Journal of Medicine in August. This unique phase III prospective, randomized, controlled study provides the highest level of clinical evidence to MammaPrint (Level 1A), above any other genomic assay, for making adjuvant chemotherapy decisions in early-stage breast cancer. The MINDACT trial included almost 7,000 patients (over 800 from Germany), across 112 institutions in nine different European countries.

For more information on Agendia or the MammaPrint and BluePrint tests, you can visit Agendias patient site at KnowYourBreastCancer.com or the corporate site at Agendia.com.

Follow Agendia, Inc. on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn to keep up-to-date with the latest news.

This press release is also provided in German.



About MammaPrint

MammaPrint is a FDA-cleared in vitro diagnostic test, available from FFPE sample, performed in a single laboratory, using the gene expression profile of breast cancer tissue samples to assess a patients risk for distant metastasis. The MammaPrint result is indicated for use by physicians as a prognostic marker only, along with other clinical-pathological factors. MammaPrint is not intended for diagnosis, or to predict or detect response to therapy, or to help select the optimal therapy for patients. Results should be taken in the context of other relevant clinical-pathological factors and standard practice of medicine.

About Agendia

Agendia is a privately held, leading molecular diagnostics company that develops and markets FFPE-based genomic diagnostic products, which help support physicians with their complex treatment decisions. Agendias breast cancer tests were developed using an unbiased gene selection by analyzing the complete human genome. Our offerings include the FDA-cleared MammaPrint FFPE 70-gene breast cancer recurrence assay as well as BluePrint, a molecular subtyping assay that provides deeper insight leading to more clinically actionable breast cancer biology. These tests can help physicians assess a patients individual risk for metastasis  that is, which patients are more sensitive to chemo, hormonal, or combination therapy, and which patients may not require these treatments and which patients may be treated with other, less arduous and costly methods.

In addition, Agendia has a pipeline of other genomic products in development. The company collaborates with pharmaceutical companies, leading cancer centers and academic groups to develop companion diagnostic tests in the area of oncology. F



Contacts

Samantha Schmidt / Jen Lewis / Leon Melens

Instinctif Partners

+49 30 2408304-18 / +44 20 7457 2020 / +31 6 538 16 427

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1Wuerstlein R, et al. Results of multigene assay (MammaPrint) and molecular subtyping (BluePrint) substantially impact treatment decision making in early breast cancer: Final analysis of the WSG PRIMe Decision Impact Study. Poster presented at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. December 2016; San Antonio, Texas.
Im already starting to round up my numbers for the year, yet I couldnt help but notice this neat channel setup on EUR/AUD. Think its worth a last-minute play?

EUR/AUD Trade Setup

Ive been looking for opportunities to short the euro ever since the ECB announced an extension of its QE program end-date to December 2017, so you can imagine my excitement when EUR/AUD failed to break below the 1.4100 handle then popped back up to the 1.4400 area instead.

Im seeing a bit of a range on the longer-term charts but there seems to be a descending channel forming in the 1-hour time frame when you connect the latest highs and lows. Price is starting to turn lower, possibly setting its sights back on the channel support around 1.4050-1.4100 from here.

However, Im a bit concerned that stochastic is indicating oversold conditions and is starting to turn higher. This could mean that another test of the 1.4400 channel resistance might be in order or that bulls are ready to push for more gains. Besides, Im also seeing broad-based Aussie weakness these days, as tense U.S.-China relations and the weak yuan have been dragging the commodity currency down.

Still, the euro zone has a lot more problems on its plate more than ever, with the recent terror attacks in Germany, Switzerland, and Turkey taking a huge toll on investor confidence in the region. To top it off, Italy isnt out of the woods with its banking sector troubles yet while upcoming elections next year could keep uncertainty on the table.

Im hoping to catch another test of the channel resistance to short and I plan on setting my stop past the 1.4500 major psychological level. Ill be aiming for the bottom of the channel near 1.4100 area but Ill be ready to move my stop to entry once price tests the mid-channel area of interest around 1.4200. Make sure youre following me on Twitter to stay in the loop if Ive hopped in!

As always, dont risk more than 1% of your account on a single trade and make sure you read our risk disclosure if youre thinking of taking the same setups.

Q3 2016 Trading Performance Review

Read about my trading framework

Risk Disclosure

This content is strictly for informational purposes only and does not constitute as investment advice. Trading any financial market involves risk. Please read our Risk Disclosure to make sure you understand the risks involved.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. The potentials for development of economic relations is not fully utilized, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said at Armenia-Iran business forum. According to him, it is necessary to boost Armenian-Iranian economic relations to a level corresponding to the high level political relations which will give an opportunity to bring into life major economic projects. Sargsyan added that a successful experience in such major projects, such as in the sphere of energy. Today I asked the President of Iran to encourage major Iranian businessmen to come here and establish their businesses and for my turn I also promised to do the same in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Armenpress reports President Sargsyan saying.

Serzh Sargsyan expressed willingness that the Iranian capital should be more visible in Armenia which will be mutually beneficial for both countries. Today all the conditions for making investments and establishing successful businesses are created in Armenia. The legislative amendments specify the privileges granted to foreign investors, President Serzh Sargsyan added.

In the context of the privileges of making investments in Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan particularly stressed the fact that Armenia is in privileged trade regime with numerous countries. Doing business in Armenia, the Iranian businessmen can make use of the opportunities coming from Armenias membership to the Eurasian Economic Union, Sargsyan said, adding that Armenia, as a neighboring country to Iran, is a transport corridor to the European Union and the CIS states. In this context I attach great importance to North-South road corridor as the best transit route linking the Gulf ports to Black Sea ports, Serzh Sargsyan said.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan met with President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani who is on a state visit in Armenia. We are very happy to meet you and be hosted by our good friend Armenian people, Hassan Rouhani said, adding that a number of agreements and arrangements have been made as a result of his meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. At the same time Rouhani hopped that in the near future they will witness the implementation of those projects.

As Armenpress was informed from the press service of the Armenian Government, hailing the visit of Irans President Hassan Rouhani to Armenia, Armenian PM Karen Karapetyan noted that Armenian-Iranian bilateral agenda is rather saturated creating firm basis for further developing and expanding bilateral relations.

For his turn, PM Karapetyan introduced a number of proposals the implementation of which will further strengthen Armenian-Iranian economic relations and will give new impetus for future cooperation. Particularly, it was proposed to examine the idea of creating a food certification center with the Iranian side, which will ease the process of products conformity assessment and foster trade turnover.

Stressing the cooperation in free economic zones in Armenia and Iran, PM Karapetyan highlighted the expansion of activities of Iranian companies in Armenia from the perspective of fostering trade turnover, considering the opportunities coming from the market of the Eurasian Economic Union.

PM Karen Karapetyan once again reaffirmed Armenias readiness to assist Iran-EAEU talks.

Iranian President Rouhani positively assessed the steps taken for fostering Armenian-Iranian partnership and noted that the Iranian side encourages any constructive step aimed at boosting bilateral relations.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan met with Georgian Premier Giorgi Kvirikashvili in Tbilisi on December 21.

The high level of friendly relations between the two countries was stressed at the meeting. Issues of strengthening partnership in defense and regional security were discussed.

As Armenpress was informed from the press service of the MoD Armenia, highly assessing the cooperation between the two states in different spheres and stressing the necessity to develop the relations, the sides emphasized the importance of ensuring peace and security in the region as a key prerequisite for the sustainable development of the regional states.

On the same day Defense Minister Sargsyan met with Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II. Armenian-Georgian friendly relations were the topic of the discussion. The sides referred to the opportunities of strengthening the relations between the two friendly peoples by cooperation based on universal values.

Vigen Sargsyan expressed gratitude to Ilia II for the cordial reception.

In the evening of December 21 the Defense Minister of Armeia met with Armenian and Georgian media representatives and detailed on the meetings and negotiations.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Irans President Hassan Rouhani believes says Armenia and Iran can make part of Persian Gulf  Black Sea transport corridor. It is possible to link the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf through highways and railways which will create favorable trade and economic conditions for the states of our region and beyond it, Armenpress reports Rouhani saying in a joint press conference with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan.

According to the Iranian President warm and friendly relations have been established between Iran and Armenia since Armenia gained independence. The peoples of Armenia and Iran have lived and co-existed side by side for centuries and millennia and have been part of one and the same civilizational cradle.

Irans President noted that they had the opportunity to host Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in Tehran during his inauguration and were waiting for a convenient opportunity to pay a visit to Armenia.

I am happy it happened today. Armenian-Iranian relations have great potentials, but only part of it has been utilized so far, the rest we have to realize during the upcoming months and years. We have set good relations in the sphere of energy and we agreed during the talks to further foster those relations, particularly, by adding gas supplies to Armenia, transiting gas from Turkmenistan via Iran and supplying electricity. We must continue and complete the construction of the Armenia-Iran third power transmission line, the Iranian President said, adding that environmental issues have also been discussed, the issue of pollution of Araxes river was highlighted since it is the wealth of the region.

I hope that issue will be solved by President Serzh Sargsyans instruction. We agreed to expand trade and economic relations and create favorable conditions for the businessmen and investors of both countries. In this context the possibility of making joint investments in Aras economic zone on Armenia-IRI border was touched upon, while the goods produced there can be exported to Armenia and Iran, as well as to other countries. We have achieved effective cooperation also in education and science, Rouhani noted. He added that the importance of banking cooperation between the two countries was particularly highlighted at the meeting. According to the Iranian President, the talks between the Chairmen of the Central Banks of Armenia and Iran taking place today will create broad opportunities for the development of banking relations between the two states, which will foster the utilization of the potentials existing in the trade and economic sphere.

The Armenian and Iranian Presidents also discussed the issues referring to the confirmation of a privileged trade regime between Iran and the EAEU, which will pave the way for signing a FTA in the future.

We also referred to issues of regional security. Armenia and Azerbaijan are our neighbors and friendly states and we wish to witness a political and negotiated settlement in Karabakh, since it is in the interest of all the regional countries. It goes without saying that it is impossible to reach a sustainable peace through military ways and we have to achieve regional security and stability through negotiations in line with international norms.

We also discussed the issue of terrorism during the meeting, since it also refers to all the regional states. Fortunately, security in both our states is on a sufficient and full level, but anyway, it is necessary to take multidimensional collaborative measures to fight terrorism in order to reach a final victory over that problem , Rouhani said, stressing that they also touched upon the situation in Syria and Iraq, since these states face terrorism and it is necessary to support them in fight against terrorism.

We shared the opinion over the humanitarian issues in that region, particularly in Aleppo. Armenia and Iran have good traditions of cooperation in international organizations, and we share the opinion that those good traditions must continue.

I hope that by the results of this meeting we will be able to ensure firm grounds for future development of relations in trade and economy, science, culture, as well as in international and regional issues, Rouhani concluded.
Integrated Financial Management Information System(IFMIS)

failed to function in processing county funds. The statement that was given by the finance ministry indicates that no even a single penny was sent to the counties.





The total brokendown of IFMIS today afternoon rendered thousands of county workers go to the holidays broke. According to the ICT department at the treasury, the hitch happened following heavy traffic through their network while they are upgrading servers at the backend.





The county workers have been told to be calm as the ICT administrators are trying to fix it. The period of fixing the problem is speculated to take a minimum of five days.





According to

Jerome Ochieng, the Director of IFMIS, said the IFMIS wentdown totally today in the afternoon after two days of slow perfomance. The technical bench will resume tomorow to find the solution inorder to take it restore the system as early as possible as they will continue to upgrade the servers.

The Finance Cabinet secretary Henry Rotich said, " We are upgrading the system and at the same time adding more modules that will connect the treasury, central bank, Kenya Revenue Authority and other government financial institutions. The upgrading will end at the end of this month."

No Christmas for the county and governors support stuff as the
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Some of Bath's best-known dining spots have made it into the latest edition of the UK's most comprehensive restaurant guide.

Harden's Best UK Restaurants 2017 features 17 city venues and placed Bath 12th in the top places to dine out in the UK. Neighbouring Bristol came in fifth with 28 entries.

Every year, for 25 years running, Harden's guide collects and curate tens of thousands of reviews from restaurant-goers and report back the best and worst experiences of the last 12 months.

Each restaurant's performance is compared with others in the same price-bracket to get you the best 'bang for you buck' - regardless of your budget. Ratings are provided for food, service, and ambience.

Visit www.hardens.com for further information and to order a copy of Harden's Best UK Restaurants 2017

Here are the 17 Bath restaurants, listed in alphabetical order, that made the guide.

Acorn Vegetarian Kitchen, 2 North Parade Passage BA1 1NX

What the guide says: "imaginative, seasonal menus" to suit carnivores and vegans alike. One diner said: "I've been vegetarian for over 20 years, and this is the best veggie I've ever eaten at" Visit www.acornvegetariankitchen.co.uk or call 01225 446059

Allium Brasserie, Abbey Hotel, 1 North Parade BA1 1LF

What the guide says: Fans say that it's "a real pleasure dining here" (it was the winner of 'Top Restaurant' at the Bath Good Food Awards 2016). Visit www.abbeyhotelbath.co.uk/allium or call 01225 809380

Bath Priory Hotel, Weston Rd BA1 2XT

What the guide says: The majority of reporters this year raved about its "extremely luscious food", "fabulous" wines and "lovely" (leafy) surroundings. Visit www.thebathpriory.co.uk or call 01225 331922

Casanis, 4 Saville Row BA1 2QP

What the guide says: One reporter said: "A small bistro tucked away up a Bath side street, but worth the trudge for the very good French cuisine". *Henry's restaurant has now replaced Casanis in Saville Row

The Circus, 34 Brock St BA1 2LN

What the guide says: A "favourite", family-run bistro, near the Royal Crescent, that's the most commented-on destination in the city this year, on account of its "attentive" staff and "easy, cafe-style atmosphere", as well as its "excellent, well-presented modern European cooking." Visit www.thecircuscafeandrestaurant.co.uk or call 01225 466020

Clayton's Kitchen, 15A, George St BA1 2EN

What the guide says: Rob Clayton's "small but buzzy eatery in the middle of town" is a "great deal", especially at lunchtime, and "fresh ingredients lend seasonal variety to the cooking." Visit www.theporter.co.uk/claytons-kitchen or call 01225 585100

Colonna & Smalls, 6 Chapel Row BA1 1HN

What the guide says: An "amazing" minimal-chic cafe, by Queen Square, which "makes you realise how good coffee can taste." Visit www.colonnaandsmalls.co.uk or call 07766 808067

Gascoyne Place, 1 Sawclose BA1 1EY

What the guide says: Mixed feedback this year on this relaxed Georgian dining room and Victorian pub but fans say that it's "still a decent choice", with some "scrumptious" dishes. Visit www.gascoyneplace.co.uk or call 01225 445854

Hare & Hounds, Lansdown Rd BA1 5TJ

What the guide says: "A wonderful setting, just outside Bath" sets the scene at this "attractive" gastroboozer, consistently praised for its "great pub food and friendly staff." Visit www.hareandhoundsbath.com or call 01225 482682

Indian Temptation, 9-10 High Street (Cheap Street) BA1 5AQ

What the guide says: One fan says it all  "Fabulous authentic South Indian vegetarian food in a glorious 18th-century room with views of Bath Abbey." Visit www.indiantemptation.com or call 01225 464631

Menu Gordon Jones, 2 Wellsway BA2 3AQ

What the guide says: An "unmissable treat" on the outskirts of town (south of the city-centre)  this "highly innovative" venture delivers a "one-menu surprise for the whole room." Visit www.menugordonjones.co.uk or call 01225 480871

The Mint Room, Longmead Gospel Hall, Lower Bristol Rd BA2 3EB

What the guide says: "Setting the standard" for a curry in Bath  a "contemporary Indian", on a busy road out of the city, praised for its cooking with a "great balance of flavours". Visit www.themintroom.co.uk or call 01225 446656

The Olive Tree, Queensberry Hotel, Russell St BA1 2QF

What the guide says: Chris Cleghorn's deft, classically inspired cuisine at this well-established basement hotel dining room put in a formidable showing in this year's survey. Visit www.thequeensberry.co.uk or call 01225 447928

The Pump Room Stall St BA1 1LZ

What the guide says: "A real treat for foreign guests"  this 200-year-old Georgian landmark is a "wonderfully atmospheric" place ("especially with the string quartet" in full swing); perhaps unsurprisingly, food typically plays second fiddle. Visit www.searcys.co.uk or call 01225 444477

Scallop Shell, 22 Monmouth Place BA1 2AY

What the guide says: "Classy fish and chips (really good light, crispy batter), and many other tempting delights from the sea" win high approval ratings. Visit www.thescallopshell.co.uk or call 01225 420928

Sotto Sotto, 10 North Parade BA2 4AL

What the guide says: A "charming restaurant set in brick-lined vaults", on North Parade, where the "superb atmosphere" is matched by "delightful" Italian food and "attentive, friendly service." Visit www.sottosotto.co.uk or call 01225 330236

Yammo, 66 Walcot St BA1 5BD

What the guide says: "A little bit of Napoli in Bath", near the city-centre. The "great pizzas, tiramisu, espresso and lovely staff" make a visit to this Italian joint "really enjoyable!" Visit www.yammo.co.uk or call 01225 938328
A growth of ceasefire violations has been recorded in almost all directions of the Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan line of contact, except the northern (Gyulistan) direction, the defense ministry of Nagorno Karabakh told.

December 21, 2016, 10:01 Azerbaijani ceasefire violations in NK line of contact increase overnight
Treasure Island city leaders have to decide how to pay for costly maintenance and repairs on the causeway bridge.

Treasure Island considers tolls to pay for bridge maintenance and repairs



Causeway bridge needs $12 million in repairs over next 20 years

City got a federal grant as long as it did not have tolls on the bridge



One option thats being considered is to bring back tolls but that would break an agreement with the late Congressman Bill Young, who secured a $50 million federal grant to build a new bridge as long as there were no tolls.

"It's one of many tough issues that the city commission has to face, said city manager Reid Silverboard. There's no easy solution."

Silverboard said the yearly cost to maintain the Treasure Island causeway is $700,000. The bridge and roads will also need more than $12 million over the next 20 years for capital repairs. Silverboard said the only other option to pay for those costs would be to raise property taxes on the residents.

With property taxes, it's only on the shoulders of the 6,700 residents of Treasure Island, he said. "Seventeen thousand cars that originate from all over use that causeway and in terms of equity, it's only equitable for everyone who uses the causeway to pay for the causeway. And that would take place if there was a toll.

The president of Yacht Club Estates, Dana Tenaglia, said she believes the city should honor its agreement with Congressman Young.

In that agreement, they were not to put a toll back on the bridge, she said. Now theyre going back on their promise which was made.

Silverboard said St. Petersburg residents like Tenaglia benefit from the causeway and everyone should have to pay their fair share. Tenaglia said she and many other residents who live in South Causeway Isles will have to pay a toll every time they leave or return to their homes.

It would kill our property values, she said. We understand that theres money to maintain the road. Right now the city of St. Pete is considering taking back the land because our tax dollars could go towards maintaining that portion of the road.

Silverboard said the commission does not take breaking a promise to Congressman Young lightly.

That is an issue for them that they've struggled with, he said. But at the same time, they have a responsibility now to current residents over how are we going to pay for this and it has to be paid for.

Earlier this month, the city commission approved a contract with a tolling consultant. Silverboard said he hopes the commission will make a decision by the end of January.
Scarborough manufacturer Byron Nelson has estimated that the electricity bill for his company on Commander Blvd will reach a million dollars a year with the impact of Ontario Hydro increases and the impending Cap and Trade tax. Nelson told a news conference that his factory, which makes nuts and bolts, may well have to move to the U,S. to survive. He spoke at a meeting of the newly-formed Concerned Manufacturers of Ontario.

CHRISTMAS MARKET SECURITY

Operators of the Christmas Market in the Distillery District have installed concrete barriers at the end of walkways at their seasonal event. Added guards are in place and Toronto police have been asked to keep tabs on the district. All of this in response to the apparent terrorist attack in Berlin this week which killed 12 people and injured 50..

DOGS AND CATS

And in Tweed, Ontario (population 7,000) a woman has been found guilty of four counts of animal cruelty after 85 dogs and cats had to be removed from her urine-soaked home. The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was called to the home October 30 after receiving reports that it was overrun with animals. Fifty-two adult dogs and 23 puppies were later removed. Ten cats were also found. Tweed is about 90 kilometres northwest of Kingston, Ont.
There is no military solution to Karabakh conflict, President of Iran Hassan Rouhani said during his visit to Yerevan.

December 21, 2016, 14:15 Rouhani: No military solution to Karabakh conflict

STEPANAKERT, DECEMBER 21, ARTSAKHPRESS:Both Armenia and Azerbaijan are friendly countries for Iran, and we hope to see peace and stability in the region, as News.am reports, the President said.

This will benefit the entire region. There is no military solution to the conflict, and we would like to see a peaceful solution, he added.
A delegation from Armenia, and led by Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan, on Wednesday arrived in Georgia, on an official visit.

December 21, 2016, 16:20 Armenia, Georgia defense ministers discuss cooperation

STEPANAKERT, DECEMBER 21, ARTSAKHPRESS: After the official welcoming ceremony in capital city Tbilisi, the Armenian and Georgian Defense Ministers, Vigen Sargsyan and Levan Izoria, respectively, held a tete-a-tete, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia informed.

Subsequently, an extended meeting was conducted between the delegations of the defense ministries of the two countries.

The parties discussed Armenian-Georgian military cooperation and future plans. Also, they reflected on regional security.

The talks ended with the signing of the 2017 Bilateral Cooperation Program between the defense ministries of Armenia and Georgia.

Results of the talks were summed up at the joint news conference of the two ministers.
Oregon Coast History Museums: A Free Day, Lewis 'n Clark Event

Published 12/20/2016 at 4:03 PM PDT - Updated 12/20/2016 at 4:23 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Oregon Coast)  Lewis & Clark come to life again on the north Oregon coast at the end of December, and a new holiday tradition begins on the central Oregon coast. Both developments revolve around two different history museums along these beach towns. (Above: Newport's Maritime museum in a holiday vibe).

Take a trip back in time on the north Oregon coast  all the way back to the days of Lewis & Clark. The next History & Hops free local history lecture will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday, December 29 at Seaside Brewing Co., located at 851 Broadway.

From currency to seasoning, salt has played a vital role in human history and survival. One of the reasons the Corps of Discovery wintered near the Pacific Ocean was that it was running out of salt.. The expeditions captains were hoping for a convenient Situation to the Sea Coast where we Could make Salt, according to William Clarks November 24, 1805 journal. At the next History & Hops, retired National Park Service ranger Tom Wilson will discuss the importance of salt for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He will recount which Corps members made salt, and describe how they made the salt needed for the Expedition. Wilson will share the history of the current Salt Works site which is a memorial to the expeditions salt making endeavors.

Wilson, a popular and engaging speaker, is also a retired elementary school teacher. He began working at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park seasonally more than 20 years ago, volunteering for several years giving talks and demonstrations. During his time with the park, he participated in the parks living history programs and has portrayed Corps members at events such as the Salt Makers Return, Clarks Camp and Wintering Over. He has portrayed expedition members Private Thomas Howard, Captain William Clark, and salt maker Private William Bratton. As William Bratton, Wilson has spent multiple weekends in character, boiling water, making salt and living on the beach.

History & Hops is a monthly series of local history discussions hosted by the Seaside Museum at Seaside Brewing Co.

The Seaside Museum and Historical Society is a non-profit educational institution with the mission to collect, preserve and interpret materials illustrative of the history of Seaside and the surrounding area. The museum is located at 570 Necanicum Drive, Seaside and is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. More information can be found at www.seasidemuseum.org.

Down on the central Oregon coast, new Christmas Eve tradition begins this December 24th. The Pacific Maritime Heritage Center in Newport will be offering free museum admission, goodies, hot cocoa fixings and popcorn, while supplies last, from 11 am to 4 pm on Christmas Eve.

For you last minute shoppers the gift shop will be open. The latest book titles in local, regional, and maritime history will be available for purchase along with the work of local artisans. Non-electric/electronic wooden toys that are sure to inspire and delight your children and grandchildren await your purchase; no batteries needed. Lincoln County Historical Society members will receive a 20% discount on most gift shop items. If youre looking for something truly special, check out the Low Tide Landscapes fine art photography exhibit in the Maritime Gallery, where many of the pieces are for sale. The Burrows House Museum will be closed on Christmas Eve.

The Pacific Maritime Heritage Center is located at 333 SE Bay Blvd on Newports Historic Bayfront. Parking is available at the top of the hill. For more information, call 541-265-7509. Oregon Coast Hotels for these events - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours

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This year, hungry Southeast Texans welcomed dozens of new dining options, as existing businesses expanded and new ones set up shop in the Golden Triangle.

Among the regional staples that opened locations in new cities were Woogie's in downtown Beaumont, Boutte's Boudin in Lumberton and J&J's Wings and Seafood in Orange and Beaumont.
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Christmas, as anyone with fingers clawing at wrapping paper understands, is the celebration of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

While Christmas needs no further introduction, a legend surrounding St. Nicholas, who became Santa Claus, occupied a parallel track.

When you pare away the myths, you're left with what amounts to coercion - of the positive type - to reward good behavior.

A collection of 10 iterations of Santa Claus is on display at the Calder Woods retirement center's library, acquired and donated by one of its residents, Evelyn Lord, who once served as mayor of Beaumont.

The collection, created by Carleen Faucett and Jane Covington over the course of 10 years - one Claus per year - is perhaps one of seven in the hands of private collectors. The makers kept a set for each of them and the rest went to "subscribers," Lord said.

"In western civilization, it seems a necessity to have a figure who rewards the good," Lord said.

As a girl growing up in Boston, Lord remembers receiving a lump of coal a time or two in the toe of the stocking she hung by the chimney with care.

That helps to explain the figure of "Black Peter," a fearsome-looking traveling companion of the good Mr. Claus. Black Peter kept the record books. And he had a quiver full of switches for the bad children.

His record book was titled "Das Kinder Verboten," which loosely translated means, "No soup for you."

Ancient Russia had its version in a figure called "Father Ice," whose power to withhold reward from the bad-behaving is cold. Really cold cold.

"Father Ice turned a screaming girl into a pillar of ice," reads a small pamphlet with Lord's Father Ice figure.

The medieval Santa Claus, from the early 12th century, notes that St. Nicholas had been a saint for 300 years and a legend for 600 years previously.

He had the ability to fly, akin to the power of Odin, the Norse god. It is along one of those parallel tracks that the pagan mixed in with the birth of Jesus and his redemption for mankind on the cross in Jerusalem.

There is no consensus of what Saint Nicholas might have looked like, but scholars place him somewhere in Asia Minor, the area of the seat of the Byzantine empire.

Another figure, this time of a woman, is La Befana, who rose in Italy. Her legend is that she was invited by the wise men to witness the birth of Jesus, but she was reluctant, claiming she still had cleaning chores, which is why she is shown with a broom.

La Befana soon realized what she missed and to make up for it, she took gifts of fruit to children.

Lord, who last week turned 90, remembers an early Christmas when her parents surprised her with a big doll she wanted and her brother got a fire engine he could ride. When the gift wrap was pulled away, there was the doll, seated in the fire engine.

"We both got what we wanted," she said.

Lord's collection even includes a Mongol-Asian Santa Claus, who was brought to the East by the explorer Marco Polo in the early 14th century to the region ruled by Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis. The Chinese Revolt in the late 14th century put an end to Santa in the East.

Kris Kringle is there, courtesy of the Germans and the name comes from Christkringl, the Christ Child.

On Christmas Day, Lord said she will be content to sit with her cat, Chloe. She will join the rest of her Calder Woods community for lunch and her collection will be on display, each adorned in rich vestments, until early January and then back they go to their place of safety until next Christmas.

"Adults understand Christmas," she said. "You need a mythical figure to reach a child."

DWallach@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/DWallach
A new role likely won't prevent U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer from completing his annual tour of New York's 62 counties in 2017.

Schumer, D-N.Y., celebrated the completion of his 18th 62-county tour Wednesday. He's toured each of New York's counties every year since first being elected to the Senate in 1998.

This year's tour was capped off with a visit to Columbia County.

According to Schumer's office, he made at least 189 visits to Long Island and upstate New York this year. He traveled to central New York 22 times, including a Cayuga County stop in March.

"When I first ran for the Senate, I made a promise that I would visit all 62 counties in my first year in office and I have continued this tradition every single year because of how much I learn  and how much I enjoy doing it," Schumer, D-N.Y., said.

He added, "I've always said, 'Senators who stay in Washington and never return home are simply not doing their job.' That's why I go to the street fairs, the parades and all kinds of public events. Whether I'm in Hamilton County or Wyoming County, I'm always mixing and mingling with my constituents."

Schumer says the 62-county will continue next year even though he's been elected to lead the Senate Democratic Conference.

As minority leader, Schumer will have added responsibilities and he's positioning himself as the top Democrat to square off against President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican, and GOP majorities in Congress.

But his new role won't prevent him from touring New York.

Schumer first toured each of New York's 62 counties in 1999. He made a pledge on the campaign trail in 1998 when then-U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, a Republican, claimed Schumer wouldn't venture upstate.

During a 2015 appearance in Syracuse, Schumer said he enjoyed the first swing through New York so much he decided to do it again. He's now completed the 62-county tour each of his 18 years in the Senate.

On Wednesday, Schumer said the visits to New York's 62 counties make him a better public servant.

"In visit after visit after visit, every pin I place on the map of New York busts the D.C. bubble that can trap a politician in Washington and leave them out of touch with those who hired them," he said. "Well, I LOVE New York, and in my new leadership position I promise that I will keep up the visits and continue to work just as hard for the people of this state as I ever have."
Officers are searching for a suspect who allegedly shot a man and left him in critical condition near the intersection of Harrison Avenue and Center Street, according to a release from Beaumont Police Department.

When officials arrived to the scene shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday, they found the man in a grassy area with a gunshot wound, the release states.
CMS created a Medicare-Medicaid ACO model to improve the quality of care and lower costs to the programs' beneficiaries.

Here's what you need to know.

1. The model mirrors the Medicare Shared Savings Program, and advances efforts to collaborate with states to "transform" healthcare delivery systems.

CMS' Acting Principal Deputy Administrator Patrick Conway, MD, said the model will improve care coordination lessening the amount of administrative work for physicians.

"In the long run, this partnership will result in healthier people and smarter spending," Dr. Conway said.

2. CMS created the model to award quality of care and not quantity, and is in line with value-based care initiatives.

3. Under the current model, ACOs aren't held financially accountable for Medicaid expenditures. Under this new model, the ACOs will focus on quality of care and Medicare and Medicaid costs.

4. CMS is accepting letters of intent from states that want to create "state specific" elements of the model. The ACO model is open to all states in the U.S.
During the antitrust trial over the Anthem-Cigna deal, a government witness said the merger may hurt consumers in certain cities and states, according to Hartford Courant.

Here are five notes:

1. David Dranove, PhD, a healthcare economic professor at Chicago-based Northwestern University, said the merger would yield higher prices and worse care in many metropolitan areas and states.

2. During his testimony, Dr. Dranove challenged Anthem's stance that smaller, regional insurers would be sufficient competition to keep prices low if the deal came to fruition. Dr. Dranove said, "If you have a highly concentrated market and you have a merger, you go from bad to worse."

3. Dr. Dranove said the Anthem-Cigna deal would serve to physicians and hospitals' detriment, as they would lose leverage. With fewer payers in the marketplace, providers may not be able to reject an insurer if they do not reimburse them sufficiently for various services. The American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association have both opposed the merger due to concerns over lower reimbursements.

4. On Dec. 20, 2016, Jonathan Orszag, an economist and principal of the Chicago-based consulting firm Compass Lexecon, said the payers have different targets  Humana on Medicare Advantage and Aetna on commercial group insurance policies. Therefore, Mr. Orszag says the two payers are well matched for such a deal.

5. Mr. Orszag also said the deal would not limit choices for seniors as they can still opt for fee-for-service Medicare, as opposed to the MA market. He also said CMS regulates both programs and therefore the government "is setting the terms for competition."
The New York Times ran an article debating whether Medicare should allow beneficiaries to undergo total knee replacement in outpatient centers with surgeons representing both sides of the issue.

At the center of the story, Ira Kirschenbaum, MD, chairman of orthopedics at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in New York and co-founder of SwiftPath, a technology designed to support outpatient joint replacement centers, describes his satisfaction with the outpatient knee replacement he underwent. At 59 years old, he isn't eligible for Medicare, but he mused that once "crazy" idea of sending patients home after total knee replacements is now a common consideration in his surgical practice.

Surgeons and healthcare professionals are divided about whether outpatient total knee replacement surgery is safe for Medicare beneficiaries; some surgeons have had success with outpatient procedures while others worry the widespread implementation could lead to complications and patient safety issues.

Both sides concede that not every patient  particularly in the Medicare population  is a good candidate for the outpatient setting. In general, outpatient surgery centers serve otherwise-healthy patients undergoing elective procedures. Advancement in surgical technique and pain management partnered with a better understanding of post-surgical rehabilitation and patient education have made outpatient knee replacement possible for a certain subset of patients.

Earlier this year, Medicare floated the idea of removing total knee replacements from the inpatient only list; the agency did so once before in 2012 but abandoned its efforts after receiving negative feedback, according to the report. However, there is more support for outpatient total knee replacements today, according to recent CMS comments. MedPAC recommended CMS remove the procedure from the inpatient-only list in August.

Typically, the physician and patient make the decision together about the appropriate site of service for surgery, but Medicare currently does not reimburse for total joint replacements in ASCs. CMS will likely decide whether to remove total joint replacements from the inpatient only list in 2017. The Times article notes this decision could be reflective of a "changing of the guard" on Capitol Hill, as President-elect Donald Trump takes office with a philosophy to limit government controls.
CMS released a rule on Tuesday that finalizes a mandatory bundled payment program for heart attacks and bypass surgeries and expands the existing Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement model.

Here are 10 things to know about the final rule.

1. Under the final rule, acute care hospitals in certain markets will be accountable for the cost and quality of care provided to heart attack, coronary bypass and surgical hip and femur fracture patients beginning with hospitalization and extending 90 days after discharge.

2. The rule expands the existing CJR model to include additional surgical treatments for hip and femur fractures.

3. Hospitals will receive retrospective episode-based payments under the new bundles. Hospitals that spend less than the target price for the episode of care while meeting or exceeding quality standards keep the savings achieved. A hospital is required to repay Medicare if the costs exceed the target price.

4. The final rule includes a cardiac rehabilitation payment model, which will test whether a payment incentive can increase the utilization of cardiac rehabilitative services. These services have historically been underused by Medicare beneficiaries, according to CMS.

5. The heart attack and coronary bypass bundled payment model will be mandatory for hospitals in 98 metropolitan statistical areas. Approximately 1,120 hospitals will participate in the cardiac bundling model.

6. About 860 hospitals will participate in the hip and femur fracture bundles, which will be tested in the 67 MSAs already selected for the CJR model.

7. The cardiac rehabilitation payment model will be implemented in 90 MSAs, 45 of which were not selected for the heart attack and coronary bypass models. Approximately 1,320 hospitals will participate in the cardiac rehabilitation payment model.

8. The cardiac bundles and the expanded CJR model qualify as Advanced Alternative Payment Models under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act and the Quality Payment Program.

9. The American Hospital Association said it was pleased with some parts of the final rule, including the flexibility the rule provides regarding MACRA participation. However, the AHA expressed concern about the pace of change. "The bundled payment model for cardiac care is the second mandatory demonstration project the agency has finalized in just the past 15 months," said the AHA. "This is too much, too soon."

10. Under the final rule, the bundles will begin July 1, 2017.

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Marshalltown-based Central Iowa Healthcare, which includes a 49-bed acute care hospital, an outpatient center and four primary care clinics, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday.

As part of its bankruptcy filing, CIH submitted a plan to sell the bulk of it assets to UnityPoint Health-Waterloo (Iowa), an affiliate of West Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health. CIH expects the transaction to close in the first quarter of 2017.

UnityPoint Health-Waterloo has offered to financially support CIH's operations during the pending sale and throughout the bankruptcy case.

CIH said it will continue to operate as normal during the bankruptcy case and after the transaction closes. Once the transaction is finalized, CIH encourages its employees to seek employment with the new UnityPoint Health team.

The Chapter 11 case is pending in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

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When David Margolis, MD, learned Nordstrom sold out of $85 leather-wrapped rocks this year, he was inspired to start a fundraising campaign called "Rocks for a Reason."

Dr. Margolis pledged to send every person who donated $85 to Milwaukee-based Children's Hospital of Wisconsin  where he serves as director of the bone marrow transplant program  a rock in the mail.

"I figured if people were willing to pay $85 for rock that didn't do anything, there must be some people out there who would be willing to pay $85 for a rock that would help bring joy to kids in the hospital," Dr. Margolis said in a statement. The donations go toward medical care, community-based health initiatives and research, according to the hospital website, which proclaims, "And on top of that, you'll still get a rock, and it'll be sent to you by Dr. Margolis himself!"

The rocks, originally gathered from Lake Michigan, come with a tag signed by Dr. Margolis. A local landscaper stepped in to donate the rest of the rocks once Dr. Margolis learned taking rocks from the Lake Michigan shoreline violated a local ordinance.

The campaign has already garnered $50,000 from more than 500 individual donors in 39 states, and Nordstrom pledged to match those funds, bringing the total to more than $100,000.

"I have been blown away by the support we have received. And now this generous gift from Nordstrom. It's heartwarming how many people are reaching out to help us help kids! We are going to need more rocks," Dr. Margolis said in statement.

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UNION SPRINGS  When Kirsta Malone first met Matt Chadwick, he had braces on both of his legs.

Born with a traumatic brain injury, Chadwick could only use one hand and needed a walker to get around. But in fourth grade, he had a request: Chadwick wanted to ride a horse.

A licensed occupational therapist at Chadwick's school, Malone was also the owner of Green Goose Acres in Union Springs, where she had several horses on her farm. And together, she, Chadwick and his parents decided to give it a go.

"For that first year, all we worked on was getting him to sit in his saddle because his balance was so poor," Malone said. "But as we saw tremendous gains in his core strength and balance ... I changed him to a different saddle which had very little support. And we continued on our riding progress."

For four years, Malone worked with Chadwick, switching saddles that required the use of two hands and more balance. Soon, Chadwick's doctors removed his leg braces. Then he stopped using his walker and began typing with both hands. And now, at 25 years old, Chadwick has moved into an apartment in Union Springs, where he rides horses on his own.

"He's incredible," Malone said. "He lives by himself now and is basically totally independent. Matt is such an amazing story and I feel very blessed to be a part of it."

Still, Chadwick is just one of Malone's many success stories in Cayuga County as she continues to use her experience as an occupational therapist and her love of horses to help others.

In 2012, Malone resigned from her job at Lifespan Therapies and began studying hippotherapy, a strategy in which trained occupational, physical and speech therapists use horses to treat people with neurological, muscular and sensory impairments.

"When you put a person on a horse's back, their pelvis is directly in line with the horse's pelvis," Malone explained. "In one half-hour hippotherapy session, the horse takes 2,500 steps ... whereas in a half-hour physical therapy session in a clinic, you'd maybe get 100."

In addition, Malone said, hippotherapy is the only therapy that can stimulate every portion of the human brain, as the horse provides visual, auditory and sensory information while engaging a person's emotions.

"It really dawned on me that this was a viable strategy for helping a lot of people," she said. "So I started with a couple of patients that were on my school-based caseload, and we just grew from there."

But as Malone began to expand her services, she found most clients could not afford her treatment, as many insurance companies do not cover the cost of hippotherapy.

That's why, in 2015, Malone opened the not-for-profit agency Healing H'Arts Equestrian Center, allowing her to qualify for grants and provide scholarships to patients.

Last year, Malone said Healing H'Arts treated 10 patients with hippotherapy and two patients with "therapeutic riding," a less intense, recreationally based program. As the organization plans to build an indoor facility in the spring  which will extend her programming all year-round  Malone said she expects her list of clients to grow.

"There is a big need for hippotherapy in Cayuga County," she said, noting that she already has five people on a waiting list. "We've also been contacted by a couple of agencies that would like to do group therapy riding, which we hope to accommodate as we expand our facility."

Fortunately, Malone said, Healing H'Arts was one of five "What Matters to You?" contest winners last month, winning a $500 grant from the Central New York Community Foundation that will help build the new barn and indoor facility. Still, the program will need more funding, therapy horses and volunteers, as it only has four horses currently trained for hippotherapy and needs three volunteers  two side walkers and a horse handler  for each session.

"It's been quite a journey ... and we've had a lot of great stories here at Healing H'Arts," Malone said. "From a little boy who had autism to a young man with Down syndrome, every single one of them has a story. ... And hopefully we can find the funds and volunteers to be able to share some more."
Congressional Republicans are asking CMS for details on Medicaid expansion under the ACA before the Obama administration leaves office in January, according to the Morning Consult.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah, and Reps. Joe Pitts, Pa., and Tim Murphy, Pa., wrote a letter to CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt Dec. 19, asking how the agency ensures people who are ineligible for Medicaid don't enroll in the program.

The authors of the letter say they want to make sure federal dollars aren't being spent on people who don't qualify for Medicaid.

"With millions of Americans enrolled in the program, inconsistencies in CMS's approach to expansion populations and expenditures can shift billions of dollars to states and taxpayers," they wrote, according to the report.

Sen. Hatch and Reps. Pitts and Murphy asked Mr. Slavitt to respond within 30 days of receiving the letter, according to the report.
Many times, hospitals and unions are able to reach labor deals without a walkout.

However, union members sometimes decide to strike due to disputes over staffing, benefits and other contract terms.

When that happens, hospitals are left with a myriad of costs. These costs can vary, depending on the duration of the strike and the number of workers affected, among other factors.

Minneapolis-based Allina Health's bottom line took a $104.8 million hit in the first nine months of 2016 from strikes called by the Minnesota Nurses Association, including $84.68 million of strike expenses in the three months that ended Sept. 30.

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 more than 1,000 replacement nurses.

Health benefits were again the sticking point when more than 4,000 Allina nurses went back on strike in September. The six-week strike ran from Sept. 5 to mid-October.

Salinas (Calif.) Valley Memorial Healthcare System faced a strike in May by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents roughly 700 employees at SVMH, ranging from housekeeping and food service workers to radiology technicians. The health system incurred approximately $1.6 million in costs associated with the one-day strike, $1.4 million of which was due to hiring replacement workers.

Sometimes preparing for a planned strike can be costly, even if it doesn't take place.

In fiscal year 2016, Boston-based Partners HealthCare took an $8 million hit from spending on strike preparations at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Nurses planned to stage a one-day strike beginning June 27. The week before the planned strike, the hospital dialed down operations, transferred hundreds of patients and canceled procedures and appointments, causing the hospital to lose another $16 million in revenue. However, the strike was averted when the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents 3,300 nurses at Brigham, and hospital officials reached a three-year agreement.

Although bringing in replacement workers is often a primary cost associated with a strike, there are also lesser-known costs involved.

Advertising costs



When a strike is planned, some hospitals will advertise those plans or use advertising to counter an argument made by a union.

From an overarching marketing or branding perspective, the area of marketing that would be related to a strike is referred to as crisis management, according to David Neff, president and CEO of Philadelphia-based advertising and public relations firm Neff Associates. While some might view crisis management as a public relations function, part of that function is getting the message out to constituent groups that will further a particular message.

From a marketing perspective, there are many variables that affect what action a hospital takes regarding a strike, including how adverse the situation is, how many employees would be affected, how the local strike would affect the community and the cost of advertising in a market where a strike is planned, says Mr. Neff.

For instance, he noted a hospital will spend significantly less to do an advertising campaign in Omaha, Neb., than it would to do an advertising campaign with the same goals and objectives in New York City, Miami or Boston.

"By virtue the higher the out-of-pocket costs, the more people are going to be exposed to the messaging," says Mr. Neff. "That's why a lot of unions get involved in these labor fights. Unions will have their own ad campaign trying to garner constituent support among their peers like the hospital will. Both sides will spend money to try to further their position."

Legal, administrative and other costs

Tim Garrett, a lawyer with Nashville, Tenn.-based Bass, Berry & Sims, said anytime there is a strike or disruption in work activity, a hospital will see an added layer of legal and administrative costs as well.

He specifically noted costs that can come when physicians decide to postpone non-emergency surgeries during the strike.

"They [the physicians] may not want to have to rely on replacement workers in the midst of a walkout, so they may decide not to proceed with a certain surgery if it's not an urgent situation or may seek other options," he says.

Still, he acknowledged that some costs associated with a strike are speculative, and it's difficult to give a fair assessment, since so much depends on the reactions of the constituencies, the patients and the physicians.

And, as far as the cost of bringing in replacement staff, Mr. Garrett noted that some hospital workers may decide to cross the picket line and not strike, or may decide to cross the picket line during the walkout, so the cost of replacement workers may fluctuate based on the length of the strike and how long staff stays away from their job. Additionally, another possible cost involved with a strike is overtime, as some workers do cross the picket line and are willing to take on added shifts.

Mr. Garrett also noted hospitals often must pay replacement workers for a specified minimum amount of time as part of their agreement, regardless of whether they are needed for that entire time.

Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System

After bargaining with the California Nurses Association for more than 15 months and avoiding a strike, Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System almost immediately began negotiating a contract for members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers. The hospital was hopeful that a strike could be averted. However, after nearly a year of talks, both sides reached an impasse.

NUHW called a one-day strike last May. The hospital was prepared and many of the aforementioned costs played a role in the strike. Michelle Childs, chief human resources officer at Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System, says the hospital has a contingency plan and keeps it updated in the event a walkout should occur.

"You are looking to see where you need replacement workers within the organization, and where your current staff can augment in the staffing schedule," she says. "While the strike was technically only one day, our replacement worker agency required a three-day contract. Many agencies require an even longer commitment. The first priority is and always will be patient safety. You need to have the trained staff on hand to meet your quality and patient satisfaction goals. It is not easy."

Ms. Childs says there is also typically a need to augment security because a strike situation can be disruptive, so hospitals may incur expenses with that. Additionally, she says, there may be costs for off-site parking and shuttle service for contingency workers and staff during the strike. During the strike last May at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, the hospital asked staff to park off-site and provided 24/7 shuttle service to and from the hospital to the off-site parking.

The hospital also chose to provide free meals in the cafeteria for all staff during the strike  both replacement workers and all team members. Ms. Childs says those food costs for Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System amounted to about $50,000. While it is not a required strike expense, it is one Ms. Childs says made a difference in the work environment during the labor action. She says it was also a strategic decision in terms of system flow  ensuring everyone was well fed during longer than normal shifts and ensuring the check out process in the cafeteria didn't impact people getting back to their units in a timely fashion.

"Planning was key for our organization," Ms. Childs says. "For us, during the strike, we attempted to maintain business as usual as best we could. No once likes to face the prospect of a strike, but having a thoughtful plan in the event of a strike can actually save you money in the long run. Most importantly, it offers the best chance to reduce any negative impact on patients and your other staff."

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Officials with Tennessee's Medicaid program, TennCare, have reached an agreement with CMS to extend the state's Section 1115 waiver through June 2021, according to The Tennessean.

The waiver expired at the end of June, but it was extended multiple times while TennCare officials negotiated with CMS. A sticking point during the negotiations was the federal funding that subsidizes Tennessee hospitals' uncompensated care costs.

Under the new agreement, the federal government will continue subsidizing hospitals' uncompensated care costs at current levels through June 30, 2017. During a one-year transition period that begins July 1, 2017, the federal government will increase payments made to the hospitals. After that, Tennessee will have to create a new system for dispersing funding to hospitals that limits the federal subsidies.

The new methodology will require additional state funding, which will be covered, in part, by an assessment on hospitals, according to the report.

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Charles Koontz currently serves as chief digital officer of Chicago-based GE Healthcare and president and CEO of Barrington, Ill.-based GE Healthcare IT.

Mr. Koontz started his role earlier this year, but he's already helping GE make a number of exciting moves in the healthcare space. In November, GE Healthcare Partners  an advisory firm within GE Healthcare  partnered with Chicago-based Rush University Medical Center to build a command center that will use predictive analytics to manage patient flow. GE has already helped Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Hospital launch the Judy Reitz Capacity Command Center, a NASA-inspired command center that utilizes analytics to enhance hospital operations.

Here, Mr. Koontz spoke with Becker's Hospital Review about his roles at GE, GE's command centers and the future of digital care.

Note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Question: What initially drew you to a career in IT?

Charles Koontz: I started my career at General Electric as an engineering co-op student. What drew me to IT was its disruptive nature. It's improving productivity that's been key and top of mind to me. I find it hugely rewarding. I also find that a lot of money is wasted in IT if programs aren't managed with the necessary rigor.

I never really considered joining GE again until I learned about its digital industry strategy, which I found very compelling. When you add on top of that the install base and visualization software that GE Healthcare has, I wonder, "Who better else than GE to help lead our customers into their digital future?"

Q: You joined GE Healthcare in March. What do you see as your biggest accomplishment in your first nine months in your position?

CK: First of all, I'm most proud of standing up the digital organization. The talent we're able to attract is quite rewarding, and the talent that we're building is world-class.

I'm also proud of our clinical partnerships. We have one with the University of California, San Francisco and another with Boston Children's. The UCSF one is focused on building applications for the diseases of the lung, and the Boston Children's one is all about pediatric brain applications.

Q: Could you discuss how GE and Rush University Medical Center have joined forces to build a command center?

CK: We also have a similar partnership with Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins. The command centers have a finger on the pulse of the operation of the hospital. It's a smoother way of using operational data to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Over the next few years, we'll likely sign at least one new command center every quarter.

Q: How is GE Healthcare working to improve health IT for both clinicians and patients?

CK: We are working to put our devices back on top. We will essentially be leapfrogging on our competitors from an imaging visualization perspective.

Another key area we're investing in is collaboration. Worldwide, there's a shortage of radiologists and an increase in radiology exams. There's a need for images to be taken in one hospital and then be read by a radiologist in a hospital 100 miles away.

We are investing half a billion dollars in our digital strategy and we have 5,000 engineers working to execute it. Digital strategy for GE is top priority, but it's equally important for healthcare.

Q: What do you see as the future of digital care?

CK: The future, quite frankly, is now. The use of the cloud and the application of artificial intelligence/deep learning will be part of the future.

As an example, we are using artificial intelligence much more now. The key to applying artificial intelligence in the clinical sense is having curated images. Say we have 1,500 images that have been verified as cancer in the lung. We take those and run them through our AI/deep learning algorithm, which then learns to verify nodules in the lung. At some point, the algorithm is smart enough to be able to identify with 99.9 percent accuracy that a certain image is cancer. Whether it's breast cancer, prostate cancer or a disease of the brain, you have to have curated data sets. These algorithms will advance clinician productivity and exam accuracy.
The following hospital and health system CEO moves were reported by Becker's Hospital Review in the last week. They are listed below, beginning with the most recent.

1. Bastrop, La.-based Morehouse General Hospital found a permanent CEO in Derrick Frazier, effective Dec. 27.

2. Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton (Mass.) named Richard Fernandez CEO, effective Jan. 30.

3. Pine Ridge (S.D.) Hospital, a 45-bed facility in the Indian Health Service Great Plains Area, welcomed Mark Meersman as CEO.

4. The Fairfield (Texas) Hospital District Board of Directors named Stace Holland hospital CEO.

5. Longtime President and CEO of the California Hospital Association Duane Dauner will retire when his employment agreement ends Dec. 31, 2018.

6. Ryan Jensen will leave his post as CEO of The Memorial Hospital of Salem (N.J.) County in January to become the CEO at Las Vegas-based Desert Springs Hospital.

7. Rutherfordton, N.C.-based Rutherford Regional Health System, a part of Brentwood, Tenn.-based Duke LifePoint Healthcare, appointed Rebecca Segal CEO, effective Jan. 16, 2017.

8. Easton (Pa.) Hospital CEO John Zidansek resigned, after three years at the helm of the hospital.

9. Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Parkridge Health System named Thomas H. Ozburn CEO, effective Feb. 1, 2017.

10. Oswego (N.Y.) Health CEO Chuck Gijanto is leaving his post.
Bastrop, La.-based Morehouse General Hospital has found a permanent CEO in Derrick Frazier, effective Dec. 27.

Mr. Frazier will replace Gary Kendrick, who currently serves as the hospital's interim CEO. Previously, Mr. Frazier served as CEO of 66-bed Homer (La.) Memorial Hospital. Before that he held management roles with Phoebe Putney Health System in Albany, Ga., including chief administrative officer for the system's Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center in Cuthbert, Ga., and associate vice president of operations for Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital.

Morehouse General Hospital has also announced the appointment of Bill Storck as interim CFO. Mr. Storck joined the hospital in November from Monroe County Hospital in Forsythe, Ga., where he also served as interim CFO.
Social skills have made a comeback in the labor market in the 2000s compared to the mid-1980s and 1990s, according to a new working paper published by The National Bureau of Economic Research and featured by FiveThirtyEight.com.

The paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, shows that jobs with high social skill requirements grew 10 percent from 1980 to 2012, while more math-intensive, less-social job opportunities declined by 3 percent over the same time period. Many of the jobs in decline included STEM jobs, according to the paper.

The paper uses a model that shows social skills can help "reduce coordination costs, allowing workers to specialize and trade more efficiently," the author wrote. This may explain the shift in growth of jobs requiring high social skills. An analysis of the paper by FiveThirtyEight.com suggests this growth may also be because many mathematics-related jobs can be automated, while those requiring people skills often cannot. "[C]omputers aren't good at simulating human interaction," the paper's author, David Deming, PhD, an associate professor of economics at Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard, told FiveThirtyEight.

Luckily for those in the healthcare field, the paper suggests the best jobs are those that require both cognitive and social skills. Those types of jobs experienced strong employment and wage growth over the study period.

One other interesting finding: Women tend to fill the jobs requiring more social skills. As jobs requiring people skills have grown, so has the breakdown of the type of tasks women perform at work  while men's tasks have remained relatively unchanged.

Read more here.

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As public awareness of and openness to transgenderism increases, the demand for trans-specific medical care is surging, even among young pediatric patients, according to STAT.

Physicians at the 30-plus clinics for transgender youth across the U.S. can barely accommodate the thousands of young patients vying for counseling, hormone treatments and genital surgery.

Here are five things to know about rising demand for transgender health services and the challenges that persist for those who seek it.

1. Established transgender clinics are already inundated with patients. For example, Chicago's Lurie Children's Hospital opened its trans clinic four years ago and already has 500 patients and a four-month waiting list. The largest transgender clinic, the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, treats 725 trans youth from across the western U.S.

2. STAT's report focused on the practice of Johannah Olson-Kennedy, MD, who treats 500 of the 725 trans patients at the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Olson-Kennedy said her youngest patients, including toddlers, receive only counseling. She begins medical interventions for patients whose gender dysphoria persists into adolescents, as the development of secondary sex characteristics can be a serious trigger for trans patients.

"I've had mothers call me who say their child tries to kill themselves every time they have their period," Dr. Olson-Kennedy told STAT. "Parents come in saying, 'My kid tried to cut off his penis with dental floss.'"

3. Not all physicians agree with Dr. Olson-Kennedy and her colleagues' approach. Some believe young patients will grow out of their gender discomfort, or that children should wait until they are 18 to make gender altering decisions. Many others would like to see data on whether delaying puberty and transitioning genders at a younger age is safe in the long run, according to the report.

4. In 2015, Dr. Olson-Kennedy and three other leading trans youth physicians received the first grant from the National Institutes of Health to study transgender youth. The $5.7 million, five-year study will evaluate 300 transgender youth, some of whom received puberty-blocking hormones and others who took masculinizing or feminizing hormones after puberty, according to the report. Researchers will evaluate the effect of treatment on mental health and determine the safety of the treatments.

5. Physicians who provide treatment and counseling to transgender patients face many roadblocks, including those created by insurance companies, as some deny coverage or only partially cover care for patients with gender dysphoria. But the most top-of-mind worry for providers treating trans patients now is that the gains achieved in the transgender community will be eroded under President-elect Donald Trump. "It's my number one concern right now," Dr. Olson-Kennedy said, according to the report. "I'm very worried."
The following is a roundup of recent events pertaining to hospital-union relationships, including strikes, legal battles, rallies and new contract agreements. All events were reported in December.

1. Union files NLRB complaint against Pomona Valley Hospital over quality concerns

The Service Employees International Union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board last week, alleging Pomona (Calif.) Valley Hospital Medical Center was unlawfully trying to prevent workers from speaking out about potentially dangerous working conditions, reports Los Angeles Times. The hospital denies those allegations.

2. Tacoma General nurses expected to ratify contract, cancel strike vote

Nurses at MultiCare Health System's Tacoma (Wash.) General Hospital reached a tentative agreement with management on staffing ratios, reports The News Tribune. The agreement covers more than 700 nurses represented by the Washington State Nurses Association.

3. Union and Women & infants strike tentative labor deal

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island in Providence reached a tentative agreement with SEIU 1199 New England, according to the hospital. The agreement came days after hospital nurses and other workers, represented by the union, voted to authorize a potential strike.

4. Grays Harbor Community Hospital approves 2% wage for unionized employees A number of employees at Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen, Wash., will receive an early holiday gift. The workers, represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21, can expect to see a 2 percent increase in wages in their Dec. 23 paycheck, reports The Daily World. The wage increase was announced Monday and is effective from Dec. 4.

5. Indiana Regional Medical Center, nurses reach tentative labor deal

Nursing staff at Indiana (Pa.) Regional Medical Center reached a tentative agreement with the hospital, averting a strike planned for later this month, according to an Indiana Gazette report. The Indiana Registered Nurses Association represents the workers.

6. NLRB to take up SEIU's complaint against Mayo

A union complaint against Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic is headed to federal court, according to a Post-Bulletin report. Months ago, the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Minnesota filed paperwork contending Mayo "failed to bargain in good faith" with union members at its facility in Albert Lea, Minn., according to the article. Now, the National Labor Relations Board has determined the union's complaint has merit, meaning the complaint will move forward to a hearing with an administrative law judge, reports the Post-Bulletin, citing a board decision. As of Dec. 13, a date for the hearing had not been set.

7. Grays Harbor Community Hospital, nurses reach labor deal

Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen, Wash., reached an agreement with the Washington State Nurses Association, according to the hospital. The contract will be in place for the next three years.

8. Nurses file labor complaint against St. Charles Health System over flu shot or mask policy

The Oregon Nurses Association filed an unfair labor practice charge against St. Charles Health System in Bend, Ore., over the system's recently introduced policy of requiring employees to either get vaccinated against influenza or wear a mask through peak flu season, according to a report from KTVZ. The ONA claims St. Charles violated the rights of its employees under the National Labor Relations Act by not bargaining with the nurses over the change in working conditions.

9. Delaware County Memorial Hospital workers rally for new contract, more staff

Nurses and medical technicians at Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill, Pa., picketed for a new contract with the hospital's for-profit owner, Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings, according to a Delaware County Daily Times report. The workers have been without a contract since joining the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals last January and have raised concerns about staffing.

10. Montefiore nurses turn to baked goods to highlight hospital staffing issues

Nurses, elected officials and community leaders hosted a bake sale for patient care Monday to highlight staffing issues at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, N.Y., according to an announcement from the New York State Nurses Association. Nurses claim Montefiore has a staffing issue that is causing overcrowding and even keeping patients in hallways.

11. Philadelphia nurses to vote on tentative labor deals with Tenet

Nearly 1,400 Philadelphia nurses reached tentative agreements on first contracts with Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, according to a report on Philly.com. The contract covers 940 nurses at Hahnemann University Hospital, 400 nurses at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and 30 nurses at St. Christopher's Pediatric Outpatient Clinic. All nurses are represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, according to the report.
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Broward Health's ex-CEO Pauline Grant filed a lawsuit Tuesday against North Broward Hospital District, which does business as Broward Health, over alleged open-meetings law violations, according to the Sun Sentinel.

Broward Health's board voted 4-1 on Dec. 1 to fire Ms. Grant. The board voted to remove Ms. Grant from her position after an independent counsel review showed potential violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute.

A subsequent independent investigation found Ms. Grant "ran afoul" of federal anti-kickback law when awarding emergency room contracts to orthopedic physicians seeking to participate in Broward Health North's on-call emergency department rotation. However, the investigation found she did not receive direct payments for her actions.

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, Ms. Grant accuses Broward's general counsel Lynn Barrett and four Broward board members of violating the Florida open-meetings law to bring about her termination. Ms. Grant alleges that before the Dec. 1 meeting, Ms. Barrett had discussions with board members about her dismissal, even though her firing was not on the meeting's agenda.

In an affidavit filed with the suit, board member Sheela VanHoose, who was at an out-of-state conference when the board voted to oust Ms. Grant, said she learned of the kickback allegations when Ms. Barrett called her just before the Dec. 1 meeting was scheduled to begin. Ms. VanHoose claims Ms. Barrett called to inform her that outside counsel had been retained to examine the allegations against Ms. Grant.

"In essence, the general counsel conducted a secret investigation into the petitioner over the course of several months, specifically told the petitioner that she was not under investigation, and then used outside counsel to conduct these rapid-fire meetings with only the information that there may have been a violation of the law," states the lawsuit, according to the Sun Sentinel.

The Broward County State Attorney's Office is investigating whether the meeting violated Florida's open-meetings law.

Broward Health did not respond to the Sun Sentinel's request for comment.

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It's been several months since a pair of Port Byron teens burglarized two homes in Cayuga County, and on Tuesday, both defendants learned their fate.

On Dec. 20, Travis Burdick, 19, and Brett Roeder, 20, appeared in Cayuga County Court before Judge Mark Fandrich on two counts of third-degree burglary.

According to the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office, Burdick and Roeder  both of 101 Rochester St.  broke into two Port Byron homes earlier this year. First, the teens forced entry into a residence in March, stealing property and vandalizing the home. Then in May, they burglarized an elderly man's home on Canal Street, where they stole cash and collectible coins.

Burdick and Roeder were both 19 years old when they were arrested and charged with second-degree burglary, third-degree burglary, third-degree grand larceny and petit larceny. However, the defendants each pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree burglary this fall.

At sentencing, one of the victims addressed the court in tears, telling Fandrich she still lives in fear after finding her home torn apart this spring.

"To this day, I look behind my shoulder and look at people askew," she said, noting that the defendants shot her window with a BB gun, left knives scattered around her home and urinated on her family keepsakes. "They took away my trust in people."

Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann said both defendants had a criminal history of theft-related offenses and faced 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison on each count. However, both Budelmann and Fandrich agreed to sentence them to six months in jail and five years probation as a condition of their pleas of guilty.

"I'm hopeful these defendants take advantage of this chance," Budelmann said. "We've given them a break here."

Burdick and Roeder both apologized to the victims, telling the court they were both struggling with an addiction to alcohol and drugs at the time.

"We were just trying to feed our problem," Roeder said.

"I had a hard life ... and I used drugs to deal with that," Burdick added. "Being a felon it will be hard, but I deserve it. I did it, and I'm truly sorry."

Both defendants had already served more than four months in Cayuga County Jail and will get credit for time served. In addition, Burdick and Roeder will have to pay the victims restitution, which will be determined at a later date.

"This had a lifetime impact on the victim and no matter what you say, you can't take that back," Fandrich said.

Also in court:

 A Florida man will spend six months in jail for having sex with a 14-year-old in Cayuga County.

Dylan Osterhoudt, of 2836 Blackwater Oak Drive, Mulberry, pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree rape and endangering the welfare of a child.

Osterhoudt said he was 22 years old when he had a sexual relationship with a teenage girl in the town of Sempronius.

According to the district attorney, that relationship lasted from August 2014 to January 2015 and resulted in the victim getting pregnant. Still, Osterhoudt's defense attorney Kenneth Moynihan said this was not a situation in which his client "preyed on a young child."

"He actually has feelings for this girl and they have produced a child together, it appears," Moynihan said. "He accepted full responsibility here."

Osterhoudt faced a maximum of seven years in prison. However, he agreed to plead guilty in exchange for six months in Cayuga County Jail followed by 10 years probation.

"The only reason I am going along with this sentence is because the victim and her family have accepted it," Fandrich said, noting that the victim was nervous about testifying at a trial. "I think what you did to this young girl is despicable."

Osterhoudt will also have to register as a sex offender. He will be back in court Feb. 14 for a risk level assessment.

 An Auburn man has admitted to selling controlled substances in Cayuga County.

Michael Covert, 42, of 18 Grant St., pleaded guilty Tuesday to fifth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and fourth-degree attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance for selling diazepam and hydrocodone last year.

A second felony offender, Covert could face up to seven years in prison. However, Fandrich agreed to sentence him to 2 1/2 years in prison followed by two years post-release supervision on Feb. 14.
Arlington-based Texas Health Resources said it would continue to provide services regardless of its network status with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas. However, after continued failed negotiations, the health system is warning patients of increased likelihood for greater out-of-pocket expenses should THR's contract with the payer expire at the end of the month, according to Community Impact Newspaper.

THR's attempts to extend its contract with BCBS of Texas have not been successful. The proposed extension would give the entities additional time to negotiate a contract between BCBS of Texas and Southwestern Health Resources, the integrated health network THR created with UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. The partnership was established in October 2015 to better serve the rising number of residents in North Texas, according to the report.

BCBS officials said it is unlikely they will reach an agreement at this point in the year. The insurer claims THR is asking for rate increases that would negatively affect BCBS members, according to the report.

"Although we value our relationship with Texas Health, in aggregate, THR is currently the most expensive health care provider in North Texas," BCBS spokesman Chris Callahan said, according to the report. "Texas Health continues to ask for a rate increase that would cause our members to bear the burden of additional unnecessary and unwarranted costs with no guarantee of better health outcomes. As stewards of our members' healthcare coverage dollars, this is unacceptable."

Mr. Callahan said if THR leaves the BCBS network, members in North Texas will still have access to more than 25,000 in-network physicians and 60 in-network hospitals. However, according to THR Chief Clinical Officer Daniel Varga, residents in the Dallas Metropolitan area with BCBS insurance would have a difficult time accessing some basic services if THR is out of network.

"The North Texas marketplace is a rapidly growing marketplace. It's also a marketplace that today is experiencing a significant provider shortage," Mr. Varga said, according to the report. "Having Texas Health Resources and its extensive provider network outside of network means that shortage is only worsened."
Tens of millions of Americans have purchased prescription drugs from outside of the U.S. and imported them into the country, reports Kaiser Health News.

In November, the Kaiser Family Foundation polled a nationally representative sample of 1,202 adults. Eight percent of respondents said they or someone in their household had imported a drug, a figure that translates to about 19 million U.S. adults, according to current Census population estimates.

Respondents who reported importing medicines ranged from college students in their 20s to retired individuals in their 80s, according to KHN. They purchased prescription drugs to treat both chronic conditions, like high blood pressure, and acute conditions like sinus infections or acne.

Americans may often purchase prescription drugs at half the cost outside of the country, according to the report. However, many imported medications could be inferior, expired or counterfeit, which is why in most circumstances, it's illegal to import drugs into the U.S. for personal use, according to a page on the Food and Drug Administration's website.

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CMS is allowing more physicians to participate in Medicare's advanced alternative payment models for hip procedures, femur procedures, bypass surgery and heart attack care, MedPage Today reports.

Here are five key notes:

1. CMS requires hospitals in the affected geographic areas to participate in the new models. However, participation is voluntary for physicians.

2. Starting July 1, 2017, the models will operate for five years.

3. Hospitals in 67 metropolitan areas will participate in Medicare's joint replacement model. For Medicare's cardiac care models, hospitals in 98 metropolitan areas will be required to participate.

4. The model for orthopedic care is the Surgical Hip and Femur Fracture Treatment Model. The three cardiac models include: the Acute Myocardial Infarction Model, the Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Model and the Cardiac Rehabilitation Incentive Payment Model.

5. In a statement, Andrew Gurman, MD, American Medical Association president, said the association applauds the model. Dr. Gurman stated, "The AMA is working with the agency to expand opportunities for different specialties and practices to participate in innovative care models, and today's announcement advances this shared goal. We hope that CMS will continue to expand the list of advanced APMs in the future so new delivery and payment arrangements can be supported and promoted  a win for physicians and patients alike."
An Association for Healthcare Philanthropy report found donations to nonprofit hospitals and healthcare systems slightly fell in 2015, according to The NonProfit Times.

Here are four things to know:

1. In 2015, donations hit $11 billion, a 1 percent dip compared to 2014 donations.

2. Fundraising for Canadian nonprofit hospitals and health systems was down 7 percent.

3. The NonProfit Times reports economic pressures have led to the decrease in donations in Canada.

4. In the United States, the cost to raise a dollar fell from 25 cents in 2014 to 23 cents last year.
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Adrian Doran, Barclays head of corporate banking, Barclays Corporate Bank chairman Kevin Wall and Jonathan Dobbin, Barclays head of wealth and investment management in Northern Ireland, at the event

Barclay's Bank has said its business in Northern Ireland has grown by 20% this year. The bank, which is also celebrating two decades of operating in Northern Ireland, launched a 100m fund for SMEs earlier this year.

Adrian Doran, head of corporate banking in Northern Ireland, said: "Our business has grown this year by over 20% and we are investing to ensure our continued growth in Northern Ireland. We now have relationship directors covering every size of business."

The bank celebrated its anniversary at the Merchant Hotel.
From Brexit to bakery chain Greggs' arrival in Northern Ireland and the sale of some of our best-known companies from UTV to Chain Reaction Cycles, it has been an eventful year for local business.

But stories about nightclub owners, hotels, and shopping centres were the most popular for our online readers.

The case of a Co Down publican fined 6,000 for selling counterfeit vodka was the most popular business story on the Belfast Telegraph website this year, our analysis has shown.

Patrick Robert Maginn (55) from Bryansford Avenue, Newcastle, trading as Quinn's Bar and Off Sales, pleaded guilty to three charges under the Trade Marks Act.

The vodka he was selling was labelled as Smirnoff, but the beverage was tasted by a representative of Diageo, who declared it was fake.

Around 20 bottles of Smirnoff Red No 21 were identified as being counterfeit products.

A case was brought against the publican by Trading Standards - part of the Department for the Economy - and details of the case and its outcome were made public.

Alison Gilchrist, enforcement officer for Trading Standards, said at the time that Mr Maginn "potentially put consumers at serious risk to boost his profit margins".

Analysis by the team at our award-winning belfasttelegraph.co.uk website found that with 34,500 readers, the tale was our online business section's most-read story of the year.

The rest of the Top 10 most-popular business stories on our website include a piece on Northern Ireland's Top 100 Companies, at number two in the list with 29,850 readers.

This year's chart, compiled by economist John Simpson, featured Dankse Bank at number one in the Top 100 with pre-tax profits of 139.7m. The bank enjoyed a strong lead on the number two-placed companies NI Water and NI Electricity, which had profits of 62m and 61.5m respectively.

On a much grander scale, it was a year for the unexpected, but the surprise vote to leave the European Union, following the referendum result was, unsurprisingly, a big draw for business readers here.

A call in the immediate aftermath of the result from Sinn Fein for a border poll to be held was the third-most popular story, attracting just over 25,100 readers.

Hotel and commercial property stories continued to attract tens of thousands of readers. Many were intrigued by plans for a luxury hotel resort in the Co Down town of Hillsborough - a story that attracted around 24,930 readers.

And a less cheering story about the gradual decline of Carryduff Shopping Centre was another big draw for readers, attracting around 20,600 people who read about how hairdresser Keith Kane had become the last man standing in the shopping mall.

Shopping was a preoccupation for our readers, reflected in the popularity of a story about value clothing giant Primark's plans to knock down Commonwealth House in Castle Street in order to carry out its major expansion in Royal Avenue.

Further down Belfast's main shopping strip, there was intrigue when a row began to brew between bakery chain Greggs and bra shop Bravissimo.

The undies retailer complained about the prospect of the food and drink business opening next door because of the fear that the smells of its sausage rolls and pasties would find their way onto bras and knickers.

In a return to the pub theme, the story of the boardroom bans given to the former owners of Rain nightclub in Belfast was a big hit online.

Ryan Morton (29) and Daniel Martin Morton (58), both from Ardmore Avenue in Belfast, were disqualified as company directors for nine and 10 years respectively over their conduct as directors of three pub companies.

The companies concerned had run the now closed Rain nightclub at Tomb Street in the city centre, along with Ronnie Drew's on May Street and Lily's on the Lisburn Road.

Approximately 17,300 readers also picked up on the administration of the company behind Larne's Curran Court Hotel. The hotel remains open throughout its administration, but there was much concern from readers, who shared memories of the venue online.

The top 10 stories

1: Counterfeit vodka: 34,528 readers

2: Top 100 Companies: 29,850

3: Brexit border poll: 25,116

4: Hillsborough resort: 24,931

5: Carryduff centre decline: 20,765

6: Portstewart coffee shop: 20,615

7: Commonwealth House and Primark: 19,916

8: Greggs-Bravissimo odour row: 19,637

9: Nightclub owners' boardroom ban: 19,172

10: Curran Court Hotel concern: 17,335
The Co-operative Group has got the go-ahead to sell 300 stores - including five in Northern Ireland

The sale of 300 Co-operative stores - including five in Northern Ireland - has received the go-ahead from the competition watchdog. Convenience store chain McColl's struck a deal to snap up nearly 300 outlets from the Co-operative Group earlier this year.

The final clearance from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) comes after the acquisition was first announced in July. The deal will see McColl's add another 298 stores to its 1,000-strong estate.

The five Northern Ireland stores affected by the deal are on Whitewell Road in north Belfast, Abbots Cross in Newtownabbey, Dunclug in Ballymena, Tandragee in Co Armagh and Main Street in Bangor, Co Down. It is understood that the rebrand will cost almost 9m to roll out nationally - averaging around 30,000 per store.

McColl's said it would not sell on the Northern Ireland acquisitions, but added it had no plans to buy any more stores in the province.

The CMA said in October it was investigating the deal to examine whether it would result in "a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the UK for goods or services".

Jonathan Miller, chief executive of McColl's, said: "This is a transformational deal that substantially accelerates our growth strategy and expands our neighbourhood presence for the benefit of our customers.

"We have a long history and proven track record of successfully integrating convenience stores into our estate, and we expect these newly acquired stores to make a significant contribution to our future strategic plans."

The group will start integrating the new stores into its estate in January and expects the shops to be converted to its branding by the end of next August.

McColl's recently unveiled its sixth year in a row of rising sales.
An Auburn restaurant has abruptly closed months after its seizure by the state for nonpayment of taxes.

GJP Italian Eatery, located in the corner of Auburn Plaza on Grant Avenue, closed sometime in mid-December. Two "for lease" signs have been placed in its windows.

Tim Kerstetter, property manager of plaza owner Auburn Associates, said it took over the space Dec. 12, meaning GJP owner Salvatore Musumeci probably vacated it a few days prior.

"They pretty much moved out in the middle of the night, so to speak," Kerstetter said.

UPDATED: Auburn restaurant reopens following seizure by state tax department Auburn restaurant GJP Italian Eatery is once again open following a March 29 seizure by the 

Kerstetter said Musumeci owed "some back rent," and believes the closure was for financial reasons.

In March, GJP was seized by the state Department of Taxation and Finance due to having three outstanding warrants for a total of $64,542.27 in unpaid taxes. The department returned the restaurant to Musumeci later the same week.

Wednesday, Assistant Public Information Officer James Gazzale said GJP now has five outstanding warrants for a total of $72,708.77.

Musumeci operated GJP under the corporate name Salika Food Service. When the restaurant opened in the plaza in 2010, its initials stood for "Gino & Joe's Pizza." But as of 2013, the affiliation between GJP and Gino & Joe's ended, Oswego GJP owner Larry Miller told The Citizen in April.

Both Miller and Musumeci bought their businesses from Josie Amato, owner of the GJP location in Fulton. Amato said Wednesday that Musumeci gave no notice he would close the Auburn location.

Amato added that the Fulton location will honor any coupons to the Auburn one if customers call beforehand.

Auburn Associates plans to fill the space with a new restaurant, Kerstetter said, and has already begun meeting with prospective tenants.
Lloyds Banking Group has swooped for consumer credit card business MBNA from Bank of America in a 1.9bn deal. The banking giant said MBNA, which holds assets of 7bn, would deliver strong financial returns and bolster its position in the UK prime credit card market.

Antonio Horta-Osorio, group chief executive of Lloyds, said MBNA was a "good fit" with the bank's current credit card business.

He added: "The acquisition, funded through strong internal capital generation, increases our participation in the expanding UK credit card market, with a multi-brand strategy and advances our strategic aim to deliver sustainable growth as a UK-focused retail and commercial bank."

The deal will provide a 650m-a-year boost to Lloyd's group revenues, while enhancing the bank's group net interest margin by around 10 basis points per year.

Once it is given the green light by regulators, the tie-up is expected to be complete by the end of the first half of 2017.

The move will see Lloyds buy MBNA from Bank of America subsidiary FIA Jersey Holdings Limited, delivering cost savings of around 100m per year within two years.

The savings would represent around 30% of MBNA's cost base in 2015, Lloyds said.

The announcement comes after Lloyds took another step towards privatisation last week when the Government announced it had sold off a further chunk of the bank, taking its stake down to less than 7%.

It means more than 17.5bn has been returned to Government coffers since the lender's 20.3 billion bailout at the height of the financial crisis. In October Lloyds said it had set aside another 1bn to meet compensation claims for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI), as it attempts to draw a line under the scandal.

On the MBNA deal, the bank said its purchase price includes 240m for future PPI claims, adding that its "exposure of PPI liability" would be "capped at this amount".
Actress Lena Dunham has apologised after she was criticised for declaring she never had an abortion but wishes she had.

The creator and star of comedy TV series Girls said she did not intend to "trivialise" terminating a pregnancy following comments she made during her Women Of The Hour podcast.

Dunham, 30, had recalled an incident at a Planned Parenthood meeting in Texas when she was asked to share a story about her own abortion.

She told listeners that she had never gone through the procedure, before adding: "But I wish I had."

Her remarks prompted a wave of criticism online, with one pro-life charity saying Dunham was treating abortions "like getting your appendix removed".

In a post on Instagram alongside a picture featuring the word "Choice", Dunham said she was "proud" of the women who took part in the podcast which focused on the issue of abortion.

"I truly hope a distasteful joke on my part won't diminish the amazing work of all the women who participated," she wrote.

"I would never, ever intentionally trivialise the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy. My only goal is to increase awareness and decrease stigma.

"I know plenty of people will never like a thing that leaves my lips, mea culpas or no, but this apology is for the women who have placed their trust in me. You mean everything to me."

During the podcast, Dunham - who describes herself an an "abortion rights activist" - told listeners she realised she was carrying her own "stigma" about the issue when she quickly corrected the woman who believed she had had an abortion.

She said: "I wanted to make it really clear to her that as much as I was going out and fighting for other women's options, I myself had never had an abortion. I realised then that even I was carrying within myself stigma around this issue.

"So many people I love - my mother, my best friends - have had to have abortions for all kinds of reasons. I feel so proud of them for their bravery, for their self-knowledge, and it was a really important moment for me then that I had internalised some of what society was throwing at us and I had to put it in the garbage.

"Now I can say I still haven't had an abortion, but I wish I had."

John Gerardi, executive director of pro-life charity Right To Life of Central California, branded Dunham's comments "inflammatory and unhelpful".

He told the Press Association: "Even if you accept the argument that women have a right to obtain access to abortions, we're still talking about another living human being.

"Even for pro-choice women, it's one of the worst and most difficult decisions of their lives.

"It seems Lena Dunham wants to treat abortions like getting your appendix removed."

Dunham won two Golden Globes in 2013 for her series Girls, which airs on Sky Atlantic in the UK.
Steven Moffat has said it is too early for him to feel sad about stepping down from his roles on Doctor Who because "it's hard to be wistful about something that might still kill you".

The writer and executive producer will hand over the job to Broadchurch writer Chris Chibnall at the end of the next series in 2017.

However, he said he cannot yet feel nostalgic about the BBC One show, even though he knows he will be overwhelmed with emotion the day after he gives up the keys to the TARDIS.

He said: "That would be pre-emptively wistful, I don't think you can do pre-emptively nostalgic. I'm sure I will though.

"At the moment, Doctor Who is so utterly full on it feels like a mountain to climb so I can't think of anything other than will I survive it.

"It's hard to be wistful about something that might still kill you but I'm sure the day is coming and I will write a huge angry piece for The Times about how the BBC has lost its way and my phone number and how things were great back in the day. I will do that about the day after I've left."

Moffat added he is sure he can wrap up the story he wants to tell before he departs, saying: "Obviously we are Doctor Who and you never want to have finished the story and I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to wrap it all up and say to Chris 'There you go, he's dead', that would be mean.

"The departure of a showrunner and arrival of another doesn't really matter very much."

Moffat's last series will see the arrival of new companion Bill Potts, played by Pearl Mackie, following the departure of Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald.

Peter Capaldi, who will return as the Doctor in Moffat's final series, as well as the upcoming Christmas special, said the departure of Coleman and the arrival of Mackie's character gives the show a new start.

He said: " It was sad and a bit difficult because I was used to her (Coleman) being with me all the time, but Pearl is fantastic and that is a whole different thing.

"Because her character is new to Doctor Who it's almost a kind of reboot, I feel as if the show is sort of more hardcore Doctor Who because it's reduced to its classic elements - which is mysterious stranger from alien planet with time machine takes innocent earth bound companion off to adventures."

The Christmas special, The Return of Doctor Mysterio, will see the Doctor reunited with Matt Lucas's Nardole for a classic superhero story.

The duo will be joined by newcomers Charity Wakefield and Justin Chatwin for the special episode, which Capaldi is looking forward to watching on Christmas Day.

He said: " I always watched the Christmas special before I was involved and I still do, I watch it from behind the sofa because of my acting,

"I'm so terrified of my acting and my hair but it is still a centrepiece of my day, I wouldn't like to deprive the family of that."

:: Doctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterio will air on Christmas Day on BBC One at 5.45pm.
Fergal and Orla Woods with their children who are opposed to the use of overhead pylons as part of the north-south Interconnector. Fergal is an active member of the Safe Electricity Armagh and Tyrone committee.

Campaigners in Northern Ireland have reacted angrily to the decision by An Bord Pleanala granting permission for a massive power line planned to run between Meath and Tyrone.

Today's decision relates to the southern part of the proposed north-south interconnector which involves construction of hundreds of pylons in Meath, Cavan, Monaghan, Armagh and Tyrone - some up to 51 metres high.

A spokesperson for Safe Electricity Armagh and Tyrone (SEAT) said: We are disappointed at this ruling by An Bord Pleanala who have given the green light to EirGrid's plans, citing that it is the most cost effective solution to satisfy current requirements.

The public inquiry for the northern element has still to be heard early in the new year, and we hope that this decision does not distract from the need to underground the interconnector.

"We are not opposing the interconnector itself. We, along with all the landowners and affected residents on the proposed route, are however vehemently opposed to the use of a dangerous very high voltage overhead Interconnector.

"Instead we propose undergrounding the cable to reduce health and numerous other risks - it's the responsible and efficient alternative. We must not forget that nearly 6,500 people have signed a petition opposing the high voltage Over Head Line.

We are calling on the decision makers to scrutinise the need for the overhead interconnector and start to raise more questions about why we are not having an open debate about the new technologies that are being rapidly developed in other parts of the world.

The high-voltage power line was part of the 3.2bn Grid25 project launched in October 2008. Permission was sought in December 2009, but withdrawn the following June.

A new application was lodged with the board in June 2015, and was subject to a public hearing which lasted for almost three months. It was approved this morning.

In its decision, the board said it had regard to the benefits of integrating both electricity grids, government policy and the potential impact on the environment.

The board agreed with its inspector which recommended that permission be granted.

The Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association (NIIRTA) welcomed the decision, with Chief Executive Glyn Roberts saying the interconnector would "provide security of electricity supply and reduce costs to business and domestic consumers in Northern Ireland".

National grid operator EirGrid, which is also responsible for the Northern Ireland network, has said there was just one interconnector between both jurisdictions, and if a problem occurred it would result in widespread power failures.

The line links a substation in Woodland, Co Meath with a new substation in Turleenan, Co Tyrone. It will more than double the power transfer capacity between north and south, improving efficiency and allowing more renewables onto the system.
Belfast's Christmas Market at City Hall has been cordoned after a man was found with 'stab wounds' near the popular venue.

The man, thought to be in his 40s, has been taken to hospital and police are currently at the scene on Donegall Square North.

A spokesperson from the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) said it received a call at 7:45pm.

An NIAS statement said: "We sent a rapid response paramedic along with our A&E crew. The patient was treated at the scene and was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital."

The man is understood to be in a critical condition.

It is thought that the attack happened just after a musical display involving a group of drummers at City Hall's gates.

On Thursday morning police said no crime had been committed.

Detective Inspector Rowland said: "Whilst we are at the early stages of the investigation, police do not believe at this time that any other person has been involved in this incident".

The grounds of City Hall are transformed into a traditional festive German-style market each year and the venue attracts around 800,000 visitors to the city.

The market's annual run is due to finish on Thursday at 6pm.
The coroner described the Ministry of Defence's response as "baffling"

A Ministry of Defence witness should explain its disclosure of files to an inquest into a loyalist shooting, a family lawyer said.

Ballistics experts are working to establish whether the weapon used to kill a Catholic salesman more than 40 years ago can be linked to other murders. Daniel Carson, 29, from Dunmurry, was gunned down by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) as he left work at a hardware merchants in the Shankill area of Belfast in November 1973.

During a previous hearing, the coroner Mr Justice Adrian Colton described the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) inability to track down a former lance corporal who attended the scene as "baffling".

Family barrister Karen Quinlivan QC said: "We maintain our application that a witness for the MoD be called to explain the position on disclosure.

"The MoD have indicated a resistance to that."

The coroner said he was generally sympathetic to that approach.

"If someone has first hand knowledge of the steps that are taken it can be helpful," he said.

He told family members who attended the Belfast preliminary hearing that a significant amount of work had been done since the last time lawyers met.

"These hearings are important to make sure that the work is continuing in the case.

"You may think that this is a routine matter, it is not. It is important that we maintain the work that is being done.

"All the lawyers in the case have their shoulders to the wheel."

A fresh inquest into the sectarian shooting was ordered by Northern Ireland's Attorney General.

No-one has ever been convicted of Mr Carson's murder.

But a man who was arrested and interviewed about the shooting is to be legally represented at the inquest. He was detained four days after the murder and released without charge, the court heard. A barrister has been enlisted and his instructing solicitor said he hoped progress would be made early in the new year.
In the waning days of the calendar year, it appears unlikely that there will be a special session of the New York State Legislature. But the expiration of 2016 so many lawmakers have been fretting is a lot less important than the meaningful legislation that needs to be attended to beginning Jan. 1.

Dec. 31 is the deadline for passing a legislative pay raise that would take effect in 2017, and plenty of lawmakers have expressed an interest in getting themselves a raise. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on the other hand, has countered that a pay raise be connected to things like ethics reform and the expansion of Uber ridesharing upstate, bringing the discussion to an apparent standstill.

We continue to believe that raising the pay for lawmakers should go hand in hand with severely cutting back, if not eliminating, the ability of officials to keep their sources of outside income, because we've seen too many cases where conflicts of interest have steered lawmakers down the path of corruption.

So if there isn't enough time in 2016 to work out a pay raise, we won't be shedding any tears for our representatives in the Assembly and Senate. They are free to bring up the topic again in January, whether as a standalone bill of part of a compromise package.

In addition to ethics reform and Uber, Cuomo has been pushing for term limits, aid to the homeless and state police funding to combat hate crimes. And let's not forget education funding, taxes, the drug epidemic, job creation and infrastructure. The list goes on.

There will be plenty of other work to be done in 2017, and what matters for taxpayers at the end of the day  and at the end of the year  are results. Whether or not lawmakers get a raise is the least of the people's concerns.
Ruairi O'Neill after winning his second county title for his team, Crossmaglen Rangers.

Ruairi ONeill shows off the Armagh u21 trophy with his father Kevin

A young GAA player from Crossmaglen, who was in a coma fighting for life in Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital after contracting meningitis, has regained consciousness.

Less than two weeks ago, 18-year-old Ruairi O'Neill was the picture of health after winning his second county title for his team, Crossmaglen Rangers.

His father Kevin wrote on Facebook that his son was playing in the "toughest match of his life".

He urged friends to "please keep praying for our wee man".

On Wednesday afternoon the club tweeted: "Ruairi has today regained consciousness, is awake and talking. He is out of danger. Attaboy Ruairi!"

Earlier a club spokesperson had said: "The community in Crossmaglen is rallying round the family to provide whatever support we can.

"The thoughts and prayers of all our club members and the entire Crossmaglen community are very much with Ruairi and his family at this difficult time."

GOOD NEWS!

Ruairi has today regained consciousness, is awake and talking. He is out of danger. Attaboy Ruairi! #GAAFamily #TheToughest  Crossmaglen Rangers (@crossrangers) December 21, 2016

He continued: "We thank everyone from across the country and further afield who have sent messages and good wishes to Ruairi and his family and appreciate the tremendous support of the GAA family at this time.

"We are all praying for Ruairi's full and speedy recovery."

Among those showing their support to the family last night was Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

Expand Close Ruairi O'Neill after winning his second county title for his team, Crossmaglen Rangers. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Ruairi O'Neill after winning his second county title for his team, Crossmaglen Rangers.

Posting a picture on Twitter of Ruairi proudly holding his trophy he commented: "Thinking of Ruairi and wishing him the very best. God Bless."

This afternoon he tweeted: "Wonderful news."

Last night prayers for the popular teenager were held after a carol service in St Patrick's Chapel in Crossmaglen.

One friend commented on the Crossmaglen GAA club's Facebook page: "Hope he can hear us all at the sideline shouting 'Come on Bazzy, you can do it son'."

Another said: "You come from a great family and community who are all behind you, stay strong young man, you'll make it, God bless."

Hundreds of well-wishers on the Facebook page Hurling Banter passed on their support.

They added: "Keep fighting young man, all the hurling community are behind you and wishing you a speedy recovery.

"Everyone keep him in your prayers."

Friend Philip O'Connor said: "Anyone who knows anything about Gaelic games knows that they make them tough up in Crossmaglen, and he was born and raised in their ways.

"I'm sure I speak for us all when I say we wish Ruairi a speedy recovery."

Alan Brennan posted: "If he's as tough as his clubmates he'll beat it no problem. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family."

Diane McConnell, Deputy Chief Executive at Meningitis Research Foundation said: We are saddened by this news and were here to support the family should they need anything.

"Christmas should be a happy occasion for families but sadly winter is the peak season for this life-threatening disease. We hope that Ruairi responds well to the treatment hell be given in hospital and well be thinking of the family.
Final instructions are imminent from An Garda Siochana in the Arlene Arkinson case, a lawyer told an inquest.

The coroner's probe is seeking documentation about Irish police's investigation into the schoolgirl's disappearance.

Arlene, 15, from Castlederg in Co Tyrone, vanished after a night out across the Irish border in Co Donegal in August 1994. She was last seen being driven down a country road by convicted paedophile and child killer Robert Howard.

Coroner's barrister Ronan Daly said he spoke to a senior counsel instructed by Ireland's chief state solicitor.

Mr Daly said: "He confirmed the position that his understanding was that final instructions were imminent from An Garda Siochana."

A meeting is planned to be held between legal representatives north and south in Dublin next month.

Lawyers for the Arkinson family and police who investigated the disappearance said there seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel and it was encouraging news.

Coroner Brian Sherrard said: "The import of inquests like this is that we have an opportunity to see exactly what is out there."

He added they could not finish the inquest without knowing something about material in the possession of the Garda.

Hearings were adjourned earlier this year and a preliminary hearing to discuss legal issues was held at Belfast's Laganside courthouse.

Judge Sherrard has spoken out about the level of red tape hampering cross-border co-operation.

A legislative change by Irish Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has authorised the sharing of information.

Howard was acquitted of Arlene's murder in 2005 by a jury not told of his lengthy criminal past which included the murder of South London teenager Hannah Williams several years earlier.

Fresh searches have failed to locate the schoolgirl's remains.
As controversy raged over a heating scheme at Stormont on Monday, the health committee held an emergency meeting to discuss another crisis - Northern Ireland's chronic shortage of family doctors.

Bannview GP Practice in Portadown Health Centre currently has no GPs due to sickness, resignations and maternity leave, with coverage provided by locum doctors.

Health officials have confirmed that they are currently in negotiations with a GP contractor to take over the practice, but said that the situation in Portadown was "very fluid".

Monday's meeting was called at the request of Upper Bann MLA Jo-Anne Dobson in a bid to resolve the crisis.

She said: "Over many months there has been significant and mounting pressure at Bannview practice, and with 5,200 local patients affected, this issue needs to be urgently resolved to ensure that this crisis does not spill over to the other 45,000 patients linked with the practices at Portadown Health Centre."

She added: "While I appreciate the ongoing talks which the board are having with a GP contractor to potentially take over the practice, I questioned officials on how they will ensure that the patients are put first, and how they will ensure that adequate GP coverage will be in place as urgently as possible, in the interests of public health.

"Leaving one GP to cope alone with the healthcare of over 5,000 patients, as happened in October, is absolutely unacceptable for that GP, and also for the healthcare of local patients."

Dr Tom Black, chair of the British Medical Association's NI General Practitioners Committee, said: "We welcome the fact that this meeting was called as it is a sign that the Assembly is taking the escalating crisis in general practice seriously.

"But we now need urgent action to address this situation, as the issues highlighted in Portadown are affecting surgeries across many parts of Northern Ireland."

The meeting comes after hundreds of GPs in Northern Ireland signed undated resignation letters to the NHS.

"We've never seen a crisis in general practice and in the NHS like this since 1948," Dr Black said.
The fire service have urged people to be aware of fire safety.

A 77-year-old woman has been rescued from a bedroom fire in her Co Down home.

The blaze erupted at around 4.30am on Wednesday in the woman's Rostrevor detached bungalow.

Using breathing apparatus, firefighters entered the property to rescue the woman.

She suffered slight smoke inhalation and was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to hospital as a precautionary measure.

The incident is being treated as accidental.

The woman was alerted to the fire by her smoke alarm and was able to call the emergency services by using her personal alarm.

Fortunately she had just received advice on fire prevention and safety from an off-duty firefighter. By following his advice, such as lying on the floor, the lady was able to stay safe until rescue arrived.

"This advice, combined with the personal alarm alert system, has ultimately saved her life," said Station Commander, Robert McCracken.

At this time of year its more crucial than ever that we check in with our older family and friends and those who are more at risk in our community.

"Please ensure they have a working smoke alarm, check their home for Christmas fire hazards and advise them of steps they can take to help STOP fire in their home.

"If you are worried about the fire safety of someone in your community you can register them for a free Home Fire Safety Check by visiting our website www.nifrs.org.
Northern Ireland Water has restored water to Belfast businesses after a mains burst on Wednesday.

Belfast businesses were forced to close due to a lack of water on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

A number of burst mains affected pubs and restaurants near the city hall and caused traffic chaos as emergency repair work was carried out in Cromac Street with the closure of one lane.

In a statement Northern Ireland Water said: "NI Water can now confirm it has successfully completed repairs to a number of burst mains in the Belfast city centre area.

"The majority of affected properties have now had supply restored and it is believed that all affected pubs and restaurants are included within this. It is possible that there may still be some water discolouration, although this should clear in the near future.

"Squads have now completed repairs at City Way in the Sandy Row area, with supplies restored at approximately 6:30pm. Crews are making progress in the Cromac Street area, and will be on site in the Grosvenor Road area later this evening as a result of traffic restrictions. NI Water repair crews will remain on the ground until restoration of all supplies later this evening.

"We have made proactive contact with customers throughout this incident in order to provide as much information as possible.

"Restoring customers supply has been our first priority throughout this incident.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and customers should contact Waterline on 03457 440088 or log on to niwater.com for further updates."

Earlier Colin Neill, chief executive of Hospitality Ulster, said "This is now the most critical time of year for the hospitality sector and we need this issue resolved and the supply restored as swiftly as possible.

"The likes of pubs and restaurants in the area are booked out with Christmas customers and evening-shift staff lined up."
Rescuers and paramedics aid the woman who sustained leg injuries at Ballintoy Harbour

Rescue teams on the north coast have been deployed this week to save a man and a woman in separate incidents.

Yesterday afternoon the woman suffered a severely fractured ankle after a fall at Ballintoy Harbour.

Paramedics and rescue teams from Ballycastle and Coleraine responded to the distress call at 12.30pm.

She was taken by an ambulance to the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine.

Last Wednesday a massive search and rescue operation was launched at the harbour after the car of a missing east Belfast teacher, 39-year-old Catherine Johnston, was discovered there.

At the Giant's Causeway on Monday afternoon a 21-year-old Belgian tourist had to be airlifted to safety after getting stranded on the Chimney Stacks rock formation at the famous beauty spot.
After a process that lasted more than a year and was headed by the Skaneateles village historian, the village's Lake View Cemetery was recommended for the state and national Registers of Historic Places.

According to a news release from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office, the state Board of Historic Preservation nominated the public cemetery  located along West Genesee Street on the west end of the village  along with 25 other properties, resources and districts such as the Woodstock Music Festival site in Bethel, the Niagara Power Project historic district in Niagara County and South Presbyterian Church in Syracuse that reflect the breadth of state history.

The release noted that Lake View Cemetery combined earlier burial grounds with a larger cemetery that was established in 1871 to meet the needs of an expanding community, with the Soldiers and Sailors Monument added in 1895 and the Burrows Memorial Chapel added in 1926, along with three mausoleums and graves of notable residents.

According to the release, state and national historic registers listings can assist property owners in revitalizing buildings, making them eligible for various public preservation programs and services, such as matching state grants and state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits.

In November, Skaneateles Village Historian Jorge Batlle said the listing for the cemetery could help the village obtain grants toward maintenance and future development of the burial grounds  items such as upgrading the cemetery, surveying the property, laying out new sites and planting trees.

Once the recommendations are approved by the state historic preservation officer, the properties are listed on the New York State Register of Historic Places and then nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, where they are reviewed and, once approved, entered on the national register.
Speaker Robin Newton during the RHI debate in the Assembly. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

Mike Nesbitt has called for Speaker Robin Newton to stand down over his handling of Monday's business at the special sitting of the Assembly.

Mr Newton faced a barrage of criticism after he allowed First Minister Arlene Foster to address the Assembly over the Renewable Heating Incentive on Monday.

That was despite deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness withdrawing his support for the statement to be made.

Concern has been raised that the move set a precedent by allowing the First Ministers to act independently of each other.

However, Mr Newton said it was a matter for the Executive to determine how ministers acted and that he was responsible for ensuring the rules of the house were followed.

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The Ulster Unionist Party leader has written to the Speaker asking him to stand down after Christmas.

In a letter to the Speaker, Mr Nesbitt said the actions risked undermining the joint nature of the Executive Office, "which itself is a fundamental principle underpinning the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.

"[This] represents a grave error of judgement on the part of your office.

"On that basis and bearing in mind other incidents... I regret to say you have lost the confidence of the Ulster Unionist Party.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Stormont recalled over Renewable Heat Initiative Scheme. First Minister Arlene Foster arrives in the Great Hall before heading into the Assembly Chamber. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Deputy First Minster Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein addresses media into the Great Hall accompanied by party colleagues at Parliament Buildings in Stormont, Belfast, as First Minister Arlene Foster faced a vote of no confidence in her leadership at the devolved Assembly as the fall out from a botched green energy scheme intensifies PA Stormont recalled over Renewable Heat Initiative Scheme. First Minister Arlene Foster arrives in the Great Hall before heading into the Assembly Chamber. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. The SDLP group addresses the Press Stormont recalled over Renewable Heat Initiative Scheme. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and his Sinn Fein party colleagues arrive in the Great Hall before heading into the Assembly Chamber. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 19th December 2016 Stormont recalled over Renewable Heat Initiative Scheme. Jonathan Bell arrives in the Great Hall before heading into the Assembly Chamber. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 19th December 2016 Stormont recalled over Renewable Heat Initiative Scheme. First Minister Arlene Foster arrives in the Great Hall before heading into the Assembly Chamber. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 19th December 2016 Stormont recalled over Renewable Heat Initiative Scheme. First Minister Arlene Foster arrives in the Great Hall before heading into the Assembly Chamber. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 19th December 2016 Stormont recalled over Renewable Heat Initiative Scheme. Jonathan Bell arrives in the Great Hall before heading into the Assembly Chamber. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 19th December 2016 Stormont recalled over Renewable Heat Initiative Scheme. UUP leader Mike Nesbitt and his party arrive in the Great Hall before heading into the Assembly Chamber. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 19th December 2016 Stormont recalled over Renewable Heat Initiative Scheme. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and his Sinn Fein party colleagues arrive in the Great Hall before heading into the Assembly Chamber. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 19th December 2016 Stormont recalled over Renewable Heat Initiative Scheme. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and his Sinn Fein party colleagues arrive in the Great Hall before heading into the Assembly Chamber. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Stormont recalled over Renewable Heat Initiative Scheme. First Minister Arlene Foster arrives in the Great Hall before heading into the Assembly Chamber. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye.

"I respectfully urge you to use the break to reflect on whether you are best placed to lead the Assembly in 2017."

The SDLP also called for the Speaker to consider his position.

"There is an issue of confidence in his role," MLA Nichola Mallon told the BBC.

The Speaker also recently faced criticism over his role with the Social Investment Fund and his role with Charter NI.
Final instructions are imminent from An Garda Siochana in the Arlene Arkinson case, a lawyer told an inquest.

The coroner's probe is seeking documentation about the investigation into the schoolgirl's disappearance.

Arlene, 15, from Castlederg in Co Tyrone, vanished after a night out across the border in Co Donegal in August 1994. She was last seen being driven down a country road by convicted paedophile and child killer Robert Howard.

Coroner's barrister Ronan Daly said he spoke to a senior counsel instructed by Ireland's chief state solicitor.

Mr Daly said: "He confirmed the position that his understanding was that final instructions were imminent from An Garda Siochana."

A meeting is planned to be held between legal representatives north and south in Dublin next month.

Lawyers for the Arkinson family and police who investigated the disappearance said there seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel and it was encouraging news.

Coroner Brian Sherrard said: "The import of inquests like this is that we have an opportunity to see exactly what is out there."

He added they could not finish the inquest without knowing something about material in the possession of the Garda.

Hearings were adjourned earlier this year and a preliminary hearing to discuss legal issues was held at Belfast's Laganside courthouse.

Judge Sherrard has spoken out about the level of red tape hampering cross-border co-operation.

A legislative change by Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has authorised the sharing of information.

Howard was acquitted of Arlene's murder in 2005 by a jury not told of his lengthy criminal past which included the murder of south London teenager Hannah Williams several years earlier.

Fresh searches have failed to locate the schoolgirl's remains.
Candles are lit at Breitscheidplatz, in Berlin, Germany, in tribute to the twelve people who died after a lorry ploughed into the crowded Christmas market in Berlin in what police believe was a deliberate terrorist attack. PA

Dozens of people gathered by a large Christmas tree at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to hold a vigil for the victims of the attack at Breitscheidplatz.

Tributes of candles, messages and flowers lay by the tree, which was lit up in white Christmas lights. Those attending the service brought candles and lanterns, which they held as they stood together near the famous German landmark.

Many hugged and wept as the vigil took place.

John Lennon's song Imagine was played after a short speech by Anne Wizorek, an author in Berlin.

"We need radical solidarity," she told the crowd. "We have to stand together and not be torn apart.

"We cannot let the hate and the fear have a platform.

"You will not receive our hatred - not in Berlin and not anywhere else in Germany."

Expand Close Security check bags at the entrance of a Christmas market at the Gendarmenmarkt the day it reopened following an apparent terror attack on another Christmas market in the city center on December 21, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Michele Tantussi/Getty Images) Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Security check bags at the entrance of a Christmas market at the Gendarmenmarkt the day it reopened following an apparent terror attack on another Christmas market in the city center on December 21, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Michele Tantussi/Getty Images)

A minute's silence was held at the service, which took place at the same time as others in Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt.
Leading Indian opposition figure Rahul Gandhi has demanded an investigation into allegations that two Indian conglomerates paid millions of rupees as bribes to prime minister Narendra Modi in 2013-14 when he was governing a western state.

Mr Gandhi, the Congress Party vice president and scion of India's Nehru-Gandhi family, said the allegations were found in diary notes and computer records of the Sahara Group and the Birla Group, and are in the possession of income tax authorities.

Mr Gandhi asked a party meeting in Gujarat state: "Why these accusations are not being probed?"

Mr Modi was the state's top elected official before he became prime minister in May 2014.

GVL Narsimha Rao, a spokesman for Mr Modi's party, dismissed Mr Gandhi's accusations as baseless and asked him to file a criminal case against prime minister.

AP
Grief: Marina, wife of Andrei Karlov, mourns as her husbands body is brought home to Russia

Russian officials investigating the assassination of their ambassador to Turkey have vowed that the killing would not disrupt efforts to repair the two countries' relationship.

Enquiries are focusing on whether the man who shot Andrei Karlov at a photo exhibition launch in the Turkish capital Ankara was a 'lone wolf' gunman or part of a wider conspiracy.

In a separate attack, a man with a shotgun was detained after he fired into the air outside the US Embassy in Ankara. No-one was hurt. Ankara and Moscow back opposing sides in the Syrian civil war.

Mr Karlov was shot dead on Monday by a Turkish policeman who shouted slogans about Aleppo, the Syrian city where Russian bombardments have targeted rebel factions.

The killer, who fired multiple shots, shouted in Turkish: "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!" He also shouted "Allahu akbar," the Arabic phrase for "God is great".

The gunman, Mevlut Mert Altintas, was later killed in a shoot-out with police.

Authorities identified him as a 22-year-old member of Ankara's riot police squad, but did not disclose any motive for the attack.

Minister for Europe Sir Alan Duncan condemned the murder as a "heinous attack".

Appearing before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Sir Alan said: "You can be assured that the Foreign Office, in a proper way, has been in contact both with our Turkish and our Russian counterparts to express our condolences."

Yesterday the foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey attended a previously scheduled meeting in Moscow, where they said they were committed to advancing peace efforts in Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey and Russia would work together to determine who was behind the "heinous terror attack" against Mr Karlov, who was killed in front of a stunned audience while making remarks at a photo exhibition in Ankara.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was hosting Mr Cavusoglu, as well as the Foreign Minister of Iran, for a meeting to discuss the Syrian crisis.

Top Turkish, Russian and Iranian defence officials were also meeting. Russia and Iran have backed the government of Bashar Assad, while Turkey has supported rebels fighting him.

"Turkey and Russia have shown the world what they can achieve when they co-operate," Mr Cavusoglu said at the start of the meeting with Mr Lavrov, referring to a Turkish and Russian-brokered peace deal that paved the way for the evacuation of thousands of people from Aleppo.
The UK's Investigatory Powers Act forces internet providers to keep a full record of every site that each one of its customers have visited

The so-called snoopers charter is set to face a series of new legal challenges after the EUs highest court ruled governments general and indiscriminate retention of emails is illegal.

Only targeted information gathering is justified, the European Court of Justice said, boosting the case against the sweeping collection of emails, text messages and internet data.

The Investigatory Powers Act passed into law in November, granting the Government far-reaching new abilities that allow it to indiscriminately hack and store data relating to internet use.

The case was brought to the European Court by Brexit Secretary David Davis, despite his role in seeking to leave the bloc.

He was joined by Deputy Labour Leader Tom Watson in bringing the case, and the pair had already gained a high court victory on the issue.

But after the Government appealed the decision, the case was taken to the European Court.

The decision could prove inconsequential after the UK withdraws from the EU, when the European Court of Justice will no longer have jurisdiction over the Government.

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Yet the ruling is an embarrassment for Theresa May, who has faced stiff opposition to the controversial law.

Mr Watson said: This ruling shows its counter-productive to rush new laws through Parliament without a proper scrutiny.

At a time when we face a real and ever-present terrorist threat, the security forces may require access to personal information none of us would normally hand over.

Thats why its absolutely vital that proper safeguards are put in place to ensure this power is not abused, as it has been in the recent past.

Most of us can accept that our privacy may occasionally be compromised in the interests of keeping us safe, but no one would consent to giving the police or the Government the power to arbitrarily seize our phone records or emails to use as they see fit.

Its for judges, not ministers, to oversee these powers. Im pleased the court has upheld the earlier decision of the UK courts.

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Martha Spurrier, director of Liberty, which supported the MPs in bringing the case, said: Todays judgement upholds the rights of ordinary British people not to have their personal lives spied on without good reason or an independent warrant.

The Government must now make urgent changes to the Investigatory Powers Act to comply with this.

This is the first serious post-referendum test for our Governments commitment to protecting human rights and the rule of law.

The UK may have voted to leave the EU  but we didnt vote to abandon our rights and freedoms.

The Government has vowed to appeal against the decision.

A Home Office spokesperson said: We are disappointed with the judgement from the European Court of Justice and will be considering its potential implications.

It will now be for the Court of Appeal to determine the case. The Government will be putting forward robust arguments to the Court of Appeal about the strength of our existing regime for communications data retention and access.

Given the importance of communications data in preventing and detecting crime, we will ensure plans are in place so that the police and other public authorities can continue to acquire such data in a way that is consistent with EU law and our obligation to protect the public.
Glamorous socialite and actress Zsa Zsa Gabor died in Los Angeles at the age of 99 on Sunday of a heart attack according to her husband, Frederic von Anhalt. We tried everything, but her heart just stopped and that was it, he said. Even the ambulance tried very hard to get her back, but there was no way.

Gabors health started to decline in her 80s after she had hip surgery. She was admitted to the hospital because of blood clots were found in her body, which eventually led to her leg being partially amputated. She suffered a stroke in 2005 after an accident left her partial paralyzed.

The Hungarian was well-known for her jet-setting lifestyle and multiple marriages. She was married to several men during her lifetime since 1937. These included hotelier Conrad Hilton, actor George Sanders, Jack Ryan (Barbie doll creator), businessman Herbert businessman Herbert Hutner, oil tycoon Joshua Cosden and lawyer Michael OHara. I think breeds of dogs and breeds of men are quite a bit alike. If you think its insulting that I compare people with animals, well, if you knew how I love animals, you would understand that coming from me, this is a compliment.

She finally settled down with Anhalt in 1986.

Gabor appeared in 70 films and was the star of Green Acres. She starred in Moulin Rouge and in A Touch Of Evil. In the late 1980s and 1990s, she made appearances in The Beverly Hillbillies and The Naked Gun 2 . she also wrote 3 books. How to Keep a Man, How to Catch a Man and How to Get Rid of a Man. One of my theories is that men love with their eyes; women love with their ears, she wrote. Her personal life and the tabloids are what many will remember her for. In 1989 she punched a cop in Beverly Hills. She was actually fined and ordered to jail for 3 days for breaking her probation.

The late Bob Hope joked about the actress and the times she walked down the aisle. You can calculate Zsa Zsa Gabors age by the rings on her fingers, he said. She even quipped about her marital status always changing. Every time I leave a man I keep his house, and There is nothing wrong with a woman encouraging a mans advances, as long as they are in cash.

She later admitted that Hilton was the only one that she married for money. In the divorce settlement, she received $35,000 and $2,500 a month until she remarried. That union linked her by marriage to tabloid favorite Paris Hilton, Conrads great-granddaughter, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Gabor was born in Budapest, Hungary. She began acting in her youth before moving to America in 1941. She entered the Miss Hungary contest and won at the age of 15. However, she decided to get married and refused to go back to boarding school. Her sister talked about the glitz of Hollywood and this enticed Gabor to start acting. But she did reminisce about her homeland.

The family led a life filled with grace and charm. There were vacations at our house on the shores of Lake Balaton, excursions in our Mercedes, parties glittering with beautiful women and dashing men, waltzing together under the flickering light of our crystal chandeliers.

Gabor said that she all her life she was a positive thinker. This helped her survive. I have always been able to survive by telling myself that no matter how bad things are, they will one day be better. And that out of every event, no matter how tragic, one can always find a way to survive and even, perhaps, to be a little bit happy.

Oh, dahling! Yes, that is Gabors way of saying darling.

Goodbye, Zsa Zsa for now!
Elevate Flagstaff, a group of local business owners and residents, filed paperwork Monday to start an initiative campaign to repeal Prop. 414 and its $15 minimum wage and replace it with whatever state minimum wage is in effect.

Under Prop. 206, which passed statewide in November, the minimum wage rises from $8.05 an hour to $10 on Jan. 1, 2017, then gradually to $12 in 2020. It is under attack in court by state business groups as unconstitutional.

Prop. 414, which also passed in November in Flagstaff, set the new city minimum at $2 more than the state minimum, or $12 starting on July 1, 2017. It reaches $15 in 2021.

Local businesses and nonprofits have complained that the 50 percent leap in the minimum wage in just six months would be too much for them to absorb without layoffs, reduced employee hours or sharply higher prices  or all three.

According to the initiative paperwork filed with the Flagstaff City Clerks office, the group wants to replace the new Flagstaff law with the new state minimum wage law. In order to get the initiative on the May ballot, Elevate Flagstaff will have to collect 4,411 valid signatures by Jan. 16 and then convince the Flagstaff City Council to call a special election for May.

Joe Bader, the spokesman for Flagstaff Needs a Raise, which backed Prop. 414, said Elevate s initiative would gut the law that 58 percent of city voters supported.

Its a slap in the face of working families in Flagstaff, he said. We will vigorously defend Prop. 414 and all of its provisions.

Elevate also wants to reduce from $2 an hour to 50 cents an hour the amount above the state minimum that Flagstaff employers would be required to pay. That 50-cent wage increase wouldnt start until Jan. 1, 2021.

It would also remove much of the language authorizing the city to enforce the local wage law. For example, instead of allowing the local wage enforcement office to investigate and rule on any employee complaints, the office would have to forward the complaint to the Arizona Industrial Commission.

Several state business organizations, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and the Flagstaff Greater Chamber of Commerce, have filed a lawsuit to overturn the new state minimum wage law.

Stuart McDaniel, the government affairs director for the Greater Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce, said the organization supports Elevates efforts but neither the Chamber nor its political action committee, BizPac, is funding the group or the petition-gathering process.

Bader also pointed out that Elevate s proposal for Flagstaff is pegged to the state minimum wage as provided for under (ARS 23-363) or its successor statute. The latter is embodied under Prop. 206, but both the Flagstaff Chamber and Elevate are hoping that the new state law will be deemed unconstitutional by the courts, Bader said. If that happens, then everything would go back to the status quo. The state minimum wage would be $8.05 an hour, with increases linked to the consumer price index. However, Elevate s 50-cent an hour increase in 2021 would still be in effect locally were the Flagstaff initiative to pass and replace Prop. 414.
Workers renovate the building that housed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, the site of a deadly terrorist siege in July, Nov. 15, 2016.

An anti-terror court in Kolkata on Wednesday extended until Jan. 3 the judicial custody of an alleged operative of Islamic State (IS) whom authorities linked to a Bangladeshi militant group blamed for a deadly siege at a Dhaka cafe in July.

Mosihuddin (alias Abu Musa), a 25-year-old Indian citizen who has been in the custody of Indias National Investigation Agency (NIA) since July 4, has admitted to having links with IS and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants, said Shyamal Ghosh, the agencys counsel.

Earlier in December, special agents from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) traveled to India to interrogate Mosihuddin about his alleged revelations that IS and JMB were plotting to attack American citizens on Indian soil, an NIA official told BenarNews.

The NIA said JMB is the Bangladeshi affiliate of Islamic State, which claimed the July 1 attack that left 20 hostages  mostly foreigners  dead at the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe. But Bangladeshs home minister and other Bangladeshi officials have denied IS was behind the attack, saying the group has no presence in their country.

Officials have instead pinned the terrorist act on Neo-JMB, a faction of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, and have since killed most of the attacks alleged perpetrators and planners.

Musa was produced in a special NIA court in Kolkata today and was sent back to judicial custody until Jan. 3, Ghosh told BenarNews on Wednesday, adding, The NIA will submit its charge-sheet against him before the next date of hearing.

Mosihuddin is to be charged under the Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act for waging war against India, the lawyer said. Repeated efforts to contact Mosihuddins attorney, Mohammad Zakir, failed.

Plot to kill Americans

Mosihuddin has told interrogators that Mohammed Suleiman (alias Abu Suleiman, who is also known as Sulaiman) tasked him with creating an IS cell in India with an aim to specifically target American nationals and assets in the country, a senior NIA official said on condition of anonymity.

Bangladeshi officials have described Suleiman as one of the people who plotted the overnight siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhakas diplomatic quarter.

Suleiman, who is absconding, planned the attack from a hideout in the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal, Mosihuddin told interrogators, according to the official.

After several rounds of interrogation, we have come to conclude that Musa was most likely involved in the Dhaka attack, the official told BenarNews.

Mosihuddin was also in touch with Syria-based Shafi Armar, believed to be ISs chief recruiter for India, according to the NIA official. A native of south Indias Karnataka state, Armar had allegedly hatched the plan to target areas frequented by Western tourists.

For this purpose, Musa made recreational trips to the Mother Teresa center in Kolkata and Dal Lake in Srinagar to plan stabbing attacks similar to the Dhaka cafe attack, the official said.

FBI grills Musa

Mosihuddins alleged revelations that IS, along with JMB, was planning attacks on U.S. citizens in India prompted the FBI to send a team to Kolkata to interrogate him.

A seven-member FBI team grilled Musa for over four hours on Dec. 8 regarding his links with IS, the official said, adding that the FBI shared the interrogation details with the NIA. He, however, refused to divulge those details.

According to a Times of India report that quoted unnamed NIA sources, Mosihuddin told FBI interrogators that he hated white-skinned people and wanted to kill them.

In August, a three-member Bangladeshi police team also visited Kolkata to interrogate Mosihuddin, who was allegedly radicalized by JMB members in 2014.

During interrogation, Musa said JMB leaders from Bangladesh radicalized him in India and ordered him to carry out operations, Monirul Islam, the chief of Bangladeshs counter-terrorism and transnational unit, had told BenarNews then.

Mosihuddin revealed the names of 12 Bangladesh-based JMB operatives, two of whom were subsequently arrested, Islam added.

Improvised gun recovered

Mosihuddin, who worked at a grocery store in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, came under the scrutiny of security agencies soon after the Dhaka cafe attack when his calls and emails were traced to Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Syria.

Acting on a tip from the NIA and Indias Intelligence Bureau that Mosihuddin was heading to his birthplace in West Bengals Birbhum district, state officials picked him up from Burdwan railway station on July 4. An improvised gun, a 13-inch dagger and fake currency notes from Afghanistan and Syria were recovered from him, police said.

While government officials consistently deny that IS has made any significant inroads in India, intelligence agencies claim that about 50 Indian Muslims have left for the Middle East to fight alongside the terror outfit. Among them, at least seven have died in battle. Nearly 70 people are currently in police custody for showing leanings toward the group.

Security analyst G.M. Srivastava told BenarNews that if the NIA could successfully prove Mosihuddins links with IS and JMB in court, it would be a big boost for the security apparatus in India.
Kashmiri mourners in Srinagar chant as they carry the body of Qaiser Hamid, 16, who died after alleged torture while in police custody, Nov. 5, 2016.

Updated 8:55 a.m ET 2016-12-21

A rights group in India said Tuesday it would appeal to the countrys highest court for an end to in-custody torture a day after Human Rights Watch reported that nearly 600 suspects had died during a six-year period while being held by Indian police.

In a 114-page report released Monday, the New York-based global rights watchdog said at least 591 custodial deaths had occurred between 2010 and 2015, mostly caused by torture inflicted by policemen to extract confessions.

Almost 100 people died in police custody in 2015, the report said, citing government data. In 67 of those cases, police either did not present the suspects before a judge within 24 hours of arrest, as required by law, or the suspects died within 24 hours of being arrested.

We are in the process of taking this matter to the Supreme Court, Ritu Kumar of the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), a New Delhi-based socio-legal organization, told BenarNews, adding that the Indian judiciary was partly to blame for the alarming rate of in-custody deaths.

There are several court rulings that entitle a suspect the right to a lawyer at the time of arrest. Despite specific directions, this law is not implemented. Even when the suspect is presented before a magistrate, the magistrate doesnt bother to ask if the suspect was physically tortured, Kumar said.

In most cases, people belonging to lower socio-economic strata face torture at the hands of officers because the police think they can get away with it as this group doesnt have the means or support to challenge them, Kumar said.

We have asked for services from legal authorities of various (Indian) states to protect suspects from police torture, but there is hardly any willingness. Moving the Supreme Court is our last legal recourse, she said.

The last time I saw my son 

The HRW report  prepared after investigating 17 custodial deaths and more than 70 interviews of victims families, witnesses and legal experts  said only one policeman had been convicted in a case of in-custody death between 2010 and 2015.

Agnelo Valdaris, 25, a Maharashtra state native, died three days after his arrest on suspicion of theft in April 2014, the report said.

The last time I saw my son was April 17, 2014. He was crying bitterly. He was telling, daddy save me. They have been beating me the whole night. They will kill me. After that I did not see him. I only saw his dead body the very next day, Leonard Valdaris, Agnelos father, told HRW.

The report said that while Indian police typically blame deaths in custody on suicide, illness or natural causes, family members of victims frequently allege the deaths were the result of torture or other ill-treatment.

Forms of torture, commonly referred to as third degree in Indian police lingo, include severe beatings with boots and belts, sometimes suspending people from their wrists, the HRW said, adding that autopsy reports it examined showed injuries and hematomas consistent with blunt force trauma.

Political pressure

While admitting that nearly 600 custodial deaths in six years was a bad figure, Sankar Sen, a retired senior police official, came out in defense of the police, saying that the high rate of custodial deaths was possibly caused by political pressure on the force to deliver results in a speedy manner.

Police usually employ the third degree on suspects only to source material [evidence] that would be admissible in court. Police have to use those confessions to produce evidence of the same in court. At times, there is undue pressure on the police to secure results quickly. Police dont take pleasure out of physically hurting people, Sen, former head of investigations for the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), told BenarNews.

Deepak Ratan, inspector general of police in north Indias Uttar Pradesh state, said efforts were being made to ensure that suspects were not tortured in custody.

This is a serious issue and proactive measures are being taken to tackle it. CCTVs (closed circuit television cameras) are being installed at police stations across the country to check such practices. And officers are regularly instructed to ensure that no one is detained without proper documentation. The situation should improve with these measures, Ratan told BenarNews.

Meanwhile, officials with the two leading Indian political parties that were in power during the period researched by HRW commented on the reports findings.

Custodial deaths is a matter related to the police, and police are not controlled by the central government, Bizay Sonkar Shastri, spokesman for Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which came to power in May 2014, told BenarNews.

The Indian National Congress party, which was in power before that, said it played its part to check custodial deaths and the current government must do the same.

Congress had set up a human rights commission to see that custodial torture doesnt happen. Now, only the government in power can take measures to prevent [them]. The government has to be extra considerate on the issue, Congress partys Shobha Oza told BenarNews.
Indonesian police use a sniffer dog to search for explosive materials at a house in South Tangerang, Banten, West Java province, Dec. 21, 2016.

Testimony from a female would-be suicide bomber helped Indonesian police thwart planned Christmas and New Years attacks by killing three suspects and capturing four others on Wednesday, officials told reporters.

Members of the anti-terror squad Densus 88, acting on testimony provided by Dian Yulia Novi, arrested a suspect identified as Adam, at 8 a.m. in South Tangerang, Banten, West Java province, about 25 km (15 miles) from Jakarta. Dian, who allegedly planned a suicide bomb attack outside the Presidential Palace during a changing-of-the-guard ceremony, was arrested Dec. 10.

Brig. Gen. Rikwanto, chief of the national polices public information bureau, said Adam had told officers about three friends who lived in a house in the neighborhood of Babakan, South Tangerang. When Densus 88 raided the house around 9:45 a.m., the three resisted and were shot dead.

They had been asked to surrender but they fought back, and threw a bomb, but the bomb did not explode. So we had to take firm action to paralyze them, Rikwanto told a press conference at national police headquarters in Jakarta.

The dead suspects were identified as Omen, Erwan, and Helmi. Police found homemade pipe bombs and firearms in the rented house. The bombs were detonated at the scene.

They wanted to detonate bombs at Christmas and New Year targeting police. (Their plan) was first to stab a police officer to attract crowd, and then detonate the bomb, Jakarta Police Chief Inspector-General Mochamad Iriawan told reporters.

Additional arrests

Elsewhere, police arrested a suspect in Payakumbuh, West Sumatra, identified as Jhon Tanamal, (alias Hamza), and another in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra, identified as Syafii.

National Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian said both were associated with the Khatibah Gonggong Rebus (KGR), a group that had planned a rocket attack on Singapore from the nearby Indonesian island of Batam, in August. Police found books and documents on bomb-making and materials, a national police spokesman said.

A suspect arrested Wednesday afternoon in Sagulung sub district in Batam has been identified as Abisya. He is part of KGR and affiliated with Bahrun Naim, according to police.

Together with the other members of KGR, he helped two ethnic Uyghurs enter Indonesia illegally and hid their presence while in Batam, Police Commander Awi Setiyono said in a statement. In August 2015 in Batam, Abisya and fellow KGR members allegedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS).

Where is Bahrun Naim?

According to police, Dians husband, Muhammad Nur Solihin, who also was arrested on Dec. 10, led a network preparing terror attacks in several areas in Indonesia. Nur, who pledged allegiance to IS, said in a television interview that he had received instructions from Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian who is believed to be in Syria and leading an IS combat unit made up of Southeast Asian fighters.

On Tuesday, the deputy head for law enforcement of the National Counterterrorism Agency said the government was not certain of the current location of Bahrun Naim. Police have said he was behind a terror attack in Jakarta that left eight dead, including the four attackers, on Jan. 14.

Indonesian police have also said that a terrorist cell in Indonesia was working under the direction of Bahrun Naim and other radical figures, including Bahrun Syah and Abu Whalid (alias Syaifuddin).

The latest information is, theyve been given assignments in Southeast Asia, based in the southern Philippines, National Police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar told a news conference on Dec. 16.

Year-end attack doctrine

Al Chaidar, a terrorism analyst from the Malikussaleh University in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, said Wednesdays arrests were connected to a doctrine issued in 2000 by Hambali, a former leader of the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah. He is now incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, and had earlier called for attacks to be carried out during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The main target is police because they believe police are taghout so they should be attacked, Chaidar told BenarNews, using a term from Islamic theology that refers to idolatry or to the worship of anything except Allah.

He added that those arrested belonged to a very small cell.

They do not know each other but are ruled by the same person, he said.

Some of those arrested could be affiliated with Aman Abdurahman and Bahrun Naim, said Abu Harith Ulya, another terrorism expert. Aman is an inmate who was convicted for his role in terrorist training by Jemaah Islamiyah in Aceh, in 2010.

There is another possibility, they are just IS sympathizers who are not connected with Bahrun Naim, but read Bahruns guidance that circulated in social media, Harith told BenarNews.

Tia Asmara contributed to this report.
A Thai police officer talks with digital rights activists protesting the National Legislative Assemblys adoption of amendments to the Computer Crime Act, at a shopping district in Bangkok, Dec. 18, 2016.

New amendments to Thailands Computer Crime Act will allow government officials to further restrict free speech and retaliate against activists, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Changes to the law governing cyber crimes likely will increase censorship, HRW said Wednesday in a statement. The Thai National Legislative Assembly adopted the amendments unanimously on Dec. 16.

HRWs statement focused on Articles 14(1) and (2), claiming they provide grounds for the government to prosecute people for any content that officials designate as false or distorted. The articles impose a maximum penalty of five years in prison and fines for convictions.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly raised concerns that Thai authorities, private companies and individuals often retaliate against those reporting alleged human rights violations by filing defamation lawsuits, accusing activists and victims of making false statements, the global rights watchdog said in its statement.

Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha, whose military government seized power in 2014, challenged critics claims that the changes would violate free speech.

No one wants to police social media because its tiring, Prayuth said on Tuesday, according to the Thai news website Khaosod English. Society should help protect each other and create peace.

Sweeping power

The junta had filed criminal charges against many critics who posted commentary on social media alleging corruption by government leaders, according to HRW.

The Thai military government has now given itself sweeping power to monitor, search, and acquire information, invading peoples privacy on a massive scale, said Brad Adams, the groups Asia director.

Articles 16(1) and (2) of the law state that the court can order information found to be false and having caused damage to other persons or the public to be removed from the Internet and deleted from computer systems, HRW said.

Arbitrary enforcement would have dire consequences on research and reporting on contentious topics of public concern, including incidents related to serious state-sponsored rights violations, such as the 2003 drugs war, the 2010 violent political confrontations, and abusive counterinsurgency operations in the southern border provinces, HRW claimed.

Amendments should be scrapped

The statement from HRW echoed concerns raised by CPJ on the day the legislature approved the amendments.

The amendments seek to harmonize Thai law with technological advances, but, in doing so, includes provisions that invite abuse, the committee said.

Thailands cybercrime law was already a grave threat to journalists who work online. These vague and overbroad amendments will only accentuate the danger, Shawn Crispin, CPJs senior Southeast Asia representative said in a statement issued Dec. 16.

Thailands military government consistently conflates commentary with criminal activity, and these amendments will give officials even wider powers to crush dissent. These amendments should be scrapped, and any future changes to the law should prioritize explicit guarantees of press freedom and freedom of expression, he added.

Lese-Majeste

CPJ claims the junta has broadened Internet censorship since the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Oct. 13.

The Associated Press reported that Thai authorities had blocked access to 1,300 websites in the month following the kings death over content deemed anti-royal  more sites than were censored in the previous five years combined.

Previous CPJ research showed that officials had used the cybercrime law to enforce the nations strict Lese-Majeste anti-royal defamation law.

Earlier this month, a Thai activist was arrested after he allegedly shared a BBC News profile of King Maha Vajiralongkorn that was published by its London-based Thai-language service, BBC Thai, after he ascended the throne on Dec. 1. The activist, Jatupat Pai Boonpattararaksa, was the first person charged under Lese-Majeste since the new king succeeded his father.
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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Daily News

General Prosecutor Nabil Sadek ordered on Monday the removal of former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq from the nations travel ban and arrival watch lists. On 16 November, a Cairo criminal court had ruled to remove him from the watch lists.

In 2012, Shafiq, who was also the former prime minister in 2011, was barred from travelling and was added to the arrival watch list. At the time he was under investigation for corruption charges in tandem with the sons of former president Hosni Mubarak. In 2013 he was acquitted of all charges.

Just two days after Shafiq had lost the presidential election to Mohamed Morsi in 2012, he fled to the United Arab Emirates, where he has remained since.

Professor in criminal law Mahmoud Kebaish told Daily News Egypt: Shafiq can participate in political life as this is a right granted by the constitution, as long as his legal situation is fine.

Commenting on alleged tensions between Shafiq and the current regime reported by some news outlets, Kebaish said that this still does not prevent Shafiq from returning to the political sphere in Egypt.

Shafiq was the last prime minister in Mubaraks regime and following the revolution of 2011 he became actively involved in politics. He was the head of the Egyptian Patriotic Movement.
[Based on Matthew 2:1-12]

An ancient superstition was current

in the East, that out of Judea at this time

would come one of the rulers of the world.

Suetonius

It has been roughly two and a half years since the close of Matthew 1. After that chapter of the story of Jesus, recorded for us in Luke 2, the author of Matthew takes up the thread of Jesus life.

It is roughly the last year of Herod the Greats tumultuous reign. He is sickly, dying of gonorrhea and possibly also cancer. He has spent his entire reign protecting his precarious throne. His appointment first came in 40 B.C. through his patron Mark Antony. He weathered the split between Antony and Augustus and was able to deftly change sides and preserve his power. In time he would build temples and name cities for Caesar, further cementing his title as rex socius (a client king).

In the latter years of his reign, their relationship will begin to break down. At one point Augustus said of Herod, It is better to be Herods pig than Herods son, owing to the fact that Herod had killed so many of his own but maintained the appearance of keeping kosher. He barely survived a plot by none other than Queen Cleopatra of Egypt to seduce and blackmail him. He executed his beloved wife, Mariamne, and her mother, Alexandra, as well as his three older sons. As he lay dying in Jericho in 4 B.C., he ordered a number of well-loved Jewish leaders to be held in the hippodrome in Jericho to be executed upon his death so that there would be mourning in Israel. His tomb in the Herodium has only recently been discovered by archaeologists.

That the magi come from the East would have been interpreted as a particular threat. Herod had built several fortresses along his eastern borders in anticipation of a threat coming from Persia. Masada is the best known and most imposing of these forts. He also constructed the fortresses known as the Herodium and Machaerus, where John would later be beheaded by Herods son, Antipas.

Herod had degenerated into a sickly, spent force. Driven mad by decades of stress, not to mention the long-term neurological effects of gonorrhea, he was pathologically paranoid. With this as background, we can begin to imagine the impact the magis message would have had on the fragile king. The greatest threat he could imagine had reared its head once more, only this was a very real threat, not an imagined one.

The bearers of the message of the newborn king represented an even greater threat to Herod. The magi were an elite political and spiritual force that had exercised authority since before the time of Daniel, who was appointed as one of their number (Dan 2:48; 5:11). They were the interpreters of dreams (Dan 2:2; 4:7) and possessors of secret knowledge of the planets and the stars (see Esther 1:13). Owing to the presence of the exiled Jewish community in Babylon during the captivity, the Jewish Scriptures had become part of the magis vast accumulation of knowledge. Though the passage is not quoted, the most likely reason for their journey was the prophecy of the wicked prophet Balaam in Numbers 24:17:

I see him, but not now;

I perceive him, but not near.

A star will come from Jacob,

and a scepter will arise from Israel.

The magi appear from the East, presumably with their entourage of Persian cavalry announcing they have come to worship the newborn king of the Jews. The word describing Herods response can also be translated terrified, troubled, or even intimidated. From what we know of Herod the Great, he most likely experienced this entire range of emotions.

The two groups of advisers he calls togetherthe chief priests and the teachers of the lawrepresent the two groups that will in time band together in an attempt to destroy the newborn king. The chief priests were primarily Sadducees, and the teachers of the law were mostly Pharisees. It seems common enough knowledge, from Micah 5:2, that the king will be born in the city of Davids birth: Bethlehem. Just why the magi didnt notice the passage before we are left to wonder.

Herods secret meeting with them to determine the exact time of the guiding stars appearance is actually a ruse to allow him to calculate the age range of the boys in Bethlehem he will order to be executed (see Mt 2:16). This number also indicates the probable length of their journey, two years.

As they resumed their journey, the star reappears and guides the weary troop to a house where the young child is waiting. Their joy at seeing the familiar star once more and finding the goal of their long trek is difficult for us to imagine. What, to me, is most significant about the magi occurs in Matthew 2:11. There is a doubled statement: they fall to their knees and worship him. When we take into consideration the vast knowledge base possessed by the magi, and the fact that they were willing to undertake such a long journey, indicates one simple startling fact: in all their sacred wisdom, in all their vast learning, they had not yet found the wisdom their hearts were longing for. Why else would they have taken such an arduous trip if not for an aching need to satisfy a hunger that all of the worlds wisdom had not yet satisfied?

We must rid ourselves of the notion that because there were three gifts, there must have been only three magi. Perhaps there were dozens of them. Gold is a gift for kings. Frankincense was the only incense allowed on the altar in the temple (Ex 30:9, 34-38). Myrrh was primarily used as a perfume but also in the process of embalming (Jn 19:39). They were the perfect gifts for a king who was also a priest who had come to die.

The simple fact that they worshiped the toddler king indicates that in him they apparently found all they had been looking for. This wordless one, who was the Word, was at the same time the wisdom of God. The wisest men in the world recognize it and fall to their knees.

The Persian dreamers are warned by one final dream to go home by another route, to avoid the insane Herod, who by this time was surely furious.

Taken from Matthew: The Gospel of Identity by Michael Card. Copyright(c) 2013 by Michael Card. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, PO Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com

Matthew writes his Gospel to help his readers define their new identity as followers of Jesus the Messiah. Michael Card unpacks how Matthews emphasis on fulfillment confirms their Jewish connection to the Torah, while his focus on the kingdom helps them understand their new identities in Christ. Matthew presents this process of redefinition as an exercise of the imagination, in which Jesus reshapes who we are in light of who he is.
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For Immediate Release, December 20, 2016 Contact: Miyoko Sakashita, (510) 845-6703, miyoko@biologicaldiversity.org Obama Protects Federal Waters From Oil Companies, Trump Administration President Permanently Removes Arctic, Atlantic From Federal Leasing Program OAKLAND, Calif. President Obama removed the majority of the Arctic Ocean and parts of the Atlantic from the federal governments fossil fuel leasing program today, responding to widespread calls to preempt the incoming Trump administration from expanding offshore oil and gas drilling and worsening the climate crisis. The Center for Biological Diversity  one of more than 45 environmental, coastal and indigenous groups that have been asking Obama to permanently protect U.S. waters since writing a joint legal petition in March  hailed todays decision. Obama just took an important step to protect our oceans and his environmental legacy. Protecting the Arctic and Atlantic from dangerous drilling will give polar bears, right whales and other endangered species a fighting chance, said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. This decision helps jump-start the resistance to Trumps promised attacks on our environment. Obamas move today to exercise his authority under Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act strengthens his administrations decision last month to remove proposed Arctic and Atlantic leases for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Managements 2017-2022 offshore energy leasing plan. The Center today renewed its call for Obama to extend protections to unleased areas in the Gulf of Mexico, where 10 lease sales are planned in the next five years, and the Pacific Ocean, where California officials fear the Trump administration could overturn the current ban on new federal leases.



The whole world is watching Trump fill his cabinet with climate deniers. Putting offshore oil and gas off limits is the best way President Obama can protect our climate future, Sakashita said. We wish Mr. Obama had extended protections to other areas, like the Pacific and eastern Gulf of Mexico, that have largely been off limits to drilling, but were geared up resist Trumps attempts to drill, baby, drill." Leading climate scientists say the vast majority of untapped fossil fuels must stay in the ground to avoid catastrophic, irreversible changes to the climate. Unleased federal waters contain an estimated 75 billion barrels of crude oil, more than twice that of unleased federal lands. Stopping the expansion of new leases in federal waters would keep 61.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide out of our atmosphere and oceans.
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
Elderly people treated by female doctors while in the hospital had significantly better survival rates and fewer readmissions than those treated by their male counterparts.

The findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine were based on a sample of more than 1m people whose records were analysed from 2011 to 2014.

Those with female doctors were significantly less likely to die within 30 days of admission, or to be readmitted within 30 days of discharge.

If men could achieve the same success as women in this realm, researchers estimated that there would be 32,000 fewer deaths each year among Medicare patients alone, a group that includes people over 65.

The number is about the same as the death toll across the United States from car accidents in a given year, the report said.

Gender of physician plays a role

"The difference in mortality rates surprised us," said lead author Yusuke Tsugawa, research associate in the department of health policy and management at Harvard University's TH Chan School of Public Health.

"The gender of the physician appears to be particularly significant for the sickest patients."

The study was described as the first national assessment of its kind to compare outcomes among patients of female and male doctors.

It found that patients treated by a female physician had a four percent lower relative risk of dying prematurely compared to those treated by men.

Patients cared for by women doctors had a 5% lower relative risk of being readmitted to a hospital within 30 days.

"The association was seen across a wide variety of clinical conditions and variations in severity of illness," said the report.

The study did not delve into the reasons for the differences.

More patient centred

However, previous research has shown that female doctors tend to follow clinical guidelines more closely than men, and that women provide more patient-centred communication.

A better understanding of the different approaches is now more important than ever, said senior author, Ashish Jha, professor of health policy and director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.

"There was ample evidence that male and female physicians practice medicine differently. Our findings suggest that those differences matter and are important to patient health," said Jha.

"We need to understand why female physicians have lower mortality so that all patients can have the best possible outcomes, irrespective of the gender of their physician."
The 17th annual African Utility Week will take place from 16-18 May 2017 at the CTICC in Cape Town. The conference programme address the latest challenges, developments and opportunities in the power and water sectors.

The power and energy landscape in Africa is undergoing significant change, says Evan Schiff, African Utility Week event director, adding that current trends include the availability of private investment for power and energy projects, the fast development of energy storage, renewable energy is becoming cheaper, gas that is an increasingly attractive mode of power generation in Africa, and that, in the next 10 years, nuclear will become an increasingly important mode of base-load power generation.

The investment, trade and development opportunities in the sub-Saharan Africas electricity sector are estimated at $835bn of capital investment, $490bn for generation capacity and $345bn for infrastructure.

New platform: Energy Revolution Africa

Another strong trend in the sector, says Evan Schiff, is that the energy consumer is becoming more aware of their environment and how their power is generated and distributed, whether they are a residential home, a mine, a village, a shopping centre or manufacturing plant. Cleaner, more affordable energy generating options will increasingly become the norm rather than the exception. All these factors will mean that the utility as we know it will not look the same within 10 years change will happen. We are therefore launching Energy Revolution Africa, a new platform for community scale projects.

Energy Revolution Africa will provide a forum for solution providers to meet with the new energy purchasers such as metros and municipalities, IPPs, rural electrification project developers and large power users, including mines, commercial property developers and industrial manufacturers. The latest innovations and projects in the sectors of renewables, future technology, energy efficiency, micro/off-grid and energy storage will be showcased.

Side events that are part of the African Utility Week platform include:

African Power Finance & Investment Forum: Financiers and project owners will hear from speakers who will identify the key trends impacting project finance in regional energy markets with updates on and insights into market opportunities, sources of capital, financing instruments and access to project finance. A featured session on regional power integration will explore new methods of developing cross-border power projects on a PPP basis, explore the opportunities for investors, and show how regional power integration can substantially save capital investment costs.

The Gas-to-Power World Congress reflects the continuing transformation of the energy ecosystem in Africa and beyond. Gas and renewables are perfect partners to help address an array of future energy challenges, including climate change, energy security and energy finance, currently three of the worlds largest and most important challenges. The event will look at new business and investment opportunities in gas-to-power, energy infrastructure, FSRU, LPG and LNG.

The Utility CEO Forum is held as a three-day by-invitation-only board meeting alongside African Utility Week, where the men and women who lead and guide Africas power and water sectors discuss the path of transformation. Discussions centre on areas of co-operation, development plans and the advancement of regional centres of excellence throughout Africa.

The Nuclear Power Africa Conference features expert speakers who will address the myths and realities, latest technologies, regulatory and financing challenges and the economic spin offs created by a nuclear new build programme. Nuclear stakeholders and prospective suppliers will gain first-hand insights into prospects for new jobs, training programmes, and the business opportunities created by the localisation of the supply chain of a nuclear new build.

The fourth edition of the African Utility Week Power Industry Awards brings together 800 of Africas most renowned power and water industry professionals. The Power Industry Awards recognises, rewards and celebrates the successes of Africas power and water sectors during 2016/17.

Africa Utilities Technology Council: a Telecommunications/ICT conference track programme to be presented that will cover topics such as IT/OT convergence, IPnetworks and utility telecoms network performance measures. The AUTC content will continue in three dedicated sessions  one each in the T&D, Metering and Water tracks of the main strategic conference.
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development Themba Mthembu says the department will work towards ensuring that no household goes hungry.

We are challenged on this front by rising food prices. We know from health experts that as a result of not getting adequate proteins and vitamins, one in five children suffers from malnutrition and learning disabilities, MEC Mthembu said.

He was speaking at a media briefing at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Monday, 19 December, where he outlined the departments strategic plans for 2017/18.

MEC Mthembu said food insecurity will become the overarching focus of the department. He stressed the need to see food as a health and social justice issue, before it is seen as business.

This is not just a matter of planting more crops and raising more livestock, but dealing with issues of making nutritious food affordable to the poor. The well-being of our nation will be compromised if we do not find ways to provide nutritious food for the poor.

We need to look at how we can measure our success according to the healthy foods we produce. Research, especially collaborative research with other institutions, will form an important part of this programme, said MEC Mthembu.

The departments plans will also incorporate the extensive growing of a diversity of food crops, including indigenous crops and fruit trees.

MEC Mthembu said that while the department will work directly with subsistence farmers, the plan is to develop an agency that will largely be concerned with commercial farming.

He said there is a plan to collapse all the departments entities such as Agribusiness Development Agency (ADA) and Mjindi Farming into one entity. Commercial farming will become the domain of this new single entity.

The departments strategy will also involve the development of an intensive urban farming programme, which is aimed at reviving the township economy and aggressively addressing poverty and unemployment.
Gerald Leissner, a property industry titan with more than 50 years' experience who died on Friday, 16 December, aged 74, has been lauded for his civil contributions.

Gerald Leissner died aged 74.

Leissner was heavily involved in civil society, having held prominent positions in various organisations and activities which were aimed at overcoming poverty and inequality, said independent non-executive chairman of Arrowhead Properties, Taffy Adler.

These included the Urban Foundation, the Central Johannesburg Partnership, the Inner City Housing Upgrading Trust, the Johannesburg Housing Company, the Trust for Urban Housing Finance, the Housing Development Agency, the ApexHi Empowerment Trust and the ApexHi and Arrowhead Charitable Trusts, Foundation 2000 and Yeshiva College.

The two trusts have distributed about R100m to various charities.

His contribution to the country as a whole was recognised by former President Nelson Mandela in his address to the 37th Annual Congress of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies in August 1993 where he said: "I want to take this opportunity also to make special mention of some of the other outstanding leaders and figures from the Jewish community who have been in the forefront of the struggle for human rights. All South Africans owe much to the example set by Mr Gerald Leissner, the President of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, Mr Mervyn Smith, its current chairman, and Professor Michael Katz, its past president."

Adler said Leissner had also shaped one of the earliest black economic empowerment (BEE) policies in the listed property sector. He applied a BEE policy to ApexHi, a property company which he founded before Arrowhead.

"ApexHi was formed in 2001 as a listed property loan stock company with 15 properties, mainly in Johannesburg, worth about R15m. Gerald was the founding CEO of the company and, under his guidance, ApexHi grew to be the second largest listed South African property company on the JSE, owning 235 commercial, retail and industrial properties, with a market capitalisation in excess of R6bn by 2007," said Adler.

Investors who acquired ApexHi units when the company first listed its A and B unit structure in March 2001 realised a total return of 386% for the 70 months of trading to the end of December 2006, according to Adler.

"As part of the requirements of the government's BEE Charter, companies such as ApexHi were encouraged to make a minimum of 10% of capital available to black shareholders. True to form, and again under Gerald's guidance, the company came up with an innovative way of ensuring not only that black shareholders could participate in the spectacular growth of the company but also that both capital and income could be transferred to groups who were involved in poverty alleviation activities in SA," he said.

Expanding the A and B unit structure of its listed shareholding, ApexHi created a C unit which was offered to existing A and B unit shareholders on condition they sold 30% of their C units to the BEE partners at a unit price of R2 per unit.

"The company was then in a position to offer 74,980,920 C units to black empowerment groupings. While 50% of the BEE allocation went to a black commercial partner, the balance, worth R75m, was offered to a broad-based empowerment trust. The beneficiaries of this scheme are the Cida Empowerment Fund, the DEC Investment Holding company, MaAfrika Tikkun, Makhulong A Matala and the Soul City Broad-Based Empowerment Company," said Adler.

"One of ApexHi's key objectives in selecting the BEE shareholders was to ensure a significant proportion of the economic benefits that flow from the transaction would contribute to those communities and persons who have historically been, and continue to be, the most disadvantaged members of the South African economy," said Leissner at the time of the share issue.

Source: BDpro
The expected commercial production of SA's wheat crop was likely to be 6.2% greater, at 1.876-million tons, than the Crop Estimates Committee forecast a month ago, the committee said on Tuesday, 20 December.

The committee, part of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said in its fifth estimate for SA's winter crops of wheat, malting barley and canola that the main reason for a bigger wheat crop was that farmers harvested better-than-expected yields, especially in the Western Cape.

The total yield is expected to be 3.69 tons/hectare, which is above last month's forecast of 3.47 tons/hectare and 2015's 3.67 tons/hectare.

The expected harvest in the Western Cape, which produces more than half the total crop, will be 10% higher than previously forecast.

The Free State crop is unchanged at 308,000 tons. In the Northern Cape the estimate has been increased by 5.6% to 266,000 tons.

Winter wheat is planted in May and harvested in November.

The committee also forecast the malting barley crop would be 9.5% higher than expected in November, at 339,135 tons, although the canola crop would be 3.0% less at 108,860 tons.

Source: BDpro
Law enforcement agencies have seized counterfeit goods with an estimated value of R60 million at shops in Johannesburg's central business district.

During a joint operation conducted by the Hawks Serious Commercial Crime unit, South African Police Service, Department of Home Affairs, customs and SARS on Tuesday, authorities searched 120 shops at the Quebec Building.

...they confiscated clothes, bags, cosmetics, accessories, and jewellery of the protected brand names including Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Dolce and Gabbana, Adidas, Nike, Puma, Soviet, Converse, and Guess with an estimated value of R60 million, Hawks spokesperson Captain Ndivhuwo Mulamu said.

A man was arrested for trying to bribe authorities while they were searching the shops and another seven others were arrested for not having the necessary legal documents.

Malumu said the operation was targeted at trading in counterfeit goods, tax evasion, money laundering and human trafficking.

The National Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, Lieutenant General Mthandazo Ntlemeza, commended the members who played part in the success of the operation.

We warn those engaged in the distribution of counterfeit goods that we will seize and bring them to book. This campaign serves to ensure that the jobs of ordinary South Africans in the textile and retail industry are protected, said Ntlemeza.

Meanwhile, Hawks and customs officials at OR Tambo International Airport nabbed a 60 year-old Pakistan man after he allegedly tried to smuggle R10 million in cash to Dubai on Tuesday.

A routine search was conducted at a departure check-in point and authorities recovered US Dollars equivalent to R10 million concealed in foil inside the suspects travelling luggage.

The suspect will appear before the Kempton Park Magistrates Court on Thursday.

This is a second incident in two months. In October this year Madiha Rafiq was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport on the same charges.

Rafiq is currently out on a R40 000 bail and his case was postponed to February for further investigation.
I'm a 'burgers and shakes' kind of girl, but have never had them quite like they make them at the V&A Waterfront's Gibson's Gourmet Burgers and Ribs. Here's how the standard weekend treat has been upgraded to legendary levels...

Part of the Slick Restaurant group and sister to Belthazar and Balducci's fine-dining options, Gibsons has been part of the V&A Waterfronts harbour-view experience since opening a good four years ago. No spur of the moment decision (excuse the burger pun), the owners are said to have visited all the worlds top burger joints in the meat sandwich capitals of the world (mainly in the US of A, of course) beforehand to find the most winning combinations. Now, theres more reason to visit as its just been handed the Savanna Award for being voted best burger eatery in the Western Cape, based on a year of reviews and star ratings for ambience, service and food at the 2016 Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Best Everyday Eateries competition in Cape Town.

Gibsons' new alfresco all-weather terrace dining enclosure. Gibson's stylish modern interior created by award-winning designer, Adam Court. Gibson's ultimate burger, with a side basket of half fries, half sweet potato fries.

Add to this the October opening of the Waterfronts new all-weather terrace dining enclosure, featuring low glass walls and a large-scale awning, and you can now kiss those queues of the past goodbye and savour your gourmet meal whatever the weather. Situated right at the edge of the Waterfront and adorned with heavenly water 'misters', you can keep cool in the summer sun while taking in those panoramic views across the Quay 5 basin, as we did.

Burger bliss with all the fixin's

While theres also a selection of leafy salads, chicken and seafood dishes, as well as a choice of fall-off-the-bone smokey marinated beef, pork and lamb spare ribs or A-grade wet-and-dry-aged grainfed beef, supplied by Belthazars master butcher, we couldnt let you down and not try those award-winning burgers. We were a little overwhelmed at the vast array of over 40 burgers alone across gourmet, designer and Rolls Royce beef as well as chicken, pork, vegetarian, salad and banting burger options, so luckily our waiter was attentive and happy to share his recommendations. In the end we went for the Tex-mex burger, which is Jalapeno-laden and served with a side of nachos, sour cream, salsa and guacamole; and the slightly-more-subtle Governor, oozing BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese and a tangy mustard. Each table is topped with Gibsons secret sauce number 6 and secret sauce BBQ, ideal for dousing your side basket of fries, sweet potato fries, baked potato or salad. As we tried them both, I can state with authority that those sweet potato fries are just heavenly, as is the baked potato. But then I hear the creamy mac-and-cheese starter is amazing as a side dish, too... It's tough choice upon tough choice!

With 200g patties standard, these burgers are some of the meatiest monsters Ive encountered, with the seeded buns packed with fresh tomato, lettuce, sliced gherkin and fried onions standard  start practising opening your mouth really wide beforehand, and make sure you go hungry. Luckily the wait staff have no issue with providing takeaway boxes for anything you just cant finish at the table. Those basting sauces remain a secret, but you can watch how Gibsons burgers are made in the video embedded below:

But all this eating is no good without something to wash it down, am I right? And as I said, Im a burgers and shakes kind of girl  strong emphasis on the shakes, #thankyouverymuch. Luckily Gibsons places lots of emphasis on liquid refreshment, too.

Mega shakes and minty drinks

So much so that their flip-top menu has over 100 gourmet milkshake options, without a boring strawberry, chocolate or vanilla in sight  hello Nutella marscapone and peanut butter brownie, Ill see you next time  all handspun and double-thick, with healthier Greek yoghurt versions like honey and toasted almond or banana and chai. The shakes are also available as adult versions for those over-18s who prefer to add a variety of liqueurs and whisky. If that doesnt bring all the boys to their yard, I dont know what will.

A selection of the 100 handspun, double-thick gourmet shakes on offer at Gibson's.

I couldn't not try the 'peppermint caramel' Freek shake. At R145 it's one of the most expensive out there, but truly a meal in itself at 850ml of cold, creamy goodness. The three straws in the jar and two on the side were probably a sign (I chose to blissfully ignore) that this monster was not meant for one. Instead, I bravely slurped my way through the minty shake base, stopping to munch on wafers wedged together with caramel sauce, and little mountains of whipped cream topped with mint crumble.

The 'peanut butter brownie' gourmet shake. The 'peppermint caramel' Freek shake.

Theres also a strawberry Freek version brimming with fresh berries, marshmallows, meringue, jelly beans, 100s and 1000s sprinkles and blocks of coconut ice; or a chocolate nemesis Freek, built around chocolate ganache, milk and dark chocolate discs, chocolate brownies, Oreo cookies and pretzels pasted around the jar for a bit of salty crunch.

The peppermint-caramel was a real winner though, as I used the long spoon provided to scoop out blocks of toffee and bits of peppermint-crisp chocolate long after the demolished burger plate was carted away.

Especially as I was just too full to try any of the amazing-sounding desserts  how you can you read about gooey chocolate brownies, 60s diner-style jelly-and-custard, Bar-One and Oreo sundaes or New York cheesecake slab and not have a mouth-watering moment?

I didnt even have space for the ultimate dessert-y cocktail, the Amarula Colada. Sob. Ill have to go back for that.

In the name of providing as comprehensive a review as possible, my husband also tried Gibsons own craft beer brand, which was mild and went well with his meal. Theres also a value and premium wine list option, but we went through the cocktail list and decided instead that a shared, strongly-minty refreshingly-lime mojito would be the perfect ending  it was. Gibson's deserves all the accolades.

*Leigh Andrews was a guest of Gibsons Gourmet Burgers & Ribs. It's open daily from 11am to 11pm, situated at shop 157 in the V&A Waterfronts Victoria Wharf. Visit Gibsons website for their group set menu options and New Years Eve 2016 special menu, and follow them on Twitter for the latest updates.
SA students selected for international Boeing internship

Boeing has selected two South African students to join an elite group of international students for a six month paid internship at the company's facilities in the United States, starting in January 2017.

Keegan Moore (23), a BSc. Honours student in Design Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and Mbalenhle Sekautu, (25) a Masters student in Strategic Marketing also at Wits, will be travelling to Boeing in Seattle, Washington in early January.

The International Business Internship Program (IBIP), which was launched in 2012, provides students valuable exposure to the latest technological and business advances and thinking in a variety of disciplines relating to business operations, finance, marketing, strategy and the aviation industry.

The students will be exposed to a range of business activities and work alongside Boeing employees in various fields. They will also have an opportunity to spend time with Boeing leaders, visit several Boeing factories and share their experience with other IBIP interns from around the world.

J. Miguel Santos, Boeing managing director - sub-Sahara Africa and director of commercial airplane sales for Africa, congratulated the students on their selection and wished them well. The students will be provided with US-based work experience that will prove extremely valuable when they return and invest their new skills to the benefit of South Africa.
The festive season is really quite a silly season in the Southern Hemisphere, isn't it? Take life in Cape Town for example, you walk out and the heat is blazing and at the same time there are Christmas decorations everywhere - Santa and his reindeer just doing their thing. It's weird, no? But, hey, weird can be good and fun. It is summer, the festive season is in full swing, GP license plates are everywhere in Cape Town and there are more tourists than usual. Oh, yes, and Goldfish Submerged Sundays are back at Shimmy Beach Club! That is kind of what this article is about. Excuse my three second memory there and let's get right into it.

Dominic Peters from Goldfish

As you should know by now, the Goldfish duo is made up of Dominic Peters and David Poole, both of whom are classically trained Jazz musicians and hail from Cape Town. They have been in the electronic music business from 2005 and they havent lost any steam since then. Their career spans six albums, three compilations, an ocean of hit singles later, two South African Music Awards and an MTV Africa Music Award. Goldfish has also carved a name for themselves internationally, especially in Europe. #SubmergedxGoldfish VOL 4 2016 kicked off on 29 November and will keep you in that summer party mood until 31 January 2016. This means you still have some time to pop in for a Submerged session or four.

I got together some friendlings and even a sisterling and we all popped by for last Sundays Submerged session at Shimmy Beach Club and had quite the time. The weather was great, Shimmy Beach Club is always hell of a pretty and the people even prettier. Drinks were drunk, we made jokes about Goldfish and chips and just jammed out to the good music. Submerged Sundays are not themselves without guest artists lined up to add more fuel to the party fire and Dean Fuel was there to do just that. Cape Town favourites, Strange Loving, were also there to spread some of their vibes along with Dave Ireton, Richard Marshall and Thank Me Later.

I feel like I am becoming veteran at these events and I keep on having a good time. But dont take my word, pop by one Sunday and have yourself a great time in the sun and enjoy a relaxed vibe. Especially now when the silly season gets ridiculous and you just need somewhere to go de-stress from your holiday. I wish you all a merry Christmas and watch out for Santa and his reindeer. Goldfish are a safer crowd.
Recruitment agency, Shide Consulting, with the help of Digital Society, has launched Toggle - a new mobile app that allows users to build their CVs and connect with the agency's database.

Developed by Digital Society, Toggle users are able to build a simplified, yet professional CV through automated functionality and features, as well as interact with Cape Town-based Shide Consulting and its recruitment database. In doing so, Toggle users will eventually be able to tap into a huge market of available vacancies across various industries in South Africa's major corporate sector.

Shide Consulting CEO, Shirley Morse, says the motivation was driven by their recruitment challenges and the current legislative changes impacting the recruitment industry. This necessitated a need to re-position the company to remain sustainable.

Morse, who heads up the all-female-owned recruitment company, says the obvious choice of attempting to move their business to another level was a mobile app.

We also believe this would give us a bit of the edge to tap into some unknown markets and simultaneously keep more people off the streets. This will enable immediacy of service, as we are literally at the fingertips of our customers and candidates with real time access to jobs in the market in our sphere of influence. As a natural consequence, we believe this creates a responsiveness only an app provides, she shares.

App's impact on the recruitment sector

"The biggest challenge with recruitment in all its forms today is the aspect of time and the quality of resources we present to our clients. What normally takes between two to four months at a time, can now be done within a quarter or less of the time. Due to the three-tiered system, everything is done through a seamless process and placements can take place so much faster as the long delays are significantly reduced through the system," explains Morse.

"This is done by a complex algorithm that does most of the work that an individual or more would have done through endless screening, phone calls, emails etc. As part of our growth strategy, we aim to enhance the system to expand the recruitment opportunities in SA so that recruitment agencies will have access to the system, thus all having their personalized app that feeds them the best and most suitable candidates for job recruitment."

According to chief technology officer, Lamont Hoffmeester, Digital Society is excited to have released the bespoke product into the technology market. One of our aims as a business is really to assist in the growth and development of smaller business with huge potential through our capability to create intelligent technology, he explains.

The mobile app, which launched yesterday, 20 December 2016, is available for download from Google Play store. The iOS version will be released shortly.
SAN FRANCISCO: Mark Zuckerberg envisions a software system inspired by the "Iron Man" character Jarvis as a virtual butler managing his household.

Sergey Soldatov via 123RF

The Facebook founder's dream is about artificial intelligence, which is slowly but surely creeping into our daily lives, no longer just science fiction.

Artificial intelligence or AI is getting a foothold in people's homes, starting with the Amazon devices like its Echo speaker which links to a personal assistant 'Alexa' to answer questions and control connected devices such as appliances or light bulbs.

Analyst Carolina Milanesi of the research firm Creative Strategies said that "2016 was the year about raising awareness, and exposing consumers to the idea of AI in a more mass market way." Milanesi said it may take time for the technology to fulfill its potential, noting that companies need "a strong hook" to bring large numbers of consumers into this world.

Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimates that Amazon has sold more than five million of its connected speakers such as Echo since 2014, in a market now heating up with competition from Google Home, and others likely in development.

Google meanwhile is also using its AI prowess to make smartphones smarter  its Allo messenger can, for example, suggest a meeting or deliver relevant information during a conversation. Among other tech giants Apple has been quietly ramping up the capabilities of its Siri digital assistant and Facebook its Messenger platform.

AI is also the key "driver" for autonomous vehicles, around which Google, Uber, automakers and others have expanded efforts in the past year. And Amazon is seeking to put AI to work in the supermarket  testing a system without cash registers or lines, where consumers simply grab their products and go, and have a bill tallied by artificial intelligence.

Stanford University AI researcher Alexandre Alahi, said he sees a future "where intelligent machines are omnipresent in our daily lives".

"We will see robots in the home and (powering) self-driving cars, but also in railway stations, hospitals and elsewhere in cities," he said.

This could include delivery robots or devices to help mobility for blind people, he noted. These technologies "will help improve our safety, our health, and our productivity," Alahi said.

A system of sensors for example, can monitor a hospital patient 24 hours a day, and may allow elderly people to remain at home with better medical surveillance.

These systems rely on powerful computers which can crunch, analyse and interpret data. One example of this comes from IBM, whose Watson supercomputer systems are offering "cognitive health" programs which can analyse a person's genome and offer personalised treatment for cancer, for example.

Meanwhile Google recently announced it had developed an algorithm which can detect diabetic retinopathy, a cause of blindness, by analysing retina images.

While Alahi said AI systems designed to recognise and interpret data from images "are close to human performance," more work needs to be done to improve "social intelligence," or understanding the subtleties of our everyday decisions.

A self-driving car, for example, can easily navigate around Google's home base in Mountain View, California, but may have more problems around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, where driving behaviours are less predictable.

Alahi said robotics needs to understand the unwritten social behaviors used in daily life, which can vary from one culture to another. A robot, for example, might cut through a group of people in a train station to find the most efficient path, unknowingly violating social rules on personal space.

"There are situations where technology is not yet capable of understanding human behavior," said Alahi, who is part of a research project using a robot, with the aim of understanding pedestrian behavior.

These kinds of robots may be technological marvels, but they also raise fears that they could get out of control, concerns heightened by movies like Terminator.

"It's all scary, but this is going to take years to happen, and by the time it's done, we'll be ready for it," said Milanesi.

Source: AFP
Kampala: Uganda has been commended for implementing liberal aviation policies and has been asked to spearhead processes for other African countries to fully open up their airspace.

Entebbe Airport, Uganda.

Speaking at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) silver jubilee stakeholders' dinner at Kampala Serena Hotel, African Airlines Association secretary general, Elijah Chingosho, said it is incumbent upon Uganda to lead the liberalisation process in Africa to facilitate the movement of goods and people across borders.

"The lack of full liberalisation of African skies has been a major stumbling block to the development of the African aviation industry. A fully liberalised industry should see the development of a productive airline which should stimulate new markets with the large population in this country," Chingosho said.

CAA public affairs manager, Ignie Igunduram, said Uganda's airspace is open to airline operators in terms of the number of times they want to fly to Entebbe International Airport and the number of passengers flown.

A study done by aviation consulting group InterVISTAS in 2014 about the impact of intra-African liberalisation in 12 African countries found that Uganda would create 18,600 jobs and Shs278.6b ($77.6m) as an increment to gross domestic product. An additional 116,000 tourists would visit the country, contributing Shs266.7 trillion to the sector.

Fifteen African countries have declared their commitment towards fully opening up their skies in conformity with the 1999 Yamoussoukro Decision.

Assuring Ugandans that the country will have its own airline soon, Works minister Monica Azuba asked CAA to observe the highest quality standards as they expand Entebbe International Airport.
A year after COP21 and the adoption of the Paris Agreement , international policymakers are still struggling to convert targets into action. This is clearly indicated by the title of the recent followup COP in Marrakech: Turn the Promise of Paris into Action

But as the international community putters along, cities and local communities are already staking out the front lines of the fight against climate change.

Cities take the lead

Over the years, sub-national actors, such as cities and regions, have acquired increasing weight in international negotiations. Policymakers and scholars alike acknowledge cities vulnerability to, and share of responsibility in, environmental degradation. As the recent C40 Mayors Summit in Mexico City demonstrated, mayors of the worlds metropolises are also interested in creating low-carbon and resilient urban futures.

Because local governments control key sectors of environmental policy, and have high concentrations of people, economic activity and political clout, cities are a necessary well positioned to design innovative climate change solutions.

In Tokyo, for example, the metropolitan government set up the first city-level cap-and-trade system for buildings energy efficiency. If the biggest energy-using facilities fail to meet specified targets, they must buy credits from compliant buildings that can sell their surplus credits.

Lombana/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

In South Korea, Seouls Station 7017 Project will convert an old elevated road into a pedestrian path that connects the city centre to other districts and to Seoul train station. This will not only help revitalise certain city districts, it will also add green space to this dense metropolitan area.

Then theres the German city of Hamburg. It is implementing an ambitious plan to make the city car-free within 20 years by developing a major green network of bike and pedestrian paths that link the city to its periphery, as well as to parks, playgrounds, cemeteries and other public spaces. In addition to making cars unnecessary, the greenways will improve resilience to floods and natural disasters, and absorb more carbon dioxide.

People power

People have immense power to tackle climate change. And this is true especially in the vital energy sector. As scholarly literature has demonstrated, community power  fostering citizen participation in renewable energy projects  eases their implementation, reduces energy demand, and may ultimately reduce greenhouse gases.

This idea was the inspiration for the recent World Community Power Conference, held in Fukushima, Japan from November 3 to 4, the same time as the Paris Agreements ratification. At the event, which was the first of its kind, participants from academia, local government, civil society, business and even schools explored how communities can be agents for increasing sustainability at the local level.

Organised by the Japan Community Power Association, the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies and the World Wind Energy Association, the attendees addressed topics from energy democracy and regional cooperation to community powers value for developing countries. Barriers to cooperation between local governments, citizens and business were also tackled.

Fukushima, where a 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused a nuclear plant meltdown, was a highly symbolic host location. In the aftermath of that disaster, local leaders decided to adopt the target of having 100% renewable energy by 2040. To do so, residents, businesses and local governments are working together to make solar and wind their primary energy sources.

This collaboration takes the form of several community projects. In the Fukushima Airport Solar Power Project, citizens were partial financial investors) in the purchase and installation of solar panels to provide about 1.2 megawatts of electricity to the airport. Another initiative within the prefecture, the Fukushima Ryozen Citizens Joint Power Plant, also used citizen funds to help local farmers install a solar farm. It provides about 50 kilowatts of power.

Yomiuri Yomiuri/Wikipedia

Community power, then, is one way to enhance renewable energy use and phase out fossil fuels. Because it also entails stronger energy security, it necessarily emphasises democratic engagement and local autonomy. Community power may also carry such significant socioeconomic benefits as job creation, community well-being, new revenue sources, solutions to fuel scarcity or even lower energy tariffs.

Just what is community power?

There is no common definition of community power but, at a basic level, it implies citizen participation in the production and use of a sustainable energy system, with some degree of control over the activity.

When citizens have ownership  at least partial  of renewable energy plants, by for instance, holding shares in a cooperative, thats community power. If citizens participate in the planning, installation and operational decisions of an energy company, by exercising strategic voting rights as board members, for example, that, too, constitutes community power.

And communities that receive the socioeconomic benefits of their energy sector when the benefits of the company are reinvested in the activity, also have such power.

In such scenarios, citizens cease to be mere consumers and become producers as well as consumers. This broad definition expands the range of forms community power could include. And thats important because local particularities as well as numerous legal and policy obstacles remain powerful barriers to developing community power.

Sharing local experiences also helps other communities forge paths forward. For instance, in Denmark, a law makes it mandatory for consumers or municipal cooperatives to own district heating. The same provision previously applied to electricity production, and when the European energy market liberalised rules so that private competitors began operating in the renewable energy sector, locals protested. The episode highlights how citizen involvement can facilitate the development and embrace of renewable energy projects.

It also shows how strategically structuring the energy market will be important to growing sustainable systems. The recent Clean Energy for all Europeans package, which supports the idea that consumers are active and central players in the energy markets of the future, seems well informed by the market side of community power.

The Fukushima declaration

The declaration that emerged from Fukushima meeting  For the future of the earth  intends to make community power the prevailing model of the future renewable energy supply all over the world.

To meet that goal, participants committed to enhancing communication around best practices, working with local governments on renewable energy-focused master plans and engaging in politics nationally and internationally to facilitate the right development conditions. They will also seek to promote community power in developing countries through knowledge transfer.

This declaration is, of course, a soft instrument; it cannot legally compel action. Still, it sheds light on important intersections between people and politics in the fight against climate change. Community power efforts will not only be key to meeting the Paris Agreement objective of staying below a 2C temperature rise over pre-industrial levels, it may also make governance structures more democratic.

The trend towards energy decentralisation in many countries is a good example of where it can have a big impact. As early as 2010, international development agencies were highlighting the contribution that a decentralised energy system could make to meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals.

By delegating power governance to the sub-national level, decentralisation brings control of important resources much closer to citizens. That change gives cities a chance to innovate at the grassroots level, rather than leaving it to wealthy communities with the resources to undertake ambitious energy programmes.

If the Fukushima meeting was an instance of the early stage of community power getting organised, the coming years will be key to proving its scalability and universality. Planned to be held in Mali, the next conference will take place on a continent where socioeconomic development and energy security are just as important as tackling the global challenge of climate change.


The announcement of Minnesota House Committees reveals that Jeff Backer, R-Browns Valley, may actually find cause to kick Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis, around again. Both will serve on the 2017-2018 Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee together.

Not that he ever needed anything beyond his loathing of cities to flog that place-baiting blither against the long-serving lawmaker.

When the Republicans regained control of the Minnesota House in the 2014 elections, Speaker Kurt Daudt exiled state representative Jean Wagenius from the body's environmental committees.

A lawyer, master gardener, rural property owner in Douglas County and passionate environmentalist, Wagenius had chaired the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Finance committee in the 2013-2014 session, while also serving on the Environment and Natural Resources Policy committee and the Agriculture Policy Committee.

Even before the session began, Republicans started sniping at her appointment: an evil metro member in charge of ag finance, regardless of her knowledge or economic interest in rural Minnesota. We looked at the froth in Representative Rod Hamilton to defend rural Minnesota against his own worst fears and later in Open letter to Rod Hamilton: quit whining about Minneapolis & introduce some pro-rural bills.

When she was removed from the environmental committee--former minority leader Thissen wanted her on the committee as minority lead--the action seemed punitive to many observers.

Nonetheless, Republicans like Jeff Backer--now our state representative in Minnesota's lovely western boundary waters--choose to campaign against Wagenius. Quite astonishingly, he and his supporters continued to base his campaign rhetoric in 2016 against her, telling voters that she was responsible for the 2015 and 2016 buffer bills that she neither authored, co-authored, nor voted for.

We wrote about these fantasies in Backer backer blames Rep. Wagenius for buffer legislation she voted against 2 years running.

Apparently, the Speaker must have noticed that the beef was getting a bit off after two years, so Wagenius is back on the committee, although South St. Paul Democrat Rick Hansen remains as minority lead. Hansen, a former Minnesota Department of Ag employee with degrees in biology and soil science, inherited his family's Fillmore County farm, which makes him as evil a metro guy as they come.

Dan Fabian, R-Roseau is newly chairing the committee after Denny McNamara retired. If bluster and manure worked for Trump, surely the Roseau Republican's tendency to grow red in the face when angry will survive the new hi-def reality of committee hearings.

If nincompoopery for the sake of the agri-chemical industrial complex has a face, it won't be Fabian's but rather that of Jeff Backer. We're purchasing five months' worth of corn to pop as the Republican chucklehead starts the trolling with Wagenius back on the committee.

Photo: Jean Wagenius, evil metro phantom menace. And she's a girl.
Ministry of Information lead journalists arrived Maungdaw today- December 19 and will visit the areas where armed forces claim to search alleged Rohingya armed group and killed, rape, burnt, loot and arrested innocent Rohingya villagers and all the Rohingya villagers hope they will exposed their harassment to journalists to inform all over the world people, Hamidul more said.

But, we get information from Maungdaw, the journalists will lead by MOI officers and Arakan state government officers and armed forces are roundup our villages, threaten us not told real happened and armed forces action, said Amin, form affected village.

It seen like before vice president U Myint Swe lead commission, armed force around the village and beaten us not to meet, not to say. But, we resisted and met the commission told real happen to us by armed force. The commission lied and gave false information to the world and protected the armed forces, Amin more added.

So, this time, we are not giving any information to anyone who came with security force and MOI with Arakan state government, said local villagers.
Aid access to people affected by conflict in the northern states of Kachin and Shan "is getting worse, not better", Pierre Peron, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Myanmar, told Al Jazeera by email.

The OCHA said in an update on Monday that, as well as the estimated 15,000 new refugees, another 2,400 people have been displaced internally in the northern part of Shan state since November 20, when a coalition of four rebel armies, the Northern Alliance  Burma, attacked military and police outposts.
The Mon State Government presented its initial 6 month report of the 2016-2017 fiscal year at the Hluttaw. However, according to the analysis and suggestions of the 12 Hluttaw representatives, the report must be reviewed, revised and then presented again at the Hluttaw. This decree by the State Hluttaw Speaker put the qualifications of the government on record.

Fourth regular session of Mon State Hluttaw conference (Photo: Mon Hluttaw)

The governments 6-month report stated that there are 2,000 buffalo and oxen in each village. Since there are 341 village tracts in the state, there are 650,000 buffalo and oxen. Also noted was prawn fisheries holding 51 acres in Kyaikhto Township. However, in reality, those facts are not accurate, according to the analysis made by Huttaw representatives.

The report did not touch on the completion of road and bridge construction project with the allocated budget. Regarding the peace process activities, the report only had the office addresses of ethnic armed groups in the state, which displays the governments lack of interest in the current peace process.

It is important that the report mentions the government groups respective project activities, the advantages and disadvantages, challenges, and changes as well as taking and accepting responsibility for the report. It can not be reiterated enough that it must be written with transparency.

The points from this 6-month report were also taken from previous reports. Since the report hasnt been revised yet, we do not know how many facts are wrong. During this new government term, the government will re-check and revise the numbers and facts until they become systematic, said a Mon State Minister who is also a member of the state government. We can see, when analyzed closely, how united of the entire government appears.

As Time to change is mentioned, the Mon State people imprinted their responsibility when they voted in the 2015 Election as citizens. However, it is the responsibility of the political party that took office and are now in power, to establish a qualified state government.

Hence, Mon News Agency (MNA) observed that the unqualified ministers, or those who should be removed, must be replaced with qualified Hluttaw representatives to allow the reformation of a new Mon State Government.
BotswanaPost has urged all its customers to renew their postal box rentals before the anticipated end of year congestion at Post offices.



Acting Marketing and Communications General Manager, Joyce Manase-Ntau said the festive season is a period of great excitement filled with a celebratory mood, and can sometimes lead to risks of customers forgetting to renew their postal boxes. We encourage customers to beat last minute queues and avoid penalty fees to the extent of even losing their Boxes.



While most of the customers are only aware of the standard mail boxes seen around the country, and of late the home mail delivery boxes as well, she indicated that, few are aware of the premier boxes which are state-of-the-art, accessed via a personal code and housed in a vault at Masa Centre. These are bought and renewed in a similar manner like the others.



In addition to the traditional over-the-counter payments made at the Post Office, BotswanaPost has also availed an alternative and convenient means to pay for your postal box through the BotswanaPost Mobile App at anytime, anywhere across the globe. The channel also allows customers to purchase prepaid electricity, prepaid airtime and pay for their water bills on the go. This can be downloaded via the Apple Store for iPhone users https://goo.gl/WUINeH or Play Store for Android users https://goo.gl/xUrf8f.




The Beatrice City Council approved a number of items during its brief meeting Monday evening.

A resolution executing the Contract for Sale of Real Estate to Ronald Packett at $500 was passed by a 6-1 vote. Councilman Ted Fairbanks voted against the measure and Councilman Philip Cook was absent.

Im voting against it because I think were underselling the lot, Fairbanks said. He should be paying $5,000 not $500.

City administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer said mother of a Lincoln Elementary student expressed concern of speeding cars on 19th Street in front of and near the school.

Tempelmeyer said the city went to the area and found some speed limit signs to be missing, then could not find the original city resolution for the speed limits of the area.

The board unanimously approved a new resolution to replace the original and missing resolution. The vote did not change the area speed limits of 35 MPH and 25 MPH. Missing signs will be replaced.

In his City Administrators Report, Tempelmeyer gave a brief update of the much-talked-about work at 407 Court Street, as well as the adjoining restaurant, The Black Crow. Tempelmeyer said work has begun inside The Black Crow and the next phase will be exterior work. He said the entire project is on schedule and is moving in a slow and methodical pace with an engineer involved throughout the process.

Tempelmeyer also mentioned that the Beatrice Public Properties Department is tying green ribbons around ash trees, which are in danger of being destroyed by the Emerald Ash Borer. About 5.5 percent of the trees in Beatrice city parks and right-of-ways are ash trees.

The council also changed the zoning of a lot near Fourth Street and Marlborough Avenue to allow a resident to build a garage. The residents property previously sat on land zoned partially as a General Commercial District and partially as a Residential Commercial District.


An internet imagery.

NEW DELHI (PTI): India and the US have held yet another round of talks on possible collaboration in jet engine technology as both sides inch closer on the issue of defence cooperation.



The Joint Working Group on Jet Engine Technology met last week at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base at Ohio.



American Ambassador here Richard Verma said both sides had "productive discussions" for future collaboration.



However, sources said that India, which has not been able to get requisite power from its indigenous Kaveri engine for fighter aircraft, is seeking "hot engine" technology which the US considers as the crown jewel in the jet engine technology.



The sources said that the US is willing to help with the "cold engine" technology.



The new engine is likely to be for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) which is a single-seater, twin-engine fifth-generation stealth multi-role fighter planned by DRDO.



Meanwhile, the US has already updated its policy on gas-turbine engine technology transfer to India to expand cooperation in production and design of sensitive jet engine components.



Collaboration for jet engine is one of the key components of the ambitious Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI).


A Lincoln woman already serving a prison term for forgery was given an additional prison sentence out of Gage County for a similar charge.

Ramona M. Stubben, 44, was sentenced Wednesday by District Court Judge Paul Korslund to 20-36 months prison for forgery, and another 12 months for criminal possession of a forged instrument.

These sentences will be served concurrently to each other, but will run consecutive to a sentence given out of Lancaster County in September of 10-14 years for forgery and one year for attempted possession of a controlled substance.

Before the sentence was announced in Gage County, Stubben told Korslund shes hopeful the programs available to inmates will help her turn her life around.

I think that this is my new chapter, she said. This is going to be a new start. Im going to make something out of this prison sentence and I will take full advantage of the programs. Im ready to start my new life.

Korslund cited her lengthy record as a factor before pronouncing the sentence.

Stubben was arrested following a July 2015 incident at K and B Tobacco in Beatrice.

An arrest warrant states that the store was given a fraudulent check from Stubben, for $498.78.

Stubben also took the fake check to Fast Cash in Beatrice around the same time.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lauded as Canadas first indigenous school board, Westman First Nations are not part of the first round of communities within the Manitoba First Nations School System, as announced in Winnipeg last week.

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett announced that the Manitoba-wide indigenous school board would start up in time for the 2017-18 school year.

Accompanying the announcement was a list of nine First Nations to have already signed on and three on the verge of signing, representing a total of about 3,000 students.

By signing on, these communities per-student funding level jumps to $18,000 from the previous $4,000 to $5,000, which officials note should help fix their teacher retention problem by allowing them to pay salaries comparable to those of provincial teachers.

While none of these communities are in Westman, it does not mean area First Nations have been unable to sign on, treaty or otherwise, Southern Chiefs Organization Grand Chief Terrance Nelson clarified this week.

As member communities begin sharing their success stories in the coming years, Nelson suggested that more should sign on.

Nelson points to the school board as a step in the right direction to righting past wrongs, particularly as it relates to funding shortfalls putting indigenous youth at a disadvantage compared with those getting their education off-reserve.

It is the best possible thing for the province of Manitoba to bring in as much money as possible from the federal government, he summarized.

@:However, some Westman First Nations leaders dont see the Manitoba First Nations School System as the end-all solution, with at least one decrying it as an erosion of First Nations self-governance.

Waywayseecappo First Nation Chief Murray Clearsky noted that his community found an alternate solution to their education funding shortfall by partnering with the Park West School Division.

Clearsky is in the midst of planning a media event for mid-January in order to share his communitys success story as an alternative for First Nations communities seeking increased funding and improved resources.

Prior to partnering with Park West School Division, they were underfunded and unable to retain underpaid teachers, he explained.

Now they can, all while maintaining a healthy level of cultural education thats relevant to their indigenous youths, he reported.

Birdtail Sioux First Nation joined the provinces Frontier School Division about eight years ago, at which time its funding per student jumped to the same level as the balance of the off-reserve province.

I wasnt going to let our kids suffer  running a First Nations school, Chief Ken Chalmers said. Thats what we used to have. We tried three years of our own band-run school and it didnt work. We were just too underfunded.

Chalmers said that his community still has a couple more years in its arrangement with the province, after which he plans to have a closer look at the Manitoba First Nations School System.

I have no qualms with joining it if its successful in the next couple years, he said, explaining that offering a greater focus on indigenous culture, and language in specific, would be a positive for his communitys youths.

Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Chief Vince Tacan is more hard-line in his approach, preferring his community retain its own independent education system.

Following decades of work, it was only a couple years ago that they finally attained their current status as the Prairies first self-governed First Nation, and theyre unwilling to chip away at it now.

We want to exercise control over this one, he affirmed  a stand that might prove costly.

To receive the federal funding increase, communities must relinquish control of education funding to be part of the provincewide school board.

Its kind of saying that communities cant handle the increase in funding, Tacan said. We need the resources to do a proper job like everyone else.

Further to that, the 12 communities to express interest in signing on thus far represent a minority of Manitobas First Nations communities.

As such, those who havent signed on should expect an exodus of qualified teachers, Tacan said, noting that with greater opportunity elsewhere, First Nations communities such as his own simply cannot compete.

While students at Sioux Valley Dakota Nation are taught under the provincial curriculum already, Tacan said that its important they retain control over whats taught to supplement their provincial lessons.

We want the correct history to be taught, he said.

 tclarke@brandonsun.com, with files from Erin DeBooy and the Winnipeg Free Press

 Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shed attempted suicide before  and made suicidal comments three weeks prior to being admitted at the Brandon jail  but corrections officers were unaware of that when they declined to override a computers decision to deem the young inmate a low suicide risk.

Eight days later, the 16-year-old hanged herself in her cell.

One officer testified that, in six years as a supervisor who reviewed suicide risk reports, he doesnt recall ever seeing a need to override the computer to bump up an inmates risk level, even though he could if the assessing officer expressed concern.

Its fair to say then that youve never exercised your judgment to question an officer on the recommendation theyve arrived at? Prairie Mountain Health lawyer David Swayze asked the corrections officer during an inquest into the girls death.

Fair enough, yes, Dean English responded, adding that the computer system is still being used three years after the girls death.

The inquest into the teens hanging on Sept. 28, 2013, and her subsequent death in hospital four days later entered its second day on Tuesday.

On Monday, court heard that the girl climbed onto a desk in her cell and hanged herself with a bedsheet attached to a ceiling vent grate.

The aboriginal girl was a ward of Dakota Ojibway Child and Family Services, and prior to jail she lived with Specialized Foster Homes.

So far, lawyers for DOCFS, Manitoba Corrections, Prairie Mountain Health and Specialized Foster Homes have been questioning jail staff who have taken the stand.

The Brandon Sun is not naming the girl due to restrictions under the Youth Criminal Justice and Child and Family Services acts.

Tuesdays proceedings focused on a suicide risk assessment completed when the girl was admitted to the Brandon Correctional Centre on Sept. 20, 2013.

The form was filled out by former corrections officer Michael Dixon, who is now a constable with the Brandon Police Service.

Dixon testified that in completing such assessments he relied on the responses from inmates, but also check the Correctional Offender Management computer system (COMS), which notes major incidents involving inmates and contains notes on their behaviour and mental health.

He agreed with inquest counsel Rich Lonstrups suggestion that inmates may not be honest about having suicidal thoughts or attempts to kill themselves.

Doing so would make their stay in jail less pleasant. Theyd have to wear a smock, for example, might be held in a cell alone and that cell would be relatively empty to prevent self-harm.

Dixon testified that, based on the girls responses to his questions, hed checked No under whether the girl displayed or shared feelings of loss or stress. He also marked No under symptoms of hopelessness or helplessness and invitations for help, and No for any current suicidal thoughts or plan.

Dixon also copied word for word from prior suicide risk assessment done at the Manitoba Youth Centre (MYC) in January 2013, eight months prior to the girls final admission to the Brandon jail.

It revealed that a year before that January 2013 entry to MYC, the girl had tried to hang herself with a belt but that effort was thwarted when someone unexpectedly returned home. But at the time she entered MYC, the girl said she no longer saw suicide as an option.

Lonstrup suggested that entry was inaccurate when it was cut and pasted into the September 2013 BCC report, as it referred to the suicide attempt as happening a year ago, although Dixon said he would have reviewed that information with the girl for his report.

That piece of information means Dixon marked a yes under prior suicidal history, but the explanation under the comments section wouldnt be considered by the computer program as it would only register yes or no responses on one side of the report.

For her final admission to BCC eight days prior to being discovered hanging in her cell, the computer assessed her as a low suicide risk.

Dixon acknowledged that he could bring any concerns with computer assessments to the attention of a superior, such as English, and that superior could override the machines decision and make the inmate a higher suicide risk.

A higher risk level would bring further precautions. Such an inmate would be placed in a cell with another and checked every 30 minutes, or subject to 15-minute checks if she were placed in a cell alone.

Dixon and English both testified that neither of them saw a need to override the computer in this case. Nor would they have consulted outside agencies that had worked with the girl to help in their decision.

During questioning by lawyers, both said they would typically consult COMS and prior suicide assessments.

However, neither recalled reading entries in the COMS computer system highlighted red flags for the girls suicide risk.

First, the system showed other family members had tried to commit suicide, and her uncle in fact had killed himself. Dixon couldnt explain why that wasnt noted on his assessment.

Second, COMS recorded that shed made suicidal comments when shed been admitted to jail three weeks before and shed been assessed as a high suicide risk then. Dixon acknowledged that wasnt recorded in his report either.

He said the fact the girl was noted to have made suicidal comments during an admission three weeks prior wouldnt necessarily have brought an override and raised her risk level.

English said the jail doesnt override the computer assessment based on previous suicide attempts. The girl hadnt made suicidal comments when she was brought to the jail intoxicated during the previous night.

If the jail considered prior suicide attempts and recent talk of suicide, it would have to override half its assessments, English said.

The girl had also seen a psychiatrist, and was prescribed antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication prior to her entry at the jail, but that didnt appear on the assessment either.

But English said that also would have been recorded within COMS. That was confirmed in court, but English suggested that was the first time he was aware of the information.

Court also heard that a registered nurse at the jail had referred the girl to a mental health nurse for followup by placing her file on her desk, but that followup appears to have never been done.

That mental health nurse isnt currently on the list of witnesses for the inquest scheduled for this week, although Lonstrup said she can still be called at a later date.

In asking his questions, DOCFS lawyer Dean Kropp repeatedly noted that the jail has a standing policy that if a suicide risk assessment isnt completed an inmate should be deemed medium risk until its done.

He suggested it would have been wise to follow the policy until all the information about the girls mental health history was available.

Maybe better safe than sorry might have been a better policy?

English seemed to nod before the lawyer for Manitoba Corrections rose to object to the question, and Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta disallowed the question.

 ihitchen@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @IanHitchen
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Eighth Street bridge will be coming down in early 2017.

The city will advertise a tender for the project in January, seeking bids from qualified contractors for the specialized demolition of the bridge structure.

It is anticipated bridge demolition may start as early as March.

In the days prior to the start of demolition, the entire bridge and its immediate vicinity will be deemed a construction site and public access to the bridge will no longer be permitted.

Barricades and construction fencing will be erected in the area and the public will be notified of any associated detours.

The city is currently exploring transportation alternatives to assist impacted pedestrians for the duration of the bridge deconstruction to ensure safe north-south access in the area of the bridge is maintained. Pedestrians who access the bridge in their daily travel are encouraged to begin planning alternate routes, as north-south pedestrian access in the area of the bridge will no longer exist following the bridges demolition.

Officials with Canadian Pacific Railway plan to increase surveillance in the area to ensure pedestrians are not unlawfully crossing its track system in the area.

Winnipeg-based Dillon Consulting Ltd. will provide conceptual designs for a possible future active transportation/pedestrian connection in the vicinity of Eighth Street. It is anticipated those designs will be presented to Brandon City Council for consideration in April.

The City of Brandon asks all members of the public for continued patience and cooperation as it proceeds with the demolition of the decommissioned bridge structure in a safe and responsible manner, states a city press release.

 The Brandon Sun
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Concerns related to possible rate increases have resulted in some local apprehension regarding Bell Canadas purchase of MTS.

I think its too big a corporation and prices will go up, said Terry Teetaert  one of several people who responded to the Brandon Suns random survey of people in the citys downtown core on Tuesday.

The most money wins, what can you do? said a respondent who answered only to the name Dave. It doesnt matter what I think, the most money wins.

Sheldon ONeill

While Brent Campbell said that hes ambivalent about the whole thing, he suggested that its safe to say rates wont exactly go down.

On Tuesday, the CRTC approved the transfer of the MTS broadcasting licence to Bell Canada, propelling the $3.9-billion purchase even closer to its anticipated early 2017 close.

Bell Canada, based in Montreal, would pull the corporation out of its Manitoba base, which respondent Priscilla Williams cited as less than ideal for the local economy.

Brandons own Manitoba NDP provincial council member, Lonnie Patterson, shares in this sentiment, noting that shes concerned about the security of MTS jobs in Brandon.

While Bell Canada plans to centre its western Canadian headquarters in Winnipeg, there isnt a clear picture as to what will become of the positions currently located in the Wheat City.

Stacey Brandon

As for Bell Canadas promise to invest $1 billion in infrastructure improvements, Patterson questions their commitment to rural Manitoba.

Companies tend to not invest in infrastructure if there isnt a solid business case for it, so for some of our smaller remote communities, the population size may not provide that business case, she suggested.

Even so, Patterson guards against expressing too strong an opinion at this stage, since she  and everyone else  still has more questions than answers.

Brandon East Progressive Conservative MLA Len Isleifson is less ambivalent about his take on Bell Canadas commitment to Manitoba, citing the deal as fantastic.

While MTS hasnt been a Crown corporation since the late 90s, Isleifson clarified that the Manitoba government has offered its support for Bell Canadas intentions.

Wally Bidonski

Its good for the province, and at the same time the services theyre going to provide over the years will have a positive impact on Brandon, he said. Its a private investment coming into Manitoba  so its a really good idea.

Any investment in infrastructure is a good thing, Isleifson added, citing a few cellular dead zones in Westman that merit attention.

If youre looking at a company thats coming in and is going to spend an extra $1 billion, there is going to be a return on investment, he said. I think we just need to be fair and see whats going to happen.

 tclarke@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB

Priscilla Williams

Question: Do you support Bell Canadas purchase of MTS?

 Sheldon ONeill  I would prefer for it to stay more localized in the province.

 Stacey Brandon  Im not too sure  Itll probably be about the same thing.

 Wally Bidonski  It doesnt matter to me.

 Priscilla Williams  I dont think so, because MTS is a Manitoba-based company.

Tony Whitford

 Tony Whitford  Thats all right, I guess.

 Brent Campbell  Im kind of ambivalent about it.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Dome Building restoration project is behind schedule, but officials are still optimistic the historic building will be ready by summer 2017.

The goal is to open the building in time to celebrate Canadas 150th, as well as the 135th anniversary of both the City of Brandon and the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba.

We are really, really still hoping for 2017  obviously were behind on our construction schedule, said Ron Kristjansson, general manager of the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba.

We are committed to starting some more fairly major construction here very early in the new year and pushing ourselves right through to try and have this building done for all these significant anniversaries next year.

Part of the delay is due to the various elections over the past few years, beginning with the city, then federal and provincial.

Weve phased the work in over several years, as funding allowed, Kristjansson said. Weve got great support at all levels, but it becomes a process with a new government, a new council, a new mayor.

The major project on the Dome Building  officially the Dominion Exhibition Display Building No. II  has been a slow and steady process, dating back to 2009.

At that point, the building was listed as one of the most endangered historic sites in Canada. It is both a national historic site and a provincial heritage building. It was built in 1913 for the Dominion Fair, designed by Walter H. Shillinglaw and David Marshall  two prominent Brandon architects. Its the last building standing in Canada that was built specifically for the Dominion Fair.

Both senior levels of government encouraged the Provincial Ex to take the lead on restoring it, and the Restoring the Glory fundraising campaign was launched.

The fundraising goal was originally $7.2 million, but Kristjansson said they now believe the project will need just over $6 million.

They have officially surpassed the $4.5-million mark, and have commitments that should get them past $6 million.

An application is pending with the federal governments Enabling Accessibility Fund, while they are working on potential corporate donations.

Heritage Canada, Parks Canada and the province have also provided significant funding for the project.

Over the past year, six sets of replica heritage doors were installed, and now crews are working on electrical services, insulating, interior heat, etc.

One of the last major construction aspects will be roof insulation, which will be on the exterior of the building in order to preserve the open beam construction on the interior.

Finishing touches will include installing eavestroughs, landscaping, painting and exterior security lighting.

Kristjansson appeared before council earlier this week to provide an update on the project, as well as request city funding. The Provincial Ex originally asked the city for $85,000 for three years, which has been granted the past two years. The hope is they will once again commit for a third year. Council will deliberate the request during 2017 budget meetings next month.

Since the project began, the city has also supported it with in-kind permit fees, landfill fees, etc.

Were optimistic that we may be able to have the city partner with us on some of the finishing touches as we move forward, Kristjansson said.

The Provincial Ex is proud of the community support the project has received  40 per cent of the fundraising has come from non-government sources. Approximately 180 individuals or businesses have supported the capital campaign.

I think its an incredibly strong indication of the support for the building, Kristjansson said. Its a big piece of our organization, its been our logo in many different forms over the last several years, and its something that just means the world to our organization, and obviously to the community as a whole.

Once complete, Provincial Ex staff will move in, and will also rent out space for other not-for-profit, agricultural organizations. In addition to meeting rooms and event space, there will be an interchangeable, interactive display area.

 jaustin@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @jillianaustin
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The torrent of red ink that poured forth out of the Pallister governments summary deficit forecast yesterday leaves little doubt that Manitobans are in for a hearty helping of austerity in 2017.

The Canadian Press reported yesterday afternoon that the deficit for the fiscal year ending this coming March is now forecast to be slightly more than $1 billion up $93 million from last springs original budget. This is according to the provinces second-quarter fiscal report.

If this deficit prognostication comes to pass, it means that this years deficit spending will actually increase by $160 million over last years deficit when the NDP were still in power.

The government pointed to several reasons for this deficit forecast increase.

 Government revenues from sales, payroll and tobacco taxes are down, which suggest that Manitobas economy is sluggish.

The CP report stated that the provinces projected growth rate for 2016 has dropped to two per cent from 2.2 per cent, though it remains above the national projected rate of 1.3 per cent.

 Revenues from the provinces two Crown corporations  Manitoba Hydro and Manitoba Public Insurance  are also down.

 Slower than expected economic growth in the United States, Canada, Japan and Europe, and Britains decision to leave the European Union  all have contributed to a weaker economic outlook for advanced economies overall.

 And on the expense side, higher-than-expected spending on social programs such as employment and income assistance have deepened the red ink.

The Pallister government came to power last spring on a promise to slow government spending, clean up wasteful programs and ultimately balance the provincial budget within eight years.

All things considered, the Tory plan to achieve these election promises  while still reducing the PST back to seven per cent within their first term in government  seems at best, wishful thinking.

Unless, of course, spending is cut across the board and the Progressive Conservatives enact decidedly unprogressive austerity measures.

Manitoba Finance Minister Cameron Friesen reiterated his governments commitment to fiscal prudence, and once again pointed to the governments ongoing value-for-money audit of all government services and programs.

There are solid reasons to conduct such an audit. Over 17 years, we have little doubt that the NDP became lazy  whether by design or incompetence, or both with enforcing good government practices. How else to explain the massive debt and deficit buildup once former premier Greg Selinger took the reins?

The danger here is that the Tories will throw out the baby with the bathwater, crippling useful programs that do a great deal of good all in the name of cost cutting and fiscal prudence.

One program that the minister himself noted was Rent Assist, which aids low-income earners with housing costs.

We want to make sure that that program is actually doing what it is designed to do and we have some concern about that, Friesen said. There has been a significant increase in the subscription inside Rent Assist, and we need to determine all the factors for that.

Infrastructure projects are also under scrutiny  Friesen said the government could save $24 million by reviewing and (possibly) postponing capital projects.

The fact that no major infrastructure project spending was announced last spring has already come under fire from current and former NDP ministers such as Drew Caldwell, who has complained over the summer regarding a lack of new construction.

The Pallister government will have to walk a fine line as it looks to cut costs without actually causing major damage to a provincial economy that is already sputtering.

With any budget process there are bound to be winners and losers when it comes to funding decisions. Its unfortunate, though, that 2017 is shaping up to have more than its fair share of losers.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/12/2016 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I have concerns and am speaking out for the despair of Lake Winnipeg and our precious water sources in Manitoba.

On the website of Canadian Dimension magazine, of June 30, 2007, author Cy Gonick wrote about hog politics. He tells us:

This kind of intensive hog production causes air pollution-noxious odours, toxic gases and drug pollution. As well, antibiotics, growth-promoting chemicals and other veterinary drugs end up in the animals themselves and enter the environment through their manure and urine, contaminating the water, the soil and our food. And also with this, more evidence has emerged connecting mega hog barns to increased pollution and damage to Lake Winnipeg.

I will remind readers, that when the NDP were in opposition, and prior to becoming government in 1999, they too expressed grave concerns of the factory hog industry attaining a foothold in Manitoba. They also voiced concerns about the vast quantities of manure, the water contamination, the environment and implications of social sustainability.

Yet, basically nothing has evolved for the better in the past years of the NDP banner. They became government and those concerns apparently disappeared as they exchanged seating positions in the Manitoba legislature, for the swine herd continued to steadily increase by several million animals.

Those same concerns are prominent and with us, even today! Sixteen-plus years have gone by, and yes there have been some minor changes and promises to improve.

Recently, however, there has been a resurgence in Manitobas factory hog industry, and plans to further increase hog production are presently being undertaken. Hog feces stored in more of the cheaper structures promises more nutrient leaching and increases the danger and probability of contamination. And pig waste is appropriately categorized and recognized as a hazardous waste. What odour control measures are being put in place and how is that going to be addressed? For this is also a health issue.

This is a questionable and threatening undertaking, for research has determined that hog manure is the biggest single risk to Lake Winnipeg.

Furthermore, studies carried out in Manitoba over the past several years, and reported by Manitoba Conservation, have concluded that earthen storages seep and are a threat to ground and surface water. This is not the advanced technical protection that is required and needed to protect the environment and our water sources from pollution.

The Red Tape Reduction Task Force being conceived needs to be reminded that the enactment of Save Lake Winnipeg Act was totally supported in the Manitoba legislature in June of 2011. The NDP government passed the Save Lake Winnipeg Act to keep phosphorus out of Lake Winnipeg, cracking down on hog manure entering our waterways and protecting wetlands.

Lake Winnipeg has recently been declared as the most polluted fresh water lake in the world. What a shameful example and cost we bear to conduct ourselves in the name of opportunistic development, that pollutes our most vital and life resource: water.

It is time for all governments to deal with water issues and address the sources of contaminates and pollution. Otherwise Canada and particularly Manitoba, will be known as the land of dying lakes and rivers. Governments can no longer continue to be in denial about water problems and simply turn their backs on the situation.

It is also time to recognize that there is a better way of raising hogs for meat export and to implement the necessary changes to have this accomplished.

John Fefchak

Virden
ANKARA, Turkey  Investigators from Turkey and Russia hunted for clues Tuesday in the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey in front of stunned onlookers at a photo exhibition in Ankara.

A team of 18 Russian investigators and foreign ministry officials arrived in Turkey and began inspecting the art gallery where the shooting of Andrei Karlov took place.

Central to the joint Turkish-Russian investigation is whether Mevlut Mert Altintas, a member of Ankara's riot police squad, planned the attack alone.

One senior Turkish government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details to the press, said it was unlikely Altintas acted alone.

The official said the killing had all the marks of being "fully professional, not a one-man action."

So far, authorities have detained only people close to the gunman in their investigation: Altintas' parents, sister, three other relatives and his roommate in Ankara.

Independent Turkish security analyst Abdullah Agar said it was "likely that an organization was behind" the assassination.

The analyst said that Altintas' behavior and the manner in which he carried out the attack "gives the impression that he received training that was much more than riot police training."

Agar also said the gunman's words, which he uttered in Arabic, were from a passage frequently cited by Jihadists.

Altintas shouted "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!" in Turkish during the attack, and also yelled "Allahu akbar," the Arabic phrase for "God is great." He continued in Arabic: "We are the descendants of those who supported the Prophet Muhammad, for jihad."

A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said the country's foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, provided U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry information on the assailant during a telephone conversation on Tuesday.

Cavusoglu also told Kerry that both Turkey and Russia "know" that a movement led by U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind the attack, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government rules.

Turkey has accused Gulen of orchestrating a failed military coup in July aimed at toppling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and accuses the cleric of wanting to destabilize Turkey. It is pressing the United States to extradite Gulen to Turkey to stand trial for his alleged role in the coup attempt. Gulen has denied the accusations.

Few details about the policeman or the initial investigation have been made public. According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Altintas took leave from work and on Dec. 14 made a hotel reservation near the art exhibition center. He checked into the hotel on Monday. Following the attack, police searched and later sealed his hotel room, but did not announce whether anything was found there.

On arrival at the art gallery where the photo exhibition was taking place, Altintas was apparently initially stopped by security, but managed to get through with his weapon by using his police ID. The gun he used to shoot Karlov appeared to be a weapon that is standard issue for Turkey's riot police.

Originally from the western town of Soke, near Turkey's Aegean coast, Altintas had been serving in Ankara's riot police for the past two and a half years. But how or why he became impassioned with the war in Syria was unclear.

Police investigators said the policeman lived in an apartment building in Demetevler, a northern district of Ankara.

Some neighbors described him as a quiet person who kept to himself.

"He seemed to be a quiet and calm person. He was not speaking to us too much," said Halil Karan, a 22-year-old shopkeeper in the area. "We were seeing him in the evenings. He didn't come to his home for a long time though."

Some residents in the area said he mainly lived elsewhere in the capital.

Both Russia and Turkey have vowed that the assassination would not derail efforts to repair bilateral ties. Turkey and Russia have been at odds mainly over their opposing views to the conflict in Syria, with Moscow backing Syrian President Bashar Assad and Ankara supporting rebels fighting to depose him. With Russia's air support, Syrian government forces have pushed the rebels out of their last foothold in Aleppo.

Karlov's assassination came after days of protests by Turks angry over Moscow's support for Assad and Russia's actions in Aleppo.
You may remember around 10 days ago that Gardai warned about a

Gardai said that this person is not calling from Revenue and the phone call is a scam.

Well, a local radio station was getting a lot of callers highlighting the scam - so they decided to give the scammers a call.

The Neil Prendeville Show on Corks RedFM released the audio of their conversation with the scammer, and the language gets a bit fruity at the end.

Neil pretended that he had got a call from them on Friday, and he was returning their call asking why he had not been arrested yet.

Pretending to be Neil O'Connell, he asks for Martin Anderson, who assures Neil that the police officer, or Garda, will be there within two hours.

When he's told that the guards were too busy arresting others to get around to detaining Neil on Friday, Neil then quickly asks Martin: "I wonder when will the guards get around to arresting you?"

Let's just say his reply is NSFW.

Remember, do NOT give out your credit/debit card, bank account, or PPS Number to anyone who makes contact with you over the phone.

For more prevention advice in relation to this matter and all other areas, visit the Garda website, or revenue.ie.
The occupation of a former Department of Social protection building by homeless campaigners will come before the High Court this morning.

Apollo House a ten-storey building in Dublin city centre has been occupied since the end of last week by activists and up to 30 homeless people.
Irish people travelling abroad over Christmas should exercise extreme caution, according to the Foreign Affairs Minister.

Charlie Flanagan's comments come in the wake of the attack in Berlin which killed 12 people.

The Minister said a terrorist attack couldn't be ruled out in Ireland.

With a large man hunt is underway in Berlin, Charlie Flanagan has this advice for Irish people heading abroad.

"My advice to Irish citizens travelling anywhere in Europe is to exercise a high degree of caution.

"Many European countries have a state of high alert. I acknowledge that the events of the last 48 hours have heightened tensions. My advice to Irish people would be to exercise caution."
Two Cork men accused of IRA membership have been refused bail at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.

Sean Walsh (aged 50) of St John's Well, Fair Hill and Joseph Walsh (aged 36) of Glengarriff Road, Fair Hill, Co Cork are both charged with membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh Na hEireann, otherwise the IRA on December 14, 2016.

The State had objected to the men's bail application.

They were arrested last week in Cork with another man, Michael Gilmartin (aged 46), with an address at Chestnut Drive, Cluain Ard, Newtown in Cobh.

Mr Gilmartin is charged with possession of a semi-automatic, 9mm Walter Pistol, a sawn-off shotgun and 22 rounds of ammunition on December 14, 2016.

He is also charged with membership of the IRA on the same date.

At today's bail hearing, Detective Sergeant Patrick Murphy told Ronan Kennedy BL, for the State, that gardai were objecting to bail because of the "seriousness" of the charge.

The court also heard evidence from Chief Superintendent Barry McPolin, who said that his objection was based on Section 2A of the Bail Act.

The section allows a Chief Superintendent give evidence that the refusal of bail is necessary to prevent the commission of a serious offence.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, with Judge Martin Nolan and Judge Cormac Dunne, said that the evidence of Det Sgt Murphy was "quite sufficient" to refuse bail.

The men were remanded in custody until January 18th next year, when their case is listed for mention again.
A former director of Anglo Irish Bank has pleaded guilty to an offence of failing to maintain a register in respect of the granting on September 29, 2008, by the bank of a loan on particular terms to another director of the bank.

Pat Whelan (54) was a director of lending with the bank when the company failed to maintain a register in respect of the granting on September 29, 2008 by the bank on particular terms to Willie McAteer a loan of 8,426,307.

On Monday last the bank's former director of finance, McAteer (66) of Greenrath, Tipperary Town, Tipperary, admitted obtaining the 8m from Anglo on September 29, 2008 which he secured against his shares in the bank. According to the indictment he then used the money to pay off a personal loan he obtained from Bank of Ireland.

This morning at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Whelan from Coast Road, Malahide, Co Dublin pleaded guilty to failing to maintain a register in accordance with section 44(1) of the Companies Act, 1990.

Both men were due to go on trial in January 2017.

Judge Melanie Greally allowed Whelan to remain on bail with the consent of the prosecution and set a sentence date for January 12, 2017. She also urged caution in the reporting of the matter in the media.

The charge against McAteer states that in breach of section 297 of the Companies Act, 1963, that you, on 29 September 2008, were knowingly a party to the carrying on of the business of a company, for a fraudulent purpose, the granting of Anglo Irish Bank Corp PLC of a loan to yourself in the amount of Eur8,426,307 secured only upon your shares in Anglo Irish Bank Corp PLC so that you could discharge a loan to Bank Of Ireland in that amount you were personally liable.

This article has been amended and we have been asked to add the following clarification:

In a report published yesterday it was incorrectly stated that Pat Whelan, a former director with Anglo Irish Bank, had pleaded guilty to being a party to a fraudulent loan of 8 million.

Mr Whelan (54) in fact pleaded guilty to an offence of failing to maintain a register in respect of the granting on September 29, 2008 by the bank of a loan on particular terms to another director of the bank.

Mr Whelan was a director of lending at the bank when the bank's then director of finance, Willie McAteer, obtained a loan of 8,426,307.

McAteer (66) of Greenrath, Tipperary, pleaded guilty on Monday last to fraudulently obtaining a loan of 8million from Anglo on September 29, 2008, secured against his shares in the bank. The indictment states that he then used the money to pay off a personal loan from another bank.

On Wednesday Whelan of Coast Road, Malahide, Co Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to failing to maintain a register in accordance with section 44(1) of the Companies Act, 1990.

Judge Melanie Greally allowed Whelan to remain on bail with the consent of the prosecution and set a sentence date for January 12, 2017.
Ireland's two biggest airlines have been ordered to pay millions to the government, in a legal row over the former travel tax.

The European Court of Justice previously ruled that the travel tax was discriminatory - because passengers from Dublin paid a lower rate than those from other airports.

But it also told the State to recoup the difference from the airlines - leaving Ryanair and Aer Lingus to pay 8 for every passenger who benefited from the lower rate.

The court has now rejected an appeal from the European Commission, meaning the airlines will have to pay extra travel taxes on behalf of every passenger who benefitted from the lower rate.

In a statement, Ryanair said: We have been expecting this judgment on Irelands illegal Air Travel Tax which now requires Ryanair to pay some 12m to the Irish Government on behalf of passengers who paid the lower 2 tax rate on shorter routes, despite the fact that we did not collect the 10 tax from these passengers.

This ruling now clears the way for Ryanair (and other airlines) to pursue our High Court action against the Irish Government to recover the 88m of damages we suffered as a result of being forced to pay this illegal tax.

Aer Lingus has also stated that it has High Court proceedings pending against the Irish Government seeking damages for losses arising from the Air Travel Tax.
ECU Honors College students intern with robotic surgery team



Dr. Wiley Nifong makes opening remarks before Honors College students Zachary Elliott and Aenia Amin present case studies as part of their summer internship at the East Carolina Heart Institute.

ECU Honors College student Zachary Elliott completes a summer internship at ECHI by presenting a case study on heart valve replacement using medical imaging technology. (Photos by Jessica Nottingham)

Every day had something new in store for two Honors College students who spent their summer working with East Carolina University's leaders in robotic heart surgery.Aenia Amin and Zachary Elliott, two recipients of the 2015 East Carolina Heart Institute (ECHI) Robotic Surgery Internship, were able to observe robotic heart valve replacements, lobectomies and neonatal heart procedures, among others. The internship is a competitive program that exposes undergraduate pre-medical students to laboratory research methods, surgical treatments and an integrated cardiovascular disease program.The interns rotated between the operating room and clinic throughout the six-week program. In the operating room, the days began with case conferences and observation of robotic and non-robotic surgical procedures."No two cases were alike in the operating room," said Elliott, who is a sophomore neuroscience and public health double major and an early assurance in medicine award recipient. "Some days, a rare operation would show up, for example, an 8-month-old (infant) requiring a clot removal from around his heart."Getting a glimpse into the world of medical technology, the students learned that it's ever-changing and will likely be a large influence during their careers as surgeons or healthcare providers."We witnessed training of new physicians on various robotic skills, the robotic device (Da Vinci SI surgical system) in action and observed minimally-invasive 'robotically-assisted' procedures," said Amin, a junior triple major in neuroscience, psychology and Hispanic studies. "The capabilities of the robotic devices were astounding, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for robotic surgery and for medicine."Days in the clinic were spent observing the relationship between surgeons and their patients and staff, reading various scans and X-rays and learning more about each patient's anatomy and conditions, according to Amin."It was neat seeing the full circle from pre- to post-operative visits for several patients, and it allowed us to experience what physicians experience on a larger scale. Overall, this was a very enriching, satisfying and enjoyable experience."The program is supervised by Dr. Wiley Nifong, an internationally recognized surgeon who helped pioneer robotic and minimally invasive cardiac surgery and values the importance of early medical experience. "We do this program every year to give students an opportunity to get into the hospital early," said Nifong."Dr. Wiley Nifong and the rest of the surgeons were some of the most kind-hearted and enthusiastic people I have had the pleasure of being around," said Elliott. "They would always take the time to explain the procedure, show me the anatomy of the patient and thoroughly answer any questions."To cap off the internship, Amin and Elliott selected and presented case studies that involved patients with complex social and medical histories."I chose my case because the patient has extensive drug use and medical conditions," said Elliott. Amin's case study involved a patient who had a history of homelessness, which had an impact on the patient's ability to receive consistent professional healthcare. The cases exposed the interns to the intersection of medicine and social interactions that affect treatment planning and post-op care, said Nifong.Each year, two ECU Honors College students and two N.C. State Park Scholars are selected to participate in the six-week internship which includes a $1,000 stipend."I know from this experience that there is nothing I would rather do with my life other than surgery," said Elliott.Elliott, a D.H. Conley High School graduate, is the son of Scott and Tammy Elliott of Winterville. Amin is the daughter of Drs. Saad and Sumayya Amin of Greensboro. She is a graduate of Northern Guilford High School.
Update 6.50pm: German authorities say the suspect in Monday's deadly truck attack in Berlin was under covert surveillance for several months this year.

Berlin prosecutors told The Associated Press that they launched an investigation against Anis Amri on March 14 following a tip from federal security agencies.

The tip warned that Amri, who was considered a potential threat by authorities in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, might be planning a break-in to finance the purchase of automatic weapons for use in an attack.

Surveillance showed that Amri was involved in drug dealing in a Berlin park and involved in a bar brawl, but no evidence to substantiate the original warning. The observation was called off in September.

Update 4.55pm: German authorities have offered a reward of up to 100,000 for information leading to the arrest of the Tunisian man wanted over the deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin.

Federal prosecutors described 24-year-old Anis Amri as being of average height and weight, with black hair and brown eyes.

Prosecutors warned that the suspect could be "armed and dangerous", and urged members of the public to notify police if they see him.

Twelve people were killed and 48 others were injured - 12 seriously - when a truck ploughed into the popular Berlin market on Monday evening. Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility.

The notice issued by police for Anis Amri.

Earlier:

The man wanted in connection with the deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin should be considered armed and dangerous, authorities said.

A European arrest warrant from Germany indicates the man, named as Anis Amri, has at times used six different aliases and three different nationalities, according to reports.

The wanted notice said Amri has Tunisian citizenship, having been born in the town of Ghaza. But it also lists multiple aliases, many of them variants on his name, as well as Egyptian and Lebanese citizenship.

German authorities said they rejected the mans asylum request in July.

Twelve people were killed and 48 others were injured when a truck ploughed into a popular Berlin market on Monday evening. So-called Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility.

Candles burn between flowers in Berlin. Picture: AP

Anis Amri was identified by Tunisian officials as the man being sought by German police across the country and the wider border-free area of the European Union.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Amri was suspected of involvement in the terrorist outrage but was not necessarily the man who drove the hijacked lorry into a crowded Christmas market in the German capital.

German media said a police operation was taking place in Emmerich, close to the Netherlands border in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
CAIRO: Global events may temporarily affect Egypts wheat supply but the country can adjust to them, Egypts...
"During the past week as the legislature called themselves back into session, I was actively working as your governor to protect the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government. Examples include discouraging proposed legislation moving major departments including Information Technology and Commerce outside of the governor's authority. I also successfully worked to deter any efforts to expand the composition of our Supreme Court.

"Due to these efforts, I have come to realize that the current changes to executive authority in House Bill 17 have been greatly exaggerated by misleading TV ads, paid protesters and state and national media outlets.

"This bill enhances state employee policies, transfers school safety programs to the education department, allows our state legislature to make university trustee appointments, and clarifies the roles and organizational structure of the superintendent of public instruction and board of education - hardly extreme changes.

"My major disagreement with this bill is requiring confirmation of cabinet secretaries. This is wrong and short-sighted and needs to be resolved through the leadership skills of the governor-elect working with the legislature beginning in January. With this in mind, I will sign House Bill 17."

(8) Appointments. The Governor shall nominate and by and with the advice and consent of a majority of the Senators appoint all officers whose appointments are not otherwise provided for.

UPDATED, Dec. 20, 11:40 a.m.: Gov. McCrory signed the measure and it is now Session Law 2016-126 In a press release , Gov. Pat McCrory announced Monday evening he would sign House Bill 17, the measure reorganizing the executive branch and limiting the powers of Democratic Gov.-elect Roy Cooper.In the release, McCrory said:Notwithstanding McCrory's objections, Article III, Section 5 of the N.C. Constitution states:Confirmation of Cabinet secretaries is already allowed if not encouraged in the Constitution.Be sure to check back with Carolina Journal for updates.
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Contact: McCrory Communications

McCrory Communications govpress@nc.gov

Raleigh, N.C. Governor Pat McCrory, North Carolina Commerce Secretary John E. Skvarla, III, and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC) announced today that GKN Driveline will expand operations at its four North Carolina facilities in Alamance, Catawba, Lee and Person counties. The company plans to add a total of 302 jobs and invest at least $179 million in the state over the next five years.said Governor McCrory.Since Governor McCrory entered office in January of 2013, North Carolina's economy has generated more than 300,000 net new jobs.GKN Driveline develops, builds and supplies an extensive range of automotive driveline technologies - for use in the smallest ultra low-cost car to the most sophisticated premium vehicle demanding the most complex driving dynamics. GKN Driveline is a leading global producer of CVJ Systems, AWD Systems, Trans Axle Solutions and eDrive Systems.The company is a unit of GKN plc, a global engineering business based in Worcestershire, United Kingdom. The publicly-held parent company [LSE: GKN] has operations in 34 countries. GKN opened its first facility in North Carolina in 1978, and its various locations in the state currently employ more than 2,700.said Phil Swash, CEO, GKN Driveline.GKN Driveline's expansion adds a total of 159 people at its facilities in Sanford, Mebane and Timberlake over five years. Compensation will vary by position, with annual salaries for the new jobs averaging at least $43,161. Overall annual wages currently average $36,346 in Alamance County, $36,905 in Person County and $38,163 in Lee County.The company's expansion in Maiden creates 143 jobs over four years at wages averaging at least $45,860. Catawba County's overall wages average $38,238 per year.said Secretary Skvarla.GKN Driveline's expansions in Alamance, Lee and Person counties will be facilitated, in part, by a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG). Under the terms of the JDIG, GKN is eligible to receive up to $1,539,000 in total reimbursements over 12 years.The company's expansion in Catawba County, facilitated through a separate JDIG, makes GKN eligible to receive up to $1,587,600 over 12 years. The state's Economic Investment Committee approved both grants earlier today.JDIGs reimburse new and expanding companies a portion of the newly created tax-base with the goal of increasing the overall tax benefit to the State of North Carolina. Payments occur in annual installments pending verification by NC Commerce and NC Revenue that the company has met incremental job creation and investment targets. The state reimbursement is contingent upon local participation from the county or municipality.By law, JDIG projects must generate a net revenue inflow to the state treasury over the life of the award. For JDIG-supported projects in Tier 2 counties, 15 percent of the eligible grant is directed to the state's Industrial Development Fund - Utility Account to help finance economic infrastructure in less populated counties. GKN's expansion could provide as much as $347,400 in new funds for the Utility Account. More information on county tier designations is available here.Numerous partners joined with N.C. Commerce and the EDPNC in supporting GKN Driveline's expansion. They include the North Carolina General Assembly, the North Carolina Community College System, the N.C. Department of Transportation, Alamance County, Catawba County, Lee County, Person County, the City of Mebane, the Town of Maiden, the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation, the Sanford Area Growth Alliance, Alamance Chamber and the Person County Economic Development Commission.
TEHRAN: Iran on Saturday accused the United States of seeking to gain concessions in nuclear talks aimed at...
Canberra's peak legal bodies say extra judicial resources and more efficient listing of matters would be needed to help ease delays in the Magistrates Court as prosecutors continued to battle increased workloads.

ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Jon White raised concerns in his annual report that "inefficient" listing practices in the lower court were causing lengthy waits, particularly in a soaring number of family violence matters.

Lawyers have raised concerns for their clients, who face up to seven-month waits for hearings, in the ACT Magistrates Court. Credit:Graham Tidy

Mr White said his office continued to face a "critical" resource shortage as an influx of domestic abuse matters and additional Supreme Court judge had bolstered prosecutors' workloads but not been matched in funding.

ACT Bar Association president Ken Archer said delays of up to seven months were considered long for Magistrates Court matters, which were generally less serious and complex than cases requiring longer timeframes in the higher court.
The federal health department has taken to monitoring social media for complaints and commentary about the long-delayed roll-out of the national My Health Record program.

First launched by the then-Labor government in 2012, the electronic health record system was meant to create a universal online health record for every Australian, to help coordinate patient care between GPs, specialists and hospital staff.

A new public service social media policy has been described as 'overreach' by public service union boss Nadine Flood.

But four years after it was introduced, the scheme's national roll-out has been slowed by a lack of public take-up and health practitioners not getting involved as a result, as the cost of the scheme has ballooned to more than $1 billion.
Slater & Gordon's shares have dived amid fresh allegations from the corporate regulator that the company cooked its books ahead of its disastrous purchase of a UK group.

The listed law firm's shares were down 5 per cent, or 1, in midday trade, at 25 following Slater & Gordon revealing the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's investigation.

The fresh investigation coincides with a probe by the UK's Serious Fraud Office into the accounting practices of the professional services arm of Quindell which Slater & Gordon purchased in 2015.
No sooner had the news broken that Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, had been assassinated than the comparisons to 1914 began to flow. Google searches for "Franz Ferdinand" briefly spiked. Bill Kristol tweeted that the headlines had "an alarming 1914-ish feel," and Owen Jones of the Guardian caught "a whiff of 1914 that is too pungent to be ignored." That year, Bosnian Serb revolutionary Gavrilo Princip assassinated Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, setting in motion events that would result in World War I, a globe-consuming fight that left 17 million dead and Europe in ruins.

Given the uncertainty of the current moment and the players involved, the pull toward such analogies is strong. But there is a real danger here, a danger that exists in any historical analogy that draws surface comparisons while ignoring particulars. Such analogies give us a false sense of security, even when the antecedents are horrific: a sense that we know what's coming next and how to respond, that everything is knowable and under control. But the reality is that we have no idea what comes next, and if we act too assuredly, too trapped within the analogy, the odds of miscalculating grow exponentially.

Let's take that World War I analogy. In 1914, Europe was a tinderbox in search of a spark. A system of alliances that had kept peace, more or less, for a half-century had failed to adapt to the new realities of expanded empires, modern warfare and decaying monarchies. What had once granted stability now almost assured chaos. The empires involved were too insecure to allow the moment of Ferdinand's assassination to pass. And when the dominoes fell, they fell with unimaginable consequences.

There are echoes with today, to be sure. Both Turkey and Russia are led by authoritarians anxious to show their power. Turkey is a member of NATO, an alliance system erected to counter Russian aggression. Add to that the instability in Europe and the United States, as well as the palpable fear that instability has created, and surely 2016 is 1914 redux.
Australian Christian Lobby managing director Lyle Shelton has linked federal politicians to an overnight car explosion at the organisation's headquarters, accusing left-wing MPs of using incendiary language and failing to condemn death threats.

But hours after Mr Shelton made the claim on Thursday, ACT Policing released a statement saying they had established the actions of the 35-year-old male driver "were not politically, religiously or ideologically motivated".

Asked to respond to the police statement, Mr Shelton said: "It's all very sensitive, we don't know the motives of the person last night, we hope it's not related and the police, given their statement don't seem to think so, but for us, it comes in the context of the abuse, the death threats and the threats of violence we have experienced this year.

"Obviously I respect what the police have to say. I'm not sure how they can know for sure, given the man was pulled from a burning wreck last night. I certainly hope that's the case."
Two men accused of killing Gold Coast drug addict Darren John Britza have had the charges against them dropped.

Dean Mark Wills stood trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court three times and Shane Hansen twice for Mr Britza's alleged 2001 murder but the juries were unable to reach a verdict.

Darren Britza died in 2001.

The Department of Public Prosecutions dropped the murder charges against the pair on Wednesday, but Mr Wills will have to face court again in March to be sentenced for a non-related drug offence.

AAP
A 10-year-old boy found dead in a south-east Brisbane home had more than 200 bruises and marks on his body, including his genitals, a court has heard.

Curtis Powell was found dead in his aunt and uncle's Mackenzie home on July 20, 2015, by another family member.

Forensic officers outside the home in Mackenzie, where the body of Curtis Powell was found in 2015. Credit:Kim Stephens

Senior Queensland nurse Jodie Maree Powell's application for bail was rejected in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday, a week after a magistrate first refused to release her.

She and partner James Colin Burnham, 35, had been caring for their 10-year-old nephew for more than six years when he was found dead in their south-east Brisbane home on July 20, 2015.


ECU graduated its first Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering graduates during Dec. 16 ceremonies. The graduates are, from left to right, Matthew Cadmus, Bryce Cranwell, Danny Vargas and Elizabeth Blair Meriwether Weaver. (Photos by Patrick Fay)

Dr. David White, dean of the College of Engineering and Technology, celebrates with the colleges first Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering graduates



Dr. Barbara Muller-Borer, right, is the graduate program director for the College of Engineerings Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering program. She joined the graduates during the Dec. 16 graduation ceremonies.

For the fall 2016 graduation ceremonies, East Carolina University's College of Engineering and Technology lived up to the university's promise: Tomorrow starts here.For the college, "tomorrow" is represented by the new Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering (BME) program, and it all started with Matthew Cadmus, Bryce Cranwell, Danny Vargas and Elizabeth "Blair" Meriwether Weaver. They are the first graduate students to earn degrees from the Department of Engineering, making history as they received their diplomas on Dec. 16.Dr. David White, dean of the college, said that he's excited for any graduate of the college's programs, but these four are different.he said.Biomedical engineering works to improve medical systems by applying engineering sciences, analysis and design to human health performance and medicine. As part of the M.S. in BME program, students are engaged in multidisciplinary research and the application of innovative, advanced technologies that solve complex problems in the health care industry.Dr. Barbara Muller-Borer, an associate professor and graduate program director for the M.S. in BME program, said graduates will have a variety of career choices ahead of them; from tissue and neural engineering to prosthetics and imaging, biomedical engineering will lead advancements in numerous health-related fields.Muller-Borer believes the ability to work with ECU's Health Sciences programs - the Brody School of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Allied Health Sciences and the School of Dental Medicine - is a major factor in preparing these grads for fruitful careers. However, according to Muller-Borer, so is access to all of the college's engineering programs.said Muller-Borer.she added.The four graduate students agree with Muller-Borer, and they are aligned when it comes to the importance their thesis advisors played in obtaining their degrees.The UNC Board of Governors approved the M.S. in BME program in 2014, and the program's first classes started in August of that year.Vargas missed that start because he was becoming a U.S. citizen. Originally from Peru, Vargas received his undergraduate degree from James Madison University in Virginia.Cadmus is from outside of Charlotte and received his undergraduate degree from ECU, as did Holly Springs-native Cranwell. Weaver is a Greenville native but came to ECU after earning her undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt.As their classes continued, there were discussions on what they should call themselves. The Fantastic Four was mentioned a number of times, but it didn't stick. However, they thought there was another Fantastic Four that was deserving of that name: their thesis advisors.Dr. Muller-Borer served as Vargas' advisor, and Dr. Jason Yao advised on Weaver's thesis that looked at an innovative approach to help monitor congestive heart failure patients at home.Assistant Professor Dr. Sunghan Kim was Cadmus' thesis advisor. Regarding Kim's influence, Cadmus said,Cranwell said his advisor, Dr. Ricky Castles,White, who oversaw the creation of the new M.S. in BME program, sees a bright future for the four graduates and the program.said White.
Federal police have launched a nationwide appeal to find a toddler believed to have been taken by her father south of Brisbane.

Images have been released in a bid for public help to find 18-month-old Aubree Leigh Best and return her to her mother, Ashleigh Gibson.

Australian Federal Police released images of Aubree Leigh Best and her father, Jordan Best, in a bid to find the 18-month-old girl believed to have been taken from Logan. Credit:AFP

The Australian Federal Police said the girl's mother was "desperate" to have her returned after she was recently taken from the Logan area.

The Federal Circuit Court of Australia issued a recovery order on December 15.
Brisbane researchers are extracting DNA from the jaws of great white and tiger sharks to better understand how these populations have changed over time.

The international study, led by University of Queensland researchers, seeks to create a baseline for population numbers of the two shark species, often found along the Queensland coastline, to better understand population fluctuations over the past 100 years.

Professor Jenny Ovenden extracting DNA from the jaw of a juvenile female white shark. Credit:Glenn Hunt

UQ's School of Biomedical Sciences' associate professor Jenny Ovenden is working on the three-year study said there was a public need to know more about these two shark species.

"Over the last 50 years, both species have experienced population declines, both have been caught on the east coast in bather protection nets and we know by looking at the data that the sharks that are caught now are smaller than the sharks that used to be caught," she said.
A Stanthorpe man has publicly apologised for getting drunk and breaking the town's Christmas tree.

The tree was broken on Sunday morning about 2.30am, according to a Stanthorpe council spokeswoman.

The Stanthorpe Christmas tree was broken on the weekend after a man tried to climb it. Credit:Stanthorpe and Granite Belt Information Centre

"Some youths were recorded by our CCTV getting up to some mischief," the spokeswoman said.

"One of them climbed the tree and it broke."
It's been a strange year for video games. By some measures, 2016 has been one of the most exciting and consistent years in recent memory, with a steady stream of very good games beginning in January with the mind-boggling puzzles of The Witness, and never slowing until the December release of the long-awaited Last Guardian. On the other hand there was a distinct lack of world-shifting, once-in-a-decade hits.

More than ever before, the line between "indie" games and those put out by massive AAA studios is blurring, with the likes of Stardew Valley sitting side-by-side on digital shelves with Watch Dogs 2. Fewer people are heading to physical stores to pick up their games, and more purchasing decisions are being influenced by internet scuttlebutt and impressions videos than traditional advertising and reviews.

The gorgeous Firewatch started 2016 off strong, and it never slowed down.

Fresh online experiences like Overwatch and even Pokemon GO opened millions of minds to new kinds of play, while on the other end of the scale the most hardcore veterans dug in to games like Dark Souls III and Civilization VI. Indies like Oxenfree and Owlboy made headlines for their unique takes on established genres, while the world's biggest shooter studios turned their attention back to Hollywood-style single-player experiences in instant classics Doom, Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2.

Virtual reality made its mark, with the Oculus Rift, Vive and PlayStation VR all hitting consumer's homes with a smattering of interesting experiences rather than any humungous must-haves, and amidst it all there was a healthy dose of excellent remakes and remasters  like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess , breathing fresh life into older games for a new generation of players or those who want all their favourites on their latest machine.
As a doctor pulled out her 4 kilogram son with a vacuum, Ms Alexander says she felt him rip through her perineum (the skin between her vagina and anus).

She remembers being told that a doctor would only do one in some circumstances, and that she should have a vaginal birth instead. It was a sliding door moment that would change her life forever.

The 30-year-old had gestational diabetes and knew her baby was big, so she says she asked staff at Angliss hospital if she could have a caesarean.

"I felt like I was dying," she says of the birth which has put her off having another child.

Ms Alexander, now 33, says a midwife at the public hospital in Ferntree Gully stitched her up after the delivery while repeatedly asking a doctor if she was doing it correctly. The pain remained intolerable over the next 24 hours.

"It was excruciating," she says. "The stitches came out the next day and they discharged me home the following day with antibiotics and panadeine forte which causes constipation."

Two and half years later, Ms Alexander says she is doubly incontinent, has difficulties with sex, and is still seeking help to repair the tender skin that was torn apart. She has spent thousands of dollars on private reconstructive surgery and fears she will have to wear a pad for the rest of her life.

"I repeatedly asked for a doctor to see me during my labour because I feared what was happening. The midwife ignored those requests for hours," she says. "If I was given a caesarean, none of this would have happened".
Kayakers and other paddlers have been urged to keep off their craft if they've been drinking alcohol, after a review of paddling deaths in Victoria since 2000 found almost one in three of the dead had been drinking.

Alcohol was detected in six of the 19 people who died while paddling, with two recording a level above .05. All 19 victims were men.

David Wood, owner of Sea Kayak Australia, says beginner paddlers should take ''baby steps'' and learn in safe, calm conditions. Credit:Eddie Jim

The Coroners Court report, commissioned by Maritime Safety Victoria, found that in three cases where alcohol was detected, cannabis was also found. In two of the cases blood alcohol tests could not be performed accurately because of the time it took to recover the body.

"During the last five years (2011-12 to 2015-16), over a third of recreational boating fatalities in Victoria have occurred amongst occupants of paddle craft," it said. This was up from 17 per cent in the previous five years. Four of the dead were described as "average or poor" swimmers.
A Melbourne man is still missing after his kayak and life jacket washed ashore at Lake Eildon on Tuesday afternoon, reports Broede Carmody.

The 36-year-old was camping with three friends and was about 200 metres from the shore when his kayak overturned.

Water police, search and rescue teams and SES crews will resume the search around 9am

While we don't know the full circumstances of this disappearance, Age rural reporter Darren Gray reporters kayakers and other paddlers have been urged to keep off their craft if they've been drinking alcohol, after a review of paddling deaths in Victoria since 2000 found almost one in three of the dead had been drinking.
Police are investigating after two gun shots were fired into a church at a primary school and house in WA's South West within days of one another.

Detectives believe the two gun shots are linked and are appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

A gun shot was fired into Leschenault Catholic Primary School's church in Australind. Credit:Google Maps

The first shot was fired between 6pm on Saturday and 11.30am on Sunday at a residence in Australind.

"An unknown person has fired a single shot through the garage door and into the rear of a vehicle at a residence located on Mardo Avenue," a police spokeswoman said.
Syria: An Example of American Weakness

What was once a bustling Syrian city in Aleppo is now not much more than an ash-heap, and while the responsibility for the violence itself falls solely on the Assad Regime, Russia and ISIS, responsibility for the escalation of the conflict falls on the shoulders of the United States. Not because of anything we did, persay, but more so what we failed to do. President Obama made a clear threat to the Assad Regime when he stated that the use of chemical or biological weapons would be the "red line", and that crossing that line would result in a military intervention. Assad did, however, use chemical weapons on his people, and President Obama did nothing in response. This, in effect, acted as a blank permission slip to the Syrian regime to do whatever they wanted without fearing repercussion from the United States.



The result of this refusal to act has been the absolute destruction of not only Aleppo, but most of the rest of Syria as well. It has led to the incineration of countless civilians, including women and children, largely at the hands of the Syrian government and Russian air support. It has also led to the creation and expansion of one of the most severe refugee situations in world history, and by far the worst since the Second World War. This refugee crisis has decimated our Western European allies, both from a cultural standpoint, as multiculturalism tends to always fail and has fared no better there, and from a security standpoint, as radicalized refugees have been responsible for a large chunk of the many terrorist attacks that have swept across the region.



Moreover, what has been perhaps the most consequential outcome of all of this has been the triumph of Russia. Not only have they inched closer to dominance in the Middle East, with their backing of Assad and tightening relationship with Iran, but they have done so with no meaningful opposition. More so than any other actor, Vladimir Putin has been emboldened by the softness of Obama's decisions in Syria. Ever since becoming militarily involved in the Syrian Civil War a little over a year ago, Russia has received little more than some stern rebuking from President Obama and various American diplomats. This occurs as Putin's military commits war crimes. Still, in his final press conference of the year, Obama had the audacity to claim that "Almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than it was eight years ago." I'm sure that Vladimir Putin is still laughing at that one.



Obama also claimed that,"The Assad regime cannot slaughter its way to legitimacy." The problem is, however, that unless the United States acts to stop him, he certainly can and almost certainly will. Admittedly, the regime change ship began to sail when President Obama decided against acting on his now infamous "red line" threat, and sunk when Russia became heavily involved. However, this does not mean that it is too late for a reassertion of American strength. Many are quick to forget that although Vladimir Putin has been aggressive in the face of a weak America, he is by no means irrational and not stupid enough to go to war with the United States at this point. President Obama should keep this in mind as he tries to reconcile the situation over the course of his last month in office, as should President-Elect Trump as he works to form his Syria policy. While the Assad regime and Russia are well on the way to winning the civil war and maintaining power, there are still plenty of civilian lives to be saved there and plenty of terrorists to kill, which should be our two primary focuses in Syria going forward. Accomplishing both of these things will require a drastic change from the past eight years of American foreign policy as well as a willingness to stand up to global actors, like Putin, who have dangerous ambitions and a deep-rooted hatred for the United States. Moreover, the Syria debacle is full of lessons for President-Elect Trump, and we should all pray that he is willing to learn them.


Security and rescue workers stand next to a truck which ploughed into a market in Berlin on December 20. Credit:Getty Images He had moved from NRW to Berlin in February 2016 and sought to make the German capital his new home, Jaeger said, adding that the Tunisian man sought by police had used different names. His father told the radio station that his son left for Germany a year ago. A senior law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the manhunt followed the discovery "leave to remain" papers of the man - an asylum seeker - in the cabin of the truck used to ram the market. A heavily-armed policeman stands at the site of the attack. Credit:Sean Gallup The Federal Prosecutor's Office (GBA) said in a statement that a search for Amri was under way, with support from police forces in all of Germany's 16 federal states.

On Wednesday police began searching a shelter for migrants in western Germany where the suspect is believed to have lived, a newspaper said. Mourners lay flowers and candles at a makeshift memorial near the site of the attack. Credit:Sean Gallup/Getty Images Rheinische Post said the shelter is in the town of Emmerich, which lies about 140 kilometres north of the city of Cologne, near the border with the Netherlands. Germany's Bild newspaper ran a photo of the suspect, who had several aliases and said he was born in the southern Tunisian desert town of Tataouine in 1992. Bild reported that the suspect was known by the police for alleged physical assault, but was never charged, because he had disappeared. German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits the site of the attack in Berlin. Credit:AP

Witnesses described one man fleeing the scene on Monday after he slammed a truck packed with a cargo of steel into revellers at a traditional Christmas market. Although one suspect - a Pakistani asylum seeker - was arrested on Monday night, authorities later released him due to lack of evidence. They are now considering the Tunisian man as the prime suspect. People lay flowers at a shrine near where 12 people died in the truck attack. Credit:Michele Tantussi "We have a strong lead at the moment and our officers are out on the street," the senior official told The Washington Post. According to the daily Suddeutsche Zeitung, the suspect arrived in Italy in 2012, but moved on to Germany in July 2015. In April 2016, he applied for asylum, but disappeared earlier this month. The paper said he had been using eight names.

Tunisian Anis Amri, allegedly received his orders directly from ISIS. Credit:AP The paper, along with other German media outlets, added that the man had contacts with a network run by a radical Islamist known as Abu Walaa, who was arrested last month for allegedly recruiting Islamic State fighters. According to the report, police were searching all area hospitals in their quest for the suspect. The new information emerged as German investigators raced for clues in the hunt for suspects in the deadly assault, poring over forensic evidence and GPS data as they sought to retrace the steps of the attacker. They were re-questioning witnesses and analysing DNA traces found in the truck, as well as on the body of a dead Polish man in the passenger seat. The photo sent to European police authorities during the mahunt for Anis Amri . Credit:AP The Pole worked for a trucking company and was delivering a payload of steel to Berlin. Investigators are going on the assumption that he was taken hostage by the assailant - and may even have died a hero. Jorg Radek deputy chairman of the German Trade Union of the Police, said evidence suggested that "a fight took place in the driver's cabin". As it careened toward the crowded market, the truck was not driving straight, but "in a zig-zag line", he noted.

Bild also quoted an investigator as saying the Polish man - who was shot dead - had received multiple stab wounds in a manner that suggested he may have tried to grab the steering wheel to stop the assault as it happened. The wanted poster issued by German federal police on Wednesday. Credit:AP Amid these latest revelations, the country has been convulsed in a national debate over who and what was to blame. The Islamic State on Tuesday claimed responsibility for inspiring the unknown attacker - a claim as yet unproven - leading some politicians to quickly point the finger at Chancellor Angela Merkel's humanitarian move last year to open Germany's door to nearly a million migrants, most from the war-torn Middle East. Yet others quickly pushed back, calling the accusations a politicising of tragedy that had no place in progressive Germany.

In a country where laws and traditions strongly emphasise personal privacy, the identities of the victims of the Berlin attack have barely begun to emerge. One of the victims was a 65-year-old woman from Neuss, a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, according to news reports. Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, an Italian transportation specialist who has been living in Germany for three years, has been missing since Monday, and her father, Gaetano Di Lorenzo, said he feared the worst. "We are here with my wife, waiting for the DNA results," he said in an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. "We are waiting for confirmation, but I am not deluding myself." The daughter's mobile phone and transit pass were found near the scene immediately after the attack, her relatives and friends said on social media on Tuesday.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the attack "may have claimed the life of an Israeli citizen". He was referring to Dalia Elkayam, who has been missing since Monday and whose husband, Rami Elkayam, was seriously injured in the attack. On Tuesday, Horst Seehofer, chairman of the Christian Social Union, sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats said: "We owe it to the victims, those affected and the entire population to rethink and readjust our entire immigration and security policy." On Wednesday, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann defended Seehofer from a barrage of critics claiming he and others were seizing on the attack to further their anti-migrant stance. "This is no sweeping judgment of refugees," he said. "Compared to the high number of refugees, these are only very few, but the risks are obvious and we must not close our eyes."

A number of newspaper editorials and other politicians on Wednesday criticised Herrmann's remarks and similar statements as premature and lacking in respect for the victims. Commentator Jurgen Kaube in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said such comments risked over-generalising Muslim migrants and were implicitly turning the hateful views of the Islamic State into "the true representative of the Muslim world". "It is appalling if there are now calls to reconsider the refugee policy as a whole," the paper Die Tageszeitung wrote in an editorial. "Why for heaven's sake?... What happened in Berlin was long feared. An act of brutal violence. The only effective defence: to keep calm." In a new age of risk, increasingly, the debate has been morphing into a discussion on what kind of nation Germans want to live in - and how much risk it is willing to assume. Some authorities were arguing for the installation of more public surveillance cameras, as is common, for instance, in Britain, and with which investigators into Monday's assault may have had more to go on.

There were also growing calls for the deployment of more police on the streets with heavy weapons, including automatic ones - a frequent sight in France and Belgium, for instance, but far more unusual in pacifist Germany. Klaus Bouillon, head of a conference of interior ministers from German states, declared on Tuesday that the country was now "in a state of war". He called for beefed up security at public events. "We have to look into what technical possibilities there are to block streets ... There are big concrete blocks ... there are systems I have already requested," he said. "We also will have to increasingly work with machine guns and long weapons." At the normally quant and picturesque Christmas markets in at least two German cities - Mainz and Magdeburg - concrete barriers were quickly erected for added security. In Magdeburg, police officers armed with automatic weapons were guarding the entrance.
Importantly, authorities knew that Amri had "interacted" with Abu Walaa, a 32-year old of Iraqi descent arrested in November on charges of recruiting and sending fighters from Germany to the Islamic State. Key evidence in Walaa's case came from an Islamic State defector who had returned to Germany and accused Walaa of helping to recruit him and arrange his travel to Syria. Islamic State calls Berlin attacker a 'soldier' The Islamic State claimed responsibility Tuesday for the Berlin rampage. The militant group called the unknown attacker a "soldier of the Islamic State," the militant group's Amaq News Agency reported. The claim is yet unproven. The damaged towing truck is towed away from the crime scene in Berlin. Credit:AP German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday the incident was an "assumed terror attack". The attack is reminiscent of a truck attack in July in Nice, France - the vehicle drove in to a crowd that was celebrating Bastille Day celebrations, killing 86 people. The Tunisian driver was shot and killed by police. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

Raids, 'planned robbery' and guns German police commandos have raided two apartments in Berlin's neighbourhood of Kreuzberg but have not found the suspect, Germany's Die Welt newspaper reports citing investigators. Police patrol a Christmas market the day it reopened following the attack. Credit:Michele Tantussi The newspaper says investigators believed Amri may have been in one of the two apartments. Police forces overpowered a man at one of the apartments during the raids, the paper said. It gave no further information.

German authorities observed Amri for a period this year to try to determine whether he had planned a robbery to fund the purchase of automatic weapons for a possible attack with accomplices, a judicial source in Berlin told Reuters on Wednesday. The source, confirming an online report by the mass-selling Bild newspaper, said authorities stopped their monitoring activities after they could not prove the suspicions. Bild said Amri was monitored between March and September. The source declined to specify the observation period. Other suspects German police on Tuesday released a Pakistani man arrested shortly after the attack as they failed to prove conclusively that the 23-year-old committed any crime. A further suspect was held overnight and released Wednesday due to insufficient evidence, the RBB broadcaster reported, according to German news agency DPA.

A 12-year-old boy of Iraqi decent arrested this month for plotting to plant bombs at Christmas markets in the city of Ludwigshafen, had posted remarks on his Facebook page calling for the release of Abu Walaa, the Iraqi Amri was in touch with. It is unclear yet, if the boy had been in direct contact with him or not. "Anis Amri was engaging with extremist salafist circles in Germany," the official said. Truck owned by Polish firm Police said the truck, which was loaded with steel beams, was owned by a Polish delivery company, Ariel Zurawski. The firm said the truck left Poland earlier on Monday and it lost contact with Lukasz Urban, the 37-year-old driver, the cousin of the firm's owner Ariel Zurawski, at around 3pm local time, AFP reported. Urban was found in the passenger seat of the truck, apparently stabbed and shot to death.

A family member shows a photo of his cousin Lukasz Urban, the usual driver of the truck, who was found dead in the passenger seat. Credit:AP Zurawski said he believed the truck was hijacked. "I can say, hand on heart, that the man who drove into those people in the centre of Berlin was not my driver," he said, according to the Telegraph. Some victims identified Six of those killed at the markets were identified as Germans, and a man found shot and killed in the truck's passenger seat , Lukasz Urban was Polish. The other five people killed have not yet been identified, the Associated Press reported. People lay flowers at a shrine near where 12 people died in the truck attack. Credit:Michele Tantussi
Kinshasa: Security forces shot dead at least 26 protesters who had gathered in the streets of Kinshasa and other cities of Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday to demand that President Joseph Kabila step down after his mandate expired overnight.

Scattered protests started on Tuesday, and opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi called on the Congolese people to peacefully resist Kabila, who has remained in power beyond his constitutional mandate with no election to pick a successor.

Policemen drive past burning debris during protests against President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa on Tuesday. Credit:AP

Human Rights Watch researcher Ida Sawyer said on Twitter that at least 26 people were killed by security forces.

The government spokesman could not be reached for comment and a police spokesman had no information on deaths.
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Police in Bristol have stepped up patrols in the city centre due to concerns about Islamophobia in the wake of the Berlin terror attack.

The Christmas markets in the German city were the target of a terrorist attack on Monday where a lorry was driven into crowds of people, killing 12 and injuring another 48.

Since then mounted police officers, bobbies on the beat and PCSOs have been spotted around the Bristol Christmas market in Broadmead.

Chief Superintendent Jon Reilly, area commander for Bristol, confirmed patrols had been increased in the city centre.

He said: "Following previous terror attacks across mainland Europe we have seen an increase in the number of reported Islamophobic hate crimes in the Avon and Somerset area.

"We have subsequently increased patrols in areas of Bristol which have high footfall in order to provide additional reassurance and to act as a visible deterrent. We also hope it will aid and encourage reporting of any hate crimes or incidents should they occur.

"We want those who are victims of hate crime to feel confident in the belief that we'll take their reports seriously, protect them and make sure they get all the support they need.

"We'd also like to reassure everyone that we, along with the security and intelligence services, are tirelessly working together to keep you safe.

"Our advice is to remain alert and not alarmed. Please be vigilant and report any concerns or incidents to us on 101 or the confidential Anti-Terrorist Hotline on 0800 789 321. In an emergency, always dial 999.

"If you don't want to talk to the police you can call the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or visit the True Vision website for information, advice and to report online."
Latest News New way to own a slice of paradise Platform provides co-ownership model for holiday homes

ANZ and Westpac reveal grim predictions of a 1% rate rise Banks also have chilling forecast for how high mortgage payments will go next year

Pepper Group has welcomed Aaron Milburn to the business as its newly appointed director of sales and distribution.In a statement, the firm said Milburn would bring extensive industry experience to Pepper. He is stepping into the new role after previously working as Westpac Banking Groups NSW general manager for brokers.Mario Rehayem, managing director for Australian mortgages and personal loans at Pepper Group, said an appointment of this calibre will build on the strong success of the lending business in Australia which offers mortgage, automotive and personal loans to Australians.Aaron brings strong leadership skills, a passion for education and deep relationships with the Australian broker network, which makes him an ideal fit for Peppers team and culture. We're excited to have Aaron onboard to support the many new initiatives we have planned for the business in 2017 and beyond, Rehayem said.According to sources which spoke to Australian Financial Review column Street Talk, Milburn worked at Westpac since early 2015 and is due to start in his new position at Pepper in late January.
The final year of the U.S. Department of Education in the Obama administration is noteworthy for all its carnage. In September, the large ITT Tech chain of schools, which had operated in 38 states, was forced to close when Department officials shut off its access to federal student aid. That decision, which I wrote about here , disrupted the education of more than 40,000 students and cost 8,000 employees their jobs.Almost inevitably, the Department then went after the organization that had put its stamp of approval on ITT Tech, the 104-year-old Accrediting Council of Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). Since ITT had been found bad, naturally the agency that had pronounced ITT good enough to receive federal student aid money must also be bad.On September 22, the Education Department declared that ACICS was no longer recognized as an accrediting agency, meaning that federal funds could not go to the schools it had accredited. Because there is no other reason than that for them to want ACICS to puts its stamp of approval on them (and pay the associated fees), the Department's decision is a death sentence for ACICS.ACICS requested a review of that decision, but was denied in a letter dated December 12 by Secretary of Education John King. In reply to pleas by ACICS that it was on track to meet the various standards where Department officials had found it deficient and should be given more time, King wrote, "The failure by ACICS to efficiently monitor and enforce the required standards, and its lack of progress toward efficiently doing so, strongly indicates that ACICS cannot meet its ambitious promises to come into compliance with 12 months."Secretary King's decision probably closes the matter. ACICS has, however, filed for a temporary restraining order in federal district court; if granted, it would buy the agency some time and perhaps a new, lifesaving analysis of its situation under the Trump administration's Education Department.What does the demise of ACICS mean?For one thing, it leaves the numerous schools it had accredited without accreditation. The number of students enrolled in those schools is over 580,000. They're studying such fields as medical assistance, business management, nursing, criminal justice, and culinary arts.In its last appeal, ACICS attempted to use those students as human shields, arguing that their educations would be disrupted if the Department revoked its accrediting power. King dismissed that claim, saying that it was legally irrelevant and that ACICS didn't have standing to raise possible damage to student welfare as a ground for a stay of execution.In any case, the Department grants schools 18 months to find a new, recognized accrediting agency if theirs closes. So none will necessarily close and no students are certain to face disruption in their education. But other accreditors might look askance at some schools that had found a haven under ACICS.For example, ACICS accredited the programs at Academy College in Bloomington, Minnesota, a 75-year-old school that offers training in aviation, business, accounting, and computer technology.The school's degrees and certificates are not inexpensive (an associate degree in accounting is expected to take 27 months to complete at a cost of over $40,000 including tuition, books, and supplies), but if prospective students want to find out how likely they are to finish on time and find a job after graduation , the site informs them, respectively, that since fewer than 10 students completed the program in 2014-15, the number who completed on time "has been withheld to preserve the confidentiality of the students" and that the job placement rate cannot be provided "due to privacy concerns."Academy College's programs might or might not be worth what they cost and warrant accreditation, but if it can't give students better information about their job prospects than that, other accreditors might decide that the fees they would earn by approving it are not worth the risk if the Department continues its crusade against dubious schools and their accreditors.Thus, some ACICS schools may be pulled down in its undertow.While Secretary King's letter sets forth the failures of ACICS to comply with the federal regulatory criteria, it mentions in passing the fact that until recently ACICS was a recognized accreditor. In 2011, the group that evaluates accreditors, the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), recommended that the Department continue its recognition of ACICS. In 2013, NACIQI accepted its compliance report and recognition was extended.So, how did ACICS go from good enough to merit continued recognition in 2013 to so far out of compliance that the Department sees no possible way for it to get back into compliance in a year? Did ACICS change?No. What changed is that in the last two years, the Department has been on a mission to hunt down for-profit colleges, and now their accreditors. That is why ACICS was put under far more intense scrutiny than before and found wanting. Making an example of it, in the view of many in the higher education community, will help to clean up the dirty, disreputable for-profit corner.Exemplifying that view, Betsy Mayotte, director of consumer outreach at the Center for Consumer Advocacy , said of Secretary King's decision, "At a time when we are seeing many thousands of students incurring substantial financial damage as a result of their desire to achieve a higher education, it is crucial to restore integrity to the accreditation process. Too often, accrediting agencies have been the rubber stamp for federal aid at predatory higher education institutions."But it's hard to see how killing ACICS will have much beneficial impact. That's because the poor student outcomes at many of the ACICS schools can't be fixed from the top, by even the strictest accreditor oversight. Colleges and trade schools like those that had been accredited by ACICS can't be micromanaged into producing good results by distant organizations doing perfunctory campus visits every ten years.The accreditation system itself is a very weak basis for determining which schools should be eligible for Pell Grants and federal loan money. Manhattan Institute scholar Preston Cooper nailed that point in his article " College Accreditors Get An F ." He showed that almost all of the recognized accreditors have given their approval to some dubious schools. The problem, he writes, is that "the federal government presents accreditation as a fail-safe barometer of college quality...."ACICS's demise will no doubt produce some temporary in terrorem effects, as the remaining accreditors try to look tough. (ACICS itself tried that when its existence was in danger, revoking accreditation from two small business colleges in Pennsylvania in September.) No doubt there will be an increase in accreditor sanctions against weak schools (mostly for their financial troubles) and a few more will have their accreditation revoked. But there won't be very much of that because the accreditors derive their revenues from fees paid by their "member" schools.None of that will affect the underlying problem, which is that the U.S. draws large numbers of academically disengaged, poorly motivated students into accredited colleges. Those schools take their grant and loan money, then try, with varying degrees of effort, to educate them.Trying to improve our higher education system through tougher accreditation is like the way the Soviet Union used to try to improve its economy through new and better plans drawn up by apparatchiks in Moscow. The only solution in both cases is free market competition. For us, that means ending federal subsidies for college. When students have to spend their own money if they want education or training, the problem of "predatory" schools will disappear on its own.
Latest News New way to own a slice of paradise Platform provides co-ownership model for holiday homes

ANZ and Westpac reveal grim predictions of a 1% rate rise Banks also have chilling forecast for how high mortgage payments will go next year

South Australian government-back lender HomeStart Finance has recorded its strongest performance in a decade with an 18% rise in lending. Additionally, almost one in two of the lender's customers purchased their first property.Throughout the year, the non-bank helped 1,599 households into home ownership, 47% of which were first home buyers and 88% of which were unlikely to obtain finance from a mainstream lender at the time of application.This annual figure is up from last year when HomeStart helped 1,360 households buy property.The 2015-16 financial year saw $393 million in lending, an increase of almost 25% from the $311 million secured in 2014-15.HomeStart has been focused on growing the number of loans originated through brokers for a number of years, CEO John Oliver told Australian Broker.In 2015-16, 33% of new lending was written by brokers, he added. This was up from 31% in 2014-15 and 26% in 2013-14.Brokers are a good strategic fit with our distribution model. They provide us with a cost effective channel to broaden our geographical footprint and have the ability to give personalised support for customers who may need guiding through the home buying process.There has also been a great deal of investment in the broker channel over recent years, including developments with the online broker platform and increased commission offers, he said.Additional features such as low deposit loans and a cost effective alternative to lenders mortgage insurance provide brokers with strong options to help home buyers who may not qualify for a loan with a mainstream lender break into the market.This ensures a broker can help the customer, and hopefully maintain a relationship with that customer in the future as they upgrade or refinance.The lender released its annual results in the midst of a government-commissioned scoping study aimed at commercialising part of the lenders loan book.Oliver said the results showed the important role the lender had played in the South Australian housing market.Recent years have been some of the toughest in decades for home buyers, with rising house prices and tighter lending practices from many financial institutions making it more difficult for home buyers to break into the market, he said.The results clearly highlight that there is an important role for a low deposit lender like HomeStart, which offers options specifically designed to overcome the barriers to home ownership, including our shared equity product, which enables home buyers to borrow up to 30% more, and a loan specifically designed to help graduates into home ownership.While the vast majority of home buyers approaching the lender had good incomes and could afford to make home loan repayments, Oliver said it was difficult for these individuals to enter the housing market because of factors such as not being able to meet the upfront costs.Our success in the last 12 months reinforces that not only are home buyers finding it difficult to break into the market, but also that HomeStart fills a very important gap.We see our role as supporting home buyers into the housing market sooner, and in a couple of years, they may transition to a mainstream lender when theyve built equity, he told Australian Broker.Jim Kouts, chair of HomeStart, said that these results showed how this model could solve the housing affordability crisis at a national level.Its interesting that HomeStarts proven model of success hasnt been adopted by other governments as part of the solution to declining first home buyer numbers and the challenges associated with housing affordability, he said.Since it was first established in 1989, HomeStart has helped over 67,000 South Australians purchase a home.Many of these households wouldnt have been in a position to obtain finance from a mainstream home loan provider at the time of buying a home. Whether through a lack of savings to put towards upfront costs such as the deposit, or not being able to borrow a sufficient amount of money, HomeStart has been able to offer solutions to these barriers, Kouts said.HomeStart fills a space in the market that isnt being addressed by mainstream lenders, who have in place lending criteria targeted at a very specific segment of the market.
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Brooklyn College has joined dozens of other universities across the country in vowing to protect students at the school who are living in the country without legal permission from the clutches of a new federal government hellbent on deporting them.

Just dont call it a sanctuary campus.

That was the message sent by the City University of New York chancellor James Milliken in a carefully worded statement that avoided the contentious term, but still pledged to protect the thousands of immigrant students on city campuses.

The Midwood school garnered 400 signatures from faculty, students, and staff demanding the college declare itself and the entire university system a sanctuary, and the about 100-person faculty council voted 805 two weeks ago to support a resolution demanding sanctuary status be declared by the Chancellor.

Milliken responded this week that CUNY will take any steps available under the law to protect and support its undocumented students in a letter that also promises the university will not turn over student information to immigration enforcement authorities and will stop immigration authorities from coming on campuses without a court order.

But it falls short of declaring sanctuary status, which has upset some on the board.

Its good, but its also not enough, theres always room for more growth. This is a tremendous start in that the Chancellor is acknowledging the need for a sanctuary status, and whether or not he uses the term is less important relative to what the institution does to protect immigrant students, said Alan Aja, associate professor of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Brooklyn College. I would prefer he use it given its meaning, given its history.

President-elect Trump has already pledged to cut funding to so-called sanctuary cities. As such, leaders of public universities such as Brooklyn College  which are funded by the city, state, and federal government rather than private endowments and tuition  may fear losing much-needed cash by coming out as sanctuaries, said Carolina Bank Munoz, a professor of sociology and head of the department.

That word has become a loaded word and I think that theres fear that if colleges are calling themselves sanctuaries, Trump could say, Well all sanctuary colleges wont get funding,  she said. We dont know because we dont know what Trump is going to do, and certainly he cant just wave a hand and make it all go away.

The City University of New York did not respond to requests for comment about its risk of losing funding.

But the fact students will be protected is all that mattered to Munoz.

I dont care what its called as long as at the end of the day were protecting students, said Munoz.
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76th Precinct

Carroll Gardens-Cobble HillRed Hook

Free-booter

A malefactor broke into a guys Court Street apartment and stole his jacket and boots on Dec. 15, police said.

The victim told police the jerk entered his apartment between Verandah Place and Warren Street at 10:15 am through an ajar front door and swiped his gray and brown NorthFace jacket and a pair of boots, according to authorities.

Bad bruiser

A good-for-nothing punched a woman in the face on Columbia Street on Dec. 17, police said.

The 37-year-old woman told police the lout socked her on the right side of her face at about 10 pm after they got into an argument near Mill Street. The brute fled in a silver car and the victim turned down a trip to the hospital, according to authorities.

Fire starter

Cops cuffed a woman after they say she started a fire outside a Clinton Street house on Dec. 16, police said.

The suspect allegedly started a small blaze at the home between Mill Street and Centre Mall at about 4 pm, leaving scorch marks on the floor, according to authorities.

Police also found hypodermic needles and a controlled substance on the suspect, and charged her with trespassing, arson, and reckless endangerment, officials said.

Rookie mistake

A nogoodnik swiped two laptops from a womans Union Street apartment on Dec. 16.

The victim told police she thinks the sneak got into her apartment between Court and Smith streets sometime between 1 am and 11:30 am with the spare key she leaves under the rug, then stole her two laptops, a pair of house keys, and a mouse pad, according to authorities.

Caught him

Cops arrested a 21-year-old man after they say he threatened two different guys with weapons and broke into an apartment on Bush Street on Dec. 13.

The suspect allegedly first pulled a handgun on a guy on Columbia Street near Mill Street at about 9 pm and swiped $39 from him, before fleeing to an apartment between Columbia and Hicks streets, officials said.

The occupant told the suspect to leave, but the guy then allegedly grabbed a small kitchen knife and held it to the mans head, saying, I dont want to kill you, according to authorities.

The two got into a brief struggle and then cops arrested the suspect on Hicks Street, police said.

 Julianne Cuba
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Merry Fifth-mas!

Santa Claus and one of his elves made stops at shops along Fifth Avenue on Dec. 17, where he greeted kids who were giddy to hand-deliver their wish lists to the big man in person, according to one mom.

They were really excited, and wrote him a letter, said Park Slope mom Karen Block, whose kids Reagen, 3, and Nola, 6, ran into Saint Nick at Du Jour Bakery.

Santa started his journey down Fifth Avenue at Du Jour Bakery and Pinots Pallet art workshop, before jumping in his classic 68 Cutlass Oldsmobile and cruising around the thoroughfare. He then ducked into eatery the Sidecar for pictures with the local youngsters.

Santa has been stopping by the strip every Saturday this month at the invitation of local merchants association the Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District, but Dec. 17 marked his final visit, as he has a lot of work to do on Christmas Eve.
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Hes the Don of Dumbo!

Donald Trumps son-in-law and right-hand man Jared Kushner on Tuesday closed a long-rumored $345-million deal to buy a city-block-sized vacant at Jay and Front streets, adding what will likely become a massive luxury housing complex to the developers already substantial portfolio of property in the nabe.

Kushner and his business partners purchased the highly coveted land at 85 Jay St. from the Jehovahs Witnesses, who have long used it as a parking lot for church members but are now moving their entire operation upstate.

The religious outfit convinced the city to rezone the land for housing back in 2004 but never ended up building anything, and now Kusher and his associates can erect several towers containing around a thousand high-end residential units on the site with no need for city approval or to include affordable housing  although one real-estate expert predicts at least part of the space will end up as retail.

There will be a very large amount of great retail and residential, said Chris Havens, a broker at Terra CRG. What youll probably see is a supermarket, a lot of small retail, a lot of parking.

The deal cements the neighborhoods status as the new Trump Village  Kushner purchased the Witnesses old Watchtower printing plants for $373 million in 2013, which he has since turned into a hip office complex, and in August he snapped up the religious groups old Columbia Heights headquarters for $345 million.

Jed and David Walentas of Two Trees Management basically invented Dumbo in its current form as a hub of high-end housing and high-tech offices, and Havens says Kushner is now following their footsteps as he expands the neighborhood.

The reason Dumbo worked is because you could live and work there, he said.

Kushner is married to future First Daughter Ivanka Trump and is one of the Donalds closest advisors, serving on the reality-television-star-turned-leader-of-the-free-worlds transition team and gunning for a formal role in his administration.

And one local leader says she just hopes Dumbos new real-estate overlord uses his political clout to help spruce up the area  particularly by convincing the citys Department of Transportation to restore its historic cobblestone streets.

It would be great if he could put pressure on DOT to restore these streets, said Doreen Gallo, the president of local civic group the Dumbo Neighborhood Alliance. Hopefully he will see the value of his buildings will go up if the streets are restored.

Reach reporter Lauren Gill at lgill @cngl ocal.com or by calling (718) 2602511. Follow her on Twitter @laurenk_gill
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Everyones Russian to eat at this restaurant!

Popular Sheepshead Bay Russian and Uzbek eatery Nargis Cafe is opening a new location on Fifth Avenue next year. Park Slope is a long way from Southern Brooklyns large Eastern European community, but the owner says his cuisine already pulls fans from all over the tri-state area.

We have customers coming to us from all over Manhattan, Park Slope, Williamsburg, New Jersey, and Connecticut, said owner and head chef Boris Big B Bangiyev. We started with a Russian clientele, but now we have so many customers that we could go anywhere.

Bangiyev expects to open his new venture Nargis Bar and Grill sometime in March at 155 Fifth Ave. between St. Johns and Lincoln Place, filling in the spot left vacant after sushi joint Nana called it quits in October.

Nargis serves some Russian dishes, but focuses mostly on Uzbek food, which has more in common the cuisines from other nearby Central Asian nations, Bangiyev said.

Its very unique  its more like the Turkish side, but much tastier, said the chef, who was born in the Uzbekistan capital of Tashkent when it was under the iron curtain, before immigrating to the United States in 1992 when he was 14.

His menu will include shish kebabs, a hearty soup called lagmon made with noodles, beef, lamb, and vegetables, and samsa  a pastry filled with lamb, beef, and onions.

The Sheepshead Bay Nargis isnt just famous for its food  it was featured in an episode of FX series The Americans, where, spoiler alert, an undercover Russian spy played by Brooklyn Heights resident Matthew Rhys killed two Afghani terrorists and a dishwasher, before donning a cowboy hat and fleeing.
Tillis has been working directly with VA Secretary McDonald on the MyVA initiative to transform the VA.

Senator Tillis introduced bipartisan legislation to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.

President Obama endorsed two veterans bills introduced by Senator Tillis.

The Career-Ready Student Veterans Act requires that programs of education designed to prepare students for licensure or certification by a state, or for employment subject to the approval of a state board or agency, must meet any state curriculum requirements or be approved or licensed by the appropriate state entity in order for the course to be approved for VA educational benefits. The language of the bill was included in a broader veterans legislation that passed both chambers in Congress and was recently signed into law by President Obama.

requires that programs of education designed to prepare students for licensure or certification by a state, or for employment subject to the approval of a state board or agency, must meet any state curriculum requirements or be approved or licensed by the appropriate state entity in order for the course to be approved for VA educational benefits. The language of the bill was included in a broader veterans legislation that passed both chambers in Congress and was recently signed into law by President Obama. The Veterans Education Relief and Restoration Act would provide veterans impacted by closures of education institutions certain relief and restoration of education benefits. The legislation restores entitlement for individuals who pursued a program of education with VA educational assistance and failed to receive credit as a result of the closure of their educational institution.

Senator Tillis has worked across the aisle to help wounded warriors find employment.

Senator Tillis has joined Senator Burr's fight for justice for the victims of toxic water contamination at Camp Lejeune.

Contact: Daniel Keylin

Daniel Keylin daniel_keylin@tillis.senate.gov

WASHINGTON, D.C. During his first two years as a member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) has worked across the aisle to advance proposals to reform the VA and expand education and job opportunities for veterans, with several of his bipartisan proposals being signed into law.- VA Secretary Robert McDonald, January 21, 2016Early last year, VA Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson praised Tillis' proposals to reform the VA asChairman Isakson tasked Tillis with working with VA Secretary Robert McDonald on implementing the MyVA Breakthrough Priorities. Tillis and Secretary McDonald have formed a close working relationship, meeting regularly to track the progress of the goal of turning the VA into a more efficient, customer-service and results-driven organization that consistently delivers exceptional health care services to veterans.- Senators Tillis & KlobucharEarlier this year, Senator Tillis and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced The Helping Veterans Exposed to Burn Pits Act, which would create a center of excellence within the VA in the prevention, diagnosis, mitigation, treatment, and rehabilitation of health conditions relating to exposure to burn pits.The legislation has helped raise public awareness of the health threats veterans faced in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has been endorsed by numerous groups, including the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Sergeant Sullivan Center, American Lung Association, American Thoracic Society, and the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis.- Obama White HouseOn Veterans Day 2015, the White House announced President Obama's endorsement of The Career-Ready Student Veterans Act and The Veterans Education Relief and Restoration Act, bipartisan legislation introduced by Senator Tillis and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).Senator Tillis and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced The Wounded Warrior Employment Improvement Act, which requires the VA Secretary to develop and publish an action plan for improving the training and rehabilitation provided by the VA for veterans with service-connected disabilities. The legislation was included as a provision in the FY2016 omnibus that was signed into law by President Obama last year.- Master Sergeant Jerry EnsmingerFor years, bureaucratic red tape and internal resistance at the VA had delayed a final decision on granting Camp Lejeune veterans disability status.In September 2015, both Senator Burr and Senator Tillis pressed the VA at a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing for answers on behalf of Camp Lejeune veterans who were exposed to contaminated water.Months later, the VA finally granted disability status to the victims of Camp Lejeune's poisoned water who were diagnosed with one of nine illnesses. Senators Burr and Tillis then successfully pressed the Office of Management and Budget to quickly grant the disability benefits to veterans.Tillis also joined Senator Burr and Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) to introduce The Janey Ensminger Act of 2016, which requires the VA to provide medical care for all diseases that can be scientifically linked to exposure to toxic chemicals at Camp Lejeune, putting the ultimate determination in the hands of federal government scientists, rather than VA and OMB bureaucrats.
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

Buddy TV

In November, there are hundreds of new and returning TV showsit can be overwhelming to try and choose what to watch. That's why we've selected some of the best options...
Bank employee admits role in scheme that targeted South Jersey cash

Feds say call-center workers took customers' ID and account information, then used that to take their cash.
Even as ousted Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry sent his resignation to all listed Tata Group companies on Monday, the board of Indian Hotels Company decided to go ahead with its scheduled extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Tuesday, whose only agenda was to remove Mistry.
Cyrus Mistry (left), who was sacked as Tata Group chairman in October, with group promoter Ratan Tata in happier times. It has gradually become evident that the bone of contention is not the group per se, rather the control that Tata Trust
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Pub Station shows

The Pub Station is hosting two holiday-themed shows.

The first is Friday, Dec. 23, featuring Engage The Unseen, with Dead Presleys and Dramady. Tickets to the all-ages, 8 p.m. show are $5.

Then, on Dec. 24, the Pub is presenting a Christmas Eve Sing-Along with cider starting at 4:30 p.m. This is a free, family show.

For the Dec. 23 show, the bands will each dress in a holiday theme and performing a special holiday song in addition to their normal set. Attendees are encouraged, but not required to dress up and get festive. Prizes will be awarded for best dressed.

Engage The Unseen started in the winter of 2012 in Billings. The band has worked hard on perfecting their songs and performance skills. Engage The Unseen began working with Matt Ryan, formally of the Billings band The Farthest Edge, on their first 7-song EP Just Shut Up and Listen."

Dead Presleys goal is to come out swinging.

We dont want to be a band that takes a lot of time to find our sound. We want to come out of the gate feeling like were firing on all cylinders.

Before they played together, Kerry Sherman, Colton Gabel (drums), Cole Costello (guitar) and Zachary Reiter (bass), spent months discussing what they wanted to be as a band. They came up with tight, fun, groove-oriented and it HAS to feel like rock n roll to us.

Dramady is a two-piece rock outfit from Portland, Oregon. The music is highly rhythmic, danceable pop with groove-laden dub bass and melodic horns. Zac Stanley plays drums, keyboard and sings all at once.
In his petition to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry asked the tribunal to restrain Ratan Tata from attending Tata Sons board meetings or interfering in the affairs of Tata Sons.
South Korean investigators on Wednesday raided the state-run National Pension Service in a widening probe into a corruption scandal that has engulfed President Park Geun-Hye and large including Samsung.

A special prosecutor has been investigating whether Samsung bribed Park's confidant Choi Soon-Sil to win state approval for a controversial merger of two of its units.

Investigators also said they had sought an arrest warrant for Choi's daughter Jeong Yu-Ra, who is now at large in Europe. Jeong is accused of bribing her way into a college in Seoul.

The merger of Samsung units Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T last year was seen as a crucial step to ensure a smooth father-to-son power transfer to Lee Jae-Yong, scion of Samsung's founding family.

It was criticised by many who said it wilfully undervalued Samsung C&T stock, but the National Pension Service (NPS)-- a major Samsung shareholder-- voted in favour of the deal, which eventually went through.

Investigators searched some 10 places including offices of the NPS and the health ministry that oversees the fund, Yonhap agency said.

The NPS oversees 543 trillion won ($461 billion) in funds, making it the world's third largest public pension fund.

NPS offices were raided last month by different prosecutors, who also searched Samsung Group offices.

The special prosecutor has taken the case over from state prosecutors.

Choi has been formally indicted on charges of abuse of power and coercion.

She is accused of leveraging her personal relationship with Park to coerce donations from big firms like Samsung to two non-profit foundations which was then used for Choi's personal gain.

Prosecutors say Park colluded with Choi to extract money from the firms and will question the president as a subject in a criminal investigation.
Monday, October 24, is a day former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry is unlikely to forget. The minutes of that days board meeting, which were included in Cyrus Mistrys petition submitted to the National Company Law Tribunal, throw light on Mistrys ouster.
The shareholders of Tata Steel on Wednesday voted on the proposal to oust Nusli Wadia, an independent director on its board, following a request from Tata Sons, the companys principal shareholder.
India's move to charge sheet Masood Azhar in the Pathankot terror attack appears to have not made much impact on China as Beijing today said any move by New Delhi to bring about a UN ban on the JeM chief must be in line with rules and procedures laid down by the Security Council.

"On the question of listing in the 1267 Committee, I have expressed the Chinese position many times," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told PTI in response to a question on NIA listing Azhar, the head of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad, as terrorist in the charge sheet on the attack on an air force base in Pathankot in January this year.

"Listing in the 1267 Committee must be in line with the relevant resolutions of the UNSC and the rules of procedure of the Committee," Hua said in a written reply here.

NIA on Monday filed a charge sheet against Azhar, his brother and two others for hatching the conspiracy of the attack that killed seven personnel and injured 37 others.

Hua's reply came as China's second technical hold in the UN blocking India's move to list Azhar as a terrorist under the 1267 committee rules of the UNSC is set to expire towards the end of this month.

On March 31, China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, had blocked India's move to impose a ban on Azhar under the Sanctions Committee of the Council.

China was the only member in the 15-nation UN body to put a hold on India's application with all other 14 members of the Council supporting New Delhi's bid to place Azhar on the 1267 sanctions list that would subject him to an assets freeze and travel ban.

Officials here say that India may have to apply again to the 1267 committee with the charge sheet details to press for its case as its present application will lapse following Beijing's two technical holds.

The two countries have been holding talks on China's blocking Azhar's case as well as India's application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

The talks appears to have not made much headway as China on December 12 said there is no change in both the cases.

"As for India's application for Nuclear Suppliers Group and listing issue pursuant to resolution of 1267 (to list Azhar as terrorist) China's position remains unchanged," another Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang had said.

His assertion that China's stand remained unchanged in both NSG and Azhar's cases was made while answering a question on Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar's remarks last week at India-China think tank forum in New Delhi thatChina should not give a political colour to New Delhi's efforts to access civilian nuclear technology, in reference to Beijing's opposition to its NSG bid.

Jaishankar had also expressed dismay over the two countries not being able to come together on the issue at critical international forums, a reference to China blocking the ban in the UN on Azhar.
The is set to write to the Income Tax authorities asking it to look into the finances of over 200 political parties it has 'delisted' over a period of time for not contesting elections.

The Commission has, over a period of time, identified various parties which have not contested polls since 2005 and has 'delisted' over 200 of them.

The poll panel believes that most of them exist on papers to help people convert their black money into white by accepting donations.

In the next few days, the Commission will send the list of the delisted parties to the income tax authorities seeking action against relevant laws if they are found to be involved in money laundering.

While the poll watchdog has the mandate to register a political party, it lacks power under electoral laws to de-register any party.

As its demand to get power to deregister a party is pending with the Law Ministry, the Commission used its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution to delist parties for being dormant and not contesting elections for a long time.

There are over 1,780 parties registered. Besides, there are seven parties-- Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Trinamool Congress, Communist Party of India (CPI), CPI-M and Nationalist Congress Party-- and 58 state parties.

Seeking to stem the flow of black money in elections, the Commission has proposed a slew of electoral reforms but most are pending with the government.
The prices of essential commodities such as petrol, diesel and LPG have shot up in because of the month-long economic blockade arising out of the state governments decision to create seven districts and the resultant ethnic conflict.
Two persons, including a fireman, were injured in a major that broke out in the hutments of Sankli street at Madanpura area in South Mumbai, a senior brigade official said on Monday.

"Our control received a call at around 10:20 p.m. on Tuesday and 14 tenders were rushed to the spot," fire brigade chief of Mumbai civic body P S Rahangdale said.

The blaze got escalated due to blast in LPG cylinders, he said adding that the fire has been brought under control.

"The fire affected 50 to 60 structures on the ground-floor, and three floors above it in the area having various footwear and bag manufacturing units, scrap godowns, shops and residential structures. A few temporary structures also collapsed due to the blaze," Rahangdale said.

"The fire engulfed the electric wiring, some installations, household articles, LPG cylinders and other valuables. During the incident, three gas cylinders exploded. Besides, leakage was found in two LPG cylinders which were later handed over to a gas agency," he said.

According to Rahangdale, "nuisance by public" and "vehicles parked on both sides of the road" posed difficulties for fire bridge personnel to reach the spot.

In the mishap, fireman Ashok Bane sustained head injury while a local resident got suffocated due to the smoke. Both have been admitted to Nair hospital, officials said.

Earlier, a fire had broken out yesterday in the iconic Air India building at Nariman Point in South Mumbai, but there was no casualty or major damage as the blaze-hit floor on the premises was empty at that time.
Post of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the Income Tax (I-T) department seized about Rs 30 crore in cash, including Rs 12.32 crore in new bills, from Maharashtra, excluding Mumbai.

The cash was seized during 57 surveys and search operation carried out since the decommissioning of the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, I-T department said in a release here.

"After November 8, the Investigation Directorate under Director General of I-T (Investigations), Pune, conducted 57 surveys and search actions, wherein cash of about Rs 30 crore has been seized, including Rs 12.32 crore of new currency notes.

"Further cash of Rs 6.32 crore, in which Rs 24 lakh was in new currency notes, has been seized in police interceptions across Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai)," said the release.

Wherever criminal offence had been involved, information is being shared with Enforcement Directorate (ED) and CBI for further necessary action, the department said.

The department requested people to help the government in its drive against black money and provide information relating to undisclosed income, cash movement.

Of the Rs 30 crore seizure by taxmen, Rs 10.80 crore was seized from multiple lockers of a private firm maintained at a Bank of Maharashtra branch in Pune.

The CBI had on Monday registered a case against the officials of the firm, including Director and CFO, and unknown bank officials and private persons after the case was referred to them by taxmen.
Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi, who was superseded along with another senior officer in the selection of the new Army chief on Wednesday met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar amid speculation that he may seek premature retirement or will be given a new role by the government.

Defence Ministry officials termed the meeting as a "courtesy call".

They said the meeting was sought by Lt Gen Bakshi, contrary to initial claims by army sources that Parrikar had sought the meeting.

Lt Gen Bakshi also met with Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag after meeting Parrikar.

Dalbir Singh is set to visit the Eastern Command in Kolkata shortly as part of his farewell tour. The army chief will hang his boots on December 31.

A section of military experts feels that Lt Gen Bakshi may seek premature retirement. However, the process may take a month or two, sources said, adding that during this period he may go on leave.

Lt Gen Bakshi was initially the front runner for the post of the army chief. However, keeping aside the trend of seniority being the lone criteria, the government appointed Vice Chief of Army Lt Gen Bipin Rawat, a batch junior to Lt Gen Bakshi, as the new chief.

Lt Gen Rawat, an infantry soldier, was found best suited among three officers to deal with challenges like cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and the situation with Pakistan, both areas which the government felt will be under focus for the next 2-3 years.

Another section of military experts claimed that Lt Bakshi may become the new Chief of Defence Staff, a post that has been hanging fire for the last many years.

While the creation of such a post is under "active consideration" of the government, it is unlikely that it will happen soon, they claimed.

The Centre had on December 17 appointed Lt Gen Rawat as the new army chief superseding his two senior officers  Lt Gen Bakshi and Southern Command Chief Lt Gen P M Hariz.
A land exchange between the Custer Gallatin National Forest and Red Lodge Mountain valued at about $2.4 million has been approved.

On Wednesday, Forest Service supervisor Mary Erickson's Finding Of No Significant Impact was publicized, coming on the heels of an environmental assessment. The deal had been discussed since 2007 with the details of the exchange formalized in 2012. The agreement is expected to be finalized next year. A 45 day comment period is required.

"It will mean that we own our base area," said Jeff Schmidt, manager of Red Lodge Mountain ski area. "It's a great deal for us consolidating our lands."

Moving forward, ownership of the base area will make it easier for the ski hill to get bank financing for improvements. Other Montana ski areas on forest lands own their base areas, including Bridger Bowl and Whitefish Mountain, Schmidt said.

That doesn't, however, mean the ski area will immediately proceed with construction of a new base lodge or other facilities, Schmidt added. Instead, any new funding is likely to go to more snow-making equipment.

The Forest Service and Red Lodge Mountain have been working toward this land exchange for five years, which benefits public recreation opportunities and meets the ski areas long-term needs as well," said District Ranger Ken Coffin in a press release. "The Forest Service is committed to supporting the greater Red Lodge area rural economy.

Under the terms of the land exchange, two parcels of Custer Gallatin National Forest lands totaling 250 acres at the base and mid-mountain areas will be exchanged for 382 acres of Red Lodge Mountain lands that are in three chunks  the Cole Creek, mid-Mountain and Barriers Run parcels. The parcels fall within the boundary of Red Lodge Mountain Resorts 40-year special-use ski area permit, which is overseen by the Forest Service.

Because of a difference in the land values, Red Lodge Mountain will also pay the Forest Service $14,000.

In addition to the land exchange, Red Lodge Mountain would grant the forest easements for four nonmotorized trails across its property: the historic Old Ranger Trail that provides a 12-mile connector from Red Lodge to the Red Lodge Creek area; the proposed Red Lodge Mountain Uphill Trail to the top of Grizzly Peak; the Nichols Creek Trail; and the Willow Creek Trail.

Two Forest Service road easements are also preserved under the agreement.

The only part of the initial deal that won't be finalized next year is the conveyance of trail easements across private and state land for the Ranger Trail. Those easements are expected to be completed by 2018.

Communication site users and transmission line permittees on NFS lands being exchanged will be converted to new private arrangements with AG/JMA Red Lodge Realty Holdings, LLC. Certain wetlands and riparian habitat along Willow Creek and a perennial spring would be conveyed with protective restrictions.

This is the third move by Red Lodge Mountains owners  Red Lodge Grizzly Peak, Inc. and AG/JMA Red Lodge Realty Holdings, L.L.C.  since buying the ski area in 2007. Three years ago a final easement was signed and recorded that gave AG/JMA and the Forest Service reciprocal access to the road that goes to the top of Grizzly Peak. In 2010 JMA sold off a 280-acre parcel at the base of its Palisades Lift to an adjacent landowner, Palisades Livestock LLC.

Sale of the parcel helped fund improvements to the ski area. The deal also included a 20-year lease to use the portion of the property that includes part of the Palisades ski run and chairlift and an option for two 10-year lease extensions after that.

The Environmental Assessment Draft Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact for the Red Lodge Mountain Land Exchange Project can be found online.

Additional information is available at the Beartooth Ranger District, 6811 U.S. Highway 212, Red Lodge, MT 59068; by phone at 446-2103 or the Custer Gallatin National Forest Supervisors' Office, 10 East Babcock, Bozeman, MT 59715; by phone at 406-587-9701.
I wouldnt be around to write this story if the Bahri clan I hail fromHindus from Punjab, Pakistanhad not stopped practising female infanticide in the early 1900s, with my grandparents generation. But a century on, the practice appears to have hit an all-time high.

Latest figures show that at 914, Indias child sex ratioa better marker of son preference than the overall sex ratiois at its lowest since 1951.

Source: Declining Child Sex Ratio in India: Trends, Issues and Concerns

This is despite the fact that female literacy in India has soared to 65.46% as per Census 2011 and should have resulted in greater gender parity in the child sex ratio.

This implies that female literacy alone is not enough to improve the sex ratio as is commonly assumed and suggested by Prime Minister Narendra Modis Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (save daughter, educate daughter) campaign.

As Part 1 of the series pointed out, the educated are more likely to afford sex-selective abortions.

The bias against daughters can only end if womens education is accompanied by social and economic empowerment, concluded a study conducted over a period of 30 years in Gove, Maharashtra, by Carol Vlassoff, a professor at the University of Ottawa.

Education is not changing gender norms

Not only is it impossible to achieve gender equality without education, expanding education opportunities for all can help stimulate productivity and reduce the economic vulnerability of poor households, the United Nations (UN) said, about the role of education in achieving gender equality, in its 2013 report, Making Education a Priority in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

But statistics in India do not bear out the UNs assumptions. Young graduate mothers gave birth to 899 girls per 1,000 boys, lower than the average of 943, IndiaSpend reported in May 2016.

In Haryana, the female literacy rate has risen 25 percentage points over 20 years, to touch 65% in 2011, and it is still known for its low sex ratio, IndiaSpend reported in November 2015.

Education of women is clearly not enough to change preference for sons, a pervasive deep-seated social expectation, said Priya Nanda, group director, Social and Economic Development, International Center for Research on Women, Asia Regional Office. While education does give women abilities, changing gender norms requires other complementary efforts.

The right to choose is as important as a degree

Netra Jangam, 24, from Gove village in Satara district, in western Maharashtra, holds a postgraduate degree in commerce. Her mother had studied only upto seventh grade.

Jangam did more than arm herself with a degree: She made the most of the freedom to travelsomething her parents agreed toand make independent decisions. I pursued my higher studies in nearby Satara, living with relatives, visiting my parents at the weekends. Living away from home taught me to manage myself and broadened my thinking. My mother hardly ever travelled out of the village before marriage, she said.

Her mother earned some money from taking on small tailoring jobs and this had helped her realise the value of financial independence. So she supported my decisions. I made it clear to my husband that I would always work after marriage. I always want to be financially independent, said Jangam.

Given the high cost of living, she wants only one childit doesnt matter if it is a girl or a boyand is confident her husband will support her decision. I am not having a child to depend on in my old age; we will invest for our future.

Gender perceptions linked to empowerment

Education, travel, the freedom to grow and make decisions, and the opportunity to use education just like men are the key ingredients for changing gender perceptions, not education or economic development alone or jointly, Vlassoff and others concluded in their 2014 Asian Population Journal study, Economic Development, Womens Social and Economic Empowerment and Reproductive Health in Rural India.

Social empowermentan outcome of education, mobility (travel related) and the freedom to make decisionsand economic empowermentsymbolised by a womans employment statushave a greater impact on a womans reproductive healthincluding the number of daughters she is prepared to have in the hope of having a sonthan economic developmentquantified by family asset ownership, said Vlassoff.

In her 30-year-study, Vlassoff saw great changes in Goves social empowerment indicators: 58% of women had eight or more years of schooling in 2008, compared to only 8% of the 1975 respondents; 65% of respondents travelled to the district capital at least once a month in 2008, compared to only 25% in 1975.

The impact of all this: 86% women were willing to stop trying for a son after three daughters in 2008 versus only 24% in 1975.

The more socially empowered respondents were, the more likely they were willing to stop at fewer children, said Vlassoff. To trigger social change, she added, it is important for more women to take up formal employment to gain confidence and independence, start thinking for themselves and standing up for their beliefs.

Sons are still the ideal

Ham do, hamare do (We two, our two)Indias iconic family planning slogan in Hindi dates back to the early 1970sencourages couples to limit themselves to two children.

But Vlassoff, who has authored Gender Equality and Inequality in Rural India, Blessed with a Son, found that womens perception of an ideal family remained largely unchangedand it differed from the governments suggested family size of four.

In 1975, women desired two sons and one daughter, as against one or two sons in 2008, said Vlassoff. Although most women also said they wanted one daughter in 2008, they tended to consider this as an added bonus.

Source: Gender Equality and Inequality in Rural India, Blessed with a Son

To produce one son, women were willing to have upto three daughtersone wanted, two unwanted.

Women with more children than intended had about as many boys as they had desired, but one or two more girlsclearly the number of daughters, rather than sons, led women to exceed their desired family size, said Vlassoff.

Once women had given birth to as many sons as they desired, they were more likely to get steriliseda common family planning method in rural India.

Why women still risk their lives for a son

Seema Alika, 35, a resident of district Sirohi, southwest Rajasthan, got sterilised after having a son and two daughters.

I was happy with one son, and three children are enough, she said.

Three years ago, Seema lost her son, aged 15, when her daughters were 12 and 9. Her loss has prompted other women in her neighbourhoodwith one sonnot to get sterilised for fear of not being able to bear a son again if tragedy were to strike.

After spending a year mourning the loss, Seema reversed her tubal ligation, hoping to conceive a son again.

She doesnt expect a son would support her when she is old because sons arent always helpful, my husband hardly helps his family.

But it would be good for my daughters to have a brother, and for us to have a son to take forward the family name, she said.

Women want a sonor twofor a variety of economic, religious and social reasons. Out of desperation, some consume sex-selection drugsconcoctions made of herbs such as shivalingi (bryonia laciniosa) and majuphal (gtuercus infectoria), rich sources of the sex hormones testosterone, progesterone and natural steroidsbelieving that these will increase their chances of having a boy.

In Haryanaknown for its low overall sex ratio, at 879 in 2011, the third-worst in India and lower than poorer countries such as Malawi and Somalia, IndiaSpend reported in November 2015sex-selection drugs made by fly-by-night operators are freely available in grocers shops, said Sutapa Bandyopadhyay Neogi, additional professor and maternal and child health specialist with the Indian Institute of Public Health-Delhi, Public Health Foundation of India.

Even faith healers make the medicine available, said Sapna Chopra, research consultant with the Indian Institute of Public Health-Delhi, who did some investigative work with Neogi. Are you in your first trimester, they ask, and if you say yes, then they assure you of a son.

Close to half of all pregnant women in Haryana admitted to having consumed sex-selection drugs either during their current pregnancy or an earlier one, in a 2007 community-based study Neogi co-authored. Interestingly, all of these women had no sons, she said.

One in five women taking sex-selection drugs will have a still birth, a 2015 government of Haryana-sponsored study by Neogi and others estimated. And the numbers will be significant because India recorded 592,000 still births last year, the most in the world, IndiaSpend reported in February 2016.

If not cause a still birth, sex-selection drugs increase the odds of birth defects and developmental disorders in babies by three to four times, said Neogi.

Sex-selective abortions are still rampant

If all else fails, families that are affluent and educated go for selective abortion of female foetuses. Doctors are complicit in helping couples abort female foetuses, said Surinder Saini, founder of the Jalandhar Welfare Society, an NGO that runs a 247 child helpline. Sainis NGO has helped book practitioners under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994.

Since he started campaigning for gender equality in 1981, Saini, a lecturer and father to two daughtersone a doctor and the other, a professorhas rescued about 100 baby girls put in polythene bags and thrown on rubbish piles, who attracted the attention of passers-by when they cried out in pain, bitten by ants or out of discomfort.

Throwing away foetuses shows the extreme pressure on women from their in-laws to bear a son, said Saini.

The pressure to have a son grows with the second-born. Whereas the sex ratio at birth of the first born was 843 as per the Family Health Survey (NFHS) III, this dropped to 762 for the second born, to cite a 2011 paper, Declining Child Sex Ratio in India: Trends, Issues and Concerns.

Source: Declining Child Sex Ratio in India: Trends, Issues and Concerns

The sex ratio of the second-born is closely related to the gender of the first-born, especially as middle to upper income families want only two or maximum three children nowadays, explained co-author of the paper Tenepalli Chandrasekarayya of the Department of Population Studies and Social Work, SV University, Tirupati.

If the first-born was male, the ratio of the second-born rose from 871 to 1,102, according to a 2006 Lancet study, showing how the pressure on women eases when they give birth to a son.

Source: Lancet study: Low male-to-female sex ratio of children born in India: survey of 11 million households

If the first-born was female, however, the ratio dropped to 759.

Is punitive action the answer?

Logging one of Indias lowest child sex ratios in 2011 prompted the government of Haryana to launch an inquiry into the causes of deaths of infants. This brought up the misuse of sex-selection drugs and a prevailing nexus between customers and providers of sex-selection and abortion services.

The task of improving the states dismal child sex ratiothat stood at 879 in 2011was enormous.

Enabling women to give birth to sons was a big illegal industry in Haryana, estimated at about Rs 200 crore annually, said Rakesh Gupta, additional principal secretary to the Chief Minister of Haryana.

The Chief Minister created a special cell in his office to monitor concerted efforts involving personnel from the health department, the food and drug administration, the police and district administration. More effective implementation of the PCPNDT Act and Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act has resulted in 376 First Information Reports (FIRs) being filed since May 2015, according to Gupta.

Of 176 FIRs filed under the PCPNDT provisions, 69 are from neighbouring Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan. Another 39 cases have been booked for the distribution of sex-selection drugs.

In December 2015, Haryanas sex ratio at birth crossed 900, a first in recorded history. Since then, Haryana has averaged a ratio of 898. A rising trend in recent months makes Gupta hopeful of ending 2016 with an average annual sex ratio above 900.

Series concluded. You can read the first part here.

(Bahri is a freelance writer and editor based in Mount Abu, Rajasthan.)
Facing intense criticism, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday withdrew rules that required bank customers to make deposits of above Rs 5,000 in old currency notes at one go and only after satisfying officials with reasons for not doing so earlier.
Five months after the government added coronary stents to the list of essential medicines, the Department of has included stents in the Drug Price Control Order 2013 or DPCO 2013. This finally gives the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) the authority to formally fix the prices of stents.
An employee of a nationalised bank in Tripura was suspended for illegally depositing over Rs 25.44 lakh in his personal account, a top bank official said here on Tuesday.

"The Head Cashier of the Melaghar branch of the UCO Bank Dilip Debbarma was suspended on Monday by the bank's head office in Kolkata for depositing Rs 2,544,500 in his personal account after the of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes," Zonal Manager of UCO Bank Sunil Kumar Das said.

He said that the vigilance wing of the bank is probing the matter.

"During the ongoing investigation, the accused official could not give satisfactory reply about the source of money," Das added.

Debbarma is the first bank official to be suspended in Tripura since the demonitisation of high-value notes on November 8.
Rahul Gandhi today alleged that Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and demanded an independent inquiry into it, a charge BJP rejected as an attempt to divert attention from the AgustaWestland probe in which the names of Congress leaders and the "family" were coming up.
After much furor, the Reserve Bank of India has withdrawn its previous directive that said anyone depositing more than Rs 5,000 in old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in their bank accounts will need to justify it to two bank officers.
The Narendra Modi governments bold gamble to net in black money through of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes requires a robust tax administration. How much of the old notes will remain unreturned is still up in the air; the windfall for the government might mostly come from the tax on the unexplainable deposits.
National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS)

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) during his recent visit to Kanpur. The scheme has an outlay of Rs 10000 crore and it involves incentivizing employers in sharing 25% of total cost of stipend paid to the apprentices.

It is for the first time Govt. of India has come forward to incentivize the employers to participate pro-actively in apprenticeship training. On this occasion, cheques were distributed by Shri Narendra Modi for 25% share to five establishments like HAL Bangalore, BHEL Delhi, GSRTC, Gujarat, APSRTC, Andhra Pradesh and Tata Motors, Lucknow.

As a sequel to this recognition, it is expected that more and more establishments from MSMEs, Private SPSUs, CPSUs and Govt sector will come forward to engage apprentices and support Prime Ministers vision of Skill India.

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Security forces in Congo killed at least 26 demonstrators on Tuesday and arrested scores more amid protests against President Joseph Kabila's hold on power, a rights group said. The deaths were the first reported since Kabila's mandate that ended at midnight on Tuesday.

Military and police forces were firing live bullets, raising fears that more people have been killed, Human Rights Watch said. Its researcher Ida Sawyer said on Twitter that the killings took place in the capital, Kinshasa, the southern city of Lubumbashi and elsewhere. Residents told the group that Republican Guards were carrying out door-to-door searches and arresting youths.

Protesters burned the headquarters of the ruling party in Kinshasa.

Kabila, who took office in 2001 after his father's assassination, is constitutionally barred from seeking another term, but a court has ruled that he can remain in power until new elections, which have been delayed indefinitely. They were meant to be in November, but the ruling party says it needs more time until 2018, at least.

The leader of Congo's largest opposition party, Etienne Tshisekedi, urged peaceful resistance to what he called Kabila's "coup d'etat." In a statement posted on YouTube on Tuesday, he called the president's actions "treason" and appealed to the Congolese people and the community to no longer recognise Kabila's authority.

Political talks between the ruling party and opposition, which stalled over the weekend, were expected to resume on Wednesday with mediators from the Catholic church.

The political impasse has fueled fears of widespread unrest in the vast Central African nation that has trillions of dollars' worth of natural resources but remains one of the world's poorest and most unstable countries.

After Kabila's mandate ended, people blew whistles and rattled pans as part of a protest meant to symbolise the "end of the match."

The political negotiations that stalled over the weekend failed to reach an agreement on a date for new elections or the release of political prisoners.

Both are key demands of the opposition parties, along with the dropping of criminal charges against opposition leader Moise Katumbi, who fled the country as authorities announced plans to try him.

Katumbi's supporters say the charges of hiring mercenaries are politically motivated, as he had been a leading presidential candidate.
President Barack Obamas clemencies and pardons issued Monday for federal inmates include four people convicted of drug crimes in U.S. District Court in Billings.

Obama shortened the sentences of Gary Lee Gordon of Laurel; Gregory R. Boyd of Oakley, Calif.; and Larry Darvell Henricks of Billings; and pardoned Tavia Dion Blume of Snohomish, Wash.

The 231 people granted pardons or clemency Monday were the most individual clemencies ever granted in a single day by any president, the Associated Press reported.

In a round of presidential clemencies last month, Obama shortened the life sentences being served by two drug dealers, Victor Robert Nava Sr. and Lamar Webster, who were convicted in Billings of drug trafficking crimes in separate cases.

White House counsel Neil Eggleston wrote in a blog post Monday that the people granted clemency had all shown "they are ready to make use  or already made use  of a second chance. And, he said, that while each recipients story was unique the common thread of rehabilitation underlies all of them.

In 2014, Obama sought to bring attention to what his administration describes as over-sentencing in federal prisons by directing the Justice Department to prioritize petitions for communications from nonviolent offenders who were serving longer sentences than they would receive today if convicted of the same crimes.

Obama has used his constitutional clemency power to reduce the sentences of 1,176 people since he has been in office, according to the White House.

Gordon originally was sentenced in January 2008 by retired U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull to 24 years and two months in prison and 10 years supervised release for his guilty plea to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. The sentence was amended to about 18 years.

Obama shortened Gordons sentence to expire on Dec. 19, 2017. Gordon, 56, is incarcerated at a low-security federal prison in Sandstone, Minn.

During an investigation of Gordon, officers found about 6 ounces of meth and more than a pound of marijuana in his home in November 2006. A witness who collected drug proceeds for Gordon told investigators that Gordon was receiving about a half-pound of meth every three days from his supplier.

Boyd, 33, of Oakley, Calif., was sentenced in July 2007 by retired U.S. District Judge Jack Shanstrom to a total of 35 years for possessing about 30 grams of meth with intent to distribute and to being a felon in possession of a firearm. The term included a consecutive five years for possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.

Before clemency, Boyds release date was Feb. 17, 2036, according to information from the federal Bureau of Prisons. His new release date is Dec. 19, 2018. Boyd is incarcerated at a low-security prison in Lompoc, Calif.

A jury convicted Boyd, who was indicted after Billings police officers pulled him over for having an expired temporary sticker and arrested him on outstanding warrants. A search of his car turned up less than 2 ounces of meth packaged for sale, two unloaded .40-caliber semiautomatic handguns and a scale.

Shanstrom determined that Boyd, who had two prior felony drug convictions in California, was a career offender, which increased the sentencing guideline range.

At sentencing, Shanstrom said he had compassion but that it was a tough case and the guidelines were the guidelines. This is a severe sentence, but the crimes youve committed have been severe, he told Boyd.

Henricks, 47, was sentenced in October 1995 to 35 years for convictions on conspiracy and possession counts involving cocaine, marijuana and meth and on firearms crimes. His release date was Aug. 20, 2025.

Obama shortened Henricks sentenced to 30 years, and his new release date is Dec. 19, 2018. Henricks is imprisoned in Sandstone, Minn.

The president also pardoned Blume, 38, who received an amended sentence of six years in May 1999 for a meth possession charge and a firearm conviction. Blume was released from prison in 2001.
Mongolia's foreign minister says will no longer be allowed to visit his country after a visit by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader prompted protests from China and suspension of talks on a major loan.

China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it "attached importance" to the Mongolian diplomat's statement and hoped the country would "honor the commitment" it has made on the issue.

On Tuesday, the Mongolian newspaper Unuudur carried remarks by Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil that would not be allowed to visit Mongolia even on religious grounds.

Beijing accuses of seeking to split Tibet from China.

Mongolia's economy is heavily dependent on China. The countries are discussing a possible $4.2 billion loan by Beijing to deal with a recession.
Deutsche Bank AG is beefing up its Asia-Pacific equity-derivatives unit, as it looks to capitalise on an expected rise in demand for quantitative strategies from local investors. . David Bruchet, formerly of Societe Generale SA, will join the German bank in Hong Kong as an index equity-derivatives trader at the end of January, said James Boyle, head of equities and co-head of global equity derivatives, who joined from Citigroup Inc. in July. Bruchet becomes at least the sixth hire in the region under Boyle, who is putting in place his strategy to turn around Deutsche Banks ...
German police are looking for a Tunisian man after finding an identity document under the driver's seat of the truck, which ploughed into a Christmas market on Monday evening, killing 12 people, Der Spiegel's online edition reported on Wednesday.
Thousands of Venezuelans crossed into Colombia to buy food and medicine after their government partially reopened the border following a messy crackdown on what it called currency hoarders.

The border with Brazil was also partially reopened, officials in Brasilia said.

"Thank God the border is open again," a 29-year-old Christian Sanchez told the AFP.

"A lot of people have come to shop on the other side because we can't find food, diapers for our babies, medicine," he said.

Sanchez was preparing to enter a pedestrian crossing over the Simon Bolivar Bridge linking the cities of San Antonio in and Cucuta, Colombia.

But while foot traffic was permitted, trucks carrying needed goods remained blocked.

also reopened its main border crossing with Brazil after talks between officials at the Brazilian embassy and Venezuela's foreign ministry, officials in Brasilia said in a statement.

The crossing is open for pedestrians, but only within limited hours for vehicles.

Local press reported that some 200 Brazilians, mostly local tourists, were prevented from returning home when closed the border.

President Nicolas Maduro had ordered the borders with Colombia and Brazil closed on December 12 as part of a currency reform that involved removing the 100-bolivar note from circulation.

He alleged that "mafias" abroad were hoarding the banknotes to suffocate the Venezuelan economy.

On Tuesday, he also accused the United States of causing the cash crisis by infiltrating his government.

"Is it not the case that the gringos have bought key people in key positions in order to harm the people?" he said without identifying which institutions he believes to have been affected. "I think so."

Looting and clashes broke out over the weekend as many people were left without cash. At least three people were reported killed and around 300 arrested.

The state of Bolivar was hardest hit by the unrest. A curfew has been in force there since Saturday, and more than 3,000 troops are patrolling the streets.

Maduro eventually reversed course, saying the currency will remain legal tender until January 2 while new, higher denomination bills are printed and circulated.

Late on Monday, he and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spoke by telephone and agreed to reopen the border "progressively," according to Venezuelan information minister Ernesto Villegas.
A juggernaut ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin city centre on the evening of December 19, killing at least 12 people and injuring at least 48. Minister of the interior Thomas de Maiziere said that it was a deliberate attack.
Global private equity firm has acquired a significant minority ownership interest in ASK Group, an investment and wealth management business in India, the two said in a statement.
India is likely to turn a net exporter of this year, on the back of an improvement in international prices, led by cost-push and a slump in retail sales, courtesy demonetisation.
The top 10 stock preferences of Indias equity fund managers have remained the same over the past one year despite volatility. The investment stood at Rs 1 lakh crore in November, compared to around Rs 94,200 crore at the end of last year.
K Raheja Corp, one of the largest owners of office properties, is looking to raise Rs 500 crore through commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) for its infotech park in Hyderabad.
Butte legislator Amanda Curtis is the first Democrat to express interest in running for Montanas lone U.S. House seat should Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke become President-elect Donald Trumps interior secretary.

Curtis told The Gazette on Tuesday that she will seek her partys nomination when county-level central committee members convene to select a candidate.

That meeting wont take place unless Zinke is confirmed by the U.S. Senate sometime after the Jan 20 presidential inauguration.

Once Zinke resigns from the House, Montana will have 85 to 100 days to fill is vacancy through special election.

District Judge Russell Fagg and Bozeman builder Eugene Graf IV expressed their interest in running to be the Montana Republican Party nominee.

Curtis said she's been having conversations with folks who would like to see me do it, and with my family. Its a life-changing situation whether you win or lose.

A Butte educator, Curtis was the Democratic Partys replacement candidate in Montanas 2014 U.S. Senate race. Her campaign launched mid-August after Democratic Sen. John Walsh withdrew after being caught in a plagiarism scandal.

With less than two months before Montanans began voting by absentee ballot, Curtis went from being a relative unknown to capturing 40 percent of the popular vote. For perspective, Democratic candidate Denise Juneau received 41 percent of the vote in her bid to unseat Zinke this year.

Most of the committee people who selected Curtis in a four-candidate nominating convention in 2014 would be making the selection again this year.

A Democrat successful in winning Montanas at-large seat in a special election would enter a Republican controlled House working with a Republican president and Senate. But Curtis said theres opportunity. Democrats and Republicans in Montana dont see the federal government working for them, Curtis said, which is a sentiment she shares.

President-elect Trump has said he would like to save Social Security and Medicare. Curtis would like to work with the Trump administration toward that goal. Curtis begins her second term in the Montana Legislature in January.

A district judge for 22 years and a former Republican Montana legislator, Russell Fagg, said he has eyed a congressional run for years. Now, with his children grown, the time seems right.

I am considering running for the special election Congressional seat, Fagg said. Many factors to consider, including my family, my current position, which I love, and where I can best serve in the future. I've been talking to people I respect and praying about it.

Fagg, who describes himself as a right-of-center conservative, would have to decide whether running for U.S. House was worth resigning as a Yellowstone County District Court. Its a decision Fagg said he would have to make before culling favor with central committee members in advance of a party nominating convention.

Fagg also pens a monthly Ask the Judge column for The Billings Gazette. In fairness to other candidates, he would no longer be allowed to contribute to The Gazette should he choose to run.

Bozeman builder Eugene Graf IV pushes the list of potential Republican candidates to six. Graf is a past president of the Montana Building Association and Southwest Montana Building Industry Association. He is the fifth generation of a Bozeman business family that has over the years developed more than 4,000 parcels in the Gallatin County.

It was as a member of the executive board of the National Association of Homebuilders that Graf worked closest with Congress, raising money for the homebuilders political action committee and meeting the lawmakers about legislation.

Ive been interested in this for a long time and I have been participating at that level with congressmen and senators with the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, said Graf.

This article has been update to correct the percentage of votes Amanda Curtis received in her unsuccessful Senate campaign against Steve Daines in 2014.
(RCOM) was trading 9% higher at Rs 38.05 on the BSE after the company announced the signing of binding agreements with Brookfield Infrastructure in relation to the acquisition of RCOMs nationwide tower assets by affiliates of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP.
Former Pakistan Supreme Court judge Mr.Justice Javed Iqbal, who headed the Abbottabad Commission set up to conduct a probe after Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was found and eliminated in a covert operation by American troopers, has called for the inquiry report to be made public and have its recommendations implemented.

"Unfortunately, a routine has been made to establish commissions after every incident and then put the findings of the report on the shelf, due to which, there is an impression that commissions are made to pass time so that the public would forget the incident. The report of the Abbottabad Commission must [also] be lying on some shelf," the Dawn quoted the former Supreme Court judge, as saying at a Senate meeting chaired by PPP Senator Rehman Malik.

Talking to the media after the meeting, Justice Iqbal said the report focused on identifying the people responsible for the incident. He said that personalities responsible for the incident had been identified in the report and actions had been suggested.

However, if necessary, some of its parts can be left classified, he added.

"As I am under oath, I cannot reveal the names of those persons. Only the government can reveal the names," he said.

After Bin Laden was reportedly killed by the American forces in a surgical strike on a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011, questions surfaced as to whether he was deliberately kept in Abbottabad near a training centre of the armed forces.

The Pakistan government then formed a commission to hold an inquiry into the incident. Other members of the inquiry commission were Abbas Khan, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi and retired Lt. Gen. Nadeem Ahmed.

Though the inquiry was completed three years ago, the report was never made public. One version of the report - spread over almost 700 pages and containing interviews of some 300 people as well as over 100 recommendations - was leaked by an international media group in 2013.

In July 2013, Qazi informed the Senate Committee on Defence (SCD) that the leaked inquiry report was the first draft and not the final version submitted to the prime minister.

The final copy is said to be a watered-down version of the leaked draft that was highly critical of the armed forces, particularly the Inter-Services Intelligence, not only for its failures, but also for stymieing the growth of civilian intelligence organisations.

The final report comes with a 40-page strongly-worded note of dissent by Qazi and Justice Iqbal's observations on the note.

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A Delhi Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing on the bail plea of former air chief S.P. Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi and businessman-cum-lawyer Gautam Khaitan in the AgustaWestland chopper scam case till December 23.

"All evidences asked by ED or CBI have been provided. Details of properties, bank accounts and foreign trips were handed over," said the former air chief's counsel.

The Patiala House court had on December 17 remanded the trio to judicial custody till December 30 as their CBI custody ended.

Earlier, the CBI had moved court seeking a 10-day custody to interrogate Tyagi and the other accused in the case.

Tyagi has been accused of influencing the deal in favour of AgustaWestland during his tenure as the IAF chief.

He has, however, repeatedly denied the allegations.

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Lieutenant General Praveen Bakshi met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar at the South Block here on Wednesday in the wake of ongoing controversy surrounding the appointment of Lieutenant General Bipin Rawat as the new Army Chief.

The meeting between the two came days after Lieutenant General Bakshi, who headed the Eastern Command, was superseded by Lieutenant General Rawat for the top post.

The opposition has questioned the government's decision and demanded an explanation regarding the appointment.

The government has, however, clarified that Lieutenant General Rawat was found best suited to deal with emerging challenges including a reorganized and restructured military force in the north, continuing terrorism and proxy war from the west, and the situation in the North-East.

According to Ministry of Defence (MoD) sources, Lt. Gen Rawat has tremendous hands on experience of serving in combat areas and at various functional levels in the Indian Army over the last three decades. Lieutenant General Rawat is also known for his balanced approach towards soldiering, compassion and connect with the civil society.

He has handled various operational responsibilities in many areas including along the LoC with Pakistan, the LAC with China and in the North-East.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday welcomed the move of the Election Commission (EC) to write to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to delist 200-odd political parties and said electoral reform is mandatory for the nation.

"I always welcome this kind of step. The way political parties spend so much of money in election should be stopped, and for the benefit of the nation, electoral reform is mandatory," BJP leader and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh told ANI.

Singh also said that the Election Commission (EC) should probe the flow of money in these parties and whether they involve corruption.

The Election Commission will write to the CBDT informing it about the decision to delist 200-odd political parties which exist only on paper.

Sources said the Election Commission suspects that most of these political parties could be money-laundering operations.

The commission has the power to register a political party, but there is no guideline to allow it to de-register any party that has been recognised.

The Election Commission has written to several governments in the past, requesting for power to deregister "non-serious" political parties.

However, nothing has been done in this regard yet.

Under existing law, various political parties are expected to file their Income-Tax returns containing details of donors, who have made contributions above Rs. 20,000.

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The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the sale of part of surplus and vacant land at Pimpri in Pune, Maharashtra for meeting the liabilities of Hindustan Anti-biotics Ltd. (HAL).

The proposal entails:

Sale of surplus and vacant land of about 87.70 acres of HAL (actual area of land to be sold would depend upon the rates received in bids, as per guidelines of BIFR) to meet the net liabilities of Rs. 821.17 crore after waiver and deferment, through an open competitive bid from Central /State Government Departments, Govt. Agencies, Central/State PSUs, Autonomous Bodies, Urban Development Authorities etc.

Waivers of Govt. of India loans and interest amounting to Rs. 307.23 crores (principal amount of Rs. 186.96 crore and interest approximately Rs. 120.27 crore thereon calculated as on 30.9.2017) and deferment of various dues amounting to Rs. 128.68 crores.

Sanction of an immediate loan of Rs. 100 crore to meet the wages, salaries and other critical expenses of immediate nature. The loan will be repaid to the Government from sale proceeds of the HAL land.

The approval will help the Government in optimum utilization of the Company's assets and to take further decisions in respect of the Company for:

(i) Rehabilitation;

(ii) Strategic Sale; or

(iii) Closure

On implementation of the scheme/proposal, HAL will be lean with no liabilities and clean balance-sheet, so that the implementation of recommendations of the Ministers' Committee is facilitated.

Sale of HAL land at Pimpri in Pune, Maharashtra will facilitate mitigation of sufferings and critical condition of the employees and if the liabilities are met and the balance sheet is cleaned, the implementation of recommendations of the Ministers' Committee will be facilitated.

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China has urged all political parties in Pakistan to put up a united front for the success of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and attainment of the 'shared goal of development'.

"Political parties in Pakistan have divergent interests. We hope that the political parties can work together to resolve their differences and make CPEC a success," Zheng Xiaosong, Vice Minister of International Department, Central Committee, The Communist Party of China (CPC), said in a lecture at the Pak-China Institute.

According to Dawn, Zheng, met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Peoples Party and invited them for a visit to China.

China has been giving a lot of importance to CPEC, which is the flagship project of President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road initiative, which is why CPEC's success is being viewed as a key to the future of the Belt and Road project that has drawn a lot of international interest.

Critical views of some of the Pakistani political parties on certain issues related to CPEC have, therefore, been a cause of concern for the Chinese leadership.

Zheng explained that it was natural for CPEC, a project with "long timeline" and one that is a "corridor of strenuous endeavours", to face issues from time to time and readily offered the Chinese government's help to Pakistan for dealing with those issues.

"We are ready to work with Pakistan for consensus and strive jointly for the way forward," he said.

The Chinese minister emphasised the need for public support for guaranteeing "safe and stable environment for investment" and developing "sound political and public opinion" for the project.

Dispelling the perception that CPEC was benefiting some of the provinces more, Zheng maintained that it was for "entire Pakistan".

Touching upon the concern about India and some of the other countries conspiring against CPEC, he said project's success would be the best response to its opponents.

Asserting that a "high level of political trust" was the feature of longstanding ties between the two nations, Zheng assured that his country would remain Pakistan's strong ally and would continue extending support to it on the issues of its core interest.

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The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has seized 9.383 kg gold, 10.867 kg silver and Rs. one lakh at Kolkata, Delhi and Ahmedabad airports.

The information in this regard has been conveyed to the concerned enforcement agencies.

The CISF personnel yesterday seized 3.657 gram gold and 1.8 gram silver from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata.

They also seized 5.7 kg gold from Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi.

In addition, Rs. one lakh old currency was seized from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad.

This come as raids are being carried out across the country in the wake of the burgeoning fake currency racket post demonetisation.

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The Congress Party on Wednesday voiced its support for Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who has taken a U-turn on the Centre's demonetisation drive, and expressed hope that his Telangana counterpart K. Chandrashekhar Rao follows suit.

Congress leader V. Hanumantha Rao told ANI, "Chandrababu Naidu himself is the chairman of a cashless committee appointed by the honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has taken a U-turn means he understands the feelings of the people."

Hanumantha Rao further said the Telangana Chief Minister, who is a fan of Prime Minister Modi, should also understand that people are suffering in his state as well.

Naidu, who had earlier backed demonetisation, yesterday took a U-turn and said that the income of the people has decreased and the Centre is unable to provide funds.

Addressing a party function of Telugu Desam Party in Vijayawada, Naidu highlighted the problems faced by the people due to demonetisation.

"Demonetisation is not our will and wish hence our state people are also facing several problems," he said.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister had earlier extended his support to demonetisation and called it "a moral victory for the TDP.

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The new chairman of the Public Defender Commission has a clear goal for the Montana Office of the State Public Defender: selecting a strong leader and setting legislative priorities.

Billings attorney Mark Parker was elected commission chairman by his fellow members Friday. Before the vote, Parker said he would take the position if he was given the freedom to support restructuring the office.

I made it clear I would advocate for a new organizational model allowing for the appointment of a strong, single Chief Public Defender with the statutory powers commensurate with the large responsibilities, Parker said.

Over the next few weeks, Parker intends to craft the future of the OPD. He will take lead on legislative priorities for the office during the session this January. Many of his ideas reflect some of the legislation proposed by the Task Force on State Public Defender Operations, created by the 2015 Legislature.

The task force suggested the head of the public defenders become a cabinet-level appointment. The Public Defender Commission would suggest three candidates for the governor to choose from, according to a draft of the legislation.

Someone in the office needs to have the power to make and execute decisions, Parker said.

Montana Sen. Cynthia Wolken, D-Missoula, sat on the task force on OPD operations. The idea of a cabinet-level appointment seemed like the best way to make sure there was more accountability for the office, Wolken said.

"The public volunteer commissioners are really wonderful people," Wolken said. "But its too much to ask volunteers to meet a few times a year and basically run this type of agency."

The streamlining of the command structure of the office should improve the entire support structure of the office, Wolken said. At the same time, the Public Defender Commission can still advise the agency and lend expertise and background knowledge, Wolken said.

Other proposals by the task force included letting the Department of Public Health and Human Services take over determining who is eligible for an attorney from OPD, something Parker was open to. But another proposal suggesting the idea that the Montana Department of Revenue take over the collection of OPD fees is folly, Parker said. The state will have to spend five dollars for every dollar it gets back.

We arent going to go into jail cells looking for quarters and nickels between mattresses and pillows, Parker said.

The Office of the Public Defender requires a payment of $800 for counsel when a person is accused of at least one felony. People accused of misdemeanors are required to pay a fee of $250. Those fees can be waived upon court order and are suspended while a person is incarcerated.

Collection of these fees should be turned over to private collection companies, Parker said.

The Office of the State Public Defender is a tax-funded service that provides attorneys through programs like public defenders, the appellate defender and the conflict coordinator. The public defender program provides an attorney for people who need one for a criminal defense, a custody case involving abuse or neglect, or for cases involving involuntary commitment.

Every citizen bears some responsibility when someone is put in a cage on societys behalf, Parker said.

The OPD is the citizens guarantee that if the state locks someone up, they are supposed to be there, Parker said.

Parker wants the Legislature to change the way the office handles dependent and neglect cases. The OPD represents mothers, fathers and children in cases where the state believes children may need to be removed from a home.

The goal of the state is to unify families where it can, and the OPD plays a central role in these cases. Neglect cases have risen across the state in the past two years, Parker said. Cases can take more than a year, and funding them takes a considerable amount of the OPD budget. Parker no longer wants to OPD to represent parents who are either not present or not aware of the proceedings.

I dont think we have a role at all in representing people who are not there, Parker said.

It is fiction to believe the OPD can represent the interests of someone theyve never spoken to, Parker said.

There is a need for a workload assessment study of the defender office, though measuring an attorneys workload is difficult, Parker said.

We are, regardless, in the age of metrics, Parker said. The Legislature is entitled to some type of measurement that they are getting their moneys worth.

This idea of a workload study came from a survey the task force sent to people either working for the OPD or with connections to the office, Wolken said. Attorneys are doing a lot of paralegal and clerical work because they lack support staff, Wolken said. The Legislature wants to make sure attorneys have the resources to do their jobs and the support staff they need to help them with more menial tasks.

The OPD should function more like a law firm, Wolken said.

During the 2015 session, the Legislature took the unusual step of approving the OPD's budget as one-time-only. Normally, state agencies build off the prior year's budget. Instead, during the 2017 legislative session, the OPD will have to justify its budget from the ground up.

The current model of the office left some legislators frustrated, legitimately, Parker said. If they are uninformed about our operations, that is our fault, not theirs.

The supplemental funding will need to be approved by both legislators and the Governor's office, Wolken said. Many of the questions about OPD budgetary spending came out of a frustration that OPD was not following through on cost-saving measures from the Legislature, Wolken said. She was heartened to hear about Parker's ideas and support from some of the legislation.

"I have no reason the bills wont succeed," Wolken said. "I think well see some real strong improvements in the office."

While Parker prepares for restructuring and the future of the OPD, he must also make sure the office operates even in the face of a predicted budgetary shortfall. Reducing the number of contract attorneys by hiring modified defender positions was a solution made by the Public Defender Commission prior to the departure of OPD Chief Administrator Scott Cruse and former Public Defender Commission Chair Richard "Fritz" Gillespie. The status of contract attorneys in the new model Parker wants to create is not yet clear, he said.

Parker was Montana State Bar president from September 2014 to September 2015. He organized the bars legislative efforts and supported the creation of a commission to study judicial redistricting and a Senate bill requiring Montana Supreme Court Justices and District Court Judges to file financial reports. He also organized opposition to the Uniform Collaborative Law Act.

Parker is a partner at the Billings law firm of Parker, Heitz & Cosgrove and has handled cases in Federal and State Courts. He was appointed to the Public Defender Commission by the Montana Supreme Court.
The Election Commission will write to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) informing it about the decision to delist 200-odd political parties, which exist only on paper.

Sources said the Election Commission suspects that most of these political parties could be money-laundering operations.

The Commission has the power to register a political party, but there is no guideline to allow it to de-register any party that has been recognised.

The Election Commission has written to several governments in the past, requesting for power to deregister "non-serious" political parties.

However, nothing has been done in this regard yet.

Under existing law, various political parties are expected to file their Income-Tax returns containing details of donors, who have made contributions above Rs. 20,000.

Most political parties, however, declare most of their funds as having come from unnamed donors donating less than Rs. 20,000 each. The political parties by doing so get away without having to name the source of their donations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur are sitting on a hunger strike against the institution's decision to hike the registration fee.

Demanding that the hike in registration fee be withdrawn at the earliest, the students said that they would continue with the protest if their grievances are not addressed.

"The registration fee has gone up suddenly from Rs 29,000 to Rs 37,000.This is illegal. We have asked for an open house meeting and if the director arranges the meeting then we will call off our protest. In the meeting, we will ask him to give a complete stay order on the registration link," said one of the protesting students.

Earlier in April, 2016 the students at IIT, Kharagpur, staged a peaceful protest against the Human Resource and Development (HRD) Ministry's decision to hike the fee structure from Rs 90,000 to Rs two lakh.
In an advisory, the Embassy of United States (US) has warned its citizens in India to remain vigilant and stay away from places frequented by Westerners after media reports that Islamic State may be planning to attack such targets.

"As we head into holiday season, please be reminded that recent Indian media reports indicate ISIL's desire to attack targets in India. The U.S. Embassy warns of an increased threat to places in India frequented by Westerners, such as religious sites, markets, and festival venues," said the U.S. Embassy in a statement.

"All U.S. citizens are reminded to maintain a high-level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness as detailed in the State Department's Worldwide Caution of September 9, 2016,' it added.

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At least 21 students of a government medical college in Manjeri of Kerala's Malappuram district have been suspended following allegations of ragging.

The freshers were made to wash toilets and drink polluted water as part of ragging.

Around 40 students lodged a complaint about the same with the college administration following which action was taken.

The college's internal committee has begun its investigation and will submit its report to the anti-ragging committee today.

The anti-ragging committee, which consists of representatives from the police and media, will after going through the report file a complaint as per the seriousness of the act.

Just two days ago, six college students accused of severely ragging first-year students of a government polytechnic college in Kottayam surrendered before the police.

According to reports, there are a total of seven accused in the case and two are still absconding.

According to the Supreme Court's guidelines, accommodations where freshers are accommodated should be carefully guarded by a warden. Also, the entry of seniors and outsiders shall be prohibited after specified hour of night to prevent such incidents.

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Following the shocking murder of Moscow's ambassador by a gunman in Ankara, Russia and Turkey have put on a strong united front, asserting that the horrific incident would not affect bilateral relations, or cooperation over Syria.

According to the Guardian, the Turkish foreign and defence ministers joined their Russian and Iranian counterparts in Moscow, where the three countries said they had started work on a new plan to resolve the Syrian conflict.

The body of Andrei Karlov was flown back to Russia after a ceremony at Ankara airport attended by senior Turkish officials and presided over by a Russian Orthodox priest.

Meanwhile, the parents, sister, roommate and two other relatives of the gunman, named as off-duty riot police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, were being questioned by Turkish authorities. A team of 18 Russian investigators arrived in the country to work on a joint probe into the killing.

Karlov was shot multiple times by Altintas on Monday evening, during the opening of a photography exhibition at a gallery in the Turkish capital. Altintas was shot by police at the scene.

While some initially feared a setback in tie similar to the aftermath of Turkey shooting down a Russian fighter jet in late 2015, officials from both countries were quick to stress their desire for cooperation in the aftermath of the attack. Instead, both countries emphasised their joint work on Syria and said they were committed to fighting terrorism.

Vladimir Putin called Karlov's murder a "provocation" aimed at undermining improved relations between the two countries and their efforts to resolve the conflict in Syria.

"There can be only one answer to this: stepping up the fight against terrorism, and the bandits will feel this," said the Russian president.

Turkish officials suggested Altintas had ties to the movement led by Fethullah Gulen, a US-based preacher whose group is widely believed in Turkey to have masterminded a coup attempt in July.

However, Gulen issued a statement denying any connection to the attack. "I condemn in the strongest terms this heinous act of terror," he said. "No terrorist act can be justified, regardless of its perpetrators and their stated purposes."

The Turkish interior ministry said Altintas was an officer in Ankara's riot police squad, who was born in 1994 in Aydin and graduated from Izmir police academy. He had worked for the riot police for the past two and a half years. Altintas was stationed in the restive city of Diyarbakir during the coup attempt in July, one official told the Guardian.

Several classmates of the gunman who spoke with investigators said Altintas had Gulenist sympathies, the official claimed, and two police officers who wrote recommendation letters when he applied to the police academy have been dismissed over alleged ties to the Gulen movement.

It is believed that Altintas took a taxi to the Best Hotel behind the art exhibit from the neighbourhood of Kecioren where he lived with a roommate, in civilian clothes and carrying a suit and a travel bag.

When asked by the taxi driver whether he was travelling onwards anywhere, he said: "Yes, tonight."

He flashed his police ID at security guards when entering the exhibition and was allowed to pass despite his gun setting off the metal detector, according to reports.

Footage of the attack showed Altintas, dressed in a suit and tie, standing calmly behind the ambassador.

He then pulled out a gun and shouted "Allahu Akbar". Forensic analysis showed that Altintas fired his gun - a Nato-standard 9mm handgun - 11 times. Nine bullets were found inside the ambassador's body.

After firing at the ambassador, he shouted in Turkish: "Don't forget Aleppo. Don't forget Syria. Unless our towns are secure, you won't enjoy security. Only death can take me from here. Everyone who is involved in this suffering will pay a price.

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The Myanmar government has sponsored a three-day visit of 13 journalists to Maungdaw and Buthidaung areas, which have been under lockdown since October attacks on border guard posts.

The journalists consisting of representatives from the Central News Burea, SkyNet, Mizzima, EPA, Kyodo New, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Myanmar, EPA, 7 Days, the state-owned News and Periodical Enterprise, and The Myanmar Times began their visit yesterday.

The journalists will visit nine villages in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships during the three-day visit.

Yesterday, they visited a hospital, school and market in Buthidaung.

The media team was led by the general manager of News and Periodical Enterprise, U Ye Naing, to the site's yesterday.

He said the concerned officials have been asked to let the press team meet with suspects, to attend court hearings and to speak with ministers during press briefings.

"The authorities have not yet responded to our requests, but we may have a chance to meet with the chief minister [of Rakhine State], and the border affairs and social affairs ministers when we arrive back in Sittwe'' The Myanmar Times quoted Naing, as saying.

Access has been severely restricted to the northern Rakhine State since Myanmar troops launched a crackdown in the region in response to attacks on three border posts on October 9 that killed nine police officers.

Rohingyas Muslims have fled across the borders due to violence in the Rakhine state that has claimed lives of many people and displaced 30,000 others.

A meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers was called by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon two days before the government-sponsored media trip to Maungdaw in which the state counsellor and foreign minister briefed them on the ground situation.

According to a statement released by the government after the meeting, the state counsellor "reiterated the Government's serious commitment to the resolution of the complex issue and the need for time and space for the Government's efforts to bear fruit.

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At least nine Indian fishermen belonging to Pamban, Tamil Nadu along with one boat were detained by the Sri Lankan Navy on Wednesday, while they were fishing at International Maritime Boundary line near Dhanushkodi.

The detained fishermen have been taken to the Thalaimannar Naval base for investigation.

As many as twelve Indian fishermen were detained yesterday by the Lankan Navy along with their two fishing boats.

The Sri Lankan Navy had also arrested seven fishermen from Pudukottai Kottaipattinam and detained their two fishing boats on Monday night.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam in a letter written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday sought the latter's intervention for the early release of fishermen arrested by Sri Lanka.

He echoed the stand of his predecessor late J. Jayalalithaa that a permanent solution to the issue will be possible only by restoring India's sovereignty over Katchatheevu, an islet handed over to the neighbouring country by India.

The Chief Minister has said the Sri Lankan strategy of not releasing the boats of the apprehended fishermen is causing great damage to their livelihood.

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Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju has rubbished All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin's Owaisi for accusing the Investigative Agency (NIA) of targeting Muslims.

"These are frivolous charges. The agencies do not know the religious background of any person involved in any crime. They are impartial. You can't attach religious identity in terms of any criminal investigation," Rijiju said.

Owaisi on Monday took to Twitter to lash out at the NIA for targeting a single community. His reaction came a day after the verdict in the Dilsukhnagar bomb blast case was announced.

"Why can't our premier investigation agencies show same urgency t convict all alleged terrorist cases Demolition BabriMasjid pending since 92 (sic)," he tweeted.

He raised the question of a delay in the investigation of cases such as the Mecca Masjid blast, Ahmer Dargah blast, Malegaon blasts etc.

"Dilsukhnagar bomb blast accused can be convicted in 3 years why is it taking long to convict mmasjid,ajmer,malegaon can nia throw some light..do not be surprised the way nia is pursuing those bomb blast cases where accused are non muslims they will be exonerated bcos of ache din (sic)?" he wrote.

Accusing the NIA of being partial and showing its inclination towards a particular group, Owaisi tweeted, "Do not be surprised the way NIA is pursuing those Bomb Blast cases where accused are Non Muslims they will be exonerated bcos of Ache Din (sic)?"

A special NIA court on Monday awarded death penalty to five operative of the terrorist group Indian Mujahideen (IM) in the 2013 Dilsukhnagar twin blasts case.

The IM members almost simultaneously detonated two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) near the Dilsukhnagar bus stop on February 21, 2013, killing 21 and injuring 107.

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The office of the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has informed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif-led PML-N Government has virtually exempted accounts of the ISI and IB from audit through the Finance Bill 2014.

"We have to accept their accounts with government certification due to a clause in the Finance Bill 2014," the Dawn quoted AGP Rana Assad Amin, as saying before the PAC.

The AGP is a constitutional institution and the supreme audit institution in the country for ensuring public accountability and fiscal transparency.

Amin, who was the Finance Ministry's adviser in 2014, questioned as to why are the intelligence agencies reluctant to get their accounts audited by the AGP, adding that they are not the auditors of another country.

The revelations were made during a meeting of the PAC.

Informing the PAC that the Supreme Court had ruled in August 2013 that all funds released by the federal government were auditable, the Auditor General said the auditors were not provided any record when they started the audit of the National Crisis Management Cell's (NCMC) secret service fund.

The PAC was informed that 47 objections on different spending of the secret service fund were raised by the auditors when they provided the records later on.

Responding to a question by PAC member Shafqat Mehmood about the procedure for the audit of secret service fund, Amin said that the practice of releasing the secret service fund to different ministries had been abolished in 2013.

He, however, said the secret service fund was still being utilised by the ISI and IB.

Amin said that the auditors could not audit their accounts due to a legal bar of the Finance Bill 2014.

The Auditor general said that they have sought a legal advice regarding the matter from the law division as the institution is empowered to conduct audit of all release out of public money.

He said the law division had advised them that the law was still in place under which they had to accept the accounts of these agencies with government certification as the apex court did not set aside the ouster clause of the Finance Bill 2014.

Amin added that the Attorney General had endorsed the suggestion of the Law Ministry when they approached him last week.

The Auditor General said that they would ask the government to withdraw the ouster clause from the Finance Bill as they were not satisfied with the current situation.

The PAC suggested to the Auditor General to file a petition before the Supreme Court to enable them to conduct audit of the intelligence agencies.

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The Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday closed its inquiry in the Anganwadi scam case against state Women and Child Welfare Minister Pankaja Munde and gave a clean chit to her.

Munde was accused by the Congress of being involved in a scam to clear purchases worth Rs. 206 crores on a single day instead of inviting tenders in violation of the norms.

However, Munde had earlier denied charges of corruption levelled at her and said that the funds released by the Centre would have lapsed if there would have been further delay.

According to reports, all government procurements over Rs. three lakh are to be made through e-tenders. However, the Maharashtra Women and Children Development Ministry cleared the overcharged purchase orders for anganwadi schools without inviting tenders.

The incident came to light after the Ahmednagar Zilla Parishad president wrote to Munde, complaining about the quality of food (chikki) distributed to tribal students under the Integrated Child Development Services.

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A South Side apartment building was closed to residents after a fire broke out in an apartment unit on Tuesday night.

The accidental fire was caused by the electrical failure of a lamp and the building was ultimately closed due to electrical and gas problems, according to the Billings Fire Department.

As of 9:30 p.m., the American Red Cross of Montana had identified nine people in need of assistance as a result of the closure, said Diane Wright, executive director of the American Red Cross of Montana.

The Billings Fire Department was sent to the Colonial Apartments at 223 S. 27th Street at about 5:15 p.m. for what acting Battalion Chief Vince Christensen described as a "room and contents fire" on the second floor of the building.

The fire caused "severe" smoke and heat damage to an apartment, according to a press release issued by Deputy Fire Marshal Trever Schilling.

The fire was quickly extinguished and no one was injured, Christensen said. Some smoke spilled out into the upper floors, but firefighters ventilated the building after the fire was extinguished, Christensen said.

Power and gas was shut off in the building after the fire, and Christensen did not know when the building would be reopened.

Property and content loss is estimated at $100,000, according the press release and it is unknown if the property or its contents are insured.

Wright said that those without friends or family to stay with would likely be provided with a hotel room for the night. In addition to providing shelter, Wright said the Red Cross also assesses financial and medical needs and provides resources to individuals according to their specific needs.
All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) general secretary and former CPI (M) Member of Parliament Hannan Mollah on Wednesday said political parties should not be taxed as they are not business organisation.

"Political parties should not be taxed because they are not a business organisations or commercial organisations. They are working for the public," Mollah told ANI.

Mollah statement's comes in wake of the government's decision to set threshold criteria for political parties enjoying tax exemption.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had on Tuesday announced that the government is planning to set threshold criteria for political parties enjoying tax exemptions, in order to check money laundering by outfits which do not contest elections.

The decision holds importance in the context of the Election Commission's recommendations to amend laws to bar tax exemption to parties which do not contest elections and win seats in Lok Sabha and assembly polls.

It also assumes significance in context of EC's recommendation to ban anonymous donations above Rs 2,000 to political parties.

The Finance Minister highlighted the need for making political funding as transparent as possible, saying donations must be smaller in size but huge in number.

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Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will on Wednesday address a public rally in Gujarat's Mehasana town where he is expected to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his own turf.

The elections in the state are scheduled to be held next year end.

Counterattacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for accusing opposition parties of stalling the parliamentary proceedings during the Winter Session, Gandhi yesterday said there is no gravity in former's words as they are hollow.

Continuing his attack against the Prime Minister over flaws in implementation of the demonetisation drive, Gandhi said the Reserve Bank of India is changing rules like the former changes his clothes.

At a rally in Uttar Pradesh' Jaunpur, Gandhi had earlier on Monday said that only one per cent people have 60 percent of the country's wealth and that "Modi has made fun of 99 per cent honest people through demonetisation".

Slamming the Congress vice-president for his remark, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday said that Gandhi only levels personal charges against Prime Minister Modi but cannot provide any evidence.

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A day after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi mocked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) over the constant change in its rules post demonetisation, the recent u-turn in which the Rs.5000 deposit restriction for KYC compliant accounts was withdrawn, became fodder for the grand old party who took a swing at RBI saying it has now become the 'Reverse Bank of India'.

"Reserve Bank of India has become Reverse Bank of India. In last 43 days of demonetisation, they have changed the norms on demonetisation 126 times now. On December 17th they said you cannot deposit more than Rs 5,000 up to December 30th violating their November 8th notification," Congress leader Randeep Surjewala told ANI.

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) on Monday announced that deposits of old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes exceeding Rs. 5000 shall be made only once per account until December 30 but after a satisfactory explanation.

Tenders of Specified Bank Notes (SBN) in excess of Rs. 5000 into a bank account will be received for credit only once during the remaining period till December 30, 2016. The credit in such cases shall be afforded only after questioning the tenderer, on record, in the presence of at least two officials of the bank, as to why this could not be deposited earlier and receiving a satisfactory explanation.

However, taking a u-turn today, the Central Bank partially reversed the rule that restricted people from depositing over Rs. 5000 in old banknotes more than once till December 30.

The relaxation will, however, apply to "fully Know your Customer (KYC) compliant accounts" where KYC pertains to customer information details.

Surjewala said the latest relaxation provided to the KYC account holders is discriminatory and divides the bank accounts into those of the rich and poor.

"Now they are saying, it would not apply to Know Your Customer (KYC) account holder. The restriction of Rs. 5000 will continue to apply on those poor people who have not been able to connect their accounts to an Aadhaar card or PAN card. So, you have two kinds of accounts in this country - If you're poor or semi-illiterate and you have not connected your bank account and converted it into KYC account, you can't deposit more than Rs. 5,000, while the rest can," he said.

Former finance minister P. Chidambaram yesterday took a potshot at the government saying that neither RBI nor Jaitley have credibility.

"Breaking PM's promise of Nov 8 and FM's assurance of Nov 11, RBI makes new rule on deposit, FM contradicts. Who should citizen believe? Neither has credibility," he tweeted.

The consecutive changes in the policies related to the currency ban have raised uncertainty among the masses and criticism from the opposition.

Echoing similar sentiments, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had said, "RBI is changing rules like the PM changes his clothes," in a tweet.

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Russia has taken serious objection to the 'leak' by the Pakistani authorities, in their media, about the visit of Alexander Bortnikov, Head of the Russian External Intelligence service, or the FSB, to Pakistan between November 25-27, 2016.

The visit which was designed to garner Pakistani support for operations in Allepo, Syria, was compromised by pro-Saudi factions within the Pakistani establishment, according to informed sources.

According to leaks in the Pakistani media, during this visit, Bortnikov besides discussing Allepo held consultations with Pakistani military and intelligence agencies, showed interest in Russia joining the CPEC project, proposed that Russia and Pakistan initiate bilateral cooperation vis-a-vis the Gwadar port, especially with regard to transfer of goods and services, and also requested Russian access, to this port.

Russia sees CPEC as a major challenge to its area domination by China and is working on Pakistan to open avenues for Moscow to get involved in the Gwadar gateway, something which has been a Russian dream for decades and was the prime reason for the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 as a first step towards reaching Gwadar.

While some elements within the Pakistan Army are keen to get involved with Russia, the predominant mood is against Moscow, given its antagonistic relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Sources say that the Pakistan Army is against having a close relationship with Russia as Saudi Arabia is and has been a tried and tested friend.

It was this influential section of the establishment which reportedly leaked the highly secret visit to Pakistan by the head of Russia's premier intelligence service.

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The sanitation workers staged a protest here on Tuesday against the Uttar Pradesh Government's decision to put panchayat raj department under the village development department.

"The August 1 directive released by the village development department should be repealed with immediate effect. The government has given us such assurance thrice - once by Panchayati Raj Minister and twice by Principal Secretary, but our demand was ignored," said one of the protesters.

"The directive has put the panchayat raj department under the village development department. One department does not work under the control of the other department. Our demand is to end this dual arrangement of the village development department," he added.

He also drew Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's attention to the problems post this decision.

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With the Election Commission writing to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) informing it about its decision to delist 200-odd political parties which exist only on paper, Minister of State for Law and IT P.P. Choudhary on Wednesday said strict action will be initiated against the political parties, who are getting tax exemption as it is a fraud on the Constitution.

Choudhary told ANI that the Government will examine the Election Commission recommendation to delist political parties which exist only on paper.

"Prime Minister Modi ji always wanted a transparent government and a transparent government process. That there should not be any use of black money in the election process. If found that political parties are getting tax exemption in various ways that this is a fraud on the constitution and fraud on the institution. I believe that if someone is found doing this then strict action will be taken against them," he added.

The Election Commission will write to the Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT) informing it about the decision to delist 200-odd political parties, which exist only on paper.

Sources said the Election Commission suspects that most of these political parties could be money-laundering operations.

The Commission has the power to register a political party, but there is no guideline to allow it to de-register any party that has been recognised.

The Election Commission has written to several governments in the past, requesting for power to deregister "non-serious" political parties.

However, nothing has been done in this regard yet.

Under existing law, various political parties are expected to file their Income-Tax returns containing details of donors, who have made contributions above Rs. 20,000.

Most political parties, however, declare most of their funds as having come from unnamed donors donating less than Rs. 20,000 each. The political parties by doing so get away without having to name the source of their donations.

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Two members of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) have been reportedly arrested by the members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from Pallabi area of Dhaka.

The RAB identified the duo as Atiqur Rahman alias Milon, 21, the son of Abul Kashem of Nilphamari and Khademul Islam alias Khadem alias Gajoatul, 28, the son of Ismail Mir of Barisal.

Atikur reportedly used to work as a fund carrier and Khadem was a shelter provider.

The Dhaka Tribune quoted Khandakar Lutful Kabir, Commanding Officer (CO) of RAB 4, as saying in a briefing at RAB's media center in Kawranbazar that Atikur's supervisor Abdur Rahman alias Sarowar Jahan, who was the financier of the new JMB, was killed during a RAB drive in Savar earlier on October 8.

He added that Atikur used to take money from Sarowar and on his direction provide it to different new JMB dens situated in the Tongi and Gazipur areas of Dhaka.

According to their primary statement, Atikur had met Khadem for the first time while distributing money in a slum of Tongi.

Kabir said that Khadem used to provide accommodation for JMB activists and was inspired to take part in militant activities upon noticing the activities of his younger brother Nazmul.

He said Atikur got inspiration to join the JMB from a person named Fazle Rabbi whom he met through social networking site Facebook.

"We are now analyzing information provided by the duo and trying to trace the location of other suspects, whose names were revealed from their statement," said Kabir.

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Godrej Consumer Products was up 0.15% to Rs 1,450.15 at 11:42 IST on BSE, with the stock witnessing high volatility after the company said it has completed the acquisition of balance 49% equity stake in Charm Industries, kenya.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 20 December 2016.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 32.69 points or 0.12 % at 26,340.67.

On the BSE, 1,569 shares were traded on the counter so far as against the average daily volumes of 8,184 shares in the past one quarter. The stock was volatile. The stock rose as much as 3.23% at the day's high of Rs 1,494.90 so far during the day. The stock lost as much as 0.36% at the day's low of Rs 1,442.75 so far during the day.

The stock had a hit record high of Rs 1,710 on 16 September 2016 and a 52-week low of Rs 1,120 on 27 January 2016. The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 20 December 2016, advancing 1.88% compared with the Sensex's 0.6% rise. The scrip had, however, underperformed the market over the past one quarter declining 11.47% as against the Sensex's 7.77% fall.

The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 34.06 crore. Face value per share is Rs 1.

Charm Industries is a manufacturing company incorporated in Kenya. This acquisition helps Charm Industries to scale up wet hair care business in East Africa using the strength of nature brands. The acquisition comes into force with immediate effect. The consideration for the acquisition was payable in cash.

Godrej Consumer Products' consolidated net profit rose 43.7% to Rs 318.12 crore on 11.4% rise in net sales to Rs 2357.52 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015.

Godrej Consumer Products is one of the leading fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in India.

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On 30 December 2016

Gujarat Cotex announced that a meeting of board of Directors of the Company shall be held on 30 December 2016, inter alia, to transact the following business :

- To consider the appointment of Ruchi Bharolia as Independent Director of the Company.

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For sale of its towers business

Reliance Communications (RCOM) announced the signing of binding agreements with Brookfield Infrastructure in relation to the acquisition of RCOM's nationwide tower assets by affiliates of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP and its institutional partners.

RCOM will receive an upfront cash payment of Rs. 11,000 crore (US$ 1.6 billion) on completion of the transaction.

RCOM will also receive Class B non-voting shares in the new Tower company, providing 49% future economic upside in the Towers business, based on certain conditions. RCOM expects significant future value creation from the B Class shares, based on growth in tenancies arising from increasing 4G rollout by all telecom operators and fast accelerating data consumption.

RCOM's telecom towers will be demerged into a separate new Company that will be 100% owned and independently managed by Brookfield Infrastructure, thereby creating the second largest independent and operator-neutral Towers company in India.

RCOM will enjoy certain information and other rights, but will not be involved directly or indirectly in the management and operations of the new Company.

RCOM and Reliance Jio will continue as major long term tenants of the new Tower company, along with other existing third party telecom operators.

RCOM will utilize the upfront cash payment of Rs. 11,000 crore (US$ 1.6 billion) solely to reduce its debt. The already announced combination of RCOM's wireless business with Aircel, and the monetization of the Tower business, will together reduce RCOM's overall debt by Rs. 31,000 crore (US$ 4.6 billion), or nearly 70% of existing debt.

RCOM will continue to hold 50% stake in the wireless business combination with Aircel and the 49% future economic upside in the towers business, and will monetise these valuable assets at an appropriate time in the future to further substantially reduce its overall debt.

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There's an estimated 15 hours and 21 minutes of night for the 2016 winter solstice.

Those who participated in a vigil on Wednesday considered what that means for homeless people in Billings. About 50 people gathered on the Yellowstone County Courthouse lawn to remember those who have died on the streets, as well as those who are still out there.

"Think about 15 hours huddled under a sleeping bag, in a doorway or under a bridge," said John Felton, president and CEO of RiverStone Health.

Felton spoke of Gary Ames, who died overnight on Montana Avenue on Dec. 11. He asked that people remember Ames as a man with a story, a family and a life.

Yellowstone County Commissioner Robyn Driscoll read from a proclamation passed on Dec. 6 by the commission. It designated this month as Homeless Awareness Month and the day as an official day of remembrance.

Amid holiday songs, attendees heard prayers and words of encouragement from speakers who work in various community outreach agencies.

Carmen Gonzales, an outreach worker at The Hub drop-in center, and Clarence Salley, manager of RiverStone's Healthcare for the Homeless, shared stories.

The Rev. Glenn Fournier, program director at the Montana Rescue Mission, offered a prayer and a request to remember those who have nowhere else to go.

"Poverty in many ways, Lord," he said. "Connections, relationships  poverty in spirit."

There were a few tears in the audience as they held candles, sheltering them from the wind. Some in attendance had been homeless themselves.

Barbi Smith said that she had been homeless since she was a teenager until recently, when she secured a place to live with help from The Hub. She said it saved her life.

And just as Felton urged recognition of Ames' life, Smith said the same humanity and understanding should prevail in Billings. It's never a simple story that leads someone to live on the street.

"They have so many terrible problems through life that have thrown them out here," she said.

For a directory of services to aid disadvantaged residents, the Human Resources Development Council has a web portal at ask.hrdc7.org.
State Bank of India announced after market hours yesterday, 20 December 2016, that its shareholders approved the proposal to raise capital through the issue of preferential shares to the government. They also gave an in-principle nod to additional fund raising by way of a public issue, should the bank need to tap the markets.

According to a notification issued to stock exchanges, shareholders approved a preferential issue of shares for upto Rs 5681 crore to the Government of India. This is part of the government's capital infusion plan into the lender.

Separately, shareholders also approved fund raising upto a limit of Rs 15000 crore via a public issue. This fund raising could be in the form of a follow-on public offer (FPO) or private placement through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) or through other means such as American Depository Receipts (ADRs) or Global Depository Receipts (GDRs). Any such public fund raising would be subject to the condition that the government's shareholding in SBI does not fall below 52%.

Bharti Airtel announced after market hours yesterday, 20 December 2016, that its subsidiary Network 12i has entered into a definitive agreement with Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding S.A.E (Orascom) to acquire Orascom's entire equity stake in Middle East North Africa Company Submarine Cable Systems S.A.E (MENA-SCS). The acquisition is subject to requisite regulatory approvals.

MENA-SCS is a 100% subsidiary of Orascom. MENA - SCS owns and operates a submarine cable network between India and Europe covering Middle East, with options to extend the network to Africa.

The proposed acquisition of MENA-SCS is aimed at further strengthening Airtel's global network that currently runs across 225,000 Rkms, covering 50 countries and 5 continents. The additional capacity will enable Airtel to serve the growing demand for data services and enterprise services across its footprint of 18 countries across South Asia and Africa.

Reliance Communications (RCom) said that Fitch Ratings (Fitch), International rating agency, has revised the company's long-term foreign, local currency issuer default ratings and senior secured notes (Notes) ratings from 'BB-' to 'B+'. Fitch has also placed on rating watch negative and assigned a recovery rating of 'RR4' to the notes. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 20 December 2016.

Essel Propack said that it is raising funds of Rs 20 crore through issue of commercial papers (CPs) on private placement basis. Further, the company also said that it has redeemed CPs for Rs 25 crore as per the terms. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 20 December 2016.

Oriental Carbon & Chemicals announced that it has commissioned/started the commercial production, ahead of schedule, on 20 December 2016, of the first phase (5,500 metric tonnes per annum capacity) of its project for expansion of insoluble sulphur production capacity at special economic zone (SEZ) at Mundra, Gujarat. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 20 December 2016.

Binani Industries said that the consortium of banks to Edayar Zinc, a subsidiary of Binani Industries has appointed an Advocate Commissioner to take possession of the properties mortgaged in favour of the banks and has given a notice to take possession on or after 26 December 2016. Binani Industries said it has been advised that the action is illegal. The company is looking into the matter and is taking suitable legal remedies, it added. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 20 December 2016.

Sasken Communication Technologies said that a meeting of the buyback committee of the board of directors of the company will be held on 23 December 2016, to finalize the price at which the shares will be bought back and to fix the record date to ascertain the shareholders who are eligible to participate in the buyback. The outcome of the postal ballot being conducted seeking shareholders approval will also be announced on 23 December 2016. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 20 December 2016.

Satin Creditcare Network said that meeting of working committee of the board of director of the company is scheduled to be held on 23 December 2016, for the issuance of non-convertible debentures upto the amount of Rs 15 crore through private placement. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 20 December 2016.

Jyoti Structures has received an order from ESKOM, the South African utility, for supply of towers and construction of 765 and 400 kV Masa Ngwedi Transmission line Sec C. The order valued at approximately $15 million is to be executed in 18 months. The project is funded by World Bank. Jyoti is currently executing three contracts for ESKOM in South Africa. Total value of these contracts is approximately $80 million. In the past, the company has satisfactorily completed three major projects for the same client. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 20 December 2016.

Seamec said it entered into a charter party agreement with National Petroleum Construction Company for the charter hire of vessel, Hal Supporter, for undertaking a job in West Coast of India. The tenure of the contract is for a firm period of 45 days with option for extension. The contract will likely to continue till end January 2017. For the said contract, the company has taken vessel Hal Supporter from HAL on charter basis. The value of charter during firm period is $171,000. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 20 December 2016.

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A van which lost control ran into an assembly of school children in Nigeria's northeastern state of Gombe, killing 12 children and injuring 19 others, police said on Wednesday.

Gombe State police spokesman Ahmed Usman told Xinhua the incident occurred on Tuesday during an annual religious procession by school children in Malam Sidi Town, located 20 kms away from Gombe, the state capital.

Hundreds of Islamic school children usually gather to hold the annual Maulud procession in the Nigerian state.

The driver of the van, travelling alone, was apparently driving at high speed when he ran into the procession, Usman said.

According to him, an angry mob set the driver and his van ablaze before the arrival of the police at the accident site.

--IANS

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Indonesian police on Wednesday shot dead three suspected militants and captured another who planned to commit a suicide attack on a police post, police said.

"The militants had plotted to stab police personnel at a police post when they gather to the scene and then a suicide bomber will explode himself," Xinhua news agency quoted a police official as saying.

Oman, Helmi and Irwan were killed in a gunfight with police, the official said.

Police learned of the militants' presence from another suspected terrorist who was captured earlier on Wednesday.

--IANS

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Lt. Gen. Bipin Rawat, who is set to be the next Army Chief, met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday.

The meeting, which lasted for about 25 minutes, was described as a "courtesy call" by sources.

Rawat later also met outgoing Army Chief General Dalbir Singh.

Rawat was named as the new Army Chief on Saturday, superseding two more senior Lieutenant Generals -- Eastern Army Commander Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi and Southern Army Commander Lt. Gen. P.M. Hariz.

Rawat would take over as the new Army Chief on December 31.

--IANS

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday opposed the bail plea of former Indian Air Force (IAF) chief S. P. Tyagi and others arrested in Agusta Westland chopper deal case.

However, the agency sought more time from Special Judge Arvind Kumar to argue on the merits of the case stating that documents in the matter are voluminous in nature, being around two lakh pages, and it need more time to read it.

The court granted more time to prepare the argument and posted the matter for Friday for further hearing.

Meanwhile Tyagi's defence counsel while seeking his bail told court that his client was booked and arrested in the case without any basis.A

Tyagi -- the first chief of any wing of the armed forces to be arrested in the country -- and the others were allegedly involved in irregularities in the procurement of 12 AW-101 VVIP helicopters from Britain-based AgustaWestland.

Defence counsel Menaka Guruswamy told court that Tygai has nothing do with the helicopters deal and termed "baselesss" the allegation that he has hatched conspiracy to reduce the service ceiling of the helicopters from 6,000-meters to 4,500 meters to make AgustaWestland an eligible company to supply a dozen helicopters for VVIP flying duties.

She said that reducing of service ceiling was taken in a meeting held by Principal Secretary to Prime Minister in November 19, 2003 and the contract was awarded in 2010, while Tyagi was IAF chief from 2004 to 2007 so he has nothing to do either with process or awarding of contract as both of them did not take place during his tenure.

Citing his health condition, Tyagi's counsel told court that he is 72 years old and suffering from various ailments.

Claiming innocence, former IAF chief sought bail on the ground that he has co-operated in the investigation.

Tyagi's counsel said that as he is a decorated war hero, he is not fleeing from justice and will follow the conditions.

Other two accused Tyagi's cousin Sanjeev Tyagi and Gautam Khaitan, a Delhi-based lawyer, also sought bail arguing that they will follow every conditions imposed by court and will not try to influence witness or tamper evidence.

Khaitan's counsel Pramod Kumar Dubey also maintained the same content in his bail plea.

To strengthen his plea, advocate Dubey submitted before court that Khaitan has not misused any conditions of bail granted earlier in a separate case probed by Enforcement Directorate (ED).

To show solidarity to the former IAF chief in his legal battle, around ten veterans including former Air Marshals were present in the court room during the proceedings.

--IANS

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A clergyman in Kerala has donated his kidney to a Muslim woman who was suffering from kidney ailments for the last four years and saved her life, hospital authorities said on Wednesday.

The 39-year-old Priest Shibu Kuttiparichel of Cheengery St. Mary's Jacobite Syrian Church in Wayanad district, donated one of his kidneys to the 29-year-old woman.

The kidney was harvested and transplanted into Kairunnissa at a private hospital here.

Kairunnissa hails from Thrissur and was selected as the recipient from others registered with the Kidney Federation of India.

The federation was founded by another Christian priest Davis Chiramel, who himself had donated one of his kidneys a few years back.

Kairunnissa was suffering from kidney ailments for the past four years and had undergone several rounds of dialysis, said the hospital management.

"Even as Kairunnissa's 56-year-old mother, Shereefa was ready to donate one of her kidneys to her daughter, it was not matching," according to the hospital authorities.

Later Kuttiparichel's blood group matched with Kairunnissa and the transplant was possible," said the authorities.

Both the donor and recipient are in good condition. Kuttiparichel will be discharged in four days, while Kairunnissa will be discharged after a week, said the hospital.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has visited the site of the terror attack that struck a Christmas market here, killing 12 persons.

The head of government, during her visit to the attack site on Tuesday, was accompanied by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, Foreign Minister Franz-Walter Steinmeier and the governing mayor Michael Muller, Efe news reported.

The German dignitaries laid flowers at the site where citizens had left messages of condolence.

An assailant on Monday drove a truck into a crowd of people who had gathered at the Christmas market in Breitscheidplatz, Berlin.

In a conference held earlier at the German Chancellery, Merkel expressed her shock, sadness and indignation at the attack, adding that she thought it would be particularly repugnant if the perpetrator was someone who came to country seeking refuge.

She said the nation should refuse to live in fear because of the events.

Following the attack, a Pakistani asylum-seeker was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the alleged terror attack.

However, head of Berlin police Klaus Kandt has since said they have doubts that the detainee, who denied any involvement in the incident, was in fact the assailant.

Further, federal prosecutor Peter Frank said they were not ruling out the possibility that the attack was committed by a group of people.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has sought Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh's intervention in the matter of withdrawal of his National Security Guard (NSG) cover which he had been enjoying since 2007.

The former Assam Chief Minister sent a letter to Singh and said that the Centre has suo moto decided to withdraw the NSG security cover from him without taking any feedback from the intelligence department of the state government.

Gogoi said that after coming to power in Assam in 2001, his government brought the law and order situation under control.

"You are aware that Assam is much peaceful now than it was earlier. However, jihadi activities have been on the rise. Recent incidents indicate that the situation appears to be deteriorating," Gogoi said in his letter.

"My grievance is that no other political leaders of my stature in the country, who have been provided Central Armed Police Forces (NSG) cover, were suddenly relieved of it just seven months after demitting office. Even in my state, former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is still having CAPF (NSG) cover though he demitted office 15 years back," Gogoi said in his letter sent to the Union Home Minister.

"I do feel that the decision of withdrawal of CAPF (NSG) cover has not been taken on merit but on political reasons, which is discriminatory. Besides, I am told that the Centre decided the matter suo moto without any feedback from the intelligence department of the state government. I am not asking for any favour but wish to bring to your kind notice to see whether justice has been done or not," said Gogoi.

--IANS

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Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday prayed at a temple dedicated to the deity of the Patel community ahead of a public rally in Mehsana district in Gujarat.

The Congress said Gandhi reached Mehsana, the home district of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Earlier, from Ahmedabad, Gandhi went to Unjha town where he offered prayers at the temple of Goddess Umiya.

Congress sources said the party aims to woo the Patidar (Patel) community which has been agitating for reservation in educational institutions and government jobs.

The Patels have been the traditional vote bank of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat but turned against it during the crucial elections to local self-government bodies.

--IANS

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India and Kyrgyzstan share common concerns on the threat of and extremism, President Pranab Mukherjee has said.

"India values its long-standing friendly relations with Kyrgyzstan. India and Kyrgyzstan share common concerns on the threat of terrorism, extremism and drug-trafficking," President Mukherjee said on Tuesday after receiving Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambaev at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

The President also hosted a banquet in honour of the visiting Kyrgyzstan President who is here on a four-day visit.

"Atambaev's visit will give a fillip to the efforts to enhance the multi-faceted relations between the two countries," a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique on Wednesday cited Mukherjee as saying.

India and Kyrgyzstan will celebrate the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations next year.

In his banquet speech, Mukherjee said: "India has always considered the Kyrgyz Republic to be an important part of its extended neighbourhood. Our proximity is not only geographical but also historical and civilisational. We have a shared past, reflected in many elements of our culture."

Mukherjee also complimented the Kyrgyzstan President on the successful conduct of the parliamentary elections in October last year and for successfully steering a referendum on constitutional amendments earlier this month.

"One of its finest achievements is its steadfast preference for and adherence to democracy. We, in India, believe that a democratic system represents much more than just the periodic exercise of voting in elections. Another commonality which binds us is our commitment to secularism," Mukherjee said.

--IANS

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At the start of a week that will end with celebrations of Christmas and Hanukkah, it is particularly outrageous that people in a Montana community have been targeted for hateful online attacks because of religion.

Mondays Billings Gazette carried the report from The Missoulian staff about a white supremacist website that posted a call to TAKE ACTION against Jewish people in Whitefish. The website post provided personal contact information (phone numbers, email addresses and Twitter handles) for Whitefish residents and promoted a troll storm against them.

The website also posted photos of several Whitefish residents, including a child, putting a yellow Star of David and the word Jude (German for Jew) on each photo. Its no coincidence that Nazi Germany forced Jewish people to wear yellow stars during Hitlers reign of terror generations ago.

The web posts are connected to Richard Spencer, president and director of the National Policy Institute, which as The Missoulian reported, has a stated mission of advocating for Americans of European descent. It has been identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Spencer, who claims Whitefish as a hometown, said Friday that he might be a candidate for U.S. House to fill the seat that Ryan Zinke is expected to resign to lead the U.S. Department of Interior.

These arent the first anti-Semitic attacks in Whitefish. Citizens of goodwill have organized to respond to hateful words and acts. Earlier this month, Whitefish Mayor John Muhlfeld signed a proclamation that said, in part: The city of Whitefish repudiates the ideas and ideology of the white nationalist and so-called alt-right as a direct affront to our communitys core values and principles.

We applaud Muhlfeld for taking a public stand to say what must be said.

Montanans all across our great, big state need to stand up for each other. Unfortunately, since the Nov. 8 election, we have seen an uptick in incidents of discrimination and hateful speech against individuals because of their religion, race, gender, sexual orientation and even their political beliefs.

The Montana Human Rights Network reports that it has received several dozen complaints of hate activity in Whitefish since Nov. 9. In addition, the network has logged about two dozen complaints from elsewhere in the state. Typically, the network gets only a dozen complaints in an entire year. The recent complaints included Nazi graffiti, xenophobic language launched at people of color that they would be deported now, gay slurs, anti-Semitic and racist leaflet distribution and bullying of teachers and youth of color. The reports allege incidents occurring on the streets, in businesses and at schools.

Weve got to call out hate when we see and hear of it, said Rachel Carroll Rivas, network co-director. Folks are afraid right now and feel targeted.

Montanans, we cant let our neighbors live in fear. Let us speak up to support those who face discrimination. Lets welcome neighbors and reinforce the community ties that keep us all safer.

Once again, The Billings Gazette reminds readers of the strength of a unified stand against hate. Remember how Billings proclaimed with many voices: "Not in our town." More than 20 years ago, because of the community response, attacks of vandalism against religious and racial minorities stopped.

In this season of Hanukkah and Christmas, we must stand against hate and say together: Not in our state.
The indigenous Nirbhay subsonic cruise missile's fourth test failed on Wednesday, sources said, even as the DRDO refused to make any official comment on the issue.

According to informed sources, the missile was blasted off around noon from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Balasore in Odisha but had to be aborted due to "technical glitches".

According to the source, the missile's take off was fine, but then it deviated from its intended course.

With the threat of the missile hit the ground, it had to be destroyed within minutes of blasting off.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), however, did not comment on the test, with an official saying they were not even "aware" of the test.

The six-metre-long Nirbhay is a long range, subsonic cruise missile designed and developed by the DRDO. It is capable of carrying conventional and nuclear warheads, has a range of more than 1,000 km and weighs about 1,500 kg.

The missile's first test on March 12, 2013 had failed within 20 minutes of flight. The second test on October 17, 2014 also failed as it could not maintain a low height.

The third test, on October 16, 2015 saw the missile nose-dive into the Bay of Bengal 128 km into its flight.

The cruise missile is expected to supplement the BrahMos Indo-Russian that can carry warheads up to 290 km.
The Islamic State (IS) terror group has claimed responsibility for Monday night truck assault at a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people.

The IS-affiliated Amaq news agency released a statement late Tuesday saying the attack in which 49 others were also injured, was carried out by "a soldier of the Islamic State" in response to calls by the group's leadership to target citizens of international coalition countries, CNN reported.

According to the BBC, German Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere reacted cautiously to the claim, saying "several lines of investigation" were being pursued.

Earlier on Tuesday, German prosecutors freed the only suspect, citing insufficient evidence.

He was identified by media only as Pakistani national Naved B.

Officials suggested that a perpetrator or perpetrators may still be on the run.

The sole suspect was captured in a park after reportedly fleeing the scene and being tracked by a member of the public, who alerted the police.

The lorry's original driver, Polish citizen Lukasz Urban, was found dead on the passenger seat, reportedly with gunshot and stab wounds to his body.

No gun was recovered, the BBC added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised an armed forces rocket launch contest, the authorities said on Wednesday.

According to state media KCNA, Kim Jong-un supervised the contest from an observation post as batteries of several artillery units of the Korean People's Army launched missiles from a beach into the sea, Efe news reported.

However, details on the date or place of the contest were not given.

"When the order to fire was given, all the gunners in the contest opened fire with a will to reduce the enemy's post to ashes at a strike," said KCNA.

Kim Jong-un "underscored the need to conduct the training of artillery units under the simulated conditions of an actual battle," it added.

According to another statement by the agency, apart from the contest, the North Korean supreme leader also oversaw a night assault combat flight drill of the country's air force, in which fighter planes aimed at ground targets.

The drills were held despite the UN Security Council imposing new financial sanctions on the Kim Jong-un regime for its latest nuclear test.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Arunachal Naga Student's Federation (ANSF) on Wednesday condemned the creation of seven new districts in Manipur which has led to communal violence in the state.

The ANSF said the Manipur government did not have any right to do so with Naga areas without consulting them.

"ANSF strongly condemns the dictatorial ruling of the Manipur government on the Nagas living in Manipur.

"It has no right to force them and create so many districts in Naga areas without any option or consultations," ANSF President Nokchai Boham said.

The association, representing the Nagas living in Tirap, Changlang and Longding of Arunachal Pradesh, also asked the Manipur government to respect the Nagas living in the state as good neighbours.

"Instead they are playing with them in a way, and instigating the problem such that it would not have a solution," the ANSF said.

The Imphal Valley was simmering after violent protests broke out following the Congress-led government's declaration of creation of seven new districts -- Jiribam, Kangpokpi, Tengoupal, Pharzol, Kakching, Noney and Kamjongin.

A blockade was called by the Nagas to oppose the decision to create Sadar Hills and Jiribam as full-fledged districts.

The United Naga Council said it would bifurcate the ancestral lands of the Nagas living in Manipur.

Although, Jiribam was made a district, the same could not be done with Sadar Hills due to strong opposition.

The ANSF also said that vandalising of churches in Imphal has hurt the Naga Christians' sentiments. It urged the central government to intervene in the matter immediately.

The central government has sent a 4,000 para military personnel to Manipur to bring the situation under control.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police in Nepal are investigating the death of a 15-year-old girl who was banished to a poorly-ventilated shed because she was menstruating, a media report said on Wednesday.

The girl's body was found by her father last weekend in a stone and mud hut in Gajra village in Achham district, 440 km from here.

The police said the girl suffocated after lighting a fire to keep herself warm, BBC reported.

According to ancient Hindu practice, called chhaupadi, women who menstruate or who have just given birth are seen as "impure".

Although the practice was banned in 2005 by the Hindu Himalayan state, it still persists in certain remote rural areas in Nepal.

Some communities there believe that they would suffer a misfortune (such as a natural disaster) unless menstruating women were secluded.

While in isolation they are denied their usual intake of food and are prohibited from drinking milk.

In many cases the huts that menstruating girls and women are banished to are shared with cattle and their excrement and are sometimes set far away from habitation.

They could be freezing cold in winter and stiflingly hot in summer.

The victims of the practice are often believed to suffer from mental and physical condition akin to post traumatic stress in their later life.

The chhaupadi rules mean that a menstruating female faces restrictions on where she can sleep, who she can see, where she is allowed to go and who she can touch.

Critics say the Nepalese government did not do enough to eradicate the practice or prevent child marriages.

But officials argue it is difficult to prevent such abuses when they are so deeply ingrained in the local culture.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Barack Obama has banned future oil and gas drilling in most of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, the latest move to cement his environmental legacy before he leaves office next month.

Using his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that allow presidents to withdraw areas from oil and gas leasing and exploration, Obama has protected the entire US Chukchi Sea and the vast majority of the US Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean and 31 canyons in the Atlantic Ocean from drilling, the White House said on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Canada would also freeze offshore oil and gas leasing in its Arctic waters, to be reviewed every five years through a climate and marine science-based assessment, according to the White House.

"These actions, and Canada's parallel actions, protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other region on earth," Obama said in a statement.

"They reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region's harsh conditions is limited," he said.

Obama believed "it would take decades" to fully develop the production infrastructure necessary for any large-scale oil and gas leasing production in the region.

The withdrawal areas announced on Tuesday encompass 3.8 million acres in the north and mid-Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast and 115 million acres in the US Arctic Ocean, according to the US Department of the Interior.

"The withdrawal will help build the resilience of these vital ecosystems, provide refugees for at-risk species, sustain commercial fisheries and subsistence traditions, and create natural laboratories for scientists to monitor and explore the impacts of climate change," said US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.

Including previous presidential withdrawals, Tuesday's action protects nearly 125 million acres in the offshore Arctic from future oil and gas activity.

Analysts said the incoming administration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump could not simply reverse the action, as the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act doesn't include a procedure for a new president to undo actions by a predecessor.

But Congress could pass legislation lifting the ban, which likely would require 60 votes in the Senate, a high hurdle for many controversial issues.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Odisha government on Wednesday asked the Centre to sanction a Rs 5,870-crore railway package in the forthcoming Budget for 2017-18 to accelerate rail projects in the state.

In a letter to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said this package will help both Odisha and Indian Railways in furthering their goals of economic and social justice.

The package includes detailed proposals for the ongoing projects, sanctioning of new lines, station modernisation, introduction of new trains, extension of existing trains, and improved passenger amenities at stations, among others.

Informing that Odisha generates over Rs 15,000 crore annual revenue for India Railways, the Chief Minister said the rail density is much less than the national average.

He urged Indian Railways to support the state government's vision to extend the reach of rail network to the farthest parts of Odisha, specifically the regions that don't have the opportunity to grow with rail connectivity.

The Chief Minister requested new railway lines to facilitate mineral movement by establishing linkage with southern Odisha and provide shorter connectivity to Gopalpur port.

Maintaining that an investment of Rs 8,85,000 crore is at different stages in the state, he said a comprehensive plan also has been prepared for developing deep water sea ports along the Odisha coast.

It is expected that the growth in rail-borne traffic will be in excess of 450 MTA in the next five years and pressure on existing logistic infrastructure shall be enormous.

"In this context, I will request you to initiate the east coast dedicated freight corridor from Kharagpur to Vijaywada and east-west dedicated freight corridor from Jharsuguda to Bilaspur to ensure seamless movement of freight between the upcoming ports on the Odisha coast along with the major port at Paradip," said the Chief Minister.

He also urged acceleration of a few projects so as to complete them within the targeted time. The projects include Sambalpur-Titlagarh, Barang-Bhubaneswar, Titlagarh-Raipur and Talcher-Bimlagarh.

Patnaik requested expediting work on Angul-Sukinda-Duburi and Haridaspur-Paradip rail links being developed by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. and completing them within the stipulated time.

The Chief Minister also raised the issues of passenger amenities at different stations and mass rapid transit system connecting Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

He requested for the establishment of three new divisional headquarters at Rayagada, Jajpur-Keonjhar Road and Rourkela.

"I request you to establish new Divisional HQs at Rayagada, Jajpur-Keonjhar Road and Rourkela by extending the jurisdiction of East Coast Railway (ECoR) to include Banspani-Padapahar section, Bhadrak-Lakhmannath section in Khurda Road Division and Jharsuguda-Barasuan-Kiriburu, Rourkela-Nuagaon and Jharsuguda-Himagiri section in Sambalpur Division," said Patnaik.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will perform bhoomi pooja for a grand statue and memorial of Chhatrapati Shivaji during a day-long visit to Maharashtra on Saturday, officials said.

The memorial and statue are expected to come up on a rocky islet around one kilometre into the Arabian Sea overlooking Marine Drive or Queen's Necklace, with Malabar Hill on one end and Nariman Point at the other in south Mumbai.

"This memorial, Shiv Smarak, in the Arabian Sea will be the tallest memorial not only in the country but in the entire world," Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said of the ambitious project estimated to cost around Rs 3,600 crore.

The state government has secured 12 major permissions from the Centre including the Environment Ministry, Defence Ministry, Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and others, he added.

Slated to be 309 feet tall, the statue along with a pedestal and foundation will be taller than the State of Liberty and is expected to be a major tourist attraction.

The memorial complex on the islet will house a library on the warrior king, an amphitheatre, an aqauarium and an IMAX cinema hall to screen films on the Chhatrapati, guest rooms and a helipad.

There will be replicas of the entrance arch of the historic Raigad Fort, of the Tulja Bhavani temple, forecourts designed after his palaces and wadas of the Maratha era.

The Shiv Smarak shall be accessible by boats to arrive and depart from jetties to come up at Radio Club in Colaba, Nariman Point and at Sagar Sangam in Navi Mumbai.

However, some fisherfolks' organizations like Akhil Maharashtra Machhimar Kriti Samit and Paramparik Machhimar Seva Samit have opposed the project on grounds it could severely hit their livelihood.

Modi would be accompanied by Fadnavis and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray.

Two state cabinet ministers - Chandrakant Patil and Vinod Tawde - on Wednesday called on Thackeray at his home to formally invite him for the event on Saturday.

Modi will also lay the foundation stones for two metro railways, an elevated railway corridor, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link and address a public rally in Mumbai.

In adjoining Raigad, he will inaugurate the new SEBI Campus and later in Pune he will lay the foundation stone for the proposed Pune Metro Railway.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Vatican City, Dec 21 (IANS/AKI) Pope Francis has released from prison a Spanish prelate convicted of leaking secret Vatican files to journalists, Vatican Radio reported on Wednesday.

Francis took the step because Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda had already served more than half of his 18-month sentence, Vatican Radio said, quoting a Vatican press statement.

Balda will be under "conditional freedom" for the rest of his sentence, will leave his post at the Vatican and be put under the jurisdiction of the diocese of Astorga in his native Spain, the statement said.

Balda was jailed in July after the controversial trial at the Vatican that saw him, his assistant, two investigative Italian journalists and a PR consultant in the dock.

The case centred on the documents used by the journalists for their books exposing corruption, waste and financial mismanagement at the highest levels of the church.

Italian public relations expert Francesca Chaouqui was given a 10-month suspended sentence while the journalists and Balda's assistant were cleared.

The journalists' prosecution was widely criticised as a move harming freedom of speech and information.

Chaouqui and Balda had been appointed by Francis to a now-defunction papal reform commission probing the Vatican's finances.

Francis's act of clemency at Christmas is reminiscent of when his predecessor Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI pardoned his former butler Paolo Gabriele in December 2012.

Gabriele was jailed for leaking some of Benedict's private correspondence to Italian media in what was known as the first 'Vatileaks' case.

--IANS/AKI

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A school principal in China has been sacked for conducting exams in the open on a highly polluted day.

A thick blanket of smog -- worst of this year -- descended on north China, prompting authorities to issue a red alert for air pollution. Under a red alert, schools in China are shut.

In Linzhou city in Henan province, all kindergartens and schools were told to close on Monday, and stay closed until the end of this week's red alert for air pollution.

But students of a middle school were summoned for exams, Xinhua news agency said.

More than 400 of them turned up for the exams conducted in the school's playground despite the worst pollution of the year on Monday.

--IANS

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A Wyoming-based factory will be the exclusive manufacturer of magazines used in combat by the U.S. Marine Corps, Magpul Industries said Tuesday.

Magpul is headquartered in Austin, Texas, but moved its manufacturing facilities to Cheyenne last year.

The Marine Corps announced that Magpul had been selected as the new supplier of combat magazines on Dec. 16, according to a company statement.

This is great news to everyone at Magpul, and it validates years of hard work by our entire team perfecting and producing the most reliable magazines in the world, Magpul Director of Product Management and Marketing Duane Liptak said in the statement.

Liptak did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Magpul said the selection came following years of tests examining the performance of magazines, which hold bullet cartridges, when used with different types of ammunition and firearms.

The companys GEN M3 PMAG series was selected after outperforming other magazines, the statement said.

The magazine, which retails on Magpuls website for $14.95, holds 30 rounds and comes in both black and tan.

The Magpul statement said that the aluminum magazines currently used by the Marine Corps will be relegated to training use only.

A representative for the Marine Corps was not immediately available Tuesday to provide information regarding the selection of an exclusive magazine supplier.

Magpul is a gun accessory manufacturer and part of a growing firearms industry in Wyoming.

The sector employs 730 people in the state and pays $19 million in annual wages, according to the Wyoming Business Council.

Rachelle Zimmerman of Cheyenne LEADS, a business development group, said that Magpuls success was good for the entire state.

Anytime you see a business being successful anywhere in Wyoming thats a win for us, Zimmerman said. I would assume this would, from an employment perspective, be a positive for the area.
A Pune mans wedding was solemnized in a Pune hospital ICU where his father was battling death on a ventilator.

An Intensive Care Unit is hardly the venue for such an event but the extraordinary circumstances led to the unusual decision, said the groom, Dnyanesh N. Dev, 34, a businessman.

"It was my father Nandkumar Dev's intense desire to witness my wedding with Suvarna Kalange on December 18 at Satara. But a few days earlier, he suffered a major heart attack and was hospitalised," Dev told IANS on Wednesday.

With a history of heart disease, Nandkumar Dev, 67, underwent an angioplasty at the Deenanath Mangeshkar Superspeciality Hospital and recovered well until he suddenly developed a lung infection.

He was put on ventilator, taken off and again put on it as his condition kept fluctuating, Dev said.

Barely a couple of days before the scheduled wedding, the hospital did not sound very optimistic about Nandkumar's chances of recovery or survival.

"Both families - my mother Rajani and elder sister Mukta, my fiancee's parents and her sister - discussed the matter in detail and decided to fulfil my father's last desire," an emotional Dev said.

They sought the permission of the hospital for solemnizing a brief wedding before the dying patient in the ICU.

The hospital's Medical Director Dhananjay Kelkar and others like Sameer Jog and Rajesh Pawar, an eye surgeon also related to the bride, allowed a quickie wedding in the ICU on the afternoon of December 17.

They permitted only the immediate families from both sides to witness the event. Some doctors and nurses remained to supervise the patient.

The bride and the groom quickly exchanged garlands and vows quietly, without any fanfare.

The two, both MBAs, touched the feet of Nandkumar Dev who was watching the brief ceremony from behind the ventilator and then took blessings of all the other relatives present.

Later, the two families had a small 'wedding bash' - tea and biscuits in the hospital canteen downstairs after which the newly-weds departed.

Barely 12 hours later, Nandkumar Dev peacefully passed away, early on the morning of December 18 - the original scheduled wedding date.

"Since we are going through the mourning period of around six weeks, all further plans for a formal wedding shall be decided only later," Dev told IANS.

He said both the Dev and Kalange families shall be eternally grateful to the hospital authorities for going out of the way and helping them fulfil the late Nandkumar Dev's last wishes.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in)

--IANS

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has postponed his annual press conference to attend the funeral of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, a Kremlin spokesman said on Wednesday.

Dmitry Peskov explained that Putin decided not to conduct the news conference on Thursday as the funeral for the slain ambassador was set to be held on the same day, Efe news reported.

"The President would hold the annual press conference now on December 23, instead," Peskov said.

Following the announcement of the assassination of Karlov, Putin stressed that the crime was "without doubt a provocation aimed at spoiling the normalisation of Russo-Turkish relations".

It was also aimed at "spoiling the Syrian peace process which is being actively pushed by Russia, Turkey, Iran and others".

Karlov was shot while speaking at an art exhibition by an assailant identified by Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek as a 22-year-old policeman.

Karlov, 62, was named Russian envoy o Turkey in July 2013 after serving as ambassador to North Korea from 2001 to 2006.

--IANS

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The Indian on Wednesday launched a Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) provided by French firm Thales on the 68-km-long Basin Bridge-Arakkonam section in southern India, said a Thales official.

The TPWS-equipped section was inaugurated by Akhil Agrawal, Director General (Signal & Telecommunication), Railway Board, at Ambattur station, Chennai, a press release from the company said.

Global technology major Thales' European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 1 solution is known in India as TPWS.

In September 2014, Southern Railway had awarded this signalling contract to Thales.

As part of the contract, Thales supplied ETCS Level 1 solution and was also responsible for the design, supply, installation and commissioning of track-side equipment, the release added.

With the completion of this project, Thales brings to India the advanced signalling system that has been deployed in Europe.

Raviprakash Karcherla, Director in Charge of Ground Transportation for Thales in India, said: "As passenger safety and train security are of utmost importance, we are proud to have brought the advanced and capable train protection system to India's railway networks through this project.

"We look forward to further supporting the Indian in its ongoing modernisation plan and contribute to the development of railway infrastructure in the country."

Karcherla was further quoted as saying: "This project is intended at optimising train security and passenger safety while enabling trains to run faster, leading to shorter travel times and increased line capacity through the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) capability."

Thales is one of the principal suppliers of train signalling technology and the worldwide leader in the supply of ETCS solutions with 16,000 km of ETCS line or 30 per cent of the global market share.

--IANS

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a sharp U-turn on Wednesday withdrew the circular for KYC-compliant accounts that barred people from depositing over Rs 5,000 in old currency more than once till December 30.

The central bank said that on reviewing its notification of November 19, it is advising banks to withdraw the two conditions for fully KYC-compliant accounts.

On November 19, the RBI had announced that deposits of demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in excess of Rs 5,000 will be allowed only once till December 30 -- that too after strict scrutiny.

On Monday night, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that one-time deposit till December 30 will not invite scrutiny by bank officials.

According to the earlier notification, when a person deposits over Rs 5,000 in withdrawn currencies, the account will be credited only after questioning him or her, in the presence of two bank officials, as to why the notes had not been deposited earlier. The bankers were to keep the explanatory statement on record for a future audit trail.

The decision created confusion, when Jaitley contradicted the RBI notification, saying people will not be questioned if any amount of old currency is deposited in one go, but repeated deposits may provoke queries.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Ranchi Police on Wednesday announced a Rs one lakh reward for any clues in the rape and murder of a 19-year-old here on December 16.

When the country was mourning the death of 'Nirbhaya', on the very day another girl was allegedly raped and burnt to death in the Jharkhand capital.

According to the police, the burnt body of the third year engineering student was found in a house at Booty Basti in the Sadar police station area.

The body was found "naked and burnt", the police said. They suspected that the girl was first raped by someone she knew and later set ablaze.

The Jharkhand Police stated that the investigation in the case was moving in the right direction and they have adopted every resource available to bring the criminals to justice.

However, the probe has not shown any result in the last five days leading to public anger spilling on to the streets.

The Ranchi Police on Saturday formed a Special Investigating Team (SIT) but did not meet with any success.

Forensic experts, meanwhile, maintain that a lot of evidence was lost in the fire. What may have survived the blaze was washed out by the water used by locals to douse the flames.

People here are angry and apart from candle marches, they have also forced a shut down of shops and business establishments in the Booty area and even threatened a severe agitation if the culprits were not arrested soon.

The Jharkhand government has announced Rs three lakh compensation to the family members of the deceased.

The victim's father expressed deep dissatisfaction over the police investigation.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Scores of South Korean ruling party lawmakers on Wednesday agreed to defect from the Saenuri Party as strife deepened between factions loyal to and against impeached President Park Geun-hye.

Thirty five legislators of the Saenuri's anti-Park faction agreed to bolt from the party on December 27, Xinhua news agency reported.

Intra-party fighting got stiffer after the bill to impeach Park was passed through the National Assembly.

Almost half of 128 Saenuri lawmakers voted for the impeachment, indicating more anti-Park faction members may choose to leave the ruling party in the near future.

A new party that will be created by the anti-Park faction could surpass the number of 38 parliamentary seats the minor opposition People's Party garnered in the April general elections.

The biggest opposition Minjoo Party has 121 lawmakers, while there are six legislators with the minor opposition Justice Party and seven independent lawmakers.

The anti-Park faction's new party will become one of floor negotiation bodies in parliament as it meets the requirements of over 20 lawmakers, raising the total number of floor body to four.

The four-party regime would emerge for the first time since 1988 when four political parties formed their respective negotiation bodies on the floor.

Attention is expected to be paid to whether the People's Party, mostly composed of defectors from the Minjoo Party, and the anti-Park faction's party would form a "third playing field", where non-mainstreamers in both ruling and opposition parties compete to field a single candidate in the next presidential election.

If the constitutional court justifies the presidential impeachment for as long as 180 days, a presidential election is required to be held within 60 days.

--IANS

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has criticised those who made fun of Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor for naming their newly-born son Taimur. The former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister says that it's their right to decide the name of their baby and the opinion of the rest doesn't matter.

After the star couple announced their son's name as Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi, social media users went on to vehemently troll the couple. They questioned why they named their son after "the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur".

hit back at people on Tuesday night and posted: "The only people who get to decide a baby's name are the parents of said baby and the ones they ask. Why should opinion of the rest matter?"

Another tweet by him read: "So congrats to Saif and Kareena and a long happy life to their baby son. May Taimur Ali Khan have a happy and healthy life."
At least six persons were killed in their sleep when a fire broke out in Hotel Bindal in this eastern Maharashtra town early on Wednesday, an official said.

"The blaze was noticed around 3.30 am when the victims were fast asleep. Six men have been charred to death. Some others are feared trapped inside," Gondia police officer Jitendra Borkar told IANS.

Five fire tenders and tankers were pressed into service to battle the flames which were brought under control after nearly seven hours.

A search is on to rescue some other guests feared trapped in the hotel. The cause of the fire is being investigated, Borkar added.

A tribal-dominated district, Gondia is around 170 km east of Nagpur and bordering Madhya Pradesh.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Sri Lanka Navy assisted the Coast Guard to arrest 12 Indian fishermen poaching in the northern seas of the island country, the navy said on Wednesday.

Two Indian fishing trawlers were seized, Xinhua news agency reported.

The fishermen and the trawlers were brought to the northern town of Mannar and handed over to the Department of Fisheries for further action.

Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said there had been a 50 per cent drop in poaching by Indian trawlers in Sri Lankan waters due to enhanced patrolling by the navy and Coast Guard.

The minister said all boats seized before last year were returned to India.

He said while the fishermen were released on humanitarian grounds, Sri Lanka will continue to arrest any Indian fishermen poaching in Sri Lankan waters.

Sri Lanka and India will hold more talks to seek a solution to the long-standing disputes between fishermen, he said.

The Indian foreign minister and fisheries minister were expected to attend the talks in Colombo on January 2, 2017.

--IANS

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The streets around Buckingham Palace in London will be closed during the Changing of the Guard ceremony as a security measure, the Royal Parks announced on Wednesday.

The Royal Parks received a request from the Metropolitan Police to close several central streets to vehicles, including the Mall, which links the official residence of the royal family with Trafalgar Square.

This comes in the aftermath of the Berlin attack on Monday when an unknown driver of a stolen Polish truck mowed down 12 persons and injured another 48 at a festive Christmas market.

The London streets would be closed during the ceremony that is witnessed by a large number of tourists visiting Britain, Efe news reported.

British police announced on Tuesday an assessment of security measures in the country following Monday's Berlin attack and the killing of Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov in Ankara.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said law enforcement officials would review all security plans in the capital.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Raghava Lawrence plans to remake yet another popular yesteryear Rajinikanth's hit Tamil film "Mannan". He says talks are still premature as he is busy wrapping up upcoming Tamil horror-drama, "Shivalinga".

"I'm currently busy with 'Shivalinga', and we are soon planning to shoot in Bangkok. Talks regarding 'Mannan' remake have been initiated but everything is still premature. It's too early to comment on this project," Lawrence told IANS.

P. Vasu, who helmed "Mannan", might helm its remake too.

He will also star in and produce the remake of another Rajinikanth Tamil hit, "Moondru Mugam".

"Both these projects will only happen next year. Since all my focus is currently on 'Shivalinga', I don't want to think about anything else," he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
It is December 21 and winter solstice has arrived. This year it falls at 10:44 GMT (4.14 p.m. Wednesday India time) bringing with it what is conventionally believed to be the longest night of the year.

At the solstice, the sun reaches its lowest altitude of the year before slowly climbing higher and higher with each day.

"Because of the Earth's tilt and the way the planet orbits the Sun, the Sun appears higher or lower in the sky," the Chicagoist quoted Michelle Nichols, a Master Educator at Adler Planetarium Chicago, as saying.

This is the point at which the Sun is at its lowest point in the sky. It is essentially when the Sun is seen directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn, Nichols added.

According to The Telegraph, the solstice can happen on December 20, 21, 22 or 23, though December 20 or 23 solstices are rare.

The last December 23 solstice was in 1903 and will not happen again until 2303.

The exact time of the solstice varies each year.

The winter solstice happens every year when the Sun reaches its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees.

"In other words, when the North Pole is tilted farthest -- 23.5 degrees -- away from the Sun, delivering the fewest hours of sunlight of the year," The Telegraph report added.

The day after the winter solstice marks the beginning of lengthening days,leading up to the summer solstice in June, it added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Industrialist Nusli Wadia on Wednesday said he will not attend the extra-ordinary general meeting (EGM) of Tata Steel, where he is expected to be removed as an Independent Director of the company.

Tata Steel has convened an EGM to decide whether or not to remove Wadia as an Independent Director on its Board.

The agenda of the EGM was to take shareholders' approval for the removal of Tata Sons ousted Chairman Cyrus Mistry and Independent Director Wadia from its Board of Directors.

On Monday, Mistry had stepped down from his position as a member on the Board of Directors of Tata Steel.

"What is at stake now is not whether I am removed or not but the fate of the very institution of the Independent Director that has been created in law and by SEBI to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders," Wadia said in a letter to the shareholders of Tata Steel.

"It is in your hands to vote with your conscience for what is right for your company and more important for the institution of Independent Directors," the letter read.

"I have chosen not to attend the meeting as I understand that recent meetings held of other Tata Companies have been inappropriately and shamefully stage-managed by the requisitionist controlling the entry into the hall as also in the selection and choice of the speakers as never before seen in Indian corporate history."

Wadia observed that he has outlined events relating to various decisions of the company's Board, especially with regard to Tata Steel's investment in Corus and events that have led to the impairment of approximately Rs 35,000 crore and a capital employed in the region of Rs 75,000 crore.

"The recent public statements that have been made on Tata Steel Europe just to protect 11,000 British jobs is a matter of concern that needs to be addressed by all shareholders as such support has now become unaffordable and is detrimental to the interest of the shareholders," the three-page letter said.

"Equally important is the fact that the capital employed in Tata Steel Europe today could have been invested in three steel plants across India with substantial returns making Tata Steel the number one steel company of the country while providing employment to a million Indians."

"I have raised the issue on the actions which I believe to be inappropriate and in violation of the SEBI Insider Trading Regulations by the promoter Tata Sons and the Trustees of the Tata Trusts: as also the manner in which they have and continue to influence and direct the affairs of your company. A role that is solely the responsibility of your Board," Wadia said.

According to Wadia, the issue at hand was about the 'very independence of an Independent Director and his ability to perform his fiduciary duties and responsibilities without fear or favour'.

"The ability of a promoter to remove an Independent Director through the brute force of its holding in an ordinary resolution on which it can vote is a serious and major dichotomy and contradiction that needs to be and must be addressed urgently," he added.

Wadia has also approached the Bombay High Court.

On December 16, the Bombay High Court declined relief to minority shareholders of three Tata Group companies seeking to restrain promoters from voting at EGMs between December 21-23 on a resolution to remove Wadia as an Independent Director.

However, the Bombay High Court has barred Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Chemicals from filling up the vacancy on the Board of Directors till further orders in the matter.

Wadia's support for Tata Sons ousted Chairman Mistry has led several Tata Group companies to call for their respective EGMs to decide whether or not to remove Wadia from their respective Boards.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The naming of Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive officer of oil company ExxonMobil, as the next Secretary of State of the United States has deepened speculation about the direction that countrys foreign policy will take under Donald Trump. This is a difficult exercise, not least because Mr Trumps own heated tweets can serve to derail any attempt at analysis. Most recently, for example, Mr Trump suggested that the Peoples Republic of China could keep a US undersea drone that its navy had taken from international waters in the South China Sea. Yet there is nevertheless enough evidence in the public domain  not least, the choice of Mr Tillerson  to begin the process of painting a coherent picture of Mr Trumps expectations from US diplomacy.
Cyrus Mistrys resignation from the Tata groups listed companies may have spared these conglomerates the ructions of his very public battle with Ratan Tata in the immediate future. But his exit does not solve the broader institutional issue that will influence the fate of Indias largest corporate group: Of setting in place governance structures to insulate itself from such controversies and strengthen its ability to survive the dynamic hyper-competition of the coming decades. Even if the group were to replace Mr Mistry with another candidate as chairman of Tata Sons, the group holding company, the structural problems will remain. Distilled to its basics, the dispute centres on separation of ownership and management. In the Tata groups case, the problem is amplified by a structure that embeds management power in ownership structures. Thus, the Tata charitable trusts, which own two-thirds of Tata Sons and, through it, significant chunks of group operating companies, can wield disproportionate power in the affairs of the group. With directors representing the trusts having veto powers on board decisions, this imbalance of power has negated the efficacy of the board. The fact that these trusts are controlled by a family scion who is 78 years old and with no strong line of inheritance only magnifies the potential for future crises.
In an off-the-record interaction with this newspaper, a senior bureaucrat defended Prime Minister Narendra Modis demonetisation initiative and its intention to flush out black money, comparing it to the deadly plague, which hit parts of India, especially Surat, in 1994, and led to the death of 56 people. The bureaucrat explained that demonetisation would wipe out the black economy for good just as Surat changed after the plague. Surat used to be dirty. Now it is one of Indias cleanest cities, he said.
Defence Minister on Tuesday said he had to buy accommodation outside Panaji, his previous Legislative Assembly constituency, as he could not afford a home in the state capital, where real estate prices have spiralled out of control.

"In Panaji, I could not afford, as the rate is out of control. So despite my wishes, I could not buy a flat in Panaji. The one which I (live in now) is slightly out of Panaji," Parrikar said.

The former chief minister, who hails from Mapusa town, located 10 kms from Panaji, said he felt sad that he could not fulfil a promise made to his constituents during his first state assembly election in the state capital in the 90s. The promise was that he would buy a home in Panaji.

"I am sad in the real sense that I could not fulfil a promise made in the first elections, which is to re-locate to Panaji. I stayed in the Chief Minister's house, but that is not my house," he said.

Parrikar has represented Panaji in the Assembly on five occasions, before he was elevated as the Defence Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central government.
In his fiery speech at Mehsana here today, Indian Congress (Congress) vice president Rahul Gandhi attacked the Prime Minister alleging that Narendra Modi put the interests of 99 per cent of the population of India at stake as he made an endeavour to protect the one per cent rich people who actually own the maximum 'black money'. Further, he also alleged that the PM was involved in personal corruption, and that he had received crores worth of rupees from business houses like Sahara and Aditya Birla groups.

Speaking at a rally of 75,000 locals, Gandhi claimed that he has proof of Sahara Group and Aditya Birla had given crores of rupees in 2013-14 to Modi, the then chief minister of Gujarat. "He is now questioning the honesty of Indians," Gandhi said.
The Opposition parties, led by the Congress, on Wednesday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modis personal integrity saying he should come clean on whether he had received cash payments, in excess of Rs 40 crore, from the Sahara and Aditya Birla groups in 2012-13, when he was the Gujarat chief minister.
With the crucial Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh just around the corner, the Bharatiya Janata Party's grassroot level cadre in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi shall be looking forward to receiving from him the mantra for electoral success during his tour of the ancient temple town on Thursday.

Interaction with nearly 20,000 booth-level party workers at the Diesel Locmotive Works (DLW) premises forms a major part of the Prime Minister's itinerary.

Modi's visit, which could be the last to his parliamentary constituency before the poll schedule is announced and the Model Code of Conduct comes into force, also includes flagging off of quite a few projects.

These include laying of foundation stones for a cancer centre and a super-speciality hospital at the Benares Hindu University where Modi will also spend some time at the "Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav" (national cultural festival), a week-long event organised by the Union Ministry for Culture where artistes from across the country, some of them of international repute, have been performing.

From BHU premises, Modi will leave for a brief tour of Kabir Nagar locality, named after the 17th century mystic and poet, and inspect underground cabling and heritage lighting work, which is being carried out as part of the IPDS (Integrated Power Development Scheme) and HRIDAY (Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana) schemes.

Thereafter the Prime Minister will reach DLW, where his political engagements will be preceded by laying of foundation stone for a 150-bed ESIC (Employee's State Insurance Corporation) super speciality hospital and inauguration of a trade facilitation centre and a crafts museum besides launching of a number of schemes and projects under the Textiles Ministry.

This would be Modi's first tour of his Parliamentary constituency since demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, that has drawn much flak from the opposition as the shortage of currency caused inconvenience to traders, salaried groups, artisans and unskilled daily wage earners alike.
Simle Middle School Principal Russ Riehl has received the Patriot Award, presented by the U.S. Department of Defense to employers who show support for employees in the National Guard and Reserve Force.

Kalli Swenson, an eighth-grade physical education teacher at Simle, nominated Riehl for the award. Swenson has served in the North Dakota National Guard for nearly 14 years, and next month she will be deployed to Afghanistan.

Normally we dont have to be gone so much from our job, and in this special circumstance, I did. And it just helps so much when youve got support from your employer, she said. On top of everything else thats going on, its one less thing Ive got to stress about.

Swenson, who has been teaching at Simle for six years, commended Riehl's support and helpfulness when she's had to take time off for training.

This will be her second yearlong deployment. Her first was in 2007, while she was in college. When she gets back this time, her job will be waiting for her.

"When we leave, other people have to pick up our responsibilities when were gone. Its the families that have to pick up the slack, the employers that have to pick up the slack, and just the community in general," she said.

Swenson said she and 70 other National Guard members will be deployed from North Dakota.

Their responsibilities dont just go away," she said. Its nice to be able to recognize that and increase the support.

On Wednesday, Riehl was surprised with the award as about 50 students gathered at the school's gymnasium. Swenson told the students she would be deployed to Afghanistan within the next few weeks, and to clap and cheer as loud as they could for Riehl because this is a big deal. Its a big deal that I have support from my employer.

Riehl walked into the gymnasium with a look of surprise. Steve Miller, a member of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Committee, presented him with a framed certificate.

For me, this award is really about our school district, but probably Kalli," he said. "Shes the one doing all the hard work and the heavy lifting. Im just so proud of her and the sacrifices shes made for our kids and our school, and what a great role model."
political parties received over Rs 100 crore in 2015-16 in the form of donations above Rs 20,000, the limit above which funding sources have to be disclosed, as per a report.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led the pack at Rs 76.85 crore from 613 donations, while Congress declared receiving Rs 20.42 crores from 918 donations.

The donations of less than Rs 20,000, evade scrutiny and Election Commission of India (ECI) has recently recommended the government to ban anonymous contributions of Rs 2,000 and above to the parties.

"The total amount of donations above Rs 20,000 declared by the Parties was Rs 102.02 crores from 1,744 donations," the report said.

Jointly prepared by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Election Watch (NEW), the analysis says that the donations declared by BJP is more than thrice the aggregate declared by the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the same period.

Prepared on the basis of declarations made by the parties to the Election Commission, it says Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000 during 2015-16, "as it has been declaring for the past 10 years".

A comparison of the total donations received by the parties in 2014-15 and 2015-16 shows that it saw a decrease of 84 per cent or Rs 528.67 crore.

Donations to BJP decreased from Rs 437.35 crores during the financial year 2014-15 to Rs 76.85 crores during 2015-16 (a decrease of 82 per cent), it says.

"It is to be noted that BJP's donations had increased by 156 per cent between 2013-14 and 2014-15 while that of INC had increased by 137 per cent during the same period," the report notes.

The temporary rise may be attributed to the 16th Lok Sabha elections that were held in 2014.

The report also observes a marked decline in cash donations declared by the parties in 2015-16, which it attributes to a 2014 ECI notification that had done away with the provision of tax deduction on cash support.

"Of the total donations of Rs 102.02 crores declared by the National Parties, Rs 1.45 crores from 112 donations was received in cash during FY 2015-16. This formed 1.42 per cent of the total donations of the parties," it says.

Importantly, it also flags incomplete disclosure of information in the donations report submitted by the parties.

"Of the seven national parties - BJP, INC, CPI and NCP had not declared PAN details of 473 donations through which the parties collected a total of Rs 11.68 crores.

"INC collected Rs 8.11 crores from 318 donations but failed to provide PAN details of donors while BJP collected Rs 2.19 crores from 71 donations without PAN," it says.
With his government already embattled over its note ban decision, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today faced a pincer movement, in which forces simultaneously attack both flanks of an enemy formation, from a united opposition. The Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and opposition parties questioned Modi's personal integrity over whether he had received cash payments, in excess of Rs 50 crore, from individuals associated with the Sahara and Aditya Birla groups in 2012-13, when he was the chief minister of Gujarat.
A 102-year-old Australian ecologist, the country's oldest working scientist, has won a battle to keep working on campus at an Australian university.

Dr David Goodall was ordered to work from home next year after his presence at Western Australia's Edith Cowan University was deemed a safety risk.

But the university has now found an alternative workspace.

Australia's oldest working scientist, Goodall has produced more than 100 research papers in an ecology career spanning 70 years.

He is currently an unpaid honorary research associate. After two decades at Edith Cowan University, Goodall was told in August to pack up his office when staff raised concerns about his safety.

It was another setback for the ecologist, who was recently forced to give up theatre when his declining vision prevented him from driving to rehearsals.

The university confirmed "better" office space has been found at a campus closer to Goodall's residence.

"I am pleased we have found a solution that will ensure David can continue to be based at ECU," vice-chancellor Steve Chapman told the BBC.

Goodall said he was grateful the university was able to accommodate him.

"I hope to continue with some useful work in my field in so far as my eyesight permits," he told the ABC.

"But I still think the emphasis on safety was unnecessary," the centenarian scientist added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As many as 11 prisoners serving life sentence in the Nashik Central Jail have been shifted to prisons in Pune and Navi Mumbai after mobile phones were found in some of their barracks, a senior official said today.

Following suspicion, a through search was carried out last week during which eight mobile phones were found in different barracks. Some prisoners were also found talking over the mobile phones, Nashik Jail Superintendent Ramesh Kamble said.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (Prisons) Rajendra Dhamane also paid a two-day visit to the Nashik Road Central Jail and inspected the jail barracks, he said.

Subsequently, the decision was taken to shift some of the prisoners from the jail, he said.

While five prisoners have been shifted to Pune Central Jail, six others have been shifted to Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 12 Indian fishermen were arrested and their two trawlers seized by Sri Lankan Navy in the early hours of today for allegedly poaching in the country's territorial waters, a day after seven others were detained on similar charges.

The fishermen, all hailing from Tamil Nadu, were arrested south of Talaimannar in the north.

They have been handed over to the fishing inspectorate in Mannar and their two trawlers have also been seized, the Navy said.

Indian fisheries department officials said three groups of fishermen from Pamban near Rameswaram were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy personnel for fishing off Talaimannar and were detained at the police station there.

20 fishers who had set out for fishing from Pamban in two mechanised boats and a country boat were rounded up by the Lankan authorities while they were fishing in the south sea using the banned fishing nets, Rameswaram Fisheries Department Assistant Director Gopinath said.

While fishermen in one of the boats managed to get away in their boat, 12 others were caught and taken to Sri Talaimannar, Lanka, he said.

Today's arrest comes a day after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam asked the Centre to send a "firm message" to the island nation over continued apprehension of the state's fishermen.

The incident also comes a day after seven persons from Pudukottai district were detained for allegedly fishing in their waters and taken to Kangesanthurai Port, along with their boats.

On Monday, Lankan fisheries minister Mahinda Amaraweera had said that there has been a 50 per cent drop in recent times in 'poaching' by Indian trawlers in Sri Lankan waters due to enhanced patrolling by the Navy and coast guard.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Donald Trump's bombastic run for president and his electoral triumph headlined much of 2016 that was also a "great year" for Indo-US ties as the two countries overcame "hesitations of history" to closely collaborate on key issues like defence, counter-terrorism and civil nuclear energy.

In a result that stunned the world, rank political outsider Trump was elected president crushing his strongly- favoured Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the November 8 poll.

Riding a wave of anti-establishment resentment in a closely-contested race to become the 45th US president, the 70-year-old billionaire businessman, who took to politics only 18 months ago, won with a comfortable margin.

He first beat 16 other Republican presidential hopefuls to clinch the nomination and then trumped Clinton.

Much of the year was headlined by controversies created by his bombastic style during one of the ugliest campaigns in US political history that also saw Trump making alleged anti- Muslim assertions and sexist remarks.

In the election season, allegations flew thick and fast from Trump being accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women to Clinton's email saga.

However, it was the email scandal that finally proved to be her nemesis as just days before the election when she was leading in most polls, the FBI announced reopening of its probe into the saga which swung the pendulum in Trump's favour.

Though the FBI gave her a last-minute clean chit ahead of the polls, experts said it might have been too late by then.

Apart from the election, another issue that dominated the discourse were lone-wolf attacks and mass shootings, including the horrific Orlando gay nightclub shooting incident in which Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11.

Post-election, there was a massive spike in hate crimes and assaults on hijab-clad women which many blamed on Trump's campaign rhetoric.

On the bilateral front, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one among the top few world leaders with whom Trump spoke over the phone after his victory



By any standards it could be described as a "great year" for the Indo-US relationship.

It was a year in which Modi made a historic address to a joint session of the US Congress and met President Barack Obama as many as three times, twice in Washington DC.

The year gone by also saw the signing of the long-overdue logistics exchange agreement, US designating India as a major defence partner and playing an instrumental role in India becoming a member of the prestigious Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

If it would not have been for Chinese resistance, the icing on the cake could have been India's membership to the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group.

The US tried its best but was unable to cross the 'Great Wall of China'.

The future of ties also look bright with Trump assuming



power next month.

Trump himself has publicly said he is a fan of Modi and has praised the Prime Minister for taking steps for reviving the Indian economy and cutting bureaucratic red tape.

Given the fact that Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, who made a quiet trip to Washington last month, was given rare access to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, it could be a strong indication that the India-US relationship under a Trump administration would continue to see an upward trajectory.

The bonhomie in ties that kicked off during the Clinton administration, got a big boost under the Bush administration with the civil nuclear deal and was propelled to a new level under the Obama administration.

"2016 was a great year for US-India ties," Alyssa Ayres, a former state department official in the Obama administration, told PTI.

The White House used Modi's words from his address to the Congress that India and US have "overcome the hesitations of history" to describe the relationship between the two countries in 2016.

"As Prime Minister Modi noted in his June 2016 address to Congress, India and the United States have 'overcome the hesitations of history' and 'turned barriers into bridges of partnership'," Emily Horne, a spokesperson of the National Security Council, told
More than 50 per cent of students in the city's colleges do not possess the skills required for employment, a survey has revealed.

According to findings of SEED Report 2016, (Student Enrichment and Development), the scenario in India has changed for the better, but current curriculum is not adequate to make pupils job-ready.

About 73 per cent the youth polled believed the curriculum is not enough to prepare them for jobs as industry demands more soft skills from the millennials (individuals who reached adulthood around the turn of 21st century), said the survey done by Prahladrai Dalmia Lions college of Commerce and Economics and The Lions Club of Malad-Borivali.

It said a whopping 87 per cent felt the need of joining certificate courses for competitive exams.

The survey represented views of 200 students across higher education institutions from over 20 colleges of Mumbai. More than half of these students lacked the skills required for .

"Its an annual initiative of the SEED programme, a module which was developed three years back to enhance soft skills among students and help promote employment opportunities.

"The survey found that 30 per cent youth wanted to join marketing jobs followed by the finance and HR streams," said Subhashini Naikar, SEED Consultant & Chief Coordinator, Prahladrai Dalmia Lions College of Commerce and Economics.

A number of students were inclined towards shares and trading, while 25 per cent the surveyed showed interest in unconventional learnings.

Personality development was seen as an essential ingredient to stand a chance of landing corporate jobs.

"Confidence and attitude are major ingredients for success," the survey revealed.
A Motor Accident Claims Tribunal here has awarded a compensation of Rs 16.49 lakhs to the family of a 30-year-old man including his aged parents, after he was killed in an accident in 2009.

The order was recently passed by MACT member S C Khalipe.

The 25-year-old widow Aasha Bhoir, her son Aniket, her in-laws Ramchandra and Sitabai claimed in their petition that Anil Bhoir was killed in 2009.

The counsel for claimants, Rajaram Tarmale said on April 26, 2009 at about 5.15 PM, Anil was proceeding from Murbad to Chasole, on his motorbike and a tempo coming from the opposite direction collided head on with his bike.

As a result Anil suffered serious injuries and died on the spot, Tarmale said.

The deceased was running a brick-kiln and earning Rs 8,000 to 10,000 monthly, the MACT was informed.

As the tempo owner Radhakisan Dagadu Ghayat from Aurangabad was not present, the case was decided ex-parte against him and the insurer Reliance General Insurance Co. Ltd, which contested the claim through its counsel K S Kamble.

"The Court is of the view that considering the evidence on record it is proved beyond doubt that accident was caused due to rash and negligent driving of the tempo driver. The owner is vicariously liable for negligence of tempo driver and insurance company is liable to indemnify the loss caused due to the accident, therefore both the respondents are jointly and severally liable to pay the compensation," the order said.

The Tribunal awarded a total compensation of Rs. 16,49,000 which included Rs 12,24,000 towards loss of income for the legal heir, Rs 25,000 towards funeral expenses, Rs 1 lakh each towards loss of consortium and loss of estate and additionally Rs 1 lakh towards old aged parents compensation.

This amount is to be paid by the respondents along with 8 per cent interest per annum from the date of the application, the order said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The annual Aerospace Safety Council meeting of Southern Air Command was held at Air Force Station Sulur, near here today.

The meeting is a forum for exchange of information, ideas and progress in various fields concerning aircraft operations, accident investigation, maintenance policies and procurement of new equipment for safe operations.

Deliberations were carried out on safe maritime operations, dynamic management of air space between Civil and Military traffic, Psychological factors affecting Flight Safety and assuming ownership to alleviate Human Errors in servicing at the meeting and Air Marshal, P N Pradhan Southern Air Comand delivered keynote address, an official release said here.

Air Marshal S Neelakantan, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Air Command chaired the meeting and Air Marshal Anil Khosla, Director General (Inspections and Safety) and a host of Senior Officers and dignitaries from the three defence services and agencies associated with aviation participated in the event.

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Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment today signed an agreement with UK-based Motivation Charitable Trust here for manufacturing affordable state-of-art wheel chairs having compliance to WHO guidelines in the country.

"The agreement is seen as step to gradually decrease the dependency of import of the products from China and to promote the products made at ALIMCO under the 'Make In India' initiative," said a statement issued by the Ministry.

The agreement is a step forward in continuation to the MoU signed between the two firms in April last year.

The MoU was signed by D R Sarin, CMD, ALIMCO and Richard Frost, Chief Executive Officer of M/s Motivation Trust, UK in the presence of Social Justice Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot.

As per the agreement, motivation will buy at least 20 per cent of the ALIMCO products at cost price minus the royalty charges and will train the personnel of the corporation who in turn will train the ALIMCO persons, the statement added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two pipeline protesters were convicted Tuesday of misdemeanors in the first Dakota Access-related jury trial in Morton County.

The case, which laid bare some of the disorder around the pipeline cases, also featured the first attempt to pick a jury in a county flooded with news and personal ties to the controversy.

The trial pertained to two men  Benjamin Schapiro, 30, of Ohio, and Steven Voliva, 62, of Washington  who were arrested Sept. 27 and accused of blocking a highway to allow a caravan of protesters to proceed. A jury convicted the men of obstructing a highway and disorderly conduct, and fined them $1,285.

Early objections

Tuesdays proceeding was the courts second attempt this week to commence a jury trial of pipeline protesters. On Monday, a 10-person trial was postponed after a judge learned some evidence had not been provided to the defense attorneys.

Though the trial happened Tuesday, it was not without confusion and objections: Voliva first reached his defense attorney, William Thomason, shortly before trial and showed up seemingly unexpected in the courtroom midway through a 9 a.m. pretrial hearing. Kent Morrow, representing Shapiro, speculated that he was missing a key police report.

Voliva is a part-Yupik retiree and artist who said he protested a pipeline in Alaska when he was younger. Shapiro is a teacher and farmer. Both said they worried about potential environmental consequences of the pipeline.

Two other men arrested in the same incident were supposed to go to trial Tuesday, as well; but one did not have an attorney and was not in court. The other is in California and reached his attorney, Bob Quick, this past weekend, according to Quick.

No representative of the Morton County State's Attorney's Office appeared at the pretrial hearing to respond to the objections, and South Central District Judge Bruce Romanick was determined to proceed.

Weve got to keep moving, he told the attorneys with four hours to go before the trial. Thats how our system works.

Jury selection

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have expressed concern in recent days over their ability to find a fair six-person jury in Morton County. Their worries were reflected in questions asked by the judge and attorneys during the selection process.

We need to talk about the elephant in the courtroom, Romanick said early in the jury selection process, before asking about people's connections to this specific protest, people in law enforcement or the camps, and their use of social media.

One man, who said he was in stopped traffic due to this protest, was quickly excused. So was a woman who, when asked by Morrow about her associations with the name "Dakota Access Pipeline," responded get them out of here and theyre guilty. Other potential jurors who did not make the final panel included a Mandan city commissioner, a man with family in law enforcement and the pipeline industry, and a man who said he records protests around Bismarck-Mandan for Facebook.

Among the jurors serving were a homemaker, a pharmacist, a construction worker and an antiques dealer, who all said they could be fair.

After the trial, Morrow said he "had no doubt they tried to be fair," though he said he worried some were quiet about their true feelings about the protest.

Trial

The evidence presented at trial consisted of testimony of three law enforcement officers who were on N.D. Highway 6 that day.

Mercer County Sheriff Dean Danzeisen, who was assisting Morton County, said he looked through binoculars and saw the car containing the defendants, who were masked, pull into the intersection of Highway 6 and County Road 135 south of St. Anthony so that a convoy of protesters could proceed without stopping. He said the men got out of the car.

At least one car was stuck directly behind the protesters and another went around them, he said. The sheriff testified that he alerted Morton County deputies to pull over the car once it left the intersection and arrest the men inside.

Not mentioned in court was that a protest was staged that day along Highway 6 at a pipeline construction site.

In his closing argument, Ladd Erickson, who prosecuted the case for Morton County, asked the jury to focus on the defendants' alleged actions.

"Regardless of your passions and opinions, you cannot block public roads," he said. "If you rule against the state here, I can't go lay out in the street and protest your actions."

The defense attorneys countered that the state's case jumped to too many conclusions. They suggested their clients had not decided to stop the car in the road, that they might have had mechanical problems, and that no one had testified to feeling harassed by them.

"These officers arrived there without really knowing what was going on. And they just made some assumptions. And without asking anybody anything, they charged people with crimes," Thomason said.

Sentencing

After an hour of deliberation, the jury found the men guilty of the two Class B misdemeanors. Romanick gave them 10-day suspended sentences, meaning they will serve no jail time if they successfully complete a year on unsupervised probation. He also ordered $500 in restitution to law enforcement and $500 in reimbursement to their public defenders, along with mandatory court fees.

Romanick's decision to order reimbursement to the attorneys came upon a request from Erickson. The prosecutor told the judge in court he intended to seek a hearing for reimbursement after the trial, because he contends the protesters are seeking to do economic harm to Morton County through their arrests. The defense attorneys opposed this, since their clients were indigent enough to qualify for appointed counsel, and said they had not tracked their hours.

The judge set the fees at $500, which he said was less than any of the protesters could have paid for a private attorney. He noted the protesters are almost always able to make bond, and he suggested that meant they ought to be able to pay for their defense, too.

"You can get a job and pay these costs back," he remarked.

Voliva said after the trial that he wasn't surprised by the verdict.

"The environment is taking the worst of it," he said.
Leading wealth management player Ask Group has sold 41 per cent stake to Boston-based private equity major Advent International for USD 125 million.

Founders and other promoters, who include the top management, will retain the remaining 59 per cent in the city-based company, which is the largest in private wealth management firm in the country with an asset under management of close to Rs 30,000 crore, Ask Group managing director Sunil Rohokale said.

Though he refused to reveal the value of the deal, sources said, Advent is said to have paid USD 125 million for 41 per cent.

"Out of our total AUM of around Rs 30,000 crore, only USD 350 million are foreign capital. So this capital infusion will not only help widen our portfolio, but will also help us get foreign clients," Rohokale told PTI today.

Stating that Advent will help in building capacities to raise foregin capital, he said, "Partnership will focus on accelerating Ask Group's growth by strengthening its team, launching new products and expanding internationally."



"With the help of the Advent team, we plan to build an international franchise for investment opportunities focusing on institutional investors and family offices," he added.

Founded in 1983, Ask Group is the country's largest equity PMS provider, a leading real estate investment manager and one of the top wealth managers. The group also has a PE fund management business and has offices in Singapore along with a capital market licence, and in West Asia, he said.

When asked about board representation of Advent in Ask, he said they will get two board positions post the deal.

Rohokale said of the Rs 30,000 crore AUM, Rs 18,000 crore are in wealth management portfolio, Rs 9,000 crore in equity PMS, Rs 5,000 crore in realty PE and Rs 5,000 crore in pure equities.

The transaction is the first investment that Advent has made in the country from its new USD13 billion global PE fund, and its third in the country in the past two years following deals in Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals and Quest Global Services.

Advent, which has been investing here since 2007, has opened an office in Mumbai in 2009 and its other investments here include Care Hospitals and Computer Age.

"Advent with its deep sector expertise and global resources, can bring significant value to help us increase productivity, broaden our range of services and expand our international presence, which will help us take our businesses to the next level of growth," said Asit Koticha, chairman and founder of Ask Group.

Advent India head Shweta Jalan said Advent, founded in 1984, is one of the largest and most experienced global private equity investors and has invested in over 315 private equity transactions in 40 countries. As of September 2016, it had USD 42 billion in AUM.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Expressing helplessness over government's inability in bringing his pet "anti-superstition" bill into effect, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah todayblamed "vested interests" for it. "We have not been able to bring into effect the anti-superstition bill, because of some vested interests," Siddaramaiah said in a tweet.

Karnataka cabinet which had discussed the proposed 'Karnataka Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Bill' during its sittings in July had referred it to a cabinet sub-committee headed by Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa.

It was then said that most of the Ministers wanted the bill to be studied in detail before coming to any decision.

Besides Thimmappa, the committee consists of Health Minister Ramesh Kumar, Law Minister T B Jayachandra, Environment Minister Ramanath Rai and Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya.

Stating that the proposed bill was similar to the Act on the subject in Maharashtra, Ministerial sourceshad said that the word superstitious has been omitted from the proposed bill, which was earlier named as Evil, Inhuman and Superstitious Practices Prevention Bill.

The government, especially Law Minister T BJayachandra was under pressure from civil society groups to bring in an anti-superstition bill after the murder of rationalist M M Kalburgi.

Official sources say though the proposed bill issimilar to the one in Maharashtra, the difference is that the Karnataka bill has schedules.

The schedules categorise the practices that canbe tolerated and those that need to be controlled.There are about 24 practices in the bill that come under the 'to be controlled' category.

Noting that there are about 24 practices in the bill that come under the to be controlled category, they said these include sacrificing a human being for gain or appeasing deity, spreading belief in human sacrifice, persuading others to perform human sacrifice, practicing black magic and extractingmoney in the name of miracles among others.

Sources have also said that the bill does not interfere with the sentiments of anyone but intends to curtail practices that exploit someone, extract money and indulge in violence.

Asserting that the bill does not put a restriction on normal religious and traditional practices, they said consultations on Vastu, underground water source and astrologers has not been touched upon.

Practices like made snana, a ritual where people roll on plantain leaves left by Brahmin priestsafter partaking lunch in some temples, were also part of thebill.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Panun Kashmir, an organisation representing Kashmiri Pandits today welcomed the recent ruling by Supreme Court that Jammu and Kashmir has "no vestige" of sovereignty outside the Indian Constitution and said that "it is the most appropriate time to repeal Article 370".

"Panun Kashmir demands that now that the Supreme Court of India has defined in unambiguous terms the political status of Jammu and Kashmir, as also the political status of its citizens vis-a-vis rest of fellow Indians, it is the most appropriate time to repeal Article 370 lock, stock, and barrel", PK Convener Agnishakher told reporters here today.

Panun Kashmir welcomes the historic judgement the Supreme Court of India pronounced on December 17, which upheld the applicability of Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI Act) to Jammu and Kashmir, he said.

On Dec 17, the apex court had observed that Jammu and Kashmir has "no vestige" of sovereignty outside the Indian Constitution and its own, while the citizens of the state are "first and foremost" citizens of India.

The apex court observed this while terming as "wholly incorrect" the conclusion arrived at by Jammu and Kashmir High Court which had held that the state has "absolute sovereign power" to legislate laws touching the rights of its permanent residents regarding their immovable properties.

"The Supreme Court judgement has reiterated the most fundamental and cardinal fact that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and that the provisions of Article 370 embodied in the Constitution of India doesn't in any respect recognise it as a separate entity", Agnishanker said.

He said that the Supreme Court judgement has made it crystal clear that Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir is subordinate to Constitution of India as the Constitution of India is the one and only expression of the authority of Indian State.

"It should be clear to every person in Jammu and Kashmir and rest of India as well as outside India that the State of India is indivisible and its territorial and political character is inviolable", he said.

Hitting out at National Conference for grant of greater autonomy and advocating separatism, Ajay Chrungoo said, "it is said that the separatism in Kashmir has emerged due to weakening of autonomy. But it this autonomy politics which is responsible for separatism in Kashmir".

He said, "autonomy politics is idealogical mother of the separatism and NC its mother. SC Judgement has made it clear that J&K constituent is subordinate to Constitution of India".

"We want everybody to realise that the exclusion of Jammu and Kashmir state from the constitutional organisation of India on the basis of the Muslim majority character of its population is basically communal and has enabled Pakistan to extend the ambit of partition, that formed the basis of its creation, to claim the state of Jammu and Kashmir as its own territory", he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police in Bahrain today clashed with protesters supporting a top Shiite cleric who has been stripped of his citizenship and is on trial in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, activists said.

Security forces fired teargas canisters to disperse dozens of protesters outside the home of Sheikh Isa Qassim in the village of Diraz west of the capital, activists said.

Protesters have been staging a sit-in at Diraz since authorities revoked Qassim's citizenship in June, after accusing him of sowing sectarian divisions in the country.

Images posted online today showed protesters including women in traditional black robes brandishing posters of Qassim, whose trial on charges of illegal fundraising and money laundering opened in July.

Clashes also erupted in the nearby Shiite villages of Bani Jamrah, Bilad al-Qadim and Shahrakan, activists said.

The interior ministry said it made several arrests today, but did not refer to the clashes.

Bahrain has been rocked by unrest since security forces crushed protests led by the Shiite majority demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister in 2011.

Despite repeated calls from their Western allies, Bahrain's rulers have made no concessions to the Shiite opposition and have intensified a crackdown on critics.

The Gulf archipelago is home to the US Fifth Fleet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Members of All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) today held demonstrations at various RBI offices, including Mint Road headquarters in Mumbai, demanding adequate cash availability to banks and complete withdrawal of deposit cap rules.

Besides Delhi, demonstrations were held at various offices of RBI, including its head offices in Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Jaipur.

AIBOC in a statement said that officers, including women, who were marching from RBI regional office to Jantar Mantar were forced to board a bus and were taken away to Parliament Street Police Station.

Police also picked up protesting officers after the banking hours from other places as well under the Section 144.

Pointing out that the banking system itself is losing credibility because of frequent changes in RBI/government policies, AIBOC General Secretary Harvinder Singh said customer dissatisfaction is increasing because of chaos and confusion created in implementation of the scheme.

"Bank Officers are being subjected to the anger, anguish and wrath of customers or general public due to short supply of currency notes to the banks, particularly to Public Sector banks," it said.

Bankers know banking best so they should be not involved in questioning for deposit taking, he said, adding they should not be subjected to this.

Under all round attack, RBI today partially modified guidelines saying KYC compliant account holders can deposits more than Rs 5,000 in old currency notes without being questioned by bank officials.

Earlier this week, RBI issued a notification directing banks to conduct due diligence of customers who wish to deposit more than Rs 5,000 in old currency till December 30.Members of All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) today held demonstrations at various RBI offices, including Mint Road headquarters in Mumbai, demanding adequate cash availability to banks and complete withdrawal of deposit cap rules.

Besides Delhi, demonstrations were held at various offices of RBI, including its head offices in Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Jaipur.

AIBOC in a statement said that officers, including women, who were marching from RBI regional office to Jantar Mantar were forced to board a bus and were taken away to Parliament Street Police Station.

Police also picked up protesting officers after the banking hours from other places as well under the Section 144.

Pointing out that the banking system itself is losing credibility because of frequent changes in RBI/government policies, AIBOC General Secretary Harvinder Singh said customer dissatisfaction is increasing because of chaos and confusion created in implementation of the scheme.

"Bank Officers are being subjected to the anger, anguish and wrath of customers or general public due to short supply of currency notes to the banks, particularly to Public Sector banks," it said.

Bankers know banking best so they should be not involved in questioning for deposit taking, he said, adding they should not be subjected to this.

Under all round attack, RBI today partially modified guidelines saying KYC compliant account holders can deposits more than Rs 5,000 in old currency notes without being questioned by bank officials.

Earlier this week, RBI issued a notification directing banks to conduct due diligence of customers who wish to deposit more than Rs 5,000 in old currency till December 30.
Banks today began accepting the junked Rs 500/1000 notes in KYC complaint accounts without any questions following RBI's rollback of its stiff conditions a day after customers were subjected to queries while depositing old currency.

With hardly 10 days to go before the deadline ends for depositing the scrapped notes, banks continued to witness rush with tempers flaring occasionally as the RBI notification came during the banking hours, not before the start of the day.

Banks were yesterday directed by the to asks questions to customers depositing over Rs 5,000 as to why they had failed to deposit the old notes earlier.

People crediting money to such accounts were subjected to questioning, on record, in the presence of at least two officials of the bank before receiving a satisfactory explanation.

Under all-round attack, RBI today did a U-turn on customers depositing demonetised notes over Rs 5,000 till December 30 by making it clear that there will be no questions asked either in case of one-time or repeat deposits if the accounts are KYC-compliant.

Banks in turn directed branches minutes after RBI issued the notification and bankers promptly started following it from the afternoon.

The RBI turnaround came as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's assurance on Monday night and yesterday that there will be no questions asked to customers who would make one-time deposit above Rs 5,000 failed to persuade bank officials who insisted that there should be fresh circular from RBI so that customers will not be harassed.

However, customers with non-KYC accounts will be subject to stiff conditions imposed by RBI on December 19 for deposit of junked notes.

The decision follows widespread criticism of the guidelines, with people saying the Prime Minister as well as the finance minister have asked people not to throng the banks as they have time till December 30 to deposit invalid notes in their accounts.

The December 19 notification of RBI had said tenders of old currency in excess of Rs 5,000 into a bank account will be received for credit only once during the remaining period till December 30, 2016.

Bankers were not comfortable with the investigative role being thrust on them.

All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) today registered a protest to RBI and demanded complete withdrawal of the order as the staff are facing public wrath.

Besides, they requested RBI for adequate cash availability to banks and to ensure that all banks are treated equally without any bias.

Officers union staged demonstrations all over the country in front of offices in the evening to press for various demands.
Footwear firm Bata India today said its board has approved a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for all eligible employees/workers at its Faridabad unit.

At the board meeting of the company held today, "the board considered and approved introduction of a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for all eligible employees/workers at the Faridabad unit of the company," Bata India said in a BSE filing.

It further said: "The company believes that implementation of the VRS will be beneficial to the company in the long-term."



The status of implementation of the aforesaid VRS and financial impact thereof will be ascertained and communicated in due course, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who has filed a petition in the apex court demanding a probe into a bribery allegations against Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister, today said the court has has not examined many documents.

Rejecting the corruption charges levelled by Congress Vice President against Prime Minister Modi as "baseless, shameful, and mala fide" Prasad said even the Supreme Court has observed that these are "no allegations".

Reacting to Prasad's remarks, Bhushan said he has procured more documents following the the apex court observations to come up with "better material" to support the allegations.

"The douments recovered by the Income Tax department are a part of its appraisal report.

"The Supreme Court has not seen many documents presented by us. There are more documents that we have got subsequently," Bhushan said.

Bhushan has filed a PIL in the apex court seeking a probe by an SIT into alleged recovery of documents by the IT department in connection with raids on two business houses here in 2013-14 which purportedly showed computerised inventories containing designations of top people allegedly having received money.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bihar police today seized 395 cartons of alcohol hidden beneath the sacks of salt in a truck coming from Haryana in Rohtas district.

Four persons, including two hailing from Haryana and as many residents of the state, have been arrested in connection with smuggling of liquor in Bihar where prohibition is in force, a statement from state police headquarters said.

Acting on a tip off, a team of Economic Offence Wing of the Bihar police spotted a truck and two MUVs near a dhaba on GT road in Sabrabad in Rohtas district.

When the policemen arrived, the MUVs sped away from there but the truck was caught.

During search of the truck, 395 cartons of alcohol containing 4740 bottles of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) bearing the mark 'for sale in Haryana' was found hidden beneath the sacks of salt, the statement said.

Following information provided, two persons fleeing in the vehicles were caught near Chausa Railway crossing in Buxar district when they were trying to cross over to Uttar Pradesh.

The two have been identified as residents of Bhojpur district of Bihar while as many caught from truck hailed from Haryana.

The Bihar police and Excise officials have been hot on pursuit to check smuggling of liquor from far off Haryana after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ordered crackdown on the network of this illegal trade.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Activists of ruling BJD and BJP fought a pitched battle today during a shutdown called by the rival party demanding the removal and arrest of Bhubaneswar Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena over a sex clip purportedly featuring him.

As BJP workers were busy enforcing the dawn-to-dusk bandh by staging road blockades and picketing, BJD members, mostly from its student wing, took out a motorcycle rally protesting the shutdown, leading to scuffles between rival groups near Master Canteen and Ram Mandir square, police said.

The stretch of road between Ram Temple and Sriya Square virtually turned into a battlefield as BJD activists tried to confront BJP workers.

The groups' members attacked each other with sticks and indulged in stone-pelting. A few vehicles were also damaged during the clash, police said.

Normal life in the city was hit by the shutdown. While shops and business establishments remained shut, vehicular movement was disrupted as BJP workers blocked roads and burnt tyres at several places including Khandagiri, CRP Square, Jaydev Vihar, Kalpana Square and Patia.

Offices also recorded thin attendance.

Commissioner of Police Y B Khurania and DCP Satyabrat Bhoi rushed to the spot to control the situation. Around 50 people were held in different areas for indulging in violence.

BJP had called the bandh demanding that the Mayor be arrested over the sex clip purportedly featuring him and his alleged role in the death of an engineering student, Asutosh Mohanty alias Rishi.

BJP state unit general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan



asked how the BJD workers were allowed to take out a bike rally by police during the bandh.

BJP leaders had had a detailed discussion with police officials about their protest and it was surprising that permission was given for the bike rally, he said.

BJD activists tried to counter the bandh at the behest of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, he alleged.

While BJP was trying to observe a peaceful shutdown, unfortunate incidents took place because of ruling BJD workers, said Harichandan and party colleague Bhrugu Baxipatra.

Leaders of Biju Chatra Janata Dal said they opposed the bandh as it caused immense inconvenience to the public.

Police have deployed about 25 platoons (around 800 personnel) at sensitive points.
BJP MLA Suresh Bharadwaj was today suspended from the Assembly for the rest of the winter session for occupying the Chair of the Himachal Pradesh Speaker, along with two of his party colleagues, with the Chief Minister terming his act as "reprehensible".

Along with Bharadwaj, senior BJP MLAs Rajiv Bindal and Randhir Sharma were suspended for approaching the podium.

Ruckus broke-out as soon as the Assembly met today, with BJP objecting to "shifting of some business of the House in yesterday's agenda for today".

BJP MLAs raised strong objection after the discussion on demonetisation, listed for yesterday, was not taken up then and included in today's agenda. They disrupted the House proceedings claiming it is not in conformity with rules.

The Speaker adjourned the House for 15 minutes to sort out the matter. When the House reconvened, he found Bharadwaj occupying his chair.

After making some remarks, Bharadwaj vacated the chair and BJP members staged a walkout.

The Chief Minister took strong exception to the incident and said the act of the BJP member was "reprehensible".

Later Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Agnihotri moved a motion seeking suspension of Suresh Bharadwaj, Randhir Sharma and Rajiv Bindal for rest of the winter session, which concludes on December 23, for contempt of the House and the Chair.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition P K Dhumal accused the Speaker ofnot conducting the business of the House as per rules.

BJP MLAs in a meeting after today's session was adjourned decided to bring a no-confidence motion against the Speaker and gave a notice to the Assembly Secretary in this regard.

Dhumal said the notice for removal of the Speaker has been given under Rule 274 and signed by 25 MLAs.

The winter session, which started on a stormy note on Monday, continued to witness noisy scenes and some business was conducted today in the absence of Opposition BJP members.

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Seven people were killed in a double bomb attack near the headquarters of an Iranian Kurdish opposition party, in a rare assault in Iraq's relatively secure autonomous Kurdish region, a senior security official said.

The blasts hit the town of Koysinjaq about 10:00 pm (local time) yesterday, killing five members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran, a member of the security forces and a child, said Jalal Karim, the Kurdish region's deputy interior minister.

The attack also left people wounded, said Karim, who did not provide a specific figure.

Iraq's Kurdistan region, which has its own government, security forces and flag but is still part of Iraq, has largely been spared the horrific violence that has plagued other parts of the country in the years after 2003.

The Islamic State jihadist group, which Kurdish forces have battled in the north, including as part of the still ongoing operation to recapture Iraq's second city Mosul, is the usual culprit for attacks in the Kurdistan region.

But the fact that the bombings apparently targeted the Iranian party headquarters raises the possibility that another organisation or country may be responsible.

The Kurds are spread across four nearby countries including Iran, where the military crushed a fledgling Kurdish republic in which Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani was born in 1946.

There are some five million Kurds in Iran, and various Kurdish opposition groups oppose the government in Tehran.

Iraqi Kurdistan houses a range of Kurdish groups, including armed organisations such as Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and Iran's Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), which those countries periodically target in air and artillery strikes inside Iraqi territory.

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A total number of 900 bottles of Phensedyl and tortoise bones/shells weighing around 10 kg were seized from Indo-Bangla border in Malda, the BSF said today.

On December 20, 2016 specific information was received regarding smuggling of huge quantity of Phensedyl bottles from India to Bangladesh and accordingly a Special Operation was launched in the area of border outpost (BOP) Sasani, a BSF release said.

The operation managed to apprehend one person called Hilal Seikh alias Amir Khan (19) along with 10 Kg tortoise bone worth approximately Rs 70,000 and 900 bottles of Phensedyl worth around Rs1,04,400, the BSF release said.

The apprehended person along with seized items has been handed over to police station Kaliachak for further action.

The release also said that BSF South Bengal Frontier seized 1,76,402 Bottles of Phensedyl and in these operations 40 smugglers have also been apprehended during the current year 2016.

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A 32-year-old woman, working at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport here, was allegedly manhandled by a 36-year-old Uber driver, who was arrested today morning following a complaint from the victim.

Police said the incident took place last evening in southwest Delhi.

The woman had booked a cab around 5PM from the airport to go to Palam, but the driver arrived late following which she got into an argument with the cab driver, identified as Rajiv, police said.

Instead of taking the designated route from Aerocity, the driver took Mahipalpur Road and when she protested, the driver got angry and threw a handbag on her and threatened her with dire consequences, they added.

After a while, the driver asked the woman to get out of the car near Delhi Cantonment.

The victim immediately went to the police station lodged a complaint. Based o the complaint of the woman, an FIR under sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC was registered.

Police arrested the accused driver early today.

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Two cafe owners were today booked for allegedly serving banned hookah to customers here.

"The cafes were situated at Madhumilan square have been booked under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the IPC by Gwaltoli area police. After we found them serving hookah to people, in a search," Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Anil Banwaria said.

The district administration has banned hookah bars and shisha lounges in May 2011 as it posed danger to health of the youth and also disturbed peace and tranquility.

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Barricades went up at Christmas markets in Montreal and Toronto -- Canada's two most populous cities -- and security was increased following an attack that killed 12 people in Berlin.

The national threat level however remained unchanged, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale yesterday told AFP.

As revellers went about their usual holiday shopping, city crews laid large blocks of cement at the entrance of the Place des Arts, which hosts one of the nation's largest Christmas markets, while security searched visitors' bags.

Similar security measures were taken at another popular Christmas market in Toronto, public broadcaster CBC reported.

The Islamic State group earlier claimed responsibility for the truck rampage in Berlin.

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CBI today arrested businessman J Sekar Reddy and his associate K Srinivasulu after Income Tax searches at his residence and office in Chennai resulted in seizure of 127 kg of gold and over Rs 170 crore in cash post demonetisation.

CBI sources said his links with the son of Chief Secretary Nadu P Rama Mohana Rao are also under the scanner of I-T department as it is believed that Reddy, a contractor, allegedly received his help to get state-wide sand mining contract.

Rao's premises are being searched by I-T department today.

CBI has registered a case of criminal conspiracy and cheating under Indian Penal Code besides provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act against Reddy and his two associates for conversion of currency in violation of RBI norms, the sources said.

They said it was alleged that I-T department searches had resulted in seizure of over Rs 170 crore in cash which included newly-introduced notes of Rs 2,000 worth Rs 34 crore (seized in two different occasions) besides 127 kg gold from him and his associates Srinivasa Reddy and Prem Kumar.

CBI case is related to seizure of Rs 24 crore of new currency notes from a Tata Ace load vehicle belonging to a Vellore resident, Rishi Kumar, on December 9 following searches at Reddy's residence in Chennai.

"Reddy and his associates had, with the help of unknown public servants of different banks, converted the unauthorised cash held by them in old currency notes, thereby depriving the public in enforcing their right," CBI alleged in its FIR.

It said the bank officials, who are allegedly entrusted with the distribution of new currency notes as per instructions of Reserve Bank of India, defied the RBI instructions and helped Reddy for a "consideration".

"Reddy, Prem Kumar and K Srinivasulu, had in conspiracy with unknown bank officials and public servants converted unaccounted cash held by them in the form of old currency notes to new Rs 2,000 currency notes, cheating the government of India," it alleged.
A day after making critical remarks on demonetisation, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today said his comments were "distorted" and that he has been supporting the exercise.

He, however, said problems arising in the aftermath of demonetisation "continue" as "we are going (about them) in a routine manner".

"We have to take an innovative approach," he remarked.

He heads the panel set up by the Centre to look into issues arising from demonetisation. His party- TDP- is part of the NDA government.

The 13-member committee would meet again on December 28 to work out solutions to the ongoing problem, he said.

"I spoke to (NITI Aayog CEO) Amitabh Kant this morning and asked him to convene the meeting," he said.

He said he had sought a ban on high denomination notes "long ago" and written a letter to the Prime Minister seeking abolition of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes after the recent Income Disclosure Scheme.

"I have supported this (demonetisation) concept," he said, inaugurating a two-day conference of district Collectors here.

Addressing a workshop of Telugu Desam MPs, legislators and leaders here yesterday, he had said, "Demonetisation was not our wish but it happened. More than 40 days after demonetisation, there are still a lot of problems but yet there appears to be no solution."



"I am spending two hours daily to ease the problems caused by demonetisation. I am breaking my head daily but we are unable to find a solution to this problem," he had said.

He claimed that his remarks were "distorted by some".

"I am disgusted with the way money is distributed during elections. Why should we spend money in elections? That's why I wanted a ban on big notes," Chandrababu said.

"In my life, I did not focus on anything as much as I focused on demonetisation. I troubled the bankers, RBI and the district Collectors by reviewing the situation for hours every day. But still things did not happen as fast as we wanted," he said.

"There is attitude problem. We could not make use of the available infrastructure and we could not innovate," he said, referring to the problems being faced by people in the aftermath of note ban.

"I am totally pained that we could not distribute welfare pensions on time this month. I was so angry. I gave a warning to the banks and then the RBI acted. From now on, we will distribute pensions physically and not through banks," the Chief Minister said.

He also spoke on other topics like growing number of divorces in the US, the problem of aged population in Japan and of ageing population in China and the advantage India has in terms of "demographic dividend".

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Five students from Ernakulam's Maharaja's college, who were arrested for allegedly carrying out graffiti work on the college walls, have been remanded to judicial custody, police said today.

The students were produced before a magistrate court here yesterday and remanded to judicial custody, they said.

The arrest of the students has created a political storm with Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Ramesh Chennithala, accusing the police under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan-led government of adopting a "brutal fascist policy" to silence the voices of students, artists and writers.

The arrests were made based on a complaint by College principal, in which she had alleged that the students through their alleged graffiti work caused destruction to the public property, police said.

All those who protested against the arrests including Chennithala, students and activists had alleged that action was taken against the students for simple wall writing of poems by eminent Malayalam poets.

"The police controlled by Vijayan is implementing the agenda of the BJP," Chennithala said in a release.

(Reopens SRG11)



Meanwhil, the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court here granted bail to the five students.

The court had yesterday remanded the students to the judicial custody.

Meanwhile, a section of students today gheraoed the principal for two hours, accusing her of taking revengeful steps against the students.
A day after making critical remarks on note ban, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today said his comments were "distorted" but acknowledged that currency problems continued even as senior ally BJP played down the TDP chief's criticism.

After supporting demonetisation initially, Naidu yesterday appeared to be having a second thought, saying this is not what they wished for and that the solution to problems due to the note ban remained elusive even after 40 days.

Naidu today said he has been supporting demonetisation, but added that problems arising out of the exercise "continue" as "we are going (about them) in a routine manner".

"We have to take an innovative approach," he said, claiming that his remarks were "distorted by some".

Naidu heads the panel set up by the Centre to look into issues arising from demonetisation. His party--TDP--is part of the NDA government.

The 13-member committee would meet again on December 28 to work out solutions to the ongoing problem, he said.

"I spoke to (NITI Aayog CEO) Amitabh Kant this morning and asked him to convene the meeting," he said.

BJP while playing down the criticism by Naidu on the roll out of demonetisation, said the Chief Minister has not said anything different from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders about difficulties being faced by people.

"What he is saying is nothing different from what Modi said that there should be least difficulty to the common man. He indicated to the government for expediting money circulation," its National Secretary and Andhra in-charge Sidharth Nath Singh told reporters in Delhi.

The concerns he has raised about difficulties being faced by people is quite natural and it is something BJP leaders have also talked about, he added.

Asked about Naidu's denouncement of people handling the exercise, he said what the Andhra Chief Minister has said is also being "grossly misreported".

Naidu today said he had sought a ban on high denomination notes "long ago" and written a letter to the Prime Minister seeking abolition of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes after the recent Income Disclosure Scheme.

"I have supported this (demonetisation) concept," he said, inaugurating a two-day conference of district Collectors in Vijayawada.

Addressing a workshop of Telugu Desam MPs, legislators and leaders here yesterday, he had said, "Demonetisation was not our wish but it happened. More than 40 days after demonetisation, there are still a lot of problems but yet there appears to be no solution."



"I am spending two hours daily to ease the problems caused by demonetisation. I am breaking my head daily but we are unable to find a solution to this problem," he had said.

(REOPENS DEL46)



In a statement issued later by the Andhra Pradesh government, Naidu refuted reports that he was against demonetisation and said he had only commented on the "lapses" in its implementation.

He said that it is very painful to see the reports of old people collapsing while waiting at ATM counters. He said the people have been suffering even after more than one month due to non-availability of currency notes.

He said that he repeatedly appealed to RBI and local bankers to adopt a humanitarian approach to prevent inconvenience to people by delivering more number of small currency notes to rural areas.

He said that he is spending more than three to four hours a day for monitoring the cash distribution system and asked the officials to think innovatively to address the crisis.

Stating that cashless and digital banking transaction is the only alternative to end the crisis, Naidu asked officials to encourage urban people to switch over to mobile banking transactions and distribute the available small currency to farmers in rural areas to carry out agricultural operations for the current Rabi season.

He said that cashless transactions were successfully implemented in all 29,000 fair price shops in the state and the dealers were appointed as banking correspondents to solve currency problem in rural areas.
The Kerala High Court today dismissed writ pleas seeking a CBI probe into the sensational rape and murder of a Dalit woman in nearby Perumbavoor in April this year.

Rejecting the pleas filed by father of the woman and her friends, Justice Sunil Thomas said there were no circumstances available in the case warranting a CBI probe.

Meanwhile, the victim's mother impleaded in the petition maintained her stand that the Special Investigation Team constituted by the state government was efficient and there was no need for a further probe.

The SIT of Kerala Police has filed the charge sheet in a court here in the rape-cum-murder case.

The charge sheet, submitted in the Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court, has named Ameerul Islam, a native of Assam who was arrested in June, as the lone accused in the case and charged him with offences, including rape and murder.

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The days of capital punishment may be numbered in the United States, with sharp reductions in new death sentences and executions carried out amid waning public support, according to a report released today.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, said statistics point to a continued record decline in the use of killing as punishment.

"America is in the midst of a major climate change concerning capital punishment," said Robert Dunham, DPIC's executive director and the author of the report.

"Whether it's concerns about innocence, costs, and discrimination, availability of life without parole as a safe alternative, or the questionable way in which states are attempting to carry out executions, the public grows increasingly uncomfortable with the death penalty each year."



Though two-thirds of US states still allow the death penalty, this year is expected to end with 31 new death sentences, the DPIC said in a year-end report.

That would be a steep 37 percent drop even from 2015, when 49 death sentences marked a 40-year low.

Executions declined to 20 this year, the lowest number since 1991 and well below the 1999 peak of 98 executions, stoking hopes for opponents of the death penalty.

The 2016 executions would be the fewest since 1972, when the US Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional. It reinstated the death penalty four years later.

Public opinion polls measured support for capital punishment at a four-decade low this year, the report said.

Still, the possibility that the Supreme Court will once again outlaw the death penalty faded after Republican Donald Trump was elected president last month.

Trump, who takes office on January 20, is expected to fill the vacant seat on the nine-seat Supreme Court with a conservative judge, tipping the court to a conservative majority.

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Terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to scrap Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes a "huge success with public support", BJP national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain today said the country is moving towards cashless economy with thrust on e-transaction.

"Demonetisation has been a huge success with people backing the crackdown against black money despite difficulties in day-to-day life... The opposition tried hard to instigate people against the move, but failed," he said.

Trashing the oppositions' charge that demonetisation has badly affected people and workers, particularly in rural areas, Hussain claimed people have stood behind the Prime Minister like a rock over scrapping of high-value currency notes as well as the ongoing crackdown against black money hoarders.

"People are fully behind the Prime Minister in his endeavour to root out corruption and black money," he claimed.

Hailing the Narendra Modi government's concerted move to make cashless economy a success in a follow-up action to scrapping of high-value currency notes, the BJP leader said the results are for all to see as e-transaction has increased by 300 per cent over the last one month.

"The Centre has announced various incentives for people and traders for using digital technology for transaction which will go a long way in boosting cashless economy," he said and clarified this does not mean pumping in less cash, to discourage use of currency notes.

"Sufficient cash is being released by the RBI through the banking system to prevent any difficulty to the people, but cashless economy will remain a priority of the government," Hussain said.

He hit out at opposition leaders like Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC president Mamata Banerjee, RJD chief Lalu Prasad for opposing demonetisation and instigating people against the measure.

"Why are they (Rahul, Mamata and Lalu) opposing demonetisation? Do they own black money?" Hussain asked.

On the Reserve Bank of India frequently changing rules on deposit of scrapped currency notes and withdrawal limit of new notes, he said measures being taken are based on feedback from various quarters to prevent black money hoarders from depositing scrapped notes in the banking system.

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Dubbing demonetisation as fire- bombing on citizens, Congress vice-president on Wednesday claimed the move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was aimed at snatching money from the poor and giving it to the wealthy.

Addressing a rally here, Rahul compared the hardships faced by people due to note ban with a World War-II tactic, called fire-bombing, wherein cities were destroyed through heavy bombing during nights.

"During the WW-II, around 300 to 400 fighter planes used to drop large number of bombs on a city during night to destroy it within minutes. I want to tell Modiji he has done similar fire-bombing on India's downtrodden, poor people, farmers, women and middleclass citizens" he said.

In his speech, Rahul alleged the Central government "deliberately" stalled cash dispensation from banks and ATMs to keep it in the banks for at least six to seven months "so that banks can write off loans of rich families".

According to Rahul, only 6% black money is in cash while 94% is in the form of real estate, gold, diamonds, or is parked in bank accounts abroad.

He also claimed that one per people or 50 rich families, are holding that black money while remaining 99% population are honest.

"When people started demanding Rs 15 lakhs as promised during the Lok Sabha polls, Modiji came up with this gimmick, which he termed as surgical strike on corruption and black money. But, instead of targetting 94% black money, he targetted remaining 6%" said Rahul.

"Modiji took his aim on those honest 99%, not those 1% rich people having that black money. This 1% had defaulted on loans of Rs 8 lakh crore. Now, Modiji wants to write off those loans of 50 rich families. Modi will not touch them, because these 50 families helped him in becoming PM," he alleged.

Rahul said the decision of scrapping high value banknotes was neither aimed to curb corruption and black money, nor the 1% rich people, but the honest, the down-trodden, the farmers and the poor workers of the country.

"Demonetisation is all about snatching money from the poor and giving it to the rich. The real objective of the note ban is help this 1% people," alleged Rahul.
A man, acquainted with accounting practices and arrested in a case of alleged irregularities relating to conversion of old currency and supply of new notes, today approached a Delhi court seeking bail on the ground of collecting evidence for his defence.

Additional Sessions Judge Dinesh Bhat asked the Enforcement Directorate to file its reply by December 23 on the bail plea of accused Rajeev Singh Kushwaha.

Kushwaha sought bail submitting that he was in custody since December 7 and he be released to collect evidence in his favour which is his fundamental right.

Special Public Prosecutor Vikas Garg, appearing for ED, said Kushwaha has been kept in custody so that he does not tamper with the evidence and sought time to file the reply on the bail application.

Kushwaha, alleged to be the mastermind behind floating of shell companies, is at present lodged under judicial custody along with two Axis Bank managers.

Besides him, ED has arrested 32-year-old Vineet Gupta, who has been suspended as Branch Manager of Axis Bank's Kashmere Gate branch here, and 33-year-old Shobit Sinha, also suspended as Manager (Operations) in the bank. Gupta and Sinha were arrested by ED on December 4 and they were later on suspended by the bank.

ED had earlier told the court that the two officials, in connivance with others, were indulging in illegally changing demonetised currency into new notes.

ED had claimed that the probe had revealed that Rs 39 crore in cash was in question and several companies were involved in the case. It had said a gold brick worth Rs 39 lakh was recovered from Sinha while another was yet to be seized.

It had claimed that Kushwaha "used the identity documents of various persons to form shell companies" through which cash deposits worth Rs 39 crore were made between November 10 and November 22 in "close connivance" with the two bank managers.

The prosecutor had said the two bank officials were taking one per cent commission against the total amount deposited. They agreed to accept the commission in the form of gold bar worth Rs 39 lakh, he had said.

Axis Bank had said in a statement, "The bank is committed to following the highest standards of corporate governance and has zero tolerance towards any deviation on the part of any of its employees from the set model code of conduct. In this particular case, the bank has suspended the erring employee and is cooperating with the investigating agencies."



A number of bank accounts of various people and traders are under the scanner of the agency in the case, ED had said.

ED had lodged a criminal complaint against the two bankers and others based on a Delhi Police FIR after three persons were intercepted with Rs 3.7 crore cash in old currency a few days ago in front of the bank's Kashmere Gate branch.

The Income Tax department too had surveyed the bank branch and searched the residential premises of the two.

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Tension ran high in DR Congo today, with police out in force in the capital and activity slowed following deadly protests against President Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down as his mandate ends.

Life very slowly resumed in Kinshasa, a megacity of 10 million, with few buses and taxis on the streets at morning rush-hour, trading slack at the market, and troops and police posted at major crossroads.

A day after at least 11 people died in street protests, eyes were on talks due to resume Wednesday that were launched by the Catholic Church in hopes of finding a peaceful way out of the political crisis.

Kabila's second and final term in office ran out Tuesday with no election on the near horizon and no sign of plans to leave power any time soon.

So far the mainstream opposition has called for "peaceful resistance" from Democratic Republic of Congo's 70 million people in hopes of clinching a deal at the negotiating table.

But gunfire rang out across the vast and troubled nation as protests erupted yesterday.

Officials said nine people had died in Kinshasa and two in the country's second-largest city, Lubumbashi.

Rights group Human Rights Watch said at least 26 protesters had been killed countrywide.

A day after the UN's large DR Congo mission, MONUSCO, voiced alarm over the detention of 113 opposition leaders and civil society activists in just four days, there were fresh arrests in eastern Goma.

In what Kabila's opponents dubbed "a provocation", a new government was announced overnight Monday to Tuesday, headed by Samy Badibanga.

The freshly appointed cabinet is part of an October deal struck between the ruling party and tiny fringe opposition groups enabling Kabila to remain in office pending elections in April 2018.

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The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence sleuths have seized 12 lakh foreign cigarettes worth Rs 1.63 crore arrived at V O Chidambaranar Port, Tuticorin from United Arab Emirates.

Acting on a specific input, DRI officials intercepted a a container at Tuticorin yesterday that arrived from Port of Jebel Ali, UAE and examined cartons containing A4 Size papers manufactured by a Russian firm, a press release said.

"The total quantity of foreign brand cigarettes smuggled by the modus operandi was around 12 lakh sticks priced at Rs 1.63 crore", the release said.

The smuggled cigarettes were seized under the violation of Customs Act, 1962, the release added.

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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today said for the first time the Turkish policeman who assassinated the Russian ambassador to Ankara was a member of the group of the US-based preacher blamed for the July coup.

"There is no need to make a secret out of the fact he was a member of FETO," Erdogan said at a conference, two days after the killing of ambassador Andrei Karlov in Ankara.

Turkey has embarked on a massive crackdown on what it calls the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO) in the wake of the July 15 coup aimed at unseating Erdogan.

But Erdogan said the assassination of Karlov showed Gulen supporters were still present within the security forces.

"I have to say this very clearly -- this dirty organisation is still within the military, still within the police," he said.

"We of course are continuing and will continue to carry out purges. We will do this with sensitivity," he added.

But the Kremlin, which has sent 18 Russian investigators to Ankara, indicated earlier that it was not the time for hurried pronouncements on responsibility.

"In this case, it is hardly worth hurrying to any conclusions until the investigation determines -- as our president said -- who was behind the murder of our ambassador," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Gulen himself has condemned Monday's assassination of ambassador Karlov and had denied any involvement in the July 15 coup.

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Britain's new Investigatory Powers Bill, dubbed the"snooper'scharter"for its sweeping nature of access to the British public's internet history and passed into law by the British Parliament last month, has been deemed illegal by the European Union's highest court.

"General and indiscriminate retention" of emails and electronic communications by governments is illegal, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled this week.

Only targeted interception of traffic and location data in order to combat serious crime - including terrorism - is justified, according to a long-awaited decision by the ECJ in Luxembourg.

The UK government said it is "disappointed" with the judgment and plans to defend the new law robustly in the Court of Appeal.

"Given the importance of communications data to preventing and detecting crime, we will ensure plans are in place so that the police and other public authorities can continue to acquire such data in a way that is consistent with EU law and our obligation to protect the public," a UK Home Office statement said.

The case will now return to the UK Court of Appeal to be resolved in terms of UK legislation. The aim of going to Luxembourg was to clarify EU law on surveillance.

As Britain is still a member of the EU until it officially triggers Brexit negotiations under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, it is bound by the judgments of the ECJ.

"The fact that the data is retained without the users of electronic communications services being informed of the fact is likely to cause the persons concerned to feel that their private lives are the subject of constant surveillance. Consequently, only the objective of fighting serious crime is capable of justifying such interference," a summary of the ECJ ruling said.

The challenge was initially championed by David Davis, then a back bench Conservative party MP but now the Brexit Secretary in British Prime Minister Theresa May's Cabinet.

He had withdrawn from the case following his ministerial appointment.

The controversial "snooper's charter" requires communications companies to retain data for 12 months.

Tom Watson, Labour's deputy leader, who is among those bringing the case, said: "This ruling shows it's counter-productive to rush new laws through Parliament without a proper scrutiny."



Lawyers for the UK government maintained that intercepted communications have been at the heart of every terrorist case investigated by police and the security services in recent years.

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Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav has been released from prison after serving five years of a seven-year sentence for rape and other sex crimes.

Katsav walked out of the Maasiyahu prison in central Israel today, escorted by his wife and a small group of supporters. He smiled but did not comment to reporters.

Katsav was granted early release last week by a parole board.

Katsav resigned in June 2007 after being charged with rape and sexual harassment. He began his sentence in 2011 after being convicted of two counts of rape.

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In 1972, President Richard Nixons White House dispatched burglars to bug Democratic Party offices. That Watergate burglary and related dirty tricks, such as releasing mice at a Democratic press conference and paying a woman to strip naked and shout her love for a Democratic candidate, nauseated Americans  and impelled some of us kids at the time to pursue journalism.

Now in 2016 we have a political scandal that in some respects is even more staggering. Russian agents apparently broke into the Democrats digital offices and tried to change the election outcome. President Barack Obama on Friday suggested that this was probably directed by Russias president, saying, Not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin.

In Watergate, the break-in didnt affect the outcome of the election. In 2016, we dont know for sure. There were other factors, but its possible that Russias theft and release of the emails provided the margin for Donald Trumps victory.

The CIA says it has high confidence that Russia was trying to get Trump elected, and, according to The Washington Post, the directors of the FBI and national intelligence agree with that conclusion.

Both Nixon and Trump responded badly to the revelations, Nixon by ordering a cover-up and Trump by denouncing the CIA and, incredibly, defending Russia from the charges that it tried to subvert our election. I never thought I would see a dispute between Americas intelligence community and a murderous foreign dictator in which an American leader sided with the dictator.

Lets be clear: This was an attack on America, less lethal than a missile but still profoundly damaging to our system. Its not that Trump and Putin were colluding to steal an election. But if the CIA is right, Russia apparently was trying to elect a president who would be not a puppet exactly but perhaps something of a lap dog  a Russian poodle.

In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair was widely (and unfairly) mocked as President George W. Bushs poodle, following him loyally into the Iraq War. The fear is that this time Putin may have interfered to acquire an ally who likewise will roll over for him.

Frankly, its mystifying that Trump continues to defend Russia and Putin, even as he excoriates everyone else, from CIA officials to a local union leader in Indiana.

Now we come to the most reckless step of all: This Russian poodle is acting in character by giving important government posts to friends of Moscow, in effect rewarding it for its attack on the United States.

Rex Tillerson, Trumps nominee for secretary of state, is a smart and capable manager. Yet its notable that he is particularly close to Putin, who had decorated Tillerson with Russias Order of Friendship.

Whatever our personal politics, how can we possibly want to respond to Russias interference in our election by putting U.S. foreign policy in the hands of a Putin friend?

Tillersons closeness to Putin is especially troubling because of Trumps other Russia links. The incoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn, accepted Russian money to attend a dinner in Moscow and sat near Putin. A ledger shows $12.7 million in secret payments by a pro-Russia party in Ukraine to Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort. And the Trump family itself has business connections with Russia.

Its true that there will be counterbalances, including Gen. James Mattis, the former Marine commander who has no illusions about Moscow and is expected to be confirmed as defense secretary. But overall it looks as if the Trump administration will be remarkably pro-Putin  astonishing considering Putins Russia has killed journalists, committed war crimes in Ukraine and Syria and threatened the peaceful order in Europe.

So its critical that the Senate, the media and the public subject Tillerson to intense scrutiny. There are other issues to explore as well, including his role in enabling corruption in Chad, one of the poorest countries in the world. The same is true of his role in complicity with the government of Angola, where oil corruption turned the presidents daughter into a billionaire even as children died of poverty and disease at a higher rate than anywhere else in the world.

Maybe all this from Russia to Angola was just Tillerson trying to maximize his companys revenue, and he will act differently as secretary of state. Maybe. But Im skeptical that his ideology would change in fundamental ways.

This is not only about Tillerson just as the 1972 break-in was not only about the Watergate building complex. This is about the integrity of American democracy and whether a foreign dictator should be rewarded for attacking the United States. It is about whether we are led by a president or a poodle.
Angry farmers today staged a road block on the busy Mumbai-Agra national highway at Chandvad in the district, about 70 kms from here in protest against the declining prices of onions.

The agitating farmers were also demanding support price of Rs 1,000 per quintal, a police officer of Chandvad police station said.

Later the delegation submitted a memorandum of their demands to Chandvad tehsildar Sharad Mandalik.

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Police claimed to have busted an inter-state human trafficking racket by arresting six persons, including five women.

The lid was blown after police arrested one Yogita Sathe from her flat here recently.

A police official said they reached Sathe while tracing the whereabouts of a two-and-half-year-old girl who went missing earlier this month from Mankhurd in eastern suburb.

After interrogating Sathe, a police team was dispatched to Goa from where her husband Ganesh and two others were arrested while trying to sell the girl for Rs 2.5 lakh.

Police escaped five children who were kept in their captivity in Goa.

Rest members were arrested from various cities in Gujarat and Karnataka.

Explaining their modus operandi, the officer said the gang used to kidnap children, aged between 8 and 18, from different parts of Mumbai and sell them in Goa, Gujarat and Kerala.

All the accused were booked under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code, he said, adding further probe is on.

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Former Bihar Education Minister and veteran Congress leader Surendra Prasad Tarun passed away after prolonged illness.

He was 88.

Tarun who breathed his last at Patna Medical College and Hospital last night. He is survived by two sons.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed grief over Tarun's demise and announced a state funeral for him.

Kumar directed his ministerial colleague Shrawan Kumar to represent the state government at the funeral, an official statement said here today.

A native of Panditpur village of Nalanda, Tarun, a two-time former MLA from Atri in Gaya and Hilsa in Nalanda district, was the minister of state for education in the Congress government of Bindeshwari Dubey from 1985-1988.

He also worked for Press Trust of India as its Rajgir correspondent in the past.

In his condolence message, the chief minister described the departed leader as a prominent politician and social worker.

State Rural Development and Parliamentary Affair Minister Shrawan Kumar also condoled the death of Tarun.

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French screen legend Michele Morgan, who starred in some 70 movies and took home the best actress prize at the first-ever Cannes film festival has died, her family said.

She was 96.

An icon of glamour, Morgan was remembered for a regal azure gaze which she first turned on Jean Gabin as an 18-year-old ingenue in "Port of Shadows" ("Quai des Brumes"), a 1938 gangster movie.

"You've got lovely eyes, you know," he told her, forever sealing Morgan's fate in French filmography as the "most beautiful pair of eyes in cinema".

"It bothers me to hear that repeated so often", she was known to say much later -- though she still gave her 1977 memoirs the title "With eyes like that..."



"Michele Morgan was more than just a gaze. She personified elegance and grace, and her legend left its mark on many generations," French President Francois Hollande said in a statement.

Claude Lelouch, who directed her in the 1975 "Cat and Mouse," paid tribute to her as "the one we all wanted to hold in our arms".

Morgan starred alongside Gabin, Jean Marais and Michel Simon, as well as Humphrey Bogart, and won her Cannes award in 1946 for her role as a blind woman in "La Symphonie Pastorale", Jean Delannoy's adaptation of an Andre Gide novel.

Her career flourished in the 1940s to 1960s, and faded with the arrival of New Wave cinema.

Nevertheless, as late as 1975 a poll of French cinema-goers crowned her for the 10th time the "most popular French actress".

Born Simone Roussel in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly on February 29, 1920 -- a leap-year date which allowed her to joke that the could "age four times more slowly than everyone else" -- she spent most of her childhood in the Normandy port of Dieppe.

She left home at 15 in the hopes of reaching fame like American-Swedish actress Greta Garbo, entered drama school in Paris, and soon won a bit part in her first film, "Mademoiselle Mozart".

Her first starring role under her adopted name of Michele Morgan was in Marc Allegret's "Gribouille" (1937).

That was soon followed by her momentous encounter with Gabin, with whom she was to appear again in Jean Gremillon's "Remorque", released in 1942 during the German occupation of France.

Later that year Morgan left for the United States after marrying the American actor Bill Marshall.

There she made four films, playing opposite Frank Sinatra in "Higher and Higher" (1943) and Bogart in "Passage to Marseilles" (1944), director Michael Curtiz's unsuccessful attempt to repeat the Bogart-Bergman magic of "Casablanca".

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The 25-year-old US national, who was allegedly gangraped earlier this year in a five-star hotel here, today recorded her statement in front of a magistrate.

The woman arrived here yesterday morning and met the investigating team to assist in further investigation.

Her medical examination was done following which she recorded her statement under section 164 CrPC in front of a magistrate where she reiterated all the charges, said a senior police officer.

In the next couple of days, police will be taking her to the five-star hotel to establish the sequence of events and the room where she was allegedly sexually assaulted, the officer added.

She had earlier said that she was not "satisfied" with the probe and was ready to come to India to identify the accused.

After the incident, the victim wasn't comfortable staying in a five-star hotel and the US Embassy has arranged for an alternate accommodation for her, sources said.

On December 8, the tourist guide, accused of raping her along with his accomplices, was questioned by police after his arrival from Nepal.

Police had identified the man and contacted him while he was in Nepal.

The tour guide had denied his involvement in the matter and told police that the victim had given him a positive feedback in the forms and internal inquiry by the travel agency hadn't found him guilty.

The woman had alleged that she was raped by the men for two days and they threatened her with dire consequences.

She had also alleged that the accused had made a video of the act and had threatened to make it public if she reported the matter to anyone.

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German police launched a manhunt today for a Tunisian suspected of driving the truck that ploughed through a Berlin Christmas market in a deadly assault claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Media reports said asylum office papers believed to belong to the man were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry used in the attack that killed 12 people.

The man is in his early 20s, known by three different names, and was born in the southern city of Tataouine, the reports said.

He applied for asylum in Germany in April and received a temporary residence permit, according to the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

A previous suspect -- a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker -- was released late Tuesday for lack of evidence, prompting fears of a killer on the loose and further rattling nerves in a shocked country.

Twelve people were killed when the Polish-registered articulated truck, laden with steel beams, slammed into the crowded holiday market late Monday, smashing wooden stalls and crushing victims.

The scenes revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist.

Twenty-four people remained in hospital, 14 of whom were seriously injured, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said.

De Maiziere said several lines of inquiry were being pursued, but "we should let the security services do their job".

"No one will rest until the perpetrator or perpetrators have been caught," he told ARD public television.

The IS-linked Amaq agency said "a soldier of the Islamic State" carried out the Berlin carnage "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries".

There was no evidence to back the claim, nor was the perpetrator identified.

Germany is part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

Tunisia is one of the biggest suppliers of jihadist fighters, with some 5,500 of its nationals believed to be involved in combat in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

The attack comes at a delicate time for Chancellor Angela Merkel who is running for a fourth term in 2017 but has faced strong criticism over her decision last year to open the country's borders to refugees.

In a blow to investigators, federal prosecutors announced today they had to release the only suspect in custody after finding no forensic evidence to link him to Germany's deadliest attack in recent years.

The Pakistani man was detained late Monday after he was reportedly seen jumping out of the truck and fleeing the scene.

But officials had expressed growing doubts over whether they had the right suspect, and he denied the charges under repeated questioning.

Following the suspect's release, Berlin's police chief Klaus Kandt told ARD television "one or more" perpetrators were believed to be on the run and possibly armed.

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The National Green Tribunal today directed the Uttar Pradesh authorites, involved in the cleaning process of river Ganga, to provide details of all industrial clusters located between Haridwar and Unnao.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar directed Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), UP Jal Nigam and Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) to submit the details and fixed the matter for day-to-day hearing from January 11.

"We direct UPPCB, UP Jal Nigam and UPSIDC to furnish details of all the industrial cluster operating in segment B including the industries situated in the tributaries of River Ganga and their nature," the bench said.

The Central Pollution Control Board also told the tribunal that its final report would be ready in a week.

NGT had earlier said it was "unfortunate" that various authorities involved in Ganga rejuvenation have not been able to provide the exact number of drains polluting the river between Haridwar to Unnao, their load and quality of effluent released in the river till date.

It had directed a joint inspection team to sit with senior officers of CPCB, UP Pollution Control Board, UP Jal Nigam and the Ministry of Water Resources and submit "commonly compiled" statement with respect to drains, quality of effluent and reasons for differentiation of data.

On October 19, the NGT had constituted a joint inspection team of Member Secretary of CPCB, chief engineer of UP Jal Nigam, senior environmental officer from UPPCB and a representative from National Mission for Clean Ganga to collect information on the quantum and quality of waste being released into the river.

It had slammed the UP government and its agencies over cleaning of the river and asked them to submit a detailed plan on how they intended to spend money allotted by the Centre under the "Namami Gange" programme.

The green panel has divided the work of cleaning the river into five segments -- Gomukh to Haridwar, Haridwar to Unnao (segment B of Phase-I), Unnao to the border of Uttar Pradesh, UP border to the border of Jharkhand and from there to the Bay of Bengal.

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Government today approved the creation of the Indian Enterprise Development Services (IEDS) in the Office of Development Commissioner, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

The Service has been created by absorbing 11 trades, recruitment to which had been done differently following different rules, official sources told PTI.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

"The 11 trades were created in the 1950s and 1960s when there was prevalence of a regulation regime. Therefore, a need was felt for a cadre to work towards development of enterprises in the country," a senior official said.

The Indian Enterprise Development Services, to start with, will have a cadre strength of 617 officers, 6 of which will be at the level of joint secretaries.

These officers will man 72 field offices of the Development Commissioner and the headquarters in Delhi. Out of the 72 field offices, 30 are MSME development institutes and 28 branch institutes.

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With the Anti-Corruption Bureau giving her a clean chit in the 'chikki' purchase case, Maharashtra Minister Pankaja Munde today said the allegations against her were part of a plan to defame her.

"I had said many times that there was no substance in the allegations (of irregularities in chikki purchase). On several occasions in the Legislative Assembly also, I have replied to the charges," Pankaja said.

"Those who made the allegations saw a lot of irregularities in 'chikki' that wasn't even distributed (among schoolchildren)," the Women and Child Welfare Minister said.

"A supari (contract) was taken to defame me," Pankaja said. The BJP Minister, however, did not disclose who was behind the move to malign her.

"The ACB has given me a clean chit. I am absolved of the charges. I wasn't involved in any wrongdoing," Pankaja asserted.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has closed the case against the Minister in the matter pertaining to alleged irregularities in awarding contracts for materials worth Rs 206 crore for school children.

Pankaja was accused of flouting norms in awarding contracts for supplying items like 'chikki' (sweetmeat made with nuts and jaggery), mats, notebooks and water filters, among others, for schoolchildren.

Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant had last year lodged a complaint with the ACB demanding an inquiry into the allegations against the Minister and submitted a set of documents purportedly supporting the charges.

(Reopens BOM 21)



"There were no price escalations. Even the Supreme Court had found nothing wrong in the tenders for procurements by the Women and Child Welfare department," the minister said.

Pankaja said she was happy with the ACB's decision and felt vindicated. "My people always believed in me despite the allegations; ACB clean chit is welcome," she added.

However, Sawant alleged the "ACB is working under the pressure of state government...If it cannot function independently, it's better to lock it down."



Sawant said the agency took the version of only those people against whom allegations have been made, and given the clean chit.

He said the Women and Child Welfare department had issued 24 government resolutions (GRs) for procurements worth Rs 206 crore which were "illegal".

"However, instead of investigating whether the institutions from where procurements are being made exist or not, the ACB under pressure of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis gave Pankaja a clean chit," the Congress leader said.

Sawant asked ACB to make public its investigating report.

"We have demanded the probe report and would continue to pursue the matter. It's unfortunate that one department is involved in corruption and another department wraps up the corruption case under pressure of the CM," he said.

Meanwhile, NCP spokesman Nawab Malik said his party would fight the "chikki scam case" against Pankaja in court and alleged ACB was functioning under Fadnavis' pressure.

"As many as 22 ministers in the government face various allegations of corruption, but the CM has given a clean chit to everybody. ACB absolved the minister based on a report from Women and Child Welfare department. This shows the agency did not investigate the case," Malik added.

(Reopens BOM 24)



Activist and former AAP leader Anjali Damania said time has come to "lock down" the ACB for seven years.

"This ACB has been proved to be a puppet and toothless time and again and now time has come when it should be locked down with seven-lever period.

"This is extremely unfortunate that the case, in the form of a scam, which was completely against the accused on the basis of documentary evidences, has been disposed off in such a political manner," she said.

Damania had earlier filed corruption cases against NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal and has also been following the Pankaja Munde case.

"In case of water filters, where the rates were fixed, they were increased arbitrarily by the minister. In this case, the contract for 'chikki' (was awarded) to a Sindhudurg-based NGO against the recommendation that it should not be given to the said NGO. (Not only that) more than double the amount (Rs 80 cr against Rs 37 cr) was paid to the same contractor for the same contract," she alleged.

Damania alleged ACB "overlooked" documentary evidence in instances of financial misappropriation.

"Besides supplying substandard 'chikki', medicine allocation was cut down for malnourished children to save costs even as higher costs (were incurred) for items like water filter, which amounts to a criminal offence. However, the anti-corruption watchdog overlooked these documentary evidences," she said.

Maharashtra unit president of Samajwadi Party, Abu Asim Azmi said the "clean chit" was bound to be given as nothing else could be expected from the government.

"We sensed something was wrong when Chief Minister himself had given Pankaja Munde a clean chit without going into the merits of the allegations which were based on facts, figures and documents.

"At a time when the matter is in court, awarding a clean chit raises the doubts about the intentions of the agency and the government," he said.
Scores of guest teachers today staged a protest against AAP government outside North Delhi's Chhatarsal Stadium after they got upset with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for not making any "new announcement" on increment in their salaries.

The agitating teachers blocked the Ring Road leading to Chhatarsal Stadium where an event was organised by the Delhi government to encourage the guest teachers to perform better.

Last week, the Kejriwal government had proposed to increase the salaries of guest teachers by up to 90 per cent and the file pertaining to the matter was sent to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung for his approval.

A section of the teachers stood from their seats and started leaving when the Chief Minister started addressing the teachers.

Some of them got agitated when Chief Minister apprised them that file relating to increment in their salaries is pending with the LG office.

"We are just being assured by the government for a long time that salaries of guest teachers will soon be increased. Government just makes announcements, but doesn't implement them," a teacher said.

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Gordon Hunt, who directed hundreds of cartoons for TV as well as sitcoms including "Mad About You", which starred his daughter and Oscar-winner Helen Hunt, has passed away. He was 87.

The veteran star died on December 17 at his home in Sherman Oaks, after battling Parkinson's disease, Helen confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

"He was a master of reinvention, a journeyman artist. He knew and taught that the work doesn't always find you. You need to create and re-create the work every day," Helen said.

Starting in the early 1980s, Hunt, who had served for years as the casting director at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, spent about a decade at the famed animation house Hanna-Barbera. He went on to work as the recording director on cartoons featuring "The Smurfs", "Richie Rich", "The Jetsons", "Super Friends", "The Flintstones", "Scooby-Doo" and many others.

In the 1990s, Hunt transitioned to network sitcoms and directed 31 episodes of NBC's "Mad About You". He won a DGA award in 1996 for helming an installment of the acclaimed series that featured Carl Reiner reprising his role as Alan Brady from "The Dick Van Dyke Show".

He also worked on numerous video games including "Pandemonium," the "God of War" series, "Lair," "Final Fantasy XIV," "Blur," the "Legacy of Kain" series and "Uncharted."



He is survived by his wife B J Ward, a voice actress, daughters Helen and Colleen Morrison, grandchildren Makena Lei Gordon Carnahan, Emmett Carnahan and Lizze Gordon and siblings Peter and George Hunt.

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As doubts have been raised about the government's crop production estimates, newly launched ICAR Data Centre will work towards providing accurate farm information, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh today said.

In the last few months, traders have said that the government's wheat production estimate of 93.55 million tonnes for 2015-16 crop year is on higher side and the actual output is around 86 million tonnes.

"Many have expressed doubts about our production data. The new ICAR Data Centre will provide transparent and accurate data," Singh said after inaugurating the centre and a KVK mobile App here.

The centre will do analysis of all kinds of data related to production and consumption of agri-crops, he said.

"The ICAR Data Centre in Pusa campus will play a pivotal role to take 'Digital India' campaign related to agriculture sector ahead," he said.

On wheat sowing, the minister said that farmers have covered wheat crop in more area so far, and there has been no impact of demonetization.

Wheat sowing will continue another 15 days in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, he told reporters on the sidelines of the event.

Till last week of the ongoing rabi season, wheat acreage was higher by 9 per cent at 256.19 lakh hectare as against 239.45 lakh hectare in the year ago period, as per the official data.

Stressing the need to develop crop productivity, the minister said it is necessary to promote hybrid seeds of improved varieties for varied agro-climatic zones to cope with climate change challenges.

He also said that the government has re-constituted the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Authority so as to implement national IPR policy related to plant species.

The authority will work towards improving parameters relating intellectual property profile, management and utilisation of IP for plant species, he added.

The government has decided to open three such regional authorities in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

The minister gave away Plant Genome Savior Farmer award to around a dozen farmers.

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Tens of thousands of displaced Syrians say they have become trapped in an "open-air prison" in the northwestern province of Idlib which they fear will be the army's next target.

Rebels and civilians who have sought refuge in the opposition-held province, most recently from second city Aleppo, say they are suffering from skyrocketing prices and overpopulation.

At least 25,000 people, including rebel fighters, have left east Aleppo since Thursday under an evacuation deal that will see the city come under full government control.

Many of them have headed to neighbouring Idlib province to stay with relatives or in displacement centres.

"We did not want to leave our land, but they used every weapon available to force us out," says Abu Mohammad, a father of four from east Aleppo.

"Now they've prepared a prison for us in order to besiege us and bombard us," he adds, speaking to AFP in a camp hosting around 100 displaced families.

Idlib city has been held since March 2015 by a coalition of rebels led by the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham and the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.

Since then, tens of thousands of people from across the country have flooded the province.

The UN office for humanitarian affairs, OCHA, estimates that 700,000 internally displaced people have found shelter in Idlib since Syria's war erupted nearly six years ago.

Many of those displaced to Idlib are fleeing government bombardment or evacuating besieged areas under local deals with the regime.

These "reconciliation" agreements typically see rebels and civilians bussed out of a town in exchange for an end to shelling or siege by government troops.

In addition to Aleppo, six other towns near Damascus have been evacuated in the last several months, including Daraa and Moadamiyet al-Sham.

The influx to Idlib has had an overwhelming effect on everyday life, with the cost of rents and basic food skyrocketing and shortages becoming a common reality.

Abu Yazan al-Ramah, a fighter who arrived in April from the besieged rebel town of Zabadani near the Lebanese border, says living in Idlib was "tough".

"It's expensive. There are some things you can't find or at times they are unaffordable," says the 30-year-old who has joined up with a local rebel group in order to survive.

Continuing to work with rebel groups is often the only way that displaced men can secure shelter or food.

According to Abu Zeid, a rebel who was wounded near Damascus, armed groups often provide newly displaced fighters in Idlib with free housing, clothes, food "and sometimes money".

Even local business owners in Idlib are struggling to respond to the soaring needs.

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While most of Scotland voted against leaving the European Union, whisky makers have quietly been raising a wee dram to a side-effect of the Brexit vote -- a plunge in the value of the pound.

The currency devaluation has made exports cheaper, generating a bump since 90 per cent of Scotch whisky is sold outside Britain, although the industry warns the longer-term outlook is far more cloudy.

David Williamson, communications director for the Scotch Whisky Association, said: "Because of the relative strength of the pound we're certainly getting anecdotal reports back from our member companies that has helped to boost exports."



And Tony Reeman-Clark, who runs the Strathearn Distillery in Perthshire -- a relative newcomer to the market -- said: "I have been talking to people from bigger distilleries who said there has been a lot of interest, and a lot of sales, because of the weak pound."



Reeman-Clark, who is also the founder of the Scottish Craft Distillers Association, said Strathearn began producing whisky three years ago and its first 100 bottles were auctioned off on 1 December.

The first sold for 4,150 pounds to an Italian buyer, far exceeding Reeman-Clark's expectations.

He said he had received bids from as far away as "Auckland, Beijing, Hong Kong, Israel, Germany, America, all over the world".

Since the shock June vote the pound has tumbled about 15 percent against the greenback and Graham Hutcheon, the operations director of distiller Edrington, said the industry was having a "jamboree time".

However, he urged the government to provide clarity on Brexit, Bloomberg agency reported.

"We don't know the questions to ask, let alone answer," said Hutcheon, whose company makes whiskies such as Macallan and The Famous Grouse.

More than 10,000 people are now directly employed in the industry -- up six per cent in the past three years - while a further 30,000 people are employed in its supply chain from bottling to distribution.

The main markets in the first half of this year were the US (357.4 million pounds), France (193.1 million pounds) and Singapore (99.6 million pounds), with total exports equivalent to 533 million bottles of whisky.

More than 500 million bottles worth around 1.7 billion pounds are exported from Britain every year. The full impact of Brexit is not expected to be revealed until distillers complete their annual returns in early 2017.

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A 64-year-old Indian woman who was attending a conference in Dubai died after suffering a heart attack here, according to a media report.

Vasantha Reddi collapsed in a shopping mall after experiencing chest pain, and later died on her way to the hospital in an ambulance.

Vasantha was on a visit to Dubai with her 68-year-old husband Sathyanarayana Reddi. They were among the several hundred delegates visiting the country to attend a Rotary Club conference, Khaleej Times reported.

The couple from Chennai was married for 39 years and this was their first foreign trip together.

"We came to Dubai for the first time and my wife was quite happy. We were in Dubai Mall visiting various shops and taking pictures. All of a sudden, she felt uneasy and fainted. She wanted to rest as she was experiencing severe pain and we had to call an ambulance. While going to the hospital she died in the ambulance," Sathyanarayana was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

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West Bengal Chief Minister today criticised the I-T raid at the residence of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, saying that such a "vindictive and unethical" act by the central agencies devalues the institution of the head of the civil service.

"Why this vindictive, unethical, technically improper action? Is it only to disturb the federal structure? Why do not they raid Amit Shah and others?" she said in a statement.

Banerjee said corruption needs to be strongly condemned, but "the raid on Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary by central agencies devalues the institution of the head of the civil service".

"The proper procedure should have been to take the state leadership into confidence and removing him from the post prior to any preemptive action, based on information," she said.

"Earlier the Principal Secretary of Arvind Kejriwal was raided and harassed. Now I read Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu has also been raided," Banerjee said.

The Income-Tax department on Wednesday conducted searches at over a dozen locations in connection with its tax evasion probe against the son and few other relatives of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao.

It is understood that the official residence of the Chief Secretary in Chennai was also raided.
Actress Priyanka Chopra is happy to be back home in Mumbai after having a busy year shooting for her American show "Quantico" in the US.

The 34-year-old star expressed her excitement on social media by sharing a picture of her pet dog Brando, who gave a grand welcome to her.

"Happy welcome.. Brando baby... Happy to be home... Nothing like it," she captioned the photo.

In another post she said, "So funny how some things don't change but yet everything becomes different... #backhome #backtowork #lovemumbai #morningmusings."



The "Bajirao Mastaani" star also retweeted a picture, where she can be seen posing for Indian paparazzi during a red carpet event, here.

"It's nice to be back," she wrote alongside the photograph.

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Continuing its crackdown on black money post demonetisation, the Income Tax department today searched 11 locations linked to Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, including his official chamber and residence, besides those of his son, and claimed to have seized Rs 30 lakh in new currency and five kg gold.

The searches were also conducted in Chitoor on premises of Rao's relatives in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

IT officials claimed Vivek had admitted to having undisclosed income of Rs five crore.

"We proceeded on the basis of evidence which includes documents, notings and others pointing to receipt of income by Rao and his son to the tune of about Rs 16 crore to Rs 17 crore," a top IT official said.

Among the places searched by IT authorities were the residence of Rao in Chennai, premises owned by his kin and associates, besides his chamber at the Secretariat, he said.

The searches followed the recent seizure of Rs 135 crore cash and 177 kg of gold from sand mining baron Shekar Reddy and his associate Srinivasulu, the largest since the Modi government announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes.

Reddy was removed as member of the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD) Board by the Andhra Pradesh government after IT action against him on December 9.

Rao and his son could not be contacted from comments.

Reddy and Srinivasulu were arrested by CBI today and produced before a special court which remanded them in judicial custody.

About 100 IT officials, with CRPF contingents providing security, searched the premises from as early as 6 am.

The sources said Rao, Tamil Nadu government's top-most official, was cooperating in the investigation, and that Vivek's statement has been recorded. Vivek allegedly had business dealings with Shekar Reddy.

Rao was appointed Chief Secretary in June this year.

Sources said a similar action was being conducted on the premises of a retired Indian Forest Service officer, currently working with the state's Environment Impact Assessment Authority, and a few others.

The Enforcement Directorate, the country's anti-money laundering agency has also registered a complaint in this case after the IT department shared documents with it.

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A delegation led by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Congress, Jharkhand Vikas Manch (JVM) and other opposition parties today met President Pranab Mukherjee and urged him not to give assent to two contentious bills on acquisition of tribal land, which were passed in the Assembly.

Last month, the Jharkhand Assembly had approved amendments to the 108-year-old Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT) and Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Act.

The delegation, comprising JMM chief and Lok Sabha MP Shibu Soren, his son and ex-chief minister Hemant Soren, former Union Minister Subodh Kant Sahay, MLAs and MPs of other political parties, told the President the bills, seeking the amendments, were passed in the Assembly without discussion.

The Raghubar Das-led government says the amendments will allow acquisition of tribal land, while keeping the landholders' ownership intact, for building infrastructure such as roads, hospitals and educational institutions.

"The bills give unbridled power to the state government to declare agriculture land to non-agriculture. These Bills are also against people's wishes as it dilutes the legislation that has given protection to the tribals," the memorandum, submitted to the President, said.

Shibu Soren said any dilution of the two legislations will spell doom on poor tribal people in Jharkhand.

"Seven people have lost their lives in police firing over the last one-and-a-half month. Jharkhand is known to be a Naxal insurgency prone state. If tribals feels alienated and robbed then this anger will become more violent," Sahay said and alleged these bills were brought only to acquire tribal land for industrialists.

"We have requested the President not to give assent to these bills. We also acquainted him on the ways used by the BJP government in the state to pass bills.

"(Through these bills), the Chief Minister wants to convert all farmers to businessmen," Hemant Soren alleged, adding the situation in the state is deteriorating.

He said amendments were made to these two legislations in the past, but no one tinkered with the character of the land.

However, through these bills, one single notification can change the character of the land from agriculture to non-agriculture without seeking permission from the Assembly, Hemant Soren alleged.

"Even the Tribal Advisory Council had opposed the amendments proposed in these Bills," he claimed.

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A Japanese programme aimed at accepting a small number of refugees from war-torn Syria promised today to remove language from documents which implied that pregnant women are not welcome to apply.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced in May that immigration-shy Japan, with a population of about 127 million, would accept up to 150 Syrian students over five years from 2017.

That number compares with vastly higher figures in other countries. Norway, with a population of about 5.1 million, has pledged to accept some 9,000 Syrians.

Abe separately pledged at a refugee summit hosted by US President Barack Obama in September that Japan was also prepared to "warmly welcome" family members of the students.

But the Japanese unit of Amnesty International has raised concerns that the programme for Syrians virtually excluded pregnant women.

As advertised, the programme - entitled "Japanese Initiative for the future of Syrian Refugees" - has several requirements for applicants.

Originally, it included the line: "Pregnant applicants are not recommended to apply," according to Amnesty and the government's Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which manages the programme.

But after Amnesty and other groups expressed concern, it was changed to read: "Before the application, pregnant applicants are advised to consider carefully potential risk of health and life issues of mother and foetus."



JICA spokesman Satoshi Murakami, however, said late today that the organisation would remove the clause as it was creating "misunderstanding".

He had earlier in the day told AFP the programme's main focus was "not to rescue the underprivileged but to educate personnel" for Syria's reconstruction.

"When a pregnant woman comes to Japan and gives birth, she will have to rest for some time," he said, though stressing that the programme was not meant to exclude expectant women.

Amnesty International had objected to that stance.

"The requirement is problematic because it narrows the window for female applicants," said Kaoru Yamaguchi, who added that it discourages refugees from applying.

In March, British charity Oxfam assessed Japan should take in some 50,000 Syrians based on the size of its economy.

Last year, it accepted 27 refugees, including three Syrians, after some 7,500 people from 69 countries sought such status in Japan, according to the justice ministry.

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Japan and Indonesia agreed today to cooperate on maritime security at a time when both countries are embroiled in sea rows with China.

Beijing asserts sovereignty over almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea, despite rival claims from Southeast Asian neighbours.

Indonesia has no dispute with China over ownership of reefs or islets.

But China's expansive claims overlap with Indonesia's exclusive economic zone -- waters where a state has the right to exploit resources -- around the Natunas, a remote scattering of islands with rich fishing grounds.

In June Indonesian President Joko Widodo toured the islands on a warship, in a move seen sending a strong message to Beijing to respect his country's sovereignty.

In Tokyo, Indonesia's coordinating minister for maritime affairs Luhut Panjaitan and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida met to exchange documents to launch the cooperation framework, including in maritime security and economic development in remote islets.

"Japan highly values cooperation with Indonesia in maritime affairs," Kishida told Panjaitan.

The agreement is aimed at helping Indonesia strengthen its capacity in maritime security and promote economic development of remote islands, a foreign ministry official told AFP.

Australia has earlier said it is considering joint patrols with Indonesia in the South China Sea.

Japan, which has a territorial row with China over disputed islands in the East China Sea, has worked to strengthen ties with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, repeatedly stressing maritime disputes should be addressed according to law.

The Philippines took China to the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration, which ruled in July there was no legal basis to China's claims -- a verdict Beijing vehemently dismissed.

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Displaying sportsmanship, India's TeamIndus will take along Japanese rival Hakuto's rover on its spacecraft to the moon, where they will compete for a USD 25 million prize.

The US and Israeli teams are also in the race for Google's Lunar XPRIZE that requires privately funded teams to land their spacecraft on the moon, travel 500 metres and broadcast high definition video, images and data back to earth.

The TeamIndus spacecraft, in addition to the Japanese Rover, will carry its own indigenously designed and developed robotic rover, ECA -- short for 'Ek Chhoti si Asha' (one small wish).

"We are delighted to welcome Hakuto on board our spacecraft and look forward to working with them over the next few months... This is a reaffirmation of our technology preparedness as we continue to build towards becoming the first private entity to land on the moon," TeamIndus Fleet Commander Rahul Narayan said.

Earlier this month, Team Indus had inked a commercial launch contract with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the moon mission.

TeamIndus will launch the spacecraft aboard ISRO's PSLV that will inject the spacecraft into an orbit 800 km above the surface of the earth.

From there on, the spacecraft will set course to the moon by switching on its own engines. After landing on the lunar surface on Mare Imbrium, both the rovers would be deployed.

Team Indus is supported by industry veterans including Ratan Tata (Tata Group), Nandan Nilekani (Infosys), Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (Flipkart) and Venu Srinivasan (TVS Group) among others.

"TeamIndus can carry up to 20 kgs of payload, of which the Japanese rover is 4 kgs. In addition to that, we are carrying International University payloads and student experiments under our Lab2moon initiative," TeamIndus Jedi Master (International Sales) Sridhar Ramasubban said.

TeamIndus has already won USD 1 million under the competition for demonstrating its landing technology. Hakuto, on the other hand, won USD 500,000 Mobility Prize for the robotic rover it developed.

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The JNU Students Union has criticised the university Vice-Chancellor for the invitation given to an ABVP office bearer to a book release function held on the varsity campus today.

The book 'Serendipity and the American Dream' authored by JNU alumnus Dr Manan Dwivedi, was released at Convention Centre of JNU. The university VC Prof Jagdesh Kumar, Rector Prof Chintamani Mahapatra attended the function.

The national organisation secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad(ABVP) Sunil Ambekar was also invited in the book release function but he could not attend it.

The Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was also an invitee but he also could not make it to the function.

The JNUSU expressed its annoyance over invitation to Ambekar and attacked the VC over it.

"Every activity of JNU VC shows that he is not here to serve the idea of JNU that took shape through debate-discussion and academic rigor in JNU, but, he is here to give stage to RSS-ABVP functionaries who are against the idea of JNU," said a statement from the students union.

However, the University administration denied that the invitees were chosen by it.

"It was a personal choice of the author and the university played no role in it," said Dr Ramesh C Gaur, University Librarian, who conducted the proceedings of book release.

Dr Dwivedi also said that the function and its guest list was of his own choice.

"I am an alumnus of JNU. The university has provided platform to persons of divergent political ideologies in the past. I don't think invitation to Ambekar was wrong unless it was against the rules of the university. He, however, could not come as he was busy in some programme in Indore," Dr Dwivedi said.

The ABVP leaders at JNU accused JNUSU of indulging in "myopic" politics and being "intolerant" over the issue.

"The myopic politics of JNU's left brigade steered by JNUSU today touched its lowest ebb when it came out in opposition to the invitation of Sunil Ambekar in a book launch today in JNU. It reflects sheer intolerance on the part of JNUSU that aims to make JNU its fiefdom," said ABVP leader Saurabh Sharma.

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2016 saw the Left Democratic Front (LDF) returning to power in Kerala and issues like disappearance of 21 Keralites, attack on media persons by some lawyers and alleged encounter killings of Maoists keeping the government on tenterhooks.

The LDF government received flak over the death of two Maoists, including a woman, in an encounter with police in Nilambur forests with major front partner CPI and CPI-M veteran V S Achutanandan decrying the handling of things. However, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made it clear he would not do anything that would destroy the morale of police.

The year also saw an ugly attack on media personnel by a section of lawyers in front of the Kerala High Court following which journalists were denied access to cover proceedings in the high court and other subordinate courts. Guidelines were formulated for media personnel covering court proceedings.

In a tragic incident, 111 people were killed in an explosion during a fireworks display at the Puttingal temple at Paravur in Kollam district on April 10.

The rape and murder of a 30-year-old Dalit woman in Perumbavoor, which eventually proved costly for the Congress- led UDF in the assembly polls and the commuting of death sentence of Govindachamy in the sensational rape and murder case was 23-year-old Soumya who was pushed out from a running train in 2011, also hogged media headlines.

The stray dog menace continued to haunt the state throughout the year with four persons losing their lives and 701 people, including children, suffering dog bites. In retaliation, many stray dogs were culled in various parts of the state.

The state lost several eminent persons including eminent writer and Jnanpith award winner ONV Kurup, theatre director, playwright and poet Kavalam Narayana Panicker and popular actors Kalabhavan Mani, Jishnu and Kalpana.

As the year came to an end, state's two famous shrines -- Padmanabha Swamy and Lord Ayyappa temples -- were caught in a row, the former over relaxation of dress code for women and the latter over a change of name.

While the executive officer of Padmanabha Swamy temple in the state capital permitted women wearing salwar kameez and churidar to offer worship in the shrine, the administrative committee objected. The Kerala High Court has now stayed the executive officer's order stating status quo should continue.

As per the temple dress code, women can wear sarees, 'mundu and neriyathu' (traditional dress). They can wear salwar and churidar, but have to wrap a 'mundu' (dhoti) over it while entering the temple.

The renaming of the famed Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala by the Travancore Devaswom Board led to a controversy with the government declaring the move as 'serious violation of rules'.

The temple, believed to have been established 1,800 years ago, is considered one among the biggest and most ancient shrines in the state. Since then, it has been known as Sree Dharma Sastha temple and the board had no right to change it, the government had said.

In July, Vijayan told the Assembly that 21 Muslim youths



from the state had gone missing since June. There was suspicion that they could have joined Islamic State.

Two low intensity IED blasts took place in the court complexes at Kollam and Malappuram.

In May, Vijayan took over the mantel of chief minister for the first time. Though the LDF fought the assembly polls with 93-year-old V S Achutanandan, a former chief minister, as the face of the campaign, Vijayan piped him to the CM's post and 'VS' ended being appointed 'Kerala Castro', who would advise and guide the party.

Achutanandan had to be content with being chairman of the Administrative Reforms Commission.

LDF won 91 of the 140 assembly seats, with UDF bagging 41, KC-M, which came out of the front on the bar bribery issue, six and BJP one seat.

Oommen Chandy-led UDF, which had faced the polls under a cloud of charges from bar bribery to solar scam, failed to convince voters and saw four of its ministers biting the dust -- Shibu Baby John, K P Mohanan and K Babu and P K Jayalakshmi, besides Speaker N Shaktan and Deputy Speaker Palode Ravi.

Shocked by the front's dismal performance, Chandy refused to even stake claim for the post of Opposition leader, paving the way for Ramesh Chennithala's appointment.

The LDF's euphoria over its sterling performance took a beating within months of its coming to power with E P Jayarajan, the No 2 in the Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet, forced to quit over nepotism charges for appointing his nephew, Sudheer Nambiar, son of CPI(M) leader and central committee member, P K Sreemathy, and another relative to top positions in state PSUs.

The resignation was a deep embarrassment for the chief minister, who was said to be close to Jayarajan.

Senior CPI(M) leader M M Mani was appointed to fill in the vacuum left by Jayarajan.

The 2016 Assembly election saw BJP making its entry into the house with former Union minister O Rajagopal winning from Nemom in Thiruvananthapuram district.

The year also saw the birth of a new political party BDJS -- Bharat Dharma Jana Sena, launched by Vellapally Natessan, General Secretary Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), an organisation of the backward Ezhava community.
National Security Advisor Ajit K Doval has met US Secretary of State John Kerry here and discussed regional security, counter-terrorism and deepening of India-US strategic partnership.

"Secretary Kerry met today (December 20) with Indian National Security Advisor Doval to discuss regional security, counter-terrorism, and the deepening strategic partnership between the United States and India," State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner told PTI.

"The Secretary expressed confidence that the US-India partnership would continue to move forward in the new administration and thanked Doval for his leadership and hard work on our shared agenda," Toner said.

Doval, who arrived in the US on Monday, yesterday met President-elect Donald Trump's NSA-designate Gen (rtd) Michael Flynn and the two leaders are believed to have discussed a wide range of regional and global strategic issues while exploring ways to further Indo-US ties.

It is understood that Flynn spoke to Doval over phone a few days ago, during which he invited Doval to come to the US for a meeting.

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A key member of Islamic State (IS) was today arrested from Pakistan's Punjab province alongwith the terror group's flags and weapons, police said today.

Police officials and Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) personnel raided a house in Sargodha district, some 200 km from Lahore, and arrested the militant, they said.

Weapons and IS flags were recovered from him, they said, adding the suspect, who was not named, has been shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogation.

Last Sunday, the CTD along with police had killed five suspected terrorists of IS group in a shootout in Dera Ghazi Khan district of Punjab province.

The CTD saida team conducted a raid at a house in Mauza Rakh Rojhani, some 350 km from Lahore, and asked the suspects to surrender but they fired on the team.

During a shootout, five suspected terrorists were killed while their four accomplices managed to escape.

It said two of the killed were identified as Malik Tehseen and Kamran, who had escaped from the police custody some months ago.

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A sulking Oommen Chandy who is keeping away from party meetings reportedly unhappy over the selection of new DCC Presidents, today broke his silence and said it was up to KPCC President V M Sudheeran, to convene a meeting of the Political Affairs Committee and he would attend, if it was convenient.

"KPCC President should convene the PAC meeting and if it is convenient, I will attend," Chandy told reporters.

When it was pointed out that Sudheeran, who is the chairman of the PAC, had earlier stated that Chandy should decide on a suitable date, the senior leader retorted that he did not agree with that view.

Chandy has not been attending any of the functions in which newly appointed DCC presidents have taken charge.Even in his home constituency in Kottayam, Chandy has kept away from such functions while his confidants, former ministers, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and K C Joseph had participated.

Chandy had also abstained from attending the agitation organised by the Congress-led UDF in Delhi recently on demonetisation, even as party leaders said his absence was due to some personal inconvenience.

The Congress leader also stated that he had no complaints about the appointment of new DCC presidents. Chandy had also met CWC member A K Antony, and reportedly informed him about his discontent.

Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has already indicated that there was differences in the party in Kerala over appointment of new DCC Presidents and he too was also unhappy. "Myself, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy have differences over the reorganisation of DCC and KPCC President V M Sudheeran also might have disagreement," Chennithala had said here.

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The Kremlin said today that nearly all the communication channels between Moscow and Washington were frozen, local media reported.

"Practically all levels of dialogue with the United States are frozen," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Mir TV, state agency RIA Novosti reported.

"We don't communicate with one another. Or we do so minimally."



Russia finds itself locked in its worst standoff with the West since the Cold War over its 2014 annexation of Crimea, the conflict in Ukraine and lingering disagreements about the conflict in Syria.

US State Department Spokesman John Kirby assured later today that "diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues".

"That we have significant differences with Moscow on some of these issues is well known, but there hasn't been a break in dialogue," Kirby said, adding that Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had spoken on the phone about the situation in Syria yesterday.

The Obama administration yesterday reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining sanctions on Moscow over Crimea with new financial restrictions on Russian businessmen and companies.

The White House this month also pointed to direct involvement by Russian President Vladimir Putin in cyber attacks designed to impact the US election.

The upcoming presidency of Donald Trump now casts doubt over the future of US policy towards Russia given his apparently softer line on Putin.

The Kremlin strongman has reiterated Moscow's readiness to work with the Trump administration once the President-elect takes office in January, stressing the importance of normalising the countries' relations.

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Describing Kyrgyztan as a "heaven for investments", its President Almazbek Atambayev today invited Indian businesses to invest in the country, saying it could serve as a gateway to the entire Central Asian region.

Further, Atambayev promised protection to those investing in Kyrgyztan, observing that "businesses in the country will be protected irrespective of whoever becomes the President".

Addressing a Business Forum here, he said: "From January 1, we are taking new measures where businessmen can be checked only by the tax department. Today, the business people are checked by the police and economic department. There is a lot of investigation."



Highlighting the benefits of investing in Kyrgyztan, Atambayev said: "In Kyrgyztan you will have long-term credit with 4 to 5 per cent. Don't be afraid (of investing).

"We are already member of the Customs Union with Belarus and Russia. If you do business in Kyrgyztan, there is no Customs duty and the Customs Union is a Preferential Trade zone."



The President also said that Kyrgyztan is the "key to the gate of Central Asia", adding "it is a small country but the key to the entire region".

Besides, the President mentioned that he has told Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a meeting yesterday that Indians are coming almost every day of the year to Kyrgyztan.

"(He) Modi has a high opinion of Kyrgyztan," Atambayev noted.

The President also said that he has asked the Indian side to look into the visa regime, pointing out that Kyrgyztan has decided to ease the visa procedure and introduced electronic visa facility.

Besides, Y S Chowdary, Minister of State for Science and Technology & Earth Science, said that although bilateral trade between India and Kyrgyztan has widened over the years to USD 26.9 million in 2015-16, the current level of trade is "much below potential" which calls for concentrated efforts by both nations.

Both countries will have to play a proactive role to increase bilateral trade, he said.

Elaborating on the cooperation potential, Chowdary said the two countries can collaborate in fields like agriculture, telemedicine and tourism.

India and Kyrgyztan yesterday firmed up broad contours of a bilateral investment agreement and inked six other pacts covering a range of areas even as they resolved to work closely to combat the challenge of terrorism, extremism and radicalism.

In their comprehensive talks, Modi and Atambayev also decided to strengthen ties in areas of defence, security, mining, IT, agriculture and energy.

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The Left parties today demanded a thorough probe into Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's allegations that Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups.

Targeting Modi, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the "personal-political corruption" charges against the Prime Minister while he delivers "sermons" on combating black money and corruption is his "trademark hypocrisy".

"Sahara Diaries and the allegations against Modi, when he was Gujarat CM, are very serious and must be investigated," he said.

"Whether Vyapam, Lalit Modi, GSPC or now Sahara Diaries, they reveal the sleazy, crony capitalism of BJP state govts. Thorough probe needed (sic)," he tweeted.

CPI too demanded high-level probe into Gandhi's allegation.

"It's a case which deserves high-level probe so that people get to know the truth," CPI national secretary D Raja said in Hyderabad where the party is at present holding its three-day national council meeting.

Earlier in the day, the Congress vice president alleged that Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and demanded an independent inquiry into it.

Addressing a rally in Mehsana in the Prime Minister's home state, he alleged that in the I-T records there are notings of Sahara officials' claims that they had paid nine times to Modi between October, 2013 and February, 2014.

Similarly, as per documents with Income Tax department, the Birla group also paid Rs 12 crore to Modi when he was Chief Minister, Gandhi added.

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It has been just over a week since a suicide bomber entered the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral complex in Cairo, killing himself and making martyrs of 27 Egyptian Christians. They were mostly women and children attending the Sunday morning service. Two months before, the Anglican Archbishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt, addressing a conference in Cairo, had called for Christians to be ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of Christ. This has certainly been the experience of Coptic Orthodox Christians, who experienced the loss of 21 lives in 2011 in another Church bombing, and 21 Egyptian Orthodox migrant workers beheaded in Libya in 2015. The leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II, preaching at the funeral of those recently killed, said, It is the destiny of our church to offer martyrs, and that is why we call it the Church of the Martyrs.

There is sorrow and anger that such incidents take place, but the Church in Egypt has not turned to violence in response to the violence meted out on her members. Rather than threatening anyone else, crowds of mourning demonstrators offered their own lives as martyrs in defence of the Christian community, chanting, With our soul, and with our blood, we will defend the Cross. Such a witness to the desire for peace in the face of almost unbearable provocation has gained respect around the world. But the principled willingness to face martyrdom  and the suicide bomber in Cairo was no martyr  does not justify such indiscriminate violence, either in Cairo or elsewhere in the world where extremists view political or religious violence as a means of furthering a particular worldview.

Europe has not been able to isolate itself from such terrorism in the past, nor in the present. In the decades after the Second World War most violence was in the service of an extreme political agenda, such as in the case of the Baader Meinhof gang in Germany, and the Ordine Nuovo in Italy, or was an expression of violent political separatism such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army (P.I.R.A) in the British Isles, and the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (E.T.A.) in Spain and southwestern France.

But over the most recent decades Europe has faced the same Islamist violence which has devastated the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, and parts of Africa  the same extremism behind the attack on the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Cairo last week. Events unfolding even as this is written bear that out. Europe, however, faces a rather different dilemma than the much more authoritarian Islamic states. In the West the challenge is not narrowly to resist Islam, as if it were always a threat, since it is clear that Islamist violence is perpetrated and supported by only a minority. In the same way, not all political activists on the Left and Right posed a threat to wider society in the past.

Since the Cairo bombing, the Islamic State claimed responsibility after a man drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin; a Turkish police officer shouted fundamentalist Islamic and political slogans as he murdered a Russian diplomat in Ankara; and six arrests took place of a group of Islamists associated with the Islamic State, who were thought to be organising a significant terrorist offence in the UK. But at the same time three arrests took place in the Republic of Ireland of men thought to be engaged in republican paramilitary activity. The source of such political and religious violence may change over the course of time. But the enduring question remains for Europe and the West. How is it possible to preserve and protect the democratic nature of our society with the experience of tolerance, liberty and free speech, when there are those who wish to use those same freedoms to undermine and destroy such a society?

If we wish to be able to resist the threat to our shared society, one in which people from all backgrounds and cultures are able to be and become participants, then we must have a definite idea of what this society means and stands for. At present we surely do not.

A first step would require that those who come to live in the West share its historic values: its religious heritage, respect for the rule of law, the use of reason and exercise of conscience, tolerance and religious pluralism, the importance of democratic institutions, economic initiative, and political liberty.

That liberty which we value so highly is surely a positive and fruitful attribute of any society, while mere license is an expression of atomisation and the practical dissolution of any society. Liberty describes the activity of each member of a society as a freedom to pursue virtue, which builds up society and sustains it. License describes the activity of each person in some space as pursuing selfishness without any limitations for the well-being of society, without even the recognition of such a society.

Europe and the West face an existential challenge, because they have become a community of licence rather than preserving the society of liberty. In such a context we no longer seem to know what should be valued and preserved as necessary for the well-being of our society. A free society requires each member to moderate their own behaviour temperately, according to the traditional moral precepts that have influenced the West for millennia. In a community of licence, where there is no inner restraint, competing groups and individuals turn to the exercise of power to dominate the community and form it in their own image.

A healthy society cannot tolerate the intolerable, nor can it allow licentiousness or indifference to subvert the foundation of liberty.

An atomized collection of individuals in the same space has no basis to preserve itself against any use of force, nor any great inclination to do so. One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. But the clearly defined and described character of a society, of our society, including a mutual responsibility and a shared commitment to living together whatever our backgrounds, this at least provides a common ideal to defend together. Margaret Thatcher once endured a media firestorm for a misinterpretation of her phrase, There is no such thing as society. It is surely necessary for us now, more than ever, to make sure that a renewed vision of society as a positive good for all is established, otherwise we have nothing to answer those who wish to destroy what remains in hatred and violence.

The photo of Coptic Pope Tawadros II is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.
After clothes and 'dupattas', California almonds have emerged as the new product in cross- LoC trade in Jammu and Kashmir that are being used a mode of terror funding, according to the NIA.

The NIA has registered a case in this connection and carried out searches on traders at trade facilitation centres at Salamabad in Kashmir region's North Kashmir's Baramulla district and Chakan-da-bagh in Poonch district of Jammu region.

According to the cross-LoC trade agreement between India and Pakistan, products grown in both sides of Jammu and Kashmir will be exchanged under barter system. The products included 'Badam giri' that is grown in parts of Pakistan- occupied-Kashmir (PoK).

During the searches, documents related to exchange of California almonds were seized by NIA and were being scrutinised, the NIA said.

The traders from PoK were sending and receiving California almonds and it is alleged that the money was used for funding of terror groups in the state.

The NIA said in a statement that a reliable information was received that a large scale transfer of funds from Pakistan to India has been taking place, through the import of California almonds (badam giri) via the cross-LoC trade mechanism through the trade facilitation centres located at Salamabad and Chakkan-da-Bagh.

"This is in gross violation of the State policy of prohibition on trade in 'third-party origin goods' through this mechanism and information indicated that these funds are being used for fomenting terrorism and separatism in the state of Jammu and Kashmir," the NIA said.

A case has been registered by NIA against unknown persons under the relevant sections of IPC and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Earlier clothes and 'dupatta' (stole) were being used to finance terror in the state.

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Delhi Commission for Women Chief Swati Maliwal, who is at constant loggerheads with the Union government, has called for better coordination between the Centre and the state.

Speaking at a conference on women's safety organised by the Centre for Social Research, Maliwal said more meetings between authorities at the central and state levels were required to boost safety and plug loopholes.

"There should be creation of a commission and coordination between the Parliament and the government," Maliwal said at the event held yesterday which was also attended by National Commission for Women Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam.

In her address, Kumaramangalam said setting up of CCTV cameras and surveillance don't really help because criminals are "usually advanced users of technology".

She underlined how choosing dolls for the girl child and cars for boys was a form of "indoctrination" of the minds of children.

"Also, our advertisements show defined roles for mothers and fathers that needs to be changed," she said.

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A 43-year-old Delhi Tourism department employee was killed in south Delhi's Mehrauli area, police said today.

Brij Bhushan, who worked as a contractual employee in Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation (DTDC) was attacked and killed yesterday at Rajpur Khurd Extension.

The reason behind the murder is yet to be ascertained although personal enmity can be a possibility, they said.

The victim was found lying at Rajpur Khurd Extension in Mehrauli by the police that reached the spot after getting a PCR call around 10.50 PM, he said adding he succumbed to his injuries early in the morning today.

A case has been registered against unidentified men and investigation is underway, police said.

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Manipur BJP today urged the Centre to remove all NSCN(I-M) designated camps from the state which is witnessing violence since early this month.

Removal of the designated camps of NSCN(IM), which is in ceasefire with the Centre, will solve the ongoing "restlessness" in Manipur, state BJP spokesperson O Joy Singh said here.

Joy Singh said the party will not compromise with the territorial integrity of Manipur and a delegation of the state BJP will meet Union Home Minister Rajanth Singh in Delhi. State BJP chief Ksh Bhavananda Singh is already in the national capital.

Earlier in the day, BJP Legislature Party leader Khumukcham Joykisan Singh resigned from the primary membership of the party and joined Congress protesting negligence by BJP's central leadership on various issues of Manipur.

Manipur has been witnessing violence since early this month and is experiencing severe hardship in supply of essential items since November 1 after United Naga Council (UNC) imposed an indefinite economic blockade on the two national highways in the state that serve as its lifelines.

The UNC has been agitating against the government's decision to create Sadar Hills and Jiribam into full fledged districts, claiming it would bifurcate ancestral lands of Nagas in Manipur.

The Manipur cabinet had on December 9 decided to form seven new districts, bifurcating the existing nine. Four new districts have been formally inaugurated.

The tension escalated after militants ambushed Manipur Police and other state forces in the last few days that left three policemen dead and 14 others injured on December 15.

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Some media persons were today heckled by BJP supporters here while they had gone to cover the party's 'Save Democracy' programme in front of the District Magistrates office.

The media persons later lodged a complaint at Howrah police station, police said.

As part of the party's statewide 'Save Democracy' programme, the Howrah BJP and Rural BJP units today carried out demonstrations at two places in here - in front of the DM's office and in front in Howrah Town of the office of the superintendent of police, Howrah Rural.

The media persons were attacked and heckled by BJP at the Howrah Town programme, those covering the programme said.

"We have heard about the incident but we don't exactly know what happened. We could not identify the workers who are accused of beating-up the reporters. We will look into the matter," Sayantan Basu, spokesperson of the party in Kolkata, said.

Meanwhile, party's leader Rupa Ganguly was present at the party's programme which was organised outside Howrah SP Rural's office at Paniara.

Speaking about the recent incidents of clashes between two groups of people across the state including Howrah, Rupa Ganguly demanded compensation of Rs 10 lakh for all families that suffered losses.

Taking a dig at WB Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the BJP leader alleged that she is always discussing demonetisation issue as she is in trouble because of the step taken by the central government.

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From its humble beginnings in a Durban cinema, the Miss India South Africa Pageant has celebrated its 25th anniversary here by crowning its latest winner who will compete with counterparts from over 20 diaspora countries for the Miss India Worldwide title.

"Each year we have had a glittering event and our winners have travelled the world to represent our community in some of the greatest capitals of the world," said Farook Khan, one of the founders of the South African leg of the international contest that was started by Dharmatma Saran in New York nearly three decades ago.

Several regional contests are held annually across South Africa, from which finalists participate in the gala finale where they showcase their talent through modelling Eastern and Western clothing and performing a cultural item, usually an Indian dance.

"Of the 24 participants, two of them, Sarika Sukhdeo and Kajal Lutchminarain, went on to become the global winners," Khan added as he outlined how the event was more than just a beauty pageant, with most of the contestants being young Indian women who had professional careers as doctors, engineers, accountants and academics.

Mechanical engineer Supriya Surjoo of Johannesburg beat 17 other contestants, including her doctor sister Anjuli to be crowned Miss India South Africa 2016, with Alisha Authbeharie in second place and Aishwarya Bedesy third.

The winner's package of prizes includes a Bollywood audition in India.

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BJP today strongly dismissed as "utterly baseless" and "shameful" Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's allegations that Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and said the Prime Minister is as "pure" as the Ganga.

Hitting back at Gandhi, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the allegations reflected the Congress leader's frustration and were an attempt to divert attention from the AgustaWestland probe in which the names of Congress leaders and the "family" were coming up.

"The allegations levelled against the Prime Minister are baseless, false, shameful and mala fide and they reflected Rahul Gandhi's frustration in leading his party to disastrous defeats in state after state," he told a press conference at the BJP headquarters.

Addressing a rally in Mehsana in Gujarat, Gandhi alleged that Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and demanded an independent inquiry.

Wondering why Gandhi did not raise voice against UPA government's massive scams, Prasad said people of the country do not take the Congress Vice President seriously.

"There is no expectation from Rahul Gandhi who has demonstrated himself as the biggest partner of corruption during the 10-year rule of the UPA... Why he did not utter a single word when crores of rupees were being looted during Congress rule," asked Prasad.

"Our Prime Minister is as pure as the river Ganga," he said, adding even the Supreme Court had observed that there was no basis in the allegations.

He was referring to the Supreme Court rejecting a plea for a probe by a special investigation team against Modi on allegations that two companies paid Rs 65 crore to him ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Party spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said Gandhi was immature and was just indulging in bluff and bluster because people are not taking him seriously.

"People of India have stopped taking him seriously. Rahul Gandhi is just bluff and bluster. There is no substance in what he says. He is just showing his and his party's incompetence," he said.

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Hailing demonetisation, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a "saint" working for uplift of the poor and also urged Muslims to engage in digital transactions.

Naqvi also hit out at Rahul Gandhi for criticising Modi and RBI, saying the Congress vice president should take note of "lessons" people are teaching his party by defeating it in municipal polls held after invalidation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes.

"We agree initially there were some lacuna (in implementation of demonetisation) which are being addressed with support from people. We feel there is inconvenience, but no pain.

"The pain is not there because the one who is at the helm of country's affairs, the Prime Minister, is an honest person. He is working with a strong resolve for the uplift of poor like a saint," Naqvi said.

The Minister of State for Minority Affairs (Independent Charge) made the remarks on the sidelines of second leg of 'Cashless Chaupal' organised here by his Ministry in its bid to connect minorities to cashless economic system.

Deriding Gandhi for stating that RBI has been changing rules post demonetisation "like the PM changes his clothes," Naqvi said the "brand new leader of the grand old party" is writing last chapter of "Congress-free India dream" by making such comments.

Naqvi also asked Gandhi to take cue from his party's defeat in Chandigarh and other civics polls, post demonetisation, in which the BJP put on impressive show



"Now in Chandigarh, people taught a lesson that they should not oppose the anti-black money fight. Earlier, they gave a message through municipal council polls. They will receive more such messages," the Minister added.

Naqvi reiterated that "given those below poverty line" mainly include minorities, digital transactions "which eliminate role of middlemen minting money" will prove beneficial for the weaker sections.

"For instance, we started distributing scholarships to minority students through direct benefit transfer (DBT). The result is: we could eliminate middlemen and plug 50 per cent leakage. Three crore students were benefited thus," he added.

The Minister exuded confidence that the model of digital transactions-based economy will be successful in India and cited example of how the world's largest democracy embraced electronic voting machines (EVMs) "notwithstanding earlier apprehensions."



Besides Naqvi, BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, the party's Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari and several Muslim community representatives were present at the chaupal.

A presentation was also made by NITI Aayog representatives during the event on modes of cashless transactions.

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China today said Mongolia should draw lessons and respect its "core interests" to improve bilateral ties after Ulaanbaatar expressed regret over the Dalai Lama's recent visit to the predominantly Buddhist country and announced that the Tibetan spiritual leader would not be allowed to visit again.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Tibet related issues bore on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity as wellas its "core interests".

She said China has noted the remarks by Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil who expressed regret for inviting the Dalai Lama and his commitment to not to invite the Tibetan leader again.

"Our position on this issue is explicit and clear. We hope that the Monglian side can draw lessons from this, respects China's core interests honour its commitments and make efforts to improve Mongolia-China relations," Hua said.

The Mongolian Foreign Minister said yesterday that the Dalai Lama would not be allowed to visit in the future, even for religious reasons, the state-run Xinhua agency cited a local Mongolian newspaper as saying.

The Mongolian Minister expressed regret that the Dalai Lama's visit hurt ties with Beijing.

His comments aimed at mending fences with China came after Beijing virtually imposed a blockade to the landlocked Mongolia which located between Russia and China and reportedly put off talks on USD 4.2 billions loans sought by Ulaanbaatar to tide over tight economic situation.

Mongolia had allowed the Dalai Lama to visit the country last month during which he took part in several religious ceremonies.

China had reacted sharply saying "the wrong doing by Mongolia on this issue diminished political foundation between the two countries and brought negative impact to bilateral relations."



Following the blockade, the Mongolian Ambassador to India had reportedly sought the Indian government help and New Delhi has reciprocated with the USD one billion credit line which was termed as a "bribe" by the Chinese official media.

Mongolia's economy is highly dependent on China, with more than 90 per cent of its imports and exports traded directly with China. As such, China's influence on Mongolia's economy cannot be replaced by India in the short run, and efforts will be in vain if India attempts to bribe Mongolia's loyalty with only USD one billion," an article in the daily said.

On December 9, another article in the same daily warned Mongolia that "It is even more politically harebrained to ask for support from India, a move that will only complicate the situation and leave a narrower space to sort the issue out. We hope the crisis-hit Mongolia will learn its lessons."



China regards the Dalai Lama as a separatist, though he says he merely seeks genuine autonomy for his Himalayan homeland Tibet, which Communist Chinese troops "peacefully liberated" in 1950.

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Unattached Congress legislator Atanasio Monserratte today announced the formation of his own political party ahead of the Goa assembly polls and expressed his desire to contest against Union Minister Manohar Parrikar from Panaji constituency.

"I wish I could fight Parrikar. I have a feeling that I would even defeat Parrikar. For me it makes no difference, I am fighting from Panaji. I hope Centre sends Parrikar down to fight the election with me. At least my wish would be completed," Monserratte told PTI after he announced his intention to align with the Congress for the polls through his newly formed outfit - United Goans Party.

Parrikar, the former Chief Minister of Goa, represented Panaji from 1994 till 2014, after which he was elevated to the Union cabinet.

Monserratte said he would be contesting the upcoming assembly elections from Panaji constituency.

"As far as I am concerned, I am here to fight this election from Panaji constituency. I assure you, I will win this election by more than 3,000 votes," Monserratte said.

The legislator representing St Cruz constituency was expelled this year from Congress party due to anti-party activities during a by-election in Panaji constituency, which was held after Parrikar landed the Central job.

Panaji constituency is currently represented by Siddharth Kuncolienkar of BJP.

Stating that Panaji has always been considered as Parrikar's bastion, Monserratte alleged that the constituency has not seen any development during the last 25 years.

Monserratte, whose wife is a Congress MLA from Taleigao constituency, said he had proved his mettle in Panaji when the panel fielded by him won three elections of the civic body Corporation of City of Panaji.

"It clearly shows that people are unhappy the way BJP is functioning. I believe the Corporation as well as Panaji MLA should work hand in hand," he said.

The legislator said the state polls would be fought on development issues.

"This fight is about development, it is about people. It is the people who have got you elected," he said.

Responding to a question, Monserratte said he formed a new political party because he was expelled from the Congress.

"I am not going to start in a big scale. I would field



candidates from a few seats," he said.

Monserratte claimed thathe is in talks with Congress party for alliance during upcoming Goa polls.

"I am trying to see, If there can be some seat sharing arrangement, if it not..Then also its fine with me. I have asked for a couple of seats. I have put up my proposal before Congress party. I do not have any ill feeling," he said.
Mercedes Benz trains eyes on Egyptian market

A delegation of Mercedes-Benzs directors are set to visit Egypt in early 2017 to discuss expanding their investments in the Egyptian market.

The companys officials in Egypt have expressed their willingness to increase their investments in Egypt in light of the improved economic conditions and the success of the governments economic reform programme, which spreads confidence among global companies, according to Minister of Industry and Trade Tarek Kabil. They added that it also increases the chances of their presence in the Egyptian market in the coming period.

The announcement came during a meeting between the minister and a Mercedes-Benz delegation, headed by the companys CEO in Egypt Thomas Zorn. The meeting was also attended by the manufacturing, state, and local affairs manager at Daimler AG, Ingo Konrad. The meeting reviewed the governments efforts to support the automotive industry, and the promising opportunities in this sector in the coming period.

Kabil pointed out that the automotive industry comes on top of the ministrys priorities, adding that the automotive industry strategy submitted to the parliament aims to develop automotive production and its feeder industries, which would contribute to making Egypt a regional and international centre for the automotive industry.

The ministry is currently seeking to communicate with key players in the global automotive industry to attract them to establish a comprehensive automotive industry and develop feeder industries.

The new automotive industry strategy was inspired by the Brazilian experience, and aims to support investors through new packages of incentives granted on the basis of the added value achieved in this area, according to the minister.

Kabil highlighted the importance of investing in the local automotive industry, being an important hub for the African market, as well as a large number of countries and economic blocs that have signed free trade agreements with Egypt. He pointed out that Egypt has qualified technicians who have been trained in various training centres affiliated to the ministry and global automotive companies in Egypt.

Zorn said that the company is looking to communicate with the Egyptian government, in a bid to inject more investments in the Egyptian market in light of the strong bilateral relations linking Egypt and Germany.

Conrad pointed out that the German Association of the Automotive Industry will visit the Suez Canal Economic Zone soon to review available investment opportunities in the area, noting that Daimler has expanded its projects in China, the United States, Hungary, and South Africa, and seeks to expand in the Egyptian market.

He added that his company appreciates the Egyptian governments interest in the automotive industry and its encouragement of investors to enter the local market, as well as the new policies, which deliver a clear vision to global automobile manufacturers. He noted that Daimler established a new academy in Egypt to train workers in technical and electronic fields, and there are three graduated batches so far, two of which were graduated in 2016.

www.mercedes-benz.com
Moscow's police service said today that it would use lorries to barricade public areas used for holiday festivities in the wake of the Berlin Christmas market attack.

"Heavy trucks will be used to close off major junctions" leading into areas where public festivities are taking place, Russian agencies quoted police chief Viktor Kovalenko as saying.

"We understand and see the events that are happening in the world, including the use of heavy trucks" to carry out attacks, he added.

Twelve people were killed after a 40-tonne lorry barrelled through a Christmas market in the heart of Berlin late Monday in what German authorities called a "terrorist attack."



The Islamic State jihadist group claimed the attack yesterday.

The scenes instantly revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault on the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist.

Moscow has suffered a number of terrorist attacks, including a 2011 suicide bombing in its Domodedovo airport that killed 37 people and a 2010 double suicide bombing in the metro in 2010 that killed 40.

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The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has appointed consultancy firm EY to assist it to raise debt for various projects, including the Rs 5,385 crore Mumbai-Pune Expressway augmentation and Rs 7,500 crore Versova-Bandra Sea link.

Besides these two, the State-run corporation also plans to raise debt for Thane Creek Bridge (Rs 800 crore) and Satara-Kagal Highway 6-laning (Rs 1,000 crore).

"EY will assist the Corporation to raise funds (for these four projects), which can either be through bonds or other modes of debt," an official said today.

MSRDC has already tied up with SBI Capital Markets to raise funds for the ambitious Rs 46,000 crore Mumbai-Nagpur Super Communication Expressway project. The Corporation plans to raise around Rs 28,000 crore for the project and is in talks with several banks for this.

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Amid fall in tur rates below the MSP level, the government today said cooperative Nafed has started procurement of the pulse at the support price in Karnataka, Telangana and Maharashtra.

At present, pulses farmers are bringing to mandis their tur or arhar produce grown during the rain-fed Kharif season of this year, but the wholesale rates have dropped to below the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 5,050 per quintal in some states.

"Prices of tur have fallen marginally below the MSP. Nafed has started procurement in three states to protect the interest of farmers," Agriculture Secretary Shobhana Pattanayak told PTI.

Nafed has procured some small quantity of tur from Karnataka and Telangana in the last few days. It will be doing so in Maharashtra as well, he said.

With Nafed entering the market for procurement, prices of tur will automatically firm up in the coming days and rule above the MSP level, he added.

Even if tur prices remain slightly above the MSP, Pattanayak said, "We will continue procurement of pulses for our buffer stock purpose."



The government has decided to create a buffer stock of 2 million tonnes of pulses through domestic procurement and imports.

About 1.2 lakh tonnes of pulses has been purchased directly from farmers so far in the 2016-17 crop year by three agencies Nafed, FCI and SFAC. Much of the pulses has been purchased by Nafed.

As per the first advance estimate of the Agriculture Ministry, tur production is pegged at a record 4.29 million tonnes in the 2016-17 kharif season, as against 2.46 million tonnes in the year ago period.

The ministry has estimated total pulses production to be at record 20-21 million tonnes in 2016-17 crop year on account of good monsoon and higher support price.

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Scientists using data from NASA's Mars orbiter have, for the first time, imaged the growth of erosion-carved troughs that may be infant versions of Martian 'spiders' - radially patterned surface features found in the south polar region of the red planet.

Researchers using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) report the first detection of cumulative growth, from one Martian spring to another of channels resulting from the same thawing-carbon-dioxide process believed to form the spider-like features.

The spiders range in size from tens to hundreds of metres. Multiple channels typically converge at a central pit, resembling the legs and body of a spider.

"We have seen for the first time these smaller features that survive and extend from year to year, and this is how the larger spiders get started," said Ganna Portyankina of the University of Colorado, Boulder in the US.

"These are in sand-dune areas, so we don't know whether they will keep getting bigger or will disappear under moving sand," Ganna said.

Dunes appear to be a factor in how the baby spiders form, but they may also keep many from persisting through the centuries needed to become full-scale spiders.

The amount of erosion needed to sculpt a typical spider, at the rate determined from observing active growth of these smaller troughs, would require more than a thousand Martian years. One Martian year lasts about 1.9 Earth years.

Carbon-dioxide ice, better known as "dry ice," does not occur naturally on Earth.

On Mars, sheets of it cover the ground during winter in areas near both poles, including the south-polar regions with spidery terrain. Dark fans appear in these areas each spring.

Hugh Kieffer of the Space Science Institute in the US put those factors together in 2007 to deduce the process linking them: Spring sunshine penetrates the ice to warm the ground underneath, causing some carbon dioxide on the bottom of the sheet to thaw into gas.

The trapped gas builds pressure until a crack forms in the ice sheet. Gas erupts out, and gas beneath the ice rushes toward the vent, picking up particles of sand and dust.

This erodes the ground and also supplies the geyser with particles that fall back to the surface, downwind and appear as the dark spring fans.

This explanation has been well accepted, but actually seeing a ground-erosion process that could eventually yield the spider shapes proved elusive.

Six years ago, researchers using MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera reported small furrows appearing on sand dunes near Mars' north pole at sites where eruptions through dry ice had deposited spring fans.

However, those furrows in the far north disappear within a year, apparently refilled with sand.

The newly reported troughs near the south pole are also at spring-fan sites. They have not only persisted and grown through three Martian years so far, but they also formed branches as they extended. The branching pattern resembles the spidery terrain.

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National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) today imparted lessons in dealing with natural calamities like flood to trainee IPS officers.

The trainee IPS officers of Bihar cadre were told in details about equipment used during an event of disaster and ways to deal with calamity at headquarters of 9th battalion NDRF at Bihta in Patna district.

Deputy Commandant Ravi Kant and K K Jha headed the NDRF team which provided inputs to new police officers of 2016 batch on tackling situation of natural calamity.

The traineee police officers were told in detail about protective measures during flood, conducting a search operation after crumbling of a building and rehabilitation of victims thereupon, a NDRF statement said here.

They were also shown equipments used at the time of chemical and nuclear disasters among others, it said.

Deputy Commandant (Training) Alok Kumar gave a power point presentation to the police officials on disaster management.

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The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission in medical colleges will be held in eight languages- Hindi, English, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu- for the academic year 2017-18.

Also, the candidate qualifying NEET will be eligible for all India quota and other quotas under the State governments and Institutes irrespective of the medium taken by candidates, subject to other eligibility criteria, the Union Health Ministry said in a statement.

In May, Union Health Minister J P Nadda had held a meeting with the Health Ministers and Health Secretaries of 18 states/Union Territories towards implementation of NEET across states.

Joint Secretary, Medical Education, A K Singhal said, "The collaborative efforts of Central Health Ministry with the state health ministries have lead to this decision so as to bring parity for the students who have taken the State Board exams."



NEET has replaced AIPMT and has been made mandatory for admissions in all-India medical/dental colleges which means no other state can conduct its separate medical entrance.

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Nepal police has launched a probe into the death of a 15-year-old girl who died of suffocation after she was banished to a shed outside the village during her menstruating cycle, an ancient Hindu custom outlawed by the government over a decade ago.

The victim, a ninth grade student, was found dead at a cowshed in Gagra of Achham district on December 18, police said.

The police said the girl suffocated after lighting a fire to keep herself warm during the freezing winters, BBC Nepal reported.

The practice, known as chhaupadi, is a social custom of keeping menstruating girls and women in a narrow shed outside the village, under the ancient Hindu custom which views menstruating girls as unclean.

In many cases the huts that menstruating girls and women are banished to are shared with cattle and their excrement and are sometimes set far away from habitation.

Some communities in remote areas believe that they will suffer a misfortune such as a natural disaster unless menstruating women are secluded. While in isolation they are denied their usual intake of food and are prohibited from drinking milk.

The practice was outlawed by the government in 2005, but it is still prevalent among many village communities in Nepal, especially in western Nepal.

Just a month ago, another woman died in Chhaupadi shed. It was also reported that the 21-year-old woman died due to lack of oxygen. She was also told to have lit fire in the shed.

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Adding a new feather in the Indo-Bangla cooperation in the rail sector, a new train would be launched between the two countries early next year.

Recently the frequency of Maitree Express was increased to four days a week between Kolkata and Dhaka, catering to the growing demand of passengers from both sides.

The new train service between Kolkata and Khulna is likely to be launched during Bangladesh Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina's India visit in January 2017, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

All ground works have been completed for the launch of the new train connecting Kolkata with Khulna, including meeting of senior officials from both sides.

Freight trains, carrying stones and boulders among other goods, are already running between Khulna and Dhaka.

A joint meeting of officials from Railways, Home Ministry and External Affairs was held recently with Bangladesh to finalise the new train launch, the official said.

The launch of a new train service between the two countries is part of the joint declaration made during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka in June last year.

Besides train, Kolkata and Dhaka are connected through bus and air service also.

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A gang of cats in New Zealand has attacked a woman and her dog while she was out for an evening walk with the canine, a media report said today.

Jude Merwood was left with bruises and injury marks and had to visit a doctor after the attack by three feral cats near Tamatea Reserve in Taupo town.

She was out for an early evening walk with her dog Husky Sam when the incident took place, Stuff.Co.Nz reported.

"They came out of nowhere. They jumped on Sam (dog) first and she was on the lead," Merwood said.

As the woman tried to get the cats off her dog, she fell on the ground after which the cats attacked and bit her.

"I was trying to keep Sam with me throughout it all then I felt a cat on the back of my leg. It had bitten me on my upper, inner thigh," she said.

Though the dog was left unscathed, Merwood was covered in blood.

Merwood contacted authorities who told her that they did not really have a policy when it comes to wild/stray cats.

The woman has advised people to be careful of the possible danger while walking their dogs, saying the three feral cats will certainly be around somewhere.

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The National Green Tribunal today issued notice to over 1400 defaulters, who have not paid environmental compensation for violating its order on waste burning and dust pollution, on a plea filed by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC).

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar also issued notice to the Sub Divisional Magistrate concerned of the district to explain why the tribunal's order on recovery of environmental compensation (EC) from the defaulters was not implemented.

It noted that EDMC has said in its plea that there were 336 defaulters for burning waste and 1082 defaulters for causing dust pollution who have not paid the challan amount.

"Notice be issued to all the parties and be served by the corporation. The defaulters are directed to appear before the tribunal on the next date of hearing -- January 30.

"Notice be also issued to the SDM of the district to explain why the order of the tribunal was not implemented for recovery of EC," the bench said.

Advocate Balendu Shekhar, appearing for EDMC, said challans were issued against defaulters in compliance of the tribunal's order and several of them have not paid the amount.

He said in view of the green panel's April 28, 2015 order, any person found burning in open any kind of garbage leaves, waste plastic, rubber, self-moulding compound or any other such material, he or she would be liable to pay Rs 5,000 compensation under the National Green Tribunal Act for polluting the environment.

"There are two zones -- Shahdara (north) and Shahdara (south) zone in EDMC. As on date, a total of 520 challans have been issued on account of waste burning, out of which Rs 9,96,100 has been collected. However, there are 336 challans which have not been paid by the defaulters till date," the application said.

For tackling dust pollution, the corporation said a total of 1403 challans have been issued out of which Rs 63,15,000 has been collected and there are 1082 challans which have not been paid by the defaulters till date.

The corporation sought the tribunal's direction for



recovering EC against the defaulters saying the corporation has no legal recourse except to place the list of defaulters before the NGT so that compensation be recovered from them.

After perusing the list of defaulters, the bench asked the EDMC counsel what about the builders and are they fully complying with its directions.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by Vardhaman Kaushik over worsening air quality in Delhi.

It also observed that it was "surprising" that in posh colonies of South Delhi, residents engage guards for their own convenience but they give a shed to the security personnel who then burn garbage there itself to keep themselves warm in winter.

"Why can't they give closed shelters to guards and give them heaters," the bench said.

Meanwhile, the NGT also issued notice to Noida authority, the deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police for Janaury 30 next year, to show why action be not taken against them for violation of its order on ban on waste burning and that they be directed to pay ED from their salary.

The bench took note of a photograph showing massive burning of waste and some in Noida's sector 96 and said earlier the senior officers of Noida and Greater Noida had assured the tribunal that no waste burning would take place in their areas but they have failed to take any action in this regard.
In his many addresses to the nation, President Calvin Coolidge made a point of routinely redirecting the countrys attention to the things of the spirit.

In his Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, he encouraged the country to reorient its vision of abundance, progressing not only in material prosperity, but also in moral and spiritual things. In his reflections on the Declaration of Independence, he reminded us that ours is a liberty not meant for pagan materialism, which would surely turn our prosperity into a barren sceptre in our grasp. Years earlier, as President of the Massachusetts Senate, he urged legislators to remember that statutes must appeal to more than material welfare. Man has a spiritual nature, he continued. Touch it, and it must respond as the magnet responds to the pole.

All in all, the message was consistent: The things of the spirit come first. For Coolidge, America had entered an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things, and thus, was in sore need of such reminders. When it came to an occasion such as Christmas  a season compounded with those same temptations of materialism  the theme would continue.

Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind, Coolidge wrote in a 1927 Christmas greeting. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things there will be born in us a Savior and over us all will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world. That short refrain is likely the most widely read of Coolidges reflections on Christmas, but after the presidency, he offered a more extended view.

In 1930, writing on Christmas Eve in his syndicated newspaper column, Coolidge reminds us that Christmas is fundamentally a reminder against our fallen nature and our tendency toward self-salvation and materialistic thinking. Christmas is a time where we look beyond all that and remember the moral and spiritual power Christ brought for humankind:

Every day has been numberless times a birthday. Only a few are widely celebrated, for it is not the event of birth but what is done in after life that makes a natal day especially significant. For many generations, Christmas has been joyously observed wherever there has been a vestige of western civilization, because on that day was born one who grew to be the only perfect man and became the saviour of the world. No other fact, no other influence in human experience, has compared with the birth and life of Christ. Down through the ages He was borne the name of Master. He gained that everlasting title not by the use of any material force but by demonstrating the moral and spiritual power of mankind.

Of course, that age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things has only expanded and accelerated in the years since. Likewise, our illusions about the power and promise of material force have followed in turn. Let us remember, as Coolidge heeds us to do, that the spiritual things still come first.

Christmas represents love and mercy, he concluded. It was ushered in by the star of hope and remains forever consecrated by the sacrifice of the Cross. Christmas holds its place in the hearts of men because they know that love is the greatest thing in the world. Christmas is celebrated in its true spirit only by those who make some sacrifice for the benefit of their fellow men.
Nigerian troops have rescued 1,880 civilians from a Boko Haram redoubt in the restive northeast in the past week and arrested hundreds of insurgents, a military commander has said.

The Sambisa forest, covering about 1,300 square kilometres , is a stronghold of the notorious jihadist group, who kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in 2014.

"During our operations in the period 14 - 21 December 2016, a total of 1,880 civilians were rescued from Boko Haram enclaves," Major-general Leo Irabor said in a statement after a conference in the northeastern city of Maiduguri yesterday.

He said the operation was part of a military campaign launched last year to clear the area of the jihadists.

Irabor added: "564 Boko Haram terrorists were arrested while 19 others surrendered to our troops. Also, seven suspected kidnappers and 37 foreigners were equally arrested."



He said several Boko Haram fighters were killed and a cache of arms and ammunitions was discovered.

Boko Haram seeks to impose a hardline Islamic legal system in Nigeria's mainly-Muslim north.

It has been blamed for the death of at least 20,000 people since 2009. The rebellion has also displaced some 2.6 million people, sparking a humanitarian crisis in the region.

Since early 2015, Nigerian military with the support of a regional force, have recaptured a swathe of territory from the insurgents.

But sporadic attacks on soft targets have continued in the volatile region, including the use of female suicide bombers.

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Naga Students Federation (NSF) today said it has written to the Manipur Chief Secretary for safety and security of Nagas residing in that state and assured that no harm will be done to Manipuri residents in Nagaland and on failing to do so, they will intensify their agitation.

Subenthung Kithan, the president of the leading northeast students body, said he had written to Manipur chief secretary O Nabakishore for security to the Nagas yesterday and spoke to him assuring security to Manipuri residents today.

"We have assured the chief secretary that despite total blockade on movement of Manipur-bound vehicles in all Naga inhabited areas in the aftermath of continued attacks on Naga people in Manipur the Meiteis living in Nagaland are safe and no one will cause them any harm," Kithan told reporters here.

Meiteis are ethnic Manipuris.

The NSF in its letter faxed to the Manipur chief secretary yesterday seeking security and safety of Nagas in Manipur said failure to do so would compel NSF to intensify the agitation.

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Industrialist on Wednesday stayed away from Tata Steel's extraordinary general meeting, called for voting by shareholders on promoters' proposal seeking his removal as an independent director, and termed such meets as "inappropriately and shamefully stage-managed".

Wadia, however, asked the shareholders to vote against the proposal and continued his scathing attack on Tata Sons and criticised the group's continued steel investments in Europe.

"I have chosen not to attend the meeting as I understand that recent meetings of other Tata companies have been inappropriately and shamefully stage-managed by the requisitionist controlling the entry into the hall, as also in the selection and choice of speakers as never before seen in Indian corporate history," he wrote to the Tata Steel shareholders.

Lashing out at the actions of Tata Sons, he said: "What is at stake is not whether I am removed or not, but the fate of the very institution of independent director that has been created in law and by Sebi to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders. If independent directors can be removed at the whim and fancy of a promoter, then their role will be reduced to that of 'yes men'."

The ability of a promoter to remove an independent director through the brute force of its holding in an ordinary resolution on which it can vote is a serious and major dichotomy and the contradiction needs to be and must be addressed urgently, Wadia wrote.

He continued his attack on the board of Tata Steel, specially drawing the attention of shareholders to the continued investments by the firm in Europe.

"I have outlined events relating to various decisions of the board. Most important of all to Tata Steel investment in Corus and events that have led to the impairment of approximately Rs 35,000 crore and a capital employed in the region of Rs 75,000 crore in which it is highly unlikely that shareholders will ever see any return," he said.

Wadia also said the recent public statements that have been made on Tata Steel Europe "just to protect 11,000 British jobs is a matter of concern that needs to be addressed by all shareholders as such support has now become unaffordable and is detrimental to the interest of the shareholders".

He further said: "Equally important is the fact that the capital employed in Tata Steel Europe today could have been invested in three steel plants across India with substantial returns making Tata Steel the number one steel company of the country while providing employment to a million Indians."

Last week, Wadia filed a Rs 3,000-crore defamation suit against Ratan Tata, Tata Sons and some of its directors.

He filed the case in Bombay High Court, following the move by Tata Sons to remove him from the board of the three companies.

Wadia had denied allegations by Tata Sons that he was acting in concert with ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry. Besides, he has refuted claims that he was "galvanising" independent directors and mobilising opinion, forcing disruptions and issuing statements which were contrary to the interest of the companies as "totally baseless and completely unsubstantiated".

He had alleged that he had been singled out and was sought to be removed as an independent director because of his "independence of mind and action in the discharge of my fiduciary duties".
Pakistan Navy today fired a live surface-to-surface anti-ship missile along the North Arabian Sea and said the successful test reaffirms its commitment to safeguard maritime frontiers "against all threats".

The frontline combat unit of Pakistan Navy undertook the live firing of Surface to Surface Anti-ship missile from Sword Class frigate PNS ASLAT which was witnessed by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah.

"The missile successfully destroyed its intended target with pinpoint accuracy reaffirming weapon's lethality and offensive punch of Pakistan Navy's Fleet," Radio Pakistan reported.

Zakaullah expressed his satisfaction on the operational preparedness of Pakistan Navy Fleet and said the Live Missile Firing "reaffirms credibility of deterrence at sea and reassures Pakistan Navy's commitment to safeguard our maritime frontiers against all threats".

The successful conduct of missile firing also demonstrates the efficacy and lethality of modern weapon systems operated by Pakistan Navy, the report said.

Last week, Pakistan successfully test-fired an enhanced version of an indigenously-designed cruise missile that can hit targets at 700 kms with all kinds of warheads, bringing many Indian cities within its range.

Named after the Mughal invader and founder of the dynasty of same name, the missile is part of Babur Weapon System version - 2 as it is enhanced version of earlier missile and incorporates advanced aerodynamics and avionics that can strike targets both at land and sea with high accuracy.

It is a low flying, terrain hugging missile, which carries certain stealth features and is capable of carrying various types of warheads, according to a press statement.

The missile is equipped with state-of-the-art navigational technologies of Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) and all-time Digital Scene Matching & Area Co-relation (DSMAC) which enables it to engage various types of targets with pinpoint accuracy even in the absence of GPS navigation.

Babur weapons system is an important force multiplier for Pakistan's strategic defence.

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The Balochistan High Court today warned former Pakistani dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf that a 'red warrant' would be issued if him if he fails to appear in court in connection with the murder of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in a military operation in 2006.

A divisional bench of the Balochistan High Court, comprising Justice Jamal Mandokhail and Justice Zaheer-uddin- Kakar, was hearing an application filed by Nawabzada Jamil Akbar Bugti, son of the late Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, challenging the acquittal of the 73-year-old former Pakistani President in the case.

The BHC asked Musharraf's counsel to provide an exact date on which his client would appear in court.

The former president's counsel, Akhtar Shah, pleaded that his client would appear before the court once guaranteed security and after his medical check-up was complete.

Shah said that the former president was returning to the country on March 23, 2017, and he would subsequently attend court hearings.

"We will give 2 months' time, but ensure the presence of your client," Justice Jamal Mandokhail remarked.

During previous hearings, Bugti's lawyer had complained that despite repeated orders, Musharraf has failed to appear before the court.

Earlier this year, an anti-terrorism court had acquitted the former president in the murder of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. But Bugti's son had challenged the acquittal.

Nawab Akbar Bugti was killed in an operation in Balochistan's Kohlu district on August 26, 2006. Bugti's son had named Musharraf, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, former governor Balochistan Owais Ahmed Ghani, and senior officials in the murder of his father.

Bugti had led an armed campaign to press for provincial autonomy and a greater share of profits from Balochistan's natural resources.

The death of the Baloch chieftain had sparked angry protests in parts of the country.

Musharraf, who went into self-imposed exile in Dubai after being forced to resign as president facing impeachment following the 2008 elections, had returned to Pakistan in 2013 to contest elections but was implicated in several cases. He also lost in the polls.

He was not allowed to leave the country until government allowed him in March this year to go abroad for treatment following orders by the Supreme Court.

Musharraf has been facing a slew of cases, including the high treason trial and the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, deposing the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

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Pakistan today said it will completely fix illegal movements from Afghanistan by 2020 by improving the border management system along the 2,400 km-long porous border it shares with the war-torn country.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said Pakistan will be in a position to control and monitor all traffic from Afghanistan through dedicated routes by 2020, as border management system was being put in place.

"The border between Afghanistan and Pakistan stretches over more than 2,400 kilometres. We need to improve its management," he said at a press conference near the busy Torkham border crossing.

He said the issue of peace between the two countries is inter-linked with the proper management of border.

"Pakistan wants free movement and welcomes the Afghan people, but terrorist infiltration needs to be curbed," he said.

The Interior Minister also approved establishment of NADRA Office at Torkham Gate, the crossing point on Pak-Afghan border at Landi Kotal Khyber Agency, for screening of people entering and exiting Pakistan.

Khan also said that no terrorist networks were functional in Pakistan anymore, claiming that terrorists have either been killed or have fled the country due to the Zarb-e-Azb operation which was launched in June 2014.

"I can say with full authority that no terrorist network is working in Pakistan," he claimed.

He said militants were operating from Afghanistan and they cross the border illegally to carry out attacks in Pakistan and accused Afghanistan of not reciprocating Pakistan's efforts to stop militancy.

Khan also announced deployment of additional troops of paramilitary Frontier Corps at places which militants could use to infiltrate.

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan routinely accuse each other of providing sanctuaries to terrorists operating on their soil.

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Pakistan today said it is gathering "more evidence" from the alleged RAW spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and will share dossiers on India's "involvement in subversive activities" with the UN.

While briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs here, Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz also regretted the "Indian aggression" on the Line of Control (LoC).

Interrogation of Jadhav is underway and more evidences are being collected from him, he said.

"Dossiers about Indian involvement in subversive activities in Pakistan will be presented before the UN and other important countries after completion of investigation from Kulbhushan Jadhav," Radio Pakistan quoted him as saying.

Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary said there are several UN resolutions on the Kashmir dispute and that the international community should exert pressure on India for the implementation of these resolutions.

He claimed 45 Pakistani civilians have been killed due to "unprovoked Indian firing" on the LoC and Islamabad has informed the UN in writing about these 'violations'.

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Calling Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal a 'Gappi' (liar), AAP state convener Gurpreet Singh Waraich today alleged that the people are paying "heavily" for the SAD president's "unrealistic ideas".

"The people of Punjab are paying heavily for the Deputy Chief Minister's unrealistic ideas, such as running amphibious bus-rides in the state," he said after launching AAP's 'Sukhbir Da Gapp, AAP Da Sach' campaign here.

The AAP leader said he had come to see the amphibious bus being run at the Harike Pattan Lake on the invitation of Zira Assembly constituency candidate Gurpreet Singh Gora.

"There was nobody at the site to provide information about the bus. The stand was locked and no visitor was allowed to enter the area," he claimed.

During the launch of the bus earlier this month, the Deputy Chief Minister had said the project would boost tourism in the area and also announced that an amphibious bus-ride will be launched in Bathinda.

"Punjab does not need such blunders in the name of so called development. People expect the government to provide basic facilities to all sections of society," Waraich said.

"Sukhbir is wasting the hard earned money of tax payers of the state. All this is being done just to get media attention," he alleged, adding AAP will expose Sukhbir's lies in the coming days through the campaign.

Attacking Sukhbir on his amphibious bus project, Gora said his so called "dream project" was of no good to the people.

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The has observed that a person cannot be authorised to reside in the country without valid papers even if he is entitled to Indian citizenship.

A division bench headed by Justice A S Oka, while refusing to grant relief to 49-year-old Abbas Karadia, also directed conducting an inquiry as to how the central government has been issuing such visas to the man when he has neither an Indian nor a Pakistani passport.

Karadia, who was born in Pakistan and his parents are of Indian origin, had moved the HC seeking an extension of Long Term Visa (LTV).

In his petition, Karadia said both his parents are of Indian origin and that his mother shifted to Pakistan during the Partition. He claimed that at the time of marriage his mother and father both were residents of India and she went to Karachi at the time of his (Karadia) birth.

The petition claimed that Karadia was brought to Mumbai soon after his birth.

Karadia claimed of having identity cards such as Aadhaar, domicile certificate, PAN card and even a voter's ID card.

He, however, has no passport and is facing deportation since his last application for extension of his LTV was rejected and he was directed by the authorities to submit a copy of his Pakistani passport for the same.

Karadia claims he does not have a Pakistani passport either. He claims to have applied for Indian citizenship seven times but has failed to get a positive response. Karadia's last application is at present pending a hearing before the Union Government.

He, thus, approached HC seeking that the deportation notice be stayed, and his LTV be extended till his citizenship application is decided by the government.

Karadia argued that he was entitled to Indian citizenship by virtue of descent, registration, and by the principle of naturalisation, all provided for in the Indian Citizenship Act.

The high court held that "even if a person is entitled to Indian citizenship, he or she cannot, at any given time, be authorised to reside in the country without valid papers."



"In fact, we are surprised to know that even though the petitioner has no passport, he claims that the Government of India had earlier granted him LTV and extended the same from time-to-time. This needs to be investigated by the Centre," the bench said.

HC is likely to take up the matter for further hearing on January 9 next year.
Any policy to regulate app-based cab aggregators like Ola and Uber should have minimum interference by government and market forces should be allowed to operate, as regulation could even "bring in corruption" in this emerging sector, Delhi High Court said today.

The high court said that any regulatory mechanism that is set up, ought to remain in the periphery as it has been seen in the past, that regulations too "bring in corruption", even as it termed the current public transport system as "primitive".

Stressing that the regulations should encourage everyone to go for a futuristic scheme providing for use of "clean fuel and cleaner public transport", Justice Manmohan asked Delhi government to consider the policy drafted by a court-appointed panel and come back with its stand by the next date of hearing on February 6.

The court told the government that "the policy will aid in finding a solution, so look at it with an open mind."



It made the observations after taking on record an expert panel's suggestions which was placed before it by the Centre's standing counsels Manish Mohan and Kirtiman Singh.

The lawyers for the central government said if the suggestions were acceptable to all, then the state governments would be asked to make a scheme under the policy for regulation of taxis, including app-based cab aggregators.

Delhi government, represented by its senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra, said it would not follow the policy "blindly" as it would need to first look at it from the point of larger public interest.

Mehra also said that since app-based cab aggregator Ola has applied for registration, Uber too should do the same.

However, Uber, represented by senior advocate Rajiv Nayar, said it will seek registration under the new policy as and when it comes into effect.

It also objected to the panel's recommendation to cap the minimum fare that can be charged by it.

To this, the court remarked that it wanted the Centre and Delhi government to be on the same page and come out with a model scheme. The private parties could challenge it if they had any objections.

The court was hearing a batch of petitions filed by radio



taxi operators against the Delhi government for allowing Ola and Uber to operate without any licence, while the two companies filed contempt pleas against each other for alleged violation of court orders.

Noticing that law has not kept pace with changing technology, the court had set up an expert panel to formulate a uniform policy to regulate such companies.

Some of the 15 key recommendations by the panel include states facilitating unhindered grant of permits for city taxis and All India Tourist Permit (AITP) without any restriction on numbers, online conversion of compliant personal vehicles to commercial taxis on payment of requisite charges to facilitate use of idle assets, and no regulation on tariff of deluxe taxis which should be determined by market dynamics.

The committee had also suggested that the maximum tariff may be permitted up to three times the minimum tariff and, in order to enhance the availability of taxis at night, the maximum tariff may be allowed up to four times that of minimum tariff between midnight and 5 AM.

It has also said that city taxis may continue as street hailing cabs and may also be allowed to ply on the aggregator platform, like Ola or Uber, if they so desire.

The panel has further suggested that AITP taxis may be allowed to operate for all purposes except as street hailing cabs and such vehicles would have to comply with the fuel specified for a city while operating for aggregators for intra city transport on long term hiring/leasing.
Pope Francis was the toast of social media today after successfully completing his latest groundbreaking mission: popping out of the Vatican to buy himself some new footwear.

To the barely containable delight of his many fans in cyberspace, the 80-year-old pontiff visited a pharmacy near the Holy See yesterday to pick up a pair of the orthopaedic shoes he wears to offset the pain caused by chronic sciatica.

The visit was filmed and snapped on smartphones by a handful of customers who were in the shop at the time and later uploaded images to social media.

A selection of pictures was posted on a Facebook page described as belonging to Rome barmaid Martina Duarte with the caption: "A Tuesday with the Pope... My love I am incredibly proud of you!"



Most of the online comments were similarly breathless in tone, admirers appearing to share Duarte's amazement at the sight of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics doing his own shopping, posing for pictures and blessing a crucifix belonging to one of the shop's staff.

One commenter on Italian daily La Repubblica's site called for Francis to be immediately installed as the new mayor of Rome, while another simply noted, presumably with a disbelieving shake of the head: "The greatness of this man!"



It was not the first time the former Jorge Bergoglio has created a sensation by leaving his modest lodgings in the St Martha boarding house to get essential supplies.

There was similar excitement in September 2015 when he was spotted at his optician near the Spanish Steps in Rome's historic centre.

That in turn recalled the general stupefaction around the time of his election in 2013 when it emerged that he not only carried his own briefcase but also paid his own hotel bills.

Many suspect an element of image construction in these well-publicised moments. But Francis's frugality and fondness for mingling with ordinary people predates him becoming pope.

As bishop of Buenos Aires, local buses were his favoured mode of transport and after becoming pontiff he admitted that the thing he most missed was enjoying the anonymity that would allow him to go into Rome and have a pizza.

Cynics will be reassured that not everyone was bowled over by Francis's latest outing. "The usual, narcissistic exhibitionism," commented a sceptic on www.Larepubblica.It.

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Researchers have identified a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for gastric cancer, paving the way for diagnosis and possible treatments for the second deadliest cancer in the world.

Scientists have shown that the hormone receptor GHRH-R could be a potential biomarker for gastric cancer, enabling earlier diagnoses and better staging.

They also found that the GHRH-R antagonist MIA-602 inhibited gastric cancer in both cell lines and human xenografts.

"The GHRH receptor is both a biomarker that can confirm prognosis and a therapeutic target. Gastric cancer is the second deadliest in the world - we need new approaches," said Andrew V Schally from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in the US.

Though occurring less frequently than other cancers in the US, gastric cancer kills around 700,000 people worldwide each year, second only to lung cancer, researchers said.

The problem is two-fold: diagnoses are often delayed, allowing the cancer to spread, and there are few effective treatments.

Chemotherapy is often ineffective and surgery works best when the disease is caught early.

The two-pronged study combined epidemiology and lab work. Researchers studied nearly 1,000 tumours from patients in China and other parts of the world. They linked the prevalence of GHRH receptors with larger, more-aggressive tumours and lower overall survival.

"We found that measuring GHRH receptor overexpression could be very useful, both for prognosis and identifying the stage of the cancer," said Schally.

The GHRH receptor also offers a potential therapeutic target. The receptor helps drive the aberrant growth associated with gastric and other cancers.

Schally and his collaborators have been working for many years to develop an inhibitor that will reduce or eliminate these signals, culminating in the peptide drug candidate MIA-602.

In the study, MIA-602 inhibited gastric cancer growth in cell lines and human tumour xenografts, decreasing both tumour size and weight.

Further research showed that MIA-602 works by mitigating a network of proteins controlled by PAK1, ultimately inhibiting the well-known inflammatory proteins STAT and NF- kappa B.

In addition, MIA-602 showed no evidence of side effects. While developing an effective agent against gastric cancer would be an enormous advance, MIA-602 may also benefit other patients.

"This compound is an efficient inhibitor for a variety of cancers, including lung, prostate, breast and brain," said Schally.

Schally hopes the therapy will soon move forward into clinical trials



The study was published in the journal PNAS.

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President Pranab Mukherjee will be reaching Secundrabad on December 22, on a 10-day Southern sojourn during which he will attend the convocations of Army College of Dental Sciences and Maulana Azad National Urdu University.

During his visit, he will stay at the Rashtrapati Nilayam, a single-storied building located at Bolarum which serves as Presidential Retreat.

The President will attend the 6th Convocation of MDS and 11th Convocation of BDS Courses at the Army College of Dental Sciences, Secunderabad on December 23, an official release said today.

He will also address the centenary year celebrations of the Federation of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Hyderabad.

On December 24, Mukherjee will inaugurate the Mahila Dakshata Samiti and Bansilal Malani College of Nursing in Hyderabad.

The next day, he will visit Bengaluru to inaugurate the 89th annual conference of the Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan, it said.

The President, on December 28, will attend the 6th Convocation of Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad and on December 29, inaugurate the 77th Session of Indian History Congress in Thiruvananthapuram.

He will then travel to Mysore and inaugurate the 17th National Jamboree of the Bharat Scout and Guides, it said.

On December 30, Mukherjee will inaugurate the Sri Shankara National Centre for Cancer Prevention and Research and the Adamya Chetana Seva Utsav-2017 in Bangaluru.

He will also host an 'At Home' reception at the Rashtrapati Nilayam for senior dignitaries of the state, Ministers, officials and journalists.

The Rashtrapathi Nilayam building was taken over from the Nizam of Hyderabad after India attained independence and handed over to the President's Secretariat.

Constructed during 1860, the Nilayam has a total land area of 90 acres and a single-storied building containing 11 rooms.

The President visits the Rashtrapathi Nilayam and stays there at least once a year and conducts official business from there.

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A priest of a Syrian Jacobite Church in Kerala today donated one of his kidneys to an ailing young woman.

The priest's kidney was harvested and transplanted on 29-year-old woman, Kairunnissa from Thrissur, at the private VPS Lakeshore hospital here today.

Father Shibu Kuttiparichel, priest of Cheengery St. Mary's Jacobite Syrian Church in Wayanad district and also an author uses money earned from the sale of his books for charitable activities.

The priest donated his kidney to Kairunnissa, who lives with her husband and three-year-old daughter at Akalad, near Chavakad in Thrissur district.

Kairunnissa was selected as the recipient from those who were registered with the Kidney Federation of India, founded by Fr Davis Chiramel.

She was suffering from kidney ailments for the past four years and underwent several rounds of dialysis in the past one-and-a-half years, the hospital management said.

Even as Kairunnissa's 56-year-old mother, Shereefa, who lives in Kasaragod, was ready to donate one of her kidneys to her, it was not "matching," the hospital said.

Later, Fr Shibu's blood group was found to be a match for Kairunnissa's.

He was inspired by Fr Davis Chiramel, Founder and Chairman, Kidney Federation of India, who himself set an example for society by donating one of his kidneys. Both donor and recipient are in good condition, the hospital said.

Fr Shibu, who has been shifted to ICU, will be discharged after four days.

Kairunnissa, who is also in the ICU, will remain there for five days and will be discharged after a week following medical examination, the hospital said in a release here.

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Three demonstrations were today held at Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority office here.

Safai karamcharis started their indefinite protest today demanding regularisation and reinstatement of employees who were suspended for participating in the last strike. SDM Sadar the reached site and tried to pacify them.

He told them that their meeting would be arranged with GNIDA officials where they can raise their issues but the employees said they would not hold any discussion till their demands are met.

Meanwhile, the protest of farmers entered its 7th day. SDM Rajesh Singh assured them that their demands will be forwarded to the Uttar Pradesh government.

Kisan Sangarsh Sewa Samiti spokesperson Manvir Bhati said farmers will hold a protest at the residence of Principal Secretary (Industries) here.

Women residents of Habibpur also held a protest at the GNIDA office. They said at the time of the BSP government they were given patta land which, they alleged, was taken by GNIDA who had promised to allot them alternate land elsewhere but no progress has been made yet.

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Rahul Gandhi today alleged that Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and demanded an independent inquiry into it, a charge BJP rejected as an attempt to divert attention from the AgustaWestland probe in which the names of Congress leaders and the "family" were coming up.

Addressing a rally here in the prime Minister's home state, he alleged that in the I-T records there are notings of Sahara officials' claims that they had paid 9 times to Modi between October, 2013 and February, 2014.

Gandhi said the documents in this regard were with IT department which had raided the company when Modi was Gujarat Chief Minister.

Similarly, as per documents with Income Tax department, the Birla group also paid Rs 12 crore to Modi when he was Chief Minister.

Wondering as to why there has been no probe in the matter so far, Gandhi demanded an independent inquiry.

Last week, Gandhi claimed that he had evidence of "personal corruption" of Prime Minister but he was being prevented from speaking in the Lok Sabha because it would cause an earthquake.

Reacting to Gandhi's allegations, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in New Delhi that the charges are "baseless, false, shameful and mala fide" and an attempt to divert attention from the AgustaWestland probe as names of Congress leaders and the "family" are coming up.

Party spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said Gandhi was immature and was just indulging in bluff and bluster because people are not taking him seriously.

"People of India have stopped taking him seriously. Rahul Gandhi is just bluff and bluster. There is no substance in what he says. He is just showing his and his party's incompetence," he said.

Gandhi said he was raising the issue on behalf of the country which needs answers over the questions raised against the Prime Minister.

"PM Modi takes bribes and then shamelessly foists Demonetisation on Indians under the garb of 'fighting Black Money," Congress tweeted after the rally quoting its Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.

"Rahulji asks if Modiji received this money from Sahara or not? If this document is with Income Tax, will Modi now investigate it?," tweeted party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.

NGO Common Cause had filed a PIL on the issue in the



Supreme Court and a bench headed by CJI-designate Justice J S Khehar last week had refused to take up the matter saying there was no evidence but only allegations against the Prime Minister.

The bench then asked lawyer Prashant Bhushan to provide evidence before it could decide on whether it could admit the petition.

Gandhi alleged that the I-T records show Sahara officials' claims of having paid Rs 40 crore to Modi on various dates between October, 2013 and February, 2014.

"You (Modi) did not allow me to speak in Parliament. I did not know why you did not wanted to face me in the House. I tell you the reason. Any business entity keeps record of its transactions. On November 2014, Income Tax department conducted raids on Sahara, a very large corporate house," he said.

"During that raid, I-T department found some documents, which are on record. I want to share with you the contents of those documents. There were several entries in those documents, which I am reading out before you," he said.

He then alleged that another record suggests that Birla Group gave Rs 12 crore to 'Gujarat Chief Minister'.

"This record is with I-T department since last 2.5 years. I-T even recommended to conduct an inquiry in this issue. I want to ask you why no such inquiry was done? We want to know whether it is true that money was given to you nine times by Sahara?" Rahul asked.

"You doubted the honesty of citizens, their hard-earned income, and made them stand in the queues. Now, on behalf of citizens, I am asking you whether the information is true or not. And if it is true, then when you will set up an inquiry," said Gandhi.
Rebutting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's criticism of the Income Tax raids on Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Ramamamohana Rao, BJP said today's raids prove the agency was working without any discrimination and had carried out a "usual procedure."



BJP state President Tamilisai Sounderrajan said I-T authorities had been conducting searches in the state of late, with lot of seizures being made from a private contractor, Shekhar Reddy.

"And today, searches are being conducted at the Chief Secretary's residence. This is a usual procedure undertaken by the Income Tax department. So how is it acceptable if those like Mamata Banerjee call it vindictive action," she said.

"The taxmen raid a place on suspicion or on information of 'movement of money' and "they will say there was nothing (incriminating available) if that is the case," she told reporters.

"The raids are done to see if any (illegal) cash is present. If there is nothing (incriminating available), they will say it. Therefore, I completely deny that this is vindictive action," she said.

Today's searches were also proof that the I-T department was "working without any discrimination", she said and pointed out that cash, gold and documents had been seized in earlier I-T searches in the state.

Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement, she said 'honest people need not fear' as the tax evasion and black money probe was targeted against those indulging in irregularities.

"Therefore, today's searches is an action in support of people," she added.

Mamata Banerjee had criticised the I-T raid at the residence of Rao, saying such a "vindictive and unethical" act by the central agencies devalues the institution of head of the civil service.

"Why this vindictive, unethical, technically improper action? Is it only to disturb the federal structure? Why do not they raid Amit Shah and others..." she said in a statement.

Responding to Banerjee's charge that why BJP leaders were not being raided, Sounderrajan said that the tax sleuths just don't go about conducting searches but gather all relevant information before doing so.

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The Reserve Bank on Wednesday imposed penalty on five foreign banks, including Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, for violation of its instructions on reporting requirements of the FEMA.

The three other banks are: Bank of America, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi and The Royal Bank of Scotland.

said they have been fined for violation of its instructions on reporting requirements of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).

Germany's Deutsche Bank has been imposed fine of Rs 20,000, while Bank of America, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered Bank have been fined Rs 10,000 each.

"The penalties have been imposed in exercise of the powers vested in the Reserve Bank under the provisions of Section 11(3) of FEMA 1999, taking into account, the violations of the instructions/directions/guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India, from time to time," said.

said it has issued show cause notices to all the banks, in response to which the banks submitted written replies and also made oral submissions thereon.

"After considering the facts of the cases and the banks' replies in the matter, Reserve Bank came to the conclusion that the violations were substantiated and warranted imposition of penalty," RBI said further.
Driver of a real estate developer died after the bullets fired by two unidentified men targetting the builder hit him in Kalyan this afternoon, police said.

Two persons came on a two-wheeler and fired at builder Amit Patil in Shil-Katai Naka around 2.30 PM. Though latter was saved in the incident his driver Vicky Sharma was hit by the bullets. He was rushed to a nearby hospital but died during the treatment.

Police PRO Sukhada Narkar confirmed the firing but said that offence was yet to be registered.

Senior police officers from Thane have rushed to the scene and a hunt is on to nab the accused.

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A court here has refused to set aside an order directing a man to pay Rs 5,000 monthly interim maintenance to his estranged wife in a domestic violence case, saying the amount will not give her a luxurious life in view of the standard of living in metropolitan cities like Delhi.

"Keeping in view the standard of living in metropolitan cities like Delhi, I am of the considered view that with an amount of Rs 5,000 per month, the respondent (wife) would only be able to meet her basic and minimum needs and she cannot be considered to be leading a luxurious life with such an amount, as awarded by the Metropolitan Magistrate (MM).

"Hence, I do not find any illegality or infirmity in the impugned order as passed by the MM," Additional Sessions Judge Lokesh Kumar Sharma said, while dismissing the man's appeal.

The judge also rejected his contention that he was unemployed for over a year, saying, "Idonotfindanymerit inthesubmissionasitis thesettledpropositionoflaw that everyablebodiedpersonisconsideredtobe fittomaintain hiswifeandchildren."



A magisterial court had on January 16, 2015 granted a monthly interim maintenance of Rs 5,000 in favour of the woman, who had lodged a domestic violence complaint against her estranged husband.

The man, in his appeal, had alleged that the woman had filed a false case in order to extort money from him and that she herself was earning nearly Rs 20,000 per month.

The court dismissed the man's plea but directed that if the woman ultimatelyfailstoqualifyon merits during trial, "then,withoutprejudicetofurtherrightsandcontentionsof theparties, she shallbeliabletorefundtheentireamount soreceivedbyher fromtheman towardsinterimmaintenance.

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President Vladimir Putin will attend as Russia buries slain ambassador Andrei Karlov tomorrow, the Kremlin said, days after he was gunned down in Ankara by a Turkish policeman.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov today said Putin had decided to postpone his major annual press conference scheduled for the same day to Friday in order to attend the farewell events for Karlov.

"The president will take part in the mourning ceremonies," Peskov told Russian agencies.

Veteran diplomat Karlov was shot nine times in the back by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas at the art gallery opening of a show of Russian photography on Monday.

His body arrived back in Moscow late yesterday after Russian investigators landed in Turkey to help probe the assassination.

The brazen killing stunned Ankara and Moscow, which have rowed repeatedly over the Syria conflict but had recently begun to cooperate closely on the evacuations from war-wrecked Aleppo.

The Turkish government has pointed the finger of blame for the killing at exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu telling the US that his group was "behind the attack".

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The young Turkish policeman who killed Russia's ambassador to Ankara this week had provided security for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eight times since the July 15 failed coup bid, a report said today.

Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, pumped nine bullets into ambassador Andrei Karlov at an art exhibition centre on Monday evening, before he himself was killed by Turkish police.

Altintas, a member of the Ankara anti-riot police for two- and-a-half years, had been on duty at eight events attended by Erdogan since July, the Hurriyet daily said.

At such events he was part of the second wave of Erdogan's security after the personal bodyguard team of the president, wrote Hurriyet's writer Abdulkadir Selvi, known for his contacts in the ruling elite.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told US counterpart John Kerry in a phone call on Tuesday that Turkey believed the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who it blamed for the July 15 coup bid, was behind the assassination plot.

Turkish authorities are now investigating possible links of Altintas to Gulen, including a school he attended that was run by the cleric's group.

Hurriyet's Selvi said that on the day of the July 15 coup, Altintas had called in sick to the police. But it was not clear what he did that night.

The security forces have now detained 13 people over the attack including close relatives of Altintas, Turkish media reports said.

Meanwhile, a team of 18 Russian investigators arrived in Ankara on Tuesday to take part in a joint probe inside Turkey, an unprecedented move agreed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

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The lower chamber of the Russian parliament today called for heightened security measures for Russian diplomats abroad following the assassination of the ambassador to Turkey.

The State Duma voted today on a resolution that condemned Monday's killing of Andrei Karlov and urged authorities to take extra steps to protect Russian diplomats abroad.

Investigators from Turkey and Russia and hunting for clues in the assassination of Karlov, who was shot in front of stunned onlookers at a photo exhibition in Ankara. Both Russia and Turkey have vowed that the assassination would not derail efforts to repair bilateral ties.

The killing came after days of protests by Turks angry over Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russia's actions in Aleppo.

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Congress leader Sajjan Kumar was today granted anticipatory bail in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case by a Delhi court which directed him to cooperate in the probe and not influence witnesses.

Additional Session Judge Vikas Dhull, while granting relief to the former MP on a personal bond of Rs one lakh and a surety of the like amount, also ordered that he will not leave the country without the court's permission.

The court had reserved its order yesterday after hearing the arguments of counsel for both the parties in two cases filed against Kumar falling in the jurisdiction of Janakpuri and Vikaspuri police stations in West Delhi.

The complaint in Janakpuri pertains to the killing of two Sikhs, Sohan Singh and his son-in-law Avtar Singh, on November 1, 1984 and in the other where a Sikh Gurcharan Singh was burnt on November 2, 1984 in the jurisdiction of Vikaspuri Police Station.

As per the complaint, Gurcharan, who was half burnt, remained bed-ridden for 29 years. He died three years ago.

Seeking anticipatory bail for Kumar, his counsel had argued that his name had appeared in this case after 32 years and the case was politically motivated.

Opposing the plea, senior advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for the complainants, had argued that the allegations against Kumar were very serious and he was a very influential person.

The prosecutor, appearing for SIT, had also said that Kumar was not cooperating in the investigation and his custodial interrogation was required.

The court was told that Kumar was summoned twice by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) but he had appeared only once.

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State Bank of India (SBI) today ruled out further stake dilution in its life insurance arm before the the proposed initial public offering that is likely to to happen over the next 12-18 months.

"We want to retain 50.1 per cent control in SBI Life Insurance even after the IPO. So, there is no likelihood of any further stake dilution before the share sale, which I hope should be completed over the next 12-18 months," SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said.

She was talking to reporters after inaugurating an over 76,000 sqft Central Processing Center of SBI Life, at the sprawling Seawoods Grand Central suburban railway station-cum-mall in Navi Mumbai. The centre can seat at least 800 people.

It can be noted that despite a board mandate to dilute 5 per cent stake in the life insurance arm, SBI had sold only 3.9 per cent stake in SBI Life to global private equity major KKR and the Singaporean sovereign fund Temasek Holdings for for Rs 1,794 crore or USD 264 million, on December 5, valuing the third largest private life insurer at around Rs 46,000 crore.

However, Bhattacharya today said, by the time the company is ready for the IPO, SBI Life will be the most valued private sector life insurer, ahead of the present leaders HDFC-Max and ICICI Prudential.

Explaining the reason for no further stake dilution in the run-up to the IPO, she said, SBI is planning to divest 10 per cent through the share sale process and expects the French partner to do so.

When asked whether the French partner is interested in hiking the stake to 49 per cent, she said they are in discussion over the same.

SBI Life is a joint venture between SBI and BNP Paribas Cardif of France. Post the transactions, SBI stake would come down to 70.1 per cent from current 74 per cent and BNP Paribas Cardif will continue to hold 26 per cent.

Both KKR and Temasek picked up 1.95 per cent each from the deal, while the board had initially approved 5 per cent pre-IPO dilution.

Asked whether the merger of the five associate banks will be completed as planned by March end, Bhattacharya answered in the positive.

On whether cash supply will increase after December 30, she said normalisation will not happen in a day or two and that she does not expect before one-two months.

"Currency supply normalisation will be gradual," the chairperson said.

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Scotland Yard today stepped up the security of Buckingham Palace and enforced a new cordon around it as a "precautionary measure" following the truck attack on a Christmas Market in Berlin in which 12 people were killed.

From today, surrounding roads leading to Queen Elizabeth II's London home will be shut from 1045 to 1230 GMT (1615 to 1800 IST) on the days when the "Changing of the Guard" ceremony is scheduled to take place.

The move is part of a three-month trial which was being planned for some time but has now been brought forward amid a UK-wide security review triggered by the attack in Germany which killed over 12 people.

A Metropolitan Police statement said, "The closure follows a request from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) as part of ongoing security measures aimed at keeping the public safe".

"In a request to The Royal Parks, which manages the roads, the MPS highlighted that due to the event's high profile in an iconic location with a substantial military presence and attracting large crowds, the closures were a necessary precaution to continue protecting the public and those taking part in the event.

"The MPS has stressed the road closures, which have been planned for some time, are a precautionary measure and not in relation to any specific intelligence," it said.

The Met Police said the threat to the UK from international terrorism remains severe, meaning an attack is "highly likely".

Metropolitan Police Commander Simon Bray said, "The Met undertakes a range of different activities including strengthening security and high-visibility policing as part of a counter-terrorist strategy, and it will continue to take whatever action it believes is necessary to protect and reassure the public".

"Police continue to work in partnership to minimise disruption, but its priority is to ensure the safety and security of those who live, work and visit London," Bray said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Theresa May has told German Chancellor Angela Merkel the UK "stands ready to assist".

A Number 10 Downing Street spokesperson said there were "no plans" to change the UK's security level from "severe" but members of the public have been urged to remain vigilant and report to police any concerns.

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Separatists today objected to the reported move by the Jammu and Kashmir government to give domicile certificates to West Pakistan refugees, saying it was an attemp to change the demograpgy of the state.

The separatists slammed the ruling PDP over the issue and called for statewide protests and demonstrations on Friday.

"These are manoeuvers to change the demography of Jammu and Kashmir," said a joint statement issued by hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani, moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and JKLF chief Mohammad Yasin Malik.

They were reacting to reports in local media that the state government, on the instructions of the Centre, will issue domicile certificates to West Pakistan refugees as they were faciing difficulty in getting jobs in Central government.

"Issuing domicile certificates to West Pakistan refugees, (Supreme) court verdict challenging the sovereignty of Jammu and Kashmir and allowing outside banks to confiscate and hold properties in the state are the issues of life and death for our existence as Muslims and Kashmiris," the separatists said.

They said they were not against the rehabilitation of these refugees and fully support their every demand on humanitarian grounds and urge the government to provide them all the rights they are eligible to.

"India is a huge country with more than 30 states and if they are sincere, honest and feel the sufferings of these refugees, they can settle them in any of their states. But settling them in a disputed land of Jammu and Kashmir will jeopardize and erode its historical and political contours, which is not acceptable to us at any cost," they added.

"PDP has started showing its true colors by initiating the process of creeping slowly and deceitfully towards the Hindutva agenda of its coalition partners," they added.

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A court here today convicted six persons in connection with a 16-year-old murder case of a trader.

Additional District Sessions judge DC Singh convicted Shehvar, Pammi, Mehandi, Zahir, Nayab and Intazar Mehdi under section 302 IPC. Nine other accused were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The quantum of punishment will be announced on December 24.

The court also issued non-bailable warrant against Intazar Mehdi who did not appear in the court at the time of jugdment.

According to government lawyer Jitender Tyagi, Abid Gohar was shot dead by the accused at Tissa village under Bhopa Police Station in the district on 1 January 2000.

The police had registered a case of murder and rioting against 15 people including.

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South Korea's Constitutional Court will tomorrow start hearings into whether to confirm the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye, with her ruling conservative party deeply split on the issue before a likely fresh election.

The court has up to 180 days to decide whether to uphold or reject parliament's impeachment of the country's first female president on charges ranging from bribery to abuse of power.

Park has been suspended from her duties since the impeachment vote on December 9, with the prime minister taking over.

If the judges back impeachment after hearing from both sides, she will be formally ousted and a presidential election held within 60 days. But any split in the Saenuri Party would drastically reduce its chances in such a poll.

More than 30 Saenuri lawmakers who have been at odds with Park have vowed to leave, arguing that the party's current leadership refuses to embrace reforms despite the corruption scandal and impeachment crisis.

"We've reached a conclusion that conservatives' reform through the Saenuri Party is impossible", prominent lawmaker Yoo Seung-Min told journalists.

A split would also complicate any potential presidential run by outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who had been widely expected to compete on the Saenuri ticket.

Thirty-five lawmakers have agreed to break away from the party on December 27, the dissident group said, adding they will try to persuade more legislators to join them.

Their departure will leave the party with some 90 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament, relegating it to second place behind the left-leaning Democratic Party.

The group crossed party lines to join opposition parties in passing the motion to impeach Park.

Park is accused of colluding with her confidante Choi Soon-Sil to coerce large companies like Samsung into handing over tens of millions of dollars to two dubious foundations which Choi allegedly controlled and plundered.

Park is also accused of ordering aides to leak state documents to Choi, who has no official title or security clearance, and allowing her to meddle in state affairs including the appointment of top officials.

Investigators today raided the state-run National Pension Service in a widening probe into the scandal.

A special prosecutor has been investigating whether Samsung bribed Choi to win state approval for a controversial merger of two of its units last year.

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Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe arrived here today to offer worship at the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at nearby Tirumala tomorrow.

Wickremesinghe along with wife and other officials arrived at Renigunta airport, 20 km from here, by a special helicopter from Chennai this evening and drove to the sacred hills, Chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Chadalawada Krishnamurthy said.

After an overnight stay on the hills, the Prime Minister and his wife would offer worship tomorrow morning and leave for Chennai to fly back to Sri Lanka, he said.

Wickremesinghe's last visit to the temple in his capacity as Prime Minister was in 2002.

Meanwhile, tight security has been put in place on the hills and at the airport.

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Tamil Nadu Opposition Leader and DMK Treasurer M K Stalin today described as "unprecedented" the Income Tax searches carried out at the residence of state Chief Secretary P Ramamohana Rao.

"Income Tax authorities have carried out searches at the house of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary. This is unprecedented in Tamil Nadu's political history," he said in a statement hours after raids commenced at over a dozen locations in connection with I-T's tax evasion probe against Rao's son and few other relatives.

The official residence of the Chief Secretary here is also understood to have been brought under the said operation.

The searches, officials said, were related to the department's probe in thebiggest haul of cash and gold here post demonetisation, in which over Rs 142 crore unaccounted assets have been recovered so far.

The total seizure in the case is overRs 170 crore in a single case related to action against sand mining operators and few others in the state, including S Reddy who was also on the panel of a religious shrine body.

The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a money laundering complaint in this case after the tax department shared official documents with the agency.

(Reopns MDS3)



Meanwhile, CPI(M) said Rao has "lost the qualification" to continue as Chief Secretary following I-T authorities conducting searches at his premises.

"Therefore, Tamil Nadu government should immediately relieve Rama Mohan Rao from the post of Chief Secretary," CPI (M) state secretary G Ramakrishnan said.
Cyberabad Police today said they are awaiting reply from Guntur Collector on the caste status of research scholar Rohit Vemula, who committed "suicide" on the University of Hyderabad (UoH) campus here on January 17, to enable them to finalise investigation in the case.

"It (Vemula's death) was unfortunate. To finalise investigation in the case (registered under) SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act...We need to have certificate/report from the Tahsildar or Collector with regard to the caste of the deceased (Vemula)," Cyberabad Police Commissioner Sandeep Shandilya told reporters here.

"There is some problem in that regard...We (Cyberabad Police) have written several times to the Collector and that reply/report based on which we can proceed in this case that is not there. If the Collector gives reply to the letters we can finalise investigation into the case," the Cyberabad Police chief said.

Shandilya said he had already met officials of National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), who are also following this case. "As of now due to police...(investigations into) this case is not delayed," he asserted.

Vemula's suicide on January 17 at the UoH had sparked massive nationwide protests, resulting in a fierce political slugfest, with a string of political parties and Dalit organisations siding with students and accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party and varsity administration of being anti-Dalit.

A group of students under Joint Action Committee for Social Justice, which spearheaded the protests, had held UoH Vice Chancellor Appa Rao Podile responsible for the suicide of the research scholar.

UoH, also known as Hyderabad Central University (HCU) had witnessed sporadic protests since Vemula's death, with students demanding removal of Appa Rao from the VC's post and had also been demanding his arrest.

Earlier, Gachibowli Police under Cyberabad Commissionerate had registered case against Appa Rao, Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and others under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and for abetment of Vemula's suicide.

The suicide of Vemula had triggered a huge political furore with the then HRD minister Smriti Irani coming under attack along with Dattatreya for having written a letter related to the matter.

Raising questions on Rohit Vemula's Dalit status, a



commission constituted by HRD ministry after the scholar's death had said the material on record did not establish it and attributed his suicide to personal reasons.

The Justice Roopanwal Commission, in its report to the HRD ministry, had given a clean chit to Smriti Irani and Dattatreya, sources had earlier said.

However, the NCSC Chairman P L Punia had rejected the judicial commission's report on Vemula's suicide as "fake and fictitious", and said the deceased research scholar was a Dalit.
Seven-year-old Bana al-Abed, whose Twitter account gave a tragic description of the bombing of Aleppo in Syria, today met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his palace in Ankara.

Erdogan received Bana and her family at his palace, the state-run Anadolu agency said, publishing a picture of Erdogan hugging the girl.

A video published by the agency also showed a seated Erdogan holding Bana and an unidentified boy sitting on his knees, flanked by his wife Emine.

The young Syrian girl was one of thousands of people evacuated from once rebel-held areas of Aleppo in the last days under a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia.

She was evacuated on Monday and Turkish officials promised she would come to Turkey with her family. But it was not clear when she had crossed over.

For her 330,000 followers, Bana is a symbol of the tragedy unfolding in Syria, although Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has slammed her and her mother's nearly daily tweets as propaganda.

Turkey is hosting some 2.7 million refugees from the Syria conflict but has made clear it now prefers to look after those recently displaced, who are not injured, on the Syrian side of the border.

However it makes exceptions for special cases and the wounded.

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A Tamil diaspora group in the US has appealed to President Barack Obama to de-proscribe the LTTE as a terror outfit in the country, saying this could give a "little relief" to the community which faces problems while travelling abroad.

The group 'Tamils for Obama' claimed that the LTTE has been defunct with no activities since 2009.

In a statement, the group have said that many Tamils are "suffering" because of the listing of the LTTE as a terror group in the US.

"Because of the listing of Tamil Tigers, it creates pain for many US Tamils when they travel to abroad and when they return to the US," the statement said.

"They have to go through many hours of interrogation. Some US Tamils have asked us to convince Obama to help us by removing Tamil Tigers from the list. Obama can give Tamils a little relief by de-listing the Tamil Tiger during this Christmas and giving season. There is no reason to keep them on the list," it said.

The group said it was a "mistake" by the George Bush's administration to support the Sri Lankan "genocidal war against the innocent Tamils".

The Tamil groups also hope that the European Union would also de-list the LTTE.

The US banned the LTTE in 1997 followed by India, UK and the EU.

The UN has estimated that 40,000 people died, many of them civilians, during the three-decade-long civil war that ended in 2009. It was under President Mahinda Rajapaksa's tenure that the Sri Lankan forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the separatist group that waged armed insurgency against the government.

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Three Turkish soldiers were killed and 11 wounded in clashes with Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria today as the military faces increasing resistance from the extremists in a battle to take a key town, reports said.

The IS-held town of Al Bab, 25 kilometres from the Turkish border, has become the main target of the army's more than three-month campaign inside Syria in support of pro-Ankara Syrian rebels.

One of the wounded was in a serious condition, the Dogan agency reported. It said the deaths came in clashes with IS jihadists which were ongoing.

The Amaq agency, affiliated to IS, said a suicide attack was carried out against the Syrian rebels and Turkish troops west of Al Bab, without giving further details.

After the lightning speed of the earlier campaign that saw the border town of Jarabulus taken on the first day of the offensive, the Turkish army has suffered increasing casualties in the fight for Al Bab.

Around two dozen Turkish soldiers are believed to have lost their lives since Ankara launched its operation Euphrates Shield in August, with most of the deaths blamed on IS attacks.

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Taking exception to the "alarmingly increasing frequency of apprehension" of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan navy, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on Wednesday urged the Centre to "act decisively" and bring back 51 fishermen languishing in the island republic.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he cited the latest instance of the Lankan navy arresting 29 fishermen from Ramanathapuram and Pudukottai districts and said these came just a day after the arrest of seven of their counterparts from Pudukottai.

"The alarmingly increasing frequency of apprehension of our fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy is a matter of utmost concern for my Government. An immediate intervention at the highest level is sought to resolve this longstanding issue," he said.

"The recurrent instances of attacks and abduction of our fishermen on the high seas in the Palk Bay should be stopped immediately. Our fishermen should be allowed to pursue their peaceful avocation of fishing in their traditional fishing waters of the Palk Bay," he said in the letter.

He reiterated Tamil Nadu's stand that Centre should not treat the International Maritime Boundary Line with Sri Lanka as a settled question since the constitutionality of the 1974 Indo-Sri Lankan Agreement ceding Katchatheevu islet had been challenged in the Supreme Court by his predecessor, the late J Jayalalithaa, with the state government later impleading itself in the case.

"This livelihood issue of thousands of our fisherfolk needs your personal intervention....I request the Government of India to act decisively in the light of the sensitive nature of this issue. I also request you to secure the immediate release of 51 fishermen and 114 fishing boats, including the 29 fishermen and their five fishing boats apprehended on December 21, 2016 without any delay," he said in the letter to Modi.
Trinamool Congress today demanded a CBI probe into Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's allegation that Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups.

"The Congress Vice President raised the issue of corruption at a public meeting in Gujarat today. Trinamool Congress welcomes the move", TMC chief national spokesperson Derek O'Brien said.

"The TMC had first raised this issue in 2014 and there must be a proper investigation into it. If necessary, the CBI should probe the matter for the truth to come out," he said.

Gandhi today alleged that Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and demanded an independent inquiry into it, a charge BJP rejected as an attempt to divert attention from the AgustaWestland probe in which the names of Congress leaders and the "family" were coming up.

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Turkish authorities were today looking into claims the alleged mastermind of the failed July coup was involved in the assassination of Moscow's ambassador, but the Kremlin warned against jumping to conclusions.

Monday's murder of Andrei Karlov stunned Russia and prompted warnings of retribution from the Kremlin. But both sides responded by vowing to step up cooperation, particularly on the Syria conflict.

Off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, pumped nine bullets into Karlov at an art gallery in Ankara before he himself was killed by police in a shootout.

The pro-government press has repeatedly said that US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for the attempted putsch, was behind the assassination plot.

And Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told US counterpart John Kerry in a phone call yesterday that Ankara believed Gulen was involved.

"Turkey and Russia know that behind the attack... There is FETO," his ministry quoted Cavusoglu as saying, using Turkey's acronym for Gulen's organisation.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has strongly condemned the assassination.

Media reports said that books on Gulen's organisation were found at Altintas' home, while thorough checks are being made of his acquaintances at school and the police academy he attended.

Thirteen people, including close family members, have been detained over the killing and are being investigated for possible links to Gulen.

In a striking detail, the Hurriyet daily said Altintas, who served with the Ankara anti-riot police, had provided security for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eight times since the July 15 attempt to overthrow the Turkish strongman.

Hurriyet writer Abdulkadir Selvi, known for his contacts in the ruling elite, said that on the day of coup bid Altintas had called in sick. But it was not clear what he did that night.

Turkey and Russia are jointly investigating the murder after an agreement between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A team of 18 Russian investigators arrived in Ankara yesterday and spent the day at the crime scene after also witnessing the autopsy.

The Kremlin indicated it was not the time for hurried pronouncements on responsibility.

"In this case it is hardly worth hurrying to any conclusions until the investigation determines - as our president said - who was behind the murder of our ambassador," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Twelve Indian fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in their territorial waters.

The arrest comes a day after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam asked the Centre to send a "firm message" to the island nation over continued apprehension of the state's fishermen.

Yesterday, seven persons from Pudukottai district were detained for allegedly fishing in their waters and taken to Kangesanthurai Port, along with their boats.

Three groups of fishermen from Pamban near here were arrested last night by the naval men for fishing off Thalaimannar and were detained at the police station there, fisheries department officials said today.

Twenty fishers who had set out for fishing from Pamban in two mechanised boats and a country boat were rounded up by the Lankan authorities while they were fishing in the south sea using the banned fishing nets, Rameswaram Fisheries Department Assistant Director, Gopinath said.

While fishermen in one of the boats managed to get away in their boat, twelve others were caught and taken to Sri Thalaimannar, Lanka, he said.

In his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Panneerselvam had said that a permanent solution to the fishermen's issue would be in restoring India's sovereignty over Katchatheevu islet.

"It is the consistent stand of the government of Tamil Nadu that a permanent solution to this vexatious problem faced by our fishermen will be possible only by restoring India's sovereigntyover Katchatheevu by securing the right to fish in traditional waters," he had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former IAF chief S P Tyagi today sought bail from a special court on the ground that there was no apprehension of him fleeing from justice as all evidences in the AgustaWestland case were documentary in nature and have already been seized by the CBI.

"Please let me (Tyagi) go home," Tyagi's counsel urged before the Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar who put up the matter for further hearing on December 23.

The court heard the arguments from the counsel of Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan, all three accused in the case, and adjourned the matter after the probe agency said it needed time to argue on the bail pleas.

While seeking relief, Tyagi's advocate Maneka Guruswamy said "my client cannot languish in jail for an indefinite period for no reason... He has voluntarily cooperated to the best of his abilities. My client has appeared on every date (when he was) summoned by CBI and even without the summons. All evidences are documentary in nature and already in the custody of CBI."



She also told the court that Italy's top court has ordered retrial of ex-Finmeccanica executives in the chopper scam case which makes CBI's stand weak in the current case.

"Even his wife, daughter, daughter-in-law and her mother were called by the probe agency and interrogated even before his arrest," the counsel said.

Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey, appearing for Khaitan, also sought the relief claiming that the "allegations against me (Khaitan) is of money trail and that part is already being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). I cannot be put in jail twice for the same offence... They (CBI) have encroached my personal liberty for nothing."



Sanjeev Tyagi's counsel too sought bail, saying "if granted the relief, my client will not try to flee from the justice and tamper with the evidences."



The court had on December 17 sent all the three accused to the judicial custody till December 30.

71-year old Tyagi, who had retired in 2007, his cousin Sanjeev and Khaitan were arrested on December 9 by the agency in connection with the case. The accused have alleged that the "CBI was trying to extract the confession using force".

The defence counsel also claimed that there was no



apprehension of them fleeing from the justice or tampering with evidence.

"My client is a 72-year-old decorated war hero. He suffers from heart and eye diseases and several other ailments. He has deep roots in the society after 44 years of distinguished career," S P Tyagi's counsel said.

The case relates to procurement of 12 VVIP choppers from UK-based firm during the UPA-2 regime.

The CBI had said it was a "very serious" and "a very high-profile" case requiring interrogation to unearth larger conspiracy as the "interest of the nation was compromised". It had submitted that "one part of the crime was committed in India while various other angles are in foreign land."



Tyagi's counsel had earlier claimed that the decision to procure VVIP choppers from AgustaWestland was a "collective" one and Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was also a part of it.

CBI had alleged that Tyagi had "abused his official position" and when he was the Air Chief Marshal, he had made huge investments in land and other properties and had not disclosed the source his income.

It was also alleged that Khaitan was the "brain" behind how the bribe money reached India and how several firms through which the money travelled came into existence, while Sanjeev was known to the alleged European middleman Carlo Gerosa.
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, whose party had boycotted a function involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, will attend the public function here on December 24 to be addressed by Modi.

The Prime Minister, after laying the foundation stone for two Metro rail projects, elevated rail corridors project, the Mumbai Trans Harbour link and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off Arabian Sea, will address a public function in suburban Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).

"There will be only one function to lay the foundation stone for these projects and Uddhav Thackeray will attend the proceedings at the MMRDA grounds in BKC," a close aide of the Sena chief told PTI today.

On October 11 last year, Modi had laid the foundation stone of a grand memorial to Babasaheb Ambedkar at the Indu Mills compound in the heart of Mumbai, a function which was boycotted by Shiv Sena whose chief Uddhav Thackeray was not invited.

Sena is a part of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre as well as the BJP-led Maharashtra government.

Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar is in Delhi and will attend the birthday celebrations of Ajit Singh, former union minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief tomorrow.

"Pawar saheb will attend the function to lay the foundation stone of Pune Metro in Pune if invited. His office in Mumbai has not received an invite," one of the aide of the Maratha strongman said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray would attend the foundation stone laying ceremony for Chhatrapati Shivaji's memorial, to be performed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on an island in Arabian sea on December 24, days after Sena tried to make it a 'prestige issue' demanding an "honourable invitation" for their leader.

Earlier today, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis sent two of his seniormost cabinet colleagues Chandrakant Patil and Vinod Tawde to extend the official invitation for the function to Thackeray at 'Matoshree', his residence in suburban Bandra.

"The CM personally spoke to the Sena president and deputed two of his senior ministers to extend a personal invitation to Thackeray who has confirmed to attend," a BJP leader said.

Last year, Thackeray was not invited for 'bhoomipujan' (ground breaking) ceremony of the grand memorial of B R Ambedkar here, performed by Modi, over 'protocol' reasons, which angered Sena, the junior alliance partner of the ruling BJP in Centre and Maharashtra.

According to sources, Sena had demanded that Thackeray be made part of the official entourage which will accompany the PM in a hovercraft to the island off Mumbai coast for the event.

During recently concluded winter session of state legislature, Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik and others had demanded that Thackeray be extended an honourable invitation for the event.

According to the BJP leader, Sena was bent on Thackeray's participation in the view of the high-stake BMC elections, scheduled early next year.

"Sena apparently sensed the political mileage it could lose (if Thackeray left out of the event) considering upcoming elections to BMC, other municipal corporations and Zilla Parishads due early next year," he said.

Construction of Shivaji memorial is an emotive issue given the Maratha king is revered by all sections in society in Maharashtra.

"...Moreover, the Sena leadership is mindful of the Sambhaji Brigade (a Maratha organisation) deciding to contest forthcoming BMC polls, and would not have liked a anti-Maratha perception to be generated against it," he said.

(REOPENS BOM25)



Thackeray will also attend the public function to be addressed by Modi on December 24.

Proposed on around 15-hectare island, the memorial will be as high as 210 metres of which 60 per cent would be the height of the statue alone. The total cost of the project is Rs 3,600 crore of which first phase would cost Rs 2,500 crore.

Eyeing the political dividends, the BJP has sought to claim the credit for the project, touting it as fulfillment of the electoral promise.

Meanwhile, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned for the event and is launching a mega advertising blitz all over the state.

State unit BJP president Raosaheb Danve has credited Fadnavis for securing required clearances for the project from the Central government.

"...The previous Congress-NCP government had failed to obtain these permissions from the Centre," he said today.

In a statement issued here, the BJP has asked its cadres to organise processions in their respective districts.

The party cadres were directed to collect soil from Shivaji's forts and water from rivers for the event.
Outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on all countries to investigate and prosecute cases of human trafficking and said the most vulnerable victims are women, children and refugees caught up in conflict areas around the globe.

Ban, addressing the 15-member Security Council during an open debate on human trafficking in conflict zones, said extremist groups from the Islamic State to Boko Haram and al-Shabab traffic in persons, especially women and girls, as a weapon of terror and source of revenue.

"We have to fight trafficking for the sake of the victims," Ban said. "When we do, we will also decrease funding for terrorists and make everyone safer."



Ban, whose term as top UN official ends December 31, spoke the same day the Security Council unanimously approved its first-ever draft resolution on human trafficking in conflict situations. The resolution seeks to strengthen the United Nation's ability to counter the phenomenon and bolster the international community's ability to respond to it.

Yuri Fedotov, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said the building blocks for fighting international human trafficking can be found in the United Nations' Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime and its protocol on the practice, which was adopted by the General Assembly and went into effect in 2003.

He said trafficking victims have been detected in 106 different countries and territories worldwide. The good news, he said, is that 158 countries have criminalised most forms of the practice in line with the protocol.

"There's no single measure, no one step to address this problem alone," Fedotov said.

Ameena Saeed Hasan campaigns for international help for the thousands of Yazidi women and girls who have been taken into captivity by the Islamic State group in northern Iraq. Hasan told the council that the extremist group has abducted 6,500 Yazidi girls and women in the last 2 1/2 years.

"They are sold in slave markets, subject to sexual slavery. A girl of 12 years is sold for a pack of cigarettes," she said. "We cannot remain silent to these horrible crimes."



The Spain-sponsored draft resolution calls upon member states to do more to fight human trafficking, asking that countries that have not yet done so fully implement the UN's trafficking in persons protocol as well as investigate and dismantle trafficking networks.

It also calls on member nations to establish procedures to identify victims and provide protection and assistance for them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress Uttarakhand chief Kishore Upadhyay today said the party should allow only one person from a family to contest in the state assembly polls next year.

"There are too many contenders for party tickets. We want that only person in a family should get ticket otherwise it will be an injustice to other Congressmen," he told reporters here.

Uttarakhand's Chief Minister Harish Rawat's two sons, Anand and Virendra, and daughter Anupama are among the main ticket contenders in the party.

State's Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh's son Sumit and Irrigation Minister Yashpal Arya's son Sanjeev are also vying for tickets.

Upadhyay and Rawat are at variance over the ruling alliance partner Progressive Democratic Front (PDF).

The PCC chief has made it clear that Congress will contest on all 70 seats in the Uttarakhand assembly polls, while Rawat favours continuation of the alliance with PDF.

Two-time MLA Upadhyay wants to contest from Tehri, while Rawat is in the favour of sitting PDF MLA and Tourism minister Dinesh Dhanai.

Two day ago party's Uttarakhand unit in charge Ambika Soni had also indicated that the party can go for a tie-up with PDF for contesting February 2017 polls.

"We cannot leave PDF as it has been a long-time supporter of Congress," she told a press conference on Monday while avoiding clear response on queries about Congress going solo on all 70 Assembly seats.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Question Hour of Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday was washed out amid uproar by BJP members demanding resignation of controversial minister for his alleged remark on the sensational Bulandshahr gangrape case.

BJP and BSP members trooped into the Well of the House as soon as it met with separate banners demanding the resignation of and over "poor law and order situation" in the state.

BJP members were demanding the resignation of Khan for his alleged remark on Bulandshahr rape victims.

BSP members having banners mentioning SP government as 'Bhrasthachari and kisan virodhi sarkar' (corrupt and anti-farmer government) and poor law and order in the state.

Amid the din, Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey adjourned the House for entire Question Hour.

Later, talking to reporters BJP legislative party leader Suresh Kumar Khanna demanded Khan's resignation. "He has no moral right to sit in the House. He should resign and we are demanding it."

The brutal Bulandshahr incident happened on the night of July 29, when a group of highway robbers stopped the car of a Noida-based family and sexually assaulted a woman and her daughter after dragging them out of the vehicle at gun-point.

The Supreme Court had on August 29 taken note of the alleged controversial remarks of Khan that the gang rape case was a "political conspiracy".

On November 17, the apex court directed Khan to tender an "unconditional apology" for his remarks and last week it accepted his "sincere and heartful remorse."

Initially, the FIR was lodged by the Uttar Pradesh Police under various provisions on July 30. The CBI re-registered the case on August 18 in pursuance to the Allahabad High Court's interim order in the case.
The US military has officially ended operations in a former Islamic State bastion in Libya, officials have announced.

The Pentagon had launched Operation Odyssey Lightning to help local forces push the jihadists from the coastal city of Sirte on August 1.

"In partnership with the Libyan Government of National Accord, the operation succeeded in its core objective of enabling GNA-aligned forces to drive Daesh (IS) out of Sirte," the US military's Africa Command said in a statement.

US drones, gunships and warplanes had hammered IS positions, conducting a total of 495 strikes.

"We are proud to have supported this campaign to eliminate ISIL's hold over the only city it has controlled outside Iraq and Syria," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters, using an IS acronym.

Officials said the United States would continue to strike IS jihadists if the Libyan unity government asked for help in doing so.

Unity government leader Fayez al-Sarraj on Saturday announced that military operations in Sirte were done, but IS still has fighters in Libya and on Sunday conducted a suicide attack in Benghazi.

The fall of Sirte -- Kadhafi's home town located 450 kilometers east of Tripoli -- is a major setback for IS, which has also faced military defeats in Syria and Iraq.

Libya descended into chaos following the NATO-backed ousting of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with rival administrations emerging and well-armed militias vying for control of its vast oil wealth.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Uttarakhand government has inked a pact with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for introducing metro rail in the state.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for preparing the detailed project report for the Haridwar-Rishikesh-Dehradun Metro rail project was signed between the state Urban Housing Development Authority (UUHDA) and DMRC in the presence of chief minister Harish Rawat.

UUHDA's chief administrator R Meenakshi Sundram and director (management), DMRC, Somdutt Sharma signed the pact for the project yesterday.

An initial amount of Rs 2.10 crores has been sanctioned by the Uttarakhand government to the DMRC. DMRC will submit an initial report after a month and submit the DPR after 5 months.

On the occasion, the Chief Minister said the metro rail line passing through Haridwar, Rishikesh and Dehradun will enable a hassle-free commute for the residents there. It will also boost tourism in the region, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence and "Jurassic World" star Chris Pratt say they are keen to visit India and "would love to" experience the country's culture.

"Let's do it," Lawrence, the world's highest paid actress, said in an interview to PTI here when asked if she and Pratt have any plans to visit India.

"I would love to. It's really vast and I would love to experience it," Lawrence said.

Pratt, who stars with Lawrence in Columbia Pictures' sci-fi action-thriller "Passengers", too sounded excited on the prospect of visiting India.

"I would love to go to India. I think that's our next vacation. I want to go and check it out. It's such a huge, huge nation, so many people, such a beautiful place," he said in the interview.

Pratt said he loves the movies that have come out of India.

"I feel like I have gotten glimpses into India but I haven't been able to get there. So I would like to go."



The actor said he hopes his visit to India will be for vacation and not for work.

"If we came there to promote (a movie), that will be one thing but when you are on work you never get to experience any of the culture. So probably it will be vacation," he added.

"Passengers", which released in the US today and will hit Indian theatres on January 6 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, is about two strangers Jim and Aurora, who are on a 120-year journey to another planet on atechnologically- advanced"cruise-liner" style space ship when their hibernation pods wake them 90 years too early.

Jim and Aurora are forced to unravel the mystery behind the malfunction as the ship teeters on the brink of collapse, jeopardizing the livesof the several thousand passengers traveling from Earth on the spaceship to the distant planet for starting a new life.

The movie also stars Welsh actor Michael Sheen, who plays "Arthur", a robotic bartender on board the ship.

On the thought of being alone and traveling to another planet, Lawrence said getting there "would be amazing" and will be the "adventure of a lifetime" but by the "time you get there, everybody you have ever known or loved is dead, so it's definitely a commitment.

"Passengers" employs cutting-edge technology to produce stunning special effects as it chronicles the lives of Lawrence and Pratt on the spaceship.

One of the most stunning visuals come when the gravity on the ship fails and Jim andAurora find themselves weightless. Aurora is in a swimming pool when the gravity fails and she is trapped in the huge ball of water as it starts surging upwards. (Reopens LST 14)



On shooting theswimming pool scene when the gravity fails, Lawrence said, "I have never seen anything like that in a movie before so I was excited and nervous to shoot it. But it was tough work. It was a week in water and doing tank work but it was definitely worth it."



Pratt said the way technology is being used to make and see movies is both "exciting and challenging".

"In terms of making the movies, the technologies that are now out that are really mind blowing. Every movie I do, it seems like there is a new filming apparatus... That are creating the most dynamic physical shots that you could have never accomplished before" with simpler technologies.

He added that the flip side to technology that is "scary" is when "everything you say is written in stone. You are human and make little mistakes and that can resonate around the world in less than 10 minutes. Millions and millions of people can hear if you say something wrong or screw up, so the pressure is on.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore court found a former wealth manager of Swiss bank BSI guilty of four charges on Wednesday in a case linked to a money-laundering investigation involving Malaysian fund 1MDB, the third BSI banker convicted in the city state this year.

District judge Ng Peng Hong found ex-BSI banker Yeo Jiawei guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice by urging witnesses to lie to police and destroying evidence during an investigation into illicit money transfers linked to Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Yeo is facing seven separate charges, including money laundering, cheating and forgery, which the prosecution said he would be tried for next year. Prosecutors told reporters after the hearing that he "could face more charges".

Yeo, 33, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing during the month-long trial.

He appeared in court with his hands and feet in chains and appeared calm when the verdict was read out. He has been held in remand since April.

The prosecutors had charged that Yeo had amassed S$23.9 million ($16.55 million) by taking secret profits from 1MDB-linked transactions during his work for the Singapore unit of BSI.

Singapore authorities have called the 1MDB-linked investigation the most complex, sophisticated and largest money laundering case they have handled. It involves at least six different jurisdictions. [nL4N1D23HG]

Singapore's central bank in May ordered the closure of the operations of the Singapore unit of the Swiss private bank and asked the Attorney General's Chambers to investigate six members of its senior management and staff.

Two of them, Yvonne Seah and Yak Yew Chee have already been convicted and sentenced on charges stemming from the money-laundering investigation linked to 1MDB.

The Malaysian fund, founded by Prime Minister Najib Razak, who previously chaired its advisory board, is the subject of money laundering investigations in at least six countries, including Switzerland, Singapore and the United States.

Najib has denied any wrongdoing and said Malaysia will cooperate with the international investigations.

($1 = 1.4437 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Robert Birsel)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor will not appear on Thursday before parliament's finance committee to brief it on the government's decision to scrap high-value bank notes, the panel's chairman said on Wednesday.

The panel will meet other experts to understand the impact of demonetisation before calling the RBI governor, Veerappa Moily told Reuters. He said Patel could be called to testify at its next meeting.

Moily, a senior leader of the opposition Congress party, has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision six weeks ago to abolish 500 and 1000 rupee notes, voicing doubts it would succeed in reducing corruption or flush out untaxed "black cash".

Patel is under fire from politicians and the general public over shortages of replacement currency and restrictions on depositing old notes that have caused long queues at banks and ATMs across India.
During a hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer also said German engineering company Robert Bosch GmbH, which produced the software for the VW diesels, has agreed in principle to settle civil allegations made by U.S. diesel vehicle owners. reported on Monday that the settlement was expected to be worth more than $300 million.

VW admitted in September 2015 to installing secret software in 475,000 U.S. 2.0-liter diesel cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests and make them appear cleaner in testing than they really were. In reality, the vehicles emitted up to 40 times the legally allowable pollution levels.

The company in June agreed to a settlement worth about $15 billion to address those vehicles, including an offer to buy back all 475,000.

The 80,000 3.0-liter vehicles had an undeclared auxiliary emissions system that allowed the vehicles to emit up to nine times allowable limits.

The U.S. Justice Department said Volkswagen had agreed to contribute another $225 million to a fund to offset excess diesel emissions, while the state of California said in a separate court filing that Volkswagen had agreed to boost the number of electric vehicles it sells in the state.

The world's No. 2 automaker reached the new deal on vehicle fixes and buybacks with the Justice Department, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California state officials.

Volkswagen has agreed to add by 2020 at least three additional electric vehicles, including an SUV, in California and must sell an average of 5,000 electric vehicles annually. Volkswagen also agreed to pay California's state air board $25 million, the state said.

Breyer said owners of 3.0-liter vehicles would receive "substantial compensation" for getting their vehicles fixed or repaired but said there were some remaining issues to be resolved, and set a another hearing for Thursday for an update.

Volkswagen spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan said the deal "is another important step forward in our efforts to make things right for our customers."

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Global private equity giant has deferred its plans to buy an 800,000 sq ft operational mall in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, according to sources in the know.
When launched Pixel in India, the fastest growing market for smartphones in the world, in October this year, it spared no expenses for its campaign. A big splash in leading national dailies with hoardings in high visibility zones in the metros and digital and television spots, the tech titan went all out to grab customer attention. But the high decibel campaign did not quite deliver what expected, for someone on the team got their facts in a twist. The ad showed Assistant responding to a users query about a flight to London  the United Airlines Flight 83 which it said departs from DEL (New Delhi) and reaches LHR (London Heathrow, United Kingdom). But United Airlines Flight 83 doesnt actually fly to LHR; it goes to EWR (Newark Liberty International Airport) instead. Social media had a good laugh; Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma tweeted OK Google, bad job of copyediting while some slammed it as a super-smart assistant being let down by humans.
1. It first came to light in the 1490s when two explorers, Rodrigo De Jerez and Luis de Torres, working for Christopher Columbus, spotted and imbibed the habits of Cubans who stuffed a particular commodity in the leaves or ears of corn and consumed it. Jerezs addiction to it caused his imprisonment when he returned to Spain. China is the largest and India is the second largest producer of this commodity.
Flock, the company that has built an app that helps teams work together on smartphones and desktops is taking on Slack, its larger rival in the US by opening up its platform for developers to build applications on top of it.
Commercial Feature is a Business Standard Digital Marketing Initiative.

The Editorial/Content team at Business Standard has not contributed to writing or editing these articles.

For further information, please write to assist@bsmail.in
As millions of taxpayers remain squeezed by the persistent cash crisis more than a month after the November 8 demonetisation order, an India Today investigation has found how corrupt bank officials from some of the country's leading lenders are clandestinely diverting money supplies to tax thieves.

India Today's special investigation team also found them doubling up as touts renting out random bank accounts to the hoarders of black economy. As part of its series of investigations unearthing a range of black-money platforms, the network's special team went undercover to dredge up the suspected rot in the financial sector this time. The probe began at the Civil Lines branch of Punjab National Bank in Delhi.



A meeting was scheduled with one of its managers, Rubal Khanna. As the undercover crew arrived in the facility, Khanna stepped out quietly and took them to an adjacent alley. When the conversation progressed, the PNB manager promised `50 lakh in new currency in exchange for the defunct. His candid plan explained where wads of banknotes might be disappearing after reaching banks - perhaps back into the suitcases of evaders.

"There won't be any problem. No issues with the old ones - be it 500 or 1,000 (bills), ...for around `50 lakh" Khanna said. "It will be done 'hand-to-hand'," he added.

Khanna demanded a commission of 20 per cent on the original value of void currency. The bank official next offered various accounts of his branch to the investigative team to park their fictitious black money in. He set `20 lakh as the limit for deposits into those third-party accounts. Another glaring example of how some bank officials were peddling accounts to hoarders came up when India Today's special team investigated HDFC bank.

Amar Pal Singh, a home-loan counsellor at HDFC Sales, advised stashing tax loot in accounts of some of his colleagues and clients. "I have many colleagues who have many accounts in HDFC. Besides colleagues, there are other people, who we helped open accounts. There were opened directly or indirectly," he told the India Today reporters during their meeting at Ghaziabad. "It's not necessary to withdraw money from one branch. It can be withdrawn wherever cash is available," Singh explained as he sought a 30 percent cut for organizing transfers.

"The commission will be 30 percent. ...Insiders in the bank will be set up for 20. Overall, we'll do it at 30," he said. The HDFC employee was ready to interchange up to Rs 10 lakh in a single day. Next, India Today's team found out how several officials of reputed banks have turned money brokers advising underhanded tactics to potential clients looking for cash hideouts. At a Meerut branch of ICICI bank, the reporters met its sales officer, Abhishek Rohilla. The staff suggested a range of options for concealing black money, with thirdparty and dummy accounts topping his list.

"You should open 8-10 accounts at least and deposit from `2 lakh to `2.5 lakh. You'll be able to dispose of `10-15 lakh this way" he said. "We helped people open eight accounts each. We went to villages and opened 10 accounts (per person). For a number of individuals, we opened 20 accounts each. All their money is stashed. We'll work out some alternative (for you too)."

ALSO READ: Demonetisation: Six tragic failures of the government and RBI


India and Japan have finally agreed on a fully elevated bullet train corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. However, Japanese experts are also exploring the feasibility of constructing the corridor underground as proposed by the Indian Railways. Senior railway officials said this will rid land acquisition by 50 per cent thought the project cost would go up by nearly Rs 10,000 crore.

Sources said Japan is keen on constructing the corridor on the surface as it would be cheaper. However, given the inordinate delay in several projects due to land acquisition and subsequent legal hurdles, the Japanese government is keeping both options open. The Japanese government will be bearing 80 per cent of the total project cost and the increase in cost estimate has to be borne by both India and Japan. The actual work on the project is scheduled to begin next year after signing of the loan agreement between Indian Railways and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The agreement is likely to be signed early 2017. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu has said that the bullet train will start in 2023 but if the Indian and Japanese governments agree to the idea of an elevated corridor, the deadline can also be advanced.

ALSO READ: What all got banned in India in 2016

The Detailed Project Report (DPR) submitted to the government has proposed 25 per cent elevated corridor, 64 per cent surface corridor and six per cent underground corridor. This includes the 21-km underwater tunnel between Thane creek and Virar in Mumbai.

"India and Japan have agreed on changing the design. The DPR will be modified accordingly. Construction of an elevated or underground corridor will be costlier but the government will save on the cost of land acquisition," said a senior railway official.

"Constructing the elevated corridor will save the government the hassles of land acquisition that can delay the project. An elevated corridor will be financially more viable as compared to the compensation amount to be given to land owners," he added.

"Also, it will ensure speedy execution of the project. However, this may result in cost overrun. At present, the project is estimated to cost Rs 97,636 crore, but with modifications in design, it may go up to Rs 1.08 lakh crore," the official further said. Officials said that since the bullet train corridor is the dream project of Narendra Modi, the government wants to ensure that it does not get stuck in environmental and legal tangles.

ALSO READ: Post demonetisation, I-T detects Rs 3,185 cr black income and seizes Rs 86 crore new notes

Already more than 400 railway projects have been stuck in land acquisition rows and consequent delay in construction work. This, according to a CAG report of 2015, has resulted in cost overrun of Rs 1.07 lakh crore.

The Railways faced major hurdles in acquiring land for its ambitious dedicated freight corridors that will significantly decongest the railway network and increase the speed of passenger trains.
With its fast economic growth in over two decades and a half, India has now taken over the United Kingdom as the fifth largest economy in the world.

A report published in Forbes magazine said that this dramatic shift has been driven by India's rapid economic growth over the past 25 years as well as Britain's recent woes with the Brexit.

India overtakes UK & becomes 5th largest GDP after USA, China, Japan & Germany. India may have large population base but this is a big leap. pic.twitter.com/ANPUExHEyL Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) December 18, 2016

"Once expected to overtake the UK GDP in 2020, the surpasso has been accelerated by the nearly 20 per cent decline in the value of the pound over the last 12 months, consequently UK's 2016 GDP of GBP 1.87 trillion converts to $2.29 trillion at exchange rate of GBP 0.81 per $1, whereas India's GDP of Rs 153 trillion converts to $2.30 trillion at exchange rate of Rs 66.6 per $1," the article said.

The report further said that this gap is expected to widen as India grows at 6 to 8 per cent per annum compared to UK's growth of 1 to 2 per cent per annum until 2020, and likely beyond.

"Even if the currencies fluctuate that modify these figures to rough equality, the verdict is clear that India's economy has surpassed that of the UK based on future growth prospects," the report stated.
All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) has registered a protest to RBI on bank officers being assigned investigative role for customers depositing in excess of Rs 5,000, and demanded complete withdrawal of the order as the staff are facing public wrath.

Even as RBI partially modified its deposit guidelines, the union will be holding demonstrations all over the country in front of Reserve Bank of India offices later today to press for withdrawal of the notification.

The RBI today modified guidelines saying KYC compliant account holders can deposits more than Rs 5,000 in old currency notes without being questioned by bank officials.

Earlier this week, the RBI issued a notification directing banks to conduct due diligence of customers who wish to deposit more than Rs 5,000 in old currency till December 30.

"The credit in such cases shall be afforded only after questioning tenderer, on record, in the presence of at least two officials of the bank, as to why this could not be deposited earlier and receiving a satisfactory explanation," RBI had said.

"The instructions issued vide the RBI communication dated December 19 must be withdrawn forthwith as the banker shall not carry out the duties of CBI/ED/IB at the busy counters," AIBOC General Secretary Harvinder Singh said in a representation to RBI Governor.

No accountability should be fixed on the bank officers in this respect as they are thrust with a role not expected of them, it added.

"Having demanded this, we strongly feel that withdrawal of the instruction itself will only confirm the Prime Minister's statement to the public on November 8 and improve public confidence in the banking system and reduce the hardships faced by the officers at counters," it said.

Pointing out that the banking system itself is losing credibility because of frequent changes in RBI/Government policies, Singh said customer dissatisfaction is increasing because of chaos and confusion created in implementation of the scheme.

"Bank Officers are being subjected to the anger, anguish and wrath of customers or general public due to short supply of currency notes to the banks, particularly to Public Sector banks," it said.
CAMEROUN :: Cameroon: SCNC' BRING BACK OUR BOYS Campaign

Since Dec. 9, 2016, parents and relations have been moving from one detention camp to the other to locate the where about of their children. The failure to locate their loved ones or to receive satisfactory information has only increased the fears, worries and anger against the annexationist regime and agents whose language of command and obey- French- many do not understand.

Indeed an annexationist colonial power is known for its consistency in inconsistency. Is it not incredible that while Yaounde is flashing white washed dialogue and sending powerless surrogates to Bamenda, its troops are armed to the teeth with firm executioners instructions? As if angered by Ni John Fru Ndis stern warning No blood should drop in Bamenda again! and to prove to him and all Southern Cameroonians that that was only the bark of a toothless bull dog, not only one or two were killed but many were executed for no crime. But in la Republique du Camerouns annexationist law, the annexed and subjugated have no right, not even the voice for peaceful protest. The question of no right is clearly dramatized by the fact that even the co-opted are used as toilet roll. If not how is it that the Rt. Hon. P.M. and Head of Government, Philemon Yang, stood speechless while la Republique du Camerouns Proconsul, his supposed subordinate, ordered the execution of unarmed youths in his ancestral land! Or was he sent to supervise the executions carried on by his subordinates?

While the people of British Southern Cameroons are still mourning the murder of their children in Bamenda, Kumba and dehumanization and decapitation of the human spirit at the Buea University, the annexationist Yaounde regime added salt to a painful bleeding wound. As it was in 1962 consequent upon the Ebubu, Tombel massacre, the 1992, 1997 and the Wum Saga of April 27, 2016, some seventy youths arrested in Bamenda on December 6, 2016 were two days after kidnapped to Bafoussam and Yaounde, la Republique du Cameroun. After the heavily flawed Presidential election of 1992 when the victor Fru Ndi, a Southern Cameroonian, became the vanquished some leaders and activists of the SDF were kidnapped to Yaounde by night under heavily armed troops.

Among those feared in the December 6, 2016 arbitrary arrest to have disappeared or kidnapped to la Republique du Cameroun territory as if they were war captives are;

1. Chi Nsoh Ringobell

2. Langha Clearance Boi

3. Tatae Ncok

4. Roger Gadinga

5. Asangon Joseph

6. Penny Nickson Asobo

7. Che Roger Funwi

8. Mbah Louis

9. Bah Joel

10. Bruno Taneng

11. Valentine Biyemah

12. Donsong Miafo Herman

13. Ngwa Denis 14. Tikom Charles

15. Niba Oliver

16. Nziki Solomon

17. Nkwenti Sama Emmanuel Penn

18. Mbi Louis

19. Akewo Casen

20. Kenneth Fobah

21. Acha Mbah Valary

22. Atawan Feojus

23. Yembeh Clinton

24. Mudoh Elvis Abong

25. Fongole Lesley

26. Menia Ferdinand

27. Winceslaus Azeh

28. Tamngwa Malvin Tamngwa

29. Abwuo Desmond Tita

Arrested on 6 December 2016 and taken to GMI, they were later moved to the Central Prison, Bamenda on 8 December 2016 on orders of SDO Mezam. They are all youths aged between 15 and 30 years. Many are students who were arrested near their homes as schools are on sit in strike. It should be recalled that Divine Sambella of Longla Commercial College was murdered in front of their house in the Small Mankon Quarter (SCNC Press Release of 10th December 2016).

Some of them are sickly while some sustained serious injuries from torture and gun shots and judging from past experiences of constant severe torture to destroy the resistance spirit and instill fear, no medical care and poor or no feeding, we fear for their health, safety and security. Kidnapping them to Bafoussam and Yaounde only makes matters worse for the victims and the families, who inevitably are being psychologically and morally tortured  fear of the unknown. Some victims of the 1997 episode lost their lives in Kondengui, Maximum Prison, Yaounde.

Yaoundes persistent transfer of Southern Cameroonians who are alleged to have committed a crime on Southern Cameroons soil (common law jurisdiction) to la Republique du Cameroun (civil law jurisdiction) is not only common knowledge, it is clear prove that la Republique du Cameroun respects no international law and obligation. La Republique du Cameroun, a signatory to the AU Charter and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights submitted to the jurisdiction of the African Commission in the case filed by the SCNC/SCAPO against annexation and colonial occupation, Communication 266/2003 but when the Ruling came out and was approved by the AU Summit in July 2009 calling for Constructive Dialogue under the Good Offices of the African Commission the modern African imperial power imposing neo-apartheid in British Southern Cameroons has flouted the Ruling with impunity.

It is worth pointing out that aggressively looking troops that display the arrogance of conquistadors are still being ferried into Bamenda from la Republique du Cameroun, tear gas, intimidating gun firing still get on even at night. Added to this, threats of arrest are still on as was the case with the arbitrary arrest of Mancho Bibixy (BBC) the Youth Leader, who was rescued from the mouth of the lion by his valiant comrades.

As respecters of international law and obligations and cognizant of the fact that for international peace based on justice to prevail, it is mandatory that the civilized and democratic world should rise against injustice anywhere which threatens justice and human freedom everywhere in the world. The UN the UK and the good people of the world cannot afford to exercise the culture of silence we have seen for more than half a century. It is in this light of human tragedy that Martin Luther King Jr., in human interest sounded this alarm bell, The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

We, the people of the former UN Trust territory of British Southern Cameroons cognizant of our rights to self-determination and to a sovereign homeland and believing fervently that annexation and colonial rule are crimes against humanity and threat to world peace, therefore;

1. Call on the UN, AU, the Commonwealth and international Community in general to mount meaningful pressure on President Paul Biya to release and BRING BACK OUR BOYS (BBOBs) and hand to us the parents, relations and friends; in Bamenda in the good health they left our houses on December 6, 2016.

2. Remind the AU that President Paul Biya having refused submitting to the Constructive Dialogue, the Continental Body has only one option left, namely, place the British Southern Cameroons Question for de-annexation on the agenda of the UN. For the AU to be relevant and give hope to the oppressed peoples of Africa, AUs institutions must have the capacity and political will to enforce its decisions and make member nations respect the provisions of its Charter.

3. Call on the UN, the Trustor, and the UK, the trustee power, to complete their unfinished obligations as enshrined in the UN Charter and Trusteeship Agreement. It is self-evident that our plight is a consequence of botched decolonisation in 1961. To forgive the evil deed of 1961, the UN must respect its obligations and right the wrong of 1961 so that the people of British Southern Cameroons assume their deserved seat at the UN among the free people of the world.

4. Assure the UN and international community in general that the indignities, acts of dehumanization, brutality, murders, disappearances, disenfranchisement, exclusion, mindless exploitation and plunder of our natural wealth, among others, we have had under la Republique du Cameroun annexation and colonial rule for 55 years far outweigh what we suffered under British influence from 1858-1886, German colonial rule from 1886-1916 and British Mandate/Trusteeship from 1916-1961 put together. And we can bear it NO MORE! Any failure from the UN to positively intervene NOW is direct invitation and license for la Republique to carry out genocide against our peace-loving and law abiding people which could have greater implication  intensity and extensity- (distabilise Nigeria and West Africa in general) than the Rwanda genocide.

Done in Buea this 19th Day of December, 2016.

For the SCNC, and in the name of the people, of British Southern Cameroons.

NFOR, N. NFOR

National Chairman, (SCNC)

Cc;

Common Law Lawyers

Teachers Trade Unions

Religious Authorities

Diplomatic Missions in Yaounde,

ACHPR, Banjul, The Gambia

Pan African Parliament, Midrand 1685, Gauteng Province, South Africa

Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, London

AU Commission Chairman, Addis Ababa

Commonwealth SG, London

UN SG, New York, USA

The Press

Archives
Partial View of Buea-regional-hospital-annex Wilson MUSA

The atmosphere is tense at the Buea regional hospital annex with a cold war ongoing between Surgeons and the hospitals Director, Dr Enow Orock. Surgeons are reportedly on strike and have called on the Director redress certain issues which will permit them work in a descent environment especially in the operation room.

Dr Enow Kingsley tells the Press that despite rebuttal by the Director of any strike action, there is actually a strike going on, When they push people to the wall the people cry they come out to the media and other places to say there is nothing wrong, of course there is a strike, both of us the two Surgeons officially posted to the hospital here and two other visiting Surgeons, so there is a strike, we are not carrying out any electric surgeries except emergencies.

Dr Enow Kingsley has also accused the Director of the hospital, Dr Enow Orock of poor management of resources, The hospital is a mess, when you walk around you will see for yourself how filthy the environment is.

Responding to these allegations the Director of the Buea regional hospital annex says, First I must say that there is no strike in the regional hospital in Buea. One Dr Enow Nkongho a Neurosurgeon newly sent of this hospital sent a letter to the minister through the regional delegate and copied me and he distributed the letter to the entire hospital including cleaners, security people and even to the Press. Now in the letter he said he was pleading to be saved from the detrimental policies of the director of the regional hospital annex in Buea. Dr Enow Nkongho was not ready to adhere to carry out pre tests on patients before carrying out operation.

The surgeons have maintained their strike action, while waiting for reply from the regional Delegate or from the minister of Public Health.
North West Governor Lele Lafrique: His lips are sealed and hands tied Wilson Musa

Bernard Okalia Bilai, governor of the South West region and his counterpart Adolphe LELE LAFRIQUE have maintained sealed lips over recent strike action orchestrated by Anglophone Teachers, Common Law Lawyers and later the population.

Bernard Okalia Bilai, governor of the South West region and his counterpart Adolphe LELE LAFRIQUE have maintained sealed lips over recent strike action orchestrated by Anglophone Teachers, Common Law Lawyers and later the population.

They told reporters in Yaounde Tuesday December 20, 2016 during opening of the Second Semester Conference of governors that the government has asked them not to make any statement on the crisis which has been rocking the two regions for over two months now.

Several persons were killed in the strike action that suddenly went violent as police used live bullets on the people.

Shops were closed, schools shutdown till further notice.

Till date, no government official has taken responsibility for ordering shooting of people and brutality on University of Buea students.

However Minister of Territorial administration and Decentralization, Rene Emmanuel Sadi has condemned the burning of national symbols like the flag which was allegedly burnt in Bamenda.

The theme of the second annual conference of governors focuses on Administrative authorities, reforms on program budget and performance of the public administration.

Each of the ten regional governors will mount the rostrum to present the socioeconomic and political state of their country by the end of the meeting.
| BY Lynchy |

Russian TV ad showing Santa abducting a busy single mother and dragging her by a rope sparks rage

A furore in Russia is now spreading internationally surrounding the new Christmas TV commercial via Russian agency 3Sba, helmed by UK director Charley Stadler.

The film for MKB, Credit Bank of Moscow aired in its original length of 5minutes and has caused an uproar across Russia with feminist groups, its being talked about on TV stations and thrown up a frenzy on Facebook. Now it is being written about in the mainstream UK press.

The film is a contemporary take on a fairytale where instead of the wicked witch we see a challenged 21st century mother with her daughter simply appealing to Santa in a traditional Christmas letter.

The directors agent, Cream Directors/UK, learned this morning the storm around the film has penetrated the Russian government causing the Finance Minister to summon the CEO of MKB and insisted he withdraw the film from all TV and Cinema screens.

Client: Credit Bank of Moscow

Marketing director: Nadezhda Levashova

Head of Marketing and advertising: Olga Nerodo

Agency: 3Sba

Creative director: Konstantin Tokarev

Copywriter: Adam Kreutner

Agency producer: Anton Kirillov, Nikita Raden

Production: Martini Shot

Executive producer: Nikita Kochkarev

Line producer: Daria Galaeva

Director: Charley Stadler

Directors Agent: Cream Directors/UK

DOP: Ivan Solomatin

Drone operator: Aleksandra Zubchenko

1st AD: Kirill Pushkin

Actors: Nikolett Barabas, Sergey Studenikin, Alisa Tekucheva

Set designer: Papuna Papashkiri

Costume designer: Elena Ushakova

Music: Shamala Tamrazova (Von Seefeld)

Song producer: Adrian Bushby

Sound design: Srdjan Kurpjel

CGI: Sergey Movchan

Cut: Nikolay Ivanov

Grading: Artem Leonov

Charley Stadlers reply to the Daily Mail article:

Im shocked that some people interpret the film in the complete opposite way that I intended.

The marketing director Nadezhda Levashova is a Russian working mother. Im the father of a young girl and the Credit Bank of Moscows charitable foundation, Arithmetic of Kindness, supports orphanages throughout Russia. The Los Angeles based American copywriter Adam Kreutner also has a young daughter. We had a very collaborative process from script, to shoot to final cuts with the agency 3SBA , Executive Producer Anton Kirillov, Creative Director Konstantin Tokareva, Nadya and Adam. At no time during any stage of the process did anybody, male, female, Russian, German or American voice concerns of a potential controversy.

My goal was to simply create a modern Christmas fairytale that included a strong and confident working mother, played by American actress Nikolett Barabas, who had achieved much financial success but also lost her way in the most important aspect of her life. Most fairytales use a powerful female mother figure, which is why we chose the same. Although the story houses a dark undertone (especially early on like most fairy tales), it ends with an uplifting message of love and whats truly important in life, to spend more time with your children. As a film maker I decided to shoot this film in a realistic tone set against a fairy tale backdrop. Its apparent that some people couldnt separate this from the actually fictitious storytelling. Even the track Wishes specifically written for the film by the London based band Von Seefeld highlights a theme of unification.

Yes, the journey to get there is dirty, unsettling and ugly, but so is life at times. I believe many of us need to be led through the mud in order to open our eyes. I chose the image of Santa pulling the Mother by a rope as a metaphor for this and of course it represents a safety line as they walking through rough nature. Once they reach the top and out of danger, Santa cuts her loose. Symbolically and figuratively, she went through a journey of her inner self crisis, an internal story of transformation. As the famous Xmas song says  He knows if youve been naughty. He knows if youve been nice. He knows if youve been bad or good  Well, our Santa knows about the mother, so you better watch out. Santa Claus is coming to town.

I personally detest violence and would never promote anything negative or violent toward women. As I stated earlier, I am a married man and father of a young daughter. At no time in the film is Santa violent or physical with the Mother. Its a story to become a better person and to spend precious time with your children. Thats what the Christmas spirit is all about.
The African Trade Insurance Agency to help Benin attract $15 million by 2021

Benin is a country on the rise led by a newly appointed businessman-come President, H.E. Patrice Talon. The President recently launched a five-year program that is aligned to Benins Vision 2030 that places Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) at the core. The program sets out a strategy to attract $15 million of investments and to stimulate growth from the bottom up by 2021.

In a show of support, the CEO of the African Trade Insurance Agency George Otieno, met with the President ahead of the Governments five-year action plan to discuss concrete ways that ATI could help Benin achieve its ambitions, which involves exploiting an estimated US$760 million worth of investments in ATIs current project pipeline. These include renewable energy, manufacturing, agribusiness, investments that will help finance small and-medium sized (SMEs) companies, and supporting the governments proposed bond issue.

We came to Benin to lend our support. The relationships ATI has with its government stakeholders is by far our most valuable asset. Listening to our countries is an important part of building a partnership based on trust. As a result, we walked away from the meeting with the President confident that we had a way forward in working together to help build the country, notes George Otieno, the CEO of ATI.

Spurred by indicators that show 40 per cent of the population living below the poverty line and Benin ranked 166th out of 177 in the human development index, the President is focused on crowding in the private sector to create beneficial PPPs. To attract investors, he is also focused on creating an open and transparent system of governance.

In a statement made shortly after his nomination, the President noted that it was a matter of urgency that they tackle political reforms, restructuring of the national economy and strengthening the social fibre in order to restore public confidence and the countrys credibility.

As an African institution, ATI understands the challenging environment in which many of our governments work. This is where we can add the most value because we understand the risks involved and how to mitigate them. Benin is no different. Were here to help by providing comfort to investors, added Mr. Otieno.

During ATIs four day stay in Benin, the company met with the highest ranked ministers and also hosted a workshop for government agencies to explain the benefits of their products. These include providing guarantees to suppliers and contractors of government tenders. With guarantees in place, Benin can attract the best possible goods and services that will greatly help its development efforts. ATI is also able to help the government lower their debt levels by offering guarantees to investors in place of costly government guarantees.

In 2013, Benin became the first West African country to join ATI, a pan-African institution that provides political, investment and commercial risk insurance products. Cote dIvoire is expected to finalise their membership in early 2017. ATIs next membership focus is the other large West African economies of Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal.

www.ati-aca.org
GULFPORT, Miss. -- Josh Vallum, the man accused of killing 17-year-old transgender teen Mercedes Williamson, plead guilty on Wednesday for the first federal hate crime provision filed in U.S. history against the killer of a transgender person.

Vallum, 29, admitted to repeatedly stabbing and beating Williamson to death because she was transgender. According to records, Vallum was a member of the Gulf Coast Chapter of the Almighty Latin Kings gang and conspired to kill her because their manifesto expressly prohibited homosexual activity.

According to court records, Vallum acknowledged that he had previously lied about the circumstances surrounding Williamson's death and stated that he would not have killed Williamson had she not been transgender.

Previously, Vallum was sentenced to life in prison in George County, but the federal government was able to prosecute Vallum because Mississippi does not have a hate crimes statute that protects people from bias crimes based on their gender identity.

The statute is now known as the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act for targeting a transgender victim.

"Hate crime has no place in our society, especially by those targeting victims solely for their sexual orientation or identity," said Special Agent in Charge Freeze. "This guilty plea will go towards demonstrating hate crime will not be tolerated in the United States. The FBI will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to vigorously investigate hate crimes and bring those to justice who violate the civil rights of our citizens."

The death of Mercedes Williamson, 17, is receiving national media coverage and attracting the attention of LGBT advocacy groups from Alabama to New York. (Facebook)

According to the Department of Justice, Vallum retrieved a hammer from the trunk of his vehicle on May 29, 2015, and chased after Williamson. He caught up with Williamson and hit her on the back of the head with the hammer. Williamson fell to the ground and Vallum used the hammer to hit her in the head several more times until Williamson died.

After the murder, Vallum attempted to dispose of the murder weapons and other evidence linking him to the crime. He also falsely claimed to law enforcement that he killed Williamson in a panic after discovering Williamson was transgender.

"Our nation's hate crime statutes advance one of our fundamental beliefs: that no one should have to live in fear because of who they are," said Attorney General Lynch. "Today's landmark guilty plea reaffirms that basic principle, and it signals the Justice Department's determination to combat hate crimes based on gender identity. While Mississippi convicted the defendant on murder charges, we believe in the fundamental value of identifying and prosecuting these bias-fueled incidents for what they are: acts of hate. By holding accountable the perpetrator of this heinous deed, we reinforce our commitment to ensuring justice for all Americans."

Vallum entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. of the Southern District of Mississippi who assessed him a $250,000 fine and life without parole at his March 21 sentencing.
| BY Ricki Green |

Leading footwear brand, Clarks Australia has launched its 2017 Back to School campaign Clarks Feet First via Mustard Creative.

The multi-channel national campaign focuses on the enthusiasm kids bring to every day; growing, learning and chasing their dreams. The tagline kids jump into life feet first, so Clarks does too brings to life the natural connection between school and Clarks footwear.

The campaign features hand sketched interactive backgrounds that symbolise the imagination of children. The campaign plays to the brands premium, on trend school shoe status through crisp photography and playful styling.

Says Melena Birtles, marketing manager, Clarks Australia: We wanted to capture the energy and enthusiasm of kids, whilst also reinforcing the authority Clarks has a leading school shoe brand in Australia. The campaign cleverly ties together childrens imaginations and taps into the nostalgic memories of the parent. The fun filled campaign also captures the premium quality and value of our products, whilst delivering a powerful fitting message.

Clarks have over 15,000 trained fitters around the world. Our team here in Australia work proactively with retailers to train their store staff on how to get the perfect fit for children to protect their feet and support long-term foot health. In the lead up to the busy back to school period, the team have trained over 1400 store staff nationally.

Clarks have been running the Clarks Trained Fitter program with Australian retailers for 40 years.
| BY Lynchy |

Directors Think Tank director/owner Rajay Singh and his Beautiful Machines team have just returned from Yokohama, Japan. Beautiful Machines, Malaysias leading custom motorcycle builders and also owned by Singh had just entered their recent creation Monster as Malaysias first entrant into the prestigious custom show.

Below is what Australias leading motorcycle online blogsite Pipeburn had to say about BMs Monster

and as soon as you glimpse the first image of Beautiful Machines insane 1991 Harley Davidson Heritage Softail you know the name Monster fits. Its been five years in the making at their workshop in Sunway, Malaysia, where it has been a passion project for head honcho Rajay Singh. The final incarnation rolled out of the Beautiful Machines laboratory just in time to make a splash at the recent Yokohama MoonEyes Hot Rod & Custom Show.

While motorcycles are popular in Malaysia, its not the first place you think of when custom bikes are first mentioned. So to change that Singh and Eng Chin Guan established Beautiful Machines to build full custom creations that would put their nation on the map and Monster was always part of the plan. Monster was built initially for Art Of Speed 2016, which we did manage to turn a few heads and won Best Of Show, and subsequently an invite to get a booth and show our bike at this years 25th Anniversary Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show. That just blew our mind as we would be the first ever Malaysian bike to be at the show, explains shop engineer Irwann.

The build takes inspiration from an eclectic mix of designs, including a Leica M3 camera, a 50s Biplane and even the stance of a Bison.

Having made their mark in Japan, 2017 will see this Harley Monster head for the salt flats of Bonneville where the Beautiful Machines team want to show their creation has the bark to match the bite. Which explains the fire extinguisher disguised as a nitrous bottle, with a Malaysian Monster this wild, spitting flames is just par for the course. The plans are for less weight and even more power as this monster morphs into a missile, time to draw straws to see who can tame the beast.

As this was going to press and KL bike week is being held this week  another BM creation Mentadak (Praying Mantis) picked up best of show, best of american, best of japanese and a jury pick award.
Tuesday, December 20, 2016 at 5:46PM

Facebook has been steadily building its Live Video feature but it seems that isnt the only thing the social network is building in the live broadcasting space. This time, its taking on the podcast and radio markets with Live Audio. Facebook launched the feature with a small group of publishers with plans to open up the service to everyone by 2017. Just like Live Video, the service will bring these Live Audio streams into the News Feed. Right now Facebook launched with BBC World Service, book publisher Harper Collins, talk radio broadcaster Leading Britains Conversation, and authors Adam Grant and Britt Bennett.

The social giant claims thisll be a good way for low-connectivity areas to broadcast data-efficient media. And if, for example, signal gets low, hosts can switch to audio for a seamless stream. Facebook sees these working particularly well for a semi-professional stage setup for things such as book readings and interviews with Live service viewer interaction included. If you listen on Android, youll be able to use other apps while the audio streams in the background. For iOS, you need to keep the Facebook app open.

Source: Engadget
Tuesday, December 20, 2016 at 5:55PM



By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Looking back at Apples 2016, it was hard to expect the company to match the frenetic pace of product releases from 2015. After all, the previous year saw the introduction of the Apple Watch, iPad Pro, the remixed Apple TV, new and improved iPhone 6s as well as major moves in the areas of car infotainment (Car Play), home automation (Home Kit), Health (Health Kit) and the inception of Apple Music. So, let's look back at what 2016 was all about.

Low key in comparison

By comparison, 2016 feels rather low key for Apple in terms or product releases even if profits continued to rise. The company opted to revise and refresh its various product lines to stay the course.

The iPhone 7 wasnt a Tock in the usual Tick-Tock pattern of releasing an iterative S model following a major revision. iPhone 7 was more like a Tick-Tock-Tock, while it brought water resistance, stereo speakers, improved cameras and a new Touch ID and Taptic Engine into the mix, the look and feel were reminiscent of the past two generations of iPhones.

Apple received a lot of flak for removing the headphone jack (even if the iPhone 7 was just as thick as the iPhone 6). Phil Schillers Courage, comment as a response on why this very ubiquitous and useful port was deleted, drew the ire of many who felt the move premature and rather unfair for customers.

To their credit, Apple did provide various options out of the headphone jack debacle. A free dongle to connect old headphones, new lightning EarPods, and the AirPods which just started shipping out but are sold out everywhere.

Making noise by removing features

Apple would continue to remove familiar features from their MacBook Pro line which received a huge overhaul. While the new MacBook Pros made the workhorse portables thinner and lighter, they also did away with all the ports (MagSafe, SD Card, USB 3.0, Thunderbolt, HDMI-out) save for the, wait for it, headphone jack. Apple also retired the entire row of function keys. No other company can appear to add value by subtracting features.

Four general purpose USB Type-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports now serve to provide power and I/O but at the expense of additional adapters, which, are unsightly to say the least. But necessary if your need to connect anything from an iPhone 7, a USB thumb drive, a monitor, or another Mac. Realizing that this was a big, and in many sectors of their market, unwanted change, they discounted the price of most of their USB Type-C adaptors.

Apple did add a new solid state trackpad (much larger, for gestures), a new flatter keyboard, much improved stereo speakers and a stunning new wide colour gamut Retina Display.

Touchbars and fallen Titans

Apple did bring notable innovation to the MacBook Pros with the OLED TouchBar serving as a malleable collection of buttons that morph depending on what app you have open. Basically, an embedded iOS device, the TouchBar gives users far more options within reach while closing the gap for Apple non-touch displays.

Apples Project Titan, their much ballyhooed Car project, was under scrutiny even if the company never formally announced they were creating a vehicle. Various high profile poaching, hirings and firings later, it seems that Apples desire to play in the electric or smart car future would be relegated to software and ecosystem solutions rather than a top-to-bottom car a la Tesla.

Seeing as many would-be competitors in the electric and autonomous driving car segment have either spun off (Googles WayMo is one example), or have thrown in with traditional carmakers for more collaborative projects, it is hard to gauge where Apple will fit into what is becoming one of the most competitive sectors in high technology.

Apples Retail Stores are also reportedly going to undergo a refresh, this time with various design touches from Jony Ive in conjunction with Senior VP of Retail Angela Ahrendts. Apple also released the Designed by Apple in California, hardbound picture books which are only sold in a few US stores and which is a collection of stunning product photography of what seems to be the Golden Age of Apple Industrial Design.

Apple is transitioning towards becoming a services company. The App Store, iTunes, Apple Music, Apple Pay, AppleCare, brought in approximately $6.3 billion in 2016. Apple Music, which now also has video exclusives, like the 808 documentary on the famed Roland drum machine, and is reportedly appropriating Carpool Karaoke, sans host James Corden for some reason. Apple Music now has 20 million paid subscribers which is half of what market leader has at 40 million paid users.

Recent reports that Apples put Mac hardware at the back burner as well as the reality that zero Mac desktops were introduced since October 2015 has a lot of Mac loyalists wondering whether theres still a commitment to create industry leading desktops for consumers and pro creatives. Tim Cook did stress that Macs are important and that some new ones are in the roadmap, but it seems he singled out the iMac which leaves a big question mark on where the Mac Pro, and to a lesser extent, the Mac mini stand in Apples future.

Mac users, the struggle is real

Those complaining about Apple's current Mac lineup are not haters, they're lovers. They've spent 10+ years and 5+ figures on Macs.  Jeff Johnson (@lapcatsoftware) October 29, 2016

Theres been audible furor, surprisingly from some of Apples oldest and most hardcore fans, that the lack of new Mac hardware is a letdown. As we close the year, Apple is now in a defensive position with competitors like Microsoft stating that the MacBook Pro a disappointment and said more users than ever were switching to its Surface laptops. Of course, as a longtime frenemy of Apple, who now makes its own hardware, Microsoft will use each and every opportunity to take digs at the company it once so desperately tried to emulate. What's changed is that Microsoft now also makes the 'whole widget' of hardware, software and ecosystems and, as Apple knows all too well, this tight integration has been a recipe of success and profit.

If theres any company that can rally back and quell the rumblings it is Apple, but the company must move decisively and quickly. If reports that Mac products are being treated like the red headed step child at Apple, who is focusing more on bread and butter products like iPhone and iPad, then something needs to change.

Yes, Macs may only add up to 10 per cent of revenues, but the people who buy and use these products run the world of advertising, content creation, multimedia, programming, art, music, film and culture. Their influence cannot be underestimated. These have been Apples champions that have supported the company during its leanest times and leaving a door open for them to walk away in would be tragic.

2017 promises to be an exciting year for Apple. Expectations are higher than ever for a truly game changing re-imagining of the iPhone on its 10th year and Apple needs to seize every opportunity to continue their hot streak. I, for one, am interested to see where the focus of Apple will be in the coming year and how those decisions directly influence the rest of the technology sectors trends.
In a statement, the Department of Parliamentary Services has previously said the public would continue to have access to a significant amount of the grassed area on the northern side of the building. The speed of security checks at the main entrance could even improve.
"He said to me if there was more than one God, we'd be having an earthquake every day, every God of every faith would want to run the world the way they want," Mr Khan said,
Pascagoula burglary suspect.jpg

Pascagoula police are asking for the public's help identifying this man who was seen in the Army Navy Store in Pascagoula after hours.

(Pascagoula Police Department)

PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- Pascagoula police are asking for the public's help in identifying a man who was caught by surveillance in the Army Navy Store located on Hwy 90 in Pascagoula.

On Tuesday, police responded to the store in response to an alarm activation, according to Lt. Doug Adams. Once police arrived on the scene, they discovered the rear door to the business unsecured.

Police are asking if anyone has any information about this case to please call the Pascagoula Police Department at 228-762-2211 or MS Coast Crime Stoppers at 877-787-5898.
The yes votes prompted Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd to declare on Wednesday that more than 80 new enterprise agreements had been agreed across the public sector in the round of bargaining that has been underway since 2013.
The operator, part of PCCW, said it was very concerned that the government is not doing enough to release more spectrum, warning other countries are way ahead in terms of spectrum supply.

It also criticised price increases that operators in Hong Kong had faced over recent years, which had ultimately been passed on to mobile users, according to the South China Morning Post.

Hong Kong spectrum prices are now the most expensive in the world, it said. Why does the government need to do this when it already has huge budget surpluses?

The letter comes less than a year after the government, through regulator the Office of the Communications Authority, held a public consultation around the issue of spectrum, with one of the topics discussed potential price rises for bandwidth.

Current assignments on the 900MHz and 1.8GHz bands are due to expire in 2021, impacting around 40% of the total amount of spectrum currently in use in Hong Kong. A decision over prices is expected to be made by November 2017.
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Jamison Layne Townsend, 31, and Joshua Garcia, 35, were arrested in Geary County, KS for their roles in a string of robberies and triple homicide investigation. (Geary County Sheriff's Office)

GEARY COUNTY, KS -- Suspects wanted in a triple homicide investigation in Jackson and for a jewelry store burglary in Pascagoula reign of terror has ended after having been arrested in Geary County, KS.

According to Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf, Jamison Layne Townsend, 31, and Joshua Garcia, 35, were arrested at 7 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Per the Jackson Police Department, Townsend and Garcia will both be charged with three counts of capital murder each, along with armed robbery of a business.

Information shared between the Pascagoula Police Department and Jackson police showed similarities that later linked Townsend and Garcia to a triple homicide which occurred in Jackson over the weekend.

According to Wolf, deputies conducted a traffic stop on an involving a Dodge Charger on I-70, which had no registration visibly displayed. Garcia then led deputies on a chase and later crashed on a dead-end road.

Garcia escaped on foot, while Townsend remained with the car, according to Wolf. Deputies set up a perimeter and searched the area, as well as farm steads and outbuildings.

While searching the area roughly a mile from the scene of the crash, Garcia was found hiding in the back seat of a vehicle and was taken into custody.

Both Townsend and Garcia are being held at the Geary County Detention Center and will be extradited to Jackson from Junction City, KS, according to Cmdr. Tyree Jones.

Surveillance footage of Sam's Jewelry Shop was burglarized Dec. 13 and implemented Garica and Townsend as their suspects. The red Dodge Charger was the 'smoking gun' in the equation and was also captured by surveillance.

The same vehicle used caused Jackson police to come to believe that both Garcia and Townsend were involved in their triple homicide investigation that claimed the lives of Bill's Pawn Jewelry Coin/Stamp Exchange owner, Cleveland "Bill" Mosley, 81, and two of his employees, Robert Ivy, 60, and Ted McLemore, 77.
In our industrial food production system, broiler chickens are genetically manipulated to grow so fast, theyre barely able to walk by the end of their lives, which is usually only about 47 days. Photo by iStockphoto

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Were building major momentum with our new campaign to improve the lives of broiler chickens, with Panera Bread and Sodexo this week committing to work with U.S. suppliers to implement on-the-farm reforms. These are big, powerful brand names in the food sales world, and they are two very strong companies weve worked with on a set of prior reforms for animal welfare.

Within the last two years especially, youve heard from me about joint announcements weve made with companies to eliminate the confinement of calves in veal crates, breeding pigs in gestation crates, and egg-laying hens in cages. Whether its with Walmart, McDonalds, Kroger, ConAgra, or the dozens upon dozens of others, weve established a new norm in the industry that immobilizing animals does not line up with consumer sentiment about how farm animals ought to be treated. We are working to end the era of extreme confinement of animals in cages and crates, and that day is coming.

While these advancements are something to celebrate, we also know theres more to be done in creating a more humane food system. And at the top of the list for The HSUS is the treatment of chickens raised for meat. In our industrial food production system, broiler chickens as a matter of routine are genetically manipulated to grow so fast, theyre often barely even able to walk by the end of their lives, which is usually only about 47 days. (Yes, all chicken meat comes from baby chickens.) Because of their forced rapid growth, one of the most common forms of mortality on the factory farm is heart attacks, something unheard of in any other type of animal agriculture for animals so young. The living conditions are typically spare and unforgiving, with most birds being forced to live jam-packed inside barren, windowless warehouses without any forms of enrichment  even modest ones like hay bales or perches. At slaughter, theyre shackled while fully conscious, and then put through a killing process that is not governed by any federally mandated humane slaughter standard. The federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act is applied to cattle and pigs, but not to chickens or turkeys  an appalling and ethically inconsistent gap in the law.

But theres hope for the nine billion chickens raised and slaughtered every year in the United States for consumption.

You may remember that back in June, we worked with Perdue  the fourth-largest poultry producer in the United States  to begin addressing the core issues outlined above. Since November weve been working with Panera Bread and Pret a Manger to be the first restaurant chains to enact broiler chicken welfare policies. Besides Sodexo, we also worked in recent weeks with Compass Group, Aramark, Delaware North, and Centerplate  collectively, the nations five largest food service companies that run the dining operations at tens of thousands of colleges, universities, hospitals, prisons, event centers, and stadiums  to do the same.

Were confident that just like the confinement issues before, were going to make progress with other major food sellers in the United States to address the broiler welfare issue head-on. The Panera Bread and Sodexo announcements are just a start, and were gearing up for 2017 to be the year when the fate of the broiler chicken turned dramatically for the better.

P.S. Weve also received some great news for egg-laying hens: AccorHotels, an international hotel group that operates 4,000 hotels across 95 countries, announced today that it is partnering with Humane Society International to implement a global free-range egg policy. AccorHotels will eliminate caged eggs from its liquid and shell egg supply chain in Europe by 2020, and in remaining markets within eight years. The Brazil Fast Food Corporation, one of Brazil and Latin Americas largest restaurant companies, has also committed to switching to exclusively cage-free eggs in its more than 1,250 restaurants, after talks with HSI.

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Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Floyd (15) celebrates his touchdown catch with Jaron Brown (13) against the Green Bay Packers during the second half of an NFL divisional playoff football game, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) (Ross D. Franklin)

Update, 10:20 a.m.: Patriots head coach Bill Belichick spoke about the video at his Wednesday press conference.

The Scottsdale Police Department has released a bodycam video showing the arrest of new New England Patriots receiver Michael Floyd last week.

Scottsdale police say officers observed Floyd's Cadillac Escalade remain stationary in the left lane through two cycles of a traffic light.

When an officer approached the driver's side door of Floyd's vehicle, the officer shined a flashlight in his vehicle and repeatedly rapped on the window.

In the officer's dashcam video, Floyd is seen unresponsive to the officer's actions and does not stir until the officer forcefully bangs on the window and shouts, "Scottsdale police."

His arrest on Dec. 12 occurred hours after the Arizona Cardinals lost to the Dolphins in Miami.

Floyd was released by the Cardinals following his arrest and claimed off waivers by the New England Patriots last Thursday.

He was arrested for driving under the influence five years ago while playing for Notre Dame, the Associated Press reported in 2011.

The video, first obtained by TMZ then the Arizona Republic, can be viewed below.
Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
COLLEGE PROTEST.jpg

Students rally on the campus of Swarthmore College (Inquirer photo)

Good Wednsday Morning, Fellow Seekers.

State schools that declare themselves 'sanctuary' campuses for undocumented students could lose their taxpayer funding if a state lawamker from Schuylkill County gets his way.

State Rep. Jerry Knowles, R-Schuylkill (Pa. House photo)

State Rep. Jerry Knowles, a Republican, says he plans to introduce a bill in next year's legislative session that would impose sanctions on the schools because he believes "our state institutions of higher education have a compelling interest to ensure the safety and security of the students, faculty and employees on their campuses."

Schools that turn "a blind eye to illegal conduct for the sake of making some kind of political statement on this nation's immigration policy endangers the lives of those that the institution should be protecting," Knowles wrote in a co-sponsorship memo he began circulating earlier this month.

So far, none of the four, state-related universities, nor the 14 state-owned universities have declared themselves 'sanctuary' campuses that would refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities or allow them onto their campuses without a warrant (which doesn't seem entirely unreasonable, when you think about it. You wouldn't allow law enforcement into your home without a similar document).

Two private institutions, however, the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College on the Main Line, have declared themselves sanctuary campuses within the last month.

As Philadelphia Magazine notes, "the declarations follow a series of campus protests after the election of Donald Trump, who has said that he would repeal President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which protects immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Trump has since lightened his stance, but students at universities in Philadelphia and across the country are worried."

In his memo, Knowles said his bill would "prohibit the institution from receiving appropriations from the Commonwealth until such time as such policies are rescinded."

Other lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and state Rep. Martina White, a Philadelphia Republican, are looking to punish municipalities, including Philadelphia, that declare themselves sanctuary cities.

President-elect Donald Trump has similarly said he'd cut off federal funding to scofflaws.

While not a public institution, Penn does receive hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding. And that could be at risk under Trump's administration.

The rest of the day's news starts now.

Deficit? What deficit? The state System of Higher Education has approved $77 million in employee raises, our Capitol colleague, Jan Murphy, reports.

Chris Christie is weakened, but he's still a force in Garden State politics, The Inquirer reports.

Six antique long rifles have been stolen from a Bedford Co. museum, The Tribune-Review reports. So the next time someone robs a bank at musket-point, we'll know ...

Pittsburgh's City Council has a housing fund, now it just needs an income source for it, The Post-Gazette reports.

Should Philadelphia secede from Pennsylvania? PhillyMag argues the case.

Two more Philly judges have been kicked off the bench onaccounta case-fixing schemes, The Daily News reports.

Here's your #Harrisburg Instagram of the Day (First Day of Winter Edition):

WITF-FM looks at a midstate couple stuck in the Obamacre "donut hole" who are looking for some help from the incoming Trump administration.

Low-cost rentals in Philly are disappearing, NewsWorks/WHYY-FM reports.

The DEP has set a public hearing for a proposed landfill expansion in Northampton County, The Morning Call reports.

So what crimes will get you deported? Stateline.org runs it down for you.

From the "You Can't be Kind of Pregnant" file comes this Politico story on the "half-blind" trust the Trumpies are considering to avert potential conflicts of interest.

Roll Call runs down the players to watch in the coming fight over immigration reform.

WolfWatch.

Gov. Tom Wolf heads to Philadelphia today for a 10 a.m. newser with Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., to talk about a $300 million 'investment' in the Port of Philadelphia.

Heavy Rotation.

Why not let

Mos Def

slow jam your Thursday morning. Take your time, linger over that coffee.

Thursday's Gratuitous Hockey Link.

It's official, we want to be as ageless as Jaromir Jagr. The veteran forward tied Mark Messier's points record in a shoot-out win over Buffalo on Tuesday.

And now you're up to date. See you all back here in a bit.
The U.S. Department of Education has announced six new winners of the Promise Neighborhoods grant competition that awards money to organizations providing community-based and educational services to children and families.

The 2016 grant awards to the winners total $33 million, the department said on Tuesday. The winners are:

Three of those organizations are repeat winners. Berea College won a Promise Neighborhoods grant in 2011, while the Delta Health Alliance and the Youth Policy Institute both won in 2012. They will be working in new communities through their grant awards announced Tuesday. The grant awards represent one year of funding; future grant funding will depend on appropriations from Congress.

On a call with reporters, Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. said the grants help groups with designing innovative solutions to help their communities, and bring different groups together to increase their positive impact.

The grants are designed to create new partnerships between public and private entitites with the goal of breaking the cycle of generational poverty in certain areas. President Barack Obamas administration introduced the grants in 2010 and theyve attracted a good bit of interest , although their status in the budget has been a bit precarious at times . To date, the department has given out more than $286 million in Promise Neighborhoods grants to close to 700 schools and 1,000 community partners.

Efforts funded by Promise Neighborhoods grants range from STEM education to kindergarten readiness. Owen Franklin, the director of the Phildadelphia Promise Zone Initiative, which will partner with Drexel University and other groups to implement Drexels Promise Neighborhoods grant, said it will provide a boost to various efforts in Philadelphia on issues such as pre-kindergarten access and adult education.

The Paskenta Bands grant award represents the first time that a Native American tribe will receive a Promise Neighborhoods grant, the department noted in a statement. The Paskentas grant will focus on ensuring grade-level content mastery for students at their elementary and high schools.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
Michigans attorney general has charged former Detroit schools emergency manager Darnell Earley with crimes related to the Flint, Mich., water crisis .

Earley resigned as Detroit schools emergency manager in February amid growing concerns over his job performance and the direction of the troubled school district. Before that, he served as Flints emergency manager at the time the city changed its water source to the Flint River in April 2014.

The criminal charges stem from the decision to provide water to residents that was not properly treated, leading to lead contamination, after the city switched its water supply in a cost-cutting move. Earley faces charges of false pretenses, conspiracy to commit false pretenses, willful neglect of duty and misconduct in office, and false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

Earley faced criticism early and often in both roles, for what happened with the water supply in Flint and the problems within the Detroit schools such as crowded classrooms, crumbling schools, and the districts mounting debt . Teachers in Detroit staged several sickouts to protest the mold, water damage, and rodent problems in some of the citys older schools. They said Earley all but ignored their complaints.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Earley to both posts. Gerald Ambrose, another former emergency manager appointed by Snyder, and two former Flint public works officials were also charged Tuesday, bringing the number of defendants in the lead-in-water crisis to 13.

State Attorney General Bill Schuette alleges that Earley and Ambrose allowed Flints water treatment plant to produce water, knowing the danger it would pose for residents. Schuette also said they authorized false and misleading public statements that the water was safe to drink.

While appearing before Congress, Earley testified that he relied on experts from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to advise him.

The Detroit Free Press reported in April that Flint investigators executed a search warrant at Earleys Detroit schools office the day of his resignation.

Related Stories

Water Contamination Raises Health Concerns for Flint Students

Amid Controversy, Detroit Schools Emergency Manager to Resign

Flint Superintendent Asks Congress for Aid, Understanding

President Obama to Visit Flint to Learn More About Water Contamination Crisis
X marks the spot for updates in the Toyota Aygo family, which has gained two new members for the 2017MY, the X-Press and X-Style.



The former features red accents for the bumper, side sills, roof and rear diffuser, contrasted by one of the four exterior colors: Silver Splash, White Flash, Electro Grey and Bold Black.

Standard equipment includes glossy black 15-inch alloy wheels, with a multispoke design, automatic headlights, rear privacy glass, and side mirror casings and door handles finished in the same color as the rest of the body.

Inside, the Toyota Aygo X-Press has an instrument panel that matches the exterior shade, and a black look for the air vent surrounds, gear shift and center console, in addition to the automatic air conditioning, multifunction 3-spoke steering wheel, and X-touch multimedia system.

Coming to replace the red accents with grey ones, the Toyota Aygo X-Style benefits from the same 15-inch alloy wheels as the X-Press, available in several finishes, body color door handles and side mirror casings, and rear privacy glass. Other standard items include LED DRLs, front fog lamps, electrically-operated and heated door mirrors, leather-wrapped steering wheel, Bluetooth, DAB tuner, and Hill-start Assist Control.

Power to the two newcomers comes from a 1.0-liter, three-cylinder petrol engine that develops 69 horsepower. Both cars can also be equipped with the Toyota Safety Sense package, for an additional 375 ($464), on top of their starting prices of 11,935 ($14,764) with a manual gearbox, and 12,635 ($15,630) with an automatic. Toyota will have them on sale from January 3, 2017 in UK.

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Italy may be one of the first countries that come to mind when you think of Formula One, but its been a long time since weve seen a driver come from that country. Sergio Marchionne would like to see that change.



Ferrari just named Antonio Gionivazzi as its backup driver. The reigning GP2 runner-up hails from Martina Franca in southeastern Italy and has multiple wins to his name in Formula 3 as well as GP2.

His joining Ferrari will give him further opportunity to work on the the Scuderias simulator, participate in sanctioned test sessions, and potentially step up to fill in for Sebastian Vettel or Kimi Raikkonen should either be sidelined.

Those were the circumstances under which Ferrari called up first Luca Badoer, then Giancarlo Fisichella to fill in for an injured Felipe Massa in 2009. The last Italian to compete in a grand prix, however, was Tonio Liuzzi, who finished his career at the Hispania Racing Team in 2011 after having raced, with little success, for Force India, Toro Rosso, and Red Bull before it. The last Italian to take a checkered flag in F1, though, was Fisichella, who won the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix for Renault (a team with historical ties to Italy, but owned by the French and based in the UK).

CEO of Ferrari and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Sergio Marchionne (and his racing chief Maurizio Arrivabene) ultimately made the call to hire Giovinazzi. And hed like to pave the way for more Italian drivers to make their way into F1. His solution: Alfa Romeo.

Marchionne has been publicly toying with the idea of bringing Alfa Romeo back into F1, and using the benefit of Ferraris expertise to do so. Not unlike Red Bull and Toro Rosso, the prospective Alfa team could serve as a training ground for future talent from which Ferrari could draw. It just might take a while before any such plans could come to fruition.

The problem is that, at the moment, because of the launch of road cars that will come out soon, there already numerous commitments from a financial point of view, Motorsport.com quotes Marchionne as saying. With the launch of the Giulia and the Stelvio, we have to wait for a bit, but I hope to be able to bring it back.

It wouldnt be the first time that Ferrari would help get Alfa on the grid. Prior to founding his own outfit after the war, Enzo Ferrari ran Alfa Romeos racing team. Helping the Milanese marque return, then, would only seem natural.

Photo Gallery
Volkswagen has reached an agreement with US authorities for a mix of buybacks and fixes concerning around 83,000 diesel vehicles, equipped with a 3.0-litre V6 and the infamous software that allowed them to emit up to nine times over the limits.



More specifically, the German company agreed to recall and fix 63,000 of these vehicles and to buy back and lease termination or modify (if approved) the remaining 20,000 vehicles.

VW also agreed to pay $225 million into an environmental trust in order to offset diesel excess emissions from the affected vehicles and $25 million to support the use of zero emissions vehicles in California.

The company also agreed to add to its range at least three electric vehicles by 2020 in California, including an SUV, and must sell an average of 5,000 EVs annually.

The agreement announced by the Court today between Volkswagen and U.S. environmental regulators is another important step forward in our efforts to make things right for our customers, and we support the efforts of the Court to bring about a fair and reasonable resolution of remaining 3.0L TDI V6 claims as quickly as possible, said Hinrich J. Woebcken, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.

We are committed to earning back the trust of all our stakeholders and thank our customers and dealers in the United States for their patience as the process moves forward.

According to the official statement, VW will take the following actions:

Recall approximately 63,000 affected 2013-2016 Model Year Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche 3.0L TDI V6 vehicles with so-called Generation 2 engines to bring them into compliance with the emissions standards to which they were certified, if appropriate modifications are approved by EPA and CARB. If Volkswagen is unable to meet this requirement, it will offer to buy back or terminate the leases of these vehicles and may also seek approval by EPA and CARB to offer customers a modification to substantially reduce their nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.

Buy back or terminate the leases of approximately 20,000 affected 2009-2012 Model Year Volkswagen and Audi 3.0L TDI V6 vehicles with so-called Generation 1 engines or, if approved by EPA and CARB, modify the vehicles to substantially reduce their NOx emissions so as to allow eligible owners and lessees to keep them.

The terms of this agreement will be effective and final only after approval by the Court, which is expected to come at the earliest during the spring of 2017. Until then, affected 3.0-litre TDI V6 owners do not need to take any action and they can visit VWs special site for more information.

PHOTO GALLERY
VW has received the necessary final approval from the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) in order to initiate the fixing of its diesel-powered models equipped with the EA189 engine and the emissions-cheating software.



VW Group says that it will successively notify European and international owners in the weeks ahead to make an appointment to have their vehicles fixed at an authorized service center of their choice.

Germanys Federal Motor Transport Authority has confirmed that the implementation of the technical solutions for the affected models will in no way adversely affect fuel consumption, engine performance or noise emissions. Once the fix is applied, the said vehicles will meet all legal requirements and the applicable emissions standards.

As part of the recall process, customers (in Germany at least) will be offered an appropriate replacement vehicle free of charge. The KBAs approval does not apply to vehicles in USA and Canada.

The news came after yesterdays announcement that the VW Group has reached an agreement with the US authorities for models equipped with the 3.0-litre TDI V6 engines.

PHOTO GALLERY
Google Play, already visited by many to download and buy apps, songs, and movies, has been expanded by the search engine giant into new areas in recent months. The store was host to another feature animated film, the South Korean production Bling, earlier this year which was also available for free for a limited period.

Bunyan & Babe offers a high-profile voice cast including John Goodman, Kelsey Grammer, Jeff Foxworthy, and Mark Hamill, as well as YouTube star Johnny Orlando. It tells the story about a boys discovery of a magical portal, where Paul Bunyan and his pet ox, Babe, live.

The 85-minute film, which was announced over a decade ago, was once planned as a live-action/cg hybrid and had Lord of the Rings visual effects supervisor Jim Rygiel attached as director. Mulan co-director Tony Bancroft was involved in the pre-production of the film and was also attached as director at one point. It being distributed by Cinedigm for its exclusive Google Play release. A theatrical release will follow in 12 U.S. markets, including New York and Los Angeles, on February 3, 2017.
Note: This week, Sara Dahill-Brown , assistant professor of political science at Wake Forest University, will be guest-blogging. See her eariler post here .

In Mondays post, I expressed concern about what the new administration may mean for schools with regards to ensuring that equity continues to be a central focus of state and local policy efforts. But, even though I am anxious about the possibility advocates will find themselves without a strong ally in USED, I also remain hopeful about the potential for state and local policy change under ESSA.

This is because I am convinced that many of the policy failures of the last 15 years (practical and political) can be attributed to a disproportionate emphasis on a top-down approach to reform. My experiences as a student, teacher, volunteer, and researcher have led me to that conclusion, and readers of RHSU will know that I am not alone in that belief

Folks on both the left and the right of the political spectrum have criticized top-down reforms, naming federal mandates as well as philanthropic policy advocacy as problematic for how they regularly bypass state and local constituents and political processes. Programs and policies adopted top-down may be enacted quickly but are especially vulnerable to changes in leadership, often fall apart or are warped during implementation , and regularly provoke political backlash, contributing to a kind of policy churn that is antithetical to the sustainable improvement of school systems (see Ricks 1998 book for more on policy churn in urban systems).

Those critiques are a large part of what shaped ESSA. However, this era of top-down reform is not purely a creature of the federal government, it is also a product of eager reformers and philanthropists evangelizing on behalf of specific policy tools. For this reason, I do not think the provisions of the law that require stakeholder engagement during planning and implementation are entirely sufficient to move beyond the top-down impulse. I hope many of those who identify as reformers will shift their mindset, adopt different strategiesand, perhaps, hold some of their particular policy commitments a bit more lightly.

I think this might be aided by repeating ad nauseam a fact that Martin Carnoy and colleagues reminded EdWeek readers of at the beginning of this year , when they described findings from their analysis of PISA: U.S. Students attend schools in 51 separate education systems responsible to the states and the District of Colombia. The U.S. education system is a construct that does not exist operationally. (Emphasis mine.) This is fundamental and simple, and nonetheless easily forgotten.

Even though third-grade classrooms in New York and Colorado closely resemble one another, for the most part, and even though our aims for children in each of those places are roughly similarthat they learn to the best of their ability to read, write, do math, create, and be good citizensdifferences among state systems are more than trivial and, I would argue, must shape both specific policy agendas and the pursuit of those policy agendas. So, what might a different kind of policy entrepreneurship look like?

First, the most significant problems and challenges confronting school systems in each state vary, and policy agendas should reflect that variation. For example, in spite of press about the national teacher shortage, it has been acute in some states , and nearly nonexistent in others. Similarly, for any social or economic problem that finds its way into the school system, there is tremendous variation across the states (and within them). Consider child poverty or segregation .

Leaders in the state of Oregon, upon identifying the states high rate of absenteeism, partnered with researchers at Portland State University to conduct 44 focus groups and publish a report on the causes of absenteeism and possible solutions for it. Many state agencies took up this challenge this past summer, organizing statewide listening tours as they developed their implementation plans for ESSA.

Second, though there is undeniably convergence in many aspects of education policy across the states, the formal institutions and informal cultural traditions of educational governance that produce these policies also vary from state to state. It is vital to take stock of them. The governance of schools in the U.S. has generally been described as fragmented (authority dispersed not only among states but also among thousands of districts) and, by extension, locally-controlled, as well as sequestered from regular party politics by out-of-sync or non-partisan school board elections. However, those truisms hold for some states more than othersand they are constantly evolving.

For example, at one extreme, the state of Hawaiis public school system is consolidated into a single district, whereas, at the other end, more than 1,000 regular local school districts were operating in the state of Texas during the 2012-2013 school year. The process of building coalitions and designing policy needs to be shaped by these factors. How fragmented is the state system? How integrated is it with partisan politics? How deeply committed are citizens to the idea of local control, or accepting of state authority?

Before dismissing all of this as the wonkish wishful thinking of a professor, know that I would never suggest efforts like theseto consciously pursue more bottom-up reformcould eliminate political conflict. Rather, education debates look different when these are more consistent practices, and the policies that emerge from them are more likely to last.

Finally, I have referenced specific, important dimensions along which state school systems diverge, but I want to wrap up by noting that there are also idiosyncrasies of education in each state that are worth seeking out and understandingthings that may have an outsize influence on schools in that state, but which an outsider might not even think to investigate.

In Utah, where I grew up, the development of the public school system was heavily influenced by the LDS Church . Even now, more than 80,000 high school students take release time to attend seminaries that are located adjacent to, and coordinate with the public high school. Anyone trying to engage with educational reform in Utah who failed to engage that history and ongoing relationship would be missing a lot. I would love to hear what was especially unique to the school system in the state where you grew up or where you live now. Feel free to share in the comments or to tweet them at me (@_SaraDB ).

Sara Dahill-Brown
Photo: Contributed

An Osoyoos RCMP officer who was suspended on paid leave for nearly four years has been cleared of any wrongdoing.

RCMP deputy commissioner Craig Callens issued a statement Tuesday saying the disciplinary hearing for Cst. Amit Goyal ended after he withdrew the allegations of misconduct.

The investigation has been marked with several delays with hearings for Goyal being postponed multiple times. He was accused of making false statements and disgraceful conduct in connection to two cars that ended up torched while in his possession.

According to Callens, in 2014 he requested that the case be subject to a hearing, hoping at that time it would be resolved in a timely manner.

Then on Sept. 8 of this year, new information was brought forward prior to a scheduled hearing, leading to another delay.

Ultimately, on Nov. 8 he received new information from Goyal's lawyer, which provided alternate theories that could not be disputed due to contradictory expert information.

Callens decided there was "not a reasonable likelihood of substantiating the allegations" and withdrew them.

Goyal has remained a member of the RCMP throughout the process. Efforts will now focus on ensuring he gets training prior to returning to duty. It's not clear where he will be posted.
Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

Penticton's mayor and council has been naughty this year, according to the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation.

Mayor Andrew Jakubeit and council were put on the CTF's naughty list  placing them among a crowd that included BC Transit, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.

The CTF release notes controversy the city was caught up in this year, pointing to the Skaha Lake Park waterslide in particular.

CTF B.C. director Jordan Bateman told Castanet he felt the city spent the year fighting the public on that issue, incurring various costs to the city.

"They had to re-negotiate the deal, right, so there's obviously some sort of cost to that. Plus, just staff time, attention from the past year-and-a-half from them going through this, all of the public consultation they did, all of that ends up costing taxpayers money.

"For a plan that pretty clearly in the very beginning, people didn't want."

Jakubeit agrees that the city could have gone about the issue in a more cost-effective way, but calls it a lesson learned on public consultations.

"Hindsight's always 20/20 looking back, and had we went out to a referendum to start with, certainly that would have been more cost effective. But that's also part of a learning process, a tough or expensive lesson to learn. And I don't think anyone at the beginning anticipated it to snowball to the level that it did."

Bateman also takes City Hall to task over the hiring of 10 city managers, asking why the city needs more roles during a year he claims the city only grew by 411 people. However, three of those were already on the payroll and bumped up to management positions, according to Jakubeit.

Jakubeit added those numbers may be skewed, pointing to Penticton's record real estate sales this year, and added that like any business, the staff ebb and flow along with the economy.

"When things are busy, you ramp up to accommodate for that extra demand, and when things are slow, you need to adjust to that as well."

He adds the slashing of about 30 jobs in 2009 was largely due to the 2008 recession.

Both agreed that Penticton was likely on the nice list in years past during a property tax freeze, but they have different ideas of how best to deal with the city's infrastructure deficit  with the city looking to take a multi-faceted approach, while Bateman believes the city has "a spending problem, not a revenue problem."
Photo: OFTF

There's now an app to locate illegal dump sites in the Okanagan.

The Okanagan Forest Task Force teamed up with Red Cherry Inc. to produce the app, called 'Clean the Creek.'

Along with locating illegal dumps, it will also target hot spots for dumping garbage.

Once a site is located, OFTF will dispatch a team to clean it up.

Dan Carter, creator of the app, says he wants to provide technology that transforms how residents think about their communities, and how to care for the Earth.

If we seriously don't consider changing our direction, we may end up heading into an environmental disaster, said Carter.

This scares me as I have three children of my own and I want them to be able to enjoy the world not only as it is now but cleaner than our generation found it.

We are beyond excited to be working with Dan and get this app out there for everyone to use because this app will help us find and clean up as much garbage as possible," said OFTF spokesman Kane Blake.

Click here to go to the OFTF website to download the app.
Photo: Tim Czyrnyj

UPDATE: 2:35 p.m.

RCMP at the scene of an incident in downtown Kelowna say there was nothing to worry about.

Four police cruisers responded to the Bernard Avenue CIBC branch "out of an abundance of caution," said an officer at the bank.

He did not elaborate on what may have prompted the police response.

The bank remained open and continued to serve customers.

A few minutes after police converged on the building, they had left. A lone officer remained in the bank and was chatting casually with what appeared to be the manager as customers continued to line up at the teller counter.

ORIGINAL: 2:15 p.m.

Police surrounded the CIBC on Bernard Avenue Tuesday afternoon.

It's unclear what was happening.

A Castanet reporter at the scene says it appears police had left the scene by about 2:15 p.m.
Photo: File photo A public engagement meeting in October.

The City of Penticton's attempts at engaging the public may be hindered by the sheer size of the topic of the infrastructure challenge.

Attendance at public engagement events in Penticton have hovered between 16 and 26 people, according to a report by public engagement officer JoAnne Kleb.

She has held four engagement events open to the public, and one specifically for the business community, but it appears there's either little knowledge of the events or little appetite to engage in person, with online engagement seeing nearly four times as much traffic since Nov. 1.

The event for the city's chamber of commerce brought 44 members to engage, but for the public events, one saw 26 in attendance, while the rest brought fewer than 20. At those public events, Kleb told council about five people repeatedly attended.

A survey put out by Kleb was filled out by just 28 people  16 online and 12 on paper.

On the other hand, the website has seen around 550 people engaging with various aspects of the website.

Mayor Andrew Jakubeit said part of the challenge in bringing the public out to the meetings on the infrastructure deficit is that the wide-range of the topics may be too much to bring any one group. He pointed to the meeting for the chamber, noting that the business community has specific interests in dealing with the deficit.

"Going to where the people are instead of hoping they're going to come to us, that may be another way of getting more interest from people and getting them started," Jakubeit said. "Once they're started, they'll kind of go circle back to see ... their questions' answers, see if their input was being acted on."

If people see their input is being valued on a topic that's important to them, Jakubeit argued it could bring them back to engage on other topics.
Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

An effort by the Penticton Legion to boost membership by offering live music appears to be working.

The number of young people coming by has shot up and the branch is offering more performances.

"It has helped, been successful, because it has brought in younger people at a time when legions across the country are dealing with an aging population," said Ivo Jaager, president of the legion. "And Penticton has always been a great place for talent, for musicians."

It was about two years ago that local musicians Tim Shewan and Roger Carr approached Jaager about doing at Tuesday night jam at the building on Martin Street.

They wanted to play and felt they could do something good for the legion at the same time.

"We started with the jam on Tuesday nights and from there expanded to a live band, TR2 on Thursdays," said Shewan. "And we were doing really good, putting 30 to 40 people in this building on both nights."

The next step was bringing in top grade musicians on Friday or Saturday nights once a month.

Among those who have played at the legion are Kenny Blues Boss Wayne, Steve Hillis and Steve "Elvis" Elliott.

In the new year there are several shows lined up including Timbre Wolves playing on New Year's Eve, and the Johnny McCuaig Band on Valentine's Day.

In the spring, there will be a celebration of the legion's 90th birthday, and a live auction, with proceeds going to the South Okanagan Women in Need Society.

"I think the biggest thing right now is we are getting more noticed in the community and we are raising money for charities like SOWINS," said Shewan. "It's all helping to keep the legion afloat and keep us in the public eye."
With school out for the year, parents across Penticton are looking for excuses to get their children off the couch and out of the house.

The Lakeside Resort offers a free option, provided you call ahead.

The rink there has been open for a couple of weeks now, but will likely be getting more use through the end of the month.

Resort Marketing Manager Barb Haynes says the space is well used by the community, for birthday parties and other family events. However, if there is nothing booked, its free for anyone to use.

Skate by the lake with this incredible view, relax and enjoy yourself. I dont think there is much like it, Kelowna has their rink outdoors by Okanagan Lake as well, so here is Pentictons version, a great opportunity to come and enjoy the outdoors.

Catering or even just hot chocolate is available from the hotel for larger events.
As he prepares to leave office, Republican Gov. Pat McCrorydefeated in North Carolinas recent electionis set to sign a hastily passed bill that would dramatically bolster the powers of Mark Johnson, the states recently elected Republican state schools superintendent and reduce those of the governors office.

House Bill 17 would place most of the state education department under the state superintendents control, rather than under the state school board, the members of which are appointed by the governor. The superintendent would be able to oversee the states office of charter schools, appoint the superintendent of the states turnaround district and hire and fire officials within the education department. Several other tasks historically given to the state board of education also would fall under the state superintendent.

The state Senate approved the bill Thursday, and it still sat on McCrorys desk as of Monday. Hundreds of people have protested outside the capitol building in recent days as the legislature in a special session pushed through several bills that reduce the power of the governors office. Democrat Roy Cooper won the governors seat after a recount by just a few thousand votes. Protesters and Cooper describe the bills as underhanded and possibly illegal.

Last week, I wrote about how state officials are bickering over accountability plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act since many state constitutions dont clearly delineate whos in charge of most education policy. While that task has traditionally been left up to local and state school boards, legislatures in recent years have either overwritten school boards policies or stripped them outright of their power.

Elected and appointed state boards of education members in several states, including, most famously, Arizona, have fought with elected superintendents over who oversees education department tasks and who reports to who.

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.
Photo: Contributed

A former Armstrong school teacher has been awarded the Governor General Sovereigns Medal for Volunteers.

Rea Smith, who taught at Highland Park, was presented with the award by Mayor Chris Pieper at a city council meeting on Monday evening.

Volunteers like you are fundamental to the well-being of Canada, reflecting the rich diversity of Canada's people and the many talents and interests which enrich our society, said Gov. Gen. David Johnston in a letter to Smith.

Smith was with Armstrong's Communities in Bloom committee when in started in 2004 but, after the community won both the provincial and national titles, now judges in the provincial competition.

She is a member of the Armstrong Food Initiative Society and a director with the IPE.

Sometimes I think it's a matter of where you are at a certain time, Smith said of her award, adding she was tricked into going to the council meeting.

Although Smith had been informed of the honour by Rideau Hall in April, she said Monday's ceremony was a surprise.
Photo: Contributed

The developer behind a proposed seniors development in Summerland says they have been in steady contact with the fish hatchery there over possible impacts of the project.

The BC Freshwater Fishery Society of BC issued a press release last week, stating they have retained a consultant to look into concerns about impact on the hatcherys water source.

Tim Yesaki said they felt to need to make a statement because they have noticed many in the community making noise on their behalf without consulting them.

Both parties have agreed that two of the three concerns raised in a report from the hatcherys consultant have already been mitigated.

Testing found that the building's foundations will have no impact on the flow of the aquifer below the site, which is located about 30 metres under the surface. The projects foundations should be about 5 metres deep.

The development will also be piping its stormwater off site and into the municipal system at the request of fisheries.

I think it's absolutely fair to have some initial concerns and the hatchery is such an important piece of the economy so really our goal is to continue to work with the fish hatchery and thier consultants to ensure that all the concerns are dealt with, said Malek Tawashy of the Lark Group.

It's our plan to leave the hatchery in better condition and better economic activity than it was before we arrived, so weve talked with them about things we can do to improve their infrastructure, he added.

Yesaki said their final concerns revolve around the potential turbidity and sedimentation of the water. That problem has not been settled yet, but Yesaki said the whole process has been positive so far, and meetings are set between the two parties in the coming weeks on the matter.

The District of Summerland is holding a pair of open houses and public information sessions in January in the lead up to the public hearing on the development.
Photo: David Ogilvie

An accident on Highway 97 south of the Nancee Way Overpass is causing gridlock for rush hour commuters.

The accident happened just after 5 p.m. and could involve as many as three vehicles.

Witnesses are telling Castanet traffic is backed up in the southbound lane.

There is no word on the cause of the accident or if there are any injuries.
Photo: Colin Dacre

UPDATE 12 p.m.

It wasn't a bomb  it was Captain Underpants.

A "suspicious package" that led police to cordon off a Penticton apartment building late Tuesday was a box wrapped in Cars wrapping paper and left beside a small snowman.

"Any time we deal with an unknown package of a suspicious nature we will treat it in a safe manner," said Sgt. Andrew Baylis.

"In this instance the package was nothing more than a gift for a child."

Police unwrapped the gift outside the Eckhardt Avenue building and found a Minecraft toy, a Captain Underpants book, a marshmallow slingshot and a packaged Fruit Ninja stuffed toy.

Baylis said nobody within the apartment building could identify the gift-wrapped package, so they called the police. RCMP acted out of "an abundance of caution" after a similarly abandoned gift exploded in a woman's face last month, causing burns.

Police say they're not sure how the gift ended up there.

A bomb-sniffing dog was called in to examine the gift, and determined it contained nothing malicious.

The incident led to the front end of the apartment building being blocked off with crime scene tape for several hours.

ORIGINAL 9:45 p.m.

The Penticton RCMP have cordoned off an apartment building at 433 Eckhardt Ave E, at the intersection of Gahan Ave.

The building's front entrance is wrapped in police tape, but a person in plain clothes was spotted talking to an officer in the foyer.

An RCMP member at the scene said they are responding to a suspicious package.

Castanet will post more details as they become available.
Photo: Google Maps

Another day, another highway closure. Or two.

DriveBC reports motorists can expect more delays headed to Alberta today. This time, not for accidents but for maintenance.

The Trans-Canada Highway will be closed in both directions for avalanche control between Field and Lake Louise from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. today. Delays of up to one hour are expected.

The highway was also closed overnight from Three Valley Gap to eight kilometres west of Revelstoke for electrical maintenance between midnight and 2:30 a.m.

Environment Canada reports a 40 per cent chance of more snow flurries in the Golden area tonight.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Premier Christy Clark never seems to miss the chance to put on a hard hat and pose with workers for what has become the trademark photo opportunity of her government.

She's donned hard hats in Nanaimo at a lumber yard, at a mine site in Princeton and at the Howe Sound location of a proposed liquefied natural gas plant.

British Columbians can expect more hard-hat appearances as Clark looks to secure her second term and a fifth straight Liberal mandate in next May's election.

"Whenever I'm wearing a hard hat, I'm usually talking about all the things we can do to support job creation," Clark said in a year-end interview with The Canadian Press. "Why do I go to work sites? I want to make the point that jobs matter and government makes a difference in whether or not those jobs get created."

New Democrat Leader John Horgan is also familiar with a hard hat.

"I've said in the past, I've worn a hard hat to protect my head, not just get my picture taken," Horgan said in an interview as he placed the union-sticker covered hard hat on his head. He smiled as he joked that he'd never be mistaken for actor George Clooney.

Clark said job creation will be her primary message in the coming months and the choice will become more clear for voters.

"When I was growing up and my dad would come home from his union meetings, it was obvious there were two parties," she said. "Now in B.C. there is one party that supports employers and supports workers because we support job creation, and there is another that doesn't support jobs. That's what will be at stake for us over the next six months."

Horgan said Clark's Liberals have underfunded public education, presided over an exodus of forestry jobs in rural communities and provided tax breaks to the wealthy.

But she's leading Canada's strongest economy and is betting that issue and jobs will hit home when voters go to the polls May 9.

"What I know is a job means stability," she told the annual gathering of the B.C. Road Builders Association earlier this month. "It means food on the table. It means you can own your own home."

B.C.'s economy is projected to grow three per cent this year, more than double the projected national average of 1.2 per cent. B.C.'s jobless rate at 5.6 per cent is the lowest in the country.

Clark highlighted major projects and the jobs they created, pointing out each one has been opposed by the NDP. The Evergreen Line, South Fraser Perimeter Road, Port Mann Bridge, the Canada Line, Site C hydroelectric dam and Pacific NorthWest LNG are either complete, proposed or underway.

"And then there's Kinder Morgan, 15,000 new jobs, and they oppose that, too," she told the convention.

Horgan said British Columbians are struggling to make ends meet as hydro, insurance and medical costs increase.

"I've worked in mills. I've worked on a roof," he said. "I've worked in construction. I know what it's like to try and make ends meet, pay cheque to pay cheque."
Photo: Contributed

The Libertarian Party of B.C. is the first to offer MLA Eric Foster some competition for the Vernon-Monashee riding.

Vernon resident Don Jefcoat has thrown his hat into the political arena for the 2017 provincial election.

Jefcoat is the second candidate to announce, after Foster. The NDP has yet to field a candidate in the riding.

Foster announced earlier this year he will be running for a third term under the Liberal banner.

This is my first run in politics. I chose Libertarian because I am a person who believes our government needs to be financially revamped, said Jefcoat.

We need to get rid of over-government control. I think that's where our problems are coming from.

Jefcoat, who currently works as a chef, said he is an every day man and that is what is needed in Victoria.

We need a guy that is going to Victoria to represent the constituents and not the party, he said. With the Libertarians, we can represent people over party lines, we can go against party policy if it's best. The voters are our boss, not the party.

Jefcoat said one of the first things that need to be done in Victoria is to reel in government spending.

He suggested one way to do that is by revamping the health care system where the public system remains, but a private system is also allowed.

Jefcoat said the current system is not working with people having to wait hours just to see a doctor and spending that is out of control.

People who can afford it will go to their private doctor and that would ease pressure on the public system, he said, adding those who could afford it would be willing to pay for medical tests and other needs if they can get their needs met faster.

Instead of just Interior Health running hospitals, we would have Interior Health, but we would also allow a private supplier to come in, he said.

Our main platform is we have to find ways to reduce spending in Victoria. We can't continue going into debt each year. We need to cut expenses and that way we can cut taxes.

Jefcoat, who also has training in social services, said more needs to be done to address the homeless issue as well as making changes to the educational system.
My husband and I bought a mobile home in the Peace Valley Mobile Home Park on Senger Road in South East Kelowna. We took possession November 24h and moved in right away.

I had arranged TV and Internet services with Telus for Internet on the 8th of December and the TV on the 15th. Come the 8th they "claimed" that the installer came here, yet my dog did not bark and nobody heard anyone knock or ring the bell. So after much deliberation, Telus said that they both would be installed on the 15th of December.

We actually received confirmation of this the day before. The day of, we received a text that they could not make it. We then got sent to the back of the queue.

We are now scheduled for the 30th of December.

We have been back and forth about the installation date with Telus almost daily. They insist they cannot make it any earlier.

Then to today my husband got a call from Telus confirming they could not get an earlier date. Later on I got a call on my cell phone from a lady in Lillooet, BC with the same last name as ours and she was angry because Telus sent her confirmation that they would be installing our services to her home. She had all our information...phone numbers, address, information on the services..and I'm not even sure what else...probably our personal information as well. Telus had admitted fault trying to ply us with some sort of compensation.

We are ready to sue this company for incompetence and release of personal information to the public.

Sean and Shelly Clark
Photo: Claude Rioux

Vernon area bird watchers found more than the feathered variety in the trees during the annual Christmas bird count last weekend.

To the surprise of a group in the Commonage-Kekuli section, a normally shy porcupine was having lunch, munching away in a small pine.

The North Okanagan Naturalists Club takes part in an annual, continent-wide North American bird count at this time each year.

The birds were not as numerous as previous years and were staying rather quiet. Not surprising considering the cold snap we've been having, said Claude Rioux, bird watcher.

In January, the club plans to hold its annual swan and eagle count.
It's a good thing Santa's sleigh runs on reindeers.

The Petro-Can on 25th Avenue in Vernon gave the motoring public an early Christmas gift Wednesday in the form of an eight-cent-a-litre price hike.

As of 1 p.m., the gas station with the maple leaf logo boosted the price of petrol from 111.9 to 119.9.

When Castanet checked gasbuddy.com shortly before 2 p.m., no other stations had jacked up their price for the liquid gold.

In Kamloops, the price of a litre was reportedly as low as 104.9 at Costco and as high as 116.9 at two Petro-Can stations.

Kelowna is also reporting prices leaping to 119.9, but some stations are holding steady at 110.9.

Stations in Penticton are also coming in between 110.9 and 119.9.

Vancouver drivers are seeing 126.9 a litre at the gas pump while motorists in Calgary are paying a mere 95.9.

Some stations in Edmonton are as low as 86.9.
Elderly Tenant Sues After Being Tricked Into Leaving NYC Rent-Controlled Apartment

A New York City developer and landlord is being sued for allegedly tricking an elderly woman into signing an agreement to vacate her rent controlled apartment in the coveted Upper West Side neighborhood. The former resident's lawsuit claims that when she signed the agreement to vacate, she believed that all she was signing was a receipt to prove that she received documents about renovations that were planned for the building. Unfortunately, the documents stated that she would move out while renovations were being done.

Surprisingly, after she signed the documents, the landlord cut off heat to her unit, which ended up causing her medical problems. Additionally, while the documents she did sign stated the renovations would only last nine months, it has now been over a year, and it does not look likely that she will be able to move back home before the holidays. From the current reports, it is unclear whether the resident has been permanently or just temporarily ousted from her home.

Don't Allow a Rush to Stop You From Reading What You Sign

This whole scenario could have been avoided if the resident had just read what she was signing. While this may sound like basic, common sense advice (and it is), unread contracts get signed every single day. Generally, if you are ever being rushed to sign something, even if it seems unimportant, it is probably a good idea to take the time to read what you are signing.

Additionally, just in general, during contract negotiation, if one party is trying to rush you into signing an agreement, they are probably going to be more willing to modify the agreement in your favor.

Know Your Rights as a Renter

If you are a renter, you should take the time to know your specific rights as a renter in your specific city. Some places, like New York City, San Francisco, and many other cities, have very specific and strict rent control laws. However, those laws may not apply in all situations, such as when you sign a new agreement to vacate.

Seek Legal Advice and Help

Don't sign anything you don't understand. If your landlord is asking you to sign a document, and you are not sure what it means, seek legal help. In many cities, there are free drop in legal clinics that you can attend. Additionally, if your city has a rent board, tenants' union, or some other housing authority, you may be able to reach out to them for assistance.

If your landlord is asking you to sign something about moving out, even temporarily, and you are unsure about your rights, contact an experienced landlord tenant attorney for help.

Related Resources:
Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer Children attend Idle No More protest in Penticton

People from all walks of life gathered in Penticton's Gyro Park Friday morning to show support for the grassroots Idle No More movement.

The local protesters joined others throughout BC, Canada and other parts of the world attending rallies to draw attention to recently passed Bill C-45. The bill, they say, serves to remove protective measures over lands and resources and terminate legally protected aboriginal and treaty rights in Canada.

"This is about the land and the people, that is why we are here today. It is always what has brought us together and created conflict," said President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip.

"We know that today there will be rallies across the country, in Egypt, London and the American Embassy in Los Angeles to illustrate the fact this is moving throughout the world and that it embraces all races of people and is not an exclusive aboriginal movement."

The new effort was born out of a conversation between four women in Saskatchewan who were concerned about worsening and deteriorating socio-economic conditions in all aboriginal communities across the country. Through social media they got the word out and the 'Idle No More' movement exploded across the country and internationally.

Their focus is on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's omnibus legislative agenda, namely Bill C-45, said Phillip.

The movement took on an added dimension as Chief Theresa Spence initiated a hunger strike on Dec. 11 in an effort to bring attention to the dismal Third World conditions that continue to exist in her community of Attawapiskat.

Today marks the 11th day of that strike, which is tied in with the rallies, marches and demonstrations, said Phillip.

Around 300 people gathered in the park on the chilly first day of winter. They joined in a drumming circle, carried protest signs and listened to the words of Phillip and other First Nations leaders.

Penticton Indian Band Chief Jonathan Kruger welcomed all in attendance and thanked them for being there.

"I have seen on Facebook, lots of words. Indigenous people are saying we are still here," he said. "Together we can do things in a good way for a very long time and we will continue doing what we have to do for future generations and the land."

Mariel Belanger, an Okanagan Indian Band member who travelled from Vernon for the rally, said she was there because of changes in the budget that will impact future generations.

"I didn't have kids for that reason," she said. "I had kids to carry on the values and traditions of our cultural heritage. I have been active in the community a long time and I want to make sure our voices are heard."

Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer Protesters at Idle No More rally

Dawn Russell, a Penticton Indian Band member, who carried a sign protesting Harper's actions, said for her it's about protection of land and water rights for all Canadians.

"I don't feel the current government system conforms or adheres to the legislation they have put forward before, they just keep adding legislation," she said.

"So we are all here for everybody's rights to water, not just ours."

Protesters planned to take their protest across town to MP Dan Albas' office, ending up at the Cherry Lane Shopping Centre.

Albas could not be reached for comment.

This is only the beginning of the movement, which is unlike anything he has ever seen before, said Phillip.

"The Hopi elders said two things," he told those gathered. "We should never look outside ourselves for leadership, that leadership is within us, and we are the ones we have been waiting for.

We have a heavy responsibility in front of us. The women have spoken and we absolutely cannot be idle no more."
Three posts from the Electronic Frontier Foundation dispassionately recount the on-the-record policies of Trump and his advisors on issues that matter to a free, fair and open internet: net neutrality; surveillance, encryption and cybersecurity; free speech and freedom of the press.



Trump supporters often say that his objectionable policies are no worse than Obama's or Clinton's  many of whose policies were indeed objectionable  but as these posts irrefutably demonstrate, the Trump presidency promises incursions on basic freedoms that go beyond anything in US political history. It's why EFF says the tech industry's threat model just changed, and why the industry needs to step up to protect its users with unprecedented urgency.

During the 2016 campaign Trump made a series of statements about how he wants to expand the country's surveillance apparatus. In late 2015, Trump said in an interview he tends "to err on the side of security" and that restoring parts of the Patriot Act that have been amended would "be fine."

"When you have people that are beheading [you] if you're a Christian and, frankly, for lots of other reasons, when you have the world looking at us and would like to destroy us as quickly as possible, I err on the side of security."

Trump's pick for CIA Director, Republican Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, has also defended the country's sweeping surveillance program and protested any narrow restraints placed on government surveillance.

When Congress passed a series of modest surveillance reforms in the USA FREEDOM Act in 2015, many Republicans joined the bipartisan effort to protect civil liberties. But Pompeo later introduced legislation that would undo many of the changes in the USA FREEDOM Act. "To share Edward Snowden's vision of America as the problem is to come down on the side of President Obama's diminishing willingness to collect intelligence on jihadis," he wrote in a 2015 op-ed.

Trump's nominee for Attorney General, Republican Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions felt similarly, penning an op-ed against USA FREEDOM that said the bulk phone records collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act was "subject to extraordinary oversight" and warned the bill "would make it vastly more difficult for the NSA to stop a terrorist than it is to stop a tax cheat."

On the domestic surveillance front, Sessions also helped to derail a bill in the Senate that would have required law enforcement to get a warrant before accessing stored electronic communications, like emails.

Trump has also called for specific surveillance of targeted communities, including Muslims. Early in the campaign, he said he supports surveillance of mosques and that he "would certainly implement" a database for Muslim Americans.

When asked about the possibility of warrantless searches of Muslim Americans by Yahoo News, Trump said, "everybody is feeling that security is going to rule."

"And certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy. And so we're going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago."
Last July, the European Court of Jutice's Advocate General ruled that the UK's mass surveillance regime was unconstitutional, triggering an appeal to the ECJ itself, which has affirmed that under European law, governments cannot order retention of all communications data; they must inform subjects after surveillance has concluded; must only engage in mass surveillance in the pursuit of serious crime; and must get independent, judicial authorization.



The case was brought by MPs Tom Watson and David Davis, with support from the UK Open Rights Group, Privacy International, Liberty and the Law Society.

The ruling directly affects the cornerstone of the Snoopers Charter, the most extreme surveillance law ever passed by a "democratic" nation. It's unclear what effect the ruling will have, as a speedy Brexit will make ECJ rulings irrelevant in the UK.



1. Article 15(1) of Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications), as amended by Directive 2009/136/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009, read in the light of Articles 7, 8 and 11 and Article 52(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, must be interpreted as precluding national legislation which, for the purpose of fighting crime, provides for general and indiscriminate retention of all traffic and location data of all subscribers and registered users relating to all means of electronic communication. This will come as a shocker to the UK government, which could be forgiven for safely assuming that at least the basic principles of retention would be accepted by the CJEU, given the opinion of the Advocate General and the views of UK courts. The UK has pioneered population level data retention and driven the adoption of the original EU Data Retention Directive after the London bombings in 2005, and will now be forced to rethink its approach.

EU Court slams UK data retention surveillance regime

[Open Rights Group]





EU's highest court delivers blow to UK snooper's charter [Owen Bowcott/The Guardian]





(Image: European Court of Justice  Luxembourg, Cedric Puisney, CC-BY)
On Dec 15, an amendment to Thailand's 2007 Computer Crime Act passed its National Legislative Assembly  a body appointed by the country's military after the 2014 coup  unanimously, and in 180 days, the country will have a new internet law that represents a grab bag of the worst provisions of the worst internet laws in the world, bits of the UK's Snooper's Charter, America's Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the dregs of many other failed laws.

Under the new law, sending "false computer data" is a criminal offense, as is transmitting material affecting "the maintenance of national security, public security, national economic security or public infrastructure serving public interest or cause panic in the public"  and ISPs are co-liable with their users if they fail to pre-emptively censor this broadly defined material.

The statue mandates vaguely defined cryptographic back doors, and bans possession of "information that the court has ordered to be destroyed"  while also appointing a committee to order the removal of "dangerous content."

Post-coup Thailand is not a hospitable place for dissent or protest, nevertheless, the law has prompted significant protest from industry, scholars, civil society, and other quarters.



Even though the law is not yet in effect, authorities are already aggressively blocking 'harmful' Internet content, especially those deemed to be disrespectful to the monarchy. Thailand implements a strict lese majeste (anti-royal insult) law which some activists believe is being abused by the junta to harass and detain its critics. According to the government, it shut down 1,370 websites in October for violating the lese majeste law. This is massive compared to the 1,237 websites shut down by the government in the past five years.



Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha defended the law by insisting that it will not violate civil liberties. Some businesses also welcomed the passage of the law which they believe will protect intellectual property rights and spur the development of the digital economy.

Thailand's New Computer Crimes Law Threatens Free Speech and Encryption [Mong Palatino/Global Voices]





(Thumbnail: @stephffart)
USA: ASTM honours Bruce Blair

21 December 2016

The Bryant Mather Award from ASTM International Committee on Cement has been awarded to Bruce Blair, president and CEO of Consumers Concrete Corporation, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA.



A member of ASTM since 1996, Bruce Blair was specifically recognised for his contributions to the development and continued improvement to cement standards, and for advancing the body of knowledge related to blended limestone cements.



Mr Blair previously served as the vice president of product performance and innovation with Lafarge US. He holds degrees in geology and engineering sciences from the University of Western Ontario.



In addition to ASTM International, Blair is a member of the American Concrete Institute, National Ready Mix Concrete Association, Michigan Concrete Association, American Subcontractors Association of Michigan, and the Professional Engineers of Ontario.

Published under
(TNS)  The head of a local foundation on Monday asked the Anniston City Council for the city's help paying about $500,000 toward an expansive technology initiative for local schools.Donald Stewart, a local attorney and founder of the Stewart Family Foundation, discussed plans to put digital devices into the hands of every student in grades 1-12 in Anniston City Schools as well as schools in Wellborn and Saks. Additionally, the project would include installation of a citywide Wi-Fi network for all of those students to access the Internet while at home."This could be a boon to this area like nobody's business," Stewart told council members.The Stewart Family Foundation in 2008 created the nonprofit Anniston Fiber Optics to provide broadband high-speed Internet access to Anniston schools. Anniston Fiber Optics received $1.2 million in Alabama Department of Education state grants, among other grants, and money from the Stewart Family Foundation to install the 25 miles of fiber optic cable, providing high-speed broadband Internet to Anniston schools, in addition to Gadsden State Community College's Ayers and McClellan campuses and the Calhoun County Technical School.Stewart said Monday that the foundation has agreed to spend $25,000 for engineering work to design the Wi-Fi system.Stewart said he is awaiting a court order that will allow a portion of the Monsanto settlement to be used toward the technology project as well. The project also includes upgrades to Anniston schools' Internet routers and switches, he said.Stewart asked the city to contribute between $500,000 and $600,000 toward the estimated $1.5 million project. He urged the city, however, to continue making allocations to the city school's innovation fund, used in years past to help pay for pre-K classes.Mayor Jack Draper expressed enthusiasm for the project and recommended the council meet jointly with the city's school board to discuss it further.
Bowalley Road Rules



The blogosphere tends to be a very noisy, and all-too-often a very abusive, place. I intend Bowalley Road to be a much quieter, and certainly a more respectful, place.

So, if you wish your comments to survive the moderation process, you will have to follow the Bowalley Road Rules.

These are based on two very simple principles:

Courtesy and Respect.

Comments which are defamatory, vituperative, snide or hurtful will be removed, and the commentators responsible permanently banned.

Anonymous comments will not be published. Real names are preferred. If this is not possible, however, commentators are asked to use a consistent pseudonym.

Comments which are thoughtful, witty, creative and stimulating will be most welcome, becoming a permanent part of the Bowalley Road discourse.

However, I do add this warning. If the blog seems in danger of being over-run by the usual far-Right suspects, I reserve the right to simply disable the Comments function, and will keep it that way until the perpetrators find somewhere more appropriate to vent their collective spleen.


This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact The Chanute Tribune office at 620-431-4100 if you have any questions
News / Local

by Staff Reporter

Charamba

Two men armed with a screwdriver took turns to rape and rob seven women near West Nicholson on Monday evening.The women were returning from South Africa and their car broke down.They telephoned a mechanic to come fix the car.Reports indicate that the suspects suddenly emerged and managed to rape four women, one after the other."The robbers took turns to rape four of the women without protection before fleeing" a source is quoted saying.National police spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charitysaid the unidentified men, who are still at large, got away with six cell phones, about R600 and $25.
News / Local

by Mary Charamba

A diplomatic tiff between Zimbabwe and Zambia is looming over delay's in opening the Binga-Zambia border post.The border post was meant to have been operational eight years ago.Zimbabwe officials blame Zambians for the delays.Home Affairs Deputy Minister Obedingwa Mguni has issued a warning to Zambia, setting a new deadline for opening of the border."If Zambia is still not ready, then we will give them an ultimatum" state run Chronicle reported."Zambia has delayed us for a very long time. We have been ready to have the border operational for some time now. We are now giving them an ultimatum to be ready before May 1".The opening of the border post is also set to contribute to an increase in tourist arrivals in the district which has a number of attractions which include hot springs, national parks and a crocodile farm.The idea to construct a border post between Zimbabwe and Zambia in Binga came as part of efforts to reconnect the Tonga people as the Zambezi river cut across a village and the people, mostly relatives were separated.
Reducing the environmental impact of organic solar cell production, building more efficient energy storage: Wurzburg-based research institutes have provided for progress in the Bavarian project association UMWELTnanoTECH.

Three of the ten projects were located in Wurzburg. Professor Vladimir Dyakonov from the Department of Physics headed the project for environmentally compatible, highly efficient organic solar cells; he was also the spokesman of the "Organic Photovoltaics" section. Anke Kruger, Professor of Chemistry, was in charge of the project on ultra-fast electrical stores based on nano-diamond composites.



Responsibility for the third project rested with Professor Gerhard Sextl, Head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research titled "Hybrid capacitors for smart grids and regenerative energy technologies". Sextl, who holds the Chair for Chemical Technology of Material Synthesis at the Julius-Maximilians-Universitat (JMU) Wurzburg, was also the spokesman of the "Energy storage" section.

Eco-friendly inks for organic solar cells

Organic solar cells have become quite efficient, converting about eleven percent of the solar energy received into electricity. What is more, they are relatively easy to manufacture using ink-jet printing processes where organic nanoparticles are deposited on non-elastic or flexible carrier materials with the help of solvents. This enables new applications in architecture, for example integrating solar cells in window facades or cladding concave surfaces.



There is, however, a catch to it: So far, most ink-jet printing processes have been based on toxic solvents such as dichlorobenzene. These substances are harmful for humans and the environment and require extensive and costly standards of safety.



The Professors Vladimir Dyakonov and Christoph Brabec (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) have managed to use nanomaterials to develop ecologically compatible photovoltaic inks based on water or alcohol with equal efficiency. Moreover, the research team has developed new simulation processes: "They allow us to predict which combinations of solvents and materials are suitable for the eco-friendly production of organic solar cells," Dyakonov explains.

Nanodiamonds for ultra-fast electrical storage

In order to build highly efficient electric cars, more powerful energy stores are needed as the standard batteries still have some drawbacks, including low cycle stability and very limited power density. The first means that the battery capacity decreases following multiple charging and discharging cycles. The latter implies that only a fraction of the energy store is used during fast charging or discharging.



Supercapacitors play an important role as highly efficient energy stores besides batteries, because they outperform rechargeable batteries in terms of cycle stability and power density. Their energy density, however, is much lower compared with lithium-ion batteries. This is why supercapacitors need to be much bigger in size than batteries in order to deliver comparable amounts of energy.



Professor Anke Kruger has teamed up with Dr Gudrun Reichenauer from the Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research (ZAE Bayern) to make progress in this regard. Their idea was to build the supercapacitors' electrodes not only of active charcoal, but to modify them using other carbon materials, namely nanodiamonds and carbon onions, which are small particles that have multiple layers like an onion.



Their approach is promising: By combining nanomaterials with suitable electrolytes, the performance parameters of the supercapacitors can be boosted. "Based on these findings, it is now possible to build application-oriented energy stores and test their applicability," Kruger further.

Increased storage capacity of hybrid capacitors

More efficient and faster energy stores were also the research focus of Professor Gerhard Sextl's project. His research team at the University of Wurzburg managed to develop so-called hybrid capacitors further into highly efficient energy stores that can be manufactured in an environmentally compatible process.



Hybrid capacitors are a combination of supercapacitors based on electrochemical double-layer capacitors and charge storage in a battery. Firstly, they are capable of storing energy quickly by forming an electrochemical double layer as in a supercapacitor and also deliver the energy promptly when it is needed. Secondly, they hold more energy due to lithium ions embedded in an active battery material, analogously to lithium-ion batteries. By combining the two storage mechanisms, it is possible to implement systems with a high energy and power density at low costs.



The electrodes are the heart of the hybrid capacitors. They are coated with modified active materials: lithium iron phosphate and lithium titanate. This allows achieving storage capacities which are twice as high as those relying on conventional supercapacitor electrode materials.



"We have managed to develop a material that combines the advantages of both systems. This has brought us one step closer to implementing a new, fast and reliable storage concept," Sextl says. The activities at the university were supported by the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research in Wurzburg.
Time-resolved stop-action measurements and advanced theoretical simulations identify an unusual form of energy loss

Understanding the properties of complex quantum materials is a major goal of condensed matter physics and materials science, since effects like high-temperature superconductivity might lead to a broad range of applications. Now an international team of scientists including Emmy Noether group leader Michael Sentef from the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter at CFEL in Hamburg has demonstrated a new laser-driven stop-action technique for studying complex electron interactions under dynamic conditions. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications today, are expected to improve the understanding of the physical processes leading to emergent phenomena in strongly correlated materials.



Scientists studying high temperature superconductorsmaterials that carry electric current with no energy loss when cooled below a certain temperaturehave been searching for ways to study in detail the electron interactions thought to drive this promising property. One big challenge is disentangling the many different types of interactionsfor example, separating the effects of electrons interacting with one another from those caused by their interactions with the atoms of the material.



In the present study, the researchers used one very fast, intense pump laser to give electrons a blast of energy, and a second probe laser to measure the electrons energy level and direction of movement as they relax back to their normal state. By varying the time between the pump and the probe laser pulses we can build up a stroboscopic record of what happensa movie of what this material looks like from rest through the violent interaction to how it settles back down, said Jonathan Rameau, physicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and one of the lead authors on the paper. Its like dropping a bowling ball in a bucket of water to cause a big disruption, and then taking pictures at various times afterward, he explained.



The technique, known as time-resolved, angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (tr-ARPES), combined with complex theoretical simulations and analysis, allowed the team to tease out the sequence and energy signatures of different types of electron interactions. They were able to pick out distinct signals of interactions among excited electrons (which happen quickly, but dont dissipate much energy), as well as later-stage random interactions between electrons and the atoms that make up the crystal lattice (which generate friction and lead to gradual energy loss in the form of heat).



But they also discovered another, unexpected signalwhich they say represents a distinct form of extremely efficient energy lossat a particular energy level and timescale between the other two.



We see a very strong and peculiar interaction between the excited electrons and the lattice, where the electrons are losing most of their energy very rapidly in a coherent, non-random way, Rameau said. At this special energy level, he explained, the electrons appear to be interacting with lattice atoms all vibrating at a particular frequencylike a tuning fork emitting a single note. When all of the electrons that have the energy required for this unique interaction have given up most of their energy, they start to cool down more slowly by hitting atoms more randomly without striking the resonant frequency, he said. The resonance frequency of this process is particularly noteworthy, the scientists say, because its energy level corresponds with a kink in the energy signature of the same material studied previously in its superconducting state using a static form of ARPES.



At that time, scientists suspected the kink might have something to do with the materials ability to become a superconductor. They couldnt detect the same signal above the superconducting temperature. But the new time-resolved experiments, which were done on the material well above its superconducting temperature, were able to tease out the subtle signal. These new findings indicate that this special condition exists even when the material is not a superconductor. We know now that this interaction doesnt just switch on when the material becomes a superconductor; its actually always there, Rameau said.



Michael Sentef, who complemented the experimental work with numerical simulations, stressed the impact of this work for the field of pump-probe spectroscopy. This work highlights the fact that we have advanced our theoretical understanding of systems far from thermal equilibrium to the point where we can make quantitative predictions for experiments, he said. This insight is very motivating for future work addressing even more complex situations, in which laser pulses are used to induce high-temperature superconducting-like states, Sentef added.
Linde AG and Praxair, Inc. announced that the companies intend to combine in a merger of equals under a new holding company through an all-stock transaction. The companies have signed a non-binding term sheet and expect to execute a definitive Business Combination Agreement as soon as practicable. Based on 2015 reported results, the combination would create a company with pro forma revenues of approximately $30 billion (EUR 28 billion), prior to any divestitures, and a current market value in excess of $65 billion (EUR 61 billion).

The proposed merger would bring together two leading companies in the global industrial gas industry, leveraging the proven strengths of each. The transaction would unite Lindes long-held leadership in technology with Praxairs efficient operating model, creating a global leader. The combined company would enjoy strong positions in all key geographies and end markets and create a more diverse and balanced global portfolio. Additionally, it would enable the development and delivery of more innovative products and services to customers.

The strategic combination between Linde and Praxair would leverage the complementary strengths of each across a larger global footprint and create a more resilient portfolio with increased exposure to long-term macro growth trends," said Steve Angel, Praxairs Chairman and CEO. We consider this to be a true strategic merger, as it brings together the capabilities, talented people and best-in-class processes of both companies, creating a unique and compelling opportunity for all of our stakeholders.

Under the Linde brand, we want to combine our companies business and technology capabilities and form a global industrial gas leader. Beyond the strategic fit, the compelling, value-creating combination would achieve a robust balance sheet and cash flow and generate financial flexibility to invest in our future, said Professor Dr. Aldo Belloni, CEO of Linde.

Value Creation from the Combination

The merged company would create significant value for shareholders through the realization of approximately $1 billion (EUR 0.9 billion) in annual synergies, driven by scale benefits, cost savings and efficiency improvements.

Governance and Leadership

The combined company would be governed by a single Board of Directors with equal representation from Linde and Praxair. Lindes Supervisory Board Chairman, Professor Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle, would become Chairman of the new companys Board. Praxairs Chairman and CEO, Steve Angel, would become CEO and a member of the Board of Directors.

The combined company would adopt the globally-recognized Linde name and be listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Prime Standard segment). The new company will seek inclusion in the S&P 500 and DAX indices.

The new holding company would be formed and domiciled in a neutral member state of the European Economic Area (EEA), with the CEO based in Danbury, Connecticut USA. Corporate functions would be appropriately split between Danbury, Connecticut and Munich, Germany to help achieve efficiencies for the combined company.

Proposed Merger Structure

Under the proposed terms of the transaction, Linde shareholders would receive 1.540 shares in the new holding company for each Linde share exchanged in the German offer, and Praxair shareholders would receive one share in the new holding company for each Praxair share. As a result, current Linde and Praxair shareholders would each own approximately 50% of the combined company, assuming a 100% share exchange in the German offer.

Next Steps and Timing

The parties expect to complete their internal approvals and execute the definitive Business Combination Agreement in the coming months. Execution of a definitive Business Combination Agreement remains subject to confirmatory due diligence, further negotiations and Board approvals of both Linde and Praxair. There is no assurance that a binding definitive agreement will be reached between the parties, and the consummation of any binding transaction will be subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Linde and Praxair are confident that any required regulatory approvals, including any required divestitures, could be obtained in a timely manner following the execution of a definitive Business Combination Agreement.
The full International Trade Commission (ITC) has made a final determination that Umicore has infringed on BASF and Argonne National Laboratorys patents. The order bans in particular the import of Umicores infringing nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cathode materials, confirms that lithium-ion batteries containing these materials are infringing, and finds that Umicore is contributing to and inducing its customers infringement.

We are very pleased that the ITC has confirmed the February 29, 2016 ruling of ITC Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender, said Kenneth Lane, President of BASFs global Catalysts division. This decisive finding highlights that Umicore has been competing unfairly in the market for NMC cathode materials. At BASF, we value innovation and we will continue to enforce and protect our intellectual property in this important area.

The Commissions decision confirms Judge Penders earlier decision which thoroughly rejected all of Umicores arguments. Judge Pender concluded that Umicores arguments and witnesses testimony were mischaracterizations, misleading, not persuasive, and simply not credible. Umicores primary scientific argument was that its NMC materials are single-phase, rather than two-phase as the patents require. After hearing testimony from six scientific experts and considering transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction analyses on Umicores NMC materials, Judge Pender concluded that I do not find Umicores argument credible that its NMC materials are single-phase solid solutions. BASF and Argonne, according to Judge Pender, established persuasively that Umicores NMC infringes.

Umicore has continued infringing despite Judge Penders decision, and it has even gone so far as telling the media and marketplace that Umicore customers should continue to import products containing Umicores infringing NMC cathode materials. However, the full Commission decided that Umicores efforts and sales of NMC materials to battery manufacturers and other customers were acts of induced and contributory infringement and confirmed that those who import batteries containing Umicores infringing NMC are committing infringement as well. In its exclusion order, the ITC is prohibiting the unlicensed entry of [infringing] lithium metal oxide cathode materialsthat are manufactured by, or on behalf of, or imported by or on behalf of Umicore.

Anyone importing products containing Umicores infringing NMC without a license is infringing, said Matthew Lepore, General Counsel for BASF Corporation. Umicore customers who continue importing infringing products without a license are exposing themselves to enhanced damages for willful patent infringement. The ITC found infringement and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and the ITC have confirmed the validity of these patents multiple times. There would be a high likelihood of success in an expedited district court proceeding to block unlicensed imports with a preliminary injunction.

BASF is committed to the battery industry and has made significant investments in the research, development and manufacture of NMC cathode materials, said Jeffrey Lou, Senior Vice President of BASFs global Battery Materials business. BASF has NMC manufacturing operations in the United States and in Asia with BASF Toda Battery Materials LLC, a joint venture for producing NMC and Nickel Cobalt Aluminum (NCA) cathode materials.

Argonne National Laboratory is proud of its pioneering work in energy storage research. Our NMC cathode technology is just one of many advanced battery material innovations we have worked to create, said Paul Kearns, Deputy Laboratory Director for Operations and Chief Operations Officer at Argonne National Laboratory.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

MDC-T official Job Wiwa Sikhala has said there is no doubt that Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede's voter's roll is the most corrupted document across the world."There is no doubt the Tobaiwa Mudede Voter's Roll is the most corrupted one in the whole world. It has a lot of its imperfections that are insurmountable. The need for a new Voters Roll is as logical as having elections on a new slate," he said."My worry is that the new Voter registration system that is coming in May has more of its serious imperfections. The registration will be Biometric. That is the electronic capture of the voter with specific features to avoid double or multiple voting. The registration will be polling station based. This means that a voter is registered at a polling station which he or she will vote. For example, at the same school there might be two or four polling stations ie Polling Stations A to D. You must identify the polling station you would want to vote at among those at the same premises."Sikhala said that is a polling station where one's details and features must be captured."A polling station will know in advance the names and number of people to vote on the voting day. Data capturing as we are failing to unlock the deployment of state security agents in the employ of the Zimbabwe Election Commission(ZEC) will be conducted by members of the CIO, military and police who are in the employ of the Elections Commission. We risk the following; That known opposition supporters may have their names deliberately omitted from the final roll," he said."That the security agents in the employ of ZEC, will just translate the ZANU PF electronic membership data record and translate it into the national Voters Roll.That our rural colleagues will be intimidated into believing that the capture of their data at a particular polling station which they will vote means that they will be known their voting preferences."Sikhala said this is very possible because if a particular polling station has 50 registered voters and 37 of them votes for an opposition candidate, it is highly possible in the sparsely populated rural set up to identify those who could have voted for the opposition."That is where my worry is. Voting is all about the secrecy of the ballot. When the secrecy of the ballot is no longer guaranteed in such circumstances it becomes a no election at all. The arguments for such registration system has been that it avoids the voter from moving from one polling station to the other to vote several times in the same elections, but its lopsided effects outweighs the benefits," he said."That the polling station registration system has an expeditious and efficient character. It is argued that it takes the maximum of a minute to identify the name of the voter and for the voter to cast his or her vote. This according to the promoters of the polling station voting system argue that it will give an opportunity to every registered voter to exercise his or her right to vote."He said this can be true as the challenges in many elections that he participated and observed was the frustration of the voter."The voter would made to wait for hours to cast the vote. Some would walk away after two to three hours of waiting. My worry, as expressed is when the secrecy of the vote not guaranteed. Lets debate the pros and cons of the forthcoming voters registration system," he said.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

A man from Mzilikazi in Bulawayo is in trouble after he broke into a parked vehicle stole various assortment of goods including mobile phones belonging to the car owner.Ebson Kuda Sibanda was not asked to plead to theft from a car charge when he appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Batanai Tuwe. He was further remanded out of custody.The court heard that the complainant George Cherayi (47) employed by Container Carrier in Donnington West parked the vehicle in the city on December 13 this year while going to pay for the refueling of the company car at Trek Petroleum Service Station.Sibanda pounced on to the parked car and broke in before stealing various goods including mobile phones. The property stolen worth $530 and only property worth $380 was recovered following his arrest.
Julia Haywood, United Continental Holdings' recently appointed chief commercial officer, last month paid $2.8 million for a newly built, five-bedroom all-brick house on an extra-wide lot in the Wrightwood Neighbors neighborhood, within the Lincoln Park community area. (VHT.com)

Julia Haywood, United Continental Holdings' recently appointed chief commercial officer, last month paid $2.8 million for a newly built, five-bedroom all-brick house on an extra-wide lot in the Wrightwood Neighbors neighborhood, within the Lincoln Park community area.

A veteran of the consulting industry, Haywood joined Chicago-based United in August after working for 12 years at the Boston Consulting Group, where she headed the firm's airline transformation practice.

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Haywood's new 6,100-square-foot house first was listed last year for $3.495 million and later reduced to $3.25 million, $2.995 million and $2.95 million before Haywood bought it. Features include 5 baths, two fireplaces, an attached and heated 2.5-car garage, a penthouse family room, two mud rooms, a lower level rec room and an eat-in kitchen with quartzite countertops and dual Sub-Zero refrigerators and freezers.

The property also has more than 1,500 square feet of outdoor space, including a large raised patio, a lush backyard and a secluded rooftop terrace.

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Michael Shenfeld of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff, who represented Haywood in the purchase, told Elite Street she was drawn to the property's larger-than-usual lot and its outdoor space.

"The reason that she chose that home is that it was a unique house on a wider lot and offering therefore a wider floor plan but also a tremendous amount of outdoor space," he said. "It's not that she didn't like other homes in the neighborhood, but this was really unique."

Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.







Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 16 (VHT Studios)

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 5 Billionaire Ken Griffin, Illinois richest man, paid $58.75 million in November for the top four floors in the Near North condominium building at 9 W. Walton St., known as No. 9 Walton. This photo shows a rendering of the lobby. (JDL Development / E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune (inset))
The Allis at Soho House is theming cocktails after classic carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas." (The Allis)

Fill the last few days before Christmas and Hanukkah with cocktails, pie, a seafood feast and more.

1. Toast to the 12 days of Christmas

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The Allis restaurant in Soho House is counting down the days until Santa's big night. Get in the spirit with its "12 Days of Christmas" cocktail menu. Each day until Christmas, a different cocktail themed to the classic carol's lyrics will be $5 from 4-7 p.m  expect drinks like the Swan Dive & Flip (a fusion of Goslings, Ransom, Bigallet China-China, lime, and egg) and the Maid in Chai (Buffalo Trace, bourbon vanilla chai tea, maple and cream). The Allis at Soho House, 113-125 N. Green St., 312-521-8000, www.theallis.com.

2. Order pie for a good cause

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Oriole pastry chef Genie Kwon is selling pies on Grubhub to raise money for Ceasefire. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

West Loop restaurant Oriole is teaming with GrubHub to prevent gun violence. On Friday, Oriole will sell 100 lemon pecan pies on the food delivery site to benefit Ceasefire, the Illinois chapter of the Cure Violence Organization. The pies, created by pastry chef and Oriole partner Genie Kwon, feature brown sugar custard, lemon curd, pecan frangipane and candied pecans. $35/pie. On sale beginning 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 23. Order at www.grubhub.com.

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3. Feast on a Seven Fishes dinner

Enjoy seven seafood-centric courses as part of Tesori's Feast of the Seven Fishes menu. (Jorge Gera / Tesori)

Partake in the Italian tradition of Feast of the Seven Fishes  the Loop's Tesori Trattoria & Bar is serving chef Carlos Ysaguirre's seven-course, seafood-centric tasting menu through Friday. With modern takes on Italian staples, the menu will feature the likes of tuna conserva, scallop crudo and spaghetti with anchovy. $45. Through Friday, Dec. 23 at Tesori, 65 E. Adams St., 312-786-9911, www.tesorichicago.com

4. Get your glogg on

Go for the glogg at Simon's. (William DeShazer / Chicago Tribune)

It's glogg time at Simon's Tavern in Andersonville. The Swedish drink, a wine mulled with winter spices and sweetened with sugar, is a holiday tradition, and Simon's makes one of the city's most beloved versions. Each warm mug is served with a gingery pepperkaker cookie. $6. Simon's Tavern, 5210 N. Clark St., 773-878-0894.

5. Fuel last-minute shopping with coffee and doughnuts

Try coffee drinks made with Kyoto-style cold brew at Cafe Chien. (Kristen Norman / Chicago Tribune)

Albany Park's Cafe Chien hosts a shopping pop-up featuring local artisans and businesses, including Bru Coffeeworks, Kyoto Black, Chicago Market and more. The event is in partnership with Gurnee Donuts, which will be selling its coveted ube doughnuts, the purple yam treat taking the country and Internet by storm, available via pre-order only. Free to attend. 6-9 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 23 at 3643 W. Lawrence Ave. Call 312-493-2658 or email gurnee.donuts@gmail.com to place doughnut orders.

jbhernandez@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @joeybear85






Rare Bourbon County Stout from 2015 was released initially so that some beer stores received just a case or two. A special tasting at Roots Handmade Pizza in January 2016, shown here, offered just 11 bottles for sale. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune)

It was a rare beer. It was right there in the name.

Rare Bourbon County Stout.

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But a year later, as dozens of cases of the Goose Island imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels are about to go on sale at Jewel-Osco and Binny's Beverage Depot stores, maybe it wasn't so rare after all.

And that raises an obvious question: Exactly why are hundreds or thousands of bottles of a 2015 beer dubbed "Rare" suddenly available?

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In a statement issued by the brewery, Goose Island Sales Director Justin LaGrotta said: "We pride ourselves on our barrel-aged beer program and will always plan to release select vintages throughout the year in order to satisfy our customers. While Black Friday has been, and will continue to be our national release date, it's important that we use our barrel-aged beers throughout the year to grow the business."

Chris Quinn, owner of The Beer Temple beer store in Avondale, was surprised to hear of the release Tuesday but wasn't surprised he wasn't offered any to sell. It's just the latest example of how retail has changed for high-profile beer  especially Goose Island's renowned series of Bourbon County beers.

"It looks to me like they are trying to define rarity  and I don't mean this specific beer  by how you release the beer, not by how much you make of the beer," Quinn said. "They're letting it out at certain places and in very controlled ways."

Hence Rare is more "rare" than rare. (Goose Island has not revealed how much Rare it made.)

"It's a very effective model, but I don't think it is entirely genuine with the consumer," Quinn said. "If people knew last year when it came out that it would be coming out again, I think it would have been thought of differently, at least in the Chicago market."

In Chicago last year, the beer was an unqualified hit. Goose Island first released Rare Bourbon County Stout at Rare Day  an event held across two sessions that cost $40 to enter  and allowed the purchase of up to three $60 bottles of Rare. That was followed by a festival where Rare and other Bourbon County beers were poured. The brewery said it received about 75,000 entries for its Rare Day ticket lottery.

In other words, a success.

But a year later, does a new wave of Rare from 2015 cheapen the idea that the beer was rare when first released to a mountain of fanfare?

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"It's all in how you perceive what 'rare' means," Craig Gonciarczyk, co-host of the beer podcast ABV Chicago, said. "When people hear 'rare' they think scarcity: 'What we got is something we'll never get again.' It's what people decide to take from the meaning of the word 'rare.' What number do you ascribe to 'rare?' "

A certain degree of cynicism is required when it comes to modern beer marketing, he said.

"Especially with the bigger breweries," Gonciarczyk said. "The small ones are more about building a bond with the consumer. The big ones are mostly after money for the most part."

Goose Island and its online defenders say the name of the beer reflects scarceness of the bourbon barrels  Heaven Hill barrels more than 30 years old  in which Rare was aged. Barrels that old are not common, they say; they are rare. However, at least two other breweries  Perennial in St. Louis and our own local Pipeworks  got similar barrels. So they're not that rare.

The other issue is perception. Calling something "Rare" implies that it is, well, rare. The brewery unfurled the beer last year with the grandiosity of something that was special, unique and, yes, rare. And now the beer returns in waves at, of all places, a major supermarket with more than three dozen locations. And there are hurt feelings among consumers over it.

Carmen Salerno, of Melrose Park, says that he called Goose Island's 800-number on Tuesday, after news of the JewelOsco release broke, to ask the company: "What exactly does 'rare' mean to you, anyway?" Someone from the company followed up by email to offer the barrel explanation. He wasn't satisfied.

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"I do feel betrayed," Salerno said by email. "I waited in line over 10 hours to get something that I thought was rare. Turns out it's not."

Jewel-Osco spokeswoman Mary Frances Trucco said this week that each of the company's 37 Chicago-area stores will receive between two and five bottle cases (12 bottles per) of Rare Bourbon County Stout. That pencils out to between 74 and 185 cases across the chain, or somewhere between 888 and 2,220 bottles.

Bottles of Rare Bourbon County Stout from 2015 sit on the bar during a special offering at Roots Handmade Pizza in January 2016. Goose Island is releasing dozens more bottles of the beer on Wednesday at Jewel-Osco stores. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune)

Trucco did not say how much Jewel-Osco would charge for the beer, but employees at several stores contacted Tuesday said the price would be $79.99 per 16.9 ounce bottle. Binny's did not say how much Rare it is getting, when it will be released, which locations will have it or how much it will cost.

While the beer might not in fact be so rare, calling it "Rare" seems to be working just fine.

"It's fairly easy to see why 'rare' would work as a marketing tool for a beer brewed at the volumes of BCS Rare," Jason Notte, who writes about the beer industry for MarketWatch, said via a private Twitter message. "After all, we've seen breweries bought up by Heineken, Constellation Brands, Duvel, MillerCoors and, yes, Anheuser-Busch InBev (now owner of Goose Island) within the last five years, and there's still some debate about whether or not we should call them 'craft.' If a beer brewed by automated machinery in a brewery roughly the size of a city block can be craft, that BCS varietal can definitely be 'rare.'"

However, at the same time, he called it an odd name for the beer, despite the fact that it was evoking a 2010 release of a different version of Rare Bourbon County Stout. The first version was aged two years in 23-year-old Pappy Van Winkle barrels.

"They just built a giant barrel warehouse to make those beers less 'rare,' are improving the transportation and aging process to make them even less 'rare' still and have built the upside of the entire Goose Island purchase around the fact that BCS and its varietals won't be so 'rare' anymore," Notte said. "The (beer) geeks know it isn't 'rare'; the people who see it at a Fred Meyer (superstore) out here in Oregon know it isn't 'rare.' In fact, as your story shows, the only thing 'rare' about it is the name 'rare.'"

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The Beer Temple's Quinn said Rare was in fact rare for him last year  he was allocated two cases. Ideally, he said, he would have liked to have had enough for the 200 or so people who lined up at his store as early as 5 a.m. for a chance at the beer. He estimates that would have equated to 15 or 20 cases.

Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

But the fact that he's not getting this wave of the release doesn't bother him.

"If Goose was saying, 'We're sending it to retail stores that echo the quality of the beer' and I didn't get it, I'd be upset," he said. "But it's going to a grocery store."

There's an image floating around the internet of a fairly believable leak regarding Goose Island's plans for its Bourbon County beers in 2017. Among them is "Rare Barleywine"  presumably a barleywine aged two years in those same barrels that previously held Rare Bourbon County Stout.

Goose Island has declined to confirm the veracity of the photo. But if it is accurate  and there's no reason to think it isn't  a new question emerges: how rare will Rare Barleywine be?

Probably not all that rare.

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jbnoel@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @joshbnoel






Ravenswood heavy metal record shop Metal Haven closed its doors in 2010, only to be reimagined and reopened as combination record store and restaurant Metal Haven Grill in Logan Square in April of this year.

But Metal Haven Grill will be closing its doors on New Year's Eve.

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After launching a GoFundMe page in September hoping to raise $25,000, calling for donations as little as $5 from fans, patrons and members of the community to help keep the doors open, owner Mark Weglarz took to Facebook to announce the news.

"Business had gotten a little better recently but now with the snow and cold weather, business is worse than ever," Weglarz writes. "With January and February right around the corner, well it makes no sense."

Before its reincarnation as a grill, Metal Haven -- which also was in Lakeview for some time -- was often regarded as a must-stop for serious heavy metal fans looking for both rare and obscure releases as well as a "club house" of sorts for Chicago's metal community. Weglarz opened the shop in 1999 and has subsidized with a job downtown since 2002.

Customers hold the shop and its environment in high regard. Many comments on Weglarz's Facebook post and GoFundMe page feature stories from people who feel they've "grown up" in the shop or had stopped in as often as they could.

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Metal Haven was known for hosting events such as its Metal Market, where other vendors including locals could sell from personal vinyl and art collections, and championed a Latino Metal Night.

Metal Haven Grill has maintained a five-star rating on Yelp since opening its doors, with many people highlighting the staff's excellent service, friendliness, and inclusive atmosphere for all who walked through the doors.

"I have no doubt in my mind this place would have been a success, but unfortunately in the food service industry you need 12-18 months to really establish yourself and the money is not there anymore," Weglarz adds.

"I know the location would have worked, it's gentrifying this direction. In a few years this location will be booming, but again I don't have the money to last.

Everything with Metal Haven Grill was left on the table. No regrets."

The Tribune reached out to Mark Weglarz for further comment, but has yet to receive a response.

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It's a Monday morning after a snowstorm. Hyde Park is far below freezing. Yet the low-ceilinged aisles of 57th Street Books buzz improbably. Shoppers stroll about, their arms stacked with Christmas finds. The shop's dark stone floors are slick with tracked snow. Isaac Tobin fits here nicely. He has a scarf and beard and glasses and that soft pensive Hyde Park stare. He stands in front of a row of novels from Italian writer Elena Ferrante.

"I have not read any of them," he says, "but ..."

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He considers his words.

On the covers are images of windswept settings, billowy, vague pictures of women and children and pale Italian coastlines. Book covers are semiotic puzzles to Tobin. As the senior designer at the University of Chicago Press, the country's largest academic publisher, he's steadily gathered a reputation as a master, a clever designer of book covers that blur the distinctions between mainstream and academic publishing. His covers have featured fairly graphic dinosaur sex and games of Hangman (with letters from the book title itself missing); his cover for the acclaimed 2011 cult novel "A Naked Singularity" is so optically oscillatory you get seasick from staring at it too long.

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"I don't know about these covers," he says after a long pause before the Ferrantes. "They're unusual. There's a ... cheesiness. I can see those pictures on a cheaper book, yet from the way people talk of Ferrante, the writing is not cheesy at all. And see, look, that typeface  minimal, not cheesy. The type is an attempt to class it up? I see a mixed bag here, but maybe, intentionally so? Maybe they're looking for a reader of a typically gendered, kind of sexist, 'woman's book,' but a reader who doesn't want to go ... low?"

Not a bad guess.

It's the creakiest cliche in literature, if not the English language: "You can't tell a book by its cover."

Also, it's a lie. You can totally tell a book by its cover. Getting you to tell a book by its cover is partly the job of a book designer. "We pair books with people," Tobin says. "I can't make somebody buy a book, but as a designer, you send certain overt, and covert, signals you hope will be received by the right type of reader. My goal is a second look."

Tobin met recently to walk the rows at 57th Street Books, on the admittedly contrived assumption that he might offer a little shorthand for a harried Christmas shopper  tips on how to pick out a bunch of books quickly without sitting down and reading deeply into every purchase. Superficial browsing, elevated to art.

Turns out, good idea.

Tobin is frighteningly skilled at predicting the quality, and the contents, of books he has not read. Indeed, he does not read most of the books for which he designs covers; he reads the author's introductions, or just reads the in-house editorial statement that explains why the book is being published. "With nonfiction, you almost think of cover design as a kind of book report, where you boil down a thesis and a subject then you communicate a perspective. With a novel, the focus shouldn't be subject but tone  what you try to do is not so much tell the story but show what it feels like to read it."

He stops in the science section.

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"A lot of circles," he notes, and yes, every book on the primary shelf facing outward offers an illustration of a circle, from books about math wizards ("Hidden Figures") to genetics ("The Gene") to astronomy ("Welcome to the Universe," by Neil deGrasse Tyson). "Which makes sense, because you are trying to illustrate subjects here that get at fundamental truths, yet you want to make a complicated subject approachable. They're pretty. Though this ..." He reaches for a book showing a vertical stack of planets.

"See, you can extrapolate a lot from a bad cover," he says. "And I don't like this one. There are plenty of great books with bad covers, and vice versa, but a good cover implies something: A publisher curates a list of books, sharpens what it acquires, edits them. Design is one of those things a publisher does to convey taste. If a book is well-produced in an interesting way, it implies the publisher takes its mission seriously. It's no leap to say if a cover design is smart and interesting, the book is likely worth it too."

"But something slipshod"  he places the offending book back  "does not convey that, because even a bad design, it leads you to judge the content before you even read it."

Like a restaurant that can't bother to get a real sign and just hangs a banner across the sign of the restaurant that it's now replacing and you can see the old sign poking out beneath the cheap banner so you don't eat there because a banner shouts bad taste?

"Exactly."

Tobin is polite.

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He's 36, married to an illustrator. His parents are college professors; his older brother is a professor. He grew up in Hawaii and went to the Rhode Island School of Design, where he discovered a love for typography and was turned on to book design by his mentors. About a dozen years ago, after a stay as a designer at Beacon Press in Boston, he joined University of Chicago Press. What he says about book design almost doubles as thoughtful, metaphorical life advice: "The thing that stands out on a crowded shelf is the thing that looks most different, but stray too far afield and it's meaningless."

He walks to the front table at the bookstore.

Here are the big holiday best-sellers and he immediately grabs a copy of Zadie Smith's "Swing Time." The yellows are bold and the title has vague African-inspired lettering. "On a pure graphic level, it's powerful, poppy, with a sense of rhythm. What you're seeing here is a 'big book'  just having huge type and the author name so big, you think 'This is an important piece of the cultural moment I should know about,' and it is."

He leans into "Scrappy Little Nobody," Anna Kendrick's new autobiography. The cover is a picture of the young actress wearing an outfit with cut-off denim shorts. "Anytime a celebrity is involved, the designer probably had less opportunities to explore any style or ideas. I imagine there were a lot of meetings to arrive at that." Then he turns to "The Princess Diarist," the new memoir from Carrie Fisher that features the diary she kept while making "Star Wars."

"Way more interesting, I bet," Tobin says, "because, look, at least there's some attempt at style here. The message of Anna Kendrick's book cover is if you like her, you'll like her book. But this  the pen in the Princess Leia buns, the title is done in a doodle style you can imagine a teenage girl drawing on a school folder. It's fun and it makes sense."

He picks up "Moonglow," Michael Chabon's new novel. The cover is an illustration of matchsticks that appear imperfectly printed, faded and retro. "There's a lot more risk taking from mainstream publishers now, and this simulation of early printing  it's a little nostalgic, but I haven't read the book." (The book, about family history and memories, is indeed nostalgic.) He reaches for "The Fire This Time," a contemporary essay collection on race. Tobin says he hasn't read it but the font was a midcentury favorite, so ... (Again, bingo: The title plays off James Baldwin's seminal midcentury essay "The Fire Next Time.")

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He walks to psychology.

He goes there to prove a point. The latest Michael Lewis best-seller, "The Undoing Project," about the ideologically mismatched founders of behavioral economics, has a familiar cover: white, with a single image of a red and blue eraser. He places it on a shelf alongside books by Malcolm Gladwell, and a few others with similar covers, each white with a single mundane object at its center. "These are the kind of books you see in an airport, pop neuroscience nonfiction where complicated thoughts are explained through smaller, focused ideas. The Michael Lewis cover, it's nicely done version of it, between a business book and a Malcolm Gladwell-type thing. A single thing represents a larger idea. And so there's a lot of space between type. It's also colorful."

Book designer Isaac Tobin says the simple use of an eraser and big type on the latest Michael Lewis best-seller's cover, The Undoing Project, helps with its complex topic: the ideologically mismatched founders of behavioral economics. Complicated thoughts are explained through smaller, focused ideas," he says. (Alyssa Pointer / Chicago Tribune)

Leaps off a shelf.

On one cover, the dot above the lowercase "i" in "Loneliness" has floated off toward a corner. "If something on a cover is too easy to read the first time, you might not double back to it," he says. Then again, in a row books of strikingly similar designs, nothing leaps. "The Gladwell books (such as "Outliers," with an image of a marble rolling away from other marbles, and "Tipping Point," with a single matchstick) were influential, though maybe coming to an end. That look is so clean, you sense what's inside is direct, clear."

Tobin came to publishing at an interesting moment, as publishers, facing the threat of ebooks and the decline of the neighborhood bookstore, began to emphasize books as designed objects  as gifts, keepsakes. And so, half a dozen different editions of "A Christmas Carol" are placed in front of Tobin. At least three of these "Carols" scream out to be keepsakes, with slipcases, felted red covers and vintage English silhouettes of 19th-century figures.

"But the standout is the Penguin paperback," Tobin says. He means the cheapest book in the lot  cheaper than the austere hardbacks, but as with Penguin paperbacks, stamped with a striking design to cap off Penguin's familiar, orange house style, an engraving of the Ghost of Christmas Present from legendary British caricaturist John Leech. "I can see it in a class but it's no textbook. I also like this one, with the slipcase and naive lettering  you see that lettering a lot now  but the Penguin's fun and great." (Shown several editions of "Moby Dick," Tobin took a similar path, steering from the hardbacks to somewhat less fancifully designed paperbacks, however ephemeral.)

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"Can a design be boring and expected if a book is a little boring and expected?" he asked. "If you know what're getting, boring and expected is not always a bad thing."

Speaking of expected: The mystery section.

The most exhausting section of any bookstore. At 57th Street Books, it's in the same aisle as the second most exhausting section, fantasy/science fiction. For here, book after book looks like the same book, successful authors (John Grisham, Richard Price) stand in endless rows in uniform branding styles that repeat and repeat and repeat. Turn to science fiction and half the books appear to have book covers illustrating a swirling mist, the other half have covers you could imagine on the hoods of Trans Ams.

"For genre fiction to have genre covers make sense," he says, "but the differences are there." He points to the new Tana French crime novel "The Trespasser." He notes the darkness at the edges of an otherwise white cover as "clear clues that this is a mystery, while black, white and red colors also say it's a mystery. But see the texture? All that white space? It means literary pretensions, so you don't mistake it as an airport book."

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It almost looks mis-shelved.

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He pulls down a Gillian Flynn and holds it beside a Janet Evanovich. The Flynn (dark, with willowy, trailing strands of hair) is elegant, the Evanovich (physically smaller, more billboard-like) looks like a beach book that you actually found left behind on a beach.

"There is almost a class signal going on here," he says, "and one has less merit."

Tobin is a little uneasy with some of this cultural shorthand. Understandably. He's making judgments based on superficial reasons. So, as if to apologize, he reaches for the ugliest Philip K. Dick paperback on the shelf. "I grew up on him," he says. "There are the canonical, uniform editions of his books, but here was a guy who was up on speed all night, cranking this stuff out. So maybe a cover should be a little trashy sometimes."

A woman with her hands full of books wanders down the aisle and leans in and listens to Tobin and asks him for a recommendation. He hands her a copy of "The Man in the High Castle." The cover is kind of tacky. She seems thankful anyway. "I don't have a good track record with my son and books. My solution for buying books is a gift receipt."

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP)
In a "best of times/worst of times" year (and really  every year feels that way to somebody, somewhere), Chicago's theater offerings continued to provide a cultural balm for troubled times. Here are six of the best shows I saw onstage this year, with a few honorable mentions.

"The Hairy Ape" by Oracle Theatre in February: In a year when discussions of the "angry white working-class man" took on a fever pitch after the election of Donald Trump, Eugene O'Neill's one-act still would have felt timely. But by casting his production entirely with African-American men, director Monty Cole effectively flipped the script for the age of Black Lives Matter. His Yank (a febrile Julian Parker), the swaggering steamship stoker who finds himself out of place and out of hope on dry land, at times had cruder echoes of Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man." Breon Arzell's percussive and muscular choreography added a physical vocabulary for left-behind men whose existential frustrations defy verbal articulation.

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Up next: After briefly moving into the old Signal Ensemble space when that company closed earlier this year, Oracle announced this month that it too is folding up operations. One hopes that we'll see more of its artists  and its free "public access" ticketing model  on Chicago stages in the years ahead.

"Dry Land" by Rivendell Theatre Ensemble in April: No company in town does as good a job at exploring the lives of teenage girls as Rivendell, but it outdid itself with "Dry Land." Ruby Rae Spiegel  who was only 21 when she wrote this play  unfurls the trajectory of an unlikely and fraught friendship between a pregnant Florida high school student and the nerdy newcomer on the swim team she enlists to help her with a "DIY" abortion with sensitivity, wit and an unflinchingly honest ear for how girls talk to each other. This isn't an "issues" play  it's a play about girls with issues, and director Hallie Gordon's pitch-perfect staging and the lead performances by Bryce Gangel and Jessica Ervin landed in the solar plexus.

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Up next: "Winter" by Julie Jensen, Jan. 7 to Feb. 11; www.rivendelltheatre.org.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 8 Julian Parker, Breon Arzell, Bradford Stevens and Tony Santiago in Eugene ONeills The Hairy Ape at Oracle Theatre. (Joe Mazza photo)

"Once in a Lifetime" by Strawdog Theatre Company in May: Strawdog said goodbye to its longtime  albeit low-ceilinged  home on North Broadway (a strip that with the shuttering of Profiles, Mary-Arrchie and Oracle is now bereft of storefront operations) with this sparkling and inventive revival of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's stuffed-to-the-rafters homage to the early age of Hollywood "talkies." Director Damon Kiely's zippy staging, in which 12 actors played nearly 40 speaking parts  took some anachronistic liberties by interpolating musical numbers such as Beyonce's "Single Ladies" (and appropriately, Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball"). In a year of grim headlines, Strawdog (which is now bunking with Factory Theater on Howard Street) celebrated resilience and reinvention.

Up next: "Cymbeline," Jan. 13 to Feb. 25; www.strawdog.org.

"Next to Normal" by BoHo Theatre in August: Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's Tony- and Pulitzer-winning musical about loss and mental illness got a lovely and aching intimate staging with BoHo under Linda Fortunato's sensitive direction. Colette Todd found the ruminative and wry aspects of troubled wife and mother Diana, while Ciera Dawn as Natalie, her tightly-wound daughter, revealed the raw wounds caused by life with a parent who is never fully there. This was that rare production that left me in tears even as it made me think deeply about the ways we find to grieve.

Up next: "Urinetown: The Musical," Feb. 4 to March 26; www.bohotheatre.com.

"Octagon" by Jackalope Theatre in October: Opening just a couple of weeks before the election, Kristiana Rae Colon's word-drunk portrait of the made-in-Chicago world of the poetry slam seethed with its own brand of defiant politics  personal and cultural. The show premiered in London in 2015, but Jackalope brought it home in director Tara Branham's sometimes messy but never boring staging. Its themes  individual glory versus collective good, swaggering male bravado confronted by women who won't apologize for claiming their space, and our short attention span for particular incidences of social injustice  feel even more relevant postelection.

Up next: "The Snare," by Samantha Beach, Feb. 22 to April 1; www.jackalopetheatre.org.

"Pygmalion" by Remy Bumppo Theatre Company in December: George Bernard Shaw's gender politics come through loud and clear in Remy Bumppo's staging. But by giving the story a memory-play framework, Shawn Douglass also asks us to consider how even the most difficult and  yes  sexist mentors might still provide a road map to a life we wouldn't have otherwise considered, even if we have to leave them in the rearview mirror to take that journey. Nick Sandys' Henry Higgins and Kelsey Brennan's Eliza bring spark and fire to their performances, lighting up new corners of the world of this beloved classic.

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Up next: "Pygmalion" continues through Jan. 8 at the Greenhouse Theater. "Born Yesterday" by Garson Kanin runs March 22 to April 30; www.remybumppo.org.

Honorable mentions: "The Life of Galileo" by Remy Bumppo; "Distance" by Strawdog Theatre; "A Loss of Roses" by Raven Theatre; "Mike Mother" by the Neo-Futurists; "Miss Holmes" by Lifeline Theatre; "Rutherford's Travels" by Pegasus Theatre.

Kerry Reid is a freelance critic.

ctc-arts@chicagotribune.com

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP)
"Spamilton," the hit musical spoof of the Broadway hit "Hamilton" is headed to Chicago. The off-Broadway parody, penned by the legendary Broadway satirist Gerard Alessandrini, will open for a multi-week run at the Royal George Theatre's cabaret theater on March 9, part of an international roll-out designed to ride the wake of "Hamilton."

Although the Chicago "Hamilton" is populated by mostly New York-based actors, the Chicago "Spamilton" will feature a yet-to-be-chosen Chicago cast  playing such roles as Lin-Manuel Miranda, Daveed Diggs and a grumpy Stephen Sondheim.

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By then, of course, there will be tens of thousands of people in the Chicago area who have the seen the show that provides all the jokes. Although his ego and success is Alessandrini's principal target, Miranda himself already has attended the show twice in New York.

"A lot of celebrities I've attacked before have not been as flattered," Alessandrini said in an interview. "But Lin has a great sense of humor. He even gave us suggestions. We incorporated some of them. But not all of them."

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Revues in Alessandrini's "Forbidden Broadway" franchise have played Chicago several times before, most recently in 2008. But those spoofs have lampooned numerous musicals. "Spamilton" is precisely targeted on the biggest show of them all.

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Tickets, priced at $69, are already on sale at www.theroyalgeorgetheatre.com.

"I think of it less as an edition of 'Forbidden Broadway,' and more of a separate show," Alessandrini said in an interview Tuesday. "But I wrote all of them. So I suppose it came out the same."

Based on a viewing of the show in New York, that's an accurate statement. You need to have seen, or at least heard the music to, or the hype of, "Hamilton" to get the full effect.

Alessandrini said he planned to find Chicago-based actors to assume the role here  which may well be about as close to "Hamilton" as it is currently possible for a Chicago-based actor to get.

And, given the clear affection of the "Hamilton" creative team for "Spamilton," also a way to snag both a union paycheck and an extended audition for the big dance.

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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)
Warning: Spoilers ahead

"Jeopardy" champ Cindy Stowell's win streak came to an end on Wednesday's episode, which aired two weeks after Stowell died following a battle with cancer.

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Though she correctly answered the Final Jeopardy clue about the Bahamas, Stowell lost to Oklahoma G.I.S. technician Sam Scovill. Chicago personal assistant Jennifer Johnson placed third.

Stowell, a science content developer from Texas, died Dec. 5 at the age of 41 after suffering from Stage 4 colon cancer. She taped episodes of the show over the summer and they began airing last week.

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In her six wins, she earned more than $100,000 that is slated to go to cancer research.

Scovill led for most of Wednesday's episode, thanks to correctly answering Daily Double clues. He led Stowell by $1,200 going into the final round and wagered more than her on the final clue. Johnson also correctly answered the final clue.

Scovill earned $22,001, while Stowell ended the episode with $19,201. Johnson finished with $11,602.

At the end of the episode, "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek informed viewers about Stowell's death and offered condolences to her family and friends.

"Jeopardy" airs 3:30 weekdays on WLS-Ch. 7.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Nathan Banana, the son of the late first president of Zimbabwe Cannan Banana has launched his political party Freedom Justice Coalition Zimbabwe in Johannesburg which he said will contest the 2018 elections.Speaking to journalists and Zimbabweans in South Africa Banana said Zimbabweans must chose servant leadership not dictators."To get the servant leadership Zimbabweans crave, we must become servant citizens ourselves, and to get incorruptible leaders we rightly demand, we must become no less incorruptible ourselves," he said."In this spirit, I stand here, not as a hero but a servant leader dedicated and committed to honour my social contract with every Zimbabwean, who will put their heart and soul on the dotted line, that I will always listen, learn and work as hard as my body and mind will permit me, to make our collective dreams a reality."Banana said right from its inception Freedom Justice Coalition Zimbabwe it has been a party that shunned elitism."We do not believe that to have order in society you necessarily need to have repression of descent or to silence voices of those who hold opinions different to yours. To put it in simple terms, we are not obsessed with being seen to be right always," he said."We believe in a collective approach, based on the idea of politics being broader than party and career politics. We believe that citizens have a role to play in politics, not only in holding politicians accountable but also in contributing to the effective running of societal institutions - from government departments, financial institutions, community corporations to our homes and families. "He said in this regard, FJCZ pledges to work, in government or outside government, for the people and with the people."Our motivation is not winning power for the sake of power, but rather to be an instrument of meaningful efforts to progress our country by distributing that power so it is used across the country more effectively to ensure service standards are raised and developmental targets achieved. We intend to be an example in Zimbabwe and Africa of what politics can be and should be like. An example of how to transform words to action, and promises to deliverable and visible outcomes," he said."We advocate for the values of solidarity, of compassion, of social justice, fighting for the under-privileged, and of working for people at home and in the diaspora. Whilst at the same time we value and protect the rights that we have in this country enshrined in our national constitution."Banana said they also appreciate the need to stand in solidarity with opposition political parties all over the country, which advocate for a better Zimbabwe."However, we caution that in the determination to achieve change, Opposition political parties must desist from replicating the oversight of the ruling party by alienating sections of society on the basis of partisanship," he said."FJCZ has always been clear that even though we may disagree on many issues with Zanu PF, they too need to be part of the national conversation, as they still represent a large number of Zimbabweans.""We believe we can bring together Zimbabweans of diverse backgrounds to work together for the Zimbabwe we can all be proud of. What can bring us together is a sense of shared responsibility, a sense of the way things can be done despite the way things have been always done in politics in Zimbabwe," he added.Banana said therefore, for the people values come first before party identity cards."Values that go beyond rhetoric, into the daily realities of our people , values that find life in things that we fight for every single day," he said."We want to work collectively to win people over to the basic values we all accept, to change minds, and change politics, so that we can have a Freedom Justice Coalition Zimbabwe government, we can look in a different direction, we can look away from the policy of growing inequality and look to a society that grows in equality, in confidence, in involvement of everybody, and does not allow the gross levels of poverty and inequality to get worse in Zimbabwe."Banana said when they have all had a say on how they develop, say, the housing policy, or, say, the health policy, say any other particular area of environmental protection or anything else, if everyone has been involved in that policymaking, they own the policy that is there at the end."hey are more determined to campaign and fight for it," he said.Banana said when politicians get out of touch with reality, they sometimes forget where skill sets really lie."Skills at the workplace, skills of ordinary people, knowledge of ordinary people. Some of the elite in our society look with contempt on people with brilliance and ideas just because they don't speak like them or look like them. Let's do things differently and do things together," he said."Had we had a different approach, would we now have the millstone of private finance initiatives around the necks of so many hospitals and so many schools in this country, or would we, instead, have a more sensible form of public sector borrowing to fund for investment and fund for the future, rather than letting corruption destroy our public services, which is exactly what this Government is doing? We need to be confident and be strong. After all we also have lots of knowledge and ability from our diaspora brothers and sisters."Banana said research shows that Diaspora remittances now top Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Zimbabwe. So we say there should be no taxation of the Zimbabwe diaspora without representation!! He said Zimbabwe migrants now play a huge role in funding Zimbabwe."We believe that they should have a right to vote from wherever they are," Banana said."Every difficulty actually gives you an opportunity, and the difficulty is that these bond notes have been placed in front of us, but it also gives us the opportunity to defend civil liberties and traditional freedoms and explain to the wider public, So we are going to continue our opposition to this. Government is threatening the right of peaceful protest by looking to ban them. They are even threatening the right to free speech by seeking to limit what a citizen can say on social media.""Are we really going to have teams of civil servants or lawyers or police or somebody trawling through massive numbers of twitter messages, Facebook messages, to find something somebody said about their government or about the President? What kind of intrusive society is our government really trying to bring about. They will use it as a tool to make other attacks on other sections of our community. Let's be strong about this," he added.He said FJCZ also believes in the promotion of trade unionism and understand that good trade unions, good trade union organisation, yes, protect people in the workplace, yes, it leads to better pay, better conditions and better salaries and better promotional opportunities as a whole, but it also means there is often better management in those places where unions are very strong."It is our job as FJCZ to set out a vision for a better society and campaign proudly to inspire others to join our efforts. Our shared vision will be delivered by shared campaigning, Zimbabwe is a rich country but actually a country that is deeply unequal. Surely, the whole vision of those who founded our country and founded our political parties was about doing things differently and for the benefit of a greater number of our people," Banana said."That generation, those brilliant people brought us the one man one vote, got women the right to vote,and brought us so many other things. We must build on that in the way we do our policy, we build on that in the way we develop our country, and we build on that in the way that we inspire Zimbabweans to come together for a better, more decent, more equal, fairer and more just society. These things are not dreams. These things are practical realities that we, collectively, intend to achieve."
FICTION

We Want Everything by Nanni Balestrini

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Translated by Matt Holden, Verso, 226 pages, $24.95

One of the best novels of 2016 is a translation of a novel published in Italy in 1971 about the "hot autumn" of 1969, when workers at Fiat and elsewhere staged a series of strikes to demand better wages and conditions. The charming, vulgar narrator, an unnamed young migrant from southern Italy, just wants to hang out on the beach. He hates everything  work, bosses, unions, security guards, factories  and he wants everything. His political consciousness develops and unfolds until he's leading wildcat strikes and fighting cops in the streets. Nothing could seem further from or be more relevant to our historical moment: "[We] don't want to work and die any more for the development of capital and its state. We can't keep this crap going any more."

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The North Water by Ian McGuire

Henry Holt, 272 pages, $27

At a point in British novelist Ian McGuire's bloody cannonball of an adventure novel, the crew of a doomed whaling ship in the 19th century kidnap a baby polar bear and keep it, indifferently, cruelly. It scrapes and screams at the bottom of a barrel for its doomed parent. That's the kind of adventure novel this is  the adventure is in McGuire's hurtling rhythms, not his plot. The tale is pure Conrad, by way of Homer and "Blood Meridian" (with a resemblance to "The Revenant"). Keepers of a flailing hunting industry, the men bluster and boast and fight and kill and survive, and the landscape will not spare them. Your mind is never far from Cormac McCarthy's evil-that-men-do, the clear inspiration, but McGuire's sense for the cheap thrills of old pulp is unapologetic and artful.

The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien

Back Bay, 320 pages, $15.99

A beguiling foreign stranger comes to the provincial Irish town of Cloonoila. Establishing himself as a mystical healer, he stirs an undercurrent of excitement in Edna O'Brien's dark and indelible novel, "The Little Red Chairs." For 40-year-old Fidelma, who longs to have a child after two miscarriages, his arrival is a last chance. Employing shifting perspectives, O'Brien soon reveals that Dr. Vlad Dragan is a monster, an international war criminal modeled on Radovan Karadzic, the Butcher of Bosnia. When the mystic's identity is discovered, Fidelma falls victim to his former conspirators in a harrowing and brutal scene. Her husband, shamed, rejects her, the town turns on her, and she flees to London where, in the book's second half, she lives among refugees. Finally, among those who lost their home, she finds hers. "I could not go home until I could come home to myself," she says.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Viking, 480 pages, $27 (Read the review here.)

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Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov should have been shot by the Bolsheviks in 1922, but thanks to a certain pre-revolutionary poem is condemned to life imprisonment inside Moscow's Hotel Metropol. What happens next is the subject of Amor Towles' delightful novel "A Gentleman in Moscow." Towles' Count Rostov charms his way into the reader's mind and then lingers like something more than mere literary figment. He is quite the Renaissance man: He can taste the nettles tucked under the Ukrainian ham of a saltimbocca "fashioned from necessity"; seat a banquet's worth of Soviet bigwigs with a diplomat's dexterity; memorably bed an actress; befriend practically everyone; and quietly outwit dogmatic apparatchiks. Still, prison is prison. Living in a proverbial gilded cage like the (expertly rendered) Metropol has an impact on Count Rostov. If unhappy families are unhappy in their own ways, then so too are unhappy men. Towles mines Rostov's misfortune for a truly marvelous portrait.

Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang

Image Comics, Vol. 1: 144 pages, $9.99, Vol. 2: 128 pages, $12.99

Women and comics are having a moment: Superheroes have Willow Wilson's charming "Ms. Marvel" series, Kate Beaton rules the one-panel gag strip, Marjorie Liu's "Monstress" owns fantasy comics and whatever Lauren Redniss' journalism/memoir/art hybrids are true originals. All of which makes it perhaps even more remarkable how thoughtful, engrossing and tough-minded that Brian K. Vaughn's "Paper Girls" has been. It tells the story of four 12-year old girls who deliver the newspaper in 1988 Cleveland. On Halloween night  shades of Ray Bradbury's "The Halloween Tree" are everywhere  they run into time travelers; then flying dinosaurs; then a time machine mysteriously stamped with an Apple logo; then it gets unpredictable. Part '80s adventure movie, part coming of age tale with a killer twist, it's an incisive argument against living in the past, all while reminding former latchkey kid readers of a roving, exhilarating freedom now gone.

"Paper Girls" by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang

NONFICTION

Evicted by Matthew Desmond

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Crown, 432 pages, $28 (Read the review here.)

When you're spending more than half your income on rental housing  up to 70 percent of your income, as is the case with much of the working poor  it's no surprise when the sheriff, along with a moving crew ready to set your belongings out on the curb, comes knocking on your door. That dreaded sound echoes through "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City," Matthew Desmond's carefully researched, often heartbreaking book based on living as an embedded writer in some of Milwaukee's poorest neighborhoods in 2008-09. From his headquarters in a trailer park  and, later, in a rooming house on the city's largely African-American north side  Desmond followed several low-income families, including some with single parents and children, as they were forced out of one apartment after another by landlords backed by the legal system. Desmond's important work deftly explores the inequality and human tragedies that are part of what Desmond calls the "eviction epidemic" in America  and the role of eviction not just as a symptom of poverty but as a driver of it.

Trials of the Earth by Mary Mann Hamilton

Little, Brown, 336 pages, $27 (Read the review here.)

Homesteading alongside her husband in Arkansas and the Mississippi Delta at the turn of the 20th century, Mary Hamilton raised six children and buried four, performed manual labor at home and in the fields, and boarded laborers, sometimes doing the cooking for more than a hundred men at a time. "Trials of the Earth: The True Story of a Pioneer Woman" is a harrowing firsthand account of this backbreaking labor. Previously published by the University of Mississippi, Little, Brown released a new edition of this powerful narrative 83 years after it originally passed on the manuscript. In a single chapter, Mary and husband Frank weather their first rainy season in the Delta. Mary gives birth to her third son unattended because the doctor lives far away across high waters; slowly starves along with her family as the supply route is cut off; and, when the levees finally break, shelters with her daughter and three-month-old baby on a tree stump while bears swim past in the flood, not knowing whether her husband is dead. Her only prayer is for the children to die first, so she can take care of them until the end. Now that's woman's work.

March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell

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Top Shelf, 560 pages, $49.99 (Read the review here.)

When he accepted the National Book Award in November for the third volume in "March," his remarkable comic book trilogy, Georgia Congressman John Lewis shared a story from when he was 16: He tried to apply for a library card, only to be told that "the library was for whites only, not coloreds." Not long thereafter he joined with others to engage in peaceful protest throughout the Jim Crow South against segregation and voter suppression of African-Americans, eventually becoming one of the "Big Six" leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. The three books that comprise his story are dynamically illustrated and encompass such landmark historic events as the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the marches on Washington and Selma. Into our era of uncertainty and fear, Lewis sends a clear, powerful message  that change is not easy, but with courage, persistence, and love, it will come.

Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge

Nation, 304 pages, $25.99 (Read the review here.)

Sometimes it takes a foreigner to see America clearly. Such is the case with British journalist Gary Younge. From the start of his outstanding book, "Another Day in the Death of America," Younge aims to jolt readers from their apathy, to force them to reconsider their blase acceptance of violence. "It was just another day in America. And as befits an unremarkable Saturday in America, ten children and teens were killed by gunfire." Those words alone should shock and shame us. The rest of Younge's account  clear-eyed portraits of each of those 10 youths killed on Nov. 23, 2003, including that of Chicago's Tyshon Anderson  is a reckoning. Younge summons our empathy and demands we do better.

Constance Fenimore Woolson by Anne Boyd Rioux

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W.W. Norton, 416 pages, $32.95 (Read the review here.)

Constance Fenimore Woolson's name perpetually bobs around the periphery of Victorian studies, as one of what Nathaniel Hawthorne infamously called "that damned mob of scribbling women"  19th-century female novelists whose books outsold their male counterparts' by powers of 10. The male critics who shaped the American literary canon in the first half of the 20th century obliged Hawthorne's memory by ignoring these offensively successful women entirely. Yet Woolson was considered one of the most ambitious voices in American fiction, on the strength of six novels and two story collections she produced before her presumed suicide at 53. Thus it's particularly galling that most who remember her today do so in connection with Henry James, who occupied murky territory somewhere between frenemy and soulmate. It's the James legacy that Anne Boyd Rioux wrestles with most in her excellent biography. During their 14-year acquaintance, Woolson and James became such close friends, confidantes and literary companions that the question of marriage must have occurred to both; but the central question between them seems not to have been whether they would ever be lovers, but whether they would ever be equals. Rioux's complex account leaves readers with an impression of Woolson's yearning ambition and uncertain triumph: "(A)t this late hour I have gotten hold of the pen, and now people must listen to me, occasionally."

Compiled by Jennifer Day, books editor. Christopher Borrelli, Bill Daley, Amy Gentry, Christine Heppermann, Jenni Laidman, Kevin Nance, Michael Robbins and Nara Schoenberg contributed.
Getting a visa to visit Vietnam isn't as straightforward as it once was, thanks to recent changes in policies and pricing. But it's still a vibrant country and worth a visit. (Chau Doan / LightRocket)

We were thrilled when we found $730 plane tickets from Chicago to Vietnam.

Friends had recently traveled to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, so we knew we'd need to get our visas ahead of time.

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What we didn't know was that we had booked our October flights shortly after the country changed its visa regulations.

In April, according to a State Department official, the U.S. and Vietnam ratified an agreement that permitted Vietnam to issue 12-month, multiple-entry visas to U.S. citizens. The U.S. similarly allows Vietnamese citizens multiple-entry, 12-month visas for short-term business or tourism.

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But once the new visa regulations went into effect, we found that 12-month visas were the only ones available, instead of the former 30-day visa option. And the fee had skyrocketed.

Just how expensive was it? It depended on whom we asked. The Vietnam Embassy's website (www.vietnamembassy.us) doesn't list prices. It simply directs people to an email address and a phone number with multiple extensions. Phone calls to each extension went unanswered.

An email to vnconsular@vietnamembassy.us did garner a response within a day. The Washington, D.C., embassy cited a $220 fee. The Houston consulate, however, quoted us $200, and San Francisco, $185. (We reached out to Houston via 713-850-1233 and heard back from San Francisco after emailing info@vietnamconsulate-sf.org. We didn't try the New York consulate, which appears to be reachable via info@vietnamconsulate-ny.org.)

Prices have since shifted; a recent email to the consulate in San Francisco offered an $80 visa for a one-month, single-entry visit, which would have sufficed for our vacation.

Because fees appear to be flexible, it's a good idea to check with multiple consulates and the embassy for the lowest price. You'll need to mail your passport and include a prepaid return envelope. Passports must be valid for at least six months beyond your planned stay.

Beware of scams. The Vietnamese government allows some businesses and travel agencies to arrange for preapproval for a "visa on arrival" at the airport, but the State Department warns that some U.S. citizens have reported being charged unexpectedly high fees upon landing in Vietnam. It recommends that travelers get a visa directly from an embassy or consulate of Vietnam prior to arrival.

abowen@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @byalisonbowen

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Is the presidential election really over, finally, or is this Electoral College business simply another clever ruse to trick us?

Like first lady Michelle Obama, I think I've lost all hope.

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"See, now, we are feeling what not having hope feels like," Obama told Oprah Winfrey in a recent interview lamenting the way the political thing turned out.

This was the same Oprah Winfrey who visited Michelle Obama in the White House during the president's first term. Michelle talked on and on about the wonderful pies made by White House bakers, yet reportedly, she did not offer Oprah even a single thin slice of delicious White House pie.

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But that was long ago. And now, hope seems to have fled altogether.

"What else do you have if you don't have hope?" the first lady told Oprah. "What do you give your kids if you can't give them hope?"

You mean, if you don't give your kids eight years of top private schools and lavish vacations all over the world, including stays in luxurious Spanish castles with friends and a houseful of retainers?

I wouldn't know. Still, I feel you, Michelle, because once, I had hope too.

I once hoped the presidential campaign and the lamentations about the presidential campaign would end.

But that was back in November, weeks and weeks ago, when the votes were counted.

Yet the nightmare continued, on and on, with much wailing and shrieking and whining and crying and screeching and whimpering. It wouldn't die, crawling upon the snow like a relentless, severed hand from some White Walker in "Game of Thrones."

"It's over," said a guy I half-invented to help with an awkward transition. "Hillary Clinton will not be president. Donald Trump will be president."

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Now, after all this time, you dare tell me that "it's over"?

I'd like to trust you, but you might be peddling Fake News.

Most Americans hoped to put presidential politics behind us weeks and weeks ago. But the nightmare continued.

You know the kind of nightmare; the kind where you wake up, relieved the terror has passed and you walk into the kitchen for a glass of milk. And there you see your dog sitting at the table in Pajama Boy pajamas, drinking coffee and smoking French cigarettes, cursing in Armenian.

Then when he sprouts the head of an angry John Podesta and grabs a meat cleaver, it starts all over again.

Terrifying? Of course it is, because this one won't end either.

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First came election night, and many TV talking heads with their weeping and wailing and refusing to see the numbers in front of them.

If only they'd read that column I'd written back in March, stating categorically that Hillary Clinton would not, could not win the election, since she was the face of the status quo in an insurgency year.

But I don't fly in their echo chamber, and so they weren't prepared, and then came even more caterwauling as the panic spread like a virus, hopping from liberal news people to liberal showbiz people.

Several minor celebrities threatened to ruin our very lives by taking their awesome talents to Canada and into exile. If Lena Dunham and Whoopi Goldberg actually leave the United States over Donald Trump's election, well, let's just say my life is over.

Then came that famous Jill Stein/Hillary Clinton recount. It failed, followed by the Vladimir Putin Mind Lock gambit.

Somehow, through the power of his mind, Putin forced Hillary Clinton to run a terrible campaign and insult millions of voters so much that they couldn't stand her.

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Putin also made sure she had no message. He just sucked all her good messaging right out of her and left only the bad messages.

Bad, bad Putin.

As the Soul Hunter in "Babylon 5: The River of Souls," Martin Sheen raced around the universe saving the souls of important leaders. (Doug Hyun / TBS Inc.)

And just when we thought it was over, liberal Hollywood actors  led by Martin Sheen  rallied one more time.

They tried pressuring the electors of the Electoral College, by using a subversive document:

The Constitution.

They weren't using some "living document" of their political fantasies, either, but the actual Constitution written by those old, dead and presumably discredited white European males.

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"Our Founding Fathers built the Electoral College to safeguard the American people from the dangers of a demagogue," Sheen said in a TV commercial, "and to ensure that the presidency only goes to someone who is to an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications."

In other words, Hillary?

Sadly for the Clintons, things didn't work as planned, which must have hurt Sheen's pride, as he had played that wildly popular president on the liberal TV fantasy show, "The West Wing."

I'd rather picture him, not as a TV president, but in my favorite Sheen role, as the Soul Hunter.

Sheen played a space alien with a gigantic, pulsing bald head and a glowing avocado pit in the middle of his forehead in "Babylon 5: The River of Souls."

He raced around the universe, saving the souls of important leaders until they were needed in some future sci-fi time.

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I couldn't find the script, and YouTube was charging a whopping $1.99 to watch the movie, but I did find a quote on the IMBD movie website.

"Faith is good," said Soul Hunter Sheen. "But sometimes faith is blind."

Like hope?

Listen to "The Chicago Way" podcast with John Kass and Jeff Carlin  here: http://wgnradio.com/category/wgn-plus/category/thechicagoway.

jskass@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @John_Kass
Chicago police Officer John Gorman, left, walks out of the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago with attorney Michael Clancy on Dec. 21, 2016, after a judge acquitted him. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

A veteran Chicago cop grinned and hugged his former police partner outside a courtroom Wednesday, moments after a judge acquitted him of all criminal charges in an off-duty traffic dispute in which he fired off five shots.

John Gorman, 54, who testified he did not report shooting at a truck with two people inside because he had been drinking, becomes the latest Chicago police officer to beat a criminal conviction in a trial before a Cook County judge, not a jury.

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In issuing his decision, Judge James Linn, who is assigned to the Leighton Criminal Court Building, acknowledged "societal fears" over police being properly punished for wrongdoing, but he said officers also shouldn't face a higher burden to prove their innocence.

"At no time in any court of law should police officers be treated better than anyone else," said the judge, who heard three days of testimony over several weeks. "That being said, they shouldn't be treated worse."

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Gorman, a 15-year police veteran, let out a deep breath when Linn said he didn't think a conviction for aggravated discharge of a firearm  which carries a minimum of four years in prison  was appropriate under the circumstances. Linn said the state legislature intended such laws for "predators" with "animus in their hearts" who acted with "some premeditation beforehand."

"He was not looking for any trouble," Linn said of Gorman. "He was going home, actually."

The judge said the off-duty cop appeared to have "felt threatened" and acted as if he was defending himself in a "road rage" incident.

"We pursued the same charges in this case as we would any other case with similar circumstances and respectfully disagree with the Court's decision," the state's attorney's office said in a statement issued later Wednesday.

After the ruling, Gorman hugged his former police partner, Timothy Neylon, who was with him on the day of the shooting and testified on his behalf at the trial.

Gorman has been suspended without pay for a few months, his attorney said, while Neylon remains on paid desk duty because of the same incident.

Gorman was blocks from the Morgan Park police district headquarters when he fired five rounds from his personal handgun at an oversized pickup carrying an off-duty suburban cop and his friend.

Those two testified they tried to intervene after seeing Gorman driving erratically and nearly striking a street vendor, then sped away after seeing Gorman emerge from his car with a gun.

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But Gorman's attorney, Michael Clancy, said his client acted in fear for his life after being chased and harassed for miles by the two men in a truck, who Gorman testified sped toward him after he got out of his personal car.

"The bottom line is the actions that he took were completely in self-defense," Clancy told reporters after the judge's ruling. "The situation he was in  it was a split-second decision. He got out with the intention of showing his identification and telling these aggressors in the big truck, 'Hey knock it off, get away from me.'"

Prosecutors argued at trial that Gorman, who had refused to submit to a Breathalyzer, was drunk when he opened fire. By the time he was compelled to submit to the exam by internal affairs investigators, more than five hours had passed.

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His blood alcohol content was 0.07 percent, just below the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Since so many hours had passed, he was charged with misdemeanor DUI. Prosecutors later dropped the charge because Gorman tested under the legal limit, Clancy said.

Judges at the Leighton Criminal Court Building have acquitted Chicago police officers in two high-profile criminal cases over the last two years. Former Chicago police Detective Dante Servin, who fatally shot a 22-year-old woman during an off-duty incident near his West Side home, was cleared of involuntary manslaughter in April 2015 by Judge Dennis Porter, who ruled prosecutors brought the wrong charges.

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Last December, Judge Diane Cannon acquitted police Lt.Glenn Evans on charges he shoved his gun down a man's throat and threatened to kill him despite evidence showing the alleged victim's DNA on Evans' gun.

A rare conviction came earlier this month when Judge Matthew Coghlan found a Chicago police officer guilty of felony perjury for falsely testifying at a 2014 drug hearing, but he acquitted two other officers  one from Chicago and the other from Glenview, saying he was drawing a distinction between "knowingly false" statements and mistakes.

sschmadeke@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @SteveSchmadeke
The handwritten question from the jury arrived at 3:50 p.m.: "Can we find fault with RQM, without finding fault with Brunswick?"

That one sentence, written June 9, 2015, set off a cascade of legal events that has played out over the months since.

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On Tuesday, in the most recent twist, a Cook County Circuit Court judge upheld a $25 million settlement at the center of the personal injury lawsuit.

In his ruling, Judge James N. O'Hara noted the case has "endured a long and complex procedural history."

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It all started with the brief note from the jury as it deliberated a verdict at the end of a three-week trial. At issue was whether Brunswick Corp., its boat division and RQM, a yacht company, were liable for the injuries that Scot Vandenberg suffered in a 2009 fall on a boat that left him a quadriplegic.

Brunswick lawyers contend they never learned about the note until after the settlement was reached about an hour later.

Last week, Brunswick filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that Vandenberg's lawyer, Mark McNabola, and a judge's clerk, Tatiana Agee, violated the company's constitutional right to due process by hiding the contents of the note. The company argues it would not have authorized the settlement if it had known the seemingly advantageous wording of the note.

The lawsuit argues the company has spent significant money on legal expenses in the 18 months of wrangling about the validity of the settlement and the contents of the note.

But O'Hara's ruling Tuesday was clear: All lawyers were made aware of the contents of the jury note and had the chance to participate in how to respond to the jury's question before the settlement was reached about 10 minutes later.

"The overall impact of Judge O'Hara's ruling vindicates Mark and validates what he has been saying all along, that he represented his client appropriately and within the rules and within the ethics of the profession," said McNabola's lawyer, Richard A. Devine.

Dan K. Webb, Brunswick's lawyer in the federal lawsuit, said in an email he was disappointed in O'Hara's ruling and planned to appeal. But he contended the decision won't affect "the federal claims brought in the lawsuit filed last week."

O'Hara's "ruling ignored the extensive factual record in this case that had been developed for more than a year," Webb said.

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After the note was entered into the record in June 2015, a deal was reached between Vandenberg's lawyer and a claims adjuster working on Brunswick's behalf, according to court documents. But Brunswick argues McNabola and Agee concealed the existence of the jury question, then worked to undercut the company's efforts to find out the truth about what happened that day, according to the lawsuit.

Judge Elizabeth M. Budzinski, who presided over the 2015 trial, apparently allowed the jury to continue to deliberate during the settlement talks. About five to 10 minutes after the settlement was entered into the record, "the jury concluded deliberations and signed a verdict form indicating a 'verdict' in (Brunswick's) favor," according to O'Hara's ruling.

Webb pointed out that another Cook County judge, Daniel Lynch, threw out the settlement in May, ruling that due process required the jury's verdict to be enforceable and the settlement void. But Lynch, for reasons he did not explain, recused himself from the case after Vandenberg's lawyers alleged he was biased against McNabola.

Devine said he was analyzing O'Hara's ruling to determine his next steps in the federal lawsuit, but he said he believes O'Hara's ruling "dramatically undercuts" the suit.

Brunswick is seeking unspecified damages, in addition to legal fees, in its federal lawsuit.

poconnell@chicagotribune.com

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Seven people, including four teenagers, were shot in Chicago from Tuesday night to early Wednesday, police said.

Just after midnight, a 30-year-old man was shot in the Fifth City neighborhood on the West Side. He went to Stroger Hospital in good condition with a gunshot wound to the left calf after the shooting early Wednesday in the 3400 block of West Van Buren Street. He has been treated and released from the hospital.

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About 10:40 p.m. Tuesday, a 29-year-old man was shot in Englewood, police said. He was in a vehicle parked in the 500 block of West 65th Place when someone came up on foot and fired shots into the passenger side. The man was shot multiple times and went in serious condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

In the South Side's Fuller Park neighborhood just before 8:05 p.m., a 17-year-old boy suffered a gunshot wound to the arm and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was in good condition. The boy was in front of a home in the 4400 block of South Wells Street when a vehicle pulled up and someone inside shot him, police said in a media notification.

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At 8 p.m. on the Southwest Side, two teens were shot and seriously injured in Brighton Park, police said. They were in a car in the 2800 block of West 38th Street when someone walked up and fired multiple rounds into the vehicle, then fled. A 17-year-old boy was shot in the back and went to Stroger Hospital. An 18-year-old boy was shot in the chest and went to Mount Sinai Hospital. Both were listed in serious condition.

About 7:25 p.m. on the South Side, a 33-year-old man was shot in the left elbow while he was parked in the 6900 block of South State Street in the Park Manor neighborhood, police said. The man went on his own to St. Bernard Hospital, where his condition was stabilized. The man told police he was sitting in the vehicle when a man or boy came up and tried to open the driver's-side door, then showed a gun when he found the door locked and demanded the man open the door. The man started to drive off and the attacker shot him, police said.

In the West Side's Austin neighborhood about 6:10 p.m., a 16-year-old boy was shot in the 300 block of North Pine Avenue, according to police. The boy was shot in the leg and went to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park. His condition was stabilized.



Check back for updates.
A Cook County sheriffs police officer was injured in a crash early Wednesday on Interstate 294 in suburban Oak Brook, authorities said.

Several vehicles were involved in the crash just after 5:30 a.m. in the northbound lanes between Cermak Road and 31st Street, according to the Illinois State Police. As of 6:45 a.m., one lane was closed.

The sheriffs office said the officer suffered minor injuries and was taken to a hospital.

Details of the cause were not available.
A 49-year-old man is in custody after a standoff with police in the Old Town neighborhood that lasted nearly four and a half hours Tuesday.

Police were called to a building in the 1400 block of North Cleveland Avenue about 3:05 p.m. and a SWAT team was dispatched for a barricade situation.

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About 7:30 p.m., the standoff was resolved, and the man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for evaluation.
Lawyers for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich have once again appealed his 14-year prison sentence on corruption charges, this time arguing that the judge who resentenced him in August failed to consider the glowing letters from fellow prisoners and all the good works of the ex-governor while behind bars.

The last-ditch request for another resentencing hearing is considered a legal long-shot at best because the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals already said in a previous ruling that U.S. District Judge James Zagel's original sentence was reasonable given the variety of corruption schemes on which Blagojevich was convicted.

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If the appellate panel rejects the request, it would leave Blagojevich with only one more chance at getting any legal relief: A petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. That would also be considered a Hail Mary since the high court already passed on hearing his case once.

Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 of misusing his powers as governor in an array of wrongdoing, including most notably his attempts to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama after his 2008 election as president. The conviction came less than a year after an initial trial ended with a jury deadlocked on all but one count of lying to the FBI, forcing the retrial.

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Last year, an appeals court threw out five counts involving the Senate seat sale on technical grounds. But the three-judge panel tempered the small victory for Blagojevich by calling the evidence against him "overwhelming" and making it clear that Zagel's original sentence was not out of bounds.

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Zagel's decision in August to resentence Blagojevich to the original 14 years means he's still slated to remain in prison until May 2024.

In his 60-page brief filed just before the midnight deadline Tuesday, Blagojevich's attorney, Leonard Goodman, said Zagel ignored key evidence presented at the resentencing, including dozens of letters written by fellow inmates about Blagojevich's character and leadership in the federal prison camp outside Denver.

Blagojevich, who appeared at the hearing via a satellite hookup from the prison, also apologized for his "mistakes" but never specifically mentioned the crimes for which he was convicted  something Goodman said Zagel should have taken into account.

"The effect of (Zagel's) ruling was to say to the defendant, 'no matter how hard you try or what you achieve, I will never alter my opinion of you,' " Goodman wrote.

The U.S. attorney's office is scheduled to file a reply brief next month.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @jmetr22b
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Nick Mangwana a naturalized British citizen who emigrated from Zimbabwe is directly attacking political and individual freedoms in Zimbabwe.In his address to the Zanu-PF congress on December 16, 2016 he identified political activists Pastor Evan Mawarire and Stan Zvorwadza as traitors who must be "dealt" with.Pastor Evan Mawarire started ThisFlag Movement in response to the well known failing economic conditions. In response to his campaign which had garnered national interest the government of Zimbabwe illegally arrested and detained him. The government has threatened his life and that of his family- he was advised that if he did not leave Zimbabwe his then pregnant wife would be raped. President Mugabe on numerous occasions identified him by name as the biggest traitor and asked him to leave his home country.Sten Zvorwadza has advocated for human rights and stood up to social injustices. He was severely attacked in broad daylight by the Zimbabwe Republic Police for offering flowers as a sign of peace! Stan is a steadfast advocate for peace and justice but over the last year he has been heavily brutalized by the Zanu PF regime.Mangwana clearly said that he is seeking out financial support to "deal" with Zimbabweans abroad!Mangwana is also campaigning for Zanu PF to DENY the Diaspora Citizens their Constitutional Right to VOTE.Mangwana's language and actions do not represent those of a democratically constituted society like the U.K. He is using a public platform to terrorize citizens under the protection of a very brutal regime.Mangwana needs to go back to Zimbabwe and enjoy the economic meltdown that Mugabe has caused. Mangwana's threat to terrorize Zimbabweans in the U.K. and elsewhere must be taken seriously!
A 16-year-old girl was hit, held at gunpoint and sexually assaulted at a West Side home Monday evening before she escaped Tuesday morning and fled to an "L" stop to seek help, police said.

The girl told police she was assaulted about 6 p.m. Monday in an Austin neighborhood home of someone she knew in the 1000 block of North Lorel Avenue, according to police.

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The girl went to the female acquaintance's home about 5 p.m., according to police. Not long after she got there, the acquaintance punched her in the face and pointed a gun at her, and a male attacker sexually assaulted her, according to police.

The girl told police she was able to leave the home about 9 a.m. Tuesday and ran to the Green Line for help before police found her in the 5100 block of West Lake Street, near the Laramie Avenue station, police said.

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The girl was taken to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park.

No one was in custody Tuesday night.
A personal trainer from Wilmette pleaded not guilty in Cook County court Tuesday to charges he knowingly transmitted HIV to three women he dated.

Prosecutors have said Jimmy Amutavi, 46, denied having the virus when he was charged in October with criminal transmission of HIV, though they allege he was diagnosed as early as 2001. They said he had unprotected sex with three women, all clients.

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During a brief arraignment at the Skokie courthouse Tuesday, Amutavi pleaded not guilty to the felony charges. He is free on bond and is scheduled for a Jan. 19 preliminary hearing.

Prosecutors on Tuesday subpoenaed Amutavi's medical records as well as those of the three alleged victims. Authorities said Amutavi worked as a personal trainer for all three women between April 2015 and his arrest in October and that he had dated each of the women.

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Prosecutors on Tuesday also asked the judge to keep in place a condition of Amutavi's bond that bars him from contacting any of the alleged victims.

"I take violations of bail bond, especially contact with victims, very seriously," Judge Lauren Edidin told Amutavi.

His defense attorney, Jon Erickson, said the law requires that prosecutors prove that his client intended to transmit HIV.

Erickson also said Amutavi, who has a 5-year-old son, had been taking retrovirus medication that made it nearly impossible for him to transmit the virus that causes AIDS.

"There's the elimination of intent," Erickson said after the court hearing.

Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter.
Emmanuel Garcia, 30, wanted in the 2013 shooting death of a Berwyn man, has been extradited from Florida after evading police until a recent domestic violence arrest, authorities said. (Cook County sheriff's photo)

A former West Side man wanted in the 2013 shooting death of a Berwyn man has been extradited from Florida after evading police until a recent domestic violence arrest, authorities said.

Emmanuel Garcia, 30, appeared Wednesday morning in Maywood Branch Court after being brought late last week from Polk County, Fla., and is being held without bail at the Cook County Jail on murder charges, according to police and court records. He waived his right to a bond hearing Wednesday, according to prosecutors.

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Berwyn police have been looking for Garcia since soon after the killing of Abraham Atempa-Silva, 33, outside his home in the 1300 block of South Ridgeland Avenue on July 25, 2013. Garcia's brother, Martin Garcia, 23, is awaiting trial on murder charges in the case after being arrested soon after the shooting.

The Garcias both had lived in the 5800 block of West Roosevelt Road in the Island neighborhood.

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Atempa-Silva and Emmanuel Garcia had been out drinking and returned with acquaintances to Atempa-Silva's home early in the morning on July 25, 2013, according to court records.

Emmanuel Garcia demanded drugs from Atempa-Silva, and when Atempa-Silva refused to give the man drugs, and the two men began to argue. At that point, Emmanuel Garcia called his brother and told him to bring him a gun, prosecutors said when Martin Garcia was charged.

Martin Garcia arrived soon after with the gun in a box, according to prosecutors. Emmanuel Garcia argued more with Atempa-Silva and then shot him in the head, prosecutors said.

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Police arrived and found Atempa-Silva on his front lawn with a gunshot wound to the head, according to a news release from Berwyn police. He was pronounced dead at MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn about 15 minutes after he was shot, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

The brothers fled after the shooting, but Martin Garcia returned to dispose of the gun, according to court records.

Emmanuel Garcia was able to evade police capture at the time of the shooting "due to the assistance" of Martin Garcia, according to court records. Multiple witnesses said Martin Garcia provided the murder weapon to his brother, according to court documents.

When he was arrested, Martin Garcia made incriminating statements to police regarding his and his brother's roles in the shooting, according to court records.

A murder warrant for Emmanuel Garcia's arrest was issued within days of the killing, according to court records. The Polk County, Fla., sheriff's department contacted Berwyn detectives Oct. 7, saying that Emmanuel Garcia, using the alias Sergio Reyes, had been arrested on a domestic violence charge but that he had been identified using his fingerprints as being wanted in an Illinois killing, according to a release from Berwyn police. Emmanuel Garcia was extradited to Illinois on Friday, and on Monday, police received approval from the Cook County state's attorney's office to proceed with the murder charge against him.

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Emmanuel Garcia is due back in court Jan. 6, according to prosecutors and jail records.

The Chicago Tribune's Liam Ford contributed.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel addresses the Chicago City Council regarding the budget at City Hall in Chicago on Wednesday Nov. 16, 2016. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

The City Council must allow members of the public to comment at all meetings, rather than just during committee sessions, a Cook County Circuit Court judge ruled Tuesday.

Judge Diane Joan Larsen concluded that not allowing speakers at full council meetings violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act. "Public comment must be allowed at all open meetings," Larsen wrote.

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But she did not immediately impose the order. Instead, the council will be given time  the exact amount yet to be hashed out in court  to come up with new public comment rules.

The city could appeal the decision, and city lawyers are "considering all our legal options," Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey said.

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"We are disappointed and respectfully disagree with the court's ruling," McCaffrey said in a written statement. "The City Council already provides a robust system of public comment through its committee meetings, and taking additional comments at the full City Council meeting is duplicative and unnecessary."

But Andy Thayer, one of two longtime city activists who brought the lawsuit that led to Larsen's order, praised the decision.

"It's about the public being able to tell the full council that it's screwing up, and not just ... a handful of committee people," Thayer said. "This is about people, whatever their beef is with City Hall, being able to express themselves in a meaningful way, the way the Open Meetings Act was designed to ensure."

Thayer and Rick Garcia sued the city in July, based on limited access provided to the public during May and June council meetings, when aldermen were considering a nearly $16 million subsidy for an Uptown high-rise apartment building that they opposed. They also raised the public comment issue.

In her opinion, Larsen did not address whether the rules controlling who gets into the meetings complied with the Open Meetings Act, but Thayer said he still expects that issue to be litigated.

hdardick@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @ReporterHal
Syrians evacuated from the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo during the ceasefire arrive at a refugee camp in Rashidin, near Idlib, Syria, on Dec. 20, 2016. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia, Iran and Turkey are ready to act as guarantors in a peace deal between the Syrian government and the opposition. He spoke on Tuesday after a meeting of the three countries' foreign ministers in Moscow. (STR / AP)

BEIRUT  Hundreds of rebel fighters and civilians, including small children swaddled in thick blankets, were bused out of war-ravaged Aleppo in heavy snow on Wednesday as the evacuation of former rebel strongholds entered its final phase.

Scenes of buses slowly driving out of Aleppo in a shroud of white offered an evocative finale to what has been one of the most brutal chapters in Syria's civil war.

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The departures from Aleppo pave the way for President Bashar Assad to assume full control there, after more than four years of fighting over Syria's largest city. It marks the most significant victory for Assad since an uprising against his family's four-decade rule swept the country in 2011.

The evacuations were set in motion last week after Syria's opposition agreed to surrender its last footholds in eastern Aleppo. Since then, about 25,000 fighters and civilians have been bused out, according to the United Nations. On Wednesday, buses began evacuating the last rebels and civilians, an estimated 3,000 people.

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By nightfall, 25 buses carrying hundreds of people had driven in a rare snow storm from eastern Aleppo to opposition-held areas in the countryside near the city, said opposition activist Ahmad Primo, who was monitoring arrivals at the main drop-off point in the Rashideen district.

The evacuees got off the buses wearing thick jackets and carrying sacks with belongings. One woman dressed in a black robe and face veil carried a small child swaddled in a heavy yellow blanket. A man held a toddler whose face was peeking out from under a blanket shielding him from falling snow.

The opposition's Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday evening that with the evacuation of the last group of rebels from eastern Aleppo, Assad was in full control, save for a few positions on the western outskirts of the city that were still in rebel hands.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said patients and all those requiring medical care had been evacuated from the last hospital in the city's east.

Pro-government forces repeatedly struck medical facilities in rebel-held neighborhoods in their push to expel the opposition from Aleppo this year. In November, the U.N. said it believed there were no more functioning medical facilities in the eastern part of the city.

Wednesday's bus movements came after evacuations had been suspended for 24 hours, one of several snags and delays since the first bus convoys left the city last week.

Frequent disagreements have erupted between the rebels and the government, as well as among rebel groups, over compliance with a wider deal that also includes evacuations from two rebel-besieged villages, Foua and Kfarya.

The ICRC said about 750 people have been bused out of the villages, leaving hundreds more to be evacuated.

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Meanwhile, it was unclear if any U.N. observers were on the ground in eastern Aleppo on Wednesday  two days after a U.N. Security Council resolution approved their urgent deployment.

Deputy U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said some U.N. staff were present at a Syrian government checkpoint outside Aleppo's eastern sector, but he couldn't say for sure if any observers had been let into the onetime rebel-held area.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, fighting intensified in the Islamic State-controlled town of al-Bab, where Turkish troops and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters have been trying to drive the extremists out.

Turkey's state television said 10 Turkish soldiers were killed Wednesday in three separate suicide attacks in al-Bab.

The report by TRT television came hours after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said IS was fighting "for dear life" in al-Bab, carrying out suicide bombings and attacks with improvised explosive devices.

A total of 35 Turkish soldiers have died in northern Syria since August, when Turkey sent ground troops to support the Syrian opposition forces in clearing a border area of IS militants and to curb Syrian Kurdish territorial expansion.

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Meanwhile, a 7-year-old Syrian girl who was evacuated on Monday from eastern Aleppo and whose mother ran a Twitter account in her name met with Erdogan in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Bana Alabed's mother, Fatemah, began operating the account in September, tweeting on her daughter's behalf. The account has garnered some 354,000 followers, and has included tweets to Michelle Obama and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, asking for help.

At the United Nations, the Security Council approved the delivery of humanitarian aid across borders and conflict lines in Syria for another year, in a resolution aimed at reaching thousands in need in rebel-held areas.

The resolution, adopted unanimously, noted the "the continued deterioration of the devastating humanitarian situation in Syria," where more than 13.5 million people require urgent assistance.

Also at the U.N., the General Assembly voted to establish an investigative body that will assist in documenting and prosecuting the most serious violations of international law in Syria, including possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The 193-member world body adopted the resolution over strenuous objections from Syria and Russia, who accused the assembly of interfering in the work of the Security Council.

A U.N. board of inquiry said it had received reports that an attack on an aid convoy on the outskirts of Aleppo in September, which killed 10 people and injured 22, was "highly likely" to have been carried out by the Syrian air force but it was unable to reach a definitive conclusion. A summary of the board's report was released by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

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ATLANTA  Georgia led the nation this year in the number of inmates put to death, an anomaly that's due at least in part to executions in Texas dipping into single digits for the first time in 20 years.

With nine lethal injections in 2016, Georgia accounted for nearly half of the 20 executions nationwide. It was the most inmates the state has put to death in a calendar year since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed executions to resume 40 years ago. It was almost twice as many as the state's previous record of five, set in 1987 and matched last year.

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Texas, meanwhile, executed seven inmates, the fewest the state has put to death since 1996, when three people were executed. Alabama had two executions, and Florida and Missouri had one apiece.

Executions and new death sentences have been on the decline in recent years for a variety of reasons, and that continued in 2016.

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Even as Georgia carried out 14 executions in 2015 and 2016, no new death sentences were imposed in the state. Texas sent four people to death row in 2016 and two in 2015.

Georgia typically sets an execution date once an inmate has exhausted all of his appeals. In recent years, however, executions have been halted for months at a time, essentially creating a backlog of inmates who were eligible for execution that was cleared this year.

A legal challenge to the change in the execution method from three drugs to one drug stopped executions in Georgia from July 2012 to February 2013. Executions paused again from July 2013 to May 2014 while lawyers challenged a law that makes secret the source of the state's execution drugs. And another lull came from March to September 2015 after a drug intended for use in an execution was found to have precipitated, leaving solid chunks floating in what should have been a clear solution.

There are currently no Georgia inmates who are eligible for execution, according to the attorney general's office, and the state is unlikely to have another record year in 2017.

In Texas, a dozen condemned inmates had their scheduled executions postponed in 2016, some more than once, according to records kept by the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that provides analysis and information about capital punishment.

A combination of factors led to the 20-year low in Texas, said Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service.

The state was the first in the country to create a junk science writ, which can give defense attorneys an opportunity to reopen convictions and ask the courts to take a closer look if evidence used to convict the inmate is no longer considered scientifically sound, she said.

The state's highest court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, has been raising more questions than in the past, causing cases to be delayed. And the U.S. Supreme Court has continued to consider challenges to practices used in Texas, including taking two cases this fall, Kase said.

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"We've got a hell of a lot of reform going on in a lot of different spheres," she said. "But that is owed to Texas' very shameful record of a broken capital justice system."

Texas already has scheduled nine executions for the first half of next year. There's no way to know how many will happen, Kase said.

One thing Georgia and Texas have in common that has allowed them to execute more inmates than other states is a seemingly reliable supply of execution drugs. Both states use pentobarbital made by compounding pharmacies whose identities are shielded by law. That has allowed them to overcome shortages caused when traditional drug manufacturers, some bowing to pressure from opponents of capital punishment, refused to sell their products for use in lethal injections.

Ohio, on the other hand, postponed all scheduled executions this year because the state wasn't able to secure the drugs it needed, and other states also have struggled to get the necessary drugs.

Other states slowed their pace because courts have declared death penalty statutes and systemic practices unconstitutional, said Death Penalty Information Center executive director Robert Dunham.

"That has ended up reversing sentences in cases where people might have been executed otherwise," he said.
Phyllis L. Larson taught home economics at a Glen Ellyn middle school for almost 20 years and also put home economics into practice, working for many years as an adviser on Butterball's Turkey Talk-Line offering advice to frenzied cooks fearful of ruining a Thanksgiving or Christmas feast.

Larson, 90, died of natural causes Nov. 18 at the Johnson Health Care Center at the Windsor Park Manor retirement community in Carol Stream, said her daughter, Barb Williams. Larson had been a longtime Glen Ellyn resident until moving to Carol Stream 12 years ago, Williams said.

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Born Phyllis Jean Lindahl in Aurora, Larson graduated from West Aurora High School, her daughter said. Larson earned a bachelor's degree in home economics from North Central College in Naperville in 1948. While in college, she met her future husband of 66 years, Ward Larson, who died in 2015.

After marrying her husband in 1949, Larson lived in Cambridge, Mass., while he studied at Harvard Law School. They then moved back to the Chicago area and settled in Glen Ellyn, and Larson was a homemaker.

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After her children had grown, Larson began working as a substitute teacher at Glen Crest Middle School in Glen Ellyn around 1969. In April 1971, she was hired full time at Glen Crest.

"She really worked hard at coming up with interesting assignments that students would enjoy," said retired Glen Crest Middle School language arts teacher Grace Logan.

Logan recalled that Larson taught home ec to both girls and boys, and to keep boys' interest, she focused on cooking, because "cooking was not a problem  (boys) liked to eat," she said with a laugh.

Logan also noted that Larson would hold an annual reception for the parents of students in her class, at which Larson would distribute a cookbook of all the recipes that her students had cooked.

While at Glen Crest, Larson soon became part of a group of teachers there who got together regularly to sew, calling their conclaves "The Sewing Club." Larson sometimes would invite members of her group to her family's cottage on Blue Spring Lake near Palmyra, Wis.

"She was a gracious hostess that way," said retired Glen Crest chemistry teacher Dorothy Burk. "She would have five or six of us come up and spend a couple of days, and always had an itinerary planned as to where we could go to eat and shop."

Around the time she retired from Glen Crest in June 1990, Larson took a seasonal job working part time as an adviser on Butterball Turkey Talk-Line from early November through the holidays. For more than 15 years, Larson fielded calls from those who were worried about getting a turkey just right.

"She was a lovely lady who was always smiling, and I think she was thrilled to be involved in the (Butterball Turkey Talk-Line) from the get-go," said Holly Grant of Arlington Heights, a longtime colleague on the talk line.

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Larson's daughter remembered that in autumn, Butterball would give its talk line workers a free turkey with instructions on how to cook it to try to learn various new techniques to share with callers.

"It was her moment of fame," Williams said. "We'd look on Thanksgiving mornings on the news shows because a lot of (TV stations) would go (to the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line offices)."

Larson stopped working on the talk line around 2010, her daughter said.

Outside of work, Larson enjoyed collecting graniteware and serving as the historian of First United Methodist Church of Glen Ellyn.

In addition to her daughter, Larson is survived by three sons, Eric, Peter and David; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Services were held.

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Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
City of Mesa Employs Aspect Chatbot

Mesa, Arizona is a city in the Phoenix/Scottsdale metropolitan area where I live and work.

Its where the Chicago Cubs play their Spring Training home games, of which Ive attended many. It has a very nice performing arts center, where I have seen Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt in concert, and enjoyed a presentation by author David Sedaris. Oh, and my parents used to have a little place there as well.

Turns out Mesa is also noteworthy due to its implementation of an Aspect Software automated, text-based consumer engagement solution. The City of Mesa is employing this solution, based on Aspects CXP platform, to provide residents with a chatbot with which they can interact to do account management, mobile bill payment, and get faster answers to account and basic service questions relative to their city services.

Basic text interaction has the potential of becoming the simple and central entry point to the entire customer service organization for the city, said Joe Gagnon, Aspect chief customer strategy officer, and we are thrilled to be able to provide the ability to deliver intelligent, automated, interactive text solutions that will help make this a reality.

More than 71 percent of consumers indicated they want to be able to solve most issues themselves, according to the 2016 Aspect Consumer Index research, and 49 percent said if a company can do it right they would prefer all customer service be conducted via text/messaging.

Customer service from humans is inherently unpredictable, added Anthony Pappas, president of brand marketing and customer experience at customer experience strategy and planning company DMI. Not every company can significantly invest in training and customer service personnel. However, AI provides companies a more scalable and affordable option for customer service  especially in the digital age.

The desire for self-service and the fact that humans are unpredictable help explain the growing prevalence of chatbots.

The Facebook Messenger Platform has given rise to 30,000 chatbots from various companies that Facebooks 900 million monthly users can employ to pay for meals and shop online, noted Rajeev Shrivastava, chief strategy officer at cloud contact center software provider inContact, a NICE company.

Pappas added that the hospitality and travel industries have been doing trials of AI, and both Expedia and airline KLM both have implemented AI-powered chatbots to help with customer service. Meanwhile, DMI has been working with travel distribution company Zumata to integrate natural processing into a chatbot.

Vodafone in Qatar also recently gave life to a bot. Named Hani, and powered by [24]7 technology, it invites website visitors to type in their questions, and it maps those questions to the correct answers, regardless of how the questions are phrased.

Edited by Alicia Young
It is hard to believe that the creator of our universe with its billions of galaxies could have sent himself to this little blue blip not so long ago in the form of an infant born to a virgin, to be first worshipped by illiterate shepherds where He lay in a feed trough, livestock peering down at Him, Eastern potentates following a star to the site. But here we are again, singing those songs, so we shall see.

My mother loved Christmas with her whole heart. With six children and no credit cards and my father ever watchful for unnecessary expense, Christmas was a mountain for Grace to climb, requiring endurance, planning, stealth and skill, but she brought it off to perfection every year, until she was in her 90s and then she coasted on her memories.

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Her mother died when my mother was seven and Mother had no memory of her, which troubled her deeply. She looked at photos of her mother, tall, haggard, from the early 1920s, and tried to dredge up some recollection, anything at all, the sound of her voice, what she cooked, what her hand felt like. Grace was third from the end of 11 children, the 12th having died with the mother, of scarlet fever, and Grace was raised by her older sisters, Marian and Ruby and Margaret. Complaint was not encouraged in that family, and mental health was not a topic for discussion, but clearly Christmas was a shining moment of gaiety in a family of modest means and strict decorum.

When I was 19, my older brother asked me to look after his house over Christmas so he and his young family could drive out to New York for a week. His house was in the woods and I, intoxicated by Thoreau at the time, was more dramatic than necessary and announced that I would spend Christmas alone out there "to figure things out." A poem of mine got in the college literary magazine, with the lines:

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The ice is thin and deep is the dark

Below, green lights in the trees and red,

Winding my way into the winter mist.

Coat open and the silver blades are sharp

And that long long bend ahead

Will take me out and away from you and all of this.

Which was about skating but a girl I knew thought it was suicidal and she came out to the woods to visit me and bring me dinner from her mother  turkey, candied yams, cranberry, in tinfoil. We lit candles and sat and meditated on the mystery of life, and it was pleasant to have someone be so concerned about my well-being. At the time, I thought of suicide as poetic, an artistic choice stemming from great emotional depths. Two months later, her boyfriend Leeds was killed, coming back home from a play at the Guthrie Theater, when a drunk driver pulled out of a parking lot and into his mother's car. Twenty-some years later, sunk in depression, my friend filled her pockets with rocks and paddled a canoe out to the middle of a lake and capsized it and drowned.

Life is good. On a winter night, looking into a fire, our dead are around us, testifying to that. The books on the shelves, the young people around the table, the carols on the radio in the kitchen, the shining snow on the hill that looks out at the Mississippi River.

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As you get old, you gain a stripped-down life, minus the clutter and hullabaloo, the excess food and alcohol, the meaningless gifts, and it is quite satisfying to sit with your true love in candlelight, a plate of cookies on the table, and let memories come and go. My mother is there. It's 6 a.m., still dark out, and I've come down the stairs in my pajamas to the darkened tree, a note from Santa, the crumbs of the gingersnap I left for him, and I hear the padding of bare feet on the stair, and suddenly the tree bursts into light, and my mother is standing there in a raggedy robe. She missed her dead mother and found her every year in making Christmas for us.

Even after she moved to Florida, she flew back for a proper Minnesota Christmas with frost on the windows and wind in the chimney. What you do for children is never wasted: This Christmas will live on and nourish them long after you have faded away.

Washington Post

Garrison Keillor is an author and radio personality.
Police investigate the scene of a quadruple homicide on the city's Southside on December 17, 2016 in Chicago, Illinois. Three people were found shot to death inside a home in the Fernwood neighborhood, another 2 were found shot outside the home, one of those deceased. (Scott Olson / Getty Images)

The gunshots that rang out just after midnight last September sent youths in the neighborhood running scared. One 22-year-old man was killed. Three others, just passing by at the time of the altercation, were injured by the gunfire.

Sound familiar? It's not a scene from Chicago. This shooting, stemming from a "spilled drink," happened near the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus.

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Preventing these all-too-familiar tragedies is the main focus of our new concerted effort to curb the gun violence being played out in our communities. Yes, there is no denying that Chicago is Illinois' poster child for senseless gun violence, with more than 700 murders and thousands of people shot so far this year. But as more and more bloodshed takes hold statewide, we can no longer pin it as just a Chicago issue.

When the Illinois General Assembly reconvenes in 2017, we will ask our colleagues to consider a proposal that adds more muscle to our gun laws. We will once again address violent gun offenders who pass through our judicial system so quickly that they frequently commit additional acts of armed violence.

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We know what doesn't work: mandatory minimum sentences that completely take away a judge's ability to evaluate each alleged perpetrator's circumstances  to see if a second chance can turn his or her life around, or not. Also, it is becoming increasingly clear that penalty enhancements don't serve as a "deterrent" to prospective criminals.

Old myths should be cast aside. New, progressive models of criminal justice and sentencing should take their place.

To that end, we will be simultaneously offering proposals designed to decrease the prison population in Illinois through enhanced judicial discretion, expanded use of sentencing credits, and increased use of diversion programs, alternatives to imprisonment, where appropriate.

We cannot allow this cycle of violence to continue uninterrupted.

One proposal is being developed with bipartisan input and with many stakeholders at the table. It will direct judges to use the upper end of the sentencing scale if the accused has committed gun-related crimes in the past. And if judges believe a lesser sentence is deserved, all they need to do is explain why.

A different approach to sentencing repeat gun offenders is just one tactic we can embrace to make our communities safer. And, we also join the chorus of those calling for more police officers, increased access to economic prosperity for all communities and better educational opportunities as we continue to search for more ways to end the murder epidemic burdening our communities.

Illinois Sen. Tony Munoz, D-Chicago; Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago; Rep. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago; and Rep. Michael J. Mike Zalewski, D-Riverside; are advocating legislation to address gun violence.
President-elect Donald Trump gestures as he thanks his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and press secretary Hope Hicks during a "Thank You Tour 2016" rally on Dec. 17, 2016 in Mobile, Ala. (Jim Watson, AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  It's time for the presidential transition team's daily news teleconference.

"Let's go ahead and open it up to a couple of questions," Donald Trump spokesman Jason Miller announces at Monday's installment.

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Will the president-elect be staying at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida through the new year?

"Wouldn't want to go and forecast next week's schedule," Miller replies.

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Will Trump keep the Internal Revenue Service commissioner until his term ends?

"No decision yet on that front."

Will Trump keep the D.C. "Taxation Without Representation" license plates on the presidential limousine?

"Don't want to speculate on that."

Will he name businessman Toby Neugebauer ambassador to Mexico?

"I don't know if I'll have an answer for you."

Will Trump make any more public appearances while in Florida?

"Don't want to speculate on that," Miller says.

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The Q&A is six minutes and 17 seconds old. "And that," the operator says, "is all the time we have for questions."

Trump hasn't had a news conference in nearly 150 days. But that's OK: His able spokesmen, on a daily basis, are very capable of saying nothing in his stead.

It's really not the fault of Miller and Trump's other mouthpieces. Their boss communicates largely via incendiary messages of 140 characters or fewer that spark and fan international disputes, and nobody seems to know what he's up to  not even those who work for him, apparently. The result is a presidency-in-waiting that is alternately alarming and opaque: If the Trump transition is a dumpster fire, those in charge of containing the blaze are armed with squirt guns.

Trump has held a series of campaign-style rallies for his supporters in states that he won, using the occasions to attack the media and to crow about his victory. He has dismissed the notion that Russia meddled in the U.S. election to boost his candidacy  in the process disparaging the American intelligence community and putting himself at odds with congressional Republicans. He's appointed a squadron of billionaires and business leaders to serve in his administration after campaigning to help the forgotten little man. He's blown off national security briefings. He's using Twitter to infuriate China, and to bicker with Vanity Fair because he didn't like the magazine's review of a Trump Tower restaurant.

But while Trump was willing to pose with reporters for photos at an off-the-record holiday party at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, he hasn't been willing to explain his thinking beyond tweets and campaign-style speeches. And his aides are struggling to do the 'splaining. On CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway attacked President Barack Obama and his administration  only days after she lavishly praised them for their handling of the transition. And on "Fox News Sunday," incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus dismissed the allegations of Russian interference in the election as the product of "third parties," even though the CIA director made the allegations himself.

Then there's Miller's daily teleconference briefing, at which he's often joined by the Republican National Committee's Sean Spicer. The sessions begin with a preamble about the truly huge and amazing things Trump does. Miller's Monday briefing portrayed the various people and happenings involving the president-elect as great, beautiful, world class, visionary, rigorous, very impressive, outstanding, exceptional, big, strong, very fun and deep.

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But when it comes to explaining what Trump is actually thinking or planning, the answers are rather less rigorous, impressive or deep. A sampling from last week:

On Monday, a reporter sought a description of the vetting process.

"We're not going to get into the exact procedures and tactics," was the reply.

On Tuesday, a questioner asked whether Trump will have any Democrats in his Cabinet.

"I wouldn't speculate at this point," Miller answered.

On Wednesday came a question about how Trump would deal with conflicts of interest.

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"This will be something that comes up at the press conference the president-elect will now be holding in January," Miller offered.

Thursday brought a question about Trump's dispute with the CIA over Russia's hacking.

"I'd let the president-elect's tweets speak for themselves," Miller ventured.

On Friday there was an inquiry about Trump's vow to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The reply: "I do not have at this time a schedule that I'm going to be able to share about timing on that."

Another reporter asked about the choice of an agriculture secretary.

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Miller cautioned against "writing that decisions have or have not been made on that front until we hear directly from the president-elect."

Hear directly from the president-elect? Now that would be news.

Washington Post Writers Group

Dana Milbank is a Washington Post columnist.

Twitter @Milbank
Looking north from Ohio Street along the lakefront path that will be split into two parts, one for joggers and one for Bikers. Mayor Emanuel with Kenneth Griffin and Park District Superintendent Michael Kelly announce Wednesday Dec. 21, 2016 a donation from Griffin to add many miles of separated bike and jogging paths along the Chicago Lakefront. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, Chicago lakefront runners, walkers and bicyclists. Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin just donated $12 million to the Chicago Park District to complete the creation of distinct lanes for foot and wheeled traffic on the entire 18-mile lakefront trail.

What a wonderful gift for bikers, who now weave around runners and walkers ("On your left!") ... and for those on foot who dodge biking maniacs whizzing by without a word.

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This page has often appealed to everyone on the lakefront trail to slow down, play nice, keep safety in mind. But all lakegoers know how heavy  and hazardous  the traffic can be: On a typical summer weekend, an estimated 100,000 people jostle for space on that trail from Ardmore Avenue on the north to 71st Street on the south. Some people wind up in the emergency room after collisions.

In March, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the creation of separate lanes on several miles of the trail. The Griffin gift allows the city to extend that separation for the entire trail over the next two years.

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Thank you, Mr. Griffin, for stepping up to burnish Chicago's precious lakefront.

Now, who  and what  is next?

In our New Plan of Chicago series, we've urged philanthropists, businesspeople, entrepreneurs and foundations to invest in projects to help Chicago thrive. To follow in the footsteps of famed architect Daniel Burnham, whose 1909 Plan of Chicago included a vision of a lakefront accessible to all Chicagoans.

Our series has focused on boosting education, creating jobs, making neighborhoods safe and streamlining government to provide more services without breaking the bank. We, and our readers, also have suggested spectacular tourism projects to draw even more visitors.

May we suggest another project in need of a Griffinesque push? We've written recently about the unsightly parking lot on the acreage between Soldier Field and McCormick Place. Earlier occupants of City Hall long pondered converting this prime spot from blight to an inviting expanse of green for Chicago's lakefront enthusiasts (meaning, all of us).

This is a reclamation project in search of a champion with clout and cash. Could a few million private dollars push this notion along? We think so.

So here's our pitch to the rest of Chicago's deep-pocketed class: We know you're competitive. Think of Griffin's generous gift as an opening ante in the high-stakes contest to vault Chicago further into the elite ranks of the world's great cities. Who's willing to endow the next step in that transformation  perhaps with another gift to the lakefront? Between Soldier Field and McCormick Place?

We're sure Mayor Emanuel has a few ideas for your largesse. As do we. Just take a look at www.chicagotribune.com/plan.

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Step right up. Chicago is your canvas.
Because our state's top two political leaders clearly need to make some changes, Somebody Nobody Asked, America's pre-eminent unsolicited advice columnist, suggests New Year's resolutions.

For Democratic Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan:

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Give Democrats something to say "yes" to.

I was having breakfast the other day with a friend who hasn't cast a vote for a Republican in the last 44 years when he suddenly asked, "Hey, why is Mike Madigan such a (vulgar word)?"

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Why would an otherwise loyal Democrat say such a thing?

In part because he's been influenced by relentless Republican attacks, backed up by censorious editorials and columns, that say you, as the House speaker for 31 of the last 33 years, are the main reason Illinois is facing crippling, worst-in-the-nation pension debt and experiencing weak economic growth.

And in part because, frankly, you do come off as a (vulgar word). Icy, clipped, stubborn, repetitive, sour, inaccessible. Sure, this demeanor has so far served you well in Springfield, but big money has changed the political game in Illinois, and a party that's headed up by a man who is disliked and distrusted even by voters who are inclined to agree with him is a party that's headed for trouble.

Hey, I'm one of those voters who's inclined to agree with you. I happen to think staunch Democratic leadership is all that's preventing Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and his gang of ultrawealthy plutocrats from turning Illinois into Kansas. And I think you're absolutely right to refuse to let him hold budget negotiations hostage to his union-busting, right-wing think tank notions.

Yet the status quo won't do. Our state was in bad shape before Rauner beat incumbent Democrat Pat Quinn in 2014 on a promise to "turn around Illinois," and it's in far worse shape today. But I have no idea what your "turnaround" agenda is  how you propose to balance the budget, how you hope to rein in pension costs and help businesses create good jobs.

"No" is a strategy, but it's not a solution.

In April, Democratic state Sen. Daniel Biss of Evanston created roadbackillinois.com, a website that laid out a series of action items for members of your party, proposals they should promote in order to draw a sharp contrast to Rauner's plans.

But party big shots, like you, never got behind it, and there's been no activity on roadbackillinois.com  not even a reader comment  for more than three months.

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We know what you stand against, Mr. Speaker. Now what do you stand for?

Give the public some agenda items to rally around. Because if you think "vote for the Democrat because the Republican is bad" will be a winning strategy when Rauner runs for re-election in 2018, I have three words for you: "President Donald Trump."

For Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner:

Stop name-calling. Stop threatening. Start leading.

Where did you ever get the idea that calling Mike Madigan and Illinois Senate President John Cullerton corrupt and sleazy would make them more likely to compromise with you?

What made you think that threatening rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers with expensive smear campaigns would inspire them to abandon the party leaders who are the best source of funding to fight such campaigns?

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Maybe taunting and bullying those of lesser rank works in the world of equity investing whence you came. But by now you ought to have figured out that it doesn't work in government, particularly when the opposition party has strong control over both chambers of the legislature and holds every significant constitutional office except for the governorship.

Have your digital goons and henchmen take down the bossmadigan.com website, which is nothing more than a compilation of poorly veiled threats against Democrats to abandon the speaker or else be savaged by attack ads from now until 2018.

First, this political thuggery serves only to unify the Democratic caucus and harden its members against you and your tactics. And second, by kicking off the next campaign cycle nearly two years before the general election, you all but guarantee that the budget stalemate will last your entire first term.

Sure, in the long run, you might prevail. If you spend enough money and throw enough mud, there's an outside chance you could gain control of the General Assembly in two more election cycles.

But Illinois doesn't have four years to limp along without a budget while you see if your power play will work. Social service agencies and higher education are hurting under these jury-rigged appropriations plans now in place. Our debts are compounding. Our credit rating is falling.

Set aside whichever of your original 44 nonbudgetary agenda items you're now insisting on and negotiate a compromise tax and spending plan that Democrats and Republicans can, however grudgingly, vote for.

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Then take the millions you and your cronies were planning to spend slagging Democratic foot soldiers and spend them on campaigns promoting your pet ideas  explaining why, exactly, the working people of this state should embrace rather than fear them.

If they see you as a leader and not just a stubborn ideologue, they'll be much more inclined to listen.

Follow Somebody Nobody Asked on Twitter: @EricZorn
Two and a half years after Aurora police and federal agents found almost 20 pounds of heroin and cash stashed in Modesto Alarcon's Grove Street garage, a judge found the 44-year-old Aurora man guilty of possessing and distributing the drug.

Kane County Judge D.J. Tegeler, who presided over Alarcon's bench trial Wednesday, also convicted the landscaping business owner of one count of money laundering. Alarcon, who has been in Kane County Jail since April 2014, faces a minimum of 15 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 1. The nine kilograms of heroin with an estimated street value of $1.35 million that was seized has been described as possibly the largest bust of its kind in county history.

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During testimony Wednesday, police officers and Department of Homeland Security investigators described the events of April 1, 2014, which included surveillance in an Aurora laundromat parking lot, a traffic stop on Chicago's North Side and the discovery of a makeshift loft inside Alarcon's garage. Members of the Aurora police special operations group, along with others involved in a Department of Homeland Security drug task force, collectively explained suspicions about an exchange between occupants of a Jeep and Saturn near Grove and Ohio streets in Aurora which prompted the Jeep to be followed into Chicago. The Jeep was stopped and a search uncovered a hidden compartment filled with $190,000 in bundles of $10,000.

About three hours later, officers began to arrive at Alarcon's home in Aurora. One Aurora officer found a loaded handgun, digital scale and various storage bags and plastic wrap considered "packaging material" in the basement. A second Aurora officer recalled checking out the garage loft where he eventually discovered "large chunks of drugs," later determined to be heroin, packaged into bricks and cylinder containers, between wall studs. Officer Erik Swastek also helped find a black bag which held approximately $84,000 in cash, a money counting machine and what police called armor-piercing bullets.

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Addison Police Sgt. Jose Gonzalez, who was assigned to the task force at the time, testified about Alarcon's admissions during initial interviews. Alarcon said he was associated with a person named "Chino" who would contact him about drug and cash exchanges, and that he was paid $2,000 to store heroin in the garage of the home he had moved into a couple weeks earlier, Gonzalez said.

Alarcon told Gonzalez he had done multiple pick ups, with as much as 10 kilograms in drugs and cash amounts of $20,000 and higher involved in nearly two dozen exchanges. Gonzalez testified that Alarcon acknowledged he received $200,000 in cash and a large quantity of drugs in the days before authorities came to his door.

"He said he had about seven or eight kilos of heroin," Gonzalez recalled, adding Alarcon thought there was about $40,000 in the garage.

Alarcon's attorney, Robert Rascia, pushed Gonzalez during cross-examination on the handling his client's interviews, including the timing of when Alarcon was notified of his Miranda rights. Rascia also questioned why the initial part of the interview - which involved Gonzalez and two federal agents - was not recorded, while a shorter subsequent conversation between Gonzalez and Alarcon conducted in Spanish was recorded.

A pre-trial ruling determined Alarcon's statements to police were voluntary, but Rascia's questions suggested Alarcon might have been enticed by the idea he could benefit if he made certain admissions.

Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News
Amazon will be opening two facilities which will bring more than 1,000 full-time jobs to Aurora.

Amazon will build two fulfillment centers in the Duke Realty Corporate Park along Ferry Road on the northeastern edge of Aurora.

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Amazon, Intersect Illinois and the Illinois Department of Commerce this week announced the Amazon plan. The announcement said Amazon would provide more than 1,000 full-time jobs at the centers, which would be two buildings next to each other on Duke Parkway, near Route 59.

While the company that was coming was officially unknown until this week, the city of Aurora already has approved a $400,000 tax abatement toward the project, to help Amazon pay for building an intersection of Duke Parkway with Route 59. The intersection would help connect Duke Parkway to Route 59, which means the main road through the corporate park would run between the state highway and Ferry Road.

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As the city was discussing the development, they were told the projects would bring in a total of 1.3 million square feet of building space, up to 1,400 jobs and about $40 million in payroll. Officials said the Aurora fulfillment centers would join ones Amazon already has operating in Edwardsville, Joliet and Romeoville. There is another under construction in Monee.

"In just over two years, Illinois has proven itself to be an ideal location from which Amazon can continue offering customers our vast selection and superfast shipping speeds," said Akash Chauhan, Amazon's vice president of North American operations. "We're excited to be growing and creating even more full-time jobs that offer comprehensive benefits on day one as well as generous maternity and parental leave benefits."

The Amazon development is being helped by state Economic Development for a Growing Economy, or EDGE, program awards, administered through the Department of Commerce. EDGE awards are a tax incentive for companies looking to expand or locate in Illinois, choosing Illinois over another state.

"Amazon's investment in Aurora is a testament to our growing economy, streamlined business process and dedicated workforce," said Aurora Mayor Robert O'Connor. "To bring 1,000 new jobs to Aurora at one company is unprecedented and to do so via Amazon, one of the most recognized brands in the world, is monumental.

"It's just as exciting to know Amazon's commitment and care for the communities where they have offices and the potential partnerships that will be developed throughout our city. We are absolutely thrilled with Amazon's decision to choose Aurora for its newest venture."

At the nearly 1-million-square-foot facility in Aurora employees will pick, pack and ship small items to customers such as books, electronics and consumer goods. The other facility, spanning 400,000 square feet, will specialize in handling larger items like big-screen televisions.

Illinois competed with several other states for this project, and the Department of Commerce worked to bring the jobs to Illinois. The EDGE program is the state's primary mechanism to help encourage job creation and capital investment in Illinois.

slord@tribpub.com
Manny and Marcy Rivera with their children, from left, Mya, 2, Ariana, 9 and Sarai, 11. The Riveras minister at Restoration Church in Aurora. (Linda Girardi / The Beacon-News)

A pastor in Aurora has a very personal reason for getting involved to stop the violence in Chicago, and also right here in Aurora.

"I was involved in gangs and violence. By God's grace and mercy I am alive and grateful," said Manny Rivera, pastor of Restoration Church at 1460 W. Indian Trail on Aurora's West Side. "I feel for the families who lost loved ones through violence. My family almost lost me."

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Rivera has agreed to host a vigil at 4 p.m. Dec. 30 at the church for the victims killed in Chicago in 2016. Through Sunday, there have been 738 murders in the city this year, according to a police spokesman who spoke to the Chicago Tribune.

"We want to pray for peace in Chicago as well as in Aurora," he said.

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The church property is on a five-acre parcel and will feature the crosses being built by Aurora resident Greg Zanis. Zanis has traveled for years putting up crosses at the sites of tragedies around the country. He is building a cross for each victim murdered in Chicago in 2016. After the Aurora stop, the crosses will be part of an anti-violence march in Chicago Dec. 31.

Rivera met Zanis last August through a parishioner. The pastor said he was impressed with the Aurora man's work to build crosses and travel the country to honor the families of victims of tragedies and violence.

"I was inspired by how Greg reaches out to families suffering from the heartache and pain of a loss through violence," he said. "I told him that we would certainly be willing to have a vigil."

Manny and Marcy Rivera minister at Restoration Church, 1460 W. Indian Trail in Aurora. (Linda Giraradi / The Beacon-News)

Rivera, 34, came to Aurora two years ago to accept a pastoral position with his wife, Marcy, working at his side.

"Manny is a walking miracle," Marcy Rivera said, referencing her husband's former life as a gang member in Chicago. "I thank God that he is alive."

Rivera grew up on the northwest side of Chicago, and at an early age got caught up in the life of gangs, he said.

"I spent a lot of time on my own at age 14  that was the first time I met my father," he said. "I couldn't handle it all. Friends from school influenced me ... I got sucked into it."

He met his future wife when he was 16.

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"I wanted to leave him, but something was tugging at my heart to pray for him. Gradually I began to see God's work in our lives," she said.

She said her husband began attending Sunday services.

"He would sit in the last pew in the back of the sanctuary," she said. "God began to change Manny's heart."

She said it was stressful loving someone involved with a gang.

"There were days when I would call the morgue to find out if he was alive," she said.

The Rev. Manny Rivera, pastor at Restoration Church, in front of the church at 1460 W. Indian Trail in Aurora. (Linda Girardi / The Beacon-News)

Rivera's time with the gang included a year and a half stint in prison for his involvement in the theft of a car. He said he tried to turn his life around on his own but it was hard to get employment because of his background. He returned to his old friends and back into "gang life," he said.

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He was in the gang until he was 22, when he was shot by a rival gang member.

"It took me almost losing my life," he said. "I had not truly committed to Christ but when I got shot by a rival gang member, I went back to church and surrendered completely."

Rivera said it is difficult to leave a gang.

"The negative pull can start in grammar school. Once you are in the gang, it is hard to get out," he said.

But then he said he caught a break.

"I approached one of the leaders. He said I was free to go if I was trying to get my life together but that there would be consequences if I tried to come back," Rivera said. "It was a blessing from God that I was given such a pardon.

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"My eldest daughter was 6 months old when all of this was happening. I wanted to be her dad. I didn't want her to grow up without a father," he said.

Aurora resident Greg Zanis is building crosses to represent each of the people killed in Chicago in 2016. The crosses will be on display at a vigil in Aurora Dec. 30. (Linda Girardi / The Beacon-News)

Rivera received a decade of training and ministry experience through his mentor and pastor, Carlos Sanchez at Northwest Church of God in Chicago, he said.

He eventually was connected with the Illinois Ministries state minister, Eric Livingston, who offered him a position as pastor at the former Aurora First Church of God, which he said was on the verge of closing.

Rivera became a licensed minister through Church of God Ministries, an Indiana-based nondenominational Christian organization.

"They believed that I had the calling to be a pastor," he said.

On Sundays at Restoration Church, when he gives sermons in Spanish, his wife translates into English.

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"Our church is starting to grow slowly. It was a church that was about to close down. Little by little members are starting to show up," he said.

He hopes a good crowd from the community will show up for the vigil Dec. 30.

"I know what it is like to live a life of addiction and gang violence. I know what it is like to be in prison and feel like nobody cares and feel miserable with no hope at all. God stepped in and put hope in my heart," Rivera said.

Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
After 18 months of studies and discussions, Barrington School District 220 board members decided in early November to start classes later for certain students, beginning in the 2017-18 school year. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

In 2016, the Barrington community encountered tragedy, major changes within its school system, a clash between its local and county governments, and other noteworthy events.

Two prominent Barrington business owners die

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Well known to restaurant goers and movie fans in the Barrington area, two longtime business owners in the village both died unexpectedly in August.

A co-owner of the downtown Catlow Movie Theater and the adjoining Boloney's Sandwich Shop, Roberta Rapata, 57, died Aug. 28 following a sudden heart attack.

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Her fiance and business partner, Tim O'Connor, told customers about Rapata's death in an email. The theater and restaurant both closed for a few days following the news.

"Thank you for all the love and affection you have shown for Roberta over the years," he wrote to customers.

In the days after Rapata's death, residents created a makeshift memorial in front of both the Catlow theater and sandwich shop, laying flowers, candles and cards near the front entrance of both businesses.

Earlier in August, Richard Rivera, owner and chef of Ambrosia Euro American Patisserie, died Aug. 6 of metastatic prostate cancer, a diagnosis Rivera decided to deal with privately, according to Deborah Rivera, his wife of 27 years,

Several people  friends, customers and deliverymen carrying boxes and supplies  stopped to give Deborah Rivera hugs and express condolences on the first day Ambrosia Euro American Patisserie re-opened for business following a temporary closing in August.

Kevin Muench drove 28 miles from his home in Marengo to Barrington because he wanted to pay respects to family of Richard Rivera.

For about 20 years before he retired as a U.S. Postal Service carrier, Muench saw the business owner and chef on his daily delivery route.

"He was not only a quality businessman and chef, but he was a personal friend," he said. "I consider these people my family because of the way they treated me."

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Barrington School District 220 decides later start times

After 18 months of studies and discussions, District 220 board members decided in early November to start classes later for certain students, beginning in the 2017-18 school year.

Barrington High School students next school year will begin their day at 8:30 a.m.  70 minutes later than they do now  and end the day at 3:21 p.m. Middle school students will start more than an hour later, beginning their day at 9 a.m. and ending at 3:55 p.m.

Elementary students will attend classes from 8 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. Currently, elementary students begin the day at 9 a.m.

Board members started discussing the idea of later start times at District 220 in May 2015, when an advisory panel of parents, teachers, students and community members formed to study the issue.

The committee assessed studies and spoke with sleep experts, many of whom said adolescents and teens perform better in school when they're allowed to sleep more. After the board approved the later start time plan, some Barrington High students questioned whether students actually would sleep more.

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Lake Barrington restricts short-term home rentals following shooting

Days after partygoers attending a Lake Barrington house party allegedly were involved in a shooting in Barrington, village trustees voted in April to prohibit residents from renting homes on short-term leases that last less than three months.

The new policy affects rental arrangements frequently offered through online services such as airbnb.com and vrbo.com.

A village official said the move was prompted by an early morning shooting on April 10 at Route 14 near Shorely Drive in Barrington that left two people injured.

Lake Barrington Village Administrator Chris Martin had said village officials believed all people involved in the shooting had attended a house party earlier that evening in Lake Barrington.

The owner of the home in the 500 block of Welch Circle also said she rented out her property April 9 and April 10 on a short-term agreement.

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"To me, it's kind of stunning that folks would rent out their home in a residential neighborhood on a short-term basis," Martin said at the time. "We allow renting in the community, but it's typically annual renting."

Three Joliet men were each charged in mid-April with aggravated battery with a firearm following the shooting.

Barrington man faces charges after wife shot and killed

A Barrington man was charged with first-degree murder after police said he shot and killed his wife Jan. 15 following an argument inside their kitchen about him leaving on the coffee pot.

Bond for Larry Lotz, 65, was set at $3 million on Jan. 15, hours after officials said they were called to the couple's home and found his wife  longtime Harper College employee Karen Lotz  suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

After police arrived, Larry Lotz told them where to find the gun, which was recovered from the scene, said Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Chris Corbin. Larry Lotz later gave a statement, which was recorded on video, admitting that he shot his wife, Corbin said.

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Following the argument, Larry Lotz left the kitchen, went to his office above the home's garage and shut the door, but when his wife entered the office, he was sitting at his desk, holding a .45-caliber handgun and fired at her four times, Corbin said.

Larry Lotz's attorney, Robert Hauser, said on Dec. 21 that his client has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, adding how the state has designated a psychiatrist to examine Lotz. The Vietnam veteran pleaded not guilty to the murder charges earlier in the year during his arraignment.

Barrington overrides Cook County Board's move to raise minimum wage

Cook County officials have said that Barrington is the first town to take action against the county board's vote earlier in 2016 to increase the minimum wage for suburban workers to $13 an hour by July 2020.

On Nov. 14, Barrington Village Board members approved an ordinance that allows local businesses to pay workers $8.25 an hour, the statewide minimum wage rate.

With Barrington sitting in both Cook and Lake counties, village officials have said town businesses in Cook County could be at a competitive disadvantage and face higher operational costs if they have to pay workers a higher minimum wage than their counterparts in Lake County.

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The clash between Barrington and Cook County officials consequently opened up a debate on home-rule authority in Illinois.

While Barrington challenges Cook County on whether it's the village or Cook County that has the authority to set the minimum wage for a non-home-rule town, experts say the decision may come down to the Illinois Constitution and who has jurisdiction in the matter.

tshields@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @tshields19
A longtime proposal to extend Route 53 through Buffalo Grove and other parts of Lake County encountered numerous developments throughout 2016, casting uncertainty over the future direction of the major road project. (Simon Brubaker / Pioneer Press)

The Buffalo Grove community saw major economic development projects develop in 2016 and also dealt with unusual criminal episodes that attracted regional attention.

The past year in the village involved various noteworthy stories, including a surprising home invasion and news of an expanding grocer wanting to set up shop in Buffalo Grove.

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Dramatic home invasion

Just after midnight on Aug. 10, a Wisconsin man armed with a knife broke into a house in the 400 block of St. Mary's Parkway, stabbing three people and the family's dog following an altercation inside the home.

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Two other people were inside the home at the time of the incident along with the three stabbing victims  a 46-year-old man, his 19-year-old son and 16-year-old girl, authorities have said.

After fleeing the home, the man, Jacob William Beeman, 29, of Arkdale, Wisc., was taken into custody by police who found him at a gas station in Wheeling with blood on his neck, arms and clothes and was carrying black gloves, two bandannas and a bloody hunting knife in his boot.

He later was charged with attempted first-degree murder, home invasion and aggravated animal cruelty.

Cook County prosecutors have said that the incident could have been deadly if not for the response of the 46-year-old victim, who grabbed a gun from inside the home and fired a shot that startled Beeman and caused him to flee.

Authorities have said Beeman told police that he targeted the house because he was told by another man that there were drugs, money and weapons there, but that he "was in a rage and didn't remember stabbing anyone." Authorities believe a second man was present outside but did not enter the house.

Authorities also have said no drugs were found in the home.

Beeman remains in the Cook County Jail. He is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 19 in Rolling Meadows.

Shooting along Interstate 94 affects Buffalo Grove

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On May 1, a Buffalo Grove family was driving home along Interstate 94 in Wisconsin after a trip to the Wisconsin Dells when another motorist started firing a gun at their vehicle, killing Buffalo Grove resident Tracy Czaczkowski.

Czaczkowski , 44, was traveling with her husband and two children at the time of the shooting. Authorities later charged Zachary Hays, 20, of West Allis, Wis., with first-degree intentional homicide and recklessly endangering safety in connection with the shooting death of Czaczkowski.

Prosecutors later in the year changed the intentional homicide count to first-degree reckless homicide, saying that charge is more consistent with information emerging about Hays' mental state. Hays pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

Scores of relatives and friends of Czaczkowski came to Arlington Heights on May 6 for a funeral service to grieve and celebrate "a wonderful wife, mother, daughter and friend," according to Dennis Wichern, a friend of the family.

Proposed Route 53 extension hits roadblock

A longtime proposal to extend Route 53 through Buffalo Grove and other parts of Lake County encountered numerous developments throughout 2016, casting uncertainty over the future direction of the major road project.

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In May, Lake County Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor, a major supporter of the project, switched his position and announced how he would oppose construction of the Route 53 extension. He was re-elected county board chairman earlier this month.

Lawlor said at the time that the $2 billion-plus estimate for the extension would continue to balloon and could threaten environmental areas around the proposed extension.

The Illinois Tollway Authority, meanwhile, moved forward in 2016 with a four-year environmental study examining what effect the proposal could have on wetlands and other environmentally sensitive areas along the route.

In June, longtime critics of the proposal, Long Grove Village President Angie Underwood and Hawthorn Woods Mayor Joe Mancino, urged Gov. Bruce Rauner to stop the project entirely. Rauner has yet to respond to their request.

Woodman's Food Market eyes Buffalo Grove

The expanding Wisconsin-based grocer announced in June plans to build a Buffalo Grove location at an intersection that village trustees for years have called a crucial undeveloped spot in Buffalo Grove.

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Trustees annexed about 25 acres on the northwest and southwest corners of the intersection of Deerfield Parkway Milwaukee Avenue. They also granted in late June $7 million in incentives to Woodman's Food Market.

The proposed Woodman's development involves a 242,000-square-foot grocery store, a gas station, convenience store and car wash on the southwest corner of the intersection. The new Buffalo Grove location could open by summer 2018, company representatives have said.

Buffalo Grove High School instructor dies suddenly

Hours after the school day ended at Buffalo Grove High on Nov. 14, Stephanie Ramos, a 39-year-old English Language Learners and World Language teacher, was found dead inside the school.

Officials with the Cook County medical examiner's office later said Ramos died of natural causes brought on by cardiomyopathy, a condition that affects the heart muscles. School administrators delayed the start of school the day after the incident to help staff process the news.

"She was a teacher who everyone knew, and who everyone loved," Buffalo Grove principal Jeff Wardle said at time. "We had the two-hour late start this morning because we knew that all of our staff needed time here to process and grieve together first, before we could give our best to our students."

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Ramos, a Wheeling High School graduate, began her career in Township High School District 214 in 2001, serving as a substitute teacher at John Hersey, Prospect and Wheeling high schools, district officials have said.

At Buffalo Grove, she organized a Latino Parent Organization, which provided scholarships to Latino students and gave Latino parents an opportunity to get involved at the high school, officials also said.

rwachter@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @RonnieAtPioneer
We sat down with Rick Bayless, who just opened adjoining restaurants Cruz Blanca and Lena Brava in the West Loop, to ask him about the challenges of bringing Oaxacan tacos to Chicago, his love of sushi, and the cookbooks he likes to read. (Roger Morales / Chicago Tribune) (Chicago Tribune)

What happens when you ask 50 Chicago-area food pros to name the best thing they ate this year? You end up with a list of must-try places to keep you busy tasting all through next year. We checked in with some of Chicago's top chefs to get the scoop and we promise you'll be checking this list twice  and likely a few more times after that.

Greg Biggers

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Executive Chef, Sofitel Chicago Magnificent Mile and Cafe des Architectes in Chicago

Best meal: Smoked Oyster Chowder

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Restaurant: Fat Rice, 2957 W. Diversey Pkwy., Chicago; www.EatFatRice.com

The skinny: "It was the middle of the summer when Chef Abraham sent out this very surprising dish. Hot soup in August? It was perfect! The oysters were plump and smoked flawlessly. The potatoes were cooked to perfection and the broth was super delicious with just a hint of spicy to get the blood moving."

Patrick Rhea

Owner, Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket in Willowbrook

Best meal: Perry's Famous Pork Chop

Restaurant: Perry's Steakhouse and Grille, 5 Oakbrook Center, Oak Brook; www.PerrysSteakhouse.com

The skinny: "It's this seven-finger pork chop that has been cured, roasted, smoked and then glazed, carmelized and carved tableside. It's magnificent! The eyelash or the lip of this monstrous chop is the absolute best part. And then there are the bones. Meaty, tender and succulent it is all that you can do to finish these bones. Then you still have the loin which always goes home with me. This chop paired with the warm spinach and bacon salad and the sweet sriracha brussel sprouts and you have a meal fit for a king! Actually a king and queen because there is so much food."

Erling Wu-Bower

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Chef de Cuisine, Nico Osteria in Chicago

Best meal: Pineapple Aguachile

Restaurant: Lena Brava, 900 W. Randolph St., Chicago; www.RickBayless.com/restaurants/lena-brava/

The skinny: "Course after course was a shocker, but the pineapple was the star. When it comes out, you kinda think, 'Come on, pineapple?' but then you eat it and just realize that you are in the hands of someone way cooler than you, and you stop asking questions and just enjoy."

Nancy Brussat

Founder/Partner/Executive Chef, Convito Cafe & Market in Wilmette

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Best meal: Tostadas de Ceviche, Enchiladas Poblanas and Ceviche

Restaurant: Guanajuato, 73 Green Bay Road, Glencoe; www.MyGuanajuato.com

The skinny: "The Tostadas de Ceviche are open-faced tortillas with ceviche, tomato, onion, cilantro, avocado and jalapeno. The Enchiladas Poblanas are three shredded chicken enchiladas covered with a mole poblano sauce. They are served with rice and beans and garnished with pickled onions and sesame seeds. There are many unrefined, boring enchiladas out there. These have rich mole sauce (hard to find!) and delicious, moist, shredded chicken inside. Even the rice and beans are high end, perfectly done. The ceviche is such a refreshing, classic, flavorful dish. You can tell the ceviche is super fresh, and on top of the homemade tortillas, the cool, zingy ceviche is a great balance to the savory tortillas. They use the best ingredients."

Jim Mullen

Founder, Good Guys Apples & Sauce in Chicago

Best meal: Bang Bang Shrimp

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Restaurant: Bonefish Grill, 9310 Skokie Blvd., Skokie; www.BonefishGrill.com/locations/il/skokie

The skinny: "It's one of my favorite appetizers."

Chef de cuisine Ryan Pfeiffer makes a poached lobster appetizer. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)

Ryan Pfeiffer

Chef de Cuisine, Blackbird in Chicago

Best meal: Dungeness Crab

Restaurant: Smyth, 177 N. Ada St., Chicago; www.SmythAndTheLoyalist.com/Smyth

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The skinny: "I've had many excellent meals this year, so it is hard to choose just one. One that comes to mind was at Smyth  Dungeness crab with foie gras poached in seawater with scrambled kani miso. I have never had poached foie gras, nor have I even thought about it. John Shields and Nick Romero are doing some seriously awesome things at Smyth. Being inspired by the things other chefs are doing is incredibly motivational."

Julie Warpinski

Chef de Cuisine, Big Star in Chicago

Best meal: Roasted Turnips

Restaurant: Bad Hunter, 802 W. Randolph St., Chicago; www.BadHunter.com

The skinny: "Dan (Snowden) is a great friend and amazing chef. My entire meal was delicious, but the real stand out was the roasted turnips dish with sesame, shoyu butter and crispy bacon-radish croutons. Dan managed to turn a not-so-popular vegetable into a dish people crave and want to order."

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Paul Virant

Executive Chef and Owner, Vie Restaurant in Western Springs, Perennial Virant in Chicago and Vistro in Hinsdale

Best meal: The house-made plin filled with la tur, with a sauce of butter and thyme

Restaurant: Osteria Langhe, 2824 W. Armitage Ave., Chicago; www.OsteriaLanghe.com

The skinny: "La Tur cheese is a cow, sheep and goats milk cheese that is like Brie from the Piedmont region. It is rich and creamy with just the right amount of tang. This created a perfect filling for a sublime hand-pinched ravioli with just butter and fresh thyme. It was unreal!"

Perry Hendrix

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Chef de Cuisine, avec in Chicago

Best meal: Pastrami Trout, Kimchi Schmear, Fennel Salad

Restaurant: Snaggletooth, 2819 N. Southport Ave., Chicago; www.SnaggletoothChicago.com

The skinny: "It's what bagels, lox and cream cheese wants to be when it grows up. Can't go wrong with any of the seriously delicious cured fish  the best I've had."

David Bacso

General Manager, Kuma's Corner in Chicago

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Best meal: Gnocchi, One-Hour Hen Egg, Gumbo, Chow Chow, Mushroom

Restaurant: Longman & Eagle, 2657 N. Kedzie Ave., Chicago; www.LongmanAndEagle.com

The skinny: "Cleaned my plate. Flavors were delicious. Complementing the dish were the fantastic cocktails and staff."

Bar Siena chef Fabio Viviani, author of "Fabio's American Home Kitchen." (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)

Fabio Viviani

Executive Chef, Siena Tavern in Chicago

Best meal: Bao to the Pork sandwich

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Restaurant: Pork & Mindy's, 1623 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago; www.PorkAndMindys.com

The skinny: "I tell you, the man (Jeff Mauro) gets it right when making sandwiches. He takes pork shoulder and tops off the sandwich with ingredients like cucumber and jalapeno relish and mixes it with an Asian plum sauce on a bao bun. Plus, you must add a side of tots. I crave this sandwich at least once a week."

Rick Bayless

Chef, Frontera Restaurants

Best meal: All of the pasta dishes

Restaurant: Monteverde, 1020 W. Madison St., Chicago; www.MonteverdeChicago.com

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The skinny: "For me, homemade pasta is dreamy. Cook it with love, and serve it in a super-cool setting, and you have some of Chicago's greatest Italian dishes."

Rhea Brown

Executive Chef, The Lucky Monk in South Barrington

Best meal: Ahi Tuna Salad and Kamachi

Restaurant: Toro Sushi, 2546 N. Clark St., Chicago; https://www.facebook.com/pages/Toro-Sushi/120280247983421

The skinny: "Can't go wrong with any of Mitch's Specialty Rolls, but a couple of my favorites are Ahi Tuna Salad and Kamachi. This has been our favorite place to eat in the city for the last 10 years. The owner Mitch, is kind and welcoming, you will always find him behind the counter rolling sushi and saying hello to everyone that walks in the door. The sushi is always fresh, imaginative and top-notch. Added bonus: we bonded over his love of reggae music, I was born and raised in Jamaica."

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David Farkas

Chef, Umami Burger in Chicago

Best meal: The Woody Allen (half corned beef, half pastrami sandwich on nice Jewish Rye) with a bowl of Grandma's matzo ball soup

Restaurant: Eleven City Diner, 1112 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago; www.elevencitydiner.com/home

The skinny: "It reminds me of being back home in Cleveland. I haven't been back home in 16 or 17 years now. It reminds me of going to my grandparents house and them taking me to the Jewish deli down the street."

Jose Garces

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Chef/Chairman, Garces Group (Chicago's Mercat and Rural Society)

Best meal: A Meaty Legend deep-dish pie, and a thin crust Chi-Italian Stallion pizza

Restaurant: Gino's East, 162 E. Superior St, Chicago; www.ginoseast.com

The skinny: "When I was a young teen, I remember going on my first date, and I brought the gal to Gino's East. I was so worried about having enough money to pay the tip at the end of the night, and whether my date would enjoy the experience. The date was a success, and I was able to take care of the waiter with just enough left over to take the CTA back to drop her off at home. It was really great to bring my kids there and to tell them this story and to reminisce about all the graffiti (on the restaurant walls)."

John Hogan

Chef, River Roast in Chicago

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Best meal: Pan-fried veal meatballs with insalata tricolore and house-made gardiniere

Restaurant: Rocco's Little Italy, 7907 W. 159th St., Tinley Park; www.RoccosLittleItaly.net

The skinny: "My wife and I had just returned from a trip to Italy. We went to Rocco's. We have always enjoyed the restaurant, however after dining in small family restaurants in Italy, I was looking at Rocco's through a different lens. Rocco's brother Anthony was not only the chef, but also ran the food from the kitchen. Rocco was tending bar and doing table visits, knowing everybody's name as well as their kids. A consummate host. When I asked for a recommendation, he suggested a dish of his mother's from his childhood. The crispy yet succulent meatballs along with bitter greens and house-made gardiniere  simple as can be yet delicious. What made this so special was not only the dish but the experience, the influence of Rocco's mother's cooking and the fact that his father was the legendary restaurateur Artie G, who Rocco learned the business from."

Rob Sidor

Executive Chef, Bohemian House in Chicago

Best meal: Quail Egg Raviolo with Parmesan Cream and Truffle

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Restaurant: Schwa, 1466 N. Ashland Ave., Chicago; www.SchwaRestaurant.com

The skinny: "I've had a lot of outstanding meals and dishes over the past year that I've been in Chicago, so it's tough to pick just one. But the single bite that really left me wanting more was the Quail Egg Raviolo at Schwa. It's super decadent, flawlessly executed, and the egg bursts perfectly on your palate. I could have eaten a hundred more."

Sarah Grueneberg

Chef/Partner, Monteverde Restaurant in Chicago and Pastificio in Highwood

Best meal: Buttered Pipe Pasta & Clams, Green Chili Ragout, assorted limes

Restaurant: Roister, 951 W. Fulton Market, Chicago; www.RoisterRestaurant.com

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The skinny: "The texture of this dish is amazing! When they finish the pasta, they toss in finger lime and tobiko, which adds pops of texture and a fresh zing of lime. It excites the palate."

Cosmo Goss

Executive Chef, The Publican family (Publican Anker, The Publican, Publican Tavern, Publican Quality Meats) in Chicago

Best meal: Pineapple Aguachile with goat cheese and salsa macha

Restaurant: Lena Brava, Lena Brava, 900 W. Randolph St., Chicago; www.RickBayless.com/restaurants/lena-brava/

The skinny: "It's insane. I'm not sure I've ever had anything that sounded so odd and tasted so good. I mean, that whole restaurant is amazing, and I'm very mad at Rick Bayless for that."

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David van Alphen

Founder/ President, SuckerPunch Gourmet in Countryside

Best meal: Lobster Ravioli

Restaurant: Sapori Trattoria, 2701 N. Halsted St., Chicago; www.SaporiTrattoria.net

The skinny: "I love seafood and have had lobster ravioli at many places but none have tasted this good. Not overly sweet and perfectly seasoned. I used the fresh bread to mop up every drop of the sauce."

Mark Hellyar

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Chef/Partner, Momotaro in Chicago

Best meal: Tasting menu

Restaurant: Boka, 1729 N. Halsted St., Chicago; www.BokaChicago.com

The skinny: "Overall, my best meal of 2016 was a tasting menu over the summer from Chef Lee Wolen at Boka where every dish always delivers. My favorite Boka dish is basically any variation of duck they are serving. Lee is passionate about his duck so there is no going wrong with this choice.

Chef Stephanie Izard explains the inspiration behind her West Loop Chinese restaurant, Duck Duck Goat. (Chicago Tribune)

Stephanie Izard

Chef/Owner, Duck Duck Goat, Little Goat, Girl & the Goat in Chicago

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Best meal: Squash Ravioli

Restaurant: Monteverde, 1020 W. Madison St., Chicago; www.MonteverdeChicago.com

The skinny: "I was walking home from work early this fall and stopped by my friend Sarah's restaurant to sit outside with my son, Ernie, and ordered the squash ravioli. Sarah just makes the most delicious pasta. The raviolis are rolled to order because the pasta is so delicate and perfect."

Gene Kato

Chef/Owner, Sumi Robata Bar in Chicago

Best meal: Kalbi  Korean Barbequed Beef Short Ribs

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Restaurant: Cho Sun OK Restaurant, 4200 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago; www.ChoSunOKRestaurant.com

The skinny: "Perfect balance of sweet, savory, salty and tender. One of my first meals in Chicago 16 years ago and has remained consistent through the years."

Mark Grosz

Chef/Owner, Oceanique Restaurant in Evanston

Best meal: Wagyu beef from Miyazaki, Japan

Restaurant: Roka Akor, 4999 Old Orchard Shopping Center, Skokie; www.RokaAkor.com

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The skinny: "Grilled to perfection and succulent. Served simply with smoked, green tea and truffle salts. Melted in our mouths. Celebrating our son, Miles, getting his first car."

Nancy Burhop

President, Burhop's Seafood in Hinsdale

Best meal: Small Plates at the Friends of Evanston Farmers Market Fete

Restaurant: Found Kitchen & Social House, 1631 Chicago Ave., Evanston; www.FoundKitchen.com

The skinny: "Delicious farm-fresh locally grown foods and very talented local chefs. Some of my favorite small plates from the dinner were a perfectly grilled Berkshire pork steak with peaches on a bed of Asian greens by Brian Huston of Boltwood. Goat cheese-stuffed squash blossoms with fresh corn, marinated rock shrimp and shishito peppers by chefs D'Andre Carter and Heather Bublick of Feast & Imbibe. Chef Nicole Pederson of Found provided a fabulous focaccia with marinated summer squash, ricotta cheese and pickled blueberry and squash blossom relish. Because each chef makes just one dish, they go all-out to make it wonderful. Nothing like a little friendly competition in the room! Can't wait for next year."

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Giuseppe Tentori

Chef/Owner, GT Prime and GT Fish & Oyster in Chicago

Best meal: Maitake Casarecce with Smoked Ricotta and Toasted Chili

Restaurant: The Loyalist, 177 N. Ada St. #101, Chicago; swww.SmythAndTheLoyalist.com/the-loyalist

The skinny: "Chef John Shields is a good friend and I have always enjoyed his cooking  his menu at The Loyalist is delicious."

Ellen King

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Co-Owner and Head Baker, Hewn in Evanston

Best meal: Appetizer  Tomato and Onion Tart. Salad  Tableside-tossed salad. Main Course  Filet Mignon.

Restaurant: The Barn, Rear 1016, Church St., Evanston; www.TheBarnEvanston.com

The skinny: "Eating here is like traveling back in time. It starts with walking down the alley and entering a side door into the old stable. And I felt like I was already way hipper than I am by entering the door. I first ordered a glass of red wine and then ordered the little gem salad that was tossed table side. The filet mignon was perfectly cooked and served on the bone with a red wine sauce so the flavor was rich, delicious and I finished everything on my plate. You have to check out The Barn! It's a great escape from the modern era."

Jennifer Eisen, a former personal assistant to Stephanie Izard, is a co-owner of House 406 in Northbrook. (Alexandra Chachkevitch/Chicago Tribune)

Jennifer Eisen

Proprietor/General Manager, House 406 in Northbrook

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Best meal: Vegetable Fried Rice

Restaurant: Duck Duck Goat, 857 W. Fulton Market, Chicago; www.DuckDuckGoatChicago.com

The skinny: "I ordered the vegetable fried rice from the takeout window at Duck Duck Goat for lunch and received the most incredible fried rice I have ever had. The rice was in crispy chunks that had been cooked with or doused with some amazing umami vinaigrette. The sliced chilies on top added a mild spice and the fresh torn mint and cilantro on top brightened the entire dish. But what I did not expect and have never had before with fried rice was the awesome citrus and spicy aioli that added the greatest flavor and texture. I get hungry again just thinking about it."

Lee Wolen

Chef/Partner, Boka in Chicago

Best meal: Skate Schnitzel

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Restaurant: Monteverde, 1020 W. Madison St., Chicago; www.MonteverdeChicago.com

The skinny: "It's an amazing, crunchy fish. I think it's the best fried fish ever but it's also super elevated. Chef Sarah Grueneberg serves it with cream which creates a great balance of sweet and salty components."

Barry Sorkin

Owner, Smoque BBQ in Chicago

Best meal: Grilled Skirt Steak Envuelto

Restaurant: El Maya, 1522 W. Montrose Ave., Chicago, www.elmaya.us

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The skinny: "For me, it's hard to beat a great skirt steak and that's what this is. Nicely charred, intensely beefy and juicy, and served with a spicy arbol sauce, cilantro potatoes and sauteed mushrooms.

Art Smith

Owner/Chef, Chef Art Smith Company

Best meal: Tea Brine Smoked Pork Chop

Restaurant: Farmhouse Chicago, 228 W. Chicago Ave, Chicago; www.FarmhouseChicago.com

The skinny: "Emily Kraszyk is the chef there. Her Tea Brine Smoke Pork Chop is the best meal I had all year. She used to work for us at Table 52. She is very talented and I love that Chef Emily is an alum of mine. I am a proud Papi Chef!"

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Bill Kim

Chef, Urbanbelly, BellyQ, Belly Shack in Chicago

Best meal: Bolognese Pasta

Restaurant: Giant, 3209 W. Armitage Ave., Chicago; www.GiantRestaurant.com

The skinny: "It's always a humble pasta dish that wins me over. And, that's just what happened during my meal at Giant. Chef Jason Vincent's menu hits every note of taste, texture and flavors and the Bolognese course was exceptional! Rustic, rich and perfectly cooked handmade pasta shells. The portion size is just right, leaving you room to work your way through the rest of his exciting menu."

Leonard Hollander

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Chef/Partner, Arbor in Chicago

Best meal: Chicken Pad Thai, Medium Spicy

Restaurant: Thai Aree House, 3592 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago

The skinny: "It was the first dish that my 2-year-old son ever ordered in a restaurant on his own, and it was a complete grand slam. Just the right savory-ness, along with sweet, smoky, and perfectly cooked noodles. He ate most of it with chopsticks, with a couple of breaks to dance out his excitement in the aisle. It was easily my most memorable meal in a really, really long time. I'm excited to share this one, one of my true faves!"

Fabio Capparelli

Executive Chef, Rosebud Restaurants

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Best meal: Cebiche Tanta

Restaurant: Tanta Chicago, 118 W. Grand Ave., Chicago; www.TantaChicago.com

The skinny: "My wife and I went to Tanta Chicago for our anniversary. This Peruvian restaurant really knows how to make the flavor and culture of Peru come alive. The Cebiche Tanta has scallops and shrimp with a creamy rocoto-aji amarillo sauce. The citrus taste was very balanced along with the spices. The flavors of this meal are right on with what you would eat in Peru."

Michael Ciapciak

Owner, Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits in Chicago

Best meal: Small plates (oysters, Bing Bread, sesame leaves) and whatever the banchan or pickles of the week happen to be

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Restaurant: Parachute Restaurant, 3500 N. Elston Ave., Chicago; www.ParachuteRestaurant.com

The skinny: "I likely visited Parachute the most out of any of my favorite restaurants in 2016 (Giant, La Sirena Clandestina, Mott Street, Coal Fire, Lula Cafe, Honey Butter Fried Chicken) and under many different circumstances  with my wife; with my kids; out of town visitors; with my sibling(s); and with close friends. Every visit provided something new and fresh and crave-able, but I never failed to start with the decadent Bing Bread with Sour Cream Butter; the crispy sesame leaves; bright oysters and the insane pickles or banchan which tend to vary every visit. Though it is a nationally recognized restaurant that is deserving of every accolade it has received, it is not too far from my home and for that reason acts as a neighborhood spot. The team is super welcoming and knowledgeable and the food is innovative and new yet somehow comforting and familiar at the same time. I look forward to returning before I am finished with dinner."

Nicole Pederson

Chef/Partner, Found and The Barn in Evanston

Best meal: Pan Seared Shad Roe

Restaurant: Cafe Marie-Jeanne, 1001 N. California Ave., Chicago; www.Cafe-Marie-Jeanne.com

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The skinny: "Pan-seared lobes of shad roe on crisp house-made bread. So creamy and delicious. However, it is just one of many things I ate that night at Cafe Marie-Jeanne. We drank bottles of pet-nat, ate a whole wheel of Winnimere cheese, had a beautiful early spring vegetable cordite, then watercress and green almond soup, steak tartare, crispy fried soft-shell crab and finally, smoked chicken. It is a very special restaurant where the chef cooks with true passion for what he is doing and you can taste it in every bite."

John Coletta

Executive Chef/Managing Partner, Quartino Ristorante & Wine Bar in Chicago

Best meal: Bucatini Carbonara

Restaurant: Nonnina, 340 N. Clark St., Chicago; www.NonninaChicago.com

The skinny: "This pasta preparation was perfectly executed. The flavors were vibrant, fresh and crisp. The simplicity of this dish is often over looked and rarely executed to this level. The pasta was perfectly made and cooked to the al dente stage and then tossed with pancetta, Protected Designation of Origin (DOP) pecorino, freshly ground black pepper and topped with an organic egg yolk."

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Gale Gand

Pastry Chef/Partner, Tru, maker of Gale's Root Beer

Best meal: Linguine and clams

Restaurant: Miramar Bistro, 301 Waukegan Ave., Highwood; www.MiramarBistro.com

The skinny: "Chef Gabe Viti's is the most delicious version of linguine and clams I've ever had and I've had a lot of them. His has fresh little neck clams just popped open, wilted spinach, and roasted grape tomatoes, and perfectly cooked el dente handmade linguine, along with a garlicy broth that should be sopped up with his stellar artisan bread basket selection. It's served in an iron casserole and is just a special occasion when it hits the table. Have it with a glass of chilled rose. I keep going back for it year and after year."

John Manion, chef and proprietor of El Che Bar in West Loop. (Neil Burger / Chicago Tribune)

John Manion

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Chef/Owner, La Sirena Clandestina in Chicago

Best meal: Cote de Boeuf

Restaurant: Le Bouchon, 1958 N. Damen Ave., Chicago; www.LeBouchonOfChicago.com

The skinny: "First, I have been going to Bouchon for 20 plus years, and when I'm in that space there's nowhere I would rather be. Secondly, although I know it's a pain, Oliver and the kitchen staff have never once flinched at cooking it au poivre for me (steak au poivre, in my opinion, is one on the finest dishes ever known to mankind). Thirdly, the frites are, and this is no hyperbole, perfect. Last but not least, we lost a friend, mentor, and giant in the culinary world this year when [chef/restaurateur] Jean Claude [Poilevey] passed. Although he is missed every day, sitting in that tiny, warm dining room enjoying wine, food, good friends and life itself is exactly what he would have wanted."

Lupe Mendieta

Head Chef, Max & Benny's in Northbrook

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Best meal: Carne Asada

Restaurant: Uncle Julio's Mexican Restaurant, 4999 Old Orchard Shop Center, East Ring Road, Skokie; www.UncleJulios.com/locations/skokie/

The skinny: "The skirt steak is grilled to perfection, very flavorful and tender and seared to impart a wonderful charred flavor. The tortillas are very fresh as they are made there every day. The whole meal feels like back home in Mexico and eating carne asada the way my mother made it."

Louie Alexakis

Chef/Owner, Avli Restaurant and Rotisserie in Winnetka

Best meal: Chopped Brisket Sandwich, Hand-cut Fries, Peach Cobbler

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Restaurant: Smoque BBQ, 3800 N. Pulaski Road, Chicago; www.SmoqueBBQ.com

The skinny: "BBQ is my go-to comfort food. Brisket done right is a perfect blend of tastes and textures. Smoque is my usual quick stop when I am heading to the city. If food was something you wore, it's like an old flannel shirt or a warm blanket. Add the hand-cut fries and peach cobbler and all I need is a fireplace and a good book."

Darren McGraw

Chef/Owner, Ampersand Wine Bar in Chicago

Best meal: Burgers

Restaurant: Beard & Belly, 1612 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago; www.facebook.com/BeardandBelly/

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The skinny: "My girlfriend and I eat here at least once each month as it always wins out when we're deciding where to go when we actually get a babysitter. It's located within the Longroom Bar and their partnership is genius. The burgers though! I love a great burger, and often even the highly touted ones are under seasoned. The Beard & Belly burger is well seasoned and they make in-house gardiniere, spicy remoulade and the fries! I forgot about their fries  gah! They're perfect, thin, crispy with just enough soft pillow-y insides and salty. And then you're sitting at the bar in Longroom with a pint of some stellar draughts."

Eusebio Garcia

Chef, Mesa Urbana in Northbrook

Best meal: Caldo De Piedra

Restaurant: Lena Brava, 900 W. Randolph St., Chicago; www.RickBayless.com/restaurants/lena-brava/

The skinny: "The Caldo De Piedra is served in a stone crock, tableside. The corn broth is poured in front of the guests for a beautiful presentation. The freshness and quality of all the ingredients is amazing and they're very healthy and chock full of flavor."

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Nathaniel Judson

Chef, Frasca Pizzeria and Wine Bar in Chicago

Best meal: Ramen

Restaurant: High Five Ramen, 112 N. Green St. Chicago; www.HighFiveRamen.com

The skinny: "I was taken here by a few other chefs after working an event nearby. Walked into this small space and (luckily) we got seats right at the bar. The ramen was just amazing, perfect after a long day. The flavor and spice of the broth and the texture of the noodle and pork belly, blown away. Then I cracked the egg and it got even better."

Margarita Challenger

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Executive Chef/Owner, Guanajuato Contemporary Mexican & Tequila Bar in Glencoe

Best meal: Chengdu Dan Dan Noodle Soup and Shrimp and Chive Dumpling

Restaurant: Katy's Dumpling House, 665 N. Cass Ave., Westmont; www.KatysDumpling.com

The skinny: "The Dan Dan soup is absolutely delicious. The noodles are homemade and they are tasty without being salty. The Spicy Stir Fry Noodles are great too. It's like going to my friend's Chinese home for soup. It's a small mom and pop shop but every time I've been there, it's been packed. The locals obviously know where to find great Chinese."

Rebecca Zuckerman, pastry chef at Seven Lions in Chicago and Terra & Vine in Evanston said the best thing she ate this year was the cassoulet at Maude's Liquor Bar. (Rebecca Zuckeman)

Rebecca Zuckerman

Pastry Chef, Seven Lions in Chicago and Terra & Vine in Evanston

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Best meal: Cassoulet

Restaurant: Maude's Liquor Bar, 840 W. Randolph St., Chicago; www.MaudesLiquorBar.com

The skinny: "This was by far my favorite thing that I ate this year, and possibly over the past few years, because of how comforting it is. It is a traditional French dish that consists of a rich white bean stew, with tomatoes, carrots, bacon, pork belly, garlic sausage, duck confit and bone marrow all topped with toasty, sourdough breadcrumbs. So yes, it is a little gluttonous, but we're going into the cold season so I feel a little better about indulging!"

Edward Kim

Chef, Ruxbin and Mott Street in Chicago

Best meal: Brunch (haddock roe, fluffy omelet, homemade bread)

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Restaurant: Cafe Marie-Jeanne, 1001 N. California Ave., Chicago; www.Cafe-Marie-Jeanne.com

The skinny: "The entire brunch was wonderful, turning a once cranky, tired man into a person that was happily sedated and serene. The quality of the roe was incredibly fresh, creamy, and reminiscent of the sea. Cooked simply in brown butter, paired with wonderful homemade bread, and a pillow-y, soft omelet. To the chagrin of my wife I think I may have developed a serious man-crush."

Michael Lachowicz

Chef, Restaurant Michael and George Trois in Winnetka

Best meal: Assorted charcuterie platter

Restaurant: Owen & Engine, 2700 N. Western Ave., Chicago; www.OwenAndEngine.com

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The skinny: "Made me feel like I was back in Lyon! Beautiful textures in the forcemeats and delicious house-made accompaniments including pickled onions and perfect crusty bread. Exceptional technique and flavor."

Angelyne Canicosa

Pastry Chef, Vie in Western Springs and Vistro in Hinsdale

Best meal: Crispy pata (pork shank), beef kare kare (peanut and oxtail stew), chicken inasal (calamansi, soy and vinegar marinated, coal-grilled chicken) and more...

Restaurant: Kawayan, 4859 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago

The skinny: "I chose this meal because it's truly authentic Filipino home-style cooking. It's not fussy or trying to be anything that it really isn't. Rich flavors are complemented by bright acidity. Everything is so well-balanced and satisfying. The dishes at Kawayan remind me of my grandmother's cooking and also of the simple roadside eateries you can find everywhere in the Philippines."

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Brian Huston

Chef, Boltwood in Evanston

Best meal: Corned Beef Hash

Restaurant: Tre Kronor, 3258 W. Foster Ave., Chicago; www.TreKronorRestaurant.com

The skinny: "Best meal of 2016? Of course, that's easy: the corned beef hash at Tre Kronor. My wife Chrissy and I go to Tre on Monday mornings when Boltwood is closed. I've had the corned beef hash twice over the last year so I can say it's consistent and well-seasoned. The potatoes are diced fine so you could eat them with a spoon. I get it with eggs over easy and I squeeze the ceremonial orange twist over the plate to give it a little acid. I'd be hard pressed to find a better breakfast in Chicago."
A bullet hole in the window of the Children's Home Center in the 1600 block of Dolton Road in Calumet City. (WGN)

A stray bullet pierced the window of a day care center Monday in Calumet City and wounded a worker inside, police said.

Kids were preparing for dismissal about 4:30 p.m. at the Children's Home Center, 1652 Dolton Road, when a bullet came through a window, grazing a staff member's cheek, Calumet City Assistant Police Chief Tom DiFiore said.

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"She's fine," DiFiore said of the staff member.

The woman, a 47-year-old Chicago resident, was taken to a nearby trauma center for treatment, DiFiore said. No one else was injured.

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No arrests had been made, but investigators believe the shooter was aiming at a person at a store kitty-corner from the facility, DiFiore said. "The target wasn't the day care center," he said.

On Tuesday, Calumet City police increased their presence around the center to boost the comfort of the children and staff, DiFiore said.

Calumet City police ask anyone with information to call them at 708-868-2500.

Police investigate a the scene of a shoting at a convenience store in Calumet City on Dec. 19, 2016. (WGN)

WGN-TV contributed. Dennis Sullivan is a freelance reporter.
The first phase of the Longmeadow Parkway Corridor project realigned the intersection at Huntley and Boyer Roads and added a new leg of Huntley Road east to Randall Road. (Gloria Casas / The Courier-News)

Kane County continues negotiating for properties along the $115 million Longmeadow Parkway Corridor route but is also getting its legal powers of eminent domain ready.

Transportation Committee members approved a resolution requesting "quick take authority" for the Kane County Department of Transportation involving properties along the route.

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The authority is part of the eminent domain process, KDOT Executive Director Carl Schoedel said. Illinois complied statues allow governments to take ownership of properties prior to a final judgment in an eminent domain case  which can take years, he said.

Longmeadow Parkway Fox River Bridge Corridor is a proposed four-lane Fox River Bridge crossing and four-lane minor arterial roadway corridor with median, approximately 5.6 miles long traveling through portions of Algonquin, Carpentersville and Barrington Hills.

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Kane County does not want to use eminent domain and continues to negotiate with property owners, but the county needs to have the authority to obtain properties to make sure it meets deadlines for federal funding, Schoedel said.

"We always prefer to negotiateit is very rare we would go to eminent domain," he said. The "quick take authority" is "something to have in your back pocket," he said.

Committee members also approved a contract with Homer Tree Service, Inc., to remove about 1,400 trees from Huntley and Boyer roads, west of Randall through Karen Drive and a section east of Route 25 to Route 62, Steve Coffinbarger, assistant director of the Kane County Department of Transportation, said.

The trees being removed are undesirable species and some are dead, Committee Chairman Drew Frasz said. KDOT will replace the trees at a ratio of 1 to 2 with desirable species, he said.

Both the contract and resolution must be approved by the entire board at its January meeting.

A Longmeadow Bridge corridor opponent asked county board members delay votes on any aspect of the project. Laura Brehmer, of Algonquin, cited numerous concerns about the Longmeadow Parkway corridor including how a berm between backyards and the road are not enough protection from traffic and some homeowners did not know the road was being built. Children will not be able to play in their backyards and some families are moving away, Brehmer said.

"It will negatively impact our residents' quality of life and destroy our forest preserve," she said. "I ask you to please table your decisions on Longmeadow and have a meaningful dialogue with citizens and organizations that are opposed to this project," she said.

Brehmer got support from one county board member. Newly sworn-in District 24 Commission Jarett Sanchez ran a campaign opposing Longmeadow Parkway. He was appointed to the Transportation Committee where he made a motion Tuesday to table the contracts and resolutions. The motion died without a second.

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He pointed out that Dundee Township held a referendum where 70 percent of the voters were against the project. "I am not expecting to sway anyone's position," Sanchez said. "But, I want to make sure this committee is aware of (the voters') position."

Frasz said the project has been ongoing for years. Sanchez was appointed to the committee to give voice to the opposition, he said.

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
The City of Elgin shut down a makeshift warming shelter this week, recently set up by a local homeless advocate.

Rev. Greg Schiller had been opening up his home garage near downtown Elgin for a few weeks, attracting 10 to 15 homeless people on days he was open. His temporary shelter, though, was forced to close after city officials said it had violated certain residential codes.

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"I understand the reason for building codes," said Schiller. "But in extraneous circumstances, those codes can be waived. I wanted to bring these people into my property because of those issues. They suffer from mental issues, drugs, alcohol abuse, that prohibits them from getting into shelter. That doesn't mean they don't deserve a warm, place to stay."

Elgin Code Enforcement Manager Vince Cuchetto said firefighters had responded to a medical issue Saturday at the residence. Responders found at least 8 people living in Schiller's basement, he added. City officials said the garage was in no way suitable to house homeless or be classified a temporary shelter.

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"It's not the city's intent to say they can't go somewhere to be warm, but for something like that it has to be set up," Cuchetto said. "Using space heaters and gas-powered appliances (in a garage), it's not appropriate, it's not safe."

Emergency shelters cannot be single or multiple-family residences, added Cuchetto. Schiller was given a 24-hour notice to shut down the shelter, to which the city said he complied with.

The garage wouldn't be open every day, Schiller said. It would only open on nights when wind chill temperatures dipped below 15 degrees. His objective was to provide them with a warm place to stay when other options were not available.

"The best thing I could do was open up my garage," said Schiller.

The other two shelters in the city  PADS of Elgin and First United Methodist Church  have specific requirements. PADS is open nightly, but has rules that keep out certain segments of the homeless population. First United's shelter, currently run by the nonprofit Matthew 25:40 Ministries, provides shelter for anywhere between 25 and 40 people on many winter nights, said pastor Rick Carlson.

First United, though, opens to the homeless only when air temperature is at or below 15 degrees, Carlson said. Ideally, opening the shelter on a nightly basis would be great, but they do not have the resources to accommodate such an effort, especially since all services are provided through volunteers, he said.

"I do know that if we were to take wind chill as part of the measurement, we would probably be open every night of the winter," he said. "And we don't have the people power to do it."

Schiller is a former member of the Matthew 25:40 group.

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raguerrero@tribpub.com
Persecuted Christians in the Middle East

As we celebrate Christmas this year and listen to the beautiful readings and songs that bring to mind the many different sites in the Middle East that are mentioned in the long story of redemption, my thoughts turn to the plight of Christians in these lands. This past March, Secretary of State John Kerry officially declared the extermination of Christians and other minority religious groups in the Middle East a genocide. A truly ecumenical gathering of voices over the past 10 years, including the Philos Project, the American Mesopotamian Organization, Open Doors, Knights of Columbus, In Defense of Christians, the Assyrian Aid Society of America, the Iraqi Christian Relief Council and many other Christian voices, have called for action. They presented evidence to the State Department that proved genocide and ethnic cleansing was taking place against Christians in the Middle East. Just last Sunday at least 25 people were killed in a Coptic Christian Church in Cairo after a suicide bomber blew himself up in the church. The evil forces of ISIS have targeted Christians in the Middle East for torture, forced conversion and death in a brutal manner. A reporter from Christianity Today, Jayson Casper, reported that, "Egypt always tends to rally around Christians at moments like this. But over time ISIS is trying to hammer and hammer and hammer the Christians in Egypt and put so much pressure on the internal government that it itself may collapse." Other attacks have taken place recently, such as the bombing of a church in Alexandria that killed 25 people. ISIS, who has claimed responsibility for the latest attack, also beheaded 21 Coptic Christians in Libya. Daily, we watch the growing suffering of the people in Syria from what seems like an endless war. And let us not forget the underreported suffering of their neighbors in Lebanon. With the rise of Islamic extremist movements, such as ISIS, Christians throughout the Middle East have either fled many of the countries where they have lived since the time of the Apostles or faced discrimination, harassment or death. This reign of terror has been unfolding for the past 10 years. Christians in the Middle East in many ways represent the West to various extremist groups, even though they are as Middle Eastern as are the attackers. In Iraq alone since the U.S. invasion, Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda explained that, "since 2003, we've lost priests, bishops and more than 60 churches were bombed." Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Christians fled Iraq for their lives, and the Christian population shrank to less than 500,000 today from as many as 1.5 million in 2003. And this is happening to a greater or lesser degree to Christians in most of the Middle Eastern countries. In the place of the birth of Christianity the future of Christians is uncertain. "How much longer can we flee before we and other minorities become a story in a history book?" said Nuri Kino, a journalist and founder of the advocacy group Demand for Action. According to a recent Pew study, Christians face religious persecution in more countries than any other religious group. "ISIL has put a spotlight on the issue," says Anna Eshoo, a California U.S. House of Representative, whose parents are from the region and who advocates on behalf of Eastern Christians. Leading Patriarchs of the Middle East have cried out for help to the Christian world. At a recent summit convened in Damascus, the heads of five major Eastern Christian Churches of Antioch said the ideological foundations of radical Islamism must be countered with "a culture of openness, peace and freedom of belief." "We call on everyone who claims to have an interest in our fate to help us to remain," they said in an appeal to the international community. Yes, it is hard to believe that the decedents of the shepherds in fields, the three kings, those who lived in the land of Egypt -- where the Holy Family fled, and all those ancient cites mentioned in the prophetic great gathering -- are slowly being snuffed out in the Middle East. We Christians here in the Western Hemisphere must come to their aid. Let us pray for them in a special way this Christmas, as we hear the story of our redemption.
Incoming Evanston Fire Chief Brian Scott on Wednesday said he plans to continue with enhanced community engagement to make sure the department is meeting the needs of the Evanston community in all its neighborhoods.

Following a nationwide search, Evanston appointed Scott as the fire department's new chief, the city announced in a release on Wednesday.

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Scott was born and raised in Chicago but has served with the Evanston Fire Department for 17 years. He will officially take over as chief starting on Jan. 9, replacing following the retirement of Chief Greg Klaiber in September, the city said.

"Two or three generation ago, the fire service was based on fire suppression," Scott said Wednesday. "Obviously, over the last 75 years we're seen firefighters take on more responsibility with respect to life safety.

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"Now we have firefighters that have myriad of specialties, for example specialized rescue and of course the latest thing is homeland security types of issues, terrorism response," he added. "All of these things now are in the mix that firefighters and paramedics are on the frontline for any incident that may impact life safety."

Scott began his career as an Evanston firefighter/paramedic in 1999, was promoted to captain/paramedic in 2006, and became division chief of operations and training in 2014, the city said in a release. It said that in September 2015, Scott was promoted to deputy chief of operations and training, where he directed and led fire suppression operations and managed the department's fire prevention bureau. Scott has served as co-chair of the department's Training Committee, as a member of the EMS Committee and on the rescue dive team, according to the release.

"Today's firefighters are better trained than they ever have been," Scott said. "It makes the job very fulfilling but at the same time very challenging."

Evanston city manager Wally Bobkiewicz , said in a release that Scott competed against a national pool of candidates for the position. He said Scott proved that with his long experience as a firefighting professional as well as his keen understanding of the Evanston Fire Department that he is the best person for the job.

"I look forward to welcoming him to the city's executive management team and working with him as fire chief," Bobkiewicz said in the statement.

Scott is currently a field instructor for the Illinois Fire Service Institute in Urbana-Champaign, and is pursuing his Chief Fire Officer Certification through the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association, the release said. It said he has a Master of Science in Public Safety Administration from Lewis University and a Bachelor of Arts from Southern Illinois University, along with numerous fire training certificates from the Illinois State Fire Marshall and the Illinois Fire Service Institute.

"It's a distinct privilege and honor to serve the city of Evanston in the capacity of fire chief," Scott said. "The Evanston Fire Department really is one on the premiere fire departments in the country. I'm very excited about that opportunity."

Scott will be honored at the Evanston City Council meeting on Jan. 9, the city said.

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Brian Cox is a freelancer.
Layla Goldstein, 6, of San Francisco, California is in the arms of her mother Jamie Goldstein. Surrounding the two are, on far right, Sandra Bahrmasel of Glencoe and Donna MacLeod (upper center) of WilmetteaC_at Kalk Park in Glencoe on Nov. 25, 2016 for the Liza's Gazebo Kalk Park Grand Opening Celebration.aC_ (Karie Angell Luc / Pioneer Press)

2016 saw the much-anticipated opening of the new Writers Theatre and the return of a downtown farmer's market, as well as a series of proposals from a key village body on revitalizing downtown Glencoe. District 35 opened its first full-day kindergarten program and worked to address high lead levels detected in some fixtures in its schools. Meanwhile, the Glencoe Park District celebrated enhancements at two of its parks, and planned for improvements at other facilities in 2017.

Downtown changes

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A major addition arrived in downtown Glencoe in February when the 36,000-square-foot Writers Theatre opened its doors at 325 Tudor Court.

A quarter century ago, Writers began its productions in the back of a bookstore. But over time, the shows became so popular that Writers officials were able to raise more than $33 million leading to the construction and debut of the Theatre, which was designed by a team led by nationally-known architect Jeanne Gang.

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With the Theatre now serving as an anchor on the northern part of downtown, the village is hoping it will add some energy  and customers  to the rest of the central business district.

However, the opening of the new Writers building was a factor in the closing of its one-time landlord, Books on Vernon, according to one of the bookstore's co-owners, Linda Illes.

She said when Writers moved out, Books on Vernon saw a decline in foot traffic coming into the store. Coupled with cheaper prices offered by online retailers such as Amazon, Books on Vernon, which had been a Glencoe staple since the early 1990s, sold its last book at the end of June. The space is currently vacant.

2016 marked the return of the Saturday morning farmer's market downtown. After years of dwindling attendance, the Glencoe Chamber of Commerce shut down operations last year to consider modifications to lure back customers.

The Chamber brought in new management, which re-branded the market as the Glencoe French Market and moved it to Wyman Green, which allowed customers to shop under shade, and added artists and music. Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sally Sprowl said the farmer's market will return in the same format in 2017.

Meanwhile, after more than two years of study, the Plan Commission delivered a report to the Village Board with a series of recommendations for enhancing the central business district. Trustees unanimously accepted the plan at the Dec. 15 Village Board meeting.

District 35

In March, Christine Zelaya, District 35's director of curriculum and instruction, resigned less than a year after taking the job, and subsequently took a position as a principal at an Oak Park school. District 35 veteran Amy Holaday was later promoted to the curriculum and instruction post.

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Board of Education member Michael Sherman, elected in 2015, resigned as he moved out of Glencoe to take a new job. Glencoe resident Melissa Estes was appointed to fill the vacancy. Three other members  Eddie Chez, Rob Bailey and Marc Glucksman - announced they would not seek re-election in 2017, with Glucksman a candidate for the New Trier High School board.

At the start of the 2016-17 school year, South School became home to the district's first full-day kindergarten program. The district had only offered half-day kindergarten in the past.

Over the summer, elevated levels of lead were detected in some equipment at its three schools. District 35 officials said items such as sinks and water fountains were removed, and weekly water flushing is now taking place in an effort to address the issue.

In November, the board signed off on a one-year contract extension through June 2019 for Supt. Catherine Wang.

Glencoe Park District

A groundbreaking was held in June for Melvin Berlin Park, which is scheduled to open in the spring of 2017.

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In 2016, the Park District also opened an enhanced Shelton Park in the southern end of the village, and a refurbished Kalk Park featuring a new gazebo was celebrated in an opening ceremony in late November.

Changes to the Lakefront Park, Astor Park, the West School playground and the Takiff Center parking lot are planned for 2017.

Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.
More than 100 people attended a June 2 meeting of the Lake Forest Plan Commission concerning a proposed residential development at Laurel and Western avenues. (Mark Lawton / Chicago Tribune)

As 2016 come to a close, the Lake Forester looks back on the biggest local stories of the year.

Laurel and Western

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Few local issues attract more attention than new real estate development, this was particularly true of the development at Laurel and Western avenues in Lake Forest.

After nine years, the Lake Forest City Council approved a plan by Focus Development of Northfield on April 4 to construct 110 apartments in three buildings, 42 condominiums in two buildings and 12 single-family homes on the 10-acre site of the former municipal services building.

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The proposed development required numerous meetings of the Plan Commission and the Building Review Board. Those meetings attracted residents who expressed concerns over density, the site's grading, parking, building heights, a shrinking Franklin Park, potential damage to the Heritage Tree, landscaping plans, traffic, drainage and a reduction in open space.

City officials say the property will generate property taxes and potentially supply shoppers for nearby downtown businesses.

Block 3 and Lake Bluff development

To the north, Lake Bluff residents flocked to village government meetings with concerns about two separate residential proposals for the downtown block that formerly housed a PNC bank. The block is bordered by Oak, Evanston, North and Scranton and is commonly referred to as Block 3.

In February, Uppercross Development Group pitched a 16-unit development that was withdrawn after concerns over height and density. A second proposal by Roanoke Group was withdrawn in September.

"At the end of the day, there was just too much negativity about it," said Peter Kyte, principal at Roanoke Group.

On Sept. 12, village trustees amended development requirements for the block, limiting any development to 30 feet in height with no more than two stories.

The on-again, off-again proposed development on an 8.5 acre parcel along Route 60 and Saunders Road was back on the table in 2016 when Jason Smith, of Smith Capital Management in Lake Bluff, and Middleton Partners of Northbrook closed on the property March 9. Both the Shiner Group of Wilmette and Pine Tree Commercial Realty of Northbrook had previously pitched plans for a retail development that included a Whole Foods.

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The city council granted final approval in April to North Shore Builders to construct the Westleigh Farm subdivision south of Route 60 and west of Ridge Road. Plans called for 33 single family homes.

Public safety pensions

A major financial challenge for the city of Lake Forest appears to be how to handle the increasing cost of funding pensions for the fire and police departments.

The fire pension levy in 2005 was $466,229, according to a presentation at the Oct. 3 City Council meeting. In 2016 it's $1.2 million. By 2027, city officials project that it will increase to $2.6 million. Add the police pension fund, and the total public safety pension costs are projected to hit $6.7 million by 2027. The funding challenge was exacerbated in 2016 by weak returns on pension investments.

Ald. Stanford Tack served on a city committee tasked with looking at fire department costs.

"Unaltered, the growth of public safety pension obligations alone will require massive tax and fee increases as well as severe cuts in other governmental services in order to merely fund the annual increase," Tack read from a prepared letter during an October city council meeting. "The committee determined that there were no significant opportunities for revenue enhancement or fiscal efficiencies in the fire department that could clearly contribute to the mitigation of these clearly unsustainable financial trends."

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In the short term, the city council approved a public pension safety fee in December that will go into effect in May 2017. The fee is $10 per quarter for single family homeowners and $35 per quarter for all other properties.

In the longer term, the city plans to reach out to neighboring communities to discuss sharing fire services, although what that would look like has yet to be determined.

Amtrak line expansion

In October, Lake Forest officials and residents scrambled to respond to a proposal to construct a side train track of at least 10,000 feet near the Academy Woods subdivision.

Amtrak wants to increase service on its Hiawatha line between Milwaukee and Chicago from seven round trips a day to 10 round trips a day. To make that possible, five projects were proposed along the mainline tracks that would allow trains to increase speed and reduce travel times. One of those projects would involve building a side track near the Academy Woods subdivision, located north of Kennedy Road between Waukegan Road and Interstate 94, that is long enough to hold a typical freight train.

The Academy Woods Homeowners Association, Pine Oaks Condominium Association and other residents are concerned about potential noise, vibrations and air pollution from idling trains as well as how the project might impact the Middlefork Savanna and wetlands.

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In cooperation with Bannockburn, Deerfield, Glenview, Northbrook and Metra, the city was able to persuade the Federal Railroad Administration to extend the comment period by another two months, up to Jan. 15.

Officials are lobbying the Federal Railroad Administration to complete a more thorough environmental impact statement on the project.

Unexpected repairs

In May, an inspection of the Ferry Hall Bridge on Mayflower Road south of Spring Lane found problems with the area below the northbound lane. Inspections since then found "severe deterioration of the original concrete and reinforcing steel of the span," primarily due to road salt according to city documents.

The inspection determined that the northbound lane can no longer support its current 15-ton capacity and must be reduced to five tons. In July, the Lake Forest City Council agreed to spend $28,500 to hire an engineering firm to figure out what work is needed.

The council also hired an engineering firm at a cost of $33,400 to examine the bluff adjacent to Forest Park from Spring Lane to the North Beach Access Road. In May, city staff noted that the bluff on the east side of South Beach Access Road had begun to move and separate from the curb and road.

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Lake Forest's Market Square, one of the first shopping centers in the country designed with automobiles in mind, celebrated its 100th anniversary this year. (Rob Dicker / Pioneer Press)

A century ago

Market Square, arguably the first mall in the country planned around automobile access, celebrated its centennial over the summer.

The Lake Forest Preservation Foundation celebrated 40 years in November with a gathering at the historic downtown train station. So did Ragdale Foundation, which threw a party at its estate in September.

mlawton@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter: @reporterdude
Officials and residents in Lake Forest and other North Shore communities affected by a project that would increase Amtrak service on the Hiawatha line between Milwaukee and Chicago are calling for a comprehensive study to evaluate potential impacts on residents and ecosystems.

Lake Forest hosted a public forum Monday night to discuss the proposed project that would increase service on the line from seven round trips a day to 10 round trips a day. According to the city's website, over 100 people attended the meeting, including incoming U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, of Deerfield, and representatives from the offices of State Sen. Julie Morrison and State Rep. Scott Drury.

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The proposed project impacts multiple towns in addition to Lake Forest, including Glenview, Northbrook, Deerfield and Bannockburn, and entails five projects along existing railway lines. One of the proposed projects includes installing between 13,000 and 18,000 feet of new and restructured railway tracks adjacent to the existing rail line near the Academy Woods Subdivision, which is located north of Kennedy Road between Waukegan Road and Interstate 94, according to a presentation displayed at Monday's Lake Forest forum.

The purpose of the project is to reduce travel times and increase speeds by providing a third rail for freight trains to pull onto so that passenger trains traveling up to 79 miles per hour can pass. Lake Forest City Manager Bob Kiely said the result would mean passing freight trains would be 14 feet closer to adjacent homes west of the tracks.

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The agencies involved in the project include the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, which requested the additional trips on the Hiawatha line, the Illinois Department of Transportation and Amtrak, along with the Federal Railroad Administration.

The Federal Railroad Administration has the final say on whether or not the project can move forward and will also supply a significant portion of the estimated $150 million necessary for the proposal to become a reality, according to Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.

Magliari said the railway company "operates this service under contract with the Wisconsin and Illinois Department of Transportation and the majority partner in this (project) is the Wisconsin DOT."

Lake Forest and other neighboring communities successfully lobbied to extend the public comment period on the project's environmental assessment from Nov. 15 to Jan. 15. The assessment was published in October.

Kiely said the municipalities requested that the Federal Railroad Administration require the lead agencies on the project to produce an environmental impact study, which is also referred to as an environmental impact statement.

The environmental assessment concludes that the increase in the number of Amtrak trains would result in "no noise impacts to adjacent properties" and "no impacts to adjacent properties." Additionally, the assessment states that the creation of a side rail would create "no adverse noise or vibration."

Kiely said an environmental impact study differs from an assessment because it is a more comprehensive study of the impacts a proposed project may have on an area.

"That's why the communities initially said they'd like to see a full environmental impact study done so we all have complete knowledge and information as to what those noise and vibration impacts are going to be," he said.

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Deerfield Village Manager Kent Street said municipal officials continue to investigate the proposal and have also called for an environmental impact study.

"The (environmental assessment) provides inadequate supporting documentation on air quality, noise and other health and safety impacts," Deerfield Mayor Harriet Rosenthal wrote in a letter to the Federal Railroad Administration. "The Village strongly recommends that more consideration needs to be given to the health and human factors and calls for the completion of a more comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)."

Schneider released a statement supporting efforts for the more in-depth environmental impact study.

"I hear every day from constituents concerned about the proposed project and look forward to working with my colleagues in the Illinois delegation and other local elected officials to make our communities' voices heard," Schneider said in a statement. "I'm hopeful we can urge the Federal Railroad Administration to undertake a more comprehensive Environmental Impact Study that would examine the full environmental and economic effects of this project on the neighboring communities."

Municipal officials said the federal agency is expected to issue a decision either requiring the impact study or a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and an approval of the environmental assessment sometime during the first quarter of next year.

If no impact study is required, the lead agencies on the project will begin the process of securing the necessary funding, according to the presentation delivered Monday in Lake Forest.

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JoAnn Desmond, president of the Academy Woods homeowners association, has spearheaded local opposition to the proposed project and is fully supportive of the environmental impact study request.

Overall, she said, "we'd like to see this proposal not take place."

Both Desmond and Rick Cusack, who lives adjacent to the railway in the Pine Oaks subdivision off of Conway Road, said the project will exacerbate what they see as the already existing problem of too many freight trains carrying hazardous materials passing by and sometimes idling for hours very close to residents' homes.

They say the project heightens risks and could have potentially detrimental impacts to the nearby Middlefork Savanna Forest Preserve.

"We're concerned for our safety, we're concerned for our quality of life and our property values," Cusack said.

Residents opposed to the project have also questioned the need for an increase in Amtrak trips between the two cities.

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According to the environmental assessment, "ridership in the ChicagoMilwaukee corridor has nearly doubled between 2001 and 2013, growing by an average of 5.9 percent per year."

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation said the increase is necessary to keep up with the demand for rides on the line.

"As ridership grows, nearcapacity and overcapacity conditions (especially on trains 330, 332, 337 and 339) are expected to occur more frequently if no improvements are made to the service. Peak trains are often over capacity. Ridership is continuing to increase, despite the fall in gas prices. There is also significant and growing ridership on the mid-day off-peak trains," wrote Mae Knowles, a spokesperson for WisDOT, in an email.

Knowles did not address questions regarding residents' concerns about increased noise and the risks of pollution or train derailments.

Those who wish to submit a public comment regarding the project can do so by emailing DOTChicagoMilwaukeePassengerRailEA@dot.wi.gov or by calling (608) 261-6123.

Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
A Naperville man has been arrested for the eighth time this year, his most recent charges related to shoplifting incident in which an employee of a local discount store was assaulted.

Nicholas Ducato, 41, of the 800 block of Corday Avenue, has been arrested or ticketed at least 40 times since 1992 by area law enforcement agencies, according to DuPage County court records.

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Ducato, 41, lives in the 800 block of Corday Avenue, in the AMLI at Naperville apartment complex. He was most recently arrested at 10:15 a.m. Thursday, following an incident at the Walmart SuperCenter, at 2552 W. 75th St., according to his court file.

In the most recent case, Ducato was confronted by a store security worker at the Walmart SuperCenter, 2552 W. 75th St., while allegedly trying to walk away with more than $500 worth of assorted, unspecified merchandise, records said. He threatened to harm the security worker, records said.

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Ducato also is charged with a Nov. 24 crime in which he allegedly "stole a number of power and hand tools" valued at just over $200 from a store, Naperville police Cmdr. Jason Arres said. Although Arres declined to name the business, a court file said it was the Walmart SuperCenter.

Two of Ducato's other run-ins with the law this year occurred Jan. 25, according to court records. He allegedly took four cans of Red Bull energy drink from the Walgreens store at 1779 Sequoia Road and a buck hunting knife valued at $50 from the Menards home improvement center at 715 Fort Hill Drive.

Ducato was arrested again March 20 on a charge of criminal trespass to property for allegedly going to the Walgreens after having been banned from the premises. He was charged again with same crime on July 14, when allegedly returning to the same store, records said.

He also was arrested July 2 after trying to shoplift clothing, paint and a wire brush from the Menards store, records said.

The most recent retail theft charge against Ducato is a felony. The other seven counts are misdemeanors.

Ducato's court record includes a 1993 conviction for resisting or obstructing a police officer in Aurora; a 1995 conviction for battery in Naperville; separate 1995 convictions for trespassing in Naperville and Aurora; and a 2000 Downers Grove battery conviction.

Ducato is being held in DuPage County jail on a combined bail of $4,750, according to jail records. He is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 27 in connection with the alleged Walmart crimes and on Jan. 11 in the earlier cases.

wbird@tribpub.com
Dear Mr. Bradshaw,

I applied Early Action (EA) to Harvard and received word that I was deferred to Regular Action (RA) status. What are my chances of getting admitted, and is there anything I can do to move myself up on the list?

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Signed,

Student

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Dear Student,

Harvard admitted 939 EAs to the Class of 2021 out of 6,473 who applied, for an admission rate of 14.5 percent.

You will be evaluated all over again under RA, which last year had an admissions rate of 5.2 percent out of 39,000 applicants. That also means you will have to wait until April 1, or later to find out if you are admitted.

To understand the context of admission decisions at Harvard, it is important to understand where you fit into the admission pool. A lot will depend on your ethnic background and geographical location.

The Harvard Crimson reported that the College admitted 12.6 percent of African American applicants for the Class of 2021 this year. Asian American applicants represent 21.7 percent of the class, Latinos 8.8 percent, and Native Americans and Native Hawaiians represent 1.1 percent of the admitted pool,

Females represent 48 percent of the admitted students and the geographic distribution saw a slight increase in students from the Midwest.

If you are on the deferred list, you might still be accepted depending on the number of openings the school has left after admitted students confirm their decisions to attend. Deferred listing is a legitimate way to let students know that they will be reconsidered.

Most students who apply to top colleges typically apply to ten or more schools. The pool of applicants is astonishingly competitive and students making Harvard's deferred list would do well at other colleges, so do not stake all of your hopes on one college.

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You ask what can you do to improve the odds of moving up on the list now that you have not been accepted in early admission. Colleges do not place students on a deferred list if there is not a realistic chance of getting admitted after a second round of evaluations, but this means students who want to remain on that list have work to do.

I suggest you send the Harvard Admissions Office a letter/email renewing your interest in the school and sharing any new milestones in your life since applying last fall. This information is often the deciding factor in deferred applications. Many applicants look stronger in the last semester of their senior year after receiving an academic award, finishing first in a national competition or being honored for an extra-curricular success. Colleges need to be notified about these honors or accomplishments.

In your letter it is important to emphasize Harvard is your first choice because you need to convince officials that if you are admitted, you will attend.

If possible, I recommend that you try and schedule an in-person interview with the admissions office and convince the officials of your sincerity. This is an aggressive move but especially helpful if you have strong interview skills.

Gerald Bradshaw is an international college admission consultant with Bradshaw College Consulting in Crown Point.

gerald_bradshaw@post.harvard.edu
The home of Rex and Ruth McCulloch at 2240 McCool Road in Portage gets so many visitors, they even have a "live" Santa Claus pass out candy canes on weekends. (Suzanne Tennant / Post-Tribune)

Editor's note: This is the fourth in a series highlighting some of Northwest Indiana's most decorative homes during the Christmas season.

Having an impressive display of Christmas lights wasn't enough for Rex McCulloch.

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Three years ago, McCulloch, 63, hired a "real-life" Santa Claus to pass out candy canes to passersby a couple of Saturdays in December in front of McCulloch's Portage home at 2240 McCool Road. Last year, Santa passed out more than 1,000 candy canes, McCulloch said.

"Everyone gets a thrill out of it," he said.

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Every year there is a systematic approach to arranging his Christmas decorations. First, McCulloch puts up lights on the front window in the middle of September, followed soon thereafter by icicle lights hanging from the roof and on Halloween he puts the lights on the bushes.

The home of Rex and Ruth McCulloch at 2240 McCool Road in Portage gets so many visitors, they even have a "live" Santa Claus pass out candy canes on weekends. (Suzanne Tennant / Post-Tribune)

"Then once Halloween is over I go straight to town," McCulloch said. There's a reindeer on the roof, candy canes in the driveway, Santa Claus's face above the garage and then there's McCulloch's favorites: the arches over his driveway, the Santa Claus sitting in a row boat in the creek in his back yard and the "Santa's Workshop" sign plastered on his shed in the back yard.

McCulloch started decorating his house for Christmas in 1993 and he's continued to collect decorations ever since.

"Once my kids graduated I started putting my money into decorating for Christmas," he said.

McCulloch said he receives a positive response to his Christmas decorations year-round.

"I'll be out there mowing the yard and I'll have little kids come up and tell me they like my lights," he said. "I get anything from elementary kids to high school students to adults. I enjoy it."

McCulloch's wife, Ruth, said she loves seeing how people react to their Christmas lights.

"I think the enjoyment of the whole thing is when you see people light up," she said. "Just to see people's faces is amazing."

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Rex McCulloch has been decorating his home at 2240 McCool Road in Portage with lights since the early 1990s. (Suzanne Tennant / Post-Tribune)

Despite the elaborate lights and decorations, the Santa Claus the McCulloch's hire every year is a big attraction, Ruth said.

"Last year we even had a woman who was 88 come by and wanted to take a picture sitting on Santa's lap," she said.

As Christmas approaches, Rex McCulloch said he's already planning a few surprises for next year's display.

"I've already got some ideas," he said. "People ask me what's next, but I won't tell them. I like to throw the extra surprise out there every year."

jaanderson@tribpub.com

Twitter @JavonteA
A Crown Point man is accused of telling a "series of lies" in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen regarding his wife, his military service and murder charges he faced during the Bosnian Conflict in the 1990s, according to a release from the Department of Justice.

Alexander Kneginich, 56, was indicted by a federal jury last week and arrested Monday in Michigan on an unlawful procurement of citizenship or naturalization charge.

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Kneginich became a U.S. refugee in 2000, a permanent resident in 2004, and, ultimately, a naturalized citizen in 2007, according to his indictment. But in his applications throughout that process, he either falsified or did not disclose all the details from his past, despite claiming he had never lied to U.S. immigration authorities, according to the indictment and release.

When Kneginich applied to become a refugee, he claimed he was in an ethnically mixed marriage, saying his wife is "an ethnic Croatian and that, because he is Serbian, they had to flee Bosnia to "avoid the persecution," according to the DOJ release, when in reality, the indictment states they are both ethnic Serbs.

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Kneginich comes from Prijedor in northwest Bosnia, where groups formed armies and clashed for control when the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992, the indictment states.

Three primary groups grappled for power. Kneginich's indictment outline the groups as the Bosniaks, who are primarily Muslim; Bosnian Croats, who are primarily Roman Catholic; and Bosnian Serbs, who are primarily Orthodox Christian, and who Kneginich is served with in 1994.

When the conflict began, the Bosnian Serbs seized control in Prijedor, the indictment states, and armed groups known as Territorial Defense Units, which Kneginich is said to have served with in 1992, began attacking Muslim-majority villages to try to force the Muslim population out of the region.

Kneginich and three co-defendants were charged in 1994 in a Bosnian court with the murders of a civilian Muslim couple, Rejhan and Razija Sikiric, the indictment states. They were accused of breaking into the home of a Muslim couple and shooting them "several times, killing them immediately," according to the indictment.

Kneginich was acquitted of the murders and released, but a higher court overturned that ruling two years later, having Kneginich sign a document notifying him he would have a re-trial, the indictment states. However, Kneginich applied to become a U.S. refugee in mid-2000, and he became a naturalized citizen in a federal court proceeding on Jan. 30, 2007, in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Meanwhile, in 2009, two of his co-defendants from the murder case were re-tried, convicted and sentenced for the couple's murders from more than a decade before. "Kneginich was living in the United States at that time and was not re-tried," the indictment states.

Through his naturalization processes, Kneginich "repeatedly affirmed, under penalty of perjury, that all of the information provided on his forms and in his statements to immigration and naturalization officers was true and correct," the indictment states.

Kneginich was arrested Monday near Kalamazoo, Mich., by special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, according to a release from ICE. He had his first appearance on the charges in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan in Grand Rapids on Monday, and he has another hearing Thursday morning to determine whether he must be in custody throughout his case.

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His federal charge came as a result from an investigation by HSI and ICE's Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, the release states, along with the assistance of officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the last four years, the center has stopped 194 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the U.S., the release states.

rejacobs@post-trib.com

Twitter @ruthyjacobs
China Briefing summarizes key elements of the Overseas Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Law and provides step-by-step guidance for setting up foreign NGOs in China.

Chinas first Overseas NGO Law took effect January 1, 2017. Together with other regulations, the law provides systematic provisions on the management and legal liabilities of foreign NGOs operating in China.

Prior to taking effect, Chinas Ministry of Public Security (MPS) published guidance on the law November 28, 2016  for foreign NGOs seeking to register their representative offices (RO) and conducting activities in the country.

In this article, we break down the legal essentials that foreign NGOs must pay attention to when looking to set up in China.

How can foreign NGOs enter China?

According to the Overseas NGO Law, foreign NGOs, including foundations, social groups, think tanks, and other non-profit, non-governmental social organizations from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and foreign countries, have two ways to operate in China: setting up an RO in China or conducting temporary activities after filing the activities with relevant authorities.

Establishing an RO in China

Criteria for establishing an RO

A foreign NGO must meet the following criteria in order to establish an RO in China:

It must be able to undertake civil liability independently, meaning that in the case of a lawsuit, it must be able to pay damages or other court-enforced payments.

It must have been established for a minimum of two years before applying to set up an RO in China, and it is required to function substantively.

It is a legal entity in its home country.

It must have clear objectives, and a business scope that can benefit community projects and development in China. Encouraged fields for foreign NGOs include sport, culture, health, technology, economy, education, and environmental protection.

Application procedures

Once a foreign NGO has concluded that it meets the criteria for establishing an RO in China, it can reach out and apply to the relevant unit for the latter to be its Professional Supervisory Unit (PSU).

A foreign NGO can find its relevant PSU in the List of Fields of Activity, Categories of Projects and Professional Supervisory Units for Overseas NGOs (2017 edition) in light of its scope of operations, area, and purpose of activity.

If the PSU concludes that the NGO meets all the necessary criteria, the NGO can then submit its application documents and materials to the overseas NGO administration office of the Provincial Public Security Bureau (PSB) in the location where they propose to establish an RO  within 30 days.

Once the foreign NGO has submitted its application, the PSB will review it. If necessary, the PSB may call in experts to assess the application in order to come to a final decision.

If the registration is approved by the PSB, the foreign NGO will be issued a registration certificate that includes the name, address, scope of business, name of the chief representative, governing authority, and operating areas of the RO.

The NGOs certified RO will then present its certificate to the tax authorities. Once the organization seal (chop) has been engraved, the RO will be able to open a bank account with a local Chinese bank.

The RO must then give a file containing a photocopy of its seal, bank account number, and tax registration number to the registration and administration authority for record-keeping.

Materials required for submission to establish an RO

In order to establish an RO, the NGO must submit the following documents to the PSB:

Application Form for Establishment of RO of Overseas NGO (Form 1);

Form for Registration Matters of RO of Overseas NGO (Form 2);

Registration Form for Chief Representative of RO of Overseas NGO (Form 3);

Authorization for registration of establishment of RO from the overseas NGO;

Proof documents and materials showing that the overseas NGO is lawfully established overseas;

Articles of association of the overseas NGO;

Proof materials showing that the overseas NGO has been established overseas for two years or more and has carried out activities substantively;

Identity document and curriculum vitae of the Chief Representative of the proposed RO;

Statement of No Criminal Record of Chief Representative of RO of Overseas NGO (Form 4);

Proof materials of the address of the proposed RO;

Proof materials for source of funding; and

Consent document of the PSU.

Documents required to be notarized and authenticated

The RO must submit documents identifying the foreign, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Macau resident who has been chosen to be the representative for the RO.

Additionally, the NGO should submit its articles of association, provide proof that it has been established overseas for a minimum of two years, and that it functions substantively.

These documents must be notarized by a notary organization in the NGOs home country and authorized by the relevant Chinese embassy or consulate.

Although the process is generally the same, NGOs located in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan face slight differences as to the notarization and authentication process for establishing an RO.

NGOs lawfully established in Hong Kong must submit the same documentation as foreign NGOs; however, they must be notarized by a notary public recognized by mainland China.

For Taiwanese residents, the identification documentation required for the Chief Representative is the Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan residents. Taiwanese NGOs must be notarized by a notary public in Taiwan.

For residents of Macau, the documentation is the same as for foreign NGOs, but the documents can be notarized by either the notary department of the Macau Special Administration Region Government or another notary public recognized by mainland China.

Determining a name

Overseas NGOs have very little say in the naming of their RO in China. The final name is composed of a number of different components that identify the NGO, which include the following:

The name of the overseas NGO;

The overseas location (region or country) where it was originally registered;

The name of the location in China; and

The title Representative Office (Liaison Office, etc.).

After registration, the foreign NGO shall clarify their scope of activities in the mainland of China. The area of activity shall be in line with its scope of operations.

Conducting temporary activities

Except for setting up an RO, foreign NGOs are allowed to conduct temporary activities in coordination with a Chinese partner. The Chinese partner can be a state organ, a Chinese peoples organization, a public institution, or a social organization.

Procedures

The Chinese partner shall handle examination and approval procedures in accordance with state regulations and submit documents to the overseas NGO management office of the MPS or the provincial PSB for their records  15 days before temporary activities commence.

However, in emergency situations, such as disaster relief and rescue operations, the overseas NGO doesnt need to obey the 15-day rule.

If the registration authorities believe that the temporary activities on record is not legal, the temporary activities shall be immediately ceased.

After the completion of the activity, the Chinese partner must report in writing about the activity and the use of funds to registration authorities within 30 days.

The duration of temporary activities shall not exceed one year; where there is a need to extend this deadline, documentation and information shall be re-submitted for the record.

Documents required for applying to conduct temporary activities

Documents for the Record for Temporary Activities of Overseas NGO (Form 11);

Documentary and material evidence of the legal establishment of the overseas NGO;

A written agreement between the overseas NGO and its Chinese partner;

Evidence of costs and funding sources as well as the bank account details of the Chinese partner; and

Approval documents obtained by the Chinese partner.

All the documents concerning the overseas NGO submitted above shall be notarized and authenticated.

Stay on top of compliance

With the implementation of the Overseas NGO Law, foreign NGOs face increased police supervision and scrutiny by the Chinese government.

The law is seen by many as a crackdown on the freedoms of foreign NGOs, as it subjects foreign NGOs to police supervision and demands that they declare the sources of their funding.

Foreign NGOs looking to establish an RO in China must understand the changes in the application process, and the new environment in which they will be operating. Seeking local expertise is advised.

(Editors Note: This article was originally published in December 2016 and has been updated.)
An information board in Terminal 2 shows many flights are cancelled at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 20, 2016. Heavy smog from Monday night to the early hours of Tuesday morning has caused widespread flight delays and cancellations at the airport. (Photo/Xinhua)

Worsening fog and haze in northern China have paralyzed airports in cities including Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang, the capital of the worst-hit province of Hebei.

Beijing Nanyuan Airport announced it would cancel all arrivals and departures on Tuesday. Beijing Capital International Airport had canceled 273 flights as of 2 p.m.

A total of 75 flights had been canceled and another 44 delayed at Shijiazhuang airport as of 2:30 p.m. due to low visibility and fog.

Weather conditions at Tianjin airport have not been fit for take-offs and landings since Monday night. As of 11 a.m., 190 flights were canceled and 71 flights delayed.

Airports in the cities of Jinan and Qingdao in eastern Shandong Province were also affected by the smog.

More flight cancellations and delays are expected as smog in the region is forecast to continue and worsen until Wednesday night, when the air quality should improve.
A central rural work conference has stressed the need for better quality and efficiency in agriculture, focused on farmers' incomes and produce quality.

The two-day meeting stressed product mix, management and regional planning as top priorities in supply-side agricultural structural reform, according to the statement released after the conference on Tuesday.

China will seek new growth engines in agriculture and rural areas to improve productivity and competitiveness, said President Xi Jinping at a previous political bureau standing committee meeting.

The idea of a structural overhaul in the sector was first floated at the same meeting last year and is high on next year's agenda.

China has plenty of ordinary produce, but very few high-quality, branded agricultural products, so market-oriented reform must meet new consumer demands, said Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu.

The country will rationalize the relationship between the government and market, injecting vitality into the market, the statement said.

The meeting also required more targeted efforts to get another 10 million people out of poverty in 2017. Per capita disposable rural income grew only 6.5 percent in the first three quarters this year, the slowest in almost 13 years and failing to outpace GDP growth for the first time since 2004.

Han pointed out that Chinese farmers face high costs and price ceilings, while over-exploitation of resources has rendered traditional farming practices untenable.

"We have to improve agricultural structure and management to make the sector's supply more responsive to the market and more productive," Han said, adding that the government will promote better and safer agricultural products, more cost-effective resource allocation and technological managerial innovation.

The government will continue to ensure zero growth of fertilizer use and work of a subsidy mechanism to encourage green agriculture.

Efforts will be made to develop technological solutions to agricultural productivity and to reform rural property rights, creating new entities in production and services.

Grain output dipped 0.8 percent in 2016, ending a 12-year rising streak, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

The drop is a result of supply-side reform, as unbalanced supply and demand among grain varieties made many areas reduce corn planting in favor of soy and used the grain for feedstuff and oil, according to Huang Bingxin, a senior statistician with NBS.

Corn production will be further cut, and more high-quality dairy farms built. Specialty produce with local characteristics will be encouraged.

"Ensuring enough food for our people is the top priority for us," said Han, adding that China seeks no grain output increase, but will not allow big drops next year.

Three bottom lines of agricultural supply-side reform are no decline in grain production capacity, no change to the income growth trend for farmers, and no problems in rural stability, the statement said.
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Chinese legislators hailed the country's draft environment tax law as "clear and practical," and called for improved rules on the use of tax revenue and penalties for tax frauds.

During panel deliberations on Tuesday afternoon, legislators discussed the draft, which was submitted for a second reading at the ongoing bimonthly session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee.

"The draft should include provisions that ensure environment tax income being used for environmental protection," legislator Lyu Wei said during the discussion.

Legislator Chen Weiwen also called for specific rules clarifying punishments for tax dodgers, and stressed that environment authorities should cooperate with the tax watchdog to strengthen supervision over violators.
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Russia, Turkey and Iran have agreed to coordinate on reviving the political process in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

"We express readiness to facilitate the elaboration of an agreement drafted between the Syrian government and the opposition and to become its guarantors," Lavrov told a press conference after talks with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts in Moscow.

Tuesday's meeting came following the assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov in a shooting in the Turkish capital of Ankara on late Monday.

The three sides agreed on the importance of expanding the ceasefire regime across Syria, as well as an unimpeded access of humanitarian aid and free movement of the civilian population across the Mideast country.

Lavrov said that they viewed the trilateral format of cooperation as the "most effective" for resolving the deadlock to reach a settlement in Syria on the basis of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

But he added that this format was not meant to cast a shadow on the efforts of other partners to achieve progress in resolving the Syrian crisis.

According to Lavrov, Russia, Turkey and Iran had adopted a joint statement on coordinated actions, which reaffirmed the respect to sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Syria as a multi-ethnic, democratic and secular state.

He added that their format is open for other countries interested in their joint efforts.
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As many as 60 buses entered the remaining rebel-held areas in the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday to evacuate the last batch of rebels from the city.

Vehicles wait for the evacuation of rebels and their families at the Ramouseh crossing, south of Aleppo, northern Syria, on Dec. 20, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The buses entered through the Ramouseh crossing, south of Aleppo, to evacuate thousands of rebels and their families to rebel-held areas in the southwestern countryside of Aleppo.

The evacuation is part of a deal concluded recently between Russia and Turkey. It included the evacuation of civilians from the Shiite towns of Kafraya and Foa, which are besieged by the rebels in the northwestern province of Idlib.

The evacuation of the rebels from Aleppo and the civilians from the Shiite towns is designed to take place simultaneously, which explained the delay in the evacuation process.

Reports said that nearly 15,000 people, including rebels, have evacuated eastern Aleppo since the operation started last Thursday.

The buses that have entered on Tuesday haven't left eastern Aleppo yet, as civilians from Kafraya and Foa should start leaving for the deal to continue.

A day earlier, hundreds of civilians were evacuated from both towns and arrived in Aleppo, in tandem with the evacuation of nearly 5,000 people and rebels from eastern Aleppo.

The evacuation comes as the Syrian military forces and allied fighters have captured 99 percent of eastern Aleppo, as part of a wide-scale offensive to drive out the militants from the city completely.

With the last evacuation of the rebels from eastern Aleppo, the Syrian army will be on control of the entire city, a victory seen as a new chapter of history, as President Bashar al-Assad recently said.
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China on Wednesday urged Mongolia to keep its promise not to allow the Dalai Lama to visit the landlocked country again.

"China hopes Mongolia will learn lessons from the Dalai Lama's visit last month and respect China's core interests," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a regular news briefing.

Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil on Tuesday expressed regret over the negative impact of the Dalai Lama's visit on Mongolia-China relations, saying the Mongolian government will not allow future visits, even in the name of religion, according to local media.

"China attaches importance to the Mongolian foreign minister's explicit statement... China urges Mongolia to honor its commitment and make efforts to improve bilateral relations," Hua said.

The Dalai Lama, a political exile with ambitions to split Tibet from Chinese territory under the guise of religion, paid a visit to Mongolia on Nov. 18-23.

Tibet-related issues involve China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and are part of China's core interests, the spokesperson said, adding that China's stance on these issues is firm and clear.
Radio Free Asia

2016-12-20

 Chinese authorities in the northern region of Inner Mongolia have detained an ethnic Mongolian activist who spoke out in support of his Mongolian herding community near Tongliao city amid a long-running dispute over land.

Hai Wenming, 32, was detained on Dec. 12 in the regional capital Hohhot after he posted details online of a land dispute at his home village in Horchin Left Back Banner (county), 75 kilometres (47 miles) to the north of Tongliao.

Hais sister Hai Ying told RFA soon after his detention that he was detained while campaigning on behalf of his village.

He had spent a lot of time approaching the relevant legal departments on behalf of our village, to try to resolve this issue, but without any success, Hai Ying said.

With no other options left to him, he posted a few details to his weibo social media account, and I think thats why the police detained him straight away, she said.

Actually, everything he posted was the truth, but both he and another young man from the same village were detained, she said, adding that the other young man was detained three months earlier than Hai Wenming.

Natural forested state

The villagers are currently in a dispute with the Wudantaraa Forestry Station, which has swallowed up most of the land previously allocated to local people for grazing and agriculture.

When they complained, local herders were told that the land was being allowed to return to a natural forested state.

Ethnic Mongolian activist Hai Wenming is shown in an

undated photo. Photo sent by an RFA listener

Several decades later, the dispute continues as herders continue to seek redress from local authorities.

This land belonged to our village, Hai Ying said. It was illegally taken over by [the forestry station] to make a visitor center, which they just went ahead and built there.

Anyone who tried to oppose it was detained; they detained 12 people on Aug. 15, including my relatives, then released them 10 days later, all except one of them.

Repeated calls to the Horchin Left Back Banner government rang unanswered in recent attempts by RFA to contact officials for comment.

Land prices soar

Ethnic Mongolian rights activist Xinna said the other detained villagers name is Fu Cang.

He has been held since August, while Hai Wenming was detained for posting to social media with no official documentation whatsoever, Xinna said.

She said the dispute with the forestry station only blew up after land prices started to soar.

This land should really belong to the local people, by rights, she said. But this sort of thing happens a lot in Inner Mongolia: Land that used to belong to a village is suddenly now part of a forestry station.'

To begin with, nobody cared, because they were still allowed to graze their sheep there, but later the tensions got worse and worse, Xinna said.

She said Hai Wenming, a graduate of a university in Beijing, had posted details of the dispute while living in Hohhot.

His sister has even written a letter to the party secretary of Inner Mongolia, Li Jiheng, calling on the government to pay attention to the plight of the herders, Xinna said.

A lot of herders signed that letter.

Clashes common

Clashes between mining or forestry companies backed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party and herding communities are now common in the region, which borders the independent country of Mongolia.

Last month, authorities in Horchin Left Middle Banner detained ethnic Mongolian herder Unench in connection with the killings of four Han Chinese farmers, who activists said had repeatedly bullied and abused him in a dispute over his care of their sheep flocks.

Chinas 5.8 million-strong ethnic Mongolian community have long complained of widespread environmental destruction, violent evictions from traditional grazing lands, and unfair development policies in the region.

Ethnic Mongolian dissident Hada, Xinnas husband, has called the routine eviction of herders from their traditional grazing lands, often in the name of ecological protection, part of a calculated program of ethnic cleansing in the region.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFAs Mandarin Service, and by Wong Siu-san and Sing Man for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

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BEIJING - China's cotton yield continued to drop in 2016 as the growing area of the fiber decreased, official data showed Tuesday.

Yields of cotton decreased 260,000 tons to 5.34 million tons, a 4.6 percent decrease year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The area of cotton fields in China fell by 420,500 hectares to 3.376 million hectares, a year-on-year decrease of 11.1 percent, said Huang Bingxin, a senior NBS statistician.

It is the third consecutive year of decline, with the relatively low profitability of cotton blamed for the fall in production.

The cotton output of the Yangtze River basin and the Yellow River basin kept declining in 2016, Huang said.

Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region increased its yield despite a decrease in growing area, with cotton yield per hectare in Xinjiang increasing by 151.5 kilograms in 2016.

Xinjiang, the country's largest cotton growing area, produced 3.594 million tons of cotton in 2016, accounting for 67.3 percent of China's total, up from 62.5 percent in 2015.

China's cotton yield peaked in 2012 at 6.84 million tons, more than 2.2 times that of 1978, official data showed.
China National Building Materials Group Corp struck a 2.75-billion-pound ($3.41 billion) joint venture deal on Monday to open six highly cost-efficient pre-fabricated house-building factories in the United Kingdom, capable of producing 25,000 homes a year.

The new homes built by the joint venture will reduce construction costs to a target of 400 pounds per square meter, significantly less than the 1,000 pounds per sq m average in the UK market. It came at an opportune time when the UK government is making policy plans to increase affordable homes.

CNBM partners with the UK's housing association Your Housing Group and renewable energy specialist Welink to construct the factories for modular units. CNBM will provide 2.5 billion pounds in funding, and 250 million pounds from YHG.

Shou Peng, chairman of CNBM, said: "The key to unlocking the opportunities to address the housing needs of the UK is through the development and delivery of an industrialization strategy at significant scale."

The CNBM deal was welcomed by the UK's International Trade Minister Greg Hands, who hailed it as an endorsement to the UK's attractiveness to foreign investors.

He said: "This deal has the potential to benefit local communities across the country, creating jobs, boosting local economies and creating homes."

Stephen Haigh, chief executive of YHG and UK chief executive of the new joint venture, said the new project will help the UK government achieve its housing aspirations.

The deal comes at a time when modular construction is the new buzzword in the construction industry. This technique produces standard room units inside factories which can readily be assembled on construction sites, to save construction time and costs.

China has led the field in modular construction techniques by leveraging on its domestic housing market scale, and some Chinese firms have already expanded into the UK's modular construction market, one example being the Shenzhen-based CIMC Modular Building Systems, having done more than 10 UK projects for clients including InterContinental Hotels Group and Hilton.

The CNBM consortium partners are looking for factory sites across England. The first factory, in Liverpool, is expected to receive planning permission in January. A research and technology center is being built in Gloucester by YHG to pioneer new development.

The project will deliver 2,000 homes next year, ramping up production after that to 25,000 homes annually by 2022. The entire project is expected to create 1,000 new jobs.

The modular units to be made are based on designs by the Spanish firm Barcelona Housing Systems, notable for their energy efficiency and affordability.

The UK government said it plans to create a 2.3-billion-pound Housing Infrastructure Fund, to deliver infrastructure for up to 100,000 new homes in high-demand areas.

Haigh added his team will work with local authorities, offering the consortium's development model as solution to their house building and development needs.
A friend of mine told me that he hasn't checked his stock account for so long that he nearly forgot his account password. He said he hadn't given up on the market, but simply wanted to play it as a long-term game.

The rollercoaster ride of the stock market since the summer of last year has made many retail investors grow tired of obsessively checking stock prices and constantly worrying about whether they would miss any opportunity to make profits.

Many of them learned the lesson the hard way, after the dramatic market rout in 2015 that wiped out nearly 40 percent of the market value. They came to realize how dangerous it was to buy and sell on rumors and speculative instinct. They understood how risky it was to use leverage to trade stocks.

So did the regulators. In 2016, the market had a new securities chief, Liu Shiyu, who vowed to crack down on illegal market activities, improve market transparency and to ensure fair play in the market.

We have seen a greater number of investigations and punishments for market manipulation and insider trading this year. There has also been stronger enforcement of proper information disclosure rules by listed companies, to ensure every investor obtains the necessary information on an equal basis.

In the past year, the Chinese stock market made progress toward becoming more international and more accessible to overseas investors, with the long-awaited launch of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect in December.

But there were also disappointments. The A-shares were once again rejected by MSCI Inc for inclusion in one of its key international benchmark indexes. Domestic reforms toward a registration-based share sale scheme and the long-awaited amendment of the country's Securities Law were delayed due to the market turbulence.

The latest wave of speculative stock trading and the aggressive stake bidding by insurance funds have also led to rising market volatility and caused deeper concerns about what kind of role institutional investors should play.

Nonetheless, as Chinese investors become more sophisticated, the expectation is that they will ensure the market infrastructure is further improved with greater transparency and less illegal and speculative behavior. There is also hope for the rule of law to play a greater role in the market, which will be the ultimate source of confidence for investors in the coming year.
For the past year, I have been living alone in Beijing, away from my parents who live in Hunan province. Until recently, there was something in my neighborhood that used to annoy and attract me at the same timethe delicious aroma that would emanate from my neighbor's kitchen.

The divine scent would instantly teleport me to my mom's kitchen thousands of miles away. And equally quickly, I'd be jolted back to my senses in my Beijing high-rise flat, where I'd order yet another home-delivery of an insipid meal from a nearby restaurant.

Ain't I glad the saga of tasteless commercial food has ended, thanks to the boom in sharing-economy ventures in China.

By placing an order through an app, I can now savor authentic Hunan cuisine in the comfort of my Beijing home. Thank you, 2016.

The app I use offers personalized home-cooked meals to users within a radius of 3 km. The food is prepared by home-based entrepreneurial people who have the wherewithal and the time to offer such a service for a fee.

I can visit the app-registered host (cook) to pick up my meals or have the food home-delivered.

Sharing economy truly took hold in China last year and blossomed into a model of legitimate mainstream businesses this year.

Cars (cabs), bicycles, homes, pricey fashion, everyday clothing, bags, accessories ... all are being hurled into the sharing economy.

Women aged 22 to 35 are loving the new lifestyle possibilities. For 188 yuan ($27) a month, three high-end dresses can be rented at a time, used with no time-limit, and shipped back (for free).

Youngsters find the rent-a-bike businesses "cool", given their "green" angle. A college student in Shanghai told me: "It's cool. I can rent and return the GPS-enabled bike wherever and whenever I like. By using a bicycle rather than a fuel-powered vehicle, I cut my carbon footprint."

Even State-owned firms are jumping on the sharing economy bandwagon, to make more efficient use of resources. For instance, the country's big three telecom carriers created a new firm called China Tower by pooling their telecom tower assets to avoid construction of new towers.

"It is a hard job, harder than many have expected, to manage a balance between growth and environmental protection. Sharing economy offers a good solution," a senior executive of China Tower said.
Economists called on the government on Tuesday to accelerate economic reforms, including tax and cost cuts to ease the burden on manufacturers, after a Chinese tycoon raised the issue.

Auto glass tycoon Cao Dewang told China Business News that production costs in the United States are lower than those in China. This was echoed by the business community, which is concerned about the Chinese manufacturing sector not only losing out to some Southeast Asian countries, but also to developed economies such as the US.

They fear such worries would drive more Chinese manufacturers to move their production sites outside of China.

Qu Tianshi, an economist at ANZ Group, said the government should introduce more favorable policies to facilitate the upgrade of the Chinese manufacturing sector and to boost its overall competitiveness.

"There is room at the central government level to reduce taxes next year, since the balance sheet of the Chinese central government is relatively sound," Qu said.

China's top leaders at the annual Central Economic Work Conference last week decided that boosting the real economy and raising industrial competitiveness will be key priorities of economic policies next year.

"We already sensed the signal from the meeting that the top leadership will continue the corporate cost reduction and improvement of the business environment in the coming year," Qu added.

Cao, chairman of auto glass manufacturer Fuyao Group, said the overall tax cost for manufacturers in China is 35 percent higher than in the US.

Cao invested $600 million to build a glass manufacturing plant in the US that began operating in October. The plant has created more than 2,500 jobs in the US, according to the company.

The Chinese tycoon said that despite higher labor costs, the profit margin for his company's US plant could be 10 percent higher than what it would be in China.

A senior executive at Fuyao Group who declined to be named told China Daily on Tuesday that the US investment is part of the company's going-global strategy, and Cao's comments did not mean that the company intended to leave the home market.

Nonetheless, economists said that the Chinese manufacturing sector is facing a challenging time as rising labor costs, surging property prices and a heavy tax burden at home have eaten into their profit margins.

Xu Hongcai, an economist at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said that China should pay greater attention to outflows of industrial capital and come up with more effective policies to make the domestic market more business-friendly.
Three years ago, President Xi Jinping launched the Belt and Road Initiative, to link vast transcontinental swathes with a common economic thread. The initiative brought unprecedented opportunities for companies to expand their business and access new markets. Lyu Ning, general manager for ship-out business of Schneider Electric China, explains how the initiative helped the company this year, and what it intends to do in 2017 to make the most of the still-untapped opportunities.

How do you plan to work with Chinese partners in the country and with others along the Belt and Road Initiative in 2017?

We plan to form more partnerships with China's power, transportation and energy companies to develop big-ticket projects along the Belt and Road Initiative in 2017, to further diversify our global sales.

For instance, we signed a strategic cooperative agreement with China National Building Materials Group Co in 2015, working together closely with them on several projects in Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria.

What can you offer to your Chinese partners?

Schneider Electric is able to provide reliable, efficient, connected and sustainable comprehensive solutions to help Chinese companies export their excess industrial capacity and achieve innovation and open development.

We not only help customers finish projects on time and without quality worries, but show them how to transcend differences in technical standards and cross the cultural barriers existing between China and African countries.

How do you compete with other European companies that have been aggressively seizing EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) deals on the Initiative?

Schneider Electric offers global services with vertical management and solutions to meet the needs of different customers, which is inseparable from rich practice experiences on EPC industries.

Over the past three years, Schneider Electric has partnered with China Machinery Engineering Corp to build a power distribution network project in Senegal. It also worked with Power Construction Corporation of China to build a solar project in Algeria.

Do you have any specific cases to share with us?

CET (China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Co), a subsidiary of State Grid Corporation of China, is one of our EPC customers. In Ethiopia, for the Addis Ababa light rail project, the requirements for the main equipment were higher than normal international standards. Given the high altitude of the project, no manufacturers could meet the new standards. But our experts worked with CET's engineers and provided a comprehensive solution that not only met the technical requirements but helped finish the project on time.
Qiu Shiyun, 32, a young mother currently on a break from her job as an office administrator with a private firm in Beijing, explains her concept of spending, details how she spent money this year, and reveals her shopping and travel plans for 2017.

What is your philosophy of spending?

Most of my family income is used to buy better or high-quality products. I'd like to pursue a chic lifestyle as well. My idea is to spend more money on better products, instead of buying a lot of cheap (or substandard) stuff. I don't want to buy the same goods that others buy. I usually try to find unique products with exquisite designs.

Did you make any big-ticket purchases this year? Did you travel anywhere? Help me to understand your choices.

My husband and I moved to a new apartment this year, and we spent a lot of money on furniture, and home appliances such as air-purifiers and vacuum cleaners.

I've a two-year-old son. I spent quite some money on buying baby products, including clothing, toys and some original edition English books.

I bought most of them through overseas and domestic e-commerce websites. We traveled to Tokyo this year with my son, as Japan is close to China and it is a kids-friendly place with beautiful sightseeing options and various shopping choices.

What would you like to buy next year? Where would you like to go? And why?

Next year, as my son gets older, I may spend more money on myself. I plan to buy a luxury bag and more cosmetics and skincare products. Besides, we would like to travel to the United Kingdom or a European country and take along our son, as he's growing up fast and should be able to endure long-haul flights. If we have extra money and time, we'd travel to another place, because I love to travel.

How do you plan your family budget?

In fact, I haven't drawn up any detailed budget. My husband and I have a fund management account. We put about half of our income into the account. I've been increasingly pursuing a lifestyle marked by high-quality goods. I won't compromise on the quality of life.
A woman talks with a salesman at a property market fair in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.[Photo/China Daily]

Adept at balancing many fields

By Xin Zhiming, China Daily

If real estate prices can serve as a barometer for monitoring a country's economic vitality, one would think the Chinese economy was at its peak in 2016. Actually, it wasn't.

Home prices had risen strongly in major cities since the start of the year after rising almost uninterruptedly for about 10 years. The country's economic growth rate, however, has gradually weakened since 2010and slowed to a 25-year low of 6.9 percent in 2015, as the world's second-biggest economy continues to shift away from its manufacturing roots.

Read More
Workers check a bullet train locomotive manufactured by China Railway Rolling Stock Corp in Zhengzhou, Henan province.[Photo/Xinhua]

CHANGSHA - A Chinese train maker has signed a deal to sell multiple unit trains to the Czech Republic, the first such deal with an EU member.

CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co, Ltd signed a deal with Czech rail operator Leo Express to sell three electric multiple units (EMUs) for 20 million euros ($21 million) on Monday.

The trains can operate at a speed of 160 km/h and will be compatible with railways in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, according to Liao Hongtao, vice general manager of CRRC Zhuzhou.

The deal also covers spare parts, testing equipment and training. The first train is expected to be delivered in mid-2018.

The EU has strict standards on the safety and reliability of trains. "The sale to Czech represents the international market's recognition on Chinese manufacturers," Liao said.

In 2014, CRRC Zhuzhou signed a EMU deal with Macedonia. The trains were delivered and went into operation in July, 2015. In September, the company established its first European subsidiary in Austria.
There is no doubt that the internet and smatphones have changed everything from the way people shop to how they communicate.

As internet penetration levels keep rising, steady streams of buzz words related to the industries were created and went viral in the country.

Here we excerpt some representative topics that were most discussed across the internet this year.

A woman is silhouetted against the Baidu logo at a new product launch from Baidu in Shanghai on Nov 26, 2015. [Photo / Agencies]

Young man's death causes an uproar for online search giant

In April, Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc was criticized for influencing the treatment choice of a cancer patient, Wei Zexi, by presenting misguided medical information.

Wei, 22, died after undergoing a controversial cancer treatment at a Beijing hospital, which the Wei family found through Baidu's online search platform.

The case was hotly discussed in the country's online community and the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the nation's internet regulator, later asked Baidu to improve its paid-for listings model and to rank the search results mainly according to credibility rather than price tags.

On June 25, the CAC publicized a regulation on search engines, ordering search providers to ensure objective, fair and authoritative search results.

All paid search results must be labeled clearly and checks on advertisers should be improved, according to the regulation. There also should be a limit on the number of paid results on a single page.

Moreover, the practice of blocking negative content concerning advertisers has been banned.
People take a close look at the AC352 utility helicopter after it finished its maiden flight in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, on Tuesday.[Photo/China Daily]

China conducted the maiden flight of a new utility helicopter on Tuesday morning in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, which designers said indicates the nation has become a top developer of civilian helicopters.

The silver AC352 made a 10-minute flight as hundreds of government and military officials, researchers and workers as well as representatives from Airbus Helicopters watched at Harbin Aircraft Industry Group, a manufacturer of the helicopter.

As China's first 7-metric-ton class helicopter, the AC352 was codeveloped by Avicopter, parent company of Harbin Aircraft Industry, and Airbus Helicopters, starting in 2006. The two sides expect to sell about 800 to 1,000 AC352s - which Airbus Helicopters refers to as H175 - over the coming 20 years, with the profit from sales to be split equally, Avicopter officials said.

The helicopter has a maximum takeoff weight of 7.5 tons and a cruise speed of 280 kilometers per hour, while its flight range is at least 1,000 km, according to Avicopter.

Avicopter said the AC352 is one of the most comfortable and eco-friendly medium-sized helicopters in the world, adding that in addition to two pilots, the helicopter can transport up to 16 passengers.

Lu Weijian, chief designer of the AC352 at Avicopter, said his company is responsible for a lot of the helicopter's major components, such as the main rotor and flight control system.

"This shows that China is now able to develop and produce the best civilian helicopters," he told reporters after the maiden flight ceremony. "We cooperated with our European partner on this project because both sides believed that such collaboration would make full use of our capabilities, and reduce business and technology risks."

Yang Guangchao, project manager of the AC352 at Avicopter, said that Western helicopter giants such as Airbus Helicopters are willing to work with China because it has become a strong player in the helicopter industry.

Cao Shengli, general manager of Harbin Aircraft Industry, said the AC352 can carry out multiple operations, such as offshore transport, search and rescue, police patrol and medical air services. He added that the helicopter will be delivered to domestic users around 2018.

The European model, the H175, made its maiden flight in December 2009 in France and was certified in January 2014 by the European Aviation Safety Agency. It started to be delivered to buyers in December 2014, according to Airbus Helicopters.

However, some technological issues related to the Chinese version's engine resulted in a delay in its test flight, Yang said.

zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn




Primary school students wearing masks leave a school in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, on Tuesday. The city, which had the worst air quality in November among 74 major cities monitored, ordered classes suspended on Wednesday. Zhu Xingxin / China Daily

Leading researchers on air pollution have identified the massive amounts of discharged pollutants, especially from industrial production, as the root cause of the severe winter smog in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

The situation has likely been exacerbated by the rising price of steel, which resulted in plants increasing production to net higher profits, according to environmentalists.

The smog that has blanketed northern and central areas since Friday has disrupted airports and expressways and led to school closures. In response, red alerts were issued by 24 cities to limit emissions from industrial production, with more than 1,200 factories in Beijing alone told to close or reduce output.

However, much of the damage may already have been done. A Greenpeace study released over the weekend found that a 50 percent rise in the steel price in the second half of the year saw a rapid increase in production.

The trend could be seen "especially in southern cities of Hebei province and northern parts of Henan province", said Dong Liansai, the environmental group's head of air pollution research, who added that a similar trend was also seen at cement factories.

No regional data was available, but according to the National Bureau of Statistics, steel production nationwide increased by 1.7 percent year-on-year in November.

According to Wang Guoqing, director of the Lange Steel Information Center, an independent consultancy in Beijing, the price hike meant larger profits for Chinese steel companies, with profits growing by 310 percent in the first 10 months compared with the same period last year.

She said production restrictions introduced by governments, such as the red alerts, and increasing costs of raw materials and logistics had driven the steel price higher.

Both Dong and Wang said the increase in emissions from the boost in production was a likely contributor to the severe smog in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Although the situation was improving, air pollution has been a frequent issue during the period when northern regions fire up central heating systems, generally from Nov 15 to March 15.

In addition to industrial emissions, researchers and government officials agree that the heavy reliance on coal consumption in northern regions is another major reason for the frequent air pollution.

Meteorological conditions also play a part. A lack of wind, for example, means the pollution lingers.

According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, authorities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region have taken joint steps to reduce air pollution and bring more blue sky days. However, efforts to punish companies that violate restrictions on production are still being refined.

Ma Yong, an environmental researcher with the Supreme People's Court Law Center, said, "To cut emissions, there should be tougher punishments to deter companies violating the restrictions, making fines higher than their potential profits."

zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn


Students from a Hong Kong secondary school celebrate winning second prize at the Space Science Experiment Competition for their experiment to breed silkworms in space. They were presented with a model of Shenzhou XI docked with the Tiangong II space lab. [Photo/China Daily]

The unbroken thread of every silkworm stretches more than 1.5 kilometers. It is an apt symbol, tracing a silken strand from the earliest dawn of history to the present, where tiny wriggling silkworm larvae performed their dance of life aboard the Tiangong II space lab, 393 kilometers above the earth.

Early Chinese people held special affection for silkworms and their cocoons. Unwound, the cocoons produced the lustrous fiber that gave birth to an opulent culture, spawning a nation of traders who spread out along what came to be known as the Silk Road.

Silkworms, closely intertwined with Chinese culture and history, remain the subject of ongoing research. They have been fed artificial colorants to produce dyed, nontoxic fibers, and researchers are looking into silken biomaterials with five times the tensile strength of steel.

The tiny larvae taken on a "spacewalk" by Chinese astronauts were part of an experiment proposed by four high school students from the Christian and Missionary Alliance Sun Kei Secondary School in Hong Kong, who devised a pilot scheme to breed the worms in space. Their design won second prize at the Space Science Experiment Competition, organized by the Hong Kong authorities and the China Astronaut Research and Training Center.

Astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong, who conducted the experiments, set out to determine how microgravity affects the biological functions of silkworm larvae.

Cultural elements

"We wanted to come up with an experiment that applied Chinese cultural elements. That's how we settled on silk farming, a time-honored agricultural practice that originated in China." said Wong Tsoi-yin, 17, one of the students who came up with the idea for the experiment. "Above all, we wanted to find out whether it's possible to breed silkworms in space, hoping that, if successful, this might advance space science."

Simple as it may appear, the experiment involved nearly two years' preparation. The students admitted they were surprised at how much work was needed to turn their prototype into a full-blown, space-friendly experiment. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, known as CASC, which focuses on aerospace research and spacecraft design, took on the responsibility of modifying the proposal and bringing it to fruition.

The six larvae that became the subjects of the experiment were the products of thousands of generations of selective breeding, and were chosen as the best among 4,000 newly bred larvae.

Those used for the Shenzhou XI mission were produced at CASC's No 5 Research Academy. Engineers at the corporation had concluded that most silkworms could not survive the harsh environment of space, so they set about breeding a new, hardier and healthier strain.

What followed was a series of rigorous screenings. The ideal larvae had to be bigger than their peers and whiter in color, according to Wei Xilin, an engineer at CASC, speaking on China Central Television.

The shortlisted larvae were put through a final test, and the engineers finally chose the six healthiest, Wei explained.

In the early stages, experts from China's Manned Space Agency provided the students with knowledge of conditions inside the spacecraft, as well as an understanding of how to breed larvae.

Leung Tsz-wan, 17, one of the students, said the exchanges with space experts from the mainland were essential in shaping their ideas into a meaningful experiment.




Seventy-four suspects are brought back to Wuhan, Hubei province, in November after Chinese and Malaysian police cracked a telecom fraud case. [Photo/Xinhua]

Telecom and online fraudsters will face heavier punishments if their behavior causes death or long-term mental distress, according to a new judicial guideline.

The guideline, released on Tuesday by the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security, stipulates that telecom and online swindlers should be given heavier penalties under 10 circumstances, including causing the death of a victim, cheating the disabled or the elderly, or defrauding by pretending to be legal officials.

"The guideline aims to step up punishments for defrauders or people with such intentions, as the number of cases of telecom and online scams has soared in the past few years," said Li Ruiyi, deputy judge of the top court's No 3 Criminal Tribunal.

From January to November, China uncovered 93,000 cases of telecom and online fraud, catching 52,000 offenders, Li said, adding that both figures had doubled year-on-year.

"Of greater concern is that some telecom scams did not only swindle victims out of money, but also cost them their lives," he said.

In August, Xu Yuyu, an 18-year-old from Linyi, Shandong province, died of a heart attack after losing 9,900 yuan ($1,500) in a phone scam. The money had been intended to cover her college tuition fees.

Song Zhenning, a college student in the same province, also died of cardiac arrest in August five days after he was swindled out of 2,000 yuan.

"The money was intended to cover the victims' tuition, medical and basic living costs. They shouldered both an economic and mental burden," he said, adding that the guideline is to ensure such tragedies are avoided.

Meanwhile, the guideline, effective since Tuesday, unifies a national standard on the definition of fraud amounts.

"Previously, we provided a range for grassroots courts to define how much was considered a 'huge' or 'relatively large' amount, because the economy develops unevenly in different areas," Song said.

But now, in a fraud case, 3,000 yuan or more is defined as a "relatively large amount", while 30,000 yuan or more is defined as a "huge amount", according to the guideline.

Under Chinese Criminal Law, the most severe punishment given to defrauders will be life imprisonment, if the amount of money in a case is "huge" or their behavior is deemed serious enough for such punishment.

Zhou Guangquan, a law professor at Tsinghua University, said: "The more specific the guideline is, the more effective judicial bodies' fight against telecom scams will be."

Chen Shiqu, deputy inspector of the ministry's criminal investigation department, praised the unified standard, "because it makes tackling cross-regional telecom scams much more practical."

caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn

Other major points in the guideline

For cases in which judicial bodies find it difficult to establish how much money has been swindled, they can punish fraudsters for sending text message spam more than 5,000 times or making more than 500 prank calls.

Most telecom scams are gang-related offenses, but in the past, some defrauders escaped punishments due to their undefined roles in such fraud. The guideline states that people providing scam devices or luring others into making payments in calls will be also penalized.

Judicial bodies will focus on tracing money victims have been cheated out of.

Members of a fraud gang who surrender themselves, provide clues for judicial bodies and hand over illicit money of their own accord may be given a more lenient punishment.
Chinese helicopter designers are focusing on the development of an ultrafast tilt-rotor aircraft capable of flying 500 kilometers per hour, the nation's top helicopter researcher said.

Wu Ximing, chief helicopter designer at State-owned aircraft giant Aviation Industry Corp of China, told China Daily on Monday that researchers at the company's Helicopter Research and Development Institute are developing the Blue Whale tilt-rotor aircraft, China's equivalent of the United States' Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey.

"We will design two variants of the Blue Whale - a medium-duty type and a heavy-duty one. The medium-duty model will have a maximum takeoff weight of 20 metric tons, and the heavy-duty model 40 tons. They can fly as fast as 500 km/h," Wu said.

Modern helicopters usually have a maximum speed ranging from 250 to 300 km/h.

The aircraft will be able to conduct vertical takeoff and landing in tough terrain like a conventional helicopter, and will have a longer range and higher cruising speed that can compare to turboprop jets, Wu said, adding it can also carry heavier payloads than helicopters.

With four rotors, the Blue Whale will have better reliability, maneuverability and safety than its US counterpart, the V-22 Osprey, he added.

Wu expects the tilt-rotor to conduct a wide variety of tasks, such as disaster relief, supply airdrop and other emergency response operations.

AVIC sees the importance of developing the ultrafast tilt-rotor aircraft, he said, adding, however, that it will be a long time before they are ready for mass production due to the technological complexity.

An earlier report by China Aviation News, a newspaper owned by AVIC, quoted engineers at the Helicopter Research and Development Institute as saying that the Blue Whale will have a flight range of 3,100 km and meet demands of rapid troop deployment of the Chinese army and navy.

The US is flight testing the Sikorsky S-97 Raider high-speed armed helicopter. Sikorsky Aircraft, the manufacturer, said it has a cruising speed of 407 km/h, more than 100 km/h faster than the US' Boeing AH-64 Apache that is widely considered the best combat helicopter in the world.

Russia is also researching designs for a stealth combat helicopter with ultrafast speed, Russian media has reported.
Two Chinese teachers have for the first time been named in the top 50 for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2017, a prestigious international award.

Ronnie Cheng, headmaster of the Diocesan Boys' School in Hong Kong, and Yang Boya, a psychology teacher at The Affiliated Middle School of Kunming Teachers College in China, were picked from more than 20,000 nominations from 179 countries by the London-based foundation.

Yang Boya [Photo/China Daily]

Now in its third year, the Global Teacher Prize was created to recognize one exceptional teacher who made an outstanding contribution to the profession and highlight the important role teachers play in society. The winner will receive $1 million.

Yang, 28, told China Daily she was surprised by the nomination: "It was so surreal because of my age. I thought I was too young to be in the category so I kept rereading the email saying I've been selected."

She added: "The freedom of teaching and the creativity in exchanging ideas with my students is why I got into this job. I also come from a family of teachers, as both my parents are in the profession."

She said she's very proud of her students and hopes to inspire them.

"As a psychologist as well as a teacher, I support and counsel some students who need someone to talk to," Yang said. "After, some would tell me they feel much better for talking to someone."

Hong Kong teacher Ronnie Cheng created an award-winning, number one world ranked male choir. Many of Cheng's students went on to become professional musicians.

Ronnie Cheng [Photo/China Daily]

Cheng also set up the Diocesan Boys' School Foundation to support underprivileged students in financial or medical difficulties.

The top 50 shortlisted teachers will be reduced to 10 candidates by a prize committee which will be announced in February next year and a winner will be chosen in March.
The second Job Fair for Foreign Students in China was recently held at Peking University by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE) under the Ministry of Education. Offering career opportunities for foreign students, the event introduced policies related to working in China.

More than 2,500 students from 20 universities and scientific institutions attended the job fair, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beijing Language and Culture University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Sun Jianming, director of CSCSE, said that with the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese enterprises now face an increasing demand for foreign employees.

More than 30 companies, including China Railway Construction Corporation (International) Limited and PowerChina Resources, LTD., advertised 450 jobs at the event, covering infrastructure, automobile manufacturing and trade, high-speed rail, Internet and communication, education consultancy, financial services and translation. Many small and medium-sized startup companies participated in the event.

A survey conducted by CSCSE in April showed that 95 percent of foreign students in China worked in the country after graduation, and 64.7 percent hoped to work at overseas branches of Chinese enterprises. Meanwhile, 70.1 percent said they preferred jobs at international companies.

The Ministry of Public Security released a series of new exit and entry policies in 2015 in the pilot cities of Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong, relaxing restrictions for foreign students to work in China. For instance, foreign students from universities in Beijing can start their own businesses in Zhongguancun, China's technology hub, with the approval of their universities.
Three prosecuted for medical waste trade in east China

Xinhua | Updated: 2016-12-21 16:05

NANJING - Three people face criminal charges for trading more than 3,000 tonnes of medical waste, in eastern China's Jiangsu Province, some of which was manufactured into toys and tableware.



Nanjing police said earlier this week that the suspects, one arrested and two on bail, were caught following a police raid that confiscated 13.5 tonnes of medical waste, including IV tubes, syringes, needles and glass bottles for antibiotics, at a waste collection center late August.



Medical waste can pollute the environment and spread diseases, and Chinese law requires medical waste to be disposed of in accordance with regulations, the police said.



Police found that the legal representative of the center, registered as an environmental technology company, purchased more than 3,000 tonnes of medical waste from hospitals in Nanjing at a cost of 800 yuan (115 U.S. dollars) to 1,000 yuan per hospital, each month since 2012.



The materials were then processed at the center. Plastic waste was turned into plastic particles and sold to factories. Some of the particles were used to make counterfeit branded toys and tableware, the police said.
Former university president sentenced to 12 years for bribery

Xinhua | Updated: 2016-12-21 16:39

NANCHANG - Zhou Wenbin, former president of a key university in east China's Jiangxi Province, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for bribery on Wednesday.



According to the second trial verdict issued by the Jiangxi higher people's court, personal assets worth 1 million yuan (143,874 U.S. dollars) should be confiscated from him, and the bribes he took should be recovered.



Zhou was found guilty of accepting cash in various currencies worth 19.7 million yuan (about 2.8 million U.S. dollars) as well as shopping cards worth 24,000 yuan, and a Cartier watch worth 38,600 yuan.



On December 2015, Zhou was sentenced to life in prison for bribery and embezzlement of public funds by the Intermediate People's Court of Nanchang City, capital of Jiangxi.



According to the Jiangxi higher people's court, the first trial conviction for public funds embezzlement was inappropriate, and evidence was lacking for the conviction for bribery worth 1.6 million yuan.



The court said Zhou showed a good attitude when confessing and repenting during the second trial, and most of the bribe money has been recovered, so a lenient sentence was given.



Zhou, born in 1960, became president of Nanchang University, the top university in the province, in late 2002. He was arrested in 2013.
Military auditing regulation revised

Xinhua | Updated: 2016-12-21 16:48

BEIJING - A revised regulation has been issued to streamline auditing practices in the armed forces and tighten disciplinary supervision.



Issued by an order from Chairman of the Central Military Commission Xi Jinping, the regulation will take effect on Jan. 1, 2017, according to an official announcement Wednesday.



All economic activity of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the armed police is subject to auditing, and officials with economic duties must also be placed under scrutiny, the regulation said.



Officials with a lot of financial and logistics responsibilities, those who have been considered for promotion and those who are leaving their posts should be placed under particularly close watch, it said.



Military auditing agencies with powers to investigate and penalize must hand over disciplinary and legal violations cases in the financial sector to anti-graft and prosecution authorities for further investigation.
An employee at Kunming's Dwarf Empire returns from a performance. [Photo/xinhuanet.com]

By Ge Jieru and Jacob Hooson

Since opening its doors in 2009, Dwarf Empire has been a divisive subject. Critics are aghast at its mere existence and criticize it, while others admire it for providing employment where opportunities for disabled people are sparse.

Located in the outskirts of Kunming, Dwarf Empire is a mountainside theme park equipped with mushroom shaped castles and fairytale-like trimmings. Its employees - all dwarfs - are the main attraction. At regular intervals, dozens of the parks employees dress as medieval knights, powerful khans, butterflies and cooks, and perform slapstick sketches and dances.

The parks critics are plentiful, ranging from disabled rights groups to celebrities. Famous actor Warwick Davis, who is also a dwarf, expressed distaste after visiting the park as part of a hit UK TV series. Many in this camp argue that integration diminishes prejudice, while isolation reinforces it; many others wince at the thought of tourists ogling out of morbid curiosity at dwarfs in fancy dress.

Chen Mingjing, the park's creator and a self-made business and real estate mogul, views it differently, as do many of his employees. As far as Chen sees it, the stable employment, tailor-made accommodation and reasonable remuneration for the 100 dwarfs that the park currently employs is much better than 100 dwarfs eking out a living through odd jobs.

While life in Dwarf Empire remains far from idyllic, many employees say it offers them a sense of community where they are able to share the same challenges. For some, the feeling of being among equals outweighs the awkwardness and surreality of the performances.


Young women at the Solana shopping park in Beijing, June 24, 2016. [Photo/IC]

Despite the choking smog, Beijing is still the number one choice for graduate job seekers based on its "soft environment", according to a report published Tuesday.

Researchers at the Center for China and Globalization and education consultancy MyCOS analyzed responses from 20,000 graduates.

They found that the Chinese capital was the preferred choice for finding work based on social environment, economic development, infrastructure, consumption habits and internationalized atmosphere.

Shenzhen, Shanghai and Guangzhou were their next choices.

Graduates on average were likely to turn down a job in a smaller city that paid up to 1,120 yuan more a month to stay in Beijing, the report said.

For Shenzhen and Shanghai, the offer to relocate would have to exceed 1,000 yuan a month, or to move to Guangzhou it would have to be 441 yuan better a month.

The report included only cities with a population of at least 1 million.

Miao Lyu, secretary-general of the think tank, said the report can be instructive for city administrators who want to draw talent.

Wang Boqing, founder of MyCOS and an expert in college graduate employment, said although metropolises are still top choices for graduates to work in, the past three years have seen more university and college students work in prefecture-level cities, or even smaller cities, suggesting more are choosing to avoid the pressure of big cities.
BEIJING - Proposals raised by deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) at the annual parliamentary session in March have all been handled, said the NPC Standing Committee Wednesday.

According to a report from the NPC Standing Committee General Office, deputies raised 8,609 proposals at the March session. All of them have been handled.

Of the proposals, 5,496 needed cooperation among multiple departments, accounting for 63.8 percent of the total, the report said.

The proposals raised by the deputies were about a wide range of issues, including supply-side structural reform, poverty alleviation, environmental protection and regulation of Internet finance.
Paris sought on Tuesday to reassure the public about safety during year-end festivities after a suspected militant attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, saying security forces were working round the clock to prevent such violence.

French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux met his German counterpart in Berlin hours before a truck mowed into crowds at a Christmas market there on Monday evening, killing 12 and injuring dozens more in the suspected terrorist attack.

The Berlin incident revived memories of the attack last July 14 in which a man drove a large truck into crowds of people celebrating the Bastille Day national holiday in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing 86.
Performers, including young and the established artists who performed in the 1964 show, will stage the historic song and dance gala The East Is Red at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Dec 24. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A song and dance gala, which made its debut in 1964, will be staged at the Great Hall of the People to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Long March. Chen Nan reports.

To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Long March, the historic song and dance gala, The East Is Red will be staged at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Dec 24.

The song and dance extravaganza made its debut at the same venue in 1964, to mark the 15th anniversary of the founding of New China. It had more than 3,000 performers and was watched by a full house led by late premier Zhou Enlai. Zhou was also the director of the gala.

The gala, which comprised 35 songs and 12 dance pieces, retraced modern China's revolutionary path, including the Long March, a two-year tactical retreat by the Red Army to evade Kuomintang forces starting in 1934, and China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45).

Through the decades, the show has been staged many times featuring classic and new items, inspiring generations of Chinese with its revolutionary fervour and patriotic lyrics and dances.

The songs performed in the 1964 gala, such as East Is Red, Flying Over Daduhe River, Long March, Song of the Guerrilla, and Protecting Yellow River, have inspired legions over the years.

This time, more than 300 artists, including musicians from the Beijing Dance Drama & Opera, chorus of the China Musicians Association will perform in the gala.

Established artists, who performed in the 1964 gala, will join in the performance. They include tenors Li Guangxi, Liu Bingyi and soprano Deng Yuhua.

Lin Zhonghua, 85, who was the host of the 1964 gala, will also join in the new production. Besides playing host at the show, he will recite poems written by late Chairman Mao Zedong.
Chinese pianist Wang Yujia will be among the renowned artists to join the students of NYO China for a concert at the Carnegie Hall in the US on July 22, 2017. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The first national youth orchestra was founded in the United Kingdom in 1948. And the NYO of the United States started in 2013, as a project of Carnegie Hall.

Now China will have its own NYO: 100 young musicians from all over the country will take rehearsals and attend master classes and workshops at West Connecticut State University in the US for two weeks, and finally play a formal concert at the Carnegie Hall on July 22, 2017.

Renowned artists including French conductor Ludovic Morlot and Chinese pianist Wang Yujia will work with the students for the concert.

Online auditions for NYO China started on Dec 17.

As part of the process, music students from Chinaages 14-20 for the wind section and 14-19 for the other instrumentscan make applications, by submitting their resumes, recommendation letters and video clippings of themselves playing to the official website Nyochina.org.

The videos will be sent to professional musicians from both China and the US. They will first be judged by conductor Morlot and NYO China's artistic director Cai Jindong.

All the judges will also submit feedback to the students.

"Even if you are not confident about getting in, having a professional musician give you feedback is a great encouragement," says Robert Blocker, the Henry and Lucy Moses dean of music at Yale University, who is a senior adviser to NYO China.

NYO China is not just about performances, says Morlot, the conductor. "It is a deeper journey that will create lifelong relationships. An initiative like this can inspire a whole generation of young people."
Intangible cultural heritages and traditional Chinese music will be the two main elements for the 2017 Happy Chinese New Year events in the countries part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Ministry of Culture announced this and other arrangements for the 2017 Happy Chinese New Year at a recent press conference.

Six performing troupes will tour Africa and a series of galas and ceremonies will be held in Asian countries, including Thailand, Japan and Singapore, to further enhance communications with local people.

High quality performances of traditional Chinese music, dance dramas, plays, martial arts and acrobatics will be featured in European countries.

More art shows will be held in North America, such as the Fantastic Art China in New York, that attract international artists of different genres to narrow the distance between Chinese and Western cultures.

The events in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau will be specially designed for adolescents and grassroots communities. Lantern Festival Celebrations and Lunar New Year customs exhibitions will be featured.
College graduates at a job fair in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu province, June 5, 2016 [Photo/VCG]

THE COMPETITION among domestic colleges for famous professors is getting fiercer. Reports show that some universities in western China have lost so many excellent professors to better paying universities in the wealthier coastal regions that they have stopped providing certain majors. Thepaper.cn comments:

According to reports, earlier this year a college in South China's Guangdong province offered an annual salary of 1.2 million yuan ($172,513) plus a fixed research fund of 20 million yuan to lure a talented professor from a university in a less developed region. That payment is extremely high compared with the average salary of 53,615 yuan.

It is wrong for the wealthier universities in the well-developed coastal region to lure the most talented professors from the less wealthy universities in the western region with unreasonably high salaries.

If the rich colleges believe they can improve their research and education in this way, they are misguided. Scientific research requires teamwork; excellent professors need excellent assistants and excellent students to produce excellent results.

Therefore, if a college hopes to improve its research and education capabilities, it must invest time and energy in students, postgraduates, young faculty, and senior professors. Employing a famous professor is not enough on its own.

The trend for rich universities to "buy" famous professors also shows that some of the deans are rather short-sighted. They do not care much about the true quality of their education and research in the long run; instead, they want to polish their annual performance evaluations most in order to get promoted, and hiring a famous professor is a convenient way to achieve that.

Actually, some rich colleges not only "buy" famous professors, but also "invest" in other research programs that can get returns within a short term. That has much to do with the system for evaluating colleges, which places too much emphasis on short-term programs. It is time to find a better way to evaluate the performance of colleges.
US President-elect Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a USA Thank You Tour event in Mobile, Alabama, US, December 17, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

The gap between China and the United States in terms of national strength and international influence has further narrowed this year. China's interactions with the US on the regional security and economic orders, combined with its political stability and relatively decent economic growth, speak volumes about Beijing's proposal at major events such as the G20 Leaders Summit in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, to build an inclusive global order. And given the increasing number of economies recognizing the importance of China's proposal and Beijing's enhanced leadership capability, Sino-US ties are moving toward a more balanced state.

On its part, the US has a long way to go to address the deep divisions at home exposed by Donald Trump's election as the next president. The US' attempts to contain the rise of China, epitomized by the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement that Trump has vowed to scrap on his first day in office, have been futile and discarded by most regional powers.

Besides, Trump's call to US allies such as Japan and the Republic of Korea to pitch in to sustain the US' military presence on their soil raises further questions on Washington's self-proclaimed capability of being the Asia-Pacific region's leader.

Neither Beijing nor Washington has made any compromise in handling sensitive issues, especially the disputes in the South China Sea, the planned deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system in the ROK, and cross-Straits relations, adding more uncertainties to Sino-US ties.

Since before the July "arbitral ruling" on the South China Sea dispute between China and the Philippines the US has been playing up the "China threat" fallacy and dispatching warplanes and cruisers close to China's territorial waters in the name of "safeguarding the freedom of navigation". Seeing China as a strategic threat, the US also has become more aggressivethe deployment of THAAD in the ROK and attempts to intervene in cross-Straits affairs are just two such examples.

China-US relations have witnessed unexpected twists this year, as frictions have increased over trade, long considered a cornerstone of bilateral cooperation, although the two countries seem to have resolved some disputes over what should be done to dissuade the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from building nuclear weapons.

The Barack Obama administration, a champion of the TPP and other exclusive agreements in the Asia-Pacific, has over-politicized the China-US relationship. It has also restricted the entry of Chinese enterprises such as Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE to the US market, saying they pose a national security threat to the country.

Yet the two countries, as permanent UN Security Council members, have agreed on fresh sanctions on the DPRK.

Despite the challenges, both nations basically remain committed to cooperation, as shown by the dozens of bilateral deals inked after leadership meetings in Hangzhou and Lima, Peru, where this year's APEC meeting was held.

What the Trump administration's China policy will be is unclear. Unlike many of his predecessors, he lacks proper understanding of the complexity of Beijing-Washington ties. No wonder he has nominated many officials with no executive experience in government to lead key departments and has been indulging in "Twitter diplomacy".

Given by Trump's campaign promise to fix economic woes at home and create more jobs, however, one can say that his China policy will focus on trade-related issues, ranging from the Chinese currency's exchange rate to trade deficits. But since the new US administration, thanks to a slew of conservatives, is expected to take a hawkish stance on China over the South China Sea and THAAD issues, more frictions could be seen in both trade and security cooperation.

The author is a professor of US studies at China Foreign Affairs University.
Chinese President Xi Jinping presides over the opening ceremony of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept 4, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

With global governance struggling to deal with increasingly thorny issues, such as Brexit and the sluggish global economic recovery, globalization has been in retreat this year. Given this fact, China's intensified efforts to engage in global governance seem like a silver lining.

The successful G20 Leaders Summit in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, in September added weight to the multinational bloc's legitimacy as the premier forum on international economic cooperation. Following the summit, China's top leader Xi Jinping called for closer cooperation to reform the global governance system, and advance peace and development in the world.

Xi's remarks, made during a study session attended by members of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, show the Chinese leadership now better understands global governance and Beijing is ready to make more contributions to global governance.

It should be made clear, though, that China is committed to reforming, not changing, the existing global governance institutions, because they are in urgent need of an overhaul. And the increasing deficit in global governance highlights the need to push forward the reform.

China has made notable progress in this regard. The Chinese currency's inclusion in the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights basket of currencies on Oct 1, giving Beijing a bigger say in the reform of international financial institutions is a case in point. So is Beijing's ratification of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

China has also played a pivotal role in regional governance. Addressing the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Lima, last month, Xi called on all parties concerned to help establish a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific as an institutional mechanism to safeguard free trade in the region.

On China-Africa cooperation, the Chinese government has made extra efforts to implement the major cooperative deals sealed in 2015 as well as the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Beijing-led Belt and Road Initiative (Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, too, have gained fresh momentum this year. The AIIB, which opened for business in January this year with the aim of making global economic governance fairer, faces less opposition because 57 economies have become its members.

BRICS members, too, remain united and committed to their shared mission of improving the functions and management of BRICS New Development Bank. And the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership that China champions is expected to further promote free trade now that US president-elect Donald Trump is expected to scrap the so-called free trade deal, Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

The coming year will see China holding a high-level international cooperation forum on the Belt and Road Initiative and the ninth BRICS summit in Xiamen, Fujian province. And even though Germany will occupy the G20 chair in 2017, China, as the chair for 2016, will remain a part of the troika leadership, as past, present and future chairs come together, to lead the bloc. It would thus be fair to say China will shoulder more responsibilities in global governance in 2017. But that does not mean China is eager to "fill the void" left by the West, as it is still a developing country. Of course, its future diplomatic priority will be to make global governance fairer, for which all the major players have to fulfill their commitments.

The author is a professor of international political economy at Renmin University of China and a distinguished professor of Global Studies at Zhejiang Normal University.
The number of Chinese visitors to New York has increased exponentially in recent years. It is predicted that China could surpass the UK as the largest source of overseas visitors by the year 2022. [Photo/IC]

Nearly 1 million Chinese tourists visited New York this year, making China the second largest source of overseas visitors to the city that never sleeps.

Statistics released by New York City's official tourism body, show that 60.3 million tourists will have visited the Big Apple by the end of the year, including 12.7 million overseas visitors.

Both figures are record highs and it is noteworthy that among all the overseas tourists, the numbers of Chinese visitors is expected to hit 958,000, seven times the number in 2007.

The number of Chinese making the journey to New York has increased exponentially in recent years.

Britt Hijkoop, the international public relations manager at NYC & Company, predicted that China could surpass the United Kingdom as the largest source of overseas visitors by the year 2022.

This year has been named the China-United States Tourism Year and exchanges between the two countries in the tourism sector have expanded.

New direct flights and favorable visa polices in recent years have all contributed to the growth of visits between China and the US.

Related:

2016 likely to be record year for Norway's tourism

China, US pledge to promote tourism
A blast strikes the San Pablito marketplace in Tultepec, north of Mexico City on Dec 20, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

MEXICO CITY - At least 27 people died and at least 70 were injured in an explosion at a fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, local authorities said.

The blast was the third to strike the popular San Pablito marketplace in Tultepec, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Mexico City, in just over a decade.

Isidro Sanchez, the head of Tultepec emergency services, said the death toll was preliminary as rescue workers scoured the site. A lack of sufficient security measures had likely caused the blast, he added.

The federal police tweeted the number of people injured.

Local television showed a flurry of multi-colored fireworks exploding in all directions in the early afternoon as a massive plume of smoke rose above the market.

Another video showed people frantically fleeing, while aerial footage revealed charred stalls and destroyed buildings.

The explosion is the latest in a long-running series of fatal explosions and industrial accidents that have roiled Mexico's oil, gas and petrochemical industries.

A blast struck the Tultepec fireworks market in September 2005 just before independence day celebrations, injuring many people. Almost a year later, another detonation gutted the area again.

"I offer my condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives in this accident and my wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured," President Enrique Pena Nieto said in a tweet.

Pena Nieto is the former governor of the State of Mexico, the country's largest which surrounds the capital, where Tultepec is located.
A bottle of the Hawthorn bath liquid produced at an illegal distillery discovered by the police in Klyuchevaya Street. The Russian Government demanded to withdraw hawthorn tincture and other alcohol-containing products from retail after a fatal poisoning of more than 50 people in Irkutsk. [Photo/IC]

MOSCOW - The death toll from alcohol poisoning in the east Siberian city of Irkutsk has risen to 53, and 26 people are still hospitalized, the Russian news agency TASS reported Tuesday.

The victims consumed a bath lotion which local officials later found contained deadly levels of methanol and antifreeze. Police have found an underground facility that made the counterfeit lotion, and seized 500 liters of the substance at about 100 shops in Irkutsk.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the mass poisoning as a terrible tragedy on Monday, adding that the president was being briefed about the situation.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a Cabinet meeting on Monday that authorities need to deal with illegal turnover of such substances with alcohol content and quickly ban it.

On Monday, Russian media reported that 21 people had died of alcohol poisoning in Irkutsk. All of them got poisoned after consuming the bath lotion marked with the warning that it isn't for drinking.

Poisonings caused by surrogate alcohol are often seen in Russia, but the case in Irkutsk is the deadliest in years.
JAKARTA - An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale jolted Maluku in eastern parts of Indonesia earlier Wednesday, but there were no tsunami alert issued and a report of casualty, officials disclosed here.

The quake rocked at 0017 GMT with epicenter at 184 km northeast Maluku Barat Daya and the depth at 173 km under sea bed, an official of meteorology and geophysics agency said.

"We did not issue a warning for tsunami. This quake is not dangerous as its center is deep," the official told Xinhua by phone.

The intensity of the quake was felt at 2 to 3 MMI (Modified Mercally Intensity) in Tual town and 1 to 2 MMI in Saumlaki town, the official revealed.

"So far, there is no a report of damages or casualty," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of national disaster management agency told Xinhua via phone.

Indonesia lies on a vulnerable quake-hit zone so called "the Pacific Ring of Fire," making it prone to quakes.

More than 100 people were killed with over 700 others sustaining injury as a shallow-and strong under-land quake, 6.5 magnitude, rocked Aceh province in northern tip of Sumatra Island earlier this month.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives to sign the condolence book at the Memorial Church in Berlin, Germany, Dec 20, 2016, one day after a truck ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in the German capita killing several people. [Photo/IC]

PARIS - French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday reaffirmed their determination to wage "merciless war" to eradicate terrorism.

Over a phone talk, the two European leaders reiterated "the full mobilization of the French and German security services to fight terrorism and implement (security) measures at European level," according to a statement released by Hollande's office.

"They agreed that this merciless fight against terrorism should not undermine the values and way of life that democracies have chosen," it said.

During the conversation, Hollande also "expressed his deepest sympathy and friendship and French people's solidarity" with Germany after Monday's "odious attack" at a Christmas market in Berlin.

A lorry ploughed into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German capital on Monday night, killing 12 people and injuring many others.
U.S. President Barack Obama (L) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk before an economic leaders meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit at the Lima Convention Centre on November 20, 2016 in Lima. [Photo/Xinhua]

WASHINGTON -- The United States on Tuesday slapped additional sanctions on eight more entities and seven individuals linked in relation to the conflict in Ukraine.

The fresh sanctions target companies including Crimean Ports, Crimean Railway and Institut Stroiproekt, a Russian highway construction company, according to a statement by US Treasury Department.

Also blacklisted are seven Russians, six of whom were accused by the United States of helping to offer assistance to Bank Rossiya, which was sanctioned in 2014, or Bank Rossiya's two affiliates, which were also been sanctioned.

The seventh man, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, "has extensive business dealings with the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense," said the statement.

The United States also identified 26 subsidiaries that are owned 50 percent or more by previously sanctioned Russian companies to provide additional information to assist the private sector with sanctions compliance.

Since 2014, the United States, the EU and some of their allies have imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia for the country's role in the Ukraine crisis.

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russia's TASS News Agency that Russia would respond to US expansion of sanction.

"We retain the right to choose the time, place and form of our responsive actions in a way that suits us," said Ryabkov.
A secret space race is out of the bag.

It revolves around the so-called EmDrive propulsion system, which seems to cherry pick the laws of physics and science fiction, using some and defying others, to produce an engine capable of getting humans to the moon in 10 days, Mars in 10 weeks, without any fuel.

A leaked paper from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was posted on line last month suggests that not only have researchers at Johnson Space Center in Houston been tinkering around with the idea, which a lot of people knew  but they have one that actually works.

And now China has announced that it, too, has created a working prototype. It's one of the previously closely guarded experiments being conducted on the Tiangong-2 space Lab recently put in orbit.

At a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday, researchers with the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) said the government has been funding the research for six years and all that the NASA results do is confirm what they have already achieved.

CAST also plans to put their "impossible" reactionless engines to work powering satellites as soon as possible.

The EmDrive engine defies Newton's Third Law of Motion  for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Jet engines burn fuel to power turbines to suck in air and blast it out backward to produce forward thrust.

The EmDrive ejects no opposite-directed mass or particles to produce forward thrust. Instead, it bounces microwaves around inside a cone-shaped metal chamber, which, because of the shape, produces thrust at the wider end.

The concept is for the unit to convert sunlight in space into the needed microwaves, making a self-sustaining power plant that never needs a refill.

But it is the very defiance of Newton's law that has many skeptics dismissing the whole concept, saying there are probably other explanations for their experimental results  expansion from heating, for instance.

"If the results are valid, it definitely points to a new physics," said Brice Cassenti, professor of engineering and an advanced propulsions systems expert at the University of Connecticut.

But he added, "Newton's laws have already been shown not to apply" under certain conditions  high relative speeds, large gravitational fields, very small scale molecules.

"There are certainly many aspects of physics that we do not understand," he told a college publication. "Some aspects are so mysterious that we don't even know where to begin."

The NASA tested device was a closed copper cone whose interior was bombarded with controlled bursts of microwaves at 40, 60 and 80 watts, generating about 1.2 millinewtons of thrust per kilowatt (by contrast, the current state-of-the-art Hall thruster, which uses electricity to ionize propellants like xenon and krypton, produces 60 millinewtons per kilowatt, so the EmDrive's got some catching up to do).

Still, EmDrive proponents remind us that they don't need any propellants and that alone, in a tortoise-and-hare kind of way, more than makes up for the difference.

Jim Woodward, a physicist at California State-Fullerton, told Motherboard: "The issue involved here is whether the experiment is seeing something real or not." Violating the laws of physics is not something any scientist takes lightly.

EmDrive's inventor, British scientist Roger Shawyer, argues that it has been known and acknowledged since the 1950s that radiation exerts pressure and does so when it enters the irregularly shaped chamber, basically pushing more on one end than on the other.

In an elegant 15-minute slide presentation available on the internet, he lays out the science "to separate EmDrive operation from magic," as he puts it, actually using another of Newton's Laws (force equals mass times acceleration) to prove it.

"EmDrive is based on standard physics and has been proved by experiment," he says, mapping out seven separate trials runs at five centers, including one in China.

"It is now up to the space and defense world to demonstrate the many EmDrive applications and for commercial industry to capitalize on this technology," he concludes.

Li Feng, chief designer at the China Academy of Space Technology's communication satellite division, said the technology being tested in orbit right now is "in the latter stages of the proof-of-principle phase" with the goal of making it available in satellites "as quickly as possible."

"Although it is difficult to do this, we have the confidence that we will succeed," he said.

The race is on.

Contact the writer at chrisdavis@chinadailyusa.com.
China's Taklamakan Desert is the world's second largest desert. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China's Taklamakan Desert has fascinated generations of explorers but its mountainous dunes, huge temperature changes and severe lack of water mean its full width has only been crossed once, in 1993.

A group of nine Chinese and British adventurers now want to match that endeavor in a 10-week expedition next September in which they will travel from west to east on foot for 1,000 kilometers across what has been called The Desert of Death.

Team leader Rosie Stancer is a 56-year-old explorer who has conquered the North and South Poles. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"We want this epic expedition to be seen as a gesture of teamsmanship between China and Great Britain," said team leader Rosie Stancer, a 56-year-old explorer who has conquered the North and South Poles. Two other British team members and six Chinese will be travelling with her.

Celine Dong, a Chinese member of the team who works for a financial technology company in Hong Kong, says the Taklamakan's location as a crucial spot for the Belt and Road initiative greatly appealed to her and "fitted in with my identity". She has lived and worked in both China and the UK, and previously worked on deals connecting the two countries through the Belt and Road initiative.

Located in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the Taklamakan is the world's second largest desert, with an area of 337,000 square kilometers, just under the size of Germany. Despite its important location on the ancient Silk Road, ancient traders used to go around it rather than attempt to cross.

Its unexplored nature fascinated adventurers and past expeditions. Victorian explorer Sven Hedin, who crossed the shorter north-south route, lost two men, nearly all his camels and nearly perished himself. Earlier recorded attempts were defeated by hunger, thirst and the desert's ferocious sandstorms.

Stancer sees the expedition as both a physical and a psychological challenge. "It's a psychological journey to live with such quietness and loneliness for 10 weeks. You need to go with nature and not to conquer it."

But she says a sense of fulfilment will make it all worth it. "Legend has it, the desert is full of the spirits of the past. I'm fascinated by this place and want to discover more about it."
Chinese and British leaders reaffirmed their keen willingness to strengthen the two countries' "golden era" of relations at the 8th China UK Strategic Dialogue in London on Tuesday.

The annual dialogue, led by China's State Councilor Yang Jiechi and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, follows the September meeting between President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister Theresa May at the G20 Leaders Summit in Hangzhou.

Both sides agreed to implement the two countries' leaders' agreement to increase strategic communication, improve political trust, deepen win-win collaboration and push forward China-UK ties under the current new landscape for development, and together work for global peace, development and stability.

After the dialogue, Yang met British Prime Minister Theresa May, Prince Andrew and British Chancellor Philip Hammond.

In his meeting with May, Yang affirmed Chinas willingness to strengthen high level exchanges with the UK, maintain the current system of bilateral dialogue, and deepen collaboration across sectors including nuclear, high speed rail, financial services and innovation.

Yang added the two countries can develop a more solid comprehensive strategic partnership in the 21st century by increasing communication and coordination in important international and regional issues, together work towards creating an open and inclusive global economy, and tackle global challenges such as climate change.

May said the UK sees China as an important strategic partner and the two countries win-win partnership has great future potential. The UK anticipates maintaining close exchanges with China at high levels, strengthen bilateral collaboration across all sectors, together contribute towards free trade and do more joint work to tackle global challenges such as climate change.

Yang suggested at the dialogue the two countries should take advantage of the 45th anniversary of the establishment of ambassadorial-level diplomatic relations, to strengthen exchanges at different levels, so to achieve fruitful results in investment, trade, financial services, innovation, infrastructure development and other fields.

Yang added the two sides should increase cultural exchange and collaboration, and become strategic partners with a shared vision, mutual respect, trust, and learn from each other, to achieve common growth and development.

Johnson said the UK government should stay firm in developing its strategic partnership with China, so to boost the China-UK golden era of relations.

Johnson said the UK is willing to increase strategic communication with China, to strengthen collaboration in sectors including trade, investment, aviation, infrastructure development. The two countries should join to respond to significant international challenges and strengthen coordination on important globally issues.

The two sides also exchanged views on international relations and regional issues of common concern, and released a statement on issues related to Afghanistan.
(Photo : Getty Images) Major cities across northern China are bearing the brunt of unrelenting smog for past several days. As a result, schools and factories were forced to shut down.

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Unrelenting smog has brought life across major cities in northern China to a complete standstill. As a result, several schools and factories were forced to shut down, while normal operations of hospitals and air flights have been severely affected.



To cope with overwhelming the smog, the Chinese government issued a red alert last Friday across several northern cities including Beijing. As part of the alert, government issued several precautionary measures such as putting a cap on traffic, shutting factories, and urging citizens to stay indoors.



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Several environmentalists have already described the current smog spell as the worst spell of 2016.



China's People's Daily reported that a good number of hospitals in the port city of Tianjin, which is located 100 miles southeast of Beijing, have witnessed sporadic rise in asthma and other respiratory cases.



A report filed by the Associated Press Reports claimed that on Tuesday, operations in 700 companies were halted as well as more than 200 flights in Beijing were severely affected.



Over the years, pollution alerts have been a common occurrence in China's northern part, which is an industrial heartland of the country. With failure to limit pollution, smog has become an unrelenting theme in Beijing and other important cities in Northern China.



The failure, according to experts, is due to the government's inability to balance environmental needs and industrial growth. However, the Chinese government is still credited for taking several important steps that has successfully helped in coping with pollution problem.



This year, the government took by far the most important step by ratifying the Paris Climate Agreement. The ratification by Chinese parliament paved the way for implementation of the agreement across China. The agreement that was signed by more than 200 countries at Paris in December 2015 aims to bring down the level of green house gases across the world.



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(Photo : Getty Images) Six major Chinese airlines team up to boost China and Australia's tourism marketing and promotional activities.

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A signed agreement between China's tourism body and six major Chinese airlines will see a boost in the tourism sector between China and Australia come 2017.



The six airlines, namely, Air China, Xiamen Air, Sichuan Air, Hainan Airlines, China Eastern, and China Southern inked a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday as part of the China-Australia Year of Tourism 2017 program in Sydney that aims to expand the tourism sector between the two nations.



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Under the new agreement, more joint initiatives that will trigger a boost in tourism marketing and promotional activities will be carried out. Furthermore, it will also add revenue for both countries, Luo Weijan, the director of China's National Tourism body, said.



"One of our key objectives is to add greater capacity and more routes between Australia and China," Luo said. "This will attract more Australian visitors to China and it will facilitate continued growth in a market that is currently generating more than $9 billion in export revenue for China."



He also added that the new strategy will strategically expand the sector, explaining that "Rather than six Chinese carriers competing to get a bigger slice of the pie, if we grow the pie everybody will get a bigger slice."



Statistics presented showed that Australia came in 13th in terms of foreign visitors coming to Mainland China. It has an annual record of more than 720,000 visitors, according to a report by The Mercury.



Currently, there are 13 direct flights between China and Australia with the destinations including Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'an, the home of Terracotta Warriors.



China, on the other hand, is Australia's most important market for tourism. By 2020, the value is expected to surpass $13 billion.



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(Photo : YouTube) Houhi rebels and captured Saudi M1A2S Abrams.

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The Saudi Arabian Army has apparently lost over 20 M1A2S Abrams main battle tanks to Soviet-era anti-tank guided missiles fired by Houthi rebels backed by Iran, and the Saudi government is now buying more tanks from the United States to replace rising losses.



The Saudis don't confirm battlefield losses and the estimate of 20 destroyed Abrams was revealed in August. That number is certain to have risen since Houthi rebels have posted new videos on YouTube showing more Saudi Abrams being hit by anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), more likely the Tosun (Tosan), an Iranian upgrade of the Soviet-era 9M113 Konkurs ATGM.



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Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition of 10 Arab states that has been fighting in the Yemini Civil War since March 2015 to restore to power the legitimate regime of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi ousted by Shia Houthi rebels militarily supported by Iran.



The Saudi-led coalition includes the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal and Sudan.



That little known but vicious campaign has seen Saudi military deaths exceed 430 men. The loss of 20 tanks was again brought to light by the U.S. approval of a Saudi government request to purchase 153 M1A2S tanks as part of a $1.15 billion package.



The Saudi government said it wanted the tanks as "battle damage replacements" for tanks lost in combat.



The M1A2S is a version of the Abrams specially modified to the specifications of the Saudi Arabian Army. It does not, however, appear to be protected by the depleted uranium (DU) armor that made U.S. Army Abrams so hard to destroy in the two wars against Iraq.



Kuwait has also asked the U.S. Congress to approve the sale of a recapitalization package for 218 of its M1A2 main battle tanks.



The U.S. Army claims none of its Abrams were lost to ATGMs during the Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War. Some experts claim the U.S. has lost 14 Abrams, most of them to powerful IEDs (improvised explosive devices), one of which tore the turret off an Abrams, killing two of the four crewmen.



Most Abrams' battlefield losses in both wars seem to have been inflicted by friendly fire. The tank is vulnerable to U.S.-made Hellfire ATGMs fired from combat helicopters such as the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.



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TagsSaudi Arabian Army, M1A2S Abrams main battle tanks, Houthi Rebels, Iran, yemen, 9M113 Konkurs ATGM, Saudi Arabia
(Photo : Getty Images) British Prime Minister Theresa May (R) greets State Councillor of the People's Republic of China Yang Jiechi in 10 Downing Street on December 20, 2016 in London, England.

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China and UK are planning to enhance their nuclear energy cooperation, Yang Jiechi, Chinese state councilor, said on Wednesday as reported by Sputnik News.



According to Downing Street, both countries have reportedly talked to develop their strategic partnership, boost bilateral trade and investment, and acknowledge several security challenges. The meeting came as Yang met with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday after the 8th China-UK Strategic Dialogue in London, CCTV noted.



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"China and the United Kingdom plan to develop closer high-level ties, conduct an appropriate bilateral dialogue and broaden practical cooperation in the area on nuclear energy, high-speed rail construction, finance and innovation," Yang said as quoted by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.



Downing Street further added that the two leaders have also tackled about foreign policy issues such as Afghanistan reconstruction and other several global and regional matters. Both have vowed to strengthen communication and cooperatively encourage the open, inclusive economic globalization as well as fight global challenges including climate change.



Furthermore, May said that she is anticipating that UK will boost pragmatic cooperation with China in different areas including global free trade. Britain will also address common challenges including climate change with other nations in a collaborative manner.



The UK government signed a final agreement with the French electricity firm EDF last September to construct the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. EDF is reportedly planning to co-finance the nuclear power plant project, which is expected to meet 7 percent of the UK's energy needs when it opens in 2025, with China General Nuclear Power Group.



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TagsPrime Minister Theresa May, 8th China-UK Strategic Dialogue, China-UK Relations, Downing Street
(Photo : Getty Images) The Holy See assured China's Catholic community not to worry as their needs will be addressed.

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The Catholic community has been reassured by The Holy See that its needs are well represented and will be catered amidst the ongoing Sino-Vatican dialogue between Beijing and the Holy See, according to a statement released by the Vatican on Tuesday.



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For a long while, Catholics in China have had to deal with a lot of mixed emotions in regard to the appointment of new bishops in Beijing. The fact that Bishop Paul Lei Shiyin had been ordained without papal approval and had been allowed to attend and celebrate the mass of two of the three recent episcopal ordinations in China had triggered concerns.



Another cause of worry for the Chinese Catholic community is the fact that Beijing had involved itself in the Ninth Assembly of Representatives of Chinese Catholics scheduled on Dec. 26 to 29. They argued that such move indicated that China holds the power over the Catholic community and not Rome.



The Tuesday statement issued by the Vatican Press Office said that the Vatican would work with the facts before they could make a decisive opinion on the matter, as reported by Asia One.



"The Vatican is certain that all Catholics in China are waiting with trepidation for positive signals that would help them have trust in the dialogue between civil authorities and the Holy See and hope for a future of unity and harmony," the statement read.



According to The National Catholic Review, the community is of the belief that Beijing wants the Holy See to acknowledge Bishop Shiyin and seven other illegally ordained bishops as part of the bridging gap between the two. The Holy See, however, stated that the move is "still under study."



"The presence of a bishop whose canonical position is still under the study by the Apostolic See following his illegitimate ordination has created unease among those involved and perturbation to Chinese Catholics," the Holy See said.



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(Photo : YouTube Screenshot) The explosion occurred at 3 p.m. (local time) at the well-known San Pablito fireworks market in Tultepec, a town on the outskirts of Mexico City.

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A series of powerful explosions scorched one of Mexico's largest fireworks markets just outside the capital city, leaving at least 31 people dead and dozens injured, the Mexico State police said.



"People were crying everywhere and desperately running in all directions," witness Cesar Carmona said.



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The eruption occurred at 3 p.m. local time at the popular San Pablito marketplace in Tultepec, about 20 miles north of Mexico City. People in nearby towns reported that they felt the ground tremble as fireworks stalls exploded.



"Everything shook strongly," witness Ana Maria Alvarado told CNN.



The blast struck in the run-up to the busy traditional end-of-year activities as Christmas and New Year's parties in many Latin American countries are often celebrated with pyrotechnics. The conflagration sent huge plumes of gray smoke into the sky.



According to Mexico State Governor Eruviel Avila, 26 people died at the scene, at least three died later in hospitals, and more than 70 were injured in the midafternoon explosion. Some children endured burns to more than 90 percent of their bodies and were being sent to the US city of Galveston in Texas, he added.



Avila also vowed to punish those responsible for the accident and provide financial assistance to those livelihoods affected. More than 80 percent of the 300 stalls were ripped through by the explosion.



This is the third time in 11 years that the market has been destroyed by such detonations. Despite the history, the market was certified by the state's Institute of Pyrotechnics and was described as the "safest in all of Latin America," with precautions to "prevent a chain reaction in the case of a spark."



"We had occurrences before but not of this magnitude," a identified called Paulina who has lived in Tultepec her entire life said. A blast at the same market in 2005 harmed a vast number of people and caused massive damage.









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(Photo : Getty Images) Japan plans to strengthen its coast guard in case dispute with China on South China Sea breaks into a full blown war.

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the country is stepping up its efforts to strengthen its coast guard after failing to resolve its feud with China over a group of East China Sea islets.



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Japan has had long-standing disagreements with China over the disputed Islands. Although Japan remained in control of them, China insisted that it is the rightful owner of the islands called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyou in China.



Coast guard personnel from both countries constantly shadow each other near the uninhabited Islets, causing concern that an accidental vessel collision or other minor issues could lead to a full blown war.



"Since the fall of 2012, Chinese government vessels have sailed near the Senkaku almost daily, and have entered Japan's territorial waters around the islands a few times a month," Abe said during a meeting of ministers.



The Prime Minister added that the coast guard has to protect the country's waters and people to ensure security and peace of mind.



Japan plans to increase its coast guard budget starting next April to 210 billion yen ($18 billion), up from this fiscal year's 187.7 billion yen ($15 billion) budget. According to Abe, this will help to add five new patrol ships to its coast guard fleet and increase the maritime law enforcement unit's personnel by more than 200.



Japan transport minister Keiichi Ishii told reporters that the situation over the contested islands was "heading for a higher degree of urgency" because of China's incursions. China is also in dispute with its other Asian neighbors over the ownership of several islands on the South China Sea.



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TagsChina-Japan relations, Japan, china, East China Sea, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South China Sea
(Photo : Getty Images) Japan deleted a pregnancy clause on its Syrian refugee program.

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A language in a Japanese program that implied that pregnant refugee women from war-torn Syria will not be accepted into the country has been deleted.



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Last May, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Japan would accept up to 150 Syrian students over a five-year period from 2017. The program, entitled "Japanese Initiative for the Future of Syrian Refugees," has several strict requirements for potential applicants.



However, the Japanese branch of Amnesty International raised concerns that the program for Syrian refugees virtually excludes pregnant women.



According to the Amnesty International and the government's Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the original version included the caveat that "pregnant applicants are not recommended to apply."



After such concern was raised, the statement was changed to read: "Before the application, pregnant applicants are advised to consider carefully potential risk of health and life issues of mother and fetus."



JICA spokesperson Satoshi Murakami said on Wednesday that the organization would completely remove the clause, saying "It is creating a misunderstanding."



However, Murakami stressed that the main focus of the program was "not to rescue the underprivileged, but to educate personnel for Syria's reconstruction."



"When a pregnant woman comes to Japan and gives birth, she will have to rest for some time," Murakami said while also insisting that the program is not meant to exclude pregnant women.



During a refugees' summit hosted by US President Barrack Obama, Abe also pledged that Japan would "warmly welcome" the families of the Syrian students who would be accepted into the country.



Japan is notoriously immigration-shy, and that figure is relatively smaller compared with other countries. In March, British firm Oxfam revealed that based on the size of its economy, Japan has the capacity to take in approximately 50,000 Syrians.



Japan's Justice Ministry, on the other hand, said the country had accepted 27 refugees last year including three Syrians.



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(Photo : Getty Images) Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been cozying up with China after angering the United States.

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As a sign of thawing relations between the two previous rivals, the Philippines is set to accept $14 million worth of firearms from China. This is in addition to the $500 million long-term soft loan for other equipment that the mainland offered.



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According to the country's defense minister, Delfin Lorenzana, the potential free deal that the Philippines could receive involved small arms and boats. He said the money will be used to assist President Rodrigo Duterte in his fight against crime and terrorism.



"China has given us a list of military equipment and we will go through it to find out what we really need," Lorenzana said after a meeting between Duterte and Chinese ambassador Zhao Jianhua. The half a billion dollar soft loan offer was also made during the meeting.



"The Chinese ambassador last night told the president, 'I know your problem in drugs, so we would like to help you'," the defense minister said.



The news comes after Duterte's announcement earlier this month that he would accept the firearms deal with China and promised that he would send his defense minister to receive the weapons. The $14 million deal will be paid for over a 25-year period and would likely include small arms, fast boats, and night vision goggles.



The minister added that the details of the deal will be finalized by the end of the year. And the weapons are expected to reach the Philippines by the second quarter of 2017.



Before Duterte assumed office in June, relations between China and the Philippines had been tense due to the territorial dispute over islands in the South China Sea. But after the Obama administration alleged Duterte of abusing human rights in his fight against drugs, the president has changed tact by turning away from the US and cozying up to China.



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(Photo : Getty Images) An estimated 15,000 people from Myanmar are crossing China's border to seek refuge over the ongoing ethnic violence.

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The United Nations said that an estimated 15,000 people have crossed the border from Myanmar to China in the past month after fighting between government troops and armed ethnic groups intensified.



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According to Pierre Peron, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Myanmar, aid access to people affected by the war in the northern states of Kachin and Shan "is getting worse, not better."



"Humanitarian access to conflict areas in Kachin and Shan states is currently worse than at any point in the past few years," Peron added.



In an update on Monday, the OCHA said that aside from the estimated 15,000 new refugees, approximately 24,000 people have also been displaced internally in the northern part of Shan state since Nov. 20. This was after a coalition of four rebel groups attacked military and police bases.



Dozens more have drowned trying to cross the river that separates Myanmar from Thailand in desperate attempts to seek refuge in Malaysia. The Myanmar government has a ban in place stopping its citizens from working in Malaysia.



Weeks of violent clashes and population displacements have already jeopardized Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's chances of bringing peace to the country.



Observers are fearful that her unstable civilian government has no power over the army, which retains political power and is free from civilian oversight. She has been accused of being unconcerned of the plight of the minority Rohingya community, which has been discriminated by authorities for years.



The army said that it would step-up operations in Shan state following the deadly Nov. 20 attack.



According to a Myanmar police official, who requested anonymity, government forces have clashed with armed groups in northern Shan at least 170 times in the past month. Approximately 30,000 people have been internally displaced in Rahkine state.



There have also been crackdowns since nine border police officers were killed near the country's border with Bangladesh. Bangladesh hosts thousands of Rohingya but is now turning away boatloads of fleeing families.



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After viewing the most-watched Korean movie of all time, something struck me about our generation, both Christian and non-Christian, that I believe should not be overlooked. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Koreans began to show great enthusiasm towards movies that feature a hero that goes against the system and sacrifices for the good of the weak. Films like The Admiral or The Attorney all feature figures that are Christ-like in a sense. However, what is evident about the demand for films that feature such charismatic heroes is that our current society lacks these kinds of leaders altogether. Who would be willing to give up his life for the survival of numerous others and who is brave enough to stand firm in his beliefs with the whole world against him? What is even more serious is the fact that though our generation so greatly desires such a leader figure, no one is willing to become that leader himself.

The Admiral, directed by Han-Min Kim and produced by BigStone Pictures, features the feats of Admiral Yi Soon-shin in the battle of Myeongryang in 1598. The story of Admiral Yi defeating a Japanese fleet of 300 vessels with only 12 warships is something that every Korean hears growing up. The Korean history text book and hypes by elders made Yi into a demigod-like figure. The film version of the story however, reveals a much more human side of the naval commander. My take on this was that anyone, if he makes up his mind, could be like Admiral Yi.

The film starts with the Chosun (the last Korean dynasty) navy left with only 12 warships and about to go up against the Japanese fleet. Admiral Yi is constantly attacked by his generals and the king to disband the navy. With the Japanese constantly looking for the opportune moment to strike, Korean soldiers defect, try to assassinate the commander and even burn down one of their precious remaining ships.

When by himself, the admiral is presented like any other human being. He drinks alcohol with his son to forget his sorrows and falls into despair when he sees his ship burn. There is a moment when the admiral considers suicide. However, he brings up the courage to lead his men into battle.

No war historian was ever able to fully explain how Admiral Yi had overcome such harsh circumstances in the Battle of Myeongryang. Though the individual Korean naval ships were much larger, and possessed far superior fire power compared to the small Japanese vessels, it is hard to fathom how one could defeat 300 of those with only 12 of their own. There is one important factor in the battle that the film lightly touched upon that many audiences tend to forget.

When the Korean ships were stuck in a whirlpool, fishing men came to the aid of the navy and pulled the warships out with ropes and hooks. At the end of the movie, Admiral Yi calls this grace from heaven, expressing amazement and disbelief that the common people thought to help them. Though this scene was fictional, according to historical documents including Yis personal journal, there are records that over 100 fishing boats were deployed a distance behind the Korean warships, so it would look like the Koreans actually had much more ships.

The filmmakers wanted to show the audience that a hero or great leader cannot stand alone, but requires the help of those he leads. Yi himself tells his son Hoi, Loyalty should be directed to the nation, and a nation cannot exist without its people. In a way the film emphasized very Christian qualities that are often sought in good leaders; a believer should focus his attention and love on God and his brothers and sisters in Christ. Many Christian leaders also emphasize the importance of humility; leaving the results to God and trying not to do things by his own abilities.

At the end of the screening, many members of the audience stood up and applauded with approval. Some Korean-American viewers went far as to state that Ive never been so proud to be a Korean. The qualities of the legendary naval commander were enough to move any film fans heart.

Many film experts expressed that the reason Koreans, particularly those who grew up in Korea all their lives, loved The Admiral so much because they had lost faith in their nation and their leaders. In light of recent events that have been happening in Korea such as the sinking of the Sewol ferry, the death of Private Yoon gave a strong impression for Korean citizens that the government is so incapable of even the most elementary tasks of a democratic nation, and President Geon-hye Park has become target of great criticism.

Koreans think back to the times of Admiral Yi, and King Sejong who invented the Korean alphabet. There have not been any political leaders that resemble these great historical figures and there is a strange pleasure and satisfaction in watching Admiral Yi not only defeat the foreign enemy but even politely disobey direct orders from the king to disband the navy and proving him wrong by emerging victorious from battle. History tells us that the people of the southern provinces of Chosun Dynasty, which Admiral Yi was placed in charge of both politically and militarily, desired the naval commander to take the throne after the war.

Everyone seems to agree that Admiral Yi is an amazing leader and greatly desire for such a figure to arise and to lead them into victory against a common enemy. However we live in an age where teenagers would rather watch play-through videos on YouTube than play the actual video game. This is true for Christians also. Everyone thinks that Jesus dying for our sins is amazing. Everyone agrees that non-believers should know about the Gospel. My question is, how many of us truly wish to be like Admiral Yi or Christ himself?

The Bible explicitly tells believers to endeavor to be just like Christ. Christians of the 21st century however prefer to just go to church on Sundays and even that is enough. Unless someone takes a small step of faith, Korea will never see the next Admiral Yi Soon-shin.

The film, The Admiral tells us that we do not have to be afraid of being alone. Admiral Yi had his people to rescue him, but Christians have God always behind our backs. Yi tells his men before going into battle that the courage of one man can set an enemy of thousands trembling in fear. Likewise the Bible tells us that faith the size of a mustard seed could move mountains.
Over 800 youth and college students gathered in San Diego on Tuesday evening for the annual Higher Calling Conference, a missions conference hosted by the college ministry SOON Movement (also known as Korea Campus Crusade for Christ).

The annual Higher Calling Conference, which will be taking place from December 20 to 23, aims to mobilize and equip the emerging generation to actively take part in fulfilling the Great Commission, according to the organizers. This years conference in particular will be focusing on the theme, Resurgence, with the theme verse Ezekiel 37:5-6.

"What we need is not an increase in numbers, works, or acts of human origin -- we need a resurgence of the Holy Spirit to revive the dead and dying among us," the organizers stated.

Jim Munroe, performer of 'The Maze,' speaker, and author who uses magic to share the gospel, was featured as the first main plenary speaker. He acknowledged that seemingly random circumstances in life, particularly the bad or dead end ones, may stir doubts and prevent people from believing in God, as he shared he initially did as well. But Munroe, using his magic, put the idea of random to the test with the audience throughout the plenary session.

Could there be something bigger going on going on behind the scenes, beyond the world we experience with our five senses? he ultimately asked. That all of the seemingly random circumstances are drawing you to something bigger?

Several dozens of students approached the stage during the session to pray to commit to live for Christ.

Munroe is among six main plenary session speakers featured throughout the conference, including Jessica Harris, author of Beggars Daughter; Sean McDowell, author and assistant professor in Christian apologetics at Biola University; Shane Sebastian, executive director of Global Missions with Cru; and David Oh, senior pastor at highland Cornerstone Church.

This years Higher Calling Conference also features 12 elective seminars on topics such as vocational calling; faith and work; depression; sexuality and purity; and apologetics, among others. Youth students will attend separate sessions during the elective seminar and leadership training portions designed for college students.

A 24-hour prayer room and private counseling sessions called Soul Care are also being made available throughout the duration of the conference.

SOON Movement has hosted missions conferences on an annual basis since 1996. While the missions conferences were initially for members of the college ministry, SOON Movement has opened up the conferences to youth and college students of local churches outside of the ministry since 2010.
In the first presidential election since Russell Moore became the leading evangelical voice in Washington, America saw more of him than ever before.

With each TV news appearance and op-ed parsing the complicated evangelical vote in this years contentious election, fellow Southern Baptists took notice of Moores personal conviction against Donald Trump, his characterizations of Trump supporters, and the broader changes hed implemented as president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) over the previous three years.

Its clear that Moore represents a significant shift for Americas largest Protestant denomination, and many welcome his leadership; more than 1,200 championed their support on Twitter with #IStandWithMoore this week amid media coverage of his SBC critics.

However, others question whether Moores outspokennessparticularly his critical remarks made toward fellow Southern Baptists and evangelicals at large who supported Trumpbetrays the role he was appointed to.

This week, The Wall Street Journal (followed by NPR and Religion News Service) outlined the backlash Moore faces from within his denomination. Some leaders critical of Moores stance are considering withholding their megachurchs or state conventions support of the ERLC (through the denominations Cooperative Program fund). They believe Moore does not represent their political views, and fear he will not be able to advocate for them on Capitol Hill after so vocally lambasting Trump.

On Monday, Moore apologized for any sound bites during the campaign that may have overstated his criticism of Trump defenders. He wrote:

I witnessed a ...

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As a child, I attended a Southern Baptist church that gathered for a meal on Wednesday nights. After supper, we would sing:

Im so glad Im a part of

the Family of God,

Ive been washed in the fountain, cleansed by his blood!

Joint heirs with Jesus

as we travel this sod,

For Im part of the family,

the Family of God

These simple lyrics settled over me like a blanket. In the wake of my parents divorce, I needed the church to be a family, and it was.

This is as it should be. In the Gospels, Jesus applied familial language to his followers: Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother (Matt. 12:4950). Acts describes the early church sharing with a generosity that would put many actual families to shame. The Epistles address their hearers as brothers and sisters. Paul sends greetings to the mother of Rufus who has been a mother to me too (Rom. 16:13). He instructs Timothy to relate to older members of his church as spiritual parents, to younger members as siblings (1 Tim. 5:12).

The New Testament writers understood the church to mirror the nuclear family: father, mother, brother, sister. Because of their controversial faith, first-century believers could not rely on natural family relationships. The church became their spiritual family. Like at home, both fathers and mothers played a pivotal role in the wellbeing of that family.

The typical church leadership structure boasts plenty of church fathers. But we cant forget the significance of church mothers, lest the church risk functioning as a single-parent family. When we celebrate these women, we reflect a more complete picture of the home within the family of ...

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I had the privilege or reading a pre-release version of "God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church." Here are 20 quotes from the book, which you should pick up.
Billy Graham Rapid Response Team to Offer 'Ministry of Presence' in Berlin Following Deadly Terror Attack Contact: Erik Ogren,

704-401-2117,

eogren@bgea.org



CHARLOTTE, N.C., Dec. 21, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- A small group of crisis-trained chaplains from the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team arrive today in Berlin, Germany, following Monday's deadly attack on a Christmas Market. It's reported that 12 people died and dozens more were wounded, some critically.



"In working with area churches, we are deploying chaplains to offer a ministry of presence to pray and share God's hope in Berlin," said Jack Munday, international director of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team. "In the midst of tremendous loss and intense grief, our crisis-trained chaplains will be there to listen and let them know God hasn't forgotten them in the midst of this horrific attack. We want to bring the comfort and compassion of Jesus to those who are hurting."



The initial team involves chaplains from the United States and Canada, including chaplains who are fluent in German. Additional chaplains are standing by and ready to deploy if needed.



The response in Berlin is the fourth Billy Graham Rapid Response Team deployment to Europe this year, all following terror attacks. The ministry also dispatched chaplains to Brussels, Belgium (March); Nice, France (July); and Munich, Germany (July).



In addition to Berlin, the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team continues to minister in Sevier County, Tenn., which was impacted by a devastating wildfire. The group recently finished their efforts in eastern North Carolina (Hurricane Matthew) and Oakland, Calif. ("Ghost Ship" warehouse fire).



For more information on the ministry, including videos, photos, news articles and an interactive map of former and current deployments, visit www.billygraham.org/rrt. Updates can also be found at www.facebook.com/RRTChaplains.



About the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team

The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team was developed by Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It has since grown into a nationwide network of chaplains in 48 states who are specifically trained to deal with crisis situations. They have deployed to approximately 245 disaster sites, including shootings, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes.

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Give a WWME Longest Married Couple Project Nomination to Your Grandparents, Parents or Friends as a Christmas Present Contact: Dick & Diane Baumbach, Worldwide Marriage Encounter, 321-544-3440, dickanddiane66@bellsouth.net



SAN BERNARDINO, Calif., Dec. 21, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- As we get closer to Christmas why not give the gift of a nomination for your grandparents, parents or friends who have long lasting marriages? The Longest Married Couple Project, sponsored by Worldwide Marriage Encounter (WWME), is in its seventh year of celebrating long marriages and as in previous years nominations continue to come in from all over the country.



The project honors one national winner and winners from each of the 50 states and U.S. territories during Valentine's Week.



"We continue to receive nominations on a daily basis and it is wonderful that so many people want to honor relatives and friends for their long marriages," said Dick & Diane Baumbach and Fr. Dick Morse, who serve as the coordinators for the project. "We still need nominations from a few states to make sure all 50 states are covered, but we sure are getting close," they added. Nominations close at midnight on January 10, 2017.



Joe & Sue Talarico and Fr. Tom Ogg, the United States Ecclesial Team for WWME, will personally honor the longest married couple in the United States with special gifts during the February, 2017 Valentine week period. During the same time frame the state winners will receive a special certificate of achievement and recognition from the Worldwide Marriage Encounter representatives in their states.



"This project is held every year to honor the commitment of married couples and to give hope to younger couples- that they can have long and lasting marriages," the Baumbachs and Fr. Morse said adding "Folks can also go to wwmelmc.com or wwme.org to find out more information."



Nominations, which are open to all husband and wife couples regardless of faith expression, may be submitted by email, regular mail or by calling a special phone number.



The information for sending in a nomination requires the name of the couple, their wedding date and what city and state they reside in, while the nominator needs to include their name plus a phone number or email address so they can be contacted if their nominee is a national or state winner. Upon determination of winners initial contact is made by WWME with nominators not directly with the winning couple. The nomination information should be sent by one of the following ways: email wwmelmc2017@gmail.com or dickanddiane66@bellsouth.net; regular mail Dick & Diane Baumbach 188 Pinellas Lane #401 Cocoa Beach, FL 32931 and special phone number 321-804-2310. Nominations must be received by January 10th, 2017.



Worldwide Marriage Encounter has been offering weekend experiences for over 48 years and is considered the original faith-based marriage enrichment program. The programs are continually updated to keep abreast of changes in society, and WWME now offers evening and half-day programs that are presented at parishes and other church facilities. The weekend program, traditionally presented as an overnight experience at a hotel or retreat center, can also be presented at the parish where the couples return to their homes in the evenings. WWME has a presence in just under 100 countries, which makes it the largest pro-marriage movement in the world. In North America, the WWME programs are presented in English, Spanish, French, and Korean languages.



Worldwide Marriage Encounter offers married couples the opportunity to spend time together away from the busyness of the world to focus on each other. It offers tools for building and maintaining a strong, Christian marriage in today's world. To learn more about the Worldwide Marriage Encounter weekends online, go to wwme.org, or contact the WWME Office at (909) 332-7309.



Media Contact: Dick & Diane Baumbach, Worldwide Marriage Encounter, 321-544-3440, dickanddiane66@bellsouth.net

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home World Ashers Bakery Company seek to appeal gay cake case to U.K. Supreme Court

The owners of Ashers Bakery Company are seeking to submit a petition to the Supreme Court in London after they were refused leave to appeal by the Court of Appeal in Belfast.

Ashers owners Daniel and Amy McArthur were found to have violated equality laws last year for refusing to bake a cake that contained a pro-gay marriage slogan for activist Gareth Lee. The Court of Appeal in Belfast upheld the ruling in October this year.

They were refused leave to appeal by senior judges in Belfast, but they can now petition to the Supreme Court in London directly, according to Premier.

"Ashers Baking Company will take the necessary legal steps to instigate a Supreme Court appeal on this crucially important matter as soon as possible," said a spokesman for The Christian Institute, a group which is supporting the McArthurs in their legal battle.

The McArthurs were also ordered to pay limited costs in the legal battle with Lee. The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI), which supported Lee, was hoping to recover 100,000 in legal costs from Ashers. However, the judges in Belfast have ruled that ECNI can only retrieve a limited amount from Ashers.

"On the matter of costs the Court of Appeal judges have seen fit to limit the ECNI's recovery of their costs from Ashers to the same scale as the County Court, a sliding scale which keeps costs proportionate to the value of the 36.50 cake and the 500 damages," said Simon Calvert, deputy director for Public Affairs at The Christian Institute.

"This will have the effect of dramatically limiting the amount of legal costs which the ECNI can recover. The ECNI will be responsible for paying the vast majority of their expensive legal bills." he continued.

Meanwhile, a survey conducted by ComRes has shown that nearly 70 percent of people support the decision of the McArthurs to decline an order that conflicts with their religious beliefs.

The survey of 2,000 British adults revealed that 65 percent do not agree that Christian bakers should be taken to court for refusing to bake a cake with the words "support gay marriage."
home US Baptist pastors consider defunding ERLC over Russell Moore's anti-Trump stance

Russell Moore, president of Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), has come under fire from other Southern Baptist pastors due to his opposition to President-elect Donald Trump.

Moore has criticized Trump over his policy proposals on immigration as well as his moral character. He also castigated conservatives for their support of the Republican Party regardless of the candidate.

The ERLC president asserted that the religious right "normalized an awful candidate" and added that religious conservatives were one of the only groups "willing to defend serious moral problems."

Pastors from multiple states felt that Moore's rhetoric was an insult to many of the people he was supposed to represent as the chief advocate of Baptists in Washington D.C.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, some baptist pastors are considering cutting funds to the ERLC, the policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The pastors argue that Moore has burned bridges to have access to the incoming president.

Jack Graham, Prestonwood Baptist Church in Texas, said that his 40,000-member church is "considering making major changes in our support of the Southern Baptist Convention" due to Moore's denunciations of Trump and some of his supporters.

Robert Jeffress, the senior pastor at First Baptist Dallas, said that the deacons of his church are worried about the direction of the ERLC.

"They do not believe it represents our church's beliefs," he said. "I've got other things to be concerned with but our church, like many churches, is always looking at the wisest expenditure of its dollars," he went on to say.

Younger Southern Baptists came out in support of Moore. Some expressed their appreciation for the ERLC president's leadership on Twitter using the hashtag #IStandWIthMoore.

James Forbis, a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, believes that Graham, Jeffress, and the other pastors have other motivations.

"Donald Trump will surround himself with whomever he wishes and already Dr. [Robert] Jeffress is there as is former Governor Mike Huckabee, whom are both influential Southern Baptists, so the question is why does this even matter?" he said in an email to The Christian Post.

Forbis asserted that Jeffress and the other pastors are worried about losing control of the SBC and Southern Baptist becoming culturally irrelevant.

In response to the backlash, Moore issued an apology on a blog post in which he noted that there were pastors and friends who thought that he was criticizing anyone who voted for Trump.

"I told them then, and I would tell anyone now: if that's what you heard me say, that was not at all my intention, and I apologize," he wrote.
home US Charleston pastor delivers sermon on revival after guilty verdict on church shooter

Rev. Eric Manning, a pastor of Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, delivered a sermon on revival and restoration last Sunday following the guilty verdict on church shooter Dylann Roof.

Roof was found guilty last week on all 33 federal charges of hate crimes for shooting nine black parishioners during a Bible study at the church on June 17, 2015.

Manning delivered a sermon on Sunday to encourage his congregation to look forward to better times.

"Weeping has endured for a night, but now joy is coming," Manning told Live5News. "My prayer is that we will be in a place where we have allowed God to pour more of himself back into us and we are then to continue to draw on that strength and to persevere and move forward," he added.

The pastor said that he has been to the courtroom every day of the trial, and he had a deeper sense of appreciation for what the survivors went through.

"When you begin to look at his taped confession then of course that was one of those days when you just kinda said, 'I can't believe it,'" he said.

Manning is still relying on God's word, and he is not giving up hope on Roof.

"[Roof] still has the opportunity for repentance, everyone has the opportunity to repent, everyone has the opportunity to ask God to forgive them," said the pastor. "They have to make that call themselves."

Roof, an avowed white supremacist, was warmly welcomed by the people at the church when he arrived at the Bible study. Witnesses testified that he waited until the parishioners closed their eyes in prayer before he opened fire.

Polly Sheppard, a 72-year-old retired nurse, said that Roof told her that she was being spared so that she could tell others about the tragedy.

The 12 jurors deliberated for under two hours after spending six days listening to testimonies about the massacre.

Roof had previously offered to plead guilty if prosecutors would refrain from seeking the death penalty. He is due to be tried next year on state murder charges.
home US Liberty University unveils plan to open first on-campus shooting range

Liberty University has announced its plan to open the nation's first on-campus firing range as part of its effort to promote gun ownership and firearm sports.

Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of the evangelical university, told The Washington Post that the new complex at the 7,000-acre campus near Lynchburg, Virginia, will include pistol, rifle, and shotgun facilities, as well as an archery range.

"This is one of the examples of how Liberty is unique and different. We really had the perfect setting for our own competitive shooting range," Falwell remarked.

Falwell said that the project will cost at least $1 million in construction and landscape improvements.

The university already allows its students, faculty, and staff to carry concealed handguns on campus. Last year, it offered a free course for students who were interested in acquiring a concealed carry permit in Virginia. Falwell said that over 1,600 people have taken the course, but only 20 students were issued proper documentation to carry a concealed weapon.

Falwell said that the concept came from student interest in firearms, and he noted that one of its student groups is dedicated to safeguarding the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

According to The Christian Post, the plans for the shooting range was first announced at a public hearing of Campbell County's Planning Commission on Dec. 5.

Brad Butler, Liberty's planning coordinator, said that the National Rifle Association (NRA) has advised the school on best practices for safety.

Falwell said that one of the objectives of setting up a firing range is to prepare the campus for an "active shooter" scenario. He noted that the 2007 Virgina Tech mass shooting happened just 85 miles west of his campus. He also pointed out that "gun-free zones" make the other Virginia universities vulnerable to a similar attack.

He said that the Liberty students and families are supportive of the university's stance on firearms.

"They don't want to see anything happen here like at Virginia Tech, where nobody was able to fire back," said Falwell.

Butler agreed that the gun range will be instrumental in preparing the students for disaster.

"With president Falwell's bold leadership, we're going to avert something of that magnitude should evil like that ever come to this campus," he said.
home US Oklahoma lawmaker amends bill on pro-life signs amid outcry from business owners

Oklahoma Senator A.J. Griffin is reconsidering a legislation that would have required businesses in the state to post pro-life signs in public restrooms after business owners complained about the costs.

The regulation that was passed last week would have required all businesses regulated by the state health department to put a pro-life sign that will direct pregnant women to services that would help them with their pregnancy, according to World Magazine.

The sign, which is aimed at creating an "abortion-free society," would have read: "There are many public and private agencies willing and able to help you carry your child to term and assist you and your child after your child is born, whether you choose to keep your child or to place him or her for adoption. The State of Oklahoma strongly urges you to contact them if you are pregnant."

A number of businesses have expressed their concern about the cost of putting up the sign because no government money was approved for the proposal. It was estimated that the project would cost about $2.3 million.

"We don't have any concern about the information they're trying to get out to women about their babies and their pregnancy. This is just the wrong way to do it," said Jim Hooper, president of the Oklahoma Restaurant Association, according to Live Action News.

"It's just another mandate on small businesses. It's not just restaurants. It includes hospitals, nursing homes. It just doesn't make sense," he added.

Griffin stated in a press release that the amended proposal would remove the requirement for businesses to put up the signs with the exception of abortion facilities. She said that the new language on the bill would call on the Health Department to publicize the information through social media.

The senator told World Magazine that the cost estimates have been greatly exaggerated, and she added that the social media campaign would significantly lower the amount needed for the project.

The regulation is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2018 as part of the requirements in Oklahoma's Humanity of the Unborn Child Act. It was signed into law by Gov. Mary Fallin on June 6.

Griffin's new proposal will be considered by the legislature when it convenes on Feb. 6, 2017. Health Department officials have been asked to pause any work related to the program while the proposal is awaiting consideration.
home US The Christian faith of leaders who will serve in the Trump administration

President-elect Donald Trump has spent much of his time forming his new administration before his inauguration on Jan. 20. Many have noticed that some of his appointments are devout Christians from different denominations.

Leading the Trump's transition team is Mike Pence, who has been vocal about his Christian faith. He has repeatedly described himself as "a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order," according to The Christian Post. While he was raised as a Roman Catholic, he became a born-again Christian when he encountered a group of students at Hanover College. He and his wife Karen regularly attend The College Park Church in North Indianapolis.

Betsy DeVos is slated to be the next head of the Department of Education. She had previously served as an elder for Rob Bell's former church, Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, and she has close ties to the Christian Reformed community in western Michigan. According to The New Yorker, she is a vocal proponent of charter schools, voucher programs, home schooling, and virtual education.

The president-elect's pick for the next attorney general is Jeff Sessions, who is the first senator to endorse Trump. He was a lay leader and Sunday school teacher at Ashland Place United Methodist Church in Mobile, Alabama. He has opposed overhauling immigration laws, and he is strongly in favor of erecting a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Ben Carson, the famous neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins, will be the next secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. While he attended a Seventh-Day Adventist church, he said that he also spent time in other churches because he believes that a relationship with God is more important than the denomination. His faith grew stronger when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

"And I just said, 'Lord, if it's time for me to go, You know what is best.' I don't want to go, but if it's time, that's fine, I trust You,'" he said in a 2008 interview with PBS.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has been selected to lead the Department of Energy. He is a staunch advocate of religious freedom, and he helped to organize a day-long fasting and prayer rally in Houston, Texas in 2011. He and his wife used to attend the Tarrytown United Methodist Church, but they moved to the nondenominational Lake Hills Church in Austin, Texas when he was governor.
Appeal to Christians to Help Sudanese Pastors on Trial for Their Faith: 'Our Silence Could Be Their Death'

The lives of these two pastors could be in your hands, and time is running out.

This was the message conveyed to Christians worldwide who are being asked to speak up for two imprisoned Sudanese pastors who face the death penalty for practicing their faith.

Rev. Hassan Abduraheem and Rev. Kuwa Shamal are facing charges brought against them by the Islamic security forces in Sudan, according to the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a not-for-profit group advocating for evangelism across the world. The group has launched a global petition on its website asking the world to help save the two men. The petition has been signed by more than 91,000 people as of Wednesday, Dec. 21.

"The lives of Rev. Shamal and Abduraheem hang in the balance," reads the petition. "Both men are facing the death penalty if they are convicted. They have been charged as co-offenders under Sudan's Penal Code of 1991, with charges ranging from waging war against the state and espionage to agitating hatred between classes."

ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow warned that if believers don't speak up the two Sudanese pastors could be hanged, pointing out that the charges slapped on them are directly linked to their Christian faith.

"Christian Pastors Hassan and Kuwa need your voice now. Time is of the essence, as the trial continues. Our silence could be their death," he said.

"Other Christians facing death in Sudan are now free because you spoke out. Be heard now for these persecuted Christians," he added.

The Rev. Abduraheem and Rev. Shamal have been arrested, transferred, and re-arrested on multiple occasions this past year in the Islamic-majority country of Sudan, with government officials accusing them of national security crimes, The Christian Post reported.

Sudanese authorities had arrested other pastors in recent years. South Sudanese Presbyterian Pastors Yat Michael and Peter Yein Reith were among them. They were facing a possible death penalty until they were freed from prison in August 2015, according to The Christian Post.

The ACLJ petition warns that there is a "deadly crackdown" on Christians in Sudan.

It notes that Abduraheem and Shamal have already spent at least 12 months in very poor conditions, with their situation unlikely to improve unless others speak out.

Other persecution watchdog groups, such as Christian Solidarity Worldwide, have also been reporting on the case against the two pastors. In May, lawyers for the two men noted that the clergymen are being held in small rooms "with intermittent electricity supply and limited ventilation."

Shamal and Abduraheem are reportedly from the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, a region in the country where the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement is reportedly based. Sudanese warplanes have been bombing the area since 2011, inflicting an untold number of civilian deaths.
Archbishops George Carey And Desmond Tutu Removed From King's College London Display In 'Gaystapo' Row

Former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey was "fully supportive" of the decision to remove his portrait from the front of King's College, London.

The college, one of the top academic institutions in the world and part of the University of London, was accused of giving in to a "gay-stapo" because Lord Carey is known to take a conservative Christian line on the subject of gay marriage.

The portrait of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who supports gay marriage and whose own daughter relinquished her job as a vicar to marry her female partner, has also been removed, as has that of Sir Michael Howard, former leader of the Conservatives, who led the party's decision to support civil partnerships.

The picture of Lord Carey of Clifton was removed after a five-year campaign by students who opposed his views on gay marriage led by Ben Hunt, student union president who took part in the review of the static portraits last year.

In an article on Conservative Woman website, King's College lecturer Niall McCrea and Rev Jules Gomes, pastor of St Augustine's Church, Douglas, on the Isle of Man, say: "For a prestigious institution of Christian heritage to allow this campaign to claim victory is worrying.

"To label Carey a homophobe is to enter the theatre of the absurd. The Established Church does not restrict membership or ministration of sacraments to a holy huddle of Hallelujah criers who sign a confessional statement. By law, an Anglican cleric is required to minister to every soul within the parish. He or she does not choose who enters the sanctuary, but must hatch, match and dispatch all and sundry - extending to an avowed atheist (or a gay Christianity-basher). Indeed, it is commendable that clergy do this with great compassion  albeit sometimes torn between their own convictions and the imposed whims of modernisers."

They say that no cleric in his diocese, or later when Carey became Archbishop of Canterbury, felt marginalised because they were gay and in 2003 Carey admitted to ordaining two bishops who he suspected were gay, despite adhering to orthodox Christian belief that "sex should be restricted to monogamous heterosexual marriages".

They also note that Carey successfully pushed for ordination of women in the Church of England and, to the disillusionment of Christian and secular conservatives, is a recent convert to the cause of assisted suicide.

"Carey is not homophobic, but his name has been tarnished by a 'Gaystapo' that refuses to acknowledge that a clergyman cares for all, while maintaining a traditional view of marriage," state McCrea and Gomes in the article, was reproduced in full by Times Higher Education.

A King's spokesperson told Christian Today: "In 2015 a review of our window display policy across all our campuses was undertaken by representatives from External Relations, the Students' Union and Alumni Relations. It was agreed that the current static displays, which are costly to maintain, or change, did not capture the diversity of our university community and that this should change. The decision was taken that we should expand the breadth of content to include the achievements of our students and staff.

"The first digital screens, launched in July 2016, now bring to life examples of research breakthroughs and student and staff successes, as well as the contribution of our renowned alumni. In order to make space for the screens next to the prominent Strand campus entrance, a number of static portraits, including those of Lord Carey, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Michael Howard, were removed. The individuals were notified in advance and expressed themselves fully supportive. Further digital screens will be rolled out when we move into Bush House in September 2017."

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who supported the campaign to remove Dy Carey's image, told Christian Today: "Somewhat reluctantly I have concluded that removing Dr Carey's image is the right thing to do. No university should celebrate a public figure who fought so hard against gay equality. Dr Carey endorsed legal discrimination against our community.

"He opposed an equal age of consent, same-sex civil marriage in register offices and the right of gay couples to foster and adopt children. I would equally oppose the display of an image of alumni who advocated discrimination against Christians. Discrimination is anti-human rights and is not a Christian value."

Lord Carey, an alumnus of King's, declined to comment.

The campaign to get him removed became public last year. At that time, Carey said he was "entirely relaxed" about the idea of the college changing the portraits on its building, but did warn of an implied threat to free speech.
Berlin Massacre: Asylum-Seeker Released After Police Say They Had The Wrong Man

German authorities on Tuesday released a Pakistani asylum-seeker suspected of driving a truck into a Berlin Christmas market and killing 12 people due to a lack of evidence and the interior minister said the real perpetrator may still be on the run.

The truck smashed into wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages on Monday evening at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, one of west Berlin's most famous landmarks. Forty-five people were injured, 30 severely.

Islamic State claimed responsibility the attack, saying the perpetrator was a "soldier" of the militant group.

"He executed the operation in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition countries," its AMAQ news agency said.

But Germany's interior minister said that despite the claim, investigators were following various leads.

"We just heard about the supposed claim of responsibility by this so-called Islamic State that is in fact a gang of terrorists," Minister Thomas de Maiziere told ARD broadcaster. "There are several leads that investigators are following now."

The Chief Federal Prosecutor's Office said in a statement it had been unable to prove that the suspect had been in the cabin of the truck at the time of the attack and said he had denied any involvement.

Earlier, Die Welt newspaper quoted an unnamed police chief as saying: "We have the wrong man. And therefore a new situation. The true perpetrator is still armed, at large and can cause fresh damage."

Commenting on the suspect's release, de Maiziere told ZDF television: "That's why it is true that one cannot rule out that the perpetrator is still at large."

He said there was no doubt the Berlin incident had been an attack but the motive remained unclear. He also said it was not yet known how many foreigners were among the victims of the attack but no children had been among the dead.

News of the arrest of the 23-year-old Pakistani had led politicians in Germany and beyond to demand a crackdown on immigration, but Chancellor Angela Merkel urged caution.

"There is much we still do not know with sufficient certainty but we must, as things stand now, assume it was a terrorist attack," she told reporters earlier on Tuesday.

"I know it would be especially hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that the person who committed this act was someone who sought protection and asylum," she said.

The truck belonged to a Polish freight company and its rightful driver was found shot dead in the vehicle. The Polish truck driver had arrived hours earlier in the German capital and spoken to his wife about 3 pm, according to his cousin.

When she called again an hour later, there was no answer.

"At 3.45 pm you can see the movement on the GPS (Global Positioning System). The car moved forward and back. As if someone was learning to drive it," said the cousin, Ariel Zurawski, who was also the boss of the trucking company.

"I knew something was wrong."

Merkel joined hundreds of mourners on Tuesday evening at a memorial service at the church near the attack site. Her spokesman said she had spoken with the leaders of seven European countries and also with US President Barack Obama, who all assured her of their support for Germany.

Security officials in Germany and Europe have warned for years that Christmas markets could present an easy target for militant attacks. In 2000, an al-Qaeda plan to bomb the Strasbourg Christmas market on New Year's Eve was foiled.

There were no concrete barricades at the Berlin Christmas market, as have been installed at a similar venue in Britain.

The attack fueled immediate demands for a change to Merkel's immigration policies, under which more than a million people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere have arrived in Germany this year and last.

"We must say that we are in a state of war, although some people, who always only want to see good, do not want to see this," said Klaus Bouillon, interior minister of the state of Saarland and a member of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).

Horst Seehofer, leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, said: "We owe it to the victims, to those affected and to the whole population to rethink our immigration and security policy and to change it."

The record influx has hit Merkel's ratings as she prepares to run for a fourth term next year and has boosted support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD).

AfD leader Frauke Petry said Germany was no longer safe and "radical Islamic terrorism has struck in the heart of Germany".

The incident evoked memories of an attack in Nice, France in July when a Tunisian-born man drove a 19-tonne truck along the beach front, mowing down people who had gathered to watch the fireworks on Bastille Day, killing 86 people. That was claimed by Islamic State.

The influx of migrants to the European Union has deeply divided its 28 members and fueled the rise of populist anti-immigration movements that hope to capitalise on public concerns next year in elections in France, Germany and the Netherlands.

On Tuesday morning, investigators removed the black truck from the site for forensic examination. People left flowers at the scene and notes, one of which read: "Keep on living, Berliners!" One woman was crying as she stopped by the flowers.

Merkel said Germans must not be cowed by the attack: "We do not want to live paralyzed by the fear of evil."

"Even if it is difficult in these hours, we will find the strength for the life we want to live in Germany  free, together and open."

Other European countries said they were reviewing security.

Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka called for biometric and fingerprint checks to be introduced along the Balkan route used by many migrants arriving in Europe in order to better control foreign jihadist fighters' movements.

London police said they were reviewing their plans for protecting public events over the festive period.
Christian Lawyer In China May Have Been Tortured In Prison

Fears that a missing Christian human rights lawyer in China may have been tortured into making a confession to trumped-up crimes have been raised by campaigners calling for his release.

Jiang Tianyong, 45, went missing on November 21 after visiting the wife of an imprisoned lawyer, persecution charity Release International reports.

He was first held in so-called 'black jail'; an unregistered detention centre with no legal status. Watchdog China Aid has noted that torture is common in these centres, and inmates are refused physical, written or verbal communication with family members or legal representatives.

Chinese authorities claim to have released Jiang, but his family have not been told where he is. According to state media, he is accused of being "in possession of documents containing state secrets" and "illegally handed over state secrets abroad".

China's Legal Daily said Jiang had "confessed to the crimes". But the UN said his disappearance could be linked to a meeting he had with UN officials in August and warned that he may be at risk of torture. Jiang's wife and Releases' partners on the ground believe he may have already been tortured into making a false confession.

Release is therefore calling on China to declare where Jiang is being held, and to give reassurance that he is not being tortured.

Jiang is the latest in a line of human rights lawyers to have 'disappeared' in China, which has been clamping down on attorneys for the past five years.

Since July 2015, more than 230 human rights lawyers and activists have been detained, and state-controlled media has branded them corrupt and criminal.

"Forced confessions are common, and in the case of Christian lawyers, often extracted under extreme intimidation and torture," said Paul Robinson, chief executive of Release International.

"Jiang has courageously stood up in the courts to call for justice. He has worked lawfully within the Chinese legal system at great risk to himself. What does this say about a nation when it kidnaps, intimidates and even tortures its human rights lawyers?

"Release calls on China to disclose where Jiang is being held, to allow him legal representation and to assure the international community that he is not being tortured into making a false confession."

It is not the first time Jiang has been detained by Chinese authorities. He was first 'disappeared' in 2011, and had previously predicted that he would be arrested for his work.

"It's deeply worrying to see a nation such as China rounding up its lawyers, and claiming it is doing so to uphold the rule of law," Robinson said.

"As a growing world power, China should embrace, rather than oppose, those who stand up for justice and righteousness under the law."

Many of the Christian lawyers who have been detained have worked on behalf of churches demolished under the Chinese government's three-year 'Three Rectifications and One Demolition' campaign, which has seen up to 1,700 churches bulldozed or had their crosses removed.

The campaign supposedly has the aim of exposing and removing "illegal structures", but is widely seen as a move to combat the increasing influence of Christianity in the country.
Church Expands Influence in Russia to Putin's Delight as He Uses Faith to Boost His Power

Once an officially godless state, Russia is now seeing the Orthodox Churchone of three main branches of Christianity, the other two being the Catholic and Protestant churchesexpanding its influence, with the blessing of no less than President Vladimir Putin.

The moral authority of the Orthodox Church has grown steadily under Putin, who supports the church in promoting traditional family values and opposing homosexual rights, the Associated Press reported.

According to analysts, Putin seeks the Church as an ally to bolster nationalism with faith. They say the strategy has two main objectivesto fill the ideological void left by the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and to block the influence of Western liberalism.

"Since people who are now in power take their roots in the Soviet past, they're trying to find an equivalent of that ideology so that they can use it to manipulate the public, explain their policies by this ideology," said Boris Falikov, professor of religious studies at the Russian State University for the Humanities.

Christianity is seeing remarkable growth in Russia. A 2013 poll found that nearly 70 percent of Russians identify themselves as members of the church, a 14-point rise from the early days of Putin's rise to power.

The Russian government has acted on many occasions to defend Church's interest. In 2012, three members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after they staged a protest concert inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

The following year, Putin signed two bills making so-called "gay propaganda" and actions that "insult religious feelings" both crimes. A crackdown on gay rights protests followed.

Last October, authorities in the Siberian city of Omsk prevented the staging of the 1970 rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" after Christian protesters contended that the musical represented "an endless blasphemy and mockery of sacred notions."

Just last month, Orthodox activists launched a campaign to ban "Matilda," a Russian-produced movie scheduled for release in 2017 that is critical of Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II, who was canonised as an Orthodox saint in 2000. A Russian lawmaker promptly labelled the movie "a threat to national security."

When Putin hosted celebrities in St. Petersburg on Dec. 2, one of the film's stars challenged him to defend creative freedom.

Putin replied that organisers of public events must bear a share of blame if their work provokes violence.
Egyptian Christians Forgive Attacker Who Killed 25 In Cairo Bombing

Coptic Christians who survived the deadly church bombing in Cairo on December 11 have said they forgive their attacker, and are ready to die themselves for their faith.

Speaking to International Christian Concern (ICC), the relatives of some of the 25 people who were killed at the church of St Peter and St Paul spoke openly of the attack.

Wagdy Anis lost his wife in the bombing. "I want to send a message to those that killed my wife," he said. "I forgive him, and I pray for him and the people who are like him. That God may lighten their minds and open their vision."

Amad Saad Aziz's sister was also killed. He said: "To my martyred sister I say, 'I love you so much and I want to be like you.' To you who killed my sister I say, 'we are ready for martyrdom.'"

Egypt has an estimated population of nine million Christians. Mostly Orthodox Copts, they account for about 10 per cent of Egypt's population, which is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.

Tensions between Christians and Muslims have intensified in the country since the 2011 Arab Spring, and recent months have also seen the assault on homes of Christian families in the village of Karm el Loofy, the burning of a kindergarten run by Christians in Minya, and the murder on June 30 of Rafael Moussa, a Coptic Orthodox priest of the church of St. George.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the December 11 attack via its news agency. It identified the bomber as Abu Abdallah al-Masri, who it said had detonated an explosive belt inside the church.

"Every infidel and apostate in Egypt and everywhere should know that our war... continues," the statement from the militant group said.

Egyptian authorities identified the bomber as 22-year-old Mahmoud Shafiq Mohammed Mustafa, who had a history of affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Another member of the church who survived the attack, Raymond Wadih, told ICC that Egypt's Christian community remained strong, despite persecution.

"This has not weakened us," he said. "On the contrary, this gives us more love for our country than before and we will not leave Egypt. We were born here, we grew up here and we will die here."

Wadih, who lost his mother in the attack, said he and his wife, their three children and his parents were all inside the church attending mass at the time of the incident.

A deacon at the church, Tony Takla, claimed the bomber had visited the previous evening and asked to meet the priests.

"We had just finished with a prayer meeting and were standing by the front door when a man carrying a black case came towards us. He said he was [a] Muslim hoping to learn about Christianity... he asked us to allow him to enter the church to see the church form the inside and to meet any one of the church's priests."

Takla said the man was turned away because the church was closed, but they invited him to return for mass the following day.

They recognised his image when the man was announced as the suicide bomber on the news.

Father Michael Fahmy of St Mark's Cathedral, which is attached to the church of St Peter and St Paul, told ICC that the "Coptic Church... is a church of martyrs".

"We still present martyrs everyday," he said. "Victims who are killed only because they are Christians."
Evangelist Morris Cerullo, 85, Says God Miraculously Healed Him From Ailment That Made Him Wheelchair-Bound

At 85 years old, international Pentecostal evangelist Morris Cerullo is a sight to behold. For about eight months in 2016, he was bedridden and needed a wheelchair just to move around.

Nobody thought he would be able to walk again, but God had a different plan for His soldier. After praying to God to restore his health, Cerullo is now enjoying improved health as he is happily walking around again.

Cerullo said that vasculitis  a family of uncommon diseases that involve the inflammation of blood vessels  rendered him incapable of moving. But this October, God decided to help him.

"This is probably the greatest miracle I've ever seen in my life. You know I've seen thousands and thousands of people miraculously cured but nothing like this. I was given up by the doctors. I was paralyzed, they had me in a wheelchair for maybe seven, eight months this year," Cerullo told The Christian Post.

"I had my whole leg here eaten away," he continued as he rolled up his pants to expose his right leg. "I have pictures. I showed them on TV of the whole of my leg in the red. Raw. Way down. Deep inside. I was bedfast. No doctor could help me. So, what I did? God gave me an incredible miracle, and so you can see brand new flesh."

After getting healed, Cerullo wasted no time in spreading God's Word. He travelled to Africa, Brazil, Peru, Panama, Israel, India, and Sri Lanka within a span of a month just to share God's power and kindness.

Cerullo said his healing is only proof of God's presence in today's war-torn world. He even released an autobiography called "The Legend of Morris Cerullo: How God Used an Orphan to Change the World." The evangelist said the book digs deep into his roots and shows how God pulled him into a life of ministry.

"How God took a little orphan boy who lost his mother when I was 2 years of age and had a drunken father who deserted five children, and how the hand of God, so mysteriously from the time he was a little boy, was on his life and how God led him through the Jewish Orthodox orphanages that I was placed," he said.
From Ancient To Modern - New Cash Grants Help Save Some Of Britain's Loveliest Churches

This dramatic picture shows the ancient 14th century church of St Cubert, or Egloskubert in Cornish.

In the Truro diocese, and Grade I listed, it is among the many churches considered by Historic England to be "at risk".

Now it has been awarded a 40,000 Cornerstone Grant from the National Churches Trust for urgent roof, tower and other structural repairs.

The church is named after the little-known eighth century Welsh missionary, Cubert who was a companion of the better-known St Carantoc.

He played a significant role in the conversion of the Cornish to Christianity and returned to Wales, becoming an Abbot, after his work in Cornwall was done.

The church and the village which bear his name have seen regular worship since the eighth century and the present structure was built in the 14th century. Unusually, it was not modernised by the Victorians even in spite of structural damage from a lightning strike in the middle of the 19th century.

St Cubert's is one of three dozen churches helped this month by the trust.

At the other end of the architectural spectrum is St Laurence, an octagonal church with a pengagonal Lady Chapel in Catford in the Southwark diocese, built only in 1968.

The trust's description of why it needs the repairs give some indication of what recent life has been like for Anglicans in Catford.

"The repairs will mean an end to the church having to get out buckets when it rains," says the trust.

"The pews beneath the leaking windows will no longer need protecting, and the floor will no longer suffer from flooding.

"There will also no longer be the worry that lumps of glass could fall onto the heads of members of the congregation."

However there is more to this church than floods and falling glass.

Concrete frames bright coloured glazing which creates "a glorious sense of light-filled space, reverent and yet intimate, that even on dull days lifts the spirits of congregation and visitors," reports the trust. "Representative of the best of 1960s religious architecture, it is a combination of immanent and transcendent, individual and collective."

In all, 36 churches have received grants from the National Churches Trust.
Hope Is Too Painful: The Untold Story Of Thousands Of Refugees Trapped In Thailand

"I am not giving up hope."

Trapped in Mae La refugee camp, eight miles from the Myanmar border in northern Thailand, nearly 40,000 people have fled the world's longest running civil war. Behind them a toxic mix of religious and ethnic difference has fuelled a conflict with such horrors that experts have repeatedly said it is genocide.

Dudu Pho peered across the dark room in his well-built bamboo hut as he continued: "We always hope. But what we hoped for this year still hasn't happened."

There is little prospect those aspirations will be realised this year. Or next year. And that has been the case for the 30 years he has been here.

In total more than 100,000 refugees have fled Myanmar to find themselves stuck in camps on either side of the border.

Since the British gave Myanmar its independence in 1947 the country has been at war. State-sponsored gang rape was used by the army, which is Burmese in ethnicity, against minority groups like the Karen and many others. "Systematic torture" was another regular tactic to suppress the hill tribes who fight for federal autonomy from the central government. Whole villages have been lined up and shot in what one refugee described as the "ethnic cleansing" of minorities.

More recently the army have been accused of "crimes against humanity" in its treatment of minority Muslim ethnicities in particular.

"The past is always in my mind," said Tha Taw, one refugee in her 40s. "When I think about the past I feel afraid." Deeply traumatised she still shook with fear when approached by strangers. "When I see big people I remember the soldiers coming to my village and shooting people."

Most of the 100,000 refugees spread across nine camps and 24 townships either side of the Thai-Myanmar border are Karen in ethnicity. Around half are Christian, 35 per cent are Buddhist and 8 per cent are Muslim.

Although primarily an ethnic war, Muslims across Myanmar were especially targeted by the military who want to create a Buddhist national state.

"Muslims were chased out because they were Muslim," said Tha Win, leader of the Muslim Women's Organisation.

"The government don't consider us Burmese, they just think we are terrorists," said Thaw Kersein, a community leader in a Muslim section of the camp. "They don't want us there. The army have said Karen people could return unless you are Muslim. If you are Muslim you have to convert to Buddhism if you want to return."

The war is now officially over with ceasefires signed between most warring ethnicities. But sporadic fighting continues.

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy swept to power in November 2015 in the country's first credible elections for decades. But before her landslide victory the army ensured the constitution reserved 25 per cent of seats in Parliament for the military as well as the three key ministries of defence, home affairs and border affairs. Barred from the presidency because she married a foreigner, Suu Kyi's hands are tied.

An ambivalent attitude towards the new leadership resonates among most refugees in the camps.

"I don't hope yet but I may do in the future." Shew Laing, 55. "I don't know how she will solve the problem," said one. "She does not have much power," said another.

Hope is painful when it is shown to be false. And the Karen refugees have learnt not to fall for that trick again.

And so they are stuck. Despite the push from the United Nations towards "voluntary repatriation", most know it is not safe to return.

Oomaung Hai, 63, tried to go back to his village having being told it was safe. But he found it overrun with four separate warring factions.

"I am so scared," he said. "I don't want to go back. I will stay here forever.

"There is no hope for me. I have lost hope."

Hai is typical of most of Myanmar's refugees. Some of those born in the camps hope for resettlement to the US, Australia or Canada. "It is not good to go back to Burma now. There is no freedom," said one 22-year-old Mee Mar. "But even if it got better I would not like to go back. I am not sure how I would use my life there."

Even the older refugees who remember life in Myanmar do not generally want to return. "I don't want to go back," said Tha Thaw. "I want to have my family safe and to stay in a safe place."

She, along with thousands others, have sacrificed their freedom for their safety.

Food, quality education and good healthcare are funded by donor governments and organisations like The Border Consortium (TBC), supported by Christian Aid. Thanks to them and several other NGOs, monthly rations are provided in the camps.

But refugees are not allowed to leave. The Thai authorities have made it illegal for them to work and if they are caught outside the camp without permission they will be arrested.

Many large families struggle to eat with the limited food provided so sneak out to work in the surrounding farms where they can earn around 3.50 a day. "It is only human to wish to go outside," said one 20-year-old.

One elderly woman had not seen her husband for three days since he left to work on nearby farms. She had no way of knowing whether he is safe or has been arrested. "I feel scared," she said. "I worry whether he will be safe."

The Thai authorities are notoriously hostile towards any press attention on the camps. But at the end of a week in and out the camps the assistant to one camp commander agreed to speak anonymously.

He admitted there was "an issue" of refugees leaving the camp without permission but refused to answer why the refugees could not be given work permits.

He also acknowledged there was "a dilemma" for Muslim refugees who will not be accepted by either the Burmese or Thai authorities. "A group of people like Muslims cannot return so there is a problem for them," he said. But when asked why Thai visas were not given as an option he simply said that was "the regulation" of the authorities.

Without an immediate option of return and no prospect of being accepted as asylum seekers in Thailand, the refugees have little to live for. Half of the camp have never left because they were born there. The others have not been out for more than 30 years in some cases.

Inevitably suicide and drug abuse has spiralled.

Kathai Mae, 23, is the oldest of eight siblings. Her father killed her mother and then killed himself as a result of alcohol addiction. "My father didn't work. He just got drunk," she said.

It is a bleak reality. On the surface the camps are well provided for. They have monthly food provided, several schools, a college and a hospital. The leadership is well organised and, largely, well respected. Indeed the quality of education and healthcare provided in the camps is generally better than in the surrounding rural Thailand. Some refugees admitted the facilities were an initial draw when faced with the prospect of increased violence, possible rape and no education in Myanmar.

"It's better here because we can go to school," said one 20-year-old boy, Loyal Moo, at the camp's college.

For others it is the simple provision of food they most appreciate. "Life is better here because we get a food ration every month," said Yin Aye, a grandmother who fled Myanmar as one of the earliest refugees.

For others it is the free healthcare. "Here I don't need to pay for treatment but if I go elsewhere I wouldn't know how to pay for treatment," said Tha Taw.

Some donors, seeing this comparative luxury, have cut funding.

But beneath the surface they are oppressive places.

Mae La camp alone has thirteen churches. Outside one a tall pillar bore the words "faith, hope, love". The full phrase found in 1 Corinthians 13 begins: "and now these three remain".

For the 38,146 refugees in Mae La and more than 100,000 others dotted in different camps, this is truer than ever.

One Christian refugee, Tin Aye, 64, had spent her whole life fleeing the Burmese army. She left her town in 1977 and fled to a border village. The military then took over that village so she fled again and became a refugee in Thailand. But even then the army would cross the border into Thailand and attack the camps in an effort to eradicate the Karen. Twice her tiny wooden house in the camp was burnt down as soldiers repeatedly attacked.

She wept as she told her story. "But I am not angry at God," she said. "When I pray I find my problems are smaller. I get energy and strength from God. I really trust God. As I pray to God I really receive from him. During the battle I just prayed because I had nothing but I prayed and he helped."

Christian Aid is urging people to support its Christmas Appeal this festive season, so that it can continue to provide critical support to some of the millions of people worldwide who have been forced to leave their homes through fear and uncertainty in the worst global displacement crisis of our time.

Just 5 could give an essential set of clothes to a person fleeing violence, 11 could supply a week's worth of hygiene essentials to a family of five in Serbia, and 50 could provide seeds and tools to help a family forced out of their home in the DRC to grow food to feed themselves.

For information, or to donate to the Christmas Appeal, visit www.christianaid.org.uk/Christmas
Horrific Persecution Of Christians In Pakistan Highlighted In New Amnesty Report

The plight of Christians in Pakistan has been spotlighted in a new Amnesty International report taking aim at the country's blasphemy laws.

The "As good as dead" report says religious minorities are often the target of false blasphemy accusations and that Pakistan's blasphemy laws are actually "emboldening vigilantes" who are prepared to threaten or even kill those accused.

Once accused, victims face a "gruelling struggle" to prove their innocence as well as continued threats to their life even if the charges against them have been dropped and they have been released from detention.

Amnesty asserts that little effort is made on the part of the authorities to check the evidence of blasphemy allegations as they bow instead to public pressure from "angry crowds". Trials are often "unfair", the human rights group adds.

"There is overwhelming evidence that Pakistan's blasphemy laws violate human rights and encourage people to take the law into their own hands. Once a person is accused, they become ensnared in a system that offers them few protections, presumes them guilty, and fails to safeguard them against people willing to use violence," said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International's Director of Global Issues.

Specifically, the report draws attention to Christian victims of the blasphemy laws, among them Rimsha Masih, a 14-year-old Christian girl with learning disabilities who made international headlines when she was accused by a local cleric of burning pages of the Qur'an.

The charge was eventually overturned by the Islamabad High Court but her family were still forced to flee to Canada, where they were granted asylum because of threats against their lives.

Also included in the report was the horrific murder of Christian couple Shama and Shahzad Masih who were beaten before being burned to death inside a brick kiln after an angry crowd accused them of torching pages of the Qur'an. According to Amnesty, five policemen were present at the time but failed to intervene because they were outnumbered by the crowd.

"The authorities' failure to effectively intervene in this case before the mob turned violent is typical of a pattern across Punjab. The police often know of threats circulating against vulnerable religious minorities, but do not act decisively in the face of a mob roused by angry clerics exhorting murder," Amnesty said.
Leading Evangelicals Plead With Donald Trump To Withdraw Scott Pruitt From Environment Protection Agency

A group of evangelical church and lay leaders in the US has called on Donald Trump to reconsider his choice of climate change sceptic Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Climate change is one of the greatest challenges our nation faces," the evangelicals state. "Pruitt's past actions suggest he would not defend the vulnerable from pollution."

The signatories include Jim Wallis of Sojourners, biology professor Jonathan Twining from Eastern Nazarene college in Quincy, Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action and maths professor John Roe of Penn State university.

Until now, evangelicals have seemed largely in support of Pruitt for the agency, a body he has spent much of his time as Attorney General for Oklahoma criticising.

Only this week, many conservative evangelical leaders, mainly Southern Baptists, sent a warm letter of support for Pruitt to the President-elect. Signatories included Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Now, more than 70 pro-life Catholic and Evangelical leaders and 450 pro-life Christians from across the country are pleading with Trump for him to "reconsider and withdraw" the nomination of Scott Pruitt.

In the letter, published by Creation Care, they call for someone to head who has "a more even handed record of protecting human life from pollution."

They cite Psalm 72:13, which says a righteous king "will have compassion on the poor and needy, and the lives of the needy he will save."

Jesus also teaches us to care for the vulnerable and when God created humanity, he commanded them to be good stewards of His creation.

More than half of Americans live in areas with unhealthy air, they say.

"Air pollution has been linked to birth defects, low birth weight, premature births, stillbirths, and infant deaths."

In addition, one in three children in the United States suffers from asthma, allergies and autism  all with links to fossil fuels and petrochemicals.

"Methane and other organic compounds leaking from natural gas production have been reported to cause birth defects and early term births, and these pollutants make it next to impossible for states like California, Texas, and Pennsylvania to reduce smog to safe levels."
Prostitutes Are Victims Not Criminals Say Canadian Evangelicals

Evangelicals in Canada have called for prostitutes to have criminal charges related to their work expunged from their records.

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) has urged the government to take the step after of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed earlier this month to tackling violence against women.

The EFC said one of its goals was the elimination of all forms of sexual exploitation, including prostitution, and that the vast majority of prostituted people "enter by force, coercion, or as a result of constrained choice and last resort".

Currently the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act "recognizes that the vast majority of individuals in prostitution are not there by way of free and fully informed choice, and that most of those who are prostituted are vulnerable and have been victimized", the EFC says.

However, the law is not retroactive and the EFC has asked the government to include the removal of criminal convictions for prostitution in its Consultation on the Review of Record Suspensions.

EFC public policy director Julia Beazley said in her letter: "We ask you to consider whether the new start of a clear criminal record for prostituted women is an investment in helping those who have been subject to violence and exploitation."
Santa Is 'Pitiful' And 'Irrelevant' Says Leading Evangelical John Piper

The conservative evangelical author John Piper has dismissed Santa Claus as "pitiful" and "irrelevant" and urged Christian parents not to teach their children that he exists and gives them presents, saying that instead everything at Christmas should "point to Jesus".

Piper, the founder of desiringGod.org and for 33 years pastor of of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was talking in an 'Ask Pastor John' podcast on the Patheos blog.

Answering a question about Santa from a reader, Piper responds: "My question is this: How could we possibly even think of giving our children a bowl of bland, sugarless porridge when they are offered the greatest meal in the world? Why would we give them Santa Claus when they can have the incarnation of the Son of God? It is just mind-boggling to me that any Christian would even contemplate such a trade  that we would divert attention away from the incarnation of the God of the universe into this world to save us and our children. I scarcely have words for it that people would contemplate this. Not only is Santa Claus not true and Jesus is very truth himself, but compared to Jesus, Santa is simply pitiful and our kids should be helped to see this."

Piper, a veteran theologian, adds: "Santa Claus offers only earthly things, nothing lasting, nothing eternal. Jesus offers eternal joy with the world thrown in. Yeah, the fire engine is thrown in. Santa Claus offers his ephemeral goodies only on the condition of good works...And Jesus offers himself all the gifts freely by grace through faith."

He goes on: "Santa Claus is make-believe. Jesus is more real than the roof on your house. Santa Claus only shows up once a year. Jesus promises, "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20). You say to your kid every night: He is standing by your bed. He is with you when you get up in the morning. He is with you when you go to school today. If mommy and daddy die, he will be right there with you. Santa doesn't hold a candle to this flame: Jesus.

"Santa Claus cannot solve our worst problem, and Jesus did solve our worst problem  our sin and our alienation from God. Santa Claus can put some icing on the cake of the good life, but he cannot take a shattered life and rebuild it with hope forever. And our kids need to know that about Christmas.

"Santa Claus is not relevant in many cultures of the world. And Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords and all the peoples of the world.

"Santa Claus will be forgotten some day, and Jesus will be the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

"So...there is no contest here. I cannot see why a parent  if they know and love Jesus, if they have found Jesus to be the greatest treasure in the world  why they would bring Jesus out of the celebration and Santa into the celebration at all. He is just irrelevant. He has nothing to do with it. He is zero.

"My counsel is to give all your efforts to making your children as happy as they can possibly be with every kind of surprise that is rooted in the true meaning of Christmas. Let your decorations point to Jesus. Let your food point to Jesus. Let your games point to Jesus. Let your singing point to Jesus. Out-rejoice the world. Out-give the world. Out-decorate the world, and let it all point to Jesus. And if being Jesus-focused is a killjoy for your Christmas, you don't know him well."
Stop Extremist Preachers From Coming To Britain, Says MP

A prominent Member of Parliament is demanding to know how a Sunni Muslim preacher with a history of inciting religious hatred can be allowed to enter Britain.

Siobhain McDonagh, MP for Mitcham and Morden, spoke out after Syed Muzaffar Shah Qadri, who is so extreme he is banned from preaching in Karachi in Pakistan, was slated for a tour of Britain this month.

Qadri was due to speak at a mosque in Falkirk in Scotland last week but the invitation was withdrawn after protests.

In addition, Bolton News reported that he will not be preaching in Bolton as claimed. His own Facebook page also appears to indicate he is currently still in Pakistan.

McDonagh told Christian Today: "My concern is that people with a history incitement of hatred against others, such as the Ahmadiyya community, are being let into this country.

"I have worked to try and find out how individuals like Qadri have been able to enter this country, apparently without any issue.

"I have written to the Home Office, and hosted a debate on this issue earlier this year  only to be stonewalled by the Home Office, as the answer to my Parliamentary Question demonstrates. The UK's national security should be paramount to the government."

The Observer reported on Sunday that it was feared that Qadri, who has praised the murder of a politician, will be visiting the UK this month where he would incite hatred between Muslims.

The Clarion Project reported that Qadri was due to speak at the Falkirk Central mosque, but after a public outcry and an expose on the imam was published by the Sunday Post, mosque leaders dumped him.

"Whether or not the mosque was aware of the extremism of the Pakistani cleric is certainly a question. At a time when concerns of extremism are foremost in the public discourse, one would hope that speakers at mosques are vetted before invitations are extended. However, the fact remains that because of good journalism and public outcry, the invitation was cancelled," Clarion commented, asking: "The real question is, why was someone like Qadri allowed entrance to the UK in the first place?"

Clarion also notes: "The Home Office recently denied entry to the UK to three prominent archbishops from the Middle East. Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf, and Timothius Mousa Shamani and Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, the Archbishops of Mosul, the Nineveh valley, and Homs and Hama in Syria, respectively, were barred from attending an event inaugurating the first Syriac Orthodox Cathedral in the UK."

In a speech earlier this year, McDonagh said: "With extremism on the rise, and increasing threats to our national security, tightening up UK entry clearance procedures should be top of our priority. But sadly, we have increasingly taken for granted that our borders are policed and secure from non-UK threats."

She added: "I have no reservation in saying that inadequate Home Office entry clearance procedures are allowing entry of individuals who pose a direct threat to our democracy and our social cohesion  and I will be highlighting why it is so urgent that the Home Office tackles this immediate problem now.

"As a side-point, it is extremely ironic that while individuals who spread hate are allowed into the UK, every MP will be aware of large number of completely law-abiding Pakistani citizens refused entry clearance to attend weddings, funerals and other important family events  also as a result of problems around Home Office entry clearance."

She warned: "The UK Ahmadi community, and the very fabric of our democracy, is under threat, now more than ever."

She called for the Home Office to take seriously the "deep flaws" she said are jeopardising national security and social cohesion.

The Home Office told Christian Today: "We do not routinely comment on individual cases."
'We Will Win The Ultimate War': Hundreds Seek Compensation From Catholic Church For Alleged Children's Home Abuse

A lawyer representing 249 men who are seeking compensation for alleged sexual abuse at a Catholic children's home has vowed to continue with a multi-million pound compensation claim despite a judge dismissing three out of the four first test cases.

Judgement in a fifth case will be given next month, after the high court in Leeds awarded one of the claimants 14,000 in compensation and ruled against three other men.

"[I am] disappointed that the judge did not see through all these arguments about minor inconsistencies but this is a skirmish, we will win the ultimate war," said the men's lawyer, David Greenwood of Switalskis outside court. "There are 245 cases still to go, so I'm very confident we will succeed."

The claims were made against the Diocese of Middlesbrough and the De La Salle Institute which ran the St William's children's home in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire.

The civil case followed the imprisonment earlier this year of the home's former principal and chaplain for sexual offences against 11 boys between 1970 and 1991.

In the third time he was imprisoned for sexually abusing boys at the home, the former principal, James Carragher was jailed for 15 years over 21 indecent assaults and three serious sex offences while being cleared of a further 30 charges.

The former chaplain, Anthony MacCallen was convicted of 11 charges, including a serious sexual offence, and acquitted of eight others.

The residential school, which closed in 1992, took boys from troubled backgrounds referred by local authorities.

The civil action was launched in 2004 but was delayed by a dispute between the diocese and brotherhood over which was liable for compensation of up to 8m.

Eventually, in 2012, the supreme court ruled that both were liable.

One survivor, Nigel Feeley, told the BBC that he had lived through a nightmare. "He had the power. You couldn't get away from it. You had to live the nightmare," he said. "You couldn't scream at him and say go away, get off me, because he had the power."

Today, Greenwood added: "I would say, obviously, on the central issue of whether it happened or not, there was compelling evidence given by all four, all five, of these claimants, and that should be the main issue that we are talking about...There was a lot of sexual abuse going on at St William's and these boys deserve justice."

Another set of compensation claims is expected to go before the High Court in late 2017.

In previous statements, both the Diocese of Middlesbrough and the De La Salle brotherhood have publicly condemned abuse.
What Are The 3 Books That Feed Matt Redman's Soul?

Matt Redman is one of the most popular Christian songwriters working in the UK today. His work is performed and sung by congregations all over the world and includes standards such as '10,000 Reasons', 'Blessed Be Your Name', 'The Heart Of Worship' and 'You Never Let Go'.

Born in 1974, Redman has been a full-time worship leader since he was 20 and is based in Brighton.

He is also the author of several books, including 10,000 Reasons, The Unquenchable Worshipper, Facedown, Mirrorball, Blessed Be Your Name (co-authored with his wife Beth) and Indescribable (co-authored with Louie Giglio).

But what are the books that feed his soul and sustain his own spirituality?

Redman was interviewed for the Books For Life website  and for someone at the cutting edge of modern worship music, his choices were surprisingly traditional.

Redman chooses three books to speak about. His first is My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers (1874-1917). A holiness preacher who founded a Bible college and died of appendicitis while serving as a YMCA chaplain in Cairo  he had resisted going to hospital on the grounds that beds would be needed by wounded men  his book of daily devotions was compiled by his widow and has never been out of print. Redman's favourite quote from that book is: "Complete weakness and dependence will always be the occasion for the Spirit of God to manifest his power." He says: "I just think that's a fantastic thought and a fantastic way to approach life."

He also chooses The Treasury of David, by CH Spurgeon (1834-1892), a three-volume study of the Psalms. Spurgeon was the greatest evangelical figure of his generation, a preacher, author and church planter who founded a college and an orphanage whose work continues today. Redman says of him: "He writes with a poetry and a passion and I really connect with some of the thoughts he writes." And he says, "For me, it's amazing that there's a song book in the middle of the Bible. It would have been the hymn book of Jesus as he walked the earth, these 150 songs, so I love it that Spurgeon's diving into each and every one of them, upacking them."

While his first two are older authors, the third is the US Calvinist theologian John Piper, founder of DesiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis. Piper's book The Dangerous Duty of Delight is drawn from his longer book Desiring God. Redman says: "His whole thing is about, 'God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him,' and the fact that praising God and pursuing joy aren't two separate acts."

The Books for Life initiative is aimed at promoting good Christian books. Founder Krish Kandiah says: "As a church we are losing the habit of spiritual reading, leaders are struggling to recommend books to their congregations, and Christians simply aren't being encouraged to read."

It features interviews each month with significant Christian leaders about books that mean something to them.
Why Does The Church Of England Have So Few Black Clergy? Is it Institutionally Racist?

The Anglican chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons has suggested the Church of England could be institutionally racist because of the small numer of black or ethnic minority clergy in senior positions.

Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin was speaking out after the Church announced its first new black bishop in 20 years.

Currently, just over 3.4 per cent of all stipendiary clergy are black of ethnic minority (BME) and an even smaller proportion, 2.2 per cent of senior staff, are BME.

Besides the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, appointed in 2005, there are just five other senior BME clergy in the Church of England. They are the Dean of Manchester, Rogers Govender, Archdeacon of Southend Mina Smallman, Archdeacon of Barking John Perumbalath and Archdeacon of Hackney Liz Adekunle.

Wilfred Wood, appointed Britain's first black bishop in 1985, retired in 2003. He was bishop of Croydon, also in the Southwark diocese. Pakistan-born Michael Nazir-Ali was Bishop of Rochester from 1994 to 2009.

Even though she is regarded as one of the country's most senior clerics in terms of influence and status, Hudson-Wilkin is not included in these statistics because she is a chaplain, not a bishop, dean or archdeacon.

Hudson-Wilkin told the BBC's new religious affairs correspondent Martin Bashir the only conclusion she could draw was that the Church has been institutionally racist.

She said: "We are visible yet invisible.

"I do not believe that the Church recognises that we are there.

"With my hand on my heart, I do not believe that the Church respects and embraces its minority ethnic membership."

Asked by Bashir if she was describing the component parts of institutional racism, Hudson-Wilkin replied: "I suspect that I am."

She continued: "It's really a heavy burden to say that because that is the Church that I belong to, that is the Church that I love, but if someone else can genuinely give me another rationale as to why we are not there in senior leadership roles within the Church, then I'm prepared to consider it."

She spoke out after the hugely popular London diocesan priest, Nigeria-born Rev Woyin Karowei Dorgu, was announced yesterday as 13th Bishop of Woolwich.

He told Christian Today how God is with those suffering pain and loss in Berlin and described his personal experiences of the depradations of the Islamist terror group Boko Haram in northern Nigeria. He said: "In time of pain and difficulty, people ask the question, 'Where is God?' I often say God is with us. That's the message of Christmas. Emmanuel, God with us.

"God never abandons us in our time of trouble. In fact but for the grace of God, many more people may have been killed in Berlin yesterday.

"What I often think is that it could have been worse, but for the grace of God. So God is with us in our suffering. God bears our pain with us, he cries with us. But for his support and strength, how would we cope in difficult times?"

He acknowledged London could be a target for Islamist terrorists but added: "I think we shouldn't give place to fear. I think we should be hopeful and trusting and prayerful and be on the lookout for each other's welfare and support each other."

The Church is hiring a minority ethnic vocations officer to attract more black people into the clergy.
Why Southern Baptists Should Back Russell Moore, Not Sack Him

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is no softy liberal.

Russell Moore is a creationist, inerrantist complementarian, which puts him way to the right of the theological spectrum. But his resolute opposition to Donald Trump has crystallised opposition to him and the organisation he heads from within the denomination  at around 16 million members, the largest and most influential Protestant grouping in the US.

Large churches have said they are considering defunding the ERLC because Moore doesn't speak for them. Moore himself has apologised for appearing to lump all Trump voters together, but hasn't stepped back an inch from his position that the man is a bounder and a cad.

The backlash against him spilled over onto social media, with many tweeting their support for Moore; he responded diplomatically: "Appreciate all the kind words, y'all. If we're going to hashtag, let's #standwithSBC together. Our gospel mission is too important."

So disappointed by #SBC pastors threat to withhold missions & other funds over #russellmoore ethical stance re: election & Trump.  David Head (@DHponders) December 20, 2016

However, this is only the latest pressure point for the ERLC and its Southern Baptist constituency. In June this year Moore had to fend off criticism from Baptist leaders about ERLC support for a Muslim group attempting to build a mosque in New Jersey. One delegate or 'messenger' to the denomination's annual meeting put forward a motion requiring the immediate dismissal of SBC officials who supported the building of mosques (it failed).

Moore has also taken counter-intuitive positions on other issues dear to the hearts of Republicans and religious conservatives (often the same demographic). He has warned of the limitations of 'reparative therapy' for 'ex-gay' people, saying evangelicals had an "inadequate view" of what same-sex attraction looks like. He's also said that "gay and lesbian people have been treated really, really badly".

Moore has criticised the "mean-spirited disdain" with which some Christians speak about undocumented migrants; he's signed a document advocating the responsible treatment of animals; and after the Charleston massacre advocated retiring the Confederate flag from public display.

At the same time Moore is resolute in his rejection of abortion and same-sex marriage, seeing no possibility of compromise with positions he regards as totally contrary to Scripture. He is, when it comes down to it, Southern Baptist to the bone.

And that, surely, is why the SBC needs him  and why it needs to stand up to those seeking his removal. Because what Moore brings to the table is a genuinely Scriptural perspective on contemporary issues which is nuanced by his detachment from the sort of ideology that drives some in his denomination. He knows religious liberty is indivisible, so stands up for Muslims. He knows LGBT people have been treated horribly and says so. He won't tolerate racism and is prepared to tear down its sacred symbol  the Confederate flag  to make his point.

In the 1980s and 90s there was a backlash against the perceived liberalism of Southern Baptist institutions which resulted in either a fundamentalist takeover or a 'conservative resurgence', depending on your point of view. It was bitterly fought and has left lasting scars. One of its most enduring legacies, however, may be that it institutionalised a totalitarian approach to theology which regards any departure from linguistic norms to be an attack on fundamental truth. It isn't; it's just about thinking things through.

Russell Moore can do this because he challenges the prejudices and presuppositions of his constituency rather than just mindlessly echoing them. It would be a sad day for Southern Baptists if they turned their back on someone who represents them so well.

Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
Witch Finally Turns to Christ After a Year of Hearing Gospel From Southern Baptist Missionaries

The persuasive power of the Gospel finally convinced a witch to abandon her animist ways and turn to Christeven though it took a year for her to do that.

Southern Baptist missionaries Brian Harrell and his wife, Becky, recalled one of the highlights of their mission in Mozambique, a country in Africa facing the Indian Ocean. The two began their outreach mission there in 2004 to serve the 300,000 Makhuwa Nahara people living in the villages along the shores of Mozambique, the Baptist Press reported.

The villagers there practice animism, which they blend with Islam. Because of the infant mortality in the area, the villagers resort to "spiritual protection" in the form of witchcraft.

"Women fear for their children," Becky said. "They perform ceremonial witchcraft to protect that life and to protect themselves from evil spirits during pregnancy."

Helping the villagers with divinations and spells was a witch named Adelina.

The Harrells approached her and tried to win her over to the side of Christ. Surprisingly, she agreed to meet the missionaries and even opened her home to a Bible study where she listened intently.

But after a year of preaching, Adelina showed no sign of accepting Christ.

The Southern Baptist missionaries were about to give up when one day, Adelina surprised everybody when she spoke before prayer.

"I need you to help me to do something," she said. "I know that what I have been doing is wrong and I want to get rid of my witchcraft."

That Sunday a group of believers celebrated the occasion by singing songs, praying and dismantling the witch doctor's hut.

"It was incredible," Brian said. "This was something we had been hoping for and praying for."

Sometime later, Adelina became pregnant with her seventh child. Neighbours warned her that her child wouldn't survive without the "protection" from witchcraft.

But Adelina stood firm in her newfound faith.

The former witch doctor is now sharing her testimony, explaining to people what God has done in her life.
Houston City Council Tuesday approved the sale of the historic Heights waterworks to an apartment developer for $15.2 million.

The purchase price is "way above the appraised fair market value," according to the council item that outlined the sale to Alliance Realty Partners, a Phoenix-based apartment developer planning to redevelop the site.
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For an Alabama police chief, a recent rash of 22 drug overdoses was the last straw.

In response, police moved up a pending operation to serve arrest warrants for drug offenses. The result: 21 people arrested in 10 days.

Jasper Police Lt. David Mize told Al.com the department moved up the warrant sweep after the high amount of overdoses in a short time frame.

"This is something we could do to make a dent and slow things down,'' Mize told the website. "We haven't seen as many as what we were seeing. We're hoping we'll see a bigger drop."

NO GIFTS: Peruvian police dressed as Santa carry out drug raid, seize cocaine

Walker County, Ala., officials reported 18 overdoses in the county, including one death. Overall, authorities reported 22 overdoses in a three-day span.

Police Chief J.C. Poe said the warrants were a result of undercover operations. The drugs appear to be tied to one dealer, Poe said.

Walker County Sheriff James Underwood told Al.com that a variety of drugs were seized, including marijuana, methamphetamine, Xanax and heroin.

"The large number of drug overdoses that have occurred recently has highlighted a problem that has plagued our community for years,'' Underwood said.

Click through the above gallery to see photos of the people arrested in the drug sweep.
JACKIE: The Oscar buzz is strong around Natalie Portman's performance as Jacqueline Kennedy in this drama set during the immediate days following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (R) (Opened Wednesday)

HIDDEN FIGURES: Drama is based on the true story of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, three African-American women whose work contributed greatly to Project Mercury, which sent the first Americans into space. Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae star. (PG) (Opens Sunday)
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The duo behind Tenenbaum Jewelers, Kevin Black and Tony Bradfield, have had an exceptional year.

Not only did they move shop from Post Oak Blvd. to an 8,500 square-foot, River Oaks District-adjacent boutique on Westheimer Rd., the co-owners opted to drop "classic" from their company's name as well.

A star-studded crowd feted the official in-store grand opening festivities on Dec. 1. Lynn Wyatt, Becca Cason Thrash, Diane Lokey Farb, and Ceron were among the cocktail-clad supporters clinking champagne and nibbling on Tony's miniature bites. In tribute to Bradfield's late mother and their shared love of Shanghai culture, performers from Lee's Golden Dragons blessed the new business with wealth and prosperity by performing a traditional Chinese lion dance while onlookers including Margaret Williams, Fady Armanious, and Linda Lorelle cheered on.

The week prior, Tenenbaum Jewelers kicked off a different celebration: The Ultimate Jewelry Estate Sale. After recent acquisitions of Gems by Chao, Past Era Antique Jewelry and Queen of Heirs and the subsequent inventory surplus, its team pledged to donate five percent of all sales at the former storefront to 15 local charities of the purchaser's choosing.

Marketing and Public Relations Director Christina Stith explained that the company is approached for more philanthropic donations by area organizations than they're able to accept. Reportedly, the philanthropic-conscious company has helped fundraise nearly $1 million for the arts and medical communities.

From Nov. 21 through Jan. 21, customers will be able to choose which non-profit  Alley Theatre, American Heart Association, Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys & Girls Country, the Children's Assessment Center, Children's Museum of Houston, Citizens for Animal Protection, Hermann Park Conservancy, Holocaust Museum Houston, Houston Ballet, Houston Food Bank, Houston Grand Opera, Memorial Hermann, or Texas Children's Hospital  should receive the percentage of their purchase.

Stith also shared that inventory is restocked multiple times a week; apparently, there are sparkly deals under $100, too.

Affordable jewelry and an opportunity to give back equal not one, but two good reasons to shop.
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Theater

Much Ado About Nothing: Shakespeare's comedy. Presented by 4th Wall Theatre Company. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; $29-$49, students $15; Studio 101, 1824 Spring; 832-786-1849, 4thwalltheatreco.com.

The Santaland Diaries: David Sedaris' darkly humorous story about working as an elf, told on stage. Presented by the Alley Theatre. 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays, through Dec. 31; $35-$40; 615 Texas; 713-220-5700, alleytheatre.org.

Panto Wonderful Wizard: A new "Wizard of Oz"-inspired play by Rutherford Cravens. Presented by Stages Repertory Theatre. 10 a.m. Fridays, 2 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays, 7 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, through Dec. 31; $21 - $50; 3201 Allen Parkway; 713-527-0123, stagestheatre.com.

Go Yell It on the Mountain: Two churches clash during Christmastime. Presented by Obsidian Theater. 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday; $15-$30; 3522 White Oak; 832-889-7837, obsidiantheater.org.

A Christmas Carol: Charles Dickens' classic tale returns. Presented by the Alley Theatre. $44-$80. 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Friday-Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, through Dec. 29. 615 Texas; 713-220-5700, alleytheatre.org.

The First Noel: Heartwarming play with musical and hip-hop numbers. Presented by the Ensemble Theatre. 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, through Dec. 29; $42-$61; Ensemble Theatre, 3535 Main; 713-520-0055, ensemblehouston.com.

The Honky Tonk Angels Holiday Spectacular: Musical celebrating women and family. Presented by Stages Repertory Theatre. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, through Dec. 31; $21-$74; 3201 Allen Parkway; 713-527-0123, stagestheatre.com.

Oliver!: Dickens' classic tale about a scrappy orphan boy. Presented by Stageworks Theatre. 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, through Sunday; $26, students $15; 10760 Grant; 281-587-6100, stageworkshouston.org.

Dance

The Nutcracker: Houston Ballet performs Stanton Welch's major new production, with marvelous sets and costumes by Tim Goodchild and magical special effects. 2 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday and Monday-Tuesday; 2 p.m. Saturday; $39-$175; Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas; 713-227-2787, houstonballet.org.
Austin-based mobile delivery app Favor is keeping Houstonians well fed. And saving diners some gas money and traffic headaches, too.

The company delivers just about anything from just about anywhere in certain parts of town, as long as it's not booze. (Although there's always MiniBar for that.)
Late-night TV hosts have cast 2016 as a downright apocalyptic year, but for television it was actually pretty great.

Here are our picks for the best TV episodes of the year.
A Marine from Humble on his way home for the holidays was struck by another car early Monday morning, after trying to help the victim of an accident near Los Angeles.

Enrico Rojo, injured in Afghanistan, was traveling on Interstate 10 in California around 1:30 a.m., when he stopped to help 22-year-old Crystal Adrianna Martinez, according to CBS Los Angeles. Martinez was traveling west on I-10, when she struck another semi-truck while changing lanes, causing her car to roll over.

A 2017 Hyundai Sonata driving toward the accident, tried to avoid hitting Martinez's car, but instead struck Rojo and killed him.

California Highway Patrol Officer Brian Alvarez said the driver who Rojo attempted to help was under investigation for driving under the influence.

The 29-year-old was traveling to the airport with his fiance, where they were going to catch a flight to Houston. Enrico's father, Miguel Rojo, told The Chronicle that he was supposed to pick up his son from Houston's airport at 10 a.m. on Monday.

Rojo's family remembered him Tuesday as a selfless and positive person. Victor Rojo, his uncle, said Enrico wanted to make a difference in other people's lives, which is why he chose to become a Marine.

family photo

Victor said that he wasn't surprised his nephew lost his life trying to help somebody else.

"I think he was doing what he strongly believed," Victor said. "Things happen for a reason."

Rojo joined the Marines in 2010 and then retired in 2014. According to his father, during his son's tour of duty in Afghanistan, his unit's vehicle drove over a landmine, which exploded. Rojo survived with just a broken foot.

Despite being retired from the Marines, his father said that Enrico was still serving month to month at a station in TwentyNine Palms, Calif.

Miguel said he last saw his son in July, when they took a trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon together.

"(He was) the best son that a father could ever hope to have," Miguel said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
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Two months after a black Houston doctor's Facebook post alleged mistreatment by a Delta Air Lines crew member, the company has announced a change in policy, according to a report.

In October, Dr. Tamika Cross told the Chronicle she was rebuffed by a flight attendant after Cross tried to help a passenger who fell ill on a flight from Detroit to Houston. She complained that a crew member refused to believe a young, black woman could be a doctor.

"I raised my hand to get her (the flight attendant's) attention," she said. According to Cross, the airline worker dismissed her.

" 'Oh no, sweetie. Put your hand down. We are looking for actual physicians or nurses. We don't have time to talk to you,' " Cross recalled the flight attendant telling her.

A LOOK BACK: Doctor accusing airline of racial bias speaks out after viral post

The flight attendant demanded proof, Cross said, but Cross left her hospital identity badge in Houston because she didn't think she would need it in Michigan.

Cross documented her experience on Facebook, drawing thousands of comments by other young, black professionals who said they have also faced the same kind of discrimination.

However, as of Dec. 1, Delta stopped requiring medical professionals to provide credentials before helping in a medical emergency, the Washington Post reported.

On its website Monday, Delta posted a statement explaining the change in policy:

"When situations like the one described by Dr. Cross arise, we have a responsibility to our employees and our customers to review the circumstances and our policies for opportunities to listen, learn and improve."

The statement said Cross met with Delta officials to discuss the October incident.

"Our flight attendants were following standard procedure during this incident and the feedback Dr. Cross provided gave us a chance to make flying better," Allison Ausband, senior vice president  In-flight service, said in the statement. "We remain grateful to the medical professionals who are willing to assist us in an emergency at 30,000 feet."

Cross is pleased with the change, Delta said.

"It is reassuring to know that Delta has taken this matter very seriously and made the necessary adjustments to help physicians and other medical personnel, no matter who they may be, feel more comfortable offering medical assistance during in-flight emergencies," Cross said, according to the statement.

Reporter Mike Glenn contributed to this report.
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Recently a batch of rare Civil War maps were released by the Library of Congress, with many showing what Texas dealt with during the War Between the States.

Texas Gulf Coast locale meant that places like Galveston, Corpus Christi, Aransas Pass and Port Lavaca were much in demand during the war over states rights and slavery. A federal blockade of the Texas coastline remained in place for most of the war.

HISTORICAL TIES: 150 years after fall, Confederate memories linger in Texas

In early 1861 Texas Governor Sam Houston had argued against a war and wanted no part of it for his state. He didnt think it would solve a thing and would only bring bloodshed. He wished for a peaceful resolution instead and turned away from calls for secession.

Even still, early Texans were headstrong and in Feb. 1861 voted to quit the Union, the seventh state to do so. Texas had only been a part of the United State for just over 15 years. Houston ended up retiring back to Huntsville after secessionists declared his office vacant. He refused to declare allegiance to the Confederacy.

BIG CHANGES: HISD votes to rename schools with Confederate ties

He later died in the summer of 1863.

Soon a Texas militia group seized the federal military headquarters in San Antonio. Texas and Southern forces now in essence owned 10 percent of federal firepower.

By the end of 1861, some 25,000 Texas residents were in the Confederate army, with most in the horse-bound cavalry. By the end of the war, it's believed that 70,000 Texans fought.

The Battle of Galveston in 1862 saw a small Union fleet attacked by Confederate forces near Fort Point. The Union fought back and ended up taking the city of Galveston back for the U.S., only to lose it by New Years Day 1863.

SOUTHERN BALL: Texans decry Civil War ball over issues of Southern legacy

The largest battles of the Civil War were fought far away from the state of Texas, and many Texans died a long from home. However, the state didn't suffer as many casualties as others farther east would.

The war was over by the summer of 1865, with federal control coming back in June of that year. Some Confederates, afraid of Union blow back, escaped to Mexico. The U.S. flag once again was flown in Austin on June 25. Soon a painful Reconstruction of the Union would begin all over the country.

In March 1870, the U.S. Congress readmitted Texas into the Union, although the state did not meet all the formal requirements needed for readmission.

Click through the slideshow above to see a number of maps showing Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, and the surrounding states in the Civil War...
A teacher in Greensboro, Ala. is facing charges for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old student who attends Greensboro High School.

Courtney Wallace, 28, faces felony charges of having sex with a student under the age of 19. It's possible that additional charges could be added after the investigation is complete.
A purloined postal truck was recovered Tuesday afternoon in northern Harris County, authorities said.

A day earlier,three suspects jacked the mail truck when they ordered the postal carrier out and took off with the vehicle, according to a USPS spokeswoman.

It's not clear whether the suspects were armed, but the worker wasn't injured.

Investigators Tuesday spotted the missing truck in a dry retention pond near Reston Glen and Canton Bluff.

No arrests have been made, but USPS is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any of the three suspects.

Anyone with information pertaining to the case can call 877-876-2455.
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.
Immigration to Canada: The Year in Review CIC News Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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2016 has been a remarkable year, and 2017 promises to bring even more positive news for individuals and families immigrating to Canada

Canadian immigration programs can be segmented into three broad categories, namely the economic programs, the Family Class programs, and refugee/humanitarian programs. In all three categories, 2016 can be described as an exceptional year. The new Liberal government saw opportunities to improve programs across the board and, by working in tandem with provincial partners, they managed to increase the number of new arrivals, reduce processing times, and give more people the opportunity to fulfil their life dream of coming to Canada.

Of course, its the details that matter. Just how did this positive Canadian vision for immigration come about? Who was involved, who benefited, and why? Lets cast our minds back to this time last year.

January

As the year began, the new government had only been in office for two months. John McCallum had been named as the new Minister of Immigration, and one of the first acts was to re-brand what had been known as Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). It was around this time that IRCC was heavily focused on the governments election promise to settle tens of thousands of refugees from Syria, an effort that was widely commended and ultimately successful.

On the Family Class front, the Parent and Grandparent Program (PGP) application cycle proved immensely popular, with IRCC accepting 10,000 applications for processing after more than 14,000 applications were received within three days.

There were also developments in the economic programs. Quebec loosened the eligibility criteria for its skilled worker program and launched a new online application management system called Mon Projet Quebec, Alberta began accepting new applications again under the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program, and the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program reopened all categories, some of which reached their intake caps within days. In addition, there were three Express Entry draws, with a total of 4,449 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) issued in January alone.

February

2016 was a year in which the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) became more dynamic than ever before. In February, British Columbia launched its Skills Immigration Registration System (SIRS), a new system for ranking and selecting workers and international graduates through most categories of the BC PNP. This includes categories aligned with the federal Express Entry system, as well as certain base categories that are processed outside that system. Over the course of the year (up to the time of writing), BC has issued more than 6,000 Invitations to Apply for immigration to the province through the SIRS.

The federal Express Entry system continued to invite candidates to apply for permanent residence. The lowest Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) cut-off threshold in February was 453.

March

The government of Canada released its 2016 Immigration Levels Plan early in March, setting a target of up to 305,000 new immigrants over the course of the year. At the time, this was a record target number in modern Canadian history. More than half of these newcomers would come through the economic programs, while there were significant target increases under the Family Class and refugee/humanitarian categories. Minister McCallum said the governments goal was to bring in immigrants who wish to build a better Canada.

The government also made commitments to reduce processing times, remove the conditional permanent residence provision from certain sponsored spouses and common-law partners, and ease the pathway to permanent residence for international students and graduates in Canada.

April

IRCC released its long-awaited year-end Express Entry report in April. Among other details, it was revealed that an increasing number of candidates outside Canada were being invited to apply for permanent residence  over the second half of 2015, 39% of all invited candidates resided outside Canada, more than double the figure for the first half of the year. Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia remained the most popular destination provinces, though at a per capita rate, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, and Prince Edward Island (PEI) were also highly popular.

There was also movement in business immigration to Canada when Quebec announced reopening dates for each of its business immigration categories, including the ever-popular Quebec Investor Program, as well as the entrepreneur and self-employed categories.

May

Since the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) first announced that it was aligning certain streams with the federal Express Entry system in June, 2015, candidates noted that the OINP provided a route to provincial nomination, which comes with a 600-point bonus under the CRS and an ITA at subsequent draw. The Human Capital Priorities stream proved to be particularly popular. This stream is passive in the sense that an Express Entry candidate may only make an application if he or she is contacted by the OINP and issued what is known as a Notification of Interest (NOI).

In May, 2016, Ontario announced that it was placing a temporary pause on applications under some OINP streams, including Human Capital Priorities, due to the allocation having been reached. However, the OINP stated that it expected to be in a position to accept new applications through these streams again. Candidates in the pool should expect news from Ontario in the near future.

Also in May, BC had its BC PNP allocation increased, Saskatchewan welcomed more newcomers through its International Skilled Worker categories (including the SINP Express Entry sub-category), and the government edged closer to changing the Citizenship Act. Among other changes, these legislative changes would reduce the amount of time permanent residents have to live in Canada in order to become eligible to apply for citizenship.

June

The much-anticipated summer application intake period for the Quebec Skilled Worker Program opened the morning of June 13, before closing within hours after the intake cap was reached. This intake was restricted to individuals who had already created a Mon Projet Quebec account earlier in the year, though the creation of new accounts was opened up later in the month in anticipation of the next intake period.

In other news, Manitoba and Saskatchewan continued to welcome skilled workers to their provinces through the Provincial Nominee Programs.

July

By mid-summer, the number of candidates being invited to apply for permanent residence through Express Entry had decreased to around 750-800 per draw. However, an IRCC representative, speaking at an event in Edmonton, Alberta earlier in the summer, revealed that the number of ITAs issued would increase significantly later in the year. In the end, this turned out to be the case.

The provinces remained active, with Saskatchewan and Manitoba conducting draws, and Canadas Atlantic provinces announcing a new collective strategy with the federal government. This strategy eventually became the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program, through which up to 2,000 newcomers will come to Canada in 2017.

August

The August intake for the Quebec Skilled Worker Program, much like the June intake, was reached within hours of the program reopening, benefiting individuals who had prepared well in advance. The government of Quebec wishes to move to a demand-based Expression of Interest system (akin to the federal Express Entry system) at some stage in 2017, and so this intake may have been the final intake under the first-come, first-served system. But you never know, tech projects tend to take longer than expected to implement, and the program may reopen under the first-come, first-served model again before the new system comes into force.

British Columbia performed two BC PNP draws in August, providing a route to permanent residence for hundreds more workers and graduates. One noteworthy aspect of the BC PNP International Graduate sub-categories is that the graduate does not necessarily need to have studied in BC; graduates of institutions in other provinces may be eligible. There was also a draw under the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program, and Saskatchewans International Skilled Worker  Occupations In-Demand sub-category reopened for 700 new applications (and, like previous intakes, this first-come, first-served intake filled within a couple of days).

September

There was plenty of Express Entry news through September as the number of ITAs issued began to increase when each draw was announced. Eventually, this culminated in draw sizes tripling between late August and mid-November. The CRS cut-off threshold also began to decrease once again at this time, in line with IRCCs expectations.

It was also revealed that more than 320,000 new permanent residents had landed in Canada over the period from July, 2015 to July, 2016, the highest number of new arrivals for many decades. Six provinces took in record numbers of newcomers.

In addition, British Columbia and Manitoba both conducted draws through their respective PNPs.

October

After a month in which Express Entry draws continued to grow larger in size, the big news in October came on the final day when IRCC published its 2017 Immigration Levels Plan. This plan called for significant increases in economic immigration to Canada, particularly through the programs managed under Express Entry, as well as the Provincial Nominee Programs (and many PNPs continued to welcome new applications through October). The number of people to be invited to apply for Canadian permanent residence through Express Entry in 2017 is expected to go up considerably.

The government also announced its intention to raise the maximum age of dependent children that may be included on an immigration application to less than 22 years of age (up from the current limit of less than 19). This goal forms part of the governments commitment to family reunification.

November

November was arguably the most important month in Canadian immigration over the entire year. In any other month, the fact that government of Canadas website crashed in the wake of the U.S. Presidential Election would be the main story, but not so in November, 2016, for this was the month when long-awaited improvements to the Express Entry system were announced. Not only that, but these improvements came into force just a week after the announcement.

The changes included the awarding of CRS points to former international students in Canada, a reduction in the number of points awarded for a qualifying job offer, the introduction of new ways to be awarded points for a job offer, and an increase in the validity of an ITA once it is issued to a candidate.

The expected outcome of these changes, according to IRCC, will be that A reduction of points to candidates with arranged employment means the CRS cut-off will decline. Since the changes were first announced, tens of thousands of candidates and potential candidates have used the CRS Calculator to determine how the changes may affect their profile.

December

So far, December has also been a busy month. The Immigration Minister has announced that processing times for the spousal/common-law partner categories of Family Class immigration programs are to be reduced to 12 months, from an average of 24 months, with an additional goal to eventually reduce processing times to as low as six months. There was further good news for spouses and partners being sponsored within Canada when the Open Work Permit Pilot Program was extended for another year.

And that was not all the changes under the Family Class this month, as it was also announced that there would be a new lottery system for the 2017 Parent and Grandparent Program intake, providing sponsors with a 30-day window of opportunity to register their interest as of January 3, 2017.

Finally, there have been further draws for skilled workers at the federal (Express Entry) and provincial levels over the closing weeks of the year. The latest Express Entry draw saw a total of 1,936 candidates invited to apply for permanent residence.

2017 expected to bring more updates than ever

Right now, there is an appetite among all stakeholders for an even more robust, dynamic immigration system. The provincial governments are crying out for newcomers, and the federal government is well positioned and inclined to bring them in. Businesses and communities are looking for talent and regeneration, says Attorney David Cohen.

2016 was remarkable for a number of reasons. Government goals were announced, but more importantly these goals were then met. We can expect more of the same as we enter 2017.

For individuals who have not yet taken steps toward realizing their own immigration objectives, I encourage them to complete an assessment so that they can know the full scope of their options. At this time, with so many changes having taken place and more to come, it is important to lay out a pathway that makes sense for the individual and his or her family, if indeed that is applicable.

To find out if you are eligible for immigration to Canada, please fill out a free online assessment today.

 2016 CICNews All Rights Reserved
Introducing Canada Study News: the Newsletter for International Students CIC News Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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The Campbell Cohen Immigration Network is excited to announce the launch of Canada Study News, a monthly newsletter dedicated to the Canadian education scene. A world of opportunities is available to international students and those considering studying in Canada, and now there is a news source where all these opportunities are brought into focus.

The monthly newsletter will feature breaking news about studying in Canada, as well as tips for students, parents, and recruiters. Every month, subscribers will receive the latest updates from the government, features on top institutions and cities, and advice from industry professionals direct to their inbox. From potential international students abroad, to current students considering their future options, to recruiters and industry professionals around the world, there is something for everyone.

The first newsletter email will be sent in January, 2017  but theres already lots to see in the meantime. Visit CanadaStudyNews.com today and get a taste of whats to come.

Why Canada?

Canada is one of the worlds top study destinations, and individuals around the world are increasingly recognizing everything this country has to offer students. Students choose Canada for its quality study programs, comparatively low tuition fees and living expenses, options to work during studies and after graduation, and an open, welcoming culture. There are also a number of options for permanent immigration after graduation, and the federal government has shown its commitment to improving these options.

More than 350,000 international students study in Canada annually, and this number is increasing  2015 saw a growth of eight percent in the number of international students in Canada, compared to 2014. Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) also issued 5.4 percent more study permits in 2015 than in 2014.

Canadian institutions are also recognizing the benefits of welcoming more international students. Many colleges and universities continue to develop internationalization programs, establishing links with colleges and universities worldwide. Educators know that international students enrich the classroom environment, bringing different perspectives and experiences to the table.

Pathway to Permanent Immigration

The government of Canada is stepping up its efforts to ease the immigration process for international students. Minister of Immigration John McCallum has called international students the cream of the crop, in terms of future Canadians, and many stakeholders agree. It is generally acknowledged across Canada that international students have the education, experience, and language skills to make them ideal candidates for immigration. Furthermore, these individuals have often lived in Canada for several years, making connections in the local community and settling into Canadian society.

In November, the government made good on its promise to improve immigration options for international students in Canada. After a major reform of the Express Entry system, international graduates of Canadian institutions may now benefit from additional points under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) for their Canadian educational credential. In addition, CRS points for arranged employment were reduced, in a move the government expects will lower the CRS cut-off point for issuing Invitations to Apply, thus leaving more room for international students.

Making the Most of Studying in Canada

Many international students in Canada do not intend to remain after their studies, and Canada Study News is equally aimed at these individuals, as well as those students who do wish to settle in Canada. It is crucial to make the most of the opportunities provided by a Canadian study program. Work placements, student groups and clubs, networking events, travel opportunities, and more can provide international students with a unique education that will ensure a rewarding career. Canadian colleges and universities recognize that they have a responsibility towards students from all countries to provide an education and experiences that will enrich economies and societies around the world, as graduates of Canadian institutions make use of their skills worldwide.

See Where Studying in Canada Can Take You . . .

Individuals are increasingly taking note of the opportunities a Canadian education can provide, from world-class study programs to work experience and even permanent residence, says Attorney David Cohen. My team and I are keen to bring you the latest news and the information to help you in your goals, whether that be studying in Canada, or learning more about the education landscape of this country.

Whether you are a current international student, a recruiter, an educational professional, a parent, or a potential student abroad, I hope you will join us in this exciting new venture.

Sign up to Canada Study News for free and receive a monthly newsletter direct to your inbox.
Italys love of Christmas decorations has exploded over the past two decades, and the country has gone from muted holiday decor that centered almost exclusively around the traditional creche scene to downtowns fully decked out in fairy light canopies, shooting stars, blinking swags, and towering, twinkling firs.

(Photo by Concierge in Umbria via Flickr)

Though the love of the artisan Nativity scene endures, today most private homes sport a tree and the beauty of a citys Christmas lights has become so entwined with civic pride that mayors from Rome to Assisi have been forced to upgrade meager first attempts at public decorations by outraged citizens. Alongside the traditional outings to visit the most elaborate and beautiful Christmas creches, Italians  and tourists  can now take an evening stroll to admire the beautiful light displays along the city streets and elegant trees in the main squares.

(Photo by Concierge in Umbria via Flickr)

If you are in Italy during the holidays, be sure to wander the streets from the biggest citys to the smallest villages and enjoy the unforgettable sight of these beautiful, historic palazzi and homes warmly lit with fairy lights. If you couldnt make it this year, we have some shots of holiday cheer to share in the meantime.

(Photo by Concierge in Umbria via Flickr)

(Photo by Concierge in Umbria via Flickr)

(Photo by Concierge in Umbria via Flickr)

From Concierge in Umbria to you, our warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a New Year filled with travel and discovery!

(Photo by Concierge in Umbria via Flickr)
Tegnas Atlanta television station, WXIA 11Alive, tried to break the local television mold last month with an investigation into a national issue: veterans denied benefits after being less-than-honorably discharged when they should have instead been offered treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The story was unusual in several ways: At nearly 30 minutes, it was extraordinarily long for local television; it was rolled out online first; the station became an advocate and tried to motivate viewers to get involved; and the focus of the investigation was a national issue, not a purely local one. It is also what Tegna is calling the future of local news, or one of them.

Tegna VP for News Ellen Crooke says the docuseries is an example of a new push by the company to emphasize investigations that not only expose problems, but also present solutions. The company is committed to freeing up investigative teams to do creative work that doesnt fit traditional local TV molds, she says.

We hear over and over again from our audiences that they want us to find solutions, Crooke says. We want our teams to experiment more. It used to be you aired a story at 11 oclock and then you went on to the next thing. This team can stay on this story, which is kind of unheard of in local news.

The companys experiments didnt begin with the Atlanta veterans investigation. Last year, an investigative reporter at Tegnas Tampa station, WTSP, wrote a 6,000-word story to accompany his five-minute television investigation into the influence of one PR consultant on local politics; more recently, the same reporter has been dabbling in satirical takes on the news, and says other Tegna stations have sought his advice on replicating the snarky Rachel Maddow-style analysis. In recent months, a Dallas channel has rolled out a series in which regular people join a TV reporter to conduct interviews as a way of helping audiences better understand how journalism gets made.

Crooke declined to put a price tag on Tegnas investment in these new approaches, but said they are among the companys top priorities, part of a concerted effort to escape the sea of sameness that is local news. In the last year, Tegna has invited employees from across the company to three major brainstorming sessions. The thinking was, What if we got a team of people who were completely out of the mix of local news and had them work on digital episodic content instead of making minute-30 packages for the local news, would that yield some extraordinary work? Crooke says. The company has rewarded the top 10 ideas from each so-called innovation summit with financing, extra staff, and time for participants to depart from the daily grind and try something new.

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Those winning ideas included the investigation into the mistreatment of veterans, called Charlie Foxtrot, which aired on an Atlanta NBC affiliate as a docuseries: five episodes whose combined length amounts to an eternity for local television news. The station put the entire series online before broadcasting it as a special on Veterans Day, and provided it to other Tegna stations, along with information on how those stations could localize the project for their viewers, which some did. Though the core reporting was done by the Atlanta station, those efforts at localization got results, with one viewer in Seattle, a veteran, donating $1,000 to a local food drive Tegna station King5 was sponsoring because he said the series showed the station was doing good for the community.

11Alive then hosted a viewing of the series and panel discussion on Capitol Hill with two of the veterans featured in the piece and one veterans mother, partnering with Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who is chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. The Facebook Live stream of the event two weeks ago had more than 88,000 views by Monday of this week.

The station also asked viewers to sign a petition it created and posted on its website urging Congress to pass the Fairness for Veterans bill, which requires the military to consider evidence of PTSD or traumatic brain injury in its discharge decisions. More than 12,000 signed the petition. Jeremy Campbell, 11Alives lead reporter, delivered it to Isakson in person. The bill passed last week.

Crooke says the Fairness for Veterans bill was a good fit because it had bipartisan support.

We would never take a [partisan] side, but there were people on both sides supporting this, she says.

Reporter Jeremy Campbell says that doesnt mean they chose a topic in which change was already inevitable. Nowhere along the way has this been a sure thing, he says. This is something the veterans community has been fighting for for years. It wasnt something that was expected to pass.

Though Campbell took on a national issue, he intentionally approached it from a local perspective. All of the veterans featured in Charlie Foxtrot have a Georgia connection, he says. The scope changes because people can watch it from anywhere in the country.

What is sacrificed when Tegna frees up local investigative teams to dig deep into a national issue and spend time producing longform journalism? Crooke says the company hopes to move away from the standard car accident and house fire coverage that clutters the nightly news, and replace it with stories that have broad impact. We hope that what doesnt get done is commodity news, the stuff that isnt interesting and isnt relevant to daily lives but had become standard local TV news, she says.

Its a habit that will be hard to break in local newsrooms, where a flashy video, no matter how irrelevant to most viewers daily lives, often gets airtime, like this story 11Alive aired on December 13 about a local house fire. Getting and keeping television viewers attention is a constant struggle.

Charlie Foxtrot is not Campbells first experiment with longform journalism. This spring, he reported on heroin overdoses in Atlantas wealthy suburbs. That four-part series generated 4 million views online in one week, and the follow-up on-air special was one of the stations most-watched specials in recent years, according to Crooke. The success of the series prompted other stations to consider rolling out longform investigations, she says, citing an investigation by Tegnas Houston station, KHOU, into police body cams.

And Noah Pransky, the WTSP investigative reporter in Tampa who wrote a lengthy story to accompany his Tegna stations TV investigation last year, is again pushing the envelope in terms of what local investigations can be. Hes been doing humorous outrage videos about his investigations that more closely resemble a Daily Show piece than they do standard local journalism. The first few were just for Facebook and YouTube.

His most recent one, a local look at rising costs of commonly used drugs like scalp cream in conjunction with a broader investigation done by Tegnas KUSA in Denver, also ran on air. He says he was writing a more traditional TV script and realized he simply could not get viewers interested in scalp cream the old fashioned way. A story about scalp cream can only go so far, he says. But most people affected by drug prices are not facing life or death issues. The EpiPens and cancer drugs get the congressional hearings, but these drugs are also important to people.

Pransky knows that his forays into humor risk trivializing the news. Its a delicate balance, he says. Theres always the risk of turning people off. If I can advance watchdog goals by putting a humorous video on Facebook, Ill do it every time. Facebook gives us a new avenue to reach people.

Higher-ups at Tegna have encouraged creative thinking, he says. Weve been given the green light to try things that arent being done in local TV, he says. We dont know where [the next thing] is, but were never going to get there is we dont experiment.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Susannah Nesmith is CJRs correspondent for Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. She is a freelance writer based in Miami with more than 25 years working for regional and national outlets. Follow her on Twitter @susannahnesmith.
Next Insurance and Munich Re Announce Partnership

Next Insurance announced its partnership with Munich Re to launch a product targeting commercial photographers, who will be able to buy, renew and maintain policies online.

According to a 2016 report by McKinsey & Co, the small commercial market has good potential for growth in a fragmented competitive and geographic landscape. The report found that almost 40 percent of sole proprietorships in the U.S. dont carry small commercial coverage, representing a significant opportunity for growth with small businesses.

Photographers will now be able to pay for insurance with Next Insurance on a monthly subscription basis in all 50 states and any time of day or night, as they get their businesses ready for the new year. Insurance packages available are simple to select and tailored based on deep understanding of the industry as well as discussion with photographers, so that usual exceptions like liability and off-premise use of cameras is covered as well. These packages are just as tailored to the industry needs as the personal trainer packages already available through Next Insurance.

QBE Insurance Group, Patriot National Launch Regional Program for Workers Comp, Employers Liability Policies

QBE North America, an operating division of global insurer QBE Insurance Group Limited, announced the launch of a program with Patriot National to write workers compensation and employers liability insurance policies for hospitality, healthcare, property management and manufacturing accounts in 12 states  Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont.

Patriot National, Inc. will serve as program administrator with defined underwriting, claims administration and loss control authority on behalf of QBE.

Origami Risk Acquires Claimwire

Origami Risk, a software and services provider to the risk and insurance industry, acquired Claimwire, a national provider of automated workers compensation forms, compliance resources and regulatory information to the insurance industry.

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Origami Risk, Claimwire will continue to operate independently of Origami Risk and maintain all of its services to its clientele of insurers, third party administrators, risk managers and software vendors. In addition, the acquired firms employees, including Steve Schmutz, CEO of Claimwire, will remain in their respective roles at Claimwire.

With an online library of more than 5,000 state workers compensation claim forms, Claimwire has fulfilled nearly 11.5 million individual form requests since it began operations in 2012. Additionally, Claimwires unique search engine provides access to more than 7,000 federal and state laws and regulations, and its online portal facilitates workers compensation claim reporting in all 50 states.

Origami Risk provides intuitive web-based software that streamlines how risk, insurance and claims data are collected, analyzed and sharedultimately helping users to be more productive and manage the total cost of risk for their organizations or for their clients. The firms Risk Management Information System (RMIS), Claims Management System and Policy Management System offer speed, flexibility, automation, data import and export tools, claims management tools, analysis and reporting tools.

Guidewire to Acquire ISCS

Guidewire Software, Inc., a provider of software products to property/casualty insurers, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ISCS.

The acquisition will enhance Guidewires ability to serve those P/C insurers that prefer a cloud-based, all-in-one system supporting the insurance lifecycle.

The transaction is anticipated to close in approximately 60 days.
The U.S. auto safety agency has opened an investigation into complaints that another 1 million Fiat Chrysler vehicles can roll away after the owners shift transmissions into park, a problem similar to the one being blamed in the death of Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin.

The investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration covers Fiat Chryslers top-selling vehicle, the Ram 1500 pickup, from the 2013 to 2016 model years, as well as the 2014 to 2016 Dodge Durango SUV. The rollaway complaints are similar those that prompted the recall of 1.1 million Jeep Grand Cherokees and other vehicles earlier this year, although those vehicles have different shifters.

Yelchin, 27, known for playing Chekov in the film series, died in June after his 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee pinned him against a mailbox pillar and security fence at his home in Los Angeles. His Jeep was among the vehicles recalled in April because of complaints from drivers who had trouble telling if they put the console-mounted shift levers in park after stopping. Many reported that the vehicles rolled off after the driver exited. Los Angeles police are still investigating Yelchins death.

In the new investigation, the government says Rams and Durangos have dial-like rotary knob shifters that are linked electronically to the transmission. The knobs are turned to the left or right and have detents that click into gear.

But the government said in documents posted Tuesday that it received 43 complaints alleging that the vehicles rolled away unexpectedly. Owners reported 25 crashes and nine injuries. Thirty-four of the owners alleged that the vehicles moved while the shifters were in park, and most said the engines were running.

Notably, none of the reports indicate that the parking bake was engaged at the time of the rollaway incident, NHTSA said in the documents. Fiat Chrysler says its cooperating with the investigation, and it joined NHTSA is urging drivers to always use parking brakes when they stop vehicles.

Both Fiat Chrysler shifters are different from conventional levers on the steering column or console. Most cars have console shifters that slide forward or backward to indicate the cars gear. They used to be tied to a cable that physically changed gears. But the auto industry has developed new transmissions with the gear selection controlled electronically.

The Grand Cherokee shift levers like Yelchins had to be pushed forward or backward to change gears, confusing many drivers. In the recall, Fiat Chrysler changed the software so the vehicles automatically shift into park if the drivers door is opened.

In the latest investigation, no recall has been issued, but one is possible. NHTSA says its investigating the scope of the problem and how often it happens.

An owner from Tarzana, California, complained to NHTSA that his 2014 Ram rolled into a wall with his grandmother still in the vehicle in July of 2014. The owner told the agency that he shifted the truck into park while it was in his driveway and stepped out, but the drivers door hit him in the back. The drivers side tire rolled over one ankle, knocked him down, then rolled over the other ankle. The truck then jumped a curb and hit the wall, the owner wrote. People who complain are not identified in the NHTSA database.

Two other Fiat Chrysler vehicles have the dial shifters including the Chrysler Pacifica minivan and the Chrysler 200 sedan. But FCA says those are not included in the investigation because they automatically shift into park if the drivers seat belt is unbuckled or the drivers door is opened.

Other automakers also use electronic rotary shifters, but the fact that theyre different from conventional shifters seems to confuse drivers. NHTSA on Tuesday posted another investigation into a different automakers shifters. This time the agency is probing complaints in about 39,000 Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles that also have rotary shift knobs.

In that probe, seven owners complained that the 2012 to 2014 Land Rover Evoque and Jaguar XF rolled away after the driver shifted into park. Four injuries were reported, most while the driver door was open when the vehicles rolled off.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Earlier this month, a whistleblower lawsuit verdict against State Farm was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The high court rejected a challenge filed by State Farm on a lower court decision.

The decision, according to Dan Himmelfarb, a Wash. D.C.-based partner with Mayer Browns Supreme Court & Appellate practice, is reflective of the current court  a short, unanimous decision. The narrow opinions released by the court in recent months is reflective of the fact the Court is down a justice. Himmelfarb said there were three similar decisions by the court recently.

There were two questions put forth to the court by State Farm in the case involving allegations that the insurer defrauded the government relating to Hurricane Katrina damage estimates. The first was whether a dismissal is always required and the second was that if it is not, then what is the criteria for dismissal when there is a seal violation.

The questions resulted from a release of information relating to the underlying case made by the plaintiffs attorney, Dickie Scruggs. Because the plaintiffs, Corie and Kerri Rigsby, former State Farm employees, had filed the allegations under the False Claims Act, there are requirements that allegations be sealed for 60 days.

The Court said a dismissal was not always required but did not the address the question of criteria for dismissal, instead relying on the lower courts three factor test, said Himmelfarb.

When its permitted isnt entirely clear, said Himmelfarb. Its kind of an open question and that will be fought out in the lower courts.

Because the decision is not specific to the insurance industry, Himmelfarb said that it is equally applicable to defendants in any industry. In addition, because the high court determined it was a discretionary decision on the part of the district courts, it will be hard to overturn these types of decisions.

Discretionary decisions get reviewed deferentially, he said.

As a result, the role of the appellate court will be limited.

A couple of open issues resulting from the decision, according to Himmelfarb, are what factors should influence the exercise of discretion and whether the release of information causes reputational harm to the defendant.

A December 14 blog post by Chip Merlin, a property coverage attorney based in Florida, addressed the expectation that the matter will be remanded back to the lower court to decide State Farms liability for similar cases.
Drug wholesalers shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia in just six years, a period when 1,728 people fatally overdosed on these two painkillers, according to an investigation by the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

That amounts to 433 of the frequently abused opioid pills for every man, woman and child in the state of 1.84 million people.

The Gazette-Mail obtained previously confidential records sent by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to the office of West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. They disclose the number of pills sold to every pharmacy and drug shipments to all 55 counties in West Virginia between 2007 and 2012.

Four of these counties  Wyoming, McDowell, Boone and Mingo  lead the nation in fatal overdoses caused by pain pills, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The records  which leading drug wholesalers had fought in court to keep secret  show the wholesalers shipped ever-higher doses of the pills  a telltale sign of growing addictions  even as the death toll climbed, the newspaper reported on Sunday.

These numbers will shake even the most cynical observer, former Delegate Don Perdue, D-Wayne, a retired pharmacist who finished his term earlier this month, told the newspaper. Distributors have fed their greed on human frailties and to criminal effect. There is no excuse and should be no forgiveness.

McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Drug Co. together control about 85 percent of the U.S. drug distribution market by revenue and provided more pills to West Virginia than other wholesalers.

As hydrocodone and oxycodone overdose deaths increased 67 percent in West Virginia between 2007 and 2012, their chief executives were paid millions and their companies made billions. McKesson became Americas fifth-largest corporation, with the nations highest-paid CEO in 2012, according to Forbes.

The drug distributors say theyre just middlemen in a highly regulated industry and that pills would never get in the hands of addicts and dealers if not for unscrupulous doctors who write illegal prescriptions, and pharmacists who turn a blind eye.

The two roles that interface directly with the patient  the doctors who write the prescriptions and the pharmacists who fill them  are in a better position to identify and prevent the abuse and diversion of potentially addictive controlled substance, McKesson General Counsel John Saia wrote in a letter released by the company, the newspaper reported.

But the doctors and pharmacists werent slowing the influx, and the pills being shipped became much more potent, DEA records show.

It starts with the doctor writing, the pharmacist filling and the wholesaler distributing. Theyre all three in bed together, said Sam Suppa, a retired Charleston pharmacist who spent 60 years working at retail pharmacies in West Virginia. The distributors knew what was going on. They just didnt care.

The largest shipments often went to independent drugstores in small towns. The Tug Valley Pharmacy in Mingo County, which had fewer than 24,000 people in 2010, ordered more than 3 million hydrocodone pills in 2009, while franchisees of Rite Aid and Wal-Mart ordered only several thousand each year, the newspaper reported.

Morrisey is a Republican who represented Cardinal Health and lobbied for wholesalers in Washington, D.C., before winning the attorney generals race with strong backing from drug companies. He recused himself from the states lawsuit against more than a dozen wholesalers after taking office in 2013. In January, Morriseys office sued McKesson separately. Nine smaller wholesalers have settled for more than $7.5 million. Cases against the big three remain pending.

DEA agent Kyle Wright warned Morrisey aides in January 2015 that the wholesalers were shipping both opioids in more potent, commonly abused dosages, according to emails Morrisey released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Gazette-Mail.

McKesson denied paying these incentives. A spokesman for AmerisourceBergen suggested health experts and law enforcement would be better able to comment on whether theres a link between pain-pill volumes and overdose deaths.

All parties including pharmacies, doctors, hospitals, manufacturers, patients and state officials share the responsibility to fight opioid abuse, said Ellen Barry, a spokeswoman for Cardinal Health.

Cardinal told The Associated Press on Monday that it now has rigorous control processes in place to address the constantly changing tactics of people trying to divert drugs.

The newspaper interviewed the family of Mary Kathryn Mullins, who was prescribed OxyContin for pain in her back after a car crash near her home in Boone County.

They wrote her the pain pills, and she just got hooked, said her mother, Kay Mullins. Shed get 90 or 120 pills and finish them off in a week.

As her addiction worsened, she went to dozens of doctors, visiting pain clinics that churned out illegal prescriptions by the hundreds and pharmacies that dispensed doses by the millions. She kept most for herself, but sold some to others, Kay Mullins said.

Last December, she got a new prescription for OxyContin and an anti-anxiety medication. Two days later, she stopped breathing. Her brother Nick Mullins, a Madison police officer, responded to the 911 call. He tried chest compressions, but he could not revive his sister.

Meanwhile, the Gazette-Mail reported on Monday, they disregarded rules to report suspicious orders for controlled substances in West Virginia to the state Board of Pharmacy. And the board, in turn, failed to enforce the same regulations, even as it approved spotless inspection reviews to small-town pharmacies ordering more pills than could possibly be taken by people who really needed medicine to manage pain.

Only after Morriseys predecessor as attorney general sued wholesalers in 2012 did these companies begin filing the reports. The newspaper said it found more than 7,000 reports in two boxes at the boards office. The regulations dont say what to do with them, so the board didnt investigate, contact wholesalers or pharmacies, or share them with law enforcement, the newspaper reported on Monday.

Its not been an item thats ever been enforced by the board, said David Potters, the pharmacy boards executive director.

Drug companies have racked up huge fines for failing to report suspicious orders in other states, but they refused to comment about their reports to West Virginias board.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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President-elect Donald Trump easily won the Electoral College vote, while President Obama set a record for commutations, on his way out the door.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- President-elect Donald Trump easily won the Electoral College vote 306 to 232. Which means Jill Stein will likely seek a recount.

Despite protests and pressure directed at Trump delegates to defect, more delegates ended up trying to defect from Hillary Clinton. Just as Democrats misjudged voters in the general election, they misjudged the resolve and mood of the Electoral College delegates.

A day after Trump's president-elect status was ratified, President Obama set a record for issuing commutations, as he heads for the exit himself. Obama pardoned 78 convicts and commuted the sentences of 153 others. The most in a single day by any president.

Among those eligible for Obama pardons were the Electoral College, Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and Clinton campaign strategists. The Electoral College was convicted by sore loser Democrats for voting their consciences. Stein, Johnson and the Clinton camp cost the Democrats the White House. And they may cost Obama a lasting legacy if Trump repeals everything Obama accomplished the past eight years.

Angry white guy, Bill Clinton, attacks Trump.

After casting his Electoral College vote for Hillary, Bill Clinton said, "I watched her battle through that bogus email deal. At the end, we had the Russians, and the FBI deal, she couldn't prevail against that." The New York Times said he made the comment with a "determined smile belying his fury."

Bitter Bill's fury was still evident when he answered questions for patrons in a New York bookstore he was shopping at. One of the patrons was the editor of the local weekly paper, the Record Review, who reported the exchange.

Clinton told the patrons FBI Director James Comey "cost (Hillary) the election." Clinton claimed Trump called him the day after the election. He said Trump was cordial,"like it was 15 years ago," when they socialized together. Clinton was asked if Trump was smart. "He doesn't know much. One thing he does know is how to get angry white men to vote for him," said angry, white, Bill Clinton.

Trump returned fire with double barrel tweets:

"Bill Clinton stated that I called him after the election. Wrong, he called me (with a very nice congratulations). He "doesn't know much"...

"especially how to get people, even with an unlimited budget, out to vote in the vital swing state (and more). They focused on wrong states."

Trump is right on all counts. Tuesday, Bill Clinton tweeted that he called Trump. "Here's one thing @realDonaldTrump and I can agree on - I called him after the election."

Bill Clinton's lie exemplifies one of the main reasons Hillary Clinton lost -- voters didn't trust her. And they didn't trust her long before the Russian hacks and Comey sent his letters. Clinton's negative ratings for honesty were worse than Trump's for the entire campaign. One of the reasons more than 50% of voters found her untrustworthy is that "email deal" wasn't "bogus" at all.

Hillary Clinton lost because Donald Trump out-hustled and out-smarted her in the key swing states of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, period.

In swing states, Clinton's vote totals were 5.4 percentage points lower than Obama's margins in 2012. One reason why, Obama voters and Democrats were either staying home or voting for Trump, Stein or Johnson.

As I've stated before, despite bombarding Ohio with attack ads on Trump, Hillary Clinton was either tied with Trump, or losing to him in Ohio for most of the general election. She was struggling in Ohio, long before the Comey letters. Instead of seeing that as a red flag, and retooling their message, the arrogant Clinton campaign just declared they didn't need Ohio to win.

Jill Stein and Gary Johnson cost Clinton a win more than Comey's letters did. Stein and Johnson vote totals equaled the margin Clinton lost by.

What's truly deplorable in this election, is not half of Trump's supporters, as Clinton claimed. It's Democrats trying to delegitimize the election and presidency of Donald Trump, who won the race fair and square.
Prior to and since the 2016 election being finalized, there has been a lot of talk about California seceding from the union. There has also been non-stop chatter from the losing side that "Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2 million votes."

I think I have a win-win here for everyone. Allow California to leave the union immediately.

This would allow Donald Trump to claim a popular vote victory of over 2.3 million, since Hillary received 8.75 million votes to Trump's 4.48 million in the wacky world of California. It would also free the country from having to provide for 20 percent of the nation's illegal immigrants, the largest inmate population in the country by 200 percent and the highest concentration of drug smugglers in the free world.

It also would free us from having to listen to Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein any longer. If that isn't a "win-win," I don't know what is.

Gary Heldt,

Bay Village
LAFAYETTE TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Investigators found blood and signs of a struggle in the office of a Lafayette Township trustee who has been missing since Friday, authorities say.

Authorities also discovered blood in Bryon Macron's SUV which was found several hours later in a public parking lot on Beachside Boulevard on Chippewa Lake.

An employee of the township called police Friday morning after finding Macron's Wedgewood office unlocked and the lights on, according to police. No one reported Macron missing, but the township employee contacted police going to the office.

The office was left in a state that lead investigators to believe that the 45-year-old's office was involved in some sort of altercation, Medina County Sheriff's Office Capt. David Centner said.

Investigators did not say how much blood they found in both the office and the SUV.

Police have named no suspects and no arrests have been made.

The Cleveland FBI and the Ohio Attorney General's Office Bureau of Criminal Investigation are assisting in the search, he said.

Macron is married and has three children, Centner said.

Macron has been entered as a missing person into a law enforcement database.

Anyone with information is being asked to contact the Medina County Sheriff's Office at 330-725-6631.
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' dredging contractor has shut down operations until March, by which time a broken pump should be rebuilt and the weather will be warmer to resume the $3.7 million project.

(Tom Ondrey/Plain Dealer file photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Dredging in the Cuyahoga River shipping channel has come grinding to a halt and won't be completed until next year due to mechanical breakdowns and inclement weather.

The dredging delay is the latest in a series of setbacks linked to a lingering federal lawsuit between the Army Corps, the Ohio EPA and the Port of Cleveland. The dispute centers on where the dredged sediment should be disposed of and who should pay for it.

In the latest clash in U.S. District Court, defense lawyers filed documents contending the Army Corps isn't legally required to dredge Cleveland Harbor - a job the Army Corps has performed annually for at least the past 30 years.

The defense motion for summary judgment cited a federal statute that states the Army Corps "shall expedite the operation and maintenance, including dredging, of the navigation features of the Great Lakes and the connecting channels" for commercial navigation.

"There is no mandate that the Corps 'shall dredge,'" the Army Corps lawyers concluded.

Port of Cleveland spokesman Jade Davis said the Army Corps made the same arguments last year, and they were rejected by federal Judge Donald Nugent.

The Army Corps' lawyers also denied allegations that the agency intentionally delayed dredging to allow sediment to build up and threaten shipping in the river, with the intent to "put pressure on the locals."

EPA/Port lawyers previously produced emails from the Corps' Cleveland Harbor project manager that suggested the Corps could reduce the amount of dredging in the shipping channel to impede navigability and "keep the heat on the local users" to approve open-lake dumping.

The Army Corps delayed the $3.7 million dredging project this year until Nov. 14. In a typical year, the Corps would have dredged the shipping channel twice by that date.

The Army Corps' contractor, Ryba Marine Construction of Cheboygan, Mich., first attempted to finish dredging the docks at the ArcelorMittal steel mill, where the sediment buildup was the worst on the river. But on Dec. 9, after about a week of work, a pump on an excavator-mounted barge broke down, said Matthew Snyder, the Army Corps' construction branch chief.

"It was a pretty significant breakdown," Snyder said, and must be rebuilt before dredging of the remaining five miles of shipping channel can resume in the spring. "The cold water causes a lot of issues to their pumps and safety issues due to ice."

Port spokesman Davis said the Army Corps brought the problems onto themselves by delaying dredging for nearly a year.

"We don't have as much ship traffic during the winter, but if we have a lot of snowfall and precipitation we could see a lot more sediment build-up in the spring," Davis said.

Meanwhile, the courtroom combatants are awaiting a ruling from federal Judge Donald Nugent. The EPA/Port team is seeking a judicial order compelling the Army Corps to dispose of the dredged sediment in a lakefront containment dike, and to pay the additional $2.1 million required for land disposal.

The Army Corps contends the sediment is clean enough for open-lake disposal, and that if the EPA/Port insists on land storage they should be required to pay the difference. The EPA/Port say the sediment is too polluted with PCBs to be dumped into Lake Erie, and insisted the dredgings be stored at the Port-owned Dike 12 near Burke Lakefront Airport.

In October, the Army Corps agreed to pay the initial costs of onshore storage, and the EPA agreed to reimburse the Corps if it fails to prevail in the pending federal lawsuit.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency warned that hundreds of Ohio emergency responders were exposed to ricin during training exercises at a training facility in Alabama.

FEMA stressed in the announcement Wednesday that there are no reports of illness as a result of the exposure.

Hundreds of first responders across Ohio may have been exposed to a high-toxicity ricin at a FEMA training facility, though no one has become ill.

Staff at FEMA's Center for Domestic Preparedness discovered an "ongoing discrepancy" in November while reviewing paperwork for the type of ricin being purchased for hazardous materials training, according to an FAQ on the CDP website.

The facility had unintentionally purchased high-toxicity ricin for training on nine occasions since 2011, the center said, but the quantity handled never exceeded 100 mg.

"CDP staff adhere to strict protocols and procedures for both handling and training with all biological materials," a statement on the FEMA site says. "Therefore, no CDP personnel or students were harmed by any toxins at the CDP."

Since 2011, thousands of first responders have gone through training at the center. The people who participated in the training have been notified of the situation through individual formal letters, the FEMA site states.

About 400 Ohio residents went through CDP training since 2012, FEMA spokeswoman Alexa Lopez told cleveland.com. However, it's possible not all of those students trained with ricin.

Several emergency response agencies, including RTA police and the Shaker Heights Fire Department, acknowledged that they have sent personnel to the Alabama training center in the past. An RTA spokesman told cleveland.com that four people with police department went to the center for one week each in the spring for HazMat training.

"Nobody has had any ill effects," spokesman Jerry Masek said. He also said RTA officials were told that the HazMat suits the personnel wore during training were protective enough that they would have been shielded from any toxin.

Shaker Heights Fire Chief Pat Sweeney also told cleveland.com that fire personnel had trained at the CDP center in the past, though no one has been ill.

"I don't have any immediate concerns," he said.

Ricin is a poison in castor beans and a waste material of castor oil, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). People can fall ill after being exposed to ricin through touch exposure, inhalation or injection.

People are rarely unintentionally exposed to ricin, the CDC says. Untreated ricin poisoning can cause death within 36 to 72 hours.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Ohio Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that part of a state law that limits the appeals of death-row inmates like Tyrone Noling seeking DNA testing after their convictions is unconstitutional.

In May, Noling's lawyers asked the court's seven justices to help them gain access to law enforcement's most powerful forensic tool and allow them to run DNA tests on shell casings from the scene of a 1990 double murder in Atwater Township that would have come from the perpetrator's gun, as well as ring boxes found opened in a ransacked bedroom drawer.

The technology wasn't available to do such testing at the time of Noling's 1996 trial. Thus far, lower courts have refused Noling's requests.

No physical evidence has ever linked Noling to the killings of Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig, a Portage County couple in their 80s found shot to death in their kitchen. He has steadfastly maintained his innocence before, during and since his trial.

In Ohio, all inmates denied DNA testing of evidence by the state have the right to automatically appeal that denial - except death-row inmates. That exception is unfair and unconstitutional, said Carrie Wood of the Ohio Public Defenders Office in her arguments before the high court this spring.

Under the DNA testing statute, Wood argued, "an applicant who is sentenced to probation receives more protection to ensure appropriate access to post-conviction DNA testing than someone who is sentenced to death."

Noling isn't asking for anything more than other convicted felons, Wood reasoned. He's not looking for special rights. He just wants the same rights to be extended to defendants sentenced to die, she argued.

The law was put on the books to "potentially identify wrongfully convicted people in the state of Ohio," she said. Why make it harder for people facing a death sentence to do that?

That's an important function of post-conviction DNA testing, especially for those facing execution, she added.

The state's highest court agreed. The statute, Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor explained in the 4-3 decision, violates the constitutional right to equal protection because it creates a different appellate process for capital and non-capital offenders by giving those sentenced to death only the possibility, rather than the right, to have their appeal heard.

Seeing no rational basis for the distinction, the court severed the offending portion of the statute, opening the door for eligible capital offenders like Noling to have the right to appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court when challenging a trial court's denial of a request for post-conviction DNA testing. (While all seven justices agreed that the Ohio statute was unconstitutional, they disagreed how to remedy the problem; hence, the 4-3 split.)

Portage County Prosecutor Victor V. Vigluicci, arguing for the state, said the Ohio legislature had every right to restrict the appeals of death-row inmates and that doing so was a way to ensure speedy justice.

The law is there to protect against "endless, endless requests for DNA -- this case is the poster child for that," Vigluicci told the justices in May. "This is the third request for DNA from this defendant. And here I am again, in the Supreme Court, 27 years after the murder."

Chief Justice O'Connor rejected that argument, saying that the appeals process actually took longer when capital defendants like Noling had to ask the seven justices on the Ohio Supreme Court to review their cases, something the high court can refuse to do.

"Finding no legitimate purpose in a two-track appellate process that discriminates between capital and non-capital offenders, we hold that R.C. 2953.73(E)(1) is unconstitutional in violation of both state and federal principles of equal protection," the chief justice wrote.

What does this mean for Noling?

Because of the court's ruling, Noling is now entitled to have his post-conviction DNA testing appeal heard by the Supreme Court. He has 45 days to file a brief arguing the merits of his case.

Sentenced to death for the murders when he was 23, Noling, now 44, and his defense team believe one way to find "the actual perpetrator" is through state-of-the-art DNA testing.

"The Ohio Supreme Court took a much-needed step towards ensuring that all of Ohio's prisoners receive appellate review when their requests for DNA testing are denied," said Wood in a prepared statement.

"DNA testing has been responsible for 10 of Ohio's 56 exonerations and it is a critical tool for Tyrone Noling, who has already served over twenty years on death row for a crime he did not commit.

"Mr. Noling continues to seek DNA testing of key evidence, access to the national ballistics database, as well as results of DNA testing in his case which the state has refused to release. Our hope is Mr. Noling will be granted access to the information and testing needed to resolve his case fairly," Wood said.

At his sentencing more than two decades ago, Noling had this to say: "Someday, maybe someday, the truth will come out."
Cleveland police tape

Cleveland police are investigating after two people were found dead in the cab of a semi-truck parked near the Cuyahoga River.

(File photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland police are investigating after two people were found dead in a semi early Wednesday near the Cuyahoga River.



The man and woman were found just after midnight in a truck parked in a lot at East 9th Street and Canal Road, police say.



Officers identified the pair as Jonathan Taylor, 56, and Sylvia Dority, 63, according to a police report. Both are Cleveland residents.



It's unclear how long the bodies were there.



A man told police he noticed the semi with its engine running in that same location last week when he took a break. He noticed the same semi Wednesday morning as he took another break.

The man knocked on the window and peered inside. He saw Taylor lying face-down on the floor of the cab. He called police and paramedics, and firefighters were able to break open a window so officials could get inside.



Police discovered Dority bent over a bed in the sleeper-cab with her knees on the floor, police say.



Officers found what they believed to be a crack pipe underneath her body, the report says.

Police identified both people using photos on their driver's licenses.



A medical examiner was not able to determine the cause of their deaths, and police noted drug use "may not be the cause," the report says.



Officers learned a missing persons complaint was filed for both Taylor and Dority. Taylor's father planned to retrieve the truck from East 9th Street at a later time, police say.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office said they would perform autopsies on the bodies as early as Thursday.

To comment on this post, please visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments section.
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Demonstrators march for the legalization of marijuana outside of the White House, in Washington, Saturday, April 2, 2016. During the march they demanded Obama use his authority to stop marijuana arrests and pardon offenders. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

President Obama issued 78 pardons and commuted 153 prisoners' sentences this week. He's granted clemency to 1,324 Americans thus far, and his critics are not happy. But most presidents come under fire for pardons they grant during their last weeks in office (remember Marc Rich and Pardongate under Clinton? Or Bush Sr.'s pardons of all Iran-Contra defendants?) Do presidents abuse their clemency power? Should we get rid of the presidential pardon? Read more and vote below!

PERSPECTIVES

Obama has come under fire for using his power to pardon more than any other president in modern history. But the New York Times called Obama's pardons and commutations a show of mercy to prisoners with unjustifiably harsh sentences:

Of the 231 people who received a pardon or a reduced sentence from Mr. Obama, virtually all had been serving sentences under tough antidrug laws, including those convicted of low-level, nonviolent crimes like possession of cocaine....The president has said he has been motivated to exercise his clemency power by a belief that the sentencing system in the United States was used to lock up minor criminals -- often minorities -- for excessively long periods of time.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) called the Obama administration's decision to allow nonviolent drug convicts to apply for presidential clemency "an alarming abuse of the pardon power."

There have been cries of abuse about presidential pardon power from both sides of the aisle. Part of the resolution of the Watergate scandal was that Nixon and his top aides were pardoned by Ford. When George W. Bush granted his vice president's aide Scooter Libby clemency from serving a prison sentence, people were enraged. Bill Clinton still gets heat for his pardon of infamous financier Marc Rich. When George HW Bush pardoned all of the players in the Iran-contra cover-up, he was bitterly condemned by people who accused him of seeking to hide his own involvement in the scandal. If presidents are granting self-interested pardons and playing politics with a power that is meant to show mercy, perhaps they should be stripped of it.

Then why did your Daddy beg George Bush to pardon Scooter Libby? https://t.co/y2ecswxg33  Jonathan Grant (@Brambleman) July 7, 2016

Some say presidential pardons should be subject to a veto by Congress to prevent abuse.

We need a change to the constitution. Congress needs to be able to veto presidential pardons. I don't trust Obama#CrookedHillary #tcot  Room 101 (@suscitate) November 3, 2016

Others argue presidential pardons can be used to show mercy for those with unfair sentences. The harsh drug sentencing trends of the 90s left hundreds of thousands of people imprisoned for decades for nonviolent crimes.

@divafeminist we need to push for full presidential pardons for all non violent drug offenders  Salads Are WMDs now (@UnknownSoldier) October 31, 2015

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Justin Barkley, 38, of Dryden, N.Y., reportedly said in an Ithaca, N.Y., court that he killed William Schumacher, 52, of Candor, N.Y., because he believes Schumacher was president-elect Donald Trump.

(cleveland.com file photo)

ITHACA, New York -- A man accused of killing a UPS driver outside a Walmart earlier this month said during a court appearance that he believes he killed president-elect Donald Trump, reports say.

Police say Justin Barkley, 38, of Dryden, N.Y., shot and killed William Schumacher, 52, of Candor, N.Y., on Dec. 8. in a Walmart parking lot, then ran over Schumacher with his vehicle. He later fired at police officers and was arrested after an eight-hour standoff at his home.

According to the Ithaca Voice, Barkley said during his court appearance that he staked out the Walmart because he knew Trump would be there.

"I shot and killed Donald Trump purposely, intentionally and very proudly," Barkley said, according to the Voice. "I went there to purposely shoot and kill him and put him down."

Barkley reportedly said he could not be convinced that he had not killed anyone other than Trump.

Barkley attempted to plead guilty to second-degree murder and menacing a police officer or peace officer, but Tompkins County Court Judge John Rowley rejected the plea, instead ordering Barkley be evaluated to determine whether he is competent to stand trial, the Ithaca Journal reports.

Barkley's next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 6.

According to the Journal, Schumacher was a seasonal UPS driver who had stopped at the Walmart to get something to eat during his overnight shift. Schumacher was shot at about 1 a.m.

Barkley is a former social worker at St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center and also worked at the Office of Children and Family Services' Finger Lakes Residential Center, North Country Now reports. He was not employed at either facility at the time of the shooting.

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit cleveland.com's crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A group of influential Cleveland-area Republican donors, including Donald Trump's Ohio finance chair, are backing the effort to oust Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges.

Ed Crawford is among the signatories of a letter, dated Dec. 20 and sent to Ohio Republican Party committee members, that publicly supports Borges' challenger, Jane Timken of Stark County. It says Timken is "uniquely qualified" to unify the party, while alleging that Borges failed to fully support Trump's candidacy, and by doing so, could have cost him the election. (Scroll down to read the letter.)

The group -- which also includes restaurateur Tony George, financial executive Mike Gibbons, construction executive Mark Small, businessman Bill Summers and investment adviser Jim Wert -- cumulatively donated $37,500 to state-level Republican candidates over the past 12 months, according to state campaign finance data. The letter, also signed by Brook Park Mayor Tom Coyne, reads that the group helped raise millions of dollars for Republican candidates in 2016 by organizing fundraisers in Cleveland, Canton, Cincinnati and Columbus.

In a Wednesday phone interview, Crawford told cleveland.com that a change in party leadership is needed to help mend the disconnect between the Ohio Republican Party and the Republican National Committee. Crawford, chairman and chief executive of Park-Ohio Holdings Corp., hosted Trump at a fundraiser at his Lake County home this past September, and similarly hosted Republican nominee Mitt Romney in September 2012.

"We feel like want to clear up any thorny issues from the previous closing of the campaign, and we think the change is timely," said Crawford, who served as a delegate for Ohio Gov. John Kasich at this year's Republican National Convention. "It's not necessarily any negative comment about Matt Borges. But most of us ran on a change concept, and some of us don't want to start the new year in Ohio worrying about the RNC's position, or where the president might be."

The power struggle for control of the state GOP can be viewed as a proxy fight that stems from Kasich's unsuccessful bid for the presidency this year. Kasich, who is close to Borges, conspicuously withheld his support for Trump, despite a pledge to support his party's eventual nominee. In a letter to central committee members on Sunday, Trump's Ohio campaign director, Bob Paduchik, again accused Borges of undermining Trump's candidacy in the support of a planned future bid for chairmanship of the Republican National Committee.

In his letter, Paduchik, who recently was elevated to a top RNC leadership position, said Trump had given his blessing to Timken's candidacy for state party chair.

The letter that Crawford and others sent notably lacks signatures from a couple of major Cleveland-area GOP donors. Civic leader Dick Pogue did not sign the letter, and former Ohio House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, a Borges backer, last Friday told central committee members that retired medical equipment manufacturer Mal Mixon has committed to continuing to support the state party leadership.

In a statement, Ohio Republican Party spokesman Brittany Warner said Borges has the necessary votes -- he needs 34 of the committee's 66 members -- to keep his job. The state GOP's central committee will meet on Jan. 6 to choose between Borges and Timken.

"The race comes down to a vote of the 66 members, and Chairman Borges has enough confirmed commitments to be re-elected," Warner said.
An international pariah at the end of the 20th century for its role in conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Kosovo, Serbia has undergone a long rehabilitation to reach where it can approach the European Union (EU) for membership. "Our main orientation and goal is to be part of the EU that is very rational and reasonable," Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told CNBC in Belgrade on Friday.

watch now

Vucic is symbolic of Serbia's rehabilitation into the West. During the breakup an war among states of the former Yugoslavia, he served as Minister of Information under President Slobodan Milosevic, who was later charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. U-turn However, now Vucic is a pro-European reformist steering Serbia's EU bid. In particular, he has led the way in normalizing relations with Kosovoa key requirement for EU membership. Vucic was rewarded at the start of this year, when Serbia was allowed to start accession negotiations. This means it is on route to membershipas long as reforms continue. "All of Serbia is ready to join the EU," Serb agriculture tycoon Miodrag Kostic told CNBC on Friday. "If you look at the map, it makes no sense that Serbia should be out of the EU and we will have much more benefit if we join as soon as possible."

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This June, Vucic called on ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo to participate in its national elections, following years of encouragement by Belgrade to boycott them. His efforts were rewarded when tens of thousands of Kosovar Serbs turned out at the polls. Difficulties materialized however when the election results proved inconclusive, with the outgoing prime minister narrowly failing to secure enough seats to hold power. This ignited a row between the ruling party and the opposition over who should form the next government. This has been taken to Kosovo's constitutional court, where the debate is seen dragging on for months. During this time, Kosovo will remain without a formal government. This is a big blow to Vucic, because stability in the Balkans is viewed as crucial to securing Serbia's accession. Its bid is unlikely to progress while Kosovo on its doorstep remains so unstable. 'Worse than hell' Crunch time for the prime minister and his Serbian Progressive Party could be autumn, when a raft of public sector cuts come into effect, aimed at decreasing the country's sky-high deficit prior to joining the EU. Strict cuts are planned to the number of government employees and to wages and pensions. New privatization, bankruptcy, labor and construction laws are also slated. "That is all going to come in with a bang potentially cause a lot of social tension," William Bartlett, an academic specializing in south-east Europe at the London School of Economics told CNBC. "It will be bad news for Serbia if it is going to run into economic and social problems in autumn, but has no good news to offer on accession." Vucic also saw problems ahead. "It is not an easy situationwe have been delaying all reforms for decades." "Whenever you try do any kind of reforms in the Balkansit doesn't matter whether that is Croatia, Bosnia or Serbiait is going to be worse than hellBut I am absolutely dedicated."

Walter Bibikow | Photolibrary | Getty Images

Record flooding Meanwhile, the country is grappling with the aftermath of this year's floods, which killed 60 people across Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia. Preliminary estimates put the damage at $2 billion-$2.7 billion in Serbia. The agriculture sector, which accounts for about 10 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) was particularly badly hit, with most of the arable land in affected areas destroyed. These places also remain infested with mosquitoes, a problem which extends to a lesser degree all the way to Belgrade.

As an EU candidate country, Serbia can apply for financial aid from its Solidarity Fund. This helps member states which have suffered severe natural disasters, assuming the damage exceeds 0.64 percent of gross domestic product. In addition, the EU allocated 65 million euros ($88 million) in May to help the three countries affected.



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An Oracle employee has publicly announced his resignation via LinkedIn after learning that Safra Catz, CEO of the software firm, joined U.S President-elect Donald Trump's transition team.



In a post addressed to Catz on Monday, George A. Polisner, who managed Oracle's Cloud services, described how he refused to help Trump "in any way." Fierce opposition to Trump's retirement, social and economic policies led Polisner to resign from Oracle, which he referred to as "a once great company."
"We started out the week trying to figure out if the market would hold higher, to have Santa take it to 20,000. The small caps held higher. The techs that broke out last week retested the breakout level. The banks, which everyone says are overbought, haven't pulled in, and oil broke $51/$52, retested it and held," said Scott Redler, partner with T3live.com.

The came within 13 points of the big round milestone Tuesday, but just a short hop away at 19,974, up 91 points and a new record. The was up 8 at 2,270, within reach of its all-time high of 2,277.

Stocks could take their cue from oil Wednesday as the Dow continues to edge toward 20,000.

in NYMEX trading, but West Texas Intermediate futures for February popped in late trading to above $53.50 per barrel. The American Petroleum Institute's crude supplies declined by 4.2 million barrels, while analysts expect decline of 2.4 million barrels. The Energy Information Administration reports the government's inventory data at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

"Oil might be the sector that brings the Dow over 20,000," said Redler. "It was a broad-based rally that got us over 19,000. It's been a lot of rotation and the same stuff that got us up to 20,000."

Redler said the market has been following technicals faithfully since the election. He said the tone looks good, but he has some concern about the potential for geopolitical risks after the truck attack in Berlin, where a driver ran into a crowd at a Christmas fair on Monday.

"The postelection move has been very technical. The market would break above barriers or records, extend and then pullback and the retest would hold. This has been healthy, as those who missed the first, second or third move had some time to position on the slight pullbacks," he said.

Redler said a move to 2,300 in the S&P 500 could encourage end-of-year follow-through and nudge the Dow toward 20,250.

Strategists have been focused on the fact the market has evolved from being highly correlated to where stock moves are extremely dispersed. In theory, that should have been a positive for stock pickers and could continue to be.

Chris Verrone of Strategas Research Partners of the S&P 500 benchmark than at any time in the last decade.

"The temptation is to say that correlation correlates inversely to equity market direction, and I will say in down markets, correlation tends to rise," said Julian Emanuel, equity and derivatives strategist at UBS. "But just because dispersion in the market is as great as it is right now, doesn't imminently say we're due for a pause. In our view, what argues for a potential pause in the market is the fact that we're trading 19.2 times 2016 earnings and consensus expects 2017 earnings to grow by 12.4 percent, so there is a very hopeful case priced into the equities market right now."

Emanuel does not expect a big pullback. "The difference between this year and last year is that people are much more comfortable owning stocks with prospects of higher growth out there this year than they were last year," he said. He said the Fed rate hike in December, 2015 was also ill-timed because of the weak readings on the economy in January 2016.

"You're going to see a continued rotation but towards the laggards. You see a lot of them in tech and health care and some of those have lagged since the election in particular," he said. "It's probably a less discrete rotation away from the winners and more of a distinct rotation into the laggards."

For Wednesday, there are existing home sales for November reported at 10 a.m. There are also a few earnings reports including , , and Paychex before the bell. , and Red Hat report after the close.








Research shows that 88% of wealthy people devote at least 30 minutes a day to reading. If it works for them, it could work for you. Below, we've rounded up 12 of our favorite books, from personal finance classic to new releases, to work your way through over the next 12 months. Here's to a prosperous 2017! 1. "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill Journalist Napoleon Hill researched more than 500 self-made millionaires, including Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and Charles M. Schwab, before releasing this 1937 best-seller. Hill's timeless personal finance classic will help you understand that getting rich is more about mentality above anything else. In fact, he barely mentions the words "money," "wealth," or "finances." Rather, he explains the psychological barriers that hold many people back from building fortunes  and teaches you how to start thinking your way to success.

2. "Business Adventures" by John Brooks Rich people tend to believe starting a business is the fastest way to make money. This read, endorsed by self-made billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, will teach you just how to do that ... but not the way a conventional business book does. "Unlike a lot of today's business writers, Brooks didn't boil his work down into pat how-to lessons or simplistic explanations for success (How many times have you read that some company is taking off because they give their employees free lunch?)" Gates explains. "You won't find any listicles in his work. Brooks wrote long articles that frame an issue, explore it in depth, introduce a few compelling characters, and show how things went for them." Don't let the 1969 publication date throw you off. While a lot has changed in the business world since the 1960's, the fundamentals of building a strong business have not, Gates writes, adding, "Brooks's deeper insights about business are just as relevant today as they were back then."

3. "The Little Book of Common Sense Investing" by John C. Bogle

One of the most effective ways to build wealth is to invest. At least, if you do it correctly. Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group and creator of the world's first index fund, details the simplest and most efficient investment strategy: Investing in low-cost index funds. Legendary investor Warren Buffett also says that every investor, large and small, should pick up a copy.

4. "The Essays of Warren Buffett" by Warren Buffett and Lawrence A. Cunningham If a blurb by Buffett doesn't entice you, get directly inside the billionaire's head with this collection of letters and notes written by the "Oracle of Omaha." The 700+ page book offers a clearer picture of Buffett's philosophies on business, investing, and life.

5. "Tools of Titans" by Tim Ferriss What does it take to be a billionaire? Best-selling author Tim Ferriss' latest book explores the daily routines and habits of celebrities, professional athletes, hedge fund managers and others. Ferriss went straight to the sources and interviewed more than 200 world-class performers. For a sneak peak, check out one, peculiar habit that the wealthiest, most successful people share.

6. "The Richest Man in Babylon" by George S. Clason Nearly a century ago, Clason revealed the "secret" to getting rich in his 1926 personal finance classic. It turns out that the "secret" isn't much of one. All it takes to get rich is mastering a few simple concepts, such as paying yourself first and living within your means, which Clason preaches via a collection of entertaining parables.

7. "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki Kiyosaki shatters the myth that you need to earn a lot of money to get rich in this best-seller. By telling the story of two dads  his own, and the father of his best friend  he explains how to build wealth even with a small salary. Additionally, Kiyosaki challenges the popular belief that your house is an asset, details the differences between how rich people and average people choose to get paid, and emphasizes the critical difference between an asset and a liability.

8. "The Automatic Millionaire" by David Bach Self-made millionaire and financial advisor David Bach exposes a handful of money misconceptions in his easy-to-read best-seller. You don't need a budget, you don't need to make a lot of money, and you don't even need willpower to accumulate a fortune, he writes.

9. "How Rich People Think" by Steve Siebold When Steve Siebold started interviewing hundreds of millionaires and billionaires, he was "completely broke and searching for answers about success I wasn't finding in the classroom," he writes. "What I discovered was, to get rich, I had to learn to think like a rich person. ... Once I changed my thinking, the money started to flow." Anyone has the opportunity to build wealth, he stresses in "How Rich People Think," and it all starts with changing your mindset. For a sneak peak, check out the number one way rich people view the world differently than the average person.

11. "The Power of Broke" by Daymond John

"Shark Tank" investor and entrepreneur Daymond John turned $40 worth of fabric into a $6 billion brand, FUBU. Along the way, he's been rejected a lot and has lost a lot. Being broke, however, offers at least one major advantage: It sparks creativity and out-of-the-box solutions, he explains in "The Power of Broke." Don't write off your chances of wealth and success if your bank account is low, he suggests. Use it to your advantage.
Check out which companies are making headlines after the bell on Wednesday:

Bed Bath & Beyond shares tumbled more than 5 percent in extended-trade Wednesday after the retailer posted quarterly earnings and revenue that missed analysts' expectations. The company posted fiscal third-quarter earnings of 85 cents a share, 13 cents below what analysts' predicted. Revenue came in at $2.96 billion, missing expectations for $3.01 billion, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Comparable sales were also down 1.4 percent in the third quarter, compared to a decrease of 0.4 percent in the same period last year.

Shares of Micron Technology jumped more than 9 percent Wednesday after the bell, following the memory-chip maker reported its first rise in quarterly revenue in nearly two years. Micron posted fiscal first-quarter earnings of 32 cents a share on revenue of $3.97 billion. Analysts expected 28 cents a share on revenue of $3.98 billion, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters. Micron CEO Mark Durcan said a positive market, driven by favorable demand and limited industry supply, aided in the results for the quarter.

Herman Miller shares fall 6 percent in after hours trade Wednesday after the furniture maker said sales in its fiscal second quarter fell 0.5 percent. The company posted earnings of 54 cents per share on revenue of $578 million.

Brian Walker, CEO of Herman Miller, said even though North America sales were below expectations this quarter, the company delivered strong organic sales growth in specific businesses. Despite the earnings upset, Herman Miller shares have increased 24 percent since the beginning of the year.

Shares of Boeing inched higher in extended trading Wednesday after President-elect Donald Trump met with the company's chief executive and CEO of Lockheed Martin . After the meeting with Trump, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said the Air Force One will cost less than $4.2 billion. Trump had previously complained that the price of plane was too expensive. Lockheed Martin shares were slightly lower in after hours trade.
Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and Republican strategist Barry Bennett have formed a Washington consulting firm to support the president-elect's agenda.

The firm, Avenue Strategies, said Wednesday it will be a "full service government relations and consulting firm" only "a block from the White House." Lewandowski, an early Trump supporter who later stoked controversy as a paid contributor on CNN, said he considered "multiple opportunities" in Trump's administration before deciding to consult.

"It is necessary to have strong, organized groups who can help ensure the president-elect's agenda is achieved. My goal is to make sure the priorities of the Trump administration become reality," he said in a statement.

The formation of the firm aiming to help Trump's policy goals follows a campaign in which Trump pledged to reduce the influence of money in the political process.

Lewandowski had been accused of grabbing then-Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields at a March campaign event in Florida. Prosecutors decided not to prosecute him. In June, he was fired from the Trump campaign and then became a CNN commentator. He left the network after Trump's election.

Bennett worked on Ben Carson's presidential campaign before serving as an advisor to Trump.
European shares closed lower on Wednesday as concerns increased regarding the stability of the Italian banking system .

Meanwhile in the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was flat though investors remained wary the index could continue its march towards 20,000 having closed around 25 points away in the previous session.

Oil stocks closed lower on Wednesday on news that the U.S. President Barack Obama had banned a new oil drilling in Alaska forever.

Banking stocks opened slightly higher on Wednesday but became one of the worst-performers following news the embattled Monte dei Paschi could run out of cash within four months. Shares of the Italian lender were briefly suspended in both morning and afternoon trade, before closing 12 percent lower down.

Looking at specific stocks, Actelion ended close to the top of the pan-European index, jumping more than 6 percent. After the close of European trade, the Swiss biotech company said it was in exclusive talks with U.S. healthcare company Johnson & Johnson.

Mediaset outperformed most of its European peers. Its shares were 2.8 percent higher as the French media giant Vivendi said earlier this week that it intended to extend its share in the Italian company until the 30 percent threshold.

Spain's Banco Popular announced on Wednesday after the European close that its board had unanimously proposed Emilio Saracho as chairman and agreed to hold an extraordinary meeting in February in order for its shareholders to vote on the proposal. Its shares were the worst performing of the pan-European index on Wednesday and closed down 5.8 percent.

Shares of the German carmaker Volkswagen closed higher on Wednesday. The company has confirmed that it will spend an additional $1 billion to settle claims in the U.S. over the emissions test scandal.

German authorities continued searching for a suspect who drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 49 on Monday afternoon.

In Turkey, six people have been detained as authorities investigate the assassination of the Russian ambassador to the country on Monday evening.
If you've been listening to Germany's economy minister and deputy chancellor Sigmar Gabriel recently, you might be under the impression that China is about to take over Europe and the industrialized world.



However, that's all changed. This month Beijing announced new capital controls measures, including curbs on international renminbi payments and gold imports and, crucially, restrictions on outbound mergers and acquisitions.



The volume and number of Chinese acquisitions in the U.S., European Union and Japan has been accelerating in recent years. In the first three quarters of 2016, Chinese acquisitions in the U.S., Western Europe and developed Asia totalled $208 billion. This compares to $97 billion in the same period in 2015, $44 billion in 2014 and $30 billion in 2013.



The driver behind this trend has been China's need to acquire know-how to close the gap with more advanced economies. Crucially, China needs processes and technology to improve productivity that would take too much time to develop on its own, leaving it with little choice but to buy them outside.



However, the downside to this flow of money out of China has been downward pressure on the renminbi, which Chinese authorities want to reverse.
At the age of 16, Mark Erwin was behind bars. He had been caught committing fraud, forging his mother's signature on checks to get cash.



"I was sitting in jail for a felony that I did in fact commit," Erwin told CNBC.



The teenager had been kicked out of high school. His mother suffered from alcoholism and the family was squandering an inheritance from previous generations.



He couldn't even vote yet and he was close to screwing up his life. While awaiting his sentencing, he prayed for a second chance.



He got one. When Erwin entered the courtroom, the judge offered him the opportunity to trade four years of jail time in exchange for court-ordered service in the military. Erwin accepted, and during his time at the Air Force, he read two books that changed his life.

"Somebody gave me two dog-eared paperback books," Erwin recalls, "and said, 'You need to read these books.'"



The books were "The Power of Positive Thinking" by Norman Vincent Peale and "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill.



"I started reading them and I couldn't stop," he says.
Hyundai Motor America removed Chief Executive Dave Zuchowski from his position on Wednesday after failing to meet internal sales goals, CNBC confirmed.

Jerry Flannery, general counsel and an executive vice president of the U.S. division of the South Korean automaker, will serve as interim CEO, effective immediately, Automotive News first reported. Zuchowski had been CEO since January 2014, after joining the company as U.S. sales chief in 2007, according to the publication.

Although Zuchowski was removed for failing to meet internal sales goals, Hyundai's U.S. sales this year are up 2.1 percent, while the rest of the market has been basically flat.

Hyundai declined to comment to CNBC.

 Reporting by CNBC's Phil LeBeau. Written by Antonio Jose Vielma.
Wilbur Ross, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for Commerce Secretary, wears a 'Make America Great Again Hat' as he speaks briefly to reporters at Trump Tower, November 29, 2016 in New York City.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump plans to put his pick for Commerce Secretary, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, in charge of his get-tough trade policy, a transition team spokesman said on Tuesday.

It is a signal of how Trump, who is also interviewing candidates to be the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), plans to elevate a crackdown on competitors in the world market and the overhaul of trade deals that he says have hurt U.S. factory jobs.



The USTR will not be merged with Commerce, but Trump transition team spokesman Jason Miller made clear that most trade policy decisions would be steered by Ross, who made a good part of his fortune by investing in distressed steel companies that benefited from stiff import tariffs imposed by former President George W. Bush in the early 2000s.



"Mr. Ross not only has negotiated some very good deals over his lifetime, he's also the person who worked closely with the president-elect on crafting his trade policy over the administration," Miller told reporters during a daily transition briefing. "Mr. Ross will be playing a big role in any trade particulars in this administration."



The move also marks a notable shift from trade policy management in President Barack Obama's administration, where USTR Michael Froman was seen as the main trade architect, negotiating a 12-country Pacific Rim trade deal that ultimately failed to win approval in Congress.



"It looks like the USTR office is being downgraded and subordinated to Commerce," said Derek Scissors, a trade expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank in Washington.



"That's a big change because USTR is this small elite trade agency right across from the White House."
Some fear that robots and AI will steal our jobs. They probably will (in the near-term, at least half of them). If that happens, what will we do for a living? How will we earn money?

More from Peter Diamandis:

Reinventing Food

Human Intelligence (HI)

Only Amazon Could Make a Checkout-Free Grocery Store a Reality In this blog I'll be discussing one of the most important proposed solutions to job loss due to automation: The notion of "Universal Basic Income" (sometimes called guaranteed minimum income).

In specific, I want to discuss:

Predictions on job loss What is Universal Basic Income? Who is experimenting with it? Does UBI work? What are the implications? Let's dive in.



Predictions on job loss

In 2013, Dr Carl Benedikt Frey of the Oxford Martin School estimated that 47 percent of jobs in the US are "at risk" of being automated in the next 20 years. The figure was recently verified recently by McKinsey & Company who suggests that 45 percent of jobs today will be automated by using exponential technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics and 3D printing. The concept is called technological unemployment, and most careers, from factory workers and farmers to doctors and lawyers, are likely to be impacted. The impact will likely be even more severe in the developing world.

The expected implications of technological unemployment vary widely. Individuals like Ray Kurzweil and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen believe that while today's jobs will perish, new jobs will be created by technology to replace them. Other experts project that technological unemployment will be massively disruptive to society. Still others believe that society will adapt, first by constantly demonetizing our cost of living and next by the the widespread deployment of "universal basic income." (NOTE: In case you missed it, in a previous blog I covered, in detail, how we are in the process of massively demonetizing the cost of living.)



What is Universal Basic Income? Who is experimenting? Universal basic income (UBI) is a policy in which all citizens of a country regularly receive an unconditional sum of money, either from a government or some other public institution, in addition to any income received from other means. UBI's core motivation  to address social ills by giving people "free" money  is certainly not a new idea. For some perspective, Thomas Paine outlined a plan in his 1797 essay "Agrarian Justice" to create a national fund making payments of 15 pounds sterling to each adult over 21 years old.

Portrait of Thomas Paine (Thetford, 1737 - New York, 1809) DEA Picture Library | Getty Images

Today, experiments with UBI are spreading across the world, from Finland and the Netherlands to Canada and France. In France, several members of Parliament have supported running an experiment, and the finance minister is open to it. In the last decade, over eight countries have formally experimented with UBI. Here are the top three active experiments worth noting: Finland: Early next year, the Finnish government will launch an experiment in which a randomly selected group of ~3,000 citizens already on unemployment benefits will begin to receive a monthly basic income of 560 euros (approx. $600). That basic income will replace their existing benefits. The amount is the same as the current guaranteed minimum level of Finnish social security support. The pilot study, running for two years in 2017-2018, aims to assess whether basic income can help reduce poverty, social exclusion and bureaucracy, while increasing the employment rate. Netherlands: The local government in the Dutch city of Utrecht is planning to conduct an experiment that would give a guaranteed monthly income to 250 Dutch citizens currently receiving government benefits. A two-year test period is tentatively set to begin in January of next year, and some citizens of Utrecht and some nearby cities will receive a flat sum of 960 per month (about $1,100). The Utrecht proposal  called "Weten Wat Werkt," or "Know What Works"  includes six test groups, and the members in each will receive slightly different stipends under slightly different conditions. In addition to the group that will receive 960 per month without any work obligations, there is a group that will be given that, plus an additional 150 at the end of the month if they provide volunteer services, such as doing maintenance work on schoolyards. India: Over 350 million people (about 30% of the population) remain below the poverty line after two decades of high economic growth. In that context, in 2011 India launched two pilots to test the impact of basic income grants, funded by UNICEF, with SEWA as coordinator. In eight villages in Madhya Pradesh, every man, woman, and child was provided with a monthly payment of, initially, 200 rupees for each adult and 100 rupees for each child paid to the mother or guardian; these were later raised to 300 and 150, respectively. They also operated a similar scheme in a tribal village, where for 12 months every adult was paid 300 rupees a month and every child got 150. Another tribal village was used as a comparison. The money was paid individually, initially as cash and after three months into bank or cooperative accounts.

In January, Sam Altman, the president of Y Combinator, announced that the San Francisco-based startup fund was organizing a basic income study in the U.S.



Does UBI work?

While the implementation of UBI at scale is still in its early days, the results are promising. Early results in the India experiment show nutrition was improved as measured by the average weight-for-age of young children (World Health Organization z-score), and more so among girls. In the same study, the UBI grants led to more labor and work, not less, as expected by skeptics. There was a shift from casual wage labor to more self-employed farming and business activity, with less distress-driven migration out of the region. Women gained more than men.

Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, October 23, 1974 Getty Images

That being said, the most compelling study demonstrating how universal basic income could work comes from a small town in Canada. From 1974 to 1979, the Canadian government partnered with the province of Manitoba to run an experiment on the idea of providing a minimum income to residents called MINCOME. MINCOME was a guaranteed annual income offered to every eligible family in Dauphin, a prairie town of about 10,000, and smaller numbers of residents in Winnipeg and some rural communities throughout the province. So what happened to families receiving MINCOME?

They had fewer hospitalizations

They had fewer accidents and injuries

Mental health hospitalizations fell dramatically

High school graduation rates increased

Younger adolescent girls were less likely to give birth before age 25, and when they did, they had fewer kids

The program brought most recipients above Canada's poverty line. And the employment effects in Dauphin were modest. For primary earners, those with full-time jobs, there was virtually no decline in work. Essentially, nobody was quitting their jobs. Cash from the government eased families' economic anxiety, allowing them to invest in their health and plan over a longer horizon. MINCOME is now serving as inspiration for basic income's comeback in Canada. In its 2016 budget, the provincial government of Ontario announced plans to conduct a basic income pilot this year.

Implications I'm fairly confident that in the near future, as technology continues to eliminate traditional jobs and massive new wealth gets created, we're going to see some version of universal basic income deployed at scale. While I think the implications of UBI are mostly positive, there are certainly many complexities associated with its rollout. There are still many questions that remain unanswered. Where is the additional money coming from? Taxes? Will UBI cause problems that we can't anticipate or create more conflict than it resolves?
Owner of the New York Observer Jared Kushner attends the New York Premiere of 'The Hunting Party' at the Paris Theater on August 22, 2007 in New York City.

President-elect Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is looking to sell his newspaper, The New York Observer, the trade newspaper Women's Wear Daily reported on Wednesday.

It was unclear how much Kushner hopes to get in a sale. Kushner bought the newspaper for $10 million in 2006, according to reports at the time.
Kit Kat by Nestle Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

Swiss food conglomerate Nestle is about to get its first outside CEO in nearly a century in a move that could bring asset sales, more focus on health-related categories and steps to reinvigorate the confectionery business.

Incoming CEO Ulf Mark Schneider, a health-care veteran, starts work Jan. 1. His hiring earlier this year was a signal to investors that the board wants change. Nestle is the world's biggest food company in terms of revenue, although some analysts forecast 2016 could bring its worst organic sales growth in more than a decade.

Besides its chocolate and confectionery businesses, the packaged foods company sells baby food, dairy products, coffee, frozen pizza and pet food. The company's Nestle Health Science division also is active in food and nutrition products geared to patients with diabetes, obesity and Alzheimer's.

Nestle's incoming CEO Ulf Mark Schneider is starting January 1. Source: Nestle | Flickr

"They need a change in their business strategy where there's more focus on health and less focus on the particular snack categories," said Lianne van den Bos, a senior food analyst at Euromonitor International. She said the hiring of an outsider is "a clear sign of having a bit of a shakeup in the Nestle structure." Nestle  a multinational company that sells brands ranging from KitKat candy bars to Dreyer's ice cream  has faced challenges in the confectionery and snack space due to a consumer shift away from sugars to more health-conscious foods. There's also been the impact of smaller food and beverage companies with disruptive brands that have more effectively responded to new trends. U.S.-traded shares of Nestle are down this year while the is up almost 13 percent through Tuesday. Nestle also is down over the past three years while the broad-based stock index is up almost 25 percent in the same stretch. Nestle announced in June that Schneider would replace CEO Paul Bulcke, who began his career with Nestle in 1979 and is slated to become chairman. Schneider was chief executive of German health-care company Fresenius for 13 years. The last time Nestle brought in an outsider to fill the CEO slot was in 1922.

In our view, Nestle's culture can be best described as introverted and lackadaisical, especially in its attitude towards cost control and profitability. James Edwardes Jones RBC Capital
The U.S. Department of Agricultures National Agricultural Statistics Service released its results for the first nationwide Local Food Marketing Practices Survey Tuesday. The survey was designed to collect data related to the marketing of foods directly from farms and produce official benchmark data on the local food sector in the United States.

In 2015, 4,148 Tennessee farms reported direct farm sales of food, including value-added products, bringing in a combined $58,720,441. Tennessee ranks 15th in the United States in the number of farms selling foods locally.

We know that many people care about what they eat and want to know where their food comes from, Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Jai Templeton said. This survey shows what that farmer-to-consumer relationship is worth in Tennessee. Im proud to see our state rank 15th in the nation for the number of farms that sell local foods. As more people learn about that impact and value, I believe new customers will seek out farm-fresh options and push Tennessee even higher up the list.

A further breakdown of data shows:

Direct Farm Sales*

Total farms, excluding value-added products: 1,648

Total sales, excluding value-added products: $29,143,351

Total farms, only value-added products: 2,954

Total sales, only value-added products: $29,577,090

Direct to Consumer Sales**

Total farms, including value-added products: 3,748

Total sales, including value-added products: $41,413,614

The number of farms selling directly to consumers increased more than 500 in the three years since the Census of Agriculture data, said Debra Kenerson, Tennessee state statistician. This shows tremendous growth in a short period of time. With $58 million in total sales, its also a real opportunity for more farmers to capitalize on the buy local movement.

In the United States 167,009 farms reported selling $8.7 billion in edible food directly to consumers, retailers, institutions and local distributors.

*Direct farm sales of food (crops and livestock raised on Tennessee farms) includes farms selling to:

 Institutions and intermediary businesses (schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, wholesalers, processors, distributors)

 Retailers (grocery stores, restaurants, caterers, food cooperatives)

 Direct to consumers

**Direct to consumer sales, a subset of direct farm sales, include:

 Farmers markets, onsite farm stores, roadside stands, Community Supported Agriculture arrangements, online sales, pick-your-own operations, and mobile markets.

Sales categories include both fresh food and value-added products (edible processed foods) such as bottled milk, cheese, meat, jam, cider, and wine.

For a full breakdown of all the data, visit https://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2012/Online_Resources/Local_Food/index.php. For more information, call Debra Kenerson at (615) 891-0903, or (800) 626-0987.


In this June 11, 2015 photo,Talia Pisano stands in her bed at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago. Talia is getting tough treatment for kidney cancer that spread to her brain.

The death of a child is an event no parent can ever truly move beyond. Though grief is a lifelong process, for some a personal tragedy such as this can be a springboard to launch an organization focused on bringing attention to an important cause.

That was the case for Jill and Mazen Kamen, who officially launched the Kamen Brain Tumor Foundation last month after losing their 19-year-old son in April to brain cancer. In 2009 he had been diagnosed with a type of rapidly growing brain tumor called a high-grade astrocytoma that, despite aggressive treatment, eventually evolved into a glioblastoma  the highly malignant brain tumor that also took the lives of Vice President Joe Biden's son, Beau, in 2015 and former Sen. Ted Kennedy in 2009. "The first phase is shock when your child is diagnosed," said Mazen. "You can't believe it. You start questioning the why, the where. It's like someone has hit you with a Mack truck. You have to go through that. But you also have to regroup yourself very quickly, because now you have a long, tedious road ahead. And you really have to do your homework very quickly and efficiently, if you can, to face this."

Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common and deadliest of the glial tumors because the cells reproduce so rapidly. The tumor grows by turning normal brain cells into stem cells, which continuously replicate and regrow. So even if a tumor is surgically removed, it is difficult to extract every cancerous cell; any left behind will result in the growth of a new tumor. The five-year survival rate for children with glioblastoma is 25 percent.

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While there are more new cases of leukemia each year than new cases of brain cancer, in 2014 brain cancer surpassed leukemia to become the leading cause of death for those under the age of 19, a result of the great progress that has been made in leukemia treatment over the past five years. In September the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report highlighting the need for greater investment as well as new approaches for funding and conducting pediatric brain tumor research.

Dr. Jose Baselga, chief medical officer and physician-in-chief at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, says it's organizations such as the Kamen Brain Tumor Foundation that will be instrumental in driving the cure. "The science is here, so we are pushing hard," he said. "We have a very clear image of how to attack this disease. But, he says, the funding is minimal. "Only 4 percent of the NIH budget is devoted to childhood cancers. To have a foundation that is committed  They'll find sources; they'll create a community of people that will support this research."

Deadly statistics

Currently, there are 28,000 children in the United States living with a malignant brain tumor, and another 4,600 are projected to be diagnosed each year. Yet since 1985, there have been only four FDA-approved drugs to treat the more than 120 different types of brain tumors, according to the National Brain Tumor Society. And none of these are specifically aimed at treating pediatric brain tumors. Between 1998 and 2014, claims the NBTS, 78 investigational brain tumor drugs were entered into the clinical trial evaluation process, and 75 of them failed. Fortunate to have contacts in the medical field  Mazen is a cardiologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Jill a critical-care nurse by training  the Kamens immediately began investigating treatment protocols. "You need to have at least three or four opinions from major centers, and sometimes you get conflicting opinions," said Mazen. "Not only about the pathology of the tumor but also the treatment. You say, "What do I do? Who should I go with?' Ultimately, it's your gut feeling."

Over the seven years, the Kamens traveled the map, beginning with treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, then on to Duke University Medical Center to consult with neuro-oncologist Dr. Henry Friedman, the same doctor who treated former Sen. Ted Kennedy. The Duke team collaborated with Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York to devise a chemotherapy and radiation protocol that could be administered at MSK so their son could be close to home. "Our son had a mutation," said Mazen. "The question is, what made it mutate?  What we found is that even though you've found the mutation in the tumor, there's no drug to treat it."

Jill and Mazen Kamen, founders of the Kamen Brain Tumor Foundation CNBC

Frustrated with the lack of investment in research and drug development devoted to pediatric brain tumor gliomas, the Kamens decided to take action and launch their foundation. Its mission: to fund cutting-edge research to find better and safer treatment options and to provide guidance and support for families who have a loved one dealing with this devastating illness. "We want to get the word out there that we have been through this experience firsthand. And because we have inside knowledge of the medical community, we feel that we can lend that part of our experience to help others," said Jill.

Their scientific advisory council consists of a number of experts from leading medical institutions, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York Presbyterian Hospital's Weill-Cornell Medical Center and Duke University Medical Center.

The science is here, so we are pushing hard. We have a very clear image of how to attack this disease. Dr. Jose Baselga chief medical officer and physician-in-chief at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

The Kamens claim the main thing that distinguishes their foundation from other brain tumor foundations is their focus on pediatric brain cancer specifically, as well as their close ties with pharmaceutical and biotech companies working in the fields of immunotherapy and target gene therapy.



Moving closer toward a cure

Traditional therapies for brain cancer  surgery, chemotherapy and radiation  haven't been very successful, says Memorial Sloan Kettering's Dr. Baselga, adding, "We have a tremendous need to develop new therapies, especially with children." Surgery is difficult, he says, because tumors infiltrate, so it's very difficult to obtain clear margins, and radiation can be risky.

"We have to be very careful, because these children are developing their brains and the consequences of giving full-dose radiation could be lifelong lasting, so we cannot sometimes give full therapy," he said. "And then chemotherapy  you know, the brain is protected. The brain is designed so that toxins would not get there. So it is very challenging to have chemotherapy get to the brain with a good dose." More from Change the World:

5 ways to teach your kids the art of giving

America's dirty little secret: 42 million people are suffering from hunger

Answering this one question could save the lives of 1 million babies

Instead, Dr. Baselga said researchers and scientists are making strides in what he calls precision medicine, an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in environment, lifestyle and genes for each person. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, doctors and researchers will be able to predict more accurately which treatment will work for a particular person. "Today we can sequence," he said. "We can look at the genes that are abnormal in brain tumors [and] develop therapies to attack those genes." The therapies he is referring to are genomic, epigenetic and immune therapies. "This in childhood brain cancers is going to be very promising. We are teaching the immune system how to recognize the tumor cells as something we don't want. We are teaching the T cells, the lymphocytes, multiple cells to be more proactive in cleaning up the cancer cells in the brain. Epigenetic therapy attacks the way genes are being expressed."



A family of visionaries

Launching a foundation would be a daunting task for most, yet for the Kamens it's a natural calling. Mazen is the nephew of Elmer and Mamdouha Bobst  philanthropists who in 1968 established the Elmer and Mamdouha Bobst Foundation in New York. Throughout the years, the Bobsts donated millions to cancer research, education and other causes, including New York University, NYU Langone Medical Center, Princeton University, the Animal Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the American Cancer Society. In addition, the Bobsts donated $11 million in 1973 to complete New York University's library on Washington Square, which bears Elmer Bobst's name, along with $10 million to create the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice. "I was blessed and fortunate to have grown in such a family of visionaries. They have given me a lot of advice throughout my life. The most important thing is to help each other. My uncle Elmer always used to remind me of a saying: 'Service is the rent we pay for the space we occupy on Earth,'" said Mazen. "So I think if we are fortunate enough to be in a position to give, then we ought to do that." With regard to finding better and safer treatment options for children with brain tumor gliomas and providing support for their families, he added: "This is a cause we will be pursuing for the rest of our lives."
Nokia said on Wednesday it sued Apple for allegedly violating 32 of its technology patents.

The company said it filed several complaints against Apple in Germany and the United States. Nokia said since agreeing to a license covering some patents in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers to license its technology, which it said are used in many of Apple's products.

In response, an Apple spokesperson said in part, "We respect intellectual property and we've always been willing to pay a fair price to secure the rights of patents covering technology in our products. Unfortunately, Nokia has refused to license their patents on a fair basis and is now using the tactics of a patent troll to attempt to extort money from Apple by applying a royalty rate to Apple's own inventions they had nothing to do with."

Nokia's lawsuits, filed in courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich, Germany and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, cover patents for displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets and video coding.



Nokia said through its investments in research and development, it has contributed many fundamental technologies used in Apple's products.

"After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights," Ilkka Rahnasto, head of patent business at Nokia, said in a statement.

Shares of Nokia were down 2 percent Wednesday in afternoon trade. Apple's stock was little changed.

Reuters contributed to this report.
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President Barack Obama's move to block parts of the Arctic and Atlantic from oil and gas drilling could disrupt some of his successor's high-profile energy plans. Donald Trump has vocally touted his wish to boost fossil fuel production on government lands, and shortly after Obama's announcement, energy industry allies claimed Trump can brush aside the action once he takes office. But others point out that the law that Obama cited does not provide Trump a path forward, and congressional Republicans may not have the time to do anything about it either. Obama's action, the most-far reaching use of presidential power under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, also moves the issue of drilling in sensitive areas into the court of public opinion, potentially creating a public relations challenge for Trump. Environmental groups and congressional Democrats had encouraged Obama to exercise his authority to withdraw lands of the Outer Continental Shelf from future lease sales. They point out that there is no provision in the law that allows the incoming president to reverse the action.

U.S. Outer Continental Shelf





The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, countered that, saying George W. Bush proved that an override is possible when he used a memorandum to end Bill Clinton's temporary moratorium on drilling in much of the Outer Continental Shelf ahead of schedule. In any case, Trump is likely to try to rescind the decision, but that action will probably face legal challenges, perhaps by environmental groups, said David Konisky, associate professor at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs. It could take the courts multiple years to deliver a decision, he added.

The Trump transition team did not immediately return a request for comment. Congress is also unlikely to resolve the issue immediately by changing the law, Konisky said. That's partly because there is little urgency to begin exploration projects in the harsh Arctic and the undeveloped Atlantic waters, given that oil prices remain mired in a more than two-year slump. But it's also due in part to Congress' busy legislative schedule. With a Republican in the White House, the GOP is prioritizing hallmark issues like repealing and replacing Obamacare, rolling back financial regulations and cutting taxes. Its faces deadlines under the Congressional Review Act to reverse Obama-era regulations.



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Shares of Taser International popped 2 percent after announcing a deal with the Louisiana State Police, which includes more than 1,500 body cameras.

The statewide deployment is the first of its kind among state public safety agencies in the country, the department said. Taser will be providing 1,556 of its Axon Body 2 cameras, two for each member of the force. The agreement includes a five-year unlimited Evidence.com license with Axon Five image-processing software specifically designed for investigative, forensic and security applications, the company said in a news release.

Taser shares have gained 44 percent year to date, but have fallen 12 percent this quarter after the company lost the New York Police Department body cam contract to Vievu Safariland at a price that Taser described as "near or below cost."

Steve Dyer, analyst at Craig-Hallum, said the NYPD contract loss sparked fears of competition and pricing pressure among investors, but thus far appears to be "an anomaly."

The Louisiana State Police announcement concludes the agency's nearly year-long search, which began in January. Between February and September, 22 state troopers successfully piloted the Axon Body 2 cameras, the department said.

"Nothing is more important than the safety of the public we serve and the Troopers committed to that service," Colonel Mike Edmonson, the state police superintendent said. "We must ensure that we maintain transparency and accountability through proper training, sound procedures and the latest technology."

News of the deal with the Louisiana State Police comes one day after Taser announced orders from two other local law enforcement agencies. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department ordered 1,525 Taser X2 smart weapons and the Huntsville (Alabama) Police Department ordered 400 Taser X26P smart weapons. Both of those orders are also expected to ship during Taser's current quarter.



Disclosure: Craig-Hallum has received compensation from Taser for non-investment banking activities.
A Chinese man wears a protective face mask as he passes by the CCTV Headquarters on November 30, 2015, in Beijing, China. Getty Images

China is spluttering under sky-high pollution levels which have brought factories, roads and schools to a standstill for several days. State news agency Xinhua reported Tuesday that 23 cities in the Middle Kingdom have activated red alerts, the most severe weather warning. Xinhua also cited Beijing Capital International Airport's official Weibo account, which said that as of 2pm Tuesday, 273 flights had been cancelled.



Restrictions due to poor air quality have affected many aspects of life in China, including the delaying of online shopping deliveries, restaurants being prevented from cooking food should they not be fitted with fume processing equipment, and an increase in outbound passenger volumes from affected areas. Here are three more ways the Chinese smog has made headlines in recent days.



Students sit exams outside in the smog

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Nearly 500 hundred students at a school in China sat exams outside in the smog, the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday, citing Dahe News, an outlet local to the area. The school in Linzhou, located in central China's Henan province, held exams outdoors on Monday after the school was closed by the authorities due to high smog levels. Photographs circulating online show rows of pupils wearing masks while sitting their exams, with those several meters away from the camera obscured due to poor visibility. The school's principle has been quoted as saying that he intended for the students to finish their exams, considering that the assessments had been organized in advance. The Telegraph, citing China Youth News, reported Wednesday that the principal has been suspended from duty.

Smog in Beijing, China. VCG | Getty Images

Lawyers take action against the government

Chinese lawyers have filed a lawsuit against the Beijing, Hebei and Tianjin local governments for failing to prevent the smog by implementing their own environmental laws, the Financial Times reported Wednesday. A letter by the lawyers was posted on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, the Financial Times said  though these posts have since been deleted. "There are processes in China for taking the authorities to court over administrative failures," Roderic Wye, an associate fellow of the Asia program at Chatham House told CNBC via telephone. But, he added that it would be "difficult for the lawyers to reach a satisfactory conclusion."

Major port suspends operations
Pinnacle has recruited an office leader and two other financial services professionals to deliver distinctive service and effective advice for its Broad Street office.

Nora McCorkel brings 15 years of financial services experience to her role of Broad Street office leader. Robyn Hastings, with eight years of experience, is a client service specialist. Teresa Marshall has 20 years of experience and joins Pinnacle as a service specialist.

Nora, Robyn and Teresa are excellent additions to our team, said Ryan Murphy, Pinnacles Chattanooga area manager. Their financial expertise and track record of providing superior client service is a winning combination for clients and the community.

Most recently Ms. McCorkel spent 12 years at SunTrust Bank, where she served as branch manager for the banks Northgate Premier Financial Center. She attended Florida State College of Jacksonville. McCorkel volunteers with Junior Achievement of Chattanooga, teaching students about finances during Junior Achievement Day.

Ms. Hastings most recently comes from SunTrust Bank, where she was a personal banker. Previously she was with First Volunteer Bank, where roles included serving as a project manager, application specialist and financial services representative.

Before joining Pinnacle Ms. Marshall served as a teller, client service specialist and financial services representative for SunTrust Bank in Signal Mountain, TN. She has also been a customer service representative for Citizens Tri-County Bank in Signal Mountain and a loan officer for Park National Bank in Houston, Texas.

Ms. Marshall attended Edison Community College. She is active in the community and has volunteered with Signal Mountain Middle School and Signal Mountains Welfare Council.
"Like Patton, Trump does not respect a lot of the rules his predecessors have upheld for so long. Those who have knee-jerk positive or negative reactions to this are ignoring the fact that no one can predict what results will come from Trump's disrespect for those conventions."

Here's another chestnut from the general that Trump seems to live by:

"There is but one international law; the best Army!" General George S. Patton



Of course the easiest place for Trump to emulate Patton is in his capacity as the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. armed forces. Trump is well on his way to doing that. First, he chose the living general most experts believe most resembles Patton  General James Mattis  to be his Secretary of Defense.

In fact, Trump himself continues to introduce Mattis as "the closest thing we have to General George Patton." But it goes beyond that. Trump has repeatedly complained about what he sees as a weakening of the U.S. military under President Obama. He's calling for steep increases in troop levels and the number of naval ships in the American fleet. That's Pattonesque in many ways.

So too is Trump's continued calls for more secrecy and caginess in American foreign and military policy. Trump often mentions MacArthur and Patton when he says he doesn't want to reveal specific plans for military operations, thus giving the enemy a chance to prepare. During a campaign stop in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina late last year, Trump said, "I don't want my generals being interviewed."

Patton's bluntness and coarseness went beyond words. The general famously almost ended his military career prematurely by slapping a PTSD-suffering soldier at a Army hospital facility in August, 1943. Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall did not fire Patton as a commander, but he was still sidelined from combat command for almost a year.

As much as that incident hurt Patton's reputation among some people, his aggressive and frightening nature was confirmed in the eyes of America's enemies. This was especially true of the Germans, who feared Patton above all the other Allied generals. Patton was a weapon his superiors saw as a necessary blunt instrument to win the war. That was why Patton was returned to command in Europe and helped speed the pace of the stalled Allied march to Germany in 1944 and 1945.

Much like Patton, many voters see Trump as a similar blunt instrument to smash America's foreign and domestic woes. As president, it's not likely Trump will be slapping any soldiers, but his aggressive style is meant to do more than put his political opponents and media critics off guard.

Like Patton, the added goal is to frighten enemies like ISIS, al Qaeda, and terror-supporting regimes like Iran and North Korea. This might mean a bigger American naval presence in disputed waters, or more anti-ISIS bombing raids in Syria and Iraq. Trump promises not to telegraph those kinds of moves, but no one should be surprised if they happen.

Domestically, look for some kind of very visible and aggressive moves against attacks on the homeland. A big part of this will indeed be verbal as Trump has continued to immediately blame every attack on "Islamist terror" using those exact words usually much earlier than when the perpetrators are actually confirmed. Trump began that trend when he immediately blamed the San Bernardino attack last year on Islamic terror.

Like Patton, Trump is likely to act first and ask a lot of the pertinent questions later in response to any future domestic terror attacks.

"Give me an Army of West Point graduates and I'll win a battle... Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I'll win a war."  General General George S. Patton

This Patton quote, which underscored the general's belief that the Army brass weren't always the best people to get a dirty job done, seems to have played a role in at least some of Trump's cabinet choices. There's actually a real Texas Aggie in that group in former Texas Governor and Energy Secretary-Designate Rick Perry, who graduated from Texas A&M in 1972.

But "Aggies" are another way of saying the long-held norms about whom we consider to be acceptable cabinet choices don't sit well with the Trump team. That's how you get an oil company CEO picked for Secretary of State, a neurosurgeon chosen to lead HUD, and a pro wrestling industry leader to run the Small Business Administration. They fit Trump's and Patton's image of "doers" being better than the supposedly more polished and qualified.

All of this of course begs the question: Do we really want a president who seems to want to emulate one of America's all time most aggressive and volatile generals? The easy answer is that if Trump ends up as successful in his "battles" and other tests as Patton did, not many people will complain in the end.

Trump has always been betting on that exact outcome. He did just that during his many controversial moves during the election, believing that a victory in November would eventually make the criticisms and doubt irrelevant.

It'll be different once Trump is president. The stakes are higher and negatives are much more serious than just losing an election. But Trump and his supporters have always had a pretty good retort for those who say he's talking or acting too recklessly.

That is, they can and have pointed to the increased number of terror attacks in America and across the world, the growing military and political might of nations like Iran, China, and Russia, and the continuing failures in our public schools and problems with our infrastructure. And while doing so, they can and have asked: "How has the more reserved and accepted way of doing things been working out for us, not just under President Obama but for the last 30-40 years?"

Like Patton, Trump does not respect a lot of the rules his predecessors have upheld for so long. Those who have knee-jerk positive or negative reactions to this are ignoring the fact that no one can predict what results will come from Trump's disrespect for those conventions. All they can do is react to Trump much like his superiors and enemies did throughout his career and consistently expect the next president of the United States to act aggressively and unexpectedly for the next four years.

Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny.



For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
In one of his final pitches to voters last month, Donald Trump eviscerated what he called a "corrupt machine" of entrenched political leaders, corporations and donors that he said damaged the American working class.

The video tied his opponent Hillary Clinton to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and a major Democratic donor, billionaire financier George Soros.

"For those who control the levers of power in Washington, and for the global special interests, they partner with these people that don't have your good in mind," Trump said in the Nov. 6 video.

Since his election, though, Trump has stocked his administration with Blankfein's right-hand man at Goldman and two other alumni of the influential firm, one of whom worked for Soros. Several Trump Cabinet picks donated to his election effort, while his secretary of State choice led a mammoth American company with a global reach.

Past presidents have put Wall Street figures and personal donors in their administrations, as well. But after a populist message of shifting power to the forgotten helped to fuel his improbable political rise, Trump seems entirely comfortable filling his administration with the wealthy and influential, money in politics experts said.

"You're playing with fire if you ride a wave of anger against the establishment and big-money politics and then practice big-money politics," said Daniel Weiner, senior counsel at the New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice.

After Trump entered the presidential race last year, he said his wealth ensured that he did not need donors. He largely funded his own primary run before shifting to more traditional fundraising in the general election. Trump slammed former GOP opponent Sen. Ted Cruz and then Clinton for their ties to Goldman, using his populist pitch to try to win over disillusioned voters on the left who supported Wall Street critic Sen. Bernie Sanders.

In the final election push, Trump pledged to "drain the swamp" in Washington of big-money influence. Trump's transition team announced last month that it would not include lobbyists and said that members of the administration would be banned from lobbying for five years after they left the government, an effort to curb special interests in politics.

Beyond the push against lobbying, though, Trump has signaled little desire to reduce the role of the wealthy and powerful, said Sheila Krumholz, executive director at the Center for Responsive Politics.

"His focus on lobbyists means he's concerned about it, but he's defining it very narrowly. Insiders will arguably have more power in the next administration given the kind of powerful perch that they're being appointed to," she said.

Trump's transition team did not immediately respond to a request to comment on this story.

Trump has picked two chief executives of major U.S. companies, a former Goldman partner and a billionaire investor for his Cabinet. He has also chosen Goldman's former second-ranking executive, Gary Cohn, and Linda McMahon, a former WWE CEO who gave $6 million to a super PAC backing him, for non-Cabinet level spots. Cohn will head the National Economic Council, while McMahon was picked for the Small Business Administration.

Current Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker donated to President Barack Obama, while George W. Bush Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was the CEO of Goldman, so Trump isn't the first president to pick Wall Street veterans and donors for top spots.



But Krumholz said Trump has chosen more wealthy people for his administration than presidents typically have in the past. Trump has defended his picks from the business world by saying they know how to create jobs and will help him follow through on his economic promises.

Here is a list of Trump's Cabinet-level picks so far. It includes what they gave to him and outside groups backing him, according to Federal Election Commission records.

State: Rex Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, the $375 billion oil titan. He has ties to Russia and Exxon would benefit if the U.S. lifts sanctions on Moscow, as it had to halt a project in the Arctic because of the measures.

Attorney general: Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama

Defense: James Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general

Treasury: Steven Mnuchin, a financier and former employee of Goldman Sachs and Soros Fund Management. He served as Trump's campaign finance chief and contributed $5,400 to Trump's campaign. He gave the maximum $2,700 to the Republican nominee and the other $2,700 was part of a $425,000 donation to a Trump joint fundraising effort with the GOP.

Commerce: Wilbur Ross, a billionaire distressed debt investor. He also gave $5,400 to Trump, half of which came through a $200,000 donation to a joint fundraising committee.

Labor: CKE Restaurants CEO Andy Puzder. He contributed $10,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC and another $5,400 to Trump's campaign directly and through joint fundraising.

Energy: Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry

Transportation: Elaine Chao, a former Labor secretary and wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

Education: Betsy DeVos, a wealthy education activist and major Republican donor

Homeland Security: Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly

Health and Human Services: Rep. Tom Price of Georgia

Housing and Urban Development: Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and former Trump presidential opponent

Interior: Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana

Agriculture: TBD

Veterans Affairs: TBD

Still, it remains to be seen how much the senators confirming Trump's picks and the voters who propelled him to the White House care about the wealth in his administration. While Democrats have signaled they could make confirmation difficult for some of the picks, particularly Tillerson, Mnuchin and Sessions, the Republican Senate majority will likely push them through barring a major upheaval within the party.

Voters may not be concerned about the influential people in Trump's administration as long as he follows through on campaign promises to boost economic growth and promote job creation in the Rust Belt, said Steven Billet, director of the master's program in legislative affairs at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management.

Trump has promised that his tax reform and trade policies will boost American businesses and he has already celebrated a deal with United Technologies for it to keep some of the Carrier jobs it planned to move to Mexico.

"If he doesn't deliver the kind of jobs that are appealing to that slice of the American public that was so stridently supportive of his candidacy, then he's going to have a problem," Billet said.

The Trump transition has recently faced influence issues outside of the appointments. On Tuesday, the transition team denied that Trump's two grown sons had "any involvement" with a reported charity event that sought donations of up to $1 million in exchange for packages that included a private reception with the president-elect.

Trump's sons Donald Jr. and Eric serve on his transition team and the president-elect has said they will help to run his businesses after he takes office.

A charitable auction for a meeting with Trump's daughter Ivanka was also recently canceled after questions were raised about the ethics of offering access. The proceeds were supposed to go to the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.



Separately, early Trump supporter and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has started a consulting firm based only a block away from the White House to promote Trump's agenda.
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College undergraduates may be borrowing about $12,000 more than they need to finish their education. That's the conclusion from an online survey by NerdWallet of 522 adults conducted in November. And students' biggest regret is walking right by "free money" opportunities that could have helped them significantly reduce their bill, according to the survey.



"People believe they didn't apply for enough scholarships when they had the chance," said Brianna McGurran, a student-loan expert at NerdWallet. "I don't think students are putting in the time they need" to research financing options.



An exhaustive search

Higher education already costs a fortune. Tuition, fees, plus room and board during the 2016-2017 academic year averaged $45,370 at a private four-year college, according to The College Board. At an in-state four-year public school, those costs were $20,090. Prospective students can kick off their scholarship search on the web, using sites such as fastweb.com, scholarships.com and petersons.com. The problem is that even though high school students can start researching and applying for scholarships as early as their sophomore year, many don't, McGurran explained. Don't forget that you can keep searching for these opportunities after enrolling in college: Scholarships are available for current college students.

Pell and other grants

Students have also left grant money on the table. A study by NerdWallet said that in 2014, more than 1.4 million high school graduates failed to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. That's important, because of that number, nearly 750,000 would have been eligible for a federal Pell Grant. For 2016-2017, the maximum award for a Pell Grant is $5,815. Pell Grants do not have to be repaid and generally can be awarded for up to 12 semesters of school if you qualify.

Why are people allowing these opportunities to pass them by? "Students are overwhelmed by the college application process, the financial aid process, and adding the layer of applying for a scholarship can be a deterrent," McGurran said. She suggests that students perform a quick search for scholarships every month and talk to professors, alumni and school counselors to get a sense of what's out there. Recognize that funding is available from places you might not think, such as for people from local towns or municipalities, McGurran said.

Unpredictable expenses

Living expenses may be another driver behind students' decision to borrow more than they need. The methodology each school uses to determine students' estimated costs of living on and off campus varies, according to a report from The Century Foundation, a New York-based think tank. Schools may underestimate these living expenses when calculating their cost of attendance, which could lead to students borrowing more than they had initially expected, McGurran said.

Curbing excessive debt

Prospective college students can try to head off excessive debt by understanding the financial aid process on the front end. That means those who expect to start college in 2018 should get a jump start on their FAFSA, which their families can file as early as Oct. 1 in 2017  three months earlier than they were previously allowed. Students should also know how their financial aid award letter stacks up against the cost of attendance at a given school.
People, planet and profit are essential factors that drive sustainability in business. But often, implementing sustainable practices involves significant investments that affect short-term profits and this puts many businesses off. On the other hand, we have seen instances of thriving businesses that embrace such practices. How does sustainability really impact businesses and profits?

Sustainability is a big buzzword in today's corporate environment. Financial Times Lexicon defines business sustainability as "a process by which companies manage their financial, social, and environmental risks, obligations and opportunities."

Although the words "sustainable" and "environment" are often used interchangeably, they are not the same thing. Being environmentally friendly may involve the discontinued use of plastic cups in the office for instance. A sustainable business however involves "long-term, strategic planning that allies business growth with positive environmental and societal continuity," according to The Times article. Essentially, it is about ensuring the longevity of a business in a way that benefits the business, its stakeholders and the environment.
Citizens Bank on Tuesday announced that it will offer digital-lending capabilities to small-business customers through a partnership with Fundation Group LLC, an online lending company and credit-services provider to regional and community banks.

The service is expected to be available in mid-2017, subject to the negotiation of a definitive agreement between Citizens Bank and Fundation, according to a Citizens Bank news release.

Small businesses will be able to apply for loans and lines of credit through a simple online application on Citizens Banks website. Approval is usually provided within minutes, and loans are funded in as few as three business days, the banking company said.

Under the partnership, Fundation, which has offices in New York City and Northern Virginia, will offer credit to some customers who dont meet Citizens credit guidelines, the bank added.

This simple digital application process will be quicker and more efficient for customers making smaller requests for credit, enabling them to get back to running their businesses sooner, Chris Ward, head of business banking at Citizens Bank, said in the release. We believe that our new, automated lending platform will complement the tailored, advice-based services available through relationship managers and bankers to our customers who need larger loans or have more complex needs such as cash management.

Citizens Bank also recently announced a partnership with digital wealth-management service SigFig, to offer customers integrated banking and digital investment services starting early next year.

Citizens Bank has 8 branch offices and $260 million in deposits in the Syracuse metro area, ranking it 12th in deposit market share in the region, according to June 30, 2016 FDIC statistics, the latest available. Citizens Bank has about 1,200 branches in 11 states in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest regions. The banks holding company is Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: CFG), which is based in Providence, Rhode Island and has $147 billion in total assets.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com
File photo of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, at a recent stop in Syracuse, by Eric Reinhardt/ BJNN

In the aftermath of news that the Austrian firm, ams AG, that had planned to invest in a wafer-fabrication facility at the Marcy Nanocenter has withdrawn from the project, questions have swirled about the Nanocenters future.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is reaffirming the states financial commitment to the regions nanotechnology efforts. His office on Wednesday emailed BJNN the following statement from the governor:

While ams AGs decision is disappointing, New York remains steadfast in its commitment to creating good-paying jobs, driving innovation and cementing this regions position as a global hub of nanotechnology research and development. The state has committed more than $500 million to meet these goals, and to that end, the funds appropriated in this years budget for the project will remain in the Mohawk Valley, Cuomo said. We are in the process of attracting a new anchor tenant to the site, and will continue to invest in new projects that keep this region moving forward.

Austrianbased ams AG had planned to bring 1,000 new jobs and invest more than $2 billion in a wafer-fabrication facility thats planned for the Nano Utica site.

New York State says it remains optimistic about chip-packaging operations starting at Quad-C next year in collaboration with General Electric (GE) Global Research and its partners, as part of the New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium (NY-PEMC). Quad-C is short for computer-chip commercialization center.

GE Global Research is expected to be the anchor tenant of Quad-C at SUNY Polytechnic Institutes Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) in Marcy.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com
A Spanish court on Tuesday ratified a deal that leaves Barcelona with a 5.5-million-euro ($6.2 million) fine but avoiding trial on tax evasion charges over Neymars contested 2013 transfer.

The agreement, reached in July, lifts any threat of Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu and his predecessor Sandro Rosell facing possible criminal proceedings that could lead to jail terms.

The deal between the club and Spanish prosecutors was confirmed on December 14 after an appeal against it by another former president, Joan Laporta, was rejected.

Neymars arrival from Brazils Santos has been a huge success for the Spanish champions on the pitch but a judicial nightmare off it.

The 24-year-old Brazilian striker is being investigated in Brazil and Spain over his move to La Liga.

Barcelona originally published the transfer figure as 57.1 million euros, with 40 million euros of that given to the players family.

But Spanish authorities believe the true transfer figure was at least 83 million euros.

In November, Spanish prosecutors recommended that the Brazil striker be handed a two-year jail sentence and a fine of 10 million euros for alleged corrupt practices.

The case initiated with a complaint from Brazilian investment company DIS, which owned 40 percent of Neymars sporting rights at the time of his transfer.

DIS received just 6.8 million euros, 40 percent of the fee paid to Santos, with the company claiming it was cheated of its real share because part of the transfer fee was concealed by Barcelona, Santos and the Neymar family.

Sentences of two years or less are habitually suspended for first time offenders in Spain.
Clay Walker, CEO of NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership of the Tri-Cities region, is elected as the 2017 chair of the board of directors for the Tennessee Economic Partnership (TEP), the statewide public-private partnership that markets the state of Tennessee as a premiere place for business. Mr. Walker brings more than 20 years of experience in economic development, including principal of his own consulting firm, vice president of the 45-county regional organization West Kentucky Corporations and head of multiple communities economic development organizations.

Brian Hercules, senior vice president of economic development for the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, is elected as the partnerships 2017 chair-elect. Three new board members are added for 2017: Rachel Buchanan (Blount Partnership, director of economic development), Stephen Crook (Highlands Economic Partnership, vice president of economic development) and Andy Lawson (Tennessee Valley Authority regional specialist and Tennessee Economic Development Council president).



The complete 2017 Tennessee Economic Partnership Board of Directors is as follows:



 Chair: Clay Walker, NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership

 Chair-Elect & Treasurer: Brian Hercules, Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce

 Past Chair: Mark Herbison, Greater Memphis Chamber

 Secretary: Charles Wood, Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce

 Marketing Committee Chair: Wil Evans, Maury Co. Chamber & Economic Alliance

 Investor Relations Committee Chair: Doug Lawyer, Knoxville Chamber

 Rachel Buchanan, Blount Partnership

 Stephen Crook, Highlands Economic Partnership

 Mike Evans, Clarksville-Montgomery Co. EDC

 Lindsay Frilling, Obion Co. Joint Economic Development

 Jeff Hite, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce

 Matt Largen, Williamson County Office of Economic Development

 Charly Lyons, Tennessee Central Economic Alliance

 Allen Neel, East TN Economic Development Agency

 Mike Philpot, West Tennessee Industrial Association

 Heidi Smith, Tennessee Valley Authority

 Kyle Spurgeon, Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce

 Commissioner Randy Boyd, Tennesseee Department of Economic & Community Development (ex officio)

 Allen Borden, Tennesseee Department of Economic and Community Development (ex officio)

 John Bradley, Tennessee Valley Authority (ex officio)

 Andy Lawson, Tennessee Economic Development Council President (ex officio)
Republicans occupied the White House in the 1980s and early 1990s, but Democrats controlled the House of Representatives. Democratic chairmen of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over coinage included Esteban E. Torres, left, Richard H. Lehman, middle, and Frank D. Annunzio, right.

While presidential candidates garner most of the headlines every four years, the elections that most affect the numismatic community are in the House of Representatives and the Senate, most specifically the party that controls each chamber and the committees of jurisdiction.

Republican presidents occupied the White House throughout the decade of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, but Democrats controlled the House and held sway over committees and subcommittees.

When I joined Coin World in 1981, Rep. Frank D. Annunzio, D-Ill., was chairman of the House Banking Subcommittee on Coinage and Consumer Affairs, which had oversight jurisdiction over the U.S. Mint and all matters pertaining to coinage.

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Annunzio and his staff kept a close watch on the U.S. Mint and did not hesitate to call Treasury officials before the subcommittee to get answers. Early in the battle over control of marketing of the modern commemorative coin program, Annunzio emerged as the champion of collectors and consumer rights. He wielded so much power he was known as the Coin Czar.

Coin Worlds staff kept in close contact with Annunzios office as we tracked and reported the various bills having to do with coinage matters. Thus, when I became editor in early 1985, one of the first trips I scheduled was to Washington, D.C., to meet personally with Chairman Annunzio and to do an interview.

At the time, I gave little thought to the fact that interviewing the House Banking subcommittee chairman would become a tradition.

When Annunzio left the subcommittee to take the chairmanship of a major committee in 1989 at the beginning of the 101st Congress, Rep. Richard H. Lehman, D-Calif., became chairman of the coinage subcommittee. Shortly after the new Congress began work, I was off to the nations capital to interview Lehman.

In contrast to Annunzio, who had been fully engaged with coinage matters, Lehman seemed uncomfortable and disinterested with the coinage part of the job. At first opportunity  the next Congress (two years later)  he moved on to another committee assignment.

The Democrats still held a majority in the House when the 102nd Congress convened in January 1991 and another Californian, Rep. Esteban E. Torres, ascended to the subcommittee chairmanship.

Torres and his staff were gracious with their time during my first interview with him in May of 1991. In fact, they had almost as many questions for me as I did for him during our three-hour meeting. It was obvious Chairman Torres was interested in the subcommittees work, particularly coinage. But more impressive, he was keen to learn about the collector communitys perspective.
World War I taxed the United Kingdom and gold was a necessary funding element of war, so the British government encouraged coins to be traded in for paper money.

Benedetto Pistruccis famous St. George and the Dragon design was created for the pound amid a need for changes in the United Kingdoms coinage. Though some special designs have temporarily appeared on the denomination, Pistruccis central design is a sovereign mainstay.

Editor's note: this is the second part of a story about the British gold sovereign, which celebrates a milestone anniversary in 2017. Senior Editor Jeff Starck's story about the coin and its history appears in the January 2017 monthly Coin World.

Two hundred years ago, in part of a great reform of United Kingdom coinage, the sovereign was born again, a revival for the ages.

The sovereigns reintroduction in 1817 followed the Coinage Act of 1816 and marks the introduction of the now-famous, instantly recognizable St. George and the Dragon design by Royal Mint engraver Benedetto Pistrucci. (However, the coin did not replace bank notes as the popular medium of payment until certain restrictions were removed by the Bank of England from 1820 to 1823.)

The recoinage and exchange of 1816-1817 would transform the nations coins, and it meant greater scrutiny and efficiency than ever. The Royal Mint, at its new location in London at Tower Hill, was equipped to meet the new demands with modern steam-powered machinery.

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Legislation formalized the gold standard, setting out the coins to be produced and the standard to which they would be struck. One key change was to reinstate the sovereign as a 20-shilling piece though with a new denomination  the pound. As the sovereign would circulate alongside the 21-shilling gold guinea for a time, it was essential that the new coins design be easily distinguished from the existing gold coin.

Pistruccis design is now regarded as a masterpiece. Though the sovereign deviates occasionally from the iconic St. George image, it always returns to its standard design.

Pistrucci came to London in 1815 under the patronage of the Prince Regent. He was relatively unknown in Britain but his reputation attracted interest and he quickly found sponsors and supporters of his work. Soon after his arrival, his engraving talent was recognized, and he was given the prestigious task of creating the designs for the new gold and silver coins of George III.

Pistrucci created an interpretation that defied the medieval image of St. George, instead opting for a Greek interpretation, bare and muscular, not weighed down with the usual chain mail and armor.

The design is classic, and even though the words Great Britain or United Kingdom werent on them, a sovereign is a sovereign is a sovereign.

The standard sovereign, since its introduction in 1817, has been composed of .9167 fine gold and has weighed 7.988 grams, with an actual gold content of 7.32 grams. In addition, fractional and multiple versions of the sovereign are available, with quarter-, half- and double-sovereign coins joining a 5-sovereign coin.

After its introduction in 1817, the sovereign was quickly trusted and recognized in world commerce.

Nearly a century later, at the outbreak of World War I, Britain needed gold to finance its war effort, leading to appeals to the patriotism of British citizens to give up their sovereigns for their country. Sovereigns were traded in for paper money and quickly vanished from daily transactions.

An abundance of sovereigns were struck to become part of the gold reserves held by the Bank of England, which in turn were used to pay war debts to the United States, according to Marsh. The coins were almost certainly melted and made into ingots.

The Great Depression and World War II marked a further disruption in the issuance of gold sovereigns, with the last regular issue coming in 1932. Proof versions for George VII were issued in 1937, but no more sovereigns were issued until five years into Queen Elizabeth IIs reign. However, the coin has been issued with near-annual frequency since 1957, but geared toward collectors and investors.
Cleveland State Community College pumped an average of $59 million each year into the local economy over the past five years, a recent study shows.Cleveland State President Dr. Bill Seymour stated, We knew Cleveland State made a significant economic impact in our region but now we can talk more precisely about how extensively we influence the well-being of our communities.The analysis of the economic impact of the college on its service area revealed that the value of business volume and individual income generated amounted to about $295 million in the 2011-2016 period, plus at least 10,608 jobs were created.The study shows that local business volumethe total amount generated locally by businesses from the colleges direct and indirect expenditureswas $147 million for the five-year period.Of that total, more than $119 million came from non-local revenues, such as state appropriations, state/federal contracts and grants, and state/federal student financial aid revenues.Although Cleveland State had an average of only 226 full-time-equivalent employees per year during the period, the total employment created by the colleges expenditures was estimated at 10,608 jobs for the five years. Of that number, 8,367 jobs were created by external or new funds.Using the more conservative of two different calculations, the study estimated that the impact of the colleges expenditures on individual income amounted to more than $148 million during 2011-2016, of which $124 million came from external or new funds.Of the colleges $295 million total economic impact, more than $243 million ($49 million per year) could be attributed to the infusion of new non-local revenues. This impact would likely not have occurred without the presence of Cleveland State in the area, officials said.The economic impact study notes that each dollar of local revenue coming into Cleveland State generated a return on investment of about $2.46 in local business volume. The individual income return on investment was at least $2.47, for a total ROI of at least $4.93 on the local dollar.The study also estimated that an associate degree graduate could expect to earn about $470,000 more over their work lifetime than if they only had a high school diploma. For the most recent class of Cleveland State graduates, this difference could mean an additional $186 million in lifetime earnings, plus about $752,400 in additional annual tax payments.Finally, the study described a number of benefits to society that are proven to accompany higher levels of education, including lower unemployment, reduced poverty, decreased crime and incarceration rates, improved personal health, etc."The results of this economic impact study clearly demonstrate that Cleveland State Community College continues to be a major contributor to the economic base of Southeast Tennessee. This economic impact is expressed in this study in terms of jobs created, business volume generated and personal income earned," officials said.Dr. Seymour further stated that this information is very timely as it will go a long way to support the Cleveland State Community First Campaign which seeks to raise $15M. He believes it will help potential donors better understand the value of their contribution as the college plans for the next 50 years.
City receives feedback on Whitegate Park proposal

Community members had an opportunity to provide feedback on a proposal for a new neighborhood park on Whitegate Drive in Columbia.
Chattanooga State treated employees to a holiday luncheon of turkey with all the trimmings. Employees were asked to donate non-perishable food items and/or make donations to the Chattanooga Area Food Bank. Dale Grisso, financial aid and Ryan Plater, recruiting coordinated the food drive.



Collectively, we donated 1,162 pounds of non-perishable food (291 pounds more than last year) and $176.50 was donated ($7.50 more than last year), said Debbie Adams, vice president of Student Affairs and Economic and Community Development. Because of our employees generosity, we were be able to provide 1,674 meals for our neighbors in need, she added.



La-Z-Boy donated a recliner that was won by Debbie Escarra from the Dual Enrollment department. Other prizes included gift cards and poinsettias.



In addition to the luncheon, Chattanooga State President Dr. Flora Tydings announced the 2016 Excellence Awards winners, who each received $500:



Support Staff - Peter Kriener, teaching laboratory technician, Engineering and Information Technologies Divison;



Professional Staff - Sandra Williford, assistant librarian, Library Services;



Faculty Advising - Judy Mabe, associate professor, Dental Hygiene;



Faculty Teaching - Debra Jones, associate professor, Speech; and



TCAT Teaching - Houston Graham, instructor, HVAC/R Technology.



Chattanooga State will be closed for the holidays beginning Dec. 23 and reopen on Jan. 3. Classes begin Jan. 17.
The November elections shocked the nation in many ways. Here in Nebraska attack ads and robo calls seemed to reach a new level of frequency and insult. Shadowy organizations like Americans for Prosperity, Trees of Liberty and Citizens for a Sound Government flooded the election cycle with fabricated stories and outright lies. Democrats and Republicans alike faced embarrassment and character assassination.

One of the worst attacks was launched against Senator Les Seiler a self-proclaimed conservative Republican, who had been appointed by Governor Ricketts and served with distinction. Governor Ricketts was not shy when reversing his support based on Sen. Seilers votes to override several of Ricketts vetoes. The Governor contributed $5,000 to Seilers opponent Steve Halloron.

The attacks against Seiler were particularly outrageous when they focused on his attendance record. Records filed with the clerk of the legislature show that Seiler had nearly perfect attendance at public hearing before the Judiciary Committee, which he chaired, missing only 2 of 17 hearings. He also chaired all 14 executive sessions of the Judiciary Committee. Senator Seilers record as a member of the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee was perfect, showing he attended all 11 public hearings and all 9 executive sessions.

It should be noted that every bill before the Nebraska Unicameral gets a public hearing and attendance by nearly every senator is exemplary. The only exception to the rule is the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. If Trees of Liberty wanted to focus on attendance they might have looked at Senator Beau McCoy who was recorded absent for 15 of 18 public hearings and 7 of 14 executive sessions. His colleague, Senator Tyson Larson, did not perform much better, missing 13 of 18 public hearings and 7of 14 executive sessions. These two examples are the extreme exceptions to the rule of generally good attendance by senators.

Senator Seiler was not the only senator to be attacked who voted to override the Governors vetoes. Senators Johnson, Crawford, Garrett, Kolowski, Davis, and others faced the wrath the independent committees. It is unfortunate that those who choose to vote their conscience in a constitutionally non-partisan legislature should be slandered for demonstrating their independence.

The most troubling part of the attacks is the inability of the public to follow the money. Independent committees can hide behind their non-profit status, making it nearly impossible to identify their donors. As a result, wealthy individuals and political operatives can avoid transparency and direct lies and fabricated stories against candidates. This type of campaigning undermines our democracy and discourages potentially good candidates from running for office.

Jack Gould

Issues Chair

Common Cause Nebraska

Phone: 402-784-6461

Cell: 402-310-8525
Google's longstanding motto was "Don't be evil." So has the company been meeting that goal?

Not according to one employee, who is suing the tech giant over its confidentiality practices. So what exactly is the employee alleging that Google did? Some not very nice stuff, to say the least.

In IT Blogwatch, we get the lowdown on what we aren't supposed to know.

So what is going on? John Ribeiro has the background:

A product manager at Google...sued the company for...allegedly illegal confidentiality agreements, policies and practices that...prohibit employees from speaking even internally about illegal conduct and dangerous product defects.

...

The alleged policies...are said to violate California laws, restrict employees' right to speak, work or whistle-blow, and include restrictions on speaking to the government, attorneys or the press about wrongdoing at Google.

Anything else of note? Oh, there might be something. Reed Albergotti has the details:

The lawsuit alleges Google runs an internal spying program which relies on employees voluntarily reporting other employees who might have leaked information...It also alleges...a prohibition on employees writing a novel about someone working at a tech company in Silicon Valley, without Google signing off on the final draft.

What is the root of all these policies? Chance Miller is in the know:

Google...defines confidential information as without limitation, any information in any form that relates to Google or Googles business that is not generally known.

...

On the other hand, Googles Code of Conduct Policy states...confidential information consists of everything at Google. This policy restricts...employees from posting any sort of opinions about Google online...Additionally, it states that employees cannot converse with the press in any fashion.

And how does all this violate California law? Steven Parker fills us in:

The...policies...clash with Californias labor laws, which encourage openness and freedom for employees to discuss matters...If Google is found in violation, it could end up paying $3.8 billion, 75% of which would go to the state. The rest would be distributed to Googles employees, who could end up getting $14,600 each.

Why this lawsuit now? Anmol Sachdeva has that info:

The short and sweet summary...is that Google doesnt want its employees to talk about their work outside their offices. And John Doe is gunning for the...policies because he has possibly been wrongfully accused of violating one of them.

So what steps is Google taking in the midst of all this? Ethan Baron explains:

Google, since the...complaint was filed...amended the guidelines that were the subject of the complaint, the lawsuit said.
The Tennessee Environmental Council (Council), Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), Tennessee Department of Agricultures Division of Forestry (TDA) and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) announced today their partnership to distribute and plant 100,000 native Tennessee trees across our state on Saturday, February 25, 2017. The event is being hailed as the single largest community tree planting event in the states history.

2/19/2017 (while supplies last) and commit to planting them on Saturday 2/25 . All trees are offered at no cost to Tennessee residents and organizations who register at the event website www.tectn.org/100ktreeday from now through(while supplies last) and commit to planting them onBecause of anticipated high demand for these trees, the Council encourages people to register for their trees as soon as they find out about this opportunity. Donations and sponsorships are encouraged on the event website to help cover the costs of making trees available free to participants.

We are doing this because we care about Tennessees beautiful environment, and planting trees is a meaningful, fun and effective way to improve our communities, said John McFadden, chief executive officer of Tennessee Environmental Council. Trees provide many, many benefits to our communities, our economy and the environment, including increasing home values, cutting cooling costs, and even increasing expenditures in retail locations. Communities that have more trees have less crime, graffiti, and less litter. And trees soak up the stormwater, a leading cause of water pollution in Tennessee.

This effort is made possible with assistance from several state agency partners. The Division of Forestry nursery grows the trees and delivers them to the eight TDEC field offices across Tennessee. Many Tennessee State Parks will serve as public distribution points and TWRA wildlife biologists and agency personnel provide invaluable knowledge to landowners about how to restore and improve Tennessees tree canopy. Finally, all three agencies continue to support the project financially, making it possible for all Tennesseans to receive trees at no cost to plant at their homes, businesses and/or farms.

Planting trees is a simple way to prevent pollution before it occurs and help protect Tennessees water quality, said TDEC Commissioner Robert J. Martineau, Jr. Just 100 trees can capture nearly 140,000 gallons of rainwater annually, limit storm water runoff and add critical water resources to our reservoirs.

Agriculture Commissioner Jai Templeton said, You can look out almost any window and understand the importance of forestry to Tennessee. The Tennessee Department of Agricultures Division of Forestry is a proud steward of that resource. By taking part in the 100k Tree Day, we look forward to working with the public and our partners to improve the woodlands across our state.

TWRA Assistant Commissioner Bobby Wilson said, Trees are important to everything we do as a management agency. Mr. Wilson is assistant director for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Our birds, terrestrial wildlife, and even fish benefit from the wise management of our woodlands.

Trees are a key symbol in the Bible, said Ryan Bennett, co-director of Blessed Earth Tennessee. Where a tree is mentioned, there you will find God at work bringing life and hope. Every time we plant a tree, we are bearing witness to the life giving qualities of God and Gods work in the world.

Chris Jones, president and CEO of Middle Tennessee Electric said, We are happy to be part of this effort by serving as a distribution points for Rutherford, Williamson, Wilson and Cannon counties and to continue to partner with Tennessee Environmental Council.

Vicki Turner, president of the Tennessee Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation said, We are proud to partner with the Council and their efforts to re-forest Tennessee and re-introduce the American Chestnut. Restoration Chestnut trees were planted earlier this year in select state parks to honor our veterans. We look forward to the day we can plant 100,000 American Chestnuts across Tennessee.

in one day , according to Homeowners, businesses, and groups of any kind will receive free trees for their property or community, and are being asked to plant them on Feb. 25. Earlier this year more than 6,000 volunteers and dozens of organizations participated in 50K Tree Day (Feb. 27) planting trees in 92 counties, generating an in-kind value over $400,000 in volunteer labor by planting almost 46,000 trees, according to tectn.org

Event organizers are looking for individuals and groups to get involved. For more information or to sign up visit tectn.org/100ktreeday

100K Tree Day is coordinated by Tennessee Environmental Council, Cumberland River Compact, Tennessee Department of Agriculture (Division of Forestry), Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Tennessee State Parks, and Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

Sponsors for the effort include the above agencies and Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Cooperatives Sharing the Change program, and Nashville Natives.
Philip Davies has an extraordinary gift for annoying what he calls the PC brigade. In recent days, the Conservative MP for Shipley has attracted adverse comment for trying to talk out a Bill to ratify the Istanbul Convention on preventing violence against women.

In this interview, Davies reiterates his stubborn commitment to gender equality, dismisses the convention as gesture politics, and challenges his critics to produce one scrap of evidence that he is a woman-hater.

He also calls for longer sentences for violent crime and says the place where bullying happens most is in the House of Commons, with the result that very few Conservative MPs are prepared to say what they actually think. Instead, most of them always want to be kowtowing to this Labour agenda and are ashamed of being Conservative.

He adds that the media are far more powerful in this than they ever imagine, and suggests that if journalists want MPs who are courageous enough to speak out, they should praise them for doing so instead of condemning them.

Shortly before this conversation, Davies was interviewed by Jane Garvey on Womans Hour, and he began by remarking that it had been a waste of time.

ConHome: Why was it a waste of time? There was no meeting of minds?

Davies: Well, I dont mind not having a meeting of minds. There wasnt even any interest in what my mind was really.

I did actually ask Jane Garvey at one point whether she would have preferred to interview herself. It seemed she was asking the questions and then wanted to give the answers herself as well. I was superfluous to requirements, I think.

ConHome: I suppose millions of people will have listened to it. Do you think some of them may have picked up that youre not a monster in human form?

Davies: People pick up what they want to pick up.

ConHome: So what they already thought?

Davies: I suspect largely people think what they want to think, on the whole.

ConHome: Youre a tough character, youre in public life, but do you get hurt by this sometimes? I said to someone, Im going to go and interview Philip Davies, and she said, Oh you mean the woman-hater. Does that hurt you? I see you smile.

Davies: No it doesnt hurt me, because its a complete and utter nonsense. I always say to people, if people can point to one thing that Ive ever said where Ive asked for a woman to be treated less favourably than a man, I would love them to produce the quotation.

Because not only have I never, I never would, because I dont believe that. All Ive ever asked for is for men and women to be treated exactly the same.

And so how on earth that constitutes being a woman-hater is very difficult for me to understand. Im absolutely nonplussed by it, if Im perfectly honest.

ConHome: These liberals, do you think that theyve leapt from a very old-fashioned idea of chivalry? Traditionally, it would be considered far, far worse to hit a woman than to hit a man.

So there wasnt originally an equality about it. It was worse to hit a woman, and I would still feel more ashamed if I hit a woman.

Davies: Yes I understand that. But if you believe in gender equality

ConHome: Which you do.

Davies: Which I do

ConHome: Thats rather modern of you, isnt it?

Davies: Well it probably is. Thats probably my crime. Maybe Im ahead of my time. Its probably my biggest fault. Ive never thought of it like that before.

My point is that if you believe in gender equality, you believe in gender equality. You cant have a pick n mix of gender equality.

You cant say well have all of these bits which we think are to our advantage, but we still want special protections here, there and wherever. You either believe in it or you dont believe in it, is my opinion.

ConHome: You pointed out that the last Labour government put through the mandatory release of people from prison half-way through their sentences. I havent studied the collected speeches of Philip Davies

Davies: Nor will anybody else for that matter.

ConHome: but I did read the Hansard of your recent seventy-something minute performance, and the implication of what you say is that we need more prisons.

Davies: Yes, this is the great irony. All of these people who are beating their chests about domestic violence are exactly the same people who dont want anybody convicted of violent offences to go to prison, or as few as possible, or to serve as little of their sentences as possible.

Im a hardliner. I think these people should be in prison for a long time. I think actually that is a much more effective way of tackling domestic violence than signing up to the Istanbul Convention.

I cant imagine any person whos about to embark on some domestic violence stops themselves mid-punch and says, No, I dont think Ill do that because I actually believe were about to ratify the Istanbul Convention. Its just a complete piece of gesture politics.

ConHome: Who supports you? I saw that Erin Pizzey does.

Davies: Yes she very much does support me. I met her.

ConHome: Is there anyone else? Perhaps the wider public?

Davies: Id like to think so, but I dont know. I dont seek popular support.

ConHome: Although you did make the point that the House of Commons is in some respects very out of tune with public opinion, and the EU referendum was a demonstration of that.

Davies: Yes, it absolutely is. The Labour Party is completely out of touch with working-class people. I dont think most Labour MPs today would recognise a member of the working classes if they tripped over one.

Im astonished that those people who claim to be about gender equality can hurl so much abuse at me for arguing for gender equality.

I think what youll find is there are lots of people who agree with me but they wouldnt ever dare say they agree with me.

ConHome: So what does this say about your colleagues?

Davies: It probably says that theyre far more sensible than I am.

ConHome: It might mean theyre much more cowardly.

Davies: Well they probably want a quieter life. And they probably want to get promoted.

ConHome. Yes. And you said in your maiden speech you didnt ever want ministerial office.

Davies: Its the one thing that me and Theresa May will always agree on, is that I should never be promoted.

ConHome: Im sure you could find a few other things as well.

Davies: I sure we could find other things as well, but well always agree on that. To be honest, the place where bullying happens most, that Ive ever experienced, is in the House of Commons.

If you articulate an opinion that doesnt meet with the politically correct consensus, you are remorselessly bullied. You really are. Its a terrible place for bullying, it really is.

ConHome: So who does the bullying?

Davies: The Labour Party have won, really. All of the political orthodoxy is all of the politically correct, left-wing kind of stuff, really.

And so many Conservatives are ashamed of what they believe in. Theyre ashamed of being Conservatives. They always want to be kowtowing to this Labour agenda.

Theyre terrible bullies. I hate bullies, and Im not prepared to be bullied. The more people tell me Youre not allowed to say these things, which is what theyre really saying, then Im afraid Im more likely to say them.

The PC brigade to be honest have been doing this for years. Theyre very good at it. What they do is if you say something that hits on one of their shibboleths, they will go after you, and they will hurl abuse and play the man rather than the ball.

They go for you as a person. They dont engage in the argument. They do it for two reasons. One is to discredit you. Or to make you think Im not going to do that again.

But also to make everyone else think, Blimey, Im not going to do that either. So they do it deliberately to close down the debate, so that these things are never discussed again.

It used to happen with the EU. In 2005 I was the only MP who would stand up and say we should leave the EU.

ConHome: Thats astonishing, actually, that you were the only one. There was lots of Euroscepticism around.

Davies: Theyd say We need to rebalance our relationship with the EU or We need to bring powers back, but they wouldnt actually say the words, We need to leave the European Union.

And when I set up the Better Off Out group in Parliament in 2006, the same things were thrown at me: ridiculous and extremist and all the rest of it. So youve just got to press on and hope that one day your views become more mainstream.

ConHome: Which on the EU has happened in ten years. Were you surprised?

Davies: I was astonished it happened so quickly. I always thought wed leave one day, but I didnt know what would precipitate it. Not down to me, by the way.

ConHome: What were your motives for coming in to Parliament? Who are your heroes, either dead or alive?

Davies: My three political heroes are Margaret Thatcher, Norman Tebbit and Eric Forth. Eric Forth was my mentor when I first came into Parliament. I asked him if he would be my mentor, to which he readily agreed.

Unfortunately, he died only a year after I entered Parliament. I still miss him today. I miss him massively. He was my political hero. He knew the parliamentary procedures inside out.

ConHome: So what did he teach you in particular?

Davies: Well he taught me that most Private Members Bills were regulatory bollocks. All these people come with an on the surface worthy sentiment, but you cant pass legislation based on a worthy sentiment.

Youre actually passing laws that affect peoples lives. The Bill often bore no resemblance to the title. You should be prepared to challenge consensus. Where it exists its generally a bad thing.

ConHome: So you must feel the Conservative Party isnt recruiting quite enough people of the Forth outlook. Or Parliament. They dont have to be Conservatives, but they have to be willing to stand up to the consensus.

Davies: Yes, I dont have the highest regard for lots of MPs. There are some people in this House who I would trust with my life. But theyre a minority.

Most people lack courage. They lack the courage to stand up and say what they really think. Look at your local paper. An MP sends in a press release to say something nobody could possibly disagree with.

Thats what were becoming in this place  650 people who largely want to say something that nobody could take any offence by. When a politician goes on Question Time, whats deemed a success is when nobody can remember anything theyve said during the whole programme.

It means you wont get any abuse on Twitter and you wont get any abuse on Facebook or any online petitions against you. I think people are fed up with these politicians who speak and theyve never actually said anything.

ConHome: Blair got round this by attacking the Labour Party, which convinced middle England that Blair must be all right.

Davies: And Cameron did the same with the Conservative Party.

ConHome: There is a bit of a paradox here. Youre defending parliamentary sovereignty, but you say that a lot of MPs have no courage. Perhaps theyll have more courage when they have more responsibility, do you think?

Davies: No.

ConHome: Oh! So what can be done to remoralise MPs?

Davies: Theres only one group of people that can change the culture really, and thats the media.

ConHome: Oh!

Davies: The media are far more powerful in this than they ever imagine, I think. If somebody says something moderately controversial, does the media say, Thank goodness, weve got somebody here whos said something moderately controversial? They basically wipe the floor with them.

ConHome: Who stands up for you?

Davies: Im not aware of anyone who stands up for me.

ConHome: Not even the Daily Mail?

Davies: Very rarely the Daily Mail. I dont think anybody stands up for me. Im not asking them to. This is not a plea. Im saying that if the media want people to speak their mind more, they should at least celebrate people when they do.

ConHome: I think John Stuart Mill foresaw this was going to be a problem in the democratic age  that youd just be declared mad if you had certain opinions. You wouldnt be locked up, but youd be ruled out of having any serious role.

Davies: If you dont fit the PC brigades view of the world, theyre very vindictive, very nasty. They do it deliberately. Its very effective, Ill give them that.

ConHome: Well, they havent actually silenced you. And this must have been part of Hillary Clintons problem, that she represented political correctness in America.

Davies: Can anybody actually remember anything Hillary Clinton said about anything? Shed go out onto the stump, shed make a speech which was basically designed to say nothing, and would have certain key words in it to try to appeal to certain identity groups.

That is what I hate more than anything about politics. The Left in politics are the most intolerant people, of anybody who holds a different opinion to them. They think you should be sacked, resigned, deselected, just because you hold a different opinion to them.

Not because youve been found guilty of some heinous crime. Literally because youve said something with which they disagree.
Walkout after Northern Irish First Minister defeats no confidence motion

The Belfast Telegraph reports that Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and First Minister of Northern Ireland, has defeated a no-confidence motion tabled against her in the Northern Ireland Assembly  although the Opposition are quick to point out that it gained an Assembly majority.

As explained on this site yesterday, the SDLP motion was motivated by Fosters involvement in a disastrously mismanaged green energy scheme which looks set to cost Ulster taxpayers more than 400 million. She branded it a constitutional coup detat, and it fell for lack of sufficient cross-communal support.

However the other parties escalated the crisis by walking out of the chamber ahead of a statement from the First Minister on the scheme, arguing that she didnt have authority to deliver one without the support of Martin McGuinness, the Deputy First Minister. According to a Sky News correspondent it is effectively the collapse of the devolved government in Northern Ireland.

First of the SNPs fallen stars referred to prosecutors

Last weeks column led with the news that Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh, a prominent SNP MP, had become the fourth to be embroiled in a financial scandal whcih could cost her her seat. But this week the very first of those four is back in the headlines.

Michelle Thomson, the Edinburgh West MP who was previously a high-profile member of Business for Scotland, has been named in a police report to prosecutors following an investigation into alleged mortgage fraud, according to the Daily Record. For an overview of how mortgage fraud works, see this post by (pro-Union) lawyer Ian Smart.

Earlier this year Nationalist sources were indicating that Thomson would regain to the SNP whip as she was in the clear.

Wales gains income tax powers for the first time

A new deal will see income tax rates partially set in Cardiff Bay in a little more than two years, Wales Online reports. The Welsh government will gain control of 10p in each band, whilst the block grant from the Treasury will be reduced, after negotiations between David Gauke, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and Mark Drakeford, the Welsh finance minister.

The deal also doubles the amount of capital borrowing available to the Welsh Government to 1 billion and sets a floor for Welsh funding at 115 per cent of per person spending in England.

The Welsh Assembly needs to consent to the bill, but there are no plans for a referendum. Labour figures such as Neil Kinnock and Peter Hain previously mounted a campaign to insist the voters were consulted before new powers were transferred.

In other news Lord Elis-Thomas, a former Plaid Cymru leader who now sits as an Independent in the Assembly after resigning the nationalist whip, has announced his intention to support Carwyn Jones Labour administration.

Fallon sparks Cabinet row in defence of British troops facing investigation for Troubles conduct

The Sun reports that the Defence Secretary earlier this week demanded major curbs into a forthcoming investigation into veterans who served in Northern Ireland.

Fallon spoke out to insist that the police should be targeted, proportionate, conform to a strict time limit, and exempt very old soldiers, telling MPs that I am certainly not going to let the Northern Ireland process descend into another witch hunt.

This was described as a major embarrassment for James Brokenshire, the Northern Irish Secretary, who has apparently repeatedly insisted that ministers cant intervene in the Northern Irish polices new probe, and followed several days of tense conversations between the two ministers teams, the Sun claims.

Brokenshires push for progress on legacy issues has also been stalled, says the Belfast Telegraph, by a stand-off between the British Government and Sinn Fein over the non-release of UK state papers on national security grounds.

Elsewhere a retired unionist politician who was reportedly shot by an IRA man has ridiculed the decision to prosecute the two soldiers who killed his would-be assassin, according to the News Letter.

Sturgeon unveils soft Brexit plans her own Brexit adviser dismisses

The First Minister of Scotland has outlined proposals for the country to remain part of the EEA and EFTA even if the UK does not, ensuring the softest Brexit. This puts the Scottish Government at odds with the Prime Minister, who has taken a firm line on an all-UK approach to Brexit that befits the fact that foreign policy is reserved.

Nicola Sturgeon described losing single market access as potentially devastating for Scotland  although the European market takes a smaller share of Scottish exports than the USA and far less than the UK. According to Matthew Lynn in the Spectator the EU accounts for 11.6bn, vs 15.2bn for the rest of the world and 48.5bn for the rest of the UK.

However Charles Grant, one of the First Ministers hand-picked Brexit advisers, says it is very hard to see how the plans are legally, politically or technically feasible, the Daily Telegraph reports.

In other news Alex Bell, a former head of policy for the SNP, has denounced the Nationalists timidity in their budget, opening an op-ed in the Daily Record with: Cowards one and all. The Scottish Government had the means to help Scotland, and chose not to.

Elsewhere Alex Salmond undermined Sturgeons reassurances by declaring that the Nationalists may shoot for another referendum without consistent 50 per cent support, well below the 60 per cent set by his successor.
This site has long argued that the British democracy is worryingly open to electoral fraud. Sadly, it has taken repeated scandals  most famously in Tower Hamlets, where widespread abuse of the system was valiantly exposed by Peter Golds and others  for this problem to become officially recognised.

There have been some improvements. Individual Voter Registration was a sensible and long overdue measure to reduce both fraud and innocent inaccuracy in the electoral register. The Labour Party bitterly opposed it, claiming it was somehow unfair to expect people to bother to register themselves to vote (which perhaps says something about their view of Labour voters). Democracy has not collapsed, as some Opposition Chicken Lickens predicted  indeed, we had a huge exercise in democracy on 23rd June, bolstered by the knowledge that it was somewhat more secure than before.

But more remains to be done. Sir Eric Pickles, in his review of the electoral system, rightly raised the issue that we require greater proof of identity to take out a library book than to cast a vote. A purely trust-based electoral system is a nice idea, but unfortunately there are people out there who are willing to abuse such a system. Some form of ID should be displayed when voting to defeat them.

Its good news, then, that Sir Erics proposal for proof of identity such as a driving license, passport or utility bill to be required is set to be trialled shortly. Theres a debate to be had about the standard of ID that ought to be required  my colleague Henry Hill is of the view that the Northern Irish system of insisting on photographic proof should be the model, but Im concerned that the Electoral Commission might effectively replicate the deeply flawed national ID card system that took so long to abolish.

Hopefully a happy medium can be agreed in which the security of the ballot is improved without restarting Blairs costly database state.

We should not stop at requiring proof of identity, though. While there is almost certainly some electoral fraud carried out in person by people actually in the polling booth, which these measures will help to address, the fact remains that the most glaring loophole in our electoral system is the scarily uncontrolled world of postal voting.

Why bother going to the trouble and risk of impersonating someone at a polling station, if you can simply fraudulently fill in a load of postal vote forms at home using easily accessible information at very low risk of detection or punishment? If security is tightened for voting in person, then it becomes doubly important that action is taken on postal votes as well.

The Pickles report did recommend a ban on harvesting of large numbers of postal votes by political activists, which would be sensible, as the potential for abuse is both great and clear when such tactics are used.

It also advised requiring postal voters to reapply for their postal vote every three to five years to ensure the information was accurate and up to date. This seems nowhere near tough enough. Isnt it time we returned to the pre-Blair system under which a postal vote had to be requested for one particular election on the basis of a specific need, rather than something available routinely as a lifestyle choice?

Postal voting on demand was introduced as a way to raise turnout, as though high turnout is the only aim of an electoral system. There is little point in raising turnout if in doing so you simultaneously lower the security of the ballot to a ludicrous degree. Im sure many banks would like more customers to come through their doors, but they dont think it wise to raise footfall by abolishing the need for PIN numbers when making a withdrawal. Security should not be entirely ignored in the name of participation.

Postal votes are clearly necessary in all sorts of circumstances  but making them automatically available to anyone, indefinitely and through an insecure system, is a risk too far.
CORNWALL, Ontario  On Dec. 13 the talented artist Carolyn H. Davis volunteered her time with our Rogers Raising the Grade youth by facilitating a fun painting workshop.

Eight youth were able to participate in this workshop and create their own masterpiece of a beautiful sky and water scenery.

Carolyn has been painting for over 65 years and shared her passion and knowledge for painting with us. It was a successful 2 hour workshop that our youth really enjoyed. All our youth were engaged and eager to learn more.
CORNWALL, Ontario  In a joint statement on the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 21 the City of Cornwall, Louis W. Bray Construction and the Federal Bridge Corporation announced that Brookdale Avenue is now open to traffic.

This comes after the re-opening of Brookdale Avenue was delayed due to the Citys concerns over the lack of street lights.

The Dec. 21 opening of the major artery is still well ahead of the original January schedule.

This has been an extensive and comprehensive gateway infrastructure project involving the road, sewers and watermains. It will be of great lasting benefit to our citizens, including our Akwesasne neighbours, and to visitors of our community. We appreciate the patience and cooperation shown by residents and motorists during this time, said John St. Marseille, General Manager, Infrastructure & Municipal Works.

The City also commented that the project was complex due to all of the underground infrastructure that exists along the route.

The opening of Brookdale marks the final phase of the multi-year Three Nations North Channel Bridge demolition Project.
The Hunter Museums New Years Eve: Party on the Bluff, named one of the Southeasts top New Years Eve parties by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, features an open bar, hors doeuvres, a live DJ, dancing, midnight champagne toast and views of the city.

New for this year, the festivities will be held in both the Hunters glass-walled atrium and under a heated tent on the River Terrace.

The party will be held from 9 p.m.-1 a.m.



Tickets are individual $140 and couple $260. Visit huntermuseum.org/events/partyonthebluff.

VIP packages are available by phone at 267-0968.



New Years Eve: Party on the Bluff is sponsored by See Rock City.


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A merry Monday evening at the Breitscheidplatz Christmas Market outside Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in west Berlin ended in tragedy as a black truck crashed three stalls. The incident caused the deaths of 12 locals and tourists, leaving dozens with injuries and the market filled with debris and dead bodies.

The truck was driven by the cousin of Ariel Zurawski, who is owner of the vehicle, according to The Washington Post reported. He lost contact to him at around 4 P.M. and thought he might have been hijacked.

A man, who matched the driver description, fled the scene, according to witnesses, but was then arrested near the Victory Column in Berlin's Tiergarten and was interrogated. While another man inside the truck, presumed as the real driver, was found dead.

A British tourist who was in the area said that the truck ran 40 mph and showed no sign of slowing down, claiming it might have been intentional. Police said that the truck ran about 40 to 80 meters before it came to a complete stop, The Guardian reported.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility of the attack. Back in July, 86 people were killed when a Tunisian-born French resident, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, steered a 19-tonne vehicle into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice. This incident is a similar plot to that in Breitscheidplatz, one of the busiest Christmas market in Berlin. The Islamic State has claimed two incident this year.

Officials are still investigating whether the incident was purely just a tragic accident or an attack of terror, while The White House considers it an "apparent terrorism attack.".

As of press time, the area has been cleared and an information post has been set up for relatives searching for their loved ones.

See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare
AVA will host a special fundraising exhibit and art auction to assist local artists affected by the fire that destroyed their work and studios.



On Thanksgiving, the Makers Off Main building, near the corner of Williams and Main Street, caught fire. Several businesses and artists' studios housed there were completely destroyed . The tenants of the building were able to remain strong because of the help and encouragement from the city of Chattanooga, officials said.

"Many Chattanoogans provided words of support which allowed us to help one another in this time of crisis", said Adam Kirby, one of the artists who lost his studio and work in the fire.

The artists from this space came together and created a traveling art auction, dubbed 'Makers Off Main', to raise money for the losses everyone suffered.



AVA has offered the gallery space for a two-week show, Jan. 13-27, dedicated to those artists affected by the fire. There will be an opening reception on Friday, Jan. 13 from 5:30-8 p.m. at the AVA Gallery, 30 Frazier Ave.

Featured artists will include Adam Kirby, Brent Weston, Hanna Hahn, and Jason Doan, along with donated work from other Chattanooga artists.



Live music, beverages, and food will be provided with a $5 entrance donation. All of the money collected from the entrance fees, auction, and art sales will be divided evenly among the affected artists.



There will be special, Friday the 13th opening night only, pricing on original works of art with purchases benefiting the cause.



Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m.



If you or an artist you know would like to contribute works of art to be included in this benefit exhibition, contact Adam Kirby, exhibition coordinator, via email at takirbys@gmail.com.


"Operation Wetback" (buckle up) was a brutal sweep in the mid 1950s by the Border Patrol which targeted undocumented workers and dumped them back into unfamiliar parts of Mexico, either by airlift or banana boats. Over a million folks were deported in 1954, which led the Border Patrol to declare the undocumented immigrant problem "solved" -- a assertion that was wildly naive at best. First, a huge portion of the deportations were repeat apprehensions, meaning the same people were being deported multiple times. Also, a lot of the people who got the heave-ho weren't even questioned on their citizenship status. The Border Patrol would see people crossing the border back into Mexico and call it "voluntary departure," as if no American citizen had ever gone to Mexico for any reason.

John Moore/Getty Images The other side of that fence is sadly lacking in beachfront tuba bands.

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Getting caught while undocumented wasn't the worst part of your journey, however. That'd be the actual journey. It takes a special kind of monster to turn a banana boat trip to Mexico into a crime against humanity, but the Border Patrol managed to do so with aplomb. The two-day long journey back to Mexico often saw the deportees crammed into small vessels without any protection from the sea or Sun, or wedged into the cargo holds of ships. In 1956, during one such voyage, a riot erupted in which seven deportees drowned. When Congress investigated, they said the travel conditions resembled those of an "ancient penal ship" -- which is a boat to transport prisoners and not, as it may sound, a boat shaped like a giant penis. Five hundred workers were stuffed in the bowels of a ship with only enough lifeboats to carry 48. Worse yet, there are plenty of reasons to believe that had the ship sunk, the Border Patrol still would have claimed they had successfully deported 452 immigrants -- the fact that they deported them to the bottom of the ocean would have been a technicality that went unmentioned.
The Grand Prix Commission has announced the following modifications to the MotoGP tyre rules, effective from the 2017 season.

The most significant change is the introduction of a system that will automatically detect the type of tyre each rider is using. This will help address complaints that the coloured markings on the side of the tyre are too difficult for fans and media to see...

Automatic Detection of Tyre Types

In collaboration with Michelin and the MotoGP class manufacturers a new system will be implemented that will enable automatic detection of the tyres that riders are using and make that information available to all riders and teams as well as to the TV broadcasters.

The tyre detection is made by means of wireless technology. The information is then fed to the unified ECU and routed to the track timing system which reports via an updated version of the unified software.

Tyre Allocations

To address the issue of a perceived disadvantage affecting riders who progress from QP1 to QP2, the two riders involved will now be able to choose an additional soft specification rear slick tyre. The total number of tyres available to such riders remains unchanged.

Addendum - Tyre Allocations

In the information released concerning decisions of the Grand Prix Commission in Madrid, held on the 2nd of December, it was stated that the maximum number of wet and dry track tyres remains unchanged.

This was incorrect. The maximum number of wet weather tyres has been changed to five front and six rear. (Race Direction can still approve an additional allocation of one extra front and rear tyres when all free practice and qualifying is held in wet conditions).
Applications & OS News

M-Files Pitches Partner Opportunities Of Its Latest ECM Release

Rick Whiting

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M-Files Corp. says the latest release of its enterprise content management system, including the software's new search capabilities and other enhancements, expands service opportunities for its 550-plus channel partners.

And M-Files is developing packaged applications that run with its core ECM software, such as the recently introduced contract lifecycle management app, with more to follow in 2017, that also will create opportunities for partners.

"There's really a lot of ways to create services-focused revenue, along with the software revenue," said Scott Erickson, channel sales vice president at the Dallas-based company, in an interview with CRN.

[Related: Dell-EMC To Unload Enterprise Content Division To Canadian Firm For $1.6B]

M-Files competes in the ECM - or document management - software arena against such companies as IBM, OpenText (which is acquiring Dell-EMC's Documentum), Hyland and Oracle.

M-Files offers its ECM system for on-premises, cloud or hybrid deployments. The company recently began shipping M-Files 2015.3 with the ability to conduct searches for content across multiple M-Files vaults, as well as new "search facets" tools for easier refinement of searches.

The new release also offers usability improvements, metadata card configurability enhancements, and the ability to add hand-written signatures to PDF documents from the M-Files mobile app for iOS and Android devices.

"We're really trying to change the landscape in terms of how companies use enterprise content management," Erickson said.

Gartner tagged M-Files as a "visionary" in an ECM magic quadrant report this year and it raised $36 million in Series B financing earlier in 2016. The company has been growing at a 50 percent annual rate and Erickson said the channel, which accounts for about half of the company's sales and about two-thirds of all sales deals, is a big part of its growth.

The company's partner roster includes traditional IT VARs and resellers that specialize in ECM, application resellers with expertise in such areas as CRM, managed service providers, systems integrators, and office equipment dealers that provide document management solutions.

"They run a very strong partner program," said Steve Maxwell, solutions services manager for Upstream Print Solutions, a Melbourne, Australia-based document and content management solutions provider that has partnered with M-Files since 2011.

Upstream Print Solutions originally signed on with M-Files when it went looking for an ECM system that was more flexible and scalable than software it was working with at the time. The company provides ECM consulting services, uncovering customers' document management problems and developing tailored solutions around the M-Files software.

Maxwell said M-Files is committed to its products and providing partners with whatever they need to be succeed  he noted that even in Australia he has access to the vendor's marketing teams. And he said that while Upstream has developed vertical industry apps that run on M-Files, he said his company would likely take advantage of the add-ons the vendor is developing. "We think it's a good strategy," he said.

Most M-Files partners are in North America and Europe with the company expanding its channel reach into Asia-Pacific and Latin America. The vendor is also recruiting partners with expertise in specific vertical industries.

Partners develop a range of services around the M-Files software, including implementation and integration with other applications, migrating content and documents, developing reporting capabilities, and providing workflow and business process management consulting services. Some partners are building recurring revenue streams around M-Files software, Erickson said.

The company's three-tiered partner program provides margins ranging between 20 and 50 points, market development funds and other marketing assistance, deal registration, a partner portal, technical training and a self-contained demonstration kit for partners' sales presentations.
Mobility News

CRN Exclusive: Panasonic Launches Revamped Toughbook Partner Program

Kyle Alspach

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Panasonic is rolling out an overhauled Authorized Reseller Program for its Toughbook line of rugged mobile devices, with the aim of better integrating partners into the Panasonic device business.

The moves include doubling the amount of market development funds that are available to channel partners, upping the discount offered to partners for purchases of demo units and setting up a channel team within Panasonic that's exclusively focused on mobility.

Channel partners handle nearly all sales of Toughbook devices, which fall under Panasonic Solutions for Business, a unit of Newark, N.J.-based Panasonic Corporation of North America.

[Related: Panasonic Demos New ToughPad Products]

Feedback from partners was behind the changes to the four-tier Toughbook reseller program, which currently has 300 partners..

Paul Zoz, CEO of Lincoln, Neb.-based Bizco Technologies, a longtime Panasonic partner, told CRN that "we honestly had some concerns" about how the Toughbook channel program had been operating in recent years, but "we've seen some very aggressive action [from Panasonic] to make some adjustments in the program."

"They could've easily waited until next year to make the changes, but this got pushed through very quickly, which is good news for everybody," Zoz said.

In particular, Zoz said the moves around MDF are welcome at his firm. Along with boosting the amount of market development funds available, Panasonic has loosened some requirements in the program with the aim of making it easier for partners to access the funds, Panasonic executives told CRN.

"We used to have to go and make a case for every event, and everything we wanted funding for. Now we have a checkbook up to a certain amount," Zoz said. "That puts the power in the reseller's hands to make the best decisions for how to invest that money, which is great."

The discount for purchasing Toughbook demo units has gone from 50 percent to 70 percent, he said, "which will save us a lot of money right now, and increase the number of demo products we have on hand."

That's crucial because Toughbook is a "highly customizable product" that customers typically want to try hands-onand often, customers prefer to do a tryout for one or two months, Zoz said.

In recent months, Panasonic has also retooled its channel organization so that Toughbook partners will be better served, said Magnus McDermid, senior vice president of Panasonic's Business Mobility Group for North America.

A previous strategy of having Panasonic's channel team handle multiple different products was causing "confusion in the channel," McDermid said. "We felt a little bit out of touch in some places with our reseller partners."

In response, the company has launched a mobility-focused channel team and added a half-dozen new positions for it, as well as new leadership. The Toughbook channel team is now led by Dominick Passanante, senior director for channel sales in the Business Mobility Group at Panasonic.

"Historically we were relying on various field salespeople to do the training for us," Zoz said. "Now, with the implementation of partner sales managers, it should ensure that our staff is up to speed on all the products."

Panasonic has also committed to holding more events to connect with its Toughbook partners. For instance, the company recently took some of its top resellers to Japan to visit its manufacturing facilitiesa trip that Zoz attended, and which he said signaled "a huge amount of commitment to the channel."

"We've definitely seen a change in the investment in partners" from Panasonic, he said.

McDermid said that "the whole point around [the revamped program] is to really help engage with our partners at a deeper level  and hopefully the new program will drive better margins."

The Toughbook line includes rugged laptops, tablets and handheld devices. Products include the Toughbook 20, a laptop with a detachable display that was a finalist in CRN's 2016 Tech Innovator Awards. Panasonic is planning to launch additional Toughbook products in 2017, McDermid said.
Mobility News

Nokia Accuses Apple Of Patent Infringement In New Lawsuits

Kyle Alspach

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In the latest in a series of legal scuffles over patents between the two companies, Nokia has filed new lawsuits against Apple in the U.S. and Germany that levy accusations of patent infringement in Apple devices.

Finland-based Nokia previously sued Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple in 2009, alleging that the iPhone infringed patents for touch screen technology in smartphones owned by Nokia. That case was settled in 2011.

[Related: Apple Loses Latest Court Battle Vs. Samsung]

Nokia alluded to the settlement in a statement Wednesday, saying that in 2011 Apple had agreed to "a license covering some patents from the Nokia Technologies portfolio."

But, "Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products," Nokia said in the statement.

Nokia said the lawsuits involve 32 patents that cover display, user interface, chipset, antenna and other technologies.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Apple has accused Nokia of working with Acacia Research Corporationa "patent assertion entity"-- to "extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly and anti-competitively from Apple and other innovative suppliers of cell phones," according to a lawsuit filed by Apple on Wednesday.
Security News

Kaspersky Lab's North American Channel Chief Bois Leaves Security Vendor

Sarah Kuranda

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Kaspersky Lab North American Channel Chief Leslie Bois has left the company as the endpoint security vendor looks to position itself for the next-generation market, CRN has learned.

Bois, who had served as vice president of channel sales for North America, recently left the Moscow-based security vendor to take a new role at a startup. Kaspersky confirmed her departure in an email.

"After eight years of valuable service at Kaspersky Lab North America, Leslie Bois stepped down to pursue an external opportunity," a Kaspersky spokesperson said.

[Related: Q&A: Amit Yoran On Leaving RSA, New CEO Role At Tenable And 2017 Security Predictions]

As head of North American channels at Kaspersky, Bois helped drive a channel focus at the security vendor, including driving partner enablement, rolling out a strategic rebate program and pushing a focus on the upper midmarket and enterprise accounts.

The spokesperson said no permanent replacement had been named for Bois, and her responsibilities for managing regional channel sales and the partner community will be assumed in the interim by Michael Canavan, senior vice president for B2B sales.

Bois has been head of North American channel sales at Kaspersky since December 2015, though she has held various channel leadership roles at the company over the past eight years. Prior to joining Kaspersky in 2008, she held roles at Raritan and EDGE Tech Corp.

Bois was also named this year to CRN's 2016 Top 100 Executives list and the 2016 Power 100, Most Powerful Women of the Channel list.

Michael Knight, president and chief technology officer at Encore Technology Group, a Greenville, S.C.-based Kaspersky partner, said Bois has a "great skill set" and will "move on to do some great things" in her new role, which has not yet been announced.

"I think she did a great job there," Knight said. "I would definitely give her a lot of accolades for the things she's done [at Kaspersky]  Now she has the opportunity to do something different."

Knight said he sees Bois' departure coming at a time when Kaspersky is looking to realign itself to be more competitive in an evolving market for endpoint security. He said Kaspersky is still "absolutely channel friendly," but sees them positioning to be nimbler, technologically advanced and business-focused  changes he said are crucial in today's endpoint security market that is evolving to meet an emerging tsunami of next-generation endpoint security players.

"Kaspersky is realigning to focus on all the foes in the market there and competitors. I think it's going to be a good thing all around," Knight said.
The City of San Diego seems to have all the building blocks in place to make the smart city an exceptionally safe one when it comes to cyber attacks. Deputy director and CISO Gary Hayslip has built out the citys security operations center, hes partnering with innovative security vendors and startups, and conferring with law enforcement to keep up with the latest threats. He has the backing of the mayor and city executives, with plenty of funding, and hes hiring more staff.

Yet when asked how he would grade his organizations ability to detect and mitigate cyber threats, he offered a sobering assessment.

I would probably say about a C+, Hayslip says. Im realistic. Theres a lot of risk out there. Were dealing with about a million attacks a day on our networks. Ive got 40 departments, 24 networks and 40,000 endpoints to protect. As the smart city adds more IoT devices connecting streetlights, stoplights and HVAC systems to the network, the threat surface will only grow.

Were definitely going to get destructive-type attacks. I think its going to go beyond DDoS, and theyll try to destroy infrastructure, Hayslip says.

Many security professionals feel less than certain about their own cyber defenses. Research firm CyberEdge Group and Tenable Network Security asked 700 security practitioners in nine countries and across seven industry verticals about their overall confidence that the worlds cyber defenses are meeting expectations.

According to this years data, global cybersecurity confidence fell six points over 2016 to earn an overall score of 70 percent  a C- on the report card.

IDG

The overall decline in confidence is the result of a 12-point drop in the 2017 Risk Assessment Index, which measured the ability of respondents to assess cyber risk across 11 components of the enterprise IT landscape.

Based on these numbers, people arent very good at finding out what their vulnerabilities are, but when they do find them, theyre really good at patching them, says Cris Thomas, strategist at Tenable.

For the second year, practitioners cited the overwhelming cyber threat environment as the single biggest challenge facing IT security professionals today, followed closely by low security awareness among employees and lack of network visibility due to BYOD and shadow IT.

No doubt, the dangers are real. Just last week Yahoo disclosed that over a billion user accounts had been stolen  back in 2013. Quest Diagnostics says that the hack of an internet application on its network exposed the personal health information of about 34,000 people.

Venafi CISO Tammy Moskites doesnt like assigning scores, but she does acknowledge that shes constantly challenged with making sure that were doing the right things right.

Were going to be more challenged with making sure that were able to be quick and agile when and if an attacks occurs, Moskites says. With all the craziness going on in the world, its making all of us have to stay on our toes.

Despite all of the collective knowledge, the law enforcement intelligence and all the technology available, are security teams destined to remain slightly below average when it comes to detecting breaches before they happen or stopping them before they cause more damage?

For the record, you can stop these guys, says Tony Robinson, CISO at Pioneer Technology. While serving as CISO for a government contractor, he successfully stopped attacks by Chinese hackers. It can be done against the best of them, but it takes a team, training and experience in addition to tools, he says.

Build your cybersecurity confidence

No cybersecurity program can thrive without adequate funding and support from top executives. It doesnt have to be outrageous funding, but enough so that you can field a team and be able to train your team so you can build out and manage a security suite that can do continuous monitoring, scanning and remediation -- whether in the cloud, on connected devices or on premise, Hayslip says. Your perimeter now is everywhere  tablets, smartphones, PCs and laptops, and it moves with your staff and your people.

Beyond those basics, CISOs and cybersecurity pros share how theyve improved cybersecurity confidence.

Know what you're protecting

Though BYOD and shadow IT are a challenge, having an inventory of everything that youre protecting will increase cybersecurity confidence, Moskites says. Im significantly more optimistic than I was a year ago now that we have a grasp on our baseline, she says. We have an inventory of all of our assets -- our server environment, our desktops and laptops and everything thats accessing our network. I know what were securing and protecting in my environment.

Dont go it alone

The adage, The enemy of my enemy is my friend applies to cybersecurity now more than ever. A PwC survey found that 55 percent of respondents collaborate with external partners to improve security and reduce risks. Whats more, half of those that did collaborate felt they shared and received more actionable information from industry peers.

Collaboration and information sharing can allow organizations to gain actionable visibility into their most relevant risks, understand the motives and tactics of adversaries and shed light on the most effective response methods, says Chris O'Hara, PwCs U.S. co-leader for cybersecurity and privacy.

For large organizations, federal law enforcement can also make valuable partners. When Robinson steps into a CISO role, one of his first tasks is to contact the local FBI office to establish a dialog and gather what intelligence they can share.

Investigate promising tools

A slew of new technologies aims to protect networks from breaches and is worth investigating. Machine learning tools, which deliver the ability to analyze networks, learn about them, detect anomalies and protect enterprises from threats, may allow organizations to get in front of the threat, finding and eradicating them before they can do harm. Early reaction from users  mostly major cloud and media enterprises and financial institutions  has been positive. However, researchers caution that machine learning is no silver bullet and that it has its limitations.

[ MORE ON CSO: Machine learning offers new hope against cyber attacks ]

Tools that provide consistent monitoring of your own security posture, as well as that of your partners, and then update networks accordingly, can improve cybersecurity assurance, says Alex Heid, chief research officer at SecurityScorecard. The vendors software platform, which analyzes publicly available data on known vulnerabilities to identify security holes, also has a collaboration feature. If youre seeing a problem on a partners scorecard, you can invite them in so they can see and fix it, Heid says. Were trying to create a collaborative ecosystem to watch each others backs.

As Hayslip rings in 2017, hes relying on his team and his partners to sharpen San Diegos cybersecurity defenses in the new year. Im confident that a lot of my partners are working to help us identify threats and help fight it. Im confident in my team and the work theyre doing to build out our operations center and put policies in place. In this job, youll never know everything. As a CISO, you have to admit that at times you just dont know, and you have to collaborate and ask for help. In this type of environment, you have no choice.

Related video:
Privacy Shield, the new international framework allowing companies to transfer customer data between the EU and the U.S., is getting good reviews so far, but some companies aren't betting on it for the long term.

Companies using Privacy Shield worry that it may face the same fate as long-used predecessor the Safe Harbor Framework, which was overturned by the European Court of Justice in October 2015 after revelations of mass surveillance by the U.S National Security Agency.

Digital Rights Ireland and French civil liberties group La Quadrature du Net have also challenged Privacy Shield in court, saying the new framework doesn't adequately protect Europeans' privacy.

While U.S. companies are embracing Privacy Shield, many European businesses are "still concerned that Privacy Shield will not hold up under court scrutiny, and they will find themselves in the same scenario as they were in October 2015, when the Safe Harbor agreement was struck down," said Deema Freij, global privacy officer at Intralinks, a New York cloud-based content collaboration provider.

Some European companies see Privacy Shield certification as a "tick box" compliance exercise, she added. With some doubts about its long-term viability, companies should also consider other data transfer agreements, such as EU model clauses or binding corporate rules, she recommended.

However, if companies can get certainty about Privacy Shield's future, and if it won't be "attacked in the long term by data privacy activists trying to discredit it and challenge its validity, I believe it will work in the long run," Freij added.

More than 1,100 users

As of early December, about five months after Privacy Shield went into effect, about 1,150 U.S. companies had signed up to handle European customer data under Privacy Shield, up from about 500 at the end of September. Another 600 U.S. companies had applications under review.

Those numbers compare to more than 4,500 U.S. companies that had participated in the Safe Harbor data-transfer program, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Like Intralinks, cloud security firm CipherCloud is worried about the legal challenges to Privacy Shield, said David Berman, senior product marketing manager there.

"If a European Court decision does invalidate Privacy Shield, there will be another period of uncertainty" similar to what happened after the Safe Harbor agreement was struck down, he said. "If the new framework can withstand legal challenges it should continue to attract companies that want an overarching mechanism to transfer EU data to the U.S."

Small and medium-size businesses, as well as cloud providers, seem to be embracing Privacy Shield, but the new data transfer rules impose more obligations than the old agreement, Berman said.

"Privacy Shield has more privacy protections for individuals than Safe Harbor, so firms will have to be more diligent and ensure they are complying with the new privacy principles or risk public disclosure of a violation by the U.S. Department of Commerce," he said. "Some firms may find the increased oversight, additional requirements, and sanctions for non-compliance under Privacy Shield a barrier to adoption."

Compliance and surveillance

With the number of Privacy Shield companies still lagging behind those that used Safe Harbor, this could indicate that Privacy Shield is more difficult to comply with, added Elodie Dowling, corporate vice president and general counsel for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at BMC Software.

In addition to the legal challenges, some EU data privacy regulators have suggested that Privacy Shield "does not do enough to curtail U.S. surveillance," Dowling added. EU privacy regulators will review the agreement in 2017.

The legal challenges may be only beginning, she added. Max Schrems, the Austrian man who led the fight against Safe Harbor, has questioned how 500 companies received certification in the first month Privacy Shield was available.

"This is undoubtedly showing that there are serious concerns around ... Privacy Shield and its ability to indeed protect EU citizens fundamental right of privacy when their personal data is being transferred to the U.S.," Dowling said.

BMC has not yet signed up for Privacy Shield, instead deciding to "rely on another mechanism to safely and legally transfer personal data outside of the EU anywhere in the world" -- through binding corporate rules.

For Privacy Shield to succeed, it needs support from the EU, including the data protection authorities in each member state, added David Hoffman, Intel's associate general counsel and global privacy officer.

Intel supports the new agreement but wants to keep other mechanisms, such as binding corporate rules, in place as well, he said.

If data transfers are between subsidiaries of the same company, companies can use binding corporate rules to define the data responsibilities. As an alternative to Privacy Shield, companies can protect external transfers through model contract clauses restricting what the receiving company may do with the data.

But companies are concerned about the future of those alternate data transfer methods as well, Hoffman said. While Privacy Shield and alternative transfer methods are in place for now, the future is uncertain.

"Some of the same arguments about Safe Harbor and Privacy Shield can be made about alternative transfer methods," he said. "If there are concerns about law enforcement and national security agencies accessing information, then there would be the same concerns about alternative methods because those agencies can also access it when it's transferred by other means."
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SHELTONIn a statement addressed to Shelton Public Schools parents, Superintendent Christopher Clouet explained why police were called to stop a school bus last week.

The situation occurred as schools were dismissing on Friday, December 16, Clouet wrote. Several student passengers reported seeing the drivers eyes close as he drove the bus.

Clouet then reported going to the scene himself, where he found police, the children, and the bus unharmed. A replacement driver was dispatched from Landmark Transportation, the main busing operator for the district and the employer of the suspected snoozer.

I, along with the school principals, our Transportation Coordinator Jim Burns, and the entire Board of Education are very upset about what happened, Clouet said in the statement.

Landmark Transportation representatives did not return a request for comment left with an employee Tuesday afternoon.

The investigation about the details of what caused the bus driver to act in an unsafe, unprofessional manner is ongoing, Clouet said. That individual is finished in Shelton.

Neither Clouet nor the the police department have released the name of the driver, or the cause of their alleged drowsiness. Its unclear if the driver admitted any wrongdoing, or if they broke any laws.

There was not an arrest made on Friday, said Shelton Police spokesman Detective Richard Bango, in an email.

We will be meeting with Landmark Transportation this week, Clouet continued, to review the situation and to enhance protocols to insure nothing like this ever happens again.
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A Connecticut baker is set to bring his delicious cakes to Food Network's "Cake Wars," but his journey to the kitchen may be the real showstopper.

Owner John Cummings, of Stonehouse Baked Goods in Naugatuck, Conn., will represent the bakery, alongside the bakery's lead decorator Ashley Grom, as they compete for $10,000 on Monday, Dec. 26.

"Cake Wars" pits four teams against each other with surprise ingredients and a theme as they try to make the most delicious and eye-catching cakes. Cummings and Grom were tasked with creating cakes under a Rose Bowl theme.

Check out the gallery above for a look at some of Stonehouse Baked Goods' creative cakes.

After applying a few times to the show, the bakery finally received a call last July to head to Los Angeles for a taping of the show.

Cummings, who has spent about six years baking now, said going against competition in front of cameras was a unique experience, but one that he's open to once more.

"Pretty much one of the most stressful things we've done," he said.

Stress is no stranger to the baker, either.

Cummings previously worked for 20 years in Bridgeport at what is now Global Co. LLC oil terminal, until enduring an injury requiring a cervical fusion.

"When I was out having my neck done, my wife asked me to make a birthday cake for a friend of hers...and I said, 'well you know what let me do it like the TV guys,' and I used fon[dant] and stuff," Cummings recalled. "It took off from there."

Unable to work the rigorous demands of the docks in Bridgeport, he began considering baking as a new career after the success of his cake for his wife's coworkers.

"So it's kind of a roundabout route to where I was going to end up. I figured I'd be 25 years on the job and then retire and that's it," Cummings said.

Cummings rented a commercial kitchen in Glastonbury, where he started baking full-time, advertising and selling his creations. His success lead to a storefront in Wolcott before moving to his current location in Naugatuck last November, where he creates all his delicious treats from scratch.

Perhaps his talents may have been waiting for the right occasion to shine.

"My mother was a phenomenal baker and when I was a kid I used to help her but that kind of faded out once I hit my teens. I didn't think I'd be reverting back to that," Cummings said.

The competition

When Cummings and Grom arrived in California, they were immediately put work.

The first day there, Cummings and Grom shopped for ingredients needed for the competition and took a studio tour. After familiarizing themselves with their workspace on the second day, they jumped into the competition on day three.

"When you're decorating and putting a cake together for a customer to pick up, you have a little bit of a luxury possibly in saying, 'hey, can you come 10 minutes later or 20 minutes later,'" Cummings said of the experience. "It's basically when they say go and they hit the button and the clock starts, it doesn't stop."

And when the clock started, there was no room for error or hesitation. Any challenges Cummings and Grom ran into required them to improvise on the spot.

"If something goes wrong, it's not like you're at your bakery where you have an extra, when you decide I'm going to build this and something goes wrong you're stuck with what you have," Cummings said.

Despite the new challenge, Cummings may have caught a competitive fever.

"I'd definitely throw my hat back in. It was definitely an experience I'm glad we did for sure," he said.
17 Of The Best Independent Bookstores In Chicago

Independent bookstores have taken a beating since the arrival of big box chains, the internet and e-readers. But some book stores are not only surviving, but thriving. Some of the stores fill a niche, like stocking the weirdest sci-fi or zines. Others create a community with their events calendar. All of them have a thoughtful selection of books that are more fun to browse IRL and staff on hand who can make recommendations an algorithm could never dream of. These are the favorites of the Chicagoist staffadd your own favorite booksellers in the comments.



Quimby's is the perfect place to find, say, a witch calendar (Quimby's/Instagram)

QUIMBY'S BOOKSTORE

Quimby's is a champion of the eclectic, independent, countercultural, punk, weird and obscure. Just wandering through here to see what's available is an education. You can find what you need to make your way through critical theory or your first time dropping acid or casting a Satanic spell. Quimby's is especially noteworthy for being a major center of zine culture in Chicago. You can find quite an array of independently-produced zines, comics, graphic novels, novels and anything that blurs those lines. Bring your friends and dates along to browse and commemorate the occasion in their photobooth. This year the shop celebrated 25 years in business.

Quimby's Bookstore is located at 1854 W. North Ave., in Wicker Park (773) 342-0910



Unabridged Bookstore

UNABRIDGED BOOKSTORE

The first thing you notice strolling into Unabridged Bookstore are the lemon-yellow, laminated cards lining the tidy shelves revealing personal, handwritten recommendations that guide you to books you didn't realize you wanted to read. For more than 35 years, Unabridged Bookstore has been Chicago's leading source for LGBT literature, but the Lakeview bookseller also boasts an impressive childrens section, a vast travel room in the basement, and a carefully curated sale book section with current and below-the-radar hardcopy tomes (remember those?) appealing to both bibliophiles and casual readers. Tony Peregrin

Unabridged Bookstore is located at 3251 N. Broadway in Lakeview, (773) 883-9119



Women And Children First, on display (Photo by NYRB Classics via the Creative Commons on Flickr)

WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST

Women and Children First is a feminist bookstore devoted to everything that can't be added to a virtual shopping cartfrom support groups to TEDx Talks to author readings from both established and novice writers. Oh, and there's books toothe Andersonville bookseller stocks a robust collection of more than 30,000 titles by and about women, children's books for all ages, and LGBTQ fiction and non-fiction. With a staff that features writers, political activists, and mothers, Women and Children First has amassed legions of devoted fans drawn to the bookseller's unassuming and inclusive charm. Tony Peregrin

Women and Children First is located at 5233 N. Clark St. in Andersonville, (773) 769-9299



Lots of book clubs and coffee here at Book Cellar (Book Cellar/Instagram)

THE BOOK CELLAR

Book Cellar has everything an independent store should: a well-curated selection of books and a well-versed staff. What makes Book Cellar stand out is its role in the local lit community. There's always something going on, whether a book club, a signing, a reading (once it was Studs Terkel!), a comedy show or a reading party when a long-anticipated book comes out. There is coffee, wine and light snacks to give you sustenance should you want to hang out here and chat. This is a book store for the extroverted reader.

The Book Cellar is located at 4736 N. Lincoln Ave. in Lincoln Square, (773) 293-2665



An ideal reading couch at Myopic (Photo by rebecca anne via the Creative Commons on Flickr)

MYOPIC BOOKS

Myopic has three floors of lovingly chosen used books right in the heart of Wicker Park, and it's the unanimous favorite of the Chicagoist staff. Its labyrinthine stacks are a great place to spend an afternoon. If you need help finding your way around the place or need a recommendation, the staff on hand is immensely helpful. Standouts include its excellent fiction section, the basement collection of sci-fi books and a great Chicago history section. Monday nights they have free live music that tends toward the more experimental side and regular poetry readings, too. Be warned: they've got a no cell phone policy and they don't have a restroom.

Myopic Books is located at 1564 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Wicker Park, (773) 862-4882



The Seminary's new space (Photo by Connie Ma via the Creative Commons on Flickr)

THE SEMINARY CO-OP/57TH STREET BOOKS

What the South Side lacks in quantity of independent book stores, it makes up with two stores, just a block apart, run by the Seminary Co-Op. One of them, the Seminary Co-Op, houses one of the largest collections of academic books in the world. It focuses on the social sciences and humanities, which helps to serve the community at the University of Chicago. But it's a great resource for anyone interested in diving deep on any particular subject or a particular language, whether in or out of school. If you're looking for a less scholarly, more typical general interest book store, head over to 57th Street Books. The spread here is pretty huge, but it has that indie bookstore touch I love so much: notes from staff with recommendations you otherwise might not have considered. It's easy to join the co-op, and in doing so you will join the ranks of luminaries such as Susan Sontag, Saul Bellow, Barack and Michelle Obama, Friedrich Hayek and Harold Washington.

Seminary Co-Op is located at 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave. in Hyde Park, (773) 752-4381; 57th Street Books is located at 1301 E. 57th St. in Hyde Park, (773) 684-1300



This is the best way to enjoy a bookor a bookstore (Photo by Read It & Eat/Instagram)

READ IT & EAT

Two great things in the world are reading and eating, and this store combines them beautifully. There's an emphasis on cookbooks, but there are all sorts of books about food. Travelogues, memoirs, history, everything! Authors, whether chefs, writers or other food celebs, come by to sign their books. Even better: there is actually food for you to taste from their test kitchens. They often test the stuff straight out of cookbooks. Best of all: you can take classes here and learn to cook for yourself.

Read It & Eat is located at 2142 N. Halsted St. in Lincoln Park, (773) 661-6158



Bucket o'Blood's offerings (Photo by Julianne via the Creative Commons on Flickr)

BUCKET O'BLOOD BOOKS AND RECORDS

This bookstore carves out a niche for itself and owns it when it comes to science fiction, fantasy and horror books. They've got a great selection of horror and B-movies to accompany this selection. While most of what they have on hand is genre fiction, they've also got a nice selection of literary fiction and nonfiction. The store's name might evoke a place with a basement rec-room aesthetic, but this space is airy and organized with a few retro movie posters and tasteful skulls thrown in the mix.

Bucket o'Blood is located at 3182 N Elston Ave. in Avondale, (312) 890-3860



Volumes Bookcafe's Harry Potter release party (Volumes Bookcafe/Facebook)

VOLUMES BOOKCAFE

This is the newest entry on the list, and it feels very new. Dim bookstores with narrow, winding aisles have their own romance, but Volumes feels cheery, open and welcoming. The ceilings are high, there's a lot of light and everything is beautifully organized. Volumes opened this year in Wicker Park, a neighborhood not hurting for booksellers, yet it has found its niche. Volumes looks like a cafe in the front, where it serves wine, cider and local craft beer in addition to Metropolis coffee, as well as Dollop Pastries. The store goes deep and has a selection of mostly new offerings, including a healthy section for kids. Volumes hosts a lot of events: book clubs, open mics, comedy nights, weekly trivia, Scrabble league and StoryTime for the kids twice a week.

Volumes Bookcafe is located at 1474 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Wicker Park, (773) 697-8066



It's an inviting space (Open Books/Yelp)

OPEN BOOKS

Open Books isn't your average used bookstore. It has a selection of 50,000 books10,000 of those dedicated to children and teens. Its location in the West Loop is clean, well-organized but also sprawling. It's a great place to pick up a book without spending a whole lot. (Look for their periodic sales to save more.) But what sets it apart is its educational outreach efforts. The nonprofit grants books to kids (and adults!), and it coordinates volunteers to work at schools throughout the city. Volunteers get set up with kids who need reading buddiesthat is adults who can help them learn to read and learn to love reading. There are programs to help with creative writing skills, as well. So if you're looking for a book, and maybe also a chance to volunteer and share your love of the written word, Open Books is the place.

Open Books is located at 651 W. Lake St. in the West Loop

UNDERGROUND BOOKSTORE

Underground Bookstore is a rarity in that it is one of the few black-owned bookstores dedicated to Afrocentric thought in Chicago. This South Side bookstore has been in business 24 years and its main focus is books dedicated to a wide range of black political thought and spirituality, including metaphysics. Here you can find books or recordings of leaders like Malcolm X or an exhaustive account of America's prison industrial complex. They're also known for having a particularly well-stocked Afrocentric children's section, a critical resource given how important it is to children's self-esteem to see people with their skin color representeda fact white children can take for granted. The bookstore occasionally hosts speakers and writers, like New York Times best-selling novelists Omar Tyree (famous for the Flyy Girl trilogy) and Carl Weber, who also runs the publishing house Urban Books.

Underground Bookstore is located at 1727 East 87th St., (773) 768-8869



Sandmeyer's is in a lovely old building (Sandmeyer's/Facebook)

SANDMEYER'S BOOKSTORE

A true mom-and-pop in a beautiful historical building in the South Loop on Printer's Row. This is a great place to pick up a new release or an old classic. It's not a huge store, but they pack quite a bit into the space. There's a great section dedicated to local history and local writers, and the children's section is noteworthy. They appreciate loyalty. For just $10, you can get a member card that entitles you to 10 percent off.

Sandmeyer's Bookstore is located at 714 S. Dearborn St. Chicago, in the South Loop, (312) 922-2104



"Like many huskies, Ramona often acts like a big, aloof cat and sleeps in her window all day."(Photo by snickclunk via the Creative Commons on Flickr)

UNCHARTED BOOKS

Uncharted Books is a lovely used book store in Logan Square that opened back in 2012, one of the newer used stores in town. (Thank you, Kickstarter!) They've got a solid collection of books in excellent condition, including some rarer finds. The store often hosts events. The space is low-key and comfortable place to hang for an afternoon. Most importantly is it's dog-friendly. Whether or not you have your own dog, you should say hello to the store husky named Ramona.

Uncharted Books is located at 2620 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Logan Square

THE BOOK TABLE

Are you the type of person who wants to support a local business but is also kind of cheap (or broke!)? Do you mind a trip to Oak Park? Head to this "fiercely independent" book store, which makes a point of giving you a discount off the sticker price on new books wherever they can (they also have a selection of used books). They also have a great local history sectionnot just on Chicago but Oak Park itself and its two most famous natives, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ernest Hemingway.

The Book Table is located in 1045 Lake St. in Oak Park, (708) 386-9800



Armadillo's Pillow (Photo by Stephanie Barto via the Chicagoist Flickr Pool)

ARMADILLO'S PILLOW

Armadillo's Pillows bills itself as having "common, uncommon, and hard-to-find used books." This is a great place to come by when you want something new, but don't want to spend a lot. You can find some great deals under $9 and even some for just a buck. The staff is friendly and helpful in pointing you in the right direction, making recommendations and even getting in touch with you if they get something in you might like. It's got a bohemian vibe right down to the incense burning.

Armadillo's Pillow is located at 6753 N. Sheridan Rd. in Rogers Park



A recently made-over biography section (City Lit Books/Facebook)

CITY LIT BOOKS

This is the place to go in Logan Square to pick up the latest bestseller or something a little more off-the-beaten path in a setting that feels very warm and neighborly. It's a comfy place to hang around once you've made your selection or you just wrapped up an event. Their staff recommendations are almost novellas. They care! The store hosts its own full roster of events, including open mics, book clubs, story time and some great author appearances. A tip for drivers: there's a lot of free parking in back.

City Lit is located at 2523 N. Kedzie Blvd. in Logan Square, (773) 235-2523

Honorable mentions:

Curbside Books & Records, a small shop with a very friendly staff inside Revival Food Hall

Wicker Park Secret Agent Supply Co., a store that sells books whose proceeds go to 826CHI

After-Words, a downtown shop that puts its new and used books alongside each other

Anderson's Book Shop, a great local chain if you're in the burbs and want something besides Barnes & Noble.
ASIA PACIFIC | PATHUM THANI JOURNAL

New York Times

By

SETH MYDANS

December 20, 2016



PATHUM THANI, Thailand  It is a temple for a changing Thailand: clean, unadorned, high-tech and unashamed of praying for wealth.



Sit here and get rich, read small medallions embedded in the floor under each white plastic chair in a vast, open-sided meditation center. In his sermons, the temples charismatic 72-year-old leader, Phra Dhammachayo, often exhorts his adherents, Be rich, be rich, be rich!



With its endorsement of worldly comforts and its no-nonsense approach to ritual, the temple, known as Wat Dhammakaya and the largest in

Thailand

, has attracted the allegiance of growing numbers of followers in a movement whose popularity has unsettled the government and the Buddhist hierarchy.



The authorities have long tried to clip its wings, and for the past month the police have been threatening to arrest Phra Dhammachayo despite a warning by the temple that it would mobilize a human shield of chanting monks to protect him.



The charge against him is embezzlement, the latest of many accusations that stretch decades, while the top body of Buddhism has accused him of heresy. Last week, it stripped him of his title, though that does not seem to have threatened his status on the grounds of Wat Dhammakaya.



The temple is the spiritual embodiment of the social and economic dislocations that have shaken Thailand. The economic boom of the 1980s created a well-to-do middle class for whom moneymaking rivaled Buddhist tradition as a core value. They needed something that brought the two together.



Cash machines are placed conveniently near a meditation hall with screens that declare, Shortcut to making merit, the important virtue of doing good deeds. As a merit-making bonus, credit card points earned by the transaction can go directly to the temple.



Buddha never taught us to live in hardship, said the temple spokesman, Phra Pasura Dantamano. He added: Buddha teaches moderation, but there are different levels of society. If I were a businessman or a farmer I would define moderation in a different way.



This perspective is a departure from traditional Thai Buddhism, in which there is less acceptance of wealth, said Suwanna Satha-Anand, a professor of philosophy at Chulalongkorn University.



They crafted a possibility of a new form of Buddhism which is friendly to capitalism or wealth, she said. This is the voice of the urban middle or upper class who are looking for a more modern image of what a Buddhist can be.



Well-designed websites promise a form of meditation that is simple, easy and effective. The temple itself manifests cleanliness and efficiency alongside tech-savvy sophistication. Its huge boxy buildings are aggressively plain, finished with unpainted gray concrete. It has no spire, few bells and little incense.



But it does not lack grandeur. Its centerpiece is a huge, flat dome more than 2,000 feet in diameter that even the temple concedes looks like a flying saucer. It radiates wealth. The domes surface consists of 300,000 small Buddha statues made of silicon gold, each as tall as an open hand and engraved with the name of a donor  suggested donation 10,000 baht, or about $300.



On special occasions, the vast plaza around the dome is the scene of spectacular gatherings  tens of thousands of monks in orange and worshipers in white  that rival an Olympics opening ceremony. The monks circle the dome as if the little statues had come to life, and they sit in perfect, ordered rows that seem to stretch to the horizon. At night, they march with glowing lights, and thousands of lighter-than-air lanterns float into the sky.



In keeping with the stark design of the temple, even these extravagant displays are marked by almost militaristic order and precision.



The same rapid rise to prosperity that inspired the popularity of Wat Dhammakaya also underlies the political divisions and outbreaks of violence that have shaken Thailand in recent years.



Those divisions are being held in check by a military junta that seized power in 2014. When you have hundreds of thousands of devotees, some people with power would be scared of that, Phra Pasura said.



He compared the Dhammakaya movement to the populist rise of Thaksin Shinawatra, a prime minister who was ousted in another coup, in 2006, and now lives in exile.



People are afraid that if we get too large we could be a threat, Phra Pasura said. He would not estimate the number of followers, but said they were in the hundreds of thousands.



At the moment, the government is pursuing several cases against Phra Dhammachayo, the foremost of which is a charge that he embezzled $40 million from a credit union. He has said he was unaware of the source of the funds, and his followers have paid off the debt.



But the government is still trying to bring him to court. For weeks, the police have been threatening to seize him, at one point saying they were ready to deploy 2,000 officers to confront what was likely to be a phalanx of monks.



It is a common pattern in Thailand of threat and retreat, whether for the surrender of red shirt demonstrators in 2010 or for monks

at another temple

earlier this year to give up their tame tigers at a moneymaking petting zoo.



Phra Dhammachayo has refused to turn himself in, asserting that he suffers from diabetes and Turner syndrome, a chromosomal disorder. He has not been seen in public for six months, and there is no confirmation that he is still inside the temple.



Wherever he is, Phra Dhammachayo remains a magnetic figure who draws intense devotion from his followers.



I am what I am because of him, said Watjana Suriyatham, 51, an assistant professor of English at Thammasat University.



Mirella Kampus, 34, a Swiss member of the staff, said she had been at the temple for six years and had found her calling there. If I had not known him, my life would be difficult, she said. I would not have found a reason for my life.



The son of an engineer, Phra Dhammachayo studied economics at Kasetsart University, but he had already dedicated himself to Buddhism. Soon after graduation, he founded the little meditation center that grew to become the largest temple in Thailand, with a territory that it says comprises 1,000 acres.



He also seems to be a man of unusual visions.



In 2012, in an account disseminated by the temples websites, he told his followers that

Steve Jobs

, the co-founder of Apple, had been reincarnated and was living in a six-story heavenly palace made of silver and crystal glass and served by a staff of 20 not far from Apples Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.



The vast temple grounds today seem hushed and still. Meditation halls are filled with the chanting of hundreds of monks and worshipers, sometimes with the aid of a karaoke-style scroll on a large screen.



For the temple, cleanliness and order are an important element of good karma. Devotees are expected not only to dress in white, but also to remove their sandals and place them in regimented rows when entering meditation rooms.



Not everyone is chanting. With its vast underground parking garage, clean toilets, free food and sheltered plazas, the temple is a refuge from the noisy outside world. Families often come to meditate together, to picnic and even to stay the night in tents that are provided for them.



Ms. Kampus compared the pristine temple to Switzerland.



My country is very clean, she said. When I came to Thailand, oh my god! But the temple is very clean. She added, If you keep orderliness outside, you are orderly inside and it is easier to meditate.



A version of this article appears in print on December 21, 2016, on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Parsing Buddhism in a Shrine to Abundance.



http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/20/world/asia/thailand-buddhist-temple-praying-wealth.html
Illinois Saw Biggest Population Dip In The Nation; Critics Blame Budget Stalemate

By Stephen Gossett in News on Dec 21, 2016 5:14PM



Flickr / Photo: Jessica Spengler

Census numbers released on Tuesday confirmed what surveys and studies have long pointed toward: people are fleeing Illinois more than any other state. The Land of Shrinkin, as the Sun-Times brilliantly put it, lost 37,508 people this year, according to the data.

The question everyone is askingand politicizingis: Why?

According to a Tribune survey last year, common cited reasons for flight were high taxes, the state budget stalemate, crime, the unemployment rate and the weather. The budget stalemate, in particular, actually seems to come up most often and might be the most persuasive answer. (We sadly cant do much about the weather.)

The dip started in 2014 and exacerbated in 2015, when Bruce Rauner became governor and the budget impasse intensified.

Not having a budget in place exacerbates a lot of uncertainty for employers, Jake Lewis, Campaign Director of Illinois Working Together, told Chicagoist. If you dont know what your tax burden looks like, what regulatory changes are in store, youre more hesitant to hire. It fuels economic uncertainty.

Budget-related cuts to public universities and social-service cuts could play a key factor, as well. It hurts employees who work and generate billions in economic activityand of course the people who rely on such services, Lewis added.

While cautioning against oversimplification, Frank Manzo, Policy Director of Illinois Economic Policy Institute, is also quick to note the detrimental impact of the budget stalemate.

We recommend a mixture tax increases at the top and moderate spending cuts in order to balance the budget, Manzo said. Our political leaders need to put people over politics. If employers know what to expect in Illinois, businesses will be willing to come here and we can hire workers.

Both Manzo and Lewis cit Minnesota as a Midwestern state that, despite divided government, has witnessed both economic and, not coincidentally, they argue, population growth. They recently raised minimum wage and raised taxes on rich, Manzo noted.

The state's stopgap budget expires on Dec. 31.
Chicago Tour Guide Will Spend A Week In The Underground Pedway This Winter

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 21, 2016 3:46PM



Margaret Hicks (right) proudly extolling the virtues of the Chicago Pedway.

We joke that Chicago winters make us want to burrow underground and not resurface until Spring, but one woman is trying to prove that could just be possible. Chicago Elevated's Margaret Hicks told us, "I'm just seeing if when I call the Pedway our 78th neighborhood, I really mean that. I want to see if it can sustain me. I might go crazy down there though too, so that's an option! "

On Jan. 8, Hicks will kick off "The Pedway Project" and attempt to spend a full week living underground in the confines of the Chicago Pedway. Hicks founded Chicago Elevated to give guided tours of the city she loves, and her Pedway Tour is one of the most popular she offers. And we can see why.

The Chicago Pedway is one of the true wonders of the city. Every resident can probably vividly remember the first time they discovered they could get around much of the downtown area without ever having to brave the coldit's once of Chicago's buried treasures. And there is quite an underground network of shops and facilities dotting the series of subterranean tunnels. But is there enough to truly sustain life for an extended period of time?

Hicks, with one caveatwhile she will eat and breath the Pedway she will be spending her nights sleeping at the Fairmont Hotel, but never venture outdoorswill endeavor to prove it is indeed possible. She spoke with us about the details:

CHICAGOIST: So, what drove you to imitate a mole-person and dive underground for a whole week?

MARGARET HICKS: In the past six years that I've been giving the Pedway tours, I have spent massive amounts of time in it. On the cold days, I can spend 6 or 7 hours in the Pedway. Between giving a tour and then getting lunch and maybe a trip to Fields or the Cultural Center to work for a few hours, I was spending good chunks of my day down there, and having really nice days! I wondered if I could spend a night in it, then decided to think biggerwhy not try to live in it? I hooked up with the Fairmont, we had a nice relationship already, they were on board, so BAM! Here we are.

C: How are the logistics going to work? Isn't much of the Pedway closed at night?

MARGARET HICKS: The logistics, yes. I have concerns. I figure I'll have to be back at the Fairmont by about 7 p.m. each night. Sundays I'll be a bit limited too, a bunch of it shuts down. But this is also partly what I'll be doing down there, getting intimate with it. So I'll be carefully judging when each building closes and opens. My biggest concern is that sometimes, some buildings just shut their Pedway, this worries me! But I think it'll be okay and you know, I'm an improviser, I can always figure it out. I do think I'm going to be very careful in the first few days so I don't get stuck.



"Yes, Im really going to live down here for a week!"

C: You're going to have a lot of time to kill, how are you going to fill it?

MARGARET HICKS: I will have time to kill and doesn't that sound lovely? So, I can keep working, which is awesome, I can still give Pedway Tours. LA Fitness is my gym, so I'll swim and go to the gym. I think the movie theater in Block 37 is going to be a great friend to me. I have business meetings scheduled and social engagements already planned, lunches and things. And I'll spend quite awhile exploring nooks and crannies I may have been too rushed to notice before.

C: What are two or three of your favorite "secrets" of the pedway that will prove useful during your week underground?

MARGARET HICKS: My secrets! The gym and the pool, the LA Fitness under Randolph is going to be a good friend. The Cultural Center will be a great place to go work and see friends or have a meeting. Also under Millennium Station is still considered Pedway, it's covered, but there's some fresh air there! My favorite place to hang out and watch the world go by is the Pedway between the East and West towers of the Hyatt Regency, I'm sure you'll be able to find me there.

C: Do you already know the Pedway backwards and forwards or do you expect to make any new discoveries during your experiment?

MARGARET HICKS: I'm confident in my knowledge of the Pedway, but I also know that I am constantly surprised by it. I see new things there all the time, just today there was a guy burning incense down there under Fields, it was so nice, never seen him before. I'm not sure there are any parts of it I haven't seen yet, but that's not to say there aren't new things to be discovered. I want to know it differently than I know it now, I want it to be like my backyard and I absolutely believe I'm going to discover parts or ideas that I hadn't considered or noticed before.

C: Anything we didn't talk about that you'd like to add?

MARGARET HICKS: A lot of people are asking about the homeless in the Pedway. This is a part of the Pedway, this is part of the neighborhood. I've spent over 7 years exploring the Pedway and I know most of the people that are in the Pedway and part of this is exploring those issues as well. I want to touch on all parts of the Pedway, the great and advantageous parts of it and the rough parts too. This project is about exploring the Pedway as a neighborhood, I plan to explore all parts of what the Pedway means to the city.
Civil War Gala to be held Saturday in Somerset

The 14th annual Col. Robert Cummins Civil War Gala will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Somerset Church of the Brethren, 606 Berlin Plank Road in Somerset.
Students from a Hong Kong secondary school celebrate winning second prize at the Space Science Experiment Competition for their experiment to breed silkworms in space. They were presented with a model of Shenzhou XI docked with the Tiangong II space lab. [Photo/China Daily]

Chinese astronauts have completed an experiment proposed by four Hong Kong students to determine whether silkworms can live and spin outside the Earth's atmosphere.

The unbroken thread of every silkworm stretches more than 1.5 kilometers. It is an apt symbol, tracing a silken strand from the earliest dawn of history to the present, where tiny wriggling silkworm larvae performed their dance of life aboard the Tiangong II space lab, 393 kilometers above the earth.

Early Chinese people held special affection for silkworms and their cocoons. Unwound, the cocoons produced the lustrous fiber that gave birth to an opulent culture, spawning a nation of traders who spread out along what came to be known as the Silk Road.

Silkworms, closely intertwined with Chinese culture and history, remain the subject of ongoing research. They have been fed artificial colorants to produce dyed, nontoxic fibers, and researchers are looking into silken biomaterials with five times the tensile strength of steel.

The tiny larvae taken on a "spacewalk" by Chinese astronauts were part of an experiment proposed by four high school students from the Christian and Missionary Alliance Sun Kei Secondary School in Hong Kong, who devised a pilot scheme to breed the worms in space. Their design won second prize at the Space Science Experiment Competition, organized by the Hong Kong authorities and the China Astronaut Research and Training Center.

Astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong, who conducted the experiments, set out to determine how microgravity affects the biological functions of silkworm larvae.

Cultural elements

"We wanted to come up with an experiment that applied Chinese cultural elements. That's how we settled on silk farming, a time-honored agricultural practice that originated in China." said Wong Tsoi-yin, 17, one of the students who came up with the idea for the experiment. "Above all, we wanted to find out whether it's possible to breed silkworms in space, hoping that, if successful, this might advance space science."

Simple as it may appear, the experiment involved nearly two years' preparation. The students admitted they were surprised at how much work was needed to turn their prototype into a full-blown, space-friendly experiment. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, known as CASC, which focuses on aerospace research and spacecraft design, took on the responsibility of modifying the proposal and bringing it to fruition.

The six larvae that became the subjects of the experiment were the products of thousands of generations of selective breeding, and were chosen as the best among 4,000 newly bred larvae.

Those used for the Shenzhou XI mission were produced at CASC's No 5 Research Academy. Engineers at the corporation had concluded that most silkworms could not survive the harsh environment of space, so they set about breeding a new, hardier and healthier strain.

What followed was a series of rigorous screenings. The ideal larvae had to be bigger than their peers and whiter in color, according to Wei Xilin, an engineer at CASC, speaking on China Central Television.

The shortlisted larvae were put through a final test, and the engineers finally chose the six healthiest, Wei explained.

In the early stages, experts from China's Manned Space Agency provided the students with knowledge of conditions inside the spacecraft, as well as an understanding of how to breed larvae.

Leung Tsz-wan, 17, one of the students, said the exchanges with space experts from the mainland were essential in shaping their ideas into a meaningful experiment.
Angela Merkel is to receive honorary degrees in January from two Belgian universities for defending the values that allow our continent to find unity in diversity

German chancellor Angela Merkel is to receive honorary degrees in January from two Belgian universities (Louvain and Ghent ) for defending the values that allow our continent to find unity in diversity.

After the lorry atrocity at a Berlin Christmas market  allegedly committed by a jihadist  a member of her CDU party tells a radio station that Germany is now in a state of war.

As opposed to being united in diversity.

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband voiced opposition in the Commons to Rupert Murdochs 11.2billion bid to take complete control of broadcaster Sky, saying: This bid shows the Murdochs have learnt nothing and think they can get away with everything.

Murdoch, 85, has said that when they first met, Miliband, 46, embarrassed me with over-the-top flattery. Fancy!?

David Camerons ex-spokeswoman, Helen Bower-Easton, pictured, who received a CBE in the former PMs resignation honours list, becomes Foreign Secretary Boris Johnsons communications chief.

Big loss for PM, huge gain for Boris, advises the BBCs deferential diplomatic editor, James Landale.

Itll be Dame Helen if she manages to steer Bojo clear of foot-in-mouth gaffes and trousers-related controversies.

Leftie actor Ricky Tomlinson, 77, who plays outspoken Jim Royle in ITVs The Royle Family, says that if hes offered an honour hell say stick it up your ****, advising the Sunday Mail: I dont think people should get OBEs and CBEs and knighthoods because theyve made a lot of money or sold a million records.

'Id rather be the descendant of a dock worker than a duke or a count.

Surely burly Rickys one of natures aristocrats, No?

Leftie actor Ricky Tomlinson, 77, who plays outspoken Jim Royle in ITVs The Royle Family, says that if hes offered an honour hell say stick it up your ****'

After Vanity Fair writer Tina Nguyen described eating flaccid, grey Szechuan dumplings, at Manhattans Trump Grill, and suggested the joint might be the worst restaurant in America, its owner, president-elect Donald Trump, responded: Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFair Magazine? Way down, big trouble, dead. Graydon Carter (VF editor)  no talent, will be out!

VF announces: The Magazine Donald Trump Doesnt Want You To Read. Subscribe Now!

Result: 42,000 new subscriptions. The Trump presidency promises to be fun (if it doesnt destroy us).

International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde, 60, found guilty of criminal negligence over 340million from her days as Frances finance minister, is treated with remarkable leniency by a French court.

She isnt jailed or fined. Nor will she have a criminal record. And she can carry on as IMF chief.

International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde, 60, found guilty of criminal negligence over 340million from her days as Frances finance minister, is treated with remarkable leniency by a French court

When her predecessor, randy Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was accused of sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid, the case was dropped by police.
Plucking a figure from the air, the EUs chief Brexit negotiator declared last week that Brussels would present Britain with a 50billion exit bill to cover commitments such as our share of Eurocrats pension liabilities, loan guarantees and spending on UK projects.

How pathetic, but how typical, that die-hard Remainers are already quoting this sum as the received wisdom, as if it had any authority beyond the fevered imagination of Michel Barnier, the inveterate Anglophobe handling the talks on behalf of the European Commission.

Leave aside that it doesnt say much for the attractions of a club if its stewards need to threaten multi-billion pound fines for withdrawing membership.

Michel Barnier, the inveterate Anglophobe, has plucked a 50bn figure from the air

Forget, too, that the EUs accounts are so chaotic and corrupt that its own Court of Auditors has found them materially affected by error every year since 1994.

In any objective view, it is immediately clear that if money is owing to either side after Brexit, the UK has a far stronger claim to reimbursement than Brussels.

For a start, there were the billions British taxpayers were wrongly forced to pour into the first rescue of the euro  a currency to which, thank God, we have never belonged  through the European Financial Stability Facility.

Then came the second bailout  this time, improperly backed by the International Monetary Fund (whose chief, Christine Lagarde, was convicted on Monday of negligence in public office over a payment of 339million during her time as Frances finance minister).

As a substantial contributor to the fund  established to rescue failing countries, not political projects like the euro  Britain was once again made to foot a bill that was none of our responsibility. That money, too, is still owing.

Add our huge subsidies to the European Investment Bank, and our grossly disproportionate handouts to the EUs foreign aid programmes, and the debts owed to us by Brussels rapidly mount up.

Indeed, to pluck a figure from the air, you could say they come to well over 50billion. Would the Bremoaners  and Britains negotiators  please bear this in mind, before they quote Mr Barniers fantasies as gospel?

Royal show goes on

As the Queen relinquishes 25 of her most high-profile patronages, handing them over to younger members of the family, there are some who see this as a sign that she is at last turning her thoughts towards some form of retirement from public life.

Others say it is significant that, at the grand old age of 90, she has recently chosen to be photographed alone with her heir, Prince Charles.

Could this mean, they ask, that she is contemplating a formal handover of her constitutional responsibilities in the not-so-distant future?

Her Majesty has decided to stand down from some 25 charities and organisations

The Mail does not pretend to have the answer. We will only observe that it makes obvious sense to share at least some of her workload with younger Royals who have fewer commitments and could profit from the experience.

Meanwhile, even after standing down from the 25 charities and other organisations named yesterday, Her Majesty remains patron of some 600 others, taking as active an interest in their fortunes as ever.

Indeed, if this is retirement, it is not as the average ninety-something understands the word.

What is certain is that, throughout her long reign, the Queen has set her subjects a peerless example of hard work and duty, staunchly supported by the 95-year-old Duke of Edinburgh.
Freedom of the Press might seem an issue, like motherhood and apple pie, about which everyone should agree. We are all meant to be in favour of it. In a civilised country such as ours, surely it could not be threatened.

And yet lots of sensible people believe it is  which is why, when I might be writing a seasonal piece full of Christmas cheer, I must crave the indulgence of readers. Those who value freedom of the Press have about three weeks to do something about it. Let me explain.

The best way to grasp the enormity of what is being proposed in this country is to imagine an autocratic Third World government which wanted to rein in a free Press. Envisage a stateapproved body funded by a highly controversial tycoon. Many of the members of this organisation also loathe the Press.

Imagine, too, that in order to blackmail newspapers into signing up to this unfriendly body, the government of this fictitious country made the following stipulation. If you dont join it, and are sued for libel, you will have to pay the costs of the aggrieved party even if you win.

Tycoon Max Mosley (above) has produced nearly all of the 3.8m funding for the new state-approved newspaper regulator Impress over four years. Mosley detests the Press after his orgy  in which harsh-sounding German was spoken  was revealed by the now defunct News of the World in 2008

Outraged? A newspaper is vindicated by a court for running a story about  as it might be  a crooked businessman or notorious gangster. The story is absolutely true. But the paper has to pay out possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds even though it is entirely in the right.

It is tantamount to someone throwing a brick through your front window. The police come to investigate. They tell you the attack was completely unprovoked, and youre an innocent victim. But youve still got to pay  not just for your window, but for the brick as well.

Isnt this coercive measure a monstrous inversion of justice? And mad? And immoral? You will probably therefore say with total confidence that it couldnt happen here. Not in our land of liberty. But it is happening  or will do unless it is stopped at the eleventh hour.

The body I refer to is the new state-approved newspaper regulator called Impress, and the measure which threatens the Press is Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act, which is awaiting activation by the Culture Secretary, Karen Bradley.

And the tycoon who has produced nearly all of its 3.8 million funding over four years is Max Mosley, who detests the Press after his orgy  in which harsh-sounding German was spoken  was revealed by the now defunct News of the World in 2008.

Mosley sued the paper, which in the view of the learned judge was wrong to claim the orgy was Nazi, and pocketed 60,000 on the basis that his privacy had been invaded. If only the depraved multi-millionaire had left it there. But, driven by vengeance, he is subsidising a government-approved body to regulate the Press.

Its hardly surprising that the vast majority of newspapers dont want to join Impress. One reason is that they dont wish to be answerable to a body which has been created by politicians, and could acquire further repressive powers in the future.

Consider what would have happened to this newspaper if Section 40 had applied in the case of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence. Every time it published an article pointing a finger of guilt at those who committed his murder, or the police who failed to investigate, it would have faced lawsuits on all sides

The other is that Impress is funded by a man who hates the Press, and is made up of similarly minded people. Its chief executive, Jonathan Heawood, has repeatedly attacked newspapers, including local ones, in articles, blogs and on Twitter. He has often abused the Mail, and has also criticised the Telegraph and the Sun for their pro-Brexit views.

Maire Messenger Davies, who is the chair of Impresss code committee, has also betrayed strong distaste for several newspapers, including the Mail (which she has described as fascist) and the Sun. Theres no doubt where this apostle of reason is coming from!

Paul Wragg, another member of the code committee, has tweeted that he hates the Mail. Gavin Phillipson, also a code committee member, and plainly a great lover of freedom, has tweeted his regret that we cant just ban the Mail. Emma Jones, Impress board member and on the code committee, has laid into the Mail, Sun and Express.

These enlightened folk (and other Impress notables whom I havent time to quote) are of course fully entitled to their strident views about newspapers in general and their loathing of particular ones. Its a free country  or will be until the likes of these people are allowed to regulate the Press.

Many supporters of Impress have been making their feelings known to government. Those who want to defend the freedom of the Press, notwithstanding its obvious deficiencies, should write to Culture Secretary Karen Bradley before January 10

But it seems to me utterly incredible that a group of individuals who dont bother to disguise their hatred for some newspapers should be the leading lights of a State-approved body which is supposed to regulate the free Press  and that the same organisation should be funded by a man like Mosley.

Are we dreaming? Can this really be happening? If politicians really do want State control of the Press, youd think they might come up with a few respectable members of the greatand-the-good rather than this immature and undistinguished shower who garrulously tweet their illiberal prejudices.

Surely its self-evident that any newspaper joining Impress couldnt expect a fair hearing in any arbitration process overseen by such people. They plainly dont believe in a free Press. They only believe in the sort of Press with which they are in agreement, and which reflects their views. Isnt that akin to  their favourite term of abuse  fascism?

The tragedy is that the hundreds of titles which rightly refuse to sign up to this dodgy organisation risk swingeing penalties. They will inevitably think twice before running stories which expose the corruption of the rich and powerful. If they are brave enough to publish, they risk losing hundreds of thousands of pounds in a single case.

Consider what would have happened to this newspaper if Section 40 had applied in the case of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence. Every time it published an article pointing a finger of guilt at those who committed his murder, or the police who failed to investigate, it would have faced lawsuits on all sides, and the prospect of hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal costs  even though the Mail was entirely vindicated.

Newspapers are threatened with a great injustice. Yet very few politicians, with the honourable exception of a few independent-minded Tories, are prepared to speak out publicly in favour of their freedom to publish.

Of course newspapers must operate within the law as it exists  and, it might be added, within the code enforced by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), the self-regulating Press body (though not recognised by the powers-that-be) which seems on the whole to be doing a good job. But what is proposed now is a law to muzzle free speech.

Where are the true liberals who should be defending the right of newspapers to say things with which they might disagree? They turn out not to be liberal at all. I am thinking of the likes of Nick Clegg, one of the architects of the new State-approved body which has turned into the grotesque form of Impress.

If this is a test of the open-mindedness of our ruling class, I fear it is about to fail it. I hope Im wrong. I hope the Government will repeal Section 40  and, while it is about it, conclude that so-called Leveson Two (which would launch yet another investigation into relations between the Press and police and politicians) would be a costly waste of time.

But its now in your court. Many supporters of Impress have been making their feelings known to government. Those who want to defend the freedom of the Press, notwithstanding its obvious deficiencies, should write to Karen Bradley before January 10.
Have you ever dreamed of living in a scene from your favourite Christmas movie?

Perhaps the picture perfect suburban mansion that Kevin McCallister fought to defend in Home Alone, Kate Winslet's fairy-tale country cottage in The Holiday, or Hugh Grant's slick city flat in About a Boy?

It's time to start saving then, as it's revealed the most familiar properties are now worth in excess of 1million - including the humble terrace at the 'dodgy end of Wandsworth' where Hugh Grant eventually found Martine McCutcheon in Love Actually.

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The sprawling suburban Chicago home featured in Home Alone would cost over 1.5million

Herne Hill in south east London stood in for the 'dodgy' part of Wandsworth where Love Actually's Natalie lived - though today a similar property could cost over 1million

This list reveals how much the homes featured in the best-loved Christmas films would set us back today, including Susan's dream home from the 1994 movie Miracle on 34th Street and Buddy's father's plush Manhattan pad in Elf.

Back when Love Actually was released in 2003, Martine McCutcheon's home in the 'dodgy end' of Wandsworth would have sold for around 255,024.

The scene in which Hugh Grant shows up at his love's door was actually filmed in Herne Hill, but more than a decade's worth of gentrification later, similar properties in Wandsworth sell for around the 1.1million mark.

Susan's dream home from the classic movie Miracle on 34th Street is in Lake Forest, Illinois

In the movie Elf, Buddy's father Walter lived in the prestigious building 55 Central Park West

The cosy Surrey cottage featured in The Holiday would set you back around 750,000

One of the most iconic Christmas movie homes is the McCallister family's Chicago mansion from Home Alone.

A new list, compiled by online estate agent eMoov, reveals that anyone hoping to buy themselves a similar slice of the suburban American dream would be looking at a price tag in excess of 1.5million.

CLASSIC CHRISTMAS MOVIE HOMES... AND HOW MUCH THEY COST NOW 1. Susan's dream home in Miracle on 34th Street: 2,751,677 today, or 1.38million when the movie came out in 1994 2. The McCallisters' Chicago mansion from Home Alone: 1,571,521, or 1,562,148 in 1990 3. Will's EC1 bachelor pad from About a Boy: 1.5million, or 347,788 in 2002 4. Natalie's Wandsworth terrace in Love Actually: 1.1million, or 255,024 in 2003 5. Buddy's father's New York apartment in Elf: 1,053,322, or 533,520 in 2003 6. Marcus and his mum's Kentish Town flat in About a Boy: 925,000, or 304,422 in 2002 7. A Surrey cottage like Kate Winslet's in The Holiday: 725,000, or 474,561 in 2006 8. Bridget Jones' one-bedroom flat in Borough: 650,000, or 190,000 when the film was released in 2001 Advertisement

'Although it is not currently on the market, the cost is estimated at 1,571,521,' the estate agent said.

Fluctuating property prices in Chicago suggest the sprawling property would have been almost as pricey when the film was released in 1990 - around the 1.5million mark.

In Elf we see the hapless Buddy arrive at his grouchy father Walter's luxurious Manhattan apartment, at 55 Central Park West.

Today, a one bedroom property in the pre-War, Art Deco building, built in 1930 would cost $1.3million, or 1,053,322.

It cost an average $2,083 (1,688) per sq ft to live in the prestigious building last year, compared with $1,055 (855) per sq ft when the film was released in 2003.

The figures suggest a similar property would have cost around $658,380 (533,520) when Elf first hit cinemas.

In another US favourite, Miracle on 34th Street, little girl Susan memorably asks Santa Claus for a father, a baby brother, and a family home.

Susan's dream home in the film is a property in Lake Forest, Illinois, that was on the market in 2015 for $3.4million (2,751,677).

Property prices in Illinois are understood to have risen by almost 100 per cent since 1990, meaning the house could have been worth half as much - around $1.7million - when the film came out.

On this side of the pond, the sort of chocolate box Surrey cottage that Kate Winslet lent to Cameron Diaz in The Holiday would set you back around 725,000.

When the film was released in 2006, the average cost of a home in Shere was 474,561.

These days, Marcus and his mother's Kentish Town home could cost around 742,344

The list features two properties from another festive favourite, About a Boy; Hugh Grant's bachelor pad in EC1, and Marcus and his mother's more modest home in Kentish Town.

A flat that measured up to wealthy Will's exacting standards in the same postcode could cost around 1.5million in today's market, eMoov said, compared with an average 347,788 for a home in the area when the film was released in 2002.

A two bedroom Kentish Town apartment today could cost a still substantial 742,344, compared with an average 304,442 14 years ago.

The average price paid for a home in Kensington Court, W8, which featured in the movie I Give it a Year, is a whopping 1,679,375

In another corner of London, Bridget Jones' flat overlooking Borough Market - from which she chased Colin Firth through the snowy streets ahead of their long-awaited kiss - has also rocketed in value.

Bridget's one-bed was estimated at 190,000 when the first film came out in 2001.

In today's property market, the gaffe-prone journalist could expect to fork out closer to 650,000 for the bijou property.

The gaffe-prone journalist could have stretched to a one-bedroom apartment in Borough when the film came out - today it would set her back an estimated 650,000

Properties in Snowshill, which stood in for Bridget's parents village in the films, now sell for an average of 479,245

Homes in the idyllic Cotswolds village of Snowshill, served as the location for scenes at Bridget's parents country home, sell for an average of 479,245 in 2016.

In London's Kensington Court, which served as the scene of Nat and Josh's home in the film I Give It a Year, properties sell for an average 1,679,375.

Home Alone isn't the only Christmas movie that used suburban Chicago as a backdrop - scenes at the Callaghan family house were filmed at a property in La Grange.

The average house price in the area in 2016 is $395,000 (319,000) - a substantial increase on when the film came out in 1998.

A picture perfect home in suburban Chicago served as the Callaghan house in the Sandra Bullock film While You Were Sleeping

In the Sex and the City movie, Carrie dashed out of her brownstone in the dark to ensure her friend Miranda didn't spend New Year's Eve alone

The first Sex and the City movie counts as a festive favourite for many fans of the franchise, thanks to the moment Carrie runs into the street in her pyjamas to ensure that her friend Miranda isn't alone when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve.

Carrie lived on East 73rd Street on the Upper East Side, but the iconic stoop where so many scenes unfolded is actually on Perry Street, in Manhattan's West Village.

The apartment changed hands in 2014 for $9.65million (7.79million), but the identity of the new owner of this piece of pop culture history was never made public.

The Family Stone gathered at a picturesque Connecticut home for Christmas in the Sarah Jessica Parker movie

In the 2005 Christmas movie The Family Stone, which also starred Sarah Jessica Parker as an uptight woman meeting her boyfriend's family for the first time, a picture perfect Connecticut home stood in for the Stones' New Jersey house.
One is a global star with millions in the bank, a heartthrob husband, picture perfect kids and a career as a fashion designer, while the other is effectively an ordinary mother-of-four, living a quiet life.

But that hasn't stopped Louise Adams, 40, trying to harness a sprinkling of her sister Victoria Beckham's star power by modelling herself on the former Spice Girl.

From copying her hair styles to changing her look to mirror Victoria - not to mention opening her own fashion store - Louise now bears such a close resemblance to her older sister that people have said they look like twins.

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A snap of Victoria Beckham, 42, and her sister Louise Adams, 40, sent fans into a frenzy as they commented on the likeness between the sisters

Victoria is currently rocking a choppy bob, which she likes to wear in loose waves and her sister seems to favour the same hairstyle

Victoria, 42, shared a selfie of the pair with her 13.2 million Instagram followers this week, enjoying a family catch up before Christmas and fans couldn't believe the likeness.

One commented they were so similar it was 'uncanny', while multiple commenters said they looked like twins.

The snap showed how Louise is yet again rocking the same hairstyle as her sister - a choppy bob, worn in loose waves.

And the snap shows that she certainly shares her sister's dislike of smiling for the camera.

The sisters turned up at the 2000 Brit awards in bustier style catsuits with chokers and matching short blonde crops, having both chopped and dyed their flowing brunette locks

Victoria and Louise at the 2000 Elle Style Awards. Louise had grown her hair out to match her sister's and also reverted to her natural colour

In 1998 while Victoria was pregnant with Brooklyn, Louise was seen with a matching crop wearing a black outfit identical to her sister's.

But her transition into a Victoria-like clone has been a long time in the making.

Back when the Spice Girls were at the height of their fame, she was stepping out in outfits that could easily have belonged in her famous sister's wardrobe.

Both girls turned up at the Brit awards in 2000, wearing bustier style catsuits with chokers, although Victoria was the only one performing.

Louise, pictured in 2002, (left) emulating one of her sister's more unusual fashion statements - a bandana to match her outfit (right)

She was also sporting a cropped blonde hair do, having altered her natural brunette locks, while her sister went for a dramatic pixie crop with fair highlights.

But as the year progressed and Victoria grew her hair out, Louise followed suit - also reverting to her natural brown colour.

It wasn't the first time the pair had sported matching hair cuts as back in 1998 while Victoria was pregnant with Brooklyn, Louise was seen with a matching crop wearing a black outfit identical to her sister's.

Louise on a night out in 2015, wearing a black tuxedo jacket and leather trousers that looked as if it came straight from her sister's wardrobe (left). Victoria at the British Fashion Awards in a similar sleek outfit

She's often emulated her sister's more unusual fashion statements, such as adopting the bandana back in the early 2000s.

But as all Beckham watchers know, Victoria left behind her more outrageous looks in favour of a pared-back style befitting an internationally renowned fashion designer.

And as he look became more chic than cheap, Louise soon followed suit.

Victoria and Louise have both perfected their pout and it seems that nobody in the family likes to smile for photos

Last year she was spotted on a night out in a black tuxedo jacket and leather trousers that looked as if it came straight from her sister's wardrobe.

Victoria herself sported a very similar look at the British Fashion Awards, and the resemblance between the two sisters' styles was certainly not a once off.

Louise now favours the same chic black coats, skinny trousers and vertiginous heels that form her sibling's signature look.

The similarities between the pair also extend to their careers.

While Victoria owns a 6,000sq ft minimalist store, designed by renowned architect Farshid Moussavi, in Dover Street selling designer gowns costing up to 3,000.
Chances are most households have a non-stick pan in their kitchen.

And surprising research has found the chemicals used to manufacture the pans can affect a babys birth weight.

Research out of Edith Cowan University in Western Australia found the Perfluoroalkyl substances used to make the pans can lead to a higher, or smaller, birth weight in babies.

Research out of Edith Cowan University in Western Australia discovered a link between the chemicals in non-stick pans and a baby's birth weight

The pans are made with Perfluoroalkyl substances which were discovered in the '40s, with some contributing to a smaller or larger birth weight

On Wednesday Sydneys Dr David Moore appeared on Today Extra to further discuss the findings.

Dr Moore said Perfluoroalkyl substances, which were developed in the 1940s and used by manufacturers such as Teflon, repelled both water and oil.

Theyre useful in cookware [and] theyre useful in packaging, Dr Moore said.

Theres been evidence before suggesting that it reduces birth weight,

Theres no evidence of birth defects.

Having either a lower or higher birth weight had been associated with an increased chance of developing chronic diseases later in life

On their website, Edith Cowan University said presence of PFAAs Perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluoroctane sulfonate (PFOS) in the blood of pregnant women had previously been associated with them giving birth to smaller babies.

But new research by the university found that the related PFAA chemical Perfluoroundecanoic acid is actually associated with higher birth weights.

So what does this mean for your baby?

Lead researcher Dr Anna Callan said the results were significant because having either a lower or higher birth weight had been associated with an increased chance of developing chronic diseases later in life.

For example, higher birth weights have been linked with an increased risk of childhood obesity, she said.

Dr Moore also told Today Extra a low, or high, birth weight changes your babys risk of metabolic diseases, diabetes and heart disease.
A new mum has shared a very honest list about all the things she wishes shed been told about becoming a mother.

Blogger Gylisa Jayne, 24, took to Facebook with a candid list of all the things no one told her about motherhood - and the post has quickly gone viral.

Ms Jayne, from Cornwall in the UK, had her daughter Lily with her fiance Ryan a year and a half ago.

Honest: New mum Gylisa Jayne (above, with her fiance Ryan and their daughter Lily)

She said there had been countless moments during her first year of motherhood when she wondered why no one had told her about the ways having a baby changes your life.

Her list includes practical advice, about breastfeeding and the aftermath of pregnancy, to the reassurance new mums need to convince them that their maternal instincts wont fail them.

I wrote the post after showering with my toddler, I had a lightbulb moment whilst awkwardly trying to shower around her and just thought, No one told me about this side of motherhood!' she told Daily Mail Australia.

I also found that there were just no 'real' mother books or internet pages that told it how it was - none that I had found at the time of having my baby anyway.

She added: I struggled so much in the first year thinking that I was the only one with these real, raw feelings - so that's what prompted me to write about it.

I wanted to reach out to other mums like me, that didn't know what to do with these thoughts.

In her viral post, which has been shared more than 65,000 times, she revealed that no one told her that having stitches in your genitals can be more painful than birthing a 7lb baby or that breastfeeding can be incredibly painful.

Never alone! Ms Jayne shared this picture of herself trying to shave with daughter Lily with her

No one told her that the side-effects of pregnancy can last for years and that tea and biscuits become a vital tool in getting you through the day.

I think midwife appointments should be spent sat in their office, they wheel in a big telly (like at school) and you can watch a video of all the bits of motherhood that they left out of your Sex Ed classes, your mummy mates Facebook updates and everyone else, she wrote.

For example, no one told me that its perfectly fine to admit you didnt love your baby when it was fresh from the m***e and being thrust at you. Its OK.

Viral: Her honest list of all the things she wished she'd known about motherhood has been shared more than 65,000 times

No one told me that EVERYONE will have an opinion on your baby  how to feed it, how to clothe it, how to name it, how to rock it, she says.

No one told me a polite way of telling said opinionated people to Eff Off.

Yet another monumental change that she says she was completely unaware of? That she would never have a moment to herself again.

To prove the point, she shared an image of her trying to shave her legs in the shower, complete with a toddler right there with her.

No one told me that I would really, honestly NEVER be alone again, she says.

But she adds: No one told me that actually, once you get used to not being alone  you miss them when they nap because they are so cute. So cute Oh God are her eyes opening. Escape. Escape now!

Instinct: Ms Jayne (above, with Lily) said she wanted to send a message to other mothers that they're all in the same boat

She also says she didnt know that having a baby might make me hate my husband sometimes  but then seeing him playing with their child would make her pop with happiness.

Finally, she offered some words of support to other new mothers feeling overwhelmed.

No one told me that despite feeling like I couldnt do any of this, that I wouldnt know the first thing about motherhood, actually my instincts would not fail me, and everyone is winging it, she wrote.

Ms Jayne said since writing the post, shes received positive messages from other mothers from across the word.

Ive received so many different reactions from this post, 99% have been really positive, which has been so lovely to read.
It's been 25 years since Steve Martin's Father of the Bride brought laughs and eye rolls to dads of daughters everywhere.

The 1991 blockbuster romcom featured the comedian as George Banks, the extremely overprotective father of a daughter who comes home from Rome engaged to a man simply perfect for her - and her father's reluctance to let her go leads to hilarity ensuing.

Now, it's been a quarter of a century since the movie first graced theater screens and while many of the actors involved were established greats that were simply adding yet another hit under their belt, others saw their career's launched into TV stardom.

Getting up there: December 20 marks the 25th anniversary of 1991 hit Father of the Bride

The big star: Steve Martin (pictured in the 1991 film left and right in 2016) was already a Saturday Night Live legend and film star before taking on the role of George Banks

STEVE MARTIN (GEORGE BANKS)

Steve Martin, having previously been a Saturday Night Live cast member and leading man in films like The Jerk (1979) and Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), was already a big star before starring as the eponymous character in the movie.

Since then, he has enjoyed a similarly illustrious career with movies like Bowfinger (1999) and massive hit Cheaper By the Dozen (2003). Though, the latter of which spawned a sequel that has been considered by critics to be one of the worst of the 2000s.

Shortly after the release of Father of the Bride, Steve was divorced from his wife of eight years Victoria Tennant. He married again in 2007 to writer Anne Stringfield and became a father for the first time at age 67 in 2012 with the arrival of their daughter.

Today, at 71, Steve seems to have backed away from his silver screen career, opting rather to make a number of returning appearances on Saturday Night Live and releasing a number of successful bluegrass album - in fact, his last five albums in a row have reached number one on the Billboard Bluegrass chart.

DIANE KEATON (NINA BANKS)

Although her first big time role was as Kay Adams in The Godfather, Diane truly came to the world's attention as an early muse of filmmaker Woody Allen, starring in his films such as Love and Death, Interiors, Manhattan, and, most famously, Annie Hall.

Simply ageless: Diane Keaton (pictured left in 1992 and right in 2016) shot to stardom with roles in films like The Godfather and Annie Hall

Getting through it: Diane starred as the infinitely patient wife of George banks, Nina

After the 1980s were speckled with award nominations aplenty, the 1990s saw Diane moving into more mature roles, such as Nina Banks in Father of the Bride - an understanding and loving woman with seemingly infinite patience for her grumpy, often-irrational husband.

Following the wrapping of the film, she returned to her role as Kay in the third installment of The Godfather and also collaborated with Woody Allen for the first time in more than a decade with 1993's Manhattan Murder Mystery.

Things never really slowed down for Keaton, who had relationships with the likes of Al Pacino and Warren Beatty over the years, and today she is still on our screens in HBO series the Young Pope as well as voicing the main character's mother in Finding Dory and currently has a number of films in the works.

Keaton also became a mother at 55 when she adopted her first child, daughter Dexter in 1996. She later adopted another son in 2001 named Duke. She is now 70 years old.

Looking on: The movie tells the story of a father struggling with the idea that his 22-year-old daughter is getting married

Hitting the big time: Kimberly Williams was just 20 when Father of the Bride launched her film and TV career

Happy ending: Today, she is known as Kimberly Williams-Paisley, having married country star Brad Paisley back in 2003

KIMBERLY WILLIAMS (ANNIE BANKS)

Young Kimberly was the newcomer to the film, the role of the lovestruck Annie being her very first big screen role.

The film proved to be a launchpad for Kimberly's career, leading to starring roles in a number of films throughout the 1990s, including Indian Summer (1993), Coldblooded (1995), and The War at Home (1996).

But from 2001 she became the co-star of According to Jim for a whopping eight years, even directing three episodes herself.

She then added appearances on show Nashville, Boston Legal and Two and a Half Men after According to Jim wrapped in 2009.

Now 45 years old, Kimberly has been married to country music star Brad Paisley since 2003 and the pair are parents to two children.

GEORGE NEWBERN (BRYAN MACKENZIE)

The almost too-perfect man that young Annie brought home to her father's chagrin was played by an actor who already had a number of roles under his belt including an appearance on Family Ties and a role in the Working Girl TV series.

Leading man: George Newbern starred in TV's Working Girl and appeared in Family Ties before taking on the role of Bryan Mackenzie

Action man: Since 2012, the 51-year-old has been best known for his role on Scandal as former B613 agent Charlie

Teaming up: Both Steven Martin and Martin Short were stars on Saturday Night Live

After Father of the Bride, George also became well known to 90s TV fans for his appearance in Friends as Danny, the 'Yeti' who had a disturbing relationship with his own sister.

As the years have gone by, George has taken to more dramatic and even action-tinged roles, including several appearances on various CSI series', voicing cartoon versions of Superman multiple times and, since 2012, the 51-year-old has been best known for his role on Scandal as former B613 agent Charlie.

MARTIN SHORT (FRANCK EGGLEHOFFER)

As another Saturday Night Live legend, Martin had starred alongside Steve Martin in the likes of the Three Amigos! before coming on to the cast of the Father of the Bride as flamboyant wedding coordinator Franck.

Since then he has starred in dozens of films and movies on the big screen, and also proved himself to be a valuable voice in children's animation, with voice over roles in the likes of Treasure Planet, Frankenweenie and The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!

In recent years, the actor ran into a bit of controversy when he comically portrayed a version of well known dermatologist Dr. Fredric Brandt for Netflix show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Together again: The pair pose at the 2016 American Museum Of Natural History Museum Gala at American Museum of Natural History on November 17, 2016

Taking a hit: Last year, martin ran into controversy with his parody portrayal of a celebrity dermatologist who later committed suicide

Coming up Culkin: Keiran (left) was eight when he starred in the 1991 film, having previously appeared in Home Alone, which starred his older brother Macauley (right)

Bit of a change: Now 34, Keiran recently starred on Broadway in This is Our Youth

Brandt was found hanged in the garage of his Miami mansion shortly after the show was released last year, leading to critics placing the blame at the feet of Short and show writer Tina Fey.

However, the doctor's longtime publicist said later that while the parody 'deeply hurt him' it was not the reason he took his own life.

These days Martin is putting his comedic skills on display for comedy variety show Maya & Marty alongside Maya Rudolph.

KIERAN CULKIN (MATTY BANKS)

The younger brother of one of history's most famous child actors, Keiran had his first big screen appearance at just seven with a small role in Home Alone.

Father of the Bride was only his third role, and he quickly proved he had chops, gaining a nomination for a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Co-starring in a Motion Picture.

As he grew up, Kieran became an indie film darling with, recently starring in the likes of 2002's Igby Goes Down and 2010's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
NICE says that women who drink more than two glasses of wine a night should be referred for liver tests

Just in time to spoil our festive fun comes an announcement from health watchdog NICE that women who drink more than two glasses of wine a night should be referred for liver tests.

Oh dear! Something tells me that is going to be a very long queue indeed. If all the women I know who enjoy a couple of drinks with friends or their partner at the end of the days labours decided to take NICE up on its advice, there would be NHS gridlock.

More to the point, if all those self-same women gave up on wine-o-clock, divorce rates would go through the roof. The birth rate would fall off a cliff. And what little spark of joy people have to look forward to after battling their way home or finally getting their tiny tyrants (sorry, bundles of joy) to loosen their grip on consciousness, would be extinguished.

Im sure I speak for millions when I say that you can take away our cigarettes, you can take away our fizzy drinks and calorie-laden double mocha.

We will even, since you insist, participate in at least half an hours strenuous (and humiliating) exercise twice a week  but please, Nice, in the name of all that is holy, do not take away our wine.

In a culture so devoid of fun, so laden with notions of austerity, where the majority are, as the Prime Minister puts it, only just about managing, where so many struggle to afford a decent-sized house or a proper holiday and where so many of us face pressure from all sides, there has to be some release.

And besides, wine is the opium of the middle classes. Those in power should be grateful that were tucked up on the sofa sipping our glasses of soothing grape juice and not picketing Whitehall about the Governments failure to stand up to strikers or divert foreign aid millions to look after our elderly.

And its not as if were drinking ourselves into a stupor night after night. Just enough to take the edge off the day. Two glasses. Maybe three if its been a stinker.

Not so much that we cant put the cat out and remember to clean our teeth before lights out.

Cities in gridlock have also been blames on parents wanting to take their children to school in safety. Stock image

In any case, its ludicrous to think that the biggest problem facing the NHS is ladies with a mild Shiraz habit. As opposed to, for example, the 30 million lost annually in health tourism. Or the vast amounts squandered on giving women unnecessary boob jobs, providing over-priced translation services for foreign patients or paying over-the-odds for drugs.

But then this announcement, as with so many others, is not really about helping patients or relieving the burden on the NHS.

Its about shifting the blame for the incompetence that characterises so many of our rotten institutions onto those who are always left holding the baby: the tax-paying middle classes.

Why are we always to blame  and why are we always expected to pick up the tab?

Housing crisis? Thatll be our fault for being NIMBYs and refusing to let our green and pleasant land become a giant housing estate so we can accommodate the millions of people Tony Blair invited here without bothering to ask us.

Cities in gridlock? Our fault for wanting to drive our chidlren to school in safety, and nothing to do with the empty cycle lanes that have reduced so many cities to huge exhaust-emitting car parks.

Social care crisis? Lets make people sell their precious, hard-won homes to pay for care instead of stemming the millions in aid we give to the rising economic powerhouses China and India.

Postal and rail strikes? Dont worry, the middle classes will be stoic, like they always are.

Now, pass me that bottle . . .

Why is every fitness range on the market designed for the already hyper-toned and super slim? Surely it should be the other way round.

Even M&Ss range is all cropped tops, sleeveless vests and thigh-skimming leggings  and their average customer is a size 16. Someone should design a range for fat people aiming to get thin.

Its not complicated: loose sleeves, forgiving shapes, generous waistbands, muted colours.

Fat Girl Slim, they could call it. Maybe then those New Years resolutions might last beyond Valentines Day.

Greatest gift of Christmas

Why do we persist in the belief that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year? Stressful, yes. Expensive, for sure. Depressing, very possibly.

But wonderful? Surely only for dreamers and children.

This year, the wonder feels in even shorter supply than usual. How can we celebrate with greedy abandon when there is so much suffering?

And yet it is precisely because we live in such troubled times that Christmas is so important.

Because once you strip away the tinsel and tat, what remains is the one thing that humanity needs now more than ever: hope. The story of the birth of Christ (whether you take it literally or not) is a reminder of that inexhaustible well that sustains us all. With each new human life comes a chance to make it all right, to forgive, forget and move on.

It is the greatest gift of all.

Prize for the worst Christmas charity single goes to the Labour MPs protesting against employers cutting overtime pay. To the tune of Band Aids Do They Know Its Christmas?, the MPs rant against injustice in retail. But what about injustice on the railways? Thanks to the chaos instigated by Aslef president Tosh McDonald, some commuters no longer even have jobs. McDonald earns 128,000 a year. We know that they have plenty/ But still they give us less and less/Stand up against the greed this Christmas time, sing the MPs. Mr McDonald, are you listening?

Thanks to the chaos instigated by Aslef president Tosh McDonald, some commuters no longer even have jobs

I wrote last week about the power of the transgender lobby  and now the cover star of Januarys National Geographic is a nine-year-old trans child called Avery Jackson. Shes pictured with pink hair and pink clothes, and, according to her mother Debi, proclaimed her true identity at four, saying she was a boy on the outside, but a girl inside.

On this evidence, Debi decided this was not a phase and encouraged her son to live as a girl.

Avery now says: The best thing about being a girl is that I dont have to pretend to be a boy.

The cover star of Januarys National Geographic is a nine-year-old trans child called Avery Jackson

I really hope for her sake that this is true. But watching the testimony of her American mother  whos part of a lobby group called Moms for Transgender Equality  on the internet, it was clear that she was very much part of the process.

Indeed, she almost wore her role in her childs new gender as a badge of pride. I do think there is a genuine political agenda here; and I do think some children are the victims.

Only time will tell whether little Avery really does want to be a girl or whether  as young children will  shes just mirroring her mothers beliefs. One thing is for sure, though: if her mum is wrong, it wont be her life that will be wrecked.

So Christine Lagarde, boss of the IMF, is found guilty of corrupt activities, but gets to stay in her job. Why is this news? Show me a French politician who isnt on the make and Ill show you a set of hens teeth.

Post truth balderdash

The Lefts latest buzz phrase is post truth; as in were now living in a post truth age.

They define this as a world in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. According to this analysis, Brexit was a post-truth event, as was the election of Donald Trump.

The BBC now uses it to describe everything it doesnt like, from Nigel Farage to the rise of populism.

How about we just call it by its real name? Democracy.

Watching Celebrity Mastermind last night, not only were none of the contestants actual celebrities, the winner  TV presenter Piers Taylor  didnt know the answer to the question Who said: Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few. I imagine he thinks Churchill is a nodding dog.

Look in the mirror Mariah

We all know Mariah Carey has a peerless voice, but Im starting to wonder whether, aged 46, she needs to get her eyesight checked.

Either that or shes got one of those mirrors you find in upmarket shops that make you look much thinner than you really are in order to encourage you to part with money for over-priced clothes that are clearly a size too small.

All I can say is I hope those safety pins are reinforced.
A single mother's home was broken into and ransacked just six days before Christmas - and an unpleasant surprise left in the living room.

A woman called Tammy returned to her home in Darlinghurst, Sydney, from work on Monday evening to find she had been burgled.

The callous thieves had stolen her laptop, which contained five years of her work writing operas, along with her daughter's iPad, their passports and other identity documents.

Shockingly, the thief had also defecated in her living room. 'It was pretty disgusting,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

Shocked: Tammy (above, with her daughter) was horrified to come home to find it had been broken into and ransacked just six days before Christmas

'I was really shocked. I'd come home from work and I noticed that something was moved in the kitchen.

'I thought it was strange and then I noticed there were papers all over the living room.

'I had this rising sense of fear and trepidation and I saw the living room. There was some juice there and they had relieved themselves.'

Luckily, her eight-year-old daughter wasn't home at the time as she had been staying with her father.

Furthermore, Tammy revealed that just a week before she and a friend had been mugged and viciously assaulted in the street in nearby Woolloomooloo.

She said the two incidents have left her traumatised and she will be seeking counseling in the New Year.

Tammy added that at first, she had refrained from telling her young daughter about what had happened.

When she did, she said the youngster had told her: 'Mum, it's a new chapter, let's move on.'

'She is very compassionate and amazing,' she added.

Traumatised: Tammy had her laptop, her daughter's iPad and their passports stolen

Since the mugging and burglary, Tammy said she's been constantly checking if her windows and doors are locked.

'You just feel so violated. I feel like I'm on the brink of crying all the time. I don't feel safe in my home.

'I'm not the kind of person to be jumpy, but now I am finding myself holding my bag tighter in the street.

'And when I think I'm OK, I go to look for something and then realise it's also been taken.'

Now, she and her daughter are spending Christmas in Queensland with her mother.

Meanwhile, her friend Jeff Kessel has set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds to help the family replace some of their valuables.

In a post on the campaign page, which has raised more than $4,500 in a day, Mr Kessel wrote: 'The mum, a very hardworking and resilient artist lost about five years of creative work all at once.

'To add insult to injury the perpetrator defecated in their living room.'
Some girls might be met with an exasperated glance from their mother after leaving a nightclub in the small hours on a school night.

But when Princess Beatrice stepped out of Mayfair members' club LouLou's at 2.15am, her mother Sarah Ferguson was right beside her.

The two women even coordinated their style for their festive night out in London - both wore dresses with keyhole details at the neck, and wrapped up against the December chill in black tights and coats.

Princess Beatrice wore a burgundy velvet dress with black opaque tights and velvet shoes

Sarah Ferguson wore a black dress with a smart mid-length coat, black tights and flats

Princess Beatrice, 28, chose a pretty burgundy velvet dress, with a black tie at the ruffled neckline.

She teamed it with a pair of velvet Mary-Jane shoes and a black coat, and carried an embellished black clutch bag with her name monogrammed on it.

Her mother wore black flats and a smart black tailored coat, which revealed a glimpse of a black dress with a keyhole detail at the neckline.

The Duchess of York, 57, carried a black leather tote handbag.

The 28-year-old attended the annual Christmas lunch with other members of the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace earlier that day

The Princess carried an embellished black clutch bag that was monogrammed with her name

Both Princess Beatrice and her mother wore their red hair loose around their shoulders, and kept their accessories to a minimum.

Aside from her personalised clutch bag, Beatrice wore no visible jewellery.

Mother-of-two Fergie wore a small pair of hoop earrings, a gold pendant, and a colourful brooch pinned to her coat.

Sarah Ferguson carried a smart black leather tote bag and wore simple gold accessories

Earlier, Princess Beatrice was pictured arriving at Buckingham Palace to attend the annual Christmas lunch with other members of the Royal Family, including her younger sister, Princess Eugenie.
It appears that Prince Harry is not the only royal that Meghan Markle has been able to win over.

The Queen is apparently equally charmed and is said to be 'fully supportive' of her grandson's relationship with the actress.

The Prince, who has been dating Miss Markle for several months, is said to have received the royal seal of approval from his grandmother.

Sources close to Buckingham Palace claim that the Queen is 'fully supportive' of Prince Harry's relationship with actress Meghan Markle

Speaking to US magazine a source claimed to be a 'Buckingham Palace insider' said that Her Majesty is 'fully supportive' of Harry's romance.

They added: 'Shes delighted to see Harry in a loving relationship'. MailOnline has contacted the palace for a comment.

The actress and the monarch are yet to be introduced and Miss Markle, 35, will not be given the opportunity to meet the Queen over the festive period either.

It is understood she will not be accompanying Harry to Sandringham to spend Christmas with the Queen.

The source added that the monarch is 'delighted to see Harry in a loving relationship'

Prince Harry has been dating the Suits actress for months and she recently enjoyed a trip to London for a festive week with her partner

Meghan returned to Toronto for Christmas with her family on Tuesday after enjoying a week in London wither boyfriend Harry.

The pair went shopping for a Christmas tree and attended The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time at a West End Theatre.

However, royal duty beckoned for Harry this week, and Meghan jetted back to Toronto where she is based to spend the festive season apart from her boyfriend.

Only close family and occasionally friends join the senior royals at Sandringham, and it's too soon in Harry's romance with the Suits actress for her to be invited by the Queen.

However, Harry made sure to drop her off at Heathrow airport personally on Sunday morning.

The actress was accompanied by airline staff prior to boarding her flight, while the prince was flanked by five police protection officers.

After Meghan returned to Toronto for Christmas the prince looked a little glum when joining William and Kate at a Christmas party hosted by the youth charity The Mix in London

He will spend Christmas at the Queen's Norfolk estate, but is expected to be reunited with his stunning girlfriend in the New Year.

Harry is no doubt feeling a little deflated over the separation as he was looking somewhat glum on official royal duty on Tuesday.

The Prince joined William and Kate at a Christmas party hosted by the youth charity The Mix in London, attended by representatives of their Heads Together campaign.

Yesterday Harry joined the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for the Queen's annual pre-Christmas lunch this afternoon.
Anais Gallagher has called out her own mother Meg Mathews on Instagram after she posed for a picture on a 120 designer towel in front of a Unicef appeal.

The daughter of Oasis star Noel Gallagher criticised her mother after she posted a photograph of Instagram of her having a massage on a Missoni towel.

Behind Meg a screen can be seen displaying an advert for a Unicef appeal, which reads '3 could help buy a blanket'.

Commenting on the photo, model Anais, 16, writes: 'The irony of the ad behind x'

Anais Gallagher has called out her own mother Meg Mathews on Instagram after she posed for a picture on a 120 designer towel in front of a Unicef appeal

However, her mother seemed blissfully unaware of the faux pas commenting on the photo: 'Finished at last packing presents, Physio, homing dogs, and now coco the best massage #missioni towelsspot Oscar sleeps between my legs for the whole time

Followers of the account also noticed and left several comments on the picture.

Commenting on the photo Anais wrote 'The irony of the ad behind x'

Upon seeing the photograph, many of the mother's followers encouraged others to contribute to the campaign with one commenting: 'Text: blanket!'

One user commented: 'Text: blanket!'

Another wrote: 'Hope everyone is texting blanket to give 3 as it's got lots of attention.'

However, it seems that Meg has since become aware of her blunder after her daughter pointed it out.

Responding to her critics, the mother wrote: 'Hope everyone is texting blanket to give 3 as its got lots of attention'.

MailOnline has contacted Meg Matthews' representatives for a comment.

After her daughter pointed out her blunder Meg commented on her photo asking her followers to donate to the campaign. Pictured: Meg and Anais at an event together

Anais is Meg's only child with her father Meg's ex-husband Noel Gallagher

Meg Mathews is known for being a stalwart of the 90s Brit Pop scene, whiling her nights away with supermodel Kate Moss and actress Sadie Frost.

Anais is her only daughter with her father being her ex-husband Oasis rocker Noel Gallagher, who she divorced in 2001, when Anais was less than a year old.

The British musician is now married to Sara MacDonald and they have two sons together Sonny, five, and Donovan, eight.

The young model is currently giving the fashion industry's veterans a run for their money, having already graced the cover of fashion bibles Wonderland and L'Officiel.
His Christmas Eve service in a wooden shed formed the basis of one of England's best loved festive traditions - but Edward White Benson's private live was anything but conventional.

The simple service staged by the Bishop of Truro in 1880 inspired the famous Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols that's still broadcast each year from King's College, Cambridge.

What's less well known is that Benson's wife Mary, who he wed when she was 18, had affairs with dozens of women - including one that led her into a love triangle with the couple's own daughter as they battled for the affections of the same female lover.

Mary Benson was the wife of Edward Benson, who is credited with inventing the carol service and became Archbishop of Canterbury

Edward White Benson was the Bishop of Truro and became Archbishop of Canterbury

It's just one of many tales of intrigue that surround this unique Victorian marriage, which produced six accomplished and literary children - none of whom wed or had children and of whom at least four were thought to favour their own sex.

The highly intelligent Mary, Edward Benson's second cousin, was just 11 when the 23-year-old - who would later become Archbishop of Canterbury - declared his intentions towards her.

They married when she was 18, and Mary, nicknamed Ben, went on to enter into several same-sex affairs, and kept a record of 39 female lovers in her diary, in which she detailed her crushes, or 'swarmings', on a procession of women.

When her husband died of a heart attack in 1896, Mary set up home with Lucy Tait, the daughter of the man who had been Archbishop of Canterbury before Edward White Benson.

The Bensons' daughter Margaret, known as Maggie, was an author, amateur Egyptologist and lesbian, one of the first women to study at Oxford, and a vocal proponent of gay rights.

Her partner was Egyptologist Janet Gourlay, but her mother's relationship with Lucy Tait is believed to have driven Maggie so wild with jealousy that she eventually attacked her mother with a carving knife.

She spent the last decade of her life in a mental asylum and died in 1916.

At 26, the Bensons' daughter Nellie caught the eye of composer Ethel Smyth - at the time her mother's much younger girlfriend.

Smyth showered Nellie with over 150 love letters, and Mary is said to have done her best to accept her former lover's relationship with her daughter, writing in a letter to Ethel: 'I feel that this time is emphatically Nellie's and I do long for her to have it good.'

Nellie died of diptheria in 1890 at the age of 27.

'Confirmed bachelor' Arthur Benson is the author of the words to Land of Hope and Glory

E.F. 'Fred' Benson was the novelist behind the Mapp and Lucia series and a figure skater

The Bensons' son Arthur, a master at Eton, achieved fame for penning the words to Elgar's Land of Hope and Glory, and once confessed the closest he ever came to a physical relationship with a woman was a kiss on the forehead.

His brother E.F. 'Fred' Benson, was the novelist behind the Mapp and Lucia series and an expert figure skater.

He never married, and his sexuality was the subject of much speculation from those who point out the homoerotic thread in much of his work and the company he kept - like the gay pianist John Ellingham Brooks, with whom Fred shared a villa in Capri.

He died of throat cancer in 1940.

The Bensons had two other sons, Martin, who died of meningitis at 17, and Hugh, who caused a minor scandal when he renounced his father's religion to become a Catholic priest.

The carol service the Bishop of Truro staged in 1880 formed the basis of the famous Christmas Eve Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols that is broadcast from King's College each year

When Edward White Benson decided to stage his simple service in the wooden shed that served as his cathedral on Christmas Eve 1880, it was ostensibly to lure his parishioners out of the pub.

Little did he know he would kick start a beloved festive tradition that endures to this day.

A quote from Arthur Benson which appears on the programme for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge, reads: 'My father arranged from ancient sources a little service for Christmas Eve - nine carols and nine tiny lessons, which were read by various officers of the Church.'
He's been missing his actress girlfriend since they went their separate ways at the weekend and probably the last thing Prince Harry would want to see is images of Meghan Markle, 35, in bed with another man.

However, the prince had better get used to it as newly unearthed footage from the fifth season of Suits shows the actress wearing a skimpy black slip as she engages in a passionate clinch with her on-screen boyfriend.

Luckily for Harry, Meghan received a funny reminder of the Prince today when a cab from a firm called Royal collected her outside her Toronto home.

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Look away now Harry! Newly unearthed footage from season five of Suits shows Meghan Markle cosying up to her on-screen boyfriend played by actor Patrick J Adams

The pair are scene chatting together in bed before becoming entangled in a passionate clinch

Her outing came as newly unearthed footage shows her character Rachel Zane cosying up to on screen boyfriend Mike Ross between the sheets.

In the scene, Meghan who is wearing a skimpy black slip, can be seen chatting to her on screen lover in bed before they become entangled in a passionate clinch.

It's by no means the first time Meghan has taken on a steamy scene on screen.

And she has even admitted to becoming concerned about the number of Suits sex scenes she has starred in and the 'sexiness factor' of her Suits character.

Meghan Markle spotted getting into a Royal Taxi that she ordered in Toronto, Canada - a cheeky reminder of her boyfriend Prince Harry

Rachel Zane - Meghan Markle - is shown in bed with boyfriend Mike Ross - alias actor Patrick J Adams - in the fifth series of legal drama Suits

Meghan stripped to a skimpy black slip for the sultry scene

She added that she avoids skimpy clothes because her mother warned her to 'never give the milk away for free'.

On her Suits outfits she said: 'Yes, those pencil skirts on the show are fit within an exhale, but I fight to get that paired with a men's oversized shirt for balance.'

Currently Harry is preparing to celebrate Christmas with the royal family at Sandringham.

The festivities are for close family only, but although Meghan was not invited the Queen is said to be 'fully supportive' of her grandson's relationship with the actress.

The actress looked loved up with her on-screen boyfriend but she's currently separated from her royal love who is more than 2,000 miles away in London

The Prince, who has been dating Miss Markle for several months, is said to have received the royal seal of approval from his grandmother.

Speaking to US magazine a source claimed to be a 'Buckingham Palace insider' said that Her Majesty is 'fully supportive' of Harry's romance.

They added: 'Shes delighted to see Harry in a loving relationship'. MailOnline has contacted the palace for a comment.

Meghan previously stripped to her underwear for a raunchy scene in the legal drama

It's not the first time Meghan has appeared in a steamy scene in the legal drama, but she admits to worrying about the 'sexiness' of her character

Meghan returned to Toronto for Christmas with her family on Tuesday after enjoying a week in London wither boyfriend Harry.

The pair went shopping for a Christmas tree and attended The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time at a West End Theatre.

However, royal duty beckoned for Harry this week, and Meghan jetted back to Toronto where she is based to spend the festive season apart from her boyfriend.

Only close family and occasionally friends join the senior royals at Sandringham, and it's too soon in Harry's romance with the Suits actress for her to be invited by the Queen.

However, Harry made sure to drop her off at Heathrow airport personally on Sunday morning.
Prince Harry's girlfriend Meghan Markle received a funny reminder of her beau today when a cab from a firm called Royal collected her outside her Toronto home.

The actress was picked up by the company's car this afternoon - and she was wrapped up well against the chilly Canadian weather in a long dark coat and her favourite black beanie.

Meghan, 35, returned to Toronto for Christmas with her family on Tuesday after enjoying a week in London with her boyfriend Harry, 32.

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Meghan Markle spotted getting into a Royal Taxi that she ordered in Toronto, Canada - a cheeky reminder of her boyfriend Prince Harry

Maghan appeared to be in good spirits as she departed Heathrow after spending a week in London with boyfriend Harry

Currently Harry is preparing to celebrate Christmas with the royal family at Sandringham.

The festivities are for close family only, but although Meghan was not invited the Queen is said to be 'fully supportive' of her grandson's relationship with the actress.

The Prince, who has been dating Miss Markle for several months, is said to have received the royal seal of approval from his grandmother.

Speaking to US magazine a source claimed to be a 'Buckingham Palace insider' said that Her Majesty is 'fully supportive' of Harry's romance.

They added: 'Shes delighted to see Harry in a loving relationship'. MailOnline has contacted the palace for a comment.

Meghan, pictured here at Heathrow airport, was taken there by Harry personally after their romantic week together

Harry and Meghan packed plenty of festive activities into their London break - going shopping together for a Christmas tree and attending The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time at a West End theatre.

However, royal duty beckoned for Harry this week, and Meghan jetted back to Toronto where she is based to spend the festive season apart from her boyfriend.

Meghan and Harry were spotted together in public for the first time this week, as the actress spent time in London

The pair went shopping for a Christmas tree and attended The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time at a West End theatre

Only close family and occasionally friends join the senior royals at Sandringham, and it's thought to be too soon in Harry's romance with the Suits actress for her to be invited by the Queen.

However, Harry made sure to drop her off at Heathrow airport personally on Sunday morning.
A group of Lush employees are so enamored with the brand that they have opted to get tattoos honoring their favorite products  including the cosmetics company's beloved bath bombs.

Nine employees at one of Lush's locations in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, have band together as 'Lushies' and gotten ink inspired by the brand's bath bombs, perfume, and cruelty-free ingredients.

One member of the 'Lush Family', Brittney Minor, told Pop Sugar that group bonding moment happened organically after she mentioned wanting to get a tattoo to pay tribute to her experience with the company.

Paying tribute! Nine employees at one of Lush's locations Lancaster, Pennsylvania, have gotten ink inspired by the brand's products - including its Sex Bomb bath bomb (left and right)

Pretty in pink: One of the company's 'Lushies' had a drawing of the brand's Pink Flamingo Reusable Bubble Bar tattooed on her forearm

Celestial being: Another woman's 'Lush Life' tattoo paid homage to the brand's popular Twilight bath bomb

'One shift, we were talking about how much the brand has had an impact on us,' she explained. 'I mentioned I wanted to get a tattoo to celebrate, and they all jumped at the idea.

According to the site, Shelby Golob of Blackthorn Gallery, a tattoo artist who is friends with Brittany, agreed to ink the group, and they happily showed off their new body art with some photos.

And while they all found inspiration from Lush, they all got vastly different tattoos.

One woman had a drawing of the brand's Pink Flamingo Reusable Bubble Bar tattooed on her forearm and another opted for the French Kiss Bubble Bar on her ankle.

Love of lavender: This person had Lush's French Kiss Bubble Bar inked on her ankle

Purple passion: Another person was inspired by the companies use of lavender in its products

Cruelty-free: One person got a tattoo of the brand's Leaping Bunny symbol, which signifies the company's dedication to fighting animal testing

Lush's Sex Bomb and Twilight bath bombs were the products of choice for two others, but they weren't the only things that made for great tattoos.

One employee honored Lush's 'All Good Things' perfume and another paid tribute to one of the brand's common ingredients by having a bunch of lavender inked on the back of her.

Other's were drawn to the values the cosmetics company stands for, including its cruelty-free products that are 100 per cent vegetarian  and more than 80 per cent of those items are also vegan.

One person got a tattoo of the brand's Leaping Bunny symbol, which signifies the company's dedication to fighting animal testing.

Film buff: One woman's 'Trophy Wife' bear tattoo pays homage to Lush's documentary, Trophy, which explores the controversy of thousands of bears being killed for sport each year

Huge fan: One employee honored Lush's 'All Good Things' perfume

Morals and values: While one employee got a got a tattoo of a small 'V' for Lush's 80 vegan products, another got a small leaf in celebration of its 100 per cent vegetarian ingredients

Another employee opted for a picture of a bear with the words 'Trophy Wife' written on a banner across the animals neck.

The image honors Lush's first documentary, Trophy, which explores the controversy of thousands of bears being killed for sport in the US and Canada each year.

Finally, one employee got a tattoo of a small 'V' for Lush's 80 vegan products, and another Lushie got a small leaf in celebration of the brand's 100 per cent vegetarian ingredients.

Brittany shared the finished results on one of Lush's private Facebook group pages, and she said the ink has earned plenty of positive responses.
A Washington, D.C.-based artist was looking for a way to destigmatize periods when she had a thought  what's more nonthreatening than a pair of googly eyes?

So Cass Clemmer, who is also a menstrual health educator, slapped some of the goofy arts and crafts pieces on an unused tampon and voila, Toni the Tampon was born.

The adorable menstrual accessory  a series of words probably never written before  charmed so many fans on Instagram that it now has its own coloring book, which went on sale earlier this month.

We're gushing over this! A new coloring book stars Toni the Tampon, a feminine hygiene product who goes on adventures

Background: The 20-page book was illustrated by Cass Clemmer from Washington, D.C.

Periods were never so cute! Cass wants to destigmatize menstruation and educate people

Good names: Toni is joined by friends like Marina the Menstrual Cup, Sebastian the Sponge, and Patrice the Pad

Toni the Tampon gets up to a lot of adventures on Instagram, enjoying nature, dressing up for the holidays, and even riding public transportation.

In the 20-page coloring book, The Adventures of Toni the Tampon, the product's exploits are even more exciting, and it even takes a trip to outer space.

While this all seems cute, the artist particularly thought it would be a great way to destigamize menstruation and educate people  especially children.

Hilarious: The original Toni is featured on the Toni the Tampon Instagram page

Cass glues googly eyes to clean tampons and takes pictures of them in different situations

A great idea: Cass said she grew up uneducated about menstruation and wants to get people talking

That's because Cass grew up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she wasn't taught about reproductive health and didn't even know what a uterus was. When she got her first period, she didn't understand what was happening.

'A lot of us are taught to keep periods to ourselves, to the point that even having a wrapped tampon outside the confines of the bathroom can feel inappropriate,' she told Mashable. 'The amount of work and ingenuity that goes into hiding this shared, cyclical experience would be comical if it wasn't distressing.'

Cass knows it can be difficult to make reproductive health easy to understand for children.

New to the shelves: Her coloring book came out earlier this month

Helping out Cass doesn't want kids to have shame about their periods

Buy now: The Adventures of Toni the Tampon costs $12

'It's a tough conversation to have with kids, especially when you consider that adults are often struggling with their own internalized period shame. But hopefully, by opening up a fun and creative gateway to discussion, my period coloring book will help make that conversation a little easier,' she added.

The coloring book also features appearances by Toni's friends, including Marina the Menstrual Cup, Sebastian the Sponge, and Patrice the Pad.
Five-year-old Daisy Mason is showing off her aptitude for Spanish: Uno, dos, tres, cuatro... When she reaches 20, her face lights up like the Christmas tree she helped to decorate last week.

Lucy and her husband Aidan share their daughters delight, as well they might. To hear your five-year-old count to 20 in a foreign language is special for any mum and dad  but more so for Daisys parents, who, when their daughter was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at ten months, were told she would be unlikely to speak a word of English, let alone Spanish.

I couldnt stop cuddling her when the consultant told us, says Lucy.

Five-year-old Daisy Mason, who lives near Kings Lynn in Norfolk, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at ten months and her parents were told she would be unlikely to speak a word of English, let alone Spanish

Cerebral palsy is rated on a scale of one to five, where five is the worst. Daisy is a four. Normally children of her level dont have an intellect, dont speak and are tube-fed. We were told Daisy would do hardly anything, that shed probably just spend her life lying there. She points to the sofa.

We were really upset... but not for long. She looks at Aidan, who nods encouragingly. Its up to the parents, he says. If youre going to be depressed about it, that will rub off on your child. We dont have down moments. Why should we?

Why indeed.

Daisy, after all, is the little ray of sunshine who endeared herself to millions when she became the first child in a wheelchair to feature in Channel 4s The Secret Life of Five Year Olds. Indeed, this incredible little girl soon emerged as the star of the BAFTA nominated series, as she demonstrated all the sheer joy to be had from life, irrespective of disabilities.

Her parents hope her participation in the series has raised awareness for disabled children everywhere, showing us their potential to flourish however grim the prognosis. And that is why they are giving this searingly honest interview at their home near Kings Lynn in Norfolk.

Daisy, pictured above with her parents Lucy and Aidan, is the little ray of sunshine who endeared herself to millions when she became the first child in a wheelchair to feature in Channel 4s The Secret Life of Five Year Olds

Lucy, a medical secretary, had been married to Aidan, who works for a power company, for two years when she had a severe bleed during the 28th week of her pregnancy following IVF treatment (Daisy pictured above when she was born)

And, make no mistake, Lucy, 36, and 30-year-old Aidan have had to fight tooth and nail with health professionals to ensure their daughter can have as normal a childhood as possible.

When she was 18 months old she couldnt walk to the potty but I could carry her, says Lucy. The NHS physiotherapist said there were more important things to worry about than potty training her, and we should stop because shed never be able to do it.

I thought, shes managed it a few times, Ill carry on. And by the time she started school she was fine.

When she was preparing for big school, the physiotherapist told nursery staff I was expecting too much. Her exact words were, she is not accepting of her diagnosis.

This woman had only seen Daisy a handful of times. I was horrified. I am so accepting of her diagnosis but we have to give her the best life she can have. We began to see a private physiotherapist after that.

Lucy was rushed to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kings Lynn, where doctors decided to perform an emergency Caesarean under general anaesthetic on February 19, 2011. Daisy weighed just 2lb 10oz when she was born

Lucy, 36, and 30-year-old Aidan have had to fight tooth and nail with health professionals to ensure their daughter can have as normal a childhood as possible (Daisy, above, pictured in her school uniform)

Today, Daisy is full of festive joy when we pick her up from Gaywood Community Primary School, where she has been in a dress rehearsal for the Christmas play, Fishing For Stars. She chats away nineteen to the dozen about the halo she will wear as an angel, and how her teachers are going to decorate her chair with tinsel.

So much so, you can barely get a word in edgeways.

Can you believe this is the little girl they said would never speak? says Lucy, looking heavenwards in mock despair.

In fact, Daisy has defied the expectations of NHS health professionals time and again. She has been in mainstream education for more than a year and is one of the best in her class at reading. She also swims, cycles on a specially adapted bike, and goes riding at the Magpie Centre riding school for the disabled.

That girl is the most precious thing in Norfolk, says Jeffrey Carter, 78, a voluntary worker at the riding school.

Daisy has defied the expectations of NHS health professionals. She has been in mainstream education for more than a year and is one of the best in her class at reading. She also swims, cycles on a specially adapted bike, and goes riding at the Magpie Centre riding school for the disabled

That girl is the most precious thing in Norfolk, says Jeffrey Carter, 78, a voluntary worker at the riding school

When Daisy was six days old they gave her a brain scan and said there had been bleeding on the brain, so there was a high risk she would have cerebral palsy

She is also, as her mother says, a little fighter, not just in the inspirational way she contends with her disabilities but by the very fact she is here at all.

Lucy, a medical secretary, had been married to Aidan, who works for a power company, for two years when she had a severe bleed during the 28th week of her pregnancy following IVF treatment.

She was rushed to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kings Lynn, where doctors decided to perform an emergency Caesarean under general anaesthetic on February 19, 2011. Daisy weighed just 2lb 10oz when she was born.

When I came round, Addy came in and said, We have a little girl. Shes very poorly.

We named her Daisy Olive immediately. I was so worried that she was going to die and I didnt want her to do that without her own identity.

Her mother says: 'I remember going back to her, just looking at her and thinking: I dont care  I dont care whether there is anything wrong with you. Whatever is wrong, well face. Until youve been in that situation you dont know how youre going to feel'

Daisy was transferred to the special baby unit at Norwich Hospital and miraculously, after three weeks, she drew her first unaided breath. She went from strength to strength and when she was two months old and weighed just over 4lb, her parents were able to take her home

That night and for the next few months, everyone around us was an emotional wreck. She was the first grandchild and such a wanted baby.

When she was six days old they gave her a brain scan. The consultant asked us into a side room for a word. She said: Theres quite a lot of bleeding on the brain, so there is a really high risk shell have cerebral palsy.

Thats when I finally did cry. I can remember sort of losing my legs. Addy held me. I just thought, I dont know if I can take any more.

I was numb. I didnt want her to die but I didnt want her to have anything wrong with her, either.

Then I remember going back to her, just looking at her and thinking: I dont care  I dont care whether there is anything wrong with you. Whatever is wrong, well face. Until youve been in that situation you dont know how youre going to feel.

They told us to watch out for signs of cerebral palsy [these include poor muscle control and delayed development] but we couldnt have been happier, says Lucy. She was so lovely and we were so excited to be coming home as a family. We had Daisy. Nothing else mattered.

The doctors continued to monitor her and at nine months, the consultant said Daisy (above riding a horse) was developing normally  she hadnt got cerebral palsy

But a few days before Christmas the prognosis changed. The consultant did the usual: listened to her chest, laid her on the bed and felt her legs. Thats when she told us ... Lucy stops and buries her face in Daisys hair.

Daisy was transferred to the special baby unit at Norwich Hospital and miraculously, after three weeks, she drew her first unaided breath.

She began to feed every four hours and over the next month went from strength to strength. When she was two months old and weighed just over 4lb, her parents were able to take her home.

They told us to watch out for signs of cerebral palsy [these include poor muscle control and delayed development] but we couldnt have been happier, says Lucy. She was so lovely and we were so excited to be coming home as a family. We had Daisy. Nothing else mattered.

The doctors continued to monitor her and at nine months, the consultant said Daisy was developing normally  she hadnt got cerebral palsy.

Suddenly, we were going to be able to do everything with her we wanted to do, says Lucy. I couldnt stop looking at her, thinking: I cant believe weve got away with this. 

We thought she had strong legs because she was standing at six months, says Aidan. But it was the cerebral palsy that made her so tight. Her legs were almost rigid. But we were still so grateful to have her. Wed nearly lost her once. We were lucky  and were quite positive anyway. Were what-will-be-will-be sort of people'

But a few days before Christmas the prognosis changed. The consultant did the usual: listened to her chest, laid her on the bed and felt her legs. Thats when she told us ... Lucy stops and buries her face in Daisys hair.

We thought she had strong legs because she was standing at six months, says Aidan. But it was the cerebral palsy that made her so tight. Her legs were almost rigid.

But we were still so grateful to have her. Wed nearly lost her once. We were lucky  and were quite positive anyway. Were what-will-be-will-be sort of people.

Lucy settles Daisy on the sofa with her teddy bear, Charlie, and a book for her to read to him.

When her cerebral palsy was diagnosed I didnt even Google it because I knew Id just see things I didnt particularly want to know.

Seven months later, Lucys optimism was sorely tested again when she was told that Daisy had spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy  the most disabling form of the condition. It was then they were warned she would probably never walk, speak or feed without a tube.

But Lucy and Aidan refused to believe the bleak prognosis. They were convinced their little girl was capable of a great deal more.

Seven months later, Lucys optimism was sorely tested again when she was told that Daisy had spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy  the most disabling form of the condition. It was then they were warned she would probably never walk, speak or feed without a tube

We just focused on putting everything into her development, says Lucy. We played a phonics CD  this is a type of learning that teaches children by splitting words into sounds  every evening at bathtime. Wed listen to the sounds and do all the actions.

Daisy spoke her first word at the age of three  Howie, the name of her much-loved uncle. By the age of four she was stringing words together and soon forming lengthy sentences. She has barely stopped talking since.

She also eats whatever is laid in front of her.

We tried all kinds of things to get her to chew, says Aidan. Everything and anything. What finally worked was a chocolate brownie, when she was three and a half.

Elated at Daisys progress and understandably angered by the negativity of the NHS physiotherapist, they sought help privately to learn how best to prepare her physically for school.

By the age of four she was stringing words together and soon forming lengthy sentences. She has barely stopped talking since

I hated leaving her there on her first day, says Lucy. She really cried. It was heartbreaking. She cried every day for five or six weeks.

The school were fantastic. They would keep me informed by text. I stayed strong for her until the first morning I left her and she didnt cry. Then I phoned Addy and burst into tears.

I didnt know if wed made the right decision putting her in mainstream school because of how physically disabled she is, but we havent looked back once. She has a close friend called Hannah. Its like any normal relationship between five-year-olds, isnt it?

Her husband agrees. Her disabilities dont stop us going anywhere with her. I take her to watch Arsenal games, and you should see her when we smuggle her on the rapids at Center Parcs.

Her parents were convinced their little girl was capable of a great deal more. Daisy spoke her first word at the age of three  Howie, the name of her much-loved uncle. By the age of four she was stringing words together and soon forming lengthy sentences. She has barely stopped talking since. She also eats whatever is laid in front of her

Daisy may not be able to run around but she can hold her own. Except for needing someone to be her arms and legs, shes the same as any other child. Thats why weve really focused on her learning to read and type, because those are things she can do on her own'

I think its the freedom she has in the water, says Lucy, before turning to her daughter.

Daisy, I meant to tell you, Granny thinks we should book that log cabin in Sherwood Forest for your birthday. And guess whats going to be there?

A hot tub, says Daisy. Yes, yes, yes. She giggles and gives her parents the thumbs-up.

This from a child experts feared would never open her fists.

Six months ago the consultant told us she would manage a couple of steps in her walker at best. But look ... Lucy takes out her iPhone to show me a video, taken three weeks ago, of Daisy shrieking with joy as she runs in her walker the length of the room.

Local charities have been overwhelmingly supportive, helping to fund a Lycra suit (600) to offer Daisy extra support, and a trike (3,000). They are now trying to raise 3,000 for an electric height-adjustable bed.

Daisy, above with her parents, now wants to go to University and be a Spanish teacher. Her mother says: You can see why we have so much fight for her, cant you? Shes awesome'

The NHS provides a hospital bed, says Lucy. But when her friends come round we want her to have a normal-looking bed.

Daisy may not be able to run around but she can hold her own. Except for needing someone to be her arms and legs, shes the same as any other child. Thats why weve really focused on her learning to read and type, because those are things she can do on her own. She turns to her daughter, who is playing happily with Charlie the bear.

Daisy, tell Rebecca what you want to do when you grow up.

I want to go to university and be a Spanish teacher, she says.

Now Lucy lights up like the Christmas tree. You can see why we have so much fight for her, cant you? Shes awesome.

She is. But no more so than her truly awesome parents.
Beaming with pride as they cradle their babies, its clear these mothers couldnt be more delighted with their new arrivals.

But they have an extra-special reason to celebrate this Christmas. While the infants were all born this year, between them they have spent 57 weeks of their little lives in hospital.

Here, JILL FOSTER speaks to the mothers for whom the best gift this year is simply having their babies home.

OUR SON NEARLY DIED

Gillian Page, 41, from Redbridge, Essex, an administrator for a car company, is married to Phil, 42, a mechanical engineer. Their twins, Ava and Albert, were born on February 9, 2016, but Albert has spent almost all his young life in hospital. He came home on December 15. Gillian says:

Gillian Page, 41, from Redbridge, Essex, an administrator for a car company, is married to Phil, 42, a mechanical engineer. Their twins, Ava and Albert, were born on February 9, 2016, but Albert has spent almost all his young life in hospital. He came home on December 15

There have been moments over the past ten months when we feared wed never have both our children home, let alone in time for Christmas.

Although it was a shock to discover back in July 2015 that I was expecting twins, my pregnancy went well, until 34 weeks when I developed pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes.

During one of my appointments, the consultant became concerned with my blood pressure and suddenly announced: Were taking you straight to the labour ward.

I was scared, but when the babies were delivered by C-section on February 9, initially everything seemed fine. Ava came out first weighing 4lb 8oz, while Albert was born a minute later at 3lb 12oz.

But the following day, a scan picked up a problem with Alberts heart. He also developed necrotising enterocolitis  where the tissue in the bowel starts to die.

The worst moment of my life was when one of the doctors told us he was seriously ill and needed an operation at a different hospital. He warned us that Albert might die.

Gillian says: 'I was scared, but when the babies were delivered by C-section on February 9, initially everything seemed fine. Ava came out first weighing 4lb 8oz, while Albert was born a minute later at 3lb 12oz'

Phil decided to go with Albert and I sobbed my heart out, not only thinking that I might never see our son again, but also that Phil might have to deal with Alberts death on his own.

Waiting for the call to learn if our son had lived or died was the lowest point.

He survived, but it has been up and down all year. While I was discharged with Ava on February 14, Albert developed an E.coli infection and was also incubated (given a tube to breathe).

At six weeks old, he had surgery to close the faulty valve in his heart and, at the end of March, he went back to theatre for emergency surgery on his bowel.

He had recurring episodes of septicaemia and also tested positive for MRSA.

For months, Phil and I barely saw each other as we took it in turns to do shifts at the hospital, while the other stayed with Ava. It was incredibly stressful. But finally, just a couple of weeks ago, we were told he was well enough to come home.

She continues: 'Alberts lost 70 per cent of his bowel, which means, for the foreseeable future, hell rely on a feeding tube for 18 hours of the day. But he is a happy, sociable baby  his smiles light up the room  and I cant wait to see his relationship build with Ava' (above: Phil and Gillian Page with twins Ava and Albert)

Its been a daunting change. Whereas before Albert was under the expertise of the nurses, now its down to us.

Alberts lost 70 per cent of his bowel, which means, for the foreseeable future, hell rely on a feeding tube for 18 hours of the day.

But he is a happy, sociable baby  his smiles light up the room  and I cant wait to see his relationship build with Ava.

We hadnt dared make any plans for Christmas, but now, Phil is taking three weeks off and we are spending that time as a family and recovering from the past year.

After more than 300 days apart, I still cant believe were all together  its the best present of all.

I FEARED FOR HER LIFE

Stephanie Marscheider, 24, works in IT for an insurance company. She lives with husband Fraser, 28, a digital marketer in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Their daughter Lily was born 12 weeks prematurely on September 30. Stephanie says:

Stephanie Marscheider, 24, works in IT for an insurance company. She lives with husband Fraser, 28, a digital marketer in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Their daughter Lily was born 12 weeks prematurely on September 30

When Lily was delivered by emergency C-section at 28 weeks, there were 18 people in the room including five from neo-natal intensive care.

I remember the room was silent as the team worked on my tiny, much longed-for baby.

She made no noise at all and I only knew she was alive because the surgeon said: Its a girl and shes breathing.

Then they were gone, taking Lily straight to intensive care. It wasnt until three hours later that I set eyes on her and, of course, it was love at first sight.

Lily was always going to be a Christmas baby  her due date was December 17  but there have been times over the past three months when doctors feared neither she nor I would be here now.

Stephanie says: 'Lily was always going to be a Christmas baby  her due date was December 17  but there have been times over the past three months when doctors feared neither she nor I would be here now'

When I became pregnant, I was warned that it could be risky. My left lung was removed when I was a baby, so I was told being pregnant would put an immense strain on my body. At seven months, my breathing deteriorated.

The baby was lying under my diaphragm, which was restricting my lung. I was admitted to hospital and, two days later, it became clear that. if the baby wasnt delivered soon, we could both die.

The doctors werent sure I would survive the anaesthetic if I had needed a general. As it was, I only had an epidural, but I had to have the most heartbreaking conversation with Fraser about how he should stay with Lily  we knew we were having a little girl  if the worst should happen to me.

I also asked my dad to clear our house of all the baby things if Lily didnt make it.

The first few weeks were unbelievably stressful because Lilys breathing was laboured, particularly after catching a cold in October. But she kept putting on weight and took to breastfeeding, which was a real turning point

Stephanie says: 'Because of my health, weve been advised against more children, but we may consider this in the future. For now, were just grateful to have our daughter home and well  shes our little Christmas miracle' (Above: Stephanie and Fraser Marscheider with daughter Lily)

I can only talk about this now because we are through it, but at the time, I was terrified that Lily might not make it.

The first few weeks were unbelievably stressful because Lilys breathing was laboured, particularly after catching a cold in October. But she kept putting on weight and took to breastfeeding, which was a real turning point.

Now shes finally home, Christmas is going to be so special.

Because of my health, weve been advised against more children, but we may consider this in the future. For now, were just grateful to have our daughter home and well  shes our little Christmas miracle.

BORN TOO SOON

Rebecca Mackey, 27, is a student nurse and also owns a clothes shop and a beauty salon. She lives in Halifax with her eight-year-old son Reuben and her daughter Renae, who was born six weeks early. Rebecca says:

Rebecca Mackey, 27, is a student nurse and also owns a clothes shop and a beauty salon. She lives in Halifax with her eight-year-old son Reuben and her daughter Renae, who was born six weeks early

I expected to be a heavily pregnant woman over Christmas, not a mother of two. My due date was December 28 and, having gone overdue with my son eight years earlier, I never expected to have my baby in 2016, let alone November.

But seven weeks before I was due, I was pottering around the house when my waters broke.

If Im honest, I went into complete denial, probably too scared to believe the baby might be coming. It was only when I told my mum what had happened a few hours later that she insisted I go to hospital. There, I was assessed and told I may go into labour.

Rebecca says: 'On Saturday, November 19, I woke up in the early hours in pain. I went back to bed, hoping it would stop. By 7.30am, I rang the labour ward and they said because my waters had already broken, I should make my way to the hospital'

Being a student nurse meant I was reassured that I was in safe hands, but a little medical knowledge can also be a scary thing. I know premature babies can have a range of problems.

On Saturday, November 19, I woke up in the early hours in pain. I went back to bed, hoping it would stop. By 7.30am, I rang the labour ward and they said because my waters had already broken, I should make my way to the hospital.

My daughter arrived naturally three hours later, weighing 5lb 11oz. When the doctors wrapped her up and handed her to me, she was so beautiful.

Rebecca continues: 'She had suspected sepsis and her risk of jaundice was high, so they kept her in for two weeks. It was a worrying time, but I brought her home on December 2, just in time for Christmas'

With her gorgeous black hair and pink lips, I named her Renae Olivia Rose. But, although she seemed healthy, Renae was transferred to the Special Care Baby Unit, so she could be monitored closely.

She had suspected sepsis and her risk of jaundice was high, so they kept her in for two weeks. It was a worrying time, but I brought her home on December 2, just in time for Christmas.

Its been a complete shock to have her with me over the run-up to Christmas. I wasnt prepared and hadnt yet bought anything like a car seat or cot. But its wonderful to have her home.

She says: 'Its been a complete shock to have her with me over the run-up to Christmas. I wasnt prepared and hadnt yet bought anything like a car seat or cot. But its wonderful to have her home' (Above: Rebecca Mackey with newborn Renae and son Reuben)

I FELT LIKE MY TWINS WOULD NEVER COME HOME

Jenna Cotterall, 29, is a barista for a coffee chain. She lives with fiance Lee OCallaghan, 36, a mechanical marine engineer, in South Wales. The couple have one son Connor, three, and twins Caleb and Ciaran who were born at 31 weeks on October 2nd. Jenna says:

Jenna Cotterall, 29, is a barista for a coffee chain. Her twins twins Caleb and Ciaran who were born at 31 weeks on October 2nd

Lying in my hospital bed, in floods of tears, I looked at Lee and said; What just happened? Hours earlier Id been making Sunday dinner, not expecting to give birth for months.

Now I was mother to two tiny baby boys whod arrived so early we hadnt even got any names planned. And because theyd been rushed to the special care unit I had barely seen them, let alone been able to hold them.

When Id felt pains in my stomach that Sunday I hadnt panicked. I had a bath and some paracetemol but eventually Lee suggested phoning the hospital.

When I got there at 6pm I learned I was contracting but that the hospital werent equipped to deal with SUCH? a premature birth so theyd have to transfer me to a unit 30 miles away. It didnt feel real. My pregnancy had been very smooth and surely my babies couldnt be born so early?

The new mum in hospital with Caleb and Ciaran, who were born nine weeks early an had to spend five weeks in special care

As I got into the ambulance I suddenly felt the urge to push. I was rushed straight back up to the labour ward and within minutes Id given birth to one baby boy and thirteen minutes later his brother was born.

Although I assumed that the babies were alive as Id heard them crying, they were whisked straight out of the room and taken to Special Care.

About three hours later we were allowed to see them but the paediatric consultant warned us they werent very well.

My heart dropped when I saw them, there were so many wires and tubes coming out of them. I remember putting my hand on the glass of the incubators they were in individually and crying.

Both twins had bleeds on the brain but the doctors were very reassuring saying that some small bleeds were normal. Scans showed that their brains havent been damaged

The next day we knew we had to name them - wed been calling them Big Baby and Little Baby. Id always liked Caleb and Lee came up with Ciaran. I was terrified we could lose them both. No one seemed able to give us a prognosis.

I felt so torn when I discharged myself from hospital a day later. I didnt want to leave but Connor needed me and I knew the twins were in the best place.

The next five weeks were a rollercoaster. They both had bleeds on the brain but the doctors were very reassuring saying that some small bleeds were normal. Scans showed that their brains havent been damaged.

It felt like theyd never be able to come home, but one day we went in and theyd been moved into a cot but not together and their wires had been removed.

Jenna is delighted to have her boys home for Christmas after admitting she felt like they would never be well enough to leave hospital

We were able to bring them both home on 8th November - their due date had been 4th December. Were only just sorting out Christmas now.

When I was pregnant, Id wanted to decorate the living room ready for the twins arrival but those plans were thrown out of the window and weve only done last-minute shopping and preparation.

Thankfully, were going to Lees parents for Christmas Day although with two babies, Im not sure Ill get to eat my Christmas Dinner while its warm. Still, it will be the best cold Christmas dinner Ive ever had because my babies are all home.
In Ancient Greece, doctors diagnosed patients by listening to their stomach rumbles, sniffing their breath and even tasting their sweat.

Now modern-day scientists have found they had the right idea, after detecting diseases like ovarian cancer and Parkinson's with 86 per cent accuracy by the way someone's breath smells.

The principle is based on the way in which dogs can sniff out cancer on the breath of their owners.

But researchers led by the Israel Institute of Technology have used gold nanoparticles instead, which react to 13 different chemicals we exhale when we are ill.

The breath test, which costs as little as 24, was found to work as well as a dog's nose when tried on more than 1,400 patients.

The breath test, which costs as little as 24, was found to work as well as a dog's nose when tried on more than 1,400 patients

Licensed already and potentially available for doctors to use in five years, it also correctly diagnosed multiple sclerosis, pre-eclampsia in pregnant women and eight separate types of cancer.

Lead author Professor Hossam Haick, said: 'We found that just as we each have a unique fingerprint, each of the diseases we studied has an unique breath print, a 'signature' of chemical components.

'We have a device which can discriminate between them, which is elegant and affordable.

'Patients who might be frightened to have a procedure like a colonoscopy will not be afraid of a breath test, and it could be used to screen healthy people.'

Hippocrates, the ancient Greek philosopher and physician widely regarded as the 'father of medicine', told his students more than 2,000 years ago to 'smell your patients' breath' for clues of disease like diabetes, which makes it sweet-smelling, and kidney failure, suggested to make it smell like urine.

Medical detection dogs, meanwhile, can detect tiny odour concentrations, the equivalent of one teaspoon of sugar in two Olympic-sized swimming pools, in breath samples of people with cancer.

Ovarian cancer and Parkinson's can be detected with 86 per cent accuracy by the way someone's breath smells, new research suggests

For the latest study, scientists used a 3D-printed box containing tiny particles of gold which change their resistance depending on chemicals in the breath.

Professor Haick said: The inspiration for this device was a dogs nose because dogs can be trained to recognise the scent of a disease in someones breath and distinguish it from a healthy person.

WHAT WERE THE DISEASES? The 17 diseases researchers, led by the Israel Institute of Technology, tested for using the 24 gadget were: Chronic kidney failure

Two forms of Parkinson's disease

Multiple sclerosis

Crohn's disease

Ulcerative colitis

Irritable bowel syndrome

High blood pressure

Pre-eclampsia in pregnant women

Head and neck cancer

Lung cancer

Bowel cancer

Bladder cancer

Kidney cancer

Prostate cancer

Gastric cancer

Ovarian cancer Advertisement

Instead of the nose, we have chemical sensors, and instead of the dogs brain we have a computer algorithm, so we can communicate more about a disease than a dog sniffing it out. The detection rate of close to 90 per cent is the same.

Patients breath was tested over more than three years in five different countries, including Israel and the US.

The 17 diseases tested for included chronic kidney failure, two types of Parkinsons disease, multiple sclerosis, Crohns disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, high blood pressure in the arteries between the heart and lungs and pre-eclampsia in pregnant women.

Breath was also used to find chemical signs of head and neck, lung, bowel, bladder, kidney, prostate, gastric and ovarian cancer.

In 1,404 patients, these were found with 86 per cent accuracy. Scientists have previously developed breath analysers, but this is the first to show that it is possible to distinguish between diseases when someone has more than one.

This comes after scientists today claimed a simple 'sniff test' could be used to detect dementia.

Sense of smell is known to decline sharply in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Experts believe this is because the build-up of toxic clumps in the brain - the signature hallmark of dementia - affects the memory region.
 Flash

The United States on Tuesday slapped additional sanctions on eight more entities and seven individuals linked to the conflict in Ukraine.

U.S. President Barack Obama extends his hand to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in New York September 28, 2015. [File photo/Xinhua]

The fresh sanctions target companies including Crimean Ports, Crimean Railway and Institut Stroiproekt, a Russian highway construction company, according to a statement by U.S. Treasury Department.

Also blacklisted are seven Russians, six of whom were accused by the United States of helping to offer assistance to Bank Rossiya, which was sanctioned in 2014, or Bank Rossiya's two affiliates, which were also been sanctioned.

The seventh man, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, "has extensive business dealings with the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense," said the statement.

The United States also identified 26 subsidiaries that are owned 50 percent or more by previously sanctioned Russian companies to provide additional information to assist the private sector with sanctions compliance.

Since 2014, the United States, the EU and some of their allies have imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia for the country's role in the Ukraine crisis.

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russia's TASS News Agency that Russia would respond to U.S. expansion of sanction.

"We retain the right to choose the time, place and form of our responsive actions in a way that suits us," said Ryabkov.
Having a chicken vindaloo curry could help to fight breast cancer, new research suggests.

An active ingredient of pungent substances, such as chilli and pepper, inhibits the growth of tumours, scientists found.

Capsaicin - responsible for the fiery sensation after consumption - also caused triple-negative cells to die in their masses.

Currently chemotherapy is the only treatment option for the most aggressive form of breast cancer.

And experts warn that it is unlikely just eating lots of spice alone could help to combat the disease.

An active ingredient of pungent substances found in spicy curries inhibits the growth of tumours, scientists found

Researchers from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, Germany, carried out tests on cell cultures designed to replicate triple-negative breast cancer.

Capsaicin was added to them for a period of several hours each day.

They discovered it caused an array of responses, including activating a receptor linked to the disease.

The existence of the Transient Receptor Potential Channels (TRPV1) was found in nine different samples from patients with breast cancer.

As a result, the cancerous cells divided more slowly, the findings published in the journal Breast Cancer  Targets and Therapy found.

It also allowed them to die in larger numbers, preventing the surviving cells to move as quickly - impairing their ability to spread around the body.

Capsaicin - responsible for the fiery sensation after consumption - also caused triple-negative cells to die in their masses

Lead author Professor Hanns Hatt said: 'If we could switch on the TRPV1 receptor with specific drugs, this might constitute a new treatment approach for this type of cancer.'

Capsaicin is known to provide temporarily relief of muscle or joint pain caused by strains, arthritis and bruising.

While previous research has also found it can help to kill other forms of cancer.

The compound was discovered by scientists, from the Indian Institute of Technology, to bind to cells' membranes - the protective outer shell.

But in high enough doses, it helped to pull the membrane apart, triggering cancerous cells to 'commit suicide'.

And in 2014, French physiologists found that men with a taste for spicy foods tend to have higher levels of testosterone.

They believed their findings were linked to well documented evidence that chilli peppers can increase levels of the hormones in rats.

believe that by eating hot curries, men may also be boosting their hormone levels as chili peppers have been shown to increase testosterone levels in rats.

Other studies have found that the chemical arvanil - with a chemical make-up similar to that of the capsaicin - was effective against brain tumours in mice.

However, because of its side effects, the substance is not approved for humans.
A headline on an article published on 16 June 2016 said that Malia Bouattia claimed that young Muslims are travelling to join ISIS in Syria due to cuts to education. It also said that Ms Bouattia has refused to condemn ISIS. The correct position is that Ms Bouattia claimed that young Muslims were travelling to join ISIS in Syria for reasons including Government cuts to education and mass unemployment, and Ms Bouattia has condemned ISIS. The article also said that Ms Bouattia's comments were condemned by 'student groups'. In fact, only one group was reported to have publicly condemned the comments. The group was Student Rights, who aim 'to protect the rights and freedoms of all students'. We are happy to clarify these points and apologise for any confusion caused.

To report an inaccuracy, please email corrections@mailonline.co.uk. To make a formal complaint under IPSO rules please go to www.mailonline.co.uk/readerseditor where you will find an easy-to-use complaints form. You can also write to Readers Editor, MailOnline, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or contact IPSO directly at ipso.co.uk
Two poverty-stricken women who put the lives of sick and injured animals before their own have been told their makeshift rescue shelters in Kerala will be bulldozed.

The women, called Ayesha and Amminiamma, care for a total of 100 animals at separate government-owned sites in Kodimatha in the Kottayam district which are being reclaimed as part of road expansion and bridge construction work.

A desperate campaign has now been launched to raise money to buy the two women - dubbed the 'Gems of Kerala' - a piece of land where they can merge their homes for unwanted animals and continue caring for cats and dogs.

Scroll down for video

Amminiamma is a 70-year-old widow and lives with her daughter who helps her look after the animals in their care, as well as her son who is suffering from cancer

Ayesha, 48, has been caring for animals at her shelter for the past 18 years

Having already put down a deposit on the land thanks to donors, NGO Friends of Animals Kottayam is now trying to raise more than Rs 951,000 ($14,000) to purchase the site.

But it has less than seven days left before the women and their animals are evicted, and just 18 per cent of the total amount needed has so far been raised.

That's despite celebrity TV anchor, actress and model, Ranjini Haridas, as well as Madu Iyer, Miss India International USA, supporting the campaign after being moved by the women's selfless dedication to helping street animals.

But both women's shanty shelters will be bulldozed to make way for a new road

Amminiamma works as a cleaner in a local garage but finds time to cook nearly 10 kilograms of rice every day for her animals

Madu, who is an active animal rights campaigner, features in the Friends of Animals Kottayam's fundraising video.

In it, she says Ayesha and Amminiamma are 'two amazing women' with a story of 'love and compassion for animals.

She continued: 'What you saw is their home - a ruined shelter under a bridge homing over 100 abandoned animals.

'They've been living under these conditions for well over a decade. Now they're getting evicted as the government owns the land and the roads are expanding.

TV anchor Ranjini Haridas has thrown her weight behind the cause, urging people to donate in the campaign video

There are about 100 animals, both dogs and cats, in the care of Ayesha and Amminiamma

But if the new site can't be purchased, all face being left homeless and back on the streets

'In this campaign we aim to raise funds to provide them with their new home and better living conditions to continue their selfless work and help more animals.'

Amminiamma is a 70-year-old widow and lives with her daughter who helps her look after the animals in their care, as well as her son who is suffering from cancer.

She was moved into action after witnessing the horror of street dog killings and has been taking care of abandoned or injured dogs and cats for 10 years.

She said: 'When I see others turn a blind eye I feel sad. No one fights for these animals. No one argues for their rights. If they get beaten or killed nobody questions on their behalf. That breaks my heart. My only regret is when I can't feed them.'

The spotlight has been thrown on Kerala's stray dogs this year after an increase in vigilante killings amid claims of attacks by the street animals

Ayesha's husband committed suicide earlier this year, leaving her with even less money - but she said her animals were a great support

Campaigners have less than a week to raise the funds to buy the women land so that they can merge their rescue operations continue to save animals

A spokesperson for Friends of Animals Kottayam, spearheaded by Dr Biju Prabhakarannair, said: 'Amminiamma works as a cleaner in a local garage, however finds time to cook nearly 10 kilograms of rice every day for her animals.'

Meanwhile, Ayesha, 48, has been doing the same for the past 18 years and has more than 50 animals in her care.

She lives with two daughters and two grandchildren, and lost her husband to suicide earlier this year. Her daughter's husband had earlier died in an accident.

She said: 'These animals are more caring and protective than humans. When I lost my husband these animals were here to protect me.'

The government owns the land where Ayesha's shelter is based and is reclaiming it for new road construction

Although conditions at the shelters are basic, both women try their hardest to ensure the animals are fed and watered - often putting them before their own welfare

The Friends of Animals Kottayam spokesperson said: 'In an age where people are finding new ways to bring about death to strays, in their own language of love these two women have set forth an example to us.

'In the small space by the side of the road that these two women live in, they rescue and look after close to 90 dogs.

'As part of road expansions and building of a new bridge at Kodimatha, these two women are on the verge of loosing whatever little land that they live in.'

Amminiamma said: 'When I see others turn a blind eye I feel sad. No one fights for these animals. No one argues for their rights. If they get beaten or killed nobody questions on their behalf. That breaks my heart. My only regret is when I can't feed them'

Animal welfare charities have condemned the recent mass killings of street dogs, which in one village at least saw the corpses of the dogs paraded through the streets

'If we can purchase this land, it would be sufficient to accommodate more dogs and authorise Ayesha and Amminiamma to take care of all the rescues. It can be a wonderful rescue shelter in Kerala.'

The spotlight has been thrown on Kerala's stray dogs this year after an increase in vigilante killings amid claims of attacks by the street animals.

But animal welfare charities have condemned the killings, which in one village at least saw the corpses of the dogs paraded through the streets.

They argue that the culls are not only 'barbaric' but are also futile in reducing the number of stray canines on the streets, and can even increase the risk of rabies.

Instead they promote sterilisation among the stray dog population, which is also supported by the government which ordered the vigilante groups to stop the culls.
A new wave of Uber-style apps matching India's domestic workers with employers could further entrench a culture of low wages and discrimination, despite bringing benefits for some housemaids.

That's according to a new study on the booming digital market which has come on the back of popular taxi-hailing apps such as Uber and home-grown Ola.

Domestic help in India is relatively cheap, and demand for cooks, cleaners and babysitters is soaring as incomes rise and more women work full-time.

Many of India's domestic workers, most of them women, are forced to work up to 18 hours a day and face dire living conditions, abuse and violence (photo for representation only)

But the workers, who are generally women, typically have little or no education, and the market is almost entirely unregulated, with no fixed wages, health insurance or benefits.

And now a research body in the UK has warned that mobile phone apps for domestic work won't help the situation, and even risks excluding society's poorest women who don't have smartphones.

'This 'Uberisation of domestic work' can offer some benefits, (but) it also risks further entrenching a culture of low incomes, insecurity and discrimination,' said the study by the UK's Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

A new wave of digital services are linking up domestic workers with employers

While on-demand technology can increase workers' access to opportunities, it is 'not automatically empowering, and there is a great risk that marginalised groups will remain excluded,' ODI said in the report released last week.

Women make up about 80 percent of an estimated 67 million domestic workers globally, according to ODI.

In India, many domestic workers, most of them women, are forced to work up to 18 hours a day and face dire living conditions, abuse and violence.

A typical middle-class Indian home may have a part-time cook and a part-time cleaner. Some households have a full-time worker, while wealthier households may have a live-in helper. They are typically hired by word of mouth.

Apps such as MyDidi, BookMyBai and TaskBob are matching maids to employers, promising to improve conditions and wages - but not everyone is convinced (photo for representation only)

A draft domestic workers' bill in 2015 had proposed a minimum salary of 9,000 rupees ($133) per month for skilled, full-time household help, along with benefits such as social security cover and mandatory time off. That bill was not passed.

On-demand domestic work companies including MyDidi (sister), BookMyBai (maid) and TaskBob say they are helping meet demand for reliable help, while also enabling workers to secure better wages and conditions.

'The workers are trained, they know what they are getting paid, they get regular hours and greater flexibility,' said Anupam Sinhal, co-founder of BookMyBai and NanoJobs.

But campaigners say there is no oversight of agencies working to match domestic workers with employers and complaints of exploitation, trafficking and enslavement abound.

On-demand services expanding by up to 60 percent month-on-month in India and a recent report has said they could add to the problems of low wages and discrimination (photo for representation only)

'There is no regulation or monitoring of agencies or these new companies that provide on-demand services,' said Shalini Sinha at WIEGO, a lobby group for informal women workers.

'Do they really ensure fair conditions for the workers? Do the workers get paid on time? What we need is a law to protect these women, and regulation and monitoring of these agencies.'

India's on-demand domestic work companies are expanding by up to 60 percent month-on-month, according to ODI.

The model is different from Uber's: BookMyBai gives workers on its payroll a fixed salary of 16,000 rupees ($235) a month, as well as health insurance and some benefits, regardless of how many hours they work, said Anupam Sinhal.

Domestic help in India is relatively cheap, and demand for cooks, cleaners and babysitters is soaring as incomes rise and more women work full-time (photo for representation only)

Also, it is the company that designates a maid to a household, as many workers don't have smartphones, he said.

More than half of India's domestic workers are illiterate, and few own smartphones or have bank accounts, making it harder for the women to navigate the platform themselves.

MyDidi opens a bank account for each worker, while another company sends a text message to the husband of the worker every time she is assigned a job, so he knows her whereabouts.

'The demand-supply gap is so huge, that we need these services to help address it,' Sinhal said.
The BJP-Akali Dal alliance has scored a landslide victory by winning 21 seats (BJP 20 , SAD 1) out of a possible 26 in the Chandigarh civic polls.

The Congress was hoping for a big win, but would claim just four seats. The BSP did not even win a single seat. One seat was won by an independent candidate.

The Chandigarh civic poll results have come as a major boost for the BJP-Shiromani Akali Dal alliance which is facing anti-incumbency in poll-bound Punjab.

The BJP-Akali Dal alliance has swept aside Congress and and BSP to claim a landslide victory by winning 21 seats out of a possible 26 in the Chandigarh civic polls

The alliance hopes that the civic poll results will have a positive impact in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh where Assembly elections are due next year.

'The demonetisation drive had no impact on the municipal elections.

'People voted for the clean image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi besides the development programmes initiated by the party,' Chandigarh BJP MP Kirron Kher told Mail Today.

BJP national president Amit Shah was personally supervising the civic polls

'The landslide victory shows that people are with BJP and its pro-people policies.

'These results will have a big impact on the forthcoming Assembly elections,' she added.

Usually civic polls are dominated by local issues. People do not vote for the councillors who do not work. But this time demonetisation was a major issue in the civic poll.

The opposition parties like the Congress painted a negative picture about the note ban, saying it has hit the common man and small traders who have been BJP supporters.

Congress had claimed that the party will win 15 seats, but the results proved it wrong.

The opposition parties like the Congress painted a negative picture about the note ban, saying it has hit the common man and small traders who have been BJP supporters

Interestingly, BJP leaders were also worried about the negative impact of note ban.

BJP national President Amit Shah was personally supervising the civic polls.

BCCI president and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur and Kirron Kher addressed several rallies and participated in door-to-door contact programmes.

'Demonetisation is for the common man. We told the people during the campaigning that they are going to benefit from it,' said Chandigarh BJP president Sanjay Tandon.

'The developmental works carried out by our party also won voters' confidence,' he added.

BJP president Shah said Chandigarh civic poll results together with other election results clearly speak that the people have approved the Prime Minister's decision on demonetisation.
Superseding two commanders-in-chief (C-in-C), Lt Gen Bipin Rawat has been appointed as the next Army chief.

The government has also approved the promotion of Air Marshal BS Dhanoa as the Chief of Air Staff.

Both of them will assume their new appointments when the present incumbents superannuate on December 31, 2016.

Superseding two commanders-in-chief (C-in-C), Lt Gen Bipin Rawat has been appointed as the next Army chief

The government order has given the go by to at least two long-standing traditions pertaining to senior military appointments.

One is an act of omission and the second may be termed as an act of commission.

Seniority

First, it has been customary for the government to announce the name of the new chief one to two months in advance.

This ensures that the chief-designate has sufficient time to acquaint himself with the complexities of ongoing operations and the challenges confronting military modernisation, especially when he has not had the opportunity to serve as a principal staff officer at the Army headquarters in Delhi.

Second, the principle of seniority has always been honoured by the government while appointing an Army chief and it is only the second time that the senior-most C-in-C has been superseded.

The first may be termed as a technical supersession.

In 1974, an extension was given to Army chief Gen GG Bewoor because of which Lt Gen Prem Bhagat, Victoria Cross, the senior-most C-in-C in the line of succession, retired.

It was generally believed that the government of the day, particularly the bureaucracy, did not like Gen Bhagat's outspoken manner and thought they would find it difficult to deal with him as the Army chief.

The second supersession was clearly intended as such when Lt Gen SK Sinha was superseded by Gen AS Vaidya in 1983.

An outstanding scholar-warrior, he too was known to be frank in expressing his views and was a strong votary of the welfare of the men under his command.

Gen Sinha later served with distinction as India's ambassador to Nepal and as the Governor of Assam and Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), both during difficult times.

Appointing a new chief of the Army, the Navy or the Air Force is a prerogative of the government and there cannot be a quarrel with this fundamental tenet of civilian control over the military.

The government may choose to appoint the next senior C-in-C to the post, as has mostly been the case in the past, or ignore the principle of seniority and choose the most suitable candidate among all the contenders.

Overlooked: Lieutenant General Bakshi

Criteria

However, unless objective criteria are laid down and studiously observed, the selection runs the risk of the politicisation of the senior leadership of the armed forces.

It will be an adverse development for the management of national security if senior military leaders begin to look over their shoulders to discern whether intended actions, for example in counterinsurgency operations, will have negative repercussions for one political party or another.

Or, if they deem it necessary to cultivate friends among political leaders.

The die has been cast and it is important that Gen Rawat begins with a clean slate.

As the head of perhaps the most potent instrument of the national will, a combat force that has held the nation together through many wars and insurgencies, Gen Rawat has his work cut out in this era of strategic uncertainty.

The new Army Chief will have to work with the government to successfully defeat Pakistan's war against India through asymmetric means, manage periodic tensions on the Line of Actual Control with China and continue to undertake effective counter-insurgency operations in J&K and the Northeast.

He will also need to improve the Army's preparedness for war, particularly the oft-reported inadequacy of ammunition.

Modernisation

In addition, he will have to devote his time and effort to the modernisation of the Army, which has been stagnating for a long time.

Of all responsibilities, modernisation needs the chief's personal backing. He will also need to pay attention to improving training standards and resolving personnel issues, such as the grievances regarding pay and allowances, which have been sapping morale.

One saving grace of the recent government announcement of new chiefs for the Army and the Air Force is the widespread speculation, particularly in the social media, that though Lt Gen Bakshi will not be the next Army chief, he may soon be appointed the first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).

Appointing a new chief of the Army, the Navy or the Air Force is a prerogative of the government and there cannot be a quarrel with this fundamental tenet of civilian control over the military

The post of CDS was approved by the Vajpayee government in 2001 but is yet to be established.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said on several occasions that he will soon send his recommendations for the appointment of CDS to the Cabinet Committee Security.

If this turns out to be true, it will be a welcome development. It is an idea whose time has come.

The writer is Distinguished Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi




Ranbir Kapoor is excited to soon start work on Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt's biopic, but says he finds himself undeserving of stepping into the shoes of the accomplished actor and enacting him on screen.

The biopic will be directed by Rajkumar Hirani and features Ranbir playing the Munna Bhai star.

'I am starting the shoot next month. It is a very difficult film. To represent Sanjay Dutt and work with Raju Hirani. I don't even think I deserve this film. But, I am looking forward to working on it,' the 34-year-old actor said.

The Rajkumar Hirani-directed biopic will feature Ranbir Kapoor as Sanjay Dutt

While the film has a lot of time before it releases on the big screen, Ranbir has another movie coming up sooner - Jagga Jasoos, which has been in the making for close to the last three years.

The film will release in April next year and its promo was out on Tuesday.

Sharing his excitement about the movie, which also casts Katrina Kaif, Ranbir said: 'Our dream of two-and-half years is coming true now. We are getting great response for the poster.

The film will depict the life of veteran Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt

'Anurag Basu, Pritam, Katrina and I have made this film with our heart and worked really hard on it. It is a family film and I wish people will like it.'

The actor interacted with the media on Monday night at the red carpet of Sansui Colors Stardust Awards, where he was nominated for his performance in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.

'I don't think I deserve to win this year. There have been superior performances than mine, Amitji's Pink, Salman Khan's Sultan, Sushant Singh Rajput's MS Dhoni: The Untold Story. They have given some wonderful performances and are far more deserving than I am,' he said.




Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Pravin Bakshi was leap-frogged for the top job

Amid the row over his sidestepping, Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Pravin Bakshi has met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar where he is believed to have registered his grudges on the issue with the government.

During the over 20 minutes meeting with the minister, the General spoke about the supersession issue and Parrikar gave him a patient hearing, sources have said.

Officers posted in the Eastern Command in Kolkata said the meeting was 'very good' and the minister's response was also similar.

This was the first time Parrikar had met Bakshi after the announcement of Lt Gen Bipin Rawat as the next chief of Army to succeed outgoing incumbent General Dalbir Singh.

There has also been speculation that he could resign after being overlooked for the top post.

Sources close to Bakshi, however, clarified that there was no such issue raised during the meeting. Soon after the meeting, Bakshi left back for Kolkata.

The last time an officer was superseded in the appointment of a new Army chief, he went on to resign.

That was Lt General SK Sinha, who put in his papers after the Indira Gandhi Congress government selected his junior General AS Vaidya to be the chief in 1983.

This was the first time Parrikar had met Bakshi after the announcement of Lt Gen Bipin Rawat as the next chief of Army to succeed outgoing incumbent General Dalbir Singh

Along with Bakshi, Southern Army commander Lt Gen PM Hariz has also been superseded by the government while favouring Rawat on the basis of his experience in counter-insurgency operations.

Rawat, an infantry soldier, was found best suited among other contenders to deal with challenges like cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and the situation with Pakistan, both areas which the government feels will be under focus for the next 2-3 years.

After the supersession, Bakshi has been attending his office and carrying out his daily duties.

Two days ago he had sought the meeting with defence minister and Parrikar also met him after returning from Goa on Wednesday afternoon. Parrikar was in Goa to campaign for the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

Rawat, an infantry soldier, was found best suited among other contenders to deal with challenges like cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and the situation with Pakistan

'It was a routine courtesy call and the meeting was sought by the senior Army commander,' a defence ministry official said.

Bakshi also met Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag after meeting Parrikar.

Singh is set to visit the Eastern Command in Kolkata shortly as part of his farewell tour. He will hang his boots on December 31.

In the rank-conscious Army, a large number of supersession takes place every year in the middle ranks and in some cases, certain officers continue to serve under their juniors.

However, at the senior ranks, individuals don't feel comfortable in doing so as they have to salute the higher rank. In the present case, the Army chief-designate Lt Gen Bipin Rawat had served under Bakshi as 3 Corps Commander when the latter was heading the Eastern Command.
State police and intelligence units need to probe 'local support' for acts of terror, says an internal army assessment report post the Nagrota terror strike of November 29.

The army has also ordered all formations within northern command and those bordering Pakistan in western and south western command to strengthen their perimeter security.

'Nagrota, Uri and Pathankot terror strikes were carried out by Pakistan-based terrorists but none were possible without local support to foreign terrorists,' says the assessment report.

Indian soldiers outside the army camp at Nagrota which was targetted last month

It calls upon the formations to innovate and put a multi-tier security grid in place.

With Pakistan backed terrorists increasingly targeting military camps and convoys, there is an urgent need to target the sleeper cells in India.

While the army expects local police and state intelligence units to investigate the role of local, overground workers (OGWs) of terror groups, a top officer who was privy to the report told Mail Today that local connection to terror was never investigated in the right earnest.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti paying tribute to Army men who were killed by militants in Nagrota attack

'The effort has been to brush it under the carpet and not raise uncomfortable questions about how terrorists reached camps and who gave them logistical support. This needs to be investigated in the right earnest putting national interest over political interest or shying away from asking hard questions,' he said.

Talking of the Nagrota strike where terrorists targeted an artillery regiment, the official said that the target was not randomly selected by Pakistan's ISI.

'SECURITY NEEDS TIGHTENING' Army has ordered all formations within northern command and those bordering Pakistan in western and south-western command to strengthen their perimeter security With Pakistan-backed terrorists increasingly targeting military camps and convoys an urgent need to target the sleeper cells in India has been felt Believing that local connection to terror was never probed in the right earnest, local police and state intelligence units are expected to investigate Need for investigations putting national interest over political interest, without shying away from difficult questions are stressed Advertisement

Two teams were launched - one to target the army and the second to target the Police Training camp at Vijaypur in Samba district.

Fortunately for the country, BSF spotted the second team of terrorists as they sneaked in through a rat hole (tunnel) in the Chamliyal sector.

The BSF engaged the terrorists and after a fierce fight the three terrorists were killed.

Sources confirmed that the gunmen, thought to be Pakistani terrorists, faced little resistance in entering the base due to a series of security loopholes and lapses

'Like in Uri, these terrorists were carrying a large amount of incendiary material, chain IEDs and grenades.

Their aim was to set the police training camp on fire and cause maximum damage.

The BSF neutralised them but the recovery of weapons and GPS system exposed 'Pakistan's ISI.

An Indian soldier takes position outside the army camp at Nagrota, where militants fired indiscriminately and triggered a fierce gun battle

These terrorists were launched by ISI's Maj Choudhary from Sialkot district in Pakistan,' sources in Jammu and Kashmir police told Mail Today.

While the BSF succeeded in isolating and killing three Pakistani terrorists in Chamliyal, the other group of terrorists infiltrated around November 27.

'Our assessment is that they stayed in Hiranagar area of Kathua district the next day (November 28). The overground worker network of terrorist groups needs to be identified and destroyed.

'The terrorists got into a White Tata Sumo and specifically moved to target the artillery regiment that had been hitting across the LoC post the Uri Terror attack (in September 2016),' sources added.

Army sources say local police and intelligence units have a better chance of nailing local support to foreign terrorists.
China has a Dream: to ensure economic prosperity, social stability, and a decent life to its citizens, but also to become a powerful nation; in fact it dreams to become one day the most powerful nation on the planet.

Military power will play a crucial role in the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

This explains the in-depth military reforms undertaken by President Xi Jinping a year ago. China is really serious about this.

Indian security forces march during the Republic Day parade in New Delhi

On December 5 in Beijing, President Xi Jinping, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) attended a two-day meeting during which he called for 'a smaller army with better combat capability and optimised structure.'

Warfare

Xi spoke about the informationised modern warfare and emphasised the importance of joint operations.

He called for readjusting and optimising the military's structure: 'new type of forces must be developed, the ratios between different types of forces must be rationalised, and the number and the scale of the military be downsized.'

This raises two important questions. While undertaking these reforms, has China not taken a too large bite, which is now difficult to chew?

The other question is: what does this mean for India? Xinhua remarked that December 2015 'marked a fresh start in the history of the Chinese Armed Forces, as the nation embarked on a long march of deepening military reform.'

On December 31, new services were created, namely, the PLA Army, the PLA Rocket Force and the PLA Strategic Support Force and a few weeks later, the seven erstwhile Military Regions were regrouped into five PLA Theater Commands.

Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar has some tough decisions to make about Army reform

The creation of a PLA Strategic Support Force is a plunge into the future as it will deal with cyber and space warfare, probably the keys of tomorrow's conflicts.

But changing mindsets and controlling vested interests is not an easy proposition. Peter Wood, the Editor of the China Brief of the Jamestown Foundation noted that Chinese publications 'calling for the PLA to 'cast off' old concepts about the predominance of the Ground Forces are further indication that the transition has not gone smoothly.'

Regarding India: it is high time India undertakes reforms, in which the role of the ground forces (Indian Army) need to be rebalanced with the Navy and the Air Force, giving a greater role to 'informationised warfare'.

There are other issues which need to be reviewed: take for example the appointment of a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).

In December 2015, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said that the post of CDS 'could be a reality soon'.

He then added that the Prime Minister 'marked defence reforms as a priority and stressed that 'jointness at the top' was a need long overdue.'

Apathy

The CDS would coordinate between the three services, the strategic command responsible for the nuclear weapons and one day, the cyber and space commands.

The creation of a post of CDS was already recommended by a Group of Ministers in 2001.

But what happened since then? Practically nothing.

Another example of the apathy of the Indian system is the Indian National Defence University (INDU).

Planned since decades, the government finally approved the setting up of the INDU at an estimated cost of 2.95 billion in Haryana in 2010.

On the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2013, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, the then chairman of the chiefs of staff committee asserted that 'India needs military leaders who can critically analyse, demonstrate professional acumen and are capable of meeting the threats and challenges at the tactical, operational and strategic levels.'

What has happened to the INDU? Lost in the corridors of South Block? In the meantime, Kanwa Asian Defense, a Chinese-language publication reported that China's military build-up is coming closer to India.

Lieutenant General Bipin Rawat leap-frogged two superior officers to become India's new army chief

Acumen

Beijing's military would have placed more missiles and fighter jets along the Indian border: 'The weapons have been deployed in Tibet and in the western region of Xinjiang along with airborne early warning and control systems.'

Kanwa said that Chinese troops have placed the J-11, the J-10 and the Kongjing-500 (airborne early warning and control or AEW&C aircraft) in rotational deployment.

The Shenyang J-11 is a twin-engine jet fighter, developed to compete with fourth-generation fighters.

On December 3, 2016, a PLA website showed pictures of airmen 'assigned to an aviation regiment under the PLA Western Theater Command performing flight checks on a J-11 fighter jet prior to a round-the-clock flight training exercise under realistic combat environment at a military airfield.'

The airport is located near the Indian border. Kanwa also said that in Korla (Xinjiang), China may have deployed troops for the launch of midrange ballistic missiles and in Hotan, north of the Aksai Chin, J-10 and H-6K strategic bomber would have been spotted.
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An 18-member Russian delegation arrived in Ankara on Tuesday to investigate the assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, local media reported.

A man places a wreath of flowers in front of the Russian Embassy in Ankara on December 20, 2016, a day after the Russian Ambassador to Turkey was killed by a gunman. [Photo/Xinhua]

The team, including one prosecutor and two defense attaches, will investigate the incident together with Turkish officials, private NTV reported.

The plane, which is expected to depart from Ankara Esenboga Airport on Tuesday afternoon, will take Karlov's body to Moscow after the accomplishment of procedures by Turkish and Russian authorities.

A ceremony is planned to take place at the airport to bid farewell to Karlov.

Meanwhile, Turkish police has arrested seven people over the Russian envoy's murder so far.

After six relatives and the roommate of Mevlut Mert Altintas, the assassin, were arrested early Tuesday, his uncle was released on judicial control.

Earlier, Altintas' parents, sister, and two other relatives were arrested in the southwestern province of Aydin.

On Monday, the Russian ambassador was delivering a speech at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in Ankara's central Cankaya district when Altintas opened fire, critically wounding him.

Karlov was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
FRIDAY FEELING Shoppers splashing out on Black Friday bargains have driven retail sales to grow at their fastest rate in more than a year, said the Confederation of British Industry.

The trade body said sales in the last week of November and the first two weeks of December grew at the fastest pace since September 2015.

More than half of retailers said sales volumes were up, while 16 per cent said they were down.

ESTATE DEAL Savills Investment Management has bought an industrial estate in London for 8million in a vote of confidence in the property market.

The property fund has snapped up Progress Business Park in Croydon from Westbrook Partners.

Average rents at the estate are 13.80 per square foot although the latest letting was at over 20 per square foot.

COURT DELAY The latest court hearing in the battle between Avocet Mining and ex-workers has been postponed.

The company will now have to wait at least two weeks for the hearing on the legality of workers' seizure of gold from the Inata mine in Burkina Faso in a dispute over pay.

STORES SALE The sale of 298 Co-op stores to McColl's has been given the green light by the competitions regulator.

The 117million deal needed to win the approval of the Competitions and Markets Authority because it now means McColl's will own 1,300 convenience stores across the UK.

ROADS CONTRACT Construction group Kier has been awarded a 140million contract to repair roads in Cumbria and north Lancashire.

The 15-year deal from Government-owned Highways England includes emergency incident response and traffic management.

RAC SHAKE-UP RAC boss Chris Woodhouse is leaving the roadside recovery firm in the new year after a shake-up of the company's ownership.

He will be succeeded by Dave Hobday of payments processing group Worldpay.

BASRA BOOST An oil field in southern Iraq part operated by BP is producing at its highest rate in 27 years.

The Rumaila oil field in Basra is pumping out 1.45m barrels per day, up from one million in 2009, BP said.

INFORMANTS PAID Snitches who blew the whistle on tax evasion were paid 460,000 by HMRC in the year to April, according to City law firm RPC.

The cash was doled out to reward information on tax dodgers.

CAR TAKEOVER Vintage car lending firm Renaissance Asset Finance is being bought by Arbuthnot Banking Group for up to 8.1million. Renaissance made profits of 2.4million in the year to June 30.
The UK must avoid a 'cliff-edge' break from the EU, the Confederation of British Industry business lobby group warns.

Businesses in every sector have 'serious concerns' the UK will leave the EU without a 'fully ironed out' trade deal, the CBI said.

The lobby group said any re-configured migration system has to allow businesses access to the 'skills and labour they need to deliver growth.'

What's the deal? The UK must avoid a 'cliff-edge' break from the EU, the Confederation of British Industry business lobby group warns

The employers' organisation said the UK's new relationship with the EU should be tariff-free with 'minimal' non-tariff barriers across all sectors.

'There are some companies for whom avoiding high tariffs on their goods trade is critical and others who prioritise avoiding non-tariff barriers to trade, particularly around services', the CBI said.

It added: 'Critically, it is clear that, for the UK's modern, interdependent economy, additional barriers to any sector's trade will be detrimental to other sectors.'

On migration, the CBI said there is a 'whole-economy' need for labour from abroad in the UK.

TOP 6 'MUST HAVES' FOR UK BUSINESSES AFTER BREXIT According to the CBI, this is what UK businesses want after Britain leaves the EU: 1. A 'barrier-free' trade relationship with the EU 2. A clear plan for regulation in the short term and the long term 3. A migration system allowing UK businesses to 'access the skills and labour they need to develop growth' 4. A renewed focus on 'global economic relationships' 5. An approach that 'protects the social and economic benefits of EU funding' 6. A smooth exit from the EU, avoiding a 'cliff-edge' disruptive break Source: CBI

The lobby group said sectors like construction, hospitality, leisure and tourism rely on overseas workers to keep their businesses going.

Calling for 'urgent guarantees that EU workers in the UK can stay in the country, the CBI said access to workers abroad had been 'part of the solution' to support economic growth.'

Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the CBI, said: 'Leaving the EU will be a highly complex process, and all sectors of the economy are making their priorities clear in order to get it right.

'The Government will need to take a "whole economy" approach to avoid leaving sectors behind.'

Earlier this year, construction group JCB left the CBI, reportedly because of its anti-Brexit stance.

Prime Minister Theresa May plans to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty by the end of March 2017.

The process could take up to two years, and if necessary, even longer if an agreement is made to prolong it.

In a speech on Brexit in the new year, May has promised to set out her plans for a 'truly global' post-Brexit Britain.

Crunch time: Prime Minister Theresa May plans to invoke Article 50 by the end of March 2017

Options explained: HSBC's economics team set out what the varying degrees of separation from the EU will entail for trade, EU budget contributions, regulation and immigration.

WHAT ARE TRADE TARIFFS? In the world of trade, a tariff is like a tax. Companies wanting to export their goods into other countries often have to pay a 'tariff' to move them over. Other 'non-tariff barriers' can also be imposed on companies, making it harder for them to sell their goods elsewhere. Examples of non-tariff barriers include product standards or quotas.

As outlined in HSBC's table above, a 'soft' exit from the EU would resemble something similar to the example in Norway.

Meanwhile, a 'hard' Brexit would mean the UK had a relationship with the EU akin to a country like Canada, a non-European nation.

A 'hard' Brexit deal similar to Canada's would mean Britain no longer had access to the EU's single market, meaning more tariffs, customs checks and proof of origin certificates could be required for goods leaving the UK.
Zhang Yufen leads a busy life.

Every day, dozens of desperate wives call her from around China for help. All of them have one thing in common - they want to find out who is having an affair with their husband.

As a professional 'mistress hunter', Zhang, a Xi'an native, helps her clients collect evidence of their husbands' suspected adultery and - in some extreme cases - leads her colleagues to punish the mistresses.

'A mistress deserves to be beaten,' Zhang said in an interview with MailOnline. 'You have to strip off her pants first so that she couldn't run away.'

China's 'No.1 female detective': Zhang Yufen has caught thousands of mistresses in 20 years

Zhang devotes her life to exposing adulterous lovers and bringing justice to 'unfairly treated wives'.

In the past two decades, the woman, in her late 50s, has helped more than 200,000 Chinese women deal with their marriage crises.

The police saw me. I explained to them she was a mistress. Then several police cars of officers pretended they did not see what happened, so I carried on beating the woman. Zhang Yufen, China's 'mistress hunter'

Moreover, she has caught thousands of mistresses, or 'shameless home wreckers' as Zhang calls them.

'They are the culprits who destroy other people's families,' said Zhang, who talks with a northern Chinese accent.

She told MailOnline. 'My ultimate goal is to help lawful wives seek justice and release anger.'

One of her most high-profile clients was the wife of Long Jing, the former deputy director of the Shanghai Railway Bureau.

In 2014, she helped the woman find out that her husband had been keeping 17 mistresses, and the shocking discovery later led Mr Long to be fired from his powerful position.

According to media reports at the time, Mr Long had allegedly had 47 lovers, but Zhang said she and her colleagues had managed to find evidence of 17 of them.

The woman, from Xi'an, devotes her life to exposing mistresses, or 'shameless home wreckers'

Zhang also helped organise the national 'anti-mistresses' conferences in China. Participants were pictured during the conference in 2009

Zhang used to help clients beat mistresses. She would strip them and arrange the scene to be recorded.

She said: '[I want] them to be filmed when they were completely naked.'

But now Zhang has almost stopped the service as 'they are too many surveillance cameras on the streets'.

After a pause, she recalled: 'There was one time I was beating a mistress near the northern gate in Xi'an.

'The police saw me. I explained to them she was a mistress. Then several police cars of officers pretended they did not see what happened, so I carried on beating the woman.'

After many years of running China's first 'mistress-hunting agency', Zhang has been hailed as the 'mistress killer' and the 'No.1 female detective' of the country whose name alone would scare married men from committing infidelity.

Most of her colleagues were middle-aged women too and had been cheated on by their husbands. Together, they formed a formidable team that no men would want to deal with in China.

These determined women have even organised a national 'anti-mistresses' conference, where frustrated and scorned wives got together to comfort each other, condemn adulterous lovers and come up with strategies.

Zhang and her volunteer friends have established the 'Moon Bay Emotional Shelter' in Beijing

The organisation provides temporary accommodation to those who are facing marital crises

Zhang said they had successfully held two such conferences and were expecting to set up the third one.

Zhang and her volunteer friends have also established the 'Moon Bay Emotional Shelter' in Beijing, which offers emotional and legal help to troubled wives.

They provide temporary accommodation to the women who have no place to call home facing marital difficulties.

She has also established a singing and dancing troupe with her 'sisters' to enrich their social lives.

Zhang said her husband cheated on her 20 years ago after meeting an 'escort girl'. Above, the couple were pictured together during their happy days. They officially divorced in 2007

Zhang's unusual business is the result of a bitter chapter of her own life.

The year 1996, when she started hunting for mistresses, was the year when she was cheated on by her husband of 16 years. The first mistress she tried to track down was the woman who 'lured my husband'.

Zhang said her husband had been a civil servant working for the Chinese national tax bureau. He had got to know an 'escort girl' through work.

A mistress deserves to be beaten. You have to strip off their pants first so that she couldn't run away. Zhang Yufen, China's 'mistress hunter'

Her husband, who was then 38, had taken in the woman, then 32, as a mistress and the pair started living together, claimed Zhang. Soon, her husband wanted a divorce from her.

Zhang, also 38 at the time, was determined to sue her husband for bigamy.

In the next 10 years, she taught herself many detective skills in order to collect evidence needed for her lawsuit.

She filed 10 applications of to the court, but none of them succeeded due to 'red tape, bureaucracy and lack of legal support', according to her blog.

In 2007, a court in Zhang's native Shaanxi Province granted her a divorce - 11 years after her husband left her - but the judge did not support her claim of a bigamy against her husband.

Although the result was disappointing to Zhang, she had become a famous figure in China by that time for her 'mistress-hunting agency' and her absolute hatred towards unfaithful husbands and their mistresses.

The outspoken woman was featured by numerous media. Wives from around the China contacted her from guidance and help.

CHINA'S BATTLE OF MISTRESSES In ancient China, it was common for a man to keep more than one wives as it was a sign of a prosperous big family. Until 1949, when the Communist Party took over the country, such traditional could still be observed in some families of China. During the hard-core Communist ruling in the following 40 years or so, polygamy was strictly forbidden by law. However, as the society got wealthier and more open-minded in recently years, ex-marital affairs have emerged as a social issue. In fact, mistresses, or known as 'the little third' or 'the second housewife', have become an unavoidable topic in today's Chinese society. According to a report released by All-China Women's Federation in 2014, ex-marital affairs are the number one cause of divorces in China. Nearly 75 per cent of couples ended their marriage because of unfaithful partners. The same report also highlighted that only 30 per cent of the affair victims went through a divorce - the rest 70 per cent chose to put up with the situation. The video above is sourced from Chinese social media and is not related to Zhang Yufen. Advertisement

Zhang has established a singing and dancing troupe with her 'sisters' to enrich social lives

'The men who are most likely to have affairs in today's are government officials and civil servants,' Zhang explained.

'Having a mistress is almost like a fashionable trend and it is getting more and more popular.'

Zhang said she could not release us any footage of their operations due to confidentiality reasons.

But similar videos showing mistresses being stripped and beaten by scorn wives can be found on a daily basis on Chinese social media. All of them are popular with web users.

There are even accounts, such as 'affair-busting series', specialised in releasing such 'mistress-catching' footage on Weibo.

Although the article 46 of the Chinese Marriage Law states that if a married person commits infidelity, his or her partner has the right to seek compensation during the divorce.

Zhang and her friends formed a formidable team that no men would want to deal with in China

But in real life, it is extremely difficult for the victims to do so, according to Zhang, because 'collecting evidence is an obstacle that few bare-handed wives could overcome'.

As a result, the victims have to put up with an unhappy marriage or accept an unfair divorce.

Zhang said because corruption and the abuse of power by officials were common in China, to deal with the issue of mistresses in today's China would require a tip-to-toe reform.
A 15-year-old girl suffocated to death after being forced to stay in a poorly ventilated shed because she was menstruating.

She died in an age-old Hindu practice banned over a decade ago, police in western Nepal said yesterday.

Roshani Tiruwa's body was discovered by her father early on Sunday in mud-and-stone hut in Gajra village in Achham district, 275 miles west of Kathmandu.

The practice of the 'Chhaupadi system' has been banned in Nepal for the past decade

'While we are waiting for the post-mortem report for the cause of her death, we believe she died due to suffocation,' Police Inspector Badri Prasad Dhakal told Reuters by phone from Sanfebagar, the main town in the area.

'She had lit a fire to keep herself warm before going to bed in the shed which had no ventilation,' he added.

The teenager is the second to die in the region this month due to 'Chhaupadi system' - a practice where Hindus banish menstruating girls and women to animal sheds for the duration of their period as they are thought to be impure.

Roshani Tiruwa's body was discovered by her father early on Sunday in mud-and-stone hut in Gajra village in Achham district, 275 miles west of Kathmandu

It was outlawed in 2005, but sporadic reports of women and girls dying in attacks by wild animals and from snake bites, or being raped while they are in seclusion in these sheds, indicate the archaic practice still continues in Nepal's remote west.

Some communities believe they will suffer misfortune such as a natural disaster if women and girls are not sent into isolation when they menstruate. They are also not permitted to drink milk and are given less food to eat during their period.

Activists say the government's response to stamp out practices such as the Chhaupadi system and child marriage in the Himalayan nation has been inadequate. But officials say they are battling age-old attitudes which cannot be changed overnight.

Young girls are forced into isolation when they menstruate in Nepal in a practice which has been banned (Stock picture)

'We have launched different schemes but quickly removing practices that are deep-rooted in the society is difficult,' said Binita Bhattarai, an official from Women and Child Welfare ministry.
Donald Trump's two older sons will not be participating in a hunting trip that was originally billed as a charity fundraiser for donors willing to pay up to $1million, the president-elect's transition team said.

The announcement came as the Trump family has been on the receiving end of widespread media criticism over the trip as well as an auctioned coffee date with Ivanka Trump that was also canceled.

The Trump family is being accused of compromising their ethics by essentially offering wealthy donors the chance to gain access to the next president.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Trump's transition threw cold water on the planned hunting trip with Eric Trump and his brother, Donald Trump Jr.

President-elect Donald Trump's (above) transition team announced on Tuesday that his two adult sons will not be participating in a fundraising hunting expedition

The transition team said that the plans for the trip were merely 'initial concepts.'

'The Opening Day event and details that have been reported are merely initial concepts that have not been approved or pursued by the Trump family,' spokeswoman Hope Hicks said.

While Hicks acknowledged that the two sons are 'avid outdoorsmen and supporters of conservation efforts,' they are not involved 'in any capacity.'

'Additionally, the president-elect is not aware of the event or the details pertaining to it.'

The initial furor erupted last week when it was learned that Eric and Donald Trump Jr. were hosting a fundraiser the day after the inauguration titled 'Opening Day.'

Eric Trump (left) and Donald Trump Jr. (right) had invited donors on a hunting excursion the day after their father's inauguration

Eric and Donald Jr. are avid outdoorsmen who enjoy hunting. Here they are pictured with the carcass of a dead animal

For $1million, the top package offers a photo opportunity with President Trump for up to 16 people and a multi-day hunting or fishing trip with one or both of the Trump sons.

Along with the event full of rich donors, Toby Keith, Alabama and other 'surprise entertainers' will be performing at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington DC on Saturday, January 21.

Opening Day is described as a chance to 'play a significant role' as the Trump family honors the billionaire's inauguration by celebrating 'the great American tradition of outdoor sporting, shooting, fishing and conservation.'

The attire for the fundraiser is described as 'camouflage and cufflinks... jeans, boots and hats are welcome' and all proceeds will go to conservation charities.

The Trump team also canceled a planned coffee date with Ivanka Trump that it auctioned off to the highest bidder (above)

The invitation for the fundraiser was first obtained by TMZ.

It was later learned that the donations to Opening Day would have gone to a newly formed non-profit known as Opening Day Foundation, which names Trump's two adult sons as directors.

News of the Trump children's involvement in the non-profit was first reported by The Center for Public Integrity.

The public backlash against the Trump family also forced the cancellation of an auction in which one lucky bidder would have been able to meet Ivanka Trump in person for coffee.

The Trump children - Eric Trump (second from left), Ivanka Trump (third from left), Donald Jr. (third from right), and Tiffany Trump (second from right) - are seen at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 19. They have played an active role in the transition team

Eric Trump canceled the coffee with Ivanka after The New York Times reported that some of the bidders were doing so to gain insight about the Trump administration.

The auction had raised $70,000 before it was shut down, The Hill reported.

Trump's children have played a prominent role in their father's campaign as well as his transition, raising questions among critics about perceived conflicts of interest.

After his election victory, Ivanka Trump sat in on a meeting between her father and the prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, at Trump Tower in New York.
When the killers of Rebels bikie member Mark Easter, 37, dumped his body in remote bush they had no idea hidden cameras were recording them.

The Sydney outlaw motorcycle gang sergeant at arms' body was left in bush off the Pacific Highway near Cowan, north of the city in the early hours of June 26, 2015.

But those driving the van allegedly used to get rid of the body weren't aware of cameras set up to catch people illegally dumping rubbish in the area, The Daily Telegraph reported.

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Slain Rebels bikie gang sergeant-at-arms, Mark Easter, who was killed in June 2015. Here he is pictured with partner Biancha Simpson

A white van allegedly used to dump the body of Rebels bikie gang member Mark Easter in bush off the Pacific Highway north of Sydney. This image was taken by a hidden camera at 3.27am on June 26, 2015

Seven minutes after the first image - at 3.34am - this picture of the van travelling in the opposite direction was captured by the camera

Easter and his partner, Biancha Simpson, pictured together

A camera took images of a van travelling into the bush at 3.27am and leaving at 3.34am.

It's alleged during the seven minutes between the images, Easter's body was dumped.

Council workers found his body later on June 26, full of bullets, no effort made to hide it, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Earlier in 2016, police released video of a white van they believed was linked to Easter's death and images of two men they believed could assist investigations.

An image from CCTV released by police earlier in 2016 showing a van they believed could help them with the investigation into Easter's death

And in November, police arrested nine men whom they were questioning over gangland slaying in Sydney - including the death of assassin Pasquale Barbaro, who was gunned down in November.

One of those was Abuzar Sultani, a senior member of the Rebels, who was also questioned about Easter's death.

It comes as police investigate other unsolved deaths of Sydney underworld figures as well as Easter's, including that of fellow Rebels member Michael 'Ruthless' Davey, Comanchero associate Mehmet Yilma.

Police believe the killings were conducted in similar manners including the cars used, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Argentina and Britain have agreed to identify the bodies of 123 Argentine soldiers buried on the Falkland Islands, it has emerged.

The two countries, which went to war over the islands in 1982 and have had strained relations for decades, also agreed to try to increase the number of flights to the remote islands.

Britain has been keen to improve relations with Argentina since pro-business President Mauricio Macri took over from Cristina Fernandez in December, although Argentina continues to claim sovereignty over the islands.

Argentina and Britain have agreed to identify the bodies of 123 Argentine soldiers buried on the Falkland Islands, it has emerged (file picture)

Under the agreement signed by British Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan and Argentina's Vice Foreign Minister Pedro Delgado, forensic experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross will take DNA samples from the soldiers' bodies.

They will then compare the DNA with that of consenting relatives, the statement said.

There are 123 unknown soldiers buried in the Falkland Islands, though not all families of the deceased have given consent for DNA testing.

More than 600 Argentines and 255 British servicemen were killed after Argentina seized the islands and Britain sent a task force to retake them, sparking the conflict.

The two countries, which went to war over the islands in 1982 and have had strained relations for decades, also agreed to try to increase the number of flights to the remote islands

Both countries also agreed to consult with airport authorities in Brazil and Chile to link more flights to the islands, located about 435 miles off the coast of southern Argentina.

The overwhelming majority of the islands' 3,000 inhabitants say they want the islands to remain a British overseas territory.

Only one monthly flight reaches the Falkland Islands currently, departing from Chile with a stop in the Patagonian city of Rio Gallegos.
The third person accused of smuggling $31 million worth of cocaine into Australia on a luxury cruise ship has been committed to stand trial early next year.

French Canadian woman Melina Roberge, 23, pleaded not guilty to commercial drug importation charges at her committal hearing at Central Local Court in Sydney last week, which was adjourned.

Dressed in a red jacket, Roberge sat alone in the dock and sobbed loudly throughout the remainder of the brief hearing on Wednesday. She visibly shook and constantly wiped away tears as the decision was made.

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Melina Roberge, 23, is accused of helping to smuggle $31million of cocaine into Australia on board a luxury cruise ship

Roberge, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, sobbed loudly in court on Wednesday as she was ordered to stand trial next year

Magistrate Robert Williams said there was a 'strong circumstantial case' against the accused.

Before the court proceedings began, Roberge grabbed the hand of her defence counsel through the bars of the dock to try and help compose herself.

The court was told Roberge, her friend Isabelle Lagace, 28, and a man Andre Famine, 63, were travelling together on board the Sea Princess luxury liner, which docked in Sydney Harbour on August 28.

'It is clear there was a large quantity of the substance which appeared to be in the room shared by Ms Lagace and Ms Roberge,' Magistrate Williams said.

A large quantity of cocaine was found on board the Sea Princess luxury liner, which docked in Sydney on August 28, in a room Roberge (pictured) shared with Isabelle Lagace, 28

Andre Famine, Roberge and Isabelle Lagace are pictured at their committal hearings last Friday

'It is highly improbable that a person other than the defendant Ms Roberge or Ms Lagace would have stored the items in the suitcase under the bed.'

Australian Federal Police allegedly found a stash of drugs locked in suitcases, in what was the largest bust of its kind on board a cruise ship.

Lagace, a former porn model, earlier pleaded guilty to the charges and will be sentenced early next year.

Tamine waived his right to a committal hearing last Friday. He will also stand trial in the NSW District Court on February 3, 2017.

Melina Roberge is pictured left, Isabelle Lagace is pictured right

Lagace, 28, has previously fronted court last month for her alleged involvement in a cocaine smuggling ring

The court was told Lagace and Roberge were in Cabin 312 on the ship along with a suitcase holding 29kg of a total $31m haul.

In another cabin, the third co-accused Tamine allegedly had up to 70kg in three suitcases.

The court heard last Friday that seven people in all were involved in the smuggling operation - four men were also on board the cruise ship in cabins 706 and 715.

At the beginning of the committal hearing last Friday, the three accused sat side by side in the dock.

Roberge in a white top and Lagace in a red one, sat passively through the hearing. Both dabbed a tissue to their eyes throughout.

The grey-haired Tamine wore a green jumper and sat silently to the side of the two women, avoiding eye contact.

Roberge is pictured left and Lagace is pictured right during their luxury cruise that ended in Sydney

Last Wednesday, Lagace appeared at Sydney's Central Local Court via video link from Silverwater women's jail wearing a dark green prison jumpsuit.

She remained composed throughout the brief appearance last week. She spoke only three words - 'yes' and 'thank you'.

Lagace was holidaying on the MS Sea Princess when US and Australian police co-ordinated an operation to track her.

Australian Border Force Commander Tim Fitzgerald has alleged 35 kilograms of cocaine were found her cabin after the ship docked in Sydney Harbour.

She was charged with importing a commercial quantity of cocaine and remains in custody.

Lagace has pleaded guilty to smuggling $31 million worth of cocaine into Australia

Lagace posted an image of her on a beach in Tahiti with the caption 'collect moments, not things'

The maximum penalty for the charge is life imprisonment.

The young woman's social media accounts showed her having the time of their life in the months leading up to their arrest.

Lagace also posted pictures on Facebook showing off her toned body and the exotic locations she travelled to before the arrest.

She visited Colombia, French Polynesia Chile, Peru and New Zealand.

Police said Lagace had been identified by the United States border control agencies of Canada as a high-risk traveller and suspected of being part of an international drug trafficking cartel.

Lagace will be sentenced next year.

Magistrate Robert Williams adjourned Friday's committal hearing for Roberge until December 21.

Famine will stand trial in the NSW District Court on February 3, 2107.
Members of a suspected British ISIS terror cell arrested last week might have links to the organisers of the Berlin Christmas market massacre, it was claimed last night.

The five men and one woman arrested in dawn raids could have been groomed by the ISIS commanders behind the attack, which claimed 12 lives and wounded 48, the Sun reported.

Sources last week said the group may have been planning to bomb a shopping centre in the run up to Christmas in a plot linked to 'international-related terrorism'.

Six people were arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences in a series of morning raids across England. Police are pictured in a street in Derby where some of the arrests took place

Will the lorry killer strike again? Police and the security services are hunting for the Christmas market killer and admit a second terror attack could be imminent

Four men from Derby aged 22, 27, 35 and 36, a 27-year-old man from Burton upon Trent and a 32-year-old woman from London were all arrested on suspicion of engaging in the preparation of an act of terrorism.

The Sun reported the suspects might have been in contact with ISIS leaders operating out of Syria.

The terror group last night claimed responsibility for the fatal attack in the crowded city centre and hailed the killer lorry driver - who is still at large - as a 'soldier'.

A US security source told the Sun there was evidence UK suspects were being 'directed by an IS external operations group based out of Aleppo in Syria'.

The source added there was evidence a UK group was being prepared to launch a 'relatively small "exploratory attack" in co-ordination with other European IS cells to test and stretch security responses'.

Carnage: The lorry used to kill a dozen people in Berlin last night was towed away from the scene as a 23-year-old asylum seeker was being interrogated

Close up: The shattered glass on the windshield of a truck the morning after it ploughed through the Christmas market

Brutal: White powder used to soak up blood left by the dead - one witness described a 'rivers of blood' running through the market

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) lays white roses at the blood-stained scene in Berlin amid fears a killer may still be on the loose

Just half an hour after the Berlin atrocity, ISIS supporters used an encrypted messaging service to call for more attacks, it emerged yesterday.

A German-speaking fanatic reportedly urged members of the terror group to carry out a repeat of the mass killing using tactics 'the enemy can never stop'.

German newspaper Bild reported that an ISIS follower had used Telegram to tell fellow extremists: 'You need nothing more than a car... and then a proper intention and a Kuffar crowd.'
Carter is accused of sending him text messages encouraging him to kill himself

Roy, who was 18 years old died of carbon monoxide

The Massachusetts woman who is accused of sending her boyfriend text messages encouraging him to kill himself, will stand trial in March for her role in his death.

A judge set March 6 as the trial date for Michelle Carter, 20, who is charged with manslaughter in the 2014 death of Conrad Roy III.

Roy, who was 18 years old, died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

A judge set March 6 as the trial date for Michelle Carter (left and right in court Monday), 20, who is charged with manslaughter in the 2014 death of Conrad Roy III

Carter's defense attorney, Joseph Cataldo (right), told Taunton Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz that a March date is too soon and that he needs until April or May to properly prepare

Carter's defense attorney, Joseph Cataldo, told Taunton Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz that a March date is too soon and that he needs until April or May to properly prepare, the Boston Herald reported.

'Oh, that's not happening. That's not happening,' Moniz said in a hearing on Monday.

'We're not going to put it out that far.'

During the pretrial hearing Monday, the judge granted a request from Carter's lawyer for funds to hire an expert to examine an antidepressant both Carter and Roy were taking at the time of his death.

The judge initially rejected the request earlier this month.

But Carter's attorney said the drug Celexa could be a key to Carter's defense because it can increase suicidal thoughts.

Moniz reversed himself after Cataldo offered more information on the drug.

'I think it's relevant, but it will be up to the judge to determine whether a jury should know about that,' Cataldo told the Herald.

Cataldo also wants to look at evidence of domestic abuse within Roy's family.

In the 2014 incident, prosecutors say Carter, then 17, had sent Conrad Roy III (left) dozens of messages urging him to follow through on his suicide plan. A coroner ruled he died of carbon monoxide poisoning. His mother, Lynn Roy (right) also appeared in court on Monday

Roy's (pictured) body was found in his pickup truck in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Police found a gasoline-operate water pump in the back seat of the truck after he died. He was 18 years old

In October, a recording of Carter's first police interview after Roy's death was played in court as her lawyers argued why it should not be played during the trial. Carter is seen walking out of the court with her parents, David (center) and Gail (left)

In the 2014 incident, prosecutors say Carter, then 17, had sent him dozens of messages urging him to follow through on his suicide plan.

Roy's body was found in his pickup truck in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

Police found a gasoline-operate water pump in the back seat of the truck after he died. A coroner later ruled he died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

In October, a recording of Carter's first police interview after Roy's death was played in court as her lawyers argued why it should not be played during the trial.

'I told him I loved him,' Carter said during a recorded interview with detectives at King Philip High School, the school she attended at the time, The Boston Herald reported.

'I told him a lot of people loved him ... I told him he should come with me and get the help he needed.'

'IT'S NOW OR NEVER': MICHELLE CARTER'S MESSAGES TO CONRAD ROY Prosecutors say Michelle Carter sent her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, dozens of text messages urging him to take his own life. Carter's lawyer argues that she tried repeatedly to talk him out of it and only began to support the plan when it became clear he would not change his mind. Here are excerpts from their text exchanges, with messages cited by her lawyer first, followed by those cited by prosecutors: June 29, 2014: Carter: 'But the mental hospital would help you. I know you don't think it would but I'm telling you, if you give them a chance, they can save your life' Carter: 'Part of me wants you to try something and fail just so you can get help' Roy: 'It doesn't help. trust me' Carter: 'So what are you gonna do then? Keep being all talk and no action and everyday go thru saying how badly you wanna kill yourself? Or are you gonna try to get better?' Roy: 'I can't get better I already made my decision.' July 7, 2014: Roy: 'if you were in my position. honestly what would you do' Carter: 'I would get help. That's just me tho. When I have a serious problem like that, my first instinct is to get help because I know I can't do it on my own' Roy: 'Well it's too late I already gave up.' Between July 6, 2014 and July 12, 2014: Carter: 'Always smile, and yeah, you have to just do it. You have everything you need. There is no way you can fail. Tonight is the night. It's now or never.' Carter: '(D)on't be scared. You already made this decision and if you don't do it tonight you're gonna be thinking about it all the time and stuff all the rest of your life and be miserable. You're finally going to be happy in heaven. No more pain. No more bad thoughts and worries. You'll be free.' Carter: 'I just want to make sure you're being serious. Like I know you are, but I don't know. You always say you're gonna do it, but you never do. I just want to make sure tonight is the real thing.' Carter: 'When are you gonna do it? Stop ignoring the question' Carter: 'You can't keep living this way. You just need to do it like you did the last time and not think about it and just do it, babe. You can't keep doing this every day. Roy: 'I do want to but I'm like freaking for my family I guess. I don't know.' Carter: 'Conrad, I told you I'll take care of them. Everyone will take care of them to make sure they won't be alone and people will help them get through it. We talked about this and they will be okay and accept it. People who commit suicide don't think this much. They just could do it.' Advertisement

If you need to speak to a counselor, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling 1 (800) 273-8255.
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Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil said Tuesday Mongolia will not allow the Dalai Lama to visit the country.

The foreign minister said Dalai's visit to Mongolia will not be allowed by the government in the future, even under the name of religion, according to a report in Today, a leading Mongolian newspaper.

The Dalai Lama, a political exile with ambitions to split Tibet from Chinese territory under the cloak of religion, paid a visit to Mongolia on Nov. 18-23.

Munkh-Orgil expressed regret over the visit's negative impact on China-Mongolia relations.

China has voiced strong dissatisfaction to the Dalai Lama's visit to Mongolia.

In late November, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China urged Mongolia to recognize the separatist nature of the Dalai Lama clique, show respect to China's core interests and take effective measures to remove the negative impacts of the Dalai Lama's visit in a bid to avoid disturbing the development of China-Mongolia relations.
Seven West Media chief Tim Worner has been pictured leaving his mansion alone for the first time since a former personal assistant detailed their sordid affair.

On Wednesday morning, Mr Worner was seen staring at the ground with a takeaway coffee in Manly after leaving his $9.5 million mansion on Sydney's Northern Beaches in his luxury Mercedes.

This comes three days after Amber Harrison, 37, released a statement to the media about her two-year relationship with the married father-of-four.

She claims he also had affairs with four other women from the network, including a high profile actress and presenter, but when grilled about it in a board meeting with chairman Kerry Stokes, he denied the allegations.

Sources told Daily Mail Australia Ms Harrison would be doing a tell-all interview on A Current Affair within the next 48 hours, but a spokesperson at Channel Nine denied this.

On Wednesday, Seven CEO Tim Worner, was seen grabbing a coffee and walking to his luxury Mercedes SUV in Manly for the first time since details of his sordid affair with Amber Harrison was made public

After leaving his luxury mansion on Sydney's Northern Beaches, Mr Worner was seen grabbing a coffee in Manly while staring at the ground (pictured)

On Wednesday, Mr Worner was seen looking downcast as he left his $9.5 million mansion on Sydney's Northern Beaches in his luxury Mercedes

Mr Worner was wearing suit pants, a white collared shirt and green tie as he stopped to grab a coffee in Manly on Wednesday morning.

On Monday, the married father-of-four sat down for a brief meeting with 10 board members who asked him if he had been involved with other women besides Amber Harrison, 37, or whether he had 'done drugs in a work context'.

Mr Worner, 55, reportedly denied both explosive claims and answered with a firm 'No,' The Daily Telegraph reported.

The 37-year-old said Mr Worner sent her a text message saying his performance 'was drug assisted' after one of their nights together.

Mr Stokes, who was looped into the meeting via phone from his Beaver Creek property in Colorado, is reportedly 'embarrassed' by Ms Harrison's revelations, but is supporting Mr Worner to continue his role as CEO.

Disgraced Seven West Media CEO Tim Worner has been pictured leaving his mansion (pictured) on Sydney's Northern Beaches for the first time since a former personal assistant detailed their sordid affair

On Wednesday, Mr Worner was seen looking downcast as he left his $9.5 million mansion on Sydney's Northern Beaches in his luxury Mercedes

Seven West Media CEO Tim Worner has reportedly denied he had affairs with other women besides Amber Harrison in a tense board meeting with chairman Kerry Stokes (both pictured)

On Monday, the married father-of-four sat down for a brief meeting with 10 board members who asked him if he had been involved with other women besides Amber Harrison (left)

Ms Harrison claims the 'secret love' started in 2012 after she began exchanging sordid text messages with the married chief executive and they began meeting up for sex at her Sydney apartment.

She claimed Mr Worner sent her messages saying he wanted to 'f*** her like a wild man' and alleges the pair started taking cocaine in 2013 to 'enhance their sexual experiences'.

The 37-year-old said Mr Worner sent her a text message saying his performance 'was drug assisted' after one of their nights together.

In a separate complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission, Ms Harrison alleged Mr Worner's other affairs included a television presenter and a well-known actress, The Herald Sun reported.

Mr Worner (pictured with his wife Katrina) is married with four children and lives on Sydney's Northern Beaches

After the sordid affair started to take its toll, Ms Harrison claims she begged Mr Worner for her to be fired as the relationship was 'killing her'. A recreation of the text message is pictured

Seven West Media have claimed Ms Harrison's account contains 'wide-ranging inaccuracies' and have denied Mr Worner had other affairs besides Ms Harrison.

'Seven agrees that the inappropriate consensual sexual relationship made public by Ms Harrison is deeply regrettable,' a statement from the network read.

The statement did not refer to Mr Worner's alleged drug use, with the network refusing to make any comment.

In the same statement, the embattled Mr Worner apologised for his actions and said he was filled with 'the deepest regret and shame'.

Ms Harrison claims that during their affair Mr Worner (pictured with his wife Katrina) used cocaine to assist in his sexual adventures before texting her the following day to talk about his 'performance'
Stressful holiday shopping appears to have taken its toll on a few customers whose tempers have risen dramatically causing them to lose control with staff members.

Shopper's retail rage is being triggered by minor incidents, including over a Christmas ham, a shop closing due to end of trading hours or even products deemed too expense.

One shop assistance was left shocked when an angry customer spat in his face after he said he is unable to serve outside of trading hours.

Shop assistant, Jack Burrows, was shocked when a shopper spat in his face after being told he could not be served after trading hours

One customer who refused to exit a Coles store after closing had to be handled by security

'The customer was very irate and screaming at me, but I didn't expect what he was going to do next,' Jack Burrows said.

In Perth, Coles security guards were left scuffling with a customer who refused to exit the supermarket after entering after hours.

In Adelaide, a frustrated customer threw computers of the table at a Telstra store and destroyed furniture.

In a Harvey Norman store, one woman pulled out a knife and repeatedly stabbed a couch as she yelled: 'I'm not paying for this'.

Customer behaviour generally worsens as the holidays 'silly season' continues.

'Christmas is meant to be a time of peace and joy, yet for so many shop assistants, it's not,' Bernie Smith from the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association said.

A woman who did not want to pay for a couch at Harvey Norman pulled out a knife and repeatedly stabbed the furniture
A lover claimed to be jealous used her job within the police to look up women her boyfriend knew before posting their information online.

Jessica Lee Milne, 27, was working at the PoliceLink call centre in Tuggerah, NSW, when she was caught illegally using the police system WebCOPS.

It was during her time at the police call centre that Milne became romantically involved with young medicine student Bart John Scanlon, who was in his final year of study between February and September.

Milne (pictured) grew suspicious of her partner and used the police information system to look into women Dr Scanlon had been messaging on social media

Not long into the pair's relationship, Milne grew suspicious of her partner and used the police information system to look into women Dr Scanlon had been messaging online, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Milne had access to the girls' information including their addresses, background and phone numbers, some of which she then posted publicly online.

Milne appeared at Wyong Local Court on Thursday, December 15 charged with eight counts of accessing restricted data and one count of stalking or intimidating.

She pleaded guilty to five counts of accessing restricted data but three were withdrawn.

Jessica Lee Milne, 27, (pictured) was working at the PoliceLink call centre in Tuggerah, NSW, when she was caught illegally using the police system WebCOPS

Medicine student Bart John Scanlon (pictured) was in his final year of study between February and September when he met Milne

She also pleaded guilty to one count of using a carriage service to menace or harass. A further stalking charge was dropped.

During the pair's relationship, Milne also sabotaged Dr Scanlon's business, Newcastle Cosmetic Doctor  a cosmetic clinic.

She created a personal email account and used it to log onto Dr Scanlon's business Facebook page, posting disparaging claims, the court heard.

'This information included that the victim is a pathological liar who cheats on women, spreads sexually transmitted diseases and preys on his patients,' The Daily Telegraph reports.

Milne also posted personal information about the girls' she accused Dr Scanlon of being with, which she titled 'Guilty Girls'.

Dr Scanlon (pictured) was accused by Milne of being a 'pathological liar who cheats on women, spreads sexually transmitted diseases and preys on his patients,' the court heard but the allegations were unsupported by any evidence

Milne was taken into the Wyong Police Station where she was charged with eight counts of accessing restricted data and one count of stalking or intimidating

When she appeared in court on Thursday, Milne was handed a two-year good behaviour bond.

She was convicted of using a carriage service to menace, but not convicted of accessing restricted data offences.

Dr Scanlon said 'if she had any money I would sue her' for what she had done to both him and his business.

'It's devastating to think that someone could get away with bullying and harassing to that degree and all they get is a slap on the wrist,' he told the Express Advocate.
The toddler was found by his father wheezing and struggling to breathe

A three-year-old toddler has undergone emergency surgery at a Gold Coast hospital after swallowing a handful of magnets.

Xander Easton swallowed the 25 small round fridge magnets while playing at a friend's birthday party believing them to be sweets.

Xander's father, Matthew Easton, a Gold Coast Heath theatre technician, found his son wheezing and struggling to breathe.

Xander Easton, 3, recovering = in Gold Coast University Hospital after swallowing 25 magnets

Surgeons tried to remove the magnets via his throat before resorting to abdominal surgery

'I said show me your hands and he showed me all these tiny magnets', Matthew told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

Xander was rushed to Gold Coast University Hospital, where x-rays revealed 20 magnets arranged in a line in his bowel, and 5 stuck in a circular pattern in his throat.

Surgeons tried unsuccessfully to remove the magnets through Xander's throat for two and an half hours before resorting to abdominal surgery and an endoscopy.

Xander was cleared after five and a half hours of surgery, and spent four days in hospital recovering.

Xander's x-rays revealed 20 magnets arranged in a line in his bowel, and 5 stuck in a circular pattern in his throat.

Xander's father, Matthew Easton, found his son wheezing and struggling to breathe, after swallowing 25 fridge magents

Dr Bell's top tips to have an incident-free Christmas this year

1. Supervision and vigilance are the key to stopping children getting into difficulty in swimming pools  even for those children who can swim, it's still possible for them to get into difficulty 2. Put medications and household cleaning agents out of reach in locked storage as they can be fatal if swallowed by children 3. Make sure your children understand the importance of wearing helmets on bikes, scooters and skateboards  a helmet is just as important as buying the bike or toy on wheels as severe head trauma changes lives. Gold Coast Health's emergency departments are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any emergencies this festive season. Advertisement

The emergency comes as hundreds of children like Xander are being rushed to emergency departments each year after swallowing dangerous household objects.

Gold Coast University Hospital children's emergency specialist Dr Christa Bell has urged parents to be vigilant and watchful of their children around medications, household cleaning agents, and bodies of water over the festive season.

'We know Christmas is a wonderful time to celebrate with family, but with busy households, curious little ones can quickly find themselves in trouble,' Dr Bell said.

Dr Bell suggests that families take some simple steps to keep young children safe.

'Putting medications in locked storage, supervising kids who are swimming, being wary of dishwashing detergent and household cleaners and keeping button batteries out of reach of little hands are four simple things that families can do to prevent fatal accidents this Christmas.'

In 2016, Gold Coast Health emergency departments have treated 52 children for near-drownings, 138 children who ingested foreign items, and a seven children have spent time in the Intensive Care Unit for head trauma.
George Osborne had a private lunch with his former Coalition nemesis Nick Clegg yesterday after they were united by their unhappiness about Brexit.

The former Cabinet colleagues clashed regularly during the five-year Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, but have found common ground as prominent backers of the losing Remain side in the EU referendum.

Tory ex-chancellor Mr Osborne was the architect of the Treasury-run Project Fear, which was accused of peddling scare stories about the impact of leaving the EU. Meanwhile, Mr Clegg, the former deputy prime minister, has written several anti-Brexit articles, and is the Lib-Dems Brexit spokesman.

George Osborne had a private lunch with his former Coalition nemesis Nick Clegg at a trendy London restaurant yesterday after they were united by their unhappiness about Brexit

The former Cabinet colleagues clashed regularly during the five-year Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition

But yeserday they dined together at the Cambridge Street Kitchen in Pimlico, where a soft-shell crab burger costs 16 and the menu offers salads and light bites for trendy diners

The two men were seen having a glass of wine near Westminster yesterday, at the Cambridge Street Kitchen in Pimlico, central London. They appeared to be having an animated conversation, despite Mr Clegg once describing Mr Osbornes behaviour as very unattractive, very cynical.

Both mens offices declined to comment further on the private lunch at a restaurant where a soft-shell crab burger costs 16 and the menu offers salads and light bites for trendy diners. Pro-EU Tory MPs and the Lib Dems have vowed to try to block Brexit through Parliament if any deal negotiated by Theresa May proposes that the UK leaves the single market.

Mr Clegg has argued against a so-called hard Brexit and his party is calling for a second referendum before Britain leaves the EU.

Mr Osborne has said that the Government should not go into the negotiations with the EU with firm red lines. And in a warning shot at Number 10, last week he said Parliament would have scrutiny over Brexit whether the Government likes it or not.

Mr Osborne and Mr Clegg are the only two members of the Quad of ministers  the core decision-making committee of the Coalition  who are still MPs. David Cameron resigned as Prime Minister and then as an MP after losing the referendum, while former Lib Dem Treasury chief secretary Sir Danny Alexander lost his seat at the 2015 General Election.

Despite years of political wrangling, they have found common ground as prominent backers of the losing Remain side in the EU referendum

Mr Osborne was the architect of the Treasury-run Project Fear, which was accused of peddling scare stories, and Mr Clegg has written several anti-Brexit articles

It emerged yesterday that Mr Osborne recently earned 120,000 for only four hours work. He was paid 51,329 for delivering a speech to bankers at Aberdeen Asset Management at the end of November.

A few days later he jetted off to Dubai where he was paid 68,493 for speaking to magazine publishers ITP. Mr Osborne has made more than 600,000 since being sacked as Chancellor by Mrs May when she became Prime Minister. His latest earnings were declared in the register of MPs interests.

Mr Osborne, MP for Tatton, told the Northwich Guardian: Leaving the Treasury has meant Ive been able to spend more time in Cheshire and more time in the north of England, helping to build a Northern Powerhouse. That is now the focus of my political energies.

Like all Chancellors before me, Labour and Conservative, Ive also accepted offers to speak to audiences and to be paid for that.
A man who raped his six-year-old brother when he was 11 has had his convictions quashed after the High Court found he could not be proved to have had moral sense.

The NSW man, known only as RP, raped his half-brother twice more than a decade ago and had been convicted.

But the High Court on Wednesday found it could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt the 11-year-old understood his conduct was seriously wrong in a moral sense.

When he was 11, the boy raped his six-year-old half-brother twice (stock image)

He had been left in charge of his younger siblings while their father was out, and locked the six-year-old boy alone in a room.

The victim demanded to be let out, and the older brother told him: 'If you wanna come out, you gotta let me do this to ya',' the High Court judgement said.

The 11-year-old then raped the six-year-old, while wearing a condom.

The six-year-old was crying and called out 'no, no', but the elder child put his hand over his mouth.

When their father returned home, he told the six-year-old: 'Don't say nothin'.'

The High Court (stock) on Wednesday quashed his convictions on Wednesday because it not be proved beyond reasonable doubt the 11-year-old understood his conduct was seriously wrong in a moral sense

A few weeks later, the siblings were again left alone.

The 11-year-old exposed his penis to the six-year-old who 'went to run away' and 'went to call out for' his sister.

But the elder child 'took hold of him and put him face down on a pile of clothing on the floor' and raped him.

On another occasion, the 11-year-old touched the six-year-old on the outside of his clothing and rubbed.

Children under the age of 14 have doli incapax, which is the presumption they lack the capacity to be criminally responsible for their actions.

The man had the convictions quashed on Wednesday because it could not be proved he would have understood his actions as an 11-year-old (stock)

The High Court was not provided with any school reports or evidence of his intellectual capacity from the time of the abuse to refer to.

When he was 18-years-old, the elder child was assessed in an IQ test and was found to exceed only four per cent of adults his age and was placed in the borderline disabled range.

A clinical psychologist found there appeared to be 'some fairly unsatisfactory aspects of [RP's] upbringing'.

Considering the evidence, the High Court quashed his convictions because the prosecution was unable to prove beyond reasonable doubt the child understood his conduct was seriously wrong.
A former security guard will spend at least eight years behind bars for fatally stomping on a vulnerable two-year-old girl because she urinated on his couch.

Melbourne man Mussie Debresay, 38, angrily abused his girlfriend's daughter in the middle of the night 11 years ago, causing blunt force trauma injuries.

The little girl - who cannot be named - died the next afternoon on May 13, 2005, from massive internal bleeding.

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Child killer Mussie Debresay being led into a prison van at the Victorian Supreme Court after being sentenced to an 11-year jail term with eight years non-parole

Her brother told police their mother's boyfriend 'Daddy MJ' stomped on the girl because she did 'wee wee' on his couch.

Debresay denied injuring the child, telling a Victorian Supreme Court jury she had fallen off a couch.

Mussie Debresay, 38, (above) angrily stomped on his girlfriend's daughter because she urinated on his couch

The man from Footscray, in Melbourne's inner west, was found guilty of a charge of manslaughter but not the more serious charge of murder for crushing the toddler's abdomen with blunt force trauma.

In sentencing him on Wednesday, Justice Terry Forrest said Debresay's offending was aggravated by the fact he did not tell medical staff the toddler had sustained abdominal injuries.

The 38-year-old year child killer will be eligible for parole after eight years

'You had the opportunity to alert the paramedics and doctors and did not,' Justice Forrest said.

The toddler was rushed to a medical centre after she became unresponsive the day after the violence, but doctors were unable to revive her.

Justice Forrest said he had taken into consideration Debresay's mental illness when formulating his sentence.

However, he emphasised the need to deter would-be child abusers.

'Our children place their complete trust in their adult guardians,' Justice Forrest said.

'You abused that trust.

'At just two-years-old her vulnerability was absolute. Your abuse of her was also absolute.'

Debresay will be eligible for parole after eight years.
Woolworths customers have been left cheesed off after buying pizzas from the supermarket to discover the toppings had not been put on properly.

Three shoppers have complained to the store in the last 24 hours after opening their pizza boxes to find the toppings had slipped off.

Zack Barnes pulled out his four cheese stonebaked pizza only to discover that all of the cheese was only on one third of his dinner.

Woolworths customers have reacted with fury after buying pizzas from the supermarket to discover the toppings had not been put on properly

In a video he posted on the Woolworths Facebook page, Mr Barnes described the dinner dilemma he faced.

Showing the front of the package, including a picture of the what the pizza should have looked like, he said: 'When you look at the box and you're like, "yeah that looks awesome".'

But he then panned down to what his mostly cheese-less pizza actually looked like, adding: '[But then you] open it to find... hmm, no don't put cheese on the rest of the pizza, Woolworths.'

Daniel Emerson, from Sydney, had a similar issue with his pepperoni pizza from the same range.

When he opened his pizza, he discovered that all of the cheese and meat was on just one side of the dish.

In his complaint, he said: 'I just thought you should know that I have a bit of a "special" pepperoni pizza.

Three shoppers have complained to the store in the last 24 hours after opening their pizza boxes to find the toppings had slipped off

Zack Barnes pulled out his four cheese stonebaked pizza (above) only to discover that all of the cheese was only on one third of his dinner

'I'm sure its going to be as nice as a non "special" pepperoni pizza, but you should know just in case more "special" pizzas make it into the wild.

'I will spread it out as it defrosts in the oven, no big deal, and definitely no offence to any special people out there who deserve all our love, just like "special" pizzas deserve our love.'

Erin Demajo's Hawaiian pizza suffered a similar fate, with around a third of her children's dinner missing out on cheese, ham and pineapple.

'Good thing my kid picks the toppings off! #wonkytoppings,' she said.
More than 185million from Britain's controversial overseas aid budget was lavished on India last year, it can be revealed  as ministers hand over another 54million.

The world's fastest-growing economy has sent a mission to Mars, boasts more billionaires than Britain and hands out millions to needy nations itself.

But latest figures show India was given a staggering 185.4million by the UK last year. Some 53.8million is set to be handed over this year, with at least a further 64.8million in the following two years.

Former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell announced four years ago that aid to India would finish by the end of 2015, but that policy has since been reversed

Despite promises to concentrate UK aid on the poorest nations, India received Britain's ninth-biggest handout.

It comes after it emerged the UK gave China, the world's second-largest economy, more than 44.6million last year. The row over foreign aid has re-ignited amid calls for the money to be spent on our social care crisis.

Four years ago then-international development secretary Andrew Mitchell announced that the main aid programme for India would finish by the end of last year, saying: 'We are walking the last mile with them, we won't be there forever.'

But the Department for International Development (DfID) continues to fund projects that boost India's economy.

Of the 185.4million given last year, the Foreign Office gave 21.6million, the Business Department provided 13.3million and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) stumped up 66,000. Foreign Office grants included 15,316 on encouraging prison officials to improve accommodation and healthcare in jails.

Andrew Rosindell MP asked whether the British taxpayer would accept the amount of money given to India in foreign aid, when their government can invest 10bn in bullet trains

A project aimed at increasing political participation of tribal women in north-east India received 20,609, while 6,614 went on raising awareness of sexual harassment among students. DfID spent 150.4million, including 10million on a house-building project aimed at helping first-time home ownership.

PALESTINIAN AID PAYMENTS CONTINUE Britain will keep sending tens of millions of pounds to Palestinians despite fears it could boost terrorism, it was announced yesterday. A freeze on payments to the Palestinian Authority was ordered two months ago over concerns cash had been handed to prisoners who committed attacks on Israel. Now funding will be used only for salaries of teachers and hospital staff. Advertisement

Some 10.6million was spent giving the poor access to financial services to help them start businesses.

India has the ninth-largest economy and is forecast to overtake Britain as third-largest by 2050.

Its infrastructure projects include spending 10billion on bullet trains that are faster than anything on the British rail network.

Tory MP Andrew Rosindell said: 'I think people will wonder why Britain is continuing to spend such a vast amount on aid projects such as this. I have every confidence that [International Development Secretary] Priti Patel will make reforms to DfID that are long overdue, making sure that UK taxpayers' money is used wisely.'

Fellow Tory Peter Bone said: 'We should not give any more money.' Britain's pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of income on aid is under increasing scrutiny.

Tory MP Peter Bone, pictured, said the money earmarked for India should be stopped

The Commons international development committee yesterday began an inquiry into DfID's use of contractors after criticism of for-profit organisations' involvement.

The committee said that, in 2011-12, some 9 per cent of the aid budget was used on contractors, while in some nations they accounted for 75 per cent of the UK money spent. And last month the Independent Commission for Aid Impact watchdog warned the public had wrongly been given the impression Indian aid was stopping.

A DfID spokesman said British aid to India had moved towards sharing expertise, adding: 'Since 2011, DfID has cut aid to India by almost 50 per cent, saving the British taxpayer more than 440million.'

The Foreign Office said India 'urgently needs investment in infrastructure and skills to drive the economic growth that can transform the lives of the poor'.

And Defra said its funding helped 'projects that support efforts to protect biodiversity globally'.
An adorable set of quintuplets were born at a hospital in Arizona, just in time for the holidays.

Margaret Baudinet, 31, gave birth to Ava, Clara, Camille, Luke and Isabelle on December 4.

The children's birth marks the first time in 121 years that quintuplets have been born at the Dignity Health St Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.

Margaret Baudinet (left and right), 31, gave birth to Ava, Clara, Camille, Luke (left) and Isabelle (left) on December 4. Her husband and doting dad, Michael Baudinet is pictured holding their daughter Clara

The children's birth marks the first time in 121 years that quintuplets have been born at the Dignity Health St Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. The Baudinets are pictured at the hospital holding four of their babies

Born at 32 weeks, the babies range in weight from three to four pounds.

Margaret and her husband and doting dad, Michael Baudinet, temporarily moved to Arizona from Virginia earlier this year to work with Dr John Elliot, who is a noted doctor in multiple birth pregnancies, the Arizona Republic reported.

Before their bundles of joy, the couple struggled to conceive despite neither of them having fertility issues. They also experienced a miscarriage.

Margaret became pregnant with the quintuplets after hormone therapy.

Elliott advised Margaret to eat 4,500 calories per day for her babies until she reached 24 weeks.

'For those of you waiting on the parenthood experience, please know it's worth the wait', she wrote on her blog, A Bundle of Baudinets.

The babies range in weight from three to four pounds. Margaret (right with Ava) and her husband temporarily moved to Arizona from Virginia earlier this year to work with Dr John Elliot, who is a noted doctor in multiple birth pregnancies. Camille and Clara hold hands (left)

Before their bundles of joy, the couple struggled to conceive despite neither of them having fertility issues. They also experienced a miscarriage. Maragaret became pregnant with quints after hormone therapy. Luke gets his temperature taken by a nurse

According to the hospital, 52 is the average number of sets of quintuplets born annually in the United States in the past decade. Baby Isabelle is pictured

She wrote: 'As one who has waited, please know God will bless each and every day you wait. Joy comes in the morning. This I know for sure.'

Since the quintuplets have been born, Ava and Camille have had some complications.

Margaret wrote on her blog that Ava had been 'battling digestion issues and a perforation in her bowel'.

'She had to have minor surgery... but we are indeed seeing some progress from the procedure.'

Little Camille was also having some trouble. Her mother wrote that she was having issues breathing.

But as of Friday Camille's breathing has improved and she was taken off of her ventilator and supplemental oxygen.

The Baudinets and hospital staff, including one of the physicians who helped deliver the quintuplets, will be at a media briefing planned by the hospital on Wednesday.

According to the hospital, 52 is the average number of sets of quintuplets born annually in the United States in the past decade.

A GoFundMe for the Baudinets has raised $2,800 for the family.

Since the quintuplets have been born, Ava (pictured) and Camille have had some complications. Margaret wrote on her blog that Ava had been 'battling digestion issues and a perforation in her bowel'. After surgery, Ava's health has progressed
Voters will need ID to vote for the first time next year as part of a crackdown on electoral fraud.

Downing Street has backed a report which warned that a culture of political correctness had led to the state turning a blind eye to abuses.

In response to the inquiry by anti-corruption tsar Sir Eric Pickles, pilots will be set up in which voters will have to produce a document such as a driving licence, passport or utility bill to prove their identity.

Voters will have to produce ID if they wish to cast their ballots under plans being considered by anti-corruption tsar Sir Eric Pickles, pictured, following a probe into electoral irregularities

Sir Eric said it was ridiculous that it is harder to take out a council library book than to pick up a council ballot paper.

The plans will be unveiled by the Cabinet Office early next year, Whitehall sources said.

Other recommendations included clamping down on postal vote harvesting by political activists by ensuring that a postal vote can only be handled by the voter or a nominated individual.

Sir Eric also wants nationality checks on all voting applications to tackle links between electoral and immigration fraud. Controversially, only the use of English or Welsh would be allowed in polling stations.

Postal voters would have to reapply every three to five years.

In the report, Sir Eric said political correctness had led officials to ignore electoral fraud in Muslim communities.

The former Cabinet minister lambasted the police, election watchdogs and town halls for ignoring evidence of abuse because of over-sensitivities about ethnicity and religion.

Last year a special election court ruled that Lutfur Rahman, pictured, should be removed as Mayor of Tower Hamlets after irregularities were found in the ballots cast for him

Up to 300 votes were deemed as either 'dubious' or as a result of 'personation'

Sir Eric said intimidation of voters on religious grounds was so bad police should be allowed to put cordons outside polling stations to protect voters.

In the biggest shake-up of electoral rules in modern history, he also suggests that voters should have to take ID to prove who they are. Currently, a person merely has to state their name and address. The report was ordered by Downing Street in the wake of the Tower Hamlets voting scandal in east London.

Last year a special election court ruled the mayor, Lutfur Rahman, should be removed from office and the election re-run following a litany of corrupt and illegal practices.

Up to 300 votes were dubious or the result of personation, where someone votes as someone else. Rahman was said to have run his campaign on the basis that it was the religious duty of faithful Muslims to vote for him.
Defence chiefs have ordered a legal review into their policy on Afghan interpreters in a major victory for the Daily Mail.

A committee has been set up to examine claims that translators who worked alongside British forces have faced death threats and attacks from the Taliban.

In a written statement, armed forces minister Mike Penning revealed a staggering 400 Afghans have claimed they were intimidated by insurgents because they worked for the UK.

Defence chiefs have ordered a legal review into their policy on Afghan interpreters in a major victory for the Daily Mail

He said the UK owed the brave interpreters a 'debt of gratitude'.

But that none of the claims were deemed serious enough so far to allow the interpreters asylum in the UK.

This is despite a Mail campaign revealing how Afghan interpreters and their families have been shot at, threatened and even executed after being branded spies and infidels.

The newspaper's campaign Betrayal of the Brave has resulted in a new committee being established which will review 25 per cent of claims.

It has already met four times.

In a statement Mr Penning said: 'A Danish military legal adviser has provided a non-UK perspective to the decision-making process.

'In addition, we have put in place a number of measures to provide outside assurance of the intimidation policy.'

He said 'a randomly selected 20 per cent of case decisions are subject to legal review to ensure that the policy is working as it should'.

He added: 'A Committee has been established to provide additional external assurance of the delivery of the policy.'

A staggering 178,000 former generals, military commanders, MPs, soldiers and members of the public have signed a petition calling for interpreters to be given sanctuary in the UK.

This newspaper has revealed how interpreters who were rejected a safe-haven in Britain have made it to the country by boat and lorry  only then to be told they will be deported.

Defence Minister Mike Penning said: Locally employed civilians played a pivotal role in helping our troops build a more secure, stable and prosperous Afghanistan.

A committee has been set up to examine claims that translators who worked alongside British forces have faced death threats and attacks from the Taliban

We owe a debt of gratitude to these brave men and women which is why we have a package of policies in place for those made redundant after the drawdown of British combat forces.

He said the committee features experts from across Government and, an interpreter named Qari, a man who gave so much for our cause and who has been relocated to the UK.

It is ensuring that Afghan staff who feel threatened, after being employed by the UK, are properly supported by our expert teams both here and in Kabul, he added.

The Committee has had 3 meetings so far, 12 April, 9 June and 13 September and in December. There will be three held every year.

The former Armed Forces minister, Penny Mordaunt, established a body of advisors to provide advice on the Ministry of Defences intimidation policy last year.

There are two policies in which Afghan interpreters can come to the UK, but under a second intimidation scheme no one has been allowed.

Minister Mike Penning revealed 400 Afghans have claimed they were intimidated by insurgents because they worked for the UK

Under the new policy, the extra team are ensuring they properly investigate claims of intimidation.

The Committee is designed to provide assurance that the policy is being correctly applied and that the scheme arrangements remain sufficient for the security situation in Afghanistan.

An MoD spokesman said: The Committee have reviewed several cases to ensure the intimidation policy was applied effectively, and were content with the cases they have reviewed so far.'The Afghan representative on the committee is Qari Zmarai Babrak, who worked for Britain from early 2010.

He was injured in the course of duty on several occasions, once by a rocket-propelled grenade during an ambush and another time he was knocked unconscious by an IED blast.

During operations in Sangin he was struck by the roadside bomb.

This resulted in him having both legs and his left arm amputated. He received basic treatment in Afghanistan and went to India for recuperation.

When he returned to Afghanistan, in 2011, he was employed by the Defence Section at the British Embassy Kabul.

He relocated to the UK in June 2016, with his wife, son and also his brother, who was given permission to relocate with him as his primary carer.

The Government has relocated around 500 Afghan interpreters to the UK under a relocation scheme  but that has left hundreds of interpreters still left abandoned in the country because they were not serving at a particular time period.

In his statement, Mr Penning said 130 staff and their immediate families have relocated to the UK over the past 12 months.

This newspaper has revealed how interpreters who were rejected a safe-haven in Britain have made it to the country by boat and lorry  only then to be told they will be deported

This takes the total to around 350 former local staff, which adds up to more than 900 people overall when you include their families, Mr Penning said.

There are now fewer than 100 Afghan staff still to be made redundant by the end of next year, around half of which will be eligible for relocation to the UK.

Of those who remained in Afghanistan, Mr Penning said more than 100 are currently taking advantage of the British military's offer of five years of training and financial support.

Around 20 of these have gifted the opportunity to eligible family members, in many cases to daughters who would not have otherwise had the opportunity to attend higher education.

However, Mr Penning said almost 400 such employees have raised concerns about intimidation as a result of their employment with British forces.

Mr Penning said Britain had offered help, from bespoke security through to financial help to more than 30 staff to relocate elsewhere in Afghanistan.

He added: 'The levels of intimidation faced in these cases has not so far been such that we have had to relocate individuals to the UK to ensure their safety, but we keep the security situation in Afghanistan under careful review.'

The situation in the war-ravaged country has deteriorated as the Taliban have gained ground and Islamic State have popped up in the failing state.

Former military chiefs have argued all of the interpreters who served alongside British troops should be allowed to the UK because the Government has a moral duty to help them.
A criminal has tipped off police about his cellmate's plan to have two children including his own child executed by a hitman because they were accusing him of sexual abuse.

The unlikely tip off came from a long-term prisoner, with a documented dislike of authority, when he learned his cellmate was in the process of hiring a hitman for $50,000 to kill the two children.

The hitman's would-be targets included a 14-year-old girl who accused the prisoner, 36, of sexually abusing her, and his own 14-year-old son who had verified the girl's claims to police, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The hitman's would-be targets included a 14-year-old girl who accused the prisoner, 36, of sexually abusing her, and his own 14-year-old son

Both teenagers are based on the New South Wales South Coast.

The man's son, who was in the same year as the girl at school, went to the police station three days after the girl, and confessed to allowing his father to use his Facebook account to talk to the 14-year-old girl without raising suspicion.

The boy also surrendered a .22 calibre bold action rifle which belonged to his father.

Court documents have revealed the man was arrested in January 2015 when the girl first went to police and reported the sexual abuse.

The man's son, who was in the same year as the girl at school, went to the police station three days after the girl, and confessed to allowing his father to use his Facebook account to talk to the 14-year-old girl without raising suspicion (stock)

Details of the 'hit' were laid bare when the prisoner's wife appeared in court.

The woman admitted in court to providing the hitman with instructions from her husband, even providing information about the would-be child victims.

The prisoner's attempt to have the children killed was thwarted when his cellmate realised he was serious about going through with it - and contacted the authorities.

The inmate told police he initially thought the man was joking about having the children killed but decided to turn him in when he started 'really shopping for a hitman'.

The inmate told police he initially thought the man was joking about having the children killed but decided to turn him in when he started 'really shopping for a hitman'

The inmate told police he knew it was a serious plan when his cellmate found another prisoner, due to be released, who was willing to carry out his plan.

'To associate with the justice system, which I don't think much of, I mean I really had to believe that this man was definitely going to kill those two children,' the inmate told police.

When police were made aware of the plan hatching behind bars, they immediately intercepted.

Police went undercover, posing as a hitman, to divert the plan.

The two 14-year-old children lived on the New South Wales South Coast and were in the same year group at school

An undercover policeman, with the alias Alec, met the man's wife four times in April, and each time she supported the 'hit' and provided details of the two children.

The woman even gave the undercover policeman photographs of the two children, their addresses, what school they went to and even what after-school activities they attended and when.

Details supplied by the woman were so graphic she even explained she wanted the girl 'completely disappeared, not even a bone, nothing'.

She also explained to the policeman she wanted the girl to know who was behind her would-be murder.

'[She should] know she should have kept her mouth shut,' the woman reportedly told the officer.

But she later changed her mind, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Details supplied by the prisoner's wife were so graphic she even explained she wanted the 14-year-old girl 'completely disappeared, not even a bone, nothing' (stock)

At her trial it was also revealed she told the policeman her stepson, also due to be murdered, was 'a real a***hole'.

The woman was arrested on April 24 following her final meeting with Alec, the undercover policeman.

She pleaded guilty to two counts of solicit to murder and is due to appear in Wollongong District Court in March this year.
A male nursing student has been charged with the murder of a bridal reality show contestant after confessing to killing her, the LAPD said Tuesday.

Lisa Marie Naegle went missing after a birthday party at the Alpine Village Restaurant in Torrance, California on Saturday night and her body was found in a shallow grave in suspect Jackie Jerome Rogers' home in Inglewood.

The family of Naegle confronted Rogers with CCTV footage from the early hours of Sunday morning showing Naegle getting into Rogers' SUV.

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Nursing student Jackie Jerome Rogers (right) has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the disappearance of former reality show contestant Lisa Marie Naegle (left), 36

Murder suspect Rogers can be seen in this still taken from surveillance footage leaving the birthday party with Naegle early Sunday, a family friend told the DailyMail.com

Naegle came in fourth place on the E! reality show Bridalplasty, where women compete for a dream wedding and plastic surgery, in 2010

The suspect had initially told them that he and Naegle were at a bar near Alpine Village when she said she wanted to go to an after-party. He claimed he was too tired and he left without her but the CCTV footage shows otherwise, reported TMZ.

Rogers has now confessed to murdering Naegle, according to the LAPD. Police didn't immediately announce a motive.

The 36-year-old nurse texted her husband Derek Harryman around 2.45 am to let him know she was grabbing food and then coming home. Two days passed without Harryman hearing a word from his wife.

Naegle, who once competed on the E! show Bridalplasty, was hit on the head seven times with a hammer early Sunday morning,TMZ reported citing law enforcement sources.

She and Rogers had just gone to a bar called Jack In The Box, and Rogers said she had just broken up with him to go back with her husband, according to TMZ.

Naegle's body was found naked and face down in Roger's yard, TMZ reported on Tuesday evening.

The coroner's office will give the final cause of death and will formally identify the remains.

Family members told the Associated Press Rogers was a student of Naegle, who taught a college nursing class.

Naegle's family had confronted Rogers after seeing surveillance footage, which they said showed Naegle getting into Rogers' car.

Naegle's sister, Danielle Naegle-Kaimona, told ABC 7 that Rogers said he was having an affair with Naegle. Naegle-Kaimona told the network that Naegle had told her Rogers was gay.

She said Rogers initially denied any involvement.

'We begged and pleaded that he'd come to our home to kind of give us details on what time, where were things, and when he left her, but while he was talking to us and telling us his story, multiple different times he said he absolutely did not go home with her, or did not take her home,' Naegle-Kaimona said.

Rogers later altered his story to say that Naegle had gotten into his car but had gotten out moments later, the family said. The family then said they called the police, who detained Rogers.

Detectives and members of the coroner's office went to the home of Jackie Jerome Rogers on Tuesday (pictured), where they believed Naegle's body was buried

Naegle (right), a registered nurse, had called her husband Derek Harryman (left) around 2.45am on Sunday morning to say she was getting food and coming home - but never returned

Officials investigated Rogers' residence on Tuesday after they said Rogers confessed to murdering Naegle. Rogers has been booked and is held on a $2 million bail

Investigators are pictured arriving at Rogers' home to search for Naegle's body Tuesday after Rogers was arrested on suspicion of murder

One of Naegle's sisters, Michelle, was seen leaving the police station in San Pedro on Tuesday afternoon, looking visibly upset

Naegle's husband (pictured) also left the police station with Michelle on Tuesday afternoon. Police retrieved Naegle's body later that day

Naegle's husband and one her sisters Michelle were seen on ABC 7 leaving the police station Tuesday afternoon, visibly upset.

Harryman husband, had expressed his concern during his wife's disappearance.

'Everyone is beyond frustrated, beyond worried,' Harryman told the Orange County Register. 'I'm flipping out.'

'We are trying to have a baby. We are looking forward to starting a family.'

Harryman, who is a vessel operations superintendent at the Port of Los Angeles, was at work when Naegle told him she was headed to the party with her brother.

Naegle had only planned to stay for a few hours because she was scheduled to teach nursing classes at West Los Angeles College on Sunday.

But when Harryman returned from work at 2 am on Sunday, he saw that his wife still wasn't home.

He said Naegle called him a minute or two later.

'She sounded really, really drunk,' he told the Daily Breeze. 'She said, "I'm going to get some food and then I'll be home." '

Harryman expected Naegle would come home with an Uber car, saying she often uses the app and the same driver to get home.

Naegle was nowhere to be found when Harryman woke up the next morning, but he believed she must have just stayed with her brother and gone straight to work.

Then Harryman found out that Naegle hadn't gone to the party with her brother, but a male nursing student - later identified as Rogers - who had picked her up.

The student had told Harryman his wife had wanted to go to an after-party. He said he did not stay with her and went home alone.

After talking to him, Harryman texted his wife: 'You didn't come home last night. This is unacceptable. You must be feeling horrible because you have to teach.'

But then Harryman received a call notifying him that Naegle had never shown up to her class. That's when he and Naegle's brother went to the police and reported her missing.

On Monday Naegle's family invited Rogers to their home. They said his story began to change as they asked him questions, and they called the police.

Naegle finished fourth on Bridalplasty, a 2010 reality show about a group of women who moved into a mansion to compete for a dream wedding and plastic surgery.

Officials found Naegel's body in Rogers' yard on Tuesday. She was found naked and having been bashed several times with a hammer, according to TMZ

Video footage from Alpine Village was discovered showing Naegle getting into a black SUV

Naegle (pictured with her husband) told Harryman she would get food and go home after going to a birthday party but never returned and didn't show up to teach class the next day

This missing poster was released after Harryman reported Naegle missing on Sunday
Christmas is imminent but Theresa May was giving away nothing. Commons select committee chairmen had gathered to interrogate her about Brexit.

The two-hour session could easily have been boiled down to less than a minute.

MPs: Tells us what your plans are.

Mrs May: Nope.

Theresa May, pictured at today's Liaison Committee, explained further to MPs her timetable for getting the Brexit talks underway

This was her debut in front of the Liaison committee. Liaison suggests something furtively agreeable, does it not? A meeting of lovers at the Savoys American Bar. A cash handover in some penumbral corner. If only.

Andrew Tyrie, the finickity Tory mumbler who chairs this committee, tried to introduce intimate whimsy by noting that although Mrs May always said she would not give a running commentary on Brexit, she could surely bare a few indiscretions to the Liaison committee. Mrs May, who has a literal mind, did not clock this joke. Negotiations are negotiations she said. She would therefore not be uttering anything fresh.

She found Mr Tyrie hard to hear. I once had an editor who loved shooting and was, as a consequence, slightly deaf. He would bawl speak up, man! at staff in editorial conferences  even, sometimes, if those staff were women. Mr Tyrie would have earned the rasp of his tongue. Mrs May resisted the temptation to tell Tyrie to bark up more loudly but she did slightly crane forward to try to pick up his burblings  David Attenborough crouching to catch the mating call of an aphid.

The Scots Nats Pete Wishart was similarly soft-spoken. Mrs May fought to adjust her ears to his wee, timrous tones. Given how much of his time Mr Wishart must spend with bagpipes, you might think hed know how to project.

Negotiations will be challenging, announced Mrs May about the looming EU talks. I fully expect us to operate in the timetable set out. I will publish the plan when I publish the plan. We are looking at a variety of scenarios. Even the Hansard reporters nearly stopped writing this down, it was so boring.

The one person who livened things up briefly was Yvette Cooper (Lab). She had been watching Mrs May with a look of such bulgy-eyed intent, I was surprised the PMs bodyguard did not become concerned. Miss Cooper, who has had a dicey new haircut that seems to have been stuck on backwards (has she been going to Liam Gallaghers barber?), started shouting about immigration reduction plans. She used the pitying tone nurses employ when addressing old people who are losing their marbles (have you been for a wee, Mabel?).

The Liaison Committee is an influential gathering of Commons committee chairmen who regularly grill the Prime Minister

Who do you want not to come? asked Miss Cooper, her spine stiff, her head wobbling. You seem to have a certain tone of contempt towards producing a figure. But the tone of contempt was all Yvettes. Mrs Mays tone was not interesting enough for that. Behind her, her aide George Hollingbery busied himself with his smartphone. Perhaps he was looking for caffeine pills on the internet.

As Mrs Mays answers became ever more cryptic, Mr Tyrie started to go a bit Inspector Dreyfus on us. Im hoping thats a yes, he whinnied, more to himself than the room. Was that a yes? Mrs May spoke another few yards of beige carpet. I think Im hearing a no, said poor Tyrie, one eye twitching. Was that a yes or a no? Mrs May: I gave the answer I gave, chairman. The session ended with an exchange about subclause three of Article 50. It was so tangled, even a Brussels constitutional lawyer might have had trouble understanding it. Europhile Mr Tyrie (author of that priceless book about the Euro entitled Never Say Never) spoke of a transition period, which is what Euroloonies hope will delay our departure from the EU. Mrs May preferred to call it an implementation phase.
Austrian police have arrested a 25-year-old asylum seeker from Morocco on suspicion of planning an attack during the holiday season in the city of Salzburg, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

A search on Monday of an accommodation centre for asylum seekers in the town of Fuschl am See, where the man was living, found 'no materials clearly required for the execution of an attack', the Salzburg prosecutors' office said in a statement.

It could not, however, be ruled out that he was planning an attack, a spokesman added. The formal accusation against the suspect is that he belongs to an unspecified 'terrorist organisation'.

Austrian police have arrested a failed Moroccan asylum seeker in the town of Fuschl am See who was allegedly planning a terrorist attack during the holiday season

Independently of the arrest, Austria is deploying more police at busy public places and tightening other security measures in response to Monday's attack on a Christmas market in Berlin in which 12 people were killed.

'The police were informed in recent months that unidentified men had discussed an alleged terrorist attack in Salzburg in the period around Christmas/New Year,' the prosecutors' office said, describing the Moroccan as the main suspect.
Ten Chinese citizens have been charged with drug smuggling after almost 200 bricks of cocaine with a street value exceeding $60 million was found on a ship.

The 50-metre commercial ship was intercepted by Australian authorities last Monday off the coast of Tasmania and around 186 kilograms of cocaine was found concealed in sacks and barrels on board.

The cocaine had been compressed into one kilogram bricks and tightly wrapped in plastic and masking tape before being loaded on to the ship, which was escorted into the port of Hobart on Friday.

A haul of cocaine worth more than $60 million was found on a commercial ship near Hobart

The cocaine had been compressed into one kilogram bricks and tightly wrapped in plastic

Authorities conducted an extensive search of the ship and are yet to weigh or test the purity of the cocaine, but believe it could have sold for at least $60.45 million on the street.

The Department of Immigration and Border Patrol said the cocaine was not intended to be distributed throughout Tasmania and was likely meant to taken to Australia's mainland to be sold.

'The investigation into the origin and destination of the drugs is continuing, however it is unlikely that a criminal venture of this nature would target the small Tasmanian market,' a spokesperson said.

The ten crew members - aged between 23 and 50 - were charged with trying to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.

The boat was boarded last Monday but only made it to Hobart on Friday

Police started removing large containers of the controlled drug found on board

The cocaine was concealed inside sacks and barrels on board the 50-metre ship

The full haul is yet to be weighed or tested for purity but is believed to be worth $60.4 million

Eight appeared in Hobart's Magistrate Court on Sunday, while two more appeared on Monday.

None of the Chinese citizens entered a plea and all ten were denied bail.
Christmas is a time to let your hair down and relax - but often doing so can lead to injuries.

Some of the most common injuries suffered by Australians at Christmas time occur falling from ladders while putting up decorations, food poisoning and alcohol - and parents are advised to not try out the scooter or skateboard their child was gifted.

Heart attacks are even more common after Christmas lunch.

This year, health officials are aiming to reduce the number of people who unnecessarily end up in Australia's hospital emergency wards.

Falling from a chair or ladder while decorating is a common way people are injured during Christmas (stock image)

Christmas is a time to let your hair down and relax - but for many Australians, doing so can lead to injuries (stock image)

Dr Kerry Chant, New South Wales Health's Chief Health Officer, said a simple slip from a ladder while placing Christmas lights up on the roof could result in devastation or death when, really, they should be celebrating.

'Always make sure you have someone with you and don't stand on things which aren't stable enough to hold you.

'Definitely don't do anything that requires your full attention while you are under the influence of alcohol,' Dr Chant said.

Parents are also warned to be aware of what their children are up to, as small toy parts, liquid from glow sticks, batteries and even high-pressured hoses and water guns could seriously hurt them.

Children need to be kept under a close watch during Christmas to ensure they aren't hurt (stock image)

People are advised to be mindful of how much alcohol they consume - and what they do when they've consumed it (stock image)

WHY DO ADULTS END UP IN HOSPITAL DURING CHRISTMAS? Trauma  falls during outdoor activities or off children's presents like skateboards and scooters and accidents in swimming pools

Alcohol related issues and intoxication

Heart attacks  Particularly in elderly

Bites  From insects, spiders and snakes

Mental health  Christmas can be stressful and can be a trigger for depression and an increased risk in self harm.

Slips and falls  Be careful when placing decorations in high places.

Food poisoning Advertisement

Parents are also advised not to ride their children's Christmas toys.

'If you don't know how to ride a skateboard, it's going to hurt when you hit the ground,' Dr Chant said.

The elderly and those with chronic conditions are advised to not overdo it, as heart attacks are more common after an enormous lunch.

They should also ensure they have enough medication and an up-to-date copy of relevant prescriptions if travelling, and be aware health care providers such as GPs and Chemists may also have reduced hours.

Elderly relatives may also not cope well with the usual heat over Christmas. If you are going away, make sure someone is available to check on them and help them if you are away.

Dr Chant said people shouldn't be fooled into thinking injuries and illness can't happen to them at Christmas.

'During the festive season, people do more than they normally would, consume more than they normally would, and take more risks than they normally would.

Doctors say people shouldn't be fooled into thinking injury or illness couldn't happen to them at Christmas (stock image)

Sunburn is another common injury in Australia during the holiday season (stock image)

'It's important to be mindful of yourself, your family and your loved ones as it is often that momentary distraction when people suffer a fall, a burn, or something worse,' Dr Chant said.

WHY DO CHILDREN END UP IN HOSPITAL DURING CHRISTMAS? Choking  Small/easily broken parts on toys or other items stuffed in mouth or nose

Strangulation  From strings/cords on toys. Try to keep them under 22cm

Ear and eye injuries  Loud toys and high-pressure water guns shot too close to eyes and ears

Poisoning  From batteries and liquids in toys and poorly maintained food

Burns  Pay attention while cooking and don't leave children unattended

Sunburn  slip, slop, slap, seek and slide

Animal bites  Be aware of children playing with pets in situations they find overwhelming Advertisement

People also needed to be aware heading to a hospital's emergency department wasn't the only option if they were in need of medical attention.

Doctor John Houston from Primary Health Care suggested choosing a multi-disciplinary medical centre instead.

'Not only are you more likely to avoid the significant wait times that you may experience in emergency departments, you'll also help to reduce the pressure on hospitals so they can focus on the treatment of serious or life threatening injuries and illnesses. It is important to remember that if the situation is life threatening you should dial 000 immediately.

' Multi-disciplinary medical centres, such as those that can be found on 1800bulkbill.com.au, are equipped to treat many of the most common festive season incidents, and remain open for extended hours across Christmas and the New Year. All of the centres have GPs on duty, and many feature fully equipped treatment rooms with nursing support, pathology, radiology and an on-site pharmacy in a single location.'
The U.S. Border Patrol has seized more than $3million that was being smuggled into Mexico.

The cash was found inside a car in Escondido, near San Diego, California in August.

The drama started when Border Patrol officers pulled over a speeding Kia Forte and found $34,000 in vacuum-sealed bundles in the center console.

But that paled into insignificance when they discovered a second car which was abandoned nearby after speeding away from the officers.

The U.S. Border Patrol seized more than $3million (pictured), which was bundled up and hidden in cardboard boxes in a car abandoned near Escondido, California

Several large cardboard boxes were found in the trunk of the Volkswagen Passat, whose driver was found hiding in the brush.

Thousands of greenbacks were found inside, totaling $3million.

Two men - a 41-year-old Mexican national and a 53-year-old U.S. citizen - pleaded not guilty to federal currency smuggling charges this week.

It is thought the money was intended to be delivered to Mexican drug cartels on the other side of the border.

'This amount of money represents the largest currency seizure ever in San Diego Sector,' said Chief Patrol Agent Richard A Barlow.
A woman riding her bike was ambushed and brutally slashed with a knife during an early morning robbery.

The victim, believed to be in her early 30s, was riding along a street in inner-city Melbourne when two men and a woman confronted her.

One of the men pulled out a knife and demanded her bike.

The crime scene on Harker Street, North Melbourne where the woman was slashed

A daylight image of Harker Street where the female cyclist was confronted this morning

Her face, upper arms, torso and neck were slashed as she was ambushed at Harker Street in North Melbourne at 2.30am on Wednesday.

The victim rode her bike about 50 metres and walked to nearby Flemington Road to get help from a bystander who dialled police.

A spokeswoman for The Royal Melbourne Hospital told Daily Mail Australia she remained in a serious condition.

Victoria Police are searching for two males and a female of African appearance.

'Investigators are yet to speak with the woman as she is undergoing emergency surgery,' Senior Constable Alistair Parson said.

Their connection with the African Apex gang is being investigated.
Police believe Queensland schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer was not the first underage girl her foster brother had a relationship with and he was at risk of re-offending with other children, a court has heard.

Trent Thorburn, 19, has been in custody since September when he was charged with having sex with Tiahleigh and attempting to pervert the course of justice over the investigation into her suspected murder.

Justice John Bond rejected Thorburn's application for bail in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday on the grounds he may interfere with witnesses, fail to appear in court.

Trent Thorburn, 19, charged with charged with having sex his foster sister, 12, Tiahleigh Palmer has been denied bail

The 12-year-old schoolgirl's body was found by three fishermen on the banks of the Pimpama River in November 2015

Justice John Bond also denied bail over fears Thornburn can be of danger to other children, The Courier Mail reported.

'I do note there is material  that suggests the alleged offending between the applicant and an under-aged girl with Tiahleigh is not the first occasion he may have been involved in that conduct,' Justice Bond said.

Police allege Thorburn had sex with his 12-year-old foster sister at the family's Chambers Flats home, south of Brisbane, on or about September 26, 2015.

Tiahleigh went missing a month later after her foster father Richard Thorburn allegedly claimed he dropped her off at Marsden State High School on October 30.

Cindy Palmer (centre), the mother of Logan schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer, arrives with supporters at the Supreme Court in Brisbane

Police will allege the 56-year-old father Rick Thorburn (left) took his foster daughter's life after finding out his son (right) had been sexually assaulting

A missing person alert was not issued until six days later, hours before her body was found by three fishermen on the banks of the Pimpama River.

Richard Thorburn, 56, was charged in September this year with her murder while foster mother Julene Thorburn, 54, and other son Josh, 20, were charged with perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Police will allege the 56-year-old father took his foster daughter's life after finding out his son had been sexually assaulting her during the ten months she had been in the family's care.

Trent is also alleged to have given false testimony in June and July to secret Corruption and Crime Commission hearings that were investigating Tiahleigh's death.

Police allege Thorburn had sex with his 12-year-old foster sister (pictured) at the family's Chambers Flats home, south of Brisbane

Ms Palmer attended a bail application for Trent Jordan Thorburn, 19, charged with incest, perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice over Tiahleigh Palmer's suspected murder.

Justice Bond said it appeared the revelation of Trent's alleged relationship with Tialeigh was the instigating factor for her alleged murder.

The family then allegedly hid their knowledge of her death and the father's involvement in it.

The court heard police believed Trent could be at risk of reoffending as Tiahleigh may not have been the first underage girl with whom he'd had a relationship.

Trent's defence lawyer told the court the Crown's case against him appeared 'strong'.

His bail application came hours after his case and his father's matter were briefly mentioned at the Beenleigh Magistrates Court.

Richard Thorburn's lawyer Adam Dwyer told the court he was seeking a psychiatric evaluation for his client before the next appearance, which was set for February 22.
Police have identified the suspect that they say stole $1.6million in gold flakes from the back of a truck in the middle of Manhattan.

The man, who was captured on CCTV conducting the impromptu heist at around 4:30pm on September 29, is Julio Nivelo, aka David Vargas, 53, police say.

He is believed to have snatched the 86-pound pail of flakes when the guard briefly stepped away from the truck, CBS Local reported.

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Caught gold-handed: Police say this man is known as both Julio Nivelo and David Vargas, and that he stole $1.6m of gold flakes from the back of a truck in the middle of Manhattan

Gold rush: Cops say Nivelo (pictured left and right) is believed to be hiding out in Los Angeles. Previously they said they thought he had fled to Florida

Golden opportunity: Police captured the man on video on Sept 29. In the footage he walks past the truck, loops around to take a better look, and stands for a moment, staring at the pail

Police say Nivelo is a Hispanic male, roughly 5'5" inches tall, and 155 pounds. He was originally thought to have fled to Florida, but is now believed to be in the Los Angeles area.

The daring crime occurred in broad daylight on West 48th Street in New York City's busy Midtown area, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

Footage from the theft shows the man walking along the street and then loitering around the truck, which was open at the back.

And when he thinks nobody is watching, he reaches into the vehicle and lifts down the heavy bucket containing the gold flakes.

Afterwards, he is captured on camera hurrying along the sidewalk as he struggles with the stolen goods.

It is believed that the guard briefly stopped watching over the truck and went into the truck's cab to retrieve his cellphone when the theft took place.

The helpers on the truck were busy transporting other goods into a building.

Take the flakes: The suspect then reaches up and grabs the five-gallon bucket of gold flakes, before walking off into the street. The guard had gone to get his cell phone

Gold fingers: The sticky-fingered gent then walks up the street - visibly struggling with the 86lbs of flakes he's just pilfered

Reward: Armored car company Loomis is offering $100,000 for the safe return of the gold taken in the pail (pictured)

At one point, he even places the five-gallon bucket on the ground, to give his arms a rest from the heavy load.

But after a short rest, he picks up the bucket again and disappears into across the street.

Police say the thief lugged the gold flakes up the street, taking an hour to complete what would normally be considered a ten-minute walk.

He then hopped into a white van and fled. Officers say they believe the thief didn't know what was contained in the bucket.

Armored car compay Loomis is offernig $100,000 for the safe return of the gold.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782), text tips plus 'TIP577' to CRIMES (274637) or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.
The coroner found there was a communication breakdown at the NSW

Kyran had a bowel obstruction that doctors did not

A misdiagnosis and breakdown of communication between a doctor and nurses led to a six month old boy dying from a bowel obstruction three days after he presented in hospital.

Kyran Day was misdiagnosed with gastroenteritis when he was admitted to Shoalhaven Hospital on the south coast of New South Wales on the night of October 19, 2013.

The young boy had a bowel obstruction but it was not detected in time and he had suffered several cardiac arrests before he arrived at Sydney Children's Hospital to undergo surgery.

Kyran Day (pictured) died in October 2013 after he was misdiagnosed with gastro

An inquest into the boy's death found that Dr Tony Greenacre found Kyran's abdomen was not distended and he did not have diarrhoea when he diagnosed him with gastro.

A scan of his abdomen was not ordered as it is common for a child of Kyran's age not to present with diarrhoea even if he did have a stomach bug.

The Coroner found that overnight Kyran's abdomen was not monitored and the communication between nurses and Dr Greenacre about his fluid levels was 'unquestionably inadequate'.

Dr Greenacre was not advised Kyran's case was urgent when he arrived back in the hospital and he became busy with other cases as the young boy's condition deteriorated.

A scan of his abdomen was not ordered as it is common for a child of Kyran's age not to present with diarrhoea even if he did have a stomach bug

The inquest found that overnight Kyran's abdomen was not monitored and the communication between nurses and Dr Greenacre about his fluid levels was 'unquestionably inadequate'

Once it was determined he had an obstruction, it took four hours before he was transferred via ambulance to Sydney Children's Hospital but his brain had already been starved of oxygen.

Two ambulances that could have transferred Kyran were delayed as paramedics were on a lunch break.

Experts told the inquest it was rare for children to be transferred via ambulance but as he was in a critical condition his case warranted the fasted transport possible.

Paediatric Gastroenterology specialist associate professor Timothy Bohane told the inquest that the service was 'not timely'.

'[Shoalhaven Hospital] need to prioritise bookings after adequately seeking the facts around each case, particularly when a child is in hospital under medical care,' the inquest heard

Two ambulances that could have transferred Kyran were delayed as paramedics were on a lunch break

Paediatric Gastroenterology specialist associate professor Timothy Bohane told the inquest the service was 'not timely'

Dr Greenacre earlier told the grieving family he 'expressed deep sorrow and regret regarding Kyran's tragic death'.

'You are not alone in your grief,' Dr Greenacre said in a prepared statement.

'Kyran has been and will continue to be in my mind every day. I will never reconcile to his death.'

The doctor said he believed Kyran's death had brought about improvements in the health system and encouraged his parents not to give up their fight for answers.
Only 30 people were sentenced to death in the United States this year, the lowest number since the early 1970s and a further sign of the steady decline in use of the death penalty.

The number is a sharp drop from the 49 death sentences last year and just a fraction of the peak of 315 in 1996, according to a report from the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization that opposes capital punishment.

The group's executive director, Robert Dunham, said: 'We are watching a major political climate change concerning capital punishment and it's reflected among reduced death sentences across the country.'

There have only been 20 executions carried out this year, which is also down from a high of 98 in 1999.

Daniel Wozniak (pictured, right) was one of only 30 people sentenced to death this year

Wozniak killed his neighbor Samuel Herr (left) so he could steal $50,000 and then murdered Julie Kibuishi (right) in an elaborate attempt to fool police into thinking Herr had killed her and then committed suicide

Among those who were sentenced to death this year was Daniel Wozniak, 32, a debt--ridden actor who murdered his neighbor, Afghanistan war veteran Samuel Herr, in 2010 and then killed Herr's friend, Julie Kibuishi, in a bid to fake a scenario of Herr raping and killing her and then himself.

But no-one has been executed in California since 76-year-old Clarence Allen in 2006 and 741 people are now on Death Row in the Golden State alone.

The growing reluctance of juries to sentence defendants to death is one of several factors contributing to the overall drop in executions.

The execution of Gary Gilmore in 1977 was the first since the Supreme Court dropped a ban on the death penalty but executions spiked in 1999 and have dropped in the last two decades

Other factors leading to a drop in executions include shortages of the drugs needed to carry out lethal injection and stronger legal challenges by defendants in capital cases.

Half of Americans still support the death penalty, according to a Pew Research Center poll earlier this year, the lowest level in more than four decades.

Public support for capital punishment peaked in the mid-1990s, when 80 percent of Americans favored it, but there remains stubborn resistance to its removal.

Even Justin Ross Harris (pictured), who deliberately let his son die in a hot car in Georgia, avoided the death sentence and experts say juries are increasingly unwilling to use the ultimate penalty

Voters in California and Nebraska declined to abolish the death penalty in their states when the issue was put on the ballot paper last month.

Ohio and Oklahoma have halted executions over problems with lethal injection drugs but are trying to figure out how to resume.

Capital punishment remains legal in 31 states.

Only five states conducted executions this year, the fewest number of states to do so since 1983.

Georgia led the way with nine, followed by Texas with seven, two in Alabama and one each in Missouri and Florida.

Just five states sentenced more than one person to death in 2016.

California imposed nine death sentences, followed by five in Ohio, four in Texas, three in Alabama and two in Florida.

Indiana still retains the death penalty - by lethal injection on this gurney. But it has not executed anyone since 2009 when Matthew Wrinkles, whose last words were: 'Let's get it done, let's lock and load. It's plagiarized but what the hell'

Mr Dunham said: 'As fewer states use the death penalty and as it's used more sparingly in the states that do, we can expect long-term numbers to remain low and perhaps continue to drop.'

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer last week renewed his call for the high court to consider whether the death penalty is unconstitutional.

Breyer dissented from the court's refusal to take up a Florida death row inmate's appeal.

He said defendants who face death sentences are not society's worst criminals but are 'chosen at random, on the basis, perhaps of geography, perhaps of the views of the individual prosecutors, or still worse on the basis of race.'

Next month will be the 40th anniversary of the execution of Gary Gilmore (left), who was put to death by firing squad in this chair in Utah (right). His case opened the floodgates after a moratorium on the death penalty

So far, only Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has joined Breyer in questioning the constitutionality of the death penalty.

In 1972 the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty after the case of William Furman, a burglar who had been sentenced to death after a trial in Georgia lasting one day.
Three-suspected terrorists were killed in Jakarta, Indonesia, following a gunfight at a home where a bomb was found, police say.

Anti-terrorism police killed three suspects after a gunfight at a house south of the capital where a bomb was found, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

The raid came soon after Indonesian police had said they were interrogating 14 suspects after a series of arrests relating to planned suicide attacks in the capital, Jakarta, and elsewhere.

Indonesian anti-terrorism police killed three suspects after a gunfight in Jakarta. Pictured is an area in Ubud, Bali, where a suspicious backpack was recently found

'During the raid, we tried to be careful but they threw something from inside the house and it was a bomb but it did not explode. Then they fired from inside,' national police spokesman Rikwanto, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, told Metro TV.

Indonesian television footage showed a bomb squad officer wearing a blast-resistant suit entering the house in South Tangerang, as locals watched from behind a police tape.

'Inside the house we found a bigger bomb and now we are investigating it to try to detonate it,' Rikwanto said.

He said one suspect had been found alive.

The raid came soon after Indonesian police had said they were interrogating 14 suspects. Pictured, discovery of a suspicious package in Ubud

Ayi Supardan, a senior officer from South Tangerang police, said that, after initial interrogation of the suspect who was found alive, it appeared there was a plan to use the larger bomb at the end of the year.

There was no indication of any possible target.

As a result the Australian government has heightened its travel warning to Indonesia.

Earlier on Tuesday, Indonesian police said they were interrogating 14 suspects related to planned suicide attacks in Jakarta and outside the most populous island of Java.

The suspects held over the planned Jakarta attack had been communicating with, and received money from, Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian militant known to be fighting with the Islamic State militant group in Syria, police have said. (Reporting by Gayatri Suroyo; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Paul Tait)
Three kittens can be quite a handful at Christmas time.

Michonne, Phyllis and Fleur Bunny are only nine weeks old, but the furry girls are messy creatures.

Katina Balson says their leg deformities, known as radial hypoplasia, create special challenges at her home in Brisbane's inner-west, which doubles as a cat shelter.

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Phyllis, who has radial hypoplasia leg deformities, needs special care to be fed

Michonne, named after a character in the Walking Dead TV series, needs a new cast every two weeks as she continues to grow

'They need to be hand-fed every meal because they are having trouble getting to their plate. They tend to topple over into their milk,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'Hand feeding's a messy, messy job. It takes an hour per feed generally to get them to eat and to drink.'

If it wasn't for Ms Balson and her team of cat rescuers, the kittens would have been drowned on a farm at Millmerran on the Darling Downs, west of Brisbane.

Their neglected and malnourished mother, who had sexually-transmitted feline HIV, was kept on the property to catch mice.

Phyllis takes a nap in her carer's hand after being rescued from a life of neglect

Fleur Bunny, the cutest kitten of the sisters, was lucky to be born without leg deformities

'I get desensitised with the filth of the earth. We just have pockets of country people who don't seem to consider that animals have feelings,' Ms Balson said.

'Out there, it's the wild west when it comes to animals.

'Very, very third world - these were taken off somebody who was just going to drown the kittens, as they do on these farms.'

Her domestic short-haired moggies did not have a great start to life, being born with forearms either missing bones or bones that were only partially formed.

Michonne stands on her deformed front legs at a home in Brisbane's inner west

Ms Balson has cared for them since mid-November and has dedicated 20 years of her life to looking after neglected cats.

Their medical bills are exorbitantly expensive and a gofundme appeal has been set up to help them out - so far raising $15,000.

This is still short of the $18,000 needed to pay for things like X-rays and new leg casts every two weeks.

'Their bills are massive. Each cast costs over $220 and they require one on each leg... while they're growing,' Ms Balson said.

Phyllis is one of three sisters rescued from a farm on Queensland's Darling Downs

Being girls, the kittens are also fashion-conscious.

'They're choosy, those ones. I'm actually having trouble getting their handbags to match,' their carer joked.

Finding a new owner, who would be able to afford their expensive medical bills, is another challenge for Ms Balson, who runs the Cat Cuddle Cafe in Red Hill, as she looks after 19 cats at her home in nearby Paddington.
Jetstar is offering Christmas Eve flights from as low as $79 from the Sunshine Coast to Sydney, giving people the chance to surprise their family for Christmas.

The flight, which jets off from Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast at 6.45pm and lands in Sydney at 9.20pm on Christmas Eve is the cheapest by far, compared to flights offered by Jetstar's competitor airlines.

While the flight is cheap, Jetstar makes it clear the seat comes with some conditions.

The $79 seat has below average legroom - and check-in luggage is not included

Jetstar is offering Christmas Eve flights from as low as $79 from the Sunshine Coast to Sydney, proving it lives up to its reputation as Australia's low cost airline

Below average legroom of 74cm, in a A320 narrowbody plane and no check-in luggage are all listed alongside the cheap $79 price tag.

However it offers its customers check-in luggage for just $15 extra.

But travellers wishing to fly in the opposite direction, from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast have not fared so well, according to flights listed on Webjet Travel - a flight comparison website.

Flights going north from New South Wales to the Sunshine State start from $229 and soar up to $805 and $2,132 for a business seat.
Mr Folwell suffered a broken wrist and hip, and will spend

An elderly woman will spend Christmas in hospital after she was pushed and verbally abused at a Melbourne shopping centre.

Todd Folwell, 93, from Mentone, was walking with her son Neale Folwell in the Southland Centre car park at 10.50am when an unknown woman in her 30s started allegedly shouting abuse at them.

'She looked at my mother and started screaming about old people,' Neale told 3AW presenter Tony Jones.

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Todd Folwell, 93, from Mentone, recovering in hospital after being attacked at a Melbourne shopping centre

Police have released this image of a woman they believe may be able to assist with their enquiries.

The woman than turned and barged between Neale and his mother, knocking Ms Folwell to the ground, before allegedly fleeing the scene.

She looked at my mother and started screaming about old people Neale Folwel, Melbourne

Ms Folwell was rushed to hospital and sustained a broken wrist and hip during the attack.

Mr Folwell told 3AW he was outraged by the woman's 'feral behaviour' and he wanted the woman responsible to be charged over the alleged assault.

'My mother has to spend Christmas in hospital so I think it's only fair that this woman spend her Christmas in jail,' he said.

'I cannot get my head around someone doing something like that'

Southland shopping centre in Cheltenham, Victoria, where Todd Folwell was attacked

Moorabbin Police have released a CCTV footage still of the woman they believe was involved in the incident.

The woman is being described as aged in her early 30s, with a solid build and dark shoulder length hair. At the time of the incident, she was wearing a striped t-shirt and dark pants.

Victoria Police spokeswoman Kendra Jackson told reporters police were investigating the incident and hunting the woman.
if he is convicted on federal counts

He could also face the death

A retired New York police officer has been accused of killing four men 'gangland-style' who went missing after a drug deal went south in April.

Authorities have discovered the remains of the four bodies on a property linked to 49-year-old Nicholas Tartaglione.

Tartaglione was arrested on Monday on charges of murder and conspiracy to distribute five kilograms and more of cocaine, US Attorney Preet Bharara said.

He allegedly killed Martin Luna, 41, Urbano Santiago, 32, Miguel Luna, 25, and Hector Gutierrez, 43, around a bar called the Likquid Lounge in Chester, upstate New York, while conspiring to sell cocaine.

Retired police officer 49-year-old Nicholas Tartaglione has been accused of killing four men who went missing after a drug deal went south in April. Authorities discovered the remains of the four bodies on a property linked to Tartaglione in upstate New York

He allegedly killed Martin Luna (left), 41, and Miguel Luna (right), 25, around a bar called the Likquid Lounge in Chester while conspiring to sell cocaine

Tartaglione then took a 30-minute car ride from the bar to his home and buried the bodies there, the New York Daily News reported.

The four bodies were found Tuesday as investigators used a backhoe to dig up the remains on the 178-acre Eleazer Harding Farm in Otisville, about 60 miles north of New York City.

He purchased the farm for more than $500,000 last year, a source told the Daily News.

But Tartaglione and his girlfriend suddenly moved from the property two months ago.

In recent days, neighbors reported a foul stench that 'smelled of death', as one resident put it, sources told the Daily News.

'While all murders tear at the fabric of our communities, when the alleged perpetrator of a gangland-style, quadruple homicide is a former police officer, that strikes at the heart of civilized society,' Bharara said.

Tartaglione, who used to work for the Briarcliff Manor police department and lives in Otisville, pleaded not guilty.

His lawyer, Mark DeMarco, did not immediately return a telephone message requesting comment.

Authorities said some of the victims were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

'These four men had not been seen or heard from since the day of their alleged murder,' said Bharara, who hoped the arrest brought 'some measure of comfort to the victims' families and loved ones'.

Urbano Santiago (left), 32, and Hector Gutierrez (right), 43, were also among the victims. The four bodies were found Tuesday as investigators used a backhoe to dig up the remains on the 178-acre property in Otisville, about 60 miles north of New York City

Chester police Chief Peter Graziano said one or two of the victims had been involved in some kind of drug activity.

The Lunas and Santiago were all related and Gutierrez was a family friend.

All four men were last seen alive on the afternoon of April 11 at the Chester bar.

Tartaglione joined the Briarcliff Manor police department in 1996 after stints as a police officer in Mount Vernon and Pawling, The Journal News said.

He was suspended from the force in 1999 following his arrest on perjury charges after Westchester prosecutors accused him of lying at a hearing regarding a drunk-driving arrest he made, the Journal News reported

Tartaglione was fired on departmental charges, but he successfully sued to get his job back in 2003 with $320,000 in back pay.

He retired on disability in 2008, with an annual pension of $65,176, the Daily News reported,

Tartaglione also had a feud with Clay Tiffany, a TV host and gadfly who accused him of beating and harassing him on numerous occasions.

Tiffany, who died last year, received more than $1.1 million in settlement money over the ordeal, the Journal News reported.

His father, Nicholas Tartaglione Sr, told the newspaper that his son is 'the best kid in the world' and the charges against him are 'absolutely not' true.

If convicted, Tartaglione faces a minimum of 20 years in prison on each of the murder charges, and could face up to life or the death penalty, prosecutors said.
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Most wanted: Police today revealed they are hunting Anis Amri, 24, pictured, a refugee who came to Germany last year. His paperwork was found in truck's footwell. The driver is believed to be armed and dangerous

A string of security blunders left a failed Tunisian asylum seeker free to carry out the Berlin Christmas market massacre, it was feared last night.

German security services face difficult questions after it emerged that Anis Amris, a lifelong criminal, should have been deported months ago.

The 24-year-old, who has a 100,000 euro reward on his head, was under the surveillance of German intelligence for several months following his arrival in the country in 2015.

He had been arrested three times this year and his asylum application was rejected, but deportation papers were never served and he disappeared.

The Tunisian radical was known to be a supporter of Islamic State and to have received weapons training.

He also tried to recruit an accomplice for a terror plot  which the authorities knew about  but still remained at large.

He was under investigation for planning a 'serious act of violence against the state' and counter-terrorism officials had exchanged information about him last month.

Reports suggest intelligence services might have even lost track of Amri as recently as just a few weeks ago after he went underground.

The potentially fatal mistakes heaped further shame on the German security services, who wasted several hours questioning an innocent Pakistani asylum seeker in the aftermath of the truck rampage, which killed 12 shoppers and wounded 48.

German police are in a desperate race to detain Amri, described as being probably armed and highly dangerous before any further terrorist attack.

There were reports police had carried out raids on two addresses in Berlin last night but this was later denied by police.

Last night it emerged Amri spent four years in an Italian prison for acts of violence and vandalism inside a migrant centre where he was being kept following his arrival in Europe. The prison in Palermo, Sicily, is where mafia bosses and gangsters are locked up.

Tunisian security officials also revealed he was convicted in absentia for aggravated theft with violence in his home country.

A senior foreign German politician today blamed the atrocity on 'institutional political correctness', arguing that Amri would not have been free to act if police had enforced the law.

Meanwhile a European arrest warrant issued for Amri reveals the fugitive has used at least six different aliases under three different nationalities. Photographs show how he has changed his appearance over the years.

Today his family, who remain in Tunisia, were questioned by local police as his siblings condemned acts of terrorism, saying Amri 'deserves every condemnation' if he is guilty of the massacre.

Manhunt: The ISIS killer behind Germany's worst terror attack since 1980 on Monday night has been given an 18 hour head start after police bungled the probe - Amri's blood may have been in the cab and believe the driver is injured

A European arrest warrant from Germany, indicates that Anis Amri (pictured) has at times used six different aliases and three different nationalities. German police were tracking him for months amid fears he was involved in an earlier terrorist plot - but lost him before the Berlin Christmas market massacre

German authorities have revealed there is a 100,000 euro (84,000) reward for information leading to his capture

The Christmas market where the atrocity took place remained closed on Wednesday as the city reels from the terror attack

A group of refugees from the Tempelhof emergency shelter were seen laying flowers near the site of the attack

CHANGING FACES OF PRIME SUSPECT ANIS AMRI A European arrest warrant issued for Amri reveals the fugitive has used at least six different aliases under three different nationalities. Here, four photographs show how he has changed his appearance over the years: Advertisement

Amri became Europe's most wanted man after his identity papers were found in the footwell of the lorry used in the atrocity.

Last night it emerged that Amris application for asylum was turned down last summer because he did not possess the correct papers.

But under a peculiarity of the German asylum system he was granted toleration papers allowing him to stay temporarily, for unknown reasons. He was due to be deported before the end of the year.

The German authorities were in touch with their Tunisian counterparts to get him a passport so he could be sent home. But Tunisia reportedly said it had no record of him being a citizen.

The country has now been accused of delaying his extradition as it emerged new ID papers only arrived in Germany yesterday, two days after the carnage.

He was put on a danger list shortly after arriving in Germany in June last year, which meant authorities considered him prone to extreme violence. Yet just how much surveillance he was under remains unclear.

The German authorities watched Amri for several months this year to try to determine whether he had planned a robbery to fund the purchase of automatic weapons for a possible attack with accomplices. But the covert surveillance operation ceased after the security services could not prove their suspicions, a judicial source said.

In July he was arrested for an unknown offence while travelling on a bus to Berlin, and was later charged with assault for a knife fight over drugs. In August he was arrested for possessing a fake Italian document, but again released.

He had contact with preachers who promoted jihad among young German men who converted to Islam. According to media reports, Amri lived for a time with a hate preacher in Dortmund who is under arrest for his involvement with IS.

He is also known to have attended hate sermons by Abu Walaa, now in custody after being arrested last month for radicalising young men. The so-called faceless preacher delivered online video sermons with his back to the camera, often draped in a black hood and cloak.

The preacher, who is believed to have three wives, had 25,000 Facebook followers and even offered his own app in 2014.

Will the lorry killer strike again? Police and the security services are hunting the terrorist behind the Christmas market attack

Mourners placed flowers and candles at the site while German flags flew at half-mast and Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate was lit in the national colours in honour of the victims

Candles, flowers ans wreathes have been laid near the spot where the lorry was driven in to crowds of people at the market

Link? A Facebook profile in his name shows 'likes' linked to Tunisian terror group Ansar al-Sharia, a Tunisian group with followers linked to extremists who murdered 22 at Tunis' Bardo Museum in March 2015 and then 39 tourists at a beach resort in Sousse

WHO IS ANIS AMRIS? Terror suspect Anis Amri, 24, was born in Tataouine, Tunisia in 1992. The desert town, close to the Libyan border, is a well-known ISIS stronghold. He is understood to have racked up a string of criminal offences - including violent car robberies - before illegally entering Europe with a group of Syrian refugees. A European arrest warrant issued for Amri indicates he uses six different aliases and has three different nationalities. Today Amri's father claimed his son left Tunisia seven years ago and first settled in Italy, where he reportedly spent four years in jail for burning down a school. German records show he arrived in Italy in 2012 and entered Germany last year. Since his arrival in Germany, Amri, who has a 100,000 reward on his head, has been arrested at least three times. In June German authorities reportedly tried to deport Amri after learning he was planning a 'serious act of violent subversion,' a source told the Washington Post. Amri is known to have attended German hate sermons by Abu Walaa, an ISIS recruiter who is in jail on remand after being arrested last month for radicalising young men for the terror group. Apparently Walaa wanted to send him to Syria. But he did not want to, preferring instead to formulate plans for an attack in Germany. A Facebook profile in his name shows 'likes' linked to Tunisian terror group Ansar al-Sharia, a Tunisian group with followers linked to extremists who murdered 22 at Tunis' Bardo Museum in March 2015 and then 39 tourists at a beach resort in Sousse. As recently as last month, German authorities raised concerns over Amri's alleged links to Islamic extremists. Advertisement

Apparently Walaa had wanted to send Amri to Syria. But he did not want to, preferring instead to formulate plans for an attack in Germany.

Another investigator said: 'Supposedly the evidence was not strong enough to arrest him.'

A Facebook profile in his name shows 'likes' linked to Tunisian terror group Ansar al-Sharia, a Tunisian group with followers linked to extremists who murdered 22 at Tunis' Bardo Museum in March 2015 and then 39 tourists at a beach resort in Sousse.

He was in contact with Islamist militants in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and was known to German security agencies, the state's Interior Minister Ralf Jaeger said.

As the hunt for Europe's most wanted man continues, it was revealed that:

ID belonging to Anis Amri, 21, a Tunisian asylum seeker, is found in the footwell. The is blood in the cab and the drive may be seriously injured

Police get 500 calls and insist they could arrest killer truck driver today despite bungling initial investigation. They say DNA and GPS linked to the lorry could lead to breakthrough

Twelve people are dead and 48 are injured - 16 seriously - after a lorry is driven at 40mph through crowds at the famous Breitscheidplatz Square Christmas market at 7pm on Monday night.

Hours earlier the lorry was hijacked from a Polish driver taking steel to Berlin from Italy. Lukasz Urban, a father of one, was found shot dead in its cab. It is not yet clear when he died.

Police arrested Naved B based on a witness description who say him run a red light but later released their sole suspect because of a lack of evidence.

Angela Merkel faces storm over her asylum policy and admits: ' It would be particularly hard to bear for all of us if it was confirmed that a person committed this crime who asked for protection and asylum in Germany'

This afternoon, police raided a migrant shelter in the town of Emmerich, western Germany, where he is believed to have lived.

Amri, who was born in the desert town of Tataouine in 1992  a well-known ISIS stronghold close to the Libyan border - is believed to have entered Europe through Italy with Syrian refugees.

It remains unclear when Amri left his native Tunisia for Europe.

His father told Tunisia's Mosaique FM radio that his son left his homeland about seven years ago, spent four years in a prison in Italy after being accused in a fire at a school there then moved to Germany more than a year ago. Official records suggest he arrived in Italy in 2012.

Citing security officials, Mosaique FM said Amri had been convicted in absentia for aggravated theft with violence in Tunisia and sentenced to five years in prison. No dates were given.

Tunisian anti-terror police interrogated Amri's relatives Wednesday in the central Tunisian town of Oueslatia. It is not known how many family members were present.

Previous: Amri, who was born in the desert town of Tataouine in 1992  a well-known ISIS stronghold close to the Libyan border - was apparently recently arrested for GBH but vanished before he could be charged. He was also found with a fake passport

A wanted notice for a Tunisian suspect in the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin says the man should be considered armed and dangerous

Police patrol a Christmas market in Berlin which has reopened following the terror attack on a separate attraction on Monday night

Security has been tightened across Berlin since the attack, but another Christmas market reopened today under heavy security

Floral tributes have been left at the scene in the wake of the terror atrocity in Berlin. Police are hunting a Tunisian suspect

Grief: Flowers and candles defy the terrorists as Germany looks for hope after yet another terrible terror attack

Christmas shoppers are out again in the streets in the German capital, and Berlin mayor Michael Mueller said it was 'good to see that Berliners aren't being intimidated'. Visitors are pictured sitting around an open fire at the Christmas market in Alexanderplatz

Wanted: Amri was living in Berlin but a police operation is now underway in North Rhine-Westphalia - the industrial region of Germany containing Cologne, Dortmund and Bonn

TUNISIA: THE CRUCIBLE OF ISLAMIC TERROR ATTACKS Once Tunisia was renowned for its sunbaked beaches  now it is notorious for being a crucible of Islamist terror. The emergence of Anis Amri as the prime suspect for the Berlin Christmas market massacre would have come as little surprise to anti-terror chiefs across Europe. The Berlin bloodbath is just the latest in a string of attacks that highlight the role of young Tunisian-born men in orchestrating Islamist terror attacks. On his Facebook account, Amri has expressed his support for a notorious jihadist group in his homeland. Ansar al-Sharia Tunisia is a radical Islamist group numbering about 1,000 people with some linked to the 2015 Sousse beach massacre in the North African country, in which 30 British tourists were killed. The group is ideologically guided by two preachers with British links: one is Abu Qatada, who was deported to Jordon in 2013 after first being arrested on suspicion of terrorism in 2001. The other is a militant Egyptian preacher called Hani al-Sibai, who the Mail exposed last year as living on benefits in the UK. The Berlin attack bears all the hallmarks of the Nice truck attack in July, when Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel killed 86 people during Bastille Day celebrations. Tunisians form the largest contingent of fighters with IS in Syria and Iraq by far, numbering up to 7,000. Many occupy senior positions, including a suspect who lived in Belgium and travelled to Syria who is thought to be the chief planner of the Paris and Brussels attacks. Osama Atar is suspected to be the Abu Ahmad who some of the Paris attackers were in contact with, though Atar has refuted the charge online. Advertisement

One of his brothers said Amri deserves 'every condemnation' if he is guilty of the Christmas market massacre.

Abdelkader Amri said the family 'rejects terrorism' and suggested they would cut ties with fugitive brother Anis Amri if he was found to be behind the atrocity.

He said: 'When I saw the picture of my brother in the media, I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm in shock, and can't believe it's him who committed this crime.'

But, he added, 'if he's guilty, he deserves every condemnation. We reject terrorism and terrorists - we have no dealings with terrorists'.

Speaking from his home in Tunisia, another brother, Walid, 30, revealed he had not heard from Anis in two weeks.

Truck driver Walid said Anis first left Tunisia for Italy in 2011 but 'always wanted to go on to Germany to find work. Three or for years later he managed that.'

His brother added: 'He told me often that he couldn't find a flat In Germany and was sleeping here and there. But during our last contact two weeks ago he said everything was good with him.

'He comes from a family of nine children and always sent money back to us. I don't know where it came from. We live as a struggling family, we live a totally normal life.'

He said he last communicated with his brother over Facebook two weeks ago and does not have a mobile number for the fugitive.

'We are as shocked as everyone else in the world,' he added. 'We have no contact to Isis. I only learned my brother was being hunted over Facebook. I am affected the same as everyone else by this news.'

Sister Najoua said: 'I was the first to see his picture and it came as a total shock. I can't believe my brother could do such a thing.

'He never made us feel there was anything wrong. We were in touch through Facebook and he was always smiling and cheerful.'

Despite an unfolding international manhunt the first pictures released of Amri in Germany showed his eyes deliberately covered, thought to be because of strict privacy laws there.

Police are believed to have found blood in the truck's cab and now assume that the suspect may be badly injured.

Squads of officers have been to every hospital in Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg. They also arrested another unnamed suspect in connection with the terror attack but have since ruled him out.

Amri was living in Berlin but a police operation is now underway in North Rhine-Westphalia - the industrial region of Germany containing Cologne, Dortmund and Bonn. His ID was issued on the town of Kleve close to the border with the Netherlands and Belgium.

The atrocity could be a political disaster for Mrs Merkel, who will seek a historic fourth term as chancellor next year. She has staked much of her political capital on opening Germany's doors to refugees.

HE'S ON THE RUN - BUT PROTECTING HIS PRIVACY PREVENTS HIS PHOTO BEING SHOWN IN GERMANY Despite an unfolding international manhunt the first pictures of Amri released in Germany have his eyes deliberately covered, thought to be because of strict privacy laws there. MailOnline has uncovered unblurred images By Julian Robinson An international manhunt is underway for the new prime suspect in the Berlin Christmas market massacre - but in pictures released in Germany, the Tunisian's eyes are, bizarrely, obscured with a black bar. The 21-year-old's ID was found under the seat in the lorry used to murder 12 people and maim dozens of others. Yet strict privacy rules in Germany mean newspapers in the country are referring to him only by his first name and the first initial of his last surname - despite a public appeal aimed at tracking him down. Pictures of Anis A, who if he is the driver police believe is probably armed, 'highly dangerous' and a member of a 'large' Islamic organisation, are also partially obscured, blocking out his eyes. Media used the same naming method for Naved Baluch yesterday when the Pakistani was held in the aftermath of the atrocity. The 24-year-old, who arrived in Germany a year ago, was blamed for Monday night's carnage but released 18 hours later. In line with the country's privacy laws, German authorities will not fully name anyone they arrest over the atrocity. It is not the first example of full names being withheld during criminal cases in the country. Last month, only first names were released as two Syrian men, Kamel T.H.J. and Azad R., were charged with membership in a terrorist organisation on allegations they fought with a militant Islamist groups in their homeland. A month earlier, a similar tactic was employed on the arrest of suspected ISIS airport bomb plotter Jaber al-Bakr. The 22-year-old, had built 'a virtual bomb-making lab' in a flat in Chemnitz and was thought to have planned an attack against either one of Berlin's two airports or a transport hub in his home state of Saxony, security sources said. He later hanged himself in his prison cell - despite being on suicide watch. Some newspapers even keep to the rule when referring to Austrian monster Josef Fritzl, who repeatedly raped his daughter, Elisabeth, and fathered seven children by her while keeping her imprisoned in his cellar for 24 years. Advertisement

This afternoon, a wanted notice revealed the Berlin attack suspect should be considered armed and dangerous.

The notice, a European arrest warrant from Germany, indicates he has at times used six different aliases and three different nationalities.

It names Anis Amri as having Tunisian citizenship, born in the town of Ghaza. But it lists multiple aliases, many of them variants on his name, and Egyptian and Lebanese citizenship as well.

Amri's home town in north Africa is famous for being the inspiration for Luke Skywalker's home planet in Star Wars but has become an ISIS stronghold for jihadis attacking targets in nearby Libya.

It came as it was revealed the Pakistani asylum seeker held in the aftermath of the Berlin Christmas market massacre was held because he accidentally jumped a red light.

Naved Baluch, 24, who arrived in Germany a year ago, was seized and blamed for Monday night's carnage after witnesses saw him commit a traffic offence a mile away.

Detectives, who flew him out of Berlin and across the country to Karlsruhe to question him, took 18 hours to realise Mr Baluch, who had no blood on his clothes and no injuries, did not drive a lorry through crowds to kill 12 and wound 48 more.

It was only then the security services warned the public that the real ISIS killer was on the run with a gun. Today Berlin is in mourning as police warned 'vigilance' is needed because a second attack could be imminent.

Despite bungling the initial investigation police insist DNA, GPS and mobile phone data tied to the lorry used to murder and maim could lead to an arrest today.

A BBC journalist made the red light claims on the Today programme this morning.

'He was the wrong man,' said a source in the German security services. 'The true perpetrator is still armed, at large and can cause further damage.'

Berlin detectives have revealed that have had 500 calls from the public since Monday night's massacre.

Andre Schulz, chairman of the Federal Association of German Criminal Detectives, said on TV Tuesday night: 'I'm fairly confident that we can present a new suspect maybe tomorrow or in the near future', adding that his colleagues had assembled 'good evidence' and that there were 'very many starting points.

'I have great faith in the police in Berlin and the Federal Criminal Office.'

Schulz claims that the murder squad investigating the first mass terrorist killing in Germany have 500 clues to work from.

Probe: Naved B, a Pakistani asylum seeker, had been detained in the immediate aftermath of the carnage following a tip-off from witnesses who saw him jump a light (pictured with a blanket over his head). However he was released last night due to a lack of evidence

Ring of steel: Armed police continue to guard the Christmas market where 12 were killed on Monday night

Carnage: The area is cordoned off as a crime scene and debris left by the careering lorry remains sprayed across the pavement

Prayers: Berliners cry and pray at the piles of flowers and candles left to remember the 12 dead and up to 48 injured after being hit by a careering lorry

WAS PETTY CRIMINAL RADICALISED IN A JAIL CELL? By Mario Ledwith, Emily Kent Smith and Emine Sinmaz for the Daily Mail As a teenager growing up in a poor part of Tunisia, Anis Amri spent his evenings chasing girls, drinking alcohol and indulging in petty thieving. He had apparently grown apart from the Muslim faith that played a central role in his childhood. But a scrape with the law after making the perilous journey to Europe aged 18 with a group of Syrian refugees saw him embrace religion once again. Relatives yesterday revealed how Europes most wanted man began praying in a possible act of desperation as he spent four years in Italy largely locked up in jail. It was then that his journey into the dark world of extremism is thought to have begun, which led to him fraternising with notorious hate preachers. One of nine children, he grew up on an estate in the small town of Oueslatia in northern Tunisias Kairouan province. Speaking from Tunisia yesterday, the fugitives brother Walid insisted that his sibling was a calm and nice man when he left for Europe in 2011 in search of work. But his behaviour apparently changed after he was jailed in Italy shortly after arriving the following year. We went to mosque when we were younger and then Anis started to drink alcohol when he was a teenager and he had girlfriends, Walid said. My brother changed after he was released from the Italian prison. Before he was drinking and he had a girlfriend, but after he was released his life became secret. He told me when he was in Italy that he was praying again. His lengthy spell in an Italian jail housing mafia bosses and gangsters was for smashing up a migrant centre. Amri, now 24, crossed the border into Germany in July 2015 following his release, and tried to maintain a low profile. He was known to German security officials, who were yesterday forced to reveal how a series of errors allowed him to slip through the net. He was arrested in Germany three times this year alone, local media reported. And despite being refused asylum in July, he was given temporary permission to stay until the end of the year. It is thought the hold-up was because Tunisian officials denied he was a citizen there. Documents proving that he was Tunisian only arrived in Germany yesterday. Amri went by at least six different names and claimed to be from both Egypt and Lebanon. One of his many German homes was an asylum centre in Emmerich, North Rhine-Westphalia, which was yesterday raided by police. His Facebook profile revealed links to Ansar al-Sharia, a Tunisian terror group connected to the 2015 Sousse beach attack that left 38 dead. He is also believed to have known Abu Walaa, an Iraqi fanatic known as the faceless preacher as he has delivered video sermons with his back to the camera. Relatives said they had not heard from Amri for 15 days. Advertisement

The probe centres on the GPS system of the truck may be linked to the mobile telephone of the killer. Fingerprint evidence was also garnered from the cab of the wrecked lorry.

Interior minister Thomas de Maziere this morning shared the optimism of Schulz, claiming that there has been 'real progress' made in the hunt.

Amid claims that police had no idea who they were looking for, prosecutor Holger Munch warned of another significant attack. And interior minister Klaus Bouillon declared Germany was 'in a state of war'.

Within hours of the release of Mr Baluch last night, Islamic State issued its first claim of responsibility for the lorry attack on festive shoppers and revellers.

In a statement, the group's AMAQ news agency said: 'The executor of the operation in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic state and he executed the operation in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition countries.'

According to Michael Behrendt, crime reporter for Die Welt, Berlin detectives were absolutely at a loss over the attacks. 'The police have no idea who they are looking for,' he said. 'They have no weapon, no DNA traces.' He said officers were studying CCTV footage but that 'until they have any concrete information, it's still completely unclear what they're dealing with'.

As her country began to come to terms with one of its worst ever terror attacks, Mrs Merkel, clad in black, laid a single white rose at the spot where the horror unfolded.

The killer hijacked a juggernaut laden with steel to carry out the attack. The lorry's computer system recorded a series of stop-start manoeuvres 'as if someone was learning how to drive'.

Manhunt: Police are hunting for Europe's most wanted man today after they wasted 18 hours questioning the wrong man

Police stand by a currywurst stand at the scene in the Christmas market where the attacks took place

Residents gathered at the Brandenburg Gate last night, which was lit in the colours of the German flag in tribute to the dead

Remembrance: Lit by candlelight, Mrs Merkel signs a book of condolences at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church last night

A woman formed a cross with candles on the pavement near to where the lorry ploughed into the Christmas market, killing 12

The site of the terror attack in the centre of Berlin was last night transformed into a shrine to those who lost their lives

Horror 2016: These are all the terror attacks carried out on German soil in the past year, claiming the lives of 22 people

At 7pm local time it drove around the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz Square several times, as if to build up speed, before switching off its headlights and charging at 40mph into a crowd.

Victims including children were sent flying like bowling pins and crushed under the 25-ton HGV's wheels. The driver jumped from the cab and raced from the bloodbath.

Berliners continue to flock to the scene where people were killed

Already dead in the cabin was the lorry's driver, Lukasz Urban, a 37-year-old father of one from Poland who had been transporting steel beams to Germany from Italy.

He was found beaten and shot with a single bullet fired from a pistol. His cousin and boss said it was 'really clear that he was fighting for his life'. The gun has not been found.

The attacker was followed by a witness for a mile and a half  updating police on his mobile phone  but who is then said to have lost him in the city's Tiergarten park.

On the basis of the description of the attacker given to police by the witness, officers pounced on Mr Baluch near the park's victory column.

Police celebrated the swift arrest, with spokesman Winfrid Wenzel hailing the 'civic courage' of the witness. But relief later turned to helplessness as the authorities admitted they had been wasting their time with the Pakistani, whose DNA was not in the cab.

Mr Baluch arrived in Germany last New Year's Eve via the Balkans. He was living in a hangar at the old Tempelhof airport in the middle of Berlin, which police commandos raided at 4am yesterday in search of clues and accomplices.

So far, six of the dead have been identified, all German nationals.

One of the other fatalities could be Italian Fabrizia Lorenzo, 31, a transport specialist whose mobile phone and travel pass were found in the crash zone.

Of the wounded, 25 are still in hospital  18 of whom have 'very serious injuries'. Twenty-four others have been discharged. The rest were walking wounded. Last night thousands of mourners including people caught up in the attack held a candlelit vigil at the scene.

Overhead: This is a clear view of the path the lorry took through the now-destroyed Christmas market in central Berlin

Close up: The shattered glass on the windshield of a truck shown after it ploughed through the Christmas market. A wreath and part of a market stall was embedded inside

Carnage: The lorry used to kill a dozen people in Berlin on Monday night was towed away from the scene on Tuesday

Respect: German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) lays white roses at the blood-stained scene in Berlin on Tuesday

Brutal: White powder used to soak up blood left by the dead - one witness described a 'rivers of blood' running through the market

Sara Dobler, 26, from Port Talbot in Wales, witnessed the attack, saying: 'One guy was on the floor, lying there trying to get up, but his head injury was quite severe so I just held his hand, told him everything is going to be OK.

'I don't know how he is now but I hope he's OK. It was as if we were in a horror film.

'We tried to get people, mainly families with children, to move away from the area because we didn't want them to see what we saw. It is traumatising.'

German attorney general Peter Frank said it was possible more than one person might be involved.

The atrocity could be a political disaster for Mrs Merkel, who will seek a historic fourth term as chancellor next year. She has staked much of her political capital on opening Germany's doors to refugees.

Speaking yesterday morning, before the suspect had been ruled out, she said that she was 'shocked, shaken and saddened' adding: 'It would be particularly difficult for us to learn that a human being committed this deed who came to Germany to ask for refuge and asylum.'

Horst Seehofer, the minister-president of Bavaria and one of the harshest critics of her open-door asylum policy, caused a storm Tuesday night when he said on TV: 'We owe it to the victims, to those affected and to the whole population to rethink our immigration and security policy and to change it.'

TUNISIAN TRUCK SUSPECT'S DEPORTATION PAPERS ARRIVE TWO DAYS AFTER BERLIN TERROR ATTACK A German regional minister Wednesday accused Tunisia of delaying for months the extradition of a man now wanted over the Berlin market attack, saying required papers had only just arrived, two days after the carnage. The asylum request launched by the man hunted by police, identified by media as Anis Amri had been rejected in June, said Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state. 'But the man could not be deported because he had no valid travel documents,' said Jaeger. 'The procedure for drawing up a document in lieu of a passport was initiated in August, but Tunisia disputed the fact that this person was one of its nationals,' he added. German security sources blamed Tunisian officials for failing to supply documents to allow the deportation of Anis Amri, pictured Amri is the chief suspect in Monday's fatal truck attack in Berlin and a 100,000 reward has been offered for his immediate capture Only after a months-long wait - during which German security services investigated the man for a suspected attack plan - Tunisia came through with the papers, Jaeger told a press conference. Finally, the new Tunisian travel document 'arrived today' in Germany, two days after the Berlin Christmas market attack. Germany has repeatedly accused Tunisia and other Maghreb states of stalling on the repatriation of its nationals from Germany. The subject sparked tensions after the mass sexual assaults in the German city of Cologne, blamed largely on North African and Arab men, last New Year's Eve. Germany this year moved to declare Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco as so-called safe countries of origin, to raise the bar for asylum requests. But the bill has been stuck in the upper house for months over human rights concerns in those nations. Advertisement

There were fresh questions yesterday over whether more could have been done to prevent the attacks.

Europol, the European Union police intelligence agency, warned earlier this month that lone attackers or small cells were plotting mayhem using vehicles as weapons.

Europol also pointed to reports that German authorities were aware of hundreds of attempts by jihadists to recruit refugees.

In November the United States warned its citizens it had 'credible information' that the Christmas markets were a target, while in the UK, the Foreign Office revised its travel advice earlier this month saying there was a 'high threat from terrorism' in Germany.

Islamic State militants had even published a terror manual last month containing instructions on using a lorry to inflict maximum carnage.

Their chilling Rumiyah magazine said using a vehicle was one of the most successful ways of 'harvesting' large numbers of non-believers.

Yet in Berlin, no concrete bollards were in place to protect revellers, with the authorities saying it would be wrong to turn the famous markets into 'fortresses'.

The victims are being cared for in a number of hospitals in the capital. Rene Kochel, 52, is in the Auguste-Viktoria-Clinic where he is being treated for a leg injury.

'I remember buying a mulled wine for a colleague when truck was practically upon us,' he said. 'I remember seeing the wheel of the lorry and me an my female friend managed to jump to one side. The wine stall was demolished and we managed to scrabble away from the wreckage.'

Lukasz Urban (pictured), a 37-year-old father-of-one, was killed in the carnage that saw a 25-tonne truck career through Berlin's Breitscheidplatz Square, which killed 12 and injured dozens more

Fabrizia Lorenzo, pictured, 30, is a transport specialist working in Berlin but her cousin said they had not heard from her since last night

Terror attack chain of events: The polish lorry was hijacked when it arrived in Berlin and hours later was driven through Christmas market crowds. The main suspect was pursued on foot and arrested - but it appears he is the wrong man. Police also raided the hangar he lives in with other asylum seekers at the Tempelhof airport

A young student from Spain survived the terror with multiple broken bones but his life intact.

Inaki E. from Bilbao was at the Christmas market with three female friends when the truck-terrorist struck. Inaki, 21, an Erasmus student, was walking with his pals when the lorry hit the shoppers and the flimsy Christmas huts.

He remembers the lorry shedding a tyre before he was struck. The Berlin School of Economics and Law student suffered multiple fractures - a broken leg in three places and broken bones in his foot.

He underwent emergency surgery Monday night. He was due to travel home on Thursday but is confined to hospital. His parents have travelled to Berlin to be at his bedside as he recovers.

His mum told Germany's BILD newspaper: 'Mentally he is coping well. He said when he lay on the ground waiting for the rescuers he had not really taken in everything that was happening.

'The girls took it much worse than him even though they were not hurt. We have had to cancel his flight home, we do not know how long he will be here.'

The Israeli ambassador to Germany, Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, said that an Israeli was wounded in the attack, a man in his middle 60's who suffered a serious hip injury and needed emergency surgery.

But there is no sign of his wife who was with him and he hopes she is in a hospital somewhere in Berlin.
A Christmas Grinch got more than they bargained for after pinching what they thought was a bottle of bourbon  and getting 750ml of tea.

Facebook user Adam Melbourne put his neighborhood's Christmas spirits to the test by leaving the Jim Beam bottle filled with Lipton on his car in Albury, NSW.

The prankster lay in wait and snapped a woman red-handed as she jumped out of her car to snatch the would-be spirits - just five minutes after the trap was set.

A woman was caught red-handed jumping out of her car to snatch the bottle just five minutes after the trap was set

The post has and thousands of comments, with social media users widely condemning the womans conduct

A Facebook post depicting the prank has drawn 19,000 likes, with Mr Melbourne encouraging users to publicly shame the thief by circulating the images.

We sat a bottle of Jim Beam on the back of a car outside my house to see how long it would last, the post reads.

For the record it was exactly 5 minutes before a car drove by twice then come back a 3rd time & quickly grabbed it.

I hope you enjoy your 750m of liptons tea ya scabby b**** (sic), it looked just like Jim Beam.

The post has been met with thousands of comments, with social media users widely condemning the womans conduct.

Some users blasted Mr Melbourne for the prank and even accused him of breaking the law by setting the woman up.

Mr Melbourne encouraging social media users to publicly shame the thief by circulating the images
A man accused of stabbing his former partner to death in a court mediation room has been charged with her murder.

Paul Gary Turner allegedly attacked the mother of his two children Sarah Marie Thomas, 33, at the Joondalup Court in Western Australia on Tuesday morning.

The pair appeared in court for a mediation hearing when the 40-year-old man allegedly stabbed Ms Thomas in the neck, severing an artery.

On Wednesday, Mr Turner wore a police forensic jumpsuit in the Perth Magistrates Court after having his clothes taken from him for evidence.

Sarah Marie Thomas, 33, (left) was allegedly stabbed to death on Tuesday as her former partner Paul Gary Turner, 40, (right) is charged with her murder

The mother of two tragically died after she was allegedly stabbed in the neck in court

The Quinns Rock father said little and stared vacantly when he fronted court but only nodded and quietly said yes to acknowledge his name and the charge.

He was remanded in custody to appear in court again on January 11, when he will be allowed to apply for bail.

The death has prompted calls for urgent security upgrades, given all courts in Perth's CBD have airport-style security including metal detectors but suburban courts such as Joondalup do not, although there are guards.

The pair appeared in court for a mediation hearing when the attack allegedly took place

Mr Turner allegedly stabbed his former partner to death in a court mediation room on Tuesday

Grieving friends of Ms Thomas have posted tributes on social media.

'Sarah Thomas you were an absolute pleasure to work with, an amazing friend & an even better mum to your children! You are one of the most amazing people I know and I can't believe this has happened to you!' one person wrote.
US Secretary of State John Kerry (seen in this December 7 file photo) said he was concerned about 'rhetoric coming out of Turkey' over possible US role in assassination of Russia's ambassador to Ankara

The United States has dismissed Turkish claims that Washington tacitly supported a plot to assassinate the Russian ambassador in Ankara.

Secretary of State John Kerry said he was concerned about 'rhetoric coming out of Turkey' linking the US to Monday's crime.

'It's a ludicrous claim, absolutely false, there's no basis of truth in it whatsoever,' State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

'Any notion that the United States was in any way supportive of this or behind this or even indirectly involved is absolutely ridiculous,' Kirby said.

The denial by the State Department was prompted by recent talk in Turkey, where officials there say that the assassination was masterminded by an opposition cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in the US.

Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov was killed Monday evening by a gunman in front of stunned onlookers at a photo exhibition in Ankara.

The assassin, Mevlut Mert Altintas of Ankara's riot police squad, was killed in a police operation.

'He (Altintas) was a member of the FETO terrorist organization. There is no point in hiding this,' President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a joint news conference on Wednesday with his visiting Albanian counterpart.

'From the places he was raised to his connections  that's what they point at.'

Mevlut Mert Altintas (left) shouts after shooting Andrei Karlov (right) the Russian ambassador to Turkey, at an art gallery in Ankara on Monday. Altintas was killed by police moments later

Members of a Turkish forces honor guard carry the Russian flag-draped coffin of Karlov as an officer (left) holds his picture during a ceremony at the airport in Ankara

FETO refers to a religious and social movement led by Fethullah Gulen.

Turkey has accused Gulen - a former ally who has turned into Erdogan's top foe - of trying to destabilize Turkey and says his movement is behind a failed military coup in July aimed at toppling the Turkish leader.

Gulen has denied any involvement in the coup. His movement also condemned 'in the strongest terms' the ambassador's assassination.

The government however, has labeled the movement 'the FETO terror organization' and has cracked down on Gulen's followers, arresting tens of thousands of people for their alleged link to the coup and purging more than 100,000 suspected supporters from government jobs.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) is blaming Fethullah Gulen (right), a Turkish cleric living in self-imposed exile in the United States, for masterminding the assassination

Turkey is also pressing the US to extradite Gulen so he may be prosecuted for the coup attempt and other alleged crimes. Gulen, who has been in the US since 1999, currently lives in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.

Turkey has been rife with speculation about Altintas' motive and possible links to Gulen, but Erdogan's statement was the first time a senior official openly blamed the killing on the movement.

Gulen, who has been accused by Erdogan of trying to undermine his rule, was also blamed for a failed coup attempt in July. Pro-government supporters are seen above in Istanbul on July 16

Given Gulen's presence in the US, Washington is brushing aside suggestions that it facilitated the ambassador's killing.

Russia flew a team of 18 investigators and foreign ministry officials to Turkey to participate in the investigation.

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman indicated that Russia doesn't believe the 22-year-old gunman acted on his own, but refused to explain the reasons for the suspicion.
A dairy boss that owes struggling Australian farmers millions of dollars owns a $10 million mansion in Melbourne and spends his summers on a luxury yacht.

Antonio 'Tony' Esposito is the managing director of beleaguered milk brokering company National Dairy Products - which went into administration last month.

Furious farmers are split on whether to accept as little as 5c per dollar owed and try to keep the company alive or push for its liquidation and see where the money went.

Despite his company reportedly owing $4.3 million to farmers, Mr Esposito is still able to bankroll a lavish lifestyle - hosting extravagant parties, driving flashy cars and even having Delta Goodrem sing at his daughter's christening, The Age reported.

Tony Esposito (pictured with wife Violetta) is the managing director of Victorian milk brokering company National Dairy Products, which went into voluntary administration last month

Furious farmers claim to be owed up to a total of $4.3 million and are reportedly upset with his lavish lifestyle (pictured is a $10 million Melbourne property Mr Esposito owns)

While Mr Esposito is open to admitting that his company - which was only launched in April last year - still owes a number of its creditors money, he told the publication his various assets had been bought prior to its launch in 2015.

Despite his company's financial woes, Mr Esposito reportedly continues to host classy parties, drives flashy cars and even had Delta Goodrem sing at his daughter's christening

'I'm proud of what I've done for farmers over the years and I hold my head up,' he told The Age.

A number of farmers met at the Melbourne office of Deloitte last week - which was appointed to handle NDP's voluntary administration.

Suppliers to the failed Victorian milk broker told Stock and Land that Mr Esposito had arrived at the meeting but left almost instantly because he 'wasn't feeling the love.'

Donna Edge from dairy company Wyena Holstein said suppliers were told the company had never made a profit in its 18 months of operation.

'Mr Esposito came in, and walked around the room and wanted to shake people's hands,' Ms Edge told Stock and Land.

'Only two people shook his hand, and the others abstained, and he then decided he would leave the room, because he told the administrator he 'wasn't feeling the love',' she said.

One farmer who claims to be owed money by Mr Esposito's company said the dairy boss had left a meeting held by its newly appointed administrators because he 'wasn't feeling the love'

Mr Esposito admits to owing farmers money, but said his various assets (such as his $10 million home in Brighton, Victoria, pictured) had been bought prior to his company's launch in 2015




Police said they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident

The two young children were still fighting for

The twins - aged 23 months - were rushed to hospital in a

With clear blue water rippling in the breeze and a few boogie boards floating around on its surface - this could be any backyard pool anywhere in Australia.

But in fact this is the tragic scene where a pair of two-year-old twins were found floating unconscious just hours before.

Charli and Robbie Manago, aged 23 months, were discovered floating in this pool in Sydney's north-west at around 7pm on Tuesday night by mother Fleur Manago who was at home with husband Robert.

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With a few ripples breaking the surface and pink boogie boards floating about, this could be any pool in Australia - but is in fact the scene where two twins were found unconscious

Robbie (left) and Charli (right) Manago, aged 23 months, were found underwater at around 7pm on Tuesday evening before a neighbour gave them CPR

Michelle Skevington (pictured) said she had only just done a CPR refresher course when she rushed over to the Manago household after she heard screaming coming from the back yard

Neighbour Michelle Skevington described hearing Mrs Manago's harrowing screams from over the fence before rushing to perform CPR.

Ms Skevington, who spoke to Nine News, said she had done a life-saver refresher course just days earlier.

She said: 'I had an inkling to yell over the fence "are you okay" when I heard the screaming.

'I am pleased my instincts said to me "get over and have a look to see if they're okay." We may have saved those children's lives... I am not sure but I hope we have.'

'We just kept going and going until the paramedics arrived,' she added.

Police say mother Fleur Manago and father Robert had turned their backs 'for a moment' before realising the twins had fallen into the pool

Medics were called to the property at around 7.10pm where they performed CPR 'for some time' before the children were taken to hospital

Charlie and Robbie were still fighting for their lives on Wednesday, paramedics said

A spokesman for New South Wales Ambulance service said medics were called to the address at around 7.10pm on Tuesday where they found the twins unconscious.

The paramedics performed CPR 'for some time', the spokesman added, before the pair were taken to hospital in separate ambulances.

The children were transported to the Westmead Children's Hospital in a critical condition under police guard and were still fighting for their lives on Wednesday, a hospital spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

Chief Inspector Garry Sims said the parents had only looked away for a moment when the pair went under.

'I think those with children are very aware how quickly things can change,' Chief Inspector Sims told the ABC.

'Whatever happens in seconds is a life-changing situation for the families, and you can't imagine the grief the family are going through,' he added.

Police confirmed both children were underwater when they were found.

The children were pictured sitting atop Santa's lap ahead of Christmas Day last year with their four siblings.

Paramedics rushed to a house in Kellyville Ridge (pictured) after the lifeless bodies of a brother and sister - aged 23 months - were pulled from a backyard pool

The children were taken to hospital under a police guard in two separate ambulances

Several officers could be seen at the home after nightfall, with some cordoning off the house with crime scene tape (pictured)

Their parents have not made any comments to media about their condition.

A neighbour said news of the incident had rocked the community.

'Everybody was in shock because they are such lovely neighbours. They are very caring parents... it's really sad,' Elsae Susanto told Sunrise.

An investigation into the circumstances surrounding how the children became submerged was launched on Tuesday night.
An al-Qaeda linked terror group has claimed responsibility for the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Turkey, it was reported.

A statement released by the Syria based al-Nusra front hails the killer, off duty policeman Mevlut Altintas, as a martyr who sought 'revenge for the women, children and elderly killed in Aleppo'.

Altintas recited a poem associated with al-Nusra fighters and yelled, 'Don't forget Aleppo', before gunning down Andrei Karlov at the opening of an art exhibition in Ankara.

Assassin: An al-Qaeda linked terror group has claimed responsibility for Mevlut Altintas's assassination of the Russian ambassador in Turkey

Controversy: Altintas' uncle Hasan Furuncu, left, was formerly the 'regional president' for the nationalist Turk Ocklari group and has been arrested along with other members of the family

Raids: Furuncu was among six relatives arrested after Altintas killed he 62-year-old diplomat Andrei Karlov, pictured, at the opening of an art exhibition in the Turkish capital Ankara on Monday

The terror group's claim that he killed 62-year-old diplomat on their behalf, reported by Turkey's Hurriyet, has not been said by Turkish or Russian authorities.

The document, written in Arabic, describes the killer as a martyr.

It says he carried out the killing on behalf of Fatah al-Sham, the new name for al-Nusra Front.

Al-Nusra are an affiliate of the al Qaida terror group responsible for the 2001 attacks on America and other atrocities around the world.

Turkish newspaper Hurriyet carried a copy of the claim on their website and said the claim had been sent to the Russian media outlet Sputnik.

Off duty police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas, who carried out the assassination had shouted out a poem often recited by recruits to the al- Nusra Front.

He also made reference to the city of Aleppo, which has been under siege from aerial bombardment by Russian jets causing mass casualties.

Propaganda: Turkish media reported that books on the al-Qaeda terror group were found at a flat in Ankara, pictured, where Altintas had been living for the last two months

Terror link: Altintas cited a religious poem used by the extremist group al Nusra Front where he pledged loyalty to the Prophet Muhammad and vowed to engage in Jihad

Hundreds of Turkish fighters have joined al-Nusra Front to battle Russian forces in Syria, according to a report in the Middle East Eye.

Altintas cited a religious poem used by the extremist group al Nusra Front where he pledged loyalty to the Prophet Muhammad and vowed to engage in Jihad.

Investigators are hoping a laptop computer seized from Altintas' flat will shed further light on any links he has to known terror groups.

The terror group connection is just one part of the investigation being carried out by a team of 18 officials sent from Moscow to join Turkish police in finding a motive for the assassination.

Authorities are trying to determine if Altintas acted as a 'lone wolf assassin' or was part of a wider conspiracy.

Russian president Vladimir Putin declared that 'we have to know who directed the hand of the killer.'

He condemned the assassination of Karlov as a 'provocation' aimed at sabotaging ties between Moscow and Ankara and disrupt the peace process in Syria.

Amid fears of further attacks he ordered security at Russian embassies around the world to be stepped up.

Retaliation: Russian president Vladimir Putin declared that 'we have to know who directed the hand of the killer'

Shame: Altintas' involvement has shocked neighbours and friends of his parents in the town of Soke, who defended them as a 'good family' with no political links. Pictured: The diplomat lying dead after he was shot by Altintas

ASSASSIN ONCE PROTECTED THE TURKISH PRESIDENT The Russian ambassador's killer once served as a member of the protection team assigned to the Turkish president, it was revealed today. Mevlut Mert Altintas was part of the presidential bodyguard in the weeks after the failed coup in July. Turkish authorities said the 22 year old, who shot dead the Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov at the opening of an art gallery in Ankara, took part in eight events involving President Erdogan. It has not been revealed what his duties were or how close he actually got to the President during his brief assignment. Trust: It has emerged that killer Mevlut Mert Altintas served as a member of the protection team assigned to the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right with Putin The close protection team tasked with safety of the President is believed to number several hundred. But the news Altintas was trusted enough to form part of the close protection team will concern security forces now he has been linked by Turkish authorities to the failed coup in July. According to the Daily Sabbah newspaper, Altintas was allowed two days leave after the coup. His holiday was signed off by police commissioner Kahraman Sezer  despite a Government order that all leave for police and military be cancelled. Sezer has since been sacked from the police force and arrested on charges of being a member of a terrorist's organisation. Intelligence sources also revealed to the pro-Government newspaper The Daily Sabah that Altintas's education expenses were paid by a supporter of the exiled cleric Fetullah Gulen and his terror group known as FETO. According to sources Altintas became a police officer at a time when the ranks contained many who supported or sympathised with FETO. Altintas father, mother and sister were all detained after the assassination along with two uncles. A further seven people, including a roommate of Altintas, have also been detained as a joint investigation by Turkish and Russian officials is carried out. The investigation teams will be poring over emails extracted from Altintas's laptop computer that was seized from his flat. The police officer called in sick the day before the assassination and is said to have checked into the 50 a night Hotel Best. The budget hotel is a two-minute walk from the art gallery where he killed the Russian ambassador to Turkey. The manager of the hotel today denied to Mail Online that Altintas ever stayed at the hotel. Speaking through an interpreter the manager insisted media reports that the killer had booked into the hotel were false. 'He did not stay here and we do not know him,' said the manager. Government sources had said Altintas stayed at the hotel in preparation for the assassination. Altintas lived in a second floor flat in the Kegioren area of Ankara, a 20 minute taxi ride away from the gallery. Neighbours living in the same block of flats did not want to talk about Altintas. One said:' We never saw him here. I did not know he even lived here.' Police had sealed off the flat while two plain-clothes officers stood at the top of the snow-covered street. The gallery where the shooting took place also remains sealed off with a metal barrier in place outside the entrance. Advertisement

Turkish authorities have retraced the steps of Altintas in the weeks before the assassination and believe it was carefully planned.

The police office took two days leave prior to the art gallery event and apparently checked into the Best Hotel, a budget hotel in the centre of Ankara and close to the art gallery where the assassination took place.

He used his police ID to gain entry to the gallery, flashing his official badge when his handgun set off an airport style metal detector at the gallery's entrance.

Altintas is thought to have told gallery officials he was part of a security details for the Russian ambassador, who was with his wife Marina, and allowed to pass through with his weapon.

Photographs taken just prior to the shooting show the off duty cop standing at the rear of the ambassador while he gives a speech.

Many in the room assumed he was a bodyguard shadowing the man he was supposed to be protecting.

It was only when he opened fire that the guests realised he had nothing to do with the diplomat and dived for cover.

Altintas pumped nine bullets into his target. A further two shots were fired in the air as guests cowered in fear before being led to safety by security guards at the event.

Altintas involvement has shocked neighbours and friends of his parents, Israfil and Hamiidye, in the town of Soke.

Fighters: Hundreds of Turkish fighters are said to have joined al-Nusra Front to battle Russian forces in Syria in the embattled city of Aleppo. Pictured: Turkmen troops deployed to fight the Syrian army in the Latakia province in Syria

Altintas made reference to the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo during the assassination, yelling: 'Don't forget Aleppo, don't forget Syria,' Pictured: Turkish fighters preparing to fight the Syrian regime in Latakia

One neighbour said:' We can't believe that their son has done this dreadful act.

'They are a good family. I do not think they have any political links. It is a big shock.'

Others in Soke were fearful of being associated with the assassin for fear of a crackdown by the Turkish Government.

'He has brought shame on the province,' said one resident. 'We do not want the attention he has brought us. It is not good for us.'

Such is the sensitivity of the murder the Turkish Government has imposed a media blackout on coverage of the assassination.

The order temporarily bans news reports within the country about the killing.

But the pro-Government newspaper Daly Sabah reported extensively on the links between Altintas and the banned Gulen movement which was blamed for the failed coup.

Others in Soke were fearful of being associated with the assassin for fear of a crackdown by the Turkish Government.

'He has brought shame on the province,' said one resident. 'We do not want the attention he has brought us. It is not good for us.'

Death wish: Altintas also cited a religious poem, also used by the extremist group the al-Nusra Front, where he pledged loyalty to the Prophet Muhammad and vowed to engage in Jihad. Pictured: Turkish fighters training to battle Syrian soldiers in the north of the country

Such is the sensitivity of the murder the Turkish Government has imposed a media blackout on coverage of the assassination.

The order temporarily bans news reports within the country about the killing.

But the pro-Government newspaper Daily Sabbah heavily reported on the links between Altintas and the banned Gulen movement blamed for the failed coup.

It claimed the riot police officer took two days leave prior to the start of the coup in preparation for its aftermath.

The paper also said he studied at a Gulen linked prep school in his hometown of Soke and cheated his way into police college by getting an advance look at the exam questions.

It was also claimed his school fees were paid by wealthy businessman Sahn Ilgi who is now on the run over his links to the Gulen movement.

The paper claimed the riot police officer took two days leave around the time of the coup. All leave for police and the military had been cancelled as a result of the coup but the Daily Sabah said his superior office, who supported the coup, signed off on the short break.

The paper also said Altintas studied at a Gulen linked prep school in his hometown of Soke and cheated his way into police college by getting an advance look at the exam questions.

Anger: Russian leader Vladimir Putin condemned Karlov's assassination as a 'provocation' aimed at sabotaging ties between Moscow and Ankara and disrupt the peace process in Syria. Pictured: His widow Marina, left, and mother Maria, right, weep over his grave

Fear: Putin ordered security at Russian embassies around the world to be stepped up for fear of more attacks. Pictured: Karlov's coffin is carried by Russian soldiers at Vnukovo International Airport
Next month Donald Trump moves into the White House and, with America's relationship with Russia at its tensest since the height of the Cold War, he will need to be able to call up Vladimir Putin at a moment's notice.

So it may come as a surprise to many that the idea the US and Russian presidents call each other on a special hotline, dubbed the 'Red Phone', is a complete myth.

Several movies - most notably Dr Strangelove in 1964 - have perpetuated the idea that the White House and the Kremlin have an emergency telephone link which can be used to avert a crisis.

Peter Sellers (left) as fictional President Merkin Muffley on the phone to the Kremlin in Dr Strangelove, a dark comedy which poked fun at the dangers of nuclear war

But NBC News reports that it does not exist and never has - instead the two most powerful men in the world keep in touch by secure teletypes, faxes and encrypted text messages.

Relations between the United Stations and Russia have worsened considerably in recent years as Moscow begins to throw its weight around in eastern Europe and in Syria, much as it did at the height of the Soviet Union.

President Obama's Russian reset policy having failed, Putin has upped the ante by appearing to intervene in the US.presidential election, undermining the campaign of Hillary Clinton, who was promising to take a tougher line with Moscow.

In October it was reported that Obama had warned Putin against using hackers to disrupt the election.

Get me Putin on the encrypted email: President Obama on the phone in the Oval Office

Most people probably assumed the message was relayed by phone but apparently it was actually an email sent over a secure satellite connection.

So where has the 'Red Phone' myth come from?

In 1954, during the Cold War, the US maintained control of its nuclear arsenal through the Continental Air Defense Command, which used special red phones, to distinguish them from ordinary black phones which they might use for everyday purposes.

But in 1963, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, communication difficulties between President John F. Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev - neither of whom could speak each other's language - almost led to nuclear war.

In the aftermath of the crisis, the two sides agreed to set up a special system of teletype and telegraph terminals manned 24/7 by specially vetted translators.

New technology has gradually improved the system over the years but the link is maintained at the Pentagon (pictured), rather than from the White House

NBC said the first test message from Washington to Moscow, on August 30, 1963 read: 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy's dog's back 1234567890.'

The American terminal was and is in the Pentagon.

New technology has led to improvements in the system - fax machines, computers, satellites, email - but the principle has remained the same, that information should be exchanged as efficiently as possible without verbal misunderstandings.

Sometimes the link could go for months without significant exchanges but at other times it was monitored by the Commander-in-Chief and his opposite number in Moscow on a minute-by-minute basis.

In 1967 Lyndon B. Johnson kept in touch with Alexei Kosygin - the Soviet Foreign Minister, as opposed to his boss Leonid Brezhnev - as the Six Day War unrolled in the Middle East between Israel and the largely Soviet-backed Arabs.

Jimmy Carter used it to repeatedly berate and threaten Brezhnev after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Can't we just get along? The relationship between Donald Trump (left) and Vladimir Putin (right) will be crucial to the entire world

Ronald Reagan was one of the most enthusiastic users of the system and reportedly used it to build up a relationship with the Soviet Union's last leader, reformist Mikhail Gorbachev, in the 1980s.

The collapse of the Soviet Union did not affect the system and in 2013 the Obama administration added a special channel to allow email messages and attachments about cyber attacks.

It remains to be seen whether Trump will used the quick brown fox and the lazy dog as much as his predecessors.
This is the moment jihadi parents kissed their daughters goodbye shortly before one of them walked into a Syrian police station and was blown up by a remote detonator.

Footage shows a male fanatic lecturing the two children, seven and nine, about how to carry out suicide bomb attacks before they are embraced by a woman in a burka.

A short time later, the seven-year-old is thought to have walked into a police station in Syria's capital, Damascus, before being killed in an explosion.

With music in the background and sitting in front of a black and white flag, the ranting extremist holds the girls in his arms as he brainwashes them.

Footage captures the moment jihadi parents kissed their daughters goodbye shortly before one of them walked into a Syrian police station and was blown up by a remote detonator

Both girls say 'Allahu Akbar' before separate footage shows them dressed in coats and woolly hats as they embrace their mother and leave the room

Footage shows a male fanatic lecturing the two children, seven and nine, about how to carry out suicide bomb attacks before they are embraced by a woman in a burka

The seven-year-old is thought to have walked into a police station (pictured) in Syria's capital, Damascus, before being killed in an explosion believed to have been detonated remotely

Both girls then say 'Allahu Akbar' before separate footage shows them dressed in coats and woolly hats as they embrace their mother and leave the room.

A short time later, on December 16, a seven-year-old girl calmly walked into a Damascus police station before being killed in a bomb blast that also injured three officers.

Syrian journalists have reported the two adults as being husband and wife and parents to the two girls. They also linked one of the youngsters to the explosion on Friday.

In one video, the mother repeatedly hugs the seven-year-old, named as Islam, and the older girl, named as Fatima.

A man behind the camera asks the woman why she is sending her daughters to jihad when they are so young.

A short time later, the seven-year-old reportedly walked into a police station in Syria's capital, Damascus, and was killed in an explosion at a police head quarters

It is not yet clear who ordered the attack, but there are local reports that her father was a member of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front

She replies that 'no one is young when it comes to jihad as every Muslim is supposed to participate in jihad.'

He then prays for Allah to accept the sacrifice the woman is making

In the second video the man believed to be the father asks one of the girls what she is 'going to do today' before she replies that she is going to carry out a suicide bombing in Damascus.

In an apparent reference to the bus evacuation of rebel fighters and residents from Aleppo last week, the man asks one of the children: 'Shouldnt you leave fighting to the men? Or did all of them flee in the green buses?'.

He later adds: 'You are not going to be afraid because you are going to the Heavens, right?'.

The girl on the left replies simply: 'Yes'.

Both children then say Allah Akbar on the mans request before he starts saying prayers.

A ranting fanatic teaches his two children to become suicide bombers before kissing them goodbye

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed there had been a blast in Midan but said it could not specify the cause

It is not yet clear which jihadist group was behind the attack. The explosion in the bustling Midan neighbourhood of the Syrian capital wounded three police officers, said the Al-Watan daily, which is close to the government.

'A seven-year-old girl entered the police station, carrying a belt that was detonated from afar,' the paper posted on its Facebook page.

A police source told Al-Watan that the little girl had appeared lost and asked to use the bathroom when the explosives went off.

Although rebel groups have fired rockets and mortar rounds into the capital, explosions inside the city itself are rare.

Syrian state news agency SANA said earlier there were preliminary reports about a 'terrorist explosion at the Midan police station in Damascus'.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed there had been a blast in Midan but said it could not specify the cause.

A police source told Al-Watan that the little girl had appeared lost and asked to use the bathroom before the explosives went off

A news report from the scene showed the girl's remains, which had been blurred out by the television network

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that 'one woman' was killed in the blast, but it remained unclear whether she was a suicide bomber or a bystander.

In early 2012, a suicide bomber killed 26 people when he blew himself up in Midan. More than 310,000 people have died since Syria's conflict broke out in 2011.

The attack happened in the Syrian capital, President Bashar al-Assad's stronghold of Damascus.

A brutal battle to retake the city of Aleppo appears to have come to an after a ceasefire and evacuation of residents was agreed with rebels.
A 'loving and lovely' grandfather was beaten to death with a plank of wood after he chased a group of youths who he believed had stolen his keys.

Father-of-six Clemuth Roberts, 58, died just 50 yards from his home in Dagenham, east London, following the incident yesterday at around 1pm.

A 17-year-old boy, a 20-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl have been arrested on suspicion of murder and were released on bail until February.

Father-of-six Clemuth Roberts (pictured with his daughterSimone) died just 50 yards from his home in Dagenham, east London, following the incident yesterday at around 1pm

A source told the London Evening Standard: 'He came out and ran down the road after them. That's when one of them beat him to death. They brutally beat him on the head with a plank of wood.'

His eldest daughter Simone Roberts, 37, a cleaner, told the Standard: 'He was well known and much-loved. He always had a big smile on his face, just a fun person who'd help anyone.

'He was a lovely man who didn't deserve to die. Everybody feels the same - angry, upset and we can't believe this happened to him.

'We're not having a Christmas this year, I've had to explain to my children that everything is cancelled. Thursday is my birthday and I have been asked to identify my dad's body.'

Mr Roberts was attacked and killed just yards from his home on this street in Dagenham

A Met Police spokesman said: 'Police were called to Stanhope Road, Dagenham at 12.59pm on Monday, 19 December following reports of a fight.

'Officers and the London Ambulance Service attended and found a man suffering from assault-related injuries. He died at the scene a short while later.

'Next of kin have been informed.'

A post-mortem examination and formal identification will take place in due course.
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ISIS has attempted to capitalise on the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey by sharing a list of embassies on social media.

Jihadists published a PDF file of Russian consulate addresses around the world online after Monday's attack in Ankara.

Meanwhile, sources have confirmed gunman Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, was part of the presidential bodyguard in the weeks after the failed Turkey coup in July.

Turkish authorities said Altintas took part in eight events involving President Erdogan. It has not been revealed what his duties were or how close he actually got to the President during his brief assignment.

Gunman Mevlut Mert Altintas, pictured, gunned down Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov on Monday

A photo of gunman Altinatas's sister, Seher, in a red t-shirt also appears to show her as a supporter of the president

The close protection team tasked with safety of the President is believed to number several hundred.

A photo of Altinatas's sister, Seher, who was arrested on Monday but released without charge on Thursday, appears to show her as a supporter of the president.

She is pictured on social media wearing a red t-shirt adorned with the crescent-star, Erdogan's name and the hashtag 'seninle', which translated from Turkish means 'with you'.

Meanwhile, a senior government officer said yesterday that the gunman is not believed to have acted alone.

As an investigation gets underway to establish if Altinatas had any extremist links, the government described the attack as 'fully professional' and well planned.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is to personally attend the funeral of slain ambassador Andrey Karlov on Thursday, and has postponed his annual set-piece press conference to pay his respects.

Pictures have emerged of the hotel where assassin Altintas stayed before shooting the respected ambassador, who had previously served in North Korea.

There were also claims that 'terrorist literature' was found at the Ankara flat where he was living.

'Books of FETO and al-Qaeda found at house of the assassin who took life of Russia's envoy in Ankara,' reported NTV in Russia, citing Turkish sources.

He moved out of the flat and into a luxury hotel before gunning down the ambassador.

Hotel Best is a 4-star hotel located in the Cankaya district of Ankara.

The assassin who gunned down Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov has been named as a Turkish police officer named Mevlut Mert Altintas, pictured, who was killed afterwards

ISIS has attempted to capitalize on the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey by sharing a list of embassies on social media. The PDF file shows the addresses for embassies located in Iran and Uganda

Altintas, pictured left, stood behind Ambassador Karlov, centre, as he began his speech before shooting him dead

The gunman claimed the assassination was because of Russia's actions in Aleppo. He reportedly shouted in Turkish: 'Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!'

On Tuesday, a chilling new video emerged showing the moment an off-duty police officer calmly patrols an art gallery floor before pulling his gun on ambassador Andrei Karlov.

Standing tall in a smart black tie and suit, the 22-year-old gives no hint at the terror he is about to unleash in Ankara.

Altintas is filmed adjusting his jacket as the ambassador speaks to a distinguished crowd of journalists and art lovers.

He reaches inside to touch his holster once - but seems to change his mind and clasps his hands back together.

He sways from one foot to another, then slowly paces over to stand on the other side of the ambassador. The side from which he will kill.

Altintas calmly moves again, seemingly looking at the artwork before reaching into his pocket a second time, fiddling for a moment, then returning to his poised stance.

After touching his nose he reaches into his jacket one last time, grabbing his semi-automatic weapon and gunning down Ambassador Andrei Karlov, 62, from behind.

Shots are heard and the camera cuts out.

Russian media on Tuesday reacted with outrage to the killing.

'The murderer was afraid to look him in the eye,' ran the banner frontpage headline on pro-Kremlin paper Izvestiya above a dramatic picture of Karlov with his killer looming behind.

'They did not shoot at Karlov. They shot at Russia,' Senator Konstantin Kosachev said in comments published alongside.

Karlov was at the opening of a Russian photography exhibition in Ankara with his wife when Altintas crying 'Aleppo' and 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest) unleashed his attacker.

The killer had staked out the scene of the shooting exactly one week before, reports say.

Both Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the attack a 'provocation' aimed at sabotaging ties that have been patched up since a furious dispute over Ankara's downing of a Russian jet in Syria in November 2015.

Putin also said that the killing in Ankara was designed to undermine efforts to find a settlement on the conflict in Syria that are currently being spearheaded by Russia and Turkey.

Marina Karlov mourns her husband laying her head on top of his flag-wrapped coffin during a ceremony at Esenboga airport

Marina broke down at her husband's coffin. 'My husband did not do anything wrong, nobody even put any threats against him, I would have known,' she told the secret services after the shooting

The flag-wrapped coffin of late Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is carried to a plane during a ceremony at Esenboga airport in Ankara on Tuesday

In an interview with Izvestiya, the head of Russia's parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, Leonid Slutsky, warned those who try to drive a wedge between Russia and Turkey would fail.

'The main thing is that there will not be a new round of tensions between Russia and Turkey, no matter how much our opponents want this,' he said.

'This was a terrible tragedy, but interstate relations overall will not suffer from this.'

Other outlets were, however, harsher toward Ankara - which state television had portrayed as Russia's top foe in the wake of the jet's downing - pointing out that Turkish authorities had been unable to protect the Russian envoy.

'Responsibility for the death of a foreign ambassador on its territory always lies with the host country,' Moskovsky Komsomolets tabloid wrote, adding that the murder was 'yet another powerful blow' to the reputation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Questions are being raised as to how Altintas, who comes from a secular family, came to shoot dead Karlov.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday blamed the group of exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen for the assassination.

In an interview with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Cavusoglu said 'Turkey and Russia know that behind the attack... there is FETO,' it said, referring to Turkey's acronym for Gulen's organisation.

Gulen - an exile accused of orchestrating an abortive coup in Turkey in July - had earlier condemned the assassination as a 'terrorist act' that left him 'shocked and deeply saddened.'

Turkey's authoritarian government has imposed a temporary blackout on media coverage of the Russian ambassador's shooting.

An online listing remains showing him as a serving policeman on an official database, yet pro-government media have claimed Altintas was reportedly one of some 8,000 fired from the police as a result of an investigation into the July 'coup' against President Erdogan.

The newspapers claim the killer was sacked from the riot police on a posting to Diyarbakir after his commander Kahraman Sezer fell under suspicion.

They also claimed that Altintas took two days' holiday immediately after the coup.

Six suspects including his father Israfil Altntas, mother Hamidiye, sister Seher Altntas, uncle and flatmate were today in custody undergoing questioning about his motives, and whether he was linked to an extremist group.

Late Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov's wife Marina a attends ceremony at Esenboga airport in Ankara on Tuesday

The flag-wrapped coffin of late Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is carried to a plane during a ceremony at Esenboga airport in Ankara

Honour guards salute next to the flag-wrapped coffin of late Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov

ENVOY'S KILLING EXPOSES TURKISH TENSION WITH RUSSIA The assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey has exposed deep tensions between the two countries, despite a reconciliation deal in June. The Turkish government has been one of the main backers of the Syrian rebels since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011. Russia, however, is a major Assad ally, helping the Syrian army make major gains on the ground after launching a bombing campaign last year. Turkey and Russia forged a deal in June to normalise relations, which were badly damaged in November last year over the downing of a Russian war jet by Turkish planes on the Syrian border. President Tayyip Erdogan has in the last months remained largely silent on Russian bombing in Syria. But with Assad and his supporters closing in on a major victory in Aleppo, there have been almost daily protests outside the Russian embassy and consulate in Ankara and Istanbul in the week before the assassination. Major anti-Russian demonstrations have also been taking place at the Syrian border, with crowds crying: 'Murderer Russia, get out of Syria!' Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday joined a meeting of his Russian and Iranian counterparts, agreeing that a truce in Aleppo should be widened. But a Turkish official denied any secret 'bargain' with Russia and said the two sides had 'agreed to disagree' on the key issue of the future of Russia's ally Assad. Experts have suggested that Erdogan's government is walking on a 'tightrope' in its effort to cooperate with Russia over the future of Syria. Advertisement

The assassin's father Esrafil reportedly told police during an interrogation: 'I cannot understand how he did something like that. I am so surprised.'

Police detained Altntas's uncle, who had been working at a closed school allegedly linked to the Gulen movement in the Kusadas district, on Tuesday. He was reportedly previously detained as part of the investigation into the failed July 15 coup attempt.

Gunman Altintas moved to Ankara one and a half months ago and was allegedly living with a supporter of the the Gulen movement, an Islamic transnational religious and social movement led by controversial Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen, based in the US.

The Turkish authorities have acted to crush what they call the Gulenist Terror Organisation FETO.

The government says Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999, created a 'parallel network' in the police, military, judiciary and civil service aimed at overthrowing the state. Gulen denies this.

Today pro-government newspapers linked the assassination to the group. 'An attack on friendship by treacherous FETO,' said Sabah daily. 'A bullet from FETO,' added the Star daily.

But the Gulen movement has refuted any connection, media representative Alp Aslandogan said the exiled cleric condemned the murder as a 'heinous act'.

One theory is that the killer stayed at a hotel in recent days to plan the attack.

A computer and documents have been seized by Turkish police from the family home (pictured) in Soke, 35 miles south-west of the city of Aydin, near the Aegean coast

Altintas's family house is next to an office of the neighbourhood authorities (pictured)

Hours after the assassination, Turkish police arrested Altintas's mother at her home

Details of the killer were soon shared on social media showing him in his police uniform

'GUESTS HID UNDER TABLES': ONE WITNESS DESCRIBES THE SCENE Photographer Burhan Ozbilic was covering the exhibition for the Associated Press. He recounts the chaos of the scene: 'The event was routine enough - the opening of an exhibit of photographs of Russia - and when a man on stage pulled out a gun I thought it was a theatrical flourish. 'It was anything but. Moments later the Russian ambassador was sprawled on the floor and the attacker was waving his gun at the rest of us, shouting slogans. 'He shot the ambassador at least once more at close range and smashed some of the framed photos on the wall. In all there were at least eight shots. 'Guests ran for cover, hiding behind columns and under tables. I composed myself enough to shoot pictures.' Advertisement

Altintas set off the metal detector security check when he entered the exhibition in central Ankara as he was carrying a gun, said pro-government Sabah daily.

But after showing his police ID, he was waved through and allowed to proceed.

Hurriyet newspaper daily claimed he had put on a suit and tie and shaved at the hotel before heading to the exhibition centre.

Before he was shot dead himself by special forces, Altintas shouted in Turkish: 'Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!'

He then warned journalists filming the event: 'Stand back! Stand back! Only death will take me out of here. Anyone who has a role in this oppression will die one by one.'

Amid the chaotic scenes, eyewitnesses reported that Altintas shouted 'Allahu akbar', the Arabic phrase for 'God is great'.

Another theory is that he had been radicalised by a Jihadist group in Syria.

It is claimed he was active in his youth with President Erdogan's AKP party and may have been linked with the Al Nusra Front, a Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda.

In Arabic, Altintas can reportedly be heard saying: 'We are the descendants of those who supported the Prophet Muhammad for jihad.'

According to local media, his words are similar to the unofficial anthem of Al Nusra.

Some reports claimed he said words to the effect of: 'We made an oath to die in martyrdom  it is revenge for Syria and Aleppo  until they are safe, you will not taste safety.'

Gunned down: The Russian ambassador is shot in the back and at least once at close range after collapsing to the ground. He dies of his injuries shortly afterwards

Taken out: Altintas was shot dead by Turkish security forces who responded to the assassination

RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER URGES NO 'CONCESSIONS TO TERRORISTS' AFTER ENVOY MURDER Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday there should be no 'concessions to terrorists' at talks with his Turkish counterpart on Syria, a day after Moscow's ambassador was murdered in Ankara. 'This tragedy forces all of us to fight more decisively against terrorism,' Lavrov told Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu as they sat down together in Moscow. 'For this reason, I very much hope that our talks and the upcoming three-way meeting with our Iranian colleague will allow us to reach agreements, which will through concrete actions advance the settlement in Syria,' Lavrov said, also insisting that they should not allow 'any concessions to terrorists'. Foreign and defence ministers from Russia, Turkey and Iran are holding talks on the conflict in Syria, which has entered a crucial stage with the government takeover of rebel-held eastern Aleppo. 'If the organisers of this terror attack were aiming to derail the fight against terrorists in general and today's meeting in particular, they have not succeeded and they won't succeed,' Lavrov said at the start of separate talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Lavrov said he hoped the countries would come up with 'the most effective and concrete steps' to normalise the situation in Syria and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to desperate civilians. The United States has been left out of the talks in a clear sign that Moscow is attempting to forge its own settlement for Syria after failing to make headway with Washington. Advertisement

When the violence erupted in the exhibition, Altintas smashed several of the framed photos on the wall as others ran for cover.

Witness Hasim Kilic, a journalist for Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, told AFP: 'It happened during the opening of an exhibition. When the ambassador was delivering a speech, a tall man wearing a suit, fired into the air first and then took aim at the ambassador.

'He said something about Aleppo and 'revenge'. He ordered the civilians to leave the room. When people were fleeing, he fired again.

An unnamed witness added to news website Diken: 'There was a single attacker. He was wearing a suit. He said to the Russian ambassador: 'I'm not going to get out of here alive. And neither are you.'

'Then he took aim straight at him. We all ran out. The ambassador was motionless on the ground.'

A Turkish website claimed to show sections of Altintas's personnel police file

Photographer Burhan Ozbilici, who was covering the exhibition, said: 'The Russian ambassador was sprawled on the floor and the attacker was waving his gun at the rest of us, shouting slogans.

'He shot the ambassador at least once more at close range and smashed some of the framed photos  In all there were at least eight shots. Guests ran for cover, hiding behind columns and under tables.'

The assassin graduated from Izmir's police vocational school and served for at least two years in the riot police.

A computer and documents have been seized by Turkish police from the family home in Soke, 35 miles south-west of the city of Aydin, near the Aegean coast, where his father Esrafil, mother Hamidiye, and his sister, Seher Ozeroglu, who works in a clothes shop, live.

Meanwhile, Karlov's widow Marina was reported to have had a 'nervous breakdown' in the moments after he was killed.

As the shooting began she fell to the floor like others in the audience at the photographic exhibition.

She was rushed to hospital, and is being accompanied by the embassy doctor and psychologists when she flies with her husband's remains back to Moscow today.

In a statement to the Turkish secret services, she recounted the horrific moment her husband was killed.

'I was lying on the floor along with the others. There were many people at the exhibition. All of us were shocked with what had happened.

'I recovered only when we were already on the way to the hospital. I think my husband was already dead by then.

'He shot at him 11 times. We did not have any security guards at all. Only an interpreter accompanied us from time to time.

'When we came to the hospital, the mayor of Ankara came too, and people from Health Ministry. They talked together for a long time and later they said that my husband was dead. I was shocked. I immediately felt unwell.'

Ambassador Karlov was a key figure in seeking to forge contacts with opposition forces in Syria, Moscow claimed today.

'This is the man who was in touch with opposition forces, including the Syrian opposition,' said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

'He was initiating dialogue between them. It adds a new understanding to the tragedy.

'He was devoted to peace making, in true meaning of these words.

'He knew how terrorists are born, how they spread their ideas in this region, how hard it is to start a political process.'

The Russian Investigative Committee - equivalent of the FBI - announced they are treating the 'murder' of Karlov 'as an act of international terrorism'.

Today they sent a team of investigators to Ankara to probe the killing.

Vladimir Putin declared that 'we have to know who directed the hand of the killer' .

Putin called the killing of Russia's ambassador a 'provocation' aimed at sabotaging warming ties between Moscow and Ankara and efforts to resolve the conflict in Syria.

'There can be only one answer to this -- stepping up the fight against terrorism, and the bandits will feel this,' said the Kremlin leader.

On the edge: Riot officer Altintas waved his arms in the air as he shouted at the terrified visitors inside the gallery

Fatal shooting: Gunman Altintas, 22, an off-duty police officer, fired into the air before taking aim at Andrei Karlov

The body of slain Karlov will be airlifted to Moscow today, said embassy officials.

'Later today, a mourning ceremony with a limited number of participants will take place at the airport,' said spokeswoman Irina Kasimova.

'Turkish diplomats and high-ranking officials are expected to attend the ceremony.

'After that, the ambassador's body will be delivered to Russia.'

His family and the embassy's doctor will accompany the envoy's remains to Moscow.

Diplomats at the embassy are expected to nominate Karlov for a posthumous state award to be bestowed by Vladimir Putin.

Turkey and Russia are seeking to warm ties despite major disagreements on the Syria conflict.

Ankara has given its backing to rebels seeking to topple Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad.

The Russian foreign ministry today expressed thanks for international condemnation of Karlov's assassination.

'We express our appreciation to all our colleagues and partners for their words of support.

'We highly appreciate the solidarity shown to us,' the ministry said in a statement.

Moscow could seek to extradite associates of the slain killer to face justice in Russia, it is believed.

Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said a criminal investigation has been launched in Moscow.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: 'We are convinced that the main goal of those who planned this barbarian action was to ruin the process of normalisation of relations between Russia and Turkey and to block the effective fight with terrorists in Syria.'

The Russian foreign ministry stated: 'We expect the Turkish authorities to cooperate closely with the Russian investigation to thoroughly investigate all details of this barbaric crime, find and punish the culprits and to take the most effective measures to ensure security of Russian citizens, foreign mission and diplomatic staff.

'The Russian side is ready to do our part in cooperation with the Turkish law-enforcement authorities to bring those guilty to justice.

'The Foreign Ministry expresses the deepest condolences to the relatives and friends of Mr Karlov. The memory of this outstanding Russian diplomat will remain in the hearts of all who knew him forever.

UKRAINIAN MP CALLS ASSASSIN A 'HERO' Ukranian MP Volodymyr Parasiuk said on Facebook that the gunman was a 'hero' A Ukrainian MP today called the assassin of Russia's ambassador to Turkey a 'hero'. His sick comment - posted on Facebook - has caused shock in Moscow. Volodymyr Parasiuk, 29, is an independent MP who is believed to have been a volunteer fighter for Ukrainian forces against the Russians in the east of his country. 'When a man puts his life at stake and is ready to take radical measures for ideas, for truth, then you can definitely say - A HERO!' he wrote. His posting was beside a picture of the gun-toting murderer Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, next to the body of Russian envoy Andrey Karlov. He posted the message in the Ukrainian language on his Facebook where he has more than 150,000 subscribers. The politician is from Lviv and he was a member of the 'Dnepr 1 fighter' volunteer regiment under the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. One Russian reader claimed his remarks were 'twisted and hateful'. Advertisement

Brutal: As Mr Karlov lay dying on the floor, Altintas shot him at least once more at close range

Chilling pledge: The gunman said he would not leave the scene alive as he screamed at terrified guests inside the gallery

Taking aim: It reportedly took about 15 minutes before the gunman was himself shot dead at the gallery

Unhinged: He continued to shout in Turkish and Arabic as the victim lay dead at his feet

Explosive: Altintas turned his gun on others, injuring three. He was heard shouting slogans in both Turkish and Arabic

Anger: A discarded pair of glasses are seen on the floor of the gallery alongside the ambassador's body

Target: Mr Karlov (pictured) was about to give a speech at an art exhibition when the gunman burst in and began firing at him

Fear: As Karlov lay on the floor, the assassin aimed his gun at the journalists and members of the public at the gallery opening

Destruction: The gunman smashed paintings at the gallery after shooting the ambassador

Escape: Guests were evacuated from the gallery after Mr Karlov was shot dead by the Turkish police officer

Shocking: When the violence erupted, Altintas smashed several of the framed photos on the wall as others ran for cover

Terror: Spectators cowered in the corner of the gallery as Mr Karlov was shot at close range by the 22-year-old gunman

ASSASSINATION WAS ORGANISED BY 'NATO SECRET SERVICES' CLAIMS KREMLIN SENATOR The secret services of a NATO country is 'highly likely' to have been behind the assassination of ambassador Andrei Karlov, claimed a top ally of Vladimor Putin. Senior senator Frantz Klintsevich, deputy chairman of the Russian upper chamber's defence and security committee, said: 'It was a planned action. 'Everyone knew that he was going to attend this photo exhibition. 'It can be ISIS, or the Kurdish army which tries to hurt Erdogan. 'But may be - and it is highly likely - that representatives of foreign NATO secrets services are behind it. 'What has happened is a true provocation, a challenge. 'It is a challenge for Russia.' The senator is a member of the ruling council of United Russia party, Putin's vehicle of power. The Russian Foreign Ministry vowed that terrorism would not win after the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Turkey. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: 'We call this event an act of terror. 'Terrorism will not win. 'We will strongly fight it.' Advertisement

'This tragedy obliges us to put even more effort in a fight against terrorism in all its forms.'

The Russian embassy in London issued a statement declaring: 'We are shocked by the repugnant murder of Russia's Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, our very good friend and an outstanding diplomat.

'It was hard to imagine how such an outrage could happen.

'It is a reminder for all of us that no person or country is immune to terrorism.

'Ankara is not far from conflict areas and the diplomats working there have always been on the frontline.

'Mr Karlov's posting to Ankara was no random choice. A person with highest diplomatic qualities was needed there, as regards both professionalism and active civic stance.

'His experience at the MFA and in high positions abroad helped him to make a major contribution to stabilization of the Russia-Turkey relationship and its active development in today's challenging conditions.

'The terrorists' choice of target was not random either. In essence, they wanted to deal a blow to the recovering counter-terrorism cooperation between Moscow and Ankara.

'The assassination of Andrey Karlov is another testimony to the need for creation, in deeds, not words, of a united anti-terrorist front by the international community, i.e. what Russia called for on successive occasions.'

Andrey Baklanov, the deputy chairman of the Association of Russian Diplomats, said the 'villainous murder' of Karlov was to seek to disrupt warming relations between Ankara and Moscow which would 'seriously damage the position of ISIS and other extremist organizations'.

He said: 'There is only one possible response to this violent act: to do what terrorists fear most to all, to fight for rapprochement of Russian and Turkish position, and also for rapprochement of all other countries regarding fight with terror.'

He called on the West to revert to the fight against Hitler in the Second World War when Britain and the US allied themselves with the USSR.

'Today we hear condolences from many capitals of this world, including Western countries,' he said.

High alert: Dozens of armed police gathered outside the art centre in Ankara after the fatal shooting of Mr Karlov

A police cordon was put in place after the assassination, near the Russian embassy in Ankara

Dozens of police officers arrived at the scene in the wake of the shooting on Monday night

A photograph of Mr Karlov was left alongside bouquets of flowers outside the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow

A woman pays her respects to Mr Karlov by leaving a bouquet of flowers outside the Russian Foreign Ministry, in Moscow

VLADIMIR PUTIN BRANDS KILLING A 'PROVOCATION' Vladimir Putin tonight condemned the killing of the Russian ambassador as a 'provocation' aimed at sabotaging ties between Moscow and Ankara. The Russian president said the death of Andrei Karlov, 62, was designed to 'disrupt the peace process in Syria' as he vowed to 'step up the fight against terrorism'. He ordered security at Russian embassies around the world to be stepped up and said he wanted to know who had 'directed' the gunman's hand. Russian investigators will be sent to Ankara to investigate the killing, he said at the meeting tonight. Moscow has branded the killing as a 'terrorist act'. Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin, right, and Alexander Bortnikov, second from right, director of the Federal Security Service, on Monday night Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, pictured, said both he and Putin had agreed they must work together in the fight against terrorism Meanwhile Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said both he and Putin had agreed they must work together in the fight against terrorism as he reiterated the ties between their two countries. Speaking at a special meeting at the Kremlin tonight, Putin said: 'The crime that was committed is without doubt a provocation aimed at disrupting the normalisation of Russian-Turkish relations and disrupting the peace process in Syria that is being actively advanced by Russia, Turkey and Iran. 'There can be only one answer to this - stepping up the fight against terrorism, and the bandits will feel this.' Putin, who said he personally knew Mr Karlov, said he had agreed in a phone call with his Turkish counterpart and agreed Russian investigators would soon fly to Ankara to help with the investigation. Putin added: 'We have to know who directed the hand of the killer. Putin called Mr Karlov a 'brilliant diplomat' and said he had known the ambassador personally. Pictured, the men together in October Advertisement

'We are grateful for their kind feelings but we think that solidarity must be supported with certain actions.

'Unfortunately we don't see such actions yet.

'On the contrary, Western politicians do not withdraw their sanctions against Russia. Is this the right spirit for cooperation with your allies?

'During World War Two, Britain and the USA have revised their approaches to collaboration with the USSR and provided massive help as land-lease in an atmosphere of joint resistance to fascism.

'Today we need Western countries to demonstrate basic decency towards our country.

'And moreover the logic of preventing new acts of terror at the territory of those Western countries demands it too.'

There is now a 'moral duty is to conquer terrorism as we conquered fascism earlier'.

CHURCH BELLS TO RING IN GODLESS NORTH KOREA WHEN SLAIN AMBASSADOR KARLOV IS BURIED IN MOSCOW Bells will ring at the North Korean church that ambassador Andrey Karlov got married in when he is buried in Moscow. Extraordinary pictures emerged the diplomat getting married to wife Marina in the church he helped to build in the godless communist country. Karlov was formerly ambassador to the repressive state, and made sure an Orthodox place of worship was established for Russian expats. Alexander Matsegora, the current Russian ambassador to North Korea, paid an emotional tribute to his predecessor on Tuesday in a Facebook post from Pyongyang. He wrote: 'My friend Andrey Karlov has died. In a cowardly way, he was shot in the back. He was killed under the cameras and I saw his face distorted from pain at the moment of the shot. 'On TV we heard that he was injured and in hospital. Together with my wife Tanya, we sent a text message to his wife Marina who was also present at the opening of this damned exhibition. We told her to be strong. 'And she replied: 'Andrey was killed in front of my eyes, he was lying on the floor and this [gun]man did not allow us to come up to him.''' He added: 'Farewell, Andrey. I promise that on the day when you go into the ground, the bells of the Orthodox Trinity church in Pyongyang - that you built and where you married Marina - will speak. 'Farewell, my best friend, my brother, my dear comrade.' He last saw Karlov in Russia in the summer, when he spoke of his love of Turkey, the country where he was killed. He said: 'We drank tea, he spoke a lot about Turkey. He was already loving it. He invited us to come and see him, he promised to show us some great and beautiful places.' Advertisement




Mugshot of Patrica Meeks, one of the three-year-old girls dependents

Nine people, including five teens, face charges after it emerged a three-year-old girl was being kept in a ply wood box by her dependents.

Officers from the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department responded to the home, in a small town about 65 miles southeast of Chicago, to investigate reports of child abuse and discovered the girl curled up inside the box with the lid shut.

The girl is said to have been kept in the small container, which had dirty bed sheets, a mat and dead bugs inside, during the evenings and over extended periods of time.

The discovery was made on December 14 and Patricia Meeks, 18, Donna Short, 42 and Christopher Short, 25, have been charged with child neglect.

A further six people, including five teenagers, were charged with failure to report child abuse.

Sheriff Jeffrey Richwine shows the box to a film crew. The girl is said to have been kept in the small container, that had dirty bed sheets, a mat and dead bugs inside

On Tuesday, Sheriff Jeffrey Richwine said he couldn't believe a child would be kept in such abhorrent conditions and that it was the worst case of child abuse he could recall.

'Never seen anything like this,' Richwine told WNDU.

'You go there and think, "Hopefully this is not true. Nobody's going to have a small girl in a box, that's just not going to happen." And you go there, when they say it, you just don't believe it. You're thinking, "My God, who would do this?"'

Richwine also said he believes that the box was sometimes locked from the outside so the occupant couldn't get out.

The inside of the box contained a bed sheet, a mat and some dead bugs in the corner

He said he also worries that the child could end up back in the hands of the same family members who kept her in the container.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has voiced his delight after reportedly overseeing two military drills, amid fears the secretive state is gearing itself for war.

The leader watched multiple rocket launchers fired, followed by a night exercise carried out by fighter pilots - with state media reporting that he clapped his hands and smiled as pilots hit their targets in the drill.

Kim was shown that the country's air force is prepared to be called into action, and praised the fighters at the controls of the planes.

Kim Jong-un reportedly smiled and clapped his hands after watching the exercises in North Korea

He met pilots during the nighttime drill, which was called unexpectedly to test how well the air force could respond to threats

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) - a mouthpiece for the despot's regime - reports that Kim said: 'As I emphasized whenever watching the rehearsal of fighter pilots, the battle for defending the territorial air of the country is not fought, depending on weather or time, and a modern warfare is waged in the worst conditions.

'It is, therefore, necessary to fully prepare the fighter pilots as able airmen and all-round ones capable of successfully carrying out any aerial combat duty in any adversity by conducting similar drill in the future.'

Members of the air force were not told the drill would be happening, in order to test how quickly they could respond, KCNA reports.

Members of the air force were not told the drill would be happening, in order to test how quickly they could respond

A picture released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency shows Kim Jong-un overseeing a night assault combat drill

The leader stated: 'Thanks to the death-defying corps of the airmen possessed of the indomitable spirit of defending the country and the self-blasting spirit, the sky of the country will always remain azure.'
The Church of England is institutionally racist and does not respect ethnic minorities, the chaplain of the House of Commons has said.

The Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin said the church was failing to reflect British society and must change.

The Jamaican-born chaplain insisted lessons could be learned from Pentecostalism, which is thriving and has prominent black leadership.

The Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, chapain to Commons Speaker John Bercow, said the church was failing to reflect British society and must change

The comments come after the Rev Prebendary Dr Woyin Karowei Dorgu was appointed as the next Bishop of Woolwich - the first black man to be made a bishop in 20 years.

In an interview with the BBC, Mrs Hudson-Wilkin said she thought ethnic minorities were 'visible yet invisible'.

'I do not believe that the Church recognises that we are there,' she said.

'With my hand on my heart, I do not believe that the Church respects and embraces its minority ethnic membership.'

Asked if she was describing the elements of institutional racism, Mrs Hudson-Wilkin said: 'I suspect that I am.'

She added: 'It's really a heavy burden to say that because that is the Church that I belong to, that is the Church that I love, but if someone else can genuinely give me another rationale as to why we are not there in senior leadership roles within the Church, then I'm prepared to consider it.'

Mrs Hudson-Wilkin said young people are attracted to Pentecostalism because of the diversity of its leadership.

'Not only are there black leadership in the Pentecostal churches, but we see that here are lots of young people in those churches,' she said.

'Those young people see reflections of themselves. They are able to say 'I belong'.

'They cannot see those reflections of themselves within the Church of England.'
Meet the newest baby bottlenose dolphin that's making a splash at Sea World.

Little Dusty, born on December 7, is already a strong swimmer at the Dolphin Beach enclosure at the Gold Coast park.

But the baby boy bottlenose will never know what it's like to swim in the ocean, born in captivity - the open waters are just too dangerous.

Meet the newest baby bottlenose dolphin Dusty, who's making a splash at Sea World on the Gold Coast (pictured with mum Lexi)

Sea World was excited to announce the arrival of the male baby bottlenose dolphin, weighing approximately 15 kilograms and measuring 95cm in length

Dusty will instead grow up at Sea World with his mother Lexi, who was also born in captivity.

Sea World Marine Mammal Supervisor, Andy Mulville said it was wonderful to have a new dolphin calf.

He added that for a female dolphin to give birth and nurture their young is extremely enriching.

'Jinx is a first-time mother and she is doing a wonderful job of caring and nurturing for the young calf who is also the first male born at the park in nine years,' he said.

'He is a very energetic calf and has been starting to develop his personality as he cheekily follows mum around the lagoon.'

Mr Mulville added that the Sea World dolphins play a vital role in raising awareness of the threats facing the species in the wild.

Jinx is a first-time mother and she is doing a 'wonderful job of caring and nurturing for the young calf'

Dusty is the first male dolphin born at the park in nine years
for HIV and hepatitis C after they began their relationship

The Adelaide man contacted his girlfriend, then 15, who he met on

A man with HIV and hepatitis C who breached a child protection order by contacting his underage girlfriend he met on Facebook has avoided jail.

Adelaide's Brandon James Wilkins, 20, was sentenced in the South Australian District Court on Wednesday over his relationship with the then-15-year-old girlfriend, who he dated for more than a year.

During sentencing the court heard Mr Wilkins continued to see the girl after a child protection order was issued, reports Adelaide Advertiser.

A man with HIV and hepatitis C breached a child protection order by contacting his underage girlfriend who he met on Facebook

Judge Simon Stretton told the court the circumstances of the case were 'unusual' since his sexually transmitted diseases only came to light after they began their relationship.

'The matter only came to light when soon after commencing your relationship with the victim she began to have issues which prompted you to both attend Shine  a sexual health clinic,' he said.

After Mr Wilkins tested positive for HIV and hepatitis C, The Department of Education and Child Development interned with the protection order in October 2015.

'Your conduct posed a risk to the victim, not withstanding that you were boyfriend and girlfriend at the time and it was a consensual relationship,' judge Stretton said.

Wilkins previously pleaded guilty to two counts of contravening a direction not to communicate with a child and one count each of contravening a direction not to harbour or conceal a child and having sexual intercourse with a person under 17.

Judge Stretton suspended a four-month prison term on condition of a 12-month good behaviour bond.
hite House foreign policy adviser and spy historian have also resigned

A Russian Formula One tycoon has been indirectly financing a Cambridge intelligence forum resulting in an ex-MI6 chief to cut ties with the group.

Last week it was revealed Sir Richard Dearlove and two other intelligence experts would no longer be attending meetings at the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar over fears of Russian infiltration.

The discovery that Andrey Cheglakov, a Russian mathematician and businessman who ran the Marussia Formula One team, was indirectly financing the group reportedly led to Sir Dearlove's departure, reports The Times.

The discovery that billionaire Andrey Cheglakov (pictured), a Russian mathematician and businessman who ran the Marussia Formula One team, has reportedly led three intelligence experts to sever ties with the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar

Sir Richard Dearlove (left) has severed ties with the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar - a forum for spy researchers and former employees in the field to meet. The highly respected group was set up by MI5's official historian, Christopher Andrew (right)

Former White House senior foreign policy adviser Stefan Halper and top espionage historian Peter Martland have also left.

They are said to have fears the group has been infiltrated by Russian spies who want to influence its direction.

A source told The Times the three men were, 'simply not prepared to take Russian money.'

They added: 'You don't get to have a couple of billion pounds and live in Moscow without being broadly acceptable to Putin  so there is an issue.'

It is believed 2,000 was donated to the group by Veruscript, an academic publishing company run by Gleb Cheglakov - a Cambridge graduate student and the son of billionaire Andrey Cheglakov.

The money was used to pay for room hire and refreshments at the weekly intelligence seminar held in Corpus Christi College in Cambridge.

The senior Cheglakov injected 2 million into Veruscript when it launched but a company spokesman claimed he is 'not at all involved in running the business'.

Mr Halper, who worked for presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan, said he had stepped down due to 'unacceptable Russian influence on the group', the Financial Times reported.

It is feared Russian security teams want to take control of the group's weekly discussions on highly sensitive material held in Corpus Christi college (pictured)

The highly respected group was set up by MI5's official historian, Christopher Andrew.

High profile Whitehall guests have attended including Sir Simon Fraser, the former permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office. President-elect Donald Trump's choice for US national security adviser, Mike Flynn, has also taken part in discussions.

Sir Richard, Mr Halper and Mr Martland fear a new publishing house, Veruscript, which has funded some of the seminar's costs and an intelligence journal, could be run by Russian spies.

Russian security teams may want to take control of the group's weekly discussions on highly sensitive material held in Corpus Christi college, it is feared.

The three resigned before the Autumn term. Sir Richard confirmed his resignation, but declined to comment further.

Veruscript, which is owned by Gleb Cheglakov (left) is sponsoring the weekly intelligence seminar held in Corpus Christi College in Cambridge which was regularly attended by the former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove

The FT said Mr Martland did not respond to a request for comment. The paper has been unable to independently substantiate their claims.

Prof Andrew rubbished claims the group had links to Russian spies. He said his resignation in the spring was not related to the infiltration allegations.

Editor-in-chief of the new journal, Neil Kent, said the Russian spy allegations were 'inconceivable'.

Russian physicist, Gleb Cheglako, who set up Veruscript said it was founded using family money. He added it would be editorially independent of the organisation which runs it, AGC Partners.

It has helped fund The Journal of Intelligence and Terrorism Studies, although Mr Kent said different funding sources would be required in the future to keep the 50,000 a year publication afloat.

In the 1930s a group Cambridge students were recruited by Russia as spies. The group, known as the Cambridge Five, included Kim Philby and Guy Burgess.

Russian President Vladimir Putin watches the launch of a missile during naval exercises in Russia's Arctic North

British intelligence material was sent to the Russians to boost the communist cause.

The fears of new Kremlin influence come amidst concern Russian is targeting Britain.

Whitehall officials believe Russia to be undertaking a programme of misinformation and unconventional warfare in an effort to undermine the UK.

Prime Minister Theresa May is due to chair a National Security Council summit in the near future as Government officials consider a plan of action in response to Moscow.

According to The Times, the increasing threat from the Kremlin was first discussed by the Cabinet Office in October.

It is feared Russian tactics may include the discrediting of British troops due to be deployed in Estonia next year through sham pub brawls and traffic accidents.

Britain is sending tanks, drones and 800 troops to Estonia as part of the biggest military build-up on Russia's borders since the Cold War.
A state government multicultural agency has come under fire after sending out 'Festive Greetings' via email without any mention of Christmas.

The Victorian Multicultural Commission decided to wrap up the year with an 'inclusive' message for everyone, including those who don't celebrate Christmas.

'Festive Greetings. Wishing you a peaceful holiday season and a wonderful New Year,' the message read, which was sent out this week.

The Victorian Multicultural Commission decided to wrap up the year with an 'inclusive' message for everyone, including those who don't celebrate Christmas

VMC chairwoman Helen Kapalos said the inclusive message was an unanimous vote by her culturally diverse office. On Wednesday, she took to Twitter to wish everyone a 'Merry Xmas'

But Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said he was outraged the agency could not simply wish a 'Happy Christmas' despite celebrating other religious festivals every year.

'They put out Happy Hanukkah (Jewish), Happy Divali (Hindu), Happy Ramadan (Islamic), and that's fine,' he told The Herald Sun.

'But the fact they won't even recognise Christmas is just insulting to Christians. We shouldn't be scared of celebrating every religious festival, but especially Christmas'.

VMC chairwoman Helen Kapalos said the inclusive message was an unanimous vote by her culturally diverse office.

'This is not just another religious holiday, it is the defining holiday season for all citizens and for that I will not apologise,' she told the publication.

On Wednesday, Ms Kapalos tweeted: 'A Merry Xmas to all Victorians & a peaceful break. Because it's ok to be inclusive #holidaysforall.'

The latest lack of Christmas cheer comes after a furious Immigration Minister Peter Dutton (pictured) slammed a school for replacing traditional carols for more secular songs

The latest lack of Christmas cheer comes after a furious Immigration Minister Peter Dutton slammed a school for replacing traditional carols for more secular songs.

He revealed on the airwaves his 'blood was boiling' after learning there was 'not one Christmas carol' at a Queensland school.
Boris Johnson is facing the prospect of an official investigation into whether he broke the ministerial code by promoting his book during an official trip to Serbia.

The Foreign Secretary discussed his biography of Winston Churchill and signed copies at a bookshop in Belgrade during a two-day diplomatic visit last month.

Now Labour has written to the Prime Minister demanding a probe into his conduct.

The ministerial code bans ministers from promoting private interests on official government business.

The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson discussed his book about Winston Churchill and signed copies at a bookshop in Belgrade during a two-day diplomatic visit last month

It states that 'no conflict arises, or appears to arise, between their public duties and their private interests'.

In his letter to the PM, Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Andrew Gwynne wrote: 'In light of the Foreign Secretary's conduct during a ministerial visit to Serbia, I request that the incident be investigated to determine as soon as possible if a breach of the ministerial code has taken place.'

The bookshop tweeted a photo of Mr Johnson with his book The Churchill Factor on display.

Mr Johnson's aides denied it was a promotional event and said it was a meeting about press freedoms and he had not wanted to be rude when the bookshop owner asked for a signed copy.

His spokesman said it was 'completely wrong' to claim he was trying to publicise his book during the trip.

But Labour said it was the latest example of the Foreign Secretary overstepping the mark and even suggested he should be sacked.

Boris Johnson was on a two-day diplomatic visit last month when he met Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, pictured right, in the capital Belgrade

Another picture emerged of Boris Johnson showing off his book in Pakistan

Shadow Business Secretary Clive Lewis said: 'Once again, Boris Johnson's conduct has raised questions on his ability to represent Britain internationally, let alone hold the office of foreign secretary.'

He added: 'It is not acceptable that on Armistice Day this year, Boris used a state visit as an opportunity for self-promotion.

'I echo Andrew's calls for this incident to be investigated, and if found to be a breach of the ministerial code, the prime minister needs to consider Boris's future in his post as foreign secretary.'

A spokesman for Mr Johnson said: 'The Serbian newspaper making the suggestion this was a promotional event is simply wrong and wasn't even at the event.

'We have said before that this was not a promotional event and we made that request very clear in advance of the trip.
A canoeist has been found dead as thousands of people are without power tonight after severe thunderstorms and hail battered Queensland.

A 49-year-old was found dead on a riverbank near Mt Archer, to the north of Brisbane, after apparently falling out of his canoe just before the storm hit.

Paramedics said a member of the public had called to say the man had fallen into a river, but by the time they arrived he was already dead.

More than 2,000 people in Brisbane have been left without power on Wednesday night after a severe storm passed through the west of the city (pictured, Sandgate Beach)

The Bureau of Meteorology said two storm cells combined to the west of Brisbane near Ipswich before moving north toward Esk (pictured, Brisbane airport)

Hundreds of lightning strikes were seen across Queensland, while the town of Marburg was hit with hailstones the size of grapes (pictured, the town of Caboolture)

The man was killed as two storm cells converged to the south of Brisbane before moving north, unleashing rain, hail, high winds and lightning.

The Bureau of Meteorology had earlier issued severe thunderstorm warnings for Ipswich, Esk, western Brisbane and much of Moreton Bay.

By Wednesday night the majority of these warnings had been lifted, though Brisbane residents were told to be careful for the odd storm cell still lurking to the west.

Severe thunderstorms are classed as any storm that could cause large hail, damaging winds, rain with the potential for flash flooding, or tornadoes.

Trees were torn down in Riverview (left), a town near Ipswich, though it wasn't all bad news as those in Prenzlau found a novel use for hailstones (right)

Most severe weather warnings had been lifted by Wednesday night as the storms passed out to sea (pictured, lighting off the coast of Queensland)

Storm cells created dramatic skies throughout Queensland on Wednesday as they passed, such as this view in Caloundra

Storms hit Queensland as the Top End continues to be drenched by monsoon showers stretching from Darwin down to Channel Point.

Drivers are being asked to take care on the slippery road surface, and to avoid driving into waters caused by flash flooding.

Meanwhile Western Australia is bracing for the arrival of cyclone Yvette, which has now formed in the Indian Ocean and is tracking back toward land.
Ministers are heading for a furious clash with EU judges after a ruling that could undermine the so-called 'snoopers' charter'.

The European Court of Justice has backed a challenge to the 'general and indiscriminate retention' of emails - potentially wrecking the government's plans to step up surveillance to counter terrorists.

The case is an embarrassing setback for Theresa May - especially as her Brexit Secretary David Davis was originally one of those involved in taking on the UK authorities.

Brexit Secretary David Davis was originally one of those involved in the legal challenge against the UK authorities

He withdrew from the challenge - also supported by Labour's Tom Watson and campaign group Liberty - after being appointed to Mrs May's top team.

The High Court had already found against the government but ministers appealed to the ECJ.

The case concerns the powers to force internet companies to harvest and retain large amounts of communications information, contained in the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (Dripa) 2014.

The legislation has since been replaced by the Investigatory Powers Act, which came into force this autumn.

Supporters say the powers are crucial for intelligence services to monitor potential terror suspects. The former head of MI5, Lord Evans of Weardale, said even if the UK was not directly affected the ruling could leave us more vulnerable to attacks.

'The intelligence agencies work very closely with colleagues in the police and anything that impacts on their operational effectiveness would be a concern and could leave us more vulnerable to attacks such as those we have seen only too frequently in recent months elsewhere in Europe, including that in Berlin.'

The judges were asked to consider whether EU standards on data retention had to be respected by member states in domestic law.

The court said today: 'With respect to retention, the retained data, taken as a whole, is liable to allow very precise conclusions to be drawn concerning the private lives of the persons whose data has been retained.'

The decision on the principle could open the door to legal challenges against the Investigatory Powers Act.

The result, though significant, could eventually prove academic once the UK has withdrawn from the EU and the ECJ no longer has judicial authority over the UK.

The challenge was also supported by Labour's Tom Watson (pictured) and campaign group Liberty

Mr Watson, Labour's Deputy Leader, said: 'This ruling shows it's counter-productive to rush new laws through Parliament without proper scrutiny.

'At a time when we face a real and ever-present terrorist threat, the security forces may require access to personal information none of us would normally hand over. That's why it's absolutely vital that proper safeguards are put in place to ensure this power is not abused, as it has been in the recent past.
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A family have been left homeless at Christmas after their 865,000 cottage burnt to the ground just three days after they moved in when they lit a wood burner and it set fire to the thatched roof.

The Purdy family from Hertfordshire had barely settled into their 400-year-old Grade II-listed dream home when it was razed to the ground by the blaze earlier this month.

The family had wanted to warm up the five-bedroom property so lit their wood-burner for the first time just days after moving in.

The Purdy family, who have been left homeless after their 865,000 thatched cottage burnt to the ground just three days after they moved in

Paul and Sophie Purdy with their children Oliver and Sophie have now been left homeless by the blaze, which was sparked after the family lit a wood burner in the property for the first time, which set fire to the thatched roof

Father Paul Purdy holds one-year-old daughter Madeleine as they survey the damage to their home in Great Hormead, Hertfordshire

Mother Sophie Purdy and daughter Madeleine peer through the window of their destroyed house. After the thatched roof caught fire, the flames spread throughout the cottage, which burned for hours

Mrs Purdy, pictured, sits on the debris outside the home. She has spoken of the family's devastation saying that they have lost everything, although they managed to salvage some pictures of the children

But the thatched roof caught fire and flames spread throughout the cottage, which burned for hours.

Emergency services rushed to the scene and fire crews battled to save Hormead Cottage in Great Hormead in Hertfordshire.

But they were unable to salvage the home and now police sergeant Paul Purdy, 38, his wife Sophie, 32 and their children Oliver, three, and one-year-old Madeleine, are now homeless for Christmas.

Mrs Purdy said: 'We are absolutely devastated and have lost everything. Fortunately we managed to rescue portraits of the children.

'The house had stood in the village for 400 years, but only a few days after we move in, it burns down, so we feel pretty unlucky.

The property before the fire. The Purdy family paid 865,000 for the home after seeing the property describing the cottage as their 'dream home'

Firefighters try to douse the flames after the fire was sparked earlier this month. At first they thought they could stop the fire but it quickly spread

Firefighters raced to the scene after the blaze erupted on December 1, pictured, but despite their best efforts, they were unable to save the house

The front of the cottage in the immediate aftermath of the fire showing the ruins and the burned remains of the thatched roof

'We have not heard back from the insurance company yet but we are hoping to rebuild once we are able to.

'Although it was the worst day of our lives, it was one of the best days for Oliver, as he loved seeing all the fire engines and even got to sit in one.

'He does keep talking about his new room though, and we don't really have the heart to tell him that he doesn't have a room any more.

'We are now basically homeless, and have been forced to stay at a hotel until we sort something out.'

The Purdys first spotted the five-bedroom cottage six months ago and fell in love with the property.

The couple, who have been together for 14 years, then moved from their four-bedroom semi-detached house in Stotfold, Bedfordshire at the end of November.

Now the 400-year-old cottage is just a shell of its former self and the thatched roof on top has been completely destroyed and no longer exists

Although the chimney, pictured, still stands, the walls around it collapsed in the fire. Since then, people in the local community have created a fundraising page to help support the family in their hour of need

A spokesman for Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue confirmed that the fire at the beginning of this month is being ruled as accidental. Pictured are the front rooms, which have been completely destroyed

It is not known how the fire started, the fire service service has ruled it as accidental. It began in the middle of the house's three chimney in a snug.

The blaze was discovered by Mr Purdy when he noticed smoke in the garden at around lunch, shortly after the couple lit the fire.

Mrs Pury said: 'To begin with I was absolutely devastated when I saw the fire and it was just a little bit of thatch. When the fire service came they said it would be a little section that would need repairing.

'I cried at that point, then when I saw the roof collapsing on our bedroom I realised how significant it was.

'Paul had to hold me back down the street at one point. I was checking on the children who were with the neighbours next door. He said you don't want you to see it but I pushed past him.

A poster stuck to a tree warning people to sat away from the burned out house after the council ruled it was a 'dangerous structure'

'I went and saw the flames going through the kids bedrooms. That's when we both held each other and cried, our dream over.

'A fireman then came over and asked us if we wanted anything rescued because the roof was about to collapse. They went in and got portraits of my kids when they were three months old.

'Paul didn't want them to go in to get anything else because it was too dangerous.

'We've lost all the family pictures, all of Madeleine's first birthday presents from November. Everything has gone now, we were left with the clothes on our backs.

'We even lost the Christening candles for the children, thankfully the our previous local church, St Mary's in Stotfold, offered a blessing.'

Mrs Purdy, a project director for BT, added: 'Nobody will ever know what happened.

The family had only wanted to warm up the five-bedroom property so lit their wood-burner, which set fire to the thatched roof. Pictured is the back part of the house, which still has part of the thatched roof remaining

All that remains at the back part the 400-year-old cottage, pictured, is the brickwork after the thatched roof and wood inside the home burned down

The interior of the house is now filled with the debris of the thatched roof as well as the wood from interior beams that have collapsed

'It is heartbreaking as we had bought our dream house after first seeing it about six-months ago and we were really looking forward to it.

'As for Christmas, we are probably going to spend it at my mum's house. We're just about to buy all the presents again as we lost all the ones we had bought in the fire.'

Since the devastating fire people in the local community have created a fundraising page to help support the family in their hour of need.

Reverend Kate Peacock, rector of St Nicholas' Church, has placed a book in the church, allowing people to pledge their support and offers of help to the Purdys.

In addition, a GoFundMe page has been set up to support the family, and so far, close to 3,000 has been donated.

Since the devastating fire, the family have been staying at Mrs Purdy's mother's house in Holt in Norfolk. Pictured are Mr and Mrs Purdy with their daughter Madeleine

Since the devastating fire people in the local community have created a fundraising page to help support the family in their hour of need

Mr and Mrs Purdy with their daughter inside Mrs Purdy's mother's home in Norfolk, where they are currently staying. The Purdys are planning on rebuilding the Grade II listed house as soon as possible

Mrs Purdy explained: 'The support we have received from the community has been absolutely overwhelming.

'Everyone has been so amazing, from the fire service, to the police, to the farmers who assisted the crews in offering hundreds of thousands of gallons of water to help put out the fire.

'Although we have lost everything, in some ways, we have everything we need, and I can't thank everyone enough for their help.'

An insurance claim is currently being processed. The Purdys are planning on rebuilding the Grade II listed house as soon as possible.

Part of the house, an extension including a kitchen and en suite bath, survived the fire. This part of the building was not listed and the entire listed building was destroyed.
Police cordoned off part of one of Birmingham's main shopping streets this morning over fears about a suspicious package.

A spokesman for West Midlands Police said earlier: 'Police have cordoned off a small section of New Street in Birmingham city centre as a precaution following reports that a suspicious package was handed in to the Apple store.

'The store has been evacuated as a precaution while specialist officers examine the package.'

The store has since been reopened and police later said the suspicions were unfounded.
Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda is set to be freed early from prison after the Pope intervened

A senior Vatican official has been granted forgiveness by the Pope and freed from jail after he was convicted of leaking secrets to journalists.

Spanish Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda was given 'conditional freedom' by Pope Francis, having served half of an 18-month sentence handed out by a Vatican court.

He was convicted of passing confidential documents to journalists, and has been sacked from his job as a high-ranking finance official.

In July, a Vatican court convicted Vallejo of conspiring to pass documents on to two journalists, Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi, although it cleared him and a co-defendant of forming a criminal organisation to do so.

The two journalists wrote blockbuster books containing a string of allegations about financial mismanagement and greed within the church.

Vallejo admitted leaking the documents, but insisted he had been 'emotionally blackmailed' by a female colleague.

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Pope Francis has granted 'conditional freedom' to the priest, who had been jailed by a Vatican court for 18 months

He claimed he had been romantically involved with Italian PR expert Francesca Chaouqui, who had threatened to expose their relationship.

The Spanish Vatican official said he had not been 'fully lucid' when he leaked the documents and had since been treated by a psychiatrist for depression and stress.

Both journalists were cleared after a judge ruled the Vatican had no authority to prosecute them.

Chaouqui was given a 10 month suspended sentence.

The journalists wrote blockbuster books last year based on Vatican documents exposing the greed of bishops and cardinals angling for big apartments.

Journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi, Emiliano Fittipaldi, Italian PR expert Francesca Chaouqui and Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda attending their trial for the publication of classified documents last year

The book also revealed the extraordinarily high costs of getting a saint made and the loss to the Holy See of millions of euro in rental income because of undervalued property.

The documentation had been compiled by a pontifical commission that the Pope had asked to gather information about the Vatican's finances to make them more transparent and efficient.

Vallejo, the number two of the commission, admitted in court that he gave Mr Nuzzi 85 passwords to password-protected documents.

Publishing confidential information is a crime in the Vatican, punishable by up to eight years in prison.

The trial had several surreal moments, including when Vallejo was put back under house arrest after a friend sneaked a mobile phone to him inside a cake.

Francis' Christmas-time clemency harks back to the 2012 gesture granted by Pope Benedict XVI to his then-butler, who had been convicted of giving Mr Nuzzi confidential documents for an earlier book about Vatican misdeeds.
A mother has issued a warning over cheap imported toys on Amazon after a 'fake' Assassin's Creed toy impaled her son's eye and left him partially blind.

Joel Perrett, 13, suffered devastating injuries when the safety catch on his 20 'gauntlet', a knife concealed in a glove, slipped and the plastic blade shot out.

It fired upwards, piercing his left eyeball and tearing his iris, leaving him in excruciating pain and with impaired vision.

Joel Perrett was left with horrific eye injuries after an accident with a fake toy from Amazon

His mother Sarah Perrett, 48, has warned others using the website to check the authenticity of anything they buy.

Assassin's Creed's makers, Ubisoft, insists it is not to blame because the toy did not come from an authorised distributor and is 'highly probably' a fake.

Graphic designer Ms Perrett, of Westbury, Wiltshire, thought she was buying a genuine product from the UK.

The mother-of-two said: 'Every time I think about Christmas time and people buying stuff from Amazon and what has happened to us, it makes my stomach turn.

'If I had a time machine, I would never have bought it.

'We thought it would be fine as the blade is only plastic and is bendy, however the end is quite sharp and it is spring loaded, so shoots out at speed.'

His mother has warned others to check the origin of any gifts they buy on the website

The toy is supposed to be a glove which fires out a plastic blade like in the computer game

She added: 'It has been a huge amount of trauma and we felt so isolated. There was no one that could help.'

The toy - which Sarah bought the toy for Joel's 11th birthday - straps to a child's arm with a bendy plastic sword inside.

The spring-loaded blade is supposed to fire out when the wearer takes off the safety catch and presses the launch button.

But when Joel lifted his arm to speak on the phone while wearing the product, it brushed against his side, knocked the safety catch off and hit the set off button.

Ms Perett said: 'I had my back turned and didn't see what had happened. I just heard this click and then this crumple.

'When I looked round he was lying on the floor, so I said, "What are you doing down there?" but he was all dazed.'

Joel needed surgery on his eye after the blade accidentally fired when he picked up the phone

She added: 'I got him up off the floor and brought him into the lounge. He was saying, 'My eye, my eye,' - he couldn't open it.

'His eye was like a shower. Tears were squirting out and his lips had gone purple which is when I knew he had really hurt himself.

'Then his little brother came in and said 'Mummy, the blade thing went in his eye.'

Joel was taken to hospital after the incident in May last year and later needed emergency surgery.

Joel has since regained some of his sight but still struggles with bright lights and sun, unable even to look at a whiteboard, and suffers panic attacks.

His mother thought the product was official but the makers of the game have said it is a fake made in China

Wiltshire Council's Trading Standards department said the product failed to satisfy the requirements of the General Product Safety Regulations 2005.

Amazon said the product was removed from sale after they were contacted by Wiltshire Trading Standards and the seller is no longer active on the site.

A spokesman said: 'All Marketplace sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who don't will be subject to action including potential removal of their account.
Two wild boars invaded the Hong Kong's International Airport causing chaos on December 20.

Four tactical police officers used their riot shields to capture the first intruding animal, weighing nearly eight stone (110 pounds), in early afternoon.

It's thought that the 3.3-foot-long wild pig may have swum across the water before entering the airport which is located on an artificial island, according to Hong Kong media.

Four tactical police officers used their riot shields to capture the first intruding animal

A video, posted on Youtube, shows the moment the officers pinned the animal to the ground using their shields after it entered the airport.

The Hong Kong Airport Authority told MailOnline that a boar was discovered by staff on the apron close to the north runway on Tuesday 2:15pm.

The staff informed the tactical police stationed in the airport. They chased after the boar before capturing the animal. The airport authority said the duration of the process is not known.

Airport operation was not interrupted by the incident.

The eight-stone boar was discovered wandering on Hong Kong airport apron on Dec 20

The staff informed the tactical police stationed in the airport to capture the animal

The wild animal was handed to Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department at around 4 pm, said the authority.

The pig, with its rear legs injured, was euthanised in the evening, reported local media Apple Daily.

Another boar also was discovered in the airport on the same day 6:30pm. After a half-an-hour chase, the pig jumped into the sea.

It's thought that the 3.3 ft-long pig may have swum across the water to enter into the airport

The tactical police chased after the boar before capturing the animal

The airport spokesman told MailOnline it was rare to see wild boar in the airport apron. Snakes and birds are more commonly seen.

According to the same spokesman, the airport staff are highly aware of the need to remove foreign objects, not just animals, but also small objects like umbrella, on the apron. These objects might get sucked into the turbines of the planes, posing threat to aviation safety.

HKFP reported that pilot and lawmaker of Hong Kong's Civic Party said: 'There have always been wild boars residing on nearby Lantau island. To prevent them from straying into the airport again, it is important to inspect whether there are loopholes in existing airport security policies.'

The authority is investigating into how the boars managed to intrude into the restricted area.
He is famed for his red attire and relentless fuelling of consumerism.

But nearly a third of the public think Father Christmas is a Green Party voter.

The striking finding has emerged from a festive poll carried out by YouGov.

Santa Claus is reputed to live at the North Pole or in Lapland, where he and his elves prepare the enormous volume of presents required to fulfil his Christmas duties.

Nearly a third of those who thought Father Christmas would vote said he would back the Green Party, the YouGov poll found

He is not thought to be a British or EU citizen, meaning he is not eligible to take part in general elections.

But some 30 per cent of those who expressed a view in the poll were convinced he would support the Green Party.

That was well ahead of the 23 per cent who thought he was a Labour backer - perhaps surprisingly low given his noted resemblance to Jeremy Corbyn.

Just 20 per cent believe he would vote Tory, while 10 per cent think he is a Ukip fan.

Excluding don't knows and the 33 per cent who suggested Santa would abstain, 8 per cent had him down as a Liberal Democrat.

The strength of the link in the public mind between the Greens and Father Christmas comes despite the party's support usually languishing at around 3-4 per cent in opinion polls.

Overall people tended to think Santa would back the same party they did.

But strangely just 13 per cent of Lib Dem voters believed he would support their party.

YouGov's report mooted several reasons for Father Christmas's political allegiance.

'Santa as a Green voter certainly makes sense. The ice sheet that makes up the North Pole, where his home and workplace are both based, is rapidly shrinking which doubtless has him concerned about climate change,' it said.

'He also makes exclusive use of eco-friendly transportation.'

The poll also found that a large majority were convinced Santa would have backed Remain in the EU referendum.

Some 63 per cent said he would have wanted to maintain ties with Brussels.

'Presumably this is an acknowledgement of the importance of "freedom of movement" in enabling Santa to perform his Yuletide activities,' the report said.
A top model from Belarus is believed to have been killed by a faulty boiler at her flat.

Natalia Makey, 44, died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning at her home in the country's capital, Minsk.

Investigators say they have no evidence that the beautiful blonde was suicidal, and police revealed that initial indications suggest her boiler was faulty.

Ms Makey had been on the phone to her mother just a few hours before her death, and had told her that she was fine.

Natalia Makey, 44, died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning at her home in the country's capital, Minsk

Ms Makey had been on the phone to her mother just a few hours before her death, and had told her that she was fine

As well as enjoying a glittering career as a model, she organised fashion shows, beauty pageants and had her own modelling school.

Ms Makey's friends have been paying tribute to the model, who first graced the catwalk while she was still a student at the Belarusian State Polytechnic Academy in Minsk.

Iryna Kabasakal, a Belarusian 'it girl' and editor of the Pingouin magazine, said: 'She was so sophisticated, so savvy, such a kind and sweet person.

Her online admirers have also been paying tribute to Ms Makey and expressing sympathy to her loved ones for their loss

Friend Iryna Kabasakal said Ms Makey was 'always so warm when you met her'

'She was always so warm when you met her. Always friendly and sweet, I never heard her say a single bad word about anyone. And, of course, she always looked gorgeous.'

Her online admirers have also been paying tribute to Ms Makey and expressing sympathy to her loved ones for their loss.

Netizen Sergey Gorshokov said: 'The thread of life is so thin. Such a silly accident and a person is gone. People, please be careful and take care of your families.'

Ms Makey, who ran her own modeling agency, described herself as a 'founder, accountant, secretary, teacher, director, psychologist, lawyer, diplomat, marketer - a jack of all trades'.

She had returned to Belarus from Poland a short time before her death.
Armed police are patrolling Buckingham Palace today as security at tourist hotspots across the country is ramped up following the terror attack in Berlin on Monday.

New road closures have been put in place around the palace during the Changing of the Guard as security measures are stepped up across the capital.

The Metropolitan Police said the closures, which will increase the no-drive zone around the Palace, were necessary to protect the thousands of spectators who flock to watch the ceremonial event, as well as the military personnel taking part.

While a three-month trial period had already been planned, police admitted the start date had been brought forward to tomorrow in light of the attack in Berlin on Monday evening.

Police vehicles were parked and armed police officers, one seen right, stood guard during the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace today as security measures were stepped up

Armed officers stand guard on the pavement by a road closure for the Changing the Guard ceremony on The Mall today as a group of schoolchildren walk past

Armed officers patrolled the area around the Palace as new road closures were put in place

Roads are closed around Buckingham Palace during the Changing of the Guard today

Armed police are patrolling Buckingham Palace today as security at tourist hotspots across the country is ramped up following the terror attack in Berlin on Monday

Twelve people were killed and 48 others injured when a truck was ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in the centre of the city. The driver remains on the run.

In Britain armed police have been patrolling markets in major cities and surrounding them with a ring of steel crash barriers to prevent a vehicle being used as a weapon.

Last night the Metropolitan Police announced further measures would be taken at the Changing of the Guard, one of the most popular events for tourists in the capital.

The roads surrounding the royal grounds emptied and fell quiet as closures were put in place ahead of the daily Changing of Guard.

Armed police guarded an additional barrier at the mouth of several routes which feed on to the Queen Victoria Memorial outside the Palace's main gates.

The roads surrounding the royal grounds emptied and fell quiet as closures were put in place ahead of the daily Changing of Guard - but tourists still thronged to the area today

The lockdown did little to dissuade tourists, who still filled the pavements in their hundreds

Standing by were mounted officers (pictured), along with several police cars and bicycles

The tree-lined Constitution Hill and The Mall, two of London's most recognisable streets, were vacant but for a handful of police vehicles. Spur Road and Link Road were also closed.

The lockdown did little to dissuade tourists, who still filled the pavements in their hundreds to witness the celebrated spectacle.

At 11.30am the guard began marching from Wellington Barracks and through the Palace gates as a sea of tourist cameras tracked their progress.

Standing by were mounted officers, along with several police cars and bicycles, stationed at various points in the cordoned-off area.

In a statement the force said: 'The closure follows a request from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) as part of ongoing security measures aimed at keeping the public safe.

Three officers carrying guns patrol the perimeter around Buckingham Palace today

Two police cars are part of the security heightened around Buckingham Palace this morning

Crowds of tourists mill outside Buckingham Police today under an even heavier police presence than normal

Armed police officers watch over members of the public and tourists during road closures

In Britain armed police have been patrolling markets in major cities and surrounding them with a ring of steel crash barriers to prevent a vehicle being used as a weapon

A police officer stands at the end of the Mall as the new restrictions come into force

'In a request to The Royal Parks, which manages the roads, the MPS highlighted that due to the events high profile in an iconic location with a substantial military presence and attracting large crowds, the closures were a necessary precaution to continue protecting the public and those taking part in the event.

'The MPS has stressed the road closures, which have been planned for some time, are a precautionary measure and not in relation to any specific intelligence.

'The planned implementation has been brought forward following the events yesterday, Tuesday 19 December, in Berlin.'

It added that additional barriers will also be put in place to maintain security.

Yesterday security was beefed-up at one of Britain's most famous Christmas markets this morning in the wake of the Berlin atrocity.

Tourist attraction: Thousands flock to watch the ceremonial Changing of the Guards outside Buckingham Palace, which takes place three or four times each week

Increased security: The new measures will increase the no-drive zone around Buckingham Palace. More metal barriers will also be erected around the parade area to protect military personnel. Pictured, an armed police officer on duty during the Changing of the Guard in 2013

The Southbank Winter Festival, next to the Royal Festival Hall, remained quiet before its 11am opening, with just a few members of the public waiting for the gates to open.

A heightened police presence patrolled the busy promenade underneath the London Eye, handing out cards warning members of the public about the risk of terrorism.

The cards, which had the number of the anti-terrorism hotline, prompted tourists to be wary of suspicious behaviour and people taking an interest in security.

A map showing the roads that will now be closed during the Changing of the Guard

Concrete barriers were erected at Birmingham's German Market earlier this month to prevent attacks similar to that witnessed in Berlin last night, and armed police have been patrolling Newcastle amid fears of terror attacks.

Greater Manchester Police said they had strengthened their presence at the markets, which have almost 350 stalls spread across 10 sites in the city.

Armed officers from Northumbria police have also been seen in Newcastle city centre, posing with children and families while carrying assault rifles.
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Tom Butler was taken to hospital this morning

A British surfer had to be rescued from the sea after falling from a giant wave in Portugal.

Tom Butler was rushed to hospital after the spectacular fall during the Nazare Challenge.

The UK Pro Surf Association posted on Facebook this morning, alongside a clip: 'Tom Butler getting punished at the first ever Nazare Challenge. Unfortunately ending up in hospital but on the mend. #noballsnoglory'

Professional wave riders have gathered at Praia do Norte in Nazare, around 80 miles north of Lisbon, to take on swells as high as five storey buildings.

This morning waves were expected to top 45 feet.

Nazare's giant waves are increasingly attracting surfers from around the world, as it becomes part of the World Surf League Big Wave Tour.

The waves are now famous for being among the largest in the world. Praia do Nortete is one of the most westerly points in Europe, meaning that the wind sweeps across the Atlantic unhindered causing the unfathomably large swells.

Spectacular: Tom Butler (pictured on an orange surfboard) on top of a huge wave before being thrown off and having to be taken to hospital

Tom Butler (riding an orange surf board) was rushed to hospital after the dramatic fall this morning

The 27-year-old is said to be 'on the mend' after the drama at the competition in Portugal

Professional wave riders have gathered at Praia do Norte in Nazare, around 80 miles north of Lisbon, to take on swells as high as five storey buildings

British surfer Tom Butler (with orange surf board) catches a wave before being throw off and badly injured

Massive: Tom Butler was thrown from his board after surfing the huge wave. Officials have said he is 'on the mend' after being taken to hospital
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The first Allied ceasefire order issued by a British army supremo after the Nazi surrender is on sale for 1,500.

The historical document was put out by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery at 8.50pm on May 4, 1945.

Marking the end of the Second World War, it reads: All offensive ops will cease from receipt this signal.

Orders will be given to all troops to cease fire 0800 hrs tomorrow, Saturday 5 May.

Full terms of local German surrender arranged today for 21 Army Group front follow.

Piece of history: The ceasefire order which is going under the hammer in Nottingham next month was issued by British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery at 8.50pm on May 4, 1945 - and says: 'All offensive ops will cease from receipt this signal'

Historic moment: The document was drawn up two-and-a-half hours after the German high command (far left) signed the surrender in front of Field Marshal Montgomery (on the right of the group next to them, in a black beret) on Luneburg Heath

It was drawn up two-and-a-half hours after the German high command signed the official surrender.

This took place in front of Field Marshal Montgomery on Luneburg Heath near Hamburg in Germany.

He ordered his Chief of Operations, Major General David Belchem, to issue the order to all subordinate units.

And the document has now been made available for sale at International Autograph Auctions in Nottingham.

Official surrender: The German delegation reported back to their HQ and Admiral Karl Doenitz, Hitlers successor following the dictators suicide, and were given permission to sign the surrender papers, which they did on May 4

In the forest: The day before the historic moment, Field Marshal Montgomery laid down the terms of unconditional surrender to a German delegation. When they tried to negotiate, the British supremo is said to have given them a tongue lashing

Field Marshal 'Monty' Bernard Law Montgomery played a key role in the end of the Second World War by receiving the Germans' surrender at Luneburg Heath. 'Monty' (right) was commissioned in 1908 into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and was badly injured in the First World War. But he served in India, Egypt and Palestine between the wars and in 1939 was given command of the 3rd Division, British Expeditionary Force. Field Marshall Montgomery was rapidly promoted and became commander of the Eighth Army in 1942, fighting in the Western Desert. He was known for leading a dispirited force to victory over the Germans and Italians at the Battle of El Alamein - seen as a turning point in the war. He was criticised by some for having an arrogance and reluctance to cooperate, but led the 21st Army Group and received the Germans surrender in 1945. He died in 1976. Advertisement

An IAA spokesman said: 'It is a historically important document representing the first publication regarding the German surrender.

This document represents the culmination of Montgomerys negotiations for the unconditional surrender of the German army in Holland, north west Germany and Denmark.

This surrender, signed at Luneburg Heath, near Hamburg, effectively marked the end of the war in Europe.

Three days later the German Instrument of Surrender was signed at Reims. The war was over.

Field Marshal Montgomery made the order from his base at Luneburg Heath.

The day before he laid down the terms of unconditional surrender to a delegation from the German high command.

When the Germans tried to negotiate, he is said to have given them a tongue lashing about the bombing of Coventry and the horrors of Belsen.

The delegation reported back to their HQ and Admiral Karl Doenitz, Hitlers successor following the dictators suicide, and were given permission to sign the surrender papers, which they did on May 4.

When it was all over Montgomery is said to have leaned back and said simply: That concludes the surrender.

Two of the German delegation killed themselves weeks later by taking cyanide.

The order is in purple ink and is mimeographed. It is being sold on January 2.
The desperate search for a 20-year-old man who was last seen in Scotland's longest river on Monday night resumed this morning.

A coastguard helicopter has spent the last two days scouring the River Tay between Newburgh and Perth from the air.

Police have said they believe the man to be Iain Guthrie, who was reported missing at 9.50pm.

His mother Louise Guthrie spoke of her distress at not knowing where her son is, and said it was unusual for him to not tell people of his whereabouts.

Police have said they believe the man to be Iain Guthrie (pictured), who was reported missing at 9.50pm.

A number of search crews were out on the River Tay - which is Scotland's longest river - in Perth

She said: 'It's possible it's him. Someone was seen going into the water at the time he went missing, and he's not told anyone where he's gone.

'He usually tells people where he's gone. It's a very distressing time right now.

'It's likely (it's Iain) but we'll have to wait and see.'

Coastguard, police, fire and ambulance services were all involved in the initial operation, with coastguard teams searching into the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The search resumed shortly after 9am, with the Coastguard helicopter returning to the Fair City from Prestwick for a second day.

A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: 'Police officers in Perth continue to carry out extensive searches of the River Tay after a report was received of a man in the water at about 9.05pm on Monday evening.

'Following enquiries carried out, the man is believed to be vulnerable missing 20-year-old Iain Guthrie from Perth who was reported missing at 9.50pm last night.

Search crews gathered at the River Tay in Scotland after a 20-year-old man disappeared

A coastguard helicopter has spent the last two days scouring the River Tay between Newburgh and Perth from the air

'A search of the Tay and river banks in the area was carried out last night and continues today with assistance from partner agencies including Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Coastguard and specialist Search and Rescue Teams and Coastguard helicopter.'

He is described as being about 5 feet 9 inches tall, of slim build with short black coloured hair and brown eyes.

When last seen in Dundee Road, Perth, at about 8.50pm he was wearing a dark green fleece top, dark blue jeans and dark coloured walking shoes.
A panda was caught on video playing with its new friend: a snowman.

Zoo keepers at Toronto Zoo, in Canada, built Giant Panda Da Mao a snowman to play with after it snowed in the city.

In the footage, Da Mao is seen having a whale of a time with his new plaything.

He starts off by scratching at it and then becomes more adventurous and climbs on top of the snowman.

Hugs: Da Mao, a Giant Panda, plays with his new friend, a snowman, which was built for him by Toronto Zoo keepers

But tragedy strikes when he falls off, decapitating his new friend. This doesn't deter Da Mao however, and soon enough he is seen climbing on top of the snowman before flopping over.

He then continues to scratch and climb onto the snowman and is later seen rolling around in the snow.

The video, which was published on Toronto Zoo's Facebook page, has been watched 148,000 times.

Judith Handojo, of Ontario, wrote a comment on the Facebook page saying: 'He almost knocked himself out with the head!

Playtime: Da Mao is seen scratching and climbing over the snowman while he plays with it

Climb aboard: At one point he bravely decides to climb on top of the snowman's head

'Brilliant loved it - made me laugh out loud and showed my husband - he wasn't as amused as me.'

Dan Pinckard wrote: 'So funny! His size really is impressive when he stands on his hind haunches.'

This is not the first time Da Mao has been videoed playing in the white stuff - the zoo previously released a video of the cheeky panda playing in the snow in February.

Da Mao has been living in Toronto Zoo since March 2013 after arriving from China with another panda, called Er Shun.

Both will be based at the zoo until 2018.

In October last year, Er Shun gave birth to two Giant Panda cubs, Jia Panpan and after she was artificially inseminated with sperm that was collected from Da Mao.

Whoops! : But tragedy strikes as he accidentally decapitates his new friend and falls over

Rolling with it: This doesn't deter Da Mao though, and he carries on playing in the white stuff

This was the first time Giant Panda cubs have been born in Canada.

At the time, John Tracogna, chief executive officer at Toronto Zoo, said: 'We are so proud to be contributing to the ongoing survival of this endangered species.
As cops questioned Dilione after he called his lawyer evidence could be invalid

Incriminating statements related to the murder of a Connecticut man could be determined as inadmissible in court - creating hurdles in the already complicated case.

Joseph Comunale was stabbed to death and his body was burned and tossed in a shallow grave in New Jersey.

He was last seen entering his friend James Rackover's apartment in New Jersey on November 13. Since, Rackover and other friend Lawrence Dilione have been arrested in connection to the murder.

Dilione seen at court earlier in December. Some evidence he gave to police could prove to be inadmissible in court

Joseph Comunale was stabbed to death and his body was burned and tossed in a shallow grave in New Jersey earlier in November

Prosecutors say Dilione and Rackover covered up a bloody scene inside the apartment and then dumped Comunale's corpse in another location in New Jersey.

After being arrested Dilione was grilled by police for at least 40 hours with statements taken at the 13th and 17th Precinct station houses.

However the 28-year-old suspect had lawyered up early having spoken to his attorney Michael Pappa before the talks began.

Pappa warned NYPD investigators not to begin questioning.

'I have good reason to believe... that one or more lawyers for Mr Dilione contacted investigators of the NYPD to instruct them not to question Mr Dilione - yet these instructions were apparently ignored in violation of Mr Dilione's Miranda rights,' Pappa told The NY Daily News.

Statements made during a police interrogation after an attorney has been invoked by a suspect are inadmissible by law and deemed 'bad evidence.'

Dilione watches proceedings in court. Dilione was not arrested in connection to the murder until November 17 which could create further barriers in court

And should this prove to be the case the statements made by Dilione, which were used to track down Comunale's mutilated corpse, should by way of law be dismissed in court.

'If we are right about this, it is hard to imagine how anything said to the police would be admissible as evidence for the prosecution.'

Should 'bad evidence' be presented to a grand jury in order to get an indictment it could lead to the case getting dismissed however charges can be pressed again should police attain other incriminating statements.

The statements were taken in talks from November 13 but Dilione was not arrested in connection to the murder until November 17 which could create further barriers in court.

Party boys Dillione and Rackover (above) have both pleaded not guilty to murder charges

It could be also be claimed in Dilione's defence that he was denied a proper reading of his rights as he was taken in custody too soon.

A person must feel free to leave a police reading at any time if they are not under arrest.

'Merely because a person is charged with a horrendous crime does not mean the police can skirt their obligation to uphold the law,' Jeremy Saland, a former prosecutor who now practices criminal defense, told the NY Daily News.

Rackover in court. The judge in the case reduced his bail from $3million to $1million, or a $300,000 cash bond in December

'In the event counsel advised the NYPD that Mr Dilione had an attorney, any questioning should have immediately ceased,' Saland added.

James Rackover, 25, and Dilione, 29, each appeared at Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this month and entered pleas of not guilty to charges of concealing a corpse, hindering prosecution, and tampering with evidence.

The judge in the case also reduced Rackover's bail from $3million to $1million, or a $300,000 cash bond.

Dilione was released on bond last month.

Comunale's partially-burned remains were found inside a suitcase that had been buried behind Foggia's Florist in the town of Oceanport. There were multiple stab wounds on the victim's body while he also suffered a broken pelvis.
A Tunisian man wanted over the Berlin Christmas market massacre was radicalised by an alleged ISIS leader in Germany, it has emerged.

Police have launched a huge manhunt for terror suspect Anis Amri after his ID was found under the seat in the lorry used to kill 12 people in the German capital on Monday night.

Now it has emerged that the 23-year-old is a follower of Abu Walaa who was arrested in Hildesheim last month for recruiting radicals into the ranks of the terror group.

He was detained along with five members of a terrorist recruiting network operating on behalf of ISIS, according to prosecutors.

Police have launched a huge manhunt for terror suspect Anis Amri (pictured) after his ID was found under the seat in the lorry used to kill 12 people in the German capital on Monday night

Will the lorry killer strike again? Police and the security services are hunting the terrorist behind the Christmas market attack

They were arrested in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony.

The network recruited and provided logistical support for local volunteers making their way from Germany to Syria, prosecutors said.

The Iraqi citizen, 32, who is also known as Ahmad Abdelaziz, is said to be a leading figure of the Jihadi movement in Germany, and many of his followers have made their way to Syria.

Walaa is also reportedly known as 'the faceless preacher' for his habit of never showing his face in his videos.

He has been at the centre of a year- long investigation, which also yielded arrests in the city of Hildesheim in July 2016.

Prosecutors said that he was one of the most influential Islamist preachers in Germany.

Manhunt: The ISIS killer behind Germany's worst terror attack since 1980 on Monday night has been given an 18 hour head start after police bungled the probe - Amri's blood may have been in the cab and he is believed to be injured

Grief: Flowers and candles defy the terrorists as Germany looks for hope after yet another terrible terror attack

Terror attack chain of events: The polish lorry was hijacked when it arrived in Berlin and hours later was driven through Christmas market crowds. The main suspect was pursued on foot and arrested - but it appears he is the wrong man. Police also raided the hangar he lives in with other asylum seekers at the Tempelhof airport

The arrest appears to have been aided by a former ISIS fighter, Anil O., 22, who identified Walaa as Germany's ISIS leader.

Meanwhile, security sources say Berlin attack suspect Anis Amri is a highly dangerous individual who has received weapons training in the middle east.

He is a refugee who came to Germany earlier this year, gaining temporary permission to stay. His asylum application was still pending.

He is probably armed, 'highly dangerous' and a member of a 'large' Islamic organisation and has weapons training abroad, security sources say.

Despite an unfolding international manhunt the first pictures of him released in Germany have his eyes deliberately covered, thought to be because of strict privacy laws there. MailOnline has uncovered unblurred images.

Close up: The shattered glass on the windshield of a truck shown after it ploughed through the Christmas market. A wreath and part of a market stall was embedded inside

Ring of steel: Armed police continue to guard the Christmas market where 12 were killed on Monday night

Carnage: The area is cordoned off as a crime scene and debris left by the careering lorry remains sprayed across the pavement

Prayers: Berliners cry and pray at the piles of flowers and candles left to remember the 12 dead and up to 48 injured after being hit by a careering lorry

Amri, who was born in the desert town of Tataouine  a well-known ISIS stronghold close to the Libyan border - was apparently recently arrested for GBH but vanished before he could be charged.

The refugee has temporary permission to stay in the country but was due to face an asylum hearing.

Police are believed to have found his blood in the truck's cab and now assume that the suspect may be badly injured.

Squads of officers have been to every hospital in Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg. They also arrested another unnamed suspect in connection with the terror attack but have since ruled him out.

Police are believed to be focusing searched in North Rhine-Westphalia - the industrial area of Germany that borders Holland and Belgium.

Horror 2016: These are all the terror attacks carried out on German soil in the past year, claiming the lives of 22 people

Police in Berlin said they had received 508 tips on the attack as of Tuesday night, but there was no immediate word from prosecutors on whether they had any concrete leads. They also did not say if they were looking for more than one suspect.

Spokesmen for the Tunisian interior ministry and foreign ministry did not have information about the possible suspect and could not immediately confirm whether the Tunisian government had been contacted by German authorities.

The claim of responsibility carried on IS's Amaq news agency did not identify the man seen fleeing from the truck, but described him as 'a soldier of the Islamic State' who 'carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition'.

Germany's top prosecutor, Peter Frank, told reporters before the claim that the attack was reminiscent of July's deadly truck rampage in Nice in the south of France, and appeared to follow instructions published by IS.

'We don't know for sure whether it was one or several perpetrators,' he said. 'We don't know for sure whether he, or they, had support.'

Probe: Naved B, a Pakistani asylum seeker, had been detained in the immediate aftermath of the carnage following a tip-off from witnesses who saw him jump a light (pictured with a blanket over his head). However he was released last night due to a lack of evidence

Berlin mayor Michael Mueller said it was 'good to see that Berliners aren't being intimidated'.

'I don't think there's any need to be afraid,' he told ZDF television.

'The police presence has been significantly heightened ... and of course other measures taken to find the perpetrator quickly.'

Mr Mueller argued that there are limits to increasing security, given the number of public spaces and events.

'It wouldn't be our free and open life any more if we escalated security measures so much that people worry about going anywhere, that there are strict entry checks,' he said.

'We don't want that. It must be appropriate and goal-oriented.'
British people can be too embarrassed to speak to others about their Christian faith, a bishop has complained.

Dr Karowei Dorgu said 'cultural' issues held people back from spreading the word in their communities.

The Nigerian-born former GP made the comments as he was unveiled as the new Bishop of Woolwich in south London.

He is the first black bishop to be installed for 20 years - with the last being Dr John Sentamu, now Archbishop of York.

Dr Karowei Dorgu, the new Bishop of Woolwich, said 'cultural' issues held people back from spreading the word in their communities

Dr Dorgu told the Daily Telegraph that as Vicar of St John the Evangelist church in Upper Holloway for the past he had encouraged street preaching, outdoor services, and door-to-door visits.

He insisted that people were 'very open' to the message from the Church - and dismissed the idea that Anglicans in general were unwilling to engage in evangelism.

'I don't think it's to do with being Anglican,' he said. 'I think it's something to do with cultural orientation, depending on what sort of background you have grown up in.'

Dr Dorgu said some Britons were reticent about speaking to strangers but 'people from all cultures can do it if they are [taught]'.

'In our group ... there are 80-yearolds and 20-year-olds - we have people who want to come and do door-to-door work at the age of 80,' Dr Dorgu added.

Dr Dorgu previously served at a missionary hospital in Kaduna, Nigeria, where Christians have been persecuted by Boko Haram terrorists.

There are said to have only been a handful of worshippers at his church in Upper Holloway when he arrived in 1998 - and numbers have now swelled to more than 300.

The Rt Rev Christopher Chessun, the Bishop of Southwark, said: 'He brings a wealth of experience of urban parish ministry and has a real passion for evangelism and reaching out to those who are not churched with the love of Christ.'

Meanwhile, the chaplain of the House of Commons has said the Church of England is institutionally racist and does not respect ethnic minorities.

The Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin said the church was failing to reflect British society and must change.

The Jamaican-born chaplain insisted lessons could be learned from Pentecostalism, which is thriving and has prominent black leadership.
The young Syrian girl whose Twitter account gave a tragic description of the bombing of Aleppo has met with Turkey's President after being evacuated to safety.

Seven-year-old Bana al-Abed on Wednesday met President Erdogan at his palace in Ankara after her evacuation from the city.

Erdogan hugged the girl emotionally and also held Bana and her brother as they sat on his knees flanked by the president's wife Emine.

'Very happy to meet with Mr Erdogan,' Bana wrote on a tweet above a picture of her nestling up to the cheek of the smiling Erdogan.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds seven-year-old Bana al-Abed at his office in Ankara on December 21

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, accompanied by his wife Emine Erdogan, meets with Syrian girl Bana Alabed, known as Aleppo's tweeting girl, and her family at the Presidential Palace

The young Syrian girl was one of thousands of people evacuated from once rebel-held areas of Aleppo in the last days under a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia.

She was evacuated on Monday and Turkish officials promised then she would come to Turkey with her family. But it was not clear when she had crossed over.

'Thank you for the help in saving the children of Aleppo from the war. I love you very much,' Bana told Erdogan according to the presidency.

For her 330,000 online followers, Bana is a symbol of the tragedy unfolding in Syria, although Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has slammed her and her mother's nearly daily tweets as propaganda.

Her mother Fatemah, who runs the account , was also in attendance on Tuesday, the Turkish presidency said.

Bana al-Abed's Twitter account gave a tragic description of the bombing of Syria's Aleppo

Bana's Twitter feed (pictured) was followed by 322,000 people

Innocence lost: Bana's haunting Twitter account showed the horror of the bombing raids on Aleppo through the eyes of a seven-year-old

'I was pleased to host and her family at the Presidential Complex today,' Erdogan said in his own tweet.

'Turkey will always stand with the people of Syria,' he added.

Turkey is hosting some 2.7 million refugees from the Syria conflict but has made clear it now prefers to look after those recently displaced, who are not injured, on the Syrian side of the border.

However it makes exceptions for special cases and the wounded. It was not immediately clear if Bana would be staying in Turkey.

Bana and her mother, Fatemah, are pictured at a camp in the Syrian countryside

Bana al-Abed (pictured, right, in the arms of a medical worker) is now believed to be safe

Bana al-Abed poses with Turkish aid worker Burak Karacaoglu in al-Rashideen, after being rescued from the perils of Aleppo

Bana's account has posted pictures of the destruction in Aleppo including her rubble-littered street, while people have tweeted messages of support and concern, notably fearing for her life when tweets became less frequent.

At least 15,000 children are among the more than 300,000 people who have been killed in Syria's near six-year war.

In her last tweet with her mother Fatemah before the evacuation, Bana made an appeal to Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to put a fragile ceasefire back on track after frequent delays.
A teenager in Stanthorpe, Queensland issued a public apology for drunkenly climbing up a Christmas tree and breaking it.

'Id like to make a formal apology for my actions last night, as everyone might know the town christmas tree was damaged [sic],' the teen wrote on Sunday in a post to a community Facebook group.

'I am aware being intoxicated was no excuse in the incident, i really am sorry im part of this town aswell and i dont like seeing things get damaged [sic].'

'But [nevertheless] i chose to make this silly decision, so im sorry stanthorpe i hope you can forgive me for my actions [sic],' the 19-year-old wrote.

A teenager confessed to breaking the town Christmas tree in Stanthorpe, Queensland in a Facebook post. Many in the community accepted his apology, but not the local senior sergeant

The apology came after police said the teen and a 24-year-old female alleged accomplice were caught on security camera whilst climbing the four-metre tree, according to the Stanthorpe Border Post.

The teen was charged with wilful damage and is due in Stanthorpe Magistrates Court on January 25. The 24-year-old was also expected to be charged with the same offence.

Local media scolded the teen for his drunken antics. The Border Post said the act of vandalism was 'a crime against Christmas' and called the perpetrator a 'Grinch.'

Stanthorpe Senior Sergeant Mark Ireland went even further and called the teen an 'idiot.'

The tree before it was vandalised. The teen who confessed will be charged, police said

'Again this year, a small group of mindless, intoxicated idiots, after leaving a nearby hotel, decided to destroy council Christmas decorations in the Stanthorpe CBD, the property no doubt funded by local taxpayers,' Snr Sgt Ireland told the Southern Free Times.

Snr Sgt Ireland noted that security footage showed several other people 'were content to look on and not intervene, one of the males present taking pleasure capturing the event on his mobile phone.'

Even the Facebook apology didn't cut it, the senior sergeant said.

'One has to wonder if any such apology would have been forthcoming if this person had not been located and charged,' he said.

Many of the nearly hundred people who responded to the teen's Facebook apology agreed with the senior sergeant - but most were impressed the teen stepped forward, and offered immediate forgiveness.

'It takes a big person to own up to something they have done. You have obviously been raised correctly and are a credit to your parents. Some community service around town, help fix the tree and you can move on a wipe the slate clean. Apology accepted,' one commenter wrote.

'Good job on taking responsibility for your actions mate! I know so many young and old who wouldn't do what you have!' wrote another.
An idiotic train surfer who calls himself the 'Silver Shadow' has been caught on CCTV riding on top of a train carriage at 100mph.

The man, who is thought to be in his 20s, was captured on camera lying on the roof of the train in a white-knuckle ride lasting around seven minutes.

And now police have branded his actions 'nonsensical' and 'idiotic' after releasing pictures of the man in a bid to find him.

The train surfer, who calls himself the Silver Shadow, has been caught on CCTV riding on top of a train carriage at 100mph

The stills show how the man squeezed himself in between two carriages at Rock Ferry station in Birkenhead before lying on the top

The stills show how he squeezed himself in between two carriages at Rock Ferry station in Birkenhead on the Wirral at around 1.30pm on December 11.

Seven minutes later, the same man was also spotted lying flat on top of the train at Bromborough Rake Station and he waved to passengers below.

A British Transport Police spokesman said: 'The man got off the train himself.

'It is understood he then spoke to a member of station staff and said he'd travelled from Birmingham and said he was called the Silver Shadow.'

Police are now appealing for anyone who saw the incident, which took place earlier this month.

If arrested, he could face charges relating to trespassing on the railways and endangering his own safety.

When the man got off the train at nearby Bromborough Station he told station staff his name was the Silver Shadow

Investigating officer PC Andrew Richardson said: 'Even attempting to get on the top of a train is a nonsensical and idiotic thing to do.

'The man concealed himself between two carriages above electrified rails and so one slip could have easily killed him and endangered the lives of those on the train.

'This isn't cool, it isn't funny, it's dangerous and we will not stand for it.

'If you recognise the man in these pictures, please get in touch.'
Conservative former Cabinet minister Lord Jenkin of Roding, pictred in 2009, has died, peers were told today

Conservative former Cabinet minister Lord Jenkin of Roding has died, it has been announced.

The peer was one of the most well-known figures of the Thatcher era, serving as a secretary of state for social services, industry and the environment during the 1980s.

As Patrick Jenkin, he was elected to the House of Commons in 1964, taking the Wanstead and Woodford seat, following in the footsteps of Sir Winston Churchill, who had held the constituency before its boundaries were changed.

After nearly a quarter of a century serving in the House of Commons he moved to the red benches in 1987 but announced two years ago that he was retiring.

The peer urged other members of the House of Lords to follow his lead to make way for a new generation in the upper chamber.

A statement said Lord Jenkin, father of Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, died peacefully at home in Bury St Edmunds, with family at his bedside.

Lord Jenkin, 90, championed David Cameron's same-sex marriage reforms at a time when they were causing deep divisions within the Tory party.

He told peers that he had always opposed discrimination against gay men and women after having a discussion as a young man with his grandfather, who had told him 'it is as foolish to condemn those who have homosexual proclivities as it is to condemn them for having red hair'.

'I have lived with that all my life and I have always opposed discrimination against homosexuals,' he added.

Lord Jenkin, pictured in 1976, served in Parliament for 50 years, taking over Sir Winston Churchill's seat in the House of Commons, in a career that included a long spell in the Cabinet under Margaret Thatcher covering briefs including social security and industry

During the Thatcher era, he went head to head with Ken Livingstone as he led the controversial abolition of the Greater London Council.

Although loyal to the prime minister despite political differences, he was dropped from her top team in 1985, with his handling of the process said to have done for his Cabinet career.

He certainly made no secret of the sense of injustice he felt on being sacked.

His complaint was that he had been constantly loyal to Thatcher, even though, as she was well aware, he was opposed to many of her policies.

Jenkin was once described as 'tailor-made for the role of scapegoat'. He was certainly accident prone.

If there was a banana skin around, his colleagues at Westminster used to wait in horrified fascination for him to tread on it.

Patrick Jenkin, Baron Jenkin of Roding, is pictured in 1972 when he was Chief Secretary to the Treasury

In the 1970s, during the three-day week, when Jenkin was an energy minister, he urged the nation to clean its teeth in the dark to save electricity.

Then it was discovered that he used an electric toothbrush, and his north London home was photographed during this power crisis with every single light blazing.

Jenkin always refused to let ministerial red boxes dominate his weekends.

He used to rise to work on them at dawn, before putting on his working clothes to get down to some serious brick-laying.

One reason his relations with Thatcher were not always of the warmest was that he was no lover of monetarism.

He was the kind of middle-of-the-road Tory who could be heard to mutter about coalition governments in time of crisis, a prospect which would fill Thatcher with horror.
This is the hilarious moment a trio of men decided to break out Bhangra moves after tiring from shovelling snow.

The men, who are Sikhs, were filmed using their shovels as props while performing traditional folk dance moves, that originate from the Indian state of Punjab, on an icy street in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The video of the Indian-born dancers has now gone viral, receiving more than 1.6million views after publishing the video on Facebook.

Three men decided to break out some dance moves after shovelling snow in Halifax, Nova Sco

In the footage, the dancers appear to be wearing short-sleeved yellow T-shirts - even though temperatures in Nova Scotia's capital are currently a chilly minus 15 degrees Celsius.

They dance to both a traditional Bhangra track and pop smash Cheap Thrills by Sia.

As well as shovelling away the winter blues, the dancers are also raising money for a good cause.

The men are a part of the Maritime Bhangra Group, which was set up by Hasmeet Singh Chandok (centre) and his brother Kunwardeep (right)

Hasmeet said they decided to set up the group to share their culture with their neighbours

They have asked viewers to donate to ALS NB & NS, a Canadian organisation that provides support to people suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as motor neurone disease.

Hasmeet Singh Chandok, one of the dancers, said: 'All North Americans and people in so many countries can relate to having snow and trying to get rid of it just to get the car out of garage.'

Hasmeet and his brother came to Canada from India in 2013. There were not many Sikhs in Nova Scotia at the time so they started the Maritime Bhangra Group to share their culture with their neighbours.

The video of them dancing has gone viral after being watched more than 1.6million times on Facebook

The men are now trying to raise money for Canandian organisation ALS NB & NS, who provide support to people who suffer with motor neurone disease

The group has had an influx of membership requests after shooting videos across Nova Scotia, including at the famous beauty spot of Peggy's Cove, and posting them on their Facebook page.

Hasmeet added: 'This is the place we have learned and gained everything from after coming to Canada so we feel that if we actually do videos from these locations we can give a boost to the tourism in Nova Scotia.
Jon Platt, 45, (pictured) was originally fined 120 for taking his daughter to Florida

A council has won permission to appeal against a landmark ruling which saw a father successfully challenge a conviction for talking his daughter on holiday during term time.

Jon Platt, 45, was originally fined 120 for taking his daughter to Walt Disney World in Florida, but magistrates ruled he had no case to answer.

They said that because his daughter - who was six at the time - was only away from school for eight days, she was still attending 'regularly'.

Magistrates added that Mr Platt, from the Isle of Wight, had not broken the law.

But Supreme Court justices have today granted his local council permission to bring a last-ditch appeal over the case.

Isle of Wight Council, as the local education authority, took the case to London's High Court but senior judges backed the magistrates' ruling in favour of the father.

The council submitted papers to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, for permission to launch a final legal challenge, because the case raises important issues for schools and families up and down the country.

On Wednesday a panel of three justices who reviewed the case decided a hearing should go ahead. There are plans for it to take place early next year.

At the time, Mr Platt said he had won a victory which would benefit hundreds of other parents facing similar penalties.

He said: 'I refused to pay the fine and I sent emails to the council and communicated with them throughout that if they prosecuted me, I would defend myself.

'I was warned if I lost I could be liable for prosecution costs and fined up to thousands of pounds but I understood the consequences.

'I'm not a qualified lawyer but my understanding of this law is it's very simple. My child needs to attend school regularly.

'Her attendance for the whole of the last school year was nearly 94 per cent. I don't know where the threshold is but quite frankly parents need to decide for themselves.

During their holiday in term time, the Platts visited Walt Disney World in Florida (pictured)

'When I made the application through the school to get her time off it was refused even though her attendance at the time was 100 per cent.

'I've had lots of messages from people, asking me, "What is the loophole here?" But there is no loophole, the law just says your children must attend regularly.'

But a Department for Education source said children's attendance at school was 'non-negotiable' and 'we shall now look to change the law and strengthen statutory guidance'.

He was originally fined 60 and then this was then doubled because of his refusal to pay.

The magistrates decided Mr Platt had 'no case to answer' because no evidence had been produced to prove that his daughter had failed to attend school 'regularly'.

The two High Court judges ruled that the magistrates were entitled to take into account the 'wider picture' of the child's attendance record during the school year - M had an attendance rate of 92.3%.

Lord Justice Lloyd Jones said: 'I do not consider it is open to an authority to criminalise every unauthorised holiday by the simple device of alleging that there has been no regular attendance in a period limited to the absence on holiday.'
Just four days before Christmas in 1997 Dimity Clancey's world was changed forever after learning that her sister and her husband had been killed by a drunk driver.

The Channel Nine reporter was just 14-years-old when her sister Dominique, 27, and her new husband Andrew Donald, 26, were killed by a driver four times over the legal alcohol limit.

They had married only three weeks earlier, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The Current Affair journalist has spoken up about the horrific tragedy that devastated her family, urging drivers to be careful on the Australian roads at Christmas.

Just four days before Christmas in 1997 Dimity Clancey's (pictured) world was changed forever after learning that her sister and her husband had been killed by a drunk driver

Alongside a candid shot of her husband Luke and their 16-month-old son posted on Instagram, the reporter writes: 'On days like today, these two beautiful souls make everything okay.'

'That doesn't mean I don't still cry myself to sleep, because I miss my gorgeous sister Dominique,' she wrote.

'I think about her every single day and wonder about all the lives she would have saved as a passionate young Doctor.

'My world changed forever because of one man's reckless decision to drive his car, while 4 times over the legal alcohol limit.

'Please think twice this Christmas to make sure we all get home safely to our loved ones. It's so important.'

Dimity Clancey (bottom left) pictured with the family on Dominique's wedding day in 1997. Dominique and Andrew were killed just three weeks later

Alongside a candid shot of her husband Luke and their 16-month-old son posted on Instagram, the reporter said she sometimes cries to sleep because she misses her 'gorgeous sister'

Tuipulodu Mahe, an illegal Tongan immigrant, was driving his station wagon down the wrong side of the M4 when he collided with Dominique and her husband as they drove home after seeing a friend.

They died instantly, Mahe's brother was also killed.

Mahe and his 18-year-old daughter, suffered serious injuries and were taken to Westmead Hospital, the same hospital where the Donalds had worked as doctors.

Mahe served four years in prison before being deported.

'My sister had her dreams stolen and hundreds of people were robbed of her love and care as a doctor  Andrew's too,' Clancey told the Daily Telegraph

'Christmas is always going to be tainted but you just have to be tough.'

The Current Affair journalist has spoken up about the horrific tragedy that devastated her family, urging drivers to be careful on the Australian roads at Christmas




A Hells Angels 'prospect' member who was arrested for a shooting outside the bikers' clubhouse in Manhattan last week smirked in court on Wednesday.

Anthony Iovenitti, 52, was arrested for allegedly shooting 25-year-old David Martinez during a dispute over a parking space in the East Village neighborhood.

Martinez was with friends around 1.30am on December 11 when he tried to move a traffic cone so their car could squeeze past a taxi.

Hells Angels 'prospect' Anthony Iovenitti, 52, smirked in court after he was arrested for allegedly shooting 25-year-old David Martinez outside the bikers' clubhouse

The dispute allegedly erupted when Martinez tried to move a traffic cone so their car could squeeze past a taxi in the East Village neighborhood

Iovenitti allegedly punched Martinez, who then shoved him to the ground. The biker the shot the man in the stomach, according to police

Iovenitti (pictured with his attorney) was arraigned on Wednesday afternoon. He was charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon

Martinez reportedly riled several Hells Angels who poured out of the clubhouse to confront him and told him to leave it alone.

Iovenitti allegedly threw a punch and was then pushed to the ground by Martinez, according to the New York Post.

The biker then reportedly pulled out a gun and shot the younger man in the stomach.

Martinez's colon was severed by the bullet, which became lodged in his spine.

He has been recovering in the hospital but was reportedly too scared to speak to police amid fear of reprisals from Hells Angels.

Iovenitti was released on $25,000 bond and is due back in court on Friday

The 'prospect', who is only one step away from becoming a full-fledged member of Hells Angels, was arrested just two months ago over another parking space dispute

Prosecutors said the NYPD provided surveillance video that shows the moment Iovenitti allegedly raised his arm and fired the gun in Martinez's direction.

Iovenitti was led from a police station this week, wearing an orange sweatshirt which bore the slogan: 'I Don't Forget, I Don't Forgive 9-11'.

He was charged on Wednesday with assault and criminal possession of a weapon, according to DNAinfo New York.

Iovenitti was released on $25,000 bail and is due back in court on Friday. This is his eighth arrest.

He was previously taken into custody just two months ago due to another dispute over a parking spot.

Iovenitti was charged with assault after he allegedly pushed a man to the ground and caused him to hit his head on a fire hydrant.

More than 30 cops descended upon the East Village headquarters last week and handed out summonses for any minor infractions they could find

The bikers were slapped with at least three summonses, cops said, for violations including blocking the sidewalk with planters and failing to display license plates on motorcycles

Last week more than 30 cops descended upon the clubhouse and handed out summonses for any minor infractions they could find.

'It was done just to f*** with them,' one police source told the New York Post.

'They're not cooperating with the investigation. If they're gonna give us a hard time, we're gonna give them a hard time.'

The bikers were slapped with at least three summonses, cops said, for violations including blocking the sidewalk with planters and failing to display license plates on motorcycles, which were covered with a protective sheet.

An NYPD source said: 'They don't own that block and they have no right to block parking spots for themselves. It's a public street.'

'They want to bring chaos and outrage into the community, [so] we are going to enforce the law and ensure they are following the rules.'

A prospect is an associate who has not yet been granted full membership of the Hells Angels, the world's largest biker gang.
A woman has been brutally mauled by a leopard at a circus after she tried to stop the animal attacking her four-year-old godson.

Lyubov Yakovleva, 53, was attacked by the leopard moments after it had been taken out of the circus arena by its tamer while appearing 'aggressive', the Siberian Times reports.

The big cat reportedly rushed back into the ring and went straight for the boy called Tim and Ms Yakovleva.

The terrifying incident took place in Bogotol a town in the Krasnoyarsk Krai region of Russia.

A 53-year-old woman has been attacked by a leopard at a circus in Russia

Lyubov Yakovleva (left) was mauled by the leopard (right) moments after it had been taken out of the circus arena by its tamer while appearing 'aggressive'

'Suddenly he jumped in front of my nose, I only had time to cover Tim,' Ms Yakovleva told the Siberian Times.

'The beast grabbed me with its teeth, and began to tear me up. I shrinked. What happened next, I don't remember except like everyone else we rushed for the door.'

The leopard bit the woman's tendon 'all the way through'.

She lost a lot of blood and was rushed to hospital where she received 10 stitches.

The boy's mother Oskana Uskova said: 'We sat in the 6th row, but the animal was there in three seconds. This fear and horror still is in my eyes.'

Ms Uskova claimed that no one helped them.

However, the mauled woman does not blame the leopard for the attack.

'I blame only the organisers,' she said as she vowed to sue them to stop such an incident happening again.

The boy's mother Oskana Uskova said the animal came for son Tim (pictured). 'The animal was there in three seconds,' she said
contracts are worth more than 1billion a year to Deloitte

A major accountancy firm that caused a major storm over a leaked memo attacking Theresa May's Brexit strategy has agreed not to bid for government contracts.

Deloitte said it had 'put forward a plan' to heal relations with No 10 following the release of the document last month, which warned that Cabinet splits were delaying the Government's ability to agree a Brexit negotiating strategy.

The plan includes a six-month ban on pitching for lucrative government work, worth more than 200million a year to Deloitte.

Theresa May, pictured visiting a homeless hostel in south east London today, was said to be furious at the leaked Deloitte memo last month, which attacked her management of Brexit

The firm said the strategy agreed with the Government was intended to 'put this matter behind us,' The Times reported today.

The leaked document, authored by a Deloitte employee, warned that government infighting meant its Brexit strategy might not be ready for six months - after the Prime Minister's deadline of the end of March 2017 to trigger Article 50.

It identified 'well over 500 projects' being undertaken by Whitehall departments to implement Brexit, creating the need for up to 30,000 extra civil servants.

Downing Street was furious with the leak and accused Deloitte of 'touting for business' by publishing the note.

Brexit minister David Jones disowned the memo, describing its findings as 'nonsensical'.

Deloitte said it 'regrets' the publication of the document and apologised for the problems it had caused the Government.

No 10 reacted furiously to the leaked Deloitte memo that attacked her Brexit plan. Days later Theresa May delivered a speech to the CBI conference, pictured, sponsored by Deloitte

Government contracts are worth billions of pounds a year to accountancy firm Deloitte

A spokesman said: 'Deloitte regrets the publication of the two-page note, and has apologised for the unintended disruption it caused Government. The note was for internal audiences and was not a Deloitte point of view. We have put forward a plan for working with central government to put this matter behind us.'

Deloitte has shared in taxpayer-funded contracts worth a staggering 5.5 billion in the last five years, according to data on government procurement.

No 10 declined to comment on today's reports of a six-month moratorium.

Tom Brake, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman, said: 'Deloitte might be unable to apply for Government contracts for six months, but other consultancy firms are queuing up for their Brexit pay day, with reports of ministers hiring 30,000 bureaucrats to sort out the shambles created by this Conservative Brexit Government.

'Consultants are doing brilliantly out of Brexit - it is the British people who are picking up the tab.'

Theresa May, pictured visiting a homeless hostel in south east London today, said yesterday that any transitional arrangements put in place after Brexit will not be an excuse to delay the process of leaving the EU

It comes after Mrs May insisted yesterday that a ny transitional arrangements put in place after Brexit will not be an excuse to delay the UK leaving the European Union or extend the negotiation period, Theresa May has insisted.

Businesses have been keen for a transitional deal to avoid a sudden 'cliff edge' change in relationships after Brexit and the Prime Minister acknowledged there may be a need for time to make 'practical' adjustments.

But Mrs May played down suggestions that a long transition period would be needed after the two-year Article 50 deadline expires.

Appearing at the Commons Liaison Committee she said said some people 'talk about transition as a deliberate way of putting off actually leaving the EU' while for others it was 'an expectation that you can't get the deal in two years and therefore you have got to have a further period to do it'.

She said: 'If you think about the process that we are going to go through, once we have got the deal, once we have got the new arrangements, there will of course be a necessity for adjustment to those new arrangements, for implementation of some practical changes that may need to take place in relation to that.

'That's what business has been commenting on and arguing for.
A manhunt is underway for a man wanted over the Berlin Christmas market massacre - but German authorities will not fully identify him because of privacy laws.

Police are trying to find Tunisian Anis Amri after his ID was found under the seat in the lorry used to kill 12 people in the German capital on Monday night.

But in Germany, media are naming the 23-year-old suspect only as Anis A. - while his eyes are being obscured in some pictures.

Police have launched a huge manhunt for terror suspect Anis Amri (pictured) after his ID was found under the seat in the lorry used to kill 12 people in the German capital on Monday night

Manhunt: The ISIS killer behind Germany's worst terror attack since 1980 on Monday night has been given an 18 hour head start after police bungled the probe - Amri's blood may have been in the cab and he is believed to be injured

German privacy laws mean authorities will not fully identify any suspects in the attack.

Suspects in criminal cases are often only identified in German media by their first name followed by the first letter of their surname.

Media used the same naming method for Naved Baluch yesterday when the Pakistani was held in the aftermath of the atrocity.

The 23-year-old, who arrived in Germany a year ago, was blamed for Monday night's carnage but released 18 hours later.

In line with the country's privacy laws, German authorities will not fully name anyone they arrest over the atrocity.

Terror attack chain of events: The polish lorry was hijacked when it arrived in Berlin and hours later was driven through Christmas market crowds. The main suspect was pursued on foot and arrested - but it appears he is the wrong man. Police also raided the hangar he lives in with other asylum seekers at the Tempelhof airport

Prayers: Berliners cry and pray at the piles of flowers and candles left to remember the 12 dead and up to 48 injured after being hit by a careering lorry

Carnage: The area is cordoned off as a crime scene and debris left by the careering lorry remains sprayed across the pavement

It is not the first example of full names being withheld during criminal cases in the country.

Last month, only first names were released as two Syrian men, Kamel T.H.J. and Azad R., were charged with membership in a terrorist organisation on allegations they fought with a militant Islamist groups in their homeland.

A month earlier, a similar tactic was employed on the arrest of suspected ISIS airport bomb plotter Jaber al-Bakr.

The 22-year-old, had built 'a virtual bomb-making lab' in a flat in Chemnitz and was thought to have planned an attack against either one of Berlin's two airports or a transport hub in his home state of Saxony, security sources said.

He later hanged himself in his prison cell - despite being on suicide watch.
Three men have been killed and another arrested as police seized bombs during an anti-terror raid in Indonesia, local media reports.

The alleged terrorists died as officers stormed a property in the city of Tangerang, to the west of Jakarta, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

It is thought the explosives, which were ready to be detonated, were due to be used during an attack on tourist spots in Bali around the New Year.

Police from Indonesia's elite Densus 88 anti-terror squad have shot three suspected militants and arrested another during a raid near the capital Jakarta

Officers said the men were involved in a plot to attack tourist hotspots including Bali during Christmas and New Year celebrations

Police said completed bombs that were ready to be detoned were seized from an address in Tangerang, on the island of Java, on Wednesday

One of those killed is believed to be a convicted killer who was radicalised in jail by a militant who plotted to attack the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta in 2013.

Intelligence expert Wawan Purwanto told The Australian that the group had been plotting a co-ordinated attack against revelers at the end of the year.

The raid was carried out by Densus 88, members of the country's anti-terror police, the Tribune News reported.

Counter terror expert Taufik Andrie said the terrorists had been communicating with Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian ISIS member believed to be fighting in Syria.

Mr Andrie said: 'He's the one that gives them inspiration, a kind of training. Police are still pursuing other members of the group.

'The Christmas and New Year period become an annual momentum used by the radicals to launch an attack so the police are now more alert.

Officials said the men are believed to have been in contact with Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian ISIS member who inspired their actions

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs has issued new travel advice following the arrests, saying travelers should be on 'high alert' over the festive period

Police believe the bombs were to be used in a coordinated attack which would have included stabbing an officer before bombing the crowd that gathered afterward

'The plan is not as big as the first or second Bali bombings but it is dangerous, they are using high explosives.'

Meanwhile in Northern Sumatra more Densus officers carried out a raid on the home of another suspected terror leader.

The man, named locally as a man called Shafii, 27, was arrested in the village of Aji Baho and is believed to be a member of Katibah Gonggong Rebus, a terror cell named after a local dish made from snails.

Their leader, an IT worker called Gigih Rahmat Dewa, was arrested this summer.

The most recent raid comes after three suspected terrorists were arrested on Sunday in the town of Solo and accused of making a bomb for a female attacker.

In total, 14 suspected terrorists are being interrogated after raids in recent weeks.

Meanwhile officers from the same Densus 88 squad carried out another raid in Northern Sumatra, arresting a man named only as Shafii, 27

Shafii is accused of being connected to a terror cell named Katibah Gonggong Rebus, after a local snail dish, which is in contact with ISIS in Syria

Following the arrests the Department of Foreign Affairs issued updated travel advice for Indonesia, asking people to exercise 'a high degree of caution'.

The advice says: 'Indonesian authorities continue to arrest terrorists who have allegedly been in the advanced stages of attack planning.

'The terrorist threat level in Indonesia remains high. Terrorist attacks could occur anywhere at any time in Indonesia, including Bali.

'Be particularly vigilant during the Christmas and New Year period as gatherings of Westerners could be targeted.
He said he had to beat up two KKK followers after they

A black man has single-handedly caused more than 200 white racists to leave the Ku Klux Klan simply by confronting their prejudice with friendship.

Inspirational Daryl Davis, 58, a blues musician and author, has travelled all over the US since the early 1980s actively seeking out and befriending members of the openly racist organisation.

The KKK is a white supremacy cult founded in 1865 organizing members to persecute people for the color of their skin or their religious beliefs.

Daryl Davis stands at a burning of the cross ceremony with KKK members in the background. The burning is synonymous with the group who do it as a mark of their religion and for intimidation

Daryl with the distinctive white costume and face mask. He said by befriending members he convinced 200 white racists to leave the group

But Daryl Davis has been battling the hatred and answering a call he has felt since he was a young man when he decided to confront the ideology of the KKK head-on one member at a time.

He has since documented his incredible mission in the book 'Klan-destine Relationships: A Black Man's Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan' which is set to be re-released with an updated version next year.

Daryl, from Chicago, has also found time for a celebrated music career in R&B and blues, playing alongside the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and former President Bill Clinton, and he counted the legendary Muddy Waters among his friends.

Daryl said: 'Music absolutely played a massive role in bridging many gaps in the racial divides I would encounter. Once when I was performing in a predominantly white venue, a white man approached me on my break and put his arm around me and exclaimed, "This is the first time I've ever heard a black man play piano like Jerry Lee Lewis."

The musician has met many prominent members of the white supremacist group and has made friends along the way

'I quickly enlightened him as to the origin of Jerry Lee's music and told him that Jerry Lee had learned that style from black Boogie Woogie and blues piano players.

'The man did not believe me, despite the fact that I further told him that Jerry Lee was a good friend of mine and he had told me himself where he learned that style. But, the gentleman was fascinated with the idea that a black man could play like that.

'He was curious and wanted to learn more about me. It was then revealed to me by him that he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Over time, he and I became good friends. He ended up leaving the KKK.'

Daryl said he is never unprepared for violence from those he meets, as any member he confronts can potentially be someone who would want to do him harm. In those rare cases, he said one of them ended up in hospital and the other in jail.

'Some of them are absolutely repulsed when they see a black person and want to hurt that person,' said Daryl

He said: 'There have been some incidents in which I was threatened and a couple of instances where I had to physically fight. Fortunately, I won in both instances.

'These things happen from time to time, but it is to be expected, because you are dealing with someone who hates you and wants to be violent just because of the colour of your skin.

'Some of them are absolutely repulsed when they see a black person and want to hurt that person. At the core of it, although they won't at first admit it, they express superiority, but truly feel inferiority and in order to elevate themselves, they have to push someone else down.'

A meeting that could have ended up in violence was when Daryl met a Grand Dragon, a rank in the KKK, in Maryland, a man called Roger Kelly.

Daryl said: 'I was very well prepared for the meeting in terms of knowledge of my topic. I have just about every book written on the Klan and I've read them all.

'In fact, I know more about the KKK than most Klan members know about their own organisation. Knowledge, information, wit, and the way you disseminate these attributes can often prove to be a more disarming weapon against an enemy or some with whom your ideology is in conflict, than violence or lethal weapons.

'I was heavily armed with those attributes. I had been told by someone who knew him very well, that Roger Kelly would kill me. I felt confident without any physical weapon that I would prevail. Fortunately, I proved it true.'

In fact Daryl said he was so successful in his prevailing that the KKK 'branch' in Maryland is now non-existent, with perhaps four people turning up for a meeting 'and two of them are drunk'.

The KKK calls for the white 'purification' of the US and have killed black people in its long history

He said: 'It's a wonderful thing when you see a light bulb pop on in their heads or they call you and tell you they are quitting.

'I never set out to convert anyone in the Klan. I just set out to get an answer to my question: "How can you hate me when you don't even know me?"

'I simply gave them a chance to get to know me and treat them the way I want to be treated. They come to their own conclusion that this ideology is no longer for them. I am often the impetus for coming to that conclusion and I'm very happy that some positivity has come out of my meetings and friendships with them.

Daryl traveled a lot as a child as his parents served with the American Foreign Service, and he said it was that experience of different cultures that helped him see just how alien the idea of racism is..

Daryl at another KKK burning of the cross even. He also alluded to the US election saying that all racists he knows voted for Donald Trump but not all Trump supporters are racist

He said: 'When I would return home every two years, it baffled me as to why people judged others by their skin colour. This was a very strange concept to me.

'This is a quote from the American author Mark Twain, which I find to be most accurate: 'Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime'.'

Despite his incredible work Daryl does receive some mixed reactions to making friendships with people who have held such extremist views.

He said: 'There was surprise and shock on both sides (black and white), mostly from people who don't know me, or who haven't bothered to research me, read up on me, or hear my interviews or lectures.

'Not all, but most of the criticism has come from black people. I have been called a 'sellout', 'Uncle Tom', 'Oreo' and a number of other terrible names.

'Unfortunately, I must compare these particular black people with the KKK and other white supremacist groups, with no distinction, other than the colour of their skin.

Davis with a Klan member. He said that most racists he knows voted for Donald Trump in the November presidential election

'This is because they are engaging in the exact same hateful behaviour as they accuse the white racists. I can explain it like this, because I've seen it on both sides.

Daryl said America today was probably less racist than it had been in the past but that he continues his work every day.

'In Israel, it's Palestinian versus. Jew. In Lebanon, it's Christian versus. Muslim. In Iraq, it's Sunni Muslim versus Shiite Muslim. In certain African countries, the conflict is tribal. In India, we see a caste system based on the shade of skin color and classicism.

'There has always been a great deal of racism in the U.S. before and after Obama. However, racism in the US is down, post Obama.

'What you are seeing is those people who were dormant racists, being given a new lease on life by the sentiments of our new President-Elect.
The Queen cancelled plans to leave London for her festive break in Norfolk at the last minute yesterday morning, with Buckingham Palace saying she and Prince Philip both had heavy colds.

The 90-year-old monarch had been due to catch a train out of Kings Cross to Kings Lynn, a short drive from her private Sandringham estate where she resides until early February.

Royal security was out in force at both train stations but just minutes before her expected arrival in time to catch the 10.44am out of the capital, police were told to stand down.

The Queen has delayed her plans to travel to Norfolk for the start of her Christmas break

Royals: (Left to right) The Duchess of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales, Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh, and Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Buckingham Palace a fortnight ago

At Kings Lynn, where she was due to arrive at 12.21pm, officers who had cordoned off an area ready for her car were similarly told to leave.

After hours of speculation Buckingham Palace finally confirmed at 1.35pm yesterday in a statement: The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have heavy colds, and so have decided not to travel to Sandringham today.

This morning a Buckingham Palace spokesman refused to say whether or not the Queen planned to travel today instead. However, the royal couple are still expected to make it to Sandringham in time for Christmas.

On Tuesday the Queen hosted her annual pre-Christmas lunch - a royal tradition which allows her to catch up with more distant relations who are not invited to join her at Sandringham on the 25th.

And it was also revealed earlier this week that the Queen had relinquished more than two dozen of her most high profile patronages as she took another step back from royal duties.

At the end of her 90th birthday year, the monarch has handed over official roles with 25 charities and organisations to younger members of the Royal Family.

There were police at Kings Lynn station yesterday morning, but the officers later left

No royals here: The couple stayed at Buckingham Palace instead of going to King's Lynn

In recent years the Queen has begun to make a number of concessions to her advancing years including cutting down completely on long haul travel and getting other members of the family to undertake investitures on her behalf, which involve her standing on her feet for more than an hour at a time.

Two years ago Prince Charles stepped in for his mother at an ancient installation ceremony for knights of the Order of the Bath at Westminster Abbey after she admitted for the first time that a steep flight of steps would be too much for her.

And this year a temporary handrail was installed in the steep steps outside St Pauls Cathedral for the Queen and Prince Philip, 95, to use at a service to celebrate the monarchs 90th birthday.

However, aides were at pains yesterday to make clear that the Queen remains very much in charge of her brief as head of state, preferring to describe it as a gradual shift in management.

Despite their advancing years, the couple appear to remain in good health and have missed few official engagements in recent years due to illness.

Royal arrival: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and Prince George arrive for the Queen's Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday

The Queen was treated for the symptoms of gastroenteritis in 2013 and stayed overnight in a private hospital being assessed by doctors, and cancelled an official trip to Rome.

And in June last year Buckingham Palace took the unusual step of confirming the Queen's visit to a private hospital for a routine medical check-up following speculation on social media about the state of her health.

Philip joked about his good health last month during a visit with the Queen to London's Francis Crick Institute - a major biomedical research centre - where he asked a flu expert: Why haven't I had flu for the last 40 years?

In May an undisclosed minor ailment forced the Duke to miss commemorations marking the anniversary of the First World War Battle of Jutland in Orkney.

London is on high alert after the terror attack on a Christmas market in Berlin with road closures in place for the Changing of the Guard today

It comes as London is on high alert after the terror attack on a Christmas market in Berlin with road closures in place for the Changing of the Guard.

One of Buckingham Palace's most time-honoured traditions was encircled by an extra layer of security as police stepped up protective measures.

The roads surrounding the royal grounds emptied and fell quiet as closures were put in place ahead of the daily Changing of Guard.

The traffic restrictions were announced by the Metropolitan Police after a truck packed with steel ploughed into a market in the German capital, killing 12.

Armed police guarded an additional barrier at the mouth of several routes which feed on to the Queen Victoria Memorial outside the Palace's main gates.

The tree-lined Constitution Hill and The Mall, two of London's most recognisable streets, were vacant but for a handful of police vehicles.

Tourists outside Buckingham Palace wished the Queen well today. Jodie Green, 20, from the Isle of Man who is on holiday in London, said: She looks like a strong woman and I think she's got more years in her. I do hope she gets well soon.

Selfie: The roads surrounding the royal grounds emptied and fell quiet as closures were put in place ahead of the daily Changing of Guard

We were hoping she might come up onto the balcony, but now I've heard she's ill I suppose that won't be happening. Get well soon Queen Elizabeth.

Wills Blake, 21 who is on holiday from Tampa, Florida, with his father Richard, 45, said: We wish her a speedy recovery and a merry Christmas from all in Florida.

The Royal Family are great people and if anybody can take care of a 90-year-old woman with a cold then they'll be here.

Richard added: It's funny, I named Wills after Prince William. I think the Royal Family are very strong and it's amazing that the Queen hasn't been ill before.

We are only here for a few days but we specifically wanted to come and see Buckingham Palace.

Mohammed Khakpour, 79, has lived in Britain for 42 years after moving from Iran. He said: She is a wonderful Queen and I wish her all the best.

She has been performing excellently during her reign and her royal duties are incredibly important for the stability of this country.
Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the nation's most pressing threat is North Korea and its growing nuclear firepower.

Speaking on ABC's 7.30, the 59-year-old said North Korea's devastating military potential far outweighed the danger of a rising Islamic terror threat in Europe.

'Among all of those pretty complicated challenges in our region is there any one that you see is more pressing or concerning than the others?,' host Leigh Sales asked.

'I will give you three: North Korea, North Korea and North Korea,' Mr Rudd replied.

Former Australian PM Kevin Rudd says the nation's biggest threat is North Korea

Mr Rudd told ABC 7.30 host Leigh Sales that a failure to stop North Korea's nuclear firepower would create alternatives that were 'far too horrible to talk about'

'We're on a technical trajectory. It's to do with North Korean technical capabilities in terms of missile sophistication, missile range, the availability of nuclear material and the ability to militarise that into a warhead,' he added.

'That is on a very rapid timescale.

'Therefore, the number one priority in terms of US-China relations ... is to reach an agreement strategically between President Xi Jinping (China) and President Donald Trump-Elect on how this can be arrested and stopped.'

Mr Rudd warned that a failure to do so would create alternatives that were 'far too horrible to talk about.'

North Korea has the largest army in the world and is widely believed to be in possession of a small arsenal of nuclear warheads

Mr Rudd said Australia was on a 'technical trajectory' on a 'rapid timescale' as North Korea builds its military capabilities

Sales then asked Mr Rudd - who spends most of his time working as head of an Asian think-tank based in the United States - what his contacts made 'of the belligerence that Donald Trump is displaying towards China.'

'It's a varied feast,' Rudd replied with lightheartedly.

''I think the challenge for the period ahead is for a channel to be opened up as early as possible between the two administrations.'

'So the parameters can be set for One China, for North Korea - which is this railway train, this sort of freight train rolling down the tracks towards us in terms of its nuclear weapons program.'

North Korea has the largest army in the world and is widely believed to be in possession of a small arsenal of nuclear warheads.
Married men who claim they are not wed in order to snare a new lover in Italy will fall foul of the law, following a landmark judgement.

The country's Supreme Court has called time on lotharios after ruling against a man who claimed to have had his marriage annulled.

The hapless liar was found to have been taking a false identity after claiming to be legally single.

The hapless liar was found to have been taking a false identity after claiming to be legally single

He claimed an advantage with the fib, by beginning a sexual affair with an unsuspecting woman, the court ruled.

The unnamed man's lawyers had argued that this was not recognised in law.

The crime later unraveled when she discovered that he was not divorced, and that his wife was expecting a baby.

He had been planning to marry his second lover, even setting a wedding date in 2010, The Times reports.

Marriage is being hotly discussed in Italy at the moment, with a bill put forward to Italy's Civil Code proposing to stop making couples pledge fidelity during civil ceremonies

A report on legal website studiocataldi.it said: 'To conquer his new flame he went far beyond the old trick of removing his wedding ring, showing the woman a fake annulment certificate from the Sacred Rota to prove that he was free.

Marriage is being hotly discussed in Italy at the moment, with a bill put forward to Italy's Civil Code proposing to stop making couples pledge fidelity during civil ceremonies.
This is the moment an armed robber is left writhing in agony on the pavement after being gunned down by a building foreman he tries to intimidate into handing over cash.

The criminal, named locally as 40-year-old Ricardo Palazzo, pulled out his weapon after spotting Pedro Gonzalez sitting in an expensive-looking 4x4 opposite a building site.

CCTV cameras showed him demanding his intended victim open his car door and even banging on the glass with his pistol when he didn't get him to buckle immediately.

The robbery attempt was captured on CCTV, as Ricardo Palazzo tried to rob Pedro Gonzalez

CCTV cameras showed him demanding his intended victim open his car door and even banging on the glass with his pistol when he didn't get him to buckle immediately

Instead of cash he ended up getting lead in his groin and a shoulder as his target fought back with a weapon he had hidden in his vehicle and blasted him three times to the ground.

The incident happened in Caballito, a neighbourhood of the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires.

At first it appeared the armed robber had been shot dead.

But he began to move as the construction worker dialled 999 and onlookers rushed over to see what had happened.

Last night - as 62-year-old Mr Gonzalez was freed after several hours in custody by a judge who ruled he acted in self-defence - it emerged he had more than 10,000 in workers' wages on him when he was targeted.

The revelation led to speculation the robbery was not the opportunistic crime the CCTV cameras appeared to suggest.

Instead of cash he ended up getting lead in his groin and a shoulder as his target fought back with a weapon he had hidden in his vehicle and blasted him three times to the ground

As well as a 9mm Bersa Thunder pistol, the same weapon the building foreman used, police confiscated a grenade from a rucksack the armed robber was carrying.

The 50 men due to receive their wages from the intended victim have now been paid.

Mr Gonzalez's lawyer Mariano Fragueiro Frias said: 'The investigating judge took more than ten statements from witnesses who were at the scene when this incident took place, before and after the shots.

The judge said of Gonzalez: 'He acted in self-defence. He was attacked by a man with a gun who was pointing his weapon at him'

'It was clear that my client was the one who called the police and the paramedics.

'He acted in self-defence. He was attacked by a man with a gun who was pointing his weapon at him.

'He replied with his own firearm. He has a firearms licence.'

One social media user wrote: 'It's so gratifying to see this video.'

Another added: 'This 62-year-old man deserves the nickname Badass.'

The 2012 Hollywood film Bad Ass, starring Danny Trejo and Charles S. Dutton, focuses on a Vietnam veteran who becomes a local hero after saving a man from attackers on a city bus.
Anis Amri, pictured, may have links to jihadists behind the beach massacre in Tunisia that left 30 Britons dead in 2014, it has emerged

The suspect in the Berlin lorry attack may have links to jihadists behind the beach massacre in Tunisia that left 30 Britons dead in 2014, it has emerged.

German police are tracking Anis Amri, 23, a Tunisian refugee, after his paperwork was found in a truck used to murder 12 people in the capital on Monday night.

A Facebook profile in his name shows 'likes' linked to Tunisian terror network Ansar al-Sharia, a group with followers linked to extremists who murdered 22 at Tunis' Bardo Museum in March 2015 and then 39 tourists at a beach resort in Sousse.

Authorities believe Ansar al-Sharia also recruited and trained Seifeddine Rezgui, who used a Kalashnikov assault rifle to murder holidaymakers on their sun loungers.

The group was founded and run by extremist Saifallah Ben Hassine, who became a disciple of hate preacher Abu Qatada in London in the late 1990s.

Ben Hassine, who is said to have plotted the beach massacre from his base in Libya, is also believed to have had a key role in the plotting of 9/11.

This morning, security sources in Germany said Amri is probably armed, 'highly dangerous' and a member of a 'large' Islamic organisation and has weapons training abroad.

The suspect was also in contact with a 'network of leading Islamist ideologists'.

Amri, who was born in the desert town of Tataouine in 1992  a well known ISIS stronghold close to the Libyan border - was apparently recently arrested for GBH but vanished before he could be charged.

A Facebook profile in Amri's name shows 'likes' linked to Tunisian terror network Ansar al-Sharia, a group with followers linked to extremists who murdered 39 tourists at a beach resort in Sousse, Tunisia

Authorities believe Ansar al-Sharia, pictured, also recruited and trained Seifeddine Rezgui, who used a Kalashnikov assault rifle to murder holidaymakers on their sun loungers in Sousse

A Tunisian official said today that German investigators are trying to determine the role of a Tunisian man whose identity papers were found in the cab of the truck that smashed into Berlin's Christmas market.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the German government hasn't publicly commented on the potential suspect, said Tunisian authorities are requesting more information on the German probe into Anis Amri. He declined to comment further.

In August 2016 Amri he was arrested with a fake Italian passport and released but his phone was said to be monitored. He then disappeared in December, according to Die Welt.

Amri has temporary permission to stay in the country but was due to face an asylum hearing.

Despite an unfolding international manhunt the first pictures of him released in Germany have his eyes deliberately covered, thought to be because of strict privacy laws there. MailOnline has uncovered unblurred images.

Security cordon off the area around the Christmas market in Berlin after it was ploughed into by the truck

The scene of the crowded Christmas market, the day after 12 people were killed in the truck attack

Police are believed to have found blood in the truck's cab and now assume that the suspect may be badly injured.

Squads of officers have been to every hospital in Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg. They also arrested another unnamed suspect in connection with the terror attack but have since ruled him out.

Amri was living in Berlin but police believe he has links to North Rhine-Westphalia - the industrial region of Germany containing Cologne, Dortmund and Bonn. His ID was issued on the town of Kleve close to the border with the Netherlands and Belgium.

He is allegedly a disciple of Abu Walaa, arrested in Hildesheim last month for recruiting radicals into the ranks of Isis. Walaa has previously spoken at mosques in London.

Berliners cry and pray at the piles of flowers and candles left to remember the 12 dead and up to 48 injured after being hit by a careering lorry

He was arrested along with five members of a terrorist recruiting network operating on behalf of the so-called Islamic State, according to prosecutors.

The arrests took place in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. The network allegedly recruited and provided logistical support for local volunteers making their way from Germany to Syria.

Iraqi citizen known Abu Walaa, 32, or Ahmad Abdelaziz as he is also known, is a leading figure of the movement in Germany, and many of his followers have made their way to Syria.

Walaa has been at the centre of a year long investigation, which also yielded arrests in the city of Hildesheim in July 2016.
YouTuber Adam Saleh was escorted off a Delta flight from London to New York

This is the shocking moment a YouTube prankster was allegedly 'kicked off' a Delta flight at London Heathrow for speaking Arabic.

Adam Saleh, 23, who has 1.6 million followers on the video site, was escorted off the flight to New York after an American female passenger heard him talking in another language and 'felt uncomfortable'.

The rapper and internet celebrity, who filmed the entire incident, was furious, later tweeting: We got kicked out of a @Delta airplane because I spoke Arabic to my mom on the phone and with my friend slim... WTFFFFFFFF please spread.'

Despite the dramatic video, many have questioned the authenticity of the online prankster's claims.

The New York internet star shot to fame through his prank channel, but has been forced to reveal that some of his biggest 'pranks' were actually staged.

Saleh was even forced to make a grovelling apology over his most infamous hoax - the anti-police 'Racial Profiling Experiment' video - that claimed US officers had abused him over his religion.

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This is the shocking moment a YouTube prankster was allegedly 'kicked off' a Delta flight at Heathrow for speaking Arabic

Adam Saleh, who has 1.6 million followers on the video site, was escorted off the flight from London to New York after the airline says more than 20 other passengers complained about him

And just last week, he filmed a fake video of himself, supposedly flying to Sydney inside a suitcase. The footage was later debunked by Melbourne Airport.

However, his manager insisted to BuzzFeed News that the latest video was 'as real as it gets.'

Soledad O'Brien, who had a friend on the same flight as Saleh, tweeted that 'A LOT still unclear' about the incident 'nut apparently woman sitting near my friend tipped off flight attendants he was a youtube star known for pranks.'

'Also people on plane disputing call to mom,' she added.

Saleh has since defended himself to CBS News saying that he called his mother on every flight but this was the first time it had sparked such an uproar.

'I speak to my mom on the phone every flight,' Saleh said. 'She only speaks Arabic.'

He said when he was speaking to her, an American woman in front had turned around and told him he ought to speak English. When he replied he could speak whatever language he chose, the woman's husband began yelling, Saleh said.

That was when he and his friend were approached by the captain who asked them to leave, he claims.

During the footage, which has been seen more than 500,000 times since it was posted on Twitter, Saleh confronted the passengers who have made a complaint against him.

'I spoke a word and you said you feel uncomfortable. Why are you guys doing that?' he yelled at the men behind him.

'Just because I spoke a different language. We spoke a different language on the plane and now we're getting kicked out. This is 2016.

'Delta Airlines are kicking us out because we spoke a different language.

Saleh and his friend were marched off the flight and interviewed by police at the airport after the incident

Saleh complained that other passengers had waved goodbye (pictured) as he was escorted off the plane

Other passengers looked shocked and uncomfortable by the entire incident

YOUTUBE PRANKSTER FAKED STREET ARREST OF MUSLIM... AND INFLAMED RACE RELATIONS Saleh apologized in 2014 after making a hoax video that falsely accused police of racism. He and friend Sheikh Akbar had claimed in a two-minute film titled Racial Profiling Experiment that they were singled out for abuse in New York because they were wearing traditional Islamic clothing. Hoax cideo: Saleh and friend Sheikh Akbar claimed in this two-minute film titled Racial Profiling Experiment that they were singled out for abuse in New York because they were wearing traditional Islamic clothing The video, below, showed the pair being shouted at by a 'policeman' as they walked past arguing, then were pushed against a wall and frisked. They claimed the 'officer' ignored them when they had the same argument in Western outfits. The video was picked up by media around the world as an example of police racism. The pranksters had to admit the hoax but their stunt angered American Muslims. Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said: 'Muslims are already under the microscope, and to do this just to gain some cheap publicity is totally unacceptable.' Advertisement

'You guys are racist.'

In another video, filmed in the airport, Saleh says the incident ' made me feel like I was a terrorist'.

'Everyone was like, 'Kick him out!' All these racist people, I felt uncomfortable,' he said.

Saleh and his friend were marched off the flight and interviewed by police at the airport after the incident. However, neither were charged and they were both re-booked on another Delta flight home to New York City.

Saleh's spokesperson, based in London, told Buzzfeed that the whole thing began after an American passenger heard him speaking to his mother before take-off.

'He always speaks to his mum to get her blessings. As he was speaking, an American lady said she felt uncomfortable,' Saleh's spokesperson said.

'He's upset with the fact it's happened to him. He's in tears. We dress like them, we think we are like them. It's just a different skin color.'

Saleh has since been rebooked on another flight and is en-route to New York.

Despite the dramatic video, many have questioned the authenticity of the online prankster's claims

A HISTORY OF ADAM SALEH'S PLANE STUNTS YouTube star Adam Saleh shot to fame by pulling online prank, from his notoriously staged Racial Profiling Experiment to 'killer clown' pranks. But a favorite setting seems to be in airports and on planes, where he has filmed himself pulling 'pranks' seemingly aimed at sparking panic and fear, and others which would be downright illegal - if they weren't faked for views. JANUARY 13 2016 Saleh posted the video ' Arabs on a plane' in which he described how he was going to 'Arab fly' his friend, 'even though we are not going to an Arabic country'. In his 'Arabs on a plane' video, Saleh swapped his hat (left) for a Pakistani head scarf (right) to board the plane Once he boarded the plane, the 23-year-old swapped his his novelty beanie for a keffiyeh - a traditional scarf from Pakistan - which he wrapped round his head. 'Everyone looking at us thinking what the hell they wearing,' he said in the video. FEBRUARY 9 2016 Saleh pulled a similar stunt just one month later when he decided he would count down in Arabic while waiting for take-off on a flight from Chicago to Saudi Arabia. 'What would ever happen if we counted down on the plane, in Arabic?' His friend, who was on the flight with him, tried to dissuade him from doing the 'prank' which had the potential to spread panic and fear. 'No, bro, you wanna get kicked out bro,' his friend had replied. 'I can count down in Arabic,' Saleh retorted. 'It's asocial experiment, you know what I'm saying? He then began loudly counting down in Arabic, while his friend slouched down in his seat, covering his face with his hat. Despite the incendiary nature of the stunt, the only response they got was from a friendly passenger sitting behind who began chatting to the pair. FEBRUARY 9 2016 During that same video, titled 'Counting down in Arabic on a plane experiment!', Saleh had already decided to test the limits of airport security by trying to board a flight with a fake ID. The YouTube star, who was filming through Chicago's O'Hare Airport, admitted to camera that he'd acquired a fake ID in California and was planning to use it to get through security. 'I don't have my passport on me right now,' he said. ' I have this ID I have from California. It's not even a legit ID. It's a fake ID.' The stunt did not quite go as planned however, after the video cut to Saleh on the other side of airport security. 'They saw it and were like, look, this is fake ID and it's illegal to show it to government officials and the TSA so were going to call the police.' He said he was grilled by Chicago police who asked him to prove he was who he claimed to be, before he was finally allowed to board. DECEMBER 13 2016 On December 13, Saleh claimed that he flew from Melbourne to Sydney inside a suitcase (pictured) 'I'm Adam Saleh and I'm a professional idiot,' is how the prankster introduced himself during the video 'I sent myself to another country!!'. The footage made headlines after he claimed he'd squeezed into a tiny suitcase and illegally flew in the baggage hold from Melbourne to Sydney. Video showed Saleh's friends zipping him into a suitcase, wheeling him to the automated check-in area and paying the overweight fee, before the case disappeared down the conveyor belt. He can be heard saying: 'I am so scared, I don't know if I'm going to survive'. Saleh also had a camera inside the bag, and he could be seen sweating inside the tiny case. Melbourne Airport has since, thoroughly debunked the stunt as hoax, saying surveillance footage proves that Saleh boarded the flight normally. They also pointed to numerous flaws in the footage, including that Saleh would have exceed the maximum baggage weight. Melbourne Airport has since, thoroughly debunked the stunt as hoax Upon arrival in Sydney, Saleh climbed back into the suitcase, which his friends placed him on the luggage carousel before they filmed him climbing out of the bag, claiming he'd been there all along. 'While this video is clearly a publicity stunt, it promotes behaviors that are dangerous and life threatening,' Melbourne Airport warned. DECEMBER 21 Saleh films himself being ejected from a Delta Airlines flight from London Heathrow to New York. He claims he was kicked off 'after speaking Arabic to his mom' but many have questioned whether the move was yet another publicity stunt. Advertisement

He tweeted his thanks for his fans support, writing: 'I appreciate every single one of you!!!' and also warned that he would be speaking to his lawyers about the incident when he landed.

Delta Airlines confirmed that two passengers were removed from the flight 'after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort.

'We're conducting a full review to understand what transpired,' a spokesman said.

'We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect.'

Saleh shot to fame on YouTube in 2012 as internet prankster.

But he has been forced to admit that some of his most famous pranks were actually faked.

His most notorious hoax, the anti-police 'Racial Profiling Experiment', which was viewed more than 200,000 times, was so controversial it hit headlines worldwide.

In the video, Saleh and a friend arguing in front of a cop while dressed in Western clothes. The cop just ignores them.

Then the pair return in Islamic-style clothing and begin once more to argue in front of an uniformed police officer.

This time they are shouted at, pinned against a wall and frisked.

Saleh later admitted that the whole incident was staged, with an actor dressed as a policeman.

It caused fury among Muslim groups in the US who decried it as a 'cheap publicity' stunt by Saleh and warned that it would lead to genuine harassment being dismissed in future.

Last week, Saleh made headlines after he claimed he'd squeezed into a tiny suitcase and illegally flew in the baggage hold from Melbourne to Sydney.

Saleh later posted several videos from London Heathrow airport expressing his shock at his treatment

Saleh's videos have sparked outrage online where thousands have begun tweeting the star's #BoycottDelta hashtag

Video, posted on his channel, showed Saleh's friends zipping him into a suitcase, wheeling him to the automated check-in area and paying the overweight fee, before the case disappears down the conveyor belt.

He can be heard saying: 'I am so scared, I don't know if I'm going to survive'.

Melbourne Airport has since, thoroughly debunked the stunt as hoax, saying surveillance footage proves that Saleh boarded the flight normally.

Upon arrival in Sydney, Saleh climbed back into the suitcase, which his friends placed him on the luggage carousel before they filmed him climbing out of the bag, claiming he'd been there all along.

'While this video is clearly a publicity stunt, it promotes behaviors that are dangerous and life threatening,' Melbourne Airport told news.com.au.

Saleh has not commented on the airport's statement.
Nikki Benz claimed she was choked and had her head stamped on by a violent director during a porn shoot

A porn star has claimed she was choked and stamped on despite yelling cut repeatedly during a violent shoot.

Actress Nikki Benz said she begged her male director to stop but was ignored as they filmed scenes for the website Brazzers.

In an angry stream of tweets on Tuesday, 35-year-old Benz lampooned the company for turning a blind eye to the director's abusive behavior.

'I guess rape scenes are in now huh?' she said in one of the tweets which have since caught the attention of porn fans around the world.

Benz was filming with a director known only as Tony T when she said the shoot spiraled out of control.

Speaking out about the ordeal online, she at first spared details of the alleged incident, only telling Brazzers that she did not want the footage to be released.

'I'm not happy. Have fun releasing it.

'I guess when I'm signing out and I tell you I'm not OK with the scene, you make me say I'm OK so I get paid. I guess rape scenes are in now huh?'

The Ukrainian-born star then uploaded screenshots of text messages exchanged between one of her friends and a Brazzers employee which described the alleged abuse.

'Her hand is black and blue. She still has a headache from getting her stomped on (sic) and y'all director actually choking her himself?'

'He did several times this is after she got her head stomped on... Nikki kept yelling cut and they kept going.'

Benz (left during a shoot last week) said she repeatedly yelled cut but was ignored. She is the official spokesperson for Brazzers, the online porn hub which commissioned the shoot

The 35-year-old actress said she was left in tears by the alleged abuse as she described it in a flurry of tweets

Benz told the porn website she did not want to see the footage released as she revealed her plight with fans

In another exchange, the actress pleaded with someone who said they had 'reviewed the footage' and asked her to call them.

'Did you see the part where I said cut, where I said I'm not OK with this? Tony T did he leave that in? I said no.'

On Tuesday night Brazzers issued a statement shunning responsibility for the alleged attack, describing the director as a 'third party'.

' Hey Nikki Benz we're behind you and will never tolerate negative behavior towards stars by any 3rd party producer.'

In a statement, it continued: 'As most of you already know, we do not produce content ourselves but commission producers to do so on our behalf.

She said director Tony T (above) ignored her pleas to stop. He has not commented on the claims

'We understand that this particular scene was an unscripted scene with the artistic direction left open to the producers discretion.'

It offered Benz its support and said it would investigate the matter internally, a move which spurned further out cry from fans and fellow actors who say they have reported concerns about the director several times.

Another star said he had an 'anger problem' while a different actress described refusing to work with the man after her own bad experience.

Brazzers did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment on Wednesday morning.

Tony T, who has appeared in several films himself, could not be reached. No criminal charges have been brought against the director.

Among those who offered Benz their support was star Jenna Jameson who shared a photograph of the director with her own fans.

'You are a strong woman. Just know you have us all behind you,' Jameson said.

Actor James Deen has been accused of sexually assaulting or raping at least 13 different women.

He is still in line to collect a string of industry awards despite the allegations which include claims he held female actors down and 'f******' them despite their repeated pleas to stop.

Benz described the porn industry as an 'old boys club' as she spoke out about her own experiences on Tuesday.
The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney has taken aim at 'politically-correct elitists' after traditional Christmas references were banished from the streets.

Archbishop Glenn Davies accused 'left-wing elitists' of being behind the NSW government's decision to remove banners saying 'very merry' and avoid the term 'Christmas'.

It comes amid reports of festive season signs being altered to say 'happy holidays' rather than 'merry Christmas' and carols being scrapped by schools, reports Daily Telegraph.

The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies has taken aim at 'politically-correct elitists'

Dr Davies said the movement threatens to hinder freedom of speech and must be tackled before it spirals out of control.

'This kind of ideology comes from the left or should I say, the far left.'

He said the the removal of traditional Christmas references was a 'great folly'.

'The politically correct vanguard of secularists are basically trying to conform people to their particular pattern of speech and belief.'

Last week Peter Dutton called on Australians to 'rise up' and defend Christmas after a school rejected traditional carols for more secular songs.

Appearing on talkback radio, the furious Immigration Minister said his 'blood was boiling' after learning there was 'not one Christmas carol' at the celebration at Kedron State School in Queensland.

Peter Dutton (pictured) last week called for Australians to 'rise up' and defend Christmas

The Santa supporter said his 'blood was boiling' after learning a Queensland rejected traditional tunes (stock image)

'It is political correctness gone mad and I think people have just had enough of it,' he told 2GB radio host Ray Hadley.

A member of Mr Dutton's Dickson electorate Jim told the radio show the public secondary school ceremony did not have 'one Christmas carol'.

The lyrics to We Wish You A Merry Christmas were replaced with 'we wish you a happy holiday', The Age reported.

'Many of the people, regardless of their religious belief, would be there happy to sing Christmas carols, happy to enjoy the fact that we celebrate Christmas as a Christian society,' Mr Dutton told 2GB

'It's beyond my comprehension but it has gone too far.'

The pro-Christmas politician likened the current climate of political correctness to when Prime Minister Paul Keating was in charge in the mid-1990s.
Almost all communication channels between Russia and the United States are 'frozen', the Kremlin's spokesman has said.

Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that there had been a break in dialogue between the two countries, the RIA news agency reports.

'Almost every level of dialogue with the United States is frozen. We don't communicate with one another, or (if we do) we do so minimally,' Peskov is reported to have said in an interview to Mir TV.

Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov, pictured left with Vladimir Putin, said communication channels between Russia and the U.S. were 'frozen'

'Unfortunately, our bilateral relations are now accompanied by an extreme degree of distrust and these relations are in quite deplorable state.'

The tensions are linked to the CIA and FBI linking Russia to the hacking of Hillary Clinton's emails during the U.S. presidential election and sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Crimea.

Peskov also said in the interview he did not know whether President Vladimir Putin would seek re-election in 2018.

'Everyone's heads are aching because of work and with projects and nobody is thinking or talking about elections,' Peskov said.

President-elect Donald Trump has expressed openness to friendlier relations with Russia and Vladimir Putin has already heaped praise on him on more than one occasion

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov (pictured last week) told reporters on Wednesday that bilateral relations between Russian and U.S. were now accompanied by a 'extreme degree of distrust'

The U.S. government hit back on Wednesday at Peskov's comments saying there had been no break in dialogue.

'It's difficult to know exactly what is meant by this comment, but diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues,' U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

'That we have significant differences with Moscow on some of these issues is well known, but there hasn't been a break in dialogue.'

Kirby said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone only on Tuesday regarding the situation in Syria.

Putin has spoken previously of his hope that Trump will help restore US-Russia relations

The Russian government spokesman also added during his interview that the country did not expect the incoming U.S. administration to reject NATO enlargement overnight.

It comes after Putin heaped praise on president-elect Donald Trump on more than one occasion. He recently called him a 'clever man' and a 'brilliant and talented person' following Trump's election.

Putin has spoken previously of his hope that Trump will help restore US-Russia relations and analysts said he was unlikely to want to dial up anti-Western rhetoric before the president-elect's inauguration in January.

Trump's openness to friendlier relations with Russia is being linked to soaring Russian stock prices, CNN Money reports.
Fresh details have emerged about a 'highly sophisticated' group of hitmen dismantled by police after the execution of underworld figure Pasquale Barbaro.

Nearly two months before the heavily-tattooed mafioso was brazenly gunned down in the streets of inner Sydney, police executed a raid on an apartment in Concord.

There they claim they found 13 guns, including an automatic assault rifle, pistols with silencers, three NSW Police shirts, ballistic vests, cable ties and five jerry cans full of petrol.

Police allege the deadly tools belonged to a group known as 'Sultani's Crew' - unimaginatively named after their alleged leader Abuzar 'Afghani Abs' Sultani.

Last month Sultani, 27, was charged with the murder of Barbaro alongside alleged gang members Siar Munshizada, 28, Joshua Baines, 24, and Mirwais Danishyar, 23.

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Abuzar Sultani, 27, has been charged with the alleged murder of mafioso Pasquale Barbaro

Four men, aged between 23 and 28, have been charged with murder over the execution of crime figure Pasquale Barbaro (pictured)

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, police allege Sultani and his three associates were all members of the same organised crime group.

In police facts tendered to court, it was alleged the 'highly organised, co-ordinated and disciplined' group had roots in the Burwood chapter of the Rebels bikie gang.

Sultani and his crew allegedly operated a 'sophisticated network of companies' to allegedly launder money, quite often forging links to the construction industry to legitimatise their shady business.

Police also allege that Xiu Yuan Zhu, who has been charged with participating in a criminal group, helped 'Sultani's Crew' use encrypted smartphones to communicate.

'So the burn pass code is four zeroes, that makes it easy to burn,' Zhu allegedly said, according to the facts.

'It won't just wipe it, it fires the whole circuit board.'

Siar Munshizada, 28, appeared before Burwood Local Court accused over the November 14 murder

Joshua Baines, 24, did not appear in person at Parramatta Local Court before Magistrate Gary Still and did not apply for bail

Documents tendered in court also allege Sultani plotted to kill fellow Rebels member Ricky Ciano at Wamberal on the NSW Central Coast in August 2015.

He is accused of multiple cases of assault, breaking and entering and robbery and is also allegedly implicated in serious assaults and drug supply matters as part of a 'larger criminal group'.

Court papers allege police have found 'vast amounts of money' in the 27-year-old's possession on numerous occasions, despite his having no legitimate employment or means to support himself.

Other charges involve the alleged supply of almost 5kg of the drug ice and 1.3kg of MDMA.

He is also accused of possessing 29 guns and more than 9300 rounds of various kinds of ammunition.

The cases of Sultani and his alleged associates were mentioned in Burwood Local Court on Tuesday and adjourned to March 3, Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Mirwais Danishyar, 23, was charged with driving offences and dishonestly possess interfered-with unique identifier along with murder. Pictured Siar Munshizada

Heavily armed police stormed up to 13 properties including four at Sydney's Olympic Park, on Tuesday before nine men were arrested
Donald Trump's personal physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, continued to vouch for his longtime patient's health in his first interview since Trump won the election at age 70.

'Well, I'm fortunate there's nothing seriously wrong with him. He's a few pounds overweight, which everybody can see, and that's it. I've never been able to find anything wrong with him,' Bornstein said.

And should something go wrong, Bornstein said flatly there are contingencies built into the American system of government.

'If something happens to him, then it happens to him,' Bornstein told the medical publication STAT. 'It's like all the rest of us, no? That's why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying.'

Bornstein spoke about Trump's health in a 3-hour interview with the publication. During the primaries, he was often elusive, hanging up on a reporter who called him the day he released a letter pronouncing Trump's health 'astonishingly excellent' but providing few of the usual details.

Dr. Harold Bornstein, Donald Trump's personal physician, was nonchalant when describing the health challenges of the 70-year-old president elect. ''If something happens to him, then it happens to him,' he said

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He spoke briefly with CNN outside his Upper East Side medical practice during a period of media focus on the candidates' health, only to have his wife cut short the interview and threaten to call the police.

'It never occurred to me that he was the oldest president, not for a second,' said Bornstein, 69, a gastrointerologist who inherited the practice from his father, Jacob.

He said there was ''nothing to share' about the president-elect's health.

'Ronald Reagan had pre-senile dementia. I mean, seriously, did they share that one with you, or did Nancy just cover it up?'

Bornstein, who has seen Trump as a patient for 30 years, says he has gotten harassing phone calls.

Once, he said someone yelled at him on the street: 'You're Donald Trump's doctor. I hope he dies!'

Bornstein told NBC that he wrote his letter about Trump's health in five minutes while a limo sent by Trump waited outside.

Bornstein drew scrutiny during the primaries after penning a letter about Trump's 'astonishingly excellent' medical exam results

Bornstein stated that Trump would be the 'healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency'

Bornstein wrote in his letter that Trump had lost 15 pounds. He told the publication Stat that Trump was 'a few pounds overweight, which everybody can see'

Trump appeared on the Dr. Oz show to discuss his health during the primaries

Trump correctly predicted that his longtime physician would provide a positive medical report

The four-paragraph letter drew scrutiny from other professionals for stating that a recent exam 'showed only positive results'  which in medical terms isn't always a good thing, since a person can test positive for a variety of ailments.

'If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,' Bornstein stated, without further information about the historical evidence or basis of his analysis.

Bornstein says he ran into Hillary Clinton's physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack, during the campaign and presented her with a Trump pin. Trump called repeated attention to Clinton's health during the campaign, frequently mocking her insufficient 'stamina' and saying she was 'sleeping.'

Bornstein said Trump wasn't 'an old man the way my grandfather was an old man,' and said of Clinton: 'Shes an old lady. Shes an old lady. Its funny, isnt it?'
Police have released surveillance footage of a Hispanic man who allegedly randomly stabbed a tourist in the head with a steak knife while he was celebrating his engagement.

Connor Rasmussen, 23, miraculously survived the attack after a knife was lodged into the base of his skull while he was walking with friends in New York early on Sunday morning.

Rasmussen, who had earlier flown to New York to propose to his girlfriend in Central Park, removed the knife himself and handed it to police who are checking the weapon for DNA and fingerprints.

Police have released surveillance images of a Hispanic man who randomly stabbed tourist Connor Rasmussen, 23, in the head with a steak knife while walking in New York on Sunday

Connor Rasmussen, 23, flew to the city from his home in Washington to propose to Jordan Asher, 22, (pictured) in Central Park, only to be attacked on the street two days later

The victim only required stitched for the 2-inch gash.

Police released surveillance images of the suspect on Wednesday in a bid to identify him after he approached Rasmussen from behind and stabbed him at the corner of Madison Avenue and East 46th Street in Manhattan at about 1.45am.

Images show the suspect walking down a street carrying an object in his hand and entering a subway station.

The suspect was a male Hispanic who was last seen wearing a black skull cap, black sweat pants, black sneakers and a black 'Jordan' hooded sweatshirt with white stripes, according to police.

Police said the suspect fled westbound on East 46th Street.

Rasmussen had skipped a job interview to fly to New York from his home in Washington state to propose to his girlfriend Jordan Asher, 22, in Central Park just two days earlier.

She accepted and a professional photographer was on hand to capture the emotional moment, but memories of their picture-perfect engagement may have been marred by the stabbing.

Images released by police show the suspect walking in a subway station

Police released surveillance images of the suspect on Wednesday in a bid to identify him after he approached Rasmussen from behind and stabbed him in the base of his skull

The incident occurred at the corner of Madison Avenue and East 46th Street in Manhattan at about 1.45am. Police said the suspect (left) was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt (right)

Asher's grandmother Linda Colon told the New York Daily News: 'It was a 2-inch gash. If it could have been 2 inches or an inch on either side, from what the doctors said, it would have killed him.'

A CAT scan found the 23-year-old did not suffer any serious injuries, and he was released from Bellevue Hospital later on Sunday after receiving stitches.

Asher's brother, who was with Rasmussen at the time, expressed his shock, but said the victim remained calm and did not seem to be in much pain.

The victim's female friend also suffered scratches to her face.

'He always loved New York and my daughter said now he hates New York,' Colon told the Daily News.

'They were having a wonderful experience and now, a horrible experience. They are all very traumatized.'

The 23-year-old flew in from Washington state to propose to his girlfriend Jordan Asher, 22, in Central Park just two days before he was stabbed

Rasmussen was walking near East 46th Street and Madison Avenue (pictured) when a steak knife was lodged in the back of his head
A British man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a former convict who turned into a successful crime reporter.

Martin Kok, 49, was shot dead on Thursday, December 8, when he left a sex club in the town of Laren in the Netherlands.

The British national, who has only been identified as Chris H. due to privacy laws, left the building with Kok but fled the scene after shots were fired.

Martin Kok was shot dead on December 8 as he left a sex club in the town of Laren in the Netherlands

Mourners had to walk through metal detection gates at Kok's funeral earlier this month amid fears of gangland recriminations

He has now been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the murder, but his lawyer, Maarten Pijnenburg, said the Briton only ran because 'he was scared to death'.

Pijnenburg said: 'He immediately walked off the premises. He found it unsafe. My client was totally disoriented, he never has gone through something like this before.'

The British employee of a phone company, who police say also goes by the name of Scotty, reported the murder a day later to the police. Officers are said to find it 'suspect' that he 'walked away so calmly.'

His crime blog is one of the most popular in the Netherlands, and the writer in the past said 'he knew he was a target from criminals because of his stories', but he did not shy away from covering them

In July a bomb was planted under Kok's car, which was only discovered seconds before he was about to get into the vehicle

Police confirmed Chris has been released on bail and remains a suspect.

Kok, a former criminal who was convicted twice on murder charges, turned to writing after 15 years in jail.

He specialised in crime scoops thanks to his inside knowledge, network and fearless attitude.

His crime blog is one of the most popular in the Netherlands, and the writer in the past said 'he knew he was a target from criminals because of his stories', but he did not shy away from covering them.

Attempts on his life had been made before the final fatal shooting.
They say police are meant to serve and protect, but one Wisconsin cop went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure a college student was well-dressed.

A heartwarming new video shows Officer Martin Folczyk pulling over a University of Wisconsin-Stout student for speeding, and ending up helping the driver with his tie.

'I have to get a tie tied,' the student explains to Folczyk after the officer tells him he was going too fast.

'I have a presentation and I thought my buddy was home...and Im running behind.'

Menomonie Police Officer Martin Folczyk pulled over this University of Wisconsin-Stout student for speeding, and ending up helping the driver with his tie

When the student explained he was trying to find a friend who knew how to tie neckties because he had a big presentation coming up, the officer offered to help instead

When Folczyk asks why the student had made a loop around a certain street, he explains that he realized his friend wasn't home.

'That's one of my good friend's house and he knows how to tie ties and I honestly don't know how,' the student says.

'Where's your tie?' Folczyk then asks him.

The student takes his purple tie out of his backpack and the officer puts it around his own neck.

'While I do this, why don't you grab your proof of insurance and your driver's license quick,' Folczyk tells the student.

He then hands the tie over to the student, telling him it should be adjustable, and the teen thanks him and puts it on.

Folczyk then handed over the tied necktie while the student showed him his insurance

The kind officer even tried to adjust the tie and make sure the student looked his best

'Probably not the best knot, but it'll work,' Folczyk says.

'A lot better than I was gonna do, that's for sure,' the student jokes.

The pair then go over the student's insurance before Folczyk eyes his handiwork and decides to fix the tie one more time.

'Kind of hard with all this crap on,' he jokes as he tries to knot the tie over his uniform.

Folczyk then hands the tie back to the student, worrying once again that it might be too long.

But the student reassures him that no one will be able to tell with is jacket on.

When Folczyk wasn't satisfied with his work, he took the tie once more so he could try again

Folczyk then hands the tie back to the student, worrying once again that it might be too long. But the driver reassures him that no one will be able to tell with his jacket on

'Alright man, slow down!' Folczyk says, leaving the student with a warning and a professional look before his presentation.

The video, which was recorded on the dashboard camera on Folczyk's patrol car, was released by the Menomonie Police Department on Monday, according to KMSP.

It has since gone viral, racking up more than 300,000 views in less than 24 hours.

The clip even warmed the heart of the Menomonie police chief, who invited the student back to the station so he could teach him how to knot his own necktie.
A Fort Worth man who told police he came home last week and found his wife and three-month-old son dead will not speak to investigators before first talking to his lawyer, detectives said.

Shanna Riddle Vandewege, 36, and her son Diederik had their throats slit Thursday night at their house in Fort Worth, authorities said.

Police are investigating the deaths as homicides.

Vandewege's husband, Craig, found the bodies after coming home from work Thursday, according to Vandewege's father.

Shanna Riddle Vandewege (left), 36, and her son Diederik (center) were found dead Thursday night at their house in Fort Worth, Texas. Vandewege's husband Craig (right) found them both after coming home from work, according to Vandewege's father

The couple had moved to Texas from Colorado earlier this year and welcomed their son after three miscarriages.

Craig Vandewege had spoken to police twice since the killing, with the most recent interview taking place on Monday, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Since leaving that meeting to call his lawyer, he has not had contact with detectives, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Vandewege's refusal to speak to police is hindering the investigation, according to a homicide detective involved in the case.

The couple had moved to Texas from Colorado earlier this year and welcomed their son after three miscarriages

'It's standard and it's normal for us to try to exclude people close [to the victim] before we can move on and look elsewhere,' said Matt Barron, a detective with the Fort Worth Police Department.

'It stalls our investigation if there's somebody that close that says flat out, 'No, I'm not going to do it".'

Until evidence shows otherwise, the detective has refused to rule out Craig Vandewege as a suspect, saying that the longer he continues to stay quiet, the more time it will take for police to begin to consider other avenues in the investigation.

'Anyone we can't eliminate is obviously a suspect until we can eliminate them,' Barron said

Craig Vandewege (left, with his son Diederik) has not spoken to police since Monday. He has retained the services of family law attorney Leslie Barrows (right)

'This extremely hinders our ability to move ahead and definitely hinders our ability to eliminate him.'

Vandewege will be represented by attorney Leslie Barrows, who specializes in family law and is a managing partner of The Barrows Firm.

Vandewege's father told WFAA that Craig had found the home 'in disorder' on Thursday before he saw his wife's and his son's bodies.

Fort Worth police told the Star-Telegram that they received a call around 9.30pm saying a man had come to the house on Cactus Flower Drive and found a woman and a child, both dead.

Authorities haven't said whether it appeared the home was broken into. The baby died of an incised wound to the neck, the medical examiner said Friday.

The Fort Worth home where the mother and her son were found dead is seen above. Police say Craig Vandewege's refusal to speak with them is hindering the investigation

Authorities haven't announced a cause of dead for his mother.

Vandewege, a registered nurse, and Craig, who according to Vandewege's father works at Cotsco, had moved to Fort Worth earlier this year.

The new mother was still on maternity leave.

The family home appeared in a picture published by CBS DFW with crime scene tape barring the entryway.

The pair had tried to have a child for a long time before conceiving Diederik.

Police told WFAA they had interviewed Craig and that he was cooperative.
Entertainer Michael Barrymore wants 2.5million in damages after suing police who arrested him following the discovery of a body in his swimming pool - but senior officers say he should get just 1.

Butcher Stuart Lubbock, 31, of Harlow, Essex, was found dead after a party at Barrymore's house in Roydon, Essex, in March 2001.

Barrymore, 64, took legal action against Essex Police as a result of being held and questioned following the incident. He was never charged.

Butcher Stuart Lubbock, 31, of Harlow, Essex, was found dead after a party at entertainer Michael Barrymore's house in Roydon, Essex, in March 2001 (Pictured: Barrymore in 2011)

A judge is expected to make decisions after a High Court trial in London scheduled to be staged during the summer of 2017.

Detail of what Barrymore wants and what police say he should get emerged at a preliminary court hearing in London today.

Lawyers representing Barrymore and Essex Police gave a judge an outline of rival claims at Wednesday's hearing.

The judge, Master Roger Eastman, heard that Barrymore had been arrested six years after Mr Lubbock's body was found, in June 2007.

Stuart Lubbock was found dead in Michael Barrymore's swimming pool

Barrymore has never been charged with any offence as a result of his arrest.

The entertainer said the arrest had received widespread publicity and had a 'devastating' effect on his career.

Master Eastman was told that Barrymore was claiming 2.5 million damages, mainly to compensate him for loss of earnings.

Police argued that he should get a 'nominal' award of 1.

Lawyers have said a judge will be asked to decide whether there had been 'reasonable grounds' for Barrymore's arrest.

Master Eastman indicated that a more senior judge would make decisions, and said a trial would be listed for a date in the summer.

Barrymore was not at the hearing.

The entertainer, who in recent years has lived in New Zealand, has taken legal action under his real surname, Parker.

Speaking about Barrymore's damages bid, Mr Lubbock's father Terry Lubbock, 71, said: 'Nothing he does surprises me, that man has got no shame. Hopefully he'll end up with nothing.

'But, to be honest, my focus has always been on getting to the truth of what happened to Stuart, who was responsible for his death and bringing them to justice. That remains my determination.'
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As the final wounded and starved civilians are evacuated from east Aleppo after five long years of civil war, Syrians loyal to President Assad have thrown a Christmas celebration.

Video footage shows children singing in a choir, musicians dressed as Santa playing trumpets and a large Christmas tree twinkling at the festive party in government-held west Aleppo.

Russian, Iranian and Syrian flags are flown from balconies.

The celebrations, held alongside huge posters of the Syrian dictator, were briefly disturbed by a bomb near Azizieh square but continued moments later.

The scenes of merriment are in stark contrast to what is happening in the east of the city

Heavy snow is blanketing the potholed ground and swirling through crumbled buildings, adding to the misery of thousands still inside the last pocket of what was once a crucial stronghold of Syrian rebel forces.

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Celebrations: In Azizieh square, in west Aleppo, which is under firm government control a festive party was held on Tuesday

Joyous: Residents of west Aleppo hosted their first Christmas tree-lighting since fighting broke out in the city in 2012

Rebels, including women, children and the elderly, lit fires this week as they waited in line alongside their obliterated homes, with temperatures reaching -3C.

Workers in the red uniforms of the Syrian Red Crescent, which has been helping with the evacuations, huddled by the side of the road, their white ambulances parked nearby barely visible in the snow.

At least 25,000 people have left rebel districts of Aleppo since opposition fighters agreed last week to withdraw from the city after years of fighting, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is overseeing the operation.

The retreat from Aleppo -- which had been divided into a rebel-held east and government-controlled west since 2012 -- marks the biggest victory for President Assad's forces in nearly six years of civil war.

Allies: The people of west Aleppo celebrated under huge flags adorned with Russia's President Putin, Syria's Assad and Iran's Hassan Rouhani

Lit up: A generator was reportedly used to illuminate the festive Christmas lights strung up across the square as locals flashed their phone torches

Huge crowds: Russian and Syrian flags were flown from the balconies of President Assad loyalists

Is this Syria or Russia? Residents of west Aleppo flew flags in support of Putin's warplanes from their apartment balconies

Loyalists: Partying under a giant Assad flag, there were little signs of the suffering being felt by thousands of people just a few miles down the road in east Aleppo

It follows a month-long army offensive and weeks of siege that killed hundreds and left rebels with less than 10 percent of the territory they once controlled in the city.

Brokered by regime ally Russia and opposition supporter Turkey, the evacuation plan has moved forward in fits and starts but appeared to be reaching its end.

On Tuesday soldiers used loudspeakers to warn remaining fighters and civilians it was time to leave eastern districts.

But a dispute delayed the final round of evacuations for over 24 hours after some 20,000 civilians and fighters were taken out of the city.

On Wednesday, rebel evacuations resumed from Aleppo, paving the way for the Syrian government to resume control of the war-torn city, local TV reported.

Five buses had arrived at the Ramouseh crossing between the rebel and government sides of the city, after rebels handed over pro-government fighters they took prisoner during previous fighting.

A different picture: Syrian pro-government forces walk amidst destroyed buildings as snow falls in east Aleppo on December 21

Time to go: Syrian pro-government forces (pictured) used loudspeakers to warn remaining fighters and civilians it was time to leave eastern districts on Tuesday

Struggling: The last residents hoping to leave rebel-held Aleppo have been forced to wait in the snow as delays hit an evacuation that will leave Syria's army in full control of the devastated city. Pictured are Syrian pro-government forces

Destroyed: A month-long army offensive and weeks of siege have killed hundreds and left rebels with less than 10 percent of the territory they once controlled in the east of Aleppo

Taking over: Pictured are Syrian pro-government forces inside east Aleppo. The rebels' retreat from the area marks the biggest victory for President Assad's forces in nearly six years of civil war

Four buses are reported to have arrived at the city's rebel-held western countryside, marking the first successful evacuation in more than 24 hours.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there are 60 buses prepared to evacuate some 3,000 fighters and civilians from the opposition's last foothold in the city.

It is the last convoy set to leave Aleppo before the government is expected to declare it has taken full control of the city for the first time since rebels carved out an enclave for the opposition in 2012.

Many of those who have left Aleppo have headed to neighbouring Idlib province to stay with relatives or in displacement centres.

'We did not want to leave our land, but they used every weapon available to force us out,' says Abu Mohammad, a father of four from east Aleppo.

'Now they've prepared a prison for us in order to besiege us and bombard us,' he adds, speaking to AFP in a camp hosting around 100 displaced families.

Idlib city has been held since March 2015 by a coalition of rebels led by the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham and the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.

Since then, tens of thousands of people from across the country have flooded the province.

The UN office for humanitarian affairs, OCHA, estimates that 700,000 internally displaced people have found shelter in Idlib since Syria's war erupted nearly six years ago.
Donald Trump's inauguration, now less than a month away, is looking to be a pared down affair compared to the extravaganza thrown for President Obama eight years ago.

Today the Presidential Inaugural Committee released a bare bones schedule, promising that more events would come.

Just two official inaugural balls are being planned, with a separate ball to celebrate military members and first responders, which is more in line with Obama's 2013 re-election inaugural schedule than the Democrats' 2009 blowout, with the first couple attending 10 inaugural balls the night the new president was sworn in.

'The 2017 inaugural celebrations will reflect President-elect Trump's eagerness to get to work in order to make our country safer and stronger,' explained Presidential Inaugural Committee Chairman Tom Barrack in a statement, likely anticipating the comparisons made between inaugural plans this year and those orchestrated in 2009.

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President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in on January 20, 2017 and the Presidential Inaugural Committee released a preliminary schedule today

President-elect Donald Trump's 'inaugural celebrations will reflect [his] eagerness to get to work,' said Presidential Inaugural Campaign Chairman Tom Barrack

With less than a month to go, construction continues on the press stand for the inaugural parade that will travel down Pennsylvania Avenue on January 20, 2017

Trump's plans, thus far, are steeped in tradition.

While there will be a number of lunches and other events starting January 17 and going on for the next five days, the official program begins the morning of January 19 with a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, which both Trump and his running mate, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, will attend.

Next up on the official schedule is a 'Make America Great Again Welcome Celebration' to be held at the Lincoln Memorial, also billed as a concert, according to materials from the committee.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee had originally advertised to potential high-dollar donors an 'Inaugural Concert and Fireworks,' which would be 'an exciting musical celebration on the National Mall,' according to leaked documents given to Variety and the Center for Public Integrity.

It's likely that this is the same event, though an email to the inaugural committee asking for clarification hasn't been returned.

In the current schedule there is no mention of fireworks, though Trump recently mocked Hillary Clinton for her own fireworks cancellation.

'When you lose you don't set off fireworks,' Trump said to a laughing crowd of supporters last week in Wisconsin.

There's precedent for a big concert at the Lincoln Memorial before inauguration with Usher, James Taylor and Jennifer Nettles among those taking the stage in 2009

President-elect Barack Obama (left) and future first lady Michelle Obama (right) wave to crowds at the Lincoln Memorial two days before his swearing-in ceremony in 2009

Thousands of people gathered two days before President Obama's swearing-in ceremony for a star-studded concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 2009

There's precedent for holding a large concert at the Lincoln Memorial preceding the inauguration, with the Obamas doing such a thing in 2009.

Their concert included performances by Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, James Taylor, John Legend, Stevie Wonder, Shakira, Beyonce, U2 and many more.

Only one performer overall has been announced for this year's festivities, that of 16-year-old Jackie Evancho, a runner-up on 'America's Got Talent,' tapped to sing the National Anthem at Trump's swearing-in.

Before that takes place on January 20, the Washington Post confirmed that Trump will attend a private family church service at St. Johns Episcopal Church, another inauguration tradition.

The newspaper also reported that Trump is likely to overnight at Blair House, the president's official guest house, on inauguration eve, instead of staying at his own Trump hotel located just down the street.

President-elect Trump will be sworn in on the platform built in front of the Capitol Building and then, like his predecessors, appear in a inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

President-elect Donald Trump will participate in a parade that goes from the Capitol Building to the White House. Here spectators take in the sights on January 20, 2009

Then, according to the schedule, he'll be off to the balls.

The committee stated that there would be 'two inaugural balls and a ball saluting our armed forces and first responders.'

In 2009, President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama went to a whopping 10 balls and then held a more intimate after-hours party at the White House with names like Oprah Winfrey and Valerie Jarrett.

At their first stop, the Neighborhood Ball, which afforded low-priced tickets to local residents, the Obamas danced to 'At Last' sung by Beyonce.

Michelle Obama wore a white one-shoulder gown by designer Jason Wu, which now lives at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

The Obamas then moved on to a Commander in Chief Ball, honoring the military.

In 2009, President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attended a whopping 10 inaugural balls and then held an after party with Oprah Winfrey at the White House

In 2013, the Obamas only participated in two balls, The Inaugural Ball and the Commander-in-Chief Ball

They went to four regional balls: The Eastern Ball, the Mid-Atlantic Ball, the Midwestern Ball and the Southern Ball.

They stopped by balls for their home states and the home states of the Bidens, celebrating Hawaii, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Delaware, before heading to the Youth Ball, a tribute to the new president's youngest supporters.

In 2013, there were simply two balls.

There was 'The Inaugural Ball,' in which thousands of guests filled up the convention space at the downtown Washington Convention Center, used usually to host events like the annual car show.

The Obamas attended a Commander-in-Chief's Ball as well.

In both 2009 and 2013 the Obamas also hosted a Kids' Inaugural, as the parents of young daughters.

Performers included Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers in 2009 and Usher and Katy Perry in 2013.
A former 'golden boy' of the world's biggest finance firm was today jailed for a year and ordered to pay 233,000 for insider trading.

Mark Lyttleton, who ran BlackRock's 2billion UK Absolute Alpha fund until his arrest in 2013, traded shares in two oil firms knowing one would soon be taken over, and that the other had discovered oil in Greenland.

He was jailed for 12 months at Southwark Crown Court this afternoon.

Dressed in a dark blue suit and dark blue tie, the 45-year-old gestured to family members in the public gallery before carrying his black holdall down to the cells.

Mark Lyttleton, a former fund manager with BlackRock, has been jailed for insider trading

Judge Andrew Goymer said: 'What he did was blatantly dishonest. The defendant had no need to do this. He was earning a very good income.

'He didn't do it directly for gain for himself and there is no evidence of extravagant living.

'It remains a mystery, but equally there is no doubt that this defendant knew full well what he was doing.'

Judge Goymer said that Lyttleton became aware of insider information relating to EnCore Oil Ltd and to Cairn Energy Plc indirectly, and bought and sold shares and derivatives through a Panama-based company owned by his wife.

With EnCore, Lyttleton bought shares prior to the public announcement that they were subject to a takeover - and sold them afterward, pocketing around 45,000.

The judge said Lyttleton, pictured entering court, had no need to carry out the offence

But with Cairn, Lyttleton got wind that the firm had discovered oil in Greenland, and bought 10,000 in call options - contracts on the future price of a commodity.

When it emerged that Cairn's optimism was premature, and that oil had not been discovered, Lyttleton never cashed in on the call options and lost 10,000.

Judge Goymer said: 'He was a man of extensive experience in share-dealing, going right back, and there is no doubt that he knew what he was doing when he committed these offences.

'I have to say that despite [his lawyer's] contention that I should suspend the sentence, I do, regrettably, think this offence was pre-meditated and dishonest and must be met with an immediate custodial sentence.'

Addressing Lyttleton, Judge Goymer said: 'There's not only the need to bring home to those who commit this offence that it is a serious offence, but there is regrettably a need to deter those who are in a position such as this defendant from committing these types of offences.

'If the courts do not impose immediate sentences it means those who have access to large funds, legitimately acquired, may have the impression it is simply a matter of money, that they can buy themselves out of way by paying compensation and costs.

'There can be few tasks more disagreeable than having to sentence a man of your age and background and your impeccable character. But for the reasons I have outlined, I am left with no alternative.

'The lowest sentence I can impose is one of 12 months for each of the counts to be served concurrently. The effect of this is that you will serve half and be released on licence.'
A passenger arriving at Newark International Airport from a Caribbean island was found to have $80,000 worth of cocaine hidden in a pair of Spandex shorts.

Rowald Tromp, who is from the Netherlands, was arrested last week having arrived from Aruba, a Dutch colony which is just off the coast of Venezuela.

He was randomly searched when he got off the plane and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers found five pounds of cocaine hidden in the shorts, which were inside a backpack.

Mr Tromp, 44, has been arrested and charged by the Port Authority Police Department with possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession with intent to distribute.

The cocaine was found inside two packages which were inside the Spandex shorts (pictured)

NorthJersey.com reported that Robert Perez, the agency's director of New York field operations, said: 'This latest seizure demonstrates the steadfastness of the CBP officers on the ground to detect and deter those who would try to import these illegal substances.

'CBP is ever vigilant in our daily battle against the flow of illicit narcotics being smuggled into the United States.'

Aruba, along with Curacao and Sint Maarten, form the Dutch Antilles, an island chain which is also a popular holiday destination.

Tromp (pictured) is a Dutch citizen who arrived in Newark from Oranjestad, Aruba

In 2005 Natalee Holloway, 18, from Alabama, vanished while on a spring break vacation in Aruba.

She was last seen by her friends outside a nightclub with Dutchman Joran van der Sloot.

Her body was never found but in 2010 van der Sloot murdered Stephany Flores Ramirez, 20, in Peru, and was jailed for life.
Martin Shannon, 43, (pictured) served in both Iraq and Afghanistan

A Royal Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan was today jailed for 14-and-a-half years for selling loaded guns and grenades stolen from a British naval base to an undercover police officer.

Martin Shannon, 43, hoarded firearms and ammunition from RM Poole in Dorset during the course of his career as a full-time paid reservist.

The commercial diver stashed lethal frag grenades, a fully automatic assault rifle, two shotguns and a pistol, along with thousands of rounds of ammunition in watertight containers in three hides he dug in the New Forest.

Shannon, of Hythe, near Southampton, claimed he planned to sell the military grade weapons to 'Great Train Robber' type criminals who would not hurt anyone.

But he was instead snared by 'Vincent', an undercover officer from the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The undercover officer handed him 10,000 for the sale or loan of items including ammunition and guns at a meeting in a pub car park near Newbury, Berkshire.

Shannon, who had been a Royal Marine reservist since 1996, was arrested later the same day as he left a Tesco supermarket in Winnall, near Winchester, Hampshire.

The Old Bailey heard Shannon was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after experiences in Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2006.

He also lost two friends in the line of duty in 2010 and 2014, the court was told.

Royal Marine Martin Shannon was seen leaving a Tesco supermarket near Winchester, Hampshire, before he was arrested

This is the fully automatic assault rifle Shannon stashed in the New Forest - close to his home in Hythe

These are some of the grenades which were seized by the National Crime Agency following the investigation

His barrister Kevin Hill said the traumatic events were 'beyond most people's comprehension' and Shannon 'became unable to distinguish between military and civilian life'.

Shannon, a married father-of-two, admitted fifteen counts of possessing ammunition, firearms and explosives at the Old Bailey in October and was today jailed for 14-and-a-half years.

Judge Richard Marks QC, the Common Sergeant of London, told him: 'I express the strong hope that finally you will receive the help you need.'

The judge added: 'One of the very serious aspects of this case is the breach of trust that was involved in these offences, involving as it did the theft by you of this hugely dangerous weaponry to which you had access by reason of your role as a Royal Marine.'

He continued: 'Another very serious aspect of this case is that once these items had left your possession and fallen into criminal hands, as I am quite satisfied you believed would be the case, you would have had absolutely no control over them and in particular no control over whose hands they would fall into, nor of the use as to which they might be put.'

The judge said he contemplated imposing a life sentence, but added: 'It is apparent from everything I have read that you have some outstanding qualities and this was out of character.

He also stashed a large amount of shotgun ammunition in three hides he dug in the New Forest

He then showed the officer a sawn-off shotgun (pictured) - without realising he was undercover

This photograph shows a pistol, magazines and a grey tub which was hidden inside a cat litter bag

'I accept at the time you began to collect and hoard this type of weaponry, your mental state was fragile due to symptoms of PTSD arising out of events that occurred during your active service in Iraq and Afghanistan, including, but not limited to the loss of two close friends.

'Against this background, this is a tragic case, in particular for your young family.'

The court heard self-confessed hoarder Shannon worked on a full-time paid basis for the Royal Marines for the vast majority of his career, despite maintaining the status of a reservist, and had access to munitions stored at the base in Hamworthy, Poole.

Police believe he had been stealing weapons for up to four years and the MOD confirmed two of the guns had gone missing from the base in October 2012.

It is not thought Shannon joined the Marines to steal weapons and there is no evidence he had sold any weapons to criminals.

But NCA Deputy Director of Intelligence Collection Chris Farrimond said: 'Our intelligence shows he was actively trying to shift them.'

Shannon met the undercover officer at a car park on the A34 near Junction 17 of the M4 motorway on the evening of September 1.

The court heard he described the guns, explosives and ammunition in his van as 'military grade' and told him: 'This is the big stuff.'

The National Crime Agency also seized loaded assault rifle magazines after catching Martin Shannon in a 10,000 sting

A series of hand grenades, pyrotechnics and 9mm ammunition was found in a cardboard box

The undercover cop gave Shannon 5,000 for seven hand grenades, and the Marine said he wanted some work.

Julian Evans, prosecuting, said: 'He said he was old school, old fashioned, loyal and wanted to work with the officer as part of a team.'

He then showed off a sawn-off shotgun, an automatic Diemaco assault rifle and a semi-automatic Sig Sauer handgun, which he agreed to loan to the officer for another 5,000.

Shannon was arrested soon after the meet in the Chieveley area of Newbury and officers found another 500 rounds of ammunition and a stick of plastic explosives at his home the next day.

He then led police to a bolt-action shotgun buried next to a train track.

Shannon told police 'I'm guilty', but claimed he believed the weapons he sold would be used to rob drug dealers.

Mr Evans added: 'He said he thought the people he was selling the munitions to would be hitting drug dealers, Great Train Robber-type people who were after money and didn't hurt people.

20 boxes of 50 x 9mm rounds were also discovered before Royal Marine reservist Martin Shannon was jailed

The National Crime Agency also discovered an ammunition box containing 20 boxes of 50 x 9mm rounds

'He thought they would be stealing from drug dealers, no one would get hurt. He was under the impression they would be putting drug dealers out of business.'

The prosecutor added: 'He thought the explosives would be used to open safes in the middle of the night - cloak-and-dagger, running off into the sunset with the money.'

Mr Hill, mitigating, spoke of Shannon's 'exemplary service record' during his 20-year military career.

He said he accepts taking items from the base for 'some considerable years', but claims he found both shotguns in an abandoned vehicle in the New Forest.

The court heard psychiatrist Dr Tamsin Peachey diagnosed Shannon with PTSD and described his 'child-like' state when he discussed the use he believed the weapons may be put to.

Mr Hill said: 'Mr Shannon has endured traumatic events that are beyond most people's comprehension.

Shannon, a married father-of-two, admitted fifteen counts of possessing ammunition, firearms and explosives at the Old Bailey

He was today jailed for 14-and-a-half years after admitting the offences at the Old Bailey

'It is clear features of PTSD were present from 2003 after his deployment to Iraq and further triggers are deaths of his close friends and further tragic experiences in Afghanistan.'

Shannon admitted eight counts of possessing ammunition, two counts of having an explosive substance, three counts of transferring a prohibited weapon.

He also admitted one count of transferring prohibited ammunition and one count of possessing a firearm without a firearms certificate at an earlier hearing.

NCA Director of Intelligence and Operations Mark Webster said: 'It is not easy to acquire weapons like these in the UK.
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Its the diary of an ordinary working man who appears to have had no affiliation to the Jacobites or Hanoverians.

But these writings have revealed the devastating economic impact the Jacobite Rebellions had on everyday life.

Alexander Smith's diary has provided insight into how ordinary working folk suffered in the 18th century conflicts.

The joiners work has given historians a glimpse into how life was affected by the uprisings of both 1715 and 1745.

Taking a closer look: These writings by Alexander Smith have revealed the devastating economic impact the Jacobite Rebellions had on everyday life - and provided insight into how ordinary working folk suffered in the 18th century conflicts

Memories: The joiners work has given historians a glimpse into how life was affected by the uprisings of both 1715 and 1745, after the truly fascinating account was gifted to the University of Aberdeen by one of Mr Smiths descendants

The truly fascinating account was gifted to the University of Aberdeen by one of Mr Smiths descendants.

And Dr Kirsteen MacKenzie said it will help historians build a more detailed picture of life in Scotland at this time.

She said: The diary... was donated to the universitys special collections by a descendant of Smith.

I was a volunteer in the archives at the time and it immediately took my interest.

It is a truly fascinating account of the Jacobite Rebellions, told from a perspective Ive never come across before.

'And (it is) about a region for which little information exists when it comes to these events.

There has been a huge amount of research into the Jacobite cause, the key events and battles and the political and cultural impact of the uprisings.

But we still know little of how deeply they affected ordinary people with no direct connection to the rebellion.

Interesting insight: Mr Smith, from Fraserburgh, was born in the late 17th century to lowly stock and is thought to have been poorly educated - but he went on to excel in his apprenticeship as a square wright, similar to a modern day joiner

Economic decline: Mr Smith's woodworking skills attracted the attention of the Aberdeenshire elites and by 1715 he was earning enough money to live independently - but when the uprising began, he describes how this quickly ground to a halt

Smiths diary changes this and we can see just how widespread the impact on ordinary men and women was.

Mr Smith, from Fraserburgh, was born in the late 17th century to lowly stock and is thought to have been poorly educated.

Dr Kirsteen MacKenzie said the diary will help historians 'build a more detailed picture of life in Scotland at this time'

But he went on to excel in his apprenticeship as a square wright, similar to a modern day joiner.

His woodworking skills attracted the attention of the Aberdeenshire elites and by 1715 he was earning enough money to live independently.

But when the uprising began, he describes how this quickly ground to a halt as economic activity in the area rapidly declined and soldiers came through the town.

Without work and with his training finished, Mr Smith was forced to move back in with his parents to survive.

Following the 1715 Rebellion, things for Mr Smith improved greatly and by throughout the 1720s and 30s his reputation flourished.

By the 1740s he was running a successful business and was commissioned to build furniture for the Duff family, of Duff House in Banff, and the Frasers of Philorth.

He was also employed to build manses for the Church of Scotland around the area.

Then the 1745 rebellion occurred and the impact on Mr Smith and his family was even more devastating than it had been 30 years earlier.

His diary entries describe how the price of wood shot up and became in such short supply that he was forced to go on long and arduous journeys to source material.

Mr Smith also wrote of his temptation to go to the black market to obtain material, an action that eventually landed him in court in Aberdeen when he was caught trying to take wood from a shipwreck off the Aberdeenshire coast.

He also recorded the problems of maintaining a workforce with many of his colleagues abandoning their posts to join the Jacobite cause and the fear caused by the presence of soldiers in the towns and villages.

Changing times: Economic activity in Mr Smith's area rapidly declined and soldiers came through the town, he wrote - and without work and with his training finished, he was forced to move back in with his parents to survive

CATHOLIC REBELLION PLUNGED BRITAIN INTO CHAOS The Jacobites were the supporters of the exiled Stuart King James II and his descendants following the Glorious Revolution - and their cause became something for nearly anyone with a grudge against the government. James II ruled Britain from 1685 to 1689 - but because he was a Roman Catholic he was replaced by his daughter Mary and her husband, the Dutch Prince William of Orange. The Jacobites were opposed by the Williamites or Whigs in 1689, who were Britons backing the Protestant cause who did not want a Catholic kingdom. They had three major uprisings  with the first led by Bonnie Dundee John Graham of Claverhouse in the same year, which was quickly quelled. The second was Mars Rebellion, or the Fifteen, which followed the death in 1714 of the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne, and King George I's accession. Then the third was the Forty-Five in 1745-46, when Bonnie Prince Charlie Charles Edward Stuart led a Scots army against the Hanoverian dynasty. The Battle of Culloden fought near Inverness was the final confrontation in the Jacobite rising, as the Jacobites faced British cannons and muskets. The Battle of Culloden: This battle fought near Inverness was the final confrontation in the Jacobite rising, as the Jacobites faced the British cannons and muskets across the moor of Culloden Advertisement

Dr MacKenzie said: Smith notes that when Jacobite armies come through the area, work stops completely.

It is not hard to see why this would be the case. Smith is employed to build and repair homes and to make furniture.

With armies in the region and the threat that villages could be destroyed, no-one wants to pay for this type of work.

When it is time for Smith to be paid, he doesnt get paid and never really recovers financially again.

It is remarkable to have this level of detail available to us about the indirect effects of the Jacobite Rebellions and it complements the universitys other Jacobite holdings to help us build a more detailed picture of life in Scotland at this time.
Police have now found the hammer used to

A bridal reality show contestant was pictured at a party with the man who allegedly murdered her just hours before she was bludgeoned to death with a hammer and buried in a shallow grave.

Lisa Marie Naegle, 36, posed for a photo with nursing student Jackie Jerome Rogers, 34, at a 40th birthday party at the Alpine Village Restaurant in Torrance, California on Saturday night.

The photo of the pair was taken at 12.04am on Sunday - just two hours before CCTV footage captured Naegle getting into Rogers' SUV, TMZ reports.

The reality TV star's naked body was later found face down in a shallow grave at Rogers' home in Inglewood.

Rogers was charged with and confessed to her murder on Tuesday, LAPD officials said.

However no motive for the slaying has been revealed by the police.

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Lisa Marie Naegle, 36, was pictured with Jackie Jerome Rogers at a birthday party at the Alpine Village Restaurant in Torrance, California on Saturday night just hours before he allegedly killed her

Lisa Marie Naegle's nake body was found at Rogers' home in Inglewood hours after these photos were taken at a birthday party

The 36-year-old nurse (right) texted her husband Derek Harryman around 2.45 am to let him know she was grabbing food and then coming home from the birthday party

And now police have found the hammer used to bludgeon the woman along with some of her clothing, a law enforcement source told TMZ.

Rogers said he couldn't stand the sight of his victim's blood and cleaned it off her body before burying to sanitize the crime scene.

The suspect initially told Neagle's family that he and the nursing teacher were at a bar near Alpine Village when she said she wanted to go to an after-party.

He claimed he was too tired and he left without her but the CCTV footage shows otherwise.

The 36-year-old nurse texted her husband Derek Harryman around 2.45 am to let him know she was grabbing food and then coming home. Two days passed without Harryman hearing a word from his wife.

Naegle, who once competed on the E! show Bridalplasty, was hit on the head seven times with a hammer early Sunday morning, TMZ reported citing law enforcement sources.

She and Rogers had just gone to a bar called Jack In The Box, and Rogers said she had just broken up with him to go back with her husband, according to TMZ.

The coroner's office will give the final cause of death and will formally identify the remains.

Murder suspect Rogers can be seen in this still taken from surveillance footage leaving the birthday party with Naegle early Sunday, a family friend told the DailyMail.com

Nursing student Jackie Jerome Rogers (right) has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the disappearance of former reality show contestant Lisa Marie Naegle (left), 36

The reality TV star's naked body was later found face down in a shallow grave at Rogers' home in Inglewood (pictured)

Naegle came in fourth place on the E! reality show Bridalplasty, where women compete for a dream wedding and plastic surgery, in 2010

Family members told the Associated Press Rogers was a student of Naegle, who taught a college nursing class.

Naegle's family had confronted Rogers after seeing surveillance footage, which they said showed Naegle getting into Rogers' car.

Naegle's sister, Danielle Naegle-Kaimona, told ABC 7 that Rogers said he was having an affair with Naegle. Naegle-Kaimona told the network that Naegle had told her Rogers was gay.

She said Rogers initially denied any involvement.

'We begged and pleaded that he'd come to our home to kind of give us details on what time, where were things, and when he left her, but while he was talking to us and telling us his story, multiple different times he said he absolutely did not go home with her, or did not take her home,' Naegle-Kaimona said.

Rogers later altered his story to say that Naegle had gotten into his car but had gotten out moments later, the family said. The family then said they called the police, who detained Rogers.

Detectives and members of the coroner's office went to the home of Jackie Jerome Rogers on Tuesday (pictured), where they believed Naegle's body was buried

Naegle (right), a registered nurse, had called her husband Derek Harryman (left) around 2.45am on Sunday morning to say she was getting food and coming home - but never returned

Officials investigated Rogers' residence on Tuesday after they said Rogers confessed to murdering Naegle. Rogers has been booked and is held on a $2 million bail

Investigators are pictured arriving at Rogers' home to search for Naegle's body Tuesday after Rogers was arrested on suspicion of murder

One of Naegle's sisters, Michelle, was seen leaving the police station in San Pedro on Tuesday afternoon, looking visibly upset

Naegle's husband (pictured) also left the police station with Michelle on Tuesday afternoon. Police retrieved Naegle's body later that day

Naegle's husband and one her sisters Michelle were seen on ABC 7 leaving the police station Tuesday afternoon, visibly upset.

Harryman husband, had expressed his concern during his wife's disappearance.

'Everyone is beyond frustrated, beyond worried,' Harryman told the Orange County Register. 'I'm flipping out.'

'We are trying to have a baby. We are looking forward to starting a family.'

Harryman, who is a vessel operations superintendent at the Port of Los Angeles, was at work when Naegle told him she was headed to the party with her brother.

Naegle had only planned to stay for a few hours because she was scheduled to teach nursing classes at West Los Angeles College on Sunday.

But when Harryman returned from work at 2 am on Sunday, he saw that his wife still wasn't home.

He said Naegle called him a minute or two later.

'She sounded really, really drunk,' he told the Daily Breeze. 'She said, "I'm going to get some food and then I'll be home." '

Police searched Rogers' home in Inglewood, California and found Naegle's body in a shallow grave

Officials found Naegel's body in Rogers' yard on Tuesday. She was found naked and having been bashed several times with a hammer, according to TMZ

Video footage from Alpine Village was discovered showing Naegle getting into a black SUV

Naegle (pictured with her husband) told Harryman she would get food and go home after going to a birthday party but never returned and didn't show up to teach class the next day

This missing poster was released after Harryman reported Naegle missing on Sunday

Naegle had been attending a party at the Alpine Village Restaurant (pictured) in Torrance, California on Saturday night

Harryman expected Naegle would come home with an Uber car, saying she often uses the app and the same driver to get home.

Naegle was nowhere to be found when Harryman woke up the next morning, but he believed she must have just stayed with her brother and gone straight to work.

Then Harryman found out that Naegle hadn't gone to the party with her brother, but a male nursing student - later identified as Rogers - who had picked her up.

The student had told Harryman his wife had wanted to go to an after-party. He said he did not stay with her and went home alone.

After talking to him, Harryman texted his wife: 'You didn't come home last night. This is unacceptable. You must be feeling horrible because you have to teach.'

But then Harryman received a call notifying him that Naegle had never shown up to her class. That's when he and Naegle's brother went to the police and reported her missing.

On Monday Naegle's family invited Rogers to their home. They said his story began to change as they asked him questions, and they called the police.

Naegle finished fourth on Bridalplasty, a 2010 reality show about a group of women who moved into a mansion to compete for a dream wedding and plastic surgery.




One sure sign of a civilised society is a free Press. It is through a free Press that the rich, the powerful  and the corrupt and criminal  are held to account.

Britain has enjoyed a free Press for more than 300 years. Even in the darkest days of war our Press has always been at liberty to criticise those in power  subject only to the law, which is the same for everyone, from the humblest parish magazine to the mighty panjandrums of the BBC.

But now all that may be about to change. In the New Year, the Culture Secretary must decide whether or not to implement a piece of legislation so pernicious, so illiberal, it is hard to believe Parliament ever passed it. But it did.

Most of our greatest injustices are exposed not by MPs or the police, but by the Press. The MPs' expenses scandal; the Rotherham sex grooming cover-up; the monumental failures over the murder of Stephen Lawrence  just a few of the investigations that would never have been possible if Section 40 was in force

Under Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act, rushed into law after the Leveson Inquiry, any relevant newspapers or news websites - from MailOnline to The Guardian, Huffington Post and Buzzfeed - which refuse to join a regulator approved under the Government's Royal Charter for the Press, and are sued for libel, will be forced to pay the other side's legal costs  even if they win.

EVEN IF YOU WIN, YOU LOSE: If this law is implemented, it won't matter if an article is true, lawfully published, serves the public interest, and the complaint is thrown out by the court  any relevant newspapers or news websites not signed up to an approved regulator will face paying all the costs, every single penny.

FREE TICKET FOR CROOKS, BANKRUPTCY FOR NEWSPAPERS: Costs in High Court legal actions routinely run into hundreds of thousands of pounds  sometimes millions. This legislation gives anyone who wants to silence journalists a free ticket. News organisations that fight will face being bankrupted.

If this law is implemented it won't matter if an article is true, lawfully published, serves the public interest, and the complaint is thrown out by the court - any relevant newspapers or news website not signed up to an approved regulator will face paying all the costs

WHO WILL EXPOSE INJUSTICE? Most of our greatest injustices are exposed not by MPs or the police, but by the Press. The MPs' expenses scandal; the Rotherham sex grooming cover-up; the monumental failures over the murder of Stephen Lawrence  just a few of the investigations that would never have been possible if Section 40 was in force.

WHY NOT JOIN THE STATE-APPROVED REGULATOR? Called Impress, it claims to be independent, but is bankrolled by former F1 boss Max Mosley, on a mission to 'reform' the Press ever since a newspaper revealed his sado-masochistic orgy with five prostitutes. It has just a handful of micro-publisher members, some barely more than online blogs. No mainstream news organisation has joined.

In the New Year, the Culture Secretary (above) must decide whether or not to implement the piece of legislation so pernicious, so illiberal, it is hard to believe Parliament ever passed it

SO WHO REGULATES THE DAILY MAIL AND MAILONLINE? MailOnline and 2,600 other news websites, newspapers, and magazines do not believe the Press can be truly free under rules imposed by politicians. We belong to a regulator which is entirely independent of the Government. Chaired by former Appeal Court Judge Sir Alan Moses, the Independent Press Standards Organisation regularly orders front page corrections and  if necessary  can impose fines of up to 1 million.

... AND THEN THERE'S LEVESON TWO: The original Leveson Inquiry and associated criminal trials have already cost the taxpayer nearly 50 million. Despite a raft of reforms to the Press, police and politics, the Culture Secretary is under pressure to go over it all again with Leveson Part Two.

WHAT CAN BE DONE? Very sensibly, the Culture Secretary has launched a consultation. The zealots of Hacked Off, and their allies in Parliament, are lobbying hard for Section 40 to become law and Leveson Two to get under way.

But this time you get your say, too. If you want to defend the right to read a news website like MailOnline, a website which holds the rich and powerful to account, which fights injustice, and which refuses to kow-tow to rules set by politicians and a regulator in the pocket of Max Mosley, you can tell the Government this unjust legislation must be repealed  and no money wasted on another Leveson Inquiry.
Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant (above) was found dead at his home late Monday night

One of the lead investigators in the murder of famed Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle was found dead in his home after an apparent suicide attempt.

Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant shot himself in his home late Monday night, according to the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.

Last week it was announced that Bryant was being investigated by the government for allegedly cheating on his continuing education training.

Bryant was elected sheriff of Erath County in 1997.

He is survived by his wife and son.

Bryant was one of the lead investigators in the shooting deaths of Kyle and a friend in 2013.

Kyle, the Texas native whose biography, American Sniper, made him famous worldwide after it was adapted into a film starring Bradley Cooper, was shot and killed by a former Marine at a gun range in Erath County on February 2, 2013.

Eddie Ray Routh was sentenced to life in prison for shooting Kyle and Chad Littlefield.

Kyle and Littlefield took Routh to a gun range in order to help him cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Bryant, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was being investigated by the state government in Texas for allegedly cheating on his continuing education training

The two men had taken Routh to the shooting range at Rough Creek Lodge and Resort on February 2, 2013, after Routh's mother asked Kyle to help her troubled son.

Family members say Routh suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from serving in Iraq and in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Defense attorneys noted that Kyle had described Routh as 'straight-up nuts' in a text message to Littlefield as they drove to the luxury resort and asked Littlefield to watch his back.

Bryant was one of the lead investigators in the murder of Chris Kyle (above), the decorated Navy SEAL and Iraq War veteran whose biography, American Sniper, was made into a hit movie

Kyle was portrayed in the film American Sniper by actor Bradley Cooper (above)

Kyle (left) and his friend, Chad Littlefield (right), were killed on February 2, 2013, by their friend, Eddie Ray Routh (far right), during a visit to a gun range in Erath County

While at the shooting range, Routh first opened fire on Littlefield, then turned on Kyle, whom he shot six times.

He later said he was 'riled up' because Littlefield wasn't joining in with the shooting, then murdered Kyle too because he knew he would kill him.

Having completed four tours of duty in Iraq, Kyle is considered the most decorated sniper to ever serve in the US military.
A Lithuanian woman has admitted strangling her newborn daughter after she gave birth alone in her bedsit.

Gintare Suminaite, 30, delivered the girl herself at her home in Bognor Regis, West Sussex on April 5 before killing her, the court heard.

The baby girl was never named and has been referred to in court as 'Baby Suminaite'. Her mother denied murder but admitted infanticide today.

Gintare Suminaite faces a possible jail term after she admitted killing her baby girl shortly after she delivered the little girl in April

The baby was pronounced dead at the scene while Suminaite was rushed to St Richard's Hospital in Chichester for urgent treatment after suffering severe blood loss.

Suminaite gave birth alone locked in the bathroom of the bedsit she shared with her then partner.

She and the man had been communicating throughout the birth via text, investigators found.

Despite the fact she was bleeding heavily, Suminaite waited several hours after the birth before calling an ambulance, apparently for fear of coming to the attention of the police.

The details of the charge stated that she caused the death by 'compression of the neck with a ligature or by manual compression of the neck'.

At the time the balance of her mind was disturbed 'by reason of your not having fully recovered from the effects of giving birth to the child or by reason of the effect of lactation consequent on the birth of the child', the charge stated.

Suminaite, pictured at court with a custody officer, denied murder but admitted infanticide

The baby was eventually found in a baby bath covered with clothes.

Suminaite was arrested after being discharged from hospital, and is being held in HMP Bronzefield.

Prosecutor Ed Brown told the court that Suminaite had 'suffered significant loss of blood following the birth' according to a consultant obstetrician.

Adjourning sentence until 23 January, Mr Justice Nicol said: 'For the offence to which you have pleaded guilty I have asked the probation service to prepare a report on you.'

Suminaite was warned that 'all sentencing options were open' when she is sentenced on 23 January.
A former judge and her husband who forged a dead man's will in order to get their hands on two country cottages which they then converted into a 325,000 home were jailed for six months each earlier today.

Margaret and Alan Hampshire made it appear as though 'hoarder' Martin Blanche had left his house in the picturesque village of Rolleston, Nottinghamshire, to an elderly cousin of Mrs Hampshire's that on behalf she held power of attorney.

Mrs Hampshire, who had previously worked as a solicitor specialising in wills and probate, then transferred it - and an adjoining property that her cousin, Josephine Burroughs, and Mr Blanche had jointly owned - to her daughter, before she and her husband knocked through and developed the two homes into one large cottage.

Margaret and Alan Hampshire, pictured, forged a dead man's will in order to transfer the property to an elderly relative in the village of Rolleston, Nottinghamshire

They sold their house in Essex and moved to Rolleston after using more than 23,000 that Mr Hampshire took from Mrs Burroughs' bank account to pay for around half the 46,000 conversion costs. But the couple, whostill live in the property, were arrested after the 'sophisticated' scam was uncovered.

They initially denied the offences, but pleaded guilty to a string of charges including forgery, fraud and theft part-way through a trial at Nottingham Crown Court last month.

When former builder and company director Mr Hampshire, 67, and his 69-year-old wife returned for sentencing, judge Gregory Dickinson QC told them: 'It is a statement of the obvious that forging a will for whatever reason is very serious.

'This is one of those areas of everyday life that depends upon the integrity and good faith of the public.'

The couple, pictured here arriving at Nottingham Crown Court were jailed for six months

He said that Mrs Hampshire had 'used and abused' her experience and skills as a solicitor to carry out the crimes, adding: 'These offences took place at a time you held judicial office and were being paid by the public to carry out a judicial role, which seems to me to make your offending all the more shameful and astonishing.

'You abused your position and the trust placed in you by your beloved cousin. Your duty was to act honestly and conscientiously as the attorney of Mrs Burroughs, and a decent member of the public.

'The real mischief here is the abuse of trust and integrity upon which our system of probate and property ownership depends.

'Your age and terrible fall from grace cannot save you from an immediate sentence of custody.'

A confiscation will take place next year to determine if the pair will have to pay back any proceeds from their crimes.

The court had heard how Mr Blanche, who lived alone, died in 2007 at the age of 60. Prosecutor Martin Hurst said he was a 'simple man' who it was thought couldn't read or write - and it was widely considered by those who knew him that it was therefore unlikely he would have written a will.

Before the Hampshires entered their guilty pleas, Mr Hurst added: 'This case concerns what the prosecution would say was Margaret Hampshire's desire, willingly aided by her husband, to inherit two estates on death comprising of two properties, so they could develop a country cottage in Rolleston and have significant sums to live on.

'There is a body of evidence in the case that these two country cottages had never been left in wills, they passed from family to daughter, as they did in the olden days.'

The couple, pictured, face a confiscation order in the new year to determine if they lose the converted property where they still live

The Hampshires claimed they had found a will written by Mr Blanche, who they had never even met, as they cleared out his cluttered home after his death.

He was a cousin of Mrs Burroughs, and, although she was also a cousin to Mrs Hampshire, the two (Mrs Hampshire and Mr Blanche) were not related because they were on opposite sides of the family, the court heard.

The document appeared to leave Mr Blanche's small home - named Middle Corner House, the centre property in a row of three terraced houses - to 75-year-old Mrs Burroughs, of nearby Southwell, Nottinghamshire.

She and Mr Blanche also part-owned the adjoining derelict End Corner House.

But it was a forgery - now 'conclusively proven' to have been written by Mr Hampshire, Mr Hurst said, and 'dictated' by his wife.

He added: 'His (Mr Blanche's) house had no internal plumbing. He didn't use the toilet outside. He used a bucket. It was a terrible state when they went in to clear it out. He was a hoarder.

'You will hear from some people who knew him and helped in the village. They would say they were 'extremely surprised' Martin even left a will or was in a position to write one.'

The court heard that Mrs Hampshire, who was a serving deputy district judge for employment tribunals at the time of the offences, then forged a typed letter, apparently from Mrs Burroughs, saying: 'I have thought about Martin and the cottages at Rolleston and as we discussed I definitely do not want anything to do with it.'

It added: 'I think it's fair for you to have it, and I am happy for Sarah (the Hampshire's daughter) to have them if that is what you want.'

The letter, dated on February 24, 2007, was apparently signed by Mrs Burroughs.

But Mrs Hampshire eventually admitted it had been written in 2009, not in

2007 - and a handwriting expert confirmed the signature at the bottom was not Mrs Burroughs'.

She also accepted that she dishonestly exceeded her position as attorney for Josephine Burroughs by transferring Middle Corner House and End Corner House to her daughter - and admitted that she created a forged document which she kept at home as a means to avoid inheritance tax had a need ever arisen.

Once they had transferred both houses to their daughter, the Hampshires knocked them through to create one extended house, which they named Wheatsheaf Cottage. Police have estimated the value of the property to be between 300,000 and 325,000.

Before they were sentenced, Mr Hurst said: 'The way in which this was achieved was wholly dishonest.

'There is obvious joint enterprise throughout. She has carried out the transfers, he has stolen the money. Between the two of them they have obtained the properties and done them up using Josephine's money. They were obtained through forgery and fraud for their mutual advantage.

'There was clearly a significant abuse of trust. The prosecution say it was sophisticated, and over a sustained period.'

Mr Hampshire admitted to stealing a total of 23,176 from Mrs Burroughs during 2012. She died in January 2014 before the police investigation began. Mr Hurst said the 'matters came to light' after a dispute began with the owners of the third house in the row of terraces about 'rights of way and that sort of thing'.

Timothy Greene, defending, said Mrs Hampshire had resigned as a judge when legal proceedings started.

He told the court that she would have eventually inherited the houses from her 'beloved cousin' Mrs Burroughs anyway, adding: 'This was the first example of her smoothing the passage, improperly proved, to enable her to achieve the end that would have been achieved in any event.

'There was no intention to cause any financial harm. She (Mrs Burroughs) was telling people she wanted Margaret to have the property. There was a general view that the properties were going to go to Margaret and Alan Hampshire.'

But he told judge Dickinson: 'I can't shy away from the fact her employment (as a judge) at the time and in the past is a factor which My Lord may take into account.

'She has lost her good character and fallen a long way, humbly.'

Peter Lownds, defending Mr Hampshire, said he had forged the will for 'reasons of expediency'.

He added: 'There was no will. Having a will meant the administration of the estate could be conducted in a speedier and more straightforward manner.

That's my understanding. It was her words, and his handwriting.'

Mrs Hampshire pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery and one count of fraud. Her husband admitted forgery, and two counts of theft. The offences took place between 2007 and 2012. Other charged were ordered to lie on file.
A Tennessee tow truck driver on Tuesday was hauling away a mangled car that had been in an accident when he made a shocking and grisly discovery.

RJ McMahan, of Floyds Wrecker Services, was sent at 2.30am to pick up a white 2002 Dodge Caravan that had blown past a stop sign and careened into an embankment in the area of East Governor John Seiver Highway and French Road.

A Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper that responded to the scene of the accident told McMahan that the vehicle, which had its airbags deployed, was empty and that the driver had 'fled back to wherever he was coming from,' the tow services worker told the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Grim find: RJ McMahan, of Floyds Wrecker Services, discovered a man's body inside a wrecked car in Tennessee Tuesday

But when McMahan brought the Dodge to an impound lot and opened the door, he glimpsed a man's legs on the floorboard sticking from under an airbag.

The shocking sight made an unsuspecting McMahan, who has worked as a tow truck driver for six years, do a double take.

He then lifted the airbag and discovered the lifeless body of a man in his 40s with a bruise on his mouth. McMahan said he had no pulse and was already cold to the touch

I've worked fatality wrecks before, but it was a shock not knowing [the body] was there, he explained.

McMahan immediately contacted the Tennessee Highway Patrol and told them about his grim find.

McMahan brought the mangled Dodge Caravan to an impound lot, opened the door and glimpsed a man's legs on the floorboard sticking from under an airbag

A few minutes later, troopers arrived at the lot and removed the deceased from the vehicle.

On Wednesday, officials identified the victim as 40-year-old Michael Floyd, of Seymour.

The law enforcement agency said it has apologize to Floyd's widow for overlooking his body inside the wreck, where it was partially concealed by the airbag.

THP Lt Bill Miller told the paper the trooper who made the error and the rest of the department 'feel terrible' about this incident.

We will take the information gained from our investigation, then utilize that information to train our troopers to make sure nothing like this happens again, Miller said.
Eleanor Sharpston QC (pictured) has said all EU countries will have to ratify a trade deal

Every EU member state will have to approve any trade deal struck with the UK, Europe's top legal adviser said today.

Some experts said the verdict by Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston could 'hugely' complicate the task facing Theresa May.

The adviser to the European Court of Justice said the Free Trade Agreement which the EU reached with Singapore in 2014 must be ratified by all member states.

The same view is now likely to prevail over any trade agreement with the post-Brexit UK  potentially handing a veto over the deal to a total of 38 national and regional parliaments around the continent.

It sets the scene for a repeat of the chaos surrounding Canada's Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (Ceta) with the EU, which came close to foundering after seven years of negotiation earlier this year because of opposition in the Walloon regional parliament in Belgium.

In her ruling, Sharpston - who is the UK's only judge at the European Court of Justice - recognised that her decision will cause 'difficulties' for the EU.

The ECJ said: 'While the Advocate General notes that difficulties may arise from a ratification process involving all of the member states alongside the EU, she considers that that cannot affect the question of who has competence to conclude the agreement.'

Ms Sharpston ruled that the EU was able to ratify parts of the agreement as a single body, but said individual member states' approval will be needed in the areas of air and maritime transport, labour and environmental standards, social policy, some aspects of intellectual property rights and dispute settlement.

Her opinion is not binding until a further decision by the Luxembourg-based court as a whole next year, but in most cases the court follows the Advocate General's opinion.

Earlier this week, Theresa May (pictured today visiting a homeless centre) said Government negotiators were already working on the possibility that ratification by national parliaments may be needed for a future trade deal.

Cambridge University Professor of EU Law Catherine Barnard said: 'This will make Britain's trade deal hugely more difficult and will make the process hugely longer, because they will have to keep an eye not only on what the EU wants but also what all the national capitals and even the regional parliaments want.

'It's grossly inconvenient for the UK, which is faced with exactly the same as what happened with the Canadian agreement and the Walloons.'

'The Walloons were eventually leant on to change their minds, but that may not be so easy with the UK deal as it will be more contentious because it is likely to be more far-reaching, covering issues like financial services.'

Whitehall officials were relaxed about the verdict.

Earlier this week, Mrs May said Government negotiators were already working on the possibility that ratification by national parliaments may be needed for a future trade deal.
Incoming Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer has given the axe to a handful of Democratic staffers in the office that produces videos that tout party officeholders, as the chamber moves toward being the primary battleground over the Trump agenda.

Some of the aides had decades of Senate experience, but they are being let go as a new party leadership tries to refocus the office to produce more viral content as Democratic senators try to function during unified Republican control of government.

'On Friday, December 16, 2016, my colleagues and I in the Senate Democratic Media Center were informed by the incoming Democratic Leaders office that our services were no longer needed,' one former staffer wrote in an email obtained by Politico.

Republicans immediately tried to paint the holiday layoffs as out of step with the holidays.

Incoming Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York is bringing in new staffers for a video office, in an effort to focus on viral content and rapid response

Sean Spicer, spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump, made hay out of the move with a tweet. 'Someone isn't in the holiday spirit,' he wrote, with a link to the article. Trump has held rallies before banks of Christmas trees during his 'thank you tour' that wrapped up last weekend.

'It's incumbent on us to create some of the more creative, buzzy, viral content,' a Democratic aide told the publication. 'The current, existing [office] wasn't built to do that.'

Aides said the revamped office would focus on providing video rapid response  meaning to use digital capabilities to get out the party's message and blast the Republican agenda.

Schumer is taking over as Senate minority leader with the retirement of Nevada Senator Harry Reid.

Donald Trump's spokesman criticized the move as not being in the 'holiday spirit'

Schumer himself played a role in building up the Democratic Policy and Communications into more of a 'war room' during Reid's tenure.

Schumer has already started bringing in new hires, according to the publication. That would get the new office going as Republicans prepare to move through a slate of Trump cabinet and other nominations as quickly as possible.

Trump is also planning to take a series of executive actions as soon as he takes office January 20, with an Obamacare fight and a looming battle over his nomination to fill the vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court (Republicans stalled President Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the post.)
The frustrated flat-pack furniture giant are intent on cracking down on the trend

two 14-year-old girls were caught doing the stunt in Sweden

Teenagers have been sneaking into Ikea and attempting to spend the night there as part of a bizarre new trend - but company bosses have had enough.

The frustrated flat-pack furniture giant have confirmed that 10 'non-sponsored' sleepovers have taken place this year in stores around the world.

Previously pranksters have hidden themselves in Ikea branches in Australia, the US, Belgium, Netherlands, Canada, Japan, Poland and the UK.

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Teenagers have been sneaking into Ikea and attempting to spend the night there as part of a bizarre new trend - but company bosses have had enough

The frustrated flat-pack furniture giant have confirmed that 10 'non-sponsored' sleepovers have taken place this year in stores around the world

The stunt sees teenagers visiting the shop during the day, hiding in a cupboard as the store closes and then running amok once all the staff have left.

However, such an act makes them guilty of trespassing.

Spokeswoman Johanna Iritz told The Associated Press today that Ikea takes the sleepovers 'seriously' and that 'we can't guarantee safety.'

Iritz said the fun was 'overrated,' adding that a night at Ikea ends with 'getting into trouble with the law.'

Two Belgium lads appear to have started the craze last year, posting a video entitled 'Two idiots at night in Ikea' on YouTube where it rapidly went viral, amassing upwards of 1.7million views.

The 11 minute video shows Florian Van Hecke and Bram Geirnaert hiding in their local store until it's empty and then jumping on the beds, reading bedtime stories under the duvets and whispering to each other and the camera in the closet.

Two Belgium lads appear to have started the craze last year, posting a video entitled 'Two idiots at night in Ikea' on YouTube where it rapidly went viral, amassing upwards of 1.7million views

The 11 minute video shows Florian Van Hecke and Bram Geirnaert hiding in a cupboard in their local store until it's empty

Once the store is evacuated they begin roaming around the store - although they are afraid to speak above a low whisper

The Belgian pair were not caught but two 14-year-old girls who recently attempted the prank in a branch of Ikea in Jonkoping, Sweden were not so lucky.

According to Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan, they succeeded in staying the night but were too afraid of setting off the alarm to leave the cupboards they were hiding in. They were discovered in the morning and reported to police for trespassing.

Ikea spokesman, Jakob Holmstrom, told Swedish tabloid, Aftonbladet: 'Due to the girls' young age, we have chosen not to make a police report. Instead, we have spoken with their parents... to resolve the situation.

The pair enjoy jumping on the display beds as well as settling in under the duvet and enjoying the comfort of the bedding

They even tuck themselves in and read bedtime stories

The Belgian pair were not caught but two 14-year-old girls who recently attempted the prank in a branch of Ikea in Jonkoping, Sweden were not so lucky and were caught trespassing

'We hope that this trend will slow,' he added. 'We do not see what it is fun about it.'
Durst's lawyers say their client, whose frail and wheelchair bound, can't hurt anyone as they battle to keep his personal documents out of court

they want to videotape testimony from witnesses they fear could die or be killed before trial

Real estate scion Robert Durst appeared in an LA court charged with murder as his lawyers battled to keep stacks of personal documents used by the producers of HBO documentary The Jinx out of court.

Durst, 72, faces trial over the murder of his friend Susan Berman in 2000.

He was also suspected in the disappearance of his wife, Kathleen McCormack, in 1982, but never charged with anything, and stood trial for the dismemberment of his Texas neighbor, Morris Black, but was acquitted when he claimed self defense.

Durst was arrested on suspicion of Berman's murder last year after the 2015 Andrew Jarecki-directed documentary The Jinx was aired on HBO.

In the final episode of the show, Durst, apparently unaware that his microphone is still turned on, goes to the bathroom and begins muttering to himself, among other things, 'There it is. You're caught! You're right, of course... Arrest him... What a disaster... What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.'

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Real estate scion Robert Durst appeared in an LA court (pictured) charged with murder as his lawyers battled to keep documentation out of court

Durst, 72, faces trial over the murder of his friend Susan Berman in 2000

Now Durst's lawyers are battling to keep the documentary out of the courtroom, along with stacks of personal documents used by The Jinx producers

Many took that as a confession that he was behind the deaths of all three victims.

Durst later claimed that he had been high on meth when he gave the interviews to the documentary team.

Prosecutors who charged New York the real estate heir with murder told an LA court on Wednesday they wanted to videotape testimony from witnesses they fear could die or be killed before trial.

Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said Wednesday that prosecutors fear for the safety of witnesses because Durst is accused of killing a witness in the 1982 disappearance of his wife.

Lawyers for Durst objected to taking conditional testimony and suggestions, Durst, who is using a wheelchair and in custody, is a threat to anyone.

Durst's lawyers are also battling to keep the stacks of personal documents used by The Jinx producers out of the courtroom.

His defense team told the court there should be a protective order - an order that prevents the disclosure of certain information under certain circumstances.

While they admitted that it was something akin to 'closing the barn door after the horse had bolted', Durst's lawyer's argued the documentary shouldn't be put out before the trial.

His defense team (left, with Durst) told the court there should be a protective order - an order that prevents the disclosure of certain information under certain circumstances

They also say police illegally seized the personal docs from Durst's homes and a friend's home - while some of it is subject to attorney-client privilege.

Meanwhile, prosecutors argued at least some of the documents should be available as evidence as they were shared with producers of HBO's 'The Jinx.'

Police found the biggest collection of documents in the basement of Durst's friend Susan T. Giordano's home in Campbell Hall, New York.

Just hours before the end of the HBO documentary about Durst and the murders, State Police investigator, Joseph Becerra, had arrived at her home to seize 60 boxes of Durst's private documents.

Giordano later said the investigator had warned her that she could either give the documents to him there and then, or he would return with a search warrant.

Giordano decided to let him have the documents which included phone records, bills, trust documents, photographs, transcripts from the 2003 Black murder trial and much more.

Durst, here after his arrest in 2015, was acquitted in the death of neighbor Morris Black and never charged in the disappearance of wife Kathleen

The file boxes taken were the same materials used by the producers of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst while researching the documentary.

Prosecutors today argued that they were in their rights to seize the evidence, and that Durst had waived his attorney-client privilege when he allowed the show producers access.

But Durst's lawyers argued that the documents were improperly seized and that his attorney-client privilege still stood.

The judge approved a special master to review evidence in the case before the next hearing on January 6.

Durst, who pleaded not guilty to the murder of Berman, will be remanded in jail until then.

Prosecutors say he shot her to prevent her from talking to investigators who were looking into the disappearance of Durst's wife, Kathleen, 29, who went missing after receiving a phone call from her husband while she was at a friend's party.

During filming for The Jinx, Durst could be heard muttering to himself 'I killed them all'

At the time, she reportedly told her friend, 'If something happens to me, you will check it out...I'm afraid of what Bobby will do,' according to People.

Kathleen was never found and her family later had her declared dead.

In the same interview with prosecutors last year, Durst said that he agreed to be in The Jinx because he 'wanted [the filmmakers] to see the whole thing. That they would see me as an acceptable human being, as opposed to all this other stuff,' according to SF Gate.

According to documents released of interviews Durst gave Los Angeles prosecutors last year while being held in a New Orleans jail cell on weapons charges, he said he was high during the filming, according to The Los Angeles Times.

'I was on meth. The whole time I was on meth. And, when I looked at the little pieces of it, I was going like this, and like that,' he said, according to court documents released Friday, and quoted in BuzzFeed.

Durst, pictured with his friend Susan Berman, is now standing trial for her shooting death in 2000

Wife Kathleen McCormack, left, disappeared in 1982 at age 29, after she left a friend's party because she said her husband, Robert, wanted her home

'And it was - it should have been obvious. And I'm surprised my lawyer let me go ahead with it 'cause it just, I looked like there was something going on.'

Yet Durst doesn't quite appear to be saying that everything he said during the interviews should be discounted, telling prosecutors: 'I'm not trying to say that my answers were wrong. I'm just trying to say that I was 'gu, gu, gu, gu, gu, gu, gu' during the thing.'

A prosecutor then asks Durst, 'If you killed Susan Berman would you tell me?' to which he responds, 'No.'

Durst was arrested the day after the finale of the HBO series aired, found in a New Orleans hotel room with $40,000, a .38-caliber revolver, and a mask.
Names of the brothers haven't been released by authorities

The 13-year-old was charged Wednesday morning with first-degree murder and was being held in juvenile detention

Police said initially appeared that the boy shot himself. But it later became apparent that the death was a homicide

A 13-year-old boy has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of his 12-year-old brother, according to authorities in Tennessee.

Officers were called to the home Tuesday night and found the 12-year-old dead, Knoxville police said.

A news release on the department's Facebook page said it initially appeared that the boy shot himself. But it later became apparent that the death was a homicide.

A 13-year-old boy has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of his 12-year-old brother. Officers were called to the home Tuesday night and found the 12-year-old dead, Knoxville police said

Knoxville police wrote that 'officers arrived on the scene they discovered a 12-year-old male child deceased in a bedroom. Initially, it appeared the male died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

'As the investigation continued and additional evidence was examined, it became apparent the child died as a result of a homicide. Multiple interviews were conducted throughout the night.'

The 13-year-old was charged Wednesday morning with first-degree murder and was being held in juvenile detention. The names of the brothers haven't been released.

Northwest Middle School said in a statement to WLVT: 'We are deeply saddened by the tragic event that occurred Tuesday night involving two of our students.

'Our hearts are heavy as we offer our thoughts and prayers to the family during this very difficult time.'

Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch told media outlets that the boys were the only ones home at the time of the shooting.

He would not say how the boy got access to a gun.

The 13-year-old was charged Wednesday morning with first-degree murder and was being held in the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Detention Center (pictured)

Rausch would not say if the boys' parents are going to be charged, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

He revealed the 13-year-old called his parents who contacted police, the report said.

Rausch, according to WKRN, said: 'It appeared to be very complicated. I told you at first it appeared to be self-inflicted.'

He was quoted by the television station as saying: 'Our hearts and our prayers go out to the family. They do have two other children.
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Hundreds of mourners have paid their respects to an 86-year-old war veteran after it was feared no one would attend his funeral.

The Royal British Legion had sent out an appeal to give William Parkin 'the send off he deserves' and were thrilled when it was standing room only on the day.

The society's Frecheville branch was concerned only five people would turn up for Parkin's funeral after he passed away suddenly following a 'quiet life' as a recluse.

Thanks to an appeal by the Royal British Legion's Frecheville branch hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of war veteran William Parkin at City Road Cemetery, Sheffield in South Yorkshire

The Royal British Legion wanted to give Parkin 'the send off he deserves' and were thrilled when it was standing room only on the day. His coffin was draped with a British flag and topped with orange, red and white flowers

William Parkin, pictured here at a train station, died on November 28 at Sheffield's Northern General Hospital after being admitted to a ward during the summer

The funeral took place today at City Road Crematorium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, with over 150 civilians and servicemen paying their respects.

A spokesperson for Royal British Legion said: 'Mr Parkin, who served National Service in the Royal Navy, passed away suddenly and alone at the end of November at the age of 86 in Sheffield.

'We set out this appeal for people to attend Mr Parkin's funeral to give him the proper send off he deserves.

'William was a lovely old gent who lived a solitary and quiet life so it was brilliant to see so many faces at his funeral.'

Eight standard bearers held flags aloft as Parkin's coffin was taken into the small chapel while the young and old joined the decorated war hero on his final journey.

Eight standard bearers held flags aloft as Parkin's coffin was taken into the small chapel while the young and old joined the decorated war hero on his final journey

Over 150 civilians and servicemen in full uniform came to pay their respects including young members of various Sheffield cadet groups and Royal Marines

The coffin was taken into a packed chapel as The Last Post played, giving the war veteran a traditional and final farewell

A parachute regiment soldier stands in his ceremonial uniform next to a casually dressed group of civilians at the ceremony

Ex-servicemen from the Royal British Legion Riders Branch sport their famous leather waistcoats and berets as they chat at the service

Two members of the sea cadet corps exchanged words with a pair of Royal Marine Cadets wearing their ceremonial red sashes

Servicemen line up outside the crematorium. The only member of Parkin's family at the funeral was his distant niece, who said she did not know him that well. A next door neighbour also came but said he rarely saw the elderly man

'William was a lovely old gent who lived a solitary and quiet life so it was brilliant to see so many faces at his funeral,' a spokesman of the Royal British Legion said

Young members of various Sheffield cadet groups followed him into the packed chapel as The Last Post echoed throughout the grounds.

The only member of Parkin's family at the funeral was his distant niece, who said she did not know him that well. A next door neighbour also came but said he rarely saw the elderly man.

Parkin lived by himself and was housebound for the last few years of his life at his home in the Tinsley area of Sheffield.
Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski will not be working in the West Wing after January 20. Instead he'll be less than a block away on Pennsylvania Avenue, helming his own political consultancy.

The move comes as a key Trump ally is distancing the president-elect from a longstanding pledge to 'drain the swamp' of Washington's influence market.

Trump famously kicked Lewandowski to the curb as he neared clinching the Republican nomination, but reportedly offered him his pick of a handful of administration jobs this week.

Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski (left) has opened up a political consultancy in Washington to steer paying clients through his old boss's new administration

Lewandowski's business partner, Barry Bennett, is another Trump-whisperer who once helmed Housing and Urban Development secretary-designee Ben Carson's presidential campaign

The plum position of Senior Advisor to the President wasn't among them, according to Politico.

That set him on a course to cash in with Avenue Strategies, launched Wednesday along with business partner Barry Bennett.

Lewandowski is known as a fiercely loyal Trump partisan who resisted the temptation to trash his former boss after his ouster in June.

He maintained close contact with the president-elect, flying on his private Boeing 757 jet and hobnobbing backstage during rallies

'I will always be President-elect Trump's biggest supporter,' Lewandowski said Wednesday in a press release, adding that his 'goal is to make sure the priorities of the Trump administration become reality.'

That, however, will involve working side-by-side with business partner Barry Bennett, who ran Ben Carson's presidential primary campaign and later served as a Trump adviser.

'Le'ts hope I can make it successful,' Lewandowski told DailyMail.com on Wednesday.

Lewandowski didn't respond to a question about whether he will register as a lobbyist, something that could be seen as a compromise from Trump's pledge to 'drain the swamp' in DC

Republican voters, and some Democrats, clung to one of Trump's most loudly resonating messages  his pledge to 'drain the swamp' in Washington  as Election Day drew near.

But Trumpworld is sending conflicting signals about how that promise will play out in the real world of Washington.

Kellyanne Conway, Trump's third campaign manager and the one who led him to victory, said Tuesday during a radio interview with Laura Ingraham that 'draining the swamp is not just about lobbying and politicians; it's also about consultants.'

But Trump insider Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, said Wednesday on National Public Radio that the president-elect is already shying away from the slogan and 'doesn't want to use it anymore.'

'I'm told he now just disclaims that [phrase],' Gingrich said. 'He now says it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore.'

Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that Trump himself is backing off from 'drain the swamp' rhetoric: 'He now says it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore'

Lewandowski did not respond on Wednesday to a question about whether he will register as a lobbyist. Bennett told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that he would.

Either way, the two men will occupy a narrow niche of former Trump-whisperers who will operate as consultants outside of the federal government, where they can earn a living putting clients' issues in front of the world's most powerful man and his inner circle.

Bennett created the firm's website on December 13, according to Internet domain name registry records.

It's not unusual for former senior campaign staffers to capitalize on their high-level relationships by selling access to them.
Donald Trump says he has 'been proven to be right, 100 per cent correct' when asked whether the Berlin terror attack has made him think about banning Muslims from emigrating to the US.

During the presidential campaign, Trump pledged to enforce a ban as well as resurrect a post-9/11-era registry of foreign nationals from terror-prone Muslim countries.

'You know my plans,' Trump shot back. 'All along, I've been proven to be right, 100 per cent correct.'

He called Monday's deadly strike on a Berlin Christmas market 'an attack on humanity,' saying that the rise of Islamic terrorism in the West 'is disgraceful.'

'It's an attack on humanity. That's what it is,' Trump said outside his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

'An attack on humanity. And it's got to be stopped.'

President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday in Florida that Monday's terror attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany was 'an attack on humanity,' not just Christians

Trump appeared outside his Mar-a-Lago resort with National Security Advisor Lt. General Michael Flynn (center) and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus (right)

A truck, thought to have been hijacked, was driven through a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction

The still-at-large driver of a truck plowed down killed 12 people and wounded 48 as he slammed his vehicle into pedestrian traffic

Trump said he hasn't spoken with President Obama since the Berlin attack and the assassination of a Russian diplomat by a Turkish Islamic militant in Ankara.

'I have not,' he said. 'Two days ago, but not since.'

In Berlin, the still-at-large driver of a truck plowed down killed 12 people and wounded 48 as he slammed his vehicle into pedestrian traffic.

Trump's declaration that the Berlin slaughter was 'an attack on humanity' came after he was asked whether framing the attack as an assault on Christians could inflame religious tensions.

In his statement Monday, Trump said that 'ISIS and other Islamist terrorists continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad.'

The German government arrested and then released a suspect, admitting their uncertainty about his involvement

By Tuesday, Germans were creating memorials at the scene in memory of those who lost their lives

'These terrorists and their regional and worldwide networks must be eradicated from the face of the earth,' Trump added then, 'a mission we will carry out with all freedom-loving partners.'

The White House offered a very different kind of statement Monday night, with National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price saying that the United States condemns 'what appears to have been a terrorist attack' on the Christmas Market in Germany.

Never does the White House identify the victims as 'Christians.'

'We send our thoughts and prayers to the families and loved ones of those killed, just as we wish a speedy recovery to all of those wounded,' the statement continued.

'We also extend our heartfelt condolences to the people and Government of Germany,' it said.

Price's statement said the White House had been in touch with German officials 'and we stand ready to provide assistance as they recover from and investigate this horrific incident.'

Obama called German Chancellor Angela Merkel later Monday night and made the same offer.
Comedian Tom Arnold has vowed to release a tape of Donald Trump using the N-word and referring to one of his sons as a retard after apparently receiving a voicemail from the president-elect's team threatening to sue him.

Arnold described remarks allegedly made by the billionaire in an Apprentice outtakes reel last week. He said he would have released it before the election but did not have the approval of producers who made it and gave it to him, he said.

But the actor changed his tune on Wednesday, taking to Twitter to pledge war against Trump.

'Wife told me there's house line VM from Trump Camp about defamation suit so it's on! Open Apprentice vaults 4 discovery! Miss Universe too!!' he said.

Trump's team would not comment on Arnold's claims but an administration source told DailyMail.com there was no truth to them.

'It's on!': Tom Arnold vowed to release a tape which he claims shows Donald Trump (right in Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday) using the N word and calling one of his children a 'retard'

The comedian announced his pledge on Twitter after apparently receiving a phone call from a member of Trump's team threatening legal action

Arnold said he had approached the producers who made the tape for their approval but they were scared for their safety.

He also suggested he'd been plotting the tape's release, musing: 'Been talking/working on this 3 months but 1 random Seattle stand-up interview. Plan is working.'

The comedian also made hurried mention of 'nazis and libs' and 'taxes and Russia 2013' in his flurry of posts.

The 57-year-old made an appearance on Kiro Radio, a Seattle radio station, on Friday, during which he described the tapes in detail.

' I have the outtakes to The Apprentice where he says every bad thing ever, every offensive, racist thing ever.

Arnold suggested he had been plotting the tapes' release as he described how his 'plan is working'

Arnold said Trump was filmed making the comments while filming The Apprentice for NBC (above)

Arnold said he was contacted by both Arnold Schwarzenegger's team and aides working for Hillary Clinton who he said urged him to go public with the tape

'It was him sitting in that chair saying the N-word, saying the C-word, calling his son a retard, just being so mean to his own children,' Arnold said.

He claimed to have been given the footage, which had been packaged together and edited, by senior NBC editors and a producer.

They saw no need to release it before the election because they were certain Hillary Clinton would win, he said.

As election day approached, Arnold claims he was contacted by both Clinton's team and representatives of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the show's new host, urging him to go public.

'The Sunday before the election, I get a call from [Schwarzenegger's] CAA agent, sitting next to [Clinton]. They said, "I need you to release him saying the N-word,"' he said on the radio show.

The president-elect hosted his General Mark Flynn, his national security adviser (center) and Reince Priebus, his chief of staff, at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida on Wednesday

He was also seen having discussions with chief strategist Steven Bannon inside the resort

President-elect Trump will be sworn in to office on January 20. He is spending Christmas in Florida

He refused to protect the people who gave it to him, he said.

The comedian's representatives did not respond to DailyMail.com's requests for a copy of the apparent voicemail on Wednesday. Nor did they share any more detail of who or what exactly was said.

While Arnold launched his Twitter spree on Wednesday, Trump held meetings with members of his cabinet at Mar-a-Lago where he is spending the Christmas break.

National Security Adviser Lt. General Michael Flynn, his Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon were all present for the talks.
During sentencing Tuesday, Jama told her attacker she has forgiven her

Jama suffered deep gash to her lip that required 17 stitches and other cuts

Burchard-Risch was upset because Jama, who is Muslim of Somali

A woman who was struck with a glass beer mug at a Minnesota Applebee's for speaking a foreign language came face to face with her attacker in court this week and offered the woman her forgiveness.

Jodie Burchard-Risch, 44, of Ramsey, was sentenced on Tuesday to 180 days in jail followed by five years of probation, along with alcohol monitoring and counseling, after she pleaded guilty in October to third-degree assault in the attack on Asma Jama.

According to a criminal complaint, Burchard-Risch was dining at an Applebees in Coon Rapids on October 30, 2015, when she overhead Jama, who is Muslim of Somali descent, speaking Swahili to her family and became upset.

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Forgiveness: Asma Jama (left) on Tuesday came face-to-face with Jodie Burchard-Risch (right), the woman who attacked her with a beer mug last year, and said she has forgiven her

Dinnertime brawl: Jama was dining at an Applebee's in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, in October 2015 when Burchard-Risch assaulted her for speaking a foreign language

The document detailed how the irate patron yelled at Jama to either speak English or go back to her country, then refused to leave when a restaurant employee tried to step in.

Without any provocation, Burchard-Risch, who was sitting in a nearby booth, threw a drink at Jama, then grabbed a glass beer mug and smashed it in the womans face before fleeing.

The attack left Jama with a deep bloody gash on her lip that required 17 stitches, as well as cuts to her nose and right eye.

Jama, who came to Minnesota from Kenya in 2000 and is a US citizen, told Minnesota Public Radio last year she could not believe that after all these years, a stranger attacked her for being different.

Bloody aftermath: Jama suffered a deep bloody gash on her lip that required 17 stitches

The woman also suffered a cut to her eye (left) and a laceration on her nose (right)

She also said that the violent assault left her fearful for her safety.

At Burchard-Risch's sentencing at Anoka County Court on Tuesday, Asma Jama reiterated that more than a year after the attack, she is still living in fear.

'I use to be a carefree person, and now I cant go anywhere by myself,' Jama said, addressing her attacker seated impassively at the defense table.

At times holding back tears, Jama said she still carries within her the trauma of the attack but she bears Burchard-Risch no ill will, reported the station WCCO.

'My religion teaches me to forgive so I can get on with my life,' Jama told Burchard-Risch. 'In front of everybody here, I do forgive you and I hope that you choose love over hate. ... I just want you to understand at the end of this that we are all the same.'

At Burchard-Risch's sentencing at Anoka County Court on Tuesday, Asma Jama said that more than a year after the attack, she is still living in fear

Emotional: At times holding back tears, Jama (left), who is Muslim of Somali descent, said her religion teaches her to forgive. Burchard-Risch's (right) said nothing in response

The defendant, who spent much of the hearing staring straight ahead or looking down at her hands on the table, said nothing in response and issued no statements after the sentencing, but her attorney , Rod Tschida, said he does not see his client as a 'lunatic' or a' racist.'

'I see her as someone not unlike many others that come before the court that has an alcohol problem that brought her here, he said.
German politician Hugh Theodore Bronson, pictured, said terror suspect Anis Amris would have been deported long ago if it wasn't for a liberal 'ideological agenda'

A senior German politician has blamed the Christmas terror attacks on 'institutional political correctness', arguing that the suspect  a known ISIS fanatic who was on a deportation list  would not have been free to act if police had enforced the law.

The suspect, Anis Amri, 23, who was being monitored by police, would have been deported long ago if it wasn't for a liberal 'ideological agenda', he told MailOnline.

Hugh Theodore Bronson, the deputy leader of the Alternative For Deutschland party (AfD), said that German deportation law was ignored because the authorities were afraid of offending Muslims.

'The law as it stands is not being implemented,' he said. 'If it was, 12 people would still be alive, 48 people would not be in hospital, and there would have been no attack on Monday.'

Referring to the fact that the prime suspect, Anis Amri, had been arrested three times in Germany and was a known ISIS fanatic with weapons training who was due to be deported, Bronson added: 'There is a refusal by the authorities to implement German law.

'We are being too lenient in our implementation of the law. You can call it political correctness, you can call it an ideological agenda, but it cost 12 people their lives.

It is understood that terror suspect Anis Amri (pictured)  who has a 100,000 reward on his head  has used at least six different names and three different nationalities

Manhunt: The ISIS killer behind Germany's worst terror attack since 1980 on Monday night has been given an 18 hour head start after police bungled the probe - Amri's blood may have been in the cab and believe the driver is injured

German authorities have revealed there is a 100,000 euro (84,000) reward for information leading to his capture

'I would be as bold as to say that if German law would be implemented as it should be, this attack wouldn't have happened. This person would not have been able to plough a truck into 12 people and seriously injure 48.'

His remarks came as it emerged that the Tunisian terror suspect accused of Monday's Berlin truck attack which killed 12 people spent four years in an Italian jail for burning down a school.

It is understood that Amri  who has a 100,000 reward on his head  has used at least six different names and three different nationalities.

Link? A Facebook profile in his name shows 'likes' linked to Tunisian terror group Ansar al-Sharia, a Tunisian group with followers linked to extremists who murdered 22 at Tunis' Bardo Museum in March 2015 and then 39 tourists at a beach resort in Sousse

Security services were aware that the 23-year-old had tried to recruit an accomplice for a terror plot, but still he remained at large, it has emerged.

Amri had been under covert surveillance for much of the time since he arrived in Germany but was still able to carry out the deadly attack, security sources have said.

'Nobody in Germany can say what they really mean without looking over their shoulder,' Bronson said. 'It is just like in Communist East Germany. Merkel tells us that we can easily integrate more than a million migrants in a year, but everyone knows we can't.'
The heartbroken mother of a five-year-old boy who died of head injuries after he was allegedly beaten in a city park today described him as being her 'little angel'.

Little Alex Malcolm suffered head injuries while playing in Mountsfield Park, Catford, at around 6pm on November 20.

The five-year-old was admitted to King's College Hospital that evening and police were called at 1.45am the next day.

Little Alex Malcolm suffered head injuries while playing in Mountsfield Park, Catford, at around 6pm on November 20. The five-year-old was admitted to King's College Hospital but died in intensive care the next day

Malcom died on November 21 in intensive care.

A 38-year-old man has been charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

His mother Liliya Breha, who lives in Bromley, told the Evening Standard: 'I'm heartbroken, I miss him. I really struggle because he shouldn't have been taken away from me. He was my best friend.'

Breha described her son as 'beautiful, kind and gentle', always generous with his toys and sweets and popular with his classmates.

A Year 1 pupil at Archbishop Sumner CofE primary school in Kennington, he enjoyed going on trips around London and visiting parks.

Last year Malcolm played an angel in a nativity play and had recently completed a portfolio to begin child modelling.

His mum also told how much the little boy loved school and was always first at the gates and wanting to impress the teachers.

He was 'perfect,' she wept, 'he shouldn't have been taken away from me'.

His mother Liliya Breha, who lives in Bromley, told the Evening Standard: 'I'm heartbroken, I miss him. I really struggle because he shouldn't have been taken away from me. He was my best friend'

Family friend, Sarose Burnley, also told the Standard that Breha's bond with Alex was 'super strong. She doted on him.'

The 'broken' mother now hopes to set up a charity in memory of her son and will plant a tree as a memorial, as agreed with the school.

Police have yet to release his body so the family have not been able to arrange his funeral.

Marvyn Iheanacho, 38, of Hounslow, appeared in custody at Woolwich crown court yesterday charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
and the mother is being held in custody

The boy is now recovering in

she could no longer care for him

A toddler thrown into a reservoir by his mother has been rescued by a brave police officer after she heard his cries for help.

Brandon Gitahi had been cast into the Chinga dam in Othaya, Kenya by his mother who believed she could no longer care for him.

Thankfully his jacket acted as a buoyancy aid and kept the little afloat in the water for two hours on the night of December 9.

Brandon Gitahi had been cast into the Chinga dam in Othaya, Kenya by his mother who believed she could no longer care for him. Thankfully his jacket acted as a buoyency aid and kept the little afloat in the water for two hours on the night of December 9

Sergeant Ruth Cheptoon heard the infant's wails and leaped into the water and swam 500ft across the dam to reach the tot

Sergeant Ruth Cheptoon heard the infant's wails and leaped into the water and swam 500ft across the dam to reach the tot.

Dramatic footage shows Cheptoon and her colleagues hauling the child out of the dam by torchlight and lying him on the grass as he cries at the top of his lungs in distress. He appears to be unharmed.

The toddler is being cared for in hospital and Cheptoon is said to be mothering him

Dramatic footage shows Cheptoon and her colleagues hauling the child out of the dam by torchlight and lying him on the grass as he cries at the top of his lungs in distress. He appears to be unharmed

The toddler is being cared for in hospital and Cheptoon is said to be mothering him. Gitahi's mother has since been tracked down and is being held in custody

Gitahi's mother has since been tracked down and is being held in custody
A military plane that circled around Manhattan and caused panic and confusion for some New Yorkers was running an evacuation plan from Trump Tower.

The C-130 search-and-rescue aircraft was conducting an 'emergency relocation' planning mission in case Trump needed to leave New York during an attack.

Sources revealed the aircraft was scouting places in Central Park where it could land near Trump Tower to evacuate the president-elect from his home.

This military plane that circled around Manhattan and caused panic and confusion for some New Yorkers last week was running an evacuation plan from Trump Tower

'It was the military doing their homework,' one source told DNAinfo, while another added that they were 'mapping plans and strategizing'.

The sources claimed Trump would be taken by the Secret Service to the park and then flown in a helicopter either to Washington DC or a government site in Virginia or West Virginia.

At first it was claimed that the C-130, which was spotted flying low around midtown Manhattan last Tuesday, was taking part in routine military training exercises.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the US military was cleared to carry out the flights over the city. Two HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters were also spotted flying low.

But it was revealed that the NYPD was barely given notice about the drill and had not been told it would involve a plane as large as the C-130.

'They should have told people they were doing recon, and going to fly at low altitudes, instead of keeping it a secret,' a law enforcement source told DNAinfo.

The C-130 search-and-rescue aircraft was conducting an 'emergency relocation' planning mission in case Trump needed to leave New York during an emergency or attack

Sources revealed the aircraft was scouting places in Central Park where it could land near Trump Tower to evacuate the president-elect from his home

At first it was claimed that the C-130, which was spotted flying low around midtown Manhattan last Tuesday, was taking part in routine military training exercises

'People were scared, and rightly so.'

New Yorkers had to turn to social media to try and work out what was happening after no alerts were put out by the city.

Ever since 9/11 occurred, it is common for city authorities to issue warnings on social media of potential test flights to stop people from panicking.

'This plane that's been circling over Manhattan is starting to freak me out,' one Twitter user wrote.

'Why is this giant military plane flying over midtown (along with 2 helicopters)? Circling nearish Trump Towers,' another said.

One person tweeted: '#Military #plane C-130? Circling around #Manhattan. Anyone have answers?'

'Seeing multiple reports of a USAF C-130 and several Black Hawk helicopters circling low (3,000 feet) over Manhattan. No, that is not normal.'

A day after the drill, NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said the city was in the process of improving notification procedures to residents.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the US military was cleared to carry out the flights over the city. Two HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters were also spotted flying low
A man in his 40s has been stabbed at Belfast's Christmas market outside the iconic city hall.

Dozens of police officers have sealed off the scene and the man has been rushed to hospital in an ambulance.

Witnesses have described the situation as serious.

Forensics officers gathered evidence outside Belfast City Hall, scene of tonight's stabbing

A man was rushed to hospital with serious injures after the incident at 7.45pm in Belfast

Belfast's Deputy Lord Mayor condemned tonight's incident outside City Hall

The PSNI confirmed they are investigating tonight's stabbing in Belfast City Centre

The Northern Ireland Police Service said they attended the scene on Donegall Square North at 7.45pm.

Belfast's deputy lord mayor Guy Spence condemned the attack.

He said: 'Hearing there's been a stabbing at our Christmas Market in Belfast. Liaising with PSNI in City Hall, no justification for this heinous act.'

There is no indication of a motive for this evening's attack.

The condition of the victim is not yet known and there are no details of the suspect.
A schoolboy who was at the bottom of a lake for 41 minutes has made a miraculous full recovery thanks to the cold water.

The 13-year-old, identified as Morteza, was on a swimming trip in Burgenland, Austria, when he vanished in Neufelder Lake.

It took divers nearly three-quarters of an hour to reach him, but having undergone a number of medical procedures, he is now back to full fitness.

The 13-year-old, identified as Morteza and pictured here with the hospital staff, has made a full recovery after spending 41 minutes under water in Neufelder Lake in Austria

Morteza was flown to Vienna where doctors were able to resuscitate him, something they believe is down to the cold water of the lake.

Alexander Rokitansky, head of pediatric surgery at Donau Hospital, told The Local the boy's cognitive and motor skills recovery was down to the cooling down of his body, which helps victims of oxygen starvation's chances of survival.

'It was to the boy's advantage that the Neufelder Lake has cold water,' he said.

'None of us could believe that this child really spent 41 minutes under water, but all the protocols and witnesses confirmed that he had.'

The area of Spieka-Neufeld in Lower Saxony which feeds Neufelder Lake in which the boy vanished

Morteza was put into a medically-induced coma for a week after doctors stabilised his body temperature at 33 degrees.

He was gradually brought back to consciousness and spent five weeks in intensive care.

A week on a normal hospital ward and another stint in a neurological rahabilitation unit and the schoolboy is almost as good as new.

His motor and cognitive skills are practically back to normal and there is no lasting brain damage which is usually the case for anyone spending a long time under water.
Petrol prices are set to soar under new government proposals pushing for unleaded petrol to be phased out in the next two to five years.

Regular unleaded petrol is the number one choice for most motorists, who may now have to fork out an extra 10.7 cents per litre for premium unleaded petrol if the proposals move forward, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The government also posed the possibility of cleaning the fuel and introducing a new petrol, which could be much more expensive than the premium fuel used now, NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury told Daily Mail Australia.

The cost between the cheapest fuel and premium is an 'exorbitant' 21 cents per litre on average and sometimes much more, Mr Khoury said.

'If you introduce another level, god knows what companies will charge for it,' he said.

Australian motorists could be paying up to 21 cents more a litre for their petrol under a new set of government proposals banning the sale of unleaded petrol in the next to to five years (stock image)

Regular unleaded petrol is the number one choice for most motorists since John Howard's government phased out leaded petrol (stock image)

On Tuesday, fuel prices in inner Sydney for Ethanol 94 sat around 127.9 cents per litre while Premium 95 ranged anywhere from 135 to 150.9 cents per litre.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's government released a document outlining the proposals on Tuesday pushing to reduce the amount of sulphur in Australian petrol  which is considered the dirtiest and lowest quality out of the 35 countries included in the Organisation for Economic and Co-operation and Development group.

The government claims the change will have several positive health and environmental benefits.

By switching permanently to premium petrol, the country's main oil refineries will have to rebuild their plants, which could cost billions.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's government released a document outlining the proposals on Tuesday, in which it pushes to reduce the amount of sulphur in Australian petrol (stock image)

Australia has the lowest quality petrol out of the 35 countries included in the Organisation for Economic and Co-operation and Development (stock image)

Perth motorists have little reason to complain when it comes to petrol after enjoying the lowest average prices in 11 years.

Commerce Minister Michael Mischin revealed on Wednesday the average for unleaded petrol this year was 115.9 cents per litre - the lowest since 2005 when it was 110.4 cents per litre.

Vibe in North Perth and Chidlow Growers Mart were the cheapest spots at an average price of 110.9 cents per litre, while six of the top 10 sites were independent brands, according to FuelWatch.

The weekly petrol price cycle has also continued, with Monday being the cheapest day, but Mr Mischin said on any given day, the difference between the highest and lowest prices for unleaded petrol could be up to 25 cents a litre.

The financial impact on motorists could be significant  especially for those who drive older vehicles, NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said (stock image)

'A motorist who fills up at the most expensive station could save $15 per tank if they bought the same petrol at the cheapest site,' he said.

'That is an annual saving of $780 based on regular weekly fills.'

Mr Mischin said the short-term outlook for fuel prices was to trend upwards.

'The recent announcement by OPEC and non-OPEC countries, such as Russia, to co-ordinate a reduction in world oil supplies have already resulted in upward pressure on prices,' he said.
An image of the former Archbishop of Canterbury has been removed from an alumni 'hall of fame' at one of Britain's top universities amid outrage over his views on gay marriage.

King's College said Lord Carey of Clifton's image 'did not capture the diversity of our university community' after taking it down from its campus on the Strand, London, following a long student campaign.

The student union crusade was started in 2012 after he sparked outrage by saying: 'Same-sex relationships are not the same as heterosexual relationships and should not be put on the same level.'

An image of former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has been removed from an alumni 'hall of fame' at one of Britain's top universities amid outrage over his views on gay marriage

It had been on show on King's College's campus on the Strand (pictured), London, but he sparked controversy when he said same-sex relationships are 'not on the same level' as those between a man and a woman

But the university has been accused of bowing to the 'gay-stapo', which some claim has unfairly branded the former Archbishop of being homophobic.

In an article published online by Times Higher Education, lecturer Niall McCrae and Rev Jules Gomes wrote: 'For a prestigious institution of Christian heritage to allow this campaign to claim victory is worrying.

'Lord Carey is not homophobic, but his name has been tarnished by a "gay-stapo" that refuses to acknowledge that a clergyman cares for all, while maintaining a traditional view of marriage.'

The picture is one of a number on the wall, which also featured Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Michael Howard, to be removed to make way for a digital display board.

The move followed a review of King's College London's (KCL) window display policy, conducted last year.

But it has been celebrated by, Ben Hunt, who had been involved in running the student campaign and is now president of KCL's student union.

Lord Carey (pictured) has chosen not to comment on the removal of his picture

In a blog post, he wrote: 'LGBT+ students over several years had been concerned with the portrayal of Lord Carey of Clifton as an alumni who should be celebrated due to his views expressed during the debate regarding gay marriage.

'A petition was signed asking for his removal by hundreds of students several years ago, as well as policy being passed through our democratic system endorsing the Union to take this stance.'

Mr Hunt went on to write that he worked with the university on the new digital display, and that the windows 'express a community which strives to be accepting of diversity and inclusive'.

He added: 'It comes after a campaign of several years which was concluded through collaboration and a shared will of the Union and College to do more to represent what all of the King's community does in service of society.'

A KCL spokesman said: 'In 2015 a review of our window display policy across all our campuses was undertaken by representatives from External Relations, the Students' Union and Alumni Relations.

'It was agreed that the current static displays, which are costly to maintain, or change, did not capture the diversity of our university community and that this should change.

But the university (pictured) has been accused of bowing to the 'gay-stapo', which some claim has unfairly branded the former Archbishop of being homophobic

'The decision was taken that we should expand the breadth of content to include the achievements of our students and staff.

'The first digital screens, launched in July 2016, now bring to life examples of research breakthroughs and student and staff successes, as well as the contribution of our renowned alumni.

'In order to make space for the screens next to the prominent Strand campus entrance, a number of static portraits, including those of Lord Carey, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Michael Howard, were removed.

'The individuals were notified in advance and expressed themselves fully supportive. Further digital screens will be rolled out when we move into Bush House in September 2017.'

It is not the first time that students have campaigned for the removal of objects and statues from campuses.

Earlier this year, a number of students led a campaign calling for Oriel College at Oxford University to take down a statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes.

And Jesus College at Cambridge University removed an African bronze cockerel from display after a campaign by students.
A Pennsylvania court has ruled that a gay couple can have their 2012 adoption overturned so they could finally get married.

A three-judge Superior Court panel on Wednesday handed down a decision saying that state law permits an adult adoption to be dissolved when no one's opposed.

Roland Bosee Jr, 68, and Nino Esposito, 78, of Fox Chapel, have been together since 1970.

Esposito, a retired teacher, says he legally adopted Bosee when same-sex marriage was still illegal in Pennsylvania to lower their inheritance tax and out of a desire 'be a family of our own.'

Life partners: Retired teacher Nino Esposito (left) 78, from Pennsylvania, adopted Roland 'Drew' Bosee, 68, back in 2012, before gay marriage was legal

The idea came to the pair while they were revising their wills in 2012. Esposito and Bosee thought that by going through with the adoption, they would become entitled to some of the same benefits allowed to straight married couples.

Esposito and Bosee explained last year that they had 'never thought we'd see the day' gay marriage was legal and they had come to view adoption as 'the most legitimate thing available to us,' reported CNN.

Other gay couples used the maneuver to do the same before same-sex marriage became legal in Pennsylvania in 2014; the following year, the US Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

Following the landmark ruling, Esposito and Bosee petitioned to have their adoption overturned so they could get married, but in June 2015, Judge Lawrence O'Toole, of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, rejected the couple's request.

Wedding bells: A three-judge Superior Court panel on Wednesday ruled the couple's adult adoption can be dissolved, paving their way to their altar

Bosee and Esposito stated their ruling was 'a wonderful Christmas gift for the two of them

In his ruling, OToole cited Pennsylvanias Adoption Law, which allows unopposed adoption annulment only in cases of fraud, reported the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Bosee and Esposito appealed the decision and spent the next year waiting for a reprieve.

Their wait was over on Wednesday, when a three-judge Superior Court panel ruled that under the circumstances of this case, Pennsylvania law permits an unopposed annulment or revocation of an adult adoption.

President Judge Susan Peikes Gantman wrote in the panels opinion that Bosee and Espositos case presented wholly new and unique circumstances for the annulment of the adult adoption.

Esposito, a retired teacher, legally adopted Bosee to lower their inheritance tax and out of a desire 'be a family of our own'

The happy couple released a statement this afternoon saying they were 'relieved' and calling the ruling 'a wonderful Christmas gift.
The widow of an Australian man who was onboard missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 says the decision to suspend the search is a 'kick in the guts'.

Danica Weeks from Perth, Western Australia, lost her husband Paul in the mysterious flight that disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on-board.

Now, some 33 months after MH370 disappeared, a decision to stop looking for the plane's wreckage despite new evidence suggesting they may have been searching the wrong area has been slammed by Mrs Weeks, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

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Danica Weeks (left), who lost her husband Paul (right) in the MH370 crash, has slammed a decision by the Australian government to halt the search for the plane despite new evidence

Mr Weeks (pictured with his two sons) was among 239 to disappear on-board the mysterious flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, China, on March 8, 2014

'Obviously it's another kick in the guts for the families,' Mrs Weeks said.

'We've had so much hope and then each time we've got the hope up and it's been washed away.'

New analysis released this week by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau suggests the plane may have crashed outside the Federal government's main search area.

Around $200 million has been spent searching 120,000 kilometre of the Indian Ocean, but new information indicates a 25,000km search area north of the original search zone may should also be of interest.

But despite the new evidence, the Australian government has said it won't continue the search - the largest and most expensive ever undertaken.

An Australian government-led search of a 120,000km area of the Indian Ocean that began shortly after the plane went missing has so far failed to find the aircraft. But the Australian Transport Safety Bureau suggests an area north of the current search zone is also of interest

However, despite the new evidence the Australian government has said it won't re-open the search, a decision that has devastated Mrs Weeks (pictured)

'The information that they had available to them and the work they've done has indicated that they're in the vicinity of where the aircraft went down,' Transport Minister Darren Chester told 2GB.

'If we don't find the aircraft in that 120,000-square-kilometre search area, we are open to the criticism that you had looked in the wrong place.

'If it is not there it must be somewhere else and that's a pretty obvious assumption to make.'

For Mrs Weeks, a mother-of-two, the decision has left her and other families who are desperate for answers devastated.

'They have to find it. It's not just about us. It's about the aviation industry as a whole,' she said.

The Malaysian Government, who has led much of the search for the missing aircraft, has also ruled out re-opening the search because of the new ATSB evidence.
A man sparked a major airport security alert after allegedly making a sick joke about his mother-in-law and a bomb.

The alarm was sounded when the unnamed 62-year-old reportedly went up to the Latam Airlines desk at Tucuman International Airport in north-west Argentina and said: 'I've come to wait for my mother-in-law.

'If the plane crashes, it's because I put a bomb on board.'

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The man, pictured here with the red blanket over his head, had to appear in court after the joke was made at the Latam Airlines desk of Tucuman International Airport

An emergency response protocol was activated and Latam flight 4156 from Buenos Aires was stopped on the runway when it touched down instead of being allowed to taxi to its landing bay.

Passengers were taken off the plane while it was searched by police and led to a holding room.

Their hand luggage and the suitcases on board were scanned to make sure they didn't contain explosives.

One woman came close to suffering a panic attack after being told of the reason for the delay.

The airport was also closed temporarily to incoming planes, forcing the diversion of an Aerolineas Argentinas flight to the city of Cordoba 350 miles south.

The man is led away in a police van after his joke caused the diversion of an Aerolineas Argenitas flight and the airport to close

The bizarre incident occurred last night at Teniente Benjamin Matienzo International Airport in Tucuman, Argentina's fifth largest city.

Today the unnamed man at the centre of the scare was hauled before a judge to explain himself after being arrested, although the hearing was subsequently delayed by 24 hours.

Local media broadcast footage of him being led into a court in Tucuman surrounded by police with his head bowed.

His lawyer insisted ahead of the court hearing, which is now due to be held tomorrow morning behind closed doors, that the suspect's words had been misconstrued and he had told airline staff: 'My mother-in-law's arriving on that plane.

'All I need now is a bomb on board.'

The detainee told waiting media outside the court, 'Go and look for drug dealers and stop busting my balls,' as he was led away with a blanket over his head to spend a second night in a police detention centre after the hold-up.

The man, 62, pictured with a red blanket over his head, told reporters to 'look for drug dealers and stop busting his balls'

Speaking after he was taken away, his lawyer Silvia Furque added: 'My client regrets what happened and is devastated.

'He's an adult who came out with a childish joke. Someone who places a bomb on a plane is not going to hang around the airport.'

HIs mother-in-law's name and whereabouts has yet to be established.
A group of models on a fashion shoot broke into a derelict warehouse and discovered a dead body...only to carry on taking photographs and go for a pizza before raising the alarm, an inquest heard.

It was only about five hours later that the group of eight people, who described the incident as 'surreal', reported the horrific discovery to police.

Investigations then found that the body was 27-year-old Declan Noonan, who had been missing for four days.

Sean and Andrew Geaney, pictured, arranged a fashion shoot in an abandoned Manchester warehouse when they discovered the body of 27-year-old Declan Noonan

His body was found on the second floor of this Manchester warehouse on July 15, 2015

Max Dos Santos Leite, pictured told Mr Noonan's inquest: 'With all due respect, it (the body) wasn't going anywhere', claiming the group did not have a great deal of spare time

At Manchester Coroners Court, senior coroner Nigel Meadows ruled a verdict of suicide.

Brothers Andrew and Sean Geaney, who run the We Are What We Are clothing brand, had commissioned photographer Owen Birrell and five other people to model clothing as part of a fashion shoot, on a number of locations in the city centre.

They broke into the dilapidated Dunlop site, in Cambridge Street, Manchester city centre, at about 7pm on July 15 last year, which had fencing around it.

After entering, they discovered the body on the second floor.

Despite saying they were sure the person was dead even after a brief 'glance', the inquest heard that no-one immediately called 999.

They continued to take photos in other areas of the building before moving to another location, and after the shoot, some went for a pizza at takeaway chain Papa Johns.

It was just before 1am when the police were alerted, after Sean Geaney's girlfriend urged them to call the emergency services on arriving home.

The court heard that the group would have been charged with a criminal offence if they had waited until later in the morning to inform police of the discovery.

An arrest warrant as been issued for one of the models, Leroy Numa, because he failed to attend the Manchester Town Hall inquest despite being summonsed as a witness.

Habibi Deen and Amber Dobson, pictured, were among the models involved in the shoot

Sean Geaney told the inquest: 'We could have called, we should have called, but we didn't.

'We are not sociopaths. When we got home what happened hit us.

'It felt completely surreal. It was almost like it didn't happen. There was no rational thinking.'

Andrew Geaney added: 'Everyone was really shocked. No-one was thinking rationally. I think we were concerned because we were trespassing.

'The plan was to call that in anonymously. Naively we thought that was possible.'

Photographer Owen Birrell, pictured, said it was a collective decision to continue with the shoot, but admitted it was a 'selfish act'

When asked why he didn't dial 999, model Max Dos Santos Leite, 17 at the time, said: 'We just came to the conclusion that we needed to get stuff done.

'In all due respect, we only had that time on that day to get stuff done.

'We didn't have any other free time. With all due respect, it (the body) wasn't going anywhere.'

Habibi Deen, another model, who was 25 at the time, said: 'I didn't know what to do. I can still see the gentleman's face when I close my eyes. It really freaked me out. I was in a complete state of shock.

'I thought someone was going to do something about it.'

Amber Dobson, another model who said she was 19 or 20 at the time, said: 'We didn't think it was real.

'At first we thought it was a mannequin.

'I didn't really know what was going on. I didn't know what we should do.

'It was my day off from work. I wasn't with it at all.'

Oliver Lewis-Chapman, another model, was questioned by Declan's mother, Julie McKenna, as to whether he felt uncomfortable knowing there was a dead body in the same building as the photo shoot.

He replied: 'I'm not sure', but Mrs McKenna replied: 'It wasn't that traumatic because you carried on taking pictures.'

He added: 'It was almost like it didn't happen. Knowing what I know now, I would have called the police straight away.'

Owen Birrell, the photographer who was 20 at the time, said: 'It was a collective group decision to carry on and get the work done, which was a selfish act.'

Police had to wait for the following mornign before they were able to gain access to the scene

Asked by Mr Meadows what his reaction to discovering the body was, he added: 'It was pretty shocking. I have never seen anything like that before.'

But Mr Meadows replied: 'It didn't seem that your shock was sufficient to inhibit your activities.'

Mr Meadows said the group, all aged from 17 to 25 at the time, had 'temporarily lost their moral compass'.

He said: 'With the greatest respect to all of those involved, they might have been in shock and distress.

'They weren't to know the circumstances, but as a matter of common sense, it shouldn't have taken five hours.'

The court heard that a number of the group had mobile phones with them.

Mr Noonan's mother had printed thousands of flyers and distributed them in the hope that some member of the public might have spotted her son and return him home safely

Sgt Shagufta Khan, who led the case for GMP, said Andrew and Sean Geaney, Owen Birrell and Leroy Numa were interviewed under caution but no charges were brought.

She added that the failure to report the death immediately delayed GMP's investigation, as they could only search the building properly the next morning due to it being dark.

She said: 'They were more interested in the photo shoot and lighting because they needed to get it done and they were setting up a new business.'

The court heard that Declan, from Openshaw, had been suffering from paranoia before he went missing.

At about 3am on July 11 last year, he was spotted by a taxi driver in Hyde Road, Gorton, who had stopped to let some passengers use a cash machine.

Declan, who was barefoot, told the taxi driver that someone had tried to kidnap him, and he allowed Declan to use his phone to call the police.

Officers arrived and were concerned for his welfare, and attempted to take him to his mother's house, but after no answer took him to his grandfather's house.

As the police car stopped outside the home, Declan opened the door and ran off, with officers unable to find him.

Wracked with worry, Declan's mother reported him missing the following day and printed out 1,000 flyers, which she handed out in the city centre on July 13 and 14.

It was the following day that Declan's body was discovered in the derelict former warehouse, which had staircases missing and holes in the floor.

Mrs McKenna told the inquest that Declan had learning difficulties and 'struggled' through secondary school.

She said Declan was 'very depressed', but his father James Noonan said there had been no suggestion that his son wanted to harm himself.
One of television's most beloved duos is reuniting early next year.

Katie Couric will be returning to Today on NBC starting January 2 where she will once again host the morning show alongside Matt Lauer.

It will be Couric's first time returning to host the show since she left the program back in 2006 after a storied 17-year career with NBC.

NBC is bringing Couric back for just one week though as she fills in for Savannah Guthrie, who is on maternity leave.

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Reunited: Katie Couric will host Today alongside Matt Lauer starting January 2 (Couricand Lauer above in 2015)

Back: Couric has not hosted the show since she left in 2006 to take a job anchoring the CBS Evening News (left in 1997, right in 2000)

Couric is currently the global anchor at Yahoo News.

She left Today to become the anchor of the CBS Evening News while also doing segments for 60 Minutes for a reported salary of $15 million a year - the most ever for a journalist at the time.

Couric then stepped away from CBS in 2011 and moved over to ABC, where in 2012 she spent a week hosting Today rival Good Morning America.

There was also talk of Couric moving to Today after she left CBS, but that did not come to be.

CNN's Brian Stelter wrote in his book Top Of The Morning that Couric said at the time: 'I feel like it would have been a fun thing to reunite and to show that you can go home again.

'But I also thought, there's a reason why I left the show.'

Her most famous interview while at CBS came in 2008 when she sat down with vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin for a series of pieces that many believed doomed Palin and McCain's campaign.

In was during that interview that Palin famously talked about Alaska's proximity to Russia and was unable to name a single magazine she read on a regular basis, instead telling Couric: 'Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.'

Palin would later claim that Couric had a bias against her.

Couric worked as a special corespondent when she arrived at ABC, where she did segments for Nightline and 20/20 and filled in on all their morning programs at some point: The View, Live with Kelly and Good Morning America.

Then, in 2012, she launched her own talk show, Katie, on ABC, which was cancelled after just two seasons in 2014.

After leaving ABC there were rumors she might rejoin Today again as the show was struggling in the ratings.
It is set to cause misery for millions of travellers over the festive period because the gales will be so fierce

The Met Office warned that the imminent Storm Barbara is a 'weather bomb' which will lash

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Christmas could be hit by powercuts and travel chaos because Storm Barbara is a 'weather bomb' which will lash Britain with torrential rain, the Met Office warned today.

The weather front is set to cause misery for millions of travellers over the holiday weekend, hitting the UK with rain and gales, according to forecasters.

Motorists and rail passengers have been told to expect disruption to travel plans as they head off to visit friends and family.

Storm Barbara is rapidly developing and deepening as it approaches the UK. And a process known as explosive cyclogenesis is to blame, or what some scientists and forecasters refer to as a 'weather bomb.'

A huge wave crashes against Castlerock Pier in Northern Ireland - just yards from professional surfer Al Mennie

A windsurfer (pictured) makes the most of the high winds on Cleveleys Beach in Lancashire on Thursday morning

Several inches of snow has fallen in between Inverness and Aviemore in Scotland on Thursday - just before Storm Barbara hits the UK

Snow has fallen in parts of Scotland - including the village of Tomatin, near Inverness - making it difficult for motorists

A recovery vehicle was photographed transporting two cars which were involved in an accident on the A9 at Slochd in Scotland

Heavy fog at Heathrow Airport in London this morning has resulted in a number of flights being delayed and cancelled

A man was photographed walking his dog through thick fog in Dean Gardens, Ealing, west London, this morning

Motorists made their way along Ealing Broadway in west London this morning as the thick fog covered parts of the city

The Met Office said it is an intense low pressure system with a central pressure that falls 24 millibars in a 24-hour period, leading to increasing rotation, which in turn creates more vigorous winds.

Forecasters said the phenomena is fairly common during the winter, but it is unusual for such a system to pass close to the UK.

It comes as festive travel plans for millions were thrown into chaos earlier today after flights from three London airports were hit by delays when fog shrouded the capital this morning.

Heathrow, Gatwick and London City Airport experienced a raft of hold-ups due to the weather.

A spokesman for Heathrow said some early-morning flights had been pushed back and knock-on delays could take place throughout the day, adding that there have yet to be any cancellations.

British Airways said on its official Twitter feed that it was aware of fog affecting flights three airports and advised passengers to check their flight status online.

Meanwhile, the Met Office added that the windiest and wettest weather will be in the north and west with National Severe Weather Warnings in place.

Wintry showers, strong winds and lightning could lead to disruption to power supplies and travel across the northwest.

A photographer has captured the moment the sun set over the sea at Steamer Point in Dorset on Thursday evening

A cargo ships passes by a rainbow on the North Sea off the coast of Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear on Thursday afternoon

London, including Ealing Broadway (pictured), was shrouded in a thick blanket of fog this morning as Storm Barbara is set to batter the UK

A cyclist rides along a misty road just yards from ponies as he made his way through the New Forest on Thursday morning

Sleet and snow was seen in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Thursday morning - just as Storm Barbara approaches the UK

This map shows the main traffic blackspots in Scotland on Thursday - most of them because of 'surface water'

Even if you are outside the warning area you could see some windy weather although disruption is less likely. Another wind warning is in place for parts of northern UK for Christmas Day.

The wet and windy weather is a result of a succession of deep Atlantic low pressure systems.

Brent Walker, Met Office deputy chief meteorologist, said: 'Storm Barbara is crossing the Atlantic and will pass close to the northwest of the UK during Friday, bringing the potential for some disruption to power supplies and travel, and possibly structural damage.

'Whatever your plans over the next few days it's worthwhile staying up to date with the latest Met Office forecasts, which is easy to do on our app.'

An 'Amber' wind warning has been issued for northern and western parts of Scotland for Friday afternoon, evening and overnight into Christmas Eve.

This could be followed by thunder and lightning and wintry showers. Two separate Yellow wind warnings are in place, one covering northern parts of the UK where gusts of 60 to 70 mph are expected quite widely.

The other is for more southern areas, where a narrow and intense band of heavy rain and gusty winds could lead to some disruption. Winds will then ease on Saturday morning.

A Yellow wind warning has also been issued for Christmas Day covering Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of northern England.

A couple struggle through the high winds on Cleveleys Beach, Lancashire, as high winds hit the coastal town

City of London skyscrapers were today shrouded in patchy fog on Thursday morning as some flights from three busy airports were delayed and cancelled

The top of the Shard in central London was barely visible this morning as thick fog covered parts of London on Thursday

Eagle-eyed photographer Julie Wells, of Thurlestone, Devon, spotted a cloud in the sky which looked like Santa's sleigh. She said: 'I couldn't believe it when I saw it'

Sherrie Abbott, 40, from Boston, Lincolnshire, was driving to see sister Georgina Barron, 44, when this winged figure appeared in the sky

A new Atlantic weather system is forecast to give gusts of 50 to 60 mph quite widely within this area.

Gusts of 60 to 70 mph will probably affect parts of northern Scotland, with a lower likelihood of gusts exceeding 80 mph across the far north of the mainland but quite possibly affecting the Northern Isles.

Along with the potential for disruption to power supplies, large waves are also expected to affect coastal areas.

From Boxing Day onwards indications are that high pressure will once again start to dominate, bringing more settled weather for southern areas with parts of the north remaining blustery.

The Met said the the weather has changed because the jet stream is driving areas of low pressure from North America towards the UK, with associated spells of strong winds and rain.

It comes as Britain braced itself for the arrival of Storm Barbara, which is set to batter the country with strong winds.

Scotland is predicted to be the worst hit by the weather, with gusts of up to 90mph forecast in places.

Pockets of Northern Ireland, North Wales and the North of England are also due to feel the force of Barbara, which is due to roll in to the UK by Friday.

The worst of any destruction is expected between Friday evening and Christmas Eve morning, but the potential for structural damage and disruption to some transport services means the storm's impact could be felt long after the winds have subsided.

And during the Christmas period, a staggering 4.5million Brits will be heading abroad for Christmas and New Year and airports are set to be their busiest on Friday.

The RAC is warning that roads will be jammed during rush hour tomorrow as there will be 3.5million extra drivers making their way across the country.

Breakdown cover provider Green Flag said that 478,192 breakdowns are expected to happen over Christmas and New Year - which is 11 breakdowns a minute.

Meanwhile, Heathrow Airport will see around 1.2million passengers come through its departures lounge up until Boxing Day.

A number of vehicles made their way along Acton high street in west London in thick fog on a cold winter morning today

Scotland is predicted to be the worst hit by the weather, with gusts of up to 90mph forecast in places (shown on this map, top left)

British Airways tweeted that fog was 'affecting flights at London Heathrow, Gatwick and London City Airport today (pictured)

Councils were said to be 'fully prepared' for the onset of harsh conditions over Christmas.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents hundreds of councils in England and Wales, said it was issuing renewed advice on how to deal with flash floods and has stockpiled more than one million tonnes of salt to grit roads.

Environment spokesman Martin Tett said: 'Councils are fully prepared to protect residents and minimise disruption caused by Storm Barbara and other potential bad weather such as snow and flooding. Council staff will be out in force clearing roads of any debris and damage.'

And last night, one flight due to arrive at Gatwick at 11.20pm was diverted to Birmingham Airport because of the fog.

Mark Culverhouse, who was travelling with a group of 17 friends and family from Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, said the flight landed at around 1am before they were taken by coach to Gatwick and arrived just before 5am.

He finally got home at around 7am - six hours later than anticipated.

Mr Culverhouse, 46, from Liphook, Hampshire, said: 'The captain announced over the speaker that main runway was shut for construction and the support runway was not suitable because of the weather.

'It stressed us all out a bit as we were not sure what was happening until we landed.

'The captain then said they were going to refuel and retry for Gatwick as the weather had eased, so we sat on the plane for a bit, then he announced they could not get fuel so we would have to leave the plane and transportation to Gatwick would be arranged.

'We were a bit annoyed as we should have been home around 1am. We are feeling very tired for work today.'

DAFFODILS ARE BLOOMING - BEFORE CHRISTMAS These amazing pictures show daffodils already blooming in Britain - days before Christmas. The field of narcissi was grown by Paul Whittaker on the Isles of Scilly, who sends flowers to buyers around the UK. He puts his early bloom down to the warmer climate on the tiny island off the Cornish coast. Mr Whittaker, 47, said: 'We get them a bit earlier over this side of the water because of the climate. Paul Whittaker, who grows and sells daffodils to buyers around the UK, puts his early bloom down to the warmer climate on the tiny island off the Cornish coast The field of narcissi (pictured) was grown by Paul Whittaker on the Isles of Scilly, who sends flowers to buyers around the UK 'They're very popular around Christmas. Definitely the most popular.' The field is part of four acres farmed at Trenoweth on St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly. Mr Whittaker also grows a variety of spring and summer cropping flowers - which he boxes up and sells anywhere from Cornwall to Scotland. He has been flower farming himself for the past six years following a 20-year stint by his parents. Mr Whittaker welcomed the warm spell on the island this year which helped with his daffodils. He said: 'It's been a very slow start to the season but it's getting better now - much more back to what it should be.' Advertisement

A man cycled through some early morning fog on a country lane near Copthrone, near Gatwick Airport, in West Sussex on Thursday

The weather is set to deteriorate on Friday when Storm Barbara will move south, bringing with it heavy gales and winds

Local photographer Matthew Pinner captured this morning's sunrise at Wareham in Dorset. The Met Office said the worst of the weather was expected on Friday and Saturday

Silhouettes of trees, building cranes, chimneys and TV aerials could be seen on a misty winter sunrise in London on Thursday

Tynemouth Priory on the North East coast before sunrise on Thursday, as Britain braced itself for the arrival of Storm Barbara

An Ursid meteor burns up over Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumberland as purple and green hues fill the night skies on Wednesday night

A Met Office spokesman said: 'Storm Barbara will bring gales and squally rain to the UK on Friday and may bring disruption to travel plans as people head off to visit friends and family for the Christmas weekend.'

Grahame Madge, a Met Office spokesman, added: 'We are expecting gusts of around 80mph widespread within the amber warning area, up to 90mph in places.

'We have had the good fortune to be able to issue the weather warnings ahead of Storm Barbara coming, with plenty of time hopefully for people to change their plans if they need to.

'But the nature of the storm means it still has the potential to have an impact on power supplies, structures, and disrupt bridge and ferry crossings.'

The UK Coastguard issued its own safety warnings ahead of the weekend.

Ross Greenhill, coastal operations area commander, said: 'We always advise people to check the weather and tidal conditions before they set out so that they can either prepare accordingly or consider whether they should even be going out at all.

The Shard and St Paul's Cathedral can be seen through the thick fog as it covered parts of London on Thursday morning

A photographer captured the stunning sunrise at Corfe Castle in Wareham, Dorset, on Thursday morning - as Storm Barbara approaches the UK

The Met Office warnings affect a small part of Scotland but they get more serious on Friday and will impact a much larger part of the UK

'At sea, changes in tidal streams can make conditions worse, particularly if the wind and tide are against each other and tidal heights may hide underwater hazards.'

Storm Barbara has been named in line with the Met Office's alphabetical policy for the strongest weather systems and is only the second name designated this season, which began on October 1, after Storm Angus.

A BA spokesman confirmed that their flights were running as normal on Thursday afternoon.

They said: We're sorry that some of our customers' travel plans were affected this morning due to thick fog at Heathrow and London City airports. Our flights are now operating as normal.'

A spokeswoman for Gatwick said 'about five or six' flights were diverted to other airports on Wednesday night due to fog and maintenance work on a runway.
The student cooks, cares and provide entertainment for the 93-year-old

She said she had been raised by her grandmother and wants to show

A strong-willed university student has melted the hearts of thousands after she brought her ill grandma to live with her so that she could take care of her.

Liu Lin, a student in south-west China's Chengdu city, has been taking care of her frail 93-year-old grandmother since April, according to People's Daily Online.

She is her grandmother's sole caretaker as her father has passed away and her mother is too ill to look after the pensioner.

Liu and her grandmother live in a tiny rented room

Liu, who studies Economics and Tourism Management at Chengdu University, decided to take her grandmother from their hometown Neijiang to her tiny rented room.

Liu said she wanted to show her gratitude for her grandma, who was suffering from bone fractures.

'There is no one in the family to take care of her,' Liu told Chengdu Business Daily, a report cited in People's Daily Online.

'I was brought up by my granny and now it's my turn to take care of her.'

Liu said her grandmother had led a tough life, with three of her sons including Liu's father passing away.

Liu and her grandmother live in a rented room 10 minutes away from the campus.

Their tiny home has two beds, one wardrobe, one coffee table and one table. The rent is 70 per month.

Liu's younger brother, who works in Chengdu, comes to visit the pair every month. He gives them most of his 233 monthly salary to cover their daily expenses.

Though Liu spends most of her time taking care of her grandmother, her academic performances are still outstanding.

Liu comes back home at noon every day and cooks food for her grandmother. Lunch needs to be soft and easy to chew as the 93-year-old has only one and a half tooth

Her stories have touched her university, which offered Liu a scholarship.

However, Liu refused.

'It doesn't feel right to accept someone's money for no reason.'

'My brother is working and I can look for part-time jobs. I don't want to rely on other people's help as long as I can manage.'

Liu and her grandmother live near Liu's campus in Chengdu (pictured), a major Chinese city

It's a difficult task to prepare meals for a 93-year-old person as she has only one and a half tooth.

Liu wakes up at 7:30 every morning to make sweet dumplings for her grandmother and gets ready to go to college.

School finishes at noon. Liu will go to the nearby supermarket then cook lunch.

She also buys her grandmother's favourite snacks: marshmallow, ham and minced pork congee.

Though 4ft 9in Liu is small, she can carry her grandmother down the stairs and put her in her wheelchair.

In good weather conditions, Liu will take her grandmother to watch square dancing, an exercise routine popular with middle-aged and retired women and usually performed to music in a square or plaza.

Square dancing: Middle-aged and retired women practise fan dancing and shadow boxing as morning exercise routine often in a square or plaza (file photo)

Knowing her grandmother loves watching war movies, Liu will download them to her laptop so her grandmother can watch them when she is alone.

Liu also has bought her grandmother a pet cat named Dangdang to keep her company.

Since granny moved in, Liu has not had time to hang out with her friends. Instead, she invites her friends to come over for dinner sometimes.

Liu told Chengdu Business Daily that her grandmother hummed songs at night occasionally and had gained weight since she moved in.

Liu said: 'Wherever I am in the future, I will bring my granny with me.'
A villager in China spent 25 years using a hand grenade to crack walnuts without realising.

The man from Ankang, China's Shaanxi province made the discovery recently after noticing it looked similar to a grenade pictured on a leaflet handed out by local police, reports Huanqiu, an affiliation with the People's Daily Online.

According to villagers, the man used the grenade to specifically crack open the nuts.

The villager only realised after a leaflet was sent out by police about dangerous weapons

According to reports, the man had been using the grenade without realising what it was for some 25 years.

It had been given to him by a friend.

Images taken on December 5 show the device.

Police found that the grenade had not detonated and they were unsure if the device had explosives inside it.

It was only when the man was handed a police leaflet that he realised that he possessed a forbidden explosive.

The man had been using the grenade to crack walnuts for 25 years (File photo)

Grenades usually explode when the safety lever is released and the object is thrown away. As it rotates, it detonates the primer and ignites the fuse before burning down to the detonator.

People have been commenting on social media site Weibo about the man's lucky escape.

One user wrote: 'He persisted to snack on walnuts for 25 years?'

While another asked: 'Why would a friend gift him a bomb?'
'Marine A' Alexander Blackman will not be home for Christmas after a judge today denied him bail.

His wife Claire was in court as the Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas blocked his immediate release from prison where he is serving a life sentence for shooting a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan.

She looked crestfallen when she heard Sgt Blackman, 42, must stay in jail as he awaits a fresh appeal to his murder conviction, which will be heard later next year.

But outside the court Mrs Blackman was defiant and said that despite the disappointment that her husband won't be freed he still has the chance to appeal against his conviction.

Surrounded by her husband's supporters she admitted the family was 'disappointed' but said the 'appeal is the most important step towards getting Al's conviction and sentence overturned'.

She added: 'We are grateful to the courts for expediting the appeal process' because his case could be now heard in January or February.

Proud: Claire Blackman was defiant and said that despite the disappointment that her husband won't be freed he still has the chance to appeal against his conviction next year

Court battle: Jailed Royal Marine Sergeant Alexander Blackman has won the right to a fresh appeal - but today his wife Claire, pictured today outside court, was told he cannot come home for Christmas

Claire Blackman (centre) arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, where her husband, who was found guilty of murder, was told he must stay in jail

Blackman's wife Claire and hundreds of supporters swamped the Royal Courts of Justice in the hope a judge ordered his freedom but were left disappointed

Lord Thomas continued reporting restrictions imposed at a hearing last Friday which prevents reporting of the details of the proceedings.

But, he gave the go-ahead for the court's ruling on the bail application and other matters to be publicised.

In the judgment, Lord Thomas said the 'practice of the court is always to expedite appeals, rather than release on bail'.

Claire Blackman, wife of Alexander Blackman, arrives at the High Court in London before the disappointing decision

He said that 'despite the unprecedented nature of this case', the court 'can see no basis for departing from what is that practice'.

After the judgment black cab drivers sounded their horns as they carried out a go-slow outside the High Court in support of the jailed marine.

Earlier his wife smiled outside court as she arrived with dozens of supporters - but has said that she was 'trying hard not to get excited' about his possible release.

Lawyers acting for Sergeant Alexander Blackman, 42, of Taunton in Somerset, failed to persuade two judges at the Court Martial Appeal Court in London to free him from prison.

The bail move followed the announcement by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the independent body that investigates possible miscarriages of justice, of its decision to refer Blackman's conviction and sentence to the court for review.

Blackman watched Wednesday's proceedings via video link from jail. His wife Claire was in the packed courtroom with dozens of supporters.

Blackman was convicted in November 2013 by a court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire, and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 10 years, which was later reduced to eight years on appeal because of the combat stress from which he was suffering at the time of the incident.

He shot the insurgent in Helmand province in 2011 while serving with Plymouth-based 42 Commando.

There was a loud sigh of disappointment from supporters in the public gallery as the decision to refuse bail was announced by Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, sitting with Mr Justice Sweeney.

The CCRC referred the case for review following an 11-month 'in-depth' investigation.

It announced it had concluded that a number of new issues, including fresh evidence relating to Blackman's mental state, 'raise a real possibility' that the Court Martial Appeal Court 'will now quash Mr Blackman's murder conviction'.

His wife Claire had said she was 'trying hard not to get excited' about his possible release

Wedding day: Sgt Alexander Blackman with his wife Claire when they married in 2009 - but reunion hopes were dashed

Former Royal Marines gather outside the High Court in London where Royal Marine, Sergeant Alexander Blackman, was told he must remain in jail

Sgt Blackman has spent three years in HMP Erlestoke, in Wiltshire, for the shooting of a wounded Taliban fighter in Afghanistan in 2011

Blackman shot the insurgent, who had been seriously injured in an attack by an Apache helicopter, in the chest at close range with a 9mm pistol before quoting a phrase from Shakespeare as the man convulsed and died in front of him.

Blackman told him: 'There you are. Shuffle off this mortal coil, you c***. It's nothing you wouldn't do to us.'

He then turned to comrades and said: 'Obviously this doesn't go anywhere, fellas. I just broke the Geneva Convention.'

The shooting was captured on a camera mounted on the helmet of another Royal Marine.

During his trial, Blackman - who denied murder and was known at that stage as Marine A - said he believed the victim was already dead and he was taking out his anger on a corpse.

He was 'dismissed with disgrace' from the Royal Marines after serving with distinction for 15 years, including tours of Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland.

Blackman was convicted in November 2013 by a court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire, and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 10 years

The bail application was heard last Friday, but Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas and Mr Justice Openshaw adjourned the case until today.

Blackman was convicted in November 2013 by a court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire, and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 10 years.

In May 2014, the Court Martial Appeal Court rejected his conviction challenge, but reduced the minimum term - the least he must serve before becoming eligible to apply for parole - to eight years because of the combat stress disorder he was suffering from at the time of the incident.

During his trial, Blackman - who denied murder and was known at that stage as Marine A - said he believed the victim was already dead and he was taking out his anger on a corpse.

He was 'dismissed with disgrace' from the Royal Marines after serving with distinction for 15 years, including tours of Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland.

After an 11-month investigation, the CCRC announced it had concluded that a number of new issues 'raise a real possibility' that the Court Martial Appeal Court 'will now quash Mr Blackman's murder conviction'.

YET COURT LET ROLF HARRIS HAVE HIS FREEDOM TWICE Rolf Harris, 86, was granted conditional bail during his trial at Southwark Crown Court in London while accused of 12 historical sex offences. But after being found guilty of all the charges of indecent assault, the shamed entertainer was granted bail for another four days until his sentencing hearing. He was jailed for five years and nine months in 2014.

Anjem Choudary was bailed as he awaited trial last December for encouraging support for Islamic State. The hate preacher had already been sent back to custody for breaching bail restrictions. Bail was then granted again at the Old Bailey, on a 15,000 surety. In September he was locked up for five-and-a-half years.

David Smith admitted grooming two girls aged 12 and 13 for sexual activities but was told sentencing would be delayed and he would be given bail. Warwick Crown Court allowed the lorry driver to marry and have a two-week honeymoon before returning to court.

Aaron Vize, a 24-year-old from Belfast, is on bail despite being accused of attacking his father with a hammer and choking his brother until he lost consciousness on November 18. He was released on bail by a judge on the condition that he lived as far away as possible from his fathers home. Vize wept in court as he was released on his bail of 300 with a surety of 500. He was ordered to follow a curfew and wear a tag. Advertisement

Former Royal Marine Commandos show their support by walking from Parliament Square to Downing Street in October 2015 - they returned in force to court today

MARINE A JUDGE RULED ON BREXIT AND ASSANGE CASES Lord Chief Justice John Thomas The judge who ruled on Marine A's bail today was one of the three who sided with Gina Miller's Brexit case to stop Theresa May triggering Ariticle 50. Lord Chief Justice John Thomas was educated at Cambridge, he also attended the University of Chicago. He married an American, Elizabeth, and they have a grown-up son and daughter. In 2011 he and his wife banked 1million when they swapped their 2.6million five-bedroom home for a 1.6million townhouse close to the Thames. He has spoken up in favour of freedom of the Press  and he beat Lord Justice Leveson to become the Lord Chief Justice. In 2014, he spoke out in favour of Parliament's right to decide which crimes were so serious an offender should never go free  and criticised Strasbourg judges for saying such sentences breached the European Convention on Human Rights. As a High Court judge, the 69-year-old refused Wikileaks head Julian Assange's appeal against extradition to Sweden and radical cleric Abu Hamza's attempt to avoid extradition to the US. He was also once accused of trying to silence a High Court judge who had championed the institution of marriage. In 2013, he rebuked Sir Paul Coleridge for 'bringing the judiciary into disrepute' after speaking out in favour of traditional marriage and describing the devastating impact of family break-up on children. Lord Thomas has a record of displaying short-tempered impatience over the tricks of immigration lawyers. When a Bangladeshi student's lawyers made two last-minute applications to keep him in the country on the eve of his deportation, the judge described it as 'an intolerable waste of public money', an abuse of the courts, and 'totally without merit', and threatened lawyers who acted in the same way in the future with 'vigorous action'. Advertisement

The Mail's long battle to win justice

Royal Marine Alexander Blackman was the first known British serviceman to be jailed for murder on a foreign battlefield.

SAM GREENHILL charts the case and the path to justice.

December 7, 2013

CASUALTY OF WAR

DECEMBER 7, 2013

The Daily Mail reports how Sergeant Alexander Blackman, previously named only as Marine A, was jailed for life after shooting a fatally injured Taliban fighter.

A SHAMEFUL INJUSTICE

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

The Mail uncovers vital evidence that was 'deliberately withheld'. One officer quit his commission in disgust at being blocked from testifying in support of Sgt Blackman.

FALL GUY FOR A FIASCO

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Sgt Blackman tells the Mail about the 'tour from hell' in Afghanistan. He says one mistake under extreme stress made him the fall guy.

September 11, 2015

COVER-UP PLOT EXPOSED

SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

The Ministry of Defence is accused of cover-ups, including trying to censor an internal report casting doubt on the Marine's conviction.

BOMBSHELL REPORT LEAKED

SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

The internal report is leaked to the Mail. It reveals Sgt Blackman was failed by senior officers and put under unimaginable pressure.

FAMILIES JOIN CAMPAIGN

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

Families of Marines killed by the Taliban on Sgt Blackman's 'tour from hell' poignantly join the campaign to review his conviction.

FIGHTING FUND TOPS 750K

OCTOBER 5, 2015

In less than a month, generous Mail readers raise an incredible 750,000  enough to fund a team of lawyers to pursue a new appeal.

September 17, 2015

DEFIANCE OF THE MARINES

OCTOBER 28, 2015

Royal Marines past and present rally in Parliament Square in support of their jailed comrade.

SHAMEFUL PLOT

DECEMBER 12, 2015

We expose a plot to keep Sgt Blackman behind bars. A leaked document reveals the determination of senior officers to block efforts to overturn his conviction.

APPEAL IS LAUNCHED

DECEMBER 16, 2015

Accompanied by 500 green beret-wearing supporters, Sgt Blackman's wife Claire delivers a seven-file dossier to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

WILL HE EVER GET JUSTICE?

October 5, 2015

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

A year after our campaign is launched, the Mail reveals bureaucratic delays to Sgt Blackman's fight for justice.

At the same time, British troops are being hounded by ambulance-chasing lawyers over other incidents in the line of duty.

SHOW OF SUPPORT

OCTOBER 28, 2016

More than 2,000 ex-Marines and members of the public flood Parliament Square to demand justice. They hear speeches and messages from the former director of Special Forces Major General John Holmes and Marines Falklands commander Major General Julian Thompson.

NEW HOPE

DECEMBER 6, 2016
Santa's sleigh may have some trouble on the ice this week.

The North Pole is forecast to warm up to 27.5C (50F) higher than normal tomorrow.

For the second year in a row in December, and for the second month running, Arctic temperatures will hit alarming highs.

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Shown here is a model simulation of temperature differences forecast for tomorrow in the North Pole compared to what would be a normal Thursday. The hotter regions show a greater difference in temperature

ARCTIC REPORT CARD In its annual Arctic Report Card, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week tallied record after record of high temperatures, low sea ice, shrinking ice sheets and glaciers. The Arctic Report Card is a peer-reviewed report that brings together the work of 61 scientists from 11 nations who report on air, ocean, land and ecosystem changes. Study lead author Jeremy Mathis, NOAA's Arctic research chief, said it shows long-term Arctic warming trends deepening and becoming more obvious. He noted a disturbing creep into seasons beyond summer, when the Arctic usually rebuilds snow and ice. Advertisement

Computer models predict that, just three days before Christmas, temperatures at the North Pole could reach the dangerous melting point by tipping above 0C (32F).

The warmth will engulf the Arctic wastelands thanks to a storm pushing in east of Greenland.

European weather models estimate that the storm's lowest pressure will be around 945 millibars, similar to a category three hurricane.

'That's pretty intense,' Dr Ryan Maue, a meteorologist with WeatherBell Analytics, told the Washington Post.

According to Dr Maue, diminished sea ice cover east of the Nordic sea allows warm air to flow towards the pole uninhibited.

'You have more real estate available to advect the warm and moist air northward,' he said.

Arctic sea ice levels have hit record lows.

Warming at the top of the world has gone into overdrive, happening twice as fast as the rest of the globe, and extending unnatural heating into both fall and winter, according to a recent US federal report.

In its annual Arctic Report Card, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week tallied record after record of high temperatures, low sea ice, shrinking ice sheets and glaciers.

Study lead author Jeremy Mathis, NOAA's Arctic research chief, said it shows long-term Arctic warming trends deepening and becoming more obvious, with a disturbing creep into seasons beyond summer, when the Arctic usually rebuilds snow and ice.

A pressure map of the Arctic region is shown here. Green indicates low pressur and, red indicates high pressure. The model forecasts low pressure center of 946 millibars east of Greenland on Wednesday, helping to draw mild air into the Arctic through the Nordic sea

A European simulation model of high altitude temperatures around the Arctic. The simulation shows mild air from the south (pink and green) streaming through into the North and settling over the North Pole

Scientists have long said man-made climate change would hit the Arctic fastest.

Mathis and others said the data is showing that is what's now happening.

'Personally, I would have to say that this last year has been the most extreme year for the Arctic that I have ever seen,' said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, who wasn't part of the 106-page report.

'It's crazy.'

NOAA's peer-reviewed report said air temperatures over the Arctic from October 2015 to September 2016 were 'by far the highest in the observational record beginning in 1900.'

The North Pole is forecast to warm up to 27.5 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) higher than normal on Thursday. This map shows temperatures across the Arctic from October 2015-September 2016 compared to the 1981-2010 average

The graph shows yearly temperatures since 1900 compared to the 1981-2010 average for the Arctic (orange line) and the globe (gray). NOAA Climate.gov map based on NCEP reanalysis data from NOAA's Earth System Research Lab

The average Arctic air temperature at that time was 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the 1981-2010 average.

It's 3.5 degrees Celsius (6.3 degrees) warmer than 1900.

'Rarely have we seen the Arctic show a clearer, stronger or more pronounced signal of persistent warming and its cascading effects on the environment than this year,' said Jeremy Mathis, director of NOAA's Arctic Research Program.

 Slide me  The age of the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean at winter maximum in March 1985 (left) compared with March 2016 (right). The darker the blue, the younger the ice

RECORD BREAKERS Other extremes last week's report detailed: Ocean temperatures were 5 degrees Celsius (9 Fahrenheit) higher than the 30-year average off the coasts of Greenland. Arctic sea ice didn't set a record for the annual minimum, but in October and November when sea ice normally starts growing back, it didn't. Sea ice from mid-October through November was the lowest on record. Dartmouth University professor Donald Perovich, author of the chapter on sea ice, said sea ice conditions have sunk from a B-plus grade 11 years ago to a D-minus grade 'and that's because I'm an easy grader.' Snow cover in North America reached a record low for spring, falling below 1.5 million square miles in May for the first time since satellite observations began in 1967. Though not a record, Greenland's ice sheet continued to shrink , starting early, on April 10. It was the second earliest start of the Greenland melt season on record. Graphic shows Greenland ice sheet mass each month since April 2002. The Greenland ice sheet continued to lose mass in 2016, as it has since 2002 when satellite-based measurement began Advertisement

'While the science is becoming clearer, we need to improve and extend sustained observations of the Arctic that can inform sound decisions on environmental health and food security as well as emerging opportunities for commerce.'

What's happening is due to both man-made warming and a large El Nino that just ended, Mathis said.

'Not only is it extreme in any number of measures  air temperature, loss of sea ice and on and on  but there are so many things we haven't seen, particularly this extremely warm fall,' said study co-author Brendan Kelly, executive director of the Study of Environmental Arctic Change at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

In 1979, Kelly cruised the Bering Straits region with a native hunter who told him dozens of Yupik words for sea ice.

One was tagneghneq, for a charcoal grey thick multi-year ice.

A fisherman drives a boat during Secretary of State John Kerry's tour of the Jakobshavn Glacier and the Ilulissat Icefjord, located near the Arctic Circle in Ilulissat, Greenland

That ice is pretty much gone, Kelly said.

This is more than an Arctic problem, because the cold air escaping changes weather conditions, such as weakening the jet stream, Mathis said.

'What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic,' Mathis said.

'The Lower 48 may have to deal with more extreme weather events in the future.'

A graphic comparing current polar sea ice levels with record lows. Both of the Earth's poles are currently showing lower levels of sea ice than ever seen before. This is a big worry for climate scientists, and potentially the result of a build-up of man-made greenhouse gases
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At first glance, you might mistake this design as a spaceship from one of the Star Wars films.

But the futuristic craft is actually Russia's proposed new nuclear-powered icebreaker.

The ice-breaking craft, which has been named 'Leader', is designed to keep the Northern Sea Route, along the country's Arctic coast, open all year round.

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The ice-breaking craft, which has been named 'Leader', is designed to keep the Northern Sea Route, along the country's Arctic coast, open all year round

MEET 'LEADER' Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia says that the ship will have a working capacity of 110 megawatts and would be capable of cutting through ice up to 4.5 metres (14.8 feet) deep. And it would be capable of ploughing through ice that is two metres (6.6 feet) thick at a speed of 29 kph (18 mph). Leader would allow tankers carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) weighing up to 300,000 tonnes to pass through the Northern Sea Route in any season. Advertisement

The plans were unveiled by Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia.

Mr Rogozin, 52, who has been in charge of Russia's defence industry since 2011, revealed that the revolutionary icebreaker would be called Leader.

It would have a working capacity of 110 megawatts and would be capable of cutting through ice up to 4.5 metres (14.8 feet) deep.

And it would be capable of ploughing through ice that is two metres (6.6 feet) thick at a speed of 29 kph (18 mph).

Leader would allow tankers carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) weighing up to 300,000 tonnes to pass through the Northern Sea Route in any season.

The project is being developed at the Krylov State Research Centre in Russia's second city of St Petersburg in the north-western part of the country.

Russias enormous icebreaker is 586 feet long and more than 100 feet wide, and will be able to break ice up to 10 feet thick, and 13 feet deep.

Mr Rogozin said that the goal was to build one main icebreaker ship, and two reserve icebreakers, that would replace those that have been in operation since Soviet times.

The unique construction, which does away with the traditional cross-rib design, would give the new icebreaker the highest manoeuvrability in the world, he added.

The Northern Sea Route lies entirely in Arctic waters, from the Kara Sea, off Siberia, to the Bering Strait. Parts are free of ice for only two months a year.

In June, Russia launched its biggest icebreaker yet, The Arktika, in the hopes of maintaining national defences and navigating the Arctic.

At first glance, you might mistake the icebreaker craft design as a spaceship from one of the Star Wars films. Pictured is the Millenium Falcon spaceship

The enormous icebreaker is 178 metres (586 feet) long and more than 40 metres (100 feet) wide, according to Sputnik News, and will be able to break ice up to 10 feet thick, and 13 feet deep.

At its launch, Sergey Kiriyenko, chief executive of Rosatom, said: The Arktikas launch is a victory in all senses. Today we can say that by the end of 2017, this icebreaker will join Rosatomflot.

'This will open up fundamentally new opportunities in front of our country in terms of maintaining the national defences and year-round navigation in the Arctic and ensuring economic development in a region that is of crucial importance to Russia and the whole world.
One of Netflix Inc's Twitter accounts was hacked on Wednesday by an entity calling itself 'OurMine'.

Several mocking tweets were sent from the Netflix US Twitter account (@netflix).

'World security is s**t. We are here to prove this :),' said one tweet. Some of the tweets were deleted in less than 10 minutes.

One of Netflix Inc's Twitter accounts was hacked on Wednesday by an entity calling itself 'OurMine'

Netflix could not be immediately reached for comment.

However, the company's verified customer support twitter handle tweeted: 'We're aware of the situation and are working to get it resolved.'

OurMine is well known for breaking into high-profile social media accounts, including those of Twitter Inc CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook Inc's Mark Zuckerberg and media outlets Forbes and TechCrunch.

Contacted by Reuters through email, OurMine said it had taken control Netflix's Twitter account three hours earlier.

'World security is s**t. We are here to prove this :),' said one tweet. Some of the tweets were deleted in less than 10 minutes. One of Netflix Inc's Twitter accounts was hacked on Wednesday by an entity calling itself 'OurMine'

However, the company's verified customer support twitter handle tweeted: 'We're aware of the situation and are working to get it resolved.'

Just last month, the hacking group claimed theyd cracked into Mark Zuckerbergs social media accounts for the second time this year.

Despite recently beefing up his security and enabling two-factor authentication, hacking group OurMine was able to change the Facebook CEOs Pinterest bio on Tuesday, ZDNet reports.

Along with this, the group claims it has gained access to the password and phone number associated with his Twitter account.

Despite recently beefing up his security and enabling two-factor authentication, hacking group OurMine was able to change the Facebook CEO's Pinterest bio in Nov, and has gained access to the password and phone number associated with his Twitter account

THE FIRST HACK Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Pinterest and Twitter accounts were previously hacked this past June. Saudi-based group OurMine claimed responsibility, using Zuckerberg's own accounts to post messages. The group claims it found his password 'dadada' in the recent leaks of the LinkedIn in password dump from 2012, in which usernames and passwords associated with more than 160 million accounts were compromised. Advertisement

The group previously claimed it had found the information through a LinkedIn password dump, but this time, they said it did not use a leaked database.

Saudi-based OurMine made the hack known in an email to ZDNets security editor Zack Whittaker.

Though the post was quickly removed, the group temporarily changed Zuckerbergs Pinterest tagline to read, Dont worry, we are just testing your security, and added its web address.

While the group has not said how it carried out the hack, the hackers claim they have an exploit on Pinterest.

But, as ZDNet points out, the last time OurMine made this type of claim, it turned out to be fake.

In the email, the hackers also shared Mark Zuckerbergs public Twitter username and the password for the account, and says the CEO enabled two-factor authentication following the first incident.

They claim the number associated with the account ended in 86, and that his current Twitter password was his former Gmail password, which was changed six months ago, ZDNet reports.
This raises questions over when people should legally be considered 'mature'

Evidence suggests that the brain changes significantly until at least 30

It may come as no surprise to growing numbers of parents whose boomerang children in their twenties have returned to live in their family home.

While they may be old enough to drive, vote, marry and join the army people younger than 30 are still not fully mature, say experts.

This raises questions over whether criminal offenders under 30 should be treated differently to their older counterparts.

The key changes in the brain that occur from adolescence into ones 20s and 30s is a thinning of the grey matter, and a thickening of white matter

HOW THE BRAIN CHANGES WITH AGE One of the difficulties in establishing when the brain is mature is finding an adult brain that has finished maturing as a point of reference. The key changes in the brain that occur from adolescence into ones 20s and 30s is a thinning of the grey matter, and a thickening of white matter. The increase in white matter represents a growth in connectivity between different brain regions. The thinning of the grey matter represents what scientists call pruning  a specialisation in the set-up of the grey matter which makes it more efficient. The part of the brain that keeps growing is the prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain  which is located at the front of the head - is involved in a host of important factors  including attention, complex planning, decision making, impulse control, logical thinking, organised thinking, personality development, risk management and short term memory. But because the brain keeps on changing, even saying that change has largely levelled off by 30 is a problem. Advertisement

For the most sophisticated processes, such as attention, decision making, and taking risks, our brain only starts to settle down in our fourth decade.

But it is still changing for many years after we legally become adults.

Both in Britain and the US issues of whether someone is mature are key questions for policy makers  and the criminal justice system.

For instance, a criminal justice report from the House of Commons Select Committee recommended young adults aged 18-25 should be treated differently from older criminals as their brains are still maturing.

The report noted most young people involved in crime stop by the age of 25.

At the same time there are increasing demands in England and Wales to grant the vote to 16-year-olds.

Dr Somerville writing in the journal Neuron said: When considering whether an individual brain can diagnose someone as mature or immature, neuroscientists have deep concerns about trying to make those kinds of inferences.

The very idea that we could come up with some number that would encompass all of the complexity involved in brain development is a challenge.

While there are decades of evidence that adolescents behave differently from adults, the age of 18 doesn't have any biological magic to it.

Dr Somerville, said that on the basis of research the answer to the question when the average brain reaches a threshold of maturity

From what Ive reviewed above, the answer might lie sometime between the 30s and never.

This range is remarkably late, given that arguments about reaching maturity tend to focus on the brains and behavioural profiles of individuals in their late teens and early twenties.

One of the difficulties in establishing when the brain is mature is finding an adult brain that has finished maturing as a point of reference.

The key changes in the brain that occur from adolescence into ones 20s and 30s is a thinning of the grey matter, and a thickening of white matter.

The increase in white matter represents a growth in connectivity between different brain regions.

While they may be old enough to drive, vote, marry and join the army people younger than 30 are still not fully mature, say experts. This raises questions over whether criminal offenders under 30 should be treated differently to their older counterparts

The thinning of the grey matter represents what scientists call pruning  a specialisation in the set-up of the grey matter which makes it more efficient.

The part of the brain that keeps growing is the prefrontal cortex.

This area of the brain  which is located at the front of the head - is involved in a host of important factors  including attention, complex planning, decision making, impulse control, logical thinking, organised thinking, personality development, risk management and short term memory.

But because the brain keeps on changing, even saying that change has largely levelled off by 30 is a problem.

Dr Somerville said that as the brain keeps changing throughout adult life, this challenges the very notion that the brain reaches a steady adult referent that we can concretely call mature.

She said that one of the key differences between adolescents and people in their 20s and older is how distractable they are.

This could mean that an adolescent might be considered mature enough to engage in simple behaviour relating to achieving a goal in neutral, non-distracted circumstances.
A cable-free future could soon become reality, if rumours that Apple is working on a long-distance charging method for the iPhone 8 are to be believed.

California start-up firm Energous is thought to be working on a mid-range wireless charging transmitter which could work over distances up to 15 feet (4.5 metres).

It is expected to be released in toward the latter half of 2017, which would tie in with the expected release of three anticipated new models of iPhone.

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Current wireless charging relies on contact between devices and a base unit (pictured). But leaked information suggests Apple is working with Energous, who specialise in long-distance wireless charging technology

HOW WOULD IT WORK? California start-up firm Energous is thought to be working on a mid-range wireless charging transmitter which could work over distances up to 15 feet (4.5 metres). The 'WattUp' platform, which uses small antennas to transfer energy over fairly long distances. It works at greater distances than existing wireless charging solutions that rely on traditional inductive charging coils. The charging process is controlled by software, meaning end users can decide the order in which devices receive power and create schedules for their charging. Advertisement

In a research note from market analyst Louis Basenese, which was obtained by Apple Insider, a number of connections between Apple and Energous were made.

Among them is the defection of Apple's Regulatory Certification Program Manager Billy Manning.

Mr Manning spent seven years at the company before joining Energous as Director of Regulatory Operations in September 2016.

It has also emerged that Energous is working with Apple suppliers Dialog Semiconductor and Pegatron.

Energous is the company behind the 'WattUp' platform, which uses small antennas to transfer energy over fairly long distances

It works at greater distances than existing wireless charging solutions that rely on traditional inductive charging coils.

The charging process is controlled by software, meaning end users can decide the order in which devices receive power and create schedules for their charging.

But patents previously filed by the Apple suggest the technology giant has also been exploring the option of more traditional inductive wireless charging.

SHOULD YOU UPGRADE TO THE IPHONE 7? Some technology sites are advising users to hold off on upgrading their iPhones until the next year's version, which will mark the 10-year anniversary of Apple's revolutionary handset. Analysts say the iPhone 8 may feature a curved display that reaches from one edge of the device to the other and a home button integrated into the screen. Advertisement

A patent applied for by the firm, details of which emerged in September 2016, refers to an 'inductive charging station' similar to the plastic wireless charger used by the Apple Watch.

The move would also fit with suggestions that the iPhone 8 will feature glass casing, to support wireless charging.

Serbian-American inventor Nikolai Tesla first envisaged long-distance wireless electrical transfer more than 100 years ago.

But it is yet to make its way to the mainstream.

Previous rumours suggested Taiwan firm Foxconn Technology Group, a division of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, were making wireless charging modules to go with Apple's next iPhone.

A patent applied for by the firm (pictured), details of which emerged in September 2016, refers to an 'inductive charging station' similar to the plastic wireless charger used by the Apple Watch

Apple's upcoming iPhone 8 (artist's impression pictured) could be set to ditch the current aluminium and glass design in favour of a plastic OLED screen that curves 'all over'

Rumours also suggest the iPhone 8 could be made from Bulk Amorphous Alloy, which is a mix of titanium, nickel, copper and zirconium melted together. This is said to have the smooth texture of glass and the rigid sturdiness of rubber (artist's impression)

IPHONE 8 RUMOURS Several rumours have been circulating about the iPhone 8, and suggest the next device may have: - Dual-lens 3D camera - Augmented reality to generate real-time views of surroundings - Curved glass casing - Plastic OLED screen - Wireless charging - A folding element - New 5 inch (12.7 centimetre) and 5.8 inch (14.7 centimetre) models - A new 'pure white' model Advertisement

A research note from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo obtained by MacRumors commented on industry expectations.

Mr Kuo said: We believe one of the reasons why new iPhones will switch from metal casing to glass casing is to support wireless charging.

In order to ensure a superior performance, we believe it is most appropriate for EMS suppliers to develop and make the wireless charger because then a comprehensive test can be conducted.

As Hon Hai needs to deploy most resources to develop and produce OLED iPhone, we expect Pegatron will be the exclusive supplier of the wireless charger.

A wireless charger would also solve a problem caused by Apple ditching the 3.5mm headphone jack from the iPhone.

It would enable users to charge their phone while simultaneously using the Lightning port to plug in a pair of headphones.

Some technology sites are advising users to hold off on upgrading their iPhones until the next year's version, which will mark the 10-year anniversary of Apple's revolutionary handset.
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Roadways have divided Earths surface into more than 600,000 fragments, a new study reveals.

An international team of conservation scientists mapped roadless areas around the world, and found that, while they make up roughly 80 percent of the terrestrial surface, more than half of these roadless patches are smaller than 1 square kilometer (0.4 square mile).

Roads have clear benefits for human purposes, but researchers warn the resulting fragmentation also has severe impacts on natural ecosystems  and this could, in turn, reduce their ability to provide us with vital resources.

Roadways have divided Earths surface into more than 600,000 fragments, a new study reveals. In the map, blue indicates especially large tracks. In some areas, especially in tropical countries, researchers say roadless areas have been overestimated as they have not yet been carefully mapped. Red indicates areas that are completely roaded, with a 1km buffer

THE EFFECT OF ROADS Roads now play a large role in the functionality of the surrounding ecosystems, and are known to introduce many problems. According to the researchers, they can interrupt gene flow in animal populations, facilitate the spread of pests and disease, and increase soil erosion and the contamination of rivers and wetlands. And, they have opened up many areas to nefarious activities, from illegal logging to poaching. Roads are also subject to contagious development  a phenomenon in which they triggers the construction of more roads, and consequently, conversion of natural landscapes. Advertisement

In the study, published in the journal Science, the researchers used a dataset of 36 million kilometers (22 million miles) of roads worldwide.

The team used two global datasets, OpenStreetMap and gROADS, along with 282 publications that assess the spatial influence of roads.

This analysis revealed that the effects of roads typically extends roughly one kilometer (.6 mile) from the road itself.

So, the researchers included a buffer area of one kilometer around each of the roads they evaluated.

Then, they mapped the findings, revealing roughly 600,000 distinct roadless patches created by the manmade structures.

Just 7 percent of these roadless areas are larger than 100 square kilometers (37 square miles), the researchers found.

The largest segments were found in the tundra and boreal forests of North America and Eurasia, along with some tropical areas of Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia.

While the tundra, rock, and ice biomes were largely left untouched by roads, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests were found to be the most fragmented.

But, only 9 percent of roadless areas are protected.

Our global map provides guidance on the location of the most valuable roadless areas, said Pierre Ibisch, lead author of the study, based at the Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management at Eberswalde, University for Sustainable Development in Germany.

In many cases they represent remaining tracks of extensive functional ecosystems, and are of key significance to ecological processes, such as regulating the hydrological cycle and the climate.

The researchers say the dataset was the best available source of information, though even that is incomplete.

Roads now play a large role in the functionality of the surrounding ecosystems, and are known to introduce many problems.

According to the researchers, they can interrupt gene flow in animal populations, facilitate the spread of pests and disease, and increase soil erosion and the contamination of rivers and wetlands.

Blue represents areas that are especially large and well connected and/or notably rich in biodiversity. Red areas are completely roaded. Just 7 percent of these roadless areas are larger than 100 square kilometers (37 square miles), the researchers found

And, they have opened up many areas to nefarious activities, from illegal logging to poaching.

Roads are also subject to contagious development  a phenomenon in which they triggers the construction of more roads, and consequently, conversion of natural landscapes.

All roads affect the environment in some shape or form including timber extraction tracks and minor dirt roads, and the impacts can be felt far beyond the road edge, said Nuria Selva, co-auhor of the study, with the Institute of Nature Conservation of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow, Poland.

The area most severely affected is within a 1-km band on either side of a road.

The researchers say roadless areas need better protection to prevent further degradation, and subsequent impacts on the environment.

As roads continue to expand, there is an urgent need for a global strategy for the effective conservation, restoration, and monitoring of roadless areas and the ecosystems they comprise, Ibisch said.
Finland's Nokia has sued Apple, accusing the iPhone maker of violating 32 technology patents.

Nokia's lawsuit stems from a disagreement between Apple and Nokia over licensing fees for Nokia's technology.

Nokia claims that since agreeing to a license covering some patents in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers to license its technology, which it says are used in many of Apple's products.

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Filed in courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich, and the Eastern District of Texas, it covers patents for displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets and video coding.

Following the acquisition of NSN in 2013 and Alcatel-Lucent in 2016, Nokia owns three valuable portfolios of intellectual property.

'Built on more than EUR 115 billion invested in R&D over the past twenty years, our tens of thousands of patents cover many important technologies used in smartphones, tablets, personal computers and similar devices,' the firm said.

Since agreeing a license covering some patents from the Nokia Technologies portfolio in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products.

Apple sued Acacia Research Corp and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc on Tuesday.

It accused them of colluding with Nokia to extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly and anti competitively from Apple.

The legal action by Nokia and iPhone maker Apple appear to mark a revival of the 'smartphone patent wars' that began five years ago, when Apple filed a series of patent infringement cases against Samsung Electronics around the world, with wins and losses on both sides.

Nokia, once the world's dominant cellphone maker, missed out on the transition to smartphones triggered by Apple's introduction of the iPhone in 2007.

The Finnish company sold its handset business to Microsoft (MSFT.O) two years ago, leaving it with its telecom network equipment business and a patent portfolio.

But this year, Microsoft sold its Nokia feature phone business to a new company called HMD Global and Nokia agreed to a 10-year licensing deal with HMD, which continues to market low-cost Nokia phones and plans to introduce new Nokia smartphone models in 2017.

BEST SELLING PHONES IN THE LAST 20 YEARS The Nokia 5110 with its changeable covers is thought to have sold more than 160 million 1996: Motorola StarTAC, one of the first flip phones sold 60 million 1998: Nokia 5110 with its changeable covers is thought to have sold more than 160 million 1999: One of the first phones without an antenna, the Nokia 3210 sold over 160 million units 2000: Sleeker Nokia 3310 with extra features sold more than 126 million handsets 2003: Cheap and durable Nokia 1100 sold more than 250 million units 2004: Nokia's 2600 offered one of the first set of desktop tools and sold more than 135 million units. 2005: Nokia 110 - popular in developing countries - sold more than 250 million. 2006: Part of the 'Ultrabasic series' the Nokia 1600 sold more than 130 units. 2007: With 360 hours of battery life on standby, the Nokia 1200 was snapped up 150 million times. 2008: Apple iPhone 3G: Over 12 million people bought Apple's second generation iPhone. 2009: Some 35 million people bought the faster follow-up, the 3GS. 2010: Nokia's 5230 with free amps sold 150 million units. One of the first phones without an antenna, the Nokia 3210 sold over 160 million units 2011: Apple's iPhone 4S sold 83 million units despite battery criticism. 2012: With quad core speed and a 4.8 inch screen, Samsung's Galaxy SII and SIII sold 40 million units. 2013: The follow-up handset, the Galaxy S4, sold 40 million units. 2014: The Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sold 74.5 million handsets - 34,000 an hour at peak. 2015: Tigermobiles predicts the iPhone 6S will be the best-selling handset of the year, with the Samsung Galaxy S6 close behind. Advertisement

Nokia's lawsuits, filed in courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich, Germany and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, cover patents for displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets and video coding.

Nokia claims that through its investments in research and development, it has contributed many fundamental technologies used in Apple's products.

'After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights,' Ilkka Rahnasto, head of patent business at Nokia, said in a statement.

'Since agreeing a license covering some patents from the Nokia Technologies portfolio in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products.
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Nowadays, backpacking around the world has almost become a rite of passage for a certain breed of teenager.

But back in the day, the spectacle of a 16-year-old girl touring the globe was enough to turn her into a worldwide celebrity.

Aloha Wanderwell from Winnipeg in Canada has been described as a female Indiana Jones after becoming the first woman to drive around the globe, visiting 43 countries in a Ford Model-T in her teens.

Aloha Wanderwell (born Idris Galcia Hall), from Winnipeg in Canada, was the first woman to drive around the globe, at the tender age of 16

She went on to travel 380,000 miles over the course of the 1920s, visiting a total of 80 countries.

During her travels, she made some of the earliest films of the Bororo people of Brazil, became the first woman to fly the countrys Mato Grosso state and filmed the first flight around the world.

Wanderwell, who was born as Idris Galcia Hall, first got a taste for travel as a child when she began reading her British Army reservist fathers collection of boys adventure books.

In 1922, at the age of 16 and now living in France with her mother and sister following the death of her father in the First World War, she answered a newspaper advert asking for, Brains, Beauty & Breeches  World Tour Offer For Lucky Young Woman Wanted to join an expedition!

Aloha travelled with a man called Captain Walter Wanderwell, an adventurer, inventor and former sailor who eventually became her husband

Aloha visited 43 countries on her first trip around the world, crossing war-torn Europe over several months

Aloha spent several months in India on her first world trip in the early 1920s, meeting local people and visiting famous landmarks

The advert had been placed in the Riviera edition of the Paris Herald by a man called Captain Walter Wanderwell (real name Valerian Johannes Piecynski), an adventurer, inventor and former sailor who was looking for a French-speaking secretary and driver on his expedition to promote world peace.

The captain met Idris in Paris and was so impressed with her sense of adventure that he immediately gave her the stage name Aloha Wanderwell and signed her up.

The pair embarked on a decade-long trip around the globe just a few weeks later and Aloha quickly became the star of the show.

Aloha became a worldwide celebrity as a result of her travels with her husband Captain Wanderwell

Aloha Wanderwell and the captain on a visit to the pyramids of Egypt in the early 1920s

Aloha stands on top of her famous car as it is lifted onto a ship during her tour of Africa in the 1920s

In their first adventure, the duo visited 43 countries on four continents, including the battlefields of France, post-war Germany, Egypt, Palestine, India, East Africa, Indo-China and Siberia, where she was given the title of 'Honorary Colonel' by the Red Army.

On a subsequent tour of the US, Aloha and the captain got married and they went on to have two children, Nile and Valri, but the new arrivals didnt dull their sense of adventure.

They released a documentary about their first world tour that made them famous across the western world. They then followed this up with a second tour, which incorporated the Amazon jungles of Brazil, where their plane crashed.

Aloha Wanderwell smiles for the camera as she poses with her ship's crew during the first world tour

Locals pose for the camera alongside Aloha as she gets a ride on the back of a taxi during her tour

Aloha sits astride an Indian motorcycle as crowds gather around her during an early visit to Europe

After the crash, Aloha befriended the local Bororos tribes and made her second documentary called Flight to the Stone Age Bororos.

Unfortunately, Captain Wanderwell was murdered in 1932 in California, but Aloha continued her travels.

After marrying the cameraman for the next stages of her adventures, Walter Baker, in the early 1930s, she went on tour the world with him for much of her life, making films and writing about her experiences - and the results are displayed in museums across the world.

She passed away in California in 1996 at the age of 90. You can read more about her story here.

Aloha saluting with soldiers in the earlier years of her first world tour with Captain Wanderwell
Passing through immigration at any airport can be a struggle.

When you're jet lagged and a suspicious security agent is firing questions at you designed to find out if you're lying, you're bound to stray into awkward and bizarre conversational territory.

From quizzing passengers on string theory to laughing at their passport photo, travellers have taken to an online forum to share the most interesting questions they've been asked by agents at immigration counters at airports around the world.

Hundreds of Quora members answered the question: 'What is the most interesting question you have been asked at immigration counters at airports?' (file image)

Tourists revealed that in some destinations, such as Israel, airport staff are genuinely trying to determine if fliers are a security risk, which can lead to some harrowing encounters.

But at other airports, such as Canada, travellers are provided with a brief snippet of local humour with off-script attempts by agents to have an ordinary conversation.

Hundreds of Quora members answered the question: 'What is the most interesting question you have been asked at immigration counters at airports?'

Here MailOnline Travel rounds up the highlights.

Funny passport photos

Immigration officials are highly trained to ensure that they don't let fliers into the country if they're pretending to be someone they're not.

But one passenger's unusual passport photo attracted an official's attention in Sydney who asked: 'Is this a real picture? You look like a Martian!'

Josephine Stefani, from London, explained that she had obtained a new passport at an embassy in Madrid and they had printed her photo completely green, leaving her looking like 'the Wicked Witch of the West'.

She wrote: 'Horrified, I told the embassy guys that I couldn't go travelling with a green passport photo... what would people say? All I got in response was something along the lines of: "Eh, our bad. But hey, when you scan your photo it comes out black anyway, so what's the worst that could happen?"'

She recounted the tale to the border control agent who found it hilarious and let her into Australia.

Several fliers had their passport photographs laughed at or commented on by agents

British traveller Thomas Jollans also found himself the butt of the joke at Munich airport. He told the agent he was travelling on an eight-year-old photograph, which saw his younger self sport an eccentric curly hairstyle.

On seeing the image, the bemused officer asked: 'Do you mind if I show this to my colleague?'

Immigration officials also commented on Garrett Bernard's eight-year-old picture. The US traveller was arriving back in the States from Germany.

He said: 'I'd taken my passport photo with some hideous goatee-like thing growing from my chin. I was coming back with a face that was clean-shaven.'

The immigration officer told him 'you look a lot better now'.

Class-room questions

Some travellers recounted baffling exchanges that left them unsure if agents were trying to catch them out or were genuinely interested in having a chat.

Raghav Govid Jha, a PHD student physicist, was asked by a US immigration officer: Do you know anything about string theory?' which was followed with How many dimensions do we live in?

Richard Poppen was travelling to Canada for an academic conference on old English literature. The agent asked him Who wrote Beowulf?, which no one knows.

Falling into the careers category of concern, Mathieu Ahlstrom, who lives in the Netherlands, was asked in the States: Do you like your job?

Confusion over geography

Despite dealing with global travellers on a daily basis not all immigration officials are well-versed in geography, as many fliers can testify.

Chima Emerueh recounted a bizarre exchange when visiting Toronto Pearson from Nigeria.

He was quizzed several times by an increasingly irritated security official on whether he had been to West Africa in the past three months. Each time he replied that he lived in Nigeria, the agent repeated the question. Eventually it emerged that the agent had no idea that Nigeria is in West Africa and wanted to know in case it was afflicted with Ebola. However, she also didnt know which countries were an Ebola risk.

Emerueh explained: Then it hit me that she actually didn't know any of them, and was just reading a script all the while.

One traveller had to ask an agent to google her homeland after they told her it did not exist

Sasha Reptova, meanwhile, received a truly strange statement by an agent at an Iranian airport, who said: 'I am sorry madam, but Slovakia is not in our system. This country does not exist.'

Officers were adamant the country was not real and an annoyed Ms Reptova had to ask them to google it.

At Vancouver airport, flier David Dunsmore was taken aside for an interrogation.

Following many obscure questions an agent thought hed caught him out after he had said hed never been to South America before.

Dunsmore said: His eyes light up because he clearly thinks he's got me busted (for travelling to South America, I guess). He pulls a 10 pataca note out of my wallet left there from a recent trip to Macau and asks "How do I explain that?"'

The agent mistakenly thought the currency was Spanish and had no idea that Macau is in China. Dunsmore explained that Macau is a former Portuguese colony and is still officially bilingual. The agent disappeared, he assumed, to google it.

Sex tourism suspicion

Backpacker Ankhit Pandey revealed a shocking exchange at an airport in Bangkok in which saw an agent asked him: You're here for sex and want to lose your virginity, right?

The agent added: 'Listen young man, I know that your parents have fixed your marriage and you don't like the girl so you're here to fulfil your sexual fantasies.

'But you'll keep coming here every year or so after your marriage and keep making us earn more and more! You'll also attempt to smuggle some gold on your way back!

You're here for sex and want to lose your virginity, isn't it?

The conversation concluded with the agent chuckling and saying he was just joking.

While travelling to the Ukraine, Shaun Clark revealed an agent said: 'You British. Are you rich? Why all you guys come to Ukraine and buy our women? You bring any jewellery or gifts?'

Clark added: Still to this day [I] don't know if it was a shakedown, a social commentary, genuine customs query or someone with issues.

Wardrobe advice

When English passenger Rupert Baines entered Canada in the winter travelling from San Diego, he didnt expect his immigration questioning to be peppered with sartorial advice.

A dead pan, laconic immigration officer asked: "Any drugs? Any weapons? Do you have a better coat?"'

When he replied 'no' the officer said he couldnt let him in.

His incredulity was met with: Only f***ing with you. You can come into the country. But you must buy a coat - I do not want your death on my conscience for letting you in.

An invitation to have a smoke

Travellers can expect a grilling at airports in Israel, as the country has a reputation for its rigorous security procedures, including passenger profiling.

However flier Tatian Estevez was not prepared for the level of aggression she felt she encountered and was already worried about missing her flight when she was hit with a barrage of repetitive questions by a female immigration officer.

She admitted: I burst into tears.

Her tone suddenly changed and she said I should not let this stress me out so much and asked if I wanted to take a break and have a cigarette, we could resume the questioning after.

She said this diffused the tension and she realised it was just role play.

Film chat

Arriving at LAX, Simon Parry was bemused to be asked no security questions at all by his immigration officer.
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From the Isle of Skyes epic landscape to a tightrope walker perched above a rainbow and waterfall in Brazil, this collection of award-winning photographs celebrate everyday beauty across Earth.

More than 500 images taken by shutterbugs from around the world were entered into The Society of International Travel and Tourism Photographers' 'My Voyage of Discovery' competition.

The winning image of a Buddhist monk being paddled across a river in Bangladesh in search of breakfast in the morning mist exudes a calming serenity.

It was captured by local Jewel Chakma, 27, from Rangamati in Bangladesh. She said: 'The photo was taken at Rangkong river.

'The monk goes to collect food from villagers, which we call Pindusoron. This is a system monks use to get fed.'

Other stunning entries that attracted praise from the judges included a vibrant shot of women raking grain in India, which came second, and a train snaking across Glenfinnan Viaduct in Scotland, which took third place.

The winning shot in The Society of International Travel and Tourism Photographers' 'My Voyage of Discovery' competition was taken by Jewel Chakma from Rangamati, Bangladesh. It depicts a Buddhist monk going to collect food from a village in a boat on the Rangkong River. Chakma said: 'The monk goes to collect food from villagers, which we call Pindusoron. This is a system monks use to get fed'

John Massey's shot of the Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye was highly commended. Retired Massey, 64, from Berkshire, said: 'I wanted to get this iconic landmark and was expecting to have to do some walking or climbing to get a decent shot. In fact we stopped the car next to Loch Leathan and I walked back up the hill towards Portree, until I could get some separation between the small island on the Loch and the Loch shoreline'

Somewhere over the rainbow: Seemingly without a care in the world, this man waves as he walks across a tightrope 165 feet high by a Brazilian waterfall. The highly commended picture was by local and outdoors photographer Bruno Graciano at the Cachoeira da Fumaca - 'Waterfall of Smoke' - in Nova Ponte. Bruno said: 'I took the shot in the afternoon as my friend Reginaldo Gomes was crossing. The mist created by the water droplets shaped a really good rainbow over Reginaldo. It was a magical shot. What fascinated me most was the link between the highline and nature'

This vibrant shot of women raking grain by Rahul Saha from Santipur, India, came second in the competition

Scotland's beautiful scenery is the backdrop to the third-place picture - of a train crossing the Glenfinnan Viaduct in Inverness-shire. Professional photographer Vytenis Malisaukas, 40, a Lithuanian who has lived in Cork in Ireland for the last decade, said: 'It was the perfect shot with the steam train crossing the bridge and so I could not resist capturing the moment'

This fisherman casting his net at Lake Inle, Myanmar, made a colourful highly commended shot for Italian Sara Bianchi. The 43-year-old phone worker said: 'This fishing technique was such an amazing scene to see. Burmese fishermen practice the technique of rowing their boats using their feet, balancing on one leg, wrapping their second leg around the oar and guiding the small boat through the lake. This helps to keep both hands free to handle the cumbersome nets. This difficult skill is learned by the fishermen from a very young age. When I saw a frame like this I didn't hesitate in pushing the button and getting the picture'

An Icelandic road trip with friends yielded a highly commended shot for German snapper Daniel Gerbeth, 27, a research engineer for the German Aerospace Centre based in Munich. He said: 'The picture shows parts of the Krafla volcanic area in north-eastern Iceland. This area is still active, which also leads to the steam, blurring parts of the picture where it flows out of cracks in the ground. I really like the composition of this place, catching a lot of aspects of Iceland such as rocks, stony ground, the steam, volcanic activity and the vast undisturbed landscape'

Retha Ida Tahir, who lives in Singapore, captured an Indonesian tea plantation in Rancabali, Java, which almost looks like a maze. The digital marketing consultant said: 'It was a bright sunny morning where the tea plantation looked like maze. A friend of mine in a red shirt was in there. My eyes and imagination caught that maze-moment and I took the shot'. This image was highly commended

John Quinn was highly commended for his picture of a Mongolian boy and his horse. Talking of the 530 entries Phil Jones, the Society's CEO, said: 'Photographers were asked to submit images from anything on their travels. Entries came from beautiful vistas and stunning city-scapes to traditional village life'

Everyday beauty: This striking night scene of a Korean Street food stall was highly commended in the competition. Kaegan Saenz, a 27-year-old-teacher from Seoul in South Korea, took the picture on his way home from work. He said: 'Street food is very popular in the city and I wanted to capture the spirit of these food carts and the owners who run them'
She's the former reality TV star who has fallen on hard times in recent years.

Now Reggie Sorensen (nee Bird) has embodied the true meaning of Christmas and donated $10,000 gifted to her after an interview with A Current Affair last month.

The Gold Coast resident revealed her generous gesture to Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in South Brisbane on Twitter on Sunday.

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Blessing: Former Big Brother star Reggie Sorensen (nee Bird) has embodied the true meaning of Christmas and donated $10,000 to Lady Cilento Children's Hospital

Christmas spirit: The Gold Coast resident revealed her generous gesture on Twitter

The ex-Big Brother star shared photos of her with the sizable cheque and with staff from the hospital's cystic fibrosis ward, where her son Lucas goes.

A spokesman for Channel 9 confirmed to Daily Mail Australia the donation was given to her by an ACA viewer following the TV interview.

The segment saw Reggie reveal her seven-year-old son's struggles with cystic fibrosis and how she isn't eligible for a carers allowance, as she's already on the disability pension for her own retinal pigmentation condition.

Big hearts: A spokesman for Channel 9 has confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that Reggie received a $10,000 gift from an ACA viewer following her TV interview

Paying it forward: However Reggie generously passed on the money to a worthy cause

She only has 10 degrees of sight left and will likely go blind within the next two years.

'I hope he will live for a while but you just don't know when he's going to go... it's not fair,' the mother of two said of her son's health.

Despite her own predicament, the brave winner of Big Brother in 2003 decided to be as generous as her original donor and give up the money.

Winner: Reggie won Big Brother Australia back in 2003

'It was donated to me but I payed (sic) it forward,' she revealed on Twitter.

After being asked if she knew the identity of the donor, she confirmed it was Gold Coast real estate agent Les Corby.

'He got in touch after seeing my interview,' she tweeted with a picture of Les and herself holding the original cheque.

Gift giver: After being asked if she knew the identity of the donor, she confirmed it was Gold Coast real estate agent Les Corby

'He sells real estate and donated his last commission,' she explained.

Channel 10 presenter Angela Bishop then tweeted her support with, 'What an amazing thing to do.'

'Thanks Angela, it's going to help the kids with new machines and nebulisers to try and breathe a little better,' Reggie replied.
She's rarely been bashful and is known for her outspoken ways.

But Jennifer Lawrence couldn't stop blushing during a game of 'Plead The Fifth' while she visited Watch What Happens Live on Monday night.

The 26-year-old actress turned bright red when asked by Vanderpump Rules star Stassi Schroeder to reveal her best kiss of 2016 to which she answered: 'Um, well I cant say!'

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Shy: Jennifer Lawrence couldn't stop blushing during a game of 'Plead The Fifth' while she visited Watch What Happens Live on Monday night

The Academy Award winner tried to distract from the question and coyly followed up with, 'If you kiss me before the new year, itll be you, Stassi!'

Host Andy Cohen, 48, relieved the Hunger Games star and asked: 'Do you want to plead the fifth?'

'Oh, yeah! Plead the fifth! I forgot I could do that!' Jennifer exclaimed with a sigh of relief before she picked up her drink and took a huge sip.

Kiss and tell! The 26-year-old actress turned bright red when asked by Vanderpump Rules star Stassi Schroeder to reveal her best kiss of 2016

Bashful! The Hunger Games star turned bright red and refused to answer as she simply stated: 'Um, well I can't say!'

The American Hustle starlet has most recently been romantically linked to Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky.

She was spotted sharing a kiss with the 47-year-old, who has a 10-year-old son with actress Rachel Weisz, in NYC last month.

The blonde beauty did confess during the segment that her favourite Hunger Games movie was the first and the third was 'probably the worst.'

'Oh yeah!': Host Andy Cohen, 48, relieved the Hunger Games star and asked: 'Do you want to plead the fifth?'

Meanwhile, the Silver Linings Playbook beauty's best friend of nine years Laura Simpson was behind the bar.

Andy roped her into a game called 'Shush Your BFF Lush' in which Jennifer's bestie had to either answer a question about the star or drink.

Laura was asked to reveal without naming names the meanest thing Jennifer has said about a celebrity.

Bartender bestie! The Silver Linings Playbook beauty's best friend of nine years Laura Simpson was behind the bar

Tight-lipped! Andy roped her into a game called 'Shush Your BFF Lush' in which Jennifer's bestie had to either answer a question about the star or drink

'There's Pickle': Laura was asked to reveal without naming names the meanest thing Jennifer has said about a celebrity

'There's a lot of nicknames for certain celebrities. There's The Lady, there's Pickle,' Laura revealed.

Jennifer added: 'The Lady has different variations. There's the Raging Lady, the Lady In Red, the Lady In Waiting.'

The Vanderpump Rules superfan also gave the show's reality star James Kennedy a verbal slam-down, calling him an 'entitled, worthless little creep.'

'Disrespectful': The Vanderpump Rules superfan also gave the show's reality star James Kennedy a verbal slam-down, calling him an 'entitled, worthless little creep'

Sipping a cocktail she voiced her opinions on the 24-year-old British DJ who was recently fired from Lisa Vanderpump's restaurant Sur on the show for bad behavior.

'I have a serious reaction to entitled, worthless little creeps, especially ones who are disrespectful to Lisa Vanderpump,' she laughed.

'I want him off the planet,' Jennifer announced, waving her hand dismissively.
They've been flaunting their new romance in recent months.

And now The Bachelor's first lesbian couple, Megan Marx and Tiffany Scanlon, have posed for a TOPLESS photo shoot in Maxim Australia.

On the cover of the magazine, which goes on sale Thursday, the reality TV stars leave very little to the imagination.

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Daring to bare! The Bachelor's first lesbian couple, Megan Marx (L) and Tiffany Scanlon (R), have posed for a TOPLESS photo shoot in Maxim Australia

Megan and Tiffany, who met on The Bachelor earlier this year, have also been awarded Maxim's Couple of the Year.

On the cover, the lovebirds pose topless, with their long platinum blonde hair barely covering their modesty.

They look suitably glamourous in full make-up, including eyelash extensions and bright red lipstick.

If you've got it! In one shot, the pair hold hands as they walk around topless

Raunchy: The girls are also seen in black bikinis

Role models: Megan and Tiffany, who met on The Bachelor earlier this year, have also been awarded Maxim's Couple of the Year

The genetically-blessed pair, who are based in Western Australia, also told the lads' mag what they love about each another.

Megan gushed about her girlfriend's 'adventurous side', and also said how much she loved her very shapely derriere.

They were also quizzed about what men should know about women, with Tiffany having a suggestive answer.

'Obviously her arse!' Megan, who is based in Western Australia, also told the publication what she admired about her girlfriend Tiffany

'Women have many erogenous zones,' Tiffany said. 'Explore them all!'

The couple also defended their relationship against false rumours it is a 'showmance' to gain public notoriety.

'It just makes me sad that we live in such a cynical world where a lot of people choose to believe it is a lie rather than having trust and faith in that it is the truth,' Tiffany said.

They also confirmed plans to move in together, but kept the location under wraps.

It's getting serious: During their Maxim interview, Megan and Tiffany confirmed plans to move in together, but kept the location under wraps

'It makes me sad': The couple also defended their relationship against false rumours it is a 'showmance' to gain public notoriety

Megan and Tiffany confirmed their romance at the Maxim Hot 100 party in Sydney earlier this year.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Tiffany confessed that the pair fell in love during a holiday in Bali, Indonesia in June.

'While we were in the show, it was just a friendship. It probably wasn't until we were in Bali together that it was like ''Oh, this is more'',' said Tiffany.
Sam Wood, Snezana Markoski and her 10-year-old daughter Eve moved into a new home in July and now they're celebrating their first Christmas as a family.

This week, the Bachelor couple both shared adorable images of Eve and Snez decorating their Christmas tree on Instagram.

In one of the images, the mother and daughter duo looked overjoyed as they posed in Santa hats and festive jumpers by an elaborately decorated tree.

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Family time: Sam Wood, Snezana Markoski and Snez's 10-year-old daughter Eve are preparing to celebrate their first Christmas as a family in their Melbourne home

'Is it too late to get on Santa's nice list?' the 36-year old mum joked in her caption.

Her personal trainer beau had earlier posted his own image to Instagram, showing the girls at the beginning stages of decorating the pine tree.

'And so it begins. My girls have started decorating this beauty,' Sam gushed, jokingly adding the hashtag, #goingtobealongnight.

Making memories: Over the last week, both Sam and Snezana have shared adorable images of of the young family decorating their Christmas tree on Instagram

Doggone it! The family pooch, Hendrix, also got in on the action, with Sam posting a photo of the unhappy brown pup wearing a Santa hat with caption, 'No comment required'

The family dog, Hendrix, also had a special mention in on the action, with Sam posting a photo of the unhappy pup wearing a Santa hat with caption, 'No comment required.'

The former Bachelor has bonded with Snezana's daughter, posting a photo to Instagram of the pair donning face masks and cucumber slices on their eyes for a beauty sesh.

'Friday night feels with my little partner in crime,' he captioned the pic, making it clear that the new family are getting on swimmingly.

Bonding: Sam is getting into the Christmas spirit with Snezana's 10-year-old daughter Eve

One of the girls: Last week he shared an image of himself and the 10-year-old getting a facial, with the caption: 'Friday night feels with my little partner in crime'

Sam and Snezana purchased their first home in January, a $1.4million, three-bedroom house in Melbourne.

It took the threesome six months to finally move in as they had been waiting for a good moment in order not to disrupt Eve's schooling.

The mother-of-one had been living Perth while her gym-owner boyfriend was based in Melbourne.
She welcomed their second son Forest Sage last week.

And on Wednesday, Teresa Palmer continued on with the celebrations by posting a gushing tribute for husband Mark Webber on Instagram.

'I love doing life with you,' the 30-year-old captioned a picture collage, as the actress marked the couple's third wedding anniversary.

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'I love doing life with you': Teresa Palmer took to Instagram on Wednesday, posting a gushing tribute for husband Mark Webber, as the couple celebrate their third wedding anniversary

'3 years of marriage and 2 kids later, with endless adventures, highs, lows and in betweens,' Teresa began the caption.

'There is still no one in the world I would rather be sleepy with, change nappies with, laugh with, argue with, boardgame with and have these beautiful babies with!

'My heart, my love, my partner, thank you for knowing my user manual so well, I love doing life with you. To many more years of big dreaming and going deeper,' she continued.

The gushing comments went alongside a collage of images that saw Teresa embracing her screenwriter husband, who was also seen cradling their sons Bodhi Rain, two, and newborn Forest Sage.

'Unfair pressure on mothers': It came after the Hacksaw Ridge star revealed why she won't speak about her post-baby weight loss

Meanwhile, Mark also took to social media, sharing a shot of the couple at an event some time ago, with the father of three groping his wife's upper thigh.

Captioning the loved up shot, the director wrote: '3 years of the realest, most potent intimacy I've ever experienced in my life.

'Here's to getting fat and bald and sitting around with you watching our grandkids play.

'Happy anniversary to my one and only, my heart, my best friend,' he wrote.

'Something that really shouldnt be focused on': The actress suggested it is a happy moment and mothers shouldn't dwell on their weight as they connect with their newborns

The sweet post comes after Teresa stated in her first Your Zen Mama blog since welcoming Forest, that she won't be addressing her 'post-baby weight loss.'

In the upload, the Hacksaw Ridge star made it known to her fans that she would not add to the already 'unfair pressure on mother's to lose baby weight.'

The post was uploaded seven days after the birth and detailed her challenging, nurturing and reflective moments thus far.

Accompanying the post was a series of stunning snaps taken by friend and photographer Gemma Peanut.

Teresa gave numerous reasons as to why her Instagram snaps and extensive postpartum blogs won't have a weight focus.

'I think its something that really shouldnt be focused on as we embark on connecting with our babies,' she wrote.

The popular personality went on to say that every woman's body is different, reminding her readers that they shouldn't compare their rate of weight loss to others.

Teresa put it into perspective: 'We must be gentle with ourselves and remember how miraculous bringing a life in to the world is and how phenomenal our bodies are for having birthed these babies however theyve decided to come earth side.'

While she will steer clear of touching on her weight, she did reveal she has been wearing a Belly Bandit daily, which supports and hugs at her stomach.

'How phenomenal our bodies are': Teresa made mention of how every woman's body and baby are different and thus their journey to their new bodies should not be compared to others

She announced: 'I'll slowly start work on building my core back up about six weeks post birth.'

In the lengthy update she also praised the week as being the happiest of her entire life, with her mother, husband Mark Webber and two-year-old son Bodhi Rain by her side in their Adelaide home.

Mark revealed the name for their unborn child earlier this year, sharing a snap on social media of a patch of sand where he had written his three son's names.

Unveiling: Mark revealed the name for their unborn child earlier this year as he shared an image on social media of a patch of sand with the names Bodhi, Isaac and Forest

Meanwhile, Teresa took to Instagram last Tuesday to announce the birth of her precious son Forest Sage Palmer, with a sweet picture taken by photographer Gemma Peanut.

'Our sweet littlest love is here. Forest Sage Palmer was born yesterday in Adelaide [South Australia] on 12/12 at 12:18pm,' she revealed.

Teresa went into detail about the arrival, explaining he weighed 8lb 4oz [3.8 kilograms] and was 20 inches long.

'Our sweet littlest love is here': Teresa and husband Mark both took to Instagram last Tuesday to announce the arrival of their newborn boy, with his big brother Bodhi Rain nearby

Mark soon after posted to his account: 'Our new sweet little boy is here. Forest Sage, born on 12/12, just after 12pm. We're in bliss. Thanks for all the love and well wishes, we love you too.'

Earlier in the year, Teresa revealed she would be relocating to Australia from the U.S to give birth to her son.

Teresa and Mark met in 2012 and married in Mexico in 2013 while she was pregnant with their first child, Bodhi Rain.
They clearly enjoy each others company.

Model friends Stella Maxwell, 26, and Irina Shayk, 30, took a break from their runway duties on Tuesday to do a little shopping in Beverly Hills.

The duo appeared to be in good spirits as they strolled along Rodeo Drive arm-in-arm showing off their slender pins.

Model friends: Stella Maxwell and Irina Shayk took a break from their runway duties on Tuesday to do a little shopping in Beverly Hills

Stella looked chic in black leather high-rise pants and a black top, which she paired with a short black suede jacket and black ankle boots.

She wore her long blonde hair in loose waves, parted romantically to the side and appeared to wear very little makeup on her naturally pretty face.

Irina complemented her famous friend, showing off her equally long legs in thigh-high black boots and an olive green sweatshirt dress that barely covered her torso.

Lots to discuss: The duo appeared to be in good spirits as they strolled along Rodeo Drive arm-in-arm showing off their slender pins

Baby bump? Irina covered any signs of a baby bump, as she's rumored to be expecting with boyfriend Bradley Cooper

Her loose dress covered any signs of a baby bump, as she's rumored to be expecting with boyfriend Bradley Cooper.

Earlier this month, the Victoria Secret angel was spotted with what looked like an engagement ring on her finger.

The stunning emerald-and-diamond ring has already been compared to Princess Kates heirloom sapphire from Prince William.

Are they engaged? Earlier this month, the Victoria Secret angel was spotted with what looked like an engagement ring on her finger

Is she expecting? The model looked svelte in a recent photo she posted to Instagram on Tuesday, showing no signs of any bump

The Russian-born beauty has been dating the A-list actor since 2015.

Neither Irina nor Bradley has yet commented on the pregnancy reports.

For her part, Stella has been busy visiting Kristen Stewart in Georgia on the set of her new film.

Romance rumors: Stella has been busy visiting Kristen Stewart in Georgia on the set of her new film, reigniting rumors the two are involved

The two fueled romance rumors as they have been seen hanging out on multiple occasions.

Talk of a possible love connection was first sparked when the duo appeared to be inseparable when inside the Met Gala earlier this year and were later seen leaving an after party in the same car.
Paul O'Grady's Favourite Fairy Tales (BBC1)

Rating:

Looking For Margot (ITV)

Rating:

A glance at the telly schedules appeared to make no sense. Where was the logic in screening Paul OGradys Favourite Fairy Tales (ITV), surely a treat for under-10s and the grannies who love cheeky Paul, after the watershed?

Before he had finished retelling the first classic story, Cinderella, we had the answer. OGrady was dragged up to the eyebrows as the Wicked Stepmother, which was very much expected.

He was also doused in gore, blood dripping from his meat cleaver, as he butchered the Ugly Sisters feet and threw their toes to the dog. You wont see that ending in the Disney version.

Where was the logic in screening Paul OGradys Favourite Fairy Tales (ITV), surely a treat for under-10s and the grannies who love cheeky Paul, after the watershed? We soon found out

In their originals, childrens fairy tales are a grisly business. According to OGrady, the wolf in Red Riding Hood was a sexual predator, lurking in the woods to rape and murder girls who strayed.

And when Prince Charming discovered his Sleeping Beauty, he didnt merely wake her with a kiss  he got her pregnant.

Theres a macabre fascination in the historical and psychological roots of folk tales. Some of them have been passed down for thousands of years: they are older than the written word.

Think how quickly real history is forgotten. For these stories to have survived so long, they must contain something so powerful it is almost magic.

After his bloody beginning, OGrady seemed in danger of getting distracted by sightseeing. He was in Bavaria, where the Brothers Grimm collected most of their folklore, and the medieval streets and romantic castles were entrancing him.

Think how quickly real history is forgotten. For these stories to have survived so long, they must contain something so powerful it is almost magic

According to OGrady, the wolf in Red Riding Hood was a sexual predator, lurking in the woods to rape and murder girls who strayed

He tried his hand at archery with plastic targets of deer and wild boar, and dined on spider legs and rat ears at a boutique restaurant in a dungeon. This was the sort of guff that serves as filler on the Holiday Programme.

But when he investigated the Snow White story, he discovered some fascinating facts, the sort of never-knew-that surprises that will keep you supplied with party chit-chat for the whole holiday season.

The real Snow White was a German noblemans daughter called Margarete von Waldeck, who was born in mining country in 1533. When she was 15, she was so beautiful that her jealous stepmother banished her  not to a forest, but to Brussels, where she met and captured the heart of the young heir to the Spanish throne.

Their romance was cut short when Margarete died suddenly ... many said poisoned. The prince became King Philip II of Spain and later sent the Armada to invade England.

So what of the Seven Dwarfs? The Waldeck family fortune came from its mines, where children as young as eight were sent to dig for gold and silver.

Living in the darkness stunted their growth, and by the time they were 20 they were stooped and wizened, with long beards. They even wore pointed cloth caps, stuffed with wool, for safety helmets.

And when Prince Charming discovered his Sleeping Beauty, he didnt merely wake her with a kiss  he got her pregnant.

So what of the Seven Dwarfs? The Waldeck family fortune came from its mines, where children as young as eight were sent to dig for gold and silve

Any show that contains this much amazing information is well worth an hour. But even Paul with his meat cleaver was no match for the astonishing tale that Darcey Bussell had in store, in a superb tribute to her ballerina heroine, Dame Margot Fonteyn.

Though it is 25 years since her death, Dame Margot is still the worlds most famous ballet star, legendary for her electrifying duets with the Russian tearaway Rudolf Nureyev.

Looking For Margot (BBC1) revealed that she danced until far too late in life, forced to keep performing to pay the bills, and that although she was adored by millions she never found happiness in love.

Looking For Margot (BBC1) revealed that she danced until far too late in life, forced to keep performing to pay the bills, and that although she was adored by millions she never found happiness in love

The grandees were happy to see her pack houses with her Dying Swan, slightly less delighted to see her storming the beaches like Che Guevara in a tutu

None of that is a shock. Nobody who was happy could have danced with such yearning.

But the mess that love made of her life defied belief. She was dragged into a Central American revolution, led by the wastrel and philanderer who had captured her heart at 17. At the height of her fame in the late Fifties, Dame Margot was arrested and flung into jail, after an armed invasion of Panama was launched from her yacht.
J .E. Dennis, well known merchant and Democrat of Downing, has been nominated by President Wilson as postmaster at that place.

 Thursday, Dec. 21, 1916

When Mr. Dennis took his new charge it was like embracing an old acquaintance for he served as postmaster of Downing during Clevelands second administration in the nineties. The office was advanced to the presidential appointive class Oct. 1, 1916, carrying a salary of $1,200 a year. In addition, Mr. Dennis had a record of 14 consecutive years service as treasure of the town of Tiffany and had been treasurer of Downing village since 1907.

Mr. Dennis, a native of New York state came to Wisconsin in 1860 with his parents, who settled in the eastern part of the state. He had been a resident of Dunn county since 1891, in which year he came from Milwaukee as bookkeeper for the Downing Manufacturing company and later has buyer and manager of their department store.

Sunday, Dec. 20, 2015

The University of Wisconsin-Stout department of military science held its fall commissioning ceremony for Army ROTC cadets in the Northwoods Battalion on Saturday. The ceremony was held in the Crystal Ballroom of the Memorial Student Center at UW-Stout. UW-Stout, UW-Eau Claire and UW-River Falls comprise the Northwoods Battalion in northern Wisconsin. ROTC stands for Reserve Officers Training Corps.

The commissioned cadets were UW-Stout students Jeffrey Hilgendorf, of Tomahawk; Emily Huro, of Menomonie; and Daniel McGlew, of New Lisbon. The guest speaker was Col. Julie Gerety, the Wisconsin Army National Guard director of Domestic Operations. The three students also graduated with bachelors degrees on SaturdayHilgendorf in engineering technology, Huro in business administration and McGlew in health, wealth, and fitness.

Wednesday, Dec. 18, 1991

This is a day of celebration because you won, declared Gov. Tommy Thompson last Saturday afternoon when he delivered a $749,500 check to the City of Menomonie. Although the check was made payable to the city, Dunn County, too, will benefit because a portion of the funds will be used to help fund a road network surrounding Wal-Marts planned new distribution center that will be located on the west side of CTH B.

Gov. Thompson noted that Wisconsin battled several states  principally Minnesotabefore the decision was made to locate the distribution center here. Some 50 persons representing city and county governments, the Greater Menomonie Are Chamber of Commerce and several economic development agencies witnessed the presentation.

Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1966

Negotiations between county representatives and Dunn County Hospital employees, Local 1742, on a 1967 work agreement continued Thursday afternoon and following the session, Eugene Doyle, representing the employees, said he would present the proposal to union membership for consideration. Basically, the session concerned hours and wages. Employees are seeking a shorter work week at the same take home pay. The county, represented by the supervisory and personnel committee and hospital trustees, offered to reduce the work period for all hospital personnel from the present 96 hours over a two-week span to 84 hours while the union sought an 80 hour period for two weeks.

Employees assigned to agriculture duty would work 114 hours for each two-week period, according to the proposal. Hours an agricultural worker now works varies, depending upon the occupation, but they work more than 114 hours during each two-week period, according to Superintendent Elliot Crego. The standard work day, according to the proposal that is being studied, would be 8 1/4 hours for employees within the institution and attendants would be required to report 15 minutes prior to his normal shift time.

Wednesday, Dec. 17, 1941

Quotas by municipalities for the Dunn County war relief fund of $3,200 that is to be raised here, are announced by the board of directors of the county Red Cross chapter, states Will G. Ballentine, chairman. The campaign has already started in Menomonie and in some parts of the rural areas and the response has been prompt and generous, Chairman Ballentine said. The campaign in the county has not been completely planned, and there are to be made some changes in workers.

In most cases, the same workers who carried on the drive for Red Cross memberships will cover their communities for money to be used to meet the war relief quota. It is hoped that the county organization will be completed before the end of the week and that all workers will be busy next week to bring the campaign to an early close and meet the $5,200 quota assigned by national Red Cross headquarters.

Thursday, Dec. 21, 1916

With almost 300 birds entered in competition, the ninth annual exhibition of the Northwestern Wisconsin State Poultry association, which closed at Co. H armory Friday after a four days run, was the largest and most successful of any show ever held in this city, both from better poultry and financial stand points. Mrs. Frank G. Govin of Elk Mound almost repeated her performance of the last show when she took all six of the cups that were offered as prizes. This year she carried away five of the six cups with her Silver spangled Hamburgs, A. H. Ahrens of Eau Claire took the other cup with his high scoring cock bird of the Rose Comb Rhode Island Red variety.

J .E. Dennis, well known merchant and Democrat of Downing, has been nominated by President Wilson as postmaster at that place. He will succeed E. F. Stoddard, who has held the position for 13 years. Mr. Dennis has been prominently identified with the Democratic party for many years. He served as assemblyman in the Wisconsin legislature in 1885-1886, before he came to Dunn county. He was for ten years assistant postmaster and postmaster at Glenbeaulah.

Friday, Dec. 18, 1891

One of the best signs of the times is that the people are paying their debts. The records of the register of deeds office shows that from Oct. 1, 1891, to Dec. 15, 1891, mortgages have been satisfied to the amount of $36,471.12. A large amount of chattel mortgage indebtedness has also been paid. The operation of the McKinley bill and its reciprocity features is fast demonstrating its value in the revival of all branches of industry, and there is every indication that the prosperity will be greatly increased in the year to come.

The main shaft that operates the dynamos of the K.S. & Co. Companys electric plant broke last Saturday, and residences and business houses that depended upon electric lights for illumination were caves of gloom until Tuesday, at which time the broken machinery was repaired.

The store building on Main Street, owned by Fred Ursinus, was sold at sheriffs sale, Tuesday, for $1,400. Bernhard H. Eiring of Milwaukee was the purchaser. The property is worth at least $3,000.

Saturday, Dec. 22, 1866

Last week the reader saw posters all about town, headed Lost, Lost! We are now happy to say found, found. The professor had no wife to see that his clothes were properly on before starting out on calls, and the result was that he left his coat at home, and because his instruments were not in his vest or his shirt, he concluded they were lost. He paid us well for the posters. So far so good. A Guardian (wife) is what he needs. Also, a few days after the above occurrence, that same careless man without a wife, lost his wallet. An honest man (a Norwegian) found it and returned it safely. To the credit of the Norwegians, it must be said that this is the second wallet with money, found and returned by that honest man. Some Yankee must have found the $50 lost by Mr. Hunt.
There's just three days left until Christmas.

And Patti Newton has revealed on Wednesday, she's back to square one with her shopping despite trying to be organised in advance this year.

Speaking on Today Extra, the Australian showbiz legend and grandmother-of-four revealed she had all of her gifts sorted before her car was robbed of them all.

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Back to square one: Patti Newton has revealed on Wednesday, she's back to square one with her Christmas shopping , after her car was robbed of all her gifts for her family this year

'I had everything but never mind, it's Christmas and, look, someone is going to really enjoy those gifts that I chose,' the 71-year-old noted, remaining upbeat despite the setback.

Speaking about the unfortunate incident, the Westfield ambassador joked: 'Part of the deal is we're trying to take the stress out of Christmas, us 'Nanna Squad', and one of the things you have to do is you have to shop early,'

'...But what I forgot to mention is you don't put them in the boot of your car just in case your car is broken into and they take the lot,' Patti said tongue-in-cheek.

She told co-hosts David Campbell and Sonia Kruger she will now spend Christmas Eve wrapping her new lot of presents for her family.

Last minute rush: The 71-year-old (right) told co-hosts David Campbell (left) and Sonia Kruger (centre) she will now spend Christmas Eve wrapping her new lot of presents for her family

Back to the toy section! Patti had picked out and already wrapped a range of presents for her husband, children and four grandchildren (Pictured with her husband Bert and grandchildren)

The performer was robbed last Thursday and noticed something wasn't right after she hopped into her car in Melbourne, she told 3AW radio.

'I thought "gee my car is a bit messy, I never leave my car like that"

'Then I remembered  I did all my shopping, wrapped it, put it in the boot, put them in bags and when I went to the boot there was nothing there,' she said.

Back to the beginning: Thieves stole Christmas gifts from Bert and Patti Newton's car last Thursday

Among the haul the thieves got away with, was a jacket, a pair of trousers and three shirts which she was going to gift to her children, grandchildren and husband Bert.

Her perfume, sunglasses and E-tag were also taken but Patti noted that at least nobody was hurt.

'You've got to take the good with the bad I guess,' she said.

Playing Santa! Christmas might not be so cheery at the Newton home this year (Bert Newton pictured as Santa in 2014 for the Grease musical)

In 2008, her bag with cash and jewellery worth $150,000 was snatched from Chadstone shopping centre.

Victoria Police on Monday said the Christmas and New Year period was particularly bad for theft.

But the Newton family matriarch appears to have remained positive and is now just looking forward to spending the holiday together with her family.

No word on whether the couple's actor son, Matt Newton, will join in the family festivities in Melbourne this Christmas with his new fiance 23-year-old American Catherine Schneiderman.
As Christmas cheer spreads about, Bethenny Frankel's found a way to expedite it.

Her Snapchat Story on Tuesday saw her surrounded by friends in her kitchen, near a colossal slab of ice carved into the shape of a Skinnygirl bottle.

The woman who founded the cocktail company in 2011 introduced the item as 'a Skinnygirl luge - which I always feel it's weird to say that word - but it's a Skinnygirl ice sculpture shot machine.'

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Slippery slope: Bethenny Frankel's Snapchat Story on Tuesday saw her stood next to what she described as as 'a Skinnygirl luge - which I always feel it's weird to say that word - but it's a Skinnygirl ice sculpture shot machine'

Upon closer inspection of it, there was, indeed, a long and slender transparent tube winding its way down the interior of the bottle.

That tube wound up culminating in a small spout that protruded out one side of the simulacrum bottle, right near its base.

As her Snapchat Story continued, the 46-year-old put her own mouth to the spout as a friend poured liquor into the top of the sculpture.

Christmas cheer: As her Snapchat Story continued, the 46-year-old put her own mouth to the spout as a friend poured liquor into the top of the sculpture

Frankel had slipped into a V-neck grey jumper that accented her enviably svelte figure, as well as tight dark jeans folded neatly up at the hems.

The Real Housewife Of New York had spent the earlier bit of her Story enjoying a photo-shoot with her bedraggled 16-year-old dog Cookie.

Before the actual photography started, she cooed at the mutt: 'We're doing a photo-shoot and they want you included.'

Her voice jumped a key as she squealed: 'Yes, oh, they're speaking your language! Where'd you go? Get into hair and makeup. Go ahead.'

Bosom buddies: The Real Housewife Of New York had spent the earlier bit of her Story enjoying a photo-shoot with her bedraggled 16-year-old dog Cookie

Effortless style: Frankel had slipped into a V-neck grey jumper that accented her enviably svelte figure, as well as tight dark jeans folded neatly up at the hems

Carrying her to the couch where the photo-shoot was due to take place, she spent a bit of time singing to her pet.

Nestling among the multicoloured and intermittently fuzzy cushions strewn about her off-white sofa, she stroked Cookie lovingly.

At one point, she acknowledged just how old her canine pal was, saying: 'I just want her to be alive after the New Year as well. My only goal for this year is that.'

At another, she became so overwhelmed with affection for the animal that she planted a kiss on Cookie's head, only to fret: 'Oh, now you have lipstick all over your hair again.'

The 16-year-old puppy: At one point, she acknowledged just how old her canine pal was, saying: 'I just want her to be alive after the New Year as well. My only goal for this year is that'
She's preparing to tie the knot with her fiance DJ Ruckus.

And Shanina Shaik is making sure to stay in top model shape, by working up a sweat in the gym and sharing a short clip of the workout on Instagram.

The 25-year-old former Victoria's Secret model flaunted her incredible figure in black leggings and a grey crop top.

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Working hard! Shanina Shaik is making sure to stay in top model shape, by working up a sweat in the gym and sharing a short clip of the workout on Instagram

She has her dark locks tied up in a half up and half down style and captioned the video: 'no days off' and adding the hash-tag: 'always in the gym.'

Going completely makeup free, the New York-based beauty could be seen doing a variety of exercises including the plank, lunges with weights and leg lifts using resistance bands.

The brunette is set to walk down the aisle and marry her man DJ Ruckus, whose real name is Greg Andrews, it's believed in the coming weeks.

Sweat it out! Going completely makeup free, the New York-based beauty could be seen doing a variety of exercises including the plank

Shredding for the wedding? The brunette is preparing to tie the knot with her man DJ Ruckus, whose real name is Greg Andrews

The pair became engaged last December while holidaying in the Bahamas.

Shanina hinted their wedding was imminent on Instagram, commenting underneath one of her man's snaps of her: 'Soon Mrs. Andrews hehe.'

DJ Ruckus also commented underneath: 'Bout (sic) to change that last name! Lol!'

The Australian-born beauty - who is of Lithuanian, Pakistani and Saudi Arabian heritage - has previously told Daily Mail Australia the pair will be having a 'location wedding.'

Hot to trot: Shanina is known for her flawless bikini body

Wedding bells? Shanina hinted their wedding was imminent on Instagram, commenting underneath one of her man's snaps of her: 'Soon Mrs. Andrews hehe'

'We agreed it's going to be a location wedding,' Shanina said.

'Were definitely going to have a long engagement and enjoy our time and then Im very easy going,' she explained.

She added: 'We are just very "go with the flow" but its definitely going to be a beach. I love the beach'.

In terms of her dress, she said it will be beach appropriate.

'I dont like the big, puffy dress,' she said.

'Its at the beach so it might be a bit hot too so theres a lot of factors that come into it.'
She's the Spanish actress married to Chris Hemsworth.

Elsa Pataky looked simply radiant without make-up, as she was spotted heading to lunch in West Hollywood on Tuesday.

The 40-year-old beauty perfected the boho chic look in a tribal cape and pair of ripped skinny jeans.

Simply radiant! Make-up free Elsa Pataky, 40, perfected the boho look in a cape and skinny leg jeans as she was spotted heading to lunch with a friend in West Hollywood on Tuesday

Elsa cut a casual figure in a simple black sweater and khaki top underneath, teamed with a pair of skinny jeans, ripped at the knees.

A thick beige and black tribal-style cape covered most of the star's petite frame.

Showing off her penchant for style, Elsa added a pair of coordinating sneakers and layers of beaded jewellery to finish off the look.

Effortless: Showing off her natural beauty, Elsa swept her fair tresses into a chignon, and opted to go make-up free for the friendly trip

Ensuring she was light on her feet, most of the mother-of-three's belongings were held in a stylish handbag with fringe detailing.

Showing off her natural beauty, Elsa swept her fair tresses into an effortless chignon, and opted to go make-up free.

Appearing to multi-task, the Furious 7 star was seen chatting on the phone as she entered the Gracias Madre restaurant.

Couple: Elsa and husband Chris Hemsworth, 33, are currently in the US filming a new project. They normally live in Byron Bay, NSW

Growing brood: The famous couple share three children - daughter India Rose, four, and two-year-old twin sons Tristan and Sasha

Noticeably absent was husband Chris Hemsworth, 33, who is believed to be filming.

Chris and Elsa are currently in LA, filming the real-life war drama Horse Soldiers, centering around CIA agents going into Afghanistan after 9/11.

It would appear Elsa, who married Chris in 2010 after dating for several months, is playing Chris' love interest in the upcoming film.

Filming together: Elsa recently shared a behind-the-scenes photo of her and Chris in bed together, writing on Instagram: 'Shooting with my on and off screen love'

She recently shared a behind-the-scenes photo of the couple in a bed together, writing on Instagram: 'Shooting with my on and off screen love'.

The pair are based in Byron Bay, where they have a beachside mansion.

Chris and Elsa share four-year-old daughter India Rose, and twin sons Tristan and Sasha, two.
Alec Baldwin revealed how much he makes for his critically acclaimed impersonation of Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live.

The 58-year-old actor told the New York Times in an article on Tuesday that he earns $1,400 for each appearance on the weekly NBC sketch comedy show.

Baldwin earlier this month won the Critics' Choice Televesion Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series for his impersonation of Trump, 70.

Critically acclaimed: Alec Baldwin, shown earlier this month in New York City, revealed how much he makes for his Saturday Night Live impersonation of Donald Trump

The Beetlejuice star said the key to impersonating the president-elect were his 'puffs' - the term he coined for the long pauses in Trump's speech.

'I see a guy who seems to pause and dig for the more precise and better language he wants to use, and never finds it,' Baldwin said on Saturday before lampooning Trump again on SNL.

'It's the same dish  it's a grilled-cheese sandwich rhetorically over and over again,' Baldwin added.

Baldwin in order to impersonate Trump wears a custom wig with seven vectors outlined forehead to nape, the show's hair designer Jodi Mancuso said.

Impersonation debut: The actor is shown debuting his Trump impersonation on October 1 on SNL

Going strong: Baldwin is shown playing Trump on Saturday in a skit with Beck Bennett as Vladimir Putin

Fan favourite: The Oscar nominee, shown impersonating Trump on December 3, drew strong criticism from the president-elect

'It helps him transform instantly. The minute it goes on with the makeup, it's like, 'Oh, I get it'',' she added.

Baldwin said he was worried after the election when a friend sarcastically teased that his impersonation humanized Trump.

'I do recognize that that is a possibility, but I think that now that he is the president, we have an obligation  as we would if it was him or her  to dial it up as much as we can,' Baldwin said.

Victory tour: Trump is shown on Saturday at a victory rally in Mobile, Alabama

Puff moments: Baldwin said the key to impersonating Trump were the businessman's long pauses in his speech

Baldwin debuted his Trump impersonation on SNL on October 1 about a month before the general election.

He reprised the role each week ahead of the election and admitted SNL was caught off guard by Trump's victory.

Trump has taken to his favoured media outlet Twitter to voice his displeasure over Baldwin's impersonation of him.

'Just tried watching Saturday Night Live  unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can't get any worse. Sad,' Trump said in a late night tweet earlier this month.

Twitter war: Trump blasted Baldwin's impersonation of him earlier this month and it drew a response from the actor

Baldwin before impersonating Trump again on Saturday closed the door of his SNL dressing room to spend time with wife Hilaria, 32, and their three-year-old daughter Carmen, but quickly opened it back up.

'Whoever it is, wouldn't it be great to be the person who pulls the sword out of the stone? Who gets rid of this guy? Wouldn't that be thrilling?,' he said.

Baldwin said that he planned on continuing to play Trump on SNL, but with two films on his upcoming schedule his performances may be more sporadic.

Getting along: Trump, Tina Fey, the former Melania Knauss and Baldwin are shown in January 2007 in Beverly Hills, California
Brooke Shields doted on her daughters while out shopping in the nippy New York winter Tuesday.

The 51-year-old star was spotted in the West Village with her girls Rowan and Grier.

She was seen enjoying a tender mom and daughter moment as the former Calvin Klein model greeted 13-year-old Rowan with a kiss on the lips.

Hi there! Brooke Shields smiled at waved at the cameras while out shopping with her daughters in New York Tuesday

Smooch! The Scream Queens guest star gave her daughter a kiss while out in public

The mother of two often captured candidly enjoying time with her girls in the Big Apple.

On this trip Brooke bundled up with a parka, keeping her fur trimmed hood up the entire time.

Rowan and younger sister Grier stayed warm with matching white down jackets while just Grier wore a cheery red bow in her hair.

Tight knit family: The three girls were overjoyed to spend time together as the tight knit group laughed, hugged and joked

Parka weather: Brooke and her two daughters kept warm with winter coats while out shopping with friends on Tuesday

Sister, sister! Rowan, 13, and Grier, 10 are incredibly close to their mom who is often seen escorting her darling daughters around the city

Brooke and her daughters laughed with each other before mom pulled her eldest in for a kiss.

Recently the way some celebrities have shown affection toward their kids has been at the centre of much debate.

Last week Hilary Duff faced backlash over a photo of her kissing her son Luca on the lips.

Public display of affection: Brooke shared a quick kiss with her daughter Rowan

Small world: Hilary Duff had no time for followers who were upset by the star kissing her 4-year-old son Luca. The star replied to haters asking them to 'go ahead and click a quick unfollow with your warped minds and judgment'

After sharing a photo of her kissing Luca in front of Disneyland's It's A Small World ride, people were quick to share their own opinions about the Lizzie McGuire star and son.

The Disney talent quickly snapped back against followers who felt she was being inappropriate with her 4-year-old son.

'For anyone commenting that a kiss on the lips with my four year old is "inappropriate" go ahead and click a quick unfollow with your warped minds and judgment.'

Motherly bond: The 51-year-old beauty beamed as she joked with her girls

Hollywood veteran Brooke is too busy working to worry about idle gossip.

In addition to her full-time job as mom, the statuesque starlet filled her year with a collection of projects.

In 2016, Brooke starred in a trio of movies for the Hallmark channel and made a guest appearance on the comedy-horror show Scream Queens alongside Jaime Lee Curtis and Kirstie Alley.
Kourtney Kardashian knows how to advertise a brand - even if it's someplace people generally keep hidden.

When she was spotted out in Calabasas on Tuesday, the waistband of her Tommy Hilfiger knickers - the designer's name scrawled across it - slid into view from beneath her sweats.

As she strolled about, exposing a bit of her chiselled midriff, her seven-year-old son Mason sauntered along beside her.

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The old neighbourhood: Kourtney Kardashian was spotted out and about in Calabasas on Tuesday

The 37-year-old had worn a pair of tight pearl grey FILA sweats that emphasised her pencil thin legs and featured the brand logo unobtrusively near the left hip.

She'd let her lightly wavy hair cascade over the gleaming black and white Adidas bomber jacket she'd flung over her outfit.

Her white crop top matched her white trainers and clashed elegantly against the reality star's dark aviator sunglasses.

Family time: As she strolled about, exposing a bit of her chiselled midriff, her seven-year-old son Mason sauntered along beside her

Assistance: A member of her staff opened the door for her when she and her firstborn by Scott Disick finally arrived at their car

For her day out, the eldest daughter of Kris Jenner accessorised with a glinting pair of ear studs and a bulging black leather purse.

A member of her staff opened the door for her when she and her firstborn by Scott Disick finally arrived at their car.

Mason, whose birth was immortalised on film on Keeping Up With The Kardashians, has a four-year-old sister called Penelope and a two-year-old brother called Reign.

Comfortably stylish: The 37-year-old had worn a pair of tight pearl grey FILA sweats that emphasised her pencil thin legs and featured the brand logo unobtrusively near the left hip

Branding: The waistband of her Tommy Hilfiger knickers - the designer's name scrawled across it - slid into view from beneath her sweats

The previous evening, Kourtney had enjoyed rather a different sort of company, having been spotted at a swank Beverly Hills hotel with Younes Bendjema.

Once a boxer, now a model, the dashing Bendjema is 14 his Kourtney's junior, but rumours that they're an item are raging nonetheless.

There's been unconfirmed speculation that the pair of them were out partying together on the October night when Kim Kardashian underwent a frightening jewel robbery in Paris.

Family background: Mason, whose birth was immortalised on film on Keeping Up With The Kardashians, has a four-year-old sister called Penelope and a two-year-old brother called Reign

Monday also saw a couple of Instagram dispatches from the elder sister of Khloe Kardashian, with reference to her mothering duties thrown in.

In one photo, she leaned against a wall, resting her head against one hand whilst wearing a grey jumper and scarlet sweats.

In another, she was sat next to Stacey Bendet, CEO of Alice + Olivia, whose head was similarly slumped. 'Mom nap time,' Kourtney's caption read.

New man? She has been romantically linked to model Younes Bendjima as she was spotted out with him in LA on Saturday night

A bit of a rest: In one Tuesday Instagram photo, she leaned against a wall, resting her head against one hand whilst wearing a grey jumper and scarlet sweats

'Mom nap time': In another, she was sat next to Stacey Bendet, CEO of Alice + Olivia, whose head was similarly slumped
She's the Hollywood superstar who recently made the pilgrim down under to spend time with her family.

And now Nicole Kidman has revealed what Christmas celebrations are like in the Kidman-Urban household.

Speaking to Who magazine, Nicole explained Christmas means lots of family visiting from interstate and a big December 24 bash at her luxurious Sydney home.

'Christmas is just chaos' : Nicole Kidman has revealed her family's festive plans, which includes a huge Christmas Eve party at her house

The 49-year-old described the big celebration as 'just chaos' in her household.

'You know - trying to open presents, my sister has all her kids, we have aunts coming down from Queensland and cousins - and we do a big Christmas Eve party,' she said.

Nicole also revealed that her sister, mother of six Antonia Kidman, hosts a Christmas Day event, but the night before party is always at her pad.

Sister act: Nicole revealed that her sister, mother of six Antonia Kidman (pictured with daughter Lucia), hosts a Christmas Day event, but the night before party is always at her pad

'We do Christmas lunch at her house and we do Christmas eve at my house,' she said.

When it comes to the holidays, the Moulin Rouge actress says the larger the party the better.

'It's big but I like that, I think that's part of your memories as a child is just noise and fun and presents,' Nicole said.

Family first: Nicole, pictured with her mother Janelle, makes no secret of her desire for a family-orientated Christmas

'My parents gave me that and I just love that.'

The pale beauty aims to pass on her fond experiences of the festive season to her kids and younger members of her family.

'For me, Christmas Eve is the best,' Nicole said.

'My parents gave me that': Nicole wants to pass on the good memories her mum and dad gave her for Christmas

'I just remember running on the lawn at like 8pm at night so excited with tinsel everywhere - I love tinsel!'

Nicole's husband of 10 years Keith Urban also spoke recently about his Christmas plans to Sophie Monk and Matty Acton on KIIS FM.

The country crooner told Summer Fling him and Nicole would be taking their kids to see Keith's family in Queensland during their Australia visit.

'My mum so rarely gets to see our girls': Keith said Christmas provids a rare opportunity for his daughter to see their grandmother

It would be one of the rare opportunities Keith's mother got to see her granddaughters.

'My mum so rarely gets to see our girls, so it is extra special,' Keith said.

'But a lot of kids are in that boat, I was in that boat - I didn't get to see my grandparents regularly.'
Fran Drescher gave her ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson a goodbye kiss after shopping together on Tuesday in Beverly Hills, California.

The 59-year-old actress donned an all-black ensemble while shopping at Barneys New York with Peter, 59.

The Nanny star wore a knee-length black sheath dress along with a black sweater and matching Alexander Wang ankle boots.

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Lady in black: Fran Drescher wore all-black on Tuesday while shopping in Beverly Hills, California with her ex-husband

She also accessorised with black sunglasses and carried a black purse.

Peter looked sharp in a light blue dress shirt with matching grey coat and tie.

He completed his outfit with tan trousers and brown leather shoes.

Fran and Peter hugged and kissed before going their separate ways.

Fond farewell: The Nanny star and her ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson shared a kiss goodbye

Good times: Fran smiled while walking with Peter out of the upscale department store

Pop of colour: The actress added a pop of colour with red lipstick

Popular show: The Nanny ran for six season from 1993 to 1999 on CBS

Peter and Fran co-created the CBS sitcom The Nanny that ran for six seasons from 1993 to 1999.

Fran was twice nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy for her portrayal of as the nasal voiced title character Fran Fine.

Peter and Fran met in high school in New York City and married in 1978.

Big hug: Peter and Fran hugged before going their separate ways

Worked together: Fran and Peter co-created The Nanny which she starred in

They moved together to Los Angeles to pursue a career in show business.

Their marriaged ended with a divorce in 1999 after being separated for several years.

Peter came out as gay after their marriage was over.

Fran and Peter developed the TV Land series Happily Divorced in 2011 based on their experiences and it ran for two seasons.

Getting along: Peter and Fran, shown in January in Beverly Hills, have remained close since their divorce
He is a man who became rich and famous due to his legendary physique and seemingly inexhaustable well of self-belief.

But Arnold Schwarzenegger has claimed he has never been happy with his body and that he suffers from a lack of confidence.

Indeed the famously boastful 69-year-old insisted this problem has become even worse as he has become older, to the extent his reflection makes him want to vomit, as he is no longer able to stay in peak physical condition.

Austrian boke: Muscleman Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he wants to throw up when he sees his mature body in the mirror

The bodybuilder turned actor told Cigar Aficionado: 'When I look in the mirror, I throw up.

'And I was already so critical of myself, even when I was in top physical shape.

Still Pumping Iron: But Arnold's love of fitness has left him with a foot injury in recent weeks

'Id look in the mirror after I won one Mr. Olympia after another and think, How did this pile of s*** win?'"

However the new Celebrity Apprentice host credited his troubled mental state with giving him the motivation work so hard in the gym it made him unstoppable as he racked up his then record six Mr Olympia titles, the most prestigious in bodybuilding.

He said: 'I do lack confidence, but I do the reps and do them enough that the thing itself will be doable when its time.

'When I was competing at bodybuilding, I did so many hours of reps - on the weights, practicing the poses - that when I got onstage, I was comfortable and confident.

'The more reps you do, the more you look smooth and convincing. The more you do it, the better you get... Thats how you gain confidence.'

And while many would be happy to at scaling the summit of their field, he continued to show the hunger that would later launch him to super-stardom as an action star and in politics, where he became the Governor Of California from 2003 until 2011.

He said: 'I never saw perfection. There was always something lacking.

'I could always find a million things wrong with myself and thats what got me back into the gym - because I started out with that mentality.'

Some people are never satisfied: Even at the peak of his powers as a bodybuilder such as here in 1976 he claims he was never happy with his body

By Crom: Arnold's physique ensured Conan The Barbarian was brought to life in the early 80s

Not blending in: And his pumped pectorals ensure The Terminator was easy to spot in a crowd

The action man, who is worth an estimated $300 million, had arguably the most famous body in the world when he starred in a string of hits that included Predator, The Terminator and Red Heat.

However it was his turn as a particularly pumped Conan The Barbarian in the uber violent 1982 smash hit, which was written and directed by Hollywood maverick John Milius, that established him in Hollywood.

And the Austrian Oak displayed his trademark cockiness, which he would have us believe is an elaborate show, as he tried to the part of Flash Gordon from that film's producer Dino De Laurentiis, telling him: 'Why does such a tiny guy like you need such a big desk?'

While his cheek saw him swiftly ushered out of the door, he left such an impression he was later cast as the pulp fantasy character that helped him transition from bodybuilder to actor.

'Can I try on the other one': Arnold looked at shoes as he went Christmas shopping Tuesday

Wait for me: He was joined by son Patrick as he went on a festive splurge in Beverly Hills

Not a chip off the old block: His boy looks positively puny compared to his younger self

And while he may no be quite the man he was, he said he is still as motivated as ever to galvanise his iron physique.

The health fanatic said: 'My day cannot start without doing something physically.

'And I work out at night before bed - cardio, weight training. I want to stay in shape as long as I can.'

And Arnold proved he still does not let things like training injuries slow him down as he was spotted Christmas shopping with his foot brace on in Beverly Hills on Tuesday.

True Lies? Many will be surprised the bodybuilder turned governor is not as confident as he seems
She recently donated $10,000 to children in need that was originally gifted to her.

Now Reggie Sorenson (nee Bird) is opening up about how dire her son Lucas's battle with Cystic Fibrosis really is.

The ex-Big Brother star has told Daily Mail Australia the seven-year-old will soon be spending up to a month in hospital, with a feeding tube inserted into his stomach.

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Grave situation: Reggie Sorenson (nee Bird) is opening up about how dire her son Lucas's battle with Cystic Fibrosis really is

'They are going to insert a tube through his nose for the first three weeks to put on weight, then insert a tube into his stomach,' she explained.

'He will be connected up to a machine at night to do feeds,' she continued.

While in hospital he will have a liver biopsy done, because 'his liver is not the best'.

The mother of two described how Lucas, who is attended to by a team of specialists at Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in South Brisbane led by Dr. Claire Wainwright, has no appetite and isn't able to put weight on.

Opening up: The ex-Big Brother star has told Daily Mail Australia the seven-year-old will soon be spending up to a month in hospital, with a feeding tube inserted into his stomach

'I've been trying my hardest to give him milkshakes full of cream,' she said.

'And a special powder called MCT Pro Cal to try and put on some weight, so we don't have [to get] this done.'

The Gold Coast resident explained how her son's gene mutation is DDF08, which renders his pancreas insufficient and makes it difficult for his lungs to function.

'There is a drug called ORKAMBI that can help those who have this gene and the government just rejected it again, not putting it on the PBS [Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme],' she said despairingly.

'Vertex, the company that makes it, has us over a barrel,' she added. 'They charge $260,000 a year to get this drug.'

Amazing: Despite her own predicament, brave Reggie decided to be as generous as her original donor and give up the money for her son's hospital.

Reggie reached out to A Current Affair for her appearance last month in an attempt to get the Queensland government to recognise Cystic Fibrosis as a disease.

'I rang [Disability Services QLD] to register for the NDIS [National Disability Insurance Scheme] for myself and Lucas to get help when it is rolled out,' she described, alluding to her own retinal pigmentation condition.

'They said I will get some help going blind but Lucas won't, because CF is not an illness or disease or disability,' she continued.

'I was so shocked! I couldn't believe it. I was hoping disability services QLD would see the program and change this.'

Charitable: After her interview aired, Reggie was gifted a $10,000 donation from Gold Coast property developer Les Corby, which she in turn gave to her son's hospital

After her interview aired, Reggie was gifted a $10,000 donation from Gold Coast property developer Les Corby, which she in turn gave to her son's hospital.

'I didn't think about it; I said straight away I wanted to help the kids in the hospital,' she offered. 'Les was happy with that too.'

Cystic Fibrosis Australia has planned a public protest on the lawn at Parliament House on February 7 next year regarding access to the ORKAMBI drug.
She's the director of luxury shoe emporium, Maryon's, who married Seven West heir Ryan Stokes in a lavish ceremony earlier this month.

And Claire Campbell is certainly living the high life.

On Wednesday, the businesswoman was spotted for the fist time since her nuptials, wearing a huge diamond sparkler on her wedding finger, outside Gold Coast Airport.

The new Mrs Stokes: On Wednesday, Claire Campbell was spotted for the first time since her wedding to Seven West heir Ryan Stokes, as she made her way out of Gold Coast Airport whilst flashing her ring

The new Mrs. Stokes had every reason to smile, having just returned from her honeymoon in New Zealand.

But instead the blonde looked downcast as she carried her bags to an awaiting car.

Despite looking despondent, Claire stunned in a shoulderless white dress, which had a lace appearance.

Well-heeled: The director of luxury shoe emporium Maryon's completed her outfit with a pair of funky, coloured sandals

She accessorised with a silver watch on her left wrist, and what appeared to be an orange Hermes bracelet on her right.

The stylish accessory retails for AU$970.

Living up to reputation as a taste-maker in the shoe department, the businesswoman completed her outfit with a pair of funky tassled sandals.

A helping hand: Claire carried her bags as she made her way to an awaiting car, with an attendant taking her suitcase

Claire carried her own bags, including one that sported the Maryon's label.

It's possible that Claire may be returning to Sydney after work with Maryon's, which is based in the Sunshine State.

The Sunday Telegraph recently reported that Claire and Ryan are in-demand guests at Sydney's executive Christmas parties.

Product placement? Claire is the director of shoe emporium Maryon's and carried one of the brand's shopping bags
She had a sweet smile, perfect for a French luxury bakery's debut in California.

Jessica Alba attended the store opening for Laduree, a Parisian-based sweets maker house, at The Grove outdoor mall in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The star, 35, posed in front of a vast array of the store's signature item... the double-decker macaron.

Stunner: Jessica Alba looked stylish as always as she atended the store opening for Laduree, a Parisian-based sweets maker house, at The Grove outdoor mall in Los Angeles on Tuesday

While this location is too new to even be listed yet, its opening marks the first house for the brand on the west coast and only the fourth in the entire country of the United States, according to the company's website.

Laduree apparently sells 15,000 of its staple confection every day.

Jessica upstaged the patisserie, though, shining bright as always in her chic attire.

Sugary smile! The 35-year-old actress flashed her beautiful smile at the event

Upstaging the sweets: The star posed in front of a vast array of the store's signature item... the double-decker macaron

Jessica wore a black turtleneck to the opening with a printed A-line skirt featuring black and white horizontal stripes of varying thickness.

The star stayed warm with black stockings covering her toned legs and paired the look with what appeared to be patent leather ankle boots with a chunky heel and a zipper down the front.

She carried a shiny, black quilted baguette bag and wore minimal eye makeup with a pink lip, with her hair styled long in loose waves.

Furry nice: Jessica later wrapped up in a cute furry black jacket as she left the event

Winter warmer: The mother-of-two looked pretty as a picture as she strolled through Los Angeles after attending the bash

Keeping cosy: Jessica made sure she kept the winter chill at bay by wearing a pair of thick black tights

Earlier in the day, The Honest Company founder celebrated hosting a fellow celebrity founder along with the Chief Executive Officer from a company called seedling at her offices in Los Angeles.

The actor posed with Soleil Moon Frye, the company's Chief Creative Officer, and CEO Phoebe Hayman in front of a mural at her headquarters. Soleil is well-known for her childhood role as Punky Brewster.

'Loved having these lovely ladies at my @honest office today,' Jessica wrote. 'Check out their toy/crafting company @seedling! Love the @dallasclayton mural at my HQ #thisisbiggerthanallofus #thehonestcompany #thehonestlife.'

Seedling is a toy and crafting company that prides itself on creating opportunities for thoughtful play time that will nourish children's development.

Host with the most: Also Tuesday, the star celebrated hosting a fellow celebrity founder along with the Chief Executive Officer from a company called seedling at her offices in Los Angeles

Happy family: Jessica is seen her with her husband, Cash Warren, 37, and daughters, Honor, 8, and Haven, 5, at Old Navy's Baby2Baby Holiday Party, in Beverly Hills on Saturday

On Saturday, the mother-of-two posted a photo posed with her husband, Cash Warren, 37, and daughters, Honor, 8, and Haven, 5, at Old Navy's Baby2Baby Holiday Party, held at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills.

'Had a wonderful afternoon w the fam @baby2baby holiday party! I'm so honored to be part of such an amazing organization. #baby2baby #baby2babyholidayparty,' she captioned the photo on social media.

Jessica is a board member and ambassador for the organization, which provides children age 12 and under from low income families with diapers, clothing and other basic needs.
One might expect flip-flops for stepping off the plane in Barbados.

But Suki Waterhouse opted to continue traveling in comfort as she arrived on the Caribbean island on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old touched down in in a cosy pair of slippers, and din't bother changing out of them as she strolled out of Bridgetown airport.

Water-house shoes! Suki Waterhouse rocked a pair of slippers as she arrived in Barbados for annual Christmas getaway

The model / actress rocked a casual look in black sweats, grey tee and short black jacket.

She finished the look in an oversized pair of shades that will surely get plenty wear over the coming days on the sun-drenched island.

Along with her black handbag, she pushed along a large leather tote atop her wheelie luggage, packing plenty of clothes of her annual trip with her family.

Laid back: The model / actress rocked a casual look in black sweats, grey tee and short black jacket

The 21-mile-long haven is a haunt of Suki's clan during the holidays; she and little sister, fellow model Immy could be seen strolling its golden beaches in December of last year.

Suki recently admitted to Glamour that she is on a dating app in the hope of finding love, following her split from Hollywood actor Bradley Cooper in March last year.

Suki and the American Sniper star first met the Elle Style Awards in London in 2013, but called an end to their romance two years later.

Vital: She finished the look in an oversized pair of shades that will surely get plenty wear over the coming days on the sun-drenched island

The split came as a surprise as it was claimed that couple were house hunting together in London.

Bradley is currently expecting a baby with his rumoured fiancee Irina Shayk.

Suki's latest film The Bad Batch, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, also stars Jim Carrey, Keanu Reeves, Jason Momoa, Giovanni Ribisi and Diego Luna.
He denied the pair were dating and insisted they were 'just friends' but model Jordan Barrett still knows how to catch Paris Hilton's eye.

The heiress was impressed by a photo of the Aussie model skinny dipping by moonlight with a group of pals, which he posted to Instagram on Tuesday.

Paris commented on the risque photo with a 'praise' emoji indicating she was impressed by the 20-year-old's daring stunt.

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Mooning: The heiress was taken with a photo of the Aussie model Jordan Barrett skinny dipping by moonlight with a group of pals, which he posted to Instagram on Tuesday

Impressed: Paris commented on the risque photo with a 'praise' emoji indicating she was impressed by the 20-year-old's daring stunt

The pouty-lipped Jordan preciously denied that he was dating the former reality star after the twosome were seen together at several social events in 2015.

The 35-year-old had also posted photos of herself and Jordan together sparking rumours that the attractive pair were a couple.

But the surfer insisted that he and Paris were just mates and at that stage, had been for over a year.

'Paris has always been a friend of mine, for at least a year now, but it has been the same friendship the whole time,' the runway model told The Daily Telegraph in 2015.

Pretty pals: The 35-year-old had posted photos of herself and Jordan together sparking rumours that the attractive pair were a couple

Just friends: 'Paris has always been a friend of mine, for at least a year now, but it has been the same friendship the whole time,' the runway model told The Daily Telegraph in 2015

He added: 'She is the same with me that she is with a lot of different people, different models and actors, but there is nothing more to it'.

Although Jordan said the blonde was 'a nice chick' he insisted that there is 'nothing more' to their relationship other than friendship.

The pair have not been spotted together in recent months, but Paris seems to be keen to stay in touch with the younger man over social media.

Skinny dipping: The Byron Bay native went night swimming with his mates

In 2016, Vogue dubbed the Byron Bay native their Model it Boy after his career sky rocketed with campaigns for massive fashion houses such as Tom Ford and Versace.

But his life has not been without controversy. The IMG Model's father is convicted drug dealer Adrian Barrettt, described by police as the head of a $9 million cannabis cartel.
Scarlett Johansson was a Christmas caroler as part of a very star-studded skit that also featured Reese Witherspoon for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Reese, 40, Scarlett, 32, along with their Sing co-stars Matthew McConaughey, Seth MacFarlane, and Tori Kelly, sang Wonderful Christmastime in A Cappella beside Jimmy and the band The Roots.

The Roots, which included members Questlove and Mark Kelley, helped kick off the skit before they were eventually joined by a music legend Paul McCartney.

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Sing a song! Scarlett Johansson went Christmas caroling as part of a very star-studded skit that also featured Reese Witherspoon for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

Star-studded: The leading ladies, along with their Sing co-stars Matthew McConaughey, Seth MacFarlane, and Tori Kelly, sang Wonderful Christmastime in A Cappella beside Jimmy and the band The Roots

The stars of Sing have been busy promoting their new film lately.

Sing! stars Matthew as Buster Moon, a koala who cobbles together a singing contest in order to prevent his flagging theatre from shuttering for good.

Music legend: Paul McCartney provided his vocals to the occasion

Story time: Sing! stars Matthew as Buster Moon, a koala who cobbles together a singing contest in order to prevent his flagging theatre from shuttering for good

Matthew confided during a recent interview on Today that he'd been selected to make his character 'optimistic but not annoying, so if I fell in the middle there, that's good.'

Reese portrays Rosita, a pig with 25 children who'd shelved her singing ambition to focus on motherhood until the contest came along.

This new task 'gets her out of the house and getting her remembering that she had a life beyond having kids,' said the actress, 'and I think it's a really touching story.'

Character counts: Reese portrays Rosita, a pig with 25 children who'd shelved her singing ambition to focus on motherhood until the contest came along

She noted that 'I think a lot of moms will relate to it, and I think a lot of kids will appreciate their mom more after seeing it.'

Inasmuch as the film is, indeed, child-friendly, and she and Matthew are both parents, 'I think, between the two of us, our kids have seen it, like, 16 times.'

Sing! will open in American cinemas next Wednesday, but won't be arriving in Britain until the 27th of January.

Center stage: Fallon sang from the center as he was flanked by various Sing characters
Matthew McConaughey said his family was bound for Brazil for the holidays during an appearance on Tuesday on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

The 47-year-old Oscar-winning actor told Fallon that they were departing on Wednesday to visit the family of his wife Camila Alves, 34.

'All of us stay in one room. Five of us on a couple of twin beds,' McConaughey said of the family accommodations in Brazil.

Holiday tradition: Matthew McConaughey revealed his holiday plans on Tuesday during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

The Dazed And Confused star also revealed that his eight-year-old son Levi, six-year-old daughter Vida and three-year-old son Livingston have been learning Portuguese for the trip.

'They've been going to Portuguese classes five hours a day for the last week in preparation for going on this trip,' McConaughey said looking dapper in a blue suit.

The Dallas Buyers Club star also revealed that his 84-year-old mother Mary 'KMac' Kathleen was great with his children.

'She doesn't negotiate and debate things as much as Camila, my wife, and I do with the kids,' he said.

Oscar winner: The Dallas Buyers Club received a warm welcome from the studio audience

Looking sharp: McConaughey looked dapper in a dark blue suit

Good point: The Dazed And Confused star pointed to a fan in the audience

Catching up: Fallon asked McConaughey about holiday plans and the actor's mother

The Interstellar star explained that he and Camila typically discuss conflicts with their children.

'Not with my mother. It's immediately ''because I said so''. The conversations are much shorter,' he said.

McConaughey was promoting his upcoming movie Gold in which he plays adventurer Kenny Wells.

Upcoming movie: McConaughey talked about Gold and saving a tiger scene to film last

Kids theater: Fallon and McConaughey read from scripts written by children

He shared a clip of the upcoming film that included a scene of his character facing off against a tiger.

McConaughey said the film took months to shoot and the tiger scene was surprisingly saved for last.

He noted that he's a producer of the movie and even he had to admit it was 'pretty clever' to film it last in case anything happened to him.

Cracking up: Fallon burst into laughter during the skit with McConaughey

'I was not acting in that scene, I was scared as s***,' McConaughey revealed.

Gold opens in limited release on December 25 and has a wider release on January 27, 2017.

McConaughey also was promoting the animated musical comedy Sing.

He voices the character of optimistic koala bear Buster Moon.

Sing also features the voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane and Scarlett Johansson and opens on Wednesday.
She's the slender Victoria's Secret model who has dealt with her fair share of body-shaming trolls over the past few years.

And Bridget Malcolm, 25, proudly showcased her lithe thighs and toned silouhette on Wednesday by posing in a pair of denim cut offs and a white singlet on Instagram.

In the selfie-style image, Bridget is seen pouting in the mirror while modelling a pair of sunglasses owned by her husband Nathaniel.

'Stole @nathanielhoho 's sunnies': Bridget Malcolm, 25, proudly showcased her lithe thighs and toned silouhette on Wednesday by posing in a pair of denim cut offs and a white singlet on Instagram

'Stole @nathanielhoho 's sunnies,' she quipped in the caption.

On Tuesday, the blonde bombshel shared a bikini snap as she soaked up some rays at Rottnest Island, off the Western Australia coast.

Flaunting her slender, toned bikini body on Instagram, the catwalk queen was snapped enjoying some down time at the beach, after wrapping up her modeling commitments for the year.

Defiant: Victoria's Secret model Bridget Malcolm has showed off her slender figure in her latest Instagram photo as she posed on the beach in a tiny bikini

Bridget matched the beaming post with an equally positive caption: 'Yessssssss life.'

In the image, the blonde beauty wore a red and white striped bikini as she raised her toned arms to the sky in a celebratory stance.

The post sent a defiant message, proving the vegan model will continue to proudly show off her slender frame, regardless of negativity that's been leveled against her online.

Criticism: The post comes weeks after the 25-year-old was swamped by negativity comments from fans who called her 'too thin' on social media

Bridget has been a repeat recipient of harsh body-shaming since entering the public eye in 2013.

Last week she copped a lengthy sermon after posting an image of herself wearing nothing but her beige underwear.

A fan complimented her in a comment, saying, 'You have the most beautiful face', before later adding: 'but you are so thin, too thin.'

The commenter then went so far as to infer that Bridget was setting a bad example for little girls that admired her.

The negativity comes despite the fact the Perth-born beauty repeatedly denies claims that she has an eating disorder.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph earlier this month, she adamantly stated that she did not suffer from the 'horrific' disorder.

Extremely fit: She has been dealing with the negative body image feedback for some time and has repeatedly denied having an eating disorder

Last year, the vegan responded to online trolls who again claimed she had an eating disorder.

'I am extremely fit and healthy and am not in the slightest way anorexic,' she clearly stated.

Bridget added: 'Maybe today take a look inside yourself and wonder why you feel the need to shame strangers over the Internet about their bodies.'
Camila Alves had quite a busy day in New York City on Tuesday.

The 34-year-old Brazilian model started with a visit to NBC's Today Show and finished her day with dozens of bags in her hands after an epic shopping trip.

Matthew McConaughey's wife looked gorgeous in a light blue printed dress and a matching blue handbag as she stepped outside into the chilly New York city streets.

Lots to do: Camila Alves had a packed day in New York City Tuesday, which she started with a stop at the Today Show and ended with a last-minute Christmas run

The jewelry designer kept warm in the chill New York wind with a mid-length winter jacket with fur trimming over the pretty printed outfit that came down just above her ankles, showing just a glimpse of her thin legs.

She was carrying a coffee cup and smiling at the cameras as she teetered on peep-toe pumps while walking into the busy New York streets.

The mother of three young children looked the picture of sophistication with her chestnut tresses in tight curls.

She stopped to pose for the cameras before entering the large SUV that was waiting to pick her up outside Rockefeller Center.

Graceful: Matthew McConaughey's wife looked gorgeous in a light blue printed dress and a matching handbag

Later in the day, the stunning model changed out of her glamorous look for a decidedly more casual outfit to shop at New York department store, Century 21.

She wore a loose off-white sweater with the sleeves rolled up, no doubt hot from carrying multiple bags, presumably full of presents for her kids - Levi, eight, Vida, six, and Livingston, aged three.

Camila paired the comfy sweater with a pair of blue jeans and heavy-duty winter boots.

Busy mama: Later in the day, the stunning model changed out of her glamorous look for a decidedly more casual outfit to shop at New York department store, Century 21

Comfy chic: Camila paired the sweater with a pair of blue jeans and heavy-duty winter boots

Ever the jewelry designer, Camila showed off her great taste with an array of bracelets on her wrist.

She appeared happy with her purchases as she made her way out of the store with at least 3 very full bags in each hand.

The gorgeous Brazilian had her hair in the same curls as earlier in the day, but appeared to remove most of her makeup, letting her natural beauty shine.

Supportive family: The model joined her husband during the press tour for his new animated film, Sing!

The model has been supporting her husband during the press tour for his new animated film, Sing!.

The 47-year-old Hollywood hunk will be featured in the film along with Scarlett Johansson, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, John C. Reilly, Tori Kelly, and is set to hit U.S. theaters on December 21.
Since giving birth to her son Finn Odin in July, the actress has been open with sharing intimate photographs with the bub.

And Ex-Neighbours star Natalie Blair has taken again to Instagram with a photo showcasing her sweet bond with her son.

On Tuesday, the 32-year-old shared the 'skin to skin' breastfeeding photo, where she and her son were without shirts.

'There's nothing like it': Ex-Neighbours star Natalie Blair goes topless to share intimate skin to skin photo of herself breastfeeding son Finn on Instagram on Tuesday

The soap star posed topless side on, as she gently cradled Finn to assist his head towards her bosoms.

Within the candid snap she referred to normalizing breasting and claimed 'there's nothing like it.'

In her use of hashtags, she also addressed her move as: 'natural parenting', 'attachment parenting' and 'Earth mama.'

Natural mother: In her recent breastfeeding picture she addressed her move to normalize breastfeeding as 'natural parenting', 'attachment parenting' and being an 'Earth mama'

Mama bird: Natalie appears to live a bohemian lifestyle, posting about her natural take on parenting, as well as her interest in apothecary and crystal healing to her followers regularly

Natalie found fame as Carmella Cammeniti on TV soap Neighbours before leaving in 2008 to pursue her Hollywood dream.

Now residing in California, she appears to live a bohemian lifestyle, posting about her natural take on parenting, as well as her interest in apothecary and crystal healing.

She recently claimed she hoped Finn would want his 'mumma's milk forever' as she posted an adorable breastfeeding photo when he was younger.

'Cheeky smiles between each suckle': Home And Away's Natalie Blair, 32, paid tribute to her son Finn Odin Hoflin in a breastfeeding photo she posted on Instagram on Saturday

'Oxytocin overload! My gosh I adore this pic. The eye contact, the breast grabbing, the cheeky smiles between each suckle. I hope he wants his mummas milk forever.'

The Australian star appeared all smiles as she cut a casual figure in a grey T-Shirt lifted over her breast to allow her son to 'suckle'.

This photo is one of three recently posted to Natalie's Instagram showing her breastfeeding her son.

Another intimate photo shared last month showed her breastfeeding in a park.

She captioned the image: 'Ooh I love this ... Some people refer to woman who breastfeed as Earth Mothers.

'Some people refer to woman who breast-feed as Earth Mothers': Natalie posed as she breastfed her son in September in the great outdoors

'A more appropriate name for these woman would be Galactic Goddesses - because the words galaxy (and galactic) come from the ancient Greek word gala, meaning 'milk'.

'Legend has it that all the stars in the sky came from milk sprayed out of the breasts of the goddess Juno. Hence, we call our galaxy the Milky Way.

The proud new mother also recently posted a picture of her son's umbilical cord which she kept after dehydrating into a love heart shape.

'Umbilical cord keepsake': The proud new mother also recently posted a picture of her son's umbilical cord which she kept after dehydrating into a love heart shape

The picture's caption read: 'Umbilical cord keepsake. Even after being clamped & dehydrated there is no denying the life force magic still pulsating through it.

'It's so wild that the female form can create an entire brand spanking new organ, all for the growing lil' gumnut ... then expels it, as if it were never even there!

'Ah, body miracles,' she added.

Meanwhile back in August, Natalie took to Instagram for the first time to share a photo of herself breastfeeding her son.

Breast is best! Natalie took to Instagram in August to share the first photo of herself breastfeeding Finn

'It's quite amazing that this little fella has survived two weeks earth side on nothing but love and breast milk,' wrote the former soap star.

She continued: 'The controversy/shame/pressure/sexualization of the breast in relation to feeding seems even more bizarre to me now.

'Breastfeeding is fricking beautiful!! Finn knew how to latch almost as soon as he was placed on my chest.'

'It's quite amazing that this little fella has survived two weeks earth side on nothing but love and breast milk,' wrote the former TV star

The brunette actress didn't stop there, adding: 'It's instinct. It's normal. It's as nature intended.

'Our bodies are phenomenal and know exactly what to do. How can people be offended by something so natural? A bubba has gotta eat. Nom nom.'

She welcomed little Finn into the world on July 29th in an 11-hour home birth.

'Loves boobies!' The brunette mentioned that her son Finn loves breasts while announcing his birth on Instagram

When announcing the birth on Instagram, the actress mentioned that he 'loves boobies'.

Natalie is best known for her role as Carmella on Neighbours, which earned her a Logie award for Most Popular New Female Talent in 2005.

She's been quiet since leaving the show, but briefly returned to the screen in the NBC pirate drama Crossbones in 2014.
Gary Edward Larose, one of four people charged with harboring or aiding two men charged with the March 14 first-degree murder of Kenneth Patterson, struck a plea deal Tuesday.

Jesse R. Lloyd and Matthew L. Labrec face first-degree homicide charges in the shooting death of Patterson in the town of Eagle Point.

The defendant (Larose) agrees to cooperate with the prosecution in the cases involving the murder of Kenneth Patterson, Steve Gibbs, Chippewa County district attorney, said Tuesday.

In return, the aiding-harboring charge against Larose along with several other charges were dismissed and read into the Chippewa County Court record for sentencing purposes.

Instead, Larose, 39, pleaded no contest to being a felon possessing a firearm along with several other charges. He will return to court Tuesday, April 4. Judge Steven Cray said he would wait before ordering a presentence investigation of Larose, and continued a $4,000 cash bond for the defendant.

The body of Patterson, an Eau Claire resident, was found on a town of Eagle Point lawn in March. A criminal complaint said Lloyd and Labrec intended to rob Patterson because they needed money and also as a way to exact revenge for perceived slights. Labrec said he heard Lloyd shoot Patterson.

The bullet had struck a vein and damaged the artery, which caused Kenneth Patterson to die, the criminal complaint said.

Lloyd and Labrec later showed up at Laroses residence, according to the same complaint.

Gibbs said Laroses help will strengthen the testimony of others who were at Laroses residence after the murder.

Several others face charges related to the Patterson case. Steven Kolpien Jr. faces two counts of harboring-aiding a felon, and is next scheduled to appear in court on March 1.

Timmy Lee Johnson is charged with harboring-aiding a felony and being a felon possessing a firearm. He is set to return to court Jan. 4.

Nicholas D. Rands faces two charges of harboring-aiding a felon, along with charges of perjury and obstruction. He is scheduled to next appear in court Jan. 18.

Gibbs will not be able to prosecute all of the cases, because of his recent appointment by Gov. Scott Walker to take the judges seat vacated by the retirement of Judge Roderick Cameron on Dec. 9. But he said: I dont see any delay, mostly because there is so much material the defense will have to go through.

Gibbs said the cases will be divided among the offices assistant district attorneys.

In Tuesdays court session, Larose entered no contest pleas to charges ranging from February 2015 to March 14, 2016. Among the charges he pleaded to were four counts of misdemeanor theft, a charge of misdemeanor battery-domestic related, and fleeing an officer.

Cray sorted through the cases and remarked: Mr. Larose, this is what I call a complicated plea.

We do not agree with all of the facts in the cases, defense attorney Francis Rivard said, but he reached a compromise with the plea agreement.
Margot Robbie stunned the world after confirming her marriage to boyfriend Tom Ackerley on Monday afternoon.

And with the cat out of the bag, it was safe for Margot's older brother Lachlan to share his well-wishes on social media this Wednesday.

Taking to Instagram, Margot's doting sibling, who works as a stuntman, uploaded the well-publicised photo of Margot displaying her wedding ring while kissing her husband, with the caption: 'Congratulations to my little sister and new brother.'

'Congratulations to my little sister and new brother': Margot Robbie's older brother Lachlan uploaded this well-publicised photo of Margot displaying her wedding ring while kissing her husband on Wednesday

Lachlan's silence-breaking post comes after details emerged about how exactly Margot managed to pull off one of this year's most secretive weddings.

According to News.com.au, the Suicide Squad actress kept her Byron Bay nuptials hush hush by mandating a media blackout, with guests being forced to hand over their mobile phones and cameras during the celebrations.

The publication has also claimed that up to a dozen security guards were also present at the event, which took place at a private property in Coorabell.

Family love! Margot pictured with her brother Lachlan and their mother Sarie Kessler

The master of secrecy! Details have emerged about how exactly newlywed Margot Robbie, 26, managed to pull off one of this year's most secretive weddings

Taking no risks! The Suicide Squad actress and her husband Tom Ackerley (right) kept her Byron Bay nuptials hush hush by mandating a media blackout

The wedding location was so top secret that even guests were kept in the dark about where the couple would wed.

According to the publication, attendees were told to gather at various locations between Byron Bay and the Gold Coast.

Guests were then picked up by buses and driven to the undisclosed venue.

Hideaway: Attendees were told to gather at various locations between Byron Bay and the Gold Coast and were then picked up by buses and driven to the undisclosed venue

Nestled in Byron Bay's lush hinterlands, the property is surrounded by lush mountains, making it the perfect hideaway for the couple.

Secluded: Nestled in Byron Bay's lush hinterlands, the property is surrounded by lush mountains, making it the perfect hideaway for the couple

Inside, the accommodation boasts wooden floorboards and walls and holds a rustic charm, while outside features acres of greenery and a picturesque pool.

On Tuesday afternoon, Margot took to Instagram to flaunt her engagement ring in a cheeky Instagram snap.

She was seen sticking up her wedding ring finger to the camera while kissing her beau in the background.

As their lips locked, Tom lent forward and rested his hand on the beauty's leg while she donned another loose-fitting white ensemble.
She's often spotted walking her dogs in New York City.

But on Tuesday, Deborra-Lee Furness, 61, looked different compared to her usual self as she stepped out with pink hair.

The wife of Hugh Jackman looked cheerful as she showcased her vibrant new look whilst walking her beloved pet pooches.

Think pink! Deborra-Lee Furness stepped out with pink hair in New York on Tuesday

She matched her hair to her puffy parka, which was a deep pink colour, and even used pink laces for her sneakers.

The actress accessorised with a pair of black sunglasses and a black tote bag.

Deborra-Lee recently admitted that she advised husband Hugh against taking the role of Wolverine.

Matching: The 61-year-old matched her hair to her puffy parka, which was a deep pink colour, and even used pink laces for her sneakers

'Once in a marriage you're allowed to be wrong,' she joked to the Rove and Sam radio show last month.

'There's one time - one time I was wrong!'

When the silver screen heartthrob was first offered the role in 2000, his wife encouraged him to turn it down.

Hugh told A Current Affair last year Deb told him not to do it, and thought it was 'a terrible idea'.

The couple met through friends and in August Deborrah-Lee joked her handsome husband could never work with Angelina Jolie.

'I've told his agent he's not allowed to work with Angelina [Jolie],' Deborra admitted to the Today Show.

'I'm sure she's very nice and I love what she's doing - shining a light on awareness for adoption...' she trailed off, before adding, 'just kidding'.

Revealing the secret to long lasting marriage, she went on: 'It just goes to show, if you get it right, if you pick the right partner then you traverse all those trevails and challenges.'

'Deb had a rule, never apart for more than two weeks,' Hugh explained, adding that early into their relationship he said "yes" to everything she wanted.

Deb had been on enough sets to see the pitfalls...it was my first job when we met, I didn't know anything else but we've never been apart for more than two weeks.

'We've managed to keep that,' the actor added proudly.

'And we don't wanna be [apart] - he tells really good jokes and I miss him,' Deborra-Lee confessed.
Pia Muehlenbeck is well and truly in holiday mode.

The Instagram model shared a photo of herself relaxing poolside as she returned home to Sydney for the festive period.

Topping up her tan as she dangled a leg in the water, the law graduate looked stunning as she posed in a bikini.

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Bikini babe: Pia Muehlenbeck shared a photo of herself relaxing poolside as she returned home to Sydney for the festive period

Offering a glimpse of her ample bust in the black bikini, the former University of Technology Sydney student complemented her top with a white sarong.

Wearing her short brunette locks in curls, Pia shaded herself from the sun in a black straw hat.

In the caption, the German-born beauty said she would be 'hanging by the pool' until the New Year.

Meanwhile earlier this week, Pia shared a snap which left very little to the imagination.

Leaving little to the imagination! Pia took to Instagram on Monday to flaunt her ample cleavage in a skimpy bronze bikini while holidaying in Fiji

While promoting a drone giveaway with her 1.4 million followers, the brunette beauty flaunted her ample cleavage and toned torso in a skimpy bronze bikini.

The triangle top flaunted her ample cleavage and taut torso, while the high-cut briefs accentuated her bronzed and lean legs.

Sweeping her brunette tresses underneath a wide-brimmed hat, Pia pouted for the camera, drawing attention to a glamorous makeup palette.

Holiday vibes: A snap shared to Instagram just a day prior, saw the Grazia Market Editor flaunting her ample assets once again, as she stood on a boardwalk with picturesque views

This is not the first time Pia has flaunted her assets on social media.

Just a day prior, the Grazia Market Editor put on another busty display, as she stood on a boardwalk with picturesque views.

A skimpy white polka-dot bikini top accentuated her generous bust while a pair of denim shorts highlighted her enviably trim torso.

Tilting her head to one side and allowing her short tresses to fall effortlessly over one shoulder, Pia gave the camera a close-up view of her striking facial features.

A flawless complexion, defined brows, lashings of mascara and a coat of nude lipstick, finished off the look.

Stunning: Another holiday snap saw the Instagram sensation donning a skimpy khaki bikini top and wrap-around white skirt

Thirsty work! Pia was seen enjoying a large coconut as she gave the camera a close-up look at her ample assets

Pia enjoyed a vacation in Fiji with boyfriend Kane Vato, while attending the Your Paradise festival, an annual event held on Plantation Island.

The six-day party showcased talented DJs from around the world.

This year's line-up included international stars such as What So Not, Skrillex and Thomas Jack.

In good company: Pia enjoyed a vacation in Fiji with boyfriend Kane Vato, while attending the Your Paradise festival, an annual event held on Plantation Island

Pia and Kane's trip to Fiji is just one of many flights the genetically-blessed couple have taken in the last few months.

In November, Pia and Kane spent time together in the Maldives before exploring Western Australia.

And earlier this year, the pair visited a number of small islands around the Philippines for a photoshoot.
He split from Kate Hudson in 2014 after four years together.

But Matt Bellamy has remained on good terms with the Hollywood actress, with whom he shares son Bingham, even bringing his new girlfriend Elle Evans along on a family holiday with them.

The 36-year-old Muse rocker and the statuesque model looked loved-up as they strolled around the shops in the upmarket Colorado resort on Tuesday.

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Ready to hit the slopes: Matt Bellamy and his model girlfriend Elle Evans looked loved-up as ever as they strolled around the shops in Aspen, Colorado resort on Tuesday

Matt was clad in a white ski jacket with a fur lined hood, donning a pair of comfy and practical snow boots.

Elle sported a coordinating coat and black leggings, topping off her look with a fluffy hat.

The pair emerged from a sunglasses shop together following a spot of shopping.

Friendly exes: The Muse rocker has remained on good terms with his ex Kate, with whom he shares son Bingham, joining her and her parents for a winter break

Kate was spotted around Aspen the previous day in the company of her mother Goldie Hawn and stepfather Kurt Russell.

The blonde beauty looked cosy in a grey fleece jacket, which she zipped up to the top to ward off the December chill.

The Bride Wars star and Starlight hitmaker Matt are committed to being good parents to their son.

Coordinating couple: Matt and Elle were rocking matching white ski jackets

Discussing their split, Kate revealed the couple 'had different visions of how [they] wanted to live [their] lives'.

'Relationships ending are painful, and you can choose to carry that or you can choose to reframe it', she told Allure magazine.

'If Matt and I had a great relationship, we would still be together, but we chose to move on because we had different visions of how we wanted to live our lives,' the Almost Famous star explained.
He takes home $1,400 each time he performs his critically-acclaimed impression of Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live.

But Alec Baldwin's latest impersonation served simply as a very special birthday gift on Tuesday, as he took on the one and only Tony Bennett.

Actor Alec, 58, paid tribute to the legendary crooner on his 90th birthday as NBC aired The Best Is Yet To Come, a special episode dedicated to the musician.

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Having fun: Alec Baldwin was just one of the guests invited to honour Tony Bennett on Tuesday night, serving up a very special impression for the crooner at 90

Performers on the special included Andrea Bocelli, Michael Buble, Lady Gaga, Billy Joel, Elton John, Diana Krall, K.D. Lang, Leslie Odom Jr., Rufus Wainwright and Stevie Wonder.

But Alec was giving it his best Bennett when he joined the original crooner on the stage for a surprise sing-along.

Earlier this month, the actor won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series thanks to his impression of president-elect Donald.

Brand new at 90: Tony is celebrating his 90th birthday in an NBC special with a number of guest stars, including Lady Gaga, Diana Krall and Rufus Wainwright

Another top impression: Alec (left) had plenty of material when it came to swatting up on how Tony (right) does performing

Joker: He even appeared to have added a prosthetic nose to the joke

Laugh out loud: Michael Buble and Kevin Spacey were in the audience laughing

Just this week, he revealed to The New York Times that each time he pulls out the tangerine wig, he receives $1,400 from SNL for a sketch he doesn't write himself.

Meanwhile, at 90 years old and with six decades in the music industry, Tony certainly has plenty of material to celebrate.

His career has been filled with accomplishments such as five Grammy Awards and becoming an icon of the popular hits Body and Soul, Anything Goes and the classic I Left My Heart In San Francisco.

Due to the title of his TV special on Tuesday known as Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Best Is Yet To Come, it's safe to say that his life in music isn't over yet.

Tried and tested: Alec (left) has received high praise for his impression of president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live

Hilarious: The performer this week revealed that he receives $1,400 for each performance

Lady Gaga is just one of the artists that Tony has worked with regularly in the last two years.

The two became good pals when they recorded the album Cheek To Cheek together.

Working with each other gave these two something new they can appreciate based on what Tony told Channel Guide Magazine last month.

'[Gaga] has that young audience- she doesn't have my audience, you know,' the jazz star explained.

Man of class: The jazz icon performed some classics on his TV special titled as Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Best Is Yet To Come

Dear pals: As they work on the new album Cheek To Cheek together, top performer Lady Gaga helped bring Tony into the 21st century

'By performing with us, she gave me her audience, and I gave her my audience- so that's everybody.'

At this point, the man couldn't be happier with his success and couldn't be more grateful to his fans.

'I'm blessed with the fact that the public admires my work, and I just never want to let them down,' Tony said.

'I like to give them a full performance, so they walk out feeling very good about what happened that night.'
She's the bikini babe best known for her savvy use of photoshop.

But it looks like there's no way that Natasha Oakley can airbrush away the love she has for her boyfriend, fellow Instagram model Gilles Souteyrand.

The 25-year-old blonde and her self-proclaimed digital 'influencer' boyfriend were spotted enjoying a romantic moment at North Bondi beach on Tuesday.

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Romantic: Natasha Oakley and her boyfriend Gilles Souteyrand shared a cuddle on the beach in North Bondi on Tuesday

Gilles showed his affection for the online glamour model by holding her in his arms as they stood in the stand.

Tash reciprocated by wrapping her hands around his neck as her beau kissed her cheek.

The picture perfect couple later took their love lower by embracing while lying down on their beach towels.

Close: The couple, who are both Instagram models, looked incredibly close

How sweet: The tanned twosome shared a snuggle in the sand

It's unclear if the social media enthusiasts were shooting content for their Instagram pages, or if they'd simply taken the day off for some romantic one-on-one time.

Tash is one of Instagram's biggest success stories, amassing a whopping 1.8 million followers on the social media platform.

Her popularity has led her to form the Bikini a Day blog with fellow bikini model Devin Brugman, as well as a spin-off swimwear line.

She also now has her very own solo blog filled with photos of herself.

Entrepreneur: Gilles is currently trying to launch his own online fitness program

Trying his best: Self-proclaimed digital 'influencer' Gilles is less popular than his famous girlfriend, with just under 79,000 followers on Instagram

'Influencer' Gilles is less popular, with just under 79,000 followers on Instagram.

Thankfully, his famous girlfriend has tried to help him out by tagging him on her own page when she shares pictures of the two together in a subtle attempt to get her own fans to follow her lover.

Gilles is now trying to follow in the footsteps of The Bachelor's Sam Wood and Tim Robards by launching his own online fitness program.

The tanned model has already launched a separate Instagram page for the 12 week program, which currently has a modest 456 followers - three of which are Tash's various accounts.

However, Tash's business partner Devin does not appear to follow the account for some reason.
Alex Nation showed she's a trendy mum on Wednesday - dabbing with her six-year-old son.

The Bachelor winner performed the popular dance move with Elijah and even managed to get Santa Claus involved.

Wearing smiles on their faces, Alex and Elijah posed either side of Father Christmas in a photo she later uploaded to Instagram.

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Cheeky dab: Alex Nation showed she's a trendy mum on Wednesday - dabbing with her six-year-old son Elijah and Santa Claus

She captioned the snap: 'Just a cheeky Christmas Dab.'

Fellow reality TV personality, Cameron Cranley, who appeared on The Bachelorette, was quick to comment on the photo after Alex dared him to get a similar photo with Santa.

He said: 'I refuse to dab, although i like the idea of this challenge... standby for Cams (sic) Santa comeback.'

Happy couple: Alex found love on The Bachelor earlier this year when Richie Strahan chose her over Nikki Gogan in the series finale

Meanwhile, Alex and her only child have been enjoying some quality time together recently.

The pair spent Friday outdoors, with Elijah playing on his bike before a walk along the beach.

But they opted for an indoor activity on Saturday, going to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story at the cinema.

Date night! The Bachelor winner took her son Elijah, six, to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in style on Saturday

Alex shared an Instagram photo of Elijah enjoying a chocolate milkshake before the pair went in to the theatre.

He posed for the picture with the straw in his mouth and smiling for the camera.

'My Gold Class date today,' the Perth native wrote in the caption.

Taking in the view: Alex shared a picture of her son sitting peacefully and watching the sunset at the beach last week

On Friday, Alex shared a photograph of her son sitting on the beach and staring up at a picturesque sunset.

'Chasing sunsets with my little soulmate,' she captioned the image shared with her 106,000 followers.

Earlier this month, Elijah turned six-years-old and enjoyed birthday lunch with his family at a restaurant in Melbourne.

Birthday boy! Earlier this month, Elijah turned six-years-old and enjoyed birthday lunch with his family at a burger restaurant in Melbourne

A picture posted to Alex's social media account shows Elijah holding a burger with a Happy Birthday candle stuck into it.

Earlier that day, Alex shared a photo of her son holding a giant balloon shaped like the number six.

'Six years ago today I held you for the first time and looked at you in complete awe,' she wrote in the caption.

Quality time: Alex often shares endearing messages directed at her son on her Instagram page

'Six years on, I still look at you in the very same way.

'Little man, I am so proud to be your mum and you have filled my life with an abundance of love and happiness. Happy Birthday you little legend.'

It came weeks after Alex and Elijah took part in a magazine photo shoot with her boyfriend, The Bachelor's Richie Strahan.
They enjoy a romantic storyline in new hit Collateral Beauty.

And Will Smith allowed reality to imitate art on Wednesday as he appeared on Loose Women alongside Naomie Harris - where he alleged his stunning co-star is attracted to him.

The 48-year-old Hitch actor teased the James Bond beauty, 40, before suggesting she is 'freaky in bed' after she cheekily revealed she likes to get frisky with the lights on.

Will stars as a New York advertising exec Howard Inlet, who experiences a deep, personal tragedy, while Naomie plays Madeleine, a councillor helping him.

Having clearly forged a close bond during filming, the duo have been united in blazing the promotional trail together - where they have been enjoying a number of hilarious jokes.

As they chatted to the panel, they spoke of working together when host Coleen Nolan exclaimed: 'You two are so opposite' before cheeky Will hit back: 'Thats why shes so attracted to me'.

The British beauty and Hollywood hunk were then asked whether they like the lights on or off while getting hot and heavy to which she responded: 'Lights on!'

Cheeky! Will Smith allowed reality to imitate art on Wednesday as he appeared on Loose Women alongside Naomie Harris - where he alleged his stunning co-star is attracted to him

Co-stars and pals: The 48-year-old Hitch actor teased the James Bond beauty, 40, before suggesting she is 'freaky in bed' after she cheekily revealed she likes to get frisky with the lights on

Will, who has been married to actress Jada Pinkett Smith for 19 years, giggled as he said: 'Oooh freaky, shes like lights on, circus lights on the mirror'.

The group then played a game of Snog, Marry, Avoid? in which the participant must choose between three people to kiss, take up the aisle or dodge completely.

Will was asked who he would choose between his Collateral Beauty co-stars, Naomie, Helen Mirren and Keira Knightley - to which he made a shocking confession.

He said: 'From the time I was five, I always dreamed of being married and having a family and snogging leaves me completely and emotionally devastated.'

Loved-up: Will, who has been married to actress Jada Pinkett Smith (pictured) for 19 years, giggled as he said: 'Oooh freaky, shes like lights on, circus lights on the mirror'

A shocked Andrea McClean queried: 'You dont snog them until youre married?!' to which funnyman Will replied: 'I have to be looking to be married to that person... So Im going to marry them all!'

It is clear to see the couple have forged a strong bond with their playful romance, as Naomie cheekily said: 'Will is annoying! Exactly like an annoying brother! No hes amazing...

'Wed have hordes of people descending down the street and he would sign every autograph and take every selfie he always had time for his fans'.

Living it out: In the movie, Will's character Howard's colleagues devise a unique plan to break him out of his depression following his devastating tragedy, which ends up working, but not in a way that anyone imagined

In the movie, Will's character Howard's colleagues devise a unique plan to break him out of his depression following his devastating tragedy, which ends up working, but not in a way that anyone imagined.

It is a star-studded cast, with Helen and Keira joining Kate Winslet, Edward Norton, and Michael Pena.
He's become a dad for the very first time last week.

And NRL star Jarryd Hayne has now debuted his adorable newborn on Instagram in a sweet snap from a private Gold Coast hospital.

The father, who shares the baby girl with rumoured girlfriend Amellia Bonnici, 25, rested the youngster on his muscular chest as he looked down at her in awe.

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'Daddy's girl': NRL star Jarryd Hayne debuts adorable snap with newborn daughter he shares with rumoured girlfriend Amellia Bonnici... after meeting on Instagram earlier this year

Jarryd and Amellia met on Instagram early this year, and the 28-year-old athlete was surprised to discover she was pregnant, it was claimed at the time.

Captioning the cute image, the footaballer said: 'All praise to god above, for he never makes mistakes!!!! #daddysgirl.'

The sleeping beauty was dressed in a pink onesie and white beanie as Jarryd lay still in a white T-shirt.

It's a girl! Jarryd Hayne (L) and his rumoured girlfriend Amellia Bonnici (R) welcomed their daughter into the world 'a few days ago', The Sunday Telegraph reported

The name of the child is yet to be revealed. Jarryd's manager declined to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia.

Sources told The Sunday Telegraph that Amellia gave birth 'a few days ago' and both parents were 'besotted' with their new child.

It's also understood Jarryd has moved the brunette into his apartment in the Gold Coast and vows to support her.

First time father: It's understood Jarryd has moved the brunette into his apartment in the Gold Coast and vows to support her in raising their daughter. Pictured: Jarryd in June 2016

It is believed the pregnancy played a part Jarryd quitting the San Francisco 49'ers and returning to Australia to play for the Gold Coast Titans.

The couple have remained silent on the topic of Amellia's pregnancy. Jarryd has repeatedly declined to comment, as have family members.

Amellia grew up in Tuncurry, NSW, where her parents still live. She was a student at Great Lakes High School, before graduating and moving to Sydney.

Return home: It is believed the pregnancy played a part Jarryd quitting the San Francisco 49'ers and returning to Australia to play for the Gold Coast Titans

She was living in the beachside suburb of Coogee, when she met Hayne early this year through Instagram, New Idea claimed.

Considering Jarryd's faith - and Amellia's presence at a service of the controversial church recently - it is possible they will raise the child with the help of Hillsong.

Since joining in 2008, after an altercation in a Kings Cross alleyway which almost saw him shot, Jarryd has become a supporter of the church.
Shes no stranger to consistently glamorous displays, but Petra Stunt went back to basics on Tuesday afternoon as she stepped out in Beverly Hills with infant daughter Lavinia.

The wealthy socialite, 28, went make-up free while picking up some last minute festive treats at local stationary store Paper Source.

Petra, the daughter of billionaire Formula 1 owner Bernie Ecclestone, continued a very casual theme by sporting a varsity style bomber jacket over a simple grey T-shirt and gym leggings.

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Low key look: Petra Stunt went back to basics as she stepped out in Beverly Hills with infant daughter Lavinia on Tuesday afternoon

Rounding off her relaxed ensemble, the mother of three opted for understated black sliders, while her tousled blonde locks were easily styled with a simple side parting.

Meanwhile daughter Lavinia, three, embraced a rather more playful theme by sporting a cute mermaid dress and matching green cardigan.

The youngster helped out by carrying a small boxed gift as her mother made her way around the store with an overflowing shopping basket.

Keeping it simple: The wealthy socialite, 28, went make-up free while picking up some last minute festive treats at local stationary store Paper Source

Casual Tuesday: Petra, the daughter of billionaire Formula 1 owner Bernie Ecclestone, continued a very casual theme by sporting a varsity style bomber jacket over a simple grey T-shirt

Finishing touches: Rounding off her relaxed ensemble, the mother of three opted for understated leggings and black sliders, while her tousled blonde locks were easily styled with a simple side parting

It has been a difficult 2016 for Petra, whose 70 million London pad was firebombed back in May.

She took to social media in August to defend herself against trolls who criticised her appearance after she shared a picture of her lips looking fuller.

Then in September, police raided her husband James Stunt's gold bullion firm as part of an investigation into a multi-million pound fraud.

Shop till you drop: Petra picked up a range of last minute goodies ahead of Christmas Day

Big spender: The Los Angeles based socialite made her way around the store with an overflowing shopping basket

Cute: Lavinia embraced a playful theme by sporting a cute mermaid dress and matching green cardigan

Speaking at the time, a spokesman for Stunt said he had been left reeling by the scale of the suspected theft from his business.

Mr Stunt is in his Los Angeles home and was shocked to learn of the raid on Fowler Oldfield and the accompanying arrests, he said.

He was also shocked by the simultaneous exercise of a search warrant at the companys London offices...The company was already conducting an internal investigation into the disappearance of very significant sums of money... which appear to have been misappropriated.

Although no assistance has been sought from Mr Stunt, he intends to cooperate fully with the authorities if requested. He is due to return to London in the next few days.

The same month, Stunt's brother was also found dead in his 3.5 million Berkshire home.
MADISON Goodbye Officer Friendly, hello Officer 9724.

OK, those nice police officers who used to visit elementary schools probably werent really named Friendly, and theres no reason a cop identified by a number cant be as friendly as a cop identified by a name  or that unnamed cops cant give you their names when asked.

But a recommendation by some members of the State Patrol to replace troopers names with their badge numbers on some uniforms strikes me as a depersonalizing move at a time when law enforcement is in need of some personalizing.

The recommendation comes from a report produced after 17 troopers returned from an October deployment to the Dakota Access Pipeline protest site in North Dakota, where law enforcement agencies on the scene were being asked to remove their nametags, State Patrol Col. Charles Teasdale said.

Only uniforms used during protest operations would be nameless, Teasdale said, with the intent of keeping troopers safe from social media trolling and their personal information and families safe from criminals.

A search of newspaper stories from the last year suggests that most police wear nametags and that those who dont, such as those in Boston, are being asked to. Milwaukee police officers are allowed to forgo nametags during protest deployments, according to one report.

I understand troopers concern for privacy  to an extent.

As a reporter in Illinois and since becoming a columnist here, Ive gotten all kinds of blowback online. In Illinois, someone created an anti-Rickert website with my home address.

Newspaper columnists get to have their viewpoints foisted upon the masses in ways that non-columnists dont, though, much as police get to carry high-powered weaponry and detain people in ways non-police cant. Its only fair that with privilege comes greater accountability  and criticism. And if someone steals our identities or threatens our families, well, there are laws against that.

Teasdale wasnt aware of any troopers who had suffered negative consequences from being named online, and he said his intent is not to stifle open discussion. People can easily find him and his contact information online, he said. Theres not an expectation of any privacy there.

Speaking of people in uniforms, letter carriers have long been a threatening sight to dogs  mine included. So the guy who delivers my mail is ready with a treat for my mutt whenever he sees us out walking. Suddenly, that scary mail carrier is the best kind of human  the one with a treat.

Humans probably arent going to gobble treats from a cops hand. But something as simple as knowing a cops name is humanizing  especially at a time when significant portions of the public distrust the police and police have been known to arrive at a scene decked out in military-style equipment.

Cops shouldnt be taking personal information off their uniforms; perhaps they should even be adding it.

Imagine a nametag saying Officer Smith, and below it: Five years on the force, Watertown native, Boys and Girls Club volunteer, Die-hard Milwaukee Brewers fan.

Thats pretty friendly, even when armed.
Sam Johnston has vowed to have a 'pretty weird' summer.

The Bachelorette contestant kicked off the weirdness by posting a photo of himself fondling his nipple as he wrapped up work for 2016.

The electrician and part-time model was seen relaxing on a boat at Sydney's Balmoral Beach as he pulled back his shirt to reveal his nipple.

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Sam Johnston has vowed to have a 'pretty weird' summer, kicking off the weirdness by posting a photo of himself fondling his nipple as he wrapped up work for 2016

He captioned the snap: 'FINISHED WORK FOR 2016! things are going to get pretty weird this summer.'

He added the hashtag 'free the nipple' to the post, on which fellow Bachelorette contestant Jake Ellis commented 'classic'.

Earlier this month the reality TV villain stripped down to his 'birthday suit' on his 28th birthday.

'Birthday suit on my birthday!!!' Sam stripped down for a raunchy bath snap on Instagram on his 28th birthday

The hunk took to Instagram to share some images from a very raunchy bathtub photoshoot.

'Birthday suit on my birthday!!!' wrote the 28-year-old.

In the image, Sam smiled as murky white water protected his modesty.

Naughty pictures on his birthday appear to be a tradition for the brunette hunk, who was spotted lying on a bed without clothes in a picture posted last year.

Something on your mind? In another photo, the male glamour model showcased a more contemplative expression for fans

Dare to bare: The Bachelorette reject has no problem getting naked for the cameras and is often seen posed topless in photos posted to social media

Fans gushed over Sam's envy-inducing physique, some commenting that they wished the water was more transparent.

One fan wrote: 'OMFG I wish that water was clear.' While another commented: 'Best present I have ever received.'

Another wrote: 'Happy birthday big fella!'

What's going on here? Meanwhile, Sam made headlines earlier this year when he posed when he stripped down to nothing, in a racy photo shoot presumably promoting office furniture

Meanwhile, Sam made headlines earlier this year when he stripped down to nothing in an X-rated photo shoot, presumably promoting office furniture.

In one sizzling frame, captured by photographer Jose Alexander, Sam is seen straddling a stool which he had his legs wrapped around while firmly gripping its adjustable lever.

Sam found fame after appearing on The Bachelorette Australia with Georgia Love before being sent home after brutally revealing he was on there to further his career.

'This has just given me like a little kick to get moving quicker': Sam signed his early exit papers on The Bachelorette after admitting he'd joined to further his acting career

'It was like freight train right into the face': Georgia Love was not impressed by his honesty

'I think presenting's kinda cool... it was kind of heading that direction before this,' he explained on the show when on a date with Georgia.

Adding: 'If I left this experience without you, I wouldn't, you know, be absolutely heartbroken.'

It was the line, that clinched Georgia's decision to send Sam packing from the Bachelorette mansion.
She's the Studio 10 host who is known for her comedic social media updates.

And Sarah Harris didn't disappoint fans this Wednesday when she took to Instagram with a cute photo of her toddler son Paul, one, standing precariously close to her picture-perfect Christmas tree.

The image, taken by Sarah as she reclined on her couch, was captioned with: 'Don't even think about it, kiddo.'

'Don't even think about it, kiddo': Sarah Harris didn't disappoint fans this Wednesday when she took to Instagram with a cute photo of her toddler son Paul, one, standing precariously close to her picture-perfect Christmas tree

She also used the hilarious hashtags: #stepawayfromthetree #bustingmybaubles and #lovesshinythings.

Earlier this month, Sarah celebrated her son's first birthday by sharing an adorable and humorous post to Instagram.

The quirky mother-of-one commented how this time last year she was in labour with her son and how her life is 'infinitely better with him in it'.

'Happy first birthday Pauly': Sarah celebrated her son's first birthday with a sweet tribute to the tot on Instagram on Friday

'Bout this time last year I was sucking down happy gas between contractions and screaming at Tom that he was never going to touch me, ever, EVER again (sic).

'An hour later, my baby boy was born. My life is infinitely better with this smiley little man in it. Happy first birthday, Pauly,' she added.

The picture posted to Sarah's Instagram sees her baby boy wearing a navy knit jumper, tiny polo shirt and banana patterned bucket hat while sitting in his stroller.

The beaming one-year-old couldn't look happier in the picture posted by his doting mother.

The apple of her eye: The blonde TV host often posts sweet pictures of her son on Instagram

More time: Sarah is taking a break from her Studio 10 hosting gig over summer

Doting dad: Sarah shares her son Paul (R) with her husband, Tom Ward (L), whom she married in 2014

Sarah shares her son Paul with her husband, Tom Ward, whom she married in 2014.

Meanwhile, earlier this year the popular television host announced she was giving up her hosting duties for Bachelorette's Georgia over the summer.

She marked the occasion by posting a selfie with Georgia in the studio.

She wrote in an accompayning caption: 'When I saw first saw this gorgeous gal stumble down the stairs in a fancy gown - without spilling a drop of champagne! - on The Bachelorette, I thought, 'this bird is awesome'.

Taking a break: Earlier this year the popular television host announced she was giving up her hosting duties for Bachelorette's Georgia over the summer

'And I can happily report that @georgiealove is just as adorable in real life as she seems.

'She'll be sitting in my chair and running the show in a few weeks. I've warned her about @joe_hildebrand's bananas (not a euphemism as loyal viewers of @studio10au know).

'And about @jonoanddano (also not a euphemism). You're in safe hands lady face! Knock 'em dead.'
She made her public debut a week ago at her famous father's Hollywood Walk Of Fame ceremony.

And now, two months after her birth, UsWeekly has revealed the name Ryan Reynolds and wife Blake Lively have chosen for their youngest daughter.

It's Ines, the magazine reported Wednesday.

Cute: UsWeekly has revealed that Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have chosen the name Ines for their second daughter, pictured with her dad last week in Hollywood

The couple clearly have a penchant for choosing pretty and interesting monikers for their kids.

Ines' older sister is called James.

Ryan, 40, and Blake, 29, brought both girls along as the Deadpool star received his Hollywood star last Thursday and the two tots almost stole the show with their cuteness.

Genetically blessed: The couple brought two-month-old Ines and her older sister James, two, to Ryan's Hollywood Walk Of Fame ceremony in their first public appearance as a family of four

Daddy's little girl: The adorable infant snuggled up to the Canadian actor who gently cradled her in his arms

Already a star: Big sister James lapped up all the attention, even stealing the microphone and hamming it up on the red carpet

The Hollywood pair who tied the knot in 2012 are notoriously private when it comes to their family life.

But Ryan explained that he wanted to have his children present at the very special event.

'This is one of the rare occasions when we thought we got to bring the whole clan. Id regret it in 20 years if I didnt,' he explained to Extra.

And in his speech, the Canadian actor, who was previously wed to Scarlett Johansson, paid tribute to his blonde actress second wife.

'I want to thank my wife, Blake, who is sitting right there who is everything to me. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me,' he gushed.

'You make everything better. You make everything in my life better. You've given me two of the most incredible children I've ever hoped to have.'

So happy together: The Deadpool star and the Gossip Girl actress married in 2012. Ryan was previously wed to Scarlett Johansson
Following last weekend's explosive and very public fight between Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna, his famous family has reportedly had enough.

Worried that the former stripper is simply using them for fame and fortune, sisters Kim, Kourtney and Khloe are now urging their younger brother to split up with the mother of his one-month-old daughter Dream.

'They dont support the relationship,' a source tells People. 'Some of his family members want Rob to split up with Chyna so they can say, We told you so Rob. You deserve better.''

A family divided: New reports Wednesday claim that Rob Kardashian's famous family are urging him to end his relationship with Blac Chyna after last weekend's explosive row

The situation is so bad, momager Kris Jenner may be prepared to personally intervene.

According to the new issue of Star magazine, Kris is willing to offer Chyna a pay off of $5 million to hand over custody of Dream to Rob and walk away from the reality clan.

'Five million is about all Rob is worth, so Chyna would be smart to consider Kris' offer,' an insider told Star. 'Everyone knows she doesn't love him - she could cash out now and get on with her life.'

'We told you so': Rob's sisters Kourtney, Kim and Khloe believe their younger brother 'deserves better' and no longer support the relationship between him and the former stripper

Prepared to write a check: Momager Kris Jenner is 'willing to offer Chyna $5 million to hand over custody of Dream to Rob and walk away', according to the new issue of Star magazine

Rob and Chyna's knock down fight erupted just 24 hours before the broadcast of their Rob & Chyna Baby Special on E! on Sunday night.

But the Arthur George sock entrepreneur, 29, insisted on social media that the dramatic spat wasn't about getting ratings for the E! reality show, that's just been renewed for a second season.

Instead, he declared himself heartbroken that Chyna, 28, had upped sticks and left the home he'd been preparing for Christmas taking their baby daughter with her.

'Oil and water': The couple's volatile relationship exploded on social media on Saturday, but while Rob declared himself 'heartbroken', Chyna was getting her wig trimmed

New parents: Rob and Chyna welcomed baby daughter Dream a month ago

It followed the leaking on Chyna's hacked Instagram account of text messages purporting to be between her and her lawyer about her desire to trademark the Kardashian name to make money from it and between her and BFF Treasure in which she described her fiance as 'fat' and 'lazy.'

The hacking incident followed an alcohol-fueled outburst that was so intense, Rob needed help from his mother's boyfriend Corey Gamble to escape his lover's attack.

Chyna 'was in a drunken rage' as she fought with Rob, and 'was punching him in his back and arms,' sources told E! News.

But by Monday, the feuding couple had made up with Rob apologizing via social media and stating he would seek help for his mental health issues.

'They are like oil and water,' a source tells the new issue of People. 'They're both so dramatic.'

'And it's really sad for Dream,' the insider added. 'It's just not healthy for her parents to be constantly fighting.'
Jonathan Cheban is heading off to Miami for Christmas.

But before packing his bags, the Keeping Up With The Kardashians guest star found some time to post a throwback photo from his old party days in the Florida city.

'Found this amazing Miami throwback pic as I'm packing for a Miami Christmas can't wait for the ,' the Celebrity Big Brother star wrote.

Found this amazing Miami throwback pic as I'm packing for a Miami Christmas I can't wait for the  A photo posted by Foodgod (@jonathancheban) on Dec 21, 2016 at 7:38am PST

In the shot he is with his friend Kim Kardashian. The image was taken when leaving Zuma Japanese Restaurant at the EPIC Hotel in Miami in 2012.

Kim is showing off her figure in a form-fitting pink dress that looks like it's from Herve Leger and she has on peep-toe platform heels.

The beauty's raven hair is worn down and in soft waves that almost hide her large gold earrings. Kim is holding a pink clutch and appears to be in a serious mood.

Close: Jonathan Cheban with Kim Kardashian in Miami in September

Cheban has on a black shirt and jeans with a long necklace and black belt.

This post comes after Kim was seen with husband Kanye West for the first time in public since her October 3 robbery in Paris.

The two were side by side outside Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica.

There he is! He held onto a Starbucks coffee and a cell phone while modeling an all black outfit

The rapper looked healthy even though he has recently been treated at the UCLA Medical Center after being placed on a 5150 hold and underwent psychiatric evaluation.

Meanwhile, Cheba was recently in Beverly Hills where he stopped by Dr Ourian's Epione Center.

He held onto a Starbucks coffee and a cell phone while modeling an all black outfit.

The reality TV vet was also seen shopping in Beverly Hills with a hoodie on.
Gal Gadot was spotted recently enjoying a stroll in Tel Aviv with her husband Yaron Varsano.

Though her flowing black top largely downplayed her bump, her second pregnancy was still evident beneath her outfit.

The 31-year-old seemed the picture of cheer as she ambled along in tight black leggings that showcased her sculpted legs.

Out and about: Gal Gadot was spotted recently enjoying a stroll in Tel Aviv with her dashing husband Yaron Varsano

Her top's sloping neckline nearly slid off her left shoulder, exposing a fair bit of the Rosh HaAyin native's black bra strap, and the fabric was pocked with small holes.

In the accessories department, Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice star went with black cat-eye sunglasses, and she'd worn black and brown leather boots.

Meanwhile, her spouse of eight years wore a loose white V-neck T-shirt that bared a bit of his chest and had flung a pearl grey hoodie on top.

What to expect: Though her flowing black top largely downplayed her bump, her second pregnancy was still evident beneath her outfit

Frayed chic: Her top's sloping neckline nearly slid off her left shoulder, exposing a fair bit of the Rosh HaAyin native's black bra strap, and the fabric was pocked with small holes

The couple have got a daughter called Alma, born in 2011, and the actress announced her second pregnancy via Instagram last month.

Gadot's recently found herself enmeshed a controversy involving Wonder Woman, whom she's played in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice and whom she'll feature as again in Justice League next summer.

This October, the United Nations headquarters in New York City played host to a ceremony naming the fictional character an Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls.

'So excited to share this wonder with you': The couple have got a daughter called Alma, born in 2011, and the actress announced her second pregnancy via Instagram last month

Gadot and Lynda Carter, who'd played the superhero on an eponymous 1970s ABC show, attended the fete whilst protesters gathered outside.

Since then, members of UN staff wrote an online petition to outgoing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, bewailing the ambassadorship and demanding that the organisation 'reconsider.'

'It is alarming,' they fretted, 'that the United Nations would consider using a character with an overtly sexualised image at a time when the headline news in United States and the world is the objectification of women and girls.'

Flung into a controversy: Gadot's recently found herself at the centre of a furore involving Wonder Woman, whom she's played in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice and whom she'll feature as again in Justice League next summer

'That's not fair': The ambassadorship's since been revoked amid criticism that Wonder Woman is 'overtly sexualised,' and Gadot's clapped back that 'When people argue that Wonder Woman should "cover up," I dont quite get it'

That petition gained 44,893 supporters out of a 45,000 goal, but still struck its intended blow: last Friday, the UN revoked Wonder Woman's ambassadorship.

'When people argue that Wonder Woman should "cover up," I dont quite get it,' Gadot fumed to Time in an article that ran online this Monday.

'They say: "If shes smart and strong, she cant also be sexy." Thats not fair,' insisted the former Israel Defence Forces soldier. 'Why cant she be all of the above?'
She is getting Oscar buzz for her role in La La Land.

But as America's sweetheart Emma Stone graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine's January issue, it became evident the acclaim has not gone to her head.

The 28-year-old star looked fierce and confident on the front of the magazine, but within its pages, she talked about the debilitating anxiety she suffered from as a young child and how she got through it.

She's tops: Emma Stone graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine's January issue

The Spider-Man actress wore a thin silk slip in a nude colour that nearly matched her skin tone perfectly with lace hems for the cover shoot, allowing one strap to slide off her shoulder.

In the interview, Emma described what it was like to be just seven years old with severe anxiety.

'I was convinced the house was burning down,' she said. 'I could sense it... a tightening in my chest, feeling I couldn't breathe, like the world was going to end.'

'I would ask my mom a hundred times how the day was gonna lay out. What time was she gonna drop me off? Where was she gonna be? What would happen at lunch? At a certain point, I couldn't go to friends' houses anymore  I could barely get out the door to school.'

To deal with the anxiety, the starlet joined a youth theater group, where she began to practice acting, sketch comedy, and improv - which could potentially be the reason behind why the likable actress has garnered such success in Hollywood today.

'You have to be present in improv, and that's the antithesis of anxiety,' the award winning starlet divulged.

The actress - who achieved her Hollywood dreams when she was cast for Superbad - also revealed that directors have stolen her jokes before to give to her male co-stars.

Her film La La Land hit theaters on December 9th and is already receiving Oscar buzz.

'There have been times when I've improvised, they've laughed at my joke and then given it to my male co-star,' Stone confessed.

Her film La La Land hit theaters on December 9th and is already receiving Oscar buzz.

Up next for the talented star is the Billie Jean King biopic titled Battle of the Sexes, for which she had to put on 15 pounds of muscle.

The film is set for release in 2017.
She recently confirmed she'll be taking part in the new series of Celebs Go Dating.

And Ferne McCann proved it won't be difficult for her to find a romantic suitor as she sent temperatures soaring with a steamy selfie on Wednesday.

The former TOWIE star, 26, oozed sex appeal as she showed off her busty cleavage in a skimpy black bra, which was teamed with a edgy biker jacket draped on her shoulders.

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Saucy siren: Ferne McCann, 26, oozed sex appeal in a titillating behind-the-scenes Instagram selfie as she showed off her busty cleavage in a skimpy black bra and biker jacket

Ferne looked every inch the sex-kitten as she forewent a top to show off her ample cleavage in her barely-there undergarment.

Keeping to the sultry look, she raised one immaculately groomed eyebrow while her brunette tresses sexily tousled forth.

The reality star seductively placed the tip of her thumb into her mouth as she showed off the rest of her deep red manicure.

'That's a wrap on 2016 @shopmatalan JAN 2017.@makeupbymikey you transformed me. Thankyou bubs loved my hair & makeup,' Ferne captioned the snap, hinting at an upcoming campaign.

Glamourpuss: Ferne flaunted her ample assets in a chic low-cut dress cut down to her waist as she posed in front of Tower Bridge the night before

Clearly confident with her racy cleavage-baring look, Ferne took a very glamorous night stroll in a plunging black dress along the Thames on Tuesday evening, soaking in the sights of the capital.

The brunette wore her chestnut locks loose, letting them cascade around her shoulders and down toward her cleavage - which was being paraded in the decadent dress.

Ferne wore the velvety long-sleeved gown, which was adorned with a three-ringed accessory, with pride as she gazed into the distance and pouted.

The hem was fairly high, subtly displaying her toned pins and she carried a stylish black bag.

TOWIE bridge: Although it's not clear who was with Ferne, she is thought to be single and so not on a romantic night out with anyone

She captioned the snap, which she uploaded to Instagram, with a simple word: 'Views.'

Clearly in awe of the London skyline, Tower Bridge looked majestic behind the TV personality, lit up in the December night.

Although it's not clear who was with Ferne, she is thought to be single and so not on a romantic night out with anyone.

The star has confirmed she'll be taking part in the new series of Celebs Go Dating, which last season featured fellow TOWIE alum Joey Essex.

She has enjoyed the odd flirtation with television personalities over the past year, including two former I'm A Celeb... contestants.

Double trouble: Ferne will feature on a new series next year documenting a road trip around Italy with Vicky Pattison [pictured L]

Last year it was George Shelley, who she became very close with in the jungle when she was on the show with him; they later denied any romance.

And last week it looked as though this year's runner up Joel Dommett had his eye on her.

Having readily admitted to having a crush on him while she was commenting on the show before he left the jungle, the hunky comedian, 30, wasted no time making her a proposition, labelling her a 'lovely girl', despite the fact they hadn't met.

Chatting with Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on This Morning, he was asked how he felt after hearing that she'd publicly declared her love for him.

'Thats lovely,' he admitted. 'I think shes absolutely wonderful.'

Ruth asked Joel if he would consider taking the This Morning showbiz correspondent out on a date, to which he was happy to oblige.
She revealed she's expecting another son last Friday.

And Tori Spelling cradled her bump with love as she stepped out in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The 43-year-old former Beverly Hills 90210 actress - who is getting set to welcome her fifth child - looked radiant as she showcased her burgeoning baby belly.

Son on board! Tori Spelling cradled her bump with love as she stepped out in Los Angeles on Tuesday

The mother-of-four chose a striking dark blue flower-print maxi-dress, as she wrapped up a photo-shoot in the city.

She wore her blonde tresses in a shoulder-length blonde bob.

The star kept up the glamour, adding a red lip to her make-up palette.

Happy mamma: The 43-year-old former Beverly Hills 90210 actress - who is getting set to welcome her fifth child - looked radiant as she showcased her burgeoning baby belly

She added a thick gold necklace as a simple accessory.

Tori and her husband of a decade, Dean McDermott, confirmed they're expecting another son at their gender reveal party last week.

The reality TV couple enlisted their pal Scout Masterson to surprise their entire family by presenting a blue-decorated Christmas tree.

Prints charming! The mother-of-four chose a striking dark blue flower-print maxi-dress, as she wrapped up a photo-shoot in the city

Glam: She wore her blonde tresses in a shoulder-length blonde bob

Masterson then gave Tori and Dean's nine-year-old son Liam a congratulatory bear hug because the boys will now outnumber the girls.

'Well, it's a tie-breaker, boys win!' Spelling conceded before ominously adding: 'We're just going to have to have one more then.'

The baby boy will be the expecting 43-year-old's fifth child after Liam, daughter Stella, 8; daughter Hattie, 5; and son Finn, 4.

'With Liam and Stella we found out at the doctor's office. Hattie and Finn, we didn't find out, we didn't know until they were born,' the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum recalled.

'So this is the first reveal. We really wanted to do it with the kids because they were so excited, and we wanted to do it as a family!'

Reveal: The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum recalled: 'With Liam and Stella we found out at the doctor's office. Hattie and Finn, we didn't find out, we didn't know until they were born'

The ediTORIal blogger added: 'So this is the first reveal. We really wanted to do it with the kids because they were so excited, and we wanted to do it as a family!'

Hattie's not thrilled! The baby boy will be the expecting 43-year-old's fifth child after Liam, daughter Stella, 8; daughter Hattie, 5; and son Finn, 4

It's the sixth for the Canadian 50-year-old, who's also father to 18-year-old son Jack with his first wife Mary Josephine Eustace.

They have been battling their financial woe, with the couple being sued for more than $200,000, according to TMZ.

City National Bank claimed the couple defaulted on a $400k loan they took out in 2012, the site reported.

The bank insist the realty stars still owe $188k, as well as a further $17k that Tori allegedly withdrew from her checking account.

Trust issues: The duo were both already married when they had an affair on the 2005 set of Lifetime movie Mind Over Murder

The fame-hungry duo were both married when they had an affair on the 2005 set of Lifetime movie Mind Over Murder.

Spelling and McDermott's marriage survived an alleged 'affair' in 2013 with 28-year-old Toronto woman Emily Goodhand, whom many believe doesn't actually exist.

The Mother, May I Sleep with Danger actress just appeared on RuPauls Drag Race champ Bianca Del Rio's comedy special Not Today Bianca, which aired Thursday on Logo TV.
As impressive as Tom Hanks is on the silver screen, he's one heck of a nice guy off of it.

The fan-friendly A-lister, 60, has added another memorable footnote in his interactions with the public, this time giving a Toronto woman named Zena Gopal a once-in-a-lifetime thrill after he responded to her letter in inimitable fashion.

Gopal said she had written to Hanks - praising his work for the 1996 film That Thing You Do! - as part of a wager she made with friends to see who could get a famous person to respond to them with a selfie (alongside a head shot she sent in).

Everyman: Tom Hanks, 60, responded to one fan's letter with his inimitable charm, including this humorous shot of himself

From the heart: The legendary actor typed this letter to Zena Gopal, a fan of his in Toronto

Good guy: Hanks, one of the most recognizable men in the world, continues to impress fans with his warm, approachable demeanor. Here, the actor was pictured at last month's Sully premiere in London

Three weeks later, Gopal said she heard back from the two-time Academy Award winner, who not only honored her picture request, but accompanied it with a nice note, as well.

In a typed letter dated December 8, 2016, on paper with the masthead 'Hanx,' the Big star chatted up his fan about random musings, even apologizing for his scruffy look in the Polaroid photo he responded with.

'Sorry for the beard, but I have some shooting coming up and I must have whiskers,' the Forest Gump actor told Gopal.

Life imitates art: Like his trademark role Forest Gump, Hanks has been honored by the White House, as he accepted a Presidential Medal of Freedom last month from President Barack Obama

Stronger than ever: Hanks and his wife of 28 years, Rita Wilson, posed this month at the Critics' Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California

The Saving Private Ryan star peppered his note to Gopal, a resident of the Toronto, with some local flavor to boot.

'Toronto, huh? Damn fine town,' he wrote. 'Growing fast, all those condo towers down on the lake. Nice views, I guess.

'I have not been there since one of the Film Festival dates sometime back.'

Marital bliss: Hanks in September posed for shots with a newlywed couple in NYC's Central Park

After asking Gopal if she was ready for Christmas, Hanks shared his own anecdote about the musically-oriented film he wrote, directed and appeared some 20 years ago.

He wrote, 'For the record, I still find myself humming some of the music from That Thing You Do like you. I was always partial to the songs "Dance With Me Tonight" and "Drive Faster."'

He joked about the snapshot he took of himself, telling Gopal, 'This Polaroid has been developing as I have been typing. The thing is scary.'

Sealed with a kiss: The actor continues to give fans once-in-a-lifetime memories with each rendezvous

The actor advised Gopal to 'throw deep, always,' before signing his name to conclude the priceless letter.

Describing herself as 'totally floored' that the Green Mile star responded, Gopal told CBC News that 'it was just really cool to see that he reads his fan mail.'

She added, 'It made me laugh, it really made my day,' noting that she agreed with him about the lightning-fast condo development in the city that produced standout rapper Drake.

While most celebs don't have close to this type of correspondence with their fans, most celebs aren't Hanks: The Philadelphia star this past September made a couple's wedding shots newsworthy when he stopped to say hello and pose with them in Central Park.

Then, in October, he sent an artist named Denise Esposito a typewriter after she presented him with a book of her sketches.
It is one of fates cruel jokes that conservatism should be at its modern nadir just as the Republican Party is at its zenith  if conservatism is defined as embracing limited government, displaying a rational, skeptical and moderate temperament and believing in the priority of the moral order.

All these principles are related, and under attack.

Conservatives believe that human beings are fallible and prone to ambition, passion and selfishness. They (actually, we) tend to become swaggering dictators in realms where we can act with impunity  a DMV office, a hostile traffic stop, a country under personal rule. It is the particular genius of the American system to balance ambition against ambition through a divided government (executive, legislative and judicial). The American system employs human nature to limit the power of the state  assuming that every branch of government is both dedicated to the common good and jealous of its own power.

Conservatives believe that finite and fallen creatures are often wrong. We know that many of our attitudes and beliefs are the brains justification for pre-rational tendencies and desires. This does not make perception of truth impossible, or truth itself relative, but it should encourage healthy self-examination and a suspicion of all forms of fanaticism. All of us have things to learn, even from our political opponents. The truth is out there, but it is generally broken into pieces and scattered across the human experience. We only reassemble it through listening and civil communication.

And conservatives believe that a just society depends on the moral striving of finite and fallen creatures, who treat each other with a respect and decency that laws can encourage but not enforce. Such virtues, often rooted in faith, are what turn families and communities into the nurseries of citizenship. These institutions not only shape good people, they inculcate the belief that human beings have a dignity that, while often dishonored, can never be effaced. In the midst of all our justified skepticism, we can never be skeptical of this: that the reason for politics is to honor the equal value of every life, beginning with the weakest and most vulnerable. No bad goal  say, racial purity or communist ideology  outweighs this commitment. And no good goal  the efficiency of markets or the pursuit of greater equality  does either.

So how do we get this set of beliefs and commitments when they seem in short supply? It is hopeless to demand results from an organic process  to order the grass to grow faster. But this type of conservatism  a conservatism of intellectual humility and moral aspiration  also has the advantage of being an organic process. It grows with tenacity in hidden places, eventually breaking down the cement and asphalt of our modern life. It appeals to people who would never call themselves conservatives  who probably wouldnt use words like nadir and zenith  who provide examples of hard work, personal responsibility, unfailing decency, family commitment, quiet faith, inspiring compassion and resilience in adversity. They are the potential recruits of a humane political conservatism.

This is not the political force that has recently taken over the Republican Party  with a plurality in the presidential primaries and a narrow victory in November. That has been the result of extreme polarization, not a turn toward enduring values. The movement is authoritarian in theory, apocalyptic in mood, prone to conspiracy theories and personal abuse, and dismissive of ethical standards. The president-elect seems to offer equal chances of constitutional crisis and utter, debilitating incompetence.

The plausible case that Russian espionage materially contributed to the election of an American president has been an additional invitation to anger. Now, not only the quality but also the legitimacy of our democracy is at stake. This extreme threat would seem to require a commensurately radical response  some way to change the outcome.

But what is the proper conservative response? It is to live within the boundaries of law and reality. There is no certain way to determine if Russian influence was decisive. And no serious constitutional recourse seems to remain. While open to other options, I see none. It will now fall to citizens and institutions to (1) defend the legislature and judiciary from any encroachment, (2) defend every group of people from organized oppression, including Muslims and refugees, (3) expand and defend the institutions  from think tanks to civil liberty organizations  that make the case for a politics that honors human dignity. And pray for the grass to grow.

The plausible case that Russian espionage materially contributed to the election of an American president has been an additional invitation to anger.
She enjoyed an affectionate display with boyfriend Tom Hughes during a rare outing in London on Sunday morning.

And Jenna Coleman was once again joined by the dashing actor as they made a second consecutive joint appearance, this time at a lavish VIP screening of new film Sing Street.

Making an entrance at the Soho Hotel venue, the Victoria star, 30, caught the eye in a smart bohemian ensemble comprised of black turtle neck sweater and sweeping plaid skirt.

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Looking good: Making an appearance at a VIP screening of new film Sing Street, Jenna Coleman caught the eye in a smart bohemian ensemble comprised of black turtle neck sweater and sweeping plaid skirt

Fashion conscious Jenna added to her wardrobe with chunky black boots, while a raffish beret proved to be her only visible accessory.

The actress was in high spirits as she posed for photos alongside a casual looking Tom and guests including Sri-Lankan star Amara Karan.

The VIP event, hosted by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and actor Dominic West, also featured welcome appearances from Sing Street star Lucy Boynton and actress Sophie Taylor.

In good company: Jenna was joined by boyfriend Tom Hughes and Sri-Lankan actress Amara Karan at the Soho Hotel event

A vision in black: Sing Street star Lucy Boynton also attended the lavish event on Wednesday evening

Tom and Jenna have been keen to keep their romance under wraps, despite the rumour mill having first gone into overdrive nearly a year ago.

ITV drama Victoria has just been commissioned for a second series, with both Jenna and Tom reprising their roles as the titular Queen and her consort, Prince Albert.

The drama is likely to air in Autumn 2017 after ratings averaged 7.7 million viewers and the show took a 29.7% share of viewing figures.

Following the premiere of their period drama in August, speculation that they were an item began in September when The Mail On Sunday revealed that they had been enjoying a private romance for almost a year.

Say cheese: Tom, Amara and Jenna raised a glass at the event, which was hosted by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and actor Dominic West

In attendance: de GRISOGONO CEO Fawaz Gruosi and Sophie Taylor let their hair down at the London event

Let's celebrate: (L to R) Dominic West, Alessandra Mastronardi, Fawaz Gruosi and Sophie Taylor

The source said: 'Theyve been together for months, on and off since last summer.'

Another source added: 'The reason the chemistry is so tangible is because they are dating in real life. Those scenes are very real. They are completely hooked on one another.'

It was even reported in late September that the duo had moved in together, having known each other in separate acting circles for as long as three years.

The pair are said to have first met on BBC2 drama Dancing On The Edge but Jenna was in a long-term relationship with fellow actor Richard Madden at the time.

Tom has also had a high profile relationship with Ophelia Lovibond and they had been living together at that time too.
She's the younger sister of Hollywood A-lister Nicole Kidman.

And after experiencing family heartache in recent years, Antonia Kidman is now enjoying an incognito life in Singapore with husband Craig Marran.

The 46-year-old was a recent guest on the No Filter podcast and opened up about her relationship with her famous sister.

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Opening up: Antonia Kidman opened up about her relationship with her famous sister and says stepping out of her shadow has come with 'age' and building a life in Singapore under her married name

When asked if the idea of living in Nicole's shadow had gone away with age, the mother-of-six children agreed.

'I think so, and maybe living in Singapore too,' she answered, adding later in the chat: 'I think it's age also.'

The former TV presenter said being based in Singapore 'has injected anonymity' into her life and she has enjoyed connecting with Australia's ex-pat community.

'I'm Antonia Marran up there and it's lovely, it's good,' she said.

She's especially happy with how that works for the children, noting there are no gossip magazines in the region.

Independent: When asked if the idea of living in Nicole's shadow had gone away with age, the mother-of-six children agreed

Low-key: The former TV presenter (pictured with Craig and sons James and Hamish) said being based in Singapore 'has injected anonymity' into her life

'You're totally out of the loop. The media isn't the same,' she enthused.

The journalist and author noted the family's new home has allowed her to reclaim her identity.

'It's probably why we're still there,' she said. 'Not just for me, but maybe it's another part of it.'

Incognito: The former TV presenter said being based in Singapore 'has injected anonymity' into her life and she has enjoyed connecting with Australia's ex-pat community

The same goes for her Oscar winning sister, who has spent time with her in the island city-state.

'Nicole stayed there and nobody blinked an eye,' she said of her sister's three-day visit, which flew under the radar.

Antonia also revealed the sisters' children are very close, despite living on opposite sides of the world.

Family ties: Antonia with (L-R) mother Janelle, late father Dr. Antony Kidman and sister Nicole in 1990

Thanks to their flexible travel schedules, they are able to come together frequently.

And because they are the same age, Nicole's youngest daughters Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret are especially close with Antonia's kids Sybella and Nicholas.

This especially goes for seven-year-old Sybella, who is more like a sister to her cousins.

Sibling love: She revealed the sisters' children are very close, despite living on opposite sides of the world. Pictured with Lucia at the premiere of Australia in November 2008

Things haven't been easy for Antonia in recent years.

In 2014, she lost her beloved father Dr. Antony Kidman to a heart attack and six months later, her ex-husband Angus Hawley passed away at the age of 46.

She described the heartbreaking incidents as major events that happened suddenly.

Tough times: In 2014, she lost her beloved father Dr. Antony Kidman to a heart attack and six months later, her ex-husband Angus Hawley passed away at the age of 46

She was married for a second time to Singapore-based businessman Craig in 2010, whom she met through a mutual friend.

'The second time around is being able to choose your partner with a little bit more wisdom,' she noted of their union.

She shares her two youngest sons with Craig - Nicholas and Alexander - and her eldest children - Lucia, Hamish, James and Sybella - with her late ex-husband.
They are The Bachelor's first ever lesbian couple.

And Tiffany Scanlon and Megan Marx celebrated their blossoming relationship by posing topless for the latest Maxim magazine.

On Thursday, Tiffany beamed with pride as she explained why they decided to take part in the controversial photo shoot.

Proud: The Bachelor's iffany Scanlon (pictured) has spoken about her topless Maxim photo shoot with girlfriend Megan Marx

While sharing her excitement with her fans, the reality TV star went into detail as to why they posed for the lads' mag.

'Hey, just me the real human being with real human emotions behind this account. See my face...I'm excited and I'm super proud of what @megan.leto.marx and I have achieved here,' she began to gloat.

'I knew it would be controversial, I knew it would ruffle feathers, I knew there would be criticism and judgement but guess what, I did it anyway!'

Reason: On Instagram, she explained: 'I knew it would be controversial, I knew it would ruffle feathers, I knew there would be criticism and judgement but guess what, I did it anyway'

The busty blonde explained her decision to pose for the magazine because 'it was pretty damn awesome to be asked to be on the cover'.

'@maxim_aus may be sold as a men's mag, but what does that matter? I really like reading it and they have shown us more support than most others and I am proud to shoot with a publication who is as much about pushing boundaries as we are.'

She added: '[Also], I do what I want because I want to; not for anybody else; not to impress or offend or any other reason than because I WANT TO and I honestly don't need anyone's approval.

Loving it: The busty blonde went on to explain she chose to pose for the popular men's magazine because 'it was pretty damn awesome to be asked to be on the cover'

'I have always and will always continue to advocate acceptance and no labels in all areas of life. I don't label myself or my relationship; I simply live and love and create life on my own terms.'

In her post, Tiffany also addressed speculation her relationship with Megan was a publicity stunt.

'If you think that this is some fake anti-feminist, lesbianised sexual, male fantasy then you are only aiding in the judgmental backward thinking of society whether you are straight, gay, bi or however else you choose to label yourself,' she wrote.
KIIS FM's Sophie Monk and Matty Acton's interview with Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt was abruptly cut off on Thursday.

The Hollywood actors' management ended the chat with the Australian radio hosts after Sophie asked a question about their sex lives.

After asking, 'Whats the most adventurous place you have had sex?', the Passenger stars walked away from the telephone interview before a publicist took over.

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Unimpressed: KIIS FM's Sophie Monk and Matty Acton's (L) interview with Hollywood stars Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt (R) was abruptly cut off on Thursday

As Matty and Sophie spoke among themselves about their sexual experiences, they suddenly heard another voice say over the phone, 'Thanks guys'.

Confused by the series of events, Matty continually said 'Hello?' and asked for the Jennifer and Chris to resume the interview.

'We have already wrapped you, sorry,' the manager said, perhaps unaware the interview was broadcast live.

Matty replied: 'Can we say goodbye for our audio or are they gone?'

'We have already wrapped you, sorry': The Hollywood actors' management ended the chat with the Australian radio hosts after Sophie (R) asked a question about their sex lives

Feeling shy? After asking, 'Whats the most adventurous place you have had sex?', the Passenger stars walked away from the telephone interview before a publicist took over

Chris and Jennifer's team quickly shut down the request, saying: 'They are already gone'.

Shocked by the sudden cut-off, Matty blamed Sophie for the incident, asking her: 'What did you do?'

'I didnt do anything,' she replied: 'We ran out of time and I wasted the time on stupid questions. I just asked interesting questions! Thats all I did.'

'I just asked interesting questions! That's all I did': Shocked by the sudden cut-off, Matty blamed Sophie for the incident, asking her: 'What did you do?'

'Who wants to know boring things?' After the interview ended, Matty blamed Sophie for asking a question which upset the Hollywood publicist

'We got cut off,' Matty said as Sophie explained it wasn't 'because (they) were naughty' with their questions.

'Excuse me, what happened to you in that?,' Matty asked.

'I just wanted the good stuff. Who wants to know boring things?' she responded.

Who's the blame?: Matty told Sophie, 'You were like bloody 60 minutes style, just slamming them in there' - but Sophie responded: 'But isn't that what I'm paid to do?'

Revealing: Earlier in the interview, Chris admitted he once had sex in a plane as Jennifer awkwardly replied she 'likes to be safe' in the comfort of her home

Matty explained: 'I get that and I appreciate the questions you asked but you were like bloody 60 minutes style, just slamming them in there.'

Rather confused, Sophie hit back: 'But isn't that what I'm paid to do?'

Earlier in the interview, Chris admitted he once had sex in a plane as Jennifer awkwardly replied she 'likes to be safe' in the comfort of her home.
Expecting parents Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott are already experts at entertaining their four kid family.

On Wednesday, the family was in for a treat when they celebrated the reopening of the Universal Studios ride From Coraline To Kubo: A Magical LAIKA Experience in Los Angeles.

The 43-year-old and her 50-year-old hubby beamed while posing with Tori's visibly growing belly and their other four kids at the event.

It's interesting they seemed to be in great spirits as they were just accused of owing City National Bank a staggering $200,000.

Baby on board! Tori Spelling is already flaunting her growing belly with husband Dean McDermott on Wednesday in LA

According to TMZ, City National Bank claimed the couple defaulted on a $400k loan they took out in 2012, the site reported.

The bank insist the realty stars still owe $188k, as well as a further $17k that Tori allegedly withdrew from her checking account.

The 90210 star has had a long history of financial problems. She also just moved into a new home.

Nice bump! Tori and Dean already have four children together, while Dean has an 18-year-old son from a previous marriage

Family fun: Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott took the whole family to Universal Studios on Wednesday.

Keeping cosy: Tori completed her look with a comfy pair of suede ankle boots

Tori proudly displayed her already apparent baby bump while posing in a festive cream-colored holiday sweater decorated with snowflakes and bears.

The Mother May I Sleep With Danger actress stayed stylish wearing distressed denim and short suede boots with a chunky heel on bottom.

She pinned her platinum blond hair back in a half ponytail and wore a spot of blush adding to her pregnancy glow.

Cuddling up: Tori and Ali Landry posed up a storm as they chatted at the party

On the red carpet, Tori and team hung out with computer animated character Kubo from the 2016 film Kubo and the Two Strings.

The family was there to see the interactive experience From Coraline To Kubo: A Magical LAIKA Experience.

The ride returns to Universal Studios to celebrate off the work of the stop-motion animation studio Laika which also produced The Boxtrolls and Disney's Corpse Bride.

Flying high: The 90210 native was happy to strike a silly pose with the character Kubo from the 2016 animated flick Kubo and the Two Strings

In several solo snaps, the Troop Beverly Hills actress struck some animated poses.

The best selling author spread her wings, flying high with Kubo and Dean couldn't help but join the fun, hopping in for his own pic with the patch-eyed character.

In another shot Tori posed coyly while looking down at her tummy.

New kid coming! The Cthulu actress and husband announced they're expecting a baby boy at the couple's gender reveal party last Friday

The 90's icon is overjoyed with the timing of her newest child.

'This baby happened at the best time. Nothing is ever perfect, but Im so madly in love with my husband and with our kids. The idea of adding to that is such a blessing.'

The star also feels especially blessed for her health right now.

Complications from Tori's fourth pregnancy with son Finn nearly killed her after the star was diagnosed with the dangerous condition placenta previa.

Mine? The Mother May I Sleep With Danger star giggled excitedly while looking down at her growing tummy

Spitting image: Tori appeared impressed with her coffee cup art

Last week, the Kiss The Bride star and hubby announced they're having a boy with a festive gender reveal party.

The couple let family friend and That 70's Show star Danny Masterson deliver the surprise by revealing a blue trimmed Christmas tree to the ten-year strong pair.

The incoming baby boy will be the Stori Telling author's fifth child with the Canadian actor. The pair have a son Liam, 9; daughter Stella, 8; daughter Hattie, 5; and son Finn, 4.

It will be Dean's sixth child; the Slasher actor also has an 18-year-old son from his first marriage.

Heading home: The family trotted off home together following the main event




They were rumoured to have formed a close friendship earlier this week.

Now it has been claimed Fifi Box, 39, is romantically involved with her Neighbours co-star Damien Richardson, 47.

On Thursday, Woman's Day confirmed the actor had separated from his wife, Nicole, and is reportedly dating Fifi.

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Off the market? Woman's Day claimed on Thursday that Fifi Box, 39, is dating her Neighbours co-star Damien Richardson, 47

Damien's management confirmed to Woman's Day he 'has been separated for some time' but did not comment on his relationship with Fifi.

Meanwhile, they were spotted ' kissing as they enjoyed a date' at a Melbourne cafe earlier this month, sources told the publication.

They have also been 'enjoying clandestine meet-ups at Grace Park in Hawthorn and Studley Park Boathouse in Abbotsford'.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Fifi and Damien's representatives for comment.

Moving on? On Thursday, Woman's Day confirmed the actor had separated from his wife, Nicole, and is reportedly dating Fifi. Pictured on Neighbours

On Monday, Woman's Day reported that Fifi's affection for her co-star had led to a friendship off-screen.

The magazine cited an unnamed 'friend' of Fifi's as saying she 'formed a really close friendship' with the father-of-three.

'They just clicked,' said the source.

Close: Fifi and Damien were spotted ' kissing as they enjoyed a date' at a Melbourne cafe earlier this month, sources told Woman's Day

On Neighbours, Fifi's character Brooke Butler and Damien's character Gary Canning are in a romantic relationship.

During an appearance on The Project last month, the radio star opened up about a kiss the pair shared on the Channel Eleven soap.

'How many times did that do that?' host Peter Helliar asked the 39-year-old.

Fifi quickly replied: 'Four times. You do the long shot, the mid-shot, the close-up. I stuffed up once!'

'I bet you did,' added Peter.

Fifi shares one child, a daughter Beatrix 'Trixie' Box, with Grant Kenny.
She has one of the most impressive figures on the planet.

And Alessandra Ambrosio wasn't afraid to showcase it once again as she paraded on the beach in her native Brazil.

The 35-year-old flaunted her stunning beach body in a skimpy two-piece as she enjoyed some fun in the sun with her two children in Florianopolis on Wednesday.

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Life's a beach! Alessandra Ambrosio wasn't afraid to showcase her famous figure as she paraded on the beach in her native Brazil

The yummy mummy turned head in a multi-coloured animal print two-piece which made the most of her toned tummy and cleavage.

The Victoria's Secret Angel also sensibly covered up with a kaftan, as she splashed around in the ocean.

The model bravely took her two children to enjoy the outdoors, despite the weather in the resort forecast having cloud, almost certain rain and highs of a mild 75 degrees.

Fishing for compliments? The 35-year-old flaunted her stunning beach body in a skimpy two-piece as she enjoyed some fun in the sun in Florianopolis on Wednesday

The hands-on-mum set about hunting for crabs and small fishes with her young children at the shore's edge.

She was seen holding a net as she trudged through the briny seawater, alongside Anja, eight, and Noah, four.

Her brunette tresses were worn loose and straight around her shoulders.

Family fun: She enjoyed a beach day with her two children

Looking good: The yummy mummy turned head in a multi-coloured animal print two-piece which made the most of her toned tummy and cleavage

Shore thing: The hands-on-mum set about hunting for crabs and small fishes with her young children at the shore's edge

Where's the sun? The model bravely took her two children to enjoy the outdoors, despite the weather in the resort forecast having cloud, almost certain rain and highs of a mild 75 degrees

Casual: Her brunette tresses were worn loose and straight around her shoulders

She was seen holding a net as she trudged through the briny seawater, alongside Anja, eight, and Noah, four

Splashing about: The trio explored the water together as they try to catch stuff in their nets

Yummy mommy: The beauty shares her children with longtime partner Jamie Mazur, a 35-year-old businessman

Luckily she had stylish dark glasses to hand in case the sunshine did make an appearance.

No doubt she will be hoping the rest of the week warms up so she can get back to enjoying her private family holiday, although there is more rain forecast so she may be forced to cover up.

The beauty shares her children with longtime partner Jamie Mazur, a 35-year-old businessman.

Optimist: Luckily she had stylish dark glasses to hand in case the sunshine did make an appearance

Share with mommy: Alessandra got poised to steal a bite of Noah's ice-cream

I scream: The model got stuck in to the sweet treat

Relax: All the exertion meant she had earned a lie-down in the sand, alongside her daughter

From her range? The Victoria's Secret Angel also sensibly covered up with a kaftan, as she splashed around in the ocean

Stylish; The star kept close to her cell phone as she showcased her long, tanned legs

While Alessandra has walked the runway for Victoria's Secret and a slew of high end fashion brands there is still one aisle she has yet to strut down.

The model has yet to marry Re/Done Jeans founder Jamie - who popped the question back in 2008.

'When I do the wedding it's going to be very special, so I want to take time for that,' she claimed to Extra a year ago.

Bikini and rain! No doubt she's hoping the weather improves so she can hit up the beach




6.5-magnitude earthquake rattles northern Australia

A strong 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled northern Australia and parts of Indonesia Wednesday with residents in Darwin reporting widespread shaking, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The tremor struck off the coast of eastern Indonesia, US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued.

"TV nearly rattled off the cabinet, two storey house was swaying around," said Rosie McCurrach on broadcaster ABC's Darwin Facebook page.

A 6.5-magnitude undersea quake shook Darwin and the Moluccas but there were no reports of damage PEDRO PARDO (AFP/File)

Another poster said: "Mitchell Centre felt like it was going to tumble over," while Gaylene Whenmouth noted: "On 7th floor in the city. Rocking and rolling!"

The undersea quake hit about 278 kilometres (172 miles) east-northeast of Dili in East Timor at a depth of 158 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.

Australia's Northern Territory News said the quake was widely felt across Darwin and surrounding areas.

"Were on the third floor and it gave us a shake, said Darwin-based Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Chris Kent, who said the quake lasted several minutes.

Indonesia's disaster agency said residents in the southwest of the Moluccas island chain also felt the quake but there were no reports as yet of damage or casualties.
South Korean court to mull impeachment, ruling party split

South Korea's Constitutional Court will Thursday start hearings into whether to confirm the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye, with her ruling conservative party deeply split on the issue before a likely fresh election.

The court has up to 180 days to decide whether to uphold or reject parliament's impeachment of the country's first female president on charges ranging from bribery to abuse of power.

Park has been suspended from her duties since the impeachment vote on December 9, with the prime minister taking over.

The impeachment of South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye theatens to split the ruling Saenuri Party JEON HEON-KYUN (POOL/AFP/File)

If the judges back impeachment after hearing from both sides, she will be formally ousted and a presidential election held within 60 days.

But any split in the Saenuri Party would drastically reduce its chances in such a poll.

More than 30 Saenuri lawmakers who have been at odds with Park have vowed to leave, arguing that the party's current leadership refuses to embrace reforms despite the corruption scandal and impeachment crisis.

"We've reached a conclusion that conservatives' reform through the Saenuri Party is impossible", prominent lawmaker Yoo Seung-Min told journalists.

A split would also complicate any potential presidential run by outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who had been widely expected to compete on the Saenuri ticket.

Thirty-five lawmakers have agreed to break away from the party on December 27, the dissident group said, adding they will try to persuade more legislators to join them.

Their departure will leave the party with some 90 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament, relegating it to second place behind the left-leaning Democratic Party.

The group crossed party lines to join opposition parties in passing the motion to impeach Park.

Park is accused of colluding with her confidante Choi Soon-Sil to coerce large companies like Samsung into handing over tens of millions of dollars to two dubious foundations which Choi allegedly controlled and plundered.

Park is also accused of ordering aides to leak state documents to Choi, who has no official title or security clearance, and allowing her to meddle in state affairs including the appointment of top officials.

Investigators on Wednesday raided the state-run National Pension Service in a widening probe into the scandal.

A special prosecutor has been investigating whether Samsung bribed Choi to win state approval for a controversial merger of two of its units last year.

Investigators also said they had sought an arrest warrant for Choi's daughter Jeong Yu-Ra, who is now in Europe.

Samsung, on top of a huge sum it gave to Choi's foundations, allegedly transferred millions more dollars to a Choi paper company in Germany under the pretext of supporting Jeong's equestrian training.

The merger of Samsung units Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T last year was seen as a crucial step to ensure a smooth father-to-son power transfer to Lee Jae-Yong, scion of Samsung's founding family.

It was criticised by many, who said it wilfully undervalued Samsung C&T shares. But the National Pension Service -- a major Samsung shareholder -- voted in favour of the deal, which eventually went through.

The NPS oversees 543 trillion won ($461 billion) in funds, making it the world's third largest public pension fund.

Its offices were raided last month by different prosecutors, who also searched Samsung Group offices.

The special prosecutor has taken over the case against Choi from state prosecutors.

She has been formally charged with abuse of power and extortion.
Indonesia police say Christmas bomb plot foiled, three killed

Indonesian police have foiled plans by an IS-linked group for a Christmas-time suicide bombing after killing three suspected militants Wednesday and discovering a cache of bombs, authorities said.

A firefight erupted at a house in South Tangerang 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of the capital Jakarta, with police saying the alleged militants had opened fire at officers.

"We asked the three men to surrender but they fought, with one of them throwing a bomb (at officers). Thankfully the bomb didn't explode and we took firm action against them," said national police spokesman Rikwanto, who goes by one name.

An Indonesian anti-terror police officer patrols the grounds of a house after a firefight erupted in South Tangerang, near Jakarta, on December 21, 2016 DEMY SANJAYA (AFP)

He said the group to which the three belong, which is linked to the Islamic State group (IS), had planned to stab a police officer at a police station and wait for crowds to gather before launching a suicide bomb attack around the Christmas holidays.

The targeted location is near a private hospital west of Jakarta, police added.

Bomb squad officers in protective gear have so far detonated six bombs seized from the house and more are expected to be blown up before investigators can enter the building. Police have yet to disclose the total number of bombs discovered on Wednesday.

The plot was disclosed by a group member who was arrested earlier on Wednesday and tipped off police about the three militants and their whereabouts, police said.

The raid came less than two weeks after police arrested four Islamic militants including a female suicide bomber in Bekasi east of Jakarta. They were plotting to bomb one of the guard posts at the presidential palace.

Police said the men in South Tangerang have links to the Bekasi group and to Bahrun Naim, a leading Indonesian militant fighting with IS in Syria who was allegedly responsible for several botched assaults in his homeland.

"These groups are linked to ISIS. Some recruit, some donate, some assemble the bombs and some carried out the attack," another national police spokesman Martinus Sitompul said, using another acronym for IS.

- Easy target -

A security analyst said Indonesians fighting for IS in Syria appeared to have designated the Philippines the safe house for IS-related groups in the region. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, had become the main target of terror attacks.

"Indonesia is easier to be a target because (the militants) think it's easier here. Law enforcement is weak and it's easy to get a fake ID," analyst Al Chaidar told AFP.

Police said investigations are continuing into the larger network and its agenda.

In separate raids police also arrested two suspected militants on Sumatra island. It was not clear whether they were part of the group that plotted the Christmas attack.

Nearly a year ago a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Starbucks cafe while others blew up a police post and attacked police in Jakarta's main thoroughfare, in the first attack claimed by IS in Southeast Asia.

The attack killed four civilians and four militants.

Indonesia suffered a string of deadly homegrown attacks during the 2000s -- including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed over 200 people.

A sustained crackdown has weakened many of the most dangerous extremist networks but there have been fears of a resurgence in militancy.
Japan backs off pregnancy clause for Syria refugees

A Japanese programme aimed at accepting a small number of refugees from war-torn Syria promised Wednesday to remove language from documents which implied that pregnant women are not welcome to apply.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced in May that immigration-shy Japan, with a population of about 127 million, would accept up to 150 Syrian students over five years from 2017.

That number compares with vastly higher figures in other countries. Norway, with a population of about 5.1 million, has pledged to accept 9,000 Syrians.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced in May that Japan will accept up to 150 Syrian students over five years from 2017 DELIL SOULEIMAN (AFP/File)

Abe separately pledged at a refugee summit hosted by US President Barack Obama in September that Japan was also prepared to "warmly welcome" family members of the students.

But the Japanese unit of Amnesty International has raised concerns that the programme for Syrians virtually excluded pregnant women.

As advertised, the programme -- entitled "Japanese Initiative for the future of Syrian Refugees" -- has several requirements for applicants.

Originally, it included the line: "Pregnant applicants are not recommended to apply," according to Amnesty and the government's Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which manages the programme.

But after Amnesty and other groups expressed concern, it was changed to read: "Before the application, pregnant applicants are advised to consider carefully potential risk of health and life issues of mother and foetus."

JICA spokesman Satoshi Murakami, however, said late Wednesday that the organisation would remove the clause as it was creating "misunderstanding".

He had earlier in the day told AFP the programme's main focus was "not to rescue the underprivileged but to educate personnel" for Syria's reconstruction.

"When a pregnant woman comes to Japan and gives birth, she will have to rest for some time," he said, though stressing that the programme was not meant to exclude expectant women.

Amnesty International had objected to that stance.

"The requirement is problematic because it narrows the window for female applicants," said Kaoru Yamaguchi, who added that it discourages refugees from applying.

In March British charity Oxfam assessed Japan should take in some 50,000 Syrians based on the size of its economy.
Dalai Lama will not visit Mongolia again, says government

China said Wednesday it hoped Mongolia could "draw lessons" from the fallout over hosting the Dalai Lama after the Mongolian foreign minister announced that the Tibetan spiritual leader would no longer be allowed to visit the country.

Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil said Tuesday that the Dalai Lama would not be allowed to visit in the future, even for religious reasons, the official Xinhua news agency cited the Mongolian newspaper Today as saying.

The Nobel laureate had met with Buddhist worshippers in Ulan Bator in November, despite Beijing's strident demands that he be barred from entering the country.

Beijing views the exiled Dalai Lama as a separatist bent on breaking apart China GIUSEPPE CACACE (AFP/File)

Following the visit, it was widely reported that China had taken punitive measures against Mongolia, including stopping trucks carrying coal from crossing the Chinese border, a move with heavy repercussions for Mongolian mining concerns.

At a regular press briefing on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Tibet-related issues bore on the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"We hope that the Mongolian side can draw lessons from this, respect China's core interests, honour its commitment and make efforts to improve China-Mongolian relations," she said.

Mongolia is home to devout Buddhists, whose religion is closely related to the Tibetan tradition, but the landlocked country is heavily dependent on trade with China, and Ulan Bator has tried to avoid angering its giant neighbour.

Beijing views the exiled Buddhist monk as a devious separatist bent on breaking apart China and consistently condemns foreign leaders who meet with him.

The Dalai Lama says he seeks more autonomy for Tibet rather than outright independence.
IS 'indiscriminately' attacks civilians in Mosul: HRW

The Islamic State group is "indiscriminately" attacking civilians who refused to retreat along with the jihadists in the Iraqi city of Mosul, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

Iraqi forces launched a massive operation to retake the last IS-held city in Iraq more than two months ago, and have pushed the jihadists out of several neighbourhoods on Mosul's eastern side.

"Fighters with the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) have indiscriminately attacked civilian areas in eastern Mosul with mortar rounds and explosives, and deliberately shot at fleeing residents," HRW said.

Materials used by Islamic State group members to make explosives, at the Saint George Church in Qaraqosh, 30 km east of Mosul JM Lopez (AFP/File)

"Residents said ISIS members told them in person, by radio, and over mosque loudspeakers that those who stayed behind were 'unbelievers' and therefore valid targets along with the Iraqi and coalition forces," the rights group said.

But Iraqi and US-led coalition forces seeking to oust IS from Mosul are also responsible for endangering civilians, HRW said.

Some IS attacks occurred in places "where Iraqi military forces had positioned soldiers inside homes or on residential rooftops in densely populated areas," it said.

And five witnesses described three separate strikes carried out by either Iraq or the coalition that targeted IS fighters but also killed civilians, HRW said.
Canada's Brookfield buys Indian mobile tower business for $1.6bn

Indian internet and telecoms company Reliance Communications said Wednesday it had agreed to sell its mobile phone tower business to Canadian asset management giant Brookfield for $1.6 billion.

Reliance Communications said the deal represented the largest investment by a foreign investor in Indian infrastructure and comes as Brookfield seeks to capitalise on liquidity constraints at major Indian firms.

Indian companies are struggling to acquire capital as the central bank puts pressure on lenders to address bad loans. Firms are choosing asset sales to boost coffers and reduce debt, Bloomberg has reported.

India's Reliance Communications is selling its mobile phone tower business to Brookfield of Canada for $1.6 bn Loic Venance (AFP/File)

In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Reliance Communications said it was announcing the "signing of binding agreements" with Brookfield Infrastructure to sell its nationwide tower assets for 110 billion rupees.

"(Reliance Communications) will utilise the upfront cash payment of 11,000 crore rupees ($1.6 billion) solely to reduce its debt," the firm, led by Indian billionaire tycoon Anil Ambani, said in the statement.

"The transaction will represent the largest ever investment by any overseas financial investor in the infrastructure sector in India," it added.

Reliance Communications said the sale, together with its recent merger with Aircel, would help reduce its overall debt by nearly 70 percent, sending its shares on the BSE's Sensex soaring by almost nine percent.

The Indian company said that while its tower business would be demerged into a separate company that would be 100 percent owned by Brookfield Infrastructure, it would benefit financially from non-voting shares.

"The company expects significant future value creation from these class B shares owing to the 4G rollout and the expected growth of the telecom industry," said the statement.

India's increasingly competitive telecoms market is undergoing a 4G revolution as major players including Vodafone, Idea, and Reliance Jio, which is owned by Anil Ambani's older brother Mukesh, and Bharti Airtel vie for dominance.

Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that Brookfield was in talks to take over Bharti Airtel's wireless tower business, Bharti Infratel, as it said the Canadian firm was looking to expand its Indian portfolio.

It comes as the Reserve Bank of India is forcing banks to clean up their balance sheets.
Tokyo 2020 slashes budget to $17 bn

Tokyo Olympics organisers unveiled a smaller budget of up to $17 billion on Wednesday after coming under pressure to cut ballooning costs.

The figure, down from last month's pledge to cap spending at $17.78 billion, follows warnings that the bill for the 2020 Games could soar as high as $30 billion.

Organising committee chief executive Toshiro Muto said the entire Games budget would be between 1.6 trillion and 1.8 trillion yen, which he put at $15-16.8 billion.

Toshiro Muto has capped the Tokyo 2020 Olympic budget at 1.8 trln yen Toru Yamanaka (AFP/File)

Under the latest exchange rate, the same yen figure is worth $13.6-15.3 billion. This year's Rio Games cost $12 billion, while London 2012 came in 8.77 billion or $13.7 billion under the exchange rate at the time.

Wednesday's figure, the most complete budget yet for Tokyo 2020, comes after officials scrambled to slash the costs of building some venues.

It was revealed at talks between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Tokyo and national governments, who are meeting regularly to try to cut costs.

"This does give the overall picture," IOC vice-president John Coates said by videolink from Sydney.

"We are pleased with the progress you are continuing to make," he said, adding: "We think that we can work with you to find... more savings."

Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike, who was elected this year vowing to bring down costs, said some 40 billion yen would be saved after a review of the canoeing, volleyball and swimming venues.

"The three-party meeting by the committee, the central government and the Tokyo government, will get to work on specifics early next year," Koike told reporters, with "cost-sharing" on the agenda.

"I want to strictly check who will pay for what as swiftly as possible."

In the battle to cut costs, she had proposed moving the canoeing venue 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Tokyo to Miyagi prefecture, one of the areas hardest hit by Japan's 2011 tsunami disaster.

But the idea faced resistance from the organising committee, which argued that changing sites was impractical and could end up costing more.

Koike dropped the plan last month and announced that canoeing would stay in Tokyo but with the venue built at a sharply reduced cost.

She also said then that Tokyo would build a new aquatic centre with 15,000 seats, smaller and cheaper than the original plan for a 20,000-seat facility.

And last week Koike said the volleyball venue would stay in the capital but be built at a lower cost.

In a meeting last month, Muto said the organising committee's working budget was capped at less than two trillion yen ($17.78 billion) and officials were committed to pushing it lower.

But Coates refused to accept the figure and said overall costs would have to come down significantly.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium under construction on December 16, 2016 Behrouz Mehri (AFP)
ExxonMobil, ENI, Total to negotiate Cyprus gas exploration

US giant ExxonMobil with Qatar Petroleum, Italy's ENI and France's Total have been selected to negotiate a licence to explore offshore Cyprus oil and gas, officials said Wednesday.

In July, eight energy giants bid for drilling rights at three blocks off the Mediterranean island's southern coast.

ENI and Total were jointly selected as preferred bidders for block 6 and ENI was picked for block 8, while ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum were chosen for block 10.

Cyprus hopes to begin exporting gas, and maybe oil, by 2022 ERIC PIERMONT (AFP/File)

Licenses would let firms prospect in waters near Egypt's Zohr field, where ENI in August 2015 discovered the "largest ever" offshore natural gas field in the Mediterranean.

The Zohr field is estimated to hold some 850 billion cubic metres (30 trillion cubic feet) of gas.

The cabinet has the final say on granting the new licenses for the three blocks.

If "negotiations are successful, and provided that the agreed contract per individual block is approved by the council of ministers, hydrocarbon exploration licenses shall be granted," the cabinet said in a statement.

Cyprus Energy Minister George Lakkotrypis said he hoped negotiations would be finalised by February.

US firm Noble Energy made the first find off the southeastern coast of Cyprus in 2011 in the Aphrodite field, which is estimated to contain around 127.4 billion cubic metres (4.54 trillion cubic feet) of gas.

Italian-South Korean venture ENI-Kogas has so far failed to discover any exploitable gas reserves in deep-sea drilling off Cyprus.

ENI already has the right to exploit three blocks in a zone that borders Egypt's gas fields.

ENI has said exploratory drilling off the island's southern shore will begin next year. Total is also expected to do the same in 2017.

Cyprus planned to build a liquefied natural gas plant that would allow exports by ship to Asia and Europe, but the reserves confirmed so far are insufficient to make that feasible.
Israel ex-president freed after rape term

Israeli ex-president Moshe Katsav was freed from prison Wednesday after prosectors declined to appeal a parole board decision to release him after he served five years of a seven-year term for rape.

Katsav, 71, did not speak to a crowd of journalists gathered outside the Maasiyahu prison near Tel Aviv as he left while surrounded by family.

He was convicted in December 2010 of two counts of rape, sexual harassment, indecent acts and obstruction of justice.

Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav (L), 71, is accompanied by his wife Gila as he leaves prison on December 21, 2016 JACK GUEZ (AFP)

The Iran-born bureaucrat, who rose from impoverished origins as a child immigrant, resigned from the largely ceremonial role of president in June 2007 and became an outcast of the political establishment.

When he entered prison in December 2011, he became the first former president to be jailed in Israel since its creation in 1948.

Katsav had been rejected twice by the parole board since he became eligible for the customary one-third reduction for good behaviour.

He had maintained his innocence, and his previous applications were turned down in part because he had expressed no remorse over his crimes and undergone no rehabilitative process.

Women's rights groups had especially criticised his refusal to acknowledge the facts that led to his conviction and to express regrets.

Israeli media reported, however, that the parole board in its latest decision, announced on Sunday, found that Katsav had more recently "undergone a change".

"The prisoner was asked many questions by the committee members regarding the circumstances of the offence, the victims' positions, his attitude to the victims and his understanding of his acts and their consequences, and the committee members were impressed by the honesty of his intentions," Haaretz newspaper reported the board as saying.

Israel's justice ministry announced Wednesday that prosecutors would not appeal the parole board's decision. They had been given a one-week deadline to do so.

- Release criticised -

Katsav will face restrictions on his movements including a ban on overseas travel and a requirement to be at home between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am.

Judiciary sources said he would also not be allowed to grant an interview for two years, the time he would have had to serve the remainder of his sentence.

The decision to free him has been criticised by a group of opposition lawmakers including the leader of the Meretz party, Zehava Galon.

"This is a dangerous message that you can attack women and get away with it with the least punishment provided you are well-connected," they said in a statement.

A member of the right-wing Likud party, Katsav in 2000 became Israel's first conservative president and the first born in an Islamic country.

For months he defied enormous public pressure to quit over the allegations before ultimately resigning as part of a plea bargain in 2007.

He was replaced as head of state by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and elder statesman Shimon Peres, his rival for the post in a 2000 vote. Peres died in September.

One of eight children, Katsav was born in December 1945 and arrived in Israel three years after the 1948 war of independence.

He was the first Israeli head of state to visit Austria, once annexed by Adolf Hitler as part of Nazi Germany, and Croatia, where an estimated 75 percent of its 40,000 Jews were killed during the World War II Holocaust.

One of Katsav's fellow inmates at Maasiyahu was former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who entered prison in February and is serving 27 months for corruption.

Olmert is the first former Israeli premier to serve jail time.
Germany fingers Tunisian asylum seeker in Berlin market attack

German authorities triggered a Europe-wide manhunt Wednesday for a rejected asylum seeker suspected of involvement in a deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Officials said the suspect, 24-year-old Tunisian national Anis Amri, had already been under investigation for planning an attack, in a development certain to fuel public outrage.

Asylum office papers believed to belong to Amri, alleged to have links to the radical Islamist scene, were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry that rammed through the crowd, killing 11.

Police patrol the area near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, where a speeding lorry crashed into a packed Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring dozens Tobias SCHWARZ (AFP/File)

The twelfth victim, the hijacked truck's driver, was found shot in the cab.

Prosecutors released a European wanted notice with two photos of the dark-haired, brown-eyed suspect and offering a reward of 100,000 euros ($104,000) for information leading to the arrest of Amri, who they warned "could be violent and armed".

Tunisian anti-terrorism police were questioning Anis' family, a security official told AFP, as another source said he had been arrested several times in Tunisia for alleged drug use.

He fled to Italy after the 2011 revolution that overthrew longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and spent three years there before travelling on to Germany, the source said.

"When I saw the picture of my brother in the media, I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm in shock, and can't believe it's him who committed this crime," his brother Abdelkader Amri told AFP.

But "if he's guilty, he deserves every condemnation. We reject terrorism and terrorists -- we have no dealings with terrorists."

- Deportation debate -

The interior minister of Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia state, Ralf Jaeger, said counter-terrorism officials had exchanged information about Amri, most recently in November, and a probe had been launched suspecting he was preparing "a serious act of violence against the state," Jaeger said.

Prosecutors in Berlin later said that Amri was under investigation for allegedly trying to carry out a robbery to fund the purchase of automatic weapons, "possibly to carry out an attack with accomplices he still hoped to recruit".

But after keeping tabs on him from March until September this year, they failing to find evidence of the plot and stopped the surveillance.

Amri came to Germany in July 2015 but his application for asylum was rejected this June.

His deportation, however, got caught up in red tape with Tunisia, which long denied he was a citizen.

The required documents only arrived Wednesday, two days after the Berlin attack, said Jaeger.

A conservative lawmaker, Stephan Meyer, told reporters Amri was apparently "known to authorities and belonged to the Salafist-Islamist scene".

A previous suspect -- a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker -- was released late Tuesday for lack of evidence, prompting fears of a killer on the loose and further rattling nerves in a shocked country.

Six of the dead have been identified as German while media reported one of the victims was an Italian woman.

Twenty-four people remain in hospital, 14 of whom were seriously injured.

The scenes of the attack revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency said "a soldier of the Islamic State" carried out the Berlin carnage "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries".

There was no evidence to back the claim, nor did Amaq identify the perpetrator.

Germany is part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

Tunisia is one of the biggest sources of jihadist fighters, with some 5,500 of its nationals believed to be involved in combat in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

The Berlin attack comes at a delicate time for Chancellor Angela Merkel who is running for a fourth term in 2017 but has faced strong criticism over her decision last year to open the country's borders to refugees.

The case has inflamed the debate about asylum policy in general, and in particular the speed at which rejected asylum seekers can be deported.

Germany this year moved to declare Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as safe countries of origin, to raise the bar for asylum requests after last year's record influx of around 890,000 people.

But the bill has been stuck in the upper house for months over human rights concerns in those countries.

- High alert -

A Polish man, killed with a gunshot, was found in the articulated truck's passenger seat. The 37-year-old Pole named Lukasz worked for his cousin Ariel Zurawski's transport company in northern Poland.

Zurawski told Polish television he was a "good guy" and said his body showed signs of a struggle with the assailant or assailants including stab marks.

An autopsy indicated that the driver was still alive at the time of the attack, the daily Bild reported.

Europe has been on high alert for most of 2016, with bloody jihadist attacks striking Paris since last year and Brussels.

In Germany, two attacks in July in the southern state of Bavaria were committed by asylum seekers and claimed by IS.

Truck crashes into crowd at Christmas market in Berlin Simon MALFATTO, Paz PIZARRO (AFP)

German Federal Police Office are on the hunt for a Tunisian man identified as Anis Amri, suspected of being involved in the Berlin Christmas market attack that killed 12 people on December 19 HO (BKA/AFP)

Authorities prepare to tow away the truck that ploughed into a Christmas market on December 19, 2016, near Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin Tobias SCHWARZ (AFP/File)
Oil and the Arctic: what is at stake

A US-Canadian move to block new leases for oil or gas drilling in sovereign Arctic waters is designed to protect an area already severely disrupted by climate change.

A quick tour of the Arctic and what is at stake:

- THE ARCTIC -

Oil drilling ban in parts of the Arctic Sabrina BLANCHARD, Simon MALFATTO (AFP)

The Arctic Circle, which starts 66.5 degrees north of the equator, marks an area where on at least one day of the year there will be no light or no night -- and that period is longer, the further north you go.

It covers more than 20 million square kilometres (7.7 million square miles), an area bigger than Russia, cutting through northern Canada, Alaska, Russia, Scandinavia and Greenland. About a third of the area is land.

The part of the Arctic Ocean permanently covered by ice has been diminishing steadily for several decades due to global warming, making the region more accessible to shipping, and thus oil and gas extraction.

The record low ice cover -- 3.41 million square kilometres in September 2012 -- was 44 percent below the 1981-2010 average.

Some of the ocean falls under the national jurisdictions of the countries it borders, but most is not subject to any national laws or regulations.

An Arctic Council created in 1996 to address territorial and political disputes has so far only dealt with peripheral issues such as protocols for sea rescue and oil spills.

- ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS -

The biggest threat -- driven by the burning of fossil fuels -- is climate change, which has pushed temperatures in the Arctic up twice as fast as the worldwide average.

Scientists have calculated that global oil, gas and coal projects already under construction or in operation will push Earth past the threshold of dangerous global warming, heating the planet by more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial era levels.

Developing even a portion of the Arctic's massive as-yet-untapped gas and oil reserves would exacerbate climate change even further.

The region's human communities and wildlife -- from polar bears to bowhead whales, from seals to sea birds -- are also at risk.

Dozens of distinct indigenous cultures within the Arctic depend directly on the ocean and its wildlife for food and income.

Oil production, and spills, difficult to clean up in icy conditions, could threaten livelihoods by damaging fragile ecosystems. Dirty fuel from ships operating in the Arctic is also a source of pollution.

Climate change, meanwhile, has already had a major impact on these mostly coastal communities, some of which are literally falling into the sea.

- NOT ON THE SAME PAGE -

The US decision designates the vast majority of its waters in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas -- an area covering some 50 million hectares (125 million acres) -- as "indefinitely off limits" to offshore oil and gas leasing. Canada said all its Arctic waters were off limits.

Both the United States and Canada have aggressively developed other fossil fuel resources in the last two decades -- gas extracted via "fracking" and oil from tar sands, respectively.

The same is not true for Russia and Norway, whose economies depend heavily on oil, some of which is taken from the Arctic Circle.

"The economy-energy balance of the US is not the same as for Russia and Norway," notes Laurent Mayet, France's representative to the Arctic Council.

- NOT WORTH THE TROUBLE? -

In September 2015, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell abandoned exploratory drilling operations in the Alaskan Arctic, saying not enough oil and gas had been discovered to make extraction worthwhile. The licence had been granted by the Obama administration.

The British company Cairn Energy likewise gave up on its forays, said Pierre Terzian, head of French consulting firm Petrostrategies.

"There were no imminent prospection projects" before the joint US-Canadian announcement, Terzian told AFP. "Why go into the Arctic when there is plenty of oil and gas elsewhere that is technically less expensive to extract and does not carry as much risk in terms of image?"

French group Total has gone further, renouncing the exploitation of oil fields in the Arctic.
Families of Orlando victims sue Facebook, Google, Twitter

The families of three Orlando nightclub shooting victims have filed suit against Facebook, Twitter and Google accusing them of providing "material support" to the Islamic State group by allowing the spread of extremist propaganda that inspired the attack.

The assault by gunman Omar Mateen, who pledged allegiance to IS, left 49 people dead and 53 injured at the Pulse nightclub in June, in the deadliest mass shooting in US history.

The 29-year-old US-born American of Afghan descent was killed in a shootout with police after taking hostages.

A view of the Pulse Nightclub sign in Orlando, Florida GERARDO MORA (Getty/AFP/File)

The families of three of the dead, Tevin Eugene Crosby, Juan Ramon Guerrero Jr., and Javier Jorge-Reyes, filed sued against the internet giants this week for "knowingly and recklessly" allowing IS to exploit social media as a recruiting, fundraising and propaganda tool.

"This material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out or cause to be carried out, numerous terrorist attacks," including the Orlando massacre, the lawsuit alleges, using an alternate acronym for the jihadist group.

In using the term "material support," the suit invoked a legal term that constitutes a crime under American law. It asked for compensatory damages to be awarded at trial.

Facebook responded to the lawsuit by telling AFP the company is "committed to providing a service where people feel safe.

"Our Community Standards make clear that there is no place on Facebook for groups that engage in terrorist activity or for content that expresses support for such activity, and we take swift action to remove this content when its reported to us. We sympathize with the victims and their families," a company statement said.

A Facebook employee, who spoke with AFP on condition of anonymity, said the company "relies heavily on reports from our community" to detect and remove inappropriate content.

Google did not immediately respond to AFP's requests for comment. Twitter declined to comment.

"What they're doing is completely ineffective," said Keith Altman, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

"We think they could be doing more," he said, such as detecting patterns of unusual social media activity that are "strongly suggestive of improper intent."

The three companies, along with Microsoft, announced in December that they were partnering to create a database of digital "fingerprints" to help identify and remove "potential terrorist content."

"There is no place for content that promotes terrorism on our hosted consumer services. When alerted, we take swift action against this kind of content in accordance with our respective policies," the companies said in a joint statement.

Twitter said earlier this year it had suspended more than 360,000 user accounts for violating the company's prohibition on violent threats and promotion of terrorism.

But the lawsuit maintains that the companies have not done enough to curb IS's use of social media.

"Since first appearing on Twitter in 2010, ISIS accounts on Twitter have grown at an astonishing rate and, until recently, ISIS maintained official accounts on Twitter unfettered," the complaint alleges.
Nigerian troops rescue 1,880 civilians from Boko Haram in one week: army

Nigerian troops have rescued 1,880 civilians from a Boko Haram redoubt in the restive northeast in the past week and arrested hundreds of insurgents, a military commander said on Wednesday.

The Sambisa forest, covering about 1,300 square kilometres (500 square miles), is a stronghold of the notorious jihadist group, who kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in 2014.

"During our operations in the period 14-21 December 2016, a total of 1,880 civilians were rescued from Boko Haram enclaves," Major-general Leo Irabor said in a statement after a news conference in the northeastern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday.

Sambisa forest, covering an area of about 1,300 square kilometres (500 square miles), is a stronghold of the Boko Haram islamists

Irabor added: "564 Boko Haram terrorists were arrested while 19 others surrendered to our troops. Also, seven suspected kidnappers and 37 foreigners were equally arrested."

He said several Boko Haram fighters were killed and a cache of arms and ammunitions was discovered in the operation, part of a military campaign launched last year to clear the area of the jihadists.

Hundreds of civilians, including women and children, have also been freed in neighbouring Cameroon, said Irabor. Eight jihadist suspects were subsequently identified among them and taken into custody.

Boko Haram seeks to impose a hardline Islamic legal system in Nigeria's mainly-Muslim north.

It has been blamed for the deaths of at least 20,000 people since 2009. The rebellion has also displaced some 2.6 million people, sparking a humanitarian crisis in the region.

The United Nations has warned that the affected region faces the "largest crisis in Africa".

The UN estimates that 14 million people will need outside help next year because of the ongoing violence, particularly in Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, the country's jihadist heartland.

Since early 2015, Nigerian military with the support of a regional force, have recaptured a swathe of territory from the insurgents.

But sporadic attacks on civilian soft targets have continued in the volatile region, including the use of female suicide bombers.

On December 9, two female suicide bombers killed 45 people and wounded 33 others when they detonated their explosives in a crowded market in Madagali, which has been previously targeted.
Vatican upset China ordination marred by illegitimate bishop

VATICAN CITY (AP)  The Vatican says it was saddened that the ordination of two new Chinese bishops  consecrated with the approval of both China and the Holy See  was marred by the presence of an illegitimate bishop.

In a statement Tuesday, the Vatican said the presence of Monsignor Lei Shiyin of Leshan "created unease for the two involved and turmoil among Chinese Catholics."

Lei is one of several Chinese bishops who have been ordained without the pope's consent. The dispute over bishop nominations is the most vexing stumbling block preventing the re-establishment of diplomatic relations.
DC mayor signs 'Death with Dignity' bill; now up to Congress

WASHINGTON (AP)  District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser has signed a bill that would allow terminally ill patients to end their own lives with the help of a doctor.

The D.C. Council approved the "Death with Dignity" bill in November, and Bowser signed it Monday.

The bill would allow patients with six months or less to live to request lethal medication from their doctors.

The bill now goes to Congress, which will have 30 days to review it. If Congress doesn't take action during that time, the bill will take effect.
Liz Weston: How 3 people changed their financial lives

Lauren Greutman's moment of truth dawned when she sneaked $600 worth of clothes into her closet. She didn't want her husband to see what she had bought  or to know that they were $40,000 in debt.

J.D. Roth hit bottom after buying a home he thought he could afford

Zina Kumok's epiphany came when she saw her student loan payment eating 20 percent of her paychecks.

FILE - This file photo provided by NerdWallet shows Liz Weston, a columnist for personal finance website NerdWallet.com. (Dylan Entelis/NerdWallet via AP, File)

The catalysts were different, but the reactions of these three people in different parts of the U.S. were the same. Years of incurring debt made them realize that they couldn't continue to spend like before.

So they crafted plans, cut expenses and revised their thinking about money to get rid of debt. Because it's the 21st century, they blogged about it  and their success inspired followings that turned their sites into profit centers.

SPENDING REFLECTS YOUR VALUES

For Greutman, shopping was a way to have fun and soothe herself. Growing up, her mother would announce "mental health days" when her daughters could skip school and head to the mall. Later, Greutman shopped to cope with the stresses of being a stay-at-home mom and having a husband who worked 12-hour days. Halfhearted attempts to budget always failed.

"A part of me didn't want to change the way I was spending money, because I liked all the stuff," says Greutman, 35, of Oswego, New York.

She told her husband Mark about their debt, and they worked together and paid off the bills in two years. They sold their house and moved into a less-expensive townhome, freeing up $1,200 a month. Every month, they subjected their spending to a new filter: Did it align with their values of family, faith and financial freedom?

"I valued all of those things, but yet if you looked at my checking account statement, it would look like I valued clothes and food and extracurricular activities," says Greutman, who wrote about her experiences in a new book titled "The Recovering Spender: How to Live a Happy, Fulfilled, Debt-Free Life."

TOMORROW ALWAYS COMES

Roth thinks his journey out of debt  which included $35,000 in credit card bills and personal loans  might have been easier if he'd been clearer about his values from the start. As it was, he was just sick of juggling bills.

In 2004, Roth earned $50,000 as a salesman and computer consultant in Portland, Oregon. His constant financial scramble got worse after he and his then-wife, Kris, bought a home.

"On paper, we could afford it," says Roth, 47. "But once we moved in, I was overwhelmed by the new higher payments and by all of the repairs necessary for a 100-year-old farmhouse."

One night, after bouncing another check, he crafted a three-year plan to pay off the debt  and stuck to it. The biggest challenge, he says, was changing his thinking from a "live for today" mindset.

"I used be one of those who said, 'Well, it doesn't matter if I save because I could get hit by a bus on my way home from work,'" says Roth, who founded the personal finance site Get Rich Slowly and now runs a site called Money Boss. "That's silly.. I was simply making things harder for myself in the long term because I was so focused on immediate gratification."

FOCUS YOUR FRUSTRATION ON DEBT

For Denver resident Kumok, 28, the problem was not having enough immediate gratification. Basic expenses, including student loans, ate up most of her paychecks when she started working at a small newspaper after graduating from Indiana University with $28,000 in student loans.

"I hated how little I had to spend on myself," she says.

Kumok might have been able to pay less per month by using federal income-based repayment plans designed to help struggling borrowers. She instead decided to pay more after learning that just $10 extra each month would shave nearly a year off her 10-year repayment term. She writes on her blog, DebtFreeAfterThree.com, about how she ultimately paid off the debt in three years on an annual income of about $30,000.

"I funneled every decision through the mindset, 'Is it worth buying it or should I use that money to pay off my student loans?'" Kumok says.

That caused tension with friends and even one of her bosses, who couldn't understand why she turned down invitations for meals or drinks. If she had it to do over again, Kumok says she would have cut herself more slack.

"I spent a lot of time stressing about money, which seems silly when I look back," Kumok says.

This column was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet.

Liz Weston is a certified financial planner and columnist at NerdWallet. Email: lweston@nerdwallet.com . Twitter: @lizweston.

_______

RELATED LINKS:

NerdWallet: How to pay off debt https://nerd.me/2hm5A0v

Money Boss website: http://moneyboss.com/
10 Chinese men charged with drug smuggling in Australia

SYDNEY (AP)  Ten Chinese nationals were charged on Tuesday with drug smuggling in Australia after officials said they found a stash of cocaine worth more than 60 million Australian dollars ($44 million) on their ship.

Last week, the Australian Defense Force intercepted the 50-meter (160-foot) former research vessel off the island state of Tasmania, and escorted the boat to the state capital, Hobart. During a subsequent search, police found 186 kilograms (410 pounds) of cocaine on board, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection said in a statement.
Man, 2 teens charged in shooting of Washington policeman

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP)  A 44-year-old man suspected of shooting a police officer in the head in Washington state was charged Tuesday with attempted first-degree murder.

Ernesto Lee Rivas was charged in the shooting of Officer Mike "Mick" McClaughry, who was fired upon while canvassing a neighborhood in Mount Vernon on Thursday, about 60 miles north of Seattle.

McClaughry and other officers were in the neighborhood looking for witnesses to a report of another shooting earlier that day.

McClaughry remained in critical condition at a Seattle hospital Tuesday.

The 61-year-old officer is a father of three and a grandfather who started working with the Mount Vernon Police Department in 1985.

Rivas, an alleged gang member, is being held on $1 million bail. He was taken into custody following an hourslong standoff, during which authorities say he repeatedly fired at officers.

According to court records, he has not admitted to shooting McClaughry.

Rivas has an extensive criminal record that includes eight felony convictions, according to court and patrol records. In 1998, he reached a plea deal with Yakima County prosecutors that saved him from a life sentence for a third-strike conviction for his part in the abduction and interrogation of four people he believed stole a woman's necklace, according to a Yakima Herald-Republic story.

The initial shooting Thursday that brought police to the neighborhood happened when a man linked to a gang was shot by someone in a rival gang, documents said.

Two boys, ages 15 and 16, who were in the house with Rivas during the standoff, were also charged Tuesday with attempted first-degree murder in the officer shooting. The teens additionally were charged with attempted second-degree murder in connection with the earlier shooting.
In NYC's Russian enclaves, a big 'nyet' to hacking talk

NEW YORK (AP)  Clutching a cobbler's tool, Roman Gadayev defiantly lashed out against accusations that Russia meddled in the U.S. election to sway the vote to Donald Trump.

"Simply impossible," said the Kazakhstan native who runs a shoe repair shop near the Brighton Beach boardwalk. "This is something that only uneducated people can buy into."

Most Russian-speaking expatriates interviewed by The Associated Press this past week in Brooklyn's heavily ex-Soviet enclaves shrugged off a CIA assessment that Russia hacked the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's campaign boss to help Trump, portraying it as nothing more than political sour grapes.

In this Dec. 16, 2016 photo, people walk past a Brighton Beach pharmacy that caters to the Russian community in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Most Russian-speaking expatriates interviewed by The Associated Press this past week in New York Citys heavily Russian enclaves shrug off accusations that Kremlin hacking helped sway the presidential election to Donald Trump. They portray it as nothing more than political sour grapes. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

"Russia has nothing to do with this," Ludmila Bondar, a retired credit analyst who moved to America from Skvyra, Ukraine, 26 years ago, said in Russian. "People are the ones who have elected Trump."

Brighton Beach and adjacent Sheepshead Bay, which have become home to tens of thousands of Russian-speaking immigrants, are coincidentally where Trump's father based a big part of his apartment-complex empire.

These enclaves along the Atlantic Ocean not far from the rides of Coney Island are also among the few corners of Trump country in overwhelmingly Democratic New York City. While the city overall went nearly 79 percent for Clinton in the presidential election, most precincts in the two neighborhoods voted "za Trampa," or for Trump, some as high as 80 percent.

First-generation migrants told the AP they were generally drawn to the Republican candidate's promises to reduce taxes and create more jobs. And many felt that U.S.-Russian relations were likely to improve during a Trump presidency.

Touting Trump's electoral triumph as "a huge victory for regular people," Odessa, Ukraine, transplant Yuriy Taras scoffed at the hacking allegations and that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally behind it.

"I believe Russia couldn't exert any influence on the elections in America," Taras said in Russian, strolling the boardwalk with his wife, who was covered from head to toe in fur. "Maybe Russia wanted to, but in my opinion, Putin maintains the position that he doesn't need war. He just needs others to stop bothering him."

Taras said he considers Trump's nomination of Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, "a person who knows both Putin and Russia," as secretary of state a sign that the relations between Washington and Moscow will be on the mend.

"If Trump does what he promised to, and Putin says all the time that he wants peace with America, then I think that enmity between Russia and the United States will stop," Taras added.

CIA Director John Brennan has said the intelligence community is in agreement that Russia tried to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, though there's no evidence Moscow succeeded in helping Trump win. Democratic President Barack Obama has ordered a full review of any Russian involvement.

Yefim Kacher, a hair salon owner from Odessa who said he voted for Trump because of his promise to slash taxes, was among the few who said there appears to be sufficient evidence that Russia tried to sway the U.S. election outcome.

Although Kacher is critical of Putin's "very aggressive" foreign policy, he hopes that the U.S.-Russian ties will get better because "one shouldn't argue with America. It's a big nuclear power and a compromise should exist."

"Relations will improve thanks to common sense because no one wants to escalate the confrontation with Russia," he said in Russian.

Roman Groysman, a 34-year-old marketing consultant whose family emigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine, says he sees hacking merely as a modern tool deployed by foreign countries against each other.

"It's to be expected. We did the same to other countries. Why wouldn't they try to do it to us?" he said. "It's all fair in love and war."

In this Dec. 15, 2016 photo, Roman Gadayev works in his Brighton Beach shoe repair shop in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Gadayev holds a firm view on allegations that Russia meddled in the U.S. presidential election. "Simply impossible," said the Kazakhstan native who voted for Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Alina Heineke)

In this Dec. 16, 2016 photo, Yuriy Taras enjoys the sunshine while sitting on the Brighton Beach boardwalk in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Originally from Ukraine, Taras considers Trump's nomination of Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, "a person who knows both Putin and Russia," as secretary of state, a sign that the "enmity" between Washington and Moscow will be on the mend. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

In this Dec. 16, 2016 photo, Russian-language newspapers are displayed on a Brighton Beach newsstand in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Most Russian-speaking expatriates interviewed by The Associated Press this past week in New York Citys heavily Russian enclaves shrug off accusations that Kremlin hacking helped sway the presidential election to Donald Trump. While the city overall went nearly 79 percent for Clinton, most precincts in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brighton Beach and Sheepshead bay voted "za Trampa, or for Trump, some as high as 80 percent. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

In this Dec. 15, 2016 photo, Ludmila Bondar walks in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen is among those Brighton Beach residents who cast 60 percent of ballots for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. "Russia has nothing to do with this (hacking of the Democratic Party emails), she said. "People are the ones who have elected Trump." (AP Photo/Alina Heineke)

In this Dec. 16, 2016 photo, a clerk leans through a bakery window to make change for a customer in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Donald Trump enjoyed a high-level of support among migrants from the former Soviet Union living in this oceanside community. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

In this Dec. 16, 2016 photo, Yefim Kacher, owner of a Brighton Beach hair salon in the Brooklyn borough of New York, talks about the election of Donald Trump. Kacher, who said he voted for Trump because of his promise to slash taxes, was among the few who said there appears to be sufficient evidence that Russia tried to sway the U.S. election outcome. "Relations will improve thanks to common sense because no one wants to escalate the confrontation with Russia," he said in Russian. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Rights group: IS in Mosul targets civilians as it retreats

BAGHDAD (AP)  Islamic State militants in Mosul are deliberately targeting civilians who refuse to join them as they retreat ahead of advancing Iraqi forces involved in a large-scale government operation to retake the militant-held city, an international watchdog said on Wednesday.

The statement from Human Rights Watch also said that Mosul civilians were increasingly being caught in the crossfire, with at least 19 killed and dozens wounded in the period from the third week of November into the first week of December.

The New York-based group said the fatalities incurred from IS mortar or sniper fire, car bombs, roadside bombings and direct attacks, as well as in airstrikes by the Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led coalition. The findings were based on interviews with more than 50 residents who had fled eastern Mosul, HRW said.

A street vendor pulls his cart in front of a house damaged by the fight in Mishraq district in Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016. Advancing into Mosul has become a painful slog for Iraqi forces. Islamic State group militants have fortified each neighborhood, unlike past battles where they concentrated their defenses in one part of the city. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

It cited instances of IS militants telling residents that those who stay behind are "unbelievers" and therefore valid targets beside the Iraqi and coalition forces. HRW warned that targeting civilians or using them as human shields is a war crime, and appealed on both sides to spare civilians.

"Civilians are being hit from all sides in Mosul," said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at HRW, adding that Islamic State group's "atrocities do not absolve Iraqi forces and the international coalition from doing their utmost to protect civilians."

The Iraqi military launched a massive operation in October to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city and the extremist group's last major urban bastion in Iraq. The troops' advances slowed once they pushed into more densely populated areas.
The oilman who brought Trump and the Bush world together

WASHINGTON (AP)  Throughout the presidential campaign, the Bush family and many of its Republican allies turned their backs on Donald Trump. Now, they're finding common cause with Trump over his pick to lead the State Department: Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who has long orbited their same political, philanthropic and business worlds.

Former President George W. Bush, who has largely avoided politics since leaving office in 2009, heaped praise on Tillerson in a recent phone call to Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee lawmaker who will oversee the secretary of state confirmation hearings. Jeb Bush, Tillerson's preferred candidate in the 2016 race, called the Exxon executive a "good man and accomplished leader."

Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates  Bush's vice president, secretary of state and secretary of defense  have all offered glowing endorsements. Gates, who runs a consulting firm with Rice that represents Exxon, first put Tillerson on Trump's radar when the president-elect was dissatisfied with his more conventional options.

FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2016, file photo, ExxonMobil CEO and chairman Rex W. Tillerson gives a speech at the annual Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Throughout the presidential campaign, the Bush family and many of its Republican allies turned their backs on Donald Trump. Now, theyre finding common cause with Trump over his pick to lead the State Department: Tillerson, who has long orbited their same political, philanthropic and business circles. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell, File)

Despite the high-level backing, Tillerson faces obstacles in his path to Foggy Bottom. He has no government experience, having spent his whole career at Exxon. Senators in both parties have raised questions about his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a relationship that's particularly eye-catching given uncertainty about Trump's own connections to Russia.

Corker said that while the support from the highest levels of the Republican national security establishment won't wipe away senators' questions about Tillerson, it could ease anxieties.

"Most people will look at that and understand that he's not outside the mainstream," said Corker, adding that George W. Bush was "effusive" in his praise for Tillerson when they spoke last week.

While Trump was never fully embraced by more traditional Republicans, his rejection by the Bush family and its national security apparatus was particularly glaring. The family produced the last two Republican presidents and had hoped for a third in 2016. The two Bush presidencies also defined the GOP's foreign policy philosophy as one that saw overseas military intervention as a means to pre-empt attacks on the U.S. and promote democracy abroad.

Trump has vowed to take the Republican Party in a new direction, both in style and substance. He showed no reverence for the Bush family during the campaign, blasting George W. Bush over the Iraq war and deriding his administration's focus on nation building abroad. He was particularly hard on former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who ran against Trump in the GOP primaries.

Trump transition officials say the Bush family has not coordinated its support for Tillerson with the president-elect, though Gates and Rice did directly offer their support to Trump's team.

Like the Bush family, Tillerson has strong ties to Texas and its vast oil industry. Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush ran oil companies before going into politics. Tillerson, a native of Wichita Falls, Texas, joined Exxon out of college as a production engineer before moving through the oil giant's executive ranks on his way to becoming CEO.

The bonds between Texas oilmen can run as deep as their wells. They share the same politics, bankroll the same politicians, attend the same charity balls, and, often, talk business with the same twang. It's a club of wealth, but also a culture.

"If you're a prominent family in Texas, you probably are friends with the oil business," said Peter Feaver, who worked on the National Security Council in the Bush administration and did not support Trump during the campaign. "And if you're in the oil business, you're probably friends with prominent families in Texas."

Tillerson's relationship with the Bush family dates back at least to President George W. Bush's years as Texas governor, according to people who know both men. The ties have moved beyond the political realm and into philanthropy, with some of Exxon's efforts overlapping with Bush's foundation, including on women's empowerment issues.

Tillerson's philanthropic work on behalf of Exxon has also overlapped with Jeb Bush, who promoted STEM education  science, technology, engineering and math  as governor of Florida. When Jeb Bush joined the crowded field of Republicans running for president in 2016, he quickly became Tillerson's choice. The executive donated to both Bush's campaign and his super PAC.

Campaign finance records show Tillerson has been a regular donor to other establishment Republicans who cringed at the prospect of Trump becoming the party's nominee. He gave money to Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential campaign who Trump also considered for secretary of State. He also donated to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who were lukewarm Trump supporters at best during the presidential race.

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Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC
In 1991, New Yorks venerable African-American congressman Charles Rangel met National Review founder William F. Buckley, Jr., for a televised debate. Their conversation centered on topicsrace, crime, criminal justicestill prominent in American politics today. But a viewer born in the intervening quarter-century might be surprised at some of the positions taken in their conversation; or, rather, at who held which positions. Buckley, the conservative intellectual, argued that the so-called war on drugs had failed and that the criminalization of narcotics was the primary cause of much of the violence plaguing America at the time. Rangel, whose congressional district was the epicenter of the crack epidemic, argued for increased enforcement of the drug laws, lamenting the governments lackadaisical approach. Using language that today would be considered inflammatory, Rangel called for drug offenders to face life sentences in prison. We should not allow people to distribute this poison without fear that they might be arrested, and put in jail. . . . [Those people] should believe that they will be arrested and go to jail for the rest of their natural life. Its hard to imagine a liberal black politician making such a statement today. And Rangel himselfwho, at 86, will retire from Congress in Januaryhas retreated from his legacy as a law-and-order drug warrior as political momentum on the left has swung against such efforts.

Throughout a career spanning more than 50 years, Rangel has been an effective advocate for New York, steering federal money to the city for everything from mass-transit infrastructure to post-9/11 reconstruction. Hes also been embroiled in numerous scandals, from his illegal tenancy of four subsidized apartments to his failure to declare income from rental property that he owns in the Dominican Republic to his use of franking privileges to raise money from people with business before his committee on behalf of the Charles Rangel Institute at CUNY. But over the course of his long careerone in which he accumulated tremendous power, perks, and influenceRangel was never more right than when he pushed for public order and crime-fighting. Its likely, however, that he wont be remembered for this but instead for his cronyism and political featherbedding, which he pursued with guile and consummate skill.

Rangel was just the second African-American to represent Harlem in Congress. Given historical voting patterns, he might turn out to be the last for some time. In 1950, central Harlem was 98 percent black; today, the neighborhoods black population is 60 percent and falling. Greater Harlem, stretching from river to river, from 106th Street to West 155th Street, was majority black from the mid-1920s until 2000, but it is now mostly nonblack, with a sizable Latino population, and rapidly growing white and Asian communities are settling there as well. Rangels two-time failed challenger Adriano Espaillat, a New York state senator born in the Dominican Republic, won the primary election to succeed him over his handpicked successor, Assemblyman Keith Wright, son of one of Rangels early mentors. With a general-election victory in the overwhelmingly Democratic district a mere formality, Espaillat will become the first Dominican-American in Congress.

Rangels retirement reflects the decline in Harlems centrality to the black experience in America. When Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. assumed the newly created seat in 1946 as the first black congressman from New York State, Harlem was still the cultural and political capital of black America, the center and symbol of the urban life of the Negro American, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote. The promise of Harlem as a black urban utopia had faded by the mid-1960s, when urban decay was taking its toll. Crime in New York, which began to spike in 1965, was consistently much worse in Harlem, where the rate of juvenile delinquency was double the citywide rate, murders were six times the city average, and drug addiction ten times that of the city as a whole.

Harlem did, however, have Powell, who, by 1961, had ascended to the chairmanship of the powerful Education and Labor Committee in Washington. Over the next six years, Powells committee shepherded an estimated 40 percent of all legislation enacted by the House. The brilliant, flamboyant minister/lawmaker marked up and pushed to the floor a wide range of New Frontier and Great Society legislation. But by the late 1960s, Powell was in trouble for misusing committee funds, taking attractive secretaries on fact-finding missions to investigate Parisian nightclub practices, and refusing to pay a civil judgment stemming from a slander charge. In 1967, Congress refused to seat Powell, leading to a special election. When a Supreme Court case decided in Powells favor, he was ultimately seated but stripped of his seniority and his committee chairmanship. Living almost full-time in Bimini, showing up neither in Washington nor in New York, Powell lost his glow among his troubled constituents, who were desperate for effective representation in Congress.

Looking for a capable replacement for Powell, Governor Nelson Rockefeller settled on Rangel, a savvy second-term assemblyman who had proved himself politically adept and adaptable. Close allies with Manhattan borough president Percy Sutton and fledgling state senator Basil A. Paterson, Rangel had demonstrated his ability to negotiate Harlems byzantine power structure. He formed a new power bloc that, with the addition of Assemblyman David Dinkins, became known as the Gang of Four, establishing a dominant role in New York politics.

A native Harlemite, Rangel was a decorated marine who served valiantly in the Korean War and then put himself through college and law school while working as a hotel desk clerk. Positioning himself between the reform and regular wings of the Harlem political machine, Rangel had maneuvered himself into an assembly seat in the 1966 election, when he caught Rockefellers eye. Rangel carried legislative water for Rockefeller and took political heat as well, as when he backed the governors proposal to build the Harlem State Office Building on 125th Street over the fierce opposition of local protesters. Rockefeller promised to finance Rangels run against Powell, and even gave him first crack among the New York delegation at redrawing the districts lines to his liking. Rangel won the 1970 Democratic primary by 150 votes and went on to win the seat in November. Aside from his first reelection campaign, he would not face serious opposition for another 42 years.

Entering Congress in January 1971, Rangel set about his lifes work: entrenching himself and his associates in power by leveraging state and federal funding for antipoverty programs and economic-development schemes. One of his first moves was to take over the board of famed Harlem social-services provider Haryou-ACT, which had been a source of much of Powells clout. Inveighing against poverticians who had corrupted the organization, Rangel replaced the Haryou board with his political allies, who thus had sole responsibility for directing tens of millions of dollars in antipoverty funding annually. Rangel and his coterie retained control over this plum until Ed Kochs election as mayor in 1977; Koch, who popularized the term poverty pimp, cut welfare spending and centralized control of state and federal funding for community-based organizations. In his memoir, Rangel accuses Koch of being totally insensitive to the yearning of black New Yorkers for respect. . . . He refused to accept my advocacy for a larger black slice of the pie.

Despite losing control of Haryou, Rangel found other pies to cut slices from. In 1971, New York State created the Harlem Urban Development Corporation as a subordinate arm of the state Urban Development Corporation. HUDC was Rockefellers effort to demonstrate good faith regarding black economic self-determination. From the start, the parent organization took a laissez-faire approach to oversight. In 1976, under Rangels supervision, the HUDC secretly rewrote its bylaws, establishing independence from the UDC; five years later, the split was formalized, and the HUDC was given free rein. With no outside supervisionbut a secure flow of funding from Washington and Albanythe HUDC began spending money on a grand scale.

Millions of dollars for economic development were funneled through the Rangel-controlled HUDC and disappeared.

For more than a decade, millions of dollars allocated for the economic development of Harlem were funneled through the Rangel-controlled HUDC and disappeared. A 1997 state investigation, ordered by Governor George Pataki after the HUDC was dissolved, found that the organization spent untold unnecessary amounts of taxpayer funds, failed to properly account for loans and advances to HUDC directors and employees, and pumped millions of dollars into New Yorks underground economy through off-the-books payments. All told, the entity spent more than $100 million (in unadjusted dollars) of public money without developing one successful project.

Rangel coordinated the HUDCs work with his role as an elected federal official. A longtime proponent of increased trade relations with African and Caribbean nationshe sponsored legislation such as the 2000 African Growth and Opportunity Act and the 1984 Caribbean Basin InitiativeRangel originally conceived of the Harlem International Trade Center Corporation (HITCC) in 1978 as a $200 million, 44-story office complex that would attract business executives from developing countries to establish their offices on 125th Street, which the New York Times in 1989 called the unofficial capital of the Third World. Rangel legislatively forced the federal General Services Administration to commit to leasing 200,000 square feet of office space in the proposed center; the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey also agreed to lease space in the HITCC after Governor Mario Cuomo threw his support to the project in 1986. In his memoir, Rangel dismisses Cuomos remarkable, dead-end career but acknowledges that the governor had been very, very good to me, as far as my effort to establish the Harlem Trade Center.

Twenty years of planning and preparation for the International Trade Center resulted in $6 million spent on consultants, architects and travel expenses but nothing else. Throughout this period, Rangel was more than just a nominal member of the HUDC board. William Stern, former chairman of the New York State Urban Development Corporation, recalled wondering why Harlem, unique among New York City neighborhoods, had its own Urban Development Corporation: I called Cuomos chief of staff, Michael Del Giudice. I asked him for the story on HUDC. He said, Bill, HUDC is CharlieCharles Rangel, that is, the longtime congressman from Harlem. HUDC was a patronage machine for Rangels local cronies. (See Sorry, Charlie, Summer 1997.)

The fate of the Tree of Life bookstore on 125th Street provides a sad footnote to the Harlem International Trade Center debacle. A late-1960s addition to Harlem, the Tree of Life was a popular bookshop, reading room, and community center that offered classes on yoga, herbology, spirituality, and economic self-sufficiency. The store opened when most of 125th Street was boarded up and dilapidated. Calling itself the University at the Corner of Lenox Avenue (UCLA), it was patronized by such luminaries as Muhammad Ali, Pete Seeger, and Ruby Dee. A court battle arose when the HUDC wanted to condemn the stores site to make way for the Harlem International Trade Center. After several years of litigation, the HUDC won out, and, as the Times reported in 1980, bulldozers reduced the store to debris so construction of an international trade complex would not be hampered. The store was demolished for nothing, as it turned out.

Down the street stands the legendary Apollo Theater, a music hall that featured every great black entertainer from the 1930s through the 1970s. After intermittent efforts to keep it open, Inner City Broadcasting, Percy Suttons media company, purchased the theater in 1981. Immediately afterward, the HUDC agreed to invest millions of dollars to turn the Apollo into a cable television studio. Failing to make a profit running the theater, Inner City Broadcasting sold the Apollo in 1991 to New York State, which established the nonprofit Apollo Theater Foundation to run the venuewith Rangel as chairman. Inner City Broadcasting retained the rights to produce the popular syndicated Showtime at the Apollo program, with profits in excess of expenses disbursed to the state to help run the foundation. By 1999, old political allies Rangel and Sutton found themselves in New York attorney general Eliot Spitzers crosshairs over $4.4 million that Suttons Inner City Broadcasting owed to the Apollo Foundation. Spitzer agreed to seek dismissal of a lawsuit only after forcing Rangel to give up his foundation chairmanship and requiring Sutton and his partners to disgorge $700,000.

Governor George Pataki dissolved the Harlem Urban Development Corporation in 1995 and replaced it with the Harlem Community Development Corporation, which operates under the strict governance of its parent agency, the Empire State Development Corporation. Undaunted, Rangel created a federal version of the same entity. The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ), launched in 1995, has enabled an even wider scope of waste, delay, and frivolous expenditures. The idea of enterprise zones came out of post-Keynesian trends in British urban planning circles in the late 1970s. Carving out areas within cities that would be free from business taxes and have less regulation could, the thinking went, promote entrepreneurship and economic growth. As the American social-services industry translated the idea, enterprise became empowerment. Urban-studies scholar Mitchell Moss, explaining the difference in 1995, wrote that liberals discovered that [empowerment zones] offered a way to channel money into impoverished urban communities, subverting the rationale for the enterprise zone by expanding, rather than reducing, government involvement.

Rangel ensured the designation of virtually his entire district as an empowerment zone.

Rangel ensured the designation of virtually his entire district as an empowerment zone. The $249 million UMEZ provided loans to small businesses and, secondarily, grants to community organizations. In the first five years of operations, the UMEZ made 47 small-business loans, totaling only $4.3 million10 percent less than it spent on salaries and overhead. It made large loans to national retailers such as Home Depot and Costco, along with major real-estate firmsorganizations that dont usually lack access to credit.

In 2001, Rangel recruited famous Los Angeles attorney Johnnie Cochran, Jr., to become chairman of the UMEZ. The move was openly understood as a means for Rangel to maintain control over the board. Cochran had no experience in upper Manhattan and, when given a tour of the area, was surprised to see that, unlike in Watts, Harlemites lived in apartment buildings instead of houses.

The recent history of the UMEZ is not much different. The board meets sporadically and hasnt been audited for several years. It rarely makes loans and appears to be hoarding cash, perhaps in order to continue paying rich salaries to upper management. A local businessman, speaking anonymously, claimed that the UMEZ offers loan conditions significantly worse than what can be obtained from local banks. The UMEZ has drifted from its original purpose as an engine for economic growth into a somnambulant entity that mostly distributes grants to politically connected local nonprofits, such as the $2.7 million that it doled out to the Alianza Dominicana, shortly before the organization abruptly shut down.

Obviously, Harlem has undergone a massive positive change in fortune since Rangel took office. But it is fair to say that economic development in Harlem has occurred despite, not because of, his efforts. Speaking of Harlems natural advantages, Moss notes that the strength of the New York City economy made it impossible for Harlem not to develop. The proximity of the area to the core Manhattan business district, the excellent transportation infrastructure, as well as great housing stock and strong local institutions, combine to make Harlem an obvious locus for positive development. But its hard to identify many areas where Rangel deserves much credit for bringing it about, even after half a century of holding state and federal office.

Rangels record in one high-profile area of national policy seems completely forgotten. From the early 1970s to the 1990s and beyond, Rangel demanded and fought for an expanded federal role in the prosecution of the war on drugs. In March 1971, he and the newly formed Congressional Black Caucus met with President Richard Nixon to discuss their priorities. Tapes of the meeting reveal Rangel pleading with the president to use his power . . . as you would if this were a national crisis, and I think weve reached that. The CBC demanded an expanded effort to battle drug trafficking. Four months later, Nixon declared the war on drugs, echoing Rangels rhetoric in calling for an all-out offensive.

For almost his entire career, Rangel promoted a law-and-order approach to drugs that would, by the standards of todays anti-incarceration movement, mark him as an extremist. Shortly after his meeting with Nixon, Rangel opposed the provision of methadone-maintenance treatment in New York City, calling it a colonialist approach to drug addiction. In 1976, Rangel encouraged the NYPD to form a task force that would focus on combating street-level drug crime in Harlem. In the early 1980s, Rangel railed against the Reagan administration for failing to do more about the drug problem, complaining, I havent seen a national drug policy since Nixon was in office. As chairman of the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, Rangel pushed for an activist national policy of eradication of coca and marijuana crops at the source throughout Latin America. He strongly supported the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which imposed mandatory minimum prison sentences on drug criminals and established the notorious sentencing differential between cocaine in its powder and crack forms. Rangel supported the 1994 Crime Bill, which made gang membership a federal crime, and he long advocated life sentences for drug dealersand not just for major traffickers.

Thanks to books such as Michelle Alexanders The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, the new conventional wisdom holds that the war on drugs was a thinly veiled war on blacks. The Black Lives Matter movement and its liberal allies promote a revisionist narrative of American criminal justice in which anticrime legislation, particularly regarding drugs, has been a decades-long, targeted effort to destroy people of color. The actual history reveals that black politicians and clergy, responding to pleas for help from the law-abiding majority of their communities, were among the first to demand a firm hand in dealing with the violent crime wave of the 1960s and 1970s. As Michael Fortner explains in The Black Silent Majority, mass incarceration had less to do with white resistance to racial equality and more to do with the black silent majoritys confrontation with the reign of criminal terror in their neighborhoods.

Harlems resurgence has had more to do with the public-safety revolution of the last 25 yearsa revolution that Congressman Rangel long supportedthan with the failed economic-development organizations that he established and oversaw. As he heads into retirement, Rangel supports decriminalization of marijuana and laments the fact that legislation he helped craft has resulted in unnecessary incarceration. If Rangel were honest, though, he would trumpet his vigilance as a crime fighter and drug warriorand identify, as his living monument, not the site of the phantom International Trade Center but the drug-free street corners of Harlem.

Top Photo: Rangels retirement marks the end of an era in Harlem, as political power passes from blacks to Hispanics. (ANDREW LICHTENSTEIN/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES)
French military chief: New threats require more spending

PARIS (AP)  France's military chief is urging the country's next president to ratchet up defense spending to better confront Islamic extremists and authoritarian states that increasingly rely on military muscle.

Gen. Pierre de Villiers, chief of the general staff, said in an appeal published Wednesday in the business daily Les Echos that attacks on France and other European countries in recent years showed that "peace no longer happens by itself."

He called for upgrading France's nuclear arsenals and other equipment, and boosting defense spending over the next five years to 2 percent of gross domestic product, compared to 1.77 percent currently. France had promised such an increase to NATO by 2025, but de Villiers urged a faster effort.

FILE - In this Saturday, March 19, 2016 file picture, French Army Chief of Staff, General Pierre de Villiers, arrives at the Elysee Palace to attend an emergency security meeting in Paris, France. France's military chief is urging the next president to ratchet up defense spending to better confront Islamic extremists and authoritarian states that increasingly rely on military muscle. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu, File)

France's military, among Europe's biggest, is active in anti-extremist operations in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.

President Francois Hollande stressed Wednesday the defense budget has increased during his term.

"We now have the necessary resources to meet our goals," Hollande said following the weekly Cabinet meeting.

Following the attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris in 2015, the French government decided to increase the budget for defense by 600 million euros ($625 million) in 2016 million) and 700 million euros ($729 million) next year. The decision notably aims at financing the 10,000-strong Sentinel Operation of soldiers who patrol in French streets and sensitive sites like airports and train stations.

For the first time in two decades, the number of French military will slightly increase by about 3,000 people from 2016 to 2019, allowing the French military to keep more than 200,000 troops.

France's next presidential election is scheduled in two rounds in April and May next year, and Hollande has announced he will not run for re-election.
Bogdan Roscic new incoming head of Vienna State Opera

VIENNA (AP)  The Austrian government has chosen Sony manager Bogdan Roscic to head the Vienna State Opera as of 2020.

Culture Minister Thomas Drozda, who announced the appointment Wednesday, says it is meant to position the State Opera as "the leading institution of our cultural landscape."

Roscic 52, heads the classical division of the Sony Music group. He was previously chief of O3, Austria's main state-run radio outlet.
Austrian contravenes anti-Nazi law, given suspended sentence

VIENNA (AP)  An Austrian court has found a man guilty of contravening anti-Nazi laws for walking back and forth in front of the house where Adolf Hitler was born while wearing a T-shirt with a pro-Nazi slogan.

State broadcaster ORF says the 27-year old also appeared in court wearing stickers with code words and numbers that translate into "Heil Hitler."

ORF said Wednesday that he was given a 15-month suspended sentence. The man was not identified in keeping with Austrian privacy laws.

He was charged after appearing in front of the house in the western town of Braunau last year wearing a T-shirt saying "Nazified, with a raised hand" to greet a visiting Hungarian neo-Nazi group.

The man was quoted as saying the slogan was a "political statement."
Albania revises gas pipeline deal to get more support

TIRANA, Albania (AP)  Albania's Energy Ministry and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline have amended their agreement to give more financial support and assistance to Albania.

In a statement Wednesday, they said that following seven months of negotiations they agreed on reviewing payments paid, on increasing investments in communities and on training the local gas sector.

The pipeline runs for 878 kilometers (545 miles) from the Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan to Turkey, through Greece to Albania, before heading to southern Italy via the Adriatic Sea.

Construction of the 215-kilometer (133-mile) segment through Albania has started and is expected to finish in 2019.
DHS analyst who took a gun to work pleads to weapons charge

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP)  A Department of Homeland Security analyst has pleaded guilty to making illegal silencers after taking a gun and other weapons into his agency's building in Washington.

Jonathan Wienke pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to illegally making a firearm.

Court filings allege Wienke carried a backpack with a knife, infrared camera, pepper spray and handcuffs into agency headquarters June 9. Authorities found a gun in his pocket, and later found ingredients for explosives and gun silencers at his Martinsburg home.

Wienke faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, but prosecutors agreed to recommend a lesser sentence.
Israeli military official says low chances of war in 2017

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP)  The Middle East regional chaos has weakened Israel's enemies and created a low probability of war involving the country in 2017, a senior Israeli military officer said on Wednesday.

The official said the army has concluded that neither Hezbollah militants in Lebanon nor Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip are interested in sparking a new conflict with Israel.

Hezbollah is bogged down in the Syrian civil war and has sustained heavy losses, while Hamas is deterred and in crisis mode having lost much of its support from the outside, he added.

Still, he cautioned that an unexpected "dynamic of escalation" could always risk sparking a new conflict.

"In 2017, the most probable war is one that both sides didn't want," he said, sharing a year-end Israeli intelligence assessment. He spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity in line with military protocol.

Israel fought a monthlong war with Hezbollah in 2006 and has since waged three wars with Hamas. Both militant groups have been backed for years by Iran and are dedicated to Israel's destruction.

But with the turmoil that has engulfed Iraq and Syria, along with other areas in the region, Israel's enemies are primarily engaged elsewhere, the official said.

Hezbollah, along with Iran, has been the primary force backing Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces and has had more than 1,700 casualties since fighting began in 2011 in Syria.

The official said that Iran remains the main "source of terrorism" in the Middle East but it too has suffered in Syria, taking more than 1,000 casualties.

He said that Iran's entanglement in the Syrian war alongside Assad's forces, has led it to scale back in supporting Hamas. The Palestinian militant group has seen its backing plummet from everywhere except Qatar, a staunch supporter of Gaza's rulers.

The military officer also said that Israel has noticed a resulting shift in Hamas' behavior, with the group making a real effort to stop rocket fire from the Gaza Strip toward Israel.
US forward Julian Green leaving Bayern Munich for Stuttgart

MUNICH (AP)  United States forward Julian Green is leaving Bayern Munich and switching to second-division club Stuttgart.

The 21-year-old Green, whose contract was to run through next June, will leave Bayern during the Bundesliga's winter break for a contract through June 2019 with Stuttgart, the Bavarian club said Wednesday.

"Julian wants to gain experience at a club where he'll play regularly. Of course that was difficult at Bayern due to the huge competition," said Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, referring to the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Arjen Robben, Thomas Mueller, Franck Ribery, Douglas Costa and Renato Sanches.

"I wish Julian all the best for his future. He was always a busy, reliable and very nice player for Bayern."

Green has been with Bayern since 2010, apart from the 2014-15 season spent on loan at Hamburger SV. He played for Bayern's youth sides and reserve side. He made two appearances in the German Cup this season, scoring one goal in the 3-1 win over Augsburg.

"I arrived in Bayern's under-15s and like everyone there dreamed of becoming a professional. And I managed it," Green said. "I've got a lot of experience in the last three years. It was good. I'm happy and grateful for it."

Green said he had taken his time and tried everything.

"With the decision now for Stuttgart it's settled. I'll set myself new goals with Stuttgart and am looking forward to the challenge - especially helping Stuttgart achieve promotion to return (to the Bundesliga) in the second half of the season," Green said.
Dynamo Dresden player Marc Wachs shot, family member killed

DRESDEN, Germany (AP)  German club Dynamo Dresden says defender Marc Wachs is recovering after being shot in an incident that left a family member dead and another seriously injured.

Wachs underwent emergency surgery after the shooting in Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt, on Tuesday morning. Doctors said the 21-year-old player's life was not at risk.

Dynamo sporting director Ralf Minge says, "we're shocked, stunned and hard-hit. The whole Dynamo family is behind Marc and his family. We will be there whenever our help and support is needed. Marc, his family and the recovery process, both physically and mentally, are now the only priorities. Nothing else is important."

FILE - In this July 19, 2016 file photo Germany's second-division Dynamo Dresden defender Marc Wachs poses for a photo in Dresden, eastern Germany. Dresden says defender Marc Wachs is recovering after being shot Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016 in an incident that left a family member dead and another seriously injured. (Thomas Eisenhuth/dpa via AP, file)
UN Security Council urges Gambia president to transfer power

UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The U.N. Security Council is again urging Gambia's longtime ruler Yahya Jammeh to respect the country's presidential election results and transfer power to President-elect Adama Barrow by Jan. 19.

The United Nations' most powerful body said in a presidential statement read at an open council meeting Wednesday it was "encouraged" by decisions by the regional group known as ECOWAS and the African Union to recognize Barrow as president-elect.

It commended ECOWAS initiatives "aimed at ensuring a peaceful and orderly transition process."

Jammeh conceded defeat following the Dec. 1 election but rejected the result a week later citing voting irregularities.
Christmas Day rerun ordered in Macedonia election

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP)  Authorities in Macedonia have ordered a Christmas Day rerun of a parliamentary election in one voting district  a decision that could threaten the slim majority of the long-governing conservatives.

In an announcement Wednesday, the state election commission called the repeat of the Dec. 11 vote in a district in northwestern Macedonia, following complaints about voting irregularities from the main opposition Social Democrats.

Former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's conservative VMRO-DPMNE party won 51 seats in the 120-member parliament, while the Social Democrats claimed 49  leaving both needing a coalition partner to form a government.
In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
Stephen Curry auctions shoes to benefit Oakland fire victims

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)  Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry is auctioning off two special pairs of shoes to raise money for victims of the Oakland warehouse fire.

KCBS reports (http://cbsloc.al/2ifgOkj) that Curry teamed up with a local artist and had two distinctive pairs designed.

As of Wednesday afternoon on EBay, Curry's shoes had received more than 150 bids and were at a combined $20,000 on the auction site.

This Dec. 15, 2016 photo shows the shoes worn by Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry that honor victims of a warehouse fire during an NBA basketball game against the New York Knicks in Oakland, Calif. Curry is auctioning off two special pairs of shoes to raise money for victims of the Oakland warehouse fire. (Ray Chavez/San Jose Mercury News via AP)

Curry wore the pair of white sneakers with the words "Oakland Strong" printed on them during a recent game against the New York Knicks. Warriors officials say he wore the other, more colorful shoes with the words "Ghost Ship" on them, during practice.

Both shoes have the initials of all 36 victims printed on them.

The fire broke out Dec. 2 during a dance party at the Ghost Ship warehouse.

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Germany arrests Moroccan suspected of IS membership

BERLIN (AP)  German authorities have arrested a 24-year-old Moroccan man on suspicion of being a member of the Islamic State group.

Federal prosecutors say the man, who was identified as Redouane S. due to privacy laws, was part of the network around Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is suspected of planning the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks in Paris.

Prosecutors said Wednesday that the man was tasked with looking after the group's safe houses in Turkey and Greece from Oct. 2014 until early 2015 while the Paris attacks were being prepared.

They say he was informed by Abaaoud about plans for an attack in Verviers, Belgium, on Jan. 15, 2015. He allegedly remained in contact with the group after entering Germany in May 2015.
Puerto Rico seeks private sector help to save pension system

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)  A top designated official for Puerto Rico's governor-elect says he plans to pursue public-private partnerships to rescue a public pension system underfunded by more than $40 billion and expected to run out of money next year.

Omar Marrero told reporters on Wednesday that revenue from the partnerships is key given that the U.S. territory has been unable to access markets amid a worsening economic crisis and ongoing multimillion-dollar defaults. Marrero is the designated executive director of the Authority of Public-Private Alliances.

He said he will turn to the private sector for help offering services that the cash-strapped government cannot provide.
Sheriff: Suspects in Mississippi slayings arrested in Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  Two suspects in a Mississippi pawn shop robbery in which three were fatally shot were captured in Kansas early Wednesday after an interstate chase, authorities said.

Deputies tried to stop a red Dodge Charger with no displayed registration on Interstate 70, but the car sped away and later crashed off the interstate.

Jamison Townsend, 35, formerly of Blue Springs, Missouri, was arrested in the wrecked car, according to Sheriff Tony Wolf of Kansas' Geary County, west of Kansas City. Joshua Garcia, 37, of Biloxi, Mississippi, was found hours later hiding in a vehicle a mile from the crash site.

Both were being held in Junction City, Kansas, pending their being returned to Mississippi on arrest warrants charging each of them with three counts of capital murder and one count of armed robbery linked to last week's holdup of a Jackson pawn shop.

Police in that southwestern Mississippi city, roughly 850 miles from where Townsend and Garcia were arrested, have said three men  ages 60, 77 and 81  were found shot to death Saturday night at Bill's Pawn Jewelry Coin/Stamp Exchange. Police did not specify what was stolen.

"We're anxious to get them back so we can prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law, which is what they deserve," Jackson, Mississippi, Police Chief Lee Vance told reporters Wednesday, describing Townsend and Garcia as "transients." ''It's a big relief to have these people in custody."

The vehicle was similar to one that surveillance photos showed was parked outside the Jackson pawn shop the day of the killings, and similar to a car that a Tennessee state trooper pulled over Monday. The duo sped away as the trooper approached, and authorities lost sight of the car after a short pursuit.

On Wednesday morning, Geary County deputies tried to stop a Dodge Charger with no displayed registration, but that car also raced away, crashed and became disabled, leading to the arrests of Townsend and Garcia.

It was not immediately clear whether Townsend and Garcia have attorneys. A message left Wednesday by The Associated Press at a Missouri telephone listing for Townsend was not returned. Garcia had no known phone listing.

Garcia has an extensive criminal record in Mississippi, where records show that he repeatedly has served prison time since 2000 for crimes involving burglary, armed robbery, theft and receiving stolen property, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger has reported. He was released on parole in 2014, the newspaper said.
Kentucky mall to ban woman for racist, vulgar tirade

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)  A Louisville mall is banning a woman caught on video screaming racist and vulgar insults at another holiday shopper.

The video of the unidentified woman shouting "go back to wherever the (expletive) you come from, lady" in a check-out line at the Jefferson Mall spread quickly on social media Tuesday. By Wednesday, it had been viewed more than five million times.

The mall issued a statement on its Facebook page saying that it is working to identify the woman and bar her from returning.

In the video taken by another shopper, the elderly white woman claims a Hispanic woman cut in line to join another shopper.
Prominent Atlanta attorney charged in wife's shooting death

ATLANTA (AP)  A well-known Atlanta attorney has been charged in the shooting death of his business executive wife in a case that drew widespread public interest.

Claud "Tex" McIver faces a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter and a misdemeanor charge of reckless conduct and was expected to turn himself in Wednesday, Atlanta police spokesman Donald Hannah said.

McIver's attorney, Stephen Maples, did not immediately respond to a phone message and email seeking comment on the charges.

McIver has told local news media he was riding in a rear seat of an SUV on Sept. 25 when a gun he was holding discharged and the bullet hit his wife, 64-year-old Diane McIver, who was sitting in the front passenger seat. She later died at a hospital.

Tex McIver, who's in his 70s, is a partner at a prominent labor and employment law firm and vice chair of the state election board. He also sits on the advisory committee of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Gun Violence. His wife was president of U.S. Enterprises Inc., the parent company of Corey Airport Services, where she had worked for 43 years, according to the company. They lived in Atlanta's upscale Buckhead neighborhood.

In the days following the shooting, police told local news media they were working through the investigation slowly because they wanted to get it right.

Several days after the shooting, Bill Crane, a McIver family friend, told local media that the couple was returning home from their horse ranch in rural Putnam County, about 70 miles southeast of Atlanta, when the person driving  who was later identified by media as a friend of Diane McIver  exited the highway to avoid traffic.

As the SUV near an intersection in midtown Atlanta where a homeless shelter is located, the vehicle was approached by several people. The McIvers were nervous about unrest surrounding Black Lives Matter Protests and feared a carjacking, Crane told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The couple took out a .38-caliber snub-nose revolver wrapped in a plastic grocery bag from the center console. Several blocks later, near Piedmont Park, the SUV hit a bump and the gun fired, Crane said. Tex McIver, who was nodding off when they hit the bump, didn't remember firing the gun, Crane told the newspaper.

A few days later, Maples told the Journal-Constitution that there had been no concern about unrest. Instead, he said, the McIvers pulled out the gun as a precaution after seeing people in the street in an area where homeless people hang out.

McIver fell asleep and was jarred awake near the park, Maples said.

"I was suddenly awoken. I lurched and the gun fired," McIver told the newspaper on Oct. 6. "I must have forgotten it was in my lap. I saw a flash."

Tex McIver said he loved his wife and that the shooting was accidental and left him feeling overwhelmed with grief.

"She was my life partner," he said. "My life as I know it is ruined because of this accident."

Lee Davis, an attorney for Dani Jo Carter, who was driving the SUV, told the Journal-Constitution and WSB-TV that the vehicle was stopped at a red light when the gun fired. Davis said Carter does not believe Tex McIver intentionally shot his wife.

State Sen. Vincent Fort, an Atlanta Democrat, called for McIver to be removed from the state election board because of the initial account that he had been concerned about the Black Lives Matter movement.

"I believe Mr. McIver's actions since the tragic death of his wife have called into question his views on the African-American community, and undermine the presumption of fairness he must have to serve as a member of the board," Fort wrote in a letter to Senate leaders on Oct. 24, according to the Journal-Constitution.

Earlier this month, Tex McIver held a four-day estate sale to unload many items from his wife's lavish closet, including designer shoes and more than 100 fur coats, according to local media. Maples said McIver is the executor of his wife's estate and the sale was a step toward settling her affairs.
Pritchard, who rescued Dutch Jews during Holocaust, dies

WASHINGTON (AP)  Marion Pritchard, a woman credited with saving dozens of Jews in the Netherlands during the Holocaust, has died at 96. Her son, Arnold Pritchard, said Wednesday by telephone that his mother died Dec. 11 from cerebral arteriosclerosis in Washington.

Pritchard, born Marion Philippina van Binsbergen, was a 19-year-old social work student when Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940. In an interview published in the volume "Voices From the Holocaust" by Harry James Cargas, Pritchard said the "crucial moment" when she committed herself to fighting Nazi persecution came in 1942, when she witnessed the liquidation of a home for Jewish children. She saw two women try to stop the soldiers from throwing the children into the truck, only to be put in the truck themselves.

The Washington Post reports that with about 10 friends, Pritchard helped obtain false identity documents and hiding places to help Jews evade arrest. She also performed what was known as the "mission of disgrace," falsely declaring herself to be a baby's unwed mother to hide the child's Jewish identity.

For nearly three years, Pritchard helped hide a Jewish man, his two sons and infant daughter in a country home where they could slip beneath the floorboards in 17 seconds. After a raid, a Dutch policeman returned to the home and discovered the hiding spot, but Pritchard fatally shot him before he could make an arrest. She said an undertaker buried the policeman's body with another body in a coffin.

"I would do it again, under the same circumstances," she told an interviewer years later, "but it still bothers me."

Pritchard was said to have aided as many as 150 people, including many children, but she insisted that she couldn't have done it without help from others.

She later became a United Nations social worker in displaced-persons camps and met her husband, Anton Pritchard, a former U.S. Army officer. They later lived in New York and Vermont, where she ran a psychoanalysis practice for decades.
Obama oil pipeline rules face uncertain future under Trump

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  President Barack Obama's administration is expected to push through long-delayed safety measures for the nation's sprawling network of oil pipelines in its final days, despite resistance from industry and concern that incoming president Donald Trump may scuttle them.

The measures are aimed at preventing increasingly frequent accidents such as a 176,000-gallon spill that fouled a North Dakota creek earlier this month. Thousands more accidents over the past decade caused $2.5 billion in damages nationwide and dumped almost 38 million gallons of fuels.

Fights over pipelines have intensified in recent years, illustrated by the dispute over TransCanada's Keystone XL plan and efforts by American Indians to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline from crossing beneath the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

FILE - This Oct. 11, 2013 file photo shows cleanup at the site of a Tesoro Corp. pipeline break that spilled more than 20,000 barrels of oil into a Tioga, N.D., wheat field. The massive oil spill still isn't fully cleaned up three years and three months after it happened. The company responsible hasn't even set a date for completion. Some say that one of the largest onshore oil spills recorded in the U.S. serves as a cautionary example, especially given a recent pipeline break about 150 miles south and ongoing debates over the four-state Dakota Access pipeline. (AP Photo/Kevin Cederstrom, File)

The U.S. Department of Transportation proposal covers roughly 200,000 miles of lines that crisscross the country and carry crude, gasoline and other hazardous liquids.

Environmental and safety advocates have criticized the agency's commitment to tightening oversight of that network after a key safety feature  automatic valves that quickly shut down ruptured lines  was omitted from a draft rule published in 2015.

Further revisions sought by the petroleum industry could make the rule largely ineffective, said Carl Weimer with the Pipeline Safety Trust. But keeping the proposal intact would expose it to a legal challenge or reversal by a Republican-controlled Congress and Trump, an enthusiastic advocate for fossil fuels whose administration would enforce the new safety provisions, Weimer added.

"We already viewed it as an incremental step. If they water it down at all or extend the timelines, it's going to be an even smaller step," he said.

Regulators began crafting the new rule after a 2010 Michigan pipeline break released almost 1 million gallons of crude into the Kalamazoo River. It's languished amid industry criticisms, interventions from Congress and the bureaucratic inertia of the federal regulatory process.

A recent boom in domestic drilling saw accident rates for pipelines increase by roughly a third. The number of hazardous liquid pipeline accidents in the U.S. increased from 350 in 2010 to 462 in 2015.

The Transportation Department proposal calls for tougher inspection and repair criteria, leak detection systems on more lines and other measures to cut risk. Companies also would be required to inspect lines after flooding or other extreme events, a provision adopted after a 2011 ExxonMobil pipeline break spilled 63,000 gallons of crude into Montana's Yellowstone River.

It's currently under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget. Final adoption is anticipated in late December, said Allie Aguilera, government affairs director of the Transportation Department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Industry representatives argue it would cost companies $600 million a year and almost $5 billion over the next decade. That's almost 30 times the government's estimate of $22.5 million annually.

Association of Oil Pipe Lines Vice President John Stoody said the rule would force pipeline owners to immediately repair lines with microscopic cracks or traces of corrosion. Currently, the industry is allowed to monitor smaller defects and schedule repairs later.

"It has the potential to distract us away from higher-priority safety issues," Stoody said of the more stringent repair criteria.

Advocates say the rule is particularly important for rural areas. Current regulations apply primarily to lines in "high consequence areas" with large populations or environmentally sensitive features such as drinking water supplies.

Lines outside those areas are not required to be inspected with mechanical devices known as "pipeline pigs," which travel inside lines looking for flaws.

"This is the first time (the Department of Transportation) is saying you have to inspect them" using the devices, Weimer said.

The Bellingham, Washington-based safety trust was formed after three children were killed when a gasoline pipeline broke in 1999, leaking fuel for 1 hours before it exploded.

The recent 176,000-gallon pipeline spill near Belfield, North Dakota occurred outside a high consequence area.

Federal investigators said Wednesday that a leak detection system on the Belle Fourche Pipeline Co. line had failed to detect any problems before a rancher discovered the spill on Dec. 5. The company was ordered by the Transportation Department to make improvements to that detection system before re-starting the line.

It's unclear how long it had been leaking. The oil travelled 4 miles down a tributary of the Little Missouri River, investigators said. About 76,000 gallons had been recovered as of Tuesday, according to company spokeswoman Wendy Owen.

A third-party vendor had used a pipeline pig to inspect the line in April. The results were being reviewed to make sure the company repaired any flaws that were found, investigators said.

The 6-inch line can carry up to 1 million gallons of crude daily. Belle Fourche is a subsidiary of True Companies of Casper, Wyoming, which has a lengthy history of accidents including a January 2015 spill into the Yellowstone River.

Belle Fourche is a member of the American Petroleum Institute, which acknowledged it has been seeking revisions to the administration's safety proposal but declined to specify the changes it wants.

In a 65-page cost-benefit analysis, the petroleum institute chided federal officials for underestimating the costs and amount of work needed for companies to comply. The group described the rule as a "significant expansion of regulatory oversight."

Minimal federal oversight of pipelines in rural areas has left officials in some states overwhelmed with the task of policing the industry.

Pressured by landowners, farmers and environmentalists, North Dakota will put a state rule into effect Jan. 1 to increase inspections of smaller pipelines known as gathering lines. The federal proposal requires only that companies document spills from the lines.

Kevin Pranis, a spokesman for the Laborers District Council of Minnesota and North Dakota, which represents some workers building the four-state, $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, said his group welcomes "sensible" regulation for the industry.

"The pipeline industry is under scrutiny like never before," Pranis said.

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MacPherson reported from Bismarck, North Dakota.

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Fire at New Jersey furniture store spews huge smoke plumes

NORTH BERGEN, N.J. (AP)  An intense fire at a furniture store in New Jersey is sending up thick plumes of black smoke that can be seen for miles.

Firefighters are battling the blaze Wednesday at the store in North Bergen, on the Union City border.

North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue Chief Frank Montagne tells The Jersey Journal the fire appears to have started in the rear of the store. He says it will likely take hours to put it out.

The smoke is billowing across the Hudson River into New York City.
Senators urge action to block drastic drug price hikes

WASHINGTON (AP)  Angered by skyrocketing drug prices, a pair of senators on Wednesday urged Congress to block companies from cornering the market on old, off-patent drugs.

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., released findings from a year-long investigation into companies like Turing Pharmaceuticals, which generated national outrage last year after hiking the price of a life-saving anti-infection drug by more than 5,000 percent.

Committee investigators concluded that Turing and several other companies "engaged in price gouging ... to make massive profits from decades-old life-saving therapies." The lawmakers, top members of the Special Committee on Aging, presented similar findings at three hearings over the past year.

The 131-page report comes as lawmakers and pharmaceutical executives try to gauge President-elect Donald Trump's interest in government intervention to curb rising drug prices, a leading health care concern among patients.

While campaigning, Trump said he would support efforts to allow Medicare  the massive government health plan for seniors  to directly negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, a step long opposed by the pharmaceutical lobby. That policy does not appear among the health care proposals currently outlined on Trump's website. The list includes a policy allowing importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and other countries, another proposal opposed by drugmakers.

Representatives for Trump did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

A day earlier, 19 senators sent a letter to Trump, urging him to follow-through on pledges to help lower drug prices.

"During your campaign, you promised to implement bold reforms to bring down the cost of prescription drugs," states the letter, signed by 17 Democrats and independent Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine. "We are ready to advance bipartisan reforms that will help achieve the goal we all share: reducing the burden exorbitant drug prices are placing on hard-working Americans.

The new report draws similarities between the tactics of companies such as Turing and Valeant Pharmaceuticals and investment firms that profit by buying under-valued stocks and pushing up prices. Investigators note that Turing's former CEO, Martin Shkreli, and several other executives probed by the committee previously worked at hedge funds.

"This may help explain why these companies may have been run more like hedge funds than pharmaceutical companies," the report states.

Shkreli stepped down as the head of Turing after prosecutors charged him with securities fraud late last year. Valeant is the target of more than 10 government probes, plus multiple shareholder lawsuits.

Turing said in a statement Wednesday that it has taken several steps to increase access to its drug, daraprim, including offering discounts to hospitals. The drug still carries a list price of $750 per pill.

"It is disappointing that the report takes out of context and selectively highlights certain comments, including from past employees that are not reflective of Turing's current commitments and efforts," the company said.

A Valeant spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An AP analysis published last month found that congressional investigations have had little effect on drug prices. A review of nearly 30 brand-name and generic medications targeted by Congress  including those probed by the Aging committee  showed that most have not budged since coming under federal scrutiny.

Many pharmaceutical companies increase prices annually as a matter of doing business. But the drastic increases profiled in the report helped turn drug pricing into a national issue, reverberating from late-night television to the campaign. The tactics seemed to confirm some of the public's worst fears about pharmaceutical companies: that they are more Wall Street-driven investment vehicles than actual makers of medicines.

"We've got to find ways to increase competition for medicines and ensure that patients and their families aren't being gouged," said McCaskill.
Police: Student of ex-TV contestant arrested, points to body

LOS ANGELES (AP)  A body believed to be that of a former reality show contestant was found buried in a backyard near Los Angeles after a man in one of her nursing classes pointed police to the shallow grave as they questioned him in the woman's disappearance, authorities said.

Lisa Marie Naegle, 36, a nurse, was a losing contestant in 2010 on the E! network show "Bridalplasty," where she competed for a dream wedding and plastic surgery.

Police said they arrested Jackie Jerome Rogers on suspicion of murder Tuesday after questioning him and that he indicated her body was at his house in the community of Lennox, near Los Angeles International Airport.

This undated photo of Lisa Marie Naegle was provided by her family to police and news media as they and authorities seek the public's help in locating her. Naegle, 36, was last seen leaving a party in Torrance, Calif. Police on Tuesday, Dec. 20, detained a man for questioning in the disappearance. (Courtesy Naegle Family via AP)

"We can confirm a body which we believe is Lisa Marie was discovered in a shallow grave at the suspect's home," police spokesman Sal Ramirez said Tuesday night. "The detectives strongly believe it is her."

Naegle taught nursing at West Los Angeles College, and Rogers was one of her students, the Daily Breeze newspaper reported. Police did not give details on their relationship or a motive for the killing.

It was not immediately clear whether Rogers had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

Naegle had gone to a birthday party Saturday night at a beer hall and restaurant in Torrance. Her husband, Derek Harryman, said he got home from work and texted her around 2 a.m. Sunday to see where she was.

"Within a minute or two, she called me," Harryman told the newspaper. "She sounded really, really drunk. She said, 'I'm going to get some food and then I'll be home.'"

She never arrived.

Harryman and Naegle's sister filed a missing person's report and launched a social media campaign to help find her.

The family said a friend who works at the beer hall let them see surveillance video that they say shows Naegle leaving with Rogers and getting into his vehicle.

"We went and we looked at the film and she left with him," her brother, Rafael Chavez, told the Daily Breeze. "He told everybody he left without her."

The family said they asked Rogers to tell them what happened.

"While he was talking to us and telling us his story, multiple different times he said he absolutely did not go home with her, or did not take her home," Naegle's sister, Danielle Naegle-Kaimona, told KABC-TV.

After the family confronted Rogers with the video, they said he altered his story to say that Naegle had gotten into his car but then got out moments later. They then contacted police.

Officials investigate a home in the Lennox area of Los Angeles as they search for Lisa Marie Naegle, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016. Los Angeles police have arrested a man for investigation of murder and are searching his home for the body of a former reality TV show contestant who went missing over the weekend. (Brad Graverson/The Daily Breeze via AP)
The Latest: Obamas, friends dine near Hawaii vacation home

HONOLULU (AP)  The Latest on President Barack Obama's annual two-week vacation in Hawaii (all times local):

7:30 p.m.

President Obama and his family wrapped up another day of their Hawaii holiday vacation with dinner at a restaurant near their Kailua vacation home.

President Barack Obama, left, smiles after putting on the 18th green at Kapolei Golf Club, in Kapolei, Hawaii, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. Golfing with the president from left are Bobby Titcomb, and Darrell Harrington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The first family and some friends dined Wednesday night at Buzz's Lanikai, just a short motorcade trip away and situated across a road from Kailua Beach.

The restaurant  known for surf-and-turf offerings and a tiki decor  has become a regular vacation stop for the Obamas.

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4 p.m.

Wearing a white shirt and dark-colored shorts and a baseball hat, President Barack Obama finished 18 holes of golf at the Kapolei Golf Course in Kapolei, Hawaii. It took about five hours for the president and his playing partners  Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme, and Darrell Harrington  to finish the round.

After making his putt, the president tipped his hat toward the pin and then shook hands and warmly embraced each playing partner before walking off the green.

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11 a.m.

President Barack Obama is back on the golf course during his Hawaii vacation.

The president is playing at Kapolei Golf Club on Oahu's western side. This is the president's third time hitting the links since he arrived Friday. His earlier golf outings were to courses in Kailua, where he is renting a house for the holidays.

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8 a.m.

President Barack Obama is starting the fifth day of his Hawaii vacation at the gym for a workout.

A gentle breeze rustled palm trees Wednesday as the president's motorcade traveled from his Kailua vacation home to a nearby Marine Corps base gym.

People stood on the side of the road to wave at the procession of cars. A woman flashed the "shaka" Hawaii hang-loose sign at Obama as his vehicle drove by.

Obama spent Tuesday afternoon at the beach after working out at the gym.

The first family is spending their annual two-week winter vacation in Obama's home state.

President Barack Obama walks across the 18th green at Kapolei Golf Club, in Kapolei, Hawaii, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama places a ball to putt on the 18th green at Kapolei Golf Club, in Kapolei, Hawaii, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama looks to Darrell Harrington as they golf the 18th green at Kapolei Golf Club, in Kapolei, Hawaii, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama watches his putt roll into the hole on the 18th green at Kapolei Golf Club, in Kapolei, Hawaii, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

From left, Greg Orme, Bobby Titcomb, Darrell Harrington and President Barack Obama golf the 18th green at Kapolei Golf Club, in Kapolei, Hawaii, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama pauses as he golfs on the 18th green at Kapolei Golf Club, in Kapolei, Hawaii, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama, left, is congratulated after putting on the 18th green at Kapolei Golf Club, in Kapolei, Hawaii, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. Golfing with the president from left are Bobby Titcomb, and Darrell Harrington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama walks across the 18th green with Darrell Harrington at Kapolei Golf Club, in Kapolei, Hawaii, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Kansas amputee gets surprise holiday gift: electronic hands

DERBY, Kan. (AP)  A southern Kansas woman whose hands and feet had to be amputated after she was shot during a robbery got an early Christmas gift  new electronic hands worth $260,000, courtesy of a businessman and his wife.

Julie Dombo of Derby showed off her new hands Tuesday with her husband, a day after receiving them as a present from Koch Industries' general counsel Mark Holden and his wife, The Wichita Eagle reported (http://j.mp/2hcXk3I).

Dombo was shot in the arm and chest during an August 2015 robbery at a Derby AT&T store. Because of medical issues that developed from the injuries while she was hospitalized doctors had to amputate portions of her arms and legs to save her life. James Michael Phillips, 27, was sentenced to about 31 years after being convicted in October of several charges in the case, including attempted first-degree murder.

In this Dec. 20, 2016, photo, Julie Dombo celebrates her first full day with her new electronic hands with her husband, John in Derby, Kan. Julie whose hands and feet had to be amputated after she was shot during a robbery got an early Christmas gift  new electronic hands worth $260,000, courtesy of a businessman and his wife. (Oliver Morrison/The Wichita Eagle via AP)

Dombo met Holden in October at a Wichita Crime Commission awards banquet, where she told Holden insurance wouldn't pay for the electronic hands she said would give her a chance at a relatively ordinary life, The Wichita Eagle reported (http://j.mp/2hcXk3I ). The hands allow her to grip objects, to work an iPhone and to put on her prosthetic legs.

Without the hands, Dombo's husband, John, has to be with her most of the time to help her.

Dombo has been working out with the hands once a week since May at Peeple's Prosthetics so that if the money ever came through, she'd know how to use the hands, which retail for about $260,000.

"I'll do what I can," Holden told her that night at the banquet.

Holden traveled back to Washington, D.C., told his wife and son about Dombo and contacted someone who knew U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo of Wichita. Holden wanted to see if Pompeo could talk with the insurance company. But when Holden attended Phillips' sentencing hearing he learned that Blue Cross hadn't changed its decision.

"I promise you I will get your sister the arms," Holden told Dombo's sister Linda. "We're going to get them."

Holden later told Dombo his wife wanted to meet her. So the Dombos invited the Holdens over for lunch Monday when Mark Holden arrived carrying two big boxes with the prosthetic hands he and his wife bought for her.

Dombo saw the boxes and started to cry.

"Merry Christmas," Holden said.
Soldier denied hotel room because he's not yet 21

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP)  A soldier was denied the chance to rent a hotel room in southwest Florida because he is under age 21, even though a state law waives a minimum age requirement for people with military ID cards.

The Fort Myers New-Press (http://newspr.es/2hIcJIh ) reported Tuesday that 20-year-old Army Pvt. Mason Ritums was notified that the Crestwood Suites in Fort Myers, Florida, doesn't rent rooms to anyone under 21.

It turns out a state law was passed in 2015 specifically eliminating age requirements for anyone with identification showing they are on active duty.

The vice president of the company that owns the hotel says he didn't know about the law. But Collier Dailey tells the newspaper that he would have waived the age policy anyway if he knew Ritums was in the Army.

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Tissue, organ research institute to benefit injured soldiers

CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  The Department of Defense is providing $80 million to establish a bio-research and manufacturing institute in Manchester, New Hampshire, to develop transplant tissues and organs for injured American soldiers and other patients.

The five-year award was announced Wednesday by Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan. All three were strong supporters of locating the institute in Manchester and had urged the Defense Department to support the project.

"This is a monumental investment in the future of New Hampshire and further establishes this region as a hub for scientific research and development," they said in a statement. "This is an immense and critically important mission and we have full faith in this esteemed coalition as they take on this research that will save lives on the battlefield as well as here at home."

The Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute will be led by a collation that includes DEKA Research and Development Corp., the University of New Hampshire and Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Officials said it will bring good jobs to Manchester and give the state's college graduates opportunities to work on cutting edge biomedical research.

Both UNH Manchester and DEKA are in Manchester's Amoskeag Millyard, allowing for efficient communication and coordination, said University of New Hampshire President Mark Huddleston. He said the campus will serve as the home of a cell culture training facility for students and workers from throughout the region.

"UNH has vibrant and extensive life sciences research, education and workforce development programs, with particular strengths in cellular biology, biomedical sciences and bioengineering. We are honored by this recognition from the Department of Defense for our leadership in STEM education and workforce development," he said.

STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The institute is the 12th manufacturing hub awarded by the Obama administration. According to the White House, it will develop techniques for repairing and replacing cells in tissues, possibly leading to the ability to make new skin for soldiers scarred from combat and technology to preserve organs for those waiting for transplants.

Beyond being economically and scientifically important for the state, the institute's work will be transformational for future organ transplant patients, said Dr. James Weinstein, CEO and President of Dartmouth-Hitchcock.

He believes researchers will develop ways to make tissue on structured frameworks that could be implantable within five years.
A historically black Mississippi church that had 'Vote Trump' sprayed on it prior to being torched was attacked by a black member of its own congregation, police have said.

The blaze broke out at the 200-member Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville at around 9.15pm on December 1, a week before the presidential election. Commentators were quick to point out the possible political ad racial implications.

Officials say that they don't believe suspect Andrew McClinton, 45, was politically motivated - but suggest that he might have staged the attack to make it look like a hate crime.

Torched: The historically black Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi, was tagged with 'Vote Trump' graffiti and set on fire on November 1, a week before the election

Wrecked: The church had to be demolished after the fire. Despite suspicion that it was the subject of a hate crime attack, cops say the culprit is a member of its black congregation

After the fire at the historically black church, which serves a 78 per cent black city and has a congregation stretching back 111 years, many were concerned about the racial implications.

Suspect: Andrew McClinton (pictured in driver's license photo), who has served time for armed robbery, is believed to be responsible for the attack

US Rep. Bennie Thopmson, a Democrat whose district includes Greenville, said at the time that the fire and graffiti hearkened 'back to a much darker day in Mississippi.'

'The political message of the vandalism is obviously an attempt to sway public opinion regarding the upcoming election,' he said. 'I encourage all citizens not to be deterred by this cowardly act and exercise your right to vote at the ballot box.'

But the announcement that the attacker was not just black, but - according to Hopewell Bishop Clarence Green - a member of the church's congregation, has turned that theory on its head.

Officials have not yet revealed a motive in the ongoing investigation, but have suggested that McClinton, of Leland, Mississippi, may have attempted to make the attack look like a hate crime.

'We do not believe it was politically motivated. There may have been some efforts to make it appear politically motivated,' Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, who is also the fire marshal, said.

This isn't the first time McClinton has been in trouble with the law. In 1997 he was sentenced to seven years for attempted armed robbery in Lee County.

And in 2004 he was convicted of armed robbery again, serving eight years in prison.

He also received three years' probation for grand larceny in 1991; that probation was revoked the following year because he received stolen property.

McClinton's supervision by the department ended in February, the spokeswoman said.

Greenville is a Mississippi River port city of about 32,100 people, and about 78 percent of its residents are African-American.

While it's not unusual for people of different racial backgrounds to work and eat lunch together, local residents say the congregations at most churches remain clearly identifiable by race.

'Staged': Police don't yet have a motive for the crime, but it's been suggested that he may have staged the attack to look like it was politically motivated

On Wednesday Greenville Mayor Errick D Simmons called the church-burning 'a direct assault on the Hopewell congregation's right to freely worship'.

'There is no place for this heinous and divisive behavior in our city,' he said. 'We will not rest until the culprit is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We take pride in our work to have a unified city and we look forward in continuing that work.'

Hopewell was founded in 1905 in the heart of an African-American neighborhood, and the congregation now has about 200 members.

While some walls of the beige brick church survived the fire, the empty windows are boarded up and church leaders have said the structure will likely be razed. Rebuilding could take months.

Greenville is in Washington County, a traditional Democratic stronghold in a solidly Republican state.

In the presidential election, Republican Donald Trump easily carried Mississippi, but Democrat Hillary Clinton received more than twice his votes in Washington County - 11,380 for Clinton to 5,244 for Trump.

McClinton is scheduled to make an initial court appearance Thursday in Greenville, charged with first-degree arson of a place of worship.

He faces between five and 30 years in prison if found guilty. He would also have to pay for all the damage caused.
US puts Alibaba back on 'notorious markets' blacklist

WASHINGTON (AP)  Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is back on the U.S. government's annual list of "notorious markets" that sell pirated goods.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Wednesday that Alibaba's on-line marketplace Taobao sells "high levels" of counterfeit goods and is slow to respond when companies complain about the knockoffs.

USTR took Alibaba off the blacklist in 2012, but several U.S. trade groups successfully sought to get it reinstated.

"There are a lot of victims here," including U.S. companies that lose sales to fakes and consumers who wind up with shoddy goods, said Stephen Lamar, executive vice president at the American Apparel & Footwear Association, which wanted Alibaba back on the list.

Alibaba Group President Michael Evans said the company is "disappointed." Alibaba polices the market more effectively than it did four years ago, he said.

Evans questioned whether the USTR decision was "based on actual facts or was influenced by the current political climate." During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump blasted China for stealing intellectual property.
Autopsy: Oklahoma manhunt subject shot at least 20 times

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)  A man who led Oklahoma law enforcement officers on a weeklong manhunt was shot at least 20 times during a gun battle with authorities, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday.

Michael Dale Vance Jr. died from a perforating gunshot wound to the neck, according to the report prepared by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. But the report also says Vance, 38, of Chandler, had a variety of other gunshot wounds to his arms, legs and pelvic area. In addition, the autopsy found two gunshot wounds from the earlier gun battle with police that were healing.

Among other injuries, the fatal wound to the neck perforated Vance's upper cervical spine and cut his right carotid artery and spinal cord, according to the autopsy report.

FILE - This June 8, 2010 file photo provided by the Kay County Detention Center shows Michael Vance. Oklahoma's medical examiner said Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016, that Michael Vance Jr. was shot at least 20 times in a shootout to end a weeklong manhunt in late October. Vance had evaded police while a suspect in the killings of two relatives and the shootings of three law officers. The medical examiner's office released the report to The Associated Press under an Oklahoma Open Records Act request. The autopsy revealed Vance was healing from two previous gunshot wounds when he died. (Kay County Detention Center via AP)

The manhunt for Vance began on Oct. 23 after he allegedly killed two relatives and shot two police officers in central Oklahoma. It ended when Vance was killed on Oct. 30 during a shootout on a county road near the town of Leedey, about 130 miles northwest of Oklahoma City.

Video from two dashboard-mounted cameras in Oklahoma Highway Patrol vehicles and from a helicopter that was following the chase overhead show Vance, who was driving a stolen flat-bed pickup truck, careen through a roadblock as troopers fired at his vehicle. Several troopers then joined in the chase and fired at Vance, who was returning fire with an assault rifle loaded with two 30-round magazines.

When the chase finally ended, Vance exited the truck and used it as cover as he fired several shots while the vehicle rolled toward the officers. About 30 seconds later, Vance is seen collapsing onto the roadway while troopers continue to return fire.
Things to know as Texas tells Planned Parenthood cuts coming

AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  Planned Parenthood is poised to end 2016 in a familiar place: in court, asking a judge to stop a Republican-controlled state from blocking Medicaid dollars. Here's how the nation's largest abortion provider got there and what's next:

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TEXAS LATEST STATE TO CUT OFF DOLLARS

Texas health officials told Planned Parenthood this week that they will boot the organization from the state's Medicaid program come January. At stake is about $4 million to Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas that serve nearly 11,000 low-income women each year, according to the group. No public funding in Texas is used for abortion, while Medicaid reimbursements cover services that include well-women exams, screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and birth control. Planned Parenthood said late Tuesday it will ask a federal court to block the defunding.

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PLANNED PARENTHOOD HAS PREVAILED ELSEWHERE

Federal judges have already stopped other states  including Arkansas, Louisiana, Kansas, Arizona, Indiana and Utah  from suspending Medicaid dollars as Texas plans. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III noted in an October ruling against the state of Mississippi that every court to consider similar laws has found they violate the "free-choice-of-provider" provision of federal law.

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SECRETLY RECORDED VIDEOS CONTINUE DRIVING GOP EFFORTS

Texas health officials noted in letters Tuesday that their decision was based on an anti-abortion group's secretly recorded videos in 2015 that claimed to show Planned Parenthood officials profiting from sales of fetal tissue for medical research. Investigations by 13 states into those videos have been concluded without criminal charges, although a congressional panel is still investigating. Planned Parenthood has denied allegations of wrongdoing, but has stopped accepting reimbursement for the costs involved in providing fetal tissue to researchers.

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POTENTIAL DEFUNDING ALSO LOOMS IN CONGRESS

The GOP-controlled Congress is pushing a defunding measure that would strip roughly $400 million in Medicaid money from Planned Parenthood, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and would result in roughly 400,000 women losing access to care. President-elect Donald Trump said during his campaign that Planned Parenthood helped "millions of women" but has also endorsed calls for defunding. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, the daughter of former Democratic Texas Gov. Ann Richards, says "if the nation goes the way of Texas, it will be nothing less than a national health care disaster."

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TEXAS BOOTED PLANNED PARENTHOOD BEFORE

Texas has been aggressive in its efforts to weaken Planned Parenthood, including kicking the organization out of a state women's health program in 2013. Earlier this year, a top Texas health official who co-authored a study suggesting that cuts to Planned Parenthood restricted access to women's health care resigned under pressure from state leaders who disputed the findings. A revamped women's health program, which state officials say will triple the number of providers from five years ago, gave one contract to the nonprofit of a prominent anti-abortion activist.

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Associates Press writer Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

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Officer shot, suspect dead after shooting in Alabama

SARALAND, Ala. (AP)  Authorities say a police officer was shot and critically wounded while responding to a domestic call in the south Alabama city of Saraland. A suspect was shot and later died.

Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich said Officer Jackie Tucker was shot as she and another officer responded to the Wednesday morning call.

Rich says the two had just walked up to the door of a house when the suspect, identified as Blake Richardson, opened the door and began firing, striking Tucker in the head.

Her unidentified partner returned fire and dragged her to safety. Rich said it was not immediately clear if Richardson, a 27-year-old white male, died from police gunfire or a self-inflicted wound.
Puerto Rico to debate pot, surrogacy in special session

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)  Puerto Rico legislators are preparing for a last-minute debate on bills that call for decriminalizing marijuana and regulating fertility treatments.

Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla called for an extraordinary session on Wednesday, less than two weeks before he steps down as leader of the U.S. territory.

One bill would legalize personal possession of up to one ounce of pot, while another seeks to regulate surrogacy, as well as artificial and in vitro insemination.

Legislators also will debate another bill that would make Spanish Puerto Rico's first official language and English its second. Currently, both are the island's official languages.
Judge gives early approval to Trump University settlement

SAN DIEGO (AP)  A federal judge has given preliminary approval to a settlement between President-elect Donald Trump and former students of Trump University who claimed they were misled by his promises to teach success in real estate.

The ruling Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel triggers procedural steps that will lead to a March 30 hearing for final approval.

Curiel said the agreement for Trump to pay $25 million is "fair, adequate and reasonable," as required by federal law. Trump admits no wrongdoing in settling two class-action lawsuits in San Diego and a civil lawsuit in New York filed by that state's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman.

President-elect Donald Trump, center, accompanied by Trump Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, right, and retired Gen. Michael Flynn, a senior adviser to Trump, left, speaks to members of the media at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Attorneys for Trump and the former students announced the terms last month and submitted a formal agreement for the judge's approval Monday.

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Trump's inaugural to include interfaith prayer service

Donald Trump's Inaugural weekend will include an interfaith prayer service at Washington's National Cathedral. The Jan. 21 event will be complicated by anger over the president-elect's rhetoric on Muslims, immigrants and others.

It's customary to hold such an interfaith event. In 2013, the cathedral hosted President Barack Obama and about two dozen religious leaders, including Muslims, evangelicals, Orthodox Christians, Sikhs and Jews.

Trump's supporters say this interfaith service will emphasize unity and reconciliation. Trump has called Mexicans rapists and proposed severe restrictions on immigrants and refugees from Muslim countries.
Security measures have been tightened across Britain as German police continue to hunt for the suspect behind the Berlin lorry attack which left 12 dead.

British police are reviewing security arrangements for the festive period in the wake of the attack on Monday night and forces will be stepping up security measures at major Christmas markets.

Security staff search the bags of visitors at the entrance to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park

Members of the public were urged to remain vigilant and report any concerns, as the official threat level in the UK remains at severe  meaning an attack is seen as highly likely.

A 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker was detained in the aftermath of the attack in the German capital but denied any involvement. German police have admitted the person behind it may still be armed and at large.

People at #Breitscheitplatz hold a sign stating: "Terror has no religion. Berlin Muslims against terror." #BerlinAttack pic.twitter.com/WskfwJFvHi  Claire Hayhurst (@clairehayhurst) December 20, 2016

German police have admitted the person behind Monday's attack may still be armed and at large

Federal public prosecutor Peter Frank said the modus operandi of the attack had echoes of Julys atrocity in Nice, in which 86 people died, and could have been the work of Islamic extremist groups, with the target of the attack highly symbolic.

On Tuesday night Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack that killed 12 people and injured 50.

12 people were killed in the attack

Eleven people died when the articulated lorry careered through huts and stalls at the Christmas market near Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, along with a Polish man found shot dead inside the lorrys cab. Six of the 12 victims have been identified as German.

German chancellor Angela Merkel and senior officials visited the scene of the attack on Tuesday, laying white roses among candles at a makeshift shrine to the dead and injured.

Prime Minister Theresa May paid tribute, saying events in Berlin had shocked us all as she offered condolences to those affected.

The vivid images from Berlin & Ankara have shocked us all. Our condolences are with all those who mourn and all who have been affected.  Theresa May (@theresa_may) December 20, 2016

The attack has led to heightened security concerns in the UK, though a Number 10 spokesman said there were no plans to change the UKs security level.

Scotland Yard said it has detailed plans for protecting public events over the Christmas and New Year period.

Statement following the incidents in Berlin and Ankara https://t.co/cwTxMq91Jd pic.twitter.com/Axfqzmgcwv  Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) December 20, 2016

Huge numbers of people will be in London over the holiday season as shoppers flock to the capital for the post-Christmas sales, while more than 100,000 revellers are expected to attend the New Years Eve fireworks display.

Greater Manchester Police said they had strengthened their presence at Christmas markets, which have almost 350 stalls spread across 10 sites in the city.

Assistant Chief Constable Debbie Ford said: I would like to stress at this point that there is absolutely no information or intelligence suggesting any attack is imminent in Greater Manchester.

Police patrol Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas Market, as West Midlands Police said it was reviewing security measures and increasing visible patrols

West Midlands Police said they were also reviewing security measures and increasing patrols in Birmingham, to ensure the safety of visitors to the citys popular Christmas German market.

The Met also announced that it would be bringing forward enhanced security measures for Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace, and implementing road closures during the ceremony.
A Royal Marine serving life after being found guilty of murdering an injured Afghan fighter has been refused bail pending a new challenge against his conviction.

Sergeant Alexander Blackman, 42, of Taunton in Somerset, failed to persuade two judges at the Court Martial Appeal Court in London to free him from prison.

The bail move followed the announcement by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the independent body that investigates possible miscarriages of justice, of its decision to refer Blackmans conviction and sentence to the court for review.

Sergeant Alexander Blackman (Andrew Parsons/PA)

Blackman watched Wednesdays proceedings via video link from jail. His wife Claire was in the packed courtroom with dozens of supporters.

Blackman was convicted in November 2013 by a court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire, and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 10 years, which was later reduced to eight years on appeal because of the combat stress he was suffering from at the time of the incident.

He shot the insurgent in Helmand province in 2011 while serving with Plymouth-based 42 Commando.

Feel for Claire Blackman - #JusticeForMarineA - Sgt Alexander Blackman refused bail ahead of new conviction challenge  Laurence Herdman  (@lozherdman) December 21, 2016

There was a loud sigh of disappointment from supporters in the public gallery as the decision to refuse bail was announced by Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, sitting with Mr Justice Sweeney.

The CCRC referred the case for review following an 11-month in-depth investigation.

It announced it had concluded that a number of new issues, including fresh evidence relating to Blackmans mental state, raise a real possibility that the Court Martial Appeal Court will now quash Mr Blackmans murder conviction.

Blackman shot the insurgent, who had been seriously injured in an attack by an Apache helicopter, in the chest at close range with a 9mm pistol before quoting a phrase from Shakespeare as the man convulsed and died in front of him.

The shooting was captured on a camera mounted on the helmet of another Royal Marine.

During his trial, Blackman  who denied murder and was known at that stage as Marine A  said he believed the victim was already dead and he was taking out his anger on a corpse.
Jordanian policemen killed fighting gunmen near Karak: security source

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Four Jordanian policemen were killed in clashes with Islamist militants near the southern city of Karak on Tuesday as the authorities hunted militants who killed 10 people on Sunday, security officials said.

Two days earlier police tackled gunmen holed up inside a Crusader castle in Karak. Among the casualties was a Canadian tourist. Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the violence.

Security forces then launched a wide manhunt to track down the militants' support network.

Government spokesperson Mohamad Momani told reporters that security forces were surrounding a house in a neighbourhood in Karak where gunmen linked to the four militants who staged Sunday's attack were taking cover and exchanging gunfire with security forces.

"We are talking about a number of raids that are being conducted by security forces in all parts of the kingdom, not just in Karak," said Momani.

He said at least one gunman was killed in the operation alongside the four policemen. At least 11 people, mostly security personnel, were wounded in the clashes, which were still going on, a security source said.

Police said late on Sunday they had killed four "terrorist outlaws" after flushing them out of the castle where they were holed up after an exchange of fire that lasted several hours. Security forces were able to release around 10 tourists unharmed. At least 30 people were taken to hospital.

Jordanian officials have not publicly confirmed whether the four slain gunmen were militants linked to Islamic State. But they said that a large cache of weapons, ammunitions and several suicide belts were discovered in a hideout in a home in the desert town of Qatranah, 30 km (20 miles) northeast of Karak.

Security sources said the gunmen were all Jordanian nationals. Officials worry about radical Islam's growing profile in Jordan.

Interior Minister Salamah Hamad said on Monday that the four had fled from the Qatranah area to Karak after an exchange of fire with the police. Based on the quantities of explosives and weapons, "I don't think the target was just Karak castle, it's more," he added. He would not elaborate, saying disclosing details at this stage could imperil national security.

Jordan has been relatively unscathed by the uprisings, civil wars and Islamist militancy that have swept the Middle East since 2011.

However, it is among the few Arab states that have taken part in a U.S.-led air campaign against Islamic State militants holding territory in Syria and Iraq. Many Jordanians oppose this involvement, saying it has led to the killing of fellow Muslims and raised security threats inside Jordan.
Obama bans new oil, gas drilling off Alaska, part of Atlantic coast

By Valerie Volcovici and Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday banned new oil and gas drilling in federal waters in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, in a push to leave his stamp on the environment before Republican Donald Trump takes office next month.

Obama used a 1950s-era law called the Outer Continental Shelf Act that allows presidents to limit areas from mineral leasing and drilling. Environmental groups said that meant Trump's incoming administration would have to go court if it sought to reverse the move.

The ban affects 115 million acres (46.5 million hectares) of federal waters off Alaska in the Chukchi Sea and most of the Beaufort Sea and 3.8 million acres (1.5 million hectares) in the Atlantic from New England to Chesapeake Bay.

Trump, who succeeds Obama on Jan. 20, has said he would expand offshore oil and gas drilling. A recent memo from his energy transition team said his policy could increase production in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, as well as the mid- and south Atlantic.

A Trump representative did not immediately comment on the announcement.

Even if Trump tries to fight the move, few energy companies have expressed a desire to drill anytime soon off the coasts thanks to abundant cheap shale oil in North Dakota and Texas.

Exploratory drilling in the Arctic is expensive and risky. Shell Oil ended its quest to explore in harsh Arctic waters in 2015, after a vessel it was using suffered a gash and environmentalists uncovered a law that limited its drilling.

The American Petroleum Institute oil industry group disagreed about the permanence of the ban and said Trump could likely use a presidential memorandum to lift it.

"We are hopeful the incoming administration will reverse this decision as the nation continues to need a robust strategy for developing offshore and onshore energy," said Erik Milito, API's upstream director.

JOINT ACTION WITH CANADA

The White House and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau jointly announced their move to launch "actions ensuring a strong, sustainable and viable Arctic economy and ecosystem."

Obama said in a statement that the joint actions "reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region's harsh conditions is limited."

Canada will designate all Arctic Canadian waters as indefinitely off limits to future offshore Arctic oil and gas licensing, to be reviewed every five years through a climate and marine science-based life-cycle assessment.

The law under which Obama is acting enables a president to withdraw certain areas from leasing or drilling "for any public purpose," such as to limit the impacts of climate change, according to a legal briefing by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earth Justice.

Under that law, a president is not authorized to "undo" a previous withdrawal, making it more difficult for Trump to target without a lawsuit.

"No president has ever tried to undo a permanent withdrawal of an ocean area from leasing eligibility," said Niel Lawrence, Alaska director and attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The provision has been used by six presidents from both parties over the past 65 years, including to withdraw as much as several hundred million acres at a time, he said.

'SMART BUSINESS DECISION'

In 2015, just 0.1 percent of U.S. federal offshore crude production came from the Arctic. At current oil prices, significant production in the Arctic will not occur, according to a Department of Interior analysis.

There is currently no crude oil production in the Canadian Arctic. A number of companies including Chevron Corp, ConocoPhillips and Imperial Oil hold exploration licenses, but all three have put their drilling plans on hold, partly because of weak global oil prices.

On the U.S. Atlantic coast, local groups have opposed offshore drilling and would fight the Trump administration's attempts to open it up.

"The people of the Atlantic coast have refused to allow their way of life to be compromised," said Jacqueline Savitz, senior vice president of Florida-based ocean conservancy group Oceana.
Ford halting Venezuela production until April, executive says

SAO PAULO, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co halted auto production in Venezuela last week and will not resume it until April, a company executive said on Tuesday, in another blow to the crisis-wracked country's manufacturing sector.

"It is a measure to adjust production to demand in the country," Lyle Watters, Ford's president for South America, told reporters at an event in Sao Paulo, adding that the plant affected by the shutdown employs 2,000 workers.

Watters said the production freeze would not affect Ford's consolidated results as operations in Venezuela are reported separately. Beginning in the first quarter of this year, Venezuela became the only wholly owned Ford unit with operating results that are excluded from the full company's income statement.

In January 2015, Ford took a charge related to its Venezuelan operations that cut fourth-quarter net profit by $700 million. Ford is the only automaker still mass producing cars in Venezuela, even on a limited scale.

Vehicle production in recession-hit Venezuela is less than 8 cars a day, according to figures provided by the national automakers organization Cavenez. Ford produced 2,253 units out of a paltry national total of 2,768 in the year through November.

It takes less than two days for Ford at one of its larger U.S. plants to make as many vehicles as the company has made in Venezuela so far in 2016.

Ford in 2014 halted production for about a month due to a lack of foreign currency to import parts for assembly.
Gambia's Jammeh defies African leaders, says he will not step down

By Lamin Jahateh

BANJUL, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh vowed to stay in power when his mandate ends in January, defying calls from West African leaders to hand over to the winner of a Dec. 1 election.

Regional bloc ECOWAS hopes diplomacy can persuade Jammeh to step down but has also warned him it would take "all necessary actions" to resolve the impasse. Neighbouring Senegal has indicated that military action would be a last resort.

"I am not a coward. My right cannot be intimidated and violated. This is my position. Nobody can deprive me of that victory except the Almighty Allah," Jammeh, who took power in a 1994 coup, said on state television late on Tuesday.

"The ECOWAS meeting was a formality. Before they came, they had already said Jammeh must step down. I will not step down," he said, referring to a mediating visit by West African leaders to Banjul last week.

Jammeh's rebuff places president-elect Adama Barrow in a vulnerable position. He is due to formally end his rival's 22-year rule when he is inaugurated on Jan. 19 in a ceremony that West African leaders say they will attend.

ECOWAS has pledged to provide security for Barrow but bodyguards have not yet arrived.

His unexpected victory and Jammeh's initial announcement that he would step down was greeted with joy on a continent where it is extremely rare for a veteran leader to lose an election and step down willingly.

It quickly became a test of regional mettle, though, when Jammeh reversed course, asserting that he was cheated and would challenge the result in Gambia's supreme court.

The court has not heard cases for years but the chief justice said on Wednesday a hearing would take place on Jan. 10. with judges from Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

In a show of support for Jammeh's legal challenge, the president of the African Bar Association, Hannibal Uwaifo, met him late on Tuesday and in a broadcast statement called for his case to be heard.

ECOWAS has mandated Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to mediate. ECOWAS deployed troops to Liberia and Sierra Leone during civil wars in the 1990s, setting a precedent for possible regional intervention. It also sent forces to Mali in 2013.

But African organisations, including the African Union, have a patchy record when it comes to putting pressure on leaders after disputed elections.

TIMETABLE FOR JAMMEH

Human rights groups say Jammeh's government has arrested, tortured and killed perceived opponents.

A first step for raising pressure on Jammeh once the handover date passes might be targeted sanctions by ECOWAS, the United Nations, United States and European Union, diplomats said.

These could involve a travel ban. Diplomats say ECOWAS would probably seek approval from the U.N. Security Council, of which Senegal is a non-permanent member, for the use of force.

Senegal, which has a history of stormy relations with Gambia and sent troops there during a 1981 coup, is a likely candidate for leadership of any African intervention force given its position as Gambia's only territorial neighbour.

In the interim, it may be possible to defuse the situation by offering Jammeh asylum, probably in Morocco or Saudi Arabia, diplomats said.

Barrow is already grappling with preparations for governing. One crucial task is securing the support of security forces who have seized the electoral commission since the vote.
Taiwan expresses regret as Sao Tome ends ties

TAIPEI, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Taiwan Foreign Minister David Lee expressed regret on Wednesday after Sao Tome ended ties with the self-ruled island, and said Taiwan would not engage in "dollar diplomacy".

Taiwan was unable to satisfy the small West Africa nation's financial shortages, Lee told a news conference in Taipei.
Japan govt raises view on economy for first time since March 2015

By Minami Funakoshi

TOKYO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Japan's government upgraded its overall assessment of the economy on Wednesday, echoing the Bank of Japan's more upbeat view, in a sign the economy may be steadying.

The government also upgraded its view of household spending, exports and business sentiment, saying consumers' mindsets are improving and exports to Asia are recovering.

The brighter assessment from the government comes a day after the BOJ kept monetary policy steady and upgraded its views on the economy, saying exports and output were picking up.

"The economy is on a moderate recovery, while delays in improvement can be seen in some parts," the Cabinet Office said its monthly economic report, marking the first upgrade since March 2015.

Like the central bank, the government revised up its view on private consumption, considered a soft spot for the world's third-largest economy. The government upgraded this assessment for the first time in three months.

"Pick-up can be seen in private consumption," the monthly report said. "Going forward, private consumption is expected to pick up as employment and wages improve."

The government was also more upbeat on exports, saying that gains can be seen and these should continue as global economies gradually recover. This was the first upgrade in nine months, and was revised from the previous month's description of exports as being "largely flat."

In another encouraging sign, the government raised its view on business sentiment, saying it is recovering moderately.

However, the report warned of uncertainties in the global economy and fluctuations in financial and capital markets.

Japan's economy expanded for a third straight quarter in July-September as exports recovered, but domestic activity remained weak.
Romania - Factors to watch on Dec. 21

Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Wednesday.

PRIME MINISTER

President Klaus Iohannis starts two-day consultations on forming a new government, with the leftist Social Democrat Party (PSD) and long-time ally ALDE likely to propose him a prime minister candidate and publicly unveil their choice.

PARLIAMENT

The legislative emerged after the Dec. 11 national election will be sworn in. Together with coalition partner ALDE, the PSD has 250 MPs in the 465-seat parliament, allowing them to pass legislation fairly smoothly.

CEE MARKETS

Hungarian government debt prices firmed on Tuesday, bucking a rise in European bond yields ahead of expected further monetary stimulus from the Hungarian central bank's meeting.

The bank has been boosting liquidity in local markets for months to encourage banks to lend more cheaply and to buy government debt.

For the long-term Romanian diary, click on

For emerging markets economic events, click on

For an index of all diaries, click on
Poland - Factors to Watch Dec 21

Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Wednesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 1 hour):

POLITICAL CRISIS

Poland's ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski to hold news conference along with Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and parliament speakers at 0900.

CONSTITUTIONAL TRIBUNAL

After a year-long conflict over the constitutional tribunal, ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party finally took over control over the judiciary body, Rzeczpospolita daily reported.

ZABKA

Mid Europa Partners plans to sell its retail company Zabka for 5 billion zlotys ($1.18 billion). Among interested parties are funds such as TPG, BC Partners, Hellman & Friedman, CVC Partners, and Thai CP All, Puls Biznesu daily said.

RAILWAYS

PKP PLK, which manages railway infrastructure in Poland, plans to sign deals worth 26 billion zlotys next year in order to improve the quality of rail tracks, Rzeczpospolita said.

****Reuters has not verified stories reported by Polish media and does not vouch for their accuracy.****
Thailand seeks to develop military production facilities with China

By Thanarith Satrusayang

BANGKOK, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Thailand and China are in talks about building military production facilities in Thailand, a Thai defense ministry spokesman said on Wednesday, the latest sign of warming relations between China and America's oldest ally in Asia.

Relations between Thailand and the United States cooled following a May 2014 military coup that the Thai military said was necessary to end months of unrest, including street protests that led to the ouster of an elected government.

The United States has said relations cannot return to normal until democracy is restored. The generals running Thailand have promised an election for 2017.

Since the coup, the military government has sought to counterbalance U.S. ties by developing relations with China and Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan met his Chinese counterpart, Chang Wanquan, during a visit to Beijing last week.

"The defense minister told his Chinese counterpart that we are interested in setting up facilities to repair and maintain the Chinese equipment we currently have in our arsenal," ministry spokesman Kongcheep Tantravanich told Reuters.

"We will also look to their expertise in producing small arms and other security-related equipment like drones," he said.

Thailand has also held talks with Russia about setting up similar production facilities, said Kongcheep, without giving details.

Following the 2014 coup, the U.S. froze security and defense aid to Thailand. It has also scaled back annual military exercises citing concern about Thailand's political development.

Donald Trump's election victory has also raised questions about prospects for a U.S. "pivot" towards Asia, a central policy of outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama.

"If the U.S. is unable to back up its regional role ... the regional states have no other choice but to accommodate Beijing," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political science professor at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

Kongcheep said military relations with the United States were expected to get back on track after Thailand's election.

"The relationship is not yet perfect," he said.

"Once Thailand returns to democracy, I expect the relationship to return to normal."
Indonesian police kill 3 militant suspects in gunfight, find bombs

By Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Gayatri Suroyo

JAKARTA, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Indonesian anti-terrorism police killed three suspects in a gunfight on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta, on Wednesday and foiled a suicide bomb plot, a police spokesman said.

The raid is the latest in a series over recent weeks that police say have disrupted bomb plots, raising concern that homegrown militants in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation are getting bolder in their attempts to launch attacks.

Police said this week that at least 14 people were being interrogated over suicide bomb plots targeting the presidential palace in Jakarta and an another undisclosed location. Both involved female suicide bombers - a new tactic for Indonesian militants.

After Wednesday's raid, police said the suspects, who authorities believe are supporters of the Islamic State militant group, had planned to stab officers at a traffic post, and then detonate a "large, homemade" bomb as crowds gathered.

The attack was planned for the end of the year.

"The intention was for a suicide bomb," national police spokesman Rikwanto, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, told a news conference.

Police said a total of five bombs were found at the house in South Tangerang.

Television footage showed a bomb squad officer wearing a blast-resistant suit entering the house as residents watched from behind a police line.

"During the raid, we tried to be careful but they threw something from inside the house and it was a bomb but it did not explode. Then they fired from inside," Rikwanto earlier told Metro TV.

He said one suspect was captured.

Separately, police arrested three more people in three near simultaneous raids in Sumatra and Batam islands, on suspicion of working with known militants and helping ethnic Uighur Muslims from China enter Indonesia to join militant networks.

President Joko Widodo commended security forces for preventing attacks and called on the public to be vigilant against the spread of radicalism.

"We hope the public can also help fortify this country against terrorism and radicalism," Widodo said in a statement.

Indonesia has suffered several major militant attacks over the years, the worst of which was the 2002 bombing on the holiday island of Bali that killed 202 people, many of them foreigners.

That attack led to Western help and funding for an elite counter-terrorism unit, which has been effective in stamping out militant cells.

Authorities, however, now worry about a resurgence in radicalism, inspired in part by Islamic State.

A gun and bomb assault in the heart of Jakarta in January killed four people and was the first attack in Southeast Asia claimed by Islamic State.

Police have arrested dozens of suspected militants in recent months, including a cell in Indonesia's Batam island that planned a rocket attack on neighbouring Singapore.
Kazakhstan says raids Islamist network, detains 16

ALMATY, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's state security service has detained 16 suspected members Takfir wal-Hijra Islamist group, it said on Wednesday, accusing them of "inciting religious hatred".

The National Security Committee said in a statement it had carried out raids in four provinces of the Central Asian nation in order to "neutralise the cells of religious extremist organisation Takfir wal-Hijra".

The Islamist group, established in Egypt in the 1960s, has been banned in Kazakhstan since 2014.

The security body said group members sympathised with "the actions of terrorists in Iraq and Syria and, in general, reject secular government and constitutional laws".

Among other provinces, the security operation covered the Aktobe region, the site of a deadly Islamist attack last June in which 25 people, including 18 attackers, were killed.

The attack targeted a national guard base and firearms shops in the city of Aktobe. It was the deadliest incident of its kind since the mostly Muslim country became independent of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Last month, a local court sentenced most of the surviving attackers - described by prosecutors as Islamic State sympathisers - to life in prison. The authorities have not linked Takfir wal-Hijra to that attack.
EU court says mass data retention illegal

By Julia Fioretti

BRUSSELS, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The mass retention of data is illegal, the European Union's highest court said on Wednesday, dealing a blow to Britain's newly passed surveillance law and signalling that security concerns do not justify excessive privacy infringements.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) said its ruling was based on the view that holding traffic and location data en masse allowed "very precise conclusions to be drawn concerning the private lives of the persons whose data has been retained".

Such interference with people's privacy could only be justified by the objective of fighting serious crime and access to data should be subject to prior review by a court or independent body except in urgent cases, it said.

The ruling is likely to upset governments seeking to deal with the threat of attacks such as those in Paris and Brussels and, on Monday, in Berlin.

Those attacks have reinforced calls from governments for security agencies to be given greater powers to protect citizens, while privacy advocates - who welcomed the ruling - say mass retention of data is ineffective in the fight against such crimes.

The perpetual debate over privacy versus security took on an extra dimension after Edward Snowden leaked details of mass spying by U.S. and British agents in 2013.

The ECJ said governments could demand targeted data retention subject to strict safeguards such as limiting it to a particular geographic location but the data must be stored within the EU given the risk of unlawful access.

BRITISH CHALLENGE

The court was responding to challenges against data retention laws in Britain and Sweden on the grounds that they were no longer valid after the ECJ struck down an EU-wide data retention law in 2014.

A spokesman for Britain's interior ministry said it was disappointed with the judgment and would be considering its potential implications in the case launched before Britain voted in June to quit the European Union.

"Given the importance of communications data to preventing and detecting crime, we will ensure plans are in place so that the police and other public authorities can continue to acquire such data in a way that is consistent with EU law and our obligation to protect the public," he said.

When it leaves the bloc, Britain will not be subject to ECJ rulings, but with a two-year exit negotiation process due to begin by the end of March - and a potential transitional phase afterwards - it could be under its auspices for some time.

A number of British politicians - including Brexit minister David Davis - filed the legal challenge against a 2014 surveillance law, part of which was suspended by a British court.

Britain subsequently passed the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), which, while not directly affected by the ruling, could nevertheless be found to be incompatible with the conditions laid down by the court, lawyers said.

"This is a pretty big deal for the UK," Bird & Bird partner, Graham Smith, said.

A number of provisions in the IPA, such as the purposes for which data may be retained which go beyond fighting serious crime, are unlikely to pass the court's muster, laywers said.
Croatia's economic institute less optimistic on growth, budget

ZAGREB, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Croatia's growth in the coming years is likely to be slower than the government hopes for, while fiscal consolidation may also lag behind government projection, one of the country's leading economic think tanks, said on Wednesday. The Zagreb Economic Institute, which is partly funded by the government, said in its quarterly forecast that growth next year was seen at 2.9 percent, while the budget gap would fall to 1.9 percent of gross domestic product, down from 2.2 percent seen this year. The government hopes for a growth of 3.2 percent in 2017 from 2.7 percent expected this year, while it sees general budget gap next year at 1.6 percent of GDP, slightly lower than this year's target of 1.7 percent. In 2018 the institute sees growth at 2.6 percent against the government's 3.2 percent. "We think that Croatia's fiscal consolidation will continue. However, the structural deficit of the budget has not yet been in line with what the European Union has recommended," the institute said in a statement. The EU wants Croatia to pursue reforms that would cut the public debt from the current level of some 85 percent of GDP and to accelerate growth. Those reforms should include reshuffling of the health and pension sectors to curb losses and making the public administration cheaper and more efficient for the benefit of the budgetary performance and business climate. "The main uncertainty factor about our forecasts is related to the effects of the tax reform and a danger of missing the opportunity to implement necessary structural reforms at this favourable cyclical moment," the institute also said. Tax reform, focused on lower income and corporate taxation, starts from Jan 1, 2017. (Reporting by Igor Ilic Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
Iranian Kurd group accuses Tehran of bombing that killed six in Iraq

KOY SANJAQ, Iraq, Dec 21 (Reuters) - An Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group accused Iran on Wednesday of a bombing that killed five of its fighters and an Iraqi Kurdish policeman in northern Iraq.

A twin explosion late on Tuesday hit the offices of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in Koy Sanjaq, east of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region.

After the first blast, a second, larger one went off as members of the group and police rushed to the spot, PDKI central committee member Asso Hassan Zadeh told Reuters.

"There is no doubt that it's the Iranian regime," Hassan Zadeh said, speaking at the fighters' funerals. "But in any case we will not stop our struggle."

In June and July, PDKI fighters fought Iranian Revolutionary Guards in northwestern Iran, with several killed on both sides. Hassan Zadeh said Iranian forces had initiated those clashes.

He said the PDKI members involved in that fighting were not in Iran to attack the Iranian military. "They were only there conducting organisational and political activities, to be in touch with our people and to be present inside our country," he said.

Iran's 8 to 10 million Kurds mostly live in the northwest, close to Iraqi and Turkish Kurdish communities across the border.

The PDKI says it has no official ties or shared operations with other Kurdish groups in Iraq, Turkey or Syria.
Lawmakers urge UK govt to help end 'horrendous crisis' in South Sudan

By Lin Taylor

LONDON, Dec 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The British government must take urgent action to help end the "horrendous crisis" in South Sudan, where men have been castrated in fighting and women have drowned hiding from militias, UK lawmakers said in an open letter on Wednesday.

Africa's newest nation plunged into civil war in December 2013 after a long-running feud between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar, exploded into violence, much of it along ethnic lines.

The pair signed a shaky peace deal last year, but fighting has continued forcing more than 1.1 million people to flee in the biggest cross-border exodus from any central African conflict since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

"All sides ... have been complicit in the killing or castration of men and boys," wrote Stephen Twigg, chair of the International Development Committee, a parliamentary watchdog.

"These are horrendous acts of violence added to a litany of other sexual and gender based violence, already endemic in South Sudan."

Addressing his letter to the Department of International Development and the Foreign Office, Twigg said he was shocked at the "alarming numbers" of civilians displaced or who have fled to neighbouring countries because of the violence.

"Women with their babies drowning on their backs, hiding in the swamps as militia go past. That fear is so desperate that they are hiding underwater," he wrote, citing an Oxfam humanitarian advisor.

On Monday, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he feared genocide was about to start in South Sudan unless immediate action was taken.

Last week, the head of a U.N. human rights commission called for the deployment of a 4,000-strong protection force across South Sudan to stop a "Rwanda-like" genocide, and a court to be set up to prosecute atrocities.

Some 800,000 people were killed in the Rwandan genocide by Hutu extremist militiamen from country's biggest ethnic group.
Japan to bolster coastguard amid island row with China

TOKYO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Japan will step up efforts to bolster its coastguard as a territorial dispute with China over a group of East China Sea islets shows no signs of abating, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday.

Japan has long been at odds with China over the disputed islands, controlled by Japan but claimed also by China. They are called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

Coastguard vessels from both countries routinely shadow each other near the uninhabited islets, stoking concern that an accidental collision or other complications could trigger a clash.

Japan's coastguard budget for the year starting next April will exceed 210 billion yen ($1.8 billion) to help add five new large patrol ships to its fleet and increase the maritime law enforcement agency's personnel by more than 200, Abe said.

The coastguard's initial budget for this fiscal year, to March 2017, was 187.7 billion yen.

"Since the fall of 2012, Chinese government vessels have sailed near the Senkaku almost daily, and have entered Japan's territorial waters around the islands a few times a month," Abe told a meeting of relevant ministers.

Abe said the coastguard had to protect Japan's waters and people and "ensure security and peace of mind".
Trauma of Islamic State rule follows Iraqi women out of Mosul

By Stephen Kalin

KHAZIR, Iraq, Dec 21 (Reuters) - One wrong word to an Islamic State fighter in Mosul last year was all it took to set in motion a harrowing chain of events for an Iraqi woman who became so traumatised that she trembled in fear even after escaping the group's control.

The widowed mother was being vetted to receive a pension from the ultra-hardline Islamists a few months after they seized the northern city in 2014 and turned it into the Iraqi capital of their self-styled caliphate.

"I made the mistake of telling them my husband had been a victim of terrorism," she said in an interview on Tuesday at a government-run camp in Khazir, east of Mosul. "One of them hit me and broke my teeth. Then they took me to a house and held me for three days."

The jihadists locked her up in a filthy room with rats and bugs. She was blindfolded and her arms and legs were bound by chains as one of the men - or perhaps several, she couldn't tell - raped her over and over again, she said.

Islamic State, which is putting up fierce resistance to a U.S.-backed offensive to retake Mosul, the group's last major stronghold in Iraq, has been accused of massacre, enslavement and rape since it swept across large swathes of the country's north and west in 2014.

There was no way of verifying her story, but it reflected others' experiences coming to light as civilians from the most populous city ever controlled by the jihadists emerge from their grip and grapple with 2-1/2 years of suffering.

A 13-year-old girl who also spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity said her father had married her to a neighbour four years her senior who turned out to be with Islamic State.

The slender adolescent now clutching a pink sequined purse said he had threatened to kill her and permitted his brothers to sexually assault her.

After escaping Mosul a few weeks ago, she learned he had made it to a nearby camp and informed the authorities. They detained him, but the pair remain married.

The 37-year-old widow fled last month to Khazir camp, where she receives counselling from UNFPA, a United Nations agency focused on gender-based violence. She asked that her name be withheld for fear of retribution and donned a face veil that revealed only her eyes.

When Islamic State released her after the assault, the diminutive, round-faced woman returned home thinking her nightmare was over.

She sent her two younger children - now 9 and 11 - to stay with relatives in the nearby Kurdish city of Erbil and planned to join them as soon as she could save enough money to smuggle herself and her eldest son.

But a few weeks later she discovered she was pregnant with the child of one of her Islamic State tormentors. In addition to the trauma of being raped, she feared the stigma in Iraq's conservative society of an unmarried woman giving birth. Within two months she had rushed into marriage with a man who had agreed to adopt the child as his own.

"DIE OF HUNGER OR GET MARRIED"

"They were forcing widows to get married. This was one of their rules: either die of hunger or get married," said the woman, who occasionally wept and fidgeted with her hands underneath a loose-fitting garment.

Her new husband, though, also had a troubled past. An engineering student in his last year of university, he had been sentenced to death in connection with a crime of honour before Islamic State seized Mosul. In jail, he befriended jihadists who helped him escape when the group routed government forces in 2014.

Soon after the pair married, Islamic State gave the man an ultimatum: fight with us or we kill you. He yielded, and his new wife found herself back in the militants' clutches.

When her family living outside Mosul learned that she was now married to an Islamic State member, they severed all connections with her. Her late husband's brother took custody of her two young children and moved them to Baghdad, vowing never to let her see them again.

When Iraqi forces reached her neighbourhood last month, she said, they detained her new husband to investigate his jihadist ties.

She took her eldest son with her to the camp but left the baby, now just over a year old, with her new husband's second wife who remains in Mosul. His fate and that of hundreds or perhaps thousands of other children born to the jihadists remains unclear as the group loses much of its territory and its bid for statehood.

"They think this is the son of their father, they don't know the truth," the mother said of the second wife's family. "The boy doesn't look like me."
Trouble spots in Italy's banking system

MILAN, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Italy's parliament on Wednesday authorised the government to borrow up to an additional 20 billion euros ($21 billion) to help troubled banks in the country.

The vote clears the way for government action, possibly this week, to support Italy's third largest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which is struggling to raise the 5 billion euros it needs by the end of the year to stay in business.

Italian banks need fresh capital to cover losses from planned bad loan disposals as they try to reduce soured debts that rose to 356 billion euros after the country's deep recession.

Banks would need 40 billion euros in provisions to write down 199 billion euros in insolvent loans to match the 77 percent provision level that Italy's biggest bank UniCredit is targeting on bad loans earmarked for disposal.

UniCredit is planning a 13 billion euro share issue that a group of banks has already agreed to guarantee, but political risks hamper fundraising at weaker rivals after a Dec. 4 referendum vote unseated Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's reformist government.

The state could take on unsold shares if banks failed to raise cash from investors.

Following is a list of the main trouble spots in the country's banking system, the fourth-largest in the euro zone.

1. MONTE DEI PASCHI DI SIENA - The world's oldest bank emerged as Europe's most vulnerable lender in industry stress tests in 2014 and again this year. It has the highest proportion of bad loans among Italian banks both as a share of total loans and compared to its capital.

Its balance sheet has been wrecked by the costly acquisition of a regional rival on the eve of the global financial crisis, large losses from derivatives trades and loan writedowns.

The bank, which has burnt through 8 billion euros in capital raised in successive shares issues in 2014-2015, needs more money to offload 27 billion euros in gross bad loans and improve provisions on remaining doubtful loans.

It has raised just 1.5 billion euros from a debt-to-equity conversion offer that ends on Wednesday. A share offer which has failed so far failed to draw demand runs until Thursday. The bank is due to decide after that whether to turn to the state for help.

2. BANCA POPOLARE DI VICENZA/VENETO BANCA - The two unlisted regional banks were rescued this year by state-sponsored, privately funded bank bailout fund Atlante after failing to raise a combined 2.5 billion euros in initial share offerings.

They are now estimated to need as much money as they prepare to shed some 8 billion euros in bad loans under a merger plan they are due to unveil early next year to meet ECB's demands.

Reuters calculations show the two banks would suffer a 2.9 billion euro hit if they sold all their bad loans and raised provisions on other problem loans under the terms of Monte dei Paschi's rescue deal.

Atlante has said the two banks, whose demise hit thousands of small savers, are vulnerable to further deposit flights and must be restructured to cut costs that currently eat up virtually all their income before looking for a buyer.

3. BANCA CARIGE - The Genoa-based lender is working on a 1 billion euro bad loan sale as it seeks to comply with an ECB request to cut its soured debts.

Shares in Carige hit an all-time low of 20.6 euro cents in late November -- valuing the bank at less than one tenth of its tangible assets -- as investors worried it would need to sell new shares to boost capital.

Monte dei Paschi and Carige were the only Italian banks forced to tap markets for cash as a result of stress tests in 2014. Carige raised 850 million euros in a share sale in early 2015 following an 800 million euro cash call in July 2014.

4. FOUR RESCUED BANKS - In November 2015, Italy rescued from bankruptcy Banca Etruria, Banca Marche, CariFerrara and CariChieti, writing off the value of their shares and junior bonds and drawing 3.7 billion euros from a deposit-guarantee fund financed by the banks.

Italy has struggled to find a buyer for the four loss-making banks, which have also seen their problem debts worsen since the rescue, even though the worst bad loans had been spun off.

Sources have said the ECB has given a preliminary go-ahead to UBI Banca acquiring Etruria, Marche and CariFerrara provided Italy's fifth-largest bank raises fresh capital. As part of the deal, Atlante would take on 2.7 billion euro in bad loans from the three banks.
Court says EU-Morocco deals do not cover W.Sahara, independence front cheers

By Michele Sinner

LUXEMBOURG, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Two political and trade deals between Morocco and the European Union do not apply to Western Sahara, the European Court of Justice said on Wednesday, in a ruling that a group seeking the disputed territory's independence said was a victory.

The court said the two pacts from 2000 and 2012 aimed at closer trade and political ties were valid but could not include Western Sahara because the treaties did not specifically refer to it.

In the most significant ruling on the territory in years, the court said that for the purposes of the EU agreements, the term "territory of the Kingdom of Morocco" did not encompass Western Sahara.

Morocco claims sovereignty over the sparsely populated stretch of desert to its south, which has offshore fishing as well as phosphate and possibly oil reserves.

The Polisario Front independence movement, which says that Morocco illegally annexed Western Sahara in 1975, said the ruling showed that "Western Sahara is not part of Morocco".

"The ruling confirms the long-established legal status of Western Sahara as a non-self-governing territory," Polisario's envoy to Europe, Mohamed Sidat, said in a statement.

The court ruling appeared to sidestep a related diplomatic standoff with Morocco by overriding an earlier decision by the lower General Court that the EU trade deals were void. At the time, Morocco briefly suspended contact with EU institutions and the EU to lodge a legal appeal.

Morocco's foreign ministry praised the overiding of the earlier ruling and said the court had not called into question the "legality and legitimacy of Morocco's international deals" covering the Moroccan Sahara region, the term the kingdom uses for the Western Sahara.

Without going into details of the trade deals, the ruling signalled that some EU fisheries in disputed coastal waters would be in violation of the ruling, as the court said agreements signed with Morocco could not include Western Saharan resources, given that its inhabitants had not agreed to that.

"It does not appear that this people has consented to the agreement being applied to Western Sahara," the court said.

The EU and Morocco have struck agreements allowing duty-free quotas for agricultural products such as tomatoes and granting access for European vessels to fish in Moroccan waters in return for financial assistance. The two sides also began negotiations in 2013 to form a deeper and broader free trade agreement.
Russia condemns Netherlands over U.S. military cooperation

MOSCOW, Dec 21 (Reuters), - The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned the Netherlands for allowing the United States to advance deploy military hardware on its soil and said a Dutch court ruling that ordered Crimean treasures returned to Ukraine was unfriendly.

"It looks like the Dutch authorities have started to get a taste for deliberately destroying relations with Russia," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

Zakharova said a Dutch court order that said Crimean museum treasures had to be returned to Ukraine instead of Russia was unjust and would end The Hague's ambitions to become the world's legal capital.

Russia said last week it would appeal a Dutch court ruling that said a priceless collection of gold artefacts from Crimea on loan to a Dutch museum must be returned to Ukraine.
Japan's SMFG searches for post-Brexit EU headquarters-president

By Taiga Uranaka

TOKYO, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is studying sites for a new banking headquarters in Europe, its president said, joining global peers looking for alternatives to London in the wake of Britain's vote to quit the European Union.

Japan's third-largest banking group however was keeping its options open and could stay in London depending on how much access Britain retained to the European single market, he said.

SMFG is among the first Japanese financial institutions to publicly acknowledge they are preparing for Brexit by scouting out other locations for their European bases.

"We have started discussion on where to focus our resources in addition to London. There are not many candidates to begin with," Koichi Miyata said in an interview with Reuters.

"We don't think we can take time because it's two years away. We have to start planning," he said, referring to the two-year process in which Britain must negotiate the terms of its break from the EU.

Aware that for commercial reasons banks may decide to move jobs before they know what Britain's new trading relations with the European Union will be, some British lawmakers have called for bridging arrangements to tide the sector over.

Global banks are looking at continental commercial hubs like Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam amid fears Brexit could severely hurt London's access to the bloc, a market of 450 million people.

Banks which run their European operations out of London are concerned they could lose their so-called passporting rights that allow them to do business throughout the EU from their bases in Britain.

SMFG's Japanese rivals, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group, have EU passporting rights through their banking units in Amsterdam.

Miyata said his bank had already been approached by continental European countries that were trying to lure financial services firms away from Britain, where the industry makes up about 7 percent of the economy.

SMFG was looking in particular for cities with deep pools of talent and English-speaking business environments.

"What we need to do is study and prepare. If it turns out we don't have to move, then we don't," Miyata said.

Bank officials said the London office, which employs about 1,000 people, was likely to remain SMFG's effective European headquarters even if SMFG set up a new head office for passport purposes.

"Interesting thing is, when I meet people from financial institutions based in non-UK European countries, they say the City is convenient and they want the things as they are," Miyata said.
Exxon Mobil oil spill hits communities in southeast Nigeria -local leader

By Anamesere Igboeroteonwu

ONITSHA, Nigeria, Dec 21 (Reuters) - An oil spill from Exxon Mobil Corp facilities in southeast Nigeria's Akwa Ibom state has hit local communities, affecting farming, fishing and drinking water, a local leader said on Wednesday.

Daniel Akpan, head of Ikot Otio-Nana village, said the facilities have long been a problem for surrounding communities, despite repeated repair attempts.

"They repair and the pipelines break open again," he said.

Exxon Mobil did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

Spills have been a source of tension across the Niger Delta, which often erupts into violence. The poverty-wracked region produces much of Nigeria's oil wealth, upon which the country depends, but it sees little of the money.

That has led to militants, most recently the Niger Delta Avengers, carrying out attacks on oil pipelines and facilities in a bid to secure a greater share of Nigeria's oil dollars and drive the government to the negotiating table.

Akpan said more than 1,000 people were taking part in a peaceful protest on Wednesday at the U.S. oil major's southeastern Eket facilities.
Milan play down travel problems ahead of delayed flight to Qatar

MILAN, Dec 21 (Reuters) - AC Milan played down problems with their flight as they finally left for Qatar on Wednesday, nearly one day behind schedule, to face Juventus in Friday's Italian Supercup match.

"It's simply that the plane didn't arrive and created this problem, we can't go to Doha by bus," chief executive Adriano Galliani said as the team arrived at Malpensa airport.

"It would be better if both teams arrived at the same time but I don't want to get involved in a controversy," he added, blaming technical problems for the delay.

Juventus arrived in Doha on Tuesday as scheduled, giving them an extra day to train and adapt to the much warmer conditions.

Galliani said on Tuesday that Milan had suffered a "serious sporting disadvantage", leading to speculation that they would refuse to play the match if there were further delays.

The Supercup is played annually between the winners of the previous season's Serie A and Coppa Italia. Juventus won both competitions last year, meaning that Milan qualified to face them as Cup runners-up.
GRAINS-Soybeans rise from one-month low, wheat hits 2-week low

By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - U.S. soybean futures rose on Wednesday as the market rebounded from its lowest level in nearly a month amid lingering concerns about risks from unfavorable crop weather in South America.

Corn and wheat futures hit their lowest levels in more than two weeks under pressure from large supplies and technical selling. Markets also were consolidating ahead of the Christmas weekend.

Soybean traders kept an eye on South America's weather after dry conditions in Argentina, a major exporter, raised concerns about crop plantings and boosted prices earlier this month.

On Tuesday, expectations for rains in dry areas of Argentina weighed on prices. The improved conditions coincided with forecasts for a record soy harvest in fellow exporter Brazil.

The price drop left the soybean market "a bit oversold," said Tomm Pfitzenmaier, analyst for Summit Commodity Brokerage in Iowa. Traders were still watching "a forecast calling for drier conditions in Brazil and that could be a factor next week," he added.

Crop losses in Argentina or Brazil could increase demand for U.S. soybeans, as the countries compete for sales on the global export market.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said exporters had struck deals to sell 132,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans to China, the world's top soybean importer. U.S. exports will likely stay at a "brisk level" due to strong demand from China, said Matt Ammermann, vice president for Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region for broker INTL FCStone.

"Despite rain forecasts in Argentina, the outlook there in January is still looking rather dry at a critical time for soybean crop development in South America," he said.

Most-active Chicago Board of Trade March soybeans rose 1-1/4 cents to $10.17 a bushel after hitting their lowest price since Nov. 21 on Tuesday.

Most-active March wheat lost 3-3/4 cents to $3.99-1/2 a bushel, its lowest price since Dec. 2 and below the closely watched $4 level. Most-active March corn fell 3 cents to $3.47-1/4 a bushel and traded to its lowest price since Dec. 2.

Wheat prices remain burdened by huge global inventories and U.S. exporters face stiff competition from other countries, traders said.

"Is it cheap? Yeah. But we're not winning a lot of business," said Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading in Indiana, referring to U.S. wheat.
Britain, France push UN Syria helicopter ban, sanctions over gas attacks

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Britain and France want the United Nations Security Council to ban the sale or supply of helicopters to the Syrian government and to blacklist 11 Syrian military commanders and officials over chemical weapons attacks during the nearly six-year war.

The pair have drafted a resolution, seen by Reuters on Wednesday, that also seeks to blacklist 10 government and related entities involved in the development and production of chemical weapons and the missiles to deliver them.

The U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has found that Syrian government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks and that Islamic State militants had used mustard gas.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government has denied its forces have used chemical weapons.

Experts from the 15 Security Council members informally discussed the draft on Tuesday, diplomats said, and Syrian ally Russia, one of five council veto powers, made clear it would not support the text.

"We hope to have a vote before the end of the year," British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told reporters on Wednesday.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told Reuters on Wednesday: "It is out of the question to let these crimes go unpunished. I can't imagine the argument a country could use to close its eyes to the use of chemical weapons."

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said last month that there was "just not enough material proof to do anything" and described the French and British bid to impose sanctions as a "misplaced effort."

The U.N./OPCW inquiry found Syrian government forces had used helicopters to drop barrel bombs containing chlorine gas. It found those flights came from two bases where the 253 and 255 squadrons, belonging to the 63rd helicopter brigade, were based.

The proposed sanctions list includes the 63rd helicopter brigade commander and deputy commander, commander of the Syrian Air Force 63rd air brigade, commander of the Syrian Air and Air Defense Forces, and head of the Syrian Air Force intelligence.

They could be subjected to a global asset freeze and travel ban by the U.N. Security Council.

Also on the possible blacklist is the director-general of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center, which the draft resolution says is responsible for the development and production of chemical weapons and the missiles to deliver them.

Chlorine's use as a weapon is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013. If inhaled, chlorine gas turns to hydrochloric acid in the lungs and can kill by burning lungs and drowning victims in body fluids.

Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal brokered by Moscow and Washington. The Security Council backed that deal with a resolution that said in the event of non-compliance, "including unauthorized transfer of chemical weapons, or any use of chemical weapons by anyone" in Syria, it would impose measures under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

Chapter 7 deals with sanctions and authorization of military force by the Security Council.
Nokia sues Apple for infringing patents, industry back on war footing

By Eric Auchard and Jussi Rosendahl

BELGRADE/HELSINKI, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Nokia Corp said on Wednesday it had filed a number of lawsuits against Apple Inc for violating 32 technology patents, striking back at the iPhone maker's legal action targeting the one-time cellphone industry leader a day earlier.

Nokia's lawsuits, filed in courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich, Germany, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, cover patents for displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets and video coding.

"Since agreeing a license covering some patents from the Nokia Technologies portfolio in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products," Nokia said in a statement.

Apple on Tuesday had taken legal action against Acacia Research Corp and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc, accusing them of colluding with Nokia to extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly from Apple.

"We've always been willing to pay a fair price to secure the rights of patents covering technology in our products," said Apple spokesman Josh Rosenstock. "Unfortunately, Nokia has refused to license their patents on a fair basis and is now using the tactics of a patent troll to attempt to extort money from Apple by applying a royalty rate to Apple's own inventions they had nothing to do with."

Acacia and Conversant did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Nokia was not immediately available to comment on the Apple lawsuit.

The legal action by Nokia and Apple appear to mark a revival of the "smartphone patent wars" that began five years ago, when Apple filed a series of patent infringement cases against Samsung Electronics around the world, with wins and losses on both sides.

Apple's lawsuit against Acacia, Conversant and Nokia was filed only one day after Ottawa-based Conversant named Boris Teksler as its new chief executive. He had worked as Apple's director of patent licensing and strategy from 2009 to 2013, the latter half of his tenure overlapping with the lawsuits against Samsung.

Acacia is a publicly traded patent licensing firm based in Newport Beach, California. One of its subsidiaries sued Apple for patent infringement and was awarded $22 million by a Texas jury in September.

Similarly, Conversant, which claims to own thousands of patents, announced last week that a Silicon Valley jury had awarded one of its units a $7.3 million settlement in an infringement case against Apple involving two smartphone patents.

Nokia, once the world's dominant cellphone maker, missed out on the transition to smartphones triggered by Apple's introduction of the iPhone in 2007.

The Finnish company sold its handset business to Microsoft Corp two years ago, leaving it with its telecom network equipment business and a bulging portfolio of mobile equipment patents.

But this year, Microsoft sold its Nokia-feature phone business to a new company called HMD Global.
WTO rules largely in favour of Taiwan in steel row with Canada

GENEVA/OTTAWA, Dec 21 (Reuters) - A dispute panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO) largely ruled in favour of Taiwan on Wednesday on its complaint over anti-dumping duties imposed by Canada on some of its steel goods.

The ruling, related to certain carbon steel welded pipes and certain provisions of Canada's underlying legislation, found that Canada had contravened the WTO's Anti-Dumping Agreement but that Taiwan had failed to establish some points.

Canada slapped duties on some imports of carbon steel welded pipes from Taiwan in 2012 and Taiwan brought the complaint to the WTO in Jan 2015. The annual value of Taiwan's exports of carbon steel welded pipes to Canada dropped from around $19 million before the anti-dumping duties were imposed to around $5 million, Taiwan officials said at the time of the filing.

A spokesman for Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada will review the decision before deciding whether to appeal. Both sides have 60 days to decide whether to appeal any of the panel's findings.

"Canada takes its WTO trade obligations seriously and is also committed to maintaining a strong trade remedy system," spokesman Alex Lawrence said in an email.

The panel found that Canada acted inconsistently with certain obligations under the WTO and recommended that Canada bring its measures into conformity.

Taiwanese trade officials said that while they welcomed the ruling on Thursday, they also expect Canada will appeal the decision.

"In our filing, we requested the Canadian government to amend its laws," said Jack Hsiao, an official in the trade negotiation office of Taiwan's cabinet.

Hsiao added that Canadian regulations regarding dumping investigations were problematic and if their appeal were rejected Canada would need to revise its rules.

Joseph Galimberti, president of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, said the group is "disappointed but not surprised" by the ruling.

Galimberti said the impact of the decision on Canada's steel industry is not hugely significant but declined to quantify the impact. The group's member companies produce about 13 million tonnes of primary steel as well as over 1 million tonnes of steel pipe and tube products annually, for sales of about $4 billion.

"We would not want speculate on an amount of business on which Canadian companies could conceivably lose out or how market shares would shift as a result of the ruling," Galimberti said in an email.
Honda, Alphabet's Waymo in talks over self-driving tech

By Alexandria Sage and Naomi Tajitsu

SAN FRANCISCO/TOKYO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co Ltd said it is in talks to supply vehicles for Alphabet Inc's Waymo to test self-driving technology, in the latest instance of a carmaker teaming up with a tech firm to supplement its own automation efforts.

The talks, which come just one week after Waymo became an independent company, could see Honda become the tech firm's second partner after Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV agreed in May to add the technology to its minivans.

The moves illustrate how carmakers, faced with the high cost of developing autonomous driving tech in-house, are separating into those going it alone, such as General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co, and those teaming up to spread the costs.

Honda already has tie-ups with tech startups, notably with Southeast Asian ride-hailing service Grab.

It has been working alone to develop cars which can drive themselves on highways by 2020 while stressing vehicles will always require drivers. But it said was interested in the approach of Google's self-driving car project - now Waymo - to develop fully autonomous, driverless cars.

"There's only so much technology a company can develop while focusing on one specific approach," Honda spokesman Teruhiko Tatebe told Reuters. "By approaching it from multiple angles it's possible to come up with new innovations quicker."

At the same time, technology firms such as Waymo have started to form partnerships with automakers to finally get their technology - seven years in the making in the case of Waymo - into more vehicles.

"You've got Google, which is engaging with another automaker to apply its technology into different vehicles and different platforms," said senior analyst Jeremy Carlson at researcher IHS Automotive. "From Honda's perspective, you get a close-up look at some of the most capable technology in the industry today."

Honda has been developing automated driving functions and ways to connect vehicles to the internet, as well as artificial intelligence to enable vehicles to "think" while driving.

With Waymo, Honda said it may provide vehicles modified to accommodate the startup's software - as Fiat Chrysler has done with its Chrysler Pacifica minivans. It also said there was potential for "close" cooperation between Honda and Waymo engineers.
The wild elephant Gemunu that frequents the Yala-Kataragama road and fed by the pilgrims and tourists had yesterday swallowed a bag with cash, travel documents and photographic equipment belonging to group of German tourist.

The two German couples were on a visit to the Yala National Park to watch animals by Safari jeep when Gemunu obstructed their way and put its trunk into the jeep and gulp down the bag containing their cash, travel documents and photographic equipment.

Tourists who informed the incident to the Wildlife officers had shown them a video of the incident and obtained a letter. (M.K.Nandasena)
The Customs Central Investigation Bureau officers seized 1.3 million cigarettes valued at Rs. 75 mn at Orugodawatte Rank Container Terminal (RCT) today, Customs Spokesman Dharmasena Kahandawa said.

The contraband had been imported into the country from China in the vessel MSC Erika on December 5 and the consignment had arrived in a 20-foot container hidden in 57 spring mattresses, he said.

Kahandawa said that it was the second time in the history that an illicit cigarette consignment packed in a 20-foot container was detected by the Sri Lanka Customs.

Previously two 20-foot containers had been seized in single detection few years ago, which held the record of the highest number of sticks, he said.

This time Customs sleuths found 1.3 million sticks of cigarettes of two Chinese brands.

Earlier, the largest single detection of illicit cigarette consignment in history, estimated to be over Rs.355 million in values, was seized by the Customs Post Clearance and Audit Division on January 9, 2015, the day following the Presidential Elections.

While addressing media the Customs Director General Chulananda Perera said that it was illegal to import cigarettes from other countries but cigarettes were not illegal in the country.

This consignment must have been brought to the country due to the need of the Chinese people, who live in the country, he said.

The importer had not submitted declarations to the Customs in this regard. We understand that a Chinese national residing in Sri Lanka is behind in this smuggle racket and has already been identified and he is being now questioned, he said.

Another Chinese national who was involved in a similar case had his visa to Sri Lanka suspended forever by the Immigration and Emigration Director General following a request from the Customs to prevent illegal cigarettes imports.

Due to several imports and raids the cigarette imports had increased in the country and a huge market had been created in the country due to the increment of the price of a cigarette in the local market, he said.

The Director General requested importers to not to resort to illegal routes to import their goods.

We have provided all the facilities to genuine importers and if importers continued to violate the law the Customs will tighten the facilities, he said.

Investigations were conducted by the Customs Superintendent G.B. Gnanaraj, Assistant Superintendent Ms. Wasana Rubasinghe, Prasantha Kumara and Dilina Srinatha on the direction of Customs Director General Chulananda Perera and K. D. Ruwanpathirana.(Chaturnga Pradeep)

Pix by Damith Wickramasingha
Apparel manufacturers catering to the domestic market should get ready to become exporters under the governments new trade policies, head of the top apparel lobby group stressed recently. Outgoing Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) Chairman Noel Priyathilake noted that the unity government is moving towards abolishing past protectionist policies systematically, for which JAAF should also offer its expertise. Our members who are catering to the domestic market should get ready to be exporters as well rather than concentrating on the domestic market, he said.

He noted that the companies that were catering to the domestic market however had not asked for protectionism and demanded the industry to become counter-productive.

Many other industries have been lobbying the government to continue past protectionist policies.Therefore, we as a responsible organization shall ensure that the structural adjustment package being offered to vulnerable industries by the government under the trade reform agenda be made available to our members who are presently catering to the domestic oriented market as well, Priyathilake said.

The government will be providing Sri Lankan industries a trade adjustment package in order to allow them to train personnel and have a level playing field with large scale foreign companies that are expected to invest in Sri Lanka following the signing of several Free Trade Agreements (FTA).

While the apparel sector has made a commitment to create 20,000 jobs in economically lagging regions, Priyathilake noted that given the labour scarcity, the industry may have to resort to greater automation in urban areas as well.

Meanwhile, he said that FTA negotiations with China have seen positive momentum, with Chinese authorities offering flexibility in the country of origin rules, which does not demand double transformationwhich requires fabric used for final production to be woven in the same country.

In the case of the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) to be signed with India, he said that quotas applied to Sri Lankan apparel in exporting to India through the existing FTA have to be removed through the early harvest programme, without which, ETCA would not be beneficial for the apparel sector.

Singapore is not an important trading destination to us as at date, they will not offer significant market access to us, Priyathilake commented on the 3rd country Sri Lanka is negotiating an FTA with at the moment.

While praising the Sri Lankan governments effort to regain preferential access to the European Union, he further added that the governments attempts to gain further market access into the US is also welcome, though the success of the exercise depends on the policy stance of the new US administration.
The government should implement without delay the pledges made regarding the Tamil people while entering into pacts, said C. V. Wigneswaran, the Chief Minister of the Northern Province

He made this statement at a media briefing which followed a meeting of the Tamil National Council held on Monday at the Jaffna Library.

He said that, in 2009, the then President of Sri Lanka had made a promise to Ban Ki-moon that the government would undertake to ensure the welfare of the Tamil people in future. "It is good to examine whether the present government has honoured these pledges," he said.

"Another pact had been signed in Geneva and it is relevant to examine whether what was contained in that pact for the betterment of the Tamil people has been implemented. A third describes how our country should change by 2030 and what should be done for the people. It is prudent for the government to show what changes they would make and what they intend doing for the people," he said.

He said most of these promises could be fulfilled. "What has to be done in accordance with all these pacts has not been done, and that had led to various problems. If what needed to be done had been done, we could forge ahead in peace and harmony," he said. (Romesh Madushanka)
Along with the development of Hambantota under assistance from China, the government is to implement a development programme on similar lines in Trincomalee including the operation of the Port there with India's assistance, a Minister said today.

Minister of Development Policies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama said this in response to a question raised by journalists as to whether India will react adversely against the Private Public Partnership model proposed with China Merchant Holdings to operate the Hambantota Port. We are currently talking with India to get into a similar arrangement to run the Trincomalee Port and to develop an industrial zone. However, this government will actually work with all the countries including India, Singapore and Japan, the Minister said.

Referring to the arrangement with China Merchant Holdings, the Minister said a joint venture would be set up to run the Port. He said China Merchant Holdings will get an 85 per cent stake of the new venture and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority the rest. Referring to the statement made by Minister of Ports, Arjuna Ranatunga that a 51 per cent and 49 per cent stake would be more viable for Sri Lanka, Mr Samarawickrama said, it would be difficult to get a larger stake for the government given the situation regarding the outstanding debt amount. The government will however see that the best terms and conditions will be arrived at when it comes to the final agreement. At the moment the government had already signed a framework agreement, the Minister said.

He asserted that the 15,000 acres of land that would be released for the industrial zone on a phase by phase basis will depend on availability of them However, the industrial zone will spread to Hambantota, Matara and Moneragala he said.

The Minister said the 200 houses will have to be relocated, but decisions pertaining to it would be carried out only after negotiating with the land owners. He assured that forest reserves would not be used for the purpose.

He said the government was confident that China Merchant Holdings would develop the Port despite the turbulent period which the global shipping industry was going through and the global economy which is expiated to stagnate with a 0.8 GDP growth. Hambantota will flourish as manufacturing industries in Southern China, would be moved towards Southern Sri Lanka, he added. (Yohan Perera)

Pix by Pradeep Pathirana
The Japanese government has decided to provide a naval craft and training to Sri Lanka in the future to strengthen its maritime security, Japanese vice Minister of Defence Hiroyuki Miyazawa said.

The defence ministry said in a statement that the visiting Japanese minister revealed this during the Japan-Sri Lanka Defence Cooperation Dialogue 2016 held at the defence ministry in Colombo. The Sri Lankan delegation was led by State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene. Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Eng. Karunasena Hettiarachchi, Chief of Defence Staff and three forces commanders attended at the discussion.



Both parties discussed issues related to bilateral defence matters including regional situation, defence policy and defence cooperation and exchanges.

Mr. Miyazawa said that Japan would extend its fullest support to boost defence cooperation between both countries and to strengthen maritime security of Sri Lanka.

State Minister Wijewardene stated that the visit of the Japanese Vice Minister and the Japanese delegation to Sri Lanka will further strengthen bilateral defence ties between the two nations. He also said that he values the long term support provided by Japan to our defence establishments and maritime security. He also expressed his gratitude for the support extended by Japan to the development of the Sri Lanka Coastguard Department, the ministry added.
Former Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne is seen in a pensive mood when he visited his predecessor former Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake Tuesday, who is currently warded at a private hospital in Colombo. The two senior SLFP politicians are serving the government in an advisory capacity.
Taking up the latest detention of seven fishermen, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to send a firm message to Sri Lanka over continued apprehension of the state's fishermen and said a permanent solution would be in restoring India's sovereignty over Katchatheevu islet.

Panneerselvam in a letter to the PM Modi said the boats and fishermen were reportedly taken to Karainagar in Sri Lanka by their navy personnel and were remanded in custody.

"It is the consistent stand of the government of Tamil Nadu that a permanent solution to this vexatious problem faced by our fishermen will be possible only by restoring India's sovereignty over Katchatheevu by securing the right to fish in traditional waters," he said.

The right of the fishermen is continuously infringed upon by the Sri Lankan's Navy "recurrent" actions of apprehension, the Chief minister said.

Demanding that the Centre send a firm message to Sri Lanka on the issue, he said 109 boats, including the two boats apprehended today, should be released by the island nation.

"The Sri Lankan strategy of not releasing boats of our fishermen is causing great frustration among the fishermen of Tamil Nadu. Without their livelihood base, fishermen are in a state of despondency," he said.

Panneerselvam requested Modi to direct the External Affairs Ministry to take up the matter with Sri Lankan authorities to ensure immediate release of 22 fishermen and 109 boats.

On Monday, seven Tamil Nadu fishermen were detained and their two mechanised fishing boats were seized by Lankan navy personnel for allegedly fishing near Neduntheevu in the island nation.

The fishermen from Jegadapattinam hamlet in Pudukottai district were taken to Kangesanthurai Port there, along with their boats.

The apprehension of fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy continues 'unabated' despite Indo-Sri Lankan fishermen level talks and Inter-Ministerial talks being held from time to time, he said.

Pudukottai Fisheries Department Assistant Director, Sekar told media yesterday that the Lankan navy also allegedly rammed the boats of Tamil Nadu fishermen against one of the mechanised boats and sank it leaving five fishermen on board to struggle in the sea till fellow fishermen rescued them. (zeenews)
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe left for Chennai accompanied by his wife professor Maithree Wickremesinghe.

It was reported Mr. Wickremesinghe is to visit Tirupati during his visit to Chennai. (T.K.G. Kapila)
Despite the progress made over a few minor matters, since the silent revolution on January 8, 2015, which established the coalition government, no good governance has been established thus far and Sri Lanka is dangerously getting closer to relapsing into a Rajapaksa dictatorship, a renowned economist warned this week.

According to Institute of Policy Studies Chairman Prof. Razeen Sally, Sri Lanka is currently just drifting without making much progress in any of the crucial fronts, which will soon make the whole landscape unstable, risking the country relapsing into a Rajapaksa-like scenario that existed in the past. With the rising social discontent, particularly outside Colombo, I think this scenario (a relapse into a Rajapaksa-like scenario) becomes more plausible by the day or by the month in the run up to the next presidential election, he said. Prof. Sally, who is an Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, added that although the government has changed, the political class had not changed in

Sri Lanka.

Musical chairs have been played within the political class, he stressed, while presenting three future scenarios for Sri Lanka in a public lecture organised by Advocata, an independent public policy think tank, jointly with the business magazine Echelon, in Colombo. Prof. Sally noted that it would be either naive or stupid or both for someone to dismiss this plausibility unless the present regime carries out the promised reforms to uplift the country to the next level.

However, he said the current regime would have to expedite the transition because they would have only a year at best before this window of opportunity closes. The danger is that if you dont make judicious moves towards scenario two (take-off scenario), we are going into the scenario three or relapse, he said.

Prof. Sally further expressed deep worries over the country drifting back into Chinas influence, which will bring serious implications not just in the economic front but also in its security front. This is what worries me; Sri Lanka is now drifting back to Chinese influence, he remarked adding that this poses risks without appropriate countervailing balance of productive private investments coming from the West, which could be far more productive than from the Chinese state-owned companies.

Sri Lankas present rulers have been trying to restore the strained relationship with the Chinese during the last one year or so for dire want of Chinas investments and also to renegotiate better terms to repay their commercial loans as their much touted balanced foreign policy failed to bring the expected results, both politically and economically.

The government recently struck a deal with China to lease 80 percent of the Chinese-funded Hambantota port for US $ 1.2 billion and also promised 15,000 hectares for an industrial zone designated for Chinese companies.

Prof. Sally hailed the move as it could relieve the government of its massive foreign debt pile but said nobody other than China is interested in investing in the vanity projects carried out by the Rajapaksas.

However, he was concerned about the style of capitalism practiced by Chinas state sector, which is characterized by buying the political and business elite.

Do we really want to see that happening in Sri Lanka? Its already happening. It happened under the last government, said Prof. Sally, urging the media and civil society to scrutinize these projects very carefully going forward.

Further, he also cautioned about the possible security concerns that would arise from realigning with China because that could antagonize the other partners in the West and within the region.

The last thing we need is another (Chinese) submarine docking in the Sri Lankan port, he remarked.
All expenses for Shalikas education were bourne by her husband. Their only income is from cattle farming

In Sri Lanka, where students marching on the streets demanding their right to education is a common sight, the story of Shalika Navodini Fernando is a far cry from it all.

Thirty-one-year-old Shalika of Belwood, Galaha, graduated from the Pali and Buddhist University in 2013. Hers is a story of pure courage and a relentless desire to support her family through the only means she thought was possible; education.

Having lived much of her life in the hilly estates of Delthota, Shalikas will was unwavering in her pursuit of education, just like any other fresher she had hopes and dreams of a brighter future, not only for herself but also her husband and two sons. Instead, Shalika was driven to assist her husband in cattle farming - their only source of income.

Her Bachelor of Arts degree, framed, hangs on the wall of her wattle and daub house. Following the revelation of her plight by our sister newspaper Lankadeepa, Shalika was granted employment by the National Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA) as a Field Inspector. She must now undergo a ten-day training period before she takes up her official duties. Employment is certainly a blessing for Shalika who has been long-deserving of it. Yet, her struggles are far from over.

"Having lived much of her life in the hilly estates of Delthota, Shalikas will was unwavering in her pursuit of education"

Shalika with her husband Ranjith Priyashantha



Born to W.G. Podimenike and L.G. Aldin, who were both workers at the Delthota Estate, Shalika was the youngest of the family, with two elder sisters and a brother. She studied until the fifth grade at the Galaha Sri Pushpadana Vidyalaya, till tragedy struck the happy family with the untimely death of her father. Shalika recounts the hardships her family had to endure following the demise of their beloved father. But she also recalls how her mother was persistent in ensuring Shalika and her siblings continued their studies. According to Shalika, her sisters and brother excelled in their studies but unfortunately could not pursue higher education due to financial constraints.

Shalika, however, decided to continue her secondary education at Karagaskada Maha Vidyalaya, Delthota.

I selected the commerce stream to do my A/Ls. Back then, I had a dream to study in the IT field, to work with computers, but that was a mere dream, Shalika recalls. After my A/L exams, I started work at an apparel factory in Kotahena. But I couldnt work there for long as I was unaccustomed to the Colombo climate. I often fell sick and had to return home. I then started to work at a channelling centre in Peradeniya. It is during this period that I met my husband. Unlike many, he encouraged me to continue my studies and promised to help me. On March 5, 2009, Shalika married H.D. Ranjith Priyashantha, a cattle farmer from her village. The same year, Shalika registered for the Bachelor of Arts degree at the Pali and Buddhist University with her husbands blessings.

I woke up early every morning and came to Colombo to attend lectures. I had no money to attend extra classes or to buy the prescribed texts and other supplies I needed. If I told my husband about these requirements, he would have somehow given me the money. But I never told him. My husband has been rearing cattle for the past 16 years. I felt that I shouldnt burden him anymore, Shalika said.

"After my A/L exams, I started work at an apparel factory in Kotahena. But I couldnt work there for long as I was unaccustomed to the Colombo climate. I often fell sick and had to return home"



I was fortunate to befriend two kind-hearted batch mates from Piliyandala and Kurunegala who helped me to a great extent. They gave me the necessary texts and other material. I studied Sinhala, Buddhist civilization and Mass Media at the university. I completed my degree in 2012. The day I graduated, I thought I was on top of the world. I was caught up in a world of possibilities and dreams. Most importantly, I realised the dreams of my parents and my beloved husband, Shalika recounts as she wipes away a tear.

Nevertheless, destiny was not in Shalikas favour. She had been living at her sister-in-laws house since her marriage. Upon the return of her sister-in-law to the island, Shalika and her husband had to leave the house. They decided to build a temporary shelter in a bare land belonging to her husbands father.

My husband has studied up to A/Ls. But cattle farming is his occupation. Sometimes he works as a driver. We live in a land that is disputed by some of our family members. We dont have a deed, so we cant build a house, Shalika explained.

That is why we built this shed out of wattle and daub. The cattle are sheltered on one side and on the other we made a little living space for ourselves. All four of us live here. But you never know when we will have to leave this land. The Galaha Veterinary officers tried to help us by giving us more cattle and aid. But we cant afford to make those poor animals live in the same miserable conditions that we do. So we care for the four cows that we already have and manage our day-to-day expenses, she said.

"The day I graduated, I thought I was on top of the world. I was caught up in a world of possibilities and dreams. Most importantly, I realised the dreams of my parents and my beloved husband"



Her courage and determination to complete a three-year degree in such circumstances are nothing but commendable. In a small room where they eat, sleep and cook, Shalika also finds space to teach her eldest son who studies in the second grade of Pushpadana Vidyalaya, Galaha.

I teach my sons during the day time when there is light. At night, the elder son does his homework with the light of a torch. He has grown accustomed to studying in the dark. When the torch runs out of batteries, we light a chimney lamp and go on about our work. We had electricity some months back, but we cant afford it anymore, the mother of two lamented.

In the shadows of Shalikas success story is her husband Priyashantha who patiently endured great difficulties to finance his wifes dreams. The sole breadwinner of the family engages in a number of odd jobs, apart from rearing cattle, to feed his two children. Now this family seeks to overcome their next obstacle; to build a house of their own. In an age where we grumble and complain about everything under the sun, Shalika and her family is an inspiration to us all.

Shalika helping her eldest son with his homework
There was widespread speculation in the recent past that a purohita in yahapalanaya too was behind the chaos that hit the harbour in Ruhuna.



Some people say that the particular purohita put his weight behind those who wanted to create the unrest because of a grudge he harboured for striking off the name of a foreign investor he sponsored.

The purohita is also said to be sulking over being kept out of the entire process of awarding the harbour management contract to the Chinese company.



The strike by the workers took a turn for the worse as he passively looked on without taking any positive step to resolve the issues involved, they say.
Over the past few months alone, newspapers have prominently reported on a number of massive hauls of heroin nabbed by law enforcement authorities. These range from the massive hundreds of kilos (to the latest haul reported just a few days ago), quantities which vary from one kilo upwards, detected with increasing frequency and estimated conservatively at a market value running into several billion rupees. In addition, there are the smaller quantities detected almost daily in the possession of sundry drug traffickers. The public would quite naturally be curious as much as they are anxious to know what has become of these huge hauls of the drug illicitly smuggled and taken into custody by the concerned State authorities.



The public have every right to enquire and find out more information, considering the mind-boggling quantities interdicted, particularly in view of the burgeoning, astronomical market value involved. This has been a perennial question posed repeatedly over the years, and answered smugly by the concerned authorities with the exasperatingly, peremptory and unconvincing reply - destroyed! Destroyed, at what stage, how, where and under whose close supervision and certification; are the nagging questions that arise in the public mind.

Proposal to destroy the drug detected, on the spot - in situ

When this writer functioned as an ex-officio member of the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB) some years ago, the matter was taken up at a Board meeting as there had been cases reported, where it was revealed that a quantity of heroin kept as evidence to be produced in Court, had magically transformed itself into talcum powder.

After a quantity of a drug is nabbed and taken into custody by the Police, it is routinely handed over to the Government Analyst (GA) to check and report on its quality and purity. It is thereafter handed back to the Police for safekeeping and produced in Court when the particular case is called.

Suspicions of adulteration and the spiriting away of quantities of the drug, invariably led to the never-ending blame game where the two State authorities concerned refused to take responsibility for any alleged adulteration.

The writer on his own initiative recommended the NDDCB that the best safeguard to prevent the drug leaking back into the market would be to have it destroyed at the point of interdiction. To satisfy court, it was recommended that immediately an illicit consignment was nabbed, the magistrate of the division, the GA or his representative and the SSP of the division be summoned to the spot for the haul to be examined by them, with the GA duly weighing and testing the drug to ascertain its purity.

The drug was to be destroyed thereafter in situ, in the presence of the three officials referred to. A certificate was to be signed by the three parties testifying to the correctness of the weight and the purity of the drug. It was also recommended that an amendment be brought in to the relevant law enabling court to accept the veracity of the certificate so issued.

"One feels strongly that it is about time Sri Lankans woke up to the stark reality that if the illicit dangerous drugs problem not confronted purposefully and effective measures to curb its spread island-wide were not taken urgently, this little island of ours is bound to face the grave danger of the problem turning into a veritable national disaster enervating the vital energies of our youth while concurrently undermining the social, political and economic stability of the island"



A Board resolution was passed unanimously endorsing my proposal. Consequently another Board member and I were assigned the task of meeting the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) and placing the resolution of the NDDCB before them.

Accordingly, I met certain members of the JSC with the other nominated Board member and discussed the problem and the proposals we had submitted to ensure the quantities detected were destroyed under the supervision of the three State officials referred to.

The JSC officials, whilst lauding the safeguards, proposed to ensure that nothing of the nabbed drug leaked back into the market, and added that the implementation of the proposals would require certain amendments to existing legislation on which some of the proposals impinged.

They also agreed to take the matter up with the Justice Ministry and other concerned law enforcement authorities. I left the NDDCB soon afterwards and lost track of the follow-up action taken (if any), on the matter, thereafter. I do hope the matter was pursued by the concerned authorities with a view to ensuring that the required safeguards were properly formulated to prevent adulteration and the possibility of the drug being leaked back into the market. In view of the increasing frequency of detections made, the substantial hauls interdicted and the massive amount of money involved, it may be best for the authorities to make public the precautionary measures that are in place, to effectively prevent adulteration and the drug being clandestinely taken out and sold in the market.

Further, it may also assuage the public to know the manner in which the drugs are kept in safe custody and most importantly, the strict procedures laid down for the final destruction of these drugs. This is of critical importance as it concerns vitally the health and well-being of the younger generation as well as the short and long term national well-being of the country as a whole.

One feels strongly that it is about time Sri Lankans woke up to the stark reality that if the illicit dangerous drugs problem not confronted purposefully and effective measures to curb its spread island-wide were not taken urgently, this little island of ours is bound to face the grave danger of the problem turning into a veritable national disaster enervating the vital energies of our youth while concurrently undermining the social, political and economic stability of the island.

"Suspicions of adulteration and the spiriting away of quantities of the drug, invariably led to the never-ending blame game where the two State authorities concerned refused to take responsibility for any alleged adulteration"



As the problem of drug addiction has assumed epidemic proportions, it is imperative to take urgent action to curb it. As pointed out by this writer earlier in some explicitly spelt out articles on the subject published recently in the Daily Mirror, the back of this lucrative illicit trade could be broken only by - 1) breaking up the unholy nexus between certain unscrupulous politicians who profit by the trade and underworld characters and their accomplices who smuggle in the drugs and organise their distribution through island-wide networks; 2) by eliminating laws delays and facilitating the expeditious disposal of illicit drug cases; 3) by the imposition of the severest punishments on those convicted viz, the death penalty, confiscation of their assets etc (the death penalty if not implemented, poses no deterrent) and 4) by conducting carefully formulated prevention programmes in schools and workplaces.

In the final analysis, what is of crucial importance is the unswerving political will and the deep and abiding commitment of the powers that be to save this land of this diabolical menace.
The December IPA Review is out and journalist Deborah Sims writes of her cancer journey "How Red Tape Almost Killed Me." Deborah has CLL, a form of Leukemia which is particularly deadly. A drug which can cure it has been developed in her home town of Melbourne. Only she needed to spend over $500k flying to London to access the drug because of red tape. If she hadn't had London connections, or if she had not had the resources, she would now be dead. Many people die each year because they aren't privileged, and they are held down by red tape. Red tape created by the likes of Bob Brown and other Greens leaders, or ALP leaders. Red tape that conservatives want to cut. It is ironic that a journalist has had to pay such a high price. But they are blessed to not pay higher. I know a former Marine with CLL who now lives in Australia. He is not privileged, and so red tape will prevent him receiving appropriate treatment. But he is also a child of God, and a fitness fanatic, and he has apparently gone into spontaneous remission. His form was not as severe as Deborah's had been. It can strike anyone. The issue was made personal for me recently when some new medication I take which is effective with diabetes is not discounted by PBS. Luckily I can afford it.





Red tape irritates me. I created a video for my landlord, of his children at a school play. So he can give it to relatives. I uploaded it to FaceBook to let him see it, and restricted it to only the closest friends. But FB noticed the school production included proprietary music and would not let me upload the file until I could prove I had the rights to the music. I've also found out my six year tussle with youtube over Adsence has been answered by them. They have decided they cannot promote my site, although they have advertised on it for free for years. Also my singing songs acapella has been deemed to breach musician copyright on youtube in some instances. Some people expecting original artists will be very disappointed. a 1946 movie I sourced images from for a friend's video has been deemed a breach of copyright, even though the film has had such protection removed by time. I can contest these alleged breaches, but I haven't the resources. And if I fail, the cost is very high. At least some of the alleged breaches are from a now dead artist from iCompositions who disliked my politics and targeted me for posting on AGW hysteria. Would Deborah care about that? Why can't conservatives fight the issue better? Why do Libertarians tend to go for balance and support oppressors, sometimes? Why do Greens and ALP get away with it?

=== from 2015 ===

Christmas approaches, pregnant with meaning, different to different people. Even among Christian faithful there is divergence of opinion. A lot of people are not Christian, and yet the day is laden with meaning. There is a yearning for peace, for good will, for family and for love. And it is dissatisfying to many who don't possess such. Or don't feel they do. And the weight of expectation is heavy. It is close to the time celebrated by Pagans in the Northern hemisphere in times long past. Some say that that discredits the Christian celebrations, but no. There is nothing wrong with the celebration and that is from a Christian perspective. Joy is good. And so is wisdom. Have joy. Express love. And do so with knowledge that with tomorrow, life goes on, intensifies and grows. Please don't get drunk or dysfunctionally high. Because that robs you of your future. In some places, it is against the law to celebrate Christmas or party. But as the doctor said to the guy who broke his arm in two places, "don't go to those places."



For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.

From 2014

Channel 9 slimes PM for his greatest achievement for women. Lisa Wilkinson was the interviewer. She had tried to smear NSW Premier Baird recently with a gotcha. She did the same here with her partisan approach and the PM's reply was one which no reasonable person would condemn. Carried on all news networks, Wilkinson asked the PM her question. He reasonably replied that cutting the useless carbon tax gave back money to families and he was proud of that. Wilkinson claimed it was a gaffe, that somehow Mr Abbott had a women problem. The other day, following the siege in Sydney, Wilkinson attacked Premier Baird asking why he wasn't doing something that is the job of public servants. It is a mistake to get defensive, and Baird handled it superbly, but Wilkinson comes across as partisan as her silly husband.



Wilkinson had wanted the PM and Premier to answer defensively, neither of them did, but her technique has been successful elsewhere with the media .. denialism. Wilkinson ignored that she had had reasonable answers and proceeded as if she had not. It is, as Blair discusses, related to jihadism and Islam. Around the world, there is a practiced denialism that refuses to accept that jihadism has committed an atrocity. Perhaps as in the case of a driver in France calling out "Allahu Akbar" while driving into a crowd of people and injuring eleven. It is an act of terrorism, but it also masks the fact it is a crime even if Islam were not involved. Islam is the pretext that 'excuses' any criminal activity. Man Monis asked for an ISIL flag, but clearly Monis had not been certain what one was and where to get one. Apparently there are some fifty such flags in NSW where it is illegal to have such a terrorist item. Monis had not been well connected with those he was purporting to represent. Same too with Wilkinson, who claims she is fair and balanced, when she is in fact partisan.



Denialism excuses terror. Press, in denying the obvious reality, search for something else, as when some terrorists killed over 130 children recently, wrapping up with "We've killed the children, what next?" Media gave their 'reason' as being revenge for a drone attack. Which is utter rubbish even if there had been a drone attack or several. Killing those children did not achieve any end. The drone attacks had not been a reason. It was terrorism. And Islamic clerics who approve the pretexts approve the terror. As does the complicit media.



But denialism does not merely pervade jihadism and reporting of terrorism. The ALP who with their union connections practice corruption and denialism supports them too. Gillard practiced denialism when faced with clear evidence of her corrupt practice. She insisted she should be judged from a lower standard. And the ABC practiced denialism by not reporting the corruption they saw. The snigger regarding WMD in Iraq is still given by international press aware that the WMD were found and had been used on Syrians before being collected by the UN and examined. Press had been aware of WMD being present in Iraq as early as 2005.



Meanwhile Monis' proudly jihadist wife has had her bail revoked. It turns out NSW ALP leader Robertson had supported Monis when Monis had written offensive letters to widows of soldiers. Robertson declared why he supported a jihadist a few years ago. "My staff do not have the capacity to do Google checks..." NSW Opposition Leader, John Robertson said. that sounds right. He has accurately described their standard. Blair discusses misunderstandings. They can happen. Perhaps Robertson misunderstood why he was supporting a jihadist who had threatened war widows. It can happen. But more likely, there was corruption involved. Robertson did the unthinkable because of policy which was higher.



Lisa Oldfield attacked by taxi driver, molested. The driver was not registered as they were supposed to be. They will be identified. Lisa had gone to a Christmas function and had had a drink, so she caught a taxi rather than drive. And she dozed off on the journey. She awakened to the hands of the driver molesting her, leaving strong bruises. Because the driver had disconnected their electronic signature, it is apparent they planned their opportunistic attack. It doesn't have to be terrorism to be wrong.



Crikey readers support ISIL over the PM according to Crikey poll. Not doubting the accuracy of the poll, it says much about Crikey readers. They probably support BBL04 Perth Scorchers.

From 2013

Tweeting has gotten some people in trouble. Sometimes the controversy is concocted and inflated, as with Duck Dynasty. Sometimes it is just a highly lauded idiot being themselves, as with a former PR-exec going to Africa. One hopes she enjoyed her stay. Words have power. Used by wise people, words can build and create hope where there is none, when all seems lost. Such is the case when a dying woman left some letters, to be read after she died. But, words can be badly used. I have pointed this out many times to many people. If you use hatred to make a point, you probably aren't making it well. It would be wrong of me not to say so. One person so advised by me accused me of being dictatorial. I deleted some posts based on published guidelines. That isn't censorship. Censorship is what you get when you can't post good ideas .. or any ideas ..



Piers has a strong opinion on Christians being killed for their faith. But that does not worry me as much as innocent people being killed indiscriminately so as to scare others. The faith of the victim is not important. The faith of the abusers is debatable. Nero felt he was persecuting atheists when he persecuted Christians. That didn't make his ideas worthwhile. A sherif in England denied safe passage to several families a thousand years ago, and so they were lynched. It would have been a cowardly crime at the time, and is considered one today, except where the UN approves the mayhem. Christians are not assured of a great life in the world. It just highlights an important thing. President Bush was wise to defend US interests in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama is wrong to abrogate responsibility. A weak President is a bad one, internationally, a weak President is a disaster. Obama is unlikely to tweet himself out of trouble.

Historical perspective on this day

=== Publishing News === This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up. === I am publishing a book called Bread of Life: January.



Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?



January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost. If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc === Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August , September , October, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4 The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows a free kindle version.

List of available items at Create Space July

June

May

April

March

February

January

December

November

October

September

August

Collected writings The Amazon Author Page for David Ball UK .. http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B01683ZOWG

French .. http://www.amazon.fr/-/e/B01683ZOWG

Japan .. http://www.amazon.co.jp/-/e/B01683ZOWG

German .. http://www.amazon.de/-/e/B01683ZOWG

Tim Blair

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Tim Blair

Man Moniss third wife, Muslim convert and accused murderer Amirah Droudis, has been jailed ahead of her trial next year: The court has just revoked the bail for Amirah Droudis, with sheriffs taking her immediately into custody. Good.

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Tim Blair

Complete denial of obvious facts can be a remarkably effective tactic. Properly delivered, a blunt denial in the face of clear truths will utterly confound an opponent. As a short-term strategy, nothing beats it.

Continue reading 'THE LIMITS OF DENIAL'

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Tim Blair

Office colleague Chris once showed me an article about gaudily painted BMWs. One example upset him. This is revolting, he fumed. Who on earth would do that? I think youll find it was coons, I said.

Continue reading 'MODERN MISUNDERSTANDINGS'

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Tim Blair









Two of the brothers, all of whom are believed to be in Syria, were evidently dominant at the dinner table. Sydneys alleged Islamic State waddle squad is revealed Two of the brothers, all of whom are believed to be in Syria, were evidently dominant at the dinner table.

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Tim Blair

This says far more about Crikeys readers than it does about Tony Abbott: Prime Minister Tony Abbott is less popular with Crikey readers than the actual leader of Islamic State. Tragically, I received even fewer votes than the PM, despite an impressive nomination Let it never be said that the Daily Tele doesnt ask the tough questions. Who is Australias craziest left-wing frightbat? Crown our crazy queen! Blairs witch-project, where he dismissed some of Australias leading journalists and academics as silly, hysterical women who should get a grip on their womb-madness and let the men do the talking, made for uncomfortable reading. hate uncomfortable reading, as Modern leftists absolutelyuncomfortable reading, as Brendan ONeill has observed: Where once students might have allowed their eyes and ears to be bombarded by everything from risque political propaganda to raunchy rock, now they insulate themselves from anything that might dent their self-esteem and, crime of crimes, make them feel uncomfortable. Student groups insist that online articles should have trigger warnings in case their subject matter might cause offence. (Via J.F. Beck)

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Tim Blair

Former Fairfax frightboy Mike Carlton proves that having completely lost it is no impediment to continually losing it . Hes like a perpetual motion loss-making machine. Speaking of Michael, please enjoy Hal G.P. Colebatchs review of the recent Prime Ministers Literary Awards: Twitter was going berserk even before the ceremony finished. Leading the charge was one Mike Carlton, whose own entry, a rehashing of a naval engagement in World War I, had not won a prize. (I had previously written critically of another book by him and received a delightful note from him replete with four-letter words, a practice that is said to have got him sacked from the Sydney Morning Herald.) To be fair, Carlton was suspended rather than sacked, although his immediate resignation delivered the same result  possibly desired by Fairfax management. Heres looking forward to 2015, and Mikes angriest year yet.

===

===

Piers Akerman

AS the world carols towards Christmas, at least in packed Western-style shopping malls, it is easy to lose sight of the plight of Christs followers.

Across the Middle East, in towns and hamlets where some of the oldest vestiges of the religion have clung to existence for almost 2000 years, the remnant Christian populations are being slaughtered.

In Egypt, Libya, Syria, thousands of Christians have been systematically murdered in a continuing horror that is largely overlooked by the world and overshadowed by the bloody wars raging between the Sunni and Shia Muslims.

The Copts, who had notably lived peaceably among the Egyptians, are now almost extinct in the region of their origin, flourishing only in the West.

According to a three-year Pew Research study of harassment of particular religious groups released in August, 2011, government or social harassment of Christians was reported in a total of 130 countries, 66 per cent of the nations surveyed.

Over the past two years, the situation has only worsened.

Anti-Christian persecution and actual violence have increased. The International Society for Human Rights, a German-based monitoring organisation says 80 per cent of all acts of religious discrimination are directed at Christians.

Rarely however is the big picture revealed, with most news items mentioning the burning of a church here, the murder of a family there, a car bombing or militarily-approved execution somewhere else.

The relentless extermination of Christians rarely rates in the news now. Just as the Syrian civil war, which occupied centre stage and world attention - even drawing some asinine comments from US President Obama for a fleeting moment - is now relegated to background chatter.

Ironically, Syria once housed one of the larger Christian communities in the Middle East and Syrian Christians, and Syrian Jews, were recognised with positions in the Cabinet of the now reviled President Assad.

They would have absolutely no future under the extremists in the militias competing to unseat the dictator.

Even the Burmese, whom the West views in a peculiarly muddled manner because of the media-friendly presence of political figure Aung Sun Suu Kyi, persecute their minority Christian Chin and Karen ethnics.

So much for the luvvies embrace of Buddhism as the religious panacea for the worlds problems.

In North Korea, where Kim Jong-un executed his uncle last week, it is estimated that between 50,000 to 100,000 Christians are held in forced labour camps for failing to worship the nations founder Kim Il-sung.

Religion is not a comfortable topic for discussion in Australia unless the absolute evils exposed by the succession of inquiries into child abuse make it inevitable.

The horror stories related to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse would make anyone weep.

But as appallingly tragic as the stories told by the brave survivors have been, there are others still suffering too much pain to expose themselves to the publicity an appearance would inevitably create.

In recent weeks, a number of such people have told me that even the existence of the inquiry has caused them to relive horrendous experiences they had been struggling to cope with.

One correspondent, who sent me a copy of his 29-page psychiatric report to help me gain greater insight into his situation, came forward after hearing the evidence of one of his old companions, Richard Tommy Campion, who was beaten and sexually abused throughout the 14 years he spent at the North Coast Childrens Home in Lismore.

The distressed man said that Campion had mentioned in his presentation an episode about a child forced to wear a nappy all day as punishment for wetting his bed.

I was that child, this is the episode, he wrote.

I was forced to sleep in a cot, suitable for a little baby because I had a problem with wetting the bed but I was about 4 or 5 years old. I couldnt straighten my legs.

I woke up one morning having wet myself and was terrified. I was then told I would have to wear a nappy to breakfast in front of 35 other children.

When they had sat down to breakfast I was PARADED in front of them all while they were ordered to laugh at me. I sat and had breakfast with all these children while wearing a nappy hearing the ridicule and laughter constantly.

Then after breakfast I was told I was going to wear the nappy to school all day. I was absolutely terrified, humiliated and to this day I still wish I was dead, I constantly wish for death and I cannot deal with more than three people at a time.

His report would indicate he has led a life of catastrophic distress with not infrequent feelings of worthlessness, guilt and self-loathing and thoughts of suicide.

It would be easy, as some have raced to do, to blame religion and particularly Christianity for the wretched life he has endured, but it would be wrong to do so.

The message Christians share is one of hope, whether they are being persecuted in another country or brutalised by someone professing to be a Christian here.

That is the message in those shopping-mall Christmas carols, if they can be heard above the ringing of the cash registers.

It is not a call to arms, a call to hate, a call to slaughter, but a call to love. It is hopeful.

So, a Merry Christmas to all, and let the message of peace and joy spread throughout the world.

===

Tim Blair

Public relations expert Justine Sacco loses her job after tweeting: Going to Africa. Hope I dont get AIDS. Just kidding. Im white! Sacco joins a long list of people fired or suspended for Twitter comments:

Continue reading '48 PEOPLE IN TWITTER TROUBLE'

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Two years after dying, Brenda Schmitz sends her family an amazing Christmas gift

WWW.NEWS.COM.AU

"HELLO my name is Brenda Schmitz and when you are in receipt of this letter I will already have lost my battle to ovarian cancer."

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www.news.com.au

A good man with a proud list of achievements has passed - ed

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www.news.com.au

It wasn't age that did them in .. drugs, alcohol, firearms .. ed

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www.news.com.au

TEST spinner Graeme Swann has reportedly retired from cricket with immediate effect, adding further turmoil to a disastrous Ashes tour for England. Swann on wheels - ed

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en.wikipedia.org

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If youre angry, you cannot really be empathising with the person youre angry at. A failure to empathise is not a misunderstanding, like when you overinterpret something and get it wrong, nor a fallacy, like failing to s



Let us not hate anger, but merely see it for what it is. Anger is characterised by paranoia, fallacies of judgement, and a kind of self-centred myopia, but it had to be that way. Darwinian pressures demanded it. The anger program had to be quick and automatic. It had to be nasty. Like it or not, the angriest, most dogmatic, and most tribalistic of our ancestors are the ones that reproduced the most prolifically. So we are not blaming anyone for these intellectual flaws. Man is not Vulcan. Wisdom in man takes considerable work, a little like getting dogs to stop barking at strangers.



Extract from

The Anger Fallacy: Uncovering the Irrationality of the Angry Mindset

by Steven Laurent and Ross G Menzies



Buy the book at aapbooks.com



or read more about anger from the authors at



or read about The Anger Fallacy Research project at the University of Sydney ee arbitrariness or causality; but it is an intellectual limitation  a form of short-sightedness. When we come into contact with a mind that is not our own, and can only see it from the outside, through the lens of our own thoughts and feelings, then our viewpoints are always blinkered, myopic, one-sided. Its like never knowing what the back of your head looks like. In the case of anger, it means judging someone without fully understanding him.Let us not hate anger, but merely see it for what it is. Anger is characterised by paranoia, fallacies of judgement, and a kind of self-centred myopia, but it had to be that way. Darwinian pressures demanded it. The anger program had to be quick and automatic. It had to be nasty. Like it or not, the angriest, most dogmatic, and most tribalistic of our ancestors are the ones that reproduced the most prolifically. So we are not blaming anyone for these intellectual flaws. Man is not Vulcan. Wisdom in man takes considerable work, a little like getting dogs to stop barking at strangers.Extract fromThe Anger Fallacy: Uncovering the Irrationality of the Angry Mindsetby Steven Laurent and Ross G MenziesBuy the book at aapbooks.com http://tinyurl.com/lsy8bfw or read more about anger from the authors at https://www.facebook.com/TheAngerFallacy or read about The Anger Fallacy Research project at the University of Sydney http://angerfallacy.com/ Anger and empathyIf youre angry, you cannot really be empathising with the person youre angry at. A failure to empathise is not a misunderstanding, like when you overinterpret something and get it wrong, nor a fallacy, like failing to s

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"Writing regulation gives companies a leg up on their competition without ever having to improve quality or lower prices. If lobbying is cheaper than innovating, companies will write regulation instead of taking risks."





www.theblaze.com

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twitchy.com

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www.youtube.com

Prince Charles says he is "deeply troubled" by the growing difficulties faced by Christians in the Middle East, who are being increasingly "targeted by funda Where were all these Christians when the Jews were being exiled or murdered in Arab lands and Europe ?



Or indeed Hindus and Buddhists suffering the same in Asian countries at the hands of Islamist extremists ?



Currently over 100,000 Syrian civilians have been killed while Muslim factions butcher each other. Not a word about them by the Prince. And let us not forget his Nazi sympathising Uncle who abdicated.



Christians of convenience such as good Prince Charles are no different to Prime Ministers who attend church for the TV cameras on a Sunday.



So what do they really do and achieve considering their higher status and privilege ?



They pontificate and impress many but show me the results of their speeches and I'll show you a true leader.>

My first thought is "Bullshit." Not that Christians are being killed, but being targeted. The people targeted are defenceless. When Amnesty International divert funds to defend terrorists like David Hicks, it is the defenceless who are victims. Prince Charles is late to the party. His grandfather, for political reasons, facilitated the slaughter of Jewish families so as to appease former Nazi allies. - ed

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www.news.com.au

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pjmedia.com

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elderofziyon.blogspot.com

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www.nowtheendbegins.com

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newsblaze.com

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www.michaelfreund.org

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unitedwithisrael.org

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www.meforum.org

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www.jewishpress.com

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unitycoalitionforisrael.org

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www.jihadwatch.org

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atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com

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www.foxnews.com

NIV While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. Luke 2:6-7

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Morning and Evening by Charels Spurgeon



Morning

"Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant."

2 Samuel 23:5

This covenant is divine in its origin. "He hath made with me an everlasting covenant." Oh that great word He ! Stop, my soul. God, the everlasting Father, has positively made a covenant with thee; yes, that God who spake the world into existence by a word; he, stooping from his majesty, takes hold of thy hand and makes a covenant with thee. Is it not a deed, the stupendous condescension of which might ravish our hearts forever if we could really understand it? "HE hath made with me a covenant." A king has not made a covenant with me--that were somewhat; but the Prince of the kings of the earth, Shaddai, the Lord All-sufficient, the Jehovah of ages, the everlasting Elohim, "He hath made with me an everlasting covenant." But notice, it is particular in its application. "Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant." Here lies the sweetness of it to each believer. It is nought for me that he made peace for the world; I want to know whether he made peace for me! It is little that he hath made a covenant, I want to know whether he has made a covenant with me. Blessed is the assurance that he hath made a covenant with me! If God the Holy Ghost gives me assurance of this, then his salvation is mine, his heart is mine, he himself is mine--he is my God. This covenant is everlasting in its duration. An everlasting covenant means a covenant which had no beginning, and which shall never, never end. How sweet amidst all the uncertainties of life, to know that "the foundation of the Lord standeth sure," and to have God's own promise, "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." Like dying David, I will sing of this, even though my house be not so with God as my heart desireth. Evening

Ezekiel 16:10 "I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk." See with what matchless generosity the Lord provides for his people's apparel. They are so arrayed that the divine skill is seen producing an unrivalled broidered work, in which every attribute takes its part and every divine beauty is revealed. No art like the art displayed in our salvation, no cunning workmanship like that beheld in the righteousness of the saints. Justification has engrossed learned pens in all ages of the church, and will be the theme of admiration in eternity. God has indeed "curiously wrought it." With all this elaboration there is mingled utility and durability, comparable to our being shod with badgers' skins. The animal here meant is unknown, but its skin covered the tabernacle, and formed one of the finest and strongest leathers known. The righteousness which is of God by faith endureth forever, and he who is shod with this divine preparation will tread the desert safely, and may even set his foot upon the lion and the adder. Purity and dignity of our holy vesture are brought out in the fine linen. When the Lord sanctifies his people, they are clad as priests in pure white; not the snow itself excels them; they are in the eyes of men and angels fair to look upon, and even in the Lord's eyes they are without spot. Meanwhile the royal apparel is delicate and rich as silk. No expense is spared, no beauty withheld, no daintiness denied. What, then? Is there no inference from this? Surely there is gratitude to be felt and joy to be expressed. Come, my heart, refuse not thy evening hallelujah! Tune thy pipes! Touch thy chords! "Strangely, my soul, art thou arrayed By the Great Sacred Three! In sweetest harmony of praise Let all thy powers agree."

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Today's reading: Micah 4-5, Revelation 12 (NIV) View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Micah 4-5

The Mountain of the LORD 1 In the last days the mountain of the LORDs temple will be established

as the highest of the mountains;

it will be exalted above the hills,

and peoples will stream to it. 2 Many nations will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the temple of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us his ways,

so that we may walk in his paths.

The law will go out from Zion,

the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3 He will judge between many peoples

and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

nor will they train for war anymore.

4 Everyone will sit under their own vine

and under their own fig tree,

and no one will make them afraid,

for the LORD Almighty has spoken.

5 All the nations may walk

in the name of their gods,

but we will walk in the name of the LORD

our God for ever and ever.... ...read the rest on Bible Gateway Today's New Testament reading: Revelation 12 The Woman and the Dragon 1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.... ...read the rest on Bible Gateway

===Andrew Bolt=========
AbbVie Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals in the worldwide. The company offers HUMIRA, a therapy administered as an injection for autoimmune and intestinal Behcet's diseases; SKYRIZI to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults; RINVOQ, a JAK inhibitor for the treatment of moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis in adult patients; IMBRUVICA to treat adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), and VENCLEXTA, a BCL-2 inhibitor used to treat adults with CLL or SLL; and MAVYRET to treat patients with chronic HCV genotype 1-6 infection. It also provides CREON, a pancreatic enzyme therapy for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency; Synthroid used in the treatment of hypothyroidism; Linzess/Constella to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and chronic idiopathic constipation; Lupron for the palliative treatment of advanced prostate cancer, endometriosis and central precocious puberty, and patients with anemia caused by uterine fibroids; and Botox therapeutic. In addition, the company offers ORILISSA, a nonpeptide small molecule gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist for women with moderate to severe endometriosis pain; Duopa and Duodopa, a levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel to treat Parkinson's disease; Lumigan/Ganfort, a bimatoprost ophthalmic solution for the reduction of elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with open angle glaucoma (OAG) or ocular hypertension; Ubrelvy to treat migraine with or without aura in adults; Alphagan/ Combigan, an alpha-adrenergic receptor agonist for the reduction of IOP in patients with OAG; and Restasis, a calcineurin inhibitor immunosuppressant to increase tear production, as well as other eye care products. AbbVie Inc. has a research collaboration with Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE:ARE), an S&P 500 urban office real estate investment trust ("REIT"), is the first, longest-tenured, and pioneering owner, operator, and developer uniquely focused on collaborative life science, technology, and agtech campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, with a total market capitalization of $31.9 billion as of December 31, 2020, and an asset base in North America of 49.7 million square feet ("SF"). The asset base in North America includes 31.9 million RSF of operating properties and 3.3 million RSF of Class A properties undergoing construction, 7.1 million RSF of near-term and intermediate-term development and redevelopment projects, and 7.4 million SF of future development projects. Founded in 1994, Alexandria pioneered this niche and has since established a significant market presence in key locations, including Greater Boston, San Francisco, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, Maryland, and Research Triangle. Alexandria has a longstanding and proven track record of developing Class A properties clustered in urban life science, technology, and agtech campuses that provide our innovative tenants with highly dynamic and collaborative environments that enhance their ability to successfully recruit and retain world-class talent and inspire productivity, efficiency, creativity, and success. Alexandria also provides strategic capital to transformative life science, technology, and agtech companies through our venture capital platform. We believe our unique business model and diligent underwriting ensure a high-quality and diverse tenant base that results in higher occupancy levels, longer lease terms, higher rental income, higher returns, and greater long-term asset value.
The following companies are subsidiares of Illinois Tool Works: A V Co 1 Limited, A V Co 2 Limited, A V Co 3 Limited, ACCU-LUBE Manufacturing GmbH - Schmiermittel und -gerate -, AIP/BI Holdings Inc., Accessories Marketing Holding Corp., Advanced Molding Company Inc., Allen France SAS, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Suzhou Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel Ireland Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Brooks Instrument LLC, Brooks Instrument Shanghai Co. 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. Ltd., Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Subsidiaries, Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek China Limited, Teknek Japan Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Kunshan Co. Ltd., Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta Global Limited, Vesta Guangzhou Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wynn Oil South Africa Pty Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, and Zip-Pak International B.V..

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Leggett & Platt, Incorporated designs, manufactures, and markets engineered components and products worldwide. It operates through three segments: Bedding Products; Specialized Products; and Furniture, Flooring & Textile Products. The company offers steel rods, drawn wires, foam chemicals and additives, innersprings, specialty foams, private label finished mattresses, mattress foundations, wire forms for mattress foundations, adjustable beds, industrial sewing and quilting machines, and mattress packaging and glue drying equipment, as well as machines to produce innersprings for industrial users of steel rods and wires, manufacturers of finished bedding, big box and e-commerce retailers, bedding brands and mattress retailers, department stores, and home improvement centers. It also provides mechanical and pneumatic lumbar support and massage systems for automotive seating; seat suspension systems, motors and actuators, and cables; titanium, nickel, and stainless-steel tubing, formed tubes, tube assemblies, and flexible joint components for fluid conveyance systems; and engineered hydraulic cylinders to automobile OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, aerospace OEMs and suppliers, and mobile equipment OEMs. In addition, the company offers steel mechanisms and motion hardware for reclining chairs, sofas, sleeper sofas and lift chairs; springs and seat suspensions; components and private label finished goods for soft seating; and bases, columns, back rests, casters, and frames, as well as control devices for chairs. Further, it offers carpet cushion and hard surface flooring underlayment, structural fabrics, and geo components to manufacturers of upholstered and office furniture, flooring retailers and distributors, contractors, landscapers, road construction companies, retailers, government agencies, and mattress and furniture producers, as well as manufacturers of packaging, filtration, and draperies. The company was founded in 1883 and is based in Carthage, Missouri.
Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. operates as bank holding company for the Prosperity Bank that provides financial products and services to businesses and consumers. It accepts various deposit products, such as demand, savings, money market, and time accounts, as well as and certificates of deposit. The company also offers 1-4 family residential mortgage, commercial real estate and multifamily residential, commercial and industrial, agricultural, and non-real estate agricultural loans, as well as construction, land development, and other land loans; consumer loans, including automobile, recreational vehicle, boat, home improvement, personal, and deposit account collateralized loans; and consumer durables and home equity loans, as well as loans for working capital, business expansion, and purchase of equipment and machinery. In addition, it provides internet banking, mobile banking, trust and wealth management, retail brokerage, mortgage services, and treasury management, as well as debit and credit cards. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated 273 full-service banking locations comprising 65 in the Houston area, including The Woodlands; 30 in the South Texas area including Corpus Christi and Victoria; 63 in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area; 22 in the East Texas area; 29 in the Central Texas area, including Austin and San Antonio; 34 in the West Texas area, including Lubbock, Midland-Odessa and Abilene; 16 in the Bryan/College Station area; 6 in the Central Oklahoma area; and 8 in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area doing business as LegacyTexas Bank. Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Houston, Texas.
Bank of Montreal provides diversified financial services primarily in North America. The company's personal banking products and services include checking and savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and financial and investment advice services; and commercial banking products and services comprise business deposit accounts, commercial credit cards, business loans and commercial mortgages, cash management solutions, foreign exchange, specialized banking programs, treasury and payment solutions, and risk management products for small business and commercial banking customers. It also offers investment and wealth advisory services; digital investing services; financial services and solutions; and investment management, and trust and custody services. In addition, the company provides life insurance, accident and sickness insurance, and annuity products; creditor and travel insurance to bank customers; and reinsurance solutions. Further, it offers client's debt and equity capital-raising services, as well as loan origination and syndication, and treasury management; strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and recapitalizations, as well as valuation and fairness opinions; and trade finance, risk mitigation, and other operating services. Additionally, the company provides research and access to markets for institutional, corporate, and retail clients; trading solutions that include debt, foreign exchange, interest rate, credit, equity, securitization and commodities; new product development and origination services, as well as risk management advice and services to hedge against fluctuations; and funding and liquidity management services to its clients. It operates through approximately 900 bank branches and 3,300 automated banking machines in Canada and the United States. Bank of Montreal was founded in 1817 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.
The following companies are subsidiares of Ingersoll Rand: 13125882 Canada Inc., 211 E. Russell Road LLC, 4458664 Canada Inc., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES ASIA PTE. LTD., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES BORROWER S.C.A., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES LLC, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES MIDDLE EAST FZE, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES SERVICES LIMITED, ASTRUM IT GmbH, Accudyne Industries Acquisition S.A r.l, Accudyne Industries Canada Inc., Accudyne Industries S.A r.l., Air Dimensions, Air Dimensions Inc., Albin Pump SAS, BOC Edwards Global Low pressure Air business, CISA S.p.A., Cameron-Centrifugal Compression, Comercial Ingersoll-Rand (Chile) Limitada, Comingersoll-Comercio E Industria De Equipamentos S.A., CompAir, CompAir (Hankook) Korea Co. Ltd., CompAir Acquisition (No. 2) Ltd., CompAir Acquisition Ltd., CompAir BroomWade Ltd., CompAir Finance Ltd., CompAir GmbH, CompAir Holdings Limited, CompAir International Trading (Shanghai) Co Ltd, CompAir Korea Ltd, CompAir South Africa (SA) (Pty) Ltd., Consolidated Distribution Holdings Ltd., DV Systems Inc., Dosatron International SAS, Emco Wheaton Gmbh, Emco Wheaton USA Inc, Enza Air Proprietary Limited, FlexEnergy Holdings LLC, Frigoblock Grosskopf Gmbh, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Investments Limited, GD First (UK) Ltd, GD German Holdings GmbH, GD German Holdings I Gmbh, GD German Holdings II GmbH, GD German Investments GmbH, GD Global Holdings II Inc., GD Global Holdings Inc., GD Global Holdings UK II Ltd., GD Global Ventures I B.V., GD Global Ventures II B.V., GD Global Ventures III B.V., GD Industrial Products Malaysia SDN. BHD., GD Investment KY, GD UK Finance Ltd., GPS Industries, Gardner Denver (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Austria GmbH, Gardner Denver Bad Neustadt Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Belgium NV, Gardner Denver Brasil Industria E Comercio de Maquinas Ltda., Gardner Denver CZ + SK sro, Gardner Denver Canada Corp (Canada), Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments II Limited, Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments Limited, Gardner Denver Deutschland GmbH, Gardner Denver Engineered Products India Private Limited, Gardner Denver FZE, Gardner Denver Finance II LLC, Gardner Denver Finance Inc & Co KG, Gardner Denver France SAS, Gardner Denver Group Svcs Ltd, Gardner Denver Holdings Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Investments Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Ltd, Gardner Denver Iberica SL, Gardner Denver Inc., Gardner Denver Industries Ltd., Gardner Denver Industries Pty Ltd., Gardner Denver International Inc., Gardner Denver International Ltd., Gardner Denver Investments Inc., Gardner Denver Italy Holdings S.r.L., Gardner Denver Japan Ltd., Gardner Denver Kirchhain Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Korea Ltd., Gardner Denver Ltd., Gardner Denver Machinery (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Nash Brasil Industria E Comercio De Bombas Ltda, Gardner Denver Nash LLC, Gardner Denver Nash Machinery Ltd., Gardner Denver Nederland BV, Gardner Denver Nederland Investments B.V., Gardner Denver Oy, Gardner Denver Polska Sp z.o.o., Gardner Denver Pte. Ltd., Gardner Denver S.r.l., Gardner Denver Schopfheim GmbH, Gardner Denver Schopfheim Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Schweiz AG, Gardner Denver Slovakia s.r.o., Gardner Denver Sweden AB, Gardner Denver Taiwan Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas GmbH (f/k/a ILMVAC GmbH), Gardner Denver Thomas Inc., Gardner Denver Thomas Pneumatic Systems (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Garo Dott. Ing. Roberto Gabbioneta S.r.l., Ghh-Rand Schraubenkompressoren Gmbh, HASKEL EUROPE LTD., HASKEL HOLDINGS UK LIMITED, HASKEL INTERNATIONAL LLC, Hamworthy Belliss & Morcom, Haskel France SAS, Haskel Sistemas de Fluidos Espana S.R.L., Hibon Inc., Highspeed Newco LLC, Hingerose Limited, ILMVAC (UK) Ltd., ILS Innovative Labor Systeme, ILS Inovative Laborsysteme GmbH, INGERSOLL RAND ITS JAPAN LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND (CHANG ZHOU) TOOLS CO. LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND (CHINA) INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING CO. LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND CHINA LLC, INGERSOLL-RAND COMERCIO E SERVICOS DE MAQUINAS E EQUIPAMENTOS INDUSTRIAIS LTDA., INGERSOLL-RAND DE PUERTO RICO INC., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL COMPANY B.V., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL SP. Z O.O., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL U.S. INC., INGERSOLL-RAND PHILIPPINES INC., INGERSOLL-RAND SPAIN S.A., INGERSOLL-RAND U.S. HOLDCO INC., IR HPS Holdco. Inc., ITO Emniyet, Ingersoll Rand Cyprus Investments Ltd., Ingersoll Rand Finance LLC, Ingersoll Rand Global Investments LLC, Ingersoll Rand Global Ventures LLC, Ingersoll Rand Hong Kong Investments Limited, Ingersoll Rand Inc., Ingersoll Rand Investments (SG) Pte. Ltd., Ingersoll Rand Investments B.V., Ingersoll Rand Schweiz Investments Gmbh, Ingersoll Rand Technology R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand (Australia) Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand (China) Investment Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (Guilin) Tools Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (Hong Kong) Holding Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (India) Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Ab, Ingersoll-Rand Air Solutions Hibon Sarl, Ingersoll-Rand Beteiligungs Und Grundstucksverwaltungs Gmbh, Ingersoll-Rand Colombia S.A.S., Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited (Uk), Ingersoll-Rand Company South Africa (Pty) Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Cz S.R.O., Ingersoll-Rand De Mexico S.A. De C.V., Ingersoll-Rand Equipements De Production S.A.S., Ingersoll-Rand Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Industrial Ireland Limited, Ingersoll-Rand International (India) Private Limited, Ingersoll-Rand International Holding Llc, Ingersoll-Rand Italia S.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Italiana Manufacturing S.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Korea Holding Llc, Ingersoll-Rand Korea Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Lux Investments II S.A R.I., Ingersoll-Rand Lux Investments S.A R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Luxembourg Industrial Company S.A R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Machinery (Shanghai) Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Malaysia Co. Sdn. Bhd., Ingersoll-Rand S.A. De C.V., Ingersoll-Rand Services And Trading Limited Liability Company, Ingersoll-Rand Services Company, Ingersoll-Rand Services Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Singapore Enterprises Pte. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand South East Asia (Pte.) Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand Superay Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Technical And Services S.A.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Technologies And Services Private Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Technology R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand Tool Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Trading Gmbh, Ingersoll-Rand Vietnam Company Limited, Instrum Rand JSC, Interflex Datensysteme, Ir Canada Holdings Ulc, Ir Canada Sales & Service Ulc, Ir France Sas, Kryptonite corp, Lawrence Factor Inc., LeROI, LeRoi International Inc, MILTON ROY (HONG KONG) LIMITED, MILTON ROY (UK) LIMITED, MILTON ROY EUROPA B.V., MILTON ROY EUROPE SAS, MILTON ROY INDUSTRIAL (SHANGHAI) CO. LTD., MILTON ROY LLC, MILTON ROY US PURCHASER INC., MP Pumps Inc., Maximum AG Technologies Inc., Maximus Solutions, Mb Air Systems Limited, Nash Elmo, Officina Meccaniche Industriali Srl, Oina VV, Oina VV Aktiebolag, Plurifilter D.O.O., Pt Ingersoll-Rand Indonesia, Robuschi, Runtech Systems, Runtech Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Runtech Systems Inc., Runtech Systems OY, SEEPEX, Seepex (M) SDN, Seepex Australia Pty Ltd, Seepex Beteiligungs-Gesellschaft mit Beschrankter Haftung, Seepex France S.a.r.l., Seepex GmbH, Seepex Inc., Seepex India Private Ltd., Seepex Italia SRL, Seepex Japan Co. Ltd., Seepex Nordic A/S, Seepex OOO, Seepex Pumps (Shanghia) Co. Ltd., Seepex UK Ltd., Shanghai CompAir Compressors Co Ltd, Shanghai Compressors & Blowers Ltd., Shanghai Ingersoll-Rand Compressor Limited, Shenzhen Bocom System Engineering Co., Superay, Syltone, TIWR Real Estate GmbH & Co. KG, Tamrotor Marine Comp AS Norway, Tecno Matic Europe s.r.o., Thomas Industries Inc., Trane Technologies, Tri-Continent Scientific Inc., Vacuum and Blower Systems division, Welch Vacuum Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zaxe Technologies Inc., Zeks Compressed Air Solutions Llc, Zinsser Analytic, Zinsser Analytik GmbH, Zinsser NA Inc., and crayon interface.

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Deutsche Telekom AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated telecommunication services. The company operates through five segments: Germany, United States, Europe, Systems Solutions, and Group Development. It offers fixed-network services, including voice and data communication services based on fixed-network and broadband technology; and sells terminal equipment and other hardware products, as well as services to resellers. The company also provides mobile voice and data services to consumers and business customers; sells mobile devices and other hardware products; and sells mobile services to resellers and to companies that purchases and markets network services to third parties, such as mobile virtual network operators. In addition, it offers internet services; internet-based TV products and services; and information and communication technology systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions with an infrastructure of data centers and networks under the T-Systems brand, as well as call center services. The company has 242 million mobile customers and 22 million broadband customers, as well as 27 million fixed-network lines. Deutsche Telekom AG has a collaboration with VMware, Inc. on cloud-based open and intelligent virtual RAN platform to bring agility to radio access networks for existing LTE and future 5G networks; and partnership with Microsoft to deliver high-performance cloud computing experiences. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Bonn, Germany.
Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. engages in the exploration, development, and recovery of minerals and precious metals located primarily in Africa. It explores for platinum, palladium, nickel, copper, gold, rhodium, zinc, silver, germanium, and lead deposits. The company's projects include the Platreef project located in the Northern Limb of South Africa's Bushveld Complex; the Kipushi project located in Haut-Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo; and the Kamoa-Kakula project located within the Central African Copperbelt. It also holds a 100% interest in the Western Foreland exploration project covering an area of approximately 2,407 square kilometers located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company has a strategic partnership agreement with China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. to examine exploration, development, and acquisition of mineral projects, as well as production, smelting, and logistics opportunities in Africa. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. was formerly known as Ivanplats Limited and changed its name to Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. in August 2013. The company was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.
M. Rick Turner, who for nearly three decades has challenged the racial status quo in Charlottesville and Central Virginia, has resigned his post as president of the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP just five weeks after winning re-election.

Turner joined the University of Virginia staff in 1988 as dean of African-American affairs and has served as NAACP president for much of the 21st century.

Janette B. Martin, NAACP first vice president, is next in line to assume leadership duties.

To Whom It May Concern: I want to take this opportunity to inform the community that I am resigning from the position of president of the NAACP effective Dec. 31, 2016, Turner wrote in a short statement announcing his resignation.

Karen Waters-Wicks, an educator with Albemarle County schools and Piedmont Virginia Community College, unsuccessfully challenged Turner in a Nov. 14 election for the organizations presidency.

She expressed surprise at the announcement but declined to comment further.

Attempts to reach Turner for additional comment were unsuccessful.

Turner was re-elected last month to the slot he has held for the past 12 years. It was only the third election in which he was challenged for the organizations leadership. Minutes after being declared the winner, he decried what he called deviousness on behalf of some white members of the NAACP.

I know we had a lot of white folks coming here to vote against me  Mainly because Im a black man, Turner said after the election. Tell them white folks [and] ladies there, they were devious. I hope they dont come back to the NAACP. They need to stay home.

The comments were classic Turner, who has earned a reputation as a straight-shooting critic of prejudice and racism in schools, universities, city government and society at large. He seldom shies away from controversy.

While serving as NAACP president and UVa dean, he called out local school systems for not assuring that black students received an education on par with peers, questioned whether some redistricting proposals were racially based and most recently supported efforts at diminishing the importance of Civil War memorials in town.

I try to avoid looking at it as I go up and down Market Street. I purposefully avoid looking at it, Turner told the Daily Progress in 2015 when asked about the statue in Lee Park. I dont feel that Robert E. Lee should be in a park. I feel the statue should be in a trash bin and destroyed by fire or any means necessary.

Prior to joining UVa, Turner was a student retention specialist who headed a tutorial program at the University of California at Irvine. He served as assistant director of admission at Stanford University and worked with veterans and other students in the California community college system.

There have been some rough times. In 2006, Turner resigned from UVa shortly after signing a pretrial felony diversion agreement in which he admitted making false statements about his knowledge of the activities of a known drug dealer.

Turner was given 12 months probation by the U.S. District Court in connection with the statements.

Turner, who was 65 at the time of his retirement, pointed out that he was of retirement age and had served for nearly two decades at the helm of the Office of African-American Affairs. He cited as a source of pride the 12 straight years that UVa posted the highest graduation rates for black students among major public institutions during his tenure.

He continued to be active in local politics and social issues after his UVa retirement, continuing his service with the NAACP.

In announcing his NAACP retirement on Tuesday, Turner cited his service to the local civil rights organization as an honor.

Perhaps on par with serving my country in Vietnam during the 1960s, being president of the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP was a great challenge and a major honor in my life, Turner said. Now is the time for new and vibrant leadership!
A garbage truck driver in a Waste Management truck attempted to cross railroad tracks in Washington County on Monday when it was broadsided by a Norfolk Southern train traveling westbound.

David Anderson, 24, of Bristol, Tennessee, Anderson was thrown from the truck and airlifted to Bristol Regional Medical Center. He was in good condition Tuesday night at according to his father.

David remains in good condition, said Stan Anderson. He is getting up and is now able to sit down  but is still very sore. He didnt require any surgery and needs plenty of time to heal.

A white marker and stop sign near Wyndale Road indicate a railroad crossing  but there are no gates, bells, or lights to signal a trains approach. The cause of the accident remains under investigation by both Norfolk Southern and Virginia State Police, officials said Tuesday.

According to Norfolk Southern spokeswoman Susan Terpay, the train was traveling at 60 miles per hour when it collided with the truck. It had two locomotives and was carrying 59 empty cars, she said earlier. There were no other injuries and no one had been charged in the collision Tuesday.

The Wyndale Road crossing where the accident happened is listed as a private crossing on private property, according to the Federal Railroad Administrations database of rail crossings.

In total, 16 out of 41 crossings in Washington County are private and ungated, meaning they have no drop-down bar or warning lights to stop traffic when a train is crossing.

The minimum required marking for a railroad crossing sign in Virginia is a white crossbucks sign that also means yield. Regular stop signs have been added by state or local jurisdictions.

Virginias division of Utility & Railroad Safety through the State Corporate Commission does not keep a list of railroad and street crossings that warrant a gated crossing due to high traffic.

Under state law, railroad crossings are agreed upon through the railroad companies and the Virginia Department of Transportation, said Kenneth Schrad with the Division of Utility & Railroad Safety. We would only be involved if the two parties were unable to reach an agreement.

Schrad added that warning systems are commonly installed only on public highways.

The railroad shall only install or upgrade a crossing warning system at a crossing on a public highway pursuant to an agreement with VDOT, Schrad said. Railroads are not required, but are permitted, to upgrade  at its own expense, components of any public highway grade warning system when its related to an improvement project on the track, structure or control system.

In 2016, 12 Virginians have been killed in railroad crossing collisions. Two of those deaths occurred in Abingdon in Washington County. Both were pedestrians.

According to the Federal Railroad Administration, the federal government will fund railroad crossing improvements, but each individual state determines exactly where to use the money.

Virginia is estimated to receive about $1 million in federal money for railroad crossing safety in 2017, according to the Federal Highway Administrations database.
BRUSSELS - Belgium - The EU architects are the engineers of their own demise, and have condemned Europe to destruction through Schengen.

The Schengen open door policy was meant to promote free movement of only the beautiful European people, the blue eyed, the blonde haired with successful professional jobs, country houses in multiple EU countries, and beautiful cultured friends tucked away all over the continent. It was not meant for sub-Saharans, or for Afghans or for all the rest streaming across Europes porous borders in need of housing, welfare, and sustenance. These are the tenets of what the EU project called for prescribed by the unelected EU Commission and EU architects all those years ago.

Suicide by Schengen

The Schengen zone was not designed for wars. The EU unelected elite do not know anything about military matters, they are only concerned about their economy and commerce and keeping the doors open to anything that comes through without question. They never even thought that the Schengen zone is a channel for heavy duty weaponry and bomb making equipment to be smuggled, or that hardcore, heavily trained militants could simply walk into the EU with no checks.

The EU architects did not factor in that massive people smuggling operations run by criminals would benefit from the Schengen zone, or that smuggling high grade drugs would become so easy.

Architects of their own destruction

This leads us to believe that the architects of the EU are idiots, maybe they are intellectuals on some level but they are completely moronic illogical irresponsible fucking unintelligent bonkers mad elitest ass holes who have completely messed up the continent of Europe. You are a disgrace to the word elite because you did not factor in all eventualities before you set up your little EU utopian Schengen project, which has left whole boulevards in Paris resembling a refugee camp, and allowed shanty towns to congregate on the sea shores of Calais. It is your irresponsible policies that have caused this mess, and the EU architects should take the full blame for their ridiculous insane EU hell that we are all now living in.

If you count on safety and do not think of danger, if you do not know enough to be wary when enemies arrive, this is called a sparrow nesting on a tent, a fish swimming in a cauldron  they wont last the day.

The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again with the same negative result, and this is what the EU leaders are doing. They are molly coddled in their own expensive cotton wool la la land of EU policies and diktats, but cannot see anything in front of their own eyes. The EU architects are visionaries of their own dystopia, the EU is a desert, there is now no hope or any future for the continent under the trampled shit splattered cloak of the EU.

Lift no finger

For those wishing upon the destruction of the EU, you do not have to lay a single finger, because the people who are running the show now are condemned to their own demise, and they will take the people down with them kicking and screaming. Such is the arrogance of the elitist eurocrats that they never admit to their mistakes, or their flaws, or their disasters, they will instead happily murder millions of people to keep their positions.

May the Schengen open door policy be kept open for all to invade the continent, let us see how much anarchy, chaos and terror Europe can take before someone with some real logic does something.
BERLIN  The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Tuesday for a truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that German authorities said came right out of the extremist groups playbook, inflicting mass casualties on a soft target fraught with symbolic meaning.

The Monday night attack on the popular market by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the heart of former West Berlin left 12 dead and 48 injured  the first mass casualty attack by Islamic extremists carried out on German soil. German security forces were still hunting for the perpetrator after releasing a man from custody for lack of evidence.

The claim of responsibility carried on the Islamic State groups Amaq news agency described the man seen fleeing from the truck as a soldier of the Islamic State who carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition.

Germany is not involved in anti-IS combat operations, but has Tornado jets and a refueling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, among other assets.

The claim of responsibility came not long after German prosecutors said they had released a man picked up near the scene of the attack, initially suspected of driving the truck.

The man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany last year, was taken into custody based on a description from witnesses of a suspect who jumped out of the truck and fled after the attack.

Even before his release, officials had expressed doubt the man was behind the attack.

We may still have a dangerous criminal out there, warned Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt, whose office urged people to be particularly vigilant and report suspicious movement using a special hotline.

Though Germany had not seen any successful mass-casualty Islamic extremist attacks until Monday, attempts and recent attacks in neighboring France and Belgium had made many feel it was inevitable.

Germanys top prosecutor, Peter Frank, told reporters the attack was reminiscent of Julys deadly truck rampage in Nice and appeared to follow instructions published by the Islamic State group.

There is also the prominent and symbolic target of a Christmas market, and the modus operandi that mirrors at least past calls by jihadi terror organizations, Frank said.

The man arrested near the scene denied any involvement in the attack. Under German law, prosecutors have until the end of a calendar day following an arrest to seek a formal arrest warrant keeping a suspect in custody.

Prosecutors said they decided to release him after turning up no forensic evidence proving he was in the trucks cab during the rampage, and no witnesses who were able to follow him from the scene to where he was picked up.

Frank, the German prosecutor, said there were still a lot of unanswered questions.

We dont know for sure whether it was one or several perpetrators, he said. We dont know for sure whether he, or they, had support. These investigations arent concluded yet.

Witnesses saw only one man flee from the truck after it hurtled through the market for 200 to 260 feet before coming to a stop near the 19th-century church, which was badly damaged in World War II bombing but left standing as a memorial to the destruction of the war.

The head of the Federal Criminal Police Office said authorities had yet to find a pistol that is believed to have been used to kill the Polish truck driver who was supposed to be delivering the steel beams the truck was carrying.
Mobikwik was among the first companies to launch a mobile wallet in the country in 2009.

Mumbai: Mobile wallet company MobiKwik, today announced its tie up with Amul to help customers pay digitally at all their retail outlets.

It expects that this will lead to about 20 per cent of transactions at the store to go digital, a joint statement said. Amul has over 7,000 outlets and retails at over three lakh Multi brand outlets, presently.

"In today's less cash economy , through this pan India initiative we shall be accepting payments with MobiKwik wallet, from our millions of consumers to our more than three lakh retailers and 7,000 dealers of milk and dairy products," R S Sodhi, Managing Director of Amul said.

"This will help us provide remunerative and quick returns to our 3.6 millions farmers or milk producers whose livelihood depends upon the sale of milk to the Amul cooperative structure," he added.

MobiKwik aims to make inroads into the the Rs 80,000 crore organised dairy market, through this initiative.

Mobikwik was among the first companies to launch a mobile wallet in the country in 2009. Within November, the company claims that it has added 1,50,000 retailers to its network and has a network reach of over 2,50,000 retailers in India.
About 421 crore cash has been seized by the department out of the total Rs 500 crore assets seized till now

New Delhi: Over Rs 3,300 crore of un-disclosed income has been detected while Rs 92 crore worth new notes have been seized till now by the Income Tax department as part of its country-wide operations against black money hoarders post the demonetisation of two high value currencies by the government.

Official sources said the taxman has carried out a total of 734 search, survey and enquiry operations under the provisions of the Income Tax Act since the note ban was declared on November 8, even as the department has issued over 3,200 notices to various entities on charges of tax evasion and hawala-like dealings, till yesterday.

The department, they said, has seized cash and jewellery worth Rs 500 crore during the same period even as the new currency seized (majorly Rs 2000 notes) is valued at about Rs 92 crore.

About 421 crore cash has been seized by the department out of the total Rs 500 crore assets seized till now, they added. "The total undisclosed income admitted or detected as part of this action, till December 20, is more than Rs 3,300 crore," they said.

The agency has also referred over 220 cases to its sister agencies like the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe other financial crimes like money laundering, disproportionate assets and corruption as part of their legal mandate.
New Delhi: Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant today said just one per cent of India's more than 1.25 billion population pays Income Tax and the country cannot afford as high as 95 per cent of its economy making cash transactions.

Addressing a Workshop on Cashless Transaction organized by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Kant said India cannot afford as high as 95 per cent of its economy making cash transactions if the economy has to be taken from USD 2 trillion to USD 10 trillion by the year 2030.

"Besides, only 1 per cent of the more than 1.25 billion population pays Income Tax," he said. Kant said there are more than a billion mobile phone subscribers in India and more than one billion Aadhaar biometrics have been created so far, according to an official release.

He said with an aim to push India among the top economies of the world, the government has enrolled nearly 26 crore people under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and more than 20 crore RuPay cards issued.

The time is here to make a transition to cashless transactions, he said. Addressing the function, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju asked NDRF personnel to adopt cashless transactions and utilise their vast reach across all corners of the country to spread the message of digital payments.

Rijiju said the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and state police forces personnel must take the lead as the nation is poised to join the leading economies of the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to take India from being the world's fifth largest economy at present to among the world's top three economies in the next ten years, he said.

The Minister said though it is difficult to move to digital payments initially but once it is started, one can easily adapt to the cashless mode of payments. He said the Prime Minister has encouraged the citizens to switch over to the 'less cash' transactions. In his speech, Director General of the NDRF R K Pachnanda said cashless transactions not only make everyday life easier but was also gainful as the government has introduced several incentives to make the cashless transactions popular.

He asked the NDRF personnel to imbibe the principle, "Each One, Teach One" to spread the message across a wider cross section of people.
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank today imposed penalty on five foreign banks, including Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, for violation of its instructions on reporting requirements of the FEMA.

The three other banks are: Bank of America, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi and The Royal Bank of Scotland. RBI said they have been fined for violation of its instructions on reporting requirements of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).

Germany's Deutsche Bank has been imposed fine of Rs 20,000, while Bank of America, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered Bank have been fined Rs 10,000 each.

"The penalties have been imposed in exercise of the powers vested in the Reserve Bank under the provisions of Section 11(3) of FEMA 1999, taking into account, the violations of the instructions/directions/guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India, from time to time," RBI said.

RBI said it has issued show cause notices to all the banks, in response to which the banks submitted written replies and also made oral submissions thereon. "After considering the facts of the cases and the banks' replies in the matter, Reserve Bank came to the conclusion that the violations were substantiated and warranted imposition of penalty," RBI said further.
What started as a routine training mission turned into tragedy for the Boiling Springs community in mid-January.

Sgt. Adam C. Schoeller, 25, formerly of Gardners and a 2008 graduate of Boiling Springs High School, was one of 12 Marines on board two CH-53E helicopters that went missing the night of Jan. 14 during a training mission in Hawaii. The search began late on a Thursday when a civilian on a beach reported seeing the aircraft flying and then a fireball.

Schoeller was stationed at Kaneohe Air Base in Hawaii and was a crew chief.

There are thousands praying for a positive outcome for these Marines and the search and rescue efforts, the Schoeller family said in a news release that weekend. We value all of the thoughts and prayers offered up on our behalf during this very difficult time.

For six days, crews scoured the shoreline searching for the missing soldiers and any signs of debris. By Jan. 20, the Marines called off the search and changed the status of the soldiers, including Schoeller, to deceased.

What followed was a month-long series of events to honor the fallen soldiers.

The Marines hosted a memorial service in Hawaii Jan. 22, where the commanding officer of the squadron, Lt. Col. Eric D. Purcell, spoke. "The sadness that this loss brings to their families and to this squadron is immeasurable," Purcell said. "They were in the prime of their life, full of joy and hope  only to be taken from us in an instant."

A local group of friends and family hosted a vigil Jan. 31 at the Veterans Clock Tower by Children's Lake in Boiling Springs. Adam loved this community, said Ralph Schoeller, Adams father. He loved his high school. It is very obvious right now why he loved this community.

And on Feb. 20, hundreds attended a memorial service held for Schoeller at Carlisle Evangelical Free Church in South Middleton Township.

Of course, were all heartbroken (today), but we should remember the laughs because thats what he would want us to do, said Collin Schoeller, Adam's brother.

At the end of the ceremony, Congressman Lou Barletta, R-11, presented Schoellers family with a U.S. flag that was flown over the nations Capitol on Feb. 1 in his honor. Sgt. Schoeller was a patriot in everything he did. Today we celebrate the life of a fine young man, but we celebrate with a heavy heart, Barletta said.
The realtor and his associates have failed to deposit the first installment of tax which was due on November 30, said sources.

New Delhi: The Centre is likely to revise downwards blackmoney disclosed under Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) to around Rs 55,000 crore as a Hyderabad-based realtor and his associate, who had declared Rs 10,000 crore under the amnesty scheme have defaulted on tax payments.

Last month government had said that declarations received and taken on record during the scheme was Rs 67,382 crore which had been made by 71,726 declarants.

According to sources a Hyderabad-based real-estate businessman had declared a black money of Rs 9,800 crore in the Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS) that closed on September 30. There were 2-3 person associated with the realtor who had declared Rs 2,000- 3,000 crore.

The realtor and his associates have failed to deposit the first installment of tax which was due on November 30, said sources. The realtor alone was supposed to pay Rs 1,100 crore of first installment of tax by November 30.

The government had given the option to the declarants of paying tax amount in three installments up to September 30, 2017. The first installment of 25 per cent was due on November 30.

I-T has raided offices and houses of these defaulters and will also be taking action against them. Most of the declarants have paid the first installment, the official added. I-T department had said in November that a Sayed family from Mumbai-Ajmer had disclosed an unprecedented Rs 2 lakh crore during the IDS.

Also `13,860 crore was declared during the blackmoney amnesty scheme by Mahesh Kumar Champaklal Shah from Ahmedabad.
It will be for the first time in history of Bollywood that the two Khan's are set to have back to back film releases.

New Delhi: Aamir Khan's upcoming film 'Secret Superstar' generated immense buzz upon its secret trailer launch.

Shah Rukh Khan on the other hand has been in the news for signing Imtiaz Ali's untitled next.

Amidst all the hullabaloo, no passing thought is made that two of Bollywood's biggest superstars, Aamir and Shah Rukh are all set to clash in theatres with their respective releases.

It will be for the first time in history of Bollywood that the two Khan's are set to have back to back film releases, with a window as narrow as a week.

While Aamir's 'Secret Superstar', directed by Advait Chandan starring Zaira Wasim releases on August 4, 2017, SRK's next, an Imtiaz Ali directorial starring Anushka Sharma will release in its preceding week i.e. August 11, 2017.

Both Aamir and Shahrukh are currently in the news for their soon to release films ' Dangal' and ' Raees', but this is one clash that will make for an interesting watch.
Mumbai: Sallu and Dutt were once close and wouldnt shy away from expressing their mutual love and respect in public. During Dutts difficult days, when he was in jail, Sallu had even declared that he wouldnt party till the time his good friend was out on bail.

But time and drastic changes in their respective lives have pushed them afar. At a recent event, Sanjay was asked to describe people in one word and when Salmans name popped up, Munna Bhai spared no time in branding Sallu Bhai as someone arrogant.

If we go back to February this year, when Sanju baba was released from Yerwada jail in Pune, Salman reportedly did not visit the actor.
Mumbai: For someone who does not have filmy parents to fall back on or a Godfather who could launch her career in Bollywood, actress Kriti Sanon is doing remarkably well. Although she accepts that the industry as well as audience have accepted her, the actress asserts that nepotism is an integral part of the showbiz industry.

In a recent interview with Mid-day, the actress spoke about how Bollywood is inclined towards aspiring actors with star parents. "Star kids always get an upper hand at the start of their career. People in the industry often know them from the time they were toddlers, so they show support to them when their film is about to release. Besides, actors with celeb parents have better accessibility [to opportunities]. The industry serves as a support system for them, unlike in the case of other actors," said the actress who recently wrapped up Ashwiny Iyer Tiwaris Bareilly ki barfi.

But, Kriti opines, the industry has opened its doors for outsiders like her. "The industry today is far more accepting of outsiders. I chose this career knowing this reality [that star kids are favoured]. I get to take credit for my achievements for which I am pretty proud of myself," added Kriti. The actress will next be seen in Raabta with rumoured boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajput.

When asked about the reason behind her opting out of Lucknow Central, the slender actress said, We were trying to sort out the dates for the longest time, but eventually, it didn't work out. Besides, at times, if things aren't working, maybe it's for a reason. Beyond a point, it is better to let go of it."
Priyanka Chopras global popularity is growing day by day after she worked in international projects, like the television series Quantico and the film Baywatch.

That was perhaps the reason why she was recently appointed global ambassador for UNICEF.

Not just social brands, even commercial brands seem to keen on signing Priyanka for their projects. The actress has now been named the global brand ambassador of the popular brand Pantene.

The actress has joined popular celebrities like Selena Gomez, Ellie Goulding and Gisele Bundchen who are also a part of the brand and their new campaign.

Previously, actresses like Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif, Shilpa Shetty Kundra among others have also been associated with the brand.

Priyanka Chopra recently returned to India after shooting for Quantico in the USA.

The actress was only seen in Prakash Jhas Jai Gangaajal in Bollywood and had stated recently that she will be finalising two Hindi films during her time in India.
Mumbai: Unlike Salmans previous girlfriends, Iulia sure knows how to keep him wrapped around her finger. Just when everyone was beginning to think that things arent all that great between Salman and Iulia, she is back in India and by his side. Even the Badshah of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan is giving her the attention and respect that he may not have given to Salmans previous girlfriends.

In the few months that Iulia disappeared from India, Salman got linked with Amy Jackson and even Urvashi Rautela. But with Iulia presenting an award to Shah Rukh recently and dancing to a few numbers on stage, Salman has made it clear that neither Amy nor Urvashi are his love interests. It is only the Romanian news anchor who holds his heart, for the time being at least.
Mumbai: With Christmas just a few days away, actress-entrepreneur Tara Sharma has decided to turn Secret Santa bringing smiles on the faces of children suffering from cancer.

Tara was recently approached by the Cuddles Foundation to help raise funds for their innovation 'Not So Secret Santa' campaign where in funds are collected for nutritious food baskets which are gifted to children afflicted with cancer. This year, the NGO have requested Tara to be their Not So Secret Santa.

Being a mother of two, with a show she creates and hosts in the family and parenting space, The Tara Sharma Show, Tara is often involved in initiatives that involve kids and families and she is active in various philanthropic endeavours. She is keen to help children in need of help and instantly agreed to be the Secret Santa. She will be visiting Sion hospital on 20th December to spend time with kids of Cuddles.

Tara says, I am honoured to be part of the Cuddles Foundation's 'Not So Secret Santa' campaign this month and gift nutritious food baskets to children with cancer. The Cuddles Foundation is doing wonderful work and as with any mother or any person for that matter, it breaks my heart to see or hear of any children, or anyone suffering, but in my earlier work with Cuddles and other NGOs I have learnt from them that good nutrition and of course good care and treatment assures a very high full recovery rate, and hence if our little efforts of helping provide food baskets will help these kids, I am a hundred percent there for them. Good health for us all for all the kids and for everyone is our biggest priority and anything we are able to do to help in that goal is my priority,'' said Tara.
Los Angeles: Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence and Jurassic World star Chris Pratt say they are keen to visit India and "would love to" experience the country's culture.

"Let's do it," Lawrence, the world's highest paid actress, said in an interview here when asked if she and Pratt have any plans to visit India.

"I would love to. It's really vast and I would love to experience it," Lawrence said.

Pratt, who stars with Lawrence in Columbia Pictures' sci-fi action-thriller Passengers, too sounded excited on the prospect of visiting India.

"I would love to go to India. I think that's our next vacation. I want to go and check it out. It's such a huge, huge nation, so many people, such a beautiful place," he said in the interview.

Pratt said he loves the movies that have come out of India.

"I feel like I have gotten glimpses into India but I haven't been able to get there. So I would like to go."

The actor said he hopes his visit to India will be for vacation and not for work.

"If we came there to promote (a movie), that will be one thing but when you are on work you never get to experience any of the culture. So probably it will be vacation," he added.

Passengers, which released in the US today and will hit Indian theatres on January 6 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, is about two strangers Jim and Aurora, who are on a 120-year journey to another planet on technologically- advanced cruise-liner style space ship when their hibernation pods wake them 90 years too early.

Jim and Aurora are forced to unravel the mystery behind the malfunction as the ship teeters on the brink of collapse, jeopardizing the lives of the several thousand passengers travelling from Earth on the spaceship to the distant planet for starting a new life.

The movie also stars Welsh actor Michael Sheen, who plays Arthur, a robotic bartender on board the ship.

On the thought of being alone and travelling to another planet, Lawrence said getting there would be amazing and will be the adventure of a lifetime but by the "time you get there, everybody you have ever known or loved is dead, so it's definitely a commitment.

Passengers employs cutting-edge technology to produce stunning special effects as it chronicles the lives of Lawrence and Pratt on the spaceship.

One of the most stunning visuals comes when the gravity on the ship fails and Jim and Aurora find themselves weightless.

Aurora is in a swimming pool when the gravity fails and she is trapped in the huge ball of water as it starts surging upwards.

On shooting the swimming pool scene when the gravity fails, Lawrence said, "I have never seen anything like that in a movie before so I was excited and nervous to shoot it. but it was tough work. It was a week in water and doing tank work but it was definitely worth it."

Pratt said the way technology is being used to make and see movies is both "exciting and challenging".

"In terms of making the movies, the technologies that are now out that are really mind blowing. Every movie I do, it seems like there is a new filming apparatus... that are creating the most dynamic physical shots that you could have never accomplished before" with simpler technologies.

He added that the flip side to technology that is scary is when "everything you say is written in stone. You are human and make little mistakes and that can resonate around the world in less than 10 minutes. Millions and millions of people can hear if you say something wrong or screw up, so the pressure is on."
HYDERABAD: Acclaimed Telugu writer and poet Dr Papineni Sivasankar has been selected for the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for 2016. Dr Sivasankars work, Rajanigandha, published in December 2013, fetched him the honour.

Dr Sivasankar was one among eight poets selected for the national-level honour.

In all, eight books of poetry, seven books of short stories, five books of novels, two books of criticism, one book of essays and a book of play got the honour this year.

Speaking to this newspaper over phone from Imphal, where he was attending the All India Writers meet, Dr Sivasankar said he was happy to have been honoured.

Rajanigandha was one of his best works in poetry published in the 90s, he noted.
The police are likely to kill black and brown skin people more than white people most likely due to racial disparity. (Photo: Pixabay)

Are police officers more likely to shoot an African-American man than a white one?

A new analysis of death certificates calculates that black males were almost three times more likely than whites to die at the hands of U.S. police, but the study fails to fill gaping holes in national law-enforcement reports about deadly use of force. Were really good at counting all sorts of things, but not when police departments kill citizens, epidemiologist Cassandra Crifasi said in a phone interview.

The new report online December 20th in the American Journal of Public Health relies on what she described as poor death-certificate data on police killings. Crifasi, a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, was not involved in the new study. Im not going to say there are not racial disparities in use-of-force deaths, but we just dont have good enough data to get a national estimate, she said.

FBI Director James B. Comey also has lamented a dearth of statistics on police use of force. He told a gathering of police chiefs last year that Americans actually have no idea . . . whether black people or brown people are more likely to be shot during police encounters than white people.

The problem is that the federal government bases its count of police killings on data provided voluntarily by police departments, which in the past has resulted in a significant underestimate of the number of annual arrest-related deaths," according to a report this month from the Bureau of Justice Statistics at the U.S. Department of Justice.

In the current study, Dr. James Buehler of Drexel Universitys Dornsife School of Public Health in Philadelphia turned to death-certificate data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From 2010 until 2014, death certificates identified 2,285 legal-intervention deaths in the U.S., 96 percent of them fatal shootings and 96 percent of them deaths of males.

Though white males accounted for the largest number, blacks were 2.8 times more likely to be killed by police than whites, the study found. And Hispanic men were 1.7 times more likely than whites to be killed by officers. The fact that theres nearly a three-fold greater likelihood that a black man is going to die from lethal intervention as a white man is striking, Buehler said in a phone interview.

He undertook the study in part to counter another well-publicized recent study that found no racial bias in police use of deadly force. The author of the prior study, Roland Fryer, Jr., an economics professor at Harvard University, declined a request to comment on the current study.

Fryer told The New York Times that his finding that blacks were no more likely than whites to die in police shootings surprised him. His work is not the definitive answer, Fryer wrote in his paper, but rather just takes first steps into the treacherous terrain of understanding the extent of racial differences in police use of force. He has called for more research on the question that has sparked nationwide outrage and protests.

What Im simply trying to do is to make sure we dont lose track of the fact we have a problem, Buehler said. Since a white police officer killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, video after video of police shootings has seemed to provide further proof of uneven justice.

But videos are not data, and the death-certificate data on which the current study relied is incomplete, Crifasi said. Generally, the consensus among researchers is that the data on death certificates is really poor, she said. There may be a disincentive to indicate that somebody was killed by police.

If half the data is missing, you cannot make any assumptions about which half, she said. The data we have is not sufficient to properly answer the question, she said.
Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.  Emily Dickinson

Its a shame that Michelle Obama says shes feeling hopeless this Christmas, especially after all the wonderful opportunities shes had as Americas first lady. It goes to show you that liberalism is like a disease that wont be satisfied until it devours all of you. Undoubtedly, all the designer gown-wearing, Hollywood hobnobbing, $100-per-serving wagyu steak indulging and taxpayer-funded globetrotting wont fix the hopelessness which ails her. Its hard to be hope-filled when you tangle yourself in a web of bitterness and resentment over Americas past.

Just last year, Mrs. Obama shared how she really feels during a racially-divisive commencement speech at Tuskegee University that would have made its founder, Booker T. Washington, grieve. In fact, in his book, My Larger Education, Washington warned readers about people like her, calling them problem profiteers.

Washington wrote: There is another class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs  partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.

Michelles problem profiteering came across loud and clear with her admission of hopelessness during the recent Oprah Winfrey interview. She came across like a spoiled brat when she said, We are feeling what not having hope feels like  although her husband, Mr. Hope-and-Change himself, had eight years to propagate hope had he not been so preoccupied with change.

Mrs. Obama is leaving the White House with the same negative attitude about America shes had most of her adult life. Apparently, it changed temporarily, when her husband became the 2008 Democrat Party nominee. For the first time in my adult life, she said, I am really proud of my country, because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.

But, now that President Obamas on his way out the door, hope is too.

Its as if she sincerely believes that hope rises and falls based on her husband. It is enormously arrogant to suggest that any human being has that much power, let alone someone whose policies: wrecked healthcare and made it unaffordable, hurt manufacturing and downgraded the job market, lowered household incomes and added millions to food stamp rolls, weakened the military and made us less safe, played class politics and eviscerated racial unity  to name a few.

With hope like that, no wonder Americans voted for change.

Obviously, Michelle wont be happy until everyone feels as hopeless as she does about America.

But, thats not going to happen.

In fact, the Electoral College just met and did its job to seal the deal for Trump, who won more counties that any candidate since Ronald Reagan. The U.S. Constitution worked, despite the obnoxious temper tantrums, death threats and harassment hurled at the electors by crazy, crybaby leftists who refuse to accept the fact that if Americans had wanted to give Obama a third term, Hillary Clinton wouldve handily won.

Instead, voters sent the leftist, totalitarian agenda packing. And stocks rose and poll after poll reflect that Americans have a growing and glowing optimism about the direction America is headed.

If that is Michelle Obamas definition of hopelessness, then it stinks to be a liberal.

Susan Stamper Brown lives in Alaska and writes about culture, politics and current events. She was selected as one of Americas 50 Best Conservative writers for 2015. Her columns are syndicated by CagleCartoons.com. Email her at writestamper@gmail.com.
The engineer pays 93% of the daily Rs 50,000 spent on their well being (Photo: Facebook)

Bengaluru: Love for pets is what people often portray a lot on social media and while the choice of pets may vary, these adorable and warm animals tend to become a lot like our family in a very short span of time.

While being surrounded by dogs in your house is the stuff of a pet lovers fantasy, an engineer in Bengaluru is actually living the dream as he has a family of not four or five, but a staggering 735 dogs.

As soon as Rajesh Shukla arrives at his large farm just outside the city, the air is filled with sounds of hundreds of barks as Shuklas beloved canines rejoice the arrival of their father. As the dogs jump around him, Shukla responds with affection.

Rajesh Shukla decided to move to Bengaluru with his wife 10 years back after having lived in Delhi and US, to start his own company. Having travelled the world and done everything money enabled him to, Rajesh decided to get someone to care for.

Shukla started by taking in stray dogs and expensive pedigreed dogs who had outgrown their value as well as those which were abandoned by their owners. Among these were 22 pedigreed dogs whose owner had been shot dead, and many abandoned due to ailments.

The canines are fed 200 kg of chicken and rice everyday on the farm, where they have ample space to run around and ponds to swim in. They are attended by 10 people including trained veterinary assistants who give daily medical attention. All this costs around Rs 50,000 a day, of which 93% is paid by Shukla.

While many complain that so many dogs cause disturbance and activists have demanded access to the farm, Shukla is unfazed and committed to take care of his family.
Sex needs to be over twice as efficient as cloning to outweigh its costs (Photo: Pixabay)

From an evolutionary perspective, sexual reproduction could be seen as a non-starter. Compared to cloning, which also exists in Nature, it's a major waste of time and energy.

Think of the ungainly, preening peacock -- an easy snack for tigers and wild dogs -- strutting his stuff to impress the ladies.

Even without predators, sex and its attendant rituals can be dangerous: when stags butt heads or alpha-male lions fight for mating rights, it does not always end well.

Some animals and plants -- starfish, bananas, to name two -- reproduce asexually. Even a few birds and bees do it solo, Cole Porter be damned.

Others, like the Komodo dragon, can work it either way, though asexually produced Komodo babies -- produced by their mothers -- are not clones.

In short, without males in the picture the business of reproducing is faster and less fraught.

And yet, sex remains by far the dominant means by which the world's fauna and flora pass on genes to future generations, ensuring the survival of the species.

"One of the oldest questions in evolutionary biology is, why does sex exist?", said Stuart Auld, a biologist at the University of Stirling in Scotland.

Darwin's laws of natural selection dictate that doing it the hard way -- sex rather than cloning, in this case -- must confer some major, if hidden, advantages.

Granted, sexual reproduction fuels genetic variation, which boosts the likelihood that offspring in the wild will have the genetic makeup to thrive in an ever-changing environment.

By contrast, clones do not vary, and so if the environment deteriorates, a clonal mother will produce offspring that lack the genes they need to succeed.

'Twofold cost of sex'

"But sex needs to be over twice as efficient as cloning to outweigh its costs," Auld said.

"If sex is to be favoured by natural selection, a sexual mother needs to either produce twice as many offspring as an asexual mother, or produce offspring that are twice as good."

Biologists have long agreed that the enhanced ability to fight off disease was a major advantage of the genetic changes that come with sexual reproduction.

But constructing an experiment to confirm this has always proved difficult: how do you compare the costs and benefits of sexual strategies in different species?

To get around that "apples and oranges" problem, Auld and two colleagues used an organism -- the humble waterflea -- that can reproduce both ways.

"By comparing clonal and sexual daughters from the same mothers, we found sexually produced offspring get less sick," Auld said.

The ever-present need to evade disease, it turned out, explains why sex persists in the natural world in spite of the high "costs" that come with it, he explained.

Parasites and their hosts are in a constant tug-of-war, each evolving and adapting to the other, one attacking immune defences and the other rebuilding them.

Cloning offers fewer chances for genetic changes in the host that can rise to that challenge.

But sexual reproduction -- with a new genetic variations coming into the mix with each generation -- offers more opportunities to fight back against pathogens.

The findings were published in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Dating has been taken to the next level with Tinder, meeting people and getting a match has become easier than before or so ever successful Tinder date says. Two youtubers took Tinder to the next level when they decided to travel to places just with Tinder and without any money.

The boys asked their Tinder dates if they would be willing to go out with them have to pay for everything too along with a local experience and most often than not they did. Matt and Ammar travelled to three European cities  Paris, Amsterdam and Barcelona to use their Tinder profiles, maybe thats where you could get the maximum dates.

While they only got a date early in the evening on the first night, they did end up getting a couch to sleep on and free food too. Day two went smoothly but day three was the best as their Tinder date took them around Paris and treated them to free French snacks too. Barcelona was no different as they created a social group and earned themselves free food and couches.

The idea struck the duo after both of them started dating their girlfriends through Tinder and wondered if it would work to travel their way around. It looks like it was definitely worth the experience.

Watch their experience here:
New Delhi: CBI on Wednesday arrested businessman J Sekar Reddy and his associate K Srinivasulu after Income Tax searches at his residence and office in Chennai resulted in seizure of 127 kg of gold and over Rs 170 crore in cash post demonetisation.

CBI sources said his links with the son of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Nadu P Rama Mohana Rao are also under the scanner of I-T department as it is believed that Reddy, a contractor, allegedly received his help to get state-wide sand mining contract. Rao's premises are being searched by I-T department today.

CBI has registered a case of criminal conspiracy and cheating under Indian Penal Code besides provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act against Reddy and his two associates for conversion of currency in violation of RBI norms, the sources said.

They said it was alleged that I-T department searches had resulted in seizure of over Rs 170 crore in cash which included newly-introduced notes of Rs 2,000 worth Rs 34 crore (seized in two different occasions) besides 127 kg gold from him and his associates Srinivasa Reddy and Prem Kumar.

CBI case is related to seizure of Rs 24 crore of new currency notes from a Tata Ace load vehicle belonging to a Vellore resident, Rishi Kumar, on December 9 following searches at Reddy's residence in Chennai.

"Reddy and his associates had, with the help of unknown public servants of different banks, converted the unauthorised cash held by them in old currency notes, thereby depriving the public in enforcing their right," CBI alleged in its FIR.

It said the bank officials, who are allegedly entrusted with the distribution of new currency notes as per instructions of Reserve Bank of India, defied the RBI instructions and helped Reddy for a "consideration".

"Reddy, Prem Kumar and K Srinivasulu, had in conspiracy with unknown bank officials and public servants converted unaccounted cash held by them in the form of old currency notes to new Rs 2,000 currency notes, cheating the government of India," it alleged.

A CBI court remanded J Sekar Reddy and K Srinivasulu in judicial custody till January 3, 2017. They were remanded in custody by special judge for CBI cases Vijayalakshmi.

In its FIR, CBI said the case against them was that the two had exchanged Rs 34 crore as new currency out of the total seized amount.

Both had changed the currency within 24 days from the date the demonetisation was announced (November 8), the FIR stated.

Both were charged under IPC sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) and under 13(1) and (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act.

The judge also posted to December 23 the bail pleas by Reddy and Srinivasalu and a petition by CBI seeking the two into its custody.
Indrani, her current husband and former media baron Peter Mukerjea, former husband Sanjeev Khanna, and her former driver Shyam Rai had been arrested in the Sheena Bora murder case. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: A special CBI court on Wednesday reserved its order on interim bail sought by Indrani Mukerjea, prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, to conduct post-death rituals of her father.

CBI opposed her visit to Assam to conduct rituals following the death of her father Upendra Kumar Bora on December 15.

In its reply to the court, CBI also annexed an e-mail written by Indrani's son Mikhail to the agency saying that he doesn't want her to visit Guwahati.

Mikhail, an important witness in the case, has said that his grandfather had been bed-ridden for the last one year and he had been looking after both his grandparents for the last three years without any financial and mental support from Indrani.

He has said that his grandparents had legally adopted him as their son and he has already commenced the rituals.

"Indrani has been accused of murdering my elder sister Sheena Bora and ruining my family. Therefore, it is my utmost plea that I don't want Indrani to come to Guwahati and visit me as this will create chaos and unnecessary disturbance in my life due to media and other persons, and will hamper commencing post-death rituals of my grandfather," Mikhail said in the mail to CBI.

In its reply to the court, the central agency has said that Indrani has filed the application in order to move out of jail and with the intention to influence prosecution witness as the trial is to commence shortly.

It has also said that safety and security of Indrani is required to be looked into with regard to the proposed journey to Guwahati. "There is always a possibility that she may escape from the custody," CBI has said.

It has also said that Indrani's mother Durga Rani died on October 1 last year, but Indrani mentioned in her plea that she died in November and this doesn't reflect Indrani's closeness with her parents.

Special public prosecutors Bharat Badami and Kavita Patil told the court that the funeral was already over and Mikhail has conducted the rituals.

"The Brahman bhojan (ritual) is kept on December 27, while priests can be called in jail and all the rituals can be performed in the prison itself," Badami told the court.

However, Indrani's lawyer requested the court that if not Guwahati, she must be allowed to do the rituals in Nashik, Haridwar or Mumbai itself.

"Indrani wants to mourn. When her mother passed away she was not told about it. She needs to observe mourning, perform Shradh and offer food to Brahmins," her lawyer said.

The court is likely to pass order on her bail application tomorrow. The court is at present hearing arguments on framing of charges.
Bengaluru: Police in Karnataka have rescued a schoolgirl who called them for help after learning she was to be married to a much older man, campaigners said on Tuesday, in a case highlighting the risk of child trafficking in the region.

In a rare occurrence, the 15-year-old called the police a day after pre-wedding ceremonies began in her village in Karnataka's Kalaburagi district.

Police officials said eight people, including the 26-year-old prospective groom from Gujarat, have been arrested in connection with the case.

Children's charities say there has been a growing trend of suitors from Gujarat seeking brides from Karnataka, paying a dowry of up to one lakh rupees and covering the costs of the wedding.

"Since Gujarat has a skewed sex ratio, many older men come here to marry because they don't find girls back home," said Anand Raj of non-profit Margadarshi Society, which runs a helpline for children to report abuse.

"But they only want girls below 18 and that makes us suspect trafficking."

The Gujarati families come, strike a deal, marry and return to their homes in two days, officials investigating the schoolgirl's case said.

"Our probe showed that in this case, the Gujarat family came and met two local residents and said they wanted a bride on December 16," said district child protection officer C V Raman.

"Wedding celebrations were well underway by December 17 and would have ended on Sunday if the girl hadn't called."

Nagasimha G Rao of non-profit Child Rights Trust said such cases were clear examples of "trafficking in the name of marriage".

"Northern Karnataka has become a hunting ground for virgin brides taken to other states. Even their families lose track of them after a point," Rao said.

Last year, there were almost 300 cases brought under laws prohibiting child marriage, according to the National Crime Record Bureau data. In a first, it also recorded 221 cases of child trafficking.
Harsha, the PES student, died at the hospital because of his injuries.

Bengaluru: A 20-year-old student studying at PES College, who was stabbed on Tuesday, died because of his injuries at a hospital here on Wednesday.

He was attacked and stabbed by a group of unidentified people near PES College in Banashankari on Tuesday.

The deceased, Harsha, had left for college in the morning with `20 cash. It is alleged that Harsha was playing on his mobile phone just behind the college building at around 2 p.m. when unknown miscreants attacked and stabbed him. He was immediately rushed to a hospital.

The Hanumanthnagar police have registered a murder case and are investigating.
An employee of a state government organisation had a narrow escape as over Rs 1 lakh deposited by him to a suspicious account could be retrieved. (Representational image)

Thiruvananthapuram: While the restrictions on bank withdrawals as part of demonetisation have caused severe inconvenience to the public, it is also a blessing in disguise for many as the online racketeers find it difficult to syphon off cash easily.

In a recent incident in the state capital, an employee of a state government organisation had a narrow escape as over Rs 1 lakh deposited by him to a suspicious account could be retrieved.

"With the fresh restrictions, it seems the Nigerian-model racketeers have slowed down their activities as no complaints of online frauds were received during the last couple of months," said cyber police station DySP Rakesh Kumar.

In the present situation, one could only withdraw Rs 2,500 through ATMs and a maximum of Rs 24,000 from accounts in a week. The lone complaint received by the cyber police in the recent times is that of an employee of a government organisation.

A person who befriended with him through the social media by introducing as a foreigner had requested to transfer over Rs 1 lakh to his account stating that he was in New Delhi for some urgent purpose. After the victim had transferred the fund, the "friend" did not attend his calls. He became suspicious and immediately alerted the cyber police.

"Since there are restrictions on withdrawals, we advised him to alert his bank to reverse transaction immediately. He had not come with any further complaints. Hence we assume that he might have got the money back," said Mr Kumar.
After much persuasion the girl told about her mother of the incident. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: A 50-year-old auto rickshaw driver allegedly raped a nine-year-old girl inside his parked vehicle at a market in Bowenpally on December 19, it was reported on Wednesday.

The girl, who came to the market with her mother, was sitting inside the autorickshaw waiting for her mother to return when the driver, A. Narsingh, overpowered her and raped her. He then warned her against telling her mother of the incident.

The incident came to light on Wednesday night when her mother lodged a complaint with the police. She told the police that the child was so afraid that she kept quiet for two days. After much persuasion the girl told about her mother of the incident.

The victims mother, a vegetable vendor, had come to the market at Seetharampuram to collect some money. It took half an hour for her to finish her work and get back to the autorickshaw. The child was sitting in the vehicle which was parked behind the market, Bowenpally inspector K. Kiran said. Police booked a case and is looking for the driver.
Despite customer complaints, banks have no choice but to comply with the RBI directive. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) move to disallow deposits of over Rs 5000 more than once till December 30 has resulted in some unintended consequences.

Banks are now refusing to take deposits over the said amount, despite being given detailed explanations, said a report.

Nalin Kaushik, a Punjab-based lawyer, wrote on Twitter that his bank branch in Sunet, Ludhiana, was not accepting deposits of old notes, said the report.

Noida-based Udit Kothari also said his bank in Meerut was not accepting funds above Rs 5,000, even after giving justification.

Depositors are thus feeling the pain and claim that this move by the RBI is unfair. Their gripe is that when depositors prior to December could deposit money without being questioned, there should no reason they cant do so now, said the report.

But bankers are wary about accepting these deposits, fearing that they could be harassed by tax authorities later for justification.

The government and the RBI should have allowed all deposits to come in till December 30. Immediately thereafter, the I-T Department could have swung into action, questioning depositors as to the source of the cash deposit, a Union Bank of India official was quoted as saying.

However, despite customer complaints, banks have no choice but to comply with the RBI directive.

But the directive seems to have taken a toll on deposits, said the report. A Central Bank of India branch head said since the demonetisation drive was announced his branch, on an average, received Rs 20-25 lakh in demonetised notes daily as deposits.

However, on Tuesday, the branch received only Rs 4 lakh worth such notes.
And now a few choice words for all Republicans advising Democrats to stop whining about the election and get over it. Oh, really. Get over losing a presidential election to a high-strung petulant flake soon to be in possession of the nuclear codes? Get over a man destined to be leader of the Free World tweeting frivolous 3 a.m. insults at Alec Baldwin?

Exactly how does one get over that, pray tell? A fistful of barbiturates? A four-year nap? An eternal tray of mango Margaritas? Love it or leave it? Like it or lump it? The shuffling off of mortal coils? Climb a tower? Couple rounds of Russian roulette?

Perhaps an example of how Republicans get over something would help grease the skids here. Pull something out of your vast experience of getting over it for us. Like how you got over Barack Hussein Obamas two election wins crying about his citizenship for eight years like little babies with colic whose diapers needed to be changed? That kind of getting over it?

Because, correct me if Im wrong, but I seem to remember Mitch McConnell boasting that his first order of business as Senate Minority Leader was to deny Obama a second term. Epic fail on that getting over.

I also seem to remember the GOP Congress refusing to pass anything that would smack of giving Obama a single legislative victory including obstructing bills they previously proposed. Classic case of cutting-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face getting over it there. I seem to remember Republicans trying to repeal Obama Care over 60 times. You mean that kind of getting over it? Does the term getting over Benghazi have any meaning here? Because if thats the kind of bipartisan hand-holding youre looking for, youre about to get your wish.

Republicans arent just sore losers, theyre lousy winners too. If Hypocritical were an Olympic sport, the GOP would be deemed ineligible, having lost their amateur status right around the middle of Ulysses S. Grants first term. Republicans are to getting over it what Martha Stewart is to vertical zinc mines and Wayne Newton is to rock & roll.

Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million votes after being gang tackled by Wikileaks, an orange clown, the FBI and Russia. You mean Democrats arent supposed to report getting mugged by a foreign power? Isnt failing to report a felony illegal? Are you advocating aiding and abetting here? But then again, nobody really cares, since the Russians are white. Or is it the oil?

Now Donald Trump is griping that nobody ever mentioned the possible hacking of the election until after he won. Wrong! Theres footage of him during the second debate saying maybe the hacking of the DNCs emails wasnt done by the Rooskies, but some 400- pound guy on a bed. Did he forget or is he just plain oblivious?

The Trumpeteers have perfected whining to such an art form that Kellyanne Conways gelatinous platitudes should be part of the permanent collection of New Yorks Metropolitan Museum. We all know that if the tables were turned, Trump would be accusing Hillary of not only personally conspiring with Putin, but so deep in bed with him she could suck her comrades toes. Which, coincidentally, are tiny.

Will Durst, distributed by the Cagle Cartoons Inc. syndicate, is an award-winning, nationally acclaimed columnist, comedian and former assistant manager at a Pizza Hut in West Allis, Wisconsin.
The Patiala House court had on December 17 remanded Former air chief, SP Tyagi, to judicial custody till December 30 as their CBI custody ended. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Former IAF chief S P Tyagi on Wednesday sought bail from a special court on the ground that there wasno apprehension of him fleeing from justice as all evidences in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam case were documentary in nature and have already been seized by the CBI.

"Please let me (Tyagi) go home," Tyagi's counsel urged before the Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar who put up the matter for further hearing on December 23.

The court heard the arguments from the counsel of Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan, all three accused in the case, and adjourned the matter after the probe agency said it needed time to argue on the bail pleas.

While seeking relief, Tyagi's advocate Maneka Guruswamy said "my client cannot languish in jail for an indefinite period for no reason. He has voluntarily cooperated to the best of his abilities. My client has appeared on every date (when he was) summoned by CBI and even without the summons. All evidences are documentary in nature and already in the custody of CBI."

She also told the court that Italy's top court has ordered retrial of ex-Finmeccanica executives in the chopper scam case which makes CBI's stand weak in the current case.

"Even his wife, daughter, daughter-in-law and her mother were called by the probe agency and interrogated even before his arrest," the counsel said.

Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey, appearing for Khaitan, alsosought the relief claiming that the "allegations against me (Khaitan) is of money trail and that part is already being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). I cannot be put in jail twice for the same offence. They (CBI) have encroached my personal liberty for nothing."

Sanjeev Tyagi's counsel too sought bail, saying "if granted the relief, my client will not try to flee from the justice and tamper with the evidences."

The court had on December 17 sent all the three accused to the judicial custody till December 30.

71-year old Tyagi, who had retired in 2007, his cousin Sanjeev and Khaitan were arrested on December 9 by the agency in connection with the case. The accused have alleged that the CBI was trying to extract the confession using force.

The defence counsel also claimed that there was no apprehension of them fleeing from the justice or tampering with evidence.

"My client is a 72-year-old decorated war hero. He suffers from heart and eye diseases and several other ailments. He has deep roots in the society after 44 years of distinguished career," S P Tyagi's counsel said.

The case relates to procurement of 12 VVIP choppers from UK-based firm during the UPA-2 regime.

The CBI had said it was a "very serious" and "a very high-profile" case requiring interrogation to unearth larger conspiracy as the "interest of the nation was compromised". It had submitted that "one part of the crime was committed in India while various other angles are in foreign land."

Tyagi's counsel had earlier claimed that the decision to procure VVIP choppers from AgustaWestland was a "collective" one and Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was also a part of it.

CBI had alleged that Tyagi had "abused his official position" and when he was the Air Chief Marshal, he had made huge investments in land and other properties and had not disclosed the source his income.

It was also alleged that Khaitan was the "brain" behind how the bribe money reached India and how several firms through which the money travelled came into existence, while Sanjeev was known to the alleged European middleman Carlo Gerosa.
Patna: Terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to scrap Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes a "huge success with public support", BJP national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain on Wednesday said the country is moving towards cashless economy with thrust on e-transaction.

"Demonetisation has been a huge success with people backing the crackdown against black money despite difficulties in day-to-day life the opposition tried hard to instigate people against the move, but failed," he said.

Trashing the oppositions' charge that demonetisation has badly affected people and workers, particularly in rural areas, Hussain claimed people have stood behind the Prime Minister like a rock over scrapping of high-value currency notes as well as the ongoing crackdown against black money hoarders.

"People are fully behind the Prime Minister in his endeavour to root out corruption and black money," he claimed.

Hailing the Narendra Modi government's concerted move to make cashless economy a success in a follow-up action to scrapping of high-value currency notes, the BJP leader said the results are for all to see as e-transaction has increasedby 300 per cent over the last one month.

"The Centre has announced various incentives for people and traders for using digital technology for transaction which will go a long way in boosting cashless economy," he said and clarified this does not mean pumping in less cash, to discourage use of currency notes.

"Sufficient cash is being released by the RBI through the banking system to prevent any difficulty to the people, but cashless economy will remain a priority of the government," Hussain said.

He hit out at opposition leaders like Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC president Mamata Banerjee, RJD chief Lalu Prasad for opposing demonetisation and instigating people against the measure.

"Why are they (Rahul, Mamata and Lalu) opposing demonetisation? Do they own black money?" Hussain asked.

On the Reserve Bank of India frequently changing rules on deposit of scrapped currency notes and withdrawal limit of new notes, he said measures being taken are based on feedback from various quarters to prevent black money hoarders from depositing scrapped notes in the banking system.

Hussain said various government agencies have been given free hand to carry out massive drive against hoarders of black money and those stashing huge quantity of new currency notes.

The BJP leader said even party workers are not being spared which speaks of the government's commitment to root out corruption and black money.

With people anxiously keeping a keep watch on the Prime Minister's assertion earlier that the difficulties arising out of demonetisation will be sorted out in 50 days, Hussain assured it is a matter of days that the crisis will blow over.
Thiruvananthapuram: 2016 saw the Left Democratic Front (LDF) returning to power in Kerala and issues like disappearance of 21 Keralites, attack on media persons by some lawyers and alleged encounter killings of Maoists keeping the government on tenterhooks.

The LDF government received flak over the death of two Maoists, including a woman, in an encounter with police in Nilambur forests with major front partner CPI and CPI-M veteran V S Achutanandan decrying the handling of things.

However, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made it clear he would not do anything that would destroy the morale of police.

The year also saw an ugly attack on media personnel by a section of lawyers in front of the Kerala High Court following which journalists were denied access to cover proceedings in the high court and other subordinate courts. Guidelines were formulated for media personnel covering court proceedings.

In a tragic incident, 111 people were killed in an explosion during a fireworks display at the Puttingal temple at Paravur in Kollam district on April 10.

The rape and murder of a 30-year-old Dalit woman in Perumbavoor, which eventually proved costly for the Congress-led UDF in the assembly polls and the commuting of death sentence of Govindachamy in the sensational rape and murder case was 23-year-old Soumya who was pushed out from a running train in 2011, also hogged media headlines.

The stray dog menace continued to haunt the state throughout the year with four persons losing their lives and 701 people, including children, suffering dog bites. In retaliation, many stray dogs were culled in various parts of the state.

The state lost several eminent persons including eminent writer and Jnanpith award winner ONV Kurup, theatre director, playwright and poet Kavalam Narayana Panicker and popular actors Kalabhavan Mani, Jishnu and Kalpana.

As the year came to an end, state's two famous shrines -- Padmanabha Swamy and Lord Ayyappa temples -- were caught in a row, the former over relaxation of dress code for women and the latter over a change of name.

While the executive officer of Padmanabha Swamy temple in the state capital permitted women wearing salwar kameez and churidar to offer worship in the shrine, the administrative committee objected. The Kerala High Court has now stayed the executive officer's order stating status quo should continue.

As per the temple dress code, women can wear sarees, 'mundu and neriyathu' (traditional dress). They can wear salwar and churidar, but have to wrap a 'mundu' (dhoti) over it while entering the temple.

The renaming of the famed Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala by the Travancore Devaswom Board led to a controversy with the government declaring the move as 'serious violation of rules'.

The temple, believed to have been established 1,800 years ago, is considered one among the biggest and most ancient shrines in the state. Since then, it has been known as Sree

Dharma Sastha temple and the board had no right to change it, the government had said.
Chennai: DMK chief M Karunanidhi is recovering well and will be discharged soon, a press release from Kauvery Hospital in Chennai said on Wednesday.

The hospital also released a picture in which Karunanidhi is seen sitting and watching television along with the team of doctors and a nurse.

According to a report, the release also said that he is recovering well and that he will be discharged from the hospital after the completion of the course of antibiotics.

Karuanidhi, who was admitted to hospital on the night of December 15 was treated with antibiotics and also underwent tracheostomy procedure at Kauvery Hospital, following which his condition improved.

The DMK president has been improving well, a senior leader said on Tuesday, adding, "He is likely to be discharged in two to three days and that is what doctors indicate."

Meanwhile, leaders continued to visit the hospital on Tuesday to enquire about the health of the DMK chief.

CPI leader D Raja, PMK chief S Ramadoss, comedian Vivek, film director S A Chandrasekar were among those who visited the hospital today and met DMK leaders including Karunanidhi's son M K Stalin. Ramadoss and others conveyed their best wishes for the veteran DMK leader to get well soon.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had a couple of days ago visited the 92-year-old leader and told reporters after meeting Karunanidhi that he was doing well.
Malappuram: 21 senior students of Manjeri Medical College in Malappuram have been suspended after being accused of ragging their juniors.

As many as 41 students complained of ragging by their seniors, after which the college swung into action on Monday.

The incident may cast a shadow over the Medical Council of India's (MCI) approval for the institution if serious lapses are found on the part of the college administration in tackling the issue. The incident came just a month after the MCI expert panel's inspection of the college and its facilities for the approval of admissions. It was for the first time that ragging was reported in the institution since its establishment in 2013.

However, the college authorities have ruled out any action from the MCI and termed the incident as inconsequential. "The college administration has taken the issue seriously and preliminary actions were taken against the students. The anti-ragging cell at the college is active in making students aware of the repercussions and curbing the menace," said Dr. P.S. Sanjay, the in-charge of the men's hostel where the alleged the ragging took place. The three-member committee of teachers headed by Dr. P.J. Babu, which probes 43 complaints of ragging, would submit the inquiry report on Wednesday.

The anti-ragging committee of the college consisting of police and lawyers would also meet on Wednesday to discuss the probe outcome and decide further action. The incident came to light after a few first-year students were caught sleeping during the class hours a few days ago. The students disclosed to the teachers that the senior students had taken them out of rooms late in the night and forced them to do several activities like singing and some were made to drink water from toilet taps.

"The authorities have swung into action immediately after the issue was divulged. Forty-three students have complained of such minor issues and the college management committee decided to suspend them pending inquiry," Dr. Sanjay said. The Principal had sought an explanation from the parents of the 21 students on Monday. All the suspended students have been directed to stay away from the hostel and college campus until further orders.
Meanwhile, the victim's mother impleaded in the petition maintained her stand that the Special Investigation Team constituted by the state government was efficient and there was no need for a further probe. (Photo: PTI)

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday dismissed writ pleas seeking a CBI probe into the sensational rape and murder of a Dalit woman in nearby Perumbavoor in April this year.

Rejecting the pleas filed by father of the woman and her friends, Justice Sunil Thomas said there were no circumstances available in the case warranting a CBI probe.

Meanwhile, the victim's mother impleaded in the petition maintained her stand that the Special Investigation Team constituted by the state government was efficient and there was no need for a further probe.

The SIT of Kerala Police has filed the chargesheet in a court in Kochi in the rape-cum-murder case.

The chargesheet, submitted in the Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court, has named Ameerul Islam, a native of Assam who was arrested in June, as the lone accused in the case and charged him with offences, including rape and murder.
Varanasi: With the crucial assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh just around the corner, the BJP's grassroot level cadre in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency here shall be looking forward to receiving from him the mantra for electoral success during his tour of the ancient temple town on Thursday.

Interaction with nearly 20,000 booth-level party workers at the Diesel Locmotive Works (DLW) premises forms a major part of the Prime Minister's itinerary in Varanasi.

Modi's visit, which could be the last to his parliamentary constituency before the poll schedule is announced and the Model Code of Conduct comes into force, also includes flagging off of quite a few projects.

These include laying of foundation stones for a cancer centre and a super-speciality hospital at the Benares Hindu University where Modi will also spend some time at the "Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav" (national cultural festival), a week-long event organized by the Union Ministry for Culture where artistes from across the country, some of them of international repute, have been performing.

From BHU premises, Modi will leave for a brief tour of Kabir Nagar locality, named after the 17th century mystic and poet, and inspect underground cabling and heritage lighting work, which is being carried out as part of the IPDS (Integrated Power Development Scheme) and HRIDAY (Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana) schemes.

Thereafter the Prime Minister will reach DLW, where his political engagements will be preceded by laying of foundation stone for a 150-bed ESIC (Employee's State Insurance Corporation) super speciality hospital and inauguration of a trade facilitation centre and a crafts museum besides launching of a number of schemes and projects under the Textiles Ministry.

This would be Modi's first tour of his parliamentary constituency since demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, that has drawn much flak from the opposition as the shortage of currency caused inconvenience to traders, salaried groups, artisans and unskilled daily wage earners alike.

The PM's message to the booth-level workers of the BJP, drawn from all five assembly segments falling under the Lok Sabha constituency, will set the tone for the party foot soldiers faced with a daunting task of holding their own in a state where politics has been dominated by two rival regional players - the ruling Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

From being a force to reckon with in the state in the 1990s, thanks to the momentum generated by the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation, the BJP underwent a steep decline in the first decade of the century.

However, expectations have been high since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when the party stunned all by putting up its best-ever performance, winning 71 out of the 78 seats it had contested in the state.

The spectacular comeback owed much to Modi's decision to step out of Gujarat and contest from this eastern UP seat.

The party's performance in the assembly polls in the state -- which is the most populous and hence sends maximum number of MPs to the Lok Sabha -- will have a bearing on its future prospects on the national level.

This will be Modi's ninth tour of Varanasi since he became the Prime Minister in May, 2014.

Significantly, Thursday's visit will also be his fifth since January this year.

The increased frequency of his trips here is seen as one of the many efforts being made by the BJP to improve its tally in the 403-strong UP assembly where it has less than 50 MLAs.
Varanasi: With the crucial assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh just around the corner, the BJP's grassroot level cadre in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency in Varanasi shall be looking forward to receiving from him the mantra for electoral success during his tour of the ancient temple town on Thursday.

Interaction with nearly 20,000 booth-level party workers at the Diesel Locmotive Works (DLW) premises forms a major part of the Prime Minister's itinerary in Varanasi.

Modi's visit, which could be the last to his parliamentary constituency before the poll schedule is announced and the Model Code of Conduct comes into force, also includes flagging off of quite a few projects.

These include laying of foundation stones for a cancer centre and a super-speciality hospital at the Benares Hindu University where Modi will also spend some time at the

"Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav" (national cultural festival), a week-long event organized by the Union Ministry for Culture where artistes from across the country, some of them of international repute, have been performing.

From BHU premises, Modi will leave for a brief tour of Kabir Nagar locality, named after the 17th century mystic and poet, and inspect underground cabling and heritage lighting work, which is being carried out as part of the IPDS (Integrated Power Development Scheme) and HRIDAY (Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana) schemes.

Thereafter the Prime Minister will reach DLW, where his political engagements will be preceded by laying of foundation stone for a 150-bed ESIC (Employee's State Insurance Corporation) super speciality hospital and inauguration of a trade facilitation centre and a crafts museum besides launching of a number of schemes and projects under the Textiles Ministry.

This would be Modi's first tour of his parliamentary constituency since demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, that has drawn much flak from the opposition as the shortage of currency caused inconvenience to traders, salaried groups, artisans and unskilled daily wage earners alike.

The PM's message to the booth-level workers of the BJP, drawn from all five assembly segments falling under the Lok Sabha constituency, will set the tone for the party foot soldiers faced with a daunting task of holding their own in a state where politics has been dominated by two rival regional players, the ruling Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

From being a force to reckon with in the state in the 1990s, thanks to the momentum generated by the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation, the BJP underwent a steep decline in the first decade of the century.

However, expectations have been high since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when the party stunned all by putting up its best-ever performance, winning 71 out of the 78 seats it had contested in the state.

The spectacular comeback owed much to Modi's decision to step out of Gujarat and contest from this eastern UP seat.

The party's performance in the assembly polls in the state, which is the most populous and hence sends maximum number of MPs to the Lok Sabha will have a bearing on its future prospects on the national level. This will be Modi's ninth tour of Varanasi since he became the Prime Minister in May, 2014.

Significantly, tomorrow's visit will also be his fifth since January this year.

The increased frequency of his trips here is seen as one of the many efforts being made by the BJP to improve its tally in the 403-strong UP assembly where it has less than 50 MLAs.
New Delhi: National political parties received over Rs 100 crore in 2015-16 in the form of donations above Rs 20,000, the limit above which funding sources have to be disclosed, as per a report.

The BJP led the pack at Rs 76.85 crore from 613 donations while Congress declared receiving Rs 20.42 crores from 918 donations.

The donations less than Rs 20,000 evade scrutiny and Election Commission recently has recommended to the government to ban anonymous contributions of Rs 2,000 and above to the parties. "The total amount of donations above Rs 20,000 declared by the National Parties was Rs 102.02 crores from 1,744 donations," the report said.

Jointly prepared by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), the analysis says that the donations declared by BJP is more than thrice the aggregate declared by the Congress, NCP, CPI, CPI-M and Trinamool Congress for the same period.

Prepared on the basis of declarations made by the parties to the Election Commission, it says BSP did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000 during 2015-16, "as it has been declaring for the past 10 years."

A comparison of the total donations received by the parties in 2014-15 and 2015-16 shows that it saw a decrease of 84 per cent or Rs 528.67 crore.

Donations to BJP decreased from Rs 437.35 crores during financial year 2014-15 to Rs 76.85 crores during 2015-16 (a decrease of 82 per cent), it says.

"It is to be noted that BJP's donations had increased by 156 per cent between 2013-14 and 2014-15 while that of INC had increased by 137 per cent during the same period," the report notes.

The temporary rise may be attributed to the 16th Lok Sabha elections that were held in 2014.

The report also observes a marked decline in cash donations declared by the parties in 2015-16, which it attributes to a 2014 ECI notification that had done away with the provision of tax deduction on cash support. "Of the total donations of Rs 102.02 crores declared by the National Parties, Rs 1.45 crores from 112 donations was received in cash during FY 2015-16. This formed 1.42 per cent of the total donations of the parties," it says.

Importantly, it also flags incomplete disclosure of information in the donations report submitted by the parties. "Of the 7 National Parties, BJP, INC, CPI and NCP had not declared PAN details of 473 donations through which the parties collected a total of Rs 11.68 crores.

"INC collected Rs 8.11 crores from 318 donations but failed to provide PAN details of donors while BJP collected Rs 2.19 crores from 71 donations without PAN," it says.
Chennai: The Income Tax department on Wednesday conducted searches at over a dozen locations in connection with its tax evasion probe against the son and few other relatives of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao.

The searches that began as early as 6:00 am are on at various places in the state and neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh.

"A total of 13 premises are being searched," a senior official said, adding the premises connected to Rao's son and other relatives are part of the operation.

It is understood that the official residence of the Chief Secretary in the state capital in Chennai has also been brought under the said operation.

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were posted outside Raos home.

After searching Raos home, the officials headed to his office in the Tamil Nadu Secretariat to conduct similar searches. The team arrived in three cars along with paramilitary security, said reports.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam held a meeting of top officials at the Secretariat, from which Rao was absent.

Rao was appointed the top state bureaucrat in June this year by the state government.

The searches are related to the department's probe in the biggest haul of cash and gold here post demonetisation, in which over Rs 142 crore unaccounted assets have been recovered so far.

The total seizure in the case is over Rs 170 crore in a single case related to action against sand mining operators in the state and few others including S Reddy, who was also on the panel of a religious shrine body.

The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a money laundering complaint in this case after the tax department shared official documents with the agency.

Calling the raids "unprecendented", DMK leader MK Stalin said they had "brought shame for Tamil Nadu.

"Corrupt officers and those behind them shouldn't be allowed to escape," Stalin said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her part criticised the IT raid at the residence of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, saying such a "vindictive and unethical" act by the central agencies devalues the institution of head of the civil service.

"Why this vindictive, unethical, technically improper action? Is it only to disturb the federal structure? Why do not they raid Amit Shah and others..." she said in a statement.

Banerjee said corruption needs to be strongly condemned, but "the raid on Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary by central agencies devalues the institution of head of the civil service".

Earlier this month, tax officials raided businessman J Shekar Reddy who, reportedly has business links with the Chief Secretary's son.

Documents found at Reddy's house may have led to the raid at Rao's home, said reports.

Over 100 kg of gold and cash amounting to Rs 96 crore in banned 500 and 1,000-rupee notes and Rs 34 crore in new currency notes have been found in the raids at the homes of Reddy and two other Tamil Nadu businessmen.
Over the past week, eastern Aleppo was completely brought back under control of the Syrian government. The population began to return to its homes, many of which were abandoned when al-Qaeda-linked rebels took over in 2012.

As far as I know, the western mainstream media did not have a single reporter on the ground in Aleppo, but relied on activists to inform us that the Syrian army was massacring the civilian population. It hardly makes sense for an army to fight and defeat armed rebels just so it can go in and murder unarmed civilians, but then again not much mainstream reporting on the tragedy in Syria has made sense.

I spoke to one western journalist last week who actually did report from Aleppo and she painted a very different picture of what was going on there. She conducted video interviews with dozens of local residents and they told of being held hostage and starved by the rebels, many of whom were using US-supplied weapons supposed to go to moderates.

We cannot be sure what exactly is happening in Aleppo, but we do know a few things about what happened in Syria over the past five years. This was no popular uprising to overthrow a dictator and bring in democracy. From the moment President Obama declared Assad must go and approved sending in weapons, it was obvious this was a foreign-sponsored regime change operation that used foreign fighters against Syrian government forces. If the Syrian people really opposed Assad, there is no way he could have survived five years of attack from foreigners and his own people.

Recently we heard that the CIA and Hillary Clinton believe that the Russians are behind leaked Democratic National Committee documents, and that the leaks were meant to influence the US presidential election in Donald Trumps favor. These are the same people who for the past five years have been behind the violent overthrow of the Syrian government, which has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands. Isnt supporting violent overthrow to influence who runs a country even worse than leaking documents? Is it OK when we do it? Why? Because we are the most powerful country?

We are a country sitting on $20 trillion in debt, living far beyond our means. Power can oftentimes be an illusion, and in any case it doesnt last forever. We can be sure that the example we set while we are the most powerful country will be followed by those who may one day take our place. The hypocrisy of our political leaders who say one thing and do another does not go unnoticed.

We should end that hypocrisy starting with Syria. That government, along with its allies, seems to be on track to take their country back from ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups. The only sensible Syria policy is for the U.S. to stop trying to overthrow their government, to treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves. It is a rule that is always good to remember, but perhaps especially important to recall at this time of year.

Ron Paul, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate, is a former Congressman and Presidential candidate. He can be reached at the RonPaulInstitute.org.
Kochi: Five students from Ernakulams Maharajas college, who were arrested for allegedly carrying out graffiti work on the college walls, have been remanded to judicial custody, police said on Wednesday.

The students were produced before a magistrate court on Tuesday and remanded to judicial custody, they said.

The arrest of the students has created a political storm with Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Ramesh Chennithala, accusing the police under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan-led government of adopting a "brutal fascist policy" to silence the voices of students, artists and writers.

The arrests were made based on a complaint by College principal, in which she had alleged that the students through their alleged graffiti work caused destruction to the public property, police said.

All those who protested against the arrests including Chennithala, students and activists had alleged that action was taken against the students for simple wall writing of poems by eminent Malayalam poets.

"The police controlled by Vijayan is implementing the agenda of the BJP," Chennithala said in a release.
Consequently nine containers, each containing 25-30 bags, were taken off the aircraft, which were later transported from the airline's other flights to Newark. (Photo: File)

Mumbai: A group of passengers on board an Air India flight to the US from here had to travel without their baggage as the airline was forced to offload nine containers of checked-in baggage from the cargo hold after winds suddenly changed course just prior to the departure of the aircraft.

Air India, however, claimed that the stranded baggage of passengers had already been transported to the destination airport, Newark, in phased manner but they are awaiting clearance from the Liberty International Airports authorities.

The incident had taken place on December 17.

"The wind pattern at the Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport suddenly got changed and Air India was told to trim the weight of the Boeing 777 aircraft for a smooth take off," an Air India spokesperson said.

The payload of the aircraft could be reduced either by offloading passengers or some cargo (passengers baggage in the cargo), the spokesperson said, adding that "we decided to offload some of the baggage".

Consequently nine containers, each containing 25-30 bags, were taken off the aircraft, which were later transported from the airline's other flights to Newark, he said.
New Delhi: Hitting out at the Prime Minister once again, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday likened the repeated changes in the rules regarding deposit of old currency notes in banks to his changing of "clothes" and said the message going out was that the Prime Minister's words are "hollow".

BJP responded by warning that such "personal attacks" by Gandhi on Modi will open a Pandora's box.

"RBI is changing rules like the PM changes his clothes," Gandhi tweeted, while posting an article on the RBI rules announced post demonetisation.

He was commenting on the new decision of the government under which an amount more than Rs 50,00 in scrapped currency can be deposited only once per account till December 30.

Earlier, the Prime Minister, while announcing the demonetisation decision on November 8, had said old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes could be deposited in banks till December 30 without any questions asked.

"Prime Minister's words should have weight. Prime Minister had promised the country that people can deposit their money in banks till December 30. Yesterday, Government had again changed the rules. This is 125th time rules were changed. Yesterday, the Government gave a message that words of Prime Minister are hollow," Gandhi said.

Noting that the Prime Minister had said money can be deposited in banks till December 30, the Congress leader said on Tuesday, however, the government said "no you cannot".

"The words of Narendra Modi are without any weight and are hollow. We will show how hollow they are," he told ANI later.

Reacting to the attack, BJP's National Secretary Sidharth Nath Singh said it reflected the "DNA of Congress and Gandhi family" and he should desist from it.

Singh warned that such personal attacks on Modi by Gandhi will open a pandora's box.

Gandhi's attack came as the Congress leader is all set to take the battle over the issue of demonetisation to the turf of the Prime Minister with a rally at Mehsana in Gujarat on Thursday.

After Gujarat, Gandhi will be addressing rally at Bahraich in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on December 22 and at Almora in Uttarkhand the next day.

Assembly polls in Uttarkhand are also scheduled early next year. On December 24, Gandhi will be addressing a rally at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.
Chennai: A petition has been filed in the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Egmore seeking direction to prosecute V.K. Sasikala, her relatives and top officials in connection with the death of former Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa in Apollo hospital on December 5 after 75-days of treatment.

The petitioner, K.S. Gita, claiming to be a family friend of Jayalalithaa, sought direction to prosecute them to unearth truth behind the death of Jayalalithaa. On behalf of Gita, advocate, R. Krishnamurthy filed the petition before CMM, J Chandran, who adjourned the matter to December 26.

On September 22, Jayalalithaa was rushed to Apollo hospital due to dehydration and fever by Sasikala and her husband M. Natarajan. No one knows how she was affected by dehydration. Thereafter, Jayalalithaa was kept in the hospital under suspicious circumstances for 75 days.

Almost all political leaders, including Governors of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, went to the hospital to meet her. None of the dignitaries were allowed to enter into the ward where she was undergoing treatment. Sasikala, her husband, her sister in law, I. Ilavarasi, Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, Chief Secretary, P. Rama Mohan Rao and other authorities entered into a conspiracy with Chairman, Apollo Hospital, Dr Prathap C. Reddy.

Suspecting that proper treatment and proper care was not given to Jayalalithaa, Gita said that she died under suspicious circumstances. No photographs or video or audio were shown to the public and the State Government had not published even a single medical report on her health condition as per government protocol. Suddenly the hospital declared Jayalalithaas death on December 5, 2016 at 11.30 pm.

Jayalalithaa possessed a lot of properties including liquid assets worth

many crores. She stated that Sasikala and her men/women had shown such exigency in burying her. Under these circumstances, the petitioner stated that Sasikala and others, including top officials, knew everything about what happened before Jayas admission to the hospital and how she was treated at the hospital.

She hoped that deposition by them before the court will unearth the truth and the mystery behind her untimely death. I strongly believe and also have enough suspicion that they must be behind my beloved friends death. They are solely responsible and answerable for the death of Jayalalithaa.The petitioner prayed that the court prosecute them under provisions of law and also to direct them to file an affidavit regarding their presence in the ward and facts and to conduct the trial on the basis of the private complaint. She sought the court to direct the State government to preserve the CCTV footages from Vedha Nilayam and Apollo.
RBI had earlier asked banks to ensure that more than Rs 5,000 demonetised currency is deposited only in KYC compliant accounts. (Photo: File)

Mumbai: Under all-round attack, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday did a U-turn on customers depositing demonetised notes over Rs 5,000 till December 30 by making it clear that there will be no questions asked either in case of one-time or repeat deposits if the accounts are KYC-compliant.

Such customers will also not be questioned by bank officials on why they had failed to deposit the old notes earlier.

The RBI turnaround came as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's assurance on Monday night and yesterday that there will be no questions asked to customers who would make one-time deposit above Rs 5,000 failed to persuade bank officials who insisted that there should be fresh circular from RBI so that customers will not be harassed.

However, customers with non-KYC accounts will be subject to stiff conditions imposed by RBI on December 19 for deposit of junked notes.

The decision follows widespread criticism of the guidelines, with people saying the Prime Minister as well as the finance minister have asked people not to throng the banks as they have time till December 30 to deposit invalid notes in their accounts.

On review of the guidelines, RBI decided to modify the old currency deposit rules for fully-KYC compliant customers, an RBI notification said on Wednesday.

The December 19 notification of RBI had said tenders of old currency in excess of Rs 5,000 into a bank account will be received for credit only once during the remaining period till December 30, 2016.

"The credit in such cases shall be afforded only after questioning tenderer, on record, in presence of at least two officials of the bank, as to why this could not be deposited earlier and receiving a satisfactory explanation. The explanation should be kept on record to facilitate an audit trail at a later stage," it had said.

Replying to queries on curbs on deposit of old currency notes by RBI, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday had said people should go and deposit the now-defunct notes at one go as repeat deposits raise doubt.

"Today, there are no exemptions... Now, there is no further scope of earning old currency. So, those who have got old currency must go and deposit at one go," he had said.

"Therefore, if somebody goes everyday and deposit old currency, it raises suspicion. How is he getting everyday? As long as exemptions existed, there was scope for getting old currency. But once the exemptions have been lifted, if you have old currency, go and deposit at one go."
Rohit Vemula's suicide on January 17 at the UoH had sparked massive nationwide protests, resulting in a fierce political slugfest. (Photo: PTI)

Hyderabad: Cyberabad Police on Wednesday said they are awaiting reply from Guntur Collector on the caste status of research scholar Rohit Vemula, who committed "suicide" on the University of Hyderabad (UoH) campus in Hyderabad on January 17, to enable them to finalise investigation in the case.

"It (Vemula's death) was unfortunate. To finalise investigation in the case (registered under) SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, we need to have certificate/report from the Tahsildar or Collector with regard to the caste of the deceased (Vemula)," Cyberabad Police Commissioner Sandeep Shandilya told reporters here.

"There is some problem in that regard. We (Cyberabad Police) have written several times to the Collector and that reply/report based on which we can proceed in this case that is not there. If the Collector gives reply to the letters we can finalise investigation into the case," the Cyberabad Police chief said.

Shandilya said he had already met officials of National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), who are also following this case. "As of now due to police. (investigations into) this case is not delayed," he asserted.

Vemula's suicide on January 17 at the UoH had sparked massive nationwide protests, resulting in a fierce political slugfest, with a string of political parties and Dalit organisations siding with students and accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party and varsity administration of being anti-Dalit.

A group of students under Joint Action Committee for Social Justice, which spearheaded the protests, had held UoH Vice Chancellor Appa Rao Podile responsible for the suicide of the research scholar.

UoH, also known as Hyderabad Central University (HCU) had witnessed sporadic protests since Vemula's death, with students demanding removal of Appa Rao from the VC's post and had also been demanding his arrest.

Earlier, Gachibowli Police under Cyberabad Commissionerate had registered case against Appa Rao, Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and others under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and for abetment of Vemula's suicide.

The suicide of Vemula had triggered a huge political furore with the then HRD minister Smriti Irani coming under attack along with Dattatreya for having written a letter related to the matter.

Raising questions on Rohit Vemula's Dalit status, a commission constituted by HRD ministry after the scholar's death had said the material on record did not establish it and attributed his suicide to personal reasons.

The Justice Roopanwal Commission, in its report to the HRD ministry, had given a clean chit to Smriti Irani and Dattatreya, sources had earlier said.

However, the NCSC Chairman P L Punia had rejected the judicial commissions report on Vemulas suicide as fake and fictitious, and said the deceased research scholar was a Dalit.
New Delhi: Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi, who was superseded along with another senior officer in selection of the new army chief, today met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar amid speculation that he may seek premature retirement or will be given a new role by the government.

Defence Ministry officials termed the meeting as a "courtesy call".

They said the meeting was sought by Lt Gen Bakshi, contrary to initial claims by army sources that Parrikar had sought the meeting.

Lt Gen Bakshi also met with Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag after meeting Parrikar.

Dalbir Singh is set to visit the Eastern Command in Kolkata shortly as part of his farewell tour. The army chief will hang his boots on December 31.

A section of military experts feel that Lt Gen Bakshi may seek premature retirement. However, the process may take a month or two, sources said, adding that during this period he may go on leave.

Lt Gen Bakshi was initially the front runner for the post of the army chief. However, keeping aside the trend of seniority being the lone criteria, the government appointed Vice Chief of Army Lt Gen Bipin Rawat, a batch junior to Lt Gen Bakshi, as the new chief.

Lt Gen Rawat, an infantry soldier, was found best suited among three officers to deal with challenges like cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and the situation with Pakistan, both areas which the government felt will be under focus for the next 2-3 years.

Another section of military experts claimed that Lt Bakshi may become the new Chief of Defence Staff, a post that has been hanging fire for the last many years.

While the creation of such a post is in "active consideration" of the government, it is unlikely that it will happen soon, they claimed.

The Centre had on December 17 appointed Lt Gen Rawat as the new army chief superseding his two senior officers -- Lt Gen Bakshi and Southern Command Chief Lt Gen P M Hariz.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, whose party had boycotted a function involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, will attend the public function in Mumbai on December 24 to be addressed by Modi.

The Prime Minister, after laying the foundation stone for two Metro rail projects, elevated rail corridors project, the Mumbai Trans Harbour link and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off Arabian Sea, will address a public function in suburban Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).

"There will be only one function to lay the foundation stone for these projects and Uddhav Thackeray will attend the proceedings at the MMRDA grounds in BKC," a close aide of the Sena chief said on Wednesday.

On October 11 last year, Modi had laid the foundation stone of a grand memorial to Babasaheb Ambedkar at the Indu Mills compound in the heart of Mumbai, a function which was boycotted by Shiv Sena whose chief Uddhav Thackeray was not invited.

Sena is a part of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre as well as the BJP-led Maharashtra government.

Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar is in Delhi and will attend the birthday celebrations of Ajit Singh, former union minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief on Thursday.

"Pawar saheb will attend the function to lay the foundation stone of Pune Metro in Pune if invited. His office in Mumbai has not received an invite," one of the aide of the Maratha strongman said.
Hyderabad: The Union ministry of AYUSH has warned people against believing in advertisements of traditional medicine firms, who claim to have cured 35 medical disorders like baldness, infertility, cancer, weight loss, AIDS, diabetes, dark skin, sexual performance, obesity among others.

The ministry said it has received more than 40 complaints across India in the year 2015-16 against manufacturers of traditional medicines and its practitioners. The AYUSH ministry deals with traditional medicines like Ayurveda, Yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and alternative medicine like Homoeopathy.

According to a senior officer in the Telangana state Ayush department, There have been very strong complaints where patients have suffered due to exaggerated claims of diseases getting completely cured by traditional drugs. The ministry wants strong action to be taken against such tall claims which are being seen everywhere. Pamphlets are circulated at homes, pasted outside shops, railway stations and bus stops where a large number of people frequent.

Dr Abdul Hasan Ashraf, senior Unani doctor, explained, Tall claims are not only made by the manufacturers but also the corporate chain of clinics. These clinics are also advertising about the cures without following the guidelines given by their council. These are unethical practices and should have been curbed long ago. Due to lack of strong action, it has further intensified, becoming a menace.

The doctors state that they cannot claim complete cure to any patient in any of the streams of Ayush. According to Dr Mallu Prasad, senior Ayur-vedic doctor, The council has already warned against making such tall claims. But there is a major competition for patients due to which these illegal practices flourish.

According to sources, the central ministry wants the state department to strengthen their surveillance and take action via district administrations and curb these practices. The department is keen to initiate action against TV channels which broadcast magic cure for weight loss despite being served with a notice several times.
Crowds gather outside the residence of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao, who had come under I-T scanner in Chennai on Wednesday. (Photo: DC)

CHENNAI: Income-Tax raids sent shock waves across the corridors of power Wednesday as sleuths swooped down on the home of the Tamil Nadu chief secretary, P. Rama Mohana Rao. I-T officials raided his house in Anna Nagar as well as his office at the secretariat.

Handpicked for the top job by the former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, Mr Rao superseded 17 IAS officers to become the top babu, but Mr Rao had seemed to come off in poor light as significant seizures were made at the home of his kin  at least Rs 30 lakh cash and 5 kg gold.

As many as 13 premises belonging to the chief secretary, his son and relatives in Nellore and Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh and in Karnataka were searched leading to more seizure of cash and gold across south India.

The raids, which began at the crack of dawn, at around 5.45 am, at Mr Raos residence in Anna Nagar and continued till late into the evening, were conducted in connection with suspected amassing of wealth disproportionate to the known sources of income and tax evasion. Mr Rao suffers the ignominy of being the first Chief Secretary of a state to be raided by the I-T department.

Sources in I-T department said the raids on Mr Rao came after their interrogation of former TTD Board member Sekhar Reddy and seizure of Rs 131 crore cash and 177 kg gold from premises belonging to him two weeks back. Deccan Chronicle had on December 9 reported that Mr Reddy was linked to a top bureaucrat at the Fort St George and that Mr Reddy was his benami.

Mr Raos office at the Secretariat, the seat of power of the TN Government, was also not spared as I-T sleuths raided his chamber for close to five hours.

Raids based on Sekhars evidence

Income-Tax raids sent shock waves across the corridors of power on Wednesday as sleuths swooped down on the home of the Tamil Nadu chief secretary, P. Rama Mohana Rao. I-T officials raided his house in Anna Nagar as well as his office at the secretariat.

Two of his personal assistants at his office  Sekar and Kumar  were taken for questioning.Income tax officials were tight-lipped about the seizure during the raids at Mr Raos residences, though sources said that Rs 30 lakh cash and gold 5 kg were seized from one of his relatives house.

We were not expecting big seizure from his premises. But the searches were conducted based on documents and statements from Sekhar Reddy. Searches were the natural procedure we have to follow. These kinds of searches will help us to build up the case, an income tax official said.

Documents seized during the searches conducted in the premises of Mr Reddy had reportedly led the I-T sleuths to the doors of the chief secretary. Mr Rao was appointed the chief secretary in June this year by late Jayalalithaa. He had served as private secretary to Jayalalithaa during 2011-2016 and had a meteoric rise to the post of chief secretary.

High drama prevailed outside Mr Raos residence in posh Anna Nagar as paramilitary was called in during the time of the raid. It is understood that the Income Tax department sought the help of the force since a Chief Secretary was involved and that he could have influenced the state police if they were called in.

The Enforcement Directorate also registered a money laundering case against Sekhar Reddy after the income tax department shared documents with the

agency.

It may be noted that the CBI had registered a case against Reddy, his business associates Srinivasalu and Prem and few unnamed bankers on Tuesday after Rs 34 crore of the total Rs 131 crore cash seized from his premises were found to be of new Rs 2,000 notes.
Madras High Court bans unauthorised Sharia courts in Tamil Nadu

Published: December 20, 2016

The Madras High Court has banned all unauthorised Sharia courts in mosques across Tamil Nadu, saying centres of worship were only to be used for religious purposes.

The courts pronouncement came in response to a PIL filed by a non-resident Indian mentioning that such sharia courts are operating as a court of law from mosques and dealt largely with matrimonial disputes, even going to the extent of passing divorce orders.

Madras High Court Judgement

Complete ban on all unauthorised Sharia courts functioning in premises of mosques.

Religious places and other places of worships are meant only for religious purposes.

Tamil Nadu State government to ensure that such unauthorised courts do not function.

Background

Earlier in 2014, Supreme Court had refused to ban Sharia courts saying the interpretations made by Islamic judges and are not legally binding. It even held that these courts could pass verdicts only when individuals submit to them voluntarily.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2016

Topics: Madras High Court  religion  Sharia courts  States  Tamil Nadu  TNPSC

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Anjaneya announced on Wednesday that the state government will soon roll out Mukhya Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojane (CMAGY) in the state.

Bengaluru: Taking a leaf out of the previous UPA 1 governments flagship programme-Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY)- Social welfare minister, H. Anjaneya announced on Wednesday that the state government will soon roll out Mukhya Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojane (CMAGY) in the state.

Speaking to reporters here, Mr Anjanya said that the aim of the scheme was integrated development of selected villages, so that they have all the required physical and social infrastructure for all round socio-economic development.

Another objectives of the plan is elimination of disparity between SCs and other communities when it comes to common socio-economic indicators such as literacy rate, elementary education, infant mortality rate/maternal mortality rate and ownership of productive assets, he explained.

He added that the state government aimed at taking up the development of at least 100 villages having a higher ratio (over 50%) of people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and 50 villages having higher ratio (over 50 %) of people belonging to Scheduled Tribe under the new scheme by allocating financial funding on per village basis.

Under the CMAGY, the state government plans to release Rs 1 crore to each village. Simultaneously, the Union government too has the PMAGY programme under this, the Centre has already released Rs 40 crore for this fiscal year, he said responding to a question.

Explaining the CMAGY, the minister added that the Plan aims to build an "Adarsh Gram" (Model Village) which will have adequate physical and institutional infrastructure, in which the minimum needs of all sections of society will be met. All the facilities necessary for dignified living should be available and the residents will be encouraged to utilise their potential to the fullest.

Although, we have earmarked at least Rs 1 crore per village in reality, it will turn out to be Rs 3 crore per village as the state will be drawing funds from various departments that are earmarked to be spent for the welfare of the SC/STs in the state, he claimed while explaining how CMAGY would be better than PMAGY.
Hyderabad: The Opposition on Wednesday cornered the TRS government in the Legislative Assembly, accusing it of neglecting the farm sector in the state during its 30-month rule.

Opposition leaders alleged that farmers were in distress due to which the state has achieved the dubious distinction of witnessing the second most farmer suicides in the country as per National Bureau of Crime Records. They lashed out at the government for failing to implement crop loan waiver scheme completely.

Congress MLA N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said the government failed to keep its word on a one-time settlement of crop loan waiver scheme even after Centre increasing FRBM limit to 3.50 per cent to borrow more loans.

TS TD MLA A. Revanth Reddy said the crop sown area in TS came down by over 7 lakh hectares during TRS rule, exposing how farmers are moving away from agriculture sector.

BJP MLA G. Kishan Reddy said that the government has failed to disburse input subsidy to farmers so far even after the Centre released it last year.

All the parties demanded a one-time settlement of the crop loan waiver scheme.

However, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao ruled out one-time settlement citing financial constraints.

We said we will pay in four instalments and have already paid three. The last one would be paid next year. Impact of demonetisation will be known in January and we fear TS revenues will come down. Under these conditions, it isnt possible to pay Rs 4,250 crore (last instalment) in one go, Mr Rao said.

State to make highways cattle-safe

The TS government plans to set up separate traffic signals/ sign boards on highways for cattle to cross the roads.

This will prevent accidents on highways on account of cattle, home minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy told the Assembly on Wednesday.

Mr Reddy said proposals to set up an exclusive Department of Traffic and Road Safety and 50 highway traffic police stations, (one every 50 km on NH) is under active consideration of the state government.

MLAs cutting across party lines expressed serious concern over increasing road accidents in the state due to drunk driving, poorly-designed and ill-maintained highways and urged government to rectify the deficiencies on a war footing to save precious lives.

They pointed out that the private companies which laid highways were interested only in setting up toll gates and collecting toll charges without providing minimum safety facilities.

BJP floor leader G.Kishan Reddy demanded the government to immediately close wine shops and bars located along the highways as directed by the Supreme Court.

Referring to baby Ramya's death in city due to drunken driving, the minister said, We have booked criminal cases against the offenders. We have increased police checks to curb drunken driving which are also being done during day time now.

Imports meet 70% of citys veggie needs

As much as 70 per cent of Hyderabads vegetable needs are being met by imports from other states.

The TS government on Wednesday informed the Legislative Assembly that higher dependence on other states has been leading to huge fluctuations in prices.
Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday took a U-turn on the promised take-over of Nizams Sugar Factory  that was privatised in 2000 by the then Telugu Desam government and closed last year citing losses.

Mr Rao had earlier promised government takeover of the factory, saying it was having a historic significance for TS. He had said that instead of its present status as a private partner in a joint venture, it should be made to run on its own for the benefit of sugarcane farmers.

But, the Chief Minister on Wednesday made it clear in the Assembly that the government would not take over the factory. NSF is a closed chapter now. We will not take it over, he said.

Ready to pay to a JV, says KCR

Farmers are not willing to run the factory by forming a cooperative society along the lines of the cooperative societies in Maharashtra. The government too cannot run the factory as it is not financially viable, Mr Rao said.

When Opposition leader K. Jana Reddy pointed out to the CM that some farmers were ready to run it, the CM said, If thats true, I am ready to hand over the factory to them. I am ready to pay Rs 200 crore or whatever amount to a joint venture private partner to acquire their stakes. I am also ready to offer the chairman post of the cooperative society to you or your MLA T. Jeevan Reddy if you can run the factory. Run it, but it should not become a burden on the government. It should be run by farmers themselves. I shall also allot money for overhauling the factory machinery, so that it can begin operations immediately.

He stated that he had promised to take over the company in the hope that farmers would run it on their own. I had sent 400 farmers to Maharashtra to examine how cooperative societies are running sugar factories there. After returning here, they told me that they cannot run the factory that way, and then I have decided to shelve the project, Mr Rao explained.

While admitting that he had promised to take over the factory during the Telangana statehood agitation and also after TRS came to power, he said, The situation has changed during the last 15 years. Several sugarcane farmers have opted for other crops. There is not enough sugarcane production here. Otherwise we can make NSF financially viable even now.

Congress MLAs staged a walkout, protesting the failure of the government in implementing the crop loan waiver scheme completely even after crossing half its term in office.
Crowds gather outside the residence of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao, who had come under I-T scanner in Chennai on Wednesday. (Photo: DC)

CHENNAI: It was an innocuous phone call from Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao to his friend J. Sekhar Reddy on the day the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was laid to rest that gave a vital clue to I-T investigators.

The call was made by Chief Secretary Rama Mohana Rao to the mobile phone of Sekhar Reddy, the PWD sand contractor who was then also a TTD board member. Though the Chief Secretary was busy overseeing arrangements for the funeral of Jayalalithaa, the two were talking about safekeeping of the cash held by Sekhar Reddy, an income-tax officer told this newspaper on Wednesday.

The income-tax officials were monitoring Sekhar Reddys phone when they came across his conversation with the Chief Secretary. Afterwards it was easy to trace the links, the officer noted.

Later, the income tax officials traced Sekhar Reddy, who is known as Isuka (sand in Telugu) Sekhar in sand mining circles. The highly influential person in bureaucratic and political circles was then raided leading to a sizeable seizure of cash and gold. Sekhar Reddy was a trusted man of the Chief Secretary and his vehicle was given a special pass to enter Tamil Nadu secretariat.

Apart from chief secretary, many IAS officials and ministers were in regular touch with Sekhar Reddy, who generously distributed Tirupati prasadam to his well-wishers at Fort St George. Sekhar Reddy, 47, hails from Thondan Thualsi village near Katpadi in Vellore district.

Raos relative raided in Chittoor

As part of the investigation into the properties of Tamil Nadu chief secretary P. Rama Mohan Rao, two teams of income-tax officers raided the house of his sons father-in-law D.K. Badri Narayana at Lakshmi Nagar Colony in Chittoor on Wednesday.

Mr Badri Narayana is brother-in-law of late Audikesavulu Naidu, liquor baron, TTD member and former Chittoor MP. Mr Rama Mohana Rao belongs to Kalikivaya Bitragunta in Zarugumalli mandal in Prakasam district.

Villagers said some officials had taken information on his properties in the village three days ago. They said except an old house where his sister Seshamma stays, Mr Rama Mohan Raos family did not have any other property in the village.

His father Lakshmi Narayana was a RTC employee and his two brothers Vijay and Srinivasulu and mother Sivaravamma were in Tamil Nadu. Ms Sivaravamma was elected sarpanch of the village unanimously in 2007. Mr Rao donated funds for construction of classrooms in the ZP School at the village.
New Delhi/Hyderabad: The Left parties on Wednesday demanded a thorough probe into Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's allegations that Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups.

Targeting Modi, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the "personal-political corruption" charges against the Prime Minister while he delivers "sermons" on combating black money and corruption is his "trademark hypocrisy".

"Sahara Diaries and the allegations against Modi, when he was Gujarat CM, are very serious and must be investigated," he said.

"Whether Vyapam, Lalit Modi, GSPC or now Sahara Diaries, they reveal the sleazy, crony capitalism of BJP state govts. Thorough probe needed (sic)," he tweeted.

CPI too demanded high-level probe into Gandhi's allegation.

"It's a case which deserves high-level probe so that people get to know the truth," CPI national secretary D Raja said in Hyderabad where the party is at present holding its three-day national council meeting.

Earlier in the day, the Congress vice president alleged that Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and demanded an independent inquiry into it.

Addressing a rally in Mehsana in the Prime Minister's home state, he alleged that in the I-T records there are notings of Sahara officials' claims that they had paid nine times to Modi between October, 2013 and February, 2014.

Similarly, as per documents with Income Tax department, the Birla group also paid Rs 12 crore to Modi when he was Chief Minister, Gandhi added.
Prasad said people of the country do not take the Congress Vice President seriously. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: BJP on Wednesday strongly dismissed as "utterly baseless" and "shameful" Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's allegations that Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and said the Prime Minister is as "pure" as the Ganga.

Hitting back at Gandhi, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the allegations reflected the Congress leader's frustration and were an attempt to divert attention from the AgustaWestland probe in which the names of Congress leaders and the "family" were coming up.

"The allegations levelled against the Prime Minister are baseless, false, shameful and mala fide and they reflected Rahul Gandhi's frustration in leading his party to disastrous defeats in state after state," he told a press conference at the BJP headquarters.

Addressing a rally in Mehsana in Gujarat, Gandhi alleged that Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and demanded an independent inquiry.

Wondering why Gandhi did not raise voice against UPA government's massive scams, Prasad said people of the country do not take the Congress Vice President seriously.

"There is no expectation from Rahul Gandhi who has demonstrated himself as the biggest partner of corruption during the 10-year rule of the UPA... Why he did not utter a single word when crores of rupees were being looted during Congress rule," asked Prasad.

"Our Prime Minister is as pure as the river Ganga," he said, adding even the Supreme Court had observed that there was no basis in the allegations.

He was referring to the Supreme Court rejecting a plea for a probe by a special investigation team against Modi on allegations that two companies paid Rs 65 crore to him ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Party spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said Gandhi was immature and was just indulging in bluff and bluster because people are not taking him seriously.

"People of India have stopped taking him seriously. Rahul Gandhi is just bluff and bluster. There is no substance in what he says. He is just showing his and his party's incompetence," he said.
New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju has rubbished All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin's Owaisi remarks accusing the National Investigative Agency (NIA) of targeting Muslims.

"These are frivolous charges. The agencies do not know the religious background of any person involved in any crime. They are impartial. You can't attach religious identity in terms of any criminal investigation," Rijiju said.

Owaisi on Monday took to Twitter to lash out at the NIA for targeting a single community. His reaction came a day after the verdict in the Dilsukhnagar bomb blast case was announced.

He raised the question of a delay in the investigation of cases such as the Mecca Masjid blast, Ahmer Dargah blast, Malegaon blasts etc.

"Why can't our premier investigation agencies show same urgency to convict all alleged terrorist cases Demolition Babri Masjid pending since 92 (sic)," he tweeted.

Accusing the NIA of being partial and showing an inclination towards a conviction of a particular religious group, Owaisi tweeted, "Do not be surprised the way NIA is pursuing those Bomb Blast cases where accused are Non Muslims they will be exonerated bcos of Ache Din (sic)?"

A special NIA court on Monday awarded death penalty to five operative of the terrorist group Indian Mujahideen (IM) in the 2013 Dilsukhnagar twin blasts case.

The IM members almost simultaneously detonated two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) near the Dilsukhnagar bus stop on February 21, 2013, killing 21 and injuring 107.
Chennai: Rebutting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's criticism of the IT raids on Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Ramamamohana Rao, BJP on Wednesday, said the raids prove the agency was working without any discrimination and had carried out a "usual procedure."

BJP state President Tamilisai Soundararajan said that I-T authorities had been conducting searches in the state of late, with lot of seizures being made from a private contractor, Shekhar Reddy.

"And today, searches are being conducted at the Chief Secretary's residence. This is a usual procedure undertaken by the Income Tax department. How is it acceptable if people like Mamata Banerjee call it vindictive action?" she questioned.

Saying that the taxmen raid a place on suspicion or on information of movement of money, the BJP TN president added that the officials will say so if nothing has been found.

"The raids are done to see if any (illegal) cash is present. If there is nothing (incriminating available), they will say it. Therefore, I completely deny that this is vindictive action," she said.

Soundararajan further said that the searches on Wednesday were also proof that the I-T department was "working without any discrimination". She also pointed out that cash, gold and documents had been seized in earlier I-T searches in the state.

Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement, she said 'honest people need not fear' as the tax evasion and black money probe was targeted against those indulging in irregularities.

Earlier, Mamata Banerjee had criticised the I-T raid at the residence of Rao, terming it an "vindictive and unethical" act by the central agencies that devalued the institution of head of the civil service.

"Why this vindictive, unethical, technically improper action? Is it only to disturb the federal structure? Why do not they raid Amit Shah and others..." she said in a statement.

Responding to Banerjee's charge as to why BJP leaders were not being raided, Soundararajan said that the tax sleuths do not just go about conducting searches but gather all relevant information before doing so.
New Delhi: Unfazed by BJP's counterattack on Rahul Gandhi after he levelled corruption charges against the Prime Minister, Congress demanded Narendra Modi face an independent inquiry as the allegations of personal corruption against him have led to "serious question of credibility".

"We all have great respect for the Prime Minister. (But) there is serious question of credibility...Credibility of the Prime Minister is at stake...honesty and integrity (at stake)."

"Let him not hide behind cronies and ministers. The Prime Minister should come forward and say whether the charge is true or false. If false, why not subject himself to an independent inquiry," party's chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala told reporters.

Noting that Sita also had to face a test, he recalled Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi too had faced a test when she had resigned as a member of the Lok Sabha in the wake of BJP's charges on the office of profit issue.

He reminded the Prime Minister that even BJP veteran L K Advani had resigned from the Lok Sabha when his name had figured in a hawala diary.

Taking a dig at BJP leaders and Union Ministers who have targeted Rahul, Surjewala said, "Anger is the refuge of the weak. Truth walks alone". He said BJP leaders should realise the charge against the Prime Minister are not based on hearsay nor are part of political mudslinging.

"Should there not be an investigation to find out the truth? If such evidence had surfaced against any other Indian, would there not have been a CBI investigation?" he asked.

The Congress leader was evasive when asked as which type of probe the party was seeking when it is demanding an "independent inquiry". He said only recently a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe was demanded by the Opposition in Parliament on the demonetisation issue.

Replying to a question, he said the Modi government should proceed against Opposition leaders including those of the Congress if the case against the Prime Minister also brings out irregularities committed by them.
The main news bulletin in the worlds largest country began on an extraordinary note 25 years ago today. Good evening, the anchor said. This is the news. The USSR is no more.

The shock was palpable, both within the Soviet Union and right around the world. Sure, vastly consequential change had been afoot ever since the abortive coup attempt in August, when elements within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) had attempted to stall Mikhail Gorbachevs reforms by placing their architect under house arrest and declaring an emergency.

By and large though, Soviet troops refused to shoot at fellow citizens who flooded the streets of Moscow and other cities to resist the reversal. Within days, Gorbachev returned to the Kremlin, if not quite to power. Thanks to the coup-makers, Boris Yeltsin had the upper hand.

The President of Russia, buoyed by the accolades that had come his way from the West for standing up to communist orthodoxy, began to throw his weight about with increased fervour. Gorbachev had been sidelined on the eve of concluding a union treaty intended to preserve the union on a new footing, whereby the constituent republics would be able to exercise the autonomy that had hitherto been restricted to paper.

The first executive President of the Soviet Union expected he would be able to resume his pursuit of the agreement. But Yeltsin had other ideas. On a hunting trip to Belarus in early December 1991 with the republics Supreme Soviet chairman Stanislav Shushkevich and Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk, he persuaded them to sign an agreement that effectively dissolved the Soviet Union. He got Shushkevich to transmit the news to Gorbachev after Yeltsin had broken it to US President George H.W. Bush.

In a recent interview, Shushkevich recalls that Gorbachev slammed down the phone on him after realising Bush had already been informed. He also insists that he and his co-conspirators had indeed retired to a banya  a Russian steam bath  they were not drunk. Yeltsins weakness for vodka was well known, though. It would not be surprising to discover that the national drink played a key role in undermining the USSR.

Gorbachev had been aware of its capacity to do mischief, and had made it harder to obtain. He was subsequently amused by the joke in which a citizen, fed up with waiting in a line for vodka, declares that he intends to shoot Gorbachev instead. A couple of hours later he returns to the queue, which has barely moved in the interim. What happened? his fellow would-be imbibers want to know. Did you succeed? He responds in the negative. The queue over there is even longer, he complains.

Not long after he had assumed effective power as the general secretary of the CPSU, Gorbachevs perestroika and glasnost reforms, won him accolades.

Even virulently anti-communist ideologues like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher saw plenty of virtue in Gorbachev, not least in his decision to liberate Eastern Europe from USSRs shackles.

Gorbachev, who resigned his post on Christmas Day 25 years ago, still sees the dissolution of the Soviet Union as a treacherous act, as he makes clear in a recent interview with the BBCs Steven Rosenberg, as well as in the New Russia, in which he laments the failure to follow through with perestroika.

Its not hard to empathise with his despair at the squandering of a democratic impulse. Its always much easier, though, to demolish absurd structures than to constructively replace them.

Gorbachevs relatively noble failures, however, hardly compare with those of Yeltsin, who presided over a monetarist-inspired shock therapy that effectively obliterated the USSRs redeeming features.

Yeltsins 1996 re-election owed a great deal more to US interference than this years American election does to Russian influence. His second term was no better than his first, and it paved the way for the former KGB to re-establish control in the Kremlin via Vladimir Putin, whose nostalgia for the Soviet Union is restricted to the most reprehensible aspects of the erstwhile entity.

He is not alone. All too many of the former Soviet republics fall into a similar category, whereas right-wing nationalism, often with a nod to Vladimir Putin, is the ideology du jour across much of Eastern Europe.

Whichever way you look at it, the (thankfully largely peaceful) failure of the Soviet experiment still looms tragically large a quarter century on, amid an unresolved crisis of capitalism, on both a global and a domestic scale. The year ahead, meanwhile, will offer plenty of opportunities to mull over the consequences of 1917.

By arrangement with Dawn
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The year is ending on a note of disquiet for our border areas. While Kashmir has been in focus for quite some time, Manipur is now showing signs of becoming administratively fragile  a situation that calls for cool heads as an alternative to the use of heavy security deployment. The situation in this northeastern state has been tense since Sunday, and the Centre had to rush 4,000 paramilitary personnel to quell violence if eventualities arise warranting the use of force.

In response to the state governments move to rearrange some districts in the state, the Naga population has been made anxious. The states apex Naga body, United Naga Council, enforced an economic blockade of two key national highways to protest against the November 1 order on the formation of new districts. This was reinforced with the Naga Students Federation also supporting the protest.

Manipur is a landlocked state and would reel in despair if highways are blocked. After the Naga protest began, the situation turned volatile when those in the state opposing the blockade torched over 30 vehicles headed to the hill areas, where Manipurs minorities, mostly Nagas and Kukis, reside. There evidently was poor handling of the situation by the Congress government of Ibobi Singh. Since making and remaking of administrative units can be a sensitive matter, especially when minority sentiments are involved, the government should have factored this in and consulted Naga social and political bodies to allay apprehensions. To end the Naga-enforced blockade, the state government was free to use the security apparatus, but this could have gone hand in hand with efforts to dissuade the protesters through dialogue.

Nagaland CM T.R. Zeliang has shot off letters to the Centre and the Manipur government to secure the lives and property of the Naga people. It would have been better if he had first spoken to his Manipur counterpart to ascertain the situation and the intent behind the formation of new districts. As matters stand, he just appears to be pandering to local sentiments.

India is a fascinating mosaic of castes and tribes at various stages of development. Tensions and conflicts are certain to arise. It is up to politicians and social leaders to show wisdom and counsel restraint. The Central government too should tread warily and do nothing that might appear that it is trying to take political advantage since Manipur has a Congress government. It should offer fair counsel to both sides.
Around 462 samples from Indian populations were genotyped from different regions all over the country.

Hyderabad: In a significant breakthrough in criminal forensics, scientists of the Centre for DNA Finger-printing and Diagnostics (CDFD) have developed a set of 70 genetic markers that can easily help in obtaining the DNA profile of Indian Population.

The new genetic markers would help forensic experts involved in crime investigations and identification of disaster victims to successfully obtain DNA profiles from challenging forensic samples like those of exhumed bodies, aircrash bodies and highly degraded bodies in disasters.

CDFD DNA fingerprinting Lab scientist-in-charge Dr N. Madhusudhan Reddy and his associate Anujit Sarkar have published their findings in Elsevier, an international forensic science journal with the title Development of a SNP-based panel for human identification for Indian populations.

Said Dr Reddy: In case of tough samples such as exhumed bones and burnt bodies where the DNA is often heavily degraded, the current method using Short Tandem Repeat (STR-based markers) fails. SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) constituted the common form of human genetic variation. Its a single base change in the DNA sequence leading to the occurrence of an alternative nucleotide at a given position.

Earlier studies did not involve Indians

Several studies have been conducted in the populations worldwide leading to the proposal of SNP-based panels for Human Identification. However none of them involved Indian Population and their applicability was largely unknown.

Now, we have designed this SNP-based panel for Indian population, which is a billion-fold increase over the previous panel developed by European union funded consortium, said CDFD DNA fingerprinting Lab scientist-in-charge Dr Madhusudhan Reddy.

The forensic parameters obtained for the panel developed Dr Reddy at CDFD were much higher than the currently employed STR-based one and most of the SNP based panels proposed by other researchers worldwide.

The advantage is, this can be applied to other populations with similar match probabilities. It would be very useful if these genetic markers are typed using the next generation sequencing technologies for high throughput scenarios, he said.

Around 462 samples from Indian populations were genotyped from different regions all over the country.

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Chen said software sales should grow at least 15 percent in the fiscal year beginning in March, after sticking to a 30 percent growth target for the current fiscal year.

BlackBerry, helped by its higher-margin software business, reported better-than-expected adjusted earnings and raised its full-year growth forecast on Tuesday, though concerns about overall revenue growth reversed early share gains.

BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen said at a midday event with reporters that he expected it would take another four or five quarters to halt the steady decline in the company's overall revenue. BlackBerry shares, which gained as much as 4.4 per cent on the earnings report, retreated after the comments and ended the session down 3 per cent.

"I don't consider ourselves in a turnaround anymore," Chen told reporters at the company's Waterloo, Ontario headquarters. "Now we need to execute for growth."

BlackBerry has gone through a wrenching transition in recent years as it tries to build a software business not tied directly to its smartphones, which have lost ground in the iPhone and Android era and are now being made and sold by others. While still a year from overall revenue growth, investors cheered Blackberry's improved outlook and the growing role of the software business - which includes mobile device management products, the QNX industrial operating system, and a range of recent acquisitions.

"The part of the business that represents the future continues to show, I think, reasonably good progress," said IDC analyst John Jackson.

Chen said software sales should grow at least 15 per cent in the fiscal year beginning in March, after sticking to a 30 per cent growth target for the current fiscal year. He declined to say how many devices BlackBerry and its partners sold in the third quarter, but said he hoped to close an outsourcing deal in India and nearby countries in the current period, following two similar deals.

BlackBerry said much of its software and services revenue was recurring in nature, requiring less spending and helping the company earn a record gross margin.

"That means as more revenue comes in, a higher percentage drops straight to the bottom line," said Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi.

Software and services revenue rose to $160 million from $155 million a year earlier, while hardware sales dropped to $62 million from $220 million. Chen said BlackBerry's new Radar fleet tracking service won a second customer, Titanium Transportation Group Inc. BlackBerry is also investing C$100 million ($75 million) in a new autonomous vehicle testing hub in Ottawa it hopes will bring in revenue in 2018, and building up a cyber security consulting practice.

Excluding special items, quarterly earnings of 2 cents a share beat analysts' expectations of a 1-cent loss, according to Thomson Reuters. On that basis, BlackBerry forecast a profit for the year ending in February, up from a prior outlook of breakeven to a 5-cent loss.

Revenue fell to $289 million from $548 million, missing the average of analyst estimates, while net losses widened to $117 million from $89 million. That included a writedown related to the sale of two data centers.

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The upcoming year will include an increased breadth and depth of attacks, with malicious threat actors differentiating their tactics to capitalise on the changing technology landscape.

The number of new ransomware families is predicted to plateau, only growing 25 per cent, but will branch out into IoT devices and non-desktop computing terminals, like PoS systems or ATMs. Vendors will not secure IoT and IIoT devices in time to prevent denial of service and other attacks. The upcoming year will include an increased breadth and depth of attacks, with malicious threat actors differentiating their tactics to capitalise on the changing technology landscape. Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, released its annual security predictions report, The Next Tier  8 Security Predictions for 2017.

Next year will take the cybersecurity industry into new territory after 2016s threat landscape opened doors for cybercriminals to explore a wider range of attacks and attack surfaces, said Raimund Genes, chief technology officer for Trend Micro. We foresee the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) causing extensive data management changes for companies around the world, new attack methods threatening corporations, expanding ransomware tactics impacting more devices and cyber-propaganda swaying public opinion.

In 2016, there was a large increase in Apple vulnerabilities, with 50 disclosed, along with 135 Adobe bugs and 76 affecting Microsoft. This apparent shift in exploits against vulnerable software will continue in 2017 as Microsofts mitigations continue to improve and Apple is seen as a more prominent operating system.

The Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will play a larger role in targeted attacks in 2017. These attacks will capitalise upon the growing acceptance of connected devices by exploiting vulnerabilities and unsecured systems to disrupt business processes, as we saw with Mirai. The increasing use of mobile devices to monitor control systems in manufacturing and industrial environments will be combined with the significant number of vulnerabilities found in these systems to pose threats to organisations.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) and Business Process Compromise (BPC) will continue to grow as a cost-effective and relatively simple form of corporate extortion. A BEC attack might yield $140,000 by luring an innocent employee to transfer money to a criminals account. Alternatively, hacking directly into a financial transaction system, while requiring more work, will result in far greater financial windfalls for criminals  as much as $81 million.

We continue to see cybercriminals evolving to the changing technology landscape, said Ed Cabrera, chief cybersecurity officer for Trend Micro. While new ransomware saw an exponential increase in 2016, that growth is no longer sustainable, so attackers will find new ways to use existing malware families. Similarly, changes in IoT open new doors to go after additional attack surfaces, and software changes push criminals toward finding different types of flaws.

Highlights from the 2017 predications report include:

 The number of new ransomware families is predicted to plateau, only growing 25 per cent, but will branch out into IoT devices and non-desktop computing terminals, like PoS systems or ATMs.

 Vendors will not secure IoT and IIoT devices in time to prevent denial of service and other attacks.

 New vulnerabilities will continue to be discovered in Apple and Adobe, which will then be added to exploit kits.

 With 46 per cent of the worlds population now connected to the internet, the rise in cyber-propaganda will continue as new world leaders are appointed, potentially influencing public opinion with inaccurate information.

 As seen in the Bangladesh Bank attack early in 2016, BPC attacks can allow cybercriminals to alter business processes and gain significant profits, and BEC attacks will continue to be useful to extort businesses via unsuspecting employees.

 GDPR will force policy and administrative changes that will greatly impact costs and require organisations to conduct complete reviews of data processes to ensure compliance.

 New targeted attack methods will focus on evading modern detection techniques to allow threat actors to target different organisations.

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The mother left her toddler alone at her flat to go partying. (Photo: AFP/Representational)

Johannesburg: A South African woman has been arrested for child negligence after her three-month-old baby girl was eaten alive by giant rats when she left the baby alone at home in Johannesburg.

According to a report in Daily Mail, the 26-year-old mother left her toddler alone at her flat to go partying and discovered the horrific scene when she returned the next day.

The girls twin brother, named Lucky, was with his 28-year-old father on the same day, sparing him of a similar death. He is now in the care of his father and his girlfriend.

His girlfriend said, The mother always comes here drunk and locks the infants inside alone. When Lucky came to us he looked like he had not eaten for days but he is fine now.

The woman's landlady, Mama Sesi Mtshali, said, We have lots of rats in the area. She leaves the children alone all night long and they cry themselves to sleep. She would not say she left the baby alone.

Captain Mega Ndobe, from Katlehong police said, 'I can confirm the little girl died after being eaten by rats. The mother has been arrested and is facing charges of child negligence and the case will be heard in court next year
Washington: Donald Trump's bombastic run for president and his electoral triumph headlined much of 2016 that was also a "great year" for Indo-US ties as the two countries overcame "hesitations of history" to closely collaborate on key issues like defence, counter-terrorism and civil nuclear energy.

In a result that stunned the world, rank political outsider Trump was elected president crushing his strongly-favoured Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the November 8 poll.

Riding a wave of anti-establishment resentment in a closely-contested race to become the 45th US President, the 70-year-old billionaire businessman, who took to politics only 18 months ago, won with a comfortable margin.

He first beat 16 other Republican presidential hopefuls to clinch the nomination and then trumped Clinton.

Much of the year was headlined by controversies created by his bombastic style during one of the ugliest campaigns in US political history that also saw Trump making alleged anti-Muslim assertions and sexist remarks.

In the election season, allegations flew thick and fast from Trump being accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women to Clinton's email saga.

However, it was the email scandal that finally proved to be her nemesis as just days before the election when she was leading in most polls, the FBI announced reopening of its probe into the saga which swung the pendulum in Trump's favour.

Though the FBI gave her a last-minute clean chit ahead of the polls, experts said it might have been too late by then.

Apart from the election, another issue that dominated the discourse were lone-wolf attacks and mass shootings, including the horrific Orlando gay nightclub shooting incident in which Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11.

Post-election, there was a massive spike in hate crimes and assaults on hijab-clad women which many blamed on Trump's campaign rhetoric.

On the bilateral front, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one among the top few world leaders with whom Trump spoke over the phone after his victory.

By any standards it could be described as a "great year" for the Indo-US relationship.

It was a year in which Modi made a historic address to a joint session of the US Congress and met President Barack Obama as many as three times, twice in Washington DC.

The year gone by also saw the signing of the long-overdue logistics exchange agreement, US designating India as a major defence partner and playing an instrumental role in India becoming a member of the prestigious Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

If it would not have been for Chinese resistance, the icing on the cake could have been India's membership to the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group.

The US tried its best but was unable to cross the 'Great Wall of China'.

The future of ties also look bright with Trump assuming power next month.

Trump himself has publicly said he is a fan of Modi and has praised the Prime Minister for taking steps for reviving the Indian economy and cutting bureaucratic red tape.

Given the fact that Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, who made a quiet trip to Washington in November, was given rare access to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, it could be a strong indication that the India-US relationship under a Trump administration would continue to see an upward trajectory.

The bonhomie in ties that kicked off during the Clinton administration, got a big boost under the Bush administration with the civil nuclear deal and was propelled to a new level under the Obama administration.

"2016 was a great year for US-India ties," said Alyssa Ayres, a former state department official in the Obama administration.

The White House used Modi's words from his address to the Congress that India and US have "overcome the hesitations of history" to describe the relationship between the two countries in 2016.

"As Prime Minister Modi noted in his June 2016 address to Congress, India and the United States have 'overcome the hesitations of history' and 'turned barriers into bridges of partnership'," Emily Horne, a spokesperson of the National Security Council, said.

"During the last year, we expanded our cooperation in areas such as defence, civil nuclear energy, and enhanced ties between our citizens that delivered tangible benefits to both nations," she said when asked about the India-US relationship in 2016.

"In June, the United States recognised India as a Major Defense Partner. Secretary Ashton Carter's visit this month underscored the United States' commitment to elevating our defence cooperation even in the midst of our transition. The United States and India conducted six major military exercises in just the past year, while defence trade has now grown to $15 billion," Horne said.

Also in 2016, Nuclear Power Corporation of India and Westinghouse began preparatory site work to build six nuclear reactors in India - the largest nuclear reactor deal in US history - that will provide electricity for 60 million Indian citizens, she noted.

Not only this, two-way travel for tourism, business, and education witnessed unprecedented growth, including more than one million travellers from India to the US, and 1.2 million from the US to India, she said.

"A record 166,000 Indian students are studying in the US, an increase of 25% from 2015," Horne said.

Ayres said the culmination of the long-overdue logistics exchange agreement drew both countries further together on defence cooperation.

"PM Modi's address to the joint meeting of the US Congress signaled the special respect Americans accord to India," she said.
Obama said in a statement that the joint actions "reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region's harsh conditions is limited."

Washington: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday banned new oil and gas drilling in federal waters in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, in a push to leave his stamp on the environment before Republican Donald Trump takes office next month.

Obama used a 1950s-era law called the Outer Continental Shelf Act that allows presidents to limit areas from mineral leasing and drilling. Environmental groups said that meant Trump's incoming administration would have to go court if it sought to reverse the move.

The ban affects 115 million acres (46.5 million hectares) of federal waters off Alaska in the Chukchi Sea and most of the Beaufort Sea and 3.8 million acres (1.5 million hectares) in the Atlantic from New England to Chesapeake Bay.

Trump, who succeeds Obama on January 20, has said he would expand offshore oil and gas drilling. A recent memo from his energy transition team said his policy could increase production in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, as well as the mid- and south Atlantic.

A Trump representative did not immediately comment on the announcement.

Even if Trump tries to fight the move, few energy companies have expressed a desire to drill anytime soon off the coasts thanks to abundant cheap shale oil in North Dakota and Texas.

Exploratory drilling in the Arctic is expensive and risky. Shell Oil ended its quest to explore in harsh Arctic waters in 2015, after a vessel it was using suffered a gash and environmentalists uncovered a law that limited its drilling.

The American Petroleum Institute oil industry group disagreed about the permanence of the ban and said Trump could likely use a presidential memorandum to lift it.

"We are hopeful the incoming administration will reverse this decision as the nation continues to need a robust strategy for developing offshore and onshore energy," said Erik Milito, API's upstream director.

Joint Action With Canada

The White House and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau jointly announced their move to launch "actions ensuring a strong, sustainable and viable Arctic economy and ecosystem."

Obama said in a statement that the joint actions "reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region's harsh conditions is limited."

Canada will designate all Arctic Canadian waters as indefinitely off limits to future offshore Arctic oil and gas licensing, to be reviewed every five years through a climate and marine science-based life-cycle assessment.

The law under which Obama is acting enables a president to withdraw certain areas from leasing or drilling "for any public purpose," such as to limit the impacts of climate change, according to a legal briefing by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earth Justice.

Under that law, a president is not authorized to "undo" a previous withdrawal, making it more difficult for Trump to target without a lawsuit.

"No president has ever tried to undo a permanent withdrawal of an ocean area from leasing eligibility," said Niel Lawrence, Alaska director and attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The provision has been used by six presidents from both parties over the past 65 years, including to withdraw as much as several hundred million acres at a time, he said.

'Smart Business Decision'

In 2015, just 0.1 percent of US federal offshore crude production came from the Arctic. At current oil prices, significant production in the Arctic will not occur, according to a Department of Interior analysis.

There is currently no crude oil production in the Canadian Arctic. A number of companies including Chevron Corp , ConocoPhillips  and Imperial Oil hold exploration licenses, but all three have put their drilling plans on hold, partly because of weak global oil prices.

On the US Atlantic coast, local groups have opposed offshore drilling and would fight the Trump administration's attempts to open it up.

"The people of the Atlantic coast have refused to allow their way of life to be compromised," said Jacqueline Savitz, senior vice president of Florida-based ocean conservancy group Oceana.

She said the Obama administration move to protect the Atlantic coast was a "smart business decision" since it would protect the lucrative tourism and fishing industries of East Coast communities.
Palm Beach: President-elect Donald Trump is planning to meet with his incoming national security adviser in the aftermath of a rattling day of violence around the world.

Trump appeared to jump ahead of investigators in blaming Islamic terrorists for deadly incidents Monday in Turkey and Germany and vowing anew to eradicate their regional and global networks. He called the brazen shooting of Russia's ambassador to Turkey "a violation of all rules of civilized order." He added that a "radical Islamic terrorist" had assassinated the diplomat, Andrei Karlov.

Turkish authorities identified the gunman as Mevlut Mert Altintas, a member of Ankara's riot police squad, and said he was later killed in a shootout with police. Altintas shouted in Turkish about the Syrian city of Aleppo and also yelled "Allahu akbar," Arabic for "God is great."

As for Berlin, where at least 12 people were killed and nearly 50 hurt when a truck plowed through a Christmas market, Trump said the Islamic State group "and other Islamist terrorists continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad." A man held by German authorities after the violence was later released after a lack of evidence to connect him to the incident.

Trump's meeting scheduled Wednesday with retired Lt General Michael Flynn will come a day after Flynn and several other members of the incoming national security team met with Vice President-elect Mike Pence in Washington. Aides said the meeting was planned before the acts of violence, though they were discussed.

The gathering with Pence included retired General John Kelly, Trump's nominee for head of the Department of Homeland Security; retired General James Mattis, the pick for Defense Secretary; and Rex Tillerson, the head of Exxon Mobil and the intended nominee for Secretary of State.

While Trump has assembled his Cabinet at a quick pace, the process to fill out top White House jobs has been slowed by infighting among advisers. Some of Trump's earliest advisers have expressed concern to the President-elect himself that they are getting boxed out in favor of those more closely aligned with incoming Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, who has chaired the Republican National Committee.

Among those whose future is still in flux is Corey Lewandowski, Trump's controversial first campaign manager who was fired after clashing with the President-elect's family. On Monday, Lewandowski met with Jared Kushner, Trump's influential son-in-law, and could still be offered a job in the administration, though potentially one that would keep him out of the West Wing - and away from the President.

The President-elect's transition team has said it expects to announce some White House positions in the coming days.

Trump met Tuesday with candidates for his unfilled Cabinet positions, including prospective hires to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, a beleaguered agency that the Republican businessman has vowed to overhaul.

At Mar-a-Lago, Trump's palatial Florida estate, the President-elect met with Luis Quinonez, who runs a company with military and health care ties and is said to be under consideration for VA secretary. He also interviewed Toby Cosgrove, the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, who was a top contender to replace Eric Shinseki when he resigned from the VA in 2014. Cosgrove later withdrew from consideration.

Trump repeatedly pledged during the campaign to fix the woes at the department and said he would "take care of great veterans." But he also came under scrutiny for being slow in paying out money raised for veterans groups and for suggesting that "strong" veterans don't need treatment for mental health problems.

Others said to be considered for the post include former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, Florida Representative Jeff Miller and Pete Hegseth, an Army veteran and former CEO of Concerned Veterans for America.

Trump is also considering Jovita Carranza, who worked in President George W. Bush's administration, as his choice for US trade representative. She served as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration under Bush.

With just a handful of Cabinet posts to fill, Trump is facing some criticism for a lack of diversity in his senior team, which currently includes no Hispanics. The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials said Tuesday that it was "deeply concerned" at the lack of Hispanics considered for top jobs. Carranza was a member of Trump's Hispanic advisory council during the campaign.

Pence, meanwhile, met in Washington with former Texas state official Susan Combs, who served both as state agriculture commissioner and comptroller. Trump also needs to fill the Agriculture Department slot. Transition officials did not immediately confirm if Combs is up for that post.
Boston: Searches for selfies led to many bad decisions, an outbreak of creepy clown sightings chilled even horror maestro Stephen King, and a hard-fought campaign ended with the election of former reality TV star Donald Trump as president of the United States.

Along with moments of triumph and tragedy, 2016 brought stories that ranged from weird to wonderful, funny to flummoxing.

New York's Museum of Modern Art rolled out an exhibit of emojis this month. In September, the Satanic Temple, which says it promotes separation of church and state rather than devil worship, found a new home in Salem, Massachusetts, best known for the 17th-century witch trials.

A man visiting New York in October sparked an evacuation of the city's Metropolitan Opera when he sprinkled the cremated remains of his mentor, an opera aficionado, into the orchestra pit.

Selfie Snafus

One common theme among the strangest stories was that access to a camera and a desire for attention was a recipe for bad ideas.

A Texas teen in October crashed her vehicle into the back of a police car while trying to take a topless photo of herself.

"I asked her why she was not dressed while driving," the arresting officer wrote in an affidavit. "She stated she was taking a Snapchat photo to send to her boyfriend."

In April, a California man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for setting one of the state's worst wildfires after filming himself surrounded by the flames.

Courts ruled that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right of voters in states including New Hampshire and Michigan to take selfies with their filled-in ballots.

The debut of Nintendo's Pokemon GO mobile-phone game, which sends players hunting for imaginary monsters on public streets, brought a wave of complaints, notably in July when a pair of obsessed teens accidentally but illegally crossed the border from Canada into Montana.

No clowning around

A spate of summertime sightings of creepy clowns lurking near playgrounds, standing alone in the rain or allegedly living in previously abandoned cabins in woods around Greenville, South Carolina, led to a series of strange stories.

The alleged sightings spread north and caused panicked passersby to chase some pranksters. By Halloween, school principals were warning students not to show up in clown costumes.

The stories unnerved even author Stephen King, whose dozens of spine-chilling novels include "It," the tale of a supernatural being that appears as a clown.

"If I saw a clown lurking under a lonely bridge (or peering up at me from a sewer grate, with or without balloons), Id be scared, too," King told his local newspaper, the Bangor Daily News, in September.

Trumps Triumph

The year 2016 also brought a race for the White House like none Americans had seen before, with the first female major-party candidate, Democrat Hillary Clinton up against Republican Trump.

The real estate magnate's penchant for tweeting his opinions, as well as sometimes unsubstantiated allegations about rivals, colored the contest.

As early as May, Trump was making headlines when he posted a photo of himself eating a taco salad in honor of the Cinco de Mayo holiday - after he had threatened to deport millions of Hispanic illegal immigrants.

"Happy #CincoDeMayo!" tweeted Trump (@realDonaldTrump). "The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!"

The President-elect showed a bit of humor early this month when he wore a business suit to a major donor's "Villains and Heroes" costume party.

Asked by reporters what he was dressed as, he mouthed the word "me."
Washington: A Tamil diaspora groupin the US has appealed to President Barack Obama to de-proscribe the LTTE as a terror outfit in the country, saying this could give a "little relief" to the community which faces problems while travelling abroad.

The group 'Tamils for Obama' claimed that the LTTE has been defunct with no activities since 2009.

In a statement, the group have said that many Tamils are "suffering" because of the listing of the LTTE as a terror group in the US.

"Because of the listing of Tamil Tigers, it creates pain for many US Tamils when they travel to abroad and when they return to the US," the statement said.

"They have to go through many hours of interrogation. Some US Tamils have asked us to convince Obama to help us by removing Tamil Tigers from the list. Obama can give Tamils a little relief by de-listing the Tamil Tiger during this Christmas and giving season. There is no reason to keep them on the list," it said.

The group said it was a "mistake" by the George Bush's administration to support the Sri Lankan "genocidal war against the innocent Tamils".

The Tamil groups also hope that the European Union would also de-list the LTTE.

The US banned the LTTE in 1997 followed by India, UK and the EU.

The UN has estimated that 40,000 people died, many of them civilians, during the three-decade-long civil war that ended in 2009. It was under President Mahinda Rajapaksa's tenure that the Sri Lankan forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the separatist group that waged armed insurgency against the government.
Santa Claus was able to get away from the North Pole Sunday evening and made a special visit to the Bonne Terre Fire Department. Not only did he stop there, the fire department was gracious enough to drive Santa around in the fire truck down several streets for the kids who couldnt make it to the fire house.

Bonne Terre Fire Chief Matt Barton said the evening went pretty well, but he thought with the cold weather, no one really wanted to come out.

For the most part though, we did pretty well, said Barton. The weather was uncooperative, it was really cold and I think everyone was kind of worried since the days before had been slippery. The ones who did come out were pretty satisfied and the kids where really excited to see Santa.

Barton added approximately 50 to 65 kids came through to visit with Santa and they were able to enjoy some hot chocolate and cookies while there.

It was a good time and we drove Santa around for about an hour and 20 minutes, said Barton. When we got back to the station it was just bitterly cold, so we didnt expect a huge turnout. We drove up and down 13 to 15 streets total. It was a good response and our Facebook page saw a lot of attention.

Santa also made a special visit to Parkland (Health Center-North) in Bonne Terre, said Barton. We do that every year and it went well. There were probably four to five kids in there who got to see him and anytime somebody is in a situation like that its exciting to see Santa Claus just pop in.

Barton stressed everyone needs to pay attention to their Facebook page because in coming months they will be teaming up with the Bonne Terre VFW. He said they have a lot of stuff planned for this upcoming year.

Anybody who braved the cold weather and came out anyway, we did appreciate it, said Barton. Again, we couldnt do it without the support of the community and we have a good support system. That really means a lot to us and it makes us able to do stuff like this, so if you make one kid happy it makes it well worth it.
Charleston: A former College of Charleston student is suing the school and a fraternity, saying she was drugged and raped at a party when she was a 17-year-old freshman.

The woman went to a party in August hosted by Alpha Epsilon Pi's Chi Omicron chapter when two of the fraternity's brothers forced her into a bedroom, according to the lawsuit.

The men locked the door, took off her clothes and forced her to take illegal drugs. The lawsuit says one man made her perform a sex act while the other was video recording, according to the lawsuit obtained by The Post and Courier of Charleston.

The men became annoyed when the student kept resisting and left her alone on the floor, naked and crying, according to the lawsuit, which said she had to be hospitalized and receive other treatment for her injuries.

Attorney Nathan Hughey said the teen decided to sue because the fraternity and the college created an environment where this kind of assault could happen. He said she was so traumatized she dropped out of school and went back to her home in another state.

"Her dreams of what her life was going to be at this point have been ruined," Hughey said. "This is something that's probably going to carry on with her for the rest of her life."

The two men  Timothy Seppi and James West III  were arrested. Seppi is charged with first-degree and third-degree exploitation of a minor, while West is charged with engaging a child for sexual performance. Charleston police said more charges may be filed as investigators await the results of other tests. It wasn't known if the men had lawyers.

Three days after the teen said she was attacked, Alpha Epsilon Pi national leaders revoked the chapter's charter and College of Charleston President Glenn McConnell announced a ban on alcohol at all Greek social functions. He said there were a number of problems including alcohol poisoning and disruptive parties.

Several other fraternities and sororities have been closed or disciplined since then.

The college and the fraternity said they don't comment on pending lawsuits. But national Alpha Epsilon Pi attorney Jim B Ewbank did issue a statement.

"Alpha Epsilon Pi has a very clear and strong policy against sexual assault, and provides education to its local chapters on this policy," Ewbank said. "No similar allegations had been previously made about the two individuals charged with the assault, making this very disturbing incident completely unforeseeable."
Manila: The Philippines said Wednesday that President Rodrigo Duterte's killing of three people in the 1980s was part of a police operation, after the United Nations rights chief urged Manila to investigate him for murder.

In several speeches last week, Duterte recounted how in 1988, early in the first of his several terms as mayor of the southern city of Davao, he and local police ambushed and killed three suspected kidnappers.

UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement Tuesday that Duterte's killings, by his own admission, "clearly constitute murder" and Philippine judicial authorities must launch a murder investigation.

Duterte spokesman Ernesto Abella said Wednesday Zeid's comments were nothing more than "his (Zeid's) opinion".

"Again, let me just remind one and all, that the incident referred to by the president was actually covered by media and it was (a) legitimate police action," Abella added.

He did not address Duterte's possession and discharge of a firearm while not a policeman.

Duterte has said he routinely carried a gun during his early years as mayor of Davao to protect himself in a high-crime environment. He has not said if the weapon used in the ambush was licensed.

He won the presidential election by a landslide in May largely on a vow to kill 100,000 criminals to stop the country's slide into a "narco-state".

According to the UN, nearly 6,100 people have been killed since Duterte took office in late June.

Philippine police put the figure at about 5,300 violent deaths, with Duterte consistently rejecting allegations his incendiary comments could be encouraging police to commit murder.

While mayor of Davao, Duterte was investigated by the independent Commission on Human Rights over allegations he ran death squads that killed more than a thousand petty criminals in the city.

Duterte has variously denied or confirmed the allegations. The commission did not file any criminal charges after completing its inquiry.

Zeid called for "credible and independent investigations" to be immediately reopened into the Davao killings.

And he demanded similar probes into the "shocking number of killings that have occurred across the country since Mr. Duterte became president".

"The perpetrators must be brought to justice, sending a strong message that violence, killings and human rights violations will not be tolerated by the State and that no one is above the law," Zeid said.
The police have not revealed how many bombs were found in the house. (Photo: Representational Image/AFP)

Jakarta: Three suspected militants were shot dead by Indonesian anti-terror officers during a raid on Wednesday, authorities said, with police discovering a cache of bombs at the scene of the shootout.

The firefight erupted at a house about 25 kilometres (15 miles) outside the capital Jakarta. Police said the alleged militants had opened fire at officers.

"Suddenly somebody threw something (at officers) and it was a man-made bomb, but it didn't explode and there were shots from inside," police spokesman Rikwanto, who goes by one name, told Metro TV.

Police responded and three people (inside the house in South Tangerang) were killed.

Rikwanto said police had not ruled out the possibility the explosives were planned to be detonated in attacks over the holiday period.

The police have not revealed how many bombs were found in the house. One alleged militant was arrested.

The incident came less than two weeks after police arrested four Islamic militants, including a female suicide bomber, and a bomb in Bekasi, east of Jakarta. The group in South Tangerang is linked to the Bekasi group, Rikwanto said.

A sustained crackdown in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, weakened many of the most dangerous extremist networks responsible for a string of deadly homegrown attacks during the 2000s.

But there have been fears of a resurgence in militancy and police believe hundreds of Indonesians have travelled to Syria to fight with militant groups including IS.
Melbourne: A 102-year-old Australian ecologist, the country's oldest working scientist, has won a battle to keep working on campus at an Australian university.

Dr David Goodall was ordered to work from home on 2017 after his presence at Western Australia's Edith Cowan University was deemed a safety risk.

But the university has now found an alternative workspace.

Australia's oldest working scientist, Goodall has produced more than 100 research papers in an ecology career spanning 70 years.

He is currently an unpaid honorary research associate.

After two decades at Edith Cowan University, Goodall was told in August to pack up his office when staff raised concerns about his safety.

It was another setback for the ecologist, who was recently forced to give up theatre when his declining vision prevented him from driving to rehearsals.

The university confirmed "better" office space has been found at a campus closer to Goodall's residence.

"I am pleased we have found a solution that will ensure David can continue to be based at ECU," Vice-Chancellor Steve Chapman told the BBC.

Goodall said he was grateful the university was able to accommodate him.

"I hope to continue with some useful work in my field in so far as my eyesight permits," he told the ABC.

"But I still think the emphasis on safety was unnecessary," the centenarian scientist added.
Prosecutors told the court about two incidences when the minor victim was sexually abused by his elder sibling. (Representational image)

New South Wales: An Australian man accused of raping his minor brother a decade ago, walked free after the High Court ruled in his favour stating that he was 'too young to understand' what he had done.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, the accused identified only by his initials RP, was 11-year-old when he had anally raped his 6-year-old brother.

During the trial of the case, the court heard that once the accused was left alone at home with his siblings while their father was out for some work. Taking advantage of the situation, the accused locked one of his brothers in a room and told him, "If you wanna come out, you gotta let me do this to ya." The accused then pushed the victim on a pile of clothing, held him down and raped him while wearing a condom.

The court also heard that the victim cried out in pain but the accused refused to let him go. Instead he kept his hand on the victim's mouth to prevent him from screaming.

Prosecutors told the court about two incidences when the minor victim was sexually abused by his elder sibling.

However, the High Court observed that the prosecution failed to prove that the accused knew what he was doing is morally wrong.

"That is to say, I am left  after considering the totality of the evidence that was adduced at the trial  with a reasonable doubt about whether RP understood that the sexual intercourse which he had with his brother was seriously wrong by normal adult standards," the judge said while announcing the verdict.
Sao Paulo: A bungee jumper fell to his death after plunging down from a tall bridge in Brazils Sao Paulo as his shocked family watched in horror. A video footage of the entire incident showing the distressing moment the 36-year-old leaps to his death has appeared online.

The video starts with Fabio Ezequiel de Moraes preparing for the 40-metre jump. His wife, 6-year-old son and his brother stand beside him to see him perform the activity.

After a while, Moraes leans forward and jumps off the bridge. However, things go wrong when he discovers that the rope tied to his body is too long. Before, he could understand what is happening, he comes down with much force and hits the ground.

A report in The Sun stated that the rope was too long. Instead of bouncing back, Moraes hit the ground with force.

He was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital and was proclaimed dead on arrival.

Some reports also stated that Moraes had earlier planned to take his son along with him for the jump. However, he later changed his mind and decided to go for it alone.

A police complaint has been registered and the investigators have seized the equipments used by Moraes during the activity.

In a similar incident earlier this year, a South Korean woman was left with bruises all over her body after her bungee rope broke midway during a 140ft fall. Luckily, she survived the incident, but claimed that the bungee jumping organisers lacked necessary measures to prevent such incidents.
Istanbul: The young Turkish policeman who killed Russia's ambassador to Ankara this week had provided security for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eight times since the July 15 failed coup bid, a report said on Wednesday.

Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, pumped nine bullets into ambassador Andrei Karlov at an art exhibition centre on Monday evening, before he himself was killed by Turkish police.

Altintas, a member of the Ankara anti-riot police for two-and-a-half years, had been on duty at eight events attended by Erdogan since July, the Hurriyet daily said.

At such events he was part of the second wave of Erdogan's security after the personal bodyguard team of the president, wrote Hurriyet's writer Abdulkadir Selvi, known for his contacts in the ruling elite.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told US counterpart John Kerry in a phone call on Tuesday that Turkey believed the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who it blamed for the July 15 coup bid, was behind the assassination plot.

Turkish authorities are now investigating possible links of Altintas to Gulen, including a school he attended that was run by the cleric's group.

Hurriyet's Selvi said that on the day of the July 15 coup, Altintas had called in sick to the police. But it was not clear what he did that night.

The security forces have now detained 13 people over the attack including close relatives of Altintas, Turkish media reports said.

Meanwhile, a team of 18 Russian investigators arrived in Ankara on Tuesday to take part in a joint probe inside Turkey, an unprecedented move agreed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
PM Erdogan poses for a photograph with Bana and her family. (Photo: Twitter | @RT_Erdogan)

Ankara: Seven-year-old Bana al-Abed, whose Twitter account gave a tragic description of the bombing of Aleppo in Syria, on Wednesday met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his palace in Ankara.

Erdogan received Bana and her family at his palace, the state-run Anadolu agency said, publishing a picture of Erdogan hugging the girl.

A video published by the agency also showed a seated Erdogan holding Bana and an unidentified boy sitting on his knees, flanked by his wife Emine.

The young Syrian girl was one of thousands of people evacuated from once rebel-held areas of Aleppo in the last days under a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia.

She was evacuated on Monday and Turkish officials promised she would come to Turkey with her family. But it was not clear when she had crossed over.

For her 330,000 followers, Bana is a symbol of the tragedy unfolding in Syria, although Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has slammed her and her mother's nearly daily tweets as propaganda.

Turkey is hosting some 2.7 million refugees from the Syria conflict but has made clear it now prefers to look after those recently displaced, who are not injured, on the Syrian side of the border.

However it makes exceptions for special cases and the wounded.
Police and firefighters work around the truck that crashed into a Christmas market at Gedachniskirche church in Berlin. (Photo: AFP)

Berlin: A sudden bang - and then everything went dark. Survivors of the carnage caused when a lorry ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market recount the fear and horror they felt when festive revelry turned to death and destruction in a matter of seconds.

Many also told of lucky escapes and chance decisions that meant they were not standing in the path of the truck that mowed down the crowd on Monday, killing at least 12 people.

Lana Sefovac, a Bosnian who lives in Berlin, was at the entrance of the market at the time of the attack.

"We were at a stall because we wanted to buy some food. We were lucky we were hungry because if we had been on the promenade we would have been victims," she told regional N1 television in Bosnia.

"I was standing in front of the stall, my father was in front of me, my mum was behind. I heard a very, very noisy sound and when I turned towards it, the first thing I saw was wood flying all around because he literally smashed the first wooden booth by driving very fast.

"He was driving directly toward us, directly into us, but then he made a turn because he did not want to drive into (our) booth but where people were. He wanted to run people over.

"He passed 20 centimetres (around 7 inches) from my mum. She fell. My dad fell too. I turned and started screaming because I couldn't see my mum. I thought she was injured as the speed was high and I was sure he pushed her.

"She stood up, dad too, and at that moment I turned and saw the truck hitting a lamppost, with people laying around it and to the side.

"Absolutely everyone was shocked, nobody knew what to do, we were all trying to find our loved ones and friends that only a minute earlier we were drinking mulled wine with and now they were lying down in blood.

"Then we were worried that something else could happen, someone could come out of the truck, there could be an explosion or something, so as soon as the first shock passed, we immediately ran away."

Belgian woman Carima Douch, who was working at the Zaventem airport in Brussels when the suicide bombings happened in March, told of yet another lucky escape.

She told Dutch daily De Telegraaf daily after witnessing the Berlin attack: "It's very difficult. You feel totally powerless. And I am speechless. Everything comes back again. It is unbelievable that it is happening all over again."

Her friend, Carima Akel-Freie, a personal assistant from Leuven, said: "We thought it would be fun to go to the Christmas market. We were going to stay there, but a group wanted to leave to go and get a drink."

"I'm really happy that we decided to go with them. It probably saved our lives. Five minutes later the attack happened."

Another lucky escapee was British tourist Rhys Meredith, from Cardiff, who was at the market with his girlfriend when the lorry crashed into the crowd.

"We were having a good walk around, soaking up the scene, soaking up the atmosphere," he told the BBC.

"We had bought food and had we carried on we would have walked down the path the truck would have been down and we more than likely wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

Meredith said the lorry caused "complete and utter devastation".

"There was clearly no attempt to try and slow down... We've seen stalls... obliterated into nothing."

Dutch photographer Roos Koman was visiting the market with her boyfriend Stefan, having made the trip specially to Berlin to see it.

Just half an hour before the truck hit, they were enjoying the Christmas market and had gone back to their hotel just 50 metres away.

"It was so beautiful, so charming. I cannot quite comprehend the chaos that came directly afterwards," she told the Dutch AD daily.

"We only went back to the hotel because the Gedaechtniskirche (nearby church) was closed. Otherwise Stefan and I would still have been there."

"The hotel immediately closed all the doors. No-one could get out. It was very frightening, as we didn't know if the violence was over," she added.

Although their return flight is not until Thursday, she said she was "not sure" she would stay.

"Most likely we'll just stay in our hotel room and not leave... I expect there will be a huge exodus of tourists from Berlin. Everyone is scared."

Another British visitor to the market, Mike Fox, from Birmingham, told the BBC how he helped rescue people trapped under collapsed market stalls.

"As we were leaving the large truck came through," he said. "It had just passed me, passed my girlfriend. I think it had missed me by three metres - missed her by five."

Fox said he spoke to two people who were lying on the floor with broken limbs "but they were going to be OK".

He added: "I saw one guy being dragged away with blood on his face. I helped several other people lift the side of one of the stalls up so that they could pull two other people from underneath."
Sulaymaniyah: Seven people were killed in a double bomb attack near the headquarters of an Iranian Kurdish opposition party, in a rare assault in Iraqs relatively secure autonomous Kurdish region, a senior security official said.

The blasts hit the town of Koysinjaq about 10:00 pm (local time) on Tuesday, killing five members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran, a member of the security forces and a child, said Jalal Karim, the Kurdish regions deputy interior minister.

The attack also left people wounded, said Karim, who did not provide a specific figure.

Iraqs Kurdistan region, which has its own government, security forces and flag but is still part of Iraq, has largely been spared the horrific violence that has plagued other parts of the country in the years after 2003.

The Islamic State jihadist group, which Kurdish forces have battled in the north, including as part of the still ongoing operation to recapture Iraqs second city Mosul, is the usual culprit for attacks in the Kurdistan region.

But the fact that the bombings apparently targeted the Iranian party headquarters raises the possibility that another organisation or country may be responsible.

The Kurds are spread across four nearby countries including Iran, where the military crushed a fledgling Kurdish republic in which Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani was born in 1946.

There are some five million Kurds in Iran, and various Kurdish opposition groups oppose the government in Tehran.

Iraqi Kurdistan houses a range of Kurdish groups, including armed organisations such as Turkeys Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and Irans Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), which those countries periodically target in air and artillery strikes inside Iraqi territory.
Looking for something fun to do with your kids during the Holiday break?

Do you want to encourage your 6-12 year-olds to eat healthier and learn about cooking in a fun and safe environment?

Nutrition Program Associate Shanna Sorg from the University of Missouri Extension Center in Madison County will be hosting five days of nutrition and cooking classes titled Kids in the Kitchen at Teen Town in Fredericktown. Classes will be offered at two times on each day from 9 a.m.-11 a.m. and 1 p.m.-3 p.m., December 21, 22, 27, 28 and 29.

Lessons each day will be different and participants are encouraged to attend any or all days. Students will learn how to make healthy food choices, food preparation and cooking and will take home kid-friendly handouts that include recipes and tips for how to safely use kitchen equipment. The recipes are easy and use familiar ingredients. Kids learn how to prepare simple, healthy snacks they can make for themselves or their family. Lessons reinforce the health grade-level expectations and in some cases math and science.

Also, youth involved in 4H can use these classes to work towards their Foods project.

Classes are free but registration is required to attend. For information you may contact the Madison County Extension Center at 573-783-3303 or 137 W. Main St. in Fredericktown. The University of Missouri is an equal opportunity/ADA institution.
Al Amal Hospital issued a report stating that he is psychotic and is irresponsible for what happened. (Photo: Representational image)

Sharjah: A 29-year-old mentally unstable man slit his mothers throat and cut her tongue out, after suspecting her of practising sorcery in Sharjah. He stayed with her corpse for a few days before being discovered by the police.

The police discovered the decomposed body of the woman when they went to his flat to make him pay for the items he stole from a supermarket at knifepoint.

According to a report in Khaleej Times, his siblings and uncles have pardoned him and submitted a waiver in writing to the Sharjah Shariah court about the same, and said they did not want blood money.

The lawyer of the accused has submitted all the documents needed to acquit him of the charges, the main line of defence being that he was mentally ill and emotionally disturbed.

The Al Amal Hospital issued a report stating that he is psychotic and is not responsible for what happened. He was admitted in the same hospital last year for mental illness.

Many tests were conducted on the accused, who also had a speech disorder, by the medical committee after the occurrence of the crime. He was diagnosed with acute psychosis at psychiatric hospital in Denmark in 2010, however he refused to continue treatment from there.

He has confessed of killing his mother, a Danish citizen of Lebanese origin with whom he lived with, in Al Nakhla Tower in Al Mamzar area.
More than 1,200 people have been convicted of deliberately spreading pornographic content online. (Representational Image)

Beijing: More than 13,000 websites have been punished or closed and over 1,200 people were convicted in China this year for deliberately spreading pornographic content online, authorities said on Tuesday.

Launched by the anti-pornography in cooperation with other central departments including the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Cyberspace Administration of China, the campaign has targeted online streaming and the use of instant messaging and cloud storage services to spread pornography.

More than 1,200 people have been convicted of deliberately spreading pornographic content online. More than 4.2 million items have been deleted, Xue Songyan, deputy chief of the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications said.

Xue said authorities will continue their efforts in 2017 to create a cleaner cyberspace for young Internet users, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Wednesday said it is gathering "more evidence" from the alleged RAW spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and will share dossiers on India's "involvement in subversive activities" with the UN.

While briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs here, Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz also regretted the "Indian aggression" on the Line of Control (LoC).

Interrogation of Jadhav is underway and more evidences are being collected from him, he said.

"Dossiers about Indian involvement in subversive activities in Pakistan will be presented before the UN and other important countries after completion of investigation from Kulbhushan Jadhav," Radio Pakistan quoted him as saying.

Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary said there are several UN resolutions on the Kashmir dispute and that the international community should exert pressure on India for the implementation of these resolutions.

He claimed 45 Pakistani civilians have been killed due to "unprovoked Indian firing" on the LoC and Islamabad has informed the UN in writing about these 'violations'.
Sri Lankan Navy today arrested 17 Tamil Nadu fishermen in two separate incidents on charges of fishing in their territorial waters.





While 13 of the fishermen belonged to Rameswaram, the others hailed from Jadadapattinam in Puduckottai district, P Sesuraja and S Emiret, leaders of Rameswaram Fishermen's Association said.



All the fishermen were arrested near Neduntheevu and their boats, three in number, were taken to Kanagesanthurai in Sri Lanka by the navy personnel, they said.



Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam had yesterday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to send a "firm message" to Sri Lanka over continued detention of the state's fishermen.



The detention of fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy continues "unabated" despite Indo-Sri Lankan fishermen level talks and Inter-Ministerial talks being held from time to time, he had said in a letter to Modi after seven fishermen were arrested yesterday.
Mongolia's foreign minister says the Dalai Lama will no longer be allowed to visit his country after a visit by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader prompted protests from China and a suspension of talks on a major loan.





China's foreign ministry said today that it "attached importance" to the Mongolian diplomat's statement and hoped the country would "honor the commitment" it has made on the issue.



Yesterday, the Mongolian newspaper Unuudur carried remarks by Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil that the Dalai Lama would not be allowed to visit Mongolia even on religious grounds.



Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to split Tibet from China.



Mongolia's economy is heavily dependent on China. The countries are discussing a possible USD 4.2 billion loan by Beijing to deal with a recession.
The Kremlin said today it was too early to conclude who was behind the murder of Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov in Ankara, after Turkey's foreign minister put the blame on exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.





"In this case it is hardly worth hurrying to any conclusions until the investigation determines - as our president said - who was behind the murder of our ambassador," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.



In the first official accusation against Gulen by a top Turkish official over the killing, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told US counterpart John Kerry in a phone call yesterday that Turkey believed Gulen's group FETO was involved, the foreign ministry said.



The US-based Gulen - who Ankara says also orchestrated an attempted coup in July - had earlier issued a statement to condemn the assassination as a "terrorist act" that left him "shocked and deeply saddened."



President Vladimir Putin will take part in mourning ceremonies for the slain ambassador tomorrow as he is laid to rest in his homeland.



Veteran diplomat Karlov was shot nine times in the back by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas at the art gallery opening of a show of Russian photography on Monday.



His body arrived back in Moscow late Tuesday after Russian investigators landed in Turkey to help probe the assassination.



The murder stunned Ankara and Moscow, which have rowed repeatedly over the Syria conflict but had recently begun to cooperate closely on the evacuations from war-wrecked Aleppo.


Christmas is approaching and pilgrims and tourists have begun to arrive, crowding the souvenir shops that line the narrow streets and alleys of Bethlehem, the biblical town revered as Jesus' birthplace.





But when visitors choose to take a piece of the Holy Land back home with them, they better check the labels. Many souvenirs, including the West Bank town's trademark rosary beads, are imported from abroad, mainly China.



A small number of souvenir shops are now trying to fight the trend, stocking their shelves almost exclusively with locally made products. Shopkeepers say that while their wares may be more expensive, the quality is much better and they give an important boost to the struggling economy.



"I've got nothing that is made overseas except for one thing, that's the magnets. It's something that sells for cheap and people want them," said Bassem Giacaman, owner of the Blessings Gift Shop and The Olive Wood Factory.



"Everything else is made locally so I can keep the local economy working."

Some 120,000 people are expected to visit the Holy Land this holiday season, half of them Christian, according to Israel's Tourism Ministry.



Many will visit Bethlehem, where globalisation has left its imprint like everywhere else. Foreign-made crafts, especially Chinese ones, have come to represent a big part of the market here, including Christmas souvenirs.



While there are no official statistics, local officials and businessmen estimate that nearly half of the products, perhaps more, are imported.



Giacaman keeps just a few imported products in his store, most of them hidden in a small box beneath a counter. He takes them out to show customers and compare them to Palestinian-made ones.



"This is a plastic Jesus baby made in China and this is a ceramic one made in Bethlehem, and these are the olive wood rosaries that I make and the Chinese ones," he said, proudly showing what he said was the superior craftsmanship of the locally made goods.



Bethlehem is in the West Bank, occupied territory the Palestinians hope will be part of their future state. Tourism remains strong, but the rest of the economy has long languished, in part because of Israeli restrictions. Tourists must pass through a checkpoint in Israel's separation barrier to reach the town.



The "Visit Palestine Center," located in a 200-year-old house along a stone stairway just a few hundred meters (yards) from The Church of the Nativity, promotes a "Made in Palestine" label.



"There's a big influx of imported products and a lot of traditional crafts are declining gradually," said Samy Khoury, the center's founder and general manager.



The Visit Palestine Center, which started as an online store and travel guide five years ago, works with nearly 100 workshops and home-based artisans throughout the Palestinian territories and in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan.



It features Palestinian traditional crafts, including Christmas-related ones like olive wood rosaries and mother of pearl ornaments. The center targets independent travelers and takes a fair trade approach to its business.



Trying to sell only Palestinian-made products comes with challenges.



"Maintaining consistency and quality, the right lead time, figuring how much production capacity the producers can give," are some of them, explained Khoury.



Then there's the issue of price.



Maher Canawati, owner of the Three Arches souvenir shop, sells locally made gifts and even has a wood workshop in the back. But he keeps room for imports as well.
Dubbing demonetisation as fire- bombing on citizens, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today claimed the move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was aimed at snatching money from the poor and giving it to the wealthy.



Addressing a rally here, Rahul compared the hardships faced by people due to note ban with a World War-II tactic, called fire-bombing, wherein cities were destroyed through heavy bombing during nights.



"During the WW-II, around 300 to 400 fighter planes used to drop large number of bombs on a city during night to destroy it within minutes. I want to tell Modiji he has done similar fire-bombing on India's downtrodden, poor people, farmers, women and middleclass citizens" he said.



In his speech, Rahul alleged the Central government "deliberately" stalled cash dispensation from banks and ATMs to keep it in the banks for at least six to seven months "so that banks can write off loans of rich families".



According to Rahul, only 6 per cent black money is in cash while 94 per cent is in the form of real estate, gold, diamonds, or is parked in bank accounts abroad. He also claimed that one per people or 50 rich families, are holding that black money while remaining 99 per cent population are honest.



"When people started demanding Rs 15 lakhs as promised during the Lok Sabha polls, Modiji came up with this gimmick, which he termed as surgical strike on corruption and black money. But, instead of targetting 94 per cent black money, he targetted remaining 6 per cent" said Rahul.



"Modiji took his aim on those honest 99 per cent, not those 1 per cent rich people having that black money. This one per cent had defaulted on loans of Rs 8 lakh crore. Now, Modiji wants to write off those loans of 50 rich families. Modi will not touch them, because these 50 families helped him in becoming PM," he alleged.



Rahul said the decision of scrapping high value banknotes was neither aimed to curb corruption and black money, nor the one per cent rich people, but the honest, the down-trodden, the farmers and the poor workers of the country.



"Demonetisation is all about snatching money from the poor and giving it to the rich. The real objective of the note ban is help this one per cent people," alleged Rahul.
On Friday, Circuit Judge Wendy Wexler Horn sentenced Nanette S. Litherland to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of her husband. Judge Horn also sentenced her to serve a second consecutive term of life in prison for the attempted murder of her father-in-law.

In October, a St. Francois County jury found Nanette Litherland guilty of first-degree murder for the Nov. 8, 2009 shooting death of her husband, Jerry B. Litherland, formerly of Cadet, and the attempted murder of her father-in-law, James B. Litherland on Sept. 22, 2009.

Nanette Litherland was initially tried in June 2013 and found guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree assault for conspiring with Jacob Feldman in the November 2009 shooting death of Jerry Litherland and the non-fatal shooting of her father-in-law in September 2009.

In September 2015, however, the Missouri Court of Appeals/Eastern District reversed the judgment of the trial court and remanded Nanette Litherland's case for a new trial. The appeals court found that Circuit Court Judge Kenneth W. Pratte, now retired, erred by not granting the defense attorney's last-minute request for a continuance of trial.

Feldman was convicted of pulling the trigger and is already serving life in prison without the possibility of probation or parole for the murder. He was sentenced in Aug. 2012.

The case originally stemmed from 2009, when, as the prosecution contended, Nanette Litherland contracted with Feldman to murder her husband for $100,000, to be paid from life insurance proceeds. According to court records, Nanette Litherland stood to gain nearly a half million dollars in insurance proceeds and land she and her husband owned jointly. The state provided evidence during trial that she gave Feldman a gun and a ride to her husband's farm, where Feldman had been instructed to also murder her father-in-law, who lived on the farm with his son.

During his sworn testimony, Feldman admitted that on September 22, 2009, he shot James Litherland, in the back of the head with a .20 gauge shotgun, leaving him for dead, and fled the property. James survived the attempt but was unable to identify his assailant. Jerry Litherland was not home at the time of the shooting.

In a second attempt to kill Jerry, evidence indicated that in November 2009, Nanette Litherland arranged for her son, Thomas Buhler, and her daughter-in-law, Gwen Buhler, to help Feldman with the murder, offering them a house on the farm. She insisted the murder had to be done the weekend of November 7-8, 2009, because her husband was removing her from the insurance policies.

Feldman also testified that on November 8, 2009, Thomas Buhler provided him with a rifle and drove him to the farm. Feldman testified that he shot Jerry with an SKS rifle on the same date. The first shot fired the armor-piercing round into Jerry's body, followed by the two hollow points. He said after he shot Jerry, it was obvious he was dead.

Once police investigated the crime, Gwen Buhler provided a false alibi for Feldman by claiming he was babysitting her children.

Two days after the murder, Feldman became a person of interest and was discovered attempting to leave town by laying down in the back seat of Nanette Litherlands truck. He was captured by police before he could get away.

Feldman was offered a plea deal that included taking the death penalty off the table in exchange for a confession to the conspiracy. Gwen Buhler also confessed, agreeing to testify against Nanette Litherland in exchange for a recommendation of probation on a felony hindering prosecution charge.

Testifying in her own defense, Nanette Litherland denied any involvement in either crime. She said that even though she and her husband were living in separate homes at the time of the shootings, they maintained a close husband and wife relationship and that she still loved him. She said she planned on eventually moving back in with him and that she was working on their relationship.

She testified that on the day Feldman shot her father-in-law, she dropped Feldman off at a stop sign near the farmhouse after they had been to the store. She said Feldman wanted to walk the remaining way home because it was a nice day. She said she did not see him with a gun during the time they were together and she had no idea what Feldman intended to do.

Litherland testified that even after James was shot, Feldman didnt tell her he had tried to kill James.

She denied ever having any discussions between her and any of her accused co-conspirators about killing her husband. She said she and her daughter, Mary Litherland were at home in bed later that night when James came to the house and knocked loudly on the door. James told her Jerry was lying in a pool of blood.

After getting dressed and driving to the farmhouse, Nanette Litherland called 911.

She denied having any involvement whatsoever in her husbands killing and said two of the insurance policies were family policies and the third was bought to cover her husband while he worked as a cement truck driver.

The case was heard in St. Francois County on a change of venue from Washington County. Missouri Assistant Attorney General Monty Platz and Patrick Logan tried the case.

Nanette Litherland was represented by attorney Jeff Estes from the Missouri State Public Defenders Office.

In responding to the sentences Horn handed down, Attorney General Chris Koster said, Nanette Litherland callously arranged for the murder of two men, and she deserves to spend the rest of her life in prison.
It is not understandable why the properties and temples of Hindus are being vandalised when the country is in the midst of its liberation celebrations. Forty five years ago, India, which has a Hindu majority population, helped the people of then East Pakistan wrest independence from the unwilling hands of the army-dominated West Pakistan. More than 2,000 Indian soldiers and officers sacrificed their lives in the war against Islamabad.



Above all, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman who liberated the territory through peoples movement which he built. Her credentials of fighting against religious forces cannot be doubted. It is, however, another matter that she has used the action against fundamentalists as a battle against opposition parties.



The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) complains that her wrath is directed against them because they are the only alternative. The ruling Awami League headed by Begum Khalida Zia, they complain, is using all tactics to finish them. Even the rumours have been set afloat that they are anti-India so that Khalida Zias image is tarnished.



I recall my meeting Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman at Dhaka soon after the liberation of what is now called Bangladesh and complained to him that there was a lot of anti-India feeling. I had gone to the Dhaka Press Club and found the media hands jibing that the smoked Hilsa fish was available at Kolkata hotels but not in Bangladesh. They also strongly criticised New Delhi and Kolkata for appropriating the gains of liberation.



Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora, who led the Indian troops, was particularly mentioned for looting the rich West Pakistanis who were transacting business from the then East Pakistan. Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman told me that a Bengali did not forget the good done by the one who gave a glass of water: Your countrymen have died here while helping the Mukti Vahini in liberating the territory. He said that secularism in Bangladesh was deep-rooted and could not be ignored in any situation.



But strangely, the secular identify of Bangladesh is being questioned now. The Jamaat-e-Islami, which was once part of the government during the military regime of General H M Ershad, is trying its best to sell the Islamic way of governance and wanted close relations with an Islamic state in the world. Fortunately, there is practically no response to this in Bangladesh.



However, the unpopularity of Sheikh Hasina has made the Bangladeshis look not only anti-India but soft Islamists. She is only busy obliterating the followers of Begum Khalida Zia, the main opposition leader. In this fight, even the secularists who are on the side of Begum Zia are being dubbed as communalists and constantly hounded.



Sheikh Hasina is now anxious to entrench and not part with power. The opposition parties openly say that they may not be able to remove her in elections because she would not hold a fair pool. She is already talking of dynastic rule and consulting her son in America openly in all government matters.



In line with that thinking, the prime minister is appointing her own followers at key positions in different universities and educational institutions even though they lack competence and literary qualifications. In the process, she is destroying the educational system based on merit. But this does not concern her because she believes that in the name of secularism she can put any of her loyalists at high positions. She behaves as if it were her birth right to rule.



A bill is sought to be enacted where anyone challenging her father or his rule would be considered anti-national. This is, indeed, a strange way of looking at democratic traditions. But once this becomes a law, stranger things can take place in Bangladesh. The opposition parties, which are her main targets today, will be left with no voice to raise in the days to come. The environment would be more dictatorial. And a very few would be able to question the government.



No welfare measures

In all of her actions, Sheikh Hasina has forgotten the welfare of the country. The problem that Bangladesh faces today, as it celebrates its birth anniversary, is how far the government has been able to help the people benefit through economic development. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The prime minister counts her gains only in terms of key jobs she has given to her staunch followers.



The judiciary is no more independent. There are no collegiums to select judges as is the case in India. The government directly appoints them. And as the first foreign minister of Bangladesh Kamal Hussain, who was in town, said despite the independent judges on the bench, some tend to tilt towards the establishment.



They behave as if someone is overlooking their shoulders. Accordingly, their judgments reflect a slant which does not behove an independent judiciary. The Hindu judges feel the pressure.



I recall the conversation which I had with our High Commissioner at Dhaka Subirmal Dutt. In reply to my complaint that the plight of Bangladeshi Hindus is unenviable, he said that this point was discussed before Indias help. It was assumed that most of the one million Hindus living there would migrate to India and many of those staying back would embrace Islam. This may be true but it was never imagined that the properties and temples of Hindus would be destroyed. The fact that there are more than 200 million Muslims in India would influence the Bangladeshi Muslims not to do anything which would alienate New Delhi and the Hindu population of India has not happened.



Bangladesh has to renew its ethos and the image of a secular democratic country. Organisations like the Jamaat-e-Islami would drag it to fundamentalism. But that was not what Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman, father of the nation, had in mind. He wanted to establish a country which would not discriminate against the minorities. Sheikh Hasina, to her credit, wants to follow in his footsteps. But, she has become authoritarian though her action does not reflect that. This is the tragedy of Bangladesh.
The Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act was amended in 2011 to include ward committees in each of the 198 wards in Bengaluru and seven other municipalities across the state. It was forced into implementation in 2014 after a three year hiatus with the help of Karnataka High Court by several NGOs who have invested a great deal of time, money and effort in this legislation.



The previous government had notified the rules for ward committees while the current one had promised to modify it but is yet to do so. Hence, the pertinent question to be asked is  will ward committees improve governance of Bengaluru and other municipalities across Karnataka?



The ward committees are part of the Community Participation Bill which was conceived and written into the 74th amendment of the constitution in 1992. The objectives were twofold  to institutionalise citizen participation in governance and make municipalities transparent in decision making while enhancing accountability.



The ward committees were seen as a platform for the residents to express their opinions on plans, funding priorities and grievances, thereby granting the citizens local autonomy in governance. But in the age of e-governance, social media and smart cities, they are completely redundant and will likely pose more problems than purportedly solve any of them.



First is the problem of selection or election of ward committee members. The enacted law suggests selection and hence councillors have select citizens who are affiliated to his or her own political party. If it is chan-ged to election as the NGOs wo-uld like it to be, money and muscle power will likely play a large role as in every other election.



Secondly, members have no mechanism to enforce their priorities because they are not vested with decision making powers. Currently, MLAs and councillors are vary of divesting and distributing more of their powers to ward committee members.



The current Act demands that the commissioner (in this case, of BBMP) make available decisions of the standing committee chairman, budgetary allocation, information on revenue streams etc which elected representatives feel are quite intrusive to the orderly functioning of municipal councils.



Thirdly, there is the issue of compensation and a monthly budget for the functioning of the ward committees. While members serving on the Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Council are entitled for compensation, there is no such reward for members of ward committees. Moreover, for monthly meetings of ward committees as stipulated by law, some resources are indeed required and even a modest allocation to each of the wards would result in a huge outflow from the municipal budgets.



Finally, there is the case of representation. In order to ensure broad-based participation of various sections of the society, ward committees must consist of two from SC/ST communities, two from NGOs, and three men and three women residing in the ward. Selection of members based on a quota system will ensure that local experts and citizens of integrity who have the experience and expertise to question and monitor various projects are kept out of the committee.



In the age of technology, crowd sourcing has become the preferred option of most city governments across the world to include citizen inputs in budgets and policies.



South Koreas capital city Seoul, which holds the top ranking in municipal e-governance, is an excellent example where introduction of various e-governance initiatives has largely enhanced civil society participation in decision making at various levels.



Govts performance

By law, the municipal government must place all major policy initiatives as well as the budget on their website where citizens have more than a month to raise concerns and objections. The city also holds periodic online forums that enable politicians and officials to receive feedback from citizens on major policy decisions and on the performance of the government.



Technology platforms too have been effectively used by the citizens to send messages to government. Of late, many social media campaigns against government priorities have become highly successful.



Residents of Bengaluru conducted a high profile campaign Steelflyover Beda. The National Green Tribunal has now put the project  that left state government in quandary  hold. More politicians are trying to reach residents and voters through various technology platforms than ever before.



The ward committees are a 20th century solution to 21st century governance issues and hence must be discarded. The way forward is to force local governments to adopt technological tools for effective interaction between politicians, bureaucrats and citizens at large.



Municipalities will be much better off to crowd source ideas and use collective wisdom of citizens than to let ward committees run amuck that can indeed create hurdles for good governance and interfere with the priorities of a government.



Thus state government must rework the Karnataka Municipal Act to abolish the current Community Participation Bill and replace it with a version that incorporates the best practices of municipal governments from around the globe by incorporating technology platforms and crowd sourcing ideas in its zest to improve governance.



(The writer is a Bengaluru-based money manager)
Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya will celebrate New Year in the tribal village of Mururu in Kundapur taluk of Udupi district. The residents of the village belong to the Koraga tribe.





The Koraga tribe has been subjected to a practice known as Ajalu, wherein hair and nails are mixed in the food served to them. The practice has been banned by the government.



Anjaneya told reporters on Wednesday that he will go to Mururu on December 31 morning and spend an entire day and night there. The minister has made it an annual feature to spend New Years eve in a tribal village.



Replying to queries, Anjaneya said a layout on a 13-acre plot will be formed for rehabilitating the Jenu Kuruba tribal families evicted from their habitation at Diddalli in Kodagu district. The houses will be constructed by Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation at a cost of Rs 1.5 lakh per unit.



He said 150 villages with more than 50% SC/ST population will be selected under Mukhyamantri Adarsha Grama Yojane. He said Rs 1 crore will be released to each village to take up housing projects.
Veteran Kannada writer and playwright Boluwaru Mohammed Kunhi has been selected for Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award for the year 2016 for his Kannada novel Swathanthryada Ota (The run for freedom).





Kunhi told DH that he is glad that he has been selected for the award and this is his second Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award. Earlier, he had received the Sahitya Akademi award for Paapu Gandhi, Gandhi Bapu Aada Kathe under childrens literature category. It has been translated into several languages. He is among the pioneering writers who have introduced the lives of Muslims to Kannada literary world in detail.



Swathanthryada Ota is a novel which runs into 1,111 pages and is about the journey of a character called Chand Ali, who migrates from Pakistan during Partition and stays at an imaginary village Muthupady in India for 60 years, struggling to find his identity.



The novel is an extension of a story I wrote 17 years ago and the character has been haunting me for all these years till I developed it into a novel, Kunhi said.

Born in Puttur of Dakshina Kannada district, Boluwaru is a gold medallist in MA in Kannada from the University of Mysore. He has retired as a chief manager of Sydicate Bank.



Several awards

He has been the recipient of various other awards, including three awards from Karnataka Sahitya Academy, Rajyotsava Award, national and state awards for best story. He was the screenplay writer for Kannada films Munnudi and Athithi which have won several awards both at the state and national levels.



Kunhi has written about 250 short stories and is considered one of the veteran story writers in Kannada.



He has brought out several collections of stories such as Aakashakke Neeli Parade, Meenu Maruvavanu, Ondu Tundu Gode and Rotti Patumma. He has plays, childrens literature, translated works and compilation works to his credit.

DH News Service
Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi, whose seniority-based claims to the army chiefs post were overlooked by the NDA government, met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar here on Wednesday.



After Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh, who is to hang up his boots on December 31, Lt Gen Bakshi is the senior-most officer in the Indian Army. The government, however, decided in favour of Vice Chief Lt Gen Bipin Rawat, ignoring the seniority principle.



Amid intense speculation on whether Lt Gen Bakshi would tender his resignation, the Eastern Army Commander met Parrikar in his South Block office for almost 15 minutes.

It was a courtesy call. The Eastern Army Commander sought time to meet the defence minister, said a source. Lt Gen Bakshi also met the army chief.



The defence ministry and army spokespersons did not respond to queries on what transpired in the meeting.



The governments decision to choose Lt Gen Rawat, ignoring the seniority of Lt Gen Bakshi and Southern Army Commander Lt Gen P M Hariz, triggered a political controversy and wedged sharp differences in opinion in the military circle.



Lt Gen Bakshi is to retire in July 2017 and Lt Gen Hariz in December 2017. But going by the traditions in the armed forces, both are expected to resign once their junior Lt Gen Rawat becomes the next army chief, from January 1, 2017. Lt Gen Hariz has not yet sought any meeting with the defence minister.



While there are speculations on whether Lt Gen Bakshi would be accommodated as the Chief of Defence Staff or Permanent Chairman to the Chief of Staff Committee  both positions do not exist at the moment  sources said creation of these posts at such short notice was unlikely.



Earlier this year, Parrikar had informed Parliament that both positions were being considered by the government simultaneously.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhis claims of personal corruption against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday found support from the Trinamool Congress, CPM and AAP.



Soon after Rahul accused Modi of receiving kickbacks from corporate houses during his tenure as Gujarat chief minister, the Congress demanded an impartial probe into the charges, but stopped short of calling for his resignation.



Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal welcomed Rahuls revelations, but sought to claim credit for the same.



For over a month we boldly raised the issue across the country before the Congress dared to follow suit and speak up today, he said. Kejriwal also demanded Modis resignation on moral grounds, till the matter is investigated.



In Kolkata, TMC leader Derek OBrien called for a thorough investigation into the charges levelled by the Congress vice president.



Sahara diaries and the allegations against Modi, when he was Gujarat chief minister, are very serious and must be investigated, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.



The Congress hopes that the Sahara/Birla diaries would give it enough ammunition to dent Modis image as an untainted leader ahead of the elections to battleground states such as Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.



The credibility of the prime minister is at stake. The honesty and integrity of the prime minister is at stake, said Randeep Singh Surjewala, AICC Communications in-charge.



Surjewala pointed out that Congress president Sonia Gandhi had stepped down as Lok Sabha member following the office of profit controversy and veteran BJP leader L K Advani had quit as MP after his name cropped up in the Jain Hawala case in 1996.
The Central government and the BJP have launched a programme to reach out to Muslims to persuade the community members to embrace a cashless India by adopting digital mode of payments.



While the ministry of minority affairs has launched cashless chaupal to make the Muslim community aware of the benefits of mobile banking, the BJP is targeting community clerics and traders to allay their apprehensions, if any, on taking the next step to make the economic system more clean and transparent.



Speaking at the National Conference on Cashless India- Challenges & Benefits, Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday said less cash economy based on digital transaction system will benefit Muslims and other weaker sections of the society. He appealed to Muslims and other sections of the society to join and strengthen the governments campaign.



Just as the 100% electronic voting system was a success in our country, similarly digital transactions, online and mobile banking will be successful, he said.



Naqvi said several nations like Sweden, Belgium, France, Canada, Britain and Australia had become cashless economies.
Rebutting Congress vice president Rahul Gandhis corruption charges against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP on Wednesday said levelling baseless and shameful allegations will not take the heat off the investigation into corruption cases of the UPA era.



Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress partys history was steeped in corruption, while Modi was as pure as river Ganga. Even the Supreme Court had rejected the allegations against the prime minister, he told reporters.



Prasad raked up big-ticket scams of the UPA regime, like the AgustaWestland case, and personal corruption charges against Congress president Sonia Gandhis son-in-law Robert Vadra, who is under the scanner of investigating agencies for murky land deals.



Days after he claimed that he was not being allowed to speak in Parliament for talking about the prime ministers involvement in corruption, Rahul charged at a rally in Mehsana that Modi, as Gujarat chief minister, had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups.



The allegations levelled against the prime minister are baseless, false, shameful and mala fide, and they reflected Rahul Gandhis frustration after leading his party to disastrous defeats in state after state, the minister said.
The Congress mocked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday for repeated changes in the rules governing demonetisation, DHNS reports.



Unfortunately, the Reserve Bank of India has now become Reverse Bank of India, Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters, referring to the latest change in the rules.



The Central bank had, on Monday, allowed customers to deposit old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes exceeding Rs 5,000 only once per account until December 30, based on a satisfactory explanation.



The rule was reversed.
Former North County Assistant Superintendent Mike Henderson is getting ready to start a new career next month when the man who spent 31 years in public education, prior to his retirement in 2014, is sworn in as 117th District Representative in the Missouri House of Representatives.

According to Henderson, a Republican who has never run for office before, he has already been busy preparing in a number of ways for his new responsibilities as a state officeholder.

"It's been really exciting and a lot of fun," he said. "I think they do a really nice job of trying to prepare you for when you come to Jefferson City. I've had caucus meetings where the other people in your party try to help you and try to let you know what's going on."

To Henderson, one of the most exciting things he and other new House members, both Republican and Democrat, have done prior to assuming office was take an informational trip around the state.

"By law they have to offer what they call a freshman tour for first-year legislators," he said. "Basically, we got on a bus and they took us to the four corners of the state and everywhere in-between over two weeks  really two-and-a-half weeks. We started out in Jefferson City and they did a little bit on the Capitol and the workings there for us. Then they took us all around the state.

"We went everywhere from Cerner in Kansas City where they're building a $4 billion operation for medical records to the Missouri School for the Blind. In between you find out how much money is usually going to those programs and how much more they possibly need. That's so when you start your job as a legislator you have an idea when you see a budget number for different operations, you have been there, you've seen what they do and you have a pretty good idea of what's taking place there."

Henderson said the cross-the-state trip has made him feel more comfortable about working on the budget because he's now seen many of the programs with his own eyes. He also feels that the time he spent with his fellow legislators will prove to be quite useful in the years ahead.

"You spend two weeks on a bus with somebody, you start to get to know them," he said. "You start to build some trust for some people and you find that you have a lot of common interests and the people in your districts have a lot of commonality. So, consequently, it allows you to know some people you can go to and say, 'I think this bill I'm working on would also be helpful to the people in your district.' It's been a tremendous help. It makes you feel more at ease and you learn the people you can go to. It builds comradere."

Immediately after taking office at noon on Jan. 4, Henderson and his fellow lawmakers will be hitting the ground running.

"At that point we will begin our first legislative session," he said. "Then the Governor's Ball is Jan. 9 where he will be sworn in. I think things will get started on the 4th and really kick off starting on the 9th. I'm very excited. It feels like a second career that you begin in many ways because it is different, yet I've found that there are many things and ways that you do things that carry over.

"A lot of the leadership skills that you use, as well as a lot of the bonding and talking to people and reaching consensus carry over from one to the other. In education you're in a service. You're serving the people in your community. I've always felt that teachers were in the service area and in Jefferson City that's what you're doing  you're serving the people of your community. So, a lot of what I'll be doing is a carryover from education, in my opinion."

The bottom line is that Henderson feels his greatest responsibility as a member of the Missouri House is to represent the will of the people who live in his district.

"The thing is that the voters didn't really elect Mike Henderson," he said. "They elected me to represent them. That's the one thing you can't forget. You can sit there and say, 'I'm the new representative,' or whatever you want to do, but they've elected you to represent their needs and to go to Jefferson City and represent them in things that are important to them and the district. You can't lose sight of that. I won't lose sight of that."
The central government on Wednesday approved inclusion of coronary stents in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM).



With this, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) can now fix the price of these life-saving medical devices. The order amending the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO), 2013, will allow the bare metal stents and drug eluting stents, including the biodegradable ones, to be on the NLEM.



The approval comes a day before the Delhi High Court is to hear a petition on the governments delay in including stents in the NLEM for price control. The order will now lead to initiation of the price fixation process.



Earlier, an expert panel fixed a benchmark price of Rs 19,000 for the bare metal stents and Rs 28,000 for the drug eluting stents. This has, however, not been accepted by the government.



Out of reach



According to an NPPA report, the coronary stents are currently sold at a highly inflated price, keeping them out of reach of a large number of people requiring angioplasty and compelling many others who go for it to spend much more than their capacity.



The experts observed that in the absence of stent price regulation, consumers are exploited due to extreme overpricing, especially by the imported brands.



For instance, in case of Abbott, the margin between the price of an imported stent (known as landed cost) and MRP varies between 294-740% across different brands.



For Medtronics, the margin ranges from 498-854% and for Boston Scientific, the difference varies between 464-1,200%.



The major players in the industry have been lobbying with the government to have a graded system of pricing in stents.



However, there is no supporting medical evidence to suggest that imported brands work better than the indigenous ones.



The NPPA should now use the standard average pricing-based method to derive at a capped price of stents, said Rajiv Nath, coordinator for Association of Indian Medical Device Industry.



Out of total number of stents used, almost 95% are drug eluting stents that slowly release a medicine, while 2% are bare metal stents and another 3% are biovascular scaffolds.



While the industry claims hospital procedure costs more than the stent price, the expert panel showed that stent price constituted 70-90% of the intervention cost in government hospitals.


The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) wants to end the moderation of Class XII board exam marks by all school boards across the country.



The CBSE feels liberal marking has led to high cut-offs in higher educational institutions.The CBSEs governing board held a discussion on the issue at its meeting on Tuesday and recommended that the Centre persuade all school boards to end the moderation policy.



The ministry may call a meeting of all school boards in an effort to reach a consensus on the issue, a member of the CBSE governing board told DH, requesting anonymity.



Moderation of board marks, which is done to bring parity in students scores in view of the subjectivity involved in the evaluation of their papers, has been a matter of concern in the academic circles as it is believed to have created an alarming situation.



The system must be brought to an end. School boards are competing with each other and giving inflated marks to safeguard the interests of their students against any disadvantage that they may have to face due to liberal marking policy being followed across the country. Ending the system by the CBSE alone will not make any significant difference.



It has to be done by all school boards, another CBSE governing board member said. Though the liberal marking policy adopted by the school boards across the country aims at dealing with the element of subjectivity involved in evaluation, it is resulting in higher educational institutions keeping high cut-off marks for admissions to various undergraduate programmes. The liberal marking policy is leading to unhealthy competition, a member said.



Three-language formula



The governing board also recommended implementation of the three-language formula for students of Class IX and Class X in CBSE schools.



I am not aware of this recommendation. I will take a suitable decision on the CBSE recommendation after it comes to me. But let me assure you, we do not intend to impose any language on anyone. Except Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, all other states are implementing the three-language formula in their schools. The status quo will be maintained, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday.
A teenage girl who was returning home from a birthday party was shot dead by a male friend inside a car in west Delhis Najafgarh area on Tuesday.



The prime suspect, Shubham, has been arrested. Puja (name changed) was shot dead by Shubham with a licensed weapon around 7 pm inside a black Mercedes car parked a little away from her house in Deepak Vihar, the police said.



A murder case has been registered, said a senior officer, adding that the car belonged to Shubhams friend Yogesh, a property dealer. The medical report is awaited to see if she was subjected to sexual assault.



According to the victims father, who was on a visit to Rajasthan at the time of the incident, his son called up Puja to inquire about her whereabouts on Tuesday evening.



My son was told by her (Puja) that she would return home in 10 minutes. She hinted that something bad had happened. My son heard a gunshot during the conversation, before the phone was hung up, Pujas father said.



A little later, Yogesh drove the car close to Pujas home and told her mother that her daughter was bleeding as she had met with an incident.



Pujas father reached Delhi within three hours after her mother informed him about the incident. Puja was rushed to hospital, but she died on the way. Preliminary investigations revealed that Puja was at a lunch party along with a few friends, including Yogesh, Shubham and Nitin. While returning, they stopped at Dwarka. Later, Shubham and Puja had an argument in the car, before the shot was fired.
After three days and three nights of continuous tracking, the Forest department team successfully cornered one tusker at around 7.20 am on Wednesday.



By 8.40 am, the elephant was darted, captured and is now ready to be relocated to Bandipur Tiger Reserve. But the task is not yet over. The department, along with experts and conservationists, is on the lookout for two more tuskers to be captured.



The exercise is part of efforts to ensure the safety of the animals, in the wake of the electrocution of two elephants in the recent past.



D Manjunath, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Ramanagaram forest division told DH that the team of around 100 forest officials zeroed in on one tusker, aged around 25 years, at Nijigal forest near Nelamangala.



The operation will continue on Thursday as we have to capture the other tuskers, he said. Soon after the elephant was captured, wildlife veterinarian Dr Umashankar and his team took him to Moolehole forest range in Bandipur Tiger Reserve. The captured tusker is nine feet tall and weighs around four tonnes. He is a healthy male and has no injuries.



Three camp tuskers Abhimanyu, Gajendra and Krishna are accompanying the wild tusker, Umashankar said. The elephant needs to be released into the wild, for which the help of the camp elephants is needed.



The department has not radio-collared the animal. But a team of forest watchers in the tiger reserve will keep a watch on his movements to ensure that he adjusts well to the surroundings. Moolehole has been chosen because it is a green patch and has waterholes, said a forest staffer.



Soon after the elephant was captured, local residents started saying that Rowdy Ranga had been captured. The pachyderm was usually sighted wandering between Savandurga and Bannerghatta National Park. D Mahesh Kumar, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Bengaluru Rural, said Ranga was a lone tusker and if there was any crop raid or such other incident, people blamed him, calling him Rowdy Ranga.



These animals are young and in their dispersal age (when they leave their parental group). They are just exploring new territories. Elephants roaming between Ramanagaram and Nelamangala raid crops in search of food. It is incorrect to blame one tusker and call him names, he said.




Members of the Bank Employees Federation of India, Karnataka, have decided to stage a dharna at 6.30 pm near Town Hall in Bengaluru on Thursday, protesting the way the Centre is implementing the demonetisation scheme.





Federation president K Srinivas Babu told reporters on Wednesday that mishandling of the scheme has caused a lot of inconvenience for the people. Steps should be taken to ensure adequate supply of Rs 500, Rs 100 and Rs 50 notes to provide relief to people. Besides, measures should be taken to provide sufficient manpower to banks to handle the rush, he added.



The Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should have made proper preparations before announcing the scheme. The existing four note printing presses have a limited capacity. Hence, people are unlikely to get relief in the near future, he said.



Federation general secretary M R Shenoy said the RBI should take measures to ensure that all banks maintain transparency in their transactions in the wake of seizure of unaccounted money by the Income Tax department. People have begun to suspect that bank employees are responsible for the currency crunch. But the fact is that banks will not have any clue about how much cash they would receive the next day.



The RBI has messed up the scheme, he charged.

DH News Service
Karnataka police are planning to induct Belgian Shepherds into Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) to combat Maoist forces in the state.





Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) (Crime and Technology Services) Bhaskar Rao said here on Wednesday that Belgian Shepherd is very aggressive compared to Labrador and Doberman Pinscher and also very skillful in crime detection.



After witnessing the impressive performance of Sidney, a Belgian Shepherd, during the 60th All India Police Duty Meet-2016 being held in Mysuru, the department authorities considered the possibility of inducting the canines into its squad. The dog squad has become an integral part of the department in detecting crimes, the ADGP said.



Belgian Shepherds have been active with a few of them deployed with Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at Jammu and Kashmir. Sidney, which was the star attraction during the event in Mysuru, has been bred at Bengaluru Rural district and is skillful in detecting crime and criminals.

DH News Service
The decision by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to make board examinations mandatory for Class X 2018 onwards has been welcomed by schools in Bengaluru.





Most students opt to write exams conducted by the Board, instead of the one conducted by the schools. Across the branches of Delhi Public School (DPS), only 6-7% students wrote the school exam, so this will not make much difference, said Mansoor Khan, who is on the management board of the school.



The question papers for both exams are set by the Board, but the school-conducted exam is evaluated by the faculty.



This is a good move as otherwise, there were parents who complained that teachers were partial. These students were seen to have an advantage over those who write the Board exams, said Dr M Srinivasan, principal of GEAR Innovative International School.



Raghavendra Prasad, whose son is now in Class 8, said, This will lead to a level playing field because the schools will have lesser role in deciding the students grade. Otherwise, the grades would vary from one school to the other and from rural to urban areas.



However, the decision to change the weightage to 80% for external and 20% for internal will make a difference. Earlier, the internal assessment had 40% weightage.



With such continuous internal evaluation there were many projects and group discussions which took learning beyond textbooks. The change in the weightage could reduce such activities, but it would depend on the school as well, said Manju Arif, principal of DPS North.



The CBSE has recommended to the Ministry of Human Resources Development that the three-language policy be extended to Classes IX and X. The policy applies till Class VIII students at present and students have to study two languages besides English, which is compulsory.



Since students are already studying the subjects till Class VIII, extending it further wouldnt be a burden or added pressure. The third language usually has a curriculum of only two classes per week, Manju said.



Other educationists said a third language was unnecessary and expressed concern that it may adversely students moving from one state to another after Class VIII.



Parents say CBSE should take it slow and bring changes incrementally. Class X student Poornashree S is not keen on having one extra subject. We were happy when we came to Class IX as we had only five subjects. If it increases to six, it will be tough.


California almonds have a role to play in terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir.





The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has started probing large-scale transfer of funds from Pakistan to India through import of California almonds through cross-LoC trade.



The agency took suo motu cognisance of reliable information that terrorists were using Trade Facilitation Centres located at Salamabad and Chakkan-da-Bagh and registered a case last week under Section 17 (punishment for raising funds to indulge in terrorist acts) of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against unknown persons.



This is in gross violation of the state policy of prohibition on trade in third-party origin goods through this mechanism and information indicated that these funds were being used for fomenting terrorism and separatism in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the NIA said in a statement.



The Ministry of Home Affairs felt that the information had a bearing on national security and advised the NIA to properly investigate the matter.



An NIA team has presented the FIR before the NIA special court in Jammu. Investigation teams of the agency have conducted searches and seized several documents at several places connected with the crime in Jammu and Kashmir since the registration of the case.



The cross-LoC trade was started as part of a confidence-building measure between India and Pakistan to normalise relationship.
Political differences among members of the Del Mar City Council came to the forefront Monday, Dec. 19, as the council discussed a proposed resolution affirming the citys commitment to addressing climate change, and its unwillingness to participate in the registration of Muslims or the rounding up of undocumented immigrants.

The resolution was proposed by Councilman Dwight Worden, in an apparent reference to comments made by President-elect Donald Trump during his election campaign. Over the course of the campaign, Trump advocated a Muslim registry, a deportation force for undocumented immigrants and referred to climate change as a hoax perpetrated by China.

The proposed resolution is intended to reassure our residents and visitors where, as a city, we stand on these issues and whether, and to what extent, our city government will participate in some of the controversial programs that are under discussion at the federal level, Worden wrote in a memo accompanying the proposed one-page resolution.

But Mayor Terry Sinnott and Councilman Dave Druker expressed concern about what they perceived as the political nature of the resolution, its focus on national instead of local issues, and its potential to divide the community along partisan lines.

In the end, the council approved the measure on a 4-1 vote, with Sinnott in opposition.

Druker said he agreed with the spirit of the resolution, but said he wished it had been proposed later, after passions stirred by the election had died down.

Its a very highly politically charged environment. People will see us doing this in response to political action, Druker said.

Sinnott said the resolution is clearly focused on liberal Democratic positions on federal issues, and asked why it didnt include nods to conservative positions, such as calling for a balanced federal budget or reduced regulations on businesses.

The City Council is successful when it stays away from partisan issues and comes together to focus on Del Mars problems, said Sinnott.

This particular item worries me a great deal. It is a proposed resolution that is very damaging to the spirit of cooperation and accomplishment for this council and Del Mar, said Sinnott.

He scoffed at the idea that Del Mar residents need reassurance on these issues.

To my mind our residents are not snowflakes, needing therapy dogs and coloring books. They dont need to worry that the sky is falling, Sinnott said.

But Worden and Haviland said citizens do want the city to take a position on these issues.

I think its important we let the rest of the community know the values of our city, said Haviland.

Worden said he tried to keep the politics out of his resolution, even avoiding the use of the term sanctuary city, a designation some cities have adopted to demonstrate their support for immigrants.

This was my attempt at just being as clear and direct as possible, Worden said. We will not do roundups, we will not do registries. Its not advancing Democratic policies, these should be universal American policies.

Druker pointed out that 69 percent of Del Mar residents did not vote for Trump, meaning that they likely would approve of the points raised in the resolution. And city officials reported receiving 25 emails about the resolution, 23 in support and two against.
Officials with the Del Mar Fairgrounds have reached an agreement with a group representing local Native American tribes over a change to the theme for the 2017 San Diego County Fair. An earlier version of the theme had been deemed as extremely offensive by at least one local tribe.

The new theme will be Where the West is Fun, and will highlight the history of the West and San Diego County in the mid-to late 1800s, said Fred Schenk, a member of the board of the 22nd District Agricultural Association, which operates the state-owned Del Mar Fairgrounds and runs the annual county fair.

The agreement came Tuesday morning, Dec. 20, during a meeting between representatives of the 22nd DAA and the Southern California Tribal Chairmens Association, a consortium of 19 tribes, said Schenk. A representative of the association could not be reached for comment as of press-time.

We worked that out and everybody is very pleased, Schenk said Tuesday.

Schenk said the county fair website will be updated with the new slogan as soon as possible. As of Tuesday, the former slogan, How the West Was Fun, was still prominently displayed on the website.

According to Schenk, the original theme  approved by the 22nd DAA board in October  may have given the suggestion that the winning of the American West from Native Americans had been fun.

That suggestion offended local Native Americans.

There was insufficient public review and participation in this decision. The logo is extremely offensive in light of the history and experience of genocide for the Kumeyaay Nation and other Native nations during the so-called settling of the west, Angela Elliott Santos, tribal chairwoman of the Manzanita Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, wrote in a letter to the 22nd DAA that was also copied to the tribal adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Earlier, Schenk said, When I read that (letter), my reaction was, I want to make sure we dont disappoint any group that we respect and want to have come to the fair. I want to work with anyone who feels that we didnt give adequate thought to the slogan.

At a board of directors meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 13, officials had been planning to introduce a new fair website, but that rollout was delayed while the issue regarding the fair theme and logo was resolved

Theres a new sheriff in town and its You, partner. Grab your cowboy hat, pull on your boots, and ride on over to this years San Diego County Fair as we celebrate the legendary rough-and-tumble Wild, Wild West, reads the intro copy. The 2017 fair runs from June 2 through July 4.

The fair logo includes a cowboy rearing back on a horse, framed by cactuses.

Each year, fair officials develop a theme and logo and related marketing materials. Recent themes have included Mad About the Fair, relating to Alice in Wonderland, and The Fab Fair, celebrating the Beatles and other British invasion bands.

Schenk, who has served on the fair board on and off since 2003, could not recall a similar circumstance when the planned theme had offended a community group.

The fair always includes an exhibit hall dedicated to the years theme, which is located near the entrance to the fairgrounds. Schenk said discussions had already been underway before the letter was received from the Manzanita band to include Native American history and culture in the themed exhibit. Those efforts to incorporate Native American cultural contributions into the exhibit will continue now that the theme issue has been resolved, Schenk said.

Santos did not return phone messages from a reporter seeking comment. In her letter, she cited several books that chronicle the genocide that took place during the late 1800s in what is now the Western United States.

One of the books was Murder State: Californias Native American Genocide, 1846-1873, by Brendan C. Lindsay.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Euro-American citizenry of California carried out mass genocide against the Native population of their state, using the processes and mechanisms of democracy to secure land and resources for themselves and their private interests. The murder, rape, and enslavement of thousands of Native people were legitimized by notions of democracy  in this case mob rule  through a discreetly organized and brutally effective series of petitions, referenda, town hall meetings, and votes at every level of California government, reads a description of the book, which was published by the University of Nebraska Press, on Amazon.com.

Santos letter concluded, The Kumeyaay Nation is interested in working with the Del Mar Fair to meet their mission objective by developing educational and interpretive programs to accurately display the heritage of the Kumeyaay Nation for the general public.

Schenk said the issue was resolved thanks to the prompt response by all parties.

We were able to come up with a slogan that pleases everyone, he said.
More than 2,300 rural Alaskans in seven communities along the Kuskokwim River will receive affordable, high-speed internet for the first time thanks to a tribal broadband grant funded by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

The collaboration between Calista Corporation and Alaska Communications will connect one of the most underserved regions in the United States with a fiber-optic cable that will be the foundation for expanding broadband to communities in the region. This transformative project will give rural residents access to virtual meetings, online classes, telehealth, and online jobs without having to leave their village or way of life.

The communities served include Lower Kalskag, Upper Kalskag, Tuluksak, Akiak, Akiachak, Kwethluk and Napakiak.

Alaska Communications will deploy a fiber-to-the-home network in each community, offering up to Gigabit speed service at affordable rates.

The project is part of the Alaska FiberOptic Project, a larger collaboration between Calista Corporation, Doyon, Limited, Gana-A Yoo Limited, Tanana Chiefs Conference and Alaska Communications to connect up to 20 communities along the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers with fiber-optic cable. This segment is the second of three segments to get funding.

The five organizations recognize that reliable, affordable, high-speed internet is the foundation for education, healthcare, economic growth, and quality of life. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of broadband and illuminated the growing digital divide across Alaska. The Alaska FiberOptic Project will bridge that divide for many rural communities.

Reliable, affordable, high-speed internet is a key to connecting our people to the world, preserving and advancing our culture, and offering opportunities for young people in our communities, said Andrew Guy, President and CEO of Calista Corporation. In combination with other broadband projects in our region, the Alaska FiberOptic Project will create the foundation for many socio-economic improvements and opportunities in the region now and for decades to come.

This is an exciting milestone for Alaska, said Bill Bishop, president and CEO of Alaska Communications. Were honored to work with our partners on a project that will be life-changing for many Alaskans, providing the technical expertise and experience building, operating and maintaining critical broadband infrastructure. We thank the NTIA along with President Biden, Senator Murkowski, Senator Sullivan, Representative Peltola, and Governor Dunleavy for their support bringing this important infrastructure to our country and state.

Alaskas geography, terrain, climate, and vast size have created significant obstacles to developing broadband infrastructure. But rural Alaska is no less deserving of connectivity. For the first time, some of Alaskas most underserved communities will receive high-speed internet access made possible by the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Grant program. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 created this program and made $980 million available for grants to eligible Native entities for broadband deployment. Leading up to its passage, I made sure the program would meet the unique needs of Alaska, with broad eligibility for Native entities. I commend the partnership and coordination of the successful applicants in securing this grant, which will be transformational, said Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Access to high-speed, reliable internet can be life-changing for a community, enhancing the delivery of health care and education, and opening doors for small businesses and entrepreneurs, said Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). Many of our rural, Alaska Native communities for too long have found themselves without the broadband connectivity that most Americans take for granted. Im glad to see the significant federal infrastructure dollars we secured being deployed to break down the digital divide and improve the lives and well-being of thousands of Alaskans across the Lower Kuskokwim region.

While Alaska villagers work hard at preserving their culture and traditions, they also need reliable, high-speed internet service to manage in todays world. Its essential to conduct business, keep in touch with family, receive medical care and communicate with public agencies. High-speed internet to these underserved communities is the perfect mix of new and old, said Representative Mary Peltola (D-Alaska).

Now more than ever do we see the critical role that the internet plays in nearly every part of life and the importance of good connectivity for every Alaskan, said Governor Mike Dunleavy. Ensuring all Alaskans have access to equal economic and educational opportunities has been a priority for me as governor. This new grant from NTIA to Calista and ACS is a great opportunity to build connectivity in Alaska for the next 10, 20, and 50 years.

Alaska Communications will begin the permit and construction process as quickly as possible. It will also offer a $75/month discount for households on qualifying Tribal lands through the Affordable Connectivity Program. Customers can learn more and enroll at acpbenefit.org.

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My roots in Alaska. My Alaskan roots are deeply entrenched in the western tundra of Nome, where I was delivered by an Inupiaq midwife. My mother is from Elim; my late father was born and raised in Teller. My mother, Lena, is now 93-years old, and I have the privilege of being her primary care coordinator. My mother was educated up to the third grade, and my father graduated from an elementary school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Growing up in Elim, my mother worked seasonally in the local hotel, and in the cannery, until she retired. My father was a subsistence hunter and construction worker, retiring from the IUOE Local 32. My childhood was full of dog teams, berry picking, squirrel hunting, going to church, family, and lots and lots of jokes. At one time, I suppose, I could understand Yupik and Inupiaq, because I remember that both of my grandmothers spoke to me in their native language.

My education. My education, while vast, can be summed up in one sentence: I am a lifelong learner. After high school, I left Seward to attend the Alaska Methodist University in Anchorage. Four years later, at the age of 22, I graduated with a Bachelors of Arts. I felt like I had conquered the world! I was the first college graduate in my family! Little did I know that it was only the beginning. Three years later, I graduated law school with a Juris Doctor. Later came a Masters of Science degree from Columbia University. Then a Masters of Arts from Dartmouth. Two years later, I earned a third Masters degree from Harvard University. And, two years after that, in 2013, I received a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. One thing is for sure: I believe in education, and my love for learning will serve as a strong asset for me as your senator. Education is the surest and best way to provide the foundations of a healthy future for our thousands of our Alaskan children, and therefore lead to healthy futures for the future of our communities.

My passion for public service. I am deeply and passionately committed to public service, and I am committed to putting people before profits. I am a former mayor of the city of Seward, as well as a former city councilman. I had the privilege to serve as the Commissioner for the Alaska Department of Community and Regional Affairs under Governor Walter Hickel. Additionally, I served as the Commissioner for the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development under Governor Frank Murkowski. I have served on numerous boards and commissions, such as Chugach Native Corporation, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, Alaska Industrial Development Authority and other non-profit community service organizations.

My service as your Senator. I am running for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate for the State of Alaska. I am the only Democratic candidate. As your nominee, I stand for equality, justice and fairness for all, as interpreted in the United States Constitution for over 250 years. As I stand for you, I will not be afraid or intimidated to stand up against out-of-state big corporations that are trying to buy our elections. I am running on a platform to make Alaska a better place for each of us: for you, for your future, the future of your family, and the future of our State.

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The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is reallocating the projected unused amounts of 14,600 metric tons of the Aleut Corporations pollock directed fishing allowance from the Aleutian Islands subarea to the Bering Sea subarea directed fisheries.

These actions are necessary to provide opportunity for harvest of the 2019 total allowable catch of pollock, consistent with the goals and objectives of the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area.

The changes to Table 4 of the final 2019 and 2020 harvest specifications for groundfish in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (84 FR 9000, March 13, 2019 and 84 FR 9976, March 19, 2019) can be found in the harvest specifications.

Fishermen are reminded that all actions and closures remain in full force and effect. This reallocation does not rescind or modify closures to directed fishing or actions prohibiting retention of a groundfish species.

This information bulletin only provides notice of a fishery management action. For the purposes of complying with any requirements of this action, you are advised to see the actual text of the action in the Federal Register.

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Closing the digital divide and bringing digital equity to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta a top priority.

The Bethel Native Corporation (BNC) announced today (August 18th, 2021) that it would apply  in partnership with GCI, Alaskas largest telecommunications provider  to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for a $43 million grant to deploy a fiber optic network from Dillingham to Bethel.

Everyone agrees that fiber is the best infrastructure for the most reliable and fastest broadband service. Fiber has already been deployed to Kotzebue and Nome, and projects are underway to deploy fiber to Dillingham and Unalaska. As the largest community in western Alaska and the regional hub for the Y-K Delta, Bethel needs fiber service urgently, said BNC President and CEO Ana Hoffman. The COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of remote learning, remote working and accessing remote healthcare reinforced the need to close the digital divide throughout western Alaska. This infrastructure is needed to achieve the quality of life residents here deserve. BNC sees the NTIA grant program as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring urban-level internet service to Bethel and improve internet connectivity for communities across the Delta.

Plans for the proposed project, announced last month by Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC), the Tribal health consortium for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, and GCI, would bring urban-level 1 gig internet services to Bethel and other communities along the fiber route in 2024.

The BNC-GCI application will be submitted for consideration by NTIAs Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP), which will distribute $1 billion for tribal broadband initiatives, including infrastructure projects, across the nation. TBCP applications are due on September 1, 2021, and award announcements are expected before the end of the year.

GCI is excited about the opportunity to work with BNC to close the digital divide in Bethel and other communities on the fiber route, said GCI President and COO Greg Chapados. We believe that the BNC-GCI application will be one of the strongest received by NTIA. The Bethel fiber project will transform communications services in Bethel and communities along the fiber route, leverage the $150 million investment GCI has already made in the Y-K Delta with our own capital and federal grants, and support GCIs multi-year plan to improve wired and wireless internet service throughout the region.

In Bethel and the fiber route communities, GCI will offer the same residential internet plans that we offer in Anchorage, Chapados continued. Consumers will have the opportunity to purchase plans with unlimited data that are up to 100 times faster than plans currently available. We believe that the Bethel fiber project will be a game-changer for consumers and for the Y-K Deltas economy. Fiber is the high capacity, low latency, future-proof technology that the region needs.

The proposed Bethel fiber project will follow a combined submarine route from Dillingham, where a long-haul fiber project will soon be underway, to the mouth of the Kuskokwim River where it is expected to follow a terrestrial route to Bethel. GCI also will upgrade its local access networks in Bethel and the fiber route communities to offer lightning-fast 1 gig internet speeds to residents.

The completed project will support GCI plans to enhance its networks throughout the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, including expansion of long-haul microwave capacity and wired and wireless local access network upgrades.

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by AVCP Staff

The Executive Board and Administration of the Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP), representing 56 federally recognized Tribes in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, is deeply disappointed with the Implementing An America-First Offshore Energy Strategy Executive Order, signed by President Trump on April 28, 2017.

The April 28th Order struck down the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Executive Order, signed into law on December 9, 2016. The December 9th Order addressed concerns our Tribes have about the increased shipping and effects of climate change on our Bering Sea. The December 9th Order also gave the Bering Sea coastal Tribes their rightful seat at the table when decisions about the Bering Sea are being made.

AVCP (along with the Bering Sea Elders Group and Kawerak) requested assistance from the Alaska Congressional Delegation to help protect the December 9th Order, which directly impacts our waters and the sustainability of our people. However, despite the combined voices of 76 federally recognized Tribes, the protections lasted only four months before being dissolved in a single sentence.

AVCP will not stop working to protect our land, our water and the resources that have sustained us for thousands of years. AVCPs Executive Board has passed a resolution calling for the immediate reinstatement of the December 9th Order, and calls for individual Tribes and regional organizations to do the same.

AVCP demands that our Congressional Delegation support us in reinstating the December 9th Order in its original form in its entirety.

This statement was issued on May 23, 2017.

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DEAR ABBY: I am a 46-year-old woman with PTSD due to a history of physical abuse, mental abuse and incest that I experienced as a child. I'm proud to say that it has not been repeated with my four children.

My childhood history has made me want sex only if I am in control or if I am role-playing rape. It has caused a big problem with my fiance. I want this scenario all the time, and unfortunately it's unhealthy. I'm not sure how to go about healthy sex with him. He is 10 years older than I am and not interested in "different" sex practices.

I love him very much and don't want to mess up this relationship because of my sex issues. Can you advise me how to handle this? -- ROLE-PLAYING IN ST. PAUL

DEAR ROLE-PLAYING: If you haven't discussed the reason for your sexual issues with your fiance, you need to explain the reason for them. From your letter, I am guessing that you never had counseling to help you resolve the abuse to which you were subjected. If that's correct, I am advising you to contact RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network; rainn.org) or a local rape crisis organization and ask for some help now. The counselors are specially trained to help victims of various kinds of abuse, and the place to start resolving your issues would be there.

DEAR ABBY: I'm a woman in my 30s. My father has been in prison since I was a tot. I was raised by my mother who, in my opinion, did a great job. My relationship with my father has been damaged for as long as I can remember. He will never get out, and part of me is angry at him for making such poor life choices.

When I was a teenager he struck me once during a visit. He is also manipulative and sometimes does hurtful things. For example, a few years ago he wrote me letters to which I never responded. When I finally got around to writing him back, he mailed my letters back to me (unopened) and said I deserved to see how it felt to have letters go unanswered.

He has said he's convinced he will die within five years because he's nearing the ages when his parents died. I think there's something wrong with him, and I'm afraid that after he passes on I'll feel like I didn't make enough of an effort. How do I proceed with my relationship with my father? -- CAUTIOUS IN THE SOUTH

DEAR CAUTIOUS: Your father made terrible life choices, and he's spending the rest of his life paying for them. I don't blame you for feeling anger at his inability to parent you. However, before advising you to write him off, I would need to know why he lashed out at you during your prison visit, even though hitting is unacceptable.

When people are incarcerated, their ability to reach out is severely limited, as I am sure you know all too well. I don't think the way your father handled your ignoring his letters was bad or wrong. If his silence stung you, imagine how yours affected him.

Whether or not your father is dying is beside the point. I think on some level you know you have to treat him with more compassion than you have, or you wouldn't have written to me. I don't know anyone who hasn't made mistakes. Your father made a doozy. But you say your mother raised you right, and if that's true it couldn't hurt to treat him with some compassion.

DEAR ABBY: My dad started an affair with a woman who is four years older than I am. He met her when he hired her for her "services." Fast-forward a year: He has left my mom. Mom left the state and has moved in with me. She's trying to rebuild her life, but she's still very much in love with my dad.

Dad, on the other hand, is miserable. His girlfriend is controlling to the point that he's not allowed to talk to his children or grandchildren. She's an alcoholic who mentally, verbally and physically abuses him. He recently left her and came to stay at my house. He told Mom and me that he wanted a fresh start.

Abby, he was here for less than 48 hours and went back to the girlfriend! I am convinced that he either has a drug problem or he's sick. He has lost an extreme amount of weight. I have no idea how to help him and I'm terrified that he is going to die.

Now he won't talk to me. He left while I was at work so he wouldn't have to face me. I don't understand why he would come here only to turn right around and leave. I am disgusted, disappointed and angry. Should I cut all ties with him until he gets his life together? -- DISAPPOINTED DAUGHTER

DEAR DISAPPOINTED: Considering what has been going on, your feelings are natural. However, because you are unsure about what is driving your father -- addiction, illness, indecision, etc. -- do not "cut all ties." Leave the door ajar a little longer. There's a saying, "It ain't over 'til it's over." Victims sometimes need several attempts to leave their abusers, and your dad may be no exception.

DEAR ABBY: I have been dating a wonderful girl for about seven months. We're sophomores in college. She's sweet, kind, extraordinarily talented, and we treat each other wonderfully. Everything has been great, with the occasional disagreement.

The problem is that I'm starting to notice that she seems to be homophobic. I was raised in a liberal, open-minded home, whereas hers was much more conservative. She never met a homosexual until college. She has talked about feeling uncomfortable with two men kissing or talking about being intimate.

At first, I thought she'd be equally uncomfortable with straight couples doing the same thing, but she wasn't. When I tell her that I support marriage equality and the LGBTQ community, she gets very quiet and uneasy.

I care for her, but I don't know if I can be with someone who's this uncomfortable about homosexuality. What do you think I should do? This is a very important issue to me, and I would love your insight. -- TORN COLLEGE SOPHOMORE

DEAR TORN: She may be a wonderful girl, but whether you are wonderful for each other is open to question. Try to project ahead. If the two of you were to marry and she was unable to overcome her aversion to gay people, to what extent would it limit your ability to interact with them? Or their ability to have a relationship with you?

Let this play out a little longer to see if she's able to evolve with more exposure. If she's not, then she may not be the one for you.

DEAR ABBY: My son's girlfriend of five years and her 8-year-old daughter have been living with my son for the last four years. She has recently started introducing my husband and me as her daughter's "grandparents." Tonight she asked for details about my father so her daughter could include them in a paper she is writing about her "family." The daughter's father and his current wife had twins recently, and I understand from her mother that she is somewhat jealous.

I feel uncomfortable with this new description of our relationship, although I don't want to hurt the girl. Should I say something to my son's girlfriend or my son? -- FAMILY DETAILS IN CALIFORNIA

DEAR FAMILY DETAILS: The word from here is: Keep your lips zipped! If you object, it will cause only hard feelings. You say your son and his girlfriend have been living together for four years. If they should have a child together, do you plan to treat that child differently? Face it, you ARE in the role of a grandparent. My advice is to accept it graciously and act accordingly.

DEAR ABBY: I'm an 18-year-old girl and on my way to Navy boot camp. I'm excited about my enlistment, but I have a few troubling distractions.

The first is my mother, "Dana." I moved in with my dad a year and a half ago, and it has been an amazing, positive change. But any contact I have with Dana or my grandmother screws me up majorly. I become mopey, have a bad attitude, and I'm just an all-around bad person to be around. This upsets my dad and my stepmom, "Ashley," whom I consider to be my true mom, because it affects them and my three sisters.

They say I need to forgive and let go, since obviously I won't get an apology from Dana for how she raised and treated me. What I need is advice on how to forgive and remove her from my life without hurting her feelings or making it worse at home. -- ON MY WAY TO BOOT CAMP

DEAR ON YOUR WAY: It isn't necessary to forgive a toxic parent. What you need to do is distance yourself from her, which will happen soon as you depart for boot camp. If being around Dana depresses you, see her as little as possible and don't feel guilty about it. Do not demand or expect an apology from her and don't offer one, because separating oneself from someone who mistreated you is healthy.

DEAR ABBY: I recently graduated from a prestigious university. I am proud of having graduated from there, and I would like to put a bumper sticker of that university on my car. My father says I shouldn't do it because it will come across as pretentious.

While I understand where he's coming from, my pride for my alma mater is no different than that of many of my high school friends who went to various universities around the country. I'm not sure what to do and would appreciate your opinion. -- PROUD ALUM IN TEXAS

DEAR PROUD ALUM: I'm sure your father means well. However, if you would like to advertise the fact that you graduated from a prestigious university, go ahead and do so. You have earned the right, and no one should criticize you for it.

DEAR ABBY: I'm 57 and have been married for 25 years. My husband has retired and is ready for me to do the same. I enjoy my work, and I am delaying my retirement because he wants to move to another state.

Abby, all I can think about is how I will be forced to start all over with a new church, new doctors, new friends, etc. That's incredibly stressful for me, and I don't want to do it. It takes me a while to warm up to people, and I don't do it easily. To me, it would not be an exciting adventure.

I have told him I don't want to do this and why. He responds that if I want to visit my friends I can always "hop on a plane." He said he's tired of the cold and wants to move. All I can think about is having to sell our home, buy another one, learn a new area, make friends, find a new church. I have all of that here. Maybe he should be a snowbird? -- DON'T WANT TO START ANEW

DEAR DON'T WANT: If you and your husband can afford two places, perhaps you should both be snowbirds. It couldn't hurt to rent a place for a few months to see what life would be like in a new community. That's what I recommend to readers who contemplate making a drastic change -- such as relocation -- in their lives. If you do that, you might find that the "natives" are friendly and the community is congenial. However, if that's not the case, it could help you to avoid making a costly mistake.

DEAR ABBY: My daughter has been divorced less than a year and is dating again. (She's the one who left the marriage.) However, she keeps many pictures of her ex-husband on her Facebook page. She says he was a big part of her life, and she refuses to take them down. She thinks if a guy can't accept it, then he isn't the right guy. Do you agree that she's sending the wrong message? -- TAKE THE PHOTOS DOWN

DEAR TAKE: Personally, I do. A picture is worth a thousand words, and what it shows those who see hers is that she hasn't emotionally let go of her ex-husband. However, if men date her after looking at her Facebook page and seeing his pictures posted there, it's working for her, and I can't offer a criticism. Because you can't stop her, I suggest you accept it.

DEAR ABBY: It's that time of year when you print your gift ideas for seniors column. When my dad was alive, he, like many others, was on a fixed income. Among his pleasures was watching ballgames and keeping up with current events. So I contacted his cable company and arranged to pay his cable bill for a period of time as a gift. This can be arranged for any increment of time to match the gifter's budget -- from one month to a year. It allowed Dad to enjoy his TV and have some extra spending money that would otherwise have gone to paying the cable bill. -- ROSEMARY IN PENNSYLVANIA

DEAR ROSEMARY: You are a good daughter. Thanks for sharing your idea. It's a thoughtful one, and I'm sure my readers will thank you for the suggestion.

DEAR ABBY: Recently, my wife and I went dancing with my friend "Dick" and his wife. While I was in the middle of a conversation with Dick, my wife kept trying to interrupt. She even laid her hand on my arm to try to get my attention. I ignored her and told her later she had been rude to try to interrupt my conversation. She thinks I disrespected her and our marriage by putting conversation with my friend above her. This happens often when the four of us are together.

Am I being insensitive to my wife's feelings? We frequently disagree, but we have been married 44 years. Your input would be appreciated. -- ALWAYS A LOVING HUSBAND

DEAR LOVING HUSBAND: It is generally considered rude to interrupt someone when he or she is talking. The next time your wife does it, stop and ask her what's so important. (Could it be that the band is playing your song?)

However, if you have been droning on with your buddy for a long time, she may simply be craving some attention. If that's the case, perhaps it would be better if you saw Dick on a one-to-one basis without the wives around. That way you won't be interrupted.

DEAR ABBY: I work in a large medical facility that relies on nurses to attend every shift they are assigned. Last Christmas a nurse I know called in saying her father had died. The thing is, I have known her for years, and her father has been dead as long as I have known her. Would it be snitching to tell my supervisor what I know? -- SHORTHANDED IN NEW ENGLAND

DEAR SHORTHANDED: Yes, it would. But it wouldn't be snitching to inform the nurse that lying to get out of work is not only unfair to the rest of you, but also unprofessional.

DEAR ABBY: For the past 17 years, we have hosted parties at Christmas. Although years ago they started with 15 guests and light hors d'oeuvres, the list has grown to 82 guests and a full buffet dinner and bar. It costs several thousand dollars when you factor in the servers and bartender, and it requires months of planning.

Over the years we have had guests who attend our party, but we never see or hear from them during the year unless it's to inquire about the party. We don't expect a tit for tat, but we are now at a point where we need to curtail costs. We feel used by these people, and would rather host a smaller gathering for people we consider better friends and acquaintances.

What I'm struggling with is how to respond when asked why they are no longer on the guest list. -- USED PARTY HOST

DEAR USED PARTY HOST: If someone actually has the gall to ask that question, I think you should tell the truth and respond that, "We have had to cut costs, and this year we decided to entertain only people we see on a regular basis."

DEAR ABBY: You missed the mark in your answer to "Mother Doesn't Know Best" (July 7), whose 8-year-old stepson arrives for visits in old, ill-fitting clothing, even though the father purchases new clothes for him on every visit.

I live in Ohio, and the state considers housing, food, electricity, gas and running water as part of the makeup of child support. I know this firsthand. You also need to know if the mother is working and if she contributes to her son's support. What about other expenses (toys, haircuts, uniforms, etc.)?

Part of the problem may be that Stepmom and Dad live across the country and aren't there to see what exactly goes on day to day. Yes, the little boy shouldn't be showing up at their home in clothes that are too small, but even Stepmom said he was putting on weight. -- MITZI IN DAYTON, OHIO

DEAR MITZI: Your points are well taken. However, the majority of the feedback I received about that letter pointed out that children arriving in old clothes for visits with their dads is a popular ploy that some custodial mothers use in order to get new clothes, and some even return the clothes for cash. Read on:

DEAR ABBY: I had a divorced girlfriend I had confided in about this same problem. She said, "Don't you know? We always send the kids to their dad's in their worst clothing. That way, they'll have to buy them new stuff during the visit."

You can't assume that because a child arrives in worn or ill-fitting clothes that the custodial parent is unfit or that the child doesn't have lots of better clothing at home. -- MRS. D. IN VIRGINIA

DEAR ABBY: Please suggest that when Stepmom and Dad buy clothes for his son, they mark the labels with the boy's initials. The mom may be returning the items for cash and buying something she wanted for herself. -- MOM WHO KNOWS

DEAR ABBY: I am writing this as I sit in a hospital at my daughter's bedside. When staff comes into her room, she asks them to wash their hands in front of her before putting on their gloves. Several doctors took offense at this. We even posted a note on the door, asking the staff to wash up inside the room. Were we wrong? She doesn't want to increase her risk of infection. I would think that a patient worried about proper hygiene would not be sneered at by the people trying to get her healthy. -- TRYING TO STAY HEALTHY

DEAR TRYING TO STAY HEALTHY: Bravo to you for speaking up! According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hospital-acquired infections have cost the hospital industry $30 billion and resulted in 100,000 patient deaths. A 2013 New York Times article reported that unless pushed to do so, hospital workers wash their hands only as little as 30 percent of the time they interact with patients. The problem is so widespread that some hospitals must monitor workers via video cameras or have them wear electronic badges to "encourage" compliance, while others have resorted to "bribing" workers to do the right thing.

You were not wrong to ask staffers at your daughter's hospital to wash their hands. Nobody should feel reluctant to ask for something that is standard procedure.

Because many patients in hospitals and care facilities feel vulnerable and dependent, they fear that staff will "dislike" them if they ask for too much. For patients to request handwashing is not only in their best interest, but also the hospital's. Too often, change doesn't happen in the medical profession until patients speak up and advocate for their own well-being. You would not have been "sneered at" if your request hadn't made those individuals feel defensive.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069
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Welcome to the 13th issue of DESIGN SCENE, easing us into the new year by celebrating the best of winter collections and introducing the first look of the spring ahead. Thanks to the idiosyncrasies of magazine publishing our January/February issue comes out in December, just as the most of us are finalizing Christmas preparations, rather than New Year resolutions.

GET YOUR COPY IN PRINT $24.90 AND DIGITAL $3.90

In our mission to celebrate young talent, we teamed up for the cover story with a breakthrough face on the modeling scene, Agnes Sokolowska. This promising girl with her signature haircut has already dominated the pages of prestige glossies such as Vogue, W Magazine, Interview Magazine, IO Donna and ELLE to name a few. Agnes was photographed in London by Rui Faria while taking her time to speak to our contributing writer Matti Bygod.

See more of the new issue after the jump:





In other stories, we made sure to spotlight the best of winter collections, with coveted pieces ready to be plucked from the shelves in the 1st seconds of sale season commencing. Our contributors bravely hit the great outdoors just like in the stunning nordic sea shoot by Christian Davila Hernandez featuring Alex Van Der Steens styling as well as Alex Huanfa Chengs shoot captured in France. Followed by Alejandro Cabezuts bohemian take on Central Park in New York and Victor Yuan and Silvester Yius adventure to a Mediterranean Island. While for Meet Me In Montauk story our team in Singapore under the lense of photographer Mun Kong prepared a cinematic tale of romance.

Elsewhere in the issue F&G photography duo brought a Marie Antoinette beauty inspiration to the table, while photographer Mirja Zentgraf worked with stylist Lisa Filippini to display the contemporary moments from the likes of Samsoe & Samsoe, Hugo Boss and Calvin Klein. We left the studio prep to Francesco Menicucci and Stefano Guerrini who brought in the nostalgic prints from the likes of Burberry and Roberto Cavalli alongside Italian breakthrough labels such as Leitmotiv and Giuseppe Di Morabito.

Going from the editorial stage this time we might have gone into more conversations than ever before. Just before our conversation with Agnes, I try to ponder on my own the Milan Fashion scene with the anxiety of the month of fashion week in front of us. This is followed by my interview with fellow Editor In Chief Petar Janjatovic who talks about trials and tribulations of running a Bazaar international edition. We covered the design department in inspiring conversations of our Katarina Djoric with Europeans Dyer-Smith but she also had the time to talk to a true New Yorker, Taylor Spellman a girl going strong with her interior design business and a show of her own on BRAVO.

The art department is covered with exclusive conversations featuring artist Magnus Gjoen who gives the new life to classical art, but also Italian furniture designer Emanuele Magini who brings back the originality to the design capital. Another great story comes in Katarinas conversation with one of the most promising designers on the scene, the young Peet Dullaert who already established himself on the Paris fashion scene thanks to the originality displayed in his eponymous line. With an army of these hard working creatives, compiling a new years resolution might not be an easy task, but it is sure to be an inspirational endeavor.

Photographers: Christian Davila Hernandez, Rui Faria, Alex Huanfa Cheng, Francesco Menicucci, F&G, Simon Minardi, Mirja Zentgraf, Alejandro Cabezut, Mun Kong, Victor Yuan

Stylists: Alex Van Der Steen, Katie Felstead, Ikumi Hane, Stefano Guerrini, Francis Ocon, Elena Monti, Antonio Ariganello, Lisa Filippini, Lex Robinson, Ong Jollin, Sylvester Yiu

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Saying migrants are dirty is allowed, while migrants are dirt isnt!

With this, Facebook finds itself in yet another pickle this year. A German newspaper called Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), claims to have accessed internal documents of the social network, which has millions of users across Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Messenger. For a while now, Facebook has been facing the wrath of lawmakers in Germany and the European Union, regarding the deletion of hateful content from its platform. Until now, no one had access to the rules Facebook deploys for deleting such content. Those are the very documents acquired by SZ. Documents that paint a very bleak picture of the social media mammoths stronghold over content.

As per information revealed in the leaked document, Facebook has a department that sets rules for content deletion. These rules are then implemented by third-party service providers, who go through thousands of posts and videos, to delete content that includes any kind of hate speech. In the document, the company says, It (hate speech) creates an environment of intimidation and exclusion that limits people's willingness to share freely and represent themselves authentically. While this would seem like a noble thought, Facebooks guidelines for deleting such content are extremely blurry and shed light on how the social media group presides over content on the platform.

For instance, Facebook has a list of protected categories and subcategories such as, Sex, Religious affiliation, National origin, Gender identity, Race, Ethnicity, Sexual orientation, Disability, serious illness, Age, Employment Status, Continent of Origin, Social Status, Appearance, Political Affiliations and more. It also has protection for religions such as Islam, Catholicism and Scientology. Here, while individuals belonging to a certain religious group are protected, attacks on the religion itself are not. The same rule applies to countries. For example, saying India is a dirty nation is allowed, while saying Indians are dirty people is not.

An image from the internal documents accessed by SZ

The results are even more alarming when it comes to categories like migrants. As SZ reports, saying fucking Muslims is not allowed, as religious affiliation is a protected category. However, the sentence fucking migrants is allowed, as migrants are only a 'quasi protected category'  a special form that was introduced after complaints were made in Germany. This rule states that promoting hate against migrants is allowed under certain circumstances: statements such as 'migrants are dirty' are allowed, while 'migrants are dirt' isnt.

The documents go on to suggest that while Facebook looks down upon bullying, it does not have any restrictive rules on self-destructive behaviour. So pictures of anything from tattoos to open injury wounds, extreme anorexia, self-torture are allowed, as long as the images dont carry any captions or encouraging statements such as try this at home. As per Facebooks documents, such content should not be deleted so that the users friends can see that they are a cry for help.

There are also different rules distinguishing between public figures and normal FB people. Certain derogatory pictures posted by public figures are allowed, while the same posted by normal users are not allowed (example, pictures of urination, puking, etc). As per SZ, Facebook has outsourced this job of content deletion in Germany to a company called Arvato. Employees of the company told the newspaper that workers at the bottom of the ladder have to go through more than 2,000 posts a day, while those at the top have about 8 seconds to determine whether a video should be removed from the social network.

Nevermind the highly confusing rules on content moderation, the stronghold of Facebook on what we see, write, and experience, is one that raises a lot of disturbing questions. Are we a billion plus population led by a social media company? What started as a fun way to share updates with friends, is now our very means of news and information. With Facebooks algorithms designed to show us posts that are similar to the ones we click on, are we being subject to tunnel vision without our knowledge? Let us know your thoughts on the subject in our comments section below.
Research firm Apteligent says Samsung owns 38% of the share among its top 10 Android smartphone, by usage.

When the mighty Nokia fell, Samsung was there to pick up the pieces. The company spent years and billions gaining the consumers trust, and by extension, the lions share of the market. By sheer numbers, Samsung has been the market leader in the smartphones segment for years on end, and while its share has dropped in recent times, Samsung hasnt yet been dethroned.

However, the curious case of the exploding Galaxy Note 7 was expected to be a big blow to the South Korean manufacturer. We all thought so, and we all may have been wrong. Turns out, the number of people still using the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is still more than the combined user-base of the HTC 10 Evo, OnePlus 3T and LG V20. This, after Samsung has actively been telling users to return their Note 7s for safety purposes.

The information comes from research firm Apteligent, which claims Samsungs numbers are ahead of the LG V20 and OnePlus3T, and marginally behind the Moto Z smartphone. In fact, the firm says Samsung owns 38% of the share amongst its top 10 Android devices by usage.

To be fair, these numbers dont really paint the full picture. The OnePlus 3T was launched literally a few weeks ago, while the LG V20 and HTC 10 Evo have been quite exclusive, even overseas, and they were both announced in India just recently. Hence, each of these devices should overtake the Galaxy Note 7 very soon. The fact that major US carriers are readying to push an update to the Note 7, which bars the device from charging, should be the final nail in the devices coffin.

Many have speculated on the future of Samsung following the Note 7 debacle. The company had made headway with its recent Edge displays, but the Note 7 is expected to have caused harm to its brand name. Reports have said that Samsung had to push its timeline for the Galaxy S8, and the company is expected to launch the device on MWC 2017.
LGO Energy updated the market on its corporate plans for the first quarter of 2017 on Wednesday, saying its recent loan refinancing and equity placement positioned the company for an early return to drilling in the Goudron Field.

The AIM-traded firm said that would happen with the imminent signing of an initial two well contract, including options to extend for further wells, in order to drill production wells to the ubiquitous Mayaro Sandstone oil pay interval.

After retendering the rig and services, LGO said it had been possible to obtain a small footprint conventional drilling rig on a turnkey basis, which is considered to offer a lower risk and lower cost solution compared to previously proposed solutions using large conventional or heavy workover rigs.

The company owned workover rig, Columbus #1, was now expected to be deployed to routine well service operations.

It said the initial Mayaro drilling program would get underway as soon as practical in 2017 and was expected to be followed by further drilling to the Mayaro Sandstone oil pay, where up to 70 infill target locations had been identified.

Of those, 45 wells had already received outline approval.

During the proposed work programme, the company said it expects to issue regular updates on progress, including the spudding and results of each well.

LGO would also continue to announce group production on a quarterly basis once oil sales volumes had been fully fiscalised and audited, it said.

The company's Goudron subsidiary, Goudron E&P, also expected to submit the formal application for a waterflood enhanced oil recovery project to authorities in Trinidad during early 2017 with a view to commencing the initial phase of waterflood in the C-sands at Goudron in late 2017.

Its proposed initial scheme involves the use of existing C-sand wells - two injectors and six producers - and the results of that EOR pilot would determine the detailed form of the wider EOR development in future years.

Reductions of discretional spending and headcount during the last year, as well as deferral of director's fees, resulted in a marked reduction in the general and administration costs of the company, it said.

The board said it would be continuing the programme of cost reduction to further reduce the corporate overhead in line with its 2017 operational plan.

Given the recent re-financing, general and administration costs would be in line with the sustainable financial capacity the company expected to have in the next few years.

After a difficult period with low oil prices and a senior debt facility that was difficult to service effectively from field operations, which themselves were constrained by limited available funds, we can now look forward to the imminent return to development drilling and the deployment of capital to increase production at the company's flagship Goudron Field, said chief executive Neil Ritson.

During the recovery period some very difficult decisions had to be made on the deployment of funds and shareholder equity and we appreciate the commitment and support of our shareholders during this process.
Mobile marketing company Proxama has won a six month contract with Limited Space, a media specialist, to deploy its marketing network to shopping centres across the UK, such as Kents Bluewater and Birminghams Bullring.

Proxama will work with Limited Space to set up beacons into its Adlift advertising assets, in 30 shopping centres within the first six months. This enables brands to communicate using proximity marketing services to consumers through their mobile.

The Bullring is already installed, with campaigns currently in planning stage to begin in January.

Proxama's dual format beacons will be fitted into the advertising assets, which support both Eddystone and iBeacon platforms, so they can reach mobiles through in-app or mobile web engagement, which should see the company's beacon network grow to over 5,000.

Proxamas chief executive, John Kennedy said, "Our technology fits neatly with the concept of a modern shopping mall where consumers come not only to purchase items but also spend time and relax. This combination is exactly the audience that would appreciate engagement from brands. This move into retail is an important step for Proxama, as our core business focus is on working with brands and businesses who want to use our technology to reach millions of consumers."

Samantha Sida, co-founder of Limited Space, added: "The beacon technology will turn more than 700 of our classic advertising assets into mobile ready sites, bringing the physical and digital world closer together, and enabling consumer interaction with a static advertising format.."

Shares in Proxama were up 3.27% to 0.439p at 0843 GMT.
It said the provider marine engineering services comprises a unique portfolio of niche activities with typically strong market positions across marine, oil & gas and other high assurance sectors.

Jefferies pointed out that over the longer term, management has delivered a history of compounded earnings per share and dividend per share growth, supported by an M&A strategy to broaden the groups footprint of specialist services.

The group has been successfully positioned to capture niche roles in large and active end markets. However, we suspect investors may have over-extrapolated the value of a series of large contract wins during 2016, leaving little room for a further re-rating in the groups current valuation for now.

The bank said its hold rating reflects that full valuation, but added that it has no doubt James Fisher represents a unique, intriguing, well managed and quality proposition, with multiple opportunities to capitalise on ahead.

Howard Whitman reiterated its buy rating and 310p price target on Greencore following a meeting with the companys chief financial officer on Tuesday.

It said key messages included a positive outlook for UK Food to Go, sustained momentum within the incumbent US business  notable accounts include 7-Eleven and Starbucks  and positive expectations for the newly acquired Peacock Foods.

The company appears well placed to perform positively in FY2017, the brokerage said.

On 14 November, Greencore announced the planned acquisition of US-based convenience food business Peacock Foods and a rights issue.

In light of this, Howard Whitman has taken the opportunity to update its forecasts. It noted the first full year of the merger will be 2018, with Greencores US business set to grow four-fold, rising from 15% of group sales to 45%. Meanwhile, synergies should kick in in 2018 also, with only very few to be felt in FY17.

Howard Whitman upped its forecasts for 2017 revenue by 63.4% to 2.5bn and for earnings before interest and tax by 31.2% to 139m.

For 2018, it lifted its revenue forecast by 80.7% to 2.85bn and its EBIT estimate by 55.1% to 177m.

RBC Capital Markets upgraded challenger bank Shawbrook to sector perform from underperform and lifted the price target to 280p from 210p as it upped its earnings forecasts.

The bank noted the stock is off 26% this year versus the sector average off 2%. In addition, it pointed out that its 2017/18 earnings per share forecasts are now 15%/17% above Bloombergconsensus, adding that consensus is wrong by a significant margin.

RBC said that following talks with management, further controls being implemented, and the nearly six months that has passed since without further incident, it is more confident that the breach was a one-off and is highly unlikely to be repeated, especially given that management turnover has abated.

Back in June, Shawbrook revealed that one of its units had accidentally been giving out low-quality loans that broke internal risk rules.

The CEO is approaching his one year anniversary, and we believe the interim CFO will become the permanent CFO, which would signal continuity, it said.

RBC upped its adjusted diluted EPS forecasts for 2016/17/18 to 26.60p from 26.20p, 37.10p from 35.50p, and 43.10p from 42.10p, respectively.

However, the Canadian bank still has some concerns, arguing that accelerating growth into riskier areas could lead to future impairment issues.

Also, it said Shawbrooks underwriting standards are largely unchanged, while the majority of Shawbrooks listed peers have tightened standards, meaning that Shawbrooks growth could be resulting from loans deemed unattractive to others.
Howard Whitman reiterated its buy rating and 310p price target on Greencore following a meeting with the companys chief financial officer on Tuesday.

It said key messages included a positive outlook for UK Food to Go, sustained momentum within the incumbent US business  notable accounts include 7-Eleven and Starbucks  and positive expectations for the newly acquired Peacock Foods.

The company appears well placed to perform positively in FY2017, the brokerage said.

On 14 November, Greencore announced the planned acquisition of US-based convenience food business Peacock Foods and a rights issue.

In light of this, Howard Whitman has taken the opportunity to update its forecasts. It noted the first full year of the merger will be 2018, with Greencores US business set to grow four-fold, rising from 15% of group sales to 45%. Meanwhile, synergies should kick in in 2018 also, with only very few to be felt in FY17.

Howard Whitman upped its forecasts for 2017 revenue by 63.4% to 2.5bn and for earnings before interest and tax by 31.2% to 139m.

For 2018, it lifted its revenue forecast by 80.7% to 2.85bn and its EBIT estimate by 55.1% to 177m.

At 1115 GMT, Greencore shares were up 3% to 245.10p.
Coca-Cola has reached an agreement with Anheuser Busch-InBev to buy the Belgian Brewers 54.5% equity stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa for $3.15bn.

The companies have also reached an agreement in principle for Coca-Cola to buy AB InBevs interest in bottling operations in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, El Salvador and Honduras for an undisclosed amount.

Coca-Cola plans to hold all of these territories temporarily until they can be refranchised to other partners. It will account for the acquired stakes as a discontinued operation for reporting purposes.

Coca-Cola chairman and chief executive officer Muhtar Kent said: We are pleased to have reached an agreement quickly that is in everyones best interests.

We will move forward with our long-term strategic plan in these important growth markets. We are continuing negotiations with a number of parties who are highly qualified and interested in these bottling territories and look forward to refranchising these territories as soon as practical following regulatory approval.

The deals are expected to close by the end of next year.
Internet giants Twitter , Google and Facebook are being taken to court by the families of those killed during the attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in June this year.

One of the deadliest mass shootings in the history of the US took the lives of 49 people in the club, after Omar Mateen opened fire having pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Detroit on Monday, with the families of three of the victims alleging that the tech companies provided "material support" to the gunman.

The three companies "provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts they use to spread extremist propaganda, raise funds and attract new recruits," according to the suit.

"Material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out or cause to be carried out, numerous terrorist attacks."

Facebook defended its policies on Tuesday, while Google and Twitter are yet to comment on the case.

"We are committed to providing a service where people feel safe when using Facebook," it said in a statement. "We sympathize with the victims and their families."

Legislation in the United States is heavily stacked in favour of technology companies in situations such as this however, such as the Communications Decency Act, which states that they are not liable for content which is posted on their sites by others.
Italys lower house of parliament and Senate have approved a government request to borrow up to 20bn to underwrite the countrys beleaguered banking sector.

A resolution in favour of the plan was approved in a 389-134 vote, with eight abstentions, in the lower Chamber of Deputies. The Senate also gave the green light in a 221-60 vote, with three abstentions.

The news came as Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena tumbled on Wednesday amid fears it could run out of liquidity faster than previously expected.

Reports earlier in the day suggested the 10.6bn net liquidity position of the worlds oldest bank is now likely to last only four months, versus a previous estimate of 11 months.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the bank was reported to have raised just 500m in a voluntary debt-to-equity offer, which is far below its 5bn target for the end of the year.

The bailout fund is expected to be used to shore up several other struggling banks and help guarantee liquidity in the banking system.
Shares in Spains banks dropped on Wednesday after the European Court of Justice ordered them to repay billions of euros on floor clauses in mortgage deals.

The decision overturned a Spanish courts ruling which had initially capped the banks payments to borrowers.

The Luxembourg-based court ruled that customers who paid more than they should on interest for their mortgages before May 2013 are now entitled to a refund. It said that time limits on refunds is illegal.

Analysts said the banks could shell out between 3bn and 4.5bn.

The ruling is a blow to the countrys banking sector and shares in its majors lenders shaved off as much as 10%.

Caixabank was down 3.82%, Banco de Sabadell fell 4.18%, Popular tumbled 6.32% and Liberbank plummeted 10.28%.
Markets in Asia were mixed on Wednesday, losing some lustre towards the end of the session after surging on the back of a stellar run from the Dow overnight, which came within spitting distance of the psychological 20,000 level.

Japans Nikkei 225 lost 0.26% to finish at 19,444.49, though it did touch a one-year high during the session.

The yen was stronger on the greenback, and was last ahead by 0.33% at JPY 117.47 per $1.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite was up 1.15% to 3,138.54 and the Shenzhen Composite tacked on 0.74% to settle at 1,996.03.

South Koreas Kospi was also down, dropping 0.19% to 2,037.96, while Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index was up 0.37% at 21,809.80.

Samsung Securities took a 4.91% nosedive, after it revealed it was going to issue KRW 345bn in new shares.

In Taiwan, the Taiex was 0.41% lower at 9,204.26, with electronics conglomerate Acer dipping 0.75%.

It had announced late on Tuesday that it was suspending its smartphone operations in India as a result of that governments recent demonetisation policy, and proposed a TWD 35.4bn share buyback programme.

It's a good day to be an equity bull however, it's a slow grind higher as opposed to an explosion in demand and the moves we are seeing in many markets are fairly subdued, noted IG chief market analysts Chris Weston and Angus Nicholson.

Crude prices were up, with Brent crude up 0.41% at $55.58 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate adding 0.45% to $53.54.

The rises followed fresh data released from the American Petroleum Institute, suggesting crude stockpiles in the country fell 4.1 million barrels last week, much more than a Reuters-polled forecast for a 2.5 million barrel uptick.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.4% to finish at 5,613.47, with gold and materials leading the charge - those subindexes were up 1.37% and 1.21% respectively.

Bellamys Australia requested an extension to its already week-long suspension on Wednesday, saying it was still in talks with manufacturers and suppliers.

The fact that this situation has gone on for so long and that negotiations with suppliers are under way suggests that there may be material issues with the company, noted CMC Markets chief analyst Ric Spooner.

Bellamys Australia last traded at AUD 6.68.

New Zealands benchmark S&P/NZX 50 was up 0.2% to 6,802.75 at the close, led higher by dairy exporter A2 Milk.

The company was doing its best to play down industry concerns surround the suspension of Bellamys shares across the Tasman Sea, with Bellamys being one of A2 Milks main rivals.

A2 Milk stock was up 5.9% on Wednesday, having fallen as much as 15% after Bellamys suspension came into effect last Monday.

Both of the downunder dollars were marginally weaker, with the Aussie last off 0.08% at AUD 1.3786 against the greenback, and the Kiwi retreating 0.01% at NZD 1.4462 per $1.
UK-based Servelec has been awarded a contract by a major UK gas supplier to provide a remote operations solution for a gas platform in the North Sea by deploying a specially developed Servelec Controls system.

"This project marks a significant achievement for Servelec and further strengthens the Group's position with regards to winning additional contracts on this customer's other assets as well as with other OEMs," said chief executive Alan Stubbs.

He said technology and software group Servelec was already in talks with many of those other OEMs about future opportunities.

Referring to the latest contract, Servelec said work has now started on the project and was expected to contribute towards revenues in the current financial year.

"Following installation on the first platform by May 2017 there are options to extend the system to cover additional platforms," the company said.

At about 11:44 GMT, shares in Servelec were up 10.8% to 277p.
Sky kicked off a battle of the cheap fibre broadband on Wednesday, issuing a press release claiming it now has the cheapest superfast connections in the UK.

The subscription broadcaster and telecoms provider said it was now offering its lower-tier fibre connections for 20 a month inclusive of line rental.

It wasnt without its caveats, as usage was limited to a paltry 25GB per month - barely an hour of 4K streaming video content, and less than five hours of HD video.

The deal also required the customer to subscribe to Skys television services at the same time for a minimum 20 charge.

That meant the customer couldnt get the cheap broadband deal without spending at least 40 a month - much more than many other providers charge for fibre.

Telecom companies were recently forced to end the misleading unbundling of charges by the Advertising Standards Authority, with line rental now included in the headline price of broadband.

At the time, the ASA said the separation of broadband and line rental charges made it hard for consumers to make an informed decision on the total cost of their broadband package.

The unbundling of television charges, however, was not covered by the ASA directive.

Skys claim that it was offering the cheapest fibre broadband were also questionable, with a quick check of other providers revealing Virgin Media currently offered faster speeds for a lower price.

The cable network, owned by Liberty Global, was offering fibre broadband with speeds of 50Mbps - significantly faster than the 34Mbps promised by Sky.

It was also charging 18 a month, and unlike Sky, the deal did not require the customer to subscribe to any other products, meaning the total monthly payments would be less than half that of Skys.
Vectura announced that Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has signed a licensing agreement with Sunovion Pharmaceuticals for the US commercialisation rights to three treatments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for which it receives royalty revenues.

Novartis, whose products use Vecturas inhaler technology, signed the agreement for Utibron Neohaler, Seebri Neohaler (glycopyrrolate) and Arcapta Neohaler (indacaterol) inhalation powder.

The license is specific to the US and has no implications outside this market, Vectura said.

Chief executive officer James Ward-Lilley said: We are pleased that Novartis has signed this licensing agreement with Sunovion to bring Seebri and Utibron to the US market. We are confident that with its established US respiratory focus and commercialisation expertise Sunovion will be a strong partner.

The launch of these products in 2017 will give doctors new treatment options for their COPD patients. We look forward to the successful US commercialisation of these products and the further contribution they will make to the substantial existing recurring and growing royalty stream we receive from Novartis as reported in our recent interim results."

At 1450 GMT, Vectura shares were down 2.6% to 133p.
Londons FTSE 100 was down 0.2% to 7,031.02 at 1510 GMT, with many traders already away from their desks as we head towards the Christmas break and volumes on the index down nearly 50% compared to the 10-day average.

Coca-Cola was the standout gainer after Coca-Cola US agreed to buy Anheuser Bush-InBevs 54.5% stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa for $3.15bn.

The companies also reached an agreement in principle for Coca-Cola to buy AB InBevs interest in bottling operations in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, El Salvador and Honduras for an undisclosed amount.

Aerospace and defence group Rolls-Royce rose after a spokesman for the company denied a Guardian report that it has sold equipment to Iran by exploiting loopholes in US sanctions.

Legal & General was on the front foot as RBC Capital Markets said it was one of its preferred stocks for 2017.

In asset management, LGIM is the market leader in both of the key growth areas of passive investing and liability driven investment. In bulk annuities, 2017 is expected to be a record year for volumes and importantly strain has recently reduced. On the balance sheet, high yields reflect a lack of liquidity rather than default risk.

The Canadian bank has an outperform rating on the stock and a 300p price target.

On the downside, travel stocks TUI AG and Carnival retreated following the terror attack at a Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead.

Carnival was down despite a better-than-expected set of fourth-quarter results on Tuesday.

Risers

Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,688.00p 1.50%

Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 682.50p 0.96%

Antofagasta (ANTO) 673.00p 0.90%

Fresnillo (FRES) 1,100.00p 0.82%

Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,680.00p 0.80%

Compass Group (CPG) 1,444.00p 0.63%

Legal & General Group (LGEN) 245.30p 0.62%

Experian (EXPN) 1,518.00p 0.60%

Provident Financial (PFG) 2,774.00p 0.58%

BT Group (BT.A) 370.15p 0.54%

Fallers

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,221.00p -1.77%

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,788.00p -1.70%

TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,110.00p -1.68%

Convatec Group (CTEC) 226.60p -1.44%

Merlin Entertainments (MERL) 437.40p -1.26%

Carnival (CCL) 4,095.00p -1.21%

3i Group (III) 683.00p -1.09%

Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 353.30p -1.04%

Schroders (SDR) 2,963.00p -0.97%

Centrica (CNA) 228.70p -0.91%
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Abortion doctor sues to stop Indiana AG from accessing medical records

An Indianapolis doctor thrust into national news on abortion is suing to stop Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita from obtaining medical records.
Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging think tanker, aspiring novelist, "tribal elder", parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, Speedboat, proudly banned from Twitter so officially more dangerous than the Taliban, eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.
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The rust belt city was hollowed out by the 1970s, but Mayor Hudnut took it from India-NO-place into India-SHOW-place.'



By BRIAN SLODYSKO

Associated Press reporter

INDIANAPOLIS  William H. Hudnut III, the former Indianapolis mayor credited with revitalizing the city's downtown after years of decline, died early Sunday, according to a family spokesman. He was 84.

Hudnut, the city's longest serving mayor, died in hospice care in Maryland following a lengthy illness, said former aide and family spokesman Dave Arland.





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The detox center would be located near the hospital's campus in downtown Soldotna.



KENAI, Alaska (AP)  The operators of a residential drug treatment facility inside a Soldotna hospital are seeking funds from the state to become central Kenai Peninsula's first medical detox center.

Coordinators from Serenity House have applied for a state grant to fund a new detox facility. Although Central Peninsula Hospital operates the drug treatment facility, the area still doesn't have a designated facility where people can go to safely detox from drug use.





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TOKYO (AP)  Japanese telecoms and energy company SoftBank has agreed to invest $1 billion in the U.S. company OneWeb Ltd., which plans to build a factory in Florida that the companies say could create 3,000 jobs.

Arlington, Virginia-based OneWeb plans to build a network of satellites to provide global broadband access.





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Washington, Oregon and Colorado also took top percentage-growth spots.



By LINDSAY WHITEHURST

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY  Utah is the fastest-growing state in the country, leading a cluster of Western states with populations on the upswing despite sluggish national growth, according to new numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau Tuesday.

The state that's long had the country's highest birth rate grew just over 2 percent from July 2015 to July 2016, followed closely by Nevada, Idaho and Florida. Washington, Oregon and Colorado also took top percentage-growth spots.





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Coca Cola to buy AB InBev's majority stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa for $3.15 bn

Coca Cola Company today struck a deal to buy Anheuser-Busch InBev's majority stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) for $3.15 billion.

In addition, the companies have reached an agreement for The Coca-Cola Co to acquire AB InBev's interest in bottling operations in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, El Salvador and Honduras, for an undisclosed amount.

The divestment comes after AB InBev closed its $104-billion acquisition of SABMiller Plc in October, one of the largest-ever mergers in corporate history.

In 2014, SABMiller and Coca-Cola merged their soft drinks bottling operations in South and East Africa with and Gutsche Family Investments (GFI) to create CCBA with $2.9 billion in revenue across 12 fast-growing markets.

CCBA, based in South Africa, distributes about 40-per cent of Coke's volumes in the continent. It is 57-per cent owned by SABMiller, 31.7-per cent by GFI, with Coca-Cola Co holding the remaining 11.3 per cent.

Coca-Cola had retained the right to buy SABMiller's stake in the event of a change of control of the joint venture.

The Coca-Cola Co plans to hold all of these territories temporarily until they can be refranchised to other partners.

With over 30 bottling plants, CCBA is the largest bottler in Africa and serves 12 high-growth countries accounting for approximately 40 per cent of all Coca-Cola beverage volumes in Africa.

Carlos Brito, CEO of AB InBev, said: ''We are happy that we have been able to reach this agreement with The Coca-Cola Company in a timely manner and with a satisfactory outcome for all parties.''

''We are pleased to have reached an agreement quickly that is in everyone's best interests,'' said Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Co. ''We will move forward with our long-term strategic plan in these important growth markets. We are continuing negotiations with a number of parties who are highly qualified and interested in these bottling territories and look forward to refranchising these territories as soon as practical following regulatory approval.''
Weeks after India demonetised its high-value rupee bills, Pakistan's Senate on Monday passed a resolution seeking withdrawal of the high denomination Rs5,000 currency notes ''in a phased manner'' to curb the flow of black money. The resolution proposes complete withdrawal of the high-denomination currency notes from the market within the next three to five years. Senator Usman Saifullah of the opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP) tabled the resolution to ban the notes, arguing that the Rs5,000 note was being used in illegal transactions and should be withdrawn. The resolution was endorsed by the majority of lawmakers in the Upper House, although it was strongly opposed by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government. Since the PPP has a majority in the upper house of parliament, the resolution was endorsed. A member of Pakistan People's Party said that the government must withdraw the highest denomination currency note "in order to reduce the illicit money flow, encourage the use of bank accounts and reduce the size of undocumented economy". The resolution said the withdrawal of Rs5,000 notes will encourage the use of bank accounts and reduce the size of the undocumented economy, Dawn reported. In Pakistan, which is ranked 117th among 175 in the 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index reported by Transparency International, the Rs5,000 bills are mostly used in illegal transactions. Pakistan's rank for corruption averaged 107.90 from 1995 until 2015, reaching an all-time high of 144.00 in 2005. Opposing the resolution, law minister Zahid Hamid said that the move would have repercussions on the economy and the masses in general, as has been happening in neighbouring India. He also said that withdrawal of the notes would create crisis in the market and people would resort to foreign currencies in the absence of the Rs5,000 notes. Hamid said that around 3.43 trillion Rs5,000 banknotes were in circulation in Pakistan - around 30 per cent of the total currency in flow in Pakistan now. "Such a huge number of currency notes cannot be pulled from circulation without causing a monetary crises. If such steps are taken, people will lose confidence in the Pakistani rupee and will instead prefer foreign currency due to the steep drop in supply of local currency notes," the minister said. Senator Saifullah suggested that instead of withdrawing the Rs5,000 currency note, its printing should be halted and the withdrawal should take place in a time span of three to five years.








Scientists bear witness to birth of an ice cloud

Scientists have witnessed the birth of atmospheric ice clouds, creating ice cloud crystals in the laboratory and then taking images of the process through a microscope, essentially documenting the very first steps of cloud formation.

The team witnessed a process known as ice nucleation in unprecedented detail, taking time-lapse movies of the first few seconds when a particle attracts water vapor, forming ice crystals that become the core of icy cirrus clouds - the high, wispy clouds that act much like a blanket for our planet.

How clouds form and what they do has a major influence on our climate and is a focus of scientists studying our planet. Clouds can reflect the sun's light, keeping the planet cool, or absorb the Earth's radiation, heating the planet. The latter is the case for ice clouds created under the conditions in this study. The complex chemistry of airborne particles that serve as the birthplace of the ice crystals adds additional challenges.

"This is one of the most critical but least understood parts of the process of how cold clouds form," said first author Bingbing Wang, a scientist formerly with EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

"The fundamental process of how ice grows is relatively well understood, but ice nucleation - that moment when the first group of molecules comes together - remains a big challenge," said Wang, who is now a professor at Xiamen University in China.

To take a close-up look at the initial steps, Alexander Laskin, a leader of the EMSL group, brought together scientists from Stony Brook University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and PNNL, as well as the resources of two DOE Office of Science User Facilities: EMSL and the Advanced Light Source, which is at the Berkeley Lab. The team, with Daniel Knopf leading the Stony Brook group and Mary Gilles leading the Berkeley group, describes the work in the 21 November issue of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

Cloud in a lab

The first step for creating a microscopic cold cloud is replicating conditions found high above the Earth's surface.

To do that, the team created a highly confined climate-controlled chamber about the size of a poppy seed where scientists regulate conditions like temperature, pressure and relative humidity precisely. The sample can then be placed inside the environmental scanning electron microscope at EMSL.

Then the team set out to re-create ice nucleation events. Almost anyone who lives in a colder climate has seen the phenomenon. It happens when water vapor from the air freezes and becomes ice quickly, for instance, when frosty streaks form on your windows during cold mornings.

The process of ice nucleation is also at play when aircraft ice up or when frozen foods are made and packaged. Aberrant ice nucleation would give your ice cream the texture of frozen ice cubes, for example.

In the atmosphere, airborne particles including those containing mineral dust, volcanic ash, carbon-based material, soot, aircraft emissions or even microbes are at the core of cloud-formation events. In this experiment scientists used particles of kaolinite, a mineral that scientists often use to study the phenomenon.

When temperatures are very low - as they are above 20,000 feet, where cold cirrus clouds form - and relative humidity is high, the particles attract surrounding water vapor which freezes and deposits as ice. Cirrus clouds are mostly made of ice crystals that grow by taking up the surrounding water vapor.

Particle flicks

The particle's size, shape, texture and other features all play a role in how the ice crystal forms. The particles in the experiment were just two or three microns in size - less than one-tenth the width of a human hair. While many labs study ice nucleation, few start with observations about individual particles, to replicate the earliest stages of ice formation.

During the nucleation events, Laskin's team photographed the particle every three seconds, then combined the photos in several time-lapse movies. The environmental high-resolution scanning electron microscope was able to record regions on the particle only 50 nanometers wide, about one-thousandth the width of a human hair. To the untrained eye, the exercise is similar to staring out into space searching for small dots that are actually stars and planets. In the ice nucleation movies, small ice crystals barely visible at first grow as water vapor freezes onto them.

The team also used the system to watch ice nucleation happen on particles collected in the atmosphere 19 May 2010, in the CalNex 2010 field campaign. The particles, made mostly of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, were put under observation at EMSL.

In both sets of experiments, nucleation took place at temperatures as low as 205 degrees Kelvin (around minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit) and relative humidity from about 70 to 80 percent.

"We were able to monitor moment by moment the formation of an ice crystal, at nanoscale resolution and under atmospherically relevant conditions," said co-author Daniel Knopf, an EMSL user from Stony Brook University. "Doing so and knowing that this process is replicated a million times, resulting in a cloud visible to the naked eye, is tremendously exciting and a huge step forward for our predictive understanding of cloud formation with important ramifications for climate."


Sheephaven SAC had the highlight of their social calendar last Friday night, when they were the guests of Mulroy Woods Hotel, Milford.

The evening started off with a lovely meal and this was followed with dancing to Trevor Loughery and his band, which allowed the Country and Irish divers to show off their jiving skills with varying degrees of ability.

After the dancing, the annual divers table quiz took place, with lots of spot prizes for the runners up, with the winners known only onto them.

The evening continued into the wee small hours, with all the stories and reminisces that these events always unleash, not all of which were necessary accurate or even true.

One of more pleasing parts of last Fridays festivities was welcoming past members back for the evening, and hopefully the memory of the social as well as the diving experience that Sheephaven SAC has to offer may attract them back into the club.

The social side continued on Sunday morning, with the weekly winter snorkel out from Portnablagh, under the very able leadership of Maureen Gallagher, who was the dive officer of the day.

For some of the 16 divers in the water, there was the opportunity to conduct their annual water fitness test, with strict instructions from the club Dive Officer Ryan Ward for the 400-metre snorkel to be conducted in less than 10 minutes and the free dive to no less than five metres, followed by a 50-metre casualty tow.

In-water conditions were near perfect for the week before Christmas, with near flat seas, no wind and clear water visibility, while water temperature around Portnablagh remains around 9 degrees Celsius. Up Mulroy Bay it has been reported by some club members to have dropped to a bracing 7 degrees.

As always, the mornings activates finished up in Lizzies in Dunfanaghy, where the divers took full benefit of the big breakfast and other delicacies that have kept them sustained every Sunday morning during the winter.

Finally, as we prepare for the 2017 diving season and current club members conduct their annual water fitness test and pay their club subscriptions of 410, it is time for past and lapsed divers to remember there is a place for them in Sheephaven SAC.

With more than 100 club dives conducted annually and a friendly social scene, Sheephaven divers also fulfil a vital community obligation when they respond to requests from the Coastguard to provide Search and Recovery duties.

So for anyone who wants to get into water as either a diver or a snorkeler, they should check out the clubs Facebook page, Sheephaven SAC, for contact details and make a New Years resolution to join us in the water in 2017.
Andrew Maclean: Hyundai's Genesis New York

The concept from Hyundai's luxury brand not only previews the South Korean car maker's upcoming G70, a rival to the likes of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and BMW 3-Series, but it's striking design shows immense confidence against well-established players. Stephen Ottley: Hyundai RN30 There were some cool electric car concepts in 2016 - my favourite was the Mercedes-Benz EQ - but it was the South Korean brand's Paris motor show star that stood out for me. The RN30 won't make production in anything like its wild concept form, but it smashes a lot of the perceptions around the brand and suggests it will be serious about its upcoming range of N Performance models - which will begin with the new i30 in 2017. David McCowen: Rolls-Royce 103EX

The 103EX is a fascinating peek into how luxury transport will look throughout the next 100 years. Opulent, decadent, and more than a little indulgent, the 103EX combines historic design cues with modern touches including its female Spirit of Ecstasy emblem brought to digital life as an "ethereal concierge" at the centre of each journey. Mark Short: Cadillac Escala

While most manufacturers are going smaller General Motors' luxury brand has gone back to its roots with this large uniquely American, and unmistakably Cadillac, concept. The Escala uses a new 4.2-liter twin-turbo V8 engine, a prototype of a new system in development for future Cadillac models and is still rear drive. Very cool. Kez Casey: Buick Avista

Holden's American subsidiary Buick continues to reinvent itself to shed its dad-car image and the Buick Avista coupe concept rocketed the brand into the conscience of a whole new breed of buyers with a high-performance turbo V6 and muscular styling. Whispers of the Holden-designed Avista reviving the Monaro nameplate in Australia started to whirl shortly after the coupe's unveiling, but sadly production plans have been quashed leaving the Avista as little more than a motor show fantasy. Peter McKay: Mercedes EQ

Call me conservative but I want concepts to be realistic, meaning that it's easy to visualise them in production. The EQ seen at the Paris show is a giant shift for Mercedes towards serious volumes of electric vehicles. EQ is a new line showcasing the potential to do so much more than today's cars, like taking on chores while its owner is busy elsewhere. Makes you think. Toby Hagon: Volkswagen ID Good looking, clever inside, highly relevant and only a few years away. Stephen Corby: Jaguar I-Pace

Not just because it was a beautiful piece of design, managing to make an SUV look desirable, even to a massive cynic who despises their very existence, but because the I-Pace is more than a concept; it's a near production-ready Jaguar EV that will hit Australian roads in 2018. It's also an important and epoch-shifting concept car, because it indicates that the world - and not just the Californian bit of it - is getting serious about EV technology. Well, the rest of the planet at least, because we're still lagging behind. Cameron McGavin: Jaguar I-Pace Today's Jaguar is a very different beast to the one we once knew but this spectacular preview of the company's first electric car from the recent LA Motor Show suggests the British brand's transformation from old geezer to ultra-hipster has only just started. David Morley: Rolls-Royce Cullinan

Surely the Rolls Royce SUV concept. Even the idea of it makes me giggle. RR is in on the joke, too, describing the Cullinan (for that is its codename, apparently) as an 'all-terrain, high-sided vehicle'. That's armoured personnel carrier, to you and me. Jonathan Hawley: Renault Trezor
Subaru has yet to commit when - rather than if - it will join the charge towards electric vehicles in Australia.

The Japanese brand is currently developing its first plug-in hybrid to be introduced in 2018, most likely with the next-generation Forester SUV, which will be followed by a fully-electric vehicle in 2021.

Both powertrain options have been earmarked as part of the Subaru Global Platform that makes its debut on the all-new Impreza sedan and hatch that launches in Australian showrooms this month.

However, Subaru Australia's recently-appointed Managing Director, Colin Christie, has yet to lock-in local plans for their introduction.

"There is a certainty that this technology will be available to us in the future but we don't have any specific dates from an Australian point of view," Christie told Drive.

"[Subaru's parent company] Fuji [Heavy Industries] is working on a number of options that are capable within this platform. But we haven't locked into any plans that far out yet."

Christie conceded the main hurdle is still the lack of take-up locally for hybrids.

"It's more difficult in Australia [to predict demand] as we're lacking the kind of framework and regulations that Europe and Japan are working towards. I think Subaru customers in general are a little more preogressive and would be more willing to accept it, and I think the Australian market in general is getting there but we're not quite there yet.

"At the end of the day I think the market will become more accepting it and it will definitely happen for us, it is just a question of when."

Subaru has revealed numerous hybrid-powered Viziv concept cars in recent years which have featured individual electric motors in the rear wheels and another between the gearbox and a 1.6-litre turbo charged boxer engine, thereby maintaining Subaru's all-wheel drive traction without the additional weight of a conventional rear differential.
The sudden death of young mother, Vanessa Ryan, was the cause of widespread shock and sorrow throughout Dundalk.

Aged just 34, Vanessa passed away on November 18 last at her Father Murray Park home.

Highly educated, she was passionate about her varied interests, but above all, was a hard-working single mum, who adored her two daughters.

Vanessa, who resided at 34 Father Murray Park, was one of four children of Jim and Ann Ryan; the family home located nearby at 20 Father Murray Park.

She attended Castletown Girls School, followed by St. Vincents Secondary School, before continuing her education in Trinity College Dublin.

There, Vanessa obtained a Degree in History and was subsequently awarded a PhD in Medieval History and Archaeology.

As a student, she worked in the Writers Museum in Dublin, and also for a time in the housing office of Dundalk Town Council, and the County Museum in Dundalk.

She was subsequently employed by Newry & Mourne District Council in Bagenals Castle museum in Newry.

Vanessa got involved in geo-tourism, and a cross-border initiative promoting Slieve Gullion, Cooley and the Mourne region.

Part of her job was organising educational tours for children and adults, which she enjoyed.

Vanessas interest in history extended to having her own show on Dundalk FM, Time Detective, consolidating a family link with the station, as her father, Jim, has his show there Classic Sounds.

Indeed, Vanessa would stand in when Jim was unavailable, prompting some to remark she did a better job, even though that might not have gone down well with her Dads loyal band of listeners!

She had also begun to work for Dundalk FM as its Advertising and Marketing Manager.

It is no surprise therefore, that music was another important aspect of Vanessas life.

Under the guidance of Sister Maolmhuire, she was a member of the ceili band in Castletown Girls School, and later at St. Vincents came under the direction of Brendan Gaughran and Miss McCague.

She competed in Slogadh with her sister, Carol, and they took part in various Geraldine McGee productions.

Vanessa played the violin, and was much in demand at family weddings, and participated in lunchtime concerts which were staged in the County Museum.

Her talents extended to the written word, and she was an avid reader.

Vanessa had been looking forward to expanding her interest in politics.

She already had experience in helping her father, a former Independent councillor, with his successful local election campaigns, and canvassed for Labours Mary Moran in the last General Election.

Vanessa had been approached to stand for the Labour Party in the next local elections, and just two weeks before she passed away, had been nominated to contest Dundalk/Carlingford for Louth County Council.

Party leader, Brendan Howlin TD had been to meet her, and on hearing of the sad news, he returned to pay his respects to the family with Senator Ged Nash.

Vanessas daughters, Isabella and Ayda were a huge part of her life, and she was a loving and attentive mother to the two girls.

Nothing was too much trouble for them, as far as she was concerned.

After reposing at the family home, 20 Father Murray Park, her remains were removed to St. Nicholas Church.

Father Padraig Keenan gave a beautiful eulogy at the funeral Mass.

At the beginning, symbols of Vanessas life were brought to the altar, a picture of her and the two girls and a copy of her PhD from Trinity College.

The first reading was given by best friend, Alison Lawless, and the second by cousin, Gerard Molloy.

Prayers of the Faithful were led by daughter, Isabella and cousins, Yvonne Keenan-Ross, Siobhan Molloy, Orla Fagan, Emma Savage and Raymond Coburn.

Vanessas siblings, Carol, John and Stephen participated in the Offertory procession, while at the end of the Mass, Carol read a poem.

Music was provided by Deirdre Morgan, vocalist and Sarah McCourt.

Burial took place afterwards in St. Patricks Cemetery.

Vanessa was predeceased by her daughter, Elyssa (Isabellas twin sister). She is survived by her daughters, Isabella and Ayda, parents, Jim and Ann, sister, Carol, brothers, John and Stephen, Johns partner, Ciara Hennessy, Stephens partner, Stephanie McCann, husband, Florian Houssaye, nieces, Rosie and Phoebe, aunts, uncles, relatives and friends.

The Months Mind Mass will take place on Sunday, 18 December at 10.30am in St. Nicholas Church.
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The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation has awarded 1 million US dollar to Dutch-based IRC, an international think-and-do-tank on WASH-issues.

The aim of the investment is to develop a plan for a fourteen year programme of collective action to achieve universal access to safe, reliable and affordable drinking water in districts in Burkina Faso, Uganda and Niger.

Upgrading of water services

The Hilton Foundation and IRC share the same strategic vision: focusing efforts at the district level to ensure universal access to safe water and the progressive upgrading of service quality.

IRC will translate this joint vision into a plan, which will include tailored district visions, strategies and plans for achieving universal access to safe, reliable and affordable drinking water.

The plan will also clearly define the partnerships that are to deliver the service upgrade.

IRC's CEO Patrick Moriarty expressed his excitement at the opportunity the grant provides to support the Agenda for Change initiative.

This agenda was launched in 2015 by Aguaconsult, WaterAid, Water for people and IRC. Including a set of guiding principles and actions for achieving universal water, sanitation and hygiene services by 2030.

Catalyze development of SDG6 on water

According to the Hilton Foundation, IRCs plan is to initiate an ambitions learning and collective action that will catalyze the development of the Sustainable Development Goal #6 on water in these three African countries.

To improve the supply of safe water, the foundation also awarded grants to Water for people for a water service project in Uganda, to Stanford University for the development of a framework for the foundations water strategy and to Water.org for the implementation of a water credit model oin Ghana.

All four grants totaled 3 million US dollar.

This news item was originally published on the website of IRC.

Read also on this website

 IRC Wash urges everyone to act fast on sustainable development goal nr 6 for water, 24 September 2015



More information

IRC Wash

The Hague, the Netherlands

+31 70 304 4000

www.ircwash.org
Together with his co-founder Simon Cohen, Ben Handler has grown Cohen Hander from a two-man property buyers agent team into an industry-leading agency. The duo found success by identifying  and actively addressing  a gap in the Australian property market. However, Ben also credits yoga, quantum physics, adland and the 14th Dalai Lama with the companys continued growth. Sometimes, youve just got to look outside your industry for inspiration.

Cohen Handler offers all buyers the opportunity to be represented by a professional, throughout the whole property purchase process, Ben, the companys CEO, told Dynamic Business.

Buying a property is a very complicated activity when you dont work in the industry or have any understanding of where to begin. This is more so when youre entering an imbalanced market. Cohen Handler fixes this problem for all types of buyers  from first home buyers seeking to get their foot in the door, to more seasoned investors that are looking to add to their property portfolio. We are bridging the gap in the market in a way that no one else is, and we make the entire process simple and more efficient for all clients. Most importantly, we have helped professionalise, define, and lead our entire industry since 2009.

In hindsight we could have secured more capital

Ben and Simon met in 2009 at a Halloween party in Los Angeles. While they both worked in the real estate sector and had a similar network of friends, they had never crossed paths. Simon had recently moved to the US to learn about the local property market and the Aussies got to talking about how it compared to the market back home.

During our conversation, we pinpointed a massive gap in the Australian market, Ben said. While property sellers could enlist the help of a real estate agent, buyers lacked representation in the purchase process. This wasnt the case in the US, where four in five buyers were enlisting the help of a buyers agent, a concept virtually unheard of here. With a desire to address this imbalance, we came up with the idea for Cohen Handler that evening.

Leaving his job with property management company Charter Hall, Ben teamed up with Simon. They launched Cohen handler that same year, using $5000 from their own pockets to finance website development, rent and business cards.

Since that time, the business has continued to grow organically, Ben said. By that, I mean growth was achieved without the help of investors, friends or family.

We were determined to never raise a dollar of debt and for the first five years, we didnt. The downside was we had to work long hours to ensure the business ran smoothly and had room for growth. The two of us worked across all aspects of business development, from the admin work to proactively door knocking for clients. In hindsight, we probably could have secured more capital or tapped more into our own resources to see us through the early years. This would have allowed Simon and I to hire the right people, freeing us up to do the roles we enjoy.

We consolidated growth this year, well scale up in 2017



In eight years, weve evolved from a two-person team operating out of my house to a 50-person operation with five offices across Brisbane, Sydney and Brisbane.

This year, revenue grew 172.3% and we opened new offices in Sydneys Inner West and South West Sydney due to upcoming infrastructure projects that will drive growth in these regions.

In October, we expanded our presence to Singapore, offering relocation advice and services to expats who are looking to move back home. That same month, we also helped 41 Australian buyers find the right property at the right price. These transactions totaled $72 million dollars, with an average purchase time of 37 days.

While 2016 has been about consolidating our growth, were using this year to scale up our buyers agent headcount across all of our offices.

I educate myself on subjects outside my industry

Ben attributes his success with Cohen Handler, at least in part, to the wisdom he has acquired through reading. That said, he doesnt go in for your typical, dime-a-dozen how to succeed in business books.

I prefer to educate myself with a broad range of subjects outside of the business industry, he said. While its still important to have a thorough understanding of the area you work in, if you pigeonhole yourself too much it becomes harder to be open to new ideas. Here are three books that have helped me get to where I am now:

The Art of Happiness (The 14th Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler): This book strips back all the superficial concepts we encounter on a day-to-day basis and taps into the basic understanding of human purpose  finding happiness. While business success is great, I tend to look for greater meaning in the work I do. This book helped me put the important things into perspective and gave me the discipline to train myself to focus on the areas that bring meaning to my life. Too often we use a materialistic or egotistical measure for happiness, but it shouldnt be this way.

This book strips back all the superficial concepts we encounter on a day-to-day basis and taps into the basic understanding of human purpose  finding happiness. While business success is great, I tend to look for greater meaning in the work I do. This book helped me put the important things into perspective and gave me the discipline to train myself to focus on the areas that bring meaning to my life. Too often we use a materialistic or egotistical measure for happiness, but it shouldnt be this way. The Purple Cow: Transform your Business by Being Remarkable (Seth Godin): Competition is rife, especially in the real estate industry. As Cohen Handler continues to educate Australians about the benefits of having a buyers agent by their side, we have begun to see a lot of one- and two-man buyers agent teams pop up, which creates more noise in the industry. The Purple Cow is based on insights from the advertising industry; however, its very much applicable to Cohen Handler as a business. Its a simple read that clearly outlines how to think outside the box and differentiate yourself and your business when surrounded by competitors all vying for a piece of the pie.

Competition is rife, especially in the real estate industry. As Cohen Handler continues to educate Australians about the benefits of having a buyers agent by their side, we have begun to see a lot of one- and two-man buyers agent teams pop up, which creates more noise in the industry. The Purple Cow is based on insights from the advertising industry; however, its very much applicable to Cohen Handler as a business. Its a simple read that clearly outlines how to think outside the box and differentiate yourself and your business when surrounded by competitors all vying for a piece of the pie. Why Quantum Physicists Dont Fail (Greg Kuhn): Its a very interesting read that touches on quantum physics and the different way of thinking that it presents us. The book goes on to explain that the law of attraction is real and mentions how important it is to mould your energy and thoughts to focus on what it is you desire. This book gave me a completely new perspective about thoughts, manifestation, beliefs and starting every day with positivity. We implement these practices at Cohen Handler, as real estate can be like a rollercoaster at times. Its important to set a goal for where you see yourself in your career and we encourage our team to create dream boards of what they want to achieve.

Being mindful is necessary in a fast-paced industry

In addition to being the CEO of Cohen Handler, Ben is also a qualified yoga instructor who actively practices mindfulness and meditation. Furthermore, these disciplines inform his companys culture.

I lead by example and highlight the importance of having a healthy mind and a structured work-life balance, he said. As a yoga instructor, I encourage all employees to participate in the free yoga and meditation classes offered by Cohen Handler. I personally meditate every morning to ensure I start the working day with a fresh and open mind, and I meditate at night to relieve the stress of the day.

The property industry can be very fast paced and often non-stop. I encourage all employees to take a step back to ensure that they are being mindful of their own health, stress levels and happiness. Too often, people neglect themselves and their minds, which can lead to burnouts. From a business perspective, happy employees will create more value, better productivity and engagement at all levels of the company.
I know the feeling of free travels with all expense paid trip. Its living the dream!

I couldnt thank how surprisingly great my 2016 was with all the amazing travel opportunity that came my way. If only I can bring everyone with me, or at least give them the same opportunity, I would.

Fortunately, AirAsia Philippines has come up with their #ThankYou Christmas Campaign Blog Writing Competition . This gives the chance of a free travel plus pocket money to all Filipino Filipino blogger aged 18 above. Blogger must be a resident of the Philippines and at least have an existing blog for over a year with 20 post in it.

To be very specific about the prize for this #ThankYou Christmas Campaign blog writing contest :

The grand winner can win 2 round trip international tickets and PhP 20,000! The 2nd place can bring home 1 round trip international and 1 round trip domestic ticket plus PhP 10,000 while the 3rd place can get 2 round trip domestic tickets plus PhP 5,000!

Here is the contest mechanics:

Blog about the AirAsia #ThankYou campaign by: Watching and embedding the AirAsia #ThankYou campaign video posted on the AirAsia Philippines Facebook page to your blog: Sharing your thoughts about the video. Sharing who you want to thank this Christmas and why.

Share your blog post entry on your Facebook account, tag the person you want to thank (if the person does not have a Facebook account then you can just mention him or her on the Facebook post) and use the hashtags #AirAsiaPH and #ThankYou. Make sure your Facebook account is in public setting.

Register your entry by e-mailing hello@comcoglobal.com your full name, e-mail address, contact number, birth date and the title and URL of your blog entry. Deadline of publishing of blog post and submission of entries is on December 31, 2016.

Entries will be rated according to Creativity (60%), Use of Media such as photos, videos, artworks, music etc. (20%), and Popularity (10%) which will be indicated by positive feedbacks or comments on the blog post.

The deadline of submission is on December 31, 2016 and the announcement of winners is on January 06, 2017.

To learn more about AiraAsia Philippines #ThankYou Christmas Campaign, visit the AirAsia Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/airasiaph/

Good luck bloggies! I might join (*wink wink)

Stay gorgeous everyone!
Panama: The luxury holiday destination of choice for those who know

Panama is most famous for its canal, but the country is much more than just a convenient link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. While there are many interesting things to learn about the canal itself, Panama as a whole offers a stunning mix of gorgeous beaches rainforest, and marine life.

With its luxury shops, restaurants and hotels, The Soho Panama mall attracts a high-classer of clientele to Panama City. In the mall, you will find the 220-room 5* Ritz Carlton, replete with four restaurants, two swimming pools, and a spa. In fact, Panama has multiple luxury 5* hotels across the country and in a recent study it was found to be the 8th most luxurious travel destination when it came to the ratio of hotels to 5* hotels.

Panamas fast-growing economy now makes it the travel spot of choice for more distinguished guests. If youre looking for somewhere unique and luxurious to spend your holiday, here is our guide to getting nothing but the best

Where to stay

For some of the best views in Panama, book a water-facing suite at the InterContinental Miramar Panama. Enjoy access to the Club Lounge on the fifth-floor for breakfast in the morning, and see the city through large windows as the sun rises.

The Bella Vista hotel also offers breath-taking views. It sits alongside the Cinta Costera, a 35-hectare reclamation project that offers you beautiful green scenery without leaving the city. Take relaxing walks, jog, or ride bikes along the 4km stretch and soak up the stunning panoramic skyline.

If you want to stay somewhere untouched by tourism, you may wish to try The Trump International Hotel & Tower Panama in Punta Pacifica. The building takes the shape of a sailboat and stands proud on the city skyline. The ultra-stylish guestrooms and infinity pool on deck are even more impressive. Meanwhile, the vast casino stretches over three levels and offers magnificent vistas from its 66th-storey roller floor.

What to see

Start by visiting the Gamboa Rainforest, just 30 minutes away from Panama City. A cable car takes you 85 metres above the rainforest floor, and is yet another sight to behold. It includes balsa and trumpet trees, mountain figs and an abundance of lush flora.

As you make your way through the treetops, you may hear the sound of drumming in the distance. This is the indigenous people of the Embera village welcoming you to their home. You may also spot chestnut mandibled toucans and baby sloths.

To see Panamas extraordinary marine life, there is nowhere better than the National Marine Park on the island of Coiba, home to more than 800 different species. This is also one of the best places to enjoy scuba diving and snorkelling anywhere in the Pacific.

Want to find out more about Panamas marine and wildlife? If so, visit the Biomuseo. Opened in 2014, the museum building itself is misshapen and features striking blue, yellow and red hues and is certainly enough to gain the attention of visitors. Step inside the museum to gain an understanding of the importance of Panamas rich biodiversity.

Panama is also home to the beautiful Pearl Islands, featuring miles of white sandy beaches and lush forests. If you wish to explore everything the islands have to offer, you may wish to charter a private yacht.

Where to eat

For cuisine, a great place to start is the historic district of Casco Viejo in Panama City. One of the best restaurants in Casco is Manolo Caracol. With almost three quarters of its menu coming from ingredients taken from its own farm, fresh food doesnt get any fresher than it does here!

The menu depends on what produce and seafood chef Andres Morataya can source from week to week. Expect to find modern delights like crispy patacones topped with prawns, or seafood, achiote and coconut soup at this restaurant.

Away from Casco, Riesen is a restaurant you simply must try if you love food. While it sits in the less-refined neighbourhood of El Cangrejo, Riesen is award winning and highly regarded.

Chef Hernan Correa mixes traditional Panamanian ingredients with modern cooking techniques. This produces starters like the moreish vegetable root crisps, and avocado slices. For a main course, calamari with coconut and peach palm, and braised beef tongue come highly recommended.
With the bombshell news yesterday that two former Flint Emergency Managers are being charged with felonies in their connection to the ongoing tragedy known as the Flint water crisis, the calls to repeal Michigans anti-democratic financial martial law are rising again from around the state. The corporatists that see Emergency Management as a key to accomplishing their dual goals of destroying public employee unions and privatizing as many government services as possible are beginning to freak at the thought that this valuable tool may finally be consigned to the rubbish bin of shameful history.

Top on the list of those defending this disgusting law and public policy is the corporate front group Mackinac Center for Public Policy. This group, heavily funded by millionaires and billionaires like David and Charles Koch and the Michigan-based DeVos family, has long promoted Emergency Management going back as far as 2005. In fact, the first Emergency Manager appointed by Rick Snyder  Louis Schimmel  was a Mackinac Center adjunct scholar. In another fact, the Mackinac Center helped craft the legislation that became Public Act 4, Michigans first Emergency Manager law.

Yesterday, two Mackinac Center staffers stepped up to say just exactly what they think of Emergency Management and the people living under Emergency Managers:

James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said Schuettes investigation shows a failure of government at all levels and need for transparency, but it does not negate the need for the emergency manager law. Weve been very supportive of emergency managers efforts in solvency, the states way of enforcing its own fiscal rules for governments, he said, of a debate over the law since 2011. John Mozena, vice president for marketing and communications for the Mackinac Center, likened the law to a form of governmental chemotherapy that can be painful and messy, but sometimes its what youve got to do to solve the problem.

Ive heard the elected officials in municipalities with Emergency Managers called inept, corrupt, and other disparaging terms. But this is the first time I have heard someone compare the people living under a state-appointed overseer to cancer. The fact that they feel comfortable doing so speaks volumes about how they feel about people who are struggling from the implosion of manufacturing in our urban areas in Michigan.

Lonnie Scott, Executive Director of Progress Michigan released this pointed statement about Mozenas offensive comment:

Twelve people have died. Thousands have been irreversibly poisoned, including children. What will it take for the Mackinac Center to finally admit that the anti-democratic legislation they helped to write is indefensible? The criminal charges filed today against Flint emergency managers show that the EM laws paved the way for the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Instead of comparing Flint residents to a cancer that must be excised through the chemotherapy of ruthless austerity measures, the Mackinac Center should publicly apologize for the human toll of the laws they promote and join us in calling for their repeal.

In an astonishing turn of events, Richard McLellan, the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Mackinac Center, is now having second thoughts about Emergency Managers. He wrote this on his Facebook page yesterday:

I regret to say that I may agree with Progress Michigan that the emergency manager law needs to be relocated to the scrap heap of history or, in the very least, significantly altered until that day comes. The emergency manager law was a thoughtful attempt to deal with financial irresponsibility of local officials and address restructuring financial systems of municipalities and school systems. In retrospect, the singular focus on finances was a mistake and the cause of many unintended consequences. You cant put a law in jail, so now we see this effort prosecute public officials for misconduct when clearly they had no benefit to gain. I hope they get a fair hearing in courts, but given the political need to punish someone, that may not be possible.

Sounds like Mr. McLellan needs to have a chat with James Hohman and John Mozena.

Its worth noting the contribution of the DeVos family to the anti-democratic debacle of Emergency Management. Not only do the DeVoses contribute large amounts of money to the Mackinac Center which played a key role in the creation of our Emergency Manager law (read more about that in this Mother Jones piece), the DeVos family are also heavy contributors to Republicans in the state legislature and to the Michigan Republican Party in an effort to get them to do their bidding. As I have pointed out before, they see legislators as puppies to be trained to do what their owners want them to do. And its not just me saying this. The Mackinac Center itself says it:

Almost everyone loves puppies, at least until they start making messes on the carpet. With every puppy comes the responsibility of training it to become mans best friend. The same can be said about legislators. While they are, of course, not dogs, they do need to be trained in order to be turned in to a voters best friend. While most go to Lansing or Washington to do the right thing, many will end up making messes that result in less liberty. Training legislators, as with training puppies, must be done with care and common sense. An external system of rewards and punishments is used to guide the puppy toward doing the right thing.

One way they do this is through their donations. And, more often then not, its through withheld donations that dont come until AFTER the legislators vote according to the wishes of the DeVos family.

Between the election in 2010 when Republicans took office and mid-April of 2011, various members of the DeVos family gave $80,000 dollars to Michigan Republicans:



Thanks to Sean Tobin at Progress Michigan for the research behind these numbers.

Note that all but one of these massive donations came in mid-April of 2011, just one month after Public Act 4 was signed into law. The other one came one day after Election Day in 2010. Thats the puppy treat delivered for being a good dog.

As you might imagine, nobody is more happy that president-elect Donald Trump has chosen Betsy DeVos as his pick for Secretary of Education than the Mackinac Center:

President-Elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday he intends to nominate Betsy DeVos as Secretary of the Department of Education. DeVos has long championed policies that empower parents to make the best educational choices for their children, both here in Michigan and around the nation. Mackinac Center for Public Policy analysts are excited to see how she uses her new role to advocate for quality educational options for all children. Mackinac Center President Joseph G. Lehman issued the following statement about her upcoming nomination: Ive known Betsy DeVos for two decades. Shes focused, persevering, unwilling to let the perfect impede the good within reach, generous above and beyond what anyone might reasonably expect, and shes super-smart on policy. She wont be entranced by rarified Beltway air in DC. Shes a hopeful choice the whole nation can be proud of.

And, as I wrote about in a now-viral post yesterday, Betsy DeVos herself is profiting from the Flint water crisis.

One final thing while were on the topic of Betsy DeVos. Yesterday, the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP), a group she created and heavily finances, tried to characterize any negative reporting about Ms. DeVos and her anti-public schools agenda as fake news with this tweet:

With no apparent sense of irony, this tweet came shortly after they retweeted an article by Breitbart.com.

Also: Retreat, lol.

UPDATE: GLEP deleted their tweet. Heres a screenshot:
There is a whole lot of news to report about the ongoing tragedy in Flint, Michigan where the drinking water of tens of thousands of city residents was poisoned with the powerful neurotoxin lead through actions taken by state-appointed Emergency Managers.

The biggest news of the day is that Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is bringing charges against two Emergency Managers  Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose  along with two city officals. From AG Schuettes press release:

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today charged two former State of Michigan Emergency Managers, Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, with multiple 20-year felonies for their failure to protect the citizens of Flint from health hazards caused by contaminated drinking water. Additionally, Schuette announced that Earley and Ambrose, along with ex-City of Flint executives Howard Croft and Daugherty Johnson, also face felony charges of false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses related to their roles in a process that led to the issuance bonds to pay for a portion of the KWA water project.

The main charges against Earley and Ambrose are striking:

[Earley and Ambrose both] allegedly participated in a process that allowed the use bonds to fund the construction of the KWA pipeline despite the Citys problem with its high debt level. The City of Flint, with MDEQ approval, used an exception to state law by claiming the bonds were needed to fund an emergency cleanup of a retention pond, when in fact the funds were intended to pay for the KWA. During that time, the defendants actively worked in various fashions to discourage a return to using water produced by the Detroit Water and Sewer Department, require the use of Flint River water through a Flint Water Treatment Plant, that was deemed unready for service by several people involved with its management, and to ensure the construction of the KWA.

I couldnt be happier that Earley is facing up to 46 years in jail on felony charges. Recall that Earley went on to be the Emergency Manager for Detroit Public Schools where he presided over further decay and the destruction of the public school system there. The damage that this one man has done in the state of Michigan has earned him a jail cell, in my opinion.

The two city officials are accused of conspiring with Earley and Ambrose to secure additional debt for Flint under false pretenses.

It has been my hope all along that former Department of Environmental Quality chief Dan Wyant would be held accountable for his utter mismanagement of the department under his watch but that, apparently, is not to be. He is, it would appear, a friend of our Attorney General.

As Progress Michigan Executive Director Lonnie Scott, these charges do little to fix the source of the problem: Michigans anti-democratic Emergency Manager law, a law AG Schuette has staunchly defended:

The emergency manager law is fundamentally flawed because it takes away the peoples right to vote and has remained unchanged since the Flint Water Crisis began. Bill Schuette bringing charges against these emergency managers is ironic because he actually fought to preserve this undemocratic system of governing. Given that the only person emergency managers answer to is the governor, we hope the investigation will continue to reach higher until everyone involved is brought to justice. Frankly, the entire law needs to be relocated to the scrap heap of history or, in the very least, significantly altered until that day comes. This law was overturned by a vote of the people, but was then forced back on them by a Republican-controlled state government. Michigan continues to be a place where your right to vote is conditional on your zip code.

Another development happened at the federal level this past week when the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, headed up by Republican Jason Chaffetz, quietly shut down its investigation into the Flint water crisis:

Congressional Republicans quietly closed a year-long investigation into Flint, Michigans crisis over lead in its drinking water, faulting both state officials and the Environmental Protection Agency for contamination that has affected nearly 100,000 residents. In letters to fellow Republicans, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Friday that Michigan and federal officials were slow in detecting high levels of lead in the water and did not act fast enough once the problem was discovered. The committee findings offer no new information and essentially summarize what emerged during several high-profile hearings earlier this year. The committee found significant problems at Michigans Department of Environmental Quality and unacceptable delays in the Environmental Protection Agencys response to the crisis, wrote Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. The committee also found that the federal regulatory framework is so outdated that it sets up states to fail.

Its not surprising that Chaffetz oversaw a process that ended with blaming federal and state agencies tasked with protecting our environment and drinking water rather than going after the people inside those agencies who actually failed the citizens of Flint through inaction or inappropriate action. Hes long been an outspoken critic of the USEPA and the hearings held by the Committee gave him one more grandstand from which to deride the federal agency.

This past week also saw the release of a minority report of sorts, dubbed an addendum, to the final report issued by the Michigan House of Represenatives Joint Committee on the Flint Water Public Health Emergency. That report, released without buy-in from the two Democrats on the Committee, Jeff Irwin and Jim Ananich, didnt go far enough in the mind of Rep. Irwin who released the addendum which has several very specific recommendations including:

Delivering water and/or filters to the impacted residents of Flint

Development of a Water Emergency Response Plan

Forgiving Flint water bills and protection of residents from shutoffs

A laundry list of ways to strengthen our drinking water protections

Abandoning Emergency Management

Municipal finance reform

Greater state cooperation

Unfortunately Jeff is term-limited and will not return to the State House in January. Its my sincere hope that one or more of his Democratic colleagues will take the baton from him and urge action on all of his recommendations.

Finally, though I mentioned it in the Flint update segment of one of our recent podcasts, I havent written about the fact that Congress has FINALLY passed the omnibus Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act which contains $170 million in spending for Flint:

Congress has finally passed an agreement to provide $170 million in long-awaited assistance for Flint and other communities affected by lead. The bipartisan agreement, championed by Senator Stabenow, Senator Peters and Congressman Kildee, passed the Senate 78-21 tonight as part of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act. This agreement closely mirrors legislation that passed the Senate in September by a margin of 95-3. It now goes to the desk of the President for his signature. The agreement provides access to $100 million in funding to help fix Flints drinking water infrastructure; funding to activate at least $200 million in low-interest loans to upgrade water infrastructure in communities in Michigan and across the country; $50 million to address the health care needs of children who have been exposed to lead; authority for the State of Michigan to forgive $20 million in past drinking water loans to Flint; and a requirement that EPA warn the public within 24 hours of high lead levels in drinking water if a state fails to do so.

Senator Debbie Stabenow and Congressman Dan Kildee are among the many Democrats who championed this long-awaited help for Flint and they are to be commended for their advocacy and action on this legislation.
How least qualified man beat the most qualified woman

History will probably only remember it for purposes of mockery but something amazing happened in 2016  and no one seemed to notice how remarkable it was. Actually, that turned out to be exactly what went wrong.

For much of the year, experts and non-experts of all sorts spent time speculating how large the victory of our first woman president would be.

There may never be a safer election in which to vote for a third option, Edward Snowden tweeted from Russia in late October, noting that the New York Times Upshot model was giving Hillary Clinton a 93 percent chance of being elected president.

Less than 100 years after women began to gain the right to vote, the biggest question seemed to be Just how many cracks will be in that ceiling?

Earlier that month, a tape of Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault on the set of Access Hollywood seemed to confirm Americans worst fears about the GOP nominee  namely that he was rapey monster who considered others, especially women, vessels for his conquest.

But what we didnt see coming was the confluence of a variety of unprecedented, unimaginable attacks simmering against Hillary Clinton beginning just an hour after the release of the Access Hollywood tape with the first release of John Podestas emails and ending with FBI Director James Comey making his second insanely improper intervention into a presidential campaign with a comically vague memo that gave Republicans cause to scream EMAILS! for the last week of the election while Donald Trump got off Twitter and stuck to his script. And culminated with Comey clearing Clinton again the day before the election so that America woke up to headlines not pondering the significance of the election but again screaming EMAILS!

The shocking results on Election Day confirmed what Democratic pollsters saw immediately after Comeys memo  it had finished her off.

Some will refuse that assessment and argue that Trumps win was already coming as voters had decades of information about the Clintons baked into their brains. More will say, Well, then Democrats shouldnt have nominated someone under FBI investigation. They should have nominated another woman who could easily be elected president  which is easy to imagine, somehow, yet has never yet appeared in American history.

Sure, there are legitimate critiques Clintons, and like the legitimate critiques of President Obama, almost all of them come from the left.

But even those arguments tend to ignore the cosmic injustice of an investigation into her unforced error of bad email security being born out of an endless witchhunt into the Benghazi tragedy, meant first to destroy President Obama and then deployed to hammer Clintons candidacy. And this comes after decades of trumped up, specious or downright abusive uses of taxpayer money to attack a couple whose greatest crime to the right will always be that they beat Republicans.

We imagined America had the immune system to stop our nation from electing a megalomaniac whose career has been spent in the opposite of the public interest. Instead, we were reminded that a woman  especially a woman ambitious enough to be the first major party nominee for president  is still held to standards that tower over her male opponent.

Everything seems to be excused away because she was an imperfect candidate. We dont need to investigate a foreign power interfering in our elections to shift our foreign policy toward their financial and strategic advantage because Clinton didnt visit Wisconsin. Its no big deal that FBI Director weighed in on the extreme carelessness of one candidate while suppressing any comment about investigations into the other because John Kerry had more canvassers in Michigan. A candidate who was caught using his Foundation and his University for unethical and possible illegal gains refused to reveal the one legal document that will give a peak into the extraordinary conflicts of interests he will bring into the presidency, in direct violation of the Constitution. But thats fine because Clinton didnt spend enough time in the small towns of rural Pennsylvania.

Its true that Clinton could have done better and Democrats will have do better. Still, so many of her mistakes were born out of believing that America was not just ready for a woman president, but that she should win easily. No one saw a category 4 storm of patriarchys worst whims boiling up against her.

One of the worst things about Trumps election is the people it proved right  like Dilbert creator Scott Adams who posited in June that the biggest unreported story of this presidential election is the humiliation of the American male.

He predicted Trump would win with the largest male turnout in history, which sort of happened. It was the widest gender gap in generations, with men supporting Trump by 5 percent over manly Mitt Romney.

Adams wrote in that same post:

In my opinion, Hillary Clinton has already done a great service to the country because  win or lose  she already effectively broke the glass ceiling on the most visible and important job in the nation. If she falls short of the presidency, few people will think it was because of gender discrimination against women. Clinton has been a strong role model for women and deserves massive credit for that.

Thats the credit hes willing to give to Clinton. Its enough that people thought she should win and that misogyny cant be blamed for her loss. She doesnt deserve the job shes obviously more qualified for. Some guys dont even believe she deserves all the electoral votes she won, even though she got three million more votes than the winner.

Thats the victory of misogyny of 2016. Men can claim theyve solved it without ceding any actual power.

[Photo by the great Anne Savage.]
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, Johns 22-year-old son remained covered under his insurance, just when they needed it most.

It wasnt your typical nosebleed.

When John came home from his job as a union tradesman one day in August, his son had a gusher of a nosebleed, he says. John immediately saw his son needed to be in the emergency room.

In the ER, they were able to stop the bleeding and sent him to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist near their home near Chicago. It was then that they discovered it was much more than a nosebleed, John says.

When the ENT pulled out the packing in my sons nose, it was like Niagara Falls of blood. The doctor admitted him to the hospital right then, ordered X-rays and a CT scan, and came by that night to inform us my son had a tumor.

Fortunately, it wasnt a cancerous tumor  but it was a rare tumor that forms from blood vessels. John says the doctor told them he hadnt seen this kind of tumor in more than 10 years, and sent them to the top specialist in the area for this type of tumor. That doctor referred them to a super-specialist in Pittsburgh, who said it was the second biggest tumor of its kind hed ever seen.

The doctor in Pittsburgh told me it wasnt long ago that people with this kind of tumor came to the ER and bled out, John says, which means they bled to death.

In September, a team of surgeons in Pittsburgh removed the tumor. There were follow-ups every two weeks with a specialist closer to their home, and for the next year there will be monthly check-ups to watch for any return of the tumor.

So far, everything is great, John says. Hes happy, hes healthy and feeling good.

John doesnt know what they would have done if his son hadnt been covered under the insurance he gets through his union. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, children can stay on their parents plans until they turn 26, which is why Johns 22-year-old son has insurance while hes making decisions about his career path, a time in life when many young people have jobs that dont offer insurance.

This provision was a lifesaver. Im sure the county hospital where we went to the ER does a great job with gunshots and wounds  theyre a great place and they treat the uninsured  but its doubtful they could handle something like my sons tumor. We would have been screwed without the ACA. I wouldnt have any idea how I could have paid for my sons treatment. Its inconceivable. Its more money than Id probably make in a few years, and I make a good living.

John points out that although his insurance premiums have been rising for years, theyve been increasing more slowly since Obamacare was implemented. So he cant fathom why President-elect Trump and Congressional Republicans want to take healthcare coverage away from anyone  particularly those with pre-existing conditions.

Its heartless to turn those people away. To talk about immediately repealing it, its just talk for the ignorant.

Has Obamacare made a difference for you or your family? Tell us about it HERE if youd like to be considered for a future post.

Open enrollment for 2017 insurance continues through January 31, 2017. Get covered today at HealthCare.gov.

[Image credit: Michael J, via Flickr]
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By Alexandra Rosenmann

With the Dakota Access Pipeline nearly 90 percent complete, developers are focusing their attention elsewhere. Meanwhile, protests against additional pipelines throughout the country have yet to receive a tenth of the airtime.

If you draw a line from Chicago to the Gulf CoastHouston, Port Arthur, Baton Rougethat line goes through Patoka, Illinois, John Moody, a spokesman for the Association of Oil Pipelines told the Chicago Sun Times.

Then start in Cushing, Oklahoma, and draw a line across to Cleveland and Detroit and central Ohio, and that line goes through Patoka. Patoka is a crossroads for energy delivery.

Beyond North Dakota, here are 10 states that have also been battling pipeline projects.

1. Ohio

Construction of the 255-mile Nexus Gas Transmission project, a partnership between Houston-based Spectra Energy and Detroits DTE Energy, is expected to begin by early 2017.

2. Iowa

The Dakota Access Pipeline project faced resistance in Iowa long before it reached Standing Rock. In July 2015, landowners in its path urged the Iowa Utilities Board to reject permits needed for the project to proceed.

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. But the anti-pipeline group Bold Iowa has pledged to keep fighting the four-state, 1,172-mile crude oil pipeline until it becomes operational. The groups direct action includes standing in court with Iowa landowners in the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline battling eminent domain abuse.

3. Texas

Standing Rocks success this December reinvigorated a more than two-year battle to half construction of the Trans-Pecos pipeline, a 148-mile joint venture with Mexicos federal electricity commission, the Comision Federal de Electricidad.

4. Louisiana

The company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline is currently planning a 162-mile pipeline that would cut through the Atchafalaya Basin and 11 Louisiana parishes. But resistance to the Bayou Bridge Pipeline has already spread worldwide. Concerned citizens and environmental groups from New Zealand to South Africa have gathered thousands of signatures, leading the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to call for a public hearing in which the water quality permits of the site will be assessed.

5. Florida

The Sierra Club, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and Flint Riverkeepers filed a motion in late October to expedite review of the Southeast Market Pipelines Project, which includes the $3.2 billion Sabal Trail gas pipeline. Protests have continued for the past month and 16 demonstrators have been arrested thus far.

6. Alabama

On Nov. 15, outside the Army Corps of Engineers building, Huntsville protesters gathered in solidarity with the thousands at Standing Rock. The Sabal Trail pipeline is set to cross three states and cover 500-plus miles (86 in Alabama, 162 in Georgia, 268 in Florida).

7. Arkansas

Diamond Pipeline is a planned 440-mile oil pipeline by Plains All American Pipeline and Valero Energy Corp across 14 counties and five rivers in Arkansas. The project is set to begin by the end of 2016.

8. North Carolina

A nearly 600-mile proposed pipeline drew protests in three cities on Nov. 19. In Pembroke, Fayetteville and Nashville, hundreds marched in opposition to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline which awaits a review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Dominion Power and Duke Energys $5 billion project would carry natural gas to North Carolina from fracking operations in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

9. Pennsylvania

Sunoco Logistics pushed back the timeline for its Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline on Nov. 12. The $2.5 billion project has not yet received the necessary approvals, even months after charging Huntingdon County residents who objected to the pipeline being built on their property.

10. New York

The National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. awaits approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin its proposed $410 million Northern Access Project in Western New York. Meanwhile, 50 miles outside of New York City, Spectra Energys pipeline expansion project continues to face controversy.

Reposted with permission from our media associate AlterNet.
By Nadia Prupis

A Reuters investigation this week uncovered nearly 3,000 different communities across the U.S. with lead levels higher than those found in Flint, Michigan, which has been the center of an ongoing water contamination crisis since 2014.

The investigation found that many of the hot-spots are receiving little attention or funding. Local healthcare advocates said they hope the reporting will spur action from influential community leaders.

All of the communities Reuters investigated had lead levels at least two times higher than Flints; more than 1,000 were four times higher. In most cases, the local data covered a 5- to 10-year period through 2015, the analysis states.

Bad news  your neighborhood may have more lead poisoning than Flint. You might not know. Check here: https://t.co/doR4iKAgrQ pic.twitter.com/4iXRcXIcPD  Reuters (@Reuters) December 19, 2016

Areas affected by lead poisoning populate the map from Texas to Pennsylvania, reported Reuters M.B. Pell and Joshua Schneyer. The available data charts 21 states that are home to about 61 percent of the U.S. population.

Despite the massive drop in lead poisoning rates since the 1970swhen heavy metals were phased out of paint and gasolinemany communities throughout the country are still at risk.

The national mean doesnt mean anything for a kid who lives in a place where the risks are much higher, said Dr. Helen Egger, chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Centers Child Study Center.

USA's Lead Crisis Continues: Chicago Parks Shut Off Drinking Fountains After Tests Find High Levels of Lead https://t.co/e3LcCXx8DL @MMFlint  EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) October 20, 2016

Like Flint, many of the communities are mired in legacy lead, Reuters reportedold industrial waste, crumbling paint or corrosive pipes. But few have received help or attention.

Contamination in children can cause cognitive difficulties, which in turn can lead to low school performance, few job opportunities and trouble with the law. That cycle was examined last year when 25-year-old Baltimore resident Freddie Gray died after his spine was severed in police custody. Amid protests against brutality and racism, many noted that Gray experienced lead poisoning as a child while living in an area with persistently high exposure levels.

But the problem is nationwide and affects a vast spectrum of communities, Reuters writes. Milwaukee, Wisconsin still has 135,000 prewar dwellings with lead paint and 70,000 with lead water service lines and $50 million has already been spent to protect the citys children. Many families do not have the funds to make the repairs themselves and laws requiring owners to remove lead from their properties are not consistent state by state.

Reporters visited several of the trouble spots: a neighborhood with many rundown homes in South Bend, Indiana; a rural mining town in Missouris Lead Belt; the economically depressed North Side of Milwaukee, Pell and Schneyer write. In each location, it was easy to find people whose lives have been impacted by lead exposure. While poverty remains a potent predictor of lead poisoning, the victims span the American spectrumpoor and rich, rural and urban, black and white.

In St. Joseph, Missouri, one of the most contaminated neighborhoods included in the study, even a local pediatricians children had lead poisoning.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate approved a $170 million aid package to repair Flints corrosive pipes and fund recovery efforts. But that is 10 times the budget the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) allotted for lead poisoning assistance this year, Reuters notes.

I hope this data spurs questions from the public to community leaders who can make changes, epidemiologist Robert Walker, co-chair of the CDCs Lead Content Work Group, told Reuters. I would think that it would turn some heads.

Reposted with permission from our media associate Common Dreams.
By Steve Horn

President Obama announced Tuesday what amounts to a ban of offshore drilling in huge swaths of continental shelf in both the Alaskan Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Ocean, a decision which came after years of pushing by environmental groups.

Using authority derived from Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the White House banned drilling in a 115 acre area making up 98 percent of federally owned lands in the Alaskan Arctic and a 3.8 million acre stretch of the Atlantic extending from Norfolk, Virginia, to the Canadian border. By taking this route, rather than issuing an Executive Order, Obama made it legally difficult for Republican President-elect Donald Trumps administration to reverse this action.

Environmental groups and Democratic senators have praised the decision, while Republican congressional members and industry groups have denounced it.

Today  the United States is taking historic steps to build a strong Arctic economy, preserve a healthy Arctic ecosystem and protect our fragile Arctic waters, including designating the bulk of our Arctic water and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing, the White House said in a statement, which also pointed to the need to continue to move decisively away from fossil fuels, as guided by climate science.

JUST IN: Pres. Obama and Canadian PM Trudeau launch actions to protect Arctic and Atlantic Ocean from risks of offshore oil and gas activity pic.twitter.com/AL4qkEPpg6  ABC News (@ABC) December 20, 2016

President-elect Donald Trump is a climate change denier who repeatedly promised on the campaign trail and during his post-election Victory Tour that he would unleash more hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of oil and gas, and push for more clean coal production. Trump also supports increased offshore drilling.

Industry, Republicans React

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, came out strongly against the Obama administrations move.

The only thing more shocking than this reckless, short-sighted, last-minute gift to the extreme environmental agenda is that President Obama had the nerve to claim he is doing Alaska a favor, she said in a press release, which featured the states congressional delegation slamming Obama for making the decision.

President Obama has once again treated the Arctic like a snow globe, ignoring the desires of the people who live, work and raise a family there. I cannot wait to work with the next administration to reverse this decision.

Murkowski, a climate change denier who said she did not vote for Trump and called for him to drop out of the race on Oct. 8, is a major recipient of oil and gas industry campaign money. She has taken $1,353,794 from the industry throughout her congressional career.

I cannot and will not support Donald Trump for president. He has forfeited the right to be our partys nominee.  Lisa Murkowski (@LisaForSenate) October 8, 2016

Murkowski and the Alaska delegation were not alone in their denouncement of the Obama maneuver, with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) also bemoaning it on Twitter. Ryan has taken $1,223,182 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry during his congressional career.

Another area of enormous energy potential taken away from the American people unilaterally by this president. https://t.co/unzEMYTJSf  Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) December 20, 2016

Industry groups such as the Consumer Energy Alliance, American Petroleum Institute (API), and Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) all scoffed at the Obama decision in press statements.

We disagree with this last-minute political rhetoric coming from the Obama administration and contest this decision by the outgoing administration as disingenuous, said IPAA in a press release. With exactly one month left in office, President Obama chose to succumb to environmental extremists demands to keep our nations affordable and abundant energy supplies away from those who need it the most by keeping them in the ground.

Cautious Optimism

However, Democratic Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) have shown support for the current administrations move.

.@POTUS puts interests of Americans ahead of #BigOil by permanently banning offshore drilling in parts of the #Arctic & Atlantic oceans. pic.twitter.com/VSv6pTAxcn  Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) December 20, 2016

Meanwhile, environmental groups praised the decision, but noted the likelihood that the incoming Trump administration will attempt to challenge it. In addition, groups pointed to the actions limits, as oil and gas drilling will continue in the Gulf of Mexico and exploration could proceed in large swaths of the Atlantic.

Trump Declares All-Out War on Environment With Fossil Fuel-Loving Cabinet https://t.co/8e6Q07pLbp @dotearth @tcktcktck  EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) December 19, 2016

This is an important move, but were still looking forward to the day when all communities are protected from fossil fuel development, May Boeve, 350.orgs executive director, said in a press release. Everyone deserves the right to safe environment and the benefits of a clean energy economy. That includes those in the Gulf and other areas facing dangerous oil, gas, and coal expansion.

Jacqueline Savitz, Oceanas senior vice president for the U.S., also called for the Obama administration to lock in a ban of seismic airgun blasting in the southern portion of the U.S. Atlantic Ocean offshore continental shelf.

As we celebrate this important step forward, we must not forget that a vast stretch of water from Delaware to Florida is still at risk from unnecessary seismic airgun blasting, an extremely loud and dangerous process used to search for oil and gas deposits deep below the oceans surface, Savitz said in a press release. Seismic airguns create one of the loudest manmade sounds in the ocean, firing intense blasts of compressed air every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, for weeks to months on end.

The governments own estimates state that seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic could injure as many as 138,000 marine mammals like dolphins and whales, while disturbing the vital activities of millions more, Savitz continued. With offshore drilling off the table for the near future, permits for seismic airgun blasting should be denied.

Uncharted Waters

One key question, of course, is what will take place next in U.S. federal courts after the almost certain challenge from the oil and gas industry. It is unchartered waters, both literally and figuratively, according to one expert.

Its never been done before, Patrick Parenteau, professor of environmental law at the University of Vermont, told The New York Times. There is no case law on this. Its uncharted waters.

The industry, though, has pointed to a precedent of 12(a) protections being reversed. The New York Times reported that after President Bill Clinton used this legal action to withdraw 300 million acres from oil and gas drilling from an area that had already been designated as a marine sanctuary, President George W. Bush reinstated about 50 million acres to fossil fuel leases.

Andrew Radford, APIs senior policy advisor for offshore operations, told The Times that he sees the Bush precedent will be the one pursued by API, its industry allies, and the Trump administration to reverse Obamas move.

Similar to how President Bush issued a memo in 2008 to add areas back in, were hopeful that the Trump administration will take a look at this to reverse that decision and we look forward to working with them to make that happen, Radford said.

Reposted with permission from our media associate DeSmogBlog.
(Facebook/GameofThrones)"Game of Thrones" will premiere in summer 2017.

Eagle-eyed "Game of Thrones" fans all know by now that Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Hafthor Bjornsson were in Dubrovnik, Croatia, last week for the filming of season 7. New photos have recently surfaced sans the actors.

According to Watchers on the Wall, Headey, Coster-Waldau, and Bjornsson were only on the set for one day, which means they don't really have a lot of scenes in Dubrovnik. It should be noted that the beautiful city has been used as the set for King's Landing before and it looks like season 7 will be no different. However, given the length of time the actors spent in the city, it doesn't seem like the place will be featured as much.

But the "Game of Thrones" news site also notes that filming continued on for a few more days after the actors left the city. The scenes filmed included extras dressed as Gold Cloaks and Queensguards.

Now that it's the holiday season, production for "Game of Thrones" is taking a break before resuming once again in the new year. Filming has concluded in both Croatia and Spain  the latter of which was the location of a three-week shoot involving a huge battle sequence. Meanwhile, filming in Belfast is expected to wrap within the week.

It can be recalled that Joseph Mawle was spotted in Northern Ireland recently, which means fans may see the return of the undead Benjen Stark. The last time Benjen was featured, he helped Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) and Meera (Ellie Kendrick) escape. Mawle was seen with Kristofer Hivju and Iain Glen, who respectively play Tormund Giantsbane and Jorah Mormont. The three of them may be involved in a scene set in Wolf Hill Quarry, along with Kit Harington's Jon Snow and Rory McCann's Sandor Clegane.

"Game of Thrones" season 7 is expected to premiere later than usual  with a summer 2017 release.
To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020.
Foodbank hails Manx public's generosity



Donations at the Port Erin drop-off point (picture from Isle of Man Foodbank's Facebook page)

The Isle of Man Foodbank is thanking the Manx public for its kindness and generosity after being inundated with donations for its reverse advent calendar appeal.

The organisation asked people to put aside one item each day in the run up to Christmas before dropping it off for those less fortunate yesterday.

So many packages were donated yesterday that the Foodbank had to issue an appeal for more storage space.

In October, the House of Keys heard that over 100 people have relied on the support of the Foodbank in recent months.
1

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham

Did you know about the writer Gresham? The poor man committed suicide in 1962... which has nothing to do with the books content, but I thought it was a point still worth mentioning.

So, Stan Carlisle is working at a carnival, and he witnesses before him how someone, a geek, could fall so low just for a measly job. He vows hell never be that man, but fate has already planned something else for him.
It's the Christmas festive season at Buckingham Palace and Prince George and Princess Charlotte shared a pre-Christmas luncheon with the rest of the Royal Family.

It was the usual annual tradition that starts the Christmas season, making the Royals live it up in style, according to Hollywood Life.

On Dec. 20, in a Christmas carpool, the 34-year-old Prince William drove his family to 90-year-old Queen Elizabeth II's pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace. After the shared lunch, the Queen and Prince Philip will leave for Sandringham to complete their festive season together.

Christmas Day at Sandringham is only for the immediate family, so it brings the entire brood together.

There is a slight departure from the tradition this year, though, according to aACB News. Prince William, Princess Kate, George and Charlotte are planning to join the Middletons in Bucklebury; Berkshire, said a Kensington Palace aide. Prince William is said to be "very close" to the Middletons. They will all be joined by Kate's sister, Pippa Middleton, and her new fiance, financier James Matthews, along with Kate and Pippa's brother, James Middleton.

But for the pre-Christmas lunch on the 20th, it was quite a huge turnout. Prince William and Kate were joined by 32-year-old Prince Harry in their Range Rover. Princess Kate looked dashing in a bright, purple coat, wearing a large, engagement ring. The three-year-old Prince George wore a collared blue coat and patterned button-down.

There was another procession of family visitors after their arrival. First they were joined by Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and then Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie in separate cars. They all waved to the public and then proceeded to enter the palace.

They were followed by the Queen's cousin Prince Michael of Kent, wife Princess Michael of Kent, their daughter Lady Gabriella, son Lord Frederick Windsor and his wife, Sophie Winkleman.

On a previous day, at a Christmas party hosted by The Mix, a mental health youth center, Prince William said to DJ AJ King that Prince George had started opening his Christmas gifts. George might be on Santa's naughty list, or at least on his parents' naughty list, joked Prince William.

"The Duke said they were all really excited about Christmas and that George is already opening his presents," King said. "He thought it was quite funny. That's kids for you, even the ones that are princes."

Watch the video below for the royal family get-together two years ago.

YouTube/Wochit Entertainment
The Suicide Squad actress, Margot Robbie, and her long-time partner, Tom Ackerley, finally tied the knot after months of being engaged. The couple held an intimate and secret wedding in Robbie's native country, Australia.

The wedding was held with only close family and friends. While the couple just recently announced their secret celebration over the weekend, they really didn't mention just how unconventional it really was.

According to the Australian newspaper, Northern Star, the reception of the wedding was apparently quite unique as the couple provided guests with some of their favorite foods. The food that was served mainly revolved around Pizza and barbeque dishes, with the kicker being bowls of Coco Pops, or Coco Krispies in the United States, for dessert.

The couple even skipped the traditional wedding cake and instead offered guests bowls of milk and cream which was distributed around the venue. Guests were then encouraged to pour them over their Coco Pops.

Margot Robbie was reportedly wearing a beautiful cream, off the shoulder wedding gown, with her sister believed to be her maid of honor. She was given away to Ackerley by her mother, Sarie Kessler, during the wedding ceremony.

The wedding itself was attended by somewhere around 50 to 100 guests and was held at the Coorabell, a famous wedding venue, found near Byron Bay in New South Wales, Australia. The venue boasts an overall country theme and incorporates mahogany wood floorboards, rustic interiors, and ornate furniture which all together bring about an old-worldly charm.

The British assistant film director first met the now 26-year old Margot Robbie while both of them were working on the set of the World War 2 drama, Suite Francaise. The couple have been dating for over three years. They then announced their engagement earlier in the year, but declined to detail any of their wedding plans to fans.
With the latest version of the Android Nougat operating system still in beta stage, tech companies are busy innovating features that can only be utilized through their respective products. Samsung is among those organizations that are keen in installing a useful component for their users and fans.

Based on client notes and forums, Samsung is being requested to incorporate fingerprint gestures on their devices. The idea may have originally stemmed out from Google's Pixel products.

It should be noted that the Pixel and the Pixel XL have a specification that permit users to go directly to the notification section when they swipe the fingerprint sensor downwards.

In response to a tester inquiry, Samsung has stated that it will enhance the fingerprint scanner soon.

Different angles are possibly being examined by the South Korean manufacturer as of late. With the user's fingers all over the unit most of the time, setting the sensor in front or at the back actually makes sense.

When the current beta phase of the OS will be finalized, the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the S7 Edge will become the first models of the Seoul-based group to run the system. As of late, major mobile manufacturers will be launching their top brands with the new version of the Android Nougat OS.

With the Nougat still undergoing testing procedures, Samsung intends to rename its user interface. From Touchwiz, the mode will become Samsung Experience.

In line with this, the Galaxy beta program has already instituted a vital update in December. An Android security patch is already up and running.

Some manufacturers are also experimenting with the fingerprint display. They intend to use the sensor as a shutter button for capturing images.

With the Mobile World Congress (MWC) fast approaching, it is possible that Samsung will be revealing the approaches integrated into the beta version. Most likely, the release of the Galaxy S8 will be the gateway to such modifications.
Fewer death sentences were handed down in the US this year than at any time in the last four decades, a study finds.





Only 30 such penalties were imposed in 2016, the lowest since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976 after a four-year hiatus.





Five states, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Florida and Missouri, carried out 20 executions.





It continues a 20-year downward trend in US capital punishment, says the Death Penalty Information Center.





The new DPIC report showed that not only have executions slowed or even halted in the vast majority of states, but juries and judges are sentencing fewer people to death.





"This year, death sentences will be lower than at any other time in the modern history of the American death penalty," says Robert Dunham, executive director of the DPIC and lead author of the study. "That, I think, is a big story."





After the US death penalty was reinstated 40 years ago, the number of death sentences and executions began steadily rising.





In 1977, 137 death sentences were handed down.





The trend peaked in the 1990s, with 98 executions in 1999 and 315 new death sentences in 1996.





Then the downward trend began.





In 2016, only 30 new death sentences were handed down, and 20 executions took place.





That was the fewest number of executions since 1991.





Of the five states that put inmates to death in 2016, Georgia led the way with nine executions, followed by Texas with seven, Alabama with two, and both Florida and Missouri executed one person.





New death sentences are down 37% from 2015, according to the report, and fewer death sentences were imposed in 2016 "than in any other year since the Supreme Court declared US death penalty statutes unconstitutional in... 1972".





Mr Dunham points out that the low number of new death sentences was notable as well.





Georgia, for example, sentenced no-one to death in 2016.





"Texas had four new death sentences, which is very low for the state," he said.





"Dallas and Harris counties, which is where Houston and Dallas are, imposed no new death sentences for only the second time since the 1980s."





The halt of executions in some states can be explained by the difficulty procuring legally acceptable drugs needed for lethal injections in the US





Many pharmaceutical companies refuse to provide them, and the European Union banned the export of the drugs to the US in 2011.





Some states have resorted to clandestine deals with compounding pharmacies or different drug cocktails, and a series of botched executions in recent years has raised legal and ethical concerns about these practices.





Legal challenges that can take decades to resolve and exonerations around the country have also slowed executions.





So far there have been 156 men and women exonerated from death row in the US.





"Lawyers cost an awful lot more than prison guards, and there is just enough ambivalence for state killing as a criminal punishment to make the due process standard higher than for other kinds of punishment," says Frank Zimring, a death penalty expert and professor at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law.





"The combination of high expense and low assurance has sort of taken the enthusiasm out."





According to various polls, American opinions are roughly split when it comes to the death penalty.





Pew Research Center poll shows approval for the death penalty has declined from a high of 80% in the 1990s to only 49% in favour now.





However, Robert Blecker, a death penalty supporter and professor at New York Law School, says that the majority of Americans still favour the use of capital punishment.





"[Approval may be] down from an all-time high of 80%, but it's also up from the 1968 low," he says.





"California supported it, Oklahoma put it in its constitution, and Nebraska reversed its own legislature.





"How much clearer evidence could you possibly want as to where American public opinion is?"





During this year's election season, three US states had items related to capital punishment on their ballots, and in all three states, death penalty proponents won big on election night.





Nebraskans voted to bring their death penalty back after legislators banned the practice in 2015.





Californians voted to speed up their executions rather than abolish them.





In Oklahoma, voters approved new constitutional language to protect the use of capital punishment.





Mr Zimring concedes that the general public may not necessarily approve of the precipitous decline in the use of capital punishment.





But he points out that when other nations abolished their death penalty it took some time for the general public to concur.





"When you study the western European decline of the death penalty, it turns out that public support for hanging people persists for almost 20 years after moral leadership abolishes the death penalty," he says.





"It takes a long time for public passions to catch up with the moral leadership of elites."





Although this year's figures continue to bolster the narrative that the American criminal justice system is increasingly turning away from the death penalty, the end of capital punishment may still be a long way off.





"The end game is going to be long and expensive and in a deep way, unnecessary," says Mr Zimring.





"That's billions of dollars and many too many executions in the American future."

The Strange Case of the American Death Penalty

Its a paradoxical moment in the history of the death penalty in the United States. The number of executions has dwindled to just a few, but the voters, even in the most liberal states, seem to want the punishment to remain on the books. Thats the message of the annual report from the Death Penalty Information Center, which produces the most comprehensive analysis of the subject each year.





The headline on the reportAnother Record Decline in Death Penalty Usenotes that the remarkable fall in the number of executions and death sentences is part of a longer trend, one that continued this year. The numbers were the lowest in the modern era of the American death penalty, after a period, between 1972 and 1976, when the Supreme Court put a stop to executions. There were just twenty executions in the United States in 2016, down from a peak of ninety-eight, in 1999. Even more remarkable, just thirty people were sentenced to death this year, compared with three hundred and fifteen in 1996. Indeed, as the report further notes, Fewer new death sentences were imposed in the past decade than in the decade preceding the Supreme Courts invalidation of capital punishment in 1972. The reduction in death sentences means that the decline in executions is likely to continue as well, because the pipeline of new cases is not as full.





Despite these numbers, death-penalty abolitionists also received a host of bad news this year. In 2015, after a long political struggle, the Nebraska state legislature (which is unicameral) repealed the death penalty. But supporters of capital punishment put the issue on the ballot in the 2016 election, and more than sixty per cent of the voters supported its restoration. Voters in California were asked to address two contradictory initiatives concerning the death penalty. One would have ended executions in the state once and for all; the other sought to remove some of the legal barriers that have prevented executions from proceeding quickly, or really at all, in the state. The abolition initiative failed, with fifty-three per cent of the voters opposed, and the law for expediting the death penalty passed, with slightly more than fifty-one per cent of the vote. (Its not clear what, if any, practical difference passage of the initiative will mean. The legal standoffs in California are likely to continue. There are seven hundred and forty-one people on death row in the state, but there hasnt been an execution there since 2006.)





The debate over the death penalty seems to have taken on some of the characteristics of the Presidential race this year, as a contest between populists and elitists. Judges play the part of the elites in this particular debate, and the judiciary, as a whole, has shown ever-greater hostility toward approving executions. This year, the Supreme Court ruled for prisoners in several high-profile death-penalty decisions, holding that racial bias infected jury selection, in Foster v. Chatman, a case from Georgia, and rejecting Floridas system of allowing judges to impose the death penalty even when jurors support life in prison, in Hurst v. Florida. (The Florida legislature sought to correct the defects identified by the Supreme Court in the Hurst case, only to have the Florida Supreme Court overrule the new law as well.) Delawares Supreme Court also nullified its states death-penalty law this year.





But, as the election results in California and Nebraska illustrate, the votersthe populistscontinue to back the death penalty, as does the President-elect. (Donald Trump notoriously called for the execution of the Central Park Five , fourteen-, fifteen-, and sixteen-year-olds who were charged with a high-profile rape and beating, in 1989. Even though the five were later exonerated, Trump, during this years campaign, reiterated his belief in their guilt .) The Death Penalty Information Center report notes that public-opinion polls show some decline in support for the death penalty, but the opposition has never achieved close to a majority. And, notwithstanding ambiguous poll numbers, politicians from Trump to Barack Obama understand that support for the death penalty, at least in some form, is less politically risky than opposition to it. (Obama, for example, has supported executions for extraordinarily heinous crimes.) Trumps victory, and those of other Republicans, can only reinforce that view.





Many factors have led to the decline in the death penalty in recent years: less crime over all, with less fear among the public as a result; DNA exonerations leading jurors to pause before imposing death; the reluctance of pharmaceutical companies to provide lethal-injection drugs and the resulting search (still under way) for a drug protocol that passes constitutional muster; the length and expense of the appeals mandated by the Supreme Court. All those reasons for the decline remain, but so, too, does the United States remain a country that has had the death penalty in effect for virtually all of its history. Thats not likely to change, either. The death penalty may keep shrinking, but it will probably never entirely go away.

 | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



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Source: BBC News , Jessica Lussenhop, December 21, 2016Source: The New Yorker , Jeffrey Toobin, December 21, 2016
Punjab has had a very dynamic history, full of challenges and experiments, and is home to the progressive and recent religion, Sikhism. Punjab is unique in many ways with vast fertile lands and experiences of a series of invasions from advancing armies from North for a long time, right to the recent history of the agonising partition in 1947. In 1966, the division of Punjab into three parts again disrupted the economic progress of the state. However, within a short period of time, thanks to the green revolution in the 1980s, it became the granary of country and richest state of India. These good times were short-lived due to lack of foresight by political parties and policymakers, and Punjab witnessed an era of militancy. Consequently, by the early 1990s, Punjabs ranking slipped to third place in terms of per capita income and by 2012 to seventh place. The volume provides insight into the declining trend of the growth rate of Punjab relative to other states. Accordingly, the editors rightly warn us that the waning economic status of Punjab will have implications for political influence in the country.

The book is an outcome of a conference organised by the Centre for Development Economics and Innovation Studies, Punjabi University in collaboration with University of California, Santa Cruz, United States (US) on the theme of rejuvenation of Punjabs economy, held from 21 to 23 March 2014 in Patiala, Punjab. The 20 chapters in the book, in addition to the introduction, are divided into seven parts: understanding the crisis of agrarian transition (four chapters); agrarian market and distributive outcomes (five chapters); structural transformation of Punjabs economy (three chapters); human development (two chapters); external factors (two chapters); fiscal policy (two chapters); and finally, two chapters in the seventh part, titled Perspectives on Rejuvenation of Punjab Economy, serve as the conclusion. The 24 contributors, including two editors, are reputed scholars who have been working on the Punjab economy for many years, and, therefore, the book is an authoritative work on development economics.
India, the largest agricultural user of groundwater in the world, has seen a revolutionary shift from large-scale surface water management to widespread groundwater abstraction in the last 40 years, particularly in the North. The IndoGangetic alluvial basin hosts some of the countrys foremost agricultural regions with irrigation predominantly provided by groundwater. As a result, the region has become one of the largest hotspots of groundwater depletion in the world.

A mean rate of groundwater decline of ~4 cm/yr across the region and regional depletion rates of ~20 Gt/yr have been estimated from GRACE satellite gravity measurements in North India (Rodell et al 2009; Tiwari et al 2009; Chen et al 2014). A more recent estimate puts it at 205 km3/yr of groundwater abstraction from the IndoGangetic alluvial plains, with the rate increasing by 25 km3/yr due to agricultural intensification (MacDonald et al 2016). Another recent study, in the Kosi basin in north Bihar, showed an alarming decline in pre-monsoon groundwater levels of several metres per decade (Sinha and Gupta 2016), given that the mean annual rainfall in this region is ~1,200 mm. Estimates of the total water demand for India for 2025 and 2050 are 843 and 1,180 km3/yr, respectively, against the total availability of 1,006 km3/yr (Verma and Phansalkar 2007).
The overthrow of opinion is not immediately followed by the overthrow of institutions; on the contrary the new opinions dwell for a long time in the desolate and haunted house of their predecessors, and conserve it even for want of a habitation
In his memoir, Cusecs Candidate: Memoirs of an Engineer, K L Rao writes that during visits to Sri Lanka he saw ancient irrigation structures that were the mainstay of the islands modern irrigation. He did not know that his own state had more than 50,000 such old structures that were worth developing. The self-imposed ignorance in the parent organisation, the Central Water Commission (CWC), seems to be continuing even now. The Report by the Committee on Restructuring the CWC and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has nothing do with tanks and such structures although its mandate is to plan for integrated water resources management (IWRM) and development. From that perspective, the authors rightly include current issues of ecological, environmental, social, economic and management concern (p 83). Meanwhile the ministries, at both the centre and the states, have come a long way. The central government is conducting a national programme for Repair, Renovation and Restoration (RRR) of Water Bodies. The 5th Minor Irrigation Census has already begun. The Telangana government has initiated Mission Kakatiya for rejuvenating 47,000 tanks by 2020. These are only a few of many relevant programmes.

The 4th Minor Irrigation Census informs us that there were 5,23,816 waterbodies in the country in 200607. India has a wide variety of indigenous irrigation and related systems built by earlier generations to meet different ecosystem challenges, though with rudimentary technologies. They range from the tanks of Telangana and Tamil Nadu to the kuhls of Himachal Pradesh, including the khadins of the Thar desert and Ramsar sites such as Loktak lake and East Calcutta Wetlands, the reclaimed kharlands of the Konkan, and the johads of Alwars Rajendra Singh. They would greatly support extensive groundwater and micro irrigation. The traditional utilisation methods were based on the groundwater recharge and subsoil moisture retention capabilities of these systems. It is sad, therefore, to find that the Mihir Shah Committee report still reflects the amnesia characteristic of national policymakers of the K L Rao era.
Blog Hinangai

While there is much discussion in Guam about the economic benefits of increasing the islands military presence, the damages/dangers that they represent are rarely mentioned. This blog, a supplement to the Peace and Justice for Guam Petition, is meant to counter that by providing information about the US military in Guam, with the hopes of steering policy away from a dangerous unilateralist course to more sustainable notions of regional development and a strengthening international solidarity.
Reflections 41 years after Invasion Day,

December 7



By Pamela Sexton*



Dili, Timor-Leste - Recently, thousands of U.S. military veterans travelled to North Dakota to support the peaceful struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux to defend their sovereignty and protect their land and water. I watched the veterans bend down to ask forgiveness from the many indigenous tribes gathered there. They apologized as veterans from the same military that has carried out genocide against Native Americans since before the U.S. achieved independence. In this way, they acknowledged the past and affirmed their commitment to ensuring the bitter past doesnt repeat itself.



December 7 invasion day, via Timor Archives

This December 7, I bent down in Timor-Leste to apologize for the crimes of my government against the East Timorese people. On that day in 1975, U.S.-armed and -trained Indonesian troops launched their illegal invasion. I feel a deep sadness and shame that my government has not yet formally and responsibly acknowledged its support for crimes committed here on that day and the 24-year Indonesian occupation which followed. An important first step would be for the U.S. to declassify and release all its records related to Indonesia and its invasion and occupation of Timor-Leste. We have been horrified by the violence that police and National Guard forces have used against peaceful, unarmed protectors; by the destruction of sacred burial sites and Native teepees and sweat lodges, by the attempts to criminalize free media coverage.

The pipeline's construction must be stopped before any further damage is done.



As a citizen of the United States, I have a responsibility to learn and respond to injustices done by my own government. While my government would prefer not to emphasize or even acknowledge this past, I can still access this information, and I can speak freely. I am obligated to act when I see injustice  to use nonviolent means to prevent, reduce or acknowledge my complicity in my governments actions.



In the U.S., most people know December 7 as Pearl Harbor Day, the anniversary of the 1941 Japanese bombing of a U.S. Navy base in Hawaii. Japans target was strictly military, and the pre-emptive strike was carried out because Japan believed that the U.S. was close to joining the war. In contrast, Indonesias invasion of Timor-Leste was an attack on a civilian population who did not want war with Indonesia. Most people in the U.S. dont know about Timor-Leste, but the Indonesian invasion could not have happened without the military, economic and diplomatic backing of the U.S.



From December 6, 1975, until 1999, the U.S. supported Indonesias invasion and occupation. For this, they are responsible for numerous serious crimes committed here. Some basic facts:

December 6, 1975: President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met with Suharto in Jakarta and gave a green light to the invasion.

December 7, 1975: Indonesia launched the invasion; 90% of the weapons used came from the U.S.

Dec 1975-1976: President Fords Ambassador to the UN, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, wrote proudly that the U.S. wanted the UN to be "utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook [on Timor-Leste], and I carried it forward with no inconsiderable success." From 1976 to 1983, the U.S. voted against every General Assembly resolution supporting Timor-Leste.

January 1976: A U.S. State Department official stated: "In terms of the bilateral relations between the U.S. and Indonesia, we are more or less condoning the incursion into East Timor.... The United States wants to keep its relations with Indonesia close and friendly. [It's] a nation we do a lot of business with."

1977: President Jimmy Carter (known by many as the human rights president) increased military aid to Indonesia, including authorizing an additional $112 million worth of weapons. U.S. support for the occupation continued under the Reagan and Bush administrations of the 1980s.

December 10, 1991: A month after the notorious Santa Cruz massacre in Dili, capitol of Timor-Leste  witnessed by U.S. journalists Amy Goodman and Allan Nairn -- U.S. officials met with Indonesian military leaders to reinforce their support, telling them: We do not believe that friends should abandon friends in times of adversity."

1992-1999: East Timor Action Network (ETAN) activists worked with members of Congress to restrict U.S. government support for the occupation, resulting in a decrease in military assistance, training and arms sales to Indonesia. Despite this, President Clinton authorized hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons sales and provided over US$500 million in economic aid.

Early September 1999: Despite the killings and massive destruction by the Indonesian military and their militia which preceded and followed Timors vote for independence - the Clinton administration delayed ending military and economic support for Indonesia. U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, Stapleton Roy, told a journalist: "The dilemma is that Indonesia matters and East Timor doesnt." Finally, on September 10, in the face of strong public and Congressional pressure, President Clinton suspended all U.S. economic aid and military ties to Indonesia.

The U.S. government has not yet responded to the basic recommendations presented in Chega!, the report of Timors truth commission. The commission called on the U.S. and others to support an international tribunal to bring perpetrators of crimes committed during Indonesian illegal occupation to justice. The commission recommended reparations to the Timorese people from countries like the U.S. that backed Indonesia.



Fidel Castro is now dead, and Donald Trump will be the next U.S. president. People in Cuba have access to quality healthcare. In the U.S., 17% of the population are food insecure and at least a million people have no permanent home. While the health system doesnt yet cover everyone, many peoples insurance is now threatened with elimination by Trump.



While Cuba has little money, they have sent doctors and provide medical education to develop the health sector in many countries, including Timor-Leste. The U.S., a far richer nation, gives relatively small amount in aid, largely focused on promoting private business and supporting militaries.



As a U.S. citizen, I acknowledge this and redouble my commitment and solidarity as an individual, as an activist, and as a member of ETAN, to struggle to ensure genuine accountability and justice for crimes committed in Timor-Leste. I will continue to push my government to make people and their basic needs the priority, as opposed to corporate profits and the rich. I will continue to demand that my government:

release all U.S. government documents relating to Timor-Leste from 1974-1999, including intelligence files and intercepted communications between different parts of the military and government.

create an independent commission with the power to investigate, analyze and report on U.S. involvement in Indonesias invasion and occupation of Timor-Leste.

actively support the establishment of an international tribunal or other mechanism that can end impunity for those who committed crimes against humanity.

follow through on all the recommendations laid out in the Chega! report, including continuing to block visas to military officers who are mentioned in the report as possible perpetrators or command officers, and stopping weapon sales to Indonesia if human rights violations continue (as they do in West Papua).

apologize to the Timorese people for U.S. support for Indonesia and the crimes against humanity and war crimes carried out as part of the invasion and occupation.

begin discussions with Timorese people from various sectors about reparations from the U.S. government to the people of Timor-Leste.

A luta kontinua



See also, Nevins, Joseph. A not-so-distant horror: mass violence in East Timor, Cornell University Press, 2005



*Pam Sexton currently lives and works in Timor-Leste. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the U.S-based East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), www.etan.org.,

see also

Human Rights & Justice page

About Kissinger: The United States most notorious living war criminal

ETAN: 35th Anniversary of U.S.-backed Indonesian Invasion of East Timor (December 7, 2010)

ETAN/Tapol/Watch Indonesia!: Appointment of General (ret.) Wiranto as Minister confirms the deep-rooted impunity in Indonesia (July 27, 2016)

ETAN Backgrounder Breaking the Silence: The U.S. and Indonesia's Mass Violence (September 2015)
Pavel Baev (Institut Francais des Relations Internationales)

Since the crisis broke out in Ukraine in the spring of 2014, Central and Eastern European countries (CEE) have been facing growing economic, political and military pressure from the Russian Federation. What are the latest shifts in the patterns of Russian behavior towards the CEE countries? What strategy is Moscow pursuing and is it successful at achieving the desired results?

Russia is seeking to influence its Western neighbors by employing three basic levers. One of them is the export of oil and gas. The situation in the energy sector is, however, not going very well for the Kremlin. Putins dream of conquering the European energy market has not materialized. The Baltic countries have worked hard to diversify energy supplies and, in southern Europe, Russia did not succeed with the South Stream project  a series of pipelines that would operate a network of special customers. Overall, the Kremlin is failing to take advantage of the pressure in the energy sector to influence political developments in the CEE region.

Another tool that serves to achieve the objectives of Russian foreign policy is corruption and propaganda. Small countries in Central Europe appeared to Vladimir Putin as those that create problems within the EU and that could be potentially used to weaken and paralyze the EUs decision-making power. Therefore, he focused on strengthening the anti-EU, and hence pro-Russian, voices. By means of special funds, Moscow managed to create a number of significant friends on the local political scene, who, for example, openly speak out against sanctions imposed on Moscow. Extensive propaganda has thus helped Putin to partly influence public opinion in Russias favor. However, the opinions of these friends went unheard in the EU, and since Moscow is forced to cut funding on propaganda because of the bad economic situation, the information war is not going very well for the Kremlin either.

Moscow considers military force to be the most reliable tool for the implementation of foreign policy. The incredibly fast and effective annexation of Crimea sparked panic in the Baltics, where they started talking about a possible similar scenario as in Ukraine. Although the Kremlin will probably not be willing to undergo a military conflict in this region, its aggressive policy and constant escalation of the security situation are creating considerable tensions. The threat of a theoretically possible escalation of these tensions will continue to influence local political developments. However, Russia has not succeeded in creating, through its military threats, the desired fissures within NATO that Putin may like to see.

The Russian Federation is generally in the phase of a geopolitical retreat from the Western front. It is trying to reverse this retreat through the above-mentioned activities in the CEE region. Ultimately, these efforts are often counterproductive and often  perhaps paradoxically  accelerate the Russian retreat.

(The study can be downloaded here)
Complaining about regulators must be part of the day job for banks and fintechs. Whether worrying about keeping in line with wave after wave of changes, or paying out fines for when things have gone wrong, it is surprising there is any time or money left for banking or developing software. Phone calls and chats at conferences inevitably turn into talk about what the regulator is doing next to make daily operations even more difficult.

For example, the impending arrival of Payment Services Directive II (PSD2) has been on the radar for banks for some time. They know it will mean third-party providers will be able to eat up some of their business through the ability to directly access accounts. What adds an additional layer of complexity is the decision by the EU to impose the general data protection regulation (GDPR) laws in the same year.

While telling banks they have to open up the accounts of their customers to third parties, regulators are also insisting they need to closely guard that precious data, or face an expensive penalty: a 4% of all turnover penalty, to be exact. While it could be argued the banks need to start working towards protecting themselves against any mistakes now, the problem lies in the typically vague wording of the regulator: what, exactly, is sensitive data?

There is the risk banks are going to tip-toe around implementing PSD2 until they know for certain what is going to come to pass under GDPR. The European banks are left wondering how to work simultaneously with two apparently contradictory regulations and still make a profit.

But it is not all doom and gloom. What happens when the regulators (gasp) do something helpful? The fintech sandbox established by the UKs Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a prime example of how regulators, working well, can actually foster an environment of modernization.

Despite some reservations that the sandbox could unintentionally wind up being a dream marketing tool, providing an unofficial FCA endorsement, overall it has been welcomed by all sides. Offering a safe place for fintechs and banks to play, without the worry of finding businesses or products subject to a ban, seems so simple you wonder why no one has thought of it before.

The FCA has been internationally praised for being so proactive and innovative in its actions. Yes, the regulator has it written into its founding legislation that it is supposed to be innovative (section 2 paragraph 3 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, if you are interested), but even so it feels like the move is unprecedented in its possible impact. It is as if the FCA has realized this new technology is not going to go away, so it may as well have some say over how it is developed.

Creating the sandbox has a two-fold benefit for the regulator: it can keep an eye on what is happening in the industry and take steps to curtail certain actions before they spread. Rather than reacting to what has already been implemented, leaving banks and fintechs to carefully unpick what has already been integrated, they can work together along the same lines.

The move throws down a gauntlet to other regulators. The rules of the sandbox dictate that it needs to have a benefit to the UK, but it is not limited to only being used in the country. When looking at past innovations, such as Faster Payments, and how they have influenced developments as far away as Singapore and Australia, moving to London to develop software might suddenly seem very tempting to overseas companies.

It also has the benefit of meaning that anything that is developed will be implemented in the UK first, keeping the country at the forefront of fintech innovation  not to mention creating a new export industry for the country as it faces trade questions post-Brexit. All the parts fit together so well it is almost like some people got together and planned it.

The real worry is this will set a precedent: more national regulators and central banks may look at how they can innovate to help their banks step into the 21st century. And what will everyone have to talk about then?
The Russian annexation of Crimea and military support to south eastern Ukraine has led, deliberately or accidentally, to a new Cold War in Europe. The continents militarization is growing and arms control mechanisms are not working.

During the first Cold War, arms control agreements helped to relieve the pressure in relations between the USSR and the West. Arms control could also help to boost security in Europe today, especially as we can see similarities between the Soviet policy goals of the past and those of Russia today.

During the Cold War, the USSR was motivated by the desire to negotiate with the West and to reaffirm its role in European security. Different projects were offered to fix the post-war borders in Europe, to stop the militarization of Germany, and stop its membership of NATO. Modern Russia is also trying to consolidate its role in European security. Moscow offered to participate in the development and management of European missile defense, it also tried to assert its influence on the continent through promoting a European Security Treaty in 2008.

What helped to negotiate arms control agreements during the Cold War?

First, Moscow initiated the normalization of relations with the European states which were problematic. In 1970, the Moscow Treaty between the USSR and the Federal Republic of Germany was signed. This agreement allowed the parties to recognize each other, with the USSR de facto recognizing the border between the two Germanies and the absence of any territorial claims.

Second, there was willingness to further develop bilateral relations between the USSR and the US. In the 1970s, the arms control agreements on SALT-I, missile defense, and SALT-II were signed . These agreements were important not only in and of themselves. They also confirmed the readiness to treat each other as partners.

Third, the Soviet Union agreed to arms control talks whilst being in economic difficulty, conducting an exhausting nuclear arms race in a country that was economically weakened. Russia today is now also in an unenviable economic situation, experiencing a budget deficit, growing costs of social services, whilst managing sanctions and a downturn in oil prices. Russia can attempt to hide it, but its defense spending places significant pressure on its already strained budget. If there is a legally acceptable and attractive opportunity (which would not negatively damage its image) to reduce the costs of military build-up, Russia will be inclined to take it.

The ground for new negotiations on arms control is not ready yet. The proposals put forward by the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frank Walter Steinmeier were seen by Russia as premature.

It is impossible to lure Russia into conventional arms control negotiations in the form similar to the CFE Treaty. Crimea was added to the list of problems which include Transnistria and parts of South Caucasus. The complete withdrawal of Russia from these zones, a condition pushed by NATO countries in the 1990s, seems even more difficult to achieve now. Russia has become stronger and more confident in defending its interests and will not surrender its positions. NATO should therefore recognize the status quo on Russian troops presence in the Crimea, Transnistria, and Abkhazia and take the issue off the negotiating table. These problems should be discussed in separate negotiations.

The narrow view of arms control is also a problem. Steinmeiers suggestions are limited to particular regions and consist of the technical agenda based on the CFE and possibly adding control over new elements such as drone warfare. Russia links conventional arms control with the issues of tactical nuclear weapons and the US missile defense system in Europe. Dialogue on conventional arms will necessarily end up with discussion on Russian and US tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. The missile shield threat also remains a priority issue for the Russian authorities.

For NATO, it is important to resolve the issues of conventional arms control, the increase in size and frequency of Russian military exercises, and other military activities. Despite the fact that Russia is not presently interested in discussing these issues, movement in these areas would be the least painful concessions for Russia. It is important to maintain the status quo, with clearly defined borders for both sides, so Russian forces should remain de facto in Crimea and NATO forces in Eastern Europe.

Finally, negotiations on bilateral security guarantees between Russia and individual countries in Eastern Europe would help to prepare the ground for broader arms control negotiations. That said, good relations, for example with the Baltic States, seem to hold no value in Russian foreign policy.

Realizing the complexity of the negotiations, some recommend starting with small incremental steps: an agreement with NATO to prohibit the stationing of additional substantial forces in the border areas, or agreements on conflict prevention. However, small steps will not build confidence and will not secure the peace. In order to create a space in Europe where each side will be confident in its own security, it is necessary to engage in a comprehensive discussion on arms control.

In the meantime, there is no overall consensus that such negotiations are needed. From a pessimistic viewpoint, only further deployment of the US missile defense system in Europe and the deployment of Iskandar missiles in response can force both parties to the negotiating table. From an optimistic viewpoint, the new Republican US President could become an important figure in initiating detente, as Richard Nixon was during the Cold War, able to start negotiations with Russia without preconditions.

It is naive to expect that the mutual confidence needs to be established before the start of arms control negotiations. The Soviet Union and US did not trust each other in the first years of the Cold War, but the arms control measures initiated at that time ultimately led to increased confidence and finally to detente.

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.
Paul Sutter, an astrophysicist at Ohio State, writes occasional articles for lay people. Recently he put out a challenge to his readers. He wants to keep them from falling for media hysteria about space aliens. His reasoning poses an indirect challenge to any kind of explanation positing a hidden designer.

In Aliens are never the answer on Live Science, he begins by talking about recent reports of unusually strong signals from a sun-like star. Heres another one: physicist Carole Mundell asks, Are aliens trying to tell us something? Brightest burst of radio waves detected (The Conversation). The particular incident doesnt matter, because mysterious radio signals from outer space are almost always in the news, Sutter says. What he doesnt like is the rush to attribute mysterious signals to the work of aliens. He recounts other incidents over the decades. The point he wants to make is that science demands better explanations. An appeal to aliens is useless, because it can explain anything.

Heres the thing: The hypothesis that aliens are causing a mysterious radio signal is almost always useless, because intelligent creatures can create almost any signal they want. Hear a bleep-bleep-bloop? Maybe aliens did it. Whoops! I meant bloop-bloop-bleep. Well, aliens could have done that, too. Theres no predictive power in the aliens did it hypothesis. We cant ever disprove it. [Emphasis added.]

Of course, proof that aliens did it is the holy grail for SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Sutter mentions SETI a couple of times, but he doesnt make clear whether he feels their quest is justified. Hes mainly concerned about the rush to judgment.

When a natural astrophysical explanation is weak or not very convincing, theres often a temptation to wonder if aliens are behind it. After all, we cant rule out aliens! Exactly. We cant ever rule out aliens, because intelligent actors are capable of pretty much anything. We cant rule them out, so its a scientifically useless position.

Hes right, to a certain extent. Intelligent actors are sly. They can throw paint on a canvas, drive over it, and call it art. They can hide messages in noise. They can cough a certain way to signal a friend that the prison guards are coming. We cant rule out intelligent actors. So is the appeal to intelligent design a scientifically useless position?

Its a very, very, very big leap to go from We dont know whats causing this signal, to Maybe aliens are causing this signal.

Sutter is onto something. Hes basically arguing that we need a design filter. And ID theory provides one. ID advocates agree that you dont infer intelligence until there is sufficient reason to reject chance and natural law. When other astronomers jump to conclusions about space aliens, they havent done their homework. Proper use of the design filter would prevent invalid design inferences. The best-trained SETI folks will certainly want to rule out natural causes before running to the press.

Sutter cannot, however, rule out all intelligent actors, otherwise he would have to beat his head against a brick wall. Brick walls dont arise by natural causes, once you rule out columnar basalt and other cases of natural self-organization. We know of a cause that can build brick walls firm and straight, with right-angle corners, as part of buildings reaching tens of meters high. The walls dont even have to be straight. Consider Stonehenge. If Sutter were to rule out all intelligent causes as useless, he would have to beat his head against that wall for a lifetime trying to explain it by natural causes. That would be the scientifically useless position.

Intelligent actors are indeed capable of pretty much anything. Thats why we can be fooled by false negatives, claiming something isnt designed when it really is (as in the modern art case and the hidden message case). But ID theory can protect us against false positives (calling something designed when there is a natural explanation) by using the design filter properly. Once you set up the rejection region appropriately (see Dembski, No Free Lunch, Chapter 1), the Design-Specification Criterion becomes so robust, there comes a point when refusing to acknowledge design is absurd.

If Paul Sutter detected a series of bloops and bleeps from space tapping out the first 100 prime numbers in a row, he would likely concede the point.

Photo: Parkes Observatory, Australia, by CSIRO [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
Slips further and further toward bankruptcy, thanks to Chicago and a Democratic run legislature which blocks any common sense reforms.Imagine the entire population of Peoria, Illinois seventh-largest city, all picking up and moving across state lines in one year, never to work, pay taxes or create jobs in Illinois again. Thats equivalent to what happened to Illinois over the past year: New migration data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that from July 2015 to July 2016, Illinois lost 114,000 people, on net, to other states, a record high for the Land of Lincoln.Now consider the permanent loss of the combined populations of Illinois 10 largest cities outside of Chicago: Aurora, Rockford, Joliet, Naperville, Springfield, Elgin, Waukegan, Champaign and Arlington Heights, along with Peoria. The loss of these 10 cities combined populations approximately equals Illinois net loss of population to other states since 2000. Illinois has lost some 1.22 million people, on net, over the past 16 years.For the third year in a row, Illinois is the only state in the region with a shrinking population.Illinois sustained record net losses for each of the last three years of census migration data: a net loss of 114,000 people from July 2015 to July 2016; a net loss of 105,000 people from July 2014 to July 2015; and a net loss of 95,000 people in the year before that.From 1990-2011, the annual net loss of residents from Illinois to other states was 64,000 per year. But the 2011 income tax hikes, repeated property tax hikes and the states political dysfunction precipitated the record population losses of the last three years.Illinois rate of exodus is now one person every 4.6 minutes. Thats a faster rate of flight than even Michigan experienced in its worst years as Detroit plunged into bankruptcy. And according to wealth flight data from the Internal Revenue Service, the net loss of one person every 4.6 minutes comes with a net loss of $30,000 of taxable income every 4.6 minutes, too.Illinois population shrank by 37,500 people between July 2015 and July 2016 because the migration losses to other states overwhelmed the natural gains all states experience: more births than deaths and people immigrating to America from overseas. If there were no migration between states, every state would experience population growth every year. However, a few states lose so many people to other states that their populations shrink. Because Illinois lost so many people to other states, the Land of Lincolns population shrank by 37,500 people, the worst of all states. West Virginia was second worst with its population shrinking by 10,000.Pennsylvania is also shrinking: Its population contracted by 7,700 in the most recent year of data, compared with Illinois shrinking by 37,500 people. However, Illinois is shrinking so much faster that Pennsylvania is poised to surpass Illinois to become the nations fifth most populous state as soon as next year.At the last census in 2010, Illinois had 130,000 more people than Pennsylvania. Now, the difference stands at 17,000, an amount Pennsylvania will make up in 2017 if next years migration losses resemble this years for both states. The population gap between Illinois and Pennsylvania is closing rapidly, and Illinois will soon drop to become the sixth-largest state in the U.S.The alarming census data should grab the attention of Illinois policymakers and shift the conversation toward transformational reforms. Out-of-control spending continues to drive up taxes, and only changes to government-worker pension systems and collective bargaining laws can rein in those costs. In addition, the states hostile investment and jobs climate is especially inhospitable for blue-collar occupations such as manufacturing. Without businesses investing in Illinois, there will be no job creation for Illinois middle class.Perhaps most importantly, Illinoisans need to see changes in the states political environment. The fact that Democratic lawmakers havent found a single substantive economic or political reform on which they will agree with Gov. Bruce Rauner speaks volumes about the intransigence of the states political class, and its refusal to work for the common good. The lawmakers who have driven the state into financial and economic peril and who have overseen a flood of out-migration are poorly suited to guide Illinois to a brighter future. Illinoisans need new leaders to address the problems the state is facing. Term limits for elected officials and a more equitable legislative map would be a powerful signal that Illinois is changing its ways.Illinois is living through a man-made exodus. It must enact responsible spending, tax, regulatory and political reforms to show residents and job creators the state is serious about keeping its most valuable resource  its people  and welcoming businesses that can help them earn a living and stay here.Michael LucciVice President of Policy
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It used to be the case that there was a lot of bait and switch ads on Dubizzle i.e. "That one has gone but let me take you to this other one" which had little resemblance to the advert and 100k more.



However, just done a search myself and there does seem be a considerable amount of properties in areas that could command that price if there was an over supply.



To the OP, stay 1-3 months in temporary accommodation, phone the numbers but be prepared for a lot of leg work, bait and switch, absolute dumps, properties under the flight path or in developing areas. You might find something suitable but also be prepared to add 20k to your yearly budget.



As for ultilites I'd budget between 2k-3k per month on a 4 villa.
Getting the child into a school should be a total non issue. The problem might be getting into the school you want. They may not have room.might help. There are other websites. The bigger ones have apps for your smartphone.Your bigger problem is six months isn't here nor there. It's too long for tourist rentals. Too short for others. Places near the universities will have been rented for the school year.If I understand you're arriving the first six months of the year. You can try some of the summer tourist rentals. Make sure the place has heating.I'd also try emailing estate agents. They may have something that might work. Even if they haven't gone to the trouble of listing it.
Hi Folk,



Thank you so much for reading this post.



I am very frustrate and don't know how to react. Here is the story:

1. The unit handover is on 11-Dec-2016 at 6pm. The document signed off with only one item "Curtain" pending and need to install by 12-Dec-2016 at 6pm

2. By 12-Dec-2016 at 5:45pm the "Curtain" has been installed

3. 8 days later, agent reported that the toilet door knob is spoils (this item not in signed off handover document) and need to get a contractor to replace. I'm very SURE that the door is working fine. I'm trying to show the agent how it work, but they refused my proposal and still deduct security deposit.



Can you please suggest:

a. Is it legal that agent/landlord deduct security deposit where item wasn't in signed off handover document?

b. Can you suggest if I can take legal action to against this issue?



Thank you in advance



Rgds,

Chukanapri
The British Foreign Office has warned expats and their families visiting them to take extra safety precautions after the attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany.Christmas markets around leading cities in Europe are very popular at this time of the year and expats love the feel of traditional markets in cities where they stay and often visit them in groups with family and friends.  But officials are warning that any large events in a number of European countries could be targeted by terrorists over the festive period, particularly France, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands where the public can expect higher security than normal.There may be increased security in place over the Christmas and New Year period, including at Christmas markets and other major events that might attract large crowds. You should remain vigilant and follow the advice of local authorities, says the advice from the Foreign Office.It also says that if travelling around Europe there may be more immigration controls than normal due to heightened security. Immigration controls may temporarily be in place at some road and rail border crossing points, for example in Germany, Hungary, and Slovenia.The advice for all expats, their friends and families, is to carry their passport when crossing any border due to increased checks and a general threat from terrorism.Expats who have families and friends visiting over the holiday period are also advised to make sure they have travel and medical insurance and this covers attacks and hospitalisation as well as the usual cover.A number of countries, including Italy and the UK, have increased security in public places after the Berlin attack and airports around Europe will be at the highest screening levels which could mean longer queues for people travelling by air.Ferries from the UK to France have also upped security. Armed guards are understood to be on a number of boats and others are considering adding them to make boats even more secure.It is thought that attacks on Christmas markets in France were thwarted just last week after police arrested a number of people in Strasbourg and Marseille. The market in Strasbourg is the biggest in Europe and attracts two million visitors over the festive period.The US State Department has also warned Americans living in Europe and those visiting to be on alert for terrorist attacks.Shopping centres, which often have extra festive activities at this time of year, are also considered to be a potential for terrorists to attack and people are advised to be vigilant when out shopping for gifts.
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June 6, 1923  July 26, 2016

Jessie Mae Hunnicutt of Corvallis passed away July 26, 2016, at Samaritan Evergreen Hospice in Albany. She was 93.

Jessie was born in Mitchell, Oregon, the youngest child of Irving Hamilton Jones and Rhoda Elizabeth Stout. When she was 4, the family moved to a farm in Independence where she grew up, graduating from Independence High School in 1940 and receiving a teaching certificate from Oregon College of Education in 1943, after which she taught first grade in Pendleton.

July 22, 1944, Jessie married Alan Hunnicutt, her high school sweetheart, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. They had three weeks together before Alan left for Europe with the 290th combat engineers. Jessie returned to Oregon to teach first grade in Forest Grove.

From 1945-1947, Alan and Jessie lived in Tacoma while Alan was at stationed at Ft. Lewis. Their first child was born there. The family moved to Corvallis in 1948, building the home in which they raised their family of two daughters and two sons. Alan died unexpectedly in 1981, but Jessie continued to live in the family home until 2013 when she moved to Regent Court.

Jessie was an active member of First Baptist Church, the PTA, the DAR, the Button Society, and for years was known as the story lady for Child Evangelism Fellowship. She had a beautiful smile, a wonderful sense of humor, a deep faith and an enduring love of family. She cared about people, graciously welcoming into her home family, friends, neighbors, students, missionaries, and others in need.

Jessie was preceded in death by her parents; a baby daughter, Elizabeth; her husband and all four of her siblings.

She is survived by two daughters, Patricia Eide (Stuart) of Corvallis and Diana Maul (Alan) of Turner; two sons, Dale Hunnicutt (Marilyn) of Roseburg and Gary Hunnicutt (Tyler Polhemus) of New York; seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

A service celebrating Jessies life will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, at First Baptist Church in Corvallis. Her grandson, the Rev. Eric Eide, and the Rev. Bill Knopp will officiate.

Contributions in her honor may be made to the First Baptist Church, Samaritan Evergreen Hospice, the Abigail Scott Duniway Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, or the charity of your choice.

For more information and to leave condolences for the family please visit www.mchenryfuneralhome.com.
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The Bin Tapas Bar is not so much a Spanish tapas bar as it is a song about a Spanish tapas bar, sung by well-dressed people standing at a crowded counter, drinking sangria and shopping for tapas arranged on a shelf like scented candles at Pottery Barn.

The song goes like this, courtesy of Three Dog Night: Well, Ive never been to Spain. But I kinda like the music. And as I pick through rose petals of paper-thin jamon serrano measured out in grams like coke at an 80s disco, I can hear the music.

Lets be clear: This new project from chef and serial entrepreneur Jason Dady (Shuck Shack across the street, Tre Enoteca, Two Bros. BBQ Market) is more of a bar than a restaurant. In fact, there are more gin-and-tonic combinations than there are tapas, the skewered snacks called pintxos and small plates from the kitchen.

The bar also pours red, white and sparkling sangrias by the pitcher and 25 Spanish wines by the bottle or porron, a long-necked teapot-shaped glass for express delivery of wine from spout to mouth. Or shirt.

More Information The Bin Tapas Bar * 511 E. Grayson St., 210-994-8099, Facebook: The Bin Tapas Bar Quick bite: A casual, Spanish-style tapas bar with snacks and small plates in a bungalow-style house with counter service, pitchers of sangria and a gallery of gin-and-tonic cocktails. Hit: Stuffed piquillo peppers, blue cheese dates, red sangria Miss: Boquerones, tortilla Espanola, meatballs Hours: 4-11 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 4 p.m.-midnight Friday-Saturday Price range: Tapas, $1-$5 each; larger plates from the kitchen, $5-$22; sangria pitchers, $24; cocktails, $7-$13; wine $7-$10 a glass, $20-$100 a bottle. Alcohol: Wine, sangria, cocktails and beer. **** Superior. Can compete nationally. *** Excellent. One of the best restaurants in the city. ** Very good. A standout restaurant of its kind. * Good. A restaurant that we recommend. (no stars) We cannot recommend this restaurant at this time. See More Collapse

Red sangria at The Bin is a restrained union of fruit, juice and garnacha wine that lets the wine rather than the sweetness take the lead. Its fleet euphoria outdistances the bars studied gin-and-tonic creations, like the Botanist with rhubarb and cucumber or the Jose Andres, which honors the champion of Spanish cuisine with grapefruit, juniper berries and thyme, none of which does justice to its honoree.

The drinks lubricate the social experience in The Bins tiny front room, softening the friction that comes from competing for the time and attention of the skeleton crew inside the crowded bar pen. Theyre called to act as order-takers, drink-makers, platers, waiters and cashiers. That they do it with wit, gusto and charm is worth mentioning, because the two-room bungalow that once housed Bakery Lorraine can get as tight as tin-can Spanish anchovies on nights when the weather rules out the granite courtyard, along with its firepit and patio furniture.

Ordering at The Bin is a study in instant gratification: look down at the menu, look up at that dish on a shelf behind the bar. For a dollar, try a deviled egg with smoked paprika or a tiny skewer with olives, pickled pepper and anchovy. For $3, the possibilities expand for better  crunchy corn snacks with marcona almonds, pan con tomate like Barcelona bruschetta. Or worse  a dry slice of tortilla Espanola, anchovies in a desultory oily funk or parsnip hummus suffering from dill overkill.

The tapas all-stars kick in at $5: luscious dates stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped with jamon serrano, sweet piquillo peppers stuffed with firm and tangy paella rice and a petite baguette sandwich called a montadito with pork terrine.

The blue-cheese dates are one of several dishes carried over from the late Bin 555, the restaurant Dady ran until 2013 and to which The Bin, according to its Facebook page, is intended as a tribute. The Bin 555 hit parade extends to the Spanish home fries called patatas bravas in spicy red pepper sauce and grilled goat cheese mini-sandwiches with sweet and tannic tomato jam. Id have been fine if theyd left behind syrupy $10 meatballs with peach and cinnamon that seem incongruously grafted onto this menu.

The last three dishes came hot from the kitchen, drawn from a menu that also covered Spanish staples like sweet-hot blistered padron peppers and grilled octopus in oil and smoked paprika, laid out like sliced kielbasa with a texture to match.

As the plates piled up, the experience at The Bin evolved into a three-part harmony between the alcohol-assisted quest to get full, the competitive scramble of ordering at the bar and the fear of missing out.

Ive never been to Spain. But I kinda like the music.

msutter@express-news.net

Twitter: @fedmanwalking
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It was a starry morning Tuesday for more than 200 kids from the Boys & Girls Club of San Antonio as they were greeted by stormtroopers and Imperial TIE fighter pilots before an exclusive showing of the new Star Wars movie, courtesy of Councilman Roberto Trevino and numerous sponsors.

This is about the community coming together to celebrate, said Trevino, smartly dressed as Starkiller, a rebel fighter of his own invention.

Darth Vader made his presence felt at the Alamo Drafthouse as he stalked the line, with many kids coming down the red carpet trying to decide whether to give him a high five or slash at him with their sabers.

Amberius Longoria, 11, had no qualms; the dark lord is her favorite character.

I like his costume, she said. And I like the way he uses his light saber.

The Spurs Coyote, Blue Santa and even Rey Felo LXIX Fred Reyes also were on hand at the Tuesday morning event, and the coyote engaged several kids in a light saber battle, much to their delight. At one point, the furry mascot lay on the floor at the mercy of two young boys, begging for mercy.

Each child received his or her own personal light saber, a Star Wars poster and a bunch of other goodies.

The Star Wars characters were played by members of the 501st Legion chapter and Champions of San Antonio.

Trevino is a strong supporter of the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Antonio, where he played as a child, and also a major Star Wars fan. This is the second time he organizes a Star Wars-related event for the children.

vtdavis@express-news.net
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WESLACO  Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday that he expects federal and state reinforcements to arrive on the border in the coming months to support on-going operations.

We anticipate more forces coming to bear to assist you, to aid you, and aid the entire effort across this country to address the challenges you are dealing with, Abbott said to roughly 100 Texas National Guard and their families during a Christmas luncheon in the Rio Grande Valley.

While Abbott didnt elaborate, the governor expects increased federal assistance, his staff said. Abbott praised the guardsmen deployed to the border since Operation Secure Texas kicked off in 2014, noting their sacrifice during the holidays before serving them turkey.

The border never sleeps, and the challenges we face dont take time off, Abbott said. Remember that there are an unabated number of drug cartels, and transnational gangs, and human traffickers and smugglers, who dont care that it may be Christmas Eve.

Texas has spent more than $800 million in the past two years to saturate deep South Texas with troops and Texas Department of Public Safety, which has asked for around $1 billion for the coming two years.

Abbott joined Sen. John Cornyn and Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo this week in stepping up pressure on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to request the continuation of Operation Phalanx, which provides aerial surveillance of the border.

The National Guard program took its last Phalanx flight earlier this month, but DHS has not requested additional flight hours for 2017, and as a result the National Guard may terminate contracts for hanger space and housing.

It makes no sense to keep Operation Phalanx grounded when illegal aliens are overrunning the border, said Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council. In these dangerous times, keeping Operation Phalanx grounded makes no sense.

Abbotts predecessor, former Gov. Rick Perrys In Nov. 2014, deployed 1,000 Texas National Guard. That number was reduced to 300 by the end of December 2014, and further reduced to 100 in July 2015.

Over the past five years, immigration and border security have topped the list of issues that most concern Texas residents, according to an annual Texas Lyceum poll. At the same time, a majority of Texans oppose President-elect Donald Trump promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the poll found.

Even Abbott has said he does not want to see a wall in certain areas, including Big Bend National Park, while also expressing doubts that the serpentine geography of the border makes a wall practical in other areas.

Joe Rodriguez, the DPS regional commander in the Rio Grande Valley, said the states emphasis on the border has undoubtedly improved security and communication between law enforcement agencies, and established a front-line defense.

Rodriguez recognized there was also friction with local communities early in the operation. Even as law enforcement sought to curb illegal activity at the border, it also worked to build relationships in area communities.

Rodriguez said. With border security you can lead, follow or get out of the way, Rodriguez said. Theres no doubt that under the direction of Governor Abbott that Texas has chosen to lead.

Major General Nichols, the Adjutant General of Texas National Guard also thanked the Texas National Guard and their families, calling them the foundation of America.

Without you, though, wed be some other country, taken over by other people, Nichols said.

Thanks to troops and their families.

anelsen@express-news.net

Twitter: @amnelsen
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PUMPVILLE  The Gospel West of the Pecos, as some like to call it out here, is old-fashioned without apology or adulteration  sinners all, salvation by grace and full-dunk baptism.

And dont expect modern Christmas music or a feel-good message at the Pumpville Baptist Church. The sermons are long, loving and stern, the King James is the only Bible used and the church hymnal dates to 1951.

He aint here to tickle your ears. Its out of the Book. Its the way it is, said Larry Dingler, 66, of the preacher, Rick Bonds of Del Rio. Im not here for a social gathering. We come to be preached to and to worship. I want to be told my problems.

A week before Christmas, a handful of the scattered faithful assembled at the old limestone church by the tracks, the lingering pulse of a railroad ghost town 230 miles west of San Antonio.

Colorful wreathes decorated the sanctuary, giant stockings hung at the windows and corn bread warmed in the oven for the potluck to follow.

The holiday spirit was in full bloom and there was a lot of affectionate kidding, including daring husband and wife jokes, before and during the service.

When someone inquired of an absent congregant, another replied in jest: Hes off being an atheist.

And the fact that only 10 people  including Rev. Bonds and his wife, Jackie  turned out on this freezing sabbath, didnt seem to bother anyone. After all, its all in Gods hands.

Most of us are older. Were going to keep going with the church until the Lord comes or until there is no one, said Bonds, 67, who has been preaching here since 2012.

Were all pretty much happy. We believe were a little different church than most youll find, and not just because of the location. We still believe what the Bible says and we try to live by it, he said.

Membership, now at about 15, has dropped steadily over the past two decades, as the surrounding countryside has slowly emptied of people. In the past 30 years, neighboring Terrell County has lost almost half its population.

Most who attend now are at least of retirement age and children rarely are sighted. But the church still supports 26 missionaries, and is trying to start up a sister congregation 35 miles to the west in Dryden, population nine.

Were still chugging along. People come from as far as 65 miles away to be part of it, Bonds said.

Some would find it a miracle that the church exists at all, an island of devotion in a sea of greasewood and falling-down ruins, almost five decades after the town died.

Were still raising cattle out here, but in this area there are only about four ranches with livestock. Most are being abandoned, or sold for recreation or cut up into pieces, said Martha Sue Hinds, 73, who attended elementary school here in the 1940s.

People cant live out here because there is no way to make a living. Lord willing, well get some more people, but people are just not interested in church anymore, she said.

Moments of high drama

Founded in 1865 as a water stop for the Southern Pacific steam engines, Pumpvilles fate was sealed midway through the next century with the arrival of diesel locomotives.

Also a hub for ranchers, Pumpville slowly faded after the railroad crews left. It breathed its last breath when store keeper Froggy Cash finally threw in the towel.

Its short life was not without moments of high drama, however.

In 1897, Black Jack Ketchum robbed the train of $6,000 just west of town. And in 1965, Alfredo Hernandez, the notorious caveman bandit, shot the postmaster, Pelham Bradford, 67, in the leg during a nighttime robbery.

For reasons that still are unclear, the towns Baptist minister also vanished.

The preacher was gone the next day. Something scared the holy fire out of him, Dingler recalled.

Built in 1947, during the post-war era of prosperity, the Baptist church survived until the early 70s, and the town was abandoned to the snakes and coyotes.

It didnt reopen until 1985 when the Rev. Paul Ray of Sanderson heeded the pleas of area ranchers and others, and joined them in the effort.

It was a junk yard outside. Inside the church, other than the coons getting in and messing things up, it was ready for a service with the songbooks and everything in place. We got our paintbrushes out and scrubbed things up, he said.

The reopened church proved a magnet to worshipers from many miles away. Ray, 79, preached there for three years, left for the East Coast, and came back later for another stint in the pulpit from 1991 to 1996.

Pumpville is an anomaly. Theres no one there and it doesnt really make any sense. I was ridiculed quite a bit for going down there, he recalled.

But as it turned out, the anomaly worked out just fine.

After the service, wed have lunch. Wed play horseshoes and pingpong. Wed have a big tournament, and it was the social event of Pumpville, he said.

When we had our first baptism, which was in the late 1980s, we invited the First Calvary Baptist Church in Sanderson, and we had quite a day. There had to be at least 100 people there, he recalled.

When he stepped down from the Pumpville pulpit in 1996, Rays farewell message to the tiny church was to keep on keepin on.

I said, Im leaving but the church ought to be here when the Lord comes back because its the only lighthouse for a 50-mile radius, he recalled.

And for more than four decades, the church has been reliable well of spiritual succor for folks who otherwise would have no place.

One of the newest members, Tina Sivils, 54, of Dryden, 28 miles away, said it has given her great comfort since the death of her husband two years ago.

I had gotten away from the church for a while. I needed it, especially after he died. It reminded me that Im not alone. It fills a need in my soul, she said. Especially this church. You get fed spiritually when you come here. It gives us the energy for the rest of the week.

Inspired by verse

At 10 a.m. Sunday, Bob Hinds, 74, rose to deliver the Sunday school message. Cradling a worn black leather Bible with pages fragile from use, he asked all present to turn with him to Epheisans 5:20.

But before beginning his message, Hinds delivered a rigorous advisory: Take no mortal mans word for what the Good Book says.

I dont care who is in the pulpit, whether he is a renowned preacher or just a layman. You have your Bible and you have to check what he has to say, to make sure its the truth, that its not the speaker, its the Bible speaking, he said.

Drawing later from Mathew and Luke, Hinds delivered a rousing sermon, drawing supportive amens and thats rights from the congregation.

Weve got a greater cause, glorifying Jesus, telling other people about Jesus Christ. Look at what Christ has done for me. Look how he has blessed me, he said toward the end.

After everyone rose and sang, Born to Die On Calvary, the Rev. Bonds followed with a stirring message of his own, but not before handing out church-issued green religious tracts to a couple of visitors.

We give these to everyone who comes to West Texas. This is your green card to be legal in the area, he joked.

The Rev. Bonds also acknowledged the dramatic political changes in the nations capital in his opening prayer.

We thank thee Lord for (Donald) Trumps victory, but we know there will be difficulties after the inauguration. Every tyrant in the world will test him, he said.

At the close of his message, he had a series of congregants, one by one, read Romans 6:23.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, they each recited.

Then he told everyone to gather in a close group in front of the pulpit.

Each of you read it right, but each has a small voice. Now read it like you believe it, like its true, read it together, he ordered, which they did in full commanding voice.

He then explained the meaning of the exercise.

Were a powerful church with just a handful of people. Dont let it go, he said.

jmaccormack@express-news.net
BERLIN - A Pakistani refugee detained on suspicion of carrying out a deadly truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market has been released from custody, German authorities reported late Tuesday, leaving one or more of the perpetrators still at large.

The federal prosecutors office in the city of Karlsruhe said that investigations had failed to prove conclusively that the 23-year-old committed any crime.

Authorities said the man had provided a considerable amount of information during questioning, but he denied any involvement in the Monday evening attack.

Witnesses who claimed they had followed the man when he fled the crime scene had not had an uninterrupted view of him, and there was no recording of him in the cabin of the truck, investigations showed.

"Weve got the wrong man and therefore a new situation. The true perpetrator is still armed, on the loose and can do fresh damage," German newspaper Die Welt cited a police official as saying earlier in the day.

Writing on Twitter, German police urged Berliners to be "particularly alert."

The attack at the Christmas market in the west of the city left at least 12 dead and nearly 50 injured, 24 of whom have been released from hospital, Germany police said.

The Islamic State extremist group, via its Aamaq Agency outlet, claimed responsibility, saying the attacker was a "soldier of the Islamic State" who acted in response to calls to target citizens of the coalition of states combatting the organization.

The claim, issued via Aamaq and attributed to a "security source," is typical of how the Islamic State has declared itself responsible for previous attacks in Europe.

The brief claim did not name the attacker or shed any light on his fate. The Islamic State usually names attackers in statements that it issues later in its own name, not in initial claims via Aamaq.

Rita Katz, director of monitoring firm SITE, pointed out in a tweet that this was the first "claim for a attacker while still alive; attackers in {nldr}France {nldr}Russia {nldr}America {nldr}Germany, etc. all killed prior to claim."

Six of the fatalities from the attack have been identified as German nationals, said Holger Muench, the police chief.

Among the dead was a Polish national who was a passenger in the truck and found shot dead at the scene. The murder weapon had not been recovered, said Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who earlier confirmed that the incident had been an intentional attack.

Germanys top prosecutor, Peter Frank, said that the method used in the attack was reminiscent of the truck attack in Nice, France, which left 86 people dead in July. He added that it was the "modus operandi" used by Islamist extremists.

The Islamic State has been linked to three terrorist attacks on German soil this year.

The Christmas market carnage comes less than six months after two terrorist attacks claimed by the Islamic State were carried out by people registered as asylum seekers in the country.

The attacks have led many Germans to question Chancellor Angela Merkels decision to keep German borders open to refugees last year.

Some 890,000 migrants entered the country in 2015, prompting a wave of support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

"Like millions of people in Germany, I am deeply saddened and horrified at what happened yesterday at Berlins Breitscheidplatz," Merkel said in response to the attack, referring to the square around the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, where the market is located. "We do not want to live in fear of evil."

Merkel, de Maiziere and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier all signed a condolence book at the church.

President Barack Obama offered his countrys full support in a telephone call with Merkel on Tuesday.



2016 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)

Visit Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) at www.dpa.de/English.82.0.html

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HOUSTON  The state of Texas, long the nations leader in executions, lost that distinction in 2016 and its two most populous counties didnt send a single convicted killer to death row, according to a new report.

The change is because of growing legal and public hesitance to impose the ultimate punishment, according to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

The death penalty landscape in Texas continues to change dramatically, Kristin Houle, the advocacy groups executive director, said in a year-end report. Prosecutors, juries, judges, and the public are subjecting our states death penalty practices to unprecedented scrutiny and, in many cases, accepting alternatives to the ultimate punishment.

Texas juries sent only three convicted killers to death row this year and none of them came from the two most populous counties, Harris including Houston, and Dallas including Dallas-Fort Worth. Those two Texas counties have accounted for more people put to death than any other counties in the nation since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Seven convicted killers were given lethal injection in Texas this year, the lowest number since three were executed in 1996. For the first time since 2002, Texas did not lead or tie for the state with the most executions. Georgia has that distinction for 2016, with nine. Only five states: Georgia, Texas, Missouri, Alabama and Florida, accounted for the 20 executions nationwide.

None of the seven Texas inmates given lethal injection this year was African-American, although all three prisoners arriving on death row this year are black. Over the past five years, seven of the 35 people sentenced to death in Texas were white, according to the coalitions report, which contended the statistics showed patterns of racial bias in imposition of the death penalty.

The group also said all nine men sentenced to death in Dallas or adjacent Tarrant County since 2012 are African-American, as were 15 of the last 18 defendants from Harris County.

The overall numbers reflect a downward trend in capital punishment both in Texas and across the country. A significant impact in Texas has been a change in the law that gave juries in capital cases beginning in September 2005 the option of deciding between a life sentence without parole and a death sentence. In some other states, a shortage of lethal injection drugs has reduced executions.

Besides the seven executions carried out in Texas, 12 other inmates were scheduled to die in 2016 but at least temporarily avoided the death chamber. Seven lethal injections were halted by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and one by a federal court to more fully examine appeals in the cases. The other inmates either had their dates withdrawn by their trial courts or were rescheduled for 2017.

While the number of executions declined in 2016, it could pick up next year when at least nine Texas inmates already are set to die, including three in January.

RELATED: Explore a state by state database of all executions conducted in the U.S. since 1976 below.




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Images of ocelot females with kittens have been caught on camera in the Rio Grande Valley, heralding good news for an animal that has dwindled in population and been the victim of many road deaths this year.

Its extremely exciting, said Hillary Swarts, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist. Its not all doom and gloom, theres good news, too.

South Texas researchers said most exciting of all was the discovery of an ocelot den. Using GPS technology to track one of the females, biologists confirmed the first den in nearly 20 years at the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.

There researchers pulled back the brush to find a 3-week-old male ocelot kitten, weighing just under 1 pound. The researchers quickly documented the area before the 11-year-old mother returned.

In addition to photographs snapped by researchers remote cameras, landowners working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect ocelot habitat on their property are also seeing camera evidence of new kittens, according to researchers.

Of the adult females captured on camera by biologists at the Yturria Conservation Easement in Willacy County, at least three have had kittens this past year. The photographs show healthy-looking kittens following closely behind their mothers. While ocelot females usually have only one kitten per litter, researchers said one of the three mothers had twins.

Data gathered in Willacy County is further evidence that private ranches are often great havens for wildlife and key partners in our conservation efforts, said Boyd Blihovde, Refuge Manager at Laguna Atascosa NWR. These private lands will be crucial to protecting habitat and wildlife into the future.

Swarts believes abundant rainfall over the past couple of years has made for superb breeding conditions. She explained the trickle-down benefit of rain, starting with plant growth that provides food for smaller wildlife, such as rodents, rabbits and birds, that ocelots like to eat.

There are seven known adult female ocelots at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, where Swarts is stationed.

Biologists estimate there are fewer than 80 ocelot roaming in South Texas; some are on private land, others on refuge land. Between 2015 and 2016, at least seven ocelot were killed on area roads.

Swarts and other researchers track and monitor ocelots in South Texas, collecting data on their population numbers, health, habitat use, range and reproduction.

Despite efforts to reduce threats through the acquisition of habitat and restoration, if the ocelots dont reproduce these hard-won gains are for naught, she said.

In late December, with the arrival of kittens to the population, wildlife conservationists were optimistic about the prospect of ocelot survival and recovery.

To see that they are actively reproducing, while were working on our end to decrease mortality numbers, Swarts said, they dont know it, but its like were a team.

anelsen@express-news.net

Twitter: @amnelsen
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Say this for Donald Trump: He has a way of bringing out the most undemocratic impulses in his detractors.

During the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Never Trumpers in the GOP tried to convince delegates to throw out the clear results of their partys primaries and defect to an alternative choice.

Over the past month, Democrats grieving over Trumps election have rallied behind Alexander Hamiltons original intent for the Electoral College. In doing so, they prodded electors to disregard the results of an 18-month presidential campaign and hand the election to anyone not named Trump.

Mondays Electoral College vote slammed the door on all that nonsense. Hopefully, it will also shift the focus back to where it belongs: dismantling the Electoral College system in favor of one-person, one-vote.

Those who pushed for the Electoral College to disenfranchise Trump always had a terrible argument. Yes, its true that Alexander Hamilton, in 1788, envisioned the electors to be more than a rubber stamp; he saw them as the people we selected to make our choice for us.

But thats because Hamilton was an elitist who thought the American people were too ignorant to be fully entrusted with the keys of democracy. They needed adult supervision from men most capable of analyzing the election process, possessors of the information and discernment requisite to so complicated an investigation.

So, all this recent pseudo-noble talk about Hamilton Electors voting their conscience really was an endorsement of the notion that our elections should not be decided by 130 million Americans who made the effort to show up at their local voting sites, but by 538 experts who assemble in statehouses across the country.

It was a pathetic argument in Hamiltons time and its more ludicrous now that the election cycle is so much longer, travel for candidates is so much faster and media coverage of the campaigns is so much more elaborate.

I understand the frustration from Hillary Clinton supporters. Beyond their revulsion at the idea of Trump  a man whose crass personality and paper-thin understanding of the issues have no obvious precedent in modern presidential politics  controlling our nuclear arsenal, there is the fact that Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2.8 million votes.

But if youre frustrated about the popular will being subverted, you wont rectify the problem by encouraging the Electoral College to completely remove voters from the decision. That was a short-term strategy to stop Trump, but it created the possibility of a bad long-term precedent.

No, our focus should be on how to find a better way to make our votes count.

Consider that every election we conduct in this country  from school boards to city councils to state legislatures to the U.S. Senate  is tabulated on the basis of popular vote. Every election, that is, except for one: the presidency.

Electoral College defenders argue that a direct popular vote would overly empower city voters and weaken the influence of small-town residents. By that dubious logic, we should use an electoral-vote system to elect our governor, so that Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin dont overpower the will of Belton or Weslaco.

Consider that California, Texas and New York make up 27 percent of the U.S. population, yet none of those states have any real impact on our presidential elections. Hillary Clinton won California by more than 4 million votes, but for all practical purposes, she might as well have won it by one vote.

Consider that under our current system, you could carry as few as 12 states, not get a single vote in the other 38 states, and still get elected president.

Amending the constitution to dismantle the Electoral College would be ultra-tough, partly because of our attachment to tradition and partly because Republicans perceive a popular-vote system as beneficial to Democrats. Its worth remembering, however, that Republican incumbent George W. Bush came within 119,000 votes in Ohio of losing the 2004 election, even though he carried the national popular vote by 3 million votes.

When UTSAs College of Public Policy held a forum three weeks ago on the Electoral College, the frustration from community members was palpable. Most people wanted change. The major point of disagreement was whether the Electoral College should be removed or simply tweaked.

It seems a simple concept to declare that your presidential vote should count just as much if you live in Los Angeles as it would if you lived in Middletown, Ohio. But itll be a complex task to make it happen.

ggarcia@express-news.net

Twitter: @gilgamesh470
AUSTIN  A contentious "dark money" regulation approved by Texas campaign finance regulators has survived a second court challenge claiming the rule could thwart politically active nonprofits from influencing elections.

State District Judge Tim Sulak has tossed a lawsuit from the Texas Home School Coalition Association, a 501(c)(4) organization that has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on independent political expenditures to benefit Republican candidates.

The home school group claimed that the Texas Ethics Commission's rule, which sets parameters for when a politically active nonprofit is required to start disclosing anonymous donors, was unconstitutional and could "chill" its political speech.

Politically active nonprofits are allowed to spend money in an election independent of candidates, and federal law does not require disclosure of who is funding the efforts. However, Texas campaign finance regulators have said that a 501(c)(4) organization and its donors can be regulated like a political action committee, which is required to reveal donors.

The commission passed a rule in 2014 that would trigger PAC status and disclosure requirements for a politically active nonprofit if more than 25 percent of its total contributions or expenditures in a calendar year are used for electioneering.

A small Travis County-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit lost a similar lawsuit in March when a federal judge ruled the group was not in danger of running afoul of the regulation because it did not meet the criteria to be considered a PAC.

Under state law, a PAC is defined in part as a "group of persons." The Texas Attorney General's Office, which defended the commission's rule, argued in court filings that a 501(c)(4) acting alone, such as the home school group, cannot be classified as a PAC and faced no harm.

In a Dec. 9 order, Sulak wrote that "nothing in the record reflects THSC is under investigation or that TEC has threatened any type of investigation of or enforcement against THSC for past or current activities."

"On the record before the court, THSC's fears do not sufficiently rise to the level necessary to meet the standing requirements to challenge the rules here," Sulak wrote.

Jeremy Newman, the home school group's public policy director, said the organization plans to appeal the ruling.

The regulation, which is the first of its kind in Texas, is based on the concept of what is known in Texas as a "principal" purpose. Under the rule, regulators have decided that the home school group and other nonprofits classified as a social-welfare organizations can have up to three distinct "principal" purposes, including political activity.

The home school group argued that the commission's benchmark of more than 25 percent of contributions or expenditures is too low and that its political activity represents a small portion of the group' s overall advocacy. The general threshold for determining a major purpose at the federal level is 50 percent or more.

According to court filings, the home school group spent nearly $121,000 in 2014  about 20 percent of it's roughly $600,000 annual budget  to influence elections, endorsing 118 candidates in the Republican primary. State records show the group spent around $175,000 during the current election cycle, which included expenditures supporting candidates running for the Supreme Court of Texas, the Texas Senate and Texas House of Representatives.

The home school group already has a registered PAC but in court filings said much of its political advocacy has been shifted in recent years to its nonprofit. The state regulation, the group argued in court filings, could force it to "curtail or sharply reduce its political speech."

Attorney General Ken Paxton's lawyers argued the commission's rule is "consistent with constitutional protections for speech and association because it ensures that the law is clear and applies evenly across different groups."

"Groups that engage in express advocacy have a choice. If the group anticipates that over 25% of its annual contributions or expenditures will be dedicated to express advocacy it can form a PAC (which THSC has already done)," the attorney general's office wrote in a court filing. "If the group does not wish to form a PAC, it may reject those contributions or refrain from those expenditures that would exceed the 25% threshold."
Just a month after Oregon voters rejected a proposal for a big increase in corporate taxes, advocates of increased taxes were making the case that legislators should approve a similar measure.

Last week, A Better Oregon, a coalition of state public employee unions and other advocacy groups, unwrapped a new proposal to raise taxes on corporations, health care providers and insurers. Representatives of the coalition said the measure would raise an additional $5 billion over two years.

If the general outlines of the proposal sound familiar, they should: This is similar to Measure 97, a 2.5 percent tax on Oregon sales above $25 million that would have applied to certain state corporations. Had that measure passed, it would have raised an estimated $3 billion a year.

But it didn't pass: In fact, Measure 97 got thumped at the polls, by nearly a 60-40 percent margin. Only two counties in Oregon supported the measure: Multnomah and Benton.

So the tax proposal unveiled last week came as a bit of a surprise; even though advocates did learn some lessons from the defeat of Measure 97, the new proposal shares some of its problems and seems unlikely to pass the Legislature, especially considering the supermajorities required to pass tax increases.

The new proposal would raise most of its revenue, about $4 billion, from a 2 percent tax on all corporations' gross annual sales in Oregon above $100 million. The tax rate in this proposal is ratcheted down a bit from the 2.5 percent that Measure 97 would have levied and the level of sales that would trigger the new tax has been bumped up to $100 million. Utility companies would be exempt from the proposed tax; they would have been subject to Measure 97.

The new proposal also would raise about $1 billion of new revenue from tax increases on health care providers and insurers. (Gov. Kate Brown's proposed budget, released earlier this month, calls for similar tax increases, but there was no collaboration between the governor's office and the coalition.)

Advocates of the new proposal said they shaped it in partial response to some of the criticism that had been leveled at Measure 97 during the course of a bruising (and expensive) election battle.

But the proposal still includes a tax on gross receipts, and this is a regressive tax that hits poor consumers the hardest. And consumers will almost certainly pay more for food, health care and other vital services if this tax passes as businesses able to do so pass along their increased costs.

A Better Oregon representatives worked hard  too hard, frankly  to put a positive spin on the Measure 97 defeat: "What we heard loud and clear is that voters do want a solution to our budget crisis, that we do believe that corporations in Oregon should be paying more."

We think a better conclusion would have been that voters thought Measure 97 was a badly flawed piece of tax policy.

However, it is likely true that voters want solutions to the state's budget shortfall, estimated at some $1.7 billion over the next two years. But they also expect legislators to work on some of the big factors driving that shortfall, in particular the rising costs of the state's public pension system. Representatives of A Better Oregon last week rejected the idea of reforming PERS.

But any proposal to fix the budget likely will have to include program cutbacks alongside revenue increases; it's naive to expect otherwise. It might make sense strategically for A Better Oregon to focus solely on increasing taxes, but legislators will not enjoy the same luxury. (mm)
Youth engage in statewide 4-H Career Pathways Academy

Youth in grades 8-12 from across Iowa have been participating in the year-long 4-H Career Pathways Academy program.
A report instructed by the Welsh Government has recommended that CCTV should not be mandatory in slaughterhouses in Wales.

The Safeguarding Animal Welfare at Slaughter Task and Finish Groups report, which outlines the findings of the Groups investigation into the welfare of animals in slaughterhouses and the potential role of CCTV, concluded that there was not a sufficient basis for making CCTV in Welsh abattoirs mandatory.

However, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) and the Veterinary Public Health Association (VPHA) - who oversee animal welfare in slaughterhouses  believe mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses and vets unrestricted access to CCTV footage are vital in order to safeguard animal welfare, assist with enforcement and instil customer confidence.

'An important tool'

Dr Neil Paton, BVA Welsh Branch President, said: We are disappointed that the Task and Finish Group has not taken on board the concerns of vets working in slaughterhouses and not followed the logic of their own arguments about the benefits of CCTV highlighted in the report.

While we know that CCTV is not the answer to all welfare concerns, it is recognised as an important tool by the Farm Animal Welfare Committee and encourages the highest standards of animal welfare and good stockmanship. We also need to ensure that where CCTV is installed, vets can have access to the footage. If there isnt CCTV footage, or vets cannot access the footage, how can the number of reported incidents in abattoirs be verified?

The report, titled "The Need for and Possible Implementation of a Workable System of CCTV in All Slaughterhouses in Wales", details that only eight large abattoirs of the total 26 abattoirs in Wales have CCTV. Although the bulk of animals in Wales are slaughtered in these eight abattoirs, lack of CCTV in other abattoirs means 3.4% of poultry are slaughtered without CCTV safeguards, accounting for over 2 million birds, and 10.5% of sheep, pigs and cattle are slaughtered in abattoirs without CCTV  nearly 385,000 animals.

The potential risk of welfare harm to these animals is 'increased by this lack of CCTV', the BVA said in a statement.

'Culture of compassion'

Gudrun Ravetz, President of the British Veterinary Association said vets are striving for a 'culture of compassion' in abattoirs.

She said: CCTV is an important tool in encouraging and implementing such a culture. The reports recommendations encourage abattoirs to install and use CCTV effectively for training purposes, but, together with the VPHA, we would like to re-emphasise our calls for CCTV to be mandatory in all slaughterhouses in the UK and for legislation to ensure that footage is readily available to vets.

We recognise that the cost of installing CCTV may be a burden for some very small abattoirs, but it is important that the animals we farm for food have both a good life and a humane death and CCTV has a key role to play in ensuring these requirements are met.

The report also outlined a number of other recommendations, including the request for grants to be made available to assist small sites invest in the equipment and an additional focus on the improvement of welfare of animals during transport to slaughter.
Farmers are being asked to keep an eye out for and support a little seen but much loved Christmas icon.

The Campaign for the Farmed Environment (CFE) has teamed up with Operation Turtle Dove to produce a leaflet to help farmers familiarise themselves with the Turtle Dove and provides useful tips to help conserve the species.

This includes providing suitable nesting sites and food sources during their migratory visit to the country.

Farmers are crucial to the survival of many farmland bird species and they are also encouraged to take part in the annual Big Farmland Bird Count (BFBC), starting in February 2017.

The leaflet introduces the Turtle Dove, distinctive in appearance and sound from other dove and pigeon species and highlights how farmers can help support this farmland bird, an emblem of the festive season.

Farmers can help turtle doves by providing: Nesting sites (turtle doves prefer specific hedgerow species; native climbers such as ivy or clematis are an added bonus); food (farmers are asked to provide bare, foraging ground and seeds from mid-April onwards); water (should be situated no further than 300 metres from nesting sites)

Sam Durham, NFU chief land management adviser, said: Many people are more familiar with the turtle dove from the Christmas song than see it out in the countryside, and I know of many farmers who are keen to see and hear it on their farm.

Farmers already act as important stewards of the British countryside and our leaflet encourages them to look out for and help conserve this icon of the festive season.
Farmers and related services will have to be more agile and resourceful 'than ever before' as subsidies start to decline  a leading agricultural lawyer has warned.

Paul Rice, head of the agricultural sector group at Wright Hassall, addressed farmers and businesses from the rural sector at the firms Agricultural Christmas Conference, The future of farming in a post-Brexit world.

Rice said: I get slightly troubled by the constant labelling of farming and related services being part of the rural economy. We are actually part of the economy per se, and a very important part of it, but sadly one which is often overlooked by Government.

The industry has not, perhaps, been vocal enough in advocating its worth in both real and added value terms to the countrys economy.

The UK food industry is bigger than the UK automotive and aviation sectors combined. The CLA Rural Business 2030 report said that on average 13bn is invested by rural businesses each year - which is double that of the car industry.

Mr Rice continued: Like all industries we are operating in a time of general uncertainty  but that said, one thing is certain, that farmers and related services will have to be more agile and resourceful than ever before as direct payments to the sector start to decline.

There have been reassurances that money will continue to be paid to the sector after leaving the EU but not a single commentator has suggested that the level will be anywhere near the current level.

The industry has to be on a quest of constant improvement. That might be through maximising yields through improving soil health, moving to spring cropping and operating more efficiently, it might be through machinery sharing agreements with neighbouring farmers or joining buying groups.

Mr Rice concluded: Many farmers, certainly in the Midlands, have diversified but there is still masses more which could be done to supplement income. That should be explored  and explored now.
Farming unions NFU Cymru and NFU have this week written to Mark Grimshaw, the Chief Executive of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) in England, urging RPA to share data with Rural Payments Wales (RPW).

Welsh and English cross-border farmers are facing delayed Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments as a result of the 'failure' of the RPA to share data in a 'timely fashion' with RPW, the unions explained.

RPW has sent a message to all cross border farmers, for whom they are the paying agency, stating that RPA cannot provide data for English land until January 2017 and that consequently RPW are unable to process their BPS payments. Cross border farmers, for whom RPA is the paying agency will face similar delays in payment, but have not been told of this delay specifically.

'Extremely disappointing'

In the letter, NFU Cymru President, Stephen James and NFU Vice President, Guy Smith, both stress that the current state of affairs is extremely disappointing and worrying for members as winter begins to set in.

Mr James said: Our members continue to deal with cash flow difficulties and this is highlighted by the recent release of farm income figures in Wales and England, which show three consecutive years of falling income.

Last April we met with the RPA when we were assured that they would work to improve their sharing of data with RPW in time for the 2016 BPS application year. The evidence to date suggests that these assurances have not come to fruition for the delivery of the 2016 BPS.

The unions are both aware of cases where members are 'suffering hardship', but with RPA data not being available RPW are unable to validate claims and as a result no payment can be made.

'Unfair penalised'

Mr James continued: Many hundreds of farmers are being unfairly penalised just because their land happens to straddle the border.

We are seeking urgent assurances from RPA that the issue of validating and sharing data for cross border holdings is being addressed and we want a clear timeline as to when our cross border members can expect payment. This information is vital to help with cash flow and farm business planning.

We commend Welsh Government for delivering around 93% of BPS payments to Welsh farmers so far, we look for the remaining payments to be made without undue delay. Unfortunately it appears a significant proportion of these are being held up from a lack of the required data from RPA.

An RPA spokesperson said:

We understand how important BPS payments are to farmers and thats why were working hard to get money into bank accounts. Learning the lessons of last year, we have taken steps to make sure that we are in a position to share data earlier for BPS 2016 and continue to engage with our colleagues in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The Scottish government is leaving growers at a 'competitive disadvantage' compared to English farmers, NFU Scotland have said.

Despite a long running campaign by farming leaders, the Scottish government continues to ask for greening requirements of growers which 'go beyond' what is required at EU level.

Rural economy secretary Fergus Ewing promised to remove excess greening conditions in June but the union says he has failed to deliver.

'Greening', a major innovation brought in under the 2013 CAP reform, makes the direct payments system more environment-friendly. Farmers who use farmland more sustainably and care for natural resources as part of their everyday work benefit financially.

NFU Scotland's President Allan Bowie said: "The union remains resolutely committed to seeking changes within current greening requirements that address both Scottish Government gold-plating and the simplification agenda in Brussels.

"Despite a huge lobbying effort from officeholders, staff and members, securing changes to Scotlands interpretation of greening rules has been a long, hard slog.

"After eight months of claiming that it was acting in accordance with EU rules, the Scottish Government finally conceded in February 2016, that its requirement for EFA Green Cover to be incorporated into the soil was home-grown gold-plating.

"Faced with overwhelming evidence of the environmental benefits of no-till and minimum tillage systems, the requirement was finally dropped."

'Feet to the fire'

Fresh talks with Mr Ewing and Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham have now been requested by NFUS, and union vice-president Rob Livesey insists its 'time to hold Mr Ewings feet to the fire.'

"Its within his grasp to do something for agriculture. Roseanna Cunningham had a bit of a win, she got her own way on beaver reintroduction so we need to be getting something back for that," he said.

"Fergus is well aware of the issues, hes been on the farms and is completely sympathetic to the nonsense that surrounds greening and how it undermines the competitiveness of the Scottish arable sector so he needs to deliver."

Mr Bowie said the common-sense changes to Scottish rules would allow mechanical control of weeds, the topping of green cover and drainage work to be carried out during the fallow period, activities that have been banned on EFA fallow in Scotland during 2015 or 2016 but have been permitted in England.

"Europes approach to Greening is changing and Scotland must come into line," Mr Bowie said.

"The European Comissions proposed changes to Greening were leaked in June and contained many positive developments. The negatives included a proposal to extend the fallow period to nine months and it appears that this unhelpful rule change has been dropped.

Looking beyond Brexit, we are also putting down markers on the sort of appropriate environmental requirements that might be attached to future agricultural support. That process involves building up an evidence base on how effective existing Greening rules have been and pulling together wider evidence of the many environmental benefits that Scottish agriculture already delivers.
Scottish farmers are being reminded to apply for the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme ahead of the 31 December deadline.

The support payments have been labelled 'vital' to beef producers due to continuing farm price woes.

In 2017, changes will be introduced to make all dual purpose breeds eligible. It is important to note that any eligible animal born after 2 December 2014 that has fulfilled the requirements of the scheme can be claimed, even if they have been sold or died. This means dual purpose farmers whose cattle become eligible in 2017 can back date claims for calves born since the scheme opened.

NFU Scotland understands that the Scottish Government intended to also amend the rules in 2017 so calves whose mothers are milked will no-longer be eligible.

NFU Scotlands Livestock Committee Chairman Charlie Adam said: We are keen for all farmers who are eligible for the scheme to make their applications before the deadline at the end of the month.

As farm prices are squeezed this coupled support payment is vital for Scotlands beef producers. Beef production is expensive and this scheme helps target money to farmers who are incurring the costs.

As Brexit develops we need to maintain our iconic beef industry. These payments offer support which helps to underpin our cattle numbers. This is going to be key if we are to take full advantage of new opportunities.

This scheme helps maintain beef suckler herds at a level that sustain the commercial beef industry in Scotland. The support provided is intended to help the environmental and social benefits that arise from extensive beef suckler herds in Scotland.
Wales' reputation for being the land of sheep will be more reinforced as new farm figures show sheep outnumbering people three to one.

Figures from a June 2016 agriculture survey showed that, at the time of the survey, there were 9.81 million sheep in Wales, compared to just over three million people, according to the Independent.

This is due to an increase in sheep farming in the country  meaning there are now two million more sheep than there were seven years ago.

John Richards, industry information executive for Hybu Cig Cymru (Meat Promotion Wales), said the increase was an 'indication of confidence' in the future of the industry.

There are still challenges for the lamb industry in Wales, explained Mr Richards.

Ensuring that everyone, including farmers and processors, get a good price for their product is vital, and means continuing to respond to changing customer demands.

Wales has the largest sheep population of any region in the UK, but globally, Wales still falls behind New Zealand, where sheep outnumber people six to one.
China is set to ban imports of poultry from countries where reports of bird flu outbreaks have been reported, according to the agency that oversees safety of the country's imports.

China has already banned poultry imports from more than 60 countries.

South Korea have ordered the biggest-ever cull of chickens, gassing millions of birds to fight a bird flu outbreak. About 20 million birds, nearly a quarter of South Korea's poultry stock, have been culled.

Since the disease was declared in Lincolnshire on the 16 December, the UK government has now confirmed all 2,500 birds at the farm have been destroyed, the farm has been disinfected and there have been no subsequent cases reported, though restrictions around the site remain in place.

Because of this, a temporary suspension on gatherings of some species of birds will apply across England, Scotland and Wales following the bird flu case at the farm in Lincolnshire.

The spread of bird flu across Europe

Reports of Avian Influenza H5N8 outbreaks in wild birds and poultry in Germany, Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland have resulted in the risk level for Avian Influenza incursion to the UK via wild birds being raised from Low to Medium.

On 14 December, Dutch authorities ordered a cull of 63,000 broiler hens on after bird flu was identified at a poultry farm in the northern province of Friesland, the country's fourth outbreak so far this winter.

On 3 December, a new case of high risk bird flu was found in southern France prompting a 7000 duck cull.

On 25 November, Swedish authorities decided to cull at least 37,000 poultry after a highly contagious bird flu outbreak was confirmed on a farm in southern Sweden  but the figure may rise.

On 24 November, a case of high risk H5N8 bird flu was confirmed in the German state of Lower Saxony and about 16,000 turkeys have been culled, authorities say.

And on 18 November, following the discovery of cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N8 in several European countries, France decided to raise the level of risk of disease from "negligible" to "moderate".
NFU Cymru Conference: Farmers need more help to 'weather current storms'
Working with pioneer UK-based GM biological control researcher Oxitec, DAFWA in October last year imported half a millilitre of GM Medfly eggs which it reared into a colony of 2400 flies at a strictly quarantined section of its South Perth headquarters. The male Medflies carry a fluorescent protein genetic marker to identify them and a specific gene which, when they mate with wild Medfly, will pass on to female progeny.
While the challenges to meet the NLPS have been spruiked as the catalyst for the Victorian Government's decision to mandate electronic identification (EID) tags for the sheep and goat industry, the State has been accused of "political point scoring" and slammed for abandoning the national approach.
Where to eat and drink in the Fayetteville area this weekend
Brazil construction giant Odebrecht S.A. and its petrochemical unit, Braskem S.A., pleaded guilty Wednesday to paying bribes around the world. The companies agreed to pay $3.5 billion for a global settlement with authorities in the United States, Brazil, and Switzerland.

Braskem, whose American Depositary Receipts trade on the New York Stock Exchange, agreed to pay the DOJ and SEC $159.8 million for conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. It will pay a criminal penalty to the DOJ of $94.8 million and disgorge $65 million to the SEC.

Odebrecht agreed to pay a criminal penalty to the DOJ that is equivalent to 10 percent of its total criminal fine. It agreed in its plea that the appropriate criminal fine is $4.5 billion. But it said it can only afford to pay $2.6 billion. Final sentencing was set for April 17, 2017 when the fine amount will be decided.

Odebrecht entered into a plea agreement with the DOJ for a conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA.

Under the plea, Odebrecht will also pay 10 percent of its final criminal fine to Switzerland and 80 percent to Brazil.

The DOJ filed a one-count criminal information against Odebrecht Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Odebrecht reached related settlements Wednesday with the Ministerio Publico Federal in Brazil and the Office of the Attorney General in Switzerland.

Braskem separately pleaded guilty Wednesday to a one-count criminal information filed in the Eastern District of New York charging it with conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA.

The SEC charged Braskem with creating false books and records to conceal millions of dollars in bribes. The agency filed a civil complaint Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Braskem also settled with Ministerio Publico Federal in Brazil and the Office of the Attorney General in Switzerland.

Braskems total criminal penalty is $632 million.

It will pay Brazilian authorities 70 percent of the total criminal penalty and agreed to pay Swiss authorities 15 percent.

The United States will receive $94.8 million  15 percent of the total criminal fines paid by Braskem.

Braksems final U.S. sentencing date hasnt been set.

Odebrecht and Braskem agreed to retain independent compliance monitors for three years.

The DOJ said the companies failed to voluntarily disclose their bribery and the cover up.

The conduct spanned many years, involved the highest levels of the companies, occurred in multiple countries, and involved sophisticated schemes to bribe high-level government officials, the DOJ said.

Wednesdays enforcment action is part of a long-running probe by Brazil prosecutors into corruption at the state energy company Petrobras. The investigation in Brazil has implicated scores of big companies and dozens of executives and politicians. The investigation is called Operation Car Wash.

Earlier this year, the CEO of Odebrecht SA  Marcelo Odebrecht  was sentenced to 19 years in prison for money laundering, corruption, and taking part in a criminal association.

Odebrecht S.A. admitted Wednesday to a bribery and bid-rigging scheme that started as early as 2001. During that time, the company paid about $788 million in bribes to government officials and political parties in several countries to win business.

The criminal conduct was directed by the highest levels of the company, with the bribes paid through a complex network of shell companies, off-book transactions and off-shore bank accounts, the DOJ said.

Some of the Odebrecht employees involved in the bribery scheme were working in the United States.

Odebrecht and Braskem used a hidden Odebrecht business unit to fund and pay the bribes. The DOJs Sung-Hee Suh called that unit a Department of Bribery.

Braskem admitted Wednesday that between 2006 and 2014, it paid about $250 million into Odebrechts secret bribe payment system.

The money went to politicians and political parties in Brazil and to an official at Petrobras.

In exchange, Braskem enjoyed preferential rates from Petrobras for the purchase of raw materials and lower tax bills in Brazil.

Odebrecht controls just over half of Braskem. Petrobras has a minority stake.

The DOJ said with a combined total of at least $3.5 billion, Wednesdays U.S., Brazilian, and Swiss settlements with Odebrecht and Braskem are the largest-ever global foreign bribery resolution.

Germany-based Siemens AG paid about $1.6 billion to U.S. and German authorities in a 2008 settlement. The U.S. portion of the settlement was $800 million  still the biggest FCPA enforcement action.

___

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog.
This years annual report from the Integrity Vice Presidency (INT) of the World Bank Group report put Canada in the spotlight  specifically, our top courts recent decision in World Bank Group v. Wallace. The case is seen as a significant acknowledgement of the unique role that multilateral institutions play in fighting corruption.

In Wallace, the central issue was whether the court could compel the World Bank Group to produce certain internal documents and require INT investigators to testify before the court. The Supreme Court of Canada concluded that the World Bank Group could not be so compelled.

In coming to this conclusion, the Supreme Court made important statements about the immunities and privileges that allow for cooperation between state and non-state actors in the battle against corruption.

The courts opinion in Wallace is here.

The case arose in relation to an agreement under which the World Bank Group would provide more than $1 billion in financing to construct a bridge over the Padma River in Bangladesh. The INT subsequently learned that representatives of SNC-Lavalin planned to bribe government officials in Bangladesh to obtain a contract related to the construction of this bridge.

As the INT investigated, it voluntarily shared information with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). This information enabled the RCMP to pursue their own investigation and obtain authorization for a wiretap, ultimately leading to the indictment of several individuals under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, SC 1998, c 34.

The accused  Kevin Wallace, Zulfiquar Bhuiyan, Ramesh Shah, and Mohammad Ismail  brought an application in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice challenging the wiretap authorizations and seeking an order requiring the INT to produce applicable records and requiring that INT investigators appear before the court.

The trial judge granted the application. The World Bank Group appealed.

In setting aside the lower courts decision, the Supreme Court found that the INT, although operating as an independent investigative arm, fits within the World Bank Groups overall structure and therefore benefits from the same immunities granted to other World Bank Group entities.

As the INT notes in its annual report, however, the significance of the decision goes well beyond confirming the scope of the World Bank Groups privileges and immunities as an international institution. Indeed, the Supreme Court took Wallace as opportunity to issue a broad statement regarding the importance of cooperation between state and non-state actors in the fight against corruption.

In its opening passage, the Supreme Court declared:

Corruption is a significant obstacle in international development. In order to tackle this global problem, worldwide cooperation is needed. [] When international financial organizations, such as the World Bank Group, share information gathered from informants across the world with the law enforcement agencies of member states, they help achieve what neither could do on their own.

Looking ahead to 2017, the INT took the Supreme Courts statements in Wallace as an invitation to further cultivate its close partnership with Canadian authorities as well as providing momentum for strengthening its partnerships with other national authorities.

____

Lincoln Caylor is a partner at Bennett Jones in Toronto. He practices commercial litigation and is internationally recognized for leading asset tracing investigations and pursuing asset recovery litigation and enforcement actions in prominent, high-value international financial frauds and other economic crimes. Hes the only Toronto member of ICC FraudNet, a worldwide network of selected lawyers specialized in asset tracing and recovery.

The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Jessica Starck in preparing this post.
I was meant to be a creative writer. I was a loner.

Don Eric Carroll

If I were to tell you of my early life you'd perhaps realise how and why this came about. Life started roughly, now it appears smooth. From a babe of one year to a toddler of five years I spent my time in Leasowe near Liverpool, in a sanatorium for crippled children and TB patients; I had TB. It was wartime and a difficult place to get to. I recall my Mum coming to visit just the once in those four long years, bringing in tow my stepfather, who I didn't know was my stepfather until over a decade later. And once I knew that I realised why I was treated so differently from my siblings.

The ward I was in was huge, or so it appeared to me. And quite empty. I remember looking at a large picture on the wall opposite. A moving picture. I saw clouds and ships at sea. It was many years later when I twigged to the fact it was a window.

Leaving Leasowe I began school late, and not at all having seen trees or streets or motor cars. I left school at 14 and worked in a shoe factory until my papers arrived for my joining the RAF as a Boy Entrant. I could hardly wait to be rid of the northern town where I was born. The Royal Air Force became my 'surrogate' father. At age 18 I was on a troopship bound for Aden, then sent to a desert island off the coast of Arabia. I was a loner once again.

I married at 20 and we lasted ten years; we were very young but we produced a daughter. I have seen her twice in 43 years, and so far have seen two of my four grandchildren.

Time moved on. I suppose I was still looking for an identity. I left behind the tyranny of school, the discipline of military life, the tedium of conventional marriage. All of a sudden everything in my life changed.

I began teaching professional cookery at the Bermuda College and I also began painting in oils and watercolour. I dabbled in photography with my twin-lens Rolliflex and made a 70-minute documentary film on Bermuda. At the same time I was writing poetry and children's stories, and a play. I became known, was on local television and radio and even on stage at city hall. My second book won the American Society of Writers Award. I later moved on.

I resigned my college post and flew to Mexico, lived in a commune in a Spanish colonial town, writing, and spent much time on a ranch, writing. A loner.

I painted murals, I was a bartender, I taught English as a foreign language back in England, I worked as a VSO Volunteer in Egypt, and was later a live-in chef at a retirement home in Devon.

Now retired I am back in my hometown, still writing. I guess these days of my septuagenarian year I am much like the eponymous hero in my recently published novel, Pancho. No longer the lonely one, but enjoying the company of many good friends. I can safely say I have never felt so tuned in with people and so very happy and content with life.

And there are more manuscripts to work on, squeezed into a hectic active social life. I was meant to be a creative writer - not a loner
Queen Elizabeth approves of Prince Harry's relationship with Meghan Markle.

Meghan Markle

The 32-year-old royal has been dating the 'Suits' actress for the past few months and although she has yet to meet the monarch, Queen Elizabeth is thrilled to see her grandson so happy.

A source told Us Weekly: "She's delighted to see Harry in a loving relationship."

And Meghan has been getting help and advice from Harry's communications secretary Jason Knauf and private secretary Ed Lane Fox.

The insider explained: "There have been times where Meghan's been unsure [of protocol and having a direct line to Harry's most trusted aides has been a godsend."

And Meghan has also turned to Sophie Trudeau - the wife of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau - for advice on how to cope with the attention surrounding her relationship.

The source explained: "Sophie went through a similar situation. She was a television host and focused a lot on pop culture - then she became the story herself. Mentor might be too big of a word, but Sophie's unique insight has been so helpful."

Another insider claimed the pair will get engaged quite soon as they are so serious about each other.

The source said: "I can see them engaged by the spring. He's head over heels."
PHOENIX  Larry H. Miller Dealerships this week announced the beneficiaries of its annual holiday giving campaign, which, according to the dealer group, will provide more than $100,000 to 11 charities across the Phoenix metroplitan area.

The dealer group noted that all contributions from Arizona employees are allocated for use in the local community, and are primarily focused on charities that serve women and children, with an emphasis on health and education.

The 11 charities to receive part of the $100,000 include Central Arizona Shelter Services, Southwest Center for HIV/ AIDS, Salvation Army, Southwest Division, Valley of the Sun YMCA, Every Kids Counts, Upward, Desert Mission, Ryan House, Arizona Brainfood, MentorKids USA, and U.S. Vets.

We hope that these gifts will contribute to the betterment of our community and that they provide hope and happiness this holiday season and beyond, said Pat Kroneberger, senior vice president of operations at Larry H. Miller Dealerships. Our company was founded by a man who believed in doing good until there is too much good in the world, and these donations represent the desire to do our part in carrying out that belief.

The donations will be distributed through the dealership groups charitable arm, Larry H. Miller Charities. According to the company, much of the charitable arms funding comes from the dealership groups employee contribution program called Give Us 5. This program allows employees to donate $5 or more per month from their paycheck to Larry H. Miller Charities.
The acceptance of payments through digital mode by small traders will lead to an increase in availability of bank finance, as these businesses will be able to present better picture of their trade turnover, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has said. The organisation has welcomed the reduction of deemed profit to 6 per cent for small traders.

The acceptance of payments through digital mode by small traders will lead to an increase in availability of bank finance, as these businesses will be able to present better picture of their trade turnover, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has said. The organisation has welcomed the reduction of deemed profit to 6 per cent for small traders.#

The announcement by finance minister Arun Jaitley to count deemed profit as 6 per cent for small traders whose turnover is up to Rs 2 crore on the total transactions made through banking or digital payment mode will be a big relief to small traders. It will encourage adoption of digital payments in a faster way, CAIT said.

The acceptance of payments through digital mode by small traders will lead to an increase in availability of bank finance, as these businesses will be able to present better picture of their trade turnover, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has said. The organisation has welcomed the reduction of deemed profit to 6 per cent for small traders.#

CAIT National President Mr B C Bhartia and Secretary General Mr Praveen Khandelwal said that

In the process of incentivising acceptance of digital payments amongst small traders a major incentive by way of reduction in presumptive rate of income under section 44AD of income tax act has been announced. Now in respect of turnover where sale proceeds are received and accepted through banking channels presumptive rate of income for taxation purpose will be 6 per cent instead of existing 8 per cent for turnover representing cash sales. This will be a major relief, said CAIT national president BC Bhartia and secretary general Praveen Khandelwal.

The acceptance of payments through digital mode by small traders will lead to an increase in availability of bank finance, as these businesses will be able to present better picture of their trade turnover, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has said. The organisation has welcomed the reduction of deemed profit to 6 per cent for small traders.#

If turnover is Rs 150 lakh in cash the slab rate is 30 per cent by applying 8 per cent profit rate. But now, if payments are accepted through banking channels by applying 6 per cent presumptive rate of tax the applicable tax slab will be maximum 20 per cent. Thus, the financial position of small traders will improve and they will be in position to present better picture of their affairs of business. The bankers will come to know real business, and hence availability of bank finance will increase, they explained.

The acceptance of payments through digital mode by small traders will lead to an increase in availability of bank finance, as these businesses will be able to present better picture of their trade turnover, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has said. The organisation has welcomed the reduction of deemed profit to 6 per cent for small traders.#

The profit will be deemed to be 8 per cent of the total turnover under Section 44AD of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act), in case of certain assesses (i.e. an individual, HUF or a partnership firm other than LLP) carrying on any business (other than transportation, agency, brokerage and commission) and having a turnover of Rs 2 crore or less, the finance ministry statement had said. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Luxury cashmere brand Sandriver, which currently operates 11 outlets in Asia, while also managing a global ecommerce website, has now stepped in to the US market. The brand sources cashmere fibre directly from Mongolia, home to 70 per cent of the world's cashmere and has a creative team comprising of international designers and artists.The Sandriver designer team includes world-renowned Japanese designer Junko Koshino, French-Columbian artist Francesca Brenda-Mitterrand, German fashion designer Antje Weidner and Qin Wanyu, a Chinese fashion designer.

Luxury cashmere brand Sandriver, which currently operates 11 outlets in Asia, while also managing a global ecommerce website, has now stepped in to the US market. The brand sources cashmere fibre directly from Mongolia, home to 70 per cent of the world's cashmere and has a creative team comprising of international designers and artists. #

Products from the brand include; scarves and wraps; full-length coats and blankets; reversible garments and comfortable ensembles. The brand has also recently launched a kidswear line.According to Sandriver, its collections are carefully studied to meet the needs of women and men of all lifestyles, and suit a variety of budgets and tastes, while also presenting its collections at major fashion shows in Tokyo and Paris. (AR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The perception about silk that it is only for women needs to be changed and its use should be expanded to make it a unigender fabric, said Union textiles minister Smriti Irani. She also said that the notion that silk is only for women is a narrow approach and scientists and marketing team need to work towards looking for new avenues for its diversification.

No disservice should be done to men who want to use silk, said Irani while addressing the audience at the inauguration of the second Centre of Excellence (CoE) of the Central Silk Board (CSB) in Bengaluru. The inauguration also marked the launch of an indigenous Automatic Silk Reeling Machine (ARM) by CSB.

The minister also stressed on the need for an outreach programme for promoting Indian silk and said that the new reeling machine will help women in the sector who were mostly engaged in rearing cocoons and working in old and outdated units.

The perception about silk that it is only for women needs to be changed and its use should be expanded to make it a unigender fabric, said Union textiles minister Smriti Irani. She also said that the notion that silk is only for women is a narrow approach and scientists and marketing team need to work towards looking for new avenues for its diversification.#

The CoE in Bengaluru, managed by Central Silk Technological Research Institute (CSTRI), has been set up to impart industry aligned skill seeding and skill development training programmes. It will also offer short term and long term courses in spinning, reeling, weaving, twisting, finishing, processing and packaging silk. CSB already has a CoE in Ranchi, Jharkhand.

The reeling machine that will be supplied to reelers from next year, has been developed to shorten the gap between silk demand and production and deal with the shortage of skilled manpower, said KM Hanumantharayappa, Chairman of CSB.

He also added that India is on track to become self-reliant in silk and will not be required to import it by 2020. The production of bivoltine silk has increased and the country is producing close to 4,000 tonnes of 4A grade silk, equivalent to the high-quality fabric imported from China, said Hanumantharayappa.

The total silk production in India is 28,000 tonnes, consisting of 10,000 tonnes of crossbreed mulberry variety, according to the CSB chairman. (KD)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
China imported 54,900 tons of cotton in November 2016, showing a drop of 35 per cent year-on-year, but up 33 per cent over October 2016 imports. The average import price during the month was $1,822/ton, showing an increase of 10.2 per cent compared to average import price during the same period last year. Meanwhile, domestic cotton prices continued to rise.

China imported ....tons of cotton in November 2016, showing a drop of 35 per cent year-on-year, but up 33 per cent over October 2016 imports. The average import price during the month was $.../ton, showing an increase of 10.2 per cent compared to average import price during the same period last year. Meanwhile, domestic cotton prices continued to rise.#

In the first three months of ongoing Chinese cotton season, the countrys cumulative cotton imports stand at 156,600 tons, a decrease of 11.8 per cent year-on-year.

China imported ....tons of cotton in November 2016, showing a drop of 35 per cent year-on-year, but up 33 per cent over October 2016 imports. The average import price during the month was $.../ton, showing an increase of 10.2 per cent compared to average import price during the same period last year. Meanwhile, domestic cotton prices continued to rise.#

In November, China imported 17.88 million tons of cotton yarn, registering an increase of 27.06 per cent year-on-year and 12.13 per cent month-on-month.

China imported ....tons of cotton in November 2016, showing a drop of 35 per cent year-on-year, but up 33 per cent over October 2016 imports. The average import price during the month was $.../ton, showing an increase of 10.2 per cent compared to average import price during the same period last year. Meanwhile, domestic cotton prices continued to rise.#

Total cotton imports during the first 11 months of 2016 are down by 17.99 per cent year-on-year. (RKS)

China imported ....tons of cotton in November 2016, showing a drop of 35 per cent year-on-year, but up 33 per cent over October 2016 imports. The average import price during the month was $.../ton, showing an increase of 10.2 per cent compared to average import price during the same period last year. Meanwhile, domestic cotton prices continued to rise.#

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  China
We are SpinDye, a Swedish firm specialising in dyes for synthetic, woven, knitted, or crocheted fibres working in collaboration with NCS, the worlds leading colour system, has unveiled a resource-efficient, sustainable, colourfast method to dye synthetic fibres in pants, jackets, and backpacks, without the use of water and heavy use of chemicals.The Swedish company dyes synthetic fibre with sustainability and environmental protection as the main focus. Above all, the immense use of water is significantly reduced by the innovative procedure. First recycled plastic is melted down and the desired dye pigment is added to the undyed material. After that, yarn is produced from it in the desired strength. The clients and manufacturers can further process this yarn as usual.

We are SpinDye, a Swedish firm specialising in dyes for synthetic, woven, knitted, or crocheted fibres working in collaboration with NCS, the world's leading colour system, has unveiled a resource-efficient, sustainable, colourfast method to dye synthetic fibres in pants, jackets, and backpacks, without the use of water and heavy use of chemicals.#

In the conventional dyeing process, 100 to 150 litres of water are required to dye a kilogram of textiles. Due to insufficient restrictions in countries like China or Bangladesh, the toxic water from the dyeing reaches rivers, lakes, and into the groundwater. According to Greenpeace, two thirds of all rivers and lakes in China are classified as polluted.We are SpinDye is offering its technology for all synthetic materials, such as polyester or nylon, but also for rayon. A combination of synthetic fibres and unbleached wool can be used. There are no limits for manufacturers in further processing: The fabrics can, for example, be coated or equipped with a membrane.In future, manufacturers can choose the final product dye from a digital dye scale. Since the synthetic fibres are already dyed during their production, their colourfastness is guaranteed. The protracted process of colour comparison no longer applies. The colourfastness is also preserved, even under extreme UV radiation. The company currently offers around 2,000 colours. (GK)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Arjun Kapoor has already started shooting for his next film, Anees Bazmee's Mubarakan which has him playing the role of twins- Karanjeet Singh and Charanjeet Singh.

This morning, the actor took to his Twitter handle to share a new still from the film where he is looking cute as a button with his co-star Ileana D'Cruz who plays Sweety...

Let the madness continue !!! Smiles galore Karan and sweety aka @Ileana_Official and me !!! #Mubarakan pic.twitter.com/BYkQoIHVBq  Arjun Kapoor (@arjunk26) December 21, 2016

We hear that the duo bonded over some Punjabi food on the sets. Arjun was quoted saying to a daily, "I had met her when I saw Barfi and I was blown away by her performance. I jokingly mentioned that we'll end up working together, little did I know that it will happen and I am glad we have come together for a fun film. While shooting with her, I discovered how easy going and chilled out she is. Though she has a lot of experience as an actor, having done films in the south and in Hindi, she still isn't caught up in the web of running the rat race. I joked with her about being the first Goan to play a Punjabi, primarily because she is always worried about her Hindi, but she manages so well in front of the camera, that nobody can figure that out."

Ileana further added, "This film requires us to look like we've known each other for a while. And we hit it off right from the beginning. I blame it on the mutual love for Punjabi food!"

Mubarakan also has Arjun sharing screen space with his real life chachu Anil Kapoor for the first time in this movie.

Reportedly the film revolves around an extended Punjabi family at a destination wedding in Europe and also stars Athiya Shetty.
Mohit Sehgal-Sanaya Irani

The Miley Jab Hum Tum actors Mohit and Sanaya fell in love on the sets of the show. The duo who dated for five years and got hitched on 25th January, 2016. It was a destination wedding for the couple and they tied the knot in Goa amidst the presence of their families and close friends.

Divyanka Tripathi-Vivek Dahiya

The Yeh Hai Mohabbatein actors Divyanka and Vivek met on the sets on their show. Their love story is no less than a fairytale. The duo tied the knot on 8th July, 2016 in Divyanka's hometown, Bhopal. Later, the couple threw a grand reception party for their industry friends in Mumbai. The who's who of televsion turned up to bless the lovely couple. The couple are fondly known as 'DiVek' by their fans.

Karan Singh Grover-Bipasha Basu

Bollywood meets television! TV heart-throb Karan Singh Grover and actress Bipasha Basu fell in love on the sets on their film, Alone. The duo who dated for over two years finally tied the knot on 30th April, 2016 as per Bengali rituals. The couple later threw a starry reception for their friends. The who's who from both bollywood and television turned up to wish the couple.

Siddhant Karnick-Megha Gupta

The love birds Siddhant and Megha tied the knot got hitched in a hush-hush ceremony. The couple opted for a simple registered marriage and entered the wedlock on 16th August, 2016. Apparently, Siddhant and Megha met each other at Vivian Dsena's birthday party last year and instantly bonded with each other.

Hunar Hale-Mayank Gandhi

Actors Hunar Hale and Mayank Gandhi got hitched on 28th August, 2016 in Delhi as per Sikh traditions. Their pre-wedding functions such as mehendi and sangeet were a fun-filled affair and the wedding was attended by close friends and family members.

Dheeraj Dhoopar-Vinny Arora

Sasural Simar Ka actor Dheeraj Dhopar and actress Vinny Arora tied the knot on 16th November, 2016 in Delhi. It was a big fat Punjabi wedding, held amidst family and friends. The duo met on the sets of the show Maat Pitah Ke Charnon Mein Swarg and dated for six years before they decided to tie the knot.

Deeya Chopra-Ritchie Mehta

Television actress Deeya Chopra married to UK-based Ritchie Mehta on 27th November, 2016 in Delhi. The wedding was a three-day affair, which was conducted as per Punjabi traditions. The cute couple Mohit and Sanaya were present for the wedding.

Suyyash Rai-Kishwer Merchant

The lovebirds Kishwer Merchant and Suyyash Rai entered the wedlock on 16 December, 2016 in a low-key affair. They opted for a court marriage, which was followed by a grand reception. Their pre-wedding ceremonies was a fun-filled affair and many television biggies turned up for the reception to bless the couple. The couple are popularly called as 'SuKish' by their fans.

Avinash Dwivedi- Sambhavna Seth

Ex-Bigg Boss contestant Sambhavna Seth and Avinash Dwivedi got married on 14th July, 2016 in Delhi. The wedding was a close-knit affair with only close friends and family members in attendance. The couple met each other during the shooting of a regional dance reality show.
Raman

Raman calls Ruhi to apologise, but she doesn't pick the call. Meanwhile, Simmi returns home alone and tells Ishita that Ruhi left the mall long back saying that she got an urgent call from Ishita!

Ishita Shocked

Ishita is shocked as she hadn't called her. Raman is annoyed with Ruhi's lies. He feels that Sohail is not a right person for Ruhi. Ishita tries to calm Raman.

Sohail

On the other hand, Sohail is shocked to see media at his doorstep. Ruhi reveals that she had called media to make announcement about the concert. Seeing Raman and Ishita, Sohail changes the statement and announces the media that he is cancelling the concert.

Ruhi

Ruhi asks Sohail not to be scared of her family, while Raman announces that Ruhi will be doing concert for Sohail, by shocking everyone. Ruhi hugs Raman for supporting her.

Ruhis MMS Leaked

In the upcoming episode, Ruhi gets into trouble because of an MMS. Apparently, someone captures Ruhi while bathing. Watching the MMS, Ruhi is shocked and shattered.

Ishita Takes Shagun's Help!

Ruhi tells Ishita about the same who is also shocked. Apparently, Ishita will take Shagun's help as the MMS was shot in Australia, in Shagun's house.

Raman, Ruhi & Ishita

On the other hand, Raman promises Ruhi that he will solve the problem and asks her not to worry. Raman takes cyber cell's help to stop the MMS leak.

Sohail & Ruhi

Also, Sohail invites Ruhi to his home for Christmas party. He decorates the house and tries to cheer Ruhi, who is upset with the MMS issue.

Sohail Tries To Cheer Ruhi!

Sohail gives rose to Ruhi and asks her to dance with him. He is also successful in making Ruhi smile. We still doubt if Sohail is a good person or not? Does he have any hidden intention of getting closer to the Bhalla family, especially Ruhi?
Under the special rectification of Internet finance in 2016, consumer finance has become a new blue ocean chased by different kinds of capitals. At the same time, the loan volume in many consumer finance companies is growing at a rapid speed.

The explosive loan growth at Ping An Puhui, a consumer finance arm of one of the biggest Chinese insurer Ping An Group, is an example of the trend.

Ping An Puhui is expected to have issued about 180 billion yuan (US$26.1 billion) of new loan volume in 2016, more than doubled of the last year.

"We are quite different from what we were in the beginning of this year," said YongSuk Cho, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ping An Puhui. "We launched two products last year, and now all three of our business lines are generating profits for Ping An Puhui."

In November, Ping An Puhui attracted more than 500,000 new customers, taking its new loan sales close to 25 billion yuan. 70% of new loans came in unsecured loans, its main business line.

The business model changed after the company shifted its traditional system to a data-driven one, with no more use of its paper-based approach of accessing customer creditworthiness three years ago, Cho said.

The strategy of collecting information "of clients but not from clients" relies on a third-party data from administrative and legal sources.

Ping An Puhuis CEO said a borrowers repayment history on first loans is used to determine whether further credit loan could be re-issued extended.

If a customers status deteriorates, we will focus more on debt collection, he said.

I hope we could control the credit loss within 6%,said Cho. Since once the rate reaches at about 8 to 10%, the industrys ideal average, which is very easy for the losses to get out of hand and soar to 20% or 30%. We dont want that happen.

"At a conservative estimate, Chinas consumer-credit market will swell to 52 trillion yuan by 2020, with the participation of non-bank financial institutions rising to nearly 20% from nearly 5% now," CHO said: "Among this 52 trillion yuan, Chinas non-bank financial institutions are expected to take 20% which is about 10 trillion yuan, and we hope to achieve 10% share of this market by that time."
The Online Biometric Authentication Service system

Pricing and Availability



Fujitsu Limited Public and Investor Relations Tel: +81-3-3215-5259 URL: www.fujitsu.com/global/news/contacts/

TOKYO, Dec 21, 2016 - (JCN Newswire) - Fujitsu today announced that it will begin offering a new FIDO-compliant service for online biometric authentication. The "Online Biometric Authentication Service" will initially roll out from early April 2017, starting with Japan.With this service, Fujitsu will provide companies that offer online services with the servers and software necessary to implement FIDO (Fast IDentity Online), services that support the construction of cloud environments, and also software development kits and development support for incorporating FIDO into client-side applications.Customers can use this service to easily build online personal authentication systems with robust security and that do not require passwords for a variety of day-to-day situations, such as online banking and shopping, ticket arrangements, and car sharing. This also reduces the burden of getting online authentication services up and running. In addition, because this service functions to use FIDO with facial recognition obtained through camera-equipped smartphones and other biometrics, the number of supported devices on the client side can be dramatically expanded.This service is being positioned as one of the IoT solutions that are being developed for FUJITSU Digital Business Platform MetaArc(1). With MetaArc, which enables customers to undergo digital transformations, Fujitsu is supporting connections between people, things, and infrastructure across company and industry boundaries, and contributing to creating new value and strengthening competitiveness for customers.BackgroundAs the number of people using online banking and e-commerce has increased in recent years, there are concerns about the safety of online authentication via passwords for a variety of services, and the harm from leaks of personal information and account spoofing have become a problem for society. Password-based personal authentication has also been criticized for the high risks of harm from identity fraud and unauthorized use of services, such as list attacks, which target repeated use of the same password for multiple services, and key loggers, which record a keyboard's activity to steal passwords.At the same time, biometric-authentication-equipped devices, such as smartphones, are becoming familiar to users, creating an environment where biometric authentication can be easily used.About FIDOOn August 1, 2016, Fujitsu joined the FIDO Alliance, an international NPO which promotes the standardization of password-less online authentication technology, as a sponsoring member.FIDO is a new authentication method that resolves the vulnerabilities of password-based online authentication by using biometric authentication and public key encryption(2) which do not depend on IDs or passwords. With FIDO, users simply register their FIDO-compatible device, such as a smartphone, with the online service they want to use, which enables them to do things like log in or make payments authenticated by the biometric information stored on their device, eliminating the need for passwords and improving both safety and convenience. Businesses that provide online service can accept authentication from a wide variety of FIDO devices, just by adding support for FIDO to their server and client applications, and by adopting an authentication method using public key encryption, they can also reduce their data storage risks because it is no longer necessary to manage the biometric information of the users of their service on their own servers.Summary of the Online Biometric Authentication Service1. Flexible support for customers implementing FIDOFujitsu is supporting customers in implementing FIDO, by providing the necessary FIDO-compliant software and servers, building necessary cloud environments, and providing services that support the development of client applications. In this way, Fujitsu can reduce the burden of customers looking to start services with online authentication.2. Development of and support for software that features FIDO support for multiple clientsBased on the technologies accumulated through the development of its smart devices and sensors, Fujitsu is offering a software development kit and development support services necessary for incorporating FIDO into the client applications for online services installed on users' biometric authentication devices. Because it is possible to incorporate biometric authentication functionality to camera-equipped smartphones that do not feature biometric authentication sensors, applications can broadly cover Android and iOS smartphone users, covering 98% of smartphone users in Japan in 2017 (according to research by Fujitsu).http://www.acnnewswire.com/topimg/Low_FujitsuBiometric1221.jpgThe Online Biometric Authentication Service systemhttp://www.acnnewswire.com/topimg/Low_BiometricPricing1221.jpgPricing and AvailabilitySales TargetFujitsu is aiming to provide the service for 10 million IDs by fiscal 2018.Going forward, Fujitsu plans to expand the service to cover authentication on a variety of devices.(1) MetaArcA digital business platform that fuses advanced technology such as the cloud, mobile, big data, IoT, and AI, with Fujitsu's systems engineering knowledge and experience.(2) Public key encryptionA method of encryption that uses two keys, a public key and a private key, to encrypt and decrypt data.About Fujitsu LtdFujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. Approximately 159,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702; ADR:FJTSY) reported consolidated revenues of 4.7 trillion yen (US$41 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com.* Please see this press release, with images, at:http://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/Source: Fujitsu LtdContact:Copyright 2016 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Yokohama, Japan, Dec 21, 2016 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (MHPS) has today announced that it has signed a Technology License Agreement (TLA) for the Selective Catalyst Reduction System (SCR System) with L&T-MHPS Boilers Private Ltd. (LMB), a joint venture company of Larsen & Toubro Limited and MHPS.The TLA grants LMB exclusive rights to design, engineer, manufacture, install, commission and sell the SCR System in India for new boiler tenders under the Boiler, Turbine, Generator (BTG) package, the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) or Steam Generator (SG) packages or standalone SCR tenders, and for existing and under construction boilers manufactured by LMB. The TLA grants a non-exclusive right for existing boilers and currently under construction boilers installed by others.In December 2015 the Government of India introduced new emissions standards for nitrogen oxides (NOx) for existing, under construction and upcoming coal based thermal units in India.MHPS is committed to supporting its customers globally in the field of clean power generation with its super/ultra-super-critical pressure boiler systems, Low NOx emission burners and high-efficiency Air Quality Control System technology. To further these efforts, MHPS has licensed its SCR technology to its Indian joint venture company, LMB, thereby providing its customers with the most reliable and efficient technology in the world.About Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd.Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (MHPS) was formed on February 1 2014, integrating the thermal power generation systems businesses of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and Hitachi, Ltd. in a quest to further enhance their social response capabilities in all respects. These include the technological strength to create new products of outstanding quality and reliability, the comprehensive strength in engineering to oversee projects in regions across the globe, and finely honed sales and after-sale servicing capabilities. MHPS aims to come out a winner in global competition and achieve a solid position as a world leader in thermal power generation systems and environmental technologies. For more information, please visit www.mhps.com.Source: Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd.Contact:Copyright 2016 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.

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.
LONDON, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Cashfloat.co.uk, has revealed research about how poor people who are struggling to pay for basic necessities often pay more for simple items.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160817/398829LOGO )



Western Circle Ltd (WCL), a London-based lending company trading as Cashfloat conducted this research as a further effort to understand their poorest customers living in the UK. Some of the startling results showed how much poor people pay due to a lack of bank accounts, cars and washing machines. Cashfloat published the findings of their research on Sunday 18 December 2016.

Buying a basic microwave can cost two and a half times the price of a higher quality model, in the long run.

Poor people pay at least 5p more on washing powder for each wash.

It costs 40% more to buy an orange in a local shop than in the supermarket.

Poor people pay enough in rent over 20 years to buy a house.

The poverty penalty caught the attention of Cashfloat's researchers as they strive to understand the struggles and issues that payday loan customers are dealing with on a day-to-day basis.

"We did this research because we really want to help people, so we looked at what their problems are," says Jeremy Lloyd, Director at Cashfloat.

"We were a bit horrified at what we discovered. We all know that living in poverty is difficult, but the idea that saving money is too expensive is shocking!"

The research includes two in-depth case studies. Additionally, Cashfloat's researchers conducted on-the-spot interviews in places that poor people frequent, such as the local launderettes and cash converters.

The team at Cashfloat are constantly striving to understand their customers better, so they can help UK citizens improve their financial situation in the long run.

Article and explainer video:

https://www.cashfloat.co.uk/blog/money-borrowing/poor-people-pay-more/

Infographic:

https://www.cashfloat.co.uk/infographics/poor-pay-more/

About Cashfloat

Cashfloat.co.uk is a trading style of Western Circle Limited; an FCA-fully authorised direct lender. The Cashfloat model is based on fundamentally good morals and the most advanced artificial intelligence technology designed to help and protect people taking payday loans online.



Contacts:

KellyRichard,+44(0)20-3757-1933

kelly.richard@cashfloat.co.uk

or

SEO&Strategyrelatedqueries

OferValencioAkerman

akerman@masterlevelseo.com

Social media accounts:

http://www.cashfloat.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/cashfloat

https://twitter.com/cashfloat_kelly

https://www.linkedin.com/company/cashfloat

https://plus.google.com/+CashfloatUk-loans


Regulatory News:

BONE THERAPEUTICS (Brussels:BOTHE) (Paris:BOTHE) (Euronext Brussels and Paris: BOTHE),the bone cell therapy company addressing high unmet medical needs in the field of orthopaedics and bone diseases, today announces its financial calendar for 2017.

Bone Therapeutics Financial Calendar 2017:

17 January 2017 Q4 2016 Business Highlights and Cash Position Update

16 March 2017 Full Year Results 2016

19 April 2017 Annual Report 2016

11 May 2017 Q1 2017 Business and Financial Highlights

26 May 2017 Annual General Meeting 2017

31 August 2017 Half Year Results 2017

9 November 2017 Q3 2017 Business and Financial Highlights

This schedule is indicative and subject to change. The calendar is also available on the Bone Therapeutics website under the heading Investors.

In addition, Bone Therapeutics announces that it will participate in the following investor conferences in January 2017:

6 January 2017 Oddo Midcap Forum, Lyon (France)

26 January 2017 Invest Securities BioMed Event, Paris (France)

-Ends-

About Bone Therapeutics

Bone Therapeutics is a leading biotechnology company specializing in the development of cell therapy products intended for orthopaedics and bone diseases. The current standard-of-care in this field involves major surgeries and long recovery periods. To overcome these problems, Bone Therapeutics is developing a range of innovative regenerative products containing osteoblastic/bone-forming cells, administrable via a minimally invasive percutaneous technique; a unique proposition in the market.

PREOB, Bone Therapeutics' autologous bone cell product, is currently in pivotal Phase IIB/III clinical studies for two indications: osteonecrosis and non-union fractures, and in Phase IIA for severe osteoporosis. ALLOB, its allogeneic "off-the-shelf" bone cell product, is in Phase I/IIA for the treatment of delayed-union fractures, lumbar fusion for degenerative disease of the spine and revision spinal fusion. The Company also runs preclinical research programs and develops novel product candidates.

Founded in 2006, Bone Therapeutics is headquartered in Gosselies (South of Brussels, Belgium). Bone Therapeutics' regenerative products are manufactured to the highest GMP standards and are protected by a rich IP estate covering 10 patent families. Further information is available at www.bonetherapeutics.com

Certain statements, beliefs and opinions in this press release are forward-looking, which reflect the Company or, as appropriate, the Company directors' current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions could adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. A multitude of factors including, but not limited to, changes in demand, competition and technology, can cause actual events, performance or results to differ significantly from any anticipated development. Forward looking statements contained in this press release regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. As a result, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any update or revisions to any forward-looking statements in this press release as a result of any change in expectations or any change in events, conditions, assumptions or circumstances on which these forward-looking statements are based. Neither the Company nor its advisers or representatives nor any of its subsidiary undertakings or any such person's officers or employees guarantees that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are free from errors nor does either accept any responsibility for the future accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release or the actual occurrence of the forecasted developments. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161220006143/en/

Contacts:

Bone Therapeutics SA

Thomas Lienard, Chief Executive Officer

Wim Goemaere, Chief Financial Officer

Tel: +32 (0)2 529 59 90

investorrelations@bonetherapeutics.com

or

For Belgium and International Media Enquiries

Consilium Strategic Communications

Jonathan Birt, Jessica Hodgson, Lindsey Neville and Hendrik Thys

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3709 5701

bonetherapeutics@consilium-comms.com

or

For French Media and Investor Enquiries

NewCap Investor Relations Financial Communications

Pierre Laurent, Louis-Victor Delouvrier and Nicolas Merigeau

Tel: 33 (0)2 44 71 94 94

bone@newcap.eu
LUND - December 21, 2016 - The shareholders of Anoto Group AB (publ), are hereby invited to attend the Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on Thursday, 12 January 2017 at 13:00 at the Company's premises at Mobilvagen 10 in Lund, Sweden.Notification of participationShareholders wishing to attend the General Meeting must-- be entered as shareholders in the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB no later than on Thursday, 5 January 2017, -- notify the Company of their intention to participate no later than on Monday, 9 January 2017, preferably before noon.Attendance is to be notified by mail to Anoto Group AB (publ) at Mobilvagen 10, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden, by telephone +46 46 540 12 00, or by e-mail to EGM@anoto.com. The notification should state name, social security number/corporate identification number and registered number of shares. To facilitate admittance to the General Meeting, proxies, registration certificates and other authorisation documents should be submitted to the Company at the above address no later than on 9 January 2017. The Company provides proxy forms at the Company's office in Lund as well as on the Company's web page www.anoto.com.Shareholders who hold their shares through nominees (Sw. forvaltare) must request a temporary registration of the shares in their own name, with Euroclear Sweden AB. Shareholders who wishes to obtain such registration must contact the nominee regarding this well in advance of 5 January 2017.Proposed agenda1. Opening of the Meeting2. Election of Chairman at the Meeting3. Preparation and approval of voting list4. Approval of the agenda5. Election of one or two persons to verify the minutes6. Determination of whether the Meeting has been duly convened7. Resolution to approve the resolution by the Board of Directors to issue convertible bonds8. Closing of the MeetingProposalsResolution to approve the resolution by the Board of Directors to issue convertible bonds (item 7)The Board of Directors proposes that the General Meeting resolves to approve the resolution by the Board of Directors as of 2 December 2016 to issue a senior unsecured convertible loan at a par value of not more than SEK 9.2 million and that the loan shall be convertible into shares of the Company. Each convertible bond carries a par value of SEK 100,000. The convertible bonds may, with deviation from the shareholders' pre-emptive right, only be subscribed for by Inhye Kim. The convertible bonds shall be issued and subscribed for at a price equal to 100 percent of their principal amount. The Board of Directors believes the subscription price being at market price considering the current industry and market conditions. The convertible loan does not carry interest.The convertible bonds shall be paid for through set-off against part of a 2.4 million Singapore dollars (SGD) (approximately SEK 15.5 million) loan provided by Inhye Kim to the Company. The set-off of claims shall be deemed to be effected immediately upon subscription for the convertible bonds, however, not earlier than the approval by the General Meeting to issue the convertible loan.Bondholders are entitled to convert, at any time during the period commencing on the date following 20 calendar days after subscription date for the convertible bonds up to and including 15 November 2018, all or part of the loan amount into shares of the Company. The initial conversion price is SEK 0.135 per share. The total amount by which the share capital may be increased on account of the conversion of the convertibles shall - at a conversion price of SEK 0.135 - amount to not more than SEK 1,362,962.96. The terms and conditions for the convertible bonds include customary adjustment conditions in respect of the conversion price on the occurrence of certain corporate events (e.g. dividends, bonus issues and share issues). The loan falls due on 5 December 2018 to the extent the conversion has not taken place before such date.The reason for deviation from the shareholders' pre-emptive rights is to raise capital in a time efficient manner to ensure the financing of the Company's business operations.Since Inhye Kim is married to Joonhee Won, CEO of the Company, the issue of the convertible bonds falls within the scope of Chapter 16 of the Swedish Companies Act, which means that a resolution to approve the board resolution to issue the convertible bonds is valid only where supported by shareholders holding not less than nine-tenth of both the shares voted and of the shares represented at the General Meeting.OtherThe Board of Directors' complete proposals for resolutions in accordance with the above, including reports and statements related thereto in accordance with the Swedish Companies Act (SFS 2005:551), will be available at the Company's office in Lund and on the Company's web page, www.anoto.com, no later than three weeks prior to the General Meeting and will also be sent to those shareholders who so request and provide their postal address.According to Chapter 7, section 32 of the Swedish Companies Act, at a General Meeting the shareholders are entitled to require information from the Board of Directors and CEO regarding circumstances which may affect items on the agenda and circumstances which may affect the Company's financial situation.Number of shares and votes in the CompanyAs of 21 December 2016, the total number of shares and votes in the Company was 2,340,832,108. The Company is not holding any own shares.Lund, December 2016Anoto Group AB (publ)The Board of DirectorsAttachment:https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=609096
GOTEBORG, Sweden, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Capio AB (publ) has signed an agreement to initially acquire 70% of the shares in CFR Hospitaler A/S "CFR" in Denmark. The CFR Group comprises four specialized hospitals and four radiology units with estimated net sales in 2016 of MDKK 280. The acquisition of CFR represents a new market entry for Capio, adding to the Group's Nordic home base and pan-European footprint for driving Modern Medicine and increased productivity in healthcare services.

CFR operates four hospitals, of which two are located in the Copenhagen region, one is located in Odense on Fyn and one in Skoerping, North Denmark (Nordjylland). The Copenhagen hospitals represent approximately 70% of the CFR Group's net sales. Specialized in orthopedics, spine surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, urology and ear-nose-throat disorders, CFR annually performs more than 80,000 consultations and 8,000 surgeries. In addition to the hospitals, CFR comprises four radiology units, one in each of the hospital facilities, offering MRI, mammography, ultrasound and X-ray diagnostic imaging. CFR is active in three out of five regions in Denmark.

Thomas Kir, the founder and former main owner of CFR will continue as CEO of CFR Group after the acquisition and will remain as a shareholder of CFR.

"We are very pleased with the opportunity to acquire CFR Hospitaler, a well-established and professionally operated healthcare company. CFR matches Capio's core medical specialties and shares our fundamental view of delivering high quality healthcare. I am looking forward to further developing CFR together with Thomas Kir, his management team and medical staff", says Thomas Berglund, President and CEO of Capio AB.

"We are very happy and look forward to being a part of the Capio Group in the future. We are well-established in Denmark, and have focused on delivering healthcare of highest medical quality for a long time. Together with Capio, we see an opportunity to continue this development with a very experienced and strong partner with a long track record of delivering good quality healthcare in several European countries. As CEO of the company, I look forward to being part of an experienced and well-managed international group focusing on high quality healthcare", says Thomas Kir, CEO of CFR.

The Danish healthcare environment is similar to the one in Sweden and other Nordic countries, with a growing share of elderly population and increased GDP spend on healthcare. The market for healthcare in Denmark is estimated to be worth approximately BDKK 105, with a small private hospital share of 2%. Denmark has come far in Modern Medicine with a high share of day surgery and short AVLOS (Average Length Of Stay), but has availability challenges and productivity can be further improved. Hence, the outsourcing of public contracts is expected to gradually increase in line with the development in other Nordic countries.

Enterprise value is MDKK 199 for 70% of CFR and Capio has the option to acquire the remaining 30% of the shares after two years. The acquisition is estimated to be closed and included in the Capio Group from January 2017. CFR is expected to have a positive impact on Capio's earnings during 2017.

After the acquisition, Capio will have operations in five countries; Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France and Germany. The Danish operations will be included in the Nordic segment.

For information, please contact:

Thomas Berglund, President and CEO

Telephone: +46 733 88 86 00

Olof Bengtsson, CFO

Telephone: +46761 18 74 69

Kristina Ekeblad, IR manager

Telephone: +46708 31 19 40



This information is information that Capio AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 08:45 CET on December 21, 2016.

CONTACT:

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/capio-ab/r/capio-to-acquire-the-danish-hospital-group-cfr-hospitaler,c2154550

The following files are available for download:
FORSLOV, Sweden, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

A planned succession of managers in business areas Construction and Project Development will be implemented at the turn of the year along with changes in Group functions as well.

Changes in executive management

The new Business Area Construction Manager will be Stefan Danielsson, previously Deputy Business Area Construction Manager. He succeeds Roger Linner, who will continue to be COO.

The new Business Area Project DevelopmentManager will be Goran Linder, previously Deputy Business Area Project DevelopmentManager. He succeeds Tomas Anderson, who will continue to function as an advisor to Goran Linder.

At the same time HR Director Tina Hermansson Berg will leave Peab.

New work method and organization for Group functions

Group functionswillbe rununder two members of executive management with primary responsible. A number of functions in the current Group function Personnel, for example the work environment and competence recruitment, will be lifted up and coordinated with the rest of the other functions connected to production under Roger Linner, COO. At the same time competence areas such as wages, pensions and perks will be organized together with other financial functions under Niclas Winkvist, CFO.

After the above mentioned changes have been made Peab's executive management will consist of the following persons; Jesper Goransson (President and CEO), Roger Linner, (COO), Niclas Winkvist (CFO), Stefan Danielsson (BA Construction Manager), KG Karlsson (BA Civil Engineering and BA Industry Manager) and Goran Linder (BA Project Development Manager).

"We will now carry out planned successions within executive management at the same time creating a new base for cross-functional work. As a result we will be better able to meet the needs of our business and strengthen Peab's competitive capacity in a changing industry," says Jesper Goransson, CEO of Peab.

The new structure will apply as of 1 January 2017.

For further information, please contact:

Jesper Goransson,

President and CEO,

Tel: +46431- 89194

Charlotte Hago,

CIO

Tel: +46725- 33 45 45

Peab AB discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted, through the care of the above contacts, for publication on 21 December 2016 08:50 a.m. CET.

CONTACT:

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/peab/r/changes-in-peab-s-management-structure,c2154601

The following files are available for download:
ISTANBUL, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Having one of the Youngest Fleets in the World, Turkish Airlines Launches New Destinations With Youths in Mind as Well

Turkish Airlines, "Europe's Best Airline" for six consecutive years according to the recent Skytrax results, flying to more countries than any other airline, continues to grow by adding new destinations to its consistently expanding network.



(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/450854/Turkish_Airlines.jpg )



With existing services to Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Bogota, Panama, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Miami and Atlanta Turkish Airlines has just added flights to Havana and Caracas as its 16th and 17th destinations in the Americas.

The inaugural flight from Istanbul got water cannon salute in both airports with a ceremony graced by Mr. Mehmet Buyukeksi, Member of the Board of Turkish Airlines and the senior bureaucrats both from Republic of Cuba and Republic of Venezuela, in the presence of diplomatic, protocol and media representatives as well as Turkish Airlines' officials.

Mr. Buyukeksi said; "Our flag carrier assumes Havana and Caracas are essential points in its Latin America expansion and places itself at the forefront to shorten the distances between desiring travelers who will arrive with all kinds of expectations to the biggest Island in the Antilles. The opening of our Havana and Caracas gateways also means that we will now be able to deliver our award-winning services that will make the international travel easier and more convenient for both business and leisure travelers in this area.'

Also launching with the new destinations, the "Bridging Youth" project, a corporate responsibility initiative by Turkish Airlines, kicked off with a fast start, as four university students from Turkey from varying backgrounds were given free tickets to Havana for a series of cultural activities including guided tours of the city with their Cuban hosts. The visiting youths will share their memorable moments and photographs of their trip on Turkish Airlines' social media accounts.

Beginning from today, Havana and Caracas flights will be operated 3 times per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays in both directions.

Havana and Caracas flighttimes as scheduled from December 20th;

Flight No. Start End Days Departure Arrival Tuesday, Thursday, TK183 20.12.2016 09.03.2017 Sunday IST 02:10 HAV 8:00 Tuesday, Thursday, TK 183 20.12.2016 09.03.2017 Sunday HAV 10:00 CCS 14:00 Tuesday, Thursday, TK 183 20.12.2016 26.03.2017 Sunday CCS 15:30 IST 10:15 +1

All times are in local time.

Introductory round trip fares are available from Istanbul to Havana -the capital and the largest city of Cuba- and to the Caracas -the capital and the largest city of Venezuela-. To view the flight schedules and fares please visit http://www.turkishairlines.com, contact the call center at +90 212 444 0849 or visit any Turkish Airlines sales office.

Additionally, for the first 6 months of operation to these new destinations, there is a special offer for Miles&Smiles members, with a 25% reduction in the miles needed to redeem either award tickets or upgrades.*

Flying from Jose Marti International Airport and Simon Bolivar International Airport, the brand new services will also connect passengers departing from Havana and Caracas to 102 worldwide destinations including Paris, London, Madrid, Rome, Moscow, Barcelona, Beirut, Guangzhou, Porto, Frankfurt, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing, Zurich, Amsterdam, Munich, Copenhagen, Berlin and Vienna.

* Turkish Airlines reserves the right to make changes in this regard.

Turkish Airlines, Inc.

Media Relations

About Turkish Airlines:

Established in 1933 with a fleet of five aircraft, Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines is a 4-star airline today with a fleet of 334(passenger and cargo)aircraft flying to 295destinations worldwide with 246international and 49 domestic. According to the 2016 Skytrax survey, Turkish Airlines was chosen as "Europe's Best Airline" for the sixth and "Best Airline in Southern Europe" for the eighth consecutive time. Having won in 2010 the world's "Best Economy Catering Service", in 2013 and also in 2014 the world's "Best Business Catering Service", and "Best Business Class Lounge Dining", "Best Business Airline Lounge" awards in last year's survey, Turkish Airlines was awarded again the world's "Best Business Class Dining Lounge" and "Best Business Class On-Board Catering" prizes in this year's survey. More information about Turkish Airlines can be found on its official websitehttp://www.turkishairlines.com or its social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin, andInstagram.

About Star Alliance:

The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer worldwide reach, recognition and seamless service to the international traveller. Its acceptance by the market has been recognized by numerous awards, including the Air Transport World Market Leadership Award and Best Airline Alliance by both Business Traveller Magazine and Skytrax. The member airlines are: Adria Airways, Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Avianca, Avianca Brasil, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, SWISS, TAP Portugal, Turkish Airlines, THAI and United. Overall, the Star Alliance network currently offers more than 18,450 daily flights to 1,300 airports in 190 countries.

Turkish Airlines Inc.

Office of Media Relations

General Management Building

34149, Yesilkoy-Istanbul

Tel: +90-(212)-463-63-63 - 11153 / 11173

Fax: +90-(212)-465-20-78

press@thy.com






CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese yen advanced against its major rivals in late Asian trading on Wednesday, erasing its early losses, after Japanese government raised its assessment of the economy for the first time since early 2015 citing improvement in exports, household spending and business confidence.



In its monthly report for December, the cabinet office said the economy is on a moderate recovery, while delayed improvement in part can be seen.



In its November report the government had said that the Japanese economy was on a moderate recovery, while weakness could be seen recently.



The government today said the private consumption shows movements of picking up. Earlier, the cabinet office assessed that private consumption holds firm as a whole.



In other economic news, figures from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed that Japan's all industry activity increased at a faster-than-expected pace in October after remaining flat in the previous month.



The all industry activity index rose 0.2 percent month-over-month in October, just above the 0.1 percent gain expected by economists.



Meanwhile, Asian shares are trading mixed amid higher oil prices, following the overnight gains on Wall Street.



The yen weakened on Tuesday, after the Bank of Japan left its monetary policy unchanged and Governor Haruhiko Kuroda reinforced the central bank's commitment to keep 10-year government bond yield near zero. It fell 0.6 percent against the greenback, 0.5 percent against the euro, 0.6 percent against the franc and 0.4 percent against the pound for the day.



The yen was trading higher at 87.87 against the loonie, 81.41 against the kiwi and 85.22 against the aussie, up from its early lows of 88.24 and 81.74, and a 2-day low of 85.75, respectively. The next possible resistance for the yen may be found around 86.5 against the loonie, 78.00 against the kiwi and 83.00 against the aussie.



Following a decline to 118.07 against the greenback at 8:00 pm ET, the yen edged up to 117.40. On the upside, 116.00 is possibly seen as the next resistance level for the yen.



The yen advanced to 122.30 against the euro and 114.29 against the Swiss franc, off its early lows of 122.62 and 114.73, respectively. If the yen extends rise, 119.00 and 113.00 are possibly seen as its next resistance levels against the euro and the franc, respectively.



The Japanese currency ticked up to 145.28 against the pound, after having fallen to 145.88 at 5:30 pm ET. The yen is seen challenging resistance around the 142.00 region.



Looking ahead, U.K. public sector finance data for November is due in the European session.



In the New York session, Eurozone consumer confidence for December, U.S. existing home sales for November and official weekly crude inventory data are set for release.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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LIMASSOL, Cyprus, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

BDB invites online traders to a Christmas-based trading experience with a holiday twist

One of the leading binary options brokerage firms, Banc De Binary Ltd., is to launch a highly attractive Christmas promotion, which will take place between December 22nd and December 31st, 2016. BDB joins the festive holiday spirit with a special holiday promotion that includes a decorative design for its website, and an exclusive offer that entails a chance to win rewards. The Gift of Trading-Power: a Christmas twist to the usual trading experience.

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/451521/PRNE_Calypso_Image.jpg )



BDB has expertly created the holiday trading-experience of a "Christmas Expedition," taking place in an interactive winter wonderland. The Christmas-tailored version of the company's website will contain animated figures, among which will be magical characters that shall come to life and engage with traders. The characters will guide clients throughout their holiday trading-expedition, which for some, will result in exciting Christmas gifts.

The truly wonderful element of BDB's Gift of Trading-Power experience lies in the fact that it gives clients added value to their usual trading experience. All trading activity performed on the platform during the dates of the promotion will be rewarded in the spirit of giving, potentially allowing clients to walk away with some of the hottest holiday items.

BDB's Christmas Expedition is a generous breath of fresh air in the world of binary options - one that both existing and new clients can enjoy. The limited-time promotion, launching on December 22nd, will provide traders with one more great reason to trade with BDB, the leading Binary Options Brokerage firm. Click here to receive an email reminder on the day of the launch.

About BDB

Since its inception, BDB has undergone exponential growth. As a pioneer in its field and one of the industry leaders, BDB is committed to providing traders with an all-inclusive trading experience. This includes offering an intuitive trading platform, effective trading tools, a wealth of educational material, a wide range of global underlying assets, trade options and a responsive support team. In their quest to provide a safe and transparent trading environment, BDB offers top quality binary options services and is constantly striving to improve their products and offerings.

HIGH RISK INVESTMENT WARNING: Trading Binary Options is highly speculative, carries a level of risk and is not suitable for all investors. You may lose all of your invested capital, therefore you should not speculate with capital that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with trading Binary Options. Please visit our website to read our full Risk Warning.

REGULATION: Banc De Binary Ltd. is a Financial Services Company authorised and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) under license no. 188/13.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Medgold Resources Corp. (TSX VENTURE: MED) (the "Company" or "Medgold") is pleased to announce that it has completed its first phase drill program at the Boticas Gold Project. Drill hole assay results have been received for 1,365 m of the completed 2,516 m program. Highlights from these initial eight drill holes included the following intercepts:

-- MBT001: 49.13 m @ 1.43 g/t Au, from 20.87 m -- MBT002: 14.60 m @ 1.13 g/t Au, from 85.60 m -- MBT003: 7.90 m @ 3.40 g/t Au, from 107.00 m -- MBT005: 20.70 m @ 2.54 g/t Au, from 12.95 m -- MBT008: 59.0 m @ 1.30 g/t Au, from 12.00 m

(Significant drill hole gold intercepts were calculated using a 0.2 g/t Au cut-off grade, 0.2 g/t Au minimum composite grade, 3 m maximum internal dilution length, and 0.0 g/t Au minimum internal dilution grade. These intercepts represent apparent thickness. True thickness estimates are discussed below.)

Dan James, President of Medgold, said: "We have received the first batch of results from our drill program at Boticas. These demonstrate significant widths of up to 50 m in apparent thickness in the principal zones of mineralization which are frequently located close to surface. The 2,500 m program, which is fully funded by our partner, Centerra Gold, is now complete, with full results to follow in early January. We are currently reviewing the data with Centerra to identify areas for follow-up exploration which may include infill and deeper drilling at the main Limarinho Zone."

The Boticas-Chaves Gold Project

The Boticas-Chaves Gold Project, located in northern Portugal, covers an area of approximately 600 sq km. The project is centred on a regional ENE-trending shear zone. Local fault relays or jogs along the shear created crustal thinning / extension within discrete zones, facilitating the emplacement of mineralized quartz veinlets and veins into the granite host rock. Several of these zones were investigated by COGEMA and Kernow Resources in the late 1980s and in the mid 2000s, respectively. These companies completed a total of over 3,000 m of diamond drilling in two main zones: Limarinho and Limarinho South.

Surface mapping and the historical diamond drilling showed that gold mineralization is contained within 0.5 to 2 cm thick quartz veinlets and veins. Individual veins generally strike northeast, have vertical to sub-vertical dips, and pinch and swell vertically. They have individual horizontal lengths of generally less than 10 m, but create zones of en echelon vein sets within multiple parallel east-northeast corridors within the Limarinho zone. These corridors are up to 20 to 25 m in true thickness and can have strike lengths of hundreds of metres. Medgold's exploration targets are these corridors which feature much higher vein density than surrounding rocks.

Medgold 2016 drilling

The Company commenced drilling in late August, and completed 15 holes for 2,516 m of oriented core drilling by early December. Twelve holes were collared in the main Limarinho zone (2,060 m) and three holes (456 m) were collared in the Limarinho South zone. Assay results have been received for the first eight holes, and the remaining assays are expected by the end of the year. All drill holes intercepted mineralized veins. A drill hole collar table and a table of significant intercepts are given below:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole Length (m) Target Easting Northing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT001 199.40 Limarinho 616675 4622236 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT002 113.20 Limarinho 616634 4622303 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT003 175.60 Limarinho 616593 4622143 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT004 181.55 Limarinho 616711 4622179 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT005 158.35 Limarinho 616725 4622344 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT006 172.45 Limarinho 616674 4622393 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT007 199.00 Limarinho 616796 4622413 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT008 166.15 Limarinho 616539 4622277 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole Elevation Azimuth Inclination Recovery % ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT001 545 325 -55 92.35 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT002 535 325 -55 73.29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT003 552 325 -55 96.6 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT004 575 325 -55 96.64 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT005 555 150 -55 95.87 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT006 557 145 -55 94.21 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT007 586 155 -55 94.62 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT008 534 325 -55 93.37 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Individual high-grade From To Interval True width Grade samples Hole ID (m) (m) (m) (est., m) (g/t Au) (g/t Au) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT001 20.87 70.00 49.13 27.00 1.43 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT001 112.68 135.20 22.52 12.00 0.75 13.20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT001 139.25 153.70 14.45 7.27 0.23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT001 180.60 190.20 9.60 5.23 0.29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT002 9.30 17.90 8.60 4.78 0.31 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT002 21.60 27.14 5.54 3.44 0.39 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT002 64.40 73.30 8.90 4.60 0.95 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT002 85.60 100.20 14.60 7.60 1.13 15.95 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT002 106.60 111.85 5.3 2.54 0.27 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT003 13.30 27.50 14.20 7.70 0.44 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT003 92.10 103.45 11.35 5.92 0.31 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT003 107.00 114.90 7.90 4.14 3.40 13.40 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT003 122.25 126.30 4.05 2.39 0.46 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT005 12.95 33.65 20.70 10.02 2.54 19.90, 12.00 & 11.20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT005 121.70 124.80 3.10 1.71 0.74 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT006 4.00 10.65 6.7 12.96 0.91 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT006 65.25 68.25 3.0 1.71 0.35 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT006 72.20 75.50 3.3 1.72 0.50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT006 116.00 119.80 3.8 1.90 0.48 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT006 132.00 137.00 5.0 2.57 0.91 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT007 41.30 48.40 7.1 3.74 0.39 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT007 85.55 104.20 18.7 8.78 0.47 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT007 169.00 172.05 3.1 1.71 0.32 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT008 0.50 7.60 7.1 3.70 0.72 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT008 12.00 71.00 59.0 32.67 1.30 12.10 and 10.00 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT008 78.70 85.90 7.2 3.54 0.73 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBT008 89.00 95.15 6.2 2.90 0.55 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Significant drill hole gold intercepts were calculated using a 0.2 g/t Au cut-off grade, 0.2 g/t Au minimum composite grade, 3 m maximum internal dilution length, and 0.0 g/t Au minimum internal dilution grade.

The mineralized zones are interpreted as being vertical to sub-vertical. As all of the first eight drill holes were drilled at an inclination of -55 degrees, true thicknesses are therefore expected to be approximately 55-60% of drilled apparent thicknesses. True thicknesses, given in the table above, are estimated from the horizontal thicknesses of the intercepts in drill section, assuming that mineralized zones are vertical.

Assay results are pending for the remaining seven holes and are expected in early January 2017. The full assay results for the Boticas drill program, and accompanying geological interpretations, will be released at that time.

Quality Assurance / Quality Control

Rock half-core samples were crushed and pulverised by ALS Minerals at the Seville Laboratory, Spain. Samples were analyzed for gold using 50 g fire assay with AAS analysis and multi elements were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer by ALS Minerals at the Omac Laboratory, Ireland.

Certified reference materials, blanks, and field and laboratory duplicates were routinely inserted for quality assurance and quality control.

Qualified Person

David Clark, PGeo, consulting geologist to the Company, is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Clark has reviewed and approved the disclosure of technical information contained in this news release.

About Medgold

Medgold is a European-focused, TSX-V listed exploration and development company targeting gold properties in northwest Iberia and the under-explored gold provinces of southern Europe. Run by a highly experienced management team with a successful track record of building value in resource companies, Medgold is aiming to become a leading European gold company.

Additional information on Medgold can be found on the Company's website at www.medgoldresources.com and by reviewing the Company's page on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Daniel P. James, President & Director

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and include, without limitation, statements about proposed exploration work on the Boticas Project. Often, but not always, these forward looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "estimate", "estimates", "estimated", "potential", "open", "future", "assumed", "projected", "used", "detailed", "has been", "gain", "upgraded", "offset", "limited", "contained", "reflecting", "containing", "remaining", "to be", "periodically", or statements that events, "could" or "should" occur or be achieved and similar expressions, including negative variations.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Such uncertainties and factors include, among others, whether the proposed exploration work on the Boticas Project will proceed as planned; changes in general economic conditions and financial markets; the Company or any joint venture partner not having the financial ability to meet its exploration and development goals; risks associated with the results of exploration and development activities, estimation of mineral resources and the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; unanticipated costs and expenses; and such other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's quarterly and annual filings with securities regulators and available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.

Forward-looking statements contained herein are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management, including but not limited to: that the proposed exploration work on the Boticas Project will proceed as planned; that the Company's stated goals and planned exploration and development activities will be achieved; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; and such other assumptions as set out herein. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by law. 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, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Contacts:

President

Dan James (UK)

dj@medgoldresources.com

+44 7972 579188




COPENHAGEN, Denmark, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Following the success of the Natural Light solar lamp in Africa, the VELUX Group will deliver 20,000 more solar lamps to support sales agents in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and from now on also in Malawi.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click:

http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8006751-velux-more-natural-light-shine-in-africa/

Using an entrepreneurial distribution model, the Natural Light project will now donate a second instalment of 20,000 solar lamps. These will be sold by new sales agents in off-grid communities in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and, for the first time, in Malawi.

The aim of this project, besides bringing a sustainable light source to off-grid communities, was to create a business model for local sales agents to make a living. This has been a great success. Today more than 50 sales agents in three African nations - Zimbabwe, Zambia and Sierra Leone - have their own businesses selling Natural Light solar lamps.

The Natural Light project, in collaboration with social business Little Sun, and NGO Plan International, was created to celebrate the VELUX Group's 75th anniversary. Following an international design competition last year, which received 172 submissions from all over the world, the winning design was chosen and 14,500 units of the solar lamp were distributed in Africa - one for each employee of the VELUX Group and its sister companies.

Olafur Eliasson, artist and founder of Little Sun, says: "The Natural Light solar lamp is not only about providing energy to off-grid communities in Africa; it gives people the means to take charge of their own lives. By providing sustainable, reliable and affordable light, we've given people more independence and now they are able to work, study and cook safely in the dark."

Alongside light, the Natural Light solar lamps will also help to improve air quality by reducing the widespread use of toxic, carbon-emitting kerosene lanterns, and instead, harness the sustainable energy of the sun.

Michael K. Rasmussen, Senior Vice President, Brand, the VELUX Group, says: "As a company built on knowledge of light and fresh air, the Natural Light project was a beautiful way to celebrate our 75th anniversary and bring better living environments outside our normal markets. Apart from light for reading or cooking after sunset and substitute the smelly kerosene lamp, the Natural Light project has helped foster young, ambitious entrepreneurs who now have their own businesses."

He continues: "We have extended the program to Malawi after the very positive uptake in the other countries - team members from Zambia had shared the story with the new project participants in Malawi, and we are excited to have them join the Natural Light family."

The additional Natural Light solar lamps are ready for distribution. A number of local sales agents in Malawi will be trained on how to sell the solar lamps in the coming months, through a series of workshops, roleplays, demonstrations, and group work.

For more information, visithttp://www.littlesun.com,facebook.com/ilovelittlesun,twitter.com/littlesun.

Press material at VELUX Media Centre

See and download our news videos, photos and press material at VELUX Media Centre at press.velux.com.

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/450767/VELUX_Natural_Light_Solar_Lamp.jpg )

Video:

http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8006751-velux-more-natural-light-shine-in-africa/
HELSINKI, Finland, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Finnair Plc - Stock Exchange Release - 21 December 2016 at 11:00 am EET

Finnair has reviewed its disclosure practices with a view to the EU Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and recent interpretations by regulatory authorities.

Going forward, Finnair will issue stock exchange releases only on inside information defined in accordance with the Market Abuse Regulation and on information specifically required on the basis of other securities legislation and rules of the Stock Exchange. At the same time, Finnair will begin to issue investor news on its performance and events not fulfilling the revised criteria for a stock exchange release, such as monthly traffic performance data and ordinary financing or fleet transactions. Finnair's investor news will be issued using the present circulation for stock exchange releases.

Finnair's revised disclosure policy is available at https://investors.finnair.com/en/governance.

The objective of Finnair's communication with the capital markets is to ensure that all parties on the market have simultaneous access to sufficient and accurate information on the company, its operations, goals, strategies and financial position in order to determine the fair value of Finnair's shares. The key principles of Finnair's communications are reliability, openness, consistency and fairness.

Finnair Plc

Communications

CONTACT:

Further information:

Finnair communications,

tel. +358 9 818 4020,

comms(a)finnair.com

Distribution:

Nasdaq Helsinki

Principal media

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/finnair/r/finnair-revises-its-disclosure-policy,c2154743
NEW YORK, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

For every consumer goods product that has ever hit the shelves of retail outlets, a percentage of its production cost gets spent on branding the product by sticking a holographic film on its packaging label. Accordingly, billions of consumers goods sold daily from all parts of the world necessitate the expansion of global production capacity for holographic films. In 2015, global sales of holographic films exceeded US$ 5 billion, attesting the universal demand for iconic branding techniques. According to a recent research conducted by Persistence Market Research, the global holographic films market revenues are estimated to reach US$ 11,775 million in value by 2024.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/438683LOGO )



Persistence Market Research's report titled "Global Market Study on Holographic Films: Pharmaceuticals End Use Industry Segment Estimated to Increase 2.2X in Terms of Value over the Forecast Period," projects the US$ 5,767.3 million globalholographic films marketwill expand at an impressive CAGR of 9.3% during the period of forecast - 2016-2024. Besides the branding demands, the active use of Fresnel lens technology in designing flexible packaging surfaces has become a proponent for consumption of holographic films, the combination of which is likely to create 3D effect for customers viewing the products stacked on store shelves. While secured packaging and anti-counterfeit measures promote the use of holographic films, volatile costs of film materials are likely to hamper the growth of the global holographic films market.

Key Research Findings

Demand for Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) film materials to remain high through 2024, accounting for almost half of the global market revenues

Branding measures undertaken by pharmaceutical and drug manufacturers, and companies in the FMCG sector will render them largest end-user industries for holographic films

The need for customer-centric designs and patterns on films will gain traction during the projected period, effectuating a higher market presence for customized offerings of holographic films

Through 2024, the value share ratio of lamination and printing as two main end uses in the global holographic films market is anticipated to be an estimated 60% to 40% respectively

Request a Sample Report@http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/12892

APAC Holographic Films Market to Expand at Highest CAGR

By the end of forecast period, the holographic films sales from Asia Pacific (APAC) region will rake in revenues worth over US$ 4.3 billion. The APAC holographic films market is anticipated to be fastest growing region in the global market, registering an estimated CAGR of 10.8%. In 2016, the region accounted for one-third share of the global market value, followed by North America - which secured over 25% share of the global holographic films market size. Europe's holographic films market is likely to join North America and APAC as regions lucrative for expansion of holographic films businesses. Meanwhile, the holographic films market size is to expand at a modest rate in regions such as Latin America and the Middle East & Africa (MEA).

Metallized Films & Anti-counterfeit Applications Procure High Sales

Sales of holographic films in the world have been largely concentrated towards two aspects - the type of film material preferred and its application. Product manufacturers and packaging industry players prefer using metallized holographic films over transparent films. Similarly, the use of such films finds greater application in anti-counterfeit measures of packaging companies. Surging instances of product duplicity have integrated holographic films into packaging operations that label symbols for identifying authentic products. Independently, metallized holographic films and anti-counterfeit applications are expected to account for over 70% of global market revenues throughout the forecast period.

"View Report Table of Contents, Figures, and Tables"

Global Holographic Films Market: Key Players

While local manufacturers of holographic films are expected to collectively account for over half of the global market, companies such as Uflex Limited and Polinas Plastik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. will jointly hold company share of 14.2%. Leading holographic films manufacturers namely Toray Industries Inc., SRF Limited, and Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, are expected to exclusively focus on business expansion in regions such as North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe. Strategic acquisitions is pegged to be a top priority for Jindal Poly Films Ltd., API Group Plc., and Avery Dennison Corporation, while Cosmo Films Limited and K Laser Technology Inc. are expected to increase their global presence through product launch.

To Buy Full Report for a Single User @http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/12892

PMR Overview

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

Persistence Market Research

U.S. Sales Office:

305 Broadway, 7th Floor

New York City, NY 10007

United States

USA - Canada Toll-Free: 800-961-0353

Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com



Web: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Blog: http://www.pmrblog.com/

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/persistence-market-research-&-consulting/
VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - French stocks fell slightly in early trade Wednesday, as worries over Italy's fragile banks offset expectations of stronger U.S. growth under U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. The benchmark CAC 40 was down 10 points or 0.22 percent at 4,839 in opening deals after closing 0.6 percent higher on Tuesday. Top banks such as BNP Paribas and Societe Generale Group were flat to slightly lower, a day after Italy's third largest lender, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, cautioned that it could run out of cash at a faster pace than previously forecast if its recapitalization fails. Vivendi shares advanced half a percent. The media firm said it has crossed the 20 percent and 25 percent thresholds of the share capital of Italy's Mediaset SpA. In economic releases, French producer prices rose 0.8 percent month-over-month in November, following a 0.9 percent climb in October, which was revised up from a 0.8 percent rise reported earlier, the statistical office Insee reported. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - December 21, 2016) - Keek Inc. (TSX VENTURE: KEK) (OTCQB: KEEKF) today provided updates on the launch of its Peeks Livestreaming Gamer Service ("PLGS") and upcoming user interface ("UI") improvements, and announced the expansion of its domestic and international payment processing services. PLGS is available to approved streamers as of today. PLGS is a service that allows Peeks users to livestream video games as they are playing them, with an onscreen insert of themselves, to viewers on Peeks. Peeks is able to monetize this service by allowing streamers to accept tips from viewers, charge subscription fees, and, following the upcoming launch of the OfferBox, by selling goods and services directly to viewers. The livestreaming video gaming market is a large fast growing industry segment. Competitors in the space include Twitch, Hitbox, and YouTube Gaming.

The Company is also pleased to announce the expansion of the payment processing capabilities of the Peeks service. Peeks users will soon be able to process transactions via a wide variety of credit card free payment options including: online debit; online chequing; digital currency; carrier billing; and a variety of country specific payment options. Many of the payment services being integrated are patented by Keek Inc. CEO Mark Itwaru. According to Fortune Magazine, credit card penetration in the US is only 55% of adults ages 30-49, and falls precipitously to 33% for millennials. Similarly, credit card penetration for adults outside of North America, Australia, and parts of Western Europe, is significantly lower than that of adults inside these regions.

"Our PLGS will set a new standard for the monetization of live gaming in the industry today. Credit card usage for both domestic millennials and international customers is extremely low. By adding robust credit card free payment options both domestically and internationally our service will be able to drive annual revenues per user that are currently out of the reach of our competitors. Furthermore, our robust suite of payment processing options will provide us benefits across the board by allowing a significantly larger number of people to spend money whether it pertains to increased tipping, buying of goods and services, and/or subscribing to channels," said Mark Itwaru, CEO of Keek Inc.

The Company also announced that, as detailed in its press release dated November 14, 2016, the first stage of the new UI for the Peeks service on both the Android and iOS platforms is expected to be released by early January 2017, with possible releases prior to the New Year. These releases will include improvements focused on the broadcasting of recently acquired licensed content amongst other UI improvements. Keek Inc. recently acquired broadcasting and monetization rights to over 500,000 short form videos and over 1,000 daily videos including content from media industry leaders such as National Geographic, Reuters, CBC, Road & Track, HollyScoop, CelebWire, Seventeen, Esquire, MakerStudios, and others. The UI upgrades will make this content available to the Peeks audiences.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) has reviewed or accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this Release.

Forward-looking statements:

The information and statements in this news release contain certain forward-looking information relating to the implementation, timing, and roll out of updates for the Peeks platform, including related products, services, functionalities, and revenue generating capabilities. This forward-looking information is subject to certain risks and uncertainties and may be based on assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking information. Keek's forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as required by law, Keek undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information.

For further information, please contact:

Keek Inc.

Mark Itwaru

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

647-992-7727

mark@keek.com
The all-cash public tender offer announced on August 1, 2016, by TDK's subsidiary EPCOS to acquire all publicly-held shares of Tronics has been successful.

EPCOS has acquired 72.38% of the outstanding shares at a price of EUR 13.20 per share, and has thus exceeded the defined 65.41% 1 success threshold for its offer. The settlement of the tender offer will occur on December 27, 2016.

success threshold for its offer. The settlement of the tender offer will occur on December 27, 2016. Through the acquisition of Tronics, TDK broadens its portfolio of cutting-edge sensor technologies and strengthens its basis for faster growth in the strategic field of sensors.

Thales Avionics will remain a strategic shareholder of Tronics. After the closing of the successful offer, Thales Avionics and EPCOS will enter into a shareholders' agreement.

The tender offer will automatically reopen in the beginning of January 2017 for a period of 10 trading days.

TDK Corporation ("TDK", TOKYO: 6762) and Tronics Microsystems SA ("Tronics", ISIN:FR0004175099 ALTRO) jointly announced today that the all-cash public tender offer launched by TDK's wholly-owned subsidiary EPCOS AG ("EPCOS") was successfully closed on December 14, 2016. EPCOS, a leading manufacturer of electronic components, modules and systems based in Munich, Germany, acquired 72.38% of the outstanding shares at a price of EUR 13.20 per share, thus exceeding the defined 65.41% success threshold for the offer. The acquisition of these shares represents a value of approximately EUR 33.432 million. The settlement of the tender offer will occur on December 27, 2016.

Thales Avionics, which holds a 20.9% stake in Tronics, will remain a strategic shareholder of Tronics. After the closing of the successful offer, Thales Avionics and EPCOS will hold in aggregate 93.30% of the capital and 88.88% of the voting rights of Tronics. The two companies will enter into a shareholders' agreement to act in concert, which will take effect at the closing of the reopened tender offer in accordance with the terms summarized in the offer documentation.

The tender offer will automatically reopen in the beginning of January 2017 for a period of 10 trading days. The offer price per share will remain unchanged at EUR 13.20 and represents a 78.4% premium over Tronics' closing share price on July 7, 2016, the trading day immediately preceding the stock trading suspension, and a 62.1% premium to the volume-weighted average price during the last 60 trading days prior to this suspension.

The composition of the Supervisory Board of Tronics will be revised to reflect the new shareholding structure of Tronics.

Next steps

If, at the end of the reopened tender offer, EPCOS2 holds more than 95% of the capital and voting rights of Tronics, EPCOS reserves its right to ask the AMF, within ten (10) trading days from the result publication of the re-opened tender offer, or where applicable, within three (3) months from the end of the reopened tender offer, to implement a squeeze-out procedure by the transfer of Tronics' shares which would not have been tendered to the offer.

Solid basis for future growth

With the addition of Tronics, which provides an immediate entry to the rapidly growing market for inertial sensors, TDK has implemented a further key element in its strategy to broaden and strengthen its portfolio of cutting-edge sensor technologies. Comments Joachim Zichlarz, Corporate Officer and Senior Vice President of TDK, as well as Chairman of the Management Board, CEO and CFO of EPCOS: "With the successful completion of the tender offer and the conclusion of our agreement with Thales, we have created a solid basis for further developing Tronics' business under the roof of TDK and, at the same time, boosting our innovativeness and market strength in one of the future's most promising technological fields. Moreover, TDK expects strong synergies with its own cutting-edge thin-film and assembly technologies."

Pascal Langlois, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of Tronics comments: "Tronics' shareholders have recognized the strong financial and industrial merits of the acquisition by TDK. Its solid financial basis and extensive know-how in materials and production engineering now provide a very good basis to grow further Tronics' inertial products and MEMS technologies. This is a great step in the company's development as we will benefit from TDK's leading and developing position as a powerful component manufacturer in industrial, automotive and consumer electronics markets."

Additional information related to the tender offer

The Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) published the results of the tender offer on December 19, 2016.

The offer documents and press releases for the tender offer can be found on the EPCOS website under www.epcos.com/tronics and on the Tronics website under www.tronicsgroup-bourse.com/en/. Please note that these documents are available only in French with the exception of the initial press release on August 1, 2016, announcing the tender offer.

Advisors

Kepler Cheuvreux is acting as presenting bank in the context of the public tender offer, PwC Corporate Finance is acting as financial advisor and Hogan Lovells is acting as legal advisor to TDK.

Gimar Cie is acting as financial advisor to Tronics, and Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier is acting as legal advisor to Tronics.

About TDK Corporation

TDK Corporation is a leading electronics company based in Tokyo, Japan. It was established in 1935 to commercialize ferrite, a key material in electronic and magnetic products. TDK's portfolio includes electronic components, modules and systems* which are marketed under the product brands TDK and EPCOS, power supplies, magnetic application products as well as energy devices, flash memory application devices, and others. TDK focuses on demanding markets in the areas of information and communication technology and consumer, automotive and industrial electronics. The company has a network of design and manufacturing locations and sales offices in Asia, Europe, and in North and South America.

In fiscal 2016, TDK posted total sales of USD 10.2 billion and employed about 92,000 people worldwide.

The product portfolio includes ceramic, aluminum electrolytic and film capacitors, ferrites, inductors, high-frequency components such as surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter products and modules, piezo and protection components, and sensors.

About EPCOS

EPCOS, a TDK Group Company, develops, manufactures and markets electronic components, modules and systems, focusing on fast-growing leading-edge technology markets, which include information and communications technology, automotive electronics, industrial electronics and consumer electronics. Thanks to the approximately 25,500 employees at more than 20 design and production locations and an extensive sales network outside of Europe, the company is well-equipped to work closely with customers and create the right solutions for them. Since February 2015, the two existing European sales channels for EPCOS and TDK products have been merged under the one roof of TDK Europe.

In fiscal 2016 (ending in March) EPCOS posted sales of about EUR 2.5 billion.

About Tronics

Founded in 1997, Tronics is a recognized technological leader in the sector of nano microsystems with high added value. Positioned at the heart of product innovation, Tronics has technology platforms protected by a portfolio of 25 families of patents, resulting from 15 years of R&D and more than EUR 15 million of cumulative industrial investments. Addressing high-growth markets relying on increasing miniaturization of electronic devices, Tronics designs, manufactures and sells custom or standard products to the industry, aeronautics security, medical and consumer markets. Located in Crolles, near Grenoble (France) and in Dallas, Texas (United States), Tronics posted revenue of EUR 7.8 Million in 2015. It now has 92 employees, of whom 55 are engineers and scientists.

ISIN code: FR0004175099 ALTRO.

Innovative Company certification number: A1410008 V.

For more information: www.tronicsgroup-bourse.com

1 This success threshold was reduced to take into account the shares of Tronics underlying the bons de souscription de parts de createur d'entreprise (BSPCE) and stock options that will be covered by irrevocable forward sale agreements, so that the 66.67% threshold can be reached after the offer as a result of the delivery of these shares.

2 Acting in concert with Thales Avionics

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005325/en/

Contacts:

TDK Contacts

Sumio Marukawa, 81-3-6852-7102

Corporate Communications

pr@jp.tdk.com

Jun Hatsumi, 81-3-6852-7102

Investor Relations

ir@jp.tdk.com

For EPCOS related issues:

Hans-Peter Ziegler, 49-89-54020-2415

Corporate Communications

epcoscc@epcos.com

or

Tronics Contacts

Investor Relations Corporate Communications:

Actus Lyon

France Bentin/Serena Boni, 33-4-72-18-04-92

fbentin@actus.fr

Marketing:

Karl Biasio, 33-4-76-97-29-50

info@tronicsgroup.com


Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - December 21, 2016) - Manganese X Energy Corp. (TSXV: MN) (FSE: 9SC2) (OTC: SNCGF) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has completed its diamond drill program at its Houlton Woodstock manganese property located in Carleton County, New Brunswick. The drilling program consisted of 16 holes totaling 3,589 meters, and was completed as an initial test of three primary areas on the property: Iron Ore Hill, Sharpe Farm and Moody Hill manganese occurrences. The drill targets were based on the results derived from gravity and magnetometer surveys completed in October of this year. The drill core samples for assay have been sent to an independent laboratory, Activation Laboratories Ltd. in Ancaster, Ontario. The results from the drill program are expected towards the end of January, 2017.

Total tonnage projected by Sidwell for Moody Hill, Sharpe Farm and Iron Ore Hill, all located on our current claims, (see previous Press release dated November 30, 2016) was 43,000,000 tons (39,009,000 tonnes) with an average Mn content of 9%. Note: The above estimates are from Sidwell, 1957 using limited drilling and a widely spaced gravity survey. The author has not done enough work to verify these resources, therefore the above reserves are historical in nature and the company, Manganese X Energy Corp., should not treat this historical estimate as current mineral resources / reserves as defined under NI 43-101. Neither quality assurance (QA) nor quality control (QC) can be performed because the entire old drill core has been lost. Additional systematic surface drilling is required to verify the historical estimates and possibly upgrade part of the whole historical estimate into current resources. For further information please refer to our NI 43-101 Technical Report on our website www.manganesexenergycorp.com or refer to our previous press release dated November 30, 2016.

Option Terms

In June 2016, the Company entered into an option agreement with Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. (TSX: GMX) (FSE: G1M) (OTCQX: GLBXF) ("Globex"), for its Houlton Woodstock manganese property located in Carleton County, New Brunswick (the "Property"). The Company has an option to earn an undivided 100% right, title, and interest in the Property (the "Option"), subject to a 3% Gross Metal Royalty, by making aggregate cash payments to Globex of $200,000 ($100,000 already paid), issuing an aggregate of 4,000,000 common shares (1,000,000 have been issued), incurring aggregate exploration expenditures of $1,000,000 on the Property, and delivering a Preliminary Economic Assessment to Globex on or before the fourth anniversary of the Option.

Manganese X Energy's mission

In our pursuit of the Company's mission statement our long term goal is to concentrate on other high potential Manganese prospects which are located in North America, as well as exploring various opportunities with the intent of integrating and supplying value added materials to the lithium ion battery and other alternative energy industries. Manganese X Energy will focus on Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide (EMD), which is defined as converting manganese into a very pure high quality electrolytic manganese dioxide of 99.7% purity. At present, to the best of our knowledge, there are no operating North American Manganese mining producers.

Our company is focusing on new opportunities associated with Li-ion batteries as well as Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide (EMD) using manganese as a key value added component.

The demand for Manganese is expected to increase in the future because of the following.

 Manganese is the critical component of the cathode material in modern alkaline, lithium, and sodium batteries including electrochemical capacitors and hydrogen production.

 Manganese in terms of environment (green/clean energy = 0% emissions) as well the requirements as getting away from fossil fuels.

 Manganese is likely to remain the preferred energy material for the future generation, as it has been in recent decades.

 EMD is a value added material to manganese which is presently in demand.

 Manganese is a critical component of the battery cathode in today's alkaline & lithium ion batteries.

 Manganese is also well suited for cathode mix in bulk energy storage & energy management for portable power and integrating solar and wind renewable energy.

Market Growth Demand

 Surge in demand in Electric Vehicles ("EV") last year. EV sales grew by about 60 percent worldwide. That is annual growth rate that Tesla forecasts for sales through 2020.

 Solar panels are following a similar curve at around 50 percent growth each year.

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Perry MacKinnon, P.Geo, who is a Qualified Person regarding the Company's Houlton Woodstock manganese property located in Carleton County, New Brunswick.

Manganese X Energy's mission is to acquire and advance high potential manganese mining prospects located in North America with the intent of supplying value added materials to the lithium ion battery and other alternative energy industries. For more information visit the website at www.manganesexenergycorp.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Martin Kepman

Interim CEO and Director

martin@kepman.com

1-514-802-1814

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information that involves inherent risk and uncertainty affecting the business of Manganese X Energy. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Kaseya, the leading provider of complete IT management solutions for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and small to midsized businesses (SMBs), today announced record corporate growth in 2016. At the heart of Kaseya's success is the launch of Kaseya IT Complete. As the industry's first and only unified growth platform designed specifically for the MSP community, IT Complete enabled the average Kaseya MSP to grow its business by over 30 per cent in 2016. Backed by Kaseya's "Times 20" strategy of delivering solutions that allow MSPs to receive a 20 times return on their IT investments, Kaseya MSPs are growing faster than those on competing platforms.

As a result, the company experienced over 50 per cent year-over-year growth that can be directly correlated to the 30 per cent year-over-year growth of Kaseya MSP customers. With customer satisfaction scores surging and the continuous delivery of proven, next-generation IT management solutions, 2016 has been a banner year for Kaseya.

2016 Corporate and Product Milestones include:

IT Complete - In April, Kaseya launched its IT Complete platform as the industry's first and only unified growth platform designed specifically for the MSP community. Kaseya IT Complete completely transformed managed services by enabling MSPs to leverage solutions that allow them to both run their businesses effectively, as well as generate revenue to grow their business.

Product Innovation - As part of the Kaseya IT Complete offering, the company introduced Kaseya BMS, a second-generation PSA solution. Offered at a fraction of the price of competing solutions, BMS allows MSPs to be more strategic with their IT investments, and reinvest their capital into revenue-generating solutions.

Learning from widespread dissatisfaction with competitors' "first generation" PSA tools, Kaseya developed its second-generation BMS platform with the overarching goal of providing MSPs with a better solution. BMS provides robust features at an incredibly cost-effective price -- nearly one-third of the price of other solutions -- helping MSPs dramatically reduce operational costs right away. At the same time, its intuitive interface makes employee adoption easy and seamless, while its powerful automation capabilities simplify tasks so that all departments work together more efficiently.

Kaseya AuthAnvil

In November, Kaseya launched 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. With its enhanced capabilities and growing library of supported services and applications, AuthAnvil's business is up 400 per cent year-over-year.

Kaseya VSA 9.3

Announced in May, Kaseya VSA delivers a reimagined technician experience to greatly improve productivity, enables 24x7 operations, provides policy-driven end-point security management, and increases platform scalability and extensibility. VSA 9.3 also delivers the industry's fastest, most reliable and functionally complete remote monitoring and management solution.

Kaseya Traverse 9.4

The latest version of Kaseya Traverse, also launched in November, extends its key cloud and network infrastructure monitoring capabilities with added automation. Traverse supports leading hybrid cloud infrastructures, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Nimble Storage and Dell Compellent among others. Nearly 300 MSPs and mid-market enterprises run Traverse, which offers a single pane of glass to monitor across public, private and hybrid clouds.

Customer Centricity Success - IT Complete's one-two punch of revenue generating, effective IT management solutions means MSPs can now experience immediate returns on their IT investments to the tune of 20 times their initial expense. With Kaseya MSPs growing at 30 per cent -- a rate faster than that of the industry, the combination of Kaseya's "Times 20" strategy and IT Complete platform is a proven success in helping MSPs accelerate their business. Subsequently, customer response to these initiatives has been tremendously positive with Kaseya's overall customer satisfaction rating for 2016 more than doubling and its customer retention rate at 97 per cent.

Company Growth - In addition to quadrupled year-over-year sales growth and the continued surge in worldwide customer adoption, Kaseya concludes a very successful 2016 with more than $100M on its balance sheet. A portion of these funds are allocated for upcoming technology acquisitions aimed at expanding Kaseya's portfolio of purpose-built products that help MSPs and enterprises more effectively and efficiently run their businesses.

In July, Kaseya announced the expansion of its EMEA headquarters in Dublin, and plans to significantly increase its presence in Las Vegas, New York and Miami in the coming year.

Additionally, in November, Kaseya extended its popular Connect user conference to the EMEA region with the first-ever Kaseya Connect Europe. Following the success of Kaseya Connect 2016, held in May in San Diego, Calif., Kaseya kicked off Kaseya Connect Europe in Barcelona to provide EMEA partners and customers an immersive, European-focused version of the popular event.

Community Expansion - In 2016, Kaseya also released Automation Exchange. This community-sourced, online, open market was built for users to share, buy and sell agent procedures, scripts, monitoring sets, reports, templates and other types of system and network automation. With more than 2,000 contributors and thousands of downloads per week, Kaseya Automation Exchange taps into the strong, collective knowledge and expertise of Kaseya's vast community to further the company's commitment to openness, interoperability and vendor neutrality.

Kaseya Automation Exchange delivers community-driven, self-service content that allows its customers to leverage robust automation capabilities to increase productivity. With more time available as the result of increased efficiencies, MSPs and SMBs are free to focus on servicing their own customers to grow and accelerate their business.

Supporting Quote

"Looking ahead to 2017 and beyond, we will continue to outpace the competition with our overall technology investments, in order to further our strengths and enhance our capabilities within the Kaseya IT Complete platform," said Fred Voccola, CEO, Kaseya. "Our 'Times 20' philosophy is our commitment to delivering the best in class IT management solutions that enable our customers to grow their business. We only succeed when our customers succeed. Every decision we make is viewed through the lens of what is best for our customers. As such, we will continue to aggressively innovate our product lines and remain an open platform so our customers have the freedom to choose the leading, proven technologies that will best meet their business needs. 2016 has been a banner year for Kaseya, and we are thrilled at the opportunities that await us in the year to come."

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.

Media Contact

Alex Sweeney

The Whiteoaks Consultancy

Phone +44 1252 727 313

Email: alexs@whiteoaks.co.uk



Taunia Kipp

Kaseya

415-694-5700 x1973

taunia.kipp@kaseya.com




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Nighthawk Gold Corp. ("Nighthawk" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: NHK) is pleased to report final drill results from its summer 2016 program on the Colomac Gold Project, Northwest Territories ("NWT") (Figure 1 - Table 1 and 2). The Company has now released results on 8,400 metres (34 holes) of drilling that successfully delineated recently discovered high-grade gold Zone 1.5 (September 13, 2016; October 12, 2016,), highlighted by 52.07 metres ("m") of 7.72 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold (uncut), and 72.65 m of 5.58 g/t gold (uncut - Figure 2), and tested other potential high-grade prospects including Zone 2.5 (November 24, 2016) highlighted by 57.00 m (37.00 m true width) of 1.47 g/t gold, including 13.50 m of 2.82 g/t gold; and Zone 1.0 highlighted by 55.95 m (40.00 m true width) of 1.09 g/t gold, including 9.00 m of 2.36 g/t gold.

Today's results report on testing the high-grade potential of Zone 3.0, and resource expansion drilling at Goldcrest (Figure 1). The last nine holes (2,430 m) of the summer 2016 drill program are presented in Tables 1 and 2 below.

"Consistent positive results strengthen our belief that Colomac will continue to deliver numerous opportunities for expansion of known high-grade zones, and overall resource growth," said Dr. Michael Byron, President and CEO. "Current drilling has effectively extended Zone 3.0 northward towards less defined Zone 2.5, emphasizing the zone's untapped potential for resource expansion and high-grade zone development laterally and to depth. Goldcrest hole G16-10 confirms continuity to depth of a previously reported gold zone, while G16-07 has intersected yet another zone of broad, potentially high-grade, gold mineralization of underexplored extensions. We are particularly excited to resume drilling at Zone 1.5, trace it to depth and test for the potential coalescence of high-grade Zones 2.0 and 1.5, a priority target area, that if proven, would become the deposits largest zone and host significant ounces of higher grade mineralization," added Dr. Byron.

Highlights: (uncut gold assays reported):

Goldcrest

-- Hole G16-10 (located at the northern extension of the 450 metre strike length tested in 2014) intersected 26.05 m (14.7 m true width) of 2.16 g/t gold, including 3.75 m of 12.39 g/t gold, and separate intercepts of 6.30 m (3.60 m true width) of 3.04 g/t gold, and a 11.05 m (6.40 m true width) of 1.57 g/t gold; -- G16-10 confirmed the depth continuity of a high-grade zone previously intersected by G14-09 (November 26, 2014), that returned 40.00 m of 2.52 g/t gold, including separate internals intervals of 5.20 m of 7.82 g/t gold and 12.50 metres of 3.64 g/t gold, and which was previously reported to have a strike length of 125 metres; -- Hole G16-07 (collared within the southern end of the sill tested in 2014) returned 9.00 m (5.90 m true width) of 3.10 g/t gold, including 5.25 m of 4.98 g/t gold. Undercut hole G16-07B intersected multiple gold intervals including 12.70 m (6.70 m true width) of 1.67 g/t gold, including 7.45 m of 2.51 g/t gold and 3.25 m of 4.41 g/t, gold, and a further 12.65 m (6.80 m true width) of 1.58 g/t gold, including 3.65 m of 4.86 g/t gold. -- G16-07, -07B show characteristics of a possible high-grade gold zone, including proximity to a transverse fault, multiple 10+ metre gold intercepts, and the occurrence of several high-grade gold values, effectively highlighting this area as a candidate for broad, potentially high-grade gold mineralization, both laterally and with depth;

Colomac Zone 3.0

-- Drilling was directed towards exploring for a higher grade zone, expanding mineralization, and to narrow the resource gap between Zone 3.0 and the southern limit of Zone 2.5, laterally and to depth; -- C16-10 intersected favorable widths of 20.18 m (12.70 m true width) of 1.80 g/t gold, including 4.53 m of 2.73 g/t gold, and 7.90 m of 2.26 g/t gold, with an internal 3.55 m of 3.53 g/t gold, while the steeper hole C16-10B, intersected 14.20 m (6.80 m true width) of 1.42 g/t or 12.05 m (5.80 m true width) of 1.50 g/t gold, including 5.30 m of 1.73 g/t gold and 4.0 m of 1.95 g/t gold. Given these widths, a high-grade domain that may lie laterally to hole C16-10 and to depth; -- Results have extended the zone further northward and reduced the data gap between the lesser defined Zone 2.5 to the north, whose northern limit was recently expanded (November 24, 2016) by Hole C16-07 that returned 57.00 m (37.00 m true width) of 1.47 g/t gold, including 34.65 m of 1.88 g/t gold and an internal 13.50 m of 2.82 g/t gold.

Table 1. Colomac Sill Drill Results (uncut)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From To Core Length Gold Hole ID (m) (m) (m)(i) gpt ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Colomac Zone 3.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- C16-10 146.47 166.65 20.18 1.80 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 146.47 151.00 4.53 2.73 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 159.25 166.65 7.40 2.30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 163.10 166.65 3.55 3.53 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- C16-10B 185.55 199.75 14.20 1.42 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 187.70 199.75 12.05 1.50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 187.70 193.00 5.30 1.73 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 195.75 199.75 4.00 1.95 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 212.75 221.77 9.02 0.74 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 218.75 221.77 3.02 1.68 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table 2. Goldcrest Drill Results (uncut).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From To Core Length Gold Hole ID (m) (m) (m)(i) gpt ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- G16-06 108.50 109.50 1.00 1.53 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- G16-07 131.25 140.25 9.00 3.10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 132.75 138.00 5.25 4.98 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 164.50 165.00 0.50 3.24 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- G16-07B 91.80 104.50 12.70 1.67 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 97.05 104.50 7.45 2.51 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 97.05 100.30 3.25 4.41 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 111.90 112.40 0.50 34.80 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 169.50 172.50 3.00 1.54 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 176.25 188.90 12.65 1.58 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 183.00 188.90 5.90 3.14 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 186.00 188.90 2.90 5.72 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- G16-08 No samples. Failed to intersect quartz diorite due to fault offset. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- G16-09 226.75 227.25 0.50 3.92 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 231.50 232.25 0.75 1.10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 243.25 243.75 0.50 1.06 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 254.50 255.50 1.00 1.47 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 277.60 279.10 1.50 2.75 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- G16-10 202.70 228.75 26.05 2.16 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 225.00 228.75 3.75 12.39 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 239.20 245.50 6.30 3.04 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 239.20 243.00 3.80 4.33 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 276.00 287.05 11.05 1.57 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- including 286.55 287.05 0.50 20.20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- G16-11 Negligible gold. No quartz diorite was encountered. In place a later cross-cutting felsite was intersected. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (i)Lengths are reported as core lengths. True widths vary depending on drill hole dip; most holes are laid out to intersect the sill close to perpendicular therefore true widths are approximately 80% of core lengths

Colomac

Results for two Colomac holes are presented in Table 1, highlighting opportunities to extend the sill's known gold zones, and the intrusion's capacity to host broad zones of gold mineralization.

Colomac Zone 3.0

Two holes were drilled to test the high-grade potential of Zone 3.0, to extend the northern limits of the zone and expand its near surface resource, and to infill an untested shallow resource gap between Zone 3.0 and the southern boundary of the less defined Zone 2.5 (Figure 2). Recent drilling at Zone 2.5 has established it as a high-grade candidate, returning both broad widths of near-surface gold mineralization and extending its northern limit with hole C16-07 (November 24, 2016), which returned 44.00 m (33.00 m true width) of 1.29 g/t gold that included 16.80 m of 1.92 g/t gold. The steeper hole C16-07B returned 57.00 m (37.00 m true width) of 1.47 g/t gold, including 34.65 m of 1.88 g/t gold and an internal 13.50 m of 2.82 g/t gold.

Hole C16-10 (Figure 3) expanded Zone 3.0 northward and to a depth of 200 metres below surface, effectively reducing the data gap between Zone 3.0 and Zone 2.5, by intersecting 20.18 m (12.70 m true width) of 1.80 g/t gold, including 4.53 m of 2.73 g/t gold, and 7.40 m of 2.30 g/t gold, including an internal 3.55 m of 3.53 g/t gold. The steeper hole C16-10B, intersected 14.20 m (6.80 m true width) of 1.42 g/t gold or 12.05 m (5.80 m true width) of 1.50 g/t gold, including 5.30 m of 1.73 g/t gold and 4.0 m of 1.95 g/t gold.

Additional drilling is currently being planned for Zone 3.0 in order to evaluate the remaining untested data gaps, and to continue probing for a potential high-grade domain that may lie laterally to hole C16-10 and to depth.

Goldcrest

Nighthawk previously reported Goldcrest North drill results for eight holes (October 12, 2016; November 24, 2016). The remaining seven Goldcrest holes drilled in 2016 (Table 2) were collared within part of the sill's main section located approximately 1.5 kilometers to the south-southwest of Goldcrest North. Here drilling explored for broad, near surface, potential high-grade gold zones within relatively untested areas both north and south of Nighthawk's 2014 drilling program.

Southern Goldcrest Holes:

Hole G16-07 (Figure 1) was collared near the southern limit of the area drilled in 2014 and returned 9.00 m (5.90 m true width) of 3.10 g/t gold, including 5.25 m of 4.98 g/t gold. Undercut hole G16-07B intersected multiple gold intervals (Figure 4) including 12.70 m (6.70 m true width) of 1.67 g/t gold, including 7.45 m of 2.51 g/t gold and 3.25 m of 4.41 g/t gold, and a further separate 0.50 m of 34.80 g/t gold, and a 12.65 m (6.80 m true width) of 1.58 g/t gold including 2.90 m of 5.72 g/t gold.

Although G16-07, -07B did not encounter mineralization typical of a high-grade gold zone, it is only the second setup drilled north of a dextral transverse fault in a relatively open and sparsely tested area. Hole G14-02, located 46 metres to the northeast, returned shallow intercepts of trace gold values over core lengths of up to 10.25 m (September 25, 2014). Detailed geological models are currently being updated to help define future drilling in the area.

The proximity of G16-07, 07B to a transverse fault, multiple 10+ metre gold intercepts within the steeper hole, and the occurrence of several high gold values, upgrades this area as a good candidate for broad, potentially high-grade gold mineralization both laterally and especially with depth.

Hole G16-08, collared approximately 54 metres south of C16-07, and south of the transverse fault, encountered a brittle fault and failed to intercept quartz diorite, the principal host to gold mineralization.

Northern Goldcrest Holes:

The remaining four Goldcrest holes (G16-09 through G16-11, and G16-06) were collared to explore the northern extension of the 450 metre section of the sill tested in 2014.

G16-09 drilled quartz diorite intersecting quartz veining and visible gold returning a best value of 1.50 m of 2.75 g/t gold and a number of samples with discreet lower gold assays. Two shallower holes, G14-08, -08B (October 27, 2014, and November 26, 2014) collared 12 metres to the southwest returned multiple gold intervals including 11.00 m of 2.15 g/t gold and 10.50 m of 2.42 g/t gold. Hole G16-09 was collared at a steeper angle (-70 degrees) and encountered a gap in better gold mineralization. It may have undershot a portion of the main north plunging shoot. This is in part validated by results from G16-10 located 65 metres north-northwest of G16-09, which confirms the continuity of the gold zone with depth.

Hole G16-10 (Figure 5), a steep hole at -65 degrees, returned 26.05 m (14.7 m true width) of 2.16 g/t gold, including 3.75 m of 12.39 g/t gold, and separate intercepts of 6.30 m (3.60 m true width) of 3.04 g/t gold, and a 11.05 m (6.40 m true width) of 1.57 g/t gold. Hole G14-09 (November 26, 2014), a previous shallow hole 7 metres to the southwest, intersected 40.00 metres of 2.52 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold, including 5.20 metres of 7.82 g/t gold and 12.50 metres of 3.64 g/t gold.

Geological models are currently being updated for this Goldcrest zone, which appears to extend 125 metres in strike (November 26, 2014).

Step out holes G16-11, collared 97 metres to the northeast of G16-10, and G16-06 collared a further 80 metres north-northeast, encountered respectively, a narrow felsite (related to the quartz diorite), and a narrow, poorly developed quartz diorite. Neither hole returned significant gold values.

2017 Exploration Program

Current modeling suggests better mineralization may lie south of the recent drilling at Zone 1.0, within an underexplored 2-kilometer section between Zones 1.0 and high-grade Zone1.5. Zone 2.5 intersections are reported over significant widths and are typical of Colomac high-grade domains, but grades are more reflective of mineralization lateral to high-grade targets. Additional drilling is being planned to further explore these zones and the depth extent of high-grade Zone 1.5. Field exploration is expected to commence in early 2017 and extend through to early October, and promises to be the most extensive since Nighthawk commenced working in the Northwest Territories. Activities will focus on drilling the Colomac Gold Project, but will also employ an array of techniques, including airborne and ground geophysics, and detailed geological mapping and prospecting, to enhance target areas at both Colomac and within the highly prospective Indin Lake Gold Property.

To view Figure 1, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/nhk1221fig1.pdf.

To view Figure 2, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/nhk1221fig2.pdf.

To view Figure 3, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/nhk1221fig3.pdf.

To view Figure 4, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/nhk1221fig4.pdf.

To view Figure 5, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/nhk1221fig5.pdf.

Technical Information

Nighthawk has implemented a quality-control program to comply with best practices in the sampling and analysis of drill core. Drill core samples were transported in security-sealed bags for analyses at ALS Chemex Assay Laboratory in Vancouver, BC ("ALS Chemex"). ALS Chemex is an ISO 9001:2000 certified laboratory. Pulp and metallics assaying for gold was conducted on the entire pulverized sample.

As part of its QA/QC program, Nighthawk inserts external gold standards (low to high grade) and blanks every 20 samples in addition to the standards, blanks, and pulp duplicates inserted by ALS Chemex.

About Nighthawk(i)

Nighthawk is a Canadian-based exploration company focused on acquiring and developing gold mineral properties in the Northwest Territories. Including the mineral claims and leases of the Colomac Gold Project, Nighthawk's Indin Lake Gold Property comprises a total land package of 222,203 acres in the Indin Lake Greenstone Belt, located approximately 200 kilometres north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and includes an Inferred Mineral Resource estimate, prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"), of 39.815 million tonnes with an average grade of 1.64 g/t gold for 2.101 million ounces gold using a cut-off grade of 0.6 g/t gold. Nighthawk also holds a 100% interest in the property known as the Superior Project, which covers 39,015 acres approximately 85 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

The technical aspects of this press release have been reviewed by Dr. Michael J. Byron, Ph.D., P.Geo., President & Chief Executive Officer of Nighthawk, who is the "Qualified Person" as defined by NI 43-101 for this project. Dr. Byron has supervised all work programs carried out by the Company within their Indin Lake Project since inception, visited the Colomac property on multiple occasions, examined the drill core from the holes summarized in this release, reviewed project progress and results with geological staff, and examined available analytical and quality control results.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the timing of future drilling, the expansion of the mineralization, and the remediation of historic reclamation sites. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of Nighthawk, including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, volatility of commodity prices, risks associated with the uncertainty of exploration results and estimates, currency fluctuations, dependency upon regulatory approvals, the uncertainty of obtaining additional financing and exploration risk. 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. This press release is not, and is not to be construed in any way as, an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States.

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:

Nighthawk Gold Corp.

Dr. Michael J. Byron

President and Chief Executive Officer

(705) 560-2382

mbyron@nighthawkgold.com




OSLO, Norway, Dec. 21,2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As announced on December 21, 2016 Axactor AB has received a request from more than 10% of the shareholders that the Board of Directors convenes an extraordinary shareholders' meeting for the election of new board of directors.

As the company over the last 12 months has been through a significant growth process, it is natural to consider the composition of the board so as to enable the company to embark on its next phase of growth and expansion in the European markets where Axactor operates.

The management of Axactor acquired shares in the latest share issue and signals confidence in the future growth potential for Axactor, and sees significant NPL volumes for sale in 2017 in the markets where the company operates.

For further information, please contact:

Endre Rangnes

Chief Executive Officer

Mail: endre.rangnes@axactor.com

Tel: +46 8 402 28 00

Cell Phone: +47 48 22 11 11

Geir Johansen

Chief Financial Officer

Mail: geir.johansen@axactor.com

Cell Phone: +47 477 10 451

About AXACTOR-

Axactor is addressing a large non-performing loan (NPL) market in Europe. The market is estimated to around EUR 1.5 trillion and with a solid growth rate. The main growth factors are partly driven by regulatory changes, sales of non-performing loans and an accelerating trend of outsourcing debt collection to specialized companies. Furthermore, we see a consolidation trend in the debt collection/debt purchase industry. Axactor's main focus in the credit management value chain will be: amicable and legal collection, surveillance and acquisition of NPLs.

Axactor was established in 2015 and has approximately 900 employees.

CONTACT:

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/axactor-ab/r/request-for-extraordinary-shareholders--meeting-of-axactor---board-election,c2154992

The following files are available for download:
DUBLIN, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Europe Artificial Lift Market (2016 - 2022)" report to their offering.

The Europe artificial lift system market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.4% during 2016 - 2022. The recent trend in the market is that of consolidation, as companies are working on acquisitions as a major market strategy. Acquisitions would allow companies to focus on product development, as the competition would be limited and rivalry would be limited.

Artificial lifts are a vital component in extracting oil from underground or subsea reservoirs, especially from maturing oil fields. The output levels from the oil fields can be substantially increased with the use of artificial lifts. The utility value of identified oil fields can be maximized with the help of artificial lifts.

The market for artificial lifts is largely driven due to increased demand for energy sources, maturing oil fields and increasing deep/ ultra-deep offshore oil production activities. However, some of the restraints that hold the market growth are the cost incurred during the initial phases and lack of skilled workforce.

The report highlights the adoption of Artificial Lift market in Europe. Based on the Types, the Artificial Lift Market is segmented into Rod lift, Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP), Progressive Cavity Pumps (PCP), Plunger Lift, Gas Lift and Other Artificial Lifts market. On the basis of Components, the market is bifurcated into Pump, Motor, Cable system, Drive head, Separator, Pump Jack, Sucker rod, Gas-lift valves, Gas-lift mandrels, Controller, and other segments. The market is further geographically segmented into Russia, Norway, UK, Italy, Germany, Spain and Rest of Europe market.



Companies Mentioned:



Baker Hughes Incorporated

GE Oil & Gas

National Oilwell Varco, Inc.

Halliburton

Dover Corporation

Schlumberger NV

Superior Energy Services, Inc.

Novomet

Neurosky, Inc.

Emotiv, Inc.

Guger Technologies OEG



Key Topics Covered:

1. Market Scope & Methodology



2. Market Overview



3. Europe Artificial Lift Market - By Type



4. Europe Artificial Lift Market - By Components



5. Europe Artificial Lift Market - By Country



6. Company Profiles



For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/7h6xfw/europe_artificial

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 21, 2016) - Forum Uranium Corp. (TSXV: FDC) ("Forum" or the "Company"). is pleased to announce the closing of its first financing tranche and strategic investment by private equity firm Holystone Energy Company Limited ("Holystone"), a subsidiary of Holystone Investment International Company Limited headquartered in Shanghai, China. Holystone is an active international investor in clean energy projects and related companies.

Forum has closed the first tranche of its private placement previously announced on December 15, 2016. The Company has raised $192,640 through the issuance of 2,408,000 flow through common shares at a price of $0.08 per flow through share and 11,000,000 units at a price of $0.08 per unit for total proceeds of $1,072,640. Each unit consists of one common share and one share purchase warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share at a price of $0.12 for a period of two years expiring December 19, 2018. The Company issued 168,560 finder's warrants at a price of $0.08 exercisable until December 19, 2017. All securities are subject to a four month hold period expiring April 20, 2017.

Holystone has subscribed for $800,000 of the unit financing resulting in the issuance of 10 million units to Holystone. Proceeds will be used for advancing Forum's exploration properties and for working capital. Holystone further intends to maintain its pro rata ownership by participating in any future Company financings.

Rick Mazur, Forum's President and CEO commented, "Holystone's expressed vision for the Company is consistent with our strategy and approach for exploring and discovering a major uranium deposit in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin. With Holystone's financial support and Forum's extensive expertise and diverse portfolio of uranium properties, our mutual interests will greatly benefit both of our companies. On behalf of the Board, I welcome Holystone to our Company."

Dr. Howard Haugom has been appointed to Forum's Board of Directors as Holystone's nominee. Dr. Haugom is a partner at Burkehill Capital Corp, a Vancouver based private equity firm, co-owner of Quilts Etc., a national linen retail chain, and serves as an independent board member of other public companies. He has taught extensively at Simon Fraser University, worked for both the private (Canadian Pacific) and public sectors (BC Treasury Board) as an Economist, and has been a consultant to the gold resource sector. Mr. Haugom received Economic degrees specializing in international trade/finance and Resource Economics from the University of Victoria - BA and MA, 1984) and a PhD (1991) from Simon Fraser University.

In connection with Dr. Haugom's appointment, the Board has issued 150,000 options at a price of 10 cents. Ian Stalker will step down from the Board, but has agreed to continue as a member of Forum's Advisory Board. Forum thanks Mr. Stalker for his years of service as a Director and looks forward to receiving his continued guidance as a corporate advisor.

Further to this investment, Holystone has entered into a voting support agreement whereby it will vote its shares with management for a period of 2 years. In addition, Holystone has agreed to give Forum the first right to repurchase or arrange for the purchase of any of the shares held by Holystone which Holystone wishes to sell, to be exercised within 5 business days of notice from Holystone setting out its intention to sell.

About Forum Uranium

Forum Uranium Corp. is a Canadian-based energy company with a focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of Canadian uranium projects. Forum has assembled a highly experienced team of exploration professionals with a track record of mine discoveries for unconformity-style uranium deposits in Canada. The Company has a strategy to discover near surface uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan by exploring on its 100% owned properties and through strategic partnerships and joint ventures with Cameco, AREVA, Rio Tinto Exploration, NexGen and Uracan.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Richard J. Mazur, P.Geo.

President & CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information contact:

Rick Mazur, President & CEO

Tel: 604-630-1585

Matt Terriss, Director, Corporate Affairs

Tel: 604-689-2599

THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014. With the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

21 December 2016

Karelian Diamond Resources plc (the "Company")

CAPITAL RAISING

TOTAL VOTING RIGHTS

Placing to raise 425,000 (505,000)

 Placing of 94,444,444 new ordinary shares at 0.45 pence per share together with 31,481,481 warrants to raise 425,000 (505,000) before expenses and issue of 15,740,741 Broker Warrants

 Proceeds of the placing to be applied to fund the advancement of the Company's principal diamond opportunities and in particular the Lahtojoki Diamond Project, its exploration at Riihivaara and for working capital

Karelian Diamond Resources plc (AIM: KDR, ESM: KDRI), the diamond exploration company focused on Finland, is pleased to announce that it has conditionally raised 425,000 (ca.505,000), prior to expenses, through a placing (the "Placing") of 94,444,444 ordinary shares of 0.00001 in the capital of the Company (the "Placing Shares") and 31,481,481 warrants all at an exercise price of 0.8 pence per warrant (the "Warrants"), together the "Placing Units", at a price of 0.45 pence per Placing Unit (the "Placing Price").

The Placing is conditional, inter alia, on admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM and the Enterprise Securities Market operated by the Irish Stock Exchange Limited ("ESM"). The Placing Shares will rank pari passu with the existing issued ordinary shares of 0.00001 in the capital of the Company ("Ordinary Shares").

The Warrants can be exercised at any time from admission of the Placing Shares to the second anniversary of the anticipated admission of the Placing Shares, being 29 December 2018.

The Company intends to use the proceeds of the Placing to fund the advancement of the Company's principal diamond opportunities and in particular the recently acquired Lahtojoki Diamond Project, its exploration at Riihivaara where the Company has discovered a potential new diamond source and for working capital generally.

As part of the Placing, certain of the Directors have subscribed for an aggregate of 16,666,667 Placing Units, consisting of 16,666,667 Placing Shares and 5,555,555 Warrants. The Directors' participation in the Placing and their resultant shareholding following admission of the Placing Shares to trading ("Admission") is as follows:







Director



Placing participation Placing Shares subscribed for



Resultant Shareholding Percentage interest in the enlarged issued share capital



Warrants received  No. No. No. Professor Richard Conroy

67,500

15,000,000

91,806,168

22.27

5.000,000 Maureen Jones 4,500 1,000,000 7.110,875 1.72 3333,333 James P. Jones 3,000 666,667 4,481,539 1.09 2222,222 75,000 16,666,667 103,398,582 25.08 5,555,555

The participation of Professor Richard Conroy, Maureen Jones and James P Jones in the Placing is a related party transaction pursuant to Rule 13 of the AIM Rules for Companies. The independent directors of the Company (being Seamus FitzPatrick, Louis Maguire, and Sor?a Conroy), having consulted with the Company's Nominated Adviser and ESM adviser, consider the terms of the Placing to be fair and reasonable insofar as the Shareholders are concerned.

Application has been made to AIM and ESM for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading. It is expected that admission will become effective on 29 December 2016.

Following the issue of the Placing Shares, and for the purposes of the Disclosure and Transparency Rules, the Company's total issued share capital on Admission will consist of 412,229,478 [JT1]Ordinary Shares.

The above figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company, under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

In conjunction with the Placing the Company is issuing 15,740,741 Broker Warrants, also exercisable at 0.8 pence per warrant until 29 December 2018, to Beaufort Securities.

Professor Richard Conroy, Chairman, Karelian Diamond Resources plc commented:

"The Placing provides the funds to enable the Company to step up its activities, in particular at Lahtojoki where we are looking to develop a mine. With the funds raised we can start to demonstrate the potential this project has to offer and also further the work at Riihivaara where the Company has discovered a potential new diamond source".

Further Information :

Professor Richard Conroy, Chairman, Karelian Diamond Resources plc Tel: +353-1-661-8958 David Hart/James Thomas/Nick Harriss, Allenby Capital Limited (Nomad) Tel: +44-20-3328-5656 Ger Heffernan/Jan Fitzell, IBI Corporate Finance Limited (ESM Adviser) Tel: +353-7662-34800 Jon Belliss/Elliot Hance, Beaufort Securities Limited (Broker) Tel: +44-20-7382-8300 Michael Padley, Lothbury Financial Services Limited Tel: +44-20-3290-0707 Don Hall, Hall Communications Tel: +353-1-660-9377

http://www.kareliandiamondresources.com

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014. The information set out below is provided in accordance with the requirements of Article 19(3) of that Regulation.

1 Detailsofthepersondischargingmanagerialresponsibilities/person closely associated a) Name Professor Richard Thomas Walter Lawrence Conroy 2 Reasonforthenotification a) Position/status Director of the Company b) Initialnotification/Amendment Initial notification 3 Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor a) Name Karelian Diamond Resources plc b) LEI N/A 4 Detailsofthetransaction(s): section toberepeatedfor (i) eachtypeof instrument;(ii)eachtypeoftransaction; (iii) eachdate; and (iv)eachplace where transactions havebeenconducted a) Descriptionof the financial instrument,typeof instrument



Ordinary Shares of 0.00001 each ("Ordinary Shares") Identificationcode ISIN for Karelian Diamond Resources plc Ordinary Shares:

IE00B01ZSK94 b) Natureofthetransaction Purchase of shares via a placing c) Price(s)andvolume(s) Price - 0.45 pence per ordinary share

Volume - 15,000,000 Ordinary Shares d) Aggregated information

- Aggregated volume

- Price N/A e) Date of the transaction 21 December 2016 f) Place of the transaction Outside a trading venue

1 Detailsofthepersondischargingmanagerialresponsibilities/person closely associated a) Name Maureen Theresa Anne Jones 2 Reasonforthenotification a) Position/status Director of the Company b) Initialnotification/Amendment Initial notification 3 Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor a) Name Karelian Diamond Resources plc b) LEI N/A 4 Detailsofthetransaction(s): section toberepeatedfor (i) eachtypeof instrument;(ii)eachtypeoftransaction; (iii) eachdate; and (iv)eachplace where transactions havebeenconducted a) Descriptionof the financial instrument,typeof instrument



Ordinary Shares of 0.00001 each ("Ordinary Shares") Identificationcode ISIN for Karelian Diamond Resources plc Ordinary Shares:

IE00B01ZSK94 b) Natureofthetransaction Purchase of shares via a placing c) Price(s)andvolume(s) Price - 0.45 pence per ordinary share

Volume - 1,000,000 Ordinary Shares d) Aggregated information

- Aggregated volume

- Price N/A e) Date of the transaction 21 December 2016 f) Place of the transaction Outside a trading venue

1 Detailsofthepersondischargingmanagerialresponsibilities/person closely associated a) Name James ("Jim") Patrick Jones 2 Reasonforthenotification a) Position/status Director of the Company b) Initialnotification/Amendment Initial notification 3 Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor a) Name Karelian Diamond Resources plc b) LEI N/A 4 Detailsofthetransaction(s): section toberepeatedfor (i) eachtypeof instrument;(ii)eachtypeoftransaction; (iii) eachdate; and (iv)eachplace where transactions havebeenconducted a) Descriptionof the financial instrument,typeof instrument



Ordinary Shares of 0.00001 each ("Ordinary Shares") Identificationcode ISIN for Karelian Diamond Resources plc Ordinary Shares:

IE00B01ZSK94 b) Natureofthetransaction Purchase of shares via a placing c) Price(s)andvolume(s) Price - 0.45 pence per ordinary share

Volume - 666,667 Ordinary Shares d) Aggregated information

- Aggregated volume

- Price N/A e) Date of the transaction 21 December 2016 f) Place of the transaction Outside a trading venue

[JT1]Ger - we calculated this figure as 94,444,444 + 317,785,034. Given we have defined Placing Shares and the Company released an Issued Share Capital Announcement on 12 December quoting the 317,785,034 number, I do not think that we need to expand this section with any further explanation provided you agree with these figures.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Select Sands Corp. ("Select Sands" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: SNS)(OTCQX: SLSDF) today announced that it has accepted the resignations of Mr. Arnold Tenney as Chairman and Director and Mr. Steven Goldman as General Counsel and Director. Each of Mr. Tenney and Mr. Goldman are leaving to pursue other interests.

Both Mr. Tenney and Mr. Goldman have played a central role in the development of the Company and the Company wishes to thank them for their dedicated efforts, service and contributions.

The Board of Directors will operate with the remaining five members during this stage of the Company's growth. As well, the number of board members and its structure will continue to be evaluated to a model deemed the best in guidance, efficiency and effectiveness.

About Select Sands Corp.

Select Sands Corporation is an industrial Silica Product company developing its 100% owned, 520-acre Northern White, Tier-1, silica sands project located in Arkansas, U.S.A. Select Sands' goal is to become a key supplier of premium industrial silica sand and frac sand to the North American markets. Select Sands' Arkansas property has a significant logistical advantage of being approximately 650 rail-miles closer to oil and gas markets located in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Louisiana.

For more information about Select Sands Corp., please visit www.selectsandscorp.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

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.

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This news release includes forward-looking information and statements, which may include, but are not limited to, information and statements regarding or inferring the future business, operations, financial performance, prospects, and other plans, intentions, expectations, estimates, and beliefs of the Company. Information and statements which are not purely historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information and statements involve and are subject to assumptions and known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause actual events, results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future events, results, performance, and achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking information and statements herein. Although the Company believes that any forward-looking information and statements herein are reasonable, in light of the use of assumptions and the significant risks and uncertainties inherent in such information and statements, there can be no assurance that any such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, and accordingly readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such risks and uncertainties and should not place undue reliance upon such forward-looking information and statements. Any forward-looking information and statements herein are made as of the date hereof, and except as required by applicable laws, the Company assumes no obligation and disclaims any intention to update or revise any forward-looking information and statements herein or to update the reasons that actual events or results could or do differ from those projected in any forward-looking information and statements herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise, except as required by applicable laws.

Contacts:

Rasool Mohammad, B.Sc. (Mining)

President & CEO

(604) 639-4533



Investor Relations

Arlen Hansen

SNS@kincommunications.com

(604) 684-6730




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Sparton Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE: SRI) ("Sparton" or the "Company") is pleased to report that the two transactions approved by the Corporation's shareholders on November 3, 2016 that relate to the purchase of a group of vanadium battery companies have now closed effective as of December 15, 2016. See Sparton news releases dated September 27, and November 7, 2016 for further background.

Transaction Closings

With shareholder approvals received, the Company and its 89.8% owned subsidiary, VanSpar Mining Inc. ("VMI") have now completed the closing of both the Share Purchase Agreement ("SPA") to acquire a 100% interest in JD Holding Inc, and the Share Acquisition Agreement ("SAA") funding transaction. The closings of the SPA and SAA took place concurrently.

Under the previously announced SAA, HPX TechCo Inc. a North American private investment company with strong financial resources and world class technical expertise has directly funded the acquisition by VMI of 100% of the shares of JD Holding Inc. ("JDH") for US$3.3 million. The required payments to be made to the JDH eligible shareholders have been expedited according to the terms of the SPA.

At the closing, VMI caused 82% of the JDH shares to be transferred to the North American private investor, with the remaining 18% of JDH shares being retained by VMI.

Further, the North American private investor is required to contribute US$2.0 million of working capital to JDH within 20 days of the closing date. JDH is the parent company to an international group of vanadium battery manufacturing and distribution companies.

The required transaction payment of US$605,000 from the North American private investment company to VMI has been received.

JDH Investment

Sparton and VMI look forward to the success of JDH under its new ownership and operation. The reactivation of JDH's Prudent Energy vanadium flow battery ("VRB") manufacturing businesses present a strong opportunity in the energy storage sector. The success of the 8 megawatt hour VRB installation at the Zhangbei Project in China, which was constructed by Prudent Energy and commissioned by staff engaged by VMI, has successfully operated now for over 11 months since commissioning, and is clearly a showpiece for large scale energy storage systems and the recognition of VRB electricity technology applications in an international arena.

VRB is the ideal solution to increase renewable energy power generation efficiencies through electricity storage and has multiple other applications. Prudent has installed batteries in 12 different countries and has over 800,000 hours of testing and quality assurance development already completed. It has a large portfolio of intellectual property registrations supporting its existing and new technology development.

As a minority investor in JDH the Company and its subsidiaries are confident that its investment in JDH will provide significant value appreciation for the Company's stakeholders going forward.

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.

Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release involves forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, financings and transactions being pursued, and all such forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation. Although the Company believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and, accordingly, undue reliance should not be put on such forward-looking statements. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein.

We Seek Safe Harbour

Contacts:

A. Lee Barker, M.A Sc., P. Eng., P.Geol.

President and CEO

Tel./Fax: 647-344-7734 or Mobile: 416-716-5762

info@spartonres.ca

www.spartonres.ca




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Advantage Lithium Corp. (the "Company" or "Advantage Lithium") (TSX VENTURE: AAL) and its joint venture partner, Nevada Sunrise Gold Corp. ("Nevada Sunrise"), are pleased to announce the best lithium brine drilling results to date at the Clayton NE project in the Clayton Valley, Nevada. This follows successful results from the first two boreholes (see NRs dated Nov 1st and Dec 5th, 2016). Clayton NE borders the Silver Peak mine, operated by Albemarle Corporation ("Albemarle"), North America's only producing lithium mine. Hole CNE-16-03, drilled to a total depth of 591.3 metres (1,940 feet), has intersected multiple aquifer formations, including 387.69 metres of brine-producing strata averaging 243.66 milligrams per litre ("mg/l") lithium from a depth of 209.23 to 596.92 metres, including a higher-grade interval averaging 299.5 mg/l over 36.92 metres and a peak measurement of 322 mg/l.

Highlights

-- Strongest Results to date. Lithium brines intercepted by 3rd drill hole at Clayton NE, CNE-16-03, showing a peak values of 322 mg/l lithium, within 387.69 metres averaging 243.66 mg/l. These results are the strongest to date at Clayton NE and are comparable to Albemarle's brine samples from their Silver Peak mining operation immediately adjacent to Clayton NE. -- Potentially Untapped Aquifer. Hole CEN-16-03 is one of the deepest boreholes drilled in the Clayton Valley and, based on results obtained, may have hit a previously untapped aquifer. -- Very Strong brine flows. Brine flows of up to 100 gallons per minute issued from borehole CNE-16-03 between 350.76 to 436.92 metres. Geochemical analysis shows this zone carries significant lithium concentrations. High brine flows are important for economic production. -- 100% Drilling Success Rate and 3.43km mineralized brine trend: All three holes, which are located 3.43km apart, contain significant intervals of mineralized lithium brines -- More Drilling Planned. Three more holes are already permitted and the Company plans to complete these holes in 2017 to continue building towards a resource in Nevada.

Ross McElroy, Technical Advisor and Director, of Advantage Lithium, commented: "This is our strongest hole to date at Clayton NE, with robust grades, strong brine flow and wide intercepts. Even more exciting is the fact that we have drilled one of the deepest boreholes in the Clayton Valley and we may have intercepted an untapped aquifer system. Having hit with all three holes at Clayton NE over the 3.43km mineralized brine trend, we are extremely pleased with the potential of this project, as well as the expertise of our exploration team."

Drill Hole Technical Details

CNE16-03 was completed to a depth of 591.3 metres (1,940 feet), intersecting the base of the Clayton Valley salar sedimentary basin at 584.62 metres. Drilling has intersected typical Clayton Valley strata consisting of alternating layers of gravel, volcanic ash and clay. A total of 62 grab groundwater samples were collected as brine-bearing formations were encountered. Table 1 presents a compiled summary of the depths of the aquifer systems with brine interval thickness and associated average lithium grades and TDS concentrations. Anomalous lithium results with average concentration of 243.66 mg/l were obtained from brine-bearing formations intersected over a 387.69 metre section (from 209.23 to 596.92 metres) within the Main Ash, Lower Aquifer System, and Lower Gravel Aquifer. The highest grade results were obtained in the Lower Aquifer System with peaks up to 322 mg/l lithium (332.31 to 338.46 metres), and in the deeper Lower Gravel Aquifer, with peaks up to 316 mg/l (504.62 to 510.77 metres). In addition, drill cuttings were collected for each 1.5 metre interval and have been submitted for analysis. Analytical results for the drill cuttings are pending.

Table 1: Results of Brine Samples for CNE-16-03

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Dissolved Lithium Solids Lithium Average Aquifer ("TDS") Range Grade Drill Hole System Interval mg/l ( mg/l ) ( mg/l ) ------------------------ From To Width (metres)(metres)(metres) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 72,150 to CNE-16-03 Main Ash 209.23 246.15 36.92 84,970 114 to 130 124.33 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lower Aquifer 87,400 to System 246.15 436.92 190.77 199,000 139 to 322 267.71 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 137,000 to including 313.85 350.77 36.92 181,000 279 to 322 (i)299.50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lower Gravel 120,000 to Aquifer 436.92 596.92 160.00 165,000 181 to 316 268.17 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 126,000 to including 461.54 526.15 73.85 165,000 268 to 316 295.80 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table 2: Results of Brine Samples for CNE-16-01 and CNE-16-02

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Dissolved Lithium Solids Lithium Average Aquifer ("TDS") Range Grade Drill Hole System Interval mg/l (mg/l) (mg/l) ------------------------ From To Width (metres)(metres)(metres) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CNE-16-01 Main Ash 168.6 170.1 1.5 68,000 94.3 94.3 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Lower Aquifer System A 224.0 243.8 19.8 110,000 195 to 218 209.7 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Lower Aquifer 130,000 to System B 326.1 365.8 39.7 140,000 174 to 189 181.5 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Lower Gravel 35,000 to Aquifer 396.2 499.9 103.7 190,000 72.4 to 234 134.8 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 58,000 to including 457.2 481.6 24.4 190,000 72.4 to 234 187.5 ------------------------------------------------------------------ CNE-16-02 Main Ash 190.5 199.6 9.1 No Water ------------------------------------------------------------------ Lower Aquifer 50,000 to System 207.3 396.2 188.9 380,000 72.4 to 228 164.2 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 140,000 to including 286.5 396.2 109.7 380,000 151 to 227 202.8 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Geochemical results for lithium are reported in mg/l rather than parts per million ("ppm") as mg/l is deemed conventional for reporting values of dissolved metals and salts in fluids. Variances in specific gravity of fluids will influence geochemical results if converted from mg/l to ppm. Previously reported values for holes CNE-16-01 and CNE-16-02 are now reported in mg/l as received from the laboratory.

Regarding Sample Analysis

Groundwater grab samples were sent to Western Environmental Testing Laboratory in Reno, Nevada for analysis. General chemistry testing included analysis for specific gravity, total hardness and alkalinity, bicarbonate, carbonate, hydroxide, TDS and electrical conductivity. Anions (chloride, sulfate) were analyzed by ion chromatography. Trace metals (lithium, magnesium, boron, calcium, potassium and sodium) were analyzed by ICP-OES. TDS values obtained in the field are measured with a handheld YSI Model 556 Multiparameter Meter, which meets Good Laboratory Practice (as proscribed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) for calibration and measurement. All depth measurements reported, including sample and interval widths are down-hole. As holes are oriented vertical and geologic stratigraphy is primarily horizontal to sub-horizontal. Downhole measurements are assumed to be close to true thickness.

For further information on Clayton NE, including location maps, see the Company's website under "Projects-Nevada Lithium" at: http://www.nevadasunrise.ca/projects/nevadalithium/

The technical information in this news release has reviewed and approved on behalf of the company by Ross McElroy, P.Geol., Technical Advisor and Director for Advantage Lithium Corp., and a "Qualified Person" as defined in NI 43-101.

About Clayton NE

-- Consists of 55 unpatented claims totaling approximately 1,080 acres (437 hectares); -- Clayton NE is subject to an option earn-in agreement where Advantage Lithium can earn up to a 70% interest in the Project after fulfilling CDN$3.0 million in exploration expenditures on a package of five lithium properties optioned from Nevada Sunrise (for further details, see Nevada Sunrise news release dated June 20, 2016); -- Nevada Sunrise is the project manager at Clayton NE on behalf of Advantage Lithium, the operator.

Further information about the company can be found at www.advantagelithium.com.

About Advantage Lithium Corp.

Advantage Lithium Corp. is a resource company specializing in the strategic acquisition, exploration and development of lithium properties and is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Common Shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "AAL". The company has signed an LOI with lithium producer, Orocobre, to acquire 100% interest in five projects in Argentina and up to 75% in a sixth, called Cauchari. Cauchari is host to a near-surface resource of 470,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) and 1.62 million tonnes of potash (KCL), and a large exploration target of 5.6mt to 0.25Mt of LCE and 19mt to 0.9 of KCL. Cauchari is located just 20 km south Orocobre's flagship Olaroz Lithium Facility. The company is also earning an interest from Nevada Sunrise Gold Corp., in a portfolio of five lithium brine projects in the Clayton and Lida Valley regions of Nevada, USA, including 70% in Clayton NE. In addition, the company has acquired 100% of the Stella Marys lithium brine project, immediately adjacent to Orocobre's Salinas Grandes project that hosts an inferred, near-surface resource, in Argentina's Lithium Triangle.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

David Sidoo, CEO, President, Director

Cautionary Statement:

Certain information contained in this press release constitutes "forward-looking information", within the meaning of Canadian legislation. Generally, these forward-looking statements 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", "be achieved" or "has the potential to". Forward looking statements contained in this press release may include statements regarding the future operating or financial performance of Advantage Lithium which involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may not prove to be accurate. Actual results and outcomes may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in these forward-looking statements. Such statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations. Among those factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: market conditions and other risk factors listed from time to time in our reports filed with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and the Company and Advantage Lithium disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation.

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:

Advantage Lithium Corp.

David Sidoo

CEO, President, Director

604.343.3760

604.683.1585 (FAX)

info@advantagelithium.com

www.advantagelithium.com




Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - Pfizer Inc. (PFE) announced the U.S. FDA has accepted for review a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for its first-in-class CDK 4/6 inhibitor, IBRANCE (palbociclib). The sNDA was granted Priority Review status, which accelerates FDA review time from 10 months to a goal of six months from the day of acceptance of filing. The Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) goal date for a decision by the FDA is in April 2017. The sNDA supports the conversion of the accelerated approval of IBRANCE in combination with letrozole to regular approval and includes data from the Phase 3 PALOMA-2 trial, which evaluated IBRANCE as initial therapy in combination with letrozole for postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative metastatic breast cancer. 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.
SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Lincoln Property Company was announced as one of the Top Places to Work in Multifamily for 2017 by Best Places to Work. Taking home sixth place out of only fourteen companies recognized at Best Places to Work's Multifamily Leadership Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, Lincoln competed against an array of businesses in the multifamily vertical from across the United States.

The thorough assessment process, administered by the Best Companies Group, evaluated each company's employee policies and procedures as well as responses from the company's employees. The program is part of a long-term initiative to encourage growth and excellence throughout the Multifamily Apartment Industry and to attract new leaders to the industry.

With the multifamily industry contributing more than $1.3 trillion to the U.S. economy and supporting more than 12.3 million jobs, according to NMHC, this vast industry has several major players. Lincoln Property Company's recognition by Best Places to Work showcases their dedication not only to their clients and residents, but to fostering an outstanding workplace environment for their employees. The intensive assessment process evaluated each company's policies and procedures as well as responses from their employees. The results and feedback are essential to Lincoln's continued effort in making significant improvements to its workplace culture.

"If you want to know if it's a great place to work, you ask the people who work there," says Sheri Killingsworth, Lincoln Property Company's Vice President of Marketing and Communications. "95% of LPC's employees would recommend our services to a friend, and 91% would recommend working here to a friend, which speaks volumes."

In an ever-changing business landscape where companies are attempting to attract the next generation workforce, focus is shifting from solely competition and ever-increasing technologies, to an appreciation for the quality of the workplace. Numerous studies have shown the strong tie between profitability and creating a desirable work environment and Lincoln Property Company is ahead of the curve.

About Lincoln Property Company

Lincoln Property Company was founded in 1965 as a builder and operator of high-quality residential communities. In the early 1970's, Lincoln expanded its product mix to include commercial, build-to-suit, office, hotel, industrial, and other mixed-use assets. In 1972, Lincoln took this expertise within the United States to Western Europe and the Middle East.

In 2001, Lincoln joined forces with the U.S. Department of Defense to renovate and redevelop family housing at selected bases for the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Army, becoming one of the largest operators of military housing in the country. Lincoln continued its growth in 2013 with the acquisition of Grand Campus Living, increasing the depth of knowledge in the rental housing sector for the firm.

Headquartered in Dallas, TX, Lincoln focuses on real estate investment, construction and development, in addition to property management. Their national reputation has enabled Lincoln to attract a large client base of owners and investors who count on their ability to deliver quality results and continually serve as a market leader.

For more information about Lincoln Property Company, please visit http://www.lincolnapts.com/management-services or visit http://www.lincolnapts.com/regions/ for apartment listings in your area.

Follow Lincoln Property Company on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to hear about all the new deals to help you look forward to moving into your new home!

Media Contact:

Sheri Sandefur Killingsworth

Vice President - Marketing & Communications

214-740-3300

Email Contact




MITCHELL, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Processors representing over 50% of Ontario's commercial tomato processing have announced they will not contract with tomato seedling producers until the recommendations of the Province's independent Farm Products Marketing Commission are implemented.

"The current system is not economically sustainable" said John Iacobelli, CEO of Sun-Brite Foods "After years of thorough review, the Commission recognized that the way that vegetables are marketed in Ontario needed to change," said Sam Diab, President and CEO of Highbury Canco. "This was not an easy decision." Together Sun-Brite and Highbury Canco represent two of the three largest tomato processors in Ontario.

While negotiations with seedling producers have concluded with no increase in price over the term of the contract, individual processors determine quantities and initiate orders. The cutback in orders will be felt first among seedling producers who normally receive contracts in February and early March.

"Currently the system has resulted in too many farmers, too many processors and too many Ontarians losing their jobs as vegetable processing in Ontario has dwindled over time," said Diab. "Without an open and transparent partnership, we are fearful for the future of vegetable processing in Ontario. We have an obligation to our employees, our shareholders, and our growers to be economically sustainable," Iacobelli pointed out.

After two years of mentoring the growers and multiple reports, the Commission, on June 28, recommended removal of the powers of the Ontario Processing Vegetables Growers Association to set prices.

On August 17th Ontario Agricultural Minister Jeff Leal stayed this decision, just 2 weeks after the growers hired Leal's former Chief of Staff.

"We attempted to work with the growers, and spent two months trying to avert this crisis. The Farm Product Marketing Commission monitored the meetings and there is a record of lying, delaying, and bad faith by the growers," said Diab. "At one point they delayed meetings for two weeks while their grower's chair went moose hunting."

"The grower's cartel has endangered the jobs and economic health of communities throughout southwestern Ontario. They have even endangered the livelihood of their own growers," said Karl Evans, President of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Processing Association.

Evans went on to say, "We have been open with the Minister, the Commission and the growers that we will not negotiate 2017 contracts under the current predatory system. There are other processors who will be announcing their decision early in the new year."

As the first step, processors representing over 50% of total commercial tomato processing acreage, informed seedling tomato growers that they would not be proceeding with any orders for seed planting. This action is on top of the 100,000 ton cutback on tomatoes for processing announced last week.

"Small growers are the victims of their own association's cartel, and should hold their executive accountable for their economic losses," said Iacobelli. "Millions of dollars in economic activity is now at risk as a result of the grower's decision not to follow the Commission's recommendation."

Contacts:

Don Epp, Executive Director

Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Processors Association (OFVPA)

519-498-8105

donaldjepp@gmail.com




Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - December 21, 2016) - CardioComm Solutions, Inc. (TSXV: EKG) ("CardioComm Solutions" or the "Company") today announced that the Company is:

Conducting a non-brokered debt financing under which it intends to raise up to $600,000;

Intending to close the first $500,000 tranche of its $650,000 private placement initiative announced December 17, 2016; and

Intending to issue 1,150,687 shares to settle a debt to a professional service provider in the amount of $69,041.20.

Under the terms of the debt financing, the Company intends to borrow an aggregate of $600,000 from four lenders. The lenders will be paid interest at the rate of 10% per year, payable in quarterly installments, and will secure their loans against the Company's assets. As a bonus for the loans, the Company has offered the lenders common shares (the "Shares") that have a value of 20% of the loaned amounts. Accordingly, an aggregate of 2 million bonus shares will be issued to the lenders at a price of $0.06 per share. The aggregated loan may be retired without penalty at the Company's discretion at any time after December 31, 2017. The loan will be due to be retired December 31, 2018.

Under the first tranche of the private placement financing, the Company intends to issue 10,000,000 units at a price of $0.05 per unit for gross proceeds of $500,000. Each unit will consist of one share and one common share purchase warrant. Each warrant will be exercisable for one share at a price of $0.075 for a period of twenty-four months from the date of issuance. The Company may pay finders' fees in cash of up to 8% on some or all of the amounts raised under the first tranche. The Company may also issue finder's warrants equal to up to 8% of the number of units issued. Each finder's warrant will be exercisable for one share at a price of $0.075 for a period of twenty-four months from the date of issuance.

In connection with the equity financing, Etienne Grima, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, has agreed to sell an aggregate of up to 1,000,000 common shares from his personal shareholdings to a private investor at a price of $0.05 per share for proceeds of $50,000. Mr. Grima intends to use all of the proceeds from the sale of these shares to purchase units under the financing. In addition, Mr. Simi Grosman, a member of the Company's Board of Directors ("BOD"), will also participate in the private placement through the purchase of 300,000 units.

The issuance of units to Mr. Grima and Mr. Grosman under the private placement is considered to be a related party transaction, subject to TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.9 and Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions. The Company intends to rely on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements provided under sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(a) of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 on the basis that the value of securities to be purchased by the insiders under the private placement will not exceed 25% of the fair market value of the Company's market capitalization.

Under the shares for debt transaction, the Company intends to issue 1,150,687 shares at a price of $0.06 per share to settle a debt to a service provider in the amount of $69,041.20.

The Company has previously disclosed on multiple occasions its obligation to retire its existing line of credit ("LOC"), held by MD Primer Inc. ("MDP"). On October 16, 2016, MDP informed the Company that the $900,000 LOC, which matures on December 31, 2016, would not be renewed.

Since October 16, 2016, the Company has disclosed successes on several fronts, including:

Reporting the Company's strongest 9-month fiscal performance in 17 years;

Appointing a new Chairman of the BOD;

Appointing a new member of the BOD with extensive M&A experience in the healthcare sector;

Introducing wearable ECG monitors into the sports sector;

Confirming the launch of a US-based sales force in 2017 to introduce the HeartCheck and GEMS WIN technologies into the US market;

Receiving the "Best in Medical Software Development" Award from CorporateLiveWire; and

Contracting with an IR firm to support continued growth in 2017 and beyond.

The Company confirms that the combination of debt and equity generated funds described herein will be used to retire MDP's LOC, and that the Company will use any additional funds generated for working capital. Upon closing the financing initiatives and repaying MDP's LOC, CardioComm Solutions will have reduced its overall debt burden and established a two-year window to manage the pay-down of the $600,000 debt. The Company confirms that securities to be issued as described herein will be subject to a four-month hold period. The closing of the debt financing, the private placement financing and the shares for debt transaction are all subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

CardioComm has earned the ISO 13485 certification, is HPB approved, HIPAA compliant and holds clearances for the sale of its HeartCheck technologies from the European Union (CE Mark), Australia (TGA), the USA (FDA), China (CFDA) and Canada (Health Canada).

To learn more about CardioComm Solutions' products and plans, please see the Company's websites at www.theheartcheck.com and www.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

investor.relations@cardiocommsolutions.com

www.cardiocommsolutions.com

Forward-looking statements

This release may contain certain forward-looking statements 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. By their nature, forward-looking statements 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.

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.
ATLANTA, GA -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- The Southeastern Medical Device Association (SEMDA) is pleased to announce that the 2018 Conference will be held in Greenville, South Carolina. The 12th annual conference will take place May 1-3, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Greenville.

"The South Carolina medtech industry has been a strong supporter of SEMDA for many years and is growing at one of the fastest rates in the country," said Jason Rupp, Executive Director of SEMDA. "From 2012-2014, the number of new medtech businesses grew by nearly 30 percent, so we are looking forward to will tapping into this growth and the excitement in the industry."

"This decision highlights our state, county and city leaders working together to support this initiative," said Erin Ford, SCBIO Chair. "We look forward to being a part of the conference and shining a light on the growing medical device industry in South Carolina and the Southeast."

SEMDA's annual conference attracts more than 400 attendees from throughout the United States and has become a must-attend for the medtech community in the region. In 2016, the 10th annual SEMDA conference was in Nashville, TN, the first time the conference was held outside Atlanta. SEMDA 2017 will take place April 26-27 at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Atlanta.

"We are working diligently and intentionally to ensure that SEMDA achieves its goal of being a truly regional organization that engages and aligns the collective medtech startup, university, corporate and investment resources and capabilities throughout the southeastern United States," Rupp said.

"SEMDA is a great event that provides an opportunity to 'collide' with other startup companies, investors, customers, partners and specialized service providers," said Jan Bouten, partner with venture firm Innova Memphis.

About SEMDA

The Southeastern Medical Device Association (SEMDA) is a regional non-profit trade association that supports and promotes medical device and medical device data system (MDDS) companies in the Southeast. Created in 2004, the association provides unique educational resources to accelerate device development and achieve commercial success with access to funding, education and networking opportunities for medical device companies, inventors, physicians, investors, tech transfer offices, universities, sponsors and service providers interested in growing the medical device industry in the Southeast.

Upcoming SEMDA Events

SEMDA PitchRounds Roadshows

January, February, March

Orlando, Birmingham, Memphis, Charleston, Raleigh, Atlanta

SEMDA Conference

April 26-27

Atlanta, GA

Contact:

Jason Rupp

202-438-4960

jrupp@semda.net




MITCHELL, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Processor Association has written Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne after she made comments in a year-end interview in the Globe & Mail on December 18, 2016. In her interview she suggested that Ontario's economic recovery has focused in certain sectors while ravaging others especially in southwestern Ontario.

Karl Evans, President of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Processor Association wrote the Premier to tell her that a "major barrier to maintaining and growing processing jobs is a small cartel - directors of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers, who have the right to unilaterally impose terms and conditions on the vegetable processing sector. This has resulted in several plant closings costing over 1,000 jobs. This cartel has been antagonistic to any investment policies or strategies to grow jobs."

Evans also highlighted in his letter that government inaction have contributed to the negative investment climate for processors. He asked the Premier to take steps to save jobs by implementing recommendations from the independent Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission.

In his letter Evans wrote, "On December 19th in the Globe and Mail you correctly pointed out that some areas of the province are more disadvantaged than others.

"When someone moves from a manufacturing job and isn't able to work in the advanced manufacturing sector, for example, or isn't able to make that transition as easily as they thought they might, or their kids haven't found a job yet - those are really hard facts for people to deal with," Ms. Wynne said." You specifically referenced South Western Ontario.

Those Premier are the facts in South West Ontario in the food processing industry. Good full time jobs have been leaving the Province, never to return.

As the processors who create those thousands of jobs and who brought jobs back to South West Ontario we have a significant concern to share with you.

A major barrier to maintaining and growing processing jobs is the actions of a small cartel - directors of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers, who have the right to unilaterally impose terms and conditions on the vegetable processing sector.

This has resulted in several plant closings costing over 1,000 jobs. This cartel has been antagonistic to any investment policies or strategies to grow jobs. This was recognized in the report of your independent Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission (OFPMC) in June of this year.

In its report to the Minister on June 28, 2016 OFPMC recommended the removal of the authority of this cartel. This was after two years of mentoring the cartel to change to help create jobs!

On August 17, 2016, Premier, your Minister of Agriculture stayed the removal of powers for an indefinite time for "more consultations" without any rationale.

Premier this issue has been studied since 1980, in each case the recommendation was to remove the Cartel's authority over the industry.

Since the Minister's action, processors have cut commitments for 100,000 tons of tomatoes for the 2017 season and have announced a cutback in purchases of seedlings which will further reduce production.

Your Minister and the Commission know of other investments that have now been put on hold.

We believe the public has a right to know how jobs are being killed because of your Minister's decisions.

We respectfully recommend that in order to comply with your mandate letter to grow the agribusiness sector; save the jobs we currently have; and to protect our ability to grow jobs, that you direct your Minister of Agriculture to immediately implement the recommended changes to Regulation 440.

Premier, we know you appreciate there cannot be further investment in the sector until the reforms recommended by your independent Commission are implemented.

Premier to protect the jobs of factory workers through South West Ontario we urge you to implement the reforms to Regulation 440 immediately."

Contacts:

Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Processor Association

Don Epp

Executive Director

519-498-8105

donaldjepp@gmail.com




A.M. Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "a+" of Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG (Switzerland). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) remains stable.

The ratings of Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG reflect its supportive risk-adjusted capitalisation and the expectation of good operating results. The company's risk management and business profile benefit from its close integration with the specialty (re)insurance operations of Sompo Canopius AG (Sompo Canopius). In addition, the ratings reflect Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG's strategic importance to Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance Inc. (SJNKI), as its specialist global reinsurance platform outside of Lloyd's, and an unconditional parental guarantee provided by SJNKI. An offsetting rating factor is the company's exposure to natural catastrophe losses, which is expected to contribute to volatile underwriting performance over the longer term. This factor is mitigated partly by strong catastrophe risk management within Sompo Canopius.

Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG was incorporated in Switzerland on 23 November 2015, following the redomiciliation of Canopius Reinsurance Limited from Bermuda. As of 30 September 2016, the company had shareholders' funds of USD 503 million. A.M Best expects SJNKI to inject approximately USD 400 million of capital into Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG over the next three years to support growth.

The company underwrites third-party reinsurance business through a network of branches in Switzerland, Bermuda and, prospectively, the United States and Singapore. Property and casualty reinsurance is expected to contribute the majority of Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG's reported gross revenues in 2016. The company's business generation benefits from existing relationships and expertise within Sompo Canopius and the wider Sompo group. However, strong competition makes this a difficult time to operate in the global reinsurance market.

In A.M. Best's opinion, the Sompo group remains committed to Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG. However, the planned takeover of Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. by SOMPO Holdings Inc., and the potential reshaping of the Sompo group's international reinsurance operations, are likely to influence Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG's business volumes. A.M. Best will monitor closely the development of Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG's operations through 2017.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on A.M. Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see A.M. Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Understanding Best's Credit Ratings

A.M. Best is the world's oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright 2016 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005458/en/

Contacts:

A.M. Best

Alvise Argenton, +44 20 7397 0293

Financial Analyst

alvise.argenton@ambest.com

or

Timothy Prince, +44 20 7397 0320

Associate Director, Analytics

timothy.prince@ambest.com

or

Christopher Sharkey, +1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159

Manager, Public Relations

christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

or

Jim Peavy, +1 908 439 2200, ext. 5644

Director, Public Relations

james.peavy@ambest.com
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Sphinx Resources Ltd. ("Sphinx" or the "Corporation") (TSX VENTURE: SFX) announces that the Fonds de solidarite FTQ (the "Fonds") and the Fonds de solidarite FTQ Nord-du-Quebec (the "Fonds NdQ") have accepted a settlement of the repayment of the amount of their debentures of $150,000 and $75,000 respectively issued by Sphinx (see press release dated December 19, 2014). The settlement will be made through the issuance of 4,500,000 common shares of Sphinx to the Fonds and 1,500,000 common shares to the Fonds NdQ at a price of $0.05 per share, subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange"). As a result of this settlement, the Fonds and the Fonds NdQ will exercise control on 3,720,032 and 1,887,392 common shares respectively, representing 6.15% and 3.12% of the outstanding common shares.

Debenture with the Societe d'investissement dans la diversification de l'exploration s.e.c. ("SIDEX")

The Corporation also announces that it has agreed with SIDEX, subject to the approval of the Exchange, to extend until December 19, 2018 the maturity date of the $150,000 debenture issued by Sphinx on December 19, 2014. Other conditions of the debenture remain unchanged.

The Corporation thanks the Quebec institutions for this conversion into common shares and extension of the debenture which support the mission of Sphinx by sustaining its long term growth.

Finally, Sphinx will issue to FTQ, FTQ NdQ and SIDEX a total of 900,081 common shares in lieu of a cash payment for interest due of $45,004 for the period from December 2015 to December 2016 in accordance with the convertible debentures of $375,000 issued on December 19, 2014. This share issue will be made at a price of $0.05 per Sphinx share and will also be subject to the approval of the Exchange.

About the Fonds

The Fonds is a development capital fund that channels the savings of Quebecers into investments. At May 31, 2016, the organization had $11.7 billion in net assets, and through its current portofolio of investments has helped create and protect 187,414 jobs. The Fonds is a partner in more than 2,600 companies and has 618,551 shareholders-savers.

About the Fonds NdQ

An integral part of the large Fonds' network since their inception in 1996, the Fonds NdQ is an active participant in the economic development of Quebec's northern region.

About SIDEX

SIDEX was established in 2001 by the Government of Quebec and the Fonds. The mission of SIDEX is to invest in mineral exploration companies working in Quebec to diversify Quebec's mineral base. SIDEX encourages companies to explore for new substances, to use new metallogenic models and to open new territories. SIDEX also helps to promote entrepreneurship and innovation.

About Sphinx

Sphinx is engaged in the generation and acquisition of exploration projects in Quebec, a Canadian province which is recognized as an attractive mining jurisdiction worldwide.

For further information, please consult Sphinx's website: www.sphinxresources.ca

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and activities to vary materially from targeted results and planning. Such risks and uncertainties include those described in Sphinx's periodic reports including the annual report or in the filings made by Sphinx from time to time with securities regulatory authorities.

Contacts:

Sphinx Resources Ltd.

Normand Champigny

President and Chief Executive Officer

514.979.4746

info@sphinxresources.ca

www.sphinxresources.ca




Death Penalty Information Center [Click to enlarge]

-- Jeffrey Toobin, in today's newyorker.com "Daily Comment,"

"The Strange Case of the Ameican Death Penalty"

Death sentences, executions, and public support for capital punishment all continued historic declines in 2016. American juries imposed the fewest death sentences in the modern era of U.S. capital punishment, since the Supreme Court declared existing death penalty statutes unconstitutional in 1972. The expected 30 new death sentences in 2016 represent a 39 percent decline from last years already 40-year low of 49. The 20 executions this year marked the lowest number in a quarter century, according to a report released today by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). National public opinion polls also showed support for capital punishment at a 40-year low.



America is in the midst of a major climate change concerning capital punishment. While there may be fits and starts and occasional steps backward, the long-term trend remains clear, said Robert Dunham, DPICs Executive Director and the author of the report. Whether its concerns about innocence, costs, and discrimination, availability of life without parole as a safe alternative, or the questionable way in which states are attempting to carry out executions, the public grows increasingly uncomfortable with the death penalty each year.



For the first time in more than 40 years, no state imposed ten or more death sentences. Only five states imposed more than one death sentence. California imposed the most (9) followed by Ohio (4), Texas (4), Alabama (3) and Florida (2). Death sentences continued to be clustered in two percent of counties nationwide, with Los Angeles County imposing four death sentences, the most of any county. But death sentences were down 39 percent, even in those two-percent counties.

This years 20 executions marked a decline of more than 25 percent since last year, when there were 28 executions. Only five states conducted executions this year, the fewest number of states to do so since 1983. Two states  Georgia, which had the most executions (9), and Texas, which had the second highest number (7)  accounted for 80 percent of all executions in the U.S. Although Georgia carried out more executions than at any other time since the 1950s, juries in that state have not imposed any new death sentences in the past two years.



State and federal courts continued to strike down outlier practices that increased the likelihood a death sentence would be imposed. The United States Supreme Court struck down practices in Florida, Arizona, and Oklahoma that had disproportionately contributed to the number of death sentences imposed in those states. And state courts in Florida and Delaware ruled that portions of their statutes that permitted the death penalty based upon a non-unanimous jury vote on sentencing were unconstitutional.

DPICs review of the 20 people executed in 2016 indicated that at least 60 percent of them showed significant evidence of mental illness, brain impairment, and/or low intellectual functioning. This suggests that, in spite of the constitutional requirement that the death penalty be reserved for the worst of the worst offenders, states continued to execute prisoners whose mental illness or intellectual disabilities are similar to impairments the Court has said should make a person ineligible for the death penalty.

Americas deep divisions about capital punishment were reflected in voters action at the ballot box this year. Voters in California and Nebraska voted to retain the death penalty and Oklahoma voters approved a constitutional amendment regarding capital punishment. At the same time, prosecutors in four of the 16 counties that impose the most death sentences in the U.S. were defeated by candidates who expressed personal opposition to the death penalty or pledged to reform their countys death penalty practices. In Kansas, pro-death penalty groups spent more than $1 million to defeat four state supreme court justices who had voted to overturn several death sentences, but voters retained all four justices.

The number of executions has dwindled to just a few, but the voters, even in the most liberal states, seem to want the punishment to remain on the books. Thats the message of the annual report from the Death Penalty Information Center, which produces the most comprehensive analysis of the subject each year.

The debate over the death penalty seems to have taken on some of the characteristics of the Presidential race this year, as a contest between populists and elitists. Judges play the part of the elites in this particular debate, and the judiciary, as a whole, has shown ever-greater hostility toward approving executions. This year, the Supreme Court ruled for prisoners in several high-profile death-penalty decisions, holding that racial bias infected jury selection, in Foster v. Chatman, a case from Georgia, and rejecting Floridas system of allowing judges to impose the death penalty even when jurors support life in prison, in Hurst v. Florida. (The Florida legislature sought to correct the defects identified by the Supreme Court in the Hurst case, only to have the Florida Supreme Court overrule the new law as well.) Delawares Supreme Court also nullified its states death-penalty law this year.



But, as the election results in California and Nebraska illustrate, the votersthe populistscontinue to back the death penalty, as does the President-elect. (Donald Trump notoriously called for the execution of the Central Park Five, fourteen-, fifteen-, and sixteen-year-olds who were charged with a high-profile rape and beating, in 1989. Even though the five were later exonerated, Trump, during this years campaign, reiterated his belief in their guilt.) The Death Penalty Information Center report notes that public-opinion polls show some decline in support for the death penalty, but the opposition has never achieved close to a majority. And, notwithstanding ambiguous poll numbers, politicians from Trump to Barack Obama understand that support for the death penalty, at least in some form, is less politically risky than opposition to it. (Obama, for example, has supported executions for extraordinarily heinous crimes.) Trumps victory, and those of other Republicans, can only reinforce that view.

Many factors have led to the decline in the death penalty in recent years: less crime over all, with less fear among the public as a result; DNA exonerations leading jurors to pause before imposing death; the reluctance of pharmaceutical companies to provide lethal-injection drugs and the resulting search (still under way) for a drug protocol that passes constitutional muster; the length and expense of the appeals mandated by the Supreme Court. All those reasons for the decline remain, but so, too, does the United States remain a country that has had the death penalty in effect for virtually all of its history. Thats not likely to change, either. The death penalty may keep shrinking, but it will probably never entirely go away.

#

The Death Penalty Information Center has issued its annual year-end report , and the DPIC press release is headlined: "Death Sentences, Executions Drop to Historic Lows in 2016." And the evidence is striking:In fact, a troubling later paragraph in the press release suggests that, if the states were sticking to our own legal principles, the number of people executed in 2016 would have been even lower,lower, than that mere 20:But it's the paragraphthe two chunks of the DPIC press release which got the attention of's legal eagle Jeffrey Toobin:"Its a paradoxical moment in the history of the death penalty in the United States," Toobin begins his newyorker.com "Daily Comment" piece, " The Strange Case of the Ameican Death Penalty ."He proceeds to substantially flesh out the paradoxical picture painted in the DPIC report, then tries to figure out what the heck is going on here. We Americans love us our death penalty -- not least our soon-to-be president -- even as in practice it seems to be becoming all but obsolete. Huh?So what's the story? Well, it's pretty much what we've already said.

Labels: death penalty, Jeffrey Toobin, Trump
MUNICH, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

With decision of December 5, 2016 (docket number I-15 U 32/14), the Dusseldorf Court of Appeal in Germany has confirmed the infringement of YAG Patent EP 0 936 682 (DE 697 02 929) of Nichia Corporation ("Nichia") by REGO-Lighting GmbH ("REGO-Lighting") concerning the accused white LED product.

Nichia had filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany at the Dusseldorf District Court (docket number 4a O 108/12) against REGO-Lighting with regard to the lighting product OL-Deluxe/QL2/P44/LF/D50/SR/M/CE/ZN containing white LED tubes of the type SL- Cobra/T5 048DC/C/P10/LF/D50/ZN. This was a product of Zenaro Lighting GmbH, a German subsidiary of Taiwanese LED manufacturer Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. With judgment of September 3, 2013, the Dusseldorf District Court confirmed Nichia's complaint and found for patent infringement by REGO-Lighting. The appeal against this judgment filed by REGO-Lighting has been now rejected by the Dusseldorf Court of Appeal.

The decision of the Court of Appeal was rendered without oral hearing because the court found REGO-Lighting's appeal to have obviously no chance of success.

The Dusseldorf Court of Appeal did not allow for further appeal against its decision. Nevertheless, there exists the option for REGO-Lighting to ask the Federal Court of Justice to allow such further appeal.

Nichia seeks to protect its patents and other intellectual property rights and takes actions against alleged infringers in any country where appropriate and necessary.

Contact information:

Public Relations, Nichia Corporation

Tel:+81-884-22-2311

Fax:+81-884-23-7717


DALLAS, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Masergy Communications, Inc. ("Masergy"), a global provider of hybrid networking, managed security and cloud communications, announced today that it has completed its transaction with Berkshire Partners LLC ("Berkshire Partners") for the purchase of the existing Masergy equity for an undisclosed price.

"This transaction marks the next chapter in our company's growth strategy," said Chris MacFarland, CEO of Masergy. "Berkshire Partners understands the complexity of the markets we serve and the tremendous value our unique solutions provide to large global companies. We are excited to have such an experienced partner at our side as we continue growing the business."

"Masergy's innovative solutions and world class experience truly help businesses transform their IT environments and drive their digital transformation objectives," said Beth Hoffman, Managing Director at Berkshire Partners. "The accelerating rate of change across the information technology landscape creates significant opportunities for Masergy. We are excited to be invested in this team, company and culture."

About Masergy

Masergy owns and operates the largest independent Software Defined Platform in the world, delivering hybrid networking, managed security and cloud communication solutions to global enterprises. Our patented technology, customizable solutions and unmatched customer experience are why a growing number of leading organizations rely on Masergy to deliver performance beyond expectations. Learn more about Masergy and follow us on our blog Transforming Enterprise IT, Twitter @Masergy, LinkedIn and Facebook.

About Berkshire Partners

Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based investment firm, has made over 115 investments since its founding in 1986 and has raised nine private equity funds with more than $16 billion in aggregate capital commitments. Berkshire has developed industry experience in several areas including consumer and retail, communications, business services, industrials and healthcare. Berkshire has a long history of partnering with management teams to build market leading growth companies. Prior investments in the communications space have included Crown Castle International, Telx and Lightower. For additional information, visit www.berkshirepartners.com.

Masergy Contact:

Betsey Rogers

BridgeView Marketing

603-886-7087

betsey@bridgeviewmarketing.com



Berkshire Partners Contact:

Jean Gulliver

617-227-0500

jgulliver@berkshirepartners.com




CAMARILLO, California, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

BNK Petroleum Inc. (the "Company") (TSX:BKX), is pleased to announce that drilling operations have commenced today on its Tishomingo Field, Caney oil shale operations in Oklahoma.

The drilling rig contracted by the Company has begun drilling the Chandler 8-6H Caney shale oil well. Drilling is expected to take approximately 30 days, after which the rig will immediately move to the Hartgraves1-6H location where final preparations are being completed. The fracture stimulation of the Chandler 8-6H well is planned to commence after the drilling rig has moved to the Hartgraves location.

Wolf Regener, President and CEO, commented "We have an excellent team in place, comprised of our employees, contractors and consultants, to execute this drilling program and continue our successful development of the Caney Shale Oil field. The drill sites we have selected are offsetting some of our best performing wells, in geologically comparable areas. We expect the wells to significantly increase our already positive cash flow, as well as prove up additional reserves."

Operations Update

The Company has shut-in 3 wells due to offset fracture stimulations being performed by another operator on a number of wells in the Woodford formation which lies beneath the Caney. The offset operator's operations are expected to be completed in the next few weeks at which time the wells will be re-started. The Company does not expect this to impact the long-term production of the wells going forward. The four non-operated Woodford wells, in which the Company has a 5% working interest, have been fracture stimulated by the offset operator and are also expected to come on production in the coming weeks.

About BNK Petroleum Inc.

BNK Petroleum Inc. is an international oil and gas exploration and production company focused on finding and exploiting large, predominately unconventional oil and gas resource plays. Through various affiliates and subsidiaries, the Company owns and operates shale oil and gas properties and concessions in the United States. Additionally, the Company is utilizing its technical and operational expertise to identify and acquire additional projects. The Company's shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the stock symbol BKX.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws, including statements regarding the timing of and expected results from plannedCaneywells development, the re-start and performance of shut-inwells and commencement of production from non-operated wells. Forward-looking information is based on plans and estimates of management and interpretations of exploration information by the Company's exploration team at the date the information is provided and is subject to several factors and assumptions of management, including thatthatindications of early results are reasonably accurate predictors of the prospectiveness of the shale intervals, that required regulatory approvals will be available when required, that no unforeseen delays, unexpected geological or other effects, equipment failures, permitting delays or labor or contract disputes are encountered, that the development plans of the Company and its co-venturers will not change, thattheoffset operator's operations will proceed as expected by management,that the demand for oil and gas will be sustained, that the Company will continue to be able to access sufficient capital through financings, farm-ins or other participation arrangements to maintain its projects, and that global economic conditions will not deteriorate in a manner that has an adverse impact on the Company's business, its ability to advance its business strategy and the industry as a whole. 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 on which such forward looking information is based vary or prove to be invalid, including that the Company or its subsidiaries is not able for any reason to obtain and provide the information necessary to secure required approvals or that required regulatory approvals are otherwise not available when required, that unexpected geological results are encountered,thatequipment failures, permitting delays or labor or contract disputes or shortages are encountered, that the the offset operator's operations take longer than expected or have unexpected adverse effects on the Company's operations,that completion techniques require further optimization, that production rates do not match the Company's assumptions, that very low or no production rates are achieved, that the Company is unable to access required capital, that occurrences such as those that are assumed will not occur, do in fact occur, and those conditions that are assumed will continue or improve, do not continue or improve, and the other risks and uncertainties applicable to exploration and development activities and the Company's business as set forth in the Company's management discussion and analysis and its annual information form, both of which are available for viewing under the Company's profile athttp://www.sedar.com, any of which could result in delays, cessation in planned work or loss of one or more concessions and have an adverse effect on the Company and its financial condition. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable law.

Wolf E. Regener +1 (805) 484-3613, Email: investorrelations@bnkpetroleum.com, Website: http://www.bnkpetroleum.com
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After the governor of Texas announced that the state would stop accepting Syrian refugees, the Obama administration went behind his back secretly conferencing with a mayor that offers illegal immigrants sanctuary and Syrians a welcome mat, Judicial Watch said Tuesday. The plan, evidently, was to continue sending Syrian refugees to the Lone Star State, even as the governor initiated litigation to halt the flow, according to the judicial watchdog. Judicial Watch claimed that it obtained records of the administration's behind-the-scenes efforts to keep sending Syrians to Texas despite fierce opposition from state officials over the security threats created by refugees from an Arab nation that's a hotbed of terrorism. The White House looked to Austin Mayor Steve Adler, going around Texas Governor Greg Abbott to confer with a city leader who espoused the controversial Syrian resettlements, Judicial Watch said quoting the records. Shortly after the Governor announced that the state wouldn't accept any more Syrian refugees, the administration responded by colluding with Adler, according to records of a conference call between the mayor's office and the White House. The administration also furnished Adler with 'talking points' involving the refugee resettlement and the parties discussed Abbott's lawsuit, it says. 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.
L'ANSE-AU-GRIFFON, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- The Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of National Revenue and Member of Parliament for Gaspesie - Les Iles-de-la-Madeleine, on behalf of the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, announced today funding in the amount of $1.9 million for the transfer of the L'Anse-au Griffon harbour infrastructure to the Town of Gaspe.

The L'Anse-au-Griffon harbour facilities are mainly used for tourism activities and recreational boating. The funding will be used to build a service area, install a new ramp and floating wharves, as well as repair and stabilize the wharf faces.

This work will support tourism development opportunities which will benefit local businesses, harbour users and the entire region.

This transfer is part of the Small Craft Harbours divestiture program. The Town of Gaspe, as the new owner, will continue to operate this harbour as a public facility.

Quick Facts

-- The Small Craft Harbours divestiture program aims to transfer ownership and operation of recreational harbours to interested third parties, including municipalities, which are better positioned to operate these harbours in a manner that is more efficient and responsive to the needs of the local economy. -- Since 1995, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has successfully divested over 1,100 harbours throughout the country.

Quotes

"The Town of Gaspe has demonstrated an interest in managing and developing the waterfront assets at l'Anse-au-Griffon for the benefit of the local community. I would like to highlight the collaborative work between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Town of Gaspe which has made this possible."

The Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of National Revenue and Member of Parliament for Gaspesie-Les Iles-de-la-Madeleine

"The transfer of the l'Anse-au-Griffon harbour to the Town of Gaspe will ensure that local residents and visitors to the area will benefit from having adequate harbour facilities for years to come."

The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard

Associated Links

For more information on Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Small Craft Harbours Program: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/sch-ppb/home-accueil-eng.htm

Internet: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Follow us on Twitter! www.Twitter.com/DFO_MPO

Contacts:

Media Inquiries

Communications

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

613-990-7537

Media.xncr@dfo-mpo.gc.ca



Laura Gareau

Press Secretary

Office of the Minister

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

613-992-3474

Laura.gareau@dfo-mpo.gc.ca




HENDERSON, NEVADA -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- AIM Exploration Inc. (OTCQB: AEXE) (AEXE or the "Company") today announced that it has retained the services of AGORACOM Investor Relations ("AGORACOM") (http://www.agoracom.com) to provide online investor relations services. AGORACOM will specifically provide an online investor relations community for current shareholder communications, in addition to online marketing through search engines, social media networks and Tier-1 financial content partners for the purpose of attracting new shareholders.

Online investor relations maximizes the speed of communication, the degree of transparency and the access to company information. In response to overwhelming research data being generated by small-cap investors, the Company selected online investor relations to facilitate faster and more efficient communications with both current and prospective shareholders around the world.

Effective immediately, a customized and monitored AIM Exploration IR HUB will be available at http://agoracom.com/ir/AimExploration, allowing management to communicate with shareholders anytime and in near real-time through an electronic shareholder forum http://agoracom.com/ir/AimExploration/forums/discussion.

Moreover, the IR HUB will provide Company management with the ability to extend communications beyond text via audio messages, video presentations, Google Hangout Interviews, webcasts and podcasts.

James Robert (Bob) Todhunter, President commented, "We are excited to commence this campaign to both increase communications with our existing shareholders and to attract new shareholders to our company."

About AGORACOM

AGORACOM is the pioneer of online investor relations, online conferences and online branding services to North American small and mid-cap public companies, with more than 250 companies served. More than just lip service, AGORACOM is the home of more than 808K investors that visited 5.6 million times and read 52.4 million pages of information every year (Average 2008 - 2015).

AGORACOM traffic ranks within the top 0.5% of all websites around the world. These traffic results are independently tracked and verified by Google analytics. AGORACOM traffic can be attributed to its strategy of maintaining the cleanest, moderated small-cap discussion as a result of implementing the first ever Investor Controlled Stock Discussion Forums.

AGORACOM Founder, George Tsiolis, publishes the leading blog on small to mid cap investor relations. His 50 Small-Cap CEO Lessons are a must read for CEO's looking to increase their education and knowledge about online investor relations.

About AIM Exploration

AIM Exploration Inc. (AEXE) is a Henderson, Nevada headquartered company. AIM operates as a mining company focusing towards Anthracite production in Peru and worldwide marketing through a joint venture corporation with Prina Energy of India. The joint venture marketing arm is currently in the process of being formed and is intended to have the head office in Dubai, UEA.

The Anthracite Coal concessions are owned and/or controlled through their wholly owned subsidiary AIM Exploration SA. in Peru. AIM considers the mining concessions in Peru to be a high grade Anthracite Coal property in the Alto Chicama basin, in the province of Otuzco in Peru. AIM SA acquired these rights by purchasing these assets from Percana Mining Corp (Percana SA), a Peruvian corporation.

Contacts:

AIM Exploration Inc.

J.R. (Bob) Todhunter

info@aimexploration.com

www.twitter.com/aexeqb or @aexedb

www.aimexploration.com




ROUYN-NORANDA, CANADA -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Orex Exploration Inc. (TSX VENTURE: OX) (FRANKFURT: O5D) ("Orex" or the "Company") has announced on December 21, 2016 that the Board of Directors of the Company has established a special committee of the Board (the "Special Committee") to review and analyse all strategic and financial alternatives available to the Company.

The Special Committee will be chaired by Mr. Jonathan Fitzgerald, Chairman and CEO, and will include Mr. Jean-Pierre Landry, Mr. Marcel Faucher, and Mr. Jacques Levesque. All members of the Special Committee are Directors of the Company. Mr. Levesque is the Company's Chief Financial Officer. Summary biographies of the Special Committee members are available on the Company's website (www.orexexploration.ca)

"The Board recognizes that the inherent value of the Goldboro project is not adequately reflected in the Company's stock price. Accordingly, the Board has appointed the Special Committee to review all financial and strategic alternatives in order to better reflect that value. The Special Committee will review and consider any opportunity that will bring long-term value to our shareholders. Our shareholders deserve to be rewarded for their commitment and perseverance." said Mr. Fitzgerald.

According to Mr. Landry, "We shall continue the previously announced work to establish a revised development plan and to define and undertake a supplementary exploration program on the Goldboro property, along with the scoping work on permitting and environmental work underway currently. The Special Committee's mandate will support and complement that effort."

"The Goldboro project is a highly under-valued asset and the Board and Company must find a way to return that value to the shareholders. We will proceed with our fundamental work while examining all strategic alternatives in order to achieve our ambition." added Mr. Faucher.

Mr. Fitzgerald can be contacted at the telephone number and email address below to answer questions and other inquiries.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation service provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Contacts:

Jonathan Fitzgerald, CEO

1-208-720-9676

orex@cablevision.qc.ca



Jacques Levesque, CFO

1-819-797-4354

orex@cablevision.qc.ca




DUBLIN, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "UAE LNG Market Demand & Supply Analysis, By Region, By Application, By LNG Terminal, Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011-2025" report to their offering.

The UAE LNG market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.6% during 2016-2021. UAE is the third largest importer of LNG in Middle East & Africa region in 2015. The country mainly imports LNG from Qatar, Australia, Trinidad & Tobago and Indonesia. Various upcoming LNG terminal projects, surging demand for natural gas and cost-effectiveness of LNG in comparison with other alternative fuels are major factors anticipated to positively influence the LNG market scenario in UAE, over next ten years.

Growing focus on expansion of gas pipeline infrastructure, along with increasing utilization of natural gas for re-injection into oilfields to enhance oil production, declining LNG prices and implementation of favorable government policies is expected to boost demand for LNG in the UAE. In order to address the growing domestic demand for LNG, the country imports natural gas and LNG from Qatar through Jebel Ali LNG Terminal and Dolphin Energy operated pipeline. Jebel Ali (OFFSHORE) LNG Terminal was commissioned in 2010 in Dubai, with an initial LNG handling capacity of 3 mmtpa, which increased to 6 mmtpa in 2015.

Power generation sector was the largest consumer of LNG in the UAE as of 2015, however, with commissioning of four nuclear plants with 5.6 GW capacity, demand for LNG from power sector in the country is expected to decline during the forecast period, thereby impacting demand for LNG in the region.

Why You Should Buy This Report?

To gain an in-depth understanding of LNG market in the UAE.

To identify the on-going trends and anticipated growth in the next ten years.

To help LNG terminal operators, aggregators, suppliers, marketers and consultants in aligning their market-centric strategies.

To obtain research based business decisions and add weight to presentations and marketing material.

To gain competitive knowledge of leading market players.

To avail of 10% customization in the report without any extra charges and get research data or trends added in the report as per the buyer's specific needs.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Product Overview

2. Research Methodology

3. Executive Summary

4. UAE Primary Energy Consumption

5. UAE LNG Supply Market Outlook

6. UAE LNG Potential Demand Market Outlook

7. UAE LNG Potential Demand Supply Gap Outlook

8. UAE LNG Regional Market Outlook

9. UAE LNG Market Outlook

10. Import-Export Dynamics

11. LNG Pricing Analysis

12. UAE Pipeline Infrastructure Outlook

13. Competitive Analysis

14. Customer & Supplier Analysis

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/t8msrc/uae_lng_market

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
Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport opens today, marking the second Hyatt Place hotel in London and the fifth Hyatt branded hotel in the United Kingdom. The hotel is managed by Cycas Hospitality under a franchise agreement with M+L Hospitality. The 358-room hotel joins four Hyatt Place hotels in Europe, including Hyatt Place Jermuk and Hyatt Place Yerevan in Armenia; Hyatt Place Amsterdam Airport in The Netherlands; and Hyatt Place London Heathrow/Hayes in the U.K.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005568/en/

Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport is located at the doorstep of Heathrow Airport, providing guests with a relaxing and uncomplicated place to pause before beginning the next leg of their journey. (Photo: Business Wire)

The Hyatt Place brand is rooted in extensive consumer insights indicating that guests seek stylish, comfortable, seamless experiences that accommodate their lifestyles and familiar routines. To embody this, the brand offers casual hospitality and purposeful service in a smartly designed, high-tech and contemporary environment.

"We are delighted to collaborate with Cycas Hospitality and M&L Hospitality to bring the second Hyatt Place hotel to the U.K.," said Peter Fulton, group president Europe, Africa and Middle East and Southwest Asia for Hyatt. "The opening of this hotel marks a significant milestone for Hyatt as the Hyatt Place brand continues to expand worldwide and offer more choices to our guests in key gateway cities like London."

Following an extensive renovation of the existing building, Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport is located at the doorstep of Heathrow Airport, providing guests with a relaxing and uncomplicated place to pause before beginning the next leg of their journey.

"We are proud to welcome the first guests to Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport, a hotel that truly reflects the needs of the modern traveler," said Ingrid van Veen, regional manager for Cycas Hospitality. "We believe Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport will exceed guest expectations while visiting or passing through London."

Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport will offer:

358 spacious guestrooms , including a plush Hyatt Grand Bed, media and work center with a 42" flat-panel HDTV and comfortable Cozy Corner sofa-sleeper

, including a plush Hyatt Grand Bed, media and work center with a 42" flat-panel HDTV and comfortable Cozy Corner sofa-sleeper Gallery Hosts unique to the Hyatt Place brand who are available 24/7

unique to the Hyatt Place brand who are available 24/7 24/7 Gallery Market offering grab 'n go items, such as snacks and sandwiches

offering grab 'n go items, such as snacks and sandwiches Coffee to Cocktails Bar featuring specialty coffees and premium beers, as well as wines and cocktails

featuring specialty coffees and premium beers, as well as wines and cocktails Meetings Spaces offering seven flexible, high-tech meeting/function space that can accommodate 2-100 delegates

offering seven flexible, high-tech meeting/function space that can accommodate 2-100 delegates 24-hour StayFit Gym featuring fully stocked exercise equipment

featuring fully stocked exercise equipment Odds Ends program for forgotten items that guests can buy, borrow or enjoy for free

program for forgotten items that guests can buy, borrow or enjoy for free Free Wi-Fi and public computers with remote printing throughout the hotel

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

The term "Hyatt" is used in this release for convenience to refer to Hyatt Hotels Corporation and/or one or more of its affiliates.

About Hyatt Place

Hyatt Place, a brand of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, combines style, innovation and 24/7 convenience to create a seamless stay with modern comforts. There are more than 260 Hyatt Place locations in the United States, Armenia, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Honduras, India, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Thailand, The Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram, and tag photos with HyattPlace and WhySettle.

About Cycas Hospitality

Cycas Hospitality is a hotel management company specializing in extended-stay hotels in the U.K. and across Europe. It combines real world, first-hand experience of hotel management with expertise in real estate investment and development. For more information please visit www.cycashospitality.com.

About M&L Hospitality

M&L Hospitality is a Singapore-based real estate investment trust with an international portfolio of best-in-class hotels. M&L Hospitality has experienced exponential growth since the trust acquired the Four Points by Sheraton in Sydney in 2009, which will be rebranded as Hyatt Regency Sydney on December 1, 2016. Its portfolio now contains 13 hotels in operation and a further three hotels under construction, due to open in 2017, with properties in Singapore, Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the U.K. M&L Hospitality's hotels are in prime, central locations in international gateway cities. They are operated by the most recognizable international brands, including Accor, Hilton, IHG, Rezidor, Starwood, Hyatt, Travelodge, and Swissotel. M&L Hospitality's hotels are modern, functional, and appeal to the corporate, leisure, and MICE markets.

About Hyatt Hotels Corporation

Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H), headquartered in Chicago, is a leading global hospitality company with a portfolio of 12 premier brands and 679 properties in 54 countries, as of September 30, 2016. The Company's purpose to care for people so they can be their best informs its business decisions and growth strategy and is intended to create value for shareholders, build relationships with guests and attract the best colleagues in the industry. The Company's subsidiaries develop, own, operate, manage, franchise, license or provide services to hotels, resorts, branded residences and vacation ownership properties, including under the Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Andaz, Hyatt Centric, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Hyatt Ziva Hyatt ZilaraandHyatt Residence Club brand names and have locations on six continents. For more information, please visit www.hyatt.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005568/en/

Contacts:

Hyatt

Sian Martin

+1 312 780 5797

sian.martin@hyatt.com

or

Hyatt - Europe, Africa and Middle East and Southwest Asia

Simone Loretan

+41 44 279 1226

simone.loretan@hyatt.com
"A Cruz Administration will fulfill the promise Congress made to the American people almost 10 years ago by completing all 700 miles of priority fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border."



Trump claims he won a landslide. He didn't. He won a narrow electoral college victory and lost the actual election by close to 3 million votes. The final tally was Clinton 65,844,594 to Trump 62,979,616. It was a 48.2-46.1% win for Clinton. Trump did have a genuine landslide in Wyoming though. A strange throwback of a state where less than 1% of the population is Black, the score in Wyoming was Trump 174,419 (68.2%) to 55,973 (21.9%). Now that's a landslide. Trump won every county in the state except Teton (where Clinton beat him 60.1% to 32.2% and where lots of Americans have decided to settle in the Jackson area. Grand Teton National Park and much of Yellowstone National Park are in Teton County. Albany County (Laramie) wasn't a landslide either. Clinton came close there-- 7,601-6,888. But, yes, Wyoming went for Trumpism in a landslide. Campbell County, the biggest coal mining county in America, was all Trump all the way-- 15,778 (88.0%) to 1,324 (7.4%). But Campbell Co. wasn't even the site of Trumpanzee's biggest win. No, sir. Appropriately enough, his biggest county in Wyoming is Crook County where he beat Clinton 3,347 (88.8%) to 271 (7.2%). Crook County is 97.2% white-- primarily of German ancestry-- and most of the rest of the people are Native Americans. It's pitifully poor as well; the per capita income is just $17,379.





But Texas was a very different story. Trump won Texas' 38 electoral votes with a healthy 52.6% (4,681,590) to Clinton's 43.4% (3,867,816). Romney did better than Trump in Texas and Clinton did better than Obama. In 2012, the vote was 4,555,799 (57%) for Romney and 3,294,440 (41%) for Obama. Of Texas' 5 biggest counties, Clinton won 4:

 Harris Co: Clinton- 706,471, Trump- 544,960

 Dallas Co: Clinton- 458,845, Trump- 261,865

 Tarrant Co: Trump- 345,683, Clinton- 288,001

 Bexar Co: Clinton- 319,191, Trump- 240,161

 Travis Co: Clinton- 306,475, Trump- 126,750

No, that's not the making of a Republican landslide. And I don't know the last time a Democrat won Fort Bend County (the state's 8th biggest) in the Houston suburbs but Clinton beat Trump there 134,475 to 117,212. There are 14 counties that touch the Mexican border. Clinton won 10 of them. Most of the 14 counties along the border are sparsely populated, but 4 of them actually have big populations-- and Hillary won landslides in each of them-- El Paso 69.1%, Hidalgo 68.6%, Cameron- 64.6% and Webb- 74.4%.





Texas Tribune polled all 38 Texans in Congress-- 27 Republicans and 11 Democrats-- and Surprised? After all, Trump promised to build a wall along the border. Texans, however weren't all that enthusiastic about it. Thepolled all 38 Texans in Congress-- 27 Republicans and 11 Democrats-- and didn't find anyone offering a full-throated endorsement of a complete border wall . The Texas congressionals all favor beefed up security-- including fencing and walls in some places-- but no one shares Trump's vision for a virtually impossible wall from the New Mexico border to the Gulf of Mexico (although polling found that nearly 80% of the ignorant bigots who voted for Trump favor a wall).

Some Texas Republicans in Congress told the Tribune they backed building a wall but declined to clarify whether it should be a contiguous construction from San Diego to Brownsville. U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, believes Trump's support for a border wall is "an analogy," according to a spokeswoman.



No Texas Democrat that responded to the Tribune's survey offered support for a wall.



Among many Texas Republicans in Congress, the concept, while popular with the party's base, collides with another conservative tenant: eminent domain.



A wall would require the confiscation of ranching land near the Rio Grande, and several Texas Republicans expressed concern about the federal government taking away property-- often held by families for generations-- and the legal tangles that would inevitably arise from that.

No Republicans want to come out against it, no matter how unfeasible it is, but most of them are tip-toeing around the issue. The state's senior senator, John Cornyn told South Texas radio station KURV "lets complete the Secure Fence Act, which calls for roughly 700 miles of fencing along mainly in urban areas to prevent people from moving across, particularly drugs and human trafficking and the like. And then lets enhance the technology that we need, the eyes in the sky, the UAVs and the like. And then lets make sure that our men and women in green, the Border Patrol, have adequate troops and boots on the ground to get the job done, because if you see folks from the sky or if you see somebody climbing over a fence somewhere, youre going to have to get a Border Patrol agent there to detain them. So, its going to be a combination."





Joaquin Castro (D) represents much of San Antonio. He said that building a wall "is a bad idea. It would stifle economic activity and drain money thats badly needed to create jobs, fund schools, and repair beaten-up roads. The future of border security lies in manpower and smart technology, not medieval defenses."





Republican Will Hurd, who represents part of San Antonio and a bit of the El Paso area as well-- and barely won reelection against a weak and incompetent Democratic candidate last month-- told The Tribune that "building a wall from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security. We need to allow the men and women in Border Patrol to adjust their tactics, techniques and procedures as they see fit. You cant have a one-size-fits-all solution. What works in San Diego doesnt necessarily work in Tucson, and you need something different in El Paso. In heavily populated places a wall can be a useful tool. Its just one more tool in your toolkit used to solve this problem."





Most of El Paso is represented by Beto O'Rourke (D) and he isn't having any of Trump's nonsense. He told The Tribune that "We're spending the record amount of $19.5 billion each year to secure our border, at a time that it has never been safer. Record-low levels of northbound apprehensions, El Paso the safest city in the country, and not a single terrorist or terror plot that has used our connection with Mexico to do us harm. Irrational, obsessive focus on the border will prevent us from stopping threats where they really exist and will waste precious resources that are needed elsewhere."





John Ratcliffe (R) told The Tribune that he supports increased manpower on the border, aerial technology and subterranean technology. "Im in favor of a wall in places along the border, but anyone that has toured the entire southern border knows that in some places a wall will work and in some places it won't."





Last month Bill Flores (R) told the Dallas Morning News, "Im not in favor of the wall, Im in favor of an integrated system. Its more than a wall." After Trump was elected he told The Tribune that "I fully support President-elect Trumps national commitment to secure our borders. I believe we need an integrated system of border security, which consists of increased border security personnel; a physical wall where feasible; and a virtual wall including sensors, airborne resources, surveillance assets and related logistics."





Lloyd Doggett (D), who represents part of San Antonio and part of Austin, told The Tribune that he thinks "it makes no sense at all, and before its over, Trumps most famous claim that he would build a wall that Mexico would pay for will dissolve."





Filemon Vela (D) was even more adamant about the silliness of Trump's campaign tactic. He wrote to Trump directly before the election: "You can take your border wall and shove it up your ass."








BELLEVUE, WA and LONDON, UK--(Marketwired - December 21, 2016) - DigitalTown, Inc. (OTC PINK: DGTW) announced the expansion of its Board of Directors adding veteran executives Maury Blackman, Kenwei Chong, and Mark Schwartz, as well as the charter of Board Committees.

Effective December 8, 2016, on the occasion of the Company's quarterly Board of Directors meeting in London, UK, DigitalTown approved the expansion of the Board. The Board also chartered the establishment of Board committees in the areas of Audit, Finance and Strategic Planning, each with non-executive Chairmen.

Rob Monster, CEO of DigitalTown commented on the appointments: "With these latest appointments, and the establishment of empowered committees, DigitalTown is laying the groundwork for accelerating global growth as the company operates at the intersection of Smart City and GovTech. The scope of DigitalTown is nothing short of audacious. I am delighted to have the opportunity to partner with Messrs. Blackman, Chong and Schwartz, as well as the rest of our talented and high-functioning Board, in order to build a world class company."

Maury Blackman has an exemplary track record in building sales across multiple continents in Software as a Service, most recently as CEO of Accela where he grew sales from $12 million to $150 million and was recognized in 2016 as Entrepreneur of the Year in Northern California. Mr Blackman serves on the Strategic Planning committee.

Kenwei Chong, a Chinese-American, is a highly productive finance executive and entrepreneur currently based in Honolulu from where he manages diversified interests, including the .MENU global domain registry, with whom DigitalTown has a strategic partnership. Mr. Chong Chairs the Compensation and Finance Committees.

Mark Schwartz, who currently serves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), is the rare case of a Silicon Valley high tech executive who moves on to a leadership role in Federal government where he manages a team of approximately 2000 staff with a budget of $600 million. Mr. Schwartz is a published author and speaker. Mr. Schwartz serves on the Strategic Planning Committee.

Mr Chong, commented on his appointment: "As the operator of the .menu Top Level Domain registry our first interaction with Rob and DigitalTown was through a collaborative effort in developing a global platform for Smart restaurants integrated with the .MENU registry. With dining being a significant feature-focus of DigitalTown's smart city platform our joint initiative was a logical fit. As I learned more about the overarching design of DigitalTown's platform, beyond just the dining component, I became more excited about and more impressed with the future prospects of DigitalTown. It was an honor to be asked to join this DigitalTown's multi-talented Board. I look forward to partnering with my fellow Board members."

The Compensation and Finance committee is comprised of Kenwei Chong (Chair) and Jeffrey L. Mills. The Audit and Governance committee is comprised of Darvin L. Habben (Chair) and James B. Parsons. The Strategic Planning committee is comprised of Maury Blackman, Robert W. Monster, Derek Schumann (Chair), and Mark Schwartz.

About DigitalTown

DigitalTown, Inc. (DGTW) powers Smart Cities to succeed in the Digital Age. The company provides turn-key hosted solutions to power "Digital Towns," which improve Quality of Life for residents and visitors through integrated solutions for economic development, civic engagement and digital inclusion for cities around the world. For more information about the company, please visit www.digitaltown.com.

About Maury Blackman

Mr. Blackman is a special advisor to the Board of Directors of Accela. Prior to his appointment as special advisor, Mr. Blackman served as CEO of Accela since 2007. Accela is a leading cloud player in the government IT sector. Prior to joining Accela, Maury was a sales and marketing professional at Investools, formerly Telescan, Inc., and served as a Field Artillery Officer in the United States Army. He is a graduate of the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. Visit MauryBlackman.com for more.

About Kenwei Chong

Mr. Chong's early career was in foreign exchange and global fixed income analysis and funds management in New York City and San Francisco; and later as product development manager for foreign exchange and fixed income risk management at Bloomberg. In 2001, Mr. Chong left the capital markets profession to pursue entrepreneurial interests and has been an active owner and investor in self-storage, physical and electronic records management and storage, restaurant and hospitality, food manufacturing and wholesale distribution, physical and virtual real estate investment and top level domain ventures. Mr. Chong received his BA in Finance from Boston University and his Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the Association of Investment Management and Research.

About Mark Schwartz

Since June, 2010, Mr. Schwartz has served as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a component of the Department of Homeland Security, where he has been engaged in a large transformation effort, moving applications to the public cloud and introducing agile and lean development, continuous delivery, and DevOps. Prior to this position, Mr. Schwartz was the CIO of Intrax Cultural Exchange, where his innovative Family Room application drove dramatic market share, revenue, and profit growth. Mr. Schwartz is the author of The Art of Business Value. He holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Yale University, an M.A. in Philosophy from Yale University, and an M.B.A. from Wharton.

Safe Harbor Language: Any statements contained herein related to future events are forward-looking statements and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act 1995. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. DigitalTown, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update any such statements to reflect actual events.

Media Contact:

Rob Monster

Chief Executive Officer

DigitalTown, Inc.

(425) 295-4564

rob@digitaltown.com
Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - December 21, 2016) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that a Brazilian-based petrochemical manufacturer whose stock trades in the U.S. markets has agreed to settle charges that it created false books and records to conceal millions of dollars in illicit bribes paid to Brazilian government officials to win or retain business.

In a global settlement with the SEC, U.S. Department of Justice, and authorities in Brazil and Switzerland, Braskem S.A. agreed to pay $957 million.

The SEC's complaint alleges that Braskem made approximately $325 million in profits through bribes paid through intermediaries and off-book accounts managed by a private company that was Braskem's largest shareholder. Bribes were paid to a government official at Brazil's state-controlled petroleum company as well as Brazilian legislators and political party officials.

"As alleged in our complaint, Braskem lacked the internal controls to prevent its use of third parties, off-book accounts, and other intermediaries to bribe government officials in Brazil during an eight-year period," said Stephanie Avakian, Deputy Director of the SEC Enforcement Division. "Braskem's misconduct was exposed through the investigative work of authorities in three countries."

Braskem agreed to pay $325 million in disgorgement, including $65 million to the SEC and $260 million to Brazilian authorities. Braskem agreed to pay more than $632 million in criminal penalties and fines. The company must retain an independent corporate monitor for at least three years.

The SEC's investigation is continuing. It is being conducted by Ernesto Palacios and Thierry Olivier Desmet of the FCPA Unit with assistance from David S. Johnson and Fernando Torres, and supervised by Kara Brockmeyer, Chief of the FCPA Unit. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Fraud Section, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Brazilian Federal Prosecution Service, the Brazilian Federal Police, and the Office of the Attorney General in Switzerland.
COLUMBUS, OH -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Worthington Industries (NYSE: WOR) announced today it is changing the brand name of its cold chain storage and transportation products from CryoScience by Taylor-Wharton to Worthington Industries. The product line includes cryogenic refrigerators, freezers, dewars, shippers, accessories and replacement parts for the life sciences, health care and artificial insemination/animal husbandry markets. The brand name change will be effective Jan. 1, 2017.

The company purchased the global assets of CryoScience by Taylor-Wharton, including the manufacturing facility in Theodore, Ala., in Dec. 2015.

For more information, visit WorthingtonIndustries.com/LifeSciences.

About Worthington Industries

Worthington Industries is a leading global diversified metals manufacturing company with 2016 fiscal year sales of $2.8 billion. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Worthington is North America's premier value-added steel processor providing customers with wide ranging capabilities, products and services for a variety of markets including automotive, construction and agriculture; a global leader in manufacturing pressure cylinders for industrial gas and cryogenic applications, CNG and LNG storage, Cryogenic transportation and storage and alternative fuel tanks, oil and gas equipment, and consumer products for camping, grilling, hand torch solutions and helium balloon kits; and a manufacturer of operator cabs for heavy mobile industrial equipment; laser welded blanks for light weighting applications; automotive racking solutions; and through joint ventures, complete ceiling grid solutions; automotive tooling and stampings; and steel framing for commercial construction. Worthington employs approximately 10,000 people and operates 79 facilities in 11 countries.

Safe Harbor Statement

The Company wishes to take advantage of the Safe Harbor provisions included in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). Statements by the Company relating to its ability to increase market participation, expand and integrate capacity, increase efficiencies and reduce lead time, achieve growth in general and in specific markets, and other statements which are not historical information constitute "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the Act. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from those projected. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include risks described from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cathy M. Lyttle

VP, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations

(614) 438-3077

Email Contact



Sonya L. Higginbotham

Director, Corporate Communications

(614) 438-7391

Email Contact



200 Old Wilson Bridge Rd.

Columbus, Ohio 43085

WorthingtonIndustries.com




DUBLIN, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Cloud Security Market By Service Type (Identity and Access Management, etc.), By Deployment Mode (Private, Public, etc.), By End User (IT and Telecom, etc.), By Region (North America, etc.), Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011-2021" report to their offering.

The global market for cloud security is projected to grow at a CAGR over 10% during 2016-2021, due to rising instances of security breaches for identity and financial data theft in IT & telecom, BFSI, government and retail sectors.

Cloud security can be defined as a set of control-based advancements and strategies designed to protect information stored on the cloud. Rising adoption of cloud computing across various end user industries is propelling growth in the global cloud security market. Various types of cloud security services include Identity & access management, web security, email security, data loss prevention, etc.

Growth in demand for these cloud security solutions is witnessing an increase over the past few years, on account of increasing usage of cloud specific services such as Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, etc., and rising instances of cloud specific attacks across various industry verticals. In addition, growing adoption of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) concept, rising internet of things market and exponential growth in cyber security is projected to boost growth in cloud security market across the globe during forecast period as well.

In addition, increasing adoption of cloud storage solutions by small & medium enterprises, rising adoption of cloud security in ecommerce, etc., is also driving global cloud security market.

North America dominated the global cloud security market in 2015 due to increasing adoption of cloud computing, and growing IT security spending in the region. Few of the key players operating in global cloud security market include Trend Micro, Intel, IBM, Cisco and Symantec.

Global Cloud Security Market report discusses the following aspects of the cloud security market across the globe:

Global Cloud Security Market Size, Share & Forecast

Segmental Analysis By Service Type (Identity & Access Management, Data Loss Prevention, Email Security, Web Security, SIEM and Others), By Deployment Mode (Private, Public and Hybrid), By End User (IT & Telecom, BFSI, Government, Retail and Others), By Region ( North America , South America , Europe , Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa )

, , , and & ) Changing Market Trends & Emerging Opportunities

Competitive Landscape & Strategic Recommendations

Market Dynamics

Market Trends & Development

Rapidly Growing Internet of Things (IoT) Market

Increasing Demand for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

Rising Demand for Data Analytics

Rising Cyber Security Market

Increasing Adoption of Cloud By SMBS

Adoption of Cloud Security in e-commerce

Growing Adoption of Smart Homes Concept

Increasing Number of Smart Cities

Key Topics Covered:

1. Product Overview

2. Research Methodology

3. Analyst View

4. Global Cloud Security Market Outlook

5. Global Cloud Security Market Attractiveness Index

6. North America Cloud Security Market Outlook

7. Europe Cloud Security Market Outlook

8. Asia-Pacific Cloud Security Market Outlook

9. South America Cloud Security Market Outlook

10. Middle East & Africa Cloud Security Market Outlook

11. Market Dynamics

12. Market Trends & Development

13. Competitive Landscape

14. Strategic Recommendations

Companies Mentioned

- CA Technologies Inc.

- Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

- CipherCloud

- Cisco Systems, Inc.

- Clearswift Ltd.

- CloudPassage, Inc.

- Computer Sciences Corporation

- Fortinet, Inc.

- Gemalto NV

- Intel Corporation

- International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation

- Microsoft Corporation

- Netskope, Inc.

- Okta Inc.

- PandaSecurity, S.L.

- SecureWorks Corporation

- Sophos Ltd.

- Symantec Corporation

- Trend Micro, Inc.

- Zscaler, Inc.

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/xh6qtr/global_cloud

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

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

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

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U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/16 -- Saturn Minerals Inc. (TSX VENTURE: SMI)(FRANKFURT: SMK) ("Saturn" or the "Company") is pleased to announce an extension and increase of its previously announced Private Placement. Based on current acquisition, exploration and development opportunities management of the Company has decided to extend and increase the Private Placement from 10,000,000 Units (the "Units") at a price of CAD $0.10 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to CAD $1,000,000 (one million dollars) to 40,000,000 Units for gross proceeds of up to CAD $4,000,000 (four million dollars), on the same terms and conditions previously announced.

Each Unit consists of one common Share (the "Shares") and one-half of a Share purchase Warrant (the "Warrants"). Each whole Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common Share, exercisable at a price of CAD $0.15 per Share for a period of 18 months from the date of issue of the Warrant.

The Warrants are subject to an accelerated expiry if, at any time after an initial 4 month hold period expires, the closing price of Saturn's common Shares on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") exceeds CAD $0.20 for any 20 consecutive trading days, in which event the holder will be given notice that the Warrants will expire 30 days following the date of such notice. The Warrants may be exercised by the holder during the 30-day period between the notice and the expiration of the Warrants.

All securities issued will be subject to a four-month hold period. The offering is subject to the approval of the TSXV. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities.

Proceeds from the Private Placement will be used for acquisitions, exploration, development and general working capital. "Since we got on board of the Company in November this year, we are spending most of our time with the due diligence of oil assets and the economics of potential acquisition targets. "It is just a question completing due diligence until we will be in a position to announce a transaction," stated John Jeffrey, CEO of the Company. "We have been evaluating a series of low risk opportunities with upside potential. The details are important for our expectations on potential acquisitions and their development. We are highly motivated and have a clear vision of where we want to get to in 2017 with our team and shareholders," says Scott Newman, COO of the company.

The Company is also completing the process to change its name to "Saturn Oil + Gas Inc." and is now waiting for the approval. The change in name reflects a change in direction for Saturn from a mineral-focused exploration company to one with a strong focus on the acquisition and development of oil and gas assets in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

About Saturn Minerals Inc.

Saturn Minerals Inc. (TSX VENTURE: SMI)(FRANKFURT: SMK) is a junior Canadian energy company advancing a portfolio of oil and coal properties in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The Company exclusive oil & gas rights in Saskatchewan and is advancing a number of oil exploration projects. Saturn has also made three shallow bituminous coal discoveries since 2009 with coal seams ranging in continuous vertical thickness from 9 to 89 meters. Saturn has a strategic ownership in Inowending Exploration & Development Corp., a First Nations owned exploration and development company co-founded by Saturn with a consortium of Saskatchewan First Nations active in Canada's prairie provinces. Saturn's mission is to be a leading industry player in the discovery and commercial production of oil & gas resources in the Northern Williston Basin.

To learn more, please contact the Company at +1 (604) 685-6989 or visit: www.saturnoil.com

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

SATURN MINERALS INC.

Stan Szary, President and Chairman

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE

Contacts:

Saturn Minerals Inc.

+1 (604) 685-6989

www.saturnoil.com




Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - December 21, 2016) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Sharon B. Binger, Director of the Philadelphia Regional Office, will leave the agency at the end of the year. Following her departure, G. Jeffrey Boujoukos, the Philadelphia office's associate regional director for enforcement, will serve as regional director.

Ms. Binger has headed the Philadelphia office since February 2014, overseeing a staff of more than 150 attorneys, accountants, and other professionals responsible for conducting investigations, litigation, and examinations in a region covering Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

"Sharon exemplifies the high standards of leadership we set at the agency - tough but fair enforcement, inspiring leadership, and impactful results," said SEC Chair Mary Jo White. "The public has benefitted from her deep commitment to protecting investors."

Ms. Binger said, "It has been an incredible honor and a joy to lead the Philadelphia Regional Office and its dedicated and talented staff. I am grateful to have had this opportunity and I am very proud of the high quality, innovative work we have accomplished together."

During Ms. Binger's tenure, the SEC's Philadelphia Office filed dozens of enforcement matters involving a variety of securities law violations, including the SEC's charges against:

Two brokers who traded on inside information ahead of the $1.2 billion acquisition of SPSS Inc. in 2009 by IBM Corp.



An investment advisory firm that failed to properly prepare clients for additional transaction costs beyond the "wrap fees" they pay to cover the cost of several services bundled together



Nationwide Life Insurance Company for routinely violating pricing rules in its daily processing of purchase and redemption orders for variable insurance contracts and underlying mutual funds

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC for submitting deficient information to the SEC over a two-year period about trades done by its customers, commonly referred to as "blue sheet data"

The Philadelphia office also is litigating the SEC's charges against dozens of defendants for taking part in a scheme to profit from stolen nonpublic information about corporate earnings announcements. The Philadelphia office is leading the SEC's continuing litigation, where the agency has obtained $53 million in settlements from 13 defendants.

"Sharon's creativity and vision, along with her steady leadership, have been critical to the success of the Philadelphia office's enforcement program," said Andrew J. Ceresney, Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division. "She instituted significant changes to the office, diversifying the office's docket and energizing the staff, resulting in important and path-breaking cases."

Ms. Binger also helped bring about successful changes in the structure and processes of the exam program. She put in place initiatives to instill a more risk-focused approached to examinations and adapt the program to the large influx of newly-registered hedge fund managers and private equity funds under the Dodd-Frank Act.

"Sharon has been an outstanding leader for the exam program in the Philadelphia Regional Office. She has been a strong advocate for investors and delivered on OCIE's Four Pillars of promoting compliance, preventing fraud, informing policy and monitoring risk," said Marc Wyatt, Director of the SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations.

Ms. Binger joined the SEC's Enforcement Division in 2008. She was promoted to assistant regional director in the SEC's New York Office in 2011. Prior to her arrival at the SEC, she spent seven years in private practice with a large international law firm. Ms. Binger graduated from Northwestern University in 1998 and earned her law degree with honors from Duke University School of Law in 2001.
Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - December 21, 2016) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that G. Jeffrey Boujoukos has been named Director of its Philadelphia Regional Office, where he will oversee enforcement and examinations in the Mid-Atlantic region. Mr. Boujoukos' appointment will be effective following the departure of Sharon B. Binger, who is leaving the agency at the end of the year.

Mr. Boujoukos joined the SEC's Enforcement Division in 2009 as regional trial counsel in the Philadelphia office. He has been associate regional director for enforcement in that office since March 2014.

As associate regional director and regional trial counsel, Mr. Boujoukos has participated in and supervised dozens of enforcement matters involving a variety of securities law violations, including:

Charges against BP p.l.c. for misleading investors regarding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by significantly understating the flow rate in multiple reports filed with the SEC



An investment advisory firm that failed to properly prepare clients for additional transaction costs beyond the "wrap fees" they pay to cover the cost of several services bundled together



Insider trading charges against two brokers who traded on inside information ahead of the $1.2 billion acquisition of SPSS Inc. in 2009 by IBM Corp. and a former BP employee



Charges against New York-based brokerage firm Linkbrokers Derivatives LLC for unlawfully taking secret profits of more than $18 million from customers by adding hidden markups and markdowns to their trades

"Jeff's knowledge, judgment and pragmatism make him an ideal leader of the Philadelphia office," said Andrew J. Ceresney, Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division. "He has led that office's enforcement program to bring numerous important and impactful cases, and distinguished himself as a trial lawyer and strategic thinker."

"Jeff has been a strong partner and advocate for OCIE in his previous positions with the SEC," said Marc Wyatt, Director of the SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations. "We look forward to his leadership of the exam program in the Philadelphia region and his contribution to the national program."

Mr. Boujoukos said, "I am incredibly honored to lead the exceptionally talented and hard working staff of the SEC's Philadelphia office. It is a privilege to come to work every day and collaborate with the office's enforcement and exam staff who have dedicated their professional careers to protecting the nation's investors and ensuring fair and orderly markets."

Prior to joining the SEC staff, Mr. Boujoukos was an associate and later a partner in the litigation department of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia. He graduated from Lehigh University in 1989, and graduated with honors from Temple University School of Law in 1992.
Technavio research analysts forecast the global attack helicopter marketto grow at a CAGR of more than 5% during the forecast period, according to their latest report.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005752/en/

Technavio has published a new report on the global attack helicopter market from 2017-2021. (Graphic: Business Wire)

The study covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the global attack helicoptermarketfor 2017-2021. It also presents the market landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the four major vendors operating in the market. In addition, the report discusses the key emerging trends and their influence on current and future markets.

According to Moutushi Saha, a lead analyst at Technavio for defense research, "R&D plays a significant role in the development of attack helicopters in the global market. Over the last decade, countries like the US, Turkey, India, China, South Korea, and the UK have invested heavily in the development and manufacture of attack helicopters."

Request a sample report: http://www.technavio.com/request-a-sample?report=55199

Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report including the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more.

Technavio aerospace and defense analysts highlight the following three drivers that are contributing to the growth of the global attack helicopter market:

Growing deployment of attack helicopters in war zones

Attack helicopter modernization programs

Rising procurement plans of developing countries

Growing deployment of attack helicopters in war zones

Attack helicopters are specially designed to provide superior maneuverability and complement other maneuver forces like mobility of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. The defensive and attacking features of these helicopters enable the defense authorities to deploy them in sectors where the enemy operates with maximum potential.

The demand for attack helicopters in war zones is being driven by their capability to carry various lethal weapon systems. These helicopters are incorporated with third-generation anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) such as Hellfire. Many of the attack helicopters carry air-to-air missiles for self-defense. These missiles are designed to identify armored vehicles, operating in open or covered terrain.

"Additionally, attack helicopters are capable of rapidly destroying multiple enemy targets simultaneously, while generating maximum kill ratio before being detected by the enemy forces," says Moutushi.

Attack helicopter modernization programs

Many countries are modernizing their airborne defense and attack units by upgrading their fleet of attack helicopters. The increase in technological developments of associated components and weapons are driving the need for upgraded platforms. This will simultaneously boost the military airborne platform market and enable greater dominance of countries over the skies.

Attack helicopters and their development are witnessing extensive investments over the past few years. With the growing demand for high platform stability with a heavy payload, fuel efficiency, and incorporation of advanced lethal weaponry systems, many modernization programs have been initiated that would accelerate the military attack helicopters market.

Rising procurement plans of developing countries

Over the last one decade, India, China, Philippines, Germany, Italy, as well as other developing nations have invested heavily in the development of such military aerial platforms including attack helicopters. More advanced and highly lethal attack helicopters demand powerful propulsion systems, precise target acquisition, and high destruction capabilities. Many countries are contracting with manufacturers to develop specially designed attack helicopters to meet specific military requirements.

India is currently enhancing its military capabilities by developing high-precision lethal weapons and platforms such as light combat helicopter (LCH). LCH is mainly developed by HAL for anti-infantry and anti-tank roles. It is also deployed for high-altitude warfare as its operational ceiling is around 16,000-18,000 feet.

Browse Related Reports:

Global Military Helicopter MRO Market 2016-2020

Global Helicopter Flight Control Systems Market 2016-2020

Global Civil Helicopter MRO Market 2016-2020

Become a Technavio Insights member and access all three of these reports for a fraction of their original cost. As a Technavio Insights member, you will have immediate access to new reports as they're published in addition to all 6,000+ existing reports covering segments like defense technologygeneral aviationandhomeland security This subscription nets you thousands in savings, while staying connected to Technavio's constant transforming research library, helping you make informed business decisions more efficiently.

About Technavio

Technaviois a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies.

Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users.

If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161221005752/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 630 333 9501

UK: +44 208 123 1770

www.technavio.com
STOCKHOLM, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday December 21, 2016, RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Drottninggatan 33 in Stockholm under the chairmanship of the Chairman of the Board Laszlo Kriss.

Adoption of income statement and balance sheet and resolution concerning discharge from liability

The AGM adopted the income statement and balance sheet for the Parent company and the consolidated income statement and consolidated balance sheet for the fiscal year that started September 1, 2015 and ended August 31, 2016. The AGM discharges the members of the Board and the President from personal liability for the 2015/2016 financial year.

Dividend

The AGM resolved in accordance with the Board's motion that a dividend of SEK 0.25 per share to be paid for the September 1, 2015 - August 31, 2016 fiscal year, and Friday December 23, 2016 as the record day for distribution.

Determination of the number of directors and the number of auditors and deputy auditors

The AGM approved the Nomination Committee's proposal that the Board shall consist of six Board members and that the number of auditors shall be one without deputy auditors.

Election of Board members

The AGM voted to re-electBoard members Laszlo Kriss, Per Thunell, Ivar Fransson, Michael Lemner, Monika Elling and Sara Wimmercranz to the Board. Laszlo Kriss was elected Chairman of the Board.

Fees to Board members and auditors

The AGM adopted the Nomination Committee's proposal that total directors fees of SEK 1275 000 be paid, whereby each Board member who is not employed by the company will receive SEK 160 000. SEK 350000 will be paid to the Chairman of the Board. A special fee of SEK 75 000 is to be paid to the Chairman of the Audit Committee and SEK 25000 to the other 2 members of the Audit Committee. Otherwise, no fees are to be paid for committee work. Fees to auditors are paid on a current account basis as invoices are received.

Appointment of auditors

The AGM adopted the Nomination committee's proposal to re-elect Ernst & Young for the period from now until the close of the AGM for 2016/2017 fiscal year. As auditor in charge the auditing company has appointed Johan Eklund.

CONTACT:

This information is information that RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out below, on December 21, 2016 at 20:00 p.m. CET.

For further information, please contact:

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e-mail: magnus.hakansson@rnb.se

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VIRGINIA BEACH, VA -- December 15, 2016 -- College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving -- which has been featured on Blue Collar Millionaire, Shark Tank and other primetime shows -- has expanded its presence to the Virginia Beach area. The company provides local moving, junk removal, donation pickups and more. Franchisees Thomas Bakke and Parke Atkinson opened their franchise at 4904 Rutherford Rd., Ste 101, Virginia Beach, VA 23455. They can be reached at (757) 255-5138 or online at https://collegehunkshaulingjunk.com/locations/va/hampton-roads/.

College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving is a national moving and junk removal company and an established, award-winning franchise business.

We are the only nationwide moving company that offers full-service residential and commercial moving, junk removal, donation pickups and moving labor services across the United States and Canada.

The desire to mentor leaders and aggressively grow a new market is why College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving awarded Bakke and Atkinson the rights to the franchise in Virginia Beach.

"We are very aggressive when it comes to growth, but we want to do it the right way," College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving President Nick Friedman said. "That means, first and foremost, finding the right franchise partner. We only want to work with people who are enthusiastic about teamwork, and who believe in our mantra of 'move the world' -- which means making a positive impact in the lives of clients and employees. Bakke and Atkinson share our core values and clients are going to be blown away by the level of service they receive."

College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving of Virginia Beach is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. You can reach them at (757) 255-5138 or online at https://collegehunkshaulingjunk.com/locations/va/hampton-roads/.

To learn about owning a College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving franchise, visit www.collegehunksfranchise.com.

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/12/21/11G125841/Images/moving-out-of-truck-c56815bcce5bac5aa7a11a73fa51c0d0.jpg

Embedded Video Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZLNFSMSELM&feature=youtu.be

College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving

866-766-0540



Danielle Wright Kimble

Danielle.wright@chhj.com



Frank Morrison

frank.morrison@chhj.com
The day will consist of a series of 6 high-level conferences addressing issues relating to renewable energy and just transition.
Weekly net asset value ("NAV") is calculated as of the close of business on each Tuesday and posted on the following business day. In the event that Tuesday is not a business day, the Company will calculate the close-of-business NAV as of the business day immediately preceding that Tuesday. The end-of-month NAV is calculated as of the close of business on the last day of the month and posted on the following business day. For weeks that include a month-end NAV report, PSH will provide only the month-end NAV and not report the Tuesday NAV. Monthly NAVs are published in accordance with the Decree on Conduct of Business Supervision of Financial Undertakings under the Wft (Besluit Gedragstoezicht financiele ondernemingen Wft).

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--(Newsfile Corp. - December 21, 2016) - Iconic Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: ICM) (FSE: YQGB) (OTC Pink: BVTEF) announces the negotiation, subject to acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V"), of a private placement for gross proceeds of up to $500,000 (the "Financing"). Upon receipt of acceptance from the TSX-V to the Financing, the Company will issue up to 4,545,454 Units at a price of $0.11 per Unit, each Unit being comprised of one common share and one-half share purchase warrant, each whole warrant being exercisable into one common share for a period of one (1) year from the date of issuance at $0.20 per share.

Proceeds raised will be used toward expenditures required for the Bonnie Claire lithium Property, and for general working capital purposes.

The Company may pay finders' fees in connection with the Financing in accordance with the rules and policies of the TSX-V.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

SIGNED: "Richard Barnett"

Richard Barnett, CFO and Secretary

Contact: (604) 336-8614

For further information on ICM, please visit our website at www.iconicmineralsltd.com

The Company's public documents may be accessed at www.sedar.com

The securities referred to in this news release have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from the U.S. registration requirements.

This news release does not constitute an offer for sale of securities for sale, nor a solicitation for offers to buy any securities. Any public offering of securities in the United States must be made by means of a prospectus containing detailed information about the company and management, as well as financial statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - December 21, 2016) - The Piacente Group, Inc. ("TPG"), a full-service, multinational investor relations consulting firm, today announced that it has opened an office in Shanghai to further support its growing portfolio of U.S.-listed Chinese companies. The Shanghai office is being led by Vice President Emilie Wu, and marks TPG's second office in China, following its flagship Beijing office.

TPG has provided investor relations counsel to U.S.-listed Chinese companies since its inauguration in 2005, with expertise in the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT), education, consumer and Internet sectors.

"We are delighted to have opened our second office in China in response to strong demand for TPG's investor relations services in the Shanghai region. For nearly 12 years we have focused on providing our clients with top-quality IR services, making us a natural fit for both established entities and the new wave of great companies and innovative entrepreneurs embarking on IPOs," said Brandi Piacente, Founder and President of The Piacente Group. "As a trusted, hands-on consultant and service provider, we are experts at partnering with management teams to deliver outstanding capital markets communication and outreach programs. It is gratifying to see our long-standing commitment to, and investment in, the China market recognized as we continue to be an IR service provide of choice to Chinese companies seeking superior investor-oriented communication services."

Emilie Wu, Vice President of The Piacente Group, commented, "Shanghai is home to a rising number of high-quality public and private companies, as well as a hub for the local and regional investment community, financial media and investor-related events. Since opening our Shanghai office in July, we have been able to more closely partner with our clients in this region. I am excited to be leading the TPG effort in Shanghai, and look forward to executing tailored, proactive strategies and initiatives to help our clients meet their investor relations goals."

Emilie Wu has been instrumental in leading teams at The Piacente Group for four years and is a highly skilled and experienced investor relations professional with a track record of implementing all facets of strategic investor relations programs. She has worked extensively with U.S.-listed Chinese companies and in various roles with investor relations and capital market service providers in the U.S. and China. Born and raised in Shanghai, she is fully fluent in Mandarin and English and holds a bachelor's degree in International Economics from Shanghai Jiaotong University and a master's degree in Analytical Finance from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. She is also a FRM (Financial Risk Manager) charter holder.

About The Piacente Group

TPG is a full-service investor relations and financial communications consulting firm with offices in New York, California, Beijing and Shanghai. Representing a balanced portfolio of U.S.- and China-based companies, TPG develops and implements strategic programs focused on broadening investment community sponsorship through best-practice execution. Value-driven communications, proactive and continuous outreach to Wall Street, targeted media relations and innovative social media methodologies work in concert to market TPG clients' securities before optimal investment audiences.

Please visit The Piacente Group at www.tpg-ir.com, Facebook and LinkedIn. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tpgir.

Contact:

The Piacente Group, Inc.

Emilie Wu

Vice President

+86 (21) 6039 8363

emilie@tpg-ir.com
One week ago, BSG Resources wrote a letter to Rio Tinto, threatening a lawsuit in regards to mining rights for the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea.Last month, Rio Tinto sacked its Energy & Minerals chief executive Alan Davies, following an internal bribery investigation.Now the attention has turned to what role BSG Resources played  with its owner, billionaire Beny Steinmtez, currently being detained by police in Israel for questioning. It has been alleged that BSG Resources and certain employees of Rio Tinto were involved in bribing government officials in Guinea for Simandou mining rights. Steinmetz will be held under house arrest until 2 January 2017.BSGs president, Asher Avidan, has also been arrested, for his suspected involvement in this ongoing bribery scandal.Rio Tinto posted a net profit of $2.3 billion at 30 June 2016.
Artfinder, a London, UK-based art marketplace, closed a US$2.2m funding round.

The round was led by Oxford Capital with participation from William Tunstall-Pedoe, the Cambridge-based entrepreneur who played a senior role in the team that defined, built and launched Amazon Echo. In conjunction with the funding, Oxford Capital partner, Tom Bradley, will join Artfinders Board of Directors.

The company will use the funds to accelerate its US growth and extend its deep visual search technology with machine learning capabilities to enable users to quickly find what they like.

Led by Swedish tech entrepreneur Jonas Almgren, Artfinder is an art marketplace that connects 500,000 subscribers around the world with 8,500 artists and galleries internationally, and 250,000+ artworks in categories including painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, drawing and collage.

The company, which is opening a US office in Miami, Florida, in February 2017, is also backed by Wellington Partners, Cambridge Angels and other private investors in the UK, the US and Switzerland.

FinSMEs

21/12/2016
Jenetric, a Jena, Germany-based biometrics tech company, raised a third funding round of undisclosed amount.

Backers included bm|t, the investment company of the Free State of Thuringia, High-Tech Grunderfonds, and new angel Franz Schmidt.

The company intends to use the funds to scale-up production and expand US sales.

Founded in 2014 and led by CEO Roberto Wolfer, Jenetric specializes in the development on biometric systems. The company already has two fingerprint scanners on the market: the LIVETOUCH quattro with integrated user guidance and the compact module LIVETOUCH quattro Compact for the integration into portable enrolment kits.

FinSMEs

20/12/2016
Meliomar Inc., a Manila, Philippines-based seafood company, received a US$1m investment.

The Meloy Fund (Meloy Fund I, LP) for Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in Southeast Asia, the first impact fund focused solely on near-shore fishing-related enterprises in the developing tropics, made the five-year investment.

Founded in 2013 and led by Christian Schmidradner, CEO, Meliomar is a fish aggregator, processor, importer and exporter.

The company will use the proceeds to increase its processing capacity and logistics, as well as strengthen its internal systems, supporting growth in volume as well as the development of additional product lines to complement its current offering. As part of the agreement, Meliomar will partner with Rares flagship coastal fisheries program, Fish Forever, to source at least ten tons of sustainable seafood annually from local Filipino communities as part of jointly developed fishery improvement projects (FIPs).

FinSMEs

21/12/2016
Price f(x), a Pfaffenhofen, Germany-based pricing optimization software company, closed a 4m funding round.

Backers included Credo Ventures and Talis Capital.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its existing commercial operations in North America, Europe and Asia.

Led co-founder and CEO Marcin Cichon, Price f(x) provides a full suite of SaaS-based pricing optimization tools which give medium and large corporations control and visibility over their margins and profitability. Among other functionalities, the platform allows sales forces with a Configure Price and Quote (CPQ) functionality to speed up the closing process, identify upselling and cross-selling opportunities and manage on- and off-invoice discounts and rebates.

FinSMEs

21/12/2016
Visedo Oy, a Lappeenranta, Finland-based cleantech company, secured 20m in additional financing.

Backers were not disclosed.

The company is using the funds to invest in international growth and strengthen its management team with experienced members. Tarja Jarvinen joined as CFO, and Nina Harjula as CMO.

Established in 2009 by Kimmo Rauma, CEO, Visedo specializes in electrical power lines and components for heavy mobile equipment, commercial vehicles, and the shipping industry. The companys power lines are suitable for both hybrid and electrical systems with a performance range of 302 000 kW.

The company, which has a subsidiary in the Netherlands, has an international customer base with 90% of sales consisting of export to Europe and Asia.

FinSMEs

21/12/2016
NATO members must always reaffirm the importance of collective defense and democratic solidarity, said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Speaking at the recent NATO ministerial meeting, he said, that "peace is best kept through strength and unity, through clarity of purpose and intent, and those qualities remain at the heart of NATO."

These principles have been at the core of the alliance since its inception. The reason is very simple: The founders of the alliance witnessed the horror that results when instability and political extremism grow unchecked. They knew that hate and territorial ambition and radicalism, when mixed with economic challenges as well as nationalism can often lead to a noxious mix that poisons entire nations, entire continents, and can quickly spread beyond control.

That's why NATO members recognize it's not enough to speak about values of tolerance, openness, democracy, rule of law, and good governance, said Secretary Kerry. "The members of this alliance bear a huge responsibility to push back against waves of authoritarianism, extreme nationalism, and gross violations of national sovereignty and against threats to security and fundamental human rights."

As for the United States, its commitment to NATO and to article 5, the collective defense clause, transcends politics. This alliance, said Secretary Kerry, has enjoyed political support beyond political parties and beyond one branch of government and across the United States. NATO has delivered an end to the Balkan Wars, delivered solidarity after September 11th, and delivered burden sharing in Afghanistan and against terrorism.

"As long as there are grave dangers in the world, NATO is going to serve an indispensable purpose," said Secretary Kerry. "But an even deeper source of NATOs strength is its commitment to freedom, to human rights, to rule of law, to a structure. . . .This is a defensive alliance, and it is here to defend the order of freedom and the order of liberty and the rule of law."
Nusli Wadia's litany of complaints against Tata Sons could come a cropper, as documents now prove that he had happily played along with the very decisions he is now contesting.

Documents accessed by Firstpost show how Wadia, an independent director on board of three Tata companies, had expressed his happiness and approval on a host of decisions taken by Ratan Tata, then chairman of Tata Sons, and even complimented him and offered help to shape up projects he now calls contentious.

Here are the documents:

Tata by Firstpost on Scribd

One of these pertain to the small car Nano, launched by Tata in 2008. Wadia's 13-page letter to shareholders of Tata Motors speak critically of the planning and execution of the Nano. In the letter, Wadia said he had differences with Ratan Tata over the continuation of the car. "After its commercial failure, which became evident not too long after its launch, I differed strongly with its continued operations and funding," said Wadia.

But Wadia, documents now show, was once keenly following developments related to the Nano plant in West Bengal. In August 2008, two months before Tata Motors decided to move out the plant from Bengal, Wadia even sent a mail to Ratan Tata, offering help in shifting the plant to Sangli in Maharashtra, home to the then Maharashtra finance minister, Jayant Patil.

"He (Patil) would like to come and meet you (Tata), and it would be nice if you could give him an appointment or be in touch with him," Wadia wrote in a mail dated August 27, 2008.

Equally interesting was Wadia's observations about Tata's investment in UK-based Corus Steel. In another letter, Wadia said he was against the investment, even accusing (Ratan) Tata of promoting Corus at the cost of Tata Steel. "I differed strongly with the acquisition of Corus for sound reason. However, a decision was ultimately taken by consensus. I had a fundamental difference on the strategy as to whether Tata Steel would be best served in expanding in the UK. I was strongly of the view that Tata Steel should concentrate on the rapidly growing Indian market, and develop its new Greenfield steel plant where the margins and returns would be far superior," wrote Wadia, in his blistering letter to Tata Steel shareholders early this month.

But what he did not say was that he was among the first to praise the move, calling up the then Tata Sons chairman and congratulating him on the acquisition. Tata, as a matter of gesture, wrote back on 1 February, 2007, saying, "Thank you so much for your message on Corus. I greatly appreciate your encouragement and your kind words."

Corporate sources in both Mumbai and Delhi find Wadia's stance on the corporate rivalry that exists between his son Jeh Wadia's low-cost airline Go Air and Tata promoting two airlines with partners (Air Vistara and Air Asia India) equally surprising. Interestingly, Tatas and Wadias  friends and allies for many decades  were facing off at opposition lobbies in the aviation sector, as the Ministry of Civil Aviation was contemplating dismantling the "five years and 20 aircraft norms for domestic carriers to fly international".

But now, documents show how Wadia wanted (Ratan) Tata's support in pushing his agenda in Delhi's corridors of powers, even writing a letter to the then Tata Sons chairman, who was also the chairman of Investment Commission set up by the government. Says the letter, dated December 6, 2008, "As you (Tata) know, the Civil Aviation industry in India has been going through a very difficult time sustaining substantial losses over the last 12 months. Though the government has been trying to address the issues with regard to taxation and other costs, the one issue that I believe has not been addressed is the raising of capital by the industry. Without this, industry will not be able to sustain itself on long term basis."

"I am therefore forwarding to you a note that I have prepared for consideration by the Investment Commission. If the commission considers it appropriate, I would greatly appreciate this issue being raises in its interactions with the prime minister and the respective ministers of the government. If there is any further information required by the commission, I would be happy to provide it," he wrote.

In the note, Wadia suggested that the government amend its policy and rules permitting 49 percent foreign investment to include foreign airlines, even disagreeing the government's view point that aviation was a "sensitive" sector. "The claim that the airlines industry is sensitive is not valid. Telecom and insurance were stated to be equally sensitive and in fact that was the earlier ground for not permitting FDI in those sectors," Wadia wrote in the note that he wanted Tata to circulate in the Investment Commission.

But now, both are ranged on opposite sides, Wadia's list of complaints is growing longer by the day, the latest being accusing Tata, now interim chairman of Tata Sons, and Tata trustee NA Soonawala of seeking price-sensitive information from Tata Group companies, thus violating Securities and Exchange Board of Indias (Sebi) insider trading norms.

Corporate analysts say it will take years for the dust to settle down in two of India's iconic business families. A mail to Wadia's office seeking comment, sent on 20 December, remained unanswered till time of publication.
By Rupam Jain

| NEW DELHI

NEW DELHI Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party denied allegations by Congress politician Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday that Modi had accepted $6 million in suspicious cash payments in the months before winning a 2014 general election.Gandhi, heir apparent to the leadership of the Congress party that has governed India for most of its seven decades of independence, levelled the allegations at a rally in Modi's home state of Gujarat.He has threatened for weeks to cause an "earthquake" by exposing what he called Modi's personal corruption. The ensuing row paralysed parliament and caused its winter session to be one of the most acrimonious and unproductive on record.Yet when Gandhi finally went public with the details it turned out that they were known, and were part of a case now before the Supreme Court that was filed by Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer known for pursuing corruption cases.Bhushan's case rests on evidence recovered during income-tax raids on two business houses, Aditya Birla Group and Sahara that he alleges contains evidence of cash payments to Modi. Spokesmen for both companies could not be reached when called on their mobile numbers after working hours on Wednesday.One recipient of alleged payments in late 2013 and early 2014 totalling at least 400 million rupees ($5.9 million) is listed in the records as "Gujarat CM". Bhushan alleges this refers to the chief minister of the western state who was Modi at the time.

Modi has not commented either on the Bhushan suit or Gandhi's allegations but his law minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, denounced them on Wednesday."I condemn the irresponsible, baseless and shameless allegations of Rahul Gandhi," Prasad told a hastily convened news conference in New Delhi.The heated and increasingly personal exchanges come as Modi faces growing public anger over a six-week-old crackdown on "black money" that seeks to purge the economy of the proceeds of crime, corruption and tax evasion.

Modi's cancellation of high-value banknotes worth 86 percent of the cash in circulation last month has caused disruption to the daily lives of people and businesses and could affect elections in key swing states next year."Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demonetisation is not a surgical strike on black money, but against the poor and honest people of the this country," Gandhi said in Gujarat, one of the states that goes to the polls next year.The tax authorities did not pursue investigations at the time because they concluded the entries related to a local company.

"We have proof to show that it is a clear case of personal corruption and the court must investigate the payments made by Sahara and Birla to Modi," Randeep Surjewala, a spokesman for Gandi's opposition Congress party, told Reuters.Surjewala, addressing a separate news conference, said Modi should come forward and "say whether he took money" from the two companies, and subject himself to an investigation if necessary.Bhushan, the lawyer, confirmed to Reuters that Gandhi's allegations were based on the evidence he had provided to the Supreme Court. ($1 = 67.8989 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Rupam Jain; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Robert Birsel)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By David Shepardson

| WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) has agreed to a $1 billion settlement to fix or buy back another 80,000 polluting diesel vehicles sold in the United States as the German automaker on Tuesday took new steps to put its emissions cheating scandal behind it.The settlement deal covered luxury VW, Audi and Porsche vehicles with 3.0-liter engines, meaning Volkswagen has now agreed to spend as much as $17.5 billion in the United States to resolve claims from owners as well as federal and state regulators over polluting diesel vehicles.The world's No. 2 automaker still faces the possibility of spending billions of dollars more to resolve a U.S. Justice Department criminal investigation and federal and state environmental claims, as well as oversight by a federal monitor.The new agreement, settling part of litigation brought against VW by federal and California regulators, "is another important step forward in our efforts to make things right for our customers," Hinrich Woebcken, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, said in a statement.U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer announced the settlement during a hearing in San Francisco.Volkswagen also agreed to boost electric vehicle efforts in California and faces additional costs as it works to finalize an agreement to provide what Breyer called "substantial compensation" to the owners of the 3.0-liter vehicles.Breyer in October approved VW's earlier settlement worth about $15 billion with regulators and the U.S. owners of 475,000 polluting diesel vehicles with smaller 2.0-liter engines, including an offer to buy back all of the cars.Breyer on Tuesday also said German engineering company Robert Bosch GmbH [ROBG.UL], which produced the software for the VW diesels, has agreed in principle to settle civil allegations made by U.S. diesel vehicle owners. Bosch confirmed it had reached the agreement, but said it was not accepting liability nor admitting to the allegations made in the lawsuit by owners who said the company was a knowing and active participant in VW's emissions cheating scheme. Reuters reported on Monday that the settlement was expected to be worth more than $300 million.

VW admitted in September 2015 to installing secret software known as "defeat devices" in 475,000 U.S. 2.0-liter diesel cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests and make them appear cleaner in testing than they really were. In reality, the vehicles emitted up to 40 times the legally allowable pollution levels.The company later admitted to also using "defeat devices" in the 3.0-liter vehicles. The 80,000 3.0-liter U.S. vehicles had an undeclared auxiliary emissions system that allowed the vehicles to emit up to nine times allowable limits.The scandal hurt VW's global business and reputation, and led to its CEO's ouster.

POLLUTION REDUCTION

VW previously agreed to contribute $2.7 billion to a pollution reduction fund to make up for the excess emissions from its 2.0-liter diesel cars through programs like paying for school systems to buy newer, less-polluting buses to replace older ones. Under the new settlement, VW agreed to contribute another $225 million to the fund to offset the excess emissions from its 3.0-liter diesel engines.Cynthia Giles, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assistant administrator, estimated that the costs of buybacks, fixes and diesel offsets agreed to by VW in the new settlement amounted to about $1 billion.Under the deal, VW will buy back or fix 20,000 of the 3.0-liter diesels and fix another 60,000. The automaker still must get U.S. regulatory approval for those fixes. The judge still must give final approval to the deal.VW previously agreed to pay $5,100 to $10,000 in compensation to each of the U.S. 2.0-liter owners. If the new settlement follows this pattern, it could add $400 million to $800 million to the 3.0-liter settlement. But funds from Bosch's settlement are expected to defray VW's compensation costs.

California said in a separate court filing that Volkswagen agreed to add by 2020 at least three additional electric vehicles, including an SUV, in California and must sell an average of 5,000 electric vehicles annually through 2025. Volkswagen also agreed to pay California's state air board $25 million, the state said.California Air Resources Board executive officer Richard Corey said the new settlement showed that "cheaters will be caught and held accountable."As part of the earlier settlement, VW agreed to spend $2 billion over 10 years to boost zero-emission vehicle infrastructure.The buyback offer is for about 20,000 2009-2012 Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q7 diesel models. If VW had been forced to buyback all of the vehicles it could have added billions of dollars to the company's costs.Breyer said owners of 3.0-liter vehicles would receive "substantial compensation" for getting their vehicles fixed or repaired but said there were some remaining issues to be resolved, and set a another hearing for Thursday for an update.Volkswagen on Monday also agreed to spend up to $1.6 billion to buy back up to 105,000 polluting 2.0-liter vehicles in Canada. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Detroit; Editing by Will Dunham)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi step down till his name is cleared of alleged charges of graft and sought a probe into the allegations by a Supreme Court monitored committee.

The Supreme Court should take "suo motu" cognizance of the matter, Kejriwal told a press conference in New Delhi, hours after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi alleged that Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups.

Kejriwal, who had levelled similar charges against Modi in November in the Delhi Assembly, said the Congress was only "following" the Aam Aadmi Party in this regard and also in terming demonetisation as a "scam".

"The Prime Minister should resign till his name is cleared of the charges. The matter should be probed by a Supreme Court-monitored Special Investigation Team. Agencies like CBI are in any case controlled by Modi and Amit Shah," Kejriwal said.

The AAP chief said BJP patriarch LK Advani had set the "right example" by quitting when his name had surfaced in the Hawala scam.

"Narendra Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister whose name has cropped up in raw print. This is a very grave matter but it is being suppressed and has been suppressed over the last two years by attaching officers of their convenience to the case," he said.

Kejriwal wondered why the PM was "evading a probe" if he was innocent. The country has been "cheated against", he said.

The Delhi chief minister said he will send the "Income Tax appraisal reports" in this regard to Prashant Bhushan who has filed a petition in the Supreme Court. These documents have not yet been submitted in the Court, Kejriwal said, displaying few voluminous reports.

"We had raised the same issue on 15 November in the Delhi Assembly. It is good that whatever we are doing the Congress is following. We had termed demonetisation a scam, then a month later Rahul said the same thing and today he finally mustered the courage to raise this issue," he said.

Kejriwal also sought to know the reason behind Rahul's delay in making the allegations after promising an announcement.

"Was he trying to strike a bargain? Congress and BJP have setting. In fact, all the leaders who figure in the papers should be probed," Kejriwal said.
New Delhi: A court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Additional Sessions Judge Vikash Dhull allowed the anticipatory bail plea of Sajjan Kumar, accused of instigating a mob to kill two Sikhs  Sohan Singh and son Avtar Singh  in Janakpuri on 1 November, 1984.

The case was taken up recently by a Special Investigation Team.

Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed, mostly in Delhi, in riots that followed the 1984 assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards.

Some Congress politicians, Sajjan Kumar included, have been accused of leading the killer mobs.
The deaths of three more top ISIL leaders by a coalition airstrike was recently announced by the Pentagon. Two of leaders -- Salah Gourmat, and Sammy Djedou  - were involved in facilitating the Nov. 13, 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. The third, Walid Hamman, was a suicide attack planner convicted in absentia in Belgium for a terror plot disrupted in 2015.

Brett McGurk, Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, said the three join a growing list of key ISIL leaders who have been targeted and eliminated.

At a press briefing, Mr. McGurk spoke of other successes in the fight: the significant shrinking of the territory of the so-called caliphate; the dwindling number of battle-ready ISIL fighters inside Iraq and Syria; the ongoing destruction of ISILs economic base; the substantial decrease in ISIL messaging on the internet; the degrading of ISILs affiliates across the board, including in Libya, the Lake Chad Basin, and Afghanistan.

Mr. McGurk also pointed to the enormous pressure being put on ISIL by the campaigns to take back its two so-called capitals of Mosul and Raqqa.

The successes have not come without cost to the Coalition. Special Envoy McGurk noted the deaths of five U.S. military personnel who have been killed in the fight so far. He spoke of the casualties suffered by Iraqi security forces who are fighting heroically to retake their territory. He also pointed to the more than 1000 casualties suffered by Syrian Democratic Forces in the crucial battle to retake Manbij in Syria.

It is significant, Mr. McGurk said, that all ground that we have taken as a coalition, working with localsnone of it, ISIL has been able to retake. And that is because before we do any of this, we [make] a tremendous effortto prepare the ground politically, economically, to get the stabilization resources in place to help make sure people can return to their homes, and make sure that the defeat of ISIL is a lasting one.

Special Envoy McGurk declared that ISIL remains a threat -- both to the Syrians and Iraqis under its control, and because of the groups recruitment of deranged individuals from all over the world to act in their name. But overall the campaign against ISIL, he said, has momentum. Were always looking for ways to accelerate itand we will not stop until we destroy this enemy.
Gondia (Maharashtra): At least seven persons were killed in their sleep when a fire broke out in Hotel Bindal in this eastern Maharashtra town early on Wednesday, an official said.

"The blaze was noticed around 3.30 am when the victims were fast asleep. Six men have been charred to death. Some others are feared trapped inside," Gondia police officer Jitendra Borkar told.

Five fire tenders and tankers were pressed into service to battle the flames which were brought under control after nearly seven hours.

A search is on to rescue some other guests feared trapped in the hotel. The cause of the fire is being investigated, Borkar added.

A tribal-dominated district, Gondia is around 170 km east of Nagpur and bordering Madhya Pradesh.

"Rescue work is underway and the fire brigade team is searching if any person is trapped inside the premises," a fire officer said. Fire tenders were called from neighbouring Balaghat, Bhandara, Tumsar, Lanji and also from Adani Power Plant in Tirora to help douse the flames. There where nearly 15 guests staying in the hotel at the time of the mishap.

One person sustained serious injuries after he jumped from the second floor of the hotel following the fire. He died on way to Nagpur hospital, police said. Two bodies were charred beyond recognition while four others were found dead in their hotel rooms, they said.

On getting information, District Collector Abhimanyu Kale, Superintendent of Police Dilip Patil Bhujbal rushed to the site and supervised the rescue work. Police officials had a tough time in controlling the crowd that gathered outside the mishap site after the fire. The deceased were yet to be identified, police said, adding that two of them had apparently come to attend a marriage function.
Arvind Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party (APP) supremo and incumbent Delhi chief minister, would not be what he is if did not indulge in theatrics. A modest crowd that had gathered at a ground near the Cuncolim bus stand in South Goa on Monday, were hardly amused when Kejriwal anointed AAPs Goa state unit convenor Elvis Gomes as his partys chief ministerial face for the upcoming state legislative assembly elections midway through his public rally.

The real theatrics lied in selection of the venue and date of Kejriwals second Goa rally after his May rally in North Goa. It was one incident that took place on another Monday some 433 years back that etched Cuncolims name in golden letters of Goas history when 73 years after Portugal had colonised Goa in the early years of the 16th century, a revolt took place and local villagers killed 20 persons on 25 July, 1,583, including five priests in protest against destruction of Hindu temple and their forced conversion to Christianity. It was later to be termed as Goas first war of independence, though the actual liberation had to wait for another 378 years when Indian armed forces set foot on Goa and made the Portuguese surrender on December 19, 1961.

Team Kejriwal thus zeroed down on Cuncolim for their supremo Kejriwal to kickstart AAPs herculean task of coming to power in the upcoming elections on the day Goa was celebrating 55 years of its liberation. His clarion call, expectedly, was to liberate Goa now from the alleged corruption perpetuated over the years by the national arch-rivals Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress party. Ironically, Kejriwal named Gomes, a fellow bureaucrat-turned-politician, as the AAP torchbearer, though Gomes himself is embroiled in a corruption allegation when he served in the past as Director of Tourism in a land scam.

Kejriwal, however, would have none of it in his single-minded pursuit of replacing Narendra Modi as the Indian prime minister when the next general elections are held in another two and a half years. Unseating BJP from power in Goa is an integral part of Kejriwal-led AAPs national dreams that came a cropper in 2014.

Kejriwal, a political greenhorn in 2014 Delhi elections, had then decided to take huge risk of his life by contesting against the incumbent Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit in her New Delhi assembly constituency and emerged successful. Unlike Kejriwal, Gomes has not been pitched against the Goa chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar from his Mandrem constituency. Gomes is seeking to enter the Goa legislative assembly from his home constituency Cuncolim where he was born and brought up and is expected to lock horns with BJPs sitting state lawmaker Subhash alias Rajan Naik.

Gomes, 53, may or may not come out of the land corruption taint in his otherwise impeccable record as a Goa bureaucrat who opted for voluntary retirement in July this year after an FIR was filed against him and the former Goa tourism minister Nilikant Halarnkar. It, however, did not prevent him from declaring that one of his first acts as the Goa chief minister would be to construct the unfinished wing of newly constructed Colvale prison so that the corrupt Goa politicians belonging to the BJP and the Congress party are jailed there.

Gomes was serving as Inspector General of Prisons with additional charge of Urban Development Secretary when he quit as a bureaucrat even while he was in line for promotion as an IAS and joined AAP shortly thereafter.

A Goa civil services officer, Gomes has served Goa in various posts and capacities. He is generally admired for his upright approach including his role in promoting responsible and clean tourism and ensuring jobs for locals in the tourism industry.

It may appear that despite sharing a common bureaucrat-turned-politician background, Kejriwal and Gomes need each other. Bereft of any reliable name and a crowd-puller, Kejriwal needed to piggy ride Gomes popularity to power in Goa while Gomes in return needed a platform to nurture his political ambitions that he had successfully kept under wraps until he joined AAP on 5 October this year.

Their mutual roles were already fixed. While Kejriwal went hammer and tongs after Modi  attacking him over the recent demonetisation and yet unsubstantiated allegation of Modi receiving bribe in the past as the Gujarat chief minister. Gomes on his part trained his guns on the Goa BJP and Congress party leaderships.

Gomes, in his address, reminded people of various scams that Goa has witnessed and said that BJP came to power in the state promising corruption-free governance. He criticised BJP turning a blind eye on corruption and adding more to the existing list of scams in Goa, in almost screeching voice matching that of Kejriwal.

Since AAP cannot be separated from corruption, the focal point of Monday rally was corruption. AAP was born out of anti-corruption nation-wide movement of social reformist Anna Hazare, rode to power in Delhi with astounding victory by winning 67 out of 70 seats on offer and itself is now facing charges of getting involved in corruption charges.

Kejriwal was accompanied by all 33 AAP nominees for Goa polls, expected to be held in February-March next year and announced that all of them were free from corruption charges, as he had done even before Delhi polls, though by now many of his party lawmakers are either lodged in prison or facing police cases.

He further announced in his trademark dramatic style that AAP would pull out of the contest from any particular constituency if any of the AAP nominees are proven corrupt even at the eleventh hour. He, however, did not explain why and when AAP would name its candidates for the remaining seven constituencies. Speculations are rife that AAP is unable to zero down on suitable candidates and may nominate political turncoats who have joined the party in the run-up to the state polls. Manny of them enjoy a far from clean image.

For Gomes, the fight has just started. Kejriwal has given him the AAP baton in Goa by making an exception and officially naming him its chief ministerial face, unlike in other poll-bound states like Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Gomes has to fight against odds like lack of funds and workers, ignite dreams of corruption-free administration and deliver Goa on a platter to Kejriwal while fighting his own corruption taint and ensuring his own victory. By all considerations, it may sound tough, if not an impossible call for him.
Dear Doctor: Do I really need a yearly mammogram?

Dear Reader: This might be hard to accept, but if youre woman at low to average risk of breast cancer, you probably dont need a yearly mammogram. Thats not to say we shouldnt give mammograms their due.

Mammograms can reduce deaths from breast cancer, and theyre an important reason why breast cancer death rates have decreased over the last 40 years in this country. Studies have found a decreased death rate from breast cancer among women who have had mammograms compared to those who didnt.

Now lets look at just how much benefit. The public health advocacy group the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force calculated that, if 10,000 women between the ages of 39 and 49 had regular mammograms for 10 years, it would prevent three breast cancer deaths. For the same number of women between the ages of 50 and 59, there would be eight fewer breast cancer deaths. And for women between 60 and 69, there would be 21 fewer breast cancer deaths over that 10-year time period.

In short, the overall death rates were not significantly different between those women who had mammograms and those who didnt. This has especially been shown in studies in Canada and Sweden that compared the impact of annual mammograms with yearly breast exams from a health professional. In a 22-year Canadian study of 89,000 women, no difference in death rate was seen among women who had regular mammograms compared to those who had yearly breast exams with a health professional. This may point more to the importance of getting a yearly breast exam than the benefit of getting a mammogram.

Mammograms also have downsides. A primary one is that they have many false positives, leading to more imaging, breast biopsies and significant anxiety for patients. Another is that many breast cancers, such as ductal carcinoma in situ, would never be of clinical significance, so finding them on a mammogram is of little benefit.

Thats not to say mammograms arent useful. They do find breast cancers. But doctors and their patients need to discuss their risks and their benefits.

If youre a woman who has a mother or a sister with breast cancer, or if you have the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation that increases breast cancer risk, then a yearly mammogram after the age of 40 is a good idea. If you have a combination of risk factors  such as having had your first baby after the age of 30, having later-onset menopause or having had an earlier onset of menstruation  then a mammogram is likely a good idea.

However, if youre at average risk of breast cancer and between the ages of 40 and 49, there is only a small statistical benefit in having a mammogram, which should be balanced with the risks of testing.

If you are between the ages of 50 and 69, the benefit of a mammogram may overcome risk. At that age, you should get a mammogram every two years.

If youre older than 70, keep in mind that breast cancer rates increase up to the age of 80, so the screening could have a benefit. But that benefit must be weighed against the likelihood of dying from something else. Here again, the recommendation is for a mammogram every two years, but you should discuss your individual needs with your doctor.

Breast cancer screening is still evolving, with newer 3-D types of mammograms, breast MRIs and the possibility of biochemical markers to detect breast cancer. Well need future studies of these technologies to assess their effectiveness at detecting breast cancer and reducing death rates. In time, the recommendations may change yet again.
Strongly dismissing Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's allegations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi took bribes from the Sahara Group, BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said the Congress scion made those allegations to divert attention from the party's troubles in the AgustaWestland scam.

"Rahul Gandhi is leading his party to repeated disastrous defeat and hence he is levelling baseless allegations," Prasad said, adding that Rahul is frustrated with failures.

Hitting back at the Congress party, the Union law minister said that Rahul was the biggest patron of corruption, between 2004 and 2014, when the UPA was in power.

Questioning Rahul on his credentials, Prasad alleged he did not even utter a word on the series of stinking corruption which had become an integral part of the Manmohan Singh's govt.

Defending the prime minister's corruption-free image, Prasad said, "Our Prime Minister is as pure as the river Ganga."

He recalled that the Supreme Court had rejected a plea for a probe by a special investigation team against Modi on allegations that two companies paid Rs 65 crore to him ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, adding that the apex court observed there were no basis to the allegations.

He added that the Congress did not spare any part of the world while indulging in rampant corruption: Earth (CWG scam), space (Devas-Antrix deal), underground (coal scam), sky (AgustaWestland and 2G scam) and sea (submarine scam).

Criticising the Congress vice-president for not doing his homework while making 'false allegations' against Modi, Prasad added that he does not think before and after speaking.

Earlier in the day, Rahul, while addressing a rally in Gujarat's Mehsana, alleged that as the state's chief minister, Modi received kickbacks from the Sahara and Birla group, and demanded an independent enquiry into it.

Humare Ganga ke saaman PM ke uppar bebuniyad aarop laga rahein hain? Ye saare aarop kheejh mei laga rahe hain: RS Prasad pic.twitter.com/vCfmBS5JjS  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

Congress did not spare the sky, space, land, under the land and even sea in corruption: RS Prasad pic.twitter.com/a6Pl2hMNqF  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

Congress' history stinks with Corruption; The saga of Cong govt is to promote looters of public money & to protect them: Ravi Shankar Prasad pic.twitter.com/KSIKvuFFwl  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

Rahul Gandhi leading his party to repeated disastrous defeat;Public doesn't think Cong is able enough to run municipalities-R Shankar Prasad pic.twitter.com/83ggLzhVvx  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

Mr Rahul Gandhi is leading his party to repeated disastrous defeat and hence he is levelling baseless allegations in his sadness: RS Prasad pic.twitter.com/9h54E8treB  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

With inputs from PTI
Recently the issue of transparency in the financing of political parties has been brought to the limelight in the context of the governments efforts to curb black money by demonetising currency. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chief Election Commissioner have expressed the need to examine the funding of political parties and elections.

How political parties are financed is an important indicator of the maturity and quality of a democracy. The resources used by political parties to fund election campaigns and their ongoing political activities need examination. Access to political finance, skews the level playing field among parties and electoral candidates, as all candidates or their parties may not have equal access to funds required to fight a successful election campaign. Competitive politics makes a democracy vibrant and deliberative, but it also places demands on financial resources required to wage effective political battles. This gets exacerbated with a high periodicity of elections, which is unavoidable in a federal structure as India, which requires state and parliamentary elections.

In India, funds are mobilised by political parties or their candidates to finance elections and other political campaigns. Under the Representation of People Act, 1951 individuals and companies (other than a government company) are allowed to contribute to political parties. While there are no limits on the amount of contributions any individual makes to a political party, corporate contributions are regulated. Companies may donate a maximum of 7.5 percent of the companys average net profit during the three preceding financial years. Foreign contributions to political parties are prohibited. State funding to political parties in India is limited to indirect tax reliefs and subsidies such as providing tax exemption on the income of political parties, certain amount of free air time on government owned media, office space in Delhi and state capitals for recognised political parties, among others.

While political parties may raise funds from any source, the current disclosure requirements for funds received by them are inadequate and ineffective in building transparency in political financing. Under the law, political parties are required to file income tax returns and furnish details of the donors who donate more than Rs 20,000 in the given year. The requirement for disclosures above a certain amount, may lead to practices where parties may split donations across various contributors in order to evade the requirement to disclose donor information. The financing of political parties continues to be a black box in India as parties are not required to declare the total contributions received by them in the given year. Neither do they furnish details of the various contributions made to the party which are below the Rs 20,000 limit.

When examining transparency in financing of political parties, not only is it important to discuss the sources of funding but also the utilisation of these funds for a range of political activities, including elections. Spending limits on election campaigns may be imposed with a view to ensure greater fairness and equality in political competition, but their effectiveness is questionable. Currently, there are statutory limits on the amount of money that can be spent by a candidate on his election campaign. Candidates are not allowed to spend more than 28 lakh for state assembly elections and Rs 70 lakh for Lok Sabha elections.

They are required to disclose their election campaign expenses after the conduct of the particular state assembly or Lok Sabha election. However, several expert bodies such as the Law Commission and Parliamentary Standing Committees have observed that the actual expenditure incurred by candidates in an election is significantly higher than the amount disclosed by them. To disguise expenditures incurred by the candidate, clever accounting allows for classifying certain election expenses as routine, non-campaign related expenditures and therefore allow candidates to circumvent the statutory limit. Additionally, there is no limit imposed on spending by political parties on election campaigns. Neither does the expenditure incurred by political parties in bolstering their candidates election campaign count towards the spending limit on the particular candidate. Therefore, the inability to effectively limit or regulate expenditure on elections by political parties and candidates, makes the statutory limits largely irrelevant.

Given such observations, several expert bodies have looked at state funding of elections in order to level the playing field for electoral politics and provide for a more transparent system of financing. Some have argued that full state funding of elections would have significant budgetary implications, and may not be feasible. Further tax payer money would be diverted away from developmental and more significant activities to more election-oriented politics. In light of these challenges, it has been argued that the current level of partial state funding should continue.

To strengthen the regulatory mechanism around financing of political parties, some low hanging opportunities could be explored. For example, public disclosure of the origin and the use of funds by political parties must be made more stringent and robust in order to ensure transparency in political financing. The Law Commission has recommended that audited political party accounts should be published yearly under predetermined account heads, similar to the accounts of public limited companies.

As we have seen, putting financing limits on political parties has not been very effective in bringing about transparency in the election process. Other ways of addressing the issue could be scrutinising the sources of election funds, establishing ceilings for political parties, public disclosure of accounts, and reducing the duration of our election cycles. This would help bring about structural changes that build greater transparency and accountability in political financing.

The author heads the research team at PRS Legislative Research.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has perfected the art of curation. And given how people are gathering at his rallies and giving him a patient hearing, it's clearly having an impact. It doesn't even matter at this point whether the common man is agreeing with the allegations Rahul has been making in public against Prime Minister Narendra Modi or not.

In fact, Rahul has conveniently hijacked information from a petition that senior lawyer and Swaraj Abhiyan's national president Prashant Bhushan had filed on behalf of his client in the Supreme Court. It has given the Congress vice-president teeth to level the strongest of corruption allegations against the prime minister.

On Wednesday, during an address at the prime minister's home turf of Mehsana in Gujarat, Rahul accused Modi of having taken money in bribes from the Sahara conglomerate. He also said Modi's demonetisation exercise will not nab the corrupt money hoarders in India, and target only the honest people instead.

Filing a writ petition, Bhushan's client and NGO, Common Cause, had sought an SC-monitored probe into the documents allegedly recovered following Income Tax raids on Sahara and Aditya Birla groups between 2013 and 2014. The NGO alleged that there were serious evidence of bribes being paid to chief ministers, top politicians and bureaucrats, including a Gujarat chief minister, believed to be a reference to Modi.

"Whatever Rahul Gandhi is saying in his public address in Gujarat, originally belongs to Prashant Bhushan. It was he who urged the apex court for an SC-monitored fair and independent probe into the bribes given by the Sahara and Birla groups to Modi. These allegations are based on the information recovered during I-T raids from diary, excel sheets and computer data. First, Arvind Kejriwal used it to his convenience in Delhi Assembly to hog the limelight, and now Rahul is doing the same in a public rally, but the original author is Prashant Bhushan and Swaraj Abhiyan," Anupam, national spokesperson of Swaraj India, told Firstpost.

But Congress sources have said there could be further revelations to follow. "It's just an appetiser from Rahul Gandhi. Whatever he said today in the rally is based on Bhushan's petition. The main course will come in the new year, ahead of the next session of Parliament. He has saved this 'main course' information, which he may reveal after 30 December. Now, whether it'll create an earthquake, tremor or nothing, only time will tell. The SC hasn't yet dismissed Bhushan's plea, and Congress is keeping its fingers crossed," remarked MD Nalapat, political analyst and professor of geopolitics at Manipal University.

"Rahul wants to project himself as an 'anti-Modi' face, similar to Modi himself, who had been the 'anti-Sonia Gandhi' face since 2006. Rahul's success depends on the failure of Modi's demonetisation move, so he's banking a lot on the after-effects of demonetisation  after the 30 December deadline. If Modi continues to be popular among people, any charge against him, no matter how serious the proof is, will be discarded by people. But if Modi becomes unpopular, any charge, however flimsy, might work. So, Rahul's future depends on the failure of demonetisation," added Nalapat.
Rahul Gandhi sensed a big opportunity for himself and his party at a time when there was a growing sense of negative public perception surrounding the governments latest regulation on putting some provisions on cash deposits worth over Rs 5,000 in demonetised currency notes.

To demolish Prime Minister Narendra Modi in one pithy remark, the Congress vice-president returned to ridiculing the prime minister's sartorial sense by tweeting:

RBI       ,         Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) December 20, 2016

Translation: RBI is changing rules like the prime minister changes his clothes

In the past two-and-a-half years  ever since the time Rahul and his party were thoroughly vanquished by Modi, the only talking point the Nehru-Gandhi family scion could raise against the prime minister was his 'suit-boot' jibe. Readers may recall that Rahul had accused Modi of running a 'suit-boot ki sarkaar' in a thinly-veiled allegation against the prime minister of appeasing the wealthy.

The 'suit-boot' remark was effective as it got Modi to change the way he presented himself in public  discarding the suits after giving his critics ample ammunition to fire at him following the auction of his pinstripe suit that was auctioned for Rs 4.31 crore. He did announce that the proceeds would go towards cleaning the River Ganga. But the 'suit-boot' moment came and went a long time ago. However, Rahul is still there, desperately trying to clutch the straws that could give him some mileage and make him somewhat relevant yet again. It remains to be seen if his latest jibe  which is apt and almost as catchy as the first one  will be quite as effective as 'suit-boot'.

It's true that the RBI and finance ministry have been far too frequently changing, overruling their directives with other ones and in the process, causing confusion, irritation and antipathy among a large section of people  bankers and customers included. But to say it is like the prime minister changing his clothes is meaningless pontification. That was precisely the reason Rahul's tweet could only have caused a mild storm in the teacups of die-hard loyalists of the Congress' first family. In any case, the nation at large would likely not have had a complaint with a prime minister who is cleanly and smartly dressed. Rahul, perhaps, has grown too accustomed to an obliging and colourless prime minister like Manmohan Singh.

Its not the outfit, but inefficiency that troubles people. Shivraj Patil is still a revered leader of the Congress, but he was ultimately sacked in the aftermath of the 26 November, 2008 terror attacks because he was perhaps more concerned about his clothing and combed hair than the nations security. Rahul would do well to think about the then home minister, the former Maharashtra chief minister and former governor.

The problem for Rahul lies somewhere else  using words, the meaning and implication of which are not known to him. It has been a week since the time the time he grabbed the headlines by making claims against Modi at his first-ever structured press conference in Parliament House: Read my lips. The prime minister is personally terrified with the information that I have. I have information on the personal corruption of (the) prime minister, Rahul said, adding, "I want to reveal in Lok Sabha, (but) the government is not allowing me to speak. The prime minister is afraid that if he lets me speak, his balloon will burst.

The Winter Session of Parliament has ended, but the nation is still waiting for Rahul to make that big bang expose. But, for now, he appears to be busy on Twitter:

Government orders after demonetisation: pic.twitter.com/5D5p0XX4MO  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) 21 December 2016

However, the Congress honcho has not moved any further in that direction, short of repeating his usual rhetoric: "Demonetisation was done to benefit Modi's 50 rich friends (business and industry families)", "There are no suited-booted people standing in queue for money", "Modi has indulged in the biggest-ever scam of Independent India" and so on.

In his recent rally in Jaunpur, he even sounded frustrated when the audience did not respond to his high-pitched school master oratory, saying that at the time, they would not understand what he was saying, but in the months to come, his words would make much more sense.

It has been more than 10 days since Rahul famously claimed, "If they allow me to speak in Parliament, you will see what an earthquake I will bring."

It can be safely said that Rahul did not make the earth shake. He didnt speak and the threat of an earthquake with Parliament House as the epicentre was averted.

Additionally, Rahuls narrative is flawed. It was back in the 1990s when India junked his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehrus public sector as commanding heights theory. Even in the Permit Raj, private capital had an important role to play. Rahul thinks private capital and big business was synonymous with corruption. He implies an unbelievable proposition that no politician, no bureaucrat or professional is corrupt. Thats why his audience does not respond to him, just as they did not respond to his khoon ki dalali jibe against Modi.

As for 'suit-boot', Rahul should remember that an elite suited booted SPG over whom the government spends a fortune in public money guards him around the clock. And the next time he repeats his 'suit-boot' jibe, he should pause and reflect on this.
Moscow: The lower chamber of the Russian parliament calls for heightened security measures for Russian diplomats abroad following the assassination of the ambassador to Turkey.

The State Duma voted on Wednesday on a resolution that condemned Monday's killing of Andrei Karlov and urged authorities to take extra steps to protect Russian diplomats abroad.

Investigators from Turkey and Russia and hunting for clues in the assassination of Karlov, who was shot in front of stunned onlookers at a photo exhibition in Ankara. Both Russia and Turkey have vowed that the assassination would not derail efforts to repair bilateral ties.

The killing came after days of protests by Turks angry over Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russia's actions in Aleppo.
Varanasi: With the crucial assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh just around the corner, the BJP's grass root level cadre in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency here shall be looking forward to receiving from him the mantra for electoral success on Thursday.

Modi, who arrived Varanasi on Thursday morning will be interacting with nearly 20,000 booth-level party workers at the Diesel Locmotive Works (DLW) premises forms a major part of the Prime Minister's itinerary here.

And considering Rahul Gandhi is also in UP, it is likely that Modi will counter the Congress vice-president's corruption allegations. Gandhi had alleged that Modi had received money from Sahara and Birla groups during his tenure as Gujarat chief minister.

Modi's visit, which could be the last to his parliamentary constituency before the poll schedule is announced and the Model Code of Conduct comes into force, also includes flagging off of quite a few projects.

These include laying of foundation stones for a cancer centre and a super-speciality hospital at the Benares Hindu University where Modi will also spend some time at the "Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav" (national cultural festival), a week-long event organised by the Union Ministry for Culture where artistes from across the country, some of them of international repute, have been performing.

From BHU premises, Modi will leave for a brief tour of Kabir Nagar locality, named after the 17th century mystic and poet, and inspect underground cabling and heritage lighting work, which is being carried out as part of the IPDS (Integrated Power Development Scheme) and HRIDAY (Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana) schemes.

Thereafter the Prime Minister will reach DLW, where his political engagements will be preceded by laying of foundation stone for a 150-bed ESIC (Employee's State Insurance Corporation) super speciality hospital and inauguration of a trade facilitation centre and a crafts museum, besides launching of a number of schemes and projects under the Textiles Ministry.

This would be Modi's first tour of his parliamentary constituency since demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, that has drawn much flak from the opposition as the shortage of currency caused inconvenience to traders, salaried groups, artisans and unskilled daily wage earners alike.

The PM's message to the booth-level workers of the BJP, drawn from all five assembly segments falling under the Lok Sabha constituency, will set the tone for the party foot soldiers faced with a daunting task of holding their own in a state where politics has been dominated by two rival regional players  the ruling Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

From being a force to reckon with in the state in the 1990s, thanks to the momentum generated by the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation, the BJP underwent a steep decline in the first decade of the century.

However, expectations have been high since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when the party stunned all by putting up its best-ever performance, winning 71 out of the 78 seats it had contested in the state.

The spectacular comeback owed much to Modi's decision to step out of Gujarat and contest from this eastern UP seat.

The party's performance in the assembly polls in the state  which is the most populous and hence sends the maximum number of MPs to the Lok Sabha  will have a bearing on its future prospects on the national level.

This will be Modi's ninth tour of Varanasi since he became the Prime Minister in May 2014.

Significantly, Thursday's visit will also be his fifth since January this year.

The increased frequency of his trips here is seen as one of the many efforts being made by the BJP to improve its tally in the 403-strong UP assembly where it has less than 50 MLAs.

With inputs from PTI
By Ellen Francis and Lisa Barrington

| BEIRUT

BEIRUT Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appeared close to victory in Aleppo on Wednesday, but United Nations and rebel officials denied that an operation to evacuate fighters and civilians from the city had been completed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war, said Assad had control of Aleppo after the last fighters were brought out of the city and only one small position on the western outskirts remained in rebel hands.But a U.N. official in Syria, asked about the Observatory report, told Reuters: "That is not something we can confirm. Evacuations are still ongoing."A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army rebel alliance, Osama Abu Zaid, told an Arab news channel that evacuations had been slowed by bad weather and would continue into the night.Aid workers also said the evacuation was not yet finished, while in Washington the State Department said it could not confirm that all rebel fighters had left.For Assad, the biggest prize of Syria's nearly six-year-old civil war would be the fighters' departure, ending a battle which the Observatory said had cost the lives of 21,500 civilians in and around the city.Earlier, buses carrying civilians and fighters began leaving Aleppo's last rebel-held enclave after being held up for a day.People had been waiting in freezing temperatures since the evacuation hit problems on Tuesday, when dozens of buses were stuck in Aleppo, and the evacuation of two Shi'ite villages outside the city, al-Foua and Kefraya, also stalled. Rebels and government forces blamed each other for the hold-up.Charity Save the Children said heavy snow was hampering efforts to help injured children. "Many have had to have limbs amputated because they did not receive care on time, and far too many are weak and malnourished," a statement said.

One 5-month-old girl had two broken legs, a broken arm and an open wound in her stomach, the statement said.Many of those who had escaped Aleppo were sleeping in unheated buildings or tents in sub-zero temperatures. Children have been separated from their parents in the chaos as they run to get food when they get off the buses, the charity said.EVACUATION PLAN

With obstructions to the evacuation plan apparently overcome, a news service run by the Lebanese group Hezbollah said 20 buses carrying fighters and their families moved from east Aleppo on Wednesday towards rebel-held countryside. Syrian TV said a number of buses arrived in government-controlled parts of the city from al-Foua and Kefraya.

Government forces had insisted the two villages must be included in the deal to bring people out of east Aleppo.So far, about 30,000 people have been evacuated from Aleppo, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Aleppo's rebel zone is a wasteland of flattened buildings, rubble and bullet-pocked walls, where tens of thousands lived until recent days under intense bombardment even after medical and rescue services had collapsed.Rebel-held parts of the once-flourishing economic centre with its renowned ancient sites have been pulverised in a war which has killed more than 300,000, created the world's worst refugee crisis and allowed for the rise of Islamic State.But in the western part of the city, held throughout the war by the government, there were big street parties on Tuesday night, along with the lighting of a Christmas tree, as residents celebrated the end of fighting.

Syrian state TV said on Wednesday the army would enter the last remaining rebel-held sector of Aleppo as soon as all fighters had left. That would be a major victory for Assad, and his main allies Iran and Russia, against rebels who have defied him in Syria's most populous city for four years.U.N. MONITORS EVACUATION

The United Nations had said it had sent 20 more staff to east Aleppo to monitor the evacuation. Assad's government is backed by Russian air power and Shi'ite militias including Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and Iraq's Harakat al-Nujaba. The mostly Sunni rebels include groups supported by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies.For four years, the city was split between a rebel-held east and government-held west. During the summer, the army and allied forces besieged the rebel sector before using intense bombardment and ground assaults to retake it in recent months.Russian air strikes enabled Assad's forces to press the siege of eastern Aleppo to devastating effect. Shi'ite militias from as far afield as Afghanistan also played an important role.But even with victory in Aleppo, Assad still faces great challenges. While he controls the most important cities in western Syria and on the coast, armed groups including Islamic State control swathes of territory elsewhere in the country. (Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Writing by Angus McDowall and Peter Millership; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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By Ellen Francis

| BEIRUT

BEIRUT Buses carrying Syrian civilians and fighters began leaving the last rebel-held enclave of Aleppo on Wednesday after being stalled for a day, aid officials and pro-government media reports said.Obstacles hindering evacuations from east Aleppo and from two villages besieged by rebels had been overcome and the operation would be completed within hours, according to a news service run by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian government.The eventual departure of the thousands left in the insurgent zone will hand full control of the city to President Bashar al-Assad, the biggest prize of Syria's nearly six-year-old civil war. "Buses are now moving again from east Aleppo. We hope that this continues so that people can be safely evacuated," a U.N. official in Syria told Reuters, as snow began to fall on Aleppo.People had been waiting in freezing temperatures since the evacuation hit problems on Tuesday, with dozens of buses stuck in Aleppo and the evacuation of the two Shi'ite villages, al-Foua and Kefraya, also stalled. Rebels and government forces blamed each other for the hold-up.EVACUATION PLAN

With obstructions to the evacuation plan apparently overcome, the Hezbollah news service said 20 buses carrying fighters and their families had moved from east Aleppo on Wednesday towards rebel-held countryside. Syrian TV said four buses and two ambulances arrived in government-controlled parts of Aleppo from al-Foua and Kefraya.Government forces had insisted the two villages must be included in the deal to bring people out of east Aleppo.

So far, about 25,000 people have been evacuated from Aleppo, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. A U.N. official said 750 people had so far been evacuated from al-Foua and Kefraya.Aleppo's rebel zone is a wasteland of flattened buildings, concrete rubble and bullet-pocked walls, where tens of thousands lived until recent days under intense bombardment even after medical and rescue services had collapsed.Rebel-held parts of the once-flourishing economic centre with its renowned ancient sites have been pulverised in a war which has killed more than 300,000, created the world's worst refugee crisis and allowed for the rise of Islamic State.But in the western part of the city, held throughout the war by the government, there were big street parties on Tuesday night, along with the lighting of a Christmas tree, as residents celebrated the end of fighting. The Syrian army has used loudspeakers to broadcast warnings to rebels that it was about to enter their rapidly diminishing enclave and told them to speed up their evacuation.

Control of Aleppo would be a major victory for Assad, and his main allies Iran and Russia, against rebels who have defied him in Syria's most populous city for four years.U.N. MONITORS EVACUATION

The United Nations had said it had sent 20 more staff to east Aleppo to monitor the evacuation.

"Some have arrived yesterday and more will be arriving today and in the coming days," Jens Laerke, U.N. spokesman in Geneva told Reuters. Various problems have beset the evacuation, with estimates of how many have left and how many remain varying widely.Assad's government is backed by Russian air power and Shi'ite militias including Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and Iraq's Harakat al-Nujaba. The mostly Sunni rebels include groups supported by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies.For four years, the city was split between a rebel-held eastern sector and the government-held western districts. During the summer, the army and allies forces besieged the rebel sector before using intense bombardment and ground assaults to retake it in recent months.Russian air strikes were the most important factor in Assad's triumph. They enabled his forces to press the siege of eastern Aleppo to devastating effect.On the ground, Shi'ite militias from as far afield as Afghanistan played an important role for Assad.Despite victory in Aleppo, Assad still faces great challenges in restoring the power of his state. While he controls the most important cities in western Syria and on the coast, armed groups including Islamic State control swathes of territory elsewhere in the country. (Reporting by Ellen Francis Stephanie Nebehay; Writing by Angus McDowall and Peter Millership; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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By Aaron Ross and Tim Cocks

| KINSHASA

KINSHASA Police said they had arrested 275 people across Democratic Republic of Congo as two days of protests against President Joseph Kabila appeared to subside on Wednesday.Sporadic gunfire rang out over the capital and witnesses reported clashes in the southeastern mining hub of Lubumbashi, but nothing on the scale of the violence when youths took to the streets on Tuesday accusing Kabila of trying to cling to power.Police said 21 civilians and one officer had been killed in the protests that erupted as Kabila's mandate expired without any elections in place to pick a successor. Rights groups earlier gave higher death tolls.Kabila and his supporters have denied any plan to stay in power and said elections were delayed by logistical problems. But African and Western powers fear the political crisis could spiral into broader conflict, risking a repeat of the 1996-2003 wars in this vast, chaotic country that killed millions and drew in the armies of half a dozen neighbouring states.Police spokesman Colonel Pierre Mwanamputu said most of the dead civilians had been hit by stray bullets or shot while looting over Tuesday and Wednesday."The heavy security presence will remain in place until the end of the year," he added.On Wednesday security forces repressed protests in Lubumbashi that left 10 dead and 47 wounded, King Kasongo, a lawyer and activist for the NGO Humanism and Human Rights (HDH), said.

Crowds also wounded a policeman and attacked government offices, health centres and gas stations, he told Reuters.Human Rights Watch (HRW) earlier said that at least 26 people were killed across Congo, including one in Lubumbashi, though it had yet to provide a final tally. The director of the United Nations human rights office in Congo, Jose Maria Aranaz, said he had confirmed 19 deaths with 45 wounded.CHURCH LEADS TALKS

As an uneasy calm returned, some Kinshasa residents ventured from their homes on Wednesday, but the city's normally hectic traffic had slowed and buses were limited.Authorities arrested 20 members of the activist group LUCHA for sitting in front of the office of the governor of North Kivu province in the city of Goma, the group said on Twitter.The main opposition bloc showed up to the resumption of talks mediated by Congo's Roman Catholic bishops, but Jean Marc Kabund, the leader of one of the parties in the bloc, the UDPS, told reporters he was only there to insist on Kabila quitting.The church has assumed the responsibility of trying to prevent the crisis spinning out of control.

"Those of you with political responsibility, listen to the voice of your own conscience, recognise the cruel suffering of your people and take to heart the common good," Pope Francis told his weekly audience on Wednesday, addressing Congo leaders."They should go to dialogue to find a solution," said Maggie Munanango, selling peanuts in a Kinshasa market.Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa's biggest miner of copper and metals used in gadgets such as cobalt, has not known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Armed groups have repeatedly clashed over Congo's land and mineral wealth and used mass rape as a strategic weapon. Separately, clashes between police and a militia led by a Christian pastor in northwest Mongala province killed 15 militiamen and three policemen on Tuesday, the former deputy commissioner of Mongala Michael Sakombi said. The clashes were not linked to the wider politics, but they underscored how easily armed conflict can erupt. (Additional reporting by Kenny Katombe, Amedee Mwarabu Kiboko, Benoit Nyemba in Kinshasa and Crispian Balmer in Rome; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Andrew Heavens)

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By Joseph Menn

The U.S. government spent more than a decade preparing responses to malicious hacking by a foreign power but had no clear strategy when Russia launched a disinformation campaign over the internet during the U.S. election campaign, current and former White House cyber security advisers said.Far more effort has gone into plotting offensive hacking and preparing defences against the less probable but more dramatic damage from electronic assaults on the power grid, financial system or direct manipulation of voting machines.Over the last several years, U.S. intelligence agencies tracked Russia's use of coordinated hacking and disinformation in Ukraine and elsewhere, the advisers and intelligence experts said, but there was little sustained, high-level government conversation about the risk of the propaganda coming to the United States.During the presidential election it did - to an extent that may have altered the outcome, the security sources said. But U.S. officials felt limited in investigating Russian-supported propaganda efforts because of free speech guarantees in the Constitution. A former White House official cautioned that any U.S. government attempt to counter the flow of foreign state-backed disinformation through deterrence would face major political, legal and moral obstacles. "You would have to have massive surveillance and curtailed freedom and that is a cost we have not been willing to accept, said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They (Russia) can control distribution of information in ways we don't."Clinton Watts, a security consultant, former FBI agent and a fellow at the nonprofit Foreign Policy Research Institute, said the U.S. government no longer has an organization, such as the U.S. Information Agency, that provided counter-narratives during the Cold War.He said that most major Russian disinformation campaigns in the United States and Europe have started at Russian-government funded media outlets, such as RT television or Sputnik News, before being amplified on Twitter by others.Watts said it was urgent for the U.S. government to build the capability to track what is happening online and dispute false stories."Those two things need to be done immediately," Watts said. "You have to have a public statement or it leads to conspiracy theories."A defence spending pill passed this month calls for the State Department to establish a "Global Engagement Center" to take on some of that work, but similar efforts to counter less sophisticated Islamic State narratives have fallen short.The U.S. government formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against U.S. political organizations in October, a month before the Nov. 8 election.

U.S. 'STUCK'

James Lewis, a cyber security expert at the Center for Strategic & International Studies who has worked for the departments of State and Commerce and the U.S. military, said Washington needed to move beyond antiquated notions of projecting influence if it hoped to catch up with Russia."They have RT and all we know how to do is send a carrier battle group," Lewis said. "We're going to be stuck until we find a way deal with that."Watts, who said he has tracked tens of thousands of pro-Russia Twitter handles since 2014, believes many of the most effective stories stoke fear of war or other calamities or promote a narrative of corrupt Western politicians, media and other elites. He and others said Sputnik shows the intensity of the Russian effort.

Launched two years ago as a successor to the official Russian wire service and radio network, Sputnik does not merely parrot the Kremlin political line, according to experts. It has gone out of its way to hire outsiders with social media expertise, including left and right-leaning Americans who are critical of U.S. policies.Sputnik News did not respond to a request for comment.During the election campaign, one of the most prominent fulltime Sputnik writers and commentators, Cassandra Fairbanks, shifted from an ardent anti-police protestor and supporter of socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders to a vocal backer of Republican Donald Trump.Fairbanks said in an interview with Reuters that Sputnik had not told her to advocate for Trump, now president-elect. She said she was swayed by Trump's opposition to overseas wars and international trade agreements."I did my best to push for him," Fairbanks said, "but that was of my free will."A woman in her thirties with more than 80,000 Twitter followers, Fairbanks was an activist with the hacking movement known as Anonymous before she joined Sputnik.

The day before the election, Fairbanks said on a YouTube channel that it was "pretty likely" that the authors of emails hacked from the account of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta were using code words for pedophilia when they spoke about pizza. The assertion fed the falsehood that Clinton supporters were operating a child sex ring out of a Washington-based pizza parlour. The channel, with 1.8 million subscribers, was run by Alex Jones, a radio host who has said the 9/11 attacks were an "inside job."Joe Fionda, a veteran of the Occupy protests who worked briefly for Sputnik in 2015, said the organizations articles and social media efforts overall were aimed at praising Russian President Vladimir Putin's allies such as Syria and dwelling on negative news in the United States, including police misconduct.Some U.S. officials and political analysts have said Putin could believe businessman Trump would be friendlier to Russia than Clinton, especially when it came to economic sanctions.Fionda said spreading hacked emails was a priority at Sputnik. He said his job included trying to create viral memes on a Facebook page called Mutinous Media, which did not list a Sputnik connection.Former workers of the Democratic National Committee, one of the groups infiltrated by Russian-backed hackers, said the U.S. government should consider providing funding for the technological defence of major political parties. They said that once hacked emails began appearing online, party functionaries were constantly behind in responding. They also said that the staff of Democratic President Barack Obama had been overly concerned about not appearing to defend its own party's candidate.Obama has asked spy agencies to deliver an analysis of Russian meddling in the election that will include discussion of propaganda operations, Office of the Director of National Intelligence General Counsel Robert Litt told Reuters.Asked on Tuesday whether he thought the U.S. government had been caught off guard, Litt said: "I'm not touching this with an 11-foot pole. It is a very important issue that the intelligence community is looking at very carefully, and it will issue a report in due time." (Reporting by Joseph Menn; editing by David Rohde and Grant McCool)

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BUENOS AIRES Argentina and Britain agreed on a framework to identify the bodies of dozens of unknown Argentine soldiers buried on the disputed Falkland Islands, Argentina's Foreign Ministry said in on Tuesday. The two countries, which went to war over the islands in 1982 and have had strained relations for decades, also agreed to try to increase the number of flights to the remote islands.Britain has been keen to improve relations with Argentina since pro-business President Mauricio Macri took over from Cristina Fernandez in December, although Argentina continues to claim sovereignty over the islands.Under the agreement signed by British Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan and Argentina's Vice Foreign Minister Pedro Delgado, forensic experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross will take DNA samples from the soldiers' bodies.

They will then compare the DNA with that of consenting relatives, the statement said. There are 123 unknown soldiers buried in the Falkland Islands, though not all families of the deceased have given consent for DNA testing. More than 600 Argentines and 255 British servicemen were killed after Argentina seized the islands and Britain sent a task force to retake them, sparking the conflict.

Both countries also agreed to consult with airport authorities in Brazil and Chile to link more flights to the islands, located about 435 miles off the coast of southern Argentina. The overwhelming majority of the islands' 3,000 inhabitants say they want the islands to remain a British overseas territory.Only one monthly flight reaches the Falkland Islands currently, departing from Chile with a stop in the Patagonian city of Rio Gallegos.

Britain and Argentina agreed in September to work toward removing restrictions on the oil and gas, shipping and fishing industries around the islands. (Reporting by Eliana Raszewski; Writing by Caroline Stauffer)

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London: Scotland Yard on Wednesday stepped up the security of Buckingham Palace and enforced a new cordon around it as a "precautionary measure" following the truck attack on a Christmas Market in Berlin in which 12 people were killed.

From Wednesday onwards, surrounding roads leading to Queen Elizabeth II's London home will be shut from 1045 to 1230 GMT (1615 to 1800 IST) on the days when the "Changing of the Guard" ceremony is scheduled to take place.

The move is part of a three-month trial which was being planned for some time but has now been brought forward amid a UK-wide security review triggered by the attack in Germany which killed over 12 people.

A Metropolitan Police statement said, "The closure follows a request from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) as part of ongoing security measures aimed at keeping the public safe".

"In a request to The Royal Parks, which manages the roads, the MPS highlighted that due to the event's high profile in an iconic location with a substantial military presence and attracting large crowds, the closures were a necessary precaution to continue protecting the public and those taking part in the event.

"The MPS has stressed the road closures, which have been planned for some time, are a precautionary measure and not in relation to any specific intelligence," it said.

The Met Police said the threat to the UK from international terrorism remains severe, meaning an attack is "highly likely".

Metropolitan Police Commander Simon Bray said, "The Met undertakes a range of different activities including strengthening security and high-visibility policing as part of a counter-terrorist strategy, and it will continue to take whatever action it believes is necessary to protect and reassure the public".

"Police continue to work in partnership to minimise disruption, but its priority is to ensure the safety and security of those who live, work and visit London," Bray said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Theresa May has told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the UK "stands ready to assist".

A 10 Downing Street spokesperson said there were "no plans" to change the UK's security level from "severe" but members of the public have been urged to remain vigilant and report to police any concerns.
One morning last May, I had gone to two institutes at Goettingen University. So, by the time I walked through the picturesque little town to the station, I was just able to leap onto the early afternoon train before it departed.

As I struggled with the ticket machine on board, a couple of young men sitting across the aisle looked on uneasily, slightly sheepish. Having got the ticket, I sat down beside them and got talking.

I had guessed right. They were from Iraq, and they were going to the refugee centre just a few kilometres outside Goettingen. It was one of the largest reception camps in Germany, and many arriving refugees had to stay there until they were interviewed and a decision made about where they could be sent - and whether relatives left behind could join them.

The camp turned out to be a set of buildings and pre-fab structures, generally white but occasionally painted inside in nice pastel shades or with birds or stars in spaces meant for children. The rooms were generally large, with spacious corridors outside. There were bags in some places, and the occasional pile of garbage too outside a pre-fab building.

Children of various ages, ranging to young adults, played various sorts of unsophisticated games, often involving kicking a ball or two. Young Germans flitted around, trying to sort things out, clean, and communicate to the extent possible when a refugee asked questions. Hardly any of the refugees knew German. Not everyone spoke English.

There were people from various countries  Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Iritrea, Somalia. Several sat in a hall, waiting a turn to be interviewed. Some looked concerned.

Overall, though, they appeared calm and secure. Many had infants in their arms, or little children near them.

Easy acceptance

The most striking thing was how easily the adjacent community seemed to accept the overload of refugees. Local residents pointed the way to the camp quite happily.

A few days earlier, I had sat with a couple of German friends in Muenster, sipping a fizzy drink at a street-side table on the outskirts of Muensters historic old town. At one point, I was riveted by the sight of a very neatly turned out family passing down the street. They looked as if they were straight out of Levant - perhaps a relatively conservative section of Syria, for the women wore neat bright hijabs.

I seemed to be the only one who noticed the family. They had apparently been shopping, judging from the bags they carried. They evidently lived in the imposing building down that road, right next to the beautiful leafy park along the brook that runs through that part of Muenster. A superb location, the town had made it over as sort of family hostel for refugees.

In both places in Germany, Muenster in the west and Goettingen much farther east, local communities appeared to have accepted the visitors quite happily. This was about seven months ago, when more than a million refugees had already arrived in Germany.

Questions were certainly being asked, but they tended in most places to be about logistics and efficiency of Germanys reception arrangements - as well as measures required to deal with crime - rather than resentment or hate.

There had also been a resentful reaction, mainly in areas of economic contraction and social distress. Those areas tended often to be in the former East Germany. So, there had been hate-filled demonstrations the previous winter by organisations such as Pegida. But there had been counter-demonstrations too in several cities to assert the rights of refugees.

Terror challenge

There can be no doubt that the horrific truck attack that killed 12 persons at a Christmas market in the heart of Berlin on Monday will increase the questioning and deepen the divide, politically within Germany, and beyond. US President-elect Donald Trump tweeted about it in specifically inter-religious terms quite soon after the attack.

The attack will severely weaken the hand of Germanys gutsy Chancellor, Angela Merkel. She went out on a limb last year to open her countrys doors to more than a million unscreened migrants in the space of a few months. This one event could turn the tables on her enviable three-inning success story. Many Germans, particularly from her own conservative party, had reservations about her open-door policy.

By the time I visited those camps this summer, the door had already shut again. It had only remained open in the autumn and winter last year.

By spring this year, Merkel had made a covert deal with Turkish strongman Erdogan: refugees turning up in Greece from Syria were repatriated through Turkey this year, in exchange for a gradually unfolding Turkish wish-list. Meanwhile, Merkel got Macedonia to build a wall to block passage from the Greek peninsula to the rest of Europe.

Many German conservatives held that all that was too late  that the damage had already been done by letting so many refugees enter unchecked. A large number of Pakistanis and Afghans entered Europe last year along with the flow of Syrian refugees. There were some Eritrean and other refugees too.

A range of political opponents pointedly criticised her refugee policy in the wake of Mondays Christmas market attack. The xenophobic Alternative for Germany was of course in full flow. But there were statements even from the Communist Die Linke. Several leaders of Merkels Christian Democratic Union too are uneasy.

In a brief statement on Tuesday, a somber Ms. Merkel said: I know it would be very difficult to accept if it were to be confirmed that a person who sought asylum and protection in Germany, committed this act. This would be especially appalling to all people who are working day in, day out to help the refugees and to all who really need our protection and make an effort to integrate.

The inflow of refugees may have been limited to a few months, but it was huge. It has changed the countrys demography irreversibly. Germans by and large have done a great job of adjusting to the change, and welcoming their new neighbours. There can be no doubt, though, that the road ahead will not be easy.
By Phil Stewart

| WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON Millions of dollars' worth of U.S.-supplied drones that Kiev had hoped would help in its war against Russian-backed separatists have proven ineffective against jamming and hacking, Ukrainian officials say.The 72 Raven RQ-11B Analog mini-drones were so disappointing following their arrival this summer that Natan Chazin, an advisor to Ukraine's military with deep knowledge of the country's drone program, said if it were up to him, he would return them."From the beginning, it was the wrong decision to use these drones in our (conflict)," Chazin, an advisor to the chief of the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces, told Reuters.The hand-launched Ravens were one of the recent highlights of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, aiming to give Kiev's military portable, light-weight, unarmed surveillance drones that were small enough to be used widely in the field. They are made by AeroVironment, a privately held U.S. company.But they appear to have fallen short in a battle against the separatists, who benefit from far more sophisticated military technology than insurgencies the West has contended with in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria.Whether President-elect Donald Trump's administration might seek to provide Kiev anything more robust, however, is unclear, given his stated desire to improve ties with Russia and prioritize the fight against Islamic militants. U.S. restrictions on technology exports could also limit new aid.The Air Force command of Ukraine's armed forces acknowledged to Reuters that the Ravens supplied by the United States had a fundamental drawback: Russia and the separatist forces it supports can intercept and jam their video feeds and data."The complex is analog, therefore command channels and data are not protected from interception and suppression by modern means of electronic warfare," it said.U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that Russia's electronic warfare capabilities were far more sophisticated than thought when the conflict began and that both the U.S. and Ukrainian militaries were adapting.Asked about Ukraine's reaction to the Ravens, one official said it took a considerable amount of time for the drones to reach Ukraine and that by then "they were much less effective than they would have liked, than we would have liked."The U.S. Army told Reuters it still uses Ravens but has upgraded to digital versions.

"STONE AGE"

Some 38 Ukrainian students were trained at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama on how to operate the drones between March and July this year, a U.S. Army spokesman said.Ukraine said it distributed the Ravens across the services and gave one batch to the Zhytomry Military Institute for training purposes.There were mixed accounts on how much the Ravens were being used in Ukraine, which saw Crimea annexed by Russia in 2014 and which has been fighting Russian-backed separatist forces in the east. Nearly 10,000 people have died in the conflict.The Air Force command of Ukraine's armed forces said they were being used in the "Anti-Terrorist Operation" zone, including in combat situations.

One Ukrainian official, however, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said that although drones were being used in the zone, they were not employed on the front lines. Chazin said they were largely in storage and called them a vulnerability, allowing the enemy to see Ukrainian military positions and, when it wanted, easily take them down. They had short battery life and were unable to reliably fulfill the key mission of gaining intelligence on artillery positions, he said."(Analog) basically puts you back in the stone age of the UAVs," said James Lewis, director of the strategic technologies program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, using an acronym for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or drones."I'm not being critical of the Raven. I love the Raven ... But it's a cheap, disposable UAV. And for more intense conflict, that may not cut the ice anymore."TRUMP'S UKRAINE POLICY?

The drones, along with other U.S.-supplied items like radar, first-aid kits, night vision and communications gear, fit into President Barack Obama's strategy of providing non-lethal military assistance while focusing on sanctions and diplomacy to end the war.Within that context, the miniature drones, even though small, were a noteworthy element of the more than $600 million in training and equipment that the United States has provided Ukraine so far. Ukraine pegged the Raven program's value at over $12 million.How Trump might alter U.S. support remains unclear, particularly given cabinet picks that include retired Marine General James Mattis, who has been vocal about his concerns about Russia and was nominated to become U.S. defence secretary.Some of the most prominent Republican lawmakers in Congress have called for Ukraine to receive lethal arms."If anything, it creates a new opportunity," said Luke Coffey at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think-tank.Ukrainian officials have sought to put a brave face on Trump's election, downplaying comments on the campaign trail that included appearing to recognise Crimea as part of Russia and contemplating an end to U.S. sanctions on Russia.Topping Ukraine's wish list are Javelin anti-tank missiles made by made by Raytheon (RTN.N) and Lockheed Martin (LMT.N). The top U.S. military officer in Europe, General Curtis Scaparrotti, told a Senate hearing this year "there's a requirement for an anti-tank weapon, like Javelin."One of the U.S. officials cautioned about limitations on America's ability to export drones that can evade Russia's electronic warfare capabilities.That could leave Ukraine's military to continue building drones from commercially available technology. It now assembles them from components supplied by firms in countries such as Australia, China and the Czech Republic for only $20,000 to $25,000 apiece, Chazin said, and they are more advanced than the more pricey Ravens, which are often funded from private donations. (Reporting by Phil Stewart Additional reporting by Catherine Koppel in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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ELY  The Bureau of Land Management s Ely District was removing approximately 100 excess wild horses from public and private lands along U.S. Highway 93 and State Route 322 this week, to provide for public and animal safety.

The helicopter gather is being conducted within and outside of the Eagle and Silver King Herd Management Areas.

The District will remove up to 50 wild horses from between Pioche and Eagle Valley that have moved outside the Eagle HMA in search of forage. Appropriate Management Level for the Eagle HMA is 100-210 wild horses. The current population is 1,322.

The District will remove up to 50 wild horses from the Bennet Springs area southwest of Panaca that have moved outside the Silver King HMA in search of forage. AML for Silver King is 60-128 wild horses. The current population is 912.

The gathered animals will be transported to the BLMs Indian Lakes off-range corrals located in Fallon, where they will be offered for adoption to qualified individuals. Un-adopted horses will be placed in long-term pastures where they will be humanely cared for and treated, and retain their wild status and protection under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The BLM does not sell or send any horses to slaughter.

A similar gather was conducted in February, also for safety purposes.

The Eagle and Silver King Emergency Wild Horse Gather and impacts are described and analyzed in the Ely District Public Safety and Nuisance Gather Environmental Assessment available at http://1.usa.gov/23ws5je.
By Paul Carrel and Matthias Inverardi

| BERLIN/DUESSELDORF

BERLIN/DUESSELDORF German police are looking for an asylum-seeker from Tunisia after finding an identity document under the driver's seat of a truck that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market and killed 12 people, officials and security sources said on Wednesday.Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), said the man appeared to have arrived in Germany in July 2015 and his asylum application had been rejected.He seemed to have used different names and had been identified by security agencies as being in contact with an Islamist network. The man had mainly lived in Berlin since February, but was recently in NRW, Jaeger said.The man had been considered a potential threat by security authorities since November. After being turned down for asylum, he should have been deported but could not be returned to Tunisia because his documents were missing, added Jaeger.The new details added to a growing list of questions about whether security authorities missed opportunities to prevent the attack, in which a 25-tonne truck mowed down a crowd of shoppers and smashed through wooden huts selling gifts, mulled wine and sausages. It was the deadliest attack on German soil since 1980.Christmas markets have been a known potential target for Islamist militants since at least 2000, when authorities thwarted a plot to attack one in Strasbourg, France. And the modus operandi in Berlin was identical to that of a Bastille Day attack in the French city of Nice in July, when a Tunisian-born man rammed a lorry through a seaside crowd and killed 86 people.Security sources said the ID found by the Berlin investigators was in the name of Anis A., born in the southern Tunisian city of Tataouine in 1992. By convention, suspects in Germany are identified by the first name and initial.A spokesperson for Tunisia's foreign ministry said it was trying to verify that information.German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said a Europe-wide manhunt for the suspect had been underway since midnight.The Rheinische Post newspaper said police had begun searching a shelter for migrants in western Germany where the man was believed to have lived.

SYMBOLIC TARGET

The pre-Christmas carnage at a symbolic Berlin site - under the ruined spire of a church bombed in World War Two - has shocked Germans and prompted security reviews across Europe, already on high alert after attacks this year in Belgium and France.The possible - though unproven - involvement of a migrant or refugee has revived a bitter debate about security and immigration, with Chancellor Angela Merkel facing calls to clamp down after allowing more than a million newcomers into Germany in the past two years.Merkel, who will run for a fourth term next year, has said it would be particularly repugnant if a refugee seeking protection in Germany was the perpetrator.

Police initially arrested a Pakistani asylum-seeker near the scene, but released him without charge on Tuesday. Authorities have warned that the attacker is on the run and may be armed. It is not clear if the perpetrator was acting alone or with others.The Polish driver of the hijacked truck was found shot dead in the cabin of the vehicle. Bild newspaper reported that he was alive until the attack took place.It quoted an investigator as saying there must have been a struggle with the attacker, who may have been injured.ISLAMIC STATE CLAIM

Islamic State has claimed responsibility, as it did for the Nice attack.The Passauer Neue Presse newspaper quoted the head of the group of interior ministers from Germany's 16 federal states, Klaus Bouillon, as saying tougher security measures were needed."We want to raise the police presence and strengthen the protection of Christmas markets. We will have more patrols. Officers will have machine guns. We want to make access to markets more difficult, with vehicles parked across them," Bouillon told the paper. Some politicians have blamed Merkel's open-door migrant policy for making such attacks more likely. The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has gained support in the last two years as the chancellor's popularity has waned, said on Tuesday that Germany is no longer safe.Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told German radio there was a higher risk of Islamist attacks because of the influx of migrants in the past two years, many of whom have fled conflicts in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.The task of tracking the suspects and the movements of the truck may be complicated by the relative scarcity of security cameras in public places in Germany, compared with similar countries such as Britain.The German cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft law to broaden video surveillance in public and commercial areas, a move agreed by political parties last month after a spate of violent attacks and sexual assaults on women.State surveillance is a sensitive issue in Germany because of extensive snooping by the Stasi secret police in Communist East Germany and by the Gestapo in the Nazi era. (Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers in Berlin and Mohamed Argouby in Tunis; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Gareth Jones)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Michael Nienaber and Matthias Inverardi

| BERLIN/DUESSELDORF

BERLIN/DUESSELDORF German police are looking for an asylum-seeker from Tunisia after finding an identity document under the driver's seat of a truck that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market and killed 12 people, officials and security sources said on Wednesday.The federal prosecutor's office said it was offering a reward of up to 100,000 euros ($104,000) for information leading to the capture of the suspect, whom it identified as 24-year-old Anis Amri."Beware: He could be violent and armed!" the prosecutor's office said in a statement, in which it described Amri as 1.78 metres (5'8") tall, with black hair and brown eyes.Amri's father and security sources told Tunisia's Radio Mosaique that he had left Tunisia seven years ago as an illegal immigrant and had spent time in prison in Italy.In Duesseldorf, Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), said the Tunisian appeared to have arrived in Germany in July 2015 and his asylum application had been rejected.He seemed to have used different names and had been identified by security agencies as being in contact with an Islamist network. He had mainly lived in Berlin since February, but was recently in NRW, Jaeger added.After being turned down for asylum, the man should have been deported but could not be returned to Tunisia because his documents were missing, he said."Tunisia at first denied that this person was its citizen," said Jaeger, adding that German authorities started the process of getting new identity papers in August 2016. "The papers weren't issued for a long time. They arrived today."The new details added to a growing list of questions about whether security authorities missed opportunities to prevent the attack, in which a 25-tonne truck mowed down a crowd of shoppers and smashed through wooden huts selling gifts, mulled wine and sausages. It was the deadliest attack on German soil since 1980.Christmas markets have been a known potential target for Islamist militants since at least 2000, when authorities thwarted a plot to attack one in Strasbourg, France. And the modus operandi in Berlin was identical to that of a Bastille Day attack in the French city of Nice in July, when a Tunisian-born man rammed a lorry through a seaside crowd and killed 86 people.

"I AM A BERLINER!"

The market at the scene of Monday's attack, at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, stayed shut on Wednesday, but some 50 people gathered there with banners that read "I am a Berliner" and sang songs such as "We are the World".More than 60 other Christmas markets across the German capital re-opened on Wednesday under tightened security."We don't want to let the terrorists win. If everyone stays away, they are winning," said tourist Nicki Anning at the Gendarmenmarkt Square in central Berlin.Berlin authorities said 12 people seriously injured in Monday's attack were still being treated in hospital.The pre-Christmas carnage at a symbolic Berlin site - under the ruined spire of a church bombed in World War Two - has shocked Germans and prompted security reviews across Europe, already on high alert after attacks this year in Belgium and France.

The possible - though unproven - involvement of a migrant or refugee has revived a bitter debate about security and immigration, with Chancellor Angela Merkel facing calls to clamp down after allowing more than a million newcomers into Germany in the past two years.Merkel, who will run for a fourth term next year, has said it would be particularly repugnant if a refugee seeking protection in Germany was the perpetrator.Police initially arrested a Pakistani asylum-seeker near the scene, but released him without charge on Tuesday. It remains unclear whether the real perpetrator was acting alone or with others.The Polish driver of the hijacked truck was found shot dead in the cabin of the vehicle. Bild newspaper said he had been alive until the attack took place. It also quoted an investigator as saying there must have been a struggle with the attacker, who may have been injured.

ISLAMIC STATE CLAIM

Islamic State has claimed responsibility, as it did for the Nice attack.The Passauer Neue Presse newspaper quoted the head of the group of interior ministers from Germany's 16 federal states, Klaus Bouillon, as saying tougher security measures were needed."We want to raise the police presence and strengthen the protection of Christmas markets. We will have more patrols. Officers will have machine guns. We want to make access to markets more difficult, with vehicles parked across them," Bouillon told the paper. Some politicians have blamed Merkel's open-door migrant policy for making such attacks more likely. The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has gained support in the last two years as the chancellor's popularity has waned, said on Tuesday that Germany is no longer safe.Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told German radio there was a higher risk of Islamist attacks because of the influx of migrants in the past two years, many of whom have fled conflicts in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.The task of tracking the suspects and the movements of the truck may be complicated by the relative scarcity of security cameras in public places in Germany, compared with countries such as Britain.The German cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft law to broaden video surveillance in public and commercial areas, a measure agreed by political parties last month after violent attacks and sexual assaults on women.State surveillance is a sensitive issue in Germany because of extensive snooping by the Stasi secret police in Communist East Germany and by the Gestapo in the Nazi era. (Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers in Berlin and Mohamed Argouby in Tunis; Writing by Mark Trevelyan and Paul Carrel; Editing by Gareth Jones)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Drazen Jorgic

| JHANG, Pakistan

JHANG, Pakistan Masroor Nawaz Jhangvi, a Muslim cleric whose father was one of Pakistan's most infamous sectarian figures, said he has become more moderate and distanced himself from his previous anti-Shia rhetoric after winning a regional assembly seat.Jhangvi's December election to the Punjab provincial assembly caused a stir in Pakistan due to fears his political ascent would increase sectarian divides in Jhang, a dusty town with a history of violence between Shia and Sunni communities.Old video clips on the internet show Jhangvi starting speeches by shouting "Shia are infidels". The 29-year-old is on a domestic list of people with suspected ties to militant groups.Jhangvi's assassinated father, Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, was a fierce anti-Shia cleric who founded a feared Sunni sectarian group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan. He was killed by suspected Shia militants in 1990.The banned militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has carried out some of the worst sectarian attacks in Pakistan's history, was named after his father. The group's Urdu-language name means Army of Jhangvi."Responsibility has fallen on my shoulders, now I am representative of all the people of Jhang," Jhangvi told Reuters in an interview last week during an hours-long tour of his home town.

"I consider everybody to be human, and I want peace in Jhang and in Punjab," Jhangvi added, when asked how he felt about Shias.Banned Sunni sectarian organisation Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat, strongly backed Jhangvi during the election but the bearded cleric denies being a member of the group.In the Punjab assembly, Jhangvi has joined the far right religious party Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl.Jhangvi distanced himself from anti-Shia video clips by saying they were several years old.

But when asked if he regretted making inflammatory comments about Shias in the past, Jhangvi smiled and said "no comment".One prominent Shia resident in Jhang said Jhangvi did not run a sectarian campaign and has portrayed himself as a deradicalised figure, even managing to win some Shia votes in the Dec. 1 election."Time will prove whether its genuine deradicalisation and a departure from the past or whether it's based on political expediency," add the resident who did not wish to be identified.

Amid the rubbish-strewn streets of Jhang, Jhangvi is mobbed by residents wanting to shake his hand, or take a selfie with him.He has promised them freshly paved roads and badly needed sewage pipes."People of Jhang have been ignored for too long," Jhangvi said during a visit to a Christian area of the town.Jhang said the police had been "harassing" him since his electoral victory and a senior police officer from the town ended the interview with a demanded that a Reuters reporter stop talking to Jhangvi and leave town. (Reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Robert Birsel)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Moscow: Russia said on Wednesday, it was too early to conclude who was behind the murder of Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov in Ankara, after Turkey's foreign minister put the blame on exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.

"In this case it is hardly worth hurrying to any conclusions until the investigation determines  as our president said  who was behind the murder of our ambassador," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

In the first official accusation against Gulen by a top Turkish official over the killing, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told US counterpart John Kerry in a phone call on Monday that Turkey believed Gulen's group FETO was involved, the foreign ministry said.

The US-based Gulen  who Ankara says also orchestrated an attempted coup in July  had earlier issued a statement to condemn the assassination as a "terrorist act" that left him "shocked and deeply saddened."

President Vladimir Putin will take part in mourning ceremonies for the slain ambassador on Thursday as he is laid to rest in his homeland.

Veteran diplomat Karlov was shot nine times in the back by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas at the art gallery opening of a show of Russian photography on Monday.

His body arrived back in Moscow late on Tuesday after Russian investigators landed in Turkey to help probe the assassination.

The murder stunned Ankara and Moscow, which have rowed repeatedly over the Syria conflict but had recently begun to cooperate closely on the evacuations from war-wrecked Aleppo.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday named Peter Navarro, an economist who has urged a hard line on China, to head a newly formed White House National Trade Council, the transition team said in a statement."The formation of the National Trade Council further demonstrates the President-elect's determination to make American manufacturing great again and to provide every American the opportunity to work in a decent job at a decent wage," the statement said. Trump made trade a centrepiece of his presidential campaign and railed against what he said were bad deals the United States has made with other countries.The president-elect, who takes office on Jan. 20, has also threatened to hit Chinese imports with high tariffs and angered Beijing by questioning Washington's longstanding "one China" policy.

Navarro, who advised Trump during the campaign, has authored several books including "Death by China: How America Lost its Manufacturing Base," which was made into a documentary film.Navarro, a professor at University of California, Irvine, has suggested stepped up engagement with Taiwan, including assistance with a submarine development program.

He argued that Washington should stop referring to the "one China" policy, but stopped short of suggesting it should recognise Taipei, saying "there is no need to unnecessarily poke the Panda.""I read one of Peters books on Americas trade problems years ago and was impressed by the clarity of his arguments and thoroughness of his research," Trump said in the statement.

"He has presciently documented the harms inflicted by globalism on American workers, and laid out a path forward to restore our middle class. He will fulfill an essential role in my administration as a trade advisor," Trump said. (Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Yeganeh Torbati and David Alexander

| WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON The United States on Tuesday sought to downplay its absence from talks on the Syrian conflict among Russia, Iran and Turkey in Moscow, saying it was not a "snub" and did not reflect a decline of U.S. influence in the Middle East.However, President Barack Obama's decision to offer only limited support to moderate rebels has left Washington with little leverage to influence the situation in Syria, especially after Moscow began launching air strikes against rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad. Although Washington has long been a player in efforts to end the Syria civil war and other Mideast conflicts, the United States was forced to watch from the sidelines as the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia, mounted an assault to pin down the rebels in east Aleppo that culminated in a ceasefire deal.Dennis Ross, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who was an adviser on Iran and the Middle East to both Democratic and Republican administrations, said the United States had made itself "irrelevant" in Syria."The opposition finds little reason to be responsive to us and Assad. The Russians and Iran know that there is nothing we will do to raise the costs to them of their onslaught against Aleppo and other Syrian cities," Ross said."Russia, having changed the balance of power on the ground, without regard to civilian consequences, has moved to make itself an arbiter."A spokesman for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry dismissed suggestions that America's absence from the meeting indicated a change in influence."The secretary doesn't see this as a snub at all. He sees it as another multilateral effort to try to get a lasting peace in Syria and he welcomes any progress towards that," State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday."We would obviously refute any notion that ... the fact that we weren't at this one meeting is somehow a harbinger or a litmus test for U.S. influence and leadership there or anywhere else around the world," Kirby said, adding that Washington was still engaged in the region on many other issues.

"We are not excluded, we are not being sidelined," he added.At the meeting on Tuesday, Russia, Iran and Turkey said they were ready to help broker a Syrian peace deal and they adopted a declaration that laid out the principles any agreement should follow.Still, the meetings on Tuesday resulted in a "Moscow Declaration," reflecting Russia's growing links with Iran and Turkey, despite the murder on Monday of Russia's ambassador in Ankara, Turkey's capital, and reflects Putin's desire to increase his country's influence in the Middle East and more widely.It also shows that Russia is fed up with what it considers long and pointless talks with the Obama administration over Syria.

"RUNNING THE SHOW"

A U.S. official acknowledged that the U.S. absence from the evacuation talks on eastern Aleppo was Russia's way of showing that Moscow, not Washington, was running the show."The fact is that we have put ourselves in a position where Russia is making efforts to try to work with anybody else so they can isolate us," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters."We let our differences with Turkey over the Kurds and our views over the northern part of Syria create gaps that the Russians have exploited."

Kirby said that in the end, the United States, Russia, Iran, and Turkey would like to see an immediate ceasefire and the "urgent delivery" of humanitarian aid.Ultimately, he said, it was too soon to judge whether the talks were a success.Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that he and his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, were working to organise new Syrian peace negotiations without the United States or the United Nations. Russia says that if they happen, the talks would be in addition to intermittent U.N.-brokered negotiations in Geneva.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday he thought that what he called the Russia-Iran-Turkey troika was the most effective forum for trying to solve the Syria crisis. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by John Walcott and Leslie Adler)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
This article is third in a series on key members of US President-elect Donald Trumps national security team. The first and second parts are available here and here respectively.

The third general to be nominated to a key national security position is Marine Corps General John Kelly. Kelly served as the commander of the US Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM)  an area of responsibility that covered Mexico, South and Central America, and the Caribbean  between 2012 and 2016. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate him to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)  the third largest cabinet department within the United States government.

One of the key focus areas of USSOUTHCOM has been surveillance and disruption of illicit narcotics and human trafficking networks and, as such, it enjoys a synergy of interest with domestic security concerns  DHSs purview. Trumps choice of Kelly  a much more low-key figure than Michael Flynn and James Mattis  seems to be natural. Kelly has long maintained a crime-terror nexus spanning West Asia, Africa and South America emerging as the next big threat to American national security. As head of DHS, thwarting this nexus will be his key priority.

The Department of Homeland Security itself is a creation of the 11 September, 2001 attacks. The attacks showed a deep disconnect between the intelligence agencies of the United States, law enforcement, and the immigration services. For example, soon after the attacks it became clear that two of the 9/11 hijackers were granted entry to the US despite being already noted as Al-Qaeda operatives by the CIA. Created in 2002, DHS is chartered to act as a single-point department dedicated to the prevention of terrorist attacks inside the US. However, the DHS has since faced criticism about its byzantine structure and its alleged role in privacy violation.

With the election of Trump, DHS will come into renewed focus as the parent cabinet department in charge of the citizenship and immigration, as well as customs and border protection services. One of the most divisive elements of Trumps campaign was his harsh line towards immigration in general, and from Mexico as well as Muslim-majority parts of the world in particular. Trumps rhetoric about building a wall between Mexico and the US will most likely remain just that  rhetoric. But Kellys DHS will have much greater latitude in enforcing a tougher line on immigration on national-security grounds.

In a 2014 interview to a US military journal, Kelly noted that the greatest threat to the United States emanating in the western hemisphere is (...) the threat to the US coming through illicit networks that link narco-traffickers to international terrorists. Noting that most instances where the US government has knowledge of links between the two remain classified, Kelly said, "We know that there are international terrorist organisations making vast amounts of money laundering drug proceeds that come out of the United States."

In a statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2014, Kelly specifically named the Iran-backed and Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hezbollah as exploiting Venezuela, and the Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay Tri-Border to engage in money laundering and other illegal endeavours, as well as recruitment and radicalisation efforts.

A particular story stand out which justifies Kellys concerns about active terror-trafficking networks in action  straight of a Hollywood movie in its sheer audacity as well as apparent improbability. On 11 October 2011, the US government announced that it had evidence to prosecute two Iranian nationals, including one suspected Iranian Revolutionary Guard operative, for an attempt to assassinate the-then Saudi ambassador to the US, Adel al-Juber in a Washington D.C. restaurant. This in itself was exceptional in that the Iranians were bold enough to plot something like this on US soil.

This was just the tip of the iceberg. The Iranians had in fact tried to get a Mexico-based narco-trafficker to carry out the assassination  as well as bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies, the US government alleged. (Not all were convinced that this was indeed a legitimate plan enjoying the approval of the Iranian government. Part of the scepticism stemmed from the fact that the Mexican narco-trafficker in question was, in fact, an undercover US Drug Enforcement Administration agent.)

But the terror-crime nexus about which Kelly has so apprehensively spoken on a number of occasions remains a reality in other instances. For example, Dawood Ibrahims nephew, Sohail Kaskar, was arrested in the US in December 2015 on charges of narcotics trafficking as well as intending to supply missile launchers to FARC  a Columbia-based terrorist organisation. The American journalist Gretchen Peters has extensively documented the deep links between Islamist terrorism and narcotics trade and trafficking in her 2010 book Seeds of Terror.

Kelly, in his statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee, expressed his deep concern that many smuggling pipelines lead directly into the United States, representing a potential vulnerability that could be exploited by terrorist groups seeking to do us harm. A persistent fear here is that terrorists would use smuggling routes to sneak a weapon of mass destruction  perhaps nuclear  into the continental United States.

Kelly, as the Secretary of Homeland Security, is better placed than many  through his experience in USSOUTHCOM  to assess the threats from the narco-terror nexus. The over-bureaucratised DHS has often been accused of falling behind the curve when it comes to assessing emerging threats. Kellys DHS will most likely be more proactive  provided Washington politics and inter-departmental squabbles dont exhaust the generals energy.

Part 1: Why 9/11 will shape what follows 11/9

Part 2: Michael Flynn's war on Islamism

The author is a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi and a national security columnist for Firstpost. Views expressed here are personal. He tweets @AbhijnanRej
The glistening white salt of the world famous Bonneville Salt Flats is shrinking near the Utah-Nevada line. The prehistoric lakebed has long been a mecca for daredevil speed racers, as well as a backdrop for famous movie scenes and destination for selfie-seeking tourists. Concerns are mounting about the future of the treeless expanse of salt crystals and yet another study has been launched as researchers try to pinpoint the cause and solution. They know a century of mining a potassium-based salt called potash has played a role and are also trying to assess how racing, tourism and climate change factor in.
Airtel launched V-Fiber broadband in Chennai back in October, today it has launched V-Fiber in Mumbai that offers speeds of up to 100 Mbps. It is based on Vectorization, which is Europes No.1 fixed broadband technology. As Airtel said already, there is no need for wiring or drilling in customers premises, just a new modem upgrade is required to experience V-Fiber.

Existing Airtel broadband customers can upgrade to V-Fiber at no extra monthly cost. If they are not happy with the service within one month, Airtel will refund the modem charges and the amount will be adjusted in the next bill cycle.

New customers can choose exciting V-Fiber plans starting from Rs. 899 and can subsequently avail the 3 months unlimited offer. Existing and new customers can register their requests at www.airtel.in/vfiber or call on 18001030121. Airtel also announced unlimited free voice calling for all broadband customers at no extra cost and it recently started offering myHome Rewards that offers 5GB extra data for broadband users for every Airtel postpaid or DTH connection.

Airtel already announced that V-Fiber will be deployed across 87 cities in coming months.

Commenting on the launch, Sameer Batra, Chief Executive Officer  Mumbai, Bharti Airtel said:

We are delighted to bring V-Fiber to our customers in Mumbai, as part of our endeavour to deliver best-in-class broadband experience to users. With V-Fiber, we are all set to offer an altogether transformed experience on our future ready network to the digitally savvy homes. This solution offers a very quick and convenient upgrade to the customer. Our innovative myHome Rewards program and free voice calling facility will certainly add to the delight of Mumbais Digital Homes.
Functionality and ease of consumption are still the name of the game when it comes to ready-to-drink beverages. In this space, Monster Energy has introduced a new medium... Read More
As Alaska Air Group (ALK 0.64%) celebrated the completion of its acquisition of Virgin America last week, at least one instititution declined to laud the merger. S&P Global Ratings cut Alaska's credit rating from BB+ to BBB-, which is the lowest rating by which Alaska can be considered investment grade. The next notch down is "junk" status.

In its demotion, the ratings agency cited integration risk as well as the impact of $1.4 billion in debt and leases assumed by Alaska to consummate the transaction. Let's take a look at Alaska's financial position as it relates to the new liabilities, then explore pertinent acquisition risks, to get a feel for how much investors should worry about the company's debt load.

Resources and obligations

As of its last balance sheet date, Sept. 30, 2016, Alaska Air Group holds $2.1 billion in long-term debt. This includes $1.5 billion the company borrowed in the third quarter to finance the merger, secured by 34 of the company's Boeing 737-900ER aircraft, and 19 of its 737-800 models.

In a "subsequent event" note added to the third-quarter report, the company disclosed the addition of another $100 million in merger financing which occurred after Sept. 30. This last $100 million is secured by three more 737-900s.

The company states in its third-quarter report that its liquidity consists of the 50 remaining airplanes that aren't encumbered, $252 million in undrawn credit lines, and $1.7 billion in cash and marketable securities that aren't allocated to merger completion. Taking the subsequent event note into account, the total of unencumbered aircraft now stands at 47, versus 56 in which lenders hold a security interest.

Between debt service, lease obligations, aircraft purchases, and other commitments, Alaska Air Group has scheduled out $1.54 billion in contractual obligations due next year; Virgin will add approximately $309 million of its own obligations, for a combined total of $1.85 billion.

The cash to meet these obligations will likely originate through a combination of Alaska's traditionally strong operating cash flow, which soared to $1.58 billion last year, and its existing cash balances. Virgin reported $617 million in cash in its coffers as of its most recent balance sheet report, also dated Sept. 30. Of course, we won't know the final amount of cash balances contributed by Virgin until Alaska's fourth-quarter 2016 report is issued in Jan. 2017.

A few risks to consider

As you might infer from the information above, Alaska Air Group, downgrade notwithstanding, holds a sound balance sheet, and is fairly well equipped to handle the significant debt load it's assuming through its purchase of Virgin America. But there are risks to take into account.

S&P Global ratings mentioned integration risk in its downgrade notes. While this exists in any airline merger, it's exacerbated by the uncertainty that exists over the future branding of Virgin America. Alaska executives have indicated that they won't make a decision on branding until the first quarter of 2017.

Will Virgin be allowed to keep its distinctive, hip brand, which is geared toward younger travelers, and thus operate in the manner of a wholly owned subsidiary? Or will it be gradually merged into the stodgier Alaska brand identity, in order to scale the parent brands' flight routes between the east and west coasts?

In either scenario, Alaska will have to integrate two separate cultures, and as importantly, two different economic models. As its main line, Alaska exclusively flies Boeing 737s. It's picking up a carrier that is an Airbus shop, solely flying Airbus 319s and 320s.

As I wrote earlier this year, Alaska already has experience consolidating an airline with a different platform: Its Horizon Air subsidiary flies a fleet of 50-plus Bombardier Q400 planes. Should Alaska decide to retire Virgin's identity, the two companies' repair and maintenance operations will need to be combined efficiently, with much cross-platform training and investment to undertake.

Finally, potentially higher jet fuel prices in 2017 also poses some risk to the combined entity. Of the two carriers, Alaska is much better prepared to weather some fuel cost escalation. Its operating margin of 25% is roughly 10 percentage points higher than Virgin's. Both carriers currently hedge against upside fuel risk.

Reducing liability and worry

Alaska Air Group has experience in aggressively reducing debt on its balance sheet. It's possible that management will soon feel the urge to start chipping away at the company's total borrowings, perhaps as soon as next year. An early reduction of one-eighth of the merged entity's outstanding debt next year, which equates to just north of $300 million, would reduce exposure, not to mention worry for shareholders, and could probably be executed with little pain, given the company's available cash equivalents and investments. And trimming obligations might also reduce a bit of unease management itself must feel, as it embarks on the integration of a promising but relatively large merger.
Spains population is shrinking at a rate of 72 people per day, essentially due to a historically low birthrate , according to a study released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). In the first half of 2016, 12,998 more people died than were born in Spain and the number of newborns fell by 4.6% compared to the same period in 2015.

A baby at a hospital in Granollers (Catalonia). Siqui Sanchez (Getty)

Since the economic crisis of 2008, the country has seen a steady trend of increasingly fewer births. The only exception was in 2014, when the number increased by 0.1% compared to 2013.

The survey also found that there were fewer deaths (7.8% less) and fewer marriages (2.7% less) in the first half of 2016 than in the first half of 2015.

By 2066, Spains population will have shrunk by around 5.4 million, studies suggest

The dearth of newborns was especially acute in Catalonia and Aragon, as well as in the exclave city of Melilla. In the first half of 2016, Catalonia had 9% fewer births, Melilla saw a baby decrease of 7.4% and Aragon had 6% fewer births than in the first half of last year.

On the other hand, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Asturias all saw slight increases in the number of births  between 0.6% and 1.5%.

In terms of deaths, all of Spains regions saw a decrease in mortality except for the exclave city of Ceuta. Significantly, the regions of La Rioja, Aragon and Extremadura all experienced around 10% fewer deaths this year.

The Spanish population is ageing as birth rates decline.

More as a result of greater longevity than increased fertility, the regions of Madrid, Andalucia, Murcia, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands saw more births than deaths, according to the study.

The INE explained that generally the first months of the year tend to see more deaths and fewer births than the final months, noting that this trend may not continue into the second part of the year.

In any event, the experts say that Spain isnt getting any younger. By 2066, Spains population, currently around 46.4 million, will have shrunk by around 5.4 million, suggests another study released by the INE in October.

English version by Alyssa McMurtry.
This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
When it comes to the Basque Countrys AVE high-speed rail project , known popularly as the Basque Y because of the shape of its network, this is definitely a case of what Bob Dylan might call A Slow Train Coming. In 1989 it was one of the first major rail projects to be approved, but work did not begin until 2004. Now, 27 years later, the line still has no date for its inaugural run.

Work on a stretch of line in Gipuzkoa province. J. Uriarte

Once targeted by the terrorist group ETA, work was also delayed by technical problems and political fallouts. Now it is seen as a gauge of the thaw between the conservative Popular Party (PP) central government and the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV): the latter is demanding completion of the project in return for supporting the Popular Partys budget.

In a dramatic U-turn from the categorical pronouncement last September that we dont finance pharaonic works, made by then-Public Works Minister Rafael Catala, his successor, Inigo de la Serna, said last month: We want to work together to speed up the job.

A kilometer of high-speed track costs 23 million to build in the Basque Country

With a budget of 4.2 billion agreed at the start of the project, the infrastructure will link the Basque Countrys three capitals, Bilbao, Vitoria and San Sebastian. But problems with access into the cities have held up the project; there are stretches of track that still have not been put out to tender, and there is no high-speed link to the rest of the countrys high-speed network.

However, the project now has the chance to get back on track and pick up a head of steam. The government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy needs support for its budget and the PNV is prepared to do a deal if the cabinet is prepared to take steps toward completing the high-speed project.

The Basque commissioner for Economic Development and Infrastructure, Arantxa Tapia, has already asked for a meeting with Economy Minister Luis de Guindos and De la Serna to make plans, though she has received no reply as yet.

PNV leader Andoni Ortuzar has said that developing a stable working relationship with the central government will depend on whether the train issue is resolved. He also noted that the main negotiations will take place in January and February.

We want to work together to speed up the job Inigo de la Serna, Public Works Minister

The project is included in the 2005-2020 National Strategic Plan for Infrastructure, and is of relevance to the EU as an Atlantic axis point.

More than 100 km of a total of 175km will run through 23 tunnels, and a further 44 viaducts are in the works. Once it is completed, the Basque Y will allow passengers to travel between San Sebastian and Bilbao in under 40 minutes, a journey which currently takes more than 90 minutes.

Obstacles include costs, technical problems and environmental impact  not only does the project have its share of critics, but the 164,647m2 of land that has been laid to waste in the process must be regenerated. One kilometer of high-speed track costs an average of 23 million in the Basque Country but just 13 million in the rest of the country.

The PNV and Basque Socialists (PSE) want a deal to finish the job, including using money from the quota the Basque government contributes to central government for undevolved powers. The hope now is trains will start operating five years down the line.

English version by Heather Galloway.
Swiss biotech group Actelion's shares rose by more than 3 percent on Wednesday following a report that talks with Sanofi are making progress, increasing optimism that the two will strike a deal.

Reuters reported late on Tuesday that discussions between the Swiss and French companies are progressing, despite investors' fears that the Swiss biotech firm's chief executive and founder might not want to sell.

Analysts at Basler Kantonalbank and Thurguaer Kantonalbank cited the Reuters report as the reason for Actelion's share price rise. The shares were up 3.9 percent at 209.80 Swiss francs by 0914 GMT, while Sanofi stock edged up 0.1 percent.

Actelion's share price had fallen more than 7 percent in the past two sessions as a hoped-for takeover valuing the Swiss biotech firm at up to $30 billion has failed to emerge, frustrating hedge funds that have bought heavily into the stock.

However, the source said Actelion had now reached a point where the company needed to sign a deal and it could not call off negotiations with the French drugmaker without triggering an investor rebellion demanding the overthrow of its board.

Actelion's co-founder and Chief Executive Jean-Paul Clozel has fended off previous attempts to take over the Swiss firm, rejecting approaches by U.S. and European rivals as well as resisting pressure from U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Advisors to find a buyer five years ago.

The silence in recent days has unnerved investors who had been looking for a deal before the Christmas break, but the source said it would be "neither impossible nor unusual" to see a big transaction coming between Christmas and New Year's Eve.

U.S. healthcare group Johnson & Johnson abandoned its efforts to buy Actelion last week but the source said it may still come back with a counter-offer, depending on what terms are agreed with Sanofi.

Other sources familiar with the situation said Sanofi had stepped in soon after J&J made its initial approach with an all-cash offer.

The French firm tried to win over Actelion's board with a higher bid containing cash and a so-called contingent value right (CVR), they said.

The CVR - similar to one that Sanofi provided when it bought U.S. rare diseases firm Genzyme for $20 billion in 2011 - would pay out if certain Actelion drugs live up to commercial expectations.

Investors said any offer where the CVR represented more than 20 percent of the overall value of the deal would not go down well with shareholders.

Sanofi and Actelion have declined to comment.

(Reporting by Michael Shields, Pamela Barbaglia and Maiya Keidan; Editing by Alexander Smith)
Problem loans are a big issue in China, and no one has a good understanding of just how bad the banks' loan books really are. One analyst suggested that Chinese banks could work through their loans in just two years in the worst-case scenario, but others believe the problems may be deeper.

In this clip from Industry Focus: Financials, The Motley Fool's Gaby Lapera and Jordan Wathen discuss how policy changes affect Chinese bank reporting, and why rules intended to prevent capital flight are likely to be related to Chinese banks' bad loans.

A full transcript follows the video.

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This podcast was recorded on Dec. 12, 2016.

Gaby Lapera: It's interesting, because it does seem like China is starting to realize that this is not good for them. Sheng-Fu Lin, who is China'stop banking regulator, said that the hidden credit risk that's associated withinvestment receivables and other types of investments like this, it could be really bad for China's financial security. Which iscrazy. Normally, topChinese officials don't say, "Hey, we might have made an error in judgment, and this could be bad."

Jordan Wathen:Yeah. It's aparticularly big deal because,when you think about banking and China,it's a totally different world. Many of the loans that are underwritten there are underwritten on the basis of political favors, or because a company has an implicitguarantee from the government. In a lot of cases, these loans weren't made because someone thought, "Hey,this is a great credit risk." These loans were made because, "Oh, well,you know what, the government will probably bail this out later." Right? It's just -- I don't even know how to describe it -- it's just a heaping problem, atangled web of bad incentives.

Lapera:Yeah. So,now that we've brought you down about China, things could be a-changing. Butit's not super certain, so don't get excited. I was joking with Jordan earlier thatI am the best person for this show because I'm so risk-averse that I just fit in with all the financial stuff perfectly. So there's a company, PineBridge Investments,has said that China's big five banks could absorb the hit even if 15.5% of its loans are bad. Technically, the official number for how many loans are bad in China is 1.8%, butlike we said, we don't really know what the number is. So, good news: They couldsustain a loss of up to 15.5% of their loan value. Bad news: We have no idea what it actually is.

Wathen:Yeah. One of the things you have to understand is, what kills banks isn'tnecessarily solvency. There have beenplenty of examples, even in the United States, where banks have been insolvent. It'spretty much well understood thatCitigroup, at one point in timeor another, has been insolvent several times over the last century. What kills banks is a liquidity crisis. It's when people take out theirdeposits. So as long as the government says, "Hey,deposits are fine," andas long as the Chinese people think there's no risk to these banks going under, they can exist and basically earn enough money over time from their good loans to basically paper over their losses. As long as there's no run on the banks,so to speak, then these banks will exist -- whether or not they're good investmentsis a totally different matter.

Lapera:Yeah. And the idea of a run on the banks in Chinais a little bit more difficult, because the Chinese government could just say, "Sorry, the banks are closed."I mean, you can do that in the United States, too, but they can also trap all the foreign investments and everything in China and just be like, "It's all ours now. Don't worry about it."

Wathen:Exactly, and thatgoes back to what we were talking about earlier. Basically, China has, through a number of ways, made it much harder for capital to leave the country. If it doesn't leave the country,no one is going to take it out and put it in their closet or under the mattress; they'regoing to keep it in the banking system or securities or whatever. Preventing that capital flight, in some ways, flows through to the banking system.

Lapera:Yeah. Another thing that is apositive development, although it might not seem so at first on the surface,is that the Ministry of Finance in China is allowing banks to write off more bad loans. Originally, it was really difficult to write off a bad loan. Youhad to go to the Ministry of Finance and ask permission for each loan you wanted to write off. But, they've made it a lot easier, which is, I guess, bad in the sense that we're suddenlyseeing them right off a lot more loans -- it'sdoubled in the last couple years. On the other hand, it means that banks aregetting better at identifying bad loans quickly, and potentially, it could help out credit risk, because banks are going to be less likely to make bad loans, in theory, potentially.

Wathen:I think the thing here, too, is that investorsdon't necessarily demand of greatperformance all the time. But they do demand honest reporting. If a bank is coming out and saying its books are perfect all the time,no one wants to invest in it because obviouslyeveryone knows that banks write bad loans,it just happens, it's part of the business model that some loans will go bad. So if anything,investors are more fearful of the bank that reports no losses than the bank that reports a reasonable level of losses over time.

Gaby Lapera has no position in any stocks mentioned. Jordan Wathen 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.
"OK, crew, can we engineer better throughput this quarter?" Image source: Chipotle Mexican Grill Instagram page.

ForChipotle Mexican Grill, Inc,(NYSE: CMG), it's been quite an eventful December. Founder Steve Ells finds himself back in sole possession of the CEO role after the departure of co-CEO Monty Moran. A slate of four new board members, two of them backed by activist investor Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, will be looking with interest over Ells' shoulder. These momentous changes were preceded, and perhaps signaled, by Ells' comments on Dec. 6 at a Barclays plc investor conference.

At this venue, Ells admitted to being nervous about the company's ability to meet 2017 earnings guidance of $10 per diluted share. After dropping this shoe, and, more significantly, now that he again holds ultimate executive accountability, perhaps Ells should consider relaying one more message to investors.

Newly identified earnings headwinds will make for a tough 2017

More than a year after a series of food-safety scares pushed Chipotle stock into an extended period of malaise, the company finds itself bemoaning performance issues that are contributing to lower traffic and revenue. Surprisingly, food safety isn't one of them. In a conference call with investors held on Dec. 12, Chipotle executives detailed operational problems that they believe are causing loyal customers to visit the chain less frequently and, by extension, non-core customers to perhaps avoid the chain altogether.

The list includes declining throughput (i.e., speed of service, once a Chipotle strength), as well as messy tables and fountain areas, and frequent understocking of ingredients in some restaurants, all of which naturally frustrate diners' expectations.

A number of factors underlie these shortcomings. Employee turnover has increased as the company has struggled to institute new food-safety procedures in 2016. Ells also blames an overemphasis on "soft skills" within employee culture, to the detriment of operational basics, and he's vowed to reinstate a focus on quality and customer service.

Fixing these issues, which executives claim currently affect at least half of all restaurants, will prove costly. Achieving faster service, higher cleanliness in restaurants, and stable ingredient availability in the service line requires additional training, and likely more hiring.

Yet labor costs are already in the red zone. During the first nine months of 2016, labor as a percentage of revenue has averaged 28.5%. That's roughly six percentage points above last year's labor costs, which equaled 22.4% of revenue over the same period. It wouldn't be surprising to see the labor burden rise another two to three percentage points next year, as management refocuses on its own proven execution principles such as the "four pillars of throughput."

The proverbial "other shoe"

The earnings headwinds we've discussed inform the unease of Chipotle's founder. Since Ells has implicitly admitted that diluted earnings per share of $10 might not be achievable in 2017, this would be a good time for the company to drop the other shoe and issue an interim guidance report that revises the 2017 forecast down to a manageable level.

There's never a good time to recast the numbers you've promised to those who hold stock in your company. Yet investors appear to be reasonably placated by the board and management changes, as Chipotle stock has recovered most of the 7.5% drop precipitated by the Barclays conference. And while a revision is sure to cause some sell-off in the "CMG" ticker, at this point, the shock is likely to be smaller than a mid- to late-year 2017 mea culpa.

Objectively, you have to agree with Ells. The target $10 per share EPS seems a long way off from today's vantage point. Through the first three quarters of 2016, Chipotle has recorded revenue of $2.87 billion and generated year-to-date diluted EPS of just $0.27.

If the company can pause its revenue decline next year and book a top line of around $3.8 billion, it will need to find about eight percentage points of efficiency between its restaurant margin and general and administrative expenses, to finish the year with earnings of $10 per share.

That's a tall order, especially if, in addition to a labor surge, Chipotle has to spend more on marketing to pull in patrons, so that they can experience the faster, cleaner, and higher-quality dining experience.

It might be more reasonable to expect that the burrito giant can achieve four to six percentage points of operating margin improvement next year. This would translate into a diluted earnings per share range of approximately $5.25-$7.75.It may be painful, but ultimately prudent, to announce as much now. Chipotle's assessment of its current operational deficiencies is painfully clear-eyed. It's time to bring the earnings outlook to a similarly unflinching and realistic state.

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Asit Sharma has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Chipotle Mexican Grill. The Motley Fool recommends Barclays. 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.
There is something comforting about a quality, high-yield investment that can maintain its payouts through thick and thin. That dividend payment of 4%, 5%, or even more makes the ups and downs of the market seem much less stressful since you know you are going to get a return in cash or even in more shares.

The key word in that first sentence is quality. Any company can try to pay a high yield, but only well-positioned ones with strong cash flows have the ability to keep those payments going for years into the future. Three that look to be strong high-yield investments are healthcare REIT HCP Inc. (NYSE: HCP), oil and gas transportation and logistics specialist Holly Energy Partners (NYSE: HEP), and telecom giant Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ). Here's why investors should consider these three stocks for their high-yield portfolios.

Image source: Getty Images.

A REIT with a huge demographic shift on its side

There is one undeniable fact that anchors an investment thesis in HCP: The elderly population in the U.S. is growing fast. Overall population growth coupled with increasing life expectancy means that the elderly population of the U.S. is expected to grow from43.1 million in 2012 is to 83.7 million by 2050. With increased age also comes increased demand on healthcare services and the infrastructurebehind it.

One of HCP's senior living properties. Not what you think of when you think healthcare facilities. Image source: HCP investor presentation.

This is the market HCP is looking to fill but in a targeted way. HCP's profile of healthcare services businesses includes retirement and assisted living facilities, life sciences labs, and doctors' offices. The tenants of these buildings are mostly private clients vs. clients who are supported by government reimbursementsystems like Medicare. By eschewing facilities that are more reliant on government payments, HCP has more pricing power and therefore a more stable revenue structure.

The company has made several moves to improve its financial standing and lower its exposure to a single customer. As a result of these moves, it now has an investment-grade credit rating. With the market for healthcare-related real estate being as fragmented as it is, there are plenty of opportunities to make some acquisitions with its financial firepower. On top of it all, HCP has a 30-year history of increasing its dividend payments to investors -- when adjusting for its most recent spinoff. All of these elements make HCP look like a decent investment, and its 4.9% dividend yield makes it look pretty attractive right now.

The little MLP that could

When investing in master limited partnerships and the energy infrastructure business, it helps immensely to be a larger company. Larger business tend to have a more diverse customer base (lower risk of counterparty default), a larger network with more options for customers (better pricing), and can get better rates when raising capital (a critical function to grow operations). So with a market capitalization of just $2.1 billion, it would seem that Holly Energy Partners would not be in the conversation as a high-quality, high-yield MLP.

For what the company lacks in size and scope, it makes up for it with extremely prudent financial management. The company eschews any opportunity or risk associated with commodity prices by locking in its customers with tolling agreements and contracts that are 100% fixed fees with strong minimum volume commitments. So, with little guess work related to its revenue, management is able to budget its payout and growth in a way that it keeps debt at modest levels and it doesn't need to rely as much on outside capital to grow even compared to some of its larger peers. So even with its much smaller size, the company has been able to maintain a modest balance sheet and keep share issuance down.

Company Debt to EBITDA Holly Energy Partners 4.0x Plains All American Pipeline 6.1x Buckeye Partners 4.1x Genesis Energy 6.7x

Data source: S&P Global Market Intelligence.

HEP average diluted shares outstanding (quarterly) data by YCharts.

On top of it all, management has also been able to raise its distribution to shareholders every quarter since its IPO in 2004. So with a distribution yield of 7.2% today, Holly Energy Partners looks like a great high-yield investment.

It's good to be the king

When it comes to telecommunications providers, size matters a lot. That is what makes Verizon one of the more compelling companies in the industry. The company routinely has the best network coverage in the U.S. It also happens to have the largest customer base with the lowest churn rate, which means that customers are choosing Verizon over new competitors.

The reason this matters is that we are on the precipice of a rapid expansion of data usage and a buildout of the next generation of coverage: 5G. Delivering on this new network speed is going to take a lot of invested capital, and that is where being the biggest player in the business pays off immensely. Verizon's $28 billion in cash from operations gives it a huge leg up as it starts to make the massive investments that it will take to build out that next-generation network.

Of course, Verizon is much more than just a wireless communications provider as it also provides wired service for internet, phone, and cable. Like wireless, though, this is a relatively stable customer base that only supplements its cash flow. The real question for the company's future is its investments in media and content through its acquisition of AOL and the pending purchase of Yahoo!. There is some risk that these investment may not pan out as one might hope, but the base from which Verizon generates profits and cash flow does look sustainable for at least the next few years. Add a dividend yield of 4.4% and Verizon looks like a decent bet for those looking at high-yield stocks.

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Are you looking to invest in the booming aerospace and defense industry? Then boy, does Seaport Global Securities ever have a deal for you!

This morning, analysts at Seaport initiated coverage of three big names in the aerospace sector. Topping the banker's list of picksis Boeing (NYSE: BA), which Seaport says is a buy at today's price of just $158 and change. Curiously, though, Seaport has little love left for two of Boeing's key suppliers, fuselage and wing maker Spirit Aerosystems (NYSE: SPR)andRockwell Collins (NYSE: COL), a major provider of avionics (and soon, through its purchase of B/E Aerospace, cabin interiors as well).

Both of these Boeing suppliers Seaport rates "neutral," despite recommending one of their biggest customers. Here are three things you should know about these ratings.

Boeing is cutting 777 production -- but Seaport isn't cutting Boeing stock. Image source: Boeing.

1. No love for Spirit Aerosystems

Responding to Seaport's decision to not recommend either Spirit Aerosystemsor Rockwell Collins, investors are selling off both stocks in early Wednesday trading. As of this writing, Spirit shares are down 0.7%, while Rockwell is off 0.5%. But how much sense does that make?

After all, according to Seaport, Spirit Aerosystems stock is likely to rise to $62 in value over the course of the coming year. That's not a whole lot more than the $59 and change that the stock costs today, but it is good enough for a modest 4.7% gain. Throw in another 0.7% in dividend payments, and Seaport at least sees the potential for 5.4% in profits from Spirit stock.

2. Rocky road for Rockwell as well

Similarly, Seaport has assigned a $100 price target to Rockwell Collinsstock. While that doesn't imply a whole lot of room to grow from the stock's current price ($94 and change), a move to $100 would at least yield a 6.1% profit from today's price. And Rockwell Collins pays a dividend yield twice as large as Spirit's -- 1.4%. Combined with the projected rise in stock price, that's a pretty respectable 7.5% gain that Seaport is promising.

3. Boeing is best

On the other hand, when you stack these modest single-digit potential profits up against Boeing's prospects, it's clear why Seaport prefers to invest in the big dog.

As reported on TheFly.com today, Seaport sees Boeing stock flying from its current price of about $158 to as high as $180 over the course of the coming year. Thus, the analyst sees a near-14% potential profit from the stock's rise in price alone. Additionally, Boeing just hiked its dividend significantly, and is now yielding 3.6%. Added to the gains in stock price, the analyst is forecasting 17.5% profits for new buyers of Boeing stock -- a significantly better return than it sees from buying either Spirit or Rockwell.

Where will this profit come from? As Seaport explains, Boeing currently boasts a backlog of plane orders to fill that's worth well over $400 billion to the company. The analyst expects Boeing to return a lot of that cash directly to its shareholders through a combination of dividend payments (recently hiked) and also share repurchases (recently replenished with a $14 billion buyback authorization).

Bonus thing: Valuing Boeing

Admittedly, while that all sounds good, some investors may be tempted to ignore Seaport's advice and buy Spirit or Rockwell for the simple fact that their stocks look a whole lot cheaper than Boeing's today.

Currently, Boeing shares fetch 24 times trailing earnings, while Spirit is selling for 15.4 times earnings, and Rockwell just 17.1 times earnings. The key difference here, though, is that analysts who follow this industry see better prospects for Boeing growing the profits it makes faster than its suppliers can. According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Spirit's projected profits growth rate over the next five years is a modest 10%, while Rockwell Collins is expected to grow at 13%. Boeing tops both these numbers with a projected growth rate of 15%.

Additionally, while all three of these firms are generating strong positive free cash flow from the aerospace boom, Boeing's free cash flow stands head and shoulders above that of its suppliers -- $8.15 billion in cash profit generated over just the past 12 months. Valued on this free cash flow, Boeing stock can be said to be selling for less than 12 times free cash flow, which seems a bargain price relative to the stock's 15% growth rate.

Based on that valuation, I'm of the opinion that Seaport Global is ranking these stocks appropriately. While neither Spirit Aerosystems nor Rockwell Collins stocks look particularly expensive, Boeing stock is downright cheap. Of the three, it's the one best worth buying.

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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. 346 out of more than 75,000 rated members.

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Image source: Getty Images.

This past year marked a pivotal point for Cheniere Energy (NYSEMKT: LNG), which went from an LNG project developer to a leading LNG exporter. This transformation was the culmination of years of work and billions of dollars in investment. It also represented the company's biggest win this year.

Embarking on a new frontier

In February, Cheniere Energy announced that its master limited partnership,Cheniere Energy Partners (NYSEMKT: CQP), had commissioned the first cargo from the first liquefaction train of its Sabine Pass liquefaction project in Louisiana, which the company started building in Aug. 2012. That first cargo headed to Brazil on a vessel chartered by Cheniere as part of a test of the company's LNG terminal. It was a historic shipment for the company and the country as it marked the first export cargo of domestically produced gas, which transformed both from natural gas importers to exporters.

The company announced the full commissioning of that first LNG train in May when the project developer turned over care, custody, and control to Cheniere Energy Partners. After several more test runs, the company started deliveries under a 20-year sale and purchase agreement with Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A)(NYSE: RDS-B) subsidiary BG Group in November.

Meanwhile, Cheniere announced the completion of the second train in September, which will likewise export gas under a 20-year contract. Its contract with Gas Natural Fenosa, though, does not officially commence until next August.

That said, just because Cheniere is not collecting revenue from these contracts does not mean these assets are sitting idly. During the third quarter, Cheniere Energy Partners loaded 18 LNG cargos, including three as part of the commissioning of train 2. The company used the income from these shipments to help defray some of the commissioning costs.

Image source: Getty Images.

More wins on the way

While 2016 marked a turning point for Cheniere Energy, the company still has work to do because it has a total of six trains under development at Sabine Pass. The company started construction on trains 3 and 4in 2013 and was 91.8% complete as of the end of the third quarter. It expects to finish construction on both trains next year and already started commissioning train 3 this past September. Meanwhile, it began construction on train 5 in 2015, which was 42.8% complete at the end of the third quarter and it should go into service in 2019. Finally, it has a sixth train under development at Sabine Pass, though it has yet to start construction.

In addition, Cheniere Energy has a five-train development underway in Texas. It commenced construction on the first two trains of its Corpus Christi project last May and was 43% complete with the project at the end of last quarter, which puts it on pace to finish in 2019. Meanwhile, it has started development on train 3, though it has yet to commence construction. Finally, it is developing trains 4 and 5 at Corpus Christi, though these phases have yet to be approved by regulators.

As these phases come on line over the next few years, they will transform Cheniere Energy into one of the world's premier LNG exporters. More importantly, these assets should provide the company with very stable cash flow because it has already locked up 87% of the capacity under construction to firm 20-year take-or-pay contracts. Meanwhile, it has ample growth opportunities to expand its current facilities as well as to build additional facilities in support of increasing demand for natural gas across the globe.

Investor takeaway

The completion of the first two trains of Cheniere Energy's LNG export projects was a huge win for the company. After four years of hard work, the company will finally be able to see a tangible return on the capital it invested in the project. That said, this was just the first step for Cheniere, which has plenty of work left to do as it finishes up construction on its leading LNG export franchise.

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As Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK) celebrated the completion of its acquisition of Virgin America last week, at least one instititution declined to laud the merger. S&P Global Ratings cut Alaska's credit rating from BB+ to BBB-, which is the lowest rating by which Alaska can be considered investment grade. The next notch down is "junk" status.

Image source: Alaska Air Group.

In its demotion, the ratings agency cited integration risk as well as the impact of $1.4 billion in debt and leases assumed by Alaska to consummate the transaction. Let's take a look at Alaska's financial position as it relates to the new liabilities, then explore pertinent acquisition risks, to get a feel for how much investors should worry about the company's debt load.

Resources and obligations

As of its last balance sheet date, Sept. 30, 2016, Alaska Air Group holds $2.1 billion in long-term debt. This includes $1.5 billion the company borrowed in the third quarter to finance the merger, secured by34of the company's Boeing 737-900ER aircraft, and19of its 737-800 models.

In a "subsequent event" note added to the third-quarter report, the company disclosed the addition of another $100 million in merger financing which occurred after Sept. 30. This last $100 million is secured by three more 737-900s.

The company states in its third-quarter report that its liquidity consists of the 50 remaining airplanes that aren't encumbered, $252 million in undrawn credit lines, and $1.7 billion in cash and marketable securities thataren't allocated to merger completion. Taking the subsequent event note into account, the total of unencumbered aircraft now stands at 47, versus 56 in which lenders hold a security interest.

Between debt service, lease obligations, aircraft purchases, and other commitments, Alaska Air Group has scheduled out $1.54 billion in contractual obligations due next year; Virgin will add approximately $309 million of its own obligations, for a combined total of $1.85 billion.

The cash to meet these obligations will likely originate through a combination of Alaska's traditionally strong operating cash flow, which soared to $1.58 billion last year, and its existing cash balances.Virgin reported $617 million in cash in its coffers as of its most recent balance sheet report, also dated Sept. 30. Of course, we won't know the final amount of cash balances contributed by Virgin until Alaska's fourth-quarter 2016 report is issued in Jan. 2017.

A few risks to consider

As you might infer from the information above, Alaska Air Group, downgrade notwithstanding, holds a sound balance sheet, and is fairly well equipped to handle the significant debt load it's assuming through its purchase of Virgin America. But there are risks to take into account.

S&P Global ratings mentioned integration risk in its downgrade notes. While this exists in any airline merger, it's exacerbated by the uncertainty that exists over the future branding of Virgin America. Alaska executives have indicated that they won't make a decision on branding until the first quarter of 2017.

Will Virgin be allowed to keep its distinctive, hip brand, which is geared toward younger travelers, and thus operate in the manner of a wholly owned subsidiary? Or will it be gradually merged into the stodgier Alaska brand identity, in order to scale the parent brands' flight routes between the east and west coasts?

In either scenario, Alaska will have to integrate two separate cultures, and as importantly, two different economic models. As its main line, Alaska exclusively flies Boeing 737s. It'spicking up a carrier that is an Airbus shop, solely flying Airbus 319s and 320s.

As I wrote earlier this year, Alaska already has experience consolidating an airline with a different platform: Its Horizon Air subsidiary flies a fleet of 50-plus Bombardier Q400 planes. Should Alaska decide to retire Virgin's identity, the two companies' repair and maintenance operations will need to be combined efficiently, with much cross-platform training and investment to undertake.

Finally, potentially higher jet fuel prices in 2017 also poses some risk to the combined entity. Of the two carriers, Alaska is much better prepared to weather some fuel cost escalation. Its operating margin of 25% is roughly 10 percentage points higher than Virgin's.Both carriers currently hedge against upside fuel risk.

Reducing liability and worry

Alaska Air Group has experience in aggressively reducing debt on its balance sheet. It's possible that management will soon feel the urge to start chipping away at the company's total borrowings, perhaps as soon as next year. An early reduction of one-eighth of the merged entity's outstanding debt next year, which equates to just north of $300 million, would reduce exposure, not to mention worry for shareholders, and could probably be executed with little pain, given the company's available cash equivalents and investments. And trimming obligations might also reduce a bit of unease management itself must feel, as it embarks on the integration of a promising but relatively large merger.

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Search warrant documents released on Tuesday related to the probe of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's private email setup stirred fresh controversy about the FBI's decision to revive the investigation days before the Nov. 8 election.

The materials, which related to a search warrant issued after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey on Oct. 28 informed Congress of the emails, were ordered released on Monday by U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan.

Comey's letter drew new attention to Clinton's use of the server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and roiled the campaign 11 days before the election, which Republican Donald Trump won.

Clinton has blamed Comey and his letter for her defeat.

In an affidavit, an FBI agent said there was "probable cause" to believe emails between Clinton and a person whose name was redacted were among "thousands" found on a laptop that contained U.S. State Department correspondence.

But the filings gave no indication the FBI had any evidence at the time of Comey's letter that any of the emails on the laptop involved classified communications with Clinton, raising fresh questions about Comey's decision to issue his letter.

David Kendall, Clinton's lawyer, said the documents showed the "extraordinary impropriety" of Comey's letter, which "produced devastating but predictable damage politically and which was both legally unauthorized and factually unnecessary."

The FBI declined to comment.

The laptop belonged to former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin who was the subject of an investigation after a report about cellphone and online messages he sent a 15-year-old girl.

The search warrant materials' release was sought by Randol Schoenberg, a Los Angeles-based lawyer, who contended that transparency was crucial given the potential influence the probe had on the election's outcome.

In a statement, Schoenberg said he saw "nothing to suggest that there would be anything other than routine correspondence between Secretary Clinton and her longtime aide Huma Abedin."

Brian Fallon, who served as the national press secretary for Clinton's campaign, said on Twitter the search warrant "reveals Comey's intrusion on the election was as utterly unjustified as we suspected at time."

In July, Comey recommended no charges be brought over Clinton's handing of classified information in the emails, although he said she and her colleagues were "extremely careless" in handling such information.

That determination followed what the search warrant materials called a "criminal investigation concerning the improper transmission and storage of classified info on unclassified email systems and servers."

In his Oct. 28 letter to Congress, Comey said emails potentially related to the investigation had been discovered in an "unrelated case."

Federal investigators obtained the warrant to examine the emails on Oct. 30. Two days before the election, Comey disclosed the emails did nothing to change his earlier recommendation.
Jenna Jameson is pledging her support for adult film star Nikki Benz, who on Tuesday accused a director of sexual assault.

Benz said she was assaulted by the director while shooting a scene for the porn site Brazzers. Jameson said that while she had never been raped during a scene, she know others who have been.

"It's about time companies like Brazzers are called out on this terrible criminal behavior," Jameson told FOX411. "They like to turn the other cheek and act as if they are unaware, all the while benefitting from these rape scenes... I stand behind Nikki and will do anything in my power to change these practices in porn."

Benz wrote on Twitter that a director named Tony T "put his hands on me and was choking me." She also said, "Did you see the part where I said cut, where I said I'm not OK with this?...I said no."

Earlier this week she tweeted, "I guess rape scenes are in now huh?"

Brazzers wrote in a statement that they will "thoroughly investigate" the incident and that they stand behind Benz.

"Brazzers considers performers consent, boundaries and limits and safety to be fundamental and paramount issues and unequivocally stands for the respect of the performers. Brazzers does not condone nor does it tolerate conduct by producers that would jeopardize a performers security or well-being," the statement said.

They added, "This particular type of scene would never meet our standards and would be rejected immediately."

It was not immediately clear if Tony T has representation. A rep for Brazzers did not immediately return FOX411's request for comment.

Benz made headlines two years ago when she said she would run for mayor of Toronto against Rob Ford. Her application for the election was denied because her license was expired.

A rep for Benz did not immediately return FOX411's request for comment.

This is far from the first sexual assault controversy in the adult film industry. Porn star James Deen has been accused of sexually assaulting at least 13 women.
Our small neighborhood in the universe, christened Laniakea , contains over 100,000,000,000,000,000 stars. The Sun is just one of them. And our closest neighboring star is Proxima Centauri, located 4.2 light years away. It was there, this past summer, that Spanish astronomer Guillem Anglada-Escude and his team discovered the closest habitable world to Earth outside our solar system: Proxima b, an exoplanet that could be covered in water.

The astronomer Guillem Anglada-Escude in Madrid last October.

More information Un espanol y una argentina, entre los 10 cientificos del ano

This discovery has placed Anglada-Escude, who teaches at Queen Mary University in London, on the list of Nature magazines Ten People Who Mattered This Year.

Born in Ullastrell, near Barcelona, in 1979, the astronomer acknowledges the praise as the visible face of a team.

His group is now trying to determine whether Proxima b transits in front of its star at a point visible from Earth, which would enable researchers to analyze its atmosphere and confirm whether there is water. If so, it would represent a watershed in space exploration.

This is acknowledgment of the work of over 1,000 scientists

Gabriela Gonzalez, physicist

If there is transit, its going to be a bombshell, he predicts.

Gabriela Gonzalez

Gabriela Gonzalez, a physicist from Argentina who works at Louisiana State University, also made it into Natures list, where she is described as a gravity spy.

Gonzalez is the spokesperson for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) experiment which saw two US-based observatories, on September 14, 2015, first detect signs of the gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein a century earlier.

Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves a century ago.

On February 11, 2016, Gonzalez and her team announced their discovery to the world.

This is acknowledgment of the work of over 1,000 scientists, she says.

Gravitational waves are vibrations in space-time. What Gonzalez and her colleagues saw on September 14 was a deformation of space and time caused by a gravitational wave formed by two black holes clashing 1.3 billion years ago.

This is just the beginning. We are going to continue discovering gravitational waves, star collisions, we will witness the birth of a black hole...We now have a new way of looking at the sky, celebrates Gonzalez, who was born in Cordoba (Argentina) in 1965.

English version by Susana Urra.
Mayor Adam ONeal wants his hospital back.

He was born in Pungo District Hospital in the sleepy town of Belhaven, N.C. Decades later, as mayor of Belhaven, he counted on the hospital to provide not just health care, but scores of jobs. In his rural stretch of coastal North Carolina  beautiful but isolated, with a painfully high poverty rate  he saw Pungo as the heartbeat of the community.

That is, until the hospital was shut down on July 1, 2014, less than three years after a much larger health system had purchased it.

Ever since, ONeal has fought to revive the hospital. His last chance may come Wednesday as Belhaven residents go to court to try to block its demolition. The mayor sees it, quite literally, as a matter of life and death.

I keep seeing pain in my community, people calling me crying, and thats why Im hollerin and fussin, ONeal said.

He knows locals who had heart attacks that caused far more damage than they should have because with Pungo closed, it took more than an hour to get them to the nearest hospital with emergency services.

There are people with strokes, who couldve recovered, but cant now, ONeal said. There are needless deaths.

Since 2010, at least 75 rural hospitals, including Pungo, have been shuttered in the US. Almost half of those were in the South. These hospitals tend to be as small as the towns they serve  and often are found in areas that many health care providers have ignored.

Even those that remain open are struggling: More than a third of rural hospitals operate at a loss, according to the National Rural Health Association. One in four is at risk of closing in the next decade.

Read more: Hospitals struggle to address terrifying and long-lasting ICU delirium

In communities like Belhaven, a majority-black town where nearly 1 in 3 residents lives below the poverty line, a hospital closure leaves locals in dire straits.

Many in the Belhaven area lack insurance  North Carolina did not expand Medicaid under Obamacare  and dont have transportation to get to the nearest safety-net hospital, located about 25 miles to the west.

Belhaven salon owner Eunice Williams, who lives outside of town  nearly 50 miles east of the nearest open hospital  said many people she knows rely on free rides from their neighbors to get care when they need it. A lot of people cant even afford gas to get to Belhaven, she said.

After shutting the hospital, Vidant Health, one of the largest health care systems in North Carolina, built an around-the-clock urgent care center in town. It opened this past summer, offering primary and preventive care, prenatal and cardiac consultations, and a helipad for emergency transport. Vidant spokesperson Christine Mackey said the company believes the urgent care model is the right direction for communities like Belhaven.

ONeal and his allies say its not enough.

In his quest to save Pungo, ONeal has marched more than 700 miles, trekking to Washington, D.C., on foot multiple times, as well as to the statehouse in Raleigh, usually wearing a Save Our Hospital T-shirt. With the help of progressive black activists, including the NAACP, the conservative white mayor has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in futile attempts to buy back the hospital property.

The diverse coalition was on full display earlier this month as the Rev. Curtis Everette Gatewood, field director of NAACPs state branch, led a couple dozen protesters in Save Our Hospital chants outside the governors mansion in Raleigh. ONeal stood nearby, clad in his hospital T-shirt, lining up speakers for the parade of local TV reporters.

Whether youre from Belhaven or New York, whenever a local hospital closes, that is our hospital, Gatewood told the protesters. Those are our people dying, because we are part of a larger family of humanity.

A bankruptcy and a surprise decision

When Pungo District Hospital opened in 1949, it was one of the first in the nation to be designated a Hill-Burton hospital, which meant the federal government offered loans for construction in exchange for a pledge to treat those unable to afford medical care.

The area around Belhaven  a vast stretch of the Inner Banks that spans several counties and is home to soybean farmers and seniors settling into retirement  long relied on Pungo for everything from childbirth to critical care.

But the 49-bed nonprofit hospital struggled financially. It cobbled together a mix of Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements, grant funding, and community contributions, yet still spent a few years in bankruptcy in the early 2000s.

By 2011, the Pungo District Hospital Corporation, which owned and operated the hospital, had sustained enough losses to consider selling. It reached out to Vidant, which today owns eight hospitals and serves over 1.4 million patients, and which specialized in nonprofit hospitals. By summers end, a deal was reached.

Vidant started to invest in the Belhaven hospital, including a $2.4 million electronic records system. But in September 2013, Vidants board shocked Belhaven residents when it announced the hospital would be closed.

Across its entire network, Vidant rang up a surplus of $109.6 million in the year leading up to the closure  but the nonprofit health system lost $1.1 million on Pungo during that period. David Herman, the companys then-CEO, cited the states failure to expand Medicaid as one reason for the shut down; it meant the hospital would continue to limp along without enough insured patients  or revenue  to repair its aging building.

A crazy mayor raising Cain

It was around then that ONeal became, as he now quips, that crazy mayor raising Cain.

Now 47, ONeal is stocky and starting to gray; he sells insurance whenever he isnt busy being mayor of Belhaven. More often than not, though, hes performing those mayoral duties, including the fight to save Pungo.

Hes demanded, and received, meetings with top state and federal officials, including North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell. He secured a federal loan commitment and a certificate of need, a legal document the state requires to operate a hospital.

Along the way, activists like the Rev. William Barber II, the state NAACP president, and Bob Zellner, a prominent civil rights activist, became unlikely allies.

With the NAACPs help, Belhaven sued Vidant over a breach of contract and unfair trade practices. ONeal argued that the community board never would have sold if they had known Vidant would shut down the hospital, throwing nearly 100 employees out of work in a county that at the time had a 7.7 percent unemployment rate  well above the national average of 6.2 percent. (A judge later dismissed the lawsuit.)

The mayor and his allies also filed federal civil rights complaints that accused Vidant of discrimination against very poor minorities. One complaint prompted the federal Department of Justice to mediate a agreement in April 2014 that kept the hospital open for several more months. Vidant agreed to transfer ownership of Pungo to a community nonprofit called Pantego Creek LLC.

Read more: Hospitals scramble to offer mental health care for depressed physicians

ONeal still believes Pungo, which brought in $10 million in revenue the year before it shut down, can operate in the black without Medicaid expansion. He cited multiple plans for doing so, including one that would downsize the facility to 10 beds and another that would turn over part of the hospital to serve veterans.

But before the hospital could get back online, the community nonprofit that owns it would have to sell it to a health care operator. It came close this past summer, but the deal fell through.

Pantego Creek also rejected two offers from an ONeal-backed group to buy the building and land because they came in at less than the propertys appraised value of $1 million.

If the property is ever sold at fair market value, the proceeds will be reinvested in the community in some manner, Pantego Creek attorney Arey Grady wrote in an email to STAT. For instance, Pantego Creek has discussed the possibility of scholarships for local people interested in studying in the health care field and then returning to the area to work in health care  one of just several possibilities.

With no deal in sight, Pantego Creek voted to tear down the hospital, citing its decrepit state. As a demolition crew prepared to move in, several members of the nonprofit filed suit to stop the wrecking balls.

A judge issued a temporary restraining order in late November  and will decide at Wednesdays hearing whether the demolition can proceed.

Youre likely going to die

The long fight to reopen Pungo has taken a toll on ONeal. By his own estimate, hes poured up to 40 hours a week into saving his towns hospital.

Its a battle, he said, that has financially destroyed him, considering how much time hes spent away from his day job. Its also taken away from time he could have spent with his four sons. But he wont give up. He won his sixth term as mayor last year.

I dont have anything left to lose, ONeal said. In life, sometimes, things are bigger than you are. I ran into something bigger than I am. I cant let people continue to die.

Read more: Patient navigators can serve crucial roles in hospitals

He cant shake the memory of the first death after Pungos closure.

The week after the hospital was closed, Portia Gibbs, a 48-year-old mother who lived east of Belhaven, died from a heart attack after a helicopter took more than an hour to lift her to the next closest hospital. Her husband, Barry Gibbs, believed she would have survived had Pungo remained opened. He now worries about what might happen to him.

If you live in this area, you might as well have the mind-set that if anything happens to your [health], youre likely going to die, Barry Gibbs said.

ONeal is hoping the lawsuit buys a little time. Earlier this month, he scored a meeting with several top state lawmakers after the protest outside the governors mansion. Those lawmakers suggested state funding may become available next year to help reopen the hospital.

ONeal is hopeful, but refuses to get too excited. Theres no saving a hospital next year if the judge green lights the demolition this week. The heartbeat of his hometown hangs on this hearing.

Its a matter of life or death, ONeal said.
The Syrian regimes deadly chemical attack might never have occurred had the Obama administration crafted and carried out a robust proactive strategy to deal with the countrys horrific civil war, now in its third year. The absence of such a strategy has led to over 1300 deaths, including more than 400 children, painfully slaughtered by toxic sarin gas. Add them to the tally of over 100,000 war-related deaths since the war began in early 2011. Syria has become an unmitigated U.S. foreign policy disasterand one that now risks becoming a military disaster as we edge towards combat action.

Blunder after blunder has been committed. Where do we begin with the litany of mistakes? With Secretary Clintons early embrace of Bashar al-Assad as a reformer? The feigned indignation of President Obama while tens of thousands of civilians perished under the weight of the dictators indiscriminate artillery and tank attacks? The sweeping under the rug of the December 2012 reports of chemical weapons usage? Looking the other way when Hezbollah and Iran openly joined Assad last Spring in recapturing key rebel held cities and provinces?

If there was any doubt that Senator Obama was ill-prepared for the presidency, the Syrian fiasco has now confirmed his naivete. Five years into office, amateurism reigns supreme in the White House. Putin is no doubt smirkingjustifiably so.

For better or worse, we are the only remaining superpower...When the worlds oppressed dial 9-1-1, we are the only country that can answer their call.

Ignoring a bloody civil war in the worlds most volatile region is not a strategy. Laying down inviolate red lines without considering the possible ramifications is also not a strategy. Announcing and launching a pinprick attack to punish Assad and restore presidential (and American) credibility is likewise not an effective alternative.

Before we make even greater blunders, the President would be wise to consider a few important steps:

1. Shut up and stop telling our enemies where our ships are, what kind of weapons we will use, when we will use them, for how long and what targets we plan to strike. Not only have we completely lost the element of surprise but we are endangering our own troops. It is madness to continue telegraphing our intentions.

2. Follow through on your newfound enthusiasm for congressional approval. The Constitution demands it. You have waited three years to act on Syria; a few more weeks wont make a difference. Unlike the attack on our people and installations in Benghazi, American lives are not in imminent danger.

3. Have a detailed plan and know what you want the end result to be. If as Clausewitz wrote "war is merely the continuation of policy by other means", understand your desired political outcome, not just your military objective.

4. Make sure your plan has a tangible effect that actually serves our national security interests. Punishing the Syrian regime to save face or restore credibility doesnt count. A limited offensive that takes a shot across the bow is equally useless.

5. Have a Plan B and be prepared for the consequences; there are knowns and unknowns that will surely follow. Assad is weaker (and more desperate) than you think. Regime change may happen even if that is not your publicly expressed intent. What then? Also, are you ready to act if the conflict spreads?

6. Cruise missiles alone may not do the trick. There is only so much we can do with stand-off weapons, especially with the element of surprise now missing. You have other tools in the toolbox that dont necessitate boots on the ground. Use them including covert action, paramilitary activity, proxies and cyber attacks.

7. Dont be timid. Whatever action you take should be painful for the regime. We are embarking on an act of war and it demands violence of action. Anything less will embolden Assad as well as the dangerous players that stand beside him: Hezbollah and Iran.

I understand the hesitancy of many to act. The U.S. should not be the worlds policeman. However, for better or worse, we are the only remaining superpower. The U.S. military alone possesses the resources necessary to swiftly execute and sustain military operations in any region of the world. When the worlds oppressed dial 9-1-1, we are the only country that can answer their call.

The images of hundreds of dead and dying children in the aftermath of the Syrian regimes chemical weapons attack is a 9-1-1 call we cannot ignore. We, and the civilized world, cannot allow such heinous acts to go unanswered. The actions of the Syrian regime require not only universal condemnation but a strong and collective military response as well. The latter is now seriously in doubt with Britain bowing out and the UN Security Council held hostage by the Russian veto power. The Arab League is also sitting on the sidelines.

Therefore, the U.S. will once again be forced to bear the burden. We should however, take our time, garner congressional approval, and craft a serious plan that will yield tangible results. Only then can we hasten an end to the Syrian conflict that threatens the stability of Israel, Jordan, Turkey and the entire Middle East.
I am certain I am not the only American concerned about the images around the world of the latest actions (or inactions) of President Obama, regarding the conflict in Syria.

Going to war and putting Americans lives at risk is one of the most difficult decisions a President can make. I understand that. I experienced this situation up close under President Bushs leadership, and I know the toll it takes not just on the person of the president, but also on the hearts of every American. In addition it creates a lot of anguish on peace-loving people throughout the world.

Congress should not look at this decision as bailing the president out, even if that is what the president intended. Setting politics aside may be good enough to save the presidents face, but will it be good enough to restore the credibility of the United States?  Rosario Marin, Former U.S. Treasurer

I do not want to make a case for going to war. However, the vacillation, the handwringing, the touch and go of this administration is, to put it bluntly, alarming. I have worked for two steadfast military-trained leaders: Governor Wilson and President Bush. You might or might not have agreed with their decisions or their positions, but one thing was clear: they said what they meant and they meant what they said. There was no vacillation, no equivocation, no passing the buck. You knew where they stood. Americas opponents knew exactly what was coming to them, if they didnt heed the call.

After watching the indecisiveness of our president, I realized he had put himself in a no-win situation, especially after Britains Parliament gave a stunning rebuke to Prime Minister Cameron with their vote against intervention in Syria. Our once strongest ally is no more, not this time, not under these circumstances. So our president retreated to Congress. He did this after having said he had the constitutional power to intervene with the power of the presidential pen; here he is now looking for congressional approval.

The problem with presidential equivocation is that neither friend nor foe will take him seriously in the future. Sadly, because he is our leader, our fate as a country, at least while he is the president, rests with his credibility on the world stage. That credibility has taken a blow. His actions do not bode well for strong leadership. He looks weak.

There are no easy answers to what we as a country should do now that Bashar al-Assad, by using WMD on his own people, has purportedly crossed the red line President Obama drew on the sand. I am not privy to the classified information that apparently proves this claim, yet the hundreds of horrific scenes of young and old desperately gasping for air and bodies jerking incessantly are too much to stomach. Clearly, something must be done.

So now the president has punted the ball back into congressional territory. Congress should not look at this decision as bailing the president out, even if that is what the president intended. Setting politics aside may be good enough to save the presidents face, but will it be good enough to restore the credibility of the United States?

How the tables have turned! When George W. Bush was president, Senators Obama, Kerry, Biden, and Hagel challenged his stand on Assad. How ironic that they just realized what President Bush saw so long ago. It amazes me that now they find themselves in the same situation and are making the same arguments President Bush made: Assad is not to be trusted.

After all the debate is finished, one thing is for certain: the people of Syria deserve better as do the people of the free world.
Dear President Obama,

Please remember these words first used in 1888 by Friedrich Nietzsche: "What does not destroys me makes me stronger." Stated another way, a weak attack or one badly executed against your opponent could be worse than no attack at all.

You are not the first president whos had to choose whether to strike or not to strike and many have chosen wrongly. So much so, they ended up emboldening their opponent.

President Kennedy's failed Bay of Pigs invasion turned Fidel Castro into a Rasputin-like mystical figure. To this day, photos in Cuban text books depict Castro on the beaches of Bahia de Cochinos (...) amid bombs exploding around him.  Rick Sanchez

In the case of Syria, that opponent  or at least his 11-year-old son  is already setting us up. Hafez Assad, son of Syrian President Bashar Assad, is reportedly goading you, Mr. Obama, into attacking.

I just want them to attack soooo much, he allegedly posted on Facebook, because I want them to make this huge attack a beginning of something that they dont know the end of.

He continues his dare with a youthful bravado that seems to predict a U.S. attack will be a win for his fathers government.

They may have the best army in the world, maybe the best airplanes, ships and tanks than ours, but soldiers? No (one) has soldiers like we do in Syria  America doesnt have soldiers, what (it) has is some cowards with new technology that claim themselves liberators.

Mr. President, youthful bluster aside, you should take heed of the Assad dare, because historically, its not too far off the mark. Let me give you an example of U.S. military action that, while well intentioned, actually empowered the enemy.

To those of us who live in Miami, it's known as "Playa Giron." You, Mr. President know it as "the Bay of Pigs," an unsuccessful military invasion of Cuba undertaken in April 1961 by 1,400 counter-revolutionaries who were for the most part Cuban exiles. Determined to take their country back from Fidel Castro, the insurgents, who were funded and trained by the CIA, were instead slaughtered by Castros forces in what was a half-hearted effort to send the socialist government a message, much like the message we're now trying to send Assad.



Here in Miami there are monuments and lessons left behind, like the one passed on from one generation to the next about how easily Cuba would have fallen if the citizens of the island nation would have been persuaded to take arms against the Castro regime. Mr. President, your predecessor could have convinced them with proper planning and execution of the invasion, but he failed.



In fact, President Kennedy's epic fail is immortalized by the oft-told story of two guajiros, or poor farmers, who witnessed the invasion. It goes like this: The men were looking out over the horizon as the attack began and saw planes buzzing above the beaches. Thinking they were American planes, as JFK had promised, the poor peasant farmers began yelling USA, USA, USA! But as the planes got closer, they realized they were Soviet-made fighters and altered their chant to Castro, Si, Yankee, No!



Kennedy's planes never came, he broke his promise and was forced to make an embarrassing apology tour at Miamis Orange Bowl, where he praised the men of Brigade 2506. With first lady Jacqueline by his side, he welcomed back the prisoners captured and subsequently released by the Castro government.

Mr. President, the man who once sat in your chair tried to embolden the spirits of the defeated exile community in Miami, but what his fateful military decision really did was embolden Fidel Castro. You, sir, should learn from his mistake. President Kennedy's failed Bay of Pigs invasion turned Fidel Castro into a Rasputin-like mystical figure. To this day, photos in Cuban text books depict Castro on the beaches of Bahia de Cochinos during the attack seeming every bit of his 6-foot-3 inch frame amid bombs exploding around him.

Madison Avenue could not have conjured up a better outcome for the Castro government. Nor conversely, could it have gone worse for the U.S.-led invasion. The message was clear: A military incursion meant to send a message while weakening the opposition, did not work. In fact, its incompleteness caused the opposite to happen. Castro seemed to grow taller.

It was true with Cuba, and it may very well be true with Syria, Mr. President. If after the U.S. attack on Syria Assad is able to fulfill his sons prophecy and come out on top, then you, sir, and your administration will have made a grave mistake.

The history lesson, which we in Miami know only too well, is one, Mr. President, which you must at least consider. Recall again the words of Nietzsche more than a century ago, he spelled out a warning which today would go something like this:

"Be careful, Mr. President, because what you do that doesnt destroy Assad, may only make him stronger."
There was a specific moment in 2003 when I suspended disbelief and decided to back the president as he beat the drums for war in Iraq. My decision to go along with George W. Bush, which I deeply regret, was made despite deep-seated personal skepticism that Saddam Hussein really had and intended to use Weapons of Mass Destruction. The fact that moderate senators like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry also followed the president to war is little comfort.

Actually, it wasnt the president who convinced me at the time that the mad Iraqi dictator could potentially unleash his WMD on the U.S. and the world. It was Colin Powell, when the hero of the Gulf War and at the time Secretary of State gave a speech to the United Nations.

It is difficult to resist a presidents call to war. Nothing comes close to stirring the same passions, especially because they come wrapped in patriotism.  Geraldo Rivera

It must be true about the WMD because General Powell says its true, I made myself believe. To moderates, Powell was the most credible person in the country, the nations first black Secretary of State and definitely not a yes man from the Bush/Cheney/Rove Conservative inner circle.

As General Powell presented Americas proof to a skeptical U.N. it was clear that our evidence was almost shyster-thin. An aide later wrote how humiliated Powell was to have been part of the charade, the secretary calling his U.N. performance a permanent "blot" on his record.

Still, this was in the post 9/11 world. We were already at war with terrorists in Afghanistan, and Powell's speech was enough moral cover for me to become a cheerleader for the tragic fiasco that would become the eight-year-long, 4,000-killed-in-action, trillion-dollar Operation Iraqi Freedom.

That war started with a breathtaking attack on Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. It was a massive display intended to inflict Shock and Awe on the cowering enemy. Loyal to my initial commitment, I supported the troops and their Commanders-in-Chief from that fiery day on, George W. Bush from 2003 to 2008, and Barack Obama from 2009 to 2011, until Obama mercifully put our war effort out of its misery.

I watched the war end in a whimper, honored to be in the last U.S. convoy out of the country. It was my 12th assignment there.

After so many dead and wounded, Iraqi society had been pummeled and upended. Now the underdog Iraqi Shiites are on top while the old bosses, the Iraqi Sunnis are on the bottom. But not much else has changed for the better. True, Saddam Hussein and his cronies are mostly dead, but so are a lot of other Iraqis, tens of thousands of them. And they are still killing each other, almost daily and often in piles. There were no WMD. All the agony and loss was for nothing.

It is difficult to resist a presidents call to war. Nothing comes close to stirring the same passions, especially because they come wrapped in patriotism. You dont think much about the Military-Industrial Complex lobbying or the other special interest groups, and you discredit as naive the misguided anti-war protestors. You think about the troops. You think about their families and your own, and protecting the homeland from terror.

Now the new boogeyman, the Enemy of All Decency is in Syria. The video of those Syrian children dead or dying because of a poison gas attack is hard to watch without retching. Im the father of five and it makes my skin crawl. The Syrian dictator is a baby killing, poison gas using monster.

But equally hard to watch is that other video of the Syrian rebels murdering Assads soldiers. The rebels executed them in cold blood after having tied their hands behind their backs and torturing them.

These are the people we will be helping if we attack Assads forces as President Obama wants. Many of them are or want-to-be Al Qaeda-affiliated. They hate us. They hate freedom. They hate Israel and they hate Syrias own Christian minority. Many of the so-called Syrian rebels arent even Syrian. They are from Libya and Chechnya and I dont want them in control of this country at the heart of the Mid-East and on the border with Israel. There is no such thing as a limited, surgical strike. Once we pick a side, it is our war.

Im not going for it again Mr. President. Not this time. Not in Syria.
I do not want to see another American killed or hurt fighting overseas, nor do I believe that the United States should respond, nor has the capacity to respond, to every act of aggression around the world. However, for the reasons discussed below, on balance it is in our best interests to respond forcefully to the unlawful use of chemical weapons in Syria.

The use of chemical weapons reflects a total disregard for humanity and the rule of law. It has been outlawed for almost a century. The United States has more troops stationed in foreign lands than any other country. There are thousands upon thousands of Americans living and working overseas. Their safety and our vital interests are threatened if other nations and groups like Al-Qaeda conclude they can use chemical weapons or violate other international norms with impunity.

we must acknowledge that doing right is not always popular, and it is rarely easy. Going alone to do the right thing is one of the burdens of being the greatest country on the face of the earth.  Alberto Gonzales

The president has asked for congressional authorization to use force, but insists he does not need it under these circumstances. Certainly other presidents acting alone have initiated military action, thus establishing a practice and precedent. However, practice and precedent do not always provide the answer to the question whether government action is constitutional. Does a violation of the chemical convention, despite a direct warning by the United States, threaten vital U.S. interests and thus justify the use of force? I do not have access to classified information; however, an argument can be made that it does. If so, then the U.S. response should be proportional and effective in furthering our vital interests.

Whatever the reasons, the president has sought congressional authorization, and the country is stronger whenever the elected branches of government act together. Having asked for authorization, I hope the president respects the will of the American people as reflected by the votes of their elected representatives. He should abide by the decision of Congress, unless circumstances change that further threaten vital U.S. interests. Furthermore, I suggest the president reassure the American people that he will not take action if Congress votes no, so that members of Congress understand their vote has real consequences for the people of Syria and for our enemies around the world watching to see if we will have the courage to confront them should they choose to ignore U.S. warnings and violate international law.

The American people are weary from years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and understandably skeptical about a limited military operation. War is unpredictable, so we must be wary of promises of limited involvement. The Syrian government will likely respond if we use force on their country. As an ally of Syria, Russia may also take action, as may other Arab states. In that event, the president may be forced to act in self-defense and to protect vital American interests. Yes, Congress can constitutionally limit our initial engagement in Syria. However, once military action commences circumstances may require the president to rely on his own constitutional authority as Commander-in-Chief to expand the use of force. This is what many Americans and members of Congress fear. The Administration is undoubtedly anticipating and planning - as they should - for retaliation if we use force. For this reason, the president should level with the American people about what our government believes may happen if we proceed down this road.

Some opponents of intervention declare this is a situation of the presidents own doing, believing we should not risk American lives in order to preserve his credibility. Perhaps the president has misjudged how to best deal with the Syrian regime; however, the ongoing debate over the congressional resolution is not about one person - it is about U.S. foreign policy and doing what is right and in our vital interests.

I wish that members of the international community who profess to support the rule of law would join us in punishing this clear assault on international law and values. The fact we stand alone speaks volumes about how America - including our president - is perceived by others around the world. Yet, we must acknowledge that doing right is not always popular, and it is rarely easy. Going alone to do the right thing is one of the burdens of being the greatest country on the face of the earth.

We have a distinguished record and unique history of delivering other nations from tyranny, as well as championing the rule of law. We did so in the past because to have done otherwise would have threatened our own vital interests. No other people have sacrificed more for liberty and freedom around the world. Sometimes that struggle has been alone, sometimes in concert with others. Either way, it is the price of leadership.
If the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education law were successful, next year we would celebrate reaching its goals. Among those goals is closing achievement gaps between whites and English Language Learners (ELLs), including many Latinos. Sadly, large test-score gaps remain. Worse, Latino students, including ELLs, have been among those most harmed by the negative consequences of NCLBs high-stakes tests.

Yet, instead of learning from NCLBs failures, federal officials have pushed states to adopt new, more rigorous high-stakes tests to measure Common Core standards. These new exams will increase the harm to Latino and other students who can least afford it.

Pressure to boost scores to save schools from closure and other punishments has contributed to a national epidemic of cheating. Worst, high-stakes testing does not help schools improve.  Lisa Guisbon

The evidence of NCLBs failure is clear. Gaps in student achievement were closing faster before the federal law than after. For example, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a highly respected national test given to samples of students, shows that the reading score gap between white and Latino 13-year-olds closed nine points (30 to 21) between 1975 and 1988, long before NCLB. Yet in 2012, ten years after NCLB became law, the gap was the same size it was in 1988. The NAEP reading gap for 17-year-olds closed nearly 20 points, from 41 to 22, between 1975 and 88. In 2012, it was just one point smaller.

NCLBs high-stakes exams have damaged school quality by promoting narrow teaching to the test and crowding out time for important subjects like music, art, social studies and science. The tests leave out most of what parents, colleges and employers say they want kids to learn.

Testing overkill has turned many schools into stressful or even hostile environments and fostered student pushouts, feeding the school to prison pipeline. The harm has been most severe in schools serving low-income students, including many Latinos. Pressure to boost scores to save schools from closure and other punishments has contributed to a national epidemic of cheating. Worst, high-stakes testing does not help schools improve.

NCLBs consequences have fueled a growing national rebellion against test overuse and misuse. Parents, students and teachers have boycotted tests, demonstrated, and won victories at state and local levels. In a recent national poll, parents rated testing as one of two primary school problems.

Now Secretary Duncan is pressuring states to adopt new Common Core State Standards and tests. Unfortunately, that will mean even more testing madness, not better assessments or improved schools. The exams will remain mostly multiple-choice and will bring more tests to more grades. Advocates for English language learners have raised concerns about a lack of testing accommodations, including native language materials. Without appropriate accommodations, ELL students will face even greater frustration and failure. That will likely lead to higher dropout rates and additional barriers to good jobs. States could even require students to pass these tests to graduate, causing more harm to Latinos.

New York and Kentucky students took these more rigorous Common Core tests in the spring. The results were devastating. Teachers described children in tears, faced with unfamiliar material. New Yorks achievement gaps grew. Just 19 percent of Latino students passed math exams, compared with 50 percent of white students. In English, a mere 3 percent of non-native English speakers scored proficient.

Our children, classrooms and communities deserve better. High-stakes testing should be replaced with assessment alternatives that bring better educational results, like those used by the New York Performance Standards Consortium. The Consortium schools, which serve populations similar to other New York City public high schools, won waivers from most state-mandated tests. Instead, they use teacher-designed performance tasks. As a result, they have higher graduation rates and better college-going and completion rates than schools focused on preparing students for high-stakes standardized exams. These alternatives have clearly benefited Latinos and ELLs.

To allow for the creation of better assessment systems, there must be an indefinite moratorium on Common Core exams. The sooner we set a new direction for public school assessment, the sooner we can begin creating classrooms that foster the skills and qualities our students need to succeed.
Pundits say the coming mayoral election in New York City will be a referendum on the three terms of outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg. I disagree. True, the primary candidate most closely associated with him, the City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, lost dismally in the Democratic primary. But my vibe is that her defeat had more to do with her being brash and a lesbian than with her friendship or loyalty for the outgoing mayor.

The stereotype of New Yorkers as worldly, tolerant sophisticates overlooks the fact that observant Catholics, born-again Protestants and orthodox Jews  many of whom reject alternative lifestyles  dominate politics in wide swaths of this world-capital.

De Blasios campaign commercial, which featured his movie star handsome, Afro-sporting 16-year old son Dante, will be studied in political science classes for the next century. This kid will soon have his own talk show.  Geraldo Rivera

Those voters would have gone for a woman like Hillary Clinton, but she is international A-list, First Lady, senator and Secretary of State. She would have played in the heavily ethnic and immigrant outer boroughs, unlike Downtown Speaker Quinn.

Remember, New York did not lead the nations way on same sex marriage. Despite being a thriving center of gay life, it followed a half-dozen other states in approving same sex marriage and it happened by gubernatorial decree and a heavily contested vote in the state legislature, not by popular referendum. With the Churchs enormous influence in the Empire State, as in California a referendum on gay marriage might not have won.

Mayor Bloombergs 12-year tenure will certainly be discussed and debated in the bitter campaign to come, but the pivotal issue will not be how the billionaire businessman helped steward the city through the Great Recession. Likewise, not many voters are likely to attempt smoking cigarettes in bars and restaurants even after the Scold-in-City Hall has moved back to private life. Nor will they demand that fast-food menus discontinue publishing caloric content.

No, the mayoral election will be determined by the politics of race and class. Bill de Blasio, the winning Democratic candidate made sure of that when he campaigned against rich people and white cops.

He portrayed New York as profoundly divided. His tale of two cities spoke of one affluent and privileged city; the other besieged by an oppressive police department and sinking deeper into poverty. De Blasio spoke of how Mayor Bloomberg cared more for real estate developers, high rolling Russian billionaires and Wall Street moguls than for the Average Joe struggling to get by. And by equating it to racial profiling, he stoked enormous resentment against the NYPDs foundational stop and frisk tactic that has helped make New York the nations safest big city.

With the current police commissioner Ray Kelly on the defensive because of an adverse federal court ruling declaring the practice discriminatory, de Blasio  who is currently New Yorks Public Advocate  slandered a police department that is among the nations most racially and ethnically diverse.

He also had a potent political weapon, his charming and hugely photogenic mixed-race family, including wife Chirlane McCray who is both African-American and a former lesbian, which helped the candidate out-maneuver the gay Christine Quinn and the only black candidate in the primary race, the otherwise colorless former controller Bill Thompson.

De Blasios campaign commercial, which featured his movie star handsome, Afro-sporting 16-year old son Dante, will be studied in political science classes for the next century. This kid will soon have his own talk show.

Bill de Blasio will be a mayor for every New Yorker, Dante croons in the spot (presumably as opposed to just rich, white ones. And Id say that even if he werent my dad. He smiles and hearts melt from Harlem to Prospect Park.

Speaking of colorless, the Republican candidate is former Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Joe Lhota. He stresses his competence with experience hard won on 9/11 when he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with former mayor Rudy Giuliani as the twin towers collapsed. His candidacy will be embraced as the safer choice by many voters known elsewhere as Reagan Democrats.

With the primary barely over, Mr. de Blasio has already tempered his anti-police, anti-business rhetoric. As far as I know, he has not reprised his tale of two cities or his promise to tax the rich to pay for programs for the poor.

But listening on my radio show to uncensored call-ins, I think the die is cast. This election feels like the two campaigns 1993 and 1997 that featured Rudy Giuliani and David Dinkins, New Yorks first black mayor. Or even like the bitter 2011 election to recall Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin.

The candidates will debate public safety and upscale voters will fear a return to the anarchy of the 1970s. Theyll debate inequality, but more prosperous voters will hear higher taxes. They will talk issues but voters of all stripes and economic strata will see black and white.

Given this citys sorry history of race politics that was likely anyway, but Bill de Blasios clever campaign made it a certainty.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released another jobs report last Friday, and like almost every other report over the past few years it contained little in the way of good news. In fact, upon first reading the report the first term that sprang to mind was insanity. Not insane as in mental illness, but more along the lines of Albert Einsteins definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.

By that definition, America is going insane. We have tried the same tax and spend ideas for five years now with nothing to show for it. The problem is that as a country we keep voting for and supporting policies that weve seen fail time and time again. We elect leaders who institute policies of bigger government with more taxes and that try to tell you how to run your own business because they know best. Does the government know best? Does some lifetime bureaucrat that works in a cubicle all day know what is best for your business? More often than not that answer is no and so they keep trying the same old ideas over and over again. So, like Einsteins definition of insanity, we keep repeating our mistakes and expecting better outcomes.

Generations of immigrants have come to the United States to escape big government and excessive regulation which reward the well-connected few at the expense of those who succeed through hard work. Why would we repeat the mistakes of those countries we left behind?  Brittney Morrett

According to the latest BLS report, the unemployment rate actually dropped nationally from 7.4 percent to 7.3 percent, but thats a false trophy. The number dropped because we have the lowest of people in this country working in 35 years. To put that in perspective, we have fewer people working today than we did when there were 100 million fewer people living in America. The job market is so bad that people are simply giving up and feeling hopeless  and Washington reports the numbers as an improvement in unemployment! Now, while those numbers are sobering, for the Latino community the situation is even more critical.

The Hispanic unemployment rate is higher than the national average at 9.3 percent. The unemployment rate for Hispanics ages 16-24 is 18.1 percent. This is particularly troubling since the Hispanic youth population is the fastest-growing in the country, and many young Latinos work to assist their families or put themselves through school.

Furthermore, as a community, Latinos start their own businesses at three times the national average. That means that Hispanics are directly hurt by the ever-increasing number of regulations that are imposed on small businesses. Look at the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also referred to as Obamacare  even though its being lauded as especially beneficial for the Latino community, its actually going to kill jobs and make it harder for the Hispanic business owner to retain his employees or maintain their full-time employment status. If national companies like Forever 21, Red Lobster, and even Sea World cant keep their employees at full-time and companies like UPS cant keep spouses on health insurance plans because of this horrible bill, how are you supposed to?

Obamacare will also put a burden on young Latinos who enroll in the program. The ACA will require those aged 18-34 to pay more so that those who are older and sicker can pay less. This plan forces young Latinos to pay hundreds more for plans that dont fit their needs. In fact, for many, it would be cheaper to pay the tax penalty under Obamacare and pay cash to visit the doctor! So not only will there be fewer jobs for Latino youths as a result of Obamacare, but Latinos wont even get the cheap health insurance that they were promised through Obamacare.

The Latino voice is growing more powerful by the day. Its time that we stand up and cry out for an end to the insanity! Clearly what weve been doing for the past 5 years isnt working; its time to demand a new approach from our leaders in Washington. These unemployment rates are unacceptable.

Generations of immigrants have come to the United States to escape big government and excessive regulation which reward the well-connected few at the expense of those who succeed through hard work. Why would we repeat the mistakes of those countries we left behind?

Each and every one of us must say no to more restrictive policies that serve to hurt economic growth  and yes to more freedom, prosperity, and the American Dream.
You really have to grant it to them. This White House has taken political spinning to new heights. Having been involved in politics the better part of my adult life, I can see and smell spin a mile away. I understand the need for politicians to do it; whether the audience buys it is another thing. But you cannot blame politicians for trying.

A new word, spin master, now exists to refer to people who come up with spin. Spin masters are paid handsomely for their work. Some would say they are masters of deceit because they have to come up with a story line that takes a bad situation and paints it in the best of terms. Clearly the shenanigans of this administration demand that its spin masters try very hard to come up with those story lines.

Hispanics are the only demographic group for which median income declined from 2011 to 2012. Under the Presidents watch, 2.6 million more Hispanics have fallen into poverty.  Rosario Marin, Former U.S. Treasurer

Take for example what happened on Monday. President Obama had a much choreographed press event surrounded by different stakeholders: small-business owners, construction workers, homeowners, consumers, and tax cut recipients, to tout his impressive economic accomplishments. The event was specifically timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the failure of Lehman Brothers and the beginning of the ensuing economic recession.

If you listened to what he said, oh my, there was so much to be celebrated! Thank God Obama was in charge! What an amazing job he has done! Truly remarkable! Well, that ecstasy lasted less than 24 hours because the very next day census figures from his administration came out and painfully painted a very different picture.

I certainly cannot imagine the president saying he is so proud that under his watch 46.5 million Americans are now living in poverty. In other words, the poverty rate under Obama has increased from 13.2 percent to 15 percent. Since the president took over, 6.7 million more Americans have fallen into poverty.

Another tragic statistic from the census report: Hispanics are the ONLY demographic group for which median income declined from 2011 to 2012. Under the Presidents watch, 2.6 million more Hispanics have fallen into poverty.

If we couple this very sad news with the August jobs report, we find the economic situation is much bleaker than what the president flaunted. Whether one reads the New York Times, the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal, the consensus is sobering: the job market is weaker than it appears and maybe getting worse. The proportion of Americans working or looking for work has fallen to its lowest level in 35 years, as reported by the Associated Press.

According to the most recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce study, a lot of the skepticism in hiring is due to the uncertainty of Obamacare. Sixty-one percent of businesses in that study do not have plans to hire in the next year, 27 percent said that they will cut hours or reduce the number of full-time employees, 24 percent will reduce hiring, and 23 percent plan to replace full-time employees with part-time workers.

What a difference a day makes. One thing is for certain, given the current state of the economy the spin masters have their jobs securedspin, spin, spin.
Jose Maria Aznar , the man who led the Popular Party (PP) to power in 1996, going on to win another term before handing party control to his successor Mariano Rajoy in 2004, has resigned as his partys honorary president following a long-standing and very public disagreement over policies and strategies.

Former Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar. Jaime Villanueva

Aznar sent Rajoy a letter on Tuesday in which he formally stepped down from the post and said he will not be attending the PPs national convention in February. Sources in the PP spoke of a sense of relief following many years of criticism from their former leader.

The PPs deputy communications secretary, Pablo Casado, who is close to Aznar, said: I am very grateful for all he has done for the PP and Spain.

Sources in the PP spoke of a sense of relief after years of criticism from Aznar

In his letter, the former prime minister gives few reasons for his decision to step down, saying he wishes to retain his independence. He had few words to say to Rajoy in the missive, other than wishing him success at this important and difficult juncture.

Since taking over the post of honorary president 12 years ago, Aznar has used the FAES think tank, which has long-standing ties to the PP, to criticize the partys leadership. In October, FAES formally announced it was severing its relationship with the PP.

A week ago, FAES published a highly critical analysis portraying the party as lacking self-confidence and having embraced its opponents version of events.

The report held that the PP is now trying to make amends for its supposed sins of the past, when the party took a confrontational stance against separatists in Catalonia and the Basque Country. This prompted an outpouring of support for Rajoy and Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, who has been tasked with building bridges with Catalonia.

Aznar fell out with the PPs leadership soon after the party lost the 2004 elections to the Socialist Party (PSOE), and since then he has used every opportunity to distance himself from Rajoy, calling on several occasions for new leaders and for greater internal discipline.

The former prime minister has given few reasons for his decision to step down

After the death of party veteran Rita Barbera last month, he criticized the PP for having excluded the former mayor of Valencia, who was being investigated over corruption allegations. Barbera had been expelled from the party in September.

A number of court cases are underway in Spain involving senior figures within the PP from the Aznar years.

Aznar, who took over the PP in 1990, did not take part in the last two election campaigns. After the PP lost 3.6 million votes in December 2015, he criticized the party, calling for a convention presumably in the hopes of finding a challenger to Rajoy.

Sources say that Aznar is unlikely to start his own party, and he himself states in his letter to Rajoy that he will remain a member of the PP. This has prompted many senior officials to express fears that he will continue to use FAES to step up his criticism of the leadership.

In his 2012 memoir, Aznar said he only appointed Rajoy leader after Rodrigo Rato, a former economy minister who went on to head the IMF, and whom he described as his natural successor, turned the job down twice.

Ironically, the last vestige of Aznars legacy in the party is now Mariano Rajoy, who in February will be reelected party leader unopposed at the PPs annual convention.

English version by Nick Lyne.
Even if you consider yourself up on current events and a major news hound, no one would fault you for not knowing the name Gil Kerlikowske. The president nominating a new commissioner for Customs and Border Protection would rarely garner headlines anyway, but since this president has been unable to get a Senate-confirmed commissioner in place his entire five years in office, its worth giving Kerlikowske a close look.

If I were on the Senate Finance Committee, here are some questions Id pose to the presidents latest nominee.

What is it about your resume that earned you the nomination to lead CBP? Are you an expert in trade or security?

Kerlikowske is currently the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Hes spent his career in law enforcement leadership, having led police departments in Seattle and Buffalo. He also served in the Department of Justice and the police department in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Hes held impressive posts throughout his career. But what is it about any of those jobs that has prepared him to lead CBP, one of the most complex branches of the giant Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for processing $2 trillion worth of trade each year and is so vital to our economy?

For those of us who are promoters of cross-border trade and travel, its fair to ask whether this cop will view the international trade sphere as just a new beat, and whether trade facilitation will take a back seat to enforcement. We simply cant afford that.

Kerlikowske would put a lot of minds at ease in industry if he were able to walk into that hearing room and give a full-throated defense of trade and let business know that he intends to be a trade advocate.  Nelson Balido

What are your expectations of the private sector in helping CBP meet its responsibilities?

I believe that the federal government and industry can partner in ways to help CBP improve its staffing levels at our ports of entry and improve the infrastructure of the ports themselves. But Ive become increasingly concerned over the last several months that the government is viewing the private sector as the sole source to fund these responsibilities, which could mean that certain ports get resources depending on their ability to pay rather than because of need. Congress and the trade community should know whether a pay-to-play model is being adopted by the Obama administration.

How will you manage the relationship between CBP and Border Patrol? Does CBP need more resources?

Yes, we all know that the CBP personnel in blue uniforms at the ports are supposed to be on the same team as the Border Patrol men and women in green uniforms between the ports. But 10 years after the formation of the Department of Homeland Security, the tension still exists between the two agencies.

It comes down to budget and what captures the publics and Congress attention. In the immigration reform bill passed earlier this summer, the Senate says the Border Patrol should be over 40,000 agents strong. Thats huge. Meanwhile, CBP was mostly an afterthought in the Senate bill. The legislation seeks fewer than 4,000 new officers at the ports, but without a true barometer grounded in risk-based research those numbers were thrown around because they poll well.

Should companies that share data about their supply chain with CBP get preferential treatment when entering cargo into the U.S.?

The Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, or C-TPAT, is supposed to both speed up crossing times for participating companies and increase security. Companies share information with the government about their supply chains and in turn they get expedited service and undergo fewer secondary level inspections at the ports.

At least thats how its supposed to work.

Many participants in the program will complain off the record that the service theyre receiving isnt commensurate with the expense to get into and stay in the program.

The trade needs to hear from Kerlikowske whether he believes theres room for improvement with the program.

Is international trade good for the United States?

This seems like softball question, but there are plenty of folks in Congress who are still, nearly 20 years after the implementation of NAFTA, extremely skeptical of trades effect on the U.S. economy and American jobs.

Kerlikowske would put a lot of minds at ease in industry if he were able to walk into that hearing room and give a full-throated defense of trade and let business know that he intends to be a trade advocate.

Lets hope Kerlikowske at least gets a confirmation hearing. Under this president, that would be an accomplishment in itself.
As a Latino and DREAMer  or undocumented immigrant brought to the U.S. as a child  I have often been troubled by the identity of Latinos as society views us, as government views us and as we view ourselves. "Latino Americans," the PBS documentary, highlights a glimpse of the struggles and character that Latinos have lived throughout American history. But my experience connects me with the deep roots of our broader community in the U.S. that explains why immigration is an intimate issue for Latinos.

While no single documentary can showcase the rich history of any group, it helps to bring a human voice to many perspectives which are uniquely Latino. This helps to shed light on some of the historical narrative that has developed around the Latino identity, and continues to shape our present push for immigration reform and greater representation in politics.

Many of the historical circumstances described in "Latino Americans" are much the same as they were at various points in United States history. For example, the story of a Oaxaca mother  who after losing her home and family packed her clothing and children and traveled a long and dangerous road north during the Mexican Revolution  mirrors the stories of many who flee violence at the border to the United States. The journey was long and nearly killed them as they walked the same sandstorms in the same deserts that so many still die in.

From the Cubans and Mexicans who fled the violence of revolution, to the Puerto Ricans who still struggle with the question of statehood, every wave of Latin Americans has added a layer of diversity to the country, and had their own hardships in assimilating.  Cesar Vargas

My journey was not so different. I came to the United States when I was five years old after my father passed away. My mother risked everything for the American Dream for her children, something any loving mother would do.

Like the immigration stories of today, much of the story of the Latino experience depicted in "Latino Americans" involves loss and separation. While Mexican immigrants found a warm welcome at the border if they were strong enough to be agricultural workers in the Southwest during boom years, this welcome has now yielded to record deportations under the Obama administration.

When public deportations were not enough to entice foreign workers to leave quickly enough for the administration, the government started to offer free train tickets back to Mexico when the Revolution was over. Then they pushed harder, going into Latino neighborhoods and telling families that they would be denied welfare at a time when many had become dependent upon it. This is echoed in the plans to deny undocumented immigrants even basic social services today, such as when Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) eliminated the Child Tax Credit for undocumented immigrants, or when immigrants are singled out as not eligible for government benefits as part of citizenship requirements.

The story of Emilia Castaneda, who shares how her father was deported during the Depression, is echoed today as record deportations means more families divided across national lines. Her decision to return to the United States to make a life for herself, while still returning to Mexico to visit and keep her father in her life, is the same one made by millions of immigrants faced with the same decisions after a family member is deported today.

Latinos, as a diverse group tied together with a colonial history, language and social perception, have faced similar societal challenges associated with their identity. From the Cubans and Mexicans who fled the violence of revolution, to the Puerto Ricans who still struggle with the question of statehood, every wave of Latin Americans has added a layer of diversity to the country, and had their own hardships in assimilating.

"Latino Americans," while necessarily limited to only the most seismic changes and largest groups in Latin American history, is an interesting, broad, challenging history of immigration and assimilation. Most of all, it shows the hardships that many Latinos continue to see in their everyday lives as we struggle to "fit" in to a society which, while increasingly accepting, still presents its difficulties plainly. The discussions to reform our outdated immigration system represents an effort to revitalize the American Dream not only for Latino immigrants but for all Americans that still believe in this nation.
To listen to the current Venezuelan government talking about the United States, you might think that a squad of CIA agents is just waiting to seize President Nicolas Maduro on a street corner in Manhattan, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly meeting.

Following unsubstantiated claims last week that the U.S. closed its airspace to Maduro's plane as he flew to China, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua has written to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, demanding "guarantees that we are going to be respected by the government of the United States." Jaua also said that the State Department had denied visas to members of the Venezuelan delegation heading to the UN  an allegation firmly denied in Washington.

Venezuela supplies China with 600,000 barrels of oil per day, a figure that could increase to one million barrels if China is able to transform Venezuela's corrupt and chronically mismanaged oil industry.  Antonio Herrera-Vaillant

These outbursts of hatred toward the U.S. are to be expected from the Venezuelan regime, which has accused the Americans of all sorts of conspiracies in the last few months, from assassinating the late President, Hugo Chavez, to plotting the shortage of basic goods like cooking oil and toilet paper which is currently plaguing the country.

There is some purpose behind these accusations. Maduro is looking for a great power ally and he thinks he's found one in China.

Maduro's trip to China last week came just days after the Venezuelan government announced a $14 billion deal with the China National Petroleum Corporation for a project to develop the Junin 10 block in Venezuela's Orinoco region, an area that holds one of the largest oil reserves in the world.

Over the last decade, Venezuela's relations with China have grown warmer at all levels. When he served as Venezuela's foreign minister under Chavez, Maduro assiduously cultivated China's ruling communists, regarding them as both an ideological and an economic ally. After the United States, China is Venezuela's biggest trade partner, and Venezuela has become the main destination for Chinese investment in Latin America.

Maduro and those loyal to him are fond of presenting the relationship with China as integral to the country's socialist orientation. Yul Jabour, the president of the Venezuelan parliament's Foreign Policy Committee, trumpeted Maduro's Beijing visit as essential for the well-being of the "Bolivarian revolution." Alongside China, Jabour named Russia, Iran and Belarus as countries with whom Venezuela enjoys a fruitful relationship. Interestingly, Cuba, which receives a colossal $8 billion worth of subsidised oil from Venezuela each year, didn't make it onto Jabour's list of friends.

Regardless, what all these countries have in common is that they are run by authoritarian regimes. Following the widely disputed presidential election in April of this year, in which Maduro held onto power after refusing a recount, Venezuela has steadily been developing the features of a more traditional dictatorship. As that tragic process continues, Maduro has come to understand that he needs allies who share his view of the world, but who won't bleed the country's resources  as Cuba does  at the same time.

China has consistently proved its willingness to invest first in Chavez and now in Maduro. As a result, Venezuela supplies China with 600,000 barrels of oil per day, a figure that could increase to one million barrels if China is able to transform Venezuela's corrupt and chronically mismanaged oil industry. Make no mistake, that will be an uphill task: before Chavez became president in 1999, PDVSA, Venezuela's national oil company, was producing 3.5 million barrels of oil per day. Almost fifteen years later, that figure has collapsed to 2.7 million barrels.

For strategic reasons, the Chinese are willing to play with an element of risk. With U.S. President Barack Obama reorienting American foreign policy to east Asia  famously known as the "pivot"  China perceives important opportunities in America's backyard.

For democracy advocates in Venezuela, the relationship with China is deeply unsettling. It weds our country to a regime whose contempt for human rights is well-known, and where corruption is rampant. Maduro already has enough bad habits of his own without learning more from his Chinese friends.

Additionally, we worry that decisions on partnerships are being made on ideological rather than practical grounds. Chinese petroleum companies are coming to Venezuela not because they offer the best deals and resources, but because Maduro regards President Xi as the best hope for the anti-American forces in the world today.

That same desire to shun America disturbs us for many reasons, foremost that the U.S. remains our largest trading partner. But that relationship is becoming jeopardized. Two years ago, PDVSA was caught supplying oil to Iran, in violation of U.S. sanctions. As a consequence, PDVSA can no longer compete for U.S. government contracts or secure U.S. financing. Given that the U.S. imports $18 billion of goods from Venezuela annually, for Maduro to risk this vital revenue in the name of ideology is criminally negligent.

During the Venezuelan opposition's presidential campaign earlier this year, the opposition pro-democracy candidate, Henrique Capriles, stressed that as an oil-rich country with an educated population, Venezuela should conduct its foreign trade, whether with China or the United States, as an equal, not as a subordinate. But under Chavez and now Maduro, our country has been robbed by Cuba and compromised by China and Russia. And there is no end in sight.
Pope Francis, not content with breaking new ground as the first Latin American pope, has gone on to roil the media and the general populace with his recent interview conducted by the Italian Jesuit Antonio Spadaro.

Many in the media took that interview for a change in doctrine; the Church is finally catching up to the times. "Pope Francis is a liberal," declared Slate. "It's not just homosexuality or birth control. He's profoundly anti-conservative." That pretty much sums up the media's delighted response to what they see as the long-awaited arrival of a pontiff who will finally get the Church to stop speaking out on abortion, contraception, and gay marriage.

Although some are hoping for a change in doctrine, what we have is a change in emphasis: toward an invitation to conversion and friendship.  Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie

Those who have read the whole interview and are not so eager for the church to "get with the times" have a different interpretation. They don't believe the pope is asking the Church to abandon important moral and social teachings. In fact, the very next day, Pope Francis spoke out against abortion in very strong terms. "In all its phases and at every age, human life is always sacred and always of quality. And not as a matter of faith, but of reason and science!"

The media's confusion is perhaps understandable. As the pope suggested, there is a hierarchy of truths in Catholicism. He said, "the dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent." To a popular culture operating under the diktat of moral relativism, this sounded like an eagerly awaited capitulation by the greatest proponent of eternal moral truths.

What Pope Francis was really suggesting, however, is that the fundamental truth, the one that must be imparted first, is what the gospel and Christ affirm about human dignity. He said, "the proclamation of the saving love of God comes before moral and religious imperatives." The church's main responsibility is extending an invitation to friendship with Jesus, an invitation extended to all humans, which dignifies and ennobles.

But some truths help us to understand other truths. Those who understand and believe in that saving love and what it says about human dignity are more likely to understand what the church has to say about the social teachings that lead to enduring human happiness and a noble life. They are more likely to accept moral and religious imperatives like the Church's teaching on abortion, contraception, and gay marriage. Therefore it is necessary that the church must evangelize first, and then instruct. Pope Francis said, "we need to proclaim the gospel on every street corner, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing, even with our preaching, every kind of disease and wound."

The pope is in line, perfectly, with Benedict XVI and John Paul II, directing the Church's and the world's attention to Christ. His style, of course, is all his own. Although some are hoping for a change in doctrine, what we have is a change in emphasis: toward an invitation to conversion and friendship. A relationship that will open hearts and minds to the eternal truths that lead to human flourishing, truths that many in the media find so unpalatable.
So the great Ted Cruz Fauxlibuster of 2013 is behind us.

Democrats are crying foul (when dont they?), accusing Ted Cruz specifically and Republicans generally of trying to shut down the government ahead of the October 1 opening date for the Obamacare exchanges.

As usual, their faux outrage has no basis in reality: the government wont be shut down. Speaker Boehner and the House Republican caucus have unequivocally stated that they are not seeking a government shutdown. Nor could Ted Cruz antics have led to a shutdown, either: Senate procedure required him to wrap up his antics by 1:00 PM Wednesday in time for a vote.

In retrospect, the naming the health care law the Affordable Care Act sounds like a sick joke. Then again, this is the same federal government that once called the measurement for radiation from a nuclear bomb sunshine units.  David Laska

All told, Ted Cruz spoke on the Senate floor for 21 hours for a simple purpose: to focus the eyes of Washington and the nation on the fact that Obamacare has failed. Its own authors have admitted the implementation has been a train wreck, and one by one, every promise spun to the American people about this law has unraveled.

That the program has failed is a fait accompli; what remains to be seen is the size and scope of the failure.

According to the Society of Actuaries, Americas leading organization of risk-analysis professionals, the cost of medical claims under Obamacare  the driving force behind the rise in insurance premiums  will increase by 32 percent nationwide.

The cost of medical claims is up 62 percent in California. According to the Executive Director of that states own Obamacare exchange, health insurance premiums for individuals are rising by between 64 and 146 percent.

The day the exchange opened, the average 25-year-old nonsmoking male in California saw his monthly premium rise from $92 to $184.

In Tennessee, the average premium for individual females is doubling. For men, its tripling. One Kentucky family famously saw their premium triple overnight.

Remember when Barack Obama told us, if you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan? He was lying.

Remember when Barack Obama bent over backwards arguing that the new revenue raised by Obamacare wasnt a tax? He was lying then, too. And dont take my word for it  he admitted as much at the Clinton Global Initiative on Tuesday when he said that Obamacare is paid for by a combination of things. We did raise taxes on some things.

Of course, some things is a much easier concept to digest than medical devices, medical bills, special bank accounts to save for healthcare and, oh yeah, personal income  all of which are punished under the Obamacare regime.

In retrospect, the naming the health care law the Affordable Care Act sounds like a sick joke. Then again, this is the same federal government that once called the measurement for radiation from a nuclear bomb sunshine units.

Ive met Ted Cruz. He was the keynote speaker at our annual fundraising dinner in May. Sen. Cruz spoke for over 30 minutes, without notes, a podium or a TelePrompTer, about economic growth and the American dream. The audience of 500 hung on his every word and responded with a standing ovation at the end of his remarks.

Ted Cruz is a serious Senator. And his message is one the American people need to hear, especially those in the 20 states with Democratic Senators whose terms expire at the end of next year.
He is sharp and charismatic, with the flash and bang of a stick of dynamite. But Senator Ted Cruz just blew up in the face of the Republican Party. Here is my take on this weeks Cruz-missile explosion and why it could seriously impact the Republican Partys aspiration to retake the White House.

The Cuban-American junior senator from Texas epic 21-hour rant against Obamacare rallied Tea Party Libertarians who flooded the emails and voicemails of Congressional Republicans, like Peter King of New York who dared to be critical of Cruz. King accused Cruz of being a fraud. King was rewarded with a tsunami of messages he called vile and obscene from Tea Party activists stirred by Senator Cruz call to battle.

It sounds like it is going to be a horror show when the doors open on October 1st. Like Medicare and Medicaid, it will eventually get sorted out, but there are going to be some major bumps along the way.  Geraldo Rivera

But since Tea Party activists already vote for the GOP, this is where Senator Cruz hurts his partys chances. Latinos are the demographic group most coveted by Republicans, essential if the party is to win back the White House. They are also the group that will benefit most from the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).

Thirty-one percent of Hispanic-Americans do not have health insurance; almost double the 16 percent of the overall U.S. population not covered. The ACA will extend Medicaid eligibility to between 8 and 10 million Hispanic citizens, and that number is freaking out the far right.

I had liberal former Democratic presidential candidate, Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis on my radio show taking mostly hostile questions from conservative listeners fervently supportive of Senator Cruz. When Governor Dukakis gently asked one angry elderly caller, Sally from Boynton Beach, Florida, why she was so opposed to health care coverage for uninsured Americans, she admitted she wasnt sure of the specifics, but she was sure that all that taxpayer money is going to go to those illegal immigrants. The governor explained that folks here illegally were barred from benefiting, but by then Sally wasnt listening.

Given the unrelenting propaganda campaign being waged against Obamacare by Senator Cruz and others, it is no surprise that the legislation is unpopular with Sally and many Americans. Forty-nine percent believe it is a bad idea, according to a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

But since so many Hispanics will benefit from the new law, it is no wonder they see it in a more positive light. According to a recent Pew poll, 61 percent of Hispanics approve of the Affordable Care Act.

Perversely, what could help Republicans is the Obama administrations apparent lack of readiness to implement the new law. Of the up to 10 million Hispanics eligible to sign up, as many as 4 million speak only Spanish. Yet with enrollment slated to start on October 1st, the Spanish-language version of the healthcare.gov website will not be ready for online enrollment.

Additionally, many of the health care centers and community organizations providing the navigators who will guide the uninitiated (like me) through the enrollment process complain that they have few or no Spanish-speakers. Im told the process is roughly as complicated as filing your income tax returns; which means it is complicated enough for average folks to need help filling out the applications.

It sounds like it is going to be a horror show when the doors open on October 1st. Like Medicare and Medicaid, it will eventually get sorted out, but there are going to be some major bumps along the way. One thing for sure, Senator Cruz wont have to resort to quoting Dr. Seuss to fill the time of his next filibuster. He will have much better material next time.
For more than three decades I have worked in the technology industry, watching immigrants in this country contribute to this and every other sector, diversifying Americas ideas and cultures, and driving global growth with technology solutions. I have also watched peers and friends struggle with a dated immigration system that stifles both lives and industries. Many have packed up and left the country with their families rather than wait for reform.

But things are changing and we are close  it feels like reform is on the horizon. For 30 years, I have waited for this moment. Yet the future is still uncertain for so many others who are just like me.

Our greatest scientists are disproportionately foreign-born; immigrants are more than twice as likely to start a business as the native-born; and U.S. science and engineering programs are increasingly dependent on students who come from abroad.  Reynaldo Gil

I am a serial entrepreneur, a technology pioneer, and a Cuban immigrant. My first company, WorldChain, was working on cloud computing before that industry existed. WorldChains hosted cloud-based system helped PC and tech companies including Dell, Gateway, Network Appliance, StorageTek, and Verifone remove hundreds of millions of dollars in excess inventory from their operations and improve service levels. As Founder and Chief Technology Officer, I created a portfolio of pioneer software patents, several of which have revolutionized supply chain management in the cloud.

My work has led to the creation of countless high-paid American jobs and millions in economic growth for our country. My story is not uncommon, but it is not as common as it should be. Our current immigration system keeps entrepreneurs just like me from doing what I did in this country. Even so, our greatest scientists are disproportionately foreign-born; immigrants are more than twice as likely to start a business as the native-born; and U.S. science and engineering programs are increasingly dependent on students who come from abroad. Every engineer creates many other local support jobs. They also boost the local service economies by frequenting local small businesses where they work, live, and play. Up to 4.3 non-tech service jobs including teachers, food industry workers, and others are created for every tech worker, according to the Bay Area Council.

Right now there is an alarming decline in American startups and job creation. Job creation has declined from a peak of 4.1 million in 1994, prior to the Dotcom era, to 2.5 million in 2010, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report. We need to correct the situation quickly with immigration reform or risk disruptive innovations and industry segments being created offshore out of necessity. According to Gallup Chairmans Blog we are ignoring a Five-Alarm Fire in our new economy; the report states that we need two million start-ups per year just to get back to full employment. We need to attract more talent and keep more talent here; we need to launch companies faster in order to help rebuild an agile, global American-led workforce.

The combination of fewer start-ups and a serious and growing skills gap in Silicon Valley and the nation overall means slow growth for our tech economy. America will face a projected shortfall of 200,000 jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math fields by 2018. I am working to remedy that here in California. I developed an accelerated training program, BPR Cloud Academy that prepares Americans and new Americans for start-up work. I am launching the program for immigrant entrepreneurs at Mamas Art Cafe in San Francisco and for Vets at Vet-Tech in Sunnyvale. I am also a mentor and partner with two immigrant incubators  Manos Accelerator in San Jose, Cibola Incubator in Chicago. They are helping to develop pathways to start-ups for immigrant Latinos like me who came here to be a part of the American Dream.

My personal economic development track record is typical. It demonstrates the impact immigrants have on innovation, job creation, and export trade. We love this country and we are contributing to its future success  it is our success too.
Despite voting for President Obama by a robust margin and supporting Obamacare, it turns out one of the groups most negatively impacted by Obamacare will be Latinos. Here's why:

1) Latinos are opening small businesses at a rate faster than any other group. In fact, already, 1 in 8 Latino households consists of a small business owner. And guess who bears the brunt of Obamacare the most? Small businesses (those with under 500 employees). Under Obamacare, small businesses with over 50 employees must provide health insurance, or pay a penalty, not to mention navigate the maze of Obamacare's complexities without the luxury of the high-priced legal teams Fortune 500 companies have on staff.

Companies are laying workers off or slashing hours (down from full-time to part-time, in order to avoid the insurance requirement). It is a reality we in the Latino community are living.  A.J. Delgado

2) Latinos are, like African-Americans, suffering from a higher unemployment rate than the average American. Thus, we are hit especially hard by any legislation that discourages hiring or economic growth, as does Obamacare. Whereas Obamacare's opponents used to scoff at this line of reasoning, they have grown silent as report after report surfaces: companies are laying workers off or slashing hours (down from full-time to part-time, in order to avoid the insurance requirement). It is a reality we in the Latino community are living.

Take my friend Isaac* (*name changed for privacy reasons): the son of Mexican immigrants, Isaac is in his 30s and lives with his parents (he cares for his mentally ill father and prefers to live at home where he, as many Latinos similarly choose to do, can best assist his parents' needs). After a long period of unemployment after the recession hit, Isaac finally found a job at Home Depot  a natural with all things carpentry and a 'people-person,' he genuinely enjoyed it and it gave him a dignified income to help out with household bills, the occasional recreational activity, and even save a little. Well, Isaac's hours have just been cut down to part-time. (Meanwhile, Isaac's parents  both of whom are on Medicare  saw their own choice and quality of care cut when Obamacare gutted over half a trillion dollars from that program. Remaining true to liberal ideology: 'Who cares about the elderly! They won't be voting in 20 years  why bother spending on them?')

And it's not just hours-slashing or layoffs: Obamacare is flat out making it harder to find employment opportunities as companies are weary of the costs and complications of hiring additional employees, particularly full-time ones.

3) Latinos tend to be a younger demographic group (the median age of Latinos is roughly a decade younger than the average American). And how does Obamacare negatively impact the youth in particular? Easy  the premiums are structured so that the young (and presumably healthy) pay far more than they ordinarily would, in order to offset lower premium costs for the rest. "OK, well, I just won't get health insurance if I'm young and healthy," you might retort. Sorry, wrong answer! Do that, and you'll face a hefty tax (ahem! 'penalty') each year you forego this mandate.

So, to my fellow Latinos, I say: Despiertense. Esta ley es un fraude. Merecemos mejor.
My hometown of Miami is known as the Capital of the Americas, a melting pot of Hispanic nationalities nestled within the greater melting pot of America. Half of the population in our county is foreign-born.

It is a fascinating vantage point to view the newest wave of immigrants from the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

Like in South Florida, Hispanic communities are growing rapidly across our nation. They may have come from different countries and cultures, but they share similar goals and desires as all of us  to participate in the American dream and ensure their children have access to unlimited opportunities.

Floridas secret is simple. We do not create carve-outs in the classroom. We hold all students to the same academic standards.  Jeb Bush

Their success ultimately will depend on education. The challenges here are immense and the implications for our nation enormous.

There are now about 12.5 million Hispanic children in public schools, comprising nearly a quarter of the total population.

This rapid growth has forced schools to adapt quickly.

Half of Hispanic fourth graders are functionally illiterate in the U.S. They are more than two grade levels behind their white counterparts in reading and math. The achievement gap persists through the higher grades and is reflected on college entrance exams (NAEP).

This is not a Hispanic issue. It is a national issue. The 21st century global economy is intensely and increasingly competitive. Those nations with the most educated and skilled workers will dominate, which is why we are currently seeing a worldwide effort to boost academic achievement in the classroom. We are the greatest nation; however our standing on the world stage will be determined on how well we prepare the next generation.

We cant afford to gradually phase in higher expectations to create a comfort level for adults in public education, not with the U.S. Census Bureau projecting that by 2036, a third of American children between the ages of 3 and 17 will be Hispanic.

We need to move boldly and aggressively, particularly now that we are beginning to see very positive advancement.

Between 2000 and 2011, the dropout rate for Hispanic students has been cut in half to about 15 percent.

Their SAT and ACT scores have improved. This year, Hispanics achieved an historic milestone by closing the college enrollment gap  a record seven-in-ten (69 percent) Hispanic high school graduates in the class of 2012 completed high school and enrolled in college, two percentage points higher than the rate (67 percent) among their white counterparts.

And we are seeing positive improvements like this in places across the nation. On the 2011 fourth grade reading test, states like New York and Texas had more Hispanic students scoring at or above proficient than the national average for Hispanics. In 2013, New Mexicos 11th graders had a 10 percent growth in reading proficiency from 2012. This year, Georgia ACT scores of Hispanic students outperformed national averages of Hispanics across the country.

We are particularly proud of the progress being made in Florida, since adopting policies and practices that reorganized education around student achievement.

On the National Assessment of Education Progress rankings, Hispanic fourth graders in Florida have advanced more than two grade levels in reading since 1998, and are 1 grade levels above the national average of Hispanic students. Floridas Hispanic students read as well or better than the average student in 21 states.

Floridas secret is simple. We do not create carve-outs in the classroom. We hold all students to the same academic standards. We give all equal access to Advanced Placement classes and other academically rigorous courses.

We are introducing digital technology into the classroom. We created the Florida Virtual School, which has become a national model for excellence in virtual education.

We prepare our students for college and the workforce. In Florida, high school students are allowed to substitute rigorous industry certification courses for certain graduation course requirements, providing more immediate job opportunities and college credit.

We understand that teachers and principals play a vital role in the academic achievement and future success of their students and we reward educators who help their students succeed. We empower moms and dads to have a voice in their childs education and we give families choice in selecting schools.

We obviously have far to go, both in Florida and the nation. But the trend lines are positive and gaining momentum.

I remain optimistic, because I have seen first-hand the spirit of these hardworking immigrants.

They are risk takers. They come to a country that offers them no guarantees, but also no limits on where their individual initiative can take them.

They form more businesses than the native-born population. In the last 10 years, we have seen the number of Hispanic-owned businesses double to 3.2 million.

And they put a premium on ensuring the success of their children. Children of immigrants surpass their parents in income, home ownership and education.

There is no reason to believe the positive trend in Hispanic achievement will not continue. But we certainly cannot take it for granted and that means making quality education for every child a national priority. We must give every family the opportunity to thrive, starting with an equal chance at educational success. We must restore the vitality of the American Dream for generations to come.
The American economy depends on small businesses to create jobs and contribute to the economy now more than ever before. Small businesses create two-thirds of jobs in the U.S. Economic policies should place a high priority on allowing small businesses to grow and create jobs and opportunities for all.

The American economy thrives only when unwieldy government intervention into the free market is minimized. Such intervention comes in all forms and the culprit is not always American nor is the intrusion always of a regulatory nature.

American Hispanics start small businesses at a rate three times higher than the general population. Economic growth is the most effective path to prosperity for underserved populations.  Mario H. Lopez

Much attention has recently been given to private patent assertion entities (PAEs), also referred to as patent trolls, which are entities that dont produce anything but own intellectual property like patents and make money from enforcing infringement suits and collecting royalties. American inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs should be concerned about PAEs because they have the potential to stifle American innovation and economic growth with costly litigation attacks, potentially based on frivolous claims.

There is growing concern in Washington that foreign government-owned and controlled PAEs provide unfair anticompetitive advantages to the nations that chose to create them. Because these PAEs are government-sponsored, they not only favor companies in their respective countries, but they have additional capital to direct toward trolling activities.

There are multiple government-sponsored PAEs that should be of concern, including the quasi-government agency Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan, which recently announced plans for the IP bank saying it could be similar to other, private, patent aggregators. Currently ITRI holds 18,546 patents and asserts that it will help facilitate litigation to enforce the exclusiveness of patents. In 2010, ITRI filed a complaint against a major international brand in the US District Court.

Similarly, the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and Intellectual Discovery (Korea) exist to promote companies and innovations from their home countries, respectively, and actively seek out infringements from foreign businesses.

INCJ draws funding, management, and expertise from both private and public sectors. It is capitalized at 280 billion yen, with the Japanese government funding 266 billion yen and 27 private corporations funding an additional 14 billion yen. INCJs business and investments are overseen by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan.

Intellectual Discovery is structured similarly and purchases patents to help domestic technology firms with patent licensing. To date, it has purchased more than 200 U.S. patents. Congressman Peter DeFazio of Oregon called government-sponsored patent entities a new form of protectionism and a whole new level of jeopardy.

A threat to job creation and incubation and economic growth, particularly during a time of recovery, is one that we should take seriously, especially one that threatens to hurt small businesses that flourish not only due to the American entrepreneurial spirit but also due to our creative minds and innovative nature.

Small business is not only the engine of our countrys economic growth, it is also a key factor in the economic progress of growing demographics. American Hispanics start small businesses at a rate three times higher than the general population. Economic growth is the most effective path to prosperity for underserved populations.

Decisions, regulations, and policies that address how these ideas are protected have direct impact on the ability for American businesses, both small and large, to prosper, create jobs, and contribute to Americas economic success in an ever-globalized market place.

Americans work hard and innovate as well, if not better, than any other country. Government-sponsored PAEs threaten to dissuade our hard work by choosing to sue our innovators rather than competing against them. Simply put, this stands against our principles of free market and competition.

We write on behalf of all businesses and innovators to be aware of and not fall victim to PAEs, particularly those working with interests of foreign countries at the root of their intentions.
Last week non-essential parts of the federal government closed for business because certain Republican lawmakers opposed continued funding of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Next week has the potential for even greater disruption as federal government officials must reach agreement on raising the federal debt limit which allows the federal government to continue to borrow money. Their failure to do so will prevent the government from paying its existing debts. Given the current stalemate in Washington, it is not surprising the American people have such low regard for our federal leaders.

I applaud the President for bringing the congressional leadership to the White House to discuss the situation, but meeting just to tell the other side there will be no compromise serves no purpose.  Alberto Gonzales, Former U.S. Attorney General

We need to reform our health care system. As a general matter, I am in favor of measures that make health insurance more affordable, thus making health care available to more Americans. Furthermore, like many Americans, I support provisions of the ACA that require coverage for pre-existing conditions, as well as those that allow family policies to cover children up to the age of 26.

There are, however, many Americans who simply do not want the federal government telling them they have to buy health insurance. Additionally, it now appears the president was wrong when he promised that under the ACA Americans would still be able to keep their same insurance coverage and their current doctor if they chose to do so. Another harmful consequence of the ACA is that certain employers are reducing the work hours of full time employees in order to avoid the higher costs of the insurance coverage mandated under the ACA.

Despite these problems, thus far the president has refused to compromise with Republicans. Rebuffing any attempt at change or delay, the president asserts the ACA is the law of the land, and reminds us that the ACA has been upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court and validated by his re-election. The ACA is President Obamas signature domestic achievement, and concern that concessions may be viewed as an acknowledgment the ACA is flawed is understandable. However, the presidents insistence lacks credibility since he has already effectively changed the law of the land multiple times by delaying the employer mandate and by granting numerous waivers and exemptions prior to implementing the ACA.

The president has said that a small extreme faction of one party should not be able to hold the federal government hostage. I agree, a government shutdown is not an appropriate way to govern. But, such tactics are certainly not unprecedented nor illegal. Delay and obstructionist tactics have been used by legislators from the minority party from the beginning of our Republic in order to prevent the majority from running roughshod over the rights and interests of their constituents.

Nevertheless, the president and Democrats are rightly concerned that concessions now will only encourage similar obstructionist tactics in the future. Republicans who hope to capture the White House and control the Senate should be mindful that one day the shoe may be on the other foot, and then they may have to deal with similar tactics by the Democrats. Governance by obstructionism - by either party - is a failure of leadership. If, indeed, lawmakers have a message they believe is right for America then they should try to sell it on election day.

I applaud the president for bringing the congressional leadership to the White House to discuss the situation, but meeting just to tell the other side there will be no compromise serves no purpose - and certainly does not serve the interests of the American people. Discussions about the ACA have somewhat faded. However, negotiations between Republicans and Democrats are necessary over the debt ceiling, where the risk of damage to the economy is far greater and the presidents position is much less popular, even within his own party.

We are all best served by the president acting as the grown-up and exercising leadership to facilitate a solution that helps address our healthcare crises, reduces our federal spending and the deficit, and restructures entitlement programs which in their current form cannot be sustained over the long term. The president is not responsible if members of Congress do not do their job, but neither is he blameless for allowing this situation to continue. It is time for him to lead.
The Mexican economy has downshifted. Growth forecasts are less than enthusiastic as analyses by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas indicate slower production output and a dip in exports, especially to the U.S.

So credit Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto for not accepting the status quo. His administration from day 1 has embraced an aggressive reform agenda in areas like labor, education and taxation.

These reforms arent without controversy. Images of huge protests in Mexico City over his plan to dramatically curtail the influence of the countrys teacher unions provide a glimpse at what a shock to system hes given an entrenched bureaucracy. Just wait until the energy sector gets an overhaul.

By liberalizing its energy sector, [Mexico] can attract new investment, deliver cheaper and more reliable electricity to its citizens and firms manufacturing for export, and grow new jobs in an economy that has hit a rough patch.  Nelson Balido

Travel around Mexico and youll see the ubiquitous PEMEX gas stations. Unlike in the U.S. where drivers can choose from various brands and product offerings from one corner to the next, the Mexican gas consumer has only one option: the state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos.

That lack of competition for the state-run monopoly has turned a point of national pride into an aging dinosaur unable to compete in the global market or collaborate with foreign investors. In fact, foreign companies are forbidden by Mexicos constitution from tapping into the Mexican market. All of this leads to high prices, poor service and an outdated way of doing business.

But its that prospect of opening the Mexican energy sector to foreign investment that could prove to be Pena Nietos greatest lobbying challenge. According to polling data released last month, a majority of Mexicans support the idea of reforming Pemex, but over 60 percent oppose outside foreign investors gaining a foothold in the countrys energy sector.

This is different than clashes over education reform. Mexicos public education system is largely an embarrassment, not engrained in the national identity like Pemex. While most Mexicans recognize that Pemexs best days are behind it, the skepticism over meddling by outside interests is powerful. Pena Nieto will have to convince the Mexican people that his reform package will grow the Mexican economy and create jobs, not sell off Mexicos natural resources to the highest bidder.

The prospects for cross-border cooperation in the energy sector are really exciting. Energy exploration in the U.S. is booming right now. The International Energy Agency says the U.S. will be a net exporter of natural gas by 2020 and self-sufficient in energy by 2035. The advent of fracking technology has been an absolute game changer.

Our friends south of the border are poised to make their own dramatic moves in energy exploration, but they need the technical expertise of international oil and gas firms to make it happen. But such strategic partnerships need to be mutually beneficial. Oil firms arent going to make investments in Mexico unless theyre certain it will be worth their while and will get paid.

In the U.S. Congress, the House has passed and sent to the Senate the Outer Continental Shelf Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreements Authorization Act. If the bill becomes law, it would implement the Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement signed by the U.S. and Mexico last year, which establishes the framework for developing the oil and gas reserves that cross the maritime boundary between the two countries. Its a critical component for the further modernization of Mexicos energy sector and it gives U.S. energy firms a chance to further explore the Gulf of Mexico. The EX-IM bank had already put their money where their mouth is by authorizing over $1.5 billion in support of U.S. goods and services to Pemex.

Mexico is on the cusp of giving its economy a major shot of adrenaline. By liberalizing its energy sector, the country can attract new investment, deliver cheaper and more reliable electricity to its citizens and firms manufacturing for export, and grow new jobs in an economy that has hit a rough patch. Its the next step in shifting the Mexican economy back into high-gear and North America will we be the primary beneficiary. Lets hope President Pena Nieto has the political touch to get it done.
Things are bad in the nations capital, really bad. Approval ratings are down for our elected leadership, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) rollout has been a disaster and even the Redskins have stumbled to a 1-and-4 start. But what has been most disheartening, and what has added to the uncertainty Americans across the country are feeling, has been the inability of the President to rise above the strife and show leadership  the kind only the President of the United States can show. With a partial shutdown ongoing and the debt ceiling just days from being breached, only he can call in the leaders of Congress and say to them, We are not leaving this room unless we resolve our differences. Yes, we will negotiate, but we will also compromise. He should do this today, so the economy is not further impacted by the uncertainty surrounding the debt ceiling deadline.

If President Obama cares little for his own legacy, he should care very much about our nations economic health. But instead hes shown only obstinacy, when what Americans are crying out for is true leadership.  Daniel Garza

Instead he has made speeches that the sky really is falling  stating that the economy will implode, the markets will crumble and our financial institutions will cancel consumer credit as Republicans hold a gun to his head. It is ominous and foreboding language that is beneath the office of the Presidency. It is also irresponsible for a nations leader, especially the leader of the worlds lone superpower, to unnerve both the domestic and global markets in such a way. If the President is truly trying to promote economic growth and keep the world stable, he should be reassuring markets that the United States government can handle this challenge  as we always have in the past.

Although polls may show more Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown now, the reality is President Obama was elected to lead our nation in a time of economic downturn. Under our Constitution, he must work with Speaker Boehner, who leads the body that is most specifically accountable for federal spending. His failure to unite America's elected leadership and drive bipartisan solutions to resolve a serious national matter will be an important part of his own presidential legacy.

Conservatives in Congress are not sitting still against the Lefts strategy of intransigence. They have offered a range of proposals that can serve as the basis of a compromise, and its President Obama who refuses to negotiate. There are serious problems with the Affordable Care Act  ones that should not be ignored. But President Obama has refused to even acknowledge them. Instead he and his allies in Congress declare that it is the law of the land. Thats true, but Congress revisits, repeals, and amends laws frequently. When prohibitions awful unintended consequences became clear, it was repealed. Even now, the White House is pushing hard to change the law that limits how much debt the U.S. may issue. Its completely legitimate for Congress to push the White House to deal with the ACA.

In the face of deadlock however, there is no reason the entire federal government should be shut down. It makes sense to work in a bipartisan way to reopen agencies about which there are no disagreements  through the type of narrow spending bills the House has passed. Unfortunately, the White House insists on having everything it wants before negotiating.

Instead of focusing on short-term political advantage, the President has the chance  right now  to pass long-term fixes for our serious fiscal problems. Congressional conservatives are ready to discuss the current shutdown and the upcoming debt ceiling debate. Speaker Boehner was right to underscore that even though America will have record revenues, we will still suffer a nearly $700 billion deficit. Our leadership cannot continue to ignore the unsustainable fiscal path we are on, or much less refuse to negotiate with each other in order to score cheap political points.

Americans know that our elected leadership must set spending priorities, focus on growing the private sector and address the source of the stalemate - runaway government spending and overregulation. It is time for a serious commitment to fiscal sanity, to job creation, and to a willingness to work together on shared goals, rather than political advantage.

If President Obama cares little for his own legacy, he should care very much about our nations economic health. But instead hes shown only obstinacy, when what Americans are crying out for is true leadership.

Most Americans will forget who served as Speaker of the House a few years from now, or who the Senate leader was. But they will not forget under whose watch the peoples government turned dysfunctional. At times President Obama seems to think stubbornness is a leadership quality. But a failure to engage  and a refusal to recognize America is a representative Republic  is anything but leadership. The President cant keep sitting on the sidelines. Only he can solve this problem. Its what he was elected to do.
Like his predecessor Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro is given to angry tirades against the United States. Since coming to power in April in an election widely regarded as fraudulent, Maduro has accused the CIA of assassinating Chavez by "injecting" him with cancer and of committing various acts of "sabotage to disrupt the electricity sector in Venezuela."

However colorful these fantasies, Maduro is quickly discovering that the reality of Venezuela's capsizing economy cannot be indefinitely explained away as an American plot. And therein lies the irony: the same man who trumpets the importance of national independence and a socialist economy continues to push policies that gravely compromise Venezuela's sovereignty.

Rather than enabling Venezuela to become an economic powerhouse in Latin America, [oil] has become the means by which other countries control it.  Leopoldo Martinez

Venezuela's chief export, which accounts for 95 percent of export earnings and close to 30 percent of its GDP, is oil. Its exports place the country as the 9th largest net exporter of the world, with the total imports from Venezuela by the U.S. representing 9 percent of the total, while Venezuela also sits atop perhaps the largest reserves of oil and natural gas, with 24 percent of the planets proven reserves.

So far, so good  at least on paper. In common with some of the other OPEC nations, Venezuela has squandered its oil riches, to the point where the supply of U.S. dollars is undergoing severe strain.

Only the much-maligned United States, which imports about 800,000 barrels of oil per day, pays in cash. Every other revenue stream is transformed into either a barter arrangement or a means of servicing the repayment of Venezuela's enormous external debt, currently totaling close to $75 billion. China, which is emerging as the principal creditor of Venezuela's oil sector, uses Venezuelan oil to pay off Venezuelan debts. Since 2007, the Chinese government through different mechanisms has lent Venezuela $42.5 billion, which means that Beijing receives close to 600,000 barrels of oil per day for repayment of the debt.

Cuba alone, long-established as the regime's favored ideological soulmate, and the country where Chavez received treatment for his cancer, receives nearly $12 billion of heavily subsidized oil each year. The 11 countries that make up the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA,) a grouping which Chavez created in 2004, receive around 300,000 barrels per day from Venezuela in exchange for the provision of foodstuffs and similar services.

Taken together, all of this data reveals an alarming pattern. Rather than enabling Venezuela to become an economic powerhouse in Latin America, this nation's most precious national resource has become the means by which other countries control it. Venezuela either gives its oil away to countries that share the regime's worldview, or uses it to service debt that grows faster than it is paid off. Meanwhile, the stream of cash that comes from the United States cannot be expected to last, not because Washington is minded to sanction Maduro for his inflammatory rhetoric, but because the Americans are well on their way to energy independence.

There are three immediate consequences to the regime's disastrous approach to oil.

Firstly, bartering oil for food from abroad slashes jobs in Venezuela's already ailing agricultural sector, as well as pushing up consumer prices. As a result, ordinary Venezuelans suffer because of the Chavista fixation with giving away oil in the name of a more equitable global order.

Secondly, the lack of cash means that there is chronic underinvestment in developing and improving oil production. Before the era of Chavismo began in 1999, Venezuela exported around 3.5 million barrels per day. Fourteen years later, that figure is down to about 2.2 million, and it continues to fall precipitously. Given that the national oil company, PDVSA, has been purged of its professional management in order to make way for Chavista loyalists, there is no-one left to make the necessary changes even if a cash injection were to miraculously appear.

Thirdly, the Chavistas are no longer in a position to perpetuate the low-impact, high-cost "social programs" which Chavez himself inaugurated as a method to guarantee the political support of Venezuela's most vulnerable. From the beginning, the policy of building homes or providing direct transfers or handouts through the misiones in poor neighborhoods was financed by external debt, banking on the oil revenue expected by the country. Currently, declining oil output and a foreign exchange crisis caused by a lack of dollars are forcing Maduro to cut back on Chavez's "good works;" and it is against this fact, rather than his anti-American rants, that Venezuela's poor will judge him.

Indeed, the protests are already growing. Professor Carlos Correa Barros, who heads the independent monitoring group Espacio Publico, recorded 1,400 separate demonstrations between January and July of this year, all of them focused on unemployment, housing shortages and similar problems. Moreover, public anger is compounded by shortages of basic goods like cooking oil and toilet paper, as well as regular power outages, such as the blackout in September that plunged 70 percent of the country into darkness.

Maduro's response is typically heavy-handed: he is now seeking to pass an Enabling Law that will allow him to rule by decree. Though he claims it is a "matter of life or death" for the "socialist revolution," the move is more properly seen as another example of how the economic crisis is further pushing Venezuela into a conventional dictatorship. As long as Maduro remains in power, Venezuelans can expect to lose the two things they hold most dear: their constitutional democracy and their economic sovereignty.
When President Barack Obama pledged this week, finally, to make immigration reform a priority of his second term, the person I thought of immediately was Ted Cruz. And not in a good way. Just as the Texas senator brought the Capitol to its knees during the government shutdown/debt crisis just concluded, I predict the Cuban-American Tea Party darling will stand squarely against any comprehensive immigration-reform legislation that offends his decidedly non-Latino constituency.

He will be the anti-immigration reform colossus, who will rally the same House caucus that put 800,000 federal workers on furlough and nearly sent the world financial system in chaos. He will direct that caucus to prevent any significant progress on immigration, and given what hes been through lately, Senator Cruz will have a relatively easy time crushing optimism.

After defying the Republican establishment and every economist in the world over the federal budget and the nation's debt ceiling, he has a far more vulnerable target in immigration reform. When you can stare down billionaire Warren Buffet, and ignore the titans of Wall Street and the IMF's Christine Lagarde, the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants don't stand a chance.

But if his ultimate goal is to run for president in 2016, what about the Latino vote that cost the GOP the White House in 2012?

Even if he runs for president as many are suggesting, this brilliant Ivy-League educated street-fighter knows the road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue begins in places like Iowa and South Carolina, where Mitt Romney's harsh "self-deportation" credo still resonates positively, and where Latino voters are not a significant percentage of the electorate.

Regardless, he wouldn't count on Latinos in the early going anyway. Remember, in his otherwise triumphant 2012 run for the Senate, Cruz cruising to victory by 16 points over his forgettable Democratic opponent Paul Sadler, he lost the Texas Hispanic vote by 20 percent. Latinos in the Lone Star state voted 60 percent for Sadler.

So Latino Republicans, Senator Cruz owes little to Latino voters, and in a national race, he wouldn't need them until he got to the Florida primary anyway. And Latinos there in the Sunshine State figure to be much more welcoming of a Cruz candidacy than those in his home state of Texas.

The reason is simple. In Texas, the vast majority of Hispanics trace their roots to Mexico or Central America. In Texas, immigration issues directly or indirectly affect virtually every Hispanic household. Florida is different. Most Latino families there are either Puerto Rican or Cuban-American. Every Puerto Rican is a U.S. citizen, so immigration reform is technically a non-issue. We are sympathetic, but are only indirectly affected. And while most Puerto Ricans will vote for the Democrat in 2016 even if Cruz is the candidate, Florida's Cuban-Americans will be his secret weapon.

First of all, the immigration issue is far less urgent to Cuban-Americans. If an undocumented immigrant hails from communist Cuba, he or she gets hugely favorable treatment upon arrival on these shores than immigrants from any other national group.

Here's how it works:

Because of the enormous political clout of the Cuban exile community, once a Cuban immigrant steps on U.S. soil, he or she becomes a political refugee soon fast-tracked to legitimacy. If say a Cuban, a Dominican and a Mexican somehow arrive on a South Florida beach on board the same rickety boat, the Cuban would soon be welcomed, while typically, the Dominican and the Mexican would ultimately be deported.

Secondly, Cuban-Americans tend to be far more conservative and Republican than other Latinos. With their politics forged in the crucible of the Castro Revolution, the community elders have deep repugnance for anything that smacks of socialism. To be blunter, many Cuban-Americans are sympathetic of the Tea Party world view that Barack Obama is Fidel Castro-lite.

Take Ted Cruz's dad, Rafael Cruz, who was infamously caught on a YouTube video comparing the American president to the Cuban dictator.

"I grew up in Cuba under a strong, military, oppressive dictatorship. So as a teenager, I found myself involved in a revolution. I remember during that time, a young, charismatic leader rose up, talking about 'hope' and 'change'. His name was Fidel Castro." and the elder Cruz went on to say, "I think the most ominous words Ive ever heard was in the last two State of the Union addresses, when our president said, 'If Congress does not act, I will act unilaterally'. Not much different than that old, bearded friend that I left behind in Cuba -- governing by decree, by executive order, just like a dictator, like Fidel Castro."

Imagine the dinner table conversations in the Cruz' household in the 1970s and 80s when the kid who would hold the government hostage in 2013 was growing up.

Senator Cruz has many admirable traits. He is obviously intelligent, articulate, energetic, convinced of his moral superiority and scornful of political moderation. He also seems haughty and too cool for compromise, which makes him the perfect flag-bearer for the "Don't Tread on Me" crowd. And he will squash the centrist, pro-compromise Republicans he calls "squishes," including Florida's Marco Rubio.

In 2010, that other young, attractive Cuban-American, pro-life, limited government conservative was elected to the United States Senate from Florida with 55 percent of the statewide Latino vote, leaving the Democrat Kendrick Meeks and the independent former governor Charlie Crist to split the rest.

Cruz would probably not fare as well as native son Rubio in Florida, but the odds are he could beat any other Republican candidate except Rubio. And I'm betting that a Cruz candidacy would pre-empt a Rubio run for the White House.

Look how the senator from Texas has steered a course far to the right of the senator from Florida on the issue of immigration. While Rubio attempts to craft a careful balance of pragmatic compromise balancing legitimate security concerns with the need to provide an eventual path to citizenship for the undocumented, Cruz ridicules the entire process and speaks contemptuously of any proposed immigration reform legislation, comparing the current Senate bill to the other gigantic entitlement, Obamacare.

As Senator Cruz did with his take-no-prisoners campaign to defund Obamacare, and as he did earlier in helping doom federal gun-control, he will play dirty while pretending to hold the moral high-ground.

Characterizing any proposal that allows the undocumented to jump the line as amnesty, he will whip the far-right into a frenzy over immigration reform. And because he has a Spanish name, and hails from a border state, he will be shielded from the charges of racism and xenophobia that have marginalized other rabid immigration opponents. But as Shakespeare said, "What's in a name?" His intolerance will ultimately be revealed, and were he to win the Republican nomination, he will lose in 2016 just as any other GOP candidate who refuses to understand Nueva America.
Residents at an affordable housing complex for low-income renters were ordered to remove Nativity scenes and other religious symbols from public areas, the Joplin Globe reports.

It was like somebody brought in a vacuum cleaner and sucked the joy out, resident Linda Hopper told the newspaper.

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Mercy Village is owned by Mercy Housing Inc., a Denver-based nonprofit. A spokesperson for the company blamed the Fair Housing Act for evicting the Baby Jesus.

Because of the way the Fair Housing rules work, any decorations have to be religion neutral (in shared spaces), spokesperson Kate Peterson said in a statement to the newspaper. So Mercy Housing, as most other property owners, does not allow religiously themed decorations in the common areas at any time of the year.

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How about a Happy Birthday, Jesus banner? Thats a no-no. A cross? You can just take down that cross and keep on walking. The Three Wise Men? Restraining order. You get the point.

Residents had done a wonderful job turning the second-floor public area of the complex into a festive Christmas show piece. The Globe report indicates there was a Christmas tree with a star, candles, a Santa figurine and a Nativity scene.

It just felt very welcoming and festive, Ms. Hopper told the newspaper. We need places like that. We need to see beauty and peace; we need to have that tradition followed.

And thats an important word  tradition. The newspaper reports that residents have been decorating the public areas of the complex for quite some time.

But the Christmas tree is now called a holiday tree and Joseph and Mary and the Baby Jesus were boxed up and shipped off to storage. In other words, the public space is once again religion neutral.

The good news is residents are allowed to decorate in the privacy of their homes. But they can only decorate the common areas with secular decorations.

Apparently, Mercy Housing is following guidelines published by the Fair Housing Institute.

A religiously neutral state is one that does not give the appearance that the property prefers or limits one religion over another, the group said in a report published by the Globe.

I certainly hope that means Mercy Housing makes its workers clock in on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! Heaven forbid someone think they are giving preference to one religion over another.

This sounds like a job for President-elect Donald Trump. Maybe he can make Christmas great again in the public areas of that housing complex?

I wonder if Mercy Housing has a policy regarding ugly Christmas sweaters  or fruit cake?
My new patient didnt mention his back pain until the very end of the visit. As he was rising to leave, he asked casually if I could refill his Percocet. I told him I am not a pain or a back specialist and that I generally prescribe muscle relaxants or anti-inflammatory medications for back pain  not opioids, which are addictive and do not really treat the underlying problem.

The patient persisted. He said his prior internist always prescribed it, and the medication also helped his mood. He promised he had its use under control and did not feel he needed to take more and more to achieve the same effect.

I didnt relent. I offered to refer him to a back specialist instead. It was an uncomfortable end to an otherwise positive visit.

According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control, over 50,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2015, more than from automobile accidents or shootings. Eighty percent of these overdoses involved opioids, including not just heroin but Vicodin and the Percocet that my patient was asking for. CDC also reports that the death rate from synthetic opioids besides methadone increased 72 percent in the U.S. between 2014 and 2015.

Unfortunately, we doctors are enablers. Too many of us fill those prescriptions for chronic pain. And when we dont, too many of our patients leave us for other doctors who will. Or worse, they turn to buying heroin on the street.

And opioids arent the only drugs where there is a blurred boundary between medical and recreational use. Medical marijuana is now legal in 28 states plus Washington, D.C. And while there certainly are legitimate uses for cancer treatment, nerve pain and even the spasms of multiple sclerosis, increased access without strict justification has become pervasive.

This trend sets a poor example for opioids, where overuse of Vicodin and Percocet lead to increased heroin use. According to the CDC, patients addicted to painkillers are 40 times more likely to become addicted to heroin.

The bottom line: Opioids should not be first-line or routine therapy for chronic pain that is not due to cancer. Hopefully, help is on the way. In 2014 the DEA clamped down on hydrocodone (including Vicodin) by placing it in the more restrictive Schedule II category, and several states, including New York, have instituted systems that require logging all narcotics prescriptions into a state website. West Virginia even allows opioid addicts to sue prescribing doctors.

Finally, Congress just passed President Obama has just signed the 21st Century Cures Act, which includes a focus on mental health parity and addiction and includes $1 billion to fight the opioid epidemic.

CDC released data a week ago revealing that Americans are now living 78.8 years on average, down a tenth from a year ago. Accidental deaths due to opioids are one reason for the decline.

Consider that opioids like Vicodin, Percocet, Fentanyl and heroin suppress breathing, and that you can easily slip over the line from safe to life-threatening if you are auto-medicating, especially when you increase the amount you take to achieve the same effect.

The 21st Century Cures Act is only the beginning. We need more funding and more restrictions and more counseling of both doctors and patients. In the doctors office, we need to change our focus to alternative treatments, including muscle relaxants and physical therapy.

Chronic pain is real, but we need to understand and treat the pain-generator, rather than overmedicate the brain. The wrong choice can kill.
Sofia Vergara is being sued  by her frozen embryos!

Ill explain.

In 2013 Vergara and her fiance, Nicholas Loeb, underwent in-vitro fertilization and stored the frozen embryos in a California clinic. The couple entered into an agreement stating that they mutually agreed to bring the embryos to term, but there was no mention of what would happen if they broke up.

Spending much of their time in Louisiana, they began interviewing potential surrogates and set up a trust fund for the unborn children. They even gave the embryos names: Emma and Isabella.

And then, in 2014, the couple broke up. Their agreement, signed in California, didnt cover this eventuality. Loeb sued Vergara for custody of the embryos, but that case was dropped.

Now, at the close of 2016, a case of first impression  a case that has never arisen before and requires an interpretation of the law  is being brought in Louisiana, where the law confers personhood on embryos, giving them the explicit right to sue and be sued. The law prohibits ownership or destruction of the embryos, and any disputes over them must be resolved in their best interests, which, it would seem to me, would always be to let them be implanted in a womb.

The embryos are represented by attorney Catherine Foster, the president of Sound Legal Group, a public interest group in Virginia that advocates for the right to life. (I tried to contact Vergaras attorney, but did not receive a reply.) Foster told me that Vergara and Loeb had spent much of their relationship in Louisiana, had planned for their life while in Louisiana and had broken up in Louisiana, so jurisdiction would hold up in the state.

She also said that this case is about the rights of the embryos, not the rights of Loeb and Vergara.

There is no abortion implication here, no right to choose for a woman, because the embryos are not inside a woman, Foster said. So it is not about a womans right to choose. It is about allowing the smallest and weakest amongst us having the chance to live.

To be born, the embryos would have to be implanted in a womb, and that would mean a woman would make the choice to carry them to term. Not allowing the embryos a chance to be born, Foster said, would take away their right, among other things, to inherit the trust that Loeb and Vergara set up for them.

Lawsuits over embryo custody, though rare, are not new. In 2012, a Pennsylvania appeals court awarded frozen embryos to a cancer survivor over the objection of her ex-boyfriend.

The Louisiana lawsuit gives Human Embryos 4B-A, also known as Emma and Isabella, the right to sue their biological mother to save their own potential lives.

For now, as the legal battle moves along, the embryos remain frozen in a tank in California.



Looking strictly at Louisiana law and the legal test of "best interest if the embryo" it's hard to imagine a court deciding for their destruction, assuming, that is, there is a woman to bring them to birth. Otherwise, the best interest of the embryos would take back seat to s surrogacy woman's right to choose.
A semi-truck plows through a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany, killing 12 and injuring 48. The Russian ambassador to Turkey is assassinated in Ankara by an off-duty Turkish police officer. German police are in a desperate manhunt for a Tunisian man as the likely perpetrator of the Christmas market attack.

President-elect Trump is met Wednesday with his incoming National Security Advisor to discuss counter terrorism after the events in Germany and Turkey.

Make no mistake. What we are seeing in Europe is the hard lesson of what happens when you put out the welcome mat to hundreds of thousands of refugees from known terrorist hotspots.

The Tunisian suspect had applied for asylum in Germany last year and received a temporary stay permit and reportedly has extensive ties to radical Islam.

We are also seeing the hard lesson of what happens as a result of the Western world devoting fewer and fewer resources to national security and less emphasis on protecting its citizens.

We should not be surprised by recent events. ISIS and Al Qaeda have both called on their followers to use trucks in particular to attack crowds.

ISIS now claims that it inspired the German market attack. Likewise, ISIS claimed responsibility for the July 14th Bastille Day attack in Nice, France, where a truck, driven by a Tunisian man, plowed into a crowd killing 86 people.

President-elect Trump was criticized during the campaign for calling for a 21st Century NATO, but he has been absolutely right.

Only 5 of the 28 members of NATO spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on national security as required by NATO guidelines.

Germany, one of the richest countries in Europe, is not even close to being one of the five.

Weve got to be tough on the rest of NATO. Theres also a lot more we can be doing with newer NATO members like Estonia and Hungary. For example, Estonia is home to NATOs Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence. The Estonians have a real understanding of some of the most disruptive cyber technologies available and we should work more closely with them.

President-elect Trump will step into the Oval office as Europe and other parts of the world are struggling with a terrorism crisis. It reminds us that radical Islam is now on American soil and much needs to be done to keep Americans safe here at home.

President-elect Trump has promised big changes to our terrorism strategy, but what exactly can he do in the near term? Here are six things that will go a long way to keeping America and her allies safe:

We must truly transform NATO from fighting the Cold War to fighting terrorism. We must have many more patrols in the Mediterranean Sea and our NATO allies have got to step up to the plate.

One of the president-elects most important appointments will be the new NATO ambassador. We must have someone who knows what they are doing and can work well with General Mike Scaparrotti, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander. Ive watched General Scaparrotti over the years and he is definitely one of Americas very best officers.

Remove our nuclear weapons from Turkey now. As the assassination of the Russian Ambassador in Turkey reminds us, Turkey is not a stable regime. Remember the failed coup attempt this past summer? Following the coup attempt, President Erdogans government cut power to the Incrilik Air Base and halted all movements onto and off the base. Erdogans autocratic regime also temporarily prohibited all U.S. Air Force planes stationed there from taking off or landing. Our nuclear weapons should be pre-positioned off of American soil only in those countries that are strong, reliable and stable allies. Its time to get our nuclear weapons out of there now.

Fund and enforce the Secure Fence Act of 2006 to secure Americas borders immediately. The law is on the books. Neither President Bush nor President Obama funded it or enforced it. The framework in place in the Secure Fence Act of 2006 is the most expeditious way to secure Americas borders.

Mandate more use of open-source intelligence (OSINT) by our intelligence agencies, such as the CIA and NSA. There are more sophisticated search engines that were not using. As the Internet grows and big data increases, it is essential that we take full advantage of all OSINT through more sophisticated search engines.

Establish a real situational awareness hotline to harness the power of social media to prevent a terrorist attack and to improve situational awareness during an attack. This will also help with the soft target scenario and empower the American people to keep their country safe.

As President-elect Trump prepares to take office, his most important responsibility will be to keep Americans safe. Its time for bold, decisive American leadership once again.
Earlier this month, American Atheists launched two nationwide billboard campaigns urging Americans to celebrate the holidays by skipping church. The first billboard depicts a text message exchange in which one young woman tells a friend that she plans to skip church during Christmas and that her parents will get over it. The second billboard parodies President-elect Trumps campaign slogan, urging Americans to Make Christmas Great Again! by skipping church.

In an interview explaining the billboard campaign, American Atheist President David Silverman said, It is important for people to know religion has nothing to do with being a good person, and that being open and honest about what you believeand dont believeis the best gift you can give this holiday season.

While we are a little confused by Silvermans apparent delight in fantasizing about family division during the holidays, we agree with Silverman that openness and honesty are good things and, in that spirit, we offer a few reflections:

1. Lets be clear on what religion is and what it is not.

Religion is a set of ultimate commitments about the meaning (or lack thereof) of the world. As Christians, we make a religious claim when we say the world was designed by a loving and righteous God who gives the world a moral order and reveals to humanity the difference between right and wrong. But atheists are also making a religious claim when they say the world is a meaningless explosion of molecules that leaves Earths organisms free to define good and evil in the way they think works best. So the choice is not between religious Christianity and irreligious atheism; it is between religious Christianity and religious atheism.

2. Lets be clear on what fundamentalism is and what it is not.

Atheists often view evangelical Christians as fundamentalists. But fundamentalism is not so much a set of beliefs as it is a particular manner of holding those beliefs. Fundamentalists are people who will not allow their foundational assumptions to be questioned. In that sense, atheist fundamentalists are as common as Christian ones, and both types of fundamentalism are wrong. Atheists challenge us to be willing to examine our most basic commitments, a challenge we must be willing to receive. In like manner, we challenge them to examine their own most basic commitments, to consider whether Jesus really was who he said he was.

3. Lets be clear on the relationship between religion and goodness.

Silverman says that it is important for people to know that religion has nothing to do with being a good person. We have no argument that many atheists are very moral peopleoften outperforming their religious counterparts. Thats because each of us, we believe, retains enough of the image of God in us to love the good and hate the evil. God has hardwired this knowledge of good and evil into the universe and into our consciences.

Where we do have an argument with atheists like Silverman is that we believe atheists have no consistent intellectual basis for declaring something good. Ifas atheists claimthere is no divine Lawgiver, how can there be moral law? There cant be. If the material world is all that exists, then it is better to speak of things being useful or useless rather than good or bad. After all, morality implies a higher standard to which we must conform. The dilemma for the atheist, of course, lies in who gets to determine what is useful.

Take, for example, the desire to do good that atheists and Christians feel throughout the year and during the holiday season. As Christians, we believe we should love our neighbors because our God demonstrated his love for the world by dying on a cross for our sins. We believe we should be generous with our resources because we serve a God of boundless generosity, who offers forgiveness to all who will receive it as a gift by faith.

A consistent atheist, on the other hand, will believe that the love he feels for others at Christmas, the yearning for goodness, and the longing for meaning experienced especially during this season can be viewed as useful illusions created by genetic dispositions in our brains programmed by evolution to propagate our DNA into the future faster than our neighbors can.

Americans should decide: which view is more intellectually satisfying? Which view should we celebrate while we exchange gifts around the Christmas tree?

4. Lets be clear that Christians should not think they are morally superior to others.

As Christians, we believe that all humans, ourselves included, are infected with a sort of badness that courses through our veins, and that Jesus is the great physician who alone can heal us. We don't come to you as a good person approaching a bad person, but as a grateful patient who has found healing in the hands of the good doctor. Thats what we celebrate at Christmas, and we invite you to join us.

5. For those who are curious, we invite you to join us in exploring our hope this Christmas.

Don't join us expecting that you should find unblemished people; come as a seeker in a multitude gathering around a Man claiming to be the Savior of the world. Tests his claims. And see if you discover what so many throughout history and across the world have discovered: that he really is worthy of our ultimate trust and love.

J.D. Greear is the pastor of The Summit Church, in Raleigh-Durham, NC. He is the author of Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary. Follow him on Twitter @jdgreear and on the web at jdgreear.com.
A new congressional investigation has determined that the Obama administration fired a top scientist and intimidated staff at the Department of Energy in order to further its climate change agenda, according to a new report that alleges the administration ordered top officials to obstruct Congress in order to forward this agenda.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R., Texas), chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, released a wide-ranging report on Tuesday that shows how senior Obama administration officials retaliated against a leading scientist and plotted ways to block a congressional inquiry surrounding key research into the impact of radiation.

A top DoE scientist who liaised with Congress on the matter was fired by the Obama administration for being too forthright with lawmakers, according to the report, which provides an in-depth look at the White Houses efforts to ensure senior staffers toe the administrations line.

The report also provides evidence that the Obama administration worked to kill legislation in order to ensure that it could receive full funding for its own hotly contested climate change agenda.

The report additionally discovered efforts by the Obama administration to censor the information given to Congress, interfering with the bodys ability to perform critical oversight work.

Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon.
In a dramatic about face, the U.S. Navy announced Wednesday it would dump a plan to eliminate dozens of job titles for enlisted sailors  some ending in "man"  after thousands complained.

Navy Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, said in a statement that the proposed removal of rating titles was unnecessary and detracted from accomplishing our major goals.

We have learned from you, and so effective immediately, all rating names are restored, Richardson said.

In September, the Navy had said it would shelve hundreds of years of tradition and follow the practice of the other armed services which call enlisted servicemembers by their rank, such as petty officer or sergeant. The Navy has long used more specific titles such as corpsman and chief yeoman, which are steeped in tradition but difficult for the public to translate or understand.

The initial decision to drop traditional titles and refer to sailors by their rank had signaled a sharp cultural shift for the Navy. Efforts to change titles that ended in "man" also were in response to the Pentagon decision to open all combat jobs to women.

In a memo, Richardson said that modernizing the job ratings or titles was designed to give sailors more flexibility in training and assignments. Switching to names more understandable to the civilian world, Navy leaders argued, would make it easier to get jobs once sailors left the service.

But after hearing angry reactions from thousands of sailors, Richardson said Navy leaders believe they can find a way to provide better job flexibility without dropping the titles.

The memo was released Wednesday morning, and Richardson and Master Chief Petty Officer Steven Giordano, the top Navy enlisted officer, announced it in the Pentagon.

Richardson outlined what he called a "course correction" in the memo, saying the Navy will continue to review ways to update the names.

"Modernizing our industrial-age personnel system in order to provide sailors choice and flexibility still remains a priority for us," he said. "We will need to tackle the issue of managing rating names."

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who pushed the original plan, said at the time that he wanted titles to better convey the job a sailor is doing.

For example, few civilians know what a hospital corpsman does, Mabus said in June. A corpsman could be called a medic or an emergency medical technician, much like "messman" was previously changed to culinary specialist, he added.

Sailors opposing the decision launched a White House petition and gained some support from Capitol Hill. They said that while they liked the idea of more flexibility, they wanted to hold onto their traditional titles.

Fox News Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, a major showdown looms between his administration and cities across the country over one of his hallmark campaign issues: illegal immigration.

At the Southern border, agents are on pace to apprehend almost 600,000 illegal immigrants, the highest number in eight years. The surge is coming largely from Central American migrants, far outpacing those from Mexico.

"They're mobilizing because they don't know what tomorrow will bring, but know today they can cross, said Chris Cabrera, of the National Border Patrol Council.

Many illegal immigrants from Central America indeed have been motivated to make the trek after word traveled under the Obama administration that some could request asylum, claiming a credible fear of persecution should they return home.

But another driver is the knowledge that certain major cities offer sanctuary protections from deportation. Those same cities are now gearing up to fight on their illegal immigrant residents behalf against the incoming president.

In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the creation of the L.A. Justice Fund, a multi-million dollar fund to provide legal assistance to immigrants facing deportation.

The reason it was important for us to act is we will have a change in government next month, he said. We expect there could be actions right away.

In announcing the fund, Garcetti vowed to fight for the good and law-abiding immigrants of Los Angeles. Asked if those with a criminal record would be excluded, however, he said no.

But such cities could be in for a major battle with the Trump administration, following campaign vows to deny federal funds to sanctuary cities.

Texas GOP Rep. John Culberson says federal law prohibits local and state law enforcement from refusing to share immigration status information with federal authorities. He believes the law will give Trump the power to follow through in denying funds to sanctuary cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

The president can cut off their money at noon on January 20, 2017 if they do not change their sanctuary policy and hand over criminal illegal aliens in their custody to be deported, Culberson told Fox News.

Culberson, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Department of Justice, added that President Obamas attorney general not only is aware of the policy, but signed off on tying suspected violations to potential financial penalties.

I quietly persuaded Attorney General Loretta Lynch to implement this new policy this past July, he said. So its already done.

The Immigration Legal Resource Center disagrees, arguing that certain sanctuary policies do not violate federal law.

This gap in interpretation sets up a battle with 100 or so cities that stand to lose substantial federal funds should they refuse to cooperate in the Trump administrations promised deportation efforts.

The traffic at the border, meanwhile, continues to surge.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that last month alone, agents arrested 7,406 unaccompanied children and 15,573 families from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, a significant surge compared with the same month one year ago, when the agency apprehended 5,604 children and 6,471 families.

Under current policy for those seeking asylum, Border Patrol agents are required to process the immigrants for their day in court, which entitles them to a work permit and a plane or bus ticket to stay with relatives until its time to see an immigration judge. The typical wait-time is four to five years and, according to government data, up to 80 percent never show up.

The federal agency that handles deportations is spending, on average, $665 per juvenile to pay for travel to relatives in the U.S. or back home if theyre deported, according to calculations by the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a government watchdog group. That puts the current taxpayer cost at roughly $5 million a month.

With monthly apprehensions at a five-year high, border agents say they are slammed.

"We're not a deterrent because they're looking for us, so we can be standing there and [the smuggler will] still send them across," said Texas-based agent Marlene Castro. "It's been a group, and then maybe five minutes later another group, and then half an hour later you'll see another one."
Every year around this time, the media unveil their compilations of winners and losers.

But this year, of course, the biggest losers are the very same mainstream media.

The botched election, the bias, and the battering of Donald Trump have further shredded the professions already tattered reputation.

But theres a paradox here. Cable news ratings soared in the Year of Trump. The New York Times added 40,000 subscriptions shortly after Election Day. Donations to nonprofit journalism groups are up.

Times columnist Jim Rutenberg sees a silver lining:

As Mr. Trump tries to burn the media village down, he may just be saving it.

His running campaign of Twitter attacks, declarations of failure and vows to punish the traditional news media is threatening to do what so many years of cost-cutting and re-envisioning could not do as easily: put the industry on more solid economic footing, where customers who realize its value are willing to pay for it more regularly.

Well, maybe. But that could drive parts of the MSM more firmly into the opposition camp, increasingly pressured to negatively cover the next president in a way that satisfies their new fans. And that would be a high price to pay.

But all that doesnt mean it wasnt a good year for individual journalists and news outlets. Fox enjoyed the highest ratings in its 20-year history. Megyn Kelly, thanks in part to Trumps past attacks, became a global superstar and magazine cover girl with a No. 1 New York Times best-seller of a memoir. (In her book she thanks Bill Hemmer for teaching her the ropes as a newbie anchor.)

Tucker Carlson launched a provocative new show that is putting up big numbers (after Brit Hume came off the bench as a solid interim anchor). Bret Baier continued to define fair and balanced with his newscast, and Chris Wallace turned in a masterful performance at the third debate. (Fox Business also overtook CNBC in recent ratings periods.)

At MSNBC, Brian Williams mounted a quiet comeback, serving not only as breaking-news anchor but launching an 11 p.m. show. While he still bears the scars for telling the untruths that cost him his NBC anchor job, Williams got off the canvas and showed the skills that made him the top-rated network anchor for a decade, and is probably headed for a better time slot.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski managed to keep their show at the center of the news, first with a largely friendly relationship with Trump (and by taking his prospects seriously), then with a bitter war of words between the two sides, and now with restored diplomatic relations with The Donald.

Others, like Al Sharpton, lost their MSNBC shows.

At CNN, Jake Tapper and Chris Cuomo both won plaudits for tough, no-nonsense interviews with politicians and operatives. And Anderson Cooper not only managed to elicit interesting answers from several presidential candidates, he excelled as a moderator in the primary debates. But CNN took a hit when we learned that contributor Donna Brazile, the acting Democratic chairwoman, leaked debate questions to the Hillary camp. She was quietly fired.

At NBC, meanwhile, no-drama Lester Holt seamlessly took over for Williams and stayed a solid No. 1, no easy feat (though he was a disappointment at the first debate). At Today, Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie, long after the mess involving Ann Currys departure, managed to climb back and beat top-rated GMA three out of the last six weeks. And CBS This Morning continues to make ratings progress and praise for its hard-news approach.

More broadly, it was a banner year for more populist conservative personalities, such as Laura Ingraham (who last we heard was under consideration for a White House job) and a tough year for #NeverTrump conservatives, such as Charlie Sykes, who gave up his Wisconsin radio show after his audience dwindled. It goes without saying that Brietbart surged in popularity (and controversy) as a pro-Trump site, especially when its chairman, Steve Bannon, joined the campaign.

And on a personal note, Media Buzz kept breaking its own ratings records all year, with media and politics front and center throughout this wild and crazy season. My thanks to all of you who have been watchingand reading.
More than 70,000 baby turtles in danger of extinction were released on Tuesday into a river in the Bolivian Amazon bordering Brazil.

The release into the San Pedro River was preceded by a ceremony attended by President Evo Morales and the governor of Beni, the province where the act took place.

"When there is will, when there is a decision, it is possible to conserve our heritage," Morales said, praising the conservation efforts in Beni.

The program, in place since 2007, involves recovering turtle nests from riverbanks, caring for the eggs and the young turtles until they develop a shell that is hard enough to protect them from predators.

The initiative is part of the Repopulation of River Turtles Project, aimed at protecting turtles of the species 'podocnemis expansa' and 'podocnemis unifelis.'

As adults, these turtles can measure up to 3 feet, weigh up to 150 pounds and live 100 years.

They are believed to play a key role in the ecosystem, because they help reforest flooded forests and are good indicators of climate change.

The turtle protection program has allowed the release of 10 million turtles in recent years.

Based on reporting by EFE.
Earlier this year it was reported that the firstever Philistine cemetery was discovered on the Israeli coast near Ashkelon. Now, the contents of the 3,000 yearold graveyard have been revealed.

Burial practices of the mysterious group, famous for their conflicts with the Israelites in the Bible and whose geographic origins remain unknown, has been a muchdebated topic among scholars for decades.

We are still working to understand the identity and origins of the Philistines, excavation leader Adam Aja of the Harvard Semitic Museum told Foxnews.com. The study of burial practices and the skeletal remains will contribute significantly to this picture, but this will only be a part of it.

UNDERWATER HEBREW TABLET REVEALS BIBLICAL-ERA RULER OF JUDEA

The discovery, however, has also drawn criticism with some experts not associated with the excavation questioning the identity of the people buried at the cemetery.

The cemetery near Ashkelon, an area long associated with the ancient nonSemitic people, was discovered below a huge overburden of soil just outside of the settlements walls. Being buried beneath massive layers of soil is, in Ajas opinion, part of the reason Philistine cemeteries have remained undiscovered for so long.

While the total size of the burial ground is unknown, the excavated area measures 65 x 98 feet and holds the remains of 227 Philistines, according to Aja. For a small area it has a very high burial density, with two buried individuals per ten square feet.

The dead Philistines ages ranged from infants to senior adults, and were buried in several different ways.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNEARTH FISHERMAN'S HOUSES IN ISRAEL

I was impressed by the variety of burial types, Aja said. We found stone tombs, children buried under sherds [fragments of pottery] or face down, pit graves, and cremations [in sealed jars]. This reveals that there was not a single burial practice for this population.

Most of the bodies were buried in shallow graves along with jugs and small containers that may have held perfume.

Aja believes that the jar, bowl, and juglet assemblage that accompanied many skeletons may have been part of a wine drinking set. It is unclear if this was intended for use by the dead, or as part of the burial ceremony for the living, he said.

Some of the men were buried with ornamental beads or engraved stones, while most of the women and childrens remains had on jewelry earrings, rings, and bracelets that were generally made of bronze or beads.

BIG DISCOVERY COULD REVEAL THE TRUE STORY OF THE PHILISTINES

Aja says he was most pleased to see how the jewelry was worn.

I have often found single beads in my excavation of settlements, but it was exceptional to find the full strung necklace, bracelet, or anklet still intact on the bodies, he said.

Many of the bodies showed signs of physiological and biological stress, which affected their growth and development. The Ashkelon dead were relatively short: men averaged 51, women 410. The small difference in height between genders is a sign of populationwide malnourishment. There were growth interruptions in many individuals teeth, indicating fever and malnutrition among other possible biological disorders.

8-YEAR-OLD 'YOUNG INDIANA JONES' DISCOVERS ANCIENT ARTIFACT NEAR JERUSALEM

And while the Philistines were a notoriously fierce people, none of the skeletal remains found showed signs of death in battle (though the team did find a set of iron arrows near a mans hip).

DNA testing should a little more light on the deceased Philistines health and causes of death.

Among other things, we hope to add details regarding the health of individuals based upon our study of the bone, and population parallels based upon DNA evidence, but it is still too early to say much about these things, Aja said.

The team also found eight stone burial chambers, with the largest one holding 23 skeletons. The chambers were lined up in three rows running parallel to the coast.

There is hope that this is only the tip of the iceberg and that theres a lot more cemetery to be excavated.

FIRST EVER? DISCOVERY OF PHILISTINE CEMETERY DRAWS CRITICISM

It is uncertain what constrained our cemetery, forcing such an overuse of each square meter of soil, Aja said. It was never clear whether the cemetery was circumscribed so that all burials were forced into a particular plot or whether the burials were clustered around some feature in the landscape. In either case, if this measured density was extrapolated across just the excavated areas, the number of burials would top 1200 persons.

He expects that the cemetery was much larger, and if it approached the maximal boundaries suggested by other evidence (over 260 feet long), the number of buried individuals would be several times larger.

The team is currently waiting on the results from DNA analysis of the skeletons, which could finally reveal where the Philistines originated.
NASA scientists think they have found an explanation for how mysterious spider features develop on the surface of Mars.

For the past decade researchers have struggled to identify year-over-year changes in the spider-shaped features that occur naturally on the planets

After studying images from NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, however, experts have identified the first signs of growth, from one Martian spring to another, of channels that appear to be the early signs of spiders. The channels result from the same thawing-carbon-dioxide process believed to form the spider-like features, explained NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement.

BUZZ ALDRIN EYES 2040 FOR MANNED MARS MISSION

The spiders range in size from tens to hundreds of yards, according to the space agency, with multiple channels typically converging at a central pit that resembles the legs and body of a spider.

"We have seen for the first time these smaller features that survive and extend from year to year, and this is how the larger spiders get started," said Ganna Portyankina of the University of Colorado, Boulder, in the statement. "These are in sand-dune areas, so we don't know whether they will keep getting bigger or will disappear under moving sand."

Scientists think that dunes may be a factor in the formation of the baby spiders, but may also keep many of them from becoming full-scale spiders. In a paper published in the journal Icarus Portyankina and her co-authors estimated that, based on the growth rate of the smaller troughs, it could take more than a thousand Martian years to sculpt a typical spider. A Martian year lasts about 1.9 Earth years.

STUNNING NASA IMAGE SHOWS 'MORSE CODE' DUNES ON MARS

"Much of Mars looks like Utah if you stripped away all vegetation, but 'spiders' are a uniquely Martian landform," said Candice Hansen of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona, a co-author of the report, in the statement.

The spidery terrain is at the red planets south pole. Carbon dioxide ice or dry ice, which occurs naturally at Mars poles in winter, helps create the spiders. Spring sunshine warms the ground underneath the ice, causing some carbon dioxide to thaw into gas, which bursts out of the ice and erodes the ground.

The red planets surface continues to be a source of fascination for scientists. Earlier this year NASA released an image of dunes on Mars that bear a striking similarity to Morse code.

PHOTOS: JOHN GLENN THROUGH THE YEARS

Mars looms ever larger in Americas space future. Earlier this year NASA announced a May 2018 launch for its delayed Mars Insight mission to study the red planet. NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter celebrated 10 years at the red planet on March 10.

NASAs goal is to send a manned mission to Mars by 2035. However, former astronaut Buzz Aldrin thinks that a slightly later target date of 2040 is more realistic. In an interview earlier this year, the Gemini 12 and Apollo 11 astronaut told FoxNews.com that by 2040, astronauts could have visited Mars moon Phobos, which could serve as a sort of stepping stone to the Red Planet.

Private space company SpaceX plans to launch an unmanned mission to Mars as early as 2018, with CEO Elon Musk eyeing a manned space mission around 2025. Musk also hopes that humans will one day establish a city on Mars.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
A team of scientists from the U.K.s Queen Mary University of London have discovered the secret behind what makes reindeer antlers so tough.

In a report published Monday in the ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, the team said it used X-ray techniques and computer modeling to get a closer look at the antlers. The team also examined the antler structures at a nano level, which measures at roughly one thousandth of the thickness of a hair strand, in order to identify what makes them so strong.

SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FOUND 'FIFTH FORCE OF NATURE'

Scientists were keen to discover why reindeers' antlers can endure impacts during fights. First author Paolino De Falco from the universitys School of Engineering and Materials Science explained their durability on the schools website. "The fibrils that make up the antler are staggered rather than in line with each other, said De Falco. This allows them to absorb the energy from the impact of a clash during a fight."

This discovery has provided insight and filled a previous gap in scientists' understanding of the structure modeling of bone, according to the university, which added that the information could be used in the future to create damage resistant materials.

Ettore Barbieri, a co-author of the report, said the next steps include creating a 3D printed model with fibers arranged in staggered condition and linked by an elastic interface.

WEASEL SHUTS DOWN WORLD'S LARGEST ATOM SMASHER IN SWITZERLAND

The aim is to prove that additive manufacturing - where a prototype can be created a layer at a time - can be used to create damage resistant composite material, said Barbieri.
An 8-year-old girl was shot in the foot Tuesday during an apparent road rage incident on Interstate 84 in Portland, Oregon, officials said.

Portland Police said in a news release that officers responded to a call of a shooting around 2:56 p.m. local time, where the victim's parents told officers she had been shot from a vehicle passing them on the interstate.

The victim was in the back seat of her mother's car traveling eastbound on I-84 when an unknown person driving a minivan was driving recklessly, nearly causing the victim's mother to crash, police said.

The victim's mother then drove past the van, when someone in the van fired a shot at her car, striking her daughter, according to police. Another child in the backseat was not injured.

Medical personnel arrived and treated the victim for her superficial injury, according the police. The girl did not require immediate transportation to a hospital.

Authorities described the suspect's vehicle as a blue minivan of an unknown make and model. The driver was described as a white or Hispanic man, 30 or 35 years old with a chunky build who was unshaven and wearing a hat, according to police.

Police have stopped a van matching the suspect vehicle description in Southeast Portland, and detained the driver for further investigation by detectives, Fox 12 Oregon reported.

The vehicle may have been involved with at least one hit-and-run incident on I-84 prior to the shooting, Fox 12 reported.

Click for more from KPTV.com.
There has been a social media push to locate the couple seen getting engaged at a San Diego park on Sunday by a photographer who realized he captured the special moment only after he got home.

I have no way of sharing this photo with them, Seemanta Dutta posted on his Reddit thread.

Dutta first posted the photograph of Balboa Park on Instagram and Reddit at about 4 a.m. on Tuesday. He reportedly took the shot at the park on Sunday between 5 and 7 p.m.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Dutta admitted to doctoring the photograph by cutting out the couples own photographer.
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

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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

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

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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
A retired police officer has been accused of killing four men who went missing during a drug deal this year, and authorities have discovered the remains of four bodies on property linked to him.



Nicholas Tartaglione was arrested on Monday on charges of murder and conspiracy to distribute 5 kilograms and more of cocaine, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.



"While all murders tear at the fabric of our communities, when the alleged perpetrator of a gangland-style, quadruple homicide is a former police officer, that strikes at the heart of civilized society," Bharara said.



Tartaglione, who used to work for the Briarcliff Manor police department and lives in Otisville, pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Mark DeMarco, did not immediately return a telephone message requesting comment.



Prosecutors said Tartaglione participated in the killing of Martin Luna, Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez in April in and around a bar called the Likquid Lounge in Chester while conspiring to sell cocaine. They said some of the victims were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.



"These four men had not been seen or heard from since the day of their alleged murder," said Bharara, who hoped the arrest brought "some measure of comfort to the victims' families and loved ones."



Chester police Chief Peter Graziano said one or two of the victims had been involved in some kind of drug activity.



He told The Journal News the four bodies were recovered in Otisville, about 60 miles north of New York City, on Tuesday on property rented by Tartagliano. He said the remains were being sent to the county's medical examiner's office for identification.



Tartaglione, who's 49 years old, joined the Briarcliff Manor police department in 1996 after stints as a police officer in Mount Vernon and Pawling, The Journal News said. He retired on disability in 2008.
Police in Tennessee say a 13-year-old boy has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of his 12-year-old brother.

Knoxville police said officers were called to the home Tuesday night and found the 12-year-old dead. A news release on the department's Facebook page said it initially appeared that the boy shot himself. But it later became apparent that the death was a homicide.

The 13-year-old was charged Wednesday morning with first-degree murder and was being held in juvenile detention. The names of the brothers haven't been released.

Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch told media outlets that the boys were the only ones home at the time of the shooting. He would not say how the boy got access to a gun.
An Alabama police officer was in critical but stable condition Wednesday afternoon after she was shot in the head while responding to a domestic violence call, FOX10 reported.

The gunman, 27-year-old Matthew Blake Richardson, led police on a short foot chase; however, he was wounded during his capture and later died of the injuries.

He immediately opened fire when the officers arrived, striking one of the police officers in the head, Saraland Police Chief James West said during a news conference. My officer is in critical condition and we ask the community and everyone for their prayers.

Tuckers husband is a member of the Mobile Police Department.

Authorities had been called to the residence due to a fight between Richardson and his grandfather. Police had responded to previous calls involving Richardson, FOX10 reported.

Saraland is located in Mobile County, near the southern tip of Alabama.
New York City police say they've made an arrest in connection with a shooting over a parking spot outside a Hell's Angels clubhouse in Manhattan.

Authorities say a brawl erupted Dec. 11 after 25-year-old David Martinez moved an orange traffic cone used to hold a parking spot outside the biker club's headquarters. Martinez survived a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Police said Wednesday 52-year-old Anthony Iovenitti of Kingston, New York, has been arrested. There was no immediate information on an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

A lawyer for the motorcycle club has not responded to a comment request.
The U.S. Border Patrol says over $3 million has been seized after it was found on Tuesday inside two cars in Escondido, California.

It's the largest cash seizure ever made by the Border Patrol in San Diego County.

Officials say they pulled over a Kia Forte that was speeding, finding nearly $34,000 in vacuum-sealed bundles in the center console.

A second car raced away but was found abandoned while the driver was found hiding in some brush. Over $3 million was found in cardboard boxes inside the trunk of the Volkswagen Passat, officials say.

Both drivers pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to federal currency-smuggling charges.

The cash was being smuggled from the U.S. into Mexico.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


The family of a jogger who was found dead in the woods west of Boston spoke out for the first time Wednesday after her murder, and made a new plea for information.

Rossana and John Marcotte, the parents of Vanessa Marcotte, were joined by Steven and Diega Therrien, Vanessa's aunt and uncle, in front of First Congregational Church in Princeton, Mass., Fox 25 Boston reported.

Marcotte was attacked and killed in a wooded area off Brooks Station Road in Princeton on Aug. 7 when she went for a run. The New York City resident grew up in Leominster, Mass., and was visiting her mother for the weekend.

Steven Therrien spoke on behalf of the family, saying that Vanessa had done much in 27 years but still had much more to do.

"Not a day goes by that we don't reflect on the enormity of our loss," Therrien told reporters.

He said that Vanessa embraced the spirit of volunteerism, and her family has set up a website in her honor, VanessaMarcotte.org, in addition to a foundation, the Vanessa T. Marcotte Foundation, to support those causes.

"So that you can learn more about Vanessa and the cause that were close to her heart," Therrien said.

The family urged anyone with information to contact State Police, and also thanked the community for their support.

As Massachusetts State Police and Princeton police continue to investigate Vanessas murder, we urge anyone with information to call the state police hot line at 508-453-7589," Therrien said.

He also said the family will "share developments in the investigation as we learn them" through the new website.

"Any future comments from our family will also be posted on the website," he added.

There have been no arrests or named suspects in Marcotte's murder, but police have said more than 1,000 tips have poured in about the case.

Click for more from Fox25Boston.com.
Since the election victory of Donald Trump, numerous stories have surfaced about hate crimes allegedly tied to supporters of the businessman or to his rhetoric, some true and many not.

Although the Southern Poverty Law Center reports that there have been hate crimes since the election, a number of the incidents have been disproven or shown to be hoaxes or ill-timed jokes. Here are some noteworthy ones.

A Muslim teenager from Long Island by the name of Yasmin Seweid told authorities that she was harassed on the subway by men who yelled "Donald Trump!" while trying to remove her hijab. The police said within two weeks that she admitted she was lying because she broke her curfew; she now faces charges of filing and false report.

A Muslim woman in Louisiana claimied that she was attacked and had her hijab ripped off. The Lafayette Police Departmenet said that she "admitted that she fabricated the story about her physical attack as well as the removal of her hijab and wallet by two white males."

A hateful note on a white board at Elon Univeristy in North Carolina that read "Bye Bye Latinos Hasta La Vista" was actually satire written by a Latino student at the school, according to the Elon News Network.

Hateful notes allegedly sent to a North Park University student in Chicago were "fabricated" according to David Parkyn, the university's president. The student said on Nov. 14 she had received messages taped to her door containing harassing language and mentions of Trump.

University of Minnesota student Kathy Mirah Tu alleged that she was accosted by white men and told to "go back to Asia." The University's police department and the Minneapolis Police Department said they had no record of the incident and Tu's Facebook post later disappeared.

A Mississippi man arrested and charged with first degree arson in the burning of an African-American church that was spray-painted with the words "Vote Trump" is a member of the congregation, the church's bishop said.

A Muslim University of Michigan student who said that a man threatened to light her on fire if she didn't remove her hijab was lying about the incident, police officials said. After reviewing hours of footage and speaking the businesses in the area, they could not corroborate her claims.
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The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times EST):

2:04 p.m.

Donald Trump says the truck ramming attack at market in Berlin is an "attack on humanity and it's got to be stopped."

The president-elect made the comments in brief remarks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida following a top-secret security briefing. He said the violence in Germany validates his assessment of Islamic-inspired threats.

He said, "all along, I've been proven to be right," adding that he's been, "100 percent correct."

With Trump during Wednesday's remarks were his pick for national security adviser, retired Gen. Michael Flynn, and his incoming White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus.

Trump also said he talked to President Barack Obama two days ago, but not since then.

___

11:31 a.m.

Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump's controversial first campaign manager, is starting a political consulting firm and will not be joining the Trump administration.

But Lewandowski won't be far. His new firm, Avenue Strategies, will be located about a block from the White House.

Lewandowski led Trump's campaign through his improbable victory in the Republican primary, but he clashed the president-elect's family and was fired. Still, he remains close to Trump and says he considered "multiple opportunities within the administration."

Lewandowski is forming the firm with Barry Bennett, a former adviser to Ben Carson, Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Bennett also briefly advised the Trump campaign.

___

10:46 a.m.

A Democratic senator is questioning President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Treasury secretary about his vow to undo some financial regulations and his stake in a bank that profited from the foreclosure crisis.

In a letter on Wednesday, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown posed 11 questions to Steve Mnuchin, the former Goldman Sachs executive. The questions range from whether he would be a strong defender of the Dodd-Frank law that imposed financial regulations after the 2008 economic meltdown to whether OneWest, a bank that foreclosed on thousands of homeowners after the housing crisis, got help from the FDIC.

Mnuchin headed a group of investors who owned the bank, which foreclosed on more than 36,000 families in California alone  most in minority neighborhoods  according to the California Reinvestment Coalition. Brown is on the Senate Finance Committee, which will consider Mnuchin's nomination.

This story has been corrected to reflect that Brown is on the Senate Finance Committee, which will consider the Mnuchin nomination. An earlier version said he was not on that committee.

___

10:35 a.m.

A leader of Donald Trump's transition says the president-elect is no longer interested in his catch phrase "drain the swamp" of Washington.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said his understanding is that Trump "now just disclaims that. He now says it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore." Gingrich made the remark in an interview that aired Wednesday on National Public Radio.

Trump has said he never loved the phrase. But it has continued to be a popular feature on his post-election tour. And his aides say he remains committed to his underlying swamp-draining policies, such as banning outgoing Trump transition and administration members from lobbying for five years.

Transition spokesman Jason Miller said Trump's "ethics reform policies are full speed ahead." Miller added of the new president and his team: "We're going to change the way business is done in Washington and start putting the American people first."

___

7:20 p.m.

The Israeli ambassador to the United States is urging the incoming Trump administration to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Trump and his nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel have pledged to move the embassy. But previous Republican presidents have made that promise without following through.

Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer says it would be a "great step forward" for peace. He tells a Hanukkah reception at the Israeli embassy in Washington that it would send a "strong message against delegitimization of Israel."

The U.S. and nearly every other country have their embassies in Tel Aviv. Israel considers Jerusalem its capital, but Palestinians claim part of Jerusalem as the capital for a future Palestinian state.

U.S. presidents have repeatedly waived a law requiring the embassy to be moved.

___

2:40 p.m.

Donald Trump's children may see his move to the White House as a way to raise money for pet causes.

Two recent fundraising pitches featuring the incoming first family were meant to benefit charities. But they also raised the possibility the Trumps are inappropriately selling access.

Eric Trump tried auctioning coffee with his sister, Ivanka, to raise money for a children's hospital. Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are named as part of a fundraiser that offered the chance to rub elbows with their father during Inauguration weekend.

These events are dissolving as quickly as they become public, suggesting the family is learning on the fly what's acceptable.

The Ivanka Trump coffee has been canceled. And on the Inauguration event, Hope Hicks, a Trump spokeswoman, said the sons "are not involved."

___

Noon:

President-elect Donald Trump is considering Jovita Carranza, who worked in President George W. Bush's administration, as his choice for U.S. trade representative.

Trump is meeting with Carranza at his home in Florida on Tuesday. Carranza served as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration under Bush.

Trump is also meeting with businessman Luis Quinonez, who runs a company with military and health care ties. Quinonez is said to be under consideration as Veterans Affairs secretary.

With just a handful of Cabinet posts to fill, Trump is facing some criticism for a lack of diversity in his senior team, which currently includes no Hispanics. The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials said Tuesday that it was "deeply concerned" at the lack of Hispanics considered for top jobs.

Carranza was a member of Trump's Hispanic advisory council during the campaign.

___

10:14 a.m.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is rejecting calls for a special Senate investigative committee focused on possible interference in U.S. elections by Russia and other countries.

McConnell says a finding by U.S. intelligence officials that Moscow hacked Democratic emails in a bid to elevate Donald Trump "is a serious issue, but it doesn't require a select committee."

The Republican leader says in an interview with Kentucky Educational Television that he is "very concerned" that "the Russians were messing around in our elections," but said the Senate intelligence committee is able to investigate it.

Senators including Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican John McCain of Arizona have called for a special Senate committee to investigate efforts by Russia, China and Iran to meddle in U.S. elections.

___

8:40 a.m.

Donald Trump is taking issue with Bill Clinton's criticisms of him.

Clinton told a weekly newspaper in New York state earlier this month that Trump "doesn't know much." Clinton went on to say: "One thing he does know is how to get angry, white men to vote for him." The ex-president also claimed that the president-elect called him after his election victory over Hillary Clinton.

First of all, Trump said in a two-part tweet Tuesday, "Bill Clinton stated that I called him after the election. Wrong, he called me (with a very nice congratulations)."

Trump added that Clinton is the one who "'doesn't know much'... especially how to get people, even with an unlimited budget, out to vote in the vital swing states (and more)." The Clinton campaign, Trump says, "focused on the wrong states."

Trump fired off those tweets the morning after he formally won the presidency in Monday's Electoral College tally.

Bill Clinton made his comments to The Record-Review, serving the towns of Bedford and Pound Ridge.

___

3:10 a.m.

Jumping ahead of investigators, President-elect Donald Trump is blaming Islamic terrorists for deadly violence in Turkey and Germany and vowing anew to eradicate their regional and global networks.

Authorities in both countries were still investigating Monday when Trump issued a pair of statements condemning the attacks. The White House had already described the episode in central Berlin, in which a truck rammed into shoppers at a Christmas market, as an apparent terrorist attack.

Trump called the brazen shooting of Russia's ambassador to Turkey as he attended a photo exhibit "a violation of all rules of civilized order." He says a "radical Islamic terrorist" had assassinated the diplomat, Andrei Karlov.

___
A group of New Jersey law students claim to have uncovered bombshell new evidence in one of the most infamous espionage cases of the 20th century, including an FBI document they say may indicate an innocent woman was executed.

The case is about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg  American citizens executed in 1953 for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. Since then, evidence has appeared to confirm that Julius was a spy, but his wifes role has long been disputed. Students from the Seton Hall University School of Law Center for Policy & Research took up the case, and started from the beginning, said Professor Mark Denbeaux.

I never wanted to re-litigate the case, author of the report, Seton Hall Law Professor and Director of the Center for Policy & Research Mark Denbeaux told FoxNews.com. The point was to do what law students should learn to do: go back to the evidence and find out what is there then work our way back and see how it evolved.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REPORT

What they found was that Ethel Rosenberg may have been charged merely to squeeze a confession out of her husband, a dramatic development that affirmed the old suspicions of Denbeauxs father, the son of George Pattons combat chaplain. The elder Denbeaux, who helped liberate two concentration camps, always believed that Ethel Rosenbergs execution was tied to her religious beliefs.

My father always assumed the Rosenbergs wouldnt have been executed if they werent Jewish, Denbeaux told FoxNews.com. If they were waspy Protestants, this wouldnt have happened.

The Seton Hall Law Center uncovered an internal FBI memo dating July 17, 1950 that determined there was insufficient evidence to arrest Ethel Rosenberg, but that she could be used as a lever against her husband to pressure him into confessing. According to the report, additional documents from the FBI and Department of Justice repeatedly note the absence of evidence implicating Ethel in the conspiracy.

The project also discovered that in January of 1951, an assistant attorney general informed a Congressional Committee that Julius Rosenberg was a tough nut to crack and that authorities needed to severely threaten Ethel in order to make Julius cooperate. This prompted prosecutors to develop evidence in the form of continually evolving witness statements, which ultimately led to Ethels execution, according to the students report.

The prosecutor told lawmakers Julius Rosenberg was the keystone to a lot of other potential espionage agents, and that if we can really break him, that he will open the gates and give us information which would lead to a lot of other individuals. The Assistant Attorney General reportedly informed the Committee that it was important that Julius be under the shadow of a death penalty, which is about the only thing you can use as a lever on these people.

The investigation concluded that the U.S. governments case against Ethel Rosenberg was basically non-existent.

When we began, all of us assumed that Ethel could not have been executed with so little evidence. By the end we all realized that her execution (and probably her conviction) was not the result of evidence but because of the prosecutions failed gamble against Julius, Research Fellow and co-author of the report Elizabeth Mancuso said in a statement. The governments manipulation of familial relationships to secure a conviction is just as disturbing today as it should have been 60 years ago.

The Rosenbergs sons, who have long sought to clear their parents names, are hoping for a proclamation from President Obama to exonerating their mother in the last days of his term. They hope the scholarly report will give their effort a push.

The report is supportive of the argument weve been making for over 40 years and Im impressed with the work the law students have done, son Michael Meeropol told FoxNews.com.

Meeropol said he and his brother, Robert, believe the government took their mother as collateral damage.

The government took her as a hostage, and they did what terrorists do all the time they kill the hostage, Meeropol said.

Earlier this month, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked in a briefing on the status of the proclamation.

Im sure well take a look, Earnest said in a briefing, and that he was not aware of any work that has been done thus far on the brothers request.
A phone call from an Indiana state prison inmate inquiring about a little girl possibly being held in a plywood box led authorities to a home in North Judson where they found the 3-year-old curled up asleep inside a 24-by-24-inch box early Wednesday morning, the sheriff told FoxNews.com.

The revelation led to nine arrestsincluding the girls father and his wife, authorities said. The box was located inside the familys living room.

The child was not identified, but she was found in a plywood box inside the familys living room.

Its one of those deals, you go there and think, Hopefully, this is not true, Jeff Richwine, the Pulaski County sheriff, told reporters. Nobodys going to have a small girl in a box, thats just not going to happen  Youre thinking, my God, who would do this?

Christopher Short, 25, the girls father, and his wife, Donna, 42, were charged with neglect of a dependent. In court documents, they both stated that the girl would go into the box of her own accord.

Richwine said evidence collected at the scene and interviews with other children who were at the house did not appear to support their claim. He said investigators found rope and a metal eye on top of the box, which indicated that it could be locked.

The child was reportedly kept in the box during the evening for extended periods of time.

The initial tip came from Donnas ex-husband, an inmate in state prison, Richwine said. Like all calls from prison in the state, the call was recorded by authorities. The inmate was later interviewed by detectives, which led officers to visit the home, Richwine said.

Just after midnight last Wednesday, authorities executed a no-knock search warrant and found the girl curled up inside the box with the lid down, Richwine said. She was sleeping, appeared non-verbal but did not appear to be otherwise physically harmed, he said.

The conditions were horrible  the box smelled of urine, and there were dead bugs in the corners.

Nobody spoke up about a little girl in a box, Richwine told reporters. Even while we were in there and started taking people out, nobody spoke up and said, Hey, theres a little girl over here in a box.

Frank Jackson, the girl's maternal grandfather, told WNDU.com that Short barely let him see his grandchildren after his daughter died a few years ago.

"I've seen people treat their animals better. It's like a nightmare and I wish I'd wake up," Jackson said.

Deputies said in a statement that five additional juveniles were located inside the residence and were released to the Pulaski County Indiana Department of Child Services.

Jackson wondered, "What kind of health issues are my grandkids going to have later in the future because of this? It could affect them for life.
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
A prominent Atlanta attorney has been charged in the shooting death of his business executive wife.

Atlanta police say Claud "Tex" McIver faces a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter and a misdemeanor charge of reckless conduct. Police spokesman Donald Hannah says McIver was expected to turn himself in Wednesday.

McIver's attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Authorities have said McIver was riding in a rear seat of an SUV late Sept. 25 when a gun he was holding discharged and the bullet hit his wife, 63-year-old Diane McIver, who was sitting in the front passenger seat. She later died at a hospital.

Tex McIver has said the shooting was an accident. Diane McIver was president of U.S. Enterprises Inc., the parent company of Corey Airport Services.
Can Vukovar also be Bykobap?

Whether the name of the war-scarred town on the Danube is written in the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet is a sensitive question. Croatia's upcoming entry into the European Union is forcing residents of the Balkan country to answer it.

More than twenty years after it was reduced to rubble in a brutal Serb-led army siege, Vukovar is testing if Croatians are ready to respect the EU's standards on minority rights when their country joins as the 28th member on July 1.

The Croatian government is trying to introduce Serbian Cyrillic writing into areas with sizeable ethnic Serb communities, a move that has infuriated Croatia's war veterans and nationalists. Thousands of flag-waving protesters, some wearing military uniforms, joined a demonstration against the change on Saturday in downtown Vukovar.

Unlike ethnic Croats, the minority Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet influenced by Orthodox Christianity and also used by Russians. Though Vukovar, for instance, sounds the same in both alphabets, in Cyrillic it is written Bykobap.

Saturday's protest is organized by veteran groups, Vukovar wartime defenders and hardline political parties. Opponents of Serbian script have been active on Facebook, where one of the postings reads: "The final strike on Vukovar  Cyrillic!"

Once a picturesque baroque tow, Vukovar has become a symbol of the senseless destruction during the war that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s  leaving more than 100,000 people dead and millions homeless in Europe's worst carnage since World War II.

Even decades later, many Croats and Serbs in Vukovar and elsewhere continue to live parallel lives, with children attending separate schools and each ethnic community visiting its own cafes or shops.

The EU maintains that Croatia must protect its minorities, particularly ethnic Serbs, from discrimination and violence. But Zarko Puhovski, a liberal Croatian analyst, pointed out that "a rebellion against Cyrillic is something that was to be expected in Croatia" in the aftermath of the war with Serbia.

"Many people are against it, and that tells you that the situation may not be ready," Puhovski said. "But, if we were to wait until it is ready, it would never happen."

The fighting in Croatia started when it declared independence from the former federation in 1991, triggering a rebellion by the minority Serbs and an onslaught by the Serb-led Yugoslav army. Vukovar, located on the boundary with Serbia, took the first blow. Once Croatia joins the EU, the still-tense town and the Danube will become the bloc's eastern border.

In three months of siege, Yugoslav army bombardment all but obliterated the town before it fell in November 1991. The army troops and Serb paramilitaries overran Vukovar, killing and expelling its residents, and leaving a ghost town of shattered buildings, pockmarked by grenades and tank fire. More than 200 prisoners were executed and buried in a mass grave at a nearby pig farm.

The war ended in 1995, in a U.N.-brokered peace agreement that envisaged the region's gradual return to Croatian rule.

Although the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, has sentenced several Serbian officers and politicians in connection with destruction of Vukovar and the killings, many in Croatia have felt it was not enough.

They say the introduction of Cyrillic is a slap in the face.

"It would be as if a sign in Arabic was put up next to Ground Zero in New York," nationalist Croatian politician Zoran Vinkovic claimed.

Today, nearly 35 percent of Serbs live in Vukovar, according to the results of a postwar census published in 2011  enough for the introduction of the Serbian script at road signs, in schools, and on documents.
Even while it was sending out urgent appeals for funds to help poor people in Haiti, the local office of UNICEF was handing out tens of millions of dollars to local partners without proper oversight, and losing track of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of vital medical supplies, according to an internal UNICEF audit.

The same local office of the United Nations Childrens Fund shifted millions of dollars intended for emergency relief to cover other parts of its budget due to funding shortfalls, and failed to keep donors apprised of how their money was spent, the audit said.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, UNICEF Haiti had also failed, according to the report, to determine if it had been meeting any of its other 2013 priorities for helping the desperately suffering.

The absence of oversight led UNICEFs watchdogs at the Office of Internal Audit and Investigations (OIAI) to conclude that it was impossible to determine whether any of the offices intended results had been achieved, or even whether UNICEF had learned enough to avoid the same mistakes in Haiti this year.

The report, crafted in the carefully muffled language that the U.N. uses in examining itself, is due to be presented to members of UNICEFs 36-nation supervisory Executive Board next week during their main annual meeting in New York.

The sad state of UNICEFs Haiti performance is one of the latest examples of failed disaster relief for the poorest and most battered country in the Western hemisphere, where U.N. efforts to help have in some ways made Haitis calamities worse than they were before.

The worst example of that is the cholera epidemic that swept Haiti in the wake of its devastating 2010 earthquake, which itself killed hundreds of thousands of people. The epidemic, which has afflicted more than 700,000 people and killed more than 8,500 since October 2010, is widely acknowledged to be the result of bad hygiene practices among U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal who brought the deadly bacteria with them.

The U.N. has so far failed to acknowledge responsibility for the disaster, and has expressly rejected the notion of paying damages, citing its traditional diplomatic immunities.

Protecting vulnerable children from cholera, as well as measles, malnutrition, bad sanitation and lack of education are among the main objectives of UNICEFs Haiti office, which nonetheless was drastically downsized from about 287 staffers to 87 between 2012 and 2013.

CLICK HERE FOR UNICEFS 2013 GOALS

One reason for the sharp cutback was finances: a U.N. spokesperson told Fox News that last year UNICEF got a little less than $7.5 million from donors against an appeal budget set at slightly more than $21 million. The situation had been just as drear in 2012: according to the auditors report, only $5.6 million had been raised, which in turn had set UNICEF to relying on emergency funds: about $15 million in 2012.

Despite the financial obstacles, according to UNICEFs website the Haitian office performed heroically, developing a three-year plan to support the Haitian government in eliminating cholera, distributing 16,000 cholera prevention kits and vaccinating more than 113,000 people against the disease, while creating a number of potential disaster risk reduction hubs in 14 schools as pilot projects.

How well it did that, however, is more of an issue, according to the audit, which covered the period from January 2012 to June 2013.

CLICK HERE FOR THE AUDIT

Among other things, it notes that UNICEF handed out about $24.4 million in 2012, and another $6.4 million in 2013, to some 100 local implementing partners to accomplish its goals; in some cases it used streamlined procedures that required less documentation for what happened to the money.

But the report also says that the Haiti office did not do the required due diligenceknown as an assurance plan-- under the streamlining protocols to make sure that the partners could be trusted to do the jobs as outlined without full accounting for the money.

In the case of the six unnamed partners who got $2.5 million over the audit period, the inspectors noted, there was no evidence that spot checks of their work supposedly conducted by the Haiti office had taken place.

Even the office itself worried that it was handing out too much money for too long without proof that it had been spent as desired: the audit quotes country managers as describing the situation involving nearly $2 million that had been passed along for nine months without being spent as alarming.

Much of the problem, according to the office, lay with the disorganized Haitian government, which often acted as an implementing partner through its ministerial departments. The money, however, usually went to the top official in the ministry before trickling down to the those actually expected to do the work in an untimely manner, as the report puts it.

When it came to monitoring the work that was actually done, and suggesting improvement, the auditors noted, the process was apparently more important than the outcome: objectives were not formulated in terms of expected results, and there was no indication in the [monitoring] reports as to whether those results had been achieved.

The same, apparently, went for UNICEF Haitis own fundraising. One element linked to the Haiti offices dismal record at getting resources for its programs, the report noted, was that their 2012 strategy didnt identify objectives or lay out an action plan for getting to them.

The same thing was happening, the report warned, for step-out plans for 2013-2016: among other things, the Haiti office had eliminated the jobs of the people responsible for fundraising and telling donors what happened to their money.

Meantime, contractors costing $300,000 who were supposed to help UNICEF Haiti with a situational analysis, including new demographic information, to ground planning for 2013-16 didnt submit an acceptable report until the third quarter of the year, and the report wasnt endorsed by the Haitian government until March 2014.

Meaning: among other things, as the report carefully put it, there was insufficient data to support the new country program.

The problems with UNICEFs precious medical supplies apparently came from the same lack of coordination and oversight. The tracking of vaccines was supposedly carried out by means of an agency-wide computerized system known as VISION. But according to the audit, UNICEF Haitis warehouse unit was not always getting timely distribution plans from programs using it.

And, when it came to cross-checking backlogs in the warehouse, there was no comprehensive mechanism to identify and address the causes of long storage of supplies. 

In other words, nothing was done to ensure that the medical supplies were not wasted.

To address all the failings that the auditors identified in UNICEFs Haiti operations, the auditors tacked 17 recommendations onto their reportwith the final deadline for their accomplishment being this June.

When queried by Fox News, a UNICEF spokesperson said the agency had accomplished nearly all of themexcept for completing the due diligence requirements for implementing partners who will get cash in the future using steamlined payout procedures.

Meantime, UNICEF has set new and more ambitious targets for helping Haitis hapless residents. These include a target of 500,000 for anti-cholera vaccination, and improved sanitation for 134,000 in refugee camps.

CLICK HERE FOR UNIECEFS 2014 HAITI APPEAL

All of that is expected to cost more than $42 million in 2014. So far, with the year nearly half over, the UNICEF spokesperson says that about 20 percent of the hoped-for total has come in.

George Russell is editor-at-large of Fox News and can be found on Twitter @GeorgeRussell
A Lebanese man who arrived in Beirut from West Africa believing he may have Ebola was reassured by doctors that he is disease free but was still taken into a hospital quarantine on Thursday as a practice run to check the country's preparedness, a health official said.

The case initially raised concerns because it was announced by the health minister, Wael Abu Faour, who said earlier in the day that Lebanon had quarantined a man suspected of having Ebola. The announcement came after days of warnings by the government that the country was at a high risk of exposure to the disease.

It had also raised concerns because the man arrived from an unspecified West African country three days ago, and reported himself to hospital with what he thought were symptoms of Ebola.

But an initial interview with the man showed that he was unlikely to have contracted Ebola, said physician Pierre Abi Hanna, specialist in infectious diseases at the Rafik Hariri hospital.

Still, he was placed under quarantine and tested, as a practice run.

"He is not a risk," said Abi Hanna. "We took it as it as a suspected case for exercise ... This is a very serious issue, so it served to test our preparedness."

The hospital has set up a four-bed isolated unit to deal with contagious diseases such as Ebola.

The minister, Abu Faour, could not be reached for clarification but he later issued a statement to state-run media, saying the man was found to have tested negative for Ebola and would leave the hospital.

Thousands of Lebanese live in West African nations, including Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- countries where Ebola has killed more than 4,500 people so far.

The Lebanese government warned earlier this week that the country is at a high risk of exposure to the disease because of its large diaspora in West Africa.

Thousands of Lebanese live in West African nations, including Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- countries where Ebola has killed more than 4,500 people so far.

Also this week, Lebanon established new surveillance measures to spot suspected cases. All planes arriving from West African countries are being diverted to the same runway, where health officials are checking arriving passengers for symptoms of the disease. Lebanese nationals who don't display symptoms must still follow up with the health ministry, Abu Faour said.

Hospitals that have more than 100 beds have been asked to create isolation units, the minister added.
The president of the Maldives has appointed his trusted tourism minister as vice president a day after parliament ousted his former deputy on negligence charges.

President Yameen Abdul Gayoom swore in Ahmed Adeeb as vice president at a closed ceremony Wednesday.

The 33-year-old Adeeb's appointment was widely expected since lawmakers started a process to impeach Mohamed Jameel, who had been Gayoom's vice president since they were elected in 2013.

Jameel was ousted Tuesday after 78 of 80 lawmakers voted in favor of the impeachment motion. Jameel, who is in Britain and did not answer the charges, said in a statement that he had been sidelined and prevented from performing his duties.

The Maldives is an Indian Ocean archipelago nation known for its upscale tourist resorts.
After the uproar created by a recent decree in Venezuela ordering its citizens to work in the country's fields for 60-day periods, the government is saying that the resolution had a typing error and the mandatory farm work will not be forced but voluntary.

The resolution will be published again and it will be explained in a much more digestible way, said Francisco Torrealba, a lawmaker from the ruling party, earlier this week.

The controversial decree, which basically institutes forced labor, is the latest of initiatives by Nicolas Maduros socialist government to bring relief to the increasingly alarming food scarcity.

Just in the past few months, several plans have been brought to the table and failed, such as an effort to promote home farming and the creation of a food allocation system  headed by party loyalists  to ensure certain basic products are distributed to every household.

The latest decree, issued on July 22, said in very vague terms that every public or private employee with adequate physical conditions will be bound to do agricultural activities to serve the national interest if the government deems it necessary.

Experts were quick in saying that the new experiment would not solve the food crisis.

Venezuela does have a big problem of food production and for eight consecutive years it has dropped, said Aquiles Hopkins, vice president of the Federation of Agricultural Producers (Fedeagro), to Fox News Latino. But the lack of workforce in the fields is not part of the problem; we have enough people on it already, he said.

The problem is caused mainly by the erratic policies of the government, like price controls for certain products, which make producers work at a loss.

Additionally, Hopkins noted, the lack of dollars due to the oil prices drop is devastating production. According to Fedeagro records, producers havent received any hard currency to buy parts and machinery since 2014.

For more than a decade now the currency exchange in Venezuela has been tightly controlled, meaning Venezuelans cannot legally buy foreign currency. All sales and purchases of dollars and other currencies are managed directly by the government.

The regime is controlling an excessive number of things, Hopkins explained. For instance, for more than five years they have had a monopoly over seeds and fertilizers.

He said he is concerned about a total collapse of the countrys food supply in the near future.

If we dont do the things that are really needed to recover the production levels, the shortages will get worst over the next months, he alerted.

Leon Arismendi, a labor lawyer, said the decree forcing farm labor is yet another example of the governments improvised policymaking.

If they take away employees from private food companies that are operating well, those companies will have to cut production, causing more shortages over time, he told Fox News Latino.

This resolution violates the constitution and international agreements, which state that forced labor is completely prohibited, he said.

Different international organizations have also expressed concern for the decree.

"Trying to tackle Venezuela's severe food shortages by forcing people to work the fields is like trying to fix a broken leg with a band aid," Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas' Director at Amnesty International, said in a statement.
As Venezuelans struggle with widespread shortages in everything from basic food stuffs to toilet paper, the socialist nations defense minister announced on Wednesday that the military will take control of the distribution of "all medical and surgical supplies managed in all hospitals."

Venezuelan Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino Lopez said during an address broadcast on state-owned Venezolana de Television that the National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela will take control of the medical supply sector "to guarantee that these medicines and supplies get to the patient efficiently and are neatly distributed and assigned."

One in three people admitted to public hospitals last year died, the government reports. The number of operational hospital beds has fallen by 40 percent since just 2014. And as the economy fails, the country is running short on 85 percent of medicine, according to the national drugstore trade group.

Everything from common painkillers to cancer and HIV drugs have become almost impossible to find across the country and some doctors have resorted to using veterinary medications in lieu of human ones  according to the Pharmaceutical Federation.

Venezuela used to be Latin America's richest country, but it is now falling apart because of a plunge in the price of oil caps and years of economic mismanagement. Local production of almost everything has stalled, and there is little money to import medicine.

More On This... Best pix of the week

The left-wing administration of President Nicolas Maduro calls the medical crisis an invention peddled by opponents of the country's 17-year-old socialist revolution. The government has refused to let in humanitarian aid.

While Venezuela's opposition-controlled National Assembly in May approved a bill to declare a national humanitarian health crisis that would force the Maduro government to accept foreign medical aid, so far the donations of medical supplies have sat in warehouses and shipping containers in countries including the U.S., Spain and Panama.

So the military decided to step in.

"We are evaluating the health issue. We will go very strongly on the issue of health," Defense Minister Lopez said, according to UPI. "We are going to take full control of the distribution of medicines and medical surgical supplies to all hospitals in the country."

Besides the medicine and food shortages, Venezuela is also seeing a drastic rise in violent crime, especially in the capital city of Caracas. Rolling blackouts and widespread protests that often turn bloody have created a city, and country, in mayhem.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The explosion that ripped through Mexicos best-known fireworks market in the outskirts of Mexico City has killed at least 31 people and left dozens more badly burned.

Mexico State chief prosecutor Alejandro Gomez said Wednesday the death toll rose to 31 after several people died at local hospitals. He said some of the dead were so badly burned that neither their age no their gender could be immediately determined.

The toll is expected to rise because 11 people were listed as missing and some body parts were found at the scene, Gomez added.

A list of nine bodies identified so far showed one of the dead included a 3-month-old baby boy and a 12-year-old girl. Gomez said a total of seven male minors were among the dead.

State Health Secretary Cesar Nomar Gomez Monge said 72 people were being treated for injuries including severe burns, in some cases over 90 percent of their bodies.

The powerful chain-reaction explosion ripped through the stalls at the San Pablito fireworks market, which officials said was especially well stocked for the holidays.

Its the third such blast to ravage the market since 2005 sent up a towering plume of some that was lit up by a staccato of bands and flashes of light. Once the smoke cleared, the open-air bazaar was reduced to a stark expanse of ash, rubble and the charred metal of fireworks stands, casting a pall over the country's Christmas season.

Survivor Crescencia Francisco Garcia said she was in the middle of the grid of stalls when the thunderous explosions began. She froze, reflexively looked up at the sky and then took off running through the smoke once she realized everyone was doing so. As she ran she saw people with burns and cuts, and lots of blood.

"Everything was catching fire. Everything was exploding," Francisco said. "The stones were flying, pieces of brick, everything was flying."

Mexico State Gov. Eruviel Avila vowed that "we are going to identify who is responsible."

Sirens wailed and a heavy scent of gunpowder lingered in the air well after the thunderous explosions at the market, which were widely seen in a dramatic video. The smoking, burned out shells of vehicles ringed the perimeter, and first responders and local residents wearing blue masks over their mouths combed through the ash and debris. Firefighters hosed down still-smoldering hotspots.

Tultepec Mayor Armando Portuguez Fuentes said the market was especially well stocked because demand for noisy firecrackers and rockets soars this time of year.

"We are obviously in the high season," Portuguez said. "There was more product than usual because we are a few days away from Christmas, a few days away from New Year's, and those are the days when the products made here are consumed the most."

Cesar Ornelas of Atizapan de Zaragoza was only 10 minutes into shopping with his son and his father when he heard the first explosions. He tried to run, but something knocked him to the ground from behind. He tried several times to get up, unsuccessfully, and ultimately his 15-year-old son Francisco had to drag him out.

"We didn't look back," said Ornelas, who suffered light burns and a large bruise over his left kidney. His white tank top had a fist-size burn on the chest. "We heard how the explosion was kind of going off bit by bit."

Nearly four hours later, he and Francisco limped gingerly out of the market area. Francisco said paramedics told him his leg was likely fractured by flying debris. Ornelas said his 67-year-old father, Ernesto, had run in a different direction and sought refuge in a nearby home. All the father's clothing was burned, and his face and arm were bloodied. An ambulance had spirited him to a hospital, but Ornelas wasn't sure where it was or how serious his injuries were.

The Mexican Red Cross said it sent 10 ambulances with 50 paramedics to the scene.

National Civil Protection Coordinator Luis Felipe Puente told Milenio television that some nearby homes were also damaged. The scene remained dangerous and he asked people not to come within 3 miles to avoid hampering the emergency response.

"My condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this accident and my wishes for a quick recovery for the injured," President Enrique Pena Nieto said via Twitter.

A similar fire engulfed the San Pablito Market in 2005, touching off a chain of explosions that leveled hundreds of stalls just ahead of Mexico's Independence Day. A year later a similar incident at the same market also destroyed hundreds of stands.

Portuguez, the Tultepec mayor, said the manufacture and sale of fireworks is a key part of the local economy. He added that it is regulated by law and under the "constant supervision" of the Defense Department, which oversees firearms and explosives.

"This is part of the activity of our town. It is what gives us identity," Portuguez said. "We know it is high-risk, we regret this greatly, but unfortunately many people's livelihoods depend on this activity."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tevan Poghosyan: Seyran Ohanyan will not change his mind and join the authorities again

No major changes have been recorded in Armenia during Prime Minister Karen Karapetyans first 100 days in office, says lawmaker Tevan Poghosyan. Instead of radical changes we have witnessed personnel changes, he says. Has the economy improved? No, it has not. Has the judicial system bettered? No, it has not. Have there been changes in the system? No, there have not. All problems that existed in the country have remained; moreover, they have increased in some sectors, Mr. Tevanyan said today. Republican lawmaker Gagik Melikyan says one cannot register significant changes in his first 100 days in office but it is not correct to say that we have not had any changes. The changes will be seen better in 2017, and we shall see their effect on the countrys economy in 2018, he said. When asked about their expectations from [former defense minister] Seyran Ohanyans return to politics, Tevan Poghosyan said, The former minister has passed a long way  17 years  with the ruling party (Republican Party of Armenia -HHK). He has a very important role in our country. The government has always said they want to have strong opposition. The more sophisticated people we have in the opposition, the better for us. At the same time, Mr. Poghosyan expressed hope that Seyran Ohanyan will not change his mind and join the authorities again.
At least four people were killed and dozens of others were injured Wednesday when a minivan ploughed into a farmers market in Beijing, The Sun reported.

Authorities had detained the vans driver, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau said, though it was not immediately clear whether the episode was intentional or accidental.

The incident comes just two days after a terror attack in Berlin in which a suspected jihadi killed 12 people when he drove a truck into the crowd at a Christmas market.
A 7-year-old Syrian girl whose mother ran a Twitter account in her name about life in besieged eastern Aleppo has met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Turkish capital, Ankara.

Bana Alabed's mother Fatemah set up and began operating the account in September, tweeting on her daughter's behalf. The account has garnered some 354,000 followers.

The girl and her family say they were evacuated along with other civilians from eastern Aleppo, which had been besieged by government forces backed by Russian air raids, on Monday as part of a deal that saw residents of the former rebel enclave head to other parts of the country.

The child's social media account has included tweets to people such as Michelle Obama and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, asking them for help.

Related News... Aleppo girl whose tweets captured world attention evacuated

Bana, her parents and two younger siblings were pictured with Erdogan, who hosted them in his presidential complex Wednesday. Erdogan tweeted photos of Bana and one of his brothers sitting on his lap, saying that "Turkey will always stand with the people of Syria."

Turkey supports rebels opposing Syrian President Bashar Assad's government.
An Austrian court has found a man guilty of contravening anti-Nazi laws for walking back and forth in front of the house where Adolf Hitler was born while wearing a T-shirt with a pro-Nazi slogan.

State broadcaster ORF says the 27-year old also appeared in court wearing stickers with code words and numbers that translate into "Heil Hitler."

ORF said Wednesday that he was given a 15-month suspended sentence. The man was not identified in keeping with Austrian privacy laws.

He was charged after appearing in front of the house in the western town of Braunau last year wearing a T-shirt saying "Nazified, with a raised hand" to greet a visiting Hungarian neo-Nazi group.

The man was quoted as saying the slogan was a "political statement."

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Police in Bahrain are clashing with residents of a besieged town that is home to a Shiite cleric.

The cause for the confrontation on Wednesday in Diraz wasn't immediately clear.

Residents of the town and activists say that riot police first massed outside, then entered the town.

They say locals confronted the police, who fired tear gas. All requested anonymity as an activist previously faced charges for speaking to The Associated Press.

The town is home to Sheikh Isa Qassim, who lost his citizenship in June over government allegations he fanned extremism. His supporters say he's targeted by Bahrain's Sunni-ruled government as part of a wider crackdown on dissent in the years after its 2011 Arab Spring protests.

Qassim has been in legal limbo since June at his Diraz home.
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German investigators are searching for the perpetrator or perpetrators of Monday's attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market after a man arrested soon after the rampage was released for lack of evidence and the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

The attack on the market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the center of the capital left 12 dead and 48 injured. Shortly afterward, a Pakistani man was detained based on a description from witnesses of a suspect who jumped from the truck and fled. But he was freed Tuesday after prosecutors couldn't find evidence tying him to the attack.

Police in Berlin said they had received 508 tips on the attack as of Tuesday night. But it wasn't clear Wednesday whether prosecutors had any concrete leads.
German authorities have arrested a 24-year-old Moroccan man on suspicion of being a member of the Islamic State group.

Federal prosecutors say the man, who was identified as Redouane S. due to privacy laws, was part of the network around Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is suspected of planning the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks in Paris.

Prosecutors said Wednesday that the man was tasked with looking after the group's safe houses in Turkey and Greece from Oct. 2014 until early 2015 while the Paris attacks were being prepared.

They say he was informed by Abaaoud about plans for an attack in Verviers, Belgium, on Jan. 15, 2015. He allegedly remained in contact with the group after entering Germany in May 2015.

He was arrested Tuesday in the northern state of Lower Saxony.
Indonesian police said they killed three suspected militants in a raid Wednesday on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta and found several bombs which they are trying to defuse.



National Police spokesman Rikwanto told MetroTV that the residential neighborhood has been evacuated. Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono said the group was a planning an attack on New Year's Eve.



Rikwanto said the three men killed had tried to resist arrest and threw explosives at police as they raided the house, which is in a leafy middle-class residential compound in Tangerang, a Jakarta satellite city. One person was arrested.



Rikwanto, who uses one name, said police believe those involved in the plot are linked to several militants arrested Dec. 10 on the outskirts of Jakarta who were planning a suicide bomb attack on a guard-changing ceremony at the presidential palace the next day.



Police have attributed that foiled plot, in which a woman was to be the suicide bomber, to Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian with the Islamic State (ISIS) group in Syria.



They also say Naim was behind a bomb lab that was raided last month in West Java and contained enough explosive materials to make bombs three times more powerful than those used in the 2002 Bali bombings.



Indonesia has carried out a sustained crackdown on Islamic militants since the Bali bombings that killed 202 people.



But a new threat has emerged in the past several years from militants who have switched allegiance to ISIS and from new recruits.



An attack in Jakarta in January by ISIS sympathizers killed eight people, including the attackers.



The Australian government's advice to travelers, updated Wednesday, said the terrorist threat level in Indonesia remains high. It notes that authorities have arrested people who were allegedly in the advanced states of attack planning.


Outrage over the carnage in Aleppo has so far been directed at Moscow and Damascus, but activists on the ground say Tehran has a top general on the scene and has established secret camps where Iraqi mercenaries are trained to root out rebels in the Syrian city.

According to information provided to FoxNews.com, the forces currently controlling the city of Aleppo are under the command of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The military outfit under its command includes foreign mercenaries such as Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi militias, and also the Shiite fighters of the Liwa Fatemiyoun from Afghanistan and the Liwa Zainebiyoun from Pakistan.

On Tuesday, foreign and defense ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey discussed the future of Syria and the city of Aleppo at talks in Moscow, Turkish and Russian officials said. A Turkish official said the meeting was held to "understand the views of all three sides, laying out where we all stand and discuss where we go from here."

The meeting was further evidence of Iran's emerging role in Syria, both during the ongoing civil war and the expected aftermath.

According to reports received by the opposition to the Iranian regime, the number of IRGC forces and its hired hands in Aleppo and the surrounding area has reached 25,000, while the number of military personnel from Assads army is very limited.

This report leaves no doubt that the Iranian regime is the primary obstacle to any solution in Syria, Shahin Gobadi, spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) told FoxNews.com. The current situation in Aleppo and the role of the Iranian regime in the atrocities committed on the ground require the immediate expulsion of the IRGC and its mercenaries from Syria. By meddling in other countries the mullahs try to cover up their vulnerability at home. The survival of the [Iranian] regime has been intertwined with maintaining the Assad dictatorship in power in Syria.

The reports, which were obtained by the NCRI and its sister organization People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), state that the commander of the Quds Force  as IGRC units operating outside Iran are known  in Aleppo is Brigadier General Javad Ghafari, who is described as the right-hand man of the Revolutionary Guards commander-in-chief, Qassem Soleimani, who has been referred to as the architect of Irans role in Russian operations in Syria.

Ghafari was a commander in the Iran-Iraq war and has been in charge of the military forces around Aleppo and the northern front in Syria for three years. He was recently promoted to field commander of all IRGC forces in Syria.

A few months ago, he and Soleimani met with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who praised him during the pow-wow.

Recent intel reports suggest that the Quds Force has deployed mercenaries form a coalition of ten Iraqi groups known collectively as Hashd al-Shaabi, which is comprised of mostly Shiite groups like Badr and al-Nojba, which has a number of permanent bases in Syria including one close to Damascus International Airport.

The Syrian pro-Assad Baath Brigades and al-Morteza forces are in Aleppo as well.

When contacted by FoxNews.com, officials for the U.S. State Department declined to comment on Irans role in the conflict in Aleppo, instead referring to comments made by spokesperson John Kirby at Tuesdays daily press briefing.

When asked about Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Ja'faris denial that Shiite militias from that country were present in Aleppo with permission of their government and if there is concern that these troops could be receiving support from Iran, Kirby said, I cant confirm the veracity of the foreign ministers comments in terms of the presence of Iraqi militia that  and to whom they pledge loyalty or fealty.

Kirby added, That said, we know that there are Iranian-backed fighters in Syria. Weve talked about that. And weve talked about the unhelpful role that they have been playing in supporting the Assad regime through advice, through some combat operations, certainly through arms and assistance.

And we have said before we want the regime and its backers, which includes Iran, to stop that kind of activity and to try to get us to a point where we can achieve a meaningful ceasefire.

The NCRI has also alleged that the Revolutionary Guard has established its main headquarters around 20 miles southeast of Aleppo in a garrison called Behuth, or Fort Behuth, which used to be one of the most important centers of missile and chemical weapon production for the Assad regime.

It is now under the supervision of Ghafari, but it also contains a center operated by Lebanese Hezbollah commanders, as well as a number of Syrian army officers who are also present, according to the intel reports.

The fact is that Aleppo has been occupied by the IRGC and its mercenaries, Gobadi said to FoxNews.com. Mass executions, preventing the transfer of civilians including women and children, attacking the civilians  has all been done by the forces of the mullahs regime.

[They] are the main source of crisis in Syria and the region, he went on. By abusing the inaction of the international community and being convinced of not being held accountable for its crimes, [Iran] has continuously become more emboldened.
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The Latest on the developments related to the conflict in Syria (all times local):

12: 25 p.m.

Turkey's state-run news agency says three Turkish soldiers have been killed in Syria in the battle to retake the northern town of al-Bab from the Islamic State group.

The Anadolu Agency, citing unnamed military sources, says 11 Turkish soldiers were also wounded in the fighting on Wednesday, including one who was reported to be in critical condition.

The report says intense clashes are underway near a hospital in the town that the militants were using as a shelter and to store arms and ammunition.

Turkey sent ground troops into northern Syria in August to support Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces in clearing a border area of Islamic State group militants and to curb Kurdish territorial expansion.

At least 24 Turkish soldiers have been killed so far in the operation, entitled Euphrates Shield.

___

10:45 a.m.

Syrian activists say the last buses meant to evacuate rebels and civilians from Aleppo have been delayed for nearly 24 hours. Reasons for the delay aren't clear.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict though activists on the ground, says 60 buses are waiting to leave eastern Aleppo on Wednesday with some 3,000 evacuees  the final step that surrenders the Syrian opposition stronghold in the war-torn city to the government.

Ward Furati, spokesman for Aleppo's Fastaqim rebel faction, says the fighters "won't leave until security of all the civilians has been fully guaranteed."

The Observatory also says 21 buses are waiting to evacuate the sick and wounded from the rebel-besieged Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya as part of the cease-fire deal reached last week.
A faint smell of gunpowder was still noticeable Wednesday morning in the vicinity of the San Pablito market in this city just north of Mexicos capital.

After Tuesday evenings massive explosion destroyed 80 percent of the country largest fireworks market, the area now more closely resembles a war zone. The stalls have been reduced to charred, twisted heaps of metal. Burnt carcasses of cars riddle the parking lots on the outskirts of the market.

It felt like we were being bombarded. The explosions just kept going, I think they lasted for at least five minutes, said Oscar Chavez, a 35-year-old taxi driver who was parked a few block away from the market when the explosions started. I honestly thought for a moment that I was done for, it seemed like the explosion was going to reach us too, he told FoxNews.com

Located in Estado de Mexico, the state that curls around Mexico City like a horseshoe, Tultepec is reeling from what has been the greatest fireworks disaster in Mexico in recent memory. As of noon, at least 31 people had died, about 60 were wounded and 12 people were still missing.

Only 13 casualties have been identified.

We have no idea where the victims are. The governments response is inadequate, we need more information, said Concepcion Hernandez Baez as she looked for her missing mother.

What exactly caused the explosion is still unclear; the authorities have not yet released any information as to what they believe may have happened. Soldiers and police officers sealed off the immediate surroundings of the disaster zone, only allowing family members of the victims to enter the area. On Wednesday morning investigators in white suits were scouring the ruins for clues of what may have caused the explosion.

Tultepec is no stranger to fireworks disasters. According to Milenio Noticias, a Mexico City television network, at least 68 people have died in more than 10 separate accidents over the past few decades. Those include two major explosions at the San Pablito market itself, in 2005 and 2006, in which most of the market was destroyed.

Each time, however, the market was re-established shortly afterwards. Tultepec is known as the fireworks capital of Mexico, where the production of explosive materials is an important part of the local economy. Fireworks are widely used in Mexico, both in national holidays and Catholic patron saint celebrations. The San Pablito market had expected to sell 100 metric tons of fireworks this season.

Tultepec residents told FoxNews.com entire streets of the city hide a thriving underground fireworks business.

Its scary to think of what could happen if a spark goes off in one of those places. I know many of those underground factories, theyre very dangerous, Oscar Sanchez, the taxi driver, said.

Ironically, the San Pablito market was called the safest of its kind in Latin America by the state regulatory fireworks agency. The stalls were separated by several yards and all apparently had a barrel of water standing next to them to extinguish sudden fires.

If the 300 stalls selling fireworks that make up the San Pablito Market had all the corresponding permits and appropriate safety measures, the authorities will have to verify whether there was corruption or negligence, Mexico City newspaper El Universal wrote in a commentary this morning. Or are the current regulations insufficient?

What happened in Tultepec begs the question whether the traditions and the freedom to use explosives are enough reason to continue to permit the indiscriminate use of fireworks, the newspaper added.
Armenian Assembly of America reiterates its deep concerns over Azerbaijan's atrocities

As legislators were completing work for the 114th Congress, Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) Executive Director Bryan Ardouny was on the Hill meeting with Members of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues this month recapping the year and discussing priorities for the 115th Congress. During his meeting with Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Ardouny discussed initiatives for the 115th Congress. He also reiterated the Assembly's deep concerns regarding the atrocities Azerbaijan committed during the military offensive it launched during the April War, as further reported by Nagorno Karabakh's Ombudsman, Ruben Melikyan. According to the latest investigations, 3 out of the 31 incidences detailed in the report were citizens and not servicemen, including a 92-year-old grandmother who was also tortured. The report also identified 3 Nagorno Karabakh servicemen who were beheaded, noting that one was executed by ISIS-style decapitation then publicized on social media as a "trophy." The Azerbaijani officer who showcased this Armenian soldier's head was then given a military award from Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev. In his meeting with Armenian Caucus Vice Co-Chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who serves as the Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, a wide range of issues were discussed, including expanding the Caucus as well as strengthening U.S-Armenia relations. "As we look ahead to 2017, U.S. leadership remains essential in addressing the challenges before us," Ardouny stated. "The Armenian Caucus, with its bipartisan leadership team, will play a pivotal role and we anticipate a very active and energized Caucus as we continue to advance important priorities in the new Congress and Administration," he added. Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.
Mongolia's foreign minister says the Dalai Lama will no longer be allowed to visit his country after a visit by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader prompted protests from China and a suspension of talks on a major loan.

China's foreign ministry said Wednesday that it "attached importance" to the Mongolian diplomat's statement and hoped the country would "honor the commitment" it has made on the issue.

On Tuesday, the Mongolian newspaper Unuudur carried remarks by Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil that the Dalai Lama would not be allowed to visit Mongolia even on religious grounds.

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to split Tibet from China.

Mongolia's economy is heavily dependent on China. The countries are discussing a possible $4.2 billion loan by Beijing to deal with a recession.
Philippe Pelletier and his Christmas tree delivery business promised the citizens of Montreal a tree that would be bigger and more impressive than the famed evergreen in New York Citys Rockefeller Center.

That didnt happen not by a long shot.

I was really surprised by the reaction to the tree, Pelletier told FoxNews.com of the 88-foot, gangly tree in the citys Quartier des spectacles. We want to show people a natural Quebec Christmas tree, so thats what we got.

When a flatbed truck accompanied by police escort brought the balsam fir through the streets of the Canadian city in late November  broken branches, bare spots and all  Montrealers were far from impressed. After hoisting the tree up and covering it with lights and mini red Canadian Tire logos for the Le Grand Marche de Noel festival, things only got worse.

Montreal's Christmas tree looks like it was just released from Xmas tree rehab and needs any spare change you might have for a bus ride home, one Twitter user said on the social media site. Other social media users compared it Charley Browns sad Christmas tree and, worse off, an erectile dysfunction.

Montreal's Christmas tree looks like it was just released from Xmas tree rehab and needs any spare change you might have for a bus ride home pic.twitter.com/DbcHdy28M6  zak (@zaktebbal) December 6, 2016

Local media tried to put a better spin on the scraggly tree, with an anchor on CTV saying the tree was not perfect, but unique, they say  just like this city.

A columnist at the Montreal Gazette waxed poetic that the balsam fir made him ponder the long history of the word balsam.

The balsam fir is a North American species; indigenous peoples used its gum to treat coughs, colds and asthma, columnist Mark Abley wrote in the newspaper. Yet long before balsam meant the type of tree now often adorned with Christmas lights and ornaments, it referred to a fragrant resin.

Pelletier, who started the tree delivery company Sapin MTL last year with some friends, is used to attracting attention with his trees. Last year the company hosted the first Pan-Am Tree Toss in Montreal  but the scorn and criticism for the lanky tree is something he didnt expect.

He added that the tree  which they found in a rural area near Quebec border with the United States  is what a real Christmas tree looks and that the one in Rockefeller is not what a tree looks like in nature.

Notre immense sapin est arrive a bon port! Il sera illumine mercredi lors d'une emission d'@enmodesalvail! #immensesapin #montreal pic.twitter.com/CNk604CG2P  Sapin MTL (@Sapinmtl) November 27, 2016

What weve realized is that people expect perfection from a tree, but we didnt add any branches, he said. We presented the tree in its natural state.

Despite the Christmastime criticism, Pelletier echoed the old saying that any publicity is good publicity.

If it wasnt for this tree, we wouldnt have all these people talking about us, he said. We wouldnt be getting calls from media all over the world.
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Romania could be headed for its first female prime minister.

Liviu Dragnea, chairman of Romania's Social Democratic party which won recent parliamentary elections, proposed Wednesday that Sevil Shhaideh take the post of prime minister.

President Klaus Iohannis is consulting with political leaders before nominating a prime minister, who Parliament needs to approve. If approved by lawmakers, she would also become the country's first Muslim prime minister.

Dragnea is banned from being premier because he has a conviction for election fraud

The little known Shhaideh was minister for regional development for six months in 2015, a ministry she worked in since 2012.

The left-leaning Social Democrats easily won the Dec. 11 parliamentary elections, but did not secure a majority and will govern with a minority partner.
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The lower chamber of the Russian parliament calls for heightened security measures for Russian diplomats abroad following the assassination of the ambassador to Turkey.

The State Duma voted on Wednesday on a resolution that condemned Monday's killing of Andrei Karlov and urged authorities to take extra steps to protect Russian diplomats abroad.

Investigators from Turkey and Russia and hunting for clues in the assassination of Karlov, who was shot in front of stunned onlookers at a photo exhibition in Ankara. Both Russia and Turkey have vowed that the assassination would not derail efforts to repair bilateral ties.

The killing came after days of protests by Turks angry over Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russia's actions in Aleppo.
People are dancing in the streets in southern Nigeria after a British court ordered the release of a former governor convicted of stealing more than $70 million from Nigeria's treasury.

James Ibori, the governor of oil-rich Delta State from 1999 to 2007, was halfway through serving a 13-year prison sentence.

British High Court Judge Juliet May ordered his immediate release based on supported allegations that police investigators on his case took bribes and prosecutors covered that up. It was unclear Wednesday night if Ibori was free or was under house arrest.

The BBC reported that U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd won't deport Ibori until he hands over 18 million pounds ($22 million) in the "proceeds of crime."

Ibori pleaded guilty in 2012 to money laundering and fraud.
Ikea, the leading home furnishings retailer, has warned that teenagers who have illegal sleepovers in their stores are guilty of trespassing.

Spokeswoman Johanna Iritz says Ikea has recorded about 10 such incidents in the past year in the United States, Canada, Britain, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, Australia and Poland.

Swedish media say the trend likely started when teenagers spent the night in an Ikea store in Belgium in August, then posted a video of their exploits.

Iritz told The Associated Press Wednesday trespassers often hid in wardrobes when stores close. She said Ikea takes the sleepovers "seriously" and that "we can't guarantee safety."

Iritz said the fun was "overrated," adding a night at Ikea ends with "getting into trouble with the law."

It was unclear whether anyone had been prosecuted.
A van loaded with gas bottles crashed on Wednesday into the Australian Christian lobby office in Canberra and exploded, The Sun reported.

No staff members were injured, however, the condition of the van driver is unknown, Lobby managing director Lyle Shelton said in a tweet. Shelton also tweeted out a picture of the decimated van and called the vehicle a car bomb.

A closer view of the car bomb driven into the ACL office in Canberra tonight. Shocked that this could happen in Australia. pic.twitter.com/GxJQZLTFQr  Lyle Shelton (@LyleShelton) December 21, 2016

I do not know the condition of the driver. Prayers appreciated, he tweeted.

4 DEAD AFTER MINIVAN CRASHES INTO FARMER'S MARKET

The blast also destroyed several of the buildings windows and appeared to cause some external property damage.

The vehicle was driven toward the front of the building, an Australian Capital Territory Police spokesperson confirmed to The Sun; however, no determination had been made on whether the incident was intentional or accidental.

There are no public safety issues and ACT are seeking any witnesses to the incident, the spokesperson said.

Australian Christian Lobby lobbies state and national leaders on Christian issues.

The Canberra crash comes just hours after a minivan drove into a farmers market in Beijing, killing at least four people. The driver had been detained in that episode, and authorities had not yet determined if the minivan driver deliberately aimed for the crowd.

The Canberra and Beijing incidents also came two days after a truck driven by an Islamic extremist drove into a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12.
High-level negotiations between Armenian and Iranian sides held in Yerevan (video)

The official welcoming ceremony for the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani, who has arrived to Armenia on official visit, took place at the Presidential Palace. The President of Armenia held a private meeting with the President of Iran after which there took place a meeting in the extended format with the participation of the official delegations. Honorable Mr. President, I am happy to welcome you to Armenia. For the Armenian people, you are an awaited and valued guest, and we are hopeful that your first official visit in your capacity as President of the Islamic Republic of Iran will give a new spirit and a new life to our cooperation. The Armenian-Iranian cooperation comes from the depths of the centuries, and based on that very solid foundation we formed our interstate relations in 1992. Today, 25 years later, I am very glad to be able to state that throughout this period of time there has been no instance that would darken our relations. We are thankful to the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the considerate attitude towards our relations. We have always been truthful and honest in our relations and are ready to carry on in the same spirit. Taking this opportunity, I ask you to convey my deep respect and best wishes to the Spiritual Leader of Iran Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei. Welcome to Armenia, said the President of Armenia. Honorable Mr. President, I am very much grateful and happy to visit today the Republic of Armenia, the beautiful country - Republic of Armenia and capital Yerevan. We view the Republic of Armenia as a friendly country and we desire to further warm up and develop our bilateral relations. Our two nations belong to the same culture and civilization. Relations of our two peoples have always been warm and friendly, said the President of Iran Hassan Rouhani at the meeting with President Serzh Sargsyan.
Uzbekistan's New President  a Reformer or Another Dictator?

Initial moves towards reform have not convinced observers that the new leader will end a quarter of a century of dictatorial rule. By Birgit Brauer There was little surprise when Uzbekistans interim president Shavkat Mirziyoyev won the countrys presidential election on December 4. He will now serve a five-year term as Uzbekistans only second head-of-state following the death of Islam Karimov three months ago, the autocratic leader who had ruled the country since before independence and ran it as a police state. Although there were a total of four candidates, the outcome of the vote was widely expected. According to the constitution, Senate speaker Nigmatullah Yuldashev should have been taken up the role of acting president. He instead cited Mirziyoyevs many years of experience before ceding the role to him. This was reminiscent of the transfer of power in neighbouring Turkmenistan in 2006, which also circumvented constitutional requirements. The resounding victory of 88.6 per cent of the votes, just slightly less than the 90 per cent received by Karimov in March 2015, was not a good sign. It can be seen as a continuation of the previous regime. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which sent a full observer mission, criticised the vote as devoid of genuine competition and noted significant irregularities on election day, including ballot box stuffing and widespread proxy voting. The 4 December presidential election underscored the need of comprehensive reform to address long-standing systemic shortcomings. The legal framework is not conducive to holding democratic elections, the OSCE said in its preliminary findings. Mirziyoyev, 59, had been Uzbekistans prime minister since 2003 and was formally nominated by the Karimovs Liberal Democratic party of Uzbekistan (LDPU). Mirziyoyev was Karimovs loyal ally, but always remained in the shadows. When he became acting president in early September, the public knew exceedingly little about him beyond his past reputation of having treated farmers, governors and ordinary people very harshly. Expectations were fairly low that he would push for political and economic reforms. It is still too early to tell in which direction Mirziyoyev will lead the country, the most populous in Central Asia with more than 31 million people. But there has been some cause for guarded optimism. FIRST CHANGES On December 6, in a surprising and bold move, Mirziyoyev signed a decree scrapping tourist visa requirements for citizens of 27 other nations. It will go into effect on April 1 and allow 30 days of visa-free travel to Uzbekistan for citizens of countries including Australia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. Uzbekistan, with its Silk Road history and ancient cities, has long been Central Asias biggest draw for tourists. However, obtaining a visa to this tightly controlled country has been a cumbersome process. Removing bureaucratic obstacles will indeed contribute to opening the country to the outside world. In fact, during the past three months of his acting presidency, Mirziyoyev has already taken several other measures that broke with longstanding policies. He started out by taking steps towards repairing Uzbekistans deeply strained relations with other Central Asian states, marked by border crossing disputes and skirmishes. There have also been disagreements over cross-border trade as well as water and energy flows. For instance, a longstanding dispute with Kyrgyzstan over border demarcation, which for years had caused bilateral tension and hardship for citizens on both sides, was resolved in just a few weeks. Four Kyrgyz workers detained by Uzbekistan on a stretch of contested border territory were released in September. The following month, a Kyrgyz government delegation visited Andijan and an Uzbek delegation then went to Osh. These talks led to a provisional agreement on non-demarcated sections of the countries joint border. Then, last week, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan signed an agreement to resume flights between Tashkent and Dushanbe for the first time in 24 years. Regular flights are to begin in January. Mirziyoyev has also taken initial steps to boost business, which had been held back by the countrys Soviet-style command economy maintained by Karimov. The national currency, the som, has an overvalued official exchange rate. There is also a thriving black market rate, from which certain members of the Uzbek elite are believed to profit. He recently unveiled a proposal to liberalise the countrys strict currency market, which may reassure much needed foreign investors. Lastly, a few days before the election, political prisoner Samandar Kukanov - who has spent more than 23 years behind bars - was released. OPEN QUESTIONS Although these new developments are clearly positive, there is no certainty at all that Uzbekistan is on the verge of undergoing sustained fundamental changes. Releasing one prominent political prisoner is no indication that one of the worlds most repressive regimes is about to be dismantled. Under Karimov, thousands of people were detained on politically motivated charges. Torture became common in prisons and police stations. Millions of Uzbek citizens, including children, were forced to pick cotton in abysmal conditions. According to Human Rights Watch, it was Mirziyoyev, in charge of agriculture, who used to make sure the daily production quotas were met. Other issues remain unresolved. The touchy question of the construction of the Rogun dam in Tajikistan, vehemently opposed by Uzbekistan, has not yet been addressed. And as for the detente with Kyrgyzstan, Crisis Group reports that high-ranking Bishkek officials are deeply suspicious and stress the agreements made this autumn are provisional, warning that Uzbekistan could yet renege on them. There is also concern by international observers that the Uzbek government could begin to lose interest in its pre-election initiatives. In Turkmenistan, the thaw that accompanied the transfer of power in 2006 was short-lived. It remains to be seen whether Uzbekistan will be different. Birgit Brauer is an IWPR contributor and was previously its Caucasus editor. She is also a former Central Asia correspondent of The Economist. This publication was produced under IWPR project Strengthening Capacities, Bridging Divides in Central Asia, funded by the Foreign Ministry of Norway.
New U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt has reversed most of an economic package announced by the government just weeks ago, including a planned cut in income taxes. Hunt said Monday he was scrapping almost all the tax cuts announced last month by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, and also signaled that public spending cuts are on the way. It was a bid to soothe turbulent financial markets spooked by fears of excessive government borrowing. The move raises questions about how long the beleaguered prime minister can stay in office, though Truss insisted she has no plans to quit. She vowed to lead the Conservatives into the next general election, but many in the party want her gone.
Travelers heading south on Interstate 95 for the holidays this year have a brand-new facility at which to stretch their legs, charge their mobile devices, refill their water bottles and purchase healthy snacks.

The safety rest area at mile marker 107, just south of the Ladysmith exit in Caroline County, reopened Wednesday after a $3.5 million upgrade.

Im very glad to officially open this rest area, Virginia Department of Transportation Commissioner Charles Kilpatrick said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. It is replacing an aging, antiquated facility.

Construction began in April as part of an $11.6 million project to rebuild three of the oldest and most heavily-used rest areas off I-95 in Virginia. The southbound facility at Ladysmith is the first to reopen. The other two, off I-95 northbound at Ladysmith and I-95 northbound at Skippers in Greensville County near the North Carolina border, are slated to open in February and March 2017, respectively.

According to VDOT, the Ladysmith rest area is visited by an estimated 4,000 people a day, which adds up to 1.4 million visitors annually.

Kilpatrick said VDOT was so determined to open the rest area before the holiday travel crush that it offered contractor Loughridge and Co. a $350,000 incentive to finish construction ahead of schedule, which it did.

Even with the incentive money, the project came in under budget.

That is going to be a model for how we will continue to build, Kilpatrick said.

The rest area opened in 1968 and was 1,336 square feet. The new facility, which is fully accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act and LEED-certified, is vastly expanded at 9,400 square feet.

Everything was built with the comfort of the traveler, durability and ease of cleaning in mind, said Martin Krebs, program manager for VDOTs safety rest area program.

The number of toilets increased from 15 to 42 and there are child-sized fixtures and changing tables in both the mens and womens restrooms. There is a family restroom; a seated area for charging mobile devices, with nine outlets and 18 USB ports; and a water-bottle filling station, which had already dispensed enough water to fill 152 plastic bottles by Wednesdays ceremony.

Ten vending machines sell fresh food items and bottled Starbucks Frappuccinos 24 hours a day. Occupancy sensors in the LED light fixtures adjust the level of lighting in the building according to how many people are there.

We tried to source Virginia materials and products as much as possible, Krebs said, pointing out the benches in front of the facility, which were made in Roanoke.

Virginia State Police will also maintain an office in the facility.

Stephan Hassler was traveling from Long Island, N.Y., to Tallahassee, Fla., Tuesday morning. He happened to stop off at the rest area and was partaking in hot cider and cookies provided by VDOT for the grand opening.

Its beautiful, really nice, he said of the new facility.

The bathrooms are great! said Barbara White of Ithaca, N.Y., who was on her way to visit her parents in Florida for the holiday.

This building should last at least for the next 50 years, Kilpatrick said.
Charles CJ James Haase has no memory of the Aug. 17, 2015, car accident that left him in a coma for several weeks.

No memory of slamming head-on into a tree or his front wheel flying through the air and landing 50 feet away from his crumpled GMC Yukon.

No memory of rescuers arriving, fighting to free him from the wreckage, calling for a helicopter.

No memory of paramedics struggling to fit him with a ventilator tube because of the severity of his facial and head trauma.

No memory of the flight to the intensive care unit or the team there fighting to save his life.

The 19-year-old remembers only the 16 months of recovery that followed, first in Inova Fairfax Hospitals intensive care unit, then at the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation facility in Atlanta. A severe brain injury forced him to relearn even basic functions.

FILLING IN THE GAPS

On Saturday, he and his family had a chance to thank the first responders at Stafford County Fire & Rescue and PHI Air Medical AirCare who freed him from the wreckage and airlifted him to Inova Fairfax Hospital.

Following a hearty meal of pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, macaroni and cheese and homemade desserts, the group gathered on the large brown couch in the Haase familys living room.

The comfortable setting served as a stark contrast to the harrowing event they were about to discuss. Speaking to CJ directly, several representatives of Stafford County Fire & Rescue, one member of PHI Air Medical AirCare and members of CJs family told him about the events he could not remember.

IT WASNT LOOKING GOOD

Several units from Stafford Fire & Rescue had responded to a fire on Dent Road near the Stafford Courthouse area about 5 a.m. that Aug. 17, said Joe Grainger, assistant fire and EMS chief. It was the departments first call of the day, and he recalls that his units parked at a church nearby.

That put them close to Marlborough Point Road, where CJ would hit a tree within two hours, the same road where he and his family live. Many of the responders were still working the fire about 7 a.m., when the accident was reported, so a Brooke Fire Station unit was only 3.5 miles away.

Rosanna Lonzo, a former firefighter and paramedic who helped CJ on the day of the accident, remembers that the front wheel had blown off the car. It was found 50 feet from crash site.

Rescuers didnt even realize that CJ was still in the vehicle until witnesses told them.

When they found CJ inside the GMC Yukon, he was pushed up against the steering wheel. The airbag had deployed, but the force of the vehicles impact into the tree had caused the front of the car to push into the dash, leaving CJ pinned inside with severe facial trauma. It took fifteen minutes and four responders to free him in a process that included cutting off the seat belt he was wearing.

He was unconscious and gasping. Rescuers recognized it as agonal breathing, a bad sign. They immediately requested a helicopter.

Amy Cantwell, flight paramedic, was on the helicopter that landed in a nearby field to transport CJ. Cantwell remembers it was the last call PHI Air Medical had received that day. She and the other paramedics struggled to fit a tube attached to a ventilator for CJ due to his facial and head trauma, and were unsure of his age, which was 17 at the time.

RACING TO FAIRFAX

Mary Washington Hospital was not able to treat facial or pediatric trauma, so they decided to airlift him to Inova Fairfax.

Once CJ had been taken to Fairfax, a state trooper notified his mother, Lori, about the accident, drove her to where it happened, then left her alone. She remembers seeing the site of the accident and being too distraught to explain what had happened when she called her husband, Tres, and daughter, Maison.

She remembers Grainger, the assistant fire and EMS chief, coming up beside her and reassuring her everything would be OK. She was grateful for the emotional support, but she, her family and the first responders were disheartened after receiving news from the intensive care unit.

Doctors didnt know whether CJ would survive the night. Once he pulled through, he had to be placed in a medically induced coma. His brain injury was so severe that he could be in a permanent vegetative state.

Cantwell, the flight paramedic, remembered the range of emotions she and other first responders experienced that day. The intense morning of the accident, relief after flying CJ to intensive care and his response to the ventilator after having it successfully installed on the helicopter, then hearing the doctors grim report.

It was somber, Cantwell said, I was thinking that it wasnt looking good.

A MIRACULOUS REVERSAL

Cantwell, Lonzo and the other first responders may not have ever heard about CJs incredible reversal had it not been for social media.

Cantwell and Lonzo, who knew each other, were surprised to see the Facebook page Prayers for CJ Haase, which currently has 1,180 likes and 1,164 followers. They joked that they had become Facebook stalkers, keeping track of each update and growing more and more hopeful as the page documented what ended up to be a miraculous turn of events.

CJ was still in intensive care, but the hospital and his family worked to give him every opportunity he needed to come out of the coma. He was accepted into the Shepherd Centers Disorders of Consciousness Program. Staff at the center believed that with rigorous rehabilitation, CJ could recover. CJ and his family were transported to Georgia less than a month after the accident, and within two weeks of staying at the center, CJ was out of the coma.

Then recovery began. CJ had to relearn basic functions, like swallowing, talking and walking, that most people take for granted. He had to pass rigorous tests, but put in the work and took each test in stride.

His determination paid off. He spent close to five months, including his 18th birthday, in different rehabilitation training locations within the Shepherd Center. His recovery was so rapid he was able to return to his Stafford home for Christmas 2015 and stay home permanently by January, to finish his recovery there. CJs grandparents said he became the poster patient for the center in more ways than one. An image of CJ with a dog is currently on a pair of elevator doors at Shepherd Pathways, its outpatient rehabilitation program.

Now, CJ is quickly becoming able to do all of the things he did before the accident, and more. He takes guitar lessons, can drive if a family member is with him and will graduate from high school at the end of this school year.

I didnt want to stay [at the Shepherd Center] forever, CJ said, so I worked really hard to pass the tests.

He says his memory is not as good as it was, and he has not been able to return to the motocross racing he enjoyed before the accident. But his determination and resiliency have taken him far, and hes working to put the accident and its effects behind him.

Im looking forward to being a regular citizen again, he said.

His family invited the first responders to their home to thank them for saving him the day of the accident, and the lighthearted afternoon served as an emotional reminder of how differently the accident could have ended.

I hope you guys know how much we appreciate everything that you do, mom Lori said.

The family and responders still dont know what caused the accident. But everyone is grateful for CJs recovery.

All of the responders present on the day of CJs accident received awards from Stafford County Fire & Rescue. Cantwell invited the responders and CJs family to a conference with AirCare in March. He, his family and the responders were honored.

Responders also gave CJ two patches from the department and a challenge coin.

Lieutenant Sean Seawell, who helped rescue CJ the day of the accident, said first responders are used to expecting the worst. They are as much in awe of CJs story as his family.

We dont see this kind of outcome, Seawell said. This is just as amazing to us as it is to you.
AT the National Constitution Center, we love all of the Bill of Rights amendments equally. But if I had to pick one amendment that gave rise to all the others, it would be the Fourth.

Thats because the controversy that gave rise to the Fourth Amendment sparked the American Revolution, which in turn led to the Constitutional Convention and the ultimate adoption of the Bill of Rights.

The controversy in question involved the hated writs of assistance that allowed King Georges agents to break into the homes of colonists in Boston and elsewhere looking for evidence of failure to pay the hated taxes that led to the Boston Tea Party. After James Otis denounced the writs of assistance in a famous speech in Boston in 1761, John Adams, who heard the speech, said it was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there, the child Independence was born.

In a related case in England, King George issued a general warrant authorizing his agents to break into the homes of British subjects to identify the author of North Briton 45, an anonymous pamphlet criticizing the king. The fishing expedition eventually revealed the British rabble-rousing dissenter John Wilkes as the author of the pamphlet.

Wilkes was accused of seditious libelthat is, criticizing the kingbut a jury acquitted him and awarded him lavish damages. The landmark decision, handed down by Lord Camden, came to stand for the proposition that unregulated searches of peoples houses and private papers violated the fundamental rights of all free people. And the Wilkes decision was so galvanizing for the American colonists that they named towns across the Eastern seaboardfrom Camden, N.J., to WilkesBarre, Pa.in honor of the case.

In the 20th century, the Supreme Court struggled to translate the values of the Fourth Amendment in an age of new technologies. In the 1928 Olmstead case, a 5-4 decision by Chief Justice William Howard Taft held that the Fourth Amendment didnt apply to wiretapping because the government was able to eavesdrop on the telephone conversations of a suspected bootlegger without physically trespassing on his private property.

In a visionary dissenting opinion, Justice Louis D. Brandeis cited James Otis denunciation of the writs of assistance, which he said were a lesser intrusion than wiretapping, which could invade the privacy of people on both ends of the telephone. In a prophetic passage, he then seemed to anticipate the age of cyberspace and cloud computing, where digital papers could be stored outside the home.

Ways may someday be developed by which the Government, without removing papers from secret drawers, can reproduce them in court, and by which it will be enabled to expose to a jury the most intimate occurrences of the home, Brandeis wrote.

He then looked forward to an age of FMRI brain scans that can invade cognitive liberty. Advances in the psychic and related sciences may bring means of exploring unexpressed beliefs, thoughts, and emotions.

To Lord Camden, the judge in the Wilkes case, Brandeis noted, a far slighter intrusion seemed subversive of all the comforts of society.

Can it be that the Constitution affords no protection against such invasions of individual security?

The great Fourth Amendment controversies of the 21st century involve the future of privacy in a digital age. Can the government access digital papers stored on iPhones or in third-party databases in the digital cloud?

In an inspiring and unanimous decision in 2014, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court that the police cannot search a cellphone without a warrant when they arrest a suspect because a cellphone contains so much private information. Roberts, like Brandeis, cited James Otis speech denouncing the writs of assistance and suggested that the Fourth Amendment had to be construed to protect our digital papers and effects.

The Supreme Court is only beginning to address the challenges of 21st-century digital privacy. It hasnt yet ruled squarely whether the government can track all of our movements in public places, for example, by following us with tiny drone-mounted cameras, or seizing the geo-locational information from our cellphones, without a warrant.

However you come down on the most hotly contested questions involving digital privacy, its inspiring that all of the justices of the Supreme Court are determined to translate the Fourth Amendment so it protects as much privacy in the 21st century as Americans demanded when they ratified the Bill of Rights 225 years ago this month.

Jeffrey Rosen is president and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and the author of Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet. He wrote this for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Highlands Cooling Announce Grand Opening Of Nashville HVAC Repair Business On January 1st 2017

With the new year comes a brand-new business in Nashville: Highlands Cooling Company, which is already doing business ahead of the grand opening of their operations in 2017.

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With winter approaching, integrated heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems come under more strain than at any other time of year, making it essential for home and business owners to ensure they are well maintained and serviced. Highlands Cooling is a newly formed business, created by experienced HVAC professionals looking to provide a better service to more people than ever. The new company is opening up in the greater Nashville area to offer specialist HVAC repair, installation, and facilitation. The new business offices will begin taking orders on Jan 1st 2017, while the staff are already hard at work in preparation for the grand opening.

The company has already landed a major contract, completing installations in over 600 new homes for the start of 2017. They have been able to hit the ground running because they provide top of the line units at competitive prices, with unbeatable installation expertise, and a commitment to providing an outstanding customer experience.

The company has launched a new website with a full breakdown of their available services, together with information on the team, and contact details for a free initial consultation. The business offers affordable upgrades, and will even provide attractive HVAC financing to make comfort more accessible than ever.

A spokesperson for Highlands Cooling Company explained, "We are thrilled to be launching this new business venture in Nashville, and we can't wait for the preparations to be completed, which we will open to the public on 1st of January. People can contact us and talk about their needs, see our technicians and available systems, and request services and repairs. This is an exciting time for us, and we look forward to helping people maintain, repair and upgrade their HVAC systems in Nashville and the surrounding areas."

About Highlands Cooling: Highlands Cooling is a new business founded by a team of HVAC specialists, each having over 20 years of experience within the HVAC industry. They service the greater middle Tennessee communities, and will open their doors in the new year to take on more customers than ever, fulfilling all their repair, installation and maintenance needs.

For more information, please visit http://highlandscooling.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Anthony Gillion

Email: Anthony@highlandscooling.com

Organization: Highlands Cooling Company

Address: 375 Abbie Rd Murfreesboro, TN 37128

Phone: 615-606-2665 (615-606-COOL)

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/highlands-cooling-announce-grand-opening-of-nashville-hvac-repair-business-on-january-1st-2017/156108

Release ID: 156108

For more information visit r



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ePharmacies.com Announces Huge Savings on Narrow Therapeutic Index (NTI) Drugs From Canadian Pharmacies

An average savings of 80% from safe, licensed Canadian pharmacies

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Today, ePharmacies has announced an average savings of 80% for Narrow Therapeutic Index (NTI) Drugs from safe and licensed Canadian pharmacies. ePharmacies.com helps consumers find "traditionally expensive" name brand drugs at much more affordable prices than patients would normally be charged from their U.S. pharmacies.

U.S. insurance companies push generic drugs, which are "required" to use the same active ingredient found in brand name equivalents. Generics often contain completely different binders, fillers and colors. This can cause serious problems for people who are allergic or highly sensitive to these unknown ingredients. If the insurance companies give generics as the only option under prescription policies, the patient is not guaranteed to get the medicine they really need, because generic manufacturing cuts corners and does not manufacture the same exact formula.

According to experts, "The FDA has a peculiar philosophy about drug importation. It allows pharmacy chains, drug wholesalers, big box discount drug stores and nursing homes to purchase drugs from all over the world. Most generic drugs are imported, with China and India supplying both raw materials and finished pills. There have been many issues regarding fraud and quality control at so many of these foreign plants. However, if a U.S. resident tries to buy brand name medications directly from Canadian online pharmacies, the FDA claims that this is dangerous."

When U.S. residents purchase brand name medicine from a legitimate Canadian pharmacy, the savings can be huge. Analysis of drug prices in New York City, compared to pricing at Canadian online pharmacies, revealed that the average savings was 81% when brand name drugs were purchased in Canada. The heart drug Lanoxin (digoxin) represented the greatest savings, 94%. The drug is marketed by a different pharmaceutical company from the one in the U.S., but it is truly the same, exact drug.

Drugs such as Tegretol, Cleocin, Catapres and Lanoxin are considered part of a "narrow therapeutic index," (NTI) drugs. This means the safe dose that works must be precise. This is why it is crucial that patients get a reliable dose that poses no risk of quality control problems or dosage variability, and that is why generics sold in the U.S. can be much more risky than a proper brand-name drug. The FDA's standards on generic medications have historically been lax, and patients may have an adverse reaction from being forced to take generics. This is why responsible physicians specify only the brand name product for NTI medications.

ePharmacies.com supports the staggering number of U.S. residents who absolutely can not afford their critical prescriptions. So many people want the option to order their medications online, yet come up against perceived safety issues instead of buying "safer, regulated" prescription drugs from a certified U.S. pharmacy. The online marketplace is complex and misperception has lead to accepting these unfair marketplace prescription rules, hindering the public access to affordable medication for those who really need it most. The Internet community must push back against powerful pharmaceutical industry lobbying, greedy insurance companies and Internet censorship.

For more information visit https://epharmacies.com/faqs.

END

# # #

For more information, please visit http://www.ePharmacies.com

Contact Info:

Name: Cary Byrd

Organization: ePharmacies

Address: 1207 Breeze Way #101 Boerne, TX 78006

Phone: (210) 789-2973

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/epharmacies-com-announces-huge-savings-on-narrow-therapeutic-index-nti-drugs-from-canadian-pharmacies/156065

Release ID: 156065

For more information visit r



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Kenny Slaught - Endorses the Launch of New EMDR Therapy at Hospice of Santa Barbara

Called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), the modality has been used effectively to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

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Preeminent leader in charity endeavours, Kenny Slaught has lately drawn upon the new state-of-the-art therapy available for veterans at Hospice of Santa Barbara on his blog at KennySlaught.com. Called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), the modality has been used effectively to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The therapy uses eye movements in a unique way to process trauma and reframe the raw, vivid imagery associated with it in the hippocampus. As a result, the brain "re-files" the painful memory and individuals can deal with the trauma in a more objective manner.

"The professionals at Hospice of Santa Barbara strive to provide the highest level of service to clients by offering effective, cutting-edge therapies," Kenny Slaught writes, praising the organization. "Dealing with grief and loss is extremely difficult, but a new therapy has emerged to help individuals through difficult times." People with PTSD experience overwhelming and painful emotions whenever they remember a past trauma. Those dealing with loss and grief often have similar reactions to emotional triggers. With EMDR, these negative emotions can be mitigated. EMDR involves the use of dual stimulation--both bilateral eye movements and tones or taps. During the therapy, clients recall past traumas in a safe environment while focusing on an external stimulus, the tone or tap. Practitioners then help clients find insight about the difficult emotions and make more positive associations with current triggers.

Multiple Hospice of Santa Barbara counsellors have effectively integrated EMDR into treatment plans after becoming certified in the cutting-edge therapy. As a result of the therapy, many clients have reported greater feelings of ease and comfort than they experienced with talk therapy alone. EMDR does not replace the need for talk therapy, but rather serves as an important complement for clients with particularly difficult grief or trauma. Kenny Slaught urges all interested individuals to "learn more about EMDR and other therapies offered through the hospice online at HospiceOfSantaBarbara.org or by calling the organization directly at (805) 563-8820."

Founder of Investec Real Estate Companies, Kenny Slaught has been in the industry for more than four decades. A dedicated investment strategist, he manages more than 3 million square feet of property throughout California. With total transactions valued above $1.2 billion, Investec has grown to become one of Santa Barbara's leading real estate firms. An avid philanthropist, Mr. Slaught is involved with many non-profit and community organizations, including Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation and the Music Academy of the West. Contributing to the benefit of youth in the area, he dedicates considerable time to these and other worthy causes.

Kenny Slaught - Founder & President of Investec Real Estate Companies: http://kennyslaughtnews.com

Kenny Slaught - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KennethSlaught

Kenny Slaught California Real Estate Benefiting from Technology Based Investing: http://kennyslaughtnews.com/2016/09/20/kenny-slaught-california-real-estate-benefiting-technology-based-investing/

For more information, please visit http://www.KennySlaughtNews.com

Contact Info:

Name: KSN

Email: kenny@kennyslaughtnews.com

Organization: KennySlaughtNews.com



Source: http://marketersmedia.com/kenny-slaught-endorses-the-launch-of-new-emdr-therapy-at-hospice-of-santa-barbara/156133

Release ID: 156133

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Great Earth Expeditions Plans To Expand Their Tour Operations To Places Outside Canada

After 10 years of offering eco tours in Nova Scotia, the Great Earth Expeditions team is now planning international eco-tour packages to Scotland, Iceland, and other countries.

--

Ryan Barry of the Great Earth Expedition team has announced that they're now planning to introduce ecotourism packages to lesser traveled regions around the world.

"We are currently working with our contacts in Scotland, Iceland, Peru and Costa Rica to explore adventure tour opportunities in these countries. These tours will be designed to be 7- 10 days all-inclusive packages wherein travelers get to reconnect with nature and understand the culture of the place they're visiting," he says. Great Earth Expeditions have been successfully planning Nova Scotia vacations for more than a decade.

The tour packages will include nature trails, adventure activities, and sampling some of the unique local cuisines. "Some of the attractions on the tour would include trekking to Machu Picchu, hiking the trails of Scotland's rugged terrian, or sampling the Nordic cuisine in Iceland," adds Ryan.

Great Earth Expeditions has been organizing eco-tours in Nova Scotia with trips to Lunenburg, Bay of Fundy, Peggy's Cove and Cape Breton. "A majority of our trails are family friendly, some are for the adventurous at heart," he adds.

About Great Earth Expeditions:

Great Earth Expeditions is a Canada-based adventure tour travel operator offering eco tours in Nova Scotia for more than a decade. They arrange adventure based activities like hiking, trekking, and kayaking.

For more information, please visit http://www.greatearthexpeditions.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Ryan Barry

Organization: Great E.A.R.T.H. Expeditions

Address: 1 David Drive, Lawrence town, Nova Scotia B2Z 1R7, Canada

Phone: 1-902-223-2409

Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Thd97_Ttg

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/great-earth-expeditions-plans-to-expand-their-tour-operations-to-places-outside-canada/156156

Release ID: 156156

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Marketing Company Launches Innovative Website Service to Benefit Business Owners

Cincinnati based Intercept Marketing, LLC is launching an innovative website design and hosting service with the goal of alleviating many of the problems experienced by business owners.

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Intercept Marketing LLC, a Cincinnati based marketing company, has launched a new program to benefit business owners. The objective of the program is to fill a need the company believes is currently lacking, while increasing business visibility and cash flow.

In today's business world, it's generally recognized that having a company website is essential, whether to attract customers, sell products or services, or to just afford the company credibility as a legitimate business.

Said Ben Hanania, company SEO "The vast majority of business owners, while experts in their own field, have very little expertise when it comes to creating a website for their company, and so must hire someone to do it for them."

He went on to say "While there are plenty of companies out there who are ready to create and host a website for the business owner, the problem arises when he/she wishes to retain ownership of their site's content, and the domain name on which it resides. Many design and hosting company insists on retaining ownership themselves, essentially holding the business owner 'hostage'."

He added "So what happens when the business owner no longer wishes to continue paying the sometimes exorbitant monthly hosting and site maintenance fees? It's 'Bye bye website!' along with all the content on it, as well as the domain name itself."

Rick Barron, Chief Relationship Officer added "There are just too few services out there that will build, customize, maintain, and periodically update a website for the business owner, while allowing him/her the option of owning the domain name and maintaining full control over the content. And even the few that do, in most cases provide very poor support, slow response times, and charge unreasonably high fees to make minor changes and updates to the site."

The new service being offered by Intercept Marketing includes designing a new, mobile friendly website for the business owner, customizing the site for his/her individual needs, hosting the site, providing a high level of security against hacking attempts, and updating and making ongoing minor changes at no additional charge.

Once initial web design fees have been satisfied, the business owner can transfer the domain name to his/her own domain registrar account, and retain full ownership of the domain name and website content if they so wish. At that point, he/she will have the option of discontinuing the monthly service and the accompanying fees, or retaining hosting, site maintenance, and website security services for a nominal monthly investment.

To learn more about Intercept Marketing and the new service being offered, visit: http://WebsiteRelease.com

Or contact: Rick Barron Intercept Marketing, LLC 270 Northland Blvd. Suite 209 Cincinnati, OH 45246 Phone (888) 748-4707

For more information, please visit http://websiterelease.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Rick Barron

Email: Rick@InterceptMarketing.com

Organization: Intercept Marketing, LLC

Address: 270 Northland Blvd. Suite 209, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45246 United States

Phone: +18887484707

Release ID: 156058

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Tesla Latest News & Update: Idling Car Owners Face Supercharger Idle Fee; Faraday Future Strong Rival In 2017?

Tesla will soon implement fines to vehicle owners who leave their cars at the charging station for more than the needed time. The supercharger idle fee is to prevent some Tesla car owner to use the charging stations as parking spaces.

In a recent press release, Tesla announced that the vehicle owners who leave their cars in the docks will receive an idle fee of $0.40 cents for every minute when the battery gets nearly or fully charged. The said fee is aimed at discouraging these drivers to use the stations as parking lots, which is reportedly a clear misuse of the intended purpose.

The vehicle owners will be able to track their car's battery status through the Tesla smartphone app. As explained by Tesla, the plan is not a profiteering scheme, but a way to increase the customer satisfaction.

Meantime, Tesla also aims at enabling vehicles to unplug itself from the charging stations in the future, as the company continues to develop and move to completely autonomous the vehicles. Such ability is expected to be both time and cost-efficient for the vehicle owners. For now, Tesla car owners who will be fined are reported to be notified through alerts and will be billed when a visit to the service center is required.

Tesla supercharger idle spots are reportedly free in some areas, but the "idle-free" will still be implemented. A completed list of fees can be found on the official website of Tesla, according to report.

Meanwhile, Tesla has another rival coming in 2017. While no longer new to Tesla, the rival company is reported to be more aggressive in the run-up to the launch of its first electric vehicle. Faraday Future, which is the stealthy electric vehicle startup from California, has reportedly released a teaser video, creating anticipation for the rumored debut next month.

Based on the new video, Tesla's rival electric SUV model vehicle is believed to beat Tesla Model X in a drag race with much ease. In fact, Faraday Future's EV is rumored to be a high-end luxury vehicle and likely aimed at competing with Tesla Model X, Techno Buffalo reported. Watch Supercharger hog penalty - $0.40/min
Xbox One Backwards Compatibility Latest News & Update: 23 Titles Before 2017; New Modern Warfare Remastered Content, Subject 13 Included

Xbox One Backwards Compatibility program has included more than 14 new games so far. That said, Microsoft seems to have aimed at ending the 2016 on a high, adding nine new Xbox One Backwards Compatibility games.

The new Xbox One Backwards Compatibility titles, however, will be the last to be revealed in 2016, as confirmed by Xbox's Larry Hryb. These are "Planets Under Attack," "Raskulls," "Bully Scholarship Edition," and "Catherine." Also, "CLANNAD" (Japan only) and "Skydive" are included.

Xbox One Games with Gold has also received its last refresh prior the January 2017 announcement. New games reportedly launched in Dec. 16 such as "Burnout Paradise" on Xbox 360 and "Outlast" on Xbox One, can now be downloaded and played on the Xbox One because of the Xbox One Backwards Compatibility program.

Meantime, "Modern Warfare Remastered" for Xbox One has also been given a huge update, with two new game modes - Hardpoint and Gun Game, and six new maps such as Countdown, Pipeline, Wet Work, Bloc, Strike and Showdown. A new range of new content has reportedly been launched as well by Raven Software after the last original maps were released.

Xbox One's "Modern Warfare Remastered" will also begin to receive a new range of content as confirmed by the development team. However, no further details have been revealed yet, according to Express.

Meanwhile, a new Xbox One title has reportedly been developed by Paul Cuisset. The new Xbox One title "Subject 13" will be arriving to the said console in Dec. 20. The new title, which is published by the French publisher Microids, is an adventure game that increases its difficulty level as the players advance in the story.

Xbox One user will take the role of physics professor Franklin Fargo in "Subject 13", whose fiancee Sophie has been killed, prompting him to live an isolated life. The professor will then wake up in a scientific underground plant, and will plan for an escape and discover the reason for his imprisonment, True Achievements reported. Watch Xbox one: December update 2016 and more on the way
Apple Latest News & Updates: Apple Reportedly Hires Alexander Hitzinger Of Porsche To Work On Project Titan

Alexander Hitzinger, the head of Porsche's race program was reportedly took in to work on Apple's "Project Titan" car program in the spring of 2016. The German engineer is expected to do wonders for Apple's upcoming car projects, as initially reported by Manager Magazin.

German Engineer Moves from Porsche to Apple

Reuters reported that Hitzinger initially transferred from Porsche to a technology company in San Francisco in April 2016 to work on a project that has a significant and direct impact on society. Apple has recently been collecting various automotive specialists as it boosts efforts to build its own car.

Apple may have tapped Hitzinger for his years of experience with lightweight carbon fiber manufacturing, electric power delivery and energy recovery in the motorsport business. Hitzinger is also knowledgeable in creating a fully new technologically advanced program from nothing, similar to his work at Porsche.

Apple Insider wrote that Hitzinger worked as Head of Advanced Technologies for Red Bull Technology from 2006 to 2011. In 2011, Porsche hired him to become technical director of their LMP1 program. Hitzinger and his team worked on the 919 hybrid racer, which eventually won Le Mans overall in its second and third year. Fans were actually surprised that he moved on to Apple, although the engineer apparently has more sentimental reasons for the transfer.

What Apple is Working On

Hitzinger's project in Apple has not been confirmed, although many speculate that he is focusing on Project Titan, the company's electric car program. Apple is also eyeing on making its own self-driving vehicle. Regardless of which project Hitzinger is currently working, Apple is expected to feature a product that showcases the engineer's true talents. More updates and details are expected soon. If Apple successfully comes up with its own driverless car, it may also work with their augmented reality program.

Apple's Project Titan seemed to have been struggling since September 2016. The company's top executives were allegedly disappointed with the slow progress of the project, resulting to several employees getting fired. Insiders claim that Apple is moving away from developing its own self-driving vehicle to the creation of an autonomous vehicle software and supporting hardware.
NVIDIAGeForce GTX 1080 Ti Latest News & Update: NVIDIA Confirms GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Pascal Enthusiast 4K Graphics Card; GTX 980 Ti Owners To Avail Pre-Order & Step Up Offers

NVIDIA confirmed the upcoming GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Pascal Enthusiast 4K Graphics Card in a post on LinkedIn. GTX 980 Ti Enthusiast owners will be given a special deal prior to the product's official launching.

It is a general knowledge that NVIDIA is launching their brand new GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card. The confirmation from NVIDIA comes in the form of a Job Posting at LinkedIn. The post not only exposes the name of the card but also the target market and a special deal for GTX 980 Ti owners that come along with it, says Wccftech.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti: Special Deal For GTX 980 Ti Enthusiasts Owners

The special deal to be rewarded to GTX 980 Ti Enthusiast owners include free game codes will be rewarded for users who report a verified bug or give useful feature enhancement requests. In addition, game codes will also be given to most users in GeForce Forum as well as those with the most number of shares. Game codes will also be given to users who rank most negative and most positive on our sentiment tools. To top it all, 980 Ti users get first priority in line for 1080 Ti pre-orders, or Step Up offer, says PCWorld.

As of this writing, no verified information was released yet if these will be offered exclusively by NVIDIA or other AIB partners would follow. EVGA has also a step up program for their cards so it is to be expected that some partners would offer similar deals.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti: The Ultimate GeForce Gaming Solution For 4K Titles

GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card will be another GeForce solution operating the NVIDIA GP102 GPU, next to GeForce GTX Titan X Pascal. With Vega aiming to launch in the first quarter of 2017, NVIDIA could try to juice out as much power out of the GP102 GPU and create a similar scenario to 980 Ti against the Fury X. The GTX 980 Ti is an overall better solution for gamers as evaluated in most reviews compared to AMD's enthusiast offering. Even with GDDR5 memory, the solution bested and had better efficiency matched to the HBM 1 based Fury X with Fiji GPU.
Nokia Latest News & Update: Latest Nokia C1 Renders Hints Of A Classic-Shaped, Daydream Ready, Dual-Camera Smartphone

Nokia is planning to return to the smartphone industry with a couple of new smartphones flagships. The Finnish smartphone maker is anticipated to display its first products at Mobile World Congress in February. A recent leak from a Chinese website has people guessing that one of the devices could be the Nokia C1.

Nokia C1 has now appeared on Weibo and shows a rather uncommon design. The designs show Nokia C1 to feature metal unibody design with a large prominent display. The smartphone also seem to remove the physical home button. It has a front camera and a sensor placed in between a large speaker grille. A similar speaker outline at the lowermost edge of the screen as well.

The smartphone also appears to have buttons positioned at the right-hand side of the device. It is indistinct whether these buttons are capacitive or physical ones. The front camera is a modest 5MP. Stimulatingly, the render clues at the device embracing dual back camera mechanism with LED flash located on either side of the camera. The smartphone displays a combination of 16 + 12MP rear camera setup with triple LED flash assisting low light photography and Xenon flash.

In addition, the leaked images also reveal that Qualcomm Snapdragon 830 processor will run the smartphone. It also has 4GB DDR4 RAM and options of 32/64/128GB storage. The smartphone houses a 3210mAh battery and runs Android 7.1 Nougat. Paired with next-generation hardware and the cutting-edge OS update would connote that the forthcoming Nokia flagship will be Daydream ready.

Further, Nokia C1 utilizes USB-C port for charging and data. There also appears to be a 3.5mm audio jack. If these renders turn out to be accurate then we are certainly looking at one smooth and hot-selling Android smartphone in 2017, says Wccftech.
Samsung Galaxy S8 Could Come With an LG Battery

Samsung Galaxy S8 is now scheduled for release sometime in 2017 and news about its specs and features are now circulating online. One of it is Samsung opting to use batteries from LG for S8. Reports claim the company is not risking of making the same mistake with Samsung Note 7 so they decided to talk with LG for possibly supplying batteries for their unit.

Samsung Galaxy S8 Talks with LG

According to reports, Samsung is already negotiating with LG to supply batteries for Samsung Galaxy S8 and things are looking good. Although LG and Samsung have not confirmed the news, they didnt deny it either. And if everything goes as planned, LG could already start supplying the batteries by the second half of 2017.

If this news is correct, Samsung Galaxy S8 could arrive in the last quarter of 2017 or even later if the company needs more time to test the batteries. It takes at least 6 months to complete battery testing where Samsung is expected to implement more carefully this time after the Note 7 scandal.

Samsung Note 7 Scandal

It can be remembered that Samsung Note 7 that was launched earlier this year was recalled due to faulty batteries. Many reports from consumers have reported the unit to explode unexpectedly which caused airplanes prohibiting passengers from bringing it on board. Today, Samsung has announced it will release an update that will make the unit useless to prevent any further accidents with it.

According to a Samsung executive, the company avoided purchasing products from other company like LG because of pride but they are now willing to compromise in order to make thing work for Samsung Galaxy S8. "But we can no longer let our emotions get in the way and we need to make decisions based on business feasibility." He said.
Samsung Latest News & Update: Samsung Reportedly Planning To Use Rival LG Batteries In Future Phones

There's a big possibility that Samsung fans could see LG batteries in their Samsung phones by the second half of 2017, one tipster says. There is a strong chance consumers might see one starting in the Note 7's successor and not on the Galaxy S8 since it usually takes at least six months to design, manufacture and test batteries that go into new smartphones. Apparently, Samsung plans to use batteries from LG Chemical in smartphones beginning next year in a deal that could break decades of bitter deadlock between the two multinationals.

A Strong Chance LG Will Start Supplying Smartphone Batteries To Samsung

The Korean tech giant has been in talks with the largest Korean chemical company since it had to stop using batteries from its own affiliate Samsung SDI after the debacle surrounding the combustible Galaxy Note 7 phone in October. According to Reuters, Samsung is determined to avoid another Galaxy Note 7-style disaster, and that may lead it to make strange bedfellows. Sources from ChosunIlbo claim that Samsung is in serious talks with LG Chem about using its Korean arch-rival's batteries in smartphones.

LG And Samsung To Seal A Historic Battery Deal

Rivals Samsung and LG have not commented on the rumors, so it's important to take the report with a grain of salt despite " very productive talks", shares an industry insider. Nonetheless, the supplier shift reportedly reflects a fundamental change in attitude at Samsung, which has suffered both a bruised ego and financial damage as a result of the Note 7 mess.

The electronics giant can no longer afford to let "emotions get in the way," an undisclosed executive tells Chosunilbo- it's not worth jeopardizing products simply to be vindictive with LG. Between this and a recent switch to LG for LCDs as prompted after Japan's Sharp decided to stop supplying it, Samsung may no longer be so proud that it risks hurting itself to hurt its competitors, cites Engadget.
"Samsung Galaxy Note 7" Latest News & Update: Korean Tech Giant Looking At Rival To Supply Smartphone Batteries Following Explosions

Samsung, one of the world's largest smartphone makers, isn't one to back down to any of its competitors. Yet, with the disastrous consequences of the battery explosions on the Galaxy Note 7, the Korean tech giant might just ask one of its rivals to supply batteries for its next-generation smartphones.

A report from Reuters disclosed that Samsung is planning to tap the services of LG, one of its fiercest domestic rivals, for smartphone battery supplies. Currently, the company sources its batteries from two companies: Samsung SDI and Amperex Technology.

The report further specified that a potential deal is 90% close to becoming reality, with an industry official noting that both Samsung and LG are seemingly leaning towards sealing an agreement. Should both parties put pen on paper on the agreement, the new supplies may come as early as the second half next year. Yet, both parties have yet to comment on the report, according to Fortune.

It can be recalled that Samsung issued major recalls of the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7, as several instances involving exploding batteries came flooding onto the Korean tech giant's door. The smartphone - introduced as the company's 2016 flagship, turned out to be a massive fire risk, even prompting airliners to ban the smartphone's use or carriage in-flight.

In a bid to solve the problem, Samsung changed its supplier from Samsung SDI to Amperex Technology. Yet, the supplier fix didn't seem to solve the problem, prompting a halt in production of Galaxy Note 7 units when cases of explosions involving the new batteries continued to add to the company's woes.

Moreover, Samsung has reportedly finished its problem on the battery problems involving the Galaxy Note 7. Though the company has yet to release the findings to the public, it still has until the end of the year to fulfill their promise indicated in their apology.

Word on the Galaxy S8, Samsung's upcoming flagship, has been minimal in light of the company's push to guard against leaks ahead of the smartphone's April 2017 release. Watch the BBC's interview with Rita Clifton on the effects of the Galaxy Note 7's battery issue on Samsung's brand image below:
Verizon Deals Latest News & Update: Samsung Galaxy J3 V, LG Stylo 2, K8V No Trade-In Reqs; Net Neutrality Resolution, Priority

Verizon is reportedly offering the Moto Z Play Droid and three other handsets for free without any trade-in requirements. Verizon users may claim the free phones as part of a 24-month lock-in period with the company. In addition, Verizon is also aiming to drop the net neutrality investigation before Trump takes on the presidency.

Verizon Is Offering Samsung Galaxy J3 V, LG Stylo 2, LG K8V In 24-month Period

It should be noted that Verizon may be adding a $20 device activation fee for all four phones, according to report. First off, the Moto Z Play Droid was launched exclusive to Verizon with modular support via Moto Mods. The 5.5 inch phone is reportedly powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 625 with an Adreno 506 GPU. The phone comes with a 16MP camera with 4K video capabilities. The Verizon Deal reportedly costs $17 a month for 24 months.

In addition, the Samsung Galaxy J3 V is a 5-inch mid-range smartphone with a 5MP and 2MP shooter as well as 16GB internal storage. Moreover, the LG K8 V packs 32GB internal storage and an 8MP and 5MP shooter for $6 a month for 24 months. The 5.7 inch LG Stylo 2 also comes with 16GB internal storage and 13MP and 5MP shooters for $10 at Verizon for 24 months.

AT&T and Verizon urges the FCC to drop the net neutrality investigation.

In other news, FCC previously began the net neutrality investigation to sort out several companies' practices of exempting their videos from mobile data caps while they charge competitors for such exemptions. Apparently, the wireless carriers like Verizon may be punished when Trump takes over. Apparently, the FCC is expected to switch to Republican control which has been noted as an opponent of net neutrality rules, Ars Technica reported.

Verizon Go90 video service reportedly does not count data caps on the Verizon Wireless Network. However, video providers may be required to pay Verizon to get data cap exemptions or zero-rating. Apparently, FCC hopes to see if the competitors or consumers are being harmed this way. Watch the Moto Z Play Droid Review here:
Microsoft Surface Phone 2017 Release Date, Latest News & Update: Juggernaut Alpha Expected To Rock The Mobile Phone World

Microsoft has yet to issue any official trace of a Microsoft Surface Phone though CEO Satya Nadella has practically confirmed of something big in 2017. An ultimate mobile device will ramp up the stock of the Redmond company which in all points to that much-awaited Surface mobile phone.

The last time Microsoft was seen in the mobile phone market was with the Lumia 950. Apparently, the stakes have been raised since that mobile phone offering with most expecting a flexible version of the Microsoft Surface Phone, Forbes reported.

With the long wait, it is only normal that anticipation is at a feverish pitch. The device is expected to run on Windows 10, something that Nadella promises to be near-perfection.

Hence, the best thing to ponder on as far as the Microsoft Surface Phone is concerned is the possible specs it would be carrying. Aside from a possible 5.7- or 5.8-inch display, it is believed that the device will turn to a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset though there could be variants using Snapdragon 821 and 820 SoCs which other brands have been using.

Supporting the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset for the Microsoft Surface Phone will be 6 GB of RAM, 128 GB of internal storage, a 20 MP main camera, 8 MP front-facing shooter, and a built-in QWERTY keyboard. There are three variants expected, most differentiated by RAM and internal storage.

The one mentioned previously would be the base model as mentioned in a previous post. There is also the Surface Pen touted to support the Microsoft Surface Phone.

This is the same stylus that is used on the Surface Pro 3 back in 2015, adding more navigation possibilities for the Juggernaut Alpha. Hence, the Microsoft Surface Phone is expected to most of the key features of the Surface Pro series which ramps up the hype as far as the hyped mobile phone offering for the Redmond company in 2017.
Samsung Galaxy S8 Release Date, News & Update: Next Flagship Reportedly More Expensive Than S7; Launching Could Get Delayed

The advent of the much-awaited flagship smartphone of 2017 has already been subjected to much spotlight than it usually deserves and as such these developments have given the Samsung Galaxy S8 fans their correct dose of excitement. And this excitement comes with no less than the most game-changing features and specifications of the upcoming smartphone  which begs to question, as Samsung Electronics is clearly having a splash on this next flagship, will it be its most pricey yet?

According to experts from the investment bank Goldman Sachs, Samsung Galaxy S8 is now being tipped to be more expensive than its predecessor, Samsung Galaxy S7. The forthcoming smartphone is slated to become 15 to 20 percent pricier. The investors have surmised that the South Korean firm will choose to reflect the fact their choices of materials for the phone have relatively increased in terms of the handset's final price.

And as Samsung is very much en route to this price bracket, its consumers will have to expect more advanced features for its next flagship entry. If that is not the case, the company is at least expected to deliver a feature that will rival or outpace the rest of its competition. Samsung Galaxy S8, as far as speculations are concerned, is quite in the fold nowadays in term of its readied specs. The smartphone is rumored to be toting its very own AI assistant, akin to iPhone's Siri, which will have its own dedicated button.

In related news, Samsung Galaxy S8 has now been pegged to delay its official launching to April, contrary to the previous February release reports. The purported delay is to be conducted in order for the company to fully resolve the battery issues of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and ultimately, to allow its marketing teams to jazz up the firm's confidence level from its distraught consumers.
Microsoft Surface Phone Release Date, News & Update: Microsoft Flagship Comes With 6-Inch Display Screen That Might Release In September 2017 Microsoft is gearing up for the Microsoft Surface Phone re

Microsoft is gearing up for the Microsoft Surface Phone release in September 2017 that packs with a set of impressive features. Recent reports suggest that Microsoft Surface Phone will feature a 6-inch display screen and is powered by a Windows 10 software.

A 6-inch Microsoft Surface Phone

According to reports, Microsoft Windows chief Terry Myerson revealed that a Windows 10 support of the ARM-based chips will be applied to the Microsoft Surface Phone that comes with a 6-inch, 10-inch, and a 14-inch display. The other two flagships of the Microsoft Surface Phone will be released later as tablets or a 2-in-1 device for Microsoft.

There are also reports that Microsoft's recent announcement of a partnership with Qualcomm is designed for the Microsoft Surface Phone with a 6-inch display screen and the two larger variants. The report made clear that the rumored x86 apps emulation for implementation will make use of the Cobalt emulation technology.

Apps emulation on the Windows 10 Microsoft Surface Phone will be made possible thanks to the Continuum feature that allows Windows users to transform a tablet or the Microsoft Surface Phone into desktop by plugging the device into the monitor. The report also stated that the said feature will be sported to the Microsoft Surface Phone when Windows 10 Redstone 3 is released.

Microsoft Surface Phone Upcoming Specs & Features

The Microsoft Surface Phone is expected to consume low power and perform greatly with the use of a Windows 10 operating system. The Microsoft Surface Phone is rumored to feature an OLED panel with fingerprint reader module.

Microsoft could bring the biometric security to the Microsoft Surface Phone as it is one of the golden standards in today's smartphones. There are rumors that Microsoft Surface Phone will have a 4GB and 6GB of RAM modules for the variant.

Microsoft could also unveil Microsoft Surface Phone into the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain as many smartphone enthusiast will be spectating the yearly event. For more Microsoft Surface Phone news and updates stay tuned to GameNGuide!
The agreement comes about two months after Project Roomkey, which provided motel rooms for the homeless, ended.
As the noisy group of kids from the Boys & Girls Club of Corvallis crowded into The Clothes Tree Tuesday morning in downtown Corvallis, everything else stopped.

The kids sang We Wish You a Merry Christmas, gave a hand-decorated mug filled with candy to a supporter working there and moved on to their next stop.

They had a lot of places to hit: This week, kids from the club will be visiting around 80 businesses to thank donors for their support. This is the third year the club is thanking its supporters with its annual muggings.

We like to go out and thank our sponsors and community members that donate to the club, said Helen Higgins, the clubs chief executive officer.

Higgins said the club is primarily funded by sponsorships, so thanking supporters is important.

She said it also serves as a form of stealth education for the kids who participate because they get experience interacting with adults. She said the fun of going out to sing carols cloaks the lessons they are learning about the community.

If it were just like school. they wouldnt come, she said.

Carl Posto, owner of Many Hands Trading, was one of the people visited by the kids Tuesday. Posto said the store chose to donate 25 percent of its sales on one of its monthly Days of Sharing to the club this year. He said the club is worth supporting because of the breadth of services the club offers to low-income families.

It was awesome, he said of the visit by the caroling kids. We were thrilled. We love the Boys and Girls Club.

Rickey Calhoun, a 14-year-old Linus Pauling Middle School eighth-grader, was one of the 10 or so kids out caroling on Tuesday.

Its fun because its helping say thank you to the community, he said.

Rickey said he has fun at the club, so he appreciates the people who support it.

Ryder Nercado, a 7-year-old Franklin K-8 School student, said his favorite part of visiting businesses with the club was twofold:

I like to sing, he said. Then he added: I also get candy.

In fact, several of the businesses did give the visiting carolers candy.

When asked about how he felt about the people whose donations make the club possible, Ryder didnt answer because he had a mouthful of toffee. But he did raise two thumbs up.
GA-Series Bonn instills creativity : Bonn lifestyle fair: Shy, creative and open

Bonn It is more than an attitude towards life: What does the start-up scene in Bonn and the region offer in the category of lifestyle? Heres a little look at the creative side of Bonn.

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Every city has its own kind of flair, its own lifestyle. London is cool. Berlin is hip. Paris is chic. Munich is elegant. And Bonn? Federal city. Beethovens birth place. Several institutions have their headquarters here. Bonn is creative and shy, says Andrew Triebe after a moment of thought. The 35-year-old is the co-founder and organizer of the design market Strich & Faden, which translates into something like Knits and Threads.

The event in the art gallery Fabrik 45 brings together young textile designers, fashion labels, photographers and illustrators from Bonn and the region and gives them a platform for their work. This gives young start-ups and artists a chance to mingle, since most are running their businesses in their free time and have not yet taken the plunge into self-employment, still focusing on another career.

Strick & Faden has taken place three times since 2015, organized by Andrew Triebe and his co-founder Sven Bieber. The event offers fashion, jewelry, lamps, postcards and culinary specialties, earning it the name Lifestyle Fair. These types of markets are very trendy and have already been taking place in Cologne and the surrounding area. In Bonn there is another similar market in BaseCamp Bonn called Birds & Kisses.

Triebe and his team are always looking for new start-ups and labels to take part in his business initiative. The first time they hosted the event, there were only a dozen participating artist/designers, but now there are 23. It is sometimes difficult to find new people, laments Triebe. According to the German Startup Monitor, the number of new start-ups has halved in the area of Media and Creative Management in comparison to last year.

At the design market, the creators can test how their products are received by customers and converse with them. From the Strich & Faden market we have developed a business concept: only Bonn locals and regional sellers can take part, explains Triebe, looking out at the sales area. On the walls there are framed posters of different sizes and on the table in the center of the room there are paper boxes with filigree gold jewelry.
Bomb threat in Cologne : Central station evacuated Tuesday evening

COLOGNE There was a scare for passengers at the Cologne central train station on Tuesday evening. After a bomb threat, people were evacuated.

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In the middle of dense commuter traffic on Tuesday evening, two bomb threats paralyzed Colognes Hauptbahnhof (Central train station). Police called for an evacuation but they were unable to find anything suspicious. Shortly before 7 pm, rail traffic was operating normally again.

A spokesperson for federal police said two bomb threats had been called in to police in Bergisch Gladbach and in Cologne. Federal and state police then agreed that an evacuation was necessary. Specialists searched the train station building and platforms and finally, an all clear was given.

Trains which had been standing at the platforms at the time the evacuation was called were able to leave the train station. Incoming trains had to wait at other railway stations. Cologne city traffic was also affected as city trains were not allowed to go to the station.

The closure and evacuation caused many delays in both local and long distance railway traffic. There were routes around Cologne which became completely back up.
Johannes Church in Bad Godesberg : Pastor calls for dialogue with Muslims

Bad Godesberg Pastor Jan Gruzlak of the Johannes Church in Bad Godesberg will receive Ditib mosque association chair Suleyman Hasbal for Christmas Eve service. Efforts are being made for greater dialogue between Muslims and Christians.

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Gathering for a photo for GA, the group posing in front of the Ditib Mosque was pleased to send out a signal for Christian-Muslim dialogue. It is important to always stay in dialogue with one another, especially in this part of the city. Its fear of the unknown that allows angst to develop, said Pastor Jan Gruzlack of the Protestant Johannes Church community. He was welcomed by Ditib Imam Dogan Eygun.

The chair of the Turkish-Islamic Culture Association of Ditib is Suleyman Hasbal, who is active from the Muslim side to see to it that the communities in Bad Godesberg continue to live peacefully together and are able to approach one another. The association has 250 members, 80 percent of them living in the vicinity. This is really door to door with the Christians from Pastor Gruzlaks church community, he comments. Hasbal accepted an invitation from Pastor Gruzlak to come to his church service on Christmas Eve - regardless of recent developments in Turkey.

Gruzlak has brought new life to the contact between Christians and Muslims in the area. We theologians like to talk about peace. Here, its a concrete. Right here in Bad Godesberg, we need to help maintain the peace, said the pastor. He tries to accomplish this by first expanding his network. At the Johannes Church, he has a network of people who are willing to be active and help, with interfaith homework, breakfast get togethers for mothers and library help.

They have a series called Koran for Christians which has been running for some time already and allows for frank discussion about religion. Gruzlak has seen to it that the Protestant community has persons in contact with seven Muslim institutions in the areas. In that way, we have an immediate contact for every occasion, he says.

Movie nights, cooking evenings, reciprocal visits in mosques and churches as well as discussion groups have already taken place. But we must come closer together, said Gruzlak. If one doesnt reach out to the other, a veil of fear remains.

The pastor was relieved that the Lies Koran distribution initiative had been prohibited. We cannot allow people to recruit for Jihad on our Theaterplatz, he said.
Article

Protecting the worlds oceans  an important goal of Germanys climate diplomacy

The worlds oceans are vital to our survival. They regulate the global climate and are a source of food and income for billions of people. Only a very small part of the seas enjoys legal protection, however. Our diplomats are working in New York right now to change this state of affairs.
bohlah at 21-12-2016 06:32 AM (5 years ago) (m)

No fewer than 140 Nigerians, who were deported from Libya, arrived in the country on Tuesday through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

No fewer than 140 Nigerians, who were deported from Libya, arrived in the country on Tuesday through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

The PUNCH learnt that the deportees, who arrived on board a Libyan Airline, were received by the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency, Sani Sidi, who was represented by the South-West Coordinator of the agency, Dr. Onimode Bamdele.



Our correspondent gathered that while many of the deportees left for their various destinations, others left in two chattered BRT buses for the Synagogue Church of All Nations.



Three of the deportees, who had medical issues, were said to have been taken to a hospital, where they were admitted for treatment.



Our correspondent gathered that most of the deportees had been in detention in various Libyan prisons before they were released after the intervention of the International Organisation for Migration and the Nigerian embassy in Libya.



The spokesperson for NEMA, South-West zone, Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed the development.





A total of 140 Nigerians were deported. While some of them were from the villages and hinterland, a lot of them were imprisoned. But they all had the desire to return home due to the ugly experiences they had.



Their deportation was facilitated by the International Organisation for Migration and the Nigerian embassy in Libya. They took off from Libya around 12.30pm Nigerian time and arrived at 4.30pm. Of the 140 deportees, 74 were male adults, while 52 were female adults. We also had six unaccompanied underage, consisting five females and one male. There were four infants among the deportees. Three of the deportees had medical issues and had to be taken to the hospital.



Most of them dispersed to their various states  Benue, Edo, Anambra, Enugu  while we got six accommodated in hotels. Many of them left in two BRT buses for the Synagogue Church of All Nations.



Farinloye said the deportees regretted their decision to travel abroad, adding that they had sad tales to tell.





He said the NEMA DG challenged them to stay in Nigeria and contribute to the development of the country.



He said, They said what they passed through was what they would never wish for their enemies. The DG told them that even Libya that they went to believe there is no place like Nigeria because Nigeria has the most liberal policies for foreigners. He told them to stay back in Nigeria and help in developing the country and we will soon overcome our challenges. The PUNCH learnt that the deportees, who arrived on board a Libyan Airline, were received by the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency, Sani Sidi, who was represented by the South-West Coordinator of the agency, Dr. Onimode Bamdele.Our correspondent gathered that while many of the deportees left for their various destinations, others left in two chattered BRT buses for the Synagogue Church of All Nations.Three of the deportees, who had medical issues, were said to have been taken to a hospital, where they were admitted for treatment.Our correspondent gathered that most of the deportees had been in detention in various Libyan prisons before they were released after the intervention of the International Organisation for Migration and the Nigerian embassy in Libya.The spokesperson for NEMA, South-West zone, Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed the development.A total of 140 Nigerians were deported. While some of them were from the villages and hinterland, a lot of them were imprisoned. But they all had the desire to return home due to the ugly experiences they had.Their deportation was facilitated by the International Organisation for Migration and the Nigerian embassy in Libya. They took off from Libya around 12.30pm Nigerian time and arrived at 4.30pm. Of the 140 deportees, 74 were male adults, while 52 were female adults. We also had six unaccompanied underage, consisting five females and one male. There were four infants among the deportees. Three of the deportees had medical issues and had to be taken to the hospital.Most of them dispersed to their various states  Benue, Edo, Anambra, Enugu  while we got six accommodated in hotels. Many of them left in two BRT buses for the Synagogue Church of All Nations.Farinloye said the deportees regretted their decision to travel abroad, adding that they had sad tales to tell.He said the NEMA DG challenged them to stay in Nigeria and contribute to the development of the country.He said, They said what they passed through was what they would never wish for their enemies. The DG told them that even Libya that they went to believe there is no place like Nigeria because Nigeria has the most liberal policies for foreigners. He told them to stay back in Nigeria and help in developing the country and we will soon overcome our challenges.

Post Reply I have been reporting on latest news from Nigeria for almost 10 years now. I report on every possible news area I come across, but always ensure my reports are compiled with dignity and fact to uphold my personal values and duty as a journalist Posted: at 21-12-2016 06:32 AM (5 years ago) | Addicted Hero
BSNL Offers Free E-mail Address Service in 8 Indian Languages News oi -Samden Sherpa BSNL's linguistic email address service is one of its kind initiative in the world.

BSNL, An Indian state-owned telecommunications company is now offering free e-mail address service in 8 Indian languages to its broadband users by launching an app dubbed 'DataMail' to provide the service.

According to a report by telecomtalk, with the launch of this service, BSNL broadband users will be able to open an email ID in their own language through DataMail.

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While BSNL is known for its network in the rural and remote India, especially in 2G and 3G data, launching free linguistic email address service for its millions of customers seems to be another strong step in fulfilling the dream of digital India taken by the government.

Further, Anupam Shrivastav, Managing Director, BSNL stated that providing the linguistic email address is one of its kind initiative in the world to achieve the Prime Minister's vision of Digital India. As BSNL has taken the initiative, it will now be possible to have an email address according to people's own language in every part of India.

N. K Gupta, Director CFA, BSNL in his statement also disclosed that the linguistic email service offered by BSNL will have (DataOne.Bharat) domain and email address will be offered in eight regional languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, and Marathi. DataMail can be downloaded for any Android or iOS device through their respective application stores.

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Additionally, Ajay Data, Founder, and CEO of Data XGen has revealed that the firm's fully "made in India" software product enabling DataMail service will be a revolution in the world as many countries are waiting to inject the linguistic email address to empower the non-English speakers of the world.

He further added that the company is happy to contribute to the Narendra Modi's Digital India dream by partnering with BSNL, the country's strongest network telecom company having rural and remote connect.

As per Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators Report (April-June, 2016) released by TRAI, about 70 percent of the population does not have access to the internet and most of these belong to rural India. On the other side, Indian languages account for less than 0.1 percent content on world wide web. Also, over 89 percent of the population is non-English speaking and are unable to read and communicate via email as the language utilized to communicate is English.

So now with this launch, it looks like it will increase the reach of internet users as they can acquire domain names in their own language, and at the same time, the service will be covering a majority of the country's population living in the rural and remote areas.

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Sony Launches A6500 Flagship Mirrorless Camera With 5-Axis OIS News oi -Samden Sherpa The 5-axis stabilization makes its way for the first time to Sony's APS-C cameras and claims to offer a compensation equivalent to using a 5-stop faster shutter speed.

Sony had already announced its flagship mirrorless camera A6500 back in October and now the Japanese multinational conglomerate has brought the camera to India.

It comes at a time when Sony A6300 continues to be one of the best mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras in the market. Supposedly, the launch of Sony's new camera, the A6500 will take the standard to a higher level as it is adding in-body 5-axis optical image stabilization, touchscreen support, and faster image processing speeds.

Does the Position of Fingerprint Scanner on Smartphones Matter?

However, the A6500 borrows many of the features from A6300 such as the 24.2-megapixel CMOS sensor, 425 PDAF points, 11fps burst shooting, 4K video and features like silent shooting, Eye-AF, etc.

Similarly, the dimensions are also nearly the same as the older model.

The difference is that A6500 is a bit heavier at 410 grams than the A6300. In addition, the camera also features Wi-Fi, NFC, and Bluetooth for pairing with a smartphone. You can use the PlayMemories Android and iOS app to copy pictures and video to your device and also use your phone as a remote viewfinder.

Sony A6500 now has a larger buffer and it means that you can shoot up to 307 frames. The camera also has a front-end LSI chip which speeds up processing times. As such, you should be able to review the images you've shot in burst mode quickly. However, the biggest features that have been added to the Sony A6500 are the 5-axis image stabilization and a touchscreen LCD.

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This is the first time that 5-axis stabilization technology has been added to Sony's APS-C cameras. Sony claims to offer a compensation equivalent to using a 5-stop faster shutter speed. Furthermore, the camera works with all E-mount and A-mount lenses (via an adapter). The touchscreen on the Sony A6500 allows for additional tricks like pulling the focus by simply dragging your finger across the screen.

As reported by NDTV, the camera will go on sale in the third week of December for a price of Rs. 1,19,990.

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Apple May Soon Launch Dual-SIM iPhones News oi -Samden Sherpa As per new patent leaks, Apple could soon switch to a dual SIM layout, at least for certain markets.

With the introduction of dual-SIM functionality, the trend has been popularized by many mobile device manufacturers till date. Especially, Android device manufacturers have been quick to adopt the trend and have allowed users to have two different numbers for personal as well as official use.

As for Apple, the case is completely different. The expandable storage feature and dual-SIM card functionality have been missing on iPhones for a long time.

Samsung Galaxy S8 Might Get a 'Beast Mode' to enhance the Performance

While this has been the case for Apple, in recent reports that have been circulating over the internet, it seems the iOS device manufacturer too will be incorporating the dual-SIM feature in their upcoming products.

Supporting the claim, BGR reports that Apple has been granted a patent for dual-SIM technology by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

In another report by Forbes, a document filed with China's State Intellectual Property Office also describes iPhones with dual-SIM card feature. Further, the details mentioned in the patent reveal about the system, apparatus and the means for controlling access to different antennas with devices featuring multiple SIM cards. The description clearly mentions the use of two SIM cards and how the priority of SIM card is determined.

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With this being said, it does look like there's a possibility of Apple developing such a smartphone. Nonetheless, it is also important to take into account that receiving a patent might not positively mean that Apple could use the technology.

On the contrary, Samsung has already started offering dual-SIM card functionality via a hybrid setup on their smartphones. It can be less surprising to see Apple follow the same suite.

Moreover, dual-SIM smartphones have a great demand in Asian countries, especially India and China. Thus, Apple might be targeting these markets which will be a great boon for the company's growth in the next decade.

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With signs and chants of Ho ho, hey hey, the ACA is here to stay, 20 Virginia Organizing protestors took to Main Street in Danville on Wednesday to fight for Obamacare, Medicare and other federal health care programs threatened by President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-dominated Congress.

We need it, said Danville resident Catherine Fitzgerald. We need better health care for people out here.

Republicans have the power to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Trump campaigned on repealing the legislation, and many lawmakers have voiced support for repeal and delay  killing off the law by a certain date and then working to craft a replacement bill before the date arrives.

Until the Affordable Care Act, Danville resident Matt Bailey and his wife simply couldnt afford health insurance.

Its hard to afford health care, Bailey said. The most basic coverage for us was going to be $600 a month.

Now, Bailey is able to afford insurance for his whole family. He also sees the effects of coverage gaps working as a nurse. He said dying patients are unable to afford Hospice care, and cannot live with their loved ones during the last days of their lives.

There are a lot of really vulnerable people in our state that are suffering because of the lack of access to health care, he said.

Catherine Fitzgerald said her health coverage under Medicare personally saved her life a few years ago. After going on assistance for fibromyalgia, cancer screenings were able to identify and operate on tumors related to breast cancer.

Additionally, two of Fitzgeralds sisters have received help with surgery and treatment related to heart disease.

Its not only me, she said. Its a lot of people out there.

A few years ago, the Virginia General Assembly refused to accept federal funding to eliminate the Medicaid coverage gap, citing future funding concerns. Fitzgerald said the choice literally put lives on the line.

It doesnt stop their medical problems from going on, she said.

Fitzgerald said Trump and the GOP should leave the ACA alone.

Dont touch it, she said. If anything, increase it.
A judge in Wise County wants to know what Virginia considers the hazards and profit potential of uranium mining in Pittsylvania County.

Judge Chadwick Dotson has been hearing a lawsuit filed by Virginia Uranium Inc. in Wise County Circuit Court demanding that the state allow uranium mining  or compensate the company for not being allowed to.

Court documents recently filed by lawyers representing the Virginia Attorney Generals Office reveal the states views on both the profit potential and hazards of extracting 119 million pounds of uranium ore from the Coles Hill site about six miles outside of Chatham.

In the documents, the states lawyers responded to requests by Virginia Uranium. Lawyers for the state admit that the Coles Hill site contains some amount of uranium ore. Consequently, it is denied that the uranium ore in question will yield 119 million pounds of yellowcake, but it is admitted that it may, the document states.

However, the attorneys deny the uranium deposit could turn a profit.

According to the Chmura report quoted in request No. 29, the break-even point of the mining operation is $33.20 a pound in the first phase of the mining operation and $51.40 a pound in the second phase; the current spot price of yellowcake is $18.65, or barely half of break-even, the document states. In another response, the attorneys cite a source saying predicting the future demand for uranium is difficult.

The state also denies the property owners have a right to mine uranium, citing a Virginia court case where it was ruled the state could deny uses of private property without reimbursing the owners.

Additionally, the attorneys deny that uranium mines are safe for the surrounding community. They cite a report noting mining and processing has the potential to affect surface water quality and quantity, groundwater quality and quantity, soils, air quality and biota, that the impact depends on site specific conditions among other things, and that these risks will remain for thousands of years with the long term risks being poorly defined.

The attorneys also deny uranium mining operations have been safe in other countries citing a case in Germany that included a $3.6 billion cleanup cost, and increased radon exposure to the surrounding populations and concerns over toxic wastes like arsenic.

The attorneys admit aside from radiological risks, the mine would pose no greater health risks than other mines in Virginia.

In the lawsuit, Virginia Uranium hopes to convince Judge Dotson that the state government is violating property laws forbidding the taking of private property unless owners are fully compensated.

Lawyers for the Attorney Generals office were forced to respond to the questions after Dotson ruled in November that Virginia Uraniums request was neither vague nor unduly burdensome.

A trial date for the case has not yet been set.
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Dec 20, 2016) - Rubicon Minerals Corporation (TSX:RMX) ("Rubicon" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has successfully implemented its refinancing and restructuring transaction (the "Restructuring Transaction") pursuant to a plan of compromise and arrangement (the "Plan") under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada)("CCAA").

"I would like to thank the Rubicon team and our advisors for their efforts in the successful implementation of the Restructuring Transaction," stated George Ogilvie, P.Eng., the new President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "My vision is to systematically explore the F2 Gold Deposit over the next 18 to 24 months to gain a better understanding of the geology and potentially grow the mineral resources. We have strengthened the Board and management team to provide a fresh perspective on the Company and its assets. We have a strong balance sheet that will allow us to restart activities at the Phoenix Gold Project. We continue to believe in the exploration potential of the Phoenix Gold Project and the land packages in Red Lake, Nevada and Utah."

Implementation of the Restructuring Transaction resulted in:

The appointment of George Ogilvie, P.Eng., as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company and the addition of Michael Willett, P.Eng., as Director of Projects;

The appointments of Peter R. Jones, P.Eng., Dr. David A.S. Palmer, Ph.D., P.Geo., and Mr. Ogilvie to the Rubicon Board of Directors;

The receipt of C$45,007,200 (gross amount, before fees) from the equity offering for 62.79% of the equity (or 33,840,000 common shares) of the Company, including Mr. Ogilvie's investment of C$500,000 (or approximately 0.70% of the equity) in the Company;

The reduction in the amounts outstanding under the loan facility (the "CPPIB Credit Loan Facility") with CPPIB Credit Investments Inc. ("CPPIB Credit") to C$12.0 million (from approximately C$68.4 million), the extension of the maturity date to December 31, 2020, and interest payments with an effective annual interest rate of 5.0% paid-in-kind by the Company on maturity. The CPPIB Credit Loan Facility can be voluntarily prepaid at any time without premium or penalty and certain covenants and event of default provisions have been amended;

In exchange for the reduction of the amounts outstanding under the CPPIB Credit Loan Facility, the receipt by CPPIB Credit of 26.97% of equity (or 14,536,341 common shares) in the Company and a cash payment of C$20.0 million;

The private sale of 4,536,341 Rubicon common shares by CPPIB Credit to BMO Capital Markets, at a price of C$1.33 per common share for gross proceeds of C$6,033,333.53 to CPPIB Credit, completed immediately following the completion of the Restructuring Transaction. Following the sale to BMO Capital Markets, CPPIB Credit will hold 10,000,000 Rubicon common shares (or 18.56% of equity) in the Company;

Common shares held by existing shareholders (prior to the Restructuring Transaction) were consolidated based on a ratio of approximately 162.1 pre-consolidation Rubicon common shares to one post-consolidation common share. In aggregate, existing shareholders have retained approximately 4.65% of the equity (or 2,506,265 common shares) in the Company;

The consolidation of the outstanding common shares and issuance of new common shares of the Company resulting in 53,890,125 common shares outstanding;

The exchange of the Gold Stream Facility with Royal Gold for:



5.58% equity interest (or 3,007,519 common shares) in the Company;



1.0% Net Smelter Royalty ("NSR") on all of the Company's land holdings in Ontario, including the Phoenix Gold Project, subject to a maximum 4.0% NSR on any one property;



2.5% NSR on the Company's Nevada/Utah properties, subject to a maximum 5.0% NSR on any one property; and



an assignment of Rubicon's rights to acquire any portion of an existing NSR that is subject to a buyback provision and a right of first refusal in respect of any royalty, stream, participating interest in production or amount of gold or other minerals based on production, that the Company wishes to offer for sale in relation to the Company's current properties.







Unsecured creditors with valid claims under the Plan received at their option either (i) the lesser of the amount owed to such creditor or C$5,000, or (ii) 2.5% of the amount owed to such creditor, subject to certain restrictions; and

Additional adjustments to the Company's assets and liabilities (compared to September 30, 2016) as a result of the implementation of the Restructuring Transaction:



A cash balance on closing of approximately C$27 million (including C$3 million of restricted cash that the Company expects to return to cash in 2017), compared to a cash balance of $6.8 million on September 30, 2016;



Disposal of approximately C$6 million in property, plant, and equipment (Property, Plant, and Equipment balance of $31.7 million on September 30, 2016) and a reduction of C$5 million in finance lease obligations (finance lease obligation balance of $9.8 million on September 30, 2016) primarily as it relates to leased equipment at the Phoenix Gold Project. The Company eliminated certain finance lease obligations, and corresponding assets, as part of the Restructuring Transaction;



Compromise of approximately C$7.7 million in long-term liabilities related to agreements to secure long-term power for the Phoenix Gold Project. The Company eliminated its provision for power agreements as part of the Restructuring Transaction;



Elimination of approximately C$98.1 million in liabilities related to the Gold Stream Facility; and



The reduction in the CPPIB Credit Loan Facility to C$12.0 million due on December 31, 2020 (from approximately C$68.4 million on September 30, 2016).



Summary of Rubicon Common Share Ownership

Rubicon Common

Share Ownership % Offering participants1 33,840,000 62.79% CPPIB Credit 10,000,000 18.56% BMO Capital Markets private purchase 4,536,341 8.42% RG Gold AG (Royal Gold) 3,007,519 5.58% Existing Rubicon shareholders 2,506,265 4.65% Total common shares outstanding: 53,890,125

100.00% 1 George Ogilvie has invested C$500,000 (or approximately 0.70% of the equity ownership) in Rubicon

Resumption of Trading

The Company has been notified by the TSX that its common shares will remain listed on the TSX under the ticker symbol RMX, and under a new CUSIP #780911509 and ISIN #CA7809115099. Trading of Rubicon common shares is expected to resume on the morning of Thursday, December 22, 2016 at market opening.

Management Changes

With the completion of the Restructuring Transaction and as Rubicon commences its exploration activities on a more streamlined basis, Glenn Kumoi, LL.B., Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, has decided to step down from his role and will continue to provide advice to the Company as a consultant on a part-time basis. Howard Bird, P.Geo., Vice President, Exploration, has left Rubicon to pursue other opportunities. Julian Kemp, BBA, CA, C.Dir., remains on the Board of Directors as its Chair.

Mr. Ogilvie commented, "We would like to thank Glenn for his contribution over the past 7 years and his leadership of the legal team on the completion of a complex Restructuring Transaction. He will be missed as an officer of the Company. We would like to thank both Glenn and Howard for their efforts during an exhaustive strategic review process that has led to a successful outcome, putting the Company on a better path forward. We wish them success on their future endeavours."

Rubicon Minerals Corp.

- George Ogilvie, P.Eng., President and CEO

Cautionary Statement regarding Forward-Looking Statements and other Cautionary Notes

This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" and "forward looking information" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes", "intends", "may", "will", "should", "plans", "anticipates", "potential", "expects", "estimates", "forecasts", "budget", "likely", "goal" and similar expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results may or may not be achieved or occur in the future. In some cases, forward-looking information may be stated in the present tense, such as in respect of current matters that may be continuing, or that may have a future impact or effect. Forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations and assumptions, and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to statements regarding the implementation of the Restructuring Transaction, the future plans and potential of the F2 Gold Deposit and related mineral resources, the planned activities at the Phoenix Gold Project, the exploration potential of the Company's land interests and the timing of the resumption of trading of the Company's common shares on the TSX.

Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and represent management's best judgment based on facts and assumptions that management considers reasonable. If such opinions and estimates prove to be incorrect, actual and future results may be materially different than expressed in the forward-looking statements. The material assumptions upon which such forward-looking statements are based include, among others, that: the demand for gold and base metal deposits will develop as anticipated; the price of gold will remain at or attain levels that would render the Phoenix Gold Project potentially economic; that any proposed exploration, operating and capital plans will not be disrupted by operational issues, title issues, loss of permits, environmental concerns, power supply, labour disturbances, financing requirements or adverse weather conditions; Rubicon will continue to have the ability to attract and retain skilled staff; and there are no material unanticipated variations in the cost of energy or supplies.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Rubicon to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: possible variations in mineralization, grade or recovery or throughput rates; uncertainty of mineral resources, inability to realize exploration potential, mineral grades and mineral recovery estimates; actual results of current exploration activities; actual results of reclamation activities; uncertainty of future operations, delays in completion of exploration plans for any reason including insufficient capital, delays in permitting, and labour issues; conclusions of future economic or geological evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents and other risks of the mining industry; delays and other risks related to operations; timing and receipt of regulatory approvals; the ability of Rubicon and other relevant parties to satisfy regulatory requirements; the ability of Rubicon to comply with its obligations under material agreements including financing agreements; the availability of financing for proposed programs and working capital requirements on reasonable terms; the ability of third-party service providers to deliver services on reasonable terms and in a timely manner; risks associated with the ability to retain key executives and key operating personnel; cost of environmental expenditures and potential environmental liabilities; dissatisfaction or disputes with local communities or First Nations or Aboriginal Communities; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; market conditions and general business, economic, competitive, political and social conditions; the implementation and impact of the Restructuring Transaction; our ability to generate sufficient cash flow from operations or obtain adequate financing to fund our capital expenditures and working capital needs and meet our other obligations; the volatility of our stock price, and the ability of our common stock to remain listed and traded on the TSX; our ability to maintain relationships with suppliers, customers, employees, stockholders and other third parties in light of our current liquidity situation and the CCAA proceedings.

Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and Rubicon disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Readers are advised to carefully review and consider the risk factors identified in the Management's Discussion and Analysis for period ending December 31, 2015 under the heading "Risk Factors" for a discussion of the factors that could cause Rubicon's actual results, performance and achievements to be materially different from any anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Readers are further cautioned that the foregoing list of assumptions and risk factors is not exhaustive and it is recommended that prospective investors consult the more complete discussion of Rubicon's business, financial condition and prospects that is included in this news release. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
Zinc mineralization at Ayawilca now known over a discontinuous strike length of 10 km

VANCOUVER, Dec. 21, 2016 /CNW/ - Tinka Resources Limited ("Tinka" or the "Company") (TSXV: TK) (OTCPK: TKRFF) announces the discovery of a new zinc prospect at "Pucarumi" located several kilometres northwest of the Company's 100%-owned Ayawilca inferred zinc resource (18.8 million tonnes grading 8.2% Zn Eq) and within its existing mining claims in central Peru. High-grade mineralization grading up to 19% zinc and 8% lead occurs in two subparallel horizons at Pucarumi within Cretaceous age limestones over a strike length of 1.5 kilometres.

Key Highlights:





Prospecting by our geological team has discovered outcropping zinc mineralization at the "Pucarumi" prospect over a 1.5 kilometre strike length, located several kilometres from the Ayawilca zinc resource  Figure 1;

Channel sampling has returned grades ranging from 0.2% Zn to 19.0% Zn from 61 samples over an average width of 1.5 to 2.0 metres in mineralized Chulec Formation limestone  Figure 2. Two subparallel mineralized horizons have been mapped and partially sampled to date, each horizon separated by approximately 50 metres. Samples were continuous channel samples from selected locations;

Most samples also contained disseminated galena, with lead grades ranging from 0.01% Pb to 7.9% Pb; and

Systematic sampling of the mineralized horizons and regional soil sampling is continuing.

Dr. Graham Carman, Tinkas President and CEO, stated: "The footprint of the Ayawilca Zinc project continues to grow, as we expand our exploration efforts within the district. We have now found zinc mineralization over 10 kilometres of strike along a discontinuous northwest to southeast trend, and identified at least 10 areas with significant zinc mineralization. The zinc mineralization at Pucarumi is hosted in Chulec Formation limestone, and is much higher in the stratigraphic sequence than the Pucara Formation where zinc on the property has been identified to date. This proves for the first time that multiple limestone formations on the property are prospective. The zinc at Pucarumi is oxidized but we would expect to encounter zinc sulphides at depth."

"We are very much looking forward to commencing our 10,000 to 15,000 metre drill program early in 2017, focusing on immediate extensions of the zinc resource through step-out drilling initially in the South Ayawilca area, and with the testing of new target areas at South Ayawilca, Chaucha, and Zone 3."

The qualified person, Dr. Graham Carman, Tinka's President and CEO, and a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, has reviewed and verified the technical contents of this release.

About Tinka Resources Limited

Tinka is an exploration and development company with projects in Peru. Tinka's flagship property is its 100%-owned Ayawilca Property in the highly mineralized zinc-lead-silver belt of central Peru, 200 kilometres north of Lima. 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 2 km north of the Ayawilca 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 contained within a larger lower-grade resource envelope (news release of Feb. 26, 2015).

On behalf of the Board,

"Graham Carman"

Dr. Graham Carman, President & CEO

Forward Looking Statements: 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 limitations, timing of commencement of drill program, the Company's expectations regarding mineral resource calculations, 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 agreements and 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.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Dec 21, 2016) - Search Minerals Inc. ("Search" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:SMY) and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Alterra Resources Inc. ("Alterra") are pleased to summarize our ongoing programs and present the Company's plans for advancement for 2017. The Company's goals for 2017 are:

Advancement of the FOXTROT Project as our first development in the Port Hope Simpson Critical Rare Earth Element ("CREE" - Nd, Eu, Tb, Dy, Y) District in SE Labrador including moving forward with the Environmental Assessment Application process with AllNorth Consultants, Continue to seek strategic and offtake partners to further advance FOXTROT and develop the District, Continue field work to increase the value of the Deepwater Fox and Fox Meadow discoveries and other prospects in the District, Finalize the commercial application of the Company's proprietary Direct Extraction metallurgy process with the completion of the demonstration plant, which will provide the Company with a mixed rare earth concentrate, to be provided to refineries for testing and further separation, and Continue to raise investor and market awareness of Search Minerals with our recent investor communications specialists, Pilot Communications, and NAI Interactive.

Greg Andrews, President and CEO of Search Minerals stated: "I am very happy to report the progress Search has made with advancing the District with new discoveries (Deepwater Fox and Fox Meadow) and the near completion of the pilot plant. We continue to attract capital from our dedicated shareholders over the past 2 years during these difficult market conditions. Without the support of our shareholders and our partners, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Research & Development Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the NunatuKavut Community Council, Search would not have been able to advance our District, or construct and operate the pilot plant."

Pilot Plant - Direct Extraction process update

The pilot plant testing of a bulk sample from the FOXTROT Project using our proprietary Direct Extraction process is nearing completion, with the final reporting expected in February 2017. (Search News release - December 20, 2016 - Search Minerals provides Pilot Plant Program update)

"We believe that the imminent completion of our pilot plant testing with the oxide concentrate to prove that our Direct Extraction process works and is cost effective, will substantially increase interest in our FOXTROT Project from investors and potential offtake partners," said Andrews.

FOXTROT Project Environmental Application on Schedule

AllNorth has provided a draft of the Environmental Assessment Application for the FOXTROT Project for our review. We expect to meet our timeline to present this to the respective regulatory bodies involved in the assessment process by the end of January 2017.

Litigation Settlement

Search has reached a full and final settlement (the "Settlement") of outstanding litigation between Stephen Keith and Alexandre Penha (the "Plaintiffs"), and Search Minerals Inc. and certain directors and officers of the Company. Pursuant to the Settlement all parties have agreed to file dismissals of all outstanding claims and counterclaims with no admissions of liability. The Company has agreed to pay $120,000 towards the full and final settlement.

The Settlement was determined to be in the best interests of Search Minerals and its shareholders, as it ends the litigation process and associated future costs and allows Search to focus entirely on advancing its Critical Rare Earth District in SE Labrador without further unproductive distraction.

Convertible Debenture Financing

The Company announces a non-brokered unsecured convertible debenture private placement (the "Private Placement") with a maturity date of one year from the date of issuance, bearing simple interest at a rate of 10% per annum, calculated and paid quarterly in arrears. The Debenture will be convertible into units ("Units") at a conversion price of $0.07 per Unit all in accordance with the terms set forth in the certificate representing the Debenture (the "Debenture Certificate"). Each Unit will be comprised of one common share of the Company (a "Share") and one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one Share (a "Warrant Share") at an exercise price of $0.14 per Warrant Share for one year from the date of conversion of the Debenture. We expect to close this financing on or before December 31, 2016. The proceeds from this financing will be used for the payment of the Settlement.

About Search Minerals Inc.

Led by a proven management team and board of directors, Search is focused on finding and developing resources within the emerging Port Hope Simpson Critical Rare Earth Element (CREE) District of SE Labrador. The Company controls a belt 70 km long and 8 km wide including its 100% interest in the FOXTROT Project which is road accessible and at tidewater. Exploration efforts have advanced "Deepwater Fox" and "Fox Meadow" as significant new CREE prospects very similar and in close proximity to the FOXTROT discovery. While the Company has identified more than 20 other prospects in the District, its primary objective remains development of FOXTROT by confirming proprietary direct extraction metallurgy processing technology at the pilot plant level (in progress) and delineation of prospects that will ensure competitive-low cost production beyond the 14-year mine life contemplated in the preliminary economic assessment of FOXTROT completed in April 2016. The FOXTROT Project has a low capital cost to bring the initial project into production ($152 M), a short payback period, and is scalable due to Search's proprietary processing technology.

All material information on the Company may be found on its website at www.searchminerals.ca and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

About CREEs

Identified as Neodymium (Nd), Europium (Eu), Terbium (Tb), Dysprosium (Dy) and Yttrium (Y), this valuable subset of the complete series of seventeen rare earth elements is considered critical due to high demand and/or constrained domestic supply. Containing unique properties which enhance the performance of a range of innovative technologies, CREEs are essential components in the development of permanent magnets and a variety of other components used in renewable energy, green technology automobiles, medical devices, electronics and agricultural production.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding "Forward-Looking" Information

This news release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively "forward- looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, without limitation, statements relating the future operating or financial performance of the Company, are forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible", and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will", "may", "could", or "should" occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements in this news release relate to, among other things future events or the Company's future performance, business prospects or opportunities. Actual future results may differ materially. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the respective parties, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and the parties have made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation, general business, economic and social uncertainties; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; and those additional risks set out in Search's public documents filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although Search believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Except where required by law, Search disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
To reduce the impact that Republican lawmakers can have on abortion, President Obama is using protection. With the stroke of a pen last week, he finalized a rule that will prohibit states from withholding federal funding from clinics just because they offer abortions.But while advocates of women's health and reproductive rights celebrated Obamas move, most still fear how abortion clinics will weather a Trump administration.We are deeply concerned that there will be nothing stopping the new Congress from disproving the new rule," said Audrey Sandusky, communications director for the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. "They only need a simple majority to block it, and we believe this regulation is one that Congress will."The rule takes effect Jan. 20, two days before President-elect Donald Trump officially takes office. It comes in the wake of legislation at the state and federal levels to defund clinics that provide abortions.The federal government is legally barred from funding abortions, so congressional Republicans have instead repeatedly threatened to pull Title X funds from clinics that offer them. The problem, advocates say, is that those clinics are often women's main resource for birth control and cancer screenings. About a dozen Republican-dominated states successfully passed such laws -- though many of them are either on hold or have been ruled unconstitutional by courts.Studies show that eliminating funding from abortion providers has a negative effect on women's health and leads to an increase in unplanned pregnancies. Currently, 32 states prohibit spending government funds on abortions.Weve made really great progress in the past couple of years with a decline in teen pregnancies and unintended birth rates," said Sandusky. "When women have access to family planning education, communities thrive."With Republicans in control of Congress, the White House and a historically large number of states come January, most expect an uptick in bills to cut funding for abortion clinics and to restrict women's access to the procedure. Already in Ohio, a 20-week abortion ban -- which has been struck down in a couple of states -- was signed into law this month. Trump has also vowed to appoint conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade.While no one in Congress has signaled whether they will keep Obama's new rule, House Speaker Paul Ryan said last month that "our position has not changed," in regards to Planned Parenthood funding.Since the election, Planned Parenthood has received a surge in donations. But it only performs roughly a third of the abortions in the United States. That worries providers like Laura Churchill, deputy director of Greene County Public Health in upstate New York.We need Planned Parenthood, but we have to get this focus off just looking at them," she said. "Were Title X recipients too, we just do the business and lay low."Even clinics that don't offer abortions are already feeling a post-election pinch.The Greene County Public Health Department, for example, is the region's major provider of womens health services. Unlike Planned Parenthood, it hasn't received any donations since Trump's victory but has seen more demand for its services.Weve had an increase in women wanting long-acting reversible contraceptives," said Churchill. "Weve been able to accommodate them, but were running through them."As women worry that a Trump presidency will make birth control harder to get or more expensive, many states have noted an increased demand for long-acting reversible contraceptives like IUDs.Title X grantees vary widely from place to place. In some areas, Planned Parenthood affiliates are the main source of reproductive health services. In others, its a federally qualified health center or county health department.Title X funds account for about 22 percent of financial support for women's health clinics. The rest comes from a mix of Medicaid money, private grants and out-of-pocket fees. If Congress decides to override Obamas rule -- and subsequently cut Title X funding -- it would be devastating for many health-care providers."New York would try to supplement that money, but I don't how long they would be able to do so," said Churchill.Even if Congress and the Trump administration keep the status quo, which is unlikely, Sandusky from the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association notes that the Title X program is woefully underfunded. Its the sixth straight year that funding has remained flat.
(TNS) -- With its relatively low profile, Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley might appear insulated from sensational cyberattacks like the one detailed in Yahoo's recent announcement that hackers stole personal information from 1 billion users, or allegations of Russian interference in this year's presidential election.After all, we're not a worldwide technology hub like the Silicon Valley, or the country's seat of government like Washington, D.C.That would be naive, said Mike Sitler, Lehigh County's director of information security."We really see the same thing as the rest of the world," Sitler said. "As these threats emerge in the rest of the world, we see them here."As sophisticated cybersecurity threats grow in frequency, institutions large and small are devoting more time and money than ever to protecting their own and their customers' information from online attacks, say experts. The costs are spread throughout various budgets, and are hard to quantify, but Lehigh County has seen its own information security tab increase in recent years, said Bob Kennedy, the county's director of computing and network infrastructureWorldwide spending on information security products and services will top $81.6 billion in 2016, up 7.9 percent from 2015, according to information technology consulting firm Gartner Inc. It's a rate of increase that the firm expects will continue through at least 2020. And cybercrime's cost to businesses, according Juniper Research, will hit $2.1 trillion by 2019, four times the cost of such attacks in 2015.Those costs are incurred when hackers steal company secrets, disable computer networks, shut down e-commerce sites and steal customers' personal data.The issue has caught the attention of local business leaders. The level of interest in improving cybersecurity in the local business community has increased tenfold compared to just a year ago, said Tony Iannelli, president and CEO of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce."In the past, when I would talk to companies, it was something that didn't happen to your company but someone else. Now the discussion has switched to, 'It could be my company at risk,'" Iannelli said.While big companies such as PPL and Air Products ramp up their own efforts, local information technology expert Scott Gingold's company has been doing an increasing amount of work for small- and mid-sized clients in information security as each new high-profile breach brings a new set of questions from customers."My day, seven days a week, starts at 4:30 in the morning, and the first thing I look at are the security threat assessment reports," said Gingold, who runs Bethlehem's Lehigh Valley Technology Company.They're constantly changing, Gingold said. For Lehigh County's Sitler, ransomware is his current preoccupation.That's malicious software, malware for short, that gets into a computer or network via a bogus email that seems to be from a legitimate company like Amazon. The email contains a link that when clicked upon locks up files and demands a payment to release them.Internet security firm Kaspersky Lab reported that ransomware attacks on businesses multiplied threefold between January and September.Hackers used ransomware to shut down the Madison County, Indiana, government in November, extracting a payment of $28,000 from the county and disrupting its computer network for weeks as the county rebuilt its locked-down system.A May phishing attack tricked 108 Los Angeles County employees into clicking on a link and providing their user names and passwords, exposing the personal information of 756,000 people. Phishing is when someone masquerades as a legitimate entity in an email or text message in order to trick the recipient into voluntarily providing personal information."We have measures in place to stop that but there are always new methods," Sitler said. "These people are smart." Sitler said he spends a lot of time educating county workers on how they can help prevent attacks by not clicking on anything suspicious.High-profile Lehigh Valley companies and their customers have been victimized by hackers in recent years. In 2014, Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem revealed that hackers who took over its websites also accessed the personal and financial data of tens of thousands of customers who gamble at the casino.Commonwealth Federal Credit Union was forced to warn its customers about a text-message phishing scam in April, when someone used the credit union's brand to try to steal customers and non-customers' personal information.In January 2015, hackers hijacked Crayola's Facebook account, posting links to racy content.And in June, a Palmer Township medical office, Integrated Health Solutions, informed its patients their personal information may have been exposed by a breach reported by its medical software provider, Bizmatics, Inc.Those are just a few recent examples.It's not a subject local companies like to talk about. PPL Corp. declined to discuss the measures it takes to protect its customers' financial information and the power grid itself against attacks.The same was true of Embassy Bank, whose CEO David Lobach said protecting customers' personal and financial information is job one, but that the company's information technology leadership took a pass when asked to discuss the extent of the bank's efforts.Lehigh Valley Health Network, which maintains countless gigabytes of patients' health care data, also demurred when asked to discuss its cybersecurity efforts.Companies don't like to talk about their cyber defenses because they don't want to attract attention, Gingold said."The reasons that they are reluctant is because they think this will make them a target for attackers, in other words, a challenge for those who wish to put a trophy on their mantle," Gingold said. "The other reason is that if a business suffers an attack, from a career perspective, it could be a career-ender for the [chief information officer]."It's not that these local companies aren't engaged. PPL referred The Morning Call to an article CEO William Spence wrote for the Edison Electric Institute's Electric Perspectives magazine on the importance of improving cooperation among utilities and others involved in protecting the U.S. power grid from cyberattacks.In the article, Spence wrote that cyberattacks are one of the threats against the nation's electricity infrastructure that keeps him up at night."Since 2012, the rate of cybersecurity incidents has been steadily rising against critical infrastructure segments including energy, critical manufacturing, information technology and financial services," Spence wrote.In an April interview published on PPL's website, Spence said PPL meets several times a year with the Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and the FBI Counterterrorism Division on cybersecurity efforts. PPL recently hired a new vice president-level corporate information security officer."Could we use more capital?" Spence said when asked whether the utility's cybersecurity efforts would benefit from additional funding. "Probably. I think we're doing well, though, already. And all the energy companies are continuing to invest more and more in cyber technology and capability. We also recognize that government agencies and state agencies are concerned about potential threats. And we understand why they would be concerned."There's no sign the threat from cybercriminals will abate. In his predictions for 2017, cybercrime expert Steve Weisman wrote in USA Today that attacks of all kinds will increase and grow more sophisticated in 2017, including increasing network intrusions that target companies' intellectual property, medical and bank records and mobile devices.That means little downtime for information security pros like Lehigh County's Sitler."My phone is always on me, and I am watching the stream of data 24-7," he said.
(TNS) -- PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Johnson & Johnson announced plans Monday to create a new health technology center in Providence and hire 75 employees in early 2017 to work in temporary space soon to be renovated by Wexford Science & Technology.The New Jersey-based company expects to seek about $6 million in state incentives for its center, adjacent to the former Route 195 land, Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor said at an announcement in the Providence Public Library by Gov. Gina Raimondo, members of Rhode Island's congressional delegation and company executives.Johnson & Johnson's Steve Wrenn said the company had considered other global locations but chose Rhode Island for its "world-class universities," the economic incentives approved last year by the state legislature and the Ocean State's proximity to T.F. Green Airport, Route 95 and Amtrak for trips to New York and Boston. Wrenn would not say where else the company considered locating.As for incentives, Wrenn said the allure was about more than "all this money," including help from the state to train workers and to work with local universities to help the company hire employees. He also said Bryant University's world-renowned supply-chain curriculum factored into the company's decision."We're what we call a knowledge society today," said Wrenn, global vice president and chief applications officer for the company that makes medical devices and pharmaceutical and consumer goods. "So if you think about access to the Browns, the RISDs, that's always No. 1, because if you don't have the people to draw from to get the creativity, you can't be creative."Johnson & Johnson employs about 126,900 employees at 250 operating companies. The firm reported third-quarter sales of $17.8 billion and has a facility in Cumberland and a major medical-device operation in Raynham, Mass.Wrenn said the company will start interviewing job candidates in January and February. He'll hire data scientists, data engineers, data analysts, software engineers, software developers and those who can build applications for smart phones.Raimondo said the company has similar centers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Limerick, Ireland. Those centers started with 75 workers and now employ hundreds in college towns.Wrenn said Providence employees will build new technology solutions for Johnson & Johnson customers and will use data and analytics to solve internal company problems. He declined to say what their average wages would be.Raimondo said they're "high-wage jobs, high-skills jobs," but deferred to Pryor for salaries. Pryor said the company will need to release average salaries and he could not.Johnson & Johnson expects to request about $4.1 million in Qualified Jobs tax credits, Pryor said. That program sets aside personal-income taxes paid by employees in newly created Rhode Island jobs and uses that money to offer companies tax credits. Average salaries have been reported by the Commerce Corporation for past companies receiving Qualified Jobs credits.Johnson & Johnson won't have to pay initially to use about 9,000 square feet of temporary space in One Ship St., Pryor said. That building is adjacent to 5 acres of 195 land where Wexford Science & Technology announced last week it's moving forward with plans to build an "innovation center." Wexford bought One Ship for $3.5 million, and the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission last week approved giving $1 million out of its $25-million 195 Fund to help pay for those renovations.The no-cost arrangement is a short-term agreement between Wexford, the Commerce Corporation and the 195 Commission, whose terms are still being negotiated, Pryor said. Yet to be determined, Pryor said, is whether Johnson & Johnson is considering moving into the innovation complex Wexford hopes to begin building in the spring.
(TNS) -- Victoria County, Texas, commissioners are opposed to a database that would give Texas judges better access to legal documents.Officials said Victoria County could lose about $14,000 in annual revenue and incur costs to maintain and provide security for the legal documents.The opposition comes from the county because Tyler Technologies, a publicly traded vendor developing the database, would be allowed to sell copies of legal documents and charge attorneys and the general public a fee to access re:SearchTX.The database initiative is being developed by the Texas Office of Court Administration at the behest of the Texas Supreme Court, said Victoria County Clerk Heidi Easley.In a memo to commissioners, Easley wrote: "Re:SearchTX will shift revenue to the vendor, but the clerks will still be responsible for the maintenance and security of the files with less revenue to support the services."Easley said she and District Clerk Cathy Stuart supported the county and District Clerks Association of Texas' opposition to Re:SearchTX."Tyler Technologies does not comment on matters of public policy," said company spokesman Tony Katsulos.In other business, Victoria County commissioners approved a new contract to accommodate and treat Refugio County's juvenile offenders.The Victoria County Juvenile Justice Center will charge Refugio County $110 a day for each juvenile it detains. The center will charge $115 a day to treat each juvenile it treats at a moderate level of care and $162.30 a day for each juvenile it treats at a specialized level of care. The juvenile detention center will charge Refugio County $200 a day for each pregnant juvenile offender it detains.
a sense in the security and intelligence business of being overwhelmed by having to trawl through a massive volume of data on potential hostile acts;

the trend towards greater disaffection among those feeling disempowered; and

a heightened degree of disaggregation in terrorist activity.

A more complicated monitoring challenge

Increasing levels of disaffection

Actors acting alone

What now?

The Christmas market truck assault in Berlin , which has left 12 dead and dozens injured, is a disturbing echo of the truck-borne attack on Bastille Day celebrants on the Nice promenade in July.How could such events be allowed to happen? Why werent intelligence agencies in Germany and France able to stay one step ahead of the perpetrators?After all, we have become used to hearing stories of increased chatter and high alerts. Doesnt that mean intelligence agencies should know enough to prevent such attacks?Several trends are emerging that help explain the latest phenomenon and the limits of the security and intelligence agencies. These include:High alerts have become all too commonplace. Reports of increased chatter are either hard to discern from the background noise (which has grown exponentially in volume) or simply not heard as frequently or as clearly as before, thanks to greater security consciousness among would-be perpetrators.In the post-Snowden era , the general awareness of security and intelligence agency monitoring has increased dramatically.Arguably, the secret of success in the security intelligence business is keeping ones successes secret. But now that many of the intelligence successes of the recent past are common knowledge thanks to Edward Snowdens and other revelations, monitoring such plans and intentions has become incalculably more difficult. This has meant, for instance, that would-be terrorists and criminals have dramatically altered their online profile to evade detection.This heightened level of awareness among would-be perpetrators of such acts has generated a far more complicated monitoring challenge.The problem is made worse by heightened levels of disaffection.The trend for violent extremists today is to draw inspiration from material online and through media coverage of the sensational acts of violence  be these in Brussels , Nice, Berlin, Aleppo or Mosul The suffering and injustices continue to mount, providing ample sources of inspiration for acts of retaliation.So a small number of young, often marginalised and disaffected migrants or their first-generation descendants seek to lash out in part against the apparent excess and indifference of the West to their circumstances, and in part out of misplaced zeal for a religious extremist cause.Disaggregation  the fact many would-be terrorists operate alone and not as part of a wider cell  is a key concern.In all likelihood, there was no direct connection between the perpetrators of the Berlin and Nice attacks that intelligence agencies might otherwise have been able to monitor. Instead, those in the truck in Berlin may have drawn inspiration from the truck attack in Nice: essentially perpetrating a copycat act. This suggests the hierarchical and networked nature of terrorist groups of the past is less relevant today.Demagogues leading extremist Islamist groups, for instance, are less directly involved in prompting and facilitating such acts. With so many ideas and instructions available online, there is little need to establish the types of direct linkages once considered the norm.As a consequence, identifying the relatively small number of such seriously disaffected people is a massive challenge that goes beyond the traditional technology-oriented solutions favoured by security and intelligence agencies. In the social media age the task of monitoring for indicators of such behaviour has become harder as the volume of data passed over the internet has gone from an emergent flood to an overwhelming deluge.In countries like France, Belgium and Germany, where the number of disaffected and mostly migrant youth has been growing, the challenges are stretching the security and intelligence agencies to breaking point.The expectation is these agencies must get better at their jobs. But, in reality, there are significant limits on what can be expected from them.Whats needed now is a new social compact that goes beyond reliance on security and intelligence agencies. We all have a role to play in preventing the fabric of society from tearing further.The role of the security and intelligence agencies to remain vigilant and seek to monitor extremist elements will undoubtedly endure. The secret of their success will continue to be keeping their successes secret.However, this does not absolve the rest of society from remaining engaged in community, by being inclusive, welcoming and helpful, while also maintaining a level of vigilance many had come to associate with a bygone era.This article was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article
Monisha Kaltenborn thinks F1's new owners are sympathetic to the idea of a fairer distribution of power among the teams.

So disillusioned with the way prize money and decision-making power is divvied up at present, Sauber and Force India lodged a complaint to the EU over a year ago.

Sauber chief Monisha Kaltenborn has now told Deutschlandfunk radio that the process is well underway, including a dialogue with the Commission.

"I am confident that the EU is looking very closely at this, because in principle, the answer to the question of whether the competition is distorted or not is relatively simple," she said.

"We will continue to push this forward and we think that something will happen."

A key to that could be the arrival of Liberty Media, as US media tycoon John Malone's group is in the process of buying and taking over the commercial rights.

"Together with Force India, we have already started to discuss it with Liberty," Kaltenborn revealed.

"For the first time, we have an owner who comes from the media sector, and someone who has made very successful investments in other areas.

"In some series, the smaller teams have certain rights which demonstrate the importance of these smaller teams, so I believe that a good dialogue will develop," she added.

(GMM)
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'Want Attention? Dance Naked': Minister's Advice

PANAJI: In a jibe at chronic critics, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said his advice to those who "blabber needlessly" to get publicity might as well take-off their clothes and dance naked.

Mr Parrikar, who was attending a BJP meeting on Monday at Sattari, north Goa -- 40 km from capital Panaji - had broached the subject of criticism following sharp words from a section of the Goan media.

Referring to the editor of a vernacular newspaper, he said in 1968, after the Watergate scandal was unravelled in the US, the man had written a large editorial giving advice to President Richard Nixon.

"Now, how could an editorial written by him in Marathi reach Nixon? He is in America," Mr Parrikar said. "Some people do not know their limits. They keep on blabbing. I'm giving them some advice. Take off your clothes and dance naked. That way you will get more fame."

The "international-level editor" Mr Parrikar said, had been "brought here in his old age". "His newspaper had a sale of 1,000," the Defence Minister said.

Ahead of next year's assembly elections in Goa, the opposition had regularly criticised Mr Parrikar. His jibe at actor Aamir Khan had drawn widespread criticism on the social media.

In October, the Goa BJP's plan to accord a hero's welcome to Mr Parrikar - a former Chief Minister of Goa -- for choreographing the surgical strikes on terror launchpads across the Line of Control came under sharp criticism from the opposition, the BJP's alliance partners as well as the civil society.
The agreement, in the form of a proposed Consent Decree ( national version , California version ), is subject to the approval of Judge Charles R. Breyer of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, who presides over federal Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) proceedings related to the diesel matter in the United States. The proposed agreement would allow Volkswagen to recall more than 75% of affected 3.0L TDI V6 vehicles (approximately 63,000) to bring them into compliance with the emissions standards to which they were certified, if appropriate modifications are approved by EPA and CARB.

Volkswagen AG and Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State of California, by and through the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the California Attorney General, to resolve civil claims regarding approximately 83,000 affected 3.0L TDI V6 diesel engine vehicles in the United States (almost 15,000 of them in California).

As disclosed by the Court, Volkswagen has also reached agreement with the Court-appointed Plaintiffs Steering Committee (PSC) on substantial aspects of the monetary relief that eligible owners and lessees would receive, and the parties are working to resolve the remaining issues. Details of these discussions remain subject to a confidentiality order of the Court. The Court has scheduled a status conference on 22 December for the parties to report on progress towards a resolution and set a deadline of 31 January 2017 for the parties to submit a formal agreement to the Court.

Under the terms of the proposed Consent Decree, Volkswagen has agreed to:

Recall approximately 63,000 affected 2013-2016 Model Year Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche 3.0L TDI V6 vehicles with Generation 2 engines to bring them into compliance with the emissions standards to which they were certified, if appropriate modifications are approved by EPA and CARB. If Volkswagen is unable to meet this requirement, it will offer to buy back or terminate the leases of these vehicles and may also seek approval by EPA and CARB to offer customers a modification to substantially reduce their NO x emissions.

Buy back or terminate the leases of approximately 20,000 affected 2009-2012 Model Year Volkswagen and Audi 3.0L TDI V6 vehicles with Generation 1 engines or, if approved by EPA and CARB, modify the vehicles to substantially reduce their NO x emissions so as to allow eligible owners and lessees to keep them.

Contribute $225 million to the environmental remediation trust that is being established under Volkswagens 2.0L TDI settlements in the United States to fully mitigate the lifetime NO x emissions of the affected 3.0L TDI V6 vehicles.

As part of its agreement with the State of California, Volkswagen will also pay $25 million to CARB to support the use of zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs) in the State.

According to the civil complaint against Volkswagen filed by the Justice Department on behalf of EPA on 4 January 2016, and amended on 7 October 2016, Volkswagen allegedly equipped its 3.0 liter diesel vehicles with illegal software that detects when the car is being tested for compliance with EPA or California emissions standards and turns on required emissions controls only during that testing process. During normal driving conditions, the software renders these emissions control systems inoperative or reduces their effectiveness, resulting in increased emissions. This is known as a defeat device (an undisclosed Auxiliary Emissions Control Device, AECD).

By using a defeat device, these cars meet emissions standards in the laboratory, but emit up to nine times or more above the EPA-compliant levels for NO x NOx during normal on-road driving conditions. The Clean Air Act requires manufacturers to certify to EPA that vehicles will meet federal emissions standards. Vehicles with defeat devices cannot be certified.

Because Volkswagen cannot modify the affected 2009 through 2012 Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q7 generation 1 diesel vehicles to meet EPA-certified exhaust emissions standards, the settlement requires Volkswagen to offer owners of generation 1 vehicles the option to have the company buy back the car and to offer lessees a lease cancellation at no cost. If a plan is proposed by Volkswagen and approved by EPA and CARB to substantially reduce emissions from the generation 1 vehicles, Volkswagen will also have to offer that as an option for consumers.

For the generation 2 vehicles, Volkswagen will recall and fix these vehicles so they meet their certified exhaust emissions standards, after the technical solution is approved by regulators. If after extensive testing the solution does not perform as expected and is not approved, Volkswagen must offer to buy back the vehicles. In that case, the company can also seek approval of an emissions modification plan to substantially reduce emissions and, if approved, can offer that as an additional option for generation 2 vehicles.

Under the terms of the settlement, Volkswagen must achieve an overall recall rate of at least 85% for each of the generation 1 and generation 2 vehicles recall programs or pay additional sums into the mitigation trust fund. The buyback and lease termination program for generation 1 vehicles will begin within 30 days following court approval of the settlement. Vehicle modifications will become available to eligible owners and lessees once the modifications are approved by regulators.

The terms of the proposed agreement will be effective and final only after approval by the Court. At the earliest, approval will occur during spring of 2017. Affected 3.0L TDI V6 customers do not need to take any action at this time, and can visit www.VWCourtSettlement.com for more information.

The Multi-District Litigation (MDL). The case is known as In Re: Volkswagen Clean Diesel Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL 15-2672, in United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco before Judge Charles R. Breyer.

The proposed Consent Decree was executed by Volkswagen AG, Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., Volkswagen Group of America Chattanooga Operations, LLC, Audi AG, Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG and Porsche Cars North America, Inc. It includes the following 3.0L TDI V6 engine vehicles:

Model Years VW Touareg 2009-2016 Porsche Cayenne 2013-2016 Audi A6 2014-2016 Audi A7 2014-2016 Audi A8 2014-2016 Audi A8L 2014-2016 Audi Q5 2014-2016 Audi Q7 2009-2015
Taaza means fresh in both Hindi and Arabic, and the new Taaza Bistro in Greensboro certainly lives up to the name.

All of the ingredients used in its dishes are fresh, and everything is made daily by the staff. The co-owners, Chellappa Yasin, a Muslim; and Mohan Chinnathambi, a Hindu; chose the name because it represented both of their faith backgrounds.

The two co-owners met while attending university in India. They immigrated to the United States and worked together in the restaurant industry in the Raleigh area.

Then, six years ago, Yasin and Chinnathambi opened their own restaurant in Burlington. They soon realized that a lot of their clientele was traveling from Greensboro.

Our customers urged us to open up a restaurant in Greensboro because they were driving (from here) to Burlington to eat there, Yasin said.

On June 15, they opened their Wendover Place location, near the corner of Bridford Parkway and Wendover Avenue. Just like they did in Burlington, they offer a lunch buffet and an a la carte dinner menu in the evenings every day.

Taaza Bistro will play host to Ethnosh, the international food adventurers, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday. At this NoshUp, you can meet owners Yasin and Chinnathambi, and their staff who bring all of this goodness to your city.

For $8, you get a plate full of signature samplers. Beer, wine, cocktails and other beverages are available at an additional cost. Electronic reservations are required to attend.

With a plethora of Indian restaurants in the Triad area, Taaza stands out for being the only restaurant in the Triad serving primarily southern Indian cuisine.

You have to go to the Triangle or Charlotte to find another southern Indian restaurant, Yasin said.

I visited Taaza Bistro shortly before Thanksgiving to meet with Yasin and to taste some of the foods. While we talked, he continued to bring out samples of a wide range of meat, vegetarian and vegan dishes for me to try.

One of the primary take-aways from the experience is that southern Indian food is known for being more spicy than northern Indian cuisine. Also, in general, southern Indian cuisine is known for having dishes be based on rice, like the dosas and the Hyderabadi dum biryani, as well as curries and dal. Northern Indian cuisine is generally known to have more grilled meat and uses bread more.

Taaza Bistro has the only charcoal tandoor oven in the region. Tandoor ovens are common in India and other parts of Asia. At Taaza, they use the oven to cook many of their dishes as well as their delicious bread. The oven has the fire within itself, thus exposing the food to both the fire and hot air.

Tandoor ovens can usually reach temperatures of 900 degrees and can smoke the food as the juices drip on to the charcoal. This results in a great charcoal flavor in all of their dishes and breads coming from their tandoor oven.

Some of the southern Indian dishes that they offer are a variety of dosas, a pancake-crepe primarily made with rice and vigna mungo or black lentils. On the menu, they offer around a dozen different varieties of dosas, including a six-foot dosa, which they nicknamed Big Bang, that can be filled with a variety of vegetables and meat options depending on the diners preferences.

Another dish is the Hydrabadi Dum Biryani, which is one of Yasins favorite dishes. He describes the dish as a rice casserole that is popular in South India. This dish is traditionally made with chicken and basamati rice, along with other spices. But, at Taaza, diners can try it with goat, lamb, vegetables or chicken, depending on their preferences.

Taaza also has dishes typical of northern Indian cuisine, like palak paneer, made of spinach and cheese, which is my personal favorite. It has tons of options for meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans.

Because of the owners religious backgrounds, beef and pork are not served at Taaza.

Being from the Midwest, the home of bland food, I have little tolerance for spicy food, much to the dismay of my wife. To help my lack of tolerance for spiciness, Yasin also treated me to an excellent mango lassi (a yogurt-based drink often mixed with different fruit, like mango), delicious naan (a soft flatbread more common to northern Indian cuisine) and papadum (a thin crisp flatbread served alongside a yogurt dipping sauce) to balance out the spiciness and save my bland self from overheating.

Yasin started cooking at a young age, and it becomes clear that he is still passionate about cooking and all the dishes they offer at the restaurant. Throughout our conversation, it was clear that Yasin takes great pride in operating Taaza Bistro with his friend Chinnathambi.

I left Taaza fully satisfied with my eating experience and with much more knowledge about Indian food. My wife was grateful for the leftovers I brought home with me, and she savored the spiciness.

At Taaza Bistro, Chinnathambi and Yasin strive to bring an inviting experience to everyone who enters the restaurant, while celebrating both the diversity of Indian food and their faith backgrounds to bring delicious food to all of their customers.
GREENSBORO  A man awaiting trial on a charge of first-degree murder will have a second chance in an unrelated drug case after the N.C. Court of Appeals found that a Greensboro police officer violated his Fourth Amendment right against an unreasonable search.

In December 2015, Superior Court Judge Eric Morgan sentenced Juan Antonia Miller, 38, of 4241 Bernau St., Apt. E, in Greensboro to a maximum of 17 months in prison after a jury found him guilty of cocaine possession.

On Tuesday, the appeals court published a ruling written by Judge Rick Elmore ordering a new trial on the drug conviction.

Court records show Officer H.B. Harris of the Greensboro Police Department stopped Miller on March 18, 2014, for speeding and suspicion of an insurance violation. Harris conducted a license plate search that showed that the insurance had not been paid for the vehicle Miller was driving and that the license plate was on hold.

Yet Harris did not issue a citation, deal with the speeding violation or investigate the reasons he stopped the vehicle, Elmore wrote.

After reviewing the footage of the traffic stop, it is wholly evident that Officer Harris was more concerned with discovering contraband than issuing traffic tickets, he wrote.

Elmore noted that Harris testimony about the stop did not match the body camera footage, shown twice to jurors in Millers drug trial, which showed Miller facing the vehicle with his legs spread when Harris asked for consent to search.

This is textbook coercion, Elmore wrote. If defendant did respond to Officer Harriss request  and it is still not apparent he did  it was certainly not a free and intelligent waiver of his constitutional rights.
GREENSBORO  The Greensboro City Council voted Tuesday not to release the remaining documents in a police misconduct case.

The motion, made by Councilwoman Sharon Hightower during the councils regular meeting, failed 7-2.

Hightower and Councilman Jamal Fox were the only members to vote in favor of the matter.

The release of an investigative file that does not bind us to any investigation is the right and proper thing to do, Hightower said before the vote. I think we can go a bit further. So Im making this motion. If it fails, it fails.

Hightowers request comes a week after GSO Operation Transparency, a local group, demanded the full investigative file and all related written and electronic correspondence in the case of former Greensboro Police Officer Travis Cole.

Cole and then-Officer Charlotte Jackson were called to a residence on June 17 about a possible robbery where Dejuan Yourses mother lives.

Body-camera footage shows Cole punching Yourse in the face while arresting him.

Cole resigned Aug. 19 amid an investigation into his conduct, which later determined he had used too much force and had violated the departments rules about search and seizure.

That prompted the council to air the footage, request additional investigations and call for changes in the departments policies on how it investigates misuse of police power.

Gary Kenton, a member of GSO Operation Transparency, praised those steps Tuesday but said that the councils hesitation to release the investigative file has led some residents to believe the city is attempting to cover up further misconduct.

We sincerely believe that what we are asking for is in the best interest of the City Council, the best interest of the Greensboro Police Department and the best interest of the citizens of Greensboro in order to foster trust in our police, he said.

Mayor Nancy Vaughan defended the councils response, saying its actions over the past few months  including the vote to release the body-camera footage and the decision to send Coles file to the state licensing agency to determine whether he was fit to serve as a police officer  demonstrated transparency.

I cant vote to release that file. I dont think this raises to that level, she said. I know that we have more work to do when it comes to police and community relations, but ... in this particular case, the process worked. And I will stand by that, and I will stand by that in November.
A push to bring early voting to Connecticut  and send long lines at many polling locations the way of mechanical voting machines  is regaining momentum.

State Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, this week introduced a bill, the first of the upcoming legislative session, to amend the state constitution to allow for early voting.

A similar measure was defeated by voters in 2014 during a public referendum, despite support from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the states top election official, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, who are both Democrats.

Tong said its high time that Connecticut join 37 other states that allow anyone to cast their ballots before the election, not just those who meet the guidelines for obtaining an absentee ballot. The initiative comes after a record 1.7 million ballots were cast statewide in the November election, with long lines observed in many municipalities such as Bridgeport, Stamford, Fairfield, Milford, Norwalk and Danbury.

For working people, thats unacceptable, Tong said. I noticed on Election Day in some of my quieter districts that there were long lines by 6 a.m....and people were being turned away. That just struck me as not being right at all. If somebody gets up at 5 in the morning and races to vote, and theyre there by 6 or 6:15 to vote, they should get to do so.

Tongs proposal, which was sent to the Legislative Commissioners Office to be drafted, will not set a timetable or process for when the first ballots could be cast. He is leaving that up to policymakers, who he said analyze and model legislation after other states with early voting.

Malloy spokeswoman Kelly Donnelly reaffirmed the governors support Tuesday for early voting.

States across the nation offer some form of early voting and Connecticut should join their ranks, Donnelly said. We must continue to work to modernize our election rules, remove barriers to the ballot box, and increase voter participation.

Merrill, a proponent of same-day voter registration, which Connecticut offered for the first time in a presidential election last month, is also sticking by the concept.

Its great that this is getting started, Merrill said through a spokesman. I welcome the proposal.

Republicans are unconvinced about the need for early voting, however.

Right now, I have various concerns over the way voting gets done to begin with and the checks and balances...and what people need to bring to their polling places as a form of ID, said House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby. There would have to be a lot of very strong safeguards in place for me to even consider it.

In Connecticut, voters can sign an affidavit in lieu of presenting a valid drivers license to poll workers. But Republicans say that the law is not applied consistently by the states 169 municipalities.

State Sen. L. Scott Frantz, R-Greenwich, who also represents parts of Stamford and New Canaan, was also not keen on Tongs proposal.

I dont know what early voting accomplishes, Frantz said. I tell you, the earlier people vote, the less educated decisions theyre going to make on who to vote for.

Frantz said Republicans arent trying to suppress turnout and that early voting is a nonpartisan issue.

I think both sides agree that the more (people) who participate in democracy, the better, period, Frantz said. However, I think the simpler and more elegant solution to there being large crowds at polls is to be ready for them.

Frantz said Connecticut already makes accommodations for voters to cast their ballots before Election Day.

We have a perfectly good absentee ballot system in place, Frantz said.

About 8 percent of voters in the state cast their votes in last months election by absentee ballot, which are reserved by law for members of the military, travelers, college students, homebound seniors, poll workers and persons with disabilities.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
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If it isn't aliens, it should be: Astronomers have discovered pulses of light coming at consistent time intervals from 234 out of 2.5 million stars scanned by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Great. We're ready, man. We've talked it over as a species, sent probs and photoed and scanned and probed the skies because we'd love to finally KNOW that Earth isn't the only planet with life. If it is extraterrestrial intelligent life, even better. We're also sending out as much noise as we can to attract the attention of our fellow ETIs ... even if it means they'll come here and kill us all.

Anyway, evolution is an natural algorithm running here on Earth, and it's pretty clear that if life gets started anywhere, it'll end up running that biological program "survival of the fittest." Problem is ... we just haven't found any kind of life form off this world.

So, back to the desire for these pulses to be signals from aliens, either directed at us or at each other and we just got a glimpse of that conversation.

Astronomers Ermanno Borra and E. Trottier from the Laval University in Canada suggest the number of stars, their location and the particularities of the signal pretty much rule out data corruption from some general background noise or some more general oddity among stars across the sky.

The two alien hunters also say they predicted this kind of light pulses that could be generated as laser signals from ETIs.

"... we consider the possibility, predicted in a previous published paper, that the signals are caused by light pulses generated by Extraterrestrial Intelligence to makes us aware of their existence. We find that the detected signals have exactly the shape of an ETI signal predicted in the previous publication and are therefore in agreement with this hypothesis," they stated in the abstract of their study that has been published on an open-source, non-peer-reviewed science website. The research has been accepted for publication in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

Now, this is not proof of anything. Yet, a theory that predicted and makes sense of strange data is a theory heading toward significance.

"The fact that they are only found in a very small fraction of stars within a narrow spectral range centered near the spectral type of the sun is also in agreement with the ETI hypothesis," they wrote.

Everyone is supposed to hold their horses for more data and other researchers to check out the findings.

"... at this stage, this hypothesis needs to be confirmed with further work. Although unlikely, there is also a possibility that the signals are due to highly peculiar chemical compositions in a small fraction of galactic halo stars."

Consequently, we humans are still waiting for conclusive evidence that we are not alone. And, boy, do we hate waiting ... judging by the popularity and scope of science fiction books, movies and games.

Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook. If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.
The French Laundrys cellar is now back to full. Photo: The French Laundry

One of the two thieves who broke into Thomas Kellers French Laundry on Christmas Day in 2014 and looted $550,000 of its finest wines has pleaded guilty to that total jerk move. As part of a plea bargain, the Justice Department says Davis Kiryakoz admitted hed plotted to steal more than $870,000 worth of expensive bottles from the restaurant (Domaine de la Romanee-Conti vintages, an Uber-pricey Screaming Eagle Cabernet) and mailed more than $370,000 worth to buyers.



Good Samaritans returned almost all of the French Laundrys 110 bottles unopened, but Kiryakoz and his partner in crime Alfred Georgis, who was also indicted earlier this year, also swiped 142 of the most expensive bottles from a high-end San Francisco wine store, and made off with another 17 from Alexanders Steakhouse in Cupertino, suggesting they probably planned to continue thieving. The judge released Kiryakoz on bail, but he and Georgis will be back for sentencing in March.
No stars. Photo: Shanna Ravindra

After Vanity Fair published a restaurant review as unambiguously titled as Trump Grill Could Be the Worst Restaurant in America, it couldnt have been too surprising when Donald Trump tweeted that the magazine was way down, big trouble, dead! (The magazine has also apparently picked up 13,000 new subscribers since the review ran.) Even still, political reporter Tina Nguyen, who wrote the piece, tells Columbia Journalism Review she expected the story to get some pickup, but not the attention of the man who is going to be the most powerful person in the world. That attention (Way down, big trouble, dead!) brought her a good amount of plaudits from the industry, but also a very real fear of what Trumps supporters might try to do in the wake of the takedown.

Per CJRs interview:

Rationally, I was worried I would be doxxed, [Nguyen] says, referring to the practice of publishing peoples private information with malicious intent. Trump supporters have already doxxed dozens of journalists they viewed as anti-Trump.

Luckily, Vanity Fair publisher Conde Nast was ready:



In a set of actions that other media outlets would be wise to study, the Vanity Fair public relations team quickly contacted Nguyen. They kept an eye out for anyone who tried to release my address or my phone number or even tried to call me through the Conde [Nast] switchboard, she says. They were on top of their game, so big credit to them.

Nguyen also credits Vanity Fair for letting her go after Trump, and for supporting the review even after a very scary man tweeted his displeasure toward it and says the attention is very flattering, and I still dont quite know how to process it. Meanwhile, editor Graydon Carter  a proud restaurateur himself, and known Trump detractor  appears to have been pleased with the whole thing. The magazines homepage was emblazoned with a banner proclaiming itself THE WAY DOWN, BIG TROUBLE, DEAD! MAGAZINE TRUMP DOESNT WANT YOU TO READ during the controversy.
Back in the day, if you wanted a small smartphone with flagship specs, you turned to Sony's Compact-branded devices, because you really had no other choice. Then this year the Japanese company decided to get out of that particular market for whatever reason, and so the Xperia X Compact is just a mid-ranger. Yet if you crave a top of the line handset with a screen under 5", Xiaomi may soon have something in store for you.

From China today comes news that a Xiaomi Mi S smartphone is in the works, and most of its details have been leaked by what are claimed to be promotional materials. While we can't verify their authenticity in any way, we must say it would be interesting for this handset to actually become reality.

The Mi S is said to feature a 4.6-inch 1080p display with 600-nit brightness and 2.5D curved glass on top, the Snapdragon 821 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 12 MP main camera with Sony's IMX378 sensor with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus, 4K video capture, and dual-LED flash. The selfie snapper will be a 4 MP unit with f/2.0 aperture also (and 1080p video recording).

Keeping things juiced up will be a 2,600 mAh battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 through a USB Type-C port. A 3.5mm headset jack is in too. The phone's dimensions are 128.3 x 64.2 x 8.2 mm, and it weighs 138g. A fingerprint scanner will probably be embedded in that physical Home button you can see on the front.

No details about pricing have been outed, nor a release date. Since the renders of the device look less than professional (at least according to the standards you'd expect from supposedly promotional slides), there's a high possibility that this isn't a real product coming soon, so hopefully you've taken all of what you just read with a pinch of salt.

Source (in Chinese) | Via
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Haiti - Economy : Signing of a partnership to create 28,000 emergency jobs





The Government, through the Economic and Social Assistance Fund (FAES) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), signed a partnership agreement on Friday to create 28,000 emergency jobs in the regions affected by the hurricaneMatthew, with financial support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) of nearly US $2 million.



Nearly 2.7 million people have been affected by Hurricane Matthew. In this context, livelihood rehabilitation, with a particular focus on women, is crucial to ensuring immediate income for the most vulnerable and creating the conditions for a long-term recovery.



UNDP initiatives in the field (Cash for work) will focus on the management of waste and debris (destroyed trees and houses), repairing infrastructure (such as irrigation canals) and the rehabilitation of roads and community structures. Their objectives will be to enable the resumption of agricultural activities in time for the planting season and the revitalization of markets and economic activities in the affected communities. In addition, UNDP teams, in partnership with FAES, will provide technical assistance to municipalities and associations in these regions.



In terms of geographical scope, UNDP emergency employment projects will focus on the affected departments of the South and Grand'Anse, beginning with 9 communes in the Grand'Anse (Abricots, Anse d'Hainault, Beaumont , Bonbon, Chambellan, Dame Marie, Jeremie, the Irois and Moron).



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Diaspora : Wishes from the Ambassador of Haiti to Canada





On Tuesday, as part of the Christmas and New Year celebrations, Haiti's Ambassador to Ottawa, Canada, Frantz Liautaud sent his wishes to the Haitian diaspora in Canada.



Wishes of the Ambassador Liautaud :

"Dear compatriots of Canada,



In the name of Mrs Liautaud, in that of the devoted staff of the Mission and in my personal capacity, I have the honor to associate myself with the Government of the Republic to extend to you, to your distinguished families, our most sincere wishes on wishes on the occasion of Christmas and New Year.



To each of you, we wish wholeheartedly: Health, Happiness, Prosperity.



In this annual review period, I do not think it appropriate to dwell on our recurring problems in Haitian daily life. Qualified leaders take care of that, striving in their respective fields, to find solutions adapted to our reality. I have faith in better tomorrows.



Also, I do not intend to discuss the disastrous consequences of the devastation caused by the violent passing of Matthew in Haiti. The scale of the disaster is such that it will take us some time to recover. Again, let us trust them.



Dear friends,



As the curtain falls on 2016, I want to express my pride to express to you my pride in honoring your exemplary behavior in Canadian society. This pride seems to me to be quite legitimate, if only by referring to the Resolution, adopted unanimously in the House of Commons, by which the Honorable Members of Parliament expressed 'their gratitude to the Haitian community of Canada, for its active contribution to Canada's socio-economic progress'.



The author of the Resolution, recently deceased, the late deputy Mauril Belanger https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-18357-haiti-politic-the-haitian-lose-a-great-friend-in-canada.html was in fact decorated in the Canadian Parliament, at my suggestion, by the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Lener Renauld on behalf of the Haitian Government.



May the Haitian diaspora, in its entirety, draw inspiration from the image of your community in foreign lands !



Dear compatriots of Canada,



This 1 January 2017, the Republic of Haiti commemorates the 213th anniversary of its independence. A mythical date, which brings back to our memory so many heroic and sublime deeds. But also many others less flattering, even tainting sometimes the sacrosanct heritage bequeathed by the Founding Fathers...



In this context, it would perhaps be appropriate, at this turning point in our life as a people, to unite our forces, our knowledge and the resources of our intelligence in the service of the common good. The hour seems to me to have come, in a burst of patriotism and reason, to the harmony of living together : an obligatory path leading to political stability, human development, modernity and socio-economic and cultural progress of our country. So we will have deserved our country.



May God help us!



Frantz Liautaud

Ambassador of Haiti

Ottawa, December 20, 2016"



HL/ HaitiLibre


















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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.

17:38, 3 NOV 2022
Forty years ago they were Born Free, 20 years ago they were Born in the U.S.A., but today kids are born digital, and taking their parents native, too. No matter what your age, says John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, you can become what he calls a digital native by living simultaneously on line and off with the help of technological aidsBlackBerrys or social-networking sites like MySpace that give you an on-line presence all day (and even all night) long. For the past two years Palfrey and his coauthor, Urs Gasser, have been working on a book tentatively titled Born Digital, in which they hope not only to define this group, but also to examine its norms and recommend policy changes that would minimize the risks of on-line life while fostering its creative potential.

One of the digital natives primary traits is an extensive on-line persona. [Their] identity is expressed through both off-line and on-line media, explains Palfrey. And theres not much of a distinction in the digital natives mind between these two. Digital natives pick photographs for their on-line personas on social-networking sites with the same care with which they pick their clothes each morning. They go on line to reveal rather than conceal themselves.

And its the extent to which they reveal themselves that baes the uninitiated, most of whomwith different attitudes toward personal privacywould never think of publishing their phone numbers or home addresses (let alone a photographic record of a Saturday-night bender) on the Internet. Even as digital natives acknowledge the danger their openness may pose in attracting predators, they are nowhere near as aware of the transference of data [sent] about them across companies, says Palfrey. Native or not, nobody reads the fine print. He is worried: The amount that somebody is going to be able to know about somebody [else] born today, 30 years from now, is completely unimaginable. From sonograms to wedding photographs and the Social Security Death Index, digital records mark nearly every milestone in our lives. And, because storage is plentiful and cheap and the information never decays, those records dont disappear.

Palfrey believes companies should be required to discloseeither in plain English or on an icon resembling a nutritional labelwhat they do with the information they collect. What is it that you collect and store about me? he would ask. Is it only what I put in, or is it my browsing habits? Do you share [data] with any third parties? How long do you keep all of [it]? He also advocates updating the copyright code and making social-networking sites such as Facebook more, though by no means entirely, accountable for their users actions. He generally shies away from sweeping policy measures, such as banning social networks altogether. Kids will find some other digital public in which to live their lives, he reasons. You can just keep banning them, but its whack-a-mole.

He fears that keeping kids off line would stifle the creativity he sees springing up all over the Web. In amateur videos on YouTube and in blogs, he sees a popular movement toward what he calls semiotic democracy, which refers to the way each person watching a television show interprets it differently. Digital tools, Palfrey claims, take this a step further: instead of simply supplying meaning to someone elses show, anyone with a digital camera can make his or her own.

Palfrey points to parents and educators, rather than legislators, as childrens best guides to the often hazardous terrain of the digital world. But parents and educators, to be effective, must engage with that world and understand how young people behave in it. For instance, while conducting a survey of study habits, Palfrey was unable to find a single digital native whose first step, when assigned a research paper, was toward a library. Instead, students typed their topic into a Google search bar, scrolled down to the reference in Wikipedia (an on-line encyclopedia edited by its readers), read the entry, and then followed the links to learn more. The only variant Ive heard to that, says Palfrey, is typing en.wikipedia.org and going straight to Wikipedia. Whether or not Wikipedia is a credible source, teachers need to know that their students consult it before they can present alternatives.

Palfrey hopes that digital natives eventually become creators of on-line content, rather than simply consumers. Shooting and posting a video, or writing a comment on a message board, he argues, is a way of reaching out to an audience that potentially numbers in the millions. If in fact kids over time find that they can have more of an impact on their society by virtue of what they can do through these new mediaI think that leads to a more active form of democratic participation, he sayslooking forward to a time when those who choose to be born digital regularly make, unmake, and remake the information world they live in.

~Paul Gleason
By Jesse Wood

In an opinion dated Dec. 21, the N.C. Supreme Court ruled that the 2014 legislation enacted by the N.C. General Assembly abolishing the Town of Boones extraterritorial jurisdiction is constitutional.

Because the legislative act withdrawing the Towns extraterritorial jurisdiction falls squarely within this plenary power, we hold that the act is constitutional, and we reverse the decision of the trial court, a paragraph of page 2 of an 81-page opinion reads.

Another section of the opinion on page 7 reads, An act of the General Assembly will be declared unconstitutional only when it [is] plainly and clearly the case  Though not expressly stated in our first constitution, the General Assembly has long enjoyed plenary power to create political subdivisions of local government, establish their jurisdictional boundaries, and invest them with certain powers  which may be enlarged, abridged or modified at the will of the legislature 

Being the states highest court, N.C. Supreme Court rulings cant be appealed, according to the N.C. Court System website: Parties have no further appeal from its decisions on matters of state law.

Plenary authority pertains to a governing bodys ability to exercise power (or not) in a particular area.

After former N.C. Sen. Dan Soucek, a Republican, sponsored legislation, passed in the summer of 2014, abolishing the towns ETJ, which extends 1 to 2 miles outside town limits, the Town of Boone sued.

The town argued that the state constitution prohibited any local law relating to health, sanitation and the abatement of nuisances, relating to non-navigable streams, or regulating labor, trade, mining, or manufacturing. Souceks law, the town claimed, was void because it wasnt enforced statewide; it only affected Boone  and not the 200-plus other municipalities exercising ETJ authority.

At the time the bill was being bounced around in the legislature in 2014, Soucek told High Country Press that the town had grossly abused and was overstepping the original intent of state law regarding ETJs. He also repeated the mantra of regulation without representation when speaking of the ETJ because residents of the ETJ cant vote in town elections.

Former Boone Mayor Andy Ball wondered at the time why Boone was being targeted and said the ETJ preserves neighborhoods by providing a buffer between the towns zoning and the lack of zoning in Watauga County.

After the Boone-targeted bill passed in the summer of 2014, ETJ citizens went to the Watauga County Board of Commissioners to voice their concerns. Of the nearly 30 people who spoke before the commissioners in August 2014, the vast majority were against the elimination of Boones ETJ.

The commissioners listened to their constituents and directed the Watauga County Planning Board to come up with some recommendations and pass them on to the commissioners.

The planning board held three community meetings in different edges of the town. A vast majority of those attending those meetings were pro ETJ. But only about 125 of the estimated 2,750 to 3,500 ETJ residents showed up.

The passage of this law  in addition to Maymeads proposed asphalt plant, which became known to the public later in April 2015, in Deep Gap  set off a chain of discussions between the public, planning members and commissioners regarding the countys High Impact Land Ordinance, which regulated asphalt plants and other polluting industries.

Based on recommendations from the planning board, the Watauga County Board of Commissioners, then a GOP majority, enacted a 750-foot buffer between residential property lines and asphalt plants, cement mixing facilities and rock quarries (known as Category 1 uses in the ordinance) and a 1,500-foot buffer between a scenic byway and Category 1 uses. (With a proposed asphalt plant on the stretch of U.S. 421 known as the Doc and Merle Watson Scenic Byway, the latter buffer was an attempt to stop Maymead from building its plant.)

Commissioners also enacted a law requiring neighboring landowners to be notified of permit applications for high-impact land uses, which previously wasnt required and is why a 2011 permit for an asphalt plant transferred to Maymead didnt come to light until 2015.

Previously, the county had a 1,500-foot buffer for educational facilities, nursing homes, religious facilities and childcare facilities  but no residential buffer. This was a major concern of citizens. The planning board recommended a 500-foot buffer between residential dwellings (not residential property lines) and Category 1 uses  but this was before it was announced that two companies were proposing asphalt plants in the county.

Citizens were asking for a two-year moratorium on polluting industries operating in the ETJ and at least a 1,000-foot buffer between polluting industries and residential dwellings. High Country W.A.T.C.H., a group formed in opposition to the asphalt plant, noted the toxic chemicals released in the air from asphalt plants and created a map depicting the two-mile impact radius of the current and proposed asphalt plants in Watauga County. Maymead owner Wiley Roark told the High Country Press that the health and environmental concerns from the public were ridiculous.

The proposed asphalt plant off of Rainbow Trail Road ended up being denied by the Watauga County Planning and Inspections office, and an appeal to the Watauga County Board of Adjustment was denied as well.

The other asphalt plant proposal has turned out differently so far. Though it was initially denied by the Watauga County Planning and Inspections office, the Watauga County Board of Adjustment, citing vested rights, reversed Planning Director Joe Furmans decision to revoke a transferred permit to Maymead.

After a resident closest to the the Maymead site off of U.S. 421 in Deep Gap appealed to Superior Court, a Superior Court judge recently upheld the Watauga County Board of Adjustments ruling to overturn the Watauga County Planning Departments decision to revoke an asphalt plant permit.

As for the state law targeting the Town of Boone, in the summer of 2015, a panel made up of N.C. Superior Court Judges Alma Hinton, Nathaniel Poovey and Paul Ridgeway ruled that the abolishment of the towns ETJ by the N.C. General Assembly was unconstitutional.

The state and Watauga County, which had a GOP majority at the time and intervened in the case on behalf of the state, then appealed to the N.C. Supreme Court, which heard arguments from both the town and the state and county in March.

Justices Sam Ervin IV and Robin Hudson concurred with Justice Paul Newby, the writer of the main opinion, while Justice Cheri Beasley dissented.

Town Manager John Ward didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

See the entire opinion here.

For more background and previous stories, click here for ETJ stories and here for stories on high-impact land uses, including asphalt plants.

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The following information is provided by local law enforcement agencies.

All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Compiled by Jessica Isaacs

The following were provided by the Watauga County Sheriffs Office.

Dec. 9

ARREST: A male suspect, 30, of 151 Summit Woods #A6 in Blowing Rock, was charged with probation violation and second degree trespassing.

ARREST: A male suspect, 2256 Antoch Road in Mountain City, was charged with felony fugitive from justice. Secured bond: $20,000. Trial date: Jan. 17.

Dec. 10

ARREST: A male suspect, 34, of 12 Hemlock Drive in Asheville, was charged with DWLR and expired registration. Secured bond: $1,000. Trial date: Jan. 23.

Dec. 13

INCIDENT: Breaking and entering was reported at 756 Deck Hill Road in Boone.

INCIDENT: Breaking and entering building was reported at 3639 Meat Camp Road in Todd.

ARREST: A female suspect, 38, of 163 Red Maple Lane in Boone, was charged with nonsupport/nonpayment of alimony. Bond: $270.

Dec. 14

INCIDENT: Vandalism was reported at 11084 U.S. Highway 421 N in Zionville.

INCIDENT: Vandalism was reported at 193 Smith St. in Vilas.

INCIDENT: Larceny was reported at 6252 Old U.S. Highway 421 in Zionville.

INCIDENT: Fraud was reported at 7285 U.S. Highway 421 N in Vilas.

ARREST: A male suspect, 34, of 790 Dewitt Barnett Road in Banner Elk, was charged with violation of DVPO. Trial date: Jan. 19.

ARREST: A male suspect, 36, was charged with violation of DVPO and resisting public officer. Trial date: Jan. 19.

ARREST: A male suspect, 29, of 292 Rogers Drive in Boone, was charged with OFA FTA DVPO, OFA FTA failure to pay monies and OFA FTA failure to return property rented. Bond: $415. Trial date: Dec. 29.

Dec. 15

ARREST: A male suspect, 37, of 311 Laurel Fork Road in Vilas, was charged with all other offenses.

ARREST: A female suspect, 19, of 112 Makers Lane Unit 2 in Boone, was charged with possess marijuana paraphernalia. Trial date: Jan. 17.

ARREST: A male suspect, 19, of 14108 Bernardy Lane in Charlotte, was charged with felony unlawful obtaining credit card and misdemeanor obtaining things of value by transactions. Secured bond: $3,000. Trial date: Jan. 17.

ARREST: A female suspect, 34, of 129 Lazy Lake drive Unit 6 in Boone, was charged with OFA FTA DWLR and OFA FTA child not in rear seat. Secured bond: $500.

Dec. 16

ARREST: A male suspect, 32, of 476 Hardaman Circle in Boone, was charged with FTP child support. Bond: $800. Trial date: Jan. 16.

ARREST: A male suspect, 34, of 287 Smith St. in Sugar Grove, was charged with injury to real property. Trial date: Jan. 17.

ARREST: A male suspect, 25, of 296 Westin Way Apt. 10 in Boone, was charged with FTA possess marijuana up to  oz and FTA possess marijuana paraphernalia. Bond: $250. Trial date: Jan. 13.

ARREST: A male suspect, 36, of 376 Mable School Road in Zionville, was charged with felony extradition fugitive. Secured bond: $50,000. Trial date: Jan. 17.

ARREST: A male suspect, 30, of 174 Corbett McNeil Road in Boone, was charged with FTA criminal summons. Secured bond: $2,500. Trial date: Feb. 9.

Dec. 17

INCIDENT: Simple physical assault was reported at 534 Junaluska Road in Boone.

ARREST: A male suspect, 27, of 7725 U.S. Highway 421 N in Vilas, was charged with OFA FTA. Secured bond: $1,000. Trial date: Jan. 19.

ARREST: A male suspect, 20, of 2571 Long Hope Road in Boone, was charged with OFA FTA consume alc 19/20. Secured bond: $500. Trial date: Feb. 9.

ARREST: A female suspect, 37, of 1099 Bairds Creek Road in Vilas, was charged with OFA FTA breaking and entering and OFA FTA second degree trespassing. Secured bond: $370. Trial date: Feb. 10.

Dec. 18

INCIDENT: Driving after consuming and possession of a schedule VI were reported at 4090 N.C. Highway 105 S in Boone.

INCIDENT: Possess less than  oz of marijuana was reported on U.S. Highway 421 near Mos Boots in Boone.

INCIDENT: Calls for service were reported at 189 Clayton Hicks in Vilas.

INCIDENT: Damage to property was reported at 186 Tenessias Way in Boone.

INCIDENT: Calls for service were reported at 285 Lakeview Drive in Deep Gap.

ARREST: A male suspect, 27, of 148 Albert Tester Road in Sugar Grove, was charged with DWI  drugs. Trial date: Jan. 17.

ARREST: A male suspect, 26, of 267 Park St. in Boone, was charged with OFA probation violation. Secured bond: $250. Trial date: Feb. 10.

ARREST: A male suspect, 20, of 257 Farthington Drive in Clayton, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. Secured bond: $750. Trial date: Jan. 17.

Dec. 19

INCIDENT: Larceny from motor vehicle was reported at 771 Forestridge Drive in Boone.

INCIDENT: Larceny was reported at Samaritans Purse, 801 Bamboo Road in Boone.

INCIDENT: Breaking and entering motor vehicle and larceny from motor vehicle were reported at 198 Bluebird Lane in Boone.

INCIDENT: DWI and simple possession of Sch II CS were reported at 4869 U.S. Highway 421 N in Vilas.

ARREST: A male suspect, 48, of 2751 Shelton Mission Road in Greeneville, Tennessee, was charged with felony indecent liberties with a child and attempted first-degree sexual exploitation. Secured bond: $50,000. Trial date: Jan. 17.

ARREST: A female suspect, 31, of 138 Melrose Way in Boone, was charged with felony fraud  obtaining money/property by false pretense. Secured bond: $10,000. Trial date: Jan. 17.

ARREST: A female suspect, 29, of 11036 N.C. Highway 105 S in Banner Elk, was charged with possess marijuana paraphernalia and possess marijuana up to  oz. Trial date: Jan. 19

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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
Restaurant magazine profiles Never Blue chef

Jesse Roque

Never Blue chef Jesse Roque, who won a statewide chefs competition last summer, has added national publicity to her portfolio.

Related Stories

Restaurant Hospitality, which covers the restaurant industry, featured Roque in a story and interview in which she talks about Cuban and Mexican influences from her Tampa upbringing that she blends with Southern flavors.

"Ive been with my husband for 15 years and when we first met, he didnt speak a word of English and I didnt speak a word of Spanish," she tells the magazine's Tara Fitzpatrick. "We communicated with a translation dictionary. As a cook, I asked him what kind of food his mom used to make. He grew up in Mexico and his mom is an amazing cook. It was a struggle to get my husband to eat Southern food. If I made shrimp and grits, or pot roast with mashed potatoes and collards, hed say, 'What is this and why are there no jalapenos?'"

Roque, who was honored as 2016 North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association Chef of the Year at the North Carolina Chef Showdown, named Never Blue for the road between Hendersonville and Saluda where her mother lived. Read the interview here.
Police charge Oak Street man with sex offense, dealing pot

Related Stories

The Hendersonville Police Department in conjunction with the North Carolina Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force charged a 28-year-old Hendersonville man with sexual exploitation of a minor and running a marijuana manufacturing operation at his North Oak Street home.

Charged was Gabriel Zagazeta, of 211 N. Oak St.

The investigation was initiated at the request of a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in Minnesota. Detectives with the police department worked alongside investigators with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and investigators with the Department of Homeland Security to identify the suspect.

Last Thursday Hendersonville police officers along with the partnering agencies executed a search warrant at the Oak Street home and found evidence of the exploitation of a minor along with evidence of a marijuana manufacturing operation, the police department said in a news release.

On Monday police detectives met with District Attorney Newman and reviewed the investigation. It was determined that Zagazeta would be charged with three counts of third degree exploitation of a minor; manufacturing a schedule VI narcotic; possession with the intent of sale and delivery of a schedule VI narcotic; maintaining a dwelling for the purpose of use or sale of a controlled substance; and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Zagezeta was arrested Monday and jailed on a $48,000 secured bond. This investigation is ongoing. Additional charges may be obtained at a later date. If anyone has information regarding this case they are asked to contact the Hendersonville Police Department at 828-697-3025 or Henderson County Crime Stoppers at 828-697-STOP.
An Irish mum-of-two who died of cancer just three weeks after her diagnosis visited GPs nine times in the preceding six months, complaining of severe abdominal pain and bleeding.

Katie Delahunty O'Brien (31), from Sneem, Co Kerry, repeatedly visited the Newport Pagnell Medical Centre close to her home in Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire.

But her family claim her symptoms were dismissed as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

They are now calling on the British authorities to investigate her treatment by the NHS.

The first of Katie's nine visits was made in early June.

"She had abdominal pain and was bleeding," her sister Fionnuala Delahunty said.

"We believe the bleeding should have been the trigger for more investigation which could have led to an earlier diagnosis of the cancer. She kept saying to us 'I think it's something more serious'."

Each time she went back to the medical centre she presented with the same symptoms.

"The doctors should have investigated the cause of the bleeding, but we don't believe they did," said Fionnuala.

Such bleeding could be a symptom of bowel cancer.

"The doctors put her on medication for IBS for a number of months."

On November 16, Katie's condition worsened.

"She felt like she was having heart palpitations and she thought she was going to collapse with the pain," added Fionnuala.

Katie, a full-time mother to Sophie (7) and Luke (2), called an ambulance and was taken to Milton Keynes University Hospital, where she underwent a CT scan.

Her mother, Mary, rushed from her home in Sneem to be with her daughter, and was by her bedside when doctors told her the terrible news.

"They said she had cancer everywhere - lesions on her lung, her liver, her kidneys, her bones and bowel," said Mary.

"However, they said they wouldn't give her a full diagnosis for another week, which was November 24.

"For that week, we believed there was some hope. They talked about putting a plan in place. The following Thursday, I was down in the hospital canteen when I got a text from Katie to come up. They had told her there was no hope, that her liver was 80pc damaged and she wasn't well enough to have treatment.

"Her options were to go home or go to a hospice. She decided she wanted to go home. She stayed at home until she died on December 7, just three weeks after she was told she had cancer."

Before she left the hospital to go home, Katie had a civil ceremony and married her partner Matthew.

Graduate

Katie wanted her marriage to be blessed by the church, and the family arranged a wedding for December 10, but Katie died three days before.

Katie was the daughter of Noel and Mary Delahunty, from Sneem, the fourth born of their five children. Katie was in good health all her life and rarely visited doctors.

A graduate of IT Tralee where she earned a diploma in tourism and hospitality, Katie met her husband and moved to Milton Keynes nine years ago at the height of the recession.

There the couple settled, before welcoming their two children Sophie and Luke.

Fionnuala, who is based in New York and flew to be by her sister's side on December 3, said the family accept Katie had an aggressive cancer and if she had been diagnosed earlier, it was unlikely it could have been cured.

"Katie was so compliant with the doctors and the NHS. She was not assertive or as outgoing as me.

"But if they had listened to her and investigated the bleeding and she got the scan earlier, perhaps her liver wouldn't have been so damaged and she would have had more time to prepare her children."

The family say palliative care nurses had initially encouraged Katie to prepare memory boxes for her children and record messages.

However, Katie's condition rapidly deteriorated in the three weeks before she passed away and she was unable to do this.

The last time she saw her children was four days before her death.

"She did not want her children to remember her as being gravely ill. And she was very ill. It was horrendous at this stage and she really did suffer," said Fionnuala.

Katie's family wish to draw attention to her death because they believe an earlier diagnosis could have been made during the six-month period she visited the Newport Pagnell Medical Centre.

Her family claim her symptoms and complaints were ignored by the British health system.

"She would have had more time to help and prepare the children," said Fionnuala. "She would have been able to have a proper wedding.

"She never got to say goodbye to her children, and none of us wanted the children to remember her like that."

On December 6, the day before her death, Katie and her husband Matthew had their marriage rites. She was administered her Last Rites shortly afterwards.

She passed away at 7.50am the following day.

"To be ignored and neglected, the amount of suffering she went through at the end, was horrendous," said her mother.

"The cancer had consumed her body. It wouldn't have been so much in vain, if she had been able to enjoy her last few months.

Letter

"If I were put in that position, as a mother, I would have loved to have written a letter or made a video [for the children]. To take that away from someone is just horrendous."

The Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) for the Newport Pagnell Medical Centre, and Milton Keynes University Hospital, were contacted for comment.

The hospital said it could not comment on individual cases and the CCG did not come back for comment at the time of print.

Katie's family say they contacted the hospital for her medical files, which have been given to them.

They contacted the clinic for the files, but say they were advised they could get access to them only when a request has been made by a solicitor.

A Mass was due to be said for Katie earlier today at St Augustine's Church in Milton Keynes.

Her family will then bring Katie's remains to her native Sneem where her funeral will take place in St Michael's Church on Wednesday next week.

A Just Giving fund for Katie's two children has been set up. The site can be found here: justgiving.com/crowdfunding/katie-delahunty
A judge has warned a "failed promoter" he could be sent to prison if he does not get a "normal" job to pay back a debt of about 250,000 to comedian Mario Rosenstock.

Dublin District Court heard yesterday that concert and events promoter Darryl Downey owed money to Blue Elf, the company owned by Mr Rosenstock, which is looking to have Downey jailed as a result of arrears.

Mr Rosenstock, who rose to fame with his Gift Grub sketches on Today FM and now has a successful show on RTE, was not present for the hearing.

Judge Michael Coghlan said Downey is a "failed promoter" and he was putting the case back until February "to enable him to get a job, any job".

"If I hear he is continuing to hope for the next big deal I will run out of patience," he said, adding that he wanted to hear that Downey gets a job "that pays a normal weekly wage".

The debt is the subject of a High Court judgement and, in January, the District Court granted a variation on the instalment order, reducing the monthly repayment from 5,000 to 1,500.

However, Jane Linnane, counsel for Blue Elf, told the judge that since January there has been a total of just 5,400 paid to her client.

Payments

She said only 900 had been paid since September, while during the same period Downey made payments to another creditor who was not the subject of a judgement.

Ms Linnane said this money should have gone to her client, adding that in September Downey went to America and spent about 11,000.

Ms Linnane said Blue Elf and the court's orders have been continuously ignored and it was in those circumstances that a committal warrant was being sought.

Giving evidence, Downey said he cannot afford to pay any more. The court heard he had been a self-employed concert and events promoter since 2003, but is currently out of work.

He said the case related to a number of live shows going back to 2012 as a result of which about 750,000 was owed to Blue Elf. Some 500,000 was paid over, but he said he does not presently have the funds to pay the rest.

Borrow

His company Jarash has about 28,000 but his counsel, Tessa White, said that was needed to get shows off the ground.

Downey said that, since the instalment order was made, he has had to borrow 4,000 from his mother.

He added he was not in a position to pay back 1,500 a month and that he had just 4 in his personal account, 1 in a business account, 10 in his pocket and a 28,000 overdraft.

The judge noted that the matter has been before him on a number of occasions and said Downey's credibility was very poor, and he had come to the conclusion he has not given full information.
Colin Farrell has spoken out on Ireland's homeless crisis and has called on the Government to put more money into helping those on the streets.

The Castleknock man (40) is a patron of the Irish Homeless Street League and likened the homeless population to "refugees in their own land".

"What is a refugee? Someone who has to move from place to place without a home to find some sense of existence or some sense of peace. They're basically refugees in their own land. It's shocking. There's no structure around it," he told Ryan Tubridy on RTE Radio One.

Wellbeing

"You've got to look at how well every person in our society is doing. Then you judge how well we're organising presenting ourselves to each other.

"The Spire is great but there should be nothing like a spire put on O'Connell Street.

"That money should be going to people who can't take care of themselves which could be any of us," he added.

Farrell praised Glen Hansard and others for their impromptu performance at Apollo House.

"That fella cares deeply, he really does. Too many people are struggling unnecessarily," he said.
The advert sparked complaints from GAA fans and city councillors in Dublin

A Dublin billboard advert described as 'demeaning' to women has been ruled offensive by the country's advertising watchdog.

The Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) upheld a number of complaints over a men's clothing advert which featured a scantily-clad woman in underwear and suspenders.

The company 6th Sense Global Design featured the ad in outdoor advertising around Dublin and also in the match day programme for this year's All-Ireland semi-finals at Croke Park.

The advert sparked complaints from GAA fans and city councillors in Dublin.

The ASAI's complaints committee told the advertiser it was guilty of gender stereotyping and of exploitation or demeaning of women.

Provocative

"They considered that the images in question had been used merely to attract attention and were provocative and exploitative," it said in its ruling.

The clothing company said "it had never been their intention to offend anybody with their advertising campaign".

The GAA said it had dropped the ad and replaced it for its All-Ireland final programme.

All complainants considered the advertising to be sexist and demeaning to women, said the ASAI. Some considered it inappropriate for children's viewing.

Cllr Ciaran Cuffe, who was among those who complained, welcomed the ruling.
There are three issues I would like to address concerning Donald Trump's statements about his plans to appoint his Cabinet and drain the swamp.

First, the idea that Washington, D.C., is built on a swamp might be a myth, but there is no doubt there is a miasma hanging over the city. This foul-smelling gas is the political equivalent of methane being emitted from a decaying swamp or marsh. In California, politicians blame it on cattle, while in fact the politicians in California and D.C. are the source of the pollution. If Trump can drain the swamp, more power to him.

Second, there are those who criticize Trump for appointing business people to Cabinet positions. Who better than CEOs to manage the various departments of the government? Politicians certainly are not doing it. Our country should be managed like a business or a non-profit institution. The budget should provide for all the infrastructure to maintain a better way of life plus providing for a national defense that will keep us safe as possible.

Third, Trump has also been criticized for appointing a general to head up the Department of Defense and other military persons as advisors. Again, who better than a highly qualified officer who understands warfare? The politicians are not doing the job. No general or military person wants war, but if war comes, it should be fought to win, not in appeasement as has been done in the past.

So, let Trump drain the swamp. Maybe with a Congress working in cooperation and restraint, when necessary, our country can be great again.
Just how incompetent is the Obama administration? It turns out they knew the Russians were behind the Democratic National Committee and attempted Republican National Committee hackings, but according to NBC News, decided not to take any decisive action because they were assuming a Hillary Clinton victory, and therefore felt President Clinton could deal with the Russians when she took office.

At his end-of-year news conference Friday, President Barack Obama admitted to his own weakness with his statement that his response to the DNC hacking was to tell Russian President Vladimir Putin to cut it out, when he saw Putin in China in September, fully a year after FBI agents tried to contact the DNC about the hacking attempts. What?! I hope Obama added a determined foot stomp and a by golly to his pitiful admonition to Putin. I wonder if Putin laughed in Obamas face, or waited until he left the room. I think history will show the Putin abuse of Obama reached a crescendo at that moment. How is it possible that Obamas team decided a flimsy warning to Putin would be enough of a response? Maybe Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said it best when he tweeted, There would be no strong Putin without a weak Obama.

The Democrats want to play the victim, blame Donald Trump and declare Trump the beneficiary of the Russians interference in the 2016 campaign, but in fact, it was their own leadership that dropped the ball and gave the Russians the opening they needed. And, Attorney General Loretta Lynchs silence on this was deafening. Where was she when her agents were trying to get the DNCs attention? Probably somewhere carrying out her audition for a job in a Clinton administration.

Anyway, the tale of incompetence doesnt stop there. In a Keystone Cops-worthy episode revealed in no less than the New York Times, it turns out the FBI repeatedly called the DNC beginning in September 2015 to warn them about hacking attempts, but the Democratic staffer the FBI agent reached wouldnt return the agents calls because he wasnt certain the caller was a real FBI agent and not an imposter and because the DNC had nothing to report. Not to mention, another Democratic staffer made the worlds most inexplicable typo and called a phishing email a legitimate email instead of an illegitimate one, opening the path for a hacker to gain access to all of John Podestas emails. Oops.

Its unbelievable. And as troubling as it is that Obama and the Democrats allowed the Russians to interfere in the election and engage in cyberwarfare without any ramifications, we shouldnt be surprised. After all, it is the Obama administration that has capitulated to Iran at every turn and stood by as Syrian government forces, facilitated by the Russians, slaughtered hundreds of thousands in Syria.

Now more than ever, it is clear it is time for an urgent change in our foreign policy. Obama and his team cannot leave office soon enough.
Candidates with no legislative history not uncommon

Maryland's candidates for governor do not have long legislative records. Wes Moore has none at all. Analysis shows that is not uncommon.
President Tran Dai Quang (R) and Cambodian PM Hun Sen (Source: VNA)



During a reception in Hanoi on December 20th, President Quang said he believes the visit of the Cambodian PM will create a stronger driving force to fortify long-standing friendship and neighbourliness between the two nations.

He wished that the CPP and PM Hun Sen would score successes in the election of deputies to the communal and district Peoples Councils in 2017 and the National Assembly in 2018.

The Vietnamese Party and State highly value positive contributions by the Cambodia PM to the development of friendship, solidarity and all-around cooperation between the two governments and peoples, he stated.

Hun Sen, in reply, informed the outcomes of his talks with PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc the same day.

He conveyed his sincere thanks to the Party, State and people of Vietnam for saving Cambodian people from genocide in the past, saying that the visit is to renew Cambodias unchangeable stance on reinforcing amity, solidarity and cooperation for development with Vietnam.

As the two countries are preparing for the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties, Hun Sen stressed that it affords a chance for Vietnam and Cambodia to raise public awareness of preserving and promoting invaluable bilateral traditional ties, especially among young generations./.
Here in North Carolina and all around the country, GOP politicians are trying to convince everyone that health insurance companies are losing money.

Before you send sympathy cards with a donation, you might find the following information about two insurance companies that have complained the most.

I obtained this information from the Knoxville Sentinel while on vacation recently. The two companies are Aetna and Cigna, one of them made a profit of over $2 billion.

There are no insurance companies named OBama Care (sic) or Affordable Care.

According to the article, other than being required to insure those with pre-existing conditions, the health insurance companies have as much or more control as they have ever had, plus insurance for pre-existing conditions cost more.

Did you notice the 13 states listed in the newspaper where there will be less choice for insurance, arent they red states led by a GOP governor? GOP politicians are lap dogs for the insurance industry.

You have to be brainwashed to believe the Affordable Care Act controls the health insurance companies.

Should there be so much resentment to 10 to 11 million grassroots blue collar Americans having health insurance in a nation many consider a Christian nation? No person in Canada will die tonight because of a lack of health insurance.

In conclusion, you decide which, the greed to make phenomenal profits by the insurance companies or the Affordable Car Act, which of these is responsible for the totally unreasonable increases in health insurance premiums?

Gary Donnelly

Hickory

Thank you Humane Society of Catawba County

On April 1, 2016, we adopted a dog from the Humane Society of Catawba County.

We had recently lost our baby, and were broken hearted. The staff at the shelter was wonderful.

They helped us, answered our questions, and paired us up with a wonderful dog. It was a match made in heaven for all of us.

Midnight had been surrendered to the HSCC just a few weeks prior.

I want to say a big thank you to the family that gave up Midnight. She is such a treasure. We have not had any problems with her at all.

Also, to the HSCC, thank you. She was in good condition and clean. The entire facility was great.

More people should take a chance on HSCC.

Patty Wilkinson

Newton

Refuse to succumb to fear

The president-elect tweeted in response to the articulated lorry attack in Germany that they are attacking Christians."

In point of fact, they are attacking Western society regardless of race, nationality, religion or creed. Osama Bin Laden warned long before 9/11 that he would change America for ever.

Within hours of the attack, our Congress passed some of the most severe restrictions on our liberties seen shy of WWII and called it The Patriot Act.

Americans, even congressmen, find themselves on The No-Fly List and barefoot at airports that routinely auction off tons of confiscated items deemed too dangerous to carry on board a plane.

If an attack in Paris, Germany, New York, Orlando or Boston can change our laws or the motto inscribed on our Statue of Liberty; if such attacks can stop us from helping the refugees from the front lines of these terrorist wars in the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa, then Osama will be proven a prophet of doom.

As well, we need be mindful of the less violent attackers employing the Internet we built to disrupt our commerce and the integrity of our elections. Not all our enemies are driving trucks or wearing explosive vests.

We win if we refuse to succumb to fear and shoot from the hip when a calm, steady and considered response is demanded if we are to preserve the best about us even as we do the best we can to disarm these suicidal zealots as they confront us at our most venerable moments  our soft targets.

Charles Senf

Lenoir
The police on Tuesday arrested the son of a BJP womens wing leader for allegedly shooting her dead. According to the police, Aman (22) shot his mother Jameela Bi on November 30 with a country-made pistol at her Gautam Nagar residence in Bhopal after she opposed his marriage to a girl of his choice.

Aman roused the polices suspicions as he often changed his statement  he had earlier said that on the day of the incident, he was sleeping in the hall and had found his mother lying dead in the afternoon. However, he later changed his story.

From day one, the police were suspecting the deceaseds son as he sometimes told the police that his mother died of an electric shock, while on other occasions, he said she died due to the blast of a gas cylinders regulator. He also told the police that on the day of the incident, he was sleeping in the hall while his mother was inside when someone entered the house and killed his mother, superintendent of police (north) Arvind Saxena told HT.

Saxena said that when Aman was interrogated, he confessed to the crime.

During interrogation, he said he wanted to marry a girl in their locality. Jameela was opposing his decision and tried to make him marry a girl of her own choice. On November 30, both of them had a heated argument on the issue, after which Aman took out a loaded .315 bore country-made pistol and shot Jameela, killing her instantly, said Saxena.

The police have also recovered the pistol and have registered a case against him under relevant sections of IPC. He was produced before the court which later sent him to jail, he said.
Hanoian children present flowers to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen arrived at the Vietnamese Government Headquarters.

At the reception for the Cambodian Prime Minister

The Vietnamese and Cambodian Prime Ministers reviewed the honour guard.

The two Prime Ministers before talks

An official reception was organised at the Presidential Palace.

The two Prime Ministers held talks.

On the same day, the Cambodian Prime Minister and his delegation laid a wreath and paid homage to President Ho Chi Minh, and commemorated martyrs at the Martyrs Memorial.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen paid a homage at President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.
Madhya Pradesh finance minister Jayant Malaiya on Tuesday said a cashless society is a must for the countrys speedy development.

The minister was speaking at Bhopal districts Badhjhiri, the first village in the state to go digital.

Malaiya said Prime Minister Narendra Modis decision to scrap the 500 and 1000 banknotes had eliminated black money from the economy. People will face difficulties for a short time but there will be no lack of funds for welfare schemes in future, he said.

He presented smart phones to villagers and computer to the sarpanch of the gram panchayat. Malaiya also purchased rice from a grocery shop at the village by swiping his card at the point-of-sale machine in the store.

Today the village is completely transformed into a digital and cashless village. Selected villages in Indore and Jabalpur region are also being made cashless and digital, Bank of Baroda general manager Rajendra Kumar said.

Officials said bank accounts of over 2,000 villagers have been opened and debit cards have been issued. Also POS machines have been installed in shops at the village. An ATM, passbook printer and cash deposit machine, Wi-Fi and a customer service centre have also been set up in the village. Furthermore, a loan up to 10,000 is being provided to the farmers to purchase smartphones.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal called demonetisation a 8-lakh-crore scam, alleging that the November 8 ban on high-value notes aimed at mobilising money to waive off loans of equal amount given to Prime Minister Narendra Modis friends. Kejriwal was in Bhopal on Monday.

Modi has waived loans of 1.14 lakh crore given to billionaires and millionaires by banks. After the loan breather, the condition of the banks deteriorated, he said here on Tuesday, addressing a meeting during his first visit to Madhya Pradesh after he became the CM.

Prime Minister announced demonetisation to help the banks get money from people so that he is able to waive off loans of 8 lakh crore given to his industrialist friends, Kejriwal said at the meeting, called the parivartan rally.

Arvind Kejriwal waves at AAP workers on his arrival in Bhopal on Tuesday. (PTI)

He said he was opposing the Prime Ministers policies, but considered him an honest politician. The perception, he said, changed after he got income tax department documents based on raids on some industrial houses. The documents have 7 entries in the name of Gujarat CM in 2013. Everybody knows who was the Gujarat CM then. The total amount mentioned was 40.10 crore.

Lack of inquiry into the documents, he said, raised his doubts. Similarly, the documents have two entries of 5 crore each against the name of CM in Madhya Pradesh. No inquiry was conducted into this also.

Kejriwal said, Prime Minsiter is asking people to show patriotism by standing in queues. When common people are facing trouble, Modi waived off loan of 1200 crore of Vijay Mallya about a week back.

The PMs mother also had to stand in a line. How could a son allow his 90-year-old mother to stand in a queue? he asked.

AAP workers protesting demonetisation during parivartan rally. (Mujeeb Faruqui/HT photo)

Modi sought 50 days to resolve the cash crisis, but I have doubts if people can get their money back even after January 1, 2017, he said, emphasising that demonetisation has hit trade, business and also labourers hard.

He wondered how demonetisation of 1000 notes and introduction of 2,000 bills can curb corruption. By introducing 2,000 notes, the PM has made way for corrupt people more convenient as they can store more money in less space.

If the PM is serious about ending corruption, he should send the 648 people, who have stashed black money in Swiss banks, to jail, Kejriwal said. The PM has a file on the people who have deposited money in Swiss banks.

The PM wants people to spend 2.5 lakh on marriages, but his friend in Bengaluru spent 500 crore on his daughters wedding, he said.

Targeting Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, he said the BJP and the Congress had a tacit understanding to allow each other to rule and indulge in corruption.

AAP supporters during the rally. (Mujeeb Faruqui/HT photo)

Rahul Gandhi ne kaha tha ki aisa khulasa karenge ki bhoochal aa jayega par teen din pahle we Modi ji se milne pahunch gaye. (Rahul Gandhi had announced he would expose corruption that would lead to a sort of an earthquake, but he went to see PM three days back, said Kejriwal.

No justice to gas victims

Kejriwal said even 32 years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the Congress and BJP failed to ensure justice to the victims.

Kejriwal abruptly stopped his speech after some people created ruckus in the rally, saying BJP workers were trying to disturb the meeting.
Ravisha Merchant, known in Bhopal for her work inspired by different arts, crafts and textiles of Madhya Pradesh, will be seen in IndiaMyWay, a television show on Discovery India.

The show will showcase her work in Alipura where she brings in the local architecture of a place by using the elements in a contemporary form and weave all this together. The show will also highlight her projects giving opportunity and employment to local skilled labour and craftsmen.

Its more than 10 years since I started this project. I was introduced to Manvendre Singh of Alipura by a friend. I visited Alipura not knowing what to expect and was excited to see the huge challenge of restoring a palace. I worked closely with the family, planning and restoring the crumbling structure to create wider rooms as required for a heritage hotel. So conceptualising space played a vital role and working with the family and local labour who were aware of the structures strength and weakness was very important, she says.

Ravisha Merchant, an interior design consultant and a visual artist, is also a Feng Shui expert and heads company Trivera Designs.

My work is a fusion of the old and new

On being asked about her idea of designing, Ravisha says, My work is a fusion of the old and new. I like to use elements inspired from the local art, craft, architecture and textiles of a place and weave the same into contemporary spaces giving prime importance to its function.

A bachelor of fine arts from JJ School of Arts, Mumbai, Ravisha comes from a family who has been in the field of architecture and interiors for more than 80 years in Mumbai. I settled in Bhopal after my marriage in 2001 and have been consulting independently thereafter, she says.

Ravisha has designed a number of government projects

She has been credited with designing a large number of government projects like, she designed two floating restaurants for MP Tourism including the Lake Princess Boat and Paryatan Bhavan. She has also worked on Madhya Pradesh Tourism resorts and Raja Bhoj Airport.

MP has a rich heritage in architecture. Khajuraho temples , Bundelkhand palaces , Orchha , Chanderi , Mandu , Maheshwar and so many other gems in the interiors of MP. Every place has its unique style which is reflected in some form or the other. For example we see the architectural motifs of Chanderi in the sari borders. Such is the motivation one receives in MP.

The episode featuring Merchant will be telecast on Discovery India channel on December 25, 8pm.
Around one lakh students from 550 schools within the jurisdiction of the Jabalpur Municipal Corporation (JMC) took to the streets on Tuesday to encourage people to keep their surroundings clean.

The students marched close to their schools carried banners and placards extolling the virtues of cleanliness.

Three hundred students of my school spent 45 minutes in the area nearby to spread the message of cleanliness. The students who participated in drive were from Classes 6 to 12, DN Jain Higher Secondary School principal Sanjay Gotia said.

The corporation is cleaning the streets daily and is picking up garbage but it is not possible to keep the city clean without the participation of residents, JMC commissioner Ved Prakash said. The students will play a key role in spreading the message of cleanliness.
A government school teacher in Betul districts Pardha village, inspired by the life of CRPF commando Manoj Choure, has commissioned his statue, dipping into her own pockets for the cost of the construction.

Choure, a native of the districts Parmandal village, was posted with CRPFs elite CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) battalion. The 28-year-old was killed in a Maoist ambush in Bihars Gaya district in July.

In order to motivate her students to learn from Choures sacrifice, Vidhya Kethwas, the teacher, has installed his statue at the Pardha government girls hostel. I was saving money for months to install this statue. Manoj was an inspiration and the children of our village should learn from his valour and determination, Kethwas said.

She also invited Choures parents and surprised them with the statue.

We had no clue that she would get a statue constructed. We were very depressed after his death but we felt really proud when we arrived here, Choures father Ramdayal said.

This is a moment of pride for our entire family Today, when I see his statue, I feel like asking children of our village to follow his footsteps, Choures mother Kamla Bai said.

However, Ramdayal expressed his disappointment over Shivraj Singh Chouhans unfulfilled promise  the chief minister, during a tour of Betul in July, had promised to install Choures statue at the districts Multai block.
The officials from the Madhya Pradesh prison department would soon visit the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai and Tihar Jail in Delhi to study the security measures adopted there along with their best practices. The team, based on the study, would suggest measures to enhance the security in the state jails.

This comes two months after eight suspected SIMI operatives escaped from the high-security Bhopal Central Jail and were gunned down in a police encounter.

Earlier on Monday, a high-level meeting led by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reviewed the security measures in the jails. During the meeting, held in the presence of senior officials of government, administration and jail department, it was decided to construct high security Anda Cell or egg-shaped cells to house dreaded criminals.

There will be two teams. One will visit Tihar and the other will go to Arthur Road Jail. The team visiting Tihar will have additional director general (jails), inspector general (SAF), public works department (PWD) engineers and an information technology expert as members. The other team will comprise two jail superintendents and one assistant engineer of PWD, director general (jail) Sanjay Choudhary told HT. He added that the teams would be visiting the two jail this month only where they would analyse the existing security measures, best practices and norms.

The teams would pick the salient features related to the security measures needed to guard the dreaded criminals including terrorists, Maoists and other high value inmates. Those features would be implemented initially in the six central jails of state including Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Ujjain and Satna, said Choudhary.

The jail department had earlier sent one of their officials to analyse the security measures at jails in neighbouring Chhattisgarh after the Bhopal jail break on October 31.

The official visited the Durg Central jail and studied its security measures including the use of electric fencing, solar power backups and generators and concertina fencing used there. Based on the study, a process is already underway to install electric fence in the Bhopal Central jail. It will be later replicated at other jails, said Choudhary adding that the jail administration has also plans to install high-mast lights and 360 rotating lights on the watch towers.

The jail administration would also soon raise a technical team to look after the electronic security devices so that they could be repaired in-house without waiting for the third party repairers, he added.
Apple may soon start manufacturing iPhones and iPads in India. However, it wants more incentives from the government under the latters Make in India programme to do so.

The government offers several initiatives, including differential duty structure, modified special incentive package scheme (MSIPS) and zero-duty on import of all components except adapters, batteries and headsets, for global and local manufacturers, under Make in India.

The iPhone maker is in talks with the government for higher sops and benefits under the scheme, government sources told HT on conditions of anonymity.

Local manufacturing will help Apple open retail stores in the country. Taiwans Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (Foxconn), which makes Apple devices, has a manufacturing facility in southern India.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that the company was looking at India as the next big market. Apple was not in India for a year or two, instead 100s of years, Cook said during his visit to India earlier in the year.

Apple did not respond to HTs requests for comments for this story.

Aimed at promoting electronic manufacturing, MSIPS provides capital subsidy of 20% in special economic zones (SEZs) and 25% in non-SEZs, in the form of reimbursement of excise for capital equipment. For high-capital investment projects, it also provides for reimbursement of central taxes and duties.

Also, if a handset-manufacturer assembles phones locally, then it just pays a 1% duty, instead of the 12.5% on a phone that is imported. There is also a duty differential on battery, adapter and headsets. If a handset-maker purchases all these from domestic companies, it pays only 2%, instead of 12.5% when imported.

Apple might want MSIPS and other incentives to continue even after the introduction of the GST. It could also look at income-tax holiday in the country similar to China and Vietnam, an industry expert told HT.

Earlier, the Tim Cook-led company had sought relaxation of local sourcing norms under the shield of state-of-the-art and cutting edge technology providers.

A foreign brand looking to open single-brand retail stores in India is mandated to source 30% from Indian manufacturers for a minimum period of three years. The government had extended it to five years in case of Apple.

Apple wants higher exemptions since there are not many high-end phone-component makers in India to buy from, said a government official, who did not wish to be named. The company will have to manufacture the components in India, and it has to meet international standards.
The Reserve Bank of Indias latest restriction on deposits over Rs 5,000 in old currency notes has saddled bankers with more work, apart from also having to face irate customers asking them for explanations as to why they couldnt come earlier.

The new norms which came into force on December 20, stipulate that deposits above Rs 5,000 in value will require explanation and customers are subject to questioning. Such deposits can also be made only once per account, until December 30, the deadline for the demonetisation exercise to end.

Bank officials say this has increased their work with more time now needed for each customer and has delayed servicing thus leading to longer queues and public outrage.

The constantly changing rules are difficult to process in our core banking system as it requires making changes across all branches. It is a huge loss of business and time for us, said a senior executive with a private bank. Customers have also postponed high-priced purchases waiting for this uncertainty to end, he added.

The biggest negative is the fact that depositors will now also have to explain to at least two bank officials why they couldnt deposit earlier.

Tenders of SBNs (specified bank notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000) in excess of Rs 5,000 into a bank account will be received for credit only once during the remaining period till December 30, 2016The credit in such cases shall be afforded only after questioning (the) tenderer, on record, in the presence of at least two officials of the bank, as to why this could not be deposited earlier and receiving a satisfactory explanation, the RBI circular said.

A branch official at a State Bank of India branch in Mumbai said, It is difficult to judge a satisfactory explanation. Customers give reasons such as waiting for queues to reduce, being out of town or not being well. We cannot harass them as there is no requirement of proof for their explanations.

Since November 8 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetization, rules on deposits and withdrawals have been changed frequently, sometimes as often as on alternate days making it difficult for both banks and customers to cope with an ever changing landscape.

A senior large public sector bank official said, We have to go through the pain as we are dictated by the government and the customers. We are becoming the pawns between them and have no option but to bear the brunt on both sides.

A customer at a bank in Borivali, Mumbai said, I have been waiting for the queues to subside. Also, didnt the government tell us to not rush to branches as there is time till December 30? This is unfair.

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For the first time in over 100 hundred years, Indias economy has overtaken that of Great Britain after Pound drops. Also, thanks to Indias rapid economic growth over the past 25 years.

The nearly 20% decline in the value of the pound driven by Brexit is one of the main factors that accelerated Indias position.

Once expected to overtake the UK GDP in 2020, the surpasso has been accelerated by the nearly 20% decline in the value of the pound over the last 12 months, consequently UKs 2016 GDP of GBP 1.87 trillion converts to $2.29 trillion at exchange rate of ~GBP 0.81 per $1, whereas Indias GDP of INR 153 trillion converts to $2.30 trillion at exchange rate of ~INR 66.6 per $1, a Forbes magazine report stated.

Going by the estimated GDP growth in both the countries, India is likely to stay ahead of its former colonial ruler, United Kingdom, atleast till 2020.

Furthermore, this gap is expected to widen as India grows at 6 to 8% p.a. compared to UKs growth of 1 to 2% p.a. until 2020, and likely beyond, the report adds.

Earlier this February, India overtook China to become the fastest growing economy in the world.

The Forbes Magazine report also stated that Even if the currencies fluctuate that modify these figures to rough equality, the verdict is clear that Indias economy has surpassed that of the UK based on future growth prospects.

Delighted by this landmark achievement, Kiren Rijiju , Union Minister of State for Home Affairs tweeted: India overtakes UK & becomes 5th largest GDP after USA, China, Japan & Germany. India may have large population base but this is a big leap.

In yet another tweet, Rijiju said, India may have larger population than England but this historic achievement generates emotional satisfaction due to historical background.
Every month, cab hailing firms Uber and Ola are losing $50 million each, claimed Siddhartha Pahwa, CEO of Meru Cabs, the countrys largest radio taxi service.

The only difference between us and them is that they are dumping capital on drivers and customers, and we arent, Pahwa told HT.

The radio taxi business is down in the dumps. Heavy discounts and low fares moved passengers away from radio taxis to cab aggregators. Meru, too, has felt the heat. Before Ubers entry, three years ago, it was growing at 45%. Now it is down to 10%. Its market share, once 75%, is also 10%, and more drivers are leaving to join Ola and Uber.

Three years ago, when Meru started losing its business to Uber and Ola, Pahwa lost his sleep. I am much calmer and patient now, and I sleep well, he said.

Capital dumping comes with its own problems. Travis Kalanick, founder and CEO of Uber, during his India visit said his company would innovate to work towards a profitable future. That would require reducing incentives and discounts.

The day the incentives stop, drivers will move away from Uber and Ola  Pahwa said.

The incentives have attracted lakhs of drivers. In the absence of discounts, fewer passengers may opt for an Ola or an Uber cab. Uber, lately, has faced a lot of backlash in Europe and the UK, over similar issues. In some instances, Uber drivers made less than the prescribed daily wage.

There are three reasons why Pahwa thinks capital dumping will stop. Investors will seek profitability, the two largest players will try to form a cartel and increase price, and that might force the competition commission to step in, he said.

He expects one of these to happen in the next 18 months. Thats also a chance for Meru to make a comeback. In an industry that is expected to become worth $40 billion by 2025, Pahwa will be happy to get even 5% of the business.

Meanwhile, he is expanding his business into shuttle services, both for intra- and inter-city travel. He is waiting for this phase to get over. They are burning money (spending a lot) as there is not enough business out there . ... It is not sustainable, Pahwa said.

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Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (L) and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (Source: VNA)



During talks with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Hanoi on December 20th, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen said his visit aims to promote traditional friendship and all-around collaboration with Vietnam in a solid and extensive manner.

The Vietnamese PM, for his part, expressed his belief that the visit will be an important milestone elevating the two countries friendship and cooperation for the sake of their people.

He wished that the two countries would work more closely, respect each others legitimate interests, jointly settle remaining issues, maintain an environment of peace and stability, and strengthen friendship between the two peoples.

Both sides agreed to facilitate visits by the two countries leaders and officials from ministries, agencies, localities and trade unions while working closely together to effectively implement signed agreements between the two nations and governments.

They pledged to thoroughly prepare for the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties (June 24) in order to increase mutual understanding between the two people, especially young generations. The two foreign ministries will direct activities for the event.

On the occasion, they agreed to promptly convene the 15th meeting of the Vietnam-Cambodia Inter-governmental Committee next year.

On economic, trade and investment ties, the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce and the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade will soon conduct negotiations for the signing of the Vietnam-Cambodia border trade agreement.

The host suggested further stepping up transport and electricity connectivity, tourism, telecommunication and banking within the framework of a master plan on connecting Cambodian, Lao, Vietnamese economies.

The two countries will direct their transport ministries to chair negotiations on the governmental-level agreement on transport cooperation strategy as mentioned in the agreement adopted by the 14th session of the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Committee on Economic, Cultural and Scientific-Technological Cooperation.

The ministries are required to negotiate the signing of a deal to build a highway connecting Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh on the occasion of a meeting between the two PMs next year, as well as survey the model One door- one stop which is expected to be launched at Moc Bai  Ba Vet border gate.

Host and guest were committed to maintaining the principle of not allowing any hostile forces to use ones territory to sabotage security of the other as well as jointly fight smuggling, illegal immigration, crimes involving drugs, human and weapon trafficking, trans-national and cyber crimes.

PM Phuc thanked the Cambodian government for partnering with Vietnam in the search and repatriation of volunteer Vietnamese soldiers who sacrificed their lives in Cambodia. He asked his counterpart to instruct Cambodian relevant agencies to complete the construction, repair and restoration of Vietnam-Cambodia friendship memorials.

Hailing the signing of the education cooperation agreement for 2016-2020, the two leaders underscored the importance of improving training quality and living expenses for students sent to overseas for study.

As regards border issues, the Joint Committee on Land Border Demarcation and Marker Planting was assigned to work hard to quickly complete land border demarcation with fair, appropriate and acceptable measures and settle emerging issues at border areas in line with existing mechanisms and the spirit of neighborliness between the two countries.

About the overseas Vietnamese affairs, the Vietnamese host wished that Hun Sen would continue directing agencies to accelerate the settlement of legal papers involving Vietnamese nationals in Cambodia, making it easier for them to settle in and contribute to bilateral ties.

The two sides agreed to urge the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to promptly resolve the illegal immigration to Cambodia by the Central Highlands ethnic minorities thoroughly in accordance with the Vietnam-Cambodia-UNHCR agreement signed on January 25th, 2005.

They also discussed regional and global issues of shared concern.

On the occasion, PM Phuc accepted PM Hun Sens invitation to visit Cambodia next year with pleasure.

Following the talks, the two PMs witnessed the signing of an agreement on judicial assistance in criminal matters between the two governments; an agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons between the two countries; and another one between Vietnams Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs and the Cambodian Ministry of Cults and Religion./.
Indian telecommunications carrier Reliance Communications Ltd said on Wednesday it had signed a binding pact with Canadas Brookfield Infrastructure for selling a stake in its mobile phone tower business.

The two sides had signed a non-binding pact in October.

Under the terms of the deal, Reliance Communications is to receive an upfront payment of 110 billion rupees ($1.6 billion), which it has said will use to cut its debt load.

Shares of Reliance Communications jumped more than 8 percent after the announcement.

($1 = 67.8525 Indian rupees)
An analysis of electricity consumption data shows that economic activity in England and Wales has slumped after the June 23 Brexit vote, according to new research from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Researchers used residual electricity consumption as a proxy for activity in the services and manufacturing economies to demonstrate how, on average, demand for electricity since the Brexit vote has dramatically under-shot what would have been expected had the United Kingdom voted to remain in the European Union.

While there has been some volatility in consumption since the vote, in November it levelled off to being consistently below what it was prior to the Brexit vote, the research reveals.

Residual electricity consumption is electricity use that cannot be explained by other factors, including cold weather or public holidays. It is highly correlated with economic activity.

Tom Kirchmaier, LSE researcher and author of the paper, said: This research should unsettle those who are pinning their hopes on the governments industrial strategy boosting the economy. It strips away the benefits the country has experienced because of a weak pound, such as increased tourism, and shows us what is really happening under the bonnet, in the economys real engine.

For the paper titled Turning on the light: assessing the impact of Brexit using electricity demand as a proxy, the academics created a model which predicts what electricity demand would be on a typical day, in a typical week of any year and then compared these expectations to what happened after the referendum in June 2016.

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The choice of Lieutenant General Bipin Rawat as the next army chief has created a flutter in the military establishment. The passing over of two senior army commanders is a rare occurrence. As several commentators have pointed out, the last time it happened was in 1983 when Indira Gandhi elevated General Arun Vaidya over Lieutenant General SK Sinha (who promptly resigned). But this was not the only instance. In 1957, Jawaharlal Nehru chose General KS Thimayya superseding two senior lieutenant generals, Sant Singh and Kalwant Singh (the latter stayed on, while the former resigned).

This time around, there is apparently the possibility that Lieutenant General Praveen Bakshi may yet be appointed as the first chief of defence staff (CDS) or some equivalent designation: The single-point military adviser to the defence minister. While this outcome may be comforting to the Indian Army, it will entail passing over the current navy chief  the senior-most of the chiefs  for the post.

Whatever the outcome, this episode has triggered a much-needed discussion on the selection of service chiefs. The seniority principles downsides are evident. Between two officers from the same course, for instance, seniority is determined based on their ranking in the military academy decades ago. Few will dispute the fact that this has any relevance to their performance at the apex of the military system, but the principle remains in place. The case for adhering to seniority has been made on three grounds.

Read | Lt Gen Bipin Rawats Kashmir experience gave him the edge

First, seniority is held to be best guarantee against politicisation of top appointments. Do we want the military to go the way of the police where promotions and postings routinely depend on political favour? This is a rhetorically strong argument, but the comparison is flawed and misleading. It overlooks the fact that the polices nature and function in politics is very different from that of the army.

The concern about politicisation also overlooks the important issue of effectiveness. The institutional design of civil-military relations always entails a trade-off between democratic control and effectiveness. In privileging the former by emphasising seniority, we have long overlooked the demands of military efficacy. Even the staunchest advocates of the seniority principle would be hard pressed to deny that it periodically gives us mediocrity at the top. In fact, their case would be strengthened if they conceded the importance of efficacy, but pointed out that overlooking seniority does not guarantee better outcomes either. The choice of Thimayya resulted in the most serious standoff between an army chief and the government, when the former publicly resigned only to retract soon after. And under Vaidya the army undertook the most controversial military operation since Independence: Operation Blue Star.

Read | Army chief appointment: No compelling reason to break the chain of seniority

The second argument in the case for seniority is the absence of any objective criterion of merit in choosing service chiefs. While superficially correct, this too elides over deeper problems. The promotion of military officers at lower levels is not objective just because it is decided by service boards. Every officer knows that the annual confidential reports that play such an important role in their careers are highly subjective assessments. No amount of quantification of these reports can take away from their inherent subjectivity. The idea that there can be clearly laid benchmarks of merit in appointing chiefs beggars belief. Thoughtful retired officers have suggested something akin to a collegium system for the selection of chiefs. While such a system may ensure broader consensus, it will also impinge on the prerogative of the executive.

The third, and strongest, case for seniority is the fact that our political leadership does not interact enough with senior military commanders to be able to make an informed call. This stems from the longstanding practice of the political leadership steering clear of operational matters. Obviously, the flip side is also true: Few of our senior officers have any exposure to policy-making. Unless this problem is remedied from both ends, top military appointments  especially if a CDS is instituted  will remain a case of the blind choosing the blind.

Read | How Lt Gen Rawat changed the face of UN peacekeeping in conflict-hit Congo

The current episode also raises the question of what kind of operational experience is relevant to service chiefs. The Line of Control with Pakistan may be hot right now, but why do we have the corps commanders and the Northern Army commander if the chiefs personal experience is supposed to count for so much? What about his relative lack of experience, say, with mechanised formations in the plains? The army chief is the chief of the army staff: His primarily role ought to be as chief of the staff rather than operational commander. The point will acquire greater salience as we move towards a CDS structure.

The privileging of particular kinds of operational experience is problematic for two further reasons. It may give us service chiefs who are equipped to fight the last war rather than the next one. It also vitiates the idea of a general cadre in senior ranks. Already the post of army chief is effectively closed off to officers who are not from the fighting arms. Introducing an infantry versus armoured corps dimension would be unfortunate  especially in the context of recent litigation about vacancies for officers from various branches.

Read | New army chief: When UPA govt didnt follow seniority in appointment

The choice of service chiefs is a matter of political judgment. It involves multiple trade-offs and considerations that cannot be wished away by sticking to seniority or hankering after criteria of merit. But as with all political judgments it will be open to public scrutiny.

Srinath Raghavan is senior fellow, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

The views expressed are personal

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To overcome the menace of traffic snarls and ensure optimum use of road space in the capital, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government has proposed for formation of a separate body which will work to redesign the city road system.

The road design cell, will aim to revamp the congested roads and make them friendly towards pedestrians and cyclists. The makeover goal also includes plan to demarcate dedicated zones for street vendors, provisions for foot over bridges with glass lifts and staircases among other elaborate features.

The cell which will have road safety expert, architects and PWD officials as members, will study the traffic pattern of all the major roads and finalise the design of roads in the city.

Sources said Delhi PWD minister, Satyendar Jain, has proposed more space for pedestrians and cyclists on the city roads and they will be redesigned keeping that in mind. Last year, the government had proposed to revamp the design of ten roads in Delhi while giving preference to bicycle riders and roadside walkers but the project could not take off.

Ten road stretches chosen for redesigning by PWD last year Janakpuri to Sarai Kale Khan Wazirabad to Sarai Kale Khan Mukarba chowk to Sindhu Border Wazirabad to Apsara Border Nizammudin Crossing (Ring Road 2) to UP Border Wazirpur DTC Depot to Rithala Metro Station Britannia Road to Outer Ring Road (West Enclave) Shiv Das Puri Marg (Ring Road) to Patel Nagar Mangolpuri to Kanjhawala Nawala Cross Road (Road number 41) to Road Number 41 A (Patparganj)

The proposal is pending with the L-G and we hope to get approval from him for a new body so that we can restart the project. The road-design cell will be formed for two years for the makeover of the city, said a PWD official.

Sources said that the department is persuading L-G to approve the proposal.

Several flyovers have come up in the city over the past decade, but the problem of congestion continues to plague Delhi roads partly because the existing network of 33,260 km of roads is not being used properly.

According to the transport department officials, despite enormous growth in vehicular population, Delhi has the capacity to handle traffic if lane driving is implemented properly.

Read| Capital chaos: Delhis traffic has slowed down and doubled time spent on roads

An ideal road is where everyone has the designated space, from pedestrian to cars, public transport and cyclists. In future, movement for pedestrians will be made smooth by removing all obstacles and there will be provision of foot over bridges with glass lifts and staircases, keeping in mind the comfort of pedestrians, the official added.

In Delhi, about 35% of the commuters walk only as means of transport. These commuters are different from the ones who walk to catch the public transport.

Inspite of the enormous motorization, the highest share of people still walk. Naturally, we need to improve the facility for pedestrians. Then to decongest roads, we need to give more importance to public transport so there is going to be dedicated lane for buses at majority of roads, the official further said.

In congested areas, Delhi government plans to have dedicated lanes for cycles and non-motorised vehicles and in market areas, there will be dedicated zones for street vendors. Experts claim that roads in Delhi have been primarily designed to increase the speed and ease of movement of car users.

Car-oriented design priority and discouragement of walking through inadequate design  has discouraged people from walking and in turn encouraged car-dependency. In ideal condition, preference should be given to non-motorized vehicles. In coming days, pedestrians will have space in every road but space for cars and bikes will be reduced. We will create dedicated cycle lanes too, the official further said.

Through redesigning, government is also planning to provide space for feeder vehicle for comfortable last mile connectivity from metro stations. Since only 1,200km of roads come under PWD, the Delhi government is planning to spend around Rs 5,000 crore to redesign wide roads of the city.

Read| No escaping Delhi traffic jams: Why city is spending double the time on roads

Delhis Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that Delhis traffic problem is linked to flaws in road designs rather than space problem and his government was trying to rectify them. Government feels majority of road space have been occupied by cars across the city and that motorists constitute around 1.5% of the total road users.

To improve public transport, government would ensure buses at an interval of 1-2 minutes at specific localities initially. Government may keep certain roads only for public transport as is done in many European cities and build cycle track along with metro stations.
It started with invitations for dinner and coffee that seemed harmless. She refused and ignored it.

He called her to his office and deliberately had a porn website tab open on his computer. She panicked, but kept silent.

Physical advances followed  a touch on the hand or an elbow brush to her body. Thats when she decided to approach the harassment committee in her office. Like this accountant, many victims sometimes fail to realise that they are being harassed in the garb of friendly gestures and a majority of those who do, do not report it.

The Sexual Harassment at Workplace (prevention, prohibition and redressal) Act came into force on April 23 , 2013. But not much has been done for its implementation.

I knew, if I took this up, I would be isolated. But it reached a point where I had to do it, she said, voicing the concern of thousands like her who think twice before approaching the authorities.

And when she raised the issue with the human resource department, the battle was exactly how she had anticipated  lonely, long and humiliating.

She had to quit the job within six months because her identity was not kept a secret in contravention of the anti-harassment law and she was soon the topic of office gossip. It also hampered her chances of getting a job elsewhere. No one wants to hire a trouble-maker, is what one organisation told me, she said.

Reality bites

Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi had told HT recently that nearly 70% private sector companies are yet to set up internal complaints committee.

Data shared by companies on sexual harassment cases in their annual reports show a 26% rise among 50 Nifty companies in one year.

Two-thirds of these companies disclosed 525 complaints in the last fiscal year. Wipro topped the list with 111 cases, followed by ICICI Bank with 87 and Infosys with 62. Information technology and banking companies, which employ more women, constitute over 80% of the total.

Tied up in legal tangle

Sexual harassment, however, is not easy to define. You know it when you see it, said lawyer Karuna Nundy, adding that a womans feeling of discomfort is the deciding factor.

You look good may not be a sexual comment, You look hot is, Shubha Srivastava, who has been handling cases of workplace harassment, said.

Women team members being called honey or sweetheart or being asked intrusive, intimate questions about their personal lifeThey are not about attraction and pursuit. They are about power at work, Srivastava added.

But the problem is it is never simple. For someone combating a lecherous boss, it is difficult to read the legalese.

Women team members being called honey or sweetheart or being asked intrusive, intimate questions This is about power at work.

The countrys first formal mandate against sexual harassment at workplace came in 1997, with the Supreme Court laying down the Vishakha guidelines in a gang rape case of Bhanwari Devi, a social worker in Rajasthan.

The case drew the Supreme Courts attention towards the absence of domestic law occupying the field and the need to formulate measures to check the evil of sexual harassment of working women .

Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Act Under the Act, all organisations with more than 10 employees, both in the government and private sector, must have an internal complaints committee. Half of the committee members should be women. The committee needs to take action on sexual harassment complaints within 90 days. In the eyes of the law, harassment includes physical contact, advances; or demand for sexual favours; or making sexually coloured remarks; or other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature.

While the 2013 Act, that followed the guidelines, defines sexual harassment in similar terms, lawyers working on issues of womens rights feel it is not what they had hoped for.

This Act has diluted the spirit of Vishakha. It has been drafted using archaic language, which the common people will never be able to understand. Unlike Vishakha, which prioritised prevention, the 2013 Act prioritises complaints and the complaint mechanismNot only is that unworkable, it is constitutionally unviable to create a parallel court in the workplace, said Manisha Singh, a lawyer.

It is the sexual part of harassment that creates the most discomfort, an unnecessary socially conditioned hurdle when were actually talking about womens constitutional equality at the workplace. Those working in the field of womens rights feel it is the responsibility of the organisation to ensure that. But the Act falls short of globally accepted norms. In the US, for instance, its Supreme Court had held that in sexual harassment cases, an employer is liable for a supervisors or managers harassment, if it results in employment action.

Gender-based harassment

In the US or Europe, workplace harassment covers both men and women.

The Indian law, however, has been drawn up only to protect women. And therefore gender-based discrimination is also not discussed in this act. Indias long-awaited legislation against sexual harassment of women at workplace poses more questions than it answers.

The United Nations has recognised sexual harassment as a form of discrimination and violence against women. Under the Vishakha judgment, too, the need for a law against sexual harassment of women at the workplace was felt to ensure proper interpretation of the guarantee of gender equality and right to work with human dignity.

The WCD ministry has decided to set up an inter-ministerial committee headed by a senior official to review the progress of disposal of complaints of sexual harassment and prepare a training module with help from Institute of Secretariat Training and Management.

All ministries and departments have been asked to furnish a monthly report on the number of complaints received, disposed of, pending and action taken.

The move, though much needed one, will cater only to women employees of the government sector, leaving behind the majority of those who are engaged in the private sector.And importantly, there is no mechanism to monitor whether companies are implementing the norms set under the Act.

Lets Talk About Rape is illustrated by Liza Donnelly,a celebrated New York-based cartoonist and writer best known for her work in the New Yorker magazine.

To follow the entire series, visit http://read.ht/BLm0
Doctors suspect postpartum psychosis, a diagnosable mental condition, to be the reason behind the woman brutally beating up her one-and-a-half-year-old son in Geeta colony.

Post-partum psychosis is a completely treatable extreme mood disorder that new moms may develop. It looks like a case of postpartum psychosis, and it is important that we are sympathetic towards the mother. Instead of punishing her, she should be made to undergo a complete mental evaluation and proper treatment, said Dr SK Khandelwal, head of the department of psychiatry at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Caught on camera | Mother brutally thrashes toddler

This is not unheard of as almost 30 to 40% mothers suffer from postpartum depression. Postpartum psychosis, which is more severe, is less common but not infrequent, said Dr Khandelwal.

After delivery, a woman experiences many hormonal changes that make her sensitive, lower her tolerance threshold and cause depression. Physical exhaustion from staying up at nights, feeding and taking care of the baby also takes its toll, said Dr Sameer Malhotra, director of mental health and behavioural sciences at Delhis Max Hospitals.

Read | Delhi woman seen brutally beating up child in viral video

Displaced anger  taking out the frustration of the husband, in-laws or other family members on the helpless child is another possibility, he said.

Dr Smitha Deshpande, head of the department of psychiatry at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, said, Such behaviour can be seen in mothers when they feel completely helpless or in mothers with certain obsessions like cleanliness, and as we know keeping everything tidy with a child around is difficult, so they turn towards the child in anger.

The doctors emphasised on post-natal care and social support to help new mothers cope up. Maternal and child care does not end with a healthy delivery; we also need to ensure that they lead a healthy life afterwards. Immunisation and follow-up visits for the child must be a part of post-natal clinics, which must also focus on physical as well as mental well-being of mothers, said Dr Khandelwal.

When to seek treatment?

If the mother is unable to follow a proper routine  like sleeping or eating on time

If the mother is neglecting her hygiene, food, water

If the mother stops taking care of the child

If the mother gets irritated of small things like a noise etc

If she has verbal outbursts

What is the treatment?

Reassurance for the mother that this phase would pass

Counselling mother about having nutritious food and taking care of herself

Counselling family members about providing support to the new mom

Sometimes, anti-depressants that are completely safe for lactating mothers

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The Delhi Police crime branch that is probing the JNU student Najeeb Ahmads missing case will conduct a lie detector test on Ahmads roommate, Kasim, on Thursday. Notices have been sent to eight others, including JNU students, for the same.

While Ahmads roommate, Kasim, and a couple of JNU students have already given their consent for the test, the response of other persons is still awaited. Senior crime branch officials said that some of the students are out of Delhi and they will respond as soon as they return to Delhi.

A senior crime branch officer said that the other two JNU students are likely to appear for the polygraph test on Thursday. If other students agree to undergo the lie detector test, they would be called for it in the coming days, said an officer.

Sources in the crime branch said that investigators have prepared a list of around 60 questions, which they will ask during the polygraph test. Investigators believe that some of the students have been hiding some crucial facts related to Ahmads disappearance.

Read: Najeeb disappearance: JNU students to face lie detector test, say police

Some of the questions are related to the October 14 night incident during which he (Ahmad) had clashed with some members from RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, who had come to seek support for hostel elections. Other questions will be related to Ahmads alleged depression and the people whom he had been meeting in and outside the campus, said a source.

A student of biotechnology, Ahmad, went missing on October 15 after an alleged altercation with members from ABVP. A reward of Rs10 lakh has been announced by the Delhi Police on any information about Ahmad.

Over 600 Delhi Police personnel assisted by over a dozen sniffer dogs and mounted police carried out two days combing operation at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, including hostels, classrooms, and forested areas to search for clues that could help them trace Ahmad. The operation concluded on Tuesday but the police failed to get any clue.

JNU students have been protesting against alleged inaction by the administration and police in finding Najeeb. JNU Students Union said that despite their earlier requests, the police did not do anything but now after the court order they are paying lip service by scanning the campus.
Stating that the compulsory board exams will make a comeback from 2018, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said the decision is being taken on popular demand.

On Tuesday, the governing body of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) recommended to the government that the Class 10 board exams be made mandatory. Javadekar said that it was unfair to give a choice to only 15 lakh students of CBSE, of which seven lakh students had opted for internal assessment, though nearly two crore students across the country take the compulsory exam.

The minister said that there are around two crore students who take the Class 10 exams across the country from different boards.

Read: Class 10 CBSE board exams mandatory from 2018, to include third language paper too

Of these 1.93 crore students take the board exam but seven lakhs do not, this kind of discrimination is not proper, said Javadekar.

He also said that there had been a demand from many schools, parents, education bodies to have a system where board exam is conducted for everyone.

CBSE students currently have the option to choose between board exams and school based exams in Class 10 but on Tuesday the CBSE decided to go for compulsory board exams from 2018.

The ministry will soon issue a final approval for the proposal.

The CBSE, which runs over 18,000 schools, offered a choice to students to opt for the board examination or school assessment in 2011. Making the board exam optional has been a subject of debate as the Class 10 final is often considered a stepping stone to higher education. The Class 10 board examination in CBSE schools was scrapped in 2010 and was replaced with the continuous and comprehensive evaluation which includes tests and grading through the year to reduce pressure on students.

Read: CBSE exams return: Schools, parents call decision regressive, seek review by MHRD

Javadekar said the HRD ministry had circulated a cabinet note to various ministries for inter-ministerial consultations on the proposed changes in No Detention policy under the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

He said while it has been decided to introduce exams from Class VI. The ministry has reportedly proposed that there should be a system of re-examination in case a student cannot clear the exam in the first attempt.
The Delhi government is planning to use parking lots as charging points for e-rickshaws in the Capital.

The proposal comes at a time when the government, along with the power distribution companies, are faced with rampant power theft by e-rickshaws and the safety hazard that the process of charging them involves. According to the plan, parking lots of Delhi Metro and municipal corporations are being considered where discoms will set up charging stations for the battery-operated three-wheelers.

As of now, there isnt a single authorised charging station for over one lakh e-rickshaws plying in the city. While discoms are currently allowing consumers to charge their e-rickshaws through energy meters installed in their houses, the government said now gangs have emerged who are getting these vehicles charged in bulk. With their numbers on the rise, accidents too are increasing. In October, three people were electrocuted while illegally charging their rickshaws.

Read More: Over a lakh e-rickshaws but no legal charging points in Delhi

Parking lots of MCDs and Metro are being considered for the charging points. The process of e-rickshaws would be allowed during the night when the off-peak hour tariffs would be applicable. The slot for them would be from 3 am to 9 am, a government official said.

There are around 350 parking lots under the three MCDs, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Delhi metro. The facilities that would have charging points and the electricity rates to be charged would be decided after consultations with e-rickshaw unions. The NDMC already has a proposal pending which it plans to implement under its Smart City project.

Non-peak tariffs are about 20% less than the normal tariffs which, the government believes, would encourage drivers to stop charging at their homes or through the gangs. A meeting to discuss the matter was held recently and was attended by officials from power and transport departments, DIMTS and discoms were also present.

Read More: Couple electrocuted while charging e-rickshaw

Meanwhile, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) is also working on fixing special tariffs for e-rickshaws. However, the process is likely to take a few months as a fresh regulation will have to be notified. So far, Delhi does not have any tariffs for battery operated vehicles like e-rickshaws. The commission is currently preparing the draft regulations, a DERC official said.

Records with the transport department suggest that only 19,548 e-rickshaws have been registered till October 13, which means more than 80% of the e-rickshaws plying in the city do not have certificates of road worthiness from the Battery Rickshaw Sangh (BRS), the body authorised by the Delhi government to issue the same.

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A five-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 55-year-old man in southeast Delhis Taimoor Nagar area on Monday afternoon.

Police said the accused has been identified as Mukhtar Sheikh, a resident of West Bengal. He was working as a security guard in New Friends Colony.

The incident took place around 2 pm in the slum locality when Sheikh took the girl to her home on the pretext of chocolate. Police said the accused and girls parents live nearby.

Victims mother was busy with domestic chores, while the girl was playing outside. Shiekh quitely took the girl to him house as his family members were not there.

He later let her off and on reaching home the victim was not able to speak to her parents. Police said her parents noticed change in her behaviour. She was frightened and narrated her ordeal to his parents.

Neighbourers also came to know about the incident and Sheikh was beaten up by them. However, police team also reached the spot when a call was made to them.

The accused was arrested from the spot and case of rape was registered against him. Police recorded the statement and girl was sent for medical examination.

Police said a case of rape was registered at New Friends Colony police station. During questioning he confessed to the crime after which they produced him the court where he was granted judicial custody.

Sheikh has a family having two children aged 18 and 21. He has been living near to the girls family for the last three years, police said.
Photo: nhandan.com.vn

The Royal Thai Police Chief, General Chakthip Chaijinda appreciated the visit by Minister Lam and his delegation to attend the dialogue on crime prevention and security issues, which he said would contribute to deepening the strategic partnership between the two countries and relevant agencies, confirming that the visit was an important milestone in promoting the cooperation on crime prevention between Thailand and Vietnam.

During the dialogue, the two sides agreed that over the past years, the cooperation between the Vietnamese Public Security Ministry and the Royal Thai Police had continuously been increased, especially in security, police, exchanges of delegation and training of cadres. Through the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), the two sides provided information on criminals, worked together to arrest wanted people and struggle against drug criminals.

They confirmed that exchanges of delegations between the Vietnamese Public Security Ministry and the Royal Thai Police would continue in the future, in order to increase mutual understanding and share experience on issues of common concern, adding that they would maintain annual high-ranking dialogues in turn.

They also discussed issues relating to the prevention of terrorism, trans-national crime, trafficking of women and children, drug crime, environmental crime and the trade of wildlife.

Concluding the dialogue, Minister Lam and General Chakthip Chaijinda signed a deal of cooperation between the Vietnamese Public Security Ministry and the Royal Thai Police before they co-chaired a press conference and answered Thai and Vietnamese reporters questions.

On the same day, Minister Lam and his delegation met with Secretary-General of the National Security Council of Thailand, General Thawip Netniyom./.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced a substantial hike in the salaries of guest teachers in government schools, a move that is expected to benefit around 17,000 teachers.

Kejriwal made the announcement at Chhatrasal stadium at Model Town in Delhi where he was addressing the heads as well as the guest teachers of government schools.

Primary teachers, who earlier got Rs 17,500 a month, will now get Rs 32,200. Similarly, the salary of TGTs (Trained Graduate Teachers) has been increased from Rs 20,000 to Rs 33,120 and of PGTs (Post Graduate Teachers) from Rs 22,500 to Rs 34,100, he said, adding that guest teachers will now get the same facilities as regular teachers.

Two years ago we had made two promises. One to make guest teachers permanent and the other to give equal pay for equal work, the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.

He added the government wanted to make the announcement before Diwali but had to wait due to resistance by the system to the governments move.

He said that the government has now sent the file to the Lt Governor for his approval.

We will make sure, salary hike and proposal of making guest teachers permanent is approved by the LG at the earliest, Kejriwal said.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said the hike in salaries was just the first step to bring a revolution in education system of Delhi.

We want to change the lives of 16 lakh students who study in government schools...we are already working on construction of 8000 classrooms which will be ready by March 2017. We have decided to build 8,000 more classroom taking the total count to 16,000, he said.

After the event, hundreds of guest teachers staged a protest against Kejriwal outside Chhatrasal stadium blocking the Ring Road which led to huge traffic jam.

The protesting guest teachers - both male and female - raised slogans against Kejriwal and said they were disappointed with the government.

We came here with hopes that the government will make some announcement about implementation of the order regarding our salary hike but they made us wait for several hours just to tell the same thing which we have been hearing for last two years, Ramveer Singh, a guest teacher at a government school in Najafgarh told IANS.

Another protesting guest teacher S.K. Singh told IANS that the government do not need Lt Governors approval for so many other things but when it comes to teachers rights they make the execuse of it.

Kejriwal later told reporters that it was not the guest teachers who staged the protest but the BJP goons.
The Central Board of Secondary Educations decision to make Class 10 board exams compulsory from 2018 was welcomed by many students in the national capital.

Many students are happy with the move and said that it will help them prepare for Class 12 board exams. They said that in the current situation they had to directly take Class 12 board exams, results of which impact their career choices.

People said students will be under pressure if we have Class 10 exams. But if not now, then it will come in Class 12. I think it is better we take it now because we cant keep avoiding exams. It will help us in attempting the Class 12 boards in a better way, said Vinti Nanda, a Class 9 student.

Some students said the current system  Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)  focuses too much on activities and projects due to which they are not able to focus on studies.

I am totally in favour of board exams in Class 10. Right now, we end up making so many projects and assignments that there is hardly any time to study. But in Class 12, we have to sit for board exams and then it takes us by shock, said Paritoshika, a student of Bal Bharti Public School, Ganga Ram Road.

Read: The CBSE has brought back Class 10 board exams. But key questions remain

However, some students said boards will make them cram things and take away the attention from overall growth. Till Class 11, we get exposed to so many things and then we make a decision. It will make us focus only on academic front and will impact our mental development. I think boards are not necessary at this time, said Shradha Sarana, a Class 9 student.

According to sources, in its governing body meet, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) decided that compulsory Class 10 board exams will make a comeback under which 80% weightage would be given to the written exam and 20% to internal assessment by the schools.

It is a good move because students only study when they are under some pressure. If they know they will get marks by doing activities and making projects, they will not study. They need to be tested and only then they will study, said Hardyal Meena, whose daughter is in Class 8.

The recommendations will now be sent to the HRD ministry for approval. On Wednesday, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar supported the move and said, We will duly consider it and pass it so that from March 2018 we will have board examinations for all, Javadekar said.
The Delhi government on Tuesday asked for sufficient time to sensitise people about the Odd-even scheme before reintroducing it while proposing a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with the Union government to oversee cleaning of the Yamuna. The issues related to pollution were discussed in the NCR planning board meeting.

Odd-even car restrictions

Delhi transport minister Satyendar Jain has urged the central government to allow sufficient time to sensitise the public about implementation of Odd-even scheme before reintroducing it. The Supreme Court had ordered to automatically enforce Odd-even formula for private cars as pollution level dips.

Sources in the department said that at least a month of planning is required if the government wants to enforce the scheme. Jain met the Union urban development minister M Venakaiah Naidu during NCR planning board meeting where measures to tackle pollution were discussed.

There will be chaos on the streets if we dont plan it. As we dont have enough number of buses, we have to hire buses to improve public transport. Hiring buses will need a month and similarly, we also hire to civil defence volunteers to manage traffic on roads. Doing all this in 48 hours is impossible, said a transport department official.

New roads

Jain also pointed out that work on Eastern and Western expressway by the DDA, which has been underway for the last 15 years, needs to be expedited. This project is expected to ease traffic congestion in a major way. The issue of three urban extension roads were also raised, which are located in Mahipalpur, Rohini and Kanjhawala.

Read: Need a month to prepare for re-introducing odd-even scheme: Delhi govt

NCR board discussed 14 inter-state connectivity links with the aim of facilitating seamless travel in the NCR. Some of these link roads are Kalindi bypass road from Ashram Chowk, Delhi to Faridabad bypass, connection of Nelson Mandela T-Point in Vasant Kunj with the existing Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, road from Ring Road (Inder Lok Metro Station) and existing Yamuna Canal Link Road up to Haryana border and bridge over Yamuna between Chhaprauli and Hathwada village in Haryana.

Delhi government bats for SPV for Yamuna

Jain proposed setting-up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with the Union government to oversee cleaning of the Yamuna and Yamuna Development Front activities. We have proposed setting up of a special purpose vehicle, along the lines of Delhi Metro, to help in cleaning Yamuna. The Delhi government and the Centre can be the key stakeholders in the project, said Jain.

Shifting of power plants

The AAP government also presented recommendations by IIT Kanpur on the rising pollution level. As a part of pollution control measures, IIT-Kanpur has recommended that the power plants within 300km vicinity of the Capital should be shut down. We have requested them to shift power plant from Jhajjhar and Dadri, Jain said.

Contain air pollution in Delhi-NCR: Board tells states

The states have given details of measures being taken to contain air pollution being caused by stubble and biomass burning in the adjoining states of Delhi and Punjab, burning of garbage, solid waste management and road dust and construction activities. The measures include supply of equipment for mechanical disposal of stubble and crop residues, imposition of fines for burning, management of sanitary landfills and so on.

In the meeting, the Central Pollution Control Board informed that an action plan has been prepared under the directions of the Supreme Court in the context of high levels of air pollution in Delhi in November this year. This plan includes monitoring air quality in Delhi, centralised analysis of pollution data being collected by different agencies, preventive actions and graded action plan.
Eight residents of Delhi write open letters discussing sexual abuse and rape. In Part 7, an HR professional writes to his colleagues.

Dear colleagues,

A few days ago while hosting a game of Tambola, as I announced  Kings corner: first and last numbers of top row and Queens corner: first and last numbers of the bottom row  something suddenly hit me.

We stopped and redefined the prizes  top row as the Queens corner and bottom one as the Kings corner. Maybe this was too much symbolism, but it stirred in us a stream of thought about the casual ways in which we perceive and propagate gender (in) equality norms.

Rape, as has been often repeated, is not about sex. It is about a gravely misplaced sense of power, superiority and control  over the other gender. Prima facie, people who commit such acts are particularly vicious. But, as a civilisation we need to analyse the roots of that sense of power, superiority, control and inequality and how they get reinforced in the workplace.

Read | Its our duty to be on rape survivors side: A lawyers letter to his colleagues

Social norms get so deeply ingrained that we get accustomed to them as the normal way of life. This is nothing but culture  something which we as Human Resource professionals obsess with day in and out. In an organisation, we define culture as inherent values, practices and the way of doing things. Rape, a grave offence against humanity, may not be directly linked to such gestures. But this and other components of culture are responsible for nurturing and breeding a mindset that manifests itself in rape. So, when we talk of rape and how to sensitise our society, we look at modifying, monitoring and developing a culture of equality everywhere  at home, in office and in our minds.

A casual glance at any aspect of society will yield clear observations  of how a subtle dominance of a gender and inherent biases have been hinted at. Workplaces are no exceptions as they are a simulation of the society we live in.

From the symbolism inherent in naming certain positions as male by default (eg. chairman), to designing work spaces and practices without taking consideration of the comfort of both the genders, it exists. In all those times, where a woman riding high on the corporate ladder is often doubted, or the success is attributed to her gender, bias exists.

As the architect of workplace policies and processes, it is on us to ensure the intent behind them is right, and more importantly, that they are not seen as a favour or benefit but a very natural part of an organic ecosystem.

Every time, while looking for a suitable candidate , we come across this line, this work isnt suitable for a woman, we know the bias persists.

In society, the bias is right there when we tell young boys not to cry like a girl, or when we complement our daughters by calling them son of the house. It is right there when we associate courage with having balls, and it is glaringly and disgustingly out there when we define a victory or failure as raped/got raped. It is right there when our movies translate rape into losing honour (izzat lootna), and propagate victim shaming without a thought. This casual sexism, is so deeply ingrained that it is mostly passed off as the norm and becomes acceptable in office parlance.

This affects most workplaces that are not as regulated or sophisticated the unorganised sector. But no, none of these are why rapes happen exactly.

Yes, we must talk about rape. But before that, we must wake up and shake away this delusion that we are not a part of this problem. We must, as professionals take a conscious call to redesign the culture of the society we live in. We must talk about equality and act on it  in our life decisions, of marriage, of children, of career and sharing responsibilities, credits and even blame. We must tell our young generations and people who work with us what equality is, how it should manifest itself in day-to-day behaviour from sharing food to respecting each others choices, bodies and consent. We must convince ourselves that women (or men) dont have to be a certain way, they can be who and what they want for themselves. That there can be no glass ceiling  not in this day and age.

Lokesh Raj

The author is an HR partner in the hospitality sector.

Next in the series: A school student writes on the issue of rape and sexual violence
The Delhi governments function to thank the teaching community for the good work they are doing on Wednesday turned into a nightmare for the establishment.

Teachers, who came expecting an announcement on hike in salaries, created ruckus outside Chhatrasal Stadium in Model Town when the government told them that the file is pending with lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung.

Hundreds of guest teachers blocked the Ring Road leading to the stadium where the event was organised by the government to encourage the guest teachers and principals to perform better.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal blamed the BJP and the Congress for the protest. People who protested outside Chhatrasal today were not teachers. They were either BJP or Congress workers. When I was going out, I saw people standing with sticks. They were not teachers at all, he said later at a press conference.

Last week, the Delhi government proposed a hike in salaries of guest teachers by up to 90%. On Wednesday, he said the file is pending with Jung. As he made the remark, a group of the teachers got up from their seats and started leaving midway through the chief ministers speech.

We have our schools annual function tomorrow (Thursday). We had to get the kids prepared. We still came all the way here to hear to listen to this  the L-G has to approve the hike. Now you have put the ball in his court. You sort things out with the L-G, a guest teacher from Paschim Vihar said.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal addresses Heads of the Government Schools and Guest Teachers at a function in New Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI)

Uttam Kumar, a guest teacher at a Mundka school, said he and his colleagues were forced to attend the meeting because of a circular given by the Delhi government.

Police officials said the protesters were removed by 8.30 pm. Traffic on the stretch was partially affected but was eventually brought under control, an official said.

Speaking at the stadium, Kejriwal said the change in education infrastructure in Delhi has been made possible because of the teachers.

Guest teachers used to work as bonded labourers in Delhi schools earlier. Things are changing now. We are increasing salaries. Now it will be monthly salaries, rather than daily, and leaves like regular ones for guest teachers.

We have passed proposal in Cabinet. Now it has gone to L-G. We will get it done. We will fight for it. Will interact with L-G on this. If necessary, I will go and meet him, Kejriwal said.

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A 36-year-old driver of an Uber cab has been arrested for allegedly molesting a woman passenger on Tuesday evening.

Police said the victim is a utility services manager at the Palam airport. She had booked the cab to go to Mahavir Enclave from the airport.

The incident exposes yet again how unsafe the public transport remains for women in Delhi, four years after a physiotherapy student was gang-raped on a bus in 2012.

The accused, Rakesh, allegedly took the wrong route and insisted on picking up more passengers on the way. When the 32-year-old woman resisted and told him that she had booked a personal cab and not a sharing one, Rakesh rebuked her.

Read: Do not take the blame on yourself, dont break: Uber rape survivors letter

In her complaint to the police, the victim said Tuesday was her first day at work on the airport. She boarded the cab at the airport around 6 pm. Instead of taking the direct route, the driver took her towards Sanjay T-point, Mahipalpur.

When the passenger asked the driver to stop, he said he has to pick more passengers. During the argument, the victim threatened the driver to lodge a complaint against him with Uber, said a police officer.

She started making calls. Fearing that she would inform the police, the stopped the car and pulled her out. The woman shouted at him for touching her inappropriately. The driver then threw her bag out of the cab and zoomed off, the officer said.

When she reacher her house, she took her husband along and reached the local police station. The police registered a case under sections dealing with molestation and outraging the modesty of a woman against the driver.

Soon after the complaint was registered, our teams swung into action and traced the driver. Uber was also contacted. He was arrested and sent to judicial custody, Deputy Commissioner of Police (southwest) Surender Kumar told HT.

Read: Driver molests foreigner: Uber did not do a background check before hiring

After a woman executive was raped by another Uber cabbie in December 2014, there were demands that all app-based cabs be brought under a regulatory framework. The cab aggregator companies, however, argue that drivers are not employed by them, nor are the cabs owned by the company.

Not the first time December 5, 2014: Woman executive raped by Uber driver Shiv Kumar Yadav. June 1, 2015: 40-year old Uber cab driver accused of trying to sexually harass a professional dancer on the way to Gurgaon from Delhi January 2016: A woman journalist accused Uber cab driver of molesting her while she was on her way from Delhi to Noida
Students in CBSE schools may soon have to study four languages if they want to take up a foreign language as the board has recommended that schools follow three-language formula under which students study Hindi, English and one modern Indian language such as Sanskrit or Telugu.

Many private schools in the Capital offer foreign languages along with Sanskrit as the third language. But with CBSEs new move, foreign language will become an elective or additional language.

Read | No more optional: CBSE for mandatory Class 10 board exams from 2018

Some schools are unhappy with the move and said that students should be free to study foreign languages if they wish to. Principals said that most students take up foreign languages because they want to go abroad or make a career in the language.

We are looking at providing students with global upbringing. We cannot limit their options because many of the students want to go abroad for graduation, said principal of a private school on condition of anonymity.

According to sources, in its governing body meet on Tuesday, the CBSE has recommended to the government that all schools should follow this system and those wanting to study a foreign language will have to take it as an elective or an additional subject.

Also, while the three-language formula is applicable only till Class VIII, as per a decision of the board, students of Class IX and X will also have to study three languages. Reportedly, they will only be required to get passing marks in the third language, sources said.

Some schools said it will add unnecessary burden on students.

Most private schools offer Sanskrit, German, French, Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese as the third language under the formula. Most private school principals said students prefer to take up a foreign language.

It is not a good idea to limit options for students if they want to study a foreign language. It will add burden on students if they want to take foreign language as an elective because they have to study other subjects also. In this situation a student will study four languages plus other courses, said LV Sehgal, principal of Bal Bharti School, Ganga Ram Hospital Marg.

Manohar Lal, principal of Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, said, This will create a lot of problems for our students. Most of them take up foreign languages but now they will have to rethink because students cannot burden themselves with only languages.

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For students, Class 10 boards mark an end of an eventful chapter of their lives. It is not only the end of an eventful  some say, the most wondrous  chapter of their lives but also the beginning of their semi-adult life. In many families across India, the approaching boards means everything else is put on hold, be it travel, a movie or eating out. The reason being board results determines many things of a students future: Getting the right combination of subjects of the next two years and a spot in a reputed school. But this burden of expectation puts pressure on students and parents and this was one of the main reasons for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to scrap the Class X boards five years ago. This week, however, the CBSE announced that it was doing away with the policy that offered a choice to students to opt for the board-conducted finals or let the institution assess their performance. The board exam in CBSE schools was scrapped by the UPA and replaced with the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) through year-round tests and a grading system.

Read: Class 10 CBSE board exams mandatory from 2018, to include third language paper too

So what made CBSE take this decision? First, most other state boards still have a 10+2 formula and that there is a need to have parity among boards for correct evaluation of students; second, along with the no-detention policy till Class 8 and this coupled with the fact that Class 12 is the first big test was problematic; and third, teachers and parents wanted this change to make their wards exam-ready before they appear for the big one, Class 12. Unfortunately, the stakeholders did not realise the value of CCE. In a piece in this paper, wellknown educationist Krishna Kumar explained why CCE failed to take root: Lack of coordination and clarity on roles and responsibilities expectedly resulted in systemic chaos. Moreover, teachers, many lowly paid, was not motivated enough to put in the extra effort needed for CCE.

Read: Dont make the Class 10 boards compulsory once again

But why blame just the teachers? Parents also did not see merit in a new system of learning, which is practised in many other countries, but felt comfortable in the earlier system. The government and the board were only too willing to scrap it. The bottomline: Class 10 boards are back but two key questions remain unanswered: How will the board deal with the pressure that both students and parents complained about earlier, and second, who is responsible for the failure of continuous and comprehensive evaluation system?
After introducing common entrance tests for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate courses, the health ministry announced last week that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) will be held every year for super specialty courses in medicine. The first-ever NEET-SS (super specialty) will be held on June 10, 2017 and will be conducted by the National Board of Examinations (NBE), which also holds NEET (PG) postgraduate.

NEET-SS (super specialty) will be a single window entrance examination for entry to super specialty doctorate of medicine (DM); master of surgery (MCh) and post doctoral certificate (PDCC) courses.

No other entrance examination, either at state or university or institutional level conducted by any university, medical colleges or other institutions will be valid according to provisions of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, amendments, with effect from the 2017 admission session.

The amendments were undertaken earlier this year by an ordinance ratified by Parliament.

According to Dr Bipin Batra, executive director, National Board of Examinations (NBE), all states and colleges have to mandatorily participate in NEET-SS.

No state government, private medical college or university is permitted to conduct any separate entrance exam for admission to their DM, MCh courses for the academic session 2017-2018.

However, AIIMS, New Delhi, PGIMER, Chandigarh, JIPMER, Puducherry, NIMHANS, Bengaluru, and Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum are not covered for admissions to DM, MCh seats through NEET-SS for 2017 session, informs Dr Batra.

Elaborating on the exam pattern, number of papers, maximum marks, sections, and cut-off, Dr Batra says NEET-SS will be conducted in all specialties for which the corresponding MD, MS degree is eligible as entry-level qualification for pursuing super specialty courses in the country.

A candidate can appear for the NEET-SS in the discipline of the eligible entry level qualification.

The exam will be conducted on a computer-based test platform for a test lasting two-and-a-half hours. The question paper will consist of 200 multiple choice questions with single correct response and 25% negative marking. The 50th percentile will be the cut-off for NEET-SS.

All specialties will have separate question papers. NEET-SS scores will be valid for admission to all medical institutes  private and state level institutions and medical colleges except for the five central statutory institutes.

So how will NEET-SS differ from other entrance tests for super specialties? NEET-SS will offer every candidate an equitable national-level platform to be eligible for entry into all super specialty courses to which he/she is eligible for in terms of the eligibility criteria notified in the PG regulations. IThe candidate has a complete spectrum of courses available based on their entry level MD,MS or DNB qualification for entry to DM, MCh courses, says Dr Batra.

After the introduction of amendment to the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 in 2016, wherein NEET has been granted statutory status no other institution is permitted to conduct their own examination for entry to super specialty courses.

Merit positions will be determined on test-takers percentile grades. Counselling will be conducted by authorised state government and other departments and universities.

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Theres one topic which is brewing in the minds of every middle school CBSE students. The board exams will be reintroduced from 2018, which means CBSE students will be taking board exams along with students from ICSE and other state boards, who never scrapped them in the first place.

So students, before you reach for that bar of chocolate and your parents reach for their anxiety tablets, lets look at this with a calm frame of mind. For this, we should examine some whats and whys so that we can decide whether this is a good thing after all  or not.

Why were they scrapped in the first place?

Under pressure! As David Bowie knew well, pressure was definitely pushing down on students in standard nine and 10. The boards had become a public performance that many children were not ready to take. The intention to replace this with the CCE (continuous and comprehensive evaluation) was indeed a welcome idea. Rather than a one-day performance snapshot, students were judged consistently and more importantly, on other parameters as well, which went beyond exam-taking skills. Given the high school dropout rate at the time of abolition (2010), this made it possible for many bright students to stay in the system and access other opportunities beyond class 10.

What happened differently after that?

Definitely less exam pressure, but the CCE did not work out as well as it was envisaged to be. A radical move needs to be backed up with solid implementation for the whole vision to come into play. The CCE guidelines were not perfect to begin with, but held promise for improvement. However, when that did not happen, all stakeholders were back under pressure, albeit a different kind dominated by too many changes and no clear vision of handling the transition. The CBSE has not been able to develop a satisfactory alternative in the past six years and clearly it now time to rethink.

According to the HRD ministry, its interactions with delegations of schools and parents have reported a drop in quality of students academic standards. Even according to surveys conducted by the CBSE itself, a majority of students and their parents and an overwhelming majority of school heads were of the opinion, that class 10 end exams should be conducted by an independent authority.

This could be because schools are at the risk of suspicions of subjectivity in internal results and the no-detention policy allows students that would otherwise need reassessment and help, to go forward to the next standard. This may also be a reason for larger drop outs after class 12.

Why do we need it back?

As of 2016, the CBSE has under its wings, over 18,000 schools, including 210 schools in 25 other countries. Given the volume of students, there are many situations that arise in the lives of these students which the scrapping should have accounted for, but in reality did not.

Changing schools was one huge issue. Families moving within the country and abroad were constrained. They either had to scout for another CBSE school for their child or their children had to opt for giving the boards on an individual basis. Theoretically, this was a solution, which was not practical in any manner.

How would everyone know in advance? What if the student wanted to shift to ISC or IB board after giving the class 10 boards because they wanted a different combination of subjects? What if a student wanted to pursue a vocational course after class 10?

To predict the occurrence of these situations by mid-class 10 would need special divination skills, especially since no other board has followed suit and continues to hold board exams at end of class 10.

Parents and teachers also contend that class 10 exams are to be viewed as a run-up to class 12, where there are board exams in any case. While there is clear consensus on abandoning evaluation systems that encourage rote learning, a more structured approach would allow students to start thinking clearly and objectively about subjects they would wish to take forward in senior school and make eventual career choices.

The error is in forgetting that this is the purpose of a class 10 evaluation, which is an aid for students, a first step in the career journey and not a public proclamation of academic success or failure. We must remember that students take seven to nine papers in a whole range of compulsory subjects in class 10 versus five subjects that students choose to study in class 12. The sheer variety is something we need to respect and factor into our expectations from the students and their results.

What is the changed structure?

The board exams will be held as before. However, there will be an amendment in the no-detention policy, which at present, applies to students up to class 10. This is likely to now apply only till class 5 and in classes 6 and 7, the respective states are to decide on criteria for promotion, retests, etc. and beyond class 9, students may be held back if their performance is not up to the new criteria.

Till we dont have an alternative to our evaluation systems, taking exams is a reality students need to make peace with, whether they are in class 10, 12 or beyond.

(Kapur is the head of counselling and content at Inomi, a self-discovery based career and college guidance company. Views expressed here are personal.)
Opposing the recent order of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that deposits of above Rs5,000 in scrapped Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes can be made only once till December 30, the All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) staged a protest against the move in Sector 31 on Wednesday afternoon.

They protested against the RBIs decision to assign bank officers to investigate customers depositing in excess of Rs 5,000, and demanded complete withdrawal of the order as bank officials could face public anger due to it.

Although RBI had partially modified its deposit guidelines on Wednesday morning, the confederation officials still demonstrated outside lead district manager (LDM) Ramesh Chandra Nayaks office in Sector 31 main market to press for withdrawal of the RBI notification.

Confederation members said the LDM was the local representative of RBI as the central bank does not have an office in Gurgaon.

Ever since the announcement of demonetisation of high-value currency notes, bank officers and employees are under huge stress. Customer dissatisfaction is increasing because of the chaos and confusion created in implementation of the scheme. Bank officials are being subjected to the anger, anguish and wrath of customers and general public due to short supply of currency notes to banks, said Satish Vats, joint secretary, Syndicate Bank Officers Association, which is a part of the AIBOC.

Frequent changes in instructions are adding salt to the wounds. The banking system is itself losing credibility because of the policies of the RBI and the government, he added.

AIBOC members demanded that no accountability should be fixed on bank officers with respect to demonetisation directions as they are thrust with a role not expected of them.

Protesters added that the withdrawal of RBIs recent directions needs to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself through a public statement. They claimed doing so will rebuild publics confidence in the banking system and reduce the burden on bank officials across the country.

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Oscar-winning actor and future Captain Marvel, Brie Larson posted a picture of herself on Instagram on Tuesday wearing a dress like none her fans had seen before.

Monday got me like -  A photo posted by Brie (@brielarson) on Dec 19, 2016 at 4:21pm PST

While many were left confused and asked her as to what she was wearing, some of her desi fans realised that it was a kurta.

Username thatgirlalmighty exclaimed, Oh my God is that a Salwar? You look so beautiful. Artoquotokurti said, Wow, you look beautiful and nabanita16_insta said, OMG!! Is that a kurti, an Indian outfit?? wow you look beautiful regardless.

The Room actor was impressed with her fans attention to details and posted another picture explaining where she got the kurta from. Dang you guys got good eyes! I was wearing a kurta in my last picture! Got it at a #fabindia in Hyderabad while in town for Manchu Manoj and Pranathi Reddys wedding I LOVE INDIA, she wrote as the caption.

Dang you guys got good eyes! I was wearing a kurta in my last picture! Got it at a #fabindia in Hyderabad while in town for Manchu Manoj and Pranathi Reddy's wedding I LOVE INDIA A photo posted by Brie (@brielarson) on Dec 20, 2016 at 10:57am PST

The Manchu Manoj that she is referring to is southern star Mohan Babus younger son who married Pranathi Reddy in March 2015. Turns out Brie was saving this kurta for a special occasion for almost two years!

She will be next seen in Kong: Skull Island in March, 2017 and then as Captain Marvel in March 2019.

Call me Captain Marvel. A photo posted by Brie (@brielarson) on Jul 23, 2016 at 7:33pm PDT

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Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he throws up when he looks at his reflection in the mirror so we put together a list of Hollywood actors whove aged not quite in ways anyone would have expected.

The 69-year-old actor and former bodybuilding champion, who first claimed the title Mr. Olympia in 1970, says he has always been critical of himself, even when he was in his best shape, and is still repulsed by his appearance, reports femalefirst.co.uk

When I look in the mirror, I throw up. I was already so critical of myself, even when I was in top physical shape, Schwarzenegger told Cigar Aficionado magazine.

Despite winning the title over seven consecutive years, he used to doubt why he was crowned champion every time because he felt he was lacking something.

Id look in the mirror after I won one Mr. Olympia after another and think, How did this pile of s**t win? I never saw perfection. There was always something lacking, the Predator actor said.

Here are 5 other Hollywood stars who havent aged as well as they might have hoped. You can slide between images and look at the transformation.

John Travolta

Al Pacino

Haley Joel Osment

Mickey Rourke

Macaulay Culkin

With agency inputs

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It is a law ostensibly meant to aid the recovery of debts but could result in the back-door acquisition of property by non-Kashmiris in Jammu and Kashmir. Little wonder then that it has stirred a debate in the state, where only Kashmiris are permitted to acquire property.

The Jammu and Kashmir government contended in the High Court that the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act, which the parliament passed in 2002, was not applicable in the state due to its special status under Article 370 of the Constitution.

The ruling came in 2015 on a challenge to a State Bank of India decision to enforce the act to recover its dues from a defaulter. The Supreme Court overturned this last week.

Read: J-K residents first and foremost citizens of India, says Supreme Court

What, then, is the contentious act all about?

Passed by the parliament in 2002, it states: If the borrower of financial assistance makes any default in repayment of loan or any installment and his account is classified as non-performing asset by secured creditor, then secured creditor might require before expiry of period of limitation by written notice to the borrower for repayment of due in full within 60 days by clearly stating amount due and intention for enforcement.

Where he does not discharge dues in full within 60 days, then without intervention of any court or tribunal secured creditor may take possession (including sale, lease, assignment) of secured asset, or take over management of business of borrower or appoint manager for secured asset or without taking any of these actions may also proceed against guarantor or sell the pledged asset, if any, the act says.

State law and parliamentary affairs minister Abdul Haq Khan had previously clarified that in case of distress, sale of assets of defaulters by financial institutions, only permanent residents of the state will be permitted to bid for and own such assets.

In legal and public circles, a debate has since been raging over the larger implications of the apex courts decision.

The state government should have legislated on this and passed its own act accommodating all the good things of the central act while safeguarding the special status of the state, lawyer Abdul Samad said.

The apex courts decision could open the floodgates for extension of acts passed by the parliament through the judicial route bypassing the legislative powers of the state, he added.

Read: Omar slams PDP-BJP govt for step-by-step erosion of J-Ks special status

The separatists have also criticised the decision, saying their assertion that the special status of the state existed only on paper had been proved right.

Confused over whether the larger implications of the apex court decision would benefit or harm his interests, the common man is ambiguous in his comments.

Big sharks have taken huge loans from banks and are now not paying these back, bank employee Irfan Ahmad said. They will definitely be opposing the Supreme Courts decision, but if the decision compromises the special status of the state, then it must be appealed against.

While delivering its verdict, a Supreme Court bench of justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton Nariman also rejected the High Courts view that the states constitution was equal to the constitution of India. The states residents are first and foremost Indian citizens, the apex court said.

It is, therefore, wholly incorrect to describe it as being sovereign in the sense of its residents constituting a separate and distinct class in themselves. The residents of Jammu and Kashmir, we need to remind the High Court, are first and foremost citizens of India, permanent residents of the state of Jammu and Kashmir are citizens of India, and that there is no dual citizenship as is contemplated by some other federal constitutions in other parts of the world, the court said.

It pointed out that it was constrained to observe that in at least three places, the High Court, in its judgment, has gone out of its way to refer to a sovereignty which does not exist.

Referring to article 370 of the Constitution, the High Court division bench said: This provision clears the constitutional relationship between people of rest of the country with the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

The citizens of Jammu and Kashmir have their own constitution and their sovereign character which cannot be challenged, altered or abridged. The power of parliament to make laws in respect of state of Jammu and Kashmir is circumscribed and it can make laws for it only where permitted by state and not other side, and that too in accordance with mechanism prescribed by Article 370 of Constitution of India, the High Court had contended.

As the public and legal circles are agog with confusing opinions, the controversy is unlikely to settle down any time soon in Kashmir.
With the Anti-Corruption Bureau giving her a clean chit in the chikki purchase case, Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde on Wednesday said the allegations against her were part of a plan to defame her.

I had said many times that there was no substance in the allegations (of irregularities in chikki purchase). On several occasions in the Legislative Assembly also, I have replied to the charges, Pankaja said.

Those who made the allegations saw a lot of irregularities in `chikki that wasnt even distributed (among schoolchildren), the women and child welfare minister said.

A supari (contract) was taken to defame me, Pankaja said. The BJP minister, however, did not disclose who was behind the move to malign her.

The ACB has given me a clean chit. I am absolved of the charges. I wasnt involved in any wrongdoing, Pankaja asserted.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has closed the case against her in the matter pertaining to alleged irregularities in awarding contracts for materials worth Rs 206 crore for school children.

Pankaja was accused of flouting norms in awarding contracts for supplying items like chikki (sweetmeat made with nuts and jaggery), mats, notebooks and water filters, among others, for schoolchildren.

Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant had last year lodged a complaint with the ACB demanding an inquiry into the allegations against the minister and submitted a set of documents purportedly supporting the charges.
A court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Additional sessions judge Vikash Dhull allowed the anticipatory bail plea of Kumar, accused of instigating a mob to kill two Sikhs -- Sohan Singh and son Avtar Singh -- in Janakpuri in New Delhi in November, 1984.

The case was taken up recently by a special investigation team.

The court asked him to furnish a personal bond of Rs one lakh, and directed him not to leave the country without permission. Kumar was also directed to join the investigation and is likely to appear before the probe agency.

The court also imposed a condition that he will neither influence witnesses nor try to tamper with the evidence.

Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed, mostly in Delhi, in riots that followed the 1984 assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards.
A 55-year-old Dalit woman was killed allegedly by a group of upper caste youths, who crushed her under a car for intervening in a quarrel in Haryana on Tuesday night, police said.

The woman has been identified as Dani Devi of Charkhi Dadri districts Kakroli Sardara village.

Haryana recorded a sevenfold increase in number of crimes against Dalits and Scheduled Castes in over 15 years, according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)s data released last year. Dalits form roughly 20% of the states population of 2.5 crore as per the 2011 census.

Giving sequel of the latest crime against a Dalit woman, police quoting family sources said a group of upper-caste youths swooped down on the village in a car on Tuesday night and dragged out from home Devis nephew Mahesh who had engaged in a quarrel with them in the morning.

When Devi and other members of the family tried to rescue him, the intruders also assaulted them with logs, police said, adding while leaving the village the inebriated youths mowed down by their car an injured Devi.

The incident sparked tension in the village, the largest Dalit majority village. To prevent any untoward incident, four police personnel have been posted to guard the village.

The village sarpanch said out of 1,100 families, more than 550 were Dalits while rest are Jats, Muslims, Brahmins and others.

DSP Loharu Kuldeep Singh said a case against five named and four unnamed men under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and the SC and the ST (prevention of atrocities) Act was registered. Among the five named accused four are Jats  Vedvir, Ravi, Ballu, Ashwini and one Muslim identified as Salim.

All the accused and their family members are on the run since the incident, the DSP said.

The family members said Devi was rushed to a community health centre where she was pronounced dead. Her body was sent to Civil Hospital in Bhiwani for post mortem. The family members of the deceased staged a dharna at the hospital demanding arrests of the accused. After police assured action, they agreed to cremate the body.
Four former chief ministers of Uttarakhand are giving the BJP leadership sleepless nights with their demands ranging from election tickets to kin and loyalists to projecting them as the partys face in the state.

The BJP is running its campaign without a chief ministerial candidate, resulting in bitter rivalry among contenders.

Major General (Retd) BC Khanduri wants a ticket for his daughter from an assembly segment under his Garhwal Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency, but the party leadership is not in favour of the move as it would lead to similar demands from other leaders.

Khanduri is 82 and out of the CM race but enjoys the reputation of a clean politician. He remains the partys most popular leader. He cannot be ignored, a BJP leader said.

Hardwar MP Ramesh Pookhriyal Nishank has expressed before BJP chief Amit Shah his willingness to lead the party. At 57, he is the youngest among former CMs and emerged as the Brahmin face of the BJP. The party did poorly in the hills of Garhwal region last time and Nishank was accused of sabotage. Nishank knows the art of running a government and the party. Ignoring his claim is not easy, the BJP leader said.

But, the party is equally worried about Nanital MP Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who expressed his anguish about groupism at the BJPs executive committee meeting in Roorkee last October. The 74-year-old leader nurses chief ministerial ambitions and is upset with the party over selection of the state president.

Koshyari has restricted his tour to Nainital and Almora, leaving the party guessing if it will give chief minister Harish Rawat an open field in Kumaon. Koshyari, a Thakur, is BJPs tallest leader from Kumaon region, Rawats home turf.

Former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna crossed over to the BJP in May this year, along with eight other Congress MLAs. He has been told that a chief ministerial position wont be possible for him, but Bahuguna is now lobbying for tickets for his loyalist MLAs. The BJP is in a bind, fearing rebellion from leaders who contested against these MLAs last time.

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Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav feels that the days of caste-based politics in the state are over and now the two Ds -- development and demonetisation -- will work in favour of the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the upcoming assembly polls.

According to him, his family feud is no more a factor and all the issues have changed post demonetisation.

That is a thing of past now. We are working together to win the elections. Issues have changed and post demonetisation, nobody remembers that (family feud) now. All the other issues have been left behind and demonetisation has emerged as the key issue, he said.

He asserted that Uttar Pradesh will vote for his work, image and not on caste equations.

Our work in the last five years and the problems people are facing due to demonetisation will lead us to victory in the upcoming elections. Jo kataarein ATM ke bahar lagi hai wo polling booth ke bahar lagegi (polling booths will see long queues like the ones outside ATMs, Akhilesh said.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (L) with other Samajwadi Party leaders at an all-party meet in Lucknow on Tuesday. (PTI photo)

When asked whom he considered the bigger rival -- the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) -- he said the people of Uttar Pradesh had lost faith in both of them.

The BJP has done nothing for Uttar Pradesh in the last two and a half years. The Prime Minister was elected from UP, the home minister and defence minister are also representing UP. They have maximum number of MPs from UP but they have given nothing to the state apart from Adarsh Gaon Yojna and nothing is happening on that front also, he said.

As far as BSP is concerned, people are not interested in getting elephants installed everywhere.

His father and SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has ruled out any pre-poll alliance with the Congress but Akhilesh said it will be premature to predict anything as of now.

Read: Will not have an alliance for state polls, says SP chief Mulayam

Of course, the party president will take a call on that but I believe that we will get 300 plus seats if we enter into a pre-poll alliance with the Congress... There is still time for the elections and you must wait and watch. Politics is full of surprises and you never know what will happen tomorrow, he added.

I do not have any doubt on getting an absolute majority but we can get 300 plus seats if we fight together. Samajwadis believe that the Congress is their best friend when it is weak, the chief minister said.
Former NCP MP and current chairman of Nashik APMC, Devidas Pingale was arrested on Wednesday by Anti-Corruption Bureau in connection with the seizure of around Rs 58 lakh cash from a car in October, which the police suspect was unaccounted for, a senior official said.

Devidas Pingale was arrested today in connection with suspicious transaction of the (seized) unaccounted for cash, said Panjabrao Ugale, Superintendent of Police (ACB) and additional SP, Prashant Deshpande, who is the investigation officer (IO) of the case.

The NCP leader was arrested after ACB sleuths questioned him for over two hours in the agencys office, the officer added.

ACB had seized Rs 57,73,800 from a car in Nashik on October 25 and quizzed the APMC (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee) secretary Vijay Nikam, accountant Arvind Jain and clerk Digambar Chikhale, who were travelling in the vehicle, in this regard.

The trio had told police the cash was the dearness allowance (DA) and the difference in dues meant for APMC employees.

Meanwhile, one of APMC directors Shivajirao Chumbhale and some employees lodged a complaint against Pingale in connection with the seizure.

An enquiry was underway since then by the ACB, Ugale said.

Pingale had represented Nashik constituency during 2004-09. He was succeeded by Sameer Bhujbal, nephew of NCP stalwart Chhagan Bhujbal, who is currently in jail in Mumbai along with his uncle in connection with the money laundering cases against them.
The government might hike rail passenger fares and freight rates after the budget to stave off mounting losses, a top official said on Tuesday, as finance minister Arun Jaitley said passengers should pay for services they receive.

Speaking weeks before he presents Indias first combined railway and Union budget in February, Jaitley made a strong pitch for the railways to outsource non-core activities such as hospitality.

Railways got caught in a battle where populism prevailed over performance... the basic principle on which any commercial establishment is to be run is that consumers must pay for the services they receive, Jaitley told reporters.

The railway ministry official said the public-sector behemoth suffered an annual loss of Rs 33,000 crore on account of passenger fare subsidy but any hike announcement might come after the budget as it wants to assess budgetary support.

We want the government to help railways bear the cost of the losses but so far, the finance ministry has refused any assistance, said an official who did not wish to be quoted.

Read: The new rail fare structure is confusing and will help airlines

The ministry is also likely to move the cabinet soon, seeking approval for setting up a committee to recommend rates of passenger fare and freight.

Indias colonial-era railways carries more than 23 million passengers daily but creaky infrastructure, poor maintenance and shoddy revenue generation has hurt the worlds fourth-largest rail network.

Successive governments have backed away from reforms and especially hiking passenger fares, which is a politically sensitive topic.

As a result, the countrys largest employer runs many trains at rock-bottom fares and struggles to balance its books.

For example, for every Rs 100 spent on a rail passenger, the railways recovers just Rs 57 while the other Rs 43 is government subsidy. The poor financial health has taken a toll on rail infrastructure and accidents are common.

A number of state elections are scheduled for February-March, including the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

The finance minister said to remain competitive against highways and airlines, railways would have to strengthen its performance and internal management system.

The core competence of railways is to drive trains. Hospitality may not be the core competence of the railways and what is not within its core competence, the principle of outsourcing -- accepted the world over -- can be a logical addition, Jaitley said.

He also dismissed Opposition criticism of the governments recall of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes and said the Reserve Bank of India had enough currency for circulation.

We were prepared. There has been no day when RBI did not dispense adequate cash to banks. Even today, RBI has more than adequate cash to last not just till December 30 but even beyond it, Jaitley said.

Millions have lined up outside banks and ATMs since the high-value banknotes were scrapped last month but a cash crunch and frequent rule changes have irked the Opposition.

The finance minister also pitched for a shift to digital transactions, announcing small traders and businesses with a turnover of up to Rs 2 crore would pay less tax if they accept payments through banking and digital platforms. The presumptive tax on digital and cheque payments will be 6% instead of 8%.

Jaitley said the government will continue to incentivise the shift from cash transactions as there had been a 300-400% increase in digital and e-payments.

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The Centre on Wednesday approved an ordinance to amend the Payment of Wages Act for allowing business and industrial establishments to pay salaries through cheques or electronically.

The union Cabinet today approved the ordinance route to amend the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, to allow employers of certain industries to make payment through the electronic mode and cheques, a source said.

Employers will also have the option to pay wages in cash, the source added.

The government took the ordinance route after the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 15 by labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya was put on the backburner amid the uproar in the house over demonetisation. The winter session of Parliament ended on December 16.

An ordinance is valid for six months only. The government is required to get it passed in Parliament within that period.

The Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2016, seeks to amend Section 6 of the principal Act to enable employers to pay wages to employees through cheques or by crediting it to their bank accounts electronically.

It will also allow state governments to specify industrial or other establishments that adopt cashless way for salary payments.

The new procedure will serve the objective of digital and less-cash economy, the Bill stated.

The Act had come into force on April 23, 1936, providing for payment of wages in coin or currency notes, or both. The provision for payment of wages by cheque or crediting it into bank account after obtaining the requisite authorisation of employee was inserted in 1975.

The Act covers all those employees in certain categories of establishments whose wage does not exceed Rs 18,000 per month.

The Centre can make rules regarding payment of wages in relation to railways, air transport services, mines, oil fields and its establishments while states take a call on all other cases.

By making state-level amendments to the Act, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Kerala and Haryana have already made provisions for payment of wages through cheque and electronic transfer.

At present, with the written authorisation of an employee, wages can be given through cheque or transferred to his or her bank account. The Bill removes the requirement of obtaining written authorisation.
The NDA government wants to expand the mandate of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), giving it powers to probe human trafficking, weapons dealers, hacking of important websites and violations of the explosives law.

Home minister Rajnath Singh also wants to end the central agencys dependence on approval from state police chiefs before confiscating or attaching assets of people accused of crime.

The NIA was set up by the previous UPA government in 2009 to probe terrorist activities after the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed. The law, hurriedly passed by Parliament, empowered the agency to investigate offences under eight specified laws, including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA.

Unlike the CBI, the NIA was not dependent on the state governments approval before probing these offences. There were protests later that the provision violated the constitutional separation of powers between the states and Centre. Law and order is a state subject.

Expanded Scope Human trafficking Child trafficking Hacking of websites Violation of law to make, use or sell explosives Sale, production or Transfer of firearms

Among those who protested was then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

Read | Federal agency at centre of debate at CMs meet

By setting up the NIA, the Central government now obviously wants to take upon itself the responsibility of fighting terror by sidetracking the states, Modi said at a conference of police chiefs in January 2009.

This was even before the NIA got its first director.

As the NIA got down to probing right-wing extremist violence, the BJP renewed its attack.

At its national executive meet in Lucknow in June 2011, the party targeted the UPA for denting the federal structure.

The formation of the NIA by the home minister (P Chidambaram) is contrary to our federal spirit. Without a constitutional amendment, in the subject of law and order, it has taken away the lawmaking power of the states, said the BJP resolution that also quoted Modis 2009 speech.

The BJPs change of heart came five years later, after it rode to power at the Centre in 2014.

It has proposed wide-ranging amendments in the UAPA as well as the NIA act that not only give the central agency powers to probe crimes outside India but also offences such as trafficking and selling a firearm that may not necessarily be linked to a terror act.

Read | Chidambaram was unsure of NIAs constitutionality

Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Delhi-based think-tank, Institute for Conflict Management, called the amendment a creeping erosion of the states jurisdiction.

Sahni said political parties in Parliament permitted the NIA to poach on the jurisdiction of states against the backdrop of the Mumbai attacks.

But the new amendments go beyond fighting terrorism. The only way such a law should be allowed is by a constitutional amendment, or at best, a consensus among states. You cannot sneak it in like this, the counter-terrorism expert said, convinced that the NIA should first deliver on its original mandate.

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IIT Kharagpur director, registrar and other college officials were gheraoed overnight in their offices by a group of students protesting against 20% hike in hostel fee. The protest ended on Wednesday.

The decision to hike the fee was taken recently and if enacted, would be effective from January 2017.

The protests, which began on Tuesday, ended on Wednesday morning after a meeting between the students and management in which an assurance was given that their demands will be looked into.

IIT-KGP director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, registrar Pradip Pyne, the dean of students and several other senior officials were not allowed to leave their office by the students who sat at the gate last night.

We were wanting a discussion with the management over this fee hike. Kharagpur is a cheap place, but the fees are the highest across all IITs. So what is the logic behind the hike? asked one of the protesters.

The worst affected are the research scholars who get a Rs 25,000 monthly stipend from the elite institution, said the students. If the stipend is not increased, how will we pay the increased hostel fees? Within that small amount we have to manage our food and other living expenses as well, said a PhD student.

In April this year, a large number of students at IIT Kharagpur had started a peaceful protest against the HRD ministrys decision to hike fees.
As many as 21 students of a government medical college in Manjeri here have been placed under suspension for allegedly ragging their juniors, college authorities said on Wednesday.

Following a joint complaint from over 40 students of first year MBBS course, authorities took action against the pupils on Tuesday who were in their second and third year course.

The students in their complaint alleged that they were stripped naked and forced to clean toilets at the college hostel and were also compelled to drink polluted water.

A three-member committee has been constituted to conduct an inquiry, college officials said.

Read | Kerala: Two students in hospital after ragging, accused on the run

The colleges anti-ragging committee will take further action after the submission of report by the inquiry committee, they said.

The incident comes a few days after eight students of a government polytechnic college in Kottayam district were booked for allegedly ragging their juniors in the hostel.

The students, accused of ragging first year students in the hostel attached to the polytechnic, were booked early this month, police had said.

They have also been suspended from the institution at Nattakom.
Income tax officials searched Tamil Nadu chief secretary P Rama Mohana Raos residence in the Tamil Nadu capital, besides a dozen other locations, for suspected tax evasion by his son and relatives on Wednesday.

The searches are reportedly related to the departments investigation into the biggest haul of cash and gold since the Narendra Modi government launched its demonetisation drive to weed out unaccounted wealth.

However, officials refused to divulge how Rao and his relatives are linked to the investigation.

The search began early in the morning at Raos home in the upscale Anna Nagar neighbourhood, where the states senior-most bureaucrat has being living for the past seven years.

Tax sleuths conducted simultaneous searches at properties connected to Rao and his family in the state as well as neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

The AIADMK government had appointed Rao as the states top bureaucrat this June. He holds additional charge of vigilance commissioner and commissioner of administrative reforms.

Officials had seized cash to the tune of Rs 90 crore and 100 kg of gold bars on December 8, as part of a series of raids across the state capital.

The haul comprised scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes worth Rs 80 crore, while the rest of the amount was in new Rs 2,000 bills.

So far, Rs 130 crore in cash  of which Rs 34 crore was in new bills  and 177 kg of gold have been confiscated from various people.

The taxmens action gave West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, a strong critic of the demonetisation exercise, a chance to target the Centre. She said the vindictive and unethical act by central agencies devalues the institution of civil services head.

Tamil Nadu opposition leader and DMK treasurer MK Stalin called the action a disgrace to the state.

The BJP, however, defended the tax department by saying the searches prove the agency is working without discrimination.

In another development, CBI on Wednesday arrested prominent industrialist and businessman Sekhar Reddy, whose client list includes the state highways department and the public works department, along with his associate Srinivasa Reddy and their agent, Prem.

Sekhar Reddy was produced in the Madras high court in the evening and has been placed in CBI custody till January 3 for illegal money transactions.

Reddy is believed to be closely linked to senior bureaucrats in Tamil Nadu as well as the new chief minister, O Panneerselvam.

PTI, quoting CBI sources, said his links with the son of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Nadu P Rama Mohana Rao are also under the scanner of I-T department as it is believed that Reddy, a contractor, allegedly received his help to get state-wide sand mining contract.

(With agency inputs)

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Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who traces his roots to Goa, will come on a week-long visit to India next month and will attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas as the chief guest, it was announced on Tuesday.

Prime Minister of Portugal Antonio Costa will be visiting India on a state visit from January 6 to 12, 2017, on an invitation extended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

The two leaders will hold official talks on January 7 in New Delhi. During the visit PM Costa is also expected to call on the President and the Vice President.

Costa, born in 1961 in Lisbon, is the son of writer Orlando da Costa, who was of Goan, Portuguese, and French descent. His mother was Maria Antonia Palla, a Portuguese journalist.

Costa took charge as Prime Minister in November last year creating media headlines in India.

Several MoUs (memorandums of understanding) are expected to be signed during the visit that would set the agenda for India-Portugal relations going forward, the ministry statement said, adding that Costa is likely to be accompanied by several Ministers.

Prime Minister Costa will attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas, the foremost conclave of the Indian diaspora, as the chief guest in Bengaluru on January 8-9, 2017, and would also participate in few business events.

Costa, according to the statement, will also attend the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit on 10 January 2017 at Gandhinagar.

In the last leg of his visit to India, PM Costa will be in Goa on January 11-12, 2017, the statement said.

In Goa, he would be meeting the Governor and Chief Minister. PM Costa who traces his roots to Goa, will also spend some time at his ancestral place.
Indrani Mukerjea, wife of former media baron and the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, had lured her daughter under the guise of gifting her a diamond ring on the fateful day when Sheena was purportedly strangulated by Indrani with the help of her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamwar Rai.

Rai revealed this in his first statement to Khar police, saying Indrani herself told him about it.

Rai was the first one to be arrested in the 2012 murder case.

According to the prosecution, the three accused  Indrani, Rai and Khanna, had kidnapped Sheena from Bandra and strangulated her in the car on April 24, 2012 and dumped her body in a suitcase. Rai was first arrested on August 21, 2015 in a case registered under Arms Act for illegal possession of pistol.

Khar police recorded several statements of Rai during his interrogation. In a statements recorded on September 6, 2015, Rai said that in the evening of April 24, Indrani came down from her flat and asked him to take her to Bandra.

She told me that Sheena had demanded a 3-bedroom flat in Pali Hill, a car and a diamond ring from Moti Mahal. Out of which, she promised her to gift the ring that day. It is only because of that Sheena agreed to meet her, Rai claimed in his statement written in Marathi.

Rai has now turned approver and has confessed to the crime.

The CBI, which took over the case subsequently, on Wednesday submitted a bunch of statements recorded by Khar police in the trial court.

Rai has given police a detailed account of how Indrani and Khanna conspired to eliminate Sheena, and how the three of them executed the plot.

Rai said Indrani contacted him towards the end of March 2012, through her personal assistant, Kajal Sharma. Indrani spoke to him on Skype and revealed her plans to eliminate her two children  Sheena and Mikhail.

Rai has said that Indrani had asked for his help to kill Sheena and Mikhail. He said Indrani wanted to kill both of them as they were maligning her image in the society and threatened to expose her reality . Rai also said that Indrani had also mentioned to him that there were property issues as well and she was against relationship of Rahul and Sheena.

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West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday criticised the I-T raid at the residence of Tamil Nadu chief secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, saying such a vindictive and unethical act by the central agencies devalues the institution of head of the civil service.

Why this vindictive, unethical, technically improper action? Is it only to disturb the federal structure? Why do not they raid Amit Shah and others... she said in a statement.

Banerjee said corruption needs to be strongly condemned, but the raid on Tamil Nadu chief secretary by central agencies devalues the institution of head of the civil service.

The proper procedure should have been to take the state leadership into confidence and removing him from the post prior to any preemptive action, based on information, she said.

Earlier the principal secretary of Arvind Kejriwal was raided and harassed. Now I read chief secretary of Tamil Nadu has also been raided, Banerjee said.

The Income-Tax department had on Wednesday conducted searches at over a dozen locations in connection with its tax evasion probe against the son and few other relatives of Tamil Nadu chief secretary P Rama Mohana Rao.

It is understood that the official residence of the Chief Secretary in Chennai was also raided.
Indias TeamIndus will take along Japanese rival Hakutos rover on its spacecraft to the moon, where they will compete for a $25 million prize.

The US and Israeli teams are also in the race for Googles Lunar XPRIZE that requires privately funded teams to land their spacecraft on the moon, travel 500 metres and broadcast high definition video, images and data back to earth.

The TeamIndus spacecraft, in addition to the Japanese Rover, will carry its own indigenously designed and developed robotic rover, ECA -- short for Ek Chhoti si Asha (one small wish).

Team Indus won the $1-million prize in January 2015 for developing a robot that can safely land on the surface of the moon, travel 500 metres over the lunar surface, and send Mooncasts.

Earlier this month, Team Indus had inked a commercial launch contract with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the moon mission.

TeamIndus will launch the spacecraft aboard ISROs PSLV that will inject the spacecraft into an orbit 800 km above the surface of the earth.

From there on, the spacecraft will set course to the moon by switching on its own engines. After landing on the lunar surface on Mare Imbrium, both the rovers would be deployed.

Team Indus is supported by industry veterans including Ratan Tata (Tata Group), Nandan Nilekani (Infosys), Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (Flipkart) and Venu Srinivasan (TVS Group) among others.

TeamIndus can carry up to 20 kgs of payload, of which the Japanese rover is 4 kgs. In addition to that, we are carrying International University payloads and student experiments under our Lab2moon initiative, TeamIndus Jedi Master (International Sales) Sridhar Ramasubban said.

TeamIndus has already won USD 1 million under the competition for demonstrating its landing technology. Hakuto, on the other hand, won USD 500,000 Mobility Prize for the robotic rover it developed
A court in Krishnagar in West Bengal on Tuesday disposed of a rape case only 15 days after the crime was committed, making it possibly the fastest delivery of justice in a country with a backlog of millions of cases.

Both the prosecution and the judge acted with lightning speed to make it look like a judicial fairy tale.

Additional sessions judge (second court) Jimutbahan Biswas in Krishnagar,the headquarters of Nadia district in south Bengal, pronounced Bijon Sil, a 50-year old barber, guilty of sexually assaulting an 8-year old girl and sent him to five years in prison for the crime he committed on December 6.

We have never heard such a speedy trial. Both the prosecution and the judge deserve to be congratulated, Shyamal Ghosh, counsel of National Investigation Agency based in Kolkata told HT.

The crime was committed around midday and the culprit was arrested that day itself.

Police submitted the charge sheet just 72 hours later -- on December 9 and the trial began on December 12.

The judge acted with remarkable speed, finishing off a trial involving 14 witnesses by December 19. Hearings were held every day except December 18 which was a Sunday.

We took it up as a special case. Submitting charge sheet in 72 hours is the fastest I have known. It will send a message to the society and the criminals that prosecution will act fast against them, said Nadia police superintendent Sishram Jhajharia.

In the charge sheet, police slapped sections 376 (2)(i) of IPC (rape on a woman under 12 years of age) and section 10 (aggravated sexual assault) of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

At 3 pm on Tuesday, the judge announced the sentence -- five years imprisonment and Rs 10,000 fine -- and perhaps walked into the history books in the process. The judge said that the charges of rape were not applicable as penetration did not take place. Instead, charges of sexual assault were upheld.

If he failed to pay the fine, Sil has to serve three more months in jail, the judge said.

I have spent a number of years in the profession. But I have never heard that a case can be disposed off so quickly, said public prosecutor Nasiruddin Ahmed.

Sil protested his conviction. I am a cardiac patient. I am innocent and have been framed, he told the court.

Sil forced himself on the girl when she was alone in the house in Najirapara, a neighbourhood in Krishnagar.

Sil visited the house to give the girls grandfather a shave as he had been doing for some time. When he found none except the child in the house, he pounced on her.

The neighbours caught him in the act and handed him over to the police. The complaint was lodged by the grandmother of the victim.

Justice At Lightning Speed

Dec 6: Barber Bijon Sil, 50, arrested for raping 8-year old in Krishnagar

Dec 9: Police submits charge sheet

Dec 12: Trial begins

Dec 19: Trial ends, 14 witnesses deposed

Dec 20: Judge pronounces verdict and sentence

Read more | Waiting for justice: 27 million cases pending in courts, 4500 benches empty
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited Prime Minister Narendra Modis home district Mehsana on Wednesday and was addressing a public meeting.

Mehsana was the epicentre of the Patel agitation of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti of Hardik Patel.

Responding to Gandhis allegations, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said Rahul Gandhi doesnt think before he speaks.

Here are the highlights:

Rahul Gandhi has demonstrated his performance as the biggest patron of corruption: RS Prasad

Narendra Modi is as pure as Ganga and Rahul Gandhi is questioning him: RS Prasad

Rahul Gandhi wielded more power than Manmohan Singh during UPA but never spoke against corruption during that period: RS Prasad

Rahul Gandhi did not speak on corruption by his brother in law, Robert Vadra: Ravi Shankar Prasad

 Officials belonging to Sahara Corporation have noted in their diaries about nine payments made to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a six-month span when he was Gujarat chief minister. There are records of Income Tax departments raid on the company on November 22, 2014 but no action was taken thereafter. An independent inquiry must be initiated, says Gandhi.

 Gandhi once again accuses Modi of corruption. He claims according to Income Tax records, Rs 2.5 cr was given to Modi on October 30, 2015; Rs 5 cr on November 12, 2013; Rs 2.5 cr on November 27, 2013; Rs 5 cr on November 13, 2013. Entries showed Rs 5 crore was given to PM Modi on December 6, 2013; Rs 5 cr on December 19, 2013; Rs 5 cr on January 13, 2014; Rs 5cr on February 22, 2014, Gandhi claims.

 Gandhi attacks the PM on demonetisation. If 2000-rupee notes were available in ATMs, then would your money be in banks? If there wasnt any withdrawal limit,would your money be in banks? PM Modis aim is to keep your money in banks for at least 6-7 months so that he can waive off rich peoples loans

 You (PM Modi) didnt let me speak in the Parliament; you dont want to stand in front of me, I dont know why.

 Modi ji cannot bring back money taken as loans by 1% rich people and hence he is using money of poor to waive of this bad debt.

 Your (PM Modis) demonetisation move has affected Gujarats construction, engineering, textile and powerloom industries.

 When a farmer or middle-class people take loans from banks and are unable to pay, they are put behind bars, but when the same is done by rich, they are not called chor but are called defaulters.

 A farmer does not purchase his seeds by cheque or card but in cash, you (Modi) have taken away that cash from them.

 The demonetisation move was not a surgical strike on black money, it was fire-bombing on the poor.

 With this (demonetisation) move, Narendra Modi didnt target the 1% rich of the country, but the 99% poor.

 The Switzerland government has given Modiji names of black money holders. Why didnt they reveal those names? Why are the shielding them?

 Only 6% black money is in cash, 94% of the money is in real estate, gold, overseas, etc.

 All cash is not black money and all black money is not in cash.

 The Patidaars protest peacefully. But the government beat up their children and women.

 Demonetisation move wasnt made against corruption or black money. It was against the honest and poor people.

 If Narendra Modis government takes any big or small step to eradicate corruption, the Congress party will support him.
The Arunachal Naga Students Federation (ANSF) on Wednesday condemned the creation of seven new districts in Manipur which has led to communal violence in the state.

The ANSF said the Manipur government did not have any right to do so with Naga areas without consulting them.

ANSF strongly condemns the dictatorial ruling of the Manipur government on the Nagas living in Manipur.

It has no right to force them and create so many districts in Naga areas without any option or consultations, ANSF President Nokchai Boham said.

The association, representing the Nagas living in Tirap, Changlang and Longding of Arunachal Pradesh, also asked the Manipur government to respect the Nagas living in the state as good neighbours.

Instead they are playing with them in a way, and instigating the problem such that it would not have a solution, the ANSF said.

The Imphal Valley was simmering after violent protests broke out following the Congress-led governments declaration of creation of seven new districts -- Jiribam, Kangpokpi, Tengoupal, Pharzol, Kakching, Noney and Kamjongin.

A blockade was called by the Nagas to oppose the decision to create Sadar Hills and Jiribam as full-fledged districts.

The United Naga Council said it would bifurcate the ancestral lands of the Nagas living in Manipur.

United Naga Council (UNC) members holding a press conference on the present crisis in Manipur in New Delhi. (PTI)

Although, Jiribam was made a district, the same could not be done with Sadar Hills due to strong opposition.

The ANSF also said that vandalising of churches in Imphal has hurt the Naga Christians sentiments. It urged the central government to intervene in the matter immediately.

The central government has sent a 4,000 para military personnel to Manipur to bring the situation under control.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stones of four hospitals to be constructed at the cost of about Rs 1,000 crore and launch other schemes on Thursday in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi, ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The one-day trip will be his first visit to his parliamentary constituency after announcing a ban on two high-value currency notes.

His plane will land at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport at 10.35am. From the airport, he will leave for Benaras Hindu University (BHU) in a helicopter.

During a programme at BHUs Swatantrata Bhavan, Modi will lay the foundation stone of Mahamana Pt Madan Mohan Malviya Cancer Centre (Rs 500 crore) and Centenary Super Specialty Hospital (Rs 200 crore), which will be constructed on the varsity premises.

Along with patients from UP, the two hospitals will also cater to those from adjoining states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha and also ease the pressure on Sir Sundar Lal hospital, BHU.

The Prime Minister will interact with artists who will stage a play, Chanakya, as part of the ongoing Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav at BHU. He will spend about 40 minutes in the university.

After watching the play, Modi will go to Kabir Nagar where he will inspect the underground cable work being carried out under the Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) that he launched nationally from Varanasi in September 2015. Underground cable work is also in progress in other areas of the holy city.

Varanasi got Rs 572 crore under the scheme to improve its overall power supply. While launching the scheme, the PM said during his earlier visits to Varanasi he used to see dangling electric wires everywhere in the city. This scheme will be one of the efforts to make Kashi a smart city, he said.

He would also inspect the heritage lighting of Kabir Nagar under Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY).

His cavalcade will then leave for DLW Ground where the Prime Minister is scheduled to address 35,000 booth-level workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). From the dais at DLW Ground, Modi will lay the foundation stone for the 150 bed Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Super Specialty Hospital to be constructed at the cost of Rs 150 crore in Pandeypur.

Modi will lay the foundation of BRS Health and Research Institute.

He will also inaugurate the state of art trade facilitation centre and crafts museum constructed at Bada Lalpur in Varanasi. Modi laid the foundation of the TFC, a project worth Rs 200 crore over an area of eight acres, in October 2014.

Later, he will launch special schemes for weavers by the Union ministry of textile.

Modi will interact with booth level workers of the BJP. He will spend around 1 and half hours with party workers. Several Union ministers, including health minister JP Nadda, power minister Piyush Goyal, textile minister Smriti Irani and HRD minister Prakash Javadekar, are likely to accompany the PM.

Modi will fly back to Delhi at 3.05pm from Varanasi airport.

Read| UP polls: Delay in candidate announcement for all parties

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Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi alleged on Wednesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi accepted kickbacks from prominent business houses, some during his tenure as Gujarat chief minister.

Gandhis allegation, questioning the integrity of the Prime Minister who rode to power two years ago promising a corruption-free government, came a week after he said he knew about personal corruption by Modi, but didnt reveal details.

About nine payments were made to Narendra Modi within a span of six months, the Congress leader said at a rally in the Prime Ministers home state that votes for a new assembly next winter.

This has been noted by the income tax department. Modiji should answer whether it is true or false?

Speaking in front of a huge crowd in Gujarats Patidar heartland, he demanded an independent inquiry into income tax papers involving two business houses that allegedly paid Modi.

The response from the BJP was swift. Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Gandhi was trying to divert attention from the AgustaWestland scam during the UPA government.

The defeated and frustrated Rahul Gandhi is levelling these baseless charges in anger. Names of Congress leaders and his family (members) have cropped up in AgustaWestland probe. It had come up in Italy too. To divert attention from this, he is levelling such false allegations... Narendra Modi is pure like Ganga, Prasad said.

But the Congress kept up the pressure, demanding a fair probe into the allegations. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the ruling party was perturbed and they did not answer whether or not Modi took money.

Gandhi reiterated his charge that the demonetisation move was not a surgical strike against black money, but a firebomb for the honest, common people.

He asked the crowd how many of them have received Rs 15 lakh in their bank accounts as promised by Modi during his 2014 election campaign. No one, the people responded.

Modi had vowed to bring back black money stashed abroad by Indians and called the demonetisation drive a shock therapy to weed out unaccounted-for cash from the economy.

Gandhi asked the government why huge loan defaulters such as Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi have been let off the hook. Also, he sought to know why the Prime Minister has not taken action against tax dodgers having Swiss accounts, although Switzerland has handed Indian authorities a list.

The Congress leader said the demonetisation exercise was carried out to help public sector banks saddled with loan defaults by 1% rich people. When money of 99% poor will remain parked with banks for some months, these will get a chance to recover. PM Modis aim is to keep your money in banks so that he can waive off rich peoples loans.

His choice of venue to accuse Modi of corruption is significant because Mehsana is the protest epicentre of the influential Patidars or Patels, who are demanding reservation in jobs and education.

Thousands of people came from five districts in north Gujarat in buses, utility vehicles and trucks to the town and waited patiently to hear the Congress leader who turned up two hours behind schedule.

Dalits have been beaten by the Modi government. Patidars protested peacefully. But the government beat up their children and women, Gandhi said.

(With inputs from PTI)
Failing to get any clues about missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed after a two day search of the sprawling campus, Delhi police will now make 10-12 students face the lie detector test.

The Crime Branch has prepared a list of 60 questions to be asked in the test at the Forensic Science Lab (FSL) at Rohini to trace the whereabouts, if he is alive, of Najeeb, who went missing over two months ago.

Around 10-12 students have received notices from the police to join the investigation, Saurabh Sharma, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) Joint Secretary, told IANS.

At least four of them are from the Left groups and the rest belong to the ABVP (Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad), he said.

I am not sure whether those from ABVP will join the investigation as many of them are not even in town, Sharma said.

Read: 600 cops comb JNU for clues to trace missing student Najeeb Ahmad

He said two ABVP members and JNU students -- Vikrant and Ankit -- were contacted by police on phone and asked to join the investigation.

Vikrant and Ankit are two of the students found guilty of beating Najeeb just before he disappeared on October 15. The ABVP has denied any involvement in Najeebs disappearance.

Another student, Qasim, who was Najeebs roommate, was taken to the FSL by police and briefed about the impending interrogation.

They just briefed me on the situation. They told me to be prepared and be clear in my mind about the sequence of the events and be able to recall them, Qasim told IANS.

They didnt tell me when the lie detector test will take place. I was the only one taken there today, he added.

Some students who have left the campus during the Christmas holiday will also get notices to appear in the lie detector test, a police officer said.

We are prepared for any interrogation, Mujeeb, Ahmeds cousin, told IANS.

Some 1,000 police personnel mounted a two-day search on Monday and Tuesday in the sprawling JNU campus in south Delhi to get clues about Najeeb.

Najeebs family is critical of the police operation, which followed a order from the Delhi High Court.

Ahmed, 27, went missing after a brawl on the night of October 14 with a few activists of the ABVP, the RSS student wing.

Read: Cops complete search operation in JNU but Najeeb still missing

Najeeb was last seen at the campus main gate while hiring an auto-rickshaw to reportedly go to Jamia Millia Islamia campus.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi stirred a political storm on Wednesday, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of taking Rs 52 crore from two corporate houses when he was Gujarat chief minister, a charge rubbished by the ruling BJP.

Asserting that Modi is pure as Ganga, the ruling party said Gandhi was trying to divert attention from the VVIP chopper scam in which his familys name has cropped up, a charge the Congress rebutted.

Gandhis allegations came a week after he claimed at a press conference that he was not being allowed to speak in Parliament because he had proof of personal corruption of the PM, which, if he was allowed to present, would cause an earthquake.

At a hurriedly convened press conference, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad dismissed the charges against Modi as false, baseless, shameless and malafide.

The Congress did not spare the sky, space, land, under the land and even sea in corruption. Rahul, who is on bail in the Rs 5,000-crore National Herald case, is now questioning Modi who is pure like Ganga, he said.

Asked if the PM would take legal recourse against Gandhi for defaming him, Prasad said the party had more faith in the people of India. People have stopped giving TRP to Rahul. Media should also think, he said.

The minister called Gandhi a patron of corruption who was trying to divert attention from the familys role in the VVIP chopper deal case.

Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala addressed a press conference later to back Gandhis charge, saying if such allegations had surfaced against any other Indian, there would have been a CBI investigation.

He said the office of a corporate house was raided in October 2013 and an email recovered from the laptop of a top official of that company had entries of payments to Modi. It was a joint operation by the income tax and the CBI and the former initiated a probe.

I-T department requested for all the papers from the CBI. CBI refused. I-T department then went to the SC, which asked for all documents to be furnished, Surjewala said.

Delhi chief minister Kejriwal demanded that the Prime Minister resign like LK Advani did after his name figured in Jain Hawala diary.

Supreme Court should take suo motu cognizance of the matter and set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) with all powers to probe the charges against Modi, he said.

Rahul Gandhi mustered the courage today. Congress is following us, the AAP leader said.

Serious charges of indulging in personal-political corruption while sermonising against black money-corruption is Modis trademark hypocrisy, tweeted Left leader Sitaram Yechury.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has chosen Mehsana, the epicentre of the Patidar quota agitation that rocked the BJP government, to kick-start his partys campaign with just a year to go before Gujarat holds its assembly elections.

Gandhi will address a public rally in Mehsana on Wednesday, a week before over 1,000 gram panchayats go to elections.

Here are five things expected from Gandhis Wednesday rally:

1. The Patidar hub in north Gujarat saw the community, a key vote bank for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, launch an agitation last year for reservation benefits in college admissions and government jobs. As a result, the BJP lost its hold in the countryside in local body elections held in November 2015.

2. Though Gandhi will be speaking in the hotbed of the Patel agitation, he is likely to skip the quota issue in his address and focus mostly on demonetisation and farmers problems. The assessment within the Congress is that the note ban will hit the BJP hard as the people continue to face severe hardships due to the cash crunch, more than a month after Modi announced the decision on November 8.

3. Gandhis rally comes a fortnight after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a farmers gathering in the same district, where he accused the Opposition of not allowing him to speak in Parliament over demonetisation.

4. Mehsana is Modis home district. It is also the economic hub of north Gujarat, where Congress has a stronghold. While one-fourth of its MLAs belong to the region, it wrested five districts and 27 taluka panchayats from the BJP in the November 2015 elections held in the backdrop of Patidar agitation.

5. The rally is being seen as the beginning of the Congress mobilisation for the assembly elections scheduled for December 2017.

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The Reserve Bank of India partially reversed a controversial rule on Wednesday that restricted people from depositing over Rs 5000 in old banknotes more than once till December 30. The relaxation will, however, only apply to fully KYC compliant accounts.

The move is the latest in a series of alteration of rules pertaining to banks after the government recalled high-value bills.

People on social media are having a laugh after the RBIs latest announcement.

Hey Gorment, why not use Uber Surge model for deposits? Abhi Itna, counter tak pahunchey toh Itna. #rbimoodswings #DeMonetisation  Abhishek Gureja (@AbhishekGureja) December 21, 2016

Earlier: RESERVE BANK OF INDIA



New normal: REVERSE BANK OF INDIA

#RBIMoodSwings  Nick Scamander (@mhanthung) December 21, 2016

The Reserve Bank of India had on Monday announced that deposits above Rs 5,000 in scrapped currency notes can be made only once till December 30.

One particular clause - any deposit of over Rs 5,000 will be subject to questioning by two bank officials, who have to be given a satisfactory explanation for why the old notes were not deposited earlier - drew a ton of ire from citizens on social media..

Former Aam Aadmi Party leader, Yogendra Yadav tweeted an image of a hand-written note he gave to his bank for as explaination for making a small deposit. The note read, I was assured by the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and the RBI that there was no need to rush to the banks and that I had till 30th December for making any deposit. I believed them.

This is the "explanation" I have given my bank for making a small deposit today. Pl retweet if you agree pic.twitter.com/v1JyhpADZ3  Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) December 20, 2016

Like Yadav, others cited the governments official statements as their satisfactory explanation to the banks.

As promised. Wish HDFC gave us more space to write more pic.twitter.com/yXD5Dd1PNV  Raveesh Bhalla (@raveeshbhalla) December 20, 2016

The Govt. is asking me why I didn't deposit cash all this while. pic.twitter.com/EiscuRXH0G  Sunit Singh (@surdattack) December 20, 2016

People also pointed out that the sudden rule change looks worse after the governments extensive advertising campaigns asking people to not rush to the banks.

Jaldi Kaisi? Ad on back of a DTC bus on Mathura Road, clicked this morning en route to office. Please show to bank manager for explanation pic.twitter.com/nNnAvHgTn2  Lesley Esteves (@LesleyEsteves) December 20, 2016

Banks had also put out notices earlier assuring customers that their money was safe and the they have till December 30th to make the deposits.

Can I use this as the reason for why I didn't deposit my money earlier? Because my bank said so? #DeMonetisation pic.twitter.com/8HggAuPlWN  thewisecrab (@thewisecrab) December 20, 2016

The new rules havent completely sapped out humour.

Went to deposit more than 5k and two bank officials questioned me -

Same question - Yaar koi 'non-banking' job dilwa sakte ho?????  Madhuchhanda Bose (@madhuchhanda11) December 20, 2016
Anil Bokil, the man who gave the idea of demonetisation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday said the Rs 2,000 note was only a stopgap arrangement and it would be withdrawn once availability of cash normalises in banks.

Addressing a gathering at a business school in Patna, Bokil, a mechanical engineer by profession and an activist batting for financial reforms, said the Rs 2,000 notes were only serving as a diversion to allow the government to build an overbridge in place of the road damaged by black money. It will be closed once the overbridge is complete, he added.

The social activist from Aurangabad in Maharashtra, however, warned that the governments bid to encourage cashless economy would yield positive results only if the tax system is revamped, offering huge incentives to the people.

Dismissing the perception that the demonetisation move would have little impact in unearthing black money, which is perceived to be about 6% in cash of the total currency, Bokil said it was a wrong notion being fanned by political parties.

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Twelve Indian fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in their territorial waters.

The arrest comes a day after Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam asked the Centre to send a firm message to the island nation over continued apprehension of the states fishermen.

On Tuesday, seven persons from Pudukottai district were detained for allegedly fishing in their waters and taken to Kangesanthurai Port, along with their boats.

Three groups of fishermen from Pamban near here were arrested last night by the naval men for fishing off Thalaimannar and were detained at the police station there, fisheries department officials said today.

Twenty fishers who had set out for fishing from Pamban in two mechanised boats and a country boat were rounded up by the Lankan authorities while they were fishing in the south sea using the banned fishing nets, Rameswaram Fisheries Department Assistant Director, Gopinath said.

While fishermen in one of the boats managed to get away in their boat, twelve others were caught and taken to Sri Thalaimannar, Lanka, he said.

In his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Panneerselvam had said that a permanent solution to the fishermens issue would be in restoring Indias sovereignty over Katchatheevu islet.

It is the consistent stand of the government of Tamil Nadu that a permanent solution to this vexatious problem faced by our fishermen will be possible only by restoring Indias sovereignty over Katchatheevu by securing the right to fish in traditional waters, he had said.
Children and other close younger relatives of political heavyweights of the two major parties  Congress and the BJP - in Uttarakhand are itching to plunge into the electoral battle in the upcoming assembly polls.

Leading this trend are chief minister Harish Rawats two sons and daughter. But thats causing heartburn among party faithful.

Former chief minister BC Khanduris daughter, Ritu, is eyeing the Karnaprayag constituency, while former minister Matbar Kandari is batting for a ticket for his nephew, Vinod, from Devprayag.

We are workers and ready to serve the party in any capacity. I see nothing wrong in this, said Kandari junior.

In the Congress families of the hill state, the quest for tickets for children is not new. In the run up to the 2012 assembly polls, top leaders including Rawat had sought tickets for their children.

Rawats daughter, Anupama wants to contest from Haridwar rural constituency next year. She has been active in the constituency for some time. She is among 22 women seeking tickets from 16 seats.

But Anupama has an uphill task in this constituency which elected a BJP nominee in the previous elections.

Besides, the 2012 runners-up Irshad Ali of the Congress is in no mood to let go off a turf he had nursed for five years.

The CM has told me I shouldnt claim a ticket this time, he said. The miffed politician refused to become vice-chairman of the weaver commission which is equivalent to a ministerial position when it was offered to him.

One of Rawats son, Virendra, has set his eyes on two constituencies  Khatima and Didihat  which are currently with the BJP.

Second son Anand, a former state unit president of the Youth Congress, has yet to choose his battleground but has been active in two assembly segments  Kedarnath and Mussoorie.

As a Congress worker I wish to contest. It depends on the party leadership whether they consider me or not, he said on Tuesday.

The Rawat familys push has not gone down well with the Congress rank and file with sate unit president Kishore Upadhyay issuing a reminder that the party favours a one family, one ticket policy.

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The decision of Devi Ahilya Vishwavidhyala (DAVV) to appoint Rajnish Jain as director of Institute of Management Studies (IMS) has invited allegations that seniority norms have been overlooked.

The university has, reportedly, put the appointment on hold after department of higher education intervened in the matter unofficially.

It is to be mentioned that, university appointed Jain as director on Monday evening in place of Prof PN Mishra under its rotation policy. While appointing Jain, the university did not consider two professors, namely Rajiv Gupta and Jayant Sonwalkar, in the same department who are senior to Jain. As per rotation rule, Gupta is the first claimant to the post and Sonwalkar second.

The higher education department was forced to intervene in the matter albeit unofficially after news regarding this was published on Tuesday.

According to university sources, principal secretary (higher education) Ashish Upadhayaya called upon the university administration and directed them to stick to seniority policy while rotating headship.

Sources added that after Upadhyayas call, the university withheld orders on Jains appointment and sought in writing from both the senior professors that they are unwilling to take up directorship of IMS. No one has given this in writing to vice-chancellor (V-C) Narendra Kumar Dhakad so far.

As per rules, an HoD can remain at his office for a period of three years. However, the V-C can revise that period at his will. Earlier, Dhakad said that the appointment has been made as Mishra had completed his three years in office.
All district education offices and government schools in Madhya Pradesh will now gift books to chief guests of functions they conduct, instead of flower bouquets.

The Directorate of Public Instructions (Lok Shikshan Sanchanalaya) has issued directions to all district education officers of the state to invest the amount currently being used for buying flowers in purchase of informative books.

However, the Indore education department has been following this practice for long, although a formal circular regarding the new decision was issued only recently.

Akshay Singh Rathore, district project cordinator (DPC) said, Both school education minister Vijay Shah and minister of state for school education Deepak Joshi had always maintained that we welcome them with books instead of flowers. The order must be new for many, but in Indore, we have been following this for long. We present books to our guests as a token of love in all our functions.

The decision was taken after the department believed that the money being put in to buying flowers would eventually go waste and that books would be a better replacement. We often welcome guests with flowers, but that is nothing more than wasting money because flowers are eventually disposed off after they wither. So why not gift a book instead? Books are informative and stay with you forever, said Rathore.
Ahead of Swachh Survekshan2017, Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has put cleanliness drives, sanitation and solid waste management on utmost priority. All corporation officials and staff were asked not to take leave until the survey is done.

Swachh Survekshan2017 will evaluate 500 cities across India on different cleanliness parameters in January.

At a recent general meeting of the civic body, mayor Malini Gaud expressed her ambitions to secure top place.

Starting at 5 am, civic body officials, including the municipal commissioner, take to streets to check open defecations followed by door-to-door garbage collection.

IMC commissioner Manish Singh said: Throughout the year, we had conducted meetings with businesses, students, voluntary groups, NGOs and public representatives about cleanliness drives and mass awareness campaigns. You will find a sea-change in garbage littering scenario in the city.

He said barring a few locations, most of the places where heaps of garbage could be seen at any time of the day earlier were now clean.

Earlier, the corporation put big garbage containers at several places hoping that residents and garbage collectors will dump their waste in them.

We had often seen that garbage is littered in the entire area near these containers. Over a period of time, the entire area stinks and it gets difficult to walk past such area. We had to get away with this, the commissioner said.

Hence, we decided to remove them and start door-to-door garbage collection so that the waste is not littered on roads, he said.

The corporation has focused on strengthening public toilet infrastructure, too. Over a period of last 15-18 months, it claims to have constructed 12,110 toilets in households, renovated over 195 public and community toilets and constructed 61 new public toilets in the city.

Securing a good position in the survey is very important as it will be taken into consideration by the Centre while allocating funds to a civic body, a corporation official said requesting anonymity.

In Swachh Survekshan-2016, Indore secured 25th position with 1,226 out of 2,000 points.

IMC LEAVES NO STONES UNTURNED

Door to door garbage collection started in all 85 municipal wards

More than 250 garbage tipper vehicles costing about Rs 15 crore introduced in entire city for garbage collection

IMC incurs about Rs 1.25 lakh per month in every ward towards door-to-door garbage collection

If 100% user charges are appropriated, the system can generate about Rs 1.5 lakh revenue per month from every ward

Constructed 12,110 individual household toilets

Renovated 195 old public and community toilets and set up 61 new public toilets
At a time when the population of fishing cats  the state animal of West Bengal  is dwindling, mostly because of loss of habitat and retaliatory killings by man, residents of around 18 villages in Howrah have stepped in to save these animals from extinction.

Villagers of Amta in Howrah have pooled in funds to raise goats in the villages.

The goats would be given to the families as compensation whenever a goat is killed by a fishing cat. This move is expected to stop the villagers from killing fishing cats in retaliation.

Villagers have accumulated funds to buy pregnant goats which have been donated to these 20 families. The calves would be kept as a stock to be donated to villagers who may lose goats to attacks by fishing cats, said Tiasa Adhya, a member of the International Fishing Cat Working Group.

Fishing cats that inhabit the marshlands of Howrah, are often known to stray into villages and kill poultry and goats as their habitats are fast vanishing.

In retaliation, villagers kill the fishing cats. While marshlands have declined by more than 40% in West Bengal, experts said that nearly two dozen fishing cats were killed in the state since 2014.

The current known global fishing cat strongholds are Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, West Bengal in India and the Terai-Dooars belt of the Himalayan foothills in India and Nepal.

Habitat loss along with the killing of fishing cats have led to a global population decline of the cat by around 30% in the past 15 years. It is expected to decline by another 30% in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta over the next two decades.

The villagers have also formed a committee that would inspect the carcass whenever a goat is killed. The committee would decide whether the goat has been actually killed by a fishing cat before giving the compensation, said Adhya.

The state forest department pays compensation to villagers whenever they suffer losses because of man-animal conflict including deaths, injuries and damage to property.

But the process is cumbersome and such compensations are hard to get. So we have decided to come up with our own compensatory model, said Pankaj Modak, a villager.

Villagers said that while on one hand some of the calves would go out as compensation, the rest would provide livelihood to poor farmers who are rearing them.

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An IAS officer from Bengal has lodged a complaint with the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) against budget carrier Indigo for missing his flight from Delhi to Kolkata over packing a power bank in his check-in baggage.

He put the device in his registered baggage, but airline officials told him that he and his wife couldnt board the flight even after they were issued boarding passes and had cleared security checks.

Nikhil Nirmal, the additional district magistrate of Burdwan, and his wife offered to take it out from the baggage and carry in the cabin bags, but the crew refused and said the flight had taken off.

The incident happened on December 10 and Nirmal lodged a complaint four days later. Indigo did not respond to repeated queries from HT. We are conducting a probe, said a DGCA official.

The couple stayed back at New Delhi airport and had to buy tickets for Jet Airways for around Rs 70,000. He was on an official visit, but paid for the tickets from his own pocket. It was an emergency and I had to rush back to Kolkata, said Nirmal.

The couple was booked on a Delhi-Kolkata flight scheduled to leave at 4.55 pm on December 10. They reached the airport, checked in and collected the boarding passes on time. When they were waiting at a boarding gate, airline officials asked them to go to the baggage X-ray machine as they were carrying a power bank which is prohibited in check-in baggage.

Before the problem was resolved, we were informed that the flight had taken off. Airline officials refused any alternative accommodation saying that officially we had not appeared in front of the boarding gate after collecting the boarding passes, said Nirmal.

They were also reluctant to reimburse the fare for the Jet Airways flight that I had to book. I shelved out around Rs 70,000 for the new tickets and waited for 12 hours at the airport running from pillar to post to retrieve my power bank that was confiscated in the meantime, said Nirmal.

An airline official told HT if a boarding pass is issued, flights usually wait for such minor accommodation. Even if Indigo wanted to maintain punctuality, it could have accommodated the couple in a later flight, he said.

Nirmal and his wife also had a tough time getting back the power bank confiscated by the airline.
A 28-year-old woman was found hanging after only a week into her marriage at Baguihati in Kolkata, police said on Tuesday.

Kajol Das, married to Linton Das of Baguihati a week ago, was declared dead at a hospital on Monday, police said.

The victims family members alleged the girl was killed by her husband and in-laws as her parents failed to pay the dowry of Rs 10 lakh.

My sister was killed. We saw bruise marks in her dead body. It seems her husband and in-laws tortured her for not getting the demanded dowry of Rs 10 lakh, the victims sister said.

Police arrested the husband and both in-laws, as per the complaint lodged by the girls family.

Victims husband, father-in-law Narayan Das and mother-in-law Krishna Das were held on the charge of rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide (ICP 304). They would be produced in the Barasat court on Tuesday, an officer from Baguihati police station said.

The real reason of death can be ascertained only after we get the autopsy report, he added.
With one eye on the civic polls, the standing committee members of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), led by chairman and Shiv Sena corporator Yashodhar Phanse, approved 71 expenditure proposals amounting to around Rs1,000 crore within 40 minutes on Wednesday.

On an average, the standing committee meeting, which is held every week, gets up to 30 proposals for approvals and not all are approved after discussions.

The elected representatives had listed 74 proposals in the single meeting and had allotted a discussion time of 40 minutes for all of them.

A majority of this time was spent discussing three proposals, which were eventually put on hold.

In a tearing hurry before the election code of conduct sets in, the committee cleared the Rs34 crore proposal for the appointment of a consultant for the ambitious coastal road without any discussion.

The costliest Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link road proposal worth Rs455 crore was also cleared without any questions or doubts from the ruling Sena-BJP and the Opposition.

This is not the first time the BMC has hastily tabled proposals and sought clearances. In August 2014, the BMC had cleared proposals worth Rs850 crore in 90 minutes without any discussion, just before the code of conduct for the Assembly elections.

Before the last civic elections (2012) too, the standing committee, led by Shiv Sena corporator Rahul Shewale, had cleared 30 proposal and 87 proposals worth Rs600 crore each in only two meetings.

Citizen activists have slammed the corporators attitude. This is nothing but a last-minute rush to utilise funds before they lapse and appease voters by making false promises, said Nikhil Desai, a citizen activist from Dadar.

After the approvals, however, the elected representative spent 30 minutes alleging the civic body did not allow them to buy dustbins from their discretionary fund, because many were afraid the funds will get over before the code of conduct and will be unusable thereafter.

Read

12,000 objections to DP in Mumbai, but only 3,400 turn up for hearings

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The Bombay High Court on Wednesday rejected a Pakistani nationals plea for long-term visa extension. The man has been staying in India for 49 years now and his parents are of Indian origin.

The court has also ordered an inquiry into how the central government has been issuing him long term visas (LTV) for so many years when the man has neither an Indian nor a Pakistani passport.

The man, Asif Karadia, has been living in India, earning a living by working at a local restaurant, paying taxes, and has ID proof such as an Aadhar card, a ration card, a PAN card, and even a voter ID card. He, however, has no passport and is facing deportation since his last application for LTV extension was rejected and he was asked to submit a copy of his Pakistani passport.

Karadia however, has no Pakistani passport or any other valid identity documents issued by the Pakistani government because he was born in Karachi and brought to India by his mother when he was a just a few days old and has stayed here since.

Karadias father and mother were born in Gujarat before Partition, and his wife and his three children are all Indian citizens.

Karadia has applied for an Indian citizenship seven times but has failed to get a response. His last application is currently pending hearing before the Union government.

He thus, approached the HC through his counsel advocate Sujay Kantawala, seeking that the deportation notice against him be stayed, and his LTV be extended till the government decides on his citizenship application.

Kantawala also argued that Karadia was entitled to an Indian citizenship by virtue of descent, registration, and by the principle of naturalisation, all provided for in the Indian Citizenship Act.

A division bench of Justice AS Oka and Justice Anuja Prabhudessai, however, held that even if a person is entitled to an Indian citizenship, he or she cannot, at any given time, be authorised to reside in the country without valid papers.

In fact, we are surprised to know that even though the petitioner has no passport, he claims that the government of India had earlier granted him LTV and extended the same from time to time. This needs to be investigated, the bench said.

HC is likely to take up the matter for further hearing on January 9, next year.

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Schools and parents are opposed to the Central Board of Secondary Educations (CBSE) recent decision to increase weightage for the written test to 80% from 20% and introduce the three-language formula  which doesnt include any foreign language  for Class 10 exams. The board had announced on Tuesday that the optional Class 10 exams will be made mandatory again from the next academic session, 2018.

As of now, schools carry out formative assessments  in the form of projects, activities and practical exams  throughout the year and the biannual summative exams  testing students on what they have learnt by the end of the semesters.

But now teachers are worried that increasing focus on the written exams at the end of the year will turn students into rote learners. The three -language formula  which will require schools to teach Hindi, English and another language listed in schedule VIII of the Constitution of India  will be tough on those studying foreign languages for the last several years, teachers said.

Calling the move regressive, teachers plan to write to the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) to reconsider its decision. Students will go back to studying only for exams if we give too much importance to written exams, said Deepshika Srivastava, principal, Rajhans Vidyalaya, Andheri.

The CBSEs move has defeated the purpose of the compulsory comprehensive evaluation (CCE), which encouraged year-round assessments in various forms, Srivastava said, adding, The formative assessments went beyond just testing the writing skills of students. It allowed us to test their multiple intelligences.

If this is implemented by 2018, the current batch of Class 9 students will need to master one new language in less than a year, said Raj Aloni, principal of Ram Sheth Thakur Public School, Kharghar.

Parents complained that the three-language formula will force students to take up Sanskrit or a regional language. Its going to be difficult for students who have probably taken French as their third language and will depend on how schools implement the change, said a parent from Podar International School (CBSE), Powai. Another parent added, The CBSE cant force students to take up Sanskrit. We want students to opt for global languages, which will help them in their careers.

READ

Want to study a foreign language at CBSE school? You may have to take 3 more

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The Maharashtra anti-corruption bureau (ACB) has recommended the closure of the chikki scam case against state women and child development minister Pankaja Munde for alleged irregularities in awarding contracts for materials worth Rs206 crore for school children

ACB sources confirmed they have sent the closure report to the state government.

Read: Rs 206cr chikki scam: Did Mundes ministry flout norms?

Earlier, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant had filed a complaint with the ACB, alleging that Mundes ministry had, on her orders, flouted rules and favoured certain companies when awarding contracts worth Rs206 crore in February.

Read: Nothing wrong with chikki samples, says Pankaja Munde

The complaint further read that dubious contracts awarded through 24 government resolutions (GR) were for the purchase of food items and other materials, ostensibly for children in rural and tribal areas. Munde had denied allegations, saying they were part of a conspiracy to malign her image.

Among these was a contract to supply chikki, which was awarded allegedly without due process to one Suryakanta Mahila Audyogik Sanstha (SMAS) for a whopping Rs113 crore. The contract quotes a price of Rs285 per kg of chikki, even though other groups had allegedly quoted Rs127 per kg.

Read: Will submit proof of chikki scam to ACB, says Congress

Significantly, the department responsible for awarding contracts had opposed the contract to SMAS in April 2013. Radhika Rastogi, then industries development commissioner, had categorically said the contract should be awarded only by inviting tenders.

Two other GRs among the 24 were for the purchase of the same items  electronic physio-growth monitors (EPGM), which are used to track the health of malnourished children. Two contractors, Sai Hightech Products and Nitiraj Engineers, both from north Maharashtra, were awarded the contract for Rs6 crore and Rs18 crore.
In the past three months, Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children, Parel, one of the biggest treatment facilities for children in the city, has reported four cases of chikungunya in newborns. At least five more such cases have been reported across the city.

The infection is very rare in newborns, which is why many of the cases were not detected at the first go, said doctors. They said the babies may have contracted the infection from their mothers, who carried the infection during pregnancy. The diseases effect on newborns is far more severe than on adults, doctors warned.

After the newborns were diagnosed, we found out that the mothers had fever, joint and muscle pains during the pregnancy. In one of the cases, even the mothers PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test was positive, said said Dr Neha Mehta, who was treated the children at Wadia Hospital. A PCR test, in which selected sections of DNA or RNA are reproduced for analysis, is used to detect various infections, including chikungunya.

Chikungunya is a viral infection transmitted to humans by mosquitoes that also transmit diseases such as dengue and yellow fever. While the symptoms are easy to spot in adults, they are difficult to detect in babies, said doctors. However, doctors said that in all the cases, the children had peculiar hyperpigmentation around their mouth and nose. The rash like hyper pigmentation is suggestive of chikungunya infection, said a doctor from LTMG Sion Hospitals neonatology department.

These babies were crying continuously, had prolonged fever and heavy breathing. Once we ruled out bacterial infection, we did the PCR test for chikungunya and the results were positive, said Dr Mehta. She added the all the cases were from Mumbai, which shows that chikungunya transmission is active in the city.

A six-day old baby at Surya Hospital in Santa Cruz had joint swelling, convulsions and heavy breathing. An examination of his brain fluid suggested that he developed encephalitis  inflammation of the brain.

Dr Sudha Rao, paediatric endocrinologist at Wadia Hospital, said that the surge in the number of cases this year, both in adults and newborns, could mean there was a different strain of the chikungunya virus, but this needed to be confirmed.

Doctors warned that chikungunya infection in newborns could cause much more severe problems than in adults, and that there is no cure for the disease. No anti-viral drugs are available for to cure chikungunya infections and only the symptoms of the infection can be treated.

Chikungunya infection in children could lead to problems in brain development and severe breathing problems, said Dr Bhupendra Avasthi at Surya Hospital.

Studies have shown that women who are infected with the chikungunya virus during their pregnancy also have a higher risk of miscarriage, he added.
A firefighter sustained injuries in a major blaze that broke out in the Badalpura chawl, Byculla, on Tuesday night. One Shiba Shah, 19,also suffered from smoke inhalation. They have been admitted to Nair Hospital, fire officials said.

The fire broke out at 10.20 pm and spread to 50-60 structures, including scrap godowns, shops and residential units. The firemen said there were three cylinder blasts which also led to the collapsing of a few structures. Two leaking cylinders have been handed over to the company.

Fourteen fire engines, nine water tankers and two ambulances were at the spot to control the fire.

Chief fire officer Prabhat Rahangdale said, Vehicles parked on both sides of the road caused a lot of problem for the brigade to reach the spot.

The incident occurred on the Megharaj Shetty Marg, behind the E ward office of BMC, in Byculla.

The fire was brought under control by around 2am on Wednesday.

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The Byculla police on Tuesday questioned two women over the death of a five-year-old child who mysteriously fell from the corridor outside her 15th floor flat at Byculla. The two women and the childs parents are neighbours, who fought a couple of times over difference issues.

The questioning is based on the suspicion raised by the girls father, Ashok Ingale, the police said. Her mother, Aarti, is a traffic constable.

The two women and Ingale stay on the same floor. On several occasions, they have fought over household matters. One of the women has even filed complaint against him after they fought over a petty issue. While with the second women, the two fought over some household issue. The second woman also had run-ins with Manavis family, said an officer.

However the police are trying to gather evidence against the two before taking any action.

We have no witness or evidence against the women. We are inquiring with other residents of the building, added an officer.

Manvi fell from the common gallerys window at New Hind Mill, MHADA colony, at 1pm on Monday. The child was in the junior kindergarten at Bycullas Gloria School . She is said to have fallen off after she was dressed and ready to leave for the school.Doctors declared her dead on arrival. Her mother was in the office when she was informed.

We have got CCTV footage of the ground where the girl can be seen falling. Had there been a CCTV camera on the 15th floor, the case would have been solved by now, an official said.

Senior police inspector Avinash Shingte from Byculla police station said, We have not arrested anyone till now, as we are trying to gather evidence. The two women are being questioned but we are not ruling out any possibility and are investigating from every angle.

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A fire broke out in a shut company in the MIDC area of Digha in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday morning, causing damage to the assets in the compound. No casualty has been reported. The value of the lost assets is being worked out.

According to the police, the fire broke out at Amrico Private Limited at 10 am. Fire brigade officials reached the spot within a few minutes and doused the flames within two hours.

Some people of the area spotted the fire and informed fire brigade officials. Interestingly, this was the third fire accident in the same company in the past four months.

The company has been shut for the past several years now and no one enters the premises. There is no power connection in the company and hence there is no possibility of electronic short circuit, said a police officer of Rabale MIDC police station.

The company has stored some clothes and papers on the first and the ground floor. Also, the compound is full of dry grass. Probably, some people went to steal something from the building and they threw burning cigarettes which may have caused the fire, he said.

According to the police, the fire broke out at Unbrako Private Limited at 10 am. Some people of the area spotted the fire and informed the fire brigade officials.

The company has been shut for the past several years now and no one enters the premises. Therefore, we are clueless about the reason behind the fire, said a police officer of Rabale MIDC police station.

The police ruled out the possibility of short circuit.

We had tried to reach out to the owner when the fire broke out there just a few weeks ago too. But we could not trace him. We are still trying to find him out. Thus we have no idea about the damage of property in the accident, another police officer said.

We will investigate the matter to find out if some anti-social elements set the building on fire with vested interests, he added.

READ

Fire in Mumbais Air India building; no casualty

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The Cuffe Parade police are looking for the 22-year-old driver of a Mercedes car for crashing into two police constables on a bike and then fleeing the spot.

The incident took place near Cooperage ground around 11pm on Monday, when the two constables were heading home.

Ramchandra Lokhande, 48, a resident of the Worli police quarters and Nitin Chavan,32, a Naigaon resident, work with the Cuffe Parade police station. They were rushed to Bombay Hospital after the incident. The constables have multiple fractures.

The driver panicked, left the car at the spot and fled. The police have been able to trace its owner.

We have recovered the car. Using the registration number and the documents recovered from the car, we traced the owner, a retired businessman, said an officer with the Cuffe Parade police station. The owner came to the police station and after recording his statement, he was allowed to leave.

The police have identified the accused as Vishal Naik, 22. At the time of the accident, Naik was with a few of his friends, all of whom fled.

We are trying to trace him, and through his call data record we have learnt he is near Gujarat. The accused arrived in the city two years ago. He was driving bullock carts before his current job, said the officer.

Cuffe Parade police have registered a case.
The underworlds influence on Mumbai is waning; there are fewer gangs in the city; and the Mumbai polices crime branch has departments that seem to have outlived their purpose.

Officially called the Detection Crime Branch (DCB), this famed wing of the Mumbai police that grew by size and function during its existence for more than five decades, is now planning to redefine some of its functions.

We are recalibrating the roles of some of our specialised units. Others will be merged and given new duties, a top crime branch official told HT, not wishing to be named.

The change was long due, say sources.

Over the years, the crime branch had created specialised units, each with well-defined mandates for instance, when extortion threats and ransom demands from underworld outfits reached a peak during the late 1990s, the Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) was created. Similarly, the Motor Vehicle Theft Unit (MVTU), the Property Cell, Anti-Chain snatching Squad (ACS) and the Anti-Robbery Squad (ARS) were all created with specific targets in mind.

And, they all had enviable records.

The Property Cell, set up in 2003, was credited with rounding up the entire Indian Mujahideen (IM) cell in 2008-09. The Anti-Robbery Squad (ARS) set up around the same time dealt a body blow to some notorious robbery syndicates such as the Katta Shekhar gang, the Nadar Gang and gangs of nomadic tribes known to execute violent robberies  under the tutelage of the late senior inspector Vijay Salaskar.

Following the elimination and arrests of many of the top bosses, however, department insiders said the underworld has lost its striking capability and major robbery and dacoit syndicates have been crippled.

Its a futuristic move, aimed at bringing about clarity in how these units function where work has become scant. After all, we have to change with time, said another crime branch official, requesting anonymity.

The plan will be implemented in phases: the MVTU, ACS and ARS are likely to be merged into one unit to deal with the robber and dacoit syndicates, the Property Cell has been asked to go after counterfeit Indian currency syndicates and investigate major property cases.

There has been a significant drop in the number of chain snatching and vehicle theft cases after the installation of CCTV cameras. robbery cases too have seen a sharp decline. There seems to be no need to maintain separate units now, another crime branch official told HT.

READ:Police staff crunch will be resolved by March

Instead, a cohesive unit that will now be formed will handle all kinds of street crimes, the official said. This way, they will be in a position to prepare a comprehensive databank on street crime syndicates and update information on the wanted members and those facing trial.

With extortion threats from underworld gangs having dropped drastically in the past couple of years (just about 16 calls in 2015; half that number so far this year), staff at the colossal unit of over 30 officers have been asked to prepare records on extortionists and compile every minute information on those currently on bail or facing trial. Five or six years ago, the AEC handled 8-10 extortion cases every month, and the unit functioned strictly as a field unit.

Joint commissioner of police, crime, Sanjay Saxena, said the proposed rearrangement exercise is to create a mechanism to deal with organised crime in the future.

We should be prepared to prevent the mafia upsurge in the future. Underworld gangs may have been lying low for now. But they might try to raise their head again after some time, he added.

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Its after midnight. Dozens of young men line up with their bikes along the western express highway  some alone, some with a pillion rider, still others riding triples. And then, they begin. Zipping past the light traffic, racing and doing stunts between Bandra reclamation and Kherwadi.

The racing and stunts, according to the police, have made this a lethal stretch. To bring down the number of deaths, the Bandra police have started cracking down on rogue bikers who have converted the highway into their personal racing track  not the first such crack down, but a necessary one in the wake of repeated fatal accidents, including the Sunday night incident that killed one biker near the sea link.

This month alone, the police have registered 17 cases against bikers for speeding at night and have seized their bikes. Officials said the men raced on pretty standard bikes, usually Pulsars and KTMs. A former racer told HT the races usually take place on Mondays and Saturdays. Some bikers race for money, between Rs5,000 and Rs25,000 a race. But many simply enjoy the thrill.

We have intensified checkpoints between Friday and Sunday at spots that bikers frequent, said P Thakare, senior inspector at Bandra police station. Officials said the checkpoints were put up over the weekend as there are fewer vehicles.

The stretch near Kherwadi junction  while it fits the bill for bikers looking to speed  also happens to be one of Mumbais most accident-prone spots, HT found in a recent survey. This adds to the risk two-wheeler riders already face. In 2015, most road deaths were of bikers.

Officials have armed police with cameras to record bikers when taken into custody. This, said sources, will help identify bikers during future crack downs. These are not the first initiatives the police have undertaken to reduce fatalities.

In May, the Kherwadi police gave 13 speeding bikers arrested for rash driving haircuts. Last year, the Bandra police registered cases against bikers speeding near the promenade.

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Peter Mukerjea played a crucial role in the murder of Sheena Bora, the prosecution said on Tuesday, as it closed arguments on the charges to be framed against the former media baron, his wife Indrani and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna in the murder case against them.

The court has now asked the defence to submit its arguments.

Sheena, Indranis daughter from an earlier marriage, was allegedly murdered in 2012, but the case came to light in 2015 after Indranis driver Shyamwar Rai was arrested. The case has been in court for more than a year.

On the second day of the arguments on Tuesday, the special public prosecutor Bharat Badami emphasised on the role Peter played in the crime.

Badami pointed to the trail of emails and messages exchanged within the family, especially between Peter and his son Rahul, and the calls with Indrani. Badami claimed Peter had played a very crucial role in the murder case.

Badami said Peter knew about every part of the conspiracy to kill Sheena, while pointing out a pattern in the calls and messages exchanged between Peter and Indrani.

After a call to Sheena, Indrani immediately called Peter and they spoke. They spoke even when she reached and found a spot for disposal of (the) body, she called Peter. Similarly, she had exchanged messages at every step with Peter, Badami told the court.

Read | Peter Mukerjea wants to write autobiography, requests for laptop in jail

Badami added that Peter was a silent spectator, who had achieved dual goals with Sheenas death. Peter too was against her relationship with his son Rahul and was concerned about the distribution of property if she became his daughter-in-law.

On Monday, opening arguments for framing charges, Badami had called the familys property one of the key motives for Sheenas murder.

In his concluding arguments, Badami said there is enough evidence against the accused and that the probe is still in progress. The court has now asked the defence to present its side.

On Tuesday, Indrani also moved an application seeking permission to visit Guwahati to perform the rituals for her fathers death.

Also on Tuesday, Peters son Rahul Mukerjea came out in his defence. In a tweet, Rahul said, charges against Peter should be dropped not framed. He clearly wasnt involved.

.

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A new survey by a private education solutions provider has revealed that students might learn faster via technology such as smart phones, as it helps them in understand complex topics better. But most parents and schools in Mumbai prefer devices such as tabs or laptops as they fear phones might distract students.

Close to 93% of the 1.8 lakh respondents to the survey reported an improvement in their scholastic performance after using mobile applications for studying. While 92% respondents said the children studied on their own using the apps.

Schools and parents, however, are divided over the benefits of using mobile phones in the classroom. RN Podar School, Santacruz, for instance, follows a flipped model of learning in which lectures are delivered through short videos  on their own devices including smart phones  to be viewed before or after school. But students are not allowed to use them in class.

Principal Avnita Bir, said that they found the bring your own device policy to be distracting and time consuming. Considering that smart phones are constant companions of students, they are ideal devices to access information, said Bir. But she added, You lose cohesion and time in the classroom if everyone is immersed in their own device.

Addiction to technology and misuse of phones are other concerns keeping schools from embracing mobile phones. The chances of students misusing the phones are more than they learning anything from it, said Albin Anthony, chief operating officer, Sacred Heart School, Kalyan.

Schools said that using smart phones even affects the writing abilities of the students. We face a lot of problems such as students unable to spell words correctly or follow grammar. They use mobile lingo in exam, said Kavita Aggarwal, chief academic advisor, JBCN International School, Oshiwara, which doesnt allow mobiles for students or teachers.

Some schools offer supervised access to phones. At HVB Global Academy, Marine Lines, students are allowed to use their smart phones for research in the school but only if they dont have laptops or tablets. The research is supervised by teachers to ensure students dont misuse the privilege. At other times, students have to hand over the phones to their class teachers, said Chandrakanta Pathak, principal of the school.

Most schools, however, continue to sport a zero tolerance policy to smart phones. At Bombay Cambridge School, Andheri East, only senior students are allowed to carry mobiles to the classrooms but they cant be used during lessons. Students do not get authentic information online and so it cannot be used for studying, said Savita Venkat, principal of the state board and international sections of the school.

Also read

School notes: Experts disagree on scrapping of no-detention policy in state

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After kicking up quite a fuss, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray finally decided on Wednesday to attend the ceremony to lay the stone foundation of a handful of showpiece projects by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But Thackeray confirmed only after ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assured that he would be given due respect at the function  which means sharing the stage with the PM.

Senior BJP ministers Chandrakant Patil and Vinod Tawde visited Matoshree, Thackerays residence in Bandra, on Wednesday, to personally deliver the state governments invite to the Sena chief for the ceremony. According to Sena sources, Thackeray hosted the ministers for around half an hour and accepted the invitation.

Sena leaders had demanded the state government ensure Thackeray is given a seat next to Modi on stage. The Sena was irked the BJP wanted to claim credit for all new projects being launched in the city ahead of the civic polls.

A Sena leader, on the condition of anonymity, said, Uddhavsaheb has accepted the invitation and will attend the event. There was no discussion on where he would be seated, but the BJP has invited him for the event. It is the majority party in the government and should take a call on how best to ensure respect to Uddhavsaheb.

Meanwhile, in Pune, the BJP government is ensuring Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar shares the dais with Modi at a function to lay the foundation stone for Pune metro.

On Saturday, Modi will lay the foundation stone for a Rs3,600-crore showpiece Chhatrapati Shivaji memorial in the Arabian Sea, two new Metro lines in Mumbai, and the Sewri-Nhava trans harbour link, ahead of the polls to the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Vinayak Mete, leader of Shiv Sangram outfit, who also heads the coordination committee for the Shivaji memorial, said Thackeray will not only attend Modis public address at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) grounds, but will also travel to the site of the Shivaji memorial in the sea with Modi.

The Sena had boycotted a similar function last year when Modi visited Mumbai to lay the foundation stone for a memorial for Dr BR Ambedkar at Indu Mills, and two new Metro rail projects for Mumbai. The Senas snub signaled discord between the allies. Sena leaders cited the unceremonious invitation at the eleventh hour to party chief Thackeray as the reason for turning their backs on the event.

However, with Thackeray not holding any public office, BJP leaders and government officials were said to be confused about how to accommodate him on stage next to the prime minister, despite a protocol for such government functions, leading to a last-minute invite.

Not wanting any friction with the alliance partner at this juncture, this time, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis rushed to pacify Thackeray by getting special permission from the prime ministers office to bend protocol for the event and accommodate the Sena president on the dais.

A Sena leader, on the condition of anonymity, said ideally Thackeray should be seated right next to Modi. Former Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray also shared the stage with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and sat next to him. The protocol was managed at that time, the Sena leader said.

BJP leaders, however, maintain that while Thackeray will be seated on the dais, it would be difficult to give him a place right next to Modi, because the chief minister and the governor will have to be seated on either side of the prime minister.

The Sena has had a choppy relationship with its ally of late, especially with the BMC polls just two months away and there being a cloud of uncertainty over the continuation of a tie-up for the election. While the BJP has time and again voiced its aggressive ambition to grow in Mumbai, the Senas home turf, the latter has been trying to stamp its independence from its ally.

It is not just the Sena. The BJP has also avoided friction with the NCP. The latter, which is ruling party in the Pune civic body, had objected to the state governments decision to organise a function to lay the foundation stone for Pune metro by PM Modi without inviting its NCP chief Sharad Pawar. On Wednesday, it was decided that PM Modi and Pawar will share the dais for the function.

Read

CM Fadnavis pushes to get Uddhav on stage with Modi

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It was a day of upsets for the Congress as one heavyweight after the other lost the municipal corporation elections, as results poured out on Tuesday. With just four seats in its kitty, this was one of the poorest show by the party in the five municipal elections held till now.

The Congress had won 11 seats in the previous elections held in 2011, and 12 and 13 in 2006 and 2001 respectively. In the first-ever elections held in 1996, the party had its worst show, winning just one seat, while the BJP won 14 and five went to Chandigarh Vikas Manch.

The Congress, which has had a strong voter base in colonies in the past 15 years, this time lost to woo voters there besides in urban areas. The partys performance was visibly poor in all wards, barring wards 5, 9, 18 and 15.

Among the bigwigs, Congress candidate and two-time mayor Subhash Chawla lost from ward 16 while Ritu Chhabra, wife of city Congress chief Pardeep Chhabra, lost from Ward 3. Other ex-mayors Poonam Sharma and Harphool Chander Kalyan also faced defeats in wards 4 and 7 respectively.

Infighting among Congress leaders and poor managerial skills during the elections put a dent on the partys chances to some extent.

Congress rebel Sunder Mukhi Sharma, who contested as an Independent from ward 1, bagged 1,000 votes, denting the chances of party candidate HS Lucky, who lost to the BJPs Mahesh Inder Sidhu by just 324 votes.

The party also failed to encash upon the inconvenience being caused to the public after demonetisation announcement.

Also, the Congress failed to invite any star campaigner, while the BJP had a number of star campaigners turning the tide in their favour. Congress in-charge for Chandigarh Asha Kumari did not even visit the city during the campaigning. The party had to manage the show with former Union minister and city MP Pawan Kumar Bansal.

Chandermukhi Sharma, former Union minister Manish Tewaris loyalist, said: The Congress defeat is on the expected lines, as there was wrong distribution of tickets and no organisational setup. Both Pawan Kumar Bansal and Pardeep Chhabra run the party as a private limited company.

Surprisingly, Congress candidate Devinder Singh Babla won from ward 18 by a margin of 807 votes, defeating BJP heavyweight Saurabh Joshi. Gurbax Rawat also managed to retain her ward 9 seat, defeating SAD candidate Inderjeet Kaur by 2,128 votes.

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Congress leaders on Tuesday reached the UT Guest House to protest against state election commissioner SK Srivastava for alleged tampering with electronic voting machines (EVMs) during the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) elections that concluded on Monday. The party managed to win just four of 26 seats in the results announced on Tuesday.

Fourteen of the partys losing candidates gheraoed Srivastava, who was at the venue to address a press conference. They said re-polling in any of the wards will prove the veracity of their claims.

Congress leader Subhash Chawla, who lost from ward 16, questioned how Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates could know their victory margin in advance. His party colleague Kamlesh Kumari, who lost from ward 23, alleged: By 9am (the time when counting started), the BJP had (arranged) sweets and prepared their jeeps.

Rajesh Sharma, who lost to mayor Arun Sood in ward 8, and ward 1 contender HS Lucky, too, expressed their doubts.

When Srivastava asked the Congress leaders why they did not complain after the 2011 elections, in which they won 11 seats, they lost their cool and called him a BJP agent.

A heavy police force had to be called in, as a number of junior officials met Congress leaders to pacify them.

Finally, the protesters submitted a complaint, stating: We respect the mandate of the people, but the possibility of tampering of EVMs as apprehended should be investigated for upholding the democracy and in the interest of justice.

The complaint also mentioned: BJP candidates were quoting the same figures of vote margin hours before the counting, while alleging TV channels were airing the results of certain candidates, including Subhash Chawla and Arun Sood, hours before the counting.

Alleging the residents were shocked by the results, the Congress called for re-polling through ballot papers.

Later, Chawla told Congressmen that Srivastava had assured them of sealing of EVMs and that they would be complaining to the deputy commissioner on Wednesday.

Former mayor Poonam Sharma, Jatinder Bhatia, Sandeep Bhardwaj, Deipa Dubey, Mamta Rani, Poonam Moudgil, Gurmeet Singh, Chitranjan Chanchal, Ritu Chhabra and Ramesh Goyal were also among the losing candidates present at the UT Guest House.
Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday claimed the SAD-BJP alliance will win more seats in the coming assembly elections as compared to the 2012 polls.

The combine will form the government with a thumping majority, Badal said who was here for the bhoomi pujan for the Rs 1967-crore road-widening project from Samrala Chowk to Kharar and Rs 392-crore Ladhowal bypass project.

He said the AAP would get merely 6-7 seats and most of the Congress candidates would forfeit their deposits.

Describing the Congress as a party of discarded politicians, he said AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi, state party chief Capt Amarinder Singh and former MP Navjot Singh Sidhu are leaders who have been repeatedly rejected by people. They would have no impact on the coming assembly polls in the state, he added.

Badal said that in 2014, the Congress had contested the Lok Sabha elections under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and the partys performance was dismal.

He said Amarinder claims that if he comes to power, he will waive off debts of all farmers in the state, even as he is recently met the Prime Minister for this purpose. The state Congress chief is just trying to befool the public, he added.

When Sidhu was rejected by all parties, he had no other option but to join the Congress. It has become a party of discarded leaders, and those who are not getting tickets from their respective parties are joining the Congress, Badal said.

He claimed that in the upcoming assembly polls, people would reject all such leaders.

The deputy CM also visited the house of industrialist and SAD candidate from Atam Nagar Gurmit Singh Kular and interacted with various industrialists of Ludhiana. He appealed to people to vote for Kular as well as the party candidate from Samrala Santa Singh Umedpuri.

He said that the SAD has always fought for the rights of Punjab and Punjabis.

He added that the promises made by the SAD-BJP alliance ten years ago have been fulfilled. The wheel of development is now moving at a fast pace and to keep it moving, the combine should be voted back to power for the third consecutive time, he said.
Tension mounted at the Maithon Power plant after the health of two displaced persons who have been on an indefinite fast since the past week, deteriorated and were admitted to a local hospital in a critical condition.

More than 24 displaced persons have been on an indefinite fast since December 15, demanding for a job in the power plant in exchange for their acquired land. Six agitators have been admitted to the Patliputra Medical College and Hospital in the last seven days. On Tuesday evening, Rakesh Mandal and Padmawati Soren were admitted at the hospital after their condition deteriorated.

The Maithon Power Limited (MPL) is joint venture of the Tata Power and Damodar Valley Corporation. The power company generates 1,050 MW of power every day and supplies electricity to four states, including Jharkhand, West Bengal, Delhi and Kerala.

Even after seven days of an indefinite fast neither the MPL management nor the Dhanbad district administration has take cognizance of the agitation, said Nirsa legislator Arup Chatterje, who is spearheading the agitation.

Chatterjee is in Delhi to meet President Pranab Mukherjee and is scheduled to return to the city on Thursday, said Amal Mishra, coordinator of MPL Visthapit Morcha.

We have served an ultimatum to the MPL management until 2pm on Thursday to comply with our demand after which all the members of the 30 displaced families will join the indefinite fast at MPL gate to intensify the agitation, he said.

If any untoward incident takes place, the MPL management will be held responsible.

In the tripartite agreement signed under chairmanship of Dhanbad deputy commissioner on March 15, 2016, the MPL management agreed to give a job to each 30 land losers by October and another 50 by November and thereafter 30 people every month. But until now, only 22 land losers have been given employment.

MPL officials did not respond to calls when HT tried to take their view on the claim of the displaced persons.
A strong 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled northern Australia and parts of Indonesia Wednesday with residents in Darwin reporting widespread shaking, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The tremor struck off the coast of eastern Indonesia, US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued.

TV nearly rattled off the cabinet, two storey house was swaying around, said Rosie McCurrach on broadcaster ABCs Darwin Facebook page.

Another poster said: Mitchell Centre felt like it was going to tumble over, while Gaylene Whenmouth noted: On 7th floor in the city. Rocking and rolling!

The undersea quake hit about 278 kilometres (172 miles) east-northeast of Dili in East Timor at a depth of 158 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.

Australias Northern Territory News said the quake was widely felt across Darwin and surrounding areas.

Were on the third floor and it gave us a shake, said Darwin-based Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Chris Kent, who said the quake lasted several minutes.

Indonesias disaster agency said residents in the southwest of the Moluccas island chain also felt the quake but there were no reports as yet of damage or casualties.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.
One wrong word to an Islamic State fighter in Mosul last year was all it took to set in motion a harrowing chain of events for an Iraqi woman who became so traumatised that she trembled in fear even after escaping the groups control.

The widowed mother was being vetted to receive a pension from the ultra-hardline Islamists a few months after they seized the northern city in 2014 and turned it into the Iraqi capital of their self-styled caliphate.

I made the mistake of telling them my husband had been a victim of terrorism, she said in an interview on Tuesday at a government-run camp in Khazir, east of Mosul. One of them hit me and broke my teeth. Then they took me to a house and held me for three days.

The jihadists locked her up in a filthy room with rats and bugs. She was blindfolded and her arms and legs were bound by chains as one of the men - or perhaps several, she couldnt tell - raped her over and over again, she said.

Islamic State, which is putting up fierce resistance to a US-backed offensive to retake Mosul, the groups last major stronghold in Iraq, has been accused of massacre, enslavement and rape since it swept across large swathes of the countrys north and west in 2014.

Read: Raped by IS militants, Yazidi girl burnt her face to make herself undesirable

There was no way of verifying her story, but it reflected others experiences coming to light as civilians from the most populous city ever controlled by the jihadists emerge from their grip and grapple with 2-1/2 years of suffering.

A 13-year-old girl who also spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity said her father had married her to a neighbour four years her senior who turned out to be with Islamic State.

The slender adolescent now clutching a pink sequined purse said he had threatened to kill her and permitted his brothers to sexually assault her.

After escaping Mosul a few weeks ago, she learned he had made it to a nearby camp and informed the authorities. They detained him, but the pair remain married.

The 37-year-old widow fled last month to Khazir camp, where she receives counselling from UNFPA, a United Nations agency focused on gender-based violence. She asked that her name be withheld for fear of retribution and donned a face veil that revealed only her eyes.

When Islamic State released her after the assault, the diminutive, round-faced woman returned home thinking her nightmare was over.

She sent her two younger children - now 9 and 11 - to stay with relatives in the nearby Kurdish city of Erbil and planned to join them as soon as she could save enough money to smuggle herself and her eldest son.

Read: I just lost my mind: Under Islamic State, Mosuls people faced darkness, dread

But a few weeks later she discovered she was pregnant with the child of one of her Islamic State tormentors. In addition to the trauma of being raped, she feared the stigma in Iraqs conservative society of an unmarried woman giving birth. Within two months she had rushed into marriage with a man who had agreed to adopt the child as his own.

DIE OF HUNGER OR GET MARRIED

They were forcing widows to get married. This was one of their rules: either die of hunger or get married, said the woman, who occasionally wept and fidgeted with her hands underneath a loose-fitting garment.

Her new husband, though, also had a troubled past. An engineering student in his last year of university, he had been sentenced to death in connection with a crime of honour before Islamic State-seized Mosul. In jail, he befriended jihadists who helped him escape when the group routed government forces in 2014.

Soon after the pair married, Islamic State gave the man an ultimatum: fight with us or we kill you. He yielded, and his new wife found herself back in the militants clutches.

When her family living outside Mosul learned that she was now married to an Islamic State member, they severed all connections with her. Her late husbands brother took custody of her two young children and moved them to Baghdad, vowing never to let her see them again.

When Iraqi forces reached her neighbourhood last month, she said, they detained her new husband to investigate his jihadist ties.

She took her eldest son with her to the camp but left the baby, now just over a year old, with her new husbands second wife who remains in Mosul. His fate and that of hundreds or perhaps thousands of other children born to the jihadists remains unclear as the group loses much of its territory and its bid for statehood.

They think this is the son of their father, they dont know the truth, the mother said of the second wifes family. The boy doesnt look like me.

She has resolved never to return to Mosul, even if Islamic State is eliminated. I want to go somewhere far away where nobody knows me.
On Dec. 19, the United Nations Security Council unanimously called for UN officials to observe the stalled evacuation of thousands of residents and fighters from the last rebel-held districts in the city of Aleppo, a process that began four days earlier. With President Bashar al-Assads regime and its allies regaining full control over Syrias largest city, the nearly six-year-old Syrian civil war is entering a new phase.

Assad and his allies - including Russia, Iran and various Shia militias from Lebanon and Iraq - had imposed a long siege, including air strikes and intensive shelling, on the rebel-controlled parts of Aleppo. Assad signalled that he would take advantage of his opponents weakness, and move against other rebel-held areas in northern Syria.

But Assads forces, which are overextended and depleted after years of fighting, have had trouble keeping control of territory in other parts of Syria. On Dec. 11, Islamic State militants recaptured the historic city of Palmyra, nine months after Syrian regime troops drove the jihadists out of the UNESCO World Heritage site, where they had terrorized residents and destroyed ancient monuments.

Read | Evacuation begins: Residents in eastern Aleppo start boarding buses, ambulances

The fall of Palmyra shows that Islamic State is far from beaten - and its poised to take advantage of Syrian, Russian and Iranian military resources stretched thin throughout Syria. It also underscores that US President-elect Donald Trump faces a complex task in trying to keep his campaign pledge to defeat the group, especially in Syria.

After the fall of eastern Aleppo, there are signs of an emerging division of labour in Syria between the incoming Trump administration and that of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia would continue its intensive air strikes and logistical aid to help Assad recapture territory from rebels, while the United States would take the lead in the fight against Islamic State. On Dec. 10, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced that the Pentagon would send 200 additional special forces to Syria - for a total of 500 US troops on the ground - to help train and advise Syrian opposition groups who are fighting Islamic State, especially around the city of Raqqa.

The Syrian civil war has expanded into a regional proxy war involving Russia, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United States. Russia and Iran, which are the Syrians regime two main backers, have mainly targeted rebel factions opposed to Assad, rather than trying to dislodge Islamic State from its bastions. Soon after the war started in 2011, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United States began supporting various rebel groups fighting Assads regime. More recently, Washington has intensified air strikes and deployed special forces to mobilize Syrian opposition groups, mainly led by Kurdish militias, to oust the jihadists from Raqqa.

Read | IS again in Palmyra: US inconsistent in fighting terror, says Russia

The Obama administration has coordinated militarily with Russia to a limited extent, but it criticized Moscow for entering the war to prop up Assad and failing to devote significant resources to fighting Islamic State. Trump, on the other hand, has made clear that he doesnt see removing Assad as a US priority, and he signalled a greater willingness to work with Russia. Assad is clearly pleased with the new administration, declaring in a recent TV interview: If Trump can genuinely fight against terrorism, he can be our natural ally.

But from the Syrian and Russian perspective, that alliance means relying on Washington to lead the fight against Islamic State, which neither Assad nor his backers view as urgent as recapturing rebel-held territory.

Already, Pentagon officials say they would be prepared to strike Islamic State in Palmyra, if Russian and Syrian forces fail to retake the city soon. US officials say theyre concerned that the jihadists acquired powerful weaponry when they captured the city from Syrian troops, including armoured vehicles and air defense systems. If the Russians and the regime dont strike it, we will, Lt. General Stephen Townsend, the top US military commander in charge of the coalition against Islamic State, said at Dec. 14 news conference.

Pentagon officials cautioned that Syrian and Russian forces were too focused on the offensive against rebels in Aleppo, and they allowed Islamic State to easily recapture Palmyra. They failed to consolidate their gains and got distracted by other things that they were doing and took their eye off the ball there, Townsend said.

As soon as hes inaugurated on Jan. 20, Trump will face a crucial decision: Will he continue the Pentagons support and training for the coalition of Syrian rebel groups which is leading a ground offensive to oust Islamic State from its self-declared capital in Raqqa? That campaign began in early November with a mobilization of about 30,000 Syrian rebels to encircle Raqqa, and close off the jihadists resupply routes for weapons and fighters from neighbouring Iraq. The US-backed rebels are now about 15 miles from the city, but the battle could take months, as it has in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where tens of thousands of troops are trying to dislodge several thousand militants.

The fledgling Trump administration wants to avoid becoming mired in Syrias complicated war, and has signalled that it wants Russia to continue taking the lead. But other powers might try to drag Washington deeper into the conflict, or use it to project strength, or to distract Trump from other goals, such as his insistence on dismantling the Iran nuclear deal.

Iranian leaders are claiming a large stake of the military victory in Aleppo, and boasting that Assads regime would have been unable to retake the city without support from Iran and its allies, especially the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. Some Iranian officials are also using the Aleppo triumph to send a message to the Trump administration about Tehrans influence in the region.

Aleppo was liberated thanks to a coalition between Iran, Syria, Russia and Lebanons Hezbollah, Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior military adviser to Irans supreme leader, said in Tehran on Dec. 14. Iran is on one side of this coalition, which is approaching victory, and this has shown our strength. The new American president should take heed of the powers of Iran.

Read | Russia joins Syria war: What it means in the West Asian roulette

In another sign of weakened US influence over events in Syria, Russia reached a deal with Turkey allowing Ankara to exert control along the Turkish-Syrian border through its own troops and allied rebels. In exchange, Turkey did not help the rebels in Aleppo resist the Russian-Syrian offensive. That could become a template for other deals between Russia and Turkey, and it would further isolate the Syrian rebels in their remaining northern strongholds. On Dec. 16, Putin announced that he is working with Turkish leaders to organize a new series of Syrian peace talks without Washingtons involvement.

For his part, Assad will be emboldened by his military success in Aleppo - even one so heavily dependent on Russia, Iran and other foreign forces - to continue taking a hard line and refusing a political compromise with the rebels. And thanks to Russian maneuvering, Assad and his allies can outsource the difficult fight with Islamic State to Washington.
Ash Khare has 45 patents, published many papers, and found acclaim among peers, but nothing close to his recent celebrity as the elector who became the face of defiance to calls for deserting Donald Trump in the electoral college vote.

Reaching home in rural Pennsylvania late Monday, the day of the vote, the 68-year-old immigrant from Kanpur steeled himself for a daily routine that he had come to dread in recent days  check his letterbox and email.

I have just reached home and havent opened my computer, Khare said over phone from Warren, Pennsylvania, where he lives and works for decades. But I can tell you when I open the email, there will be at least 6,000 emails.

Khare said he had received 17,000 calls including some at really odd hours , so much so that the local post office had assigned him his own delivery man. People were writing to him from all over the country, Khare said, and the world  Germany, UK, France, Australia and, he remembered clearly, Costa Rica  urging the Republican Elector to not vote for Trump. One seven-year-old girl called to say she was scared of Trump, he said, his voice rising in anger, How the hell can a seven year old girl be scared of Donald Trump, you tell me.

Another woman called to say her father survived the Holocaust and now she was scared of Donald Trump. Lady, I told her, what do you want me to do about it.

This is harassment, he said, blaming the Clinton campaign for using their vast resources to peddle the dumbest, stupid ideas to explain to their donors why she lost despite the phenomenal amount of money she spent.

Khare, a Republican for decades, didnt budge. He was one of the 538 electors of the electoral college  and the only Indian American among them, he said  who voted to formalise Trumps election as the 45th president of the US with a huge margin of 304 to 227 votes. Trumps detractors, including some Republicans, had tried to use the vote to try and stop him one more time, urging Republican electors to abandon the president-elect and vote to defeat him.

They failed, once again. A record number of electors did indeed dump the nominees, but most of them, five, were from the Democratic party who voted against Clinton. Only two Republicans flipped, clearly not enough to cause Trump any damage.

Khare had emerged as a fierce critic of those calling for Trumps defeat and his story, of an immigrant from India batting so aggressively for the president-elect, ran across media platforms, TV, web and print.

CNN ran an article about him titled, From immigrant to elector: I am living the American dream.

Khare came to the US in 1969 with just $ 8 in his pocket and has gone from being a nobody to an elector. Born and raised in Kanpur, Khare went to IIT Kanpur to study metallurgy and came to the US to study and never went back, except to visit.

He has always been a Republican , in sharp contrast to most other Indian Americans who are Democratic or at least start as one. And he built himself a reputation in the party, he said, as someone who raises money and delivers votes. And supporting Trump? That was easy. His message is the right message for America, Khare said. On illegal immigration, caring for veterans, police and race relations, Obamacare, Khare said Trump has picked up all the right issues.

But there are goofy and dumb things Trump has said and done. He cant defend them, Khare said, flatly.
Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Valeriya Gontareva sees good prospects for selling nationalized PrivatBank in next three years.

"The bank as business still exists. We have guaranteed deposits to all people. The bank's capital will be formed with government securities. A strong new management team and the supervisory board with high-level foreign specialists would come. They would help to transform [the bank]. I think [the bank] would be priced and it could be sold," she said on the Ukraina TV channel late on December 20.

She said that the bank could be sold no earlier than in three years, but no later than in three years and later.

Gontareva said that operations of PrivatBank were fully resumed by late Tuesday. Around UAH 8 billion is in its cash desks and ATMs, and over UAH 15 billion was on its correspondent account early Tuesday thanks to a refinancing loan issued by the NBU.

The NBU head expressed hope that the banks would quickly restore its operations and government guarantees for deposits would help to avoid outflow of clients and narrow or abandon monetization of government bonds to fill the bank's capital.

Gontareva said that the central bank is ready to enter the currency market every day if it is required to support the hryvnia.
Tunisian anti-terrorism police were on Wednesday questioning the family of Anis Amri, the prime suspect in the deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market, a security official told AFP.

A unit of the anti-terrorism brigade has questioned the suspects family, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

German prosecutors on Wednesday named 24-year-old Tunisian national Amri as their main suspect in the attack claimed by the Islamic State group, which killed 12 people.

The Tunisian security official said Amris parents, who live in the central town of Oueslatia, were being questioned.

Amri has four sisters and a brother, the source said, but it was unclear if anyone else was being questioned.

The source said Amri had been arrested several times in Tunisia for alleged drug use.

He fled Tunisia to Italy after the 2011 revolution that overthrew longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and spent three years there before travelling on to Germany, the source said.

Contacted by AFP, Tunisias interior and foreign ministries refused to comment on the case.

Upon naming Amri as the prime suspect, the federal prosecutors office in Germany offered a reward of 100,000 euros for information leading to his arrest.

It also warned he could be violent and armed.
Christmas is approaching and pilgrims and tourists have begun to arrive, crowding the souvenir shops that line the narrow streets and alleys of Bethlehem, the biblical town revered as Jesus birthplace.

But when visitors choose to take a piece of the Holy Land back home with them, they better check the labels. Many souvenirs  including the West Bank towns trademark rosemary beads  are imported from abroad, mainly China.

A small number of souvenir shops are now trying to fight the trend, stocking their shelves almost exclusively with locally made products. Shopkeepers say that while their wares may be more expensive, the quality is much better and they give an important boost to the struggling economy.

Ive got nothing that is made overseas except for one thing, thats the magnets. Its something that sells for cheap and people want them, said Bassem Giacaman, owner of the Blessings Gift Shop and The Olive Wood Factory. Everything else is made locally so I can keep the local economy working.

Some 120,000 people are expected to visit the Holy Land this holiday season, half of them Christian, according to Israels Tourism Ministry.

Many will visit Bethlehem, where globalization has left its imprint like everywhere else. Foreign-made crafts, especially Chinese ones, have come to represent a big part of the market here, including Christmas souvenirs. While there are no official statistics, local officials and businessmen estimate that nearly half of the products, perhaps more, are imported.

Giacaman keeps just a few imported products in his store, most of them hidden in a small box beneath a counter. He takes them out to show customers and compare them to Palestinian-made ones.

This is a plastic Jesus baby made in China and this is a ceramic one made in Bethlehem, and these are the olive wood rosaries that I make and the Chinese ones, he said, proudly showing what he said was the superior craftsmanship of the locally made goods.

Bethlehem is in the West Bank, occupied territory the Palestinians hope will be part of their future state. Tourism remains strong, but the rest of the economy has long languished, in part because of Israeli restrictions. Tourists must pass through a checkpoint in Israels separation barrier to reach the town.

The Visit Palestine Center, located in a 200-year-old house along a stone stairway just a few hundred meters (yards) from The Church of the Nativity, promotes a Made in Palestine label.

Theres a big influx of imported products and a lot of traditional crafts are declining gradually, said Samy Khoury, the centers founder and general manager.

The Visit Palestine Center, which started as an online store and travel guide five years ago, works with nearly 100 workshops and home-based artisans throughout the Palestinian territories and in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan.

It features Palestinian traditional crafts, including Christmas-related ones like olive wood rosaries and mother of pearl ornaments. The center targets independent travelers and takes a fair trade approach to its business.

Trying to sell only Palestinian-made products comes with challenges.

Maintaining consistency and quality, the right lead time, figuring how much production capacity the producers can give, are some of them, explained Khoury.

Then theres the issue of price.

Maher Canawati, owner of the Three Arches souvenir shop, sells locally made gifts and even has a wood workshop in the back. But he keeps room for imports as well.

We have to carry all kinds of merchandise in our shop because we have different markets and different pilgrims with different budgets, said Canawati, whose family has provided services to pilgrims since the 16th century.

Canawati said he wants to give his customers options, and he is clear about the differences.

A dozen of made-in-China rosaries sell for $4 while a dozen of locally made sell for $25, he said. The made-in-China Jesus babies sell for $20 and the Bethlehem ones sell for $64.

While craft workshop owners grumble about foreign imports, not everyone believes the imports have seriously threatened local merchants and artisans.

Its a business, said Samir Hazboun, Chairman of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce. Im not aware of anyone running out of business because of the imports.

Ali Abu Srour, director general of the Palestinian Tourism Ministry, said the government is trying to update its tourism laws to protect local producers and merchants.

Under the proposed regulations, shopkeepers would be required to carry 70 percent locally made products, with clear labels that distinguish between imports and Made in Palestine ones.

Muhammad Yusuf, a wood craftsman with The Olive Wood Factory, scoffs at the imports.

Its not good, this is better, he said with a smile as he worked on a figure of the Virgin Mary.

Back at the Blessings Gift Shop, Julie Deler, 24, a tourist from Germany, bought a small olive wood camel made by a Palestinian craftsman.

I prefer locally made because I want to support the locals, she said.
The days of capital punishment may be numbered in the United States, with sharp reductions in new death sentences and executions carried out amid waning public support, according to a report released Wednesday.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, said statistics point to a continued record decline in the use of killing as punishment.

America is in the midst of a major climate change concerning capital punishment, said Robert Dunham, DPICs executive director and the author of the report.

Whether its concerns about innocence, costs, and discrimination, availability of life without parole as a safe alternative, or the questionable way in which states are attempting to carry out executions, the public grows increasingly uncomfortable with the death penalty each year.

Highlights In state referendums, voters in three states -- California, Nebraska and Oklahoma -- approved measures to keep capital punishment. However, in Florida and Delaware death penalty statutes were declared unconstitutional. Executions declined to 20 this year, the lowest number since 1991 and well below the 1999 peak of 98 executions. Ohio and Virginia, are planning to carry out death sentences by using midazolam, a drug that acts as a sedative but is not an anesthetic.

Though two-thirds of US states still allow the death penalty, this year is expected to end with 31 new death sentences, the DPIC said in a year-end report.

That would be a steep 37 percent drop even from 2015, when 49 death sentences marked a 40-year low.

Executions declined to 20 this year, the lowest number since 1991 and well below the 1999 peak of 98 executions, stoking hopes for opponents of the death penalty.

The 2016 executions would be the fewest since 1972, when the US Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional. It reinstated the death penalty four years later.

Public opinion polls measured support for capital punishment at a four-decade low this year, the report said.

Still, the possibility that the Supreme Court will once again outlaw the death penalty faded after Republican Donald Trump was elected president last month.

Trump, who takes office on January 20, is expected to fill the vacant seat on the nine-seat Supreme Court with a conservative judge, tipping the court to a conservative majority.

Just five states

Notably just five states of the 31 where the death penalty is legal have executed a prisoner this year, the report said.

Georgia led with nine executions, followed by Texas with seven, Alabama with two, and Florida and Missouri with one each.

For the first time in more than 40 years, no state reached 10 executions. And it was 1983 when such a small number of states carried out executions.

From 2015 to 2016, the number of executions dropped 29 percent due to a confluence of factors, including a shortage of the drugs used in executions and prolonged appeals processes.

Still, the November 8 election showed continued divisions on public views on capital punishment.

In state referendums, voters in three states -- California, Nebraska and Oklahoma -- approved measures to keep capital punishment.

But over the course of the year, abolitionists scored court victories, such as in Florida and Delaware, where death penalty statutes were declared unconstitutional.

And, in several states, Americans elected governors, judges and prosecutors known more for their defense of human rights than their support for the death penalty.

This years events signal a continuation of the United Statess movement away from the death penalty, the DPIC report concluded.

As the public grows increasingly skeptical of capital punishment and courts strike down outlier practices that have inflated the numbers of executions and death sentences, the death penaltys failures become ever more evident.

In this context, 2017 promises to bring highly charged issues to the fore, including questions over what constitutes the humane execution of prisoners.

At least two states, Ohio and Virginia, are planning to carry out death sentences by using midazolam, a drug that acts as a sedative but is not an anesthetic.

In executions, midazolam is intended to put the prisoner under anesthesia, which its not an appropriate drug to do, Megan McCracken, a leading lethal injection expert at Berkeley Law School, told AFP.

We have seen in several executions that prisoners who are given midazolam subsequently either remain conscious or regain consciousness and struggle, gasp, and show signs of pain and suffering, she said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said the killer of Russias ambassador to Turkey was a member of the group of Fethullah Gulen blamed for the July 15 coup, as Moscow warned against jumping to early conclusions.

Mondays murder of Andrei Karlov stunned Russia and prompted warnings of retribution from the Kremlin. But both sides responded by vowing to step up cooperation, particularly on the Syria conflict.

Off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, pumped nine bullets into Karlov at an art gallery in Ankara before he himself was killed by police in a shootout.

Pro-government press had already reported that police had discovered pro-Gulen literature belonging to Altintas, sympathisers of the preacher among his acquaintances and that he attended extra classes at a school belonging to the group.

There is no need to make a secret out of the fact he was a member of FETO, Erdogan said, in his first clear attribution of blame for the murder.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has strongly condemned the assassination and always denied involvement in the coup.

Turkey has embarked on a massive crackdown on what it calls the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO) in the wake of the July 15 coup aimed at unseating Erdogan, arresting and sacking tens of thousands.

But Erdogan said the assassination of Karlov showed Gulen supporters were still present within the key security structures and the purges needed to continue.

I have to say this very clearly -- this dirty organisation is still within the military, still within the police, he said.

Without expanding further, he added there could be foreign connections to the murder plot.

Dont rush to conclusions

Turkey and Russia are jointly investigating the murder after an unprecedented agreement between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A team of 18 Russian investigators arrived in Ankara on Tuesday and spent the day at the crime scene after also witnessing the autopsy.

But the Kremlin indicated it was not in the mood for rushed pronouncements on responsibility and made no mention of Gulens purported involvement.

In this case it is hardly worth hurrying to any conclusions until the investigation determines -- as our president said -- who was behind the murder of our ambassador, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Since the coup, Turkey has piled pressure on the United States to extradite Gulen, a one-time Erdogan ally.

We need to let them -- (the investigators) let the facts and the evidence take them where it is before we jump to conclusions, said state department spokesman John Kirby.

Dramatic footage of Mondays assassination showed Karlov stumble and crash to the ground as Altintas brandished his automatic pistol at terrified onlookers who cowered behind cocktail tables.

The gunman shouted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) and Dont forget Aleppo, vowing that those responsible for events in Syria would be held accountable.

Turkey and Russia stand on opposite sides of the Syria conflict, with Ankara backing rebels trying to topple Moscow ally President Bashar al-Assad.

But the rhetoric has warmed considerably since a reconciliation deal was signed earlier this year and Moscow and Ankara are now working closely together to evacuate citizens from the battered city of Aleppo.

Protected Erdogan

Eleven people, including close family members, have been detained over the killing and are being investigated for possible links to Gulen.

In a striking detail, the Hurriyet daily said Altintas, who served with the Ankara anti-riot police, had provided security for Erdogan eight times since the July 15 coup bid.

According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Altintas had taken two days sick leave on the day of the July 15 coup. It remains unclear what he did on his days off, it added.

He also called in sick complaining of stomach pains on Monday -- with a note from the same doctor.

Karlovs body was repatriated on Tuesday and will be laid to rest on Thursday, Peskov said, adding that Putin had decided to postpone his major annual press conference scheduled for the same day to Friday in order to attend.

According to Anadolu, Altintas body is at a morgue in Kecioren outside Ankara and the autopsy has been completed. So far, no one has come forward to claim his body.
The June 23 Brexit vote was all about Britain leaving the EU, but on Wednesday the European Court of Justice ruled against the countrys law on internet data retention after it was challenged by David Davis, the man who is now in charge of exiting the EU in the Theresa May government.

Dubbed the snoopers charter, the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act requires companies to retain data for 12 months as part of the governments efforts to deal with terrorism.

It was opposed by Davis, who was then a backbencher Conservative MP, but is now the secretary of state for Exiting the European Union. He and others had challenged the law in the European court.

Britain is still a member of the EU and subject to rulings of the European court, which held that general and indiscriminate retention of data was against EU law and can only be done under certain conditions and solely for the purpose of fighting serious crime.

As liberty campaigners hailed the ruling, the May government said it was disappointed, insisting that the Home Office will put forward robust arguments in the UK Court of Appeal that will now hear the case.

Tom Watson, Labour's deputy leader, who is one of those bringing the case, said: "This ruling shows it's counter-productive to rush new laws through parliament without a proper scrutiny."

The Home Office said, "Given the importance of communications data to preventing and detecting crime, we will ensure plans are in place so that the police and other public authorities can continue to acquire such data in a way that is consistent with EU law and our obligation to protect the public."

Campaign group Liberty said: "Today's judgment upholds the rights of ordinary British people not to have their personal lives spied on without good reason or an independent warrant. The government must now make urgent changes to the Investigatory Powers Act to comply with this."

Prime Minister May has said the government will trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to leave the EU by the end of March 2017 in a process that is expected to last for at least two years.

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The president of the UN General Assembly called Fidel Castro one of the 20th centurys most iconic and influential leaders at a memorial tribute Tuesday to the late commander of the Cuban revolution who led his country for nearly 50 years.

Peter Thompson told the ceremony in the assembly chamber that for many people Castro embodied the struggle of the global south for independence, justice and development.

He said Castros activism in pursuit of a fairer and more just world made him a symbol of resistance and inspiration to people across the world in Latin America, Africa and beyond.

Nearly 30 representatives of various groups and countries lauded Castro, who died Nov. 25 at the age of 90. But there were no speakers from Western nations.

Outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Castro one of the most important Latin American leaders of the 20th century and the most influential shaper of Cuban history since his own hero, Jose Marti, struggled for Cuban independence in the late 19th century.

Castro left a major imprint on his country and global politics, Ban said in remarks read by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca. Until his last days he was deeply concerned about the future of humanity and the challenges of our times.

Speaker after speaker lauded Castro for providing Cubans with free health care and education, and for bringing Cubas illiteracy and infant mortality rates to among the lowest in the world.

Venezuelas Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Samuel Moncada, speaking on behalf of the Nonaligned Movement, recalled that Castro was a founding member of the organization which now represents 120 mainly developing countries.

President Castro was a true defender of the south and the new economic international order, as well as the establishment of a peaceful, prosperous, just, equitable and multipolar world, Moncada said.

He will always be remembered as an emblematic icon of the Cuban Revolution, as a prominent figure in Latin America, and as a leader committed to the just causes of the world, and with amazing capacity to connect with the vulnerable, he said.

Cubas UN deputy ambassador Ana Silvia Rodriguez Abascal thanked all those who paid tribute to Castro and drew loud applause when she said he forever will be the commander and leader of the Cuban revolution.
German police launched a manhunt Wednesday for a rejected asylum seeker suspected of involvement in a deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Officials said asylum office papers believed to belong to the Tunisian man with alleged links to the radical Islamist scene were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry used in the attack that killed 12 people.

There is a new suspect we are searching for -- he is a suspect but not necessarily the assailant, interior minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters, saying a Europe-wide search was underway. He declined to give further details.

But his regional counterpart in North Rhine-Westphalia state, Ralf Jaeger, said the man identified as Anis A. or Ahmed A. by media, had already been under investigation for planning an attack.

Counter-terrorism officials had exchanged information about him, most recently in November, and a probe had been launched suspecting he was preparing a serious act of violence against the state, Jaeger said.

The suspect came to Germany in July 2015 but his application for asylum was rejected this June.

His deportation, however, got caught up in red tape with Tunisia, which long denied he was a citizen. The required documents only arrived on Wednesday, two days after the Berlin attack, said Jaeger.

One conservative lawmaker, Stephan Meyer, said the suspect was being watched by police.

We are apparently talking about a potentially dangerous suspect who was known to authorities and belonged to the Salafist-Islamist scene, he told reporters after a meeting of parliaments interior affairs committee.

A previous suspect -- a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker -- was released late Tuesday for lack of evidence, prompting fears of a killer on the loose and further rattling nerves in a shocked country.

Deportation debate

Twelve people were killed when the Polish-registered articulated truck, laden with steel beams, slammed into the crowded holiday market late Monday, smashing wooden stalls and crushing victims.

The scenes revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist.

Twenty-four people remained in hospital, 14 of whom were seriously injured, De Maiziere said.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency said a soldier of the Islamic State carried out the Berlin carnage in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries.

There was no evidence to back the claim, nor was the perpetrator identified.

Germany is part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

Tunisia is one of the biggest suppliers of jihadist fighters, with some 5,500 of its nationals believed to be involved in combat in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

The attack comes at a delicate time for Chancellor Angela Merkel who is running for a fourth term in 2017 but has faced strong criticism over her decision last year to open the countrys borders to refugees.

The case inflamed the debate about asylum policy in general, and in particular the speed at which rejected asylum seekers can be deported.

Germany this year moved to declare Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as safe countries of origin, to raise the bar for asylum requests after last years record influx of around 890,000 people.

But the bill has been stuck in the upper house for months over human rights concerns in those countries.

Germany in mourning

A Polish man, killed with a gunshot, was found in the trucks passenger seat. The 37-year-old Pole named Lukasz worked for his cousin Ariel Zurawskis transport company in northern Poland.

Zurawski described him as a good guy and said his body showed signs of a struggle with the assailant or assailants including stab marks.

One person would not have been able to overpower him, Zurawski said of the relative he had grown up with, a heavyset man who weighed in at 120 kilos (265 pounds) and stood 183 centimetres (six feet) tall.

We could see injuries. His face was bloodied and swollen, he told private news channel TVN 24, referring to a photo he received from Polish police.

An autopsy indicated that the driver was still alive at the time of the attack, the daily Bild reported.

A sign quoting John F Kennedy's sentence "I am a Berliner" lies inmid candles at a makeshift memorial in front of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaechtniskirche (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church), two days after an attack at the nearby Christmas market in central Berlin. (AFP Photo)

Merkel visited the scene of the carnage for a minutes silence on Tuesday and then joined a service in the adjacent Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

Mourners placed flowers and candles at the site while German flags flew at half-mast and Berlins landmark Brandenburg Gate was lit in the national colours in honour of the victims.

Europe has been on high alert for most of 2016, with bloody jihadist attacks striking Paris since last year and Brussels.

In Germany, 15 people were injured in two attacks in July in the southern state of Bavaria committed by asylum seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group.

The arrival of 890,000 refugees last year has polarised Germany, with critics calling the influx a serious security threat.

Opponents were quick to seize on the carnage as proof that Merkels liberal asylum policy had endangered the country.

Marcus Pretzell of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party labelled the Christmas market victims Merkels dead.
Indonesian anti-terrorism police killed three suspects after a gunfight at a house south of the capital, Jakarta, where a bomb was found, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

The men planned to stage their attack on Christmas Day or New Years Eve, Jakarta police chief Mochamad Iriawan said in a television interview. They were to stab police officers in order to attract a crowd and then detonate bombs, he said.

The raid came soon after Indonesian police had said they were interrogating 14 suspects after a series of arrests relating to planned suicide attacks in the capital, Jakarta, and elsewhere.

During the raid, we tried to be careful but they threw something from inside the house and it was a bomb but it did not explode. Then they fired from inside, national police spokesman Rikwanto, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, told Metro TV.

Indonesian television footage showed a bomb squad officer wearing a blast-resistant suit entering the house in South Tangerang, as locals watched from behind a police tape.

Inside the house we found a bigger bomb and now we are investigating it to try to detonate it, Rikwanto said.

He said one suspect had been found alive.

Ayi Supardan, a senior officer from South Tangerang police, said after initial interrogation of the suspect who was found alive, it appeared there was a plan to use the larger bomb at the end of the year.

There was no indication of any possible target.

Earlier on Tuesday, Indonesian police said they were interrogating 14 suspects related to planned suicide attacks in Jakarta and outside the most populous island of Java.

The suspects held over the planned Jakarta attack had been communicating with, and received money from, Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian militant known to be fighting with the Islamic State militant group in Syria, police have said.
Pakistan Navy on Wednesday fired a live surface-to-surface anti-ship missile along the North Arabian Sea and said the successful test reaffirms its commitment to safeguard maritime frontiers against all threats.

The frontline combat unit of Pakistan Navy undertook the live firing of Surface to Surface Anti-ship missile from Sword Class frigate PNS ASLAT which was witnessed by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah.

The missile successfully destroyed its intended target with pinpoint accuracy reaffirming weapons lethality and offensive punch of Pakistan Navys Fleet, Radio Pakistan reported.

Zakaullah expressed his satisfaction on the operational preparedness of Pakistan Navy Fleet and said the Live Missile Firing reaffirms credibility of deterrence at sea and reassures Pakistan Navys commitment to safeguard our maritime frontiers against all threats.

The successful conduct of missile firing also demonstrates the efficacy and lethality of modern weapon systems operated by Pakistan Navy, the report said.

Last week, Pakistan successfully test-fired an enhanced version of an indigenously-designed cruise missile that can hit targets at 700 kms with all kinds of warheads, bringing many Indian cities within its range.

Named after the Mughal invader and founder of the dynasty of same name, the missile is part of Babur Weapon System version - 2 as it is enhanced version of earlier missile and incorporates advanced aerodynamics and avionics that can strike targets both at land and sea with high accuracy.

It is a low flying, terrain hugging missile, which carries certain stealth features and is capable of carrying various types of warheads, according to a press statement.

The missile is equipped with state-of-the-art navigational technologies of Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) and all-time Digital Scene Matching & Area Co-relation (DSMAC) which enables it to engage various types of targets with pinpoint accuracy even in the absence of GPS navigation.

Babur weapons system is an important force multiplier for Pakistans strategic defence.
The Philippine government filed a criminal case in court on Wednesday against a staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, accusing her of trying to sabotage a congressional investigation into her alleged involvement in the drugs trade.

The justice ministrys case against its former head, Senator Leila de Lima, says she deliberately skipped the house inquiry and told her ex-driver and alleged bagman to go into hiding and ignore a legislative summons.

De Lima is among only a few high-profile domestic critics of Dutertes campaign against drugs, which has killed about 6,000 people, roughly a third in police operations. The other deaths are classified as under investigation, many believed to be the work of vigilantes.

Dutertes allies in Congress said de Lima had shown disrespect for the inquiry. The criminal case is built around breaches of an article of the law on legislative summonses.

De Lima once led a Senate investigation into suspected extrajudicial killings during Dutertes drugs crackdown and a similarly bloody campaign he oversaw in Davao City when he was mayor.

But she was ousted by his allies as head of that investigation and just days later came under investigation herself in a congressional inquiry in which witnesses testified to her having a pivotal role in the narcotics trade.

De Lima has denied the accusations and filed a case with the Supreme Court to try to muzzle Duterte and stop him from disparaging her in public and making salacious allegations about her private life.

The tide of opposition to her shows the influence Duterte has gained in his short time as president, and how domestic dissent about his drugs war has gained very little traction.

The killings in the anti-drugs campaign have been condemned widely among the international community.

De Lima on Wednesday said the criminal charges would have no impact on her, or change the fact that people were dying as part of Dutertes war.

Its saddening and frightening that even high-ranking public figures have swallowed hook, line and sinker the fantasy that the Duterte administration has been weaving: that a single person was single-handedly responsible for the proliferation of drugs in our country, she said in a statement, referring to the accusations against her that she is a drug lord.
Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada has approved at second reading bill No. 5368 liberalizing the Tax Code.

A total of 240 lawmakers backed the document in early hours on Wednesday.

Head of the parliamentary committee for tax and customs policy Nina Yuzhanina said presenting the bill that the committee received 356 proposals for second reading and 261 of them were voted down.

"Were we able to take into account everything related to liberalization of tax administration in this bill? We have not taken everything into consideration, and there are things to work on Most of the requirements help to relax tax administration, cut corruption challenges in the fiscal area and crate favorable tax environment," she said.

A total of 13 amendments were initially rejected (12 of them were proposed by secretary of the tax committee Oleh Kryshin from People's Front faction), but later the parliamentarians backed 12 amendments.

Yuzhanina said that the transfer of databases from the State Fiscal Service to the Finance Ministry, which was considered by the Finance Ministry as a key anti-corruption tool, is technically impossible: their independent audit will be carried out before July 1.

"We have received an objection from the IMF [International Monetary Fund] regarding the transfer of databases, as it is impossible to realize it technically," she said.
An international watchdog says Islamic State militants in Mosul are deliberately targeting civilians who refuse to join them as they retreat ahead of advancing Iraqi forces.

Human Rights Watch also says that Mosul civilians are increasingly being caught in the crossfire, and that at least 19 have been killed and dozens wounded in the period from the third week of November into the first week of December.

Read | Unravelling the story of a mass grave in Iraq

It says the fatalities incurred from IS militants mortar or sniper fire, car bombs and roadside bombings, as well as in airstrikes by the Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led coalition.

Wednesdays statement says HRW findings are based on interviews with more than 50 residents who had fled eastern Mosul.

HRW warns targeting civilians or using them as human shields is a war crime.
The young Turkish policeman who killed Russias ambassador to Ankara this week had provided security for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eight times since the July 15 failed coup bid, a report said on Wednesday.

Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, pumped nine bullets into ambassador Andrei Karlov at an art exhibition centre on Monday evening, before he himself was killed by Turkish police.

Altintas, a member of the Ankara anti-riot police for two-and-a-half years, had been on duty at eight events attended by Erdogan since July, the Hurriyet daily said.

At such events he was part of the second wave of Erdogans security after the personal bodyguard team of the president, wrote Hurriyets writer Abdulkadir Selvi, known for his contacts in the ruling elite.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told US counterpart John Kerry in a phone call on Tuesday that Turkey believed the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who it blamed for the July 15 coup bid, was behind the assassination plot.

Turkish authorities are now investigating possible links of Altintas to Gulen, including a school he attended that was run by the clerics group.

Hurriyets Selvi said that on the day of the July 15 coup, Altintas had called in sick to the police. But it was not clear what he did that night.

The security forces have now detained 13 people over the attack including close relatives of Altintas, Turkish media reports said.

Meanwhile, a team of 18 Russian investigators arrived in Ankara on Tuesday to take part in a joint probe inside Turkey, an unprecedented move agreed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Security was tightened at Christmas markets across Europe on Tuesday after a deadly truck attack on a market in Germanys capital Berlin that killed 12 people and left nearly 50 wounded.

Britain, France, Italy, Denmark and Czech Republic have all beefed up security measures at Christmas markets which is a popular tradition throughout Europe for both residents and tourists.

Barricades also went up at Christmas markets in Montreal and Toronto -- Canadas two most populous cities -- and security was increased in the wake of the truck rampage which the Islamic State claimed was carried out by one of its soldiers.

Christmas markets feature stalls with local food, mulled wine, warm chestnuts, scarves and tree ornaments, that draw large crowd of people and can be soft targets of attack .

French Christmas markets were already under heightened security. Paris Champs Elysees was lined with barriers and large concrete blocks straddled each entrance. Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said he was briefed last week on measures to prevent exactly the kind of attack that struck in Berlin.

Italy and the Czech Republic promised heightened security to come, while Danish, Norwegian and British police increased their presence at Christmas markets.

In Austria, a traditional home of the Christmas market, authorities said security would be stepped up around such sites

The BBC reported that UK police forces are reviewing security plans post the attack in Berlin.

A Number 10 spokesman said there were no plans to change the UKs security level, which currently stands at severe, meaning a terror attack is highly likely.

Scotland Yard and Police Scotland said they were reviewing detailed plans for the festive period as a precaution following the attack and shooting of a Russian ambassador in Turkey.

Authorities in Poland, where the truck used in the Berlin rampage began its journey before being apparently hijacked, said they would lay on more police patrols around sensitive sites such as stations and shopping centres.

Belgium, where many of the plots in Europe have originated, left its alert level at possible or likely attack.

In Switzerlands main Christmas market in Basle, police said entrances would henceforth be blocked by barriers or police vehicles.

In Canada, the national threat level however remained unchanged, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told AFP.

As revelers went about their usual holiday shopping, city crews laid large blocks of cement at the entrance of the Place des Arts in the north American country, which hosts one of the nations largest Christmas markets, while security searched visitors bags.

Similar security measures were taken at another popular Christmas market in Toronto, public broadcaster CBC reported.
Northern China was shrouded in smog for a fifth straight day on Wednesday as citizens complained that the states emergency measures were still not being implemented properly.

Residents in Shijiazhuang, the capital of heavily industrialised Hebei province that surrounds Beijing, complained that schools were still open even though the city remained on red alert with air pollution levels close to record highs.

Media reports in central Chinas Henan province also carried images of students taking exams in the smoggy open air.

The students are wearing masks every day and attending class in a daze, the windows are sealed shut and they dont dare to ventilate and visibility is at just 20 metres.

We already dont know how long this smog will last, so why arent classes being stopped? a Shijiazhuang resident posted on Chinas Twitter-like Weibo microblogging service.

The students are wearing masks every day and attending class in a daze, the windows are sealed shut and they dont dare to ventilate and visibility is at just 20 metres, the post said on Wednesday.

China began a war on pollution in 2014 amid concern its heavy industrial past was tarnishing its global reputation and holding back its future development. However, it has struggled to reverse the damage done by decades of breakneck economic growth, much of it based on the coal-burning power sector.

The air quality index (AQI) in the major steel-producing district of Fengnan in the Hebei city of Tangshan was still as high as 578 on Wednesday morning. Red alerts are issued when the AQI is forecast to exceed 200 for more than four days in a row, 300 for more than two days or 500 for at least 24 hours.

Concentrations of hazardous breathable particles known as PM2.5, another pollution gauge, were at a dangerous 380 micrograms per cubic metre. PM2.5 levels also remained high in Beijing, with average readings of 360 micrograms per cubic metre, according to official data. The safe recommended level of PM2.5 is 10 micrograms per cubic metre, according to the World Health Organization.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, known as Jing-Jin-Ji, has been at the forefront of Chinas efforts to cut pollution and has pledged to cut emissions of PM2.5 by 25 percent over the 2013-2017 period.

However, Guo Jinlong, Beijings top Communist Party official, told a government meeting on Tuesday the heavy smog could make it harder for the region to meet its annual targets.

He said more work was required to ensure emergency measures were implemented in full, according to an account of the meeting released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The ministry has been naming and shaming companies in recent months for failing to cut output during bouts of smog, and it has also accused local authorities of monitoring lapses.

Many Beijing citizens have been blaming lax enforcement in other regions, including Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, Chinas two biggest coal producers.

Researchers said on Wednesday that although around 30 percent of the PM 2.5 in the Jing-Jin-Ji region this week had drifted in from other provinces, mainly Shandong and Henan, the bulk of pollution sources remained local.

Read| Factories shut, cars limited as north China cities disappear in haze of smog
The last residents hoping to leave rebel-held Aleppo waited in the snow Wednesday as delays hit an evacuation that will leave Syrias army in full control of the devastated city.

An AFP correspondent in the government-held neighbourhood of Ramussa -- through which thousands of evacuees have passed in recent days -- saw no convoys leaving the last pocket of opposition-controlled Aleppo on Wednesday morning.

Heavy snow was blanketing the city and swirling through crumbled buildings, adding to the misery of thousands still inside the last pocket of what was once a crucial stronghold of Syrian rebel forces.

Workers in the red uniforms of the Syrian Red Crescent, which has been helping with the evacuations, huddled by the side of the road, their white ambulances parked nearby barely visible in the snow.

At least 25,000 people have left rebel districts of Aleppo since opposition fighters agreed last week to withdraw from the city after years of fighting, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is overseeing the operation.

The retreat from Aleppo -- which had been divided into a rebel-held east and government-controlled west since 2012 -- marks the biggest victory for President Bashar al-Assads forces in nearly six years of civil war.

It follows a month-long army offensive and weeks of siege that killed hundreds and left rebels with less than 10 percent of the territory they once controlled in the city.

Convoys on hold

Brokered by regime ally Russia and opposition supporter Turkey, the evacuation plan has moved forward in fits and starts but appeared to be reaching its end.

On Tuesday soldiers used loudspeakers to warn remaining fighters and civilians it was time to leave eastern districts.

A military source told AFP the army was expected to enter the rebel enclave to clean the area after the fighters leave.

Ahmad al-Dbis, who heads a team of doctors and volunteers coordinating evacuations, said around 150 people had been able to leave at dawn on Wednesday in two buses and three ambulances.

But more were still waiting, with a convoy of 31 buses and about 100 other vehicles being prepared in rebel territory, Dbis said.

It was unclear how many civilians remained inside east Aleppo, though Dbis said there were a few thousand who were still hoping to leave.

A general view shows damage on the entrance to al-Zarab souk in the Old city of Aleppo, Syria. (Reuters Photo)

As part of the evacuation deal, some residents were being evacuated in parallel from Fuaa and Kafraya, two Shiite-majority villages in northwestern Syria besieged by rebels, who are mainly Sunni Muslims.

Shiite-dominated Iran -- another key Assad ally -- was reported to have insisted on the evacuations of Fuaa and Kafraya for the Aleppo withdrawal to go ahead.

About 750 people have so far been able to depart from the villages, according to the ICRC.

A Syrian military source told AFP that delays in evacuations from Aleppo were procedural and connected with the need to synchronise operations in the two villages.

More than 1,700 people are waiting to leave Fuaa and Kafraya, the source said.

Russia, Iran, Turkey take lead

The evacuation of Aleppos rebel sector is seen as a pivotal moment in a war that has killed more than 310,000 people and triggered a major humanitarian and refugee crisis.

As well as handing a major victory to Assad, it has given fresh energy to international efforts to end the conflict.

Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed on Tuesday to guarantee Syria peace talks and backed expanding a ceasefire in the country, laying down their claim as the main powerbrokers in the conflict.

In a joint statement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Aleppo evacuation should finish within one or two days.

Repeated diplomatic attempts -- including several rounds of peace talks in Geneva -- have failed to resolve Syrias conflict, but UN envoy Staffan de Mistura has said he hopes to convene new negotiations in Geneva in February.

The United States, another supporter of the opposition, has for years been a key player in the diplomatic efforts but has been largely excluded from involvement in the evacuation effort.

With President Barack Obama in his final weeks in office, Lavrov on Tuesday praised the Turkey-Iran-Russia format on Syria as the most effective way forward.

In a rare show of international unity, the UN Security Council did on Monday unanimously adopt a French-drafted resolution to monitor the Aleppo evacuations.

The government and other parties on the ground agreed to allow 20 observers to be sent to east Aleppo to monitor evacuations, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, but it was unclear when they would be able to deploy.

Read| Syrian girl Bana,7, who tweeted from besieged Aleppo, meets Turkish Prez Erdogan

Read| Aleppos fall will change US and Russian roles in Syria
South Koreas ruling conservative party on Wednesday faced an imminent split over the impeachment of scandal-hit President Park Geun-Hye, a development that would seriously undermine its presidential election chances.

More than 30 lawmakers of the Saenuri Party, who have been at odds with Park, have vowed to leave, arguing the partys current leadership refuses to embrace reforms despite the corruption scandal and impeachment crisis.

Weve reached a conclusion that conservatives reform through the Saenuri Party is impossible, Yoo Seung-Min, an eminent lawmaker among the dissenters told journalists.

A split would also complicate a possible run by outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who had been widely expected to compete as a centre-right candidate on the Saenuri ticket.

Thirty-five lawmakers have agreed to break away from the party on December 27, the group said, adding they will try to convince more parliamentary members to join them.

Their departure will leave the party with some 90 lawmakers within the 300-seat parliament and relegating it to second place behind the liberal Democratic Party within the National Assembly.

The group crossed party lines to join opposition parties in passing a motion to impeach Park this month.

Park is accused of colluding with her friend Choi Soon-Sil to strong-arm large companies like Samsung into handing over tens of millions of dollars to two dubious foundations Choi allegedly controlled and plundered.

Park is also accused of ordering aides to leak state documents to Choi, who has no official title or security clearance, and allowing her to meddle in some state affairs, including the appointment of top officials.

The case is now being considered by the constitutional court, which has up to 180 days to rule on the validity of the impeachment that charged Park with multiple criminal and constitutional violations -- ranging from bribery to abuse of power.

If the justices confirm impeachment, Park will be permanently removed and elections must be held within 60 days -- meaning a ballot could be held as early as late March.

The split will drastically reduce the chances of the conservative party winning the presidential election.

Read| Conservative South Koreans rally to support Prez Park, more big protests loom
Baby elephant Gold has come a long way since he was found trapped in a well in central Vietnam earlier this year.

Today, the one-year-old jumbo, whose tufts of jet black hair sprout in a mohican from his wrinkly head, frolics around a grassy enclosure where conservationists are trying to save his species.

Gold and his new playmate Jun, another rescue, are among only a handful of young Asian elephants in Vietnam, where low birth rates have see the population dwindle.

Conservationists are hoping to nurse the pair back to health and set up a full-scale breeding centre modelled after successful matchmaking programmes in neighbouring Thailand and Myanmar.

One-year-old male elephant "Gold" playing inside the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Centre. (AFP Photo)

At the rate theyre going now, within a generation or so well probably lose the elephants, said Tuan Bendixsen, director of Animals Asia in Vietnam, which helps to care for the elephants.

As the number gets smaller and smaller, its going to be harder and harder for the elephants to hang on.

Elephants used to roam freely in the area, mingling with potential mates, but human settlements have cut off once-popular breeding circuits.

Workers resting near a 32-year-old domestic female elephant at a tourist site in the central Vietnamese highland province of Dak Lak. (AFP Photo)

Now there are fewer than 100 elephants left in the wild and just 80 or so in captivity, mostly used to ferry tourists around the leafy forests of Vietnams central highlands.

When it comes to mating, those in captivity are not faring much better.

They rarely get the chance to meet a partner since they spend most of the day chained up. Many are also malnourished and overworked, making it difficult to get pregnant.

A group of foreign tourists taking an elephant ride across Lak lake in the central Vietnamese highland province of Dak Lak. (AFP Photo)

Last hope

Experts say the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Centre could be the last hope for Vietnams disappearing pachyderms.

The first goal is to create a small herd, said volunteer vet Dutchman Willem Schaftenaar.

The elephants that are here should be kept under the best conditions... not keeping them for rides, he added.

Willem Schaftenaar (R), a Dutch vet from Rotterdam Zoo who works as a volunteer for the Animals Asia foundation, playing with one-year-old elephant "Gold" . (AFP Photo)

But convincing local mahouts to hand over elephants to breed or be pulled from work while pregnant wont be easy. They can earn about $13 a day ferrying tourists around, more than double the average salary in the country.

For many it means losing their sole source of income and the status that comes with owning an elephant -- a symbol of prestige in a country where the animals were historically paraded in royal courts and ridden by fighters heading to battle.

The elephant here is a big asset, but more important, its a spiritual animal for us, said elephant owner Y Vinh who is from the Mnong ethnic minority.

Read Assam: Speeding train kills 3 elephants, toll rises to 8 in a month
Syrias army has urged the last remaining rebels and civilians to leave the besieged opposition enclave in Aleppo as it prepares to take full control of the devastated city.

The evacuation of Aleppos rebel sector is seen as a pivotal moment in the nearly six-year war that has killed more than 310,000 people and triggered a major humanitarian and refugee crisis.

The government and other parties on the ground have agreed to allow 20 observers to be sent to east Aleppo to monitor evacuations, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Following a flurry of diplomatic activity, key regime allies Russia and Iran as well as rebel supporter Turkey agreed to act as guarantors in Syria peace talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier.

They also backed expanding a ceasefire, according to Lavrov, who said the evacuation of east Aleppo should finish within one or two days.

In east Aleppo, soldiers using megaphones called on the remaining fighters and civilians to exit the opposition districts, a military source told AFP.

Read| Aleppos fall will change US and Russian roles in Syria

The army is expected to enter (Aleppo) to clean the area after the fighters leave, the source said.

At least 25,000 people have left rebel districts of Aleppo since the operation began last week, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is overseeing the operation.

Spokeswoman Ingy Sedky said 750 people had been evacuated in parallel from Fuaa and Kafraya, two Shiite-majority villages in northwest Syria besieged by rebels, as part of the deal.

Ten buses left the battered east yesterday morning, Sedky told AFP.

But no other buses moved the rest of the day, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a medical official overseeing evacuations.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the delay was due to complications in Fuaa and Kafraya.

Around 20 buses had entered the two villages yesterday but had yet to evacuate anyone, Abdel Rahman said, but he had no details on the reason.

State news agency SANA blamed the delay in the last batch of evacuations from Aleppo on disputes among rebel groups.

Im waiting for my brother to get out of east Aleppo -- hes a 70-year-old civilian, Nuhad al-Seikh told AFP just outside rebel-held Aleppo.

Ive been speaking to him over the cellphone. He said he boarded a bus but is still waiting, said the 55-year-old.

An AFP correspondent at Khan al-Assal, the staging ground where evacuees from Aleppo, Fuaa and Kafraya were being transferred to their respective destinations, saw hundreds of people aboard eight buses from the two villages.

Read| Syrian Twitter girl safely evacuated from Aleppo
Russia, Turkey and Iran cast themselves as the essential deal-makers in Syria on Tuesday, saying at a trilateral meeting in Moscow that their cooperation could pave the way for a future settlement in Syria.

The meeting of foreign and defence ministers of the three nations that previously backed the opposing sides in the nearly six-year conflict reflected a shared interest in brokering a compromise. The talks come a day after the killing of the Russian ambassador in Turkey, but Moscow and Ankara vowed that the attack wouldnt hurt their rapprochement.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said after the talks that the three nations believe their efforts could overcome the stagnation in the Syrian peace process.

The format you see today is the most efficient one, Lavrov said. Its not an attempt to cast a shadow on the efforts taken by our other partners, its just stating the facts.

He cited the evacuation of civilians and rebels from Aleppo, brokered by Moscow and Ankara, as proof of the efficiency of the trilateral cooperation. More than any others, our states are ready to help the settlement with real deeds and not just words, he said.

Lavrov added that it would take one or two days to complete the evacuations.

Read| Syrian government allows UN to beef up monitoring in Aleppo

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said 37,500 people had been evacuated from Aleppo, crediting Russia with making it possible.

Cavusoglu said they talked about establishing a cease-fire across the entire territory of Syria, adding that the Islamic State group and al-Qaidas branch in Syria, the Fatah al-Sham Front, would be excluded from the deal.

The three ministers carefully tip-toed around their differences. Lavrov noted the need for all parties to stop sponsoring terrorists, while Cavusoglu said that policy should also apply to the Hezbollah, a close ally of both Tehran and Damascus.

Zarif replied with a smile that the United Nations Security Council has branded the Islamic State group and Fatah al-Sham Front terrorist organizations, while opinions about other groups may vary

The ministers said in their statements that the three nations are ready to act as guarantors of a cease-fire deal that would also allow the deliveries of humanitarian assistance and free travel of civilians, inviting other nations which have influence with Syrian groups to help reach the agreement.

The United States was notably absent from the meeting, although Lavrov had a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry later Tuesday, informing him about the results of the trilateral talks.

The meeting appears to signal that the former rivals may have reached a deal on dividing spheres of influence in Syria that would see Turkey cut support for Assads foes in exchange for freedom of action in the areas along its border. Turkeys priority is to prevent Syrias Kurds from merging areas under their control.

Sergei Fokin, a Moscow-based military analyst, said that the trilateral meeting marked a significant step toward settling the conflict. Russia, Iran and Turkey will clearly play a dominant role while the influence of other players, primarily Saudi Arabia, will dwindle, he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

In Aleppo, a fleet of buses entered east Aleppo again Tuesday afternoon to evacuate the remaining rebels and civilians from the city, activists said. Thousands of people have been evacuated over the past week, heading to opposition-held areas further north.

Residents from eastern Aleppo and the Syrian opposition say the evacuation amounts to forced displacement. Months of devastating Syrian and Russian air raids that destroyed buildings, hospitals and schools in the enclave  and reduced much of eastern Aleppo to rubble  left the residents with little choice but to evacuate.

The taking of all of eastern Aleppo would mark Assads greatest victory since the 2011 uprising against his familys four-decade rule, but the cost has been staggering. Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands more have been displaced, many of whom may never return.

In western Aleppo, a bomb went off as scores of people were gathered to celebrate the return of Aleppo to government control as well as a Christmas tree-lighting event.

Syrian state TV said there were no injuries from the bomb which went off in a predominantly Christian area near Azizieh square where dozens of Syrians were dancing and waving Syrian flags in celebration. The attack briefly disrupted the party which resumed few minutes later.

The precise number of people seeking evacuation from Aleppo  and who have already left  has never been clear.

Read| Allies discuss Aleppo: Turkey FM speaks 13 times with Iran counterpart

Rami Aburrahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said 17,000 civilians and 5,000 fighters have left; the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has overseen the evacuations, said 25,000 have left; and the Turkish Foreign Ministrys figure is 37,000.

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Mondays killing of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov in Ankara was a provocation by those who want to derail peace talks for Syria and drive a wedge between Russia and Turkey, but added that the two countries should cooperate even more closely.

The development followed a UN Security Council resolution that was agreed on Monday night to shore up the number of observers to monitor the exodus.
Seven-year-old Bana al-Abed, whose Twitter account gave a tragic description of the bombing of Aleppo in Syria, on Wednesday met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his palace in Ankara.

Erdogan received Bana and her family at his palace, the state-run Anadolu agency said, publishing a picture of Erdogan hugging the girl.

A video published by the agency also showed a seated Erdogan holding Bana and an unidentified boy sitting on his knees, flanked by his wife Emine.

Photographs released on Erdogans official Twitter account showed the president hugging Bana Alabed as she sat on his lap.

Bana and her mother Fatemah were evacuated safely along with 25,000 other people from the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo this week. Turkey has supported rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

I was pleased to host @AlabedBana and her family at the Presidential Complex today. Turkey will always stand with the people of Syria, Erdogan said on his official Twitter account.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan meets with Syrian girl Bana al Abed, known as Aleppo's tweeting girl, at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, December 21, 2016. (Reuters)

The young Syrian girl was one of thousands of people evacuated from once rebel-held areas of Aleppo in the last days under a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia.

She was evacuated on Monday and Turkish officials promised she would come to Turkey with her family. But it was not clear when she had crossed over.

For her 330,000 followers, Bana is a symbol of the tragedy unfolding in Syria, although Syrian President Bashar al-Assads regime has slammed her and her mothers nearly daily tweets as propaganda.

Turkey is hosting some 2.7 million refugees from the Syria conflict but has made clear it now prefers to look after those recently displaced, who are not injured, on the Syrian side of the border.

However it makes exceptions for special cases and the wounded.
The Russian side views Kyiv's desire to sign a supplementary agreement to its gas supply contract as an attempt to strengthen its position in the multibillion-dollar Stockholm arbitration between Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrainy.

Speaking on Rossiya 24 television, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said: "Naftogaz has announced it is ready to purchase gas without a discount. Its only demand is to amend the contract. But no alteration to the contract is needed to purchase gas. The Ukrainian side is trying to create favorable terms for itself in Stockholm arbitration. Our position here is very firm: there will be no alterations to the contract."

Novak said the Russian side sees risks to Russian gas transit to Europe this winter. "They are connected with insufficient injections into underground storage facilities and the Kyiv Economic Court ruling in favor of the $6.6 billion fine levied by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. This is an absolutely illegal ruling. Gazprom is currently filing an appeal. A decision on this matter will be taken not by a court in Kyiv, but by Stockholm arbitration. Conditions are being created to use this mechanism to get Russian gas destined for European consumers. We expect the European Commission to pay attention to this. This decision needs to be immediately canceled, so that there is no such possibility," he said.

"We believe that in order to get through winter, Naftogaz needs to buy additional gas. There are no restrictions whatsoever on Ukraine buying gas. Whatever amount is paid for, that is how much that will be delivered. At three-party consultations, it was confirmed that Ukraine has the money," Novak said.

"There are no questions at all concerning the price of gas. The price is sufficiently competitive. It is approximately 3-6% below spot prices on European markets. Since the beginning of the second half, given the comfortable prices on Gazprom's part, we calculate that Naftogaz overpaid $40 million-$70 million for gas. Consumers are paying for the policy that 'we will not buy Russian gas, it's better for us to buy European gas through the European system.' According to my estimates, there will be a small increase, because the formula for the price of gas takes into account oil product prices, crude prices, with a time lag. In connection with the higher price for oil, we see that the gas market overall is recovering. The price level that takes shape on European markets needs to be looked at," he said.
Syrian rebels resumed their evacuation from Aleppo on Wednesday, paving the way for the government to reassume control of the war-torn city.

Earlier in the day, rebels said they have reached an agreement with the government in Damascus to complete their withdrawal from Aleppo, the countrys largest city.

An agreement has been reached to resume the evacuation of Aleppo, announced Ahmad Qara Ali, spokesman for the Ahrar al-Sham faction. He said the evacuations would begin shortly.

The Syrian opposition agreed to surrender their last foothold in the city, last week, marking the most significant victory for President Bashar Assad since an uprising against his familys four-decade rule swept the country in 2011.

It followed a punishing offensive by the government and its regional allies that drove out tens of thousands of civilians from the east of the city.

The government agreed to allow the remaining residents - fighters and civilians - to leave as part of the agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey in Ankara last week.

Buses and ambulances are seen during an evacuation operation of Syrian rebel fighters and civilians from the remaining rebel-held pockets of eastern Aleppo towards rebel-held territory in the west of Aleppo's province on December 21, 2016. (AFP)

An Associated Press TV crew said four buses from the oppositions last foothold in the city arrived to the western Aleppo countryside Wednesday, marking the first successful evacuation in over 24 hours.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 60 buses are expected to evacuate some 3,000 fighters and civilians from the oppositions last foothold in the city. It is the last convoy set to leave Aleppo before the government is expected to declare it has reassumed full control of the city for the first time since rebels carved out an enclave for the opposition in 2012.

Syrian state TV said the evacuations resumed after rebels handed over prisoners taken in previous rounds of fighting.

A dispute delayed the final round of evacuations for over 24 hours after some 20,000 civilians and fighters were bused out of the city.

Some 3,000 rebel fighters and civilians endured harsh wintry conditions overnight, waiting to board what may be the last convoy out of the east. Activists circulated photos on social media of families huddled around fires amid the sleet and snow. By midday, temperatures in the city hovered around freezing.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict through a network of activists on the ground, said 60 buses were waiting to leave.

Syrians evacuated from the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo during the ceasefire arrive at a refugee camp in Rashidin, near Idlib, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016. (AP)

Rebels and the government traded blame for the delay.

Syrian state media said on Tuesday evening that differences among terrorist groups were holding up the evacuations from Aleppo and from two rebel-besieged Shiite villages in the countrys north, Foua and Kfarya. The government calls all armed opposition fighters terrorists.

The rebels are supposed to allow the evacuation of the sick and wounded from the two villages as part of a cease-fire deal reached last week to ensure the evacuation of eastern, rebel-held part of the city of Aleppo.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was prepared to facilitate the evacuations when they resume.

Spokeswoman Ingy Sedky said the ICRC had already evacuated 750 people from the twin villages. This would leave some 1,500 more requiring evacuation, according to the deal reached by rebels and the government Monday.

On Tuesday, the ICRC said it has evacuated 25,000 people from the city since operations began last week, but the Observatory says the tally is closer to 17,000.

The Observatory also said 21 buses are still waiting to evacuate the sick and wounded from the rebel-besieged Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya.

Also Tuesday, the UN humanitarian aid agency said Syrias government authorized UN plans to send about 20 staffers to monitor evacuations from eastern Aleppo. It was not clear if the UN monitors would arrive before the operations were complete.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, fighting between the Islamic State group on one side, and Turkish forces and Syrian opposition forces on the other, killed four Turkish soldiers, according to the state Anadolu news agency.

The report cited unnamed military sources as saying that 11 Turkish soldiers were also wounded in the fighting for the IS-held town of al-Bab on Wednesday, including one who was reported to be in critical condition. The agency reported intense clashes near a hospital in the town, saying the militants were using it as a shelter and to store arms and ammunition.

Turkey sent ground troops into northern Syria in August to support Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces in clearing a border area of Islamic State group militants and to curb Kurdish territorial expansion.

At least 24 Turkish soldiers have been killed so far in the operation, called Euphrates Shield.
Taliban gunmen stormed the residence of an Afghan lawmaker in the capital Kabul on Wednesday, with casualties feared in the ongoing gun battle that follows a recent lull in violence.

It was not immediately clear if Helmand MP Mir Wali was in the compound when the attack began on Wednesday evening, but local media reported some members of his family may have been killed or taken hostage, citing security officials at the scene.

The Taliban in a statement said their suicide bombers raided the house to disrupt an important gathering of security officials.

Sporadic gunfire and explosions were heard from the house as Afghan forces cordoned off the property after launching a clearance operation.

Security officials were tight-lipped about the attack, which underscores the worsening security situation in Afghanistan.

The Taliban are escalating their insurgency despite the onset of winter, when fighting usually ebbs, even as international efforts intensify to restart stalled peace talks.

Fifteen years and hundreds of billions of dollars since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the security situation in the country remains fraught and Afghan forces are struggling to contain the conflict.
The Kremlin on Wednesday said it was too early to say who was behind the murder of Russias ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov -- shot dead by a gunman at an Ankara art gallery on Monday.

Turkeys foreign minister told US secretary of state John Kerry that Ankara and Moscow believe followers of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen were behind the killing, ministry sources said on Tuesday.

Read: Russian envoys killing: Chilling pics of attack at Turkey art gallery

But when Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked about the Turkish foreign ministers comments on Wednesday, he said it was too early to draw any conclusions about who may have orchestrated the murder.

We need to wait for the results of the joint investigative group, Peskov told reporters on a conference call. It is really not worth rushing to any conclusions.

Read: Russian envoys killer had protected Erdogan: report

Ankara has also accused Gulen of orchestrating a failed coup in July, a charge the cleric denies.
Turkey-backed Syrian rebel forces besieging Islamic State-controlled al-Bab have gained full control of the highway linking the town to Aleppo with intense ground and air fire support, the Turkish military said on Wednesday.

In its daily round-up of the near four-month-old Euphrates Shield operation to push Islamic State away from the border area, the army said Turkish warplanes had destroyed 48 IS targets and killed 15 militants.

Four Turkish soldiers were slightly wounded when the vehicle they were travelling in was damaged by a roadside blast, it added.
Seven people were killed in a double bomb attack near the headquarters of an Iranian Kurdish opposition party, in a rare assault in Iraqs relatively secure autonomous Kurdish region, a senior security official said.

The blasts hit the town of Koysinjaq about 10:00 pm (local time) on Tuesday, killing five members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran, a member of the security forces and a child, said Jalal Karim, the Kurdish regions deputy interior minister.

The attack also left people wounded, said Karim, who did not provide a specific figure.

Iraqs Kurdistan region, which has its own government, security forces and flag but is still part of Iraq, has largely been spared the horrific violence that has plagued other parts of the country in the years after 2003.

The Islamic State jihadist group, which Kurdish forces have battled in the north, including as part of the still ongoing operation to recapture Iraqs second city Mosul, is the usual culprit for attacks in the Kurdistan region.

But the fact that the bombings apparently targeted the Iranian party headquarters raises the possibility that another organisation or country may be responsible.

The Kurds are spread across four nearby countries including Iran, where the military crushed a fledgling Kurdish republic in which Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani was born in 1946.

There are some five million Kurds in Iran, and various Kurdish opposition groups oppose the government in Tehran.

Iraqi Kurdistan houses a range of Kurdish groups, including armed organisations such as Turkeys Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and Irans Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), which those countries periodically target in air and artillery strikes inside Iraqi territory.
Three men set up a fence and a ribbon of yellow and black crime scene tape around a site south of Iraqs Mosul, marking a mass grave of jihadists victims.

It is one of dozens of such sites discovered in areas around Iraq that have been recaptured from the Islamic State group, whose rule has been defined by extreme brutality.

Now investigators face the enormous task of piecing together details of what happened to ISs many victims, and determining who they were.

It really is a crime scene, Fawaz Abdulabbas, deputy head of the International Committee on Missing Persons in Iraq, said of the site near Hamam al-Alil discovered after Iraqi forces recaptured the town last month.

Between 80 and 100 bodies are here, including those of women and children, Abdulabbas said.

Among the bodies may be that of Imed Dhaer, a policeman who was kidnapped by IS, leaving 10 children without their father and two wives without their husband, his brother Fuad said.

Read | IS buried over 15,000 bodies in 72 mass graves, new survey shows

When Iraqi forces launched an offensive in mid-October to recapture Mosul, the last IS-held city in the country, the jihadists came to search for all members of the security forces, including 33-year-old Imed, his brother said.

The IS militants were locals; they knew the houses and professions of all those they took, Fuad said.

- Three days of executions -

Since then, he has had no news of his brother, but residents of Hamam al-Alil said they heard shooting at the grave site, a former Iraqi firing range near the town.

For three days, from 7:00 to 11:00 pm, they executed the people they had seized and then dumped the bodies before partially covering them with dirt mixed with garbage in what they termed burials of dishonour, said Dargham Kamil, official from Martyrs Foundation.

The organisation, which is under the authority of the Iraqi premiers office, has been working for over a month to trace how the killings unfolded, and has already collected many accounts from local residents.

Fuad can imagine what happened and now wants only one thing: to see the body of his brother, to know for sure.

Only that can soothe our hearts, Fuad said.

But before that can happen, Iraqi and international teams will have to identify the remains, carrying out DNA tests once relatives have been found.

Additional investigation of the site is also needed to see if there are any deeper layers, and therefore more bodies, said Dhia Karim, the Martyrs Foundation official responsible for mass graves.

- Many graves still undiscovered -

More bodies would add to hundreds already discovered in other mass graves left by IS jihadists, who overran swathes of territory north and west of Baghdad in 2014 but have since been pushed back by Iraqi forces.

Twenty-nine mass graves containing at least 1,600 bodies have been found in Sinjar, west of Mosul, since Iraqi Kurdish forces recaptured it last year, according to Mahma Khalil, the local official responsible for the area.

A number of graves have not been discovered or searched yet, Abdulabbas said.

Amid the tumult of the IS assault, fighting with Iraqi forces, summary executions and other abuses carried out by the jihadists, it is very difficult to establish the number of people who are missing, said Karim.

Karim and his teams have been working to collect testimony from witnesses and relatives of missing persons around the country.

Read | Traces of Islamic State mass grave rot in Iraqi spa town

We will have to gather all this in a single database; it is a very long-term job, Abdulabbas said.

After which the evidence will have to be put in files and presented to the judicial system, which is already overwhelmed with similar cases from past years of violence in Iraq.

The legal process is of utmost importance for national reconciliation, Abdulabbas said.

Many of the people in (IS) are people from here, he said, and their brutality could lead to revenge or vendettas between families.
A Yemeni-American YouTube star from New York, Adam Saleh, called for a boycott of Delta Airlines after charging he was removed from one of its flights on Wednesday for speaking Arabic.

Delta said he was asked to leave the London to New York flight on Wednesday morning following an unspecified disturbance.

We spoke a different language on the plane, and now were getting kicked out, the 23-year-old prankster, who has more than 2.2 million YouTube followers, said in a video filmed as the incident unfolded, and posted on Twitter.

We got kicked out of a @Delta airplane because I spoke Arabic to my mom on the phone and with my friend slim... WTFFFFFFFF please spread pic.twitter.com/P5dQCE0qos  Adam Saleh (@omgAdamSaleh) December 21, 2016

Saleh said he had been talking to his mother on the phone when fellow passengers complained, and he was told to leave.

You guys are racists. I spoke a different language and you say you feel uncomfortable! I cant believe my eyes. We spoke a different language and now there are six white people against us bearded men.

Several passengers could be seen voicing their support for Saleh, with one calling out the airline staff in protest, but others at the rear of the aircraft seemed to approve, waving him off and saying Good Bye.

After an hours-long delay involving more security checks, Saleh said he was finally able to board a flight to New York with a different airline -- and would head straight to see his lawyer.

Three hours after it was posted, Salehs video had been retweeted more than 200,000 times, and the hashtag #BoycottDelta -- which he included in a subsequent tweet -- was trending on Twitter.

It was the latest of several cases in the past year in which passengers have run into trouble on American flights for speaking Arabic -- or in one case for writing mathematical equations that passengers mistook for Arabic.

In a statement on the incident, the airline said it was investigating allegations of discrimination.

Two customers were removed from this flight and later rebooked after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort, it said.

Were conducting a full review to understand what transpired. We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect.

Delta declined to provide further comment when contacted by AFP.
Boston Honors Prickly Poe

Orphan, West Point dropout, critic, poet, novelist, magazine editor and literary innovator, Edgar Allan Poe packed a lot of living into his short 40 years. Tough he spent few of those years in his birthplace of Boston he nonetheless developed a towering disdain for Frogpondians, his nickname for moralizing Bostonians. Now Boston is honoring its prickly native son with a statue erected near the Boston Commons, not far from the home where Poe spent his first three years before the deaths of his young actor parents.

The statue of Poe with a giant raven by his sidesculpted by Stefanie Rocknakwas dedicated on October 5, 2014, and the site is now named Poe Square. Poes most well-known poem, The Raven, was published in 1845 to rave reviews: It is despair brooding over wisdom, one said; another critic wrote that it fills the ear with a wild and delightful music. After hearing Poe read The Raven at her home in Greenwich Village, schoolteacher and poet Anne C. Lynch wrote that he was quiet and unaffected, unpretentious, in his manner; and he would not have attracted any particular attention from a stranger, except from his strikingly intellectual head and features, which bore the unmistakable character of genius.

One of Americas most distinctive literary giants, Poe also penned horror and science fiction stories and in 1841 created the first modern detective taleThe Murders in the Rue Morgue.

FBI Surveillance Records Lost

Left-wing activists and civil rights advocates were well known subjects of surveillance under the FBIs COINTELPRO programs from 1956-71, but one arm of the effort infiltrated white nationalist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, according to a post by historian Trevor Griffey at the blog Unredacted on the website of the National Security Archive, which is based at George Washington University. The details of that projectas well as the 10 other COINTELPRO programshave never been fully known, and Griffey now laments that archival neglect has led to the loss of as much as one-third of the materials relating to COINTELPRO surveillance. The relevant documents were held in archives in Moonachie, N.J., and Alexandria, Va., and both sites were flooded during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Griffey not only questions the adequacy of the archiving, but also asks, Why does the FBI continue to retain millions of pages of historically significant files, many of which are over 50 years old, that have no relevance to its contemporary law enforcement mission? Why have these files not already been transferred to the National Archives?

A New Look at World War II

HOW AMERICAN SOLDIERS fought in the incredibly challenging and diverse conditions of the European and Pacific fronts is the focus of a new exhibition, Campaigns of Courage, opening at the World War II Museum in New Orleans in December. Housed in a new 31,000-square-foot building will be a display, Road to Berlin, that explains what came before and after the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. The displays will recreate from an eye-level perspective environments such as the deserts of Tunisia, the hedgerows of Normandy and the forests of Belgium. Trough other displays viewers can experience a bombing run, see a re-creation of Omaha Beach strewn with actual soldiers artifacts, or read a soldiers diary. Another innovative aspect is The Dog Tag Experience. Visitors will be issued dog tags containing chips linked to the experiences of 29 different soldiers that can be accessed at kiosks throughout the exhibition. A second component of the Campaigns of Courage exhibit, Road to Tokyo: Pacific Theater Galleries, will open in 2015 and highlight evolving strategies and extreme conditions.

Rare All-Black Film From 1913 Found

THE BLOCKBUSTER Birth of a Nation came out in 1913, just as a film featuring premier minstrel performer Bert Williams and an all-black cast was being shot. The untitled film, a romantic comedy depicting middleclass African Americans in Harlem, was never released. Rediscovered several years ago, the restored film the earliest known surviving feature film with a cast of black actorshad its first public screening at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on November 8.

The film is a window on a vital group of Harlem performers who were creating a conventional storyline, not standard minstrels-in-blackface fare. It is also significant for the rare footage of Williams, the Caribbean-born actor whose work in the minstrel shows earned him the highest praise. (W.C. Fields said Williams was one of the funniest men he ever knew.)

The movie showcases the cakewalk, an African-American dance with a prancing step that mocked white society dances. The cakewalk eventually became a fixture in American culture, leading to the idiom That takes the cake.

Rights on Paper

WHEN A GROUP of feudal barons met with King John near London in 1215, they drew up a document that not only limited the kings power but also granted rights to his subjects. Tat piece of paper, known as the Magna Carta, laid the groundwork for the delineation of civil liberties in Western jurisprudence. Today only four copies of the Magna Carta survive, and one is the centerpiece of the Library of Congress exhibit, Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor, on view through January 15, 2015. An exhibit of a facsimile will also tour the United States.

Lincoln Logs Come Home

THE MAKER of the childrens building set has brought production back to the United States, according to the Portland Press Herald. The sets had been milled in China, along with other products made by KNEX, under a license from Hasbro Toys. Pride Manufacturing in Portland, Maine, convinced the company to reestablish domestic production. Painting and packaging will be done in Pennsylvania.

Lincoln Logs were dreamed up in 1916 while John Wright, a son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, was working with his father on the construction of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. The toy design was influenced by the hotels earthquake-proof, interlocking beams. Plans for making Uncle Toms cabin and Abraham Lincolns cabin were included in the original set.

The Great American Land Grab

FOR A SWEEPING depiction of the impact of European colonization on Native Americans, take a look at the interactive map created by Claudio Saunt and Stephen Berry, both historians at the University of Georgia and both involved with the universitys Center for Virtual History. The two have produced a timeline documenting the loss of 1.5 billion acres of ancestral tribal lands and the crowding of hundreds of tribes onto tiny reservations over the period from 1776 to 1887. The project, called Invasion of America: How the United States Took Over One-Eighth of the World at invasionofamerica.ehistory.org, allows viewers to interact with the map, choosing a period, tribe or place to see what was lost by whom and when. By the 1880s, most tribes occupied just pinpoints of land. The data are based on maps produced by the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1899.

Claudio Saunt, author of the highly regarded West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776, is also working on a project, IndianNation (indiannation.org), that will comprise Facebook pages for each of the 237,000 tribal members counted in the 1900 census (down from some 8 million at the time of European contact in the 1540s). His goal is to draw collaborators to help fill in family histories. The site includes a map of current Native American communities with population counts.

Remembering the Newly Freed People

PHOTOGRAPHS of slaves in the United States are rare, and photos in which slaves are identified by name are far rarer. So the discovery of a photo of Selina Gray, the slave at Arlington House entrusted with safeguarding the belongings of Robert E. Lee and his wife, Maryincluding artifacts Mary Lee inherited from George Washingtons estateduring the Union occupation, is a boon for the new interpretive effort underway at the Virginia site. The photoonly the second known of Mary Lees head housekeeperwas spotted by a National Park Service volunteer on eBay and purchased for $700 from a seller in England.

Selina Gray was one of some 60 slaves at Arlington, and after being freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, Gray and her family moved to a plot of land nearby and made a living selling produce.

Another chapter in the transition to freedom was remembered with a ceremony on August 28, 2014, at a cemetery for escaped slaves and freed people in Alexandria, Va. Some 1,800 unmarked graves had been forgotten and eventually paved over. But efforts over the past two decades have finally borne fruit in restoring the site. Stones now delineate each grave, and a bronze marker names those buried there.

FDR on Global Disease Threats, 1940

ON OCTOBER 31, 1940, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave a speech addressing the importance of public health at the dedication of a new building in Bethesda, Md., for the National Institute of Health. Researchers recently came across rare footage of that speech, which was never widely circulated, and the presidents remarksdelivered in the long lead up to U.S. entry into World War IIstill ring true today: We are less than a day by plane from the jungle type yellow fever of South America, less than two days from the sleeping sickness of Africa, less than three days from cholera and bubonic plague. . . . Disease disregards state lines as well as national lines, he said. The ramparts we watch must be civilian in addition to being military.

The dedication honored the fourth donation of land to the National Institute of Health by Mrs. Luke I. Wilson. Now named the National Institutes of Health, the agency comprises 27 research institutes and centers. It originated as the Marine Hospital Service, created in 1798 to care for sick and disabled seamen. In 1873 the Marine Hospital Service became the first career service for civilian federal employees.

Save the Bison

REPRESENTATIVES from 11 Native American tribes in Montana and Canadas First Nations in Alberta signed a bison treaty on September 23 that included an appeal for their members to work with researchers and conservationists to preserve and restore the prairie. The treaty, signed at the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, is the first between the tribes since the 1800s.

1934 Drought: Worst Ever

A NASA PAPER in Geophysical Letters examining the evidence for droughts in North America from the years 1000 to 2005 pinpointed the drought of 1934which extended over more than 70 percent of the United Statesas the worst in that time period. The study looked at tree-ring evidence as well as modern records and concluded that the 1934 drought was 30 percent more severe than the next worse drought in 1850. An unusually situated high-pressure system, along with poor land management practices that helped create precipitation reducing dust storms, were cited as critical factors.

Originally published in the February 2015 issue of American History. To subscribe, click here.
In the thick of presidential primary season, Republican candidate Donald Trump canceled a rally at the University of Illinois in Chicago because of the number and vehemence of protesters in and out of the hall. We shut shit down! demonstrators shouted. We stumped Trump! A Chicago police officer took a thrown bottle in the head.

A Trump campaign statement calling off the rally asked everyone to please go in peace. But for months, Trump himself had been making incendiary remarks about hecklers at his own events. If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you, seriously, the candidate told supporters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in February. I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees.

The First Amendment is designed to protect freedom of speech and of the press from overbearing government. A bill of rights, as Thomas Jefferson put it, is what the people are entitled to against every government on earthand what no just government should refuse. But historically in America, government has not been the only censor; bullying mobs can shut down free expression as effectively as any bureaucracy and have been doing so for more than 200 years. In 1787-88, mob violence even marred the struggle to approve the Constitution. The framers ratified our fundamental law in an atmosphere that sometimes slipped into lawlessness.

The first such episode occurred in Philadelphia in September 1787, days after delegates to the Constitutional Convention finished their work. They signed the document in the State House (now known as Independence Hall) on September 17. The next day, the Pennsylvania Assemblythe states unicameral legislaturemet in the same room to hear a public reading of the new instrument. The framers had stipulated that the Constitution take effect once it had the approval of nine states; Pennsylvaniaone of the largestwas considered a must-win. The Assembly ordered 3,000 copies printed (2,000 in English, 1,000 in German) for the publics edification and heard a motion to call a state ratifying convention.

The call for a convention struck assemblymen representing central and western Pennsylvania as too much, too soon. Their states vast distances and mountainous interior meant that their constituents would be weeks learning what the new Constitution said. At the end of September, enough skeptical assemblymen absented themselves to deprive that body of a quorumuntil, in a sweep of Philadelphia boarding houses, the sergeant-at-arms ran to ground two no-shows. A contemporary observer described the result: After much abuse and insult, the reluctant assemblymen were dragged through the streets to the State House and kept there by force. Quorum in place, the Assembly issued a summons for a ratifying convention that went on to approve the Constitution in December.

The debate spilled into 1788, with the Federalists winning easy victories as well as close calls. The Massachusetts ratifying convention, which sat in January and February 1788, was a model of tough-minded, reasonable argument. Discussion in Virginias ratifying convention, which did not meet until the beginning of June, was more heated but intelligent and principled.

It was in New York that mobs made an appearance. Politics in New York had been rough since colonial times, when merchants and supporters of the established Church of England contended with landowners and other Protestants in the elective lower house of the legislature. During a 1769 election, a member of the landed Livingston clan boasted, We have by far the best part of the bruisers on our side.

During the Revolution, the pro-Anglican party turned Tory and thereafter faded. The triumphant landowner group then split in two, with older familiesthe Livingstons and the equally prominent Schuylersopposing Governor George Clinton, a son of Irish immigrants. Ironically the new man, Clinton, championed the status quo, resisting the new system of government as a threat to his power, while the old families, led by the Schuylers young in-law, Alexander Hamilton, were advocating for reform and the Constitution.

New Yorkers debated briskly. The citys five newspapersthe New-York Journal being the most virulently anti-Federalistfilled their pages with arguments pro and con. Brutus (pen name of Robert Yates, a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention who had walked out in disgust) arraigned the Constitution, while Publius (a collective pseudonym of Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay) analyzed and defended it.

All we hear isConstitution talk, a New Yorker wrote in the spring of 1788. That talk continued at New Yorks state ratifying convention, convened on June 17, 1788, in Poughkeepsie. Governor Clinton led the anti-Federalist majority. Hamilton and Robert R. Livingston, head of his clan, eloquently challenged Clinton and company, while Jay patiently offered them deals. But on the streets, bruisers also were playing a part.

On July 3, Albany got word of a decisive moment.

A ninth state, New Hampshire, had ratified at the end of June; now Virginia, the largest state, had signed on. Happy Federalists rang church bells and fired guns. But on July 4 anti-Federalists, determined that New York should decide its own destiny, marched to a vacant lot where they ceremoniously burned a copy of the Constitution. Later that day, hundreds of Federalists affixed another copy to a felled pine tree and paraded the document through town. As Federalists passed the tavern where their foes maintained their headquarters, the pubs occupants hurled bricks, rocks, and scraps of iron. In retaliation, the Federalists trashed the building and took prisoner some of their assailants, including the mayors brother.

Bowing to the national trend, the Poughkeepsie convention finally ratified the Constitution on July 26.

When that news reached New York City, Federalists fired salutes from Fort George in the harbor and from the deck of the Hamilton, a 27-foot float in the shape of a ship, moored at Bowling Green. After dark, the celebration turned sinister. Five hundred men attacked New-York Journal publisher Thomas Greenleafs home. The crowd smashed Greenleafs windows, then advanced on Clintons residence and the home of prominent anti-Federalist John Lamb.

Fortunately, in none of these incidents was anyone killed. The sergeant-at-arms waylaying the Pennsylvania assemblymen in Philadelphia only roughed up and humiliated the pair. The anti-Federalists who had been seized in Albany were soon released.

In New York City, Greenleaf escaped the mob by fleeing out his back door. Clinton was not at home, and Lamb had barred his windows and armed himself, which cooled the crowds enthusiasm. But force did succeed in stifling free expression. The Pennsylvania assemblymen were compelled to count themselves present. Greenleafs attackers not only vandalized his home but also threw his type into the street. In five days, the New-York Journal had resumed publicationnot daily, but weekly.

It is to the countrys credit that such episodes were the exception. Most Americans who were involved in ratification, from leaders to ordinary voters, took the issues seriously and behaved responsibly.

As Pauline Maier wrote in her book Ratification, We the People of 1787 and 1788 were engaged in a dialogue between power and liberty, not a brawl.

But the bruisers remained on call even after the Constitution was up and running.

When the Livingstons did not receive one of New Yorks seats in the new national Senate, they turned on Hamilton; their rejection helped demote him from home-state and hometown hero to goat. In 1795, trying to address a hostile mass meeting on Wall Street, Hamilton was hit in the head by a stone. Making a joke about knock-down arguments, he left the scene.

Memo to municipal police departments across the land: A lifelong New Yorker, fellow name of Trump, is running for president.

This story was originally published in the July/August 2016 issue of American History magazine. Subscribe here.
Eleven-year-old Ingrid Eiserlohs world changed forever on January 8, 1942, one month and one day after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the catalyst for Americas entry into World War II. Even in tiny Strongsville, Ohio, where Ingrid lived, the unbearable news of Japans crippling strike rolled of newspaper drums and hummed across radio signals. Air raid sirens shrieked 15 miles away in downtown Cleveland.

Within a few hours after the first bombs were dropped, FBI agents arrested hundreds of Japanese Americans. But they also targeted those with ties to other Axis powers. Fourteen days after Pearl Harbor, the FBI held 1,430 Japanese, 1,153 Germans and 215 Italians in the continental United States and Hawaii. During the course of the war, the U.S. government would intern 31,275 enemy aliens: 16,849 Japanese, 10,905 Germans, 3,278 Italians, 52 Hungarians, 5 Bulgarians, 25 Romanians and 161 more people listed as other.

One of those enemy aliens was Ingrids father, Mathias Eiserloh. Mathias and his wife, Johanna, had immigrated from Germany 17 years before and eventually settled in Strongsville to raise Ingrid, her 6-year-old brother, Lothar, and 1-year-old sister, Ensi. A structural engineer, Mathias earned $60 a week working for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in Cleveland. He was in charge of constructing lime plants for the glass manufacturers chemical division. His large hands carried a scent of sour chemicals that Ingrid did not find unpleasant; the smell meant her father was with her.

German immigrants to the United States had long been subjects of suspicion. In 1936 President Franklin D. Roosevelt secretly ordered FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to investigate not only suspected members of the Nazi movement but anyone who might pose a security risk in the event of war. Hoover instituted a sweeping surveillance program that proved much more far-reaching than his commander in chief had in mind. He amassed a team of agents from coast to coast who wrote daily reports of real and imagined subversive activities, wiretapped suspects and developed extensive dossiers built on the word of anonymous informants.

In Strongsville, half of Ingrids neighbors had either been born in Germany, like her parents, or were second-generation Germans, born in America, like Ingrid and her siblings. With the news of arrests of Germans, a worried hush fell over the neighborhood. Mathias and his German friends stopped meeting at the local beer hall. They stopped speaking German in public. Agents came to town to interview their non-German neighbors.

What the Eiserlohs did not know, but is made plain in declassified FBI files, was that those neighbors had fingered Mathias as a potential German spy. According to one FBI record, a woman reported that Mathias had a large cistern in his basement that could be used as a secret room or filled with quicklime used to dispose of dead bodies in the event of war. The local chief of police told the FBI there was no indication that the subject was building a secret room, much less a containment system for dead bodies. Te cistern was, in fact, used to collect extra water for the family. Nonetheless it became part of a dossier against Mathias.

On the cold morning of January 8, Ingrid and Lothar were at school; Ensi was quiet in her crib. Two FBI agents pulled up to the Eiserloh house in large black cars. They were dressed in dark suits and hats, like characters in a movie. Both carried guns. Mathias gave his permission for the agents to search the premises, but they didnt need it. They had an authorized search warrant, signed by the attorney general of the United States, Francis Biddle.

Over the next few hours, the agents moved from room to room, looking for dynamite, shortwave radios, cameras and any other suspicious items. They confiscated letters and photographs from relatives in Germany. Paintings of German landscapes were taken from the wall. They examined bank records from the Cleveland Trust Company and noted the amount of money in Eiserlohs account, a mere $700.

Finally, the agents handcuffed Mathias and placed him in what they called custodial detention, which meant that he could be held in prison indefinitely. The word arrest was not used. No one read Mathias Eiserloh his rights, because as a legal resident alien from Germany, an ally of Japan and Italy in the war against the United States, Eiserloh had none under U.S. laws. He was not allowed a lawyer. No charges were filed, and he would never be convicted of any crime. Yet from that moment on, Eiserloh was officially branded a dangerous enemy alien.

Over the next few weeks neighbors spoke to Johanna through cracked doors, if they talked to her at all. No one believed an innocent man could be jailed in America, much less held without charges. The coldness of her neighbors astonished her. She believed her husband was innocent, and she believed in the integrity of American justice.

In her first formal effort to defend Mathias, Johanna typed a letter to Attorney General Biddle. My husband has too much character to be un-American, she said. I am sure that the agents who have taken many things from our home that were dear to me have seen nothing there indicating that anyone in our family sought to, and could or would, engage in activities against the interest of the United States, because none of us ever entertained such thoughts.

But someone else thought they had. On January 14, 1942, six days after his arrest, Mathias had been taken from his jail cell in Cleveland to appear before an alien hearing board, made up of local citizens, for less than 15 minutes. He was asked about the evidence against him that had been sent to Hoover. Most of the accusations came from an anonymous fellow employee at the plate glass company who charged that Mathias was pro-Nazi. Mathias brother-in-law, an American citizen and veteran of World War I, spoke on Mathias behalf, and initially the board recommended parole, but Hoover refused to give up. Two more reports were filed against Mathias. When the board reconvened on January 31, without Mathias present, it recommended his internment. Meanwhile, Mathias maintained his innocence. I am completely loyal to the United States, he insisted. My children are citizens of the United States. I only want to make a good and decent life for them.

On February 11, Hoover wrote to Edward J. Ennis, director of the Alien Enemy Control Unit of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, informing him that Eiserloh should be interned. The following day Biddle issued orders from Washington that made Eiserloh an official prisoner of war and interned him with other detainees at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin. He was an enemy by virtue of his German citizenship, and the FBI viewed him as a security threat.

Within months of Mathias arrest, the Eiserloh family was destitute. Johanna had to sell the house in Strongsville and move to Mathias sisters house in Cleveland. Johanna wrote to Ennis and asked what charges her husband was being held on. If you believe in justice and fair play to three American children, such as you may have yourself, you will have your men check our circumstances and my husbands case and send him back where he belongsto his family and to his job, where they will be glad to have him back and where all of us will be an asset, not a liability, to America, Johanna pleaded.

We realize that the internment of your husband, or any other alien enemy, is a hardship on the entire family, Ennis responded, but this is not to be considered as important a feature as the protection of the peace and protection of the United States. If we were to consider these hardships in times such as these, the security of our country would be greatly imperiled.

What Ennis did not disclose was that domestic security wasnt the only motivation for the incarceration of foreign-born immigrants from Axis countries. He was also charged with gathering a pool of enemy aliens for the Justice Department to leverage in negotiations with Berlin and Tokyo for exchanging American prisoners of war, and he justified the policy of arrest and internment without trial by means of this ruthless but necessary cost-benefit analysis.

Mathias eventually learned that there was one camp where families of POWs could be reunited in exchange for agreeing to repatriate to Germany. It was a difficult choice. He would be offering not only himself and Johanna but also their three American-born children as ransom for Americans being held in Germany. He would be giving up on his commitment to making a life for all of them in America. Who knew what the conditions would be inside Germany? The Nazis were likely to view the Eiserloh family as enemy Americans, while the Americans already saw them as German enemies. Still, Mathias felt he had little choice. By the law of all humanity and the sake of my family, he requested of Ennis, please have my wife and children sent into a family camp to be interned together with me at the earliest possible date. Tat camp was in Crystal City, Texas.

As an enemy alien Mathias official status at Crystal City was involuntary. The Justice Department described the familys internment as voluntary. Johanna understood that although she and her children would enter the camp of their own free will, they would not be free to leave at will. Once inside the barbed wire fence, they too would be prisoners. They would live under constant surveillance by armed guards. Their mail would be censored. They would be subject to daily inspections. Still, Johanna felt there was no other way to sustain herself and her children and concluded it was better for the family to be together in a prison camp than separated.

I am not in favor of Hitler or Nazism, Johanna wrote in her petition for repatriation. I am a democrat like my father. I consider myself a full-fledged American. I really dont consider myself a German. I have applied for repatriation because I want to get my husband out of camp. I cant go on this way.

Thirteen-year-old Ingrid Eiserloh, her mother, brother and sister boarded a train in Cleveland. Ingrid wore a cotton pinafore, a white cotton shirt and a pair of scuffed Mary Janes. Pinned to her collar was a family identification card. Trough the trainload of German mothers and their American-born children walked armed guards, plain-clothes agents of the INS, with long-barreled rifles and handguns on their hips. When the train came to a stop two days later, on July 10, 1943, the Eiserlohs climbed down the metal steps into the blazing heat of San Antonio, Texas. There was no shade in sight. Mathias and six other German prisoners had been transported by Army bus to San Antonio to meet the train. Ingrid ran to Mathias, arms wide open and feet flying. He was thinner, but he stood square-shouldered and smiled at her. Hes alive! Ingrid said. Gee, he looks good. Johanna and all three children encircled him. Ingrid cried when her father hugged her.

The reunited families boarded the bus for the 120-mile drive to Crystal City. Mathias looked at Johanna and the children as if he could not believe his eyes. Ensi had been a baby in a crib when he left Strongsville. Now she walked on her own. Lothar was much taller and Ingrid looked like a teenager. Johanna was thinner than hed ever seen her. At first, conversation was awkward, but as the miles passed, they settled into the fact that they were together again. Within an hour everyone was talking at oncein English and in German.

The small town of Crystal City was a contrast to Cleveland and San Antonio. Ingrid saw wood-planked sidewalks in front of a hardware store and a small building labeled City Hall. In front of it was a statue of Popeye, erected by local spinach growers in 1937 in honor of their biggest cash crop. Men walked the street in cowboy boots and wore 10- gallon hats. There were signs in English and Spanish: bar and cantina, store and tienda. To Ingrid, Crystal City seemed more like a Western movie set than a real town.

By the time the Eiserlohs arrived at the camp, 400 Germans and 145 Japanese lived there. Ingrid saw warehouses and a row of neat wooden shacks, some surrounded by flowerbeds planted by the internees. An American flag few inside the barbed wire fence. I remember looking up at the guard towers and seeing the men holding machine guns, Lothar later recalled. It was all so confusing.

Camp commander Joseph L. ORourke made a brief welcome speech. His voice was friendly but firm. He explained that over the next few days they would learn the rules and procedures. For now, he said, the important thing was to settle in. The Eiserlohs were taken to temporary barracks with communal toilets and showers. Pajamas, socks, underwear and a change of clothing for the next day had been provided by workers from the commissary. All the children were taken to the camp hospital to be vaccinated against whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus. A doctor in a stiff white coat explained the hazards of daily life in Crystal City. He suggested the children stay indoors during the hottest parts of the day. When they were outside, he warned them to watch for rattlesnakes, scorpions, black widow spiders, tarantulas and even mountain lions. In Ohio, Ingrid had never even heard of a scorpion. She would soon see the first of many. Still, as she fell asleep that night on a narrow cot, she was content to once again be under the same roof with her family.

Daily life in Crystal City was highly regimented. Every morning the American flag was raised, and the night guards relinquished their posts to the day guards. Censors fluent in German and Japanese read incoming mail and cut out portions that related in any way to the war. Internees were allowed to write only two letters and one postcard per week. These, too, were censored. Comic books were confiscated for fear that they contained coded messages. A small police force patrolled the camp. At the front gate, vehicles were searched upon entry and exit. Te penalty for attempting escape was death, and for the duration of the camps existenceDecember 12, 1942, until February 27, 1948no one ever risked it.

The Eiserlohs lived in C Section of the 290-acre camp in a coveted 500-square-foot bungalow with an inside toilet, a kitchen and one bedroom. Others lived in duplexes, triplexes and tar-papered Quonset huts with communal toilets and showers. All of the quarters had heaters, kerosene ranges and portable ovens and square-shaped iceboxes. Every aspect of daily lifethe amount of food, allotted living space, payment for workwas prescribed by the Third Geneva Convention and monitored by the International Red Cross. Internees farmed the fields, constructed buildings and worked as schoolteachers, barbers, beauticians, nurses and doctors in the camp. They were paid 10 cents an hour up to a maximum of $4 a week. No one went hungry in Crystal City. Many camp employees, residents of the town, had civilian ration cards that limited the amount of meat, sugar and coffee they could buy. They complained that internees enjoyed a better life inside the fence than they had outside it. Commander ORourke wrote that he felt squeezed between the demands of internees and those of the employees who believed that anything received by the internees was too good and too much.

Every morning Ingrid woke to the smell of freshly made, dark German bread. Bottles of milk were delivered to her door in the morning and the ice truck arrived in the afternoon. Mathias worked on the design and construction of a 250-footwide circular pool that served as an irrigation reservoir for the farm crops and a swimming pool, which became a gathering place for both German and Japanese internees. Tree types of schools were established for the childrenAmerican, Japanese and Germanand each provided an elementary, junior high and high school education. The American school was fully accredited by the Texas Board of Education, staffed by state-certified teachers and classes were taught in English. In the Japanese and German schools, internees taught students in their native languages. Johanna pressed for Ingrid and Lothar to be enrolled in the American school, since they were born in America and primarily spoke English. But Mathias argued that since they were to be repatriated to Germany, the children needed to become fluent in German.

His argument prevailed and on September 7, 1943, when the German school opened in a four-room facility, Lothar reported to fourth grade and Ingrid to seventh. The school was structured on the strict German model, far more rigid than the schools Ingrid and Lothar had attended in Ohio. The children struggled to think and speak in German and to prepare for the inevitable: the loss of their homeland.

January 2, 1945, was a cold day in Crystal City. The trees beyond the fence line were bare. Early in the morning Ingrid and 428 German nationals, American-born children like her and a large contingent of German families from Latin America gathered in the camp dining hall for a hearty breakfast of eggs, fried sausage and warm tortillas. Ingrid glanced at her white lapel tag, which branded her with a new government identity. No longer was she a voluntary internee. Now she was an official repatriatean equally ironic label for an American teenager bound for war-torn Germany with her family. The group would sail from New York on the Swedish liner Gripsholm and be traded for American prisoners of war and civilians. The January 1945 exchange was the sixth and last of the trans-Atlantic exchanges. By then, a total of 2,361 Americans caught behind enemy lines in Europe had been returned from Germany and Italy in exchange for 4,500 Germans and 124 Italians who had been interned in U.S. camps.

Johanna was nine months pregnant with her fourth child, but Dr. Robert Martin, a camp physician, signed a medical release certifying that she was fit to travel by train to New York and by boat to Germany. Before leaving Crystal City, Mathias and Johanna, like the other adult internees, signed an oath of allegiance by which they promised never to disclose details of their internment or the exchange. Mathias signed a second oath not to perform military service in Germany. For the rest of their lives, Mathias and Johanna kept silent, partly because they feared government reprisals and partly out of shame for their internment.

All day and well into the night, FBI agents supervised the departure of the contingent from Crystal City. Armed border patrol agents were stationed in each train car. No communication between cars was allowed. Newspapers were not allowed. The shades were kept pulled down.

As the train barreled east toward the Mississippi River, Johanna went into labor and, attended by Dr. Martin and a nurse, gave birth to a boy. Mathias named his second son Guenther. His birth certificate would list New Orleans as his place of birth. According to Ingrid, Dr. Martin tried to convince Mathias to have Guenther placed for adoption.

Dont take this infant into a war zone, Martin said. He might not survive.

I understand the risk, Mathias said, but I have to keep my family together.

In fact, Mathias did not understand the risk. In Crystal City war news was censored and rumors were rampant. Most who left the camp did not realize that Germany was losing the war. Indeed, most believed, without evidence, that Germany would prevail. Mathias followed the glimmer of hope that he would find work there and live as a free man with his family. It would be better, he was sure, than life behind the barbed wire fence.

Shortly before midnight on January 7, all of the repatriatesa total of 183 German prisoners of war and 856 civilians from internment camps around the countrywere on board the ship. Twenty-two years before, Mathias and Johanna had arrived in New York to start their lives in America. From the deck, Mathias again saw the illuminated Statue of Liberty, the symbol of the promise of his youth. That seemed a long time ago. Now, he and his family were leaving the United States, sent by their adopted country across the Atlanticinto war.

EPILOGUE: Life in postwar Germany was harrowing for the Eiserlohs. Ingrid and Lothar returned to the United States, under the guardianship of Mathias sister, in 1947. Re-entry visas for the rest of the family were denied until 1955. By then, my father was a broken man, recalled Lothar, who today divides his time between California and Hawaii. Mathias died in 1960. Johanna became a U.S. citizen in 1961, but she found it a bitter pill to swallow when she read newspaper articles about the Japanese internment with no mention of the Germans who were also interned. It made her feel invisible, said Ensi, who lives in California. Johanna died in 1997. Guenther was killed in a car accident in 1968. On December 7, 201372 years to the day after the attack that ignited the warIngrid died in a Honolulu hospital, not far from Pearl Harbor. Congress approved reparations for Japanese-American internees in 1988. Bills to study the wartime treatment of European internees have all stalled.

 2015 by Jan Jarboe Russell. From the forthcoming book The Train to Crystal City: FDRs Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and Americas Only Family Internment Camp During World War II, by Jan Jarboe Russell, to be published by Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Printed by permission.

Originally published in the February 2015 issue of American History. To subscribe, click here.
Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada has backed a bill creating the export-credit agency in Ukraine.

An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that bill No. 2142a providing for the aggressive exports expansion of Ukrainian manufacturers via insuring, guaranteeing and cheapening of exports crediting was passed at second reading late on Tuesday, December 21, by 237 lawmakers.

According to the document, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers creates the export-credit agency to stimulate exports of Ukrainian goods, labor and services. The agency will insure, reinsure exports on a voluntary basis and will secure contracts aimed at developing exports. The agency will participate in the implementation of the program to partially compensate the rates for exports credits.

The export-credit agency will support exports of Ukrainian labor and services and goods made by processing industry under some foreign activity codes.

The bill describes the procedure for creating the agency, its structure, goals and key tasks. The agency will protect Ukrainian exporters from a risk of payment failures and financial losses related to the implementation of foreign economic contracts using insurance, reinsurance and guarantee tools.

The agency is created in the form of a public joint-stock company. The state in the person of the government is the founder and a shareholder in the agency with at least 50% plus one share of the share capital.
After the killing of Russian envoy in Ankara, there was speculations were rife that Russia and Turkey relation might worsen.

However, both the countries have reportedly agreed that envoy kiiling was an act of "provocation".

Russian President Vladimir Putin termed the incident as an act of disrupting the normalisation of bilateral ties and the "peace process in Syria", reported Turkish state media Anadolu agency.

It was not clear if the gunman, an Ankara riot police member who was later shot dead in a gun fight with Turkish officers, had links to any militant group.

Both the countries have vowed to work together to find out who is behind the murder of Karlov. Russian investigators arrived in Turkey to help on Tuesday.

President Putin is backing Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad in the ongoing conflict in Syria which had led to mass killings of people opposing Assad forces.

While, Turkish government is backing the opposite rebel faction in war-torn Syria.

Both the countries are not on the same page as far Syrian conflict is concerned. This year Turkey had gunned down a Russian jet fighter which had led to tension between both the countries.

The killing of Russian envoy is being seen as the reaction of recent bombing in rebel held Aleppo where hundreds of people were killed last week.

Police have arrested six people over the killing of the Russian ambassador, Turkish state media Anadolu agency said on Tuesday.

On Monday a policeman had gunned down the Russian envoy Andrey Karlov at a photo exhibition in Ankara.

According to media reports, the policeman shouted "Don't forget Aleppo!" as he gunned the envoy down.

He was later shot dead by members of Turkey's Special Forces.

The ongoing civil war between Assad forces and Sunni rebels have killed around 300,000 people and created a power vacuum exploited by Islamic State.

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Outgoing U.S. first lady Michelle Obama said during an interview with Oprah Winfrey that she will support the incoming United States President Donald Trump for comfortable transition process.

However, Michelle Obama was very critical of Donald Trump during presidential elections campaign.

The recent statements by Michelle Obama are contradictory to previous statement on Trump.

She vowed full support Trump and his family, specially the first lady Melania Trump in Transition Process during an interview to CBS.

Michelle said , She and President Barack Obama are supportive of Trump transition for the better future of the United States.

She said this to Oprah Winfrey in an interview that was aired on Monday on CBS.

Michelle said she is going to be there for the Donald Trump and do whatever she can do to make sure that he is successful because if he succeeds we all succeed.

The first lady met Melania Trump at the White House days after her husband was elected president and offered her support to the President-elect's wife.

Mrs. Obama discussed her and her team's commitment to helping Melania Trump transition into the First Lady role, and the bipartisan tradition of former FLOTUS' counseling new ones.

Michelle admitted she and Melania talked about their kids when they met for the first time at the White House on Nov. 10.

Michelle admitted that she learned a lot from previous First Ladies, especially Laura Bush, 70.

After 8 years of serving as First Lady, she's willing to extend a helping hand to Melania in what will be the most exciting and nerve-wracking time in Melania's life. Oprah and Michelle also discussed the idea of Michelle running for office.

Oprah asked Michelle point-blank if she'll be running for office someday. "No," Michelle said immediately.

Watch the full interview of Michelle Obama here:



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Visit expo > BMP Whole Blood Analyzer: GEM Premier ChemSTAT Gold Supplier miniiSED ESR Analyzer New T2Dx Instrument Benchtop Diagnostic System New Enzymatic DNA/RNA Extraction Buffer DNA/RNA Extraction Buffer

Simple nasal rinses could provide relief of chest and breathlessness symptoms afflicting asthma patients, according to a new study.Researchers at Heartlands Hospital (Birmingham, United Kingdom) and Birmingham Regional Severe Asthma Services (United Kingdom) conducted a study involving 30 patients with severe asthma and rhinosinusitis who were taught to rinse their nasal passages with a saline rinse. The impact of saline rinsing on nasal and chest symptoms and scores were evaluated using the asthma control questionnaire (ACQ), which gauges patient-reported bronchodilator use, wheeze, nighttime breathlessness symptoms, and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1).Symptoms were assessed once before starting treatment and once again three months later. The researchers found that after three months, 88% of the patients reported improved nasal symptoms, 62% reported improved chest symptoms, 69% showed a clinically measured and significant decrease in nasal symptoms, and 83% showed clinically significant improved ACQ scores. The study was presented at the British Thoracic Society winter meeting, held during December 2016 in London (United Kingdom).Two thirds of patients with severe asthma also suffer with rhinitis; this can lead to nasal congestion, forcing patients to adopt abnormal breathing patterns such as mouth breathing, which exposes the airways to cold dehumidified air, said lead author physiotherapist Anita Clarke, of Birmingham Regional Severe Asthma Services. Nasal irrigation can certainly help reduce nasal symptoms and also reduce asthma symptoms. The ability to 'nose breathe' is an essential part of an efficient breathing pattern, and this study shows the treatment can provide the added benefit of helping people with asthma feel they can breathe more easily.Asthmais defined as a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. These episodes may occur a few times a day or a few times per week. Diagnosis is usually based on the pattern of symptoms, response to therapy over time, and spirometry.
Tis the season to create your holiday wish list.

However, a hotel marketer's wish list is unlike any other. Instead of asking for a new car or the latest tech toy, what you secretly hope Santa brings are all the assets you need to hit budget in 2017.

So deck the halls with these top wishes from every hotel marketer's holiday wish list:

1. Presidential Policies That Maintain Current Demand and Today's Steady Economy

After two years of presidential election anxiety and uncertainty, hotel marketers are crossing their fingers that President Elect Trump and his policies will work in the hotel industry's favor. Despite the controversial rhetoric during campaign season, we hope Trump's long-standing and famed career in real estate will serve us well during his time in office, with issues like immigration reforms that positively impact our employees, foreign trade agreements that benefit our supply chain, or promised tax relief.

2. More Legal Injunctions Against Airbnb

Earlier this month, Airbnb officially backed off a lawsuit they had against New York City and the city's new strict regulations targeting certain Airbnb hosts. The new rules impose fines up to $7,500 for hosts illegally renting out multiple units. This settlement comes after Airbnb walked away from another lawsuit earlier this year, attempting to block San Francisco's law that required hosts to register with the city. Other cities had kept a close eye on these cases, since the outcome would potentially shape their own battles against Airbnb. Plus, AHLA created model legislation for local governments to use in their own short-term rental measurements. These events leave us with renewed hope for more rulings against Airbnb in the future.

3. More Awareness of the Benefits of Booking Direct

We all have Marriott and Hilton to thank for setting up a strong foundation for the rest of the hotel industry in our battle to regain bookings from OTAs. Their high-profile marketing campaigns, like Hilton's "Stop Clicking Around," intrigued audiences and raised awareness about the benefits of booking direct. Now that the stage has been set, our hope is more and more hotels will follow in their footsteps and start their own clever campaigns (no matter how small) to regain market share, plus offer more creative perks to entice guests to book direct.

Read more: 3 Ways to Overcome the Perception that OTAs are Cheaper

4. Simpler Data Collection and Personalization

Just like Santa, you want to deliver exactly what guests want when they want it. And, there's just one way to achieve that  data. Luckily, 2016 was a big year for data, giving us more tools to amass more timely information about guests than ever before. However, gathering and analyzing data can be time-consuming and complicated. So this year, hotel marketers are hoping for simpler methods and tools to collect that data and actually put it to good use.

5. To See Authentic Travel Marketing Pay Off

Today's hotel guests are all about extraordinary experiences and remarkable moments they can't achieve at home. So, for the past several years, hotels have been reimagining what defines their typical guest experience and giving guests front-row access to the local flavor and culture. From chef-led farmers market tours to lobby art shows featuring local upcoming artists, hoteliers are hoping their curated local experiences will prove to drive more bookings and boost their bottom line.

6. A Bigger Marketing Budget

You know all too well that successful hotel marketing campaigns take talent and money. And, nothing would make you happier this holiday season than a larger 2017 marketing budget to pay for the resources you know you'll need. Unfortunately, there are still many hotel owners who believe you can hit your revenue targets with less money and cheap marketing methods. This year, hotel marketers are hoping to convince hotel execs that their lofty revenue goals need to be supported with loftier budgets (and maybe even more staff). Let's hope hotel owners realize that investing in marketing is one of the smartest moves they can make to boost revenue.

7. Property Upgrades to Remain Competitive

Major hotel brands have invested millions in creating new hotel collections or revamping current properties to align with the tastes and expectations of modern travelers. With so many new and noteworthy properties vying for guests' attention, it's more important than ever to keep up with contemporary amenities, experiences and aesthetics. No amount of brilliant marketing can hide an aging and outdated hotel property. Unless your hotel owners invest in the necessary upgrades, renovations and redesigns, marketing your behind-the-times hotel will be a fruitless endeavor.

8. Less Reliance on OTAs

We get it.

Sometimes you feel as if your hotel can't survive without OTAs. They bring bookings seemingly out of nowhere and consistently fill your rooms with a minimal amount of effort. However, the fact remains that those rooms are booked at rock-bottom prices. On top of that, OTAs still pocket 15-30% on top of the already reduced room rate. Driving your own reservations and relying less on OTAs IS possible. ROI-obsessed hotel marketers like many of our clients have created tools and perfected marketing techniques to take back bookings, such as booking engines that decrease bounces, copywriting that drives conversions, and pricing psychology that convinces guests to purchase. All of these smart tools and tactics already exist and are here for the taking, so consider this holiday wish 'granted.'

9. Consistent Glowing Guest Reviews

From TripAdvisor reviews to Instagram images to Facebook photos, today's travelers rely on each other's experiences to help drive and validate their own booking decisions. No matter how brilliant your marketing campaigns are, guest reviews will always have the upper hand. So, it's important to deliver an outstanding guest experience each and every time. The more positive opinions guests share about your hotel, the more others will trust you with their travel funds as well.

10. Better benchmarking

Virtually every hotel marketer we speak to asks the same question: "how am I doing compared to other properties ,like mine?" While many common benchmarks (like STR's indexes) exist, KPIs like website conversion rate and direct vs 3rd party revenue ratio vary by property-type and market. Help apparently is on the way, as smart analytics companies like Snapshot Analytics in Europe and others are trying to help hotel marketers evaluate their performance vs relevant peers worldwide.

About Tambourine

Tambourine drives direct revenue for hotels and resorts worldwide using advanced marketing technology. Symphony, the Firm's flagship product, helps hotels increase direct website traffic, create a comprehensive presence across all digital channels and decrease the overall cost of acquiring direct bookings. Symphony provides a complete set of fully managed tools and services including:

Omni-channel traffic generation (search, PPC, email, social and meta-search)

Custom-branded, responsive hotel website design and mobile sites

Integrated booking engine and reservation recovery

CRS, GDS rate distribution and channel management tools

Cross-channel ROI tracking dashboard

The firm is celebrating its 32nd year in business. For more information about Tambourine, visit www.Tambourine.com

David Spector

Tambourine
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Poland, which has rejected the idea of expanding infrastructure on its territory for supplying Russian gas to Europe on the Yamal-Europe 2 pipeline, is now trying to block Gazprom's expanded access to OPAL, the eastern continuation of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, in order to ensure utilization of the Polish gas transmission system, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview on Rossiya 24 television.

Commenting on Warsaw's complaints over the European Commission decision to provide Gazprom expanded access to OPAL's capacity, Novak said: "These are unwarranted statements. Because for us, the gas pipeline through Poland is the most economically effective route, the shortest one. Construction of an additional gas pipeline was even proposed. But Poland refused. That is why we don't understand the essence of these statements, if we are expanding our infrastructure and Poland earlier refused to develop the infrastructure through its territory."

"Gas consumption in Europe will rise and production will fall. An additional 100-150 bcm will be needed in the coming 15 years. We are ready to compete on this market with other suppliers. The infrastructure is needed, economically effective infrastructure. Supplying gas on Nord Stream 1 today is one-third cheaper than via Ukraine's gas transportation system. The effectiveness of supplies needs to be looked at," he said.
Compared with November 2015, occupancy increased 2.5% to 60.7%, and average daily rate (ADR) rose 3.4% to US$119.71. As a result, revenue per available room (RevPAR) grew 5.9% to US$72.68, marking the industrys 81st consecutive month with a year-over-year increase in RevPAR.

The U.S. hotel industry reported positive year-over-year results in the three key performance metrics during November 2016, according to data from STR.

Compared with November 2015, occupancy increased 2.5% to 60.7%, and average daily rate (ADR) rose 3.4% to US$119.71. As a result, revenue per available room (RevPAR) grew 5.9% to US$72.68, marking the industrys 81st consecutive month with a year-over-year increase in RevPAR.

The 60.7% occupancy level was the highest for any November in STRs database, and the RevPAR increase was the largest for the industry since October 2015.

November results were definitely stronger than expected, but the month will likely end up as an outlier, said Brad Garner, STRs senior VP for client relationships. Part of the performance can be attributed to a calendar shift. This month included a Tuesday and Wednesday in comparison with a Sunday and Monday in 2015. Performance on those days in 2016 was quite a bit higher, which is to be expected as Sunday is historically the lowest performing day of the week.

Moving forward, we still expect supply growth to outweigh demand growth, leaving ADR as the primary driver of RevPAR. That equation likely adds up to a performance growth slowdown for the industrysimilar to what we have seen in previous months.

Among the Top 25 Markets, Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Virginia, recorded the only double-digit increase in occupancy (+11.0% to 53.3%) and the largest increase in RevPAR (+14.0% to US$43.17). ADR in the market was up 2.6% to US$81.00.

Three additional markets reported double-digit growth in RevPAR for the month: Chicago, Illinois (+12.9% to US$107.24); Los Angeles/Long Beach, California (+12.6% to US$124.32); and Nashville, Tennessee (+11.0% to US$94.85).

Los Angeles/Long Beach posted the largest rise in ADR (+7.8% to US$164.67).

Houston, Texas, reported the steepest declines across the three key metrics. Occupancy in the market dropped 9.5% to 58.0%, ADR was down 6.1% to US$99.54 and RevPAR decreased 15.0% to US$57.69.

Miami/Hialeah, Florida, experienced the months second largest decrease in RevPAR (-9.9% to US$128.15).

The Top 25 Markets (RevPAR +5.4%) didnt perform as well as other markets (RevPAR +6.1%), mostly due to greater occupancy gains in those other markets, Garner said. That is to be expected due to group business shifts to markets outside of the Top 25 and to more new supply entering the larger markets.

View monthly U.S. hotel performance review

STR provides clients from multiple market sectors with premium, global data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 10 countries around the world with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and an international headquarters in London, England. For more information, please visit str.com.
Transaction builds on successful dormakaba merger and recent Mesker acquisition, in line with stated strategy  adding substantial scale in North America

Scope of transaction: Consolidated 2016E net sales of USD 276 million and EBITDA of USD 52 million

Encompasses North America-focused Stanley Commercial Hardware as well as GMT in China

Well-recognized industry brand BEST to considerably strengthen market position

Large installed base to provide attractive and stable repeat business

Established spec-writing capabilities to enhance opportunities in new construction

Strong position in growing verticals such as education and healthcare to complement dormakabas established position in hospitality

dormakaba to become a top-three player in North America, the most profitable market in the industry, noticeably enhancing prospects for further profitable growth

dormakaba today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire certain Mechanical Security businesses from Stanley Black & Decker for a total consideration of USD 725 million in cash. The transaction encompasses Stanley Commercial Hardware spanning mainly across North America and including a production facility in Taiwan; as well as GMT in China. Sargent and Greenleaf, a safe lock provider that also forms part of Stanley Black & Deckers Mechanical Security business, is not included in the transaction.

Riet Cadonau, CEO of dormakaba: This transaction builds on the dormakaba merger, which boosted our global market position, and the recently completed Mesker acquisition, which will expand our North America offering to cover all essential door components including manual doors. Now with this unique strategic opportunity to acquire Stanley Commercial Hardware, we will add substantial scale, becoming a top-three provider in the attractive North American market that can offer the full portfolio of door hardware and access control solutions to our customers.

Subject to customary closing conditions, completion of the transaction is expected in the first quarter of 2017. Full operational integration is expected to take up to three years, starting with the carve-out process of the acquired business from Stanley Black & Decker and integration of the back-end functions into dormakaba. The dormakaba post-merger integration process in North America as well as in Asia is well advanced to allow to follow through with this important strategic acquisition.

Strategic acquisition of a large and scalable business in North America

Stanley Commercial Hardware employs around 1,000 staff and operates with three main brands, including the BEST brand, one of the most recognized and trusted security names in the market. Their broad range of mechanical products and security solutions as well as wireless and cloud-based electronic locks are installed in over 350,000 end-user sites across North America, providing dormakaba with an attractive and stable repeat business, amongst other benefits.

Stanley Commercial Hardware also has a strong track record in terms of new construction projects, which reflects in its established base of specification writers providing consultation on access and security solutions early in the building cycle. This will allow dormakaba to take part in additional construction bids and to compete in large new projects with a complete product offering.

In terms of vertical markets, Stanley Commercial Hardware has a strong position in growing verticals such as education and healthcare, which will complement dormakabas strong position in hospitality, multi-housing, and government.

Furthermore, the acquisition will provide selected portfolio improvements such as master key systems and hinges as well as ANSI-certified products manufactured in Stanleys Taiwan production facility, which is part of the acquisition. With more product breadth and additional channel relationships with geographically-based contract hardware distributors and wholesalers, dormakaba will be able to exploit its new unique portfolio.

Michael Kincaid, COO Access Solutions Americas of dormakaba: Thanks to Stanley Commercial Hardwares large installed base and spec writing capabilities, we will also be able to exploit interesting cross-selling opportunities in the future. With the North American market still relying on mechanical solutions, dormakaba will be in an excellent position to meet evolving customer demands for electronic upgrades and cloud-based solutions including mobile credential technology.

China-based GMT, which is also included in the acquisition, employs around 600 staff. It is an established provider of commercial hardware products primarily for the mid- and lower price point markets. GMT is a well-known brand for glass door floor hinges and door hardware in China.

Value enhancement and financing

The overall business to be acquired will post estimated net sales of approx. USD 276 million and adjusted EBITDA of approx. USD 52 million, resulting in an EBITDA margin of approx. 19% for 2016E. For the Commercial Hardware business, 2016E net sales are approx. USD 229 million, adjusted EBITDA is approx. USD 51 million. For GMT in China, 2016E net sales are approx. USD 48 million, adjusted EBITDA is approx. USD 2 million.

The transaction is expected to be neutral to EBITDA margin of dormakaba from closing, and accretive from full year 2019/2020 onwards. With regard to earnings per share, the transaction is expected to be EPS accretive from day one.

The acquisition implies a pre-synergies EV/EBITDA multiple of 13.8x on a 2016E basis (9x multiple post expected revenue and cost synergies to be achieved within four years, and tax benefits).

The acquisition will be fully debt financed by an increase in the existing syndicated bank credit facility.

For further information:

For media

Stephen Pollack

Vice President, Marketing

T: 859-253-4744

stephen.pollack@dormakaba.com

dormakaba Group is one of the top three companies in the global market for access and security solutions. With strong brands such as Dorma and Kaba in our portfolio, we are a single source for products, solutions, and services related to doors and secure access to buildings and rooms. With around 16,000 employees and numerous cooperation partners, we are active in over 130 countries. dormakaba Group is headquartered in Rumlang (Zurich / Switzerland) and generates an annual turnover of over CHF 2 billion.

SIX Swiss Exchange: DOKA (formerly: KABN / KABNE)

Further information at www.dormakaba.com

Disclaimer

This communication contains certain forward-looking statements, e.g. statements using the words "believes", "assumes", "expects", or formulations of a similar kind. Such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and expectations which the company believes to be well founded, but which could prove incorrect. They should be treated with appropriate caution because they naturally involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could mean that the actual results, financial situation, development or performance of the company or Group are materially different from those explicitly or implicitly assumed in these statements. Such factors include:

The general economic situation

Competition with other companies

The effects and risks of new technologies

The company's ongoing capital requirements

Financing costs

Delays in the integration of acquisitions

Changes in operating expenses

Fluctuations in exchange rates and raw materials prices

Attracting and retaining skilled employees

Political risks in countries where the company operates

Changes to the relevant legislation

Realization of synergies

Other factors named in this communication

If one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors should actually occur, or if one of the underlying assumptions or expectations proves incorrect, the consequences could be materially different from the assumed ones. In view of these risks, uncertainties and other factors, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The Company accepts no obligation to continue to report or update such forwardlooking statements or adjust them to future events or developments. The Company emphasizes that past results and performances cannot lead to conclusions about future results and performances. It should also be noted that interim results are not necessarily indicative of year-end results. Persons who are unsure about investing should consult an independent financial advisor.

This press release constitutes neither an offer to sell nor a call to buy securities of dormakaba in any legal system. dormakaba, dorma+kaba, Kaba, DORMA, Com-ID, Ilco, La Gard, LEGIC, SAFLOK, Silca etc. are registered brands of dormakaba Group. Country-specific requirements or business considerations may mean that not all dormakaba Group products and systems are available in all markets.
Hotel History: Hotel Monaco, Chicago, Illinois

The Hotel Monaco which opened in 1999 was originally built as a hat factory for the D.B. Fisk & Company in 1912. Daniel Brainard Fisk was born in Upton, Ma. in 1817 and came to Chicago in 1853 where he developed the largest wholesale millinery business in the U.S. After the original Fisk building burned to the ground in the Chicago Fire of 1877, D.B. Fisk moved to a six-story building on the site where the Marshall Field Annex Building is now located. When Marshall Field wanted to construct the present Annex, they built the 13-story D.B. Fisk building at South Wacker Drive and Wabash Avenue in 1912. The architect was George L. Harvey who designed the Mt. Sinai Synagogue (now the Community Bible Fellowship), the Goulden Chapel addition to the Grace Episcopal Church, the Desmond Theater, Knights of the Maccabees, White's Art Hall and provided supervision of the Carnegie Library and the Michigan National Bank.

Fiskhats were manufactured and marketed from this D.B. Fisk & Company building until 1958 when it was sold to the Oxford House organization. Oxford House runs group homes for recovering alcoholics and substance abusers. In its simplest form, an Oxford House provides a democratically operated, self-supporting and drug free home. By 2010, the total number of Oxford Houses increased to 1,458 with a total of 11,392 Oxford Recovery Beds. In 1998, Kimpton acquired the D.B. Fisk building from Oxford House and converted it into the hip and quirky Hotel Monaco. After a $3 million guestroom renovation in 2011, the Monaco provides amenities that are unique and one-of-a-kind. Here's how Kimpton's publicity department describes the renovation:

For the room refresh, renowned interior designer Susan Caruso blends a bold, yet modern flair, including a collection of objects that nod to the world traveler. A modernized steamer trunk nightstand in rich earth tones displays a red Moroccan lamp. Cream and gridlines of gold set off the turquoise bed throw and skirting, while refreshing blue and green shapes dance across a festive boudoir pillow.

Monaco Chicago is home to the Tranquility Suite, a lavish two-room suite which encourages unreserved relaxation with its peaceful design, soothing textures, serene colors, and restful amenities such as in-room massage rollers, sound machines, sleep masks and towel warmers.

A French deco-inspired look contributes to this hotel's travel theme, as do the rooms named for international destinations such as Tokyo and Paris. The hotel is pet-friendly and will even supply your room a pet goldfish-in-a-bowl upon request. Round starburst dressing mirrors are a unique touch in the brightly colored guestrooms, where turndown is accompanied by such unusual amenities as lottery tickets or Pixy Stix candy.

*excerpted from Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi

About Stanley Turkel, CMHS

Stanley Turkel was designated as the 2015 and the 2014 Historian of the Year by Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This award is presented to an individual for making a unique contribution in the research and presentation of hotel history and whose work has encouraged a wide discussion, greater understanding and enthusiasm for American History.

Turkel is a well-known consultant in the hotel industry. He operates his hotel consulting practice serving as an expert witness in hotel-related cases, providing asset management and hotel franchising consultation. He is certified as a Master Hotel Supplier Emeritus by the Educational Institute of the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

Stanley Turkel is one of the most widely-published authors in the hospitality field. More than 275 articles on various hotel subjects have been posted in hotel magazines and on the Hotel-Online, BlueMauMau, HotelNewsResource and eTurboNews websites. Two of his hotel books have been promoted, distributed and sold by the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry and Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi). A third hotel book (Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York) was called "passionate and informative" by the New York Times. His fourth hotel book was described by the New York Times: Nostalgia for the Citys caravansaries will be kindled by Stanley Turkels... fact-filled... Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt and Oscar of the Waldorf.

All of these books can be ordered from the publisher by visiting www.stanleyturkel.com.

Stanley Turkel, CMHS

917-628-8549

stanturkel@aol.com

www.stanleyturkel.com
AccorHotels announced that it has successfully reached agreement with a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to restructure a portfolio of 31 hotels (4,097 rooms) in Australia.

The agreement involves a portfolio which was purchased by the ADIA subsidiary in 2013 and operated by AccorHotels.

Under the restructure of the portfolio of 31 hotels:

AccorHotels will convert 15 triple-net leases into 50 year management agreements and extend the management term of one hotel also to 50 years (total 16 hotels);

AccorHotels (HotelInvest) will acquire the real estate of the remaining 15 ibis and ibis Budget branded properties for AUD$200 million (137 million);

This deal is in line with our stated strategy to optimise cash flow generation, reduce earnings volatility and restructure lease contracts into owned and managed hotels, said John Ozinga, COO of HotelInvest. The acquisition of the economy hotels in key locations is a signal of our continued focus on supporting the Groups growth strategy by holding a selective portfolio of profitable hotel property assets, he added said.

The hotels are located in prime locations including Sydneys Darling Harbour, Sydney Olympic Park and in Canberra, Australias Capital City. The portfolio is also spread across city and regional locations in New South Wales, Victoria, Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland and encompasses the Pullman, Novotel, Mercure, ibis, ibis Styles and ibis Budget brands.

The acquisition will be accretive to AccorHotels EBIT in 2017 and will further strengthen its market leadership position in Australia by securing tenure on key assets. Completion of the acquisitions is subject to the usual conditions for this type of transaction, as well as regulatory approvals.
2 Chainz and Atlanta Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins partook in a hotly contested 3-point contest Tuesday at Phillips Arena. Better known for his dunks than his 3-point shot (32% career), Wilkins, 56, spent 40 minutes warming up before the contest.

Chainz opted to shoot first. He made four attempts over three racks for a total of six points. Wilkins defeated the rapper with ease, racking up seven points in his first two racks. Chainz demanded a second go-round and fell once again, 9-5.

Tity Boi appeared both devastated and bitter in a post-shootout interview. You cant be here an hour before me, set up the racks where you know your field-goal range is higher, because we know you shoot from that side, he said. Weve seen it for 30 years. You want me to come in straight out the van and shoot from there. I dont feel like that was fair for me.

Wilkins smiled serenely and shared a piece of hard-earned wisdom with the rapper: Life is hard, and sometimes fair.

Watch the full contest below.

Tity Boi v. Wilkins
Jordan Brand will be celebrating the Chinese New Year with a special edition collection that includes two separate Air Jordan 12s as well as a brand new Air Jordan 31.

The mens Air Jordan 12 obviously draws on inspiration from the classic Taxi Air Jordan 12, featuring a white and black color scheme just like the beloved Taxis. However, this CNY joint features a reflective 3M upper and bamboo accents, which are included on the Tan/Red womens version as well as White/Black the Air Jordan 31.

According to reports, the Chinese New Year Collection will initially release on December 25th at Jordan.com, followed by a China-exclusive release on January 7th. A stateside release will reportedly take place on January 28th, which marks the turn of the Chinese New Year.

CNY Air Jordan 12
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a loan of up to EUR 8 million to Kremenchuk municipal trolleybus company (KTU) for the acquisition of 50 new low-deck trolleybuses, including spare parts and maintenance tools, as well as the workshop maintenance and diagnostic equipment for the new fleet, the press service of the EBRD has reported.

The loan, which will be guaranteed by the municipality, will be supported by an investment grant of up to EUR 2 million from the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P), to which the European Union is the largest contributor.

"The investment in Kremenchuk will be the first urban transport project in Ukraine to benefit from an E5P grant," the press service said.

The bank's press service said that Kremenchuk is an industrial city in central Ukraine with approximately 225,000 inhabitants. About 50,000 of them live across the Dnipro River and currently don not have full access to the KTU service.

"The project will allow the municipal public transport operator to increase its level of service to households, currently not fully covered by it, by restoring two trolleybus routes on the right bank side of the city. The municipality will also contribute to the project by rehabilitating necessary infrastructure," the bank said.

The new trolley buses, which will be procured in 2017, will be 20% more efficient than the current ones, most of which are at least 15 years old. As a result of the renewal and the shift to energy efficient and environmentally friendly electric transport services, the municipality will benefit from the reduction of hazardous emissions.

"The EBRD project will allow for a complete renewal of the electric transport fleet in Kremenchuk for the first time in the history of the city. Its implementation will provide the residents of all districts of the city with comfortable, affordable and environmentally friendly public transport," EBRD said citing Kremenchuk Mayor Vitaliy Maletsky.

"By financing this project we are not only supporting ecologically clean and modern municipal service. We are also providing affordable transport and services to low income families and senior citizen. The EBRD is grateful to E5P and the EU for their crucial support for the project, without which it would have never materialized," EBRD Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus Francis Malige said.

The project is implemented under the Ukraine Public Transport Framework approved by the EBRD in 2015. The facility is designed to help replace ageing municipal transport with new ecologically friendly rolling stock.

In October 2015 Odesmiskelektrotrans and EBRD signed a loan agreement for EUR 8 million to buy 45 new trolleybuses under the Ukraine Public Transport Framework.

The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. To date, the bank has made a cumulative commitment of almost EUR 12 billion through 369 projects since the start of its operations in the country in 1993.
Nashville songwriter Andrew Dorff  who penned Blake Sheltons number one country hit singles Neon Light and My Eyes  has died at the relatively young age of 40-years-old. The cause of death is as yet unknown.

Dorff's brother is the Hollywood actor Stephen Dorff who played the tragic ex-Beatles member Stuart Sutcliffe in the 1994 film Backbeat.

Andrew also penned hit songs for major Nashville stars such as Kenny Chesney and Hunter Hayes.

Our songwriting community is small and close and this loss will hurt us all deeply. Andrew was a good man and a good friend. He was an elite songwriter at the peak of his life and career, the President of the Nashville Songwriters Association International, Lee Thomas Miller wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

While Blake Shelton took to Twitter to express his sadness of the news. Sad to be finding out about Andrew Dorff passing away Terrible tragedy. Prayers to his family.

Andrew Dorff had followed in the footsteps of his father, the songwriter-composer Steve Dorff. He made a name for himself when he moved to Nashville from his hometown of California back in 2003 and singed a publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group Nashville.

He went on to write songs for the likes of Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Hunter Hayes, Ronnie Dunn and William Michael Morgan, among many others big names in the Nashville music scene.

Speaking back in October, Andrew Dorff told Music Row: I want to keep writing songs that matter. There's not quite a greater feeling than having a song of yours come on the radio. You can't help it, you just turn it up a little louder.

"Having people tell you they heard your song on the radio and it affected them in some way, whether it's laughing, crying, dancing  that's why I do what I do."

Heres the video for Blake Shetons Neon Light':


Judy Collins, The Webb Sisters, Suzanne Vega & Sharon Robinson were among those who joined us in saying, "So long, Leonard!"

Having treated us to those brilliant Kilmainham, 02 and Lissadell House shows, it was no surprise that Ireland went into collective mourning on November 11 when news broke that Leonard Cohen had passed away earlier in the week.

Team Hot Press immediately started contacting record companies, agents, promoters and friends of friends who might have been able to put us in touch with Leonards inner circle for the tribute issue that needed to be pulled together within four days.

We understood that for some of them it would be too early and painful to share their memories but, almost without fail, we got messages back saying, Yes, theyd love to talk to you.

It soon became apparent that, one, everybody in Leonards orbit adored the man and, two, the Irish love affair was mutual with both Sharon Robinson and The Webb Sisters confirming just how much he enjoyed playing in the land of saints and scholars including his beloved William Butler Yeats.

We also spoke to his old friends Judy Collins and Suzanne Vega; his biographer Sylvie Simmons who was one of the few people who got to hang with Leonard at home; the man who brought him to Lissadell, John Reynolds, and musical admirers Mike Scott, Cathal Coughlan, Gavin Friday and Camille OSullivan.

We hoped that wed done Leonard justice, but were stunned by the incredible fan reaction to the tribute issue which, starting tomorrow, Thursday December 22, we'll be sharing online.

To buy our Leonard Cohen tribute special simply click here.



Or download the iOS app for iPad/iPhone

Or download the Android App


President Michael D. Higgins Christmas address to the nation has just been uploaded onto YouTube.

In the stirring speech, President Michael D. Higgins discusses the economy, the homeless crisis, and the plight of migrants around the globe.

He also speaks about how were now in a time of uncertainty right across the EU following a turbulent year.

Many people in Ireland are also worried about the future. It is a time of uncertainty at home and across the European Union, where life has been a struggle at an economic and social level, President Higgins stated. And now new forces seek to exploit old divisions or create new ones, utilising even the hate of racism and ethnic exclusion.

President Higgins also discusses his hope for the future of Ireland, saying he wishes that together, we will continue to seek to build the true republic of which our forebears dreamt, embracing the values, possibilities and responsibilities contained in that dream.



Heres the full text of the President Michael D. Higgins impassioned Christmas message:

"Dear friends here in Ireland and around the world,

"As President of Ireland, Uachtaran na hEireann, it is my pleasure to send you my warmest wishes for a peaceful, as well as a happy Christmas and New Year.

"The Christmas period is a special period for all of us. It is a time of celebrations, of closeness and of hope. A time, too, to focus on the message contained in the story of a child in the manger, born to parents without a home, and reliant on the hospitality of strangers.

"This story should resonate to us in our present world and circumstances, holding as it does a message for all of us, regardless of our circumstances or faith: A message of challenge to moral action, one of optimism in our capacities for a new beginning, and it is a message of peace.

"As this year ends and a new one begins, the dream of 'Peace on Earth' can seem very distant. In the past year, we have witnessed horrific violence and suffering in countries such as Syria, Yemen and Iraq but also closer to home in Istanbul, Nice, Brussels and in so many other towns and cities.

"Internationally, ever more children, women and men are on the move, living precarious existences in the refugee camps of the world, as conflict and disasters continue to force people to flee, flee from their homes.

"The humanitarian situation of millions of vulnerable people is still awaiting an adequate global response.

"The circumstances of the birth of Christ, with its forced migration, homelessness and powerlessness, are being re-enacted for us the world over, in the conditions of migrants - including infants and children - as they wait, not knowing what the future will hold for them.

"Many people in Ireland are also worried about the future. It is a time of uncertainty at home and across the European Union, where life has been a struggle at an economic and social level.

"And now new forces seek to exploit old divisions or create new ones, utilising even the hate of racism and ethnic exclusion.

"In the past year, a special year of commemoration and reflection, we have been reminded of how precious our freedom is. We commemorated how one hundred years ago a small group of women and men set in train a series of events that ultimately led to an independent State. In doing so, we celebrated elements of our past that can provide us with a lasting source of pride and confidence, as well as a compass for the future. We also reflected on aspects of our history that had been forgotten, evaded or even downplayed.

"As we now face into a new year we are challenged to embrace the new. We need courage to depart from what has not served us well, and we need the inspiration to make new connections with each other and with the vulnerable planet on which we live.

"Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu reminded us that 'A person is a person through other people'. This fundamental awareness of the importance of our love for  and dependence on  each other should inform all our plans and actions, and should give us the wisdom to generate new models and new policies that will ensure inclusive action at home and abroad.

"Our solidarity is the heart beat of our society. Our bonds are stronger than we think, and stronger than that which at times divides us. The complex world in which we live challenges us, but it does not pose greater challenges than those faced and overcome by previous generations, or by brave movements of the oppressed in world history.

"My wish, at this Christmas of 2016, is that, together, we will continue to seek to build the true republic of which our forebears dreamt, embracing the values, possibilities and responsibilities contained in that dream.

"I wish each and every one of you a blessed and happy Christmas and a New Year of restored hope and faith in Irelands future.

"Beir Beannacht."
Irish actor Michael Fassbender has revealed that he plans to take a well-deserved break from acting in 2017.

Its been pretty full on. I had a ferocious appetite and energy for it, and I went at it like a maniac. But Im going to take some downtime now. The last five years, I was verging on being a workaholic. Ive just been going from film to film, he reveals.

He certainly isnt exaggerating. Since 2011, Fassbender has more than a dozen credits to his name, such as the Steve Jobs biopic and a number of X-Men movies. But even if he does take time out, fans of the actor will still be seeing plenty of him in 2017, as Fassbender has three films in post-production and will next appear on the big screen in Assassins Creed, which is out in January.

Fassbender, who grew up in Kerry, also says he wouldnt rule out the possibility of giving up acting in the future. Im not ruling it out. Im not saying its going to happen, but a part of me thinks you have a time as an actor when youre at your best. Theres a journey to it, and then its downhill, he told Time Out magazine.


French energy giant Total will spend more than $200 million to buy a significant stake in the liquefied natural gas company founded by Charif Souki, combining one of the world's biggest energy companies with a pioneer of U.S. LNG exports.

Total will own 23 percent of Souki's Tellurian Investments, which is developing the $12 billion Driftwood LNG project south of Lake Charles, La., as part of the next wave of LNG export projects. The goal is to bring the terminal online in 2022 with the expectation that growing global demand by then will have wiped away the anticipated glut of LNG in the coming years.

Souki formed Tellurian early this year after his ouster as CEO at Houston-based Cheniere Energy at the end of 2015. In February, Cheniere became the first U.S. company to export LNG.

The investment represents another sign that the world's largest energy companies see more value in cleaner-burning natural gas than oil over the long term, Houston energy investment banking firm Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. said in an analyst note. British oil company BP recently said it would invest more than $900 million in an LNG project in West Africa. Earlier this year, Royal Dutch Shell acquired BG Group and its extensive natural gas and LNG holdings for $54 billion.

"The majors are going big on small-scale LNG," said Giles Farrer, global LNG research director for Wood Mackenzie.

Philippe Sauquet, Total's president of gas, renewables and power, said the Tellurian investment gets his company into a project that could strengthen Total's position in LNG.

Farrer said the deal legitimizes Tellurian and makes the Driftwood LNG project much more viable,

Souki built Cheniere into the nation's first LNG exporter but was pushed out by investors just before the first shipment for being over ambitious in a weakened marketplace.

He formed Tellurian with Martin Houston, the former chief operating officer of BG Group. They then poached Cheniere executive vice president Meg Gentle and named her Tellurian president and CEO at the end of August.

"Total's investment materially strengthens Tellurian's position as a large infrastructure development company," Gentle said in a statement, "and is an important milestone in the growth of Tellurian's LNG business."

The privately held Tellurian is in the process of going public through the reverse takeover of the public but financially failing Magellan Petroleum Corp. of Denver.

The Magellan deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017. Tellurian has not said whether the company's name will change.

In November, General Electric's oil and gas division, which is combining with Houston-based Baker Hughes, agreed to buy a small stake in Tellurian for $25 million.
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Nothing can get people in the energy industry fired up like the debate over the cheapest, or best, way to generate electricity.

Many readers have asked that I write a column comparing the costs and benefits of coal, natural gas, wind, solar and biomass. I've demurred because data sources are never complete, and the conclusions are often twisted by advocates trying to make a case for their clients in this $6-trillion-a-year industry.

The Energy Institute at the University of Texas, though, says it has a definitive answer: It's really, really complicated.

"What is more affordable depends on where you are," Michael Webber, deputy director of the Energy Institute, explained.

Since Webber and his team went to work on their analysis of "The Full Cost of Energy" several years ago, they've found that costs familiar to every businessperson - land, labor and capital - are just as important as the price of the energy resource.

Geography often determines these costs when it comes to energy. How frequently the facility produces energy, known as the capacity factor, is also of critical importance. A nuclear power plant runs nearly nonstop, while wind turbines are sometimes still, so those costs will vary.

This explains why the U.S. Energy Information Agency's analysis of the "levelized cost of electricity" is just the beginning of the story. It's also why some coal plants are ridiculously expensive and some new solar projects are unbelievably cheap when a more simple analysis would expect the opposite is true.

To understand how all of these factors combine to create the full cost of new generation facilities, the institute has two online calculators at http://calculators.energy.utexas.edu/.

The calculator does not include public policy decisions, such as government subsidies or whether the grid has regulated prices or operates as a wholesale market, like the Texas system known as ERCOT.

One of the tools offers a county-by-county comparison of electricity costs across the country, while the other allows you to compare the costs associated in your county with different electricity sources.

Harris County's numbers will cause some consternation with those hoping to revive the Texas lignite coal industry. Natural gas burned in a combined-cycle turbine is the clear winner at $101.03 a megawatt-hour in Houston, while subbituminous lignite coal costs $241.65 a megawatt-hour.

The other major sources for Houston include nuclear power at $144.29, onshore wind at $164.48, utility-scale solar at $184.26, Wyoming coal at $238.52 and residential solar at $344.10. What's most surprising, though, is how radically these numbers change within a few hundred miles.

In Dallas County, natural gas costs $101.85, onshore wind is $126.14, and lignite coal is $204.26. In El Paso, utility-scale solar costs only $141.82, cheaper than onshore wind, which comes in at $144.14.

Both online calculators allow you to tweak every variable in the models' assumptions, so that you can imagine higher natural gas prices or lower capital costs. A few minor adjustments, and the picture can change dramatically.

"The biggest surprise for us was that coal is never the cheapest option, unless you ignore all environmental impacts," Webber said. "Nuclear was the cheapest option in places where the wind resources are poor and local natural gas prices are quite high."

A new presidential administration is unlikely to change any of this math, since these numbers already assume no tax credits for wind or solar energy. The tool does allow users to zero out pollution-control costs, even if that's unlikely.

"Even then, it looks like wind and natural gas are still the most economic options, which is what the markets have been saying for a while," Webber said. "Maybe some coal plants don't retire as quickly, but the new builds would keep following the path we've seen the last few years."

Ultimately, the market and technology will decide what resources are developed, he added.

This conclusion is exactly what pragmatists like myself have claimed all along. The solution for now is an all-of-the-above strategy, where the balance between fossil fuels and renewable sources changes over time as technology evolves, capital is repaid and science improves.

Corporations don't want to hear that, of course. Incumbents like coal and natural gas want the government to ensure their market share in perpetuity. New electricity sources want the same incentives that fossil fuels enjoyed in the 20th century so they can build market share and reduce costs.

Politicians and regulators have a tough job ahead as they shape policy to account for economics and the environment. But the idea that one source of generation is clearly superior to all others is dead. The real world is far more complicated.
Shoppers love browsing a good-looking, well-stocked store, but the prospect of avoiding the sales tax often lures them into making purchases online, according to a new survey by Pew Research.

Almost 80 percent of Americans have bought something over the internet, and more than half have made a purchase using their phone, the Pew survey of 4,787 adults found. In June 2000, only 21 percent had done any online shopping.

Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, are also gaining ground, with 15 percent of Americans making a purchase from one of these services. That's a sign of things to come for online advertisers and retailers.

Online shopping allows people to stay at home, find exactly what they want and then wait for it to come to them. But 64 percent of those polled say they like going to the store and would prefer to make purchases there, all things being equal.

Online retailers, though, don't have to collect sales tax unless they have a store or office in that state. That means they can charge less and leave the responsibility for paying the tax to the buyer, who, of course, never pays it. In most Texas cities, that means an 8.25 percent discount off a store purchase.

Since 65 percent of American shoppers say that price determines where they make a purchase, the out-of-state retailer can easily win that battle. This can seriously hurt local companies that are run by our friends and neighbors.

Those uncollected sales taxes also pile up, and according to the National Conference of State Legislators, Texas missed out $1.7 billion in e-commerce sales taxes in 2014. That's money not going to pay for special education or physical therapy for our neediest little Texans.

No one likes to pay sales tax, and the internet has a special gift for helping shoppers cheat on them. But the damage to local retailers and our state budget is tremendous.

I understand that most people want to stretch their holiday dollar as far as it can go, but this kind of tax cheating is not a victimless crime. So don't be surprised if retailers and state legislators put pressure on Congress next year to end it.

Your local retailer will look forward to seeing you again when "all things are equal."
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Responding to consumer demand for more affordable suburban homes, some new developers and builders in the Houston area are keeping costs down by focusing on smaller lots.

"We are trying to address the needs of the current market in our various projects," said Steve Sellers, president of the Texas land division for Toronto-based Empire Communities.

"We've found that 50-foot lots are very popular these days."

The company has acquired a site west of Texas 146 and north of FM 646 in League City for a 540-home community that will offer homes starting in the mid-$200,000s. More than half of the lots in the new development will be 50 feet wide, with 60- and 70-foot lots also available.

Most lots locally range from 45 feet wide, suitable for starter houses, to 70, 80 and 90 feet wide for move-up and luxury houses, but the 50-foot option has long been popular with buyers. About three in 10 houses started in the last year were built on 50-foot-wide lots, making it the most common offering, said Lawrence Dean, regional director for housing consulting firm Metrostudy.

The lots are suited for both starter and move-up type houses, he said.

"Fifty-foot and 60-foot lots are basically the bread-and-butter lots in the suburbs in Houston," Dean said.

Another newcomer to the Houston market, HistoryMaker Homes of Dallas-Fort Worth, builds all of its homes - some as large as 4,000 square feet - on 50-foot lots. Houston division head Kurt Watzek said using smaller plots helps keep prices low.

The company is making its local debut in the Wright's Landing community in Spring with houses that start in the low $200,000s.

"It's a good time to come in," Watzek said. "The only obstacle is finding the right lots to build on."

HistoryMaker also plans to build in the Katy, Lake Houston, Conroe and other areas around Houston.

Empire even included 30-foot-wide lots among those it developed in Sommerall Park in the Copperfield area. The 82 houses on the smaller lots start at $170,000. Sellers said nearly all of them will be sold in the first year.

The League City neighborhood the company is now developing will be similar to Hidden Lakes, which Empire opened in 2013. The two communities are 2 miles apart.

The previously undeveloped land was acquired from Englewood Land Investments.

Builders have not been selected, but Empire's new homebuilding division will likely be one of them, Sellers said. It also will build in Empire's Dellrose development in Cypress.

While the shift to more affordable homes will give the homebuilding industry a boost next year, Dean said it will be a couple of years until growth in the economy and jobs become a meaningful driver.

Metrostudy projects 28,500 homes will be started here in 2018. That compares with an estimated 25,500 starts this year, Metrostudy said, and 26,250 in 2017.

Empire Communities, which delivered 400 lots this year and about 300 last year, is on track to complete 600 lots next year, mostly in Houston. It's considering introducing 40-foot lots in some of its projects, which currently range from 44 acres to 600 acres, with Katy Trails in Katy and Lakeside in Georgetown rounding out its developments.
From North Dakota to Pennsylvania to Texas, it feels like clockwork: Each time a small town finds itself in the path of a natural resource boom, a few years later, you can count on it falling hard when the resources dry up. As I found in a recent visit to the Eagle Ford shale town of Freer, neither the town nor its residents prepared during the most intense drilling period for a time when salaries and tax revenue would disappear.

"Back then, money was coming in, you didn't worry about it," says Ana Garcia, Freer's city manager. She described spending $8,000 on office supplies one year for the town's tiny city hall, because it seemed like the boom would never end.

The "resource curse," which describes a situation in which a lucrative commodity sucks the life out of other local industries, is such an old problem that you would have thought local leaders would be more wary when the trucks start rumbling through. They sometimes are, in regions that have seen oil exploration for many generations, says Thomas Tunstall, the research chief for an institute at the University of Texas - San Antonio devoted to community development.

"When things are flush, people in West Texas know to sock some away," he says. "They've been through the downturns before. It's almost a badge of honor in West Texas. In those cases we're preaching to the choir."

In communities that are far from big cities, however, diversifying for the downturns isn't as easy as it sounds, so it's all they can do to build up reserves when taxes are pouring in. Those closer to San Antonio and Houston might be able to catch more people passing through, or even draw visitors out for a weekend. Places like Marfa and Fredericksburg have become magnets for artsy tourists and oenophiles. Tunstall advises all towns to try to figure out if they have anything unique to offer.

"A lot of the communities that still managed to survive are now trying to either rediscover the history of why they were formed in the first place, or come up with new strategies," he says.

In a study published last year, Tunstall found that towns in the vicinity of the Eagle Ford shale had trouble following this advice. While there were some limited success stories, missed opportunities abound. "We had hoped that the effects would be more uniform, and that everybody would see the light and take advantage of the opportunities for diversification," Tunstall says.

The biggest thing that could help these towns stabilize and grow, Tunstall concluded, was better infrastructure. Roads, schools, railways, hospitals, and broadband connections could foster other industries such as high-value agriculture and outdoor recreation. But once money from the resource boom has dried up, local governments will need help from the state to finance such projects. Luckily, Texas as a whole is more diversified than other oil-dependent states, and could be in a better position to help when help is needed.

Barring that, the best step a small town can take is getting someone with lots of experience to run the show.

"It boils down, in a lot of cases, to governance," Tunstall says. "It's hard to get a really good city manager to move to town. Sometimes they have to hire a young, inexperienced city manager. Then if they are any good, they'll be scooped up in a larger city."

Ana Garcia, Freer's city manager, took her job in 2014, just as the boom was turning to bust, leaving here little time to prepare for what would happen. The experience she gained came hard. "Three years from now, if we're rolling in it," she vows, "we're not gonna sit there and spend foolishly."
The State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Rights Protection has recorded death of birds in Henichesk and Kakhovka districts of Kherson region, the authority's press service has reported.

"After testing samples from two private households of citizens and two samples of wild birds in the State Research Institute for Laboratory Diagnostics and Veterinary Examination in Kyiv highly pathogenic avian influenza was proven on December 16," the press service said.

A meeting of the state emergency anti-epizootic commission was held at Henichesk and Kakhovka district administrations on December 17. The commission approved plans to liquidate the disease, determined the outbreak zone, protection and supervision zones.

Measures are being taken to localize the disease on the site of the outbreak and prevent the spread of avian influenza virus.

As reported, the European Union banned exports of poultry from Ukraine to EU in connection with the registration of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5) in Kherson region in December 2016.
Behold the power of social media: Two months after a black Houston doctor's viral Facebook post alleged discriminatory treatment aboard a Delta Air Lines flight, the company has apologized and announced policy changes.

As of Dec. 1, Delta flight attendants are no longer required to ask for a physician's credentials during in-flight medical emergencies. In addition, the airline is requiring that all employees receive inclusion training, part of an effort to combat the unspoken bias that led a white flight attendant to reflexively assume that a young black woman wasn't a doctor.

"I commend Delta for doing this," Dr. Tamika Cross, the 28-year-old Houston physician who sparked the changes, said in an interview Wednesday.

Cross was on a plane traveling back to Houston in October after visiting family in Detroit, when a woman a few seats ahead of her began shouting for help. Her husband had passed out. When Cross, a fourth-year resident at UTHealth's McGovern Medical School, stood to help, she said a flight attendant told her to sit down saying: "Oh no sweetie ... We are looking for actual physicians."

At that point, Cross said, nobody had asked to see a credential proving she was indeed a doctor. The flight attendant asked that question only later, after she'd already escorted another physician, a white man, to assist the ailing passenger. Further, in an age when medical licenses are easily verified online, most doctors don't carry printed credentials.

Cross vented her frustrations in a Facebook post that has since been shared more than 48,000 times, prompting a flurry of national news stories and igniting a social media movement. Across the country, untold numbers of black, female doctors have posted photos of themselves with the hashtag, #WhatADoctorLooksLike.

Days after the posting, Delta executives invited Cross to meet at their corporate headquarters in Atlanta and, although she was initially hesitant, she finally made the trip earlier this month.

"I felt like I needed to follow through," Cross said Wednesday between appointments at Lyndon B. Johnson hospital, where she's an obstetrician and gynecologist. "I had all of these supporters behind me who'd made this a national issue, and I felt that by not going I would be letting this die and letting them down."

She brought along Dr. Wayne Riley, a mentor and past president of the American College of Physicians. Riley, who's taught lectures about assisting passengers during in-flight emergencies, told executives that he'd been called on to help on several Delta flights over the years and had never been asked to prove he was a doctor.

Delta announced the policy changes in a statement this week, a couple weeks after the meeting with Cross. Airline officials acknowledged that the company's requirement to check for medical credentials was dated and not mandated by any "legal or regulatory requirement."

"Our flight attendants were following standard procedure during this incident and the feedback Dr. Cross provided gave us a chance to make flying better," Allison Ausband, Delta's senior vice president for in-flight service, said in a statement. "We remain grateful to the medical professionals who are willing to assist us in an emergency at 30,000 feet."

The change does nothing to address the way Cross was dismissed before the question of credentials was even raised. Within days of her Facebook post, other black, female doctors had come forward with stories of being turned away during emergencies on flights. Delta plans to use the incidents as a teachable moment to help confront bias among employees.

Experts said Cross' story exposed the problem of implicit bias, in which people make assumptions about others based on their experiences. That's an issue not just at Delta Air Lines, said Dr. Alicia Monroe, also an African-American physician and the senior vice president of academic and faculty affairs at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

"It's kind of sad, but it's a lived experience for a lot of people every day," Monroe said after reading Cross' post in October.

Cross said she won't hesitate to fly with Delta in the future. (No, she said, she wasn't offered endless SkyMiles to say that.)

"They didn't sweep it under the rug and actually performed an investigation," she said. "I think this shows that what happened with my flight isn't reflective of who Delta is as a company."

In the days after her post went viral, Cross was inundated with interview requests and messages from strangers  mostly positive, she said, but also some personal attacks. She still receives dozens of daily messages on Facebook, but for the most part the attention has faded, a relief for a woman who describes herself as "very private."

Was it worth putting herself out there?

"It was," Cross said. "It was definitely worth it. I think we opened the floor for a very uncomfortable conversation and helped bring important change at a major corporation. I don't regret it."
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For years, Paula and Larry Sinclair had been licensed to provide foster care for special-needs children.

Then, they decided to adopt - eight kids over a span of 19 months.

Twelve years later, just before this past Thanksgiving, Child Protective Services removed the children from a Richmond-area home after an investigator reported finding seven of them malnourished and locked in a filthy bedroom.

Even with pressure to find permanent homes for such children, advocates and attorneys say eight special-needs children likely should never have been adopted by a single couple in the first place. The Sinclairs faced financial trouble at the time, Fort Bend county records show, and a criminal history has since been identified for Paula Sinclair in five states.

CPS officials say there is no cap on how many children a family can adopt, and the agency doesn't check on them once they are adopted.

To many, the children's story adds yet another example of how CPS, under the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, has failed to keep children safe.

"This case is truly one of the more egregious ones," said state Rep. John Zerwas. "This one just kind of brings it all together, that the agency just isn't working."

So, how did it happen? And how did it get so far?

Financial incentives to adopt children with special needs, coupled with the higher level of care required, make them vulnerable.

Authorities didn't check on the Sinclair children until 2011, when one child - a 7-year-old boy who was blind, unable to speak and had cerebral palsy - died. State records show bronchitis and an asthma attack contributed to the death.

The next visits didn't come until this year. A Fort Bend County deputy sheriff made a welfare check last spring and reported concerns to a statewide intake system for the DFPS, but it was not referred for further investigation. Then in November, a CPS caseworker checking on a tip of possible child neglect found the children, ages 14 to 16, last month. They told authorities they had been beaten.

Paula Sinclair and her current husband, 78-year-old Allen Richardson, face charges of aggravated kidnapping and child injury, both felonies. They are being held in the Fort Bend County jail. A court-appointed attorney for Paula Sinclair declined comment, and it is unclear whether Richardson has a lawyer.

Couple clears hurdles

Paula Sinclair and Larry Sinclair married Dec. 17, 1985, Harris county records show. After the young couple bought a four-bedroom home, near what is now the Westpark Tollway and Texas 6, CPS cleared them to start taking in special-needs children - a task that comes with a stipend.

The first license, in 1993, allowed the Sinclairs to provide foster care to children with special needs. In 1996, they added a group-home component, under which they could provide foster care to seven children or more. It would have been checked regularly.

Providing foster care to children would have brought around $34 per child per day. The Sinclairs also founded a charity, We of Faith Mission, around the same time, to raise money for the cause.

CPS approved the couple to have a foster-to-adopt home in 2002. (Adopting a special-needs child through CPS brings a monthly stipend of up to $540 each.) They adopted their first child in April 2003, and their eighth in October 2004.

"There's no way CPS should have ever consented to that," said Julie Ketterman, an attorney. "Ever."

DFPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said the numbers alone are not necessarily problematic.

"I think we've probably all read stories about couples who have taken in a large number of special-needs kids and are taking care of them and are doing a wonderful job," he said.

The process, after all, has checks in place. For the first adoption, the parents would have faced a background check and home study, said Tiffani Butler, another DFPS spokesperson. Today, that background check includes finger-printing to review criminal history nationwide. At the time, criminal history would only have been checked in Texas.

Not all types of crime preclude one from adopting, either, Butler said. The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office reported that Paula Sinclair has a criminal record in Texas and other states but has not specified the offenses. A home study looks at issues such as whether a house has adequate space and is safe, Butler continued. Prospective parents are questioned about topics such as their own childhood, current relationships and financial stability.

Should have said 'No'

For children adopted within two years, home studies would be reviewed but not necessarily re-verified. And yet, while the couple was in the process of adopting children, Paula Sinclair lost a new home she had bought several years earlier in Sugar Land, Fort Bend County records show.

"The reality is, the system really should have said 'no,' " said Robert Sanborn, president of Children at Risk.

Ideally, Sanborn said, every adoption would get more scrutiny. But he said that special-needs cases in particular demand more accountability because of the higher chance of fraud.

The Sinclairs continued to encounter state agencies along the way, as they started businesses and dealt with properties, but none saw need enough for intervention on the kids' behalf.

In May 2006, four of the children, who had been registered beginning in 2004 as elementary-school students in Alief ISD, were withdrawn from the district, spokeswoman Kimberly Smith wrote in an email.

Divorce records show Paula and Larry Sinclair stopped living together around June 2006, the same month Allen Richardson bought the 4,000-square-foot home where the children were later found.

Paula Sinclair describes moving into Richardson's home that year, according to court records. It's now valued at around $402,000.

None of the children were enrolled in Lamar CISD, the district in which Richardson lives, spokesman Phillip Sulak wrote in an email.

The district does not require families who move there with school-age children to register that they are home schooling - nor does Texas.

State records trace continued problems.

In 2008, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission denied an assisted-living license application for a business called House of Glory to be run from the Sinclairs' Harris County home, spokeswoman Carrie Williams wrote in an email.

The application was incomplete.

Shortly after the Sinclairs' divorce became final in November 2010, Paula Sinclair incorporated the House of Isaiah, a business run out of an office building on Richmond Avenue that aimed, according to her filings with the state, "to seek out children in need of specialty care due to physical disabilities to provide high quality care services in a residential setting." She did not receive a license for it until 2015.

She filed incorporation papers for Quality Activity Center in 2014, to operate from the same Richmond office building.

In 2015, Paula Sinclair incorporated another, Abraham 360, to operate from their Richmond-area home.

She listed Larry Sinclair as involved in the endeavor. No records indicate it was ever licensed.

Larry Sinclair could not be reached for comment.

It's not clear yet to detectives how early the alleged abuse began, said Juli Johnson, a Fort Bend County sheriff's detective. The children most recently lived in a single room locked with a deadbolt and with boarded-up windows, authorities alleged.

A CPS investigator noted the stench of human waste in the room. Some children alleged that Paula Sinclair had encouraged Richardson to hit them with a board; that some were told to use bleach to clean the body of a brother with Down Syndrome; and that they were bound with duct tape when the parents left home, according to an arrest warrant.

In court documents, Richardson and Sinclair describe tight budgets.

Richardson detailed his income as $2,406 per month, with $1,300 from Social Security and the rest from retirement in two states, Texas and Louisiana. He said he had $1,000 in a checking account, none in savings.

Richardson, who was denied a court-appointed attorney, further detailed monthly expenses of $3,208 for mortgage, $250 for utilities and $400 for food. He listed zero for child support/child care.

The adoptive mother described her finances similarly, but with $800 listed for food.

A note on the file also read, "[defendant] check for adoption subsidy would help pay expenses."

Still, the children's lives did not appear always to have been clouded by abuse. "They seem to have started out living somewhat normal lives," Johnson said.

Johnson has been a peace officer for 27 years. But even for her, the case highlights the fact that law enforcement is "on-the-job training," as she put it. If she were an officer who had been to the home before, she would now be asking herself, "What did I not pick up on?" she said. "Did I not ask the right questions."

It's a process of self-reflection that continues for her.

When she goes home at night, she says, she thinks, "Am I doing everything that I need to do."
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Gordy Bunch's first campaign slogan was "Best of the Bunch." It was a groan-worthy pun, to be sure, but the wordplay had deeper meaning: The Woodlands Township's governing board needed new members willing to challenge assumptions about growth.

The message of change resonated with voters, who elected Bunch in 2012 - and his allies in later elections.

Now, four years after he ran against the powers that be, the turnover, or takeover, is complete. The outspoken businessman is leading a new slow-things-down majority on the seven-member board. As chairman, a position akin to mayor, Bunch plans to look into incorporation - a move that could give the township more control over development.

The previous board had put off the issue, which could take years to become reality. But getting the process started is part of Bunch's agenda to defend the quality of life in this leafy enclave of new wealth and settled rhythms.

"It isn't good enough for us to say, 'It's out of our control,' " he said, referring to the oft-repeated reply by township officials to residents' concerns about new development. "We need to be responsive."

All of his plans, he said, focus on maintaining the suburban character and scenic charm that draws people to The Woodlands. The tension comes at a time of explosive growth within the community and surrounding parts of Montgomery County, bringing traffic jams and complaints about clear-cutting by developers.

His critics suggest Bunch, 44, is more interested in playing to the audience than making the best decisions for The Woodlands. With his opposition to new county roads into the township, they describe him as the unyielding and rigid amplifier for narrow-minded activists and their relentless chorus of "not in my backyard."

"It's OK to disagree, but it's not OK to be disagreeable," said former board member Mike Bass, who lost his seat to a Bunch ally last month. Bass said the township's recent clashes with Montgomery County leaders over roads and other issues have made the community look like "spoiled children who had to have their own way."

Bunch said he intends to find ways to work with county leaders to improve public safety and attract new businesses.

"We need to create ways to move forward in a positive direction for all involved," said Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal, who was encouraged by a recent conversation with Bunch over flooding issues.

Bunch has clashed with Doyal and county commissioners over road and local airport funding, among other issues. But it would be surprising if Bunch changes his populist views given that voters have lined up solidly behind him.

"He stands up for what he thinks is right," said John McMullan, a board member who is aligned with Bunch. "That's an attractive quality in an elected official."

Staves off challengers

In November, Bunch easily dispatched two challengers despite a shadowy campaign that poured at least $244,000 into television advertisements, mobile billboards and out-of-town strategists to unseat him. What's more, his running mates - political newcomers Brian Boniface, John Anthony Brown and Bruce Rieser - swept the other three seats on the ballot.

The new board selected Bunch as chairman, replacing Ed Robb, a local pastor who retired from politics. It marked a generational change in leadership, with an early resident stepping aside for someone who arrived much later.

A California native, Richard Finley Bunch III was fresh out of the Coast Guard when he and his wife, Michelle, moved to The Woodlands in 1995. He got a job selling insurance for the Texas Farm Bureau and then used his life savings of $10,000 to start his own agency in 2001.

The Woodlands Financial Group is now one of the nation's largest insurance agencies, with more than 300 branches in 38 states. It's based on the second floor of The Woodlands Mall, just above a quirkily stylish clothier and a Williams-Sonoma store. Bunch said he picked the location in 2004 because the mall offered the most affordable space with room to grow and "excellent exposure" for the brand.

When Bunch decided to enter his first political race in 2012, he filed the required paperwork on the way home from work, minutes before the deadline. He hadn't talked about it with anyone but his wife. He had no base of support and no plan for winning a seat.

"I was a neighbor and an entrepreneur who wanted to run because I enjoy service," he said.

During the campaign, he received the backing of the Texas Patriots PAC, a fledgling tea party group based in The Woodlands. The enduring relationship has benefited both, with the group working to turn out voters on his behalf and Bunch supporting them financially. His biggest contribution was $25,000 for a table at a fundraising dinner headlined by Donald Trump last year.

Tea party ties

Some view the bond between Bunch and the group with suspicion, saying they injected partisanship into local politics. In 2015, for example, the race for three at-large seats on the township's board devolved into a caustic contest between competing slates. Two of the three Texas Patriots-backed candidates won seats.

Bunch said he doesn't take directions from the group and doesn't tell it what to do. He attends its meetings when asked to speak about local issues.

"People think we're trying to rule the throne, but we just have issues important to us," said Bill O'Sullivan, the Texas Patriots' treasurer. Bunch and the group "have a similar goal," said O'Sullivan. "We don't want to see The Woodlands cut up with six-lane roadways."

Together, they showed their political acumen last year by rallying voters in The Woodlands to defeat a $350 million bond measure for new and improved roadways in Montgomery County. In particular, they objected to the proposed extension of the Woodlands Parkway through undeveloped land west of the township, saying the project would exacerbate traffic congestion.

The Texas Patriots later supported a slimmed-down road bond plan that didn't include the controversial parkway project, and voters approved it.

The episode contributed to a growing divide between Montgomery County leaders, accustomed to calling the shots in the once-rural county, and their upstart counterparts from The Woodlands, which accounts for a big and growing segment of the county's tax base. Some county leaders have accused the township of being selfish. Bunch and other local officials have complained about a lack of responsiveness from the county - a factor in the township's 2014 decision to pull out of a deal to contribute hundreds of thousands toward a planned customs facility at Conroe's airport.

Bunch has suggested that The Woodlands might need to become a full-fledged city to shape growth, rather than letting growth shape the unincorporated community, which has some 110,000 residents.

The Woodlands operates with a unique "township" form of government, a hybrid between a private corporation and elected municipal government. If the community becomes a real city, it would have ordinance-making powers, along with its own public safety and public works departments.

Turning into a city

As chairman, Bunch says he will start meaningful planning for cityhood. The community, he said, doesn't have enough information to make a decision about incorporation.

"We don't know the pros, cons or cost," he said. "To me, that's a failure of leadership."

But Bass, the former board member, said he isn't sure incorporation would give The Woodlands more clout.

"You don't get more respect by changing your legal designation," Bass said. "You get it by the way you act. The board is mostly being reactive to what the county proposes. It's more about objecting than finding solutions."

A nonprofit group launched by former board chairman Bruce Tough used the specter of higher property taxes because of future incorporation as a wedge in the most recent election.

Campaign finance reports show The Woodlands Concerned Taxpayers, which didn't disclose its donors, spent at least $244,000 on ads and voter outreach to sway the election. The amount was more than double what all nine candidates had spent, combined.

Tough, who had served on the board since its inception, was unseated by a Bunch ally in 2015 after backing the county road bond measure that included the controversial parkway extension. Though Tough didn't support the parkway extension, he thought other transportation projects were sorely needed.

Tough didn't respond to requests for comment for this article. Before the election, he said he formed the group to protect the township's "perfect form of limited government," which produced a "high quality of life" with a low property tax rate.

Bunch's supporters and critics wonder if he is using incorporation to position himself for higher elective office. He ran for an open Texas Senate seat in 2014, only to fall short of a Republican primary runoff.

He insisted he has no plans to run for another position while his business is growing and his three sons are in school. "My only ambition," he said, "is to represent this community."
The Martian landscape is otherworldly. The ground is twisted into ropelike coils, rippling waves and jagged spikes; sulfurous gases billow from vents in the ground, bits of volcanic glass glitter in faint sunlight that filters through the undulating fog.

Two astronauts clamber across the tortured terrain, encumbered by the heavy scientific instruments they carry on their backs and in their hands. They are looking for rocks that could tell us whether life ever existed on Mars.

At makeshift mission control inside a converted conference room several miles away, Darlene Lim surveys video from the scene. The NASA geobiologist has been planning this mission for months. She listens attentively to the chatter between the roving astronauts and their counterparts at "base camp" and watches as one of the scientists in the field points a handheld spectrometer at a rock and scans it, Star Trek-style. Data on the rock's composition starts streaming onto Lim's computer screen.

"This is super awesome," Lim murmurs under her breath. Remembering a reporter is listening over the phone, she laughs at herself. "It is!"

This landscape, of course, is not actually Mars, and the people exploring it aren't really astronauts. But the expedition to the Mauna Ulu volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii is a dry run for the distant day when NASA intends to send a real crewed mission to the Red Planet.

Though NASA has spent billions of dollars and countless hours trying to get people into space, what they actually do up there can be an afterthought. Lim wants to change that.

"You're trying to keep people alive and trying to get them beyond low Earth orbit  there are experiments that are done, but the science isn't really baked in," Lim said. "But when we head out to somewhere like Mars, and we're going to be there for a while  we're going to have to look at designing these missions with an inherent component to science."

With the exception of space suits - and the thin, oxygen-less atmosphere that necessitates them - it is as high-fidelity a mission to Mars as Lim can muster. The Hawaiian mountainside is similar to the landscape scientists think existed on Mars billions of years ago, when the atmosphere was thicker and the planet seethed with volcanic activity. The "astronauts" tasked with collecting rock samples use instruments that are being developed for real space missions; one heavy backpack contains a spectrometer that is destined to fly to the moon. Their time in the field is limited to the length of an average astronaut excursion outside the spacecraft: about four hours per day. Their communications to "mission control" (the conference room where Lim and her colleagues are set up) are subject to a five- to 15-minute delay that mimics the actual signal latency between Earth and Mars.

And the science is real. Unlike many other NASA analog missions, which test gear and operations design on safe, familiar terrain, Lim and her team are exploring a site they have never seen. They are collecting rocks not for practice, but for research - the samples will be studied to understand the relationship between rock types and the microbes that live in them. Some day, the scientists hope their findings will help guide the search for past or present Martian life.

NASA has been trudging toward its goal of launching a human Mars mission in the 2030s - though at the program's current pace, it's unlikely to meet that deadline. And about six weeks before the mission's trip to Hawaii, SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced his conceptual plans for a powerful rocket and spacecraft that would help humans colonize the Red Planet. Discussing the news at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., engineer Amanda Cook shook her head.

"The rocket's the easy part," she said. "It's people who really throw a monkey wrench into things."

This is the guiding principle for the Hawaiian mission, called BASALT, which stands for Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains and is also the name of a kind of volcanic rock. Robots, satellites and space telescopes have produced pioneering, Nobel Prize-winning science - and they don't require food, oxygen or a return trip home. If NASA is going to put humans on Mars, it needs to be certain the discoveries made are worth the expense and risk of sending them there.

During the Apollo program, science goals were secondary to the sheer technical challenge of getting people to the moon, and most astronauts had backgrounds in the military rather than research. Though the astronauts got some training in geology, and landing sites were selected according to pre-mission surveys of the moon's surface, the collection of rock samples was relatively haphazard. Subsequent research on board the International Space Station has yielded mostly minor discoveries, and it is conducted in the relative security of low Earth orbit, where every detail can be monitored by principal investigators on Earth.

On Mars the risks are more immense, and help from home is dependent on weak and sometimes erratic connection with mission control. That's why BASALT takes place in an environment known to the researchers mostly through satellite images. Lim wants to make sure that the mission leaves room for the unknown.

"NASA has a lot of legacy of automation," she explained. The space agency understandably prefers to minimize the potential for the unpredictable, given that lives are on the line. "But we're trying to figure out how to not stamp the humanity from human exploration."

With that goal in mind, Lim has recruited experts from a wide range of fields to help with her Mars analog mission. Engineers such as Cook are building instruments that astronauts can carry on their backs and in their hands. Computer programmers develop communications software that can inform astronauts without overwhelming them. Geologists establish protocols for quickly analyzing rock types and prioritizing which ones to sample. The team even includes an ethnographer whose job is to analyze members' interactions and figure out better ways for them to collaborate - a necessity for future Mars astronauts, who will have spent months in cramped, inescapable quarters.

It's the "unsexy" side of mission planning, planetary scientist Rick Elphic admitted during that meeting at Ames. "But if you don't do it, you'll design a mission that doesn't work."

A month and a half later, Elphic and his colleague Kara Beaton are standing on the side of the Hawaiian volcano, in the middle of finding out whether all that preparation paid off. Already, there have been hiccups, which is helpful. Better to find out now that a communication tool doesn't work or a schedule needs to be rearranged. It's the eighth day of the expedition and the second day at this particular site. The "astronauts" asked to return to the rugged expanse of black and red rock after not having sufficient time to explore it the day before - field work almost always takes longer than expected - and geologists at mission control acceded to their judgment.

The fog that cloaked the mountain at the beginning of the expedition has burned off, revealing the treacherous terrain. Most of the BASALT team has scraped palms and scratched knees from collisions with the craggy rock, and the scientists are wary of concealed lava tubes, whose thin crusts could crack under a person's weight, dropping them into caverns below. Beaton spends several minutes trying to maneuver toward an intriguing rock formation before deciding it's not safe. With little more than half the time left in their expedition, she and Elphic need to wrap in the pre-sampling phase, in which they measure rocks against the criteria drawn up for them by geologist colleagues to decide which are most worth bringing home.

They are looking for examples of alteration, volcanic rocks whose composition has been changed by water and weather. The samples they collect will be analyzed by colleagues such as Allyson Brady, an organic geochemist at McMaster University in Canada. Brady will be looking for biosignatures, traces left by organisms that once inhabited the rock. Ideally, these biosignatures will correspond with qualities that can be seen from satellites; then researchers studying data from Mars orbiters can look for the same features in the Martian landscape and identify spots of interest to the future explorers.

"Sitting back watching these video feeds coming back from people actually out in the field and trying to see what's around them  it's different, that's for sure," Brady said. Researchers like her are used to doing their own field work, spending days searching for the right samples. It's disconcerting to put those decisions in someone else's hands.

"Oh, we absolutely could just apply to a grant to go check out basalts in Hawaii," she acknowledged. But that's not the point.

"You can do the science separately and the exploration separately. But that doesn't really tell you very much about whether, from science perspective, the exploration concept you're testing has actually done a good job.  I want to make sure that when someone does go to Mars, they have tested all the things that are going to give them the best possible science."
Gene Locke, who was appointed Harris County commissioner nearly a year ago after the death of longtime Commissioner El Franco Lee, was praised for his effectiveness during a meeting Tuesday at which he cast his final vote.

The former city attorney and mayoral candidate received a standing ovation from his colleagues at his last commissioners court meeting.

"This is a public service job, and it's been an honor for me to have the mantle of commissioner and do community service," Locke said. "It makes me feel that there is a side of government that Americans don't see and don't talk about."

Other members of the commissioners court heralded Locke's initiatives on repairing streets, installing safe sidewalks for schoolchildren, and removing debris during his almost 11 months in office. His final day in office is Dec. 31.

Locke, a Democrat, also emphasized collaboration with the city of Houston, much of which falls in his precinct.

"All this in less than a year is a pretty amazing thing that you've accomplished," Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack, the longest-serving member of commissioners court and a Republican, told Locke Tuesday.

Locke's Precinct 1 covers much of the city of Houston, curling north from the southeastern tip of Harris County - through downtown and neighborhoods such as Sunnyside, Montrose and the Bush Intercontinental airport area - before dipping back down through the east side. About 40 percent of the precinct's residents are black, 37 percent are Hispanic and 18 percent are white.

Locke is African-American, as is his successor, state Sen. Rodney Ellis.

The two vied for the position this year in an unusual selection process for the Democratic nomination. Ellis won and then ran unopposed in the November election.

Locke said he's been in ongoing discussions with Ellis about the transition. Locke said he is looking forward to returning to a private law practice with the Andrews Kurth law firm, spending more time with his family, and "figuring out who Gene Locke is."
The Rev. C.L. Jackson, longtime pastor of the domed Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Fifth Ward, was known as one of the old bulls of Houston's aging guard of black, Baptist preachers.

A registered Republican, he also was his own man. When Minister Louis Farrakhan was making a stop in Houston ahead of the 1995 Million Man March, thousands showed up at Pleasant Grove because Jackson was the first to agree to host the Nation of Islam leader.

Jackson also traveled to several African countries with President Bill Clinton, was appointed to the Texas Board of Criminal Justice by Gov. Rick Perry and took the microphone at conservative radio host Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally in 2010 at the Lincoln Memorial.

His Christian evangelistic ministry spanned more than 50 years and from the streets and prisons to published books and radio broadcasts. This pillar of Fifth Ward died Sunday. He was 80.

One enduring symbol of his life and his salvation story was a dump truck, which was depicted on the pulpit he shared with his son for the last 17 years.

"My father used to be employed by Houston Lighting and Power. That's long before Reliant. He worked as a common laborer," the Rev. Sheldon L. Jackson said Tuesday. "At that time, no black man was allowed to ride in the cab of the truck. They all had to ride on the back of the truck, which was a dump truck. That's where he asked God to save him."

Charles Lewis Jackson was born on March 4, 1936, in Goodrich, a tiny town about 70 miles northeast of Houston near Livingston. A rope that was hung from a bridge where black men were lynched convinced his parents to move to Houston when Charles was about 2, Sheldon Jackson said.

Pleasant Grove, where his mother's brother was pastor, was the only church where Jackson ever had a membership. Upon the death of his uncle, the Rev. A.A. McCardell Sr., the church chose him as successor in 1969. His son joined him in leadership in 1999.

"He was pastor until the day he died. We just had two pastors," Sheldon Jackson, 61, said with a laugh. "I did the work. He was the boss."

He felt a privilege and responsibility in leading an institution founded in 1872 by people recently emancipated from enslavement.

The Pleasant Grove structure, built in the late 1970s from offering-plate donations during an era of red-lining where bank financing for black churches was nearly impossible, stood as a beacon of community self-reliance. The building, which seats 5,000, can be seen by the larger community as well as from the tangle of highways leading into the east side of downtown Houston.

"It proved that anything can happen. Even in the ghetto - even when financial institutions won't back our visions and dreams - God can make things happen," Sheldon Jackson said.

Over the years, Pleasant Grove hosted renown visitors including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In 2004, Perry stopped by to deliver the keynote for a Juneteenth celebration. Weeks after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Louisiana residents displaced in Houston gathered in the sanctuary to hear from then-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

Activist and student minister Robert Muhammad, who leads the Nation of Islam Muhammad Mosque No. 45 on Old Spanish Trail, remembers the courage Jackson showed opening the dome to Farrakhan and thousands of men.

"We looked for other venues, but what we found in Rev. Jackson was an independent mind and an independent man," Muhammad said. "You can talk about sell-out preachers all day long, but you can't say that about C.L. Jackson."

State Rep. Harold Dutton, a Democrat who has represented Greater Fifth Ward in the Texas Legislature for three decades, said learning of Jackson's death seals 2016 as a year bookended by the loss of two dear friends and community stalwarts - Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee in January and now Jackson.

"Both were giants in northeast Houston and in Fifth Ward in particular," he said.

Dutton said Jackson understood the connection between politics and economic empowerment.

"Pastor Jackson was the kind of person who told you exactly what was on his mind, but he always had his community at the forefront of whatever he did and whatever he said," Dutton recalled.

Jackson had been battling multiple myeloma - a bone marrow cancer - for the last three years.

"I was telling the church Sunday that there has never been a moment in my life when he wasn't there. That was Sunday morning and he hadn't passed," Sheldon Jackson said. "We were inseparable. I miss his presence. I miss him right now."

In addition to his son, Jackson is survived by his wife of 62 years, Bettie Joyce Edmond Jackson; a daughter, Bridgette C. Jackson; a daughter-in-law, Gloria Jackson; as well as grandchildren Shannon Jackson and Charleigh Ceaser.

A memorial service will begin at 6 p.m. on Jan. 1 followed by a funeral on Jan. 2 at 11 a.m. Both will be held at Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church, 2801 Conti Street.
Once a year, U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison packs his robe and drives to Laredo with his law clerks to help his colleagues in the Rio Grande Valley chip away at a mounting federal caseload.

He holds about 150 sentencing hearings and a few other matters in the course of a week there, mostly involving immigrants who re-entered the country illegally, drug trafficking and human smuggling cases.

He said he'd gladly call off the yearly pilgrimage if the backlog in the Valley abated.

"I spend my own money, but I am very tight with taxpayer money," said Ellison, who has his own load of civil and criminal cases in Houston. "I squeeze the most out of every dollar - usually until it squeaks."

Lifetime appointees such as Ellison are picking up the slack in jurisdictions across the country as a growing number of federal judicial posts remain vacant amid the biggest stalemate in judicial appointments since before the Eisenhower administration.

With 11 district and two federal appellate court vacancies, Texas has accumulated more empty seats on the federal bench than any other region, and each Texas vacancy is officially designated an emergency. Officials say they're making every effort to keep the cases on schedule.

"Most of us are working our judicial tails off," said U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal, chief judge for the Southern District of Texas, which includes Houston.

Federal judges in this region take on 139 more cases - weighted by complexity - per year than are recommended by the judicial conference that sets policies across the country. And the load could get worse before it gets better with a new administration taking over the White House.

"Texas is Exhibit A in the breakdown of nominations and confirmations," said Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and director of the Governance Institute, a think tank on inter-branch relations.

When Donald J. Trump assumes the presidency Jan. 20, he will face more vacant judgeships across the country than any U.S. president in history, according to Wheeler.

The cost of delay

Judicial backlogs hit the little guy the hardest - small business matters, employment claims, oil and gas litigation, civil rights or environmental cases, according to legal experts.

Built-in statutory safeguards protect criminal defendants from unnecessary delays, but judicial vacancies can gum up the works on the civil docket.

Robert Carp, a political scientist at the University of Houston who has studied the federal courts for decades, said the slowing of the trial calendar benefits litigants with deep pockets. A slow-moving case eases the pressure on a big corporation to settle with people who don't have huge bank accounts.

"The delay helps those who can afford to delay," Carp said. "Those who can't afford to delay and need a settlement quickly might have to take a settlement that's a lot smaller than they could otherwise get. They've got bills to pay. They've got a babysitter. They've got the butcher to pay for the pork chops."

He added, "You get a kind of warping or perversion of justice."

Lena Zwarensteyn, at the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, agreed.

"If you know it's going to take forever, you might be dissuaded from seeking a remedy," Zwarensteyn said.

The backlog also creates a significant impediment to long-term prosperity, according to Ray Perryman, an economic researcher in Waco who has studied the effect of court vacancies in Texas.

"Adequate judicial infrastructure, like roadways and electric power, is a vital part of the framework that allows economic activity to occur in an efficient manner," he said. "Businesses depend on the ability to enforce contracts. When complex litigation involving large companies is delayed, funds must be reserved and, thus, taken out of the investment stream."

Another regular observer of the judiciary said the rash of longstanding federal court vacancies hurts everyone.

"To the extent that we care about justice and the administration of justice, that has been compromised," said Michael J. Gerhardt, a distinguished professor of constitutional law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and scholar-in-residence at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

At the other end of the spectrum are idealists like John Malcolm, director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the The Heritage Foundation, who values the "right candidate" over expediency.

"These people will be dispensing justice for their life-tenured appointments," Malcolm said. "The philosophy of the people who sit as judges is incredibly important in terms of whether they will respect the rule of law and whether they will apply laws equally to everybody."

Judicial politics

The Southern District of Texas relies on 19 federal judges to hear criminal and civil matters in 43 counties. One of those seats, in Corpus Christi, has been vacant since 2011; the other, in Brownsville, since 2014.

For those two seats, Texas' Republican senators and the Obama administration could not even agree upon potential nominees.

But five Texas candidates for other federal district court vacancies appeared before the Senate judiciary committee in early September, when most pundits believed Democrat Hillary Clinton would win the election. Legal experts don't expect these candidates to move past the committee now that Trump is taking office.

The next step would be for Trump to make his own nominations for the open Texas seats, in conjunction with the state's two Republican senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn.

Cruz plans to work with the Trump administration to confirm "strong conservative judges" throughout the federal judiciary, said Phil Novack, the senator's press secretary.

"The people have resoundingly spoken and made clear during this election that they want constitutionalist judges who will interpret the law as written and not legislate from the bench," he said. "Sen. Cruz looks forward to working with the incoming Trump administration to confirm strong conservative judges to fill the vacancies on the Supreme Court, on the circuit and district benches in Texas, and throughout the federal judiciary."

Nationwide, President Barack Obama has appointed only 22 judges during the current session of Congress. The last president with that few appointments in a session was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had 44 judicial confirmations as he faced majority opposition in the Senate in his last two years in office.

Stephen Susman, a Texas attorney who is on the committee that interviews judicial candidates, said Texas has had the most vacancies because it has two very conservative Republican senators, both of whom are lawyers, and a very progressive liberal lawyer for president. Their views differ about who would make a good judge.

In the lead up to the election, Susman, a Democrat, said, "There was a wide consensus on the committee of who we would support. All five (nominees) were good lawyers."

"There's no question I think that Cornyn and Cruz would say they were looking for people who were moderates, not loyal conservative Republicans, because they had to appoint people who the White House would accept," he said.

'Quality of justice'

As cases mount, judges can either let the backlog grow or try to contain it using the staff on hand. That might mean full-time judges work weekends or 12-hour days. Three of the five Houston judges who attained senior status have agreed to carry more or less a full docket.

Under this crush, judges have less time to reflect on rulings, critics contend.

"It affects the quality of justice that's being dispensed and the quantity of work you can complete," according to retired U.S. District Judge Leonard E. Davis, a former chief judge for the acutely pressed Eastern District of Texas, cited in a 2014 study on understaffed courts by the Brennan Center.

Criminal charges have not abated statewide during the stalemate. And indictments have more than quadrupled along the Texas-Mexico border over the past two decades.

Ellison, from Houston, is one of six out-of-town jurists who have helped the swamped courts in Laredo and McAllen address the deluge, disposing of 365 cases in two years' time, according to the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts data.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner, one of those with a full caseload despite his senior status, said the situation brings to mind the maxim that justice delayed is justice denied. Whether you're fighting a patent case or you have a debt that needs to be paid, you may get caught in a snarl of legal traffic on your way to court.

"The whole concept of coming to a courtroom is to do away with what we see in Westerns - a showdown at high noon on the county square," Hittner said. "Here you have an impartial judge or a judge and a jury, instead of taking it into your own hands."
Sberbank of Russia is not planning to withdraw from the Ukrainian market for the time being, CEO Herman Gref said in an interview with Rossiya 24 television.

"Overall, we will continue to operate in Ukraine. Our assets are shrinking, we do not see any outlook for a swift departure from the market. We continue operating," Gref said. Sberbank's eponymous subsidiary in Ukraine is operating under truly difficult conditions. "Virtually every week one incident or another occurs," he said.

The nascent nationalization of PrivatBank, one of the biggest banks in the sector, has had an impact on Ukraine's banking sector.

"The situation is difficult, of course. Everything that took place with PrivatBank stirred up a wave among the public. Therefore, I think that for some period of time there will be instability with retail clients and corporate clients," he said, adding that the government's move to take over PrivatBank came as no surprise to specialists.

The subsidiary, PJSC Sberbank, founded in 2001, is wholly owned by Sberbank of Russia.

Sberbank was the 7th biggest bank in Ukraine by assets (totaling UAH 47.845 billion) out of 108 active banks in Ukraine, according to National Bank of Ukraine data as of July 1, 2016.
More details have been released after a person died when a truck packed with alcohol plunged from a elevated overpass and burst into flames Wednesday morning on U.S. 59 near the 610 Loop in north Houston, snarling traffic for miles during rush hour.

The wreck happened about 7 a.m. on the outbound Eastex Freeway near the North Loop, according to the Houston Police Department.
A finance professor at University of Houston-Victoria has admitted he helped a Houston-area drug ring transfer the proceeds of a massive synthetic cannabinoid operation to bankers in Jordan.

Omar Maher Al Nasser, 37, of Sugar Land, was one of 16 defendants arrested in one of the largest stings in the country on a synthetic cannabinoid operation. He pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gray Miller in Houston Tuesday to one of two charges. He said he aided and abetted an unlicensed money transmitting business that wired more than $200,000 from banks in the United States to accounts in Jordan, according to a news release by U.S. Attorney Ken Magidson.

Al Nasser, an assistant professor of finance at UH-Victoria, did not know about the drug aspect of the operation, according to his lawyer.

Todd Ward, one of Al Nasser's lawyers, said his client has no affiliation or knowledge of the alleged synthetic cannibinoid conspiracy alleged in one count still pending, which accuses him of involvement in a conspiracy to launder proceeds of the operation.

He was slotted to teach a class on financial management at the school's Sugar Land campus at the time of his arrest. A magistrate judge declined to release him on bail, so the class became a moot subject.

A UH-Victoria spokesman said Al Nasser has been on leave without pay since Sept. 1.

"As more information becomes available, UHV officials will consider action appropriate to the situation," said Paula Cobler, the school's director of marketing and communications.

A previous defense attorney, Charles Duke, told the magistrate judge that Al Nasser dabbled in day trading but said he did not believe Al Nasser knew any of the other defendants. If anything, he said, Al Nasser was duped.

Al Nasser was one of 16 defendants indicted in April following a multi-year and multi-agency investigation into one of the largest synthetic cannabinoid trafficking enterprises ever uncovered. Investigators tied Al Nasser to one of the primary distributors of synthetic cannabinoids in the Southern District of Texas. The operation netted $35 million from more than 9.5 tons of a drug sold on the streets as kush or so-called "synthetic marijuana."

The judge set sentencing for Feb. 16.
Years after the cute-albeit-creepy little thing became a fad, and weeks after my preschooler and first-grader began begging for it because, they said, "everybody has one," I broke down and decided to invite an Elf on the Shelf to be part of our Christmas traditions.

Without towering bookcases and chandeliers, the little guy has a challenge each day finding a new perch from which to peer down and cast judgment on the girls' behavior. He has conducted his scouting mission for Santa from high-hanging pots and oven mitts.

As I watch him observing the goings-on in our house - the hugs and the tantrums, the eating of dinner and the distracted avoidance of eating dinner - I wonder what it would be like if journalists had elf helpers who we could send out to keep tabs on lawmakers and judges and school administrators and all the rest whom we trust to do the people's work.

If we could deploy doe-eyed scouts in red caps to keep watch, surely we'd catch more naughty - and a great deal more nice.

Our elf may have reported back, for instance, that earlier this month at a listening session hosted by the U.S. Department of Education here in Houston, U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, sat through some three hours of feedback. She took notes and asked questions as parents, teachers and advocates shared their challenges trying to get adequate services for special needs children in Texas public schools.

State Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, also attended that session. They, and others who listened across the state, deserve credit.

The scout also would take note of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who has joined the parents of Austin Tice in advocating for the release of the missing McClatchy journalist. Cornyn drew attention to his plight with a floor speech that urged President-elect Donald Trump to make the case a priority and to "continue to utilize all possible means to secure his safe return."

Not afraid to say it

Earlier this year, some of us would have given our left pinky toes to be tiny scouts silently observing the closed-door negotiations that led to a deal with police, fire and city employees to reduce monstrous pension liabilities. The fight isn't over. Lawmakers still have to approve reforms. But Mayor Sylvester Turner seems to have accomplished what his very capable predecessors failed to do.

Then there's Joe Straus, the Texas speaker of the House, a moderate Republican mercifully re-elected by the good folks of San Antonio and chosen by his colleagues to preside over the lower chamber of the Legislature. I've heard more than a few times from Republicans and Democrats alike that Straus' leadership is the only thing keeping Texas from descending into the fires of hell, or the mediocrity of Mississippi. He understands, for instance, that the education and protection of our children is infinitely more important than regulating bathroom use for transgender Texans. And, in his own gracious, careful way, he's not afraid to say it.

He also wasn't afraid to admit in late November in an interview with the Texas Tribune that it may have been a mistake for lawmakers to cut $350 million from a state-supported therapy program that aims to help poor, medically fragile babies and toddlers with conditions overcome their disabilities.

A curious decision

The cuts, the subject of a yearlong legal battle, were only the most recent to the Medicaid therapy program, which now serves 14 percent fewer children than it did in 2011, according to a report by Texans Care for Children.

One has to wonder if senators pushing those cuts would have done so if they knew elf eyes were watching.

We can ask the same question about Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett and his colleagues, who in May found that although the state's school funding system deserves "transformational, top-to-bottom reforms," it is constitutional. The decision reversed a lower-court opinion and took the pressure off lawmakers to make meaningful change.

Perhaps only the creepy glare of a journo-scout could shine light on the curious decision by the Houston Independent School District to dismiss its chief auditor, Richard Patton, and then refuse to release a taxpayer-funded, $17,300 investigative report that explained his alleged misconduct. For his part, Patton argued in a lawsuit that the board was retaliating against him for reporting suspected illegal activity at the district to the FBI and other authorities.

The truth? Only the elves could know.

OK, this little fantasy is as far-fetched as a white Christmas in Houston. So, until Santa sees fit to lend some elf-power to the Fourth Estate, our dwindling ranks will continue to keep watch, as best we can, from earthly perches.
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Incoming Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg accused three prosecutors Tuesday of trying to sabotage criminal cases by telling victims their cases were in jeopardy, and called for an investigation into what she said was "political retribution" for being fired.

The allegations came days after Ogg notified nearly 40 prosecutors that she would not keep them on when she takes office in January.

The preemptive firings and Tuesday's accusations illustrate the amount of bad blood between Ogg and current District Attorney Devon Anderson and her loyalists in the office following a bitter election campaign in which Ogg questioned the integrity and ethics of the office under the incumbent.

"It appears that some of these individuals are sabotaging their own cases," Ogg said at a press conference in front of Houston's criminal courthouse Tuesday. "It's the use of victims as pawns by disgruntled employees that shows, not just a profound disrespect for other people, but a lack of professionalism that won't go unaddressed."

The three prosecutors denied any wrongdoing and blasted Ogg for publicizing their names without investigating the claims.

"I have always tried to be ethical and have never been a win-at-all-costs prosecutor," said Gretchen Flader, one of the three. "I have done what I thought was right and just every day. I am saddened and sickened by all that has happened."

Ogg said an anonymous caller told the mother of a victim in Flader's death penalty case that the new district attorney never would seek the death penalty.

Flader denied telling the distraught woman that and detailed the conversation she had with her.

Flader said she told the woman that she no longer would be working on the case and that the new district attorney would decide whether the office would seek death for the accused.

"She asked who she needed to talk to, and I told her that Kim Ogg is the new DA and would make the decisions," Flader said. "I told her I was sorry and wished her luck."

Flader said she believes it was her relationship with fellow prosecutor Nicholas Socias that led to her firing, since Ogg told reporters they were "domestic partners."

Both assistant district attorneys were among those terminated via email by Ogg last week.

"I don't know what that has to do with anything, but now I think I know why I was fired," Flader said. "Not because of my actions and how ethical I am as a prosecutor, but because of my decision to be in a relationship with a prosecutor who was in the media."

Socias was the prosecutor at the center of a case in which a mentally ill rape victim was jailed for almost a month last year while waiting to testify. That woman has filed a federal lawsuit against the county. In that legal action, Socias is represented by Rusty Hardin.

Speaking for the couple, Hardin said both acted appropriately and he criticized Ogg for making what he said were unsubstantiated claims.

"This is totally inaccurate as to Nick and Gretchen," he said. "You should not, as the newly elected DA, go out and make unfounded allegations based on a phone call or the understanding of people who are obviously in difficult situations."

On Tuesday, Ogg accused Socias of dismissing a case against a child sex predator, releasing him from jail, and said the prosecutor did not contact the victim's family to say the charges had been dropped.

The only case Socias had that fit that description, according to Hardin, has not been dismissed. Rather, the accused has been released on bail. Court records show the case remains active with several pending charges.

Ogg accused the third prosecutor, Justin Keiter, of handing out a lenient sentence to a pimp in a sex trafficking case, then blaming Ogg.

Through his attorney, Keiter released a statement denying any wrongdoing.

"Her accusations are false and demonstrate a reckless disregard for the truth," he said. "Ms. Ogg suggested I misinformed and misled a human trafficking victim who I care deeply about and worked tirelessly to bring her the justice she deserved. This accusation is patently false, and I assure all the facts will decisively prove me right."

He said Ogg defamed him.

"Her unfounded allegations unjustly harmed the reputation I've worked so hard to obtain while serving victims of crime and seeking justice for the citizens of Harris County," Keiter said. "To suggest I have done something criminal is outrageous, reckless and irreparably damages my reputation and character. I have done nothing of the sort."

He also demanded Ogg retract her statement and apologize to him and his family.

"I have no doubt that when all the facts are uncovered and the truth comes out, I will be vindicated," he said.

At her press conference, Ogg only gave details on three prosecutors, but said crime victims in at least five cases had contacted her to say prosecutors overseeing their cases called to say their cases were in jeopardy, or defendants were given lenient plea deals, because of the firings.

She called on the current district attorney to investigate and secure the internal documents and files for prosecutors who may have contacted families with inaccurate information about their cases. She also called the actions "political retribution."

"The callers deliberately misinformed the crime victims about the status and well-being in their cases, and then told them to call me personally to complain," Ogg said in an email to Anderson's administration. "I urge you to immediately halt the access to all official information by these prosecutors and any others engaged in these despicable actions."

Anderson's office declined to comment on the dust-up and instead pointed to the Code of Criminal Procedure, which mandates that prosecutors notify victims of changes in the case.

"It is the duty of all prosecutors to inform crime victims when they are no longer handling their case," spokesman Jeff McShan said. "Most do it out of compassion for the victims, but it is also the law."

Misusing information gathered by law enforcement is a crime in Texas, and usually is the law cited when police officers use computer networks to run background checks without authorization.

The charge, misuse of official information, is a third-degree felony with a punishment ranging from probation to 10 years in prison.
Ah, 2020 - the vast futuristic year when Don Cheadle leads a mission to Mars, a supervolcano erupts under Yellowstone National Park and Las Vegas is destroyed by a Sharknado.

Bad sci-fi movies love the year 2020.

More realistic predictions involve self-driving cars, Tokyo hosting the Olympics and Houston landing the World Petroleum Congress.

Houston failed in our bids for the past two meetings, and Mayor Sylvester Turner deserves praise for closing the deal.

The triennial international oil and gas event hasn't met in the United States since 1987, when it was held in Houston during the nadir of the 1980s oil bust.

So what will the energy landscape look like in three years?

If you know the answer, there's plenty of consulting firms that would pay handsomely for a moment of your time.

When the WPC met three years ago in Moscow, crude prices were in a free-fall as hydraulic fracturing flooded the global markets and OPEC producers refused to cut back.

Three years before that in Qatar, sky-high international demand and Arab Spring disrupting supplies in the Middle East made for a booming market.

And the previous meeting in Spain was marked by a focus on renewable energy resources.

So what will the future hold?

Right now, a rough agreement by OPEC to cap oil production has brought stability to markets - for now. However, concerns about global warming and competition from non-traditional fuel sources already has key oil and gas players preparing for a different kind of energy future.

Daniel Yergin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning oil historian, has framed it as a pivot away from "when are we going to run out of oil?" and toward "how long will we continue to use it?"

The world's largest oil producer, Saudi Arabia's Aramco, is transitioning from a nationalized company to a public one in what looks to be the priciest initial public offering in history. The Middle East kingdom's long term-plan is to raise capital and diversify away from a fossil fuel-based economy.

The Paris Agreement has nations across the world trying to reduce their carbon emissions in an attempt to keep global climate from warming by less than 1.5 degree celsius. Even major oil companies are coming around to across-the-board taxes on carbon. Analysts think that this global pressure could cause oil consumption to start waning as early as the 2020s, according to The Economist. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to renege on this deal, but threats of international carbon tariffs will probably limit any major changes.

Slowing demand would push companies to prioritize easy oil - such as the Middle East and shale plays - over expensive and difficult drilling in the Arctic or deep sea rigs. That's mixed news for Texas oilmen and women, who have one foot in fracking and the other in offshore exploration.

At the same time, the United States continues to shape international markets as we ramp up exports of natural gas and crude oil. That sort of international trade will also probably face new challenges as Russia and China assert themselves on the global stage. Just last week, China seized a U.S. underwater drone in the international waters of the South China Sea. The international norms that allow free trade to flourish have begun to fray.

Life in Houston 2020 probably won't be too different from now: Traffic will be bad, queso will be good and our economy will get a little boost when tens of thousands of international delegates convene here for the World Petroleum Congress.

Let's just try to avoid any Sharknados.
Pets and cold weather

Regarding "Chill out: Arctic blast ready to drop temperatures" (Chron.com, Saturday), as Texans brace for the chilly season ahead, pet owners should take precautions to keep their four-legged friends safe as temperatures drop.

The wind should be the only thing howling outside our windows this winter. With wind chills dipping into the single digits, furry friends left outside are at risk of frostbite or hypothermia, both of which can be deadly. Pet owners should keep an eye out for warning signs of these life-threatening conditions, such as shivering, disorientation and discoloration of their extremities. Tails, ears, and paws are especially susceptible to frostbite.

Concerned observers who notice a distressed dog left outside in chilly temperatures - or inside a cold car - should immediately call local animal control or law enforcement for help.

Robin Ganzert, President and CEO,

American Humane, Washington, D.C.

Give Trump a chance

Regarding "Trump aides: Does Russian meddling matter?" (Page A8, Monday), many Democrats appear to be unable to accept the results of the election. Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway legitimately asks, where is the evidence (of foreign intervention)? "Democrats say it's unlikely the public will ever hear detailed evidence because doing so would disclose classified sources and methods." Isn't that convenient? They get to make accusations without having to prove anything. That stinks to high heaven.

While I did not vote for Donald Trump, I am at least willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Just as I gave Barack Obama that same benefit when he was elected.

Cathy Newman, Meadows Place

Road work and delays

Regarding "Widening project on U.S. 290 drags" (Page A3, Sunday), as a person who travels along U.S. 290 several times a week, I am aware of the frustration felt by motorists as construction to widen the freeway drags. I use that verb consciously because the frustration stems from the roadway along the entire project distance (Loop 610 west to the Waller County line) having been lined with concrete construction barriers, narrow lanes and no shoulders for more than a year and no work being done on sections for weeks and even months at a time.

Money is always an issue for governmental agencies, and quantifying loss of production costs for the populace due to traffic snarls is difficult. But it seems shortening the time allotted to contractors to complete their work would be cost-effective and certainly beneficial to the drivers.

Bill Spear Bartlett, Houston

A mother's plea

Regarding "New Sheriff, old woes" (Page A1, Monday), I will be praying for the new sheriff as he takes on his new job as sheriff of Harris County. He will need a lot of support from the Harris County Commissioners Court.

As a mom of a Harris County Sheriff's Office sergeant, I have seen all the double-shifts she has had to work. This is a shame that it has come to not enough deputies to work. I am shocked that Harris County is low in pay, and we can't keep our deputies and jailers.

I hope the commissioners will find money to hire more law enforcement and bring the pay up so more people who retired will come back.

The helicopters are so necessary in such a big county.

I really appreciate all the dedicated deputies and jailers.

Mary Walker, Missouri City

Will of the people

Regarding "Dan Patrick, Lord of the Lavatory" (Page A2, Monday), your Page A2 article with the headline "Dan Patrick "Lord of the Lavatory" is offensive to me and most everyone I know.

This bathroom issue may not be important to some people, and it very well may be minor in the overall scheme of all that ails our state, but Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is responding to the wishes of the people who elected him. Too bad more so-called politicians don't do the same.

Bill Pratt, Deer Park
It's no surprise that some of our current leaders, like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick or President-elect Donald Trump, are pushing school voucher programs. They've been telling us that was their intention for years. Abandoning our neighborhood public schools, however, isn't something the majority of Texans want. While political salesmen like Patrick and Trump and the organizations that support them like to wax poetically about supporting "school choice" programs, such as taxpayer savings grants and education savings accounts (ESAs), these programs are nothing more than vouchers. Unlike real choice programs that help families find the best fit for their children, the true purpose of every voucher program is to decrease the state's responsibility to properly fund a quality education for every child while directing education dollars that are spent to political supporters.

Vouchers would direct money away from an already cash-strapped public education system for a subset of students, while leaving thousands more behind with fewer resources to support them. We are already close to dead last when it comes to how much Texas spends per child. That existing deficiency combined with taking more funding away from our neighborhood schools is a recipe for disaster. There are numerous examples of similar programs that have failed around the country.

Voucher supporters argue a free market would improve schools through competition, but there is not a solid research base to support that claim and significant anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Why would anyone expect that sending students and public tax dollars to voucher schools, which don't have to adhere to the same standards as public schools, would improve educational outcomes? Schools accepting vouchers wouldn't have to meet state-approved academic standards or public accountability and transparency requirements such as special education, health, and safety laws. Most of all, unlike public schools, voucher schools aren't responsible for accepting all students; they can accept who they want and will absolutely exercise that right. Our society's commitment to public education, as enshrined in the Texas Constitution, places a responsibility on our legislature to ensure we have a public education system capable of properly educating every child who comes to the schoolhouse door. Voucher schools, on the other hand, can pick and choose who they take and are inherently exclusionary. As a result, the population of students who might benefit from a voucher is substantially limited and the schools available to all students are significantly harmed. Under this proposed system, students with special needs, such as learning or physical disabilities, language barriers, or behavioral challenges, would mostly likely be left behind.

Schools aren't businesses, and they shouldn't be run like them. Businesses can choose what type of product they want to sell and how to sell it, and if the product is not up to their standard, it gets sent back or destroyed. Our schools' products are children, and we can't send them back - we must build them up. We cater to their education needs, whether our students be homeless, rich, poor, abused, frightened, rude, or brilliant! No matter what their background, Texas parents know their children will receive a quality education in public schools. Our educators are doing amazing things in the classroom every day, but there's always room for improvement. A little funding can go a long way, but in our case, Texas cut $5.4 billion from public schools in 2011. Now legislators are talking about taking even more money away in the name of "school choice."

It's high time for the public to stand up for teachers and public education and say, "Enough!" Invest in the talent of Texas educators and throw a little positive support their way, and the sky is the limit. Saying Texas public schools are a failure is nothing more than political rhetoric. It is being spouted by those who know little about what really goes on in the classroom or in the homes of those 5.3 million schoolchildren who are trying to do their very best, without the full support of those responsible for giving them that chance.

Our energy and resources would be better spent on the public education system than on a limited voucher experiment. Restoring all the funding cut from public schools in 2011 would help us battle overcrowded classrooms, provide the latest and greatest technology to students, and offer better pay and support for great teachers so that they stay in the classroom longer and do the most good.

Godsey is the executive director for the Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE). With more than 100,000 members, ATPE is the state's largest educator group and the voice of public education.
We are now witnessing a large and increasing number of colleges and universities declaring their campuses to be sanctuary campuses. What is a sanctuary campus and what can it do and not do?

What do we know?

One, we know from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for fiscal year 2015 that there were 24,982 undocumented immigrant-students on public college and university campuses throughout Texas - 7,580 in public universities and 17,402 in public community, technical and state colleges. There are some 1,500 on Lone Star College campuses, where I am a trustee. These colleges and universities know the name of every single undocumented immigrant on their campus because in order to receive in-state tuition, each must sign an affidavit that, reports the Texas Coordinating Board, says the student "met statutory requirements to qualify as Texas residents for higher education proposed by the higher education sector." Ironically, by signing such an affidavit, each student on respective campuses is identified as an immigrant, relatively easy to find.

Two, a "sanctuary campus" now means that college officials will not voluntarily disclose to law enforcement officials the names of these immigrants. But - and it's a huge distinction - campus officials must disclose these names if requested by a court order. These immigrants are as exposed as fish in a barrel - very vulnerable because of the signed affidavit.

Three, private student information is protected by FERPA, the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act, a federal law that regulates student records. But if a court order requests the name and home address of an immigrant who signed the affidavit, the college or university keeping such a record must report that name and address to law enforcement officials - making virtually all immigrants very easy to find. A court order overrides FERPA. No campus is a sanctuary in this sense, ironically quite exposed.

Three, will President Donald Trump go after such college students? He has sent and continues to send mixed signals. At first, it was, "Deport all 11.2 illegal immigrants." Then it became, "Deport all criminals." Then on Dec. 7, he softened on the issue of college immigrants, especially DREAMers: "We're going to work something out that's going to make people happy and proud. They got brought here at a very young age, they've worked here, they've gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they're in never-never land because they don't know what's going to happen." Will he instead go after only immigrant students with criminal records, which are kept by law enforcement officials?

Four, some college and university presidents will issue no kind of sanctuary campus because they fear such would jeopardize federal funding, as has been threatened when colleges don't comply with President Barack Obama's transgender bathroom directive.

Five, if all else fails for undocumented students, there is a remaining recourse: Immigrants have the right to a hearing before an immigration judge. But immigration courts are now overwhelmed with pending cases. USA Today reports that "even if Trump  added 150 more judges over the next two years, they could not clear out all the pending immigration cases until 2023." Immigrants may stay in the U.S. pending their court hearing.

Sanctuary campuses afford little protection for undocumented students and are ineffectual in the face of court orders to colleges to release the names of these students.

Meanwhile, Jeff Sessions, Trump's U.S. attorney general nominee and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will push hard to deport undocumented student immigrants. Their chief obstacle could be  Donald Trump.

Let's see, in an ever-changing mind, what he thinks next week. My guess is that he will further soften. As he looks closer at the matter, it will become a more humane consideration for him.

Trowbridge is a trustee of the Lone Star College System.
Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada has passed the national budget for 2017, 274 Members of Parliament voted for the document.

Commenting on the adoption of the document, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said that his government had closely been cooperating with the parliament to prepare the national budget.

"Together, we've started an absolutely fair process of forming the Ukrainian budget for 2017. We tabled it in parliament on time, it passed the first reading, we worked with the Ukrainian parliament's factions to work out the best solution for 2017," Groysman said at a plenary meeting in parliament.

He described the budged as a "human-oriented" document.

"We'll cover defense expenses, we'll support the agrarian sector, we'll raise the salaries of teachers by 50% and of doctors by 30%. We'll allocate funds for medicines, we'll provide long-term care patients with free medicines," he said.

"You'll be the witnesses of large-scale decentralization," he summed up.
Members of an Audubon Society chapter in southwest Missouri say theyre commonly seeing birds that used to be rare in the Ozarks, and they believe climate change is the reason.

We believe we are seeing real changes in our area, Charles Burwick, a veteran member of the Greater Ozarks Audubon Society chapter and a Missouri master naturalist, told the Springfield News-Leader. Were seeing Eastern phoebes nesting here where 15 years ago they were rare. And theres been a big change in Springfield, where we are seeing black vultures at the Nature Center and the quarry. It used to be that black vultures stayed farther south, like in the Table Rock area. Now we see them regularly with the turkey vultures that have always been here.

House finches, typically found west of the Rockies, are becoming common. Even roadrunners, a desert bird, are making homes in a Springfield neighborhood.

That neighborhood is pretty proud of its roadrunners, Burwick said. They nest in shrubbery next to peoples homes. The kind of startling thing about that is what do they live on during the winter?

Burwick said many birds are experiencing significant declines, mostly due to decline in wildlife habitat.

Grassland birds have been specifically hit as a result of expanding transfer of habitat to agriculture, and the widespread use of fescue for pasture graze for cattle and other livestock, he said.

The Greater Ozarks Audubon Society is in the midst of its annual Christmastime bird count, a process that began Dec. 14 and continues through Jan. 5. Each bird-counting team covers an area of a 15-mile-diameter circle in which volunteers fan out to count and record every bird they see in 24 hours. There are more than a dozen similar bird-count circle locations across Missouri and hundreds across the United States.

Dedicated birders even go outside at night to find and count owls and other night fliers.

The data will become part of a database for the national Audubon Society in Washington, D.C.

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Citizens of Missouri have had the right to bear arms ever since the states first constitution was created in 1820.

On Jan. 1, the Show Me State will add another notch in its gun belt when Senate Bill 656 fully becomes law and Missouri becomes the 11th state to allow citizens to carry a concealed firearm for self-defense without a government-issued permit.

The procedure is widely known as constitutional carry. While the new law will allow carrying a concealed weapon (CCW) without a permit by people age 21 and over, there will still be restrictions regarding where guns are appropriate or allowed and where theyre not.

Texas County Sheriff James Sigman likes the move, but expects it will mean fewer people will go through the CCW training process thats necessary to obtain a permit.

I like that any law abiding citizen who can lawfully carry a gun can do so without a permit, Sigman said. However, the downside of this would be the training that was offered to individuals who were not familiar with firearms. Fortunately, in our particular area most people grew up with a gun in hand and know how to safely handle a firearm.

The other downside is not everyone knows what constitutes justifiable use of force, and they wont get educated about that in the training process.

Missouri citizens are advised that when theyre in another state theyre subject to that states conceal-carry laws.

Due to the changes in the concealed carry law, I believe the number of concealed carry permits issued will continue to decline, Sigman said. Constitutional carry permits the citizens who can legally carry a firearm to carry within the state without a permit, but Missouri constitutional carry does not permit carrying a concealed weapon beyond our state borders without a concealed carry permit that is recognized by another state. I believe every citizen who plans to carry should read Senate bill 656 and become familiar with it, in order to protect themselves.

And every individual who chooses to carry should be familiar with their sidearm and shoot frequently.

Some elements of SB656 took effect at the end of October, but its main component kicks in at the outset of 2017. Sigman said the new law could benefit people in his profession.

Under the changes of the conceal carry law, I believe we will see more citizens carrying concealed weapons and hopefully this will create a crime deterrent, he said. The law has created a stand your ground element and removed the duty to retreat from private property owned or leased by an individual, or is occupied by an individual who has been given specific authority by the property owner to occupy it.

The constitutional carry idea is apparently popular in the Ozarks. After Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed SB656 earlier this year, the legislature voted to override his veto. Prior to the vote, District 33 Sen. Mike Cunningham, a Republican, said he received a total of 487 phone calls, emails and letters asking him to vote in support of overriding Nixons veto, and only 27 asking him to sustain it.

Each time a constituent reaches out to my office, I take their input into consideration, Cunningham said.

Rep. Robert Ross, a Republican, was instrumental in helping SB656 pass.

SB656 is a win for the law abiding citizen, making it easier for them to protect themselves without governmental burden or permission, Ross said. Is something really a right if youre required to ask your government for permission to enjoy it?

Ross believes SB656 detractors exaggerate its potential side effects.

Despite the anti-gun opposition message of the wild west, blood in the streets, rampant crime and more, the provisions contained within SB656 arent beneficial to criminals who dont follow our current laws, he said. It should also be noted that these are the same hyperbole-filled arguments made when Missouri first enacted our current CCW system, and again when Missouri became an open carry state.

CCW permits will continue to be obtainable through county sources in Missouri, and are available in Texas County through the sheriffs department. As in the past, Missouri CCW permits will be honored in several other right to carry states that dont have constitutional carry laws.

Cunningham said having a CCW permit will still to be a good idea for other reasons.

Existing permit holders and potential permit holders should maintain or obtain their permits to help protect themselves from any potential legal issues or entering restricted locations accidentally, he said.

Ross believes CCW education will not suffer much.

Gun owners are a disproportionately responsible group and while there will no longer be a training and education governmental mandate, I would encourage and believe that the classes offered will be well attended, he said.

Carrying a concealed firearm has been on the increase for several years. Texas County Memorial Hospital safety committee member John Sawyer said the hike in concealed guns has even resulted in action at the facility.

Weve had an increase in patients admitted who had a gun on them, Sawyer said. Weve had to change some of our policies just this year to where now instead of having one of our supervisors or security people go in for disarming a gun, we actually call the police to come and do it for us.

Particular types of knives and certain other weapons also fall under concealed weapon regulations, but Missouris new law is mainly focused on guns. Four other states have limited forms of constitutional carry in place, and more than 20 have introduced or are planning to introduce constitutional carry laws in their legislatures.

The new law does not make it legal for a convicted felon to obtain or carry a firearm in Missouri.

I believe that more law abiding individuals will choose to carry concealed as a matter of convenience, Ross said, but that the enactment of this law will come and go, without significant event. Crime always has and always will continue, although were likely to see reductions when criminals are faced with the increased likelihood that their next potential victim is armed and willing to protect themselves or their family.

CC

CCW permit holders will continue to be able to carry, with permission, into the following restricted locations: Schools, colleges and universities, child care facilities, casinos, churches, properly posted private property, restaurants and bars, government-owned buildings and law enforcement offices.

These locations will continue to prohibit all concealed weapons, including those carried by CCW permit holders: Gated areas of amusement parks, sports arenas with more than a 5,000-seat capacity, hospitals, courthouses, government meetings, within 25 feet of polling places, jails and prisons, airports, federal buildings and on public transportation.

CCW permit holders can still openly carry even in communities that have prohibited open carry, due to a bill passed by the state legislature in 2014 that supersedes local ordinances.

For more information in detail, log onto www.missouricarry.com.

In Missouri, CCW permits are issued by counties. For more information about the permitting process, call the Texas County Sheriffs Department at 417-967-4165.

Constitutional carry states (Jan. 1, 2017):

Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming. Limited versions: Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma.
A citizen panel is recommending raises for Missouri elected officials, though the Republican House speaker said Wednesday its not likely to be popular with lawmakers  even though they would benefit.

Statewide elected officials are substantially underpaid for the responsibilities required and should see 8 percent raises during fiscal years 2018 and 2019, according to a report released this month by the Citizens Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials. That would mean incoming Republican Gov.-elect Eric Greitens would receive a raise of more than $22,000 during his first two years in office, going from about $134,000 to $156,000 a year.

The panel also recommended raises of about 2.5 percent both fiscal years for lawmakers, a total of about $1,800 added to the current roughly $36,000 a year.

Missouri elected officials salaries are set by the commission in an attempt to relieve lawmakers of the politically sticky issue of approving their own pay. The commission is constitutionally required to meet every two years to evaluate whether to increase officials pay, and the panels suggestions will automatically take effect in July unless two-thirds of the Missouri Legislature votes against them by Feb. 1.

Some lawmakers have been reluctant to accept raises, and the last time legislators and executive-branch officials saw a bump in pay was the 2009 fiscal year. In 2015, legislators rejected a mostly similar pay raise recommendation; that proposal offered a bigger hike of $4,000 for lawmakers.

The current recommendation would cost the state about $470,000 total.

House Speaker Todd Richardson said Wednesday he hasnt reviewed the specific proposal, but said he expects lawmakers to move very quickly to block raises.

I dont think theyre going to be very popular in the General Assembly at a time when were not seeing a whole lot of wage growth across the state, Richardson said.

He also cited struggles to increase pay for state employees.

Republican Sen. Rob Schaaf, an outspoken critic in the Senate of the last proposed raises, cited similar concerns.

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The Texas County Genealogical and Historical Society has a library open on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at its Grand Avenue building. Its meetings are on the first []
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Donbas militants violated the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine 33 times in the past day, Ukraine's Anti-Terrorist Operation Headquarters has reported.

The village of Lebedynske in the Mariupol sector came under artillery fire, while mortars were used to shell the town of Krasnohorivka, and the villages of Novotroyitske, Shyrokyne, Taramchuk, Berezove, and Lebedynske on December 20, the ATO HQ said. Grenade launchers of various systems were used to attack the village of Talakivka, while grenade launchers and guns of infantry fighting vehicles were used to shell the villages of Novotroyitske and Berezove.

Russian-backed separatists in the Luhansk sector used mortars and grenade launchers to fire on the villages of Novozvanivka, Stanytsia Luhanska and Novo-Oleksandrivka. They also used grenade launchers and small arms to shell the village of Syze. Stanytsia Luhanska also came under aiming sniper fire.

The occupation forces in the Donetsk sector used the banned 122mm artillery system to shell Ukrainian positions near the village of Luhanske, near the Svitlodarska Duha stretch. They used mortars, grenade launchers and large-caliber machine guns to fire on the town of Avdiyivka and Luhanske.
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Planning on taking some time off for the holidays? Make sure youre clear on what the law allows, and what your employer allows. The following will hopefully clarify some misconceptions about vacations, religious and federal holidays, and the labor laws surrounding them: My Employer cant make me Work on a Federal Holiday Sadly, the law views holidays as just another business day, so whether or not you have to work is entirely up to your employers discretion if you work for a private company. Holidays like Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, MLK Day, and Christmas are referred to as federal holidays precisely because they apply to employees of the federal government. While many private employers offer some or all federal holidays off as an employee benefit, there is no law requiring them to do so. If I have to Work on a Federal Holiday then I get Paid Overtime Rates Unfortunately, federal holidays dont have any special designation for overtime pay, and working on a holiday is not considered overtime. In other words  regular overtime rules apply, since the law treats federal holidays as just another business day. Like usual, if you qualify for overtime pay, and you work over 40 hours during the week of a federal holiday, then you are entitled to time and a half pay for the hours worked over 40. If you work in Alaska, California, Nevada, Puerto Rico, or the Virgin Islands, then ...
m a revolutionary health and safety act to multiple executive appointments, its certainly been an eventful year for New Zealands HR sector. Here, we look back at the highest ranking articles which got Kiwis clicking in 2026.Almost a year later and HR professionals are still getting to grips with the Health and Safety at Work Act which saw New Zealand move towards an Australian model.A major merger coupled with a bullying claim landed one large communications firm in hot water.The HR professional, who was working in a law firm, was jailed for three years after a judge said shed been motivated by greed, rather than need.The Human Resources Institute of New Zealand held their annual awards evening in February with readers keen to find out who took home a trophy.While the change didnt come into force until April, the government confirmed a minimum wage increase of 50 cents  lifting the rate from $14.75 to $15.75.A global technology brand accidentally fired 30 employees when bureaucracy and incompetence momentarily combined.What makes a team great? HR pros from the tech giant set out to answer the question but were surprised by the results.You dont necessarily have to wait three consecutive days, revealed one leading employment lawyer.The CEO of an award-winning New Zealand workplace told HRM that the burden shouldnt lie solely on HRs shoulders.Published on April 1, this story about a controversial employment Act may not have been entirely as it seemedImmigration Minister Michael Woodhouse reprimanded employers for turning to international hire companies too soon.The new health and safety laws could extend beyond the workplace and into the pub, said one leading employment lawyer.An award-winning industry professional spoke out about the state of HR, saying something far better is on the horizon.It isnt poor compensation, inadequate training or a lack of recognition  so what is it?A leading catering and facility management company failed to adequately deal with bullying allegations, according to the ERA.The former TV personality turned politician became the first accredited living wage employer in the city.Kiwi favourite Trade Me rebelled against cookie-cutter corporate values to include a genuine, empowering principle.The top accountancy firm has officially relaxed its rules on work wear  just weeks after one receptionist was sent home for refusing to wear heels.From software companies to coffee roasters  there are now a full 58 accredited Living Wage employers in New Zealand.The companys New Zealand operation elected a long-term partner as its executive leader.The 17-year-old was airlifted to hospital where he is in a stable condition after suffering serious pelvic injuries.The support carer who fought for minimum wage has had her ground-breaking 2015 win reversedThe airlines CEO spoke out after employees were pictured in compromising images online.The financial services firm has scrapped multi-stage assessments in a bid to appease frustrated millennials. IBM Kenexa confirmed the finalists of its annual Best Workplaces Survey and Awards.The occupational health and safety regulator announced its latest chief executive, who went on to take the reins mid-December.The head of a leading business group says the salary scheme is populist but with plenty of flaws.HRM asked an expert in the field to share his thoughts on how Octobers big announcement would impact employers.The pest control company is being brutally honest about what it expects from its potential employees.A production firm owned by the industry giant came under fire after Hollywood star Harrison Ford was crushed beneath a hydraulic door.Theyre part and parcel of being in HR but getting it wrong could cost you your credibility, warned one industry expert.One professor who studied employers in the aftermath of Christchurchs 2011 quakes shared his thoughts on organisational recovery.Figures suggest Kiwi workers prefer having a set dress code but one industry lawyer said HR should be careful when a drafting a policy.The major manufacturer also revealed it would be combining HR with another department  a move it admits is different.The Story host may have landed HR in hot water after she suggested shed known for months that the show would be axed.The organisation, which has long-opposed probation periods, says it will be monitoring Bill Englishs performance over the next three months.
AccorHotels announced today that it is partnering with Humane Society International to implement its global free-range egg policy. AccorHotels will eliminate caged eggs from its liquid and shell egg supply chain in Europe by 2020, and in remaining markets within 8 years.

The company operates nearly 4,000 hotels across 95 countries including Raffles, Fairmont, Sofitel, onefinestay, Pullman, Swissotel, Novotel, Mercure, Mama Shelter, Adagio and Ibis.

Chetana Mirle, director of farm animals for Humane Society International, said: By becoming the first hotel chain to commit to a global free-range egg policy, AccorHotels has raised the bar for animal welfare in the hospitality industry. We commend AccorHotels for their leadership, and look forward to working with other companies to eliminate battery cages from their egg supply chains throughout the world.

Chief Executive Officer Amir Nahai of Accor Group Food & Beverage, said Our Healthy and Sustainable Food Charter shows how determined we are to enhance the quality of the meals we serve our guests. We are focusing on guests health as much as on giving farmers fair deals, protecting the environment and protecting animal welfare. We are teaming up with Humane Society International for all these reasons.

Sign HSIs no crates or cages petition.

Egg-laying hens are often confined for their whole lives in wire battery cages, in spaces so small they cannot even fully stretch their wings. The use of conventional battery cages for laying hens is either banned or being phased out under laws or regulations throughout the EU, six U.S. states, New Zealand and Bhutan. The majority of states in India, the worlds third largest egg producer, have declared that the use of battery cages violates the countrys animal welfare legislation, and the country is debating a national ban. Free-range hens are not reared in cages, and have access to the outdoors. If outdoor access is prohibited by law or regulation, Accor will observe a cage-free policy for sourcing eggs.

A growing number of companies have set timelines for phasing out caged eggs from their global supply chains including Sodexo, Compass Group, Unilever, and Grupo Bimbo. More than 60 food companies, including McDonalds and Burger King, have announced a complete transition to cage-free eggs in the U.S. and other regions of the world.

Media contact:

Raul Arce-Contreras, rcontreras@humanesociety.org, +1 301-721-6440
Skyrocketing rent, piles of student debt, and out-of-reach home prices exist in the real world, British Columbia residents are reminding Premier Christy Clark on Twitter.

In an interview with CKNW host Lynda Steele on Monday, Clark was played clips of people expressing their worries about the governments latest move to provide loans to first-time home buyers.

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If anything, this is going to drive prices higher, one woman said. This is a group thats struggling with credit card debt, student debt, record levels of debt, another man said.

Most of these people probably dont live in the real world, Clark responded. If a bank can trust someone with a mortgage, the government should trust them with its money too, she said.

The premiers comments inspired a new hashtag on Twitter, #notrealworld.

In the real world we need money for affordable housing, not more debt #notrealworld#bcpolihttps://t.co/uE0AzkM2WG  ht (@hilaryt) December 20, 2016

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In my #notrealworld rents are skyrocketing. So are ICBC & @bchydro rates, MSP premiums, ferry fares and camping. #bcpoli  Will (@unionwill) December 20, 2016

In my #notrealworld the government doesn't pretend they're a sub-prime mortgage lender for families looking to buy a home. #bcpoli  Chris Markevich (@cmarkevich) December 20, 2016

Will BC Libs ever understand the #notrealworld? All chasing a $600K condo can now bid $630K? #bcpoli#vanrehttps://t.co/iAg1XF7Mdh  Philip Barton (@PhilipBartonLaw) December 20, 2016

B.C.s new program, which will loan first-time home buyers up to $37,500 with no interest or payments for five years, was criticized by economists and opposition politicians when it was announced last week.

Its a pretty bad idea, Joshua Gottlieb, from the University of British Columbias National Bureau of Economic Research, told Global News. This is not going to improve affordability anywhere in the market and if anything will make it worse.

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He noted that buyers may just bid more for the houses they already wanted, driving prices even higher.

Its a pretty bad idea."

Clarks plan seems to do the opposite of what the federal government and Bank of Canada are trying to accomplish. Federally, the governments new mortgage rules were designed to decrease the amount of debt Canadians are taking on. And the Bank of Canada has continuously warned that high house prices and mounting debt are the greatest problems in Canadas economy.

Clark argued the policy wont drive up home prices, because everybody who is going to be eligible for this program will have to have been accepted for a mortgage already."

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Talk about true love.

In October, one of 2016's favourite love stories came to be when two former contestants of the Australian version of "The Bachelor" fell in love with each other.

On Wednesday, former contestants Megan Marx and Tiffany Scanlon were named Maxim Australia's "Couple of the Year," and there are photos to prove it.

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Posing topless for the magazine, Marx writes, "Here it is... cover and feature with my fav lady @tiffany_janes MERRY XMAS! ."

Marx also posted another shot of the happy couple, this time from the magazine's photoshoot in bed.

"If you took the whole same-sex 'issue' out of our relationship, it would still be untraditional. We ordinate our own life and love terms, and somehow it works," she wrote on her Instagram page.

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Both women have been seen as champions in the same-sex community in Australia, and earlier this month, Marx also talked up about the country's legalisation of same-sex marriage.

"Our beautiful country has become an embarrassment to me, as I believe it has allowed religious sentiments to be involved where they should not be  in politics," she wrote on Instagram.

"'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights', is not an opinion or some quote you put on a f*****g fridge magnet  it's a moral obligation."

A photo posted by Megan Marx  (@megan.leto.marx) on Nov 11, 2016 at 6:26pm PST

The couple started their love affair in October, and Marx notes what started out as a friendship between two people who were "dating the same guy" turned into something bigger.

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"From that first cocktail party, it was like this instant calibration between souls, as if we had known each other once before. Friendship ripened into something bolder, trust in a very strange situation was formed, and now every adventure we have rivals the other  and continues to make plans for itself," she wrote on Instagram.

On Wednesday, Scanlon also took to Instagram to post a photo of herself holding a copy of Maxim Australia, adding she is super proud of herself and Marx.

"[sic throughout] I knew it would be controversial, i knew it would ruffle feathers, i knew there would be criticism and judgement but guess what, I did it anyway! Why? Because (a) im an experience junkie as per my bio and it was pretty damn awesome to be asked to be on the cover of Maxim. (b) I do what I want because I want to; not for any body else; not to impress or offend or any other reason than because I WANT TO and I honestly don't need anyone's approval," she wrote on Instagram.

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OTTAWA  Government House Leader Bardish Chagger says she didnt mean to imply the House of Commons is not the appropriate venue for opposition MPs to ask questions about the Liberals so-called cash-for-access fundraising.

In an interview with The Huffington Post Canada published Tuesday, Chagger said: You know, in that place [the House of Commons] is not where we talk about, I would say, political fundraising.

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Political parties can talk about that. We can talk about legislation, we can talk about the rules that govern the work we do, but I would say thats the place to really advance the challenges that Canadians are facing, the concerns that they are facing.

Chagger went on to say in the interview that she decided to answer questions about Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus private fundraisers and accusations of potential conflicts-of-interest because the issue doesnt fall neatly into any ministers portfolio.

Trudeau has come under fire recently for attending private fundraisers at wealthy Liberal donors homes. Earlier this month, he acknowledged some of those who pay $1,500 to spend time with him may have lobbying interests in mind. But the prime minister said he takes decisions based on what is right for Canadians and not on what an individual in a fundraiser might say.

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In an email Tuesday evening, Chagger told HuffPost: Everyone in this government is more than willing to answer any question in Parliament, in press conferences and most importantly at the doorsteps of Canadians.

I did not mean to imply that the opposition should not ask questions about fundraising, the point that I was trying to make is that our priorities are different.

Chagger added that she respects the right of the opposition to ask questions that they feel are important.

Chaggers comments caused a bit of an uproar online with NDP and Conservative partisans and MPs retweeting the story.

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More mind-blowing arrogance: Bardish Chagger Says House Of Commons Isn't Place To Discuss Liberal Fundraisers https://t.co/AxFOa0kanr?  Tony Clement (@TonyclementCPC) December 20, 2016

The House of Commons is exactly the right place to discuss the government breaking their own guidelines, @BardishKW. #cdnpolihttps://t.co/2TSTCRsY5G  Waterloo Federal NDP (@WaterlooFedNDP) December 20, 2016

Chaggers Conservative and New Democratic critics have suggested the young minister  shes 36  has been put up as a sacrificial lamb by the Trudeau government on the controversial fundraisers.

But the Waterloo MP and rookie minister of small business and tourism told HuffPost she personally decided to answer questions about the prime ministers accountability and came up with her own talking points. She wants Canadians to know that while the opposition may be suggesting some untowards things are happening, she said, the Liberal party of Canada is following Elections Canada rules.

Read our full interview here.

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An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) mission has forwarded humanitarian aid weighing in total nearly 120 tonnes to the residents of Donetsk region's territory not controlled by Kyiv.

Seven ICRC trucks have crossed the Novotroyitske checkpoint into the territory not controlled by the Ukrainian government, the Ukrainian State Border Service said.

"The transport vehicles were carrying food and hygiene kits for Donetsk region residents weighing in total nearly 120 tonnes," it said.
It was a Christmas wish come true for one pint-sized Alberta conductor.

Jordan Cartwright, from Grande Prairie, took the stage at the Francis Winspear Centre in Edmonton Monday night to lead the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO) through the national anthem.

His spot on stage earned him the title of youngest conductor in the symphony's history.

The seven-year-old has been battling high-risk stage 4 leukemia for the past nine months, and living at Ronald McDonald House with his family.

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He became interested in music after recently working with a music therapist, and went on to compose his own original song, reports the Edmonton Journal.

Staff at Ronald McDonald House took note of his special interest in classical music and got to work, arranging the surprise guest conductor gig for Jordan.

"When he lifted that baton and they went boom with the music, I could see his knees just about buckle," Jordans father, Scott Cartwright, told Global News from dress rehearsal Monday afternoon.

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"He was like, 'holy man thats really, like, for real.'"

Delighted to be a part of an amazing festive evening for @edmsymphony & @RMHCNA as #JordanTakestheStagepic.twitter.com/WqCBcc2ntO  Glow Juicery (@GlowJuicery) December 20, 2016

After doing the television and radio rounds with local media, Jordan was treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of the ESO, and greeted by Mayor Don Iveson, who presented him with an official letter of welcome to the city.

Laughter/warmth as Mayor @doniveson drops in on @edmsymphony rehearsal with Jordan Cartwright - tickets left to concert tonight #yeg#yegdtpic.twitter.com/Khs5c5z7dS  Edm Mayor Office (@YEGMayorOffice) December 19, 2016

Attendees of the ESOs Candy Cane Christmas concert were all smiles, cheering Jordan on in-person and posting their support online, using the hashtag #JordanTakesTheStage.

I am a puddle of emotion after watching a little hero get his wish granted at the @edmsymphony  Susie Sykes (@susiesykes) December 20, 2016

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The families of three victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting have accused Facebook, Google and Twitter of making a profit off of ISIS by helping the group to recruit.

In a lawsuit filed in a U.S. district court in Michigan, the families of Tevin Crosby, Javier Jorge-Reyes and Juan Ramon Guerrero  who were all killed in the shooting  accused the three web giants of providing material support to ISIS.

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Defendants have knowingly and recklessly provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts to use its social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds, and attracting new recruits, states the lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Post.

This material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out or cause to be carried out, numerous terrorist attacks, including the June 12, 2016, attack in Orlando where 53 were injured and 49 were killed.

Omar Mateen, the 29-year-old shooter in the attack at Orlandos Pulse nightclub, had pledged allegiance to ISIS before the shooting.

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The lawsuit goes on to say the companies profit off of ISIS online recruiting efforts by combining ISIS postings with advertisements in a way that is specifically targeted at the viewer. Defendants share revenue with ISIS for its content and profit from ISIS postings through advertising revenue. 

The three web giants and other companies in the social media space have been widely criticized for not doing enough to stop extremist movements from recruiting on their channels.

Seemingly in response, theyve recently taken steps to curb the problem. Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube formed an alliance earlier this month to create a shared database of terrorist content.

No personally identifiable information will be shared, and matching content will not be automatically removed, Facebook said in a statement.

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Twitter earlier this year said it had suspended 360,000 accounts for terrorism-related activities.

But the lawsuits are piling up all the same. The family of Nohemi Gonzalez, a woman killed in the 2015 Paris attacks, sued the same three companies in a U.S. court earlier this year, using similar arguments.

The Israeli Law Center, an activist group that specializes in fighting terrorism through courts, is preparing to fight two class-action lawsuits against Facebook in U.S. courts, one a $1-billion claim for five families of Hamas victims, the other seeking a ruling ordering Facebook to remove terrorist content.
Donald Trumps anti-trade agenda could prove to be a problem for Canada, but the risks arent spread evenly, TD Bank says in a new report  some parts of Canada are much more exposed to Trumps potential policies than others.

Based on export intensity, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. stand to be most negatively impacted by protectionist measures undertaken in the United States, economists Beata Caranci, Michael Dolega and Dina Ignjatovic wrote.

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Although Alberta relies more on exports to the U.S. than any other province, Trumps vow to approve the Keystone XL pipeline means the oil-producing province isnt as threatened by Trumps agenda as other parts of the country. Its the non-energy exporters (see chart above) who have more to fear.

A great deal of protectionist rhetoric was a part of the presidential campaign, which could be harmful to Canadas manufacturing and exporting regions should such policies be enacted, the TD report said.

While the anti-trade remarks were not necessarily directed at Canada, any renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would impact trade with the largest foreign market for each provinces exports.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government said after the U.S. election that it is willing to open negotiations on NAFTA.

Canada and the U.S. have been involved in a dispute over trade in softwood lumber since this summer. A previous agreement on lumber exports expired last year.

The U.S. Commerce Department recently announced its launching an investigation into whether Canadian exporters are dumping lumber in the U.S. at below market value.

The U.S. Lumber Coalition, which petitioned the Commerce Department to launch the probe, says Canadian provincial governments are selling wood to forestry companies at fees that are below market value. Canadian officials have long disputed that claim.

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The TD Bank report, which said British Columbia and Quebec have the most at stake in the lumber dispute, called it the first test of the Trump administrations stance on trade with Canada.

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Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are famously private about their children, but now the couple has finally revealed the name of their second baby: Ines.

Us Weekly exclusively confirmed the name on Wednesday. According to Nameberry, Ines (pronounced ee-NEZH) is the Portuguese version of Agnes and means pure.

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Its not surprising that the Deadpool star and his wife chose such an original name for their second child. After all, the two named their first daughter James.

It's a family name, and I liked having a boy's name, Lively revealed in 2015.

Ryan Reynold, Blake Lively and their daughters at the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016.

The baby name reveal comes just days after two-year-old James and three-month-old Ines made their first public appearance with their parents in Los Angeles last week. The entire family stepped out to support Reynolds, who was being honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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Explaining why he chose this moment to bring his kids out into the public eye, Reynolds told Extra: This is one of the rare occasions when we thought we got to bring the whole clan. Id regret it in 20 years if I didnt.

Now that we know the little ones name, heres hoping we see more of baby Ines and her big sister James in the near future.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claims his government has fundamentally changed Canadas attitudes toward consular cases, despite pressure over its work to secure the return of four British Columbia children abducted to Iran.

Trudeau sat down Tuesday with the editorial boards of the Vancouver Sun and The Province where he was questioned about the case of Alison Azer, a B.C. mother who hasnt seen her children in more than 17 months.

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Azer, whose ex-husband Saren Mahmudi-Azer took their four kids overseas, has publicly criticized Trudeaus government for not doing enough to bring them home. He was asked if he feels he failed Azer.

We know that consular cases are often very, very difficult, the prime minister said, trying a reference to travels he did to some pretty sketchy places before his foray into politics.

One of the things that I personally take a certain amount of pleasure in is knowing we have fundamentally changed the attitude of the government of Canada towards consular cases.

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As a travelling Canadian, knowing he had a government ready to help with any challenges he may encounter abroad was really important to him, he said.

When Canada elected a former backpacker as prime minister, they got someone who is very interested at the highest level in a broad range of consular cases.

The prime minister circled back, saying he gets regular updates on active consular cases including check ins about Azers situation involving her children. He cited the risk of counterproductive responses as a reason why he doesnt publicize sensitive consular case developments.

Im not willing to beat my chest and look strong on the world stage, look like Im doing something, if its actually going to hinder our capacity to do what I want to do, which is get people home, get people to safety.

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He said the government remains steadfast in its resolve to bring the Azer children home.

Mom felt disrespected and dishonoured

Azer visited the House of Commons in July when Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion made a thumbs-down gesture during a Conservative MPs question related to her case.

The B.C. mom, who was sitting in the public gallery at the time, said she felt disrespected and dishonoured. Dion later read a statement of contrition, saying he was reacting to attempts to politicize the situation to maim the Liberal government.

He added his thumbs-down gesture wasnt meant as a slight on Azer.

I am disappointed in how the opposition is politicizing this heartbreaking situation, Dion said.

A pawn between two countries

Mohamed Fahmy, the Egyptian-Canadian who spent more than a year in a Cairo prison, wants to see the Liberal government change the country's consular laws to protect citizens imprisoned or detained abroad.

The former Al-Jazeera journalist told the Hill Times in November one of the biggest psychological challenges was knowing he was an innocent man being made a pawn between two countries.

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According to figures from the foreign affairs department, 1,590 Canadians are detained in prisons across 86 countries as of October. Sixty-nine per cent are imprisoned in the United States.

In September, Canadian Kevin Garrett was released from a Chinese prison two years after being arrested. Iranian-Canadian professor Homa Hoodfar was also freed after spending four months in a Tehran prison. She was charged with dabbling in feminism."

Two Canadians, John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, were executed in the Philippines this year after being kidnapped by terrorist group Abu Sayyaf last September.

Trudeau reaffirmed the governments no-ransom policy for hostage situations after both Ridsdel and Halls deaths. Abu Sayyaf had demanded over $8 million for each of the men.

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Earlier this year, the Liberal government signaled its intention to explore legislation that will ensure all Canadians detained or kidnapped abroad get equal treatment by consular officials.

With files from Ryan Maloney and Althia Raj

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Wavebreakmedia via Getty Images Festive brunette feeling sad at christmas at home in the living room

With files from Megan Radford

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No one wants to think about difficult things so close to Christmas. On a festive canvas of red, green, gold and silver, the darker colours just don't 'fit.' Ask anyone who has lost a job or a loved one, or received a cancer diagnosis. Many will say it's something they keep to themselves until well after the festivities are over.

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It's no one's fault that we struggle to retain perspective. Listening to the holiday songs on the radio, hope rules, peace prevails, and comfort is abundant! There's no room for devastation, loneliness and anguish. Even the songs where someone is hurting seem to come out right in the end.

The trouble is, darkness doesn't go away during the Holidays. If anything, it can feel deeper, more acute. Perhaps that's why we work so hard to brighten things up with lights and candles, and reach out to those who are in need. Sometimes, a little extra care can make all the difference to a friend or neighbor in need.

Embracing a hurting world

But what about the rest of our planet, the world beyond Canada's shores? News headlines from places like Aleppo, Syria, continue to scream out into the silent night. If you've been living in Aleppo, pain and darkness have been year-round affairs.

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Photo: World Vision

It's so easy to feel despair, to relate to the words in the old Christmas carol: "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," based on the 1863 poem by American Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

And in despair I bowed my head:

"There is no peace on earth," I said.

"For hate is strong and mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good will to men..."

No peace in Syria

For years, our hearts have been broken by the conflict in Syria. And as we near the holiday season, the images of children who have been hurt and even targeted by the violence, especially in Aleppo, seem almost too much to bear.

I read today that dozens of orphans are part of the ongoing evacuation from the besieged city. These little ones won't be sitting on Santa's knee this week, or opening their eyes in a home filled with love and toys this Sunday morning. It's too much to consider without feeling desperately guilty, or raggedly heartbroken.

So perhaps that's why we try to 'switch off' the darkness this week every year. But the pain can be so formidable that even our strings of bright holiday lights don't stand a chance.

The courage to feel pain

There is another option, although it takes some courage: We can continue to feel. And despite what seem like overwhelming odds, we can choose hope -- hope that conflicts like the war in Syria can find a peaceful resolution, perhaps even this year.

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We can also choose to offer hope and comfort to families in crisis around the world -- including Syrian families. We can do this confidently, knowing that help like ours can -- and does -- make a difference.

Since the beginning of the conflict, World Vision has been on the ground, supporting the people of Syria with humanitarian aid. Because of help from Canadians like you, we've provided millions of Syrian refugees with things like clean water, medicine, remedial education, and counselling support for children who've lived through the unthinkable.

Sometimes, our insistence in remembering what's possible is like a candle in the darkness. Here are three ways you can help:

1) Light a candle, send a picture: This week, World Vision is inviting Canadians to join others around the world and light a candle for Syria. Take a picture of your lit candle, then post on social media using the hashtag #Candle4Syria and tag us @worldvisioncan. In this way, we will show the people of Syria, and our government, that we remember, and that we demand peace.

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Photo: World Vision

2) Add your voice to the Canadians who are demanding that Canada play a bigger role in the Syrian peace process, by signing this petition.

3) Give a gift by making a donation, either one-time or monthly, to help children in dangerous places like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan and others. World Vision's Raw Hope initiative is a good place to start.

Even at Christmas - especially at Christmas - we can face the darkness with clenched fists and determined hearts, remembering the final verse of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day".

"Then peeled the bells more loud and deep:

'God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men."
monkeybusinessimages via Getty Images Couple in discussion with doctor in IVF clinic sitting at desk

December 21, 2016 marks the first anniversary of the launch of the Ontario Fertility Program. Designed to improve access to assisted reproduction technologies for the one in six Ontarians living with infertility, the program contributes to the medical costs required for procedures such as intrauterine insemination (IUI), fertility preservation (FP) and in vitro fertilization (IVF). Now, one year later, those of us who administer the program are taking stock of how things are going and what, if any, changes should be considered going forward.

Let's look at the good, the bad and the beautiful.

The Good

Affordable IVF

The most pronounced benefit of the program is that one cycle of IVF (which costs on average $10,000) is available to all residents who qualify. Now thousands of patients who may not have been able to afford treatment have access to this important procedure. The hope with this funding is that younger patients who are most likely to achieve a pregnancy with treatment (but often do not yet have the financial resources to pursue it) will have access to care at an earlier time of their life. With funding, they and other patients will be less likely to pursue repetitive, less successful fertility treatments purely because of finances.

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Safe IVF

Ontario's single embryo transfer policy where one embryo (rather than two or three) is placed in the uterus, reduces the chance of multiples (twins, triplets, etc.), resulting in safer pregnancies for both mom and baby. This requirement offers a balanced approach of providing access to high tech fertility care with the ideal outcome of a single healthy full term infant. Additionally, the program's holistic approach to funding ensures all embryos created are utilized (any extra good quality embryos are frozen for future transfers) which will likely provide very reasonable cumulative pregnancy rates from these single funded cycles.

Fertility Preservation

Under the Ontario Fertility Program, fertility preservation (the freezing of eggs or sperm) is now fully funded. This is particularly great news for the thousands of young Ontarians who each year face the diagnosis of cancer and the risk of sterility after cancer treatment. Even more-so than IVF, fertility preservation was well beyond the financial means of most young women and young men; funding has thus lifted a huge emotional burden from their shoulders, as well as given them hope that when they are cancer free, they can have children.

This program has given hope to thousands of Ontarians who had given up on the idea of having a baby.

The Bad

Wait Lists

As is to be expected with any new program, the pent-up demand for funded IVF has resulted in waitlists of about one year across Ontario's participating clinics. While many of these lists have leveled out since the program launched, next year will be the true test to determine if 5,000 funded IVF cycles is sufficient for Ontario.

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A questionable upper age limit?

With an upper age limit of 42, Ontario's Fertility Program enables women at an advanced reproductive age, who otherwise would likely not pursue treatment due to the very low chance of pregnancy, to pursue a funded IVF cycle. As was the case with Quebec's fertility program (which did not place an age limit for treatment and was scaled back significantly after costs ballooned), these cycles may not prove to be the best use of a limited and publicly funded resource. As data accumulates, it is our recommendation that the livebirth rate of the program's first year be used to reevaluate eligibility criteria.

Lack of coverage for fertility medications

The province doesn't provide funding for medicines outside of hospitals (other than for seniors and those in need) and fertility medications are not currently covered under the Ontario Fertility Program. With the average cost of drugs for an IVF treatment between $2,000 and $4,000, drug costs continue to be a financial barrier for many patients. With this in mind, insurance companies and employers should be strongly encouraged to cover the cost of fertility medications.

The Beautiful

This program has given hope to thousands of Ontarians who had given up on the idea of having a baby. With the launch of the program less than a year ago, only a select group will actually have a bundle of joy to celebrate with this holiday season but many others are pregnant or working towards their dream of a family. It cannot be overstated that the birth of a healthy child is a life changing and incomparable experience for those who could otherwise only dream of this outcome. Their dreams could soon be a reality thanks to the Ontario Fertility Program.

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A Ukrainian citizen might be among the victims of Monday's truck-ramming attack in Berlin, Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk said on Tuesday.

"Sad news: it is highly likely that, after all, there is a Ukrainian citizen among those killed in Berlin. Police are completing the body identification procedure," Melnyk said on Twitter.

It had been reported earlier that 12 people had been killed and about 50 others injured as a truck was rammed into a crowd at a Christmas fair in Berlin on Monday evening.
SerrNovik via Getty Images Concentrated boy putting colorful coins in order during developing game with his mother sitting at the table indoors

One of the biggest shocks only came after I heard the words, "Your child has autism." No sooner had I recovered from the emotional blow of that sentence, I learned that my son's development -- nary his entire future -- rested on my shoulders.

Kids with autism fare best with early intervention, various therapies that range anywhere from $100-200 per hour. While the provincial government here in Ontario recently vowed to improve wait times and increase access, the current funded therapy (averaging 12-16 hours per year) isn't really enough to significantly impact in a child's life. A fact that few people outside of autism circles seem to know.

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And so parents who can, supplement or top up the government's offerings. Since my son was diagnosed five years ago, we have paid out of pocket for any number of therapies: from occupational therapy, speech therapy, behaviour therapy, to social skills training.

A conservative estimate puts the cost at $5-10K per therapy per year. Camps and specialized recreation groups are supplemental. While I've been fortunate to work flexible part-time hours during this time, many caregivers are forced to give up careers in order to manage the intensive needs of their children.

The true cost of autism to families is astronomical. It's not just autism, either. Any child with special needs may require therapies or equipment or medication not covered under private or provincial healthcare plans.

I don't for a second regret or begrudge the various supports my son has had over the years. There's no telling where he would be without them. Still, there's no denying that our family has paid a small fortune, the likes of which, if I dared to add it up, would make my eyes water. We continue to prioritize the support my son receives at a given time because we simply can't do it all.

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Autism is synonymous with sacrifice -- and not the kind that comes from cutting nice extras like vacations. Countless families fall deep into debt. Some homeowners remortgage in order to finance therapy.

As a parent it's frustrating not being able to give your child everything they need to thrive. But this much is true: every bit helps. Here are five money-saving resources that have made a world of difference for my family and will hopefully help yours, too:

1. Child Disability Benefit (CDB)

If your child has autism or other special need, you could be eligible for a tax credit via the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). If, like me, you find all things CRA highly confusing and complicated, this Child Disability Tax Credit Guide breaks down the application process. Read more out about disability tax credit eligibility to find out if your child qualifies. The beauty of the credit is that it may be applied retroactively to the year of diagnosis.

2. Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP)

An RDSP is special savings plan that enables you to save for your child's future. The government matches contributions, indexed according to income. A step-by-step guide to opening an RDSP can be found here. See a full list of participating banks.

3. Autism Ontario Camp

Every year, Autism Ontario offers a "lottery" fund to reimburse the cost of camps and support workers during March Break and the summer holidays. Apply here. Autism chapters in other provinces run similar programs.

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4. Special Services at Home (SSAH)

The Ministry of Community and Social Services manages this funding system. An assessment will determine the particular needs of your child and allocate a lump sum each calendar year, to reimburse the cost of special programs (camps and therapies) or respite workers of your choosing. Apply here.

5. Access 2

This initiative by Easter Seals provides a parent/support worker free or significantly reduced entry to a long list of attractions -- from museums to movies -- in every province. The majority of cinemas across the country take part in the program so it's well worth signing up for the card, which costs around $20 for 3 years. Apply here.

Further funding and private grants are available. If you want to make a real difference in the lives of children with autism and their families, consider making a donation to the local autism chapter in your province.

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Sam Edwards via Getty Images Student working on laptop in library

It's time to wind down the school year, turn in any last assignments and head home for the holidays. Hopefully you have the time to take a much needed rest from your school work and recharge the batteries.

Aside from eating too many holiday treats and catching up on the latest Netflix series, there is one item every student should add to their to-do list: Look for free money.

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I'm talking about the thousands of scholarships and bursaries that are offered to Canadian post-secondary students. In fact, according to Scholarships Canada, more than $5 million dollars is left on the table every year from scholarships and bursaries that went unclaimed.

From the students I've talked to, many think that scholarship and bursaries are only available to top grade earners, but the truth is -- that there are many options available for students across every discipline of study, diverse background and level of study. The catch to getting this free money? Know where to look, and put in the work to create a winning application.

Here are my tips on getting an A+ on scholarship applications:

1.Know where to look. Resources such as ScholarshipsCanada.com and StudentAwards.com will help you on your journey to free money. You can match your expertise and interest to available scholarships and find out everything you need to know about applying. You should also check out what might be available at your own college or university by checking in with your financial aid department.

2.Look outside the box. Sometimes scholarships and bursaries are offered from the least expected sources. Don't limit your search to your academic field of study. Look for opportunities based on your extracurricular activities as there are often scholarships for particular sports, creative pursuits or musical talent. Also, tap your network -- the company your parents work for might offer scholarships for kids of employees, your local community centre might have an award with a cash prize to recognize a young person in the community, or your local bank might have a scholarship program. You never know until you ask!

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3.Pay attention to the details. Most scholarships and bursaries have specific requirements that are outlined in the call for applications. In addition to proofreading for typos and grammatical errors in your application, be sure that you've followed the instructions exactly. Print a copy and ask a trusted friend of family member to review your application. Also be sure to give yourself enough time -- especially if there is an essay involved or you need to order a transcript from school. You don't want to go to all the trouble of starting an application, only to miss the deadline.

4.Try! You can't be awarded a scholarship or bursary if you don't apply. Find options where you meet the criteria and put forward an application. It will be worth it if you're successful.

Each year, RBC provides over $550,000 in scholarships to deserving Canadian students including the RBC Students Leading Change Scholarships, RBC Aboriginal Student Awards Program and Scholarship Program for the Children of RBC Employees.

Will you be looking for free money during this holiday break? Let me know on twitter @RBC_Canada if you have any more tips for applying for scholarships.

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Happy Holidays!
Every December, we look back not only to assess the past 12 months, but also to find reasons for hope heading into the new year. It's not always an easy task, especially when focusing on Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)'s work on the front lines of humanitarian crises around the globe.

In this light, 2016 was no different. The ongoing war in Syria, conflict in Yemen, terror and malnutrition in northeastern Nigeria and record numbers of people around the world forcibly displaced from their homes were just some of the crises that required our intervention last year.

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But it was the violence we saw against humanitarian action itself that challenged us most. Attacks against hospitals, doctors and aid convoys became normalized in 2016 -- violations of international humanitarian law that represent a massive political failure of the global system, one that our colleagues and patients in the field often paid for with their lives.

It is up to us to make a difference

It would be a mistake, however, to allow these challenges to undermine our resolve. Humanitarian assistance is needed now more than ever, and it is only through our direct presence in crisis zones that we can hold political decision makers to account. That's why it's important to look at the impact we can have on the lives of people in need -- and why, despite the obstacles, I draw hope from the work we did together last year.

In Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for example, an epidemic of yellow fever in 2016 threatened to send the entire central African region into a deadly health crisis. But the outbreak failed to reach the tipping point. Thanks to quick action, MSF was able to help vaccinate more than one million people in 11 days, so that a potentially disastrous health catastrophe was contained.

As humanitarians, we firmly believe every life is worth saving and everyone deserves dignity.

In Haiti, when Hurricane Matthew struck last October, many feared the worst. But MSF -- who was already on the ground in Haiti, where we run several health facilities -- and other agencies were quick to reach areas hit by the storm and to deliver vital care to some of those most affected. In the weeks that immediately followed, our teams treated more than 4,500 patients and set up cholera treatment centres, helping prevent mass outbreaks of disease.

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And this past fall, thanks to the tireless efforts of our supporters here in Canada and around the world, the pharmaceutical giants GSK and Pfizer agreed to lower the price for the pneumonia vaccine in humanitarian emergencies. Pneumonia kills more than one million children around the world every year, and the two companies are the sole producers of the only vaccine that can prevent those deaths. The price reduction will have an immediate impact on our ability to save lives and reach more people at risk.

Millions of individual lifesaving acts

These highlights are by no means the only examples of what can be achieved when we commit to humanitarian action. Last year, MSF teams provided more than eight million medical consultations to people in need around the world. They treated more than two million cases of malaria, helped deliver 200,000 live births and rescued 23,000 refugees and migrants from drowning at sea. The numbers for 2016 are not yet finalized, but we know they will be similar, if not higher.

We can of course never meet all the needs: Fitting a war-wounded Syrian child with a prosthetic leg will help her walk again, but cannot stop the bombs raining down on Aleppo; treating a malnourished infant won't stop others from dying while they flee violence in Nigeria. But as humanitarians, we firmly believe every life is worth saving and everyone deserves dignity; furthermore these individual personal acts of care give the people we help reasons for hope, and the knowledge they are not abandoned and alone.

Seeing hope within tragic circumstances

Canadian MSF nurse Laura Puteris had a personal encounter with the collision between hope and tragedy that defines much of MSF's work.

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A story from our recent fieldwork encapsulates this sentiment. It comes from Laura Puteris, a Canadian nurse who recently returned from her assignment with MSF providing maternal healthcare in Haiti (see the video above). One night, Laura and her team received a woman who had been burned beyond all recognition by an exploding fuel canister. The woman was eight months pregnant and on arrival had very little chance of surviving. It fell to Laura and her colleagues to try to save both mother and child. Tragically, the woman succumbed to her injuries. But Laura and her team gave her a fighting chance, accompanying her in dignity in her last hours and saving the life of her newborn child.

"We had two lives at risk," Laura recalled. "We only managed to save one. But the fact that we were there and able to help that one life counts a lot. It means that child, that person that will be, will have the capacity to change the world. That one person could make a huge difference in someone else's  or for thousands.

In a world beset by conflict and crisis, it is worth remembering that individuals matter, and that simple acts of caring -- even single, solitary gestures -- can still make a difference.

Thank you for all your support in 2016. We look forward to providing hope, care and dignity to all people who need our help together with you in 2017.

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denphumi via Getty Images holding house representing home ownership and the Real Estate business

There's a current debate amongst journalists about the real estate industry "crafting narratives." The discussion is taking place amongst divided journalists and activists, and I think the public should be a part of it.

Special interest groups have always staged PR events to try and gain coverage, but the real estate industry has decided to take a more "proactive" approach. Some members of the industry are turning regular journalism into "commerce journalism," by manipulating coverage in their favour, sometimes engaging in unethical practices.

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Crafting The Narrative

An event by the Urban Development Institute (UDI) called Real Estate In The Media - Crafting The Narrative was held in November. The $100/head luncheon sought to "facilitate a discussion on how the [real estate] stories are crafted" and "examine more proactive opportunities to collaborate with the media." The primary objective was to help "balance" the coverage that the media provided.

Sure, PR people hold these kind of events frequently -- that's normal. SCMP's Ian Young pointed out the weird part -- a well known Globe and Mail journalist was speaking at the event. Now, this doesn't violate the Globe and Mail's ethics policy, as long as she isn't paid. However journalists deal with facts, and those don't need balancing. A journalist at one of Canada's larger news outlet giving advice on how to steer journalism is unethical at best.

And UDI's stated goal for this show is changing the conversation about #VanRE. Legit for a journo to help them out? I don't think so https://t.co/mHpNmA8lsl -- Ian Young (@ianjamesyoung70) November 28, 2016

Ian Young, one of Vancouver's top journalists questioning the practice on his Twitter.

Crafting The Inaccurate Messages

One of the event sponsors has been "crafting the narrative" for a while, and has even got into hot water for it. In 2013 a MAC marketing manager asked two employees to pretend to be "pedestrian traffic" at a condo launch. They did so shortly before a major Canadian news network arrived.

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The manager has stated that he did not ask them to do anything else, but it did get worse from there. The two were interviewed by the news outlet, and claimed they were sisters from China. They further elaborated that their wealthy Chinese parents were in town to buy them a condo. In actuality, they were just Vancouver natives that were way too comfortable going off script.

Although, who can blame them? A successful condo pre-sale launch raises millions of dollars in capital. Sure, it's ethically wrong, and the British Columbia Real Estate Association even dropped the hammer on them with a suspension and fine. Although in my opinion, a 14-day suspension, and $1200 fine isn't much of a deterrent to not do it again. In fact, it's probably less than the cost of an ad slot at the major news outlet that was duped.

Crafting A Narrative With Legal Threats

Another method of controlling media coverage has been through threats of legal action. Over the past three months we've averaged one threatening email every other week. They come from developers, associations, and even a few billionaires with large real estate holdings. Most back down with a little pushback, especially when asked to explain if the coverage is factually inaccurate. This unfortunately makes it clear that this technique is being used solely for the purposes of intimidation.

Attacking journalists through intimidation isn't generally something tolerated, and with good reason. If journalists are intimidated by the hassle of being sued, they're less likely to investigate issues of critical importance. Note, I said the hassle, not the financial consequence of being sued. Media outlets can ask the court for reimbursement if everything was factually accurate.

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However being sued is a long and stressful process, that most would rather avoid. In the circumstances of real estate, I can attest to the fact that a number of journalists from large news outlets have avoided stories because of the potential consequences. This is likely why the same old "everything is great" narrative is so popular.

Buy A House If You Want One

Buying a home doesn't need a narrative. If you're buying a house that you can afford, and you actually plan on living in it -- you'll likely live in it long enough that boom and bust cycles of the economy won't impact you. This is the majority of homeowners, and you don't need to "balance" that. There's also an emotional value to buying a home that won't show up on a balance sheet. This is well worth the premium to a large number of Canadians.

If you would experience financial strain to buy a house, you should run the numbers yourself first. Renting isn't the end of the world, so don't rush into buying because you think you'll make a ton of money. American economist and the "father of finance," Eugene Fama's Efficient-Market Hypothesis is something you should become familiar with.

It states that asset prices reflect the information you have today, including predicted growth. How your asset behaves tomorrow is subject to new information, which may or may not be in your favour. To put it bluntly, no one knows if you'll make money buying a condo -- it's a guess. You may lose 50 per cent, you might gain 50 per cent -- but anyone that tells you with certainty what will happen is pretty much lying.

Canadians already have a hard time getting straight facts about real estate. The value of the homes you're buying is "proprietary," and only a salesperson can tell you what it is. Some members of the real estate industry aren't happy to end the obfuscation there. Instead, they're resorting to manipulating your only source of non-sales information -- journalism. Now there's nothing legally wrong with that, but you should probably know about it.

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This post originally appeared on Better Dwelling.

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The five things you need to know on Wednesday, December 21

1) BOTHER THERESA

The Commons has risen for Christmas recess (the Lords lingers for one more day, see below), but Theresa May is never under-employed. She is expected to stage an event to underline her commitment to a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.

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The PMs final Parliamentary appearance of 2016 was at the Liaison Committee yesterday. As with her EU statement on Monday, she tried her damnedest to keep a straight bat on Brexit, giving very little away. She delivered some classic May tautologies like "You will see what we publish when we publish it", "negotiations mean negotiations" and "I gave the answer I gave, chairman".

Yet some clever balls bowled by Andrew Tyrie, Crispin Blunt, Hilary Benn and Yvette Cooper managed to bother her, and meant that we did glean some more clues to her thinking.

May hinted at a transitional deal for Brexit, though she stressed it would be an implementation plan, a shrewd way of insisting it would be about delivery not delay. And she said that it would focus on practical matters like preparing business and Whitehall IT systems, invoicing and the like. The hint was enough to make the FT front page, but not enough to boost the pound.

The Mail and Sun preferred her line that all options are open, leaving hanging the hardball threat of a super-hard Brexit if Brussels talks fail to produce an agreement by 2019. This will hurt you as much as itll hurt us seemed to be the PMs tone. Just as significant though was her confirming for the first time that she wanted to negotiate a trade deal with the EU at the same time as conducting divorce negotiations.

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For many of us what was striking was her curious reluctance to guarantee that the UK Parliament would get a vote on the eventual Brexit deal. What David Davis found inconceivable just a few weeks ago, she found strangely conceivable. As the Governments own lawyer has told the High Court too that it was very likely MPs would get a vote and it seems a legal requirement under the 2010 Constitutional Reform and Governance Act, it was odd that the PM didnt want to commit to one.

Note the PM didnt rule out a vote, she just refused to confirm there would be one. Her main point seemed to be that she didnt want Parliament unpicking the referendum result in any way, even though the European Parliament has a veto in the ratification process. It may just be her natural caution, so lets see if her Brexit speech early in the New Year yields any more clarity.

2) EXPLETIVE DELOITT-ED

Apart from saying FFS about Boris Johnson, Theresa May doesnt swear much. But she was said to be personally affronted by the now infamous Brexit memo by consultancy firm Deloitte when it was published by the Times last month.

The memo, which claimed Cabinet splits were delaying her Brussels negotiation plan, suggested May was adding to the delay by micro-managing and drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself. But has the PM now got her revenge?

The paper reports that she has forced Deloitte to withdraw from bidding for Whitehall contracts for six months. Industry sources say the firm feared a more draconian punishment without such an offer. The company said on Tuesday night that it had put forward a plan for working with the government that was intended to put this matter behind us.

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No10 refused to comment on an individual contractor while Government sources deny the reset is intended as a punishment. Sir Jeremy Heywood is said to be unhappy with the six month sin bin idea, but its perhaps again an indicator of how determined and protective the PMs inner circle is. The Times says some in industry fear a culture where external criticism is punished, with one source adding: It is government by rage.

3) TARIFF-ICALLY IMPORTANT

You just cant get away from Brexit, especially if youre in business. And today the CBI has a report warning that most firms want to continue tariff-free trade with the EU, and only minimal non-tariff barriers.

The CBIs list of industrial sectors worried about tariffs - from aviation to chemicals, from agriculture to financial services - is extensive, and underlines just how complex life may be after we quit the EU. The FT picks up on the confusion and uncertainty firms fear over the post-Brexit regulatory regime as the UK will have to maintain or copy the work of no fewer than 34 European regulators. The costs ould be huge, with aerospace lobby saying it alone would see a 400m bill to copy the European Aviation Safety Agency.

When quizzed about this on Monday, May said only that we need to look with great care and consideration at the wide range of our relationships with Europe. The PM knows that staying under the auspices of any European regulator would leave Britain under the influence of the European Court of Justice  breaching a Brexit red line shes underlined several times in red biro this week.

BECAUSE YOUVE READ THIS FAR

Watch hereditary peer Viscount Falkland tell the Lords how he dealt with his goddaughters mobile phone habit. Lucius Cary, to give him his commmon name, once claimed he was an impoverished peer

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4) FRANKLY SPEAKING

The Department for Work and Pensions is never really a quiet corner of government and Frank Field isnt a quiet kinda guy. The Work and Pensions Select Committee chairman has two blasts at the government today, one on pensions and one on the bedroom tax.

His committee says that in the wake of the Sir Philip Green fiasco, ministers should treble the amount the UK pensions regulator can fine employers as a nuclear deterrent against another BHS-style disaster.

But Field also chairs the Liverpool City Region Child Poverty and Life Chances Commission and it has a report today urging immediate reform of the bedroom tax after evidence that it has left parents going hungry to feed their children. It urges a swift response to recent Supreme Court rulings on exemptions from the tax. There has been talk in Whitehall that May could signal another break with the Osborne/IDS era by amending spare room subsidy regulations - but is it just talk?

Today sees the end of an era in the DWP with the final minsterial outing in the Lords for Lord Freud, after six and a half years as an unpaid work and pensions minister. First hired by new Labours James Purnell, Freud has proved a controversial figure and peers could raise the scrapping of child poverty targets and the news that the Child Poverty Unit has been axed.

But the Upper House is a polite place and Freud is sure to get some tributes as well as brickbats today, not least for swapping private industry for public service. Its not yet clear who May will get to replace him.

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5) LORDS' MYSTERIOUS WAYS

Speaking of the Lords, their main business is the second reading of the Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Bill, which you can bet Labour will try to amend to get a better deal for patients on drugs rationed by the NHS.

But its worth reflecting that while there have been 51 Government defeats in the Lords in 2016, its work these days is often more about getting ministers to make concessions without the need for a confrontational vote. The dynamics of the Lords have changed since the 2015 general election, as its relatively easier for the non-Tory majority to team up with crossbenchers to outgun the Government.

Given worries about an unelected House over-reaching itself, the cannier moments come in tidying up shoddily-drafted bills or when the threat of defeat forces change. Alliances with Tory MPs are invaluable as the recent stalking law vote showed. The Housing Bill and Trade Union Bill changes are among the most significant of the year.

Like the Commons, the Lords will continue to be dominated by Brexit. Its recent committee reports underlined the expertise in the Upper House. And Lords debates can be sparkier than some think. Labours Shadow leader Angela Smith this week noticed former Chancellor Nigel Lawson huffs and puffs over there and shakes his head as she demanded more detail on the withdrawal plan. I do wonder if those who were the most enthusiastic about Brexit loathe any questions about Brexit, she asked. 2017 will tell us just how much scrutiny either House will get.

AND FINALLY

This is the final WaughZone of 2016. Id like to thank you all for reading this year, and for your texts, emails, phone calls and tips that make this early morning madness so worthwhile. Forgive the worst puns, just savour the best ones. See you the other side

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The new trend for handmade seems to be hitting everything, with the U.K. Leaving the EU and Trump winning the Presidential election the world is growing slightly prudent with their spending. So who's looking at a hand made Christmas? Is it cheaper? Is there more satisfaction? What are you making - food? Decorations? Presents?

I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to getting cosy on the sofa with candles burning and Christmas movies playing all day... But before that there is lots of work to do. It's not that easy to make your own Christmas.

If you're making your own decorations then I'd get lots of arts and craft materials in, Hobbycraft are great for this... I've spent hours in here before so good luck! Whatever you fail to get from here you could get on Amazon fairly promptly with Amazon Prime. There are many tutorials on making felt doves, kits to create your own baubles and different ideas on tinsel.

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Presents, presents, presents.... There are so many presents that can be made at reasonable prices, think homemade candles or soaps that can be infused with different smells. If you're good at being creative you could create a custom print and frame it or if you're a dab hand at knitting you can make hats, gloves, scarves or even a jumper for someone (although you might want to start early with this as it could take a while - I'm not so good at knitting!) you could even go down the foodie route and make jams and chutneys. The possibilities are endless and so not too difficult to find something you could do, good luck deciding - it would be great to hear what you've picked and any photos!

Now to the vital part of the day.... the food...! Being a veggie we have experimented with all sorts of food on Christmas Day ranging from full on 6, 7, 8 (and counting) course Indian dinners (with me being a British Asian that's pretty standard!), to nut roast with all the trimmings and pies, tarts and as many Yorkshire puddings as you can fit into your Mulberry! We've even gone all out Mexican, Spanish, Lebanese and Thai ... Making from scratch is pretty standard in our house, It's all about the ingredients. If you get good quality fruit and vegetables it's the hard part taken care of! Start by writing a menu for the day as it'll help you to figure out what you have in the ever faithful larder and what you need to put on your shopping list.

I love lists, I have them for everything and sometimes I'm my own worst enemy BUT when you're planning for something as grand as the festive period it shouldn't be done any other way! Imagine trying to roast your potatoes and not having any fresh herbs! So come on, start writing that list!

Food is important, but for me, it's all about the tree, the decorations and the styling of the space! Did you wonder when I would get to this part? Well in my opinion there are 2 ways you could go, firstly you could just go totally kitsch and have big red and gold baubles with twinkly fairly lights and lots of tinsel or you could have a slightly pared back and elegant display. Both say Christmas so which would you choose?

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So I'm going with pared back and elegant and here are my recommendations (from my wish list, if anyone wants to take note!)

1. Fairy lights inside a glass dome, I love the ones at Not On the High Street for 35

2. Reindeer print cushion from the Etsy shop of dylshouse, its an abstract and artsy take on the reindeer, only 25.99 for the cushion cover

3. A forest scene table decoration made from reclaimed wood by Etsy seller Craftonic Wood from 4.80 per 'tree'

4. Personalised baubles are always great and I try to get one every year for my little one as a keepsake, they can start from as little as 5.00 and as there is such a variety out there I'm not going to specify, it will be nice for you to find one personal to you

5. A lovely wreath on the door welcoming Christmas in, the question here is would you want to go for a real wreath or a ready made version, there are some great how to's out there to choose from if you wanted to 'hand make' your own version!

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6. Setting up a multitude of contemporary candlesticks and glass votives sets the scene quite nicely

7. The Robin tea towel by Ulster Weavers at Wayfair is a neat introduction to the festive bird for 6.99

8. Frosted Branches Hanging Tree is a lovely way to create Christmas without the green tree, its on special offer at the moment from Cox and Cox for 26

Is there anything I've missed? Anything that you think would go nicely with what I've suggested? What about the handmade? I think you could probably do a bit of both, it's hard work making everything from scratch and some of those items are just wonderful, who wouldn't want to buy them?

What do you think? Are you convinced by handmade? Be great to hear your thoughts.
Modern life can be challenging and, at times, stressful. Young people are struggling to get on the property ladder while the so-called 'sandwich generation' has to juggle supporting both children and elderly relatives. It's no surprise that the difficulties of balancing workplace demands and personal lives is becoming an increasing problem.

Changing demographics and demanding jobs are contributing to a vicious cycle, which starts with a gradual build-up of stress and sleepless nights, leading to underperformance at work, absence, and ultimately, long-term sick leave.

A recent report titled 'Breaking the Cycle' highlights the potent combination of both professional and personal stress, revealing that one in four employees have taken time off work due to stress in the last year - a figure being described as an employee 'stress time bomb'.

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The main problem is that triggers initiating this downward spiral are often hidden, neither talked about nor confronted. Worryingly, the report found that more than half of employees admit feeling unable to approach their employer about a stress-related issue; therefore the cycle continues unbroken, and if left un-addressed can lead to significant mental health problems.

So if you do have a problem, or you're worried about stress, how do you approach your employer? Here are my top five tips for you to consider.

Break the silence

Your voice matters and communication is the best building block you can use to eradicate the stigma attached to mental health in the workplace. 'Breaking the cycle' will rely on both employees and employers breaking the silence, and opening the lines of communication.

How and when to do it

Think about creating an environment where you feel comfortable. You might prefer to organise a meeting to ensure you have your manager's undivided attention in a private setting. Perhaps an early morning meeting, before the office gets busy and your boss or line manager gets sidetracked with other matters. Let them know you wish to speak about a significant issue, so they can ensure they have uninterrupted time with you.

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How much and what kind of information you will share

Have a clear plan and write down the points you wish to discuss as this can help order your thoughts and ensure nothing is missed. How much you'd like say is entirely down to you but if you want your employer to help, try be as honest and open as possible. Most employers want to help but they can only get involved if you let them, so the kind of information you tell them is key.

If you don't ask you don't get

Intervention could be as simple as receiving additional support from your line manager, but you won't always know what help is available unless you ask.

Who should you speak to?

Think carefully about who you trust in your organisation and who is best placed to help you. This could be your line manager, HR representative or another colleague.

Agree a plan of any changes with your manager, and take the necessary time to discuss progress and review how things have improved. Try to take small manageable steps rather than making sweeping changes in one go. Most importantly, commit to getting better, with your employer's support.

And remember:
The cut-off for university applications is looming, with the main UCAS deadline on the 15th January circled on every A-level student's calendar. It's a time that can bring last-minute panics and indecisiveness, but by following a few simple tips you can make the best of your choices.

1. DO attend open days

How will you know if a university is right for you if you've never been there? Visiting campuses gets you a feel for uni life, as well as providing a point of comparison to see what you prefer. If you've missed the window of opportunity, don't worry; most universities offer daily campus tours or even online virtual open days - it'll be better than applying for a mystery campus you have no idea about!

2. DON'T rely on stereotypes

As much as it's helpful to look at league tables and find out about university reputations, don't underestimate your gut feeling. You'll know straight away from visiting a uni or city if it's for you, and from that you can prioritise your choices. By all means do your research, but don't get hung up on how universities are perceived or whether they're in the Russell Group. A good degree result is essentially what's important, and enjoying your course, feeling motivated and settling in should take priority. What's ideal for someone else may not be for you.

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3. DO discuss your choice with friends and family

Discussing your choices with your best mate or close family members over a cuppa can help ease pre-application anguish. By thinking out loud and listening to other people's opinions you can work through tricky decisions; try writing up a list of pros and cons for each uni so others can add their input or suggest things you may not have thought of.

4. DON'T be swayed by family pressure

However, as much as your nearest and dearests' opinions are important, they shouldn't outweigh your own. Ultimately, it's going to be you spending the next few years of your life at university, so don't let others influence your choices if you already know what you want. A classic to avoid is caving in to pressure to apply for unis just because they rank highly. If you know Oxbridge isn't for you or you wouldn't want to study there, there's no point in applying.

5. DO budget-check your city

Many students don't think about the cost of living until the dust has settled on Freshers' Week. But we're not just talking the price of a Jagerbomb here; think about how much rent and food will cost. Living in Cambridge or London is going to be noticeably more expensive than Liverpool or Newcastle, and depending on how much loan you're granted, there might not be much - or any - left after rent. Check out the city and available accommodation, plan a budget and see what's feasible for you.

6. DON'T ignore the entry requirements

Be realistic about your chances of getting in to your chosen unis. If they're asking for a specific subject at A2 or grade at GCSE, make sure you have it and don't just wing it hoping they won't notice. That's not to say you can't be aspirational with your applications. If you think you've got a chance of exceeding your predictions, try making one of your choices a grade or two higher than you're predicted.

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7. DO read the course syllabus

One of the worst things you could do is apply for a course that you have no idea about. Don't presume every subject will be taught in the same way at every uni. Courses vary wildly - even when the subjects apparently match - so read up on what you're going to be studying. Checking the reading list is a good place to start, you should make sure it motivates you to want to read in your spare time, so you don't have any disappointments once you start studying.

8. DON'T only consider university

Maybe your heart is set on university right now, or perhaps you're applying because you don't know which route to take. Either way, don't be blind to alternative routes. At this time in your life, every option from gap years to apprenticeships is open to you. By understanding all the options, you'll be well prepared for whatever results day brings. Do a bit of research before submitting your application to see if anything else may appeal to you, or if there's a better pathway into your desired career. Better now than midway through your degree!

9. DO talk to current students

No-one's going to have a better understanding about university than someone who's studying there right now. Check Facebook groups or head onto specific uni forums on The Student Room to find people studying your course at your preferred universities. Hearing someone else's insights about the best and worst bits of the course and campus could be the thing to help you make up your mind - they were in your position once too.

10. DON'T rush in if you're not ready

Panicking and sending off your application for the sake of it will leave you full of what-ifs and worrying. If you're not 100% on your choices or courses, hold off a little. Universities still accept applications until 30th June for a 2017 entry, and after that you can explore Clearing. The main difference is that your application won't get the equal consideration it gets if made by the January 15th deadline.
A cancer ward is the last place you want to spend Christmas with your child.

But three years ago my son Luke, who was two at the time, was a month into his treatment at a specialist hospital in Nottingham, a two and a half hour drive from our home.

We had hoped (like all of the parents on the ward probably did), that we'd be at home together for Christmas, but as any cancer parent knows, when your child is on treatment their health changes so quickly, it's like a rollercoaster.

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Luke wasn't eating or drinking enough due to the chemotherapy making him feel so sick, and the doctor suggested that he have a feeding line inserted in his tummy so we could give him the vital nutrients and fluids he needed without him feeling nausea.

We agreed to let him have the operation, and the plan was that we would go home on Christmas Eve if the operation went well and there were no complications.

On the 22nd of December we were at a special Christmas party across the road from the hospital, singing songs and feeling the festive spirit, but then Luke complained that his tummy hurt. In a matter of 30 minutes Luke went from singing carols to being bent over double in agony.

We took him straight back to the hospital, and they discovered a serious skin infection around his feeding line. That meant a strong course of antibiotics and that he'd need to stay on the ward until after Christmas, so that was Christmas cancelled.

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But because of the cancer charity CLIC Sargent, me, my partner Tim and our other son Euan (who was only a few months old at the time) at least had a lovely place we could stay for free just across the road from the hospital, called Billy's House.

Before CLIC Sargent got us a place there, Tim was sleeping on the floor next to Luke's hospital bed, and I was in a family room at the hospital, sleeping on a camp bed, with Euan in a Moses basket. Billy's House obviously wasn't the same as being at home, but we were at least nearby to Luke and the staff were so lovely.

My Christmas presents for Luke and Euan were all at home in Northampton and when she heard we wouldn't be going home after all, Norma, the housekeeper at Billy's House went through the cupboards and gave us two massive bags of presents to wrap up for the boys - and some festive food that we shared with the other parents and children on the ward with us.

So that Christmas we ended up pulling crackers and eating together on the children's cancer ward with Tim's parents and my parents. The rest of my family decided to surprise us and also drove up bringing presents, smiling faces and big hugs.

No one knew if this would be Luke's last Christmas and everyone wanted to make as many happy memories for him and us as possible.

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We came home on New Years Eve in the end and had another Christmas day at home on the 12th of January, and it is a very happy memory from such a hard time.

Looking back I am so grateful that we could spend that Christmas together, I could not bear the thought of us being split up as only one parent is allowed to stay with the child on the ward, so if Billy's House hadn't been there half our family would have been at our home in Northampton and the other half in Nottingham.

This Christmas a lot of other families will be staying at Billy's House, or one of CLIC Sargent's other 10 Homes from Home across the UK that mean families can stay together during treatment, whenever they need to, for free. I'll always be grateful to them for making that Christmas a touch more bearable, and for all the support they gave us when Luke was on treatment.

But they get no government funding whatsoever and wouldn't be able to support any families without donations from lovely people and businesses like the supermarket Lidl.

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It's just been announced that Lidl has raised 1.6 million for CLIC Sargent over the past three years! Luke started fronting Lidl's appeal for CLIC Sargent in February, and I'm so proud we've helped their staff and shoppers to raise 600,000 over target.

Luke's in remission and doing well. We're looking forward to Christmas this year, but as we know all too well - cancer doesn't stop for Christmas.

While we celebrate another year of watching our two boys grow and being immensely grateful that we can enjoy the festive season without an empty chair at the table, we remember the children who fought so hard but are now forever sleeping.

Please donate to CLIC Sargent's Christmas fundraising appeal.
ITV pictures

A year and a half ago, Emmerdale approached Alzheimer's Society wanting to explore the theme of dementia with one of their long-standing, well-loved characters. We were, of course, delighted to help as we recognise this is one of the most effective ways to raise awareness and challenge misperceptions of dementia. We have since worked closely with the researcher, director and producers to help them understand dementia and how it could be portrayed as accurately as possible on a show like Emmerdale.

As many people who have been affected by the condition already know, dementia can have a devastating impact, not only on the individual, but on the whole family. Many people are able to live well with the condition, but support, help and advice is needed along the way. It's not something a family can, or should, face alone. The idea of a soap covering a story like this for any more than a few episodes was a huge challenge from the outset.

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In November 2015 it was revealed Ashley Thomas, resident vicar, had been diagnosed with younger-onset vascular dementia. In the UK alone, 850,000 people are living with a form of dementia and of those, it is estimated that nearly 150,000 people have vascular dementia which is caused by problems with blood supply to the brain - for example after a stroke.

Ashley is a younger man, with a family - he has a teenage daughter, young son, and a new wife and baby to juggle along with his diagnosis. It is a very unique storyline and one so far that has given us a snapshot of the trials and tribulations faced by so many behind closed doors up and down the country. From those living in high rise flats in urban cities, to those in isolated cottages in the middle of the countryside, Ashley's life is a reality for hundreds of thousands of people.

Emmerdale's special episode was ground-breaking. As the episode kicked off, we immediately saw Ashley switching from one place to another as he left hospital. One minute in pyjamas, the next in his day clothes. This captured his own reality and exasperating memory problems and confusion - even viewers on Twitter questioned Emmerdale's continuity - but it was all completely intentional.

The key device Emmerdale employed was the recasting of familiar characters - Doug, Aaron, Chas and, most shockingly Laurel, all appeared in new guises. This wasn't at all clear from the beginning and you could really empathise with Ashley as a strange man pulled up in a car shouting his name and asking him to get in. If that happened to you this afternoon, it would leave confused, if not shaken and scared.

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As the episode progressed, it became slightly clearer that the characters helping Ashley were actually his family and friends. But even flashes of who the characters actually were in the window of a car would leave a stalwart viewer unsure as to who Ashley should trust. This technique alone suggested exactly how Ashley must be feeling and explained why he became progressively more confused and agitated, despite the kind, reassuring words from all those who approached him.

Even when he returned home, Ashley insisted this wasn't his home. And indeed it looks totally unfamiliar as the filming of this special episode took place in the real village of Esholt where Emmerdale was last shot over 20 years ago. This disorientation and unfamiliarity brought the viewer right into Ashley's shoes, as his eyes welled with tears as he tried to get home to his mum, you could feel both his and Laurel's' despair.

The final moments were extremely moving as the stranger who looked like Laurel emerged from an embrace with Ashley as the regular actress, Charlotte Bellamy - Ashley's loving wife. The episode illustrated the pure frustration a person with dementia can face and how this confusion can devastate carers, families and friends.

The progression of Ashley's dementia unfolding in front of viewers eyes has been heart-wrenching and, at times, difficult to watch. Emmerdale have wanted to get it right from the start and have been open to feedback. Storylines like these also have the power to make a huge difference and change public perception. It was key, from Alzheimer's Society's perspective, to cut down on the drama and keep it as true-to-life as possible, which Emmerdale have totally respected while keeping true to the show.

We believe Ashley's storyline is the closest a drama of this kind has come to presenting the reality of what it might be like to live with the condition. Of course, many people won't have experienced dementia like this - and it's important to remember everyone's experience is different. But we hope that this has broken down barriers and helped many understand what dementia can be like and how it's so important to ask for the help and support you need.

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President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker has said Ukraine will receive vise-free status in the European Union within several weeks, Kyiv-based European Pravda has reprinted Juncker's article, titled "Standing by Ukraine," for the Baltic Rim Economies magazine.

The EU president noted that in 2010 the Commission laid down all the reforms that Ukraine would need to deliver to obtain visa-free travel for its citizens.

"After a thorough and lengthy assessment, we concluded earlier this year that those conditions had been met. We must now keep our side of the bargain," the EC president wrote.

"I believe that Ukrainian citizens will be free from the visa obligation in a matter of weeks," Junker said.

He also expressed the hope that the next tranche of macro-financial assistance would be unblocked in early in 2017.

According to Juncker, the EU will continue helping to solve the conflict in eastern Ukraine by diplomatic means by and by means of providing full respect to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

"That is why the EU insists on full implementation of the Minsk agreements, starting with a full and proper ceasefire," Juncker said.

"On our side we will continue to do everything we can to support this great European nation get back to its fee," he wrote.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) is grateful that as of last Thursday, December 15, over 9,500 civilians were evacuated from besieged eastern Aleppo City. Unfortunately, among those who were evacuated, 1,400 were in need of medical attention, and many were critically wounded or chronically ill. More than 90 were children, including infants suffering from acute malnutrition. The siege of the eastern part of Aleppo City lasted over 140 days of siege, and many civilians who boarded the evacuation buses had not received food or water in days. In addition, the freezing temperatures and long grueling rides, sometimes staying on the buses for 24 hours, increased their susceptibility to winter illnesses.

In order to respond to the emergency situation and provide medical care to these evacuated patients, SAMS deployed two mobile clinics to the border of the city to treat patients as they were being evacuated. So far, SAMS has treated patients suffering from infections, skin diseases, and gastroenteritis among other conditions. Many civilians, who had endured months of siege with limited resources and food,were treated for malnutrition. For patients who required additional treatment, SAMS deployed seven ambulances to receive the patients at collection points and transport them to designated hospitals with ICU and emergency capabilities.

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SAMS is currently supporting five hospitals in Idlib, the governorate directly west of Aleppo, where patients are being evacuated. We have already sent additional supplies, medication, and personnel to prepare for the influx of patients.

SAMS supported 150 medical personnel in East Aleppo, who were among the few remaining providers of healthcare in the besieged city. All of our medical facilities were bombed out of service during the siege, but our medical personnel stayed in eastern Aleppo until the very end. Despite constant airstrikes and insufficient resources, our medical personnel continued to treat the overwhelming number of injured with what medication and supplies they had. As of Friday, December 16, all of our medical personnel have been evacuated safely from eastern Aleppo City. These brave medical workers have risked their lives to save others, and SAMS is proud to continue to support our medical workers and patients as they recover from months of siege, targeted attacks, traumatic events, and horrific violence.
Marc Bruxelle via Getty Images

Last week NUS made the historic decision to introduce a full time trans officer.

That makes us the first organisation in Europe with a full time elected officer who will be dedicated to defending and lobbying for trans rights.

December 14, 2016 will go down as a momentous day in NUS history - the day trans students finally got what they'd been campaigning for year after year.

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The journey to this decision began years ago and it has taken much campaigning and lobbying on the part of trans students and leaders to get the campaign to this point.

Last week showed the student movement at its best and it truly is something to be proud of.

We understand that having a trans officer isn't the end of the fight for the liberation of trans students.

Having this dedicated officer doesn't mean that trans people now have equal rights, access to education or access to the vital health services many of them desperately need.

In fact, we need a full time trans officer because of the specific problems faced by trans students and we believe a full time officer would have the capacity to challenge these.

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With the government's austerity measures, vital services for trans students are being cut and there's certainly no progress where there needs to be.

For instance, there are trans students in Wales who have to travel hundreds of miles to their nearest Gender Identity Clinic.

We're sure our first trans officer, elected this coming March, will be fighting for things like the introduction of a gender identity clinic in Wales, and we'll be sure to support them every step of the way.

Our movement has finally given trans students what they want and deserve but most importantly what they desperately need.

I honestly can't wait to see what the trans campaign achieves with its own resources and a dedicated officer.

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This decision has reaffirmed my faith in our movement and its commitment to liberation, this isn't the end, but for now here at NUS we'll be celebrating this long-sought win.
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My name is Zahid Mahmood, I am 46 years old, and I am married and have seven children. I am qualified manufacturing engineer, and am from Walthamstow. I am extremely active in the local community and am involved in charity work and volunteer my time with local schools and organisations.

The past year has seen our family tarnished by a said Katie Hopkins writing in a notoriously right wing paper. The article(s) have had an incredibly detrimental effect on our family and community. We were labelled as ISIS supporters and extremists, and our family home was splashed across front pages with lurid headlines.

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Our supposed crime was to be refused entry to the 'Land of the Free'. A family holiday to Disney Land saved up for and all the children speaking about it for months. Having been granted our ESTA visa to the States, we were pulled out of the line as common criminals and subjected to a reminder of what vilification and racial profiling at airports really means.

Having now experienced first-hand Trump's projected Muslim Register; our family speaks on behalf of the wider Muslim diaspora. All those Muslim activists who speak truth to power are continually labelled as extremist. To challenge organisations that secretly dictate to shady Governmental departments about secret lists is abhorrent. We live in a democratic country and I believe in openness and transparency, and due process of law. I am yet to receive a response for our refusal to the States, and potentially an apology).

Living within Waltham Forest we have some extremely high levels of Islamophobia. Our local MP Stella Creasy has been instrumental in assisting us with help in challenging the reason for our no entry to the States. She was also there when our daughter was viciously assaulted whilst wearing a hijab on our doorstep.

These are real issues that affect us and other Muslims on a day to day basis. We are now censoring our children through fear of Prevent, and have seen how it has decimated the trust and openness that used to exist in schools and communities. We have nothing but admiration for the Muslim activists who are challenging Prevent as they are truly local grassroots champions who stand up against racial profiling and give a voice to the voiceless, as opposed to those 'Muslim' groups created in a Government laboratory.

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We have been labelled and tarnished as a family purely because we are Muslim. It was open season to attack and vilify us without a jot in the world. I am an adherent to my faith, and for that parts of society deem it necessary to label and traduce my family. The notion that I as a British citizen should be denied entry to another country should not be open season to attack.

Our avenue to litigation was taken reluctantly. We were shunned by certain sections of our community, ostracised as 'the other', and seen as fifth columnists by the right-wing press and Twitterati brigade. Sensing the paradigm shift violently towards the right our only redress was litigation. Carter Ruck an excellent Law firm with brilliant lawyers who 'unfortunately' have a burgeoning Muslim clientele sought us the compensation and apology. I cannot recommend them more highly.

The feelings of hurt have not dissipated, we are rebuilding our lives, but they will never be the same again, but I would say to those affected by draconian policies, and racial profiling, do not be afraid to stand as citizens and not as subjects.
Few policy areas seem to grab the imagination of the modern global citizen than the notion of a 'smart' city. Faced with a Christmas season invariably filled with train cancellations, holiday-sapping traffic jams and high streets packed full of frantic shoppers it is not hard to see the appeal of cities planned and managed by the latest technological innovations and data analytics. With two thirds of the world's population set to inhabit cities by 2045, it is also no wonder that city administrators from Bristol and Singapore through to Rio de Janeiro and Modderfontain are looking to the technologists to shape the urban landscape. In India, the government has committed to developing 100 smart cities across the nation.

While surveying some of the world's leading smart city thinkers for a new report Smarter Cities, Simpler Cities, published by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), there was one crucial theme which emerged: it is the people, not just the technology, which makes a city 'smart.' Certainly, there are pioneering and hugely exciting things happening with regards to Big Data and the Internet of Things, whether applied in new custom-built cities such as South Korea's Songdo (designed with the insights of IBM) or 'retro-fitted' developed cities such as Barcelona and Amsterdam. Real-time monitoring and analytics will mean, however, that cities will be responding to the real needs and behaviours of its citizens like never before.

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(Credit: Author's own)

Yet where we are likely to see the biggest innovations will be bringing sustainable and efficient practices to the traditional functions of a city: waste management, energy supply, transport infrastructure. As such, we are not likely to see the replacement of planners and city administrators by technology any time soon: instead, they are likely to play an ever more crucial role in using data insights and applying intelligent systems to help cities flourish even, in many cases, as their populations continue to soar to unprecedented levels. This means that any discussion of the city of the future has to move beyond the technology itself to a serious discussion about the evolution of skills and functions required by those who will build and maintain the cities of tomorrow.

That discussion goes beyond architects, engineers and policy-makers: a large number of those will be accountants and finance professionals. This should come as no surprise: from the counting houses of Ancient Rome and the Venetian city state of Luca Pacioli - 'the father of accounting' - the development of the modern city has always been closely aligned to financial and commercial innovation. More recently, the spectre of bankruptcy which has haunted the likes of Detroit and New York is a reminder that even the most mighty metropolis relies on strong governance, strategic planning and an analytical approach to building future resilience.

One of the key findings of our research has been that no smart city is necessarily alike: their development represents a journey, based around citizens' needs and available resources rather than fixed end-point. Yet it is a process which is happening extremely quickly: one estimate cited in the report is that the number of smart cities worldwide will triple to 88 by 2025.

Across Asia and Africa, the development of the smart city is not a utopian ideal but a social necessity: rapid urbanisation is creating unique pressures on local economies, environmental impacts and the challenges of ageing populations. India alone expects to add about 300 million city dwellers by 2045. So as new centres of urbanisation emerge around the world - smart cities offer a ray a hope to ensure that the journey of many of these new urban centres can benefit from a planned, smart approach that safeguards living conditions for future generations.

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If you could make one wish this Christmas, what would it be?

At this time of year, we all make a few wishes. That wish might be for a very special present, or that your all-time favourite festive film will be on TV again this year. Or that you wake up to a dusting of snow on Christmas Day.

The wishes made by the women and children Refuge supports are quite different. Women might wish they could wake up safe in their own home. Children might wish they didn't have to leave their school, their friends or their beloved pet to go into a refuge; or that their mum would stop blaming herself for the abuse she has experienced.

Emily*, who is eight-years-old and fled to Refuge with her mum, is just one of the 750,000 children who witness domestic violence in Britain each year. Emily told her child support worker that one time, when her dad was hitting her mum in the street, she closed her eyes and wished that it would not happen anymore. Thanks to Refuge, her wish came true.

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Refuge is the largest specialist provider of domestic violence services in the country. Every day, Refuge gives vital support to over 4,600 clients. This Christmas will be no different, and my colleagues on the front-line will be working hard to grant more wishes like Emily's this year.

Even with Refuge's support, the thought of being away from home over the festive season can be distressing for a family escaping domestic violence. These families are in crisis. They may be traumatised from years of emotional and physical abuse. Women and children like Emily and her mum often arrive at Refuge's services with little more than the clothes on their backs. Often, they have no money at all because their abuser has forbidden them from working, or stolen their benefits. Luxury items like presents are not an option.

This is why we need your support this Christmas. For many years, Refuge has run a gift list appeal which raises money to ensure every women and child in our refuges receives seasonal gifts at Christmas time - each is a personalised present, chosen by the staff that support them, that can be treasured forever. With the number of women and children we support at an all-time high, this is no mean feat - but I am positive that with your help, we can achieve our target.

Imagine the delight on a child like Emily's face, when she receives a soft, huggable teddy bear to comfort her as she gets used to her new surroundings in a refuge. Or the happiness felt by her mum, who has lived her whole married life being systematically isolated and told that nobody cares about her, when she opens a box of her favourite chocolates on Christmas Day. Just knowing that someone they have never met is thinking about them means a huge amount. It can help bolster them as they take the next steps towards rebuilding their lives.

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By supporting the Refuge gift list, you can show that you care. You can make a woman smile on what can be an incredibly difficult day. You can make a real difference.

So, what about my Christmas wish? It is quite simple. That more kind people like you will help Refuge make this festive season special for women and children in need. Gifts start at just 3, and every little item will be so appreciated, so please do consider adding an extra present to your shopping list this year and donate to the Refuge Christmas gift list. As of today we have reached 60% of our goal - can you help support the gift list and ensure that everyone in our services receives a gift? Thank you. Merry Christmas.

Find out more about how you can support Refuge's Christmas gift list here
Syria Relief

Working for a charity solely focused on Syria, such as Syria Relief, can guarantee a regular rollercoaster of emotions for all of its employees and supporters. From the exhilaration up-on seeing fruition of the team's hard work on the ground, to fear and worry during the times we are cut off from all communication with our team who are working in particularly dangerous or besieged areas.

But it's not just those working in the charity sector who are finding it hard to digest the news unfolding from Syria. These past few weeks have left many of us unable to hold onto hope when phrases such as 'giant graveyard' or 'complete meltdown of humanity,' fly back and forth our news feeds, filling us with numbness. Or even the anxiety triggered by the simple act of scrolling down that twitter feed and reading the heart wrenching farewells from those trapped inside Aleppo City.

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Like many of us, you begin wondering if there really is any hope for those trapped in areas under siege like Aleppo, and you start doubting the possibility of being able to help.

But there are real ways to help!

Syria Relief (the charity I work for) have been working inside Syria for five years now, and in that time have developed an unparalleled level of expertise in the country. Our staff have encountered so much these past few years and we don't let things keep us down and are sure to surmount any obstacle!

We have established a massive network of dedicated teams on the ground and thanks to their bravery, can reach even the seemingly most impossible of places.

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Through Syria Relief, you can let the people of Aleppo know that their heartfelt messages of despair are being heard - and answered!

Our staff are working in the suburbs of Aleppo. As you read this post, they are busy receiving families who are being evacuated from their homes. Our team is providing evacuees with vital emergency aid to keep them going for the harsh days ahead.

Here are the ways YOU can make a huge difference to the lives of the people of Aleppo:

1 Month Family Pack - 300.00

Includes: Food Parcels, Blankets, Mattresses, Hygiene Kits (toothpaste, soap, shampoo, brushes), Ladies Hygiene Packs, Kitchen Sets, Warm Clothes, Stoves and Firewood.

Family Food Basket - 30.00

Family Heating Pack - 50.00

(Stove, Firewood, Blankets & Water Bottles)

Family Winter Pack - 20.00

(Blankets and Firewood)

Family Hygiene Pack - 40.00

Mattress - 12.00

Ladies Hygiene Pack - 10.00

(Please note: All Family Packages are large enough to cater to a family of 5 for one month)

You can donate here. Some Good News!

We are confident that the escalation of this humanitarian catastrophe can be halt-ed if all of us took a moment of our time to do something tangible to help the people of Syria. If you are unable to donate, try to raise awareness of Syria Relief's work on the ground or contact your local MP about facilitating humanitarian inter-vention in besieged areas.

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In the last 24 hours, Syria Relief have received a record number of dona-tions since we began our work in 2011. On behalf of all staff here in the UK, in Turkey and our dedicated, heroic team inside Syria, THANK YOU for making our work possible.
By Heather Taylor

2016 was a definitive year for brand mascots doing very big things. From debuting in Rio de Janeiro to driving a NUTmobile cross country, these icons launched major comebacks, hit the election campaign trail, and even dropped mixtapes. Its a brand mascots world and were just living in it. Heres a refresher on our favorite stories from 2016 starring these familiar faces (with a couple of fresh ones in between!).

Comebacks

Thumping his way into 2016 bigger, better, and bunnier than ever before is everyones favorite pink hare, the Energizer Bunny. With a reloaded comeback courtesy of San Francisco ad agency Camp + King, the 27-year-old mascot has a new tagline (Still Going) and multimedia campaign where todays media landscape serves as a playground for his disruptive nature. Hes got his own Spotify playlist and rocked the runway at New York Fashion Week at designer Angela Simmons fashion show. He even shared what he looks like without his infamous sunglasses!

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All across the United States, reports of sightings of another brand mascot keep popping up. Witnesses have revealed that hes tall, covered in leaves, and wearing a green toga. Why, its none other than the Green Giant! #TheGiantAwakens teaser, created by Deutsch New York, shares shadowy glimpses of the big guys return to the Valley with the promise that he has big things in store.

Debuts

As the original Most Interesting Man in the World departed for a mission to Mars, his new counterpart made his debut for Dos Equis. Created by the team at Havas Worldwide New York and played by French actor Augustin Legrand, the latest Most Interesting Man in the World is just as adventurous as his predecessor. His tagline has been modified to Stay thirsty, mis amigos, hes joined by an audacious female companion, and his legendary status includes sparring in Samurai armor and racing airboats down sand dunes.

Its never easy for a spokescharacter to retire, but Norm Shearer, CCO and partner at Cactus, thinks the transition was exceptionally done, When Dos Equis had to replace the retiring actor, the core idea was so strong (and the agency handled the transition so well as part of the narrative) that switching the actor out took a great mascot and great idea and refreshed it."

How about some fried chicken to go with your beer? 2016 saw the debut of many, many new Colonels for KFC with actors including Mad Mens Vincent Kartheiser and comedian Rob Riggle getting into character. Chris Walker, Creative Director at HZDG, is a big fan of the ever-rotating faces for the chicken n biscuits chain. This is a great way to freshen up a mascot that's been around for a long time. Each new KFC campaign stands out even more because it has a different actor playing the part, like George Hamilton as the Extra Crispy Colonel Sanders.

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Major Events + Awards

As the world spent the summer glued to the Rio 2016 Olympics, they also met Vinicius and Tom, the official mascots for the Olympic and Paralympic games. A pair born out of excitement for the sporting event, the two were instantly beloved by audiences universally. But the Olympic mascot fun isnt over yet! Kelsey Nelson, Director of Social Influence at Ferebee Lane + Co., loved the under-the-radar announcement of Soohorang and Bandabi, mascots for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Speaking of gold medals and awards, this year we celebrated our 13 Annual Madison Avenue Walk of Fame. More than 60,000 voted online and the results are in: the winning mascots are the FOX Robot and Woodsy Owl!

Political Campaigns

Election season dominated 2016 media coverage with one candidate running for office with an alTUNAtive political platform: StarKists Charlie the Tuna. Throwing his red hat into the ring, Charlie joined us for a fireside chat where we discussed his pro-good taste stance and ambitions for making mundane meals full of flavor and fun.

What has Charlie been up to since his campaign ended? Andy Mecs, Director of Marketing and Innovation at StarKist and Charlies campaign manager, has the scoop. Charlie brought levity and fun to the election. He engaged his beloved fans to select his VP swimming-mate, Sallie the Salmon, and his fans were behind him 100 percent throughout the entire presidential race. Although he didnt win the election, Charlie accepted an even bigger job as President of Charlie's World  a 360-degree digital oasis filled with videos, activities for kids, recipes and more!

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Birthdays + Anniversaries

General Mills kicked off 2016 turning 150-years-old, as the home to icons like the Pillsbury Doughboy, Betty Crocker, and Green Giant. Shortly afterward, another icon hit a major milestone: Mr. Peanuts 100 birthday.

For Jeff Siegel, VP and Creative Director at CP+B Miami, Mr. Peanut turning 100 is hands-down the best brand mascot story of the year. Not just because hes been single-handedly keeping the monocle alive for decades, but because he was invented by a 14-year-old, proving you dont need a fully formed brain to make great advertising.

The dapper gent was honored with festive events held throughout the year including travelling across the country in a 27-foot-long NUTmobile with his Peanutter pals, an appearance on Good Morning America, and a birthday party sweepstakes for fans. As Mr. Peanut enters his 101 year, the Planters team shares that he will continue to share Planters nut varieties with consumers everywhere, all while touting the irresistibility of his favorite snack.

There aint no party like an M&MS 75 anniversary party! Amanda Kloos, Associate Creative Director at HZDG, loved seeing the whole squads commercial spots represented in the Candyman remix by Zedd and Aloe Blacc. M&MS 75th anniversary spot, which featured past and present M&MS mascots, was one of my favorites of the year. Great way to celebrate a candy brand that has been one of America's (and one of mine!) favorites for generations.

In Memoriam

In April 2016, actor Arthur Anderson passed away at 93. He provided the vocal talent for Lucky the Leprechaun at Lucky Charms, spanning the generations from 1963 to 1992. In 2005, he told ABC News that he always thought Lucky was a fun character to play. Hardly a day goes by when somebody doesnt ask me to sing the Lucky Charms jingle, and Im proud of that.

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Jingle Notes

Its time for a remix, Mr. Clean! This year, Leo Burnett Toronto remixed Mr. Cleans jingle for a millennial audience. The newly revamped ditty features electric and acoustic guitars mixed in with its familiar chorus.
By Hilary Friedlander

Editors' Note: Since publication of this piece, a reader drew our attention to several articles from The Washington Post, which call into question the numbers of domestic sex traffic victims cited in this blog and the methods used to estimate them.

In the United States, some 100,000 to 300,000 children and adolescents are victims of domestic sex trafficking--and that's a conservative estimate. When I first heard this I felt shock and disbelief. How can this be such a pervasive problem in our own country, and why are we so unaware of it?

That was in April 2015, at the centennial meeting of the American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) in Chicago, which I'd attended with Albert Einstein College of Medicine AMWA board members Rachel Cohen, Yuliana Noah, Sarah Marx and Rachel Zolno.

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Following the event, we resolved to dedicate our efforts to raising awareness at Einstein about domestic sex trafficking. We knew our colleagues might be just as uninformed as we had been. Later that year, we developed research on how to best teach sex-trafficking issues to medical school students.

We tested three educational modalities (lecture, small-group workshop, individual video watching) to learn which of these would best increase awareness and knowledge of sex trafficking among first- and second-year medical students. All three proved effective. In July our board traveled to Vienna, Austria, and presented our research at the International Congress of the Medical Women's International Association.

Defining the sex-trafficking problem

Most sex-trafficking victims in this country are U.S. citizens. According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, sex trafficking is defined as "the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age." These acts include pornography, prostitution, sex tourism, strip clubs, escort services, brothels, massage-parlor work, truck-stop "companions" and Web and social-media sex. The average recruitment age of victims is 12 to 14, though there have been cases reported involving children as young as 7.

Significantly for physicians, one study found that 28 percent of all victims present to healthcare providers while being trafficked. In a survey of trafficked youth in New York City, 75 percent of the victims were found to have visited physicians in the previous six months.

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This puts doctors in a unique position to identify victims--who may have risk factors suggested by their gender, age, economic status or history of abuse--and provide important care and resources.

Spotting signs of sex trafficking

There are some red flags in a patient's presentation and healthcare history that warrant further questions: poor eye contact; anxiety; a scripted or mechanically recited history; being a runaway or in the foster-care system; sexual promiscuity; recurrent STIs; multiple pregnancies; malnourishment; substance addiction; weather-inappropriate clothing; bruising, scars, or burns in hidden places; a tattoo of a pimp's name or a strange symbol; the inability to provide an address; and a companion who refuses to leave the examination room.

When faced with these red flags, here are important questions for any healthcare provider to ask that patient:

Where do you live?

Do you eat, sleep and work all in the same place?

Can you leave your work or job if you want to?

Have you been threatened or hurt? Has anyone threatened your family?

Have you ever exchanged sex for food, shelter, drugs or money?

Would you know how to seek help if you needed it?

Important action items for the healthcare provider if he or she suspects the patient is a trafficking victim:

Establish trust and confidentiality.

Make it a policy to see the patient alone.

Make it a policy to schedule follow-up visits.

Know the laws for mandatory reporting in your state.

Call the national sex trafficking hotline at 888-373-7888.

Know your local resources; visit polarisproject.org to search for resources by zip code.

Avoid the "rescue fantasy. Our role is not to save anyone but to assist - and the patient needs to be an active member in the decision making.

Taking action

What more can be done? Join organizations such as Physicians Against the Trafficking of Humans (PATH), a subcommittee of AMWA that seeks to raise awareness about human trafficking and offers resources to healthcare providers.

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Healthcare providers can also support legislative action. On November 4, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York signed legislation to help physicians and healthcare workers better identify human-trafficking victims. This critical legislation--a joint effort of AMWA's PATH team and New York State assembly member Amy Paulin--requires every "general hospital, public health center, diagnostic center, treatment center or outpatient department to establish written policies and procedures for the identification, assessment, and appropriate treatment or referral of persons suspected of being human trafficking victims as well as training for physicians, nurses and other clinical care personnel in service units in those facilities regarding those policies and procedures."

Einstein's AMWA student group has hosted several workshops and lectures where medical students learn about this problem. We believe that the most effective and sustainable way to expose students to this issue is to make it a part of the permanent curriculum in the preclinical years. It's crucial not only that we, as part of the next generation of physicians, are aware of the scope of sex trafficking in the United States, but that we also have the tools and resources to identify victims so that when we intervene, we are prepared.

***

Here are some other leading organizations in the fight to eradicate the modern-day slavery of sex trafficking:

HEAL Trafficking, a public health organization devoted to ending human trafficking and supporting its survivors;

Polaris, which fights slavery. In 2007, Polaris launched the National Human Trafficking Hotline (888-373-7888), which serves victims and survivors of human trafficking and the antitrafficking community in the United States;

SOAR, a training program for healthcare and social-service providers designed to educate people how to identify, treat and respond appropriately to potential victims of human trafficking.

***

Ms. Friedlander is a third-year medical student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is the current region 2 (NY/NJ) director of the American Medical Women's Association (AMWA)'s national student division and past president of Einstein's AMWA chapter. Her work with AMWA and sex trafficking has led to research exploring different educational modalities for introducing the issue of sex trafficking into medical school curricula. She also serves as education co-chair of the Physicians Against the Trafficking of Humans (PATH)'s national student division. She plans to pursue a career committed to women's health.

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The appointment of Mike Mulvaney as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget is one more reason for those who care about the integrity of Social Security to worry. Mulvaney is known as an anti-deficit hack, and was part of the 2010 Tea Party wave. He favored letting the government shut down rather than increasing the debt ceiling. How can his appointment and policy bent be reconciled with Trump's plans to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure and to increase military spending, and to give major tax cuts to corporations and individuals -- all measures that will greatly increase the deficit? The answer lies in Mulvaney and his associates in Congress going after the only large pool of dough left: funds set aside for Social Security.

True, Trump during the campaign promised to protect Social Security, saying, for example in March that "it's my absolute intention to leave Social Security the way it is. Not increase the age and to leave it as is." However, signs are emerging that Trump may well renege on that promise. His transition team's point man on Social Security is Michael Korbey, a former lobbyist who has spent much of his career advocating cutting and privatizing the program. And his nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Tom Price, has been a champion of cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Last week, Mark Meadows, the Republican chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, stated that the group would push for an overhaul -- which will almost certainly entail cuts -- of Social Security and Medicare in the early days of the next Congress.

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This has all happened before. President Reagan, after numerous statements about the evil of deficits during his election campaign, introduced major income tax cuts as president, as well as deep cuts to estate taxes and corporate taxes. His first budget had a deficit of $318 billion, and the deficits would only grow larger. In FY 1983, the deficit ballooned to $500 billion. He then appointed the National Commission on Social Security Reform (also known as the Greenspan Commission). The Commission recommendations led to a Social Security reform deal in 1983 that raised the retirement age, increased the payroll tax, and introduced a tax on Social Security benefits for retirees who also received a pension.

If any elected official openly called for taking away benefits from retiring seniors -- scores of millions of whom would be in poverty were it not for their Social Security check -- and spent the monies on tax cuts that flow mainly to the rich, such a move would engender a major political storm. It would antagonize the elderly in particular, who tend to vote in higher numbers and make more campaign contributions than young people, and hence carry more political weight. However, as Reagan showed and as one should expect to see happen again in the Trump years, the GOP first causes major deficits and then decries their horrible effects, and goes after social programs and safety nets to reduce the deficits. This two-step dance hides that, in effect, Social Security funds are transferred to the rich to the tune of hundred of billion dollars.

Those genuinely concerned about the future of Social Security need not support cuts in benefits to ensure Social Security's future. And they surely need not raise the payroll tax collected from individuals and employers to finance Social Security. What must be done first of all is to treat all income equally! Currently the richer one is, the less one pays as a percentage of income! Social Security tax is collected even from those who earn less than minimum wage, starting with the first dollar one earns. However, those who earn more than $118,500 pay no taxes on any income above that level. Whether one earns $118,500, or $1 million, or $10 million or $100 million, one pays the same amount in Social Security tax. This makes Social Security a very regressive and unfair tax that should be corrected for the sake of elementary justice and the financial health of the system.

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How will the Democrats react to a new round of attacks on Social Security? One may say that, historically, they were staunch supporters of Social Security, and that they gained many political points for being so. Not so fast! The Greenspan Commission included an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, and Democrats voted in support of the implementation of the Commission's recommendations. And very recently the New York Times editorial board has called for "modest cuts in [Social Security] benefits." This is not the way to defend a program, especially in the age of social media and populism. Once one side calls for extreme measures, which would in effect lead to the unraveling of Social Security, especially if means tests are introduced, and the other side responds by favoring benefit cuts, but smaller ones--all that remains is the haggling over how much to cut. Social Security benefits should not be subject to negotiations, at least not until all pay their fair share.
Barely a day before Donald Trump set off a recent diplomatic crisis between China and the United States by backing Taiwan in a chatty phone call with the island's president, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs published poll results from the US and China that found a surprising correlation between public attitudes in the two countries on numerous issues.

People were asked about their perceptions of relative power and influence between the two countries, and the importance of globalization and shared world leadership

Trump's assurances of support for the Taiwanese, upending nearly four decades of US policy -- made before his presidency had even begun -- may have played to an audience that cheered political and economic attacks on the Chinese during the American election campaign. But those cheers may not have reflected broader American opinion, according to the results of polls taken in the US in June this year. The parallel Chinese polling, in 15 major metropolitan areas of China, was done in September.

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The majority of Americans opted for international cooperation and multilateral solutions, a sign that as the United Nations enters a tough new era in relations with the US there may be untapped support in the American public for the UN and other international organizations.

The Chicago Council, which fosters intellectual dialogue among nations, has been polling Americans for four decades, asking those surveyed whether the US should take an active part in, or stay out of, world affairs. During that time, a majority of Americans have always favored an active role. This year, the question was asked in Chinese polling for the first time and respondents also said they wanted an active role for their country. There were other broad areas of agreement and some significant gaps in attitudes toward each other and the world.

"There is perhaps no more important bilateral relationship in the world today than between the United States and China -- the world's two most important players in terms of economics and security," the authors of an analysis of the polling report, Karl Friedhoff and Craig Kafura of the Council, wrote.

Since these polls were taken, Trump has by many expert accounts thrown into peril the understanding that American and Chinese governments and their diplomats have been building since the 1970s. That includes, most recently, reaching a common policy on climate change paving the way for the formal global adoption this year of the 2015 Paris agreement on binding limits to global temperature increases.

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Moreover, today, the Chinese government returned an American underwater drone it seized on Dec. 15 in international waters near the Philippines.

The 2016 polling in the US was conducted for the Chicago Council by GfK Custom Research. The Chinese survey was done by Dataway Horizon, an international polling company based in China.

Some findings of the two surveys include:

 Sixty-four percent of Americans polled said that they believed it would be "best for the future of the country" to be active in world affairs. Sixty-six percent of Chinese respondents made the same choice. More Chinese, 38 percent, said they should be the dominant world leader compared with 29 percent of Americans who chose US world dominance. Both, however, gave majority approval to a shared leadership role, and neither Americans nor Chinese (both at 8 percent) thought they should play no role as global leaders.

 When asked in September about whether Chinese-American relations were improving or worsening -- after China had been under attack and threats from candidate Trump, but before his foray into Taiwan ties, a solid majority of Chinese (61 percent) said that relations were worsening. Forty percent of Americans who were polled thought that relations with China were worsening and 46 percent said they were staying about the same.

 On the more positive side, 63 percent of Americans and 58 percent of Chinese thought the US and China should seek "friendly cooperation and engagement" between the two countries. Still, "Chinese and American publics express very different mutual perceptions," the authors of the poll-findings analysis wrote. "While Chinese feel warmly to the United States, rating the US a 67 on a scale from 0 to 100 -- where 100 is very warm -- Americans rate China a cooler 44."

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 Since economic fears and perceptions have driven voters around the democratic world into populist camps promising quick solutions, some economic findings in the Chicago Council poll are pertinent. Chinese generally accept (56 percent) that their parents were worse off a generation ago, which is demonstrable in the rapidly modernizing and better living standards in Chinese cities. Only 34 percent of Americans polled think that their parents were worse off, with 57 percent saying the next generation in the US will be worse off than respondents are now. By contrast, the Chinese were upbeat about the future, with 63 percent saying that their children will be better off than those polled are now.

 Yet 71 percent of Americans said that economic strength was more important in determining a country's power and influence than military strength. Chinese chose military strength slightly above economic prowess: 50 percent to 48 percent, respectively.

 Perceptions matter. Americans in this survey not only see a future that looks bleaker economically but also seem more pessimistic about Chinese intentions to make it worse. Sixty-six percent of Americans told poll-takers that China is "actively working to undermine US influence."
Kyiv's appeals court has rescheduled a hearing on complaints by defense attorneys for ex-Party of Regions faction head, former MP Oleksandr Yefremov about pretrial confinement. Kyiv's Pechersky district court had remanded the former lawmaker in pretrial custody until January 22, 2017.

During a hearing on Tuesday, the court rejected appeals by Yefremov's lawyers to replace the prosecutor in the case. The court rescheduled a hearing on the matter for January 5.

Yefremov is suspected of state treason, activities deliberately undertaken by a citizen of Ukraine to diminish the nation's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. He is accused of supporting a foreign organization to conduct disruptive activities against Ukraine (Part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Yefremov was arrested on suspicion of diminishing the territorial integrity of Ukraine on July 30 at the airport in Kyiv. He is suspected of assisting the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, as well as embezzling from Luhanskvuhillia coal mining enterprise.

Kyiv's Pechersky district court on November 24 approved a request from Ukrainian prosecutors to extend the length of his pretrial confinement until January 22.
Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016

Is this purely bluster? Perhaps.

Therefore, it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility that he will try to take steps to weaken other First Amendment freedoms once in office. These might possibly eventually include freedom of assembly and freedom of religion.

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It is not a partisan opinion to state that threatening jail time or the revocation of citizenship for those who exercise their First Amendment civil liberties is clearly outside the traditional norms and boundaries of liberal democracy (as offensive as flag burning or other forms of expression might be to us). Right now the President-Elect is calling for jailing or revoking citizenship of those who burn flags. What happens when he calls for the jailing of religious leaders who publicly oppose his rhetoric or national security policies? (Examples: here, here, and here.)

As someone who believes that liberal democracy is a preferably form of government to autocracy or authoritarianism, I see rhetoric like this to be clearly harmful to liberal democracy whether it comes from Republicans or Democrats or anyone else. Even though it may just be bluster, the evidence so far is that our President-Elect believes the things he blusters about and will try to implement them.

Therefore, it is worth taking the President-Elect at his word and worrying when he threatens to weaken or undermine the core tenets of liberal democracy, including First Amendment freedoms.
The design of your office isn't just about aesthetics. In many industries, it's now key to your success.

Keeping your workplace in line with current trends helps your current employees work more effectively. It helps you recruit future employees who appreciate a forward-thinking company. It can even help you land clients.

For start-up companies, a well-designed workplace is even more important. The office needs to be able to grow along with the company while also setting the tone for how things work early on.

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So how do you do it? As president of a family-run office furniture company, I've been keeping tabs on workplace trends for years and put together a few tips on how to design the perfect start- up office.

These tips also apply to more established companies which are thinking of expanding in the next few years.

Encourage Collaboration

The big trend of the past few years has been the open office, in which employers have taken down walls that artificially separated workers from each other. While this kind of workspace has drawbacks on privacy and noise, it makes it dramatically easier for people to collaborate.

The office of tomorrow will have even more spaces for collaboration. One corner might be a cozy couch and a bunch of comfortable stools that can be easily reconfigured to serve as an impromptu meeting place for a group brainstorm.

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Give Workers Privacy

Even in a collaborative office, there are times when workers need privacy. A good option is to keep one office empty for use by people who need to call their doctors or spouses to discuss sensitive personal issues or for two workers to talk about a proposal or have an annual review.

Another option, if you have an open-office layout, is to design a space with seating that's designed both for collaboration and privacy. Some chairs now come with adjustable privacy screens that can let an individual worker isolate themselves to get work done or openly join a group discussion. Setting up small conference rooms with an easy-to-use reservation system can also help to create more private spaces in an open-office layout.

Think Multipurpose

The office cafeteria is no longer just for eating. As one of the places where employees from different departments congregate, it's a crucial place for cross-team collaboration. Higher tables with integrated plugs and phone-charging USB outlets will help employees shift from an off- hand conversation into work, if inspiration strikes.

The same goes for chairs and couches throughout the office. All of them should come with integrated phone-charging and electrical outlets to allow them to serve as secondary workstations for people who just need a place to hunker down and get work done or get a fresh perspective..

Stay Flexible

Business is constantly changing, so your office should too. The office needs to be able to expand--and, sad to say, sometimes even contract--as new products are launched, new divisions are added and client demands shift.

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When buying desks, look for ones that can be easily moved and configured in lots of different designs. At first, you might want workers in small groups of four, but as your business grows, you might need to arrange them in a more efficient rows. You shouldn't have to buy new furniture to do that.

Keep Things Democratic

At more established businesses, hierarchies tend to harden. The corner office becomes a prized location for a key member of management, while newer employees get stuck in the office hinterlands.

Start-ups can't afford this kind of rigidity. The next big idea for your firm could come from its newest employee, which management might not hear from a secluded corner office. Design your office to be as un-hierarchical as possible, with workers of all levels regularly interacting in an egalitarian way.

Overall, the main objective for a new start-up is to be flexible. Just as your business strategy should be adaptive to the marketplace, your office infrastructure should also be able to change on a dime--and without spending too many dimes to do it.
First there's the children's house of make believe. . . .

Robert Frost, Directive

The children are having the best time. It's more fun than playing with electric trains, kite flying or practically anything else you can think of. You can pretend that you are the president of the United States and make all sorts of important decisions. You can also impress your friends by helping them get REALLY good jobs in places like the White House in Washington D.C. What makes it even better is that it's for real. Of course, only three out of the five children have gotten to play. Barron is only 11 and Tiffany, who is 21, is starting Harvard Law school.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Donald Jr. had an important voice in persuading his father, Donald J. Trump, to nominate Rep. Ryan Zinke to be Secretary of the Interior. Until Junior intervened, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington State had been the lead candidate. According to the Wall Street Journal, Junior promoted Mr. Zinke because Mr. Zinke shares his "enthusiasm for hunting" which any objective observer would agree, is an important quality in a Secretary of the Interior. Politico reported that Junior sat in on interviews with the various candidates for the Interior position and made calls to the candidates during the selection process.

While Junior was helping dad pick the next Secretary of the Interior, his son, Eric, and daughter, Ivanka, came up with a really clever way of making money for the Eric Trump Foundation. (The Foundation helps fund the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital of Tennessee.) Eric and Ivanka decided to auction off the opportunity for someone to have coffee with beautiful Ivanka. (It is she, about whom her dad once said, that if she weren't his daughter he might be dating her.) Of course, having coffee with Ivanka is about more than simply basking in the glow of her good looks, although that would certainly be reward enough. Having coffee with Ivanka would give the winner an opportunity to get insights into what her dad is really thinking about doing when he becomes president. On the web posting promoting the auction, the ad said the estimated value of "Enjoy Coffee with Ivanka Trump in NYC or DC" was $50,000. Before the site was taken down the site reported that the highest bid thus far had been $67,888. That was probably in part because Ozan M. Ozkural, an investment manager from London, bid $50,000. According to the New York Times, he "hoped to gain insight into topics like . . . Trump's possible future dealings with Turkey and other nations where Mr. Ozkural invests." It was a brilliant fund raising opportunity until some super sensitive sort suggested that it didn't look good for the Trump children to be auctioning off access. As of December 16, 2016 the auction was cancelled.

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In addition to Mr. Trump's three oldest children, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is also a member of the transition team and, according to a report by BBC news, was able to influence Donald in making important personnel choices. According to the report, Jared had, from time to time, clashed with Corey Lewandowski who had been Mr. Trump's campaign manager. Mr. Kushner was numbered among those urging Mr. Trump to fire him and Mr. Trump did so in June 2016. He also successfully urged his father-in-law to select Michael Pence to be his running mate as vice-president, instead of New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, whom Mr. Trump had also been considering. Mr. Kushner's antipathy towards Mr. Christie was, in part, because Mr. Kushner's father is a convicted criminal who attained that status thanks to the work of then U.S. Attorney, Chris Christie. Mr. Kushner's father was convicted on 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering, and making illegal campaign contributions.

Mr. Kushner's work as a member of the transition team has not been limited to helping Mr. Trump make important personnel decisions. He is also privy to Mr. Trump's thinking on important issues. December 16, 2016, he attended an event in New York City and told attendees at the event that on some issues that would be confronting Mr. Trump when he assumed office, Mr. Trump's positions would be closer to those of Charles Schumer, the Democratic Senator from New York, than to those of Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senator from Kentucky, and the Majority Leader of the Senate. That was important information for attendees to have and, reportedly, surprised Republicans in Congress who had theretofore been unaware of the affinity between Messrs. Trump and Schumer.

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Image Credit: Huffington Post Images

Imagine spending 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year with your family members. Your brothers and sisters, your aunts and uncles, your grandmother, your children. Imagine holding their hands, rubbing their backs, sharing all of your meals. When you sleep, you hear each other breathing, and when you wake you socialize, spending every one of life's moments together.

Can you imagine it?

Now, imagine that your family is torn apart, individual by individual. Imagine that you and your family are slowly starving to death despite all your best efforts to search for food.

Can you imagine it?

There is a group of killer whales, the Southern Residents. They live in the Pacific Northwest. Their lives are increasingly difficult every day of every year. Their survival is tenuous because the vast majority of their food, the Chinook Salmon, have all but disappeared.

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This group of killer whales, the SRKW, are a highly endangered population now down to 80 individuals; few of which are reproductive females.

Why?

Because many of the reproductive females were removed from this population in the 1970s to fill amusement parks, including Seaworld, the Miami Seaquarium, who still houses Lolita the SRKW today, and others such as SeaLand and Marineland.

Unfortunately, for those who are of reproductive age, success is in short supply. Still-births, low fecundity, and early post-natal deaths likely related to toxicity and starvation are at play.

Apex predators such as dolphins and orca are highly toxic, accumulating years of persistent organic pollutants in their fat and blubber. The fish they eat are laden with mercury, DDT, PCBs, and BPA from plastic trash, chemical runoff, and other pollutants in the oceans.

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During times of plenty, they store these toxins in their blubber. But, during lean times, such as during the last several years, they mobilize these toxins, which are dangerous to the whales themselves, and to their vulnerable offspring.

There is hope.

Something can be done to help the SRKW's situation. There is a lack of Chinook salmon in the area because of dams which prevent the salmon from reaching their spawning grounds. One set of dams in particular, the Snake River Dams have a proposal to be torn down. The proposal is sound and will allow Chinook salmon to come back into the area. Good for the salmon and especially good for the endangered orcas.

Per usual, it is politics and political will that are preventing this from occurring now. The time and energy that is wasted deliberating whether or not to breach this damn is costing these whales their lives.

This special group of whales is protected by the Endangered Species Act, and yet, humans are facilitating their extinction.

The amusement parks named above all facilitated the destruction of this population of whales when they took 40 to 50 of these individuals into their parks.



Now, they sit back quietly, ignoring the problem.

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So I ask again, can you imagine spending 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year with your family members, only to see them suffer a slow, painful death from starvation? Can you imagine not waking up next to your child tomorrow? If the answer is no, then help fight for these orca's lives, and contact Governor Inslee of Washington State through their "contact us" form, or call at this number: 360-902-4111. Tell him to breach those dams!
In October, the city of Boston hosted the annual Forbes Under 30 Summit, a get-together for young entrepreneurs and changemakers all over the world to gather, connect, and share their ideas.

At its core, entrepreneurship is about financial empowerment. But making money wasn't the only goal at the Under 30 Summit. In collaboration with HP and Major League Hacking, the Summit capped off with a Hack-a-thon for Good -- a day dedicated to using the Under 30 recipients' collective genius to come up with actionable solutions to real problems that affect areas that, like Boston, are dealing with the effects of rapid urbanization.

"Cities are more than a place to live and work; they're a concentration of people, capital, ideas, art," explains Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Boston's Chief Information Officer. "But with this promise comes great challenges."

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It's undeniable: the rapid urbanization that the Boston area is undergoing has presented a host of obstacles, ranging from ensuring equal educational opportunities for all students to helping small businesses keep up with spikes in rent.

And many of these issues -- such as access to quality healthcare and implementing an efficient infrastructure -- are true not only in the Boston area, but on the global stage as well.

Thus, the Hack-a-thon's goal was to bring together the brightest young minds to come up with tech-oriented solutions to these problems -- to use their entrepreneurial acumen to give back to the city of Boston and provide creative solutions that can be applied to urban areas all over the world.

Here's just a few of the solutions they came up with. These ideas were presented to the executives from HP -- such as Nate Hurst, HP's Chief Sustainability and Social Impact Officer, and Giulia Pastorella, Government Relations Manager of the UK/Italy/Nordics -- in the hope that HP will continue the conversation on civic improvement through technology.

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A multi-use content series to encourage women in STEM fields. Only 20% of engineering students are female. Thus, the Hack-a-thon participants propose a content series that highlights STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields and key female role models within each. This multi-use series would take place in classrooms, after-school programs, and summer camps to help encourage girls to get involved in these typically male-dominated arenas.

The "Boston Works" program to stimulate small business growth. With overcrowding, spiking rent prices, and competition from giant conglomerates, it's hard for small business to break into the scene. As such, the participants propose a digital platform -- called "Boston Works" -- that would connect small business owners with others in the area that have been successful. The platform would also include technology to help small business with marketing, emails, and accounting, among others.

An AI chat bot to answer patients' medical questions. How many of us have felt a little sick, read about our symptoms of the internet, and left convinced that we have six weeks to live? To improve access to reliable medical information, the participants suggest a medical chat bot -- think Siri, but with a lot more medical knowledge. For instance, this bot would remind patients of appointments and answer questions about prescriptions and pricing. They could even implement a prosody detection system that could shed insight on patients' emotional well-being, so as to detect early signs of mental illness, such as depression.

These solutions are only a few of many, which included incentives to encourage bike use and the implementation "health trucks" (think food trucks that give flu shots and other medical information), among others.



"Creativity, an innovative mindset and a desire to help everyone, everywhere are key qualities for entrepreneurs looking to implement positive social change - and we had a front row seat to that in Boston," said Nate Hurst, who mentored various teams throughout the day.
Humility is at the heart of the Christian story of Christmas -- the divine becoming human in a simple stable.

And in many sermons this weekend, believers will be encouraged to themselves be role models of humility. They will be asked to see the face of Christ in the poor and present-day immigrants and refugees fleeing persecution.

This Christmas, those preaching on the value of humility also will have increasing support from science.

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New research on humility is revealing how "the quiet virtue" may help build peace in both the lives of individuals and in diverse cultures.

Among the more immediate beneficiaries: Couples having their first child.

Parental stress

Few new parents will experience the kinds of challenges biblical accounts say Mary and Joseph endured before and after the birth of Jesus.

But a new study has found that many of the qualities of humility may help modern couples reduce the stress associated with the transition to parenthood.

Those qualities include:

Having an accurate understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses.

Possessing the ability to focus on the needs of others.

Portraying oneself to others in a modest manner.

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A research team led by Jennifer Ripley of Regent University collected data from couples expecting their first child. Couples were surveyed before the birth, and at three months, nine months and 21 months after the child was born. Forty-four of the 69 couples recruited for the study participated at all four time points, while 58 couples were measured at least three times.

All new parents experienced greater stress, but those who perceived their partner as more humble reported less stress.

That reduced stress was evident at each stage from before the birth to nearly two years later, researchers reported in the journal of Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice.

Some possible reasons cited by researchers:

Developing humility early in a relationship may provide a storehouse of "relational capital" that can be relied on to smooth over difficulties during stressful times.

Humble couples who can recognize their own strengths and weaknesses may be better able to adjust expectations during trying times.

Instead of just focusing on oneself, having other-oriented emotions such as gratitude and compassion for your parenting partner also may reduce stress.

Still, it is one thing to develop humility in close personal relationships.

What can be even more difficult is extending similar understanding and compassion to individuals from groups different than your own.

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Keeping the peace

Most major religions exalt humility as a virtue.

But religious communities, like many groups and associations, also make distinctive claims that help provide a sense of meaning and purpose in the lives of their followers.

The challenge becomes how one can hold strong convictions within their faith tradition, while respecting the beliefs of others and being open to learning from their experiences.

One answer, a new study suggests, may lie in the practice of intellectual humility. Intellectual humility includes having an accurate sense of one's own strengths and weaknesses, along with the ability to engage with different ideas in a respectful manner.

The study led by researcher Hansong Zhang of the University of North Texas asked 113 adults recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk to imagine they were involved in a religious small group. Participants were assigned to either a group where people held similar views, or an ideologically diverse group with many differences on religious and spiritual issues.

As expected, those in the diverse group reported both a lower sense of belonging and felt they would derive less of a sense of meaning than those who were assigned to groups with members holding similar beliefs.

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But people high in intellectual humility in the diverse group were more likely to report a stronger sense of belonging than those low in intellectual humility.

The effect was so strong in terms of finding a sense of meaning that there was no significant difference between members of the homogenous group and those high in intellectual humility in the diverse group.

Among the practical implications: To the extent intellectual humility becomes a defining feature of a religious community, "it may mute potential negative effects of ideological differences," researchers said in the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality journal.



That can allow members to "feel more comfortable engaging in diverse religious groups, as well as in ideologically diverse neighborhoods, communities, workplaces, and schools."

In addition to humility, researchers added, religious leaders might also promote related virtues such as love, respect and openness to others.

The Christmas story may make this an especially effective time for Christian communities to promote humility.

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But it does not have to be just a seasonal effort, according to at least one prominent Christian voice.

"It is Christmas," the late Mother Teresa said, "every time you let God love others through you."
The skies were clear as I arrived in Beijing last week. A quick check of the "Air Matters" app on my cell phone showed the air quality was roughly the same as in New York and Washington, D.C.

On my last trip, in October, I heard widespread support for Donald Trump from Chinese officials, business executives and academics. Many saw Secretary Clinton as too tough on China, due in part to her remarks on the South China Sea at an ASEAN meeting in 2010 and human rights at the Beijing Women's Conference in 1995. They welcomed Mr. Trump's comments questioning the United States' defense commitment to Japan and Korea and saw his call for tariffs on Chinese goods as campaign rhetoric unlikely to become policy.

Reactions last week were more complicated. Almost everyone I spoke with sees President-elect Trump as a pragmatic businessman who will try to cut the best deal for his country. That engenders widespread respect.

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But given that framework for understanding Mr. Trump, many Chinese find some of his recent behavior difficult to understand. They are increasingly preparing for a difficult period in which the new President and his team will need to learn what it means to govern and the realities of great power relations.

Mr. Trump's early December phone call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen elicited puzzlement and a certain amount of condescension. Some people viewed it as a rookie mistake engineered by a devious Ms. Tsai and her minions. But the dominant interpretation was that the call signaled an intent by Mr. Trump to make Taiwan policy a bargaining chip in commercial negotiations.

The notion this would work was seen as deeply naive. Taiwan is seen as a fundamental core interest for the Chinese leadership. Disrupting longstanding approaches to Taiwan policy would undercut efforts to reach agreement on commercial matters, in the view of everyone I spoke with on the topic. Several people said Mr. Trump would de-emphasize Taiwan policy once he understands that, since his principal goal is commercial advantage for the U.S.

Yet Mr. Trump's lack of experience is seen as a risk factor. One person said "If Mr. Trump announces irrational measures, China will have its own measures in response."

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Mr. Trump's recent comments on Chinese currency were seen as detached from reality. In early December, the President-elect took to Twitter to criticize China for devaluing its currency. But at the same time the Chinese government was buying the yuan on foreign exchange markets to try to slow the rapid drop in its value - exactly the opposite of what Trump was charging. Several people I spoke with interpreted Mr. Trump's comments as a legacy of prior currency disputes and asked whether someone they see as a savvy businessman could be uninformed about the current state of currency markets.

Mr. Trump's statements on climate change were seen as bizarre. In a country often described as run by engineers, in which scientists are revered, ignoring science often doesn't seem to compute. The puzzlement is especially deep since U.S. science and universities are so deeply respected in China. Several people seemed not to believe me when I reported that individuals who question the reality of climate change would occupy top positions in the U.S. government.

The future direction of U.S.-China relations was a frequent topic of conversation. The most widespread view was captured by Fu Ying, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, who described US-China relations as a "deeply-rooted tree." After more than four decades of steadily growing ties, the U.S. and Chinese economies are deeply intertwined. Presidents of both parties have expanded cooperation on a range of topics, even as serious disagreements flared on important issues. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese and Americans visit the other country each year. Almost everyone I spoke with thought that deep ties between the U.S. and China will continue.



Yet many believe the relationship could be in for rocky times. The most common cause cited was Mr. Trump's lack of experience in foreign affairs. Many Chinese believe it will take time for Mr. Trump to understand ways in which international relations are different than real estate deals.

Several people I spoke with said the Chinese leadership would be patient during this period - to a point. They believe Chinese leaders showed restraint in response to the Tsai call, but will be firm in the months ahead to be sure the new President comes to understand China's core interests. They expect commercial issues to dominate the relationship in the years ahead, with Mr. Trump pressing on issues including market access and anti-dumping.

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The most complicated comments I heard were on China's opportunity for global leadership. On issues including collective security, international trade and climate change, Mr. Trump's campaign statements suggest the United States' may withdraw from the world stage. The Chinese are keenly aware of this and evaluating whether and how China might step into the breach.

In recent years China has invested heavily in regional leadership with its "One Belt, One Road" initiative - a development and infrastructure initiative focused principally on Eurasia. But global leadership on the range of issues where the U.S. has led in the post-World War II era is more complicated. One Chinese official I spoke with said "We don't have the resources to lead." Another expressed concern about potential friction with the U.S. that would serve neither country.

Still, in January Chinese President Xi Jinping is headed to Davos for the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum. The trip offers an opportunity to share the Chinese vision of the emerging world order with the global elite who gather there. As the Davos meeting comes to a close, Donald Trump will be at the U.S. Capitol raising his right hand to become President of the United States.
The brutality visited on Aleppo in recent weeks has shown the world that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has no scruples about killing his own people and destroying one of the world's once-great cities. According to the United Nations, as Syrian forces closed in on eastern Aleppo, they executed dozens of civilians on sight, including women and children. Reports of men and boys being rounded up have families wondering what horrors await their loved ones. But it's a brutality that has been clear all along to those of us who've watched Assad and his allies engage in a seemingly limitless campaign to annihilate Syria's health care infrastructure and personnel over the past five years. There have been at least 400 attacks on medical facilities in Syria since 2011. The intentional campaign of striking hospitals, emergency clinics, maternity wards, and pediatric units has shown that Assad and his principal backer, Russian President Vladimir Putin, have absolutely zero regard for international law and the longstanding prohibition against attacking medical workers and facilities during wartime. In Syria, attacking hospitals has become an ominous "new normal" of sorts, a signature of this conflict and likely conflicts to come. And though such attacks violate not just international law but repeated UN Security Council resolutions, the international community has failed to stop them. There has been plenty of rhetoric, plenty of attempts to name and shame, and yet our governments and the international bodies with a duty to maintain peace and security abdicated their responsibilities. This shame will endure for generations. Crimes like the systematic destruction of hospitals are called crimes against humanity because in their barbarity, they violate our common understanding of what it should mean to be human. We are all victims of such atrocities, because as those international norms and standards wither, all of us may someday find ourselves seeking refuge or fleeing a conflict and will find no sanctuary. It's a thought that should terrify us all.

One morning just a few weeks ago, the two of us discussed the desperation that we in the medical and human rights communities feel about the situation in Syria. Our governments had let us down; we felt entirely helpless. So we decided to act. We imagined the People's Convoy, a crowd-funded effort supported by private citizens, to send a message of solidarity and provide much-needed medical aid to those who are now suffering even more intensely in the wake of Aleppo's fall. Laden with nebulizers, scales, examination tables, stethoscopes, and feeding bottle sterilizers, the convoy is now working its way across Europe. Once the supplies reach the Syrian border, our partners who routinely make aid deliveries into Syria will use them to establish a children's clinic capable of serving 60,000 patients. It's meant to support both those who are suffering but also the valiant doctors who've risked their own lives to save others. A genuine citizen action.

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Our nation and our world were roiled by horrifying and widely publicized killings of innocent good people during 2016. We witnessed killings by police, and killings of police; deliberate mass killings of LGBTQ people and disabled people; killings by self-proclaimed terrorists and killings by loners who are mentally ill. It was hard to sort out intellectually, and hard to absorb emotionally.

Given how much attention has gone to the presidential election, we have stopped talking about it. But we must continue to think about it, and decide what actions would diminish the destructive violence committed by humans against humans. We should not forget about it when a few weeks go by without violence.

The deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, the two innocent black men killed by police in shocking videotaped events hit particularly close to home in communities of color and among their white allies actively opposed to racism. They echoed and magnified the many widely visible killings of young black men through excessive police force over the past three years. Many people of color and residents of low-income communities have experienced being targeted by police and have absorbed police bias and brutality. There are many more killings and abuses that are invisible to the general public but that residents of low-income communities know intimately.

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Since 1980 I have worked with low-income young adults to help them define their recommended policy goals for elected officials. Every single one of these agendas called for better police-community relations. They also called for stronger police accountability. These two issues are inextricably linked. They are both essential to solve the current problems. Nothing about the issue of police-community relations is new.

Perhaps what is new is that everyone has seen videotapes of horrifying events. National consciousness has risen. It's much like what happened in the sixties. Many white people are learning for the first time what most black people always knew. Many black people are organizing to change things. Some white people are supporting them. Other whites are blaming Black Lives Matter for organizing and are incorrectly accusing them of causing the recent brutal killings of police.

Of course, there are lots of things that we don't yet know. For example, I did a little digging and discovered that in 2014 there were 233 African Americans who died in interactions with police. Then I found that there were 414 white people, 138 Latinos, 15 Asians, and another 311 people whose ethnicities were unreported, who were also killed by police. We don't know anything about those 878 people who were not black, but I would be willing to bet that a majority of them were poor.

Is poverty part of this overall picture? Yes. Is poverty a result of systematic injustices and inequality of opportunity in America? Yes. Is violence in low income communities one of the results of poverty? Yes. Is police violence partially a result of bias and stereotyping against black people? Yes. Does it extend to other people of color, and to poor people? Yes.

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But violence is even bigger than that. Over 33,000 Americans die each year of gun violence. Relatively few of these are at the hands of the police. What is this about? Mental Illness? Excessive availability of guns? Poverty? Sexism? Gangs? Homophobia? Depression? Suicide? Terrorism? American cultural weaknesses? Extreme inequality? Unemployment? All of the above? Yes.

Some interesting facts: Two thirds of these deaths are by suicide: in 2013 there were a stunning twenty-one thousand suicides (21,135) with guns. Regarding sexism: 34% of female homicide victims are killed by an intimate male partner, compared to only 2.5% of male homicide victims killed by a female partner. Regarding gang violence: there are about 2,000 gang related gun homicides each year. Overall, dramatically more Americans die of our own gun violence than from terrorism each year. In 2005, The 20 to 24-year-old age group accounted for 7.1% of the population, while accounting for 22.5% of firearm homicides. The 20 to 24 age group also accounted for 17.7% of all homicide offenses.[54] Unemployed young people were much more likely to be both victims and offenders.

My own life's work has been related to these issues. I have orchestrated the expansion of the YouthBuild program in urban and rural low-income communities that include black, white, Latino, Native American, and Asian residents. 140,000 young people in the USA have come through YouthBuild programs in hundreds of hard-pressed communities. Our core constituency is low-income 16 - 24 year olds, about 80% people of color and 20% white, who are unemployed and under-educated, and about 30 percent court-involved. Many have experienced gang violence. Many have experienced various levels of disrespect or brutality from police. We don't experience much suicide, but we are very close to the police and gang violence.

To address violence among young people, comprehensive programs like YouthBuild, Service and Conservation Corps, Year Up, Public Allies, and ChalleNGe are direct solutions: safe, caring, respectful communities full of love, opportunity, positive values of responsibility and inclusion, healing connections, mentors, education, job training, service, leadership training, placements in jobs and college - wide pathways to productive adulthood and civic leadership. YouthBuild deliberately counteracts the conditions of poverty and mistreatment which low-income young people have faced. As a result, we experience virtually no violence among our students.

These programs are an essential method of breaking the cruel and vicious cycle of poverty. These programs empower young people entering adulthood to seize control of their lives, transcend the conditions in which they were born and raised, and become a positive force in their communities. These all need to be radically expanded, and in addition, major public national investment in education, jobs, infrastructure, affordable housing, and health care are needed to address poverty and the resulting violence.

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To specifically address the more limited problem of excessive and biased use of force by police, the three critical elements are police training, police-community relations, and holding police accountable for their actions. To hold police accountable for excessive force will require independent prosecutors at state and municipal levels as well as continued attention from the federal Department of Justice. To improve police training and community relations, the recommendations of the White House

Commission on Police Community Relations are a good start. Of course, those of us who work locally need to participate wherever possible in building positive relations between the police and the community through dialogues and joint activities. There are wonderful examples of successful efforts.

In the society as a whole, we need to create caring communities in which all people are valued and offered opportunities to fulfill their potential while belonging to a community they can believe in that exemplifies positive values. The Beloved Community everywhere would decrease all forms of violence in America. It would even reduce suicide. Let us work to create the Beloved Community everywhere.
I, Daniel Blake, with its affirmation of human dignity, speaks to the economic moment with poignant accuracy and could scarcely be timelier. Crowned by this year's Palme d'Or in Cannes, it adds yet another searing work to the ongoing project of Ken Loach (who's 80 and threatened to retire from filmmaking after the 2014 Jimmy's Hall). Daniel Blake puts front and center Loach's core-deep empathy for working-class people and celebrates their innate goodness. Don't look for goodness in a Loach film, or even a caper-size bit of decency, from the ruling class, overlords, corporate titans and--in the case of Daniel Blake--the grotesquely titled welfare system. That system's bureaucracy is here depicted as a malevolent cat's cradle of catch-22s, designed to frustrate, disorient and crush society's powerless--a depiction with echoes of Eisenstein's Potemkin, Kafka and the Dardenne Brothers.

Thankfully, Loach leavens Daniel Blake (which opened just before Christmas) with humor and feel-good human warmth, and the film should resonate with anyone who's been put on indeterminate hold by a government agency or corporate behemoth to the strains of Vivaldi's Greatest Hits.

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Daniel Blake (Dave Johns) is a widowed carpenter from Newcastle, who has recently suffered a heart attack, and is struggling to hang on to his welfare benefits. He's been receiving an Employment and Support Allowance from the British state--then, for no apparent reason, his benefits are whisked away, and the state insists he return to work even though his doctor has forbidden it. Daniel is ordered to attend a CV workshop, an exercise in gallows humor when it's revealed there are few jobs. The film follows Daniel through additional crazy-making encounters with bureaucratic trolls--chief among them an elusive entity sinisterly named the Decision Maker--to draw the modest stipend that stands, literally, between him and the streets. A giant obstacle for Blake proves to be his lack of computer literacy, at a time when the world has moved online.

During interminable waits at the welfare labyrinth, Blake witnesses Katie, a young mother of two (lovely Hayley Squires) being denied her turn with an agent for arriving a few minutes late--new to the area, she took the wrong bus--and getting hassled by security guards. "All she needs is help," Daniel objects. He and Katie fall in together, two unfortunates in need of mutual solace. Daniel provides both emotional support--"I need you to keep going for me," he tells Katie--and carpentry skills to make her glacial flat more habitable.

Though Daniel's been through the wringer and looks older than his 60 years, Johns, with his mischievous charm, makes him a joy to watch; his grizzled, sunny face acts almost as an antidote to the trials he endures. Squires, with her great dark eyes, is hugely sympathetic as a woman who literally starves herself in order to feed her kids and buy them school clothes. In one knockout scene at the food pantry, Katie's driven by hunger to rip off the top of a can of beans. In another highlight, Daniel asserts his right to exist by scrawling his name on walls to the cheers of onlookers--"It's an art installation," he tells the cops. At the center of the film is the circle of warmth formed by the tenderness of Daniel and Katie's makeshift family. A young African next door offers Daniel a roughshod camaraderie and adds a flicker of hope, with his entrepreneurial dreams of growing a business by reselling Chinese-made sneakers for a profit.

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Samopomich Party's parliamentary faction member Yegor Sobolev, who heads the parliament's anti-corruption committee, has asked Ukraine's National Agency for Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) to check the accuracy of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's e-declaration.

"In the opinion of members of the Rada anti-corruption committee, the president violated the law, having not included his villa in Spain in his declaration, which belongs to his company. I repeat, I personally wrote into the law the norm, under which such property must be declared," Sobolev wrote on his Facebook page.

The MP stressed that the head of state "must set an example, not an anti-example."

"In the interests of the president, parliament and society as a whole, it is necessary to rectify this legal infraction. Otherwise, officials will start registering a firm, a kind of "For the Well-being of All Ukrainians," and will transfer property to the company, instead of declaring it." Sobolev said.
Our world is changing. Over twelve months have passed since the signing of the Paris agreement on climate change. In that time, average temperatures have risen to 1.2C above that which they were before the industrial revolution, putting 2016 on course to be the hottest year since records began. Amid this warming landscape, a wave of populism and nationalism has gradually spread around the globe, increasing concern amongst many that basic values of humanity and environmental stewardship will fall victim to demagoguery.

In this era of renewed uncertainty, of this period of anti-politics in the face of shifts in technology and patterns of migration, there is a high risk that the mistakes of the past will be repeated. But to borrow some poetry from the late Leonard Cohen, whilst there is indeed a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in. For this is an age, lest we forget, of unprecedented opportunity where so many of us are empowered to influence social and environmental outcomes through our own choices. Where businesses and investors - small and large - increasingly understand that values in fact matter in order to build trust with each other. That their decisions shape the future. And more and more of them, and us, realize that we have an opportunity to lead through action.

I have watched a movement grow. Indeed, this silent revolution from within markets has been stirring for the best part of two decades, promising to redirect entrepreneurial energies towards cleaner, greener, and more inclusive societies. And it is now speeding up. There is a march underway, not in one place but from all corners of the earth. Of individuals from all walks of life, old and young and from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds, who are all searching for new ways to conduct everyday business. To conduct life.

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They share a common vision that ethics based on universal principles of humanity, social inclusion, and environmental stewardship are not in conflict with economic value creation. They are collectively the custodians of tomorrow - as we all are - who understand the power of sustainability to create positive change. They are "Generation S".

The term, whilst new, can be recognized through guises such as "corporate responsibility" or "sustainable investment". The seeds for Generation S were first planted in the late 1990's when former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan initiated a "Global Compact of shared values to give a human face to markets". The movement rapidly evolved. Initially, in 2000, only 47 companies took a stand on basic universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor issues, environmental stewardship and anti-corruption. But today, over 9,000 companies in over 160 countries now strive towards the full implementation of these principles, which are supported by many other initiatives pursuing similar goals. It is a collective that is here to stay, for ultimately it is driven by long-term trends that are irreversible, irrespective of political mood swings.

Firstly, technological change and the irreversible rise of transparency both put a premium on good ethics and values. If you get data to the people, you empower the people. Secondly, the scientific certainty of natural boundaries makes it clear that resource efficiency and low carbon solutions defines future competitiveness. And thirdly, there are individuals now everywhere, especially millennials, who expect business to part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

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Financial markets were initially slow to realize that the framework conditions for long-term success had changed. At the Global Compact in 2004, we published a report entitled "Who Cares Wins" which suggested that environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues should become part of investment analysis and decision making. Few investors paid attention. But a mere two years later, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) initiative was launched, with a founding network of investors pledging to consider ESG issues in their decision making. The organization now has over 1,500 participants, representing over $60 USD trillion in assets under management. A new level of dynamics has settled in.

Even twenty years ago, there were no standards and very few guidelines on how to account for environmental, social and governance factors. Air pollution, water consumption, child labor, bribery and corruption simply didn't show up in corporate disclosures. But driven by initiatives such as the Global Reporting Initiative, the International Reporting Council and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, a robust data ESG infrastructure is now emerging. And whilst it is still imperfect in many ways, this infrastructure allows us to take into account core issues such as human rights, carbon intensity and transparency at an unprecedented level.

According to the New York-based Global Initiative for Sustainability Rating (GISR), there are currently over 120 rating organizations offering over 500 products. Disclosure requirements in many countries - such as the EU directive on ESG disclosure, and the changing of listing requirements of stock exchanges across the globe - 12 exchanges now require listed companies to disclose relevant ESG information - will undoubtedly drive this forward even more. It is nothing short of a data revolution, and it brings with it increasing evidence that companies which outperform on relevant ESG issues deliver better financial results. Ultimately, debunking the myth that sustainable investment comes at a cost to returns in the pocket.

This data revolution and the possibility of quantifying ESG means that investors can now become a driving force of positive change. As evidence mounts that good returns and good ESG performance go hand in hand, we may well see that sustainable investment will become a mega catalyst. What the X-Ray did to medicine, ESG is now doing to the financial world. It allows investors to assess corporate DNA like never before, and to ensure that capital goes to companies which are future fit.

So the future is now set for investors to place a premium on those companies which treat their workers well, which understand their impact on the environment and the communities around them, and which are run opaquely. And with this future comes the potential to greatly accelerate positive, sustainable change. To reduce emissions so harmful to our world, and to build social capital with those people who feel left behind and indeed threatened by change.

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The doors are now open for a massive market-led shift, and Generation S has the opportunity to be the first to step through and shape the future. But to succeed, more business executives need to take on real leadership roles; markets require a new type of corporate statesmanship that earns a license to lead. More investors now need to get serious with the integration of ESG issues into their analysis and decision-making across all investment classes. And above all, individual people - all of us - are now the decision makers. We can be the positive protagonists.

Of course, it will not be easy. Generation S is not yet a decision-making majority. Public policies are currently divisive and play on fear. They divide us rather than build on what connects us. The old paradigm of the industrialization era is still a formidable force. Too many people still believe that more is better, irrespective of consequences for others. Too many people still hold on to the belief that dumping pollution in the atmosphere has no consequences and that labor is a disposable commodity. Indeed, there is little regard for a shared responsibility for the future, and critical issues such as climate change and greater equality are falling through the gaps.

Fear and old ideologies pose formidable barriers. But, bottom up changes spurred by technology and universal values of humanity will increasingly shape the future. Generation S can be a global movement. Power can be with the people. And quietly, their numbers are growing by the day across all continents. They speak many languages, with stories and backgrounds that are very different. They share a common sense of basic respect for each other and for our planet, and increasingly are finding entrepreneurial solutions to help meet the needs of our resource-constrained and unequal societies so desperately need. They know that old models of industrialization are fast giving way to smarter and cleaner forms of value creation. They do not fear the future or technology because they understand that technology can be harnessed to deliver the future we want, for the benefit of more.

Yes, the world changed in 2016, and there are cracks. But look around you, and you may start to notice that there are in fact more than a few people who are part of a new group. Against the odds, they can make the future. And whilst they are not yet a majority, through their actions, they can become the biggest drivers of change.

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Readers: Below is a letter from one of the great lawyers of the anti-apartheid period. Denis Kuny is one of the few who defended the Mandela's as well as other known and unknown African National Congress (ANC) members. I brought Mr. Kuny to Lesotho to defend me when I, as a Peace Corps director, had fired a Mosotho from Peace Corps staff. That was the beginning of our long and fruitful relationship. I will let Denis Kuny's own words speak for themselves as he writes about the 41 years of imprisonment for Leonard Peltier.

[British spellings maintained]

Hi Jack,

Thanks for all the material you have sent me about Leonard Peltier. I am astounded that he has been kept in Gaol for over 40 years without parole and with no sympathy or understanding displayed for the circumstances under which he came to be imprisoned, his personal circumstances, the transformative effects of (lengthy) imprisonment, or the circumstances of his people.

I have been a practicing advocate in South Africa for almost 60 years, and during the Apartheid era, represented many people accused of and charged with myriad political offences of varying degrees of severity. At the time, the death penalty for treasonable offences still existed and several people in cases in which I appeared faced the death penalty or, at least, very lengthy periods of imprisonment. Yet, in not one of the cases in which I appeared, was the death penalty ever carried out or did any convicted person serve as long a sentence as that which has already been served by Leonard Peltier.

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Except in the case of the man who assassinated Chris Hani in 1993 and who got a life sentence which he is still serving, not one of the people whom I represented or whom I know about served sentences as long as Peltier even under the Apartheid regime.

And of course, when the transformation took place, or was in the process of taking place from 1990 onwards, political prisoners were released, whatever the length of their sentences. And death sentences were commuted.

It seems to me, considering my own experience over many years of dealing with political offences, even those in which death has resulted, that the basic purpose of imprisonment still needs to be observed and applied, namely punishment, reformation, forgiveness and understanding, and, of course the interests of society. I am sure that these very basic and humane principles apply equally in the United States as they should do in any democratic country, however heinous the offence.

Each case should be evaluated on the basis of its own individual facts and circumstances and, from the little that I know about Peltier from the information that you have sent to me from time to time, to have kept Leonard Peltier in prison for over 40 years, is inhumane and, I believe, barbaric, particularly since he is now an old and sick man who presents no harm or danger to anyone and who should be allowed to spend his last years with his family, friends and, importantly, the community which he was part of. In light of what I have said above, please add my name to the already lengthy list of people calling for his release.

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Regards Jack, and a tribute to you for the great work that you are doing. Your time as the Director of the Peace Corps in Lesotho where we first met, was a wonderful backdrop for the work which you have done since then with Amnesty International and more recently in Human Right Action Center (HRAC).
It's too late to stop Donald Trump from becoming president. But it is not too late to stop him from impulsively blowing up the planet.

With the stroke of a pen, President Barack Obama could take our nuclear missiles off high alert, making sure that President Trump could not launch them rashly. If he doesn't do this, we will all regret it.



It's like wishing you had locked the door before you left the house. Or made sure the gun wasn't loaded before you put it on the shelf. Or wishing you hadn't stored gasoline quite so close to the furnace.

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President Obama should take our nuclear missiles off hair-trigger alert before Donald Trump gets control of them. Ploughshares Fund has launched a new petition to do just that.

The Danger

On January 20, the military officer carrying the nuclear codes who follows the President everywhere, will follow Barack Obama to the inaugural platform. When he leaves, the officer will start following President Donald J. Trump. From that moment on, Trump will have the unfettered ability to launch one or one thousand nuclear warheads whenever he pleases. Four minutes after he gives the order, the missiles will fly. No one can stop him, short of a full-scale mutiny. Once launched, the missiles cannot be recalled.

Almost 1,000 nuclear warheads, each many times the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, are kept on missiles ready to launch in minutes. This is called high alert, or launch-on-warning, or, more commonly, hair-trigger alert.



It is a relic of the Cold War. Nuclear commanders wanted the ability to launch their land-based missiles before an enemy attack could destroy them. For years, experts have warned that this was a dangerous practice, subject to false alarms, mistakes, misunderstanding and human error. And it is not necessary. The weapons in our alert subs and bombers are not vulnerable to surprise attack. We have more than enough weapons to deter an attack or respond to one.

While running for the presidency in 2008, Obama said:

"Keeping nuclear weapons ready to launch on a moment's notice is a dangerous relic of the Cold War. Such policies increase the risk of catastrophic accidents or miscalculation. I believe that we must address this dangerous situation -- something that President Bush promised to do when he campaigned for president back in 2000, but did not do once in office."

Obama didn't do it, either. Many of the very people he appointed to implement his reforms sided with the nuclear bureaucracy to stop him. The State Department posted a condescending explanation about why we need to be able to destroy the world within 4 minutes, assuring us that this was safe and reasonable. Rereading the post now, one can see the how much of the argument rests on supreme confidence in the judgment of the president of the United States.

Few people have that confidence now. Obama has thirty days to fix his mistake. Thirty days to prevent the worst disaster imaginable.

The Solution

Yes, this will be hard. Yes, much of the defense bureaucracy will argue against him. Yes, Obama has said he doesn't want to "box in" his successor.

Yet, the press reports that in the last few days:

"Obama has used his final weeks in office to press for new rules on coal mining pollution, offshore drilling and the venting of planet-warming methane -- all of which are likely to be challenged or repealed by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress."

If the president can do this for parts of the environment, he can take this one simple step to safeguard the entire planet.

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Scores of leading nuclear scientists wrote to the President asking him to take nuclear missiles off hair-trigger alert. You can now add your voice.

Ploughshares Fund has started a public petition to President Obama. Join us.

Tell the president to end this obsolete policy. President Trump could still launch nuclear weapons in an emergency, but it would take hours or days. This gives time for consultations, consideration, time to check mistakes and blunt the impulses of the moment. More time doesn't weaken our national security; it strengthens it.

Please sign the petition now. It says:

"Now more than ever, we call on you to ensure calmer heads prevail. Taking this critical step would bring profound security benefits for all Americans by reducing the risk of nuclear disaster."
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a USA Thank You Tour event in Mobile, Alabama, U.S., December 17, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

America's first post-truth president will be sworn in as the Nation's 45th chief executive at noon eastern time on January 20. Just exactly what will happen after that seems so far to be unclear, including to his inner circle and supporters. Trump marches to his own tune. One thing for sure, though, is that the man who has pledged to "Make America Great Again" will be making the Trump brand even greater.

While Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes in November's election, he did win the votes necessary to secure the electoral delegates needed to become president. He was propelled by a large group of Americans who are fed up with Washington politics because for decades they have been left behind. They had listened and believed all the past promises from red and blue politicians, only to be pushed back into the dark background when the contest was completed. They were taken for granted again and again.

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Many Trump voters were aggrieved members of the working class who have seen technology and globalization rip their livelihood and self-respect from their soul. Politicians who busily courted special interests to perpetuate their positions in government regularly ignored their plaintive cries. For some, Bernie Sanders seemed to be an authentic alternative to the status quo. But when he was pushed aside by the Democratic political establishment, many of his supporters found Trump appealing.

To many Americans Washington needed a wake up call. Washington needed to be shaken up. It was time for a new reality, even if it was a post-truth reality. The aggrieved turned to a loud, boisterous, politically incorrect, mendacious, prevaricating entertainer-real estate mogul. Trump appealed to their emotions rather than their minds. They heard what they wanted to hear, and Trump was their champion.

A recent PPP national poll found that 67% of Trump voters believe unemployment increased during the Obama presidency, when in fact it sharply declined. Only 41% of Trump voters say the stock market went up during the Obama administration, meaning most don't know that the market has almost tripled over the past eight years. And 60% of Trump voters believe Hillary Clinton received millions illegal votes, a lie that Trump has repeated several times since the election.

But does the truth really matter to these aggrieved voters? Many don't believe that Trump will build a huge wall from one end of the Mexican-U.S. border to the other. Many don't believe that Mexico will pay for the wall. They certainly don't believe that Trump will deport all 11 million people who are living in this country illegally. They certainly don't believe he will ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. They certainly don't believe Trump saw thousands of Muslims cheering in New Jersey when New York's World Trade Center was attacked. They know it was a lie. They certainly don't believe that Trump will bring back millions of manufacturing jobs as he has promised.

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What do they believe? They believe Trump will "drain the swamp" of politicians and bring an end to business as usual. They believe Trump has their backs, that he hears their voices, that he will make their lives better. They have given the president-elect a pass on releasing his federal tax returns. They have given him a pass on eliminating his many conflicts of interest. They don't care if he produces a reality television show while in office. They don't care that he attacks the press, evades serious questions, and regularly communicates via Twitter at all hours of the night.

Some have noted that Trump has appointed wealthy bankers, experienced politicians and retired generals to serve in his administration. While this seems to contradict his promise to drain the swamp, so far they are giving him the benefit of a doubt. The fact that Trump and some of his appointees are close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a ruthless and corrupt leader who views America as the enemy, seems not to have resonated with the president elect's supporters. So much for Ronald Reagan's evil empire!

Soon Trump will be confronted with the full weight of the responsibilities that fall upon the shoulders of America's president. He will actually have to make decisions. Will he gradually replace the existing Medicare program, as the Republican platform proposes, with a defined contribution program where seniors will be provided a fixed amount of money to purchase private health insurance of their own? Will he repeal Obamacare and leave millions of Americans without healthcare? Will he push to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion? Will he go ahead with the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline? He said he would make a decision soon after taking office.

How will President-elect Trump deal with President Putin? Will he move to ease sanctions on Russia for its occupation of Crimea? Will he impose import tariffs on Chinese products, even if it means higher prices in the U.S., and leads to the cancellation of contracts for Boeing aircraft and other U.S. products? Will he send U.S. troops into Syria? Will he implement his secret plan to eliminate ISIS?

According to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, a majority of Americans are either uncertain or pessimistic about his presidency. The country that he has vowed to unify remains deeply divided. For sure, Trump's presidential campaign was unconventional, but he made many enemies, including within the Republican Party. So Trump make think all the world's a stage, and that he can bully and bluster his way through his daily challenges. However, he will soon find out that the presidency is not just a television show.

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I Came Very Close To Giving Up...

While retire overseas is my beat, it's not my personal agenda. I didn't move overseas to retire but to run a business, first for someone else, now for myself.

Some 18 years ago when I left my hometown Baltimore, Maryland, headed for Waterford, Ireland for work reasons, I carried with me clear marching orders from my partner of the time:

Establish an office, an EU base.

Our first year in Waterford, my husband Lief and I pushed ahead, stubbornly, persistently, enthusiastically even, through challenge after challenge. We'd come to establish an office for a direct-marketing publishing company, but no such industry existed in Ireland and hardly any industry whatever existed in Waterford. The pool of available local labor was thin. For marketing, fulfillment, and editorial support staff we hired people with no relevant experience. They'd worked as receptionists in hotels, hands in local stables, cashiers in local shops. We tried to identify people who seemed to want to learn and then set about trying to teach them something.

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Staffing our fledgling office was tough but so, too, frankly, was just about everything else, including finding the office in the first place. We didn't want to be located in the new "industrial park" being built on the outskirts of Waterford City (it looked like a prison compound to me), but other options for commercial space, like options for staffing, were limited.

Opening a corporate bank account, getting a company credit card (these were uncommon in Ireland back then), finding an Irish tax accountant to keep us compliant, drafting employment contracts (which, we were told, had to allow for things like regular tea breaks)... these kinds of administrative support tasks were also a struggle.

Meantime, Lief and I, only recently married, were struggling on every other front, as well -- struggling to solidify our new family unit, struggling to adapt to life in Waterford, struggling to communicate our situation to those back in Baltimore, where the publishing company we were working for was based. They couldn't understand how or why it was taking so long to do simple, straightforward things like rent office space, open a company bank account, and hire core staff. We couldn't adequately explain the delays or the struggles, because we didn't understand them ourselves.

Today, 18 years and a half-dozen starting-a-business-in-a-foreign-country-from-nothing experiences later, I can explain. Someone who hasn't done it isn't going to understand, but it's just the way it goes.

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Way back when in Waterford, though, I was among those who hadn't done it. I didn't know yet that the only way through the challenges is through them. Perseverance is perhaps the biggest prerequisite for the successful entrepreneur abroad.

About a year after we'd landed in Waterford, I'd about had it. I was worn out trying to teach a bunch of sometimes-interested folks how to build and run a direct-marketing publishing operation. I was worn out by social charges, Bank Holidays, twice-daily tea breaks, bankers who didn't return your phone calls, tax auditors who'd never heard of the business we were in and couldn't make heads or tails of our financial statements...

I was lonely for people who understood my questions when I asked them without my having to provide endless background and context. I wanted to be among folks who'd shared at least some of my experiences, personal and professional. Because telling every story from scratch every day all over again... about how to produce a magazine, how to publish a book, how to sell a subscription, and then how to renew it? That was getting old.

Nearly desperate, I called my partner for this venture, based in France at the time, and told him I wasn't sure this establish-an-office-in-Waterford thing was going to work out. He told me to sit tight. He'd fly over from Paris as soon as he could for a visit.

Bill came to Waterford and spent a couple of days in the office, meeting with me, Lief, and the little team we'd assembled by that point. We'd just moved into new office space at this time, a big improvement over our original (windowless) digs. The new office was in a three-story townhouse in the heart of Waterford City with a Georgian front door that I'd had painted red.

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The afternoon he was leaving for the airport and his return flight to Paris, Bill and I walked out the big red front door and stood for a minute on the landing. Bill looked up and down Catherine Street, at the other Georgian-style townhouses and then back at the red door of our place.

"You've planted a seed here," he said. "You've really started something. It will continue to grow...

"It'd be a shame to walk away from this now."

The second most important thing for an entrepreneur abroad to possess, along with perseverance, is perspective. You've got to be able to see what's before you in the context of the bigger-picture agenda. Most of the time, you've got to do this on your own, reminding yourself that you're making progress.

Despite the challenges and the struggles, you're building and growing. You're on track, moving ahead...

Sometimes, though, it will get hard to believe yourself. I was lucky way back when in Waterford to have someone to call for a dose of perspective when I needed it. Had Bill not been around to point out that day that, struggles to get to that point aside, there I was at that point... I might have called it a day.

I might have moved back home to Baltimore and the like-minded company I was longing for. Might, indeed, have walked away... meaning that the 18 years since would have played out very differently...

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Kathleen Peddicord

Original feature: Here's The Secret On Starting A Business Overseas

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With an eerie chill of awe and reverence, I trace my fingers along the words printed on the 72 year-old telegram resting in my lap, now yellowed and contained under a sheet of plastic: "[We] regret to inform you that your son was seriously wounded in action in France eight December."

The year was 1944, and 70 million tender souls had been summoned to serve in the armed forces of the Allied and Axis Nations. Some would kiss their mothers goodbye, never to stand on native soil again. Others would return - months or years into the future - eager to fill the pages of journals, scrapbooks and the ears of their offspring.

While nearly all stories would be dripping with varying degrees of ferocious bloodshed, some would be fertile with legends of a different breed: soul-stirring tales of human connection overpowering the conflicts of war.

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I am going to share with you one of them.

In a blacked-out jeep blazing and swirling across the muddy roads on the outskirts of Luneville, France, an auxiliary fire lighting up the darkness surrounding him, American soldier James Howell Peebles, age 23, was transported into action on Halloween night.

One minute he was shoulder-to-shoulder with one of his fellow combats. The next he was darting across the muddy field and cowering into a foxhole - dug by the hands of a stranger who had already come and gone.

As the guns fired, the ground quaked and trembled beneath his feet. This moment was a "crossing over" of sorts; it marked his official entrance into war.

The sight of Messerschmitt 109 German Fighter fighter planes crashed and scattered among the grounds he walked upon each day would soon become commonplace, however. And, he would learn that no man's psyche - regardless of how well-armored - was safe from being harmed by war's perplexities.

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One brave sergeant in particular made quite an impression with his blend of compassion and fortitude. "If a soldier were struggling with foot pain, he would take their weapons and heavy load from them," recalls Peebles, fondly.

One night, however, while the unit was under massive fire, the sergeant vanished behind the brush before suddenly reappearing. But, this time a foreign wildness had overtaken him.

He bolted across the muddy terrain in a frantic, hurling a blend of howl and shrill, "I can't do this! I can't take it. I'm going to get out of this!"

Although the reality of death was ever-looming over them all like a phantom, it had swept in and conquered this otherwise courageous sergeant - like a snapping branch in a turbulent storm.

But, it would not be the only instance Peebles would spend more than 70 years unable to forget.

One afternoon, like many others, he wandered out of the muddy line to fill his canteen. He moved to the edge of the field where the water was so crystal clear, the grass could be seen swaying beneath it - as though offering a glimpse of serenity amongst the chaos.

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Upon quenching his thirst, he turned his gaze upward. There before him were a row of German bodies hanging over the fence in bloody defeat.

Although uncertain if his gunfire had been responsible for ending any of their lives, the sight before him served as a gut-piercing manifestation of the monstrous conflict for which he had been assigned. This moment became Peebles' "most vivid picture of death."

Until it, too, brushed up against him.

It was December 7, 1944 - a snowy Thursday morning near Valkenburg, France. Peebles was struck by an explosion of mortar fragments in the left side of his chest and in his right thigh. His body relented to the ground with a hard clunk.

Within minutes, a medic rushed to him - sprinkling sulfur powder onto his wound, pulling his ammunition bag up under his head, securing his raincoat over his chest and, finally, inserting his rifle into the ground. "I was not provided morphine because morphine was only given to those who were less likely to be a casualty," said Peebles.

The chill in the air was biting and unmerciful, and many times he dipped below the threshold of consciousness before resurfacing to the cold yet again. Each time - upon his return - he was greeted by the unrelenting rocketing of gunfire.

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And, he would lie there all day with his rifle standing upright in the muddy earth alongside him, serving as both his companion and indication to all that his hours - perhaps minutes - were a dwindling number.

Shortly after 4 p.m., once darkness had swallowed every trace of the day, he heard a shuffle of feet approaching from the distance. Peebles called out to the noise, declaring that he was still alive.

Immediately, their voices sliced through the night air. "Ssshhh!" they exclaimed with a cutting whisper. "We don't know if the Germans are out here!"

The men loaded his wounded body onto the litter and carried him to the road, dodging and trampling upon shells and craters. A few days and a surgery later, he landed at Ravenel Hospital in Mirecourt, France.

Upon arrival, he was surprised to learn he would be occupying the hospital with not only fellow American wounded, but also German wounded. And, his care would be provided by both American and German nurses.

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Eye contact was seldom exchanged between the enemies. Nevertheless, there they were - embodying that space in their glorious fragility: Confined within the same ward, eating the same meals and being administered the same shots of penicillin.

Pre-war college studies had granted Peebles modest familiarity with the German language, and it would prove to be valuable over the weeks to come. "I became the informal interpreter between the American staff and the German nurses," Peebles recalls, pridefully.

In between serving his lunches, changing his bed linens, administering medications and providing "wonderfully reviving back rubs," a few of the German staff began unveiling their own forebodings and sorrows for Peebles.

His most compelling interactions were shared with Nurse Martha Mueller, who had been captured with her hospital in Strasbourg. One day, Nurse Mueller leaned into his bedside and shared a photograph of her soldier husband who had been fighting on the Russian front. Weeks were racing and Christmas was nearing, but she was receiving no word from him.

Witnessing firsthand that German families were suffering just as American families were, Peebles recalls experiencing an internal shift, "I began to understand that we were all the same - just people fighting the battles that others had formed and planned."

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Compassion and friendship transcended - and, ultimately, washed clean - the unpleasant forces which had convinced the souls contained within that hospital that they were enemies.

On Christmas Eve, this revelation would be solidified as truth.

On such night, the soldiers dined on a festive meal of turkey, giblet gravy, potatoes and cranberry sauce. Hard candy, "surprise pie" and coffee were served for dessert. But, those indulgences would not go down in history as the highlight of their evening.

Shortly after the dishes were cleared, something unusual seemed to be brewing. While the wounded lied in their beds with satisfied bellies, their attitudes were swarmed with irritation. The ward had grown darker and quieter much earlier than its usually scheduled time. What is going on, they wondered.

Then came their answer.

In single file, dressed in their gray and white uniforms, their faces aglow from the lit candle each held in her hand, the German nurses glided through the darkened hallways. As they approached the wounded - their own soldiers lined in beds to their right, and the American soldiers to their far left - their voices projected in angelic harmony:

Stille Nacht, Heil'ge Nacht.

Alles schlaft; einsam wacht --

And, then, one-by-one, the voices of American soldiers began merging with theirs:

Silent Night, Holy night.

All is calm, all is bright.



Soon, all whom were able chimed in, continuing with other classics:

Es kam auf einer Mitternacht klar

It came upon a midnight clear

A choir of voices in English and German expanded throughout that space - some loud and robust, some weak and small, some balancing on perfect pitch and some teetering just out of tune, but exchanged between individuals who - only weeks prior - had represented the other's demise. It was an otherworldly type of dissonance that would stretch on for only 10 minutes, while the echo of its impact would resound for generations to come.

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"People who were shooting each other a week before were now sharing Christmas," Peebles said with eyes lowered, unable to forge his recollection without a series of tearful pauses.

These souls - despite having been trying to kill one another weeks prior, and unable to speak the same language - were being cradled by the same moment.

I consider the possibility that true human connection is capable of conquering any language barrier, any cultural barrier and any ego-concocted barrier. And, so I wonder, now 72 years later - whether immersed in the spirit of Christmas, the lights of Hanukkah or simply gazing onward with hope for a New Year, shouldn't we consider that human connection transcends all that we believe to be worthy of rivalry? Are we not all fighting battles, engaging in bigotries and wading through sufferings others have formed and planned?

Perhaps we can lift the veil of our differences this holiday season, and be cradled by our unified humanness - just as our forefathers did all of those Christmases ago.

Because I don't want to live my life being robbed of potentially magical moments with someone worthy of my friendship, just because it was decided for me that that someone is my enemy.

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What if burglars could break into your home without ever smashing a window or picking the lock? Say the front door swung wide open to let them in, but the only one there to greet them was your jewelry box?

That's a growing concern for millions of Americans who live in Internet-connected smart homes.

These days, cyber criminals pose just as big of a threat as old-fashioned burglars. They can hack into your smarthome security system and walk right in the front door, or watch you while you sleep. While pranksters with less malicious intent could annoy you by setting off false alarms and sirens, flicking the lights on and off, or adjusting the thermostat to an uncomfortable temperature.

It's not just your home. Your car, phone and laptop are also at risk of cyber intrusions that can turn your life upside down.

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The FBI earlier this year warned drivers that the more automated their cars are the more vulnerable they are to hackers. This comes in response to an experiment by security researchers who broke into a Jeep Cherokee as it was driving on the highway and shut it down in July 2015.

"Vehicle hacking occurs when someone with a computer seeks to gain unauthorized access to vehicle systems for the purposes of retrieving driver data or manipulating vehicle functionality," the FBI noted.

"While not all hacking incidents may result in a risk to safety  such as an attacker taking control of a vehicle - it is important that consumers take appropriate steps to minimize risk."

But cyber security incidents like these have done little to slow down the tremendous growth in the market for smart homes and cars.

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The smart home market is skyrocketing. According to a study conducted by Comcast, which is a leading security provider in this space, there will be 30 million families living in smart homes by spring of 2017.

Here's a look at some of the most popular smart home features on the market.

Smartphones essential to new home security gadgets

Google's Nest home security firm provides indoor and outdoor security cameras, a smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector, as well as a thermostat. These devices can be operated remotely from your smartphone, so you can keep an eye on your home while you're away.

When it comes to surveillance, Canary is regarded as one of the best smart home security cameras. It relies on motion detectors to record high-definition video and audio. The night-vision cameras even works when the lights are off.

Piper is also highly regarded for its wide-angle cameras that give customers a better view of their homes.

August secures your home with a smart lock that you can operate remotely if you need to let someone into the home while you're not there. The company also provides a smart doorbell camera that allows you to speak with people who knock on your door. But it must fend with reports the locks could be hacked.

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Ring and SkyBell also provide similar smart doorbell devices.

WallyHome Water Leak Detection relies on a series of sensors to warn you about water leaks and temperature changes before they wreck havoc on your home.

Companies, such as Philips Hue and BeON, provide smart lights for the home that you can operate from your smartphone. The lights are more efficient and can help you save energy, but in the case of BeON, they can also play a role in securing your smart home by making it look like you are there even when you're gone.

Smart homes have the potential to make your life much easier, but they also bring with them a new set of security concerns.

So how do you protect yourself? First, make sure you have adequate homeowners insurance because there has never been a perfect home security system.

That said, however, some systems are better than others.

Many smart home systems link back to the security firm's central monitoring station where professionals are always on guard. If the alarm goes off, they reach out to you and then call the police.

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For people who are not comfortable with Big Brother watching over them, they can take matters into their own hands by opting for self-monitoring. But security exerts advise against this, because you may not always be in a position to call the police. Say you're on an airplane or in a meeting when the robbery occurs, what would you do?

The type of home security system you choose could determine whether it will hold up to thieves.

Old-fashioned home security systems used a series of wires that connected security cameras and other sensors to the phone line and alert the authorities when an intruder was spotted. The problem with these is burglars could shut down the system by cutting the phone line.

By contrast, most smart homes rely on wireless and cellular networks to notify the authorities. The phone lines can't be cut, but they can be hacked.

This could be as simple as a robber guessing your WiFi password. Smart homes will transmit data from the cameras and sensors placed around the home to a monitoring device in your home that contacts the authorities. If these devices are not encrypted with additional passwords, anyone who has access to your WiFi can gain control of the home.

CHECK OUT: 5 Ways to Optimize Savings When Bundling Insurance Policies

To make matters worse, WiFi-based systems risk shutting down during power outages.

That's why many smart homes rely on a combination of WiFi and cellular networks to ensure continuous protection.

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Cellular-based home security systems are much more difficult to hack, says Peter Rogers, co-founder of FrontPoint Security Solutions.

"That does not make it impossible, just extremely unlikely," Rogers wrote in a recent blog post on the company's website.

The primary mode of hacking a cellular-based system is through a method known as "jamming," where the perpetrator overloads the network with too much information so that it cannot differentiate between what's relevant and what's not.

To pull this off, the burglar would need to know which frequency the cellular network uses to transmit data to the security firm. They would also need a specialized device that is tuned to the specific frequency.

So let's say the thieves get this far and use a jamming device to gain entrance to your home.

Even if that happened, FrontPoint and many other home security companies use jamming detection equipment, says Rogers, "so any effort to jam the frequency would be interpreted as an alarm and sent as such to the central monitoring station."

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How thieves use technology to take over your home

Beyond jamming, smart home security devices may fall victim to poor encryptions. Some thieves target the signals that are sent between the smart locks and the monitoring station in the home to steal the password.

SimpliSafe, in particurlarly, has become the subject of concern after a security researcher earlier this year claimed hackers could potentially intercept the code a homeowner uses to disarm their security system.

The company promised to address the situation by updating the hardware, but that will only solve the problem for new customers. People are continue using older versions may still be subject to hacks, experts say.

But there are many other ways hackers could exploit your smart home security system.

Like many companies, the security firms that protect your home are themselves targets for cyber attackers, which could potentially compromise your safety.



RELATED: 5 Cities Most At-Risk for Lightning Strikes

Sometimes, it doesn't even take a hacker.

Such was the case with Google's Nest home security branch. A group of Princeton researchers earlier this year found a security bug that revealed the addresses of the homes protected by the security company.

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There are many reports pointing out the security vulnerabilities of other smart home security systems, too.

In a paper released at the Black Hat security conference, researchers from the University of Central Florida suggested these high-tech systems are a "breeding ground for security vulnerabilities."

But the biggest threat may be much simpler: What if someone steals or hacks into your phone? Many smart home security devices can be controlled with the touch of a button.

If your password is easy to guess, this could make it much easier for them to gain access to the home security app installed on your phone.

Yet another reason to keep your phone close at hand.

This article was originally published on insuranceQuotes.com.
Editor's Note

A HuffPost article that previously existed at this URL has been removed.
When I heard last year that Amazon was doing a miniseries based on Philip K. Dick's Hugo-winning novel from the Sixties, I discovered that the book had been sitting on my shelves between DeLillo and Didion for years. But somehow I'd never gotten around to reading it. Once I picked up the old paperback and dusted it off, I couldn't put it down.

Dick created something amazing: a beautifully-written dystopian sci-fi thriller (with a twist) that's also a spy novel and a psychological portrait of people living under fascist occupation. That occupation doesn't just affect their lives, it changes the way they think--and his prose reflects it. The show now has a second season available on Amazon Video, so why wait any longer to read the book?

The set-up is dazzling: Japan and Germany have won the war and divided the US between them, but they're contemptuous rivals. The Nazis have the the atomic bomb and plan to use it on Japan once Hitler dies and a new leader takes over. Germany also has space flight and super-fast jets. Meanwhile, lesser mortals struggle to survive, to accommodate themselves to a new world where values have shifted entirely--just as they did all across occupied Europe in World War II.

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And that's what the series showed in Season One so brilliantly in each occupied part of America. It wasn't just that Japanese flags, Nazi swastikas, bowing and Sieg Heils were ubiquitous. The producers imbued the streets and clothes themselves with moral corruption and decay--as you might imagine any European country would have become after several decades of Nazi rule. The war was over but everyone came across as either besieged or embattled, especially since there was a Resistance, and because a murky Neutral Zone lay between Japanese and German territory.

The series opened up the book in fascinating, even horrific ways, making its hero Frank more of a common man who audiences can relate to, and adds some insidious villains who are far too believable. At every turn, I was thrilled by how the book was been expanded and enriched without betraying the brilliant source material.

I completely disagreed last year with the New York Times reviewer who thought the series slow and cliched, based on just the six episodes he watched. As the former crime fiction reviewer for the Detroit Free Press and a thriller buff, I've read and seen plenty of cliched dialogue. These people weren't (and aren't) cliched, though there were touches now and then of dialogue that didn't seem right for the 1960s--but that's a minor flaw.

Amazon's debut adaptation of Dick's novel was fresh, tense, and exciting--sometimes even harrowing. The first season was as mesmerizing as the novel, down to the editing and the soundtrack, with each episode building in intensity like House of Cards. Only so much more was at stake: freedom.

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Now, remarkably, with a second season, the series truly has a life of its own, extending Dick's world into new territory that's even more complex and layered. We go deeper into the belly of the beast as an American-born spy for Germany is summoned to Berlin to meet his high-ranking Nazi father who tempts him with power and wealth. The woman who helped him escape capture eludes being seized herself in a shocking move with parallels from Cold War thrillers and movies. But has she made her situation worse? It's just one of many mystifying elements--and the season ends with new questions.

There's one slow episode in the ten which otherwise build to a terrific climax. I won't give you more details. You can find those in reviews by TV critics like Melanie McFarland at Salon.com who inexplicably hasn't bothered to read the book even now. The novel isn't a behemoth like Infinite Jest, it's only about 250 pages long and a dystopian masterpiece easily read in a weekend. Be prepared, though. It's as dark as Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451, but more insidious.
In their daily lives, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt seem like lovely people who are clued into the world and are pretty liberal. Lawrence has fought for equal pay and brought huge media attention to the gender pay gap issue. She also supports Planned Parenthood and all the services they offer, claiming their services as a necessity in her life as a young woman. Meanwhile, Pratt is a guy who is willing to learn, grow, and adapt and is unafraid to thank the women in his life for being a part of making him the man he is today. That's nice stuff, right there. Unfortunately, their movie Passengers is a damaging pile of steaming shite, which also happens to promote the idea of a woman as object.

Spoilers ahead.

Here's the rundown on the film. Pratt's character, Jim Preston, is the only poor schmuck who awakens from his sleeping pod when an asteroid hits the spaceship, which houses himself and 5,000 other humans travelling to a new world. Alone on a spaceship with only a robot bartender to keep him company, he often 'visits' Lawrence's character Aurora Lane so he can feel less alone.

Right, let's get into this.

I have multiple issues here. Let's start with the entire plot of the movie itself. Can we stop objectifying women? Ol' Jimboy is not in love with Aurora. He does not know her, and instead is led by his boner to release her from her sleeping pod to face a long and lonely lifetime with her captor (or lover in the film's terms). Tell me what Jim does is not kidnapping. He removes her from her potential life, steals her joy, her life, and forces her into a life of monotony and loneliness with him. All this because he was lonely. Oh, he gives her a chance at a different life? How nice of him. No, Jim Preston is a creeper, kidnapper, abuser.

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I feel for Pratt at this point as his natural charm is essentially being used as the buffer for his character's awful actions. The audience knows Pratt as a person strong and loving relationship with his wife, Anna Faris, in real life. He's that cheeky, but kind guy on the interview circuit. The filmmakers use this real life persona to offset the actual creepy, misogynist character at work in Passengers.

Of course facing a lifetime of loneliness, of solitude, is terrifying and Jim's pod opening was an unfortunate circumstance, which was not his fault. He acted out of desperation, but this is never fully addressed by Aurora. These are certainly interesting themes for a film to deal with, but Passengers deviates hard here in its final act, where his pretty heinous actions are forgiven in the name of makeup sex. Besides, Moon already dealt with the theme of isolation in space brilliantly. Go watch that instead.

Moving on then, can we acknowledge Aurora's name? Hey, Hammer, meet Nail. Perhaps it would be less of a jarring nod to Sleeping Beauty - the most rapey of all the fairy tales - if Pratt's character was called anything other than Jim. But his common as muck name works to elevate the ethereally named Aurora to a fantastical specimen which Jim is lusting after. Unless the filmmakers are acknowledging their movie's rapey, sexist undertones (and they're not, honestly, the film is not that smart) this is not a 'cute' nod to a 'classic' story.

What happens to Jim is unfortunate but there is no reason for him to destroy someone else's life, particularly a stranger's life. I get it. Without him waking up his Sleeping Beauty (ugh) there is no movie, and the ship explodes or whatever. Without this plot, there's not love story, and god forbid a blockbuster exists without a love story that ends perfectly. But is that an excuse for the perpetuation of sexist ideology? I like to think it's not.

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It begs the question of why Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt would agree to star in this film. I haven't read the script myself, but I've been told it was far less creepy and rapey than how it turned out on screen, which is unfortunate. It's hard to place blame, but the issues seem to have come somewhere along the production process. It's not one person's fault, but that's an even bigger problem that exists in Hollywood, which I'll leave for another day.

There are absolutely ways in which Passengers could have worked, and there is absolutely room for stories to be told with the same themes and subject matter. Just this year we had films like Elle, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Swiss Army Man, dealing with similar themes in some sense, but doing so with tact (yes, even a movie with Daniel Radcliffe's farting corpse has more tact).

So, again, why let Aurora fall in love with him? Does she have to say, "We found each other"? Because they didn't. He found her, liked how she looked, and took her. The moral of Passengers then seems to be: it's okay to gaslight someone you think is hot, because they should sacrifice their life to Netflix and chill with you until you both die. A good message for the young ones.
Batkivschyna Party leader and Verkhovna Rada deputy Yulia Tymoshenko has said the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) is executing a program to gut the nation's banking system.

"What is taking place is a massive gutting of Ukraine's banking system  that much is obvious. Some 85 banks have fallen under Ms. Gontareva's program to destroy Ukrainian banks," Tymoshenko said at a sitting of the parliament's conciliatory council meeting on Monday.

According to Tymoshenko, Ukraine's head of state oversaw the activities of the NBU and Ukraine's Deposit Guarantee Fund. She added that without his [Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's] knowledge the bank elimination plan could not have been executed.

"PrivatBank, which was forced into bankruptcy, is another step in this program," Tymoshenko said.
In an age of remarkably divisive politics, even something as basic as clean air, land and water has become politicized. If we used the presidential election results as a proxy, half of the country apparently thinks that making "America Great Again" involves crushing the Environmental Protection Agency. And, the other half believes the exact opposite.

President-elect Trump, let me suggest a way to get past this standoff. On the campaign trail, you said many things that you have since retracted or re-thought. You said you were going to aggressively pursue criminal charges against Hillary Clinton, make Mexico pay for a wall, ban Muslims and deport all illegal immigrants. You have since pivoted on all of these issues. Perhaps this same pragmatism and business sense will make you reconsider your promise to shut down the EPA as well.

You are businessman and I think we can agree that business is all about results. So before Scott Pruitt, your new EPA administrator, starts gutting his agency, let's look at it with a clear, business perspective: How does the EPA impact Americans' lives, their economy and their pocketbooks?

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The facts may prove surprising.



EPA programs have helped Americans become healthier and more productive

Since President Nixon created the EPA in 1970, lakes and streams across America have been cleansed of pollution, rivers like the Cuyahoga do not catch fire due to spills, and our schools do not have to shut down daily because of polluted air. In the pre-EPA days, hazardous materials were disposed of, well, haphazardly. Today you are unlikely to discover that your new home is sitting on top of a toxic waste dump that makes you and your family terminally ill.

Unlike the haze-infested air of the 1950's and 60's, a typical day in Los Angeles is clear and the sky is blue. It's easy to forget how horrible air quality was in American cities just 50 years ago, when smog shut down schools and factories. But, if you want an idea, look at recent photos of Beijing or Delhi. Just this week, Beijing and its surrounding cities had another pollution "red alert", shutting down 700 factories, power plants and restricting cars. "The smog has serious repercussions on the lungs and the respiratory system, and it also influences the health of future generations, so under a red alert, it is safer to stay at home rather than go to school," said a young Chinese 15 year student, who had to stay home from school.

Nearly million people die prematurely every year from air pollution just in India and China. Without the EPA, those conditions could be found in New York or Los Angeles. Instead, America has a record of cleaning up air pollution unmatched around the world.

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A cleaner environment comes with huge public health benefits. For example, a 2010 study revealed that reductions in fine particle and ozone pollution avoided more than 160,000 premature deaths, 130,000 heart attacks, millions of cases of respiratory problems such as acute bronchitis and asthma attacks, and 86,000 hospital admissions. The reductions in air pollution prevented 13 million lost workdays, improving worker productivity, which contributes to a stronger economy. It also helped the next generation of workers, avoiding 3.2 million lost school days for kids due to respiratory illness.

Healthier Americans are good for our nation.

EPA standards are a bargain

Businessmen are always looking for a good return on investment. America's environmental protections are a steal. The public health benefits of a cleaner environment and a healthier workforce are far greater than the costs of achieving them. By 2020, for example, the benefits of enforcing the 1990 Clean Air Act will likely exceed compliance costs by a factor of 30 to 1. A recent 2013 study by the Office of Management and Budget that examined the cost benefits of EPA regulations over the last decade found that $45 billion in costs drove as much as $640 billion in benefits.

You may not be aware that the US has already acted in a significant way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that saves consumers trillions. A program which is improving fuel efficiency while reducing greenhouse gases also is already on the way to generating as much as $1.7 trillion savings for drivers based on an investment of around $150B by the automotive industry. Consumers have more money in their pockets while the planet is spared four billion tons of additional carbon dioxide.

It doesn't matter if you are a politician, environmentalist or businessman: This is a win-win.

EPA standards promote innovation

Because EPA protections create markets for new solutions, companies are encouraged to invest in groundbreaking technology from power plants, factories and cars.

Even more impressive: this innovation has made America great. Our country is the world leader in production and consumption of environmental protection technology. In 2008, the environmental technologies and services industry supported 1.7 million jobs and generated $300 billion in revenues. And these jobs are typically high value and well paying - just what your supporters asked for on the campaign trail. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that demand for environmental engineers who already command an annual average $85K, will grow faster than the national average for all occupations between 2014 and 2024, increasing by 12 percent.

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So, just how do these protections lead to innovation? Let's look at one of the earliest EPA successes, a 1970's vehicle emissions rule. The requirement that cars clean up their exhaust spurred a race between American corporations to develop effective, durable catalytic converters. America pioneered this technology; today it is found the world over. More recently, electronic fuel injection systems were developed to make cars more efficient and reliable. Gasoline direct injection (GDI) technology was used in less than 3% of cars in 2008 models. This year, the innovation will be found in half of all new cars. Environmental protections also prompted the development of powerful but compact turbocharged engines and silky smooth eight speed transmissions.

The EPA is playing an important role in the future of auto technology. Twenty years ago, barely anyone knew what a hybrid car was. As of last year, there were 76 alternative propulsion vehicle models available to consumers in the US market, from hybrids, plug in hybrids, battery electrics and even fuel cell vehicles. The affordable all-electric Chevrolet Bolt is the Motor Trend 2017 Car of the Year.

All of these innovations were the result of private industry know-how working to meet environmental standards.



EPA programs makes American companies more competitive globally

China, already the world's biggest auto market, has also developed very stringent air pollution rules with the hope of cleaning up its poisonous air. Other nations are on very similar tracks. Between 2020 and 2025, China, Japan, the United States and Europe will all converge on largely common standards for automobile fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions.

The EPA could begin the process of pulling the United States out of this group, but why? To be globally competitive, American automakers will still have to compete with Chinese and German companies, who are making huge investments in electric vehicles.

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The story with stationary power - electricity - is similar. Last year, for the first time, the world added more energy from renewable sources than from fossil fuels. Today, the U.S. is number one in the world for wind energy production. Wind produced over 190 million megawatt-hours (MWh) in the U.S. last year - or 4.7 percent of the total electricity generated in the U.S - enough electricity for about 17.5 million typical U.S. homes.

That wind energy is produced in many of the states that voted for you. Iowa stands out with over 31 percent of its in-state electricity generation coming from wind energy. It is followed by Kansas and South Dakota who can account for 20 percent from wind, followed by Texas, Maine, Vermont, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Minnesota, Idaho, Colorado, and Oregon with 10 percent or more of their electricity from wind.

Meanwhile, solar energy has closed the gap with wind energy earlier than expected. Nearly 30 percent of all new electric generating capacity in the U.S. in 2015 was solar, more than natural gas. This improvement was largely due to costs. Bloomberg New Energy Finance reports that that unsubsidized solar is beginning to outcompete coal and natural gas on a larger scale, per a survey across 58 countries including China, India, and Brazil

In fact, the report indicates that in less than 10 years, by 2027, the cost of running solar and wind plants will be less than existing coal and gas plants.

EPA standards go hand in hand with economic growth

This is the best part. Between 1970, when President Nixon created the EPA, and 2011, emission of common air pollutants dropped by over a third. How did the economy do over that same time? Very well: US GDP grew 212% and total private sector jobs increased by 88%. Just as the space race fostered a whole generation of innovation, the race to save the environment is doing the same. Part of the reason for this phenomenon is that compliance costs don't go to the EPA - they go to other private companies that design, build, install and maintain the pollution reducing equipment.

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Presumably you will ask Scott Pruitt to gut the Clean Power Plan rule. Before you do that you may want to look what is already happening across the land. The U.S. solar industry now employs 77% more workers (209,000) than the U.S. coal mining industry does today (70,000) after adding over 35,000 jobs in 2015. By the end of this year, its ranks are expected to grow to 240,000 workers. Wind power supports 73,000 well-paying jobs across all 50 states. Nearly 20,000 American workers at over 500 factories across 43 states now build wind turbine parts and materials. The According to the DOE's Wind Vision report, wind energy jobs could grow to 380,000 by 2030 and supply 20% of the nation's electricity.

The tired claim that environmental protections hurt the economy is also undercut by the prosperity of California. With the sixth largest economy in the world, the Golden State has the most stringent environmental regulations and the most aggressive climate policies in the whole country - and, in some cases, the world. Yet its GDP has outpaced the country as a whole in recent years, in part because of a boost in green industries.

So, is every EPA program perfect? Of course not, there is always room for improvement. But, President Trump, investing in creating well-designed environmental protections is not just about making our air and water cleaner and our children healthier. It makes America's economy stronger. The EPA programs have delivered to date.

The next challenge in front of us is mitigating the worst impacts of climate change. US is a signatory to the Paris accords, which have no enforcement provisions but rely on peer pressure and public scrutiny. The Trump administration may feel itself immune to it all, but global companies do not. That could be the reason why some 350 US companies, from Intel to DuPont to Monsanto, all signed a pledge to support the Paris accords, and did so after your election.
"There's a sense that mayors are now going to be the first line of resistance to Trump policies," said Amy Liu, Vice President and Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at The Brookings Institution in a phone interview. She was referring to sanctuary city policies specifically and the collection of mayors who have said that they will uphold sanctuary city policies in their jurisdictions regardless of federal threats to cut funding. This tension goes into other policy areas as well, such as climate change, where most recently, Governor Jerry Brown noted in a speech that if the federal government stops the work it is doing on climate change, California will disregard that decision and continue the work on its own.

These disagreements pave the path for local entities--cities, counties, and states--to take on policy decisions in a way that may be different from federal policy once a new administration is in place. However, those responses are in reaction to what happens at the federal level, which for now remains unclear. "We don't know that we don't know, in terms of what this new administration will look like," said Joseph Simitian, County Supervisor for District 5 in Santa Clara. "One thing that seems unlikely is business as usual."

The scene is set for a push-and-pull that includes many factors, such as funding, to determine what a local response may look like for different policy areas. Though sanctuary city policies may be one area where jurisdictions can implement a non-cooperative stance against the federal government, that may be tougher to do for other policy areas such as social services, housing, and healthcare. "...The biggest concern that cities are going to face under this administration is the weakening of the safety net for low-income families across the board," said Liu. "This is where we're going to be really tested on the extent to which cities and metropolitan areas really can go it alone," Liu added.

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The reality is that local jurisdictions cannot take on all governance on their own. "Certain responsibilities, such as providing a basic standard of living for households absolutely cannot be borne jurisdiction by jurisdiction," Liu said. Professor Ron Hayduck at San Francisco State University added that with regard to sanctuary city policies, the threat to cut funding is a serious but vague one. Which funding pools does the administration plan to withhold and under what criteria are questions that remain. He noted that simply within the sanctuary city policies, there are various levels of implementation: what a region means by sanctuary, what the local policy is with regard to interaction with the federal government, and how much pushback a region is willing to engage in. "The scope of what each level of government could do in relation to each other is in the details," he noted.

Those details remain few and far in between, leaving local areas in limbo. Parts of the country are preparing for what may come. Santa Clara County for example, recently created a Federal Affairs Advisory Taskforce, for which Simitian will serve as chair. "Part of the role of this taskforce, in my view, is getting a feel for what the new DC cares about and will respond to," noted Simitian. "The plan is to cooperate and collaborate with our four members of Congress and to work with them in identifying opportunities for engagement and how we can position ourselves for what will be a different environment at the federal level," Simitian said.

The goal is to create an avenue for conversation. Ultimately, governance and the nuts and bolts of running a country, such as good schools, reliable roads, secure jobs, and balanced budgets take precedence at the local level. "My experience working with cities and regions is that partisanship goes away the more local you get," Liu said. "I think there's a lot of uncertainty for sure, being in this environment right now with the new president and Congress. But what I am very certain about is that cities and metropolitan areas constantly innovate. They sit and work together, they figure out solutions, and they're very practically focused on outcomes because their citizens expect it," she added.

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"We've got to be prepared to find common ground if and when we can," noted Simitian. "And when we can't, we've got to go toe-to-toe with the administration and Congress." The question this raises is the extent to which all jurisdictions across the United States can take on this level of preparation and how much variance we will see in policy because each local jurisdiction is responding in its own way.

Liu gave the example of minimum wage, noting that in the absence of the federal government creating a floor for earnings, cities and states stepped in and passed their own legislation. The result is that we see different minimum wages across the country, which contribute to varying levels of inequality, depending on other factors such as cost of living. That type of inequality could be perpetuated if jurisdictions are forced to make locally based decisions, which may vary within and among states.

"In the absence of federal actions," Liu said, "we are going to see a patchwork response from the state and local government and in some cases, it may create some inequalities between places. But I also think this may be the new reality." Simitian felt similarly. "I think that to the extent that federal funding is not forthcoming for programs and services, the ability of these funds to even out the impact of income inequality is going to be eliminated."

That's a terrifying prospect, considering that income inequality is already at an all-time high in the U.S. A patchwork of local responses threatens to exacerbate that inequality. States such as California may be able to undertake much of this work on their own because they have the economy, size, political will, and power to continue funding the types of programs that alleviate inequality. However, even within California, the response may not be uniform. California is a state with 58 counties, that spans 840 miles from Oregon to Mexico and as such, has very localized needs, funding abilities, and political backing within it. That naturally means a varied response. It also means that citizens across all California counties don't have access to the same resources. For those who may wonder why this is any different, the answer is simply that it isn't. However, if this course continues, we make the inaccessibility of resources much more explicit, rather than creating spaces and legislation that alleviate inequality. Furthermore, the checks and balances provided by a federal government working with state and local governments erodes, and adds to the inequality we are seeing now.

What remains to be seen is how much this type of governance will take hold under the new administration and whether the federal response will be one that answers the needs on the ground. "At some point," Simitian added, "ideological dogma will bump into the reality of people's daily needs. And elected officials at the federal level will have to confront that."
The USS Arizona Memorial is pictured at sunset in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 29, 2011. U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama took part in a wreath-laying ceremony and tossed flower petals into the harbor during their visit on Thursday. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS)

Next week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be the first Japanese leader to visit the site of the surprise attack. With him come thoughts of reconciliation and tolerance.

The recent 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor reminded me of the visit I made ten years ago and something curious that happened while I was there.

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I was on the way to my nephew and godson's wedding in Kauai and stopped overnight in Honolulu expressly to visit the scene of the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese air raid that was the explosive trigger for America's official entry into World War II.

I had flown in from Los Angeles, arriving midday, so I didn't get to Pearl Harbor until mid-afternoon. I didn't know the last of the boats that take visitors out to the USS Arizona Memorial left at 3 p.m., but a kindly National Park Service volunteer took pity and hustled me onto the shuttle's deck just as it was pulling away from the dock.

After a short ride we were at the memorial that rests above USS Arizona, the battleship that was sunk about halfway through the surprise attack, killing 1,177 soldiers and Marines, almost half the more than 2,400 American military and civilians who died at Pearl Harbor that Sunday morning.

It is a beautiful monument and a solemn place. Looking down into the water you can see the ship's remains and every day, two to nine quarts of oil still bubble to the surface from the 500,000 gallons of fuel that remain below. (She was launched from the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1915 at a time when most battleships still burned coal but never saw combat until that Dec. 7.)

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Once back on shore, and now that the final boat had come back from the memorial, almost everyone left -- but the visitors center remained open. I wandered through the nearly deserted exhibit galleries and then returned outside. There was a bright blue sky, and as I looked across the harbor, I imagined that similar sunny day in 1941 and how bizarre it must have seemed to have bombs and gunfire bursting with deadly force into a seeming tropical paradise.

I recalled that a few years earlier, I had met a woman at a party who had been a journalist and a Navy wife at Pearl Harbor. She talked about standing on the top of a hill and watching the Japanese planes vector in on their targets. On 9/11, as I stood on my downtown Manhattan corner and watched the attack on the World Trade Center, I had remembered her description. as I did again now.

I was just getting ready to leave Pearl Harbor when two new buses arrived in the now empty parking lot.

From them emerged a small crowd of tourists. Japanese tourists.

It seemed clear that the tour group intentionally had waited until everyone else had left, presumably to avoid any possibility of confrontation with Americans who might take offense. They silently crowded into the Remembrance Circle in which a bronze topographical map of Oahu outlines where the Japanese attacks took place.

The tourists were aware of what had happened and their country's involvement but quiet and respectful. There was not a hint of vindictiveness; they knew better than most that war rarely ends well.

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This year, next week, just after Christmas, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will become the first Japanese leader to travel to Pearl Harbor. He and President Obama will visit the USS Arizona Memorial.

"This visit is to comfort the souls of the victims," Abe said. "We'd like to send messages about the importance of reconciliation."

The two leaders' visit comes at an important time. Back in May, both men visited Hiroshima -- the first time a sitting American president had come to the place where we dropped the first atomic bomb in August 1945, killing more than 125,000.

With these visits we seek to heal old profound grievances. But Abe and Obama's Pearl Harbor trip also comes at a time when our world is fraught -- "more fractious than it has been in a long time," as Jonah Engel Bromwich recently wrote in The New York Times. Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, told The Times, "Seven decades after Pearl Harbor, the guilt, reflection and self-questioning that followed the Second World War have been replaced by resurgent nationalism on both sides of the globe," and Carleton University international affairs professor Stephen M. Saideman added, "Reactions to the Great Depression bred protectionism and authoritarianism. The advent of Trump and of far-right populist movements around the world makes us all feel deja vu."

A year or so after my Pearl Harbor trip, I was visiting a friend in the Sierra Nevada and on the way back to Los Angeles stopped for a while at another National Park Service site, Manzanar, the best-known of the infamous camps where innocent Japanese-Americans were detained against their will just months after Pearl Harbor. The camp's remains are brutal testament to what happens when hysteria, xenophobia and paranoia are allowed to have the upper hand.

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Last year, Joyce Okazaki, one of those who were held at Manzanar, told a reporter, "We really were in a concentration camp. We were imprisoned. We didn't have due process. We should be aware of our freedoms and make sure they are honored. Don't send people to prison just because of how they look."
In what, unfortunately, seems to have become the new normal, conspiracy theories abound and are embraced by Donald Trump and his entourage. The favorite form of such theorists is the "false flag" variety in which it is alleged that the victims of an action are actually the ones responsible.

Consider just a couple of examples. Trump reportedly called Alex Jones to thank him for his help in the election. Jones, as I suspect you know is the founder of InfoWars.com and the host of his own radio talk show. Jones is probably best known for advancing the despicable false flag conspiracy theory that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax perpetuated by the federal government in an attempt to garner support for gun control.

John Bolton, Trump's likely pick for deputy secretary of state, made it clear that he believes that the hacking of the DNC and the Clinton campaign's e-mail wasn't carried out by the Russians. Instead, he asserted that it was likely done by the Obama administration as a false flag operation.

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And now, the Discovery Institute comes wading into this morass with an equally ridiculous false flag conspiracy theory of its own. As I discussed earlier this week, a petition is circulating on the Web asking that the Trump administration ban the teaching of evolution in public schools. I referred to the petition as "an amateurish publicity stunt - one without any chance of becoming law." But I also made it clear that the mere presence of the petition reinforces the belief popular among creationists that there is a major conflict between religion and science.

The Discovery Institute, a creationist organization that pretends to be something other than what it is, asserts that the petition itself is a false flag operation. It is, David Klinghoffer, a writer for the Discovery Institute, argues, "very likely phony, transparently so, a false flag operation carried out not by evolution critics but by Darwinists." He continues his rant by calling the petition "a phony proposal intended to generate scare headlines by opportunistic atheists and Darwin apologists, to dishonestly cast evolution skeptics in a false and negative light."

Interestingly, in a Catch 22 sort of way, one piece of "evidence" presented for this false flag conspiracy is the fact that I didn't ignore the petition entirely. And, by responding, I'm accused of initiating my own publicity stunt by "propagandizing for [my] organization." Indeed, I made the case that The Clergy Letter Project and the more than 14,000 clergy members from all across the United States fully support the teaching of evolution and recognize that doing so poses no threat to their religious beliefs.

Klinghoffer goes on to agree with one of the basic premises of The Clergy Letter Project, that religion and science can be compatible. "Agreed, religion is compatible with good science. Absolutely." But then he goes on, without any support other than the Discovery Institute's assurance, that evolution doesn't fit into the category of "good science." "However, is my religion or yours compatible with bad science, failed science, outdated science, any or all ideas that present themselves in the guise of "science"?"

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Klinghoffer concludes with his main point: "the creaky, outdated science of neo-Darwinism is indeed at odds with traditional faith, on which it has a corrosive, documented effect. On the other hand, objective evidence of design, in biology and cosmology, is both strong science and what faith traditions would expect."

There are numerous problems with this perspective. First, the scientific community has most assuredly not moved away from evolutionary theory as the dominant organizing principle for all of biology. Second, the concept of intelligent design has yet to yield any meaningful results or even to have offered any falsifiable hypotheses. Third, many faith traditions have rejected the idea of design as articulated by Klinghoffer as being central to their belief structure.
For Mark Quartiano, the catch of the day earlier this month was a tightly-packed kilo of cocaine.

Quartiano, the top sport fisherman according to TripAdvisor in south Florida ("And around the world," he happily adds), was out with a couple of young Miami guys when they saw an unidentified yellow object about the size of a toaster oven floating in the Atlantic off the coast of Miami.

Quartiano, who typically reels in sharks and not drugs, called the Coast Guard when he realized what he had.

The Coast Guard came over and relieved Quartiano of the brick, which they pronounced to be pure, uncut cocaine, worth between $200,000 and half a million dollars on the street.

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"First we took pictures with it, of course," Quartiano says. "Then we let them take it away. All my friends thought that I was crazy for turning it in, but I'm not going to blow my reputation of 40 years on something like that."

The south Florida waters are no stranger to large blocks of illicit substances. In fact, the term "square grouper" applies to large bales of marijuana tossed overboard by drug smugglers when they sense law enforcement closing in.

Otherwise, it was just another day at the office for Quartiano, who has found himself in the crosshairs of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for much of his 40-year sport fishing career.

"I've gotten death threats," he said in a telephone interview from about two miles due east of the Fontainebleau Hotel after another 85o Miami December day of fishing.

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"Apparently it's not okay for me to kill sharks, but it is okay for them to kill me. But I've got broad shoulders. I don't mind."

Quartiano admits that he likes to bait PETA.

"It's good for business," he laughs. "The angrier they get, the more people come my way."

While the shark population off south Florida has diminished rapidly in recent years, Quartiano says that individual fisherman like him are hardly to blame.

"Why don't they target the commercial fishing industry?" he asks. "They kill sharks by the metric ton every day. People like me take no more than a shark a day out of the waters."

Maybe PETA's ire has something to do with Quartiano's admittedly politically incorrect website.

It says, "We DON'T fly release flags upside down on our riggers, but we DO hang fish upside down on our gallows!"

Miami visitors who check out TripAdvisor quickly discover that Quartiano is the top-ranked fishing experience in the region, boasting 269 reviews, of which 241 are five stars.

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"A real couple of characters who treated us like long lost family," one British contributor offered.

"Mark and his crew were awesome, cool guys," said another.

"Most fishermen down here have quit fishing for shark," Quartiano says. "I really don't have a lot of competition in that regard. Fishing for sharks is hard. The other guys don't have the boat I have, the fighting chair, the equipment, or the patience to try to catch sharks. They'd rather just take people out and have an easy day of it, but I'm the last shark guy standing."

Quartiano claims to have caught nearly 100,000 sharks in 40 years and counts Will Smith, Robert DeNiro, and Shaquille O'Neal as repeat customers.

PETA finds outrageous the idea that animals are used for food and says as much on its website.

"That's just called fishing," Quartiano says. "We use 20 to 30-pound pieces of fish as bait. Again, if PETA is really that upset about shark fishing, why don't they go after the big guys?

"Shark meat is delicious," Quartiano says. "Typically our clients take home what they catch, and they eat it. In Asia, shark fin soup is a huge delicacy, but the whole of the shark is great to eat. I know I'm asking for trouble by advertising myself the way I do, but it's just business. If you want to be vegan, that's your business. If you want to catch sharks, that's mine."

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Democratic National Committee Vice Chair of Voter Registration and Participation Donna Brazile speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 26, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar

This week began with a mass email from the head of the Democratic National Committee, who declared: "By now, Americans know beyond any reasonable doubt that the Russian government orchestrated a series of cyberattacks on political campaigns and organizations over the past two years and used stolen information to influence the presidential campaign and congressional races." DNC chair Donna Brazile went on: "The integrity of our elections is too important for Congress to refuse to take these attacks seriously."

The importance of election integrity had eluded Brazile when she was a regular on CNN, posing as neutral in the Clinton-Sanders battle. "Brazile is not apologizing for leaking CNN debate questions and topics to the Hillary Clinton campaign during the Democratic primary," the Washington Post reported last month. "Her only regret, it seems, is that she got caught."

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Many big factors affect any presidential race, and the Russian government may have tried to be one of them for the 2016 election -- though it's hardly the slam dunk that agencies like the CIA and U.S. mass media are now claiming. But in any event, this month it has become routine for a lot of progressive organizations and individuals to descend into a dangerous mode of partisan flackery.

Less than two weeks ago -- as soon as unnamed CIA sources told journalists that the Kremlin was behind hacks of DNC and Clinton campaign emails -- a wide range of progressive online groups, activists and commentators reflexively embraced the dominant media spin. High profile among them was MoveOn, which used its big digital footprint to spur the frenzy.

MoveOn matter-of-factly decried the "chilling news" of "Russia's election tampering." And, without a hint of media literacy, the group also informed its readers that "news broke that the Russian president himself was involved in the efforts to influence our November election -- in favor of Donald Trump."

Such eagerness to share undocumented spin as absolute fact has led many progressive groups to go with knee-jerk reactions. Bent on gaining a propaganda advantage over Trump, those reactions are helping to stampede this country toward a modern form of McCarthyism -- as well as brinkmanship with Russia that could lead to a cataclysmic military conflict.

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Zeal to blame Russia for a bad election outcome has spread like contagion among countless self-described progressives, understandably appalled by the imminent Trump presidency. But those who think they're riding a helpful tiger could find themselves devoured later on.

If civil liberties instead of repression and diplomacy instead of war are progressive values, then all too many progressives -- eager to tar Trump as a Kremlin product -- have been undermining those values.

Already, from witch-hunt legislation in Congress to pernicious media blacklisting, the anti-Russia hysteria -- being fueled by the high octane election-intervention storyline -- has gained enormous momentum.

Days ago, assessing the momentum of that hysteria, Russian studies scholar Stephen F. Cohen cited some of the key motives propelling it (the first of which touted extremely farfetched hopes):

* "One is to reverse the Electoral College vote."

* "Another is to exonerate the Clinton campaign from its electoral defeat by blaming that instead on Putin and thereby maintaining the Clinton wing's grip on the Democratic Party."

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Thus, countless Bernie supporters have been unwittingly strengthening the Clinton wing of the party while beating on the anti-Putin drum.

* "Yet another is to delegitimate Trump even before he is inaugurated. And certainly no less important, to prevent the detente with Russia that Trump seems to seek."

Of all the good reasons to "delegitimate" Trump, alleged Kremlin intervention in the election should rank quite low. Trump's evils are huge, with a very incomplete list including vast greed, pathological lying, contempt for facts, enthusiasm for oligarchy, bigotry, environmental destruction, racism, misogyny, economic injustice, voter suppression and rampant conflicts of interest.

While echoing the anti-Russia themes belted out by Democratic Party officials and loyalists, the chorus on the left may think it's merely grabbing the low-hanging political fruit of this historical moment. But the fruit is already turning rancid, and apt to become poisonous. It won't be the first time in recent decades when liberals and others thought they were being clever and politically adroit as they aided and abetted the suppression of principles found in the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments, while helping to gear up the machinery of war.

This month, by following the line of the Democratic Party leadership, groups like MoveOn actually have helped to set the stage for pressurizing Trump to deter him from pursuing policies that may be (along with opposition to trade deals such as the TPP) the only ways in which he might be appreciably better than Hillary Clinton would have been as president.

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Let's face it: Some of the fierceness of media attacks on Trump, such as from de facto neoconservative liberal-tinged entities like the Washington Post, is propelled by rage that his stance toward Russia lacks the neocon qualities that a Hillary Clinton presidency offered.

To be crystal clear: The election of Donald Trump as president is a horrific disaster, and his regime must be resisted on a vast array of issues with eternal vigilance. And, meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is a repressive ruler.

At the same time, it's a rather glaring omission in the current outraged discourse that the U.S. government, from Egypt and Saudi Arabia to Central Asian nations and beyond, continues to avidly support regimes far worse than Russia's. As for intervening in foreign elections, the CIA has excelled at that anti-democratic game for many decades -- and mainline U.S. media outlets have been inclined to nod or even cheer when the American government and allied U.S. operatives succeed in working their will on electorates overseas.

Oh, and must we forget that U.S. efforts to determine the government leaders of other countries have sometimes gone far beyond techniques like hacking and disseminating emails? As Janine Jackson of the media watchdog group FAIR wrote, "in back of it all, what makes the umbrage of elite media so hard to stomach is the hypocrisy. This is, after all, the same elite media that supports outsider-induced 'regime change' anywhere and everywhere they see an official enemy, from Iraq to Honduras to Libya to Syria... You can make 'one law for me, another for thee' your credo, but you can't be too surprised when others are unimpressed."

And Jackson added: "Whatever story there is to be told about Russia and the 2016 election, corporate media have squandered the credibility it would take to tell it."

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Sen.-elect Todd Young (R-Ind.) received more than any other candidate from lawmakers' campaign committees and leadership PACs along with party committees. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

BY: NIV SULTAN

With control of the Senate and possibly the House at stake -- or so it seemed until close to Election Day -- the word went out from the Democratic and Republican parties to lawmakers: If you're not running this time, or if you're sitting on a pile of cash, share the love. Priority races were flagged, and those who could were expected to ante up.

Still, while being on the receiving end of those funds was far better than the alternative, it didn't guarantee victory. In fact, less than 75 percent of the 15 House and Senate candidates who netted the most money from fellow candidates and party committees in 2016 won their races. In Nevada, GOP Rep. Joe Heck, for instance, who received almost $660,000, lost to incoming Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D), who claimed just over $437,000, in their battle over an open seat.

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But having that money certainly could be a plus. On his path to victory over former Indiana Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, incoming Sen. Todd Young (R) amassed more than $1 million in contributions from lawmakers, their leadership PACs and Republican party committees. In doing so, he topped the list of House and Senate candidates who received the most through candidate-to-candidate and party giving.

Top 2016 recipients of candidate-to-candidate and party giving

*Patrick Murphy and Marco Rubio competed for the same Senate seat.

The list's party breakdown is noteworthy: 14 of the 15 candidates on it are Republicans, and no Democrat cracked the top 10. Florida's Rep. Patrick Murphy, at No. 11 with $504,083, was the Democratic candidate who received the most through the aforementioned channels. He nonetheless lost to incumbent Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who ranked 15th with $488,460 raised.

Part of the reason for the discrepancy between Republicans and Democrats could lie at the top of the ticket. Democratic presidential nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received a total of $806,591 from other candidates, while President-elect Donald Trump took in just $104,847. By opting not to back Trump, Republican candidates may have been able to commit larger sums to House and Senate races.

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Comfortable incumbents and others facing lesser threats often use their candidate committees and leadership PACs to shift money to challengers and incumbents in more competitive races. And party committee spending can "establish giving priorities," said Brett Kappel, a government affairs and public policy lawyer at Akerman LLP. But Kappel also noted that whether or not members of Congress give according to party priorities is sometimes the result of personal relationships. A lawmaker might give to a friend, regardless of the party's agenda, even if that candidate isn't in real danger of losing.



Comparing donations from candidate campaign committees and leadership PACs to other candidates over time shows the dominance of leadership PACs, which can give $5,000 to any candidate per election -- so $10,000 for a primary plus a general election. Donations from campaign committees are capped at $2,000 per calendar year.

Leadership PACs are appealing for another reason, as well: They can accept larger amounts from donors, and the sponsoring lawmaker can use the funds however he or she wants -- including taking friends out to dinner or renting a plane to fly the family over the Grand Canyon. The personal use restrictions that apply to campaign funds don't apply here. According to Meredith McGehee at Issue One, this has caused leadership PACs to operate, essentially, "like political slush fund[s] funded by special interests." The FEC has asked Congress to pass a personal use ban for leadership PACs since at least 2009.

Nearly $46.9 million was contributed by 529 leadership PACs in the 2016 cycle -- more than any other year except 2014. Giving from candidate committees was more anemic than it has been for several cycles, at just under $9.5 million. Still, in both cases, giving is usually more robust during midterm election cycles, when all the focus is on Congress.

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And there will always be friends in need.
New York City Police officers have been painting with students at a middle school in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Brooklyn. The police officers' goals are to develop positive dialogues with students, the community, and the school. For 15 weeks, weekdays and Saturdays, 22 officers from the 75th Precinct, with guidance from leaders and students in the Publicolor program, have worked together to complete the school's transformation at the East New York Middle School of Excellence. This project builds a bridge of trust between inner city police and inner city teens, which is important to the safety of our communities.



Police Commissioner James P. O'Neill has partnered with Publicolor to start this dialogue of understanding; part of O'Neill's larger initiative of Neighborhood Policing which involves "community partnership, organization transformations, problem solving, and a system of allocating police officers to particular areas so that they become familiar with the local inhabitants."



Ruth Lande Shuman, founder of Publicolor, says, "We see not just willingness, but actual enthusiasm, on the police officers part to participate with these students and this community project. We definitely want to support the NYPD's efforts at neighborhood policing."



The results are real. Last week, a student in the painting program was disciplined and sent home from school. Ashamed and upset, he called one of the police he'd been painting with to walk him home. The officer not only came but offered reassurance--he counseled him, and told him that just because he had done a bad thing didn't mean he was a bad person. Another exceptional officer, Stan DeGolefnea, works five days a week in the school currently being painted. For months, he's volunteered every Saturday in plain clothes to get closer to the community where he works.



Publicolor engages high-risk, low-income students ages 12-24 in a multi-year continuum of design-based programs to encourage academic achievement, college preparation, job readiness, and community service. Publicolor's unique applied learning approach uses design and design thinking as vehicles to engage and inspire low-performing students in struggling middle and high schools, empowering them to achieve success in school, college, career, and life.



In January, the NYPD will again partner with Publicolor for a series of conversations with at-risk students with topics including how to speak to authorities, personal safety on the streets, and bullying.



East New York Middle School of Excellence is located at 605 Shepherd Avenue in Brooklyn.







Photos provided by Publicolor. The officers in the photos are PO Nick Milentijevic and APO Brenton Babb.
Cheonggye Plaza protest via Teddy Cross on FlickrSince news first broke about Park Geun-Hye's influence peddling scandal in October, overwhelming popular opposition meant that her impeachment was inevitable. It is a delicate time for South Korea to throw a presidential election into the mix, but that's exactly what Park's impeachment has achieved. President-elect Donald Trump has injected ambivalence into America's continued military support for regional allies, Pyongyang is getting increasingly bellicose as it barrels ahead with its efforts to develop nuclear missiles, and the historic "comfort women" agreement clinched last year between Tokyo and Seoul is now teetering on the brink. Worse, the impeachment opens the door for opposition figure Moon Jae-in to become South Korea's next president - a prospect that will see him overturn key aspects of Park's foreign policy commitments and throw the region into disarray.

While most South Koreans continue to celebrate the December 10 impeachment vote in parliament, the country's political leaders are sharpening their knives in anticipation of an early election, probably in the first quarter of 2017. Recent polls show that the two most likely contenders to win that election are the former Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki-moon, and Moon Jae-in, who until January 2016 was the chairman of the opposition Minjoo Party. While Ban Ki-moon has yet to officially throw his hat into the ring, Moon Jae-in will certainly be out to seek his revenge on Park and her conservative Saenuri party for the close defeat he suffered in 2012, which saw Park take the presidency.

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With the Saenuri Party in disarray in the wake of Park's impeachment and the strong showing for Moon's Minjoo Party in parliamentary elections in April, there is a strong possibility that Moon could be the next president. Seeing how Moon harbors highly revisionist attitudes that pose dangers for the current trilateral alliance between the U.S., Japan and South Korea, tensions in the already volatile region can only rise.

Of particular concern is Moon's record of appeasing North Korea. According to the biography of Song Min-soon, who served as foreign minister under former president Roh Moo-hyun (to whom Moon was Chief of Staff), Roh's administration sought North Korea's opinion before abstaining from a UN vote in 2007 condemning Pyongyang's human rights abuses. Song alleges that Moon supported the idea - although when confronted, the latter has been evasive and has claimed that he does not remember how the decision was made. That Roh's Chief of Staff would not have been instrumental in this decision - which amounted to nothing short of a peace offering to Kim Jong-il's regime - stretches credulity.

While the Minjoo Party was founded some two and half years ago, most of its leaders are the same leaders that for 11 years opposed passing the North Korean Human Rights Act, choosing instead to direct their criticism at the opposition for "inciting" the North. This is especially worrisome given that during this time the North had shown nothing but bad faith in the six-party talks, continuing to stage nuclear tests and openly working towards developing intercontinental ballistic missiles. Taken in conjunction with the fact that Moon called for sanctions imposed on the North after the 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship to be dropped, at a time when the Kim Jong-un regime has been extraordinarily unruly, it is legitimate to wonder where Moon's loyalties reside.

Moon also seems to favor better relations with China. While Trump has softened his inflammatory stance towards South Korea and Japan over their perceived unwillingness to foot the bill for American troops stationed in the region, Moon has displayed a worrying disregard for it. The Minjoo Party is known for its criticism of the American security umbrella, but a recent delegation of Minjoo lawmakers who met in Beijing with their Chinese counterparts was particularly enraging. The topic discussed? Finding out "Chinese sentiments regarding THAAD", according to one of the lawmakers. The move attests that Minjoo is still susceptible to consult with foreign powers on matters of South Korean policy, thereby making South Korea susceptible to foreign pressure. To say the least, it is disconcerting to see Moon putting Beijing's concerns about the defense system threatening China's security above the security of South Koreans themselves.

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When it comes to regional allies, on the other hand, Moon takes a hawkish stance. He has declared the 2015 "comfort women" agreement struck between South Korea and Japan after lengthy negotiations to be "null and void". Incidentally, Minjoo is in agreement with Pyongyang, which has called the deal "humiliating". By rejecting Tokyo's offer of one billion yen (US$8.3 million) in compensation for the remaining victims of Japan's wartime behavior during its colonial rule of Korea, Moon is rebuffing Japan's bid to present a united front against the shared enemy beyond the 38th parallel and driving a worrisome wedge between two strategic American allies.
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and a fellow reformist Muslim, has just suggested a new mantra in the fight against terror: "It's the global jihad, stupid."

I totally concur, as a moderate Muslim woman who wrote a book on radical Islam, has taken part in various documentaries, penned numerous op-eds on the issue, and toured Pakistan, parts of the Middle East and recently Europe (in fact last week I was in Berlin at the exact spot where the terrorist struck) - all in search for the root causes of radicalization.

What I found is simple: the Islamists are waging a global war - a global jihad - against the West.

We can call it a clash of civilizations; a third world war; we can listen to endless analysis given by so-called experts who cry "racism" or "Islamophobia," we can disguise the real issue under the umbrella of political correctness, or hide behind a victim ideology - but that does nothing to change the reality.

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The reality is: this is a global jihad and its target is the West.

When the radical Islamists tell us it is a jihad, while they are killing us, why are Western governments and media seemingly unable to accept reality for what it is?

The answer to this question is simple, not stupid, if we only take a moment to clear the cobwebs, to get over our Western liberal guilt and take a close hard look at where we are.

Western governments have been taking advice from Muslim advisors who are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. And law enforcement agencies are aligning themselves with organizations that have subversive agendas.

Take a look at Mr. Obama's invitees to the White House for Ramadan and Eid celebrations - they're certainly not reformist Muslims. We have Keith Ellison making a run for the DNC. In Europe we see Tariq Ramadan (grandson of Hasan al Banna) posing as a celebrity and a voice for European Muslims, and organizations like CAIR in Canada and USA insist that they speak for all Muslims.

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Well; they don't speak for me. And they don't speak for the majority of Muslims.

But they do speak to Western leaders and media. Over the past number of years; many bad decisions have been made - based on those whispers-in-the-ear from the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood and radical Islamist apologists. If you ever wonder how bad decisions get made - that's how.

Now that Donald J. Trump is officially the President-elect of the United States, moderate Muslims like myself are hoping he changes course and refuses to surround himself with radical Muslim advisors, or members of the so-called "Islamophobia Industry" - who actually have the nerve to call real moderate Muslims - like me - an Islamophobe.

The politically correct status quo, and ominous silence on the issue of global jihad, will only give us more terror and mayhem. We need change. Whether that means pausing immigration from terror-producing countries or "extreme vetting" of new immigrants, let's not be afraid to have the conversation.
Ukrainian army loses two soldiers, with eight injured and one captured in Donbas

Two Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen have been killed and eight have suffered injuries in the Donbas conflict zone in the past 24 hours.

"Over the past day, two servicemen of ours were killed, four servicemen suffered injuries, and another four sustained concussions in the hostilities," Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman for Anti-Terrorist Operation issues Andriy Lysenko told a press briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

One Ukrainian soldier was captured in hostilities on the Svitlodarsk bulge on Sunday, he said.

"It has been confirmed that one of our servicemen was captured in combat on the Svitlodarsk bulge on December 18," he said.

According to Lysenko, hostiles have not ceased fire on the Svitlodarsk bulge, and a number of artillery and mortar attacks have been observed since the morning. They also attempted an assault, but the attempt was averted, he said.

"After the storm failed, the hostiles staged five armed provocations during the day with use of grenade launchers of various types. When the attacks were boldest, our servicemen returned fire using weapons which are not prohibited by the Minsk agreements," the spokesman said.

Another hotbed in the Donetsk sector is Avdiyivka, where hostiles have used light weapons and mortars in the industrial zone, Lysenko said, adding that seven shelling incidents were seen in the area over the past day.

The hostilities have shifted to Popasna in the Luhansk sector, Lysenko said, adding that hostiles were broadly using light weapons and employed mortars late at night. There were one armed provocation staged in each of Stanytsia Luhanska and Syze, he said. In all, the truce was broken 13 times in the Luhansk area.

The number of shelling incidents has halved to 13 in the Mariupol sector, yet hostiles continue to actively employ heavy weapons, including 120mm mortars and 122mm artillery, he said. Combat has resumed west of Dokuchayevsk, where more than 60 mines were fired during the day and armored vehicles and small arms were repeatedly used. In addition, hostile mortars and grenade launchers shelled Krasnohorivka three times, he said.
A Latina by any other name would still be a Latina. That means a Latina with the last name O'Briant which sure sounds Irish can still be a Latina. Confused? A short history of names might help:

My maternal grandmother was a Sandoval who married a Gallegos. My mother married the O'Briant. My olive-skinned mom proudly relinquished her father's Spanish surname because of the discrimination she'd experienced growing up. She also emphasized English in our home because in her hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico, her first language had been forbidden in the schools. For her, an Anglo last name was a step up, and she didn't want her children to experience the same prejudice she had endured.

She took it a step further with me by trying to keep me out of the sun and by slathering a bleaching cream called Black/White all over me. Mom threw herself on the bed and wept the time my father brought me home from a day of fishing. I didn't have sunburn but an enviable tan people pay good money for nowadays.

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After my parents' divorce we moved from Texas to Santa Fe where mom's parents still lived. My grandmother spoke only Spanish and my aunts and uncles spoke a lively mix of Spanglish. Grandpa was especially creative. "Don't get so exercise!" he'd say, meaning don't get excited. English was still emphasized in the barrio schools I attended, but at least now you could take Spanish as an elective. Not that my blossoming Spanish helped me blend in. There was still the O'Briant last name with which I had to contend.

Pachucos attacked both my brother and me for having an Anglo surname. The idea that despite all her effort her children would still experience discrimination never occurred to Mom. There is no blame here, but it does explain my cynical worldview.

So, where did the Ramos in my name come from? When I began writing, I chose a penname borrowed from the slender, bookish part of a widely traveled couple who gave me a subscription to National Geographic when I was ten. That magazine opened my mind to possibilities beyond the Santa Fe city limits, but I also wanted to proclaim my heritage, and not from the ground looking up as I had once done with my childhood tormentors: "My mom is Spanish!"

In the early 70's I attended the University of New Mexico. Racial and ethnic divides, as well as the Vietnam War, were the subjects on campuses across the country. My junior year roommate was a Navajo girl whose parents had fled the reservation for Albuquerque suburbia. Genevieve had been raised among middle-class Anglos and been a cheerleader. She wanted to get married and have blond, blue-eyed children.

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"You remind me of my mom," I said. It was around this time that Whoopi Goldberg did a skit about a young black girl wearing a towel around her head and pretending it was her "golden locks."

My roommate and I took a class called Hands Across the Border that emphasized the major racial and ethnic groups in New Mexico. The names that follow are circa 1970: Mexican, Spanish, Anglo, Indian and Black. The problem for the Latinos was that we couldn't make up our minds what we wanted to be called: Latino, Mexican American, Chicano, Hispanic or Spanish American. That last description was hotly debated because there was a difference between Northern New Mexicans and those who lived closer to the Mexican border.

If you called yourself Spanish, as my mother and her generation did, then you were thought to be putting on airs. "You may be Mexican," she told me, "but I'm Spanish."

My novel, The Sandoval Sisters' Secret of Old Blood, is a family legend, with some romantic/erotic embellishment. The sisters adopted Anglo children whose parents had died on the Santa Fe Trail. Spanish became their first language and they took the Sandoval surname. But they still encountered discrimination. The book explores the impact of the Mexican-American War on the sisters. Alma's elopement with a young Texan is my mother's story.



Prejudice and racism happen all over the world, but when it comes to Latinos, we've relaxed with the uproar over names because, well, we're everywhere. The Census Bureau explains that "People who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish may be of any race and from a multitude of countries: America, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central and South America, to name just a few. The AP Stylebook's recommended usage of Latino includes not only persons of Spanish-speaking ancestry, but also more generally includes persons "from-or whose ancestors were from-Latin America, including Brazilians."

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Before the U.S. Census caught up with what was happening across the country, Time Magazine (1993) did a cover story on mixed marriages and what an American would look like in the future. Go here to see the beauty on the cover. She looks Latina to me.
By Jonathan Cohen



As right-wing populism fuels a growing crackdown on democracy and civil liberties, lawyers and human rights advocates aren't the only people getting nervous. Public health experts are too. Why? Because studies and anecdotal evidence demonstrate quite clearly that as authoritarianism rises, indicators of health fall.

Donald Trump's election took many in the United States by surprise. But viewed in the context of what's been happening in Europe and other parts of the world, it is just one part of a broader trend. Trump, like ascending conservative leaders and parties in France, Germany, and Italy, among others, has proposed tighter controls on immigration and a rollback of long-standing foreign alliances. With authoritarian politicians and ideas proliferating, the consequences could extend well beyond the realm of policy -- we may get sicker.

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Several researchers have found a statistically significant relationship between the level of freedom or democracy in a country and the health of its population. In a 2004 article in the BMJ, Alvaro Franco and his colleagues compared health statistics to the freedom index produced by Freedom House, an independent watchdog organization. They found that free countries -- those that respect political rights and civil liberties -- had higher life expectancy and lower maternal and infant mortality than partially or not free countries.

Franco and his team speculated that free countries have more pressure groups, greater opportunities for empowerment, higher levels of access to information, and government recognition of people's needs -- all of which contribute to good health. Other studies have shown similar connections between democracy and health, including one that showed improved health in post-Communist countries the more they became democratized.

Russia, a country whose leader Trump has praised, is a case in point. The country scored 22 out of 100 in Freedom House's 2016 report, with a freedom score similar to Afghanistan, Iran, and Vietnam. By comparison, the United States scored 90. Average life expectancy in Russia is almost 10 years lower than in the United States. Russia has the largest HIV epidemic in the European Region, and one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the world. Although the country is facing a major epidemic of opioid addiction, it prohibits the use of methadone for addiction treatment and even persecutes scientists who promote methadone treatment.

The United States also suffers from a massive opioid epidemic, one that has grown exponentially in recent years. Trump has called it "a tremendous problem." But rather than promoting evidence-based policies like methadone treatment and needle and syringe programs, he has proposed building a wall along the US-Mexico border to stop the inflow of opioids. When challenged on this idea, he compared his wall to the Great Wall of China.

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But China may provide the strongest proof of the public health crisis that could await countries that veer down an undemocratic path. During the country's "Great Leap Forward" in the late 1950s, an estimated 45 million people died of starvation and famine. While the Communist Party has offered a variety of explanations, from natural disasters to poor planning, its authoritarian policies may have been the real culprit. The ruling party persecuted people who criticized its agricultural policies, hid information from the public, and overestimated its food supply. As the Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has written, "no substantial famine has ever occurred in a democratic country -- no matter how poor."

Effective public health systems depend on respect for evidence and science, a free press, and the rule of law, but voters around the world don't seem to be making that connection. In the United States, public health statistics were a remarkably accurate predictor of voting behavior, according to multiple recent analyses. Counties with high numbers of drug overdose deaths in Ohio and Pennsylvania, two states that were crucial to Trump's victory, also had relatively high numbers of people voting for Trump. The Economist found that counties with high rates of obesity, diabetes, alcohol intake, and lack of exercise -- in other words, poor public health -- accounted for 43 percent of Trump's gains among Republicans compared to Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president in 2012.

And Trump won all 16 states with the highest mortality rates, according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh included in STAT's On Call newsletter recently. "These data suggest that Trump voters were expressing dissatisfaction with real problems that included shorter lives and less healthy living conditions," said Dr. Donald S. Burke, dean of the University of Pittsburgh's graduate school of public health.

That's a long way of saying that some of the country's most unhealthy citizens may have unwittingly voted for a man whose policy proposals could make them even sicker.
Recently, I read a query posed by Qideas on how the church can impact the culture. Qideas is a national organization birthed to remind Christians, particularly leaders, that we are responsible for renewing and redeeming the culture. The query left me wondering which church Qideas was referring to. The church remains one of the most segregated institutions in the United States. Within that segregation lies significant differences between the way that black and majority churches view impacting the culture.

This post is my response to that query. At the outset, I acknowledge that my post will anger more than a few white Christians. Some may even dismiss my response as wrong, shortsighted, or unfair. This post is none of those things. My comments most certainly do not apply to all majority churches. There are many majority churches committed to fighting systemic racism and injustice. Even more majority churches are actively confronting the institutionalized and individual racism existing within its own ranks. Do not take my concerns personally. That said, if I step on your toes, just holler ouch.

I am African American. I was raised in and am a proud member of the black church. It is the one place where I can go to freely and safely worship with people who understand the pain and oppression that comes with being African American in the United States. Our pain and oppression does not mean that we see ourselves as victims. Rather, it is a reality that is part of our history in this country. The safe harbor that is the black church is especially critical in the current climate of hostility towards African Americans that visibly erupted and has been ongoing since the 2008 election of President Obama. Out of necessity the black church is expert at forming the alliances critical to our individual and collective survival. That said the black church is hardly perfect or without blemish. Despite all of its imperfections, the black church has always been a refuge of comfort, protection, and strength for many regardless of race, socioeconomic status, citizenry, and even religious denomination.

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Over the years, I have listened to Christian conservatives talk about impacting the culture. As an African American believer, I am struggling to understand how the majority conservative church will impact the culture if it will not disrupt the callousness and hostility heaped upon people of color, different religions, and immigrants by some within its membership. This behavior was on prominent display during the recent presidential election and has only intensified since November 8. While perusing Twitter, I have read hundreds of hate-filled, angry tweets expressing unbridled contempt for people of color, Muslims, and immigrants from countries like Mexico, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Syria by white people who identify themselves as conservative Christians. I have listened to vitriolic speeches and radio interviews and watched televised events where the same hateful behavior is displayed by those who call themselves children of God. This behavior seems antithetical to the character of Christ. Why is it difficult to show compassion, love, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Isn't this what God calls Christians to demonstrate?

Why has the majority church continued to be silent while a presidential candidate now president-elect traffics in hate and promotes violence against anyone who does not look like or agree with him? Trafficking in hate has emboldened hate groups and white nationalists to step out of the shadows. The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented nearly 900 incidents of hate and terror since the election. At least one black church has been burned to the ground. African Americans, Muslims, Hispanics, and immigrants have been beaten. African Americans are now openly called nigger, spat upon, and had nooses tied around their necks. Swastikas and other nationalist symbols are appearing on buildings. I have read news articles about Hispanic, Muslim, and other children of color who are regularly terrorized by their peers and told that the president-elect is going to deport them. Other articles tell stories about children who have told their teachers that they fear being deported. All of this despite the fact that the Southern Poverty Law Center found that ninety-five percent of Hispanic children are United States citizens. The Ku Klux Klan is planning to march in North Carolina and white nationalists held a rally during which attendees yelled "Heil Trump" while raising their arm in the Nazi salute. An African American man was recently beaten and shot to death by three white men simply because of his skin color. Perhaps I have missed it, but I have not seen majority leadership from within the Christian conservative or evangelical church denounce any of these horrible incidents. Consequently, it could be argued that the majority church's failure to denounce or boldly confront racism, violence, and hatred is tacit approval of the acts perpetrated.

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How will the majority church impact the larger culture when many within its ranks openly embrace a thrice married president-elect who has had countless extramarital affairs and is dripping in misogyny. He is unkind and lacks empathy for anyone who does not look like him. During my years as a stay at home mother, I was an avid listener to programs like Focus on the Family and practically raised my children on Adventures in Odyssey. These programs celebrate evangelical views regarding the sanctity of marriage and family while discouraging divorce. They also shaped my understanding of the Christian conservative or evangelical perspectives on these subjects. The seeming contradiction between supporting a president-elect whose marital history is opposite the values espoused by these and other similar programs has left me wondering whether the majority evangelical church has essentially forfeited the right to offer any opinion on marriage, family, and divorce.

God gave Jesus to the world because He loves us. God does not favor one race, denomination, country, or even political party over another. Conversely no one race, denomination or person has a monopoly on God. We may all worship God in our own unique way but our mission is the same: to love our neighbors as ourselves. We can love our neighbors by serving them without judgment or regard to race, religious denomination, citizenship, or ethnicity. Through this the church will most certainly impact the culture.

So, how can the majority church impact the culture?

Acknowledge: That racism, injustice, and inequality is ingrained within the fabric of America. African Americans and other communities of color did not ask for systemic racism and injustice but must negotiate these realities daily.

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Heal: Healing is essential to addressing racism, systemic injustice, and inequality. You cannot heal what you will not acknowledge.

Confront: Honestly evaluate and confront the implicit biases, racism, and islamophobia within your congregation.

Partner: Visit and partner with churches that successfully work with people of color, immigrants, and vulnerable communities.

Preach: Openly and regularly address the racism, islamophobia, implicit bias, and injustice in weekly sermons.

Accept: Accept the fact that others do not worship or express their faith as you do. Stop expecting us to believe and express our faith like you do. Our differences do not make us less Christian or religious.

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As Americans, we can no longer avoid the hard and uncomfortable conversations about racism, injustice, implicit bias, immigrants, and religious differences. You may dismiss what I have written. But to quote Dr. Martin Luther King "[w]e must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
For most of this election season, we were hoping that the candidates and at least one debate question touched on something that was glaringly obvious to us who were watching at home... our homes. The lack of focus on how federal policies will impact us where we rest our heads each night was frustrating.



We had hoped that the candidates would share with us their positions on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage; the proper role of government in supporting the housing market; the best way to manage consumer protection efforts; and views on how to help homeowners get back on their feet after the housing crisis or a natural disaster (of which there were several during the campaign season).



This year, our candidates did not really weigh in on the issues that impact us every day as we open and shut the front door to our homes. We know that when we open our doors we are shooing away mosquitos, checking The Weather Channel, and fretting about water quality and many of us don't live in Florida, Louisiana, California, or Michigan where those have been real issues. Most of us are just normal homeowners who wants to know how our government will react if our community is struck by something horrible like a flood, hurricane, forest fire, poisoned drinking water, or the Zika virus. These are the kinds of location-based issues that millions of homeowners are facing right now and it is just not being talked about enough.



Furthermore, we are not terribly sure we know how our government plans to support our most important financial asset: our homes. As we look around our neighborhoods, our baby boomer neighbors are thinking about selling their homes now that their kids are all grown up, but they are also wondering if there is a pipeline of young families who are going to be able to buy their home. They want to know that if they decide to sell their house, or refinance it, that there will be an advantageous economic environment to do it. In our campaign season, we really didn't hear how the candidates planned to tackle the ability of the market to protect home values or find ways for housing finance to keep pace with demand.



We haven't really been able to pin down the President-elect's view on these issues and we find ourselves asking, "How will he govern?"



Addressing the concerns of the approximate 75 million homeowners and the 33 million aspiring homeowners should be a priority for the new Administration. These sheer numbers alone demonstrate why it is important for an organized approach. This year, we hope President-Elect Trump lets us know that the following key homeownership issues will be addressed once he assumes office:



Preservation of the 30-year fixed rate, fully pre-payable mortgage;

Wide availability of low down payment financing;

Tax deductions: real estate tax deduction, mortgage interest, deduction and mortgage insurance deduction;

Construction to meet the need of the rising tide of new households being formed,

Expanded opportunity through the use of alternative credit scoring models, and

Affordable homeownership counseling.



While we are at it, let's hold the Congress' feet to the fire, as well. In the latest government spending legislation, they had the opportunity to find ways to allow hundreds of thousands of creditworthy borrowers get the green light to an affordable and sustainable mortgage if only they instructed the mortgage giants at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA to use more modern alternative credit scoring models. Moreover, the Congress has been talking for months and years about how to improve the current housing finance system. While we applaud their modest work on the issue, we don't think there has been enough focus on how everyday homeowners benefit from changes they have suggested and much more work needs to be done in this area. Effective housing policy changes that meet the needs of existing and aspiring homeowners will result in significant job growth and improved economic prosperity for everyone.



Soon after the Inauguration, we hope that President Trump will embrace current homeowners and aspiring homeowners and make their priorities his priorities. If he needs reminding, we plan to be there each step of the way advocating for a better, brighter financial future for each of you and for the Members of the America's Homeowner Alliance.
So that's that. Donald Trump is now formally the President-elect of the United States. The Electoral College met and voted on Monday. And with the hyped campaign to turn electors away from Trump having virtually no impact, while turning fewer electors away from Trump than those turned away from Hillary Clinton, Il Duce Donald's impending presidency is even more official.

Despite the fact that the endlessly aggressive know-nothing candidate lost the national popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, a significant 2.1 percentage points, the widest margin of popular vote defeat for any of the five American presidents to win the White House on the archaic strength of the Electoral College alone, it is Trump who shocked almost all the experts by prevailing.

He did it -- as I warned in a column the week before the election, and as Bernie Sanders campaigners warned the arrogantly unresponsive Clinton high command repeatedly -- by breaking through the so-called "Blue Wall" that Democrats had supposedly erected in several key states of America's traditional industrial Heartland. He turned just enough Barack Obama voters against Clinton. His unsurprising wedges? Bill Clinton's trade policies and his post-presidential, and Hillary's prospective presidential, buck-raking to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Which didn't set well with folks now barely making do in a supposed economic recovery.

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Though of course the Clintons, who didn't cancel their election night fireworks show till just before the election, are desperately trying to spin it all away as being due to the FBI, fake news, the Russians, i.e., anything but taking responsibility for their own mistakes. But enough about that, for now, as it is the perhaps, er, unprepared Trump who must confront a kaleidoscopic new world chaos which has been so dramatically illustrated by a number of stunning events in just the past few days. None of which the media is putting together, naturally.

The stunning assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey, as he opened an art exhibit in capital city Ankara, by a Turkish policeman who proceeded to rant about an Islamist agenda before himself being shot to death points up the inherent vulnerability of our new world disorder.

** Aleppo Falls and the Syrian Civil War Grinds Down. As previously suggested, Aleppo has fallen to Syrian regime forces aided by Iran and Russia much faster than the Isis stronghold of Mosul, now besieged by US-backed Iraqi government forces. With it at long last becoming evident in at least some Western media that Syrian rebels -- who burned civilian evacuee buses this week -- were manipulating the humanitarian crisis for military gain, Russia, Iran and Turkey (which backs the Syrian rebels) have agreed to settle the Syrian Civil War in meetings early in the new year.

Does Trump want the US, which under Obama intervened fitfully and ineffectively, and under Hillary would have intervened much more heavily (and probably disastrously), to remain on the sidelines, thus adding to Russian prestige? Or he is just glad to be rid of a headache?

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Mr. Itchy Twitter Finger doesn't have much, anything, to say on this.

** The Telling Assassination of Russia's Ambassador to Turkey. It was a stunning moment, with friendship renewed between Russia and Turkey after months of tension over the shoot-down of a Russian fighter-bomber attacking Syrian rebels. As he opened an art exhibit in the capital city Ankara, the Russian ambassador was suddenly gunned down by a Turkish police officer screaming an Islamist slogan, raging against Russian intervention in Syria. But that isn't stopping Russia and Turkey from moving to end the Syrian Civil War, already downgraded to an insurgency by the fall of Aleppo.

I suspect that makes Trump happy. But what must be disquieting is how vulnerable officials can be, how volatile the security situation is even when things are supposedly under control in friendly environs.

Does Trump really have any better answers to this than the Obama administration had? There's certainly no evidence of that. Bluster will not eliminate the random element in complex situations.

** The Now Stalled Mosul Offensive Against Isis May Drag On For More Months. Well, after jumping off with high hopes a few months ago, US-backed Iraqi forces, with American special forces there on the ground, may now, according to Iraqi sources, take until next spring or even next summer to knock out the stubborn, outnumbered Isis forces in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city.

Once again, so much for Obama's ludicrous assessment of Isis as "the jayvee team" of whatever it was he preferred to call jihadism.

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The failure of the Obama National Security Council to move swiftly and decisively against Isis while it was still setting up its supposed "caliphate," which I wrote about for months as the Obama administration indulged in pointless diplo-stall -- oh, wait, we have to force a cosmetic change in the Baghdad government -- will haunt Obama's frequently quite admirable presidency forever. It's not as big a mistake as the invasion of Iraq, which Obama of course opposed. But it is up there, all right.

Trump, meanwhile, claims to have a secret plan to defeat Isis. But he hasn't twittered much about Mosul. Perhaps he's being polite to Obama. Or perhaps he has no idea what to do.

While Trump's controversial (and in some ways problematic) new National Security Advisor Mike Flynn was right very early on about Isis while director of Defense Intelligence -- something invariably left out of critical mainstream media profiles of the guy, and something for which he deserves a great deal of credit -- there is no evidence that Team Trump is clear on what to do now. Bluster on Twitter is not the same as effective action. And, more to the point, it is always harder to close the barn door after the horse, well, you know the tortured metaphor.

** Monday's Horrific Terrorist Attack in Berlin Looks Like It Is Right Out of the Homegrown Jihadist Handbook. So Trump can say "I told you so." But so what? He's not going on Howard Stern's radio show to blather. What is he actually going to do to stop this sort of thing?

It is true that, had the Syrian Civil War, which was never this generation's equivalent of the Spanish Civil War, notwithstanding the incessant hype, not taken place, there would not have been such a grave refugee crisis. And Germany, with a truly historic show of humanity, would not have had to step up to take in nearly a million refugees, an act which now may threaten even estimable Chancellor Angela Merkel's electoral future. But Isis would still have had plenty of potential recruits to inspire to homegrown jihadism. Not that we know know that any Syrian refugees were involved in this latest terrifying act.

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Again, what solutions does Trump really have? He has blustered on in the past about bombing the hell out of Isis, about taking them out on the ground. Well, we are bombing the hell out of them. As for taking them out on the ground ...

Is Trump aware, as are his friends the Israelis, that it is actually Isis doctrine to provoke "the armies of Rome," i.e., America and her allies, into another foolish ground war in the Middle East? Isis leaders really do want another American bull in the china shop. Just as Osama bin Laden hoped to provoke the Bush/Cheney administration into invading the Middle East, which they did in one of the classic non sequitur moves of world history.

Trump, as it happens, upon further review, may well have opposed the US invasion of Iraq. He certainly wasn't enthusiastic about it. But does he know how to avoid similar pitfalls in the future?

** The Saudi Admission of Their Use of Cluster Bombs In Their Anything But Splendid Little War in Yemen, against an Iranian-backed coalition headed by a decades-long American ally, is a big problem for Trump. It's also another big problem for the benighted Obama National Security Council, since the use of cluster bombs against targets with civilians in the vicinity is what most of the world considers a war crime. But Obama is just a month away from the big hand-off. And it's the holidays, so the American media, ever vigilant on Trump tweets, won't report about it.

What does Trump want to do about the Saudis? He's given no clear idea, though he once floated the idea of allowing the Saudis to develop their own nuclear weapons. Bad idea. Saudi Arabia is already one of the very biggest military spenders on the planet, with good old Uncle Sugar providing almost all the armaments. Yes, this has happened under the Obama administration, not the Trump or Bush/Cheney regimes.

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Does Trump want to wind down US support -- which has been crucial from a technical standpoint -- for the Saudi air war in Yemen? It's a big decision, one that could, if he takes that direction, seem to slant in favor of his supposed bete noire Iran in the regional Sunni-Shia proxy war that really defines much of the Middle Eastern dynamic once one strips away the humanitarian interventionist rhetoric.

Of course, there is an influential Middle Eastern power which seems to believe it best to stand back, not that either side could accept its support, and let the Islamists of either side of the schism tear away at one another.

** Seizing An Undersea Drone, Or, The China Syndrome, Part 47. What does Trump really intend to do about China? Clearly, he views the freedom of navigation of the South China Sea, which China bizarrely claims sovereignty over in virtual entirety, as a core interest of the United States. And he almost as clearly views the governance of Syria as not being a core interest of the United States. But that isn't far at all from the evident views of Barack Obama, absent Hillary Clinton joggling his elbow in looking at Syria as another, er, great opportunity for American interventionism.

Did Trump really intend to discombobulate PRC leaders when he talked to Taiwan's president, a no-no for nearly 40 years in American diplomacy? Or when he tweeted angrily about China?

Or was he just alternately stating the obvious, if undiplomatic, truth that we support Taiwan on the one hand and frenetically, and all too characteristically, messing with folks he doesn't quite understand on the other?

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That's hard to say.

What is not hard to say is that he made a very public mistake in his Twitter -- can't Melania 86 that famous Android phone of his, at least while most of the country is still asleep?? -- reaction to the outrageous seizure of a US underwater drone off the coast of the Philippines. We don't want it back, really? No, we do want it back. And we got it back, with the good offices of the Obama administration.

And presumably we got it back without any concessions, else the red-hots of the PRC who like to sound at least as though they want war with America would be hooting it up.

We always want our property back, especially when it is in international waters far from China. It was even well outside the area ludicrously claimed by China, a claim, not incidentally, that was unanimously rejected earlier this year by the United Nations tribunal on the law of the sea.

If only Trump were intellectually prepared to do more than dominate an ADD media culture, as he has done from the moment he descended on that godawful gold escalator at Trump Tower and made what so many so foolishly believed to be a great joke of an announcement, the uncertainties about his approach to our now not so new world chaos would not be nearly so severe.
There are 117 stars on the wall of the CIA that mark the sacrifice made by the men and women of the CIA for their country. Their names are not public, because their work is done in anonymity. Yet, they have been an essential part of keeping America safe, particularly in the post 9/11 world.

The recent attacks in Germany and Turkey, which may be linked to terrorist organizations, underscore the need for a fully functioning, fully supported intelligence community. The CIA and the intelligence community provide operational capability and analysis for policy makers in order to determine what happened, why it happened and what an effective response should be to these kind of horrific events.

Calling into question the validity of the work of the CIA and other members of the intelligence community is not only demoralizing for the men and women who work every day of the year to serve the President, it is dangerous. The cacophony of comments about whether there is sufficient proof of Russian involvement in our recent elections, including calling the intelligence community analysis laughable, undermines the effectiveness of the analysts, who are apolitical in their approach to their work, whether on Russia or any other issue.

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In order for policy makers to have the information they need to make informed decisions, they need facts. They get facts and analysis from the intelligence community. This analysis is not biased. It is a result of the work of trained experts who look at information gathered from a number of different sources, including the operational side of the CIA. They then analyze issues based on the information gathered, as well as years of experience examining issues affecting US national security. If the validity of analysis (which is different from how it is applied) is called into question, ignored, or only used to justify a policy decision, rather than inform a policy maker, it undermines the work of the intelligence community.

The CIA plays various roles. It has an operational side that gathers information globally through clandestine operations. The men and women who work operations do so in the shadows and get no recognition for their work beyond their colleagues, the leadership in the intelligence community, and those executive branch policy makers who are privy to the details of their operations. They do this work because they care about their country. They are patriots.

The analytical side of the CIA is focused on gathering information from all sources, clandestine and open, in order to synthesize it and keep policy makers informed in real time. Analysts work day in and day out to make sure their analysis is accurate and up to date. They are trained to be rigorous. They challenge assumptions, and don't present conclusions until they are confident the information is accurate and ready to be shared. Even then, they present their conclusions with varying degrees of certainty, so policy makers have a clearer picture of the information they are being given.

The science and technology part of the CIA develops the technology that the operational part of the house uses. They are very good at what they do, helping with the effort to gather information, as well protecting those who gather it. The support side of the CIA ensures that the logistics of all the Agency does, runs smoothly and quietly, behind the scenes.

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The CIA is also responsible for managing covert action programs, which are undertaken as a result of Presidential direction. These programs are specific, highly classified and are an integral part of the CIA's work. Those who ensure these programs are effective also labor in obscurity.

It is wrong to think the world of the CIA and intelligence community at large is totally opaque. Congress formed two special committees in the 1970's, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, to oversee the work of the intelligence community. These committees have access to the most highly classified information and meet with the leadership and staff of the intelligence community agencies regularly. The oversight function is respected by both the intelligence community and the Congress.

This is not to say the CIA and their colleagues in the intelligence community are above reproach. They make mistakes. Intelligence is an art not a science. It is worth considering, however, just how significant an impact their work has had on keeping Americans safe. This includes getting bin Laden, Anwar Al-Awlaki, others in Al Qaeda and ISIS leadership, but most important preventing major terrorist attacks on the US homeland. There are many other successes that can't be talked about, because of the need to protect classified information. It's with the "dogs that didn't bark" where the CIA and the intelligence community does its most important work, quietly and without public acknowledgement.

Dismissing out of hand the analysis of the CIA and other intelligence agencies hurts US national security interests. Intelligence informs policy, it does not create it or justify it. The Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) is prepared six days a week, so the President can be kept abreast of the most sensitive and pressing national security issues facing the nation. These briefings also help to build up a knowledge and understanding for the President and his national security advisors.
The yesterday night attack on a synagogue at the Nachman burial complex synagogue in Uman, Cherkasy region was committed by provocateurs, who do not like Ukraine's strengthening ties with Israel. The criminals must be punished to the fullest extent of the law, Israel's honorary consul to Ukraine (western region) Oleh Vyshniakov has said.

"I am shocked by the barbaric attack, which took place in the Nachman synagogue in Uman. Antisemitism is a horrible plague, which is carried out not only in Ukraine. It is necessary to root it out. What disturbs me most of all is that the crazy act of violence committed against revered figures of the Jewish people was committed when relations between Ukraine and Israel were strengthening. Not long ago there was a vote in the United Nations where Israel supported the sovereignty of Ukraine. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman is scheduled to make a visit to Israel in the near future," the statement of Vyshniakov says obtained by the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

The honorary consul said someone does not like stronger ties between the two countries.

"The perpetrators of the crime must be punished to the fullest extent of law. According to Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, they face from five to eight years in prison, if convicted. The guilty parties must be found and put behind bars, in order that other criminals never repeat their crime," the consul said.

Israel's honorary consul expressed satisfaction that the head of Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) Yuriy Lutsenko personally took the investigation under his control.

"Citizens of Israel should understand that this situation is only a provocation and in no way the commonly held position of Ukrainians toward Israeli citizens. They are thankful to them for the friendship and support," Vyshniakov said.

As earlier reported, information was received on December 21 from a caller to the "102" police hotline about unlawful activities taking place at the Nachman synagogue burial complex.

"A police unit dispatched to the location determined that unidentified people had poured red paint near the entrance to the facility and left the head of pig. Evidence was collected by investigators at the location," police reports said. Criminal investigations for hooliganism pursuant to Part 2 of Article 296 of Ukraine's Criminal Code (hooliganism, an offense punishable with a jail term of up to five years) are underway.

Lutsenko's spokeswoman Larysa Sarhan said Lutsenko had taken the investigation of the crime committed in the synagogue under his personal control and cancelled the vacation of the region's top prosecutor. According to Sarhan, Lutsenko "gave instructions to the Cherkasy prosecutors to supervise the investigation of the criminal case."

According to head of the National Police of Ukraine Vadym Troyan, police investigators are at the scene of the crime along with the chief of the Cherkasy region's national police, who is working with competent police investigators to solve the crime.
Reno Commission puts liquor by drink without food sales on 2023 ballot

Hutchinson board acts quickly to respond to brewery's dilemma, but vote is more than a year away.
Ukrainian army advances in the wake of counterattack, takes new positions near Svitlodarsk bulge Turchynov

Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov has arrived in the Svitlodarsk arc area (Donetsk region), where fighting has intensified over the past four days.

Turchynov noted that the Ukrainian military positions have been continually shelled for four days in a row with artillery weapons and large-caliber mortars banned by the Minsk agreements, a spokesperson for the National Security and Defense Council said on Wednesday.

"By the number of shells and rounds launched against our positions near the Svitlodarsk arc, some kind of a record was broken - over 800 per day," the Security Council secretary said.

He claimed that the Ukrainian troops "repelled the attacks" and "in counterattacking, moved forward and took new positions" which gave them an additional advantage in this defense sector."
An interactive catastrophe risk modelling tool using maps, metrics and real time updates called RiskInsight and created by Karen Clark & Company (KCC) is branding itself as the insurance industrys go-to for digital catastrophe analysis.The software is debuting through CATLAB Workshops, the first one brought a handful of insurance companies together earlier in December in Boston to analyze the financial impact of various hurricane scenarios.Karen Clark said she expected the next CATLAB, slated for March 2017, to cover tornados, lightning and hail storms because of the dissatisfaction with current risk modeling around these events.Whats different about the KCC models is theyre open, the clients can actually see the inner workings of the models, you cant see that in a traditional model, Clark said. The idea behind CATLAB is to immerse insurers more into what underlies the loss estimates.Clark said the workshops KCC runs allow insurers to ask what are the assumptions in the risk models? and that RiskInsight enables insurers to touch those assumptions and change them, illustrating the impacts of their loss estimates.The event in Boston, for example, allowed insurers to track hurricanes, generate wind footprints, superimpose that on their exposures, estimate claims and estimate losses.They cant do that with other tools, Clark said. The same thing will be true of severe convective storms (in March).The day after they get claims, insurers can put their actual claims into the RiskInsight software to better hone its accuracy, Clark said.When you have your claims data matched to the wind speed you can do a claims analysis, Clark said. You can say Where the wind speeds were 100mph, my mean damage ratio was 2%, the model says its 3% so my claim is better than the model so I can reduce that.Customizing factors and visualizing effects of potential natural disasters is a capability mostly isolated in the halls of climate organizations who arent taking into account where the policyholders of a given company live, argued Clark.
Diversified insurer Liberty Mutual Insurance has unveiled its Limestone Capital Markets Platform aimed at leveraging investments in US property catastrophe and homeowners risk; as well as London Market specialty insurance.The platform has an initial capitalization of $160 million from various investors and is backed by a multi-year collateralized reinsurance transaction under the stewardship of Bermuda based Limestone Re.The creation of the Limestone platform is a key strategic initiative for Liberty Mutual, said Liberty Mutual senior vice president and director for global reinsurance strategy James Slaughter. This transaction demonstrates investors interest in both traditional property catastrophe reinsurance risks as well as reinsurance risks.
Pot Moratorium Could Slow Greening of the Purple Valley

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The Planning Board last week began to discuss whether it wants to bring to town meeting a proposal for a moratorium on marijuana businesses.



Community Development Director Andrew Groff asked the question in light of advice from town counsel and the Massachusetts Municipal Association about uncertainty in the wake of the passage of a November ballot initiative allowing the production, sale and use of recreational pot.



The recreational use and "home grown" aspect went into effect last Wednesday, but there is no regulatory framework in place for the commercial production or sale of non-medical marijuana in Massachusetts, and the commonwealth has until January 2018 to implement such a framework.



Groff told the Planning Board it is expected that the attorney general's office will authorize municipalities to put a moratorium in place at the town and city level to allow local laws to catch up to voters' rush to legalize the drug.



In the end, the board took no action but decided to seek more information before revisiting the moratorium idea later this year. Any such proposal would need town meeting approval  most likely at the May 2017 annual town meeting.



At first, the planners last Tuesday appeared to split on the question of whether the town needed to put such a moratorium in place.



Vice Chairman Chris Kapiloff, who ran the meeting in place of absent Chairwoman Amy Jeschawitz, suggested that the town would be wise to wait and see how other communities implement the law before adding any bylaws specifying where marijuana can be produced and/or sold.



"Although the answers will not be clear in 12 months  allowing those around us to be 12 months ahead of us will hopefully allow us to see their mistakes in time not to make the same ones," Kapiloff said in a meeting telecast on the town's community access television station, WilliNet. "The second reason I'd like to do this is we have a lot to talk about in terms of how we zone this. Do we allow things to be near our schools? Are their places we don't think people who are in town or from out of town should go to use marijuana?



"There's a lot to discuss. I don't know if we'll be able to do that in the next five months before town meeting."



Board members Chris Winters and Ann McCallum and Chris Winters argued that additional town regulation might not be necessary beyond what already is in place for establishments selling drugs that have been legal for decades.



"Do our bylaws treat liquor stores differently than other retail stores?" Winters asked Groff.



After the town planner indicated that they don't, McCallum continued the thought.



"We don't regulate what our liquor stores and bars look like," she said. "We don't regulate where they can be [aside from generic commercial zoning] because they're commercial establishments."



Kapiloff countered that the potential commercial uses include not just establishments where pot can be sold but also ones where it can be grown and consumed.



"To Chris' point about alcohol, it's a brewery, a liquor store and a bar," Groff said.
Casey Affleck plays an uncle with a mystery past who comes home to be guardian to his nephew.

'Manchester by the Sea': Set your Movie GPS

For those filmgoers who long for a movie with a beginning, middle and end, bereft of razzle-dazzle special effects and philosophy class mind benders, writer-director Kenneth Lonergan's soulfully touching "Manchester by the Sea" is just the ticket. But beware oh ye to whom such traditional fair initially appeals, as the astutely filmed story about an uncle made the guardian of a teenage boy after the kid's father dies ultimately asks just how much reality are you willing to take?



While to a degree you may escape into the fine artistry of the saga, its authenticity poignantly and regularly, to coin a phrase, harks back to the human drama in which we are all cast members. Thus, per the tacit agreement we probably made when Oog put on his first pantomime back in the cave, for the moment we will be transported sympathizers  oohing, ahhing, comparing and most probably shedding a tear or two for our thespic surrogate's troubles.



Harsh truths and issues that demand decisions befall Casey Affleck's Lee Chandler, the uncle in question, and if they don't recall some of your own worries, you're either missing some chromosomes or you've led a charmed life. However, near storybook visuals soften the blows without forsaking genuineness as filmmaker Lonergan romantically turns his eponymous, Manchester-by-the-Sea location into a cinema version of the three walls. In these gossipy confines, everyone knows everyone and their business, and they all know about Lee.



We don't know him at all. For in essence, as the newest challenges to his very being are faced, the unraveling of his mini-biography stands as the movie's primary emphasis. Suffice it to note without giving away the store, he is a character study in survival: part hero, part Job, and part perceived villain. But most of all he exudes that part which makes every person as different as they are similar. Hence, once we get wind that there may be a shrouded mystery about Lee that obviously clouds his return to the picturesque hamlet on Cape Anne, we are beset with curiosity.



We instinctively like him, but don't quite know why, mostly thanks to a highly sensitive performance by Casey Affleck. In fact, as the script gets closer to divulging what everyone but us knows, we fear it may be something so morally indefensible that surely it must change our minds. This dynamic, blended with the latest quandary at hand, is part and parcel of a very good piece of storytelling, but with an old twist that directors are currently giving a renaissance. While yes, there's that traditional beginning, middle and end as promised, it's not always told in that order.


Onyschenko says he is in Germany now, not excluding his return to Ukraine

A nationally wanted MP Oleksandr Onyschenko has said that he is located in Germany at the moment. He said he does not have Russian citizenship and will return to Ukraine, if law enforcement officers stop criminal proceedings against him.

Onyschenko during a Skype press conference on Wednesday said he is currently in Germany, where he is tried, and denied the information that he allegedly has Russian citizenship or he's going to get it. "I do not have any Russian citizenship - this is complete nonsense," the MP said.

Responding to a question whether he plans to return to Ukraine, Onyschenko said: "If law enforcement officers are ready to cooperate [...] and close the case ... I am ready to return to Ukraine."

The people's deputy also assured that he is ready to provide any necessary information to the investigation.

In addition, the MP said, that he did not stop to interact with the U.S. Justice Ministry over the issue of the investigation of possible corruption in Ukraine.

"They found me and asked to provide some evidence," Onyschenko said, adding that he was not notified of the termination of the contract.

He also demonstrated that the contract with the U.S. Justice Ministry - a document, the essence of which is to ensure that the facts provided to them would not be used against him at the court.

Speaking of a polygraph examination, Onyschenko said his answers were found as truthful as 97%.




Haiti - Cruise : A first in Haiti





Monday, December 19, for the first time in Haiti, the cruise ship "Harmony of the Seas" made its big stop in Labadie for a small inaugural ceremony, followed by a guided tour of the spacious interior of this impressive ship.



It should be remembered that this ship, put into service this year, with a length of 362 meters for a width of 47 meters and 18 bridges has 2,394 crew members. With its 2,732 cabins, it can carry on board a total of 6,780 passengers at a cruising speed of 23 knots.



"The Harmony of the Seas", like other cruise ships docking at Labadee, intends to make stops (in Labadee) in Haiti during its cruises across the Caribbean, Mexico and the United States.



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iciHaiti - Politics : Double announcement by the Minister of Planning





Monday, Aviol Fleurant, Minister of Planning and External Cooperation, met with the new Director of External Cooperation, Ambassador Jean Marie Archer, in the presence of, among others, of his Director of Cabinet, the Deputy Director General and of advisers and executives technical staff of the Ministry.



At the meeting, the Minister announced an in-depth reform of external cooperation and the establishment of the Institute for Research in International Cooperation and Development, whose mission will be to train officials in external cooperation.



According to the Minister, this reform will promote the country's autonomy, hoping that the directorate of of external cooperation will become the linchpin of national development. Within the framework of this reform, he expressed the wish that there should be two other Directorates-General within the Ministry, one for external cooperation and one for development planning.



For his part, Director Archer, pledged to work on the materialization of this reform project.



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On Thursday, December 22, at 13.00, the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency's press center will host a press conference entitled "What energy policy of the government can lead to disastrous consequences? The evaluation of the Hydropower Development Program conducted by the leading environmental and scientific organizations of Ukraine. The disclosure of sociological research data on the low awareness of the population from the villages in the surrounding area about the construction of Kaniv hydropower plant." Participants: chairman of the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine, Doctor of Biological Sciences Yaroslav Movchan; deputy chairman of the public council under the State Agency for Water Resources Viktor Melnychuk; environmental policy manager from Ukrainian Environmental NGO Mama-86 Halyna Oleinikova; environmental policy coordinator at the Ukrainian representative of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Svitlana Matus; filmmaker Mykhailo Ilyenko and others (8/5a Reitarska Street). Admission requires press accreditation. Additional information by phone (066) 215 9546.
South Korean Diplomat Summoned Home For Sexual Offenses

Park Jeong-hak, a South Korean diplomat in Chile, was summoned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs because of multiple sexual offenses.

The diplomat, who was in charge of promoting K-pop at the Korean Embassy in Chile, was under fire when a Chilean broadcaster aired, Sunday (local time), a video footage of him sexually abusing an actress disguised as a teenage girl. The whole incident was captured by a hidden camera and was shown in the TV program called "En Su Propia Trampa" (In Your Own Trap).

Prior to that, Park was accused of making improper physical contact with a 14-year-old Chilean girl in September while teaching Korean. After receiving a tip-off from the victim's parents, they planned a trap for the diplomat wherein an actress disguised as a teenage girl deliberately lures him.

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The incident sparked public fury in the Latin American country affecting Koreans who are currently residing there. Korean residents in Chile are getting unfavorable attention because of the incident.

As it turned out, Park had been notorious for his sexual offenses even before the program was aired. The diplomat had also been accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in the past. That's aside from sexually harassing the Chilean wife of a Korean immigrant.

"I and the Korean Embassy truly apologize for the shock and scars caused by the diplomat's shameful behavior," the Korean Ambassador to Chile Yu Ji-eun said. "The Korean government will take due and sure action in accordance with laws and keenly cooperate with the Chilean government in dealing with the issue."

The Korean government promised to deal with the case with "no tolerance" and plans to push for disciplinary measures and criminal charges.

The diplomat was reported to have returned home early today, December 21. He will face questioning by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the accusations.

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Inaugural Meeting of the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group

Washington, DC - The United States of America and the Republic of Korea (ROK) held the inaugural meeting of the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group (EDSCG) in Washington, D.C., today.

The EDSCG, established by the U.S.-ROK Foreign and Defense Ministers (2+2) Meeting on October 19, 2016, was led by vice ministerial-level officials from the ROK and the United States: ROK First Vice Foreign Minister Lim, Sung-nam; ROK Deputy Minister for Defense Policy Yoo, Jeh-seung; U.S. Acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas Countryman; and Performing the Duties of Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Policy of the U.S. Department of Defense David Shear. Officials from both sides held comprehensive and in-depth discussions on strategic and policy issues regarding extended deterrence against North Korea, including how to better leverage the full breadth of national power  using diplomacy, information, military, and economic elements.

The United States reiterated its ironclad and unwavering commitment to draw on the full range of its military capabilities, including the nuclear umbrella, conventional strike, and missile defense, to provide extended deterrence for the ROK, and reaffirmed the longstanding U.S. policy that any attack on the United States or its allies will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons will be met with an effective and overwhelming response. In particular, the United States emphasized that it remains steadfast in meeting these enduring commitments and providing immediate support to the ROK.

In response to North Koreas nuclear and missile threats, the officials reaffirmed the commitment of the United States to regularly deploy U.S. strategic assets for the defense of the ROK, as well as to enhance such measures and identify new or additional steps to strengthen deterrence. The officials also highlighted that the United States in 2016 demonstrated its commitment and resolve to the ROK by exercising extended deterrence through measures to enhance missile defense capabilities and through clear demonstrations of the U.S. nuclear triad, including multiple B-52 strategic bomber flights as well as visits by ROK officials to observe a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) launch (February 25) and board a nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine (SSBN) during its port visit to Guam (November 1).

Emphasizing the importance of the EDSCG as a high-level consultative mechanism and with a common understanding that such various measures to strengthen our combined defense are necessary to maintain effective deterrence of North Korea, the two sides expressed their intent to continue Alliance discussions through the EDSCG on how to best tailor our response to this evolving threat.

The ROK and the United States will discuss the time and venue of future meetings through diplomatic channels.
Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs Release of Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume XXIII, Mexico, Cuba, and the Caribbean

Washington, DC - The Department of State released today Foreign Relations of the United States, 19771980, Volume XXIII, Mexico, Cuba, and the Caribbean.

This volume is part of a subseries of volumes of the Foreign Relations series that documents the foreign policy decision making of the administration of President Jimmy Carter. The nine compilations in this volume examine the Carter administrations foreign policy toward fourteen Caribbean nations, and the Caribbean as a whole.

The volume documents the attempted coup in the Dominican Republic, attempts to normalize relations with Cuba, U.S.-Mexican natural gas negotiations, the opening of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, the Soviet military presence in Cuba, the Mariel Sealift, and the Jonestown Massacre. The debate among U.S. policymakers about whether to promote a regional identity and culture for Caribbean nations and the intersection of Carters human rights agenda with autocratic rule in nations like Haiti also receives focus.
Secretary of State John Kerry's Call With Foreign Minister Lavrov

Washington, DC - Secretary Kerry called Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov this morning to express his deep condolences on the assassination of Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov yesterday in Ankara. He offered U.S. assistance to the investigation in whatever capacity would be required.

The Secretary and Foreign Minister also discussed the specific situation in Syria and the ongoing efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire, secure the prompt delivery of humanitarian assistance, and resume political talks to end the civil war.
(Xinhua) 10:09, December 21, 2016

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obamaon Tuesday banned future oil and gas drilling in most of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, the latest move to cement his environmental legacy before he leaves office next month.

Using his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that allow presidents to withdraw areas from oil and gas leasing and exploration, Obama has protected the entire U.S. Chukchi Sea and the vast majority of the U.S. Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean and 31 canyons in the Atlantic Ocean from drilling, the White Housesaid.

Canada will also freeze offshore oil and gas leasing in its Arctic waters, to be reviewed every five years through a climate and marine science-based assessment, according to the White House.

"These actions, and Canada's parallel actions, protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other region on earth," Obama said in a statement.

"They reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region's harsh conditions is limited," he said.

Obama believed "it would take decades" to fully develop the production infrastructure necessary for any large-scale oil and gas leasing production in the region.

The withdrawal areas announced on Tuesday encompass 3.8 million acres in the north and mid-Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast and 115 million acres in the U.S. Arctic Ocean, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.

"The withdrawal will help build the resilience of these vital ecosystems, provide refuges for at-risk species, sustain commercial fisheries and subsistence traditions, and create natural laboratories for scientists to monitor and explore the impacts of climate change," said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.

Including previous presidential withdrawals, Tuesday's action protects nearly 125 million acres in the offshore Arctic from future oil and gas activity.

Analysts said the incoming administration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump could not simply reverse the action, as the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act doesn't include a procedure for a new president to undo actions by a predecessor.

But Congress could pass legislation lifting the ban, which likely would require 60 votes in the Senate, a high hurdle for many controversial issues.
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On the eve of Fidel Castros funeral, the current president of Cuba Raul Castro announced that his older brothers name and likeness would never be used on institutions, streets, parks or other public sites, and that busts, statues or other forms of tribute would never be erected in order to prevent a cult of personality, or culto a la personalidad.

But the state nonetheless carefully chose an image suitable for Castros memorialisation: a photograph of him posing triumphantly in military fatigues with a backpack and rifle at the top of Pico Turquino, the highest point in Cuba. It was taken in June 1961 in the Sierra Maestra, where the rebel leader and his army fought a guerrilla war between 1956 and 1958.

(James Kent (James Kent)

The picture adorned the facade of the National Library Jose Marti, was displayed at the memorial itself in the Plaza de la Revolucion (Revolution Square) in Havana, and was later supplied in prints at the mass rallies held in Havana and Santiago de Cuba. In the nine days following Castros death, millions of copies of this and other photographs festooned the entire country.

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans attended mass eulogies and vigils in Havana and Santiago; many more lined the central highway and towns and cities on the route as his funeral cortege travelled the length of the country. This was a symbolic reversal of the rebel armys victory caravan following the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. The procession passed through the major towns of Matanzas, Santa Clara, Sancti Spiritus, Camaguey and Las Tunas before arriving in Santiago de Cuba on 3 December.

As soon as he arrived on the world stage in the 1950s, Castro seduced a massive audience, and his image was a crucial tool. He realised the power of photography in the early days of the Cuban Revolution, calling for the creation of picture magazines that would document the story of a new Cuba in photographs. His alluring image still dominates discussions relating to his personality.

In Cuba and the world over, photographs of Castro and Che Guevara are central to the way the Cuban Revolution is remembered and imagined. It was fitting therefore that an image taken by Alberto Korda should be chosen to be used for Castros memorial above all others. It was the same photographers iconic image of Che taken in 1960 that became the quintessential symbol of rebellion and revolution.

Cuban students holding flags and posters of Fidel Castro outside the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba (James Kent)

Placard reads: With Fidel and the Revolution until the Malecon dries up (James Kent)

Federacion Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU) members attend a mass rally in the Plaza de la Revolucion Antonio Maceo in Santiago de Cuba on the eve of Fidel Castros funeral (James Kent)

Homemade placards at a mass eulogy held in the Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana (James Kent)

More than half a century later, its not uncommon to see photographs of the two revered Cuban heroes in both public spaces and in the homes of Cubans across the country. But while Kordas iconic photograph froze Che at 31-years-old in the revolutions fervent early years, Castro held the worlds attention for five decades.

In years to come, it will be interesting to see how Castro is remembered by the Cuban people and the state, especially if the planned law preventing permanent tributes is enacted by the Cuban parliament.

In Havana, one of the worlds most photographed cities, visiting photographers have turned their cameras away from crumbling buildings and classic American cars in order to capture the Cuban people themselves and the photographs of Castro in their hands. They posed in front of foreign visitors and talked to them about the former revolutionary leaders impact on their lives.

The Cubans I photographed referred to Castro as un mito (a legend), un mago (a wizard) or mi padre (my father). Some painted their faces with the slogan: Yo soy Fidel. He is immortalised not only in the photographs they carried, but also in those taken of him over the course of his lifetime.

From childhood images of the late former leader to those picturing him in his eighties, Castros magnetic image and likeness appeared everywhere  on billboards and in newspapers, in makeshift shrines, shop displays and car windows, on homemade banners, placards and posters.

A young Cuban boy in military fatigues at a mass rally in Santiago de Cuba (James Kent)

A Santiaguera poses with portraits of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro (James Kent)

A retired Cuban militiaman, Santiago de Cuba (James Kent)

A man with a portrait of Castro outside Santiago de Cubas Santa Ifigenia Cemetery (James Kent)

They included pre-1959 images, iconic visual representations from the time of the revolution and heroic photos from the 1960s, but also more statesmanlike photographs that presented him as a father figure, often posing with the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in the 1990s and 2000s.

Generations of Fidelistas in Cubas second largest city took pride in what felt like his homecoming to Oriente, receiving the former revolutionary leaders ashes with a heros welcome upon their arrival in Santiago de Cuba. Many of them wore olive-green military uniforms and M-26-7 brazaletes as a tribute to Castro and the failed attack he led on the Moncada Barracks on 26 July 1953.

If Castros dying wish really was that no cult of personality emerge, it was in vain. A true culto gripped the island as soon as he died  one thats arguably been more than 50 years in the making

This article first appeared on The Conversation (theconversation.com). James Kent is a lecturer in Hispanic studies, at Royal Holloway, University of London
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Generation Revolution follows two London-based activist groups as they strive to change the capitals political and social landscape. Through their journey, it tells a sad story - the one of blameless black and brown young people being a potential police target on account of skin colour. The feature-length documentary has recently been released in the UK and it is a brave call to action.

For more than a year, directors Cassie Quarless and Usayd Younis followed activist groups London Black Revolutionaries (or Black Revs) and R Movement.

The Black Revs grabbed headlines for pouring concrete over anti-homeless spikes outside a central London Tesco. The radical R Movement took an online debate and turned into a political action.

The result was a documentary that explores the challenges faced by young activists of colour as they protest against racism, deaths in police custody, migrant policies, attitudes to the homeless and gentrification.

Young people of colour in the UK a lot of time are represented as violent and apolitical, but we knew that in our community there were people who were doing amazing things and we wanted to capture that, Cassie Quarless told The Independent.

Activists during protest over Eric Garner's death.

Through the activists actions and struggles, the audience not only takes a pulse of societys political and social landscape, but is also given a rare insight into how activist groups operate in London.

We still have a problem with access to education for black and brown people; we still have problem with over policing; we still have problems with access to healthcare. People are not only aware of these things, but also acting on these things, the director said.

The film also takes the viewers right to the heart of some of the main demonstrations that took place in London over the last two years. Black Revs called a die-in protest at Westfield shopping centre over Eric Garners death, which saw 76 people arrested in 2015 and The Black Lives Matter movement organised a march in Brixton after the killing of black people in the US last July.

Police arrested 76 people during "die-in" protest in Westfield shopping centre in 2014.

After a moment of disruption at Black Revs, the activist filmmakers tracked the feelings of some group members as they realised that the nature of peaceful protest is more nuanced and gendered than had at first appeared.

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The film - which is an explicit call to action - was released in the UK last month and has since been well received across the country. Over the past year it also featured in renowned festivals, such as Sheffield Doc/Fest and East End Film Festival.

We never had a screening where that hasnt a full Q&A of people always asking questions. Theres never anybody who doesnt feel the need to explore [the questions raised by the film] more, said Usayd Younis.

Generation Revolution can be seen across the UK, with screenings often followed by Q&A sessions with the directors.

For more info, visit: https://genrevfilm.com
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Westworld is the place that people go to live out their fantasies. The Golden Globe-nominated show is also where Luke Hemsworth, who plays Westworlds head of security Ashley Stubbs, landed the acting career that appeared to have previously slipped away from him. It seems you can get what you wish for.

For years, the eldest of the Hemsworth brothers looked on as doors opened in the acting world for his younger brothers, Thor star Chris, and The Dressmaker lead Liam. While they journeyed to Hollywood, the eldest Hemsworth took on a labouring job following in his grandfathers footsteps in Australia.

I dont think I ever saw acting as an actual career, until late. Chris was much different, the 36-year-old Australian tells me at the Dubai Film Festival. Thats why I went down the road of getting a trade and doing flooring and supporting myself that way, because I never really saw coming to Los Angeles as an option.

From a young age, all Luke wanted to do was play. He was a keen sportsman, who would spend his time in the water surfing or playing water polo. Viewing a nine to five job as anathema, he wanted a career that would not involve an office. He saw potential in acting as, I like making people laugh, so drama was never a big leap for me.

He trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Melbourne before graduating to the set of Neighbours. Yet he never quite got that defining role and by the time he was 27, with the first of his four children on the way with wife Samantha, he decided to turn his back on acting.

By that stage I had been in the acting industry and did a whole bunch of stuff and never quite cracked it in the way that I needed to have a career and be able to support myself, he recalls. Waiting for directors to call action often broke his spirit: I was in a dark place and it had to do with the fact that things had not gone in a direction I thought that they would.

He would have given up acting had it not been for the success and generosity of his younger brothers, especially Chris: I went and worked on Thor 2, as his personal trainer.

We laugh. Comparing the physique of Luke, shorter than his brothers, more stocky in build than lithe athlete, its hard to believe that Thor would need training from this man seated in a borrowed three-piece grey Dolce and Gabbana suit. Luke admits, I had very little experience [as a personal trainer]. But what I lacked in experience, I made up for in dedication.

So he moved his family to London, where Thor 2 was filming. He was paid extremely handsomely, which enabled him to relocate with his four children to Los Angeles, moving into a house bought for him by his two younger brothers. None of this surprises me, as Id previously been told how the middle Hemsworth had used the money from his first Marvel movie to buy his parents a house.

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When I mention this to Luke, he has to hold back the tears. Taking off his sunglasses for the first time in the Dubai sun, he mumbles, Yeah. Oh it makes me so emotional. I still remember it because I had to keep a secret. Hed transferred the money to our parents bank account and I had to tell my mum to look. Ill never forget watching my mum open up her online banking page.

In terms of acting royalty its middle brother Chris who is king. It can be an odd situation for an elder brother to have to look to his younger kin for support. But its perfectly in keeping with the straightforward friendly attitude of the Westworld star that he sees it as a gift rather than something to begrudge.

Chris has been in the industry for so long, and hes been a part of so many incredible productions and issues, and I cant help but look up to him and ask for advice, just seeing him be able to do that, to watch that.

Getting to Los Angeles was only the start of the battle. Hollywood is not famous for handing out roles because youre someones brother. Nothing came easy. Even Westworld was a battle in which he had to face rejection before finally coming out on top. He first went to audition for gunslinger Teddy, a role that went to James Marsden. The months passed by, and actors of the calibre of Thandie Newton, Ed Harris, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jeffrey Wright joined the cast.

Then came the call asking if he would be interested in taking on the role of Stubbs. I think I only did one more audition after that, and sealed the deal, says Hemsworth. Its a beautiful jumping off point. Im not carrying the show so Ive not got that pressure. Its an incredible feeling and a great introduction to an American production.

Luke Hemsworth as Stubbs and Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe in Westworld (HBO)

He says that the personality of the character was tailor made for him. There is not a lot of hefty research that I had to do to play Stubbs. There is a lot of stuff that is quite close to me, there is a physical presence, there is an intellect, there is a wry sense of humour, and a sardonicism. Yeah, I think its played quite close to my heart, this character. Maybe that is the answer, he states, laughing as he demeans himself.

The desire to keep people safe comes from his father. He hates bullies. So does my mum. They are both champions of the underdog. My dad has spent 20 years of his life working in child protection and writing policy for organisations across Australia in order to recognise and safeguard against abuse. I think their influence is on all of us. We all dont suffer fools and we are very quick to defend someone.

Trying to get information out of him about the next season and discover if Stubbs will escape from a hostile tribe is like trying to find surf in the Dead Sea. Not that Hemsworth is trying to hide anything; he genuinely doesnt seem to know. He didnt even know what the big reveal in the finale of Westworld was going to be until it happened: They [the shows creators] are very open to a point but they like to keep everything close to their chest. There is a lot of cloak and daggers and misdirection. And its great on their part. No one knew that Jeffrey was disguised.

There will be a long gap before they start shooting season 2, which is not due to air until 2018. They are trying to get it right. They dont want to go in doing what they were doing last time where they were under the cosh the whole time. They want to go in with a clear plan  A to Z and everything in between  at least have drafts in place.

In between times, and unlike in the show, Hemsworth finally gets to play a cowboy. He is the lead role in western Abilene, playing Wild Bill Hickok alongside Kris Kristofferson and Bruce Dern. Its a film about Hickoks life just before he went to Deadwood and was shot in the back, says Hemsworth. Its the first time that Ive been number one on the call sheet. It was all last minute, and there was some trepidation over whether I could do it and learn the amount of material I needed to in the short time available. There was a lot of material  its quite wordy, there is horse riding, shooting guns, but the scary stuff is what excited me.

Abilene will be out in 2017 and Westworld will be available on DVD in 2017
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Collateral Beauty (12A)



Dir. David Frankel, 97 mins, starring: Will Smith, Keira Knightley, Kate Winslet, Edward Norton, Naomie Harris, Helen Mirren

Collateral Beauty is one of the last films to be released this year and also one of the very worst. This is a horribly stodgy and misconceived attempt to make a modern-day New York-set equivalent to Its A Wonderful Life. There arent any angels called Clarence on display. Instead, director David Frankel provides us with three struggling off-Broadway actors called on to portray Death (Helen Mirren), Love (Keira Knightley) and Time (Jacob Latimore). The deeply contrived screenplay from Allan Loeb suggests that they may not be performing.

The reason these three spirits/thesps have been summoned is that hotshot advertising exec Howard Inlet (Will Smith) is in a prolonged slump following the death of his six-year-old daughter. We are certainly not just here to sell sh*t. We are here to connect, Howard tells the rest of the team in a pep talk before his bereavement but, afterwards, he retreats from the world and spends his days in the office building elaborate constructions with thousands of dominoes.

As soon as he has finished one domino sculpture, hell destroy it with a single flick. In his spare time, he writes (and posts) letters to love, death and time. His neglect of his clients has put the future of the agency in jeopardy. Thats why his old colleagues hire a private detective to tail him and to try to prove that he is not mentally fit to run the company.

This is a movie full of lonely and unhappy people. Every character at the agency is in emotional turmoil. Howards business partner Whit (Edward Norton) has just been through a messy divorce and his pampered young daughter wants nothing to do with him. Claire (Kate Winslet) has been so devoted to her work for so long that it may now be too late for her to have kids of her own.

Simon (Michael Pena) is very ill and desperate to provide for his young family. The three come up with a bizarre scheme to hire actors to play Love, Death and Time, to film Howard speaking to them and then to digitally tweak the footage so that it looks as if hes talking to himself and really is a loony.

There are references here to parallel universes and the secrets of the cosmos. The real mystery, though, is why such fine actors all agreed to appear in such a half-baked movie. Late on, Helen Mirren gets arguably the very worst line in the film  the one in which she tells us that in spite of all the suffering and injustice in the world, well find the collateral beauty if only we look hard enough for it.

As Death, Mirren is more Miss Marple than scythe-wielding grim reaper. Knightleys Love is shy, impulsive, wears a red hat and is good at advertising slogans. Latimores Time is a brash street kid on a skateboard.

 Collateral Beauty - Trailer 2

Meanwhile, as the grieving dad, Will Smith is at very low wattage. His is so busy looking distracted and forlorn that he gets very little chance to show off his trademark charm. Its strange, too, to see an actor as intense as Norton in such a syrupy role. You always half expect that he is going to step out of character and expose the film as an ironic spoof. Unfortunately, he never does.

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The pick of the performances comes from Naomie Harris as Madeleine, the counsellor who has lost a daughter herself and holds meetings for parents whove suffered similar bereavements. Shes the only one of the main protagonists who doesnt give into extreme self-pity.

Collateral Beauty has glossy and impressive production values. There is beautiful high angle footage of the New York skyline at night. The street level scenes (Norton chasing after Knightley through a crowded Manhattan or Smith riding across town on his bike) are shot with plenty of verve. Its the script itself which acts as the deadweight here in what turns out to be one of the soggiest, most manipulative melodramas imaginable.

Why Him? (15)



Dir. John Hamburg, 111 mins, starring: Bryan Cranston, James Franco, Zoey Deutch, Megan Mullally, Keegan-Michael Key, Griffin Gluck

Why Him? is a very crude and intermittently very entertaining seasonal comedy that plays like an adult version of Meet The Parents. Its trump card is the performance from James Franco, every bit as sleazy here as he was in Harmony Korines Spring Breakers but who also brings an unlikely and appealing little boy lost-like naivete to his role as the foul-mouthed tech billionaire Laird Mayhew.

Laird has no filters. Hell say whatever comes into his mind, generally prefaced by as many expletives as possible. He is going out with young Stanford student Stephanie (Zoey Deutsch). She invites parents Ned Fleming (Bryan Cranston) and Barb (Megan Mullally) to come to Palo Alto to spend the holidays with her and Laird. Ned runs his own printing company and is a strait-laced type, not at all used to dealing with tattoo-covered gaming moguls like Laird.

Actor Jonah Hill co-wrote a screenplay in which the humour is often prurient in the extreme. There are jokes here about vaginal douches, bukkake, and moose urine. The filmmakers also play up the differences between old media, as represented by Ned with his struggling print business back east, and the brave new world of Silicon Valley where even loo paper is considered an extreme anachronism. This leads to maximum, trousers-round the-ankles embarrassment for Ned in one of the films most excruciating scenes.

 Why Him? - Red Band Trailer 2

Like Robert DeNiros character in Meet The Parents, Cranstons Ned is uptight and extremely distrustful of spontaneous expressions of emotion. Cranston is effectively the straight man to Francos clown but he plays his role with just the right measure of pomposity and wounded dignity. Inevitably, the anarchic glee of the early scenes gives way to a much more conventional style of storytelling.

Ned and Laird may seem like polar opposites in temperament, class and behaviour but as Stephanie makes clear, she regards them as being very similar. Both are extremely stubborn and both think that they know what is best for her.

Why Him? flags eventually. Some of its later gags are very laboured. The scenes of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from rock band Kiss singing acoustic versions of Christmas carols are pretty feeble and the celebrity cameos from chefs (Richard Blais) and inventors (Elon Musk of electric car fame) verge on the redundant.

Nonetheless, Franco gives one of his most likeable performances and there is strong comic support too from Keegan-Michael Key as Lairds bodyguard/valet/fixer/business advisor/martial arts instructor Gustav, who speaks in a wonderfully camp Germanic accent. In its own goofy, lowbrow way, the film is plenty of fun.

Operation Chromite (15)



Dir. John H Lee, 108 mins, starring: Liam Neeson, Jung-jae Lee, Beom-su Lee, Sean Dulake, Justin Rupple

Liam Neeson gives an eccentric performance as General MacArthur (I am Douglas MacArthur, I win wars) in this South Korean war movie set in the run-up to The Battle Of Inchon in 1950. Neesons MacArthur is seen smoking his Popeye-like pipe and arguing with his fellow military commanders back at headquarters while the films hero, the James Bond-like Captain Jang Hak-soo (Lee Jung-jae), leads an undercover mission behind enemy North Korean lines.

Every so often, characters will stop to discuss ideology or MacArthurs bid for the presidency but this is primarily an action-driven romp. The tension early on comes from Jangs efforts to pass himself and his men off as loyal communists. The ruthless, trigger-happy villain Lim Gye-jin (played in quietly sadistic fashion by Lee Beom-soo) is suspicious of them from the outset.

Surreptitious raids on enemy offices in search of maps of mines, shoot-outs in barracks and hospitals and chases are all thrown into the mix. This is a film squarely aimed at South Korean audiences  and it cant help but seem mildly baffling to viewers from elsewhere. Its tone is unashamedly jingoistic and the screenplay is very simple-minded. As a film about the political intricacies of the Korean war, its an utter failure but as a boys own adventure romp, full of gunfire and explosions, it just about passes muster.
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The nineties has seen a fashion resurgence of late; think grunge glam and CK-worthy denim. The one hold-out area? Bras - or so we thought.

In recent years, padded cups have been replaced with triangle bras, sheer fabrics and a more natural-looking silhouette but, according to experts, the push-up bra is about to make a comeback.

Last month, fashion Bible Vogue declared that the cleavage had finally seen its day, as women fought back against the judgement of social media.

Alas, it was never meant to be.

While women have heralded soft cup styles and non-underwired numbers as the new bra in town, it seems the lingerie industry has other ideas.

Instead, it looks like were unduly resigned to prodding wires, on-show bosoms and another circa-1994 Hello, Boys phase.

If you thought wed come a long way since Wonderbras traffic-stopping billboard then you were wrong.

I think the push-up bra is going to come back Sarah Shotton, creative director at Agent Provocateur told WhoWhatWear.

Curvy Kate's diverse #TheNewSexy lingerie campaign Show all 9 1 /9 Curvy Kate's diverse #TheNewSexy lingerie campaign Curvy Kate's diverse #TheNewSexy lingerie campaign Curvy Kate Curvy Kate's diverse #TheNewSexy lingerie campaign Curvy Kate Curvy Kate's diverse #TheNewSexy lingerie campaign Curvy Kate Curvy Kate's diverse #TheNewSexy lingerie campaign Curvy Kate Curvy Kate's diverse #TheNewSexy lingerie campaign Curvy Kate Curvy Kate's diverse #TheNewSexy lingerie campaign Curvy Kate Curvy Kate's diverse #TheNewSexy lingerie campaign Curvy Kate Curvy Kate's diverse #TheNewSexy lingerie campaign Curvy Kate Curvy Kate's diverse #TheNewSexy lingerie campaign Curvy Kate

I think there's still a huge '90s thing going on, and that was all push-ups.

If the recent Victorias Secret Fashion Show is anything to go by, she could be on to something.

For the Angel brigade, push-up bras are a 24/7 essential and model Stella Maxwell agrees.

I love push-up bras, I think they're great, she said.

For decades, the cleavages function has been an essential part of looking glamorous but, it also created a blockade against being taken seriously.

Take the recent casting call that actress Rose McGowan criticised for being sexist.

Recommended Recruitment agency posts job adverts specifying bra size

The advert in question, which was later confirmed to be for a movie starring Hollywood actor Adam Sandler, stipulated that female applicants must wear a form-fitting tank that shows off cleavage and encouraged the use of a a push-up bra.

Sure, some women wear them for themselves, because they like the way they look in them, and thats great. But, can the return of an item that promotes yet another narrow ideal of female beauty ever be a good thing?
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An alcohol addiction expert says that the booze-soaked festive period where the usual social norms no longer apply can be the trigger for longer-term problem drinking.

It comes as debates rage online about whether it's acceptable to crack open bottles of alcohol early during the run-up to Christmas.

There are two key reasons why people end up drinking more at Christmas.

The first is the increase in parties, but for some the festive period can be a miserable time, and they end up self-medicating with alcohol, Dr Sally Marlow from the Addictions Department at Kings College London told The Independent.

They feel they need to do it more to cope because for a lot of people Christmas isnt like a John Lewis ad.

While no-one is likely to develop a severe alcohol problem solely in the run-up to Christmas, its a time of increased risk.

You wont suddenly tip into alcoholism but you might realise the severity of your drinking when you wake up one morning.

But the more you drink and the more frequently you drink, the more likely you are to become dependent on alcohol and move towards an alcohol problem.

People develop alcohol dependence at different rates - its a combination of how their biology and neuropsychology work, how they metabolise alcohol. But the more you drink the more at risk you are because you develop tolerance, Dr Marlow explained.

The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol Show all 10 1 /10 The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 10. Poland Results from an OECD report The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 9. Germany The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 8. Luxembourg Rex Features The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 7. France The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 6. Hungary Rex Features The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 5. Russia AFP/Getty Images The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 4. Czech Republic The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 3. Estonia Rex Features The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 2. Austria Getty Images The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 1. Lithuania AFP/Getty Images

While its generally accepted that people will crack open the hard stuff on Christmas morning as a special treat, early morning drinking in the run-up to the big day regularly splits opinion online.

In the latest example, one woman wrote on Mumsnet that shed had a Baileys hot chocolate at 8am.

And while many people approved, some chipped in raising concerns that it could be problematic.

One said: Bizarre how people are egging on really worrying behaviour.

Another added: At home, in the middle of the week for no particular reason? Nah. Not big and not clever. And possibly quite concerning actually.

But many said it was harmless fun: It's fine, it's Christmas! Enjoy yourself, wrote one woman.

So whether youre cheersing with chums or sipping amaretto alone, it might be worth asking yourself why youre drinking and make sure you enjoy the festive season for the right reasons.
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When perusing the wine list in a restaurant, most of us will admit we havent really got a clue what were looking for and usually end up going for the second cheapest by default.

But waiters say there's a really simple way to improve the wine you're served in restaurants; be brutally honest about your situation.

Wine expert Robert Bohr says you shouldn't be afraid to admit if you want to keep things cheap because you just want to get drunk with some friends - or admit that you want to be particularly flash to impress family members.

He gave the examples: Im out with my college buddies and we just want to have a bottle of wine because we want to drink, or Im out with my in-laws and I want to kind of show off a little bit, or Im with my in-laws and I DONT want to show off - these are all going to require different bottles."

The other key thing is to stop being vague, and get really specific about the tastes you like.

Everything from which types of wines you've tried and enjoyed, if there are wines from a certain country that you prefer, or simply if there are attributes that are important to you such as fruitiness. If you explain what you like, any good server will be able to recommend something.

Its crucial not to be embarrassed about admitting youre not sure what to order or afraid the waiter will judge you on your tastes: Dont worry about looking like an amateur, Bohr told Lucky Peach.

The trouble is, if youre trying to impress on a first date, everyone wants to come across like a cultured, sophisticated adult who knows their Sauvignon from their Chardonnay.

But Bohr says we mustnt be afraid to ask, because thats how well end up drinking something we don't enjoy.

 A bottle of wine a day is not bad for you and abstaining is worse than drinking, scientist claims

However the trouble is that most people think restaurants are just trying to exploit them through their wines: Right now, everyone still thinks theyre getting f***ed when it comes to wine, Bohr says, but he wants the hospitality industry to focus more on making people happy than making money.

Bohr also explains that most restaurants store wine incorrectly and he has particular contempt for ones that keep it above their coffee machines: Serving warm red wine exacerbates the perception of the alcohol in the wine and makes the tannins seem coarser - the wine feels disjointed and bad, he says.

So even if you dont know much, at least youll be able to appear a wine snob with regards to storage next time youre trying to impress your dinner companions.
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The saying goes that you cant help who you fall in love with, and sometimes you just fall out of it too.

But a new study has found that we can in fact control our hearts with our heads more than we thought - psychologists from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Erasmus University Rotterdam found that its possible to wilfully increase or decrease how much you love someone.

Its called love regulation.

Recommended 12 surprising psychological reasons someone might fall in love with yo

The researchers studied 40 people, twenty of whom were in a long-term relationship, and the other half having recently come out of one - the average time since the break-up was three months.

Each participant was asked to bring in 30 pictures of their current or ex-partner. First, they were asked how infatuated with and attached to the person they felt and had their brainwaves measured - the researchers particularly looked at the Late Positive Potential (LPP) brainwave, which becomes stronger when we focus on something emotionally relevant.

The participants were then told to look at the pictures and think positive thoughts about their partner, their relationship and their future together, before their brain waves and feelings were measured again.

For a second time, the participants were asked to look at their photos but to think negative thoughts. Their feelings and brain waves were then assessed once again.

Festivals of love around the world Show all 16 1 /16 Festivals of love around the world Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Brazil Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi Festivals of love around the world Vashi

The study found that after thinking positive thoughts, people reported feeling much more attached to their partners and their LPP brainwaves were stronger.

In contrast, after focusing on negatives, the participants down-regulated their feelings, reporting less attachment and weaker LPP brainwaves.

But can we really control love? Control implies suppressing it and being king or queen of it, Harvard Medical School psychologist Susan David told The Wall Street Journal.

So even if we cant actually control love, we can shape it.

How to fall back in love:
File Photo: The Chinese and Indian soliders take part in joint anti-terrorism training in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, Oct. 2015.

In addition to the deployment of Mountain Strike Corps and BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missiles along the China-India border, India is planning to rebuild its Special Frontier Forces (SFF) to cope with China's frequent actions, Indian media outlet Daily News and Analysis (DNA) reported on Dec. 19. But experts have since pointed out that India should approach this task with caution.

The SFF was established in 1963 after the border conflict with China in 1962. As the ears and eyes of India's frontier forces, the troop has played a significant role in gathering intelligence from border areas and neighboring countries. According to DNA, the decision to rebuild the force was made by top Indian security leadership in an effort to cope with China's actions in countries surrounding India and along international boundaries. The report noted that China has proposed building a new railway and trade route between itself and Nepal. China has also enhanced its presence in Bangladesh and Myanmar -- two nations that show great interest in attracting Chinese capital and infrastructure.

Ye Hailin, chief of the South Asia Studies Center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the decision to rebuild the SFF is India's internal affairs, but the country should think carefully about whether this is a practical solution. China has no right to stop India's efforts. Likewise, its cooperation and exchanges with Bangladesh and Nepal need no consent from India, Ye added.
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Rolls-Royce has denied reports that it avoided US sanctions by exploiting a loophole to sell equipment to Iran.

The British engineering giant sold turbines worth millions of pounds over to the Iranian government over decades when it was subject to economic sanctions, the Guardian reported, citing a leaked internal memo. The company made no mention of its Iranian business on its website until sanctions were softened earlier this year.

The deals represented a significant risk for the company, which generates a quarter of its sales in the US, with a significant proportion coming from the Department of Defence.

Sanctions were initially imposed after the Iranian revolution in 1979 and tightened in 1995 as fears grew over the countrys attempts to develop nuclear weapons.

The documents reportedly show that Rolls-Royce supplied almost 100 industrial turbines, 69 of which were supplied to the National Iranian Oil Company, which was subject to sanctions. When controls were tightened it continued to sell the equipment but sold spare parts and engineering assistance rather than complete turbines.

"Rolls-Royce refutes any accusation that it has traded 'in secret' in Iran or that it circumvented US sanctions," a Rolls-Royce spokesman said.

"We conduct business in all countries, including Iran, in accordance with all relevant UK, EU or other national sanctions and export control regulations. This includes applying for export licenses, when they are required, and complying strictly with their terms and conditions."

Biggest business scandals in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Biggest business scandals in pictures Biggest business scandals in pictures Volkswagen emissions scandal VW admitted to rigging its US emission tests so that diesel-powered cars would looks like they were emitting less nitrous oxide, which can damage the ozone layer and contribute to respiratory diseases. Around 11 million cars worldwide were affected. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Martin Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals Martin Shkreli became known as the most hated man in the world after his drug company, Turing, increased the price of a 62-year-old drug that treated HIV patients by 5,000% to $750 a pill. He was charged with illegally taking stock from Retrophin, a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. Shkreli, who maintains he is innocent, and says there is little evidence of fraud because his investors didn't lose money. Biggest business scandals in pictures Panama Papers: Millions of leaked documents expose how worlds rich and powerful hid money - April 2016 Millions of confidential documents have been leaked from one of the worlds most secretive law firms, exposing how the rich and powerful have hidden their money. Dictators and other heads of state have been accused of laundering money, avoiding sanctions and evading tax, according to the unprecedented cache of papers that show the inner workings of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, which is based in Panama. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Google's tax avoidance Google reached a deal with the HM Revenue and Customs to pay back 130 million in so-called back-taxes that have been due since 2005. George Osborne championed the deal as a major success. But European MEPs have since called for the Chancellor to appear in front of the committee on tax rulings to explain the tax deal. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Rogue trader A French court cut the damages owed by rogue trader Jerome Kerviel from 4.9bn (4.2bn) to just 1m (860,000). The court ruled on that Kerviel was partly responsible for massive losses suffered in 2008 by his former employer Societe Generale through his reckless trades. Kerviel has consistently maintained that bosses at the French bank knew what he was doing all along. AP Biggest business scandals in pictures Barclays CEO under investigation for trying to identify whistleblower - Monday Paril 10 Authorities have launched an investigation into Barclays chief executive officer Jes Staley for trying to identify a whistleblower, the bank said on Monday. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are both investigating Mr Staley after the bank notified them that Mr Staley had tried to identify the author of two anonymous letters, which were sent to the board and a senior executive in June 2016. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures UK to crack down on bank money laundering after reports of 65bn Russian scam, City minister says - March 2017 The Economic Secretary to the Treasury has vowed that the Government will crack down on money laundering practices, after several of the UK's biggest banks were accused of processing money from a Russian scam, believed to involve up to $80bn (65bn). Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Former HBOS bankers convicted of bribery and fraud over 245m loan scam - February 2017 Two former HBOS bankers were among six people found guilty of bribery and fraud that cost customers and shareholders hundreds of millions of pounds, the BBC reports. Lynden Scourfield, 54, a manager at HBOS, forced struggling clients to use the services of his friends David Mills, 60, and Michael Bancroft, 73. In return, the two businessmen arranged sex parties, cash and lavish gifts. On Monday, the three were convicted at Southwark Crown Court on accounts including bribery, fraud and money laundering. Mark Dobson, another manager at HBOS, Alison Mills, and John Cartwright were also convicted. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Lloyds chief apologises for damage caused by affair allegations - August 2016 Antonio Horta-Osorio, the chief executive of Lloyds Bank, has broken his silence over allegations about his private life admitting he regrets any "damage done to the group's reputation". In a message sent to the bank's 75,000 employees, the banker said that anyone can make mistakes while insisting that staff had to maintain the highest professional standards. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Christine Lagarde faces court over 340m Bernard Tapie payment - July 2016 The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, must stand trial in France over a payment of 403 million (now 340m, then 290m) to tycoon Bernard Tapie, a France's highest appeals court has ruled. The court rejected Ms Lagarde's appeal against a judge's order in December for her to stand trial over allegations of negligence in her handling of the affair. Ms Lagarde could risk a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros if convicted. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures HSBC senior manager arrested in FX rigging investigation at JFK airport in New York - July 2016 A senior executive at HSBC has been arrested at New York's JFK airport for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to rig currency benchmarks, according to reports. Mark Johnson, global head of foreign exchange cash trading in London, was reportedly arrested on Tuesday. He will appear before a federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Bloomberg said. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Former PwC employees found guilty in 'Luxleaks' tax scandal - June 2016 Two ex- PricewaterhouseCoopers staffers were found guilty in Luxembourg of stealing confidential tax files that helped unleash a global scandal over generous fiscal deals for hundreds of international companies. Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet face suspended sentences of 12 months and 9 months and were ordered to pay fines of 1,500 (1,230) and 1,000 (822) for their role in the so-called LuxLeaks scandal. Despite the minimal sentences, the ruling was described by Deltours lawyer as shocking and a terrible anomaly. The ruling puts on guard future whistle-blowers, Deltour told reporters.The LuxLeaks revelations sped beyond Luxembourg, causing European Union regulators to expand a tax-subsidy probe and propose new laws to fight corporate tax dodging, while EU lawmakers created a special committee to probe fiscal deals across the 28-nation bloc. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Goldman Sachs dealmakers lavished Libyan officials with prostitutes to win contract - June 2016 A former Goldman Sachs dealmaker trying to persuade Gadaffi-era Libya to invest $1 billion with the investment bank procured prostitutes and invited Libyan officials to lavish parties in the hope of winning the business, the High Court heard on Monday June 13.The Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund is suing Goldman Sachs for inappropriately coercing its naive staff into giving its sovereign wealth fund cash to the bank to invest in products they did not understand. The products were designed to generate big profits for Goldman, the LIA claims.Goldman denies wrongdoing and says the LIA was treated as an arms-length customer Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Former boss of BHS said his life was threatened - June 2016 Darren Topp, the former boss of BHS, has said former owner Dominic Chappell threatened to kill him when he challenged him over a 1.5 million transfer out of the business. MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee asked Mr Topp about a 1.5 million transfer Mr Chappell made from BHS to a company called BHS Sweden. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley admits paying workers below the minimum wage - June 2016 Mike Ashley admitted paying Sports Direct employees below the minimum wage at a hearing in front of MPs. The company founder said that workers were paid less than the statutory minimum because of bottlenecks at security in an admission that could result in sanctions from HMRC. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Mitsubishi admits improper fuel tests - April 2016 Mitsubishi has admitted to using false fuel methods dating back to 1991. The scale of the scandal is only just coming to light after it was revealed in April that data was falsified in the testing of four types of cars, including two Nissan cars. AP Biggest business scandals in pictures Quindell, the scandal-ridden insurance firm Quindell was once a darling of AIM but its share price fell in April 2014 when its accounting practices were attacked in a stinging research note by US short seller Gotham City. In August the group was forced to disclose that the 107 million pre-tax profit it had reported for 2013 was incorrect, and it had in fact suffered a 64million loss. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Toshiba Accounting Scandal The boss of Toshiba, the Japanese technology giant, resigned in disgrace in the wake of one of the countrys biggest ever accounting scandals. His exit came two months after the company revealed that it was investigating accounting irregularities. An independent investigatory panel said that Toshibas management had inflated its reported profits by up to 152 billion yen (780m) between 2008 and 2014. Biggest business scandals in pictures FIFA Corruption Scandal Fifa, football's world governing body, has been engulfed by claims of widespread corruption since the summer of 2015, when the US Department of Justice indicted several top executives. It has now claimed the careers of two of the most powerful men in football, Fifa President Sepp Blatter and Uefa President Michel Platini, after they were banned for eight years from all football-related activities by Fifa's ethics committee. A Swiss criminal investigation into the pair is ongoing. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Libor fraudster City trader Tom Hayes, 35, has become the first person to be convicted of rigging Libor rates following a trial at London's Southwark Crown Court. Hayes worked as a trader in yen derivatives at UBS before joining the American bank Citigroup in Tokyo. He was fired from Citigroup following an investigation into his trading methods. He returned to the UK in December 2012 and was arrested following a two-and-a-half year criminal investigation by the SFO. Getty

Rolls-Royce has been under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office after allegations that it paid bribes to middlemen to secure contracts around the globe.

The four-year probe was widened in November after leaked emails revealed links between Rolls-Royce and oil and gas company Unaoil, which acted as an agent for multinational companies.

Police raided Unaoils Monaco offices in April after the documents allegedly showed the company paid bribes on behalf of dozens of companies. Unaoil denies that it acted corruptly.
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Arron Banks, the biggest financial donor to the Leave campaign, has suggested the German Chancellor Angela Merkel "might as well have" driven the lorry used in the Berlin market attack because of her policy on accepting refugees.

The prominent Ukip funder said he was fed up with diplomacy on Twitter and defended the party's former leader Nigel Farage after he suggested the widower of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox supported extremism.

He wrote: Farage rightly pointed out that terrorists would flood in with so-called refugees. He was right as in so many other things.

Recommended Nigel Farage has saved Austria from the grips of the far right

I blame unlimited immigration without integration and the soft liberals like yourself that don't have the courage to call it what it is.

His use of the word "flood" prompted comparisons to Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech. "Merkel did not drive the lorry," added one response.

The insurance tycoon, who invested 7.5 million into the successful Brexit campaign, replied: "She might as well have."

Mr Farage was criticised by Brendan Cox, the husband of murdered MP Jo Cox, for blaming politicians for the actions of extremists by claiming the lorry attack, which killed 12 and injured dozens more was no surprise and would form part of Ms Merkels legacy.

Of course, he would know more about extremists than me, Mr Cox. He backs organisations like Hope Not Hate, who masquerade as being lovely and peaceful, but actually pursue violent and undemocratic means, Mr Farage told LBC radio.

Hope Not Hate said it was consulting with its legal team over Mr Farages serious and potentially libellous statement.

Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Show all 18 1 /18 Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Several people have been killed after a lorry drove into crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch Berlin Christmas market lorry attack 'At least nine' people have been killed and more than 50 injured. AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency Services rush a Berlin market victim to an ambulance Associated Press Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Police cordoned off the square at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church following the incident REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers inspect the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market close to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in Berlin EPA Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency crews inspect the lorry that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing at least nine people AFP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Fire crews attend the scene of the attack AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Armed police secure the site of a lorry attack at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Crushed debris is visible beneath the wheels of the vehicle REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack An injured man is pushed to an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Medics attend an injured person after the lorry attack which killed at least nine and injured more than 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters examine the lorry which was rammed into a Berlin Christmas market REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack A person is carried into an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack View of the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing at least nine and injuring at least 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers push a person on a stretcher to an ambulance Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters assess the damage after the lorry rammed the Christmas market, killing 'at least nine', and injuring more than 50 people AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters stand beside a toppled Christmas tree at the site of the suspected terrorist attack in a Berlin Christmas market AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Damaged stalls at the scene of the incident at a Berlin Christmas market where at least nine people have been killed EPA

We have no idea on what Mr Farage bases his outrageous comments," a spokesperson said. "Hope not hate has a proud history of campaigning against extremism and hatred.

We will not be making any further comment until we have had the opportunity to consult with our lawyers.
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Within hours of a YouTube prankster being kicked off of a Delta flight, a social media campaign has emerged to boycott the airline.

Delta Air Lines asked YouTube star Adam Saleh and his friend, Slim, to exit a flight heading to New York Wednesday morning. Mr Saleh, who has 1.6 million subscribers to his channel, tweeted a video during the exchange with flight security along with updates after his removal. He claims they removed him for speaking Arabic to his mother.

We spoke a different language on a plane and now were getting kicked out, he says in the video posted to both his Twitter and Facebook pages.

The video has received over 300,000 retweets and prompted the hashtag #BoycottDelta. It started trending on Twitter shortly after.

Delta spokesperson Morgan Durrant told The Independent in a statement that they removed Mr Saleh after multiple passengers complained about a disturbance. When asked about the boycott, they said they take allegations of discrimination seriously.

We take all allegations of discrimination seriously and we are gathering all of the facts before jumping to any conclusion," the company said in a statement. "Our culture requires treating everyone with respect. Furthermore, Delta people are trained to and frequently handle conflicts between passengers."

Maintaining a safe, comfortable and orderly onboard environment is paramount for every flight and requires the cooperation of all of our customers in conjunction with adherence to directions from our crew members. This is a Delta policy and is required by U.S. regulations as well as others governing aviation worldwide.

It added: Two customers were removed from Delta flight 1 departing London-Heathrow today after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort.

We have spoken with the customers who were removed; they were rebooked on another flight. Plans are in place to immediately speak with our crew and other passengers when the flight lands this afternoon. We will provide an update once we have more information.

People familiar with Mr Salehs YouTube videos believe the disturbance was a prank. Mr Saleh, who tweeted about a prank at an airport on December 19, has posted videos of attempting to get kicked off of flights in the past.

On December 16, Tigerair debunked a video the 23-year-old made claiming to have smuggled himself into the Melbourne Airport terminal via suitcase.

Airport footage shows Mr Saleh walking through security, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Anything over 32kg gets rejects and our friendly staff would have stepped in to assist with options, as indeed they did. We have the footage, the airline said in a statement.

Even so, those tweeting #BoycottDelta claim that Mr Saleh faced more scrutiny by Delta because he is Muslim.

In November, people called for a boycott against the airline for not reprimanding a Donald Trump supporter who called women on the flight Hillary Bitches. but removing a Muslim couple three months earlier.

The Washington Post reported that Delta removed the couple because a passenger felt uneasy after hearing Nazia and Faisal Ali use the word Allah.

We had been in our seats for 45 minutes, Ali told the Cincinnati Enquirer: The ground agent said, Can you step out with me? Wed like to ask you a few questions. So I said, Do you want us to get our things? And he said, Yes, please grab all of your personal belongings. Youre not going to be on this flight. 

United Kingdom resident Habeeb Hussain created a Change.org petition in support of Mr Saleh.

If this was a Caucasian on an Emirates flight and they were treated in this matter, it would be all over the news within minutes! the petition read.

At least 80 people have signed it.
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A new genetic disease has been discovered that could play a key role in devastating brain conditions such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons, opening up the possibility of new forms of treatment.

A 47-year-old Canadian woman, who had been having difficulty walking and balancing since she was 28, was found to have a new genetic disease after 10 known conditions were ruled out, according to a paper in the journal Nature by an international team of researchers.

The disease causes an over-reaction by the bodys natural repair system. An enzyme, known as PARP1, goes into over-drive, ultimately causing the deaths of brain cells.

It is believed this process could also be involved in the death of cells in other forms of dementia and possibly even the ageing process.

Professor Keith Caldecott, of Sussex University, who led the research, said: "Discovering this new disease and its cause is a huge step towards developing drug-based therapies for other rare neurodegenerative conditions.

"Drugs which target this key DNA-repairing enzyme in the right way could prove vital for treating people suffering from diseases caused by the over-activation [of the enzyme]. It is now crucial we determine what diseases these are.

"More research needs to be done, but it's also possible the cause of this newly discovered condition could contribute to the death of nerve cells in people suffering from diseases such as, Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's."

In experiments, the researchers were able to shut down the out-of-control repair process, which they likened to a flashing light that runs down the cell's batteries, using genetic techniques. Even though the DNA was still damaged, the cells did not die.

Professor Caldecott told the Independent that the link to other diseases and potentially even normal ageing was speculative.

But he said they were now beginning the search for drugs that could achieve the same thing as the genetic techniques used in the lab, but could also be given as a treatment to patients.

When they discovered the new disease, Professor Caldecott said: It was stunning, really exciting.

If we turn that light off, that seems to take away all of the pathology, the cell death.

Now what we need to do is turn that light off using drugs instead of genetically.

There is no treatment for the Canadian woman whose condition is expected to get progressively worse.

However, despite her problems with balance and motor skills, she is otherwise healthy.

She has been advised to avoid things that cause damage to DNA, such as cigarette smoke, car exhausts and other fossil fuel emissions, X-rays and some forms of cancer treatment should that become necessary.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

Dr Doug Brown, director of research and development at the Alzheimers Society said: This research provides an insight into DNA damage and repair in the brain.

Researchers found that a change in a gene important for DNA repair led to problems with controlling the bodys movement.

However at this stage of research its not clear if the findings from this rare condition affecting movement will be relevant for people with dementia.

The vast majority of cases of dementia are not inherited. Evidence shows that dementia is caused by a complex interplay of genetics, environmental and lifestyle factors. Further research into each of these factors will help us to better understand why people develop the condition and help us to find effective treatments.
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Violence spreads through young people like a disease, with adolescents up to 180 per cent more likely to attack someone if a friend has done so previously, according to new research in the US.

The effect was so strong that new outbreaks of fighting were more likely even if a friend of a friend  and onwards up to four degrees of separation  had been violent.

One of the researchers, Professor Robert Bond, of Ohio State University, said: This study shows just how contagious violence can be.

Acts of violence can ricochet through a community, travelling through networks of friends.

He said this showed why prevention of violence was so important.

If we can stop violence in one person that spreads to their social network.

Were actually preventing violence not only in that person, but potentially for all the people they come in contact with.

In London, there has long been a problem with stabbings, mainly carried out by teenage boys and young men.

In August this year, there were 1,749 stabbings of people aged under 25 in the city, a four-year high. However, gang activity was blamed for less than 5 per cent of knife crime in the city.

In 2006, Danny and Ricky Preddie, from Peckham, south London, were convicted of the manslaughter of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, who bled to death after being stabbed in the leg with a broken bottle in November 2000 when the Preddie brothers were 12 and 13.

In the US study, researchers studied information about nearly 6,000 young people, most aged 12 to 18, who took part in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in the 1990s.

The adolescents were asked how often in the past 12 months they had been in a serious physical fight, how often they hurt someone badly enough to need medical attention, and how often they had pulled a knife or gun on someone.

They were 183 per cent more like to have hurt someone badly, 140 per cent more likely to have drawn a weapon and 48 per cent more likely to have been in a serious fight if they had a friend who had done something similar.

Professor Brad Bushman, another of the researchers, said: We now have evidence that shows how important social relationships are to spreading violent behaviour, just like they are for spreading many other kinds of attitudes and behaviours.

The study echoes others that have looked into the effect of social networks on a range of different kinds of attitudes and behaviour, from happiness to obesity and smoking.

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

The researchers said part of the explanation was a clustering effect, in which violent people tend to become friends with each other.

But even after taking this into account, they found the chance that a boy or a girl had hurt someone else badly increased by 55 per cent for each friend they had who had done this. The figure was 82 per cent for the males alone.

Each degree of separate saw a reduction in the effect. While an adolescent was 48 per cent more likely to have had a serious fight if a friend had been in one, this figure dropped to 18 per cent if a friend of a friend had.

The research was published in the American Journal of Public Health.
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A kebab shop will open its doors to feed the homeless a free-of-charge slap-up roast dinner on Christmas Day.

Brothers Asef and Hamid Faqiri, who are Muslims and run The Classic Fish Bar in Erdington High Street, Birmingham, are digging into their own pockets to serve up a turkey dinner with all the trimmings on 25 December.

There are 36 rough sleepers in Birmingham  according to the city council  2,800 registered as homeless and 23,000 people on the housing waiting list.

There are 255,000 people without a permanent home, according to charity Shelter, and an estimated 124,000 homeless children will spend Christmas in temporary accommodation.

We have seen so many homeless people round by us that we wanted to do something to help them, said Asef.

There are also lots of elderly people who dont have any relatives and will be on their own on Christmas Day.

So weve decided to open up especially for them, to bring some Christmas cheer.

The shop will serve turkey, all the trimmings or the usual fish and chips Google (Google)

Staff will hand out the festive grub in takeaway boxes between 1pm and 4pm and fish and chips as something simpler.

A sign, a picture of which has been widely shared on Facebook, reads: Free meal for the homeless and elderly. Please join us on Christmas Day.

Asef, speaking to the Birmingham Mail, said: Unfortunately we dont have anywhere for them to sit, so all we can do is give them the food to take away but at least its a hot meal for them that day.

I dont know how many people will turn up, lets just hope we buy enough to feed them all.

It follows the decision by the Muslim-owned Shish Restaurant to offer a three-course meal to homeless and elderly people on Christmas Day so that no one eats alone.

Vicky Lanfear wrote on Facebook: This is the most selfless gesture I have ever seen and they should be recognised as a pillar of the community.

Sally Barnes wrote: Someone tell the Daily Mail please!

The Independent has published a wave of stories surrounding homelessness this festive period as part of its Homeless Helpline Appeal in conjunction with charity Centrepoint.

Recently, the NHS launched a drive to help homeless patients, while LGBT youngsters have been told how they have been forced out of homes for their sexuality.
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Shocking footage which activists claim exposes the squalid conditions on a UK turkey farm has appeared just days before tables are laid for Christmas dinner.

Animal welfare group Viva! provided a video to The Independent which it claims was taken at a turkey egg-laying farm on the site of a well-known poultry company.

According to Viva!, the footage shows young birds pecking at turkey carcasses festering on the floor of tents at Greenbury Poultry Ltd in Essex, on farmland rented from the founder of acclaimed poultry firm Kelly Turkeys.

The activist group said the heartbreaking footage, which appears to show chicks with ragged, pecked feathers in a dirty tent littered with dead birds, uncovers some of the worst conditions we have ever seen on a turkey farm in the UK.

Greenbury, run and owned by Stuart Beaumont, a former employee of Kelly Turkeys who left the firm in 2015 and still works for them as a freelance consultant, has denied any wrongdoing.

Beyond the rental agreement, Kelly Turkeys does not appear to have any other current relationship with Greenbury. Both companies believe the video has been rigged.

Animal welfare organisation Viva! says footage is heartbreaking (Screenshot from Viva! footage)

The footage was taken in the early hours of 19 November inside one of nine tents at Springate Farm in Danbury, Essex, where Greenbury rears around 750 turkeys.

The land is owned by Derek Alfred Kelly, who in 1971 started the family business now known as Kelly Turkeys and run by his son Paul Kelly.

Paul Kelly told The Independent Kelly Turkeys does not rear any of their birds on Stonegate farm, and Greenbury was set up last year as a new business venture by Mr Beaumont and his son.

Viva! says the footage shows dead birds left to fester among live turkeys (Screenshot from Viva! footage)

My father has rented [Mr Beaumont] a bit of land at the back of his farm on which Stuart with his son is rearing some turkeys with the plan to sell eggs in the spring and Easter market next year, said Mr Kelly.

There are no other turkeys on this farm or land except these few hundred owned by Greenbury.

Stuart still does work for us as a self-employed consultant and this small turkey venture is not connected to our business.

Kelly Turkeys has been endorsed by Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith for its award-winning premium turkeys and high welfare standards.

The companys motto is bred to be wild and Derek Kelly received an MBE in 1998 for his services to the farm fresh poultry industry.

 Jamie Oliver promotes KellyBronze turkeys

Mr Beaumont said the video was in no way representing the true facts about the farm and claimed the dead birds had been placed in the tent on purpose by the investigator.

The video clip looks really bad, I dont deny that, but it doesnt reflect how the birds are actually looked after, he said.

I have one dedicated person who checks and feeds the birds every morning and then goes back before dusk and checks round them again.

On the night in question he went back at 10pm to drop some of the shutters down as it was very cold that night.

The footage was taken at Stonegate Farm in Essex (Screenshot from Viva! footage) (Screenshot from Viva footage)

The farmer said bird mortality on the farm was nothing more than normal and claimed the dead turkeys, which Viva! say appear in the footage, were moved from the designated place for storing dead birds.

The dead birds were placed in the building from the container that holds the mortality for all the turkeys on the site and collected weekly. This is evident as some of the turkeys are decomposing and others are in rigour not consistent with how the turkeys are positioned, he said.

In correspondence seen by The Independent, Viva! contacted a local branch of the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) the morning after the independent investigator took the footage.

Viva! claims the video shows dead turkeys stuck in the feeders but Greenbury says the footage has been rigged (Screenshot from Viva! footage)

While APHA has refused to comment on individual cases, Mr Beaumont confirmed a visit had taken place the next day.

Animal health with trading standards has made one visit and is not pursuing this any further, he said.

Animal health interviewed the person looking after the birds and he said birds were definitely checked the night before.

I entered all nine sheds in the morning with the vet and in one of the sheds there were some dead in the bottom of a feeder. It looked as though they had been placed there.

Where not to visit if you love animals Show all 9 1 /9 Where not to visit if you love animals Where not to visit if you love animals Monkey shows Chimpanzees are forced to perform demeaning tricks on leashes and are often subject to cruel training techniques. Animals who are confined to small, barren enclosures and forced to perform unsurprisingly show symptoms of stress and depression. Chimpanzees have been documented rocking back and forth, sucking their lips, salivating and swaying against enclosure perimeters in distress. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Marine parks Some parks confine orcas to concrete tanks and force them to perform meaningless tricks for food - many die in captivity. Orcas are highly intelligent and social mammals who may suffer immensely, both physically and mentally, when they're held in captivity. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Tiger shows Tigers are forced to live in an unnatural and barren environment and have to endure interactions with a constant stream of tourists. Since tigers never lose their wild instincts, across the world they are reportedly drugged, mutilated and restrained in order to make them safe for the public. However, every year, incidents of tiger maulings are reported at this type of tourist attraction. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Donkey rides Sunning on the beach is great for humans  we can take a quick dip or catch a bite to eat when we get too hot or hungry. But it's pure hell for donkeys who are confined to the beach and forced to cart children around on the hot sand. Some donkey-ride operators at beach resorts in the UK even keep the animals chained together at all times. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Swimming with dolphins Some marine parks use bottlenose dolphins in performances and offer visitors the opportunity to swim with dolphins. Unfortunately, people are often unaware that these animals are captured in the wild and torn from their families or traded between different parks around the world. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Canned hunting Lions are confined to fenced areas so that they can easily be cornered, with no chance of escape. Most of them will have been bred in captivity and then taken from their mothers to be hand-reared by the cub-petting industry. When they get too big, they may be drugged before they are released into a "hunting" enclosure. Because these animals are usually kept in fenced enclosures (ranging in size from just a few square yards to thousands of acres), they never stand a chance of surviving. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Running of the Bulls Every year, tourists travel to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls. The bulls who are forced to slip and slide down the town's narrow cobblestone streets are chased straight into the bullring. They are then taunted, stabbed repeatedly and finally killed by the matador in front of a jeering crowd. The majority of Spaniards reject bullfighting, but tourists are keeping the cruel industry on its last legs. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Horse-drawn carriages City streets are no place for horses. The animals toil in all weather extremes, suffering from respiratory distress from breathing in exhaust fumes as well as numerous hoof, leg and back problems from walking on pavement all day long. As easily spooked prey animals, horses subjected to the loud noises and unexpected sounds of city streets are likely to be involved in accidents, even deadly ones. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Zoos The zoo community regards the animals it keeps as commodities, and animals are regularly bought, sold, borrowed and traded without any regard for established relationships. Zoos breed animals because the presence of babies draws visitors and boosts revenue, yet often, there's nowhere to put the offspring as they grow, and they are killed, as we saw with Marius the giraffe in Denmark. Some zoos have introduced evening events with loud music and alcohol which disrupt the incarcerated animals even further. EPA

I agreed with the vets to change the feeding system so that it would not be possible for this to occur again for whatever reason.

There had been minimal mortality before that day and almost none after, which doesnt make sense.

In response to these claims, Viva! obtained a sworn affidavit from their independent investigator, seen by The Independent, declaring that the video footage is an accurate representation of what was seen and filmed at Springate Farm on 19 November.

The investigator said strict biosecurity measures were undertaken before entering and they did not remove any of the dead birds from a container to place them on the floor of the tents used to house the turkeys.

The campaign group also obtained a statement from vet Andrew Knight stating the frantic nature of turkeys in the footage just outside the feeders suggests that the birds were hungry and highly motivated to reach the feed inside.

The position and compression of the dead birds in the feeders could suggest that they have been there for some time, said Mr Knight.

Mr Beaumont said: Some of the white turkeys on the clip have little feather cover on their wings which is due to the age of the birds (they are young) and that we do not remove the beaks so they are free to feather peck.

The video also shows the birds are all huddled together which is totally natural as a flock of turkeys will come together to sleep at night.

The birds also look startled which they would be as they are not used to bright lights shining at them when they are asleep.
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A probe should be launched into whether Boris Johnson breached ministerial code by promoting his book while on an official visit to Serbia, Labour has demanded.

The Foreign Secretary was in the country on Government business last month when he attended a closed meeting in Serbias oldest bookstore in Belgrade that officials emphasised was about press freedoms.

But according to Serbian media Mr Johnson presented his book his book the Churchill Factor  a biography of the wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill written before he was appointed to his role by Theresa May.

The Governments code of conduct declares ministers must ensure that no conflict arises, or appears to rise, between their public duties and their private interests.

Labour said the publicity around the event appeared to "contradict comments from the minister's office that he had been invited to discuss freedom of the press and was not aware the event would be used to promote his book" and claimed it was a potential conflict between his public duties and private financial interests.

But an FCO spokeswoman said: As we made clear at the time this was a meeting with a small group of Serbian editors on media freedoms. It was in no way a promotional event.

We dont recognise the claims made by Tanjug newspaper who did not attend the meeting".

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Andrew Gwynne suggested the event raised questions over Mr Johnson's future in the job.

The shadow minister without portfolio wrote: "As you are aware the ministerial code sets out strict rules forbidding any such conflicts and further states that it is the personal responsibility of ministers to avoid conflicts of interests.

"Should it not be possible to avoid conflicts of interest, the ministerial code states that the Prime Minister must be consulted, and that it may be necessary for the Minister to cease to hold the office in question.

"In light of the Foreign Secretary's conduct during a ministerial visit to Serbia, I request that the incident be investigated to determine as soon as possible if a breach of the ministerial code has taken place."

A spokesman for Johnson told the Guardian: The Serbian newspaper making the suggestion this was a promotional event is simply wrong and wasnt even at the event. We have said before that this was not a promotional event and we made that request very clear in advance of the trip.

The event took place in a closed bookshop and focused on press freedoms. Maybe Labour should focus on coming up with some policies for the good of the country instead of wasting everyones time on this kind of rubbish.

Labour's Shadow Business minister Clive Lewis added: "Once again, Boris Johnson's conduct has raised questions on his ability to represent Britain internationally, let alone hold the office of Foreign Secretary. It is not acceptable that on Armistice Day, Boris used a state visit as an opportunity for self promotion."
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The Government borrowed a higher-than-expected 12.6bn in November, leading to fears that Brexit is having an impact on the UKs public finances.

Economists had thought the UK would only borrow 11.6bn during the month, though the confirmed figure was still a fall compared to the same time last year.

The data shows Chancellor Philip Hammond is on track with his new less-ambitious deficit forecast, set out last month after he ditched George Osbornes more stringent targets ahead of what is expected to be a bumpy 2017.

But political opponents leapt on the higher-than-expected borrowing, with shadow chancellor John McDonnell claiming it revealed six wasted years of economic failure, while the Liberal Democrats said it showed Brexit is casting a dark shadow.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said public sector net borrowing in November, excluding state-owned banks, fell by 0.6bn compared with the same month last year.

Government borrowing, excluding banks, for the financial year to date  April to November  fell by 7.7bn to 59.5bn, compared with the same eight months in 2015.

A Treasury spokesperson said: The Government has made significant progress in bringing the public finances under control, but our debt and deficit remain too high.

That is why the Chancellor set out new fiscal rules to return the budget to balance, while creating the space to support the economy and raise productivity through a new 23bn National Productivity Investment Fund.

Mr Hammond dumped his predecessors target of balancing the books by 2020, vowing instead to put the public finances back in the black as early as possible in the next Parliament as part of a new draft Charter for Budget Responsibility outlined in the Autumn Statement.

Suren Thiru, head of economics at the British Chamber of Commerce, said 2017 was likely to be a challenging year for the UKs public finances as slowing economic growth hits tax receipts.

The more flexible approach to deficit reduction announced in the Autumn Statement is a sensible step given the broader uncertainty, he added.

However, the acid test for the Chancellors new fiscal rules will be whether they are able to reverse the ongoing shortfall in tax revenue, which has persistently hampered previous attempts to reduce the deficit.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)  the Governments fiscal referee  said in November that it expects Mr Hammond to overshoot previous borrowing targets for this year, revising its outlook from 55.5bn to 68.2bn for 2016/17.

The OBR has also predicted debt to rise from 84.2 per cent of GDP last year to 87.3 per cent for 2016/17.

The ONS said public sector net debt excluding banks climbed by 58.6bn to 1,655.1bn in November, equivalent to 84.5 per cent of GDP.

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

Mr McDonnell said: After six wasted years of Tory economic failure, supported by both Philip Hammond and Theresa May, the deficit has not been cleared as they promised, and the national debt continues to rise.

Yet despite their broken promises on the public finances they continue to hand out huge tax giveaways to big business and a wealthy few, while enforcing spending cuts on everyone else; under funding our NHS and leaving our care system in crisis for the most vulnerable this Christmas.

Liberal Democrat economics spokesperson Susan Kramer said: The threat of a hard Brexit is casting a dark shadow over the countrys finances.

The Government must urgently reassure businesses and investors that it will fight to protect the economy by remaining in the single market. Otherwise we risk seeing a Brexit black hole with increased debt, higher borrowing costs and cuts to vital public services.
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The large consultancy firm which fell out with Downing Street after a leaked memo it wrote suggested Theresa May has no Brexit plan, will now forgo what could be millions of pounds worth of Government contracts.

Deloitte said it had "put forward a plan" to heal wounds with Number 10, after last months leaked memo suggested Ms Mays cabinet was riven with splits and unable to come up with a negotiating strategy in time before Brexit talks begin.

The firm will now undergo a six month moratorium on pitching for lucrative government work, according to The Times.

 Theresa May refuses to rule out making payments to the EU after Brexit

A spokesman said: "Deloitte regrets the publication of the two-page note, and has apologised for the unintended disruption it caused government.

The note was for internal audiences and was not a Deloitte point of view. We have put forward a plan for working with central government to put this matter behind us."

Downing St declined to comment on the reports, but at the time the memo emerged ministers were furious.

It warned that Cabinet infighting was delaying the Government's ability to agree a negotiating strategy, which may not be ready for six months - well after the Prime Minister's deadline of March 2017 for triggering Article 50.

It also identified "well over 500 projects" being undertaken by Whitehall departments to implement Brexit, creating the need for up to 30,000 extra civil servants.

No 10 said at the time that the memo, which appeared to be an attempt by Deloitte to pitch for government work, had "no credence" and it did not recognise the claims it made.

As the fall-out intensified in November, Deloitte issued a statement admitting its report was not done at the behest of ministers and was "conducted without access to No 10 or input from any other government departments."
The Palace Museum is planning to release a 19,999-RMB ($2,878) mobile phone in collaboration with a Chinese phone maker. The phone is expected to be available at the end of January 2017, and only 999 units will be sold.

The phone maker posted a message on Weibo on Dec. 20, saying it will release a mobile phone with the Palace Museum in celebration of the coming Chinese New Year. The design of the phone is inspired by the Palace Museum's collection, incorporating elements from the Forbidden City such as dragons and auspicious clouds. In addition, the back of the phone is decorated with a traditional Chinese motif made of 18K gold. The phone is equipped with several of the museum's apps, along with a screensaver and wallpaper featuring the 24 solar terms.

The price of the phone has sparked debate among netizens. Some argue that Chinese culture should not be used for profit. Others believe the product will bring vulgarity to the Forbidden City.

Despite the controversy, the executive deputy director of the Palace Museum, Wang Yamin, told the media that he hopes to establish a bridge between traditional Chinese culture and intelligent manufacturing through collaboration with the phone maker.
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Theresa May has appointed David Camerons former Downing Street policy chief as a minister at the Department of Health.

Lord O'Shaughnessy, who advised the former Prime Minister from 2010 to 2011, will replace Lord Brampton as a minister for NHS Productivity.

After working for Mr Cameron, the new minister went on to work for Portland Communications as chief policy advisor.

He has been a vocal supporter of Michael Goves free market reforms to the schools system and also works for the Legatum Institute, a think tank that promotes international capitalism.

The promotion is part of a small reshuffle in the Governments House of Lords front bench, which will also see Baroness Neville-Rolfe move from the business department to the Treasury, where she will be Commercial Secretary.

The changes see top Tories ennobled by David Cameron, including in his controversial resignation honours, promoted to the Government benches.

Baroness Vere, a former Tory candidate who failed to get elected in 2010 and who is a former director of the failed pro-EU Conservatives In campaign, will become a whip, as will Baroness Buscombe.

Lord Brampton himself will move to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Show all 6 1 /6 The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Brexit The big one. Theresa May has spoken publicly three times since declaring her intent to stand in the Tory Leadership race, and each time she has said, Brexit means Brexit. It sounds resolute, but it is helpful to her that Brexit is a made up word with no real meaning. She has said there will be no second referendum and no re-entry in to the EU via the back door. But she, like the Leave campaign of which she was not a member, has pointedly not said with any precision what she thinks Brexit means Reuters The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address General election This is very much one to keep off the to do list. She said last week there would be no general election at this time of great instability. But there have already been calls for one from opposition parties. The Fixed Term Parliaments Act of 2010 makes it far more difficult to call a snap general election, a difficulty she will be in no rush to overcome. In the event of a victory for Leadsom, who was not popular with her own parliamentary colleagues, an election might have been required, but May has the overwhelming backing of the parliamentary party Getty The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address HS2 Macbeth has been quoted far too much in recent weeks, but it will be up to May to decide whether, with regard to the new high speed train link between London, Birmingham, the East Midlands and the north, returning were as tedious as go oer. Billions have already been spent. But the 55bn it will cost, at a bare minimum, must now be considered against the grim reality of significantly diminished public finances in the short to medium term at least. It is not scheduled to be completed until 2033, by which point it is not completely unreasonable to imagine a massive, driverless car-led transport revolution having rendered it redundant EPA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Heathrow expansion Or indeed Gatwick expansion. Or Boris Island, though that option is seems as finished as the man himself. The decision on where to expand aviation capacity in the south east has been delayed to the point of becoming a national embarrassment. A final decision was due in autumn. Whatever is decided, there will be vast opprobrium PA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Trident renewal David Cameron indicated two days ago that there will be a Commons vote on renewing Britains nuclear deterrent on July 18th, by which point we now know, Ms May will be Prime Minister. The Labour Party is, to put it mildly, divided on the issue. This will be an early opportunity to maximise their embarrassment, and return to Tory business as usual EPA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Scottish Independence Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are in no doubt that the Brexit vote provides the opportunity for a second independence referendum, in which they can emerge victorious. The Scottish Parliament at Holyrood has the authority to call a second referendum, but Ms May and the British Parliament are by no means automatically compelled to accept the result. She could argue it was settled in 2014 AFP/Getty

Lord Henley will take an additional role at the Department for Work and Pensions, replacing Lord Freud, the architect of Universal Credit who announced his retirement earlier this month.

Baroness Shields role in internet safety and security has become the sole responsibility of the Home Office, having previously been shared with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Additional reporting by PA
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It is not actually a phone, and it is not really red.

But in popular culture, the hotline between Russia and the US, formally known as the Washington-Moscow Direct Communications Link, is always referred to at the red phone.

This week, it was revealed that tensions rose between the US and Russia amid mounting evidence that Moscow had sought to influence the outcome of the presidential election, President Barack Obama used the so-called Red Phone to contact his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and express his displeasure.

The 'red phone' is not actually a red phone (Wikipedia)

NBC News said that Mr Obama initially spoke to Mr Putin at the September G-20 G-20 summit in China, where he raised with him the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails - allegedly by hackers linked to the Russian government.

Not wanting to inflame the situation, Mr Obama reportedly used moderate language to warn Mr Putin of the consequences if Russian interference did not stop.

But when the hacking continued, Mr Obama resorted to the Cold War communication system to express his displeasure.

 Former ambassador to Russia: Putin wanted 'revenge' against Clinton

International law, including the law for armed conflict, applies to actions in cyberspace, said part of a message sent over the red phone on October 31. We will hold Russia to those standards.

James Collins, a former US ambassador to Russia and now a fellow at the Carneie Endowment for International Peace, told The Independent the fact that Mr Obama spoke directly to Mr Putin - apparently saying cut it out - underscored the seriousness of the issue.

He said he believed the relationship between the two countries was probably worse than at any time since the end of the Cold War and that the two were involved in a series of tit-for-tat actions.

I think the idea that Russia played whatever role it did, in the electoral process was something that struck a very strong chord among Americans, he said.

The network said that the red phone system, used to communicate in moments of crisis such as the September 11 attacks, was never actually a phone, but rather progressed from teletype more than 50 years ago, to the fax and now to email. The communication links the two counrties Nuclear Risk Reduction Centres.

NBC said that in 2013, the Obama administration added a channel intended to send email messages and attachments about cyber incidents. This is one of a series of cyber-related confidence-building measures designed to address the need for secure and reliable lines of communication about cybersecurity, it said.

The Obama administration had never used the cyber line before, officials said.

Its a dramatic step to pick that phone up and use it, said retired Adm James Stavridis, the former head of NATO.

The CIA has reportedly conclude that Russia interfered in the election, with the intention of benefiting Donald Trump, who has spoken favourably of Mr Putin and of his wish of a reset in relations.

During the election campaign, he frequently used information contained in the DNC emails, which were published by Wikileaks, to attack Hillary Clinton.

Since the CIAs conclusions were first published by the Washington Post, Mr Trump has rejected its finding. His campaign issued a statement saying the agency was made up of the same people who claimed Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.

A White House official told the network of the use of the red phone: This action was part of our ongoing, rigorous efforts to press the Russian government to halt the actions of those responsible for these cyber attacks.
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A senior US rabbi has been expelled from a Conservative Jewish association for performing interfaith weddings.

Seymour Rosenbloom, who has been a practising Conservative rabbi for 44 years, was ousted by the Rabbinical Assembly (RA) in November after the group voted unanimously for his dismissal.

The association forbids its rabbis from performing or attending interfaith marriages.

According to Mr Rosenbloom, the RA said he could retain his membership if he promised not to perform any more of the marriages, an offer he declined.

I dont have animus toward the RA, Mr Rosenbloom told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).

Its a futile policy, a policy that will eventually be overturned because the trend of history is against it. I have no bitterness I dont feel shunned or like an outcast.

The 72-year-old officiated his first interfaith ceremony in 2014, marrying his stepdaughter and her fiance.

Since then, he has performed four more and plans to officiate at two further ceremonies.

According to the RAs vice president, the movement is continuously considering its approach to interfaith marriages, although its commitment to Jewish law means it cannot support the ceremonies.

We are a Halachic movement and Judaism envisions the marriage ceremony as taking place between two Jewish people, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld told JTA.

Recommended The ancient manuscript that claims Jesus married Mary Magdalene

Through the lens and the vehicles offered by Jewish law and tradition, thats the avenue thats open to us in terms of a Jewish matrimonial ritual.

However, Mr Rosenbloom said interfaith marriages were a "reality" in the US, with the intermarriage rate among non-Orthodox Jews at 71 per cent, according to a 2013 Pew Research Centre study of American Jews.

Were isolating ourselves from our congregants at precisely the time they need us and want us most, Mr Rosenbloom said.

For many of these couples, once we say no to the wedding, its very hard for them to overcome that. The experience of rejection is far too great to even consider being part of the congregation.

The Independent has contacted the RA for comment.
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Donald Trumps presidential transition team has asked US State Department officials to disclose how much money it provides each year to international environmental groups.

Its the latest example of how the incoming administration is reassessing the US governments approach to tackling climate change and other environmental priorities.

As part of a list of questions posed last week to the departments Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, the Trump landing team asked, How much does the Department of State contribute annually to international environmental organizations in which the department participates?

The individuals familiar with the request spoke on the condition of anonymity because transition communications are confidential.

It is unclear which specific groups the transition team was referring to in its question; a spokesman for the president-elect did not respond to a request for comment on Monday night.

The State Department has worked aggressively under President Obama to support international initiatives to cut greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, but Mr Trump has vowed to pull back from such efforts.

On Nov. 1, Mr Trump said he would cancel billions of dollars in global warming payments to the United Nations and devote that money instead to green infrastructure projects and environmental protection.

His campaign released a policy statement that day suggesting that he would cancel all wasteful climate change spending, which would include the elimination of all of the federal governments international and domestic climate programs as well as a rollback in regulations aimed at cutting carbon emissions.

The campaign estimated that these moves would save $100 billion over eight years, though it did not release a detailed accounting of how those savings would be generated.

As part of the Paris climate agreement reached a year ago, the United States pledged to donate $3 billion over four years to the Green Climate Fund, a multinational fund aimed at helping poor nations adapt to the most severe climate impacts and develop renewable sources of energy. So far, the administration has provided $500 million to the fund.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke  filled with the carbon that is driving climate change  drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

The State Department does spend money on global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, though it is unclear how much is annually budgeted for such work.

According to a 2013 Congressional Research Service report, federal spending on climate change initiatives between fiscal year 2008 and 2013 totalled roughly $77 billion. Two-thirds of those funds went to developing carbon-free technology and deploying those advances, and most of that work was undertaken by the Energy Department rather than State.

While the transition team has a right to know how the State Department spends its money, what they are going to find out is that environmental spending is a tiny fraction of the foreign affairs budget, which itself is a small part of the federal budget, said Nigel Purvis, who served in the State Department under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and now heads the DC consulting firm Climate Advisers.

Most international environmental programs run by the State Department enjoy broad bipartisan support and many of these programs were started by Republicans.

The State Department has not responded to the Trump transition teams question about its support for international environmental organizations, according to a person familiar with the request.

Earlier this month, members of the Trump transition team asked Energy Department officials to identify which employees had attended international climate conferences and worked on domestic efforts to cut carbon.

Mr Trumps staff said last week that the questionnaire was not authorized or part of our standard protocol, and that the aide who wrote it has been properly counselled.

 Climate change: It's "game over" for planet earth

Last week, Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to the State Department urging Secretary of State John F Kerry to beware of witch hunts.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said Monday that no similar request for names had been made by the transition team embedded in a wing of the State Department, whether on environmental or other issues.

I know of no such request for lists of that sort, Mr Kirby told reporters.

For our part, we continue to work with the transition team thats here at the State Department to help them prepare for seamlessly assuming the reins, he added.

Mr Kerry has ordered the State Department to cooperate and be helpful to the transition team to ensure a smooth handover.

Although some State Department officials found the question about funding for environmental groups troubling, one senior official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because transition communications are confidential, said the requests from the transition team have been appropriate.

They are legitimately looking at the organization of things here at Foggy Bottom [the State Department], and asking responsible questions about how the State Department is organized, how its resourced, how its managed, and trying to get a handle on the organization they will inherit in a few weeks, the official said.

Its legitimate. Its normal. Its responsible. If they werent doing it, youd be asking questions.

We are helping, providing information on request. If they ask, they get it. We want them to succeed. A big part of that is getting a firm grip on things.

Mr Kerry, who has worked on the issue of climate change for his entire political career, has told scientists in the wake of the election that they need to increase the publics sense of urgency on the issue.

We need to get more of a movement going, he said last month when addressing several hundred scientists and staff members at Antarcticas McMurdo Station, a large base that is the hub for U.S. operations. We need to get more people to engage.

Copyright The Washington Post
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Donald Trumps national security adviser has met with the leader of a far-right Austrian party founded by ex-Nazis after the Second World War.

Heinz-Christian Strache said in a Facebook post that the meeting with General Michael Flynn and other high-ranking US politicians took place at New York's Trump Tower.

Describing them as "friends", he said they had discussed Mr Trump's presidential victory.

Mr Strache, whose Freedom party was defeated in a rerun of the Austrian presidential election earlier this month, also announced he had signed a cooperation agreement Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.

They agreed to contribute to the expansion of the partnership between the two parties and countries, including in matters of international security, migration crisis, economic and human development, supporting traditional values and protecting the environment, the party said in a statement on its website.

Mr Strache said: The Freedom party is continuing to win political influence. A collaboration between the US and Russia is particularly important for a diplomatic settlement of the conflict in Syria and in the Crimea.

He also called the economic sanctions imposed on Russia after the July 2014 downing of the MH17 flight over the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, ultimately useless.

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

Politics has to serve the people and not be used for geopolitical power games, he continued The Freedom party is active as a neutral and reliable agent to bring about peace.

In a press release on his website he also called for Austria to host a summit between the US and Russia on Austrian soil and said the EU and Russia should be closer in a bid to fight terrorism.

The meeting is the latest in a string of appointments with controversial foreign politicians which have been held in Trump Tower  adding fuel to speculation that Mr Trumps administration will be run by alt-right populists.

General Flynn, 57, was Mr Trumps main national security adviser during his campaign.

As national security adviser, he would have the last word on how the president should respond to crises such as a showdown with China over the South China Sea or a health crisis like the Ebola epidemic.

Like the presidential elect he has been accused of Islamaphobia and having a loose relationship with the facts. When he ran the US Defense Intelligence Agency, subordinates reportedly called his dubious assertions: Flynn facts.
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Twenty death sentences were recorded across the United States this year compared to 49 executions in 2015, according to the annual report from the Death Penalty Information Center, recording the lowest number since the early 1990s.

Next year, analysts predict that legal battles and the sales ban of execution drugs will keep the number of executions down to historic lows.

"I think we are watching a major political climate change concerning capital punishment and it's reflected among reduced death sentences across the country," Robert Dunham, the group's executive director, told the Associated Press this week.

"As fewer states use the death penalty and as it's used more sparingly in the states that do, we can expect long-term numbers to remain low and perhaps continue to drop.

While the number of executions are declining across the country, some states are more willing to carry out the death sentences to people convicted of violent criminal acts.

Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Show all 6 1 /6 Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Family and friends of Jeff Wood and anti-death penalty activists march from the Texas State Capitol to the Office of Governor Greg Abbott to deliver a petition with over 10,000 signatures asking the governor and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Wood's sentence on August 18, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Jeff Wood is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on August 24, 2016 under what is referred to as the "law of parties" for a criminal act he committed on January 2, 1996. The Texas law says that if a person, " acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense;" then they are criminally responsible for the conduct of another, as well. Tamir Kalifa/AFP/Getty Images Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Carla Harvey adds her name to a petition with over 10,000 signatures asking Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Jeff Wood's sentence, during a demonstration outside of the Texas State Capitol on August 18, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Family and friends of Jeff Wood and anti-death penalty activists delivered the petition to the Office of the Governor after the demonstration. Jeff Wood is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on August 24, 2016 under what is referred to as the "law of parties" for a criminal act he committed on January 2, 1996. The Texas law says that if a person, " acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense;" then they are criminally responsible for the conduct of another, as well. Tamir Kalifa/AFP/Getty Images Activists protest the death penalty in Texas A massive explosion guts Mexico's biggest fireworks market in Mexico City, on December 20, 2016. The explosion killed at least 31 people and injured 72, authorities said. The conflagration in the Mexico City suburb of Tultepec set off a quick-fire series of multicolored blasts that sent a vast cloud of smoke billowing over the capital. Tamir Kalifa/AFP/Getty Images Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Darius Broussard adds his name to a petition with over 10,000 signatures asking Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Jeff Wood's sentence, during a demonstration outside of the Texas State Capitol on August 18, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Family and friends of Jeff Wood and anti-death penalty activists delivered the petition to the Office of the Governor after the demonstration. Jeff Wood is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on August 24, 2016 under what is referred to as the "law of parties" for a criminal act he committed on January 2, 1996. The Texas law says that if a person, " acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense;" then they are criminally responsible for the conduct of another, as well. Tamir Kalifa/AFP/Getty Images Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Family and friends of Jeff Wood and anti-death penalty activists march from the Texas State Capitol to the Office of Governor Greg Abbott to deliver a petition with over 10,000 signatures asking the governor and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Wood's sentence on August 18, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Jeff Wood is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on August 24, 2016 under what is referred to as the "law of parties" for a criminal act he committed on January 2, 1996. The Texas law says that if a person, " acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense;" then they are criminally responsible for the conduct of another, as well. Tamir Kalifa/AFP/Getty Images Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Mark Clements (L), who was imprisoned for 28 years before being released and exonerated, encourages passersby to sign a petition with over 10,000 signatures asking Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Jeff Wood's sentence, during a demonstration outside of the Texas State Capitol on August 18, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Clements joined family and friends of Jeff Wood and anti-death penalty activists to deliver the petition to the Office of the Governor after the demonstration. Jeff Wood is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on August 24, 2016 under what is referred to as the "law of parties" for a criminal act he committed on January 2, 1996. The Texas law says that if a person, " acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense;" then they are criminally responsible for the conduct of another, as well. Tamir Kalifa/AFP/Getty Images

Los Angeles County has recorded 36 new death sentences since 2010, setting the highest rate in the nation, the Los Angeles Times reports. This year, juries imposed death sentences on four convicted murderers in the county including Lonnie Franklin Jr, who was convicted of killing 10 women.

Earlier this year, voters in the overwhelmingly blue state rejected a proposed measure, 53%-47%, to abolish the death penalty and make life without the possibility of parole the maximum punishment for murder.

We are on a path toward constitutional abolition, Jordan Steiker, director of the Capital Punishment Center at the University of Texas, told Reuters. The length of that path will be dictated by uncertainties concerning the Supreme Courts composition and how much the withering of the death penalty continues.
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The FBI had no probable cause to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clintons emails just under two weeks before Election Day, according to a federal judge who ordered the unsealing of the search warrant documents.

FBI investigators seized a laptop belonging to the husband of longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedins husband, Anthony Weiner in a sexting scandal investigation. Agents found thousands of emails sent by Ms Abedin on the laptop, and petitioned a judge to reissue a warrant to search the emails.

The agents believed the emails likely contained classified information sent from Ms Clintons private server while she was Secretary of State.

Democrats, including Ms Clinton herself, attributed Donald Trumps unexpected victory to a congressional letter from FBI director James Comey announcing the investigation into the emails.

When a federal judge unsealed the search warrant on Tuesday, the attorney who petitioned for the release of the documents lambasted the FBI, and said that they did not have probable cause to reopen the investigation, according to the Daily Mail.

E Randol Schoenberg said he was appalled by what he saw in the documents.

He added: I see nothing at all in the search warrant application that would give rise to probable cause.

Nothing that would make anyone suspect that there was anything on the laptop beyond what the FBI had already searched and determined not to be evidence of a crime, nothing to suggest that there would be anything other than routine correspondence between Secretary Clinton and her longtime aide, Huma Abedin.

Former Clinton campaign spokesperson Brian Fallon condemned the probe after the warrants were unsealed.

"The unsealed filings regarding Huma's emails reveals Comey's intrusion on the election was as utterly unjustified as we suspected at time," he tweeted. "There was nothing in search warrant filing to controvert Comey's statements from July and truly establish probable cause of a crime. On day when new election data freshly suggests decisive impact of Comey letter, it is salt in the wound to see FBI rationale was this flimsy."

The Department of Justice had notified Mr Comey that his letter to Congress would go against department policy, which prohibits officials from commenting on investigations so close to an election. Mr Comey sent his letter to Congress 11 days before Election Day.

With only days left before 8 November, Mr Comey announced that the reopened probe did not change the conclusion not to bring charges to Ms Clinton reached in July.

Prior to the announcement of the letter, Ms Clinton was leading in national polls and in key battleground states.

President Bill Clinton blamed Mr Comey for the loss to Mr Trump recently.

James Comey cost her the election, he reportedly told a Bedford-Pound Ridge Record Review journalist.
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President-elect Donald Trump sailed past the 270 mark on Monday in the Electoral College vote to secure his position as the next President of the United States, but the vote itself saw the largest number of electors break ranks in more than a century.

Mondays Electoral College vote recorded a total of seven faithless electors, with Hillary Clinton suffering the biggest number of protest votes. Mr Trump won 304 votes on Monday, only two less than the votes he claimed on Election Day, while Mrs Clinton lost five electors to protest votes, taking her total down to 227.

The Electoral College vote is usually seen as a formality but it was given added attention this year due to Mrs Clinton having won the popular vote by more than 2.8 million, the weeks of lobbying, and a day of protests in cities across Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Maine.

Mr Trump lost two votes in Texas, where one elector voted for Ohio Governor John Kasich and the other voted for former Texas Representative Ron Paul.

Mrs Clinton lost four electors in Washington state, where three votes went to former Republican secretary of state Colin Powell and one went to Native American tribal leader Faith Spotted Eagle. In Hawaii, one elector voted for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

"We did it!" Mr Trump tweeted Monday evening. "Thank you to all of my great supporters, we just officially won the election (despite all of the distorted and inaccurate media)."

He later issued a statement saying: "With this historic step we can look forward to the bright future ahead. I will work hard to unite our country and be the President of all Americans."

Additional reporting by agencies
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A man has claimed he was thrown off a Delta Airlines flight for speaking to his mother in Arabic.

YouTube star and serial prankster Adam Saleh, who has more than 1.6 million subscribers on his channel, posted a video on Twitter that appeared to show him being escorted from the plane along with a friend, called Slim.

A Delta staff member can be seen in the shot.

Mr Saleh can be heard to say to fellow passengers: "Are you serious? I'm about to cry right now. You guys are racists. I cannot believe it. Because we said a word in a different language? And it's six white people against us bearded men?"

Forbes' Highest-Paid YouTubers of 2016 Show all 10 1 /10 Forbes' Highest-Paid YouTubers of 2016 Forbes' Highest-Paid YouTubers of 2016 1. PewDiePie ($15 million) (Real name Felix Kjellberg) Getty Forbes' Highest-Paid YouTubers of 2016 2. Roman Atwood ($8 million) Getty Forbes' Highest-Paid YouTubers of 2016 3. Lilly Singh ($7.5 million) Lilly Singh Getty Forbes' Highest-Paid YouTubers of 2016 4. Smosh ($7 million) (Real names Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla aka Smosh) Getty Forbes' Highest-Paid YouTubers of 2016 5. Rosanna Pansino ($6 million) Getty Forbes' Highest-Paid YouTubers of 2016 6. Tyler Oakley ($6 million) Getty Forbes' Highest-Paid YouTubers of 2016 7. Markiplier ($5.5 million) (Real name Mark Fischbach) Getty Forbes' Highest-Paid YouTubers of 2016 8. German Garmendia ($5.5 million) Getty Forbes' Highest-Paid YouTubers of 2016 9. Rhett and Link ($5 million) (Real names Rhett McLaughlin and Charles Lincoln 'Link' Neal) Getty Forbes' Highest-Paid YouTubers of 2016 10. Miranda Sings ($5 million) (Real name Colleen Ballinger) Getty

He finds some support among other passengers and one says: "That is so upsetting. Why are they being kicked out?"

In a later Periscope video Mr Saleh said: "I was speaking to my mum in Arabic, then I spoke to Slim in Arabic, and they kicked us out."

On Twitter, he added: "I will not let this issue go by. I will speak up and make sure anyone can speak any language in a plane."

Delta said in a statement: "Two customers were removed from this flight and later rebooked after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort.

"We're conducting a full review to understand what transpired. We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect."

Other social media users cast doubt on Mr Saleh's posts.

Lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky tweeted: "Maybe some context be nice? How do we know this legit? Video doesn't show the 'before'."

Others pointed out that Mr Saleh had tweeted from an airport on December 19 saying that workers recognised him from a previous prank video.

I might get held up or in trouble, he wrote.

The Independent was unable to verify whether the latest video was part of a prank.

In November Delta banned a passenger for life after he went on an explicit pro-Donald Trump and anti-Hillary Clinton rant on his flight from Atlanta to Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The company's firm stance against the "loud, rude and disrespectful" passenger came following widespread criticism on social media over its lack of discipline for him after footage of the incident surfaced online.

Social media users pointed out that the man, who was white, was not ejected from the flight but passengers who are Sikh, Muslim, African-American, and of other minority ethnicities have been kicked off flights due to safety concerns following complaints from passengers and staff.
(file photo)

CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive revealed on Dec. 20 that the company has signed a contract to supply trains to Czech open-access passenger operator Leo Express in Prague. It's the first time China's multiple units have entered the EU market, China News Service reported.

Under a framework agreement with Leo Express, CRRC Zhuzhou will supply three electronic multiple units (EMU) trains, together with initial spare parts, special tools, testing equipment and training services.

Liao Hongtao, deputy general manager of CRRC Zhouzhou, introduced that the trainset, consists of six cars, is designed with a maximum operating speed of 160 kph. The trainset has adopted dual power types AC25KV and DC3000V, making it operable in Czech, Slovak and Poland.

In recent years, CRRC Zhuzhou has conducted cooperation with many countries including Malaysia, South Africa, and Turkey in terms of rail transportation equipment. The company has received orders from Macedonia to supply DMUs and EMUs in 2014. It has established a European subsidiary in Austria in 2016 as a basis for the expansion of its European railway business and the company has also signed a cooperation agreement with the Technical University of Graz, a key player in railway research in Austria. It has also been recognized as a highest level supplier by the German railway.

Zhou Qinghe, chariman of CRRC Zhuzhou, noted that it's the first time Chinese multiple units have entered the EU market. As a high-end market for rail transportation equipment, EU has stringent requirements on the quality and reliability of the trains. The successful signing of the agreement means that products made by Chinese train manufacturers have been widely recognized.
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India is to start fining airlines that empty their planes toilet tanks in mid-air, after reports of human waste being dropped on peoples homes.

The countrys National Green Tribunal, an environmental court, has introduced a 50,000 rupee (600) charge on any airline that fails to store the waste onboard so it can be properly disposed of.

On-the-spot inspections will be introduced to check an aircrafts human waste tanks are not empty upon landing.

Any airline whose planes are found to have empty tanks will have to pay the environment compensation fine, the Press Trust of India reported..

Aeroplane waste tanks are normally emptied by airport staff once the plane lands but there have been numerous incidents of leaks resulting in excrement being dropped on residential areas.

After a court hearing, Indias National Green Tribunal said: Aircraft on landing shall be subjected to surprise inspections to see that human waste tanks are not empty.

"If any aircraft is found to be violating such circular or [their] tanks are found empty on landing, they shall be subjected to environment compensation of 50,000 rupees by default.

The move came after a retired army officer, Lt Gen Satwant Singh Dahiya, took action against airlines he said were frequently dropping human waste on his house near Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport.

He claimed the walls and floors of the terrace of his house were "splattered with large patches of excreta dumped by aircraft flying in front of the airport.

The world's 10 worst airlines Show all 10 1 /10 The world's 10 worst airlines The world's 10 worst airlines 10. Jet AirHelp, has assessed more than 30 airlines using scores for quality of service, on-time performance and responses to claims for compensation. Here follows the lowest ranked airlines, starting with Jet Airways, 35% of whose flights were delayed in 2018 Getty The world's 10 worst airlines 9. Aerolineas Argentinas 15% of Aerolineas Argentinas flights were delayed in 2018 Getty The world's 10 worst airlines 8. Iberia 16% of Iberia flights were delayed in 2018 Getty Images The world's 10 worst airlines 7. Korean Air 36% of Korean Air flights were delayed in 2018 Getty The world's 10 worst airlines 6. Ryanair 14% of Ryanair flights were delayed in 2018 EPA The world's 10 worst airlines 5. Air Mauritius 31% of Air Mauritius flights were delayed in 2018 Getty The world's 10 worst airlines 4. easyJet 21% of easyJet flights were delayed in 2018 AFP/Getty Images The world's 10 worst airlines 3. Pakistan International Airlines 39% of Pakistan International Airlines were delayed in 2018 Getty The world's 10 worst airlines 2. Royal Jordanian Airlines 13% of Royal Jordanian Airlines flights were delayed in 2018 Getty The world's 10 worst airlines 1. WOW Air 25% of WOW Air flights were delayed in 2018 Getty

However, Indias aviation ministry said while tests confirmed the substance was human waste, there was no evidence it had came from planes.

It is unclear where else the excrement on the roof of Mr Dahiyas house may have come from, and the environmental court expressed surprise that Indias pollution monitor said the source of the waste could not be established.

Earlier this year an Indian woman suffered a severe shoulder injury when she was hit by a large chunk of ice that fell from the sky.

Aviation experts believe it was likely to have been blue ice  the name given to frozen human waste that forms around the overflow outlets on aeroplane toilets. The term refers to the blue chemicals that are used in the toilets.

The problem of "blue ice" is not limited to India. Around 25 cases of human waste falling from planes in the UK are reported every year.

Last year two Wiltshire pensioners said a yellow and brown lump of ice had smashed through the roof of their house.

Keith and Ruth Mead fretted about what to write on the insurance claim form. The told the Daily Mail: On our insurance forms do we put 'house hit by frozen urine and poo', will they believe us?"
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Police are reportedly hunting a Tunisian man over an attack in Berlin where a lorry ploughed into a German Christmas market after his asylum documents were found in the vehicles cab.

Der Spiegel reported that a notice of temporary stay document was found under the drivers seat following the attack that killed 12 people and injured dozens more.

It is said to name a Tunisian citizen called Anis A, who was born in 1992, although the suspect is also believed to go under at least two aliases, giving differing dates of birth.

 Video shows immediate aftermath of Berlin lorry attack

The document found is given to asylum seekers in Germany, allowing them to legally remain in the country while their claim is decided.

The Allgemeine Zeitung reported that the Tunisian suspect was registered under the name Ahmed A, 21, in the district of Kleve, in North Rhine-Westphalia.

It was unclear when the suspect arrived in Germany but a confidential security database entry from February seen by Der Spiegel showed authorities believed he had links to Isis, which was reported to be using his hometown of Tataouine as a transit base for fighters last year.

Anis A, who posed as Egyptian and Lebanese under various fake names, was reportedly classified as a terror threat and put under increased surveillance before a court in Ravensburg issued an order for his deportation in July. It was unclear how he remained in Germany.

The federal public prosecutors office, which is leading the terror investigation, could not be reached for comment.

Police were reportedly searching hospitals in Berlin for the suspect, who is believed to have been injured in a fight with the Polish driver of the lorry, which was hijacked hours before the massacre.

Berlin's RBB television reported that police were using DNA retrieved from the vehicles cab in efforts to trace the culprit in hospitals.

Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Show all 18 1 /18 Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Several people have been killed after a lorry drove into crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch Berlin Christmas market lorry attack 'At least nine' people have been killed and more than 50 injured. AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency Services rush a Berlin market victim to an ambulance Associated Press Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Police cordoned off the square at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church following the incident REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers inspect the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market close to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in Berlin EPA Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency crews inspect the lorry that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing at least nine people AFP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Fire crews attend the scene of the attack AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Armed police secure the site of a lorry attack at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Crushed debris is visible beneath the wheels of the vehicle REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack An injured man is pushed to an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Medics attend an injured person after the lorry attack which killed at least nine and injured more than 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters examine the lorry which was rammed into a Berlin Christmas market REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack A person is carried into an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack View of the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing at least nine and injuring at least 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers push a person on a stretcher to an ambulance Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters assess the damage after the lorry rammed the Christmas market, killing 'at least nine', and injuring more than 50 people AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters stand beside a toppled Christmas tree at the site of the suspected terrorist attack in a Berlin Christmas market AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Damaged stalls at the scene of the incident at a Berlin Christmas market where at least nine people have been killed EPA

The Polish driver, Lukasz Urban, was found shot and stabbed to death inside while the attacker fled the scene on foot.

A Pakistani asylum seeker originally arrested on suspicion of being the driver has been released after no evidence was found against him, leaving the attacker at large and possibly armed.

The gun used to shoot Mr Urban has not been found, prompting fears the extremist could pose a continued risk to Germany.

Investigators are looking into the possibility the attacker was injured in a fight with Mr Urban as he desperately tried to stop the hijacked lorry being ploughed into crowds of Germans and tourists enjoying a popular Christmas market.

Lukasz Wasik, the manager of the lorry company, told TVP television Mr Urban was a good, quiet and honest person who was devoted to his work, adding: I believe he would not give up the vehicle and would defend it to the end if were attacked.

 Islamic State claims responsibility for Berlin truck attack

The lorrys GPS tracking showed it had been hijacked, being started up during a mandatory break and moving backwards and forwards as if someone was learning how to drive it. It left a parking area at around 7.40pm (6.40pm GMT) and drove around six miles to the Christmas market.

Berlin Police said they had received more than 500 tips by Tuesday night, including 80 being followed up as leads as Germany continues to mourn the atrocity.

Isis claimed responsibility for the massacre on Tuesday evening, calling the perpetrator a soldier of the Islamic State who was obeying calls to attack supporters of the US-led coalition launching air strikes on its territories in Syria and Iraq.

Germany's federal prosecutor, Peter Frank, told a press conference the attack mirrored the method used by an Isis supporter in Nice and followed recent instructions released by the group to incite more terror attacks in Europe.

There is also the prominent and symbolic target of a Christmas market, and the modus operandi that mirrors past calls by jihadi terror organisations, he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel came under political pressure following the attack (Reuters)

Angela Merkel joined hundreds of mourners at a memorial service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Tuesday night, after the lorrys wreckage was taken away for forensic testing.

Hundreds more were unable to enter the packed service, gathering inside the deserted Christmas market instead and holding makeshift vigils under the watch of heavily armed police in Breitscheidplatz.

Michael Muller, the mayor of Berlin, said it was good to see Berliners aren't being intimidated as Christmas markets and festive events continued under the watchful eye of armed police.

I don't think there's any need to be afraid, he told ZDF television. The police presence has been significantly heightened ... and of course other measures taken to find the perpetrator quickly.

Mr Muller said security would be increased in the German capital but that measures must be appropriate and not constrain everyday life.

It wouldn't be our free and open life any more if we escalated security measures so much that people worry about going anywhere, that there are strict entry checks, he said.
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Muslims handing out t-shirts reading love for all, hate for none at a vigil in Berlin have said they will not allow the city to become more divided following Mondays attack on a Christmas market.

Police are reportedly hunting a Tunisian man after a lorry ploughed into the market, killing 12 people and injuring dozens more.

Asylum documents naming the suspect were found under the drivers seat of the vehicle, according to German media.

Were here tonight to show our face against terrorism, Muhammad Asif Sadiq told The Independent during a live Facebook broadcast at last nights vigil.

Muslims who live here fight for peace, fight for loyalty and they love their country. We are here as citizens of Berlin and we love living here.

Mr Sadiq attended the vigil with the group of Ahmadiyya Muslims wearing and giving out the t-shirts, some which also said freedom for all and loyalty for all.

We are part of this society, we live here, and we want to live in peace, we want to live in harmony, and we believe this society is open enough to support the same values as we do, he said.

People take part in a vigil in Berlin, Germany after the truck attack at the Christmas market (Lizzie Dearden)

Mr Sadiq, who is of Pakistani origin, said people had started looking at foreigners differently over recent years in Germany but was confident that Berlin would rise above growing anti-migrant sentiment.

Changing ourselves is not the answer  we have to change the terrorists to we are strong, he said, adding a message for the attacker: If he does not like the way people live here, just leave the country.

The vigil took place on Tuesday evening (Lizzie Dearden)

Berliners, tourists, Muslims and Jews could all be seen among the crowds braving the freezing cold in a show of defiance against the terror wreaked less than 24 hours before.

Angela Merkel joined hundreds of mourners at a memorial service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which towers over the market.

Hundreds more were unable to enter the packed service, gathering inside the deserted Christmas market instead and holding makeshift vigils under the watch of heavily armed police in Breitscheidplatz.

Many openly wept as they were hugged by friends and loved ones, laying down candles and flowers or simply standing in silence to listen to the prayers and music broadcast from inside the church.

Zeynep Cetinkaya, a German woman of Turkish heritage, described the panicked search to check on her friends and family as news of the attack spread, with several victims still unidentified.

Just one day after what happened, people are not hiding at home, they are here in the same place to show their strength, she said.

One of her friends, Sami Atris, said he was among several members of his mosque attending the vigil, adding: We are Muslim people but we are also German people and this was an attack on us Germans. We are here to show we wont let anyone divide us and we will stand here, together in love and peace.

Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Show all 18 1 /18 Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Several people have been killed after a lorry drove into crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch Berlin Christmas market lorry attack 'At least nine' people have been killed and more than 50 injured. AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency Services rush a Berlin market victim to an ambulance Associated Press Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Police cordoned off the square at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church following the incident REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers inspect the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market close to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in Berlin EPA Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency crews inspect the lorry that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing at least nine people AFP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Fire crews attend the scene of the attack AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Armed police secure the site of a lorry attack at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Crushed debris is visible beneath the wheels of the vehicle REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack An injured man is pushed to an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Medics attend an injured person after the lorry attack which killed at least nine and injured more than 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters examine the lorry which was rammed into a Berlin Christmas market REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack A person is carried into an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack View of the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing at least nine and injuring at least 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers push a person on a stretcher to an ambulance Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters assess the damage after the lorry rammed the Christmas market, killing 'at least nine', and injuring more than 50 people AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters stand beside a toppled Christmas tree at the site of the suspected terrorist attack in a Berlin Christmas market AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Damaged stalls at the scene of the incident at a Berlin Christmas market where at least nine people have been killed EPA

Yasin Uzuner, who was putting down candles with his wife and two young children in the deserted Christmas market, said the attack struck Berlin particularly hard by targeting the festive period.

But said he still felt safe in the German capital. We will come back here, he added, calling demands for Germany to shut its borders rubbish.

Angelina Ferrera and her mother were standing with a group of people holding candles opposite the church as hymns rang out.

The 30-year-old vowed that Berlin would not be polarised by the attack, adding: Its important to be here with our friends, with our community. This person tried to divide us and they will not succeed.

Her mother, Karin Muolo, recalled life under the Communist DDR and said Berlin would not lose its spirit of freedom.

Asked whether political opponents were right to blame Ms Merkel for terror attacks because of her refugee policy, she called the idea totally false.
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A German minister has admitted security forces knew the suspected Berlin attacker was a terror threat but failed to detain or deport him before he ploughed a lorry into a Christmas market.

Ralf Jager, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, told a press conference the Tunisian man had already been put under investigation over a previous attack plot but missing paperwork meant he could not be ejected from Germany.

Anis Amri, 24, was the subject of a meeting of its Joint Terror Protection Centre and federal and local government officials shared information as recently as last month, with the police warning he posed a threat.

Prosecutors are offering a 100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest, describing Amri as 5ft 10in tall and weighing just under 12 stone, with black hair and brown eyes.

 Islamic State claims responsibility for Berlin truck attack

If you see the person being sought, notify the police, read an appeal. Do not put yourself in danger, because the person could be violent and armed.

Mr Jager said a separate investigation was launched into plans for a serious act of violence against the state earlier this year but Amri could not be deported because of a bureaucratic dispute with Tunisia, which originally said he was not a citizen.

Recommended First pictures of Tunisian suspect released after Berlin attack

The man could not be deported because he had no valid identification papers, the minister added, saying Germany requested the necessary documents in August.

They arrived today  two days after the Berlin attack  and would have allowed authorities to carry out the deportation order issued after Amris asylum application was rejected in June.

A spokesperson for the North Rhine-Westphalia interior ministry told The Independent local police launched an investigation into the suspect over a separate attack plot earlier this year and handed their information to Germanys Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), which shut the investigation in September.

When asked why Amri was not arrested, he replied: I dont know, ask Berlin. A spokesperson for the BKA said she could not comment on previous investigations but an anonymous source told Reuters there was insufficient evidence to proceed.

Prosecutors launched a probe into claims Amri was planning a break-in to finance buying automatic weapons for an attack, but surveillance that started in March failed to reveal evidence of a terror plot and was stopped six months later.

Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Show all 18 1 /18 Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Several people have been killed after a lorry drove into crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch Berlin Christmas market lorry attack 'At least nine' people have been killed and more than 50 injured. AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency Services rush a Berlin market victim to an ambulance Associated Press Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Police cordoned off the square at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church following the incident REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers inspect the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market close to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in Berlin EPA Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency crews inspect the lorry that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing at least nine people AFP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Fire crews attend the scene of the attack AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Armed police secure the site of a lorry attack at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Crushed debris is visible beneath the wheels of the vehicle REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack An injured man is pushed to an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Medics attend an injured person after the lorry attack which killed at least nine and injured more than 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters examine the lorry which was rammed into a Berlin Christmas market REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack A person is carried into an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack View of the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing at least nine and injuring at least 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers push a person on a stretcher to an ambulance Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters assess the damage after the lorry rammed the Christmas market, killing 'at least nine', and injuring more than 50 people AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters stand beside a toppled Christmas tree at the site of the suspected terrorist attack in a Berlin Christmas market AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Damaged stalls at the scene of the incident at a Berlin Christmas market where at least nine people have been killed EPA

Amri's estranged father told a Tunisian radio station his son was born in 1992 and lived in the Oueslatia region,

He said Amri left his home country around seven years ago and had a lengthy criminal past, being jailed in Italy for setting fire to a school and previously sentenced in absentia to five years in prison for aggravated robbery in Oueslatia, Tunisia.

Mr Jager said the man arrived in Germany in 2015 and went under numerous aliases  a technique previously used by terrorists including the Paris and Brussels attackers to throw authorities off their scent.

Recommended Muslims in Berlin send message of peace and solidarity after attack

The suspect had been living in Berlin since February, having previously stayed areas including Kleve in North Rhine-Westphalia and the city of Freiburg, in Baden-Wurttemberg.

Amris identity was confirmed by prosecutors hours after he was named in German media reports after identification documents were found inside the lorry used in Monday nights massacre.

At least 12 people were killed and dozens injured when it ploughed into crowds enjoying a popular Christmas market in central Berlin.

Stephan Mayer, a politician from the CSU party, said the new suspect had ties to a network of Islamic extremists, reported to include a hate preacher known as Abu Walaa, who was arrested as part of a cell of Isis supporters sending militants to Syria earlier this year.

Amri was also said to have followed an extremist preacher known as Boban S, who was arrested in Dortmund on suspicion of supporting Isis in November.

Tunisian officials said they would be working with the German government in the probe, which comes months after another Tunisian man who lived in France was shot dead after using a lorry to kill 86 people in Nice.

Anis Amri, the latest suspect in the Berlin lorry attack (Facebook)

Amri, who also claimed to be Egyptian and Lebanese while using fake passports and documents, was classified as a terror threat and put under increased surveillance before a court in Ravensburg issued an order for his deportation in June.

A Pakistani asylum seeker originally arrested on suspicion of being the attacker has been released after no evidence was found against him, leaving the attacker at large and possibly armed.

The German interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, said a European arrest warrant was issued for Amri as the manhunt spread from Germany throughout the EUs Schengen area amid warnings the suspect could pose a further threat.

A gun used to shoot the Polish driver of the hijacked lorry has not been found, with witnesses losing track of the attacker as he fled.

Isis claimed responsibility for the massacre, calling the perpetrator a soldier of the Islamic State who was obeying calls to attack supporters of the US-led coalition launching air strikes on its territories in Syria and Iraq.

Coming after two previous Isis terror attacks by asylum seekers earlier this year, the massacre has fuelled increasing anger against Angela Merkels government over its decision to open the borders to refugees last year, sparking the arrival of almost 90,000 asylum seekers.

She will face fierce opposition from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, whose leader claimed Ms Merkels bid for a fourth term in next years election was finished by the lorry attack.

The Chancellor was among hundreds of mourners who packed the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church for a service next to the destroyed market on Tuesday evening and hundreds of people held an emotional vigil outside.

Flowers, candles and tributes have continued to pile up in Breitscheidplatz as Germany mourns its worst terror attack since 1990.
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Two women from Israel and Italy are among those feared killed in the Berlin lorry attack as families continue a harrowing wait to find out if their loved ones are among the dead and injured.

Only six out of 12 victims of the massacre at a German Christmas market have been formally identified, officials said, with around 50 others injured in the rampage.

They were all German nationals but the bustling market in Breitscheidplatz was also packed with tourists and foreign residents of Berlin when the lorry ploughed into crowds.

 Islamic State claims responsibility for Berlin truck attack

At least two British people needed medical treatment for shock and minor wounds and the Government said it was offering assistance to affected families.

Israels foreign ministry said a tourist who was seriously wounded in the attack had reported his wife missing.

Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said the man was in stable condition in hospital following surgery and Israeli officials were in touch day and night with German authorities to try to find his wife. The couple had been in Berlin on holiday, with their relatives flying into Germany on Tuesday.

An Italian woman living in the German capital was also feared to be among the victims. Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, 31, has not been heard from since the atrocity, and it is understood her phone and transport pass were found at the scene.

Almost 50 people were injured in the rampage, with many remaining in hospital undergoing treatment.

Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Show all 18 1 /18 Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Several people have been killed after a lorry drove into crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch Berlin Christmas market lorry attack 'At least nine' people have been killed and more than 50 injured. AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency Services rush a Berlin market victim to an ambulance Associated Press Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Police cordoned off the square at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church following the incident REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers inspect the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market close to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in Berlin EPA Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency crews inspect the lorry that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing at least nine people AFP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Fire crews attend the scene of the attack AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Armed police secure the site of a lorry attack at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Crushed debris is visible beneath the wheels of the vehicle REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack An injured man is pushed to an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Medics attend an injured person after the lorry attack which killed at least nine and injured more than 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters examine the lorry which was rammed into a Berlin Christmas market REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack A person is carried into an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack View of the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing at least nine and injuring at least 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers push a person on a stretcher to an ambulance Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters assess the damage after the lorry rammed the Christmas market, killing 'at least nine', and injuring more than 50 people AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters stand beside a toppled Christmas tree at the site of the suspected terrorist attack in a Berlin Christmas market AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Damaged stalls at the scene of the incident at a Berlin Christmas market where at least nine people have been killed EPA

Inaki Ellakuria, a Spanish student who need surgery for a broken leg after the attack, described how the lorry came fast, too fast to be driving off the road accidentally.

It swept me under and ran over both of my legs, he tweeted in the aftermath of the massacre.

Several British tourists are believed to have been present at the market during the attack, although the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was in contact with at least two families affected.

Earlier today, German officials informed us that two British nationals had received medical attention for shock and minor injuries and were discharged a short time later, a spokesperson told The Independent.

We stand ready to provide assistance to any more British nationals caught up in the attack. We continue to advise any British nationals in the area to remain vigilant and follow the advice of local authorities.

The Governments updated travel advice warns of a high threat from terrorism in Berlin, with increased security around public buildings, tourist attractions and events.

The lorry attacker remains at large after fleeing the scene on foot after hijacking the lorry and shooting its Polish driver dead following a fight for control.

Anis Amri, suspect in Berlin lorry attack (Facebook)

Prosecutors were offering a 100,000 (84,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of a Tunisian suspect named as 24-year-old Anis Amri, who was described as armed and dangerous.

There may be increased security in place over the Christmas and New Year period, including at Christmas markets and other major events that might attract large crowds, it said.

Isis claimed responsibility for the massacre on Tuesday evening, calling the perpetrator a soldier of the Islamic State who was obeying calls to attack supporters of the US-led coalition launching air strikes on its territories in Syria and Iraq.

Angela Merkel was among hundreds of mourners who packed the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church for a service next to the destroyed market on Tuesday evening and hundreds of people held an emotional vigil outside.

Flowers, candles and tributes have continued to pile up in Breitscheidplatz, with a second vigil held by the Brandenburg Gate tonight as Germany mourns its worst ever Islamist terror attack.

People take part in a vigil in Berlin after the truck attack at the Christmas market (Lizzie Dearden)

A minute's silence was held at the service, which was coordinated with other German cities including Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt.

Michael Muller, the mayor of Berlin, said it was good to see Berliners aren't being intimidated as festive events continued under the watchful eye of armed police. I don't think there's any need to be afraid, he told ZDF television. The police presence has been significantly heightened and of course other measures are being taken to find the perpetrator quickly.

Mr Muller said security would be increased in the German capital but that measures must be appropriate and not constrain everyday life. It wouldn't be our free and open life any more if we escalated security measures so much that people worry about going anywhere, that there are strict entry checks, he said.

His comments came as Germanys cabinet approved a draft law to broaden video surveillance in public and commercial areas, a measure agreed by political parties last month after violent attacks and sexual assaults on women.

Anyone concerned for the welfare of a friend or relative can call a dedicated German police line on +49 30 540 23 111. Anyone with information on the attack is asked to call +49 30 540 24 111.
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Fear and anger is growing in Germany over a lorry attack that killed 12 people after police were forced to release their only suspect, admitting the real culprit was still at large.

Isis claimed responsibility for the massacre that targeted Germans and tourists enjoying one of Berlins most popular Christmas market, calling the perpetrator was a soldier of the Islamic State obeying calls to attack members of the US-led coalition.

The group issued its propaganda statement hours after investigators maintained they could not confirm the atrocity was either a terror attack or motivated by Islamist extremism.

Thomas de Maiziere, the interior minister, confirmed security services had received the claim on Tuesday evening but urged caution.

Recommended Isis claims responsibility for Berlin Christmas market attack

We should let the security forces do their job, he added. Nobody will rest until the perpetrator or perpetrators are caught.

Klaus Kandt, the president of Berlin Police, admitted that the culprit remained on the loose and could pose a further threat.

It is the case that we may have a dangerous criminal in the area and that of course makes the public nervous, he said.

We are boosting security measures. Heightened vigilance is also needed at the moment.

A suspect identified by local media as a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker was arrested near the scene shortly after Monday nights attack, with hundreds of armed police launching a dawn raid on the migrant accommodation centre where he was thought to be registered.

But he denied any involvement and was released 24 hours later after investigators failed to uncover evidence needed to extend his detention under German law.

The federal public prosecutors office said investigations had not established any links to the crime, and that eyewitnesses whose statements were used for the suspects arrest had lost track of the driver after he fled the vehicle.

Criminal investigations carried out so far have not been able to prove the accused was present inside the lorrys cab during the incident, a spokesperson said.

The attacker is believed to have shot the Scania lorrys Polish driver dead before hijacking it, driving it into the Christmas market and fleeing on foot, leaving more than 60 victims strewn among destroyed huts and stalls.

Confusion reigned as Angela Merkel joined hundreds of mourners at a memorial service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which towers over the market.

Hundreds more were unable to enter the packed service, gathering inside the deserted Christmas market instead and holding makeshift vigils under the watch of heavily armed police in Breitscheidplatz.

Many openly wept as they were hugged by friends and loved ones, laying down candles and flowers or simply standing in silence to listen to the prayers and music broadcast from inside the church.

Berliners, tourists, Muslims and Jews could all be seen among the crowds braving the freezing cold in a show of defiance against the terror wreaked less than 24 hours before.

Muhammad Asif Sadiq attended the vigil with a group of Ahmadiyya Muslims giving out T-shirts reading love for all, hate for none in German.

Were here tonight to show our face against terrorism, he said. Muslims who live here fight for peace, fight for loyalty and they love their country. We are here as citizens of Berlin and we love living here.

Mr Sadiq, who is of Pakistani origin, said people had started looking at foreigners differently over recent years in Germany but was confident that Berlin would rise above growing anti-migrant sentiment.

Changing ourselves is not the answer  we have to change the terrorists to we are strong, he said, adding a message for the attacker: If he does not like the way people live here, just leave the country.

Zeynep Cetinkaya, a German woman of Turkish heritage, described the panicked search to check on her friends and family as news of the attack spread, with several victims still unidentified.

Just one day after what happened, people are not hiding at home, they are here in the same place to show their strength, she said.

One of her friends, Sami Atris, said he was among several members of his mosque attending the vigil, adding: We are Muslim people but we are also German people and this was an attack on us Germans. We are here to show we wont let anyone divide us and we will stand here, together in love and peace.

Yasin Uzuner, who was putting down candles with his wife and two young children in the deserted Christmas market, said the attack struck Berlin particularly hard by targeting the festive period.

But said he still felt safe in the German capital. We will come back here, he added, calling demands for Germany to shut its borders rubbish.

Angelina Ferrera and her mother were standing with a group of people holding candles opposite the church as hymns rang out.

The 30-year-old vowed that Berlin would not be polarised by the attack, adding: Its important to be here with our friends, with our community. This person tried to divide us and they will not succeed.

Her mother, Karin Muolo, recalled life under the Communist DDR and said Berlin would not lose its spirit of freedom.

Asked whether political opponents were right to blame Ms Merkel for terror attacks because of her refugee policy, she called the idea totally false.

Germanys anti-immigration Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party swiftly moved to capitalise on the massacre, blaming the Chancellors decision to open borders to asylum seekers during the height of the crisis in 2015.

The lorry attack and a previous Isis suicide bombing and axe attack carried out by asylum seekers are expected to damage Ms Merkels bid to be re-elected for a fourth term as Chancellor in next years federal elections, amid growing anti-migrant sentiment and fear of further atrocities.

Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Show all 18 1 /18 Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Several people have been killed after a lorry drove into crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch Berlin Christmas market lorry attack 'At least nine' people have been killed and more than 50 injured. AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency Services rush a Berlin market victim to an ambulance Associated Press Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Police cordoned off the square at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church following the incident REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers inspect the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market close to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in Berlin EPA Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency crews inspect the lorry that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing at least nine people AFP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Fire crews attend the scene of the attack AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Armed police secure the site of a lorry attack at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Crushed debris is visible beneath the wheels of the vehicle REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack An injured man is pushed to an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Medics attend an injured person after the lorry attack which killed at least nine and injured more than 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters examine the lorry which was rammed into a Berlin Christmas market REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack A person is carried into an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack View of the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing at least nine and injuring at least 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers push a person on a stretcher to an ambulance Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters assess the damage after the lorry rammed the Christmas market, killing 'at least nine', and injuring more than 50 people AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters stand beside a toppled Christmas tree at the site of the suspected terrorist attack in a Berlin Christmas market AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Damaged stalls at the scene of the incident at a Berlin Christmas market where at least nine people have been killed EPA

Those hoping for an apology were disappointed as she made a defiant speech. We cannot allow ourselves to be paralysed by fear, she said, before laying a rose among tributes by the scene of the massacre.

This might be difficult in these hours, but we will find the strength to continue living life as we want to live it in Germany - in freedom and openness and together. Isis has repeatedly called for attacks on Germany and other European nations supporting air strikes by the US-led coalition against its territories in Syria and Iraq, issuing calls in propaganda videos and detailed instructions for attacks against Crusaders online.
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The first pictures of a Tunisian asylum seeker reported to be a suspect linked to the Berlin lorry attack have been released.

Prosecutors have not confirmed the identity of a suspect named by local media as Anis A, whose documents were reportedly found in the vehicle following the massacre.

Germanys Bild newspaper published a photo of the suspect said to be taken from the papers, which give asylum seekers temporary leave to stay in the country while their claims are decided.

 Islamic State claims responsibility for Berlin truck attack

The image appeared to match those on a Facebook profile of a Tunisian man called Anis Amri.

Der Spiegel reported that the suspect was born in 1992 in the city of Tataouine, although he was also believed to go under at least two other aliases and gave authorities differing dates of birth.

In the district of Kleve, in North Rhine-Westphalia, he went under the name Ahmed A, 21, the Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

It was unclear when the suspect arrived in Germany but a confidential security database entry from February reportedly showed authorities believed he had links to Isis, which was reported to be using his hometown as a transit base for fighters last year.

Anis Amri, latest suspect in Berlin truck attack (Facebook)

Anis A, who posed as Egyptian and Lebanese under various fake names, was reportedly classified as a terror threat and put under increased surveillance before a court in Ravensburg issued an order for his deportation in July. It was unclear how he remained in Germany.

Authorities have not confirmed the identification of a main suspect but authorities in the state of North Rhein-Westphlia were due to hold a press conference outlining developments.

A Pakistani asylum seeker originally arrested on suspicion of being the attacker has been released after no evidence was found against him, leaving the attacker at large and possibly armed.

The gun used to kill the Polish lorry driver has not been found, prompting warnings that the extremist could pose a continued risk to Germany.

Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Show all 18 1 /18 Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Several people have been killed after a lorry drove into crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch Berlin Christmas market lorry attack 'At least nine' people have been killed and more than 50 injured. AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency Services rush a Berlin market victim to an ambulance Associated Press Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Police cordoned off the square at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church following the incident REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers inspect the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market close to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in Berlin EPA Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency crews inspect the lorry that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing at least nine people AFP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Fire crews attend the scene of the attack AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Armed police secure the site of a lorry attack at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Crushed debris is visible beneath the wheels of the vehicle REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack An injured man is pushed to an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Medics attend an injured person after the lorry attack which killed at least nine and injured more than 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters examine the lorry which was rammed into a Berlin Christmas market REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack A person is carried into an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack View of the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing at least nine and injuring at least 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers push a person on a stretcher to an ambulance Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters assess the damage after the lorry rammed the Christmas market, killing 'at least nine', and injuring more than 50 people AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters stand beside a toppled Christmas tree at the site of the suspected terrorist attack in a Berlin Christmas market AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Damaged stalls at the scene of the incident at a Berlin Christmas market where at least nine people have been killed EPA

Berlin Police said they had received more than 500 tips by Tuesday night, including 80 being followed up as leads as the country continues to mourn the atrocity.

A huge manhunt is on the way for the culprit, who fled the scene in central Berlin on Monday night after hijacking the lorry to carry out the atrocity, killing its Polish driver.

At least 12 people were killed and dozens more injured in the attack, which has sparked anger against German security services and Angela Merkels government.

Isis claimed responsibility for the massacre on Tuesday evening, calling the perpetrator a soldier of the Islamic State who was obeying calls to attack supporters of the US-led coalition launching air strikes on its territories in Syria and Iraq.
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Frances military chief is urging the countrys next president to ratchet up defence spending to better confront Islamic extremists and authoritarian states that increasingly rely on military muscle.

General Pierre de Villiers, chief of the defence staff, said in an appeal published on Wednesday in the business daily Les Echos that attacks on France and other European countries in recent years showed peace no longer happens by itself.

He called for upgrading Frances nuclear arsenals and other equipment, and boosting defence spending over the next five years to 2 per cent of GDP, compared to 1.77 per cent currently. France has promised such an increase to Nato by 2025, but Mr de Villiers urged a faster effort.

Frances military, among Europes largest, is active in anti-extremist operations in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.

The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures Show all 25 1 /25 The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks Members of the public gather to lay flowers and light candles at La Belle Equipe restaraunt on Rue de Charonne in Paris Getty The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks People lay a memorial to honour victims of the Paris terror attacks at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks Soccer fans display the colors of the French flag in response to the deadly terrorist attack in Paris, France before the soccer match between the New York Cosmos' and the Ottawa Fury for the North American Soccer League championship at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, USA The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks Pakistani Civil society activists shout slogans during a protest against Isis militants near the French consulate for the victims of the 13 November Paris attacks in Karachi, Pakistan The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks People gather and view messages written on the ground at Place de la Republique in Paris The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks French flags and a note reading "We will not let you spoil our children's lives" at the site of the attack at the Cafe Belle Equipe on rue de Charonne in the 11th district, in Paris The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks A rose is placed beside a bullet hole at La Belle Equipe restaraunt on Rue de Charonne following the terrorist attack in Paris. As France observes three days of national mourning members of the public continue to pay tribute to the victims of deadly attacks The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks Bono and band members of U2 pay their respects and place flowers on the pavement near the scene of yesterday's Bataclan Theatre terrorist attack in Paris The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks A man kneels as he pays tribute to victims at Place de la Republique near the deadly attack sites in Paris The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks Tributes to the victims at the Place de la Republique square in Paris AFP The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks An electronic billboard on a canal show solidarity with Paris in Milan EPA The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks People lay down flowers and light candles to tribute victims of Friday's attacks in Paris as the Brandenburg gate is illuminated in blue, white and red in the colors of the French flag, in Berlin Reuters The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks A man leaves flowers as a tribute following the deadly attacks in Paris, outside the French consulate in Istanbul Reuters The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks People take pictures of flowers placed in bullet holes in the window of a Japanese restaurant next to the cafe 'La Belle Equipe' AFP The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks People gather at a makeshift memorial next to the Bataclan theatre in Paris on November 14, 2015, The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks A woman carrying flowers cries in front of the Carillon cafe and the Petit Cambodge restaurant in Paris AP The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks People gather in front of flowers that were laid outside the French embassy in Rome AP The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks People react near the cafe 'La Belle Equipe' at the Rue de Charonne AFP The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks A young girl places a candle in front of the Carillon cafe in Paris AP The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks Flowers placed outside the cafe 'La Belle Equipe' at the Rue de Charonne in Paris, the scene for one of the attacks AFP The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks A woman is comforted by others outside the Carillon cafe and the Petit Cambodge restaurant in Paris The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks The Brandenbourg Gate featuring French national colors is pictured in Berlin, on November 14, 2015 a day after deadly attacks in Paris The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks Flowers are laid in front of the French embassy in Rome EPA The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures The world mourns Paris attacks A candle is lit next to flowers outside the French Embassy in Berlin AFP

President Francois Hollande stressed on Wednesday the defence budget has increased during his term.

We now have the necessary resources to meet our goals, Mr Hollande said following the weekly cabinet meeting.

Following the attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris in 2015, the French government decided to increase the budget for defence by 600m (506m) in 2016 and 700m next year.

The decision notably aims at financing the 10,000-strong Sentinel Operation of soldiers who patrol in French streets and sensitive sites such as airports and train stations.

France remembers 86 victims of Nice lorry attack

For the first time in two decades, the number of French military will slightly increase by around 3,000 people from 2016 to 2019, allowing it to keep more than 200,000 troops.

Frances next presidential election is scheduled in two rounds in April and May next year. Mr Hollande has announced he will not run for re-election.

Associated Press
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Ikea has warned teenagers to stop having illegal sleepovers in its stores.

Around 10 sleepovers have been discovered in stores around the world so far this year, the BBC reports.

The craze appears to have begun when two Belgian YouTubers posted a video showing them jumping around on the store's beds after they managed to hide in a wardrobe for three hours.

They walked out of the store after hiding in wardrobes once again.

The video has been seen over 1.7 million times.

In a more recent example, two 14-year-old girls were caught by staff after staying in a store in Jonkoping, Sweden.

They were not prosecuted because of their age.

"Due to the girls' young age, we have chosen not to make a police report, Ikea spokesman Jakob Halmstrom told Aftonbladet. "Instead, we have spoken with their parents ... to resolve the situation.

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

However, two 15-year-old girls who were caught in Malmo, Sweden were reported to police.

After being too scared of setting off the alarm to leave the cupboards they were hiding in, they were discovered by staff later in the morning, Sydsvenskan reports.

"We appreciate that people are interested in Ikea and want to create fun experiences," an Ikea UK spokeswoman told the BBC. "However, the safety and security of our co-workers and customers is our highest priority and that's why we do not allow sleepovers in our stores."
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The leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has told opposition protesters, including MPs occupying parliament's debating chamber, their actions were illegal and could lead to a great calamity.

But the opposition vowed to continue a six-day-old protest bringing to a head tensions that have been building ever since the socially conservative and nationalist-minded PiS came to power with a large majority 14 months ago.

In particular, it is demanding a re-run of a debate and vote on the 2017 budget that was diverted to a side-room of the lower house, the Sejm, last week because of the sit-in, and held without opposition MPs present.

Recommended PM warned to protect the rights of Poles in Britain after Brexit

The stand-off was sparked last week by government plans to curb media access to the Sejm, the latest in moves by the PiS government which critics say are part of a policy drift towards authoritarianism. PiS denies there is any such trend.

We are really acting in a restrained way, Mr Kaczynski told a news conference, flanked by Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, the speakers of both chambers of parliament and a deputy speaker, against a backdrop of white-and-red Polish flags.

Opposition lawmakers are bound by the law as all other citizens are ... Blocking, taking away freedom from citizens, not allowing normal movements are all criminal acts and these acts are accepted (by the opposition), Kaczynski said.

This is really a road to a great calamity.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

In Brussels, the vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, said the government must stop undermining Poland's constitutional court and said the EU would use all its powers to help protect Polish democracy.

Earlier this year, the Commission, the European Union's executive arm, opened a formal inquiry into the rule of law in Poland, a country previously seen as a model for the transition from communism to democratic rule and a market economy.

Warsaw denies it has undermined the top court and says there is no legal basis in EU treaties for the Commission's inquiry.

Mr Timmermans gave Warsaw two months to respond to its recommendations, which would essentially mean rolling back measures Brussels says are at odds with the EU's democratic values and weaken judicial independence in Poland.

We will not drop this issue, Mr Timmermans told a news conference, without elaborating.

If all other member states agreed, Poland could lose its voting rights in the 28-nation EU, but Hungary has said it would veto such a move.

Mr Timmermans also said on Wednesday the position of Poland's constitutional court's head must not be filled until questions about the court's independence were resolved.

A few hours before his comment, Polish President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, replaced the outgoing head of the court.

Government spokesman Rafal Bochenek described the latest EU step as unnecessary. He said the government has solved its issues with the constitutional court, citing a new law regulating the court and the swearing in of the new court president chosen by the ruling party.

Fears of a drift towards authoritarianism under PiS have prompted protests in cities over the last year. But although a blockade of the parliament building by demonstrators last Friday drew thousands, they had dwindled to dozens by late Wednesday.

The focus of protests has now switched to the budget debate, which the opposition says was conducted irregularly and is invalid.

If PiS is not open to concessions ... then I do not see other options than to continue the protest until it is effective, Ryszard Petru, leader of the liberal Nowoczesna opposition party, told reporters.

The protests have mainly been peaceful, but police have now cordoned parliament off with metal anti-riot barriers.

The PiS came to power promising a return to patriotic and Roman Catholic values in public life and a tougher stance towards the EU and Poland's historical adversary Russia.

The government has placed state media and prosecutors under its direct control and changed legislation determining the functioning of the constitutional court.

Poland's financial markets have shown little reaction to the stand-off, with its currency, bonds and share indices all little changed.

Reuters
A group of Yi Chinese gather in the village of Haiping on Dec. 21, 2016 to celebrate the Yi New Year festival. Haiping is located in Liupanshui, Guizhou province. As the most important traditional festival for the Yi ethnic group, Yi New Year is celebrated around the winter solstice, the 22nd solar term of the year. (Chinanews.com/He Junyi)
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The Kremlin has said nearly all communication channels between the US and Russia are frozen, Russian state media is reporting.

Russia said it did not expect Donald Trumps incoming US administration to reject Nato enlargement, which Russia opposes, overnight, and that almost all communications channels between it and the United States were frozen, the RIA news agency reported.

Almost every level of dialogue with the United States is frozen. We dont communicate with one another, or we do so minimally, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

State Department spokesman John Kirby quickly rejected Mr Peskov's statement.

"It's difficult to know exactly what is meant by this comment, but diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues," Mr Kirby said in statement emailed to Reuters.

"That we have significant differences with Moscow on some of these issues is well known, but there hasn't been a break in dialogue."

It comes after a series of strong public statements by US politicians including President Barack Obama, after the CIA and FBI both said they believed Russia was behind the hacking of emails relating to Hillary Clinton during the presidential election.

On Tuesday Republican senator John McCain said Russias involvement in hacking US systems during presidential election campaigns threatens to destroy democracy in its current form.

The senator for Arizona warned there may soon be an unraveling of the world order and criticised the absolute failure of the American leadership to improve relations with Moscow.

RIA, citing an interview it said Mr Peskov gave to the Mir TV station, quoted him as saying he did not know whether President Vladimir Putin would seek re-election in 2018.

Everyones heads are aching because of work and with projects and nobody is thinking or talking about elections, Mr Peskov said.

Most Kremlin-watchers expect Mr Putin to run for the presidency again.

 Former ambassador to Russia: Putin wanted 'revenge' against Clinton

Last month Mr Trump walked back on a number of statements he made during his campaign when he called Nato obsolete and poor value for Washington.

He told Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg he was strongly committed to the alliance.

Mr Putin criticised Natos decision-making when it was announced in November that Russia would expand its deployment of surface-to-air missiles nearer to Europe.

He said: Why are we reacting to Nato expansion so emotionally? We are concerned by Natos decision making.

What should we do? We have, therefore, to take countermeasures, which means to target with our missile systems the facilities, that, in our opinion, start posing a threat to us.

This week Russia, alongside Turkey and Iran, was said to be drawing up a roadmap for an end to the crisis in Syria.

Reuters contributed to this report.
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One of the worlds most dangerous supervolcanoes is showing signs of reawakening under the Italian city of Naples.

The Campi Flegrei may be nearing a critical pressure point necessary to drive an eruption for the first time in 500 years, according to scientists.

Researchers say the volcano is moving towards a threshold beyond which rising magma could spark the release of fluids and gases at 10 times the normal rate.

This surge would cause an injection of extremely hot steam into surrounding rocks, Giovanni Chiodini, lead author of the study, told AFP.

Hydrothermal rocks, if heated, can ultimately lose their mechanical resistance, causing an acceleration towards critical conditions, he said.

This could ultimately trigger a very dangerous eruption for the three million people living in the area.

Since 2005, the Campi Flegrei has been undergoing uplift, which is the accumulation of magma under the surface of a volcano.

In response, Italian authorities raised the threat level from green to yellow in 2012, signalling the need for the supervolcano to be actively monitored.

 Hawaiis spectacular smiley volcano

Four years ago, scientists warned any eruption could kill millions living near or on top of the volcano.

"These areas can give rise to the only eruptions that can have global catastrophic effects comparable to major meteorite impacts," said Giuseppe De Natale, head of a project to monitor the volcano's activity.

The Campi Flegrei caldera  a depression created after a volcano blows its top  was formed 39,000 years ago after the largest eruption seen in Europe for 200,000 years.

Nearby Mount Vesuvius, whose massive eruption buried Roman settlements including Pompeii in AD79, is also considered an active volcano.

Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga Show all 16 1 /16 Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151141.bin AP Photo/Lothar Slabon via the New Zealand Herald Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151425.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151431.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151430.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151429.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151428.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151427.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151426.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151437.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151434.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151432.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151438.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151439.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151433.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151436.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga 151435.bin Dana Stephenson//Getty Images

A supervolcano is any volcano capable of an eruption that ejects a volume of material greater than 1,000km3, which is thousands of times larger than normal eruptions.

The study has been published in the scientific journal Nature Communication.
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Photographer Burhan Ozbilici was attending a routine job at the opening of a photography exhibition in Ankara, Turkey.

But the event descended into horror when the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was assassinated by a local police officer later identified as Mevlut Mert Altntas.

The Associated Press photographer captured the murder in astonishing detail and reflected on the incident in a piece for Associated Press.

"It was a coolly calculated assassination, unfolding in front of me and others who scrambled, terrified, for cover as the trim man with short hair gunned down the Russian ambassador," he said. "I was afraid and confused, but found partial cover behind a wall and did my job: Taking photographs."

This is the story of how Karlov's death unfolded, through the eyes of Ozbilici.

"I decided to attend simply because it was on my way home from the Ankara office," Ozbilici told AP. "After Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov began to make his address, I moved closer to photograph him, thinking the pictures would come in useful for stories on Turkish-Russian relations."

The gunman, a Turkish policeman, can be seen standing behind the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, before he opened fire (AP)

"He was speaking softly and  from what I could tell  lovingly about his homeland," Ozbilici added. "Then came the gunshots in quick succession, and panic in the audience. The ambassador's body lay on the floor, just meters away from me."

Picture: (AP/Burhan Ozbilici)

Ozbilici said there was panic in the audience. He captured a child being pulled to safety.

Ozbilici said: "I couldn't see any blood around him; I think he may have been shot in the back. It took me a few seconds to realise what had happened: A man had died in front of me."

The gunman stands over the body of Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, at a photo gallery in Ankara, Turkey (AP)

Ozbilici moved to the left of the gallery, while others were "cowering on the right side" of the room. He recalled the gunman shouting "Allahu Akbar."

People in the art gallery react moments after the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was shot dead (AP)

"He walked around the ambassador's body, smashing some of the photos hanging on the wall," Ozbilici said. The photographer advanced a little thinking: "Even if I get hit and injured, or killed, I'm a journalist. I have to do my work."

A man gestures near to the body of a man at a photo gallery in Ankara, Turkey (AP)

"As my mind raced, I saw that the man was agitated  and yet he was strangely in control of himself. He shouted at everyone to stand back. Security guards ordered us to vacate the hall and we left."

Read more:

 The most spectacular Russian military failures of all time

 Putin says the Russian economy is on the mend

 How Amazon can become the world's first trillion-dollar business

Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.
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Around 3,000 rebels and civilians are preparing to leave the rebel-held enclave of Aleppo after evacuations were stalled for a day.

People had been waiting in freezing temperatures since the evacuation halted on Tuesday, with dozens of buses stuck in the city.

Rebels and government forces blamed each other for the hold-up.

Their eventual departure will hand full control of the city to President Bashar al-Assad, when it will become the biggest prize of Syria's nearly six-year civil war.

 Drone footage of fleeing civilians reveals scale of devastation in Aleppo

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 60 buses are expected to evacuate some 3,000 fighters and civilians from the opposition's last foothold in the city.

It is the last convoy set to leave Aleppo before the government is expected to declare it has reassumed full control of the city for the first time since rebels carved out an enclave for the opposition in 2012.

"Buses are now moving again from east Aleppo. We hope that this continues so that people can be safely evacuated," a UN official in Syria told Reuters.

So far, around 25,000 people have been evacuated from Aleppo, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. A UN official said 750 people had so far been evacuated from al-Foua and Kefraya, which are under rebel siege.

Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Show all 12 1 /12 Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A man crosses a street in Aleppo, December 12, 2009 Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A vendor sits inside an antique shop in al-Jdeideh neighbourhood, in the Old City of Aleppo, December 12, 2009 Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A view shows part of Aleppo's historic citadel, overlooking Aleppo city, Syria Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A view shows part of Aleppo's historic citadel, Syria Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Visitors walk inside Aleppo's Umayyad mosque, Syria Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War People walk inside the Khan al-Shounah market, in the Old City of Aleppo, Syria Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A man walks past shops in al-Jdeideh neighbourhood, in the Old City of Aleppo, Syria Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War People walk along an alley in al-Jdeideh neighbourhood, in the Old City of Aleppo, Syria Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Visitors tour Aleppo's historic citadel, Syria December 11, 2009 Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A general view shows the Old City of Aleppo as seen from Aleppo's historic citadel, Syria December 11, 2009 Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War People walk near Aleppo's Bab al-Faraj Clock Tower, Syria October 6, 2010 Reuters Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War Aleppo before the Syrian Civil War A man stands inside Aleppo's historic citadel, overlooking Aleppo city, Syria December 11, 2009 Reuters

Aleppo's rebel zone is a wasteland of flattened buildings, concrete rubble and bullet-pocked walls, where until recently tens of thousands lived under intense bombardment even after medical and rescue services had collapsed.

Rebel-held parts of the once-flourishing economic centre, with its renowned ancient sites, have been pulverised in a war which has killed more than 300,000, created the world's worst refugee crisis and enabled the rise of Isis.

But in the western part of the city, held throughout the war by the government, there were big street parties on Tuesday night, along with the lighting of a Christmas tree, as residents celebrated the end of fighting.

The Syrian army has used loudspeakers to broadcast warnings to rebels that it was about to enter their rapidly diminishing enclave and told them to speed up their evacuation.

The UN has sent more than 20 staffers to east Aleppo to monitor the evacuation.

For four years, the city was split between the rebel-held eastern sector and the government-held western districts.

During the summer, the army and its allies besieged the rebel area, before using intense bombardment and ground assaults to retake it in recent months.

Russian air strikes were the most important factor in the Assad regime's triumph. They enabled Syrian forces to press the siege of eastern Aleppo to devastating effect.

On the ground, Shia militias from as far afield as Iran and Afghanistan played an important role for the regime.

Despite victory in Aleppo, Mr Assad still faces great challenges in restoring the power of his state. While he controls the most important cities in western Syria and on the coast, armed groups including Isis control swathes of territory elsewhere in the country.

Additional reporting by agencies
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Israel is to take in injured refugees from Aleppo and arrange for them to be treated in the countrys hospitals, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced.

Evacuation efforts are underway in the devastated Syrian city after a ceasefire was agreed to allow civilians to leave, but thousands are injured and the citys hospitals have been destroyed after relentless fighting and air strikes by Syrian and Russian forces.

Israel shares a long border with Syria and has already treated thousands of civilians and rebel fighters in its hospitals. Most return to Syria after their treatment.

Mr Netanyahu said Israel is looking at how it could help bring more refugees from Aleppo to Israeli hospitals for treatment.

He told reporters: We're prepared to take in wounded women and children, and also men if they are not combatants.

We see the tragedy of terrible suffering of civilians and Ive asked the Foreign Ministry to seek ways to expand our medical assistance to the civilian causalities of the Syrian tragedy, specifically in Aleppo where were prepared to take in wounded women and children, and also men if theyre not combatants.

"Wed like to do that: bring them to Israel, take care of them in our hospitals as weve done with thousands of Syrian civilians. Were looking into ways of doing this; its being explored as we speak."

In pictures: Aleppo bombing Show all 14 1 /14 In pictures: Aleppo bombing In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Smoke rises after airstrikes on the rebel-held al-Sakhour neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria April 29, 2016. Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A Syrian family runs for cover amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Al-Qatarji in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, on April 29, 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A man reacts as he stands on blood stains at a site hit by airstrikes in the rebel held area of Aleppo's al-Fardous district, Syria, April 29, 2016. Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo The damage of the airstrikes in the rebel-held area of Aleppo on April 28 Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo The damaged the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)-backed al-Quds hospital after it was hit by airstrikes, in a rebel-held area of Syria's Aleppo Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Syrians evacuate an injured man amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following an air strike on a rebel-held of Aleppo on April 29, 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo People inspect the damage at a site hit by airstrikes, in the rebel-held area of Aleppo's Bustan al-Qasr AP In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A man leads a woman in tears and child out of the scene after airstrikes hit Aleppo AP In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Civil defence members search for survivors after an airstrike at a field hospital in the rebel held area of al-Sukari district of Aleppo Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A Syrian boy is comforted as he cries next to the body of a relative who died in a reported air strike in the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Soukour in the northern city of Aleppo Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A Syrian family walks amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported air strike in the Bustan al-Qasr rebel-held district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Syrian civil defence volunteers and rescuers remove a baby from under the rubble of a destroyed building following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Kalasa in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Syrians help a wounded youth following an air strike on the Fardous rebel held neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Syrian civil defence volunteers evacuate people from a damaged building following a reported airstrike in the rebel-held neighbourhood of Tareeq al-Bab in the northern city of Aleppo

The director of one hospital that has been treating Syrians said his staff had helped over 2,500 civilians and fighters since February 2013.

Dr. Salman Zarka, director of the Ziv Medical Center in the city of Safed, said he was proud  to have provided thousands of Syrians with assistance, reported Haaretz.

"Despite hostilities between Israel and Syria, there is a need to help Syrians for medical assistance,, he added.

An international operation to evacuate civilians and rebel fighters from Aleppo has seen 25,000 people flee the city in the last few days, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

At least 460 civilians have been killed in Aleppo in the last month alone, while the UN estimates 400,000 people have died in the civil war as a whole since fighting began in March 2011.
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Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev has said that an arts university in Jerusalem should lose its funding after a piece of art critical interpreted as critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went viral online.

The poster, which briefly appeared as part of a piece of work in a stairwell on campus at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, was created by a first year student. It parodies US President Barack Obamas famous 2008 campaign poster reading HOPE, featuring a noose dangling in front of Mr Netanyahus face and the word ROPE.

It has been widely shared on social media throughout Israel and beyond in the last two weeks, and has caused an uproar at home. The student and head of her department were both taken in for police questioning, which led to students in the city staging a solidarity protest. Neither was charged.

An exercise by students at an academy is not a call for action. The aim of art education is providing an opportunity to ask questions about the personal, social and cultural - and inevitably the political - space in which we live, Eli Petel, head of the fine arts department, told Haaretz on his release.

Ms Regev, who is a member of the ruling Likud party and a divisive figure in Israel's arts scene, said that she thinks the poster is a dangerous precedent.

Freedom of art isnt freedom to incite! It started with the statue in the city square and now we have a noose, she said in a statement, referring to the toppling of a gold statue of Mr Netanyahu in a public square in Tel Aviv a few weeks ago.

This is artistic talent to incite and murder. If it had been a picture of [opposition Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog], there would already be arrests.

Ms Regev went on to call for Education Minister Naftali Bennett to cut the Bezalels funding, which was echoed by several other politicians.

Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Show all 12 1 /12 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict The fire in my heart is beyond my ribs. You left me beloved - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict Let me get enough of you, as Im still hungry for your smile my son - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict They besiege me in my homeland so I flew to heaven - Rodaina Al Agha, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict And I am still facing the pain all by myself - Lama Shakshak, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My brother, I watched you go while my heart was tearing - Helen Mo'amar, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My new doll is lonely in the rubble - Ayah Sha'ath, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict When a soul hugs another soul they never split, even in death - Ismail Matar, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict Everyone is gone and I stayed alone to make the world witness the injustice done to me - Hamza Shaheen, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict The hand that carries the arms carries roses too - Madeeha Al Majayda, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My eyes tell you about a dream that overcame the fence - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict A childhood caught in an unjust siege - Hadeel Quidh, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict All the details are torn after you - Hamza Shaheen, 17

The right to freedom of expression vs the need for security is a major issue for the Israeli government after a spike in Israeli-Palestinian violence in the last year.

Both Israeli and Palestinian rights groups report a major crackdown on journalists, artists and those posting inflammatory social media posts which has resulted in hundreds of arrests.
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Video footage filmed by Kurdish troops in which a young jihadi recruit sobs and says he wasnt going to blow himself up has emerged from near Isis de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria.

The US-backed and largely Kurdish coalition Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched a new campaign last month to drive the extremists from the northern Syrian city.

The operation is designed to dovetail with the offensive to retake Mosul over the border in Iraq. The two cities are Isis last major strongholds after a succession of heavily military losses over the last few months.

In the footage obtained by Kurdish media agency ANF from the SDF, the Isis recruit and his Kurdish interrogators have some difficulty understanding each other, but he manages to tell them he was running away from Isis and was not planning on using the explosives he was carrying in a bag.

He is questioned further over his position in the organisation, where he was stationed, and for the name of his commander, while tears flow down his face.

In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Show all 30 1 /30 In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian family arrives at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces, at the al-Hawoz street roundabout, after leaving Aleppo's eastern neighbourhoods Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian woman, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, reacts as she stands with her children in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood, after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian pro-regime fighters, gesture as they drive past resident fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian rebels withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian rebels withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood , after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian pro-regime fighters, gesture as they drive past residents fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood, after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian pro-regime fighter speaks with a child, as residents flee violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood. Syrian rebels withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops AFP/Getty Images In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Smoke rises as seen from a governement-held area of Aleppo, Syria Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian soldiers targeting rebels-held areas in the eastern neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syria. According to media reports, the army is now holding on 99 percent of Aleppois eastern neighborhoods EPA In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian pro-government forces patrol Aleppo's eastern al-Salihin neighbourhood after troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian soldiers rest following the battle at al-Sheik Saeed neighborhood in Aleppo, Syria EPA In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian pro-government fighter walking past closed shops in the Bab al-Nasr district of Aleppo's Old City. Once renowned for its bustling souks, grand citadel and historic gates, Aleppo's Old City has been rendered virtually unrecognisable by some of the worst violence of Syria's war Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria The crucial battle for Aleppo entered its 'final phase' after Syrian rebels retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances. The retreat leaves opposition fighters confined to just a handful of neighbourhoods in southeast Aleppo, the largest of them Sukkari and Mashhad Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian civilans arrive at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces, at the al-Hawoz street roundabout, after leaving Aleppo's eastern neighbourhoods. Syria's government has retaken at least 85 percent of east Aleppo, which fell to rebels in 2012, since beginning its operation Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian civilians flee the Sukkari neighbourhood towards safer rebel-held areas in southeastern Aleppo Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrians celebrate in the government-held Mogambo neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, after rebel fighters retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrians celebrate in the government-held Mogambo neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, after rebel fighters retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances. The fall of Aleppo would be the worst rebel defeat since Syria's conflict began in 2011, and leave the government in control of the country's five major cities Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian refugee Aliya inside the tent where she lives with her husband and ten children in a camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian refugee women and children outside the entrance to their tents in the refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA Wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA Wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee woman outside the entrance to the tent where her family live, in the refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A vehicle drives past a mosque at night in Idlib, Syria. Picture taken with a long exposure Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Damaged buildings stand in the rebel-controlled town of Binnish in Idlib province, Syria Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria The night sky is seen through damaged windows in the rebel-controlled town of Binnish in Idlib province, Syria Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Damaged buildings stand in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province, Syria Reuters

The incident reportedly took place in the early hours of Tuesday.

Operation Euphrates Wrath to retake Raqqa is now in its second phrase. Despite heavy counterattacks from Isis, SDF units have managed to advance on the west of the city, with the eventual aim of cutting it off completely.
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In September Mastercard released its Global Destination Cities Index, which provides a ranking of the 132 most visited cities around the world.

The study, now in its seventh year measured the number of international overnight visitors to assess which cities were the most popular.

From the AsiaPacific region to Europe to the Middle East and Africa, here are the 10 cities set to see the most visitors this year:

10) Seoul, South Korea - 10.20 million international visitors

Downtown Seoul illuminated (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

9) Tokyo, Japan - 11.70 million international visitors

8) Istanbul, Turkey - 11.95 million international visitors

Istanbul will settle for an uninspiring 12C tomorrow (Getty/iStock)

7) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 12.02 million international visitors

(Reuters (Reuters)

6) Singapore - 12.11 million international visitors

5) New York City, USA - 12.75 million international visitors

Downtown Manhattan and the One World Trade building are seen from the observation level of the Empire State Building in the Manhattan borough of New York

4) Dubai, United Arab Emirates - 15.27 million international visitors

Dubai's interpretation of sharia law means it is almost impossible for women to prove rape allegations (Getty/iStock)

3) Paris, France - 18.03 million international visitors

High-net-worth individuals are ditching Paris in fear of terror attacks and robberies

2) London, England - 19.88 million international visitors

(Getty (Getty)

1) Bangkok, Thailand - 21.47 million international visitors

Read more:

 This chart is easy to interpret: It says we're screwed

 A 55 million London mansion was the most viewed property on Rightmove in 2016  here's what it's like inside

 These 4 things could trigger the next crisis in Europe

Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.
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Ever since Britain voted to leave the European Union in June this year, a number of Brits who voted Remain have said they are looking move somewhere in Europe.

While moving to Ireland seems top of the list, some have been looking further into the continent.

Cue Bern in Switzerland  considered one of best cities to live in the world.

The Alpine city ranked 14th in the annual "Quality of Living Index" of one of the world's largest HR consultancy firms, Mercer, and as the second-safest city in the world in the group's separate rankings.

According to London-based think tank Legatum Institute in its annual global Prosperity Index, Switzerland overall is the second happiest, richest, healthiest, and most crime-free country in the world.

Glassdoor also showed that Switzerland has the best standard of living in Europe because of its on average high salaries of over 50,000 (39,038, $56,838) and strong purchasing power.

Basically, Bern sounds pretty amazing. Travel experts point out that it's underrated because it is less well known than Switzerland's huge financial hubs, Zurich and Geneva.

So what makes Bern great?

Rebecca Griffiths is a cardiovascular admissions manager for a large NHS Foundation Trust in London, and earlier this year she went to Switzerland for a month to experience and learn about the healthcare system as part of the multidisciplinary Hope Exchange programme.

"The quality of life in Switzerland, and very much so in Bern, is of a very high standard. People take care of themselves. Work-life balance was good," Griffiths said.

She gave us the inside track on why the Swiss city is so incredible and one of the best places to live and work in the world and how it compares to London:

This is Rebecca Griffiths. She usually lives and works in London. She moved to Switzerland for a month to experience and learn from the differences in the British and Swiss healthcare systems.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

One of the biggest differences between London and Bern was the incredible scenery.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

"The medieval part of Bern is amazing. The river is also beautiful. It's so clean you can drink from it, and people use it for swimming in the summer," she said.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

Even the view from her apartment was vastly different and was really calming.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

Her commute was also a lot less crowded than the London tube network. And if you didn't want to walk, Griffiths said: "Bern has excellent public transport, which means your train/bus often arrives early if not on time."

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

"I like that the whole city was walkable, and I also spent time on the lawns near the public lidos at Marzili. I absolutely loved walking five minutes to work, and I do not look forward to my first cramped train commute when I'm back in the UK," said Griffiths.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

Once she got to work, she said the difference in terms of work-life balance was very different. Here she is with Ana, a fellow from the Hope Exchange programme attendee.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

She said that "the full-time contracted hours are longer than the UK, at around 42 hours per week. However my experience was that everyone made sure to have a proper lunch away from their desks and the workday really did finish at 4 p.m. to 5. p.m."

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

Staff facilities were incredibly different to those in a UK hospital. For example, there was an outdoor staff canteen area on the roof. Freshly squeezed fruit juices were available to everyone. Griffiths said that the staff even gave her a tour of their kitchens and all the meals they prepare. "Having talking time when sitting down to lunch and eating one of the many delicious hospital meals (who'd have thought) was so much nicer than scoffing lunch quickly while hunched over my desk or rushing to a meeting," she said.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

"Bern is more relaxed than the other cities of Switzerland and there seems to be a running joke that everything runs a bit slower there too." She said that overall "the atmosphere was relaxed and it was perfectly situated to visit other areas like Zurich, Luzern, Biel, Basil and the surrounding mountainous regions."

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

The nightlife was also a lot more upmarket and chilled out.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

"My experience was that there is a big focus on nice dinners with good wine/beer," she said, as opposed to Britain's drinking culture.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

"The town was often quiet during the week, especially if the weather was bad, but Thursday's were busy due to late-night shopping and there seemed to be an r'n'b/hip-hop scene with lots of promoters and some awesome break dancing near the Bahnhof," said Griffiths.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

There is also a lot to see and do in terms of culture in Bern. For example, there is the Einstein Museum, and a park full of bears.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

The food is also meant to be pretty spectacular. Griffiths recommended Steinhalle bistro for trendy, tasty lunches next to Einstein museum and Beaulieu restaurant for a great Rosti  a traditional Swiss potato dish.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

There are only five downsides to Bern, Griffiths said. The first was how expensive everything was compared to London. (But this shouldn't be a problem of course if you are on a Swiss salary, which is higher than the UK).

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

Secondly, "if you don't want to get woken up at 5 a.m., do not stay near a church. The bells literally ring every 15 minutes, and it takes a while to adjust," she said.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

Thirdly, she said she missed having an Indian curry  a staple dinner dish in Britain. "Although I did manage to find a half decent Indian restaurant near the end, I missed making curries at home as the ingredients were so expensive to buy," she said. For example, these usually retail for 1 in Britain but in Switzerland, a jar was being sold for the equivalent of 3.50.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

She said she also missed smoke-free train stations, as "the platforms were unpleasant."

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

And lastly, this "creepy, yet hilarious" statue of a man eating babies near the landmark Zytglogge tower in Bern.

(Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider (Rebecca Griffiths/Business Insider)

Read more:

 Big election test for Jeremy Corbyn after leading critic triggers tough Northern by-election

 Why MPs will almost certainly get a final vote on Brexit

 PREDICTION: 'The internet will shut down for 24 hours next year'

Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.

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Zhang Yuanchao, a 15-year-old boy in Guangdong province who suffers from cerebral palsy, receives help from his generous classmates every day.

Zhang used to travel to Shenzhen and Guangzhou to undergo rehabilitation treatment. He wasn't able to walk until he was 6 years old. After turning 8, he finally began to attend school like other kids. His school performance was strong, and he began to livestream himself playing online games in July, attracting more than 2,300 fans.

Since being admitted to a local middle school in September, Zhang has received extra help and attention from his classmates. Almost all 45 students in his class have lent him a hand at one time or another. Some help him to the restroom; some keep him company during breaks; some carry his schoolbag on the way to the classroom.

According to his classmates, Zhang is a delightful companion to all. Zhangs mother expressed relief and gratitude for the efforts made by the students and teachers at Zhang's school.
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The change of name for Isis' online magazine was a declaration of a change in strategy. It had been called Dabiq after a town in Syria where Islam is meant to triumph over the infidels in a final battle. But now in retreat, losing territory, the jihadists no longer see Armageddon as imminent. They declare, instead, that the jihad will be taken abroad to the enemy, striking at the heart of Western political and spiritual power, symbolically Rome, Rumiyah, as the new publication is titled.

Isis has, of course, carried out attacks on Western targets before. But it has been repeatedly asserting the threat lately and instructing its adherents in Europe and America to strike the enemy at home using any means at hand. Its leaders have openly called for attacks to be carried out this Christmas: so the murders in Berlin, with the use of a truck, should not have come as a surprise.

Last months issue of Rumiyah specified the Bastille Day attack in Nice, the first time a truck had been used to carry out an Islamist terrorist attack, taking 86 lives, as an ideal template to cause maximum human damage by using a simple weapon  in an operation  behind enemy lines. With a photograph of a rental truck and the annual Thanksgiving Day parade in New York on the front cover, the magazine stated though being an essential part of modern life, very few actually comprehend the destructive capability of the motor vehicle and its capacity of reaping large numbers of casualties if used in a premeditated manner.

Recommended Isis claims responsibility for Berlin Christmas market attack

Although Isis has claimed the Berlin attack through its own news agency, a direct link to the jihadis is yet to be established. On Tuesday evening German prosecutors also released the only suspect who had been held, citing insufficient evidence. He had been identified by media only as Pakistani national Naved B - he had denied any involvement in the attack. The perpetrator, or perpetrators of the violence which killed 12 people at a Christmas market is thought to be still at large. But there is little doubt that it was an act of terrorism and, and as has been shown, Isis will always be keen to claim credit.

What happened showed the difficulties in stopping such an attack even when one was half-expected. Extra security had been in place in Christmas markets and shopping areas in cities across Europe including Britain where a SAS unit is on standby along with armed police patrols. Plots have been foiled in France, Belgium, this country and Germany; but it is, unfortunately, impossible to have total security.

The Nice attack, in July, came a day before the attempted coup in Turkey which the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan had blamed on the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen. The Berlin attack on Monday was preceded by the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, in Ankara by an off-duty policeman.

Turkish officials sought to quickly hold the Gulen movement responsible. The aim, it is claimed, was to sabotage relations with Russia which had only recently been mended following the fracture which came with the bringing down of a Russian warplane by the Turks last year. Mr Gulen was, retrospectively, blamed for that as well and the Turkish F-16 pilot who fired the missile stripped of his status of national hero and imprisoned.

No evidence has been produced so far to prove that the ambassadors killer, Mevlut Mert Aydintas, was involved with the Gulen movement. There is some evidence, however, that he may have had links with Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. Among these are his words as he stood over the fallen ambassador : We are the ones who pledge allegiance to Mohammed, to wage jihad, to die in martyrdom  part of an al-Nusra slogan.

There appears to have been was no ambiguity about the killer's message: Dont forget Aleppo, dont forget Syria. Unless our towns are secure, you wont enjoy security. Everyone who is involved in this will pay a price. The murder, one can reasonably conclude, was in revenge for Russias part in the brutal assault on Aleppo.

Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Show all 18 1 /18 Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Several people have been killed after a lorry drove into crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch Berlin Christmas market lorry attack 'At least nine' people have been killed and more than 50 injured. AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency Services rush a Berlin market victim to an ambulance Associated Press Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Police cordoned off the square at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church following the incident REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers inspect the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market close to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in Berlin EPA Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Emergency crews inspect the lorry that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing at least nine people AFP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Fire crews attend the scene of the attack AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Armed police secure the site of a lorry attack at a Christmas market in Berlin REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Crushed debris is visible beneath the wheels of the vehicle REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack An injured man is pushed to an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Medics attend an injured person after the lorry attack which killed at least nine and injured more than 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters examine the lorry which was rammed into a Berlin Christmas market REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack A person is carried into an ambulance REUTERS Berlin Christmas market lorry attack View of the lorry that crashed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing at least nine and injuring at least 50 people AFP/Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Rescue workers push a person on a stretcher to an ambulance Getty Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters assess the damage after the lorry rammed the Christmas market, killing 'at least nine', and injuring more than 50 people AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Firefighters stand beside a toppled Christmas tree at the site of the suspected terrorist attack in a Berlin Christmas market AP Berlin Christmas market lorry attack Damaged stalls at the scene of the incident at a Berlin Christmas market where at least nine people have been killed EPA

Al-Nusra, which recently sought to rebrand itself by changing its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, has long been engaged in terrorist acts abroad. The US, in the first days of its bombing campaign against Isis, carried out air strikes on al-Nusra in Aleppo claiming that it was plotting attacks on the West. The organisation has offered rewards for the capture of Russian soldiers and airmen in Syria. Its commander, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, had called on Muslims from former Soviet Caucasus to carry out attacks on civilian targets in Russia.

Isis is desperately trying to defend Mosul, and facing an impending assault on Raqqa, its capital, Al-Nusra will soon come under attack at its base of Idlib. It will, like Isis, lose territory and it will to seek to carry out more strikes abroad. The contagion of Syrias violence will continue its lethal spread to the outside world.
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There is not so much talent among Labour MPs that the party can take the loss of Jamie Reed in its stride. He is a clever and witty politician, but hopelessly out of sympathy with Jeremy Corbyn, and now he has decided to leave Parliament to go to work for the Sellafield nuclear processing plant in his constituency.

That is bad news for both sides of the Labour Party. Corbyn is weakened by such a blunt expression of lack of confidence in his leadership. But the non-Corbyn forces are weakened too, because if MPs such as Reed dont stick around in the hope of a non-Corbyn leader before the next general election their outlook is bleak too.

However, the more immediate consequence of Reeds resignation, which is not actually going to take effect until the end of January, is a fascinating by-election in a Labour-held marginal seat. Reed held the Copeland constituency in the western bit of the Lake District with a majority of just 6.5 per cent over the Conservatives in the last election.

Governing parties tend not to gain seats at by-elections: the last time that happened was when Angela Rumbold won Mitcham and Morden in south London in 1982, when Bruce Douglas-Mann stood down as Labour MP and re-fought it under the colours of the Social Democratic Party.

 National Living Rage: Labour MPs sing Christmas song

But Theresa May is enjoying an unusual post-referendum honeymoon, Labour is well adrift in national polls, and Copeland is a constituency that voted about 60 per cent for Leave, according to an estimate by Chris Hanretty of the University of East Anglia.

The by-election is further complicated by Ukip, seeking to relaunch itself as a working-class hard-Brexit party of northern England, who came third last time, and by the Lib Dems, enjoying a renaissance as the party of protest against Brexit. If 60 per cent of Copeland constituents voted to leave the EU, that means 40 per cent voted to stay, and Tim Farron, MP for neighbouring Westmorland and Lonsdale, must hope to build on the partys 3.5 per cent of the vote last time with his strong message of trying to prevent Brexit.

By-elections dont follow the rules of normal politics. In Richmond Park this month an election caused by Zac Goldsmiths protest against Heathrow expansion turned into a Lib Dem anti-Brexit protest vote in one of the most Remain-y constituencies in the country. It is hard to see such a clear-cut purpose in Copeland. Reed, like most Labour MPs, was a Remainer, so if the mood is get on with Brexit, that could boost the Tory or Ukip votes.

But that depends on who Labour chooses as its candidate. A normal Labour candidate would be a Remainer who accepts the referendum and vows not to block Brexit. Such a candidate would be simultaneously vulnerable to a hard-Brexiteer for the Tories or for Ukip, and to a hard-Remainer for the Lib Dems.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA

To complicate matters a bit more, the local Labour Party has historically been strongly in favour of nuclear power and, by analogy, nuclear weapons. It risks mixing its messages with those from the national party, with its nuke-sceptic leadership.

Then there is the question of timing. Already there is talk of trying to postpone the by-election until the same day as the local council elections on 4 May. That would mean stretching parliamentary convention  that by-elections are held within three months of a vacancy  to the limit. But it would distract attention from the by-election and it would have the advantage, from Labours point of view, that Article 50 will already have been triggered.

And finally, there is the question of the boundary review. The boundary commissioners plan to abolish Copeland at the next general election anyway. Which means that selections will be restricted to people prepared to be an MP for three years only. I dont think Ed Balls will be putting his name forward.

Paul Mason, the author of PostCapitalism and former Channel 4 News economics editor, is, however, believed to be looking for a seat.

Copeland: 2015 result
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Last week, Donald Trump was supposed to have held his first proper press conference in five months. But then the event was put off; his aides now talk vaguely about holding it early in the New Year. It being merely a case of battle deferred, not battle avoided.

If one theme of the next four years already seems set, it is that of conflict between the 45th president and the media  yes the hoary old mainstream media, fighting off countless new challengers to be sure, but which still sets Americas real news agenda.

The sheer novelty of the situation will make the conflict more intense. Trump is a President-elect who has defied every standard rule of politics, who said and did things that would have destroyed any normal candidate, but not him. He gives every sign of continuing that way in the Oval Office.

Ditto his attitude to the media. On the campaign trail he constantly trashed them, referring to them in terms like scum and scavengers at the mass rallies that were his favoured electoral events. News organisations whose coverage offended his fragile sensibilities abruptly lost their credentials, or were threatened by lawsuits.

And thats only one reason the media are feeling jittery. Another is that theyve never faced a president who so instinctively understands them, and how to manipulate them. Every now and them he abruptly makes nice with the scum and scavengers  as well he might, having secured $2bn worth of free press coverage during the primaries, according to a study by the New York Times.

He realises the price papers and TV will pay for access. During the campaign, it emerged this week, he struck a deal with Sinclair Broadcasting, a group that owns or co-owns 173 TV stations across the country, offering exclusive interviews in return for unfiltered coverage. Whats do stop him doing the same, or more, from the Oval Office?

Most fundamental of all in the battle that looms is the struggle between fact and fiction. Trump has reality TV in his blood. As a candidate he thrived by projecting his own reality, often in brazen contradiction with the facts, and got away with it. Liar, Liar, screamed the fact-checkers marshalled by the mainstream media, but voters didnt care.

 Why Donald Trump deserves trust, respect and admiration

Some had expected Trump to become restrained, more normal, once he was President-elect, and the colossal responsibilities and historical weight of the job ahead started to sink in. Not a bit of it, however. Perhaps it was naive to expect a man of 70 (Trump will be the oldest ever president to take office) to change his ways. But he continues to operate as he did as candidate.

Less than a month before his inauguration, hes still trashing the media. Hes still peddling lies (I would have won the popular vote but for millions of illegal votes) and still bearing grudges. He still seeks to bypass the traditional media via Twitter and mega-rallies of the faithful, as in his recent thank you tour.

What he wont do, as the cancelled press conference shows, is meet them in a proper press conference. None of those impromptu calls to friendly outlets like Fox News make up for the fact that he hasnt actually met the assembled press since July (when he urged Russian hackers to root out those missing Clinton emails  only a joke, he said later).

When he finally does take the plunge, the potential flash points abound. Theres the conflict of interest question, between Trumps business interests and those of the US he is about to lead. That issue was supposed to have been addressed at last weeks cancelled press conference. Others range from Russian hacking, the fate of Obamacare, Trumps tax plans, his attitude to Nato and the Middle East, none of them compressible into 140 characters.

And theres the more parochial matter of how the White House press itself will be treated. Trumps behaviour as President-elect suggests he could do away with the tradition whereby a small pool of correspondents follows a president everywhere he goes, even to church.

Reince Priebus, soon to become Trumps chief of staff, has hinted the current practice of daily public briefings may be dropped. It has been suggested too that the White House, and not the White House Correspondents Association, will decide who sits where in the White House press room.

None of this of course matters to most Americans. And why should it? Conflict between the media and the White House is nothing new. Bill Clinton could erupt volcanically against the media, and unflappable Barack Obama was in fact the most aggressive pursuer of leaks to the press of any president in history. And then of course there was Richard Nixon, who hated the press and was ultimately in part brought down by it.

But Trump, as always, is different. Never has a president enlisted someone like Steve Bannon, former head of a propagandistic far-right news service, as his top White House adviser. Once again the fact-driven world and the post-truth world are about to collide.

Whats also different is a sense that Americas constitutional checks and balances no longer work as they used to. The countrys centres of power  the White House, Capitol Hill, and soon, in effect, the Supreme Court  are in the hands of the Republican party of which Trump has staged his hostile takeover.

Some of those checks and balances are explicitly laid out in the US Constitution. Others are not. One of the latter is a strong press, as the saying goes, to keep the bastards honest. The concern is as old as the Republic. Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, said Thomas Jefferson, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
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Barack Obama, as a lame duck president with less than a month left in office, could have chosen to spend the remainder of his time in the White House tying up a few loose ends and making plans for his future. No doubt he has been busy with that, but he has also found the time to launch a major environmental initiative that offers a little hope to those fearful of what Donald Trump may have planned for America the Beautiful.

Suspicious, as so many are, of the links between the appointments made by President-elect Trump to the energy industry, President Obama has taken the bold decision to use executive power to protect a large swathe of the Arctic and Atlantic seaboards, under existing legislation. The decision, to borrow a Trump favourite phrase, shows that the President is smart, and, with little effort can thwart any attempt by an incoming Trump administration to despoil one of the last wildernesses on earth. It is additionally heartening that the US move is being implemented in cooperation with Canada, which is also keen the get the balance right between the environment, climate change and energy supply. If Mr Trumps officials want to undo the decision they will need to grind their way through the American courts, never a quick route to anything.

Mr Obama was right to take pre-emptive action. As usual, Mr Trump himself has said some contradictory things about man-made climate change. Maybe, then, we should judge him more by his actions, and it is a matter of fact that his Cabinet and advisers will have an unusually large representation of ex-oil men in it. Rick Perry is the Trump nominee for energy secretary, a former governor of Texas, a leading oil producer. During his unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2011 he proposed to eliminate the Energy Department. Presumably he isnt going to abolish himself now, but you never know. Rex Tillerson, the future secretary of state is chief executive of Exxon Mobil; and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Pruitt has been a strong opponent of Mr Obamas attempts to limit climate change.

Even if the frozen north can be judged safe for the time being, the same cannot be said for the Paris Treaty on mitigating climate change. Reports suggest that the Trump administration will try to find ways to short-circuit the four-year-long procedures to rescind the Treaty. Even if they are unsuccessful in that, quitting the Treaty and effectively blocking its operation in the United States  one of the worlds major polluters  would represent a severe threat to the future of life on the planet.

The environment has had to fall down the agenda of policy-makers for most for the past decade because of the pressing challenges of the financial crisis and the great Recession. The arrival of Donald Trump reminds us that the old problems have not gone away, and the solutions to them, such as they were, may be abandoned. On that broader agenda, Mr Obama is powerless, and the world is in the hands of a man who once described climate change as a hoax.
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The assassination of Russias Turkish ambassador wont be the grand diplomatic fallout youd expect  this is no Franz Ferdinand moment.

Far from driving a wedge between Russia and Turkey, this assassination will bind them closer together and the embarrassment of such a security lapse in Ankara can only serve Putins game plan in Syria.

A crime has been committed and it was without doubt a provocation aimed at spoiling the normalisation of Russo-Turkish relations and spoiling the Syrian peace process which is being actively pushed by Russia, Turkey, Iran and others, President Putin said in a televised address.

There can only be one response  stepping up the fight against terrorism. The bandits will feel this happening, he added.

The gunman, revealed as Mevlut Mert Altintas, a 22-year-old off-duty police officer who used his badge to gain entry to the Ankara art gallery where he fired eight shots into Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov.

 Russian ambassador to Turkey fatally shot at exhibition

We die in Aleppo, you die here Dont forget about Syria, dont forget about Aleppo, Altintas screamed after he murdered Mr Karlov  chillingly captured on camera.

His identity, his motivations and connections, if any, will predictably be the source of countless conspiracy theories.

But embarrassing questions as to how either a jihadi or a Gulenist gunman managed to evade intelligence forces and gain such close proximity to the Russian Ambassador will leave Turkey on the back foot.

Since June, President Erdogan has sought to make nice with Putin, finally issuing an apology for the shooting down of Russian aircraft over Syria  blaming it on internal Gulenist terrorists in an attempt to absolve the Turkish state.

The Turkish pro-government press were quick to decry the assassin part of the Fetullah Terrorist Organisation (Feto), the movement led by US-based cleric Fetullah Gulen, who Ankara also blames for the 15 July attempted coup.

Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara Show all 13 1 /13 Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara The unnamed gunman gestures after shooting the Russian Ambassador to Turkey AP Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara The gunman opened fire at a photo gallery in Ankara, Turkey AP Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov was delivering a speech when the gunman opened fire AP Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara The gunman addressed the room after shooting the Russian Ambassador AP Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara The gunman spoke in Arabic after opening fire on the Russian ambassador to Turkey AP Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara The gunman stands over the body of Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, at a photo gallery in Ankara, Turkey AP Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara People in the art gallery react moments after the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was shot dead AP Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara Turkish police secure the area near the art gallery where Andrei Karlov was shot REUTERS Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara The gunman reportedly shouted "Aleppo" and "revenge" after shooting Mr Karlov dead AFP/Getty Images Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara The gunman stands over the body of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov AP Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara The gunman, a Turkish policeman, can be seen standing behind the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, before he opened fire AP Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara An ambulance leaves the area near the art gallery where the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov was shot dead REUTERS Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara Guests leave as the gunman holds his weapon behind them AFP/Getty

Great Sabotage reads the front page of pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak, which proclaimed the assassination a CIA and Feto plot aimed at bringing down Russian-Turkish relations  the immediate narrative also pursued by President Putin.

Ironically, it could be US relations that suffer as it refuses to deport Gulen from his Pennsylvania home despite repeated requests from Turkey to do so.

Turkish politicians took to Twitter to blame the murder on dark forces, also calling it a provocation meant to destabilise Turkish-Russian relations.

It is neither in Russia nor Turkeys interest to elevate this assassination  Russia immediately confirmed that the planned talks on Syria, set for today, will go ahead.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Russian FM Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif are due to discuss Aleppo and the wider Syrian crisis at the Kremlins invitation.

Since the summer rapprochement between Turkey and Russia, the Kurdish issue is clearly marked at the top of Ankaras Syrian plan, and it appears to be happier to leave some of the anti-Assad rebels in the cold.

For while Turkish-backed rebel groups are bringing the fight to Isis as part of Operation Euphrates Shield and have made significant gains in the last few months, Turkeys first priority is claiming the ground before the Syrian Kurdish forces  inextricably linked to the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), against whom Turkey is fighting a bloody war in the southeast.

The Turkish buffer zone is extending further south, with rebels on the outskirts of Al-Bab, an Isis-controlled town north of now Syrian government-controlled Aleppo.

Already thousands of Syrian refugees have returned to Jarabulus, a border town Turkish-backed rebels took back from Isis in August, and one that now boasts fully Turkish-funded hospitals, bakeries and aid delivery.

With the border firmly closed to more refugees coming from Aleppo, Turkey could seek to formalise the buffer zone with Russian, Iranian and by proxy Syrian government blessing.

After last nights murder, however, President Putin has a stronger hand to play.
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The European Union's current existential crisis doesn't have to do with a rebirth of the nation state as much as it does with the utter failure of Europe's political elites to instil a sense of common shared identity among European citizens. In a world run by baby boomers and seniors whose power is directly derived from the nation state, the obsolescence of the individual European state as the be-all and end-all of modern governance is lost on many political leaders. Others, let's call them closet eurosceptics, are acutely aware of it  so they pay lip service to the European ideal while at the same time refusing to see any power devolve from their respective National Assemblies towards the European Parliament.

To the outside world, there is clearly such a thing as "being European but it remains a quite nebulous, if not outright negative, concept for most of the continent's citizens. To the simple question, "Do you feel more European or French, Italian, Swedish, etc?" very few people outside Brussels, Strasbourg and a handful of other capitals would answer the former.

 Brexit started disintegration of the EU says Italy's Europe minister

To counter this, the EU must start to encourage, through subsidies, the internal migration of young people. Migration has always been mankinds most widely available means of emancipation. But this is the easyJet generation. By subsidising the intra-European migration of young people in the age of low-cost airfare, the EU could foster the shared identity it so sorely needs to survive.

They should set up a fund to finance a monthly subsidy of up to 500 (available for up to a year) to all Europeans under 25 who travel to another EU country to get an internship, job or to start a company. This subsidy would be available to recipients of a new European youth passport  an e-residency platform (like Estonias)  to which administrative, financial and other information/services would be connected. This would allow young people to circumvent the most common practical troubles faced by temporary residents in a different European country than their own.

Creating financial incentives for young Europeans to embrace this new kind of nomadism would launch a European-wide beauty contest of cities and regions vying to attract youth. "A shift from states selecting migrants to migrants selecting states" is underway, as Peter Sutherland, the UN's special representative for migration, puts it.

In addition, it would also allow us to deal much more fairly with the influx of refugees coming to Europe from war-torn areas of the world. The so-called "refugee crisis" wouldnt be a crisis if Sweden and Germany hadnt taken on the lions share. Europes failure to encourage internal migration  the single most effective way of fostering that sense of shared identity and solidarity  is directly to blame for our continents incapacity to welcome external migrants. If Europeans felt more European, they may well readily welcome their share of refugees.

21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Show all 21 1 /21 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Portugal drinks more wine than France Tindo - Fotolia 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Young Italians, by some distance, are the most likely to live at home with their parents 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Britain is on course to overtake Germany as Europes most populated country 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Greek workers work the longest hours in the EU 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Estonia has, per capita, more drug-related deaths than anyone else 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe The fastest download speeds are to be found in Romania 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Slovenia, Malta and Poland have the smallest gender pay gaps 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe France hates its leader more than other European countries 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Eastern and Western Europe are very divided on the issue of gay marriage 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Germany has the most millionaires 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Everyone likes Christmas, apart from France 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Germany accepts by far the most asylum applications 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe The UK and France have some of the most positive views of Muslim people 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Europe's largest Muslim population is in Germany 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Danes are the most trusting Europeans, and Cypriots the least 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Finland has the worst economy in the EU 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Italy has cut back its military spending more than any other major European Nato member 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Everyone is sad about the refugee crisis 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe People in Spain are also the most likely to live in flats (Brits are most likely to live in houses) 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Spain is the most likely to feel neighbourly 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Luxembourg is home to the highest proportion of foreign nationals

Finally, as they move around in unfamiliar territory, human beings often learn invaluable skills. As the fourth industrial revolution unfolds and machine intelligence continues to challenge our ability to deal with mass unemployment, it has become obvious that we need to turn masses of job-seekers into entrepreneurs. Migrants are, arguably, by nature entrepreneurial, just as they are natural innovators, adventurers and hard workers. Incentivising our youth to move around is sound economic policy.

The EU is by far the world's single most formidable and exciting political experiment since the creation of the United States of America, a unique example of what can be achieved peacefully by peoples who had been at war against each other for centuries. For young Europeans, post-nationalism is already a reality for many of them. The willingness of the EUs present leaders to finance a professional corollary to the Erasmus student exchange program, one that is open to all young Europeans, not just the privileged few, will make or break the Union.

With such a program, the European youth (Britons included) will have the power to turn the Brexit vote into the swansong of the nation state. Without it, we can kiss the entire European project goodbye.

Felix Marquardt is the President, International, of AI-powered cybersecurity global leader Cylance. He is also the founder of the think tank Youthonomics and initiator of The Future Is Ours campaign launching at Davos in January
Scotland wants to stay in the European Union's single market after the United Kingdom leaves the bloc and will push for more powers to protect its interests, the head of its pro-independence government said on Tuesday.

Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland wants a deal that allows it access to the single market and free movement of the EU migrants that underpin its economy, its ageing population and its outlying rural communities.

The Scottish devolved government set out three options in a paper entitled "Scotland's Place in Europe".

Despite being a supporter of secession, Sturgeon said her preference in the Brexit aftermath was for the whole of the UK to stay in the single market, which trades goods and services tariff-free across 28 countries.

A second option proposes a single market membership carve-out for Scotland from a UK outside the EU. The third option is independence from the rest of the UK.

Britons voted to leave the EU by 52 to 48 percent but Scotland, one of the UK's four nations, voted by a large margin to stay.

"There has to be a way to effectively square the circle," Sturgeon told a news conference, referring to the difficulty of matching Scotland's vote with that of the UK as a whole amid the complexity of Britain's Brexit negotiations.

The wish list seems likely to be received as an impossibly tall order in London, which has set control of EU migration as one of its priorities. Sturgeon's opponents accuse her of setting up an impossible task so as to have a ruse to retry her luck with independence after losing a referendum in 2014.

FUNDAMENTAL REVIEW

Senior EU officials also voiced serious doubts about the feasibility of having different EU trade arrangements with the northern and southern halves of the island of Great Britain.

"How would you treat some product that is made in Glasgow, but uses parts made in Manchester? Is it made inside the single market or not? Are you going to have customs posts between Scotland and England? I don't see it," one EU official said.

Sturgeon said the option of independence, which Scots rejected by a 10-point margin, had to be kept available and was still "the best long-term future for Scotland".

"Brexit is a problem not of Scotland's making," she said.

Scotland needed a fundamental review of its devolution settlement, she argued, and powers over immigration were vital to protect Scotland's interests.

The paper cited examples of immigration policy in Canada and Australia which had differentiated immigration systems for regions and states within the same land territory, addressing concerns on the prospect of a land border between England with Scotland to its north.

Critics of Scottish nationalism point out that the rest of the UK is much more important to Scotland than the EU is because two-thirds of Scottish "exports" are to the rest of the UK, worth around 48 billion pounds ($60 billion). By contrast, Scotland exports just 12 billion pounds worth of goods and services to the EU.

In London, May's spokesman said the prime minister would consider the Scottish proposals carefully.
The latest available statistics show that 118 drivers were hit with court convictions in relation to use of green diesel in a road vehicle, for the first nine months of the year.

Farmers make up by far the highest proportion of those caught misusing marked gas oil (green diesel) in 2016.

According to figures from the Revenue Commissioners, 16 farmers have been hit with fines totally 46,000, imposed by the courts, for the misuse of agricultural diesel so far this year.

The standard fine for the offence is a 2,500 fine, but one Mayo farmer was fined 9,000. In total there were 118 court ordered fines imposed for the misuse of marked gas oil.

Court convictions due use of green diesel in a road vehicle:

2016 (to September) - 118

2015 (full year) -310

2014 (full year) - 288

The law

The 1999 Finance Act permits the use of marked gas oil in the engines of agricultural tractor, or a road roller or a dumper or an off road dumper, or a mobile crane or mobile well drilling equipment or mobile concrete pumping equipment.

Agricultural Diesel

Marked gas oil carries duty at a rate of 47.36 per 1,000 litres compared to road diesel which carries a much higher duty rate.

The sales of agricultural diesel (Marked Gas Oil) following a decline remain stable, according to the Revenue Commissioners.

This is believed to be due in part to Revenues successes in tackling the laundering of agricultural diesel.

In early 2016, Revenue carried out a random sampling programme which tested for the presence of the new marker in road diesel in the storage tanks of around 200, or almost 10pc, forecourt retailers.

No samples tested positive for the Accutrace S10 fuel marker.

Revenue says the sampling, which was carried out under the independent supervision of Revenue's Statistics and Economics Research Branch, demonstrates that the selling of laundered fuel in the market is negligible and close to being fully eliminated.

Tackling the laundering of agricultural diesel is, and will remain, a priority for Revenue, it says.

Revenue have also highlighted that any increase in the excise rate applied to diesel will increase the differential with agricultural diesel and increase the incentive for fuel fraud.
Despite Irish lamb exports increasing significantly this year, it looks like prices will need to remain low to keep pace.

According to the AHDB, with higher production rates anticipated in the coming months, there is potential for Irelands export growth to continue.

How much of this sheep meat will find its way across the Irish sea is uncertain, however, as higher lamb slaughterings are similarly anticipated in the UK early next year.

The AHDB says with a late Easter stalling demand for lamb early in 2017, and the sterling/euro exchange rate expected to remain in the UKs favour, Irish lamb prices will likely come under pressure if their product is to remain competitive next year.

To the end of October 2016, according to the Ireland Central Statistics Office (CSO), Irish sheep meat production was 2pc higher than the year earlier figure at 49,600 tonnes.

However, throughput was unchanged overall, and the production increase was instead driven by a greater proportion of adult sheep slaughterings.

At 327,000 head, adult sheep throughput was a significant 22pc higher than during 2015 across this period.

Exports

Despite fluctuations in the lamb supply, the AHDB says exports of fresh/frozen sheep meat have been above year earlier levels for eight of the nine months in the first three quarters of 2016.

At 35,500 tonnes, export volume was 13pc higher than last year during this period. The value of these shipments increased by a similar amount, to just under 200 million.

It says Ireland has been particularly successful in exporting to France, with volumes up 21pc on the year for the January-September period.

This is notable, it highlights as France has been importing less sheep meat overall this year, and UK exports to this destination have reported a decline.

Though from a smaller base, a 30pc rise in shipments to Sweden was also seen in the first nine months of the year, alongside a 22pc increase in German volumes. The majority of this growth was driven by fresh/chilled lamb carcases.

At 8,260 tonnes, Ireland also shipped 5pc more sheep meat to the UK during the first three quarters of the year, compared to 2015.

The value of these shipments increased ahead of volume, reaching 36.3 million as unit prices for fresh/chilled bone in cuts rose significantly.
The Threesixty deal is the second major student housing deal for Hines this year, after securing six developments across the UK from McLaren Property. Photo: Andrea Comas/Reuters

Real estate giant Hines has entered the Irish student housing market with the purchase of four new premises across Dublin city for a figure understood to be around 240m.

The assets have been acquired on behalf of a group of German pension funds from UK-based Threesixty Developments.

Threesixty is a student housing developer controlled by Oaktree Capital.

The four assets bought by Hines will add a combined extra 1,500 new beds for the capital's student population.

The Liberties-based Binary Hub was completed in July 2016 and has the capacity to house 470 students.

Two more developments in Dorset Street and Summerhill are due to be completed in 2017 and 2018, providing 450 and 400 beds respectively. The final building - on Cork Street - is subject to planning approval, but Hines said it could be built by 2019. The real estate firm said it intends to hold all four assets on a "long-term" basis when complete.

Hines Ireland senior managing director Brian Moran said Dublin was home to a vibrant and dynamic student population.

"Demand for high-quality, safe, well-located accommodation is increasing. We are very happy to be a part of solving Dublin's housing supply issues by taking over this platform and expect it to tie in well with our residential development plans," he said.

The Threesixty deal is the second major student housing deal for Hines this year, after securing six developments across the UK from McLaren Property.

The deals are the next step in the company's diversification strategy into new asset classes. Hines student accommodation head Alex Knapp said Ireland was an exciting growth market.

"We are already looking at further opportunities to growing our portfolio both in Ireland, the UK and elsewhere in Europe during 2017," he said.

Threesixty chief executive Bob Crompton said the facilities would provide much needed housing supply in the centre of the city. "I can think of no better organisation to deliver, manage and grow the student housing business going forward than Hines.

"Hines are a long-term investor who have shown commitment to the sector and to Ireland so I am confident that Dublin will benefit greatly from this in the coming years," he said.

The entry into the student market comes as Hines looks to up its Dublin portfolio across the board.

It is understood the property giant is in the process of agreeing heads of terms to acquire the 'Grafton collection' - a multi-let block of retail buildings which includes the landmark Hickey's Pharmacy premises at the junction of Grafton Street and Duke Street.
Japan to distribute 100,000 packets of free instant rice to Chinese tourists in a bid to boost rice exports to China

The Japanese government plans to distribute 100,000 packets of instant rice to Chinese tourists, in a bid to boost its rice exports to China, Japanese media reported. The rice will be available at travel agencies in Shanghai and Beijing, electronics markets in Tokyo, and in duty-free shops at Narita Airport and Kansai International Airport.

According to Japanese media, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries believes that China is a prime destination for rice exports in the future.
Foodservice on the island of Ireland grew to a record 7.5bn this year, and it is expected the figure will grow to 9bn by 2020

Despite unprecedented uncertainty brought about by Britain's decision to leave the EU, the outlook for the Irish food industry remains positive.

The industry has posted robust growth figures for 2016, and the trend appears set to continue in 2017.

Foodservice on the island of Ireland grew to a record 7.5bn this year, and it is expected the figure will grow to 9bn by 2020.

The majority of the spend is occurring in the Republic, which is responsible for nearly 5.4bn, representing 72pc of the total.

Around 2.2bn is spent by consumers in the North of Ireland.

The foodservice market is defined as anywhere outside the home that food is consumed and includes everything from restaurants, hotels, coffee shops and bars to workplace catering, hospitals, education and vending machines.

While the pressures emanating from Brexit have rightly caused concern for many operating in this space, the early signs are that the industry has held up well, despite factors including the plunge in sterling.

There are a number of reasons for this.

Firstly, Ireland's economy has continually posted strong growth figures over the past number of years, and although that growth will moderate this year and next, the overall picture is that households have an increasing amount of disposable income.

With unemployment now at less than half the rate it was at the height of the crisis, the general public has more money to spend on dining out.

The strong employment figures have also led to a surge in consumer demand.

Brexit did see a retrenchment in this area for a couple of months following the June vote, however latest figures show that Irish consumers are willing to spend money again.

Another factor which has aided the growth of the foodservice sector has been the reduction of Vat on food to 9pc. In 2011, the Government reduced Vat on food and accommodation, which had the effect of boosting tourism at a particularly vulnerable time for the economy.

Despite the recovery, the Government has elected to keep the Vat rate low in both of these sectors in the latest Budget.

Tourism has grown at a record pace this year, with an increase of 13pc on overseas visitors in 2016.

A continued rise in business travel has also meant hotels catering for conferences and events have experienced particularly impressive growth.

Another factor that has contributed to the strong performance is the investment and expansion which is taking place in many companies around the country.

International and domestic chains are pursuing new opportunities well as offering customers greater choice when it comes to what's on offer from the menu.

It should be noted however, that the majority of expansion in foodservice has been evident in cities, with rural areas lagging behind. One of the challenges for the sector - much like the rest of the economy - will be to ensure that areas outside of the main urban centres are afforded the chance to catch up.

Breaking down the figures for 2016, a recent Bord Bia report showed that so-called 'Quick Service Restaurants' accounted for 34pc of all revenues in the sector.

Pubs accounted for 20pc, while hotels were responsible for 19pc of the overall take. Cafes and coffee shops had a 5pc market share.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has appointed Seamus Coffey as Chairperson of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council.

Already a serving member of the Fiscal Council, Mr Coffey will fill the post from January 1 next year, replacing Professor John McHale

Wednesday morning's announcement is one of several appointments to the independent statutory body.

The Minister has also appointed Martina Lawless as a new member to the Fiscal Council. This decision followed an open selection process, and Ms. Lawless' appointment is set for a period of four years, also effective from January 1 next.

Mr. Sebastian Barnes, a serving member of the council, has been reappointed by Minister Noonan, for a further four-year term from 1 January 2017.

I congratulate Mr. Seamus Coffey on his appointment as Chairperson of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council," Minister Noonan said.

"I also welcome the appointment of Ms. Martina Lawless and the re-appointment of Mr. Sebastian Barnes as Members of the Fiscal Council. I wish them well in these important roles.

I also wish to express my appreciation to the outgoing Chairperson of the Council, Professor John McHale, who has served in the role since the Councils establishment in 2011. Under Professor McHales stewardship, the Council has established itself as a well-known and independent voice on fiscal affairs.

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council assesses, and comments publicly on, whether the Government is meeting its own stated budgetary targets and objectives.
The Revenue Commissioners has refused to comment on a European Commission claim that companies here were taxed inconsistently for similar activities.

Revenue said it would give a response only after legal challenges to the EU's Apple tax ruling were finished.

With both Apple and the Irish Government appealing the commission ruling at the EU General Court, it could be years before the 13bn case is finally resolved.

In its ruling, published on Monday, the European Commission and Margrethe Vestager appeared to raise significant questions not only over how Apple's tax was calculated, but also for other, similarly structured companies whose tax affairs were examined.

Read more: Commissioner's crusade leaves us 'offside' with EU

"Ireland has lodged an appeal with the General Court of the European Union and Revenue will not be commenting further on the details of the commission's decision, as the matter is the subject of open legal proceedings," a spokeswoman said.

She referred to a statement issued in August by the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners Niall Cody. At that time the commission initially ruled that Ireland must collect 13bn in back taxes plus interest from Apple.

That statement said that in relation to Apple: "There was no departure from the applicable Irish tax law by Revenue; there was no preference shown in applying that law; and the full tax due was paid in accordance with the law."

In the 130-page Apple ruling published on Monday, but originally circulated to the Government and Apple back in August, officials in Brussels said they had looked at the Irish tax affairs of 14 other, unnamed, companies for context during the three-year Apple probe. The 14 firms had similar structures to Apple - multinational corporations with money flowing between Irish and non-Irish subsidiaries and therefore a need to allocate profits either to the Irish units or elsewhere in order to reckon where tax was paid.

The EU said Revenue's application of the ruling on how to allocate profits was "too inconsistent" to be used as a reference.

The commission said that after looking at the 14 cases it "was unable to identify any consistent set of rules that generally apply on the basis of objective criteria to all non-resident companies operating through a branch in Ireland".

The claim is potentially highly significant, challenging the idea that all companies are taxed alike.

However, the Finance Department this week insisted that Brussels' position was based on a misunderstanding of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997.

"The commission's alternative line of reasoning misunderstands Irish law. The commission is wrong to maintain that 'arm's length principle' (ALP) is inherent in Irish law, that Section 25 was applied inconsistently or that Section 25 confers any impermissible discretion. Section 25 confers no such discretion on the Revenue Commissioners," it said.

"The commission's alternative line of reasoning misunderstands Irish law. The commission is wrong to maintain that ALP is inherent in Irish law, that Section 25 was applied inconsistently or that Section 25 confers any impermissible discretion," it said.

The commission's case that Ireland gave illegal aid to Apple through sweetheart tax deals will boil down to proving that the company received an advantage compared to similar corporations in Ireland.

The Government has launched a formal appeal at the EU General Court. Apple has also launched an appeal.
Aisling Desmond of JRI America finance team in Tralee and Kerry footballer Colm Cooper of AIB Tralee at the launch of the Kerry 2017 Expo. Photo: Domnick Walsh

At least 1,000 well-paid jobs are unfilled in Kerry prompting local businesses to target emigrants returning for Christmas.

Today a county-wide bill board campaign will be launched, supported by over 150 companies, and asks those returning for the holidays to Come home for work in 2017.

The lack of highly-skilled workers is impacting progress in the county, explains campaign organiser Liz Maher.

The Tralee-based businesswoman adds: We calculate that there are over 1,000 skilled jobs, half of those connected to Tourism, which need to be filled but since the downturn so many of our young graduates who left Kerry have still not come home. The county is booming again but the number of wanted adverts keeps growing.

Planning to hold a Kerry Expo event on April 9th next at the INEC in Killarney organisers have placed 50 billboards across Kerry as part of their roadside campaign.

Fred McDonogh, from Kerry-based Red Chair Recruitment, told the Irish Independent that openings are available across the board in Kerry if only applicants would consider them.

We have so many positions in I.T, Financial Services, Construction, Healthcare, the Hospitality Sector, Education, Sales and so onbut the difficult bit is getting those who have left to look at them and come home. Its so important that we sell the county and all it has to offer because the salaries are on a par with city salaries and the cost of living and accommodation is so much less, he said.

Dr. Edmond Harty, CEO of Farm Equipment Supplier DairyMaster, explained that, at a time when house prices and rental prices are sky-rocketing elsewhere, moving to the Kingdom makes so much sense.

We carried out research which showed youd need to be earning 16,000 more a year, on average, to maintain anything resembling the same quality of life in Dublin as you have here in Kerry. Thats the same house, same length of commute, same lifestyle and so on. Like it takes me seven minutes to commute to work each day and I dont even live that close to our base in Causeway.

Dairymaster had planned to recruit 40-new employees at its headquarters in Kerry in 2016 but a number of those positions have still not been filled.

Well-Known GAA stars, including Kerrys Colm Cooper who works for AIB in Killarney, have backed the campaign and hope it encourages those who have left the county to return.

Cooper said: Over the years a lot of lads I went to school with and played football with moved away for work but some have decided to come home. Its clear there are so many excellent career opportunities and well-paid jobs on offer in Kerry. And its such an amazing place to live. I hope those who return for Christmas consider coming home for good.

At the JRI America IT company in the Kerry Technology Park in Tralee Chief Executive Shane Walsh has been successful in recruiting graduates, on starting salaries of around 30,000. Hell be on the hunt for at least ten more employees by next summer.

But he too is hoping the more experienced and highly-skilled emigrants returning this Christmas seek opportunities with the expanding company.

Kerry is ideal for young families and youre never far from a beach or mountain. We have people here who were paying 800-a-month for a room in Dublin, now theyre paying less than that for a beautiful two-bedroom apartment in Kerry. The jobs are well paid, the career paths of progression clear, levels of disposable income are much higher and now theres a very healthy ecosystem in Kerry for innovative businesses.

And Liz Maher hopes the campaign will open peoples eyes to whats available from a jobs and lifestyle perspective in Kerry.

We want to dispel the myth that there are no jobs in Kerry, she said, adding there areand whats more theyre often as good, if not better, than those available in the likes of Dublin or London.
Some 100 people, mostly families, lost their homes through lenders denying them low-cost tracker mortgages, the Oireachtas Finance Committee was told.

This is twice the previous number thought to have lost their homes.

The Central Bank now says some 15,000 homeowners may have been wrongly denied good-value trackers by their lenders.

The figure of 15,000 customers impacted is far higher than earlier numbers supplied by the Central Bank.

It emerged after the committee hearing was adjourned for a break to allow Professor Philip Lane to check his figures. Sustained criticism was directed at Central Bank governor Prof Lane by TDs and senators over the handling by regulators of the tracker mortgage scandal.

He was forced to deny the Central Bank was being bullied by banks it regulates.

At the start of the hearing, Central Bank executive Ed Sibley had suggested Bank of Ireland may have restored 5,000 customers to trackers six years ago, a much higher figure than Bank of Ireland had stated.

After a break, Prof Lane corrected the 5,000 figure.

Read more: Number of mortgage holders who lost good-value trackers may rise over 10,000 by time investigation completed

Read more: Interview: Big banks' behaviour was just unacceptable, says Governor of Central Bank

He clarified that Bank of Ireland was stopped by the Central Bank before it could take trackers from 3,000 customers.

He explained that Bank of Ireland did take 2,100 people off trackers, and the customers were returned to the correct rate six years ago.

Prof Lane admitted he made an error by disclosing the information about the attempted tracker move by Bank of Ireland earlier in the hearing.

Last week Bank of Ireland admitted another 602 customers have now been found who will have trackers restored and be refunded and compensated.

It said another 4,000 mortgage customers have trackers, but they were charged too much interest.

It is understood that most of the mortgage holders who were either denied a tracker or charged the wrong tracker margin, were bank staff.

Under intense questioning and heated exchanges, Prof Lane was told he was allowing banks to bully the Central Bank.

Committee chairman John McGuinness questioned why the governor was not clear on the total number of people who were denied a return to a tracker after fixing for a period.

Mr McGuinness questioned if the Central Bank was up to the job of regulating the banks.

"The lack of information you are giving us is striking. You should have these figures ready for the committee. Are you being bullied by the banks? I would conclude you are afraid of the banks."

Prof Lane said that there was "zero basis" to say he was afraid of the banks. "I totally dispute your characterisation of what the Central Bank is doing."

The Central Bank governor admitted the numbers impacted by the crisis was likely to be close to 15,000, after being repeatedly questioned on the data by politicians.

He said that "in the order of 100, high double digits" lost their homes as a result the tracker mortgage scandal.

Up to now the Central Bank had said that 8,200 cases had been verified by banks.

But this does not include 2,100 Bank of Ireland cases dating from 2010, and almost 1,400 Permanent TSB cases which were mostly concluded last year, along with other cases emerging.

Fianna Fail's Michael McGrath suggested the total number of those denied trackers may be 15,500.

Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty accused banks of theft from their customers.

He said the then-financial services ombudsman had written to the Central Bank in 2009 seeking an industry-wide probe. But the probe was only announced last December.

"In my view this was industry-wide theft, and you were aware of this," Mr Doherty said.

Fine Gael senator Kieran O'Donnell questioned why just seven people in the Central Bank's consumer protectorate division are over-seeing the tracker redress programme.
Subscribe to The Ready Business show, in association with Vodafone via iTunes or SoundCloud.

"I was obsessed with flying as a little girl, it was never about dolls for me. It was about airplanes all the time," explains Bernice Moran, airline pilot and co-founder of the Be Sweet Company on this week's Ready Business podcast.

"We lost our mother when we were young and financially things were tight growing up but our father always encouraged us to follow our star. He gave us that fire in our belly to go and follow our dreams."

From flying 747s across the Atlantic for Virgin to setting up her own high-end confectionery company, Bernice Moran's life is lived to the full.

Once I completed my aviation licence I got straight into flying with Ryanair before moving on to Virgin Atlantic. For me, travelling is my passion and I wanted to do long haul flying. I live in Dublin, fly to London pick up the airplane and head off to work in the 747.

I cant describe the joy I get out of hearing the revving of the engines as youre throttling down the runway. Nothing describes it.

Meanwhile, her husband is also a pilot based on Hong Kong and its a busy household with three young kids to also look after.

Flying is my passion but the Be Sweet Company is my other baby. I always thought confectionery was a bit boring and crossing the Atlantic one night I thought of the Virgin brand and what it stands for and how they do it with sexiness and style. I thought why cant I do that also with confectionery?

Richard Branson was a big influence in her companys growth and she sent an email to him to introduce herself and what she was doing and he emailed back setting up a meeting, brainstorming her idea and giving it a lot of direction and help.

"He always told me that, 'people buy you and you have to be clear on what your brand is'. Always deliver service and quality were his mantras that I have been trying to follow ever since."

The Ready Business show, in association with Vodafone , is available via iTunes , SoundCloud and Stitcher or subscribe to the RSS feed of the Ready Business Podcast using your favourite podcatcher.

You can check out the full Ready Business Podcast series here .

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More than half of internet users over 60 here refuse to share personal or payment details with online services, despite such information being necessary to participate in social and economic activities. Stock Image: GETTY

Ireland is becoming a two-tier internet society with senior citizens being left behind, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.

The state office shows that older people in Ireland are afraid to divulge personal or financial information and that they don't know how to protect themselves online.

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More than half of internet users over 60 here refuse to share personal or payment details with online services, despite such information being necessary to participate in social and economic activities.

By contrast, up to three quarters of those under the age of 60 are happy and capable of providing financial or personal details to interact with the everyday web services that require them.

The figures come after some of the worst consumer data breaches in history were revealed in recent months.

Web company Yahoo has admitted that over 1bn of its user accounts suffered loss of personal information in a hacking attack. According to the Irish Computer Society, one in two Irish firms suffers some form of data breach with many admitting multiple incidents during the year.

The new CSO figures indicate a lack of knowledge about basic internet safety from older users.

While a third of Irish web users under 60 say they check to make sure a website is secure when it asks for personal information, less than one in five older users does this. And the number of senior citizens who restrict websites from accessing geographical information or social media details is a fraction of younger, savvier internet users.

It is the first time that the Central Statistics Office has measured security and privacy issues among Irish internet users.

Other findings from the CSO report show the gradual death of home desktop PCs as householders switch to phones for the majority of their web browsing. Less than one in four Irish people ever use a desktop PC now, while a third of those under the age of 60 do not use a laptop. Over 90pc of Irish people under 45 now default to a phone as their main internet device whether at home or out and about.

Recent figures from Ireland's telecom regulator show that smartphone users are gobbling up 69pc more mobile data thanks to faster networks and more video features on services such as Snapchat and Facebook.

The average Irish smartphone uses 3.4GB of monthly mobile data.
The European Commission has charged Facebook with providing misleading information during its takeover of the online messaging service WhatsApp, opening the company to a possible fine of 1pc of its turnover.

However, the statement of objections sent to Facebook will not affect the EC's approval of the $22bn (21bn) merger in 2014, the Commission said in a statement.

Facebook is the latest Silicon Valley target of EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, best known in Ireland for her controversial ruling in August demanding that Apple pay 13bn in Irish back taxes. She has also subjected Google to two market abuse investigations.

The issue regards a WhatsApp privacy policy change in August when it said it would share some users' phone numbers with parent company Facebook, triggering investigations by a number of EU data protection authorities.

The Commission said Facebook, headed by ceo Sheryl Sandberg, had indicated in its notification of the planned acquisition that it would be unable to reliably match the two companies' user accounts.

"The Commission's preliminary view is that Facebook gave us incorrect or misleading information during the investigation into its acquisition of WhatsApp," said Vestager.

The EU executive said it now thinks the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook users' IDs with those of WhatsApp existed in 2014, when Facebook sought EU approval for the merger.

Facebook has until January 31 to respond. If the Commission's concerns are confirmed it can impose a fine of up to 1pc of turnover, or about $179m (172m) based on 2015 revenues.

"We respect the Commission's process and are confident that a full review of the facts will confirm Facebook has acted in good faith," a Facebook spokeswoman said. (Reuters)
Denis Naughten,TD, the Minister for Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources with Heather Humphreys,TD, the Minister for Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, launched the Report of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce at a media briefing held at Government Buildings. Photo: Tom Burke

New mobile phone licences will require mobile operators to cover all of rural Ireland rather than the biggest population centres.

Communications Minister Denis Naughten said Ireland was to become the first European country to base mobile operator licences on geographical coverage rather than population coverage.

The move, which would start with upcoming 5G mobile licence auctions, means that Vodafone, Three and Meteor would no longer be allowed to have any mobile black spots around the country.

"Based on our dispersed population, we need to do it this way," Mr Naughten said to the Irish Independent.

At present, Irish mobile operators' licences require them to cover between only 70pc and 85pc of the country by population, meaning there is no obligation to extend 3G or 4G services into relatively unpopulated areas of the country or rural roads.

"There are lots of reasons for geographic coverage instead of population coverage," Mr Naughten said. "If you take farmers, they need access to services on their phone when out and about. Farming and rural services are changing quickly and we need ubiquitous coverage for that."

Mr Naughten said that 5G licence auctions were expected in Ireland in "late 2019 or early 2020" and that the relevant wireless spectrum for 5G was currently being freed up.

"We all talk about driverless cars coming down the line, but you can't have driverless cars without ubiquitous 5G," he said.

However, the new geographic coverage requirements won't be applied to existing 3G or 4G licences, which will be allowed to cover just 85pc of the population.

As an interim measure, Mr Naughten said that the Government was launching new initiatives to increase mobile penetration around the country.

He said that the use of equipment called 'mobile repeaters', aimed at boosting mobile signals in individual homes, would be allowed from next year.

He also said that some planning and mast-building hurdles for operators were to be minimised, such as development levies collected from mobile operators by local councils. Operators would also get more access to state property for infrastructure. Mobile operators would now report to a joint Government task force headed by Minister Naughten and Arts Minister Heather Humphreys.

Finally, a national mobile signal map was to be published by Comreg with input from the mobile operators' own data.

The measures were included in a new report from the Government's mobile phone and broadband taskforce, compiled by officials from the Department of Communications and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

Local authorities would "not need to be threatened" on funding issues during rollout procedures, Mr Naughten said.

"There will be a dedicated point of contact on rollout issues," he said. "They want better coverage."

A Vodafone spokesman said it had 96pc 4G coverage in Ireland by population. Meteor said it had 94pc.

The task force report also included suggestions to try to speed up local broadband delivery ahead of the delayed National Broadband Plan, which wouldn't begin connecting homes until 2018. The suggestions included the introduction of legislation to mandate new developments to be more broadband-friendly, including the mandatory provision of ducting.

The most recent broadband survey showed that some areas of Ireland were struggling with broadband speeds insufficient to load email messages or perform basic Google searches.

The Switcher survey showed that one in three Irish broadband users got under five megabits per second (Mbs), which was inadequate to perform most online tasks in a household or small business. A separate poll from Vodafone said that more than one in three Irish people might have to relocate to a town or city for work reasons if internet connectivity remained unavailable.
[File photo]

In addition to the deployment of Mountain Strike Corps and BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missiles along the China-India border, India is planning to rebuild its Special Frontier Forces (SFF) to cope with China's frequent actions, Indian media outlet Daily News and Analysis (DNA) reported on Dec. 19. But experts have since pointed out that India should approach this task with caution.

The SFF was established in 1963 after the border conflict with China in 1962. As the ears and eyes of India's frontier forces, the troop has played a significant role in gathering intelligence from border areas and neighboring countries. According to DNA, the decision to rebuild the force was made by top Indian security leadership in an effort to cope with China's actions in countries surrounding India and along international boundaries. The report noted that China has proposed building a new railway and trade route between itself and Nepal. China has also enhanced its presence in Bangladesh and Myanmar -- two nations that show great interest in attracting Chinese capital and infrastructure.

Ye Hailin, chief of the South Asia Studies Center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the decision to rebuild the SFF is India's internal affairs, but the country should think carefully about whether this is a practical solution. China has no right to stop India's efforts. Likewise, its cooperation and exchanges with Bangladesh and Nepal need no consent from India, Ye added.
Christine Ourmieres-Widener, who has been named as Flybe's new chief executive after the regional airline's former boss stepped down two months ago. Photo: PA

Former CityJet boss Christine Ourmieres-Widener has been named as the new ceo of UK regional carrier Flybe.

The surprise move sees her succeed former EasyJet executive Saad Hammad, who quit the role in October. Ms Ourmieres-Widener will join Flybe on January 16.

An Air France veteran, Ms Ourmieres-Widener ran Dublin-based CityJet from 2010 until 2015, leaving soon after its acquisition by Germany's Intro Aviation in 2014.

It had been owned by Air France-KLM. She held a 7.5pc stake in CityJet following its sale to Intro. That company sold CityJet back to founder Pat Byrne and investors this year.

Since leaving CityJet, Ms Ourmieres-Widener has been chief global sales officer for American Express Global Business Travel.

She said that Flybe was "already in a strong position" and she believes it can "deliver significantly more over the coming years".

While in charge at CityJet, the airline racked up losses - but strategy for the carrier was at the time dictated by Air France-KLM.

Following her appointment at Flybe, current executive chairman Simon Laffin will resume a role as non-executive chairman.

Flybe has been operating in a challenging environment. Its revenue in the first-half of its financial year rose 12.7pc to 383m (454.8m), but its adjusted pre-tax profit slumped 25pc to 15.9m.

Mr Laffin said there was excess seat capacity in the European short-haul market, coupled with a weaker pound and business and consumer uncertainty.

It said yesterday that it will begin flying from London Heathrow next year to Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

It's using slots at Heathrow that were relinquished by IAG following its acquisition of BMI. The slots were relinquished as part of an EC competition condition. Virgin previously used the slots to fly to Manchester and Scotland.

Those services were operated on a wet-lease basis for Virgin by Aer Lingus.

A handful of Flybe routes are currently operated by Dublin-based Stobart Air, part of the Stobart Group.

Stobart Air also operates the Aer Lingus Regional service.

Earlier this month, Stobart announced that Stobart Air would fly up to 18 routes on behalf of Flybe from London Southend Airport, which is owned by the group.
On faith and spirituality.

The Irish actor plays a Jesuit priest in the new Martin Scorsese film Silence. The movie's central theme of defending and fighting for your faith is something that Neeson admits he finds fascinating.

Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on RTE Radio One, the Taken star said he "dips in and out of [his faith] from time to time".

"I'm still questing after the big answers," he told Tubridy. "I think we all are."

"I've been reading a lot of science journals lately about the inroads that scientists are making towards the body's natural opioids, neurotransmitters, that can explain religion. People being able to heal themselves... that's fascinating"

However, Neeson admitted that there are some questions that science can't answer.

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"I think the more science answers 'how?' (how this works, how that happens, how this manifests itself) the big question is always going to be 'why?'

"Why are we here? Why are we in this universe? What is it all about? Science will never be able to answer that. And that's the huge big question mark for all of us," he said.

The actor said he admired how previous Irish generations had a much simpler and absolute idea of faith but it's not something that he could accept for himself.

"It was a very beautiful, simple faith. Never questioned. This is how it has to be. I question it and at the same time I do admire it very strongly.

"I don't have that anymore. I just don't accept all the stuff we were taught as kids. I just have trouble with it. So I'm still questing it but I do dip into the Catholic faith every now and then.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to leave it."
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) has issued a formal 'Warning Notice' to RTE against The Ray D'Arcy Show's coverage of the abortion issue.

The notice from the broadcasting watchdog follows a third complaint against RTE, relating to its coverage of the campaign to change Irish abortion laws and the discussion of abortion.

The decision has been welcomed by the Pro Life Campaign, who declared it significant in the ongoing campaign against media bias on the abortion issue.

It has called on RTE to finally admit there is a serious problem regarding bias at the station and that its time to demonstrate how concrete and verifiable steps will be taken to address the situation.

In a statement the Pro Life Campaign said: The dual issues of accountability and impartiality runs much deeper than The Ray DArcy Show. For example, from June - July 2016, RTE Radio 1, afforded 81 minutes airtime to the pro-choice side and a pathetic four minutes to the pro-life viewpoint. With each new instance of one-sided coverage, public trust in RTE is evaporating. RTEs refusal to address the problem is also doing a huge disservice to those working in RTE who take care to be impartial.

The complaint relates to an interview from June 9 in which Irish couple Gaye and Gerry Edwards discussed travelling to England for an induced delivery after their son was diagnosed with a fatal foetal abnormality.

The BAI concluded that the audience of The Ray DArcy Show should have been made aware that the interviewees were members of a campaigning organisation seeking to change lrish law and not simply people telling their personal story.

RTE said in a statement today that "it notes and accepts the decision of the BAI. As required".

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Whatsapp The BAI upheld a complaint against RTE following an interview with Amnesty International director Colm O'Gorman, also regarding the issue of abortion.

"RTE will provide the BAI with a plan to ensure there is no re-occurrence of the issues identified."

In its latest decision, the BAI pointed out that this was the third occasion on which complaints have been upheld in respect of abortion coverage on The Ray DArcy Show. They described it as a matter of concern for the [BAI] Committee.

Formal sanctions may be made against the national broadcaster if the matter is not remedied by RTE to the BAI's satisfaction.

The BAI concluded that the broadcast did not comply with the fairness, objectivity and impartiality requirements of the Broadcasting Act 2009.

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The Committee also rejected RTEs contention that a subsequent interview on The Ray DArcy Show corrected any imbalance that may have occurred, noting that this later interview did not touch on the abortion debate in any meaningful way.

Earlier this year, the BAI upheld a complaint relating to Ray D'Arcy's interview with Graham Linehan and his wife Helen last October, in which the pair discussed their abortion experience.

Two complaints were lodged with the BAI, the first of which stated that "the presenter promoted his personal view in respect of abortion" and added that his guests' comments on abortion should have been challenged. Another complained that D'Arcy was "completely unfair and biased" during the interview.

The couple spoke as part of Amnesty Internationals Shes Not a Criminal campaign, which is seeking to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the constitution.

The BAI said the interview breached its code of fairness, objectivity and impartiality in news and current affairs.

It also upheld complaints against the show last December following an interview with Amnesty International director Colm O'Gorman, also regarding the issue of abortion.

In a statement the state broadcaster said: "RTE notes and accepts the decision of the BAI. As required, RTE will provide the BAI with a plan to ensure there is no re-occurrence of the issues identified."

Amnesty International have since released a statement on the ruling, saying they are "deeply concerned".

Their statement reads; "Decisions like what has been reported today do not serve that function [broadcasting serves the public interest, including peoples right to seek information], and are deeply unhelpful, said Colm OGorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland.

Ireland has finally begun to have a vital national conversation on the issue of abortion," it said.

"As the Citizens Assembly deliberates on this issue, the media should seek to discuss it in a way that ensures the public get the accurate information they need.

"Most importantly, women with personal experience of abortion must be given an opportunity to share their stories.

"Women like Gaye Edwards who bravely shared her experience in order to encourage much needed law reform.

"Discussions such as those which took place on The Ray Darcy radio show are sorely needed. The BAI should be encouraging and supporting such discussions, not seeking to stifle them. It is time for the BAI to deliver on its mission to regulate, foster and support broadcasting in the public interest on the subject of abortion, he added.
There were tears, hugs and massive smiles in Dublin Airport this morning, as Ireland's emigrants return home to spend Christmas with their families.

For some, the wait had been longer than others.

Carmel Murray, whose son Brian has been in Sydney for four years, said she had been planning this day for a year.

I'm locking the doors, they're not getting out, she laughed.

Brians sister Keelin hadnt seen her brother since March 2014.

Hes a man nowhe looks like Ben Affleck!

The Green family from Ballinteer, Dublin had been counting down the days until their daughter Rachel came home from Toronto  literally.

Shes been gone for 11 months, 16 days, 14 hours and 52 minutes, according to her dad, Derek.

Gary and Frances McLoaughlin from Dundalk, Louth have been living in New York for five years.

Theyve been home twice in the last year  once for the christening of Francess adorable godson Theo, and now for his first Christmas.

Were so happy to have them home, we just wish it was permanently, said Francess mum Sibeal.

When asked about a potential permanent move home, Gary didnt rule it out.

Not right now, maybe in the future for little ones like this [baby Theo].

Nicola MacArthur from Dublin had an army of friends and family to welcome her home.

Weve been preparing posters for her all week so were so happy to have her back, her friends said.

Niamh Balfe had been gone for just six months but tears flowed as her sisters embraced her the minute she walked through the arrival doors of Terminal 2.

Sisters Audrey and Edel were delighted to have her back from Abu Dhabi.

Were lost without her. Shes having a great life out there, but thank god for skype.

Niamh said everyone on her flight were in great spirits.

That flight was packed with people coming from Australia, Tokyo, all over the world, and the buzz was great.

Niall Prendergast from Rathfarnham, Dublin was lost for words when he was greeted by his two best friends, Brian and Ger, holding a gigantic welcome home signwith his name spelled wrong.

He has been living in Brisbane, Australia for two years.

Theyre just two random lads who turned up with a sign and spelled my name wrong, he laughed.

Its great to be back.
The NAMA owned Apollo House, which was been turned into a makeshift hostel. Photo: Damien Eagers

Occupants of Apollo House can spend Christmas there but have to leave by noon on January 11 next, High Court has ruled.

The building, located on Tara Street and Townsend Street in Dublin, was taken over last week by activists under the "Home Sweet Home Coalition" and offered as accommodation to the homeless.

On Wednesday, Mr Justice Paul Gilligan granted Tom O'Brien and Simon Coyle of Mazars, who were appointed joint receivers over the building by Nama related company Nalm Ltd, to vacate the property.

The judge noted arguments made on behalf of the coalition, including a sworn statement from Fr Peter McVerry, about the current homeless crisis.

He put a stay on the order to vacate till 12 noon on January 11.

The stay is on terms including that no more than 40 people homeless people stay there per night.

Other requirements of the stay include that access to the building is provided to the receivers and that the occupiers co-operate with the receiver's requests.

In particular, there is to be co-operation between the parties over the building's electricity supply.

The injunctions are to remain in place until the full hearing of the action.

The judge, addressing a packed courtroom, said the "law was clear" in regards to an ongoing trespass.

Lawyers representing four of the activists had sought a six month stay on the order.

However the receiver's lawyers said they favoured a stay measured in days rather than weeks.

Opposing the application Ross Maguire SC, told the court he was represented four occupiers including musician Glen Hansard, trade unionist Brendan Ogle and activists Aisling Hedderman and Carrie Hennessy who are members of the Irish Housing Network group.

Counsel urged the court to use its discretion and not grant the orders sought, because It would put the 40 homeless people who have been staying in the building back on the streets.

Counsel said claims advanced by the receivers that there is sufficient and suitable accommodation available for homeless people in Dublin City area were disputed by his clients.

Counsel added that as the property was in effect owned by Nama, the Minister for Finance would also be contacted about making some of Nama's property portfolio available for the homeless.

He also said he could not agree with Dublin City Council's assertion that there are sufficient beds available to all residents of Apollo House should it have to close.

In a sworn statement, Aisling Hedderman said the coalition had taken steps to ensure that the building was safe, was being well run and security was being provided a professional firm.

She rejected claims Apollo House was unsuitable for use as accommodation for the homeless.

In his sworn statement, Mr Hansard said and the campaign has the support of entertainment and sporting stars including Jim Sheridan, Andrew Hozier, Kodaline, Saoirse Ronan, John Connors, Christy Moore, Mundy, Damien Dempsey, Lisa Hannigan, Rubberbandits, Liam O Maonlai, Peardar O Riorda, Frances Black, Maverick Sabvre and Philly McMahon.

Rossa Fanning SC, for the receivers, said the application was not about putting people on the street at Christmas or at any other time. They said they had "no choice" other than to take proceedings over the occupation.

The receivers he said are sympathetic to the plight of the homeless but the occupation of the 10 story former office building was illegal and a form of "political protest."

There were also several serious health and safety risks that made the building unsuitable for use as a shelter.

The joint receivers were appointed over the property by Nalm Ltd. It acquired loans advanced by Anglo Irish Bank to the building's owners Cuprum Properties Ltd who had defaulted on borrowing of approximately 357,000,000.

The building forms part of a block due for re-development.

The receivers want to sell the property in order to deliver the best possible return for the taxpayer.

The Receivers to Apollo House welcomed todays High Court decision and reiterate their commitment to meet and work with representatives of Home Sweet Home so that an orderly vacation of the building can be achieved by January 11.

In a statement the receivers to Apollo House said they "welcomed" the High Court decision.

"We wish to emphasise that these proceedings were never about the eviction of the people currently in Apollo House but were brought in order to address the serious legal and safety issues arising from the present situation.

"We remain very concerned for the health and safety of those occupying Apollo House and are hopeful that Home Sweet Home will work with us to meet the directions of the Court which, in turn, will allow us to work with insurers to try to put in place the necessary insurance to cover the period up to the 11th of January.

"We do not want to see any homeless person currently in Apollo House put out on the streets and since this occupation began we have been actively working to identify a longer term solution for their situation.

"As Dublin City Council told the court today, there is more suitable accommodation available in Dublin City Centre that can provide long term care and support to those seeking shelter. We will continue to work with Home Sweet Home, Dublin City Council and homeless agencies over the next three weeks to assist homeless people in Apollo House move to more appropriate accommodation. This will ensure they also get the continuous professional care and supports required.

"We hope that Home Sweet Home will work with us and co-operate with Dublin City Council and the other homeless agencies to achieve this."

Dublin City Council released a statement following the court decision, saying they noted the decision but had a few points to make.

The statement read; "It is important to note the details presented to the court today by Dublin City Council confirms the availability of sufficient emergency accommodation to meet the needs of all persons experiencing homelessness and currently using Apollo House."

They also said they do not accept the negative comments made about the Pathway to Home model made in court.

"All emergency accommodation, formally commissioned under service level agreement with registered bodies, is subject to strict standards of operation and configuration," the statement read.

"Notably, this ensures that emergency accommodation services do not tolerate active drug use and exchange and interventions to remove persons engaged is drug misuse are appropriately enforced by service providers.

"In addition, dormitory provision of beds is not provided," the statement continued.

"Furthermore all homeless service users are supported in their use of services and all complaints are formally examined and investigated to ensure appropriate redress is available for persons in use of emergency accommodation services."

They also stated there are enough secure emergency beds to meet the needs of those being accommodated in Apollo House.
A judge has jailed a former soldier who repeatedly punched and kicked his ex-partner, fracturing her eyes, face and skull.

Jessica Bowes begged for her life during the merciless attack by Jonathan McSherry (34). McSherry was high on cocaine when he breached a barring order to wait at the victim's home to assault her.

At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Melanie Greally said that McSherry's brutal acts of violence left his victim unconsciousness and in a very perilous position.

McSherry of Cedarbrook Walk, Cherry Orchard, Dublin pleaded guilty to assault causing harm at Grange View Way, Clondalkin on December 20, 2015.

Footage of the attack, played in court, showed him punching Ms Bowes to the ground, kicking her at least four times and then dragging her along the ground and continuing to punch her.

She lost consciousness after the first punch and then a second time during what she described as a merciless attack. She said she thought she was going to die.

The assault left her with permanent scarring and nerve damage. In a victim impact report the mother-of-three said her lips wouldn't close together fully and in a cold environment her top lip didn't move, making her face look deformed.

The court heard there were fractures to her skull, eye sockets and cheek bone. The imprint of a shoe was left on her face and there were boot marks under her chin.

She had a metal plate put into her face. Her memory was impaired and she relied on her 10-year-old daughter to remind her of the younger children's birthdays, the court heard.

Ms Bowes said she was now overprotective of her children and in a constant state of anxiety. She had nightmares about McSherry and became paralysed with fear and trapped in a nightmare.

Judge Greally previously remanded McSherry on continuing bail to Wednesday so he could continue his treatment at the Coolmine residential drug treatment programme.

She suspended the last year of a three and a half year prison sentence on condition that he remain alcohol and free and that he attend a Probation Services group for men who engage in violence against women.

She also ordered him to refrain from having any contact with the victim. She backdated the sentence to March last to take account of time spent in custody and treatment.

Garda Stephen Kelly told the court that there was a barring order placed against McSherry the previous January. On the night of the attack, the victim and two friends were getting a lift to her home from a nightclub.

McSherry was waiting at the house and jumped on the car, smashing its front window with his fists. He then began his attack, punching the victim up to eight times.

At one point, when she regained consciousness, she told him, you're going to kill me but he kept punching her in the head. McSherry was arrested on the night and remanded in custody until the following April when he was granted bail on condition he take part in the drug treatment programme.

Rebecca Smith BL, defending, said her client had a history of depression and drug addiction. She said that his time in prison was a short sharp shock and the best thing to happen to him.

She said since then he had genuinely turned his life around and had successfully engaged with alternatives to violence programmes at Coolmine.

Counsel said McSherry, who has two young children with the victim, had no words to express his remorse for his actions.

He has done everything he can to make amends, to try to change himself, for the sake of his family and for the sake of his children.
(Xinhua) 20:30, December 21, 2016

The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) on Wednesday signed its first loan agreement, providing a 525 million yuan (75 million U.S. dollars) loan for a solar project in China.

The loan was given to Shanghai Lingang Distributed Solar Power Project, with a maturity length of 17 years, under an agreement signed between NDB, the Ministry of Finance and the Shanghai municipal government.

"The solar power project is a good example of forward-looking and green investment," said K.V. Kamath, president of NDB.

Shi Yaobin, China's vice finance minister, said that under the global sluggish economic recovery, NDB can play its role in providing fund support for member states and expand global demand.

The project by Shanghai Lingang Hongbo New Energy Development is a solar photovoltaic power plant with total capacity of 100 MW.

NDB, which formally opened in Shanghai July last year, was created with the objective of financing infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies and developing countries.

The bank approved its first package of loans worth 811 million U.S. dollars in April.
A DUBLIN man has appeared in court charged with murdering his partner who was found dead in their home in the south of the city.

Desmond Duffy (68) was remanded in custody after he was arrested and charged with killing Des Sullivan (59), whose body was found at the house in Rathmines earlier this year.

He had sustained serious neck injuries.

Dublin District Court heard Mr Sullivan told gardai he was not guilty when arrested and charged.

Judge Michael Walsh adjourned the case to tomorrow.

Mr Duffy is charged with murdering Mr Sullivan at their home at Summerville Park, Rathmines on May 23 last.

This morning, Detective Inspector George McGeary of Terenure Station told Judge Walsh he arrested the accused at his home at 7.40am today.

He was brought to Rathmines Garda Station, where he was chargd at 8.20am. He was handed a copy of the charge sheet.

His reply after caution was: Nothing to say until I speak to my solicitor. Not guilty, Det Insp McGeary said.

Defence solicitor Anarine McAllister asked Judge Walsh to adjourn the case to tomorrow.

There was no bail application as bail can not be granted on a murder charge in the district court.

Ms McAllister applied for free legal aid on Mr Duffys behalf and handed a statement of his financial means in to court.

Det Insp McGeary said there was no garda objeciton to legal aid. Judge Walsh granted legal aid and assigned solicitor Michael Staines.

He remanded Mr Duffy in custody to appear in Cloverhill District Court tomorrow morning.

The accused, wearing a cream and black anorak, check shirt, blue jeans and black shoes remained silent throughout the brief hearing.

Thank you, Judge, Im much obliged, Ms McAllister said.

Mr Sullivan was discovered in an unresponsive state at his home off the Upper Rathmines Road. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Mr Sullivan had previously worked in a local charity shop.
A man who agreed to assist in a dissident Republicans punishment shooting or knee-capping which, unkown to him, was to be a deliberate execution from the word go, has had his murder conviction upheld by the Court of Appeal.

Martin Kelly (42), of Barrack St, Strabane, Co Tyrone, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Andrew Burns at Donnyloop, Castlefin, Co Donegal on February 12, 2008.

The non-jury Special Criminal Court found Kelly guilty of the murder and gave him the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment on January 24, 2012.

The Special Criminal Court heard that Mr Burns was shot twice in the back by a gunman linked to the dissident republican group, Oglaigh na hEireann, in a church car park. Both Kelly and Mr Burns were associated with that group.

The Court of Appeal upheld Kelly's conviction today. However, the three-judge court noted that one ground of appeal raised by Kelly's lawyers was novel and of clear importance.

Counsel for Kelly, Giollaiosa O Lideadha SC, submitted that his client should not have been convicted of murder where there was a fundamental difference between what Kelly had contemplated would happen and a deliberate shooting to kill.

Mr O Lideadha said the contemplated plan as far as Kelly was concerned  a kneecapping and order to Mr Burns to leave the jurisdiction in 48 hours  was not what actually happened.

It was accepted that Kelly had agreed to drive Mr Burns to the Church car park on an erroneous pretext where three dissidents would deliver a punishment shooting or knee-capping.

However, it was to be a deliberate execution from the word go, Mr O Lideadha said, and Kelly had no knowledge, foresight, intention or realisation of that.

The was also a fundamental difference between shooting at the knee and shooting at somebody's chest, Mr O Lideadha submitted.

Dismissing Kelly's appeal today, Mr Justice George Birmingham said the issues raised by this ground of appeal are not only novel, but clearly important.

If Mr O Lideadha was correct, then it was hard to see how someone who causes death, but had not intended to kill should be guilty of murder, but such a person unquestionably is, the judge said, if the intention was to cause serious harm.

Likewise, it would be hard to see that co-accused should all be responsible for the consequences flowing from the actions of all, including unforeseen consequences, but again that is the law.

It had long been the position in Ireland that a murder conviction is recorded if there was an intention to cause at least serious harm and death results, Mr Justice Birmingham said, and that the Special Criminal Court correctly approached the matter.

Kelly had brought the victim to the Church car park with the intention that he would suffer serious injury: that he would be shot.

In fact he was shot and even if it cannot be proved that a shooting with intention to kill had been contemplated by Kelly, he is nonetheless guilty of murder.

There was no doubt that Kelly rendered assistance to those who carried out the murder both before and after the shooting.

While undoubtedly there was a distinction between what Kelly says was agreed and what occurred, the court did not accept that this was so fundamental a departure as to absolve Kelly from responsbility for the murder.

Mr Justice Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan and Mr Justice Alan Mahon, dismissed a number of other grounds and accordingly dismissed the appeal.

Mr O Lideadha indicated that an appeal to the Supreme Court was being contemplated.

The Court of Appeal had received further submissions from the parties in light of the UK Supreme Court decision on the doctrine of joint enterprise known as 'Jogee'.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the point of central significance in 'Jogee' did not have direct relevance to Irish law.

In 'Jogee', the UK Supreme Court and the Privy Council were being asked to correct a wrong turning UK jurisprudence had taken which had then fed into many other decisions over the past 30 years.

However, it is important to realise that Irish law never took that wrong turning. The focus of Irish law has remained on intention rather than forseeability.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the development of the law of murder in Ireland over the years involved elements of public policy.

The fact that an intention to cause serious injury was sufficient to make out the required mental intent for murder was a recognition of the fact that in many cases, even where it was highly probable that there was in fact an intention to kill, that it would not be possible to prove that was the intent.

The policy adopted is a pragmatic one that was deeply rooted and long established, Mr Justice Birmingham said.
Noel Scurry of Home Sweet Home examines the High Court notice to vacate Apollo House which was posted on the gates of the building. Picture: Gerry Mooney

SEVERAL occupiers of Apollo House in Dublin City centre are opposing a High Court action brought by Nama appointed receivers aimed at regaining possession of the property.

In a widely publicised move last weekend the building, located on Tara Street and Townsend Street in Dublin, was taken over by activists and offered as accommodation to the homeless.

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As a result insolvency practitioners Tom O'Brien and Simon Coyle of Mazars, who were appointed joint receivers receivers over the building by a NAMA related company NALM in 2014, have launched proceedings seeking to end the occupation and that the property be vacated.

The matter returned before a packed High Court this morning when Ross Maguire SC told the court he was represented four occupiers of the property, including musician Glen Hansard, Brendan Ogle, Aisling Hederman and Carrie Hennessy.

The application he said would be contested on grounds including that the effect of the orders sought will render people who have been staying in the building homeless. Counsel also said that they have a sworn statement from homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry.

Counsel said that the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan would also be contacted about making some of Nama's property portfolio available for the homeless.

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Counsel also said that claims made by lawyers on behalf of the receivers are "roundly rejected" concerning the accommodation available for the homeless in Dublin and about the state of the building itself.

In reply Ross Fanning Bl for the receivers said the application was not about putting people on the street at Christmas or at any other time. His cleints have been in contact with Dublin City Council and the Dublin Regional Housing Executive and are satisfied that there is capacity at other accommodation.

The receivers he said are sympathetic to the plight of the homeless but the occupation of the 10 story former office building which has been organised by the 'Home Sweet Home Coalition' is illegal and a form of "political protest."

The receivers say that there are a number of serious health and safety risks that make the building unsuitable for use as a shelter.

The former office block, they say was never intended to be used for residential purposes and required extensive maintenance. They have particular concerns over the electricity supply which had been cut and was restored by the occupiers.

There was also a risk of people tripping and falling down stairwells in the building, there were concerns about the building's water supply and there is no provision for the removal of waste.

The receivers also say that because to the occupation the building, which has been vacant since Mid-2015, no longer has fire insurance and that its public liability insurance will lapse in mid January unless the receivers are able to regain possessing.

The hearing before Mr Justice Paul Gilligan continues today.

The joint receivers were appointed over the property by NALM. It acquired loans advanced by Anglo Irish Bank to the building's owners Cuprum Properties Ltd who had defaulted on borrowing of approximately 357,000,000.

The building forms part of a block due for re-development. The receivers want to sell the property in order to deliver the best possible return for the taxpayer. There are plans to demolish the building and replace it with a vibrant commercial quarter.
A GROUP opposed to a massive power line planned to run between Meath and Tyrone have reacted with fury to a decision by An Bord Pleanala to grant permission.

The North East Pylon Pressure Campaign (NEPPC) said the decision was an affront to the democratic process and warned that legal action to halt the 300m project was likely both in Northern Ireland and the Republic.

The North South Interconnector involves construction of almost 300 pylons in Meath, Cavan and Monaghan, some up to 51 metres high, and was subject to some 200 objections on health and environmental grounds.

The high-voltage power line allows electricity to flow between north and south, and was part of the 3.2bn Grid25 project launched in October 2008. Permission was sought in December 2009, but withdrawn the following June.

A new application was lodged with the board in June 2015, and was subject to a public hearing which lasted for almost three months. It was approved this morning.

In its decision, the board said it had regard to the benefits of integrating both electricity grids, Government policy and the potential impact on the environment.

The board agreed with its inspector which recommended that permission be granted.

Fintan Slye, chief executive of EirGrid, said the North South Interconnector is "undoubtedly the most important infrastructure scheme on the island".

"(It) will also provide local benefit for the people of the north east by strengthening the electricity network in the region; a catalyst for inward investment and job creation," he said.

"The project will also increase capacity of the grids north and south, helping to facilitate the connection of more renewable electricity generation. This is essential to achieve sustainable energy targets set by the EU."

Speaking on RTE Radio One this lunchtime, he added: "We have a team of agricultural liaison officers and community liaison officers in place on the ground that have been and will continue to work

"The challenge for us is to work with those community organisations, with those land owner organisations. It is a critical piece of infrastructure that is necessary to support society and the economy and everyone benefits from it.

EirGrid has said there was just one interconnector between both jurisdictions, and if a problem occurred it would result in widespread power failures.

But NEPPC, which claims to represent 45,000 households, said the lines should be constructed underground, and called on politicians to intervene.

NEPPC is calling on all elected representatives to seek a solution to the impending impasse and conflict, it said. Time still exists for EirGrid to be directed to do the right thing and underground the project.

The landowners and local communities are disgusted with how they have been treated for the last 10 years. If An Bord Pleanala think there will be no repercussions in terms of integrity of the planning process from this decision then they are gravely mistaken. If political action is not taken this project will make the Shell to sea debacle look like a walk in the park.

Opposition to the line centres on a number of concerns including health, impact on the landscape, animal welfare and agriculture and biodiversity.

There was also widespread belief that the projects were imposed on local communities without adequate consultation, a claim EirGrid denies.

The line links a substation in Woodland, Co Meath with a new substation in Turleenan, Co Tyrone. It will more than double the power transfer capacity between north and south, improving efficiency and allowing more renewables onto the system.

The ESRI has suggested that the project would remove the cross-border bottleneck and reduce annual operating costs of the network by 30m a year.

EirGrid has also suggested that undergrounding the system would add 500m to the bill.
Frances Fitzgerald said officers were on guard to deal with any potential threat. Photo: Kyran O'Brien

An Garda Siochana is to step up its operations in light of the terrorism atrocities across Europe.

Garda officers are on high alert following the death of at least 12 people in the German capital, Berlin, after a truck driver ploughed through a crowd of shoppers at a Christmas market.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday wrote to German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressing the condolences of the Irish people.

Meanwhile, Tanaiste and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald last night said specialist officers were on guard to deal with any potential threat.

The Fine Gael minister said the Defence Forces were on standby if required.

Ms Fitzgerald also said that gardai would work closely with their international counterparts in order to deal with any fallout.

Read more: 'Our values are the target of those who wish to see a world of dark tyranny' - Tanaiste hits out at Berlin attacks

"The Garda authorities will continue to take all necessary security measures proportionate to the terrorist threat and all the relevant agencies here co-operate closely in respect of any and all threats identified," Ms Fitzgerald said.

"The Garda authorities also work closely on an ongoing basis with their European and other international counterparts in addressing the threat from terrorism.

"As a matter of routine, the gardai carry out training and exercises in this regard, including in respect of a range of identified scenarios, and some of that activity takes place jointly with their colleagues in the Defence Forces and with other stakeholders."

The issue of security was not raised at Cabinet yesterday, although a number of ministers recorded their sympathy for the German people.

Mr Kenny wrote to Ms Merkel yesterday expressing the condolences of the Irish people.

In the letter, Mr Kenny addressed the chancellor by her first name, saying that Irish people were "deeply shocked" by the loss of lives in Berlin.

He said the thoughts and prayers of everyone were with Germany, concluding: "Ireland stands side by side with our German friends at this difficult time."

Fianna Fail's foreign affairs spokesman Darragh O'Brien said the attacks demonstrated a fundamental challenge for liberal democracies across the world.

"I extend my deepest sympathies to the people of Germany, to the families of those who have lost loved ones and also to those who have been injured.

"I have passed on my condolences personally to the German ambassador here in Ireland."
The truck involved in the attack is towed away yesterday as forensic experts examine the scene. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Irish people living in Berlin have said the city is "a sombre place" in the aftermath of the deadly attacks on Monday night.

Morgan Smyth (27) is originally from Bayside in Dublin and owns the Badfish bar on Stargarder Strasse in the east of the city, and has other business interests across Berlin.

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He visited the memorial yesterday and said "everyone was visibly affected by it".

"We were running our annual Christmas party for our regulars in the bar when I went out for a second before coming back in and noticing everyone on their phones really shocked," he said.

Mr Smyth said he was very worried by the events as his family were visiting on Friday and had intended on going to the Christmas market when they arrived.

"I had actually said it last week to my family that we shouldn't go to the markets when they are here because they are such an obvious target," he said.

Mr Smyth pointed out that the Christmas markets were a place "full of tourists having drinks and just there to have a good time".

Another Dubliner resident in Berlin is Leah Mahon (27), an event organiser living beside the famous Mauerpark in the east of the city.

On her way home for Christmas, she said: "The airport was absolutely manic. It's usually pretty busy this time of year but the queues just weren't moving."

Read more: Irish in Berlin: 'People in Germany have been expecting this'

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Ms Mahon said that although the atmosphere had been affected across the city, she believed the good nature of people in Berlin would shine through.

"I was on the train this morning and usually when the homeless get on the train nobody pays attention but everyone was really generous. Everyone was giving money," she said.

Ms Mahon said her biggest worry was the "effects of the media".

"I wasn't aware at all about the attacks until my brother Kyle texted asking if I was ok and there was only one [reported] dead at that stage," she said. "I think the media were jumping to conclusions, while Facebook did not help, using the terrorist tag before changing it to violent attack. It created fear among people."

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Rory O'Connor (28), a journalist living in Prenzlauerberg, said "everyone was just shocked" when they heard.

"I was at home, thankfully when a sister-in-law of a friend told us from another part of Germany," Mr O'Connor said.

"You'd hope that an incident like this would not divide people in the city and I don't think it will."
(Xinhua) 20:31, December 21, 2016

Proposals raised by deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) at the annual parliamentary session in March have all been handled, said the NPC Standing Committee Wednesday.

According to a report from the NPC Standing Committee General Office, deputies raised 8,609 proposals at the March session. All of them have been handled.

Of the proposals, 5,496 needed cooperation among multiple departments, accounting for 63.8 percent of the total, the report said.

The proposals raised by the deputies were about a wide range of issues, including supply-side structural reform, poverty alleviation, environmental protection and regulation of Internet finance.
Katie Delahunty OBrien with her husband Matthew and their children Sophie and Luke

An Irish mum-of-two who died of cancer just three weeks after her diagnosis visited GPs nine times in the preceding six months, complaining of severe abdominal pain and bleeding.

Katie Delahunty O'Brien (31), from Sneem, Co Kerry, repeatedly visited the Newport Pagnell Medical Centre close to her home in Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire.

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But her family claim her symptoms were dismissed as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

They are now calling on the British authorities to investigate her treatment by the NHS.

The first of Katie's nine visits was made in early June.

"She had abdominal pain and was bleeding," her sister Fionnuala Delahunty said.

"We believe the bleeding should have been the trigger for more investigation which could have led to an earlier diagnosis of the cancer. She kept saying to us 'I think it's something more serious'."

Each time she went back to the medical centre she presented with the same symptoms.

"The doctors should have investigated the cause of the bleeding, but we don't believe they did," said Fionnuala.

Such bleeding could be a symptom of bowel cancer.

"The doctors put her on medication for IBS for a number of months."

On November 16, Katie's condition worsened.

"She felt like she was having heart palpitations and she thought she was going to collapse with the pain," added Fionnuala.

Katie, a full-time mother to Sophie (7) and Luke (2), called an ambulance and was taken to Milton Keynes University Hospital, where she underwent a CT scan.

Her mother, Mary, rushed from her home in Sneem to be with her daughter, and was by her bedside when doctors told her the terrible news.

"They said she had cancer everywhere - lesions on her lung, her liver, her kidneys, her bones and bowel," said Mary.

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"However, they said they wouldn't give her a full diagnosis for another week, which was November 24.

"For that week, we believed there was some hope. They talked about putting a plan in place. The following Thursday, I was down in the hospital canteen when I got a text from Katie to come up. They had told her there was no hope, that her liver was 80pc damaged and she wasn't well enough to have treatment.

"Her options were to go home or go to a hospice. She decided she wanted to go home. She stayed at home until she died on December 7, just three weeks after she was told she had cancer."

Before she left the hospital to go home, Katie had a civil ceremony and married her partner Matthew.

Graduate

Katie wanted her marriage to be blessed by the church, and the family arranged a wedding for December 10, but Katie died three days before.

Katie was the daughter of Noel and Mary Delahunty, from Sneem, the fourth born of their five children. Katie was in good health all her life and rarely visited doctors.

A graduate of IT Tralee where she earned a diploma in tourism and hospitality, Katie met her husband and moved to Milton Keynes nine years ago at the height of the recession.

There the couple settled, before welcoming their two children Sophie and Luke.

Fionnuala, who is based in New York and flew to be by her sister's side on December 3, said the family accept Katie had an aggressive cancer and if she had been diagnosed earlier, it was unlikely it could have been cured.

"Katie was so compliant with the doctors and the NHS. She was not assertive or as outgoing as me.

"But if they had listened to her and investigated the bleeding and she got the scan earlier, perhaps her liver wouldn't have been so damaged and she would have had more time to prepare her children."

The family say palliative care nurses had initially encouraged Katie to prepare memory boxes for her children and record messages.

However, Katie's condition rapidly deteriorated in the three weeks before she passed away and she was unable to do this.

The last time she saw her children was four days before her death.

"She did not want her children to remember her as being gravely ill. And she was very ill. It was horrendous at this stage and she really did suffer," said Fionnuala.

Katie's family wish to draw attention to her death because they believe an earlier diagnosis could have been made during the six-month period she visited the Newport Pagnell Medical Centre.

Her family claim her symptoms and complaints were ignored by the British health system.

"She would have had more time to help and prepare the children," said Fionnuala. "She would have been able to have a proper wedding.

"She never got to say goodbye to her children, and none of us wanted the children to remember her like that."

On December 6, the day before her death, Katie and her husband Matthew had their marriage rites. She was administered her Last Rites shortly afterwards.

She passed away at 7.50am the following day.

"To be ignored and neglected, the amount of suffering she went through at the end, was horrendous," said her mother.

"The cancer had consumed her body. It wouldn't have been so much in vain, if she had been able to enjoy her last few months.

Letter

"If I were put in that position, as a mother, I would have loved to have written a letter or made a video [for the children]. To take that away from someone is just horrendous."

The Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) for the Newport Pagnell Medical Centre, and Milton Keynes University Hospital, were contacted for comment.

The hospital said it could not comment on individual cases and the CCG did not come back for comment at the time of print.

Katie's family say they contacted the hospital for her medical files, which have been given to them.

They contacted the clinic for the files, but say they were advised they could get access to them only when a request has been made by a solicitor.

A Mass was due to be said for Katie earlier today at St Augustine's Church in Milton Keynes.

Her family will then bring Katie's remains to her native Sneem where her funeral will take place in St Michael's Church on Wednesday next week.

A Just Giving fund for Katie's two children has been set up. The site can be found here.
A teenager has told how he nearly lost his eye when he tumbled off his bike and smashed into a toilet cistern carelessly dumped in the woods.

John McElhinney was left scarred for life when he crashed his mountain bike on Saturday.

The 13-year-old was travelling from his home in Glenealy, Co Wicklow to meet friends on nearby Carraig Hill when the accident happened.

He told Independent.ie that as soon as he fell into the brambles he knew that something wasnt right.

John had struck his eye off a piece of a broken ceramic toilet cistern carelessly dumped in the area that was protruding out of the ground.

I knew I needed help when I saw all the blood gushing out of my eye. I was trying to keep myself calm.

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The young teenager scrambled his way out onto the road and contacted his grandmother, who was minding him at the weekend, by phone.

He was also helped by a neighbour who happened to be passing at the time.

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They rushed to CareDoc in Wicklow town where they were informed that John may need plastic surgery.

This was followed by a visit to Our Ladys Childrens Hospital Crumlin where they were referred to the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital.

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By this stage Johns parents, who were away for the weekend in Mullingar, had travelled back to meet them in Dublin.

Mum Lizzie McElhinney said doctors were extremely concerned for her sons welfare.

The doctor there said this needs to be looked at immediately. They had him up in theatre within an hour and a half.

John underwent surgery for around two hours, after which the family received the good news that no serious damage had been done.

The doctor said he was extremely lucky, the cut was down to the bone and it was miraculous that he didnt lose an eye.

The youngster was sent back to Crumlin for an MRI scan after surgeons found what they believed were bits of bone in the wound. This later turned out to be pieces of the broken cistern.

John and Lizzie said they are furious with the person who dumped the item in the forest.

The family returned to the area on Tuesday where they discovered the discarded piece of cistern.

Johns blood was still on it, so we knew it was the correct piece, Lizzie explained.

John added: For anyone that is considering dumping anything this Christmas, Id really like them to think twice. It is not going to cost much to get rid of it properly so please just dont do it.

Ann Hogan of Glenealy Tidy Towns said she was alerted to the issue online.

She said: It was a sick thing that happened. We are totally shocked that such a thing would happen.
HOUSING Minister Simon Coveney's Bill aimed at tackling the crisis in the rental sector has been passed by the Seanad.

Senators this morning debated the proposals that will see the creation of rent pressure zones, initially in Dublin and Cork where rent hikes will be limted to 4pc per year.

These zones will be extended to parts of Galway, Waterford and commuter counties around Dublin, once rents in these areas are assessed in the new year.

The extension to those areas came after Mr Coveney agreed with Fianna Fail that the assesment process should be fast tracked.

Now that the legislation has been passed by the Seanad it will go to President Michael D Higgins for his signature.

The Seanad is adjourned until January 24.
Dozens of protesters demonstrated outside the Iranian embassy in Dublin, urging Ireland to impose sanctions on the country over its role in the "genocide" in Syria.

Leoni O'Dowd, a member of the Irish Syrian Solidarity Movement which organised the peaceful protest, said "billionaires" in both Iran and Russia needed to be blocked from international financial markets in order to bring their governments "to heel".

She also urged the Irish Government to ban trade missions to Iran which she called "absolutely shocking".

Syrian physician Dr Mohammad Kamal (54), who is originally from Idlib, said he still had family in Syria who were under siege by the Assad regime.

"We all worry about our families but also about all Syrians," he said last night. "It's genocide."

Boualem Rebai (55), an engineer who is originally from Algeria, said: "It's a duty. It's an obligation to fight for human rights. It's genocide what's happening. But the world is shutting its mouth. It's not acceptable."
The 'real message' of the prophet Muhammad has been 'hijacked' by terrorists, an Islamic leader in Dublin has warned. Photo: REUTERS

The "real message" of the prophet Muhammad has been "hijacked" by terrorists, an Islamic leader in Dublin has warned.

Ali Al Saleh, the imam at the Ahlul Bayt Islamic Centre in Milltown, Dublin, expressed sorrow at the attacks and said that his focus was to promote tolerance.

He was speaking at the launch of the first Dublin City Interfaith Charter at the Mansion House, alongside other religious and political leaders.

The new charter deals with issues such as religious freedom, inter-faith dialogue and the promotion of religious diversity.

Praising the new Dublin Charter, he said: "Look how beautiful it is for our children to grow up together, they have the same title - citizen of Dublin and citizen of Ireland.

"Although we have different religion, cultures and colour, we have tested what it means to live in harmony and peace with each other; we are learning from Irish society."

He assured Irish people that the message of the charter would be discussed by the Islamic leaders who had signed it at Friday prayers at their mosques. "Our message is to protect this country and the teachings of our prophet to protect the society in which we live."

Archbishop of Dublin and Glendalough Dr Michael Jackson praised the initiative at a time when "we all look aghast at the plight of Aleppo", whose people had been "brutalised almost to oblivion".

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Archbishop Jackson warned that the "scandalous" and "destructive" terror attack in Germany could result in people perceiving every refugee as a terrorist.

He said: "My concern would first and foremost be for those who suffered and never expected to suffer - those who were killed and those who, coming up to Christmas, actually have to grieve when they thought they would be rejoicing."

He warned that an open policy on refugees could be destroyed by terrorists: "What I am saying is that not every refugee is a terrorist and we need to be very careful that people who are fleeing from abuse would not be subjected to more abuse and vilification."

Meanwhile, Dublin's Lord Mayor warned that racism, xenophobia and intolerance were "creeping" into societies around the world as he hit out at the Berlin terror attack as an "evil horror". Councillor Brendan Carr expressed the condolences to the people of Berlin.

He told the assembled Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist and Sikh representatives that it was "fitting" they were "standing together shoulder to shoulder to ensure that such an evil act never happens in our city".
A member of Dublin Fire Brigade has told of "the dramatic" delivery of a baby girl at the side of the road.

Sarah Good from Wicklow delivered her second baby while in the service in the early hours of Sunday morning in south Dublin.

She said they were keen to get the expectant mother from Tallaght to the Coombe Hospital as quick as possible.

However, they were forced to pull over and baby Aubrey was delivered by Ms Good and colleague Niall Bergin from the Rathfarnham unit.

"We had four Garda cars in front of us forming a police escort all the way to the hospital, including one of the cars filled with some very worried men," Ms Good said.

"As we approached the Coombe the baby decided it was coming so we had to pull over the vehicle beside one of the M50 junctions and do it there and then."

The father of baby Aubrey jumped into the fire engine just in time for the birth. Ms Good told the Irish Independent the mother was "absolutely brilliant".

"This is not what you plan when you are going to give birth but she was so amazing. We receive paramedic training which involves emergency maternal training so we were well equipped," Ms Good said.

"We are occasionally privileged to be in a position to assist with out-of-hospital childbirth but full credit to very brave parents. It was a wonderful outcome and we had super assistance from gardai."
We have just four days to go until the big day - when the nation sits down to the biggest calorific intake of the entire year. That clocks in at a reported 7,000 calories per person if you're following Jamie Oliver's fabulously festive menu - and, let's face it, probably just as many are consumed during the standard Irish Christmas dinner!

Last week, we focused on tips to help you survive the Christmas party period. This week, I'm bringing it one step further. Let's focus on Christmas Day itself and on simple ways your household can be that little bit healthier.

You have to set the tone in the morning - that's crucial. Luckily, there are normally a few options across the country:

The GOAL Mile: Since it started in 1982, thousands of people all over Ireland have taken part in this event every Christmas. It's a great way to get the family moving and raise funds. Simply turn up and run, jog or walk a mile - it couldn't be easier! Find one near you at goalglobal.org/events/event/goal-mile.

The "Polar Bear" swim: A slightly nippier option for sure, but why not take part in your local Christmas Day swim? This is a beloved event that has been going for more than 40 years, in which hardy folk don their togs or wetsuit and jump in for the ultimate Christmas morning wake-up while helping to raise some much-needed charity funds too. Just remember to bring some warm clothes for after!

It's all tremendous fun, not to mention for a good cause, and - as a bonus - it can actually improve your health for the rest of the day. You will feel energised, motivated and full of vigour, so you're more likely to make better choices throughout the rest of Christmas Day when it comes to your health and fitness. And, it has to be said, the sense of camaraderie down at the beach is hard to beat.

If, like me, you'll have a Christmas breakfast to go to at the in-laws' before heading back for dinner in your own home, it's so important to choose which one you're going to have your treats at beforehand. Personally, I choose to eat healthily in the morning, so I can enjoy my Christmas dinner later along with a few indulgent treats - because life is for living and far too short not to splurge now and again. Having said that, I normally run home from my in-laws' - eight miles or so - and really work up an appetite on the way. I'm not suggesting that everyone should do this, but leaving the car at home on Christmas Day can be a great way to get some movement in, breathe fresh air and enjoy a little family chat time too. Why not wrap up warm and give it a try?

Then comes the big dinner - my favourite meal of the whole year. My mum makes the most incredible Christmas dinner (I'm excited even writing about it!). Ideally, I'd recommend trying to get as many people involved in preparing the meal as possible: every task, from washing and peeling the vegetables to laying the table, serving and cleaning up afterwards.

Not only will this get you all moving a little more, it actually makes for a more enjoyable day. Everyone feels as if they have a specific purpose and a role to play, making it even more satisfying when you all come to sit down for dinner.

In our house, we always have plenty of healthy foods mixed into our Christmas dinner spread - such as roasted vegetables, sweet potato colcannon, broccoli dressed with a little bit of natural yoghurt, Brussels sprouts (with gravy on the side) and then, for dessert, frozen yoghurt with fruit.

Obviously, we enjoy all of the usual treats as well: the stuffing, turkey, ham and roast potatoes, but why not throw in a healthier option with your dinner too? You'll be surprised what gets eaten when it's placed on the table.

One thing we'll all have after the Christmas spread is plenty of leftovers. So, in advance, I'd advise buying tinfoil containers and storing the leftovers in the freezer for a later date. You'll have lots of lovely protein in the turkey, great for lean-meat snacks in the days after.

If you do nothing else, enjoy the big day! I'm not trying to ruin the Christmas feast, just simply trying to encourage you all to sprinkle a little bit of health throughout the holidays.
The electric-car maker says that with the three options you don't waste time and can go as far as 613km on a single charge

The first Tesla destination charging location is opening here.

It is at the Powerscourt Hotel in Enniskerry.

Another 10 charging sites are scheduled to be installed in coming weeks, the company says.

Destination is one of three ways to charge Teslas - home (for everyday travel) and super (for long journeys) are the other two.

The electric-car maker says that with the three options you don't waste time and can go as far as 613km on a single charge.

The company also says it is "continuing to build momentum for our Irish store opening and first Irish deliveries next year". Meantime, the Powerscourt charger will not just be for Irish drivers but will allow UK/European owners to avail of it when visiting here.

A spokeswoman said owners of the Model S (seven registered in Ireland this year) and Model X travel all over Europe thanks to the expanding charging network.

She said: "UK customers don't think twice about driving to Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland and Germany."
The trick was not to look at what was left in the battery, so Renault stuck a sticker over the information on the dash and told us: "'Forget the battery. Drive it as if it were an ordinary car."

And that is exactly what we did in the new ZOE electric car which, with its more powerful battery base, can cover a claimed 400km on a single charge. It carries twice the energy of the previous one.

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In fairness to them they admit that 300km is a more realistic range in everyday urban and suburban driving.

If realistic, even that would mean not having to charge as often or worry about running out of steam. The average daily commute for 80pc of European motorists is under 60km. So if 300km is right, one charge should do Monday to Friday.

I looked on 300km with a lot of scepticism. Was I right? Or is 300km achievable?

I've driven a good few electric vehicles and know what range anxiety is all about. Indeed, I drove the current-battery ZOE to Galway and back last year. I'll not forget how anxious I became when I got on the M50 and the range projection plunged because I was doing 100kmh. I stopped and charged at Enfield, Kilbeggan, Ballinasloe on the way.

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This new one has, they claim, double the storage capacity with the same charging times. If that is the case, then I should be able to do Dublin-Galway on one charge no bother.

Some pertinent facts. Purchases of ZOEs in Ireland are paltry and declining (13 this year, 30 last). The big seller is the Nissan Leaf (351 this year, 405 last). The UK electric vehicle market is up 8pc year on year.

The 'new' ZOE is a smart-looking supermini; they have given it a little bit of a lift here and there, especially in the cabin, but nothing to get excited about.

The real story is the new battery and the efficiency of the motor. A Chameleon charging unit that will suit any charger comes free. You need only the one cable as it adapts to the different power levels at charging points. A 7kw Wall Box comes (free) with the car too.

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Strangely, they are continuing with one of the 'old' battery models.

Batteries last 8-10 years, and the new one weighs 20kg more than the old. There is an eight-year,160,000km warranty on the battery.

I asked about the overall level of emissions involved in an electric car, where fossil fuels are used to produce electricity in the first place. They reckon a typical petrol supermini of ZOE size would invoke 99g/km. Those for an electric car would be around 54g/km.

In France (nuclear power), that figure can be as low as 15g/km. The figures are putative because there are so many variables: overnight charging reduces CO2 as well. Often overlooked are the emissions involved in producing fossil fuels too (boring for oil, construction of pipelines, transport etc).

They expect 90pc of ZOE charging to be at home (six-seven hours) or work. It takes 30 minutes to charge up an extra 80km/100km on a public site.

Renault here calculate that a ZOE costs around 1.30/100km depending on when and where you charge. Up to this they have leased the battery in Ireland. Now you can buy car and battery.

Expect the cost of a new one with its Z.E. battery to be around 25,000. That is after the VRT rebate and SEAI grant, making a total of 10,000. The current leased-battery car costs from 17,489.

To make charging a bit easier they have all sorts of applications to make the most of off-peak electric cost and available slots.

The updated car will have three trim levels: Expression Nav (with older battery pack), Dynamique Nav and new top-of-the-range Signature Nav (leather upholstery and BOSE audio).

So what about the battery then? It's the heart of the operation after being developed jointly by Renault and LG Chem. How did its 41kWh of useful energy translate into real-world driving?

On the first day we covered 159.4km and there was 122km left in the pack when we took off the sticker. That means it could cover 281.4km.

We drove normally. We never spoke about or looked at range once. If anything, the hilly climbs were far more severe than you'd have on your ordinary electric-car trip. So I can vouch for the 300km real-world range. Now that is something.

It means you can drive from Dublin to Galway and still have plenty in reserve. What other car under 30,000 on the Irish market can do that?

The following day we had an early start to catch a flight and I hammered it along 88km of mostly motorway. There was just 110km left in the battery - a total range therefore of 198. Still enough to get me to Galway? But it was a fast drive. The first day was far more reflective of its capabilities. I reckon the old one would do half that.

This new one goes on sale in March. It will be most interesting to see if more buyers step forward.
The terror attack in Berlin was no surprise to the security and intelligence community around Europe. For some time now an attack was expected, particularly in Germany.

It has a significant Islamic population, and has demonstrated fault lines in its society that have been taken note of by extremist ideologues.

If an Islamic-Salafist terrorist is looking for a country that is showing hesitancy in how to manage matters such as counter-terrorism, integration and refugee resettlement, then Germany is it.

Isil and other Salafist online propaganda outlets have long been seeking to provoke western over-reaction. To implement this, they have been aiming certain simple and key messages in recent times at their growing online following.

Followers are urged to keep their attacks simple so they will not attract the attention of the authorities in the planning or co-ordination of such an attack. Also, so there will be a maximizing of fear and division in the community when an attack is personal and up close.

There have been a number of other violent incidents in Germany involving members of both the Islamic and refugee communities. While the incidents are not in the same league as the attack on Monday, they have steadily contributed to a growing unease in Germany that has facilitated a rise in confidence in the hard right and a sense of fear in both the general German citizenry and the German-Islamic population.

This polarisation of society is a key objective of extremist groups. The unfortunate consequence of Monday's attack, and indeed Monday's murder of the Russian ambassador to Turkey, is the likely increase in reactive physical security measures.

However, the greater need for resources and co-ordination lies not just within law enforcement throughout Europe or indeed dependence on military responses. While maintaining the necessary armed response is of course an essential element of protection and the responsibility of all European states, a more imaginative collective response is needed.

This must take the form of more long-term solution of a preventive measure. This solution has already been in development in places like the UK and a number of Scandinavian countries.

Research from areas such as the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College in London tells us that Counter Violent Extremism projects can work if the right ingredients are sourced and applied.

From my own more recent experience working on EU Counter Violent Extremism projects in Africa, I can testify to the practical utility of such schemes to protect societies and limit violence.

So how does this work?

Firstly, it's about each country accepting countering violence is not just a security task. It is a 'whole of government' task. In Ireland, we are already well versed in this concept for other policies such as managing the dispersal of aid or in resettling refugees. We must now take it a stage further and evolve a policy for countering or limiting violent extremism within our own borders.

Monday's attack will inevitably give rise yet again to questions about whether we in Ireland are fully resourced to defend against such an attack.

In many respects, we are fortunate in that we are an island, and we do not have a large population of Middle-Eastern or Islamic origin. However, recent figures released by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSRPV) estimate 30-40 Irish Muslims left these shores to engage in jihad in the Middle East.

This has also been corroborated by sources within the Irish security establishment.

To put the figures into context, we share virtually the same figure of those gone to engage in jihad per million inhabitants as Germany. We are listed as having seven fighters per million inhabitants and they are listed at 7.5 per million inhabitants.

This tells us that Irish Muslim communities are not immune to the effects of radicalisation.

There are many layers to the Islamic community in Ireland, and they do not all share the same outlook. Many are calling out for greater engagement with the Irish State to ensure the 50-odd mosques dotted across Ireland do not fall prey to extremist influence.

The first and most import step in countering the terror we are witnessing in Europe is prevention. This is the role of the State.

The next is intervention against extremism. This we must do in partnership with our Islamic community.

The final element is preparation for de-radicalisation of those Irish citizens who may have left to fight. The State must now consider developing a policy to effect this and do so with the partnership of Ireland's Muslim communities.

Doing this will be a step forward in ensuring real security for all our citizens and neighbours.

Declan Power is a security analyst and author who has worked as an evaluator and adviser to EU counter-terrorism and extremism.
Strange goings on with the Central Bank.

For the second time in recent months, a senior official at the regulator has been savaged at the Oireachtas Finance Committee.

During a hearing in October, deputy governor Cyril Roux was quizzed on his consumer advocacy. The committee subsequently claimed the Central Bank had abandoned its role in protecting consumers hit by exorbitant insurance price hikes.

Then Central Bank governor Philip Lane was yesterday accused of being bullied by banks. "Are you bullied by the banks? Is the Central Bank able for the banks? I would conclude, from the information that you're giving and how you're approaching this, that you're afraid of the banks," said Fianna Fail TD John McGuinness.

The TDs and senators on the committee were annoyed Prof Lane was unable to provide precise numbers for those who had tracker mortgages taken off them by their lenders.

An industry-wide probe is being conducted into banks stripping homeowners of good value trackers.

The total number who had trackers taken off them wrongly across 15 lenders is likely to be 15,000.

The Central Bank now says 100 owners lost their homes because they were denied a low-cost tracker through the actions of their lender - double the previous estimate.

The regulator ought to be in a commanding position on the trackers after its interventions. Prof Lane clarified that Bank of Ireland was stopped from taking trackers from 3,000 customers by the regulator.

It's clear the full extent of the tracker over-charging scandal has still not been ascertained.

The Central Bank still has a hell of a lot of work to do to instil confidence in its ability to be a consumer champion.

Attack in Berlin raises concerns across Europe

Terror has struck at the heart of Europe again.

So-called Isil has now claimed one of its militants carried out the lorry attack on a Berlin Christmas market, which left 12 people dead. Although the identity of the attacker has not been established and there was no immediate way of verifying the claim, the attack mirrors the slaughter in Nice earlier this year - also carried out by jihadis.

German officials believe the perpetrators might be on the run. Isil said through its news agency that one of its "soldiers" had carried out the attack, in which 49 people were also injured, "in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition countries".

The attack places renewed pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has bravely sought to take a lead on the migrant crisis, while other European leaders merely tried to ignore the problem.

The suggestion a refugee was involved in the attack has resulted in criticism of her open-door policy.

The attack also raises concerns for police forces across Europe about preventing similar attacks. These popular markets attract large numbers of locals and tourists in a public place, making them a target for jihadis. There is also the symbolic and emotional impact of striking during the Christmas season.

It's a sad day when citizens have to be warned to be vigilant and are legitimately concerned about their safety.

But this is the modern world in which we live.
Extend the festive cheer this Christmas with the gift of wonderful hotel experiences in 2017.

With so many great events taking place around the country next year, there is plenty to look forward to in 2017. Check out whats happening below and see how you can use a gift voucher from Maldron Hotels to give your loved ones an unforgettable experience next year.

Pre-empt those dreaded January blues and choose a gift voucher which can be used for a hotel stay, dinner, afternoon tea, spa treatments and much more. Ireland is a small place but there are so many amazing places to visit  to help you choose heres a preview of three great destinations to help you decide on your next staycation:

Dublin

The pull of our capital city has tourists coming in their droves so why not play tourist in our very own backyard? There are so many sights to choose from: the Guinness Storehouse, Kilmainham Gaol and a wealth of museums. If you have already checked Dublins most popular attractions off your list, you should do something a bit different like a visit to the Leprechaun Museum or take a tour of our national stadium, Croke Park. After all that sightseeing, you are bound to have worked up a thirst. Have a pint of the black stuff in one of Dublins oldest pubs, the Long Hall or taste the latest Irish brews at the Porterhouse. With all the amazing events taking place in the city in 2017, you might not fit it all in with just one trip to the capital!

There are six Maldron Hotels in locations all over Dublin so you can pick a hotel to suit your plans. For shopping breaks, enjoy a stay in the city centre at Maldron Hotel Parnell Square or Maldron Hotel Smithfield. Going to a show or event in the Bord Gais Energy Theatre or the 3Arena? Maldron Hotel Pearse Street is perfectly located for theatre and event breaks. If you are flying in or out of Dublin Airport in the New Year, choose to stay at the closest hotel to the airport, Maldron Hotel Dublin Airport. For easy and convenient access to Dublin city from the M50 and main motorways, Maldron Hotel Newlands Cross and Maldron Hotel Tallaght are ideal for stays with family, friends or a loved one in 2017.

Audi Dublin International Film Festival (16- 26 February 2017)

This year, Star Wars put Ireland on the map as a top film destination with crews shooting in both Skellig Michael and Malin Head. The annual Audi Dublin Film festival celebrates not only the best upcoming international films but also the most exciting Irish new releases. Announced for this year is the premiere of 1970s crime caper Free Fire starring Irish actors Cillian Murphy and Jack Reynor alongside Oscar winner Brie Larson. Also included in the programme is a selection of animated films from all over the world including Irish animation studio Brown Bag Films. For the full programme and to book tickets, click here.

Vermeer Exhibition (17 June- 17 September 2017)

The National Gallery hosts a landmark exhibition of the work of Dutch master Johannes Vermeer starting in June. In collaboration with the Louvre and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, it not only includes paintings from Vermeer but also works by his Dutch artistic peers at that time. The exhibition is framed through the shared influences and rivalries between Vermeer and his contemporaries. This is a unique opportunity to catch this special curation of Dutch art before it departs for its final leg in Washington. For more information, check out nationalgallery.ie.

International Literature Festival Dublin (20- 28 May 2017)

Ireland has long held the reputation for being the land of the saints and the scholars, this festival celebrates our affinity with all things lit. It has hosted some of the best national and international talent in previous years with writers like Lionel Shriver, Jeanette Winterson and Colm Toibin in attendance. It includes readings from international authors, discussions and workshops. The programme also features plenty to keep your little bookworm entertained and specialist events focused on Irish language literature. Keep an eye on their website for the full programme and to book tickets.

Pro 12 Final (27 May 2017)

Irish players are currently the toast of world rugby after beating New Zealand in the autumn internationals and strong performances from all the provinces so far this season. Connacht lifted the trophy last year after beating Leinster in an all Irish Pro 12 Final. Considering this recent form in Irish rugby, we expect to see at least one of the home teams in the final in the Aviva Stadium come May. There is currently a tempting offer of up to 20% off for eager rugby fans wishing to book tickets in advance. Check out pro12rugby.com for all the details.

Derry

Since it was named the first UK City of Culture in 2013, Derry has experienced a bit of a renaissance. The Maiden City has set itself apart as the capital of cool in Ireland. It is home to two craft breweries, Northbound Brewery in Campsie and Walled City Brewery located in the newly facelifted Ebrington Square. It has seen many new restaurants pop up in recent years and has long been a popular shopping destination for people hopping over the border. Considered to be the starting point for the Troubles, you can take a walking tour along the citys surrounding walls to learn about its long and often turbulent history. If that hasnt got you packing your suitcase, the city has loads of great events to tempt you up north.

Maldron Hotel Derry couldnt be more ideally located in the heart of the city centre. Situated within the historic city walls and with so much to see and do literally on the doorstep, it is the perfect base to stay and explore this wonderful city. Park up the car - the hotel is just two minutes from the main shopping area and all the best pubs and restaurants are within walking distance.

Imbolc Irish Music Festival (29 January- 5 February 2017)

Derry has produced some of Irelands greatest musicians like Phil Coulter, The Undertones and Nadine Coyle. Remember her? Joking aside, Derry has established itself as a top Irish music destination and this festival celebrates the best of Irish music accompanied by some international names. The highlights of the programme this year include performances from Sharon Shannon and Declan ORourke as well as a list of up and coming artists. As if that wasnt enough, grab yourself a partner and drop into the ceili hosted by the Kilfenora Ceili Band. For tickets and more information, search imbolcfestival.com.

Banks of the Foyle Halloween Carnival (27- 31 October)

No one does a Halloween party quite like Derry! It prides itself on being known as the biggest and best Halloween festival in Europe and maybe even the planet  last year it topped the USA Today public poll as the best Halloween destination in the world. The festival is now in its 31st year and the city hosts a full programme of events culminating in the Halloween carnival parade and the annual fireworks finale. Most of the events are free meaning you wont get a fright when your bank statement comes in. Check derrystrabane.com for updates on the full schedule of events.

Wexford

From one walled city to another, Wexford has cemented itself as the cultural centre for the east. The Viking town holds many exciting arts festivals including the countrys leading opera festival every October. Once youve had your cultural fill, you can sample some of Wexfords famous native strawberries and bask in the glorious weather in Irelands sunniest county! Fantastic pubs and restaurants are dotted along the towns narrow medieval streets. It is only a short car journey from Rosslare Strand, a popular seaside getaway for the capitals urbanites. Sun, sea and opera: whats not to love! Count yourself as an honorary Yellow Belly and check out all the great events Wexford has to offer.

Maldron Hotel Wexford is just five minutes from the town centre allowing you to have a peaceful and relaxing break with the excitement of Wexford within driving distance. Families can enjoy the facilities in Club Vitae Health & Fitness Club as well as spacious family rooms and Crafty Kids club during the school holidays. The hotel is also an ideal base to visit the famous beaches of the sunny South-East and Irelands oldest lighthouse at Hook Head.

Art in the Open Festival (30 July- 7 August 2017)

Whether you are a serious artist or a part-time painter, this is the event for you. Registered painters spend the week travelling around County Wexford painting outdoor scenes as part of the open air festival. Starting and finishing in Wexford town, artists can then sell their paintings at the two-day exhibition which closes the programme. It also includes workshops and lectures from experts on watercolours, oils and pastels. Exhibited works will compete for prizes sponsored by local businesses. Get ready to make your masterpiece! To register and for more information, log onto artintheopen.org.

Wexford Opera Festival (19 October- 5 November 2017)

The town is home to the National Opera House which plays host to the annual Wexford Opera Festival. The first festival was held in 1951 and the programme centres on breathing new life into previously neglected works and showcasing the best of international opera. Performances of Medea, Foronis Margherita and Risurrezione by Franco Alfano have already been slated for 2017. As well as enjoying works of world class opera, the town is abuzz with opera lovers so book your stay early to avoid disappointment. Follow wexfordopera.com to book priority tickets and for full schedule of events as they are announced.

This Christmas, give your loved ones the choice of every kind of getaway with a gift card from Maldron Hotels. Whether its a night away to see a show, a shopping trip to their favourite location or just some relaxing time out somewhere new, there is something for everyone.

Gift vouchers are available here and can be used in all 14 Maldron Hotels, in sister brand, Clayton Hotels and partner brand, The Gibson Hotel meaning a choice of over 30 hotels in Ireland and the UK.

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Paris Hilton arrives at amfAR's 23rd Cinema Against AIDS Gala at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on May 19, 2016 in Cap d'Antibes, France. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

In what might be the most unexpected collaboration of 2016, Paris Hilton has partnered with Lidl to release a hair care range.

The multi-million dollar heiress has teamed up with the discount supermarket chain to release a range of hair care tools.

The Sweet Life star took to Instagram to share the news with her followers, saying: "I'm so excited to share my new collection from Lidl with you! Be the first to get it here."

The collection includes chrome pink and black straighteners, curlers, brushes and a hairdryer, with the prices ranging from 1.99 to 21.99.

Im so excited to share my new collection from @LidlDe with you! Be the first to get it here: @LidlDe #HereComesParis #Hair #BTS #Blonde #Beauty A video posted by Paris Hilton (@parishilton) on Dec 20, 2016 at 9:12am PST

The collaboration has confused fans of the 35-year-old, who is rarely seen not carrying a Louis Vuitton handbag and wearing thousands worth of jewelery.

"I've never read anything so 2016 in my life than finding out that Paris Hilton is doing a clothing collection with Lidl," wrote one user on Twitter.

"Just when you thought 2016 couldn't get any weirder, up steps Paris Hilton and Lidl to really wind it up a gear," wrote another.

The range was released in Lidl stores last week, with limited stock available now.

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Actress Lena Dunham has apologised after she was criticised for declaring she never had an abortion but wishes she had.

The creator and star of comedy TV series Girls said she did not intend to "trivialise" terminating a pregnancy following comments she made during her Women Of The Hour podcast.

Dunham, 30, had recalled an incident at a Planned Parenthood meeting in Texas when she was asked to share a story about her own abortion.

She told listeners that she had never gone through the procedure, before adding: "But I wish I had."

Her remarks prompted a wave of criticism online, with one pro-life charity saying Dunham was treating abortions "like getting your appendix removed".

In a post on Instagram alongside a picture featuring the word "Choice", Dunham said she was "proud" of the women who took part in the podcast which focused on the issue of abortion.

"I truly hope a distasteful joke on my part won't diminish the amazing work of all the women who participated," she wrote.

"I would never, ever intentionally trivialise the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy. My only goal is to increase awareness and decrease stigma.

"I know plenty of people will never like a thing that leaves my lips, mea culpas or no, but this apology is for the women who have placed their trust in me. You mean everything to me."

During the podcast, Dunham - who describes herself an an "abortion rights activist" - told listeners she realised she was carrying her own "stigma" about the issue when she quickly corrected the woman who believed she had had an abortion.

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She said: "I wanted to make it really clear to her that as much as I was going out and fighting for other women's options, I myself had never had an abortion. I realised then that even I was carrying within myself stigma around this issue.

"So many people I love - my mother, my best friends - have had to have abortions for all kinds of reasons. I feel so proud of them for their bravery, for their self-knowledge, and it was a really important moment for me then that I had internalised some of what society was throwing at us and I had to put it in the garbage.

"Now I can say I still haven't had an abortion, but I wish I had."

John Gerardi, executive director of pro-life charity Right To Life of Central California, branded Dunham's comments "inflammatory and unhelpful".

He told the Press Association: "Even if you accept the argument that women have a right to obtain access to abortions, we're still talking about another living human being.

"Even for pro-choice women, it's one of the worst and most difficult decisions of their lives.

"It seems Lena Dunham wants to treat abortions like getting your appendix removed."

Dunham won two Golden Globes in 2013 for her series Girls, which airs on Sky Atlantic in the UK.
Pippa O'Connor pictured with models at the launch of POCO by Pippa. Picture: Brian McEvoy

Pippa O'Connor, at the 2016 IMAGE Businesswoman of the Year Awards in Dublin. Picture credit; Damien Eagers

Pippa O'Connor and Brian Ormond are doing Christmas their own way this year.

The denim designer (32) and her husband have flown to the United Arab Emirates for a festive getaway with their sons Ollie (three) and Louis (seven months).

Pippa has been keeping her social media followers up to date with her luxury holiday.

The couple are no strangers to Dubai, having frequented there before welcoming their first child in 2013.

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But this time around, their activities are more family friendly as they visited Legoland theme park and enjoyed a camel ride in the desert as well as soaking up the sights in the world famous Burj Al Arab hotel.

"We had the best day at Legoland - I didn't know what to expect and it was much better than I anticipated. Ollie just met the required height to go on the smaller rides. Such a good time of year to go too, wasn't busy," she wrote on Instagram.

"Ollie won a giant duck all by himself today at Legoland. He took the duck, delighted with his win, then went back to the lady and said, 'If I give you this back can you give me two small ones so my brother can have one?'"

It seems everything Pippa touches turns to gold as in 2016 alone, she includes the successful round of fashion and beauty roadshows, her debut book hitting number one on the bestseller charts and the launch of her POCO by Pippa denim range.

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Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.21

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

The World Banks Board of Executive Directors today approved a $400 million loan for Turkey and a $400 million loan for Azerbaijan for the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) Project, according to WB website.

The project will transport natural gas from a gas field in Azerbaijan to and across Turkey, and further to Europe, aiming to diversify Azerbaijans gas export markets and improve the security of the energy supply in Turkey and South Eastern Europe.

This project is part of the Southern Gas Corridor Program, which, in addition to TANAP, includes the development of the Shah Deniz 2 gas field in Azerbaijan; an expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline across Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey; and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which carries the gas through Greece and Albania and under the Adriatic Sea to Southern Italy.

Reflecting the importance of the Southern Gas Corridor for all countries involved in the program, a number of international financial institutions are supporting the Program, including the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the World Bank Group (WBG).

We are very pleased to be part of a coalition of partners supporting TANAP, a component of the transformational Southern Gas Corridor, which will bring natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe, said Cyril Muller, World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia. TANAP will not only boost competitiveness and create economic opportunities for people in Azerbaijan and Turkey, it will also support regional trade, improve connectivity, and support energy security in Turkey and in Europe.

The Project will finance infrastructure investments for the TANAP Pipeline System. At 1,850 km, TANAP accounts for over one half of the 3,500 km Southern Gas Corridor pipeline system from Azerbaijan to Italy. TANAP will begin at Turkeys border with Georgia, go through Turkey from east to west, and at the Greek border will connect to the TAP, which will convey the gas to European markets.

In Turkey, with the completion of the project, the security of the countrys energy supply will be improved with the addition of 6 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year. TANAP will connect to the Turkish natural gas network in two locations, at Eskisehir and Thrace. The project contributes to the realization of the main strategic objectives of the broader partnership between the World Bank Group and Turkey, including enhanced competitiveness and employment; improved equity and public services; and deepened sustainable development.

In Azerbaijan, the Shah Deniz 2 gas field is being developed to produce 16 bcm per annum and the revenues that will be generated from gas production and transportation will be very important for the country and its citizens. The project contributes to achieving the strategic objectives of the Banks partnership with Azerbaijan, in particular, supporting stronger economic competitiveness, by integrating Azerbaijan with regional and European energy markets, strengthening its connectivity and transit role, and increasing its exports.

Georgia will also benefit from additional gas to its network as part of the agreement on the transportation of gas from Azerbaijan through its territory to the Turkish border. For the Turkish market, 6 bcm from the Shah Deniz 2 gas field have been contracted; several European gas traders have contracted the remaining 10 bcm for the South Eastern European market. The ultimate beneficiaries are the citizens of Azerbaijan and natural gas consumers in Turkey and across South Eastern Europe.

The recipients of funding are the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Closed Joint Stock Company with the guarantee of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Boru Hatlari Ile Petrol Tasima Anonim Sirketi (BOTAS) with the guarantee of the Republic of Turkey.
Karen Sherry and Paul Murphy, here with their child Sonny and Pauls son James, are getting married New Years Eve

Move over, Cupid - now it's Santa who's spreading the love. According to figures from Facebook, Christmas Eve is the biggest day of the year for popping the question, out-blinging even St Valentine's Day for betrothals.

From twinkling lights to dangling mistletoe, not to mention all that mulled wine, wedding expert Sinead Nic Gabhann reckons it's no surprise that December 24 has overtaken February 14 as the most romantic date in the calendar, and is already bracing for the snowstorm of Facebook engagement announcements later this month.

"We have been working 14 hours a day, seven days a week, since May. And we will be working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day too," says Sinead, who runs 'Help I'm Getting Married Ireland', a mega-popular social networking group for brides and grooms-to-be.

"A lot of people meet at Christmas time, so it can be nice for them to get engaged at Christmas time too.

"Even though it can be a very busy time of year, people just have more time to think," she adds. "They're kind of winding down from work and thinking more about their home life.

"If someone is planning to propose anyway, they might decide to save it for Christmas morning - it's the ultimate present, really!"

After dropping her 16-month-old son back to Temple Street Children's Hospital last Christmas Day, getting married was the last thing on Dubliner Karen Sherry's mind - until her partner Paul got down on one knee in a surprise proposal.

"Our little guy, Sonny, who has a tracheostomy, was in Temple Street at the time," tells the stay-at-home mum. "On Christmas Day, we were allowed to bring him home for a few hours for the first time.

"I was an emotional wreck dropping him back at six o'clock. On the way home, Paul said he wanted to go up to Howth for a drive. We were walking up the pier and it was freezing.

"Halfway up I was like, 'This is ridiculous - I'm going back to the car!' He had to get down on one knee and ask me then.

Video of the Day

"I wasn't expecting it at all," continues Karen, "but I wouldn't have wanted any other proposal.

"Paul even had a gorgeous vintage ring from the 70s. It really was a brilliant end to a day that could have been a lot different."

While most Irish couples now shop for a rock together, according to one of the country's top jewellers, Christmas also sees a rise in guys emulating the man in the red suit.

"Over the last five years, it's swung more towards people coming in together, but at Christmas time I think the old romantics come out," reveals Paul Brereton of Brereton Jewellers on Dublin's Grafton Street.

"We definitely get a higher number of men coming in looking to surprise their girlfriend on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

"In regards to style, I always say simple is best if you're going to surprise somebody. It's better to go for something classic, like a single stone or three-stone diamond ring, that you know she's going to really like.

"With sizing, I always say to err on the side of caution and go for something a little bit bigger so it will definitely go on the finger when they get down on bended knee.

"Although there is an average (spend) of about 4,500, we always say buy what you can afford," he adds. "Most women, if they're in love with you, are going to be happy with whatever you propose with."

When it comes to festive proposals, romantic Marshall Kingston from Dublin certainly went jingle all the way.

The marketing executive spent almost a year planning a Christmas treasure hunt around the capital for his girlfriend, Jilly, who is now, unsurprisingly, his wife.

"Jilly and I were together about seven years when we got engaged," he recalls of popping the question with panache five years ago this Christmas.

"I just thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit a lot of the spots we had visited together over the years in a kind of homage to the relationship.

"The first clue was printed on the inside of a packet of Rolos and led to Trinity College. They led all around city, with the second last one leading to my car.

"On the seat of my car was a photo of a tree that we had carved our names into years before in the Phoenix Park," he explains. "I had arranged for the whole place to be covered in white roses and candles and fairy lights.

"So we drove out there where I nervously popped the question! Jilly was gobsmacked - and it's a cool story to have as well."

Nonetheless, Naoise McNally of wedding planners One Fab Day has this advice for others thinking of rocking around the Christmas tree in more ways than one: "Keep it simple - (something like) going for a walk down Grafton Street on Christmas Eve.

"You don't want your plans getting derailed by someone getting sick or something going wrong. The other big tip is you don't have to have the ring - you can have a replacement ring or a placeholder ring."

Admitting his lavish proposal was something of a logistical Nightmare Before Christmas, Marshall agrees, and proposes enlisting an army of helpers - little or otherwise.

"It was actually one of the most stressful days of my life," he laughs. "There was a lot of organisation. I had two of my great friends helping me in the background.

"I'd say not to do anything too complicated. I think you want to be able to focus on the person and enjoy it yourself.

"If you're going to do something, definitely get help from friends. I couldn't have done it without them."

Despite being surrounded by family and friends over the festive season, meanwhile, the experts say it's best to pop the question when you're alone - just in case she says ho-ho-no.

"I think do it when it's just the two of you, as opposed to in a room full of people because it can be a bit too much pressure," Sinead advises. "Then you have a bit of time to yourselves to reflect on it and can announce it to everyone together.

"But try to maybe have it somewhere you can get a photo, so it's kind of private but you have the moment captured."

Although her engagement didn't exactly go without a hitch, bride-to-be Karen says she wouldn't change a thing.

"I loved that there was nowhere other to go than home," she says. "I think if everything had been open we probably would have went to a restaurant or something like that.

"Instead we just went home and had a glass of champagne and just chilled out and rang everybody.

"We're getting married in the Carnegie Court Hotel in Swords on New Year's Eve and I can't wait," she adds. "All the Christmas lights and the Christmas trees and the candles - it's going to be absolutely gorgeous."
Two storm weather warnings have been put in place

Met Eireann has issued two weather warnings as storm Barbara will hit parts of the north and north-west of Ireland.

A status orange wind warning has been put in place for Donegal, Galway and Mayo as its expected to be very windy and wet on higher grounds.

The north and north-west will get a side-swipe of storm Barbara. It will hit Iceland and Scotland mainly but Ireland will get some of it, Met Eireann forecaster Pat Clarke told Independent.ie.

A status yellow warning has also been put in place for the rest of the country as Friday will be windy and stormy.

The warnings remain in place until Friday December 23 at 6pm.

It will be quite windy on Friday from 6am with thundery bursts of rain, said Mr Clarke.

Conditions have been forecast to remain cool and breezy, with temperatures reaching around 4C to 8C.

Christmas Eve was likely to be showery, but temperatures would be much milder, heading to upwards of 13C.

Anyone hoping for a white Christmas was also likely to be disappointed. Temperatures would also reach upwards of 13C on Sunday.

"There's no chance of a white Christmas with those temperatures," Met Eireann Forecaster Gerry Murphy said.

Overall the outlook to the end of the weekend was mild and blustery with sporadic showers.

Conor Faughnan, from AA Roadwatch, warned changes in driving routines over the Christmas period and bad weather were a "recipe for danger".

"We are watching the forecast and it could be downgraded, but even so, it is still going to be wet and windy at a time when tens of thousands of people are on the move travelling to see relatives all over the country," he said.

"We have to reinforce all our road safety messages which become of increased importance in bad weather when people are driving routes they don't regularly travel."

He said that AA crews would work throughout the Christmas period to deal with any breakdowns.
Richard Marx said he was not a hero for apparently intervening after an unruly passenger had to be forcibly restrained on a Korean Air flight (AP)

Grammy-winning musician Richard Marx stepped in to help restrain a passenger on a Korean Air flight who reportedly attacked flight attendants and other passengers.

The incident occurred aboard on a flight from Hanoi, Vietnam to Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday. Marx - known for hit singles including Hazard, Hold On to the Nights and Right Here Waiting - was travelling with his wife Daisy Fuentes when they noticed a fellow passenger beginning to behave erratically.

Daisy and I are home safe and sound. No big "hero" move at all. Just did what I would hope anyone would do in same situation. Tnx 4 concern  Richard Marx (@richardmarx) December 20, 2016

After the passenger reportedly started attacking crew, Mr Marx joined in efforts to subdue him. He later claimed that airline staff were ill trained and ill equipped to handle the situation. Flight attendants had a taser but, according to Ms Fuentes, did not know how to use it.

Ms Fuentes later posted photos of the fracas on Facebook, writing: "When (the man) started pushing the female staff and pulling them by the hair Richard was the first to help subdue him.

"This went on for FOUR hrs. I feel horrible for the abuse the staff had to endure but no one was prepared for this. They never fully got control of him. They didn't know how to use the taser & they didn't know how to secure the rope around him (he got loose from their rope restraints 3 times).

Mr Marx wrote on Facebook: "My wife and I are safe but one crew member and two passengers were injured.

"The all female crew was clueless and not trained as to how to restrain this psycho and he was only initially subdued when I and a couple other male passengers intervened.

"He then later easily broke his restraints and attacked more crew and another passenger. When we landed in Seoul police boarded the plane.

"Heading home to Los Angeles soon but Korean Air should be sanctioned for not knowing how to handle a situation like this without passenger interference."

A spokesman for the airline said: "According to the response protocol, Korean Air's flight attendants subdued the unruly passenger and tied him up with ropes.

"The unruly passenger was turned over to the police after arrival at Incheon Airport.

"The flight attendant did not fire the taser as the unruly passenger was moving around and there were other passengers near him. The flight attendant considered the safety of the other passengers and decided to restrain the passenger with ropes."

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
The oil drilling rig Polar Pioneer being towards a dock in Seattle where it was being prepared for Arctic oil exploration (AP)

President Barack Obama has imposed a permanent ban on oil and gas drilling in most US-owned waters in the Arctic Ocean.

The move, which also includes certain areas of the Atlantic Ocean, comes a month before Donald Trump becomes president promising to unleash the nation's untapped energy reserves.

The White House announced the actions in conjunction with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who also placed a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing in its Arctic waters, subject to periodic review.

Mr Obama is making use of an arcane provision in a 1953 law to ban offshore leases in the waters permanently. The statute says "the president of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf".

Environmental groups hope the ban, despite relying on executive powers, will be difficult for future presidents to reverse.

The White House is confident the president's order will withstand legal challenge and said the language of the statute provides no authority for subsequent presidents to undo permanent withdrawals.

The Atlantic waters placed off limits to new oil and gas leasing are 31 canyons stretching off the coast of New England south to Virginia, though some had hoped for a more extensive ban that would have extended further south.

Existing leases are not affected by the president's executive actions.

The administration cited environmental concerns in both regions to justify the moratorium. Mr Obama also noted the importance of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in providing subsistence for native Alaskans and the vulnerability of the ecosystem to an oil spill to justify his directive.

Mr Obama said just 0.1% of offshore crude production came from the Arctic in 2015, and at current oil prices, significant production would not occur in future decades.

Industry officials accused Mr Obama of "last minute political rhetoric".

"Instead of building on our nation's position as a global energy leader, today's unilateral mandate could put America back on a path of energy dependence for decades to come," said Dan Naatz of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Governor Bill Walker of Alaska, an independent, said Mr Obama's move marginalised local voices.

In issuing a permanent ban, the president appears to be trying to tie the hands of his successor. Mr Trump has vowed a domestic energy revolution and is filling his Cabinet with nominees deeply opposed to Mr Obama's environmental and climate change actions.

Environmental groups were calling for a permanent ban even before the presidential election, but Mr Trump's victory has provided greater urgency for them and for businesses that rely on tourism and fishing.

Mr Trump has said he intends to use all available fuel reserves for energy self-sufficiency - and that it is time to open up offshore drilling.

"This decision will help protect existing lucrative coastal tourism and fishing businesses from offshore drilling, which promises smaller, short-lived returns and threatens coastal livelihoods," said Jacqueline Savitz of the advocacy group Oceana.

A key question to be answered is how difficult it will be for future presidents to overturn Mr Obama's decision should they seek to do so.

Advocacy groups warned they will fight to protect the ban during future administrations.

"If Donald Trump tries to reverse President Obama's withdrawals, he will find himself in court," said Marissa Knodel of Friends of the Earth.

The decision came as Mr Obama spends the Christmas holidays in Hawaii.

Some Democratic politicians applauded him, while some Republicans were highly critical.

"As President-elect Trump nominates fossil fuel allies to his Cabinet, President Obama has instead put the interests of millions of Americans ahead of those of Big Oil with these permanent protections," said Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

"The extremes to which this president will go to appease special interests never ceases to amaze," countered Utah Republican Rob Bishop, chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

"This is not a moral calling; it's an abuse of power."

AP
Debris still lies on the crime scene in Berlin, two days after a truck ran into a crowded Christmas market and killed several people (AP)

Police work at the site where the truck was parked before it was used for the attack in Berlin (AP)

Tunisian national Anis Amri, who is wanted by German police for an alleged involvement in the Berlin Christmas market attack (AP)

German authorities say the suspect in Monday's deadly truck attack in Berlin was under covert surveillance for several months this year.

Berlin prosecutors told The Associated Press that they launched an investigation against Anis Amri on March 14 following a tip from federal security agencies.

The tip warned that Amri, who was considered a potential threat by authorities in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, might be planning a break-in to finance the purchase of automatic weapons for use in an attack.

Surveillance showed that Amri was involved in drug dealing in a Berlin park and involved in a bar brawl, but no evidence to substantiate the original warning. The observation was called off in September.

A Europe-wide manhunt has been launched for the Tunisian Ami, who has been described by German authorities as "violent and armed".

Authorities issued a notice to other European countries overnight seeking the arrest of the 24-year-old, but initially held off on going public so as not to jeopardise the manhunt. After German media published photos of him and a partial name, federal prosecutors issued a public appeal for the information.

"Caution: He could be violent and armed," the notice warned. "A reward of up to 100,000 euro (84,000) has been issued for information leading to the suspect's arrest."

A separate European arrest warrant from Germany obtained by The Associated Press states that Amri has at times used at least six different names and three different nationalities. He was described as being of average height and weight, with black hair and brown eyes.

Interior minister Thomas de Maiziere cautioned that Amri's involvement in the attack was not yet certain even though documents in his name were found in the cab of the truck

"This is a suspect, not necessarily the perpetrator," Mr de Maiziere said after briefing Parliament's domestic affairs committee. "We are still investigating in all directions."

Twelve people were killed and 48 injured when a truck ploughed into a popular Berlin market on Monday evening in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. Twelve of the wounded were still being treated on Wednesday for very serious injuries and some were in critical condition, Berlin health officials said.

The suspect apparently arrived in Germany in July 2015 and has lived in three German regions since February, mostly in Berlin, said Ralf Jaeger, the interior minister of western North Rhine-Westphalia state.

"Security agencies exchanged information about this person in the joint counter-terrorism centre, the last time in November," he said.

State prosecutors in Berlin told The AP that they launched an investigation of Amri on March 14 following a tip from federal security agencies.

The tip warned that Amri might be planning a break-in to finance the purchase of automatic weapons for use in an attack. Surveillance showed that Amri was involved in drug dealing in a Berlin park and involved in a bar brawl, but found no evidence to substantiate the original warning.

The observation was called off in September, by which time Amri had disappeared from his regular haunts in Berlin, prosecutors said.

Separately, Amri's asylum application was rejected in July. German authorities prepared to deport him but were not able to do so because he did n ot have valid identity papers, Mr Jaeger said. In August they started trying to get him a replacement passport.

"Tunisia at first denied that this person was its citizen, and the papers were not issued for a long time," Mr Jaeger said. "They arrived today."

The claim of responsibility by IS did not identify the man seen fleeing from the truck in Berlin, but described him as "a soldier of the Islamic State" who "carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition".

Germany's top prosecutor, Peter Frank, told reporters the attack was reminiscent of a deadly rampage in the southern French city of Nice and appeared to follow instructions published by IS. He also said it was not clear whether there was one perpetrator or several in the Berlin attack.

On July 14, a Tunisian living in France was shot to death after mowing down 86 Bastille Day revellers with a truck in Nice.

Police in Berlin, meanwhile, said they had received over 500 tips on the Monday evening attack.

Christmas shoppers were out again in the streets on Wednesday in the German capital, and Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller said it was "good to see that Berliners aren't being intimidated".

"I don't think there's any need to be afraid," he told ZDF television. "The police presence has been significantly heightened ... and of course other measures taken to find the perpetrator quickly."

Mr Mueller argued there are limits to increasing security, given the number of public spaces and events.

"It wouldn't be our free and open life any more if we escalated security measures so much that people worry about going anywhere, that there are strict entry checks," he said. "We don't want that. It must be appropriate and goal-oriented."

AP
Mr Trump appeared to leap ahead of official investigations into violence in Turkey and Germany (AP)

US President-elect Donald Trump has said the deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Germany was "an attack on humanity and it's got to be stopped".

The president-elect spoke to reporters briefly before a meeting with retired General Michael Flynn, his incoming White House national security adviser.

Asked whether the attack was prompting him to re-evaluate his call during the campaign for temporarily banning Muslim immigration into the United States, Mr Trump said: "I've been proven to be right."

Twelve people were killed and 48 injured when a truck ploughed into a popular Berlin market on Monday evening in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. German officials have launched a Europe-wide manhunt for a "violent and armed" Tunisian man suspected in the attack.

Mr Trump is spending the final days of 2016 at his palatial private estate in South Florida, meeting advisers and completing plans for his cabinet and White House staff.

While Mr Trump has assembled his Cabinet at a quick pace, the process to fill out top White House jobs has been slowed by resistance among some advisers.

Some of Mr Trump's earliest advisers have expressed concern to the president-elect himself that they are getting boxed out in favour of those more closely aligned with incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus, who has chaired the Republican National Committee.

Mr Trump will not be bringing his first campaign chief, Corey Lewandowski, into a White House job, but the combative operative will not be far away.

Mr Lewandowski said he would not be joining the administration but announced plans to start a political consulting firm with offices just a block from the White House, raising the likelihood that he will remain an influential player in Mr Trump's orbit.

The president-elect's transition team has said announcements on White House staffing could come as early as Wednesday.

Mr Trump started his day by boasting anew about his November 8 election victory, tweeting that his win in the electoral college was more difficult to pull off than winning the popular vote would have been if he had tried.

Democrat Hillary Clinton won at least 2.6 million more votes than Mr Trump, an apparent sore point for the president-elect.

"I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote - but would campaign differently," he tweeted.

Mr Trump met on Tuesday with candidates for his unfilled cabinet positions, including prospective hires to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, a beleaguered agency that the Republican businessman has vowed to overhaul.

At Mar-a-Lago, Mr Trump's palatial Florida estate, the president-elect met with Luis Quinonez, who runs a company with military and healthcare ties and is said to be under consideration for Veteran Affairs secretary. He also interviewed Toby Cosgrove, the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, who was a top contender to replace Eric Shinseki when he resigned from Veteran Affairs in 2014. Mr Cosgrove later withdrew from consideration.

Mr Trump repeatedly pledged during the campaign to fix the woes at the department and said he would "take care of great veterans". But he also came under scrutiny for being slow in paying out money raised for veterans groups and for suggesting that "strong" veterans do not need treatment for mental health problems.

Others said to be considered for the post include former Massachusetts senator Scott Brown, Florida congressman Jeff Miller and Pete Hegseth, an Army veteran and former CEO of Concerned Veterans for America.

Mr Trump is also considering Jovita Carranza, who worked in President George W Bush's administration, as his choice for US trade representative. She served as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration under Mr Bush.

With just a handful of cabinet posts to fill, Mr Trump is facing some criticism for a lack of diversity in his senior team, which currently includes no Hispanics.

AP
The Brandenburg Gate is illuminated in the colors of the German flag in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016, the day after a truck ran into a crowded Christmas market and killed several people. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

From right: Berlin's mayor Michael Mueller, Daniela Schadt, the partner of German President Joachim Gauck, President Joachim Gauck, Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leading politicians hold hands as they attend a memorial service in Berlin's Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church Tuesday Dec. 20, 2016. ( Michael Kappeler/Pool Photo via AP)

Members of the New York Police Department's Counterterrorism Bureau stand watch at the Union Square Holiday market following the Berlin Christmas market attacks in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., December 20, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Candles burn at a Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, Germany, December 20, 2016, to commemorate the 12 victims of a truck that ploughed into the crowded market. REUTERS/Christian Mang

The scene after a truck ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin

The picture of the suspect distributed by German media

The photo which was sent to European police authorities and obtained by AP on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016 shows Tunisian national Anis Amri who is wanted by German police (Police via AP)

The wanted photo issued by German federal police shows 24-year-old Tunisian Anis Amri who is suspected of being involved in the fatal attack on the Christmas market in Berlin (German police via AP)

These pictures show the Berlin terror suspect as German authorities offer a reward of up to 100,000 for information leading to the arrest the Tunisian, identifying him as 24-year-old Anis Amri who could be armed and dangerous.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office (GBA) said in a statement that a search for Amri was underway, with support from police forces in all of Germany's 16 federal states.

"Anis AMRI is 178 cm tall and weighs about 75 kg, has black hair and brown eyes," the office said in the statement. "Beware: He could be violent and armed!"

Two pictures of Amri were published on the GBA's website.

It has now emerged he was under covert surveillance for several months this year.

Berlin prosecutors told The Associated Press that they launched an investigation against Anis Amri on March 14 following a tip from federal security agencies.

The tip warned that Amri, who was considered a potential threat by authorities in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, might be planning a break-in to finance the purchase of automatic weapons for use in an attack.

Surveillance showed that Amri was involved in drug dealing in a Berlin park and involved in a bar brawl, but no evidence to substantiate the original warning. The observation was called off in September.

A German Minister said the suspect was due to be deported and was the subject of an information exchange between security agencies just last month.

"Security agencies exchanged their findings and information about this person with the Joint Counter-Terrorism Centre in November 2016," NRW Interior Minister Ralf Jaeger told a news conference.

He said the suspect had applied for asylum in Germany and his application was rejected in July. Attempts to deport the man to Tunisia failed as he did not have identification papers, and the Tunisian authorities disputed whether he was their national.

The German interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, said the manhunt had spread from Germany throughout the EUs Schengen area amid warnings the suspect could pose a further threat.

The wanted man has used six different names, under three different nationalities, investigators said.

Earlier, German media also reported that police also searched a migrant shelter.

Newspaper the Rheinische Post is reporting that police are searching a migrant shelter in the town of Emmerich near the boarder with the Netherlands.

The document found in the truck was in the name of Anis A., born in the southern city of Tataouine in 1992, the sources said, using a convention whereby suspects are identified by their first name and initial. The man was also believed to use false names.

A picture of the suspect was also circulated by German media.

A spokesperson for Tunisia's foreign ministry said it was trying to verify the information. Daily newspaper Bild reported the man was known to police as a possibly dangerous individual, and part of a large Islamist network.

The man had been in contact with the network of a leading Islamist ideologist known as Abu Walaa, Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported.

The newspaper, which did not cite a source in its report, added the Tunisian had applied for asylum and been granted a residency permit. He had gone into hiding this month, the paper added.

The pre-Christmas carnage at a symbolic Berlin site - under the ruined spire of a church bombed in World War Two - has shocked Germans and prompted security reviews across Europe, already on high alert after attacks this year in Belgium and France.

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The possible - though unproven - involvement of a migrant or refugee has revived a bitter debate about security and immigration, with Chancellor Angela Merkel facing calls to clamp down after allowing more than a million newcomers into Germany in the past two years.

Merkel, who will run for a fourth term next year, has said it would be particularly repulsive if a refugee seeking protection in Germany was the perpetrator.

Police initially arrested a Pakistani asylum-seeker near the scene, but released him without charge on Tuesday. Authorities have warned that the attacker is on the run and may be armed. It is not clear if the perpetrator was acting alone or with others.

The 25-tonne truck, belonging to a Polish freight company, smashed into wooden huts selling Christmas gifts and serving mulled wine and sausages, injuring about 45 people.

The Polish driver of the hijacked truck was found shot dead in the cabin of the vehicle. Bild reported that he was alive until the attack took place.

It quoted an investigator as saying there must have been a struggle with the attacker, who may have been injured.

ISLAMIC STATE CLAIM

Islamic State has claimed responsibility, as it did for a similar attack in July when a Tunisian-born man rammed a truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice. Eighty-six people were killed, and the driver was shot dead by police.

The head of the Association of German Criminal Detectives, Andre Schulz, told German television late on Tuesday that police hoped to make another arrest soon.

"I am relatively confident that we will perhaps tomorrow or in the near future be able to present a new suspect," he said.

Police arrested another suspect in the early hours of Wednesday morning but later released him, broadcaster rbb reported.

Wednesday's Passauer Neue Presse quoted the head of the group of interior ministers from Germany's 16 federal states, Klaus Bouillon, as saying tougher security measures were needed.

"We want to raise the police presence and strengthen the protection of Christmas markets. We will have more patrols. Officers will have machine guns. We want to make access to markets more difficult, with vehicles parked across them," Bouillon told the paper.

The Interior Minister in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia said he would hold a news conference at 3.30 p.m. (1430 GMT) "on current events."

VIDEO SURVEILLANCE

Some politicians have blamed Merkel's open-door migrant policy for making such attacks more likely. The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has gained support in the last two years as the chancellor's popularity has waned, said on Tuesday that Germany is no longer safe.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told German radio there was a higher risk of Islamist attacks because of the influx of migrants in the past two years, many of whom have fled countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The task of tracking the suspects and the movements of the truck may be complicated by the relative scarcity of security cameras in public places in Germany, compared with similar countries like Britain.

The German cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft law to broaden video surveillance in public and commercial areas, a move agreed by parties last month after a spate of violent attacks and sexual assaults on women.

State surveillance is a sensitive issue in Germany because of extensive snooping by the Stasi secret police in Communist East Germany and by the Gestapo in the Nazi era.

Meanwhile, in the US president-elect Donald Trump is planning to meet with his incoming national security adviser in the aftermath of a rattling day of violence around the world.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

By Dalga Khatinoglu  Trend:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhanis visit to Armenia may be very instrumental to finding an agreement on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Nathalie Goulet, French senator and vice-chair of the Senates Foreign Affairs Committee, told Trend Dec. 21.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Armenia for a one-day official visit on Dec. 21.

Goulet says Iran is able to push a fair solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

She added that the Islamic Republic, with 40 million of Azerbaijanis and a huge Christian Armenian population, might play a central role in this issue.

Iran might also help Armenian economy, which is collapsing, and make a fair arbitration in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Goulet said.

Iran could be, if wanted, the best tool to bringing Armenia to reason and freeing the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, as well as finding a common ground for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts settlement, Goulet added.

I am sure Iran would be more efficient in this matter than the [OSCE] Minsk Group, she 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.
For nearly 1,000 years it has cared for the poor and sick, first among pilgrims heading to the Holy Land during the Crusades and more recently in refugee camps and war zones around the world.

But the Sovereign Order of Malta, a chivalric order based in Rome that regards itself as an independent sovereign state, has been riven by a fight over condoms.

Matthew Festing, the British Grand Master of the Catholic order, summarily dismissed his deputy Albrecht von Boeselager, after he was accused of breaching the order's rules about prophylactics. A branch of the Order of Malta was handing out condoms to try to combat Aids and help birth control in Africa, contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church and the order's own regulations.

Mr von Boeselager was held responsible for the breach because he was in charge of humanitarian and relief operations. He is believed to have been regarded as too liberal for the order, the oldest and most illustrious in the Catholic world.

But Mr von Boeselager, who as Grand Chancellor was effectively the order's foreign minister, refused to go without a fight.

He was twice asked to resign by the Grand Master and twice refused.

In the end Mr Festing, whose full title is His Most Eminent Highness, Prince and Grand Master, was forced to sack his deputy. ( Daily Telegraph London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Marina Karlova, widow of late Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov, in front of his coffin at Ankaras Esenboga Airport. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

A team of Russian investigators and intelligence officers arrived in Turkey yesterday as both countries vowed that the murder of Moscow's ambassador to Ankara would not undermine a fragile alliance between them.

Officials in Moscow and Ankara blamed the attack on "terrorists" seeking to sabotage bilateral relations and efforts to make peace in Syria.

Expand Close The late Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici) / Facebook

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Whatsapp The late Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

"It benefits those who want to drive a wedge between Russia and Turkey" and undermine joint efforts to find a settlement in Syria, said Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's spokesman.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, said in a speech in Istanbul that he and Mr Putin agreed in a telephone call after the murder that "our expanding areas of co-operation with Russia, particularly on Syria, will not be hampered by this attack".

Russia and Turkey have clashed repeatedly over the war in Syria, in which they support opposing sides, but in recent weeks they have worked closely on arranging evacuations from rebel-held eastern Aleppo.

Andrey Karlov (62) was shot in the back at least eight times as he delivered a speech at the opening of an exhibition sponsored by the Russian embassy on Monday evening. His attacker, Melvut Mert Altintas, a 22-year-old policeman, shouted "Allahu Akbar" and "remember Aleppo" as he opened fire. Altintas was shot dead by police 15 minutes later.

Turkey's foreign minister yesterday told John Kerry, the US secretary of state, that Ankara and Moscow believe followers of Fethullah Gulen, an anti-Erdogan cleric based in the US, were behind the killing, ministry sources told Reuters news agency.

Ankara has also accused Mr Gulen of orchestrating a failed coup in July, a charge the cleric denies. Mr Erdogan said: "We have started to work out the links," but did not elaborate. No group has claimed responsibility for Mr Karlov's murder.

Mr Gulen issued a statement condemning the killing as a "heinous crime".

Experts have cast doubt on the link to Mr Gulen, saying it was more likely that the gunman was acting out of anger at Russia's involvement in the war in Syria.

Expand Close Mevlut Mert Altintas holds up a gun after shooting Mr Karlov. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Mevlut Mert Altintas holds up a gun after shooting Mr Karlov. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

The killing comes at a time of deep anger among religious and socially conservative grassroots supporters of Mr Erdogan's Law and Justice Party over the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Syria.

While the government has largely refrained from criticising Moscow's actions in Aleppo, protesters had gathered on a near daily basis outside Russian diplomatic missions in Istanbul and Ankara in the week preceding the attack.

Eighteen officials from Russia's foreign ministry, investigative committee and intelligence agencies landed in Ankara early yesterday after Mr Putin and Mr Erdogan agreed on a joint probe into the murder.

The Russians joined a Turkish police team who have so far detained seven people in connection with the killing.

Suspects currently in custody include Altintas's parents, sister and three other relatives from his home town in Aydin province. In Ankara, police arrested the policeman's flatmate.

Mr Karlov's body was flown back to Russia with ceremonial honours yesterday. His wife Marina, who held two red carnations, wept as her husband's flag-draped coffin was carried by a Turkish honour guard to a Russian aircraft at Ankara airport.

Tugrul Turkes, a deputy prime minister of Turkey, said at the ceremony that Mr Karlov had "become the eternal symbol of Turkish-Russian friendship".

Turkish authorities separately promised to rename the road where the Russian embassy is in Ankara "Karlov Street". ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav has been released from prison after serving five years of a seven-year sentence for rape and other sex crimes.

Katsav walked out of the Maasiyahu prison in central Israel on Wednesday, escorted by his wife and a small group of supporters. He smiled but did not comment to reporters.

Katsav was granted early release last week by a parole board.

Katsav resigned in June 2007 after being charged with rape and sexual harassment. He began his sentence in 2011 after being convicted of two counts of rape.
Firefighters and rescue workers comb through ashes and rubble at the open-air San Pablito fireworks market in Tultepec (AP)

This image made from video recorded from a passing car shows an explosion ripping through the San Pablito fireworks market in Tultepec (Jose Luis Tolentino/AP)

At least 32 people have been killed after a fireworks market was flattened by a deadly chain-reaction explosion on the outskirts of Mexico City.

Health Secretary Cesar Gomez Monge, of Mexico State, where the San Pablito market is located in the city of Tultepec, said 46 people remained in hospital, five of them in such serious condition they are fighting for their lives.

Ten of the injured were minors, including one girl with burns over 90% of her body.

Juana Antolina Hernandez, who has run a stand for 22 years in San Pablito next to one operated by her parents, escaped the market in a mad dash when the explosions began on Tuesday afternoon.

"I can't find my father and my mother is very badly burned," she said. "I am waiting here for them to tell me if my father is here, but up to this point, nothing."

San Pablito was bustling with hundreds of shoppers when the blast reduced the market to a stark expanse of ash, rubble and scorched metal, casting a pall over the Christmas season.

Dramatic video of the explosion showed a towering plume of smoke that was lit up by a staccato of bangs and flashes of light, the third such incident to ravage the market on the northern outskirts of Mexico's capital since 2005.

Refugio Leon, who spent years working at the market and whose family ran seven stalls there, said vendors commonly stacked displays of bottle rockets and firecrackers outside their establishments in the passageways - even though the rules supposedly forbade putting merchandise in what was supposed to be a safety buffer to prevent chain-reaction explosions.

Officials in Mexico State, which borders Mexico City, said it was too early to identify a cause of the massive series of blasts.

On December 12 the city of Tultepec issued a statement calling San Pablito "the safest market in Latin America".

The city quoted Juan Ignacio Rodarte Cordero, director of the state's Fireworks Institute, as saying "the stalls are perfectly designed and with sufficient space between them to avoid any chain of fires".

However, the president of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, Alejandra Barrales, noted that fireworks accidents take place regularly, including four this year alone.

"This demonstrates the lack of care and attention not just here but in the whole state," Mr Barrales said in a statement.

Mexico State chief prosecutor Alejandro Gomez said some of the dead were so badly burned that neither their age nor their gender could be immediately determined, and that DNA tests would be needed.

He said the toll could rise because 12 people were listed as missing and some body parts were found at the scene.

A list of the nine bodies identified so far included a three-month-old boy and a 12-year-old girl.

AP
The man wore the t-shirt in front of the house where Hitler was born

A man has been found guilty of contravening Austrian anti-Nazi laws for walking back and forth in front of the house where Adolf Hitler was born while wearing a pro-Nazi T-shirt.

The 27-year-old also appeared in court wearing stickers with code words and numbers which translate into "Heil Hitler", the state broadcaster said.

ORF added he was given a 15-month suspended sentence. The man was not identified in keeping with Austrian privacy laws.

He was charged after appearing in front of the house in the western town of Braunau last year wearing a T-shirt saying "Nazified, with a raised hand" to greet a visiting Hungarian neo-Nazi group.

The man was quoted as saying the slogan was a "political statement".

AP
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

Trend:

The OSCE monitoring held at the border of Azerbaijan and Armenia passed without incidents, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry told Trend Dec. 21.

The monitoring was held Dec. 21 under the mandate of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative.

On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring was held by field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative, Jiri Aberle and Simon Tiller.

On the Armenian side, the monitoring was held by field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative, Ghenadii Petrica, Hristo Hristov and Peter Svedberg.

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.
Morgan starred with Humphrey Bogart and Frank Sinatra in a wide-ranging movie career (AP)

Michele Morgan, a French actress who starred with Humphrey Bogart and Frank Sinatra and was the first winner of Cannes' best actress award, has died aged 96.

French president Francois Hollande said Morgan, whose sea blue eyes captivated French audiences, was "a legend who marked numerous generations".

Her family said she died on Tuesday, without giving a cause of death, according to French media reports.

Living in Hollywood during the Second World War, she starred in movies including Carol Reed's The Fallen Idol, and married American director William Marshall.

Born on February 29 1920 as Simone Roussel, she took Michele Morgan as her stage name.

She was awarded Cannes' first best actress award for her portrayal of a blind woman in Pastoral Symphony in 1946.

Morgan starred alongside Humphrey Bogart in Passage To Marseille in 1944 - having been considered for the role of Ilsa in Casablanca, which went to Ingrid Bergman. She starred with Sinatra in Higher And Higher in 1943.

AP
Michelle Obama has ruled out running for the White House, saying she would not put her family through more time in the spotlight.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey broadcast in the US on Monday, she addressed the rumours and speculation over a potential tilt at the presidency: "I think some people think it's serious, but some people are just hopeful."

"I don't make stuff up, I'm not coy. I'm pretty direct. If I was interested in it, I would say. I don't believe in playing games."

Ms Obama said eight years in the White House had been long enough and she did not want to force her children to be faced with more sacrifices.

"This is hard, it's a hard job  When you run, your kids' lives stop."

"The next family that comes in here, every person in that family - every child, every grandchild - their lives will be turned upside down in a way that no American really understands," she said.

"And it's not for us to complain about it, so you don't hear complaints, but it is a truth, an actuality, that there is a weight to it".

Barack Obama has previously denied that his wife would run for office, saying she did not "have the patience or the inclination to actually be a candidate herself".

In the one-hour interview on CBS, Ms Obama also expressed her surprise at being referred to as an "angry black woman" during her husband's 2007 presidential campaign.

"That was one of those things where you think, 'Dang, you don't even know me,'" she said. "You just sort of feel like, 'Wow, where did that come from?'"

"You think, that is so not me! But then you sort of think, well, this isn't about me," she went on. "This is about the person or the people who write it."

Ms Obama said she was concerned about the future of America and prayed Americans still have "hope".

When she was probed about whether her husband's government achieved "hope", she said she did but also noted the sharp distinctions between him and his successor, president-elect Trump.

"Yes, I do. Because we feel the difference now. See, now we are feeling what not having hope feels like, you know. Hope is necessary. It is a necessary concept. What do you give your kids if you can't give them hope?"

Ms Obama also referred to her meeting with the soon-to-be first lady Melania Trump, saying that while she did not give her any specific advice, she told her that "the door is always open" and "you really don't know what you don't know until you're here".

Her husband also made a surprise visit to the interview.

When asked about what has surprised him the most about his wife as First Lady, he applauded her expertise for the job.

"The way in which she blended purpose and policy with fun so that she was able to reach beyond Washington on her health care initiatives, on her military family work was masterful." (Independent News Service)
The oil drilling rig Polar Pioneer being towards a dock in Seattle where it was being prepared for Arctic oil exploration (AP)

President Barack Obama has imposed a permanent ban on oil and gas drilling in most US-owned waters in the Arctic Ocean.

The move, which also includes certain areas of the Atlantic Ocean, comes a month before Donald Trump becomes president promising to unleash the nation's untapped energy reserves.

The White House announced the actions in conjunction with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who also placed a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing in its Arctic waters, subject to periodic review.

Mr Obama is making use of an arcane provision in a 1953 law to ban offshore leases in the waters permanently. The statute says "the president of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf".

Environmental groups hope the ban, despite relying on executive powers, will be difficult for future presidents to reverse.

The White House is confident the president's order will withstand legal challenge and said the language of the statute provides no authority for subsequent presidents to undo permanent withdrawals.

The Atlantic waters placed off limits to new oil and gas leasing are 31 canyons stretching off the coast of New England south to Virginia, though some had hoped for a more extensive ban that would have extended further south.

Existing leases are not affected by the president's executive actions.

The administration cited environmental concerns in both regions to justify the moratorium. Mr Obama also noted the importance of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in providing subsistence for native Alaskans and the vulnerability of the ecosystem to an oil spill to justify his directive.

Mr Obama said just 0.1% of offshore crude production came from the Arctic in 2015, and at current oil prices, significant production would not occur in future decades.

Industry officials accused Mr Obama of "last minute political rhetoric".

"Instead of building on our nation's position as a global energy leader, today's unilateral mandate could put America back on a path of energy dependence for decades to come," said Dan Naatz of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Governor Bill Walker of Alaska, an independent, said Mr Obama's move marginalised local voices.

In issuing a permanent ban, the president appears to be trying to tie the hands of his successor. Mr Trump has vowed a domestic energy revolution and is filling his Cabinet with nominees deeply opposed to Mr Obama's environmental and climate change actions.

Environmental groups were calling for a permanent ban even before the presidential election, but Mr Trump's victory has provided greater urgency for them and for businesses that rely on tourism and fishing.

Mr Trump has said he intends to use all available fuel reserves for energy self-sufficiency - and that it is time to open up offshore drilling.

"This decision will help protect existing lucrative coastal tourism and fishing businesses from offshore drilling, which promises smaller, short-lived returns and threatens coastal livelihoods," said Jacqueline Savitz of the advocacy group Oceana.

A key question to be answered is how difficult it will be for future presidents to overturn Mr Obama's decision should they seek to do so.

Advocacy groups warned they will fight to protect the ban during future administrations.

"If Donald Trump tries to reverse President Obama's withdrawals, he will find himself in court," said Marissa Knodel of Friends of the Earth.

The decision came as Mr Obama spends the Christmas holidays in Hawaii.

Some Democratic politicians applauded him, while some Republicans were highly critical.

"As President-elect Trump nominates fossil fuel allies to his Cabinet, President Obama has instead put the interests of millions of Americans ahead of those of Big Oil with these permanent protections," said Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

"The extremes to which this president will go to appease special interests never ceases to amaze," countered Utah Republican Rob Bishop, chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

"This is not a moral calling; it's an abuse of power."
Soldiers search amid the debris left by a huge blast that occured in a fireworks market in Mexico City killing at least nine people and injuring 70. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Soldiers and rescue workers search amid the ruins left by a huge blast that occurred in a fireworks market in Mexico City on December 20. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Soldiers and rescue workers search amid the ruins left by a huge blast that occurred in a fireworks market in Mexico City on December 20. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Military police work amid the debris left by a huge blast that occurred in a fireworks market in Mexico City on December 20. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

View of the utter destruction caused by a huge blast in a fireworks market in Mexico City on December 20. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Firefighters work amid the debris left by a huge blast that occurred in a fireworks market in Mexico City on December 20. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Firefighters work amid the debris left by a huge blast that occurred in a fireworks market in Mexico City killing at least nine people and injuring 70. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

People walk amid the ruins left by a huge blast that occurred in a fireworks market in Mexico City on December 20. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Survivors search amid the ruins left by a huge blast that occurred in a fireworks market in Mexico City on December 20. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Soldiers search amid the debris left by a huge blast that occurred in a fireworks market in Mexico City killing at least nine people and injuring 70. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

People search amid the debris left by a huge blast that occurred in a fireworks market in Mexico City. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Firefighters and rescue workers remove debris from the scorched ground of Mexico's best-known fireworks market after an explosion explosion ripped through it, in Tultepec, on the outskirts of Mexico City. Photo: AP

Firefighters and rescue workers walk through the scorched ground of Mexico's best-known fireworks market after an explosion explosion ripped through it, inTultepec, Mexico. Photo: AP

Local residents comb through ashes and rubble at the scorched ground of Mexico's best-known fireworks market after an explosion explosion ripped through it, inTultepec, Mexico. Photo: AP

Police officers stand near the remains of houses destroyed in an explosion at the San Pablito fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, in Tultepec, Mexico, December 20, 2016. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Firefighters and rescue workers walk through the scorched ground of Mexico's best-known fireworks market after an explosion explosion ripped through it, inTultepec, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

An ambulance leaves the San Pablito fireworks market after an explosion, outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, in Tultepec, Mexico, December 20, 2016. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

A police officer walks through the remains of houses destroyed in an explosion at the San Pablito fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, in Tultepec, Mexico, December 20, 2016. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

A sign reading "No alcoholic beverages" is seen next to flattened houses after an explosion at the San Pablito fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, in Tultepec, Mexico, December 20, 2016. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Firefighters and rescue personnel stand near a destroyed house after an explosion at the San Pablito fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, in Tultepec, Mexico, December 20, 2016. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Soldiers stand guard after an explosion at the San Pablito fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, in Tultepec, Mexico, December 20, 2016. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

This image made from video recorded from a passing car shows an explosion ripping through the San Pablito fireworks' market in Tultepec, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016. (Jose Luis Tolentino via AP)

A powerful chain-reaction explosion ripped through Mexico's best-known fireworks market killing at least 29 people and leaving dozens more badly burned.

The San Pablito fireworks market on the outskirts of Mexico City was especially well stocked for the Christmas holidays and bustling with hundreds of shoppers when it was hit by the third serious blast in 11 years.

Tuesday afternoon's explosion sent up a towering plume of smoke that was lit up by a staccato of bangs and flashes of light. Once the smoke cleared, the open-air bazaar was reduced to a stark expanse of ash, rubble and the charred metal of fireworks stands, casting a pall over the country's Christmas season.

Mexico State health officials said 72 people were being treated for injuries from the explosion, including for severe burns, in some cases over 90% of their bodies. Ten children were among those in hospital.

The authorities have not yet said what may have caused the explosions which took place in Mexico State, which rings the country's capital.

Survivor Crescencia Francisco Garcia said she was in the middle of the grid of stalls when the thunderous explosions began. She froze, reflexively looked up at the sky and then took off running through the smoke once she realised everyone was doing so. As she ran she saw people with burns and cuts, and lots of blood.

Expand Close A boy takes his helmet off as he pauses while working at the scorched ground of the open-air San Pablito fireworks market, in Tultepec, outskirts of Mexico City, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) / Facebook

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Whatsapp A boy takes his helmet off as he pauses while working at the scorched ground of the open-air San Pablito fireworks market, in Tultepec, outskirts of Mexico City, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

"Everything was catching fire. Everything was exploding," she said. "The stones were flying, pieces of brick, everything was flying."

Mexico State Governor Eruviel Avila said that in addition to the 26 people who were killed at the market, three more victims died later in hospital.

"We are going to identify who is responsible," he said.

Sirens wailed and a heavy scent of gunpowder lingered in the air well after the thunderous explosions at the market, which were widely seen in a dramatic video.

The smoking, burned-out shells of vehicles ringed the perimeter, and first responders and local residents wearing blue masks over their mouths combed through the ash and debris. Firefighters hosed down still-smouldering hotspots.

Tultepec Mayor Armando Portuguez Fuentes said the market was especially well stocked because demand for noisy firecrackers and rockets increases at this time of year.

"We are obviously in the high season," he said. "There was more product than usual because we are a few days away from Christmas, a few days away from New Year's, and those are the days when the products made here are consumed the most."

He said the manufacture and sale of fireworks is a key part of the local economy. He added that it is regulated by law and under the "constant supervision" of the defence department, which oversees firearms and explosives.

"This is part of the activity of our town. It is what gives us identity," he said. "We know it is high-risk, we regret this greatly, but unfortunately many people's livelihoods depend on this activity."

"My condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this accident and my wishes for a quick recovery for the injured," President Enrique Pena Nieto said via Twitter.

A fire engulfed the San Pablito Market in 2005, touching off a chain of explosions that levelled hundreds of stalls just ahead of Mexico's Independence Day. A year later a similar incident at the same market also destroyed hundreds of stands.

Deadly fireworks explosions have occurred with some regularity in Mexico, including in 2002, when a blast at a market in the Gulf coast city of Veracruz killed 29 people.

In 1999, 63 people died when an explosion of illegally stored fireworks destroyed part of the city of Celaya, and in 1988, a fireworks blast in Mexico City's La Merced market killed at least 68.
Firefighters examine the truck used in the attack. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP

A huge manhunt was under way last night after the person behind the Berlin truck attack slipped through the net when police arrested the wrong man.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) claimed responsibility for Monday's carnage in which a lorry ploughed through a crowded Christmas market in the heart of the German capital, leaving 12 dead and 49 wounded.

Expand Close A woman mourns at the scene where a truck ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in the German capital last night. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch / Facebook

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Whatsapp A woman mourns at the scene where a truck ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in the German capital last night. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

The killer - described as armed and dangerous - had hijacked the lorry after shooting dead its Polish driver. Germans had thought the culprit was in custody, after police arrested a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker, but he was released without charge yesterday.

A bystander had seen the lorry's driver fleeing the scene but police later admitted he had not been able to identify him with any certainty. The suspect was released after his DNA could not be matched to the scene.

It left Berlin on edge, with heavily armed police patrolling the streets as forces across Europe were told the real killer was on the run.

Peter Frank, the German attorney-general, admitted he did not know if a single perpetrator or a group had been behind the attack.

Isil released a statement which said: "A soldier of the Islamic State carried out the Berlin operation in response to appeals to target citizens of the crusader coalition countries."

With 14 people still in a critical condition in hospital, Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister, said: "We cannot rule out the possibility that there will be more victims."

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, was under intense political pressure amid suspicions that an asylum seeker who entered the country under her "open-door" refugee policy may have been responsible for the attack.

Read more: Berlin terror attack: ISIS claim responsibility for market horror crash as new manhunt gets underway

Expand Close Two young women light candles at a makeshift memorial the day after a truck drove into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Two young women light candles at a makeshift memorial the day after a truck drove into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Read more: First Berlin victim was a Polish driver who 'fought for his life'

Ms Merkel admitted yesterday that if it emerged that the perpetrator of the Christmas market attack was a refugee, it would be "repugnant" to Germans who had welcomed over a million asylum seekers.

In the latest of a series of tactical retreats over her open-door immigration policy, the German chancellor conceded that the attack risked denting public confidence in her refugee policy.

"It would be very difficult for us to learn that a human being committed this deed who came to Germany to ask for refuge and asylum," she said, visibly moved and dressed in black.

"It would be terrible for all of the Germans who are very active day by day in helping asylum seekers and refugees. It would be repugnant for those that are helping people that have come to this country and are asking for our help."

The hardening language from Ms Merkel comes as she faced a barrage of criticism, including from inside her own party, over her failure to grasp the depth of concern in Germany about the security and welfare implications of the recent refugee influx.

The interior minister of the German state of Saarland said that Germany was in "a state of war" against radical Islamist terrorism, but that too many people were slow to face that uncomfortable reality.

Discontent

"We must say that we are in a state of war, although some people, who always only want to see good, do not want to see this," said Klaus Bouillon, who is a member of Ms Merkel's ruling Christian Democrat (CDU) party and current chairman of the regional interior ministers conference.

The remarks reflect simmering discontent in CDU party ranks over Ms Merkel's earlier cavalier approach to the refugee crisis, characterised by her now-infamous phrase "we can do it".

Since 2015, when the German chancellor announced her open-door immigration policy, Germany has received more than a million asylum seekers, placing huge strain on social infrastructure and raising security concerns following the New Year sex attacks in Cologne. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
A man has claimed he was thrown off a Delta Airlines flight for speaking to his mother in Arabic.

YouTube star and serial prankster Adam Saleh, who has more than 1.6 million subscribers on his channel, posted a video on Twitter that appeared to show him being escorted from a Delta Airlines flight along with a friend, called Slim.

A Delta staff member can be seen in the shot.

Mr Saleh can be heard to say to fellow passengers: "Are you serious? I'm about to cry right now. You guys are racists. I cannot believe it. Because we said a word in a different language? And it's six white people against us bearded men?"

He finds some support among other passengers and one says: "That is so upsetting. Why are they being kicked out?"

Other passengers can be seen waving and telling him 'goodbye'.

In a later Periscope video Mr Saleh said: "I was speaking to my mum in Arabic, then I spoke to Slim in Arabic, and they kicked us out."

On Twitter, he added: "I will not let this issue go by. I will speak up and make sure anyone can speak any language in a plane."

He also said he was contacting a lawyer.

Delta said in a statement: "Two customers were removed from this flight and later rebooked after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort.

"We're conducting a full review to understand what transpired. We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect."

Other social media users cast doubt on Mr Saleh's posts.

Lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky tweeted: "Maybe some context be nice? How do we know this legit? Video doesn't show the 'before'."

Others pointed out that Mr Saleh had tweeted from an airport on December 19 saying that workers recognised him from a previous prank video.

I might get held up or in trouble, he wrote.

It is not yet known if the latest video was part of a prank.

Previous prank videos he has posted include videos such as "I smuggled myself on a plane to another city and it worked!! (in a suitcase)" which was later called out by the airline as a fake.

In November Delta banned a passenger for life after he went on an explicit pro-Donald Trump and anti-Hillary Clinton rant on his flight from Atlanta to Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The company's firm stance against the "loud, rude and disrespectful" passenger came following widespread criticism on social media over its lack of discipline for him after footage of the incident surfaced online.

Social media users pointed out that the man, who was white, was not ejected from the flight but passengers who are Sikh, Muslim, African-American, and of other minority ethnicities have been kicked off flights due to safety concerns following complaints from passengers and staff.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

Trend:

Iran hopes for a speedy resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Yerevan Dec. 21, news.am reports.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are friendly countries for Iran, and Iran hopes to see the establishment of peace and stability in the region, he noted.

This will benefit the entire region, added Rouhani. The issue has no military solution, and we would like to see it resolved peacefully.

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 bubbly girl next door, Aditi Sharma who is seen playing a rather goofy character Ahana in the popular daily soap opera 'Kasam' recently got hitched to her long time boyfriend and actor Sundip Ved who is currently hosting the show 'Beg Borrow Steal' on the youth-oriented channel Bindass.

The couple had been dating each other for 8 long years since they instantly fell in love during a theater play in their career setting years in Hyderabad.

Their relationship grew stronger after they moved to Mumbai and started living together. They tied the knot in their hometown Hyderabad.

Mr and Mrs. Ved are currently honeymooning by the beautiful beaches of Maldives. However, since it's Aditi who brings the comical angle to her show, she only took a total of 10 days off and will be back soon in Mumbai on the sets of 'Kasam'.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

By Anakhanum Hidayatova  Trend:

A certain split in the Eastern Partnership program occurred after some countries joined in, and some refused to sign the EU Association Agreement, Timofey Bordachev, director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University  Higher School of Economics (HSE), told Trend.

Bordachev, who is also head of the Eurasian Program of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club, said that the cooperation within the framework of the Eastern Partnership program, which lost its attractiveness long ago, almost came to naught.

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.

Commenting on the issue of lifting of the EU visa regime with Ukraine and Georgia, Bordachev noted that these countries will get a visa-free regime in the end, but with a million limitations.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

Trend:

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev is one of the most reliable and trustworthy leaders for US President-elect Donald Trump, Rob Sobhani, director general of Caspian Group Holdings, wrote in his article published in the Jerusalem Post.

Azerbaijan has certain unique cultural, economic and geopolitical features that deserve the next US administrations immediate attention, Sobhani said. Trump and his foreign policy team should unequivocally and wholeheartedly embrace Azerbaijan and its president, the author writes.

The first point to keep in mind when thinking of US-Azerbaijan relations is our shared values of religious freedom and tolerance, the article said. A major feature of Azerbaijans national culture is religious tolerance.

This Shiite country is home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world, according to the author. Indeed, unlike most other Muslim countries, Christians, Jews, Bahais and even Sunni Muslims live side by side in peace and harmony, the author noted.

For example, relations between Azerbaijan and Israel are deep and include cooperation on numerous fronts including the military and diplomatic ones, according to the article.

This is indeed unique in the Muslim world, the article noted. When President- elect Trump looks around the Muslim world for a model of religious freedom Azerbaijan is one country he can point to.

The second point that makes Azerbaijan unique is that it shares Washingtons goal of an uninterrupted flow of oil and gas from the Caspian Sea region to international markets, said the article.

Today, Azerbaijans oil and gas exports play a critical role in Western energy security, Sobhani wrote.

A third point the new administration should consider is that Trump will meet numerous world leaders over the next four years but none will come closer to being a true partner of Washington than Aliyev, the author said in his article.

Immediately after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, his father, former president Hedyar Aliyev, invited the American ambassador to his office and pledged his countrys full support and cooperation, Sobhani noted. Since then President Aliyev has been an unwavering ally in Americas war against terrorism.

In fact, Azerbaijan is a transport route for US military supplies to Afghanistan and cooperates with the US companies to develop the energy resources of the Caspian Sea region, according to the article.

The immediate steps that the president-elects foreign policy team must make as it concerns Azerbaijan are the following: first, invite President Aliyev to the White House for a working visit with President Trump, the article said.

Furthermore, a Trump-Aliyev meeting would send a positive message to those anxious about the president-elects feelings toward Islam in general and the Muslim world that President Trump values alliances of the US with those Muslim countries that put a premium on religious tolerance, reads the article.

Trump can showcase to other Muslim countries that Azerbaijan is the model and way forward, the author wrote.

Finally, President Trump can actually earn his Nobel Peace Prize by bringing an end to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said the article.
As we all know Thala Ajith has been shooting for his upcoming International spy thriller flick temporarily named as 'AK 57' in Bulgaria since last month. Recently the highly committed professional took a sudden break from shooting to visit Chennai and pay his last homage to ex-Chief Minister J.Jayalalitha and political critic Cho Ramaswamy.

Now it looks like Thala will take another break from the shoot schedule this time on a happy note. Sources reveal that Ajith will return to Chennai in a day or two to celebrate Christmas and New Year festival with his wife Shalini and children Anoushka and Aadvik.

The shooting of 'AK 57' directed by Siva is 80% complete according to information from sources. It was earlier revealed that the shooting will be completed in the month of January in Bulgaria and the team will have only some patch work in Chennai. The film has been scheduled for a April 2017 release.
Single-digit reduction in NBS rates The revised NBS rates for ensuing Rabi season have been announced by the Government of India. New rates have not seen much steeper cuts as was widely anticipated; therefore, positive for complex (NPKs) fertilizer companies. This brings much comfort to the domestic complex fertilizer companies as a steeper cut would have entailed higher inventory losses. 03 Nov 2022 11:10 AM

October 2022 auto sales: PV and CV segments continue to impress Underlying demand trend has stayed strong for PV and CV segments. Analysts at IIFL Securities estimate October 2022 wholesale dispatches in PV, MHCV and LCV segments to have grown 30%, 24% and 14% YoY, respectively. They expect the above segments to clock 25-35% volume growth in FY23. 02 Nov 2022 11:43 AM

Initial signs of moderation in API cost pressures: IIFL Securities High raw-material inflation, elevated freight expenses, and normalization in marketing spends have impacted margins of Indian pharma players over the past 12 months. However, some of these API/RM cost pressures have started abating in Q3CY22. Cipla, Sun, JB Pharma and Torrent remain IIFL Securities top-picks in the pharma sector owing to lowest risk to IIFL Securities margin and earnings estimates for these companies. 01 Nov 2022 10:53 AM
Details added (first version posted on 12:01)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received a delegation led by Minister of Economic Affairs of the Republic of Turkey Nihat Zeybekci December 21.

President Aliyev hailed the importance of the meeting of economic ministers of member states of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States to be held in Baku.

The president emphasized that the visit of Zeybekci was of pivotal importance both in terms of participating in the Council's meeting and holding discussions on the development of economic relations between the two countries.

Zeybekci conveyed greetings of President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan to President Aliyev.

Pointing to friendly and brotherly ties between the two countries, Zeybekci noted that Azerbaijan strongly supported Turkey during the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey.

Describing Azerbaijan and Turkey as the two closest brotherly countries, the president hailed both countries' support for each other as natural.

They underlined the importance of Azerbaijan-Turkey High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council's meetings in strengthening bilateral ties, and exchanged views on the development of economic cooperation between the two countries.

The president thanked for the greetings of President Erdogan, and asked Zeybekci to extend his greetings to the Turkish president.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

By Orkhan Quluzade  Trend:

Assassination of Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov in Ankara is directed against the Turkey-Russia relations, Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci told reporters in Baku Dec. 21.

Those who are behind this will never achieve their goal. The Turkey-Russia relations will develop, the minister said.

Andrey Karlov died after being fatally wounded in an armed assault in an art gallery in Ankara late Dec. 19. Three other people were injured in the attack.

The killer, Mevlut Mert Altintas, was eliminated.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called the incident an act of terrorism.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

By Seba Aghayeva  Trend:

Azerbaijan and Turkey will multiply joint efforts in the fight against terrorism.

The need to develop cooperation in this sphere was noted by Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Turkeys Deputy Foreign Minister Umit Yalcin during a meeting in Baku Dec. 21.

The Azerbaijani minister once again offered condolences to the government and people of Turkey over the recent terror attacks in the country.

Umit Yalcin expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan for the resolute position with regard to the recent events in Turkey.

Elmar Mammadyarov informed the Turkish diplomat about the negotiation process on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and praised Ankaras fair and resolute position in this issue.

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.
If you consider yourself an adventurous eater and want to try a variety of new tastes and textures, look no further than Abyssinia Ethiopian Restaurant, a family-owned, vegetarian-friendly establishment on the west side of Indianapolis. Abyssinias meals are cooked from scratch by Ethiopian chefs, allowing visitors an opportunity to sample food from the other side of the globe without ever packing their bags.

When I stepped into Abyssinia, I was welcomed by a wonderful aroma. The scent of incense used during the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony was mixing nicely with the smells of roasted coffee beans and warm meals being prepared.

Making customers feel comfortable is important to the staff of Abyssinia. The friendly waiters, welcoming environment and calming music made the experience of dining at Abyssinia feel like having dinner at a friends house. Diners typically share food from a large family-style platter while eating with a large piece of spongy bread called injera, but utensils can be requested.

Ethiopian cuisine consists of mild to spicy meat dishes and steamed vegetables. The vegetables that they served included tomatoes, carrots, onions and eggplant. For my meat I had lamb, but they also offer goat, beef and chicken.

The restaurants atmosphere goes out of its way to make you feel at home while also keeping true to its inspirational roots. Among the exotic yet homey decor, diners have the opportunity to watch Ethiopian music videos, offering a glimpse into the country that inspires the chefs.

After my main course, I had the opportunity to witness the coffee ceremony firsthand. In Ethiopian culture, to invite someone to a coffee ceremony is a sign of friendship and a way to show hospitality. The table was filled with a heavenly aroma as coffee was brewed by roasting fresh green coffee beans until they turned brown. The ceremony also includes the burning of incense. Sweetened popcorn was served alongside the coffee, which offered something light to end the delicious and filling meal.

If unique, mouth-watering meals served with home-style hospitality are what you are after, then I hope you will consider visiting Abyssinia Ethiopian Restaurant.
Every December, we talk about the importance of giving back. This not only applies to individuals, but to businesses as well. And its not only in the month of December that we should be mindful of this  its year-round. Being a socially responsible business could increase profits and the talent of your employees in the process.

The social responsibility of business is a concept in which businesses maintain awareness of their need to make a profit while at the same time working to benefit the community they are in.

Today, many businesses are very aware of the importance of giving back to society. For example, many companies help nonprofit organizations by collecting food, clothing, personal care products, blankets and other items, which is especially meaningful during the holiday season when many in society are in need of a helping hand. Others include an entire social responsibility strategy as they plan out the year ahead.

According to the 19th Annual Global CEO Survey, which interviewed 1,409 CEOs from more than 80 countries, 64 percent of CEOs believe corporate responsibility is core to everything they do. That is expected to increase to 70 percent in the next five years.

Corporate social responsibility has become extremely important to consumers today when making their purchasing decisions. A global analysis by Nielsen showed 55 percent of online consumers would pay more for a product from a socially responsible company.

Its not only consumers who recognize a companys corporate social responsibility; a recent report from Cone Communications showed 58 percent of employees consider a companys social and environmental commitments when deciding where to work. In that same study, 74 percent of employees said their job is more fulfilling when they are provided with opportunities to make a positive impact.

Some, however, dont believe that businesses should contribute in some way to the betterment of their community. The economist Milton Friedman famously wrote a New York Times Magazine article in September of 1970 entitled The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits, explaining this was the case as long as the company stayed within the rules of law. In the article, Friedman explained that he believed businesses shouldnt initiate social expenses beyond what they are regulated to do. Some 46 years later, some businesses neglect their responsibility to their communities they are located in and continue to follow Friedmans philosophy.

Personally, I believe its important for corporations to give back to the community, because without the community and those purchasing their goods and services, they wouldnt be in business. Corporations should not only remember this, but should also incorporate this into their business practices.

In being a good corporate socially responsible citizen and in the spirit of corporate sustainability, as we approach this holiday season let us not only look to individuals to give back to their communities, but to the businesses that provide goods and services to us to contribute their fair share, as well. If both individuals and businesses give back, this will help many, and it will make our communities safer and more prosperous.

Darrell Brown, Ph.D., is a clinical associate professor of management and director of diversity at Indiana University Kelley School of Business Indianapolis.
It has been said that positive parental influence plays the biggest role in a childs development. As the number of adolescents in Indianas child welfare system continues to rise, an increasing number of children are not afforded this luxury.

Sharon Pierce, president and CEO of The Villages of Indiana, the states largest not-for-profit child and family services agency, says Indiana is in desperate need of additional foster and adoptive families to step forward and offer children a safe place to thrive. Reasons include an increase of substance abuse and mental health issues of parents. One quarter of the children currently in need live in Marion County.

Just two years ago, there were about 13,600 children in the child welfare system. Today, there are around 22,000 children. I have been doing this work for well over 30 years, and I have never seen such challenges for those of us who serve abused and neglected children, said Pierce. One of the things that is concerning is over 50 percent of the children who are coming are under the age of 5. They require a huge amount of care.

The Villages of Indiana wants to recruit and train a diverse group of foster parents to better match children with families they have commonalities with.

We try to match them with families who are ethnically, geographically and spiritually like the child. They have had the trauma of being separated from family, so as we stand in the gap, we want them to feel unconditional love, said Pierce.

Unconditional love is what Charles Brown aims to show every child he fosters. Brown has a background in youth ministry and a passion for mentoring young people. In his early 20s, he mentored two boys who were in need of a foster father. This prompted Brown to obtain a foster care license. Today, Brown has been a foster parent for more than 20 years. Brown says he has seen the impact a compassionate role model can have on a child.

You have to hope for the best, prepare for the worst and know how much you can take as a person. Some of these kids come to us who have been molested, and its quite normal that they will have highly sexualized behaviors. If they have seen violence, they are more likely to interact violently, said Brown.

Brown says its extremely rewarding to see a young persons growth over time. One of the children Brown fostered started out causing trouble in school and ended up on the honor roll.

The very first day with him, the school called me saying they were having significant problems. There were three police cars at the school because he was being threatening. Today, that same young man is an honor roll student. After a lot of consistency with discipline, and a lot of consistency with love and acceptance, its very rewarding to see the change, said Brown.

Some organizations let potential foster parents go through training before making a commitment. CoraLyn Turentine is a foster parent through one such organization known as KidsPeace, a private charity that serves children with behavioral and mental health issues.

When Turentine was an undergraduate, she eagerly contacted a variety of foster care organizations to learn more but never heard anything back. After graduating and getting married, one of the organizations reached out to her and asked if fostering a child was something she was still interested in.

We went in saying, Lets just learn more about it. We came out of the training going, Wow! We really want to do this, said Turentine.

Today, she has fostered 10 kids, two of whom she eventually adopted. To Turentine, the rewards far outweigh any challenges presented.

They have already been through so much that when they come to your home they are a mess. Its so cool to be a part of somebody getting better. Even if its just the small little baby steps, such as they are finally sleeping well at night or they are finally able to trust again. Or when they are finally opening up themselves again. Its really cool to be a part of somebodys story in a positive way, said Turentine.

The requirements for being a foster parent include being over 21 years of age, having a home with space for a child and a heart for children. The Villages of Indiana is hosting information sessions for potential foster parents to learn more about the ways they can support Indianas youth.

If somebodys touching your heart to consider being a foster parent, be it the good Lord or someone else, know that the need has never been greater, Pierce said. We would love to have you come to an information night to learn more. Even if the timing isnt right, maybe you can support another foster parent. Look at the needs and figure out what role you are able to play.

The next Indianapolis information session is Jan. 23 at 6:30 p.m. at The Villages of Indianas office, 3833 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46204. For more information, visit villages.org.

Information sessions with The Villages of Indiana

Monday, Jan. 23 at 6:30 p.m.

The Villages Office

3833 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN

Monday, Feb. 13 at 6 p.m.

The Villages Office

3833 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN

Full calendar available at villages.org/calendar

For more information, visit villageskids.org or call (317) 775-6500.
Decrying a criminal justice system that has been in many respects, unjust, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett revealed plans for an overhaul.

The announcement was made Monday at Old City Hall to a standing-room-only crowd of city employees, law enforcement officers, media personnel, civil services organizations and advocacy groups, and various other stakeholders.

The proposed plan is the result of roughly six months of research and analysis by the Indianapolis Criminal Justice Reform Task Force, which was announced by Hogsett during his State of the City Address in May. The Task Force included community and neighborhood groups, City-County Council members and representatives of several city and county government agencies.

With an uptick in crime, an increase in emergency medical runs involving mental illness, and the city on pace to set a record for opiate overdose 911 calls, Hogsett says, our system is bursting at the seams. The citys core challenges  crime, poverty and a budget deficit  converge at the Marion County criminal justice system, the mayor added.

The crux of the new plan is identifying mental illness and addiction among low-level, nonviolent offenders and providing help rather than just jail time.

In the grips of mental illness or addiction, a low-level, non-violent offender is processed again and again through the criminal justice system  without assessment or treatment for their underlying illness, Hogsett said. Over time, either their criminal behavior escalates to the point that they end up committing a violent felony, or their addiction or mental illness escalates to the point that it ends up claiming their life.

The so-called Indianapolis Model outlined in the Task Forces plans includes tactics to be used at the pre-arrest, post-arrest and pre-trial stages, such as enhanced crisis intervention training for all officers and 911 dispatchers, and the creation of mobile crisis units of officers and health professionals.

The Task Force also recommends the creation of a new criminal justice complex that would include an Assessment and Intervention Center where arrestees are assessed for treatment needs; a 2,600- to 3,000-bed jail to replace current facilities; a consolidated courthouse for both criminal and civil cases; and more.

The proposed complex would have more beds than are currently available in the county, but Hogsett said the plan aims to leave as many beds empty as possible.

The question is not how many jail beds do we need. The question, rather, is how many jail beds can we avoid, he said at the announcement, eliciting applause from the crowd. Let us build a system of justice that measures success in the lives it saves and not in the number of lives it detains.

Following the Indiana Supreme Courts suggestions on changing how cash bail is used is another component of the plan aimed at keeping fewer people detained.

The Task Force plans to recommend a site for the new justice complex by the end of January.

The plan also calls for better tracking of data and continual analysis, plus enhanced transparency for the public.

Throughout his speech, Hogsett was interrupted by rounds of applause and shouts of support and enthusiastic agreement from the audience.

The Indianapolis Congregation Action Network (IndyCAN)  a local movement for racial and economic dignity and equity that has focused on mass incarceration  was one group well-represented among the crowd. In the past, IndyCAN was instrumental in derailing previous plans to build a new criminal justice center, and the group also had Hogsetts ear throughout the six months devoted to developing the latest strategy.

After hearing Hogsetts announcement, Rev. Mel Jackson, pastor of Christian Love Missionary Baptist Church and a member of the IndyCAN board of directors, said he felt encouraged, but acknowledged the immensity of the task at hand.

(Hogsetts) identification of the core issues and the need is right on target. Its the how-to that weve got to face. We have to find a way to do it, Jackson said, reiterating the necessity of the new approach.

Im not an anti-animal person, but if we can find a way to rescue animals, we have to find a way to rescue people.

Sharon Trotter, who is also on the IndyCAN board of directors, said she was elated about the proposals.

For Trotter, the reforms have a deeper personal significance; her 24-year-old grandson is diagnosed schizophrenic and bipolar, and he has been in and out of police custody for offenses like sleeping in vacant apartments.

She thinks the new approach could help break that cycle.

They lock him up, they keep him a few days, they let him go, she said. He needs help. He wont go with us, but if he gets locked up and they demand that he gets treatment and divert him to treatment, then he can get some help.

Both Trotter and Jackson made a point to stress the importance of community involvement in carrying the changes forward.

This is the beginning, and its doable, but its about us the people. Weve got to hold (leaders) accountable and fight for Indianapolis, Trotter said. We can change things; I know that.  It takes love, compassion, action. Get involved. You might not have somebody you directly know whos affected by drugs or alcohol, but believe me, sooner or later, its going to hit home.

Jackson added: The historically underserved community has got to invest some trust alongside the boots on the ground.  That means starting in the household to get on board this train; it could be a lifesaver.

To read the full 120-page report from the Indianapolis Criminal Justice Reform Task Force, visit criminaljusticereform.indy.gov.
The Indianapolis Public Library has announced the appointment of Nichelle M. Hayes as Specialist to develop and lead the new Center for African-American Literature and Culture at Central Library.

Hayes began her IndyPL tenure in March 2015 as a systemwide training librarian and for the past year has acted as a business librarian at Central Library. She also has served as a member of the Librarys African-American History Committee.

Funded as part of a $3.1 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., the Center for African-American Literature and Culture at Central Library will open in October 2017 as a place to study the works of local African-American writers and discover the rich heritage of Black authors from Indiana and beyond. It will feature an initial collection of 10,000 volumes as well as special programming, such as author visits, forums and exhibits, to showcase the African-American experience. The Center also will promote the activities of the African-American History Committee.

My goal is to combine a robust collection with interactive programming that can be a beacon to people in the community and bring them together, Hayes stated. Im very excited to have the opportunity to add to the Librarys existing offerings and to make this Center the best of its kind in the nation.

As a focal point for encouraging and supporting continued literary and artistic accomplishment, the Center will celebrate fiction, essays, drama, poetry and other writings as living, dynamic and essential forms of expression that create community.

Nichelle is a great librarian to grow this experience for our city, said Library CEO Jackie Nytes. We are grateful for the support of Lilly Endowment to create an environment where the community can easily find the rich body of Black literature and participate in a dynamic calendar of speakers and creativity.

The Center for African-American Literature and Culture will be located in the 3,990-square-foot Robert B. Annis West Reading Room at Central Library. Its targeted opening will correspond with the 100th anniversary celebration of Central Library.
I want to start off by saying that I had the opportunity to visit two schools recently  both Longfellow and the Simon Youth Academy at Circle Center Mall. I had great experiences at both schools. And although Longfellow has certainly been in the news a lot this year for a myriad of negative reasons, I walked away from that school visit feeling reassured by the new school leadership that I met there.

It is fitting that I end my tenure on the IPS board this way, visiting schools that are intended for those students who have life circumstances that require something different  an alternative. I havent talked about myself or my experiences as an IPS student much, but I graduated from an alternative IPS program, The Learning Center and Day Adult High School. I had the additional challenge of being a teen parent as I graduated high school. Because this was my story and my lived experience as an IPS student  of course when I joined the IPS board it was my intent to advocate for non-traditional students. Students that, like me, needed an alternative to the traditional model of schooling.

When I made a career change to become an IPS teacher, I was passionate about my work as a special education teacher. For several years I had the privilege of working with students who were in many ways gifted, but who didnt fit the mold of what society and the system defined as smart or capable of academic achievement. They were labeled as deficient, but I didnt see them as such. It was my intent to help them recognize their gifts, and build off of their strengths. I hope that I was successful with that, in some small way.

These life experiences have led me to view education, and especially IPS, in a different or alternative way. Because of this unique perspective on the district and the students in it, in many ways, I didnt fit the mold of a traditional IPS board member, either. I didnt come here to be popular and I also did not come here to be polarizing or divisive. I came here to represent the people of the east side  the parents, families, taxpayers and residents of the only place Ive ever called home. I brought everything I had to this taskall of my life experiences. Its impossible to make every single person happy every single time, but I did this job with passion, and I did it to the best of my ability.

Its no secret that I have been the lone dissenter on this board for the past two years. I do feel that innovation and change in the field of education are necessary. Society has changed, technology has changed, and consequently the lives of children have changed. We should not be employing the same pedagogies of the 19th and 20th centuries. Offering an excellent education demands that we are responsive to the fact that no two children are the same, and the way that they learn best is also highly individualistic. For this reason, I have long supported a parents right to choose a school that offers a best-fit curriculum for their child; be that a Montessori program, a program focused on performing arts, physical education, an International Baccalaureate program like CFI, a career-focused curriculum or a traditional classroom setting. This is all programming that IPS currently offers.

The one point in which I have offered consistent dissent has been a recent string of decisions to partner with outside charter school agencies to take over the operations of some of our schools. In some cases, the decision has been more understandable than others, where there is a long history of a school being labeled as failing. But, I stand firm in my conviction that capitalism has no place in our education system. Capitalism works based on winners and losers, which is fine when youre talking about McDonalds or Burger King, but is completely inappropriate when we are competing for the hearts and minds of children. What I have seen, and remain extremely concerned about is a profit motive being embedded in the structure of these schools. A cursory review of the financial documents of many of these schools offers proof that too many of our tax dollars, intended for public education, are sent to charter school CEO salaries while teachers are underpaid and students lack resources. My conscience and my teacher gut will not allow me to support the conversion of our public school system to a corporatized, profit-driven system of schools built on this type of capitalistic foundation, a foundation that will be further expanded under the new leadership in Washington, DC.

This has been my one major point of dissension.

I fear for the future of our public school system. Money has become the driving force for education reform. There are a lot of challenges within our educational system; mostly originating from the premise that we should be standardizing achievement and holding all students of the same age or grade level accountable to the same metrics. Learning is a uniquely human process. We must do away with the idea of standardizing human development and learning. We must regularly ask ourselves, Are we teaching content or are we teaching kids? When we focus on teaching our kids to count and to be counted on, we will actually be able to embark on the task of providing a high-quality, meaningful education to all our students. Thats an innovation and an alternative I can get behind.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

Trend:

Neighborhood with Armenians has given Azerbaijan only problems, danger of destruction of Azerbaijani culture and threats to security, said Ali Hasanov, Azerbaijani presidents aide for public and political affairs.

He was addressing the ceremony of presentation of the Irevan: Hidden Truth documentary, produced in three languages by the Virtual Karabakh Information and Communication Technology Center with the support of Azerbaijans Ministry of Youth and Sports, in Baku Dec. 21.

While speaking about the massacres committed against the Azerbaijani people over the last 200 years, Azerbaijans national leader Heydar Aliyev said that the neighborhood with Armenians always puts a geopolitical task in front of Azerbaijan that we shouldnt forget, said Hasanov. Usually neighboring countries contribute to each others development, but the neighborhood with Armenians has given us only problems, danger of destruction of our culture and threats to our security, and there has been genocide against our people.

Our geopolitical task is to protect our history, culture, physical existence and future development from the Armenians, he added.

Hasanov said the Irevan: Hidden Truth documentary is a serious project, but it is not enough.

We should give a better description of Irevans history, which was restored with great efforts, including mosques and monuments, said Hasanov.

He added that brochures should be prepared with regard to these issues and they should be distributed among tourists in order to inform them on how Armenians destroyed the Azerbaijani history.

Our diplomats traveling abroad, our compatriots living abroad, and our youth should take part in this films promotion in the world, said the top official.

Sometimes we explain the pro-Armenian circles in the Christian world, but they show doubt towards us against the background of the Christian-Muslim discrimination, he noted. Therefore, we have to do a lot in order to reveal the Armenians frauds.

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly said: compare the multiculturalism in Azerbaijan and the multiculturalism in the West. Our difference is that we respect all the nations, representatives of different religions living in Azerbaijan as ourselves, we treat them with love, added Hasanov.

However, the best feature of the West was that for a while they tolerated the people who speak different languages and have different religions, noted the top official. Now they even dont tolerate that.

Hasanov said that today everyone knows what attitude is shown by the Western countries towards migrants and refugees; they are being displaced and shot at borders.

Then they present the tolerance of Western civilization to the world. This is exactly their tolerance, he noted. We, the Azerbaijanis are one of the victims of the Islamophobia disease that is being formed in the world today.
Winter at the #NoDAPL encampment in North Dakota. Photo by Spencer Keeton Cunningham



A billionaire businessman with no experience in Indian issues is slated to oversee the federal agency whose handling of the Dakota Access Pipeline has come under repeated criticism.

"Whether it is his distinguished military service or highly impressive track record in the world of business, Vinnie has proved throughout his life that he knows how to be a leader and deliver major results in the face of any challenge," Trump said in a press release on Monday.

A huge legal, political and public relations challenge will be facing Viola should be confirmed as Secretary of the Army . The post exercises direct authority over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , the agency that holds the fate of the $3.8 billion crude oil pipeline in its hands.

Officially, the project is on hold in order for the Army Corps to conduct a more thorough review of the final portion of the pipeline in response to concerns raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and its many allies . Oil spills, treaty rights and even a potential reroute away from the reservation in North Dakota are to be considered during the environmental impact statement

"We've denied the easement for the crossing for DAPL. We're going to start the NEPA process soon," Charles "Chip" Smith, an official with the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, told the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at a hearing on December 9

Smith was referring to the National Environmental Policy Act , the federal law that will guide the upcoming review. But the process has yet to begin, more than two weeks after Jo-Ellen Darcy , who is the outgoing Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works , announced the December 4 decision on the easement

With Trump coming on board in just a month, the Army Corps doesn't have much time to get the ball rolling. It's crucial for the review to start soon because it would be difficult -- though not impossible -- for the incoming administration to change course.

We Stand Like Sitting Bull LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, a Dakota historian and director of Sacred Stone Camp in Standing Rock, recounts the fateful day that Thathaka Iyothaka (Sitting Bull) was murdered. (With footage from AdaMedia Med Mera) . . . . . My name is LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, Im an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and we are part of Sitting Bulls people. Sitting Bull as you know, is a legend among our people but hes also our relative, a family member, and goes down in history. Hes known by the whole world. What did Sitting Bull stand for? Resistance. What did Sitting Bull stand for? His people. Why was this important? Because Sitting Bull understood who he was, who his people were, and where he belonged in this world. Just as Sitting Bull did, we continue to stand with those same thoughts, ideas and memories. As we come up [to present day], and as Ive said and have been saying, historys repeating itself. In 1890 in September, The Bismarck Tribune was writing stories about the Indians uprising and the Indians rioting. We see the same thing today. On December 15th, in the early morning, soldiers from Fort Yates and 47 Indian police went down to Sitting Bulls campsite at five oclock in the morning. They walked out to his cabin, pounded on the door and demanded for him to get up. As they went into the cabin, they told him he had to come to the agency and Sitting Bull got up saying, Ohan, ohan. [He] started getting ready, told his wife to get his clothes, told his son to go get his horse, and as he was getting dressed, the camp was stirring. The people could hear all the motions, the horses and the people moving so they all started getting out of their tents and began gathering. As they were gathering the people stood in front of the cabin and as Sitting Bull came out, Officer Red Tomahawk was on one side, Lt. Bull Head on another side with Shaved Head in the back. They came out to the front [of the cabin] and Catch the Bear yelled, Where are you taking our chief? Posted by Sacred Stone Camp on Friday, December 16, 2016

Sacred Stone Camp on Facebook: We Stand Like Sitting Bull



"An arbitrary order from the new White House to issue the easement  despite the Army Corps statement that further work is needed  would be illegal and would subject the decision to close judicial scrutiny," attorney Jan Hasselman, who is representing the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in federal court, wrote on the Earthjustice blog on Friday . "Together with the tribe, we are prepared to defend the Corps decision and challenge any effort to reverse it."

Even before winning the November 8 election, Trump made no secret of his support for large scale infrastructure projects like Dakota Access. He's now stacking his team with pro-development figures, including former Texas governor Rick Perry , his pick to lead the Department of Energy . Perry sits on the board of directors for Energy Transfer Partners , the firm behind the pipeline.

Though he comes from a business background, Viola doesn't come with similar baggage or preconceptions about pipelines. At the same time, he doesn't have any experience with Indian Country either and the Army Corps' handling of Dakota Access has been seen as a failure of its tribal policy.

"As we look and see what is going on in North Dakota with the pipeline, the Sioux people are in for a long fight," Chairman Harry Barnes of the Blackfeet Nation said last month in Washington, D.C., where he celebrated the protection of the tribe's sacred lands in Montana from energy development after a decades-long effort that spanned three presidential administrations.

"But they're winnable fights," Barnes added.

Separate from the pending environmental review, the Army Corps has to defend itself from a cross-claim filed by the wealthy backers of Dakota Access . The firm argues that it has a right to drill under the Missouri River, less than a half-mile north of Standing Rock , despite lacking the easement that was denied this month.

The agency is facing a January 6, 2017, deadline -- before Trump is sworn into office -- to submit crucial papers in court on the issue. The Department of Justice , which will soon be under new leadership , plans to contest the cross-claim, an attorney said at a December 9 hearing in D.C.

The Army Corps also joined the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Yankton Sioux Tribe in seeking an "abeyance" of their separate but related claims against the agency. Judge James E. Boasberg agreed to the request as he prepares for a hearing in early February on the easement.

By that time, though, Trump will be in office. "None of us have any idea whether the incoming administration will make any or all of this moot," Boasberg said on December 9.

He quickly added: "It's not my business to guess."

Beyond the legal and political realms, the new Trump administration will have to face the public, which has rallied behind Indian Country in its effort to stop the pipeline from crossing the Missouri River. Tribal activists, ranging from youth to elders, aren't giving up and their defiance turned the #NoDAPL movement into an international and celebrity cause.

"To fight for our way of life and we will be here, on this land, to stand up for our people, for the water, for the land," said LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who founded the Sacred Stone Camp , the original #NoDAPL prayer camp. "We will not back down. We will not stop. We will be here.

About 1,000 people remain at Sacred Stone, which sits on Brave Bull Allard's property, and at the other #NoDAPL camps, which are located on land managed by the Army Corps. A string of brutal winter storms has prompted many to leave, with promises to return once conditions improve.

Earlier this month, the population there swelled to 10,000 with the arrival of nearly 4,000 veterans and other supporters. During the late summer and early fall, anywhere between 5,000 to 7,000 people were regular visitors and workers to the camps, located on land promised to the Sioux Nation by treaty.

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Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Montana) has been nominated as Secretary of the Interior by Republican president-elect Donald Trump. Photo by Gage Skidmore



Zinke, who spent 23 years with the elite unit, was warned about his travel to and from his home in Montana, according to the report. He claimed he was going there on military business but also admitted the trips were of a personal nature, multiple sources told The Intercept.

Zinke, however, was never punished or reprimanded. He was eventually ordered to repay $211 for one flight to Montana, The Missoulian reported in 2014, when the issue surfaced during his U.S. Congressional campaign

The travel at issue occurred during two years of Zinke's service, according to The Intercept and The Missoulian. He otherwise received positive reports performance reports during his time with the Navy.

Zinke has been tapped by Republican president-elect Donald Trump to lead the Interior Department . In that role, he would oversee the Bureau of Indian Affairs , the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians and the National Indian Gaming Commission

The post is subject to confirmation by the Senate . Hearings are expected in January.

Read More on the Story: Trumps Pick for Interior Secretary Was Caught in Pattern of Fraud at SEAL Team 6 (The Intercept 12/20)

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As soon as the name of Kareena and Saif Ali Khan's baby was announced, people had a weird reaction. From trolling on Twitter to making some angry, shocking and distasteful comments, the reaction was absolutely absurd. People could not believe that Saif-Kareena could name their baby on 14th century Mongol invader who mercilessly slaughtered thousands while on his way to capturing Delhi.

Amidst this absurd conversation and comments on social media, only one person made absolute sense and the person was Omar Abdullah. Congratulating Saif and Kareena, the politician wrote,

The only people who get to decide a babys name are the parents of said baby & the ones they ask. Why should opinion of the rest matter? He added, So congrats to Saif & Kareena and a long happy life to their baby son. May #TaimurAliKhan have a happy & healthy life..

In series of tweets, he wrote,

The only people who get to decide a baby's name are the parents of said baby & the ones they ask. Why should opinion of the rest matter?  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) December 20, 2016
After the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) which was announced earlier this year for black money holders to voluntarily disclose their income to officials failed to achieve the amount it had estimated, the government has launched yet another scheme.

The new scheme will begin on Saturday, December 17 and will be open till March 31, 2017. Terming it as the last chance for voluntary disclosure of unaccounted income, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said there will be a fine of 50 per cent on the disclosures. Read more

1. PM Modi Finds A 'Way Of Life' In Digital Economy, Tells BJP MPs To Spread The Message

Even as the Parliament logjam continues over demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hit back at Congress over what he called "party's double standards when it comes to the fight against black money."

Addressing party lawmakers on Friday, PM Modi said digital economy should be a way of life "as it will be transparent and effective." Read more

2. Rs 2,900 Crore In 586 Raids, That's How Much Black Money I-T Department Has Seized Since Demonetisation

In a little over a month since demonetisation, the income tax department carried out a record 586 raids across the country which yielded more than Rs 300 crore in cash seizures, Rs 79 crore in new currency notes of Rs 2,000, and unaccounted income of Rs 2,600 crore.

The highest seizure has been from Tamil Nadu where the tax department recovered more than Rs 100 crore in cash in one single search in Chennai. The total cash seizure from Tamil Nadu has been in excess of Rs 140 crore besides gold seizure worth Rs 52 crore. Read more

3. Ratan Tata Sticks To His Guns, Says He's Not Stepping Down As Chairman of Tata Trusts

Ratan Tata, interim chairman of Tata Sons, said that contrary to media reports, he has no plans to step down as chairman of Tata Trusts "at this point in time." Tata Trusts, which control 66% in Tata Sons, is the holding company of the $108-billion Tata Group.

Tata said the Trusts are undertaking many initiatives that had "national impact and he is looking forward to continuing his involvement with these initiatives" in the Trusts. Read more

4. Meet Nand Lal, The 80 Year Old Army Man Who's Crying Picture In A Bank Queue Went Viral

Indiatimes exclusively spoke to the man who still can't get his own money. He also ticks all the boxes of being nationalistic - he's retired from the Indian Army, doesn't live in an unconnected village but in Gurgaon, India's millennium city.

Nand Lal, (80), an ex-serviceman had gone to bank on Tuesday and it wasn't his first visit. "I had been trying for the last four days, but I couldn't get money. At last, when my turn came, they told me that I will get only 10,000, but I required more money since I had to pay my maid and rent. But they didn't give me the money and I broke down," said Nand Lal who lives in Old Gurgaon's Bhim Nagar area in a rented 8X10 room. Read more

5. After Trading Allegations, PM Modi And Rahul Gandhi Meet Face To Face On Farmers' Loan Issue

Rahul told the PM that the cut in the import duty on wheat has worsened the situation for farmers, "Removal of import duty on wheat is a devastating blow. The PM acknowledged that the situation of farmers is serious. On my urging that farmers' loans should be waived, the PM didn't say anything, he just listened," Rahul told the media after his meeting with the PM.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Rahul Gandhi said, This government has waived off loans of Rs 1.40 lakh crore to corporate. So we urged the government to waive off the loans of the farmers as well. Read more
A BA student tried to commit suicide at a bank in Uttar Pradesh's Etawah district on Tuesday after she failed to withdraw money from her account. Girja, 23, stabbed herself at a State Bank of India branch after bank officials told her that her KYC documents were incomplete. She was rushed to a primary health centre.

aufeminin.com/Representational Image

Police said that Girja had been making rounds of the bank from the last 15 days to withdraw Rs 2,000 for purchasing medicines for her chronic illness. "Every time her number came, the bank employees refused to give her money by saying that her KYC documents were incomplete. When she asked for KYC form, they would plead helplessness saying that they didn't have it," station officer Bharthana Sunil Kumar Singh said.

BCCL/Representational Image

On Tuesday, when she was again told by the bankers that she should first complete her KYC formalities, she took out a knife from her bag and injured herself in front of other customers. The bank manager told the police that usually forms are available with the bank. But with noteban, a large number of KYC forms were distributed, leading to a shortage.
Details added (first version posted on 17:21)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

Trend:

Neighborhood with Armenians has given Azerbaijan only problems, danger of destruction of Azerbaijani culture and threats to security, said Ali Hasanov, Azerbaijani presidents aide for public and political affairs.

He was addressing the ceremony of presentation of the Irevan: Hidden Truth documentary, produced in three languages by the Virtual Karabakh Information and Communication Technology Center with the support of Azerbaijans Ministry of Youth and Sports, in Baku Dec. 21.

While speaking about the massacres committed against the Azerbaijani people over the last 200 years, Azerbaijans national leader Heydar Aliyev said that the neighborhood with Armenians always puts a geopolitical task in front of Azerbaijan that we shouldnt forget, said Hasanov. Usually neighboring countries contribute to each others development, but the neighborhood with Armenians has given us only problems, danger of destruction of our culture and threats to our security, and there has been genocide against our people.

Our geopolitical task is to protect our history, culture, physical existence and future development from the Armenians, he added.

Hasanov said the Irevan: Hidden Truth documentary is a serious project, but it is not enough.

We should give a better description of Irevans history, which was restored with great efforts, including mosques and monuments, said Hasanov.

He added that brochures should be prepared with regard to these issues and they should be distributed among tourists in order to inform them on how Armenians destroyed the Azerbaijani history.

Our diplomats traveling abroad, our compatriots living abroad, and our youth should take part in this films promotion in the world, said the top official.

Sometimes we explain the pro-Armenian circles in the Christian world, but they show doubt towards us against the background of the Christian-Muslim discrimination, he noted. Therefore, we have to do a lot in order to reveal the Armenians frauds.
A chief cashier at CST station has blown the lid off a demonetisation scam in which one of her seniors forced her to part with Rs 50 and Rs 100 notes and gave her Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes back.

PTI

In a letter written to the vigilance department, in which she has identified the officer as Assistant Commercial Manager K L Bhoyar, the woman, whose identity is being protected under the new whistleblower laws, has said that from her counter alone Rs 7.3 lakh was exchanged between November 13 and November 17.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, which has booked Bhoyar based on the cashier's letter, has already questioned four other cashiers at the Kalyan station, from whom Bhoyar is alleged to have similarly collected nearly Rs 70,000 in Rs 50 and Rs 100 notes. The agency suspects that Bhoyar followed the same modus operandi across many other stations in Mumbai and the total amount exchanged could eventually run into a few crores of rupees.

CBI sources said at least five more railway officials are under the scanner for colluding with Bhoyar.

PTI

While Bhoyar remained unavailable for a comment on Tuesday, his wife, who has filed an RTI application seeking to know what charges have been pressed against Bhoyar and if there is any supporting CCTV evidence, said her husband is innocent. "My husband is being framed for exposing several scams in his department," she said.

In the letter written to the vigilance department, the whistleblower said though she knew what Bhoyar was doing was wrong she could not stop him because he is far too senior to her. She provided details of all currency exchanges made by Bhoyar between November 13 and November 17 at CST.

According to the FIR registered by the CBI, the vigilance department of the Central Railways tipped the agency about Bhoyar exchanging demonetised note with Rs 100 and Rs 50 notes.

According to the FIR, Bhoyar started exchanging notes a day after the demonetisation announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 9. The first day itself, he exchanged Rs 5000 with the help of a cashier identified as Santosh Khatle. On November 12, another cashier H S Rawat helped Bhoyar exchange Rs 20,000.

PTI

Bhoyar also exchanged old currency notes worth Rs 47000 at Kalyan with the help of two cashiers -- S K Sharma and M L Meena. CBI suspects Bhoyar charged a commission for exchanging the demonetised notes and shared it with some of his colleagues. During a search at his residence, CBI officials found Rs 2 lakh in Rs 100 denomination notes, fixed deposits worth Rs 30 lakh and documents of three immovable properties.

The CBI has now sought Bhoyar's call record details to zero in on the people he was in touch with during the period. Chief Public Relations Officer, Central Railway, Narendra Patil late on Tuesday evening refused to comment on the case.

"The case is being investigated by the CBI so we cannot comment," he said.
While the divide between those who believe that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose died in a plane crash in August 1945 and those who don't is getting sharper, two more recent revelations challenge the 'crash' theory. The first and direct reference come from a French secret report used extensively by eminent historian and Vietnam expert Prof Christopher Goscha for his seminal work 'Thailand and the South-east Asian Networks of the Vietnamese Revolution', published in 1999.

WIKIMEDIA

"I found a footnote reference in Prof. Goscha's book about a `very detailed French report on Japan's War-time South-east Asian Special Services, based on Japanese sources...' which claims that 'Chandra Bose' was in Hanoi in November 1945," says Adheer Som, a Lucknow-based logician and Bose researcher, who instantly got in touch with Goscha and wrote a detailed mail to him on October 12, 2016, to know about this French file and also identity of this `Chandra Bose'.

"I was aware that there was a 'Chandra Bose' in his book. But it is Sarat Chandra, Netaji's brother. However, to the best of my knowledge, he was in jail during August-December, 1945, although he worked very actively thereafter in 46-47 to provide Indian assistance to Vietnam against France. So, I wrote to him that it was almost certain that he (Sarat Chandra) was not in Hanoi in November 1945. Perhaps the reference in the French report to "Chandra Bose" being in Hanoi, is in fact a reference to Subhas not Sarat," he says. In his reply, Goscha was very courteous, but was not of much help about Som's query. "Unfortunately, I did the research for this book almost thirty years ago.You should have the archival reference for this document. I wish I could help you more, but I no longer live in France," Goscha wrote back.

IndiaToday

But what he added next, drove Som to work further on the French files -"Chandra Bose is indeed a fascinating person. Haven't a few other authors written about him?

I'm thinking of Tim Harper and Christopher Bayly's books on Southeast Asia," Goscha, who now teaches in Montreal, wrote. The secret file pertaining to France's engagements in South East Asia in 1940s which Prof Christopher Goscha referred to for his book had twosentence reference to `Chandra Bose'. Prof Goscha shared the said file with Lucknow-based Bose researcher Adheeer Som on November 2. In this file, the following lines about Netaji appear on page 43 (of 68): "Chandra Bose aurait ete present fin novembre a une conference a hanoi ou etaient representees six nations.Chandra Bose serait parti depuis en russi par le yunnan. Le gouv russe l'aurait pris en charge a la frontiere."

(Chandra Bose was reported to be present at the end of November at a conference in Hanoi where six nations were represented. Chandra Bose would have since left for Russia via managed by Yunnan. The Russian government would have taken his charge from the frontier (onwards.) "This has to be a reference to Subhas and not Sarat Chandra Bose, as Sarat attending a secret six-nation conferences in Hanoi in November 1945 is impossible as he was in prison in India. Also, the second line makes no sense for Sarat to leave via China for Russia.Besides, Prof Goscha himself reiterated in an earlier mail that "It is well known that Bose was in Hanoi," Som says. Also, it is well known that on August 18, 1945, when he took off from Taihoku in Taiwan after which his plane reportedy crashed, he was headed for Munchuria to join Russsians. In this context also, this second line of the French file is significant. Prof Goscha followed up with another copious collection of files from a different archival source with the exact same reference to Chandra Bose having attended a secret conference in Hanoi in November 1945 etc.

indian express

It said: "Chandra Bose auriat been present in late November a conference in Hanoi or were represented six nations." (Chandra Bose was gone by since succeeded by Yunnan. Russian govt would have taken care of at the border.)"

"I'm indebted to Prof Goscha for so kindly sharing with me this crucial information on Netaji. Besides being as sharp a counterpoint as any to the claim of Netaji's death in Taihoku on August 18, 1945, this file makes a very strong case for the Indian government to demand from the French government, any and all files it has with any information whatsoever regarding Netaji," he adds. Ukraine denies having info on Bose, but says Russians may have it.

The second counterpoint that challenges the crash theory, though indirectly, is a reply from the Ukraine Security Service that Som received when he sought information about Netaji, if any, in the files of KGB declassified last year. Although the director of the Ukraine Security Service Archives, Dr Andriy Kohut, said that they don't have any information about Bose, he, interestingly, pointed out at least three places from where such information could be taken. All these places are in Russia. "Reported that the SBU GDA any information about Subhas (Subhash) Sandra (Chandra) Bose (Bose) are absent. However for further information do please file the necessary appeal to the Central Archives of the Russian Federal Security Service Federation (St.Great Lubyanka, 2,. Moscow, 101100, Russia) and departments Federal Security Service in Omsk Region (Lenin str., 2,. Omsk, 644099, Russia) and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (St. Dzerzhinsky, 6 m.Yakutsk. Sakha Republic. 677000. Russia) the place of document storage of USSR Military Counter-intelligence.

"The interesting part in said response is that three top-secret Russian Archives, with address, have been duly and specifically listed as sources of further information. It is also very curious that these are the very archives that still remain largely inaccessible to researchers. The Government of India should, therefore, request Russia to immediately provide either access or share the Netaji-related information contained in said archives. After all, it'll be Netaji's 120th birth anniversary on January 23," says Som.
You can hate demonetisation for putting you through long ATM lines and the 59 different announcements by the RBI, but the measure has definitely cracked open India's corruption problem. Critics of demonetisation have rued not the idea, but the implementation.

It has also, at least temporarily thrown a spanner into the workings of industries that thrive on black money.

2 weeks after the move was announced by Modi, Pakistan's central bank called it an "extreme" step to boost financial inclusion, tax collection and battle graft. Surprisingly, a month later Pakistan decided to scrap its Rs. 5000 note

Pakistan has fallen victim to the same problem that India has - good/radical idea, bad implementation

See, India's implementation lacked the foresight of how Indians would be inconvenienced, and possibly workaround measures. The idea's few wins came from the sudden, unexpected rollout that left India's corrupt scrambling. India's corrupt rushed to jewellery stores and bullion dealers to convert their crores overnight. Later, they managed to (at a rate varying between 10 - 18%) find the middleman to supply them crores in the new currency. A seamless black economy chugged on, somehow.

Pakistan's implementation is horrible because it gives the country's corrupt enough time to get their finances in order.

Pakistan, voted one of the most corrupt countries in the world (it ranks 117 out of 175 on a list of the most corrupt countries in the world - Corruption Perceptions Index: Transparency International), and it is obvious that black money is rampant. So is the use of the Rs 5000 note for illegal transactions, Senator Usman Saifullah of Opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP) said, tabling the resolution. has given people enough time to restructure their assets, ao to speak.

How much time is "enough time"? Three to five years!

Senator Usman Saifullah (Pakistan Peoples Party) who tabled the resolution stating that the Rs 5000 note was being used in illegal transactions asked for the note's withdrawal over three to five years.

Hey Pakistanis, if you have black money, you have to do literally nothing - immediately. Buy some gold next month, invest in some land next year - take your time. Because corruption is going nowhere, clearly.

Pakistan Follows Modi's Move, Passes Resolution To Demonetise 5,000 Rupee Notes
The investigative wing of the income-tax department seized on Monday alleged unaccounted for income to the tune of Rs 1.56 crore from various branches of Integral Urban Co-operative Bank Limited in Jaipur. Of this, nearly Rs 1.38 crore was in the new Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes.

PTI

Following complaints and intelligence inputs about unaccounted for money in the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes being exchanged for new banknotes, the I-T department began a survey at the bank on Friday.

The department found that CEO Keshav Badaya, 38, ran 14 branches of the bank. In addition, he was also involved with the management of St. Wilfred Educational Society, which runs St. Wilfred's PG College in Jaipur.

taxationnow.com

"We got reports that the management of St. Wilfred Education society was not accepting older currency notes as fees from students. It was also found that the chief administrative officer of Integral Urban Co-operative Bank and St.Wilfred's is the same person. It was found that they were changing the older notes for fresh notes from the bank," said the I-T officer.

"It appears he was converting his black money into white through the bank," the officer added. Sleuths also seized gold and silver worth nearly Rs 46 lakh from unclaimed lockers at the bank. I-T officers said Badaya could not be contacted in person or over the phone.

NDTV

Meanwhile, the Rajasthan police also seized Rs 64 lakh from three people detained in Jaipur on Monday afternoon. Two of the suspects have been identified as Deepak Bhardiya, who is said to be an industrialist, and Sandeep, who runs a dairy in the city. According to police, the trio planned to use the cash to exchange the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for a 15% commission.
While lakhs of Syrians are getting killed, and displaced in Eastern Aleppo and several other regions, people in Iraq especially Mosul arent doing any better either as till now over 100,000 people have been displaced as a result of the massive operation to recapture Iraqs second city Mosul, the International Organization for Migration said on Sunday.

Also read: Around 900 Civilians Flee Mosul As The Anti-ISIS Operation Intensifies

AFP

On October 17, Iraq army had launched operation to retake Mosul-the last Iraqi city held by the ISIS. But since the battle began, a total of 103, 872 people have been displaced and majority of them are from Nineveh of which Mosul is the capital, the IOM said on its displacement tracking webpage.

Also read: Anti-ISIS Operation Enters Crucial Phase, Iraqi Army Within Striking Distance From Mosul

AFP

Iraqi Displacement and Migration Minister Jassem Mohammed al-Jaff told AFP that 118,000 people had been displaced since the operation started, a figure that includes those who fled the ISIS-held Hawijah area in another province.

Also read: Around 1,000 ISIS Terrorists Killed In Six Weeks As Iraqi Army Uproot Their Bases In Mosul

AFP

Aid organisations believe that the number could swell in days to come as a million more could get displaced due the armys ongoing Operation against ISIS.

Though evern since the operation was launched on October 17, the forces from Iraqs elite Counter-Terrorism Service have advanced deep into eastern Mosul, and nearly half of that side of the city has been recaptured. But forces on the southern front have stalled south of Mosul, and those north of the city have also faced stiff resistance from IS.

AFP

West of Mosul, Iraqi paramilitaries aim to retake Tal Afar, located between the city and Syria, but have yet to launch an assault on the town itself.

ISIS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained much of the territory they lost that year.
Sara Roebuck was 24 years old when she was violently attacked by a man in a nightclub bathroom. The British woman living in Paris had just moved to the city when the man locked her in a room and attacked her.

He used a fire extinguisher to obstruct the door where he locked her, before forcing himself on her. He forced her against a sink in the small bathroom and attempted to rape her. Consequently, her body was left with hand-shaped bruises, after what could not be completed by the monstrous man.

One year later, after his conviction, Sara decided to pen a letter to her attacker.

She wrote: "Dear individual,

"I write to you on this cold December evening, almost one year after you tried to rape me, because its the first time that Ive felt strong enough to put pen to paper.

"I write to you because this afternoon we met again, only the surroundings were not quite the same.

"Your hands were cuffed behind your back, not sweatily gripped around my body. Your eyes were on the floor, not greedily inches away from my face.

"We were in the same room, only this time it was my choice and not yours.

mirror

"This time, you didnt succeed in blocking the door with a fire extinguisher and keeping me against my will.

"This time, the door was closed behind you, by an armed police officer, and within, you found yourself looking at three judges in front of you, and my lawyer to the left of me.

"I write you this letter knowing you will never read it, because you are about to spend a significant duration of your adult life, as you already have done for the last ten months, in prison.

"But, I must write it nonetheless, for men like you, for women like me, but above all, for my own emancipation."

You can read the full post here.

Sara, a student at Sciences Po in Paris, told The Mirror how she was writing the letter for other victims of rape and sexual assault. She hopes that the taboos that encircles victims end, and that the world changes its perspective and attitude towards these.

Sara told The Mirror: "To be honest I am completely gobsmacked by everything, it has totally exploded in the last 24 hours and I'm just so emotional and thrilled that everything I wrote is being put out there for literally millions of women to read.

It's really brave of women who are rape survivors to come forward and share their stories.

More strength to survivors!
A WhatsApp group administrator is not legally responsible for defamatory statements made by group members, the Delhi High Court has ruled.

The court dismissed a defamation civil suit filed against an admin, after his group targeted Ashish Bhalla, the employee of a real-estate employee. The man had resigned from the real estate company, which had left many home buyers disgruntled. Read more here.

Here are 5 more stories for you:

1. BJP Received Rs 76 Crore From 613 Donors, And That's The Maximum Donation For Any Party In 2015

Reuters

While there is a debate over the money deposited by political parties after demonetisation, all eyes are on the amount of donation these parties have taken in the previous year. Seven national political parties received Rs 102 crore as donations above Rs 20,000  the limit for receiving anonymous donations  from 1,744 donations in 2015-2016, with BJP receiving the maximum of Rs 76 crore from 613 donors.

The donations declared by BJP add up to thrice the aggregate declared by Congress, NCP, CPI, CPM and Trinamool Congress for the same period. The parties are required to identify donations and donors above the Rs 20,000 limit. Congress received the second-highest amount  Rs 20 crore  from 918 donations, according to an analysis of donation details by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). Read more here

2. Ayurveda Researcher Says Western Cows Fart To Destroy Ozone Layer, But Indian Cows Are Innocent

cowag/Representational Image

While scientists across the globe have been struggling to find ways to curb climate change, a researcher of the Jamnagar-based Gujarat Ayurveda University has claimed that the belching of the Western cows adversely affects the ozone layer, causing the hole in it, but holy Indian cows are not responsible for global warming.

Dr Hitesh Jani, who has been given responsibility to conduct research by Gujarat Gauseva and Gauchar Vikas Board, in his research paper says that Western cows are responsible for global warming while glorifying cows of Indian origin. Read more here

3. Orlando Shooting Victim Families Suing FB And Google For Making The Shooter 'A Radical Muslim'

Reuters

Families of three victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting that left 50 dead and 53 wounded in June 2016, have sued tech giants Facebook, Google and Twitter for allegedly providing material support to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group and helping radicalise shooter Omar Mateen.

According to a Fox News report, the lawsuit was filed in federal court in the eastern district of Michigan on Monday on behalf of the families of Tevin Crosby, Javier Jorge-Reyes and Juan Ramon Guerrero, stating that the three web platforms provided the terrorist group IS with accounts they use to spread extremist propaganda, raise funds and attract new recruits. Read more here

4.Rs 3000 Crore With 85 Cr New Notes Seized In 677 Search Operations Against Black Money

BCCL

The crackdown on black money continues across the country as the Income Tax department has seized about Rs 3,185 crore of undisclosed income with Rs 86 crore worth new notes.

According to sources, the IT department carried out a total of 677 searches, survey and enquiry operations under the provisions of the Income Tax Act since the note ban was declared on November 8, even as the department has issued over 3,100 notices to various entities on charges of tax evasion and hawala-like dealings.

The department, they said, has seized cash and jewellery worth over Rs 428 crore during the same period even as the new currency seized (majorly Rs 2000 notes) is valued at about Rs 86 crore. Read more here

5. RBI Withdraws Rs 5,000 Deposit Restriction For All KYC-Compliant Accounts

RBI issues notification, withdraws Rs.5000 deposit restriction for KYC compliant accounts  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

Demonetisation is anything but consistent. Ever since the act came into the picture on November 8, it has stood vulnerable to umpteen amendments and we are no longer surprised now that RBI has changed it again.

In a circular issued by the banks on Wednesday, RBI said that it was revoking the restrictions. The restriction which was imposed on Monday faced a lot of criticism. However, the constant amendments are even more ludicrous. Read more here
Ankara, Turkey, Dec. 21

By Atilla Caner  Trend:

Turkeys Otokar company, which is part of Koc Holding, intends to establish Sultan brand bus production in Iran, Otokar company said in a message.

According to the message, Otokar and Iranian OGHAB Afshan Industrial and Manufacturing Co. signed an agreement.

According to the agreement, the Iranian side will assemble, sell and deal with marketing of Turkish buses, the company said.

Otokar intends to provide OGHAB with a license and technologies for the production.

According to the message, the agreement was signed for three years with the possibility of extension for another two years.

According to the agreement, OGHAB will pay 500,000 euros to the Turkish side for the license, the company said.

Otokar exports Sultan buses to more than 40 countries. For example, these buses are sold under Navigo brand in the European countries markets.

Otokar Otomotiv ve Savunma Sanayi A.S. is a subsidiary of Turkeys Kos Holding. It mainly produces buses and military vehicles.

Turkey ranks sixth in car production in Europe. It produces cars of such brands as Ford, FIAT, Renault, Toyota, Honda, Opel, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and MAN.

Moreover, Turkey manufactures buses of local brands - BMC, Temsa and Otokar.
Were excited to announce that indmin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com.

A new look and an improved experience means you can still stay ahead of this fast-moving market with price data, news and market intelligence right here on Fastmarkets.

Discover more than 2000 prices, news and analysis in primary and secondary metals markets. We cover base metals, industrial minerals, ores and alloys, steel, scrap and steel raw materials.

If you already have a Fastmarkets account, youll still have uninterrupted access to your markets by logging in with your current details.
Former PASOK party leader and finance minister Evangelosthis week revealed that powerful German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on at least two occasions proposed a "Grexit" prospect, complete with capital controls and a humanitarian aid package.
Eleven children were killed when a bus driver lost control of his vehicle and ploughed into a Muslim procession marking the birthday of Prophet Mohammed in northern Nigeria, police said Wednesday.

The accident Tuesday in Malam Sidi village in Gombe state was due to a brake failure, said police spokesman Ahmed Usman.

A total of 11 children died in the incident while 17 others were seriously injured, Usman told AFP.

He said the victims were aged between 11 and 15, prompting an angry mob to descend on the bus driver and beat him to death.

Police have launched an investigation into the accident, he added.

Muslims in northern Nigeria celebrate the birthday of Prophet Mohammed with month-long religious gatherings and street processions.

Nigeria is almost evenly divided between a mainly-Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

Source: Vanguard
No fewer than 140 Nigerians, who were deported from Libya, arrived in the country on Tuesday through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

The PUNCH learnt that the deportees, who arrived on board a Libyan Airline, were received by the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency, Sani Sidi, who was represented by the South-West Coordinator of the agency, Dr. Onimode Bamdele.

Our correspondent gathered that while many of the deportees left for their various destinations, others left in two chattered BRT buses for the Synagogue Church of All Nations.

Three of the deportees, who had medical issues, were said to have been taken to a hospital, where they were admitted for treatment.

Our correspondent gathered that most of the deportees had been in detention in various Libyan prisons before they were released after the intervention of the International Organisation for Migration and the Nigerian embassy in Libya.

The spokesperson for NEMA, South-West zone, Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed the development.

140-nigerians-deported-from-libya1He said, A total of 140 Nigerians were deported. While some of them were from the villages and hinterland, a lot of them were imprisoned. But they all had the desire to return home due to the ugly experiences they had.

Their deportation was facilitated by the International Organisation for Migration and the Nigerian embassy in Libya. They took off from Libya around 12.30pm Nigerian time and arrived at 4.30pm. Of the 140 deportees, 74 were male adults, while 52 were female adults. We also had six unaccompanied underage, consisting five females and one male. There were four infants among the deportees. Three of the deportees had medical issues and had to be taken to the hospital.

Most of them dispersed to their various states  Benue, Edo, Anambra, Enugu  while we got six accommodated in hotels. Many of them left in two BRT buses for the Synagogue Church of All Nations.

Farinloye said the deportees regretted their decision to travel abroad, adding that they had sad tales to tell.

He said the NEMA DG challenged them to stay in Nigeria and contribute to the development of the country.

He said, They said what they passed through was what they would never wish for their enemies. The DG told them that even Libya that they went to believe there is no place like Nigeria because Nigeria has the most liberal policies for foreigners. He told them to stay back in Nigeria and help in developing the country and we will soon overcome our challenges.

Source: Punch
There was a time when early Christians didnt celebrate birthdays at all, let alone Christs, believing birth celebrations to be little more than pagan practices. Clearly, theres a lot we dont really know, or have forgotten, about how the modern Christmas came to be.

Scroll down to learn seven surprising facts about Christmas history and traditions:

1. The first recorded Christmas celebration wasnt until 336 A.D.

For the first 300 years of Christianity, the church did not have a feast day set aside to celebrate Jesuss birth. It wasnt until 336 A.D. that December 25 first showed up in records as a holiday commemorating its founders birthday, listed in a Roman almanac on Christian bishops and martyrs.

2. Some Orthodox churches celebrate Christmas in January.

Some Orthodox churches, including the Russian and Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Church, celebrate Christs birth on January 6 and 7. These churches use the Julian calendar  rather than the Gregorian calendar, which most of the rest of the world uses  which accounts for the 13-day discrepancy between the two Christmas dates.

3. The Puritans despised Christmas.

The American pilgrims followed in the footsteps of Oliver Cromwell, who took over England in 1645 and worked to ban Christmas in an effort to weed out decadent traditions. The pilgrims similarly looked down on Christmas as an indulgent British custom and outlawed it in some places. In England, Christmas once more became widely celebrated after the monarchy was reinstated in 1660. But it wasnt declared a federal holiday in the U.S. until June 26, 1870.

4. The Christmas tree tradition emerged in the 16th century.

Roman pagans had long decorated their homes with evergreen boughs to represent the cycle of life that persists beyond the cold winter months. Whether that traditions carried over into early Christian homes is unclear. But by the 1500s, the evergreen tree had emerged as a symbol of Christmas in Latvia and Strasbourg, according to Christianity Today. Some sources also cite Germany as an original home to the Christmas tree. The tradition spread to the American colonies in the late 18th century with the arrival of European immigrants, but most Americans considered the decoration to be a pagan symbol until much later.

5. St. Francis invented the nativity scene centuries after Jesuss birth.

St. Francis of Assisi is credited with staging the first nativity scene in 1223. According to a biography of the saint written in 1263, St. Francis set up a manger complete with hay and two live animals in a cave in the Italian village of Grecio. He then invited villagers to visit the installation as he preached about the babe of Bethlehem. Nativity scenes, or creches, eventually spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world and can be found in many churches and homes around Christmastime.

6. Writing Xmas is actually theologically sound.

The Associated Press advises against using the abbreviation Xmas when writing about Christmas, but doing so is actually perfectly acceptable, theologically speaking. The Greek letter X, or Chi, is the first letter of Christ andserved as a stand-in for Jesuss name dating back to at least 1100. In 1551, Christmas was known as Xtemmas, and eventually it was shortened to Xmas.

Huffingtonpost.com
Aged 102, Australias oldest working scientist has won his battle with a Perth University to continue his research on campus.

In August, Edith Cowan University (ECU) decided to kick Dr David Goodall out of his office at the Joodalup campus from 2017, advising the 102-year-old that he would have to work from home.

The university believed he presented a health and safety risk, due to his old age.

But Dr Goodall, who has worked for ECU for more than 20 years and has studied ecology for 70 years, contested the move because he didnt want to leave.

It would take the scientist 90 minutes to commute to the Joondalup campus, where he worked at least four days a week.

ECU has now reversed its decision, allowing him to keep an office. But both sides had to compromise.

Following ongoing discussions with David and his family, I am pleased we have found a solution that will ensure David can continue to be based at ECU, ECU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Steve Chapman said in a statement.

We have made available a new office for him at the Mount Lawley Campus, which will shorten his travel time from his home.

It will in fact halve Dr Goodalls travel time, and he will be situated close to support workers if he has any issues  be it work or health-related.

[The Mt Lawler campus] is also located adjacent to our Campus Support Office, which is continuously staffed through the day, ensuring there are colleagues present should David require assistance, Professor Chapman explained.

Dr Goodall is currently an honorary research associate at ECU, which is an unpaid position.

ECU is seeking to renew Davids honorary appointment this month as planned. This continues the Universitys long association with David, Professor Chapman noted.

Dr Goodall has expressed gratitude the university will accommodate him, but is said to be sad to be leaving his old office.
American rapper Azealia Banks had everything but nice words when she went in attack mode against fellow musician and occasional foe, Nicki Minaj.

Banks shared a post on Facebook suggesting that Minaj slim down a bit and stop calling herself the queen of rap.

Banks also revealed that she has an upcoming record with Minajs ex, Safaree Samuels.

Dont start throwing shade cause you miss safaree and know that Ive actually made a BANGER with him, Banks wrote on Facebook. Dont get mad, get even. Slim down a bit (especially in your neck and arms). Decrease the butt just a bit (Ive seen your butt make some really expensive dresses look really cheap) and STOP WEARING SPANDEX AS AN OUTFIT FOR FUCKS SAKE. Also stop calling yourself the queen of rap.

Before ending her tirade with a Happy Holidays! Banks questioned why Minaj is so impressed with her career.

Mere hours after posting her verbal attack on Minaj, Banks deleted her Facebook post and informed fans that shes not the same person I was two hours ago.

Banks latest jabs against Minaj boast similarities to a rant dating back to last year.

In 2015, she criticised Minaj over her feud with Miley Cyrus, and also took a shot at her body enhancements.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan should develop and expand mutual investments, Azerbaijans Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev said.

He made the remarks in Baku Dec. 21 during the 6th meeting of economy ministers of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States.

Mustafayev said Azerbaijan has well-developed mutual investments with Turkey and Kazakhstan, and these ties should be developed with Kyrgyzstan as well.

Azerbaijan has invested $8 billion in the Turkish economy, $6.7 billion of which accounted for such projects as the Petkim Petrochemical Complex, the Star Oil Refinery and the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), and the remaining $1.3 billion were allocated to other spheres, the minister said. I would like to note that we plan to bring the total volume of Azerbaijani investments to Turkey to $18-20 billion by 2020.

Turkey has invested $10 billion in Azerbaijans economy, $2.6 billion of it going to Azerbaijans non-oil sector, Mustafayev said.

Turkey ranks first in terms of investments in Azerbaijans non-oil economy, the minister added.

Mustafayev said investment cooperation between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan is also on a good level.

Azerbaijans investments into the economy of Kazakhstan amount to $190 million, the minister said. Creation of a logistics center in the Seaport Aktau special economic zone is one of the important investment projects between our countries. The cost of this project is $15 million.

The plant Aktau Energomash worth $50 million can be mentioned among the major projects implemented with help of Azerbaijani investments, he noted. In turn, Kazakhstan has invested $67 million in Azerbaijans economy.

The Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) was established in 2009 as an international intergovernmental organization, with the overarching aim of promoting comprehensive cooperation among Turkic speaking states.

Its four founding member states are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey.
Popular furniture retailer company IKEA has told teenagers to stop sneaking into its stores and having illegal sleepovers.

The furniture giant has recorded about 10 non-sponsored sleepovers across the world this year. The craze appears to have been started by YouTube users in Belgium over the summer.

Their video, which has garnered 1.7 million views, shows their illicit activities, like jumping on beds, after they hid in a wardrobe for three hours to avoid being discovered by the stores employees.

The most recent incident occurred in Jonkoping, Sweden, when 14-year-old girls were caught by IKEA employees after spending the night at a store. Though those teenagers are not being charged, another pair of 15-year-old girls in Malmo, Sweden, who were caught in October, were not so fortunate. The girls were reported to police for trespassing when they were found in the morning.

IKEA issued a plea to customers of all ages to host their sleepovers elsewhere.

We appreciate that people are interested in Ikea and want to create fun experiences, an IKEA UK spokesperson told the BBC. However, the safety and security of our co-workers and customers is our highest priority and thats why we do not allow sleepovers in our stores.

IKEA owns nearly 400 stores around the world.
Scores of pensioners on Tuesday marched along major streets of Owerri, the Imo capital to protest payment of only 40 per cent arrears of pension to retirees by the Imo Government.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the pensioners arrived at Orlu Road Roundabout Owerri, the take-off point of the protest, as early as 7.30 a.m. with placards.

Gideon Ezeji, Imo Chairman, National Union of Pensioners (NUP), who addressed the protesters said the protest was to expose the sufferings of Imo pensioners under the administration of Gov. Rochas Okorocha.

Mr. Ezeji explained that six different categories of pensioners were owed between 22 months and 77 months by the state government.

Civil pensioners are owed 22 months, local government pensioners 23 months, retired primary school teachers 32 months, IBC pensioners 44 months, retired permanent secretaries 22 months and Alvan Ikoku pensioners 77 months, he said.

He regretted the governments move to pay 40 per cent of the accumulated pension arrears, adding that forfeiture of the 60 per cent arrears was unacceptable.

The government is now using its agents to force pensioners to sign document it prepared, which by extension will make any pensioner that signs the document to forfeit his/her 60 per cent arrears.

We say no to 40 per cent payment of arrears of pension and call on the Imo Government to pay us 100 per cent before Dec.23, 2016, Mr. Ezeji demanded.

NAN reports that the protest started from Orlu Road roundabout at about 8.30 a.m. from where they marched to Government House Roundabout.

The pensioners carried placards with various inscriptions such as: Pay the much you can, government is a continuum; pension is our right and not gratification.

Also government projects are for the living and not the dead, among others.
As part of efforts to improve the conditions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the country, notable media organizations in partnership with Union Bank have publicly announced the launch of the WeCare4IDPs campaign.

WeCare4IDPs is a citizenship initiative which creates a platform for all Nigerians  individuals and corporate bodies to be a part of the solution in matters concerning IDPs by raising funds to support them.

The WeCare4IDPs campaign is calling on 1 million Nigerians to donate at least N1,000 during the campaign which runs from December 16th to December 31st. Funds raised will go directly to funding direct impact projects defined in the 2017 Nigeria Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) developed by the United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) with the support of the Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning.

It is estimated that more than 8.5 million people have been affected by the insurgency in the North East and require humanitarian assistance. About 6.9 million children and adults are expected to be impacted if the 2017 HRP is fully implemented.

WeCare4IDPs is expected to help bridge funding gaps to implementing the HRP which is estimated will require USD $1.05bn to fully implement the plan.

Funds raised from this initiative will be committed towards the implementation of projects in 5 key areas:
The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for Mondays attack in which a truck drove into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, capital of Germany, killing 12 people and injuring 48.

The terrorist group said on Tuesday that the driver of the truck was targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition, according to the groups news agency Amaq.

Earlier, German prosecutors announced the release of a 23-year-old Pakistani detained in connection with the truck attack, citing a lack of evidence.

On Tuesday night, following the announcement that the suspect had been released, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told broadcaster ZDF that it is true that one cannot rule out that the perpetrator is still at large.

He also warned that it was too early to draw political conclusions from the incident.

Authorities had arrested the asylum seeker on suspicion of driving the truck.
Former governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori has been released from prison after serving out his term.

His media aide, Tony Elumenor confirmed his release.

According to Vanguard, he was released following a court order.

Ibori was sentenced by Southwark Crown Court, London to prison for 13 years.

Back in February, 2012, he was accused of stealing $250 million from the Nigerian public purse. He pleaded guilty to ten counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud at the UK court.

Two weeks ago, reports emerged that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is set to re-arrest and prosecute the former governor, after completion of his prison sentence.

He will be arraigned on 170 charges bordering on money laundering and corruption.
A pastor at the Divine Yard Deliverance Ministry in Iyana Iyesi, Ota, Ogun State, Peace Udoh, has been arrested by the police for allegedly running a baby factory in the church.

The 47-year-old was said to have sold 64 babies before she was arrested on Sunday by operatives from the Lagos State Police Command who acted on a tip-off.

Udoh was apprehended with one Angela Akpan and a nurse, Mrs. Bukola Ajala, who reportedly assisted in childbirth at Udohs church.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the pastor usually referred complicated cases to the nurse, whose clinic  El Shaddai Hospital  is located a few metres away from the church.

Our correspondent gathered that Angelas younger sister, 17-year-old Goodnews Akpan, recently gave birth to a child at the clinic.

Angela, who was arrested on Saturday in the Sango area, was said to have led police operatives on Sunday to Udohs church and Ajalas clinic, where they were picked up respectively.

While parading the suspects on Monday at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters in Ikeja, the Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, said detectives swooped on the syndicate after receiving intelligence report that Udoh needed a buyer for Goodnews baby.

The suspects run a baby factory in the Sango Ota area. We are still working to get 64 other children she has sold out, the CP added.

However, the pastor, who hails from Akwa Ibom State, refuted the allegation, saying she used the church as a maternity home to assist her pregnant church members for a token.

She said, I have been a pastor for 13 years. I only assisted my church members during childbirth. I take delivery of 13 to 15 babies every year and I have handled over 60 cases so far. I dont sell the babies.

Whenever I have a complicated case, I refer the patient to the nurse and we share the money she collects for the service. Angela brought her sister to me in July. She gave birth on November 16 at the nurses clinic and she was discharged. I was surprised when the police came to arrest me yesterday (Sunday).

Ajala, the nurse, said she collected between N15,000 and N17,000 for each child delivery, adding that she didnt know anything about selling of babies.

The third suspect, Angela, said, I am from Abak in Akwa Ibom. I took my sister from our village to the pastor when her pregnancy was four months. She was there until she gave birth in November and I paid N17,000. I didnt intend to sell her child and I have never sold any child before.

Goodnews, a secondary school dropout, told our correspondent that she was not aware of the plan to sell her baby. She said she followed Angela to Lagos to avoid being ridiculed in the village.

I got pregnant in the school but none of my boyfriends was willing to take the responsibility for the pregnancy.

My mother would not allow me stay with her so I decided to follow my sister to Lagos, she added.

Source: Punch
Another 140 Nigerians who voluntarily agreed to return to Nigeria from Libya where they have been stranded on Tuesday arrived the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) Lagos, aboard a Libyan Airlines plane.

One of the returnees described her experience in Libya as living in hell.

Mrs Ifeoluwa Adeosun, an indigene of Owo in Ondo State, said she sold all her property to travel to Germany when her husband, Adeosun died.

She however lamented that she suffered a lot while in Libya.

She said she decided to go abroad in search of the means to take care of her children after the demise of her husband.

She thanked IOM and Federal Government for her trip back to Nigeria,

Adeosun appealed to the Federal Government to evacuate other Nigerians in Libya, adding that they are suffering there.

Among the 140 returnees were 74 adult females, 52 adult males, one female child, two male children, three female infants, two male infants and six unaccompanied kids, out of which five are female and one male.

Alhaji Muhammad Sani Sidi, Director General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), facilitated their journey back into the country.

Sidi, who was represented by Dr Onimode Bandele, Deputy Director, Search and Rescue, NEMA said:

What makes this special is that we have four minor accompanied among them.

We have to do proper training to see that these people are united with their families.

We have three medical cases on board and our doctors are aware of their cases and waiting to attend to them, he said.

The director general thanked the IOM that made it possible for the Nigerians to return home and the Nigeria government who mobilised different agencies for the exercise

He advised the returnees to stop running away from the country, adding that they should stay to develop the country together with their compatriots.

My advice for you is to sit down at home, struggle and lets develop our country. The country you are running to, their citizens developed it. If all of us run out of the country, who will develop it.

So let stay back, struggle, work hard and ensure that our country is a better place for us, he said.

Head of Lagos Office of IOM, Dr Nahashon Thuo, said most of the returnees were trying to cross to Europe without valid immigration papers.

Thuo said they were arrested by Libyan Immigration.

He, whoever, said the returnees indicated their interest to return to Nigeria, adding that they would be given 50 dollars each by the organisation.

Several government agencies were on hand to receive the returnees. Among the agencies were the Nigeria Immigration Service, Port Health from the Federal Ministry of Health and the National Agency against Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIPs)
ADM expands in Turkey, Bulgaria

ADM is to significantly expand overall grind and finishing capacity for sweeteners and starches at its corn wet mill facilities in Turkey and Bulgaria as it sees substantial opportunities in Europe and Middle East markets.

ADM is to significantly expand overall grind and finishing capacity for sweeteners and starches at its corn wet mill facilities in Turkey and Bulgaria.

We continue to see substantial opportunities for starch-based ingredients in Europe and Middle East markets, and, with these expansions, ADM will be well-positioned to meet growing customer demand across the region, said Pierre Duprat, president, ADM Europe, Middle East and Africa. By increasing production capacity and expanding our capabilities, we are ensuring that we will be able to offer our customers an expanded range of sweeteners and starches as sugar production quotas in the EU expire, and as demand from food and paper markets in Turkey and the Middle East continues to grow.

ADM acquired full ownership of corn wet mills in Adana, Turkey, and Razgrad, Bulgaria, along with a 50% ownership stake in a corn wet mill in Szabadegyhaza, Hungary, in November 2015, and has worked since then to achieve a smooth integration into the companys global corn business. The plants produce a complete range of starch products, including liquid sweeteners, native and modified starches, crystalline fructose and dextrose.

In June 2016, ADM also completed the acquisition of a Casablanca, Morocco-based corn wet mill.

One of our key strategic goals is to grow shareholder value through the expansion and diversification of our global corn footprint, Duprat added. Our recent acquisitions in Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary and Morocco all represent major steps in meeting these goals. And we are continuing our efforts to enhance returns on all fronts: In addition to enhancing production capacity, the improvements we have made in Turkey and Bulgaria will also improve operational efficiency at these facilities, increasing our domestic and overseas sales competitiveness.

ADM is targeting completion of the projects in the first half of 2018.
Bank of China, Fonterra sign agreement

Bank of China has signed what is described as a landmark agreement with Fonterra said to be consistent with both organisations on-going commitment to building New Zealand business interests in China.

Bank of China has signed what is described as a landmark agreement with Fonterra said to be consistent with both organisations on-going commitment to building New Zealand business interests in China. Bank of China New Zealand and the co-operative have established a RMB 1.5 billion (NZ$300 million) multi-currency bank facility including a Chinese currency component.

It is believed to be the first of its kind in New Zealand, and provides Fonterra with greater flexibility in how it funds its Chinese operations.

Bank of China established a branch in New Zealand two years ago and in that time has demonstrated its support for both NZ companies in China and Chinese firms and investors entering New Zealand.

Chief Executive, David Lei Wang, said annual trade between New Zealand and China had almost tripled to $23 billion since the Free Trade Agreement was signed in 2008, and Chinese banking services played an important role in fostering cross-border transactions and investment.

We see great opportunities in developing more renminbi (RMB) products and tapping into Chinas debt capital markets on behalf of New Zealand financial institutions and government agencies, said Wang.

Fonterras Chief Financial Officer, Lukas Paravicini, said the new debt facility underlined the Co-operatives continued focus on building an integrated business in China.

Bank of China has strong liquidity in renminbi and its local presence and knowledge offer us additional benefits in the rapidly developing Chinese financial markets, said Paravicini. Having local funding arrangements is a natural extension of our activities in China. This accord complements the services we receive from our broad range of banks internationally.

The Bank of China facility did not mean Fonterra was taking on more debt. Rather it offered the Co-operative alternatives and increased diversity in RMB funding sources, Paravicini said.

There is no change to our existing strategy of growing our business in China. This is simply a better way to organise the funding of that strategy.
xXx: Return of Xander Cage, Live by Night & The Coldest City join Dolby Cinema 2017 slate

Dolby Laboratories has confirmed more major movie releases in the Dolby Cinema format. These include this months science fiction thriller Passengers, the Ben Affleck directed Live by Night, due January 13; Paramounts xXx: Return of Xander Cage (pictured), out January 20, and Focus Features action-thriller The Coldest City, out July 28.

The titles join already announced features including: La La Land, The Great Wall, Disneys Beauty and the Beast, due out March 17; Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, out May 5; Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, out May 26 , Wonder Woman, out June 2; and Disney Pixar's Cars 3, arriving June 16.

When I first experienced Dolby Vision, I saw details the camera captured but had never been able to see before on screen, which is a game changer for me as a director, says Ben Affleck. Live by Night is shot and scored in a way that will truly be appreciated by the audience when experienced in Dolby Cinema with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos sound.

To date, 64 Dolby Cinema titles have been released or announced. Dolby Cinema combines Dolby Vision HDR laser projection and Dolby Atmos 3D audio.

The vivid image and immersive sound that only Dolby Cinema can offer is uniquely showcased in this diverse slate of highly anticipated titles leading into 2017, said Doug Darrow, Senior Vice President, Cinema Business Group, Dolby Laboratories. With Hollywoods leading studios and creatives, Dolby will continue to deliver an assortment of titles to audiences around the world.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

By Orkhan Quluzade - Trend:

Turkic Speaking States should use their national currencies in trade operations, said Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci.

He made the remarks during the 6th meeting of Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) in Baku Dec. 21.

Zeybekci noted that Turkey plans to switch to calculations in national currency in mutual trade with Azerbaijan.

Moreover, Azerbaijan and Turkey intend to simplify customs procedures for trade of several goods, he added.

In general, the minister thinks that the Turkic Council states should enhance economic ties, in particular, in such spheres as tourism, healthcare and others.

Zeybekci added that Azerbaijan and Turkey have to use the existing big potential between the two countries for the development of cooperation.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @o_quluzade
Markets Digest. What's The Next Move? Blue Line Futures - 8 minutes ago Our daily video . . .

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A Malta-based protected cell company is launching a range of niche and specialist products to the European market in a series of distribution deals.Building Block PCC Ltd (BBI), which began operating in the UK in 2015, is expanding its reach to the Republic of Ireland, Spain, and Iceland using a distribution model similar to that employed in the UK.BBI CEO Paul Brierley said the company has so far designed and built seven specialist products based on its UK experience, as part of its strategy in expanding its brand into the European Economic Area (EEA).One of the advantages of being Malta-based is that our company DNA is European, albeit with a British flavour, he said.There is a risk that, post Brexit, the UK will become a more insular economy and society, but these distribution deals show that insurance products designed and produced in the UK remain in high demand in other parts of the EEA.Brierley said BBI had rolled out a gadget product for Frost Insurances Ltd in Ireland in November, and an excess product is set for launch in January 2017. Gadget is also being launched in Spain through Spanish insurance broker Slora, part of Mesos Group. Also set to launch in January 2017 is a boiler and home appliance product. BBI has also forged a rent guarantee insurance deal with Tryggja, one of Icelands oldest insurance brokers.Brierley said: We are building on the solid foundations laid this year by our UK product design team. Our distribution successes in these EEA countries shows that niche and specialist insurance is a growing segment all over Europe and will power our growth in 2017.
Insurance brokers will need to help their clients plan for the eventuality of a cyber breach, one expert has said, as cyber risk continues to mount.Craig McDonald, founder of cyber security firm MailGuard, said that while he expects cyber insurance to become a must-buy for many businesses, a proactive in-depth strategy will be key for businesses as they plan for every eventuality.Cyber insurance is great as an added layer of protection, but its no replacement for a strong cybersecurity strategy, McDonald told Insurance Business.Brokers have an important role to play in helping organisations plan for the requirements for businesses to return to their normal operating status after a cyber attack or a data breach.Cyber insurance policies will need to constantly evolve and the broker will need to be cyber savvy in order to address the many variables within the online realm.McDonald noted that while cyber insurance will be key in helping businesses get back on their feet following a cyber crime, prevention is better than cure.Businesses that do not consider themselves to be an online organisation are still at risk, and brokers should look to educate these clients over the coming year.Even if a business does not transact online, they are still likely to store information on clients and customers on computers linked to the internet. Businesses in this position will also be less likely to have sufficient cyber security protection, leaving personal information vulnerable.For these clients, it is important that brokers explain the responsibilities of data protection as businesses of all sizes remain under threat.According to ScamWatch, the average cost of a single cyber crime in Australia is now pegged at $276,323, highlighting the important role cyber insurance will play in the market.While much has been written about cyber over the last year, are Australian businesses taking the threat seriously? McDonald noted that while Australia is improving, businesses need to see cyber risk as a leadership issue, rather than an IT issue.McDonald added that the cyber threat landscape continues to evolve and while social engineering and ransomware attacks become the norm, cyber criminals are changing their approach.While email is still the most common method of delivery, new risks are arising as cybercriminals change their tactics. Adware on websites, fake news links on Facebook, fake calendar appointments arriving via iPhone, and spear-phishing via LinkedIn are some of the new frontiers, McDonald continued.With workers increasingly accessing work systems via smartphone, this means the malicious links they click on the personal devices suddenly pose a huge threat to businesses.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

The countries of Turkic Council have a good chance of connecting transport routes going from China to Europe and from North to South, said Kazakhstans Vice Minister of National Economy Aydar Arifhanov.

He made the remarks in Baku Dec. 21 during the 6th meeting of economy ministers of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States.

He noted that the transportation cooperation between the Turkic Council countries is regularly discussed and transport ministers of these countries annually hold meetings.

It is necessary to simplify customs procedures for a successful cooperation in transport and logistics, and a work in this direction is underway, according to the vice minister.

Arifhanov also reminded that Kazakhstan is currently implementing a number of programs aimed at the diversification and development of the non-oil economy.

He urged the Turkic Council countries to enter Kazakhstans market, which will also help them enter the markets of the Eurasian Economic Union and China.

The vice minister said that such cooperation would be beneficial for all parties.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova
New Jersey lawmakers have given their OK to ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft.

Lawmakers on Monday approved a measure to make the services legal.

If approved by Republican Gov. Chris Christie, the measure would allow the state attorney general to decide whether the criminal background checks used by the companies now are sufficient or whether a different kind of check are needed.

The law also includes requirements for insurance.

More than 30 states now have laws allowing for the ride-hailing companies.

Lawmakers also approved eliminating the seven percent sales tax paid by limousine owners. Republican sponsor Sen. Anthony Bucco said the measure was to level the playing field between limos and the ride-hailing services.

That measure also needs approval from Christie.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation New Jersey Oklahoma
A federal prosecutor on Monday said the government wont introduce at trial a lengthy statement from a man charged with setting off bombs in New York and New Jersey in order to keep to a scheduled trial date in March.

The New York Times reports Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Lewin told a judge that his office wanted both on the governments behalf and the publics behalf a speedy trial in this matter.

The defendant, Ahmad Khan Rahimi, pleaded not guilty in an indictment charging him in the Sept. 17 attacks, which included the detonation of a bomb in Manhattans Chelsea neighborhood that injured 30 people. Another bomb did not explode.

Lewin told U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman that Rahimi made a statement to law enforcement over several days. He said the statement was taken lawfully under the public-safety exception to the Miranda rule. The exception allows authorities to question a suspect in certain situations before the suspect is represented by a lawyer if public safety is at stake.

Rahimi was questioned by authorities while he was hospitalized after being caught following a Sept. 19 shootout with police in Linden, New Jersey.

On Monday, Rahimis federal public defender, Peggy Cross-Goldenberg, said the defense could not be ready by the scheduled March 27 trial date because the government had provided so much discovery material.

Were going to have a speedy trial, Judge Berman countered. If the 27th is impossible, its not going to be long after that.

Besides the Manhattan attacks, Rahimi, an Afghan-born U.S. citizen from Elizabeth, New Jersey, is charged with detonating a pipe bomb along a Marine Corps charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey, earlier in the day. Another bomb found at a train station didnt explode.

Rahimi is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in a New Jersey court on charges he attempted to murder police officers during his capture in Linden.

Information from: The New York Times

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics USA New York New Jersey
German investigators intensified their search for the perpetrator of a deadly truck assault on a Christmas market in Berlin after an initial suspect was released, deepening the fear and uncertainty over what Chancellor Angela Merkel called a terrorist act.

The manhunt comes after a Pakistani asylum seeker was detained and let go because authorities said the evidence at this point doesnt strongly suggest the man committed the crime. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere indicated the assailant was still on the run as Islamic State said on its Amaq news agency that one of its followers carried out the attack that killed 12 people.

From the beginning, the police and investigators were not just following this lead, but were pursuing other leads from the beginning, he told ZDF. So its indeed the case that it cant be ruled out that the assailant is at large. And so the case is being investigated urgently.

The prospect of one or more terrorist suspects still on the loose puts further pressure on Merkel to guarantee the German publics security as she seeks re-election to a fourth term next year.

This is a very difficult day, Merkel, dressed in black, said in a nationally televised statement Tuesday. Like millions of people in Germany, I am horrified, shocked and deeply saddened by what happened yesterday evening on Berlins Breitscheidplatz.

White Rose

Even as she laid a white rose for the victims at the cordoned-off crime scene, the Alternative for Germany party and other European anti-immigrant parties pointed the finger at Merkel.

Terrible news from Berlin but no surprise, Nigel Farage, former leader of the pro-Brexit U.K. Independence Party, said on Twitter. Events like these will be the Merkel legacy.

Security officials earlier in the day began to voice doubt that they had caught the perpetrator, saying the suspect had disputed the accusations. As officials ordered all Christmas markets in the capital closed for the day, German Federal Police head Holger Muench had more bad news.

At this point in the investigation, we have one suspect, but arent certain whether he is in fact the assailant, he told reporters. We also dont know whether there was only one assailant. The crime weapon hasnt been found. All of that means that were on high alert - and of course will investigate in every direction to identify and apprehend any persons who may be involved.

Festive Spirit

Forty-five people were injured in the attack, 30 of them seriously, Frank said. Police were collecting pictures and videos from witnesses who were on Breitscheidplatz, located near Berlins upscale Kurfuerstendamm shopping boulevard, when the truck barreled through wooden stands, festive lights and Christmas trees on Monday. Frank said several signs pointed to terrorism.

This is reminiscent of the attack in Nice, he said. Another reason is the prominent and symbolic target of a Christmas market and the modus operandi, which reflects previous calls to action by jihadist groups.

Merkels open-door refugee policy of last year polarized voters and fed support for Alternative for Germany, known as the AfD. While the influx of asylum seekers has declined substantially this year, the Berlin deaths threaten to further undermine the chancellors standing.

Not Safe

Germany is no longer safe, AfD co-chairwoman Frauke Petry said in a statement. We must be under no illusions. The breeding ground in which such acts can flourish has been negligently and systematically imported over the past year and a half.

While President Barack Obama sent condolences and pledged U.S. help in the investigation, Geert Wilders, head of the Dutch-based Freedom Party, posted an image of Merkel with her face and hands spattered with blood.

Leaders across the region are being buffeted by an unprecedented combination of Islamic terrorism and political violence whose origins are complex and to which there is no obvious answer.

In western Europe, which holds a string of crucial elections next year, Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and other leaders are struggling to persuade the public that they can ensure security. The assassination of Russias ambassador to Turkey on Monday by a gunman pledging vengeance for the fall of Aleppo shows how the chaos in Syria is spreading.

Here are some details that have emerged of the carnage. A Polish-registered black Scania semi-truck plowed into the pre-holiday scene at about 8 p.m. Monday near the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church. Witnesses saw a man get out of the cab and gave chase; police apprehended the man suspected of driving the truck several hundred meters away.

De Maiziere described the man in custody as a Pakistan national who entered the country as an asylum seeker in December 2015. Federal prosecutors ordered his release less than 24 hours later.

Other clues raised even more questions. A Polish national tentatively identified as the trucks original driver was found dead in the passenger seat from an apparent gunshot wound, according to authorities. No weapon was found.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Auto Europe Law Enforcement
Europes pensions and insurers, seeking returns in infrastructure deals after asset purchases by the European Central Bank gutted yields on bonds, say theyre being crowded out again.

Their frustration is directed at the European Investment Bank, a public lender tasked with attracting private money to help finance construction projects like Londons transport network or a giant lock in a Belgian harbor. The bank, owned by European Union governments, provides guarantees and junior debt to make investment less risky, which is great for private investors. But the EIB has another role  keeping financing costs affordable for taxpayers  and thats where public and private interests start to clash.

Some of the infrastructure financing by the European Investment Bank has been allocated to projects that already received a lot of interest from private investors, Holger Kerzel, head of equity portfolio management at MEAG, Munich Res asset-management arm, said in an interview. The EIB crowded out private investors instead of supporting them.

Such complaints have become a refrain among institutional investors even as the need for more spending grows. A survey by an industry group on Monday identified a serious lack of suitable investment opportunities and said the EIB in some cases was competing with private investors.

MEAG oversees 268 billion euros ($278 billion) of investments for Munich Re, the worlds biggest reinsurer. It is targeting 8 billion euros of investments in infrastructure, including renewable energy. So far it has deployed just 2.5 billion euros.

Its not the first time investors complain about obstacles to infrastructure. Regulators relaxed capital charges for such deals under Solvency II rules introduced in the EU this year after investors complained the requirements were hindering investment.

Insurers and pensions are awash with money and in a bind to invest that for a meaningful yield, said Wolfgang Schaefers, a professor of real estate management at the Regensburg University in Germany. Its a showcase for their distress if they publicly clash with a government institution like the EIB.

Insurers and pension funds, which oversee more than 16 trillion euros in Europe, say their money is needed to repair aging highways, bridges and power grids. McKinsey & Co. estimates the world is investing about $2.5 trillion a year on transportation, power, water, and telecommunication systems. To keep pace with projected growth, an average of $3.3 trillion is needed, the consultants said in a report in June. In the U.S., President-elect Donald Trump has pledged $1 trillion in construction financed mainly by the private sector.

Sensible Arrangement

But the call for more private involvement comes with a concern that investors will get the better of taxpayers if left unchecked. German state governments this month thwarted a proposal by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble to allow insurers to buy into a new state company to manage federal roadways, which include the 13,000-kilometer (8,100-mile) network of autobahns that Germans treasure for its lack of a general speed limit.

There is always a risk that private infrastructure financing is skewed at the expense of the taxpayer or the user and toll payer, said Clemens Fuest, president of the Munich-based Ifo economic institute. In this respect, it is sensible for the EIB to compete in project financing.

Generally, the EIB finances about a third of each project but its contribution can be as much as 50 percent. Last year the bank handed out 77.5 billion euros in loans. They include 1 billion pounds ($1.23 billion) to upgrade Londons transport network, financing that investors say deprived the private sector of a bigger role in the project.

Antwerp Port

Belgiums Kieldrecht lock, which opened in June, is another sore spot with insurers and pension funds. The development bank provided 160.5 million euros, about half the cost, for the construction in the port of Antwerp.

The bank has a duty to keep funding costs affordable for taxpayers, Matthias Woitok, the EIBs head of structured finance for much of Europe, said in an interview.

We do not seek to finance projects alone and will not fund all of the costs of a project, he said. Instead we actively seek to partner with private investors.

The EIBs role is important because it enables riskier investments by fully financing or taking a first-loss piece, said Andreas Gruber, who oversees 631 billion euros in assets as chief investment officer at Allianz SE, Europes biggest insurer.

However, we also have seen the EIB crowding out private investors in projects which could have been fully financed by private investors, he said. This obviously is not the function of the EIB and burns taxpayers money.

Allianz has 13.6 billion euros in infrastructure equity, debt and renewable energy projects like wind parks. The insurer expects an average return of 5 percent to 8 percent from equity investments in infrastructure and 3 percent from debt financing of such undertakings, it said in a presentation earlier this year.

Pension Shortfall

Insurers and pension funds used to rely on government and covered bonds to help them meet their future obligations to policyholders. Those yields have bottomed out during years of central bank easy-money programs, which, combined with increasing life expectations, has left pension managers from Europe to Japan facing a growing shortfall in funds to cover payouts to future retirees.

Several large European insurers have publicly committed to increasing their infrastructure investments by a total of around 50 billion euros in coming years, according to the Insurance Europe industry trade association. A survey of the industry conducted by the lobby group identified several cases across the EU where insurers were crowded out by the involvement of the European Investment Bank.

Talanx AG, Germanys third-biggest insurer with about 1.4 billion euros in infrastructure, said it appreciates the EIBs expertise in the structuring and monitoring of complex transactions. But there should be a clearer line between investments the EIB does and those that private investors target, according to Thomas Mann, management board member of Talanx Asset Management.

We regard classic infrastructure projects with manageable risks, such as projects in Germany, more as the very own playing field of commercial investors, Mann said.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Carriers Europe
Zhongan Online P&C Insurance Co. scrapped plans for an initial public offering in Hong Kong or the U.S. and is instead focusing on a listing in mainland China, people familiar with the matter said.

Lukewarm overseas interest and an attempt to avoid competing with a possible offering from major shareholder Ant Financial has prompted the insurer to consider listing in China instead, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are private. Zhongan Online, which has more than 400 million customers, said in August that it was targeting an IPO in either Hong Kong or the U.S. as early as 2017.

Backed by Ant Financial, owner of Alipay, and Tencent Holdings Ltd., Zhongan works with internet companies to provide policies for Chinas younger users in the automotive, health care and online shopping sectors. The company operates in an online insurance market that is expected to reach 2 trillion yuan ($300 billion) by 2025, a 10-fold increase from last year, according to Shanghai-based consultant IResearch.

Cathy Luo, a spokeswoman for Zhongan, said by phone that the company has always had an IPO plan, though it hasnt committed to any timeline or venue, declining to comment further.

Globally, financial technology companies are facing a tough year with U.S. online lending company Social Finance Inc. pushing back its IPO plans as sentiment wanes. Funding for financial technology startups in the private market also fell 17 percent to $2.9 billion in the third quarter, according to a report from KPMG International and CB Insights.

Zhongan has told bankers to stop preparations for the Hong Kong IPO, one of the people said. While the initial plan was for a 2017 listing, switching to China will likely take longer, the person said.

Zhongan completed a series A funding round in May last year to raise about $1 billion at a valuation of about $8 billion. The company expects policy revenue to rise 80 percent to 150 percent this year from the 2.28 billion yuan it booked in 2015, the companys Chief Financial Officer John Bi said in August, declining to disclose more financial details.

Ant Financial, formally known as Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group, is Zhongans largest shareholder with a 16 percent stake. The affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is considering an IPO in 2017, people familiar with the matter have said.

Tencent and Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. each hold 12 percent stakes in Zhongan while Morgan Stanley, China International Capital Corp. and CDH Investments are also investors.

Zhongan competes with companies including Taipei-based Cathay Financial Holding Co. Ant Financial also holds a controlling stake in the Chinese unit of Cathay Financial as the companies are exploring opportunities in the same field.

The development from Zhongan follows a muted Hong Kong listing from Chinese selfie-application and phone maker Meitu Inc., whose shares have fallen since their debut last week even after pricing its IPO at the lower range of its targeted range.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics USA Property Casualty China
Despite his reputation as a model of good behavior, is it possible that Santa Claus is setting a bad example?

After all, he engages in some risky behavior  racing from rooftop to rooftop in an open sleigh, apparently without a seatbelt. And, every December 24, he stays out all night, zips around the world, sneaking in and out of homes while consuming millions of cookies-and-milk snacks.

Given his seemingly reckless behavior and his penchant for high-fat, high-sugar treats, should we be worried about Santas health?

Still strong at 550

Well, by all accounts, he is over 550 years old and still very active, so maybe theres more to his health habits than immediately meets the eye, said Dr. Jennifer Caudle, an osteopathic physician with Rowan Family Medicine in Sewell and an assistant professor at Rowans School of Osteopathic Medicine.

She noted that Santa most likely sticks to an exercise program throughout the year so that he can remain lively and quick at Christmas time.

Carrying all those toys requires strong bones and muscles, which also helps prevent falls, especially in older individuals, like Santa, she said.

Naughty and Nice

Dr. Caudle also observed an important change that removed one of Santas long-held habits from the naughty list.

Years ago, images of Santa often showed him smoking a pipe, but he seems to have kicked that habit, Dr. Caudle said. Tobacco use is still the single most preventable cause of death and disease in America. No matter how long an individual smokes, quitting has both immediate and long-term health benefits.

Dr. Caudle pointed out that Santas sweet tooth makes his obvious girth a cause for concern.

Even though he appears to have slimmed down a bit, Santas body mass index still seems to be quite high, she said, noting that obesity is a leading cause of diabetes and heart disease. Those sugary snacks he enjoys at each stop on Christmas Eve can contribute to unhealthy weight gain. Children can help Santa stay healthy by leaving healthier choices, like carrot sticks or apple slices with peanut butter. These are good snacks for parents and children to share, too.

Santas Healthy Lifestyle

Although his activities during the rest of the year remain shrouded in mystery, Dr. Caudle speculated that Santas overall lifestyle likely enhances his well-being.

By all accounts, Santa and Mrs. Claus have been married for a long time, and some studies have indicated that married couples enjoy several health benefits, including being more likely to follow their health care providers advice, Dr. Caudle said.

Acknowledging that pets arent for everyone, Dr. Caudle noted that Santas reindeer also contribute to his overall health.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, having pets can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, which are important for heart health, she said. Plus, a pet often encourages healthy exercise, like walking, and can open the door to opportunities for social interaction with other pet owners.

Considering his age and the fact that he still manages to fly around the world with millions of stopovers in a single night, Dr. Caudle concedes that Santa is probably in pretty good health.

There may be some magic involved, but it is apparent that Santa will have no trouble filling Christmas wishes this year and for many more years to come.

Source: Rowan University offers bachelors through doctoral programs to 17,360 students through its campuses in Glassboro, Camden and Stratford, New Jersey.
The 24-year-old driver in a Tennessee school bus crash that killed six children was speeding about 20 miles per hour over the 30 mile-per-hour limit, police testified Dec. 14, drawing tears from their families in court.

Johnthony Walker also was using a cellphone in the bus before the crash, Chattanooga traffic Officer Joe Warren said.

He estimated that Walker was driving between 48 and 52 mph and never hit the brake. He knew right off the bat he was dealing with a speeding bus when he reached the scene, the officer said.

A Hamilton County judge found probable cause to send the case to a grand jury. His lawyer, Amanda Dunn, said hell plead not guilty if indicted.

Police filed preliminary charges of vehicular homicide, reckless driving and reckless endangerment. A sixth vehicular homicide count will be added for the child who died days after the Nov. 21 crash. The victims were between 6 and 10 years old. Two children remain hospitalized, Officer Adam Cavitt testified.

Warren didnt specify just when Walker was using the phone. Questioned by Dunn, he acknowledged that a camera inside the bus showed Walker using his phone while the bus was stopped, and that the phone then went out of view. Investigators are going through phone records to get a better sense of when he used it.

Federal authorities say Walker left the designated bus route when he wrecked on a curvy road while carrying 37 children. Authorities say he had no drugs or alcohol in his system.

Dunn said evidence yet to be submitted suggests different versions of what happened, particularly regarding how fast Walker was driving. She also directed Warren to testify that Walker helped at least two children off the wrecked bus.

Theres a whole lot that we dont know at this time, said Dunn.

In a separate investigation, Walker has declined to be interviewed by federal crash investigators on advice of his lawyer, the National Transportation Safety Board has said.

The NTSB has filed subpoenas to obtain Walkers medical and mental health history. Investigators also are seeking his cellphone records and details of his second job with Amazon. The agencys final report is expected to be presented within 18 months.

Students and administrators had raised concerns about Walkers behavior behind the wheel in the weeks before the crash.

The company that provided the school districts bus services, Durham School Services, has said it will implement millions of dollars in safety upgrades across the country in response to the crash.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Law Enforcement Personal Auto Education Tennessee
Attorney General Kamala Harris and the California Coastal Commission has filed a lawsuit challenging the federal governments recent finding that fracking off the states coast has no significant environmental impact.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles says the Department of Interior failed to take a hard look at the potential environmental effects of the 22 offshore oil platforms that have used techniques including acid and hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, to stimulate production. The lawsuit says that failure is a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.

We must take every possible step to protect our precious coastline and ocean, said Harris, who is in her last weeks as attorney general before heading to the U.S. Senate.

Department of Interior spokeswoman Leah Duran said in an email that the agency cannot comment on pending litigation.

Oil drillers have used the methods for years in federal waters on the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf, which begins about three miles off the coast of California.

But last year a pair of environmental groups learned about them through a federal records request and sued, reaching a settlement in January with the federal government, which agreed to suspend fracking and do a new environmental assessment.

The government returned in late May with a report that found no significant impact to the safety of water or marine life from the drilling methods. Mondays lawsuit challenges that assessment, and it demands a more extensive evaluation.

Coastal Commission Acting Executive Director Jack Ainsworth said that ecological damage to the coast poses economic risks that could be worse than bringing an end to fracking.

Our coastal economies contribute $40 billion annually to the states economy, Ainsworth said. We cant afford to risk that for short-term profits.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits California Pollution
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

By Orkhan Quluzade  Trend:

Azerbaijan and Turkey will sign a preferential trade agreement, Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci told reporters in Baku on Dec. 21 during the 6th meeting of economy ministers of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States.

Preparation of a list of preferential goods is currently being finalized, according to the minister.

The agreement is expected to be signed at the 6th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Turkey High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council, to be held in the first half of 2017, Zeybekci said.

Export of Turkish goods to Azerbaijan amounted to $2.9 billion in 2014 and $2 billion in 2015, while the import of Azerbaijani goods amounted to $291 million in 2014 and $232 million in 2015, Bulent Tufenkci, Turkish minister of customs and trade, has earlier said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

The minister added that it is planned to bring the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkey to $15 billion in the coming years.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @o_quluzade
After a successful staging last May, the Asia Tax Awards will be held once again on Thursday May 4 2017, at the Goodwood Park Hotel in Singapore.

See this coverage of the Asia Tax Awards 2016.

Submissions are open now and close on Monday January 23. Entry, which is free, is by submission only.

Please read this explanation of the categories and methodology.

The entry forms are hyperlinked below.

The firm awards will be presented in these categories:

National tax, transfer pricing and litigation and disputes firms of the year in 18 jurisdictions:

Australia; Cambodia (no transfer pricing award) China; Hong Kong; India; Indonesia; Japan; Malaysia; Myanmar (no transfer pricing award); New Zealand; Pakistan (no transfer pricing award); Philippines; Singapore; South Korea; Sri Lanka (no transfer pricing award); Taiwan; Thailand and Vietnam

Asia Tax Firm of the Year (no separate submission form - award will be judged according to the national submissions)

Asia Transfer Pricing Firm of the Year (no separate submission form - award will be judged according to the national submissions)

Asia Tax Litigation and Disputes Firm of the Year (no separate submission form - award will be judged according to the national submissions)

There are separate submission forms for these regional awards:

The ceremony will include one award for company tax departments:

To win they must compose a 500-word description of their objectives for the 2016 calendar year and how they were achieved, highlighting areas where the work done by the team made a significant impact on the overall goals of the company.

Individuals

The four individual awards cover:

Please send all entries by email, using the forms hyperlinked here, to Ralph Cunningham, who is also your editorial contact for the awards.

Methodology

Between January and February 2017, companies, law firms, tax advisers, accountants and other tax service providers from the jurisdictions mentioned above can submit three examples of their best work for consideration for the national tax, transfer pricing, and litigation and disputes awards.

The awards will be judged according to:

Size (Not conclusive, though it does indicate what a tax team is capable of taking on)

Innovation (Did the advice the firm gave show something more than the straightforward answer that is commonly used?)

Complexity (Did the matter address tax issues that were out of the ordinary and what ingenuity did the firm show to solve them?)

Impact (What impact did the advice have on the taxpayer? For example, did it help them take over their biggest rival? Issue equity and debt in a particular market for the first time? Win an unprecedented judgement in court?
Un ottobre da sogno per Antonio Conte: lex ct della Nazionale italiana, attualmente alla guida del Chelsea, nelle ultime quattro gare di Premier League ha collezionato solo successi, conditi da 11 reti segnate e addirittura nessuna incassata. Numeri da record che non sono certo passati inosservati alla Federazione inglese, la quale ha conferito al tecnico leccese lambito premio di Manager del mese.

Unavventura oltremanica iniziata in sordina, quella di Conte, pur a fronte di tre vittorie nelle prime tre gare di campionato. A far vacillare, anche se solo per un momento, le certezze del patron del club londinese, Roman Abramovich, i risultati conseguiti tra la 4a e la 6a giornata, coincisi con un pareggio sul campo dello Swansea City e, soprattutto, con le due pesanti sconfitte subite dal Liverpool, sul terreno casalingo di Stamford Bridge, e dallArsenal. In particolare, la debacle interna coi Reds, aveva irritato non poco il numero uno russo, poiche occorsa proprio nel giorno della sua 250esima partita da presidente della societa.

Come detto, solo un momento. Dopo lincontro dellEmirates, il tecnico salentino cambia modulo, adottando un piu equilibrato 3-4-3 e inserendo elementi di corsa come lo spagnolo Pedro. Una svolta totale perche, di li in poi, il Chelsea inanellera solo e soltanto vittorie: 2 gol allHull City e al Southampton in trasferta, 3 ai campioni dInghilterra del Leicester e 4 allo United in casa, con un meraviglioso numero zero nella casella delle reti subite. Un fantastico poker, ottenuto tra l1 e il 29 ottobre. Un cambio di marcia sbalorditivo, confermato dal 5 a 0 rifilato ai toffees dellEverton nel primo match di novembre, e una scalata che, man mano, ha portato i blues al secondo posto in classifica, a soli 2 punti dal Liverpool capolista.

E allora, non poteva mancare il riconoscimento di migliore allenatore del mese, ottenuto surclassando tecnici del calibro di Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) e Mark Hughes (Southampton). Tanta, ovviamente, la soddisfazione: E un grande onore e voglio condividerlo con i giocatori e con la societa  ha dichiarato Conte sul sito ufficiale della Premier League -. E la prima volta che lavoro in un altro Paese, con una cultura diversa, e portare la propria filosofia non e facile, ma ora sono contento di questa scelta.

A completare la festa, la premiazione del fantasista belga, Eden Hazard, come miglior giocatore di ottobre. Due risultati importanti per il club, ottimo incentivo per la rincorsa al trono dei campioni, occupato dal Leicester di Ranieri. Il prossimo appuntamento per l11 di Conte sara al Riverside Stadium, tana del Middlesborough neopromosso. Il tempo di festeggiare e gia finito.
Top News - Investor Idea

A Boat-full of Potential - Renewed Interest in the Cruise Industry Bolsters Luxury Markets (OTC: MASN) (NYSE: CCL) (NYSE: CUK) (NYSE: RCL) (NYSE: NCLH)

Vancouver, Kelowna, Delta, BC - November 2, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Investorideas.com, a leading investor news resource covering luxury goods and cruise ship stocks releases a special report featuring Maison Luxe, Inc. (OTC: MASN), a company that offers luxury retail consumer items.

Top AI Stock News - Investor Idea

Breaking AI Stock News: GBT's (OTCPK: GTCH) AI Driven Financial Technology Patent Application Received a Notice of Publication

San Diego, CA - November 3, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) GBT Technologies Inc. (OTC PINK: GTCH) received a notice of publication for its financial software patent application.

Top AI Stock News - Investor Idea

Breaking AI Stock News: Intellagents, a FatBrain AI (OTCQB: LZGI) Company, Announces Hiring of Insurtech Industry Veteran as Chief Revenue Officer

NEW YORK, NY - November 2, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc.) (OTCQB: LZGI), the leader in powerful and easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for star enterprises of tomorrow, announces the hiring of Euan King, an experienced and respected Insurtech industry leader as Chief Revenue Officer for insurance technology-focused subsidiary Intellagents.

Top Health and Wellness News - Investor Idea

Health and Wellness Stock News - Endexx (OTCBB: EDXC) Secures $3.8M Order for Non-Nicotine Vape Product HYLA from Italy

CAVE CREEK, Az. - November 2, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Endexx Corporation (OTCBB:EDXC), a provider of innovative, plant-based, and sustainable health and skincare products, today announces it has secured a new $3.8 million USD order for its newly acquired, non-nicotine based vape product, HYLA from customers in Italy.

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Leading Internet Thing Event Offers Unique Hands-on Training in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Trumbull, CTDecember 21, 2016TMC and Crossfire Media announced today the expansion of the IoT Certification Series at IoT Evolution Conference and Expo, being held February 7-10, 2017 at the Greater Ft. Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. IoT Evolution Expo has evolved to become the leading educational and networking forum for the enterprise looking to understand how to develop and implement IoT solutions that drive measurable results and business transformation. The certification series will take place Tuesday, February 7th from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

We continue to expand our IoT Certification program with solutions that utilize head and hands, said Carl Ford, CEO, Crossfire Media, executive director of content, IoT Evolution. For the hands-on, DeviceWise University will help developers and other team members learn to use the tools of the DeviceWise platform to enable business and industrial solutions. For the head, we will teach the machine to learn and do the work without human intervention. Machine Learning is at the heart of AI and being at these sessions will be your gateway into the future of IoT.

The IoT Certification Series is designed to provide a high-level overview of the technologies contending in the IoT and M2M space as well as in the Connected Home, IoT Channel Strategy, Fog Computing, Analytics & Data, Enterprise IoT and IoT Smart Connected & Secure industries. A review of industry roles will cover industrial implementations, technical and application consortiums, services provider models, and Consumer DIY trends.

This full day program includes:

IoT Certification Course with Richard Brennan of Telxxis:

10:00AM - IoT Primer

10:45AM - The DNA of IoT

11:45AM - IoT Glue: What Keeps Things Connected?

Machine Learning Certification Course with Giuseppe Mascarella of Value Amplify Consulting:

1:30PM - Machine Learning Intro: New Rules

Machine Learning Intro: New Rules 2:15PM - Machine Learning Impact on IoT

3:15PM - Machine Learning IoT ROI

deviceWise Certification series with Telit : [limited availability]

1:30PM - Introduction to Telit & deviceWISE

2:15PM - Developing with deviceWISE - AT Commands

3:15PM - Hands-On Lab - Using AT Commands with deviceWISE

To view the full IoT Evolution Expo agenda click here. Speakers are updated daily.

IoT Evolution Expo is supported by super sponsor Telit, diamond sponsors KORE, Numerex, platinum sponsors Eurotech, Sprint, Yokogawa, gold sponsors, Ingenu, HARMAN, Verizon, corporate sponsors, Cradlepoint, Gemalto, Tellient, Senet, Sequans and track sponsor Coris.

Registration for IoT Evolution Expo is now open. For more information, contact Frank Coppola at 203-852-6800 x131. For media registration, contact Jessica Seabrook. Companies interested in exhibiting, sponsorship or advertising packages should contact Matthew Gleeson at 203.852.6800 ext. 145.

For the latest IoT Evolution Expo news, updates and information, follow the event on Twitter at @IoTEvolution.

About TMC

Global buyers rely on TMCs content-driven marketplaces to make purchase decisions and navigate markets. This presents branding, thought leadership and lead generation opportunities for vendors/sellers.

TMCs Marketplaces:

Unique, turnkey Online Communities boost search results, establish market validation, elevate brands and thought leadership, while minimizing ad-blocking.

Custom Lead Programs uncover sales opportunities and build databases.

In-Person and Online Events boost brands, enhance thought leadership and generate leads.

Publications, Display Advertising and Newsletters bolster brand reputations.

Custom Content provides expertly ghost-crafted blogs, press releases, articles and marketing collateral to help with SEO, branding, and overall marketing efforts.

Comprehensive Event and Road Show Management Services help companies meet potential clients and generate leads face-to-face.

For more information about TMC and to learn how we can help you reach your marketing goals, please visit www.tmcnet.com.

About Crossfire Media

Crossfire Media is an integrated marketing company with a core focus on future trends in technology. We service communities of interest with conferences, tradeshows, webinars and newsletters. Crossfire Media has a partnership with Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) to produce events and websites related to disruptive technologies. Crossfire Media is a division of Crossfire Consulting, a full service Information Technology company based in New York.

Media and Analyst Contact:

Jessica Seabrook

Marketing Director

203.852.6800 ext.170

[email protected]

Edited by Ken Briodagh
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

Trend:

The shareholders of Access Bank have taken a decision on December 14, 2016 to increase the capital of the Bank, the bank said Dec. 21.

The purpose of the capital increase will be to provide the Bank with a sufficient capital buffer to absorb increased challenges stemming from the challenging economic environment, the bank said. The capital increase requires customary approvals. It demonstrates the willingness of the shareholders to support the Bank to maintain its strong position on the local banking market as a leading financier for Micro and SME businesses.

AccessBank was founded in 2002 by organizations such as the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, EBRD, IFC, KfW, a German consulting company LFS Financial Systems (LFS) and AccessHolding.

AccessBank  one of the leading banks of Azerbaijan, offers a full range of banking services and has an extensive branch network. The Banks international IDR credit rating remains unchanged at the sovereign level of BB+ (FitchRatings) which is the highest rating among commercial banks in Azerbaijan.
A group of 39 children with special needs will fly into Dublin from Chernobyl this afternoon before heading to homes all around the country for the best Christmas holiday of their lives.

The very special visit follows an historic move by the UN this month, to designate an 'International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day' for the future.
Housing Minister Simon Coveney said he will work with the activists behind Apollo House and that they have sparked a national conversation about homelessness, writes Joyce Fegan.

"I will of course work with people who are behind the campaign in Apollo House to ensure that we do try to transition the homeless people that they are currently looking after into a more medium-term and permanent solution," he said this morning.

Asked whether he thought Apollo House was unnecessary this Christmas, given the extra 200 beds being opened for rough sleepers this week, he said no.

"Well no, I think a conversation on homelessness is necessary and I think many of the advocates who are part of the Apollo House and Home Sweet Home campaign are very sincere in their determination to get people talking about homelessness and what is the appropriate response to that," Minister Coveney stated.

He was speaking to the media at the launch of the Simon Communities of Ireland's annual report for 2015.

However, the minister said homeless people have complex needs and require suitable accommodation.

"I don't think it's a solution for people who are homeless to actually be accommodated in a building that's probably not suitable for that. I don't know because I haven't visited Apollo House," he said.

"Where I want vulnerable homeless people to be is in the care of organisations like the Simon Community, like Peter McVerry Trust, like Focus Ireland, like St Vincent de Paul, like many other organisations that have the experience to deal with the complexity of supporting homeless people and to help them transition into social housing," he added.

He also referred to the High Court case being held at 10.30am this morning, where the receivers of Apollo House are seeking an order to vacate the residents on health and safety grounds.

"We're not looking to make an example of anybody. There is a court case this morning that will take its course," the minister said.

However, he did state that "proactive campaigning," had started a conversation.

"Across the country we have had a national conversation about homelessness linked to proactive campaigning and in many ways I understand where that's coming from in terms of frustration," said Minister Coveney.

The Home Sweet Home campaign is jointly organised by the Irish Housing Network and various trade unionists as well as receiving backing from celebrities such as Saoirse Ronan, Jim Sheridan and Glen Hansard.

Approximately 32 people were housed there last night.
Fr McVerry praised the occupation of the empty Apollo House office block by the Home Sweet Home movement for highlighting the problem of people living on the streets.

We have more homeless people today in Ireland than at any time since the Famine, the priest told The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk.

And the reasons for people becoming homeless are much the same as during the Famine.

They are being evicted from their private rented accommodation because they cant afford to pay their rents. During the Famine it was foreign landlords, English landlords, who were evicting Irish tenants.

Today it is increasingly vulture funds, foreign landlords, evicting Irish tenants. We have come right back to the 1860s and yet we are the 14th wealthiest country in the world.

Something has seriously, seriously gone wrong. The whole economy is focused on money, money, money and greed, greed, greed and creating wealth. People have been left out and forgotten, he said.

The campaigner said there were 50,000 homes in mortgage arrears of over two years, the vast bulk of them unrepayable.

Without urgent legislation, such as mortgage-to-rent legislation being obligatory on the banks, we could end up with 25,000 of those houses being repossessed by the banks and 25,000 families plunged into homelessness. That is a real scenario over the next few years.

Banks were not interested in making deals with individual householders, he said, but wanted to sell off properties in bulk to vulture funds.

Inside Apollo House. Video Stills from Irish Housing Network

But we have got to put people first. It is money that is speaking and money that is making the decisions but we have to put people first, he said.

He said mortgage-to-rent schemes where houses are bought by local authorities or voluntary housing associations, and families allowed to stay on and pay rent, should be obligatory on the banks.

Fr McVerry said he was pleased homeless people in the occupied Apollo building would have a roof over their heads for Christmas.
He first lodged the unprecedented request with DPP Claire Loftus in August after French authorities decided to charge him in absentia with involuntary manslaughter.

The French authorities are also seeking his extradition, on foot of a second European arrest warrant, to stand trial in Paris.

Ms Toscan du Plantier, a French socialite and documentary filmmaker, was found battered to death outside her West Cork holiday home on December 23, 1996.

Mr Bailey said that, in a bid to clear his name, he took the decision to write to the DPP. He is asking her to examine the evidence underpinning the French decision to bring a prosecution and, furthermore, asking her to reconsider the DPPs decision not to charge him.

While he received an acknowledgement of the initial letter, he has written to the DPP twice more  including as recently as two weeks ago  seeking an update.

The most recent letters have also been acknowledged, but Mr Bailey said that has been the extent of the correspondence.

I dont know what is in the French file, he told the Irish Examiner.

It seems rational and logical that, if there is something in the French file that supports their furtherance of a prosecution, it may do the same in Ireland.

Ive asked the DPP to consider that evidence and to reconsider their decision not to charge me.

Wouldnt it be wonderful if this could be cleared up? he said.

Mr Bailey has repeatedly protested his innocence. He was involved in a circuit court libel trial to clear his name in 2003 and also took a High Court civil action against the gardai and the State in relation to conspiracy and wrongful arrest. He was only partly successful in the libel hearing, losing five of the seven actions, and fully failed in a 65-day High Court case.

He insisted he had nothing to do with the death.

Although I know the French chose to believe I had something to do with it, I am still sympathetic to Sophies familys situation; its an awful situation for them to be in, but this still hangs over me, over Jules [his partner, Jules Thomas], and the family and this community, said Mr Bailey.

He said there has been no communication whatsoever from the French authorities to him or his solicitor, Frank Buttimer, in relation to the latest legal moves, and his solicitor in France has not been given access to the French file on the case.

He also confirmed his appeal of the 64-day civil case is due to be heard in the Court of Appeals next March.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet agreed yesterday at its final ministerial meeting before Christmas to extend until March 31 the work by the Fennelly Commission investigating the recording of phonecalls, other than 999 calls, in Garda stations in relation to the Sophie Toscan du Plantier inquiry. The extension had been sought by Mr Justice Nial Fennelly.

More than 45,000 recorded calls to and from Bandon Garda Station were examined by gardai, but less than 1% were considered relevant to the murder investigation.
Earlier this year, The Raped Little Runaway by Jean Martin and published by Star Distributors Ltd became the first book to be banned by the Irish Censorship of Publications Board since 1998.

The board found that the book  which contains multiple descriptions of child rape  to be indecent and obscene.

In the case before Kilrush District Court yesterday, the accused is also being prosecuted for the sexual assault of a boy aged under 10 more than a decade ago at the accuseds home.

The Censorship of Publications Board voted to prohibit The Raped Little Runaway at a meeting on March 1 this year. Its decision prohibited the sale and distribution of the book in the State.

At the time, board chairman Shane McCarthy said the decision was unanimous among five board members. It was the only resort The collective view of the board was that it was a vile publication as it contained graphic descriptions of the rape of a minor, he said.

In the case before the district court yesterday, the west Clare man was charged with knowingly having in his possession child pornography  The Raped Little Runaway  at his home on November 28 of last year  four months before the book was banned by the censors.

The man is charged under section 6 of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act. If found guilty of the illegal possession of The Raped Little Runaway in the district court, the man faces a jail term up to one year and if the case is heard in the circuit court, the man faces a prison term up to five years on conviction.

The man also faces two counts of the sexual assault of a boy aged under 10 at the time at the accuseds home on dates between January 1, 2001, to December 31, 2004.

The alleged victim is related to the accused. If convicted of the sexual assault charge, the accused in the circuit court faces a prison term up to five years.

When the mans name was called out in court yesterday, there was no appearance by the accused.

Judge Patrick Durcan issued a bench warrant for the mans arrest and ordered that the names of the accused and the alleged victim not be reported due to the nature of the charge.
The Medical Council inquiry yesterday heard evidence of the pain suffered by the Longford woman before she was diagnosed with cancer two years after her initial symptoms began.

It is claimed that Mukhtar El Siddig Awadalla, aged 53, who worked at the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar, failed to arrange for an investigative surgery for Mary Hughes in March 2010.

It is alleged that, during an exploratory surgery, which eventually took place in May 2010, Dr Awadalla failed to perform a biopsy that could have been used to diagnose Ms Hughes cervical cancer.

Dr Awadalla, who worked as a locum consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the hospital during 2010, now lives and works as a consultant in the Sudan. The doctor, who is representing himself, faces allegations of poor professional performance on foot of the factual claims.

Ms Hughes suffered from a number of conditions, the inquiry heard, that she managed successfully. She had a good quality of life until 2008.

Ms Hughes was diagnosed with cervical cancer in October 2010, after Dr Awadalla performed another hysteroscopy and took a biopsy. She died seven months later.

Ms Hughes daughter, Kathleen Sleightholme,

said she attended the appointment with her mother on March 9, 2010, when they first met with Dr Awadalla.

Medical notes indicate Dr Awadalla discussed a referral to hospital for an exploratory surgery with his colleague. Ms Sleightholme said they were not told about the possibility of any such procedure at that time.

The hearing continues.
Dublin District Courts enforcement list heard yesterday that concert and events promoter, Darryl Downey, owes money to Blue Elf Inc Ltd, the company owned by mimic Rosenstock. His company is looking to have Downey jailed as a result of arrears.

Comedian Mr Rosenstock, who rose to fame with his Gift Grub sketches on TodayFM and now has a successful show on RTE, was not present for the hearing.

Judge Michael Coghlan said Downey is a failed promoter and put the case back until February to enable him to get a job, any job. If I hear he is continuing to hope for the next big deal I will run out of patience, he said, saying he wanted to hear that he gets a job that pays a normal weekly wage.

The debt is the subject of a High Court judgment and in January the district court granted a variation on the instalment order reducing the monthly repayment from 5,000 to 1,500. However, Jane Linnane, counsel for Blue Elf Inc Ltd, told Judge Michael Coghlan at the district court yesterday that since January just 5,400 has been paid by Downey to her client. Ms Linnane said that since September just 900 was paid, while in the same period Downey made payments to another creditor who was not the subject of a judgment. Counsel submitted this money should have gone to her client. She also said he has increased his living expenses and money should have also been used to pay the debt to Blue Elf.

She said Blue Elf Inc Ltd and the courts orders have been continuously ignored and she said it is in those circumstances that a committal warrant is being sought. She also said that in September Downey went to America and spent about 11,000.

Downeys barrister Tessa White told Judge Coghlan her client wants to give evidence.

Downey said he cannot afford to pay any more. The court heard he had been a self-employed concert and events promoter since 2003 but is out of work. He said the case relates to a number of live shows since 2012 as a result of which about 750,000 was owed to Blue Elf Inc Ltd. Some 500,000 was paid over. He said he does not presently have the funds to pay the rest. His company, Jarash Ltd, has about 28,000 but his counsel explained those funds are needed to get shows off the ground.

Mr Downey also claimed he was led to believe by his accountant that he was due to receive a 200,000 Vat refund but that did not materialise. He said since the instalment order was made he has had to borrow 4,000 from his mother.

He said he is not in a position to pay back 1,500 a month and that he has just 4 in his personal account, 1 in a business account, 10 in his pocket, and a 28,000 overdraft. He applied for social welfare but that was refused, the court heard.

Judge Coghlan said the matter has been before him several times and said Mr Downeys credibility is very poor and he has come to the conclusion he has not given full information.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

Trend:

Azer Turk Bank will be one of the sponsors of the Social Media Prize project "Bomba" organized by the "Beat Group". As an innovative bank, taking part in the project, Azer Turk Bank intends to give support in stimulation of activity of corporations and organizations in social media. The aim of the project is to identify and reward organizations and companies which made the publications which drew attention of numerous subscribers on their corporate pages on social networks over the past year. The strongest will be selected by Bomba Academy. The award ceremony will take place on February 11 the 2017th year in the Azerbaijani State Academic Opera and Ballet theater.

Azer Turk Bank OJSC, which has identified financial support to the real sector of the economy as its main mission, serves its customers through 11 customer offices. More information about the Bank, its service network, products and services is available at www.azerturkbank.az, the Banks corporate pages at social networks or at (012) 945 Call Center.
Photo: Brian Daly, president of Cork Lions Club; Noreen Gannon of Gallaghers Gastropub, and AED survivor Nigel OSullivan at Gallaghers Gastropub on MacCurtain Street, Cork as the launch of the citys second 24/7 publicly available AED. Below: The locations of defibrillators in Cork City. Picture: David Keane

Nigel OSullivan, 51, from Tower, in Cork, plans to present a defibrillator to the Cork Lions Club which is spearheading the project: The Lions Club is doing unbelievable work. I wouldnt be here today if it wasnt for one of these devices and Im delighted to do what I can to push this initiative forward.

He was speaking yesterday as the Lions Club unveiled the citys second 24/7 publicly available automatic external defibrillator (AED) on MacCurtain St.

They installed the first 24/7 AED on Oliver Plunkett St earlier this year, and replaced it after it was vandalised.

The second AED has now been installed on the wall of Gallaghers gastro pub in the citys Victorian Quarter.

Pub owner and manager, Noreen Gannon, said: We were delighted when we were approached by the Lions Club and we are very happy to facilitate this service for the people of Cork.

AED operator training for Gallaghers staff and traders on the street will take place early in the new year.

Mr OSullivan also confirmed that he will donate to the Lions Club an AED which was donated to him last week by EireMed  just five weeks after his heart attack and two weeks after bypass surgery.

Management at the Savoy complex on St Patricks St, where Nigel runs Zenith Menswear, have agreed to allow the AED be installed in the building. A suitable site is being identified and it is hoped to have it in place early next year.

Martin Walley, who is heading up the Lions Club defibrillator project, said they are delighted that Mr OSullivan has backed the initiative and helped deliver what will be the citys third 24/7 publicly accessible AED.

He said Mr OSullivans decision to speak out against the vandals who damaged the OIiver Plunkett St device and to highlight how an AED saved his life, has helped boost awareness of their project: Nigels story had almost 80,000 views and it has really helped raise awareness about what we are trying to do.

The Lions Club hopes to install 12 24/7 AEDs over coming months at strategic locations across the city to ensure that there is a device no more than two minutes from the citys main routes, and no more than four minutes from anywhere on the city centre island.

They have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money, and Martin encouraged building owners to contact them about the possibility of locating the devices on their buildings: We are open to offers and would be delighted to discuss with anyone the possibility of locating a device on their property.

Mr OSullivan was cycling home from work on October 21 when he suffered a massive heart attack at Cloghroe Stores. The National Ambulance Control Centre alerted Blarney community first responders, who rushed to the scene.

Its members used a 24/7 AED located outside a shop in nearby Tower to save Mr OSullivans life, before he was rushed in critical condition to Cork University Hospital. He underwent bypass surgery three weeks later and while he is undergoing cardiac rehabilitation, he has returned to work.
At Clonakilty District Court, Stephen McCarthy, aged 35, of Kilnacranagh West, Enniskeane, Co Cork, faced a charge of sale or supply of cannabis after gardai had found 500 worth of the drug at his home in a search on October 28.

The drugs were found in a plastic jug. There was 5g of cannabis resin on a bedside locker and a weighing scales. He denied selling drugs.
Governor Philip Lane faced a barrage of criticism as the banks supervisory powers were called into question by TDs and senators seeking answers for ripped-off customers.

The Irish Examiner has also established that banks may have to pay out over 500m in compensation and fines after wrongly overcharging customers.

Lenders and the Central Bank came under attack over the mortgage overcharging scandal as the standoff at Apollo House continued over its emergency use to house the homeless in Dublin City.

Mr Lane yesterday admitted to the Oireachtas Finance committee that as many as 15,000 bank customers were wrongly moved off tracker mortgages and possibly overcharged. The scandal relates to a widespread practice, started during the boom, where some 15 institutions are thought to have wrongly moved borrowers onto more expensive loans.

Frustrated committee members complained to Mr Lane that he and the bank would not provide figures and details about the overcharging.

Committee chairman John McGuinness suggested the regulator and governor were being bullied by banks, a charge Mr Lane denied.

However, the Fianna Fail TD also added: Those people [borrowers] have been pushed into poor health, some into suicide, because of the actions of banks. I think it is quite shocking in the way that you deal with this.

Some of the public think that they [bankers] should be in jail.

Fine Gaels Kieran ODonnell asked if the Central Bank had failed to intervene since some of the overcharging emerged in 2010.

Fianna Fails Michael McGrath said it was not good enough to give lenders a slap on the wrist over this when customers wronged were still being overcharged.

People want answers as to how customers were being denied their contractual rights in terms of entitlement to a tracker mortgage rate, said Mr McGrath.

Mr Lane told the committee a court action had delayed its intervention. More intrusive powers against banks were in place now, he pledged. But he also admitted the bank could have done more.

Mr Lane said some of the banks as well as individual bankers may now face fines, but he refused to say more because of ongoing inquiries, which may conclude by mid-2017.

However, the Irish Examiner understands the number of cases will likely exceed the new estimate of 15,000 cases and could cost the lenders in redress, compensation and fines over 500m.

The Central Bank

Analysts are also counting the potential costs to banks. Owen Callan, an analyst at Investec Ireland, said his previous upper estimate of 225m would likely be exceeded as officials increased their tally of the numbers involved.

Meanwhile, activists continued to illegally occupy a disused building in the capital, Apollo House, to house 32 homeless people.

Its receivers yesterday applied to the High Court to have the building vacated on fire safety grounds and a case will be heard at 10.30am this morning.

The Government last night insisted there were enough beds in Dublin for homeless people but refused to comment on whether Apollo House campaigners should be removed.

A Government spokesperson said that, since December 9, a total of 145 new emergency accommodation beds were made available on Dublins Ellis Quay and Little Britain St, with 65 more due by the end of this week at Carmans Hall on Francis St.

The figure brings the total of emergency beds in the city to 1,800, with a further commitment to increase homelessness funding by 40% next year.
Wishing the people of Ireland a happy Christmas and New Year, Mr Higgins said the 1916 centenary commemorations will be a lasting source of pride and confidence but are a reminder of how precious our freedom is.

Mr Higgins said Christmas is a special period, a time of celebrations, of closeness, and of hope.

Turning to the migrant crisis, he said it is time to focus on the message in the tale of a child in the manger, born to parents without a home and reliant on the hospitality of strangers.

As this year ends and a new one begins, the dream of peace on Earth can seem very distant, he said.

He pointed to the past year, during which we have witnessed horrific violence and suffering in countries such as Syria, Yemen, and Iraq but also closer to home in Istanbul, Nice, Brussels, and many other towns and cities across Europe.

Mr Higgins said: Internationally, ever more children, women, and men are on the move, living precarious existences in the refugee camps of the world, as conflict and disasters continue to force people to flee, flee from their homes. The humanitarian situation of millions of vulnerable people is still awaiting an adequate global response.

The circumstances of the birth of Christ, with its forced migration, homelessness, and powerlessness, are being re-enacted for us the world over, in the conditions of migrants  including infants and children  as they wait, not knowing what the future will hold for them.

Mr Higgins has been vocal on the migrant crisis. In August 2015, he said the EU response was shameful, and has continued to be a critic of the international response.

Referring to Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mr Higgins said they reminded us that a person is a person through other people.

Mr Higgins called for new policies to protect those here and abroad.

This fundamental awareness of the importance of our love for  and dependence on  each other should inform all our plans and actions, and should give us the wisdom to generate new models and new policies that will ensure inclusive action at home and abroad, he said.

Many people in Ireland are also worried about the future, he said.

It is a time of uncertainty at home and across the European Union, where life has been a struggle at an economic and social level, said the President.

Looking back on the success of the Easter Rising commemorations, Mr Higgins said the aspects of our history that had been forgotten, evaded, or even downplayed were once again reflected upon.

As we now face into a new year, we are challenged to embrace the new, he said. We need courage to depart from what has not served us well, and we need the inspiration to make new connections with each other and with the vulnerable planet on which we live.

Finally, he said his wish is that we will continue to seek to build the true Republic of which our forebears dreamt, embracing the values, possibilities, and responsibilities contained in that dream.

I wish each and every one of you a blessed and happy Christmas and a New Year of restored hope and faith in Irelands future, he said.
The victims family has criticised the sentence.

Zhen Dong Zhao, aged 40, pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Noel Fegan, a father of two. He kicked him to death outside the e-Times internet cafe and call shop on Lower Wellington Quay in Dublin City on May 20, 2011.

Zhao, of Jervis St, Dublin, was originally convicted of the 39-year olds murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2012.

That conviction was overturned earlier this year and a retrial ordered. However, Zhaos plea was accepted by the State at the Central Criminal Court last month.

The court heard that Mr Fegan, a recovering heroin addict, had gone into Zhaos shop that afternoon after receiving a call me text message from his 12-year-old daughter.

A row broke out between the two men over the payment of 70c for that call.

Zhao admitted to gardai that he had been angry after Mr Fegan had argued over payment. He said he ran after him because he wanted to teach them not to do this again, adding: I dont like these types of people.

Zhen Dong Zhao: I feel sorry for him and his family.

He lost his life over 70 cent, Zhao added, however. I feel sorry for him and his family.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy yesterday imposed a six-year sentence, with an order that Zhao receive credit for the two years and eight months he had already spent in custody.

Mr Fegans niece, Claudia Doyle, spoke outside court following sentencing. She said the family was upset with the sentence her uncles killer had received.

I know well never get justice. Nothings going to bring Noel back, she said. It would have been easier to see him go away for a longer period of time, but I suppose we just have to deal with what happened today.

She said her uncle had been a really genuine, happy-go-lucky guy, who wanted to turn his life around and for whom things were getting better.

Nothing we do now is going to bring him back, she concluded.
Duku Popovici, aged 43, with an address in Cabra Park, Dublin 7, had pleaded not guilty to aggravated burglary at the home of James and Sarah Quigley in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, on September 26, 2013.

Popovici was found guilty at Clonmel Circuit Criminal Court and sentenced on July 23, 2015, to 12 years in jail, with two suspended.
If prizes were awarded for between-song chat, Damon Gough would have a shelf full to go with his Mercury Prize for his 2000 debut album The Hour of Bewilderbeast. Ranging from endearingly humble to charmingly cocky, the artist known as Badly Drawn Boy was also surprisingly confessional, particularly when touching upon his disappearance from the limelight in recent years, which coincided with the breakup of his marriage.

It has been four years since his last recorded work and Gough eased himself back into the fray a little gingerly. Marking his first live appearance in Cork, Gough shuffled on stage in his trademark tea cosy hat and conveyed his satisfaction to be playing here a week out from Christmas. It was expected his three Irish dates would sell out, yet he still expressed surprise at this.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a transaction advisory services agreement with the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Kazakhstan to develop a bankable public-private partnership (PPP) structure for the University Hospital project in the city of Karaganda, the bank reported Dec. 21.

Under the agreement, ADBs Office of Public-Private Partnership will advise the Ministry of Health and Social Development to promote private investment for the 300-bed multifunctional teaching hospital.

The project aims to deliver international level education and training for medical school students.

According to ADB, public health sector in Karaganda is characterized by the absence of full scale facility operating under international standards, and aging infrastructure and equipment.

The project is aligned with the government's strategy to attract private capital in the health sector and is an important part of the countrys Public-Private Partnership Development Program.

Follow the author on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova
Central Bank governor Philip Lane was explaining to TDs and senators what actions were taken against lenders for overcharging mortgage customers. Thousands were wrongly moved onto more expensive deals.

It was put to Mr Lane again and again that the Central Banks role was a supervisory one, paid by taxpayers, to protect customers and impose sanctions where lenders act wrongly.

It has now emerged that as many as 15,000 bank customers may have been overcharged as they were denied tracker mortgages.

Mr Lane was unable, or some suggested, unwilling to give Oireachtas members exact figures on the numbers overcharged for mortgages. Furthermore, little was explained about what banks did or were doing to compensate customers. TDs were incensed and filleted the bank chief.

Mr Lane could not say how many banks had given assessments on overcharging; he could not say exactly when the banks review of cases would be completed; he could not quantify the scale of the mortgage overcharging; he could not specify if banks wronged customers by miscommunicating about fixed rate mortgages or denying them a rate change.

Fianna Fails Michael McGrath queried why the Central Bank was quoting 8,200 cases when the real number  from the banks  was closer to 15,000. Only later did the bank chief concede this was correct.

Committee chairman John McGuinness said people have lost homes and some have committed suicide because of the stress. The lack of information is striking, declared Mr McGuinness.

Are you being bullied by the bank, he asked, to which the governor denied this was the case. I would conclude that you are afraid of the banks... remember the customers that you are supposed to be protecting,said Mr McGuinness.

Mr Lane said there are limits to what could be said, given ongoing inquiries into the overcharging. Lenders now face intrusive regulations, he claims.

This wasnt enough. The committee meeting was temporarily suspended, to give the governor and his team time to get their facts and figures straight.

Yesterdays committee hearing that Ireland is a long way off ensuring banks operate within the rules. Their greed and unorthodox methods helped bring about this countrys ruin during the crash.

Down in Dublins docklands, the final touches are being put to the Central Banks new HQ. Some say the pale bronze or gold flakes on the exterior of the former Anglo Irish Bank building almost mirror Trump Tower.

Surely it is about time the bank regulator also started enforcing gold standards with reckless lenders.

Editorial:

Business: 16
Business KBZ and Kasikorn Banks Introduce Remittance Services

Migrant workers, supporters of Myanmar Foreign Minister and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, arrive to meet her at the coastal fishery center of Samut Sakhon, Thailand on June 23, 2016. / J Paing / The Irrawaddy

RANGOON  Burmas Kanbawza Bank (KBZ) signed a memorandum of understanding with Thailands Kasikorn Bank in Rangoon on Wednesday to introduce remittance services for migrant workers in both countries.

Worawut Wesaratchakit, senior vice president of Kasikorn Bank, told the Irrawaddy that the remittance service was expected to begin during the first quarter of 2017 as further details needed to be discussed.

Most migrants have to go to bank branches to send money, which is not convenient. They use agents, which is unregulated, unsafe, and costs at least 10 percent of the money being sent, he said.

He added that the new service would be easier and cheaper than the one currently used by agents.

There are an estimated 3 million Burmese migrant workers in Thailand.

Many of those workers currently use informal channels to send money home, bank officials said.

U Win Lwin, managing director of KBZs international banking division, said the new service will pose less risk for migrant workers.

By partnering with Kasikorn Bank, we can ensure the protection of peoples remittances, he said.

The transfers will be arranged via a mobile application. According to Kasikorn Bank, senders will be able to monitor transfers and clearly see when the money reaches the receivers account.

The service will be linked to the full features of KBZs online banking system and a savings scheme as well.

One of the largest private commercial banks in Burma, KBZ Bank was established in 1994 in the Shan State capital, Taunggyi. International representative offices have opened in Thailand and Singapore currently. KBZ opened a representative office in Bangkok in May.

Thailands Kasikorn Bank was founded in 1945 and operates more than 1,000 branches across Thailand and 16 overseas offices.
Lifestyle Freestyle UtopiaHip Hop and Healing in Meikhtila

Music as a healerthe Turning Tables project sees music as a powerful potential vehicle for social good. / Turning Tables / Facebook

We were all crammed in the tour bus, slowly leaving behind us the lush hills of green, water-rich Loikaw, now entering the red, dry lowlands with a merciless sun greeting us outside the toned windows. It was the last stop on the tour. The entire crew was exhausted from intense days of training, managing, dealing with money and cables, negotiating with locals on how to set up our mobile studio, and editing songs in the remaining hours of the night.

The karaoke that had previously been playing over the lousy speakers of the bus was mute and I was sitting in my own thoughts, staring back at the sun. Last stop, a stop in a city we all knew, that the whole world knew. A few years back, part of the town burst into flames, when a Muslim and a Buddhist merchant got in a quarrel, and hundreds of Muslim residents had to flee for their lives. We were heading to Meikhtila.

The morning before our first day of training, I woke up feeling a bit uneasy and I decided to go on my morning run. Unlike Loikaw or Pathein, where people looked with amusement at my running outfit and sweaty blond hair bobbing over a scarlet red face in the unbearable heat, this place felt different. People looked at me differently, more wary, and just as I turned the first corner, I was met by a gang of street dogs blocking the way.

They gathered around me, and it was not until I heard the yells of an elderly woman behind me that I dared move. She waved an enormous branch twice the size of her body to chase the gang away. Go, go! she said, and I went straight back to our bleak hotel. Welcome to Meikhtila, I thought to myself, wishing I were back among lush hills with generous rivers.

The first thing I noticed, when we went to the small urban house we used for our music training, was the black t-shirts, jeans and caps. The guysvery few girls came to the workshopslooked tough and unimpressed by all the gear we dragged into the tiny training facility. Street-wise and cold as ice.

As I started our name-game I felt like a ridiculous hippie teacher, and my guided music facilitation was clearly out of place. The kids quickly separated into small groups, scattered around the house with guitars making music their own way.

As the days progressed, I heard shaky Burmese rap coming out of the improvised studio with LoneLone, a famous hiphop producer, working long hours with the kids and their texts. But I had no clue how things were going. Honestly, I just wanted it to be over, to get home and re-charge.

Soon it was last night of the workshop and the end of our tour. It was LoneLones birthday, and we went to the hotel roof with a big bowl of strange cocktail ingredients and a cool evening breeze in the dry night.

All of a sudden, four young guys came up the stairs from the dark, some of the youngsters from our workshop. High fives and knuckles, they sat down and grabbed a glass of the murky brownish punch. Darko, another one of the musicians from our group, translated once in a while and I sensed how the talk slid from chit-chat to more serious topics: The city, what had happened.

The tallest of the guys joined the conversation. He was Muslim, and with a high pitched voice he told us how the police did nothing as bodies were dumped in the river two years ago. As they still were. Unnoticed, someone, HtetHtet perhaps, switched the music on the portable speakers from The Black Keys to a steady rap beat. In one, unnoticeable movement the birthday party turned itself into a freestyle rap session, with our previously unengaged participants now giving it up, throwing words and phrases into the night as they gathered closer around the little speaker. The atmosphere was vibrating, the dark night air thick with a fiery energy. What are they rapping about? I asked. The Government, Darko replied, how it has failed them.

Thomas, the tall white guy with an oversized T-shirt and a gold chain around his neck, grabbed the Black Magic camera and a flashlight, and before I knew it, we were all heading out in the dark, down to the river.

We stopped next to the gigantic Golden Duck, a bizarre mutated rubber duck towering over us in the pitch-black night. Thomas held the camera, I was on the mic and HtetHtet operated the flashlights while LoneLone put on the beat.

Young guys with eyes shining from the sharp light, staring into the camera. Muslim and Buddhist youngsters throwing hand signs and yos in a restless, energetic manner, faltering for words but insistently rapping about the scars of the city, all the wrongdoings floating in the rivers, and the hate and fear seeping through the streets. The Golden Duck was shining behind them, as a comical yet ominous symbol of the power of the rich and religious, a Big Brother looking down at the little dissident group finding each other in the black night. Not giving a f**k what this could lead to.

On the bus the next day, driving out of this infamous city in the heart of Myanmar, I felt something had changed. All the struggles to make this project happen, all our doubts if it did any good, all my worries if this was a just a dream of a naive NGO activist.

At the feet of the big, golden duck, a small, nagging doubt had evaporated. The bus was silent, but it was not the muted silence of tired, worried minds. It was an exhausted, amazed and humbled silence. On the last night of the tour, the roof of our hotel transformed into a small, temporary fleeting utopia, a moment of crystal clear magic revealing itself to us. In front of me, four young guys came together across deep divisions, connecting through the beats of a noisy little portable speaker, creating tones of resonance. With my head resting on the bus window, I fell into a deep sleep.

Klara Christensen holds a masters degree from the University of Oxford in Social Policy with a special focus on social cohesion and trust-building in post-conflict countries. She is working with the Danish NGO Turning Tables on youth empowerment projects in Denmark and Myanmar, using music as a tool for social change. This piece is written on the basis of her experiences setting up a music project in Myanmar in 2014 called Voice of The Youth.

This article was originally published on the website of Tea Circle, a forum hosted at Oxford University for emerging research and perspectives on Burma/Myanmar.
Asia China Returns US Underwater Drone Seized in South China Sea

The oceanographic survey ship, USNS Bowditch, is shown September 20, 2002, which deployed an underwater drone seized by a Chinese Navy warship in international waters in South China Sea, December 16, 2016. / Reuters

BEIJING  China on Tuesday handed back to the United States an underwater drone it had seized last week in an incident that raised tensions in a relationship that has been tested by President-elect Donald Trumps signals of a tougher policy toward Beijing.

Trump has riled the Chinese leadership by saying he might reconsider US policy toward Taiwan, the self-ruled island the mainland claims as its territory.

The Chinese navy vessel that seized the drone returned it near where it was seized, and it was received by the USS Mustin about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Subic Bay in the Philippines, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. Cook said Washington considered the seizure illegal.

This incident was inconsistent with both international law and standards of professionalism for conduct between navies at sea, he said, adding that the US has called on China to refrain from further efforts to impede lawful US activities.

The statement said the US would continue to fly, sail, and operate in the South China Sea wherever international law allows. Such freedom of navigation missions in which US ships sail near Chinas artificial islands draw warnings and rebukes from Beijing.

A spokeswoman of Chinas Foreign Ministry said there was no basis for the Pentagons assertion that the seizure was unlawful, though she didnt fully explain the position, instead linking it to the USs military presence in the waters, which Beijing considers provocative.

We have been pointing out that over a long time, the US has been sending aircraft and vessels to conduct close-in reconnaissance and military surveys in waters facing China, which poses threats to Chinas sovereignty and security, said Hua Chunying, the spokeswoman.

That is the root cause of the incident, she said, while calling for the US to stop such activities.

Chinas defense ministry said in a statement that it handed the drone back after friendly consultations.

Chinese officials say the drone was removed from the water to ensure the safety of passing ships, but domestic political experts have read the move as a warning to Trump not to test Beijings resolve over Taiwan.

Early this month, Trump broke protocol by speaking with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. He later said he did not feel bound by a one-China policy unless the US could gain trade or other benefits from China. Beijing regards any acknowledgement that Taiwan has its own head of state as a grave insult.

China wants to send a message to the US side about how serious the consequences can be if sensitive issues in China-US relations are handled unilaterally and indiscreetly, said Xiong Zhiyong, an international relations expert at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing. The return of the seized drone shows that China hopes the US will not provoke China on these issues and engage in solving issues through consultation.

The incident underscores how Trump will confront as president an increasingly assertive China that wants to extend its reach in the South China Sea, a strategically vital area through which about US$5 trillion in global trade passes each year. Several of Chinas smaller neighbors have protested Chinas territorial claims there and are closely watching Trumps handling of the disputed sea.

The seizure of the drone fits into Chinas broader strategy aimed at shaping the perception that it is in control of the South China Sea and will not back down, said Michael Raska, a military analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

They use the South China Sea as political, economic and informational means to project power and to influence domestic and external perception that the South China Sea is basically Chinese, Raska said. This puts the US and China into contending trajectories, but neither side has the strategic interest to escalate beyond these low-level incidents.

The US said the drone was being operated by civilian contractors collecting unclassified scientific data in international waters. A noncombat ship was recovering two drones last Thursday when a Chinese ship approached, launched a small boat and picked up one of them, officials say.

Trump, still a month away from being inaugurated, accused Chinese authorities on Saturday of stealing the drone, and said on Twitter, We should tell China that we dont want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!

Trump has pledged to be more unpredictable on the world stage, billing the approach as a much-needed change from President Barack Obamas deliberative style and public forecasting about US policy.

That is likely to unnerve both allies and adversaries, leaving glaring questions about whether the foreign policy novice is carrying out planned strategies or acting on impulse.
Burma Authorities Investigate Small Retail Businesses for Visa Violations

A 5000 kyats store in Botahtaung Township. / Pyay Kyaw / The Irrawaddy

RANGOON  Authorities in Rangoon and Mandalay divisions are continuing checks into the operations of small retail businesses selling low-priced household items.

Numerous shops titled 5000 kyats store have opened in Burmas two largest cities and other locations over the last year selling a range of goods at consumer-friendly prices.

National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker U Than Naing Oo raised a question about the ownership and operation of the shops in Rangoon at the Rangoon regional parliament in October.

The lawmaker suggested that the businesses were largely being operated by non-nationals from China and questioned whether this was in breach of the law.

A committee was subsequently set up under the Rangoon parliament to probe whether the shops are in compliance with laws and regulations regarding the eligibility of foreign nationals to own and run businesses.

In mid-December, authorities from immigration, police and other branches of government began conducting similar checks on shops in Mandalay Division.

The probes are not intended to result in legal action at this stage, U Than Naing Oo told The Irrawaddy. This is just an awareness-raising period, he said.

The draft 2016 Myanmar Investment Law (MIL) published in October and current regulations under the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA) are broad in scope and list few explicit restrictions on foreign investments.

Detailed by-laws and regulations on the type of business operations that are open for wholly-owned foreign investment or joint ventures are due to be announced early next year, and are expected to provide some restrictions or other provisions designed to protect certain local small and medium enterprises.

Currently all retail businesses must obtain a license to operate from different authorities and licenses are given only to locals, according to DICA deputy director general U San Myint.

In Rangoon, retail businesses obtain a license from the Yangon City Development Committee.

The current checks into the 5000 kyats stores are seeking to ascertain whether the shops are genuinely owned by nationals named on their business licenses, and whether non-national staff working in the outlets have fulfilled visa requirements.

Initial visits to a small number of shops in Pabedan Township in Rangoon suggested that visitor visa regulations were not always being adhered to, U Than Naing Oo said. Similar findings were reported by NLD lawmaker Daw Kyi Pyar of Kyauktada constituency (2).

The Irrawaddy sought comments from staff and managers of shops in Rangoons Sanchaung and Latha townships but ran into language barriers as a number of the employees were not speakers of Burmese or English. A female employee in one shop explained through an interpreter that she had worked in the shop for four months and had entered Burma from China on a social visa.

U Than Naing Oo said the committee would submit its findings on the stores in a report to parliament early next year.
Burma Civil Society Organizations Urge Government Action Over Burma Army Offensives

A young boy walks through a damaged building in Mong Ko, Shan State / Nang Seng Non / The Irrawaddy

Civil society organizations urged the National League for Democracy (NLD) led government to halt Burma Army offensives that have displaced civilians in Kachin and northern Shan states, and accused the international community of neglecting the situation.

The Tatmadaw continues to pursue different policies in the northeast of the country, furthering displacement and the suffering of local communities, said a statement signed by 180 leaders of civil society and faith organizations in Burma released on Wednesday.

This is not what the people desired or expected when the National League for Democracy was voted into office by popular mandate last year.

Armed conflict between the Burma Army and ethnic armed groupsincluding the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA)has flared for months, and has intensified since Daw Aung San Suu Kyis Union Peace Conference in late August, killing dozens and displacing thousands.

Restrictions to transport and rice and other basic foods are the worst, said national director of the Rangoon-based Justice and Peace Commission Father Thomas Htang Shan Mong, adding that UN agencies have been restricted in providing aid to affected areas since late 2014.

We expect the government to respond to our demands [to help the locals], and [these] should not be ignored, added Father Thomas.

Government forces frequently shelled areas near camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kachin States Laiza as part of an offensive that overran KIA mountaintop Gideon outpost and nearby outposts in Waingmaw Township this weekend. Four Burma Air Force fighter jets also bombed a KIA outpost at Lai Hpawng on Wednesday morning. KIA sources on the front line said the attack on Lai Hpawng has intensified since Burma Army troops seized the strategic Gideon hill post.

Recently uprooted IDPs have been added to a number of civilians who already fled their homes in 2011when a 17 year ceasefire between KIA and Burma Army fell apartcreating a mass movement of displaced persons, according to coordinator of the Kachin Peace Network Khon Ja. IDPs have no place left to run, she added.

Critics say that Burmas Tatmadaw is committed to conquering armed ethnic groups in Kachin and Shan states under the auspices of promoting safety and stability.

Last month the Northern Alliancecomprising the KIA, TNLA, the ethnic Kokang Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Arakan Armyattacked government forces in northern Shan State to draw national and international attention to Burma Army offensives against ethnic armed groups.

Our people have suffered a lot from the conflict, we want the NLD government to end civil war peacefully and try to solve the problems at the national political dialogue, said Khon Ja.

The activist speculated that the NLD is keeping quiet on the militarys blockade of transport and aid in conflict areas due to agreements reached between the party and the military prior to the 2015 elections.

The security situation is poor and access for humanitarian aid and journalists is restricted in the conflict areas, making it harder for local residents to speak out against human rights violations, she added.

On Tuesday residents evacuated at least two ethnic Kachin villages in Kutkai Township of northern Shan State, according to Khon Ja.

Last month, bombs fell on downtown Kutkai and there were reports of deaths. When our research team visited victims they dared not to speak to us as there is no guarantee of their safety, explained Khon Ja.

Civil society organizations also encouraged the international community to pressure the Burmese government to allow relief access to communities in northeast Burma in order to achieve inclusive peace.

The collective statement decries international neglect of a deteriorating situation in northeast Burma and failure to understand the political crisis in our country.

International communities have their own policies and currently their agenda is only filled with providing humanitarian support to the Rohingya in northern Arakan State, said Khon Ja, highlighting that international aid organizations and media have been preoccupied with demanding access to northern Arakan State.
Burma Educators in Mon State Struggle with Tight Budgets

Members of the Mon National Education Department meet in Lamine, Ye Township, Mon State on Dec. 17, 2016. / Nai Wona

RANGOON  The chairman of an ethnic Mon organization told his education department on Saturday not to expect a big budget from the federal government anytime soon.

Nai Htaw Mon, the chairman of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), spoke on Saturday during a conference of the Mon National Education Department in Lamine sub-township, Mon State. The NMSP chairman told seminar attendees to prepare their own budget proposals, and not to count on a federal system supplying any education money.

If we expect our ethnic education system will be paid for with money from the federal government, and if we rely on a budget supplied from the state government, this will be difficult to realize soon, said Nai Htaw Mon.

The party chairman asked his people to consider their own local systems first for supplying the education budget. More than 200 ethnic Mon community leaders attended the two-day seminar.

Nai Htaw Mon also said that Burma will never achieve a federal system of government as long as the Burma Army continues to attack ethnic armed groups.

The Burma Army increased their military operations, and it is now difficult to have political dialogue in the country, he said. Therefore, it is unlikely we will have a federal system in the country soon.

Over the weekend, DVB reported that NMSP chairman Nai Htaw Mon told his party to be prepared to start a military offensive quickly, in case they must support one of their ethnic allies. The NMSP is not a signatory to the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA), and it is a member of the United Nationalities Federal Council.

Mon community leaders were looking for ways to separate their education budgets from ethnic and national politics. They have said that the national education planand its fundingmust be treated as a long term project.

Over the weekend, Mon educators decided to make the Mon National Education Department a separate entity from the NMSP political wing. They feared that if they remained within the NMSP, then the education system risked falling apart whenever there is renewed fighting with the Burma Army.

The Mon National Education Department plans to register with the national government to obtain full legal status.

The Mon National Education Department has a budget of 700 million kyats (US$500,000) per year. About 20 percent of that money is raised from the Mon people, and the other 80 percent comes from foreign donations.

Although a teacher in Mon State can earn about 70,000 kyats ($51) per month in salary, the Mon National Education Department can only afford to pay 50,000 kyats ($36). Typically, the department must ask community members to pay the difference.

Almost every Mon township is behind in its payments to school teachers.

We were behind 5 million kyats ($3,600) in payments to our school teachers last year, said Nai Mann, a community leader from Thanbyuzayat Township.

Some communities are able to help pay the salaries of their schoolteachers, but some are not.

At the two-day education summit in Lamine, attendees made plans to ask for additional education money at dhamma talks, from phone credits, and from Mon community members.

The Mon National Education Department operates 133 schools independently, and it partners with the Burmese government to operate 92 more. It employs 800 teachers and enrolls over 25,000 students.
Burma Locals in Dawei Seek Justice After Impact of Destructive Tin Mining

Dawei Development Company Managing Director Somchet Thinaphong shows a model of the proposed SEZ in Dawei during an interview in Bangkok. / Reuters

Villagers from the economic development-driven Dawei District in Tenasserim Division say that they have not received proper compensation after a tin mining project began negatively affecting their livelihoods.

With their lawyers, locals from Myaung Pyo village in Dawei District held a press conference in Rangoon on Wednesday, explaining that they had been fighting for two years to be compensated by the Myanmar Pongpipat Companys Heinda tin mining project due to its negative physical and environmental impact.

The mines negligent environmental management has wreaked havoc on our land, health and livelihoods. The fresh waterway has been poisoned with dangerous levels of lead and arsenic, and crops have been destroyed by sediment from the mine, villagers said in Rangoon.

The Heinda project, conducted by Myanmar Pongpipat Company and No 2. Mining Enterprise, has caused severe flooding and sedimentation, destroying villagers houses, plantations, sanitation infrastructure and making the water toxic, according to a statement released by the Dawei Pro Bono Lawyers Network, a civil society organization assisting locals. The legal case is currently pending.

The Myaung Pyo villagers are hopeful that their case will bring justice, said the statement.

Nine plaintiffs from Myaung Pyo village first filed a lawsuit against the Myanmar Pongpipat Company in March 2014 in order to seek compensation for damages caused by the project.

However, in June of this year, the plaintiffs were barred from pursuing the case further as the courts decided it should have been filed within one year of the damage, which began in 2012. The Dawei Pro Bono Lawyers Network, which represents the plaintiffs, argued that the time limitations relied on by the Union Supreme Court are inapplicable.

Under Myanmar law, time limits only start to run once continuing harm ceases, said the lawyers in the statement.

The mine project was suspended temporarily in June 2016 at the request of the environmental conservation department of Tenasserim Division. But the project reportedly continues to operate today, which lawyers involved believe is a violation of the 2015 Environmental Impact Assessment procedures.

The lawyers and the plaintiffs also said that the reaction of the environmental conservation department in the Heinda case would be a crucial test of the current Burmese governments and courts commitment to these principles, as Burma seeks to improve human rights, democracy and pursue sustainable development.

During the conference in Rangoon, a documentary called poison development made by filmmaker Kyaw Thu Maung was also shown.

As economic and political reforms have opened Burma up to unprecedented domestic and foreign investment, development projects have mushroomed across the country, and the Dawei region is reserved as a special economic zone with multi-billion dollar projects such as a deep-sea port, an industrial park, roads, mining, rubber and palm plantations.
Burma Parliamentarian Challenges House Speaker To Debate

Arakanese MP U Oo Hla Saw speaks to the media in a press conference in Naypyidaw. / Htet Naing Zaw / The Irrawaddy

RANGOON Arakanese lawmaker U Oo Hla Saw has challenged Upper House Speaker Mahn Win Khaing Than to a debate after the speaker warned him that his comments to a local newspaper could harm the Union Parliaments image.

Local print publication The Voice Daily published a story last week about Mahn Win Khaing Thans rejection of an urgent proposal by ethnic Taang National Party MP Mai Win Htoo urging State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to begin peace talks with the ethnic armed group coalition known as the Northern Alliance. Parliamentary leadership reportedly said that the State Counselor was already attempting to bring all ethnic armed groups to the table.

MP U OoHla Saw commented in the article that the move had essentially blocked the speaking of ethnic partiesMPs in the Parliament and described the rejection as unfair.

On Dec. 20, House Speaker Mahn Win Khaing Than explained during the legislative session that his decision on the proposal was in line with parliamentary provisions and issued a warning to lawmakers Mai Win Htoo and U Oo Hla Saw. He suggested that U Oo Hla Saws corroboration in this case was reckless, since he was not particularly informed of the issue at hand, which involves armed conflict in northern Shan State. U Oo Hla Saw stood in Parliament to respond to the House Speaker, but he did not allow him to take the floor.

I wasnt born yesterday. The wordshe used are the favored slang of streetboys, not Hluttaw terms. []He should not have told me that I know nothing, said U Oo Hla Saw of Mahn Win Khaing Than, adding that the House Speaker lacked an understanding of media work and that it was an MPs right to speak to the press.

The lawmaker then challenged the House Speaker to prove his own knowledge of peace-related issues in a debate open to the media.

Speaker Mahn Win Khaing Than could not be reached for comment at the time of publishing.

The incident involving U Oo Hla Saw is not the first time that a House Speaker has publicly reprimanded a lawmaker. On Tuesday, Lower House Speaker U Win Myint scolded a National League for Democracy (NLD) parliamentarian for being caught on TV reading a magazine while attending a legislative session.

A veteran Naypyidaw-based reporter who spoke to The Irrawaddy on the condition of anonymity on Wednesday speculated that friction between the lawmakers and the House Speaker has increased under the NLD-led government.

He suggested that Mahn Win KhaingThan privately speak to offending MPs after parliamentary sessions, rather than in public.

But NLD lawmaker U Aung Win of Hmawbi Constituency, said that while the House Speaker can be discrete, he had likely embraced public warnings in this case in order to make an example of the individuals in question.

He attributed the current tension to misunder standings between MPs and parliamentary leadership, recommending that parliamentarians exercise caution when giving full statements to the media, in order to avoid misinterpretations.
Burma UN Blocked From Delivering Aid to Kachin Refugees

A refugee from Bhamo waits with her daughter at the Jegau camp in KIO-controlled territory near the Chinese border, Feb. 2012. / Seamus Martov

The UN has been waiting for months to send aid to a group of refugees sheltering in territory controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), but has been unable to secure official permission to do so. According to figures provided by the UN there are about 100,000 displaced people in Kachin State and neighboring northern Shan State, about half of whom are in areas controlled by the KIO.

Under the former Thein Sein administration, UN convoys were allowed to make regular aid deliveries to refugee camps in the KIO areathe first such convoy took place in Dec. 2011. The last such shipment took place in April, and was organized before the National League for Democracy (NLD) took office. Although UN aid convoys to KIO areas conducted during the Thein Sein period were subject to frequent delays, the UNs effort to reach the most vulnerable displaced populations in Kachin state appears to have become considerably more difficult since the NLD came to power earlier this year.

Humanitarian access to conflict areas in Myanmar is currently worse than at any point in the past few years. Predictable, timely humanitarian access is vital for organizations to ensure that the needs of all affected people are adequately met and that protection issues are being addressed. Unfortunately, our ability to reach people who depend on humanitarian assistance in Kachin State is getting worse not better, said Pierre Peron, a Burma based spokesperson with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

A statement released by a coalition of Burma based NGOs and aid groups operating in Kachin state in October criticized both the NLD-led government and the military for obstructing access to displaced people in the state.

Humanitarian access is unfortunately politicized consistently by the Myanmar government, has been controlled and limited. Myanmar Tatmadaw [the government army] consistently hinders food transportation to the most needed area in Kachin State. This is an outright violation against the right of the IDPs [internally displaced persons] and breaching of the IHL [International Humanitarian Law], said the statement released by the Joint Strategy Team (JST) for Humanitarian Response in Kachin and Northern Shan State.

In order for the UN aid convoys, which involve the World Food Program and other UN agencies like UNICEF, to be able to reach the KIO area, approval has to be given by both the military and various government departments, including the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, now headed by the NLDs Win Myat Aye, a doctor from Bago. According to a report submitted to the UN General Assembly in August by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma, Yanghee Lee, the process has recently become more complicated.

While previous requests for access [to KIO areas] would be sent through relevant ministries to the National Defense and Security Council, such requests are now handled by the Ministry of Home Affairs, with final clearance from the Commander-in-Chief, a reference to Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the report stated.

Such approval does not appear to be coming any time soon from the army chief, in light of the recent wave of fighting between the government and the KIO who recently lost a strategic post, following a four-month siege by the army that included repeated airstrikes and heavy shelling, some of which landed close to a nearby refugee camp. Government officials have instead demanded that refugees sheltering in KIO controlled territory cross into government-held areas to pick up aid and relief supplies at designated distribution points. Aid workers and activists familiar with the situation in Kachin State maintain that compelling large numbers of displaced people to venture across the land mine strewn no mans land between the KIO and the government-held areas would be impractical and dangerous.

The proposal to force displaced people to cross into government areas has also been met with criticism from the UN itself. Following the completion of his visit to Burma in October, Stephen OBrien, the UNs Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, issued a statement that called on authorities to drop their demand for displaced people in some areas to cross an active conflict line in order to receive humanitarian assistance. The sentiment was shared by Yanghee Lee, who raised similar concerns following her trip to Burma in July.

The KIO, Burmas second largest ethnic armed organization, controls a long strip of territory located along the Kachin State border with China that includes the two major towns of Mai Ja Yang and Laizathe groups de facto capital. This area also includes a series of refugee camps that were established in the wake of the collapse of the KIOs 17-year ceasefire with the central government in June 2011 and the heavy fighting that ensued. The camp residents, the overwhelming majority of whom are women, children and the elderly, face difficult conditions living in shelters that when constructed were only intended to be used for the short term.

An urgent appeal issued this week by a long list of Kachin civil society groups and their allieincluding a Catholic bishopcalled out the NLD government for its deafening silence in its response to the ongoing fighting in Burmas north, The statement, which was also signed by Seng Raw Lahpai, the founder and former head of one of Burmas most prominent NGOs, the Metta Development Foundation, called on the countrys de facto head of state Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to visit the IDP communities in Kachin State and northern Shan State to see for herself the grave conditions under which they live. The request, which Kachin groups have been making of the Nobel Peace Prize Winner since 2012, has yet to be fulfilled.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Dec. 21

By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:

The work is underway in Turkmenistan to increase production and export volumes of oil products manufactured by the Turkmenbashi Complex of Oil Refineries (TCOR), the Turkmen government said in a message.

This was discussed at a meeting of the Turkmen Cabinet of Ministers. The proposals for international cooperation in this field were submitted for consideration.

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stressed the importance of increasing the volumes of production and processing of oil and natural gas, production of various petrochemical products which are in high demand abroad.

Infrastructure modernization and technical re-equipment of the Turkmen energy industry, attracting additional investments to the industry were named as the priority areas. In addition, the Turkmen president instructed to tighten control over the implementation of major investment projects.

It was earlier reported that the enterprises of TCOR process more than 10 million tons of hydrocarbons per year.

The TCOR includes two refineries in the cities of Turkmenbashi and Seydi. Products are exported to Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Georgia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.

Turkmenistan plans to bring the capacity of the oil refining industry to 20 million tons of oil in 2020, to 22 million tons in 2025 and to 30 million tons in 2030.
News Two Suspects Arrested in Murder of Journalist

Journalists gathered in front of Rangoon City Hall on Monday evening to mourn the death of Monywa-based reporter Ko Soe Moe Tun. / Pyay Kyaw / The Irrawaddy

RANGOON  Police have arrested two suspects from a karaoke bar in Monywa Township, Sagaing Division, on Tuesday in connection with the murder of local reporter Ko Soe Moe Tun of Eleven Media Group (EMG).

Ko Soe Moe Tun, a 36-year-old Monywa-based EMG journalist, was found dead and with bruises at around 1 a.m. on Dec. 13 on the Union Highway in Monywa. An autopsy revealed that he died of a skull fracture resulting from having been beaten. His personal belongings, including money, a gold ring and his national ID card, were not taken.

Police sub-lieutenant Soe Min Tun of the Monywa Central Police Station, said that a special investigation unit was formed to look into the case and that they had questioned around 30 people so far. Many of those questioned were staff members from karaoke establishment Blue Sky KTV in Monywa, where Ko Soe Moe Tun went the night he was murdered.

We have found out that he left KTV at around 11:30 at that night and he was killed soon after, Soe Min Tun said, adding that the police have been mainly inspecting the staff and waiters from the business. On Tuesday evening, the police remanded the KTV manager and supervisor until Jan. 2 of 2017 after they said that they had not noticed Ko Soe Moe Tuns arrival and exit from the establishment. Additionally, the two men had also deleted their cell phones call records, the police sub-lieutenant said.

Sagaing Division Chief Minister U Myint Naing met with the deceaseds family members and instructed the police to continue to seek out the truth.

It is thought that around three people were involved in the murder case. Its a lawless act and unacceptable, the chief minister said.

Media advocacy groups have called the government to step up the investigation and find the perpetrators as soon as possible.
My name is Matt, I am photographer and "BTS search Guru".On ISO 1200 Magazine we have the best team searching brand new behind the scenes videos around the world to learn all the secrets of the best photographers
Wednesday, December 21st, 2016 (9:19 am) - Score 1,028

Residents of the Farndon Fields Development in Market Harborough (Leicestershire), many of whom have been forced to suffer slow ADSL2+ broadband speeds despite owning new build homes, look set to gain access to 80Mbps capable FTTC fibre broadband thanks to a new co-funded deal with BT.

Nearly 300 new-ish build properties look set to benefit from the co-funded deal with BT (Openreach) after local residents clubbed together with CJC Developments, the developer who built Farndon Fields some 5 years ago.

As a result of the effort enough money has been raised (were not told how much this will all cost) in order to co-fund the build of a new FTTC street cabinet by Autumn 2017, which will be achieved via one of BTs Community Fibre Partnerships.

We should point out that the situation in 2011/12, when the houses were first being built, was rather different from what it is today and back then there wasnt much in the way of superfast broadband (24Mbps+) connectivity around and Openreach (BT) had only just begun to roll-out Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology. Meanwhile the Governments Broadband Delivery UK programme was still being setup.

Richard Kyle, Community Campaigner for Farndon Fields, said: We are really looking forward to being able to connect to fibre broadband. It will make a huge difference to the residents, especially those working from home and with children in the house. Being able to benefit from faster download speeds becomes more important as more home devices connect to the internet and so many things are accessed or delivered online. This will benefit people of all ages.

So far BTs Community Fibre Partnerships have helped to expand their FTTC/P network coverage to an additional 90+ communities (18,000 premises passed), which is expected to reach 35,000 premises passed once the next round of related contracts in other parts of the United Kingdom have been finalised and completed.

However its a shame that residents had to raise the money themselves, particularly as the area appears to be fairly urban and should have perhaps been covered as part of the second Superfast Leicestershire contract instead (details), had the local authority desired to do so.
Wednesday, December 21st, 2016 (11:04 am) - Score 1,710

The Court of Justice of the European Union has struck a blow to the UKs controversial Internet snooping Investigatory Powers Act 2016 by ruling that EU law does not allow general and indiscriminate retention of traffic data and location data, except for targeted use against serious crime.

Todays ruling stems from a long running legal challenge, which began after the UK Governments old Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and similar laws in other EU member states, which enabled the security services to snoop on telecoms and Internet services, was effectively declared invalid by the European Court of Justice (here and here).

The court found that related laws breached the fundamental right to respect for private life and the fundamental right to the protection of personal data, among other things. The decision forced the UK to hastily introduce a temporary Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIP), which did little to overcome the original concerns and was similarly challenged (here) by civil rights group Liberty and two ministers  David Davis MP (Conservative) and Tom Watson MP (Labour).

Since then the DRIP Act has been replaced by the even more controversial IPAct (here), which among other things forces broadband ISPs into logging a bigger slice of your Internet activity, irrespective of whether or not youre even suspected of a crime. The data can then be requested by a variety of security and non-security related groups, all without needing a full warrant.

However todays CJEU ruling appears to confirm that such general and indiscriminate retention of traffic data and location data is NOT allowed under EU law, unless the data retention is both targeted (e.g. used against a specific individual or group of interest to the security services) and used in cases of serious crime. Individuals must also be notified if their data is accessed.

CJEU Statement (Joined Cases C-203/15 & C-698/15) EU law precludes a general and indiscriminate retention of traffic data and location data, but it is open to Members States to make provision, as a preventive measure, for targeted retention of that data solely for the purpose of fighting serious crime, provided that such retention is, with respect to the categories of data to be retained, the means of communication affected, the persons concerned and the chosen duration of retention, limited to what is strictly necessary. Access of the national authorities to the retained data must be subject to conditions, including prior review by an independent authority and the data being retained within the EU

At present the Internet Connection Records (ICR) that the UK Governments IPAct would appear to mandate do not appear to comply with todays ruling, not least because the controversial data retention is anything but targeted against specific individuals or groups suspected of serious crime. On top of that the suspects do not have to be notified if their data is accessed.

Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, said: The CJEU has sent a clear message to the UK Government: blanket surveillance of our communications is intrusive and unacceptable in a democracy. The Government knew this judgment was coming but Theresa May was determined to push through her snoopers charter regardless. The Government must act quickly to re-write the IPA or be prepared to go to court again.

A Spokesperson for the Home Office said: We are disappointed with the judgement from the European court of justice and will be considering its potential implications. It will now be for the court of appeal to determine the case. The government will be putting forward robust arguments to the court of appeal about the strength of our existing regime for communications data retention and access. Given the importance of communications data to preventing and detecting crime, we will ensure plans are in place so that the police and other public authorities can continue to acquire such data in a way that is consistent with EU law and our obligation to protect the public.

The outcome could force the UK Government to return the law for further significant amendments, although we wouldnt put it past them to find a way of twisting the wording and or delaying any related court judgements through appeal until the Brexit process completes.

However, depending upon the terms of any Brexit deal with the EU, the UK may still have to respect some of the related EU laws, so it might not be a simple case of waiting to escape before the full force of the IPAct can be introduced. On top of that the CJEU states that any data being retained must be kept within the EU, which adds another complication.

As a quick reminder, David Davis MP withdrew from the case after being appointed Minister for Brexit.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.21

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

The assassination of Russian ambassador in Turkey Andrey Karlov will not affect the implementation of the Turkish Stream project, Cyril Widdershoven, a Middle East geopolitical specialist and energy analyst, a partner at Dutch risk consultancy VEROCY and SVP MEA-Risk, told Trend Dec.21.

Karlov died after receiving fatal wound in an armed assault at an art gallery exhibition opening in Ankara late Dec. 19. Three other people were injured in the attack. The killer, Turkish off-duty police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas, has been eliminated. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the incident an act of terrorism.

I dont have the feeling that this will be the case. Both sides are economically now too much involved. The implementation of Turkish Stream will proceed as expected. There is nothing to gain for Moscow to block it right now, said the expert.

Russia and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement October 10 on the implementation of the Turkish Stream project. The agreement involves construction of two branches of the main gas pipeline under the Black Sea, the power of each branch being 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas.

One branch is provided to supply gas directly to the Turkish market, the other for the supply of gas by transit through Turkey to Europe. The intergovernmental agreement also stipulates that these two offshore branches should be built by December 2019.

As for the overall bilateral ties between Russia and Turkey, Widdershoven said that the relationship will stay as it is, but a bit shaky maybe due to the assassination of the Russian ambassador.

But there is too much at stake. Both parties are heavily putting their bets on a better relationship, focusing on the outcome of the Aleppo battle, he said.

The assassination will be put in the media as ISIS or if not able to do that, as a Kurdish plot to involve Muslim extremists, according to the expert.

Some even expect that both Russia and Turkey will partly blame the West or maybe Arab sources for the current assassination, he added.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Building High-Growth IT: 5 Things to Know Now

Its fascinating to watch the telecommunications ecosystem spin up, almost from thin air, virtual network functions (VNFs). The ability to remotely create and control network assets promises to radically change, if not transform, networking. This is especially true when NFV is teamed with software-defined networks (SDN), the bookend capability that maps paths and their attributes through networks.

All of this requires a deep level of interoperability. Complex elements must work together in a seamless manner, and today, four industry giants  Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia  said that they have created the NFV Interoperability Testing Initiative (NFV-ITI).

The goal is to facilitate NFV deployment in multivendor networks. The press release says that NFV-ITI will test assets actually used in the communication service providers network. The NFV-ITI is all about real-world testing, the companies say:

It will recommend generic principles, including interoperability test cases, test criteria, processes, methods, guidelines, templates, and testing tools, and will also apply best practices from all existing interoperability testing activities in the industry, such as the NVIOT forum efforts. NFV-ITI shall be well-aligned with the ETSI NFV Industry Specification Group and the OPNFV project.

Most networks are multivendor, so the initiative makes sense and shows that real and practical NFV challenges are being tackled. NFV-ITI is not the first stab being taken at this, however. An ongoing initiative is from the European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC). In a video, Managing Director Carsten Rossenhovel says that the goal is to enable VNFs from any vendor or open source provider to interoperate with any other.

The organization has been at work for more than a year. There are five steps to the process. Currently, the organization is testing VNF manager interoperability. Next month, Rossenhovel said, EANTC will work with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) on management orchestration interoperability.

At Light Reading, Rossenhovel provides a far more detailed assessment of the state of NFV interoperability. The group has assessed interoperability of products from 16 vendors (Cisco, Dell, Huawei, Juniper, Nokia, ZTE, Cobham, Hitachi, Ineoquest, Infoblox, Metaswitch, Mitel, NetNumber, Netrounds, Procera and Sonus) and tested where appropriate.

Rossenhovel says that EANTC is making progress  and much remains to be done:

A year ago, when we ran the first test campaign, many findings were new and it was difficult to overcome them. Vendors supplied new software in some cases; in 11 cases, we had to give up the test combination as not achievable. In the latest campaign, VNF and NFVi vendors generally understood the challenges better and provided more advanced software; most of the issues were related to configuration. Only three combinations failed because of major incompatibilities.

It is difficult to image a greater change than that of moving from a physical to a virtualized network. In addition to replicating all the functions of the former into the latter, engineers and developers must make it easy for network owners to choose gear from any source they desire. Work is ongoing, but the end is not yet in sight.

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.
How to Evaluate Predictive Analytics for Your Business

Now that the dust has settled on the presidential election (well, sort of), what can CIOs learn from the Trump campaigns use of software and data analytics? According to one researcher who has delved into that topic, the answer is that theres a lot more data for you to tap than you might ever have imagined.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Michael Fauscette, chief research officer at G2 Crowd, a peer-to-peer business review platform based in Chicago, whose team has looked extensively at the software the Trump campaign used, and how its software strategy might have helped Trump win the presidential election. I opened the conversation by asking Fauscette how his team determined what software the campaign used. He said they approached it on two levels:

The first one, which some of my research specialists did, was just using some tools that you can find online that enable you to put a sniffer on a website, and it just tells you what technology is there. Thats how we got some of the initial stack. Secondly, what Ive been working on myself, is looking at that next level to see what were the other very strategic tools they used. A lot of that came out in different news media interviews that I pieced together over the last five months or so, because in the last six months of the campaign, they shifted their strategy pretty heavily, and went into a kind of Big Data, micro-targeting strategy that for me was really interesting.

What gave the Trump campaign an edge, Fauscette said, is that it took better advantage of Big Data than the Clinton campaign did:

Its this idea of Big Data, and using some tools that are very focused around behavioral modeling. Theres a little bit of history there, because Ted Cruz used some of those tools earlier. But for Trump, they only really did this last big push in the last six months  it was something they built called Project Alamo, which was a database that they used to manage the demographic data on about 220 million voters. They collected so much data that it was estimated they had between 4,000 and 5,000 data points on every one of those 220 million voters, which is quite a bit of data. Part of that they got out of a deal they did with the Republican National Committee right at the beginning of that six-month period, because they hadnt really done a lot of this deep database management and mining. But then over time, there was a set of data brokers that they bought data from, which is a really common marketing tactic now. The one thats interesting is the one called Cambridge Analytica, which is a UK-based company. Ted Cruz used them a little bit, but Trumps campaign chairman, Steve Bannon, is on the board. Cambridge Analytica takes Big Data and they apply behavioral models to it in great detail, and they use that for targeting. Trump built a digital operations team in Austin, where they had about 100 programmers and strategists, and they hired Brad Parscale, a digital marketing guy. He and his team pulled in data from typical data sources, like Experian, Datalogic, and Epsilon, but then they brought in this Cambridge Analytica piece. That gave them the ability to do micro-targeted outreach on Facebook.

As for the lessons that CIOs can take away from the Trump campaigns use of software, Fauscette said CIOs need to understand that the idea of Big Data has gone to a new level:

Its not just about crunching the data  its about finding new sources of data. There are a lot of new data clouds and data sources available  even Oracle has a data cloud that you can buy now that has aggregated data from everywhere. So CIOs need to be involved in bringing that data in-house, and they need to be involved in getting the tools  new predictive analytics tools, and social marketing and management tools  that the marketing guys are going to want. Were going much deeper into targeting and microtargeting based on behavioral profiles than weve ever seen before.

A contributing writer on IT management and career topics with IT Business Edge since 2009, Don Tennant began his technology journalism career in 1990 in Hong Kong, where he served as editor of the Hong Kong edition of Computerworld. After returning to the U.S. in 2000, he became Editor in Chief of the U.S. edition of Computerworld, and later assumed the editorial directorship of Computerworld and InfoWorld. Don was presented with the 2007 Timothy White Award for Editorial Integrity by American Business Media, and he is a recipient of the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for editorial excellence in news coverage. Follow him on Twitter @dontennant.
Samsung is offering an awesome deal to customers in South Korea who bought the discontinued Galaxy Note 7.

The smartphone was scrapped after replacements devices sent-out following the first worldwide recall started to suffer from battery problems, with smartphones exploding.

In a statement issued the other day Samsung already confirmed customers who trade their Galaxy Note 7 for either the standard or with the curved-screen Edge variant of the Galaxy S7 will be able to trade-up to a Galaxy S8 or Note 8 device in 2017 through an upgrade program.

Samsung Offering A Trade In Exchange To Samsung Note 7

Additionally, offering refunds or exchanges for a Galaxy S7 phone, Samsung has already begun to offer financial incentives up to 100,000 won or some $88.39, or 71 to the customers who were affected in South Korea.

Those who have taken up Samsung up on its deal will only have to pay half the price of a Galaxy S7, rather than the full amount, before exchanging to the S8 or the Note 8 when they release, Samsung officially confirmed.

Just Incase You Forgot Here Are the Rumored Specs Of Galaxy S8:

A leaked spreadsheet on Weibo Appears, the Samsung Galaxy S8 Edge will sport a 5.5-inch 4K display. The Galaxy S8 is said to be powered by the latest chip from Qualcomm, Snapdragon 835 processor. While The Samsung Galaxy S8 is expected to come in a single 64GB version with 256GB which is expandable. For the cameras concerned, The Samsung Galaxy S8 is expected to sport a 16-megapixel rear camera and a 12-megapixel 4K-capable front shooter for selfies. Samsung' Galaxy S8 rumored rounding up to be the first major one in the world to feature an optical fingerprint sensor. Also, some sources said that Galaxy S8 will come bezel-less and also will ditch the home button same as the rumored Apple upcoming iPhone 8 or 7s.
As the world waits for the comeback of Nokia to the mobile industry, a lot of speculations about its upcoming android phone are spreading over the internet. Just recently, there were reports that leak information of the new Nokia Z2 Plus which also include alleged features and speculations.

The Public Can Expect A Sleek And Stunning Nokia Z2 Plus

After introducing new Nokia handsets, the public seems to be disappointed with the company's move. But with the rumored specs and features of the Z2 Plus circulating, 2017 might bring new and old crowd patronizing Nokia mobile phones. According to Softpedia, the benchmarking site, Geekbench, doesn't show much. But there is a high probability that the smartphone is a high-end model with advanced functionality.

Nokia Z2 Plus Key Features And Specification That Are Based On The Leaks

Although Nokia has not officially announced the inclusion of Nokia Z2 Plus to the smartphones they will launch next year, the mobile phone has been gaining popularity. Based on the benchmarking website, Nokia Z2 Plus has a single core test score, a multi-test score, and will be powered by a Qualcomm quad-core processor clocked at 1.77GHz. The device might also have 5.2 and 5.5-inch displays, as well as 4GB or 6GB of RAM capacity. Other details are as follows:

System Information

Operating System: Android 6.0.1

Processor: Qualcomm ARMv8 @ 1.77 GHz (1 processor, 4 cores)

Processor ID: ARM implementer 81 architecture 8 variant 1 part 517 revision 2

Motherboard: msm8996

Memory: 3745 MB

Memory Performance

Single-core: 2838

Multi-core: 3785

The Other Nokia Smartphones Set To Launch In 2017

According to Forbes, the Finish mobile company in partnership with HMD will be rolling out their version of android phones that runs SnapDragon 835 chipset supported by 6 GB of RAM. Two smartphones that are said to be in the works are the Nokia D1C and Nokia P which is dubbed to be a flagship handset.
I was talking with a work colleague the other day about what is currently the best affordable smartphone in the market because she was interested in buying an extra phone. This eventually led to online games and me wondering what are the best gaming smartphones available in the market right now. Here is the list:

Acer Predator 6

This smartphone's specs, features and price tag are very hard to find on the web, because the company that created this device did not really publicize it a lot. However, what makes this phone great is that though it features a 6 inch screen display with a resolution of 1080p pixels only, this phone runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop (but some sources say it runs on Android Marshmallow) and is powered by the 10-core Helio X20 processor chipset with a custom-made GPU that is really great for gaming. Its CPU runs at 2.5 GHz which is considered to be higher than average for a smartphone processor. This smartphone also features an internal storage of 32 GB with 4 GB of RAM, making it quite capable of handling any game thrown at it.

About the other features of this smartphone, it features quad-channel audio. Meaning, each corner of this smartphone has a speaker that offers great sound quality. This phone also has dual haptic motors which give haptic feedback. Meaning, the user will feel like holding an actual physical controller when playing games on it.

Moto G4

The smartphone features a 5.5 inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen (16M colors) display with 1080 x 1920 screen resolution and is protected with a corning Gorilla Glass 3. It runs on Android Marshmallow and is upgradable to Android Nougat. Though this device on houses the not so powerful Adreno 405 for its GPU and features only 2 GB of RAM, it makes up for the chipset - the Qualcomm MSM8952 Snapdragon 617. Another thing that makes this phone a great gaming device is that though it is equipped with a Snapdragon 617 chipset, it only costs around $200.

HTC 10

This phone features a 5.2 inch Super LCD5 capacitive touchscreen (16M colors) display with 1440 x 2560 pixels screen resolution and is protected with a corning Gorilla Glass 3. It runs on Android Android Marshmallow and can be upgraded to Android Nougat. It is equipped with a Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820 for its chipset and Adreno 530 for its GPU.

The device features and internal storage of 32/64 GB with 4 GB of RAM. Making it not only a great phone for gaming, but also a great phone overall. However, the price of this device starts at $573.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 2

Though this phone was released on 2015, it is still worth mentioning on the list. This phone features a 5.5 inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen (16M colors) display with 1080 x 1920 pixels screen resolution. It runs on Android OS, v5.0 (Lollipop) and is powered by a Mediatek MT6795 Helio X10. Its CPU is an Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53 and GPU is PowerVR G6200. And for its internal memory, it features 16 GB with 2 GB of RAM.

Now, you must be wondering what makes it a great phone when the specs are not that impressive. What makes this phone great is that this phone is equipped with the Helio X10 chip which is great for gaming for only $120, but will kind of struggle with the 2 GB RAM feature for heavy games. So for overall performance, this phone has really great specs and features for a gaming phone on a $120 budget range.
Russia, a country dependent on oil revenues, experienced recession in 2015 after a collapse in oil prices, and is just now recovering into positive territory. May Russians experience economic woes. Some cannot even afford even the cheapest vodka, and would resort to cheaper alternatives.

Methanol, Commonly Used As Antifreeze, Is Toxic

A cheap alcohol substitute caused the death of almost 50 Russians, The Washington Post reported. The alcohol substitute 'bath oil' is labeld as containing ethyl alcohol and has clear warnings saying they were not meant to be consumed internally.

The bath oil called Boyaryshnik (Hawthorn), which contains methanol, was sold in local stores in Novo-Lenino for about $1 a bottle. Methanol is a wood alcohol that is commonly used as organic solvent that, because of its toxicity, it can cause metabolic acidosis.

Chief doctor, Leonid Vygovsky said about the victims: "They have heavy chemical poisoning. All of those who were brought to us were unconscious. Their central nervous system, internal organs are struck and the toxic shock was developing rapidly."

Locals Consume The Cheap Alcohol Substitute Regularly

A state of emergency has been declared and an investigative agency already opened an inquiry to the incident, and the team have already confiscated more than 2,000 liters (about 500 gallons) of spirit at about 100 shops in Irkutsk. The alcohol substitute was bought regularly by locals, and it was unclear as to what went wrong with the batch distributed over the weekend. So far, there are already 49 people were dead, all between the ages of 35 and 50.

All of the victims are residents of the neighborhood. Those who buy the alcohol surrogate are often the most socially disadvantaged. "This is a complete disgrace and clearly we should put an end to it. Such liquids should simply be banned," Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev said about this tragedy
With just a few days before Christmas, Amazon India announced a great discount deal to those rushing to buy holiday gifts. On top of the list that received huge discounts are the Motorola smartphones. The global retail giant has exchange offers for the said devices, too.

Motorola Smartphones Can Be Purchased For As Low As Rs 8,500

Online sales are happening left and right and its seems like no one can stop them as well as those looking for great deals. According to Financial Express, the smartphone models that the Amazon India is selling are the Moto G4, Moto G4 Play, and the Moto G4 Plus. The lowest price people will spend in shopping is Rs 8,499 and that will get them a brand new Moto G4 Play. Among the Motorola phones, Moto G4 gets the biggest discount of Rs 2,000 off. Now consumers can buy it for only Rs 10,499. That's $154.56 in U.S. Meanwhile, the 5.5-inch Moto G4 Plus with 32 GB memory capacity is priced at Rs 13,999.

Motorola Smartphones Key Features And Specifications

Moto G4

Display: 5.50-inch

Processor: 1.5GHz octa-core

Front Camera: 5-megapixel

Resolution: 1080x1920 pixels

RAM: 2GB

OS: Android 6.0.1

Storage: 16GB

Rear Camera: 13-megapixel

Moto G4 Plus

Display: 5.50-inch

Processor: 1.5GHz octa-core

Front Camera: 5-megapixel

Resolution: 1080x1920 pixels

RAM: 2GB

OS: Android 6.0.1

Storage: 16GB

Rear Camera: 16-megapixel

Moto G4 Play

Display: 5-inch

Processor: 1.2GHz quad-core

Front Camera: 5-megapixel

Resolution: 720x1280 pixels

RAM: 2GB

OS: Android 6.0.1

Storage: 16GB

Rear Camera: 8-megapixel

More About Amazon India's Exchange Discounts Deal And Other Benefits

According to India Today, people can also buy Motorola smartphones with a discount of up to Rs 8,550 if they exchange them for an older phone. However, the offer is only available at certain locations. Aside from these, Amazon India even has greater news to those who own Standard Chartered credit or debit card. Customers can use their card and get 10% cashback on any of these smartphones. The discounted products will be available for one month, from December 20 to January 20, 2017.
A recent study shows that your doctor's gender may influence your survival. The study claims that patients who got their care from female doctors are more likely to leave the hospital alive, compared to those treated by men.

There Is A Slight Difference In Mortality If A Patient Is Treated By A Female Doctor

Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa, a health policy researcher at Harvard University in Boston and lead author of the study, said that elderly patients may be less likely to die prematurely or be re-admitted to the hospital for serious health complications when they are treated by female doctors. The odds of a patient dying within a month after being admitted is 4 percent lower, while the chance of re-admission within the first month after leaving the hospital is 5 percent smaller.

"The difference in mortality rates surprised us. However, it was largely unknown whether such differences have a meaningful impact on patient outcomes," Tsugawa said.

The researchers looked at 30-day mortality rates, such as how many patients died within 30 days of being admitted to the hospital - and 30-day readmission rates, or how often patients returned to the hospital within 30 days of discharge.

Female Doctors Are More Likely To Follow Treatment Guidelines Than Men

Although the study did not probe on why there might a difference, but researchers suggest that male doctors could a take a cue from women doctors. Female physicians are more likely to follow treatment guidelines, provide preventive care more often and communicate more with patients, compared to men.

Some doctors say that this study does not really prove whether doctors' sex accounted for the results. But if they could assume a direct relationship, the authors say, and extrapolate that data to the 10 million Medicare hospitalizations a year in the US, there would be a lot fewer deaths: "We estimate that approximately 32,000 fewer patients would die if male physicians could achieve the same outcomes as female physicians every year."
Tech giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Google are being sued by the Orlando nightclub victims families for allegedly providing support to the terrorist group ISIS, since they blame these companies for helping spread and disseminate extremist propaganda that consequentially radicalized the gunman, Omar Mateen, in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Facebook, Twitter And Google Allegedly Helped ISIS To Disseminate Its Propaganda

Several reports show that the lawsuit filed on Monday in federal court in the eastern district of Michigan, by the families of Javier Jorge-Reyes, Tevin Crosby, and Juan Ramon Guerrero. Apparently, the lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter, and Google particularly focuses on the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which actually protect these kinds of companies from being held responsible for any speech made by users on their platforms.

The lawyer representing the three families, Keith Altman, stated that Mateen was radicalized by the terrorist group ISIS using social media networks as Facebook, Twitter, and Google for that express purpose. Apparently, the lawsuit present the latest to target popular internet services such as these platforms, for making it too easy for the Islamic extremist to spread their message.

A Situation That Could Harm The Image Of These Companies

Altman also represented the family of Nohemi Gonzalez -who was killed in last years terrorist attacks in Paris- in a lawsuit that was also made against Facebook, Twitter and Google back in June. Although many believe that these platforms shouldn't be blamed for this, the truth is that ISIS have used to spread propaganda and even to attract and train new recruits.

Given this situation, it was reported that the latter lawsuit made against Facebook, Twitter and Google claims that these sites helped ISIS to grow into the most feared terrorist group in the world since these platforms are extremely popular and are able to disseminate a single post to millions of people in a matter of seconds. Although its not known how this lawsuit its going to proceed, this is a situation that could harm the reputation of these tech giants.
Extinction is a threat to many animal species today. While human progress continues, animal species are being affected adversely as a result. One of those affected is ring-tailed lemurs who are in danger of extinction.

The ring-tailed lemur has a home in Madagascar. However, the lemur population there is declining. Numbers have fallen rapidly that has conservationists alarmed. Today there are less than 2,500 ring-tailed lemurs out in the wild.

Human progress and increase in population can be the cause of this decline. As human population increases, it is inevitable that people will start moving into animal habitats. Ring-tailed lemurs have declined in part because of a loss of habitat. Another reason is that they have been hunted both for meat and the illegal pets trade.

Professor Lisa Gould from the University of Victoria has led the study on ring-tailed lemur decline. In her study, she has noted that there are only three sites which have more than 200 lemurs. 12 sites have only 30 or less of them, and 15 sites have the lemurs either totally absent or are in danger of disappearing from the area.

University of Colorado Boulder Professor and co-author of the study Michelle Sauther has noted that lemurs are adaptable and can survive in harsh conditions. To have them close to extinction means that the situation is very grave, according to the University of Colorado Boulder's site. Other lemur species in Madagascar are also in danger.

The destruction of lemur habitats in Madagascar has been severe. Many of their habitats have been disturbed because of sapphire mining. This has encouraged many people to engage in it, which has resulted in the destruction of forest areas, as Science Daily reports. Sauther has warned that ring-tailed lemur population will eventually collapse as habitat loss continues.

As humans continue to make progress, people also continue to move into animal habitats. Many of these habitats are destroyed by various activities. Affected by this are ring-tailed lemurs that are in danger of extinction. Biodiversity in the past has been great, as shown by a new prehistoric bird that has been discovered.
This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

The total volume of oil products loaded and unloaded at Iranian ports dropped by 9 percent over the last Iranian month (ended Dec. 20) compared to the same period last year.

According to the countrys Ports and Maritime Organization, in the mentioned period, 10.7 million tons of oil products were loaded and unloaded at ports across Iran.

In the mentioned period, the country unloaded about 1.3 million tons and loaded about 9.3 million tons of oil products at its ports across the country.
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COVETED tickets to ride a bus to London benefited the Bus Shelter Isle of Wight charity.



A number of Islanders had their names drawn in a ballot to take part in the third annual visit to the Houses of Parliament organised by the Islands MP, Andrew Turner, and supported by Red Funnel Ferries and Southern Vectis.



Each made a donation and Mr Turner presented a cheque for 750 to the homeless charity as a result, including a donation of his own from his Good Causes Fund.



"The trip to London was a great success again this year with lots of feedback from people saying how much they enjoyed it," said Mr Turner.



"I was very impressed by the founder Kevin Newton, who gave me a tour of the converted bus and told me all about the work he and his team are doing to get homeless people off the streets."



Kevin has transformed an old double decker bus into comfortable accommodation for 14 people and has already started to achieve his ultimate goal of getting people into permanent homes, with four already housed in just the four weeks he has been running the service.



Kevin said: "The Bus Shelter Isle of Wight as a registered charity will end the need for anyone on the Island to sleep rough.



"We provide temporary accommodation, food and support for our guests for an indefinite period.



"We assist them in finding permanent accommodation and ultimately employment.



"All our guests are encouraged to do voluntary work when they are ready. The charity will offer support and guidance to our past and present guests for as long it is required."



Mr Newton has been contacted by people from all over the country who would like to replicate what he has done and there are now seven similar buses helping the homeless across the country with more in the pipeline.



For more information, visit For more information, visit www.thebusshelteriow.co.uk




AN ISLE of Wight family will be spending Christmas with their future son-in-law after a public petition pushed the government to overturn the decision to reject his visa.



Kevin Kouame, a 27-year-old student, is studying for a post-graduate degree in telecommunications at Beijing University.



He applied for a visa so he and his partner, Rebecca Grant, could spend Christmas with her family in Ryde.



The couple met in Beijing just over a year ago while Rebecca was teaching English at a Chinese school.



The family were distraught when The family were distraught when Kevins application was rejected and he lost around 2,000 after booking non-refundable flights and insurance  something he had to show proof of in order to apply for the visa.



But thanks to hundreds of people signing a petition to get the decision overturned, the government has granted Kevin permission to enter the country.



Sue Grant, Rebecca's mother, who led the fight, said: "A huge thank you to all of you who shared the petition, wrote media articles, and fought for us.



"Kevin was granted his visa on the original application.



"They didn't refund the second application costs, just returned all the second application paper work, which just proves you all did this because your voices changed their minds."



Kevin and Rebecca were due to arrive on a flight for Beijing last night (Tuesday) but it was cancelled due to smog.



Sue and her husband were waiting at the Travel Lodge at Heathrow ready for the couple to catch the next available flight.




Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

Iran has signed a one-year contract with Italys Eni to sell crude oil, Safar Ali Keramati, deputy director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for crude marketing and operations, said.

Under the deal Iran will sell 60,000-100,000 barrels of crude oil per day to the Italian firm starting from 2017, Keramati said, Mehr news agency reported Dec. 21.

He referred to the deal as Irans biggest crude oil sell to Italy.

Keramati said that 14.5 percent from total value of the exported crude will be used to clear the debts to Eni due to its investments in phases 1 and 2 of Darkhovein oil field development project.

He added that the remaining 85.5 percent will be paid to Iran in cash.

Mohsen Ghamsari, director of international affairs at NIOC, earlier said that Iran has started selling crude oil to Italys Eni in form of spot cargo.

Besides Eni, Iran has signed an oil export deal with Italian energy provider Saras.

The volume of crude which is sold to Italys Saras varies from 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 60,000 bpd.

Eni is also interested to participate in Irans oil sector projects.

Eni came to Iran in the early 2000s. The company was to develop Phase 3 of Darkhovein Oilfield in Khuzestan Province and Phase 19 of South Pars Gas Field, but halted operations due to sanctions.

Eni is active in exploration and production sector as well as downstream projects, including refining and marketing of petroleum products. It is one of the world's major oil and gas contractors in engineering, construction and drilling projects both offshore and onshore.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21



By Fatih Karimov  Trend:



The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Berhad, known as Petronas, to study two oil fields in Iran.



Under the MoU, which was signed Dec. 21 in Tehran the Malaysian firm will undertake studies in Irans Azadegan and Cheshmeh Khosh oilfields, SHANA news agency reported.



Russia's Gazprom Neft PJSC and Austrian oil and gas company OMV have already signed preliminary agreements with NIOC to conduct surveys on implementing oil recovery methods at the Cheshmeh Khosh field.



Also leading foreign oil companies including Total, Royal Dutch Shell and Japan's INPEX have signed agreements to study Azadegan field's development potential.



Azadegan Oilfield in Irans southern province of Khuzestan is one of Iran's largest oilfields that it shares with Iraq. The field, which is divided into the north and south sections, holds an estimated 33 billion barrels of in-place oil.



Cheshmeh Khosh field, which is located in Iran's western province of Ilam, once fully developed, is expected to yield 18,000 barrels per day of oil and 115 million cubic feet of natural gas.



Iran has recently handed over the study of several oil and gas fields to foreign companies under non-disclosure agreements (NDA).
Nation of Islam follower selected to fill St. Pete Council vacancy By a 4-3 margin, the St. Petersburg City Council voted to fill a vacant council seat with the appointment of Brother John Muhammad, a member of the Nation of Islam which is headed by Louis Farrakhan. Prior to the deliberations, council members received calls and emails from the Jewish community...

17 to be honored as Women of Distinction on Dec. 1 Tampa JCCs and Federation Womens Philanthropy will present the Bobbe Karpay Women of Distinction awards to 17 honorees on Thursday, Dec. 1. Area synagogues and Jewish organizations were each invited to honor one woman who exemplifies the mission of the agency through her leadership and commitment. The event will take...

Israeli military officers to give Tampa briefing A change in the U.S.-Israel military relationship that took place last year and has brought Israeli military brass to Tampa is reaping benefits for Israelis defense, an official in Israels Embassy to the U.S. says. The change, which took effect on Sept. 1, 2021, was for Israels military to be...

Jewish Federation of Floridas Gulf Coast statement The Jewish Federation of Floridas Gulf Coast (Federation) and its Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) does not endorse candidates but does speak out on issues of concern for our community. We believe people of all faiths and no faiths should be treated with dignity and respect. We believe we have...
Herzog & Biden stress US-Israel closeness ahead of elections

WASHINGTON Israeli President Isaac Herzog had a message and stuck to it: Israel and the United States are on the same page no matter who...

Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, ADLs Jonathan Greenblatt tells audience

Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, said keynote speaker and Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt to a recent sold-out crowd in the Katz JCC social hall and to...
Tehran, Iran, Dec. 21

By Mehdi Sepahvand  Trend:

Members of Irans Parliament passed a law Dec. 21 which increases the share of petrodollars in the National Development Fund.

According to the law, crude oil, gas condensate and net gas export revenues will make 30 percent of the Fund during the first year of the 6th Development Plan, which will start March 2017, SHANA news agency reported Dec. 21.

Also, according to the law, in the years 2 to 5 of the 6th Development Plan, the petrodollar share in the National Development Fund will rise by a minimum of 2 percent each year.

Iran has aimed at the production of 4 million barrels per day (mbpd) of oil. It suffered a severe decline of export due to sanctions. While before the sanctions the country used to export 2.3 mbpd, it could only export 1 mbpd up to January when the sanctions were lifted.

Irans crude oil price witnessed over $4 per barrel increase in the global markets during the week that ended Dec. 9, the National Iranian Oil Company's OPEC Affairs and International Energy Forums Office said in its latest weekly report.

Each barrel of Irans Light oil was sold at $50.82 during the week to Dec. 9, or $4.22 more compared to the previous week.

The price of Iranian Heavy oil stood at $49.68, indicating a rise by $4.31 compared to the preceding week.

The average price of Irans Light oil this year was $40.35, while the average price of Heavy oil was $38.4.
The failed attempt of SpaceX to launch the Falcon 9 into space has spawned much negativity for Elon Musk and those involved in the space project. There are claims arising that the Tesla CEO is on the verge of launching the program earlier than expected. Also, NASA is rumored to reject Musk's plan.

The competition is getting stiffer for SpaceX and if the space firm does not implement radical changes, getting behind might be their endpoint. However, there are speculations that SpaceX would redeem its lost glory by setting an early launching date for the Falcon 9. As for the presumption that NASA rejects it, that assumption has been debunked along with the rumored notion that the Falcon 9 would be launched in April 2017.

As for the clamor that Elon Musk is in need of more people to work in the space project for SpaceX, that has no verified claims to that as well. On the other hand, it has been presumed that Elon Musk might revamp his space team to reach his goals.

Moreover, being linked in a speculation is no longer new for SpaceX. To prove the latter, Jobs & Hire relayed of some clamors involving Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg and how he was not thrilled with the concept of delaying the launching. According to the report, even though the presumptions for SpaceX Falcon 9 is resonating, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk did not affirm any of these speculations to be true along with Mark Zuckerberg.

It stands out that SpaceX Falcon 9 has dealt a mighty blow to suffice the apprehensions of those involved in the space project, but NASA remained tight-lipped over the issues of placing a demand over Musk to hire more people, as noted by the same post.

For the tech enthusiasts, the fate of the Falcon 9 remains unsettled and SpaceX needs to address the flaws that were the cause of the explosion before attaining victory and realization of goals.
Being employed is very important. However, working in the best and happiest companies is another thing. For full-time workers, feeling fulfilled and happy with their jobs is a big deal. Now the question is what makes that specific company the best one?

CareerBliss just released its 7th annual CareerBliss 50 Happiest Companies in America. This is an award given to those companies who have the most numbers of happiest employees. CareerBliss is one of the most sought after website of every working individual. They use this website to review their employers.

This years winner is the New York-based biopharmaceutical company, Bristol-Myers Squibb. This company has around 25,000 employees, and it is widely known for its research and development of different life-saving medicines. Other companies such as Amgen Inc, Keller Williams Realty, Visa, Inc. and Total Quality Logistics belonged in the top five.

The companys ranking will be based on rates that their employers gave them. They will be rated based on its working environment, relationship with its staff and management, growth opportunities, job satisfaction in terms of their specific positions as well as its salary compensation. Almost every aspect of a company is being rated by their employees in order for them to gauge if they are indeed in the right place and that if they are happy with their jobs. There were around 22,000 reviews made as reported by Forbes.

Meanwhile, Glassdoors public relation specialist, Allison Berry shared that there are different things to consider in finding the best place to work with. Berry said that "What we see in each of the companies on the list are common themes like employees that feel valued, that feel they are working towards a clear, shared vision and mission, that they are working with other incredibly smart people. She added, We also see a trend of competitive compensation and great benefits as well as lots of opportunity for advancement and transparent leadership."

Bain & Company was the top choice for Glassdoors best companies to work in the United States. The consulting firm got praises from the reviews that its employees gave them. There were a lot of reviews which stated that the people who are working in the firm are played a great role on why they like their jobs and its environment according to Jobs & Hire's report.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

By Dalga Khatinoglu  Trend:

Despite ranking the first and fourth globally in terms of gas and oil reserves, Iran hasn't invested significantly in exploration sector and statistics indicate that above 80 percent of Iran's reserves are those found until 1960s.

Homayoun Falakshahi, Middle East upstream analyst for Wood Mackenzie, told Trend Dec. 21 that exploration is not likely Irans priority.

Recently, on August 23, an Iranian official said that the country added 532 million barrels (mb) of oil and 522 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to its extractable reserves since the beginning of Hassan Rouhani's presidency in mid-2013.

He told Trend on conditions of anonymity that currently the country's recoverable proved oil and gas reserves stand at 159 billion barrels and 34 trillion cubic meters.

In total the reserves of 18 oil and gas fields or layers were proved during August 2013 to August 2016," said the official.

Iran has about 650-700 billion barrels of in-situ oil reserves, of which 159 billion are extractable, based on the current 23-25 percent recovery rate of fields in average.

Falakshahi says in the short term, exploration budget is likely to be dedicated to appraising new discoveries in the north of the country, such as Sardar-e-Jangal (offshore Caspian field), Moghan (in northwest) and some new gas fields near Turkmenistan (Tous, Attar, Afshar).

NIOC [National Iranian Oil Company] is planning to offer 18 exploration and appraisal blocks to foreign companies in the next two to three years. However, given Irans huge undeveloped resources, exploration is not likely to be such a priority, he said.

The other problem for Iran is the very low oil recovery rate, which stands below 10 percent in average is several huge fields like West Karoon Block (including huge fields Yaran, Yadavaran and South Azadegan) with 64 billion barrels of in-situ oil reserves.

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) still remains one of Irans major challenges in upstream sector.

Iran has injected about 580 bcm to oil fields during 1995-2016, but the figure is two times less than the demanded volume to maintain oil production level.

Increasing the recovery rate of oil by injecting gas and polymer or water can increase the life of a field, production volume and cumulative output relatively, but Iran needs new technology, modern studies and new method of drilling to boost the recovery rate of its fields.

For instance, water may be effective for oils that are lighter in density, but it only results in a 10 percent extraction rate for reservoirs containing heavier oils, according to International Energy Agency (IEA).

Falakshahi says that bringing in skills and technologies in EOR (or IOR) is one of the two main priorities of NIOC, along with developing the shared fields.

We calculate that just a 1-percent increase at the countrys three biggest oil fields [Ahvaz, Marun, Gachsaran] would increase the countrys reserves by 2 billion barrels. In the future, the main upside for Irans oil sector will come from techniques improving the fields recovery rates.

According to the IEA, 30-70 percent more oil could be recovered from mature oil reservoirs through the use of enhanced oil recovery technologies by 2040.

EOR market is expected to reach $283 billion by 2020, according to a research published by Hexa Reports.

Regarding a $583 billion of global investment in upstream oil and gas sector in 2015 and $1.8 trillion total investments in energy sector, the EOR market perspective is quite bright and huge.

Currently, above 80 percent of Irans active oil fields are in their second half-life and naturally lose 8-12 percent of their productivity each year.

Iran has introduced 49 oil and gas fields to foreigners to be developed.
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Tehran, Iran, December 20

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

An Iranian holding company which covers a vast area of activity from steel to oil equipment and wholesale says it is looking forward to booming relations with Russian partners.

"We recently launched a trade company in Russia named Sadidros, of which I am the CEO. There are chain stores which would like to have Iranian things on their shelves. We can set up good trade since, for example Russia needs Iranian made cement and Iran in return needs steel sheets made in Russia," said Amir Hossein Kaveh, deputy CEO for development at Sadid Industrial Group and secretary of Syndicate for Steel Pipe and Profile Producers of Iran.

"Another of our companies Tasdid makes offshore equipment and platforms. Gazprom has come to Iran and is picking projects. So they can work with us," he said.

"Russia has been working intensely to ease trade with Iran. Now visas are issued much more easily. Registering companies in Russia is also much easier. We have held talks on ship building as well."

"The problem is that we have not had good trade with Russia, with the result that now for example good transport infrastructure is lacking. There are no containers which would condition the air for above or below 0 degrees Celsius, so we may have good products, but they may freeze and go bad," Kaveh noted.

"What I know is that Iran Russia relations are strategic and they are working on a 50 year cooperation plan."

Many agreements have been made between Iran and Russia to improve mutual trade, but steps are yet needed to turn them into action, an Iran-Russia trade official told Trend December 13.

"Currently the two governments enjoy close ties, but the trade turnover is not keeping up. We need to operationalize agreements that have been made between the two countries," Hadi Tizhoosh Taban, deputy chairman of the Iran-Russia Chamber of Commerce said.

"Problems still exist, especially regarding visa and tariffs," he underlined.

"We hope to be able to meet each other more and introduce our capacities and available services that we can offer."

Trade turnover between Iran and Russia jumped by 80 percent in 2016, however the total amount was scanty, officials said. According to Iranian sources, in the first seven months of the current Iranian year (since March 20), Iran exported worth $86.5 million goods to Russia.
Rescue House has a huge heart for the next generation. Ive seen the need in our community, and even the burden it has placed on teachers to provide for their students, Miller said in a news release. Because God has blessed our church beyond measure, we believe its our responsibility to be a blessing to others.
Gov. Pat McCrory is not going quietly into the final days of his contentious single term.

McCrory patted himself on the back Monday in defending his justification for signing House Bill 17, which significantly alters the authority of his successor, Roy Cooper, to appoint the next cabinet and state board of education.

McCrory also raised more doubt about whether Republican legislative leaders had planned to expand the state Supreme Court by two members.

In describing his behind-the-scenes efforts during last weeks third and fourth special sessions, McCrory said I also successfully worked to deter any efforts to expand the composition of our Supreme Court.

Speculation surfaced quickly after the Nov. 8 victory of Mike Morgan over incumbent Bob Edmunds that Republican legislative leaders were considering the addition of two conservative justices to reverse what is becoming a 4-3 Democratic-leaning Supreme Court.

The state Constitution allows the legislature to expand the court to a chief justice and eight justices, with the governor providing appointees for the General Assembly to approve. Typically, a state Supreme Court is expanded because of increased workload per justice.

The McCrory statement on the Supreme Court was not well received by GOP legislators, who denied plans to expand the court during last weeks special sessions.

On Monday, Rep. Debra Conrad, R-Forsyth, said I have no clue what the governor meant by the inclusion of that statement in his press release on HB 17.

There was no plan to expand the N.C. Supreme Court in the latest special session by the legislature in any meetings of which I was a part.

Some legislative leaders, as well as state Republican Party executive director Dallas Woodhouse, mocked local, state and national media for reporting on what they called Democratic speculation.

Woodhouse said Dec. 13 that as a former news reporter, I am embarrassed by how the press fell hook, line and sinker for a court expansion crisis that was speculated by Democrats, rumored by Democrats and fed by Democrats.

If any of your stories read that Republicans back off court expansion, you will further be lying to your readers because you have accused us of doing something that we were never doing.

Sen. Robert Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, said Friday at the end of the fourth special session that talk of court-packing, thats fake news.

Meanwhile, Democratic legislative leaders, such as Sen. Dan Blue, D-Wake, and Rep. Larry Hall, D-Durham, said they had learned a court-packing bill was a real possibility until news media brought the topic to the public.

Tuesdays Republican response raises the question of why McCrory would revive the topic.

This is an unusual situation where a governors signing statement makes some news and at least fills in some of the back story about the special session, said John Dinan, a political science professor at Wake Forest University.

That includes several items that were not taken up, but were contemplated, Dinan said.

McCrorys statement suggests that (court-packing) was in fact considered and that he played a key role in preventing it from going forward.

Dinan said McCrorys role in appointing the two potential justices is one area where McCrorys opposition would have been sufficient to defeat the proposal, as opposed to other areas where the legislature could have simply overridden his veto.

McCrory said he had actively worked as your governor to protect the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21



By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:



Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi has expressed support for those who invest in production sphere in the Islamic Republic.



Iranian Intelligence Ministry supports those who invest in the countrys production and employment areas, IRNA news agency quoted him as saying during an administrative meeting in northern Iranian city of Sari.



Real investors should not be concerned about the security of investment as the countrys intelligence services will support them, he added.



He further touched upon the concern over the unemployment rate in Iran, saying the government cannot resolve the issue in the absence of contribution from investors and private sector.



Saying that investment requires security in the country which is provided in Iran, Alavi added that Intelligence Ministry also confronts economic corruption.



Irans unemployment rate during the spring (March 20-June 21) stood at 12.2 percent, about 22.6 million of Iranians above 10 years old were employed in the mentioned three-month period.




What can Democrats look for Santa Claus to bring them this year?

It has been a bleak holiday season so far.

So maybe Santa could bring them something more than just lumps of coal that have already made their way into their stockings hung by their fireplaces with care. Lumps of coal like Donald Trumps Electoral College victory, the Republicans retention of control in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and the N.C. Republican Partys preservation of veto-proof control in the state legislature. Last week Republicans even turned Democrat Roy Coopers victory in the governors race from a shining victory into a dark lump of coal.

Although it does indeed look like a bleak season for Democrats, are there some good things to hang on to? Is there no end to the suffering?

Optimistic, Bible-reading Democrats may remember that while St. Paul was suffering in prison, he was hearing painful reports of persecution, discord and false prophets in churches he had founded. Nevertheless, he wrote that such suffering could bring strength. If the suffering of Democrats leads to strength in future political contests, it will turn out to be something of a gift this season.

Meanwhile, here are some other things N.C. Democrats can celebrate:

1. Pride in the legacy of President Barack Obama. While not all of the overblown hopes and dreams of the 2008 election victory were fulfilled, Obamas legacy, over time, will prove to be a great asset for Democrats. Even now, as he approaches the end of his two terms, his popularity ratings are high. His dignity, modesty, self-deprecation and other human qualities stand in contrast to the bluster of his successor. And his legacy will shine more brightly as time passes.

2. Not being responsible for Trump. Democrats can be thankful that they will not have to take on the difficult or perhaps impossible task of explaining or justifying the actions of the new president whose bluster and misplaced self-confidence in his deal-making skills have already put the country in danger.

3. Not being responsible for the damage to North Carolina caused by hasty and ill-conceived actions of the General Assembly. Democrats can insist that Republicans accept the responsibility for the consequences of these actions. Then Democrats can use the publics reaction to mobilize their base for the next election.

4. Not being burdened with defending Hillary Clinton. Even the most enthusiastic Clinton supporters can feel some measure of relief that they will not have to spend the next four years fighting against efforts of the Republicans to lock her up.

5. Having time to plan and plant. For Democrats there is also a gift of time, a time for planning, for renewal, for preparation. Hurricane Hugo blew down 18 pecan trees that Pappy Lowrys great-grandfather had planted on the family farm near Great Falls, S.C. Lowry, who was dying of cancer, had 18 new seedlings planted in their places. Lowry, explained my minister Robert Dunham, was providing for the generations that would follow him the same way his great-grandfathers plantings had provided for him. Democrats, similarly, have a duty and privilege to replant the trees of public service that the hurricanes of recent elections and maneuvering have blown down, even though the fruit of their work may not mature in their lifetime.

At a recent pre-Christmas gathering, our host gave each guest a bookmark with the line Keep Calm and Carry On. The words came from a motivational poster used in Great Britain to help steady the public during the Second World War German bombing attacks.

Keep Calm and Carry On.

Good advice for both Democrats and Republicans in every turbulent season.
Tehran, Iran, Dec. 21

By Mehdi Sepahvand  Trend:

Irans National Development Fund seems to be growing into a useful tool to secure the country against rampant terrorism that is knocking at its doors.

Iranian officials have realized that economic underdevelopment has provided justification for the youth in neighboring countries to join terrorist groups.

A low level of development, low income, and lack of economic opportunities create enough ground for terrorist groups and drug smuggling networks, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif recently told a conference.

In a recent bid that can plausibly be linked to the governments concern for economic development as a tool against terrorism, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the allocation of $500 million from the National Development Fund to developmental projects in the underdeveloped border province of Sistan-Baluchestan, over whose borders terrorist groups and drug gangs regularly venture in. Irans fight against these groups costs it a great deal, materially and spiritually.

On December 21, Iranian news outlets reported that the Parliament had increased the contribution of oil revenues to the National Development Fund.

According to the parliamentary decision, crude oil, gas condensate and net gas export revenues will make 30 percent of the fund during the first year of the 6th Development Plan, which will start March 2017.

For years 2 to 5 of the five-year plan, the petrodollar share will rise by a minimum of 2 percent each year.

In the past three years, the government had allocated 20 percent of its oil revenues to the fund. The new parliamentary decision, if implemented, will nearly double the amount by the end of the five-year plan.

Deputy Oil Minister Ali Kardor has recently said that by March 2017, Iran will be exporting 3 million barrels per day (mbpd) of crude oil and gas condensates. The countrys gas output, however, is almost entirely consumed domestically.

Each barrel of Irans Light oil was sold at $50.82 during the week to Dec. 9, $4.22 more compared to the previous week.

The average price of Irans Light oil this year was $40.35, while the average price of Heavy oil was $38.4.

The National Development Funds reserves stood at $24.4 billion in 2011 and $35 billion in 2012.

Besides Sistan-Baluchestan, Iran is seeing occasional clashes with terrorists on its western borders where Ilam, Kurdistan and Kermanshah provinces are situated.

By using the Development Fund, the Iranian government will be able to create political security in the country. However, the benefits will go beyond politics to cover areas of economy, society, culture and even environment.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @mehdisepahvand
07:01 (GMT+4) A massive, multicolored explosion decimated a fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, leaving it a charred wasteland and killing at least 29 people with dozens more injured, Reuters reported.

04:39 (GMT+4) At least 27 people died in an explosion at a fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

The blast at the San Pablito fireworks market in Tultepec, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Mexico City, also injured at least 70 others, according to a tweet from federal police.

Isidro Sanchez, the head of Tultepec emergency services, said the death toll was preliminary as rescue workers scoured the site.

Local television showed a flurry of multi-colored fireworks exploding in all directions as a massive plume of smoke rose above the market while people frantically fled.

Aerial footage showed charred stalls and destroyed buildings.

A blast struck the popular market in September 2005 just before independence day celebrations, injuring many people.

03:21 (GMT+4) The city of Tultepac was shaken to its core Tuesday as fireworks erupted at a marketplace, Sputnik reported.

Mexico City media outlets are reporting 16 people have been killed in the explosion, dozens more injured.

Mexico emergency services have confirmed that the injuries sustained from the blast have left first-responders scrambling.

The rescuers have since requested back-up assistance from emergency response teams in the surrounding area.

Eye-witnesses posted photographs of the aftermath on social media, some of which show a pillar of white smoke pluming up past the citys buildings.
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Shulamit Almog | (The Conversation) |  

In one sense, women are making great strides in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). In October, the army declared it was examining the possibility of allowing women to serve in new combat positions, including in tank crews.

In the same month, Major Reut (whose last name is not allowed to be published for security reasons), was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and made commander of the Sky Rider battalion, becoming the second Israeli woman to be appointed commander of a combat unit. The first was Major Oshrat Bachar, who was appointed in 2014.

Such news may give the impression that the IDF is persistently advancing, if somewhat slowly, towards a decisive goal of gender equality. The reality, however, is much more complicated.

The intention to provide extended combat roles for women stirred some furious responses. Former commander of the Ground Forces Command, Major General Yiftah Ron-Tal, referred to it as scandalous and led by someone wishing to weaken the IDF. Decorated general and former member of parliament, Avigdor Kahalani, said that womens place should be at home, and warned that the horrors of war might damage womens ability to become mothers.

Other protesters came from the religious sphere. Former IDF chief rabbi Israel Weiss stated: We cant put  a male soldier and a female soldier, into a closed box for a week and expect that nothing will happen. Youll get a little tank soldier in another nine months.

A controversial rabbi

To make matters worse, at the same time, the IDF announced the promotion of Rabbi Colonel Eyal Karim to the position of chief rabbi, the top religious role in the IDF. This announcement met strong opposition from human rights and feminist groups, due to Karims past remarks.

Karim had implied in 2012 that wartime rape might be excused, given consideration for the soldiers difficulties when out fighting. He also maintained that it is entirely forbidden for women to serve in the army for reasons of modesty and has opposed female singing at army events.

Israels High Court of Justice, following a petition served by Meretz (a left-wing party), delayed Karims appointment, demanding an affidavit clarifying his past remarks. The petition was withdrawn after Karim released a written clarification stating:

I have made a mistake  sometimes I didnt word my comments precisely and there have been those who were hurt by them  I hereby sincerely apologize.

Israels President of the Supreme Court, Justice Miriam Naor, while clearing Karims appointment noted: It is a shame that the clear words of the respondent in his affidavit did not receive expression earlier  but better late than never.

Women and conscription

The IDF was the first army in the world to introduce mandatory military service for both man and women. Conscription is anchored in the Israeli Defence Service Law of 1949, which reflects the perception of the IDF as the army of the people.

Though debates about where they can serve abound, Israel has always taken pride in the central role women played in military organisations, voluntarily, even before the establishment of the state of Israel.

Serving in the IDF is generally considered not merely a legal requirement but also and perhaps mainly as a social standard. It is a consensual, honourable rite of passage in Israeli society. Though this consensus has weakened during the last decade, public debates about the scope of womens positions in the IDF do not question, at least within the mainstream discourse, the primary principle of womens conscription.

Men-only zones

While the debate rages about what role women should play in the army, another important development looms in the background. In 2000, an amendment to the Military Service Law determined that women have an equal right to serve in any military role.

According to the law, a woman could be denied a certain military role only if such denial is required due to the specific nature of that role. Yet, religious demands for a non-women military environment can prompt the exclusion of women from certain military tracks and roles, even when such exclusion is not required by the nature of the job.

This apprehension was sharpened in face of an order issued by Chief of General Staff, Gadi Eisenkot, granting religious soldiers the right to avoid doing military tasks with women.

This order was a revision of the 2003 appropriate integration order, which constituted the rights of religious soldiers to an army environment that is in affinity with their religious needs, mainly the need to avoid contact with women under circumstances of seclusion or immodesty.

The fact that the Israeli government and the IDF are committed to ongoing efforts to enhance the participation of Haredi (Jewish Ultra-Orthodox) men soldiers into the army, complicates matters further. The precondition for such service is more often than not male-only units.

Aiming to increase religious youths enlistment, the IDF has introduced a female-free, defined area for religious male soldiers throughout the entire process of recruiting and enlisting. Following demands from Haredi leaders, a new military camp is to be built for these soldiers, in which a hard line of Jewish rules will be observed, including the complete exclusion of women.

Religion vs gender equality

Gender equality principles and religious leaders demands are pulling the IDF in opposite directions.

The dilemma raises interesting questions. If circumstances require placing religious infantry corps under a female commander, say, in battle situation, will the troops demand the battle be timed-out until the women are expelled from it? Will they be entitled to? And if the answer is yes, can an army that allows no women spaces stand as professionally uncompromising body, fully capable of addressing the countrys complex security needs?

As the polemic continues, the number of religious soldiers and officers in combat units is constantly increasing, as is the number of women. Over the past five years, the number of women in the IDF has doubled, and each year we see a new record in the drafting of Orthodox women.

In a recent interview, Professor Yagil Levy, a leading scholar on the trajectory of the army, society and politics in Israel, explained why the increasing presence of women in the IDF is essential:

From the armys perspective women became an asset not because of feminism, but because the IDF realises that when there is economic pressure to shorten the obligatory service and the toll of the missions is not alleviated  one mechanism the army can use in order to slow down the shift towards a professional army is creating attractions to women, and opening new options.

If Levy is right, it might well be that the IDF, facing consistent budget cuts, will introduce more new positions for women, including in combat units, in spite of a vociferous coalition of religious and conservative veterans. But Israels ultra-religious will not let this happen without a fight.

Shulamit Almog, Professor of Law, University of Haifa

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Vice News from a couple of years ago: The Ultra Orthodox vs. The IDF: Israels Other Religious War
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

We dont need a Trump-nominated supreme Court justice. We desperately dont need such a person. And there is no reason to have one. The Democrats in the Senate should just filibuster any nomination for the next four years. Now, you may say that a president deserves to have the nominee of his choice voted on. But those were the old rules before we saw how the Republican Party treated Barack Obama. They just told him no, no, no on everything. Everything. They even threatened the home mortgages of government employees by closing down the government. Twice. They vilified Obama, shouted disrespectfully at him from the floor of Congress, and then they refused even to let his Supreme Court nominee, a centrist, come up for a vote. They declared President Obama a lame duck when he had 11 months left in his presidency.

I declare Donald Trump a lame duck now. Four years out. Here are the reasons the Senate should block his nominee:

1. Republicans did not let Merrick Garland come up for a vote. Why should Democrats allow someone else to?

2. Republicans declared Barack Obama a lame duck beginning in February of 2016, when he had 11 months in office. I declare Donald Trump a lame duck, four years out. 11 months, 48 months whats the difference among friends? If presidents arent really presidents for 23% of their terms, why not make it an even 100%? After all, the next election isnt far away. The American people deserve to be heard on this issue, and the results of this election were too confused to allow them to be heard decisively. We can just wait till 2020, the way the GOP wanted us to wait till Obama was out of office to do anything at all.

3. Nearly 3 million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than for Trump, even with substantial voter suppression in states like North Carolina. They did so because they cared about womens reproductive rights, labor rights, the environment, civil liberties, and other issues decided by the Supreme Court. It would be an extreme insult to popular sovereignty to thwart their voices, the majority of the country, and have a minority president appoint some far right patriarchal demagogue to injure their constitutional rights.

4. The issue transcends ideology. Many of Trumps appointees have been loony as the day is long. His national security adviser, Mike Flynn, thinks that Hillary Clinton secretly practices voodoo and he just met with the head of a far right party founded by ex-Nazis in Austria. The Supreme Court interprets the constitution for our country and we cant afford Trumps affirmative action for the Tinfoil Hat Brigade to extend into that august body.

5. The 8-person Supreme Court we now have is just fine. They dont need another colleague. Without Antonin Scalia, they have been making reasonable decisions. Let them go on doing so. You might argue that they need to have an odd number of members so that ties can be broken. But, why? If they cant decide a case because theyre deadlocked, it can just be returned to the district court it came from. Besides, maybe Clarence Thomas will retire and we can suffice with 7 justices.

You might say that if the Dems act in this way, the Republicans will just change the Senate rules so that things are done by a simple majority. Let them. Sooner or later the Democrats will get a simple majority in the senate along with a Democratic president, and no one ever again will be able to constrain them the way the GOP put President Obama into a straight jacket.

Were watching you, Senate Democrats. Remember: No Trump appointee should be seated. Ever.



Related video:

CBS This Morning:  Donald Trumps Supreme Court vacancy agenda
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] on Tuesday rejected [opinion, PDF] a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [official website] request from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] for information about the US governments use of drones for targeted killings. A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled last year that the government had to turn over seven of the 59 requested documents, and the government and ACLU both appealed. The appeals court ruled for the government Tuesday that all of the requested documents could be kept secret:

Chief Judge McMahon ably performed the burdensome task of examining scores of documents in this protracted litigation, which now appears to be concluded. Despite our slight disagreement with her assessment of a few of these documents, we appreciate her diligence and the helpful explanations in her sealed opinion. On ACLUs appeal, the judgment is affirmed; on the Governments cross-appeal, the judgment is reversed; the case is remanded for entry of a revised judgment.

An ACLU attorney called the decision [New York Daily News report] an extremely narrow opinion involving a small set of documents.

The use of drones [JURIST backgrounder] is controversial in both domestic circles and in the international arena. In April the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] upheld [JURIST report] a district courts dismissal of an ACLU request for information about drone killings. In January the Second Circuit ruled that the presidents National Security Council (NSC) [official website] is not subject [JURIST report] to FOIA. In November of last year the circuit also ruled that the US government may keep secret memoranda [JURIST report] related to the legal justification for the use of drones for targeted killings of those in other countries believed to be involved in terrorism. The case was the result of FOIA requests by the ACLU and the New York Times [media website] for documents prepared by the Office of Legal Counsel of the US Department of Justice [official website] regarding the drone strikes. In June 2015 the families of two Yemeni men killed by US drone strikes filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] against the government, claiming they were wrongfully killed. In December 2010 a judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging the Obama administrations ability to conduct targeted killings, a challenge spurred because one subject of a targeted killing, al-Awlaki-Khan, was a dual US-Yemeni citizen.
On November 3, 1884, the US Supreme Court ruled in Elk v. Wilkins that John Elk, an Indian who had tried to vote in a federal election in Omaha, Nebraska, was not a US citizen entitled to the protection of the 14th and 15th Amendments of the US Constitution. Native Americans became eligible for citizenship in 1887 under the Dawes Act, but only in 1924, under the Indian Citizenship Act, were all Native Americans born in the US made citizens.


At least 12 police officers were killed and a dozen were wounded in a remote Andean region in Peru when their bus skidded off an unpaved road and tumbled down a cliff, the government said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

The officers were headed to the highland province of Antabamba to provide security for talks between government officials and residents who have staged protests to demand a paved highway in the region.

Two helicopters retrieved the wounded from the bottom of the cliff, the Interior Ministry said. Four officers were in critical condition in the southern Peruvian city of Cusco, said regional health director Jorge Ponce.

Road accidents kill dozens of people every year high in the Peruvian Andes, where driving is rarely policed and most routes curve sharply but are unpaved.

President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, five months into his five-year term, has promised to bring sorely needed infrastructure to poor rural regions as part of his promise to reduce inequality and bolster domestic demand.

"Today's a day of mourning because 13 police officers have died unnecessarily in a highway in Andes," Kuczynski said during a ceremony for graduating police officers.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement earlier on Tuesday that 12 had died and that it was investigating the incident.
US President Barack Obama [official profile] on Tuesday announced a ban on offshore drilling [statement] in almost 120 million acres of federally owned Arctic and Atlantic [memoranda] waters. As a preemptive opposition to President-elect Donald Trump, the goal of the declaration is to protect the planet we share [tweet] and to protect the various environmental aspects in these regions, such as endangered and rare species and deep-water corals. Obama made the declaration pursuant to the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act [backgrounder], which states [text, PDF], The President of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf. While some believe this language does not authorize the reinstatement of land once it has been withdrawn, others disagree and are urging the future Trump administration to challenge the declaration. Trump has expressed an intent to expand activity like offshore drilling, although something such as a congressional amendment to the law could change how the declaration is challenged.

Environmental concerns have been a major issue in these last years of the Obama administration, and climate change [JURIST backgrounder] has been a controversial issue for many years. Earlier this month the US Army Corps of Engineers announced that an alternate route will be investigated [JURIST report] for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) [information]. While Obama did not dictate this outcome [Hill report], he supported the review of the project and the discussion with local communities considering the significant effect it could have on them. In October the threshold for entry into force of the Paris Agreement [text, PDF] on combating climate change was achieved [JURIST report], and Obama subsequently expressed his thanks [press release] to nations across the world for their commitment. In August 2015 the federal government approved drilling [JURIST report] in the Arctic Continental Shelf while also proposing regulations to ensure the safety of such activities. In March 2015 the US Senate failed to override [JURIST report] Obamas veto of the Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Act.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein [official website] called Tuesday for a murder investigation [press release] of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte after Duterte admitted to killing people while he served as mayor of Davao. Duterte said last week that he had personally patrolled the streets of Davao on his motorcycle and had killed about three [BBC report] suspected criminals, encouraging others to do the same. Zeid said that such acts violate the Philippines constitution as well as international law and called for a full investigation:

The Philippines judicial authorities must demonstrate their commitment to upholding the rule of law and their independence from the executive by launching a murder investigation. The killings committed by Mr. Duterte, by his own admission, at a time when he was a mayor, clearly constitute murder. It should be unthinkable for any functioning judicial system not to launch investigative and judicial proceedings when someone has openly admitted being a killer.

Zeid also urged an investigation into the killings that have occurred across the country since Duterte became president in June.

During his campaign, Duterte said that 100,000 people would die [Guardian report] in his crackdown on crime. Since Duterte has taken office, more than 400 suspected drug dealers have been killed and 600,000 have surrendered to the police. In October the International Criminal Court [official website] expressed concern [JURIST report] over the rising occurrence of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines in connection with the ongoing war on drugs. In September Duterte declared a state of lawlessness [JURIST report] in the Philippines, which would allow police and military personnel to frisk individuals and search cars. In August Duterte named [JURIST report] 150 serving and former state officials connected to the nations illegal drug trade and ordered them to either surrender to the authorities or risk being hunted down. Duterte has stated that he disregards criticisms from the UN and human rights groups. Also in August Duterte threatened to withdraw [JURIST report] the country from the UN following criticisms against his controversial crackdown on illegal drugs.
The World Bank approved $1 billion to support Egypts job creation and inclusive growth, the institution said in a press release, Sputnik reported.

The aid is expected to support reforms program across key economic areas in the country.

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors today approved US $1 billion in a development policy finance operation for Egypt to support the Governments economic reforms program across key economic areas, the release said Tuesday. This is the Second Fiscal Consolidation, Sustainable Energy, and Competitiveness Programmatic Development Policy Financing (DPF).

The release further stated that the DPF supports the countrys inclusive economic reform program, focusing on efforts to create jobs, spur growth, and attract new investment, adding that this would be achieved through supporting energy security, efficiency, and investment.

The World Bank finances programs to decrease poverty and boost shared prosperity in Egypt through investments in energy, transport, water and sanitation, and other sectors, the release added.

World Banks current portfolio in Egypt includes 25 projects for a total of about $8.5 billion, the release stated.
Among the journalists, supporters and sponsors watching on, Aformer Barcelona legend Xavi Hernandez, currently of Al Sadd, was at hand to offer the Juve players a warm welcome before they took the field and spoke to the various media outlets present.

Juventus Italian Super Cup final plans at last took flight this morning as the team underwent a light training session at the Aspire Academy, the same facility that hosted them just two years ago.

But, there was not just training on the agenda for Massimiliano Allegris men; after being put through their paces in a brief stretching session, the Italian champions were treated to a special Qatari reception.

Set to one side of Aspires lush playing surfaces, a Bayt Achiar, a traditional tent of the Gulf nation, was erected to give the Bianconeri a taste of the local culture, culminating in Patrice Evra taking a falcon, the national bird of Qatar, on his arm.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a decree to posthumously award the Hero of Russia title to Ambassador Andrey Karlov murdered in Turkey, TASS news agency reported citing the Kremlin press service.

"To award the title of Hero of the Russian Federation to Andrey Karlov (posthumously) for tenacity and courage displayed during his tenure as Russias Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Turkey and big contribution to the implementation of the Russian foreign policy," says the decree signed by the head of state.

Andrey Karlov died after being fatally wounded in an armed assault in an art gallery in Ankara late Dec. 19.
The amount of the safety cushion of Russias reserves will be higher in 2018 than expected earlier, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday at the meeting with parliament members, TASS reported.



Reserves are used in the first instance due to dropped revenues from oil sales, Putin said. "We spent almost a trillion [rubles ($16.4 bln) - TASS] from the Reserve Fund. We thankfully keep the National Wealth Fund at the same level," the head of state said.



"We planned about 2.2-2.5 trillion [rubles ($36-41 bln) - TASS] will remain in our reserves by 2018 year-end; the figure will be higher. We have 6.6 trillion rubles ($107.9 bln) at the moment," the President said. "In particular, this is a safety cushion for us," he added.



The level of gold and currency reserves also deserves attention, the head of state said. "Indeed we have money; moreover, reserves have grown starting from this year. We had gold and currency reserves of the Central Bank about [$] 368 bln in the beginning and now there are almost $385.4 bln," Putin said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21

Trend:

Fourteen Turkish servicemen were killed and 33 wounded during the Shield of Euphrates operation in northern Syria, Milliyet newspaper reported.

Turkish Army has said that 138 IS terrorists were killed and many others were wounded in Syria's Al-Bab region within the Operation Euphrates Shield Wednesday.

n Aug. 24 morning, the Turkish Air Force, with the support of the coalition aircraft, launched an operation to liberate the city of Jarabulus from the IS militants in northern Syria, near Aleppo.

The operation was dubbed the Shield of the Euphrates.

Syria has been suffering from an armed conflict since March 2011, which, according to the UN, has so far claimed over 500,000 lives.

Militants from various armed groups are confronting the Syrian government troops. The IS, YPG and PYD are the most active terrorist groups in Syria.
Miss World 2016 contestants attend the MGM National Harbor Grand Opening Gala on December 8, 2016 in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo : Getty Images/Larry French)

Miss Puerto Rico Stephanie Del Valle, 19, bagged the most coveted Miss World 2016 title at the 66th edition of the pageant held at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland in the United States on Dec. 18, Sunday. She edged out Miss Dominican Republic Yaritza Miguelina and Miss Indonesia Natasha Mannuela, who finished second and third, respectively.



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Catriona Elisa Gray of the Philippines and Evelyn Njambi of Kenya made it to the top five. Representatives from China, Belgium, USA, South Korea and Brazil were included in the top 10.



The final five candidates were asked one question for the final round. The question was, "If you has an opportunity to change something about the world, what would it be?"



"If I had an opportunity to change something about the world, I think what I would do is send the message of how important it is to change exclusion for acceptance, to promote and provide justice for others, and the importance of helping those in need," Del Valle, who speaks French, English and Spanish, answered. She called her victory as a combination of "honor and a great responsibility".



Miss World's Fast Track Winners are Miss China as Top Model, Miss Cook Islands as Miss Sports, Miss Mongolia as Miss Talent, Miss Philippines as Miss Multimedia, and Miss Indonesia as the Beauty With A Purpose winner.



Since the Miss World pageant started in 1951, Puerto Rico becomes the 17th country with multiple victories in the said beauty competition. Venezuela has the most number of victory in Miss World with 6 winners, followed by India and the United Kingdom with 5.



South Africa, USA, Iceland, Jamaica and Sweden have three Miss World winner. The countries with two winners are China, Russia, Peru, Austria, Germany, Argentina, Australia and the Netherlands.



The first two title holders of Miss World were both from Sweden. Mireia Lalaguna of Spain was Miss World 2015.



Miss World 2016 was participated in by more than 100 countries from around the world. Here is a clip from the pageant:






A barge sails on the South China Sea on Dec. 24, 2007, in Yangjiang of Guangdong Province, China. (Photo : Getty Images)

Residents of Beijing can soon savor more than 300 types of seafood from the South China Sea after fishermen from the South China Sea agreed to sell their catch in the capital.



Hundreds of fishermen from islands near the South China Sea recently signed contracts to sell seafood with Beijing restaurant Nansha Yugang. The seafood is transported through cold-chain vehicles from Tanmen port in Qionghai, South China's Hainan Province.



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Local fishermen usually sell seafood such as fish, shrimp and crab to Hainan markets, where private would purchase the products, said Chen Xiangmiao, a research fellow at the National Institute for the South China Sea.



Chen added that seafood from the South China Sea tastes differently from those caught in the East China Sea.



The South China Sea encompasses 1.4 million square miles and is richer in biodiversity than nearly any other marine ecosystem. It is one of the world's most important fisheries, employing more than 3.7 million people and generating billions of dollars every year. The seafood caught here provides food and jobs for millions in the 10 countries and territories that surround it.



China accounted for 35 percent of the world's seafood consumption in 2015.



The fishing industry in China was valued at $289 billion in 2013. Fish is also China's top agricultural export. In 2013, there were close to 10,000 fish processing companies in China, providing 400,000 jobs.



Fish workers mainly come from predominately in Liaoning, Fujian and Shandong. Ther seafood industries in China creates nearly 14.5 million jobs.



However, due to overfishing dwindling stocks now threaten both the food security and economic growth of the rapidly developing nations that draw on them.



According to Chinese state media, overfishing and pollution have so depleted China's fishery resources that there are no seafood to be found in some fishing grounds such as the East China Sea.



Fish stock in the South China Sea has fallen by as much as 95 percent from 1950s levels.


LINCOLN  More than 30 children in the State of Nebraskas care have reported they were sexually assaulted over the past three years, prompting a new investigation to help improve the child welfare system.

The Inspector General of Nebraska Child Welfare announced the investigation Wednesday after identifying 36 reports of sexual abuse of state wards dating to 2013.

Inspector General Julie Rogers said that all of the allegations have been properly reported and investigated by law enforcement authorities but that the sheer number demanded a response by her office. She and her staff of two investigators will conduct a careful review to determine how to better protect children in the states custody.

How can we improve the system in Nebraska so our kids who are abused and neglected and vulnerable and have gone through trauma already are not subjected to more abuse or exploitation? she said.

Her intent is to complete the investigation and make public recommendations for improvement by September, she said.

State Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha, one of the lawmakers who created the inspector generals office in 2012, said he was disappointed to hear so many children had suffered while in the states care. Even one case of abuse is too many, he added.

For me this is alarming, Krist said. We need to collectively look at these issues and see where the problems are and stop them.

The Department of Health and Human Services, the state agency that administers the child welfare system, issued a written response, saying: The care and well-being of children in our custody is of the utmost importance to this agency.

HHS said it provided the critical incident reports that are part of the inspector generals investigation and said, We look forward to continue working with the IG and welcome the recommendations from the report.

The 36 abused children are either state wards or former state wards who were removed from their homes by the Department of Health and Human Services because they suffered abuse and neglect, Rogers said. Those children allege they were sexually abused while in foster homes, adoptive homes or placed in state-licensed facilities.

The cases have all been referred to the adult or juvenile justice systems, she said. She emphasized that she and her staff will not be reinvestigating the criminal acts, but will be focusing on making fixes to the system.

Rogers said she expects to cast a wide net in coming months and will likely learn of more incidents of sexual abuse of kids in the child welfare system.

Rogers has notified HHS officials and she said she believes they will cooperate fully with the investigation.

The Nebraska Legislature created the office to provide independent oversight of child welfare, which includes HHS and the juvenile probation system administered by the courts.

Those with concerns about the safety of a child should immediately call the states child abuse hotline at 800-652-1999. Members of the public who want to provide information to the inspector general can send an email to oig@leg.ne.gov or call 855-460-6784.
Nebraska, 1.9 million.

The state hit the minor population milestone by keeping up its normal growth in the latest population figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

For Nebraska, that means slow and steady. The figures show that Nebraska grew by 13,351 people between July 2015 and July 2016 to reach a population total of 1,907,116. Thats a growth rate of less than 1 percent (officially 0.7 percent).

But the number of new residents and the rate of growth puts Nebraska right in line with how it has performed each year throughout this decade.

The state even produced the 18th best growth rate nationally  which is really good for Nebraska, considering that it often shows up in the low- to mid-30s for that measure, according to David Drozd, research coordinator at the University of Nebraska at Omahas Center for Public Affairs Research.

The numbers bode well for Nebraska looking ahead to the congressional reapportionment coming after the official 2020 Census count.

Drozd said Nebraska is in a good position to retain all three of its seats in the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives, although he cautioned that some risk remains over the next few years. Nebraskas growth could slow or even stop, Drozd said, though the numbers indicate that the state probably would have room to spare.

For 29 straight years, Drozd said, Nebraska has gained population.

Nebraska reached the 1.8 million population mark in 2009 and has gained about 12,000 to 13,000 people each year since then.

Drozd said Nebraskas numbers came out better than he expected. The figures, however, dont reflect several major economic hits to the state  Conagras relocation, the Cabelas sale and closure of the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant.

At the current rate, Nebraska would hit a more notable milestone  2 million people  by about 2023.

But Drozd projected that it will happen in 2025, expecting Nebraska to lose more of its large baby boomer population to age.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, in a statement, hailed the states growth, saying it means more people than ever realize Nebraska is the best place in the world to live, work and raise a family. He said keeping the states three critically important House seats will help ensure voices across Nebraska are heard in Washington, D.C.

Among Nebraskas neighbors, Wyoming lost population in the last year, and Kansas barely gained  adding 568 people.

Iowa grew by 12,696 people and 0.4 percent, both lower marks than Nebraskas. Iowa lost one of its U.S. House seats after the 2010 Census, leaving it with four seats, because other states had grown more quickly, the Associated Press reported.

But Iowa has grown 2.9 percent since 2010, making it less likely that it would lose a seat after 2020.
It's here: World's first transit elevated bus TEB-1 Debuts in Qinhuangdao. (Photo : YouTube/ Descubre tu Mundo)

China and Transit Elevated Bus, aka TEB, have gained media attention. However, this time around it is something not positive for it concerns mainly on the idle status of the elevated bus and its future in the busy streets of Chinese cities.



With the hopes of answering traffic issues in the busy streets of China, Transit Elevated Bus was introduced by TEB Technology Limited with the promise of carrying passengers over traffic. After generating a lot of buzz both on print and online media during its test run, the futuristic elevated bus has been subject to criticism and inquiry in the past days.



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According to reports, the giant elevated bus in China, which was unveiled August this year had been collecting dust in its main hangar for almost two months now. Based on the local news, the company behind the 22-meter-long prototype futuristic bus, TEB Technology Limited, has been facing significant financial issues. Thus, resulting to the idle status of the giant bus in its test site.



Engadget reported that TEB's biggest financial backer, wealth Management Company called Huayingkailai, refused to provide further financial assistance to the company. As a result of the said bail out, TEB is now facing some debts and difficulties in keeping the project alive.



As a result of the said idle status and the lack of specific response from the mother company, complaints are being received by local officials for the giant bus has now become a giant roadblock, according to CNN. However, despite the complaints, there is still no assurance on how will the issue be resolved or when it would be resolved.



"The tracks are still there and we're aware that it causes transportation problems. I don't know much about TEB's future plans or what we will do with the tracks," a Qinhuangdao government official, who declined to be identified by name told CNN.



That being said, the company behind the Transit Elevated Bus is gradually being drenched in negative publicity, which would eventually affect their credibility and overall status as a company. Guess we would just have to wait and see how TEB will resolve the current issue.






FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2016, file photo, Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and CEO of Facebook, speaks at the CEO summit during the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Lima, Peru. Zuckerberg unveiled his new artificial intelligence assistant named "Jarvis" in a Facebook post on Dec. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix, File)
In this picture taken Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, damaged buildings are seen in Benghazi, Libya. A Canadian man whose family is trapped in a militant-controlled area in the Libyan city of Benghazi is calling on Ottawa to help broker a ceasefire so innocent civilians can flee the fighting. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Mohammed el-Shaiky
President Barack Obama bids farewell during his hilarious final White House correspondents' dinner speech. (Photo : YouTube/ Global News)

President Barack Obama administration has been in constant attack from critics and skeptics alike. Although his term as U.S. president will soon end, the controversy regarding his birth seemed to have no ending, especially with recent forgery claims of the soon-to-be former sheriff of Arizona's Maricopa County.



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The 44th president of the United States is once again being dragged into the spotlight by individuals who doubts the legitimacy of Obama's presidency. If the previous stand was founded on the belief that Obama is not a natural-born US citizen, this time around Maricopa county sheriff Joe Arpaio presented evidences suggesting that Obama's birth certificate has been forged.



"I hope we enlighten you of what the real story and evidence is all about regarding this fake, fake birth certificate," Independent quoted Arpaio as saying.



Based on their statement during a press conference in Phoenix, portions of a woman's birth certificate in Hawaii were copied and pasted onto the president's birth certificate which was published by the White House during the heat of the moment. The information was obtained by Mr Arpaio and his colleagues with the help of a 95-year-old who might have written coding on the copy of the Obama's birth certificate, according to Independent.



This latest news regarding the conspiracy theory of Obama's legitimacy as president based on citizenship flaws has once again ignited a series of questions and speculations. However, there is still no response from the White House or personally from President Barrack Obama regarding the latest update of the accusation of document forgery.



Prior to recent birther press conference, the most notable comment about the issue speaks word of relief coming from the president. However, with this another issue being thrown, a change of mood might be expected, especially that such issue weighed on Obama's mind.



"I don't know about you guys, but I am so relieved that the whole birther thing is over. I mean, ISIL, North Korea, poverty, climate change - none of those things weighed on my mind like the validity of my birth certificate," USA Today quoted President Obama as saying.






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Orlando Bloom, Priyanka Chopra, Angelique Kidjo, David Beckham, Femi Kuti, Ishmael Beah, Jackie Chan and guest attend UNICEF's 70th Anniversary Event at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. (Photo : Getty Images/Mike Coppola)

"Kung Fu Yoga" star and Goodwill Ambassador Jackie Chan attended the UNICEF's 70th anniversary event in New York. The event of United Nation's agency which handles child-related issues had once again raised awareness of the myriad problems in the world. One of those touched was Chan who was so desperate over the children's ill fate that he wished he was a superhero to save the world.



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The martial arts icon was among the many stars who graced the U.N. agency's event. He was appointed Goodwill Ambassador by the agency in 2004. He used his influence as a global superstar to help the cause of children. His passion to help the needy shows whenever he answers questions emphatically.



"It's not the children's fault, sometimes it's the parents, sometimes it's the area, sometimes it's the situation," Chan told BBC about children with HIV/AIDS at the sidelines of UNICEF's 70th anniversary event. "They do nothing wrong. They are just helpless."



There are 1.8 million below 16-year-old children around the world that are inflicted with HIV/AIDS, according to UNICEF's Seventh Stocktaking Report. A bit of a good news is that the number of deaths related to AIDS among children below 5 years old had been reduced.



The Hong Kong-born actor was just willing to help when UNICEF asked him. He has known that UNICEF has helped a lot of people especially children over 70 years. He hopes that the next 70 years will be focused on fostering peace worldwide.



As a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, one of Chan's ways of showing emotional support to children with HIV/AIDS is to show them the disease is not that scary. He does it by touching them and giving them a hug.



Chan is also frustrated about children caught up in Afghanistan, Syria and in other conflict areas. Orlando Bloom, Priyanka Chopra, David Beckham, Angelique Kidjo, Femi Kuti and Ishmael Beah are among the other Goodwill Ambassadors present at the 70th anniversary.



The 62-year old Chinsese fa; Chan will appear in the upcoming action comedy Sino-Indian movie "Kung Fu Yoga" which will be available in theaters on Jan. 28, 2017. His co-stars enjoyed his company not only because of his acting but also of his good dancing skills. Indian actress Disha Patani who plays as a princess in the film told IANS over a phone talk from Mumbai, The Indian Express reported.



Listen to Chan's interview in the clip below:






Gong Yoo attends the 'Train To Busan' photocall during the 69th Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2016 in Cannes, France. (Photo : Getty Images/Andreas Rentz)

"Goblin" captured the hearts of many Korean drama lovers as evidenced by its growing popularity. Gong Yoo's tvN drama retained its top spot on a TV popularity chart for the second consecutive week with "Legend of the Blue Sea" trailing behind at number two.



Gong's fantasy drama series continued to reign over South Korean programs with an impressive score on the Content Power Index for the period from Dec. 5 to Dec. 11. "Goblin" nabbed the first spot with a score of 313.9 points, according to CJ E&M and Nielsen Korea, as cited by Yonhap News.



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The tvN production even bested its own record of 302.8 points posted during its premiere weekend on Dec. 1. Meanwhile, Lee Min Ho's drama "Legend of the Blue Sea" landed at second place with 254.1 points.



Lee's fantasy mermaid series previously topped the Content Power Index for several weeks prior the release of "Goblin." However, the SBS drama failed to surpass the tvN production following mixed reviews that included plagiarism claims.



Apart from "Goblin" and "Legend of the Blue Sea," the talk show "Radio Star" also nabbed a spot on the top three of the Content Power Index with its 233.7 points. Other TV dramas such as the medical series "Dr. Romantic" and the MBC's "Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo" also ranked on the said TV popularity chart's top ten.



In other news, "Goblin" registered its highest TV rating since the tvN drama released its first episode in early December. Viewership shares rose to 12.9 percent after Eun Tak (Kim Go Eun) gave the titular character Shin (Gong) a surprise kiss in episode 6, according to Korean news outlet Chosun.



Gong's drama is also expected to reach the 15 percent TV rating mark in the coming weeks. Moreover, given its unique storyline and star-studded cast that includes "My Girl" actor Lee Dong Wook, Yoo In Na and more, speculations indicated that the tvN series may even hit a 20 percent viewership rating during its 16-episode run.



"Goblin" airs every Friday and Saturday on tvN. Watch a teaser clip for the upcoming episode below:






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The reason for Chandras office visit is to fill out form N-648. Chandra* is a fifty-nine-year-old Bhutanese refugee who has been my patient for the last nine months. Form N-648 is a six-page bureaucratic nightmare that is guaranteed to bring my clinic day to a grinding halt. My refugee patients bring me this form to certify that they are unable to take the test to become a U.S. citizen due to a severe, permanent neurologic disability.

My job is to document the extent of their disability and provide a detailed account of all of the factors that led up to it. The first question on the form reads: Provide the clinical diagnosis and DSM-IV code (if applicable) of the applicants disability and/or impairment(s) that form the basis for seeking an exception to the English and/or civics requirements. This is followed by five more pages of repetitive and equally baffling questions. The Department of Homeland Security is not easily placated. Successful completion of this form requires starting with the patients birth history and meticulously documenting an iron clad medical story to explain why they cannot learn to read and write in English or learn U.S. history.

For my patients, the N-648 is a golden ticket to the advantages of U.S. citizenship that most of us take for granted: access to Medicare and Social Security, the ability to travel and seek help from the U.S. government abroad, protection from deportation, the right to vote. For me, in my role as a family medicine physician, the N-648 is at least two hours of additional work at the end of an already long day. The time I am officially allotted to this task, like everything else, is a fifteen-minute office visit. Seeing N-648 on my schedule never fails to incite panic: a sinking feeling in my gut, a quickening of my pulse. It feels like Im on a roller coaster ride, being slowly pulled to the top of a long incline, before the inevitable drop. My brain fixates upon the myriad ways in which this piece of paper will ruin my day. I will run behind. My patients will peek their heads out of the exam rooms, scanning the harsh white hallways for somebody to ask how much longer theyll have to wait to see their doctor. Those same patients will sense that Im rushing, that Im not paying as close attention to their problems as they deserve. Ill miss my lunch break and my bathroom break. Prescription refill requests will pile up in my inbox unanswered. Ill miss dinner with my loved ones at the end of the day.

Playing the lead role in todays paperwork drama is Chandra, the fifty-nine-year-old Bhutanese woman. Her long black hair is flecked with silver and usually pinned up into a neat bun. Her weather-worn face and far-away black eyes rarely melt into a smile. She wears vibrant velvet tops draped with traditional beads and silk scarves. Her flowing, wrap around skirts are cinched at the waist by a broad gold scarf. Stooped over her plastic black cane, she limps and shuffles down the long hallways of my clinic. Chandra is four feet and eight inches tall. My five foot eight-inch physical presence towers over her.

Chandras native and only language is Nepali. After greeting each other with Namaste, namaskar, our heads bowing down to meet our pressed-together palms, the remainder of our visits are interpreted with varying degrees of quality by telephone or Skype-based interpreters. Chandra is a what we call a frequent flyer in the clinic, and I am well-versed in her multiple medical problems: depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, memory loss, and a rotating list of physical complaints that are hard to pin down. She is not unlike many of the patients in the community health center south of Seattle where I spend my days sifting through a large volume of newly-arrived refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma, Bhutan. Many of my patients have traveled similar trauma-laden paths to my doorstep. Like Chandra, they have been driven from their homes by ethnic- or religious-fueled persecution and violence. They have spent long, mind-numbing years in refugee camps, unsure if a better future awaits. They have lost husbands, wives, and children to the sister plagues of poverty, warfare, and disease. When they finally arrive in the U.S., they carry with them a long list of mental and physical problems that have accumulated, untreated, over the years. Day after day, week after week, in 15-minute increments, I chip away at these lists.

At her weekly office visits, Chandra complains of pain. To my Western-medicine trained ear, her complaints are vague. I can never fit them into any diagnostic algorithm; I can never tie all of her symptoms into a nice bow that explains and connects everything. Occams razor does not apply here. If I ask how long shes been in pain, first shell say two weeks, then later change the timeline to 2 years. Specific locations of pain are also chameleons: today its the right shoulder, tomorrow the left leg. Our too short visits too often end in frustration on both sides, with me persistently trying to track down unknowable medical details to hone in on the correct diagnosis, and Chandra becoming first confused and eventually bored by all of my questions. Where does it hurt, I query? Is it your shoulder, your back, or your leg? Dukhccaa, she says to the interpreter on speakerphone while rhythmically nodding her head at me. Dukhccaa (pronounced dook-sa) is the first Nepali word that I master at this job. Its translation: pain.

The day Chandra comes in with her eldest son to fill out the dreaded N-648 form is different. She is accompanied by a skilled live interpreter, a rare treat for both of us. The late autumn sunlight filters in through the clinic windows, warming and bathing the sterile space. I sense that this visit will bring me closer to understanding who she is and how I can be better care for her. I am, for once, ahead of schedule. The day is running smoothly; I am not rushed, stressed, tired, or hungry. Chandra wont complain of pain today, and I wont try to fix it. Instead, for the first time, I walk into the exam room, sit down, skip logging onto the computer, look her in the eye, and say, Tell me your story.

* All identifying information changed to protect patient privacy.

Xandra Rarden is a family physician.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
The original cast members of 'Running Man' are Yoo Jae-suk, Ji Suk-jin, Kim Jong-kook, Haha, Lee Kwang-soo, Song Joong-ki, and Gary. (Photo : Twitter/Running Man Biased)

It has been confirmed that the South Korean variety show "Running Man" will be cancelled in February 2017 following its recent controversy of firing Kim Jong Kook and Song Jihyo that left fans in shock and disbelief. However, rumor has it that SBS network is planning a new show with the remaining old cast - Yoo Jaesuk, Haha, Lee Kwangsoo, and Jo Suk Jin.



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After almost seven years, SBS is shelving "Running Man" after its ratings dropped big time for the last year. Moreover, the producers were recently under fire for allegedly firing Kim Jong Kook and Song Jihyo, two of the main cast.



Kim Jong Kook and Song Jihyo claimed that they were blindsided by the producers of the show as they were not told that they will be leaving the show, but the program will undergo reformatting to pull up the ratings.



Kang Hodong reportedly declined the offer to join "Running Man" because of the controversy. Rumor has it that "Running Man" let go of Kim Jong Kook and Song Jihyo in order to welcome other comedians that will join the main cast. Kang Gary has decided to leave the show in October that has been the turning point for the producers. "Running Man" has gained popularity internationally, especially in China that it bagged a Chinese version.



Meanwhile, there are rumors that the network will debut a new show in spring after the final episode of "Running Man". However, some of the old cast will join the new show. There is a high possibility that Yoo Jaesuk, Haha, Ji Sukjin, and Lee Kwangsoo will be included in the line up for the new show.



This is not the first time that SBS did this, Yoo Jaesuk, Haha, and Kim Jong Kook were alumni of "X-Man". Yoo Jaesuk and Kim Jong Kook were also the cast of "Family Outing". These two shows previously hold the spot of "Running Man"


A Kilkenny men who was caught at George Best Belfast City Airport trying to smuggle in ten kilos of high-quality cocaine from Peru was jailed for seven years.

Shane Delaney, a father-of-one from Kilkenny was stopped after a Border Force Officer noticed his suitcase had come from South America via Madrid and Heathrow.

When the suitcase was opened, it was found to contain 15 packaged polo shirts which had been wrapped around a suspected drug.

When the white substance was tested, it was found to be cocaine with a purity of between 64% and 89% - making this May's seizure one of the largest consignments of cocaine being imported into Northern Ireland via an airport in a suitcase.

Prior to sentence being passed at Belfast Crown Court, both the prosecution and Delaney's defence team argued about his role in the operation.

Whilst the Crown submitted he was a significant player, the defence said his role was no higher than that of a drugs mule.

They also had differing opinions about the potential street value of the Class A drug, which the court heard was between an estimated 300,000 - or as the PSNI stated, up to 3million.(3.5 million)

However, passing sentence Her Honour Judge McCaffrey said it was her view Delaney was neither a significant player not a drugs mule, but rather a trusted lieutenant.

Handing the 30-year-old a seven-year sentence, the Judge told Delaney he would serve half his sentence in prison, with the remaining three and a half years on supervised licence upon his release.

Before jailing Delaney, Judge McCaffrey was told by prosecuting barrister Kate McKay that on May 22, Delaney was challenged by a Border Force officer at the East Belfast airport after his flight arrived from Heathrow.

When the suitcases were opened, Delaney was asked what was inside the plastic packages, to which he replied cocaine. After the substance was tested, it was confirmed as 9.386 kilos of cocaine with a high purity.

He was arrested on suspicion of importing a Class A drug, and during interview he answered some questions but refused to answer others.

Delaney made the case that he was asked to transport the cocaine to pay off a drugs debts as his life was under threat.

Delaney - described in court as both a drug addict and a drug dealer - has made the same case from his arrest in May right up to sentencing, after he pleading guilty to a single charge of importing a Class A drug.

He claimed that to pay off his drugs debt, he was told to go to Lima and bring back drugs - but refused to answer questions about who asked him to make the trip, if the drugs were destined for Northern Ireland or the Republic, and who paid for the drugs.

Mrs McKay said that whilst in South America in May, Delaney visited Peru, Chile and Brazil, stayed in the best hotels and visited popular tourist attractions such as Machu Picchu.

The prosecuting barrister also said that whilst the defence argued Delaney was a drugs mule acting under duress, it was the Crown's case that as his role as a music promoter, he could potentially sell drugs to people attending events that he set up.

Defence barrister Greg Berry QC argued that Delaney's role in the enterprise was that of a drugs mule. Telling the court his client was no Pablo Escobar, Mr Berry branded the attempt to smuggle drugs into the country as amateurish.

Pointing out that Delaney's suitcase travelled through airports in Peru, Madrid and Heathrow before being stopped in Belfast, Mr Berry said: "This was unsophisticated in the extreme. This is not a speedboat coming to the coast of Ireland and bringing drugs to some secluded harbour.

"Given the amount of airports he came thought, frankly it's amazing he got as far as he did."

Mr Berry also questioned the PSNI's potential street value of the cocaine, but did accept the weight of the drugs was significant.

The barrister also questioned the role suggested by the Crown, saying there was no evidence or intelligence to indicate Delaney was a major drugs dealer or lived a lavish lifestyle.

Reiterating Delaney's claim that he made the trip to South America to pay off a drugs debt, Mr Berry said a person who is leader in the drugs trade is not going to be bringing a suitcase through an airport.

Mr Berry also pointed out that rather than being under surveillance, Delaney's case was stopped as a random check due to the travel tags attached.

As Delaney was being led from the dock back into custody, Judge McCaffrey ordered that the drugs seized at the airport be destroyed.
Kilkenny resident Professor Willie Donnelly has been appointed Professor of Waterford Insitute of Technology - and one of his objectives will be working towards a technological university for the South East.

The governing body of WIT appointed Professor Donnelly as the President of the Institute at a meeting on Thursday.

Professor Donnelly who lives in Springfields, Kilkenny with wife Manuelle is originally from Newbridge, Co Kildare. His son Yann was educated in Kilkenny Schools Project and Kilkenny College.

Prior to his 2015 appointment as interim President Professor Donnelly was Vice President for Research, Innovation and Graduate Studies at WIT as well as Director and founder of the Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (TSSG), an internationally-renowned mobile services and communications management research centre.

He established WITs ArcLabs Research & Innovation Centre in St Kierans, Kilkenny and is working with the regional stakeholders to create a global smart agriculture centre for Kilkenny.

Speaking about the appointment, Mr Dick Langford, WIT Chairman, on behalf of the Governing Body welcomed Prof Donnellys appointment at what is a critical juncture in the Institutes evolution.

Professor Donnelly has the indisputable track record required to oversee the further development of the Institute and ensure the delivery of the Institutes strategy in what is a period of significant change for the Higher Education Sector in Ireland.

WIT has more than 8,000 students across five campuses in Waterford city, with education delivered from higher certificate to doctoral level. The Institute has continued to make a huge contribution to the educational, societal, and economic health of the region, added Mr Langford.

In his post the President of WIT will be leading the Institutes re-engagement with Institute of Technology Carlow, with a view to establishing a technological university in the south east.

Speaking after his appointment, Prof Donnelly said: It is an honour to be re-appointed President of WIT. I have a deep commitment to equality of access to third level education for all students in the region, irrespective of their social or economic background, enabling them to meet their academic and social potential. The Institute will continue to drive the economic and social development of the region helping to ensure that we create employment for all our citizens, he continued.

Professor Donnellys contract will run from early 2017 to 2021.
HTC 10 during its launch for the Indian Market on May 26, 2016 in New Delhi, India. HTC 10 Smartphone has been launched in India, at a price of Rs. 52,990. (Photo : Saumya Khandelwal/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

HTC could be releasing a new phone on Jan. 12 as the company already sent out press invites. The smartphone in question could be the rumored HTC X10.



The date itself is controversial because it is only a week after the Consumer Electronics Show 2017 to be held in Las Vegas. HTC seemingly wants all eyes and ears on them during their presentation which is not possible during CES 2017 considering that they could be overshadowed by other tech giants such as NVIDIA or Samsung.



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HTC's press invite has a teaser with the letter U highlighted. There is no indication on which product they aim to release but it could either be the HTC X10 or their new venture into virtual reality.



The Taiwanese company could also be making the HTC 11 which is their next flagship smartphone for 2017, NDTV reported. Due to the HTC 10 being released recently, there is no reason to believe that the HTC 11 will be unveiled in the Jan. 12 event.



HTC 11 rumored specs claim that it could feature a 5.5-inch QHD display which is common in today's flagship smartphones. It will also reportedly have a dual-camera setup for the rear and the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC. It will also reportedly have an astounding 8GB RAM which is overkill even for the hardcore smartphone user.



The HTC X10 is claimed to be a mid-range smartphone with a 5.5-inch FHD display powered by the MediaTek Helio P10 processor, First Post reported. It will also have 3GB RAM which is more than enough for the average user.



HTC will reportedly use the Mali-T860 GPU for the X10 and a 13MP camera for the rear although the front snapper has not been disclosed. The Taiwanese tech company will reportedly launch it around New Year's Day but there are also some who believe that it will be on the Jan. 12 event.



See one of the many HTC 11 concept renders in the video below:






SEOUL, Dec 21 (Reuters) - A South Korea government official in charge of foreign exchange markets on Wednesday cautioned traders about pushing the won currency too low, highlighting the 1,200 level per dollar level as a key area to watch.

"Market (investors) would be cautious near the 1,200 won level," a fx official told Reuters over the phone. The 1,200 mark has not been breached since March this year.

The won is trading at about 18 month low of 1,195.6 per dollar as of 0133 GMT.

(Reporting by Shin-hyung Lee, Writing by Cynthia Kim; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
HANOI, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official market and indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi at 0105 GMT.

Dec 21 Dec 20 USD/VND mid-point 22,154 22,148

USD/VND interbank 22,760/22,765 22,760/22,765 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 35.83/36.50 35.88/36.55

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, Dec 21 (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.

Dec 21 Dec 20 USD/VND mid-point 22,154 22,148 USD/VND interbank 22,740/22,800 22,760/22,765 USD/VND unofficial 23,330/23,360 23,280/23,330 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 35.90/36.57 35.88/36.55

Interbank offered rates Overnight 4.5-5.0 4.6-5.0

1 week 4.8-5.2 4.8-5.2

1 month 5.0-5.4 5.0-5.4

3 months 5.0-5.5 5.0-5.5

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)
SAO PAULO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Brazil's government is in talks with union leaders to overhaul labor rules as early as in January, President Michel Temer said Wednesday.

The changes could be implemented through a temporary presidential decree before being examined by Congress, according to a draft seen by Reuters.

The government is proposing to ease regulation on temporary work and to make collective agreements between unions and companies prevail over labor legislation.

Temer is also seeking to turn permanent the so-called Employment Protection Program, which was created during the current recession to create incentives for companies to avoid staff cuts.

"We are very close to launching the modernization of the labor code," Temer told journalists after an event in Mogi das Cruzes, in the outskirts of Sao Paulo. "It will very likely happen in January, practically by common accord with unions and the business sector."

Brazil's government has announced a series of measures in recent days as it seeks to avoid a third year of recession. Brazil's labor code was designed in the 1940's to protect workers from dismissals, but is often blamed by companies for the high cost of business in the country.

(Reporting by Silvio Cascione and Lisandra Paraguassu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
* Polish leaders to hold news conference at 0900 GMT

* Zloty firms, Polish stocks touch eight-month high

By Sandor Peto

BUDAPEST, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The zloty tested 5-week highs against the euro and Polish stocks touched an 8-month high on Wednesday ahead of a news conference by top ruling party leaders likely to address the political crisis over the rule of law in Poland.

Central Europe's healthy long-term economic growth prospects have been supporting assets in the region as the end of the year approaches, but domestic political issues have weighed on sentiment in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.

The Polish parliament lifted a temporary ban on media access on Tuesday, which has been triggering protests, but the measure did not defuse the crisis as the opposition said the government would need to do more for democracy. Ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski will hold a news conference at 0900 GMT, along with Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and parliament speakers.

The zloty firmed 0.1 percent to 4.4045 against 6the euro by 0821 GMT and Polish government bond yields dropped 1-2 basis points, with the 10-year paper bid trading at 3.43 percent.

The Warsaw stock exchange's bluechip index touched an 8-month high in the second session in a row.

The leu also firmed, but Romanian government bonds eased a shade.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has invited political parties for talks on a new government, with the leftist Social Democrat Party, the winner of elections held on Dec. 11, expected to propose a prime minister candidate.

The president signalled earlier that he would not accept PSD leader Liviu Dragnea as a prime minister candidate because convicted earlier this year for rigging a 2012 referendum for which he received a suspended jail sentence. Bulgaria faces early elections next spring as talks to form a new government under the mandate of a small right-wing party failed on Tuesday. Bulgarian stocks firmed a quarter of a percent.

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> .29 .46 20% 58% Buchares 7011 7022 -0.1 +0. t .50 .02 5% 10% Ljubljan <.SBITO 702. 701. +0. +0. a P> 99 46 22% 98% Zagreb <.CRBEX 1968 1970 -0.1 +16

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WARSAW, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Enterprise Investors (EI) expects the initial public offering (IPO) of Polish retailer Dino, in which it owns a 49 percent stake, to raise more than 1 billion zlotys ($237 million), the head of the private equity fund said.

Dino said earlier this month that EI planned to sell potentially its entire stake in a flotation next year. The offering could be a boost for the Warsaw bourse, which has seen many investors turn cautious following a range of policies from the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government that have been criticised by the European Commission and some credit rating agencies.

Media reports have valued Dino's IPO at around 1 billion zlotys.

"I assume that the estimates on Dino's IPO value, provided by the press, are based on company's results in 2015 and we are talking about a company, which increases its profits by more than 20 percent each year", Jacek Siwicki told Reuters.

"I hope that we will be selling the company based on its 2017 forecast. That's why one might assume that the offer's value will be much higher than 1 billion zlotys", he added, without providing further details.

Dino currently has 608 stores, up from 100 in 2010, mostly in western Poland. Its revenues rose by 23 percent in 2015 to 2.6 billion zlotys, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 42 percent to 201 million zlotys.

($1 = 4.2264 zlotys)

(Reporting by Anna Koper; Editing by Agnieszka Barteczko and Mark Potter)
MADRID, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The European Court of Justice said on Wednesday it had overturned a Spanish court ruling that had capped banks' liabilities for so-called floor clauses in mortgage contracts and asked them to repay customers over the whole life of the loan.

The ruling, announced in a statement, deals a blow to Spanish banks that now have to repay customers beyond what they had lost since May 2013, when Spain's Supreme Court declared these mortgages, whose rates cannot fall below a benchmark, were invalid if they had not been presented clearly.

The new charges could total between 3 billion and 4.5 billion euros ($4.68 billion), according to analysts. The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.

Shares in Spanish banks fell after the ruling was announced, with Banco Sabadell , down 4.6 percent, leading losses. ($1 = 0.9620 euros)

(Reporting by Jesus Aguado; Editing by Angus Berwick)
Indonesian state miner to produce 24,000 T of ferronickel in 2017

JAKARTA, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Indonesian state mining company Aneka Tambang aims to produce 24,000 tonnes of ferronickel in 2017, up from 20,000 tonnes this year, a company official said on Wednesday. Agus Zamzam, director of operations, added the company expects to produce 2,100 kilograms of gold next year, roughly the same target as this year.

(Reporting by Cindy Silviana; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

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 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.

kitco news
Jaguar Mining Ups 2017 Gold Guidance By 10%

Jaguar Mining Inc. (TSX: JAG) has hiked its guidance for gold production in 2017 by approximately 10% from this year to a range of 100,000 to 110,000 ounces. We are confident that this level of production is an achievable and sustainable target, says Rodney Lamond, president and chief executive officer. Officials describe this as a step toward the company's five-year strategic plan of becoming a 200,000-ounce-per-year producer, focused on organic growth within the mining district of the Iron Quadrangle in Brazil. Guidance for all-in sustaining costs next year is $900 to $1,000 an ounce. The company plans exploration investment at its core operating assets of $7.5 million to $8 million. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com Guyana Goldfields Inc. Completes Debt Restructuring Guyana Goldfields Inc. (TSX: GUY) and wholly owned subsidiary AGM Inc. announce the refinancing of a $160 million debt facility dated Sept. 2, 2014 with a consortium of existing lenders. The new facility will amount to $80 million and contemplates 16 quarterly principal repayments of $5 million each over a period of four years beginning March 31, the company says. Various covenants and restrictions will be removed. "The refinancing is a key milestone in our balance-sheet management and this new and lower-cost debt further improves our industry-leading cost profile and strengthens our ability to drive growth," says Scott A. Caldwell, president and chief executive officer. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

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 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.

kitco news
ROME, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Retail investors will feel little or no pain if the Italian government has to intervene to prop up its struggling lenders, Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said on Wednesday.

"The impact on savers, if a (government) intervention should take place, will be absolutely minimised or inexistent," Padoan told parliament as he requested authorisation to borrow 20 billion euros ($21 billion) to underwrite the stability of its banks.

Many investors expect that the Treasury will have to bail-out Italy's number three lender, Monte dei Paschi di Siena as early as this week to prevent it from being wound down by European regulators.

($1 = 0.9617 euros)

(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte; Writing by Crispian Balmer)
Keanu Reeves as the titular character in 'John Wick: Chapter 2' (Photo : YouTube/ Lionsgate)

Lionsgate has released a brand new trailer for "John Wick: Chapter 2." The film will see Keanu Reeves reprise his role as the titular John Wick. This time around he has to step out of retirement once again in order to aid a former associate planning to take control over an international assassin's guild.



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The trailer continues the pace from the first film, showcasing John Wick in rapid-pace action scenes. According to Collider, the film will see Wick return to the Continental Hotel but this time around there's a contract out on Wick's head. When confronted with this face he replies "I'll kill them. I'll kill them all."



Rome is also shown in the trailer as it will be the main setting for the film. The movie starts off almost immediately after the ending of the first film which is why a portion of the sequel will still take place in the United States and around the Continental Hotel. Wick is also seen with his new dog.



Ian McShane and John Leguizamo will be reprising their roles from the first film. Newcomers for the sequel include Laurence Fishbourne, Common, Ruby Rose, Lance Reddick, Bridget Moynahan and Peter Stormare. Common can be said prominently in the trailer, involved in several of the key action scenes.



According to Polygon, Fishbourne encountered Reeves during a party back in 2014 and explained he was interested in participating in a sequel. Director Chad Stahelski agreed and was able to write in a part for the actor, reuniting Fishbourne and Reeves who previously starred together in the "Matrix" trilogy.



It is further noted that this is the second full-length trailer for "John Wick: Chapter 2." A previous trailer was launched earlier this year during the New York Comic-Con. At the time it was also explained that the assassins Wick encounters in the sequel are not the main target and in his search he'll come across Fishbourne's character, the Bowler King.



"John Wick: Chapter 2" is scheduled to release on Feb. 10, 2017.






(Kitco News) -The silver market could continue to see strong gains in 2017 from a pick up in industrial demand as the U.S. and global economies improve, according to some analysts.

With 2016 quickly coming to a close, silver has been the second-best asset in the precious-metals space, up 16.5% since the start of the year and only behind palladium, which is up almost 21% for the year.

Looking ahead, according to some analysts, it could be silvers industrial component that drives the market, especially as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump pushes his fiscal policies, proposing to spend $1 trillion over 10 years.

While silver has broad market fundamentals, industrial demand makes up more than half of the overall market, with most of the other demand coming from jewelry, bullion coins and exchange-traded funds.

Clearly, any uptick in infrastructure spending resulting from the recent U.S. election could benefit silver's industrial demand side, said analysts at CIBC, in a recently published report.

Analysts at UBS, who said that silver lacked its own narrative in 2016, mostly following golds lead, also see the metals industrial component gaining momentum next year.

We think silver's links to economic activity via its industrial-demand component should help its relative performance to gold during periods when markets are optimistic about growth and risk, the analysts said in a recent report.

Analysts at HSBC said in their outlook report that they see silver averaging $18.75 an ounce in 2017. Commodity analysts at Commerzbank said that they see silver ending next year around $19 and averaging around $18.

UBS said that they see prices averaging $18.80 an ounce next year. While most analysts have lowered their forecasts for next year, prices are higher than current prices with February silver futures last trading at $15.995 an ounce.

We believe silver prices will be better bid later in 2017. We also base our expectations on solid fundamentals, as mine supply is likely to contract while industrial and jewelry demand should increase, the analysts at HSBC said.

One particular sector in which HSBC analysts see potential is solar power, as costs decline and energy demand increases.

We look for a further 8moz increase in PV consumption in 2017 to 91moz. We anticipate steady increases well into the next decade and consider PV and other solar power applications an important new source of silver consumption, they said.

Does Supply-Demand Picture Favor Higher Silver Prices?

HSBC, quoting market sources, said it is expecting to see total silver demand hit 1.159 billion ounces in 2017, up slightly from 1.148 billion ounces that are expected to be consumed this year. At the same time, total silver supplies are expected to continue to fall, reaching 1.027 billion ounces, down from 1.032 billion ounces produced this year. In total HSBC expects the silver market to see a supply deficit of 132 million ounces; this would be the fifth consecutive deficit for the silver market.

However, not all analysts are convinced that a market imbalance next year will be a major positive for the market.

While silver is expected to see further supply deficits next year, analysts at Commerzbank said that they expect a market shortfall will only have a limited impact on the prices, adding that they see only modest demand for the metal next year.

Analysts at the German bank said that they expect to see a total market deficit of around 50 million ounces. This would be the smallest deficit since the last surplus year of 2012, they said.

Commerzbank analysts also said that they expect to see lackluster demand in industrial usage because there is a growing trend of thrifting in the industrial sector, which means companies are finding ways to use less metal in their electrical components.

The analysts said that they expect that next year, industrial demand will fall to its lowest level since 2009.

Commerzbank said that they think the market will have to see increased investor demand in exchange-traded products and physical demand for jewelry and bullion coins to push prices back above $20 an ounce in 2017.

By Neils Christensen of Kitco News; nchristensen@kitco.com

Follow @Neils_C
* Customs officials to be given more powers to seize money

* EU mulls terrorist finance tracking programme

* Proposals make criminal assets easier to confiscate

(adds plans on tighter controls on financial transfers)

By Francesco Guarascio

BRUSSELS, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed tightening controls on cash and precious metals transfers from outside the EU on Wednesday, in a bid to shut down one route for funding of militant attacks on the continent.

The move follows Monday's attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, where 12 people were killed as a truck ploughed into a crowd. It is part of an EU "action plan against terrorist financing" unveiled after the bombings and shootings in Paris in November 2015.

Under the new proposals, customs officials in European Union states can step up checks on cash and prepaid payment cards sent by post or in freight shipments.

Authorities will also be able to seize cash or precious metals carried by suspect individuals entering the EU.

People carrying more than 10,000 euros ($10,400) in cash already have to declare this at customs when entering the EU. The new rules would allow authorities to seize money below that threshold "where there are suspicions of criminal activity," the EU executive commission said in a note.

EU officials said some of the recent attacks in Europe were carried out with limited funds, sometimes sent from outside the EU by criminal networks.

The Commission is also considering whether to set up an EU-focussed "terrorist finance tracking programme" along the lines of the U.S.-EU TFTP, which has long been opposed by EU lawmakers and privacy campaigners because it allows widespread checks on consumers' bank transfers.

"There are a lots of new ways of transferring money and not all of those are covered in the EU-US scheme," security commissioner Julian King told a news conference in Brussels. He said the Commission will study the impact of a possible EU programme and "report back by next summer."

The Commission is also proposing common rules for the 28 EU countries on freezing "terrorists' financial resources" and on confiscating assets even from those thought to be connected to criminals.

Brussels also wants EU states to apply minimum common rules on money laundering, to avoid criminals exploiting differences between different countries.

Security forces across the bloc would also be able to exchange information more effectively under a planned review of the European system for sharing information.

The proposals must be approved by EU states and the European Parliament to become law.

The plan complements Commission proposals after the Paris attacks to tighten controls on virtual currencies such as bitcoin, and prepaid cards, which French authorities said were used to fund the bombings.

EU states backed these proposals on Tuesday. Under the deal, which still needs European Parliament approval, holders of prepaid cards would have to show some form of identity when they make payments of 150 euros or more. ($1 = 0.9624 euros)

(Editing by Hugh Lawson)
The Washington Post reports:

President-elect Donald Trump has named Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) as his director of the Office of Management and Budget, signaling his intent to slash spending and address the deficit as president. Mulvaney, 49, was elected to Congress in 2010 in the wave that brought a cohort of younger, staunchly conservative members into the House. Mulvaney quickly staked out ground as one of Congresss most outspoken fiscal hawks  playing a key role in the 2011 showdown between President Obama and House Republicans that ended in the passage of strict budget caps. He has been an advocate for spending cuts, often taking on his own party to push for more aggressive curbs to government spending.

Trumps policies were to massively increase spending but he has appointed as head of OMB someone who wants to greatly curb spending.

The federal deficits blew out under both GWB and Obama and is unsustainably high. Eventually they need to get back into surplus where tax revenue matches or exceeds spending. Mulvaney may be the person who can help do that.

Mulvaney is also an advocate of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.

Trump could push for that along with term limits.

Among Mulvaneys chief duties will be overseeing the most dramatic overhaul of the nations tax code since President Ronald Reagan. Trump has pledged to streamline the process for individual households and slash the rate for corporations from 35 percent to 15 percent. The changes are a central component of the administrations promise to boost economic growth to 4 percent or higher, a message that resonated with voters still bruised by the Great Recession but that many economists say is unsustainable. In addition, Trump has said that stronger growth would mean his tax proposal would not contribute to the national debt, and he has vowed not to cut expensive but popular entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. But experts have been skeptical of those claims, and Mulvaney would be responsible for reconciling the numbers.

Trumps numbers are nonsense. if Mulvaney can find a way through Trumps rhetoric to actually eliminate the deficit, that would be a great thing.

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Considering that the Rev. Vallejo Balda has already served more than half of the sentence, the Holy Father Francis has given him the benefit of conditional release.  It is a measure of clemency which allows him to regain freedom. The penalty is not resolved, but he can enjoy the benefit of parole.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis has granted early release to a Spanish priest who was sentenced to 18 months in jail by a Vatican court for leaking confidential information to journalists.Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda was sentenced in August for stealing and passing Vatican documents to two Italian journalists in the so-called Vatileaks 2 case.In a brief statement released late Tuesday (Dec. 20), the Vatican said:Vallejo Balda was to be released from prison Tuesday and have no further employment in the Holy See. He will return to his home diocese in Spain.Since his arrest in 2015, the monsignor has been in custody in a Vatican jail, though he later transferred to another Vatican property.The first Vatileaks trial led to the conviction, and then pardon, of Paolo Gabriele, the former butler of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI found guilty of leaking private documents that exposed fierce infighting and political intrigue inside the Vatican.Vallejo Balda and co-defendant Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui  members of the Vaticans now-defunct financial commission  were both found guilty in the Vatileaks 2 trial.Chaouqui got a suspended term of 10 months. Their aide Nicola Maio was acquitted, while the Vatican court said it did not have jurisdiction over the two journalists named in the case, Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi, who were both cleared.(Josephine McKenna is RNS Vatican correspondent)
WDVX Tennessee Shines host Paige Travis leaves show









Paige Travis, host of the WDVX Tennessee Shines Radio Show since its rebirth in 2012 is moving on. Her final show as host of Tennessee Shines will be tonight, December 21, at Boyds Jig & Reel with musical guests The Young Fables.



Travis has taken a full-time job in the Communications Department of the City of Knoxville. Recently appointed WDVX program director Katie Cauthen will oversee booking and anchor the show along with guest hosts who curate the evenings program. We appreciate the incredible music and performers Paige has brought to the show, many of them emerging artists that appear at bigger venues soon after a stop at Tennessee Shines. We wish Paige the best of luck in her new role with the City, said Cauthen.



The weekly show will take a holiday break and return Wednesday, January 4, with Matt Woods as the first performer of 2017 at Boyds Jig and Reel in Knoxvilles Old City.



The station celebrates twenty years on the air in 2017. WDVX is a listener supported radio station popular throughout the world for its American roots mix of music that includes Bluegrass, Blues, Folk, Swing, Celtic, Alt-Country, Classic Country, Classic Rock, and more. The station is a service of non-profit organization Cumberland Communities Communications Corporation. Its broadcast on 89.9 FM reaches eleven counties in East Tennessee and Southeast Kentucky, on 102.9 in downtown Knoxville, and 93.9 in the Seymour and Kodak areas and its webcast is heard online around the world at wdvx.com. Published December 21, 2016






Economic impact of inland waterway disruptions: potentially billions

By Tina M. Johnson

DECEMBER 21, 2016, 2:32 p.m.





Aging Locks and Dams Negatively Affecting U.S. Producers and Consumers

UTIA researchers estimate billions of dollars at stake should a lengthy disruption to the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway occur. Photo courtesy USDA. What would happen if a lengthy disruption befell the major mode of transportation of U.S. corn and soybeans? What ramifications would that have on U.S. producers and the national economy? How would that affect U.S. competitiveness in world grain markets?



While hypothetical, these concerns are very real as the barge corridor in question contains a total of 36 locks and dams that have long since surpassed their designed lifespan. This corridor is the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway (UMR-IWW) that serves as the primary corridor for the movement of bulk commodities in the U.S. Corn and soybeans comprise nearly 90 percent of food and farm products on these waterways.



Barge transportation is of great importance to U.S. agriculture because of its comparatively low transport costs as compared to overland modes. However, the inefficiencies of the locks are currently creating additional fuel and labor costs to barge operators, ultimately increasing transportation costs of grain and oilseeds, which means less profit for producers, higher costs for consumers and a handicap when competing in the world market.



U.S. grain and oilseed producers have frequently expressed concerns about navigational inefficiencies of these aging and constrained waterways. Congress authorized the Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP) in 2007 to address the capacity constraints on the most congested segments on these waterways; however, implementation of NESP has been delayed due to a lack of appropriations from Congress.



USDAs Agricultural Marketing Service asked Edward Yu, associate professor at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics (AREC), to lead an economic analysis of the navigability on the UMR-IWW, which is crucial and timely to the U.S. agricultural sector and could help evaluate the need for NESP appropriations. Yu was selected due to his considerable experience and expertise in agricultural transportation economics. Professor Burton C. English and Jamey Menard, research leader, assisted Yu by estimating the economic impacts that would occur as a result of lock closures.



Estimated economic impacts from the study include:



 Aggregate economic activity related to grain barge transportation reduces by $933 million (or 40 percent decrease) if Lock 25 on the upper Mississippi River is closed from September to November during the 2024/25 marketing year. The reduction reaches to nearly $2 billion if the lock is unavailable for the marketing year.



 Decline in economic surplus in the corn and soybean sector due to Lock 25 closure could cause a decrease of more than 7,000 jobs, $1.3 billion in labor income and about $2.4 billion of economic activity (total industry output) annually.



 While similar consequences are anticipated if LaGrange Lock on the Illinois River is closed for a period of time, the degree of magnitude is less.



Resulting study recommendations stress how crucial it is to maintain the navigability of the UMR-IWW system for U.S. food and farm products and the risk of delaying infrastructure improvements, said Yu. Published December 21, 2016
St. Jude names Ellis Neufeld, M.D., Ph.D., clinical director and physician-in-chief

DECEMBER 21, 2016 at 10:59 a.m.









MEMPHIS - Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ellis J. Neufeld, M.D., Ph.D., has been appointed clinical director, physician-in-chief and executive vice president of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.



Neufeld's appointment will begin in March 2017. In this role, Neufeld will oversee the organization's academic clinical departments and all clinical operations. The appointment comes as St. Jude launches a focused effort to increase the number of cancer patients treated at its campus and on protocols around the world.



An internationally respected leader in pediatric hematology, Neufeld comes to St. Jude from Boston, where he served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School for the last 26 years. He was most recently associate chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Neufeld was also medical director at the Boston Hemophilia Center and held the Egan Family Foundation Chair in Transitional Medicine at Harvard Medical School as a professor of pediatrics.



"Dr. Neufeld's leadership and experience will help steer St. Jude clinical operations as we expand our patient care programs, increase the number of patients treated and work to set the standard for pediatric cancer care delivery," said James R. Downing, M.D., St. Jude president and chief executive officer.



Neufeld completed his undergraduate work at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, earning his doctoral degrees at Washington University in St. Louis. He then completed specialty training in pediatrics and medical genetics at Boston Children's Hospital and in pediatric hematology/oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's.



He has worked as a physician-scientist in the laboratory and as a clinical researcher in non-malignant hematology with numerous publications in the areas of hemophilia, thalassemia and immune thrombocytopenia.



St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and cures childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Treatments developed at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude freely shares the breakthroughs it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing and food  because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. To learn more, visit stjude.org or follow the hospital on Twitter and Instagram at @stjuderesearch.



Source: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Published December 21, 2016
Tennesseans not buying new online sales tax regulations

DECEMBER 21, 2016 at 3:05 p.m.





WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/  Tennessee regulators are asking the state legislature for new sales tax collection rules, but the clear majority of Tennesseans think that the current online sales tax collection process is working just fine, per a new NetChoice survey of Tennessee residents*. Further, many think the planned changes could have an adverse effect on Tennessee businesses.



More than 69 percent of Tennesseans think the current online sales tax process  where only companies that have physical presence in the Volunteer State must collect state taxes from residents  is working. However, Tennessee is slated join Alabama and South Dakota as the only states to require out-of-state sellers to collect sales tax  despite U.S. Supreme Court rulings that states may demand tax collection only from businesses that have a physical presence in the state.



"Tennessee tax collectors are poised to extend their taxing powers, leaving the state vulnerable to legal challenges, and exposing Tennessee-based businesses to retaliation from other states," said Carl Szabo, NetChoice policy counsel and a scheduled witness at Thursday's Joint Government Operations Committee hearing. "Ignoring federal doctrine by requiring out-of-state businesses to collect sales tax is a killer for small businesses and a losing cause in the courts."



Only 21 percent of those surveyed were inclined to support Tennessee's proposed new sales tax regulation. Moreover, 56 percent consider the new rule a statewide tax increase, and 46 percent think it will adversely affect Tennessee businesses.



Breaking with the remote sales tax rules established by the 1992 Supreme Court decision in Quill would require small businesses in Tennessee to track and collect sales tax for 12,000 jurisdictions across the country. Giving state tax authorities the power to regulate across state lines would cripple many small businesses  placing more power and market share in the hands of big-box retailers.



The NetChoice survey further revealed that 64 percent of Tennesseans fear the new rule would encourage other states to impose similar obligations. In addition, only 22 percent support laws and rules that allow tax authorities to audit out-of-state businesses.



NetChoice is a trade association representing leading eCommerce businesses working to protect free enterprise and free expression on the Internet.



*The interactive survey of 400 Tennessee residents was conducted by Morar Consulting and has a margin of error of +/- 5% at the 95% confidence level.



Source: NetChoice Published December 21, 2016
Reno residents Linda Hansen and Jackie Taylor have a special delivery to make. With more than a hundred knit hats on their hands, they decided to donate them to Our Center.

The LGBTQ says youth homeless is growing here; that includes their community, and these hats will go a long way this winter.

I love that they are so bright, and not so sad, says Meredith Tanzer as she looks through the colorful hats.

Those are happy colors, he calls them, says Linda.

Just who is he? 89-year-0old Edwin Holcomb, who moved into Graceful Living about seven months ago.

I have a knitting machine, and I would like to bring it with me. So we moved it in right to Graceful Living, and set it up so he could keep busy, says Linda of her first conversation with Edwin.

Holcomb moved to northern Nevada to be closer to his family. Each day you'll find him here, creating hats and other knit items with his machine.

I'm somebody who has to be doing something, says Edwin.

Edwin says his mom taught him to cross stitch as a young boy to keep him from running around. He later picked up knitting, and then in his sixties he was introduced to this machine.

When the sun goes down I have to stop, says Edwin.

The result? Hundreds of hats, including one like this with a long tail.

You can wrap it around your neck and it make a scarf, Edwin says as he shows the hat to us.

Hes also made covered mittens.

These aren't done, Edwin says as he takes the top part of the mitten off to expose his fingers.

He's created countless items. You won't find much black, though. He says its not a happy hue.

When you find out he raised 8 kids and spent 21 years in the Navy you begin to understand where the discipline and drive come from.

It takes him a little more than an hour to make a knit hat; stick around and no doubt he'll have a yarn or two to tell you.
Special prosecutors raided the state-run pension service and the health ministry's pensin division Wednesday as they started a full-fledged probe into an influence-peddling scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her close friend.

The team led by independent counsel Park Young-soo officially began its investigation after 20 days of preparation.

The National Pension Service (NPS), South Korea's largest institutional investor, supported Samsung Group's controversial merger of two affiliates last year.

Samsung is alleged to have received the support in exchange for its donations and favors to Choi and her daughter.

Critics said the deal was intended to enhance group heir-apparent Lee Jae-yong's control of the nation's No. 1 conglomerate. His father Lee Kun-hee has been hospitalized since May 2014 after suffering a heart attack.

The investigation should be completed within 70 days and can be extended for another month upon request from the team. (Yonhap)
Lotte Group Policy Coordination President Hwang Gak-gyu, left, shakes hands with IBM Cognitive Solutions General Manager Jay Bellissimo, after signing a business agreement at Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul, Wednesday.

/ Courtesy of Lotte Group



By Park Jae-hyuk

Shoppers will soon be able to make better purchases at Lotte Department Store and Lotte's other affiliates with advice from an IBM Watson artificial intelligence (AI) system, according to Lotte Group Wednesday.

Korea's top retail company said it signed a contract with IBM Korea to provide customers with personalized services, credible information and professional advice through data analysis by Watson's cognitive computing technology.

A chatbot application based on Watson will analyze trends shown on news and social media, as well as customers' personal data, so customers do not need to search for products by themselves to make an optimal choice.

Lotte plans to make Watson interact with customers and to offer shopping information, as most offline store customers prefer to find the goods without the help of clerks.

According to Lotte, the artificial intelligence-based chatbot will also help customers find the nearest stores and receive purchased goods via online delivery services.

Lotte said it will use Watson to analyze market data and product information in confectionary and food businesses as well, especially when they develop new products.

The group said Lotte Data Communication Company will build a system to operate the AI-based platform and Lotte Members will analyze data.

Using the new IT system, Lotte aims to integrate its overall businesses within five years.
The head of parliament's foreign relations committee Ahmed Said said the meeting will also focus on foreign minister Sameh Shoukry's recent visit to the US

Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry will discuss on Thursday in a meeting with the heads of four parliamentary committees Egypt's relations with Saudi Arabia after Saudi officials visited Ethiopias Grand Renaissance Dam, which is being built on a tributary to Egypts Nile River.

The meeting will include the head of parliament's Foreign Relations Committee Ahmed Said, the head of the Arab Affairs Committee Saad El-Gammal, the head of the African Relations Committee Mostafa El-Guindi, and the head of the National Security Committee Kamal Amer.

Said told reporters on Wednesday that the heads of the four parliamentary committees wish to ask minister Shoukry some questions about Egypt's foreign policy in general, and relations with Saudi Arabia and the United States in particular.

Foreign minister Sameh Soukry insists that relations with Saudi Arabia are good, but most MPs disagree and want to ask questions in this respect, said Said.

A recent visit to Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam by an advisor to Saudi Arabia's King Salman has left MPs wondering why Saudi Arabia is showing interest in a dam that might cause harm to Egypt's annual revenue of Nile water.

In a meeting with parliament's human rights committee on Tuesday, deputy foreign minister Khaled Youssri told MPs that the foreign ministry does not have information on whether there is economic cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia.

We are closely following what is going on around us, but we do not have information on whether there will be any joint projects between Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia.

Said said that MPs also want to discuss the result of minister Shoukrys recent visit to the US, where he met there with vice president-elect Mike Pence and a number of US members of Congress.

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Shin Won-sop, Korea Forest Service minster



By Lee Hyo-sik

The Korea Forest Service (KFS) will make the best use of the World Forestry Congress in 2021 to showcase its advanced knowhow and expertise in forest restoration and management, the head of the state-run agency said Wednesday.

In an interview with The Korea Times, KFS Minister Shin Won-sop said that during the event, the company will announce its policy blueprint, and introduce diverse steps to share its knowledge and knowhow with developing countries to help them more effectively manage forest resources.

"The 15th World Forestry Congress will serve as a good opportunity for us to make our presence known on the global stage," Shin said. "The KFS will tell the world how it has successfully restored Korea's war-ravaged forests over the past seven decades and how eager it is to bolster international cooperation with its counterparts."

On Dec. 6, Korea was chosen as a host nation for the largest and most significant gathering of forestry experts across the globe.

The World Forestry Congress, which has been held every six years since 1926, is administered by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. It has served as a forum for the sharing of knowledge and experience regarding the conservation, management and use of the world's forests.

In 2021, the event, which will be held in Seoul, is expected to attract more than 10,000 academics, government officials, corporate executives and environmental activists from 160 countries.

"The World Forestry Congress 2021 is significant in that it will be held in the Asia-Pacific region for the first time in 48 years. Only two Asian countries  India in 1954 and Indonesia in 1978  have previously hosted the event," Shin said. "Given this significance, KFS will spare no effort to make the upcoming meeting the most successful one in its history."

In cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government agencies, KFS submitted a bid to the Rome-based FAO in April. Korea had initially competed with Italy, Russia and Peru, but the three countries dropped out of the race as Asia's fourth-largest economy garnered overwhelming support from FAO members, particularly those in Asia and Africa, according to Shin.

"Many developing countries were impressed by Korea's success in turning its land green again following the 1950-53 Korean War. This has served as a valuable lesson for them," the minister said. "After all our competitors had given up their bids, Korea was chosen as the host nation without a vote."

The KFS will begin work to host the congress in 2018, according to Shin, who said it will take all possible measures to promote the gathering at home and abroad.

"Through the meeting, Korea can learn how advanced nations have added value to forest resources, turning them into a tourist attraction. But we will focus more on sharing our knowhow with developing countries that are in desperate need to restore and manage their forests," he said. "We will sign multiple cooperation agreements with our counterparts and find ways of bolstering post-meeting exchanges."
Officials check a flight data board at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in Sejong City, Wednesday, a day before Korean Air pilots are due to go on strike. The Korean Air Pilot Union said its members will stage a 10-day walkout through Dec. 31, in a bid to force the company to accept its demands. / Yonhap



By Park Jae-hyuk

About 180 Korean Air pilots will go on a 10-day strike today, calling for a 29 percent wage hike, the Korean Air Pilots Union said Wednesday.

It is the first walkout by the union since December 2005 when Korean Air cancelled more than 1,000 flights and suffered more than 200 billion won ($167 million) in losses in just four days.

The country's largest airliner cancelled 148 flights this time, including 12 cargo flights.

Despite the strike, the company said it will maintain an operation rate of 97 percent for international flights, 90 percent for flights to Jeju and 72 percent for other domestic flights.

Korean Air has halted 24 international flights departing from Incheon International Airport. Their destinations include Narita and Osaka in Japan, Hong Kong, China, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and cities in Saudi Arabia.

Other international flights bound for cities in America, Europe, Oceania and Southeast Asia will operate as usual. The air carrier has also grounded 112 domestic flights connecting airports at Gimhae, Ulsan, Yeosu, Jeju and Gimpo.

According to the company, passengers who booked the cancelled flights will be offered alternative ones or get refunds.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it will send inspectors to Incheon and Gimpo airports to check the company's safety measures, including rest time and pilot's qualifications

Pilots belonging to the union are demanding a 29 percent increase in wages, while the company argued the pilots could not demand more than the 1.9 percent agreement between the company and the general employee union.

"The pilots' demands are nonsense, as Hanjin Group has sustained losses for years," an official of Korean Air complained. "They want an increase which amounts to almost the same as the annual wage of a general employee."

Korean Air pilots earn an average of 150 million won in wages.

Rapid growth of Chinese airlines is one of the biggest reasons pilots are demanding higher salaries. As more Chinese airlines need expert pilots, most of them offer about 250 to 350 million won in annual salaries to Korean pilots.

Pilots, however, claim that their strike is due to their disappointment with the company, rather than the wage issue.

"Many pilots are disappointed with the owner family's misconduct," a Korean Air pilot said. "Although Chinese firms offer higher salaries, it is still difficult for most pilots to decide to move to other countries, as they have lived in Korea more than 30 years."

However, critics claimed that most pilots hesitate to leave Korea because Chinese airlines' welfare incentives are poorer than Korean airlines and most pilots who work for Chinese airlines are 3-year contract workers.

Korean Air said the company is still in negotiation with the union and are trying to come to an agreement.

According to Daishin Securities, the strike will cut the company's sales by 4 percent and 10 billion won of operating profits.
By Kim Jae-kyoung



Russia is expected to play a bigger role in controlling North Korea's nuclear brinkmanship as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump put ExxonMobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson at the helm of the State Department.



Trump's choice of Tillerson, the 64-year-old Texas oilman with close ties to Russia, indicates that the billionaire investor will take a new approach to foreign policy, including that related to the Korean Peninsula.



"We can be pretty sure new thinking will go on in Washington. Russia, for example, might become more important, and China less so," William Brown, a professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, said.



He pointed out that Russia was a key contributor to the North Korean missile and nuclear programs and might be able to play a more constructive role in stopping it.



Tillerson has been doing business in Russia for the last two decades and knows Russia's leadership well. In 2013, he received the Order of Friendship from Russian President Vladimir Putin for his work brokering a deal between ExxonMobil and the state-owned Russian oil giant Rosneft.



"The message (of Tillerson's nomination) to me is that Trump will focus on business over ideology and that he wants strong managers in his cabinet," he added. " "In this case not just to manage our foreign relations but also the State Department itself," he added."



Trump said he sees Tillerson's relations with Russia as a selling point. "The thing I like best about Tillerson is that he has vast experience at dealing successfully with all types of foreign governments," Trump tweeted Tuesday after the nomination.



A week before the Tillerson nomination, Trump appointed Mad Dog James Mattis as secretary of defense.He also tapped hardliners for his national security team. He nominated Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo as CIA director and retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security advisor.



These picks suggest that the Trump administration will continue to maintain solid relations with South Korea while getting tougher on North Korea.



"Mattis is known to be a strong alliance person so he no doubt will work to make sure the U.S.-Korea alliance remains in good shape and he has the kind of character that will cause Kim Jung-un to take notice," Brown said.



"Pompeo will immediately have his work cut out for him to try to get U.S. intelligence to get a better handle on North Korean plans, objectives and vulnerabilities," he added. "Flynn has the unenviable task of creating teamwork while devising new ways to deal with Pyongyang."



Seeking practical diplomacy, Trump's administration is likely to come up with more practical strategy toward both South and North Korea for tangible outcomes.



Trump is likely to call for changes in key military deals with South Korea, including cost-sharing arrangements for U.S. troops. On Pyongyang, his team may seek to mark the shift in policy strategy from "strategic patience" to "tactical impatience."



However, it is likely that the Korea issue could be put on the back burner for a while because most of Trump's cabinet members are new to Korea's problems.



"Both Trump and Tillerson are businessmen with no foreign policy background. They are considered outsiders," a political analyst in Singapore said, asking not to be named.



"Most of his members at the defense and security team have expertise and experience in relations with the Middle East, Europe and Russia," he added.



Seoul is advised to take the initiative in maintaining its alliance with Washington by showing a willingness to discuss key issues raised by Trump so that it cannot be left out of the U.S. policy review process that is bound to be taking place over the next few months.



"It needs to make sure it does not bring up what a new administration will see as petty issues that don't involve us strategically," Brown said. "Pyongyang needs to have Trump's undivided attention, at least for a while."



He pointed out that the U.S. Korea alliance and the U.S. Korea Free Trade Agreement are widely considered in Washington as the best of both.



"I'd suggest Seoul take the initiative in showing a willingness to improve and modernize both of these institutions, giving Trump some quick wins that he won't soon forget," he said.



"The wins can be advantageous to Korea as well, as in coming up with new plans to significantly reorient the alliance to better defend against nuclear weapons."




The "Klimt Inside" exhibition is held at the S-Factory in Seongsu-dong, Seoul. / Courtesy of Hash Company



By Yun Suh-young

Famous Viennese artist Gustav Klimt's works are being presented in modern media art in Seoul.

The "Klimt Inside" exhibition at S-Factory in Seongsu-dong, eastern Seoul, takes a new approach to introducing Klimt's artwork, mixing it with electronic music and lighting.

The exhibition is divided into six sections: End of Century, Ver Sacrum, Women, Stoclet Frieze, Later Colors and Kiss. Klimt is best known for his fantastical pieces painted in gold, which include "The Kiss" and the "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I."

When entering the exhibition hall, the first exhibit that greets visitors is a black hall with lighting on the carpet showing the philosophers and artists who influenced Klimt in small picture frames moving in sync with the lighting.

The next exhibition shows three paintings  "Philosophy," "Medicine" and "Jurisprudence"  that Klimt was commissioned to create in 1894 to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall at the University of Vienna. These caused a huge shock in the art world of the early 20th century, with Klimt's radical expression of nude women criticized for being pornographic. These paintings are reflected on the walls of the exhibition hall in fractured pieces, moving in sync with the electronic music playing in the background.

The next section is a hall surrounded by three long LED panels covering the walls like a movie theater. They play a video-like media art piece titled "Beethoven Frieze," which was created by Klimt in 1902 to commemorate the composer. The heavenly piece is recreated as visual art, with "Ode to Joy" playing in the background. Watching the piece is like watching a short silent film but with awe at the beautiful golden angels now moving, as if resurrected from the original artwork.

Toward the end is a hall exhibiting paintings of peaceful scenery, which is quite unlike Klimt's style of painting shown previously. This section, called "Later Colors," is dedicated to awe-inspiring landscape paintings that were done during Klimt's annual vacations to the shores of Attersee in Austria.

The final section is "Kiss," showing the world-famous "The Kiss," which is most representative of Klimt's work. The artwork is placed in the middle of a continuing LED light tube. A small LED ball inside the tube moves in continuous circles to represent the eternity of love.

Outside the exhibition, visitors can enter a virtual reality Stoclet Palace to see the dining room decorated with artwork Klimt painted for a wealthy Belgian industrialist.

Exhibition tickets are 12,000 won for adults, 10,000 for students and 8,000 won for children. The exhibition is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. (last admission 7 p.m.) and will run until March 3, 2017, at S-Factory in Seongsu-dong, Seoul. Visit klimtinside.com for more information.
South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun said Wednesday the two Koreas must resume the operation of a joint industrial zone that was shut down in February over Pyongyang's provocations.

"The industrial zone was a symbol of efforts done by the previous administrations to normalize the inter-Korean relationship," Chung said. "It was inappropriate for the government to shut it down suddenly."

It marked a rare occasion for Chung to deliver a direct statement against the polices of President Park Geun-hye.

The complex, some 60 kilometers northwest of Seoul opened in 2004, and had served as a major revenue source for the cash-strapped North. The South Korean companies employed more than 54,000 North Korean workers to produce labor-intensive goods, such as clothes and utensils.

Following North Korea's nuclear test in January, however, South Korea decided to shut it down to prevent cash from flowing to the North, which the government suspects was used to bankroll Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction program.

"We cannot tolerate North Korea's nuclear development, and we need to bring sanctions to the North. But closing down the complex cannot be the key," Chung said. "The business cooperation between the two Koreans must remain intact regardless of the situation." (Yonhap)
/Captured from Richard Marx's Facebook



By Lee Han-soo, Park Si-soo

Popular U.S. rock musician Richard Marx has lashed out at Korean Air for its "ill-equipped" response to an unruly passenger on a plane he was aboard.

He said Korea's flagship airline should be "sanctioned" because crew members were unable to subdue a "psycho" without the help of passengers.

The musician revealed the in-flight trouble on KE480 and the alleged ineptitude of crew members on Tuesday through a Facebook posting and six attached photos.

Calling the crew "ill equipped," Marx posted pictures and video of the disturbance on the flight from Hanoi, Vietnam, to Incheon, South Korea.

















"All the female crew were clueless and not trained as to how to restrain the psycho  and was only subdued when I and a couple of other male passengers intervened," Marx posted. "Korean Air should be sanctioned for not knowing how to handle a situation like this without passenger interference."

He said the chaotic event continued for four hours and the situation peaked when one of the stewardesses had to point a Taser at the passenger to restrain him.

"This went on for FOUR (hours)," wrote Daisy Fuentes, Marx's wife. "I feel horrible for the abuse the staff had to endure but no one was prepared for this. They never fully got control of him."

The passenger was restrained during the flight but broke free and resumed his attack because the restraints were not securely fastened, Marx said.

Korean Air said there was nothing wrong with the crew members' response.

"We played by the rule," the company said. "According to the response protocol, Korean Air's flight attendants have subdued the unruly passenger and tied him up with ropes. The passenger was turned over to the police upon arrival at Incheon Airport."
Police found the body of Lee Soo-hyun, the missing college student, in Han River near Mangwon Hangang Park on Wednesday morning. / Yonhap



By Lee Jin-a

Police on Wednesday found the body of a female university student who was reported missing a week ago.

Divers searching the Han River bed found the body of Lee Soo-hyun, 19, close to Mangwon-dong at 11:15 a.m.

Police believe she lost her balance and fell into the river while walking along the river bank. But an investigation is under way to find the exact cause of her death.

Lee went missing on Dec. 14, on her way home from a party with friends near Hongik University in northern Seoul. People who saw her at the party said she left alone about 10:50 p.m. under the influence of alcohol. CCTV footage captured her walking down the Mangwon Hangang Park underpass at 11:40 p.m.

"The features of the body matched Lee's," police said. "Her parents confirmed this."

The body was found a day after police released her photo and personal details, thinking she could have been kidnapped.
Ex-presidential aide to attend parliamentary hearings

By Jung Min-ho

Woo Byung-woo, former presidential secretary

Former presidential secretary Woo Byung-woo will attend a National Assembly hearing Thursday as a key witness in the corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her confidant Choi Soon-sil.

Woo, who has been missing over the past several weeks presumably to avoid the hearings, will finally stand in front of cameras to answer questions over a barrage of allegations against him, including obstruction of the investigation into the sinking of the ferry Sewol in 2014.

Opposition lawmakers believe he is one of key figures that could solve the mystery behind the "missing seven hours," in which President Park was not seen while hundreds of people were trapped in the sinking ferry. Eventually, 304 people, mostly high school students, were killed.

Woo may not be responsible for the seven hours, but lawmakers believe he certainly is for the situation that followed.

Sources from the prosecution said that he tried to influence their investigation into why the incident occurred. When prosecutors were raiding the Korea Coast Guard (KCG), which failed in its rescue operation attempts, Woo pressured them not to search and seize the computer server in the coast guard's situation room, according to sources.

But the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office pushed ahead with securing the server, which had crucial audio files of phone conversations between the KCG and Cheong Wa Dae.

Woo, who served as presidential secretary for civil affairs from May 2014 until this October, has been accused of abusing his power to protect the presidential office in the aftermath of the ferry disaster.

"His abuse of power shows how Cheong Wa Dae has ignored the law and the Constitution," Ko Yeon-ho, a spokesman of the minor opposition People's Party, said. "Woo, who pressured the prosecution to cover up the government's failure over the Sewol ferry rescue operations, should be arrested and questioned immediately."

Lawmakers also believe he is responsible for the major influence-peddling scandal, saying he either failed in his duties or deliberately ignored them.

Woo's duty was to monitor high-profile officials for corruption, and it is alleged he intentionally disregarded Choi's meddling in state affairs. It is suspected his mother-in-law and Choi were close.

Woo was supposed to be a witness at the Dec. 7 Assembly hearing but refused to show up. He took advantage of a legal loophole, according to which there is no legal measure to forcibly summon a witness.

After politicians offered 13 million won ($11,110) in a bounty to catch him, he said he would attend the next parliamentary hearing.

The Fact, an online news outlet, disclosed pictures of Woo talking with his son, who allegedly received special favors during his military service thanks to his father, and his lawyer at the office of his family business in Seoul, Monday.

Yet much about the allegations against Woo lacks solid evidence to hold him accountable by law. Lawmakers are busy preparing for the crucial face-off. Rep. An Min-suk of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea posted a message on Facebook, asking for "sharp questions" that would help uncover the truth.

Another key witness will be Capt. Cho Yeo-ok, an army nurse who worked at the presidential office at the time of the Sewol accident. Lawmakers believe she might know what Park was doing for the seven hours.

She returned to Korea Monday from Texas, where she is taking a course at an Army hospital, to attend the hearing.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks at a valedictory news conference with Korean correspondents at the U.N. Headquarters in New York, Tuesday. / Yonhap



By Kang Seung-woo

Outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon virtually declared his bid to run for South Korea's presidency, Tuesday.

During a meeting with Korean correspondents at the U.N. headquarters in New York, Ban said he will find ways to use his 10 years of experience at the United Nations for his country  the clearest indication yet of his presidential ambitions.

"If what I have seen, learned and felt while in office for 10 years could help develop Korea, I will not spare myself for the country," Ban said.

"I will decide what and how I will contribute after collecting opinions from many people after I return home. The most important thing is citizens' thoughts."

Ban plans to return home after completing his second term as U.N. chief at the end of this year.

Although Ban did not clearly declare his presidential bid, his words were regarded as a de-facto declaration of his intention to run.

"Although I am 73 (next year), I am prepared to devote myself to the country if my health permits," Ban said.

While the corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her confidant Choi Soon-sil is gripping the nation, Ban said Koreans are frustrated and enraged by the "lack of good governance," and the fault lies with the "system and leadership"  an apparent move to distance him from President Park.

The former foreign minister, who has been talked about as a competitive candidate in next year's presidential election for some time, has been rumored to consider running for the presidency under the banner of the ruling Saenuri Party, with President Park and her loyalists backing him.

However, in the wake of the corruption and influence-peddling scandal that brought about the impeachment of the President, Dec. 9, there seems to be little chance that Ban will join the governing party.

Despite his words, Ban failed to elaborate on with whom he will team up with for his presidential run, but was open to banding together with various political groups.

"It is not possible to do politics by myself and there should be some sort of means and vision, but it is difficult, at this time, to say whom I will work with," said the career diplomat, who has no political base in Korea.

"What I can tell you now is that I plan to return home in mid-January and meet leaders from all walks of life (before my final decision)."

In the domestic political spectrum, Ban, regarded as a conservative figure, is anticipated to form an alliance with breakaway lawmakers from the Saenuri Party, who are at odds with the pro-Park faction, or to align with the second-largest opposition People's Party for the election, currently scheduled for December 2017.

Hours after his press conference, 35 anti-Park lawmakers, including former Chairman Kim Moo-sung and former floor leader Yoo Seong-min, announced they were leaving the Saenuri Party. More lawmakers are expected to join them soon.

People's Party interim leader Kim Dong-cheol welcomed a possible alliance with Ban, saying, "I think he can join us."

Ban was elected as the U.N. chief in 2007, with huge support from former President Roh Moo-hyun, but his recent moves linked to Park loyalists drew a backlash from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, comprised of many of Roh's former aides and followers who denounced him as a traitor.

However, Ban refuted the accusation, dismissing it as a "political offensive."

"It is an insult to me. I cannot accept it," he said.
The Cairo meeting saw a discussion about Iraqi advances against militant forces in the country

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met on Wednesday with Iraq's foreign minister Ibrahim El-Jaafari in Cairo where they discussed the latest developments in Iraq, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

El-Jaafari informed El-Sisi of the latest efforts by Iraqi forces in fighting terrorism and recapturing the city of Mosul from militant forces.

The Iraqi FM also expressed his appreciation for Egypts efforts in the region.

El-Sisi assured the Iraqi official that Egypt is resolute in its support of the Iraqi state, its sovereignty over all Iraqi territories and its efforts to restore security and stability in the country.

President El-Sisi also stressed Egypts rejection of any external interference in Iraqi affairs and attempts to divide the Iraqi people.

The Egyptian leader also praised the efforts of the Iraqi government in fighting terrorism as well as the successful recapturing of Mosul.

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By Kim Bo-eun



The special prosecutor's team investigating the scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye and her confidant Choi Soon-sil began its 70-day probe, Wednesday, starting with raids on the National Pension Service (NPS) and the Ministry of Health and Welfare.



The team led by independent counsel Park Young-soo seized documents from the NPS investment operations division in southern Seoul and the ministry  which the NPS is affiliated with  in Sejong, in relation to allegations that the ministry pressured the NPS to vote for the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries last year.



The NPS is one of the major shareholders of Samsung C&T, a construction and general trading unit of Samsung Group.



It is suspected that the government facilitated the merger, designed to be advantageous for Samsung Group's owner family, in return for the group providing funds for Choi and her daughter, Chung Yoo-ra.



"We conducted the raid to secure evidence of an alleged connection between Samsung's provision of funds to Choi and the NPS's support of the merger," said assistant counsel Lee Kyu-chul.



The raid is an attempt to get evidence for third-party bribery charges against the President and Samsung. Third-party bribery in this case is when a public official (Park) received a request to influence the merger, and in return asked the entity making the request (Samsung) to provide money to the third party (Choi).



The Samsung owner family had a considerable stake in Cheil Industries and the merger was seen as a means of a smooth power transfer from Chairman Lee Kun-hee to his son, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, as the heir could increase his shares in the group.



The merger was allegedly unfavorable for Samsung C&T of which the NPS is a major shareholder. But the NPS voted for the move anyway.



The then-Health and Welfare Minister Moon Hyung-pyo is suspected of having ordered the NPS, whose vote was decisive, to support the controversial merger, citing it was "the will of Cheong Wa Dae."







Choi's daughter faces arrest



Additionally, the counsel's team launched an investigation into Chung, who is staying in Germany, and had an arrest warrant issued for her. It plans to ask the Ministry of Justice to request her extradition to its German counterpart and to cancel her passport.



It is suspected that she gained favors from Ewha Womans University in admissions and grading. Chung got good scores although she did not take tests and missed classes, according to the Ministry of Education.



The team questioned Choi's secretary, a woman in her 20s whose name was withheld. It is suspected that the secretary took tests and attended classes on behalf of Chung.



A local cable news channel reported that the secretary handed over shopping bags on behalf of Choi to faculty at Ewha. It is suspected the bags may have contained cash or other presents.



Earlier at the National Assembly hearing last week, Ewha professors denied being requested to grant Chung favors, saying they did not receive anything from Choi.




By Jun Ji-hye



The United States has reaffirmed its commitment to regularly deploying its strategic weapons, such as nuclear-capable bombers, in South Korea for better defense against North Korean threats, officials here said Wednesday.



The comment came after the inaugural meeting of the allies' Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group (EDSCG) in Washington, Tuesday.



The establishment of the EDSCG was reached at the talks in October between defense and foreign affairs chiefs of the two nations in a bid to step up deterrence against Pyongyang.



In the inaugural meeting, Seoul's Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam and Deputy Minister for Defense Policy Yoo Jeh-seung met with U.S. Acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas Countryman and Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Shear.



"In response to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, the officials reaffirmed the commitment of the U.S. to regularly deploy U.S. strategic assets for the defense of the Republic of Korea," the allies said in their joint statement following the talks.



The statement added that the two sides will also "enhance such measures and identify new or additional steps to strengthen deterrence."



Extended deterrence refers to Washington's stated commitment to defend its ally by mobilizing all military capabilities  nuclear and conventional  to deal with the North's aggression and provocations.



The U.S. has provided extended deterrence or a "nuclear umbrella" to South Korea after withdrawing nuclear weapons from the peninsula following the 1991 inter-Korean denuclearization declaration.



"The U.S. in 2016 demonstrated its commitment and resolve to the ROK by exercising extended deterrence through measures to enhance missile defense capabilities and through clear demonstration of the U.S. nuclear triad," the statement said, referring to Washington's dispatch of multiple B-52 strategic bombers to South Korea, as well as Seoul officials' observation of the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile test-fire.



The U.S. also noted that South Korean officials went on board its nuclear-powered submarine equipped with ballistic missiles.



For his part, Vice Foreign Minister Lim later said such U.S. commitments will remain steadfast even after the upcoming administration change in Washington.



"Even after the Trump administration takes office, I expect the EDSCG will continue on," Lim told reporters following the talks. "The latest meeting played a role in bridging the Obama administration with the Trump administration."




Former Saenuri Party floor leader Rep. Yoo Seong-min, left, and former party leader Rep. Kim Moo-sung, second from left, leave a press conference at the National Assembly with fellow Saenuri lawmakers, Wednesday. Thirty-four lawmakers aligned against President Park Geun-hye announced they will leave the party Dec. 27. / Yonhap



More expected to quit ruling party

By Kim Hyo-jin

Thirty-five Saenuri Party lawmakers declared Wednesday they will leave the party Dec. 27, after criticizing the party's Assemblymen loyal to President Park Geun-hye.

They will establish a new conservative party, which will usher in a four-party system for the first time in 26 years. The group said more ruling party lawmakers are considering joining them.

The move will see the number of Saenuri Party lawmakers fall from 128 to 93, and make it the second largest party in the National Assembly behind the 121-member main opposition Democratic Party of Korea.

The division of the ruling party is expected to reshape the 2017 presidential race as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to declare his bid next month after completing his U.N. term.

"I tried to seek a reform and a revolution of the conservative bloc in the Saenuri Party but I have reached the conclusion that the goal is impossible," Rep. Yoo Seong-min, a former party floor leader, told reporters after a meeting of the anti-Park lawmakers.

"To establish a proud and reliable conservative party, we decided to leave."

Thirty-three lawmakers met earlier in the day to formulate the plan to quit the party next week.

Their move came after Park loyalists refused to accept Yoo as an interim leader of the party.

The rival factions have been at loggerheads over party hegemony and how to renew the party in the fallout of the corruption scandal involving the President.

The anti-Park faction called on the pro-Park lawmakers to step aside from frontline party politics to take responsibility for their support for her failed government.

It earlier proposed that Yoo should head an emergency planning committee, the party's interim leadership, and be given full authority for reform measures.












Former Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) leader Moon Jae-in, the leading presidential hopeful, greets reporters ahead of a meeting at a restaurant on Yeouido, southern Seoul, Wednesday. The DPK labeled outgoing U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon as an "opportunist," after Ban virtually declared his presidential bid. / Yonhap



He may join hands with Park dissenters, People's Party or both

By Jun Ji-hye

After the outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon virtually declared his bid for the South Korean presidency, speculation is rampant about which party he will select.

Ban has yet to clarify which party he will join, though it had been believed he is backed by President Park Geun-hye and her loyalists as the ruling Saenuri Party's candidate.

However, after Park was impeached by the National Assembly, Dec. 9, the U.N. chief has made critical comments about her, apparently distancing himself from the scandal-ridden leader and the pro-Park faction. Observers say there is little possibility of him joining the Saenuri Party.

Two plausible possibilities are now being raised  one is of Ban joining a new conservative party expected to be set up by Park dissenters from the Saenuri Party, and the other is of him joining the second largest opposition People's Party.

The new party would be set up by 35 lawmakers, including Reps. Yoo Seong-min and Kim Moo-sung, who are also considered possible contenders for the 2017 presidential race.

Even before the President's impeachment, they had been at odds with Park and her followers who dominated the Saenuri Party.

After returning home in mid-January, Ban could possibly join forces with these lawmakers.












Acting president, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, left, bows to National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun as they shake hands ahead of a parliamentary interpellation session, Wednesday. / Yonhap



By Kang Seung-woo

Acting president Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn dismissed criticism that he is an "accomplice" in the corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye, Wednesday.

"I feel greatly responsible for failing to successfully aid the President," Hwang said during a parliamentary interpellation session.

"However, I do not agree with the candlelit rallies claiming that I am an accomplice in the scandal. Such accusations are wrong."

Hwang, who took over after President Park was impeached on Dec. 9, attended the National Assembly session for the second straight day  a move to defuse growing tensions with opposition parties over his leadership role.

Hwang's remarks came as the nationwide massive street protests have called for Hwang to step down immediately, taking responsibility for the worst political scandal in the nation's history, in which Park allowed her friend Choi Soon-sil to meddle in state affairs for her personal interests.

"Taking responsibility is one thing, becoming an accomplice is another," he said.

Given that Hwang has fully supported the Park administration from its inauguration in February 2013, he is at the center of disputes over whether he is qualified to take over.

As justice minister, Hwang played a key role in disbanding the far-left Unified Progressive Party, critical of President Park, in 2014, while "effectively" wrapping up the case regarding the National Intelligence Service's intervention in the 2012 presidential election, where President Park won.

In June 2015, he was promoted to prime minister.

Hwang has actively engaged in a series of state affairs ranging from economic policy to public safety to national defense, but the opposition parties are trying to tame the increasingly assertive acting president, claiming his role should be kept to a minimum to maintain the status quo.

The latest case over which Hwang and the opposition bloc locked horns was the appointment of the Korea Racing Authority CEO, Monday.

"In order to plug an administrative vacuum, my position is that officials must be appointed to posts that become or will become vacant soon," he said, adding that he is well aware of the opposition's criticism on the issue.

The acting head of state made it clear that the Park administration's plan to deploy a U.S. terminal high altitude area defense (THAAD) battery will remain unchanged. Since Park's impeachment, opposition lawmakers have increasingly called for the reconsideration of such a controversial policy.

"Amid unprecedentedly growing provocations and threats from North Korea, we need to seek all means to deter them. In that respect, we should proceed with the deployment plan swiftly," he said.
This is the fifth in a series of interviews with chefs at Michelin star-awarded restaurants in Korea  ED.

By Yun Suh-young

Chef Lee Jun

/ Korea Times photo by Yun Suh-young

Three years ago in March 2013 this reporter first interviewed chef Lee Jun, who at the time was running a small pop-up pasta restaurant in an alleyway in Sinsa-dong, southern Seoul.

Lee wasn't well-known at the time, except maybe among aspiring students who had read his books about his journey toward becoming a chef, including the records of his days at the Culinary Institute of America.

Three years later, we met again, this time at the Michelin one-starred restaurant "Soigne," tucked away in a quiet residential neighborhood in Banpo-dong, southern Seoul. Lee is the owner-chef of Soigne which has become a foodie's hot go-to destination now. Soigne was opened just six months after Lee ended his experiment with his second pop-up store, Jun the Pasta, in June, 2013. Three years after its opening, Soigne was awarded with a star last month by the Michelin Guide's first Seoul edition.

"The pop-ups were experiments to ultimately open Soigne," said Lee during an interview with The Korea Times last week. The name Soigne comes from the French word which means "elegantly done." It has been Lee's nickname since culinary school.

"Soigne was my goal, the reason for all of my past experiments. It became a larger-scale experiment."

Soigne is designed in a format that is rare in Seoul. It has a square-shaped bar type sitting area where customers can interact with chefs and see them cooking inside.

"I want my customers to take away a unique experience from this restaurant. If a chef just serves food and the customer eats and leaves, then the chef becomes nothing but a cooking machine. But that's not what I want. I want my chefs to be spotlighted for creating the dishes that are presented to the customers. So I lowered the barrier between the chef and the customer by designing it this way," said Lee.

"It's the people that matter. Then the customers will trust us and come even when the food changes. That's important because our food changes every three months."

Lee's cuisine is well known for its exquisite storytelling. The concept changes seasonally and the theme is chosen based on whatever Lee is inspired by at the time.

"The baseline is the same though. The structure, combination and proportions may differ, but in the end, there's a story that is told through the dish. My techniques are simple as well because I focus more on harmony. I leave unnecessary garnish out to make it simple but harmonious."

The most difficult part of being an owner-chef was finding the balance between what the customers want and what he wants to deliver as a chef.

"About 80 percent of the time, I do what I want to do. But it's always a dilemma trying to weigh how much I should give in to the customers. For instance, what may be tasty to them may not be what I want to express. Some things can be experimental and philosophical but not exactly scrumptious. When I want to express something but I know customers won't hail over it, that's when I wonder whether I should do it."

Lee is a challenger, experimenter and pioneer in the way he drives his restaurant and presents his cuisine. He strives to be different and to be the first  doing things that others haven't done before. And that's where he finds meaning.

"Creating a new category that hasn't existed before is important. It sets a great example to others who fear to do it. Creating something for people to enjoy when they couldn't because they didn't know it existed, is huge  like the impact Apple had on us. I think we should sow when we're young," he said.

"When I was doing pop-up restaurants, no one did it. So I received the spotlight. When I opened Soigne, there weren't many dining places like this. So again, I received attention. I think I was lucky and was riding the wave at the right time."

Part of the challenge was to open in a secluded area which was hard to find. Lee chose it because it was cheap, not thinking about the location itself.

"I became numb to the fear of not having customers since I was doing pop-ups. I just thought something would happen. It may have sounded reckless at the time, but now that I come to think of it, worrying about the location distances you from the fundamentals of cooking," he said.

"I didn't promote through the media. News was spread by word-of-mouth by residents in the community. I think there's a strong community in this neighborhood. It spreads fast."

The bitter reality he faced after becoming an owner-chef was seeing how influential money and power can be.

"It's true that once you're in a management position, you have to worry about finance. Those with money and power are the ones who spend at a fine dining restaurant like this because the culinary scene isn't ripe here yet. But these are not the type of people I want as customers," Lee said.

"I really hope only the people who appreciate and know the value of our cuisine will come to our restaurant. I don't want to think of this as a restaurant. I think we're artists. And artists constantly create and experiment. Selling a steady menu and being afraid of change means you've already become a businessman. I think I'm less of that and more of an artist."

Lee's dream is to become a symbol  a symbol of hope and of success to young aspiring chefs who are not from prestigious or wealthy backgrounds.

"I don't have any connections in Seoul. My family isn't rich. I never succumbed to commercialism. But I came all the way here by following and standing firm in what I believed was right. I feel proud," he said.

"I want to set a precedent to future generations, that if I did it anyone can. You don't have to negotiate with money and power to succeed. So many young people complain about their situations saying 'I can't do it because of this' or 'that person is more advantaged because of that.' But I want to tell them that with hard work and passion, they can do it. But that passion has to be intelligent, not irresponsible."

Lee, who opened "Doughroom," a restaurant specializing in pasta, last year, plans to open a third but this time a more casual one, by next month at the earliest.

"It will be something of a pop-up. It will be a chicken project. I started off with pop-up and I'm going back to pop-up: fine dining, middle dining then back to casual."

Then he has other sparkling ideas like collaborating with different genres.

"I don't know when, but if I do, I want to collaborate with a barista or a musician. It'd be difficult but it will be meaningful. I want to do something I haven't done before."
By Kyung Moon Hwang





The word "revolution" is being thrown around a lot these days, in reference to the massive street demonstrations ("candlelight revolution"), to the unprecedented reach of investigative journalism concerning the President, or to what might happen if the Constitutional Court overturns the impeachment. Indeed the label of "revolution" has been applied to many moments in the country's history, but one could argue that South Korea actually has not undergone a genuine revolution.

A revolution brings about an abrupt overturning of the social order, an upending of the manner by which privilege (political, economic, or otherwise) is exercised, and the overthrow of the ruling group(s) that long enjoyed such advantages. In this sense, the modern world has witnessed many definitive revolutions, including the French Revolution of 1789, anti-colonial revolutions that established nation states in the Americas, and the communist revolutions of the 20th century beginning with Russia in 1917. The latter group also includes North Korea's revolution in the 1940s and 1950s and two revolutions in China: the communist victory over the nationalists in 1949 and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.

As the Chinese and North Korean examples suggest, such revolutions have had a mostly dismal record. Often, the popular rage that fueled the revolution led to excesses on the other side, including mass murder, starvation or totalitarian dictatorship. This is also why wars and brutal violence have usually accompanied revolutions.

In this regard, claims of "revolution" in Korea put forth by historical actors or history books seem exaggerated, including references to the March First Movement against Japanese rule in 1919, the "April Student Revolution" of 1960, or the "Military Revolution" of 1961. And neither the democratization of 1987 nor the industrial and digital revolutions in the economy appear to have produced a firmly equitable social order.

These transitions, however, did contribute to the gradual progression in modern Korea toward greater social equality and mobility, a process that was nevertheless marked by setbacks as well as advances. Urgent domestic reforms in response to rebellions in the late 19th century, a reflection of accumulating social injustices, proved insufficient to save the Joseon Kingdom from the forces of imperialism. The ensuing period of Japanese occupation, beginning in 1910, accelerated some of the earlier liberalizing trends but also instituted a military dictatorship that cultivated social privileges dependent on colonial rule.

Following the 1945 liberation, which significantly did not result from the Koreans' own efforts, however noble they may have been, in South Korea the elites who arose under foreign occupation mostly stayed in their dominant positions. The circumstances of the Cold War made this possible, but the Korean War, another byproduct of the Cold War, also loosened the firm grip of landed wealth in the countryside, an enormous change.

Thereafter, urbanization and universal access to education further hastened social renovation, enough to help drive the overthrow of Syngman Rhee's dictatorship in 1960. This student-led effort was branded a "revolution" at the time, and it very well could have generated revolutionary developments, particularly in democratization.

But we will never know, because the new democratic system was quickly ousted by a military coup in 1961. As with strongmen who took power around the modern world, this coup's leaders branded their deed "revolutionary." But it changed neither the basically autocratic nature of the political system nor the means, reliant heavily on favoritism and corruption, by which certain groups of people traditionally gained and protected their favored standing.

Indeed, family-run conglomerates that grew enormously through state patronage came to dominate the economy and extended the cultures of exploitation and polarization. On the other hand, urbanization, growth in compulsory education, and increasing exposure to the outside world continued apace, and in combination with the material outcomes of industrialization, they inspired a popular determination to achieve democracy.

The democratization of 1987, the near-revolutionary result of unprecedented street protests, could have been the signal moment of South Korean history. It represented a more substantial, second attempt at democracy, after the brief chance in 1960-61, but perhaps it could not have been the final one.

This is because, as subsequent developments made clear, political democratization did not necessarily produce economic democratization. Even the financial crisis of 1997, which resulted in the breakup of many big conglomerates and the restructuring of others, failed to fundamentally weaken the hold of big business or even its close integration with the state.

These structural factors, along with deeply ingrained mentalities and habits that attend them, are difficult to overcome. Such is the somber reality now facing societies that overthrew communist dictatorships in the 1990s and Arab dictatorships most recently.

This is why the current "revolutionary" efforts are striving toward a third attempt, or the third stage, of South Korean democratization, one that establishes a more comprehensively fair and open society by rooting out, for good, the stubborn, shadowy remnants of unjust privilege. Success along these lines will allow South Koreans to finally realize a true revolution, one gained not as quickly as ideally desired, but one that still can endure over the long term.





Kyung Moon Hwang is a professor in the Departments of History and East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Southern California. He is the author of "A History of Korea  An Episodic Narrative" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). This and Prof. Hwang's other columns can be found on http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/category/subsection633.html
By Ku Yae-rin





A new chapter in the history of Korea's democracy was made when an overwhelming majority of National Assembly members voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye, Dec. 9. Although this is not the first time for a president to be temporarily ousted by the National Assembly  former President Roh Moo-hyun was dealt the same blow 12 years ago  never before had it been triggered by the Korean people.

Nearly 60 percent of citizens were against the impeachment of Roh while over 81 percent of them supported the removal of Park, according to Gallup. In Seoul alone, more than two million gathered regardless of age or gender to call for the impeachment process.

South Korea has garnered attention from media worldwide with its striking display of direct democracy. It is not an exaggeration to say that SNS has substantially shifted the fundamental dynamics of governance and grassroots power.

Previously, the high jobless rate of young people (12.5 percent) and delayed marriages (average marriage ages for men is now 35.8, and for women 32.7) put off their entry into society, leaving them little reason or energy to become actively involved in, or much less, care about politics. This time, however, young as well as older people took the initiative by making full use of digitalization.

The nationwide protests themselves were made possible because people and diverse groups unified voluntarily and autonomously through online platforms. Netizens also contributed to digging out a video that cornered former chief of staff Kim Ki-choon when he attempted to lie about knowing Park's shadowy confidant, Choi Soon-sil.

Indeed, digitalization has played and still plays a significant role in Park's impeachment. Keeping this in mind, Korea now needs to keep the momentum going so as to consolidate its direct democracy. Here are some suggestions:

First, the voting age needs to be rectified. An OECD report shows that Korea has the highest threshold at 19 years of age. The "future generation" are those who are minor or are not yet born to participate in the present generation's decision making and are affected by the policies implemented by the present generation. Thus problems in the status quo can be solved by empowering the young to participate in politics.

Second, the education system must be geared towards the most recent model practiced in Finland. Instead of individual subjects, students (16 years and older) study events and phenomena in an interdisciplinary format with the collective effort of teachers and the administration. Such a Finnish model should be incorporated with the "seonbi" mentality to implement an education system that suits Korean values. The education should shift its focus to finding the "meaning" of living life.

The last suggestion is to eliminate the collusion between politicians and businesses (jeonggyeong yuchak). On an individual level, people should take the initiative and pressure the government to revolutionize the economic structure. This is exactly what happened in Israel in 2011 when 300,000 people demanded a reformation of the conglomerate-centric economy. Consequentially, the Knesset passed the Concentration Law that entails the separation of finance and industrial capital, the regulation of investment and purchasing of government property, and the empowerment of minority stockholders.

The future of Korea's democracy lies in the hands of Koreans.





Ku Yae-rin is a student at Kyung Hee University majoring in international relations. Write to realyepuda@hotmail.com
North Korea's horrific reality, conveyed earlier this week by a high-profile North Korean diplomat, is surprising but hardly goes beyond people's expectations.



Life for high-level officials in the reclusive state is insecure enough for their homes to be bugged routinely, according to Thae Yong-ho who met with a group of South Korean lawmakers Monday. He was quoted as saying that the North's former Defense Minister Hyon Yong-chol was executed because he said something wrong at his house.



Thae told lawmakers that many senior North Korean officials suffer from depression thinking that their children and grandchildren will be subjugated to a life of slavery if Kim Jong-un's rule continues for decades. Thae is the most senior North Korean diplomat to have defected and arrived in Seoul in August with his family.



He was also quoted as saying that North Koreans praise Kim during the daytime but secretly watch South Korean TV dramas at home in their longing for the South.



Thae's revelations make the public think the Pyongyang regime could collapse quickly without Kim Jong-un. That is why the South should fully brace for contingencies in the North, although Seoul is undergoing one of its worst political turbulences.



As the former No. 2 diplomat in the North's embassy in London suggested, it is necessary to overhaul our laws and systems so the North Korean elite can defect to Seoul without fear. His argument that North Korea's establishment will opt for China, not South Korea, in the event of political upheaval in their homeland is quite suggestive. There is no need to unsettle North Korea on purpose, but it's imperative that we help more North Koreans break the chain of slavery.



Thae is lauded for promising to devote his life to advancing unification. On Friday, he will begin activities to publicly raise the North's dire situation as a researcher at a state institute here at the risk of his own safety. Our government should do whatever it can to protect him from the North's possible terrorist attacks and support his activities so that he can contribute to freeing his brethren in North Korea from repression and persecution.




An application that runs a smart energy meter EnerTalk.

/ Courtesy of Encored Technologies

Smart energy platform informs consumers, encourages lifestyle change

By Kim Ji-soo





Choe Jong-woong, CEO and founder of Encored Technologies, speaks in an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul last month.

/ Courtesy ofSeoul Climate-Energy Conference 2016 by KAIST

Written on the glass door of the office of Choe Jong-woong, CEO of Encored Technologies, is "Synergy! Fun! Passion!"

Inside his office in southern Seoul, one wall is lined with books and a hoodie-wearing Choe was working as briskly as the cold wind outside. He had just returned from a trip to Japan and was deep into planning for his business for next year.

Encored Technologies is a big data company that aggregates energy demand data and provides information platforms and related services. The average Korean may be more familiar with EnerTalk, a small cloud-based big data device developed by the company and installed on a customer's fuse box to measure electricity usage. The so-called "smart energy meter" is currently used in some 100,000 Korean households to measure data to the second.

"We are used to having the energy meter outside the home, but when we think about it, it's better to have our information inside ... so that we can regulate energy usage and enjoy our other services," Choe said in an interview with The Korea Times. "With our services, people who use energy now have a choice."

The energy costs for homes became a sensitive issue when the soaring summer heat this year prompted households to pay exorbitant bills. In Korea, electricity is charged according to progressive categories of electricity usage. As usage increases into the next category, the rate charged also increases progressively. After the public outrage, the government lessened the number of categories down from six to three, to lessen the burden for households.

A household that purchases an EnerTalk device can download a smartphone application and learn about its electricity usage, such as how much electricity it currently uses, projected monthly usage and costs. The energy usage data is gathered via Wi-Fi, analyzed by the company and then sent back to the user. EnerTalk is a device as well as a platform that allows for the analysis as well, which is crucial to smart metering.

With the device, consumers can also identify which appliances are eating up electricity. They can also monitor their elderly parents or family members' safety by looking at energy usage data through the app.

The company works with LG Uplus, one of its corporate clients, with the latter's home Internet of Things services such as smart lighting and door locks, and Choe hopes to work with Japanese companies as well soon. Asked if those who think the app is cumbersome can use it another way, Choe said the company expects to further advance its services.

"In Korea, we are thinking of providing services through messaging for those who do not like apps. Also in Japan, our products can go into a wall clock to gauge not only electricity use but also earthquakes," Choe said.

The 59-year-old has undertaken new projects throughout his career, which he spent mostly with LG group. He invented a smart meter for buildings and an industrial smart meter while working for what is now known as LSIS in the early 1990s. Choe graduated with a B.A. in mechanical engineering from Pusan National University and a master's and a doctorate in computer science from Chungnam National University. Choe served as vice president at LG Instrument & Machinery from 1982 to 2003. In 2004, he became CTO of LSIS as well as its president of R&D and business. He served as president of LSIS in 2012. In 2013, Encored Technologies was founded in Silicon Valley in the U.S., and it has grown into corporations in Japan and Korea.

It's interesting to note how he broke out of the safe career track he enjoyed in his 50s at the conglomerate. "I would say I went independent too late," he said. He named the company Encored to refer to his aim of creating another encore in his life.

He said he had long wanted to work on his own, and his dream materialized when he received an 11 billion won investment from e-investment fund Quantum Strategic Funds run by George Soros, as well as investments from others including Formation 8, LG and Samsung. The upside to having foreign investors is that the firm has up to five years to perfect its services before having to make sales, Choe said.

His team consists of experts from various fields  energy specialists, mathematicians, statisticians, psychologists and web and app designers. Asked how the company is trying to persuade people who may be wary of the so-called fourth industrial revolution and the increasing role of IT in their lives, Choe said some may be unfamiliar with the interactive and the participative aspects of the fourth industrial revolution.

"I think it is hard to definitively say what the fourth industrial revolution is," Choe said. "But inferring from the trends, the fourth industrial revolution is likely to be determined by such technologies as Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality. The common fear seems to be one of losing jobs."

However, he forecast that when these technologies advance and industries are disrupted, new jobs will appear.

Thus, he and his team pay attention to propelling more people to change habits and therefore behavior by adopting smart energy usage.

For instance, the company operates a program with the Seoul Metropolitan Government where EnerTalk users who save energy can donate refunded cash to the needy.

"It is interesting to note that when we were only refunding cash, people used only about 5 percent less energy. But when we enabled the users to donate the refunded cash in their name, energy usage decreased by 17 percent," said Choe, explaining that people would be willing to sacrifice lifestyle extravagances for the greater good, even more than for a minor financial reward.

He envisions a more open energy grid in the future where the government supports the development and testing of innovative technologies and businesses.
Police in Bahrain are clashing with residents of a besieged town that is home to a Shia cleric.

The cause for the confrontation on Wednesday in Diraz wasn't immediately clear.

Residents of the town and activists say that riot police first massed outside, then entered the town.

They say locals confronted the police, who fired tear gas. All requested anonymity as an activist previously faced charges for speaking to The Associated Press.

The town is home to Sheikh Isa Qassim, who lost his citizenship in June over government allegations he fanned extremism. His supporters say he's targeted by Bahrain's Sunni-ruled government as part of a wider crackdown on dissent in the years after its 2011 Arab Spring protests.

Qassim has been in legal limbo since June at his Diraz home.

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Warrant Officer Chung Sang-geun. / Yonhap



By Kim Hyo-jin



The Army has selected a former Special Forces soldier as the top helicopter gunner of the year.



Warrant Officer Chung Sang-geun, 48, was awarded as the "Top Heligun" by the Army's Aviation Operations Command, Tuesday.



Heligun is a combination of the words, helicopter and gunner. It is an equivalent of the top gun from the Air Force. The Army has awarded soldiers showing the best aerial shooting ability since 1999.



"I was able to receive the award thanks to the interest and support of instructors and fellow soldiers," Chung said. "I will strive to be an army pilot who excels in the capability of deterring provocations by our enemies at all costs."



Chung is serving as a pilot flying AH-1S Cobra attack helicopters in the 109th aerial brigade.



Chung started his military career as a soldier in the Special Forces. He hoped to become a pilot, but had to put the dream aside to support his family. He gave up studying when he was at university  the requirement for being a pilot  so his younger sister could have the chance.



Instead he enlisted with the special warfare command. After four years of training, Chung, still holding on to that passion of flying, changed his specialty to become an aviation pilot.



"I was able to achieve my long-time dream by joining the military while my sister nurtured her career as a semiconductor researcher after graduation. My choice turned out to be a wise decision," he said.



The Army has held the aviation shooting competition since 1989 and has awarded the best gunner as "Top Heligun" annually since 1999.
By Lee Min-hyung



SK Telecom has started conducting over-the-air field trials for the fifth-generation (5G) network, in a move to lead standardizations in the next wireless era.



Under the plan, the company has joined forces with U.S.-based telecommunications equipment giants Qualcomm and Ericsson. The three-way collaboration is expected to be finalized in the latter half of next year, according to the Seoul-based mobile carrier.



For the trials, they will use antenna technologies developed by the third-generation partnership project (3GPP), a global association among groups of mobile carriers and telecommunications companies.



The move is expected to play a crucial part for the 3GPP to determine its final specifications for the global 5G network standard set to be unveiled in the first half of 2018.



"The three firms have partnered with one another since 2013 when they succeeded in testing core technologies for the long-term-evolution-advanced (LTE-A) network," an SK Telecom spokesman said. "In this regard, the latest 5G trial initiative is also drawing keen interest from the telecommunications industry."



Ulf Ewaldsson, senior vice president and CTO at Ericsson, said: "This important 5G standard-based trial collaboration will demonstrate compliance with 3GPP and support the accelerated commercialization of the global 3GPP 5G standard."



Expectations are high for 5G, amid surging demand for mobile data with the rise of smartphones. Mobile carriers here expect the upcoming 5G era to pave the way for data transmissions 1,000 times faster than the existing LTE network.



Last year, mobile data traffic worldwide reached 3.7 exabytes per month, according to data from German-based statistics firm Statista, adding that the amount will exceed 30 exabytes per month by 2020 with an annual growth rate of 53 percent.



But as wireless data transmission becomes a key element for all emerging future technologies, including virtual reality, augmented reality and the cloud, its traffic is expected to rise more steeply for more years to come.



For instance, connected vehicles are all the rage in the IT industry, with not just carmakers, but IT firms  including Samsung, Google and Apple  tapping into the new growth area.



SK Telecom, for its part, has teamed up with BMW over converging its network expertise with the latter's smart vehicle system. Last month, both firms conducted a 5G test drive under which BMW vehicles received traffic information  including road conditions and speeds of nearby vehicles  through SK Telecom's 5G network systems.



At that time, both firms pledged to conduct joint research on such 5G areas as vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication and image detection.




By Yoon Sung-won



LG Uplus may lose its exclusive right to use the text trademark of its home Internet of Things (IoT) service brand "IoT@home" following a court judgment Thursday.



Expectations are that the telecom company, which has led the home IoT service drawing about 500,000 subscribers here, will have to change its marketing strategy following the court ruling.



According to the Patent Court of Korea, it has ruled against LG Uplus in a lawsuit, which the telecom company filed against the commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) earlier on Friday.



"There is a need to allow anyone to use the trademark," the justice department said. "We cannot say that allowing a specific body to use it monopolistically and exclusively will not harm public interest."



The lawsuit has come after the KIPO rejected LG Uplus' request to register its IoT service brand name. Citing clause 3 of article 6, section 1 in the Trademarks Law, the KIPO argued that it is a general remark of a product's use like trying to register a smartphone's trademark as "smartphone." It also said "IoT@home" reminds anyone of IoT services for households, yet it is not distinctive enough to be a trademark and it does not present a new meaning in the combination of the terms "IoT," "@" and "home."



LG Uplus protested against the KIPO's decision and filed for a patent trial with the Intellectual Property Tribunal, saying: "The trademark is like an email address and thus is strongly distinctive. Consumers can hardly perceive household IoT services after watching the trademark. Exclusive use of it does not undermine public interest because the company is the sole user of it as of now."



But both the tribunal and patent court turned down the telecom company's request.

According to LG Uplus, the KIPO rejected only the text trademark. Its graphic logo for the IoT@home services, on the other hand, has already been registered as an exclusive trademark, it said.



An LG Uplus spokeswoman said, "As of now, we do not plan to appeal to the Supreme Court. Instead, we are considering applying for the registration of the text trademark again." She added that the company has not decided whether to change the text trademark for the second trial.



KT has successfully registered five trademarks for its home IoT services, including "KT GiGA IoT" on Nov. 30. The nation's second-largest telecom company has also requested to register a more generic brand name, dubbed "GiGA IoT" without the company name, but the KIPO rejected it. The company has appealed against the KIPO's rejection and is currently waiting for a court ruling, according to a KT spokeswoman.



SK Telecom has not registered its current brand name.




Turkey's state-run news agency says three Turkish soldiers have been killed in Syria in the battle to retake the northern town of al-Bab from the Islamic State group.

The Anadolu Agency, citing unnamed military sources, says 11 Turkish soldiers were also wounded in the fighting on Wednesday, including one who was reported to be in critical condition.

The report says intense clashes are underway near a hospital in the town that the militants were using as a shelter and to store arms and ammunition.

Turkey sent ground troops into northern Syria in August to support Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces in clearing a border area of Islamic State group militants and to curb Kurdish territorial expansion.

At least 24 Turkish soldiers have been killed so far in the operation, entitled Euphrates Shield.

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Turkish authorities were on Wednesday looking into claims the alleged mastermind of the failed July coup was involved in the assassination of Moscow's ambassador, but the Kremlin warned against jumping to conclusions.

Monday's murder of Andrei Karlov stunned Russia and prompted warnings of retribution from the Kremlin. But both sides responded by vowing to step up cooperation, particularly on the Syria conflict.

Off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, pumped nine bullets into Karlov at an art gallery in Ankara before he himself was killed by police in a shootout.

The pro-government press has repeatedly said that US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for the attempted putsch, was behind the assassination plot.

And Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told US counterpart John Kerry in a phone call on Tuesday that Ankara believed Gulen was involved.

"Turkey and Russia know that behind the attack... there is FETO," his ministry quoted Cavusoglu as saying, using Turkey's acronym for Gulen's organisation.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has strongly condemned the assassination.

Media reports said that books on Gulen's organisation were found at Altintas' home, while thorough checks are being made of his acquaintances at school and the police academy he attended.

Thirteen people, including close family members, have been detained over the killing and are being investigated for possible links to Gulen.

In a striking detail, the Hurriyet daily said Altintas, who served with the Ankara anti-riot police, had provided security for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eight times since the July 15 attempt to overthrow the Turkish strongman.

Hurriyet writer Abdulkadir Selvi, known for his contacts in the ruling elite, said that on the day of coup bid Altintas had called in sick. But it was not clear what he did that night.

Turkey and Russia are jointly investigating the murder after an agreement between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A team of 18 Russian investigators arrived in Ankara on Tuesday and spent the day at the crime scene after also witnessing the autopsy.

The Kremlin indicated it was not the time for hurried pronouncements on responsibility.

"In this case it is hardly worth hurrying to any conclusions until the investigation determines -- as our president said -- who was behind the murder of our ambassador," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Commentators said that Putin would likely be unimpressed by any knee-jerk nailing of the crime on Gulen, who has become a byword for evil in Turkey after the coup bid.

"It can be assumed that the Russians will not be satisfied with explanations that 'Karlov's killer was a Gulenist'... They will instead ask for solid evidence," wrote Murat Yetkin, editor-in-chief of Hurriyet Daily News.

Since the coup, Turkey has piled pressure on the United States to extradite Gulen, a one-time Erdogan ally.

"We need to let them -- (the investigators) let the facts and the evidence take them where it is before we jump to conclusions," said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

Dramatic footage of Monday's assassination showed Karlov stumble and crash to the ground as Altintas brandished his automatic pistol at terrified onlookers who cowered behind cocktail tables.

The gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest") and "Don't forget Aleppo", vowing that those responsible for events in Syria would be held accountable.

Turkey and Russia stand on opposite sides of the Syria conflict, with Ankara backing rebels trying to topple Moscow ally President Bashar al-Assad.

But the rhetoric has warmed considerably since a reconciliation deal was signed earlier this year and Moscow and Ankara are now working closely together to evacuate citizens from the battered city of Aleppo.

Karlov's body was repatriated to Moscow on Tuesday after an emotional ceremony on the tarmac of Ankara's Esenboga airport attended by top Turkish officials.

In a highly unusual scene at an airport in mainly Muslim Turkey, a Russian Orthodox priest said prayers and swung incense over the coffin.

Karlov will be laid to rest on Thursday, Peskov said, adding that Putin had decided to postpone his major annual press conference scheduled for the same day to Friday in order to attend.

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The U.S. Department of Interior on Tuesday finalized the Stream Protection Rule which directly impacts surface coal mines. Usibelli Mine says the new regulation is bad news for the state of Alaska.

The Obama Administration says the new rule will help increase environmental protection and encourage clean energy development. However, Alaska's only operating coal mine says the cost to the state will far outweigh any foreseeable benefits.

Usibelli Coal Mine provides coal for six interior Alaska power plants which allow people to turn on their lights and heat their homes. Mine officials are still reviewing the 1,600 page document, but based on what's been read so far and previous drafts, the mine believes the rule will cut off areas the company is already leasing and permitting.

"This rule was not crafted with stream protection in mind. This rule was crafted to obliterate the coal mining industry in America," says Lorali Simons, Vice President of External Affairs for Usibelli Mine.

Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan condemned the rule, saying they'll work to overturn it. Both support pursuing the Congressional Review Act.

U.S. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has also vowed to pursue the congressional review act. That would allow the rule to be overturned within about 60 days with a majority vote from both chambers in congress.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it was too early to say who stood behind the murder of Russia's ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, who was shot dead by a gunman at an Ankara art gallery on Monday.

Turkey's foreign minister has told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that Ankara and Moscow believe followers of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen were behind the killing, ministry sources said on Tuesday.

But when Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked about the Turkish foreign minister's comments on Wednesday, he said it was too early to draw any conclusions about who may have orchestrated the murder.

"We need to wait for the results of the joint investigative group," Peskov told reporters on a conference call. "It is really not worth rushing to any conclusions."

Ankara has also accused Gulen of orchestrating a failed coup in July, a charge the cleric denies.

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Israeli ex-president Moshe Katsav was expected to be freed from prison soon after prosecutors declined Wednesday to appeal a parole board decision to release him early from his term for rape.

The justice ministry said prosecutors would not appeal the decision of the parole board announced on Sunday, meaning Katsav would be allowed to go free after serving five years of his seven-year sentence.

The process of releasing him would begin immediately, the prison service said.

Katsav, 71, was convicted in December 2010 of two counts of rape, sexual harassment, indecent acts and obstruction of justice.

The Iran-born bureaucrat, who rose from impoverished origins as a child immigrant, resigned from the largely ceremonial role of president in June 2007 and became an outcast of the political establishment.

Katsav began his sentence in December 2011 and had been rejected twice by the parole board since he became eligible for the customary one-third reduction for good behaviour.

His previous applications were turned down in part because he had expressed no remorse over his crimes and undergone no rehabilitative process.

Israeli media reported, however, that the parole board in its latest decision found that Katsav had more recently "undergone a change".

"The prisoner was asked many questions by the committee members regarding the circumstances of the offence, the victims' positions, his attitude to the victims and his understanding of his acts and their consequences, and the committee members were impressed by the honesty of his intentions," Haaretz newspaper reported the board as saying.

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Four Turkish soldiers were killed and 15 wounded in clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria on Wednesday as the military faced increasing resistance from the extremists in a battle to take a key town, state media said.

The IS-held town of Al Bab, 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the Turkish border, has become the main target of the army's more than three-month campaign inside Syria in support of pro-Ankara Syrian rebels.

One of the 15 wounded was in a serious condition, the Anadolu news agency reported. The corpses of the four dead soldiers were flown to Gaziantep in Turkey.

The Amaq news agency, affiliated to IS, said a suicide attack was carried out against the Syrian rebels and Turkish troops west of Al Bab, without giving further details.

The Turkish air force meanwhile struck 47 IS targets around Al Bab, killing more than 45 Islamist militants , Anadolu said. It was not immediately possible to confirm the figures.

After the lightning speed of the earlier campaign that saw the border town of Jarabulus taken on the first day of the offensive, the Turkish army has suffered increasing casualties in the fight for Al Bab.

Around two dozen Turkish soldiers are believed to have lost their lives since Ankara launched its operation Euphrates Shield in August, with most of the deaths blamed on IS attacks.

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Jordanian security forces have arrested a man suspected of funding an attack by the Islamic State (IS) militant group that killed 10 people including a Canadian tourist, a security source said Wednesday.

The suspect was detained in a raid on a house in Karak province on Tuesday by police looking for the perpetrators behind Sunday's shooting rampage, official news agency Petra quoted the source as saying.

The suspect "admitted to ties with the terrorist cell that targeted security forces and civilians" on Sunday "and to buying weapons and funding the cell," the source said.

Another suspect and four policemen were killed in Tuesday's shootout between gunmen and security forces at the house in Karak's Qarifla area.

Jordanian television showed footage of the house, with walls riddled by bullets.

Sunday's attack in Karak, home to one of the region's biggest Crusader castles, killed seven policemen and two Jordanian civilians as well as a female Canadian tourist.

Four assailants were killed by the security forces after an hours-long siege of the castle, where the suspects had fled after opening fire on police.

The security source said the investigation into the attack was ongoing.

IS on Tuesday claimed responsibility, saying it was carried out by four "soldiers of the caliphate" who used machineguns and hand grenades.

A statement said the assault targeted Jordanian "apostate" security forces and citizens of the US-led coalition battling the Islamist militants in Syria and Iraq.

Jordan is part of the alliance and has carried out air strikes targeting IS. It also hosts coalition troops on its territory.

King Abdullah II on Wednesday met US Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley to discuss extremism and terrorism in the region, a palace statement said.

Maaz al-Kassasbeh, a Jordanian fighter pilot from Karak, was captured by IS when his plane went down in Syria in December 2014, and he was later burned alive in a cage.

Sunday's attack in Kerak has dealt another blow to the country's vital tourism sector, which had already suffered from the 2011 Arab uprisings and conflict in neighbouring Iraq and Syria.

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German police on Wednesday intensified a manhunt for the driver of a truck, who killed 12 people when he mowed into a Berlin Christmas market, and said they were following a number of good leads.

After releasing a Pakistani asylum-seeker arrested near the scene, authorities warned that the attacker is on the run and may be armed. They have also said it is unclear if the perpetrator was acting alone or with others.

Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The head of the Association of German Criminal Detectives, told German television late on Tuesday that police hoped to make another arrest soon.

"I am relatively confident that we will perhaps tomorrow or in the near future be able to present a new suspect," Andre Schulz told a talk show on the ZDF public channel.

Wednesday's Passauer Neue Presse quoted the head of the group of interior ministers from Germany's 16 federal states, Klaus Bouillon, as saying tougher security measures were needed.

"We want to raise the police presence and strengthen the protection of Christmas markets. We will have more patrols. Officers will have machine guns. We want to make access to markets more difficult, with vehicles parked across them," Bouillon told the paper.

The 25-tonne truck smashed into wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages, injuring about 45 people. Six of those killed were Germans and the Polish driver of the truck was found shot dead in the cabin of the vehicle.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will run for a fourth term next year, said that it would be particularly repulsive if a refugee, seeking protection in Germany, was the perpetrator.

Some politicians have blamed her open-door migrant policy for making such attacks more likely.

The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has won support in the last two years as Merkel's own popularity has waned, said on Tuesday that Germany is no longer safe.

Some politicians have also called for changes to Merkel's immigration and security policies after she allowed more than a million migrants to enter Germany in the last two years, many fleeing war in the Middle East and Africa.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told German radio on Wednesday that there was a higher risk of Islamist attacks because of the influx of migrants.

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The Kremlin said on Wednesday that new sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States would damage relations between the two countries and that Moscow would respond with its own measures.

"We regret that Washington is continuing on this destructive path," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

"We believe this damages bilateral relations ... Russia will take commensurate measures."

The United States on Tuesday widened sanctions against Russian businessmen and companies adopted after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the conflict in Ukraine.

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German police are looking for a Tunisian man after finding an identity document under the driver's seat of the truck that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people, on Monday evening, news website Spiegel Online reported.

The document was in the name of Anis A., born in the southern city of Tataouine in 1992. The man is also believed to use false names, it said.

Daily newspaper Bild reported he was known to police as a possibly dangerous individual, and part of a large Islamist network.

Police initially arrested a Pakistani asylum-seeker near the scene, but released him without charge on Tuesday. Authorities have warned that the attacker is on the run and may be armed. It is not clear if the perpetrator was acting alone or with others.

The 25-tonne truck, belonging to a Polish freight company, smashed into wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages, injuring about 45 people.

The Polish driver of the truck was found shot dead in the cabin of the vehicle. Bild reported that he was alive until the attack took place.

It quoted an investigator as saying there must have been a struggle with the attacker, who may have been injured.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility, as it did for a similar attack in July when a Tunisian-born man rammed a truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice. Eighty-six people were killed, and the driver was shot dead by police.

The head of the Association of German Criminal Detectives, Andre Schulz, told German television late on Tuesday that police hoped to make another arrest soon.

"I am relatively confident that we will perhaps tomorrow or in the near future be able to present a new suspect," he said.

Wednesday's Passauer Neue Presse quoted the head of the group of interior ministers from Germany's 16 federal states, Klaus Bouillon, as saying tougher security measures were needed.

"We want to raise the police presence and strengthen the protection of Christmas markets. We will have more patrols. Officers will have machine guns. We want to make access to markets more difficult, with vehicles parked across them," Bouillon told the paper.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will run for a fourth term next year, has said it would be particularly repulsive if a refugee, seeking protection in Germany, was the perpetrator.

Some politicians have blamed her open-door migrant policy for making such attacks more likely.

The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has won support in the last two years as Merkel's own popularity has waned, said on Tuesday that Germany is no longer safe.

Some politicians have also called for changes to Merkel's immigration and security policies after she allowed more than a million migrants to enter Germany in the last two years, many fleeing countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told German radio on Wednesday that there was a higher risk of Islamist attacks because of the influx of migrants.

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The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

Read more
The new proposal by local government and charitable institutions for a $10 million legal defense fund for immigrants threatened with deportation by President-elect Donald Trump offers them a helping hand as they enter the labyrinth of arrests, detention and hearings that await them.

Congratulations to Mayor Eric Garcetti, City Atty. Michael Feuer and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, along with the California Endowment and other philanthropic groups, for putting together the money.

Dakota Smith and Cindy Carcamo reported in the Los Angeles Times that city and county governments would contribute at least $5 million to an L.A Justice Fund. Among the charities, the California Endowment, the states largest healthcare foundation, plans to give $2 million. The county supervisors voted 4 to 1 Tuesday to earmark $3 million over two years. Republican Kathryn Barger, a newly elected supervisor, was the lone dissenter. City Council approval is expected.

Public radio station KPCC noted on its website the money is unlikely to be enough to help all of the undocumented immigrants living in the county, a number estimated by the Public Policy Institute to be nearly 815,000 people. But supporters hope it will slow attempts to send immigrants out of the country, many of whom have lived in the state for much of their lives. Garcetti said the funds would help the most vulnerable, including minors, refugees and military families.

Whether intentionally or not, the donors picked a symbolic day to announce their planthe day electors in every state cast their votes for president. For if Trump keeps his campaign promises, hell encourage the anti-immigrant feelings of his attorney general, hire many more immigration cops and increase the number of courts through which immigrants are sent as they begin their forced departure for the countries they fled.

The task that will face the L.A. Justice Fund lawyers is immense. Their work begins when immigrants are stopped and asked for papers. A traffic violation could trigger that. Or, and more likely, it would be a raid on a workplace. First there is a master calendar immigration court hearing, sort of an introduction to the system, followed by a hearing on the merits of the case. These are often subject to delays because of bureaucratic failures or overcrowded immigration courts. Sometimes, major criminals are caught up in the web, but mostly these are people with no violations or minor onesor people who have been picked up by mistake. A lawyer is needed at every step and most of the immigrants cant afford them. Sometimes, they are put in detention as long as a year.

The justice fund is part of a resistance movement developing against Trump in big citiesNew York, Chicago, San Francisco and many others. Garcetti and the others are also standing up for underdog constituents who could be lost in the Trump revolution.
A Philippine provincial newspaper publisher has been shot dead after writing a column alleging official negligence over a recently discovered methamphetamine laboratory, in the first killing of a journalist during the country's war on drugs.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) condemned Monday's murder of Larry Que, publisher of a news site on the island of Catanduanes, and said it "challenged" President Rodrigo Duterte to find the perpetrators and utilize a special task force he set up to protect media.

The Philippines enjoys one of Asia's most liberal media environments, and one of the most dangerous for journalists.

Scores have been killed in the past three decades, with radio broadcasters who cover provincial politics among the most common victims. Investigations of killings have often been inconclusive.

The NUJP said Que had run Catanduanes News Now, a new publication, for only two weeks before he was shot in the head outside his workplace. He also owned an insurance firm and previously ran for local office.

His article, according to NUJP, suggested local officials were negligent when a laboratory was illegally set up to make "shabu", a methamphetamine that Duterte has vowed to wipe out, along with anyone selling it.

Duterte signed an administrative order in October to create a task force of ministers, police, defense and justice officials to protect media, investigate attacks on media workers and create an oversight body to scrutinize probes.

The NUJP said the presidential panel should be put to work to find Que's killers. It criticized the government for its approach towards media and for what it said was a tendency to accuse journalists of distorting the president's words.

"We call on this administration to walk the talk and prove its professed respect for press freedom, not only by quickly solving these brazen assaults on press freedom but, just as importantly, by ending its penchant of falsely blaming media for deliberately misinterpreting its often inconsistent and incoherent messages," the NUJP said.

Duterte's office has often issued statements that contradict the mercurial president's public remarks. After some of his most controversial comments, his communications team has said his words should be taken seriously, but not literally.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the government condemned violence against journalists and called for a thorough investigation into Que's death.

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PRESS RELEASE

Obama Threatened Military Attack over Alleged Russian Cyber Hacking of U.S. Election

Dec. 20, 2016 (EIRNS)A report posted by NBC News late yesterday reveals that President Obama threatened Russia militarily if the Russian government continued with its alleged hacking of U.S. election systems. According to unnamed U.S. officials, the warning Obamas senior advisors urged him to send to Russian President Vladimir Putin was this: "Mess with the vote and we will consider it an act of war." Obama resisted at first, opting to send Putin less specific language to warn him of consequences if Russian interference didnt stop, during the G20 summit in China, last September.

A month later, however, Obama used the so-called "red phone"the system used for emergency communications between the White House and the Kremlin during a major crisis, particularly a nuclear crisisto send Putin a very specific threat: "International law, including the law for armed conflict, applies to actions in cyberspace," said part of a message sent over the Red Phone on Oct. 31, according to a senior U.S. official. "We will hold Russia to those standards."

The NBC report indicates considerable disagreement within the administration, and between the White House and the Democratic Party, as to whether or not the threat workedsome officials saying that (alleged) Russian meddling stopped before Election Day, while the Democratic Party and some other intelligence officials said it didnt, in part, because thousands of Democratic Party official John Podestas emails had already been leaked and those leaks continued.

Retired Adm. James Stavridis is among those who say that Obamas response was not sufficient to stop the meddling. But he also said that the word "war" has to be deployed "extremely carefully."

"I think declaring something an act of war, lets face it, is the ultimate red line," he said.
A deal to return American military land on Okinawa to the Japanese government was hailed on Wednesday as the biggest such land transfer in more than four decades.

But the move is unlikely to reduce frustration on the strategic island that remains crowded with American bases -- a legacy of World War II.

The agreement covers about 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) of the 7,500-hectare Camp Gonsalves jungle warfare training centre, also known as the Northern Training Area.

It marks "the largest land return to the Japanese government" since Okinawa reverted to Japanese control in 1972, Lieutenant General Jerry P. Martinez, US Forces Japan Commander, said in a statement.

"It will reduce the amount of US-administered land on Okinawa by 17 percent," he added.

But the area being handed back is in a sparsely populated region, while other facilities, including air bases, are located farther south in or near crowded residential areas of the small island with a population exceeding one million people.

The US wrested Okinawa from Japan in the closing months of the war. A 27-year occupation followed before Okinawa was given back to Japan, but US bases remained.

The island makes up less than one percent of Japan's total area but accounts for about 71 percent of land allotted for US bases in the country after the handover. It accounted for about 75 percent before.

Today Okinawa is considered a strategic linchpin for security allies Japan and the US as they face China's increasing military might and unpredictable North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

It hosts more than half of the approximately 47,000 American military personnel stationed in Japan.

Okinawans have complained for decades that the rest of Japan ignores their burden in supporting the alliance with the US.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has fought with Okinawan Governor Takeshi Onaga over base issues, welcomed the agreement, the details of which have been known for months.

"I express gratitude towards all relevant people in Japan and the US who tackled this difficult task," he said, adding the returned land will contribute to Okinawa's development.

Caroline Kennedy, the US ambassador, called it a "milestone".

Onaga, a fierce critic of the US military, planned to boycott a ceremony in Okinawa on Thursday marking the handover, reportedly attending a local protest rally instead.

Crimes and accidents by military personnel, civilian employees and dependents on Okinawa, combined with noise and inconvenience from military flights and training, have frustrated residents.

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PRESS RELEASE

Russia, Turkey, Iran Eight-Point Policy Defending Syrian Sovereignty

Dec. 20, 2016 (EIRNS)The Foreign Ministers of Russia, Turkey, and Iran, meeting in Moscow today, issued an eight-point joint statement on settling the crisis in Syria.

The first point, according to the text of the document published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry, declares that the three governments

"reiterate their full respect for sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic as multi-ethnic, multi-religious, non-sectarian, democratic and secular state."

Other points include recognition of the role of the United Nations under Security Council Resolution 2254, passed in November 2015; welcoming the efforts in evacuation of civilians from the former militant-held pocket in eastern Aleppo as well as the four villages that are also part of the evacuation deal; and a commitment to insuring "the completion of the process without interruption and in a safe and secure manner."

The three governments further express their willingness to be guarantors of the prospective agreement between the Syrian government and the opposition, to be negotiated in Astana, Kazakhstan, and to invite other countries with influence on the ground to do the same; and, the three governments
In the last month, Amor Towles says, hes been getting notes from readers. Most of them had some version of this sentiment to share: Im going to have to deal with the Trump presidency the way that Count Rostov dealt with the Soviets. These notes were, obviously, mostly from liberals.

Count Rostov is the protagonist of Towles A Gentleman in Moscow. In the opening pages of the book, Rostov finds himself before the Emergency Committee of the Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs. The year is 1922. As well as being a former aristocrat, Rostov is also a poet. He is not a nakedly political one, sympathetic to the ideals of communism but not a subscriber to the iteration unfolding before him. Still, in the verse the reader gets to see, Rostov poses existential questions about Soviet rule: Well, where is our purpose now?

In merely asking the question, the commissariat authorities tell Rostov, he has identified himself as one who has succumbed irrevocably to the corruptions of his class  and now poses a threat to the very ideals he once espoused. On that basis, our inclination would be to have you taken from this chamber and put against the wall. But Rostov is spared, on one condition. He must remain within the four walls of the Hotel Metropol, a real Moscow hotel where the fictional Rostov had been living since the revolution. If he sets foot outside, he will be shot. The book tracks this somewhat gilded variety of political imprisonment over 30 years.

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Meeting Towles at his brownstone in Gramercy Park, a tony neighborhood of Manhattan, one is struck by certain parallels to the story in his novel. Of course, he isnt any kind of political dissident. Towles is a graduate of Yale and Stanford, where he studied literature. But before he broke through with his 2011 hit novel The Rules of Civility, Towles worked in finance for more than 20 years. So his home bears evidence that he shares Rostovs love of fine surroundings. For example, Towles writes in a wood-paneled study that looks straight out of a screenwriters ideal of a writers study: wood paneled-walls, a glass book case, interesting curios displayed everywhere.

He also, even as a writer, clearly lives a very ordered, disciplined existence not unlike the routine he describes Rostov undertaking in the book. As we talk about his process, he pulls from a file the first notes he made for A Gentleman in Moscow from a drawer. Here it is. I was in a hotel. This was in the Hotel Richemond in Geneva, September 2009, he says, as he pulls a neat chart of years by which he planned to organize the chapters from a plastic sleeve. Its written on hotel stationary, and carefully dated.

Despite the similarities, Towles says he isnt much like Rostov. I think that every individual you invent in narrative work you have to have some root in who that person is. That may be an aspect of yourself, it may be an aspect of something that you like, that you dont like. It may be an aspect that you wish you had. Maybe something you admire in another person. I used to look up at this guy a little bit. This big portrait, he says, pointing at a portrait of friendly looking man in an 18th century frock coat. I was like, Yeah, hes kind of like that, maybe. The painting, Towles tells me, is actually of an obscure French archaeologist and anthropologist, acquired at an estate sale like most of the other art in the room.

Released in May, A Gentleman in Moscow has sold steadily all year and was the subject of glowing reviews. But it had never occurred to Towles that it could be a timely book. As as he points out, It was not timely in May. A man of elegant manners, one can tell Towles isnt totally at ease talking about the new resonance Trumps election cast over his book. But he does have a few ideas about what people might want to draw from it as they try to figure out their own place in a new political atmosphere.

We study, as Americans, the extreme aspects of repression under the Stalinist era. Were focused on them, he says, carefully. The vast majority of Russian citizens, it was a much softer type of being disconcerted. Do you know what I mean? Not everybody went to prison. Not everyone was executed. That was a minority. Everyone else, it was more like you didnt always have what you wanted; you couldnt do the job you wanted; you couldnt say what you wanted; the country was going in a direction you didnt like. Which certainly a portion of America is going to feel in the coming years, one way or another.

In writing a book set in Soviet Russia, Towles says, he was turning to a subject he had already read a lot about, though he says he did not do much applied research. He does not consider himself a historical novelist, per se, he tells me. I just write novels. His eye is on more general themes. Characterization, theme, psychology, the poetry of the language are primary ahead of time and place, he says.

However inadvertently, though, Towles has written a book about the notion of individual resistance. In Rostovs rather idiosyncratic experience of Soviet Russia, very little of which involves what you could call direct political engagement, he is still actively resisting the Soviet regime. Its simply that, being locked into one building, he does so by savoring smaller pleasures: good wine, good food, friendships of long standing and even, eventually, parenthood.

Towles catalogs these pleasures endlessly in the book, to the point where one suspects he somewhat shares Rostovs nostalgia for the aristocratic era. Towles admits this. Of course, you wouldnt want to re-create the era of aristocracy; it was a totally unfair era. The finer aspects of it were admirable, and so theres nostalgia for that: the behavior, the values, the cultural sensitivities.

I knew the hottest spot for the book would be someone who really knows a good deal about Russian history and cares about Russian history, who feels that the book does not do justice to the crimes that were committed in the era, Towles says. But he ran the risk because he believes that it is possible for people in repressive regimes to enjoy art, regardless of circumstances. To think otherwise, he says, belittles the courage and the pride of the average citizen.

Towles also points to an observation the Count makes to one of the officials who is supervising his imprisonment, someone who admires how well Rostov has adapted to his circumstances: As both a student of history and a man devoted to living in the present, I admit that I do not spend a lot of time imagining how things might otherwise have been. But I do like to think there is a difference between being resigned to a situation and reconciled to it.

Deans book, Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion, will be published in 2017.
Downtown Redwood City is home to cloud-storage company Box, virtual reality start-up AltspaceVR, music identification app Shazam and artificial Christmas tree-maker Balsam Hill.

One of these things is not like the others.

Its definitely weird for us to be here, said Thomas Harman, the 40-year-old founder and chief executive of the holiday decoration company.

But rather than feel like his company doesnt belong in a neighborhood known for its software businesses and venture capital firms, Harman has embraced his 11-year-old companys tech hub home. He describes his business as having one foot planted in the slow-moving seasonal decorations world (where products are planned 18 months in advance) and another in Silicon Valley (where thinking-outside-the-box is often thought to be the only way to think).

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If you compare us to people doing artificial intelligence and machine learning, or Google and Facebook, were obviously not doing anything earth-shattering like that, Harman said. But we like to think were pushing the envelope when it comes to holiday decorations.

Amid year-round Christmas decorations, an employee of Balsam Hill works at the companys Redwood City headquarters. (David Butow / For The Times )

Before Balsam Hill came along, for example, no one focused on making the whole tree look real, Harman said. People focused on making the needles look real, but no one thought of structure, color and the way it all came together.

In 2006, Harman saw an opportunity. His family had always gotten real trees, but his brother-in-law was allergic to them. Lots of people had reason to seek out artificial trees, and those customers, he thought, didnt necessarily want something that looked fake and plastic.

A geology major in college, Harman had the chops to design a good-looking tree (he still designs some of the companys trees today). Having helped run his familys manufacturing business in Cleveland, he also knew a thing or two about getting stuff made. And having recently gotten an MBA from Stanford, he felt confident about building an e-commerce platform that looked better than what other fake tree-makers were cobbling together.

I actually tried to start the business in my garage  like the HP story  but I couldnt get the Wi-Fi to work in there, he said.

So he compromised, starting it in the guest bedroom of his Palo Alto apartment on Sand Hill Road, a short walk from where some of the countrys biggest venture capital firms were at the time investing in then-newbie start-ups such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Being in the heart of Silicon Valley, Harman couldnt help but feel buoyed by the surrounding energy.

You walk into a coffee shop here, and its full of entrepreneurs, he said. In Cleveland, where Im from, if you say you started a business and it failed, youre looked at like a total loser. In Silicon Valley, they think, Great, youre not going to make that mistake again. 

And so Balsam Hill took risks. Where major artificial Christmas tree sellers such Wal-Mart and Target played it safe with uniformly green trees, Balsam Hill shook things up, offering different species of fake trees, even going full-artificial with a lily-white tree.

For the Australian market, the company released an upside-down tree where the ornaments dangled like ripened fruit (the tree was a flop  apparently Aussies didnt appreciate Down Under jokes as much as Americans thought they would).

But at least we were willing to try things, Harman said.

Shoppers peruse items at a Balsam Hill pop-up store at the Stanford Mall. (David Butow / For The Times )

Aside from taking risks, the Valley imparted other lessons on Harman.

He has become an angel investor, funding firms such as e-commerce start-up Man Crates, online dating site OKCupid, and parking app SpotHero. Seeing the way companies like Man Crates and OKCupid built customer loyalty, he diversified Balsam Hills business. In addition to artificial trees, which shoppers might buy only once, Balsam Hill now also sells home decor for holidays year-round. It may have started as a Christmas tree company, but he sees it more as a one-stop holiday e-commerce shop.

For all the Silicon Valley inspiration, though, Balsam Hills headquarters still looks more like Santas workshop than a fast-paced start-up. Lush holiday wreathes of different sizes adorn the walls. The reception desk is always surrounded by at least a dozen fake fir trees  some a vibrant green, others painted with a light dusting of fake snow and some appearing to be burnt by sunshine. An inflatable Santa Claus  lit with disco lights  arrived in November, but he wouldnt have looked out of place had he popped up six months earlier.

The company has patents on its Christmas trees and is now introducing more tech into its holiday decorations. Harman met a software engineer at his local church who helped Balsam Hill design Christmas lights that are responsive to music. Another friend who works on encryption tech and owns a 3-D printer is helping Balsam Hill develop decorations in his spare time.

The company is on track to bring in approximately $100 million in revenue this year. It now employs more than 125 employees and has offices in California, Idaho, Ireland and the Philippines. Its one of the biggest makers in the world of high-end artificial Christmas trees (its trees range from the low hundreds to more than $10,000), and Harman is now a regular guest on morning news shows whenever they need a Christmas tree expert.

Working with tangible products, the company has tight margins, Harman said, but the way we survive is we have a culture that attracts people who live in the area and who want to do things differently.

Different like Balsam Hills take on the Christmas tree skirt  the cloth that sits at the base of a tree to cover the stand.

This year its all about tree collars, he said. Instead of a skirt, theyre sticking the tree into a miniature wooden barrel.

tracey.lien@latimes.com

Twitter: @traceylien
YouTube star Adam Saleh, best known for his pranking videos, as well as his examinations of how the world interacts with Muslims, was removed from a Delta flight Wednesday at Heathrow Airport in London.

Saleh claims he was asked to leave the flight after some passengers reported being uncomfortable after Saleh was heard speaking Arabic on the phone to his mother, as well as to Slim Albaher, his travel companion.

In a video posted from the plane after Deltas request to remove him, Saleh said, We spoke a different language on the plane, and now were getting kicked out. This is 2016. I cannot believe my eyes.

I spoke a word, and you said you feel uncomfortable. Why are you guys doing that? Just because I spoke a different language, Saleh continued.

In the background of the video, fellow passengers can be seen waving as Saleh films them, while others offered support.

(Warning: The video below contains strong language that could be considered offensive.)

I was speaking to my mom on the phone like I always do before getting on a flight. I call her before I take off and when I land so that she knows I am safe and well, Saleh said in a statement released after the onboard events transpired.

I was speaking in Arabic when a female passenger began shouting that they felt uncomfortable. This encouraged almost 10 other passengers to agree and shout the same thing.

We were kicked off the flight while those passengers mocked us. We are currently getting ready to get onto another flight with another Airline. I will keep everyone updated with the situation through social media! I appreciate everyones support and effort in raising awareness on this, Saleh concluded .

According to a statement released by Delta, the incident took place on Flight 1, from London to New York City.

Two customers were removed from this flight and later rebooked after a disturbance in the cabin resulted in more than 20 customers expressing their discomfort. Were conducting a full review to understand what transpired. We are taking allegations of discrimination very seriously; our culture requires treating others with respect, the statement read.

Saleh, who has nearly 4 million subscribers to his YouTube channels, was visibly emotional in Periscope videos posted after he and Albaher had been removed from the flight.

Some question the validity of Salehs claims, citing cry wolf syndrome, given his prankster past and a prominent hoax video involving racial profiling.

Last week, Saleh claimed to have flown from Melbourne, Australia, to Sydney in the baggage hold, a prank that immediately was debunked by the airline, Tigerair, which released footage that showed Saleh boarding the plane in proper fashion.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 

Salehs manager dismissed the idea that the latest video was a hoax, telling BuzzFeed News that it was as real as it gets.

According to Salehs Twitter feed, he and Albaher were questioned by police after leaving the plane, before eventually booking a new flight to New York with a different airline. The YouTube personality also tweeted that he would be consulting his lawyer once he landed.

Deltas handling of the Saleh incident stands in stark contrast to the way the airline handled another recent controversy.

On Nov. 22, a Donald Trump supporter stood in the aisle of Flight 248 from Atlanta to Allentown, Pa., and berated other passengers. (Warning: The video below contains explicit language.)

Delta released a similar statement in the aftermath of that incident, indicating, We are sorry to our customers who experienced this disruption. We have followed up with the teams involved and all agree that this customer should not have been allowed to continue on the flight.

Our responsibility for ensuring all customers feel safe and comfortable with Delta includes requiring civil behavior from everyone, it added. The behavior we see in this video does not square with our training or culture and follow up will continue so we can better ensure our employees will know they will be fully supported to make the right decisions when these issues arise.

The unruly passenger was banned from flying Delta in the future, but he was allowed to complete his flight as scheduled.

In August, Nazia and Faisal Ali, an Ohio Muslim couple returning home after celebrating their 10th anniversary in Paris, were removed from a Delta flight because a crew member reported being uncomfortable, specifically because Nazia was wearing a headscarf and using a phone and Faisal was sweating.

Delta released a statement after the incident, asserting that the company condemns discrimination in regards to age, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or gender and offered the couple a full refund of their tickets, promising they would continue to investigate the incident.

Delta recently proved that it could change in the face of controversy, announcing Monday that as of Dec. 1, medical professionals no longer would need to show credentials to assist with in-flight medical emergencies.

The policy came after an October incident in which Dr. Tamika Cross, a young black woman, attempted to help an ill passenger only to be rebuffed by a flight attendant who told her, Oh, no, sweetie. Put your hand down. We are looking for actual physicians or nurses. We dont have time to talk to you.

Representatives for Saleh did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning.

libby.hill@latimes.com

Twitter: @midwestspitfire

ALSO

How airlines decide when to kick a passenger off a plane

It's time for airlines to stop ejecting passengers for looking or acting Muslim

7 passengers kicked off Spirit Airlines flight at LAX; some claim racial discrimination

UPDATES:

11:10 a.m.: This article was updated with a statement from Saleh.

This article was originally published at 10:35 a.m.
The wallpaper is a bit oppressive, Julieta observes, and shes being kind. The place looks promising enough, but the wallpaper is in fact extremely oppressive, with an ornate pattern and indigo-gold color scheme better suited to a rug than an entire apartment  a visual affront to the tenants within and the lovely, sun-dappled Madrid scenery just outside their window.

By that point in Pedro Almodovars radiant and absorbing new melodrama, you may find yourself not just nodding in agreement with Julieta, but also suppressing a chuckle. This is a film by Almodovar, after all, where women and men (but mostly women) inhabit spaces beautifully designed to complement and amplify their emotions, and where even the accidental presence of ugliness or non-designer clutter amounts to a cardinal sin. By this point in his career, he has more than earned the right to point out his own indulgences, especially when he does it with such a modest, unpretentious sense of fun.

His self-referentiality goes well beyond the decor. A subdued, autumnal melodrama about mothers and daughters, steeped in regret and draped in Hitchcockian flourishes, Julieta doesnt pretend to offer anything we havent already seen from Almodovar. Once upon a time, its heroine was meant to be played by Meryl Streep, in what would have been Almodovars first English-language production  a thwarted pairing of legends that would have no doubt supplied the press attention and marketing hook that have so far evaded Julieta. (It drew a respectful but muted reception earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival.)

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The refusal of novelty in Julieta, far from being a narrative deficiency, actually suits a story whose true subject is the persistence of repetition  the inevitably recurring patterns of joy, grief and generational misfortune that Almodovar, a practiced geometrician of loss and desire, points out with characteristic wit and feeling.

This time he has drawn those patterns from an unusual and rewarding literary source supplied by Alice Munro, specifically three stories  Chance, Soon and Silence  which center on a Canadian woman, Juliet, at three different stages of life. As he did with the even more incongruous source material for Live Flesh, his sizzling 1997 adaptation of a chilly Ruth Rendell psychological thriller, Almodovar has performed a delicate act of cultural surgery and infused the result with his own exquisite formalism. (The rich cinematography is by Jean-Claude Larrieu; the delicate score, as ever, by Alberto Iglesias.)

Juliet is now Julieta, and shes played by two different actresses  a gently Bunuelian conceit that underlines the temporal and emotional breadth of the films elegantly compacted 99 minutes. The first Julieta we see (movingly played by Emma Suarez) is a mild-mannered, middle-aged woman living in Madrid, though shes about to move to Portugal with her boyfriend, Lorenzo (Dario Grandinetti, from Almodovars Talk to Her). But a chance reunion stops her cold, sending her back to a past that she had wrongly believed was firmly behind her.

In flashback, we see a younger, punkier, peroxide-blond Julieta (Adriana Ugarte, soulful and spirited) boarding a train on a snowy night, where her fateful encounters with two different men foreshadow the storys twinned themes  its like a small double helix of death and desire. By the end of her journey, Julieta has fallen hard for Xoan (Daniel Grao), a scruffily handsome fisherman who lives on the Galician coast with his unseen, bedridden wife.

There are other characters who flit in and out, including Xoans sculptor friend Ava (Inma Cuesta) and Julietas parents (Joaquin Notario and Susi Sanchez), whose declining relationship unsettles her for reasons she isnt entirely comfortable admitting. Eventually, too, Julieta has a daughter, Antia, whose flickering presence in the story  shes played by a different actress in almost every other scene  captures the fleeting nature of happiness in a way that feels bittersweet beyond words.

Through it all, Almodovar keeps returning to Hitchcock, and every new reference adds a fresh layer of unease. The films opening stretch harks back to the railway intrigue of Strangers on a Train, North by Northwest and The Lady Vanishes, while Julietas extended Galician stay is pure Rebecca  right down to the Mrs. Danvers-like housekeeper, Marian (Rossy de Palma, a frequent Almodovar muse), her scowl oscillating between comic relief and genuine menace.

Almodovars command of the history and syntax of classic Hollywood melodrama is second to none; had he bothered to include Julietas surname in the title, it would only have cemented the films obvious spiritual connection to Stella Dallas and Mildred Pierce. Grief and heartache are hardly new sensations in this directors tear-sodden filmography, but whats remarkable about this movie  and, come to think of it, borderline novel  is the way he treats the very notion of loss as a structuring concept.

At times Julieta suggests a melodrama by subtraction, as if the narrator were still trying to stifle memories and emotions too painful to fully confront. The traumas that cut the deepest  a fatal accident, an inexplicable departure  are left off screen, and theyre no less affecting for it. The tearjerker ending we expect never happens, and in some ways, the one we get is even more shattering.

Julieta is a melancholy, fragmentary experience, and you can see what those longing for another Volver or All About My Mother have found wanting, without necessarily sharing their sentiments. The movie may not have the audacity and emotional grandeur of a new Almodovar masterpiece, but in every particular  its seamless manipulation of time, its sly infusions of comedy, its expert direction of actors and, yes, its fabulous wallpaper  it confirms his mastery nonetheless.

------------

Julieta

In Spanish with English subtitles

Rating: R, for some sexuality/nudity

Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes

Playing: The Landmark, West Los Angeles

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 
The first of three albums from Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) has arrived. Bey and producer Ferrari Sheppards collaborative project, December 99th, was released on Wednesday.

Originally set for Dec. 9  to keep with the duos numerical name (the pair goes by Dec 99th)  the album is now exclusively available for streaming on Tidal.

Sheppard produced the entire project, which includes singles N.A.W., Local Time and Seaside Panic Room, which were independently released earlier in the year.

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December 99th is the first of three projects Bey plans on rolling out before retiring from hip-hop after spending much of the year out on bail in South Africa for violating local immigration laws. In January he was charged with using a false passport and travel document while attempting to leave the country.

The rapper-actor was using a world passport, issued by the World Service Authority, a pro-freedom movement that few nations recognize as a passport grantor.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour >> 

Bey is planning another joint project, this time with Mannie Fresh, called As Promised and his own record, Negus In Natural Person. He hasnt announced release dates for either album.

To mark his impending retirement the rapper and actor has partnered with both the Apollo Theater and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for a limited run of shows that will serve as his final U.S. performances. Each night he plans on performing tracks from a different album alongside new material.

The engagement begins Wednesday at the Apollo and Thursdays show at the iconic Harlem theater will be live-streamed to Tidal. Bey performs at the Kennedy Center Dec. 31 to Jan. 2.

Late last month, he was granted permission to leave after he unreservedly apologized to the government of South Africa, the countrys home affairs department said. Bey was declared an undesirable person and barred from re-entry into South Africa.

He said he did not use his U.S. passport for social and political reasons.

Listen to album track Blade In the Pocket below:

For more music news follow me on Twitter:@GerrickKennedy
Sorry, folks: Shes not running.

In a frequently compelling hour-long conversation Monday night on CBS with Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey asked about the difficulties of life in the White House and her role as the nations first black first lady. Obama was, as ever, the personification of a class act, acknowledging the bitterness of this years election while going out of her way to avoid stoking the partisan flames any further.

But what Winfrey really wanted to know about  like, really, really  was whether Obama had political aspirations of her own, bringing up the possibility no fewer than three times. Would she run for office? Like, maybe not for president, but for any kind of office? So thats a firm no, then? OK. But had she had any conversations with the Democratic Party about running for office? Surely, party representatives had asked her, right? Any thoughts about a running mate for 2020?

I kid, but only slightly. Despite Winfreys keen and entirely understandable interest in Obamas future career plans, probably the biggest takeaway from First Lady Michelle Obama Says Farewell to the White House  an Oprah Winfrey Special, is that the first lady is entirely too sensible to become a politician herself.

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Im not coy If I were interested in it, Id say it. I dont believe in playing games, said Obama, whose forthrightness about not wanting to run is, ironically, only likely to make people even more desperate for her to do just that. People dont really understand how hard this is.

Despite her understandably weary air, Obama demonstrated once again why shes become one of the Democratic Partys most formidable ambassadors, as well as a figure whose popularity transcends partisan politics.

Speaking of her husband and two daughters, Obama displayed warmth, relatability and a strong protective streak; she is very much the mom-in-chief. As witnessed in her widely circulated speeches at the Democratic National Convention and in New Hampshire, she has perfected the high-wire act of expressing outrage without losing her cool, of being diplomatic but not evasive, of steadfast dignity in an atmosphere of ever-increasing coarseness.

Regarding her successor, Obama struck a gracious tone and emphasized the importance of a smooth transition. She pointed to the example set by Laura Bush, and recalled telling Melania Trump that my door is open.

We are going to be there for the next president and do whatever we have to do to make sure that he is successful, she said, because if he succeeds, we all succeed.

At the same time, she didnt backpedal or pretend as if the grievances of the campaign  and particularly Donald Trumps treatment of women  had somehow been forgiven.

To have a candidate for the presidency speaking in such terms about women, as I said, it was not a normal thing, Obama said, continuing her shrewd habit of not uttering the name Trump. A lot of people had been shaken to their core, and still are. They are still feeling the reverberations of that kind of caustic language.

Obama also defended her husbands message of hope, saying that now were feeling what not having hope feels like.

The exchange has been interpreted as a critique of Trump and an expression of the despair felt by many Hillary Clinton supporters. But it also speaks more broadly to the tense geopolitical climate , heightened by fresh terrors Monday in Berlin and Ankara, Turkey.

Obamas poise makes the attempts to caricature her as an angry black woman all the more ridiculous. In one of the more illuminating exchanges of the hour, Winfrey asked directly about this pernicious stereotype, frequently wielded against the first lady in the early days of her husbands administration.

That was one of those sort of things where you think, Dag, you dont even know me,  said Obama, never afraid of slipping in a bit of slang or a knowing pop culture reference (see her use of the phrase bye, Felicia).

With Obama and Winfrey seated around a crackling fire in a room festooned with Christmas garland, the special had the cozy warmth of a conversation between two girlfriends sipping eggnog (an impression heightened by a brief visit from President Obama, who remained standing like an interloper at a bridal shower).

Of course, Winfrey and Michelle Obama have much in common, from their Chicago ties to their shared love of fresh produce to their status as two of the countrys most influential women. Their relationship dates to 2007, when Winfrey became one of Barack Obamas earliest and most enthusiastic celebrity endorsers.

The dynamic has shifted since then, with Michelle Obama now equaling (and possibly surpassing) Winfrey in terms of public adoration, and her mantra  When they go low, we go high  becoming a national rallying cry.

The interview came to life most vividly at moments when Winfrey and Obama spoke frankly about their roles as highly visible black women in a country still grappling with racism and sexism. (If only Beyonce had been there to complete the triumvirate.)

Asked about her greatest impact as first lady, Obama noted the importance of being an educated, strong, outspoken role model to young women, particularly African American women.

Obama also prompted a hearty mmm-hmmmm from Winfrey when she spoke of the need to move past the darker chapters of her life in the White House, because we as black women better be able to do it.

Theres so much that comes at us all the time, every day, in subtle ways that could tear your soul apart if you let it, she continued. But my mother always taught me, Girl, you better keep it moving. You know? You better brush it off.

Inevitably, given the limited running time and her eagerness to discuss glamping, there were many relevant questions Winfrey never got around to asking. Perhaps to maintain some semblance of national unity, she avoided more pointed queries about Trump and his wife  like, say, how it feels for Obama to hand over the White House to the worlds most prominent birther, or what the first lady made of the plagiarism kerfuffle regarding a speech given by Melania Trump at the Republican National Convention.

And there was one question that Winfrey kept circling without ever asking: How did it feel for Obama, a highly accomplished professional woman, to step into the traditional role as the countrys most prominent housewife? As Obama herself noted at one point, I just didnt wake up first lady.

Or what of the irony that she has grown so popular largely by staying out of the political fray?

As Clinton knows all too well, the American public tends to like first ladies more the less they have to say. Even Obamas mission to encourage healthful eating habits in children  a stance about as controversial as brushing your teeth twice a day  drew ridiculous nanny state allegations from some detractors. Werent there times when she wanted to scream from the rooftops?

Perhaps Obama will address all this and more in her almost-certainly-forthcoming memoir. In any case, Im ready to pre-order a copy.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 

Follow me @MeredithBlake
Southern biscuits lashed with maple butter, pillows of fried pizza dough covered in a blanket of prosciutto, and vegan lasagna layered with cashew cream cheese  this is the new 90210 dining scene. Of course, Beverly Hills is still Beverly Hills, where tourists come to people watch along Rodeo Drive and where most of the notable restaurants are located inside swanky hotels. Although eating in this city hasnt changed drastically  you can still find a restaurant willing to overcharge you for a chopped salad  there has been a notable shift, no more evident than in a crop of newcomers that have opened in the last year or so. Heres a look at eight new and notable restaurants in the Beverly Hills area.

Avec Nous

This French restaurant at the Viceroy LErmitage Beverly Hills, which replaced Livello about a year ago, was made for the power lunch. Stop by sometime in the middle of the day midweek and youll find well-dressed women with perfectly coiffed hair chatting loudly into their cellphones while they nibble at their avocado toasts. The dinner crowd is a little more focused on the food. Chef Olivier Quignon has an impressive selection of charcuterie and a grilled Hudson Valley foie gras with local citrus. Hes also paying attention to the citys vegetable craze with a whole roasted cauliflower with vadouvan curry. For dessert, theres a beautiful mille-feuille and a Sugarfina candy cart. Price range: $8 to $34. Viceroy LErmitage Beverly Hills, 9291 Burton Way, Beverly Hills, (310) 860-8660, avecnous.com.

Beverly Hills Beignet

A trio of sweet beignets (graham cracker, cinnamon and powder sugar) with salted caramel dipping sauce at Beverly Hills Beignets on Tuesday. (Mariah Tauger / For The Times )

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Angelenos arent necessarily as health-obsessed as our friends across the country may like to believe. You can now find New Orleans-style beignets just as easily as kale salads on Santa Monica Boulevard. And that beignet comes with a side of sticky salted caramel for dipping. At Beverly Hills Beignet, which opened earlier this year, you can order the classic beignets with powdered sugar, or you can opt for something a little less traditional: graham cracker sugar, tart sugar or cinnamon sugar coating. And the savory beignets are stuffed with Nueske bacon; roasted artichoke with harissa aioli; or smoked ham and Gruyere. Price range: $7.95 to $9.95. 9527 S. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 278-8164, www.beverlyhillsbeignet.net.

Citizen

The buttermilk biscuits with chipotle maple syrup and pimento cheese at Citizen. (Mariah Tauger / For The Times )

With its macrame wall, buttermilk biscuits and elaborate cocktails by Josh Goldman  one of this citys wizards behind the bar  Citizen is a restaurant you might expect to find on Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Instead, its in the middle of Beverly Hills, and its patio offers a view of the Montage hotel across the street. This is where chef Scott Howard is making playful small plates youre not likely to find anywhere else in the ZIP Code. His biscuits are the flaky, buttery kind you can pull apart; the soba noodles are served with kimchi and a tamari vinaigrette; and Goldmans cocktails involve seasonal house-made cordials and bitters. Price range: $8 to $41. 184 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 402-5885, citizenbeverlyhills.com.

Cut Lounge

New York Sirloin Steak Skewers at Cut Lounge. (Mariah Tauger / For The Times )

The former Sidebar at the Beverly Wilshire hotel is now Cut Lounge. Its Cut restaurants younger, edgier, moodier sibling, located just steps from the entrance to Wolfgang Pucks celebrated steakhouse. This is where you will find some of the best bar bites (if you can call them that), in the city: dry aged USDA Prime New York sirloin skewers with harrisa aioli; crispy kataifi-wrapped prawns with garlic-chili ponzu and shaved bonito. And youll want to try a barrel-aged Sazerac or a cocktail called the Samurai Sword  whats not to like about Hibiki Harmony whiskey, ginger and honey? There are plans to add a Negroni cart next year. And you can still order from the regular Cut menu, youll just be eating your 20-ounce bone-in New York sirloin in a darker room and on comfy lounge furniture you can sink into when that inevitable food coma hits. Price range: $8 to $29. Beverly Wilshire, 9500 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 276-8500, www.wolfgangpuck.com.

Georgie

Dover Sole; fingering potatoes, Chanterelle mushrooms, sauce Piccata, at Georgie, at the Montage Hotel. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times )

Geoffrey Zakarian, that well-dressed chef with the glasses who appears on all those Food Network shows, has opened a restaurant at the Montage, which replaced Scott Conants Scarpetta this year. As a hotel restaurant, Georgie has a little bit of something for everyone. Theres a classically prepared Dover sole with potatoes and chanterelle mushrooms for the early dinner crowd; shrimp dumplings with smoked chicken broth for the cool kids at a business meeting; and a dry-aged Creekstone farms New York steak for that couple in the corner celebrating an anniversary. Save room for the cookie plate. Price range: $11 to $59. 225 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 860-7970, www.georgierestaurant.com.

Matthew Kenney NM

A cauliflower mezze bowl at Matthew Kenney NM, the new vegan restaurant at the Neiman Marcus department store in Beverly Hills. (Michael Owen Baker / For The Times )

Its easy to work up an appetite when youre browsing designer clothing. So after youve finished spending the equivalent of a months rent on a pair of shoes at the Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills, you can slide into the department stores new restaurant, Matthew Kenney NM, for a sensible bite to eat. This is the latest restaurant from the plant-based chef, who also has a restaurant in Venice. Located on the third floor of the department store, the restaurant occupies a small nook surrounded by shoppers and racks of clothing. Dig into a vegan lasagna with cashew ricotta or a cauliflower and sprouted chickpea hummus bowl  your healthful meal surrounded by high fashion. Price range: $6 to $18. 9700 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 550-5900, matthewkenneycuisine.com.

Nerano

Pizza Bianca; stracciatella, California baby artichokes, squash blossoms, winter black truffle, at Nerano. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times )

Those familiar with this new Italian restaurant may remember the building in its former life as a hair salon. Diners on a recent trip were overheard arguing over where the hair dryers used to be. Then their truffle pizza arrived, and they forgot all about the dryers. The space was transformed into a sprawling two-level Italian restaurant by the Toscana Restaurant Group. Nerano is best experienced in two parts: start with a cocktail in the BG Lounge upstairs, and maybe a plate of crisp baby artichokes, before heading to your table downstairs for dinner. Executive chef Michele Lisi, who is from Puglia, Italy, makes all of his own pasta, including the delicately rolled garganelli, which are served coated in a rich, meaty ragu. Price range: $11 to $65. 9960 S. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 405-0155, www.neranobh.com.

Vinoteca

Montanara with prosciutto from Vinoteca at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )

If youve tried montanara, youll wonder why every Italian restaurant in the city isnt making it. These golden pillows of fried pizza dough are the star at Vinoteca, the new wine bar that has taken over part of Culina restaurant at the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. These little doughnuts are savory and sweet  one version is used to cradle lobster, another comes with sweet ricotta and a berry compote. Its the Italian version of street food, served at a fancy hotel. Your new weeknight date plan: Order a few montanara and a tasting flight of Italian wine, then discuss anything but politics with your significant other. Theres nothing like fried pizza dough and a couple fingers of Lagrein to make the world seem right again. Price range: $6 to $15. 300 S. Doheny Drive, Los Angeles, (310) 860-4000, www.culinarestaurant.com.

My mom says Im a fabulous dinner date. Follow me on Twitter & Instagram: @Jenn_Harris_

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Give the gift of feeling great this season. Here are a few ideas to help a lucky someone  or yourself  happily and healthfully launch into the New Year. Youll find hundreds more gift ideas at latimes.com/holidaygiftguide.

At your door

Subscription boxes are the gift that gives month after month. A few we like: Curated beauty picks from Fab Fit Fun (starting at $49.99, fabfitfun.com) and socially conscious finds from Love Goodly ($29.95 and up, lovegoodly.com). And then theres Loli Beautys BIY (blend it yourself) subscription box, which delivers organic and free-trade ingredients from around the globe so you can make your own unique blends. $35 a box and up, lolibeauty.com

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Get your pedal on

Two wheels are a calorie-burning (and green) way to hit the beach, do some light commuting or run errands in the neighborhood. Vernon-based Critical Cycles helps you build your own bike online with stylish options. You can put it all together yourself at home if thats how you roll, or pre-assemby is also offered. Starting at about $199, criticalcycles.com

Cookies with a conscience

A membership to Marina del Rey-based Thrive Market  its like a health-fueled Costco, if Costco delivered  is perfect for the healthy foodie on your gift list. (Thrive also gives away one membership to a low-income family for every one that you purchase for $59.95 a year.) Membership gets you deep discounts on a variety of healthy, organic products. Also good for gift giving: its Healthy Holiday DIY Cookie Kit, featuring sprouted wheat flour, organic brown sugar and dark chocolate chips. $24.95, thrivemarket.com

Namaste in style

The Yogitoes Vitality mat towel has little rubber nubs on the back to prevent slips and slides; the Prolite Mat is luxuriously dense. $70, $80 and up. Both from El-Segundo-based manduka.com.

Backyard camping

California glamping company Shelter Co. has a new Huckleberry Tent recommended for kids or a couple. $250. shelter-co.com

Edible goodies

Health-minded stocking stuffers from Moon Juice wellness apothecary on Melrose Place, such as: a snack bag of hazelnut, mulberry and cacao crunchers; tumeric, coconut and lime pepitas; or, for something sweet, chocolate, coconut and honey buttons. ($4-$6, moonjuiceshop.com). Add Sakaras Beauty Water Cocktail Mix Kit for a festive, from-the-inside-out beauty libation. $109, sakara.com

Fitness fashion

From L.A. designer Monica Wises L*Active 2017 Active-Swim collection come these swim capri pants and Sierra Tank in antique denim ($119, $129, lspace.com), perfect for the California-girl at heart who hits the beach and hikes on the very same day. (Yes, these are swim capris.) Give a pair of Peace Joy snuggle socks to round out stocking stuffers. $10, lifeisgood.com

Stress less

The gift of massage doesnt have to break the bank. Burke Williams opened new outlets in Hollywood and the less expensive Burke Williams Simply Massage in Marina del Rey. Youll also find affordable luxury at the Now in West Hollywood and Santa Monica. $35 and up. burkewilliamsspa.com, bwsimplymassage.com and thenowmassage.com

Unplugged getaway

The Golden State is a destination for curated adventure and creative, mindfulness and wellness travel, so here are some ideas to get you started. First stop in the self-actualization tour? Esalen Institute in Big Sur, of course. Also consider the new Miraval Life in Balance Spa at Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, the Art Seekers programs at Ventana resort in Big Sur and excursions by the Mountain Travel Sobek adventure travel company, including a strenuous 13-day hike along the John Muir Trail in Yosemite National Park. Prices vary.

For the kid inside

Magical Jungle: An Inky Expedition and Coloring Book for Adults, because creativity, play and having fun matters. $16.95, amazon.com

health@latimes.com

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A Polish-registered truck, a kidnapped driver, a falsely-accused Pakistani and a manhunt for a Tunisian suspect: here is what we know about the investigation into the truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead.

On Monday the truck's driver, a 37-year-old Pole named Lukasz, headed to Berlin to deliver a load of 24 tonnes of steel beams from Italy. But the delivery was put off until the following day, so he went to park his Polish-registered lorry in an industrial zone in the northwest of the city, the Bild daily reported.

Around 3:00 pm he spoke briefly to his wife and the couple agreed to talk again an hour later. But they never did. Rather, according to his employer Ariel Zurawski, GPS data from the vehicle showed it had been driven, but only making small movements "as if someone was learning how to drive it".

It left its parking space around 7:40 pm, driving the 10 kilometres (six miles) or so to a busy area of west Berlin where the Christmas market was being held, ploughing into the throng of yuletide revellers.

But after 60-80 metres the lorry, instead of driving straight on through the market, swerved to the left, crashing through a stall before coming to a halt on the avenue running along the side of the square. The change of course brings the carnage to an end.

Police found the Polish driver, shot dead, in the passenger seat of the truck's cab. According to Zurawski, who is also his cousin and who was shown photos of the body, "his face was bloodied and swollen" and had a stab wound.

According to German media, the driver could have been kidnapped and told to drive the truck into the crowd before resisting and being killed. Or, sitting in the passenger seat at gunpoint, he may have tried to seize control of the vehicle and forced it off its deadly trajectory.

At first police believed they had got their man: a Pakistani asylum seeker arrested an hour after the carnage two kilometres away. But he was released 24 hours later, Tuesday evening, after investigators realised there had been a mix-up.

He had been detained after an eyewitness called police to say he had seen the perpetrator jump out the truck's cab and was trailing him, while staying in contact with officers to lead them to where they could make an arrest.

In the end, according to Bild, the witness may have lost the trail of the suspect while following him. And police, relying on a description which was too vague, arrested the wrong man. "We declared victory too soon," said one investigator.

Police launched a manhunt Wednesday for a Tunisian national in his early 20s, known by three different names and born in the southern city of Tataouine, according to media reports.

Asylum office papers believed to belong to the man were found in the cab of the truck.

He applied for asylum in Germany in April and received a temporary residence permit, according to the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

The Tunisian also reportedly had contacts with a 32-year-old Iraqi national, identified as Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A, otherwise known as "Abu Walaa", who was arrested in November with four accomplices accused of running a recruitment network for the Islamic State (IS) militant group, according to prosecutors.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere confirmed authorities were searching for "a new suspect", but did not say whether this person was the Tunisian asylum seeker identified by the media.

The attack has been claimed by IS, with the IS-linked Amaq news agency saying an IS "soldier" had carried out the truck assault "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries".

Germany is part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

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The door to legalized marijuana in California cracked ajar in 1996, when voters approved the Compassionate Use Act, which allowed doctors to recommend cannabis to their patients.

In November, the door flew open as voters approved Proposition 64 by a wide margin, a measure that legalizes marijuana for adult recreational use and could herald the beginning of the end of the federal governments misbegotten war on weed.

Really though, for nearly two decades, pot has more or less been available to anyone 18 or older willing to pay for a medical recommendation, which you could get without ever leaving your bedroom. Its as easy as signing onto a website, paying a few bucks, and Skyping with a physician. Dispensaries sprouted like weeds, bedeviling cities like Los Angeles, which has struggled to develop regulations.

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2016 Year in Review: Highlights and heartbreaks 

Yet as easy as it is to procure, marijuana continues to be listed by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration as a Schedule 1 drug, with no accepted medical benefit, officially considered as dangerous as cocaine or heroin. This strains credulity.

No one has ever died from an overdose of marijuana. And medical literature, though research has been limited in this country by the federal ban, is rife with studies showing potentially beneficial uses for the drug.

Pot has been shown to be effective with certain kinds of intractable childhood epilepsy, for helping the nausea of chemotherapy patients, for stimulating the appetites of people with AIDS. It is believed to help with certain kinds of neuropathic pain. Many combat veterans experiencing PTSD use marijuana to alleviate their symptoms. Professional athletes have extolled the benefits of pot over prescription drugs for chronic injuries.

There are some marijuana activists who reject the idea that pot is ever used recreationally. They believe it always has a medical use, even if that use is simple relaxation after a hard days work.

In any case, after medical marijuana was legalized, lots of Baby Boomers who had used pot in high school and college, then put it away as adults, started to rediscover it. In some affluent circles, pot has become as commonplace as chardonnay, and carries about as much stigma.

For others  especially teenagers, and low-income African Americans and Latinos  marijuana has continued to function as a gateway drug  to the criminal justice system. For police, the whiff of weed offered an excellent pretext to stop, to search, to run license plates, and to arrest. Under the new law, that is no longer the case.

Unlike previous failed legalization campaigns, there was a lot of money backing Prop. 64  $22.5 million compared with a paltry $2.1 million for the No on 64 side.

The publicity-shy tech billionaire Sean Parker was a major underwriter, contributing $8.6 million to Yes on 64. Parker, a former Facebook president who founded Napster, has never publicly explained his interest in legalizing pot, though a spokesman has said he does not plan to pursue money-making opportunities in the newly legalized industry. (Opportunities will be rife, though, if youre not already in the cannabis business, you have missed the ground floor. And possibly the second and third floors, as well.)

Droughts, fires, and the Big One that wasnt: Californias year in review 

Pro-64 ads focused on persuading parents, who were responsible for sinking the last legalization measure in 2010, that it would keep children safe by banning marijuana ads on TV, requiring child-proof packaging and prohibiting edible forms of cannabis to appeal to kids. (No more medicated Gummy bears.)

Also  and this was key  a huge chunk of the expected proceeds from new taxes and fees associated with legalization (the total could add up to $1 billion a year, according to the state legislative analysts office) would be devoted to drug education and after-school programs, which research shows is one of the most effective tools for keeping kids away from drugs and other trouble.

Revenue from cannabis sales, manufacturing and distribution will also be devoted to establishing stoned driving standards, which currently do not exist, and to help the California Highway Patrol train officers to recognize stoned driving in the absence of an objective test like blood alcohol level.

Cities and counties have the right to license and tax pot businesses, or ban them outright  and there is a mad scramble up and down the state by councils and boards of supervisors to figure these things out. State licenses will also be required, and no recreational pot shops will be able to do business until January 2018, when all the regulations are in place. Some places might allow marijuana lounges, but the law forbids pot and liquor from being consumed in the same venue.

A number of changes took place as soon as the election was certified.

As of right now, anyone 21 or older can legally possess, transport or give away up to an ounce of marijuana buds, or eight ounces of concentrate. I heard an attorney say the other day that you could even hand your stash to a police officer and ask him to roll you a few joints without fear of arrest, though I would not recommend it.

Adults also have the right to grow six marijuana plants at home, out of public view. No one, however, has the right to be stoned at work.

Perhaps most important, anyone with a charge, or conviction, for something that is no longer considered a crime under Prop. 64 can ask to have the charges dropped, be released from jail or prison, or ask the court to reduce their sentence or expunge their record.

Drug Policy Alliance, the national drug law reform group that co-sponsored Prop. 64, has estimated that around 2,000 California inmates stand to be affected by the change in the law. Potentially tens of thousands of others who have been arrested or already served time will be able to apply to have their records obliterated.

Nationally, this was a good season for marijuana initiatives.

Along with California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Maine also voted to legalize recreational marijuana, joining Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. (Arizona rejected a legalization measure.) Also, four other states legalized medical marijuana, bringing the total to 28 states, plus the District of Columbia.

It remains to be seen whether the selection of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, a marijuana opponent, as U.S. attorney general will herald the start of renewed conflict between the states and the federal government over marijuana.

Activists are pinning their hopes on President-elect Donald Trump. In October 2015, Trump said he believes marijuana legalization should be left to the states.

Click here for a Spanish version of this story

More columns 

For more on politics 

robin.abcarian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AbcarianLAT

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Californias birthrate dropped to its lowest level ever in 2016, according to data released by the states Department of Finance.

Between July 2015 and July of this year, there were 12.42 births per 1,000 Californians, the agency said this week. The last time the birthrate came close to being that low was during the Great Depression, when it hit 12.6 per 1,000 in 1933.

But, unlike after the Depression, birthrates havent bounced back quickly as the economy has picked up.

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California has been experiencing a years-long downward trend that likely stems from the recession, a drop in teenage pregnancies and an increase in people attending college and taking longer to graduate, therefore putting off having children, said Walter Schwarm, a demographer at the Department of Finance. When people do complete their schooling, theyre interested in taking some time to pursue their careers or other goals, he said.

Eventually you think about having a child and by this point in time youre in your early 30s, he said. Because thats also when womens fertility begins to decrease, they end up having fewer children than if theyd started in their 20s, he said.

Similarly, the national birthrate began falling in 2008 and continued to do so through 2013, when it hit a record low of 12.4 per 1,000 people. The rate increased only slightly in 2014, the most recent year for which there is data, to 12.5.

There are a number of reasons for the low rates, experts say: teen pregnancies have fallen dramatically in recent years; the recession led to a decrease in immigration, and immigrants have historically had more kids; plus, immigrants are attending college more, with 50% of recent immigrants in California holding a bachelors degree, said Schwarm.

And for people in their 20s who would be expected to have kids, its probably been particularly difficult to recover from the recession, experts say. That group attended college during the worst of the downturn and were likely primarily focused on finding jobs.

Between 2007 and 2012, birthrates among women in their 20s declined more than 15%, according to a report from the Urban Institute. Thats in part because fewer unmarried women in their 20s had kids on top of fewer choosing to get married, which is associated with having more children.

If these low birthrates to women in their twenties continue, the U.S. might eventually face the type of generational imbalance that currently characterizes Japan and some European countries, but it is too early to predict or worry about that eventuality, the 2015 report said.

Millennials could begin to have more kids in their 30s and compensate for the current drop, experts say. If that happens, people in their early 30s could make up the bulk of new parents for the first time in U.S. history, said Nan Astone, report author and senior fellow at the Urban Institute.

But she added that its been a while since the recession ended and, though birthrates may have increased a little, I dont think were at anything like compensation.

For the U.S. though, generational imbalance isnt as big a concern because theres typically an influx of immigrants that keeps the working-age population large, she said.

Its a little too early to panic, Astone said. The U.S. has a lot more room to have low birthrates than either Japan or Europe.

Schwarm pointed out that California is a little different from the rest of the nation. Already, people in their early 30s here have the highest birthrates.

That might reflect greater opportunities or greater difficulties in setting up a family here in California, he said.

Schwarm said he expects the states birthrate will continue to be low for the next few years  and might even drop a little further.

That will likely change, however, when people born in the late 1980s and 90s begin having children as they approach their 30s.

Theyre a giant cohort in the state  1990 had the most births in California history, with 1991 and 1992 close behind. So, if and when they do decide to have children, it will likely affect the states overall birthrate, Schwarm said.

That will bring everything back up, he said.

soumya.karlamangla@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter: @skarlamangla

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UPDATES:

1:30 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information on the national birth rate.

This article was originally published at 7:30 a.m.
2016 was a year of surprises: President-elect Donald Trump, Nobel laureate Bob Dylan, the end of Angelina and Brad (or was that one inevitable?).

We were hacked by the Russians, panicked by Zika and horrified by shootings across the country. After the November election, adult Californians could smoke marijuana -- legally. We said goodbye to Kobe and Vin, binge-watched, rocked out to Old-Chella and signed up for the Tesla 3.

Beyonce and Hamilton ruled.

So, yes, it was a big year. And wed like to suggest that you take some time to recall the biggest stories of 2016 -- if only to prepare for the cacophony that undoubtedly will erupt in 2017.
Taliban gunmen stormed the residence of an Afghan lawmaker in the capital Kabul on Wednesday, with casualties feared in the ongoing gun battle that follows a recent lull in violence.

It was not immediately clear if Helmand MP Mir Wali was in the compound when the attack began on Wednesday evening, but local media reported some members of his family may have been killed or taken hostage, citing security officials at the scene.

The Taliban in a statement said their suicide bombers raided the house to disrupt an "important gathering of security officials".

Sporadic gunfire and explosions were heard from the house as Afghan forces cordoned off the property after launching a clearance operation.

Security officials were tight-lipped about the attack, which underscores the worsening security situation in Afghanistan.

The Taliban are escalating their insurgency despite the onset of winter, when fighting usually ebbs, even as international efforts intensify to restart stalled peace talks.

Fifteen years and hundreds of billions of dollars since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the security situation in the country remains fraught and Afghan forces are struggling to contain the conflict.

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My youth, which played out in the middle of the last century, never seemed boring or perilous despite the absence of smart phones and seat belts.

The natural, physical landscape beckoned, and I was luckier than most.

I grew up in California.

In the summers of my youth, the Sacramento-San Joaquin air was baked and dry breezes smelled like straw. We had to escape, if only for a week.

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So we loaded the Dodge Coronet, three unbelted kids in the back seat, and went to the coast.

The destination was always the same.

Santa Cruz.

The salt air. The morning fog. The squawking gulls. The mysteries of the underwater universe. The nighttime thunder of crashing waves.

Imagine my luck, more than half a century later, to be sent back to my childhood paradise for work.

The year 2016 marks, after all, the 40th anniversary of the Coastal Act, a magnificent concept dreamed up by an army of California citizens who loved the coast as much as I did and campaigned to codify preservation and public access.

It also marked a year of turmoil at the California Coastal Commission, where the beloved executive director was all but locked into stocks and summarily dismissed, without explanation, by political appointees.

Silence, meanwhile, from Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed the Coastal Act into law in 1976 but never seemed fond of the agency formed to enforce it.

Droughts, fires, and the Big One that wasnt: Californias year in review 

As my Los Angeles Times colleagues and I reported throughout the year, the development lobby  eager to tinker with Californias greatest resource  was all too cozy with commissioners.

Lobbyists routinely met privately with commissioners and then handed the commissioners the notes on what to enter into the public record. Commissioners also failed to report private meetings with developers, and a business manager for the biggest lobbying firm wrote campaign checks to two commissioners, one of whom then voted to support a project backed by the firm.

It all had the whiff of leftover bait, pelican poop and rotted kelp.

So my trip along the 1,100-mile coast, from Oregon to Mexico, was more than an exercise in nostalgia. It was a crusade, a celebration of preservation victories, a rumination on the losses, and a call for sturdier defense of one of the worlds greatest natural resources, for the infinite enjoyment of everyone regardless of address or income.

I did not travel solo. I moved with a Huntington Beach artist/surfer/diver who loves, as much as I do, the redwood waltz at the shore near the Oregon border, the glorious isolation of the Lost Coast, the pine-scented thrill of Monterey Bay, the remoteness of the Gaviota Coast, the graceful curve of Santa Monica Bay and the charm of the La Jolla Coves.

Photos: Stunning images along Californias coast 

Times photographer Allen Schaben feasted on the wonders, chasing light that crept over rocky promontories, electrified the open waters and fell in hushed sunset hues over vast horizons. He worked 16 hours a day for six weeks and his photographs belong somewhere else, besides the newspaper. A museum, maybe, or between the covers of a big art book.

Neither of us wanted it to end. It was a cushy junket, but the greater purpose was to tell stories in a way that inspired future stewards to uphold Californias unique legacy of coastal preservation, and to remind elected and appointed officials that were watching.

The affair began many years ago, when the coast was, for me, a destination. In 2016, speaking up for it became a duty.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATstevelopez

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Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against four men accused of killing three teens in a firebombing at a South El Monte tire shop.

The decision was announced Tuesday during a hearing for the four men, said Greg Risling, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County district attorneys office.

German Monrreal, 20; Mario Godina, 20; Estevan Castillo, 21; and Roberto Fuentes, 21, are charged with three counts of murder, one count of arson causing great bodily injury and one count of using a destructive device and explosive with the intent to injure a person and destroy property.

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The announcement comes more than a year and a half after Destiny Aguirre, 18; Carlos Jimenez, 17; and Rodrigo Gonzalez, 17, were killed in the fire on April 25, 2015.

They had been celebrating Jimenezs 18th birthday at Cheque Tires, which was known as a community gathering place. Gonzalezs father owned the shop.

After the party finished, Gonzalez, Jimenez and Aguirre went to sleep inside the shop.

Just before 5:30 a.m., detectives said, the four men threw a Molotov cocktail into the tire shop in the 1200 block of Santa Anita Avenue. They took off in a getaway vehicle.

When firefighters arrived at the tire shop, they saw a young man trying to escape the fire from behind heavily locked gates. They tried to rescue him but watched him die before they could get to him, fire officials said.

The next day, detectives arrested Fuentes in connection with the deadly fire.

Using surveillance video from the fire, homicide detectives were able to identify Castillo, Godina and Monrreal as suspects in the teens deaths. By then, the men had already fled the country.

But detectives investigating the teens deaths got a tip that Monrreal, Godina and Castillo were hiding out in Mexico, sheriffs officials said.

With the help of the U.S. Marshals Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force and Mexican state police, detectives found the three men at a ranch at a home in Guadalajara.

They were arrested and flown back to Los Angeles.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.
A former Antelope Valley High School student was arrested Tuesday after authorities said he plotted an attack on the Lancaster campus and attempted to recruit students to join him.

Diavauni James Crooms, 18, was taken into custody at his home on suspicion of attempted murder for making threats, according to Deputy Yeni Deciga of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. He is being held in lieu of $1-million bail.

The high school is currently on winter break, and there was no immediate threat or danger to any students or staff, Deciga said.

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Sheriffs deputies learned about Crooms plans after a parent called to report a threat he had made on social media, Deciga said in a Sheriffs Department statement.

The high school is currently on winter break, and there was no immediate threat or danger to any students or staff.  Deputy Yeni Deciga of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department

As deputies investigated the threat, they discovered Crooms had once attended the high school. He had been trying to recruit students to participate in the plot, the deputy said.

The suspect was planning to acquire weapons and attack students at the high school at a future date, Deciga said.

When deputies searched his home in the 43400 block of Gadsden Avenue, they found messages detailing the suspects intentions, the Sheriffs Department said.

Investigators said they also found items that could be used to make explosive devices.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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A nursing student arrested in the death of a former reality show contestant was allegedly having an affair with her and gave her family inconsistent stories about being with her after she disappeared, the dead womans sister said.

As Lisa Marie Naegles family investigated her disappearance on Sunday, they tracked down surveillance video that showed Naegle entering Jackie Jerome Rogers black SUV after a birthday party at a restaurant in Torrance and driving off, her sister, Danielle Naegle-Kaimona, told KABC-TV News. The family also had photographs of the pair at the party and security camera images of them at a gas station, the TV station reported.

But when they confronted Rogers seeking information about Naegles whereabouts, he denied having left with her or taking her home, Naegle-Kaimona said. Rogers later admitted to police that he changed his story because he and Naegle, who was married, were having an affair, Naegle-Kaimona told KABC.

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Police said Rogers gave information to investigators that led them to believe Naegle had been murdered.

When detectives went to his familys home in the 5000 block of West 106th Street in Lennox on Tuesday, they found Naegles body in a shallow grave.

Rogers, 34, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

The L.A. County coroners office will make the final determination of how Naegle died, said Officer Tony Im, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Rogers was a nursing student of Naegles. She had taught at West Los Angeles College.

Hours after her body was discovered, her husband, Derek Harryman, expressed devastation on Facebook.

I love you so much Lisa and will never be the same without you, he wrote.Until we meet again baby cakes. My little flower.

Naegle, who appeared on the E! reality show Bridalplasty, went missing after attending a party at the Alpine Village restaurant on Saturday night. She called her husband about 2:30 a.m. Sunday and said she would be grabbing food on her way home.

She never arrived home and didnt show up to teach her next nursing class.

Calls made to her cellphone went to voicemail, her husband said.

Naegle was reported missing Monday after her family spoke with Rogers.

On Wednesday, West Los Angeles College issued a statement to students and faculty.

Lisa had been part of the West family for a decade, college president James Limbaugh said in the statement. Her colleagues describe her as a well-respected instructor on whom students and faculty knew they could depend.

Naegle was passionate about teaching and trained hundreds of students at the college as well as nursing homes in the area, according to the school statement.

Such a life cut short, and during what we usually think of as a joyous time, seems especially tragic, Limbaugh said. My sympathies and condolences are with all of you who knew her and to her family.

A college spokeswoman said no other details were available about Rogers because of student privacy laws.

Naegle competed with other brides for a dream wedding and a plastic surgery procedure in the 2010 reality show. Naegle was eliminated in episode 7.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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UPDATES:

12 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from West Los Angeles College.

This article was originally published at 8:15 a.m.
On a recent afternoon in Silver Lake, joggers circled the reservoir, dogs ran in the dog park and families picnicked on a meadow on the eastern side of the lake. Sun glinted off the million-dollar homes that sit high in the Silver Lake hills looking down on the basin. It would have been picturesque if it werent for one glaring catch: Silver Lake Reservoir, the neighborhoods namesake and signature icon, sits empty.

The reservoir was drained a year ago as part of a project by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to build a 4,600-foot bypass pipeline connecting a new underground reservoir north of Griffith Park to the citys water distribution system. The new reservoir had to be built after federal regulations went into effect mandating that all drinking-water supplies be stored underground to avoid contamination.

Since it was drained, the 96-acre Silver Lake has become an eyesore. Huge earth-moving trucks dot the basin like toy cars. Dirt covers the bottom and weeds have begun to sprout.

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Although officials have promised to refill the lake, there is a bigger battle brewing over the future of the landmark. Once a community jewel that drew mostly locals, Silver Lake has become a destination with an international following, its popularity rising along with the hipness of the surrounding community.

And that has sparked debate about what Silver Lake should become. Some people want only to refill the reservoir or make minor improvements, while others see an irresistible opportunity to create an expansive recreational park for the city of Los Angeles.

Catherine Geanuracos, a co-founder of the nonprofit Silver Lake Forward, said her group is committed equally to the values of access, beauty and conservation. Some people feel that those are mutually exclusive, but theyre not, she said.

Geanuracos said the groups primary goal is to get the city to fund a study into the lakes future. Silver Lake Forward members have previously proposed adding bathrooms, more seating, docks and a beach where people could swim.

Grand ideas like those have other residents worried.

This cannot be a Santa Monica Pier  Jill Cordes, leader of the Refill Silver Lake Now campaign

This cannot be a Santa Monica Pier, said Jill Cordes, leader of the Refill Silver Lake Now campaign. The campaign represents many homeowners and young families, Cordes said, who welcome visitors to the reservoir but dont want to make it the biggest, busiest hot spot in Los Angeles.

The Silver Lake Reservoir, engineered by William Mulholland and named after water commissioner Herman Silver, was built in 1907 to hold an emergency supply of drinking water. It was later integrated into the citys regular drinking water system to accommodate a growing population.

When it was first filled, the reservoir looked like a mountain lake  an unfenced body of water surrounded by earth. Two thousand trees were planted around the lake shortly after was built. Mulholland even had bass added for fishing, said Glen Creason, a librarian at the L.A. Public Library. During World War II, a fence was added around the lake; its banks were raised and paved in 1951.

The overall 127-acre complex encompasses the Silver Lake Reservoir, the much smaller Ivanhoe Reservoir, surrounding buildings and facilities, a recreation center and open land. The reservoirs are a historic-cultural monument, home to a variety of wildlife  including the legally protected great blue heron  and a popular destination for joggers.

In the year 2000, after undergoing an extensive community consultation process, the DWP approved a master plan for the reservoir complex. The plan included a pedestrian path around the lake and a common-use meadow, both of which were completed in the last decade.

The master plan did not consider expanding the reservoir for recreational purposes because it was expected to remain functioning, DWP officials said.

Now its a very different story, said Marty Adams, chief operating officer for the agency. The entire property is kind of fair game.

Such a blank slate comes with a host of opinions.

At a community meeting in November hosted by the DWP and L.A. City Council members David Ryu and Mitch OFarrell, who represent the neighborhood, residents heckled one another as they delivered comments on the reservoirs future. A man wearing a Silver Lake Forward T-shirt accused residents who were opposed to park development of selfishness and a not-in-my-backyard attitude. A longtime homeowner made a plea to city officials to put the interests of Silver Lake residents first. And a question about whether to paint the concrete sides of the reservoir ended in a stalemate.

David Keitel is president of the Silver Lake Reservoirs Conservancy, a 28-year-old nonprofit focused on preserving and enhancing the reservoirs. The group recently surveyed 3,400 residents about the reservoir.

The community values the water for all kinds of reasons, Keitel said, including the view, nature and wildlife and public space.

Keitel said residents have held fairly consistent attitudes about development of the reservoir over time. Theres always been a minority of residents who want to leave it exactly the same. Theres a minority on the other end who want Ferris wheels and rock concerts. A really strong majority support more public access without attracting more people than the infrastructure can handle, he said.

Fred Silny and his wife, Judy Jurdan, live on West Silver Lake Drive in a two-level house with a view of the reservoir. They bought the property in 1986, raised their son there and have now retired.

I loved it because it was peaceful and quiet and a great place to raise kids, Silny said.

Silny and Jurdan supported the addition of a walking path, dog park and meadow in the 2000s. They continue to support modest improvements to the reservoir, like putting in a pedestrian path at the southern tip, but they said the neighborhood can only accommodate so much change.

You get to a point where it gets more and more difficult, Silny said. I just dont see how you can keep a neighborhood a neighborhood and do development.

Silny and his wife said they worried that an expanded park would bring excessive car and foot traffic to the neighborhood, exacerbating congestion and parking shortages, as well as possibly spurring an uptick in crime.

We pay the property taxes, Jurdan said, but theres nothing to accommodate us.

A couple of doors down, Kevin Souls said he too felt conflicted. While Id like to see some more beautification, I dont want the neighborhood to get more crowded, Souls said.

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, a USC professor who studies urban planning and economic development, was sympathetic to longtime residents wariness of change but said that concerns about overcrowding miss the point of public space.

Public space is for the public, she said. If the space around the reservoir is redeveloped and its very attractive and desirable, of course there will be more car traffic and foot traffic. Thats a good problem to have. It means you have created a successful public space.

Currid-Halkett said fears about an influx of people clogging the streets and making them more dangerous are overblown.

I think in cases like this an equilibrium would emerge, she said. If it is that difficult to navigate and then park on Silver Lakes narrow streets, we would also see less demand to come to the neighborhood.

She noted too that crime is likely to go down rather than up with the presence of more people on the streets and residents who have a vested interest in keeping the neighborhood safe.

Public space brings other positives as well, Currid-Halkett said. It increases real estate values, it creates the vibrancies of urban life that many people in cities crave [and] its important for social capital  the human relationships that make people want to invest in their community and in one another, she said.

Many residents are eager for the kind of space that Currid-Halkett describes.

Emily Bills said she and her family use the meadow, recreation center and walking path all the time. We would do more if there [were] more, she said.

About concerns of overcrowding, Bills, a homeowner, shrugged and said, I dont think its our right to keep public space to a neighborhood.

Anna Elledge, who rents an apartment on Silver Lake Boulevard, said she loves having a park in walking distance and brings her baby to the recreation center almost every day.

If I didnt have this spot, Id be a pretty lonely mom, Elledge said. The reservoir isnt really a place you can go.

Jeremy Grant, a Seattle native and recent transplant to Silver Lake, said he wished that the reservoir had more spaces like the meadow  a beautiful public area where people can hang out. It just feels like too much of an oasis, like its the only spot for that, Grant said.

The debate is likely to continue for months to come. For now, there is no plan and no funding other than for refilling the reservoir; officials say they will begin piping in groundwater in May.

Representatives of Silver Lake Forward, Refill Silver Lake Now and the Silver Lake Reservoirs Conservancy have been meeting privately to find common ground on short-term improvements and on asking the city to facilitate a planning process. Council members Ryu and OFarrell say they will hire a consultant in 2017 to gather community input about the reservoirs future.

In the meantime, the storied Silver Lake remains such only in name.

nina.agrawal@latimes.com

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Police say a man who managed to snatch a pot of gold off an armored truck on a busy New York City street has made his way to Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, the New York City Police Department identified its suspect as 53-year-old Julio Nivelo, who also goes by David Vargas. Police said they think Nivelo is hiding out in the Los Angeles area, although it is unclear if he is carrying the 86-pound load of gold. The pot contained $1.6 million in gold flakes, police said.

The theft drew global attention after police released surveillance video last month showing a man reaching into an armored truck, then tottering away while bear-hugging the pot.

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In the short video from the Sept. 29 theft, the man is seen walking in front of the unattended armored truck at about 4:30 p.m. The truck was parked outside a 15-story high-rise building at 48 West 48th Street, where the driver had slipped inside to make a pickup, according to the NYPD.

The trucks cargo doors were open and the items inside were visible to passersby.

The video shows a man looking around and lingering near the truck.

Seconds later, he walks up to the open truck and reaches inside. He grabs both sides of the five-gallon aluminum pot and quickly lifts it out.

Police said the thief was last seen walking east on 48th Street.

Nivelo was described as 155 pounds, 5 foot 5 with dark hair.

Anyone with details about Nivelo is urged to call NYPDs Crime Stoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS, or (888) 577-4782 for Spanish speakers. Tips can also be made at the Crime Stoppers website, or via text at 274637 (CRIMES), then enter TIP577.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.
Expect to see heightened security at Los Angeles shopping areas, farmers markets and other large gathering places in the coming days as authorities step up security measures in the wake of the Berlin Christmas market truck attack that killed 12 people this week.

Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Michael Downing said Tuesday that his counter-terrorism bureau has been aware for some time of the potential danger from attackers using trucks or other large vehicles to run down pedestrians.

In many places with heavy pedestrian traffic, concrete pillars are already in place to prevent someone from driving a truck onto the sidewalk. But, Downing said, additional barriers, including the use of large vehicles, can be deployed to block potential attackers from accessing open pedestrian areas.

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We are talking to captains in precincts where there are large mass gatherings, be it farmers markets or shoppers, Downing said. We are encouraging the use of vehicles and other barriers to protect the crowds.

Other major law enforcement agencies are also taking extra precautions.

Scott Edson, chief of the Los Angeles County sheriffs Homeland Security Division, said his department is planning additional security measures to protect crowds at large gatherings in the coming weeks and days, but declined to provide specifics.

What we are doing is reminding everyone that one of the easiest ways to make a weapon of terror is to use a large truck or vehicle, he said.

New York police said Tuesday that they too were taking extra precautions to deter a truck attack. The agency said it has assigned additional officers to patrol potential targets, but did not provide specifics.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Berlin market attack through its Amaq news site, saying it had been carried out by an unidentified soldier. The language used suggested the attacker may have been inspired by the group but did not necessarily act on its orders. Police caught a 23-year-old man after the 40-ton truck careened through the crowd Monday, injuring 48 people in addition to causing the dozen deaths. But that man was released Tuesday.

In Los Angeles, Downing noted there was no specific credible threat of an attack planned for the holiday season, but encouraged members of the public to use the LAPDs iWatch app to make a report if they see suspicious activity.

Heightened security in local areas often follows deadly terrorist attacks elsewhere. In the wake of last years coordinated attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, security was increased at popular shopping areas and public transportation depots across Los Angeles County. Local authorities now view bus and railway stations, malls and event venues on par with the Rose Bowl and Dodger Stadium when it comes to risk assessment.

Terrorism by truck has long been feared by law enforcement 

Experts say installing barriers, closing off nearby access roads and adding armed security guards can act as a deterrent to attacks on so-called soft targets.

We can harden the target, Downing said.

The method used in this weeks Berlin attack, he said, is not new but a reminder that something as ordinary as a truck can be turned into an instrument of terrorism in heavily populated areas without much security.

The danger first emerged in the 1980s with attacks in Lebanon using truck bombs. That concern was reinforced by the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which used a Ryder truck, and the 1993 World Trade Center attack in New York.

Julys attack in Nice, France, again illustrated the risks when a 19-ton truck plowed into a crowd assembled for a fireworks display, killing 86 people. And last month, an Ohio State student drove a car into a crowd at the university before attacking bystanders with a knife, injuring at least 11 people.

Nice, Ohio and now Berlin all show the danger, Downing said, noting that an Islamic State publication recently included a basic guide on using trucks to inflict mayhem and death.

Downing said the LAPD is contacting local truck yards to ask proprietors to keep an eye on their vehicles to prevent thefts and to immediately report any suspicious activity.

People need to be aware of their surroundings, he said.

richard.winton@latimes.com

Follow @lacrimes on Twitter
A Los Angeles judge Tuesday sentenced a 33-year-old man to multiple life terms in prison for killing four people at a San Fernando Valley restaurant more than six years ago.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo imposed two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole on Nerses Arthur Galstyan, and tacked on two additional life terms.

A jury of nine men and three women convicted Galstyan in March of two counts of first-degree murder and one count each of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and aggravated mayhem.

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The April 3, 2010, mass shooting occurred at the Hot Spot Mediterranean restaurant along Riverside Drive in Valley Village. People had gathered there for a memorial honoring a friend who had died in a traffic accident, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Chung, who led the prosecution on the case.

Chung said that Galstyan got into a verbal dispute with several acquaintances inside the restaurant. He briefly left, snatched a gun from his car, returned to the restaurant and opened fire.

Hayk Yegnanyan, 25; Vardan Tofalyan, 31; Sarkis Karadjian, 26; and Harut Baburyan, 28, were killed.

The gunman was recorded on surveillance video as he left the restaurant, and he was arrested shortly after the slayings at a home near Seattle.

During the trial, defense lawyer Alex Kessel argued that the shootings were an act of self-defense. He claimed that one of the victims, Yegnanyan, was intimidating Galstyan and his brother.

Kessel told jurors that two of the victims came to the restaurant with guns and tried to frighten Galstyan, who felt threatened enough to begin shooting.

Some of the men had allegedly been active in organized crime and gun running, and had convictions for fraud and weapons violations, police said.

Investigators with the Los Angeles Police Robbery Homicide Division said Galstyan was tired of being humiliated and forced to do menial tasks.

Less than a week after the restaurant killings, a federal grand jury indicted Galstyan on separate charges of selling firearms without a license and possession of a firearm with the serial numbers removed.

In 2009, he and one of the victims, Tofalyan, allegedly sold illegal firearms to an informant working with federal agents.

matt.hamilton@latimes.com

Twitter: @MattHjourno.

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The case was filed by Orange Egypt, who claimed that the ECA did not have the right to refer telecommunication companies to court

An Egyptian administrative court ruled on Wednesday that the state's antitrust watchdog, the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA), is the only body authorised to examine monopolistic practices in the telecommunication sector, an ECA statement read.

The case was filed by the Orange Egypt company, which claimed that the ECA did not have the right to refer telecommunication companies to court and were trespassing on the authority of the National Telecom Regulatory Authority.

There are currently three operating mobile companies in Egypt: Orange Egypt (formerly Mobinil), Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat.

A fourth mobile license was recently awarded to state-owned telephone company Telecom Egypt.

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Hes a white nationalist, and hes pondering a run for Congress.

Richard Spencer, whose National Policy Institute has been described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League, said hes considering running for the Montana congressional seat expected to be vacated by Republican Ryan Zinke. Last week, Zinke was tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Interior.

In an interview Tuesday, Spencer, a resident of Montana who also has a home and office space in the Washington, D.C.-area, said hes seriously thinking about a run and would make a decision by early next year.

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This would be an insurgent campaign, said Spencer, adding that he would run as an independent candidate. My candidacy would be something everyone would be talking about and would observe.

As the founder of the alt-right movement  a loose grouping of neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and misogynists, united in opposition to the perceived disenfranchisement of white men  Spencer has traversed the country in recent weeks for a host of speaking engagements. Interest in the movement has surged in the wake of Trumps victorious presidential campaign, which was marked by divisive and racially coded rhetoric. Earlier this month, thousands of students at Texas A&M University protested a speech Spencer delivered in a campus banquet hall.

For Spencer, Trumps candidacy and victory symbolized a strong shift toward nationalism.

He was a breath of fresh air, Spencer said.

In order to run as an independent to succeed Zinke as Montanas only U.S. House member, Spencer would have to submit a petition with 15,000 verified signatures 75 days before the special election, according to the Montana Secretary of States office.

While Montana Democrats in recent days have strongly denounced any potential campaign by Spencer, Republicans have been more subdued. Jeff Essmann, chairman of the Montana Republican Party, told the Missoulian last week that he couldnt comment on the merits of any candidate or share my personal views on any of them. But, he added, in most corners of Montana, a Spencer candidacy would be viewed skeptically.

So far, no Democrats have declared interest in the seat, although several Republican state legislators have stepped forward, including state Sens. Scott Sales of Bozeman and Ed Buttrey of Great Falls, and state Rep. Daniel Zolnikov of Billings.

On Tuesday, Rachel Carroll Rivas, co-director of the Montana Human Rights Network, castigated Spencer for considering a run for Congress in the state.

Hes using a political platform to take these extremist ideas into our everyday discussion, and we should resist this at every turn, she said. Who supports Richard Spencer?  Hes supported by a bunch of online vitriolic trolls.

As Spencer weighs a run for Congress, the Daily Stormer, a white nationalist website, in recent days has called on supporters to take action against Jewish people in Whitefish, Mont., where Spencers mother, Sherry, lives. It alleges that the vicious, evil race has forced Sherry Spencer to sell a building she owns in town. The website posted the names and addresses of several people in Whitefish.

Its not what I would do, Spencer said of the Daily Stormers release of the residents personal information.

Carroll Rivas notes that should Spencer run, it would not [be] the first time a white supremacist has run for Congress in Montana.

Five years ago, John Abarr, a former organizer for the Ku Klux Klan, ran in the Republican primary for Montanas congressional seat. At the time, he said, it was in response to the election of President Obama and was an effort to save the white race. Abarr eventually dropped out, citing a lack of support for his candidacy. And this year, a white nationalist, Taylor Rose, ran an unsuccessful GOP campaign for a seat in the state Legislature.

Several white nationalists elsewhere in the country have run for political office in recent years  Tom Metzger in California, David Duke in Louisiana and Arthur Jones in Illinois, to name a few. Duke has run for state and federal offices in Louisiana nearly a dozen times, including a failed bid for U.S. Senate last month, and served a term in the Louisiana House of Representatives.

When asked how he feels about Montanans not wanting a racist to represent them in Congress, Spencer chuckled.

Im sure there will be Montanans who say that, he said. Sure, thats fine.

kurtis.lee@latimes.com

Twitter: @kurtisalee

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Democrats draw sharper battle lines in tug of war over party leadership By Chris Megerian Even as Democrats try to move past last years defeats, their internal fault lines show signs of deepening in the campaign for the partys leadership. The latest evidence came Wednesday when former Vice President Joe Biden endorsed Thomas E. Perez, who served as President Obamas Labor secretary, to chair the Democratic National Committee. We have a lot of good people vying for this important job, Biden said in a statement. But I do think for this moment and in this time, Tom Perez is our best bet to help bring the party back. The endorsement was seen as more evidence that key members of the recently departed Obama administration were backing Perez. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) with Sen. Bernie Sanders. (Alex Wong / Getty Images) It was followed by a statement from Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont reiterating his support for Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), another leading candidate in the race. Although Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary, he has continued to try to pull Democrats to the left, and he has emphasized the need to create a grass-roots party. Obama left office with strong poll numbers, but under his watch, Democrats lost power not only in Washington but in states around the country, something Sanders and his allies have stressed in the fight over the party chairmanship. The question is simple: Do we stay with a failed status-quo approach or do we go forward with a fundamental restructuring of the Democratic Party? Sanders said. Read More Facebook

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Border Patrol chief is abruptly out after being brought in as a reformer By Brian Bennett The chief of the Border Patrol will leave his post at the end of the month, likely the result of a change in direction by the Trump administration and a reflection of the new power of the agencys union. Mark Morgan, the agencys head, was hired from the FBI in June to reform the force after a series of corruption allegations and problems with excessive force. He will leave the Border Patrol abruptly after seven months on the job, according to a person familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Morgans departure was first reported by the Associated Press. Morgan spent 20 years at the FBI and was first brought to Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrols parent agency, in 2014 to overhaul its internal affairs division. After a subsequent stint running the FBIs training academy, he started the top job at the Border Patrol in June. The Border Patrols union had opposed Morgans appointment, preferring a candidate who had risen through the ranks of the agency. The union endorsed President Trump in the election, breaking with its practice of remaining neutral in elections. News of Morgans departure comes a day after Trump announced he would build a border wall and hire 5,000 more Border Patrol agents, bringing the total force to 26,000. Trump said the Border Patrol union would have a lot of clout in department decisions. Facebook

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Trump was silent on new U.S. sanctions against Russia, but he praises Putins response By Michael A. Memoli After President Obama on Thursday announced retaliatory measures against the Russian government for what the U.S. has concluded were efforts to interfere in the election, President-elect Donald Trumps response was terse and dismissive, saying it was time to move on to bigger and better things. But after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that he would not respond in kind to the U.S. actions  preferring to wait until the new administration takes office  Trump weighed in with high praise. Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2016 Trumps tweet did not appear to be off the cuff. As if to underscore his sentiment, Trump affixed the tweet to the top of his Twitter feed. And he posted an Instagram photo shortly after, quoting himself. View Instagram post Trumps effusive words were particularly striking given the bipartisan view of Putin as more adversary than ally. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said they supported the Obama administrations move to expel Russian diplomats and block access to two properties owned by its government. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) is expected to call a hearing on Russias cyber activities when the new Congress convenes next week. A Trump transition spokesman was asked earlier Friday whether Trump had spoken or planned to speak with Putin before his inauguration. The priority right now is for the president[-elect] to get an update next week from the intelligence community, Sean Spicer said. Trumps praise did get tacit approval from some quarters. The Russian embassy in Washington retweeted it. Facebook

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Most popular White House petitions included requests to label a hate group and deport Justin Bieber By Colleen Shalby Over the past five years, Americans have produced and signed nearly 5,000 petitions through the White Houses We the People site. How could we ever forget the effort to get the Obama administration on board with building a Death Star? Some, like that one and a petition to deport Justin Bieber, resulted only in conversation. But others made an impact. The Pew Research Center analyzed the petitions in a recent report. They ranged from serious, like an effort to ban gay conversion therapy at a state level that led the president in 2015 to support states bans, to playful. A request for Obama to appear on a previously unvisited talk show, for example, prompted him to appear on Real Time with Bill Maher in January 2016. In 2015, 106-year-old Virginia McLaurin requested a meeting with the first black president, something she never thought shed live to see. Her petition garnered only 19 signatures. But it nonetheless resulted in one of first couples most memorable meetings, this dance party: The petitioning system, launched in 2011, was part of Obamas open-government initiative. The most common topics for petitioning included healthcare, veterans issues and requests to honor individuals, such as Yogi Berra, and create or officially recognize holidays, like Talk Like a Pirate Day. While not every petition made a change or elicited a response from the White House, many captured a momentary pulse of the nation. Here are the five most popular: Legally recognize the Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group, posted Dec. 14, 2012; 367,180 signatures. Establish justice and prevent a great catastrophe, posted April 4, 2016; 331,914 signatures. File charges against the 47 U.S. senators in violation of the Logan Act in attempting to undermine a nuclear agreement, posted March 9, 2015; gained 322,117 signatures. Ask President Obama to appear on HBOs Real Time with Bill Maher,  posted Jan. 15, 2016; 314,226 signatures. Deport Justin Bieber and revoke his green card, posted Jan. 23, 2014; 273,698 signatures. Facebook

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Obama slaps Russia with sanctions for meddling in the U.S. election By Christi Parsons In the most sweeping retaliation against Russia in decades, President Obama slapped the country with new penalties Thursday for meddling in the U.S. presidential election, kicking out dozens of suspected spies and imposing banking restrictions on five people and four organizations the administration says were involved. All Americans should be alarmed by Russias actions, Obama said in a statement. Such activities have consequences. Read More Facebook

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How Trump and an Obamacare rollback could affect the growing gig economy By Chicago Tribune Gabby Golub of Chicago does chalkboard art for bars and restaurants in addition to driving for Lyft and working part time at her old high school. (Kristan Lieb / Chicago Tribune) A growing share of the U.S. workforce is reyling on alternative work arrangements, which include on-demand gigs through online platforms like Lyft or Uber as well as work through temporary help agencies, freelance assignments and independent contracts. The Bureau of Labor Statistics plans to conduct a comprehensive survey of these so-called contingent workers next year, its first since 2005, helping policymakers understand the size and makeup of a workforce not covered by many labor protections or privy to the benefits that come with a traditional employer relationship. Whether policy will catch up to the labor shifts is a question experts will watch in 2017. A major conversation point has been how to develop portable benefits that give gig economy workers access to retirement plans, unemployment insurance and paid sick leave even as they move from job to job. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts plans by Sprint and OneWeb to create 8,000 U.S. jobs By Jim Puzzanghera (Don Emmert / AFP/Getty Images) President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday touted plans by telecom company Sprint and technology start-up OneWeb to hire a total of 8,000 workers in the U.S. in what he said was very good news for the economy. He appeared to be highlighting previously made jobs announcements. OneWeb, which is building a network of satellites to deliver high-speed Internet access, said on Dec. 19 that it expected to create nearly 3,000 jobs in the U.S. over the next four years after securing $1.2 billion in funding, mostly from Japans SoftBank Group Corp. And the head of SoftBank, which owns Sprint, said on Dec. 6 that the company had agreed to invest $50 billion in the U.S. and create 50,000 jobs here. The announcement by SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son came after he met with Trump at Trump Tower in New York City. Trump touted it that day. Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday, Trump said Sprint was going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States. They have taken them from other countries. They are bringing them back to the United States, Trump said. Sprint, though, said in a statement that the jobs would be a mixture of new positions and others that were reinstated. It wasnt clear whether those jobs were part of the 50,000 that were mentioned earlier in the month at Trump Tower. We are excited to work with President-Elect Trump and his administration to do our part to drive economic growth and create jobs in the U.S., said Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure. We believe it is critical for business and government to partner together to create more job opportunities in the U.S. and ensure prosperity for all Americans. Trump also said the OneWeb hiring is very exciting. OneWeb did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 3:25 p.m.: This story was updated with comment from Sprint. Facebook

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Kerry offers fierce defense of Obamas support for Israel, urges resumption of Mideast peace talks By Laura King Secretary of State John Kerry outlines his proposals for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Zach Gibson / Getty Images) With President-elect Donald Trump tweeting from the sidelines, Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Wednesday outlined broad principles for reviving the moribund Israel-Palestinian peace process -- calls that quickly ignited a new burst of Israeli anger against the Obama administration. Kerrys lengthy and impassioned address, delivered at the State Department, marked the latest chapter in an unusually bitter public clash between the United States and Israel -- and the even more extraordinary spectacle of a president-elect again inserting himself into a sensitive diplomatic matter before taking office. In a speech lasting more than an hour, Kerry appealed for a hiatus in Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, called on Palestinian leaders to explicitly denounce terrorist attacks against Israelis, and warned repeatedly that the prospects for a two-state solution, with Israel and a Palestinian state existing side-by-side, were in jeopardy. We cannot in good conscience do nothing, and say nothing, when we see the hope of peace slipping away, he said. Read More Facebook

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Former California lieutenant governor will meet with Trump to discuss running Agriculture department By Michael A. Memoli Abel Maldonado. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times) President-elect Donald Trump is considering former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado to lead the Agriculture department, a move that would bring greater diversity to the Republicans Cabinet. Maldonado will meet with Trump on Wednesday at his Palm Beach, Fla., estate. Trump spokesman Sean Spicer noted that Maldonado, owner of Runway Vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley, comes from three generations of farmers and has strong roots in the agriculture industry of California. Trump will also meet with Dr. Elsa Murano, the former president of Texas A&M University and a former Agriculture undersecretary for food safety, in connection to the post, one of the few Cabinet positions yet unfilled. Maldonado, 49, was once considered to be the kind of Republican who could break through the partys struggle to attract widespread Latino support. A Santa Barbara County farmer whose parents were Mexican farmworker immigrants, he served as mayor of Santa Maria before being elected to the state Assembly in 1998. Perhaps Maldonados most notable political moment came when he worked with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to force Democrats to embrace the top-two primary system for California during negotiations on the state budget crisis in 2009. Schwarzenegger rewarded Maldonado with the appointment to the then-vacant post of lieutenant governor in 2010. But Maldonados role in helping push the nonpartisan primary system made him a pariah among many conservative Republicans, and he failed in subsequent races for Congress in 2012 and a brief flirtation with a run for governor in 2014. If nominated and confirmed, Maldonado would be the sole Latino in Trumps Cabinet. Facebook

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Trump attacks Obama over Israel just ahead of Kerrys speech on the Mideast By Michael A. Memoli The detente between President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump, as both aimed to portray a smooth transition of power, appears in jeopardy. Trump condemned the Obama administrations foreign policy on Wednesday, tweeting he was doing his best to overlook inflammatory Obama moves, while engaging in 1990s-style sarcasm. Doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory President O statements and roadblocks.Thought it was going to be a smooth transition - NOT!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2016 Last week, Obama decided to have the U.S. abstain from a United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity, which allowed the measure to pass. The vote angered Israeli leaders, who accused senior U.S. officials of complicity in drafting the resolution, a claim disputed by the U.S. We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with such total disdain and disrespect. They used to have a great friend in the U.S., but.......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2016 not anymore. The beginning of the end was the horrible Iran deal, and now this (U.N.)! Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2016 Trumps postings came just before Secretary of State John F. Kerry delivered a major address on U.S. foreign policy that included a rebuttal to Israeli government criticisms of the Obama administration. Trumps statement of support for Israel was welcomed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long had a tense relationship with Obama. President-elect Trump, thank you for your warm friendship and your clear-cut support for Israel! @IvankaTrump @DonaldJTrumpJr https://t.co/lURPimG0wS  Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) December 28, 2016 Trump transition spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters that the president-elects tweets speak for themselves, very clearly. He also stressed that White House officials have been helpful and generous with their time, at least in terms of the mechanics of the transition. In a brief statement to reporters Wednesday night, Trump said he had a general conversation with Obama during the day. Very, very nice, was how the president-elect described the chat, which he said Obama initiated. A White House spokesman confirmed the call and characterized it as positive. When asked whether he thinks the U.S. should exit the U.N., Trump repeated his earlier comments that the global body is not living up to its potential. When do you see the United Nations solving problems? he asked. They dont, they cause problems, so if it lives up to its potential its a great thing, if it doesnt its a waste of time. The U.N. seemed to respond to Trump on Monday, in a message pinned to the top of its Twitter feed: Here's a list of 10 ways the UN makes a difference in the lives of millions every day.



See what else we do: https://t.co/MGT7G5uPFL pic.twitter.com/nMxHV0rvkf  United Nations (@UN) December 26, 2016 Times staff writer Christi Parsons in Honolulu contributed to this report. 5:10 p.m.: This story was updated with White House comment. 2:45 p.m.: This story was updated with Trumps comments. Facebook

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John Kerry, tireless in his diplomatic efforts, often came up empty-handed By Tracy Wilkinson John F. Kerry is nothing if not indefatigable, traveling to all corners of the world as Americas top diplomat over the last four years. But as he prepares to leave office, he confronts a mixed legacy: a handful of successes coupled with searing defeats, especially in the Middle East. His inability to halt the carnage in Syria, or to block Russias growing influence, ranks as the most serious blot on his record. But he also got nowhere trying to end the Israeli-Palestinian standoff, or to stop Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, from bombing civilians in Yemen. Kerrys greatest success was the historic accord to curtail Irans nuclear development program and a landmark climate change treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming. Read More Facebook

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At Pearl Harbor, Obama says we must resist the urge to demonize those who are different By Christi Parsons Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Obama. (Marco Garcia / Associated Press) President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scattered petals together on the waters of Pearl Harbor on Tuesday in a symbolic act aimed at laying to rest the enmity of the Japanese attack 75 years ago that drew the U.S. into World War II. In a moment consumed with history, both leaders were fixed on the future. They expressed concern that the lessons of the war might be forgotten amid a shifting world order and the anti-internationalist sentiment that has swept over politics around the globe, most notably with the ascendance of President-elect Donald Trump. Read More Facebook

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Obama and Japans Abe to visit Pearl Harbor amid renewed talk of nuclear concerns By Christi Parsons Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu on Monday. (AFP/Getty Images) President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are scheduled to honor the war dead at Pearl Harbor on Tuesday, marking the 75th anniversary of the attack that thrust the U.S. into World War II. The visit was planned as a coda to Obamas visit to Hiroshima in May, where Abe hosted him as the first sitting president to visit the site where the U.S. dropped one of two nuclear bombs in 1945 to end the war, the only instances of nuclear attacks in history. But the visit has taken on a new meaning. President-elect Donald Trump reawakened old fears of a nuclear arms race last week by declaring his commitment to strengthen and expand U.S. nuclear capability. In his remarks at Pearl Harbor, Obama will have an opportunity to address those renewed anxieties and to lay out the dangers of an arms race. Obama has fought to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to secure existing caches. The visit is meant to highlight the strength of the relationship between the U.S. and Japan, an administration official said. Several Japanese prime ministers before Abe have visited the Pearl Harbor site. But Abe is the first to go to the memorial at the resting place of the battleship Arizona, where 1,177 American military personnel died in the Japanese aerial attack on Dec. 7, 1941. Facebook

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Will the Feds Janet Yellen take away the punch bowl after Trump takes office? By Don Lee After three years of almost single-handedly juicing up the slow-growing economy, Janet L. Yellen and the Federal Reserve should be looking at easier days ahead. Yellen, in what will probably be her last full year as Fed chair, may finally get help from somewhere else in Washington. Tax cuts and infrastructure spending planned by President-elect Donald Trump, if backed by the Republican-controlled Congress, would lighten the load for a Fed whose easy-money policies have been the primary economic support for the nation. She is already breathing easier on the Feds employment mandate; the jobless rate has fallen to a nine-year low of 4.6%. Inflation, too, is under control and, by all accounts, creeping toward the central banks optimal level of 2%. And yet, Yellen may come under as much economic and political pressure as ever, on both the Feds policy and the independence of the institution. Read More Facebook

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Obama says he could have beaten Trump By Tracy Wilkinson (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press) President Obama says he could have defeated Donald Trump in last months election by recapturing the same vision of hope that twice carried him to the presidency. Obama also was mildly critical of the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, saying her campaign didnt do enough to get her message out. The remarks were notable because Obama has been careful since the election to avoid criticizing Trump, or to deliver a post-mortem on Clintons failed bid. Obama spoke in a wide-ranging interview with former senior advisor and now CNN commentator David Axelrod for the Democratic political operatives Axe Files podcast. The interview was released by CNN on Monday. You know, I am confident in this vision because Im confident that if I -- if I had run again and articulated it, I think I couldve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it, Obama said. His comments were part of a wider discussion of what he called ugly sentiments of racism and xenophobia that surfaced during the 2016 campaign. Obama repeated his assertion that Clinton faced a double standard as a woman, which put her at a disadvantage. But he also said a kind of complacency set in that made the Clinton campaign too cautious and thus unable to get its message out sufficiently. If you think youre winning, then you have a tendency, just like in sports, maybe to play it safer, Obama said. During the interview, Obama also spoke of his family, the strength hed gotten from wife Michelle and the improbability of his own political career. And the president said the spirit that his candidacy originally inspired, especially among young people, was never snuffed out despite the last eight years of turmoil. The idealism and the dedication stayed with the staff and got us through some really hard times, he said. Trump later responded to the remarks on Twitter. UPDATE 2:07 p.m.: This article was updated with Trumps response. This article was originally published at 12:28 p.m. Facebook

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Obama personally authorized U.S. abstention from U.N. vote on Israeli settlements By Michael A. Memoli President Obama personally directed Friday that the U.S. abstain from a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity, seeing the escalation of settlement building as an increasing threat to the viability of a two-state solution to the regions problems. Ahead of the expected vote, Obama, who is vacationing with his family in Hawaii, convened a discussion Thursday with Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and other top national security officials. The vote was postponed, but U.S. officials continued to monitor discussions over the Egyptian-authored resolution until Friday. Obama spoke with national security advisor Susan Rice on Friday to issue his final decision. President-elect Donald Trumps intervention in the discussions, which included a conversation with Egypts president Thursday that preceded the delay in the planned vote, did not affect Obamas calculations, deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters.. Theres one president at a time, he said. The decision to allow the resolution to pass, rather than cast a veto to block it is consistent with long-standing, bipartisan U.S. policy opposing Israeli settlement activity, Rhodes said. One of the administrations great concerns was that such activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has accelerated significantly since 2011, when the U.S. last vetoed a comparable resolution. U.S. officials also have been concerned about continued incitements of violence by Palestinians, and Rhodes said the resolution voted on Friday included greater balance to reflect that than past resolutions. Weve been very concerned that these accelerating trends are putting the very viability of the two-state solution at risk, Rhodes said. In that context, we therefore thought that we could not in good conscience veto a resolution that expressed concerns about the very trends that are eroding the foundation for a two-state solution. He also underscored what he called Obamas iron-clad commitment to Israel and its security, noting that the administration recently concluded a major military assistance package. The U.S. did not vote for the resolution because of continued concerns about the United Nations as a venue for Middle East peace discussions, Rhodes said. He also responded to what he called strident comments of Israeli officials criticizing the U.S. move. It seems like the Israeli government wants the conversation to be about anything other than the settlement activity, he said. Facebook

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Trump team seeks to ease fears on womens programs at State Department By Tracy Wilkinson ( Andrew Harnik / Associated Press) Donald Trumps transition team said Friday its requests to the State Department for details on positions and funding for global womens programs were part of an effort to ensure and protect gender equality. The statement appeared to be an attempt to allay concerns that Trump might seek to cancel or roll back gender-focused programs at the State Department following a request by the transition team on Wednesday for information about them. Most were created or championed by Trumps campaign rival, Hillary Clinton, when she served as secretary of State during President Obamas first term. The transition team statement Friday did not outline Trumps plans for the programs, which seek to promote equality, education and vocational training for women around the world as well as combat gender-based violence. President-elect Trump will ensure the rights of women across the world are valued and protected, the statement said. To help fulfill this promise, the transition team inquired about existing programs at the State Department that helps [sic] foster gender equality, ends gender-based violence, and promotes economic and political participation  finding ways to improve them. The statement said the inquiry was one of hundreds of requests it sent to federal departments as part of the transition effort. Facebook

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Trump team asks State Department for details on programs aimed at helping women By Tracy Wilkinson Donald Trumps transition team has asked the State Department for details on programs aimed at benefiting women around the world, including identifying staff members who worked to reduce gender-based violence and promote women in the workplace. In an email sent to numerous State Department offices Wednesday, the president-elects transition team asked for urgent response to its inquiries about gender-related staffing, programming and funding. Many of the programs were begun or were championed by Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of State during President Obamas first term and who lost to Trump in November. The unusual request to the State Department follows a similar email to the Department of Energy. There the transition team asked for names of staff members who had worked on efforts to combat climate change, which Trump has dismissed as a hoax. Several Obama administration officials called that query chilling. The Trump team withdrew the request after it was widely criticized. The latest email suggests the incoming Trump administration will attempt to roll back some of the State Departments most innovative programs and may seek to penalize people who worked on them. People are freaked out, said a senior State Department official who was not authorized to speak publicly. The email asked the State Department to deliver issue papers from bureaus and offices (one paper max per bureau/office) outlining existing programs and activities to promote gender equality, such as ending gender-based violence, promoting womens participation in economic and political spheres, entrepreneurship, etc. It said the issue papers should note jobs whose primary functions are to promote such issues, as well as money allocated for those activities and programs in fiscal year 2017. While at State, Clinton made womens issues a top priority. An office was created to deal exclusively with global womens issues, and money was allocated for programs that promote education of girls, train women in marketable skills and offer microloans. Read More Facebook

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Trump taps seasoned Republican operative Sean Spicer as White House press secretary By Lisa Mascaro President-elect Donald Trump named Sean Spicer as his new press secretary, tapping a seasoned Republican operative as the public face of the new White House. Spicer, a top Republican National Committee strategist who brought a measure of establishment Washington to Trumps operation, is known for his combative but engaging approach to communications. He will likely take over the press podium as the top spokesman at the incoming White House. Two other veterans of the Trump campaigns press operation also will get White House jobs: Jason Miller, who had been Trumps communications chief after moving from the campaign of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, will stay in that role as communications director at the White House. Hope Hicks, who was Trumps spokesperson on the campaign trail and one of his earliest campaign aides, will be assistant to the president and director of strategic communications, and Dan Scavino will serve as director of social media. Sean, Hope, Jason and Dan have been key members of my team during the campaign and transition. I am excited they will be leading the team that will communicate my agenda that will Make America Great Again, Trump said in a statement. Facebook

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Obama eliminates post-9/11 registry for foreigners, making it harder for Trump to restart it By Brian Bennett (Don Emmert / AFP/Getty Images) The Obama administration is taking apart a controversial, dormant national registry program that tracked visitors from countries with active terrorist groups for several years following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. A final rule eliminating the program will be published in the federal register on Friday. The move would make it more difficult for President-elect Donald Trump to revive the registry, which hasnt been used since 2011. The Department of Homeland Security determined it was ineffective and didnt improve security. Civil rights advocates have long said the program was discriminatory. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to track Muslims coming to the U.S. and require them to register. He later changed his stance to say he would bar people from countries with a record of Islamist extremism. Trumps policy advisors have been looking closely at ways to jump start the registry, called the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, after he takes office at the end of January. With the program being officially dismantled on Friday, Trumps team would have to issue new federal rules to restart it, a process that could take several months and would require a period for soliciting comments from the public, which likely would be contentious. The Trump transition team is preparing several executive actions for the incoming president, Trump spokesman Jason Miller told reporters Thursday morning when asked about Obama dismantling the registry. Stopping radical Islamic terrorists from entering the U.S. is of paramount importance, Miller said. He didnt say directly if Trump would rebuild the visitor registry. The American people strongly support tough measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of our country, and President-elect Trump has made clear that we will suspend admissions of those from countries with high terrorism rates and apply a strict vetting procedure for those seeking entry in order to protect American lives, he said. When asked on Wednesday if he would set up a registry for Muslims or impose a ban on Muslim immigrants in the wake of the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, Trump said simply: You know my plans. Democratic lawmakers and civil liberties advocates have demanded in recent weeks that Obama dismantle the registry. Theyve cited a 2012 inspector general report that said Homeland Security databases collecting traveler fingerprints, flight manifests and intelligence information on foreigners are more effective at preventing terrorist attacks. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) praised the Homeland Security Departments decision to strip away dead-letter regulations no longer in use. These regulations symbolized an ineffective program based on religious and ethnic profiling, rather than individualized suspicion  a program based on fear, rather than reason, Leahy said in a statement. That has no place in this great country, under any administration. Facebook

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Trump is unwinding some foreign deals but many potential conflicts remain By Joseph Tanfani The Trump hotel in Baku, Azerbaijan, would be among the finest in the world, Donald Trump promised two years ago, another example of our involvement in only the best global development projects. But the dream of a world-class Trump Baku died this month, with Trump saying he was backing out of the deal because of delays and blown deadlines caused by the developer, a 34-year-old with close family connections to the countrys government. The demise of Trump Baku is not an isolated decision. With his inauguration less than a month away, President-elect Trumps company has pulled out of a few international business deals that might have created especially sticky conflicts and controversies for his administration. Read More Facebook

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Trump names UC Irvine professor and fierce China critic to new White House Trade Council By Don Lee Peter Navarro, left, and China expert Gordon Chang attend a screening of Death By China, the film adaptation of Navarros book, in New York in 2012. (Andy Kropa / Getty Images) President-elect Donald Trump, signaling that he intends to follow through on his tough talk on trade, is establishing a new White House-based trade council to be headed by a vehement critic of Chinas economic policies. Trump on Wednesday named Peter Navarro, a Harvard-trained business professor at UC Irvine, as director of trade and industrial policy and head of the newly created White House National Trade Council. The move sends a strong message: The Trump administration will take a much more aggressive posture to shrink the nations large trade deficit and combat what the president-elect and Navarro believe are forces behind Americas manufacturing woes  unfair and mercantilist practices on the part of China and other trading partners. Read More Facebook

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The issue of race has hung over Sen. Jeff Sessions like a shadow. Heres why By Del Quentin Wilber (Scott Olson / AFP/Getty Images) Jeff Sessions uneasy history with race can be traced back to the long, winding country roads that cut through the pine forests and farm land in this deep corner of the Deep South. As a boy, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III began each day before dawn, boarding a segregated bus to his all-white school. En route he and his classmates passed the bus ferrying black students in the opposite direction. The day ended when he sat down to dinner each night with his father, an avowed segregationist until the end of his life. Reflecting on those years, Sessions acknowledged recently that he knew back then that segregation was morally wrong and regretted standing by passively as civil rights leaders in the 1960s struggled and died in the fight for equality. I should have stepped forward more and been a leader and more positive force, Sessions said in February while participating in a ceremony honoring the Selma foot soldiers. Read More Facebook

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Kellyanne Conway will join Trump in the White House By Evan Halper (Gerald Herber / Associated Press) Donald Trump has named his media-savvy campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, to advise him in the White House in the role of counselor, his transition team announced early Thursday morning. The move comes after Conway sought to put to rest speculation that she would continue to serve as the public face of the Trump team. But the new job is sure to keep her profile high. Conway will will work with senior leadership to effectively message and execute the administrations legislative priorities and actions, according to a statement from the Trump transition team. Kellyanne Conway has been a trusted advisor and strategist who played a crucial role in my victory, Trump said in the statement. She is a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda and has amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message. The appointment would boost diversity in a Trump inner circle made up mostly of older white men. It also sets up another potentially competing power center on a White House staff that already will have several, including Reince Priebus, the chief of staff; Stephen K. Bannon, the chief strategist; and Stephen Miller, the policy chief. Conway had previously turned down other proposals for White House jobs, telling reporters late last month that she did not want to spend long hours away from her children. At that point, Conway said she thought she could best help Trump by forming an outside organization to support his policies. But that role appears to have gone to Brad Parscale, who ran Trumps online operations during the campaign. Conway joined Trumps campaign during the summer when it was beset with infighting and disarray. She is widely credited with helping bring message discipline and professionalism to an operation in desperate need of it. In the run-up to the election and the weeks that followed, Conway was a ubiquitous presence on cable news networks, capably moving through her talking points in tough interview settings  often on the firing line and held to account for the exaggerations and incendiary remarks Trump was prone to make on the campaign trail and Twitter. I am humbled and honored to play a role in helping transform the movement he has led into a real agenda of action and results, Conway said in the statement. She is the founder and owner of the Polling Company, inc./WomanTrend, a GOP firm that has been advising candidates for two decades. Trump has not yet chosen a press secretary. But he is believed to be considering several candidates. Sean Spicer, former communications chief of the Republican Party who has served in a spokesman role for Trump through the transition, has been a prominent possibility, although Trump reportedly has considered several women, including conservative talk radio star Laura Ingraham and Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle. Facebook

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Trump Hotel employees in Las Vegas get a union contract By Kurtis Lee (Mike Nelson / Getty Images) Its owned by President-elect Donald Trump and is among a handful of hotels on the Las Vegas Strip to not be unionized. But that will change soon. For more than a year, Trump and his staff at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas have fought efforts by employees and the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 to negotiate a contract. But a four-year contract announced by the union on Wednesday will offer Trump employees annual wage increases, a pension and family healthcare, among other benefits. In Nevada, the culinary union is the states largest and most powerful, representing nearly 55,000 workers who serve cocktails and prepare food at hotels throughout the state. A majority of the unions members are Latino. Read More Facebook

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Wait! Dont cancel that Air Force One order just yet By Evan Halper Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016 After Donald Trump scolded Boeing earlier this month for the escalating cost of building a new Air Force One, the companys CEO projected confidence that Trump wouldnt be following through with his threat to cancel order! The two men met together at Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Wednesday. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said they spoke about a range of issues. The Air Force One project, which Trump complained would cost taxpayers more than $4 billion, invariably arose. Were going to get it done for less than that, and were committed to working together to make sure that happens, Muilenberg said. The company had previously noted that the project did not yet have a firm price tag. I was able to give the president-elect my personal commitment on behalf of the Boeing Company. This is a business thats important to us. We work on Air Force One because its important to our country, and were going to make sure that he gets the best capability and that its done affordably, Muilenberg added. He called the conversation terrific and Trump a good man who is doing the right thing. The presidential aircraft remains a long way from takeoff  a new plane wont be ready for use in the next four years. Even if Trump is reelected, he might not get to use the plane, as the earliest projected date for completion is 2024. Boeing is currently doing early development work on the plane  a modified 747  that will likely be outfitted with such gadgetry as top-secret communications equipment, countermeasures to foil missile attacks, and aerial refueling capability that would enable it to remain airborne for days at a time if necessary. The timing of delivery was among the topics that came up at Trumps meeting with the Boeing CEO. Thats what were going to work on together, Muilenberg said. We have an active 747 production line, and were eager to get started on the program. We havent actually started the build of the airplane yet, but once we finalize the requirements and make sure that its affordable, well launch on building the aircraft. Weve got a hot production line and were ready to go. The government actually has two planes outfitted to serve as Air Force One, which is the designation given to whichever plane is carrying the president. The current planes, which were put into service during the Reagan administration, are nearing the end of their design life. Facebook

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Fierce China critic and UC Irvine professor to head Trumps new trade council By Don Lee (Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times) President-elect Donald Trump is establishing a new White House-based trade office that will be headed by a UC Irvine professor known for his fierce criticisms of Chinese trade and economic practices. In appointing Peter Navarro as director of trade and industrial policy and the head of the new National Trade Council inside the White House, Trump is signaling that he wants to follow through on his tough campaign rhetoric in which he blamed the Chinese for the large U.S. trade deficit and manufacturing woes. During the campaign,Trump threatened to slap a 45% tariff on Chinese imports. Navarro, a Harvard-trained economist who advised Trump during the campaign, is the author of the book Death by China: Confronting the Dragon  a Global Call to Action. Trump endorsed the 2011 book as well as Navarros film version of the polemical work. I read one of Peters books on Americas trade problems years ago and was impressed by the clarity of his arguments and thoroughness of his research, Trump said Wednesday in a statement announcing the appointment. He will fulfill an essential role in my administration as a trade advisor. Trump said the new trade office would develop policies to shrink the nations trade deficit and curb the off-shoring of jobs, as well as to lead initiatives such as the Buy America, Hire America program. Navarro, in a statement, said he would be honored to serve Trump and the nation and to advise on policies to re-balance our trade, rebuild our industrial base, and restore Americas comprehensive national power by making America great again. Facebook

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Trump stops the drain the swamp talk as new alligators emerge By Evan Halper Newt Gingrich. (Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press) It made for a great slogan during the campaign, but now that hes won, Donald Trump is finding that maybe he doesnt actually want to drain the swamp. In fact, the alligators seem to be doing quite well. Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski on Wednesday boasted about his access and proximity to Trump in announcing a new consulting firm he plans to open with former Trump campaign advisor Barry Bennett. The firms offices will be one block from the White House. Clients who pony up what are sure to be hefty fees for the firms services are being assured by Lewandowski in his marketing materials that he turned down multiple opportunities within the administration so he can serve them. The pitch implies Lewandowski will remain a de facto surrogate for Trump  with all the access that implies  as he bills those seeking to influence the Trump administration for his services. So perhaps the time is ripe for Trump to stop using the drain the swamp phrase. And that is what Trump has decided to do, according to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who describes himself as an outside advisor to the president-elect. Im told he now just disclaims that, Gingrich said in an interview on National Public Radio, referring to the slogan Trump used in the final phase of his campaign to crystallize his promise to cleanse Washington of insiders and self-dealers. He now says it was cute, but he doesnt want to use it anymore, Gingrich said, adding that perhaps all this swamp draining talk isnt presidential. Hes in a different role now and maybe he feels that as president, as the next president of the United States, that he should be marginally more dignified than talking about alligators in swamps, Gingrich said. I personally have, as a sense of humor, like the alligator and swamp language, he added. I think it vividly illustrates the problem, because all the people in this city who are the alligators are going to hate the swamp being drained. And theres going to be constant fighting over it. But, you know, he is my leader, and if he decides to drop the swamp and the alligator, I will drop the swamp and the alligator. Lewandowski, for his part, made no mention of swamps or alligators in announcing his new consulting firm would be open for business. Proud to launch our new venture today to support @realDonaldTrump achieve his agenda in Washington D.C. pic.twitter.com/ZEot6IrvJ4  Corey R. Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) December 21, 2016 Facebook

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Death penalty in steep decline, but not in Los Angeles County By David Savage Lonnie Franklin Jr. was tried and convicted of 10 counts of murder. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles County and the state of California again recorded the most new death sentences this year, amid a sharp decline across the nation in both executions and new death sentences. Judges and juries in Los Angeles County imposed a death sentence on four murderers during 2016, including Lonnie Franklin Jr., the so-called Grim Sleeper, who was convicted of killing 10 women. No other county had more than one death sentence, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Since 2010, Los Angeles County has recorded 36 new death sentences, more than any county in the nation. This year marked the first time in more than 40 years where no state recorded 10 or more new death sentences, the group said in its year-end report. California had the most with nine, followed by Ohio (five), Texas (four), Alabama (three) and Florida (two). California has by far the nations largest death row, with 750 condemned inmates, but it has not carried out an execution in the past decade. Overall, the report documented the steep decline for capital punishment over the past two decades. The number of new death sentences had fallen by 90%, from 315 in 1996 to only 30 this year. And the number of executions has fallen from a high of 98 in 1999 to 20 this year. Georgia (nine) and Texas (seven) accounted for most of the executions. The only other states to put inmates to death were Alabama (two), Missouri (one) and Florida (one). Robert Dunham, the groups executive director, says the nation is clearly turning away from capital punishment. Whether its concerns about innocence, costs and discrimination, availability of life without parole as a safe alternative, or the questionable way in which states are attempting to carry out executions, the public grows increasingly uncomfortable with the death penalty each year, he said. But his report noted that Californias voters, by a 53%-47% margin, rejected a ballot measure to abolish the death penalty, and narrowly approved a measure, by a 51%-49% margin, to limit appeals and expedite executions. Facebook

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New survey finds less optimistic Democrats seeking many paths to their future success By Cathleen Decker (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press) Since Hillary Clintons November defeat, Democrats have squabbled over how to return to prominence. Should they continue to court ascendant voter groups in the country, such as women, minorities and young people? Or should they turn to those who have long been in their camp but abandoned the party nominee this year, such as rural and non-college-educated voters. The answer, according to a Pew Research poll published Tuesday: Democrats want to walk both paths, simultaneously. The poll asked Democrats and Republicans whether their parties had spent too much, too little or just the right amount of time meeting the interests and concerns of specific groups of voters. Among Democrats, 64% said the party had spent too little time talking to rural voters, and 58% said the same about non-college voters. Almost two-thirds of Democrats said low-income voters had not gotten enough of the partys attention, and 58% said middle-class voters had been ignored to some extent. But Democratic voters did not want to let up on the partys outreach to its stronger supporters this year. About half said that the concerns of women and African American voters had gotten too little attention, while 43% said the same about Latinos. In the case of women, African Americans, Latinos, low-income voters, rural residents and younger voters, Democrats were substantially more likely than Republicans to say their party had not put enough emphasis on the groups concerns. The poll suggested far more confidence by Republicans than Democrats in their partys current positioning. Much of that may simply be the flood of confidence that accompanies a presidential victory. When the pollsters asked before the election about their view of their party, 61% of Republicans said they were optimistic, as did 77% of Democrats about their own party. After the election those figures reversed, with 79% of Republicans optimistic compared with 61% of Democrats. A key to Trumps success also was evident in the poll: a chameleon-like ability to make the different ideological groups in the party think he was one of them. Almost 3 in 5 conservatives said that Trumps views were conservative. And among moderates, 52% said that Trumps ideology was a mix of conservative and liberal, echoing their own posture. But queries about the new presidents impact on his party drew sharply partisan responses. More than two-thirds of all voters said that Trump had forced major changes on his party. Yet 72% of Democrats cast those changes as bad ones, while 83% of Republicans cast the changes as good ones. Facebook

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The artist and the senator: One built a desert masterpiece, the other a Nevada legacy By Lisa Mascaro When Sen. Harry Reid heard about a reclusive artist building a massive land sculpture across desolate acres in the Nevada desert, he knew they should meet. Its not just that Reid enjoys eccentrics and fighters, which he does. Michael Heizer had found an unusual way to express the majesty  and artistry  of the same lonely Nevada landscape that formed Reids childhood, when he would escape the dismal, rugged conditions of tiny Searchlight to play in the deserts hidden springs and abandoned fortresses. Both men discovered in Nevada what many outsiders miss. Far from seeing a nuclear wasteland, a dumping site or even a playground for gamblers, they drew inspiration from Nevadas quiet beauty. Heizer created an American masterpiece  a milelong complex of dirt, rock and cement rising from the desert floor like modern-day pyramids or the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. For Reid, his appreciation for Nevadas unique landscape became a cornerstone of one of the most lasting yet less-familiar pieces of his political legacy. Read More Artist Michael Heizer and Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) speak in the Capitol. (Lisa Mascaro / Los Angeles Times) Facebook

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With 304 votes, electoral college seals Donald Trumps election as president  despite more desertions than ever By Michael Finnegan They convened amid unusual scrutiny, widespread protests and rafts of speculation about efforts to alter the outcome, but, in the end, the nations 538 presidential electors mostly stuck to the script Monday, formally sealing Donald Trumps victory with 304 votes in the electoral college, well above what he needed to capture the White House. After all the efforts to lobby Republican electors to desert Trump, only two did  a pair from Texas, one of whom voted for former Texas Rep. Ron Paul and the other for Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Indeed, instead of an uprising against Trump, the days voting was punctuated more by small, but persistent, gestures of Democratic discontent with Hillary Clinton. A handful of electors deserted her and a few more tried to, but were deterred by state faithless elector laws. Some of the Democratic dissenters were supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who lost the primaries to Clinton but galvanized the partys left wing. Others were backers of an abortive effort that had tried to recruit Democrats and Republicans to unite behind a third candidate other than Clinton or Trump. In the end, seven electors voted for a person other than the candidate who won their states  the largest number of electoral college desertions in a presidential contest in U.S. history, eclipsing a record set in 1808. Read More Facebook

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As electoral college meetings end in Hawaii, Bernie Sanders gets a vote that will stick By Michael A. Memoli David Mulinix, Hawaii elector who voted for Sanders, said Clinton wasn't qualified. Also said @POTUS wasn't progressive, but "conservative" pic.twitter.com/miCnZ6PzXI  Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) December 20, 2016 The last of the 50 states gave Bernie Sanders his first electoral college vote that counted. Hillary Clinton received three of the states four electoral votes after winning 60% of the popular vote here last month. But one elector, David Mulinix, said he cast his vote for the Vermont senator because he was the most qualified candidate. They can call me faithless, but the point is if we dont think someones qualified  and Hillary Clinton I do not feel is qualified, he said. Hawaiis electors are chosen by the major parties at their state conventions. Mulinix said he joined the party only this election cycle to support Sanders, who he said would have been elected president had he been the Democratic nominee. He had previously told the Associated Press he would cast his vote for Clinton, but said he changed his mind at the last minute. She did not lose the vote to Russian hackers; she lost the vote right there at the convention, he said, referring to the Democratic National Convention, where he said Sanders backers were treated unfairly. They robbed us, and the millennials know it. Mulinix, who, like his fellow electors, wore a lei made of green jade flowers, arrived for the vote with a list of candidates who had received votes in other electoral college meetings across the country. He was aware that an elector in Maine had tried to vote for Sanders but that his vote had been invalidated. An election official said the vote for Sanders here would count. The brief proceedings here in a nondescript conference room on the state Capitols third floor began with another elector, John Bickel, asking whether there was any penalty for electors who cast their ballots for someone other than the winner of the statewide vote. He said later that he had asked because he suspected someone might stray. The electoral college is outdated. If any election has proved the electoral college is outdated, its this one, Bickel said. Dolly Strazar, another elector and the vice chair of the state Democratic Party, said she had long supported the electoral college because it ensured some degree of competition between large states and small ones like Hawaii. It really seems in our times, its thoroughly outdated, she said. Janice Bond, the fourth elector, said she would have voted for Sanders but did not believe she was able to. She also expressed regret that President Obama, who was born in Hawaii and is vacationing here with his family, did not attend the meeting. To have him be on our island and not show face was disappointing, she said. Facebook

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No fireworks as Nevada electors cast votes for Clinton By David Montero Nevadas six electors cast their votes for Hillary Clinton on Monday afternoon in Carson City, reflecting her victory in the swing state despite losing the overall electoral college vote to President-elect Donald Trump. Clinton won Nevada by almost 3 points over Trump, and the swing state was one of her few bright spots on election day. The six electors  five from northern Nevada and one from Las Vegas  cast their ballots before about 75 people who had packed into the Old Assembly Chambers of the state Capitol. A few brought signs in support of Clinton, and there was some applause when the votes were cast. It all took place in less than a half-hour. No fireworks, said Wayne Thorley, deputy secretary of state for elections. He said about 40 people showed up in front of the state Capitol in the morning in sub-freezing temperatures to also show support for Clinton. Thorley said he hadnt anticipated a lot of controversy as the electors were required to sign a pledge before voting that said they wouldnt deviate from Nevadas Nov. 8 election results. Facebook

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In solemn ceremony, California electors cast votes for Hillary Clinton By Melanie Mason Casting my electoral vote for President and Vice President of the United States of .... https://t.co/jI2FGFCrVg pic.twitter.com/qufSJUM5WF  Susan Eggman (@SusanEggman) December 19, 2016 In a proceeding long on formalities and short on speeches, Californias 55 electors cast their vote for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Monday, a ceremony that coincided almost exactly with Republican Donald Trump clinching the national electoral college win. Contrasting with the spirited protests outside the state Capitol, the mood in the state Assembly chambers was muted, even a bit glum, as electors, tapped by the states Democratic establishment, convened to cast their votes for Clinton. California, which overwhelmingly backed Clinton in the presidential contest, requires all 55 electors to back the states winner. Todays solemnity and formality reminds us that in our nation, American greatness and American independence, rests on a foundation of law, said Assemblyman Ken Cooley (D-Cordova), who presided over the event. As written ballots were distributed, the room was completely silent, save for the clicking of camera shutters. Just moments before voting began, Trump, Clintons rival, had secured the electoral college win, with Texas, Californias perennial rival, putting him over the top. His victory went unacknowledged in the ceremony. Among the electors were current elected officials, such as Assemblywomen Susan Talamantes Eggman of Stockton and Shirley Weber of San Diego. Others included Christine Pelosi, daughter of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Laphonza Butler, leader of the powerful labor union SEIU in California. Electors did not make individual speeches during the main ceremony, and Trumps name was hardly mentioned. But there were subtle references to the rancorous political season: Rev. Bob Oshita, the Assembly chaplain and former reverend of the Sacramento Buddhist Church, urged leaders to engage in calming self-reflection in an opening prayer. The tone grew considerably sharper at the end of the gathering, when Pelosi offered a motion calling for an investigation into Russian efforts to influence the election outcome. I move that as an Electoral College, we do not normalize this election. We do not accept Russian interference in our election, Pelosi said. Her motion was adopted by electors, with applause. View Twitter post This post was updated at 3:32 p.m. with comments from Christine Pelosi. It was originally published at 3:12 p.m. Facebook

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All of Floridas electoral votes go to Trump By Gray Rohrer Floridas electors applaud as the vote for Donald Trump is announced at the state Capitol in Tallahassee on Monday. (Steve Cannon / Associated Press) Donald Trump officially won all 29 of Floridas electoral college votes on Monday during a ceremony held at the Capitol in Tallahassee, despite pleas from protesters to electors to change their vote at the last minute. About 100 protesters gathered outside the Florida Senate chambers before the vote, chanting love trumps hate and flip the vote and holding signs that read Vote Your Conscience, Dont Make Russia Great Again! The electors, made up of Republican Party of Florida members and high-ranking elected officials like state Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, Senate President Joe Negron and state party chairman Blaise Ingoglia, did their best to ignore the protesters. Read More Facebook

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Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim was a Trump nemesis. Now the president-elect says hes wonderful By Evan Halper Donald Trump has decided that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, one of his favorite villains during the presidential election, might not be so bad after all. Hes even wonderful, Trump now says. The two dined together Saturday at Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, after which Trump had only nice things to say about Slim, according to a report in the Washington Post. Trump described the interaction with his erstwhile nemesis as a lovely dinner with a wonderful man. This is not how Trump talked about Slim, one of the worlds richest men, during the election. The Mexican billionaire was a regular target of the then-GOP nominee because of his large ownership stake in the New York Times. Add to that Slims generous contributions to the Clinton Foundation and his citizenship in the country Trump reveled in attacking, and he made for good fodder at Trump rallies. When Trump objected to the New York Times coverage of his campaign  and its reporting on the allegations by multiple women of past inappropriate sexual advances by Trump  he alleged it was all part of a conspiracy cooked up by Slim. Trump called the outlets reporters corporate lobbyists for Carlos Slim and for Hillary Clinton. The New York Times called Trumps charges a fabrication, saying Slim had never inserted himself in editorial decision making there. And Trump offered no evidence to the contrary. A spokesman for Slim said at the time the two had never met, and the Mexican businessman had no interest in involving himself in the U.S. election. Now theyve met. The takeaway from the meeting, though, is murky. Maybe it indicates Trump is softening his posture toward Mexico  or maybe it just indicates billionaires enjoy the company of other billionaires. Facebook

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Meet the California electors By Liam Dillon Among the electors are Janine Bera, the wife of Rep. Ami Bera of Elk Grove; Christine Pelosi, the daughter of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and chairwoman of the state partys womens caucus; Eileen Feinstein Mariano, granddaughter of Sen. Dianne Feinstein; and Olivia Reyes-Becerra, daughter of Rep. Xavier Becerra of Los Angeles. State Assemblywomen Susan Eggman of Stockton and Shirley Weber of San Diego, former state Sen. Christine Kehoe of San Diego, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury Martinez and Laphonza Butler, president of the Service Employees International Union chapter that represents home care employees, also are on the list. Read More Facebook

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Three Washington state Democratic electors vote for Gen. Colin Powell, one for Faith Spotted Eagle By Rick Anderson (Elaine Thompson / Associated Press) Despite a statute binding the 12 members of the electoral college to vote for the winner of the states 2016 presidential election popular vote, four Washington electors made history and risked a $1,000 fine by voting for someone else Monday. But it wasnt Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton, supported by 57% of the states voters, wound up with eight of the 12 electoral votes at a session held in the State Capitol building here. Gen. Colin Powell received three votes. And Faith Spotted Eagle, an elder of the Yankton Sioux, received one. Read More Facebook

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Colorado elector says he was oppressed by state law into voting for Clinton By David Kelly In Denver, all nine electors voted for Hillary Clinton, after one was replaced for casting his ballot for Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich instead. A boisterous crowd packed the state Capitol and booed when elector Michael Baca was dismissed and another sworn in to take his place. Vote your conscience! someone cried. The new elector voted for Clinton. Hecklers screamed Resign! Resign! at Secretary of State Wayne Williams after he shooed Bacas lawyer off the podium. Suspense had been building for weeks over how the electors would vote. Two courts blocked their attempts to vote for someone other than Clinton. State law here says electors must support the candidate who won the popular vote. On Sunday night they went to court again, this time asking a judge to reject a new oath drawn up by the secretary of state requiring electors to pledge to support the winner of the popular vote. Their motion was denied. As they waited, the crowd sang This Land is Your Land and America the Beautiful. But once the electors filed in, it was over quickly. Elector Robert Nemanich said he was oppressed by state law into voting for Clinton and would go to the U.S. Supreme Court. He did not elaborate. Lance Armstrong, 68, stood outside with an American flag. Im glad some of the electors made a point today, he said. Any point is better than none. Facebook

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Trump officially gets 270th electoral vote, sealing his election as president By Julie Westfall Donald Trump has obtained the required 270 electoral votes to become president. Although electors in dozens of states still have to vote, the electoral balloting in Texas put Trump over the majority threshold, according to a state-by-state tally by the Associated Press. Thirty-six of the states electors voted for Trump, one for John Kasich and one for Ron Paul. The next, and last, official step in the electoral process is for Congress to count the votes. Under the procedure set out by the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, that formal process is scheduled for Jan. 6. Some anti-Trump activists had hoped against hope that they could persuade electors in states that voted for Trump to defect, but their efforts were unsuccessful. Electors are nearly all party loyalists. Additionally, they faced more than two centuries of tradition and, in some states, legal obligations that called for them to cast their ballots according to which candidate won the popular vote in their states. No defectors have ever changed the result of a presidential election. Four electors today successfully defected in Washington state. Instead of voting for Hillary Clinton, who won the states popular vote, three electors voted for former secretary of State Colin Powell and one voted for Faith Spotted Eagle, an environmental activist. Electors in two other states who tried to vote against the states winner were replaced with alternates. There may be additional defections in the remaining states, but since Trump now has a majority of the electoral votes, those would not be enough to change the result. Facebook

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Emotions high in Maryland as electors unanimously vote for Clinton By Erin Cox (Erin Cox/Baltimore Sun) As Marylands 10 electors unanimously cast votes for Democrat Hillary Clinton for president Monday, several said they were privileged to vote for the countys first female presidential nominee. Outside, hundreds of anti-Trump protesters cheered as the solemn ceremony unfolded on live-stream television. A state delegate, who had the ceremonial task of handing the electors votes to another official, wept while executing her duty. This is an emotional moment for many, many women in this country and in this state, said Del. Maggie McIntosh, a Baltimore Democrat. She added later: I guess I didnt cry enough on Nov. 8. Marylands electors were bound by state law to vote for the winner of Marylands popular vote, which Clinton secured with more than 60% of the ballots cast. About 100 protesters who had been chanting and singing around the historic State House grounds for at least four hours before the vote said they came in solidarity with protesters in Republican state capitols, pleading with electors not to endorse President-elect Donald Trump. This is appalling and unacceptable, and Im hoping the Republicans, in particular, rise above and do the right thing, said Cheryl Kreiser, a retired teacher from the Washington, D.C., suburb of Silver Spring. For an hour every day for the last 21 days, Kreiser has protested Trumps win on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It was the only way I could cope with the disappointment, she said. Marylands Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who wrote in his fathers name rather than vote for Trump on election day, opened Marylands 58th electoral college meeting but left the room before electors were sworn in. Each elector had been appointed by the Maryland Democratic Party state chair, Bruce Poole, who reminded the crowd the United States is not a direct democracy ruled by the popular vote. A lot of people lose sight of the fact that were a republic. Were not a democracy, Poole said. The whole idea was that the president would not be chosen just by the whims of the moment, but instead there would be an opportunity for people who were thoughtful, who had judgment, who had integrity to take a step back from the moment of emotion and consider what would be in the best interest of the country. Here is "the old book" where Maryland has recorded its Electoral College electors every year since 1789. pic.twitter.com/GlsaJd3F3X  Erin Cox (@ErinatThePost) December 19, 2016 Before he introduced Marylands electors, Poole lamented the state of political discourse in the country. We live in the age of information. It is not necessarily the age of wisdom or age of judgment, he said. People on both sides, on all sides, make decisions at the snap of a finger. Maryland was both the model for creating the electoral college and the first state in the country to vote to bypass it. Framers modeled todays system after the way the Maryland House of Delegates selected Maryland senators, a process the state later abandoned after it was considered undemocratic, according to a history of the electoral college written by staff at the Maryland Board of Elections. Hogan noted the state is one of six to have participated every year since 1789. In 2007, Maryland was the first state to vote to sign the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, a promise designed to award the electoral college to the winner of the national popular vote. It required enough states to comprise 270 votes to sign on for it to take effect. So far, only 10 states  including California  with a combined 165 votes have signed the compact. The president of Marylands electors, Courtney Watson, also co-chaired Clintons campaign in Maryland. She said she thought changes to the electoral college should be considered and described Monday as a poignant moment for Maryland residents. Its a very emotional time, she said. Many of us have worked long and hard, and for the first woman candidate. The point, though, is that people are still moved and even more engaged. And thats what I find promising for our future and the future of women. Facebook

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Christine Pelosi, daughter of Nancy Pelosi and California elector, demands to know the truth about Russian influence By Jazmine Ulloa Elector @sfpelosi: We won't stand down. #caleg pic.twitter.com/4cM3cE4Wb6  Jazmine Ulloa (@jazmineulloa) December 19, 2016 California elector Christine Pelosi on Monday told crowds gathered outside the Capitol that she has been part of a chorus of people demanding to know the truth about Russian interference in the November presidential election. Pelosi, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosis daughter, is leading 10 other electors in a call for an intelligence briefing on Russian influence. Shouting into a microphone Monday, she said Russian hackers aim to turn the American people against each other and had marginalized her and others for speaking out. They trespass on servers, she said. They receive stolen emails. They pump out stories that day after day focus on scandal rather than policy, rather than talking about climate and immigration and human rights. Californias meeting of electors is about to get underway in the state Capitol. Facebook

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After prayer for national unity, Georgia electors vote for Trump By Jenny Jarvie Outside the Georgia Capitol today, some may have held a flicker of hope that a GOP elector would refuse to cast a ballot for Donald Trump as 45th president of the United States. Yet among the inner circle of Republicans who gathered inside the cozy, wood-paneled Senate chamber, there was little doubt about what would unfold. One by one, all 16 electors - dressed in formal business suits and red dresses, bow ties and blazers -- cast their ballots for the contentious Republican candidate. It was a short ceremony, with little opportunity for disruption. Security guards prevented the public from entering the chamber, cordoning off the hallway outside the room with a red rope and locking the main door before proceedings began. The electors chosen by Georgias Republican Party included well-connected attorneys and real estate agents, a high school teacher and a farmer. As they waited for the gathering to begin, many snapped selfies and waved at loved ones above in the upper gallery. After a call to order by the Georgia Republican Party chair, the electors bowed their heads, and Rachel Little, an elector and grass-roots Republican organizer, delivered an invocation. Lord, we know we are a divided country right now, she said. We pray that you will unite us.  We pray that [those who oppose Trump] will see our conservatism lived out in a gracious way. In a short speech, Gov. Nathan Deal hit out at activists who had bombarded electors with emails, letters and phone calls in an effort to sway their votes. You have been the subject of harassment by those who perhaps are not as dedicated to the proposition of what this body is supposed to do as they are agitated by the fact that the people didnt do what they wanted them to do. I have every confidence you will not succumb to that, Deal told the electors. My words to you: Do your job. Shortly before the electors cast their ballots, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Republican who represents Georgias 11th District, took to the podium to present a short history of the electoral college. Our founders actually despised the idea of democracy because mob rule often results in a decision made out of pure emotion, Loudermilk told the electors, after referencing the noise of protesters outside. It does not result in good government. In fact, our founders often cited the historic trial of Jesus as how mob rule does not work. The electoral college was devised to protect the integrity of government, Loudermilk said. To protect those who live in the rural areas of America, those who work, those who are part of the farming communities and part of the industrial communities, those who live and work every day, that their interests are protected as well of those who make their living on Wall Street. For a moment earlier this year, there was an inkling of a Republican revolt against Trump in Georgia. In August, Baoky Vu, a GOP elector based in Decatur, Ga., admitted he might not cast his ballot for Trump if he won. Within hours, however, he was forced to resign. Trump went on to win 51% of Georgias popular vote. On Monday, Vu did not show up at the Capitol, and he was formally replaced by a solid Trump backer, John Padgett, the chairman of the Georgia Republican party. There seems little chance that Georgia legislators might vote to overhaul the electoral college. Earlier this year, Republican legislators authored two bipartisan pieces of legislation in Georgias House and Senate that would have made Georgias electoral votes based solely on the outcome of the national popular vote. Yet both bills stalled, and Republicans say there is little momentum to revive the debate. The system prevents the tyranny of the majority, said Kirk Shook, an elector who is a high school teacher in rural Oconee County. He scoffed at those who, since the election, had sought to overhaul the electoral college system. Theres all this weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, Shook said of those who opposed Trumps win. And rightly so. Theres going to be a Republican president, a Republican Congress and a Republican Supreme Court. With the stroke of a pen, 90 percent of what Obama considered his legacy will be gone. Facebook

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Four Washington state electors defect from Clinton; one chooses Faith Spotted Eagle instead By Associated Press (Elaine Thompson / Associated Press) Four members of the electoral college in Washington state cast their votes for a candidate other than Democrat Hillary Clinton, who won the states popular vote. Its the first time in four decades the states electors have broken from the popular vote for president. Washingtons 12 electors met Monday afternoon in the state Capitol to complete the constitutional formality. Clinton got eight votes while other candidates got the remaining four. Elector Bret Chiafalo, who earlier in the day said he planned to vote for Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, said that he ultimately changed his vote to former Secretary of State Colin Powell after conversations with other Washington electors. The exact breakdown of the other four votes wasnt immediately known, although at least one vote was cast for Faith Spotted Eagle. In last months election, Republican Donald Trump won 306 electoral votes to Clintons 232, though Clintons tally will now be lower. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win. The last time an elector broke from the popular vote in Washington was in 1976, when Mike Padden, who is currently a Republican state senator, voted for Ronald Reagan instead of Gerald Ford, who had won the state. Facebook

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Hundreds protest the electoral college at Capitol building in Sacramento By Jazmine Ulloa Protesters are now chanting, "hey hey ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go" pic.twitter.com/4nNyTMroI5  Marcus Yam  (@yamphoto) December 19, 2016 Cheers and chants of U.S.A and Keep him out filled the air Monday, as dozens of protestors gathered outside the California Capitol in a last ditch attempt to sway the electoral college from voting for president-elect Donald Trump. Speakers called Trump a celebrity and authoritarian unfit for the presidency. And they urged Congress to do away with the electoral college process, which they described as an outdated and broken system susceptible to foreign influence and manipulation. This is a secret system of voting where we are not allowed to see where the votes are actually coming from or how they are counted, Brent Turner, with the movement organization Democracy Spring, shouted into a microphone. John Franco, 52, says the electoral college is an outdated system that can be manipulated with or without hackers. #caleg pic.twitter.com/fs2L2W2HKp  Jazmine Ulloa (@jazmineulloa) December 19, 2016 John Franco, a 52-year-old business owner visiting Sacramento from New Orleans, said he came to the demonstration with his family to protest that secret process. We dont feel a system that can be manipulated represents the interests of the people who voted for Hillary Clinton, he said. Rochelle Towers was among hundreds to protest at the CA Capitol today: "I'll take any shot that there is. #caleg https://t.co/QcOhWklrpx pic.twitter.com/mtx76NjdEW  Jazmine Ulloa (@jazmineulloa) December 20, 2016 Rochelle Towers, 68, said she drove in from Oakland in an attempt to persuade the electoral college from voting for Trump. She said she would not have to live through a lot of what its decision would set in motion. But my children and grandchildren will, she said. Even though this is a real long shot, Ill take any shot that there is. Facebook

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Colorado elector removed after refusing to vote for Clinton By David Kelly A new elector is sworn in in Colorado after one refused to vote for Hillary Clinton. (David Kelly / Los Angeles Times) Eight of nine Colorado electors have voted for Hillary Clinton. One elector, Michael Baca, refused to vote for Clinton and was immediately replaced with an alternate, who was sworn in on the spot. As the crowd jeered, the new elector promptly voted for Clinton. Shouts of Resign! followed Secretary of State Wayne Williams announcement of the results. Protesters at the state capitol in Colorado. (David Kelly/Los Angeles Times) Facebook

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Electors say they have been barraged with emails By Nigel Duara View Twitter post Arizona elector J. Foster Morgan said he had received several letters protesting the election of Donald Trump, but experienced nothing on the scale of some his fellow Arizona electors whose email addresses were distributed to protest lists. They heard the worst thing imaginable, Morgan said. I just got a few letters. Despite protests outside the meeting, Morgan said, the vote went fine. Eleven votes for Donald Trump. Facebook

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Democratic electors in Minnesota and Maine try to vote for Bernie Sanders By Associated Press (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) A second elector  this one in Minnesota  has refused to cast a vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in Mondays electoral college tally. It wasnt immediately clear why Muhammad Abdurrahman didnt vote for Clinton, but he was a delegate for Bernie Sanders at the Democratic National Convention. The electors are pledged to cast Minnesotas 10 electoral votes for Clinton since she won the state. Abdurrahman was immediately replaced by an alternate who later voted for Clinton. Earlier in the day, a so-called faithless elector in Maine cast his vote for Sanders, who lost the Democratic presidential nomination to Clinton. David Bright said on his Facebook page that he cast his vote for Sanders because voting for Clinton would not have helped her win. But he ultimately voted for Clinton on a second vote after being ruled out of order. Facebook

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Utah voting goes off without incident  six for Trump By David Montero A protest sign outside the gathering of Utah electors (Rick Bowmer / Associated Press) Despite chants of vote your conscience and the whole world is watching from more than 100 protesters, Utahs six electors cast their votes for President-elect Donald Trump today in Salt Lake City. Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox announced the official results within minutes of the votes being cast, but he was drowned out by jeers of Shame on you by the protesters. I hope you know this is what our country is all about, Cox said. I hope all of us here are sincerely grateful we live in a country where we have the opportunity to express ourselves. The six electors -- two small-business owners, a custom metal worker, a farmer, a Brigham Young University professor and a Republican activist -- quickly introduced themselves before casting their ballots. The votes were largely a formality, as the state requires electors to vote for the winner. Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by getting 45%t of the vote. He also withstood a challenge from Evan McMullin, who garnered 21% in what was largely a protest vote from those, many of them Mormons, who felt uncomfortable casting a ballot for Trump. Cox said the turnout for this years electoral vote was a far cry from 2012, when four people and one camera crew showed up. Im a big fan of the electoral college, Cox said to the restless crowd. You dont have to boo me now. You can boo me later. About 200 protesters and Trump supporters arrived in the rotunda of the state Capitol about three hours before the votes were cast shortly after noon. The room where the votes were cast was too small to accommodate everyone, and the fire marshal sought to limit occupancy to about 130 people. Interest was high, and the vote even drew Hawthorn Elementary School students, who helped lead the room in the Pledge of Allegiance. Cox thanked them for coming and told them they were getting an experience youll never forget. Facebook

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Clinton elector balks in Minnesota One of 10 Minnesota electors has decided not cast a vote, Muhammad Abdurrahan. An alternate is now being sworn in. #ElectoralCollege pic.twitter.com/4eN1PIrZdO  Dylan Wohlenhaus (@DylanWohlenhaus) December 19, 2016 In Minnesota, where the 10 electors had all pledged their votes to Hillary Clinton, one of them refused to go through with it. Elector Muhammad Abdurrahman opted not to vote. He was replaced by an alternate, who cast a vote for Clinton. Facebook

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As Pennsylvania went unanimously for Trump, a voice from the back: Thank you By Steve Esack Electors sworn in in Pennsylvania (Matt Rourke/Associated Press) In Pennsylvanias capital of Harrisburg, the states 20 electoral college voters selected Trump today in a ceremony marked by traditional pomp and bellowing protests. Trump won the popular vote in Pennsylvania by 44,292 votes  the first Republican presidential candidate to do so since 1988. It earned him the states 20 electoral college votes. When the result was announced shortly before 1 p.m. inside the gilded, ornate House chamber, protesters jeered and supporters cheered. Shame on you, a womans voice called down from the public balcony. Thank you, a male voters voice responded back from the floor. Facebook

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How some electors have reacted to all the mail from voters Facebook

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Protesters outside Florida Senate chambers: Trump is dangerous By Gray Rohrer Protesters gather outside the Florida Senate chambers ahead of the electoral college voting ceremony. (Gray Rohrer / Orlando Sentinel) A group of about 100 protesters huddled outside the Florida Senate chambers Monday morning as Floridas 29 electors prepared to cast their votes for Donald Trump in the formal electoral eollege vote ceremony later in the day. The protesters held signs that read You can fix this, keep America free, What would Hamilton do? and Electors: Protect Us, Trump is Dangerous, pleading for electors to change their minds and not vote for Trump, who beat Hillary Clinton by 112,911 votes in Florida, about 1.2%t of all votes cast in the state. Tallahassee resident Bonnie McCluskey held a sign reading Send it to the House. If enough electors across the country do not vote for Trump, hell fall short of the 270 electoral votes required to win the presidency, sending the matter to the U.S. House. The reason Im here is because I dont trust [Trump]) and I think he will harm the United States, McCluskey said. My grandmothers were suffragettes; their ancestors were willing to be traitors to the British crown to create this democracy and I dont want to see it end. And that sounds awfully dramatic but thats how Im feeling. She said that part of the reason she doesnt trust Trump is because he didnt pay a company she worked for that did promotional videos for his buildings in 1998. They were basically given the opportunity to take 10 percent or go to court. Back then I didnt realize that was his business plan, McCluskey said. I didnt make the deal with him I was just one of the people who saw a company go bankrupt. Despite the pleas from protesters, all of Floridas electors are expected to vote for Trump. Some, such as Florida Senate President Joe Negron, have posted pictures of hundreds of letters theyve received asking them to change their vote but declaring theyll be voting for the Republican candidate. Facebook

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Colorado electors make last-ditch plea to switch votes By David Kelly Crowds await the electoral college vote at the Colorado Capitol in Denver. (David Kelly / For The Times) Colorado electors are trying a last-chance legal appeal to avoid voting for Hillary Clinton, and instead vote for an alternative candidate to replace Donald Trump. A week ago, a district court judge told them they had to vote for Clinton, who won the popular vote in Colorado. A few days ago, a federal appeals court upheld that decision. But just hours before the vote today, two electors filed suit to stop the Colorado secretary of state from requiring them to swear to vote for the candidate supported by the electorate. Their effort is part of a loose national scheme to defeat Trump by persuading Republican electors to join with Democrats, such as those in Colorado, and coalesce around an alternative candidate. There has been no decision so far. Facebook

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Chants of Shame! erupt as Wisconsin electors cast ballots for Trump By Bill Ruthhart Demonstrators erupt after Wisconsin's 10 presidential electors cast their #ElectoralCollege ballots for Republican Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/A0GrASaIbY  Bill Ruthhart (@BillRuthhart) December 19, 2016 Wisconsins 10 presidential electors unanimously cast their ballots for Republican Donald Trump as expected Wednesday, but the vote still drew chants of Shame from dozens of demonstrators who had pleaded for them to back away from the president-elect. The typically procedural vote in a fourth-floor conference room in the Wisconsin State Capitol was anything but routine as about 150 protesters greeted the 10 electors with signs pleading for them to vote your conscience not your pledge. In a short 15-minute meeting, the electors quickly cast their ballots for Trump. They did not address the controversial nature of the election and no speeches were made before the 
Good morning. Its Wednesday, Dec. 21. Heres whats happening in California:

TOP STORIES

Bad flight path

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a frightening incident last Friday at LAX. Air traffic controllers accidentally directed a jet to fly in the wrong direction and toward another aircraft. The controller told the pilot to make a left turn to a 180-degree heading. She meant to tell the pilot to make a right turn to a 180-degree heading, the FAA said. The error was quickly corrected, but many questions remain. Los Angeles Times

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Sudden losses

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people appear to have been wrongly dropped from Medi-Cal, the states healthcare program for low-income and disabled Californians, and have struggled to regain coverage and see their doctors. The patients say they turned in their renewal paperwork on time to L.A. County officials but lost coverage anyway. Los Angeles Times

Legal drama

More details are beginning to emerge in what is expected to be L.A.s most sensational murder trial in years. After coming to suspect Robert Durst in the execution-style slaying of writer Susan Berman, the Los Angeles Police Department was forced to make a swift arrest of the real estate scion because of an HBO miniseries, prosecutors said. During an interview with prosecutors, Durst said he was high on meth during those infamous interviews for the show. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

Future debate: Silver Lake, which has been dry and dusty for some time, is about to be refilled with water. This milestone has intensified a larger debate about the future of the landmark area. Some want minor improvements, while others see an irresistible opportunity to create an expansive recreational park for the city of Los Angeles. Los Angeles Times

L.A. to S.F.: LAPD Deputy Chief William Bill Scott, the departments highest-ranking African American officer, has been appointed chief of the San Francisco Police Department after recent scandals involving racist texting among Bay Area officers. Los Angeles Times

Heightened security: Los Angeles authorities are stepping up security at shopping areas, farmers markets and other large gathering places after the Berlin Christmas market truck attack that killed 12 people this week. Los Angeles Times

Stripped down: Five standout restaurants located in L.A. strip malls, and a defense of the much maligned shopping centers. I lived in, and loved, Los Angeles for about nine years, so I can get away with saying this: Very little is more Los Angeles than a strip mall. These asphalt-dominated bastions of cheapness and parking sum up so much about what I love and hate about the city. New York Times

Tree questions: Hours before a tree fell on wedding attendees, killing a woman, Whittier park officials had checked the area for tree hazards but found none. San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Freeway signs: Los Angeles spent $1.6 billion widening the 405 Freeway. Was it worth it? New York Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Embassy row: Calexit, the long-shot effort to have California exit the union, at least is getting entertaining. California gained an embassy in Russia last weekend, at least in the eyes of those who have promised to seek a statewide vote on secession. Next stop: the United Nations! Los Angeles Times

Hes out: A Huntington Beach planning commissioner resigned after facing a public backlash for comments he made online denigrating Islam. Michael Hoskinson declared: I think Islam is definitely a threat. I dont call it a religion at all. Los Angeles Times

Freshman class: The University of California received more than 171,000 freshman applications for fall 2017, marking a new record with gains across all racial and ethnic groups. Los Angeles Times

Freeway sale: In the 1950s and 1960s, Caltrans began buying empty lots, houses and apartments along the planned route of the 710 Freeway extension between Pasadena and Alhambra. Now, with that freeway unlikely to be built, transportation officials have begun the painstaking process of selling hundreds. Los Angeles Times

CRIME AND COURTS

Tragic end: The body of a nurse and former reality show contestant was found Tuesday in a shallow grave at a Lennox home, and police arrested a man on suspicion of her murder, authorities said. Lisa Marie Naegle, who appeared on the E! reality show Bridalplasty, went missing after attending a birthday party Saturday night. Los Angeles Times

Oakland battle: The finger-pointing in the wake of the catastrophic Oakland warehouse fire continues. Lawyers representing Derick Ion Almena, the manager of the Ghost Ship warehouse, say negligence on the part of city officials was to blame for a fire that killed 36 people this month, and not their client. Los Angeles Times

Corruption claims: Less than three weeks after his swearing-in, a member of the Tijuana City Council was behind bars in San Diego on money laundering charges. Los Angeles Times

Death penalty plan: The California Supreme Court has halted implementation of a voter-approved measure intended to speed up the appeals process for death row inmates. The court put Proposition 66 on hold on Tuesday to give it time to consider a lawsuit challenging the measure. Los Angeles Times

Working conditions: Walt Disney Co. and Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. are among the companies that have agreed to stop on-call shift scheduling that requires employees to call work before a scheduled shift to find out if they have to work that day. Los Angeles Times

DROUGHT AND CLIMATE

Needles of ice: How cold and icy has it been in the Sierra foothills? Cold enough to create needle ice. Says one professor: This is the result of some really cool geochemistry. SF Gate

Tunnel battle: A state hearing on the very controversial delta tunnel brought a caravan of farmers driving tractors to the meeting. They called the officials on hand to take testimony the grim reaper, the assassin squad and domestic terrorists. Fresno Bee

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Going strong: Hollywood is a town for the young and the beautiful. But legends like Betty White, Don Rickles, Dick Van Dyke, Norman Lear and more show you can keep working into your 90s, and beyond. The Hollywood Reporter

Smartest house: Is it a surprise that Mark Zuckerbergs Palo Alto pad might be the smartest of smart homes? One reason: A robotic butler he calls Jarvis (apparently not named for Prop. 13 author Howard Jarvis). Vanity Fair

Bye, San Diego? The owner of the San Diego Chargers said hes closer to moving to Los Angeles. This could end a long saga for San Diego, where some are saying: Just go already! San Diego Union-Tribune

Thanks but no thanks: Hollywood liberals are being vocal about their displeasure with Donald Trump and the election results. But does this really help the cause? Yes, you can get millions of people to watch your video. But does that actually persuade them to change their votes to your preferred candidate, or turn out to vote when they would otherwise have stayed home? Washington Post

In a brown paper bag: Yes, there is a bar in Hollywood that charges $15 for a 40 oz. bottle of Colt 45. LAist

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles area: Cloudy with highs in the mid- to low 70s. San Diego: Cloudy with highs in the low 70s. San Francisco and Sacramento: Sunny with highs in the high 50s.

AND FINALLY

Todays California memory comes from Geraldine Gauer:

I have fond memories of growing up in San Francisco in the 50s and especially Christmas with all the fishing boats with colored lights on their masts and homes on Marina Boulevard with Bay windows showcasing spectacular lighted Christmas trees. And there was Normandy Lane and the tree at the City of Paris and the Emporium windows on Market  a Christmas fantasy for children and adults. It was magic.

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 Shelby Grad.
A San Bernardino County judge is expected to follow a jurys recommendation next week and sentence Gilbert Sanchez to death for the 2001 rape and murder of Sylvia Galindo, a 30-year-old Fontana bakery worker. That sentence will set, incongruously enough, a welcome national milestone. His would be the 30th death sentence imposed in the U.S. in 2016, the lowest annual total since the Supreme Court revived the death penalty more than 40 years ago.

The 2016 ebb point is not just a little bit lower than previous years, but down 39% from the 49 death sentences issued last year, and down 90% from the peak of 315 two decades ago, according to an annual report released today by the Death Penalty Information Center. The reasons for the decline are not crystal clear, but one factor is the general nationwide decrease in homicides, according to Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

Whats probably more significant, though, is that prosecutors are seeking death sentences less often, which could signal a crucial change in attitudes among those who hold significant power in determining who gets executed and who does not. Juries make that decision in nearly all states (Alabama is an outlier), but not unless they are asked to by the prosecutor filing the case. In fact, the Death Penalty Information Center report found that only 27 counties nationwide sentenced someone to death this year. The leader, unfortunately, was Los Angeles County, where four of the states eight death sentences  also the highest in the nation, reflecting the states most-populous status  were handed down. Alameda, Kern, Orange, Riverside counties issued one each; Sanchez will be the states ninth (and San Bernardinos only one) this year.

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National surveys have found a general decrease in public support for capital punishment in recent years.

And the landscape for capital punishment is changing. As national surveys have found a general decrease in public support for capital punishment in recent years, four high-profile, pro-death-penalty district attorneys in Florida, Texas and Alabama lost recent reelection bids in campaigns that centered on criminal justice reforms, including the death penalty. Executions themselves are also down, though that has less to do with mercy in the criminal justice system than with states having trouble buying lethal-injection drugs  pharmaceutical companies wont sell their products for use in executions  and with legal holds placed by courts or governors grappling with questions about the constitutionality of execution methods.

The year wasnt all good news for death penalty abolitionists, however. Despite the broad national trend away from popular support for capital punishment, voters here in California rejected a ballot initiative last month that would have banned it. Instead, they approved a competing initiative that will speed up the appeals process in ways that will likely violate the constitutional rights of the accused, increase the chances of an innocent person being executed and usurp the authority of the state court system. (The state Supreme Court put the measure on hold Tuesday while it considers a legal challenge.) Elsewhere, voters in Nebraska overturned a state law banning the death penalty, and Oklahoma voters preemptively adopted a constitutional amendment recognizing capital punishment.

So where does that leave the fight to end the death penalty? In an odd, but somewhat optimistic, place. Several federal judges have in recent years questioned the constitutionality of the way California and other states conduct the death penalty. And in recent dissents, Supreme Court Justice Steven Breyer has called for his colleagues to reconsider the constitutionality of the death penalty itself. Whether the justices will strike it down once and for all is the big question, especially with the empty Scalia seat still waiting to be filled.

But there is always hope that even a conservative legal mind will recognize that the mood of the country is shifting away from executions. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in a 1958 decision that the 8th Amendments definition of cruel and unusual punishment must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society. We hope the court infers from the steady decline in death sentences that American society is maturing, and leaving capital punishment behind.

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President-elect Donald Trump is being normalized before our eyes. On Monday, the electoral college cast its votes in the customary way; despite pleas and demonstrations, only two Republican electors rebelled. Soon, Trump will have an entire Cabinet list ready for nomination, just like an ordinary president. And on Jan. 20, less than a month from now, hell take the oath of office and give an inaugural address, with President and Mrs. Obama looking on in support (if not exactly approval).

Just like normal.

At every step, anguished opponents have appealed to the public, to the media and to Congress: Dont normalize Trump.

In a narrow sense, theyre right: When Trump violates norms of public conduct  by lying about nonexistent voter fraud, refusing to accept evidence of Russian hacking or dismissing concern over conflicts of interest  nobody should pretend thats normal.

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We should demand that he do what he said he would do on election night: Try to unite the country.

But that kind of normalization isnt happening. Theres been plenty of tough media coverage of all those issues, and even a few Republicans have been critical of their president-elect.

Often though, the demand for no normalization goes further, including:

If youre a Democratic politician, dont negotiate over Trumps legislation. If youre a high-tech executive, dont meet with him. If youre a reporter, dont report his every utterance or chase his every tweet.

In short, dont recognize Trumps presidency as legitimate. Not My President, the signs and hashtags say.

Too late; the battle over legitimacy is over. However flawed the election, Trump is about to be your president, whether you like it or not.

Hell propose legislation, and some of it will pass. His aides will write (or revoke) regulations, and some of their actions will stick. Hell make decisions on war and peace, with life-or-death consequences.

Thats why we now need to return to the original, first meaning of normalize, which isnt about describing something odd as if it were OK; its about actually changing something abnormal into a more normal state.

What the rest of us, including Republicans, need to do is turn the tables and demand that Trump normalize himself  because hes the only one who can.

We should ask him to be normal.

We should demand that he do what he said he would do on election night: Try to unite the country. Speak out against racism and division (hypocritically, perhaps, because he used division to win the election, but better late than never).

We should hold him to his campaign promises: more jobs (including in the Rust Belt), a better (and cheaper) healthcare system, a better life for African Americans.

Thats how a normal president gets judged.

Its probably too much to ask that Trump embrace his critics and listen in case they have something useful to say; few presidents reach that level of virtue. But we should expect him to at least listen to the pleas of his advisors that he stop tweeting every time hes angry about a parody on Saturday Night Live; a normal president wouldnt do that.

We should ignore the abnormal advice of his aide Anthony Scaramucci, who said this week: Dont take him literally, take him symbolically. No dice. We should hold him to the standards a normal president has to meet, including truthfulness  literally.

For the media, treating Trump as a normal president means we should cover Trump and his administration as aggressively as we can. The media accord most presidents a presumption of honesty when they come into office; Trump forfeited that during the campaign. Newspapers and broadcasters should continue to use words like false, bogus and even lie in reporting his tall tales.

Whats more, this is an opportunity for a renaissance of investigative reporting. An administration staffed partly with rookies and hotheads is going to have plenty of problems. A first family with global business holdings will run into conflicts of interest, even if they try to avoid them (which this one isnt, so far).

[Note to readers: This would be a good time to support your local newspaper with a subscription, or a journalism nonprofit with a contribution.]

That doesnt mean no off-the-record sessions at Mar-a-Lago. The media know when a politician is trying to co-opt them. Trump isnt the first president-elect to offer a reporter a drink. He knows hell need goodwill from the people he described as dishonest scum.

We should give Trump a chance  a chance to normalize himself, in the sense of complying with the norms every president should observe. Giving him a chance doesnt mean giving him a break; quite the contrary. It means subjecting him to tough scrutiny, holding him to high standards and judging him against his own promises. In short, treating him like a normal president  whether he likes it or not.

doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com

Twitter: @DoyleMcManus

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
California is facing a $20 billion healthcare emergency. Thats how much the state stands to lose in annual federal spending if Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Putting this in perspective, $20 billion represents nearly 18% of all state general fund spending, projected at $113 billion this year. That amount is also roughly what the state already pays from its general fund for Medi-Cal costs. Even a nation-state like California cannot absorb an 18% budget shortfall without severely damaging public health and its economy.

Repeal presents a greater risk to California than any other state, not only because of its large population, but also because the state fully embraced the promise of health insurance reform.

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The ACA offered states significant federal incentives if they chose to expand healthcare coverage for previously uninsured residents, using a combination of increased eligibility thresholds for Medicaid (previously 100% of poverty level, now up to 138%) and federal subsidies for individuals who purchased healthcare plans through Californias exchange. Of the 32 states that adopted Medicaid expansion, California covered more of its previously uninsured than any other state by far. It did so with strong bipartisan support from both Gov. Brown and his predecessor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as the Legislature.

How the state attempts to maintain ACA-like coverage for the recently insured may be the greatest test for Californias newly sworn-in Legislature.

Congressional Republican plans to repeal and replace the ACA have centered on rolling back the Medicaid eligibility expansion, cutting subsidized payments for insurance through exchanges like Covered California or altering the current state and federal shared funding responsibilities within Medicaid through the use of capped or constrained-growth block grants to the states. Each plan puts California at risk.

Rolling back eligibility for the nearly 3 million Californians who gained Medi-Cal coverage under the ACA would result in the loss of more than $15 billion a year in federal funding.

The potential loss of federal subsidies to the estimated 1.2 million individuals who now purchase federally subsidized health coverage through Covered California amounts to almost $5 billion a year.

Early estimates of the impact for California indicate that block grant funding, as proposed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, could result in a 26% cut, or $14.3 billion, in federal spending supporting Medi-Cal.

Combining either capped block grant funding or rollback of expansion with elimination of Covered California subsidies approaches that $20 billion figure. Combining all three proposals could put the total of lost federal support to California at more than $20 billion.

Replacing such a deficit in healthcare spending with state funds alone would require California either to raise new taxes or reduce spending significantly, or both.

But how? Raising the state income tax to cover a $20 billion shortfall would require nearly a 25% increase. Alternatively, reducing the number of Californians insured under the ACA to address the gap would require cutting off health coverage to nearly 4 million individuals.

Californias Democratic legislative leaders have vowed to fight repeal. If they fail, theyve said they will step in to protect the millions of Californians who would lose their insurance.

That pledge, however, presents an unprecedented challenge. Prior to the ACA, California was home to the nations highest uninsured population, estimated to be 6.5 million in 2013. Since that time, Californias uninsured population dropped by nearly half, down to 3.3 million in 2015, almost entirely because of the ACA. How the state attempts to maintain ACA-like coverage for the recently insured may be the greatest test for Californias newly sworn-in Legislature.

California leads the nation in job creation, across manufacturing, agriculture, technology and, yes, the healthcare sector. Our $2.5 trillion economy is the nations jobs engine. If Donald Trump really wants to be a jobs president, as he has said, he should announce that the state of the economy and the health of millions outweigh the Republicans ideological opposition to Obamacare.

Tom McMorrow is a partner at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, where he is responsible for California policy practice.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook

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Message from Syria to the United States: Well never again believe your lofty rhetoric
By the end of 2016, the United Nations will have adopted 20 resolutions against the state of Israel and four resolutions against all other countries combined. Since 2012, university students in the United States have been almost as aggressive, introducing roughly 100 boycott, divestment and sanctions resolutions  also known as BDS  against Israel, and at best a handful of resolutions against all other nations combined.

Judging from this imbalance, it seems that U.S. students consider Israel the worlds foremost human rights violator  worse than Syria, China, Russia, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Sudan, Bangladesh, Libya, Yemen, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, South Korea, Brunei, Somalia and Saudi Arabia.

Of course thats ridiculous. Yet as a result of a sophisticated Palestinian nationalist campaign  plus a hefty dose of anti-Semitism  its modish for students to reserve their most extreme outrage for the U.S. chief ally in the Middle East. The pro-Israel side, meanwhile, has proved completely ineffective.

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Maybe its time for pro-Israel supporters to get some chutzpah.

Were losing in part because most pro-Israel organizations have a long history of supporting Israel, not fighting for Israel. They operate on the assumption that the best way to battle BDS is through education  a long-term solution that wont work in the campus battles so long as pro-Israel faculty and students remain in the minority.

While almost all BDS strategies are offensive (literally and figuratively), anti-BDS strategies are reactionary and defensive. When BDSers introduce anti-Israel resolutions, pro-Israel students protest them. When BDSers accuse Israel of apartheid, genocide, racism and colonialism, pro-Israel students (correctly) argue that none of these labels is accurate.

The BDS movement is dictating the narrative and always striking the first blow.

Even when we defeat BDS resolutions and pop the champagne to celebrate, the BDS movement is already plotting its next attack. BDS only time frame is the destruction of Israel. For supporters, there are no defeats, just opportunities. When a BDS resolution fails, proponents will introduce another resolution within days, weeks or months, giving the movement more opportunity to spew propaganda against Israel and sway people to their cause.

Its time to try something different. Here is a simple solution that will help end BDS on university campuses: Turn BDS into a meaningless acronym.

Pro-Israel students should take the offensive by introducing multiple divestment resolutions against companies that do business in human-rights violating countries. Students should use the same BDS resolutions previously introduced against Israel and change the wording from Israel to [offending nation], then list the grievances: state executions of homosexuals; burying alive or throwing LGBT people from buildings; female genital mutilation; governmental gang rapes; mass child labor deaths; ethnic cleansing and hacking to death of children and pregnant women; political gulags for dissidents and journalists; public stonings of adulterers.

If a universitys pension fund invests in McDonalds, target McDonalds for licensing restaurants in Saudi Arabia, where executions of homosexuals continue. If the fund prefers Starbucks stock, target Starbucks for operating coffee shops in Pakistan, or Brunei, or in China, which is occupying Tibet.

Pro-Israel students need to flood the educational landscape with the acronym BDS until every school in the nation has so many resolutions pending that campuses revolt. And they should look beyond their obvious allies. They should reach out specifically to anti-Israel BDSers who supposedly care about human rights. If those students refuse, publicize their hypocrisy.

Meanwhile, create Web platforms and social media campaigns in the dramatic and successful BDS style. Produce short films that highlight the offending countries extensive and deplorable human rights violations.

The more BDS resolutions that are introduced, the sooner BDS will lose its meaning, power and relevancy, and the quicker the war against Israel will end on university campuses. Next, go after unions and professional associations, such as the American Studies Assn., which thought that Israel  among all nations  was the only country worth boycotting in its 52-year history.

Whenever Ive shared my ideas with pro-Israel students, theyve had similar reactions: Two wrongs dont make a right or We should promote Israel rather than attack other companies and countries. The first response is inaccurate because the resolutions against Israel generally trade in falsehoods, while the new resolutions against other countries will be factual. As for the second response, maybe its time for pro-Israel supporters to get some chutzpah.

University students have become pawns in a political and religious campaign against a democratic, fundamentally decent country. In the process, the BDS movement has shifted the spotlight away from unspeakable human rights violators and the intolerable suffering of their many victims. When we beat BDS at its own game, people who really need our help may well benefit the most.

Jack Saltzberg is the founder and executive director of The Israel Group, a nonprofit that protects Israel in the diaspora. He is working on a book about political warfare against Israel. Reach him at js@theisraelgroup.org.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
To the editor: Shaking my head in wonderment is about my only response to the campaign to persuade electoral college members to vote contrary to their states popular votes. (With 304 votes, electoral college seals Donald Trumps election as president, Dec. 19)

Every voter in 48 states plus the District of Columbia knew that whichever candidate received the most votes in their state would be awarded all of that states electoral votes. This system hasnt varied much in more than 200 years.

And while were on the subject of our federalist system, I caution my fellow Democrats to consider carefully their desire to overturn the electoral college or any other plans they may favor to disrupt the long-standing division of authority between the states and the federal government.

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As the onerous possibilities of a Donald Trump presidency began to sink in after the election, I was cheered to hear Gov. Jerry Brown say that California would do everything legally possible to prevent the federal government from obstructing our climate change policy. If President-elect Trump begins to dismantle the regulatory systems that protect Americans, he may discover that the Democratic states will become his worst nightmare.

Thomas Bailey, Long Beach

..

To the editor: Heres a little history. In 2012, non-candidate Trump tweeted that the electoral college was a disaster for democracy. Ill assume he was speaking of our democracy and not another. On the campaign trail, candidate Trump stated if things went a certain way, hed consider the election rigged.

Now that more than 2.8 million more Americans cast their votes for Hillary Clinton than for Trump, it would appear candidate Trump was correct. The election was rigged, as the candidate with nearly 3 million fewer votes was elected.

Im not a big Twitter fan, but its nice to check back periodically to see how opinions change.

William A. Christer, West Hollywood

..

To the editor: Clinton received 13.6 million votes to 7.3 million for Trump in California, New York and the District of Columbia. Across the remaining states, Trump won a majority.

Racking up huge wins in a few states is no way to win in a republic with 51 separate electoral contests. What is clear is that the major media centers of New York, Los Angeles and Washington do not decide elections for the rest of the country.

We need to pay attention to more than ourselves and stop silly exercises like trying to get the electors to disregard the will of the people in their states. We Democrats need to do some serious soul-searching and stop making excuses. We were whipped fair and square, and need a nationwide strategy to win.

Hal Bookbinder, Oak Park

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
To the editor: When it comes to Syria, it is unfair to call a no-win situation a foreign policy failure. (The tragic, unsurprising fall of Aleppo, Opinion, Dec. 18)

On the contrary, President Obama considered the long-term national security of the U.S. in deciding not to put large numbers of troops in Syria uninvited, without an international mandate, without the support of Congress, without a cohesive opposition that could govern, and with two military powers in Russia and Iran working against our efforts.

Were still more than a decade and trillions of dollars into two wars, and as Obama explained recently, unless we were all in and willing to take over Syria, it was going to be impossible to do this on the cheap. He also expressed frustration over atrocities happening in South Sudan and elsewhere, but he said his decisions are based on what is best for America.

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Kathy Harty, Sierra Madre

..

To the editor: The trouble with Doyle McManus critique of Obamas handling of the Syrian crisis is that, even with the advantage of hindsight, he does not come up with an alternative course of action that clearly would have had a better outcome.

McManus does bring up the idea of arming moderate rebel groups and supplying them with antiaircraft weapons, which Obama did not do. Given the history of U.S.-supplied weapons ending up in enemy hands, Obama seems not to have made the wrong decision. It also seems certain that, if Syrian President Bashar Assad had been overthrown, the civil war would have continued among the rebel factions.

Every recent U.S. intervention in the Middle East has made the situation worse. Given the hole that we are in, stopping digging may have been the best choice Obama could have made.

John La Grange, Solana Beach

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
I have never seen anything quite like the grief being felt by the majority of American voters who did not vote for Donald Trump.

Back in 1980, there was disappointment among Democrats when Ronald Reagan won. In 2000, after the long Florida recount and the intrusion of the Supreme Court into the decision, there were plenty of upset people who thought Al Gore, not George W. Bush, deserved to be president. But the losing voters in those elections were not despondent. They were not breaking out in tears weeks later. They were not waking up each morning with feelings of dread about what was to come.

This time it is different and, in my experience, unique. This is not simply a case of Hillary Clinton supporters being bad losers. For most of those who feel traumatized by what happened on Nov. 8, this is not about the candidate who won the popular vote, yet lost the election. It is about the candidate who was picked as president by the electoral college on Monday. People are mourning because the fate of their country will now be in the hands of an intellectually uninterested, reckless, mendacious narcissist.

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It is not just Democrats. There are plenty of conservatives and Republicans among those feeling depressed. Their party has been captured by a man who has no bedrock belief in any principle; a man whose only allegiance appears to be to himself.

David Frum, conservative Republican and ex-Bush speechwriter, has been very explicit about what he expects from the Trump White House: corruption and authoritarianism. In a series of tweets the day after the election, Frum predicted that Trump will engage in massive self-enrichment and, once the media and Democrats begin investigating and criticizing his actions, he will retaliate by means fair or foul, utilizing the powers of the presidency and aided and abetted by a compliant Republican Congress.

Construction of the apparatus of revenge and repression will begin opportunistically and haphazardly, Frum wrote. It will accelerate methodically.

No one  certainly no Republican  contemplated such a scenario when Reagan was elected, or when George H.W. Bush or his son took office. Nobody thought a victory by Sen. John McCain in 2008 or Mitt Romney in 2012 would have threatened democracy. This time that concern is widespread and far from irrational, given Trumps words, actions and erratic, bullying temperament.

Those who are troubled by Trumps ascendancy are almost equally distressed by the mindset of their fellow citizens who voted for him. It is understood that most Trump supporters are decent folks, many of whom have been left behind by changes in the global economy. But how can they believe some of the things they believe? In a post-election survey, the Public Policy Polling organization found that 67% of Trump voters think unemployment increased during Barack Obamas presidency while only 20% know the opposite is actually true. Though the stock market skyrocketed to record heights during the Obama years, 60% of those who voted for Trump either do not know it or do not believe it. Forty percent of Trump voters also say their candidate won the popular vote, even though Clinton now leads in the count by nearly 3 million ballots. Perhaps that is why friendly crowds at his victory rallies continue to cheer when Trump makes the obviously false claim that he won the election in a landslide. They do not know better.

And then there are those among the Trump loyalists who buy into clearly insane ideas, like the fool who shot up a pizza shop in Washington, D.C., because he believed fake news stories that had identified the restaurant as the headquarters for a child sex ring run by Hillary Clinton. With that muddle-headed level of discernment rampant, it is no wonder Trump gets away with his unending stream of falsehoods.

There have been a number of commentaries written about the need for liberal elites to gain a better understanding of those who voted for Trump; the folks in the Rust Belt and rural America who feared for the future because they felt the country they knew was changing too dramatically and leaving them behind. Well, the fear is now on the other side, and not only among so-called elites. It is ordinary Americans of all classes and races who fear that, under Trump, environmental protections will be dismantled, limits on Wall Street greed will be removed, the rights of minorities and women will be undermined and American foreign policy will be run by dangerously unseasoned amateurs with a crush on Vladimir Putin. Such fears are not based on feelings or fake news stories; they are confirmed by the composition of Trumps Cabinet.

In the presidential campaign, the fears of one group of citizens morphed into a powerful anger that Trump harnessed to propel himself to the White House. Now, another set of Americans  a significantly larger group  is feeling profoundly distressed. If their fears are borne out, their anger, too, will become a political force that could upend an election yet to come.

David.Horsey@latimes.com

Follow me at @davidhorsey on Twitter

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The signings launch the EU Facility for Inclusive Growth and Job Creation, aiming to support business creation and financing for SME's

Egypt and the European Union signed on Tuesday two assistance programs worth 420 million intended to strengthen social safety nets and foster inclusiveness and sustainable economic development in the country.

EU High Representative and Vice-President Federica Mogherini, who signed the agreements in Cairo with Egyptian Minister for International Cooperation Sahar Nasr, said the programs aim to "create jobs for young people and support children attending school, including the most vulnerable."

"The priority for the European Union is working for the citizens of this region," she added.

The signing launches the EU Facility for Inclusive Growth and Job Creation, which aims to support reforms that improve the environment for business creation in Egypt and facilitate access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises, according to a statement by the EU.

EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said that the programs underscore the EU's support for the people of Egypt and will contribute to the country's stability.

Mogherini and Nasr also signed a modification to an existing financing agreement implemented by the World Food Programme, which will allow the provision of school meals for 500,000 of the most vulnerable children attending state primary schools in poor governorates, starting in February 2017.

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Its owned by President-elect Donald Trump and is among a handful of hotels on the Las Vegas Strip that is not unionized.

But that will change soon.

For more than a year, Trump and his staff at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas have fought efforts by employees to join Culinary Workers Union Local 226. But a four-year contract announced by the union on Wednesday will offer Trump employees annual wage increases, a pension and family healthcare, among other benefits.

In Nevada, the culinary union is the states largest and most powerful, representing nearly 55,000 workers who serve cocktails and prepare food at hotels throughout the state. A majority of the unions members are Latino.

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Bethany Khan, a spokeswoman for the union, said the contract with Trump was a step in the right direction. Weve been picketing and protesting for much of the last year and here we are finally with a contract, Khan said. Were very, very pleased.

In December 2015, nearly 500 workers at the Trump International voted in favor of joining the union. Yet Trump and managers at the hotel refused to negotiate, assailing the vote as rigged. Managers at the hotel had filed more than a dozen objections with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging intimidation and forgery by union officials in the vote. (Once Trump becomes president, hell have the authority to appoint members to the board.) Each of the claims was either withdrawn by Trump or dismissed by the labor board.

On Wednesday, a spokeswoman representing Trumps hotel declined to comment about the new contract.

The pact with the Culinary Workers Union wasnt the only labor victory involving Trump. In Washington, Unite Here Local 25 announced an agreement to permit an organizing campaign for employees at the recently opened Trump International Hotel at the Old Post Office building near the White House.

Throughout the presidential campaign, Nevada Democrats castigated Trump for not negotiating a union contract for his employees  many of whom earn far less than workers at other hotels along the Strip. Political observers were baffled by Trumps resistance to allow his employees to unionize given his past support for organized labor and his populist pitch to working-class voters.

He doesnt want a battle with unions hanging over his head as president, said Jon Ralston, a longtime Nevada political journalist, about the four-year contract.

In July, a complaint filed against the hotel on behalf of two employees who supported an effort to join the union was settled. The complaint alleged that one employee was fired and another was denied a transfer to a full-time job because of their vocal support for hotel workers bid to join the union.

The hotel, co-owned and managed by the Trump Organization, agreed to pay a total of $11,200 in lost wages to the employees, according to a statement from the union.

Ahead of a presidential debate in Las Vegas in October, the culinary union helped organize the placement of dozens of taco trucks outside Trumps Vegas hotel  an effort to call attention to the efforts to win a contract and to unflattering statements by a Trump surrogate about Mexicans and taco trucks on every corner of the United States.

Carmen Llarull has worked in housekeeping at Trumps Las Vegas hotel for four years. The new contract, she said, will ensure employees have more respect.

Its very difficult to work for a company when there is no contract, said Llarull, 64, noting she believes she now has more job security. We just had to constantly fight for respect; now itll be a little easier and better.

kurtis.lee@latimes.com

Twitter: @kurtisalee

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5:50 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments.

The article was originally published at 2:15 p.m.
Donald Trump is moving into a White House that has seen presidential powers markedly expanded by its previous two occupants.

George W. Bush used his power as commander-in-chief to wage a global war on terror, including by imprisoning foreign combatants at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Barack Obama, stymied by a Republican-controlled Congress, used executive orders to combat climate change, extend deportation relief to immigrants in the U.S. illegally, require free contraceptive coverage for female employees and pressure schools to offer equal rights to transgender students.

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But both ran into stiff opposition in the courts and saw some of their plans blocked.

 Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has made critical statements about a possible Donald Trump presidency. Trump has responded by suggesting that she resign.

Trump has promised to write a new chapter in presidential power as a strong executive who will get things done. I alone can fix it, he said at the Republican convention.

He has spoken of mass deportations, a ban on Muslims entering the country, targeted tariffs for employers who ship jobs overseas and, at times, has threatened to punish people  from Hillary Clinton to news reporters  who offend him.

Trumps victory assures a conservative majority on the Supreme Court. 

Legal scholars say they are wary, even worried, by Trump and how he will use the powers of the president. But they also remain confident the courts will stand firm against serious abuses of power.

I am very concerned about the ability of our constitutional system to check Trumps excesses, UCLA law professor Adam Winkler said. He has expressed unprecedented contempt for the rule of law, and one of the major checks on Trump  the Congress  may not play its constitutional role because of one-party rule.

But the courts, Winkler said, are far more likely to maintain a commitment to the rule of law and to curtail Trumps abuses.

Georgetown law professor David Cole, who in January will become the ACLUs national legal director, said he is optimistic the courts will stand up against abuses of power in the Trump era, citing the courts moderating impact on war on terror following the 9/11 attacks.

We were in a national security crisis then, and Bush had a Republican Congress, he said. But the Supreme Court stood up and ruled against the president and in favor of the alleged enemy combatants. He referred to a series of rulings between 2004 and 2008 that extended legal rights and protections to the prisoners at Guantanamo.

It all depends on how far he pushes, Cole said, but if Donald Trump abuses his power, I think the courts will stand up to him.

Virginia Sloan, president of the Constitution Project, said she has faith in judges. Once they take the oath and become a judge, they value the institution of the judiciary and want to preserve the rule of law, she said. We dont know where the Trump administration will go, but we can put hope in judges who will put politics aside.

For the 4th time, the Electoral College picks the loser of the popular vote. 

In his first days in office, Trump is expected to use his executive authority to undo policies set by Obama. Some can be reversed immediately, while others will take time.

For example, Trump can revoke Obamas 2014 executive order that would have extended deportation relief and work permits to as many as 5 million immigrant parents who had legal children in the United States, but were themselves here illegally. A federal judge in south Texas had blocked that order from taking effect, and a deadlocked Supreme Court left the decision in place.

The legal dispute, which is separate from Obamas 2012 deportation-deferral program for so-called Dreamers who came to the U.S. illegally as children, turned on whether the president had the authority under the deportation laws to extend temporary relief and work permits to millions more immigrants.

Similarly, the new president and his appointees can revoke a guidance letter from Obamas Education Department on May 13 that said schools and colleges must treat transgender students in accord with their gender identity instead of the sex they were assigned at birth.

The letter effectively required schools to permit transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice. But the Supreme Court blocked implementation in one dispute arising in Virginia. If Trump rescinds the letter, the case may be dropped.

Trumps appointees at the Health and Human Services Department can revise or revoke regulations enforcing the Affordable Care Act that required employers to pay for a full range of contraceptives. Those regulations spawned a series of court battles, including two that reached the Supreme Court, over whether faith-based groups or employers could refuse to pay for certain contraceptives based on their religious beliefs.

Under Obama, the Environmental Protection Agency adopted regulations to limit carbon emissions from power plants and to protect waterways from pollution, but both were put on hold by judges acting on lawsuits filed by Republican-led states. Trump has chosen one of those state lawyers, Oklahomas Atty. Gen. Scott Pruitt, to head the EPA and undertake the job of repealing those regulations.

But the Trump administration soon may run into similar lawsuits, this time coming from blue states or from civil libertarians. States like California that have expanded their health insurance under Obamas plans could fight cutbacks or changes ordered by the new administration. Other lawyers are watching in case the new administration attempts to punish or fire civil servants who disagree with its positions, or penalize individual companies for transferring jobs abroad.

Any of those could prompt a legal challenge, said Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western in Cleveland. If the Trump administration tries to exert broad executive authority, Im guardedly optimistic the courts will stand behind the relevant precedents.

Those precedents include strong checks on federal power written by the late Justice Antonin Scalia and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. In 1997, the Supreme Court struck down part of the Brady Act that required police to conduct background checks on gun buyers because, Scalia said, the Constitution does not permit federal authorities to commandeer state or local officials, or to require them to enforce a federal regulatory program. That precedent, in Printz vs. United States, is sure to be cited in disputes over sanctuary cities. In 2012, Roberts cited the same principle in ruling that states may go their own way and refuse to expand the Medicaid program, as called for by the Affordable Care Act.

Still, legal scholars predict Trump will test those limits. He is certainly going to stretch the boundaries of executive power, said Neal Devins, a law professor at the College of William and Mary who has written about the history of presidential power. Every president seems to do that. They always claim they have the authority to pursue their policies. And given the rhetoric of his campaign, Trump may feel a need to act unilaterally to show he is a strong president.

Once the new president appoints a new justice, the Supreme Court again will have a majority of justices who are Republican appointees. And Trump could create a more solidly conservative high court if he replaces one or more of the liberal justices.

But even so, Trump could run into trouble if he pushes too far. In 1952, all nine justices were Democratic appointees, but the Supreme Court struck down President Harry Trumans seizure of the strike-bound steels mills during the Korean War. The president had no such constitutional authority, the court ruled.

And in 1974, a unanimous court forced President Richard Nixons resignation when it ruled he must turn over his White House tapes to a special prosecutor. The president was not above the law, the justices said.

Adler, a libertarian, often worked along side conservatives to criticize Obamas use of executive orders. Now he expects to be joined by liberal lawyers sounding the same theme.

There are reasons to be concerned. Donald Trump has not had political or government experience, and hes not demonstrated an understanding of what the chief executive can and cannot do, he said. So I hope my worst fears dont come to pass, and we can have less partisan debate over the scope of executive power.

To read the article in Spanish, click here

david.savage@latimes.com

On Twitter: DavidGSavage

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Comedian Tommy Chongs image grinned from a freeway billboard near Sacramento in recent months, promoting the counterculture icons brand of marijuana to passing motorists.

But now a campaign has begun to outlaw such ads from all state highways, threatening to block entrepreneurs taking advantage of newly legalized pot in California from hawking their wares to a captive audience stuck in traffic.

Five state lawmakers have introduced a bill that would bar advertisements for marijuana products and services from all 265 state highways  15,100 miles of roadway  in an effort to prevent the marketing of pot to minors in the state.

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The measure, which is drawing opposition from Chong and others in the medical marijuana industry, would be a significant expansion of rules adopted under Proposition 64, the initiative approved in November by state voters that legalizes the sale of marijuana for recreational use in California.

The initiative bans billboards for recreational pot products along the 4,315 miles of major state highways that cross state borders.

The proposed new law would expand the billboard rules to also apply to the medical cannabis industry and to 10,000 more miles of state highways, and it closes a loophole that exempts unlicensed pot businesses from the law, according to Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland), an author of the bill.

Without AB 64, this exception would eclipse the rule and our children would see cannabis ads across the state, Bonta said. We feel that all highways, and not just ones which cross state lines, are inappropriate venues for cannabis advertising, particularly as Proposition 64 required an adult audience for advertisements other than billboards.

Updates from Sacramento 

Bonta was joined in introducing the legislation by Democratic Assemblymen Ken Cooley of Rancho Cordova, Reggie Jones-Sawyer of Los Angeles and Jim Wood of Healdsburg, as well as Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale).

Chong, a businessman who was part of the Cheech and Chong comedy team known for stoner-themed movies including Up in Smoke, said the latest legislative effort represents antiquated thinking, and fails to recognize the medicinal value of cannabis.

Its totally not justified, Chong said of the legislation. Its stupid. It shows you how ignorant they still are. Its been proven that marijuana is not only harmless, but its good for you. So what are they protecting? Who are they protecting?

They said we were outlaws. Now we're on billboards. pic.twitter.com/ijCh2lFfyZ  Tommy Chong (@tommychong) April 23, 2016

Chong said minors are going to see marijuana ads in other places, including magazines.

The bill is the first attempt to merge the provisions of Proposition 64 on recreational marijuana with the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act, which was approved by the Legislature in 2015 and regulates medical marijuana.

The latter act provides that a new state bureau will begin issuing licenses for the growth, transportation and sale of marijuana by Jan. 1, 2018.

The new bill would extend the highway billboard ban to also include marijuana-related firms that may not have to get required licenses, including the dispensary locator website Weedmaps, and events like the Emerald Cup, an annual festival in Northern California that includes music, educational panels and contests for the best pot strains.

The measure would also close an existing loophole that allows pot billboards on more than 10,000 miles of state highways that start and end within the state, including stretches of Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica Boulevard, Venice Boulevard and Highland Avenue in Los Angeles County and Beach Boulevard in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Cooley, who lives less than a mile from the Chong billboard, said the bill is needed to provide a uniform approach to marijuana businesses. It also would apply the billboard ban to recreational-use businesses even before licenses are issued.

Activists who support Californias 20-year-old medical marijuana law, including the group Americans for Safe Access, say the proposed new restrictions are too broad.

The group doesnt oppose reasonable restrictions on advertising, but doesnt think medical pot should be lumped in with the same prohibitions on alcohol and tobacco ads, according to Michael Liszewski, the groups director of government affairs.

Broadly banning advertisements such as billboards along highways seems to be go beyond what is reasonable, he said, adding medicinal cannabis is a form of medical therapy and should not be regulated like alcohol or gambling.

He suggested a more reasonable approach would be to restrict the types of material in medical marijuana ads, such as banning the use of cartoon characters that might appeal to minors.

The billboard featuring Chong was adjacent to the U.S. 50 freeway where more than 120,000 motorists drove by it each day. The sign advertised the availability of Chongs Choice brand marijuana products at the Horizon Collective, a nearby medical marijuana dispensary.

The dispensary paid for the billboard but recently took it down because of the expense, even though it brought in customers, according to Vincent Austin, a worker at the shop. He said the dispensary might want to advertise there again once the sale of recreational marijuana is allowed, likely in late 2017.

The legislation is not warranted, he said.

I think thats wrong, Austin said. These businesses are legal and [the state] said its legal. We should be able to advertise like anybody else if we want. Why would you want to limit us from being able to do that?

The concept of the bill is supported by Dennis Hathaway, president of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight, who said he has concerns about marijuana-related billboards he has seen popping up in Los Angeles.

Hathaway fears the billboards will send a message to young people that using marijuana is fun without addressing the potential negative health issues involved.

A billboard is not like an ad on TV where the parents have parental control and can keep their kids from seeing it, Hathaway said. Children riding in a car will see the billboards.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Follow @mcgreevy99 on Twitter

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Nothing about the 2016 presidential election was predictable  not the purloined emails, vulgar videotaped bragging, the insults flung every which way, or the riotous, raucous ascent of a reality television star as he defeated the first woman nominated by a major party for the presidency.

Debates over precisely what led to Donald Trumps victory may continue for decades. Undeniable even now is that one factor played a huge role: A deep desire for change.

The question for 2017: Is the change Americans get the change they wanted?

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As the new year approaches, mixed signals abound.

Take a look back at the politics year youll never forget 

Trump campaigned relentlessly on repealing his predecessors signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act. Mentions of his plan to tear it down beginning on his first day in office prompted explosive applause during his campaign rallies. Several of Trumps early Cabinet picks are forcefully against Obamacare, reinforcing his intent to repeal.

But on Capitol Hill, the repeal is being fashioned by House Speaker Paul Ryan into a plan to cut benefits to Medicaid and Medicare recipients.

That unpopular proposal is something Trump opposed during the campaign; he suggested at one point that benefits should increase. The posture distinguished Trump from his Republican primary competitors and helped persuade historically Democratic voters  working class Americans who are often recipients of such aid  that Trump was in their corner. If that is the price of repeal, its not clear which path Trump will take.

His end game is similarly unclear when it comes to jobs.

2016 Year in Review: Highlights and heartbreaks 

Trump has heightened the theatrics over jobs during his pre-presidency  he engineered a public relations coup when, with the help of millions in taxpayer money and the threat of lost federal contracts, he helped persuade an Indiana-based air conditioning and heating company to spare several hundred jobs that otherwise would have gone to Mexico, a plan he emphatically opposed during the campaign.

But he ignored the companys plans to send other jobs to Mexico, and he has yet to concoct a framework that could replicate his move across the entire country in any fiscally reasonable way. Will Trump by lauded for the jobs he saves, or impugned for the jobs he doesnt?

Exit polls of voters casting November ballots demonstrated how Trump capitalized on change.

On Election Day, exit polls showed, 62% felt the country was on the wrong track. Of those voters, 68% voted for Trump and only 26% for Clinton. Asked what candidate quality mattered most, 39% of voters said the ability to create change, a figure nearly twice as important as its nearest competitor. Trump won more than four in five of those voters.

The change set in motion on Nov. 8 will reverse the direction the United States has been traveling for the last eight years. The leftward push of President Obama will be followed by the rightward push of President Trump, the new driver climbing aboard the big rambling vehicle that is America and pulling a swift and definitive U-turn.

The caution for Trump is this: Change is easier to promise than to accomplish. One is a hypothetical compilation of dreams; the other is real life, buffeted by competing constituencies and complicated circumstances.

Trump is aiming for success. If he fails to accomplish it, the desire for change that fueled his unlikely rise may be visited upon him in four more years.

For more on politics 

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

Twitter: @cathleendecker
What happens when doctors encourage patients to decide for themselves what kind of cancer treatment they should receive  and then the patients make the wrong choice?

That is the dilemma facing a growing number of surgeons who care for women with early-stage breast cancer, new research suggests.

Survey results from 2,402 women with the disease reveal that misconceptions about the value of surgery lead many patients to remove a healthy breast when there is no medical reason to do so. Patients were more likely to make this decision when their surgeons failed to make clear that the procedure would not reduce the risk that their cancer would come back, or prolong their life.

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When patients participate more in their breast cancer surgical decisions, they more often receive aggressive treatment, researchers wrote in a study published Wednesday in JAMA Surgery. Ironically, a physicians desire to support patient autonomy may result in excessive surgery if patients are misinformed, as our results suggest is common.

The surgery in question is called contralateral prophylactic mastectomy, or CPM. This is when doctors find cancer in one breast and then remove not just the affected breast but the other one too.

It sounds like a logical way to reduce the risk of breast cancer, but in most cases, it isnt. Unless a woman has a genetic mutation that increases her risk for the disease, the chance that a patient with early-stage cancer in one breast will later develop it in the other breast is very low  too low, doctors say, to justify the risks that come with surgery. Thats why the American Society of Breast Surgeons advises doctors to steer most women away from CPM.

This wasnt always the case, but treatments like chemotherapy, immunotherapy and hormone therapy have become so effective that in addition to reducing the risk that the known breast cancer will return, they also make it unlikely that a second breast cancer will develop, the study authors explained.

No compelling evidence suggests a survival advantage, they wrote. And yet, rates of this aggressive, costly, morbid, and burdensome procedure are increasing over time  even among patients without a high genetic risk of a secondary primary breast cancer.

To understand why this is happening, Dr. Reshma Jagsi, a radiation oncologist at the University of Michigan, and her colleagues sent surveys to 3,880 women in Los Angeles County and Georgia who were diagnosed with stage 0, stage 1 or stage 2 breast cancer between July 2013 and September 2014. The women were identified through registries maintained by the National Cancer Institute. Among the eligible women, 71% responded.

Overall, 44% of the women said they considered removing their healthy breast, including the 24.8% of women who considered it strongly or very strongly, the researchers found. Women with high-risk mutations were more likely to think about CPM, but even among those with an average risk for breast cancer, 21% gave it strong or very strong consideration and an additional 20% considered it moderately or weakly.

Among the women who at least contemplated CPM, 38% said they knew the procedure didnt improve survival for all women with breast cancer, according to the study. An additional 24% were under the false impression that it did, and 38% said they didnt know.

Similarly, 43.5% of these women said they knew that removing a healthy breast does not prevent cancer from recurring for all women with breast cancer, while 17% thought it did and 39.5% said they didnt know, according to the study.

Ultimately, 14% of women with an average risk of breast cancer went through with the surgery, along with 26% of high-risk women. Nearly all (96%) of the women who removed a healthy breast cited peace of mind as a reason for doing so  even though many of them had acknowledged that CPM would not reduce the risk that cancer would return or extend their life.

This finding suggests that women do believe  whether rationally or emotionally  that there is a meaningful effect of more aggressive surgery on the ultimate risk of recurrence or survival, the study authors wrote. Surgeons should emphasize to patients that they can get the same peace of mind with less drastic types of therapy, they added.

In this study, women were more likely to opt for CPM if they were younger, white, had attended at least some college, had a mother, sister or daughter with breast cancer, had private insurance (instead of Medicaid) or had larger breasts. Also, women in Georgia were more likely to have CPM than women in Los Angeles.

When the researchers used statistical methods to control for each patients age and family history of breast cancer, they found that women with a high-risk mutation were only slightly more likely to have the surgery than were average-risk women. In fact, the difference between the two groups was too small to be statistically significant.

A minority of women (37%) said their surgeons recommended against the procedure, and these patients took that advice to heart  only 2% of them got the surgery anyway, the researchers found. On the flip side, 11% of women said their surgeons recommended CPM, and 59% of these patients followed that advice.

An additional 46% of women said their surgeons neither recommended nor discouraged CPM; among this group, 21% had the surgery, according to the study.

The researchers called the results sobering. But they also suggest a straightforward way to confront the problem.

Our findings should motivate surgeons to broach these difficult conversations with their patients, to make their recommendations clear, and to promote patients peace of mind by emphasizing the effectiveness of other treatments, they wrote.

karen.kaplan@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @LATkarenkaplan and like Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.

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Doctors from Harvard have an intriguing suggestion for saving 32,000 lives each year: Make sure all senior citizens who wind up in the hospital are treated by female doctors.

After examining the medical records of Medicare patients from across the country, the Harvard researchers calculated that 10.82% of those treated by physicians who were women died within 30 days of being admitted to the hospital. Among patients treated by male physicians, the 30-day mortality rate was 11.49%, according to a study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine.

That gender gap persisted even after the researchers accounted for factors like the age, gender and income of patients, how sick those patients were when they first checked into the hospital, the resources of the hospitals and the experience of the doctors. In that analysis, the Harvard team found that 11.07% of patients treated by women died within 30 days of being hospitalized, compared with 11.49% of patients treated by men.

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The results held up across a wide range of medical conditions, according to the study.

Among patients treated for acute kidney failure, those cared for by female physicians had a 30-day mortality rate of 12.54%, compared with 13.3% for patients cared for by male physicians. Patients admitted for an irregular heart rhythm had a 5.08% chance of dying within 30 days if their doctor was a woman and a 6.02% chance if their doctor was a man. Pneumonia patients treated by women also had an advantage over those treated by men (10.11% versus 11.03%), and the same was true for sepsis patients (23.05% versus 25.09%).

All of these differences were too large to be due to chance, the researchers reported.

The trend was similar for patients admitted to hospitals with congestive heart failure, urinary tract infections and gastrointestinal bleeding, although in these cases the advantage of being treated by a female doctor was smaller and could have been a statistical fluke, according to the study.

Death is a great thing to avoid after going to the hospital. So is being discharged and then re-admitted within 30 days. On that score, patients treated by women had better outcomes than patients treated by men if they were hospitalized for pneumonia, congestive heart failure, gastrointestinal bleeding, sepsis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or urinary tract infections. In all of these cases, the advantage of having a female physician was large enough to be statistically significant.

The researchers, led by Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, took great pains to make sure their results were valid. They analyzed more than 1.5 million hospitalizations between 2011 and 2014, and these cases involved 58,344 internists (18,751 women and 39,593 men).

On the whole, female doctors treated fewer hospitalized patients than their male counterparts (132 versus 181 per year), and a higher proportion of their patients were women (62.1% versus 60.2%). They were also more likely to work in hospitals that were large, nonprofit and/or affiliated with a medical school.

To make more of an apples-to-apples comparison, the study authors repeated their analysis using data only from hospitalists. These doctors only treat hospitalized patients, and since they work in shifts, their patients essentially are randomly assigned. Even so, female hospitalists had better outcomes (10.8% of their patients died within 30 days of being admitted to the hospital and 14.64% were re-admitted within 30 days) than male hospitalists (11.17% of patients died within 30 days and 15.11% were re-admitted), according to the study.

The researchers also reran the numbers using only hospitals without intensive care units, since male doctors may be more likely to work in ICUs, where patients are sicker. Once again, female doctors had better outcomes (11.16% of their patients died within 30 days of being admitted to the hospital and 15.34% were re-admitted within 30 days) than male doctors (11.78% of patients died within 30 days and 15.94% were readmitted).

Even when the researchers extended their follow-up window from 30 to 60 days, women outperformed men by a small but statistically significant margin, according to the study.

Overall, Medicare patients in hospitals were about 4% less likely to die within 30 days of being admitted if their doctor was a woman instead of a man. Considering that more than 10 million Medicare patients wind up in hospitals each year, the lives of about 32,000 senior citizens could be saved if patients treated by men were treated by women instead.

An all-female doctor corps isnt likely, so a more practical goal is for men to have the same patient outcomes as women. This will require more research, since its not clear what useful things women are doing that men arent.

Previous studies have found that women doctors are more likely than their male counterparts to provide preventive care, follow official clinical guidelines, practice evidence-based medicine and offer psychosocial counseling, among other things. But researchers have yet to link any specific doctoring practice to patient outcomes, Tsugawa and his colleagues noted.

Even so, the results counter the idea that male doctors  who outnumber female doctors by a margin of 2 to 1  deserve the higher pay they typically receive, according to an editorial that accompanied the study.

Some have suggested that the burden of home responsibilities, leave for childbearing, or part-time schedules might undermine the quality of female physicians work and explain male physicians higher salaries, wrote JAMA Internal Medicine editor Rita Redberg, a cardiologist at UC San Francisco, and Anna Parks, an internal medicine resident at UC San Francisco. The evidence shows the opposite.

karen.kaplan@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @LATkarenkaplan and like Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.

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Children from a Chabad Burbank Preschool brought some holiday cheer to residents of the Belmont Village assisted-living facility Monday morning.

Dressed as candles, Maccabees and donuts, about 25 preschoolers performed various songs about dreidels, latkes and Hanukkah. The children sang and sometimes screamed their lyrics while the Belmont residents shook noisemakers and clapped along.

The music transcends all religions, said Giselle Temmel, 92, who happily danced during the performance. When the music is being played and its got tempo and you feel like moving, its good, no matter what religion it comes from.

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1 / 9 Children from Chabad Burbank Preschool walk in a line as they enter Belmont Village Retirement Home in Burbank to sing holiday songs on Monday, Dec. 19, 2016. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 2 / 9 Resident Sonia Most, 87, claps with the children from Chabad Burbank Preschool as they sing songs to residents at Belmont Village Retirement Home. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 3 / 9 Children from Chabad Burbank Preschool sing for residents at Belmont Village Retirement Home. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 4 / 9 Resident Hermine Hatzikian, 82, smiles as she shakes a rattle to the beat of the music sung by young children from Chabad Burbank Preschool. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 5 / 9 As young students from Chabad Burbank Preschool depart, Belmont Village Retirement Home resident Hermine Hatzikian, 82, waves to each one. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 6 / 9 Children from Chabad Burbank Preschool get their costumes and get in line to head into Belmont Village Retirement Home in Burbank to sing holiday songs. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 7 / 9 Children from Chabad Burbank Preschool get ready to sing to residents at Belmont Village Retirement Home. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 8 / 9 Several residents at Belmont Village Retirement Home listen to young children from Chabad Burbank Preschool. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 9 / 9 Children from Chabad Burbank Preschool sing to residents at Belmont Village Retirement Home in Burbank on Monday, Dec. 19, 2016. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

Resident Sonya Most, 87, said that she also enjoyed the childrens performance, adding that she clapped along to every song.

I loved it and thought they were darling and cute, she said. I loved their costumes and everything about it.

It is the fifth year that students from the Chabad Burbank Preschool have gone out to a senior living facility to visit residents and spread some cheer . It is the first time they have visited the folks at Belmont Village, said Elana Kornfeld, director of the preschool.

The program was started as a way to teach students about giving back at a young age, Kornfeld added.

When you give something to somebody else, it just makes you feel so much better, she said. Its a special moment for children to connect with seniors.

Rabi Shmuly Kornfeld, Elana Kornfelds husband, concurred with his wife, adding that it is important for children to understand that they should be spreading their positive and happy energy to others in the community, especially older residents.

Though about half of the preschoolers sang along with a guitar player and the other half smiled and bounced around to the beat, the rabbi said that the children were terrific and were able to spread that holiday cheer to the community.

They have a school performance on Thursday, so this was an opportunity for them to come and practice and share that energy with the residents, he said. When the kids sang, they let their hearts come out, and I think they did a really great job.

--

Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio
Leaders of a petition campaign calling for a referendum on a planned 25-story luxury condominium tower in Newport Beach announced Tuesday that they have gathered enough signatures and will soon turn them in to the city clerk.

Due to our extraordinary team effort, it looks like weve done remarkably well, Susan Skinner, organizer for petition sponsor Line in the Sand, said in a statement. We are in the process of counting the signatures we have in hand and will make a decision about the exact date and time of delivery shortly.

Line in the Sand, the political arm of activist group Still Protecting Our Newport, needs 5,800 verified signatures from local voters to potentially bring the 100-unit Museum House project to a public vote. The group is seeking to overturn the City Councils Nov. 29 approval of the tower, which would replace the Orange County Museum of Art at 850 San Clemente Drive in Newport Center.

The museum plans to move near the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, though that process is not finalized.

Once the petition signatures are submitted, the Orange County registrar of voters office would determine whether the required number of valid ones has been met. If so, the City Council could call for a special election, schedule the matter for the next city general election in 2018 or rescind its approval of the project.

Soon after Skinners statement Tuesday, an executive with Museum House developer Related California alleged that Line in the Sands petition effort doesnt comply with state elections code.

Gino Canori, Relateds executive vice president of development, said his company sought the help of Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk  a Sacramento-based law firm that specializes in election matters  which reviewed the referendum petition and submitted its findings to city officials Monday for further analysis.

Based on their findings, we believe the referendum petition should be rejected because of its failure to comply with the California elections codes mandatory requirements, Canori said in a statement. We are especially concerned that most of the petition is completely illegible. How can people be asked to sign a petition that is unreadable?

At its heart, the petition is an informational document. Our attorneys have never seen a petition that is formatted like this one  where every page is essentially scaled down to one-half or smaller of its original size. Additionally, the referendum petition does not contain the full text of the City Councils action that is subject of the referendum.

Line in the Sand organizers have said that in order to comply with state law and attach all the necessary documents to their petition, they reformatted the documents to make them fit on about 1,000 pages  weighing 10 pounds  instead of having 4,000 or 5,000 pages.

But Canori said: The rules that govern the circulation of petitions in California are there for a reason. Efficiency over compliance is not a reason to skirt the laws.

Canori also alleged that Museum House opponents have made false statements about the project, which Related says would not significantly affect traffic in Newport Center and would contribute millions of dollars in tax revenue toward a variety of public benefits.

Tim Stoaks, a spokesman for Line in the Sand, said Tuesday afternoon that he couldnt comment about Canoris statements because he hadnt yet reviewed them.

Line in the Sand has alleged that people working on behalf of Museum House have been deceptive in their tactics and combative toward people gathering signatures for the referendum petition.

The Irvine Co. sued Related California earlier this month, contending that some of its supporters were conducting Museum House-related activities on Irvine Co. properties without permission and creating a hostile environment for shoppers.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint
UC Irvine announced Monday that the university has broken its record for applications for a quarter, with more than 100,000 applicants for fall 2017 so far.

The number broke the record set last year, when UCI received nearly 98,000 applications from aspiring freshmen and transfer students for fall 2016.

Among the 102,210 applications for fall 2017 the school has received to date, 85,053 are prospective freshmen and 17,157 are potential transfers.

Of the freshmen applicants, 63,091 are California residents, the university said.

These spectacular results represent exactly what we have set out to achieve  sending the message to all California residents that an exceptional UC education is accessible to them and that UCI is where they want to be, UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman said in a statement.

The official application count will be available after the transfer application deadline Jan. 3, the university said.

UCI has racked up the third-highest number of freshmen applications for fall 2017 in the University of California system, behind UC San Diego, which has 88,451, and UCLA, which has 102,177.

Among the 10 UC schools, UCI garnered the most Chicano and Latino freshmen applicants, with 23,463, and the third-highest number of African American freshmen applicants, with 3,220.

The outcomes we hoped for have now been realized with crossing the 102,000 threshold for applications, and this would not have been achieved without the hard work and outreach of our admissions staff and our messaging about UCI being both accessible and affordable  a magnificent place to fulfill their academic dreams and aspirations, Thomas Parham, vice chancellor for students affairs, said in a statement.

As an example of that outreach, the university said Parham visited Compton High School last month for the fifth year of Achieve UC, a program that reaches out to schools and communities that have UC-eligible students but send relatively few to those universities.

According to the UCI catalog, the universitys basic tuition for resident undergraduates for the 2016-17 school year is $11,220.

alexandra.chan@latimes.com

Twitter: @AlexandraChan10
From 2013 to 2015, the city of Costa Mesa helped house 122 individuals and reconnected 31 homeless with their families, providing more than 150 people with a roof over their heads once again.

This remarkable piece of news speaks volumes to an innovative strategy and the tireless efforts of our church partners, volunteers and staff, and one would think it would make front page news of our local newspaper.

Instead an article in the Daily Pilot of Feb. 5 by reporter Bradley Zint titled, 45% rise in Costa Mesas homeless population, survey finds, candidly missed the real story of what is happening in Costa Mesa and how we are leading the charge throughout the county in finding new and creative ways to assist those who are down on their luck.

An increase in the homeless population is not a story unique to Costa Mesa. Newport Beach, Mission Viejo, Santa Ana, Irvine and Brea all face the same thing. No city is immune from this issue.

Indeed, read any news site in the country and the headlines are all the same: joblessness and homelessness is on the rise countywide, statewide and nationally, largely thanks to bad public policy from our liberal friends in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

But the Daily Pilots story would have you think its a Costa Mesa problem. It neglected to put the problem of homelessness into context, and it glossed over and seriously downplayed the great success and progress the city of Costa Mesas public-private partnership has made.

As I have said many times, government cannot solve this problem but a community and our individuals can.

In 2011, the council and city leaders embarked on a quest to help Costa Mesa residents who are homeless find a path out of their dilemma. In fact, Costa Mesas approach to homelessness is one that multiple cities are now looking to model.

Ours is a tough-love, carrot-and-stick approach that recognizes homelessness cannot be a lifestyle and, if ignored, will become a public safety issue. Our approach uses a wide range of strategies that combines law enforcement, street outreach, prevention, rehabilitation, housing assistance and volunteer coordination.

And guess what? Its working.

During that same time period as the Vanguard survey cited in the Daily Pilot story (2013 to 2015), our outreach staff has placed 122 homeless in housing and reconnected 31 with their families. In addition, we have 60-plus people whose housing placement is pending or are using city housing vouchers. Thats the real number the Pilot should have focused on.

Costa Mesas success comes largely from our residents, volunteers and our Network for Homeless Solutions, which is made up of representatives from the CEO, city attorney, police, Planning and Code Enforcement office, as well as clergy and those from the faith-based community and mental health and community outreach workers.

Our city spends an enormous amount of time, money and resources helping and housing Costa Mesans in need. In 2015 alone, our staff logged 3,550 hours working directly on this very important issue.

Additionally, we have taken several enforcement measures to improve the quality of life for our residents who are directly affected by homeless issues. That includes working with the county, Caltrans, Orange County Sheriffs Department, Costa Mesa Police Department and Costa Mesa Code Enforcement to cleanup homeless encampments on county lands and near freeways.

We are using law enforcement to target the prostitution and drug activity, and we have hired more park rangers to closely monitor activities in our parks to ensure the publics access and enjoyment of the citys recreational facilities.

Along with my fellow council members, we enacted other innovative ordinances such as a smoking ban in city parks and we strengthened the citys camping ordinance so that unattended property will be removed and stored for a period of time, and abandoned property will be disposed of.

We have identified chronic offenders who cause major nuisances in the community and disregard compliance with established laws. We have also worked with the city attorney, the Costa Mesa Police Department and faith-based community and mental health workers to increase penalties for chronic offenders.

But we are also helping the chronic homeless find new lives. For example, we recently placed a person who had mental health issues in housing after 40 years on the street.

As mayor, I have seen the issues first hand in Technicolor as I regularly walk the city and work closely with city staff to address major problems, which is why I really take this personally and want the whole story to be told.

I respect this longtime reporter who has great knowledge of our city, which is why Im so dismayed in this unbalanced story that disregards the hundreds of hours of success put in by volunteers and the daily hard work of our police, code enforcement, outreach workers and clergy.

In the future, it is my hope that the members of the media focus more on our successes and tell the full, balanced story about the problems we face and the hard work and efforts we are and undertaking to solve them.

STEVE MENSINGER is the mayor of Costa Mesa.
Egypts prominent yearly furniture fair Le Marche has been cancelled by state authorities over security concerns three days before it was set to start, causing significant losses for local manufacturers, an official from the fairs organising committee said on Wednesday.

At first, the interior ministry did not grant us [the organisers] approval [to hold the fair], but after we appealed to officials, permission was granted earlier this week, so companies started to set up their stands, said Yousry Abul-Naga, the head of the fairs' organisers division at the Federation of Egyptian Industries.

The security permit was shortly withdrawn, doubling the exhibitors losses.

The 32-year-old fair, organised by Tarek Nour Communications (TNC) and Arab African Promoters for International Conferences and Exhibitions (AAPI), was set to take place from 22 to 25 December.

After confirming on Monday that the fair will be held on time, Le Marche said on its official Facebook page on Tuesday that the fair is postponed for reasons out of our control, and we will update you with the new date [as soon as possible].

The organisers of the fair published an ad in Al-Ahram newspaper pleading to President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to intervene.

The losses of around 200 to 300 companies participating in the fair are estimated at EGP 200 to EGP 300 million, Abul-Naga told Ahram Online.

Last week, 27 people were killed in a Cairo church bombing, two days after an explosion in Gizas Haram district killed six policemen.

Mohamed Shabrawy, the deputy head of the Chamber of Wood Working and Furniture Industries, said it is a difficult time for security with the church and Haram attacks of last week, though he added that the fair has been postponed, not cancelled.

Local manufacturers are suffering the heaviest losses. They have worked all year for this fair. These manufacturers have to support their employees, who range from 100 to 150 workers per company, Shabrawy said.

Abdel-Haleem El-Iraqi, CEO of local manufacturer French Home Furniture, one of the exhibitors of Le Marche, said that the cancellation of the fair has had a tough impact on us, adding that he was informed the fair has indeed been cancelled, not postponed.

In such dire conditions of high prices and a stagnant market; we hoped the fair would have balanced our revenues, El-Iraqi said.

Egypt's economy has been struggling since 2011 uprising, with a sharp drop in tourism and foreign investment, two main sources of hard currency for the import-dependent country.

Our profit from Le Marche is not only during the fair itself, but it helps [the business] all year. We have been working for the past six months to produce new models and designs for the fair. The initial losses from losing our stand at the fair are half-a-million pounds, El-Iraqi said.

According to the official statistic body CAMPAS, the furniture sector employed 270,222 workers across 104,250 establishments in 2013.

The value of exports by the furniture industry stands at EGP 305.1 million, according to a September press release by Egypt's Ministry of Industry.

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About 400 students who attend Cerritos Elementary School were surprised Tuesday when each of them received a gift, resulting in some shocked looks and cheers.

Each of you is so precious to us, said Cassie McCarty, director of mission integration at Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital.

Leading up to the gift delivery, hospital employees, including physicians, board members and staff as well as volunteers, bought a gift for each of the 409 students who attend Cerritos.

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Several of the hospitals employees attended the assembly to watch the students receive their gifts.

It means so much to our students to have that support from our hospital nearby, said the schools principal, Perla Chavez-Fritz. Its just such a great support to our families and students to have this day, and to know that theres somebody out there that cares and thats willing to provide for them a gift thats more than just a gift  its an act of generosity and compassion.

--

Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
Several local students who attend Crescenta Valley and La Canada high schools spent months of their spare time learning about biotechnology to more efficiently produce biofuel.

That hard work paid off recently when the students presented their research on using synthetically engineered cyanobacteria to produce fatty acids for biofuel.

Students from both schools teamed up with students from the University of La Verne to spend nine months learning about the subject before presenting their research during the International Genetically Engineered Machine Jamboree in Boston in October.

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La Canada and Crescenta Valley high students collaborated with each other in their spare time on weekends after school or during summer break, said Tracy Lee, a La Canada High School parent.

They also received guidance from Orenda Tuason, a Crescenta Valley High biology teacher.

During the summer, some students attended Ms. Tuasons [biotechnology] lab class for five hours per day for six weeks, while others, who already had biotech lab skills, would research possible projects. All students read numerous scientific papers on their own, Lee said.

The competition drew 475 teams from 42 countries who returned home with gold, silver and bronze awards.

The local team, along with 73 other teams, won a silver award.

--

Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
Students from St. Marys Richard Tufenkian Preschool walked several blocks from their campus on Monday to a Glendale fire station on Chevy Chase Drive where they delivered more than 130 toys for children in need.

The kindergartners filled three cardboard containers with gifts following a two-week gift-buying campaign at their school. The gifts will be delivered to children as part of the Glendale Fire Departments annual Spark of Love toy drive.

The event was one of many in which the school has participated this year to help others, including sending school supplies to students in Armenia and raising money for the Armenian Relief Society of Western USA.

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We are very big at helping the community, in general, with different fundraisers throughout the year, said parent Mania Hairapetian, chair of the schools parent support committee. This year, we figured itd be a nice time to give back to the local children that need toys at this time of year.

For Arsine Aghazarian, the preschools director, the half-mile walk from the campus to the fire station came with a bonus lesson.

We decided to bring the kids so they can understand physically, actively, what giving means, she said.

--

Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
The U.S. State Department has reissued a travel warning for the Philippines, citing terrorism and kidnapping concerns in the southern part of the 7,000-island nation.

The warning, issued Tuesday and replacing a warning issued in April, urges travelers to avoid all non-essential travel to the Sulu Archipelago and through the southern Sulu Sea.

Travelers should exercise extreme caution, it notes, when traveling to Mindanao, the second-largest island in the country. Only Luzon to the north, home to Manila, the capital, is larger.

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Earlier this month, three Philippines soldiers were killed when they clashed with Abu Sayyaf rebels in Sulu, the Mindanao Examiner reported

Abu Sayyaf is an Islamist extremist group whose origins date to the 1990s. Mindanao and the southern Philippines have a large Muslim population, which has been at odds with the Christian north almost since the Spanish began to colonize the islands in the 1500s.

The State Department warning notes, Separatist and terrorist groups continue to carry out attacks and kidnappings against civilians, foreigners, political leaders and Philippine security forces in Mindanao.

Since January 2016, at least 13 separate kidnappings of foreigners have been reported across Mindanao.

Davao City, with about 1.5-million residents, was hit by a terrorist bombing in September that killed at least 14 and injured more than 65, CNN Philippines reported.

Following the attack, the warning notes, the Philippine government declared a State of National Emergency on Account of Lawless Violence in Mindanao.

The warning notes that no Americans have been targeted, but U.S. foreigners often are threatened.

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Civil liberties campaigners scored a huge victory on Wednesday when Europes highest court ruled that Britains sweeping surveillance powers are illegal.

The country is on the verge of adopting what critics say is the most extensive surveillance law to be adopted in the Western world. The Investigatory Powers Act, approved by Parliament last month, enables the British government to undertake the bulk interception of electronic communications of ordinary citizens.

More specifically, it requires Internet and phone companies to keep the records of every call made, online message sent and website visited by customers for 12 months. Public organizations would then be able access these communications, sometimes without a warrant, and also without the individual being made aware they were under surveillance.

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The security services argue that mass surveillance of this scale is necessary in order to keep citizens safe during a time of heightened threats, global terrorist attacks and cyberwarfare. But human rights groups have long said that while some surveillance is necessary, the basic privacy of citizens should not be violated in the process.

Following a legal challenge, Britains High Court found the surveillance law breached fundamental rights, but the government appealed and the case was referred to the European Court of Justice.

That court upheld the High Courts decision Wednesday, ruling that the general and indiscriminate retention of electronic communications by a government is unlawful and that targeted retention can be performed only to fight serious crime.

The decision was made in relation to Britains existing Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act that expires at the end of the year  but it will probably have far-reaching implications for the Investigatory Powers Act.

Todays judgment upholds the rights of ordinary British people not to have their personal lives spied on without good reason or an independent warrant, said civil rights group Libertys director Martha Spurrier. The government must now make urgent changes to the Investigatory Powers Act to comply with this.

Spurrier added that this was the first major test for the government with regard to human rights and the rule of law since Britain voted to leave the European Union.

The U.K. may have voted to leave the EU  but we didnt vote to abandon our rights and freedoms, she said.

Even though this latest case has been decided by the European court, it is unlikely that the ruling will be affected by Britain leaving the EU, a process known as Brexit. Since the ruling was made before the formal withdrawal process has been triggered, it will remain legally binding.

In a strange twist of fate, the case was also the first to be brought forward by lawmaker David Davis, who is now the minister in charge of extricating Britain from the European Union after the countrys vote to leave in June.

He extricated himself from the case after his appointment as Brexit minister by Prime Minister Theresa May, but has been a vocal civil liberties campaigner during his parliamentary career.

The case will now return to Britains Court of Appeal where local judges will have to work out how to implement the finding in relation to existing U.K. law.

Tom Watson, deputy leader of the opposition Labor Party, who also championed the case with Davis, hailed Wednesdays ruling as a resounding victory, saying that surveillance powers should be a matter for judges, not government ministers.

Most of us can accept that our privacy may occasionally be compromised in the interests of keeping us safe, but no one would consent to giving the police or the government the power to arbitrarily seize our phone records or emails to use as they see fit, he said.

And Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who revealed details about U.S. electronic surveillance programs, also rejoiced at the news.

Big: EUs highest court (ECJ) declares UKs mandatory logging of everyones communications to be unlawful, he tweeted, with an image of Prime Minister May beneath the words PRY MINISTER.

Although Wednesdays ruling is a victory in many ways, some elements of the new act will remain unchanged, including a provision that requires companies with more than 10,000 users to create changes to their encryption services, which would allow the government to access that data, if required.

Boyle is a special correspondent.
For the first time since the Syrian civil war came to Aleppo in 2012, the city was holding a Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

Shadi Hulwe, a prominent pro-government reporter who hosts a weekly show from this embattled city, appeared on a stage set up before the two-story high tree in the middle of Aziziyah square. Dozens of people gathered around sent up a rousing cheer.

Hulwe fired up fans with his catchphrase, Heres Aleppo! before a DJ blasted the opening strains of a popular song. The crowd responded with a paroxysm of activity, the men dancing a frenetic dabke step as others waved Syrian and Russian flags.

Some of those gathered hoisted Joseph Fannoun, a 55-year-old jeweler, onto their shoulders. He waved the green-on-yellow banner of Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, an important ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, above his head.

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Is it possible a nation can have more than 80 countries fighting it and yet it is the one who wins? Fannoun asked.

Syria is a country that God has protected.

The ceremony was the latest in a series of large-scale public spectacles staged on Tuesday to celebrate the governments victory over the rebels in Aleppo.

Earlier on Tuesday, large crowds had filled the Basel stadium in Aleppo, named after Assads older brother, who was killed in a car accident in 1994.

Officials sat before small tables adorned with bouquets, chatting and intermittently listening to a youth choir work its way through a bevy of patriotic songs.

The event culminated with a poem fervently extolling the might of the Syrian army, recited by university student Mustafa Akdaa.

Our flag waved in Sheikh Saeed and Ramousseh. Now it has risen in Shaar, he declared, referring to neighborhoods that were once part of the rebels pocket in east Aleppo.

There are no men among the Arabs, except the lions of Syria.

Once the rally had ended, people thronged to Saadallah Jaberi square, where a large Syrian flag fluttered languidly atop a roughly 90-foot mast.

We couldnt walk here in the past  too many snipers, said one off-duty soldier, who refused to give his name for reasons of privacy.

Around him, people posed for selfies. Nearby, a pair of boys mock-jousted with the Syrian flags they carried.

Boys pretend to joust in front of a Syrian government flag in Aleppo. (Nabih Bulos / For The Times )

The carnival-like atmosphere formed a stark counterpoint to the rebels final days in the neighborhoods that made up what they had dubbed Free Aleppo.

Forced to seek shelter in crumbling structures repeatedly pounded by fighting, those remaining in the shattered pocket burned whatever detritus they could find to fend off the bitter cold.

They waited for the resolution of torturous multi-sided negotiations to ensure their safe passage to the rebel-held province of Idlib, while also taking approximately 4,000 people from Fuah and Kfarya, a pair of Shiite-dominated towns that are besieged by Islamist factions.

By Wednesday, however, 60 buses had gone in once more to shuttle fighters out. Ahmad Qara Ali, a spokesman for the Islamist faction Ahrar al-Sham, said the evacuation would end on Wednesday.

Several residents in Fuah and Kfarya, however, said that only one wave of evacuees had left the two towns. According to Mohammad Hassan Taqi, head of the Fuah and Kfaryas Crisis Committee, heavy snowfall had prevented buses from taking residents out.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group, reported Wednesday that the final wave of those besieged inside the area of rebel control had left Aleppo, and that the government had regained full control of the city. Syrian state media and pro-government outlets, however, stated evacuations had resumed but did not say they had ended.

Assads victory over the rebels, achieved after a punishing campaign that saw fighters from Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan battling alongside Syrian army troops, with air and modest ground support from Russia, establishes government control over all of Aleppo, Syrias largest and arguably most important city.

Earlier this month, most of east Aleppos residents streamed into government areas during the armys onslaught.

But an estimated 50,000 people, fearful of being punished for their anti-government views or of being pressed into service in the security forces, burrowed ever-deeper in rebel neighborhoods.

Their plight spurred a bout of negotiations between Russia and Turkey that would grant them safe passage to Idlib. But the evacuation was almost immediately derailed, with the two sides blaming each other for the collapse.

Though a major setback, the loss of Aleppo does not signify the end of the oppositions battle against Assad. Rebel ranks are dominated by hard-line Sunni Islamist factions, and many view the war as an apocalyptic fight against Shiites, members of another branch of Islam.

Even as pro-government Aleppans promenaded around the Christmas tree, the festivities were marred by what state TV said was an explosive canister that detonated nearby. In its wake, security personnel searched the bags of those attending, while prominent city figures, including several of Aleppos Christian clergymen, departed from the area.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, users on social media shared a video depicting a bearded man, thought to be a member of the Front for the Conquest of Syria, Al Qaedas former affiliate in Syria, named Abdul Rahman Shaddad.

Shaddad speaks to his daughters, 9-year-old Fatemah and 7-year-old Islam, both dressed in black hijabs.

The video could not be independently verified, but it appeared days after a Friday suicide bombing in the capital, Damascus, when a child, now thought to be Fatemah, had blown herself up in a police station.

Fatemah, what are you going to do today? asks Shaddad.

She answers that she will carry out a suicide mission in Damascus.

You want to surrender so that youre raped and killed by the infidels? he asks.

Fatemah says no.
The death toll in a series of explosions at a fireworks market outside Mexico City has risen to 32, an official said Wednesday, as authorities worked to identify badly burned bodies and determine the cause of the tragedy.

Sixty others were injured in the chain-reaction blasts, which occurred midafternoon Tuesday at an open-air market in the city of Tultepec in Mexico state.

Among the 32 confirmed dead are at least 14 males, including seven minors, and 16 women, mostly of as-yet-undetermined ages, Alejandro Gomez, the chief state prosecutor, said in a television interview.

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Of those killed, the official said, five died at various hospitals and 26 succumbed at the site  the San Pablito market, 24 miles north of Mexico City.

The expansive market, Mexicos largest and best-known fireworks bazaar, hosted some 300 vending stalls. Many were reduced to rubble in the spectacular sequence of explosions.

The market is legal and regulated by various levels of government, including the Mexican military. Before Tuesdays blasts, local officials had insisted publicly that oversight had been stiffened and safety improved at the market, which suffered several explosions a decade ago.

But desperate relatives and friends of the missing complained that officials had not done enough to ensure safety at the sprawling market. Anxious kin of the missing have been converging on hospitals and morgues in the area, seeking to learn the fate of their loved ones.

Its not the first time a tragedy like this occurred, and the government always says, It will never happen again, said Francisco Maldonado, 47, who was among those at a hospital inquiring about a relative injured in the blasts. The people go to those places believing the government that everything is safe, and its not true.  Its not possible that these things keep on happening.

The casualties are thought to include both workers at the market and shoppers who were seeking to buy fireworks for the upcoming holidays. Fireworks are a popular part of holiday celebrations both big and small in Mexico.

Complicating the process of identifying the dead, the prosecutor said, was the fact that many of the victims were badly burned.

Meanwhile, authorities were searching through the rubble and interviewing witnesses as they tried to pinpoint what triggered the series of thunderous explosions, which shook the ground almost a mile away. The blasts sent columns of smoke and balls of fire hundreds of feet into the air. Amateur video captured the spectacle; the scenes have been repeatedly looped on Mexican television.

Police were investigating a report that a fireworks rocket exploded at one of the stands, sparking the chain reaction, the state prosecutor confirmed. The salesman working at the stand where the initial explosion reportedly took place was among those who perished, the official said

The fireworks industry is big business in Tultepec, employing hundreds if not thousands in and around the city of 50,000.

Eight days before Tuesdays blasts, town officials boasted publicly that the market  which they labelled the largest of its kind in Latin America  was safe and equipped with the latest safety gear.

A Dec. 12 press release from the city of Tultepec quoted Juan Ignacio Rodarte Cordero, director general of the Mexican Institute of Pyrotechnics, as saying that the stalls in San Pablito market were perfectly designed and with sufficient space to avoid a chain-reaction conflagration in the case of a spark.

The same release also quoted German Galicia Cortes, identified as the market president, assuring visitors that they would find a safe place featuring all necessary security equipment, including fire extinguishers, water, sand, shovels, picks and qualified people who know how to act in case of any incident.

Local authorities estimated that 100 tons of fireworks would be sold at the market between August and the end of the year.

Of the 60 people who suffered injuries, the prosecutor said, 46 remained hospitalized early Wednesday. Nine others were released after treatment and four were treated at the scene of the explosion.

Special correspondent Tillman reported from Tultepec and Times staff writer McDonnell from Mexico City. Cecilia Sanchez of the Times Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.

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2:40 p.m.: This article was updated with the most recent death toll.

This article was originally published at 10:15 a.m.
All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced.  19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc.
The US president-elect confirms the two recently met for a private dinner as business leaders on both sides of the border look for clues about Trump's Mexico policies
Bacterias are more harmful to human and animal bodies than most of the other dangerous elements living on earth. And among all kinds of bacteria, multi-resistant ones are perhaps the most powerful and can cause slow and immense destruction to body parts. However, to beat all these destructive beings, Multi-resistant bacteria Scientists around the world are working hard since decades. A recent finding even hinted that even certain sensitive bacteria often manage to survive antibiotic treatment as so-called 'persister cells'.

According to Science Daily, the finding was revealed by the BASP Centre, Department of Biology of the University of Copenhagen. The study was majorly focused on a newly discovered molecular mechanisms explaining how certain powerful bacteria manage to survive antibiotic treatment and cause chronic and recurrent infections. A group of scientists led by Alexander Harms examined certain substances and thereby steered the findings for implementing their focus in this study.

As per report by EurekaAlert, Harms also stated: "This amazing resilience is often due to hibernation in a physiological state called persistence where the bacteria are tolerant to multiple antibiotics and other stressors. Bacterial cells can switch into persistence by activating dedicated physiological programs that literally pull the plug of important cellular processes. Once they are persisters, the bacteria may sit through even long-lasting antibiotic therapy and can resuscitate to cause relapsing infections at any time after the treatment is abandoned."

Using novel detection methods as shown in the figure, recent work in the field has uncovered the molecular architecture of several cellular pathways underlying the formation of bacterial persisters. These results further confirmed the long-standing notion that persistence is intimately connected to slow growth or dormancy. Bacterial persistence can, therefore, be compared to hibernation of animals or the durable spores produced by many mushrooms and plants.

According to numerous potential sources the study lead by the BASP was also meant to support the development of advanced drug treatment and improved antibiotics which can overpower these terrible bacteria and destroy them forever.
Pope Francis on Tuesday named Italian Barbara Jutte as the next head of the Vatican Museums, making her the first woman to take charge of the Catholic Church's artistic treasures.

Jutte, 54, steps up from her current role as deputy director on January 1, taking over from Antonio Paolucci, 77, an art historian and former Italian culture minister.

Jutte, a native of Rome, has worked at the Vatican since 1996.

She will be taking over one of the world's greatest collections of artworks, contained in seven kilometres (four miles) of galleries and including the celebrated Sistine Chapel.

The museums draw in four million visitors each year despite a relatively hefty standard adult entry price of 16 euros ($16.60).

Most reviews are highly favourable despite some grumbling that the visitor experience is negatively affected by overcrowding.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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Elon Musk is now obsessing on tunnels. To show he is serious in building tunnel, he has added the world "Tunnel" to his Twitter profile. Apparently, all these started while he was stuck in traffic Saturday morning. The billionaire entrepreneur who has pioneered in creating self-driving cars, has set off a project to take humans to Mars and conceptualized trains travelling through vacuum tubes at 600 mph has found himself powerless over city traffic.

Elon Musk plans to build a tunnel boring machine and to start digging tunnels. The Daily Breeze reported that Musk plans to start a company called "The Boring Company" and to create major thoroughfares under the ground.

While this is indeed a fantastic idea, one of the reasons why it is not that feasible is the price. It costs more to build tunnels than to create regular roads and highways to decongest main thoroughfares. The cost of tunnel ventilation and fire protection also adds to the cost.

But Musk is convinced that physics will be able to curb the expenses of creating a tunnel. He said "A good framework for thinking is physics. Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there."

1 News Singapore said that the Tesla founder and CEO was also rumored to be talking with Donald Trump on projects related to infrastructure. He was one of the experts present at Trump's meeting with technology leaders at the Trump Tower in New York last week.

Elon Musk is not just a thinker but a doer. He has proven himself a man with amazing visions especially with his plans to colonize Mars in just a few years from now. Musk's followers could easily see that he was excited by his tunnel project as he tweeted endlessly about his plans.

He proposed a statement for "The Boring Company" saying "Boring, it's what we do." After two hours, he said that he was actually going to start this company and dig tunnels. His Twitter biography now reads "Tesla, SpaceX, Tunnels (yes, tunnels) & OpenAI."
Many years ago several Canadian scientists gathered on the Parliament Hill in Ottawa putting on their white lab coats as a protest against what they called the "death of scientific evidence." This team of scientists has even conducted a mock funeral procession with their prepared eulogies.

They seemed to be waging war fighting on draconian restrictions on scientists' engagement with the media. Along with the protest is the proposal of a national science budget that slashed research funding and closed several research centers.

According to National Post, some of the government's actions took Canadian scientists by surprise. Now, many of them have given warning to their U.S counterparts to be vigilant and not to be similarly caught off guard under Donald Trump's election victory.

Reports claimed that several organizations are offering help to the U.S scientists in backing up their data. Furthermore, they are urging them to make the case in public to inform people about the importance of their research in health and environment.

"There was a feeling that the government was not interested in expert opinion, and I think it's the same kind of thing that you are probably going to see the new [Trump] administration" in the U.S., David Tarasick, a senior research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada said.

Tarasick added that Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government had prevented him from speaking to the media about the compelling research entitled ""Unprecedented Arctic Ozone Loss in 2011".

According to the Canadian Union, there is no substantial funding to support climate change research under Harper's administration. Without enough funding, Canadian scientists often traveled to other countries where they believed they could get funding for researchers.

Now, U.S President Trump has already launched opening salvos against science and the press. Trump has also pledged to slash or shrink multiple federal science agencies. After the presidential inauguration, thousands of U.S scientists signed protest letters. Some science organizations are even offering to counsel the Trump's transition team.

"In Canada, the government was subject to a lot of criticism because of the message control, and it's regarded to have contributed significantly to their loss in last year's election. One of the new government's very first acts was to declare that scientists were free to speak to the media," Tarasick said.




Currently on show at Paris's Centre Pompidou, the exhibition Art and Freedom: Rupture, War and Surrealism in Egypt (1938-1948)" unveils the secrets of a group of Egypt's rebellious artists of the 1930s and 1940s

On the fourth floor of the National Museum of Modern Art at the Centre Pompidou, where contemporary art collections are stored, visitors attention is drawn to a sign which reads: "Art and Freedom: Rupture, War and Surrealism in Egypt (1938-1948)." Organised by independent curators Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath (Art Reoriented), the display is dedicated to the works of the Egyptian art group known as Art and Freedom, founded with a manifesto titled 'Long Live Degenerate Art,' published 22 December 1938. The movement that gathered Egyptian artists, intellectuals and social and political activitsts of the time continued until 1948.

The exhibition in Paris's Centre Pompidou opened 19 October 2016 and will continue until 16 January 2017.

Following five years of in-depth research and no less than a hundred interviews and field investigations in Egypt and in numerous other countries, the curators selected nearly 130 paintings, works on paper and photographs, as well as a great number of archive documents (historical photographs, film sequences and never-before-seen manuscripts). These works of art, many of which are unpublished, were taken from over 50 public and private collections in Egypt and other countries.

In the first room hangs a picture of the members of Art and Freedom, together with those of the Friends of Art Society.

A documentary is playing in the middle of the room, showing King Farouk at the opening of one of their exhibitions. The voice of critic Anwar Kamel then begins to narrate the history of the artistic group, in the semi-classical Arabic of the old days. Gathered by writer, poet and journalist Georges Henein a friend of French surrealist Andre Breton, whose disappearance now dates back fifty years  over 30 Egyptian artists and intellectuals, as well as others having lived in Egypt, embraced the mantra Long live degenerate art.

The group opposed members of the Friends of Art Society, along with all official artists who maintained close relations with the regime, and propagated a cliched image of Egypt. The group also opposed the fascist, nationalist tendencies of the era and denounced World War II.

The exhibition explores elements of the surrealist movement adopted by the group and their connection to the international context, while simultaneously offering a critical vision of the Egyptian monarchy under British colonisation.

Sequences of black and white documentaries projected onto a wall, where copies of old newspapers are hung along with the groups publications, all tell the story of a clearly rebellious movement.

George Henein, still in correspondence with Breton and other surrealists across the world, defended a movement capable of expressing the pain of a man torn apart by war and longing for change. Anwar Kamels voice echoes across the room as he proclaims, We still believe in the permanent revolution.

Facing war

'The Voice of Canons' is the significant title given to a section of the exhibition that showcases the visual artworks of the group, many of which show nightmarish images and monstrous creatures. Inji Aflatouns 'Young Girl and Monster,' and Rateb Seddiks work, in which the artist depicts macabre tombstones and shredded corpses, serve as a testimony to the abominable effects of war. The same could be said of Amy Nimrs painting of drowning skeletons.

In most of the groups artworks, bodies are fragmented and deformed, serving as a means of social and artistic protest. By fragmenting the bodies, the artists identified with the surrealist revolt and expressed their opposition to the symbolism and naturalism movements, advocated by the bourgeoisie and preventing social upward mobility.

Moreover, the Art and Freedom group developed the notion of subjective realism. They made use of local Egyptian symbols to send out an international message, more universal and more humane. Ramses Younan, for instance, incorporated the image of ancient Egyptian goddess Nut into an artwork where the womans face expresses sadness, and her body, suffering.

As for Henein, the artist often wrote about the women who, under the effect of poverty, sold themselves in times of war. The writer transformed this figure into a recurring image in everyday life, often described as the woman of the city. Thus in the groups artistic works and illustrations, woman never plays the role of a muse, nor does she attempt to seduce. Her body is engraved with her misery.

Among the disciplines mastered by the group was surrealist photography. The curators research allows us to discover unknown photographers who experimented with photomontage and other techniques in order to create surrealist images. To achieve this, the artists played on proportions, photomontage, contradiction between elements, even sarcasm, to ridicule cliche images of touristic Egypt. Aside from Van Leos work, the works of Mohamad Abdel-Latif, Ida Kar, Ramzi Zolqomah and others were also showcased.

Over a period of 10 years, the surrealist movement of Art and Freedom had well developed. Yet the group struggled to survive after 1948. Some of its members were forced into exile. Others were imprisoned for their communist ideals. Censorship prevented the publishing of their artworks. Henein distanced himself from the French surrealist movement, as Breton began to show interest in shows and exhibitions. On his deathbed, while in exile, he said to his wife, Baby elephants die alone, a metaphor that summarised the situation. The story had ended, but the works exhibited in the Centre Pompidou keep it forever alive.

Following the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the collection will embark on an international tour.

The same surrealist works will be shown at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid from 14 February to 28 May 2017.

They will also be showcased at the Tate Liverpool from 10 November to 11 Mars 2018 where the exhibition will underline the presence of English surrealist artists living in Egypt during the 1940s.

In Spain, the exhbition will highlight the influence of Picassos Guernica on members of the Art and Freedom group.

Later on, in Germany, the display focus on the groups manifesto, published as a protest against Nazism and fascist authorities.

This article is translated from Al Ahram Hebdo (French)

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During excavation work carried out below the visitors pathway in the northern part of the west Aswan cemetery, at Qubbet Al-Hawa site, archaeologists from the University of Birmingham and the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) Qubbet Al-Hawa Research Project (QHRP), stumbled upon what is believed to be an ancient Egyptian encroachment wall.

Head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities Mahmoud Afify told Ahram Online that the wall is two-metres high and is part of the architectural support of the known tombs of the first upper terrace, including those of Harkhuf and Heqaib who were governors of Elephantine Island during the Old Kingdom.

Given the landscape of Qubbet Al-Hawa, he explained, the support wall helped to secure the hillside and thus lower lying tombs that were accessible by a causeway leading to a second terrace.

Nasr Salama, general director of Aswan and Nubia Antiquities, described the discovery as stunning, adding that it is now only a matter of time until new tombs are uncovered within the important cemetery.

This find is likely to change our understanding of the ancient funerary landscape of Qubbet Al-Hawa, said Essam Nagy, co-director of the QHRP and director of the EES office in Cairo, adding that the project's future plan is to follow the wall over its entire length in coming field seasons

Eman Khalifa, director of the pottery project within QHRP, said that early studies on the discovered pottery shreds embedded within the mortar used to build the wall show the exact dating of the wall.

The studies, she continued, reveal that the crushed pieces include parts of carinated bowls executed in style typical of the reign of King Pepi II from the Sixth Dynasty (c 2278-2184 BC), together with pieces of Marl Clay jars typical of the First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom. Thus indicating the expansion of the cemetery during the latter part of both periods, Khalifa pointed out.

Mission director Martin Bommas of the University of Birmingham said that the find was part of the project's successful first field season, which included the recent discovery of the long sought causeway of Sarenput I, first governor of the area at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom.

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Renovation work is underway at the temporary exhibition hall at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC), which overlooks Ain El-Sira lake in Fustat, ahead of the museums soft opening day scheduled for mid January.

Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany embarked on a tour on Tuesday around the different sections of the hall to inspect the latest work.

During his tour, El-Enany told Ahram Online that the soft opening, scheduled for 10 January, includes the opening of the temporary exhibition hall, which will have on display an exhibition on handicrafts and Egyptian industries along the span of history under the title Crafts and Industries through the Ages.

The soft opening will also include the inauguration of the service area, which includes a cinema, theatre and a cafeteria.

Saeed Mahrous, supervisor-general of the NMEC, told Ahram Online that the exhibition will have on show a collection of some 400 artefacts showcasing the traditional Egyptian techniques used in the making of clay, jewellery, textiles and wood carvings.

Mahrous says the objects were chosen from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, the Coptic museum in Old Cairo, the Museum of Islamic Art in Babul Khalq, as well as the Textiles Museum in Al-Muiz Street, the Alexandria Jewellery Museum and Al-Fustat store galleries.

The exhibition will also illuminate the continuation and development of ancient crafts into modern times.

This exhibition is a step towards NMECs third and final stage along the road to opening, which includes the museums 23,000 square metre exhibition hall, concluded El-Enany.

The exhibition... will be organised by the chronology and geography of the artefacts, said Saeed, adding that a multimedia electronic guide will be available to visitors.

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Lehigh Valley Academy is taking legal action against its chartering school districts after the Bethlehem school district approved a new charter with enrollment caps.

Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School is located in Hanover Township, Northampton County. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

In November, the Bethlehem Area School Board granted the school a five-year charter extension but set caps on the number of district students that can enroll at the regional charter school.

Monday night the charter school's board of trustees voted to appeal the new charter to the state Charter Appeals Board and also filed a complaint in Northampton County Court of Common Pleas. The Saucon Valley School District is also named in the filings because it is also a chartering district.

"The (charter school) board believes those amendments are in fact illegal and would ultimately place LVA in violation of its charter, as the charter school would no longer be able to give preference to siblings of those currently enrolled from BASD," Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School said in a statement.

Students are selected through a competitive lottery that gives preference to Bethlehem Area and Saucon Valley school District students and siblings of current students.

Bethlehem Area schools Superintendent Joseph Roy said the caps don't violate the law and it is within the school's power to agree to them. The Allentown School District has enacted similar enrollment limits.

"They can agree to the cap, save (taxpayers) $1 million a year and still have 150 kids a grade level and just fill the seats from other districts," Roy said, noting he has not reviewed the legal filings yet. "They can have the same enrollment, they can have the same budget and they can continue with their mission, but they are refusing to agree."

About 1,013 of the school's 1,689 students are Bethlehem Area kids and an enrollment cap could save the district $1 million. Eventually, the charter school plans to enroll 1,950 students with 150 students per grade level.

Bethlehem wanted to set a 60 percent enrollment cap for its own students starting with the kindergarten class of 2017-18. It would not result in existing students being removed from the school's rolls. But if an existing grade had more than 90 Bethlehem students and a district student left, the spot would have to be filled by a student from another district.

Lehigh Valley Academy agreed to an overall enrollment cap of 1,950 students, but felt that the district-specific cap sought by the Bethlehem school board left them open to legal challenges, charter school CEO Susan Mauser has said.

"LVA has always been a faithful steward of its charter, and has been recognized locally and nationally for its innovative learning practices and teaching strategies," the school said in its statement Tuesday.

Roy said he finds it hard to believe that there ever would be more than 90 siblings in one grade vying for seats.

"I just don't see how that is a reasonable argument," he said.

This is another example of why Pennsylvania must reform its 1997 charter school law, Roy said.

"Rather than agreeing to the charter approved by the elected BASD board and saving the taxpayers of Bethlehem $1 million per year -- the un-elected, privately selected board of this publicly financed school is asking the court to void the charter approved by the duly elected BASD board members," Roy said.

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.

Bethlehem expects to send Lehigh Valley Academy $11 million in tuition payments this year, up from $4.8 million in 2009-10. The district will spend almost $26 million total on charter school tuition this year.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Philadelphia man who is charged with throwing a cup of urine on a corrections officer in that city was arrested Tuesday in Easton, the Northampton County Sheriff's Department reports.

Jose Degracia, 34, of Philadelphia, who is charged with tossing a cup of urine on Jan. 2, 2106, on a Philadelphia prison guard, was arrested Dec. 20, 2016, in Easton, the Northampton County Sheriff's Department reports. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Jose Degracia, 34, was entering the county's Criminal Administration Building at 105 S. Union St. to visit a probation officer on an unrelated incident when deputies from the sheriff's department's Criminal Warrants Division took him into custody, Sgt. Michael Orchulli said.

Degracia was turned over to Philadelphia police to face a charge of aggravated harassment by prisoner, Orchulli said. The incident happened Jan. 2, court papers say.

Degracia was arraigned in Philadelphia Municipal Court and sent to prison in lieu of 10 percent of $5,000 bail, court papers say. Is preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 8 a.m. Jan. 5, court papers say.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Coopersburg woman is accused of shoplifting $300 worth of merchandise Tuesday from a handful of South Mall stores.

South Mall in Allentown is on Lehigh Street, just south of the Interstate 78 interchange. (Nick Falsone | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Salisbury Township police said when an officer confronted Melissa Petras as she was leaving Victoria's Secret, she said she had taken items but was ready to pay for them.

The 36-year-old Petras allegedly began pulling items with price tags from her purse.

Petras is accused of taking $300.50 in merchandise from six stores:

$35 - T&C Accessories

$3 - Carol Nelridge

$73 - Victoria's Secret

$149 - Bon-Ton

$33 - Bath & Body Works

$7.50 - Claire's

Petras was charged with six counts of retail theft and sent to Lehigh Couny Jail in lieu of $15,000 bail.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
LAWRENCE TWP. -- Authorities continued their manhunt Wednesday for a man who allegedly killed his estranged wife earlier this week.

The search enters its third day for Jeremiah Monell, 32, of Cedarville. New Jersey State Police found his truck Tuesday by some railroad tracks off Sawmill Road in the Cedarville section of Lawrence Township and have concentrated their search in the surrounding wooded area.

Troopers have resumed search for murder suspect Jeremiah Monell in the area of Sawmill Rd in Cedarville. Updates to follow as info comes in.  NJSP - State Police (@NJSP) December 21, 2016

New Jersey State Police are continuing to monitor the situation and plan on posting any updates to social media. Police cars and helicopters spent Tuesday patrolling the rural South Jersey area where his truck was found.

Monell allegedly killed 35-year-old Tara O'Shea-Watson around 8 a.m. Monday at her residence on Raymond Drive in the Laurel Lake section of Commercial Township. According to friends of O'Shea, Monell was abusive for years during their marriage and she had recently issued a restraining order against him.

Monell has been charged with murder and weapons charges. Once arrested, he will be held in jail on $1 million bail, officials said. He is 5-foot-9-inches tall and approximately 140 pounds.

Anyone with information about Monell's whereabouts is asked to contact New Jersey State Police Port Norris Station by calling 856-785-0036. Anonymous tips are accepted.

O'Shea's friends set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for a funeral and a candlelight vigil is scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. on Raymond Drive.

Don E. Woods may be reached at dwoods@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @donewoods1. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Pennsylvania State Police are increasing patrols on Northampton and Lehigh county highways, beginning midnight Friday through midnight Monday.

The safety initiative, known as the Aggressive Driving Enforcement Education program, includes additional efforts to ensure motorist safety within the Troop M coverage area. Troop M Bethlehem covers Northampton, Lehigh and Bucks counties.

Drivers will be apprehended who are found under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Enforcement also will concentrate on moving violations, such as reckless driving and speeding, as well as seat belt and child safety-seat violations.

In 2015, Troop M Bethlehem investigated 48 crashes during the four days surrounding the Christmas holiday. Eleven of the 48 crashes involved an injury requiring medical treatment; four were alcohol-related and one resulted in a fatality.

Troopers during the 2015 holiday enforcement also issued 578 citations, with nearly half for speeding, police said. There also were seven child safety-seat violations, 14 seat belt violations and 19 drivers arrested for suspected DUI.

State police also urge motorists to help keep first-responders safe.

When approaching an emergency vehicle -- fire, emergency medical services, police or tow truck with emergency lights activated -- drivers must move over to the next lane and reduce speed.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
What happened to the new associations law approved by the House of Representatives on November 29 and sent to the president for ratification?

Why havent we heard a word about it the last three weeks? I suspect this isnt due solely to plodding administrative procedure.

I hope it means the president may use his constitutional power to send the law back to parliament for reconsideration, which could offer the chance to save the country from this dreadful law.

The law is bad not only because of its provisions restricting civil society, as I and many others have already observed on previous occasions, but also because of the conditions of its adoption, which indicate a dysfunctional decision- making and legislative process.

The first sign of this dysfunction is that the true purpose of the law was not disclosed.

While its defenders in and out of parliament said its aim was to protect national security and tighten oversight on foreign funding, the truth is that laws and decrees issued over the last three years have already shut this door fully barring approval from the Ministry of Social Solidarity and security bodies.

In fact, Law 128/2014 made the receipt of any funds or support from foreign bodies without prior approval a crime punishable by up to life imprisonment for regular citizens and death for civil servants.

The aim of the NGO law, then, is not to safeguard the country from foreign interference, but to bring civil societyincluding the thousands of associations that receive no foreign funds and have no links with any foreign bodyunder full state control, threaten their staff, and ensure that they heed state directives.

This goes against the very nature and goals of civic action.

The same ambiguity surrounded the drafting of the law. Officially, 180 parliamentarians submitted the bill, which in itself is neither strange nor improper, but part of their job as legislators.

It is strange, however, for the government, including the Ministry of Social Solidarity, to be ignored and excluded from a discussion of the new law when for months the ministry has been preparing and debating a more balanced NGO law.

This suggests that the bill was introduced through the House in such abrupt fashion to bury the dialogue underway between the ministry and civil society and prevent a fairer law from seeing the light.

It also suggests there are bodies within the state capable of sidelining the government and pushing through their own legislative agenda.

Finally, the dysfunction in decision making was made apparent by the fact that the negative economic and social impact of the new law was disregarded, despite the economic crisis and hardships facing citizens, from unemployment to price hikes to deteriorating public services.

Tellingly, in the days after the law was announced, it was the subject of criticism and warnings from numerous well-established organizations and NGOs in good standing with the state and with considerable influence in various charitable and humanitarian fields.

These groups expressed their displeasure with the unprecedented restrictions imposed by the law, the utter disregard for their economic and social repercussions, and the danger they posed to the countrys stability.

The president thus has ample grounds to use his constitutional authority to return the law to parliament for further debate and revision of its most glaring flaws.

For its part, the House should not introduce mere cosmetic changes, tinkering with the law here and there, but address its major failings. It should revise the law to allow civic associations to raise funds from Egyptians without restriction or impediment and to facilitate the operation of associations.

And while the receipt of foreign funding should be regulated, it should be within a framework with transparent procedures and conditions with a concrete timetable.

The House should abandon the idea of supreme councils that trespass on the authority of the Ministry of Social Solidarity, and reduce administrative restrictions that deny society the services of civic bodies.

Finally, custodial sentences for administrative infractions must be removed from the law.

A genuine, diligent review of the law is not a reflection of state weakness or hesitation, but its willingness to consider and heed societys economic, social, and legal interests.

This is the sole exit from the predicament caused by those bodies that pushed this law without consultation or reflection. Driven only by their dread of any bottom-up social activity, they ignored the support and assistance civil society provides to broad swathes of the Egyptian public who have nothing to do with any foreign state or its official agencies.

Will we take this opportunity and correct this gratuitous error?

*The writer holds a PhD in financial law from the London School of Economics. He is former deputy prime minister, former chairman of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority and former chairman of the General Authority for Investment.

A version of this article was published in Arabic in El-Shorouq newspaper on Monday, 19 December.

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A fired Northampton County Prison guard accused of smuggling phones and drugs into the prison took a deal Wednesday that will spare him prison time.

Brian Jenkins, 32, of Easton, pleaded guilty to possession of drug paraphernalia. Northampton County Judge Anthony Beltrami imposed a $2,500 fine and no further penalty.

Jenkins had been charged with smuggling phones and drugs into the prison between December 2014 and March 2015.

Police said he smuggled in two phones for $500 each, a bottle of whiskey for $200, a pouch of tobacco for $300 and also smuggled in marijuana, cigarettes and K2.

But those charges were thrown out of court.

Assistant District Attorney Patricia Fuentes Mulqueen said an investigation into the smuggling of contraband into the prison continues. She called Jenkins' case "unique" and said others who try to smuggle in contraband shouldn't expect a similar deal.

"We're committed to cleaning up the prison," Mulqueen said.

She said Jenkins was fired from his job. He is a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard. Mulqueen said Jenkins' attorney, James Heidecker, indicated that Jenkins received orders to be deployed overseas within a year.

Jenkins had applied for entry into the accelerated rehabilitative disposition program, a program for first-time offenders that would have allowed him to wipe all of his charges off his criminal record. His application was rejected.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
A man accused of burglarizing a car in Hackettstown has been captured, town police report.

Richard Jarry (Courtesy photo)

Richard Jarry, a 36-year-old homeless man believed to stay in the Hackettstown area, was arrested Saturday in Stanhope, a Sussex County borough less than 10 miles away, police announced Wednesday. He is being held on $10,000 bail.

Jarry allegedly entered a vehicle that was parked in the 400 block of Warren Street, town police said in a news release last week. He only got $2 in change but did swipe a checkbook from the center console, police said.

Police last week also alerted residents to a rash of burglaries after vehicles were broken into on Hurley Drive, Willow Grove Street and Cindy Terrace. Police said that there is no evidence linking Jarry to those crimes.

Residents are being urged to lock their car doors and not to leave valuables in their vehicles.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A monthlong investigation into drug trafficking in the Washington area culminated Wednesday with the raid of an alleged dealer's home, the Warren County Prosecutor's Office announced.

Michael Cedola Jr. (Courtesy photo)

Heroin and a stolen handgun were found inside the house in the first block of Myrtle Avenue in the borough, according to a news release from the prosecutor.

Michael Cedola Jr., 26, who lives in the residence, faces three second-degree and one third-degree weapons offense, and two third-degree drug charges for allegedly possessing and intending to distribute heroin.

If convicted, the second-degree charges could each mean 10 years in prison and a $150,000 fine, while third-degree charges carry up to five years in prison and $75,000 in fines.

Cedola had his first appearance in state Superior Court on Wednesday and was sent to the county jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Washington Township police and the prosecutor's office conducted the investigation.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Laois Domestic Abuse service is saving women's lives, but is one of the worst funded such services in Ireland, say local councillors.

Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald said the service has seen a surge in demand since last September, yet only has 1.5 staff in its Portlaoise office.

They meet on average 60 Laois women a month. It is one of the lowest funded in the country, if not the lowest, she said at the December council meeting, calling for Tusla to boost funds in 2017.

The service got 77,000 in funding for 2016 from Tusla, the Child and Family Agency.

They were told to spend just 175 a month on counselling services, said Cllr Fitzgerald, who is a board member for the charity.

It is impossible to sustain a county wide service. Laois has one of the highest population growth. It is incredibly difficult to meet demands with these meagre resources, Cllr Fitzgerald said.

Her motion was seconded by Cllr Caroline Dwane.

Laois Domestic Abuse has provided an invaluable service to families in Laois for a long time. Families are under huge financial stress. I know so many people who have had to use their services. they have actually saved women's lives in recent years, she said.

Their finances have been messed around, they have been getting late payments, at one point it looked like they were going under. This service is vital, it has to be held onto in Laois, she said.

Christmas is the worst time of the year for victims, said Cllr Mary Sweeney.

It is an incredibly difficult time for families and children. Their work is vital for the safety of lives, they go way beyond, she said.

It's frightening, I didn't realise it was as high, said Cllr Willie Aird, noting that the council has emergency houses for abuse victims.

Call LDAS at (057) 867110 (office hours), or email mary@laoisdomesticabuseservice.ie
Every home and business in Portarlington will be able to tap into fast fibre optic broadband over the coming year, according to Virgin Media Ireland.

Councillors from the Portarlington Graiguecullen municipal district welcomed the plan, outlined to them at their December meeting.

The company plan to start installing their network in February, using overhead cables in the town centre, elsewhere digging narrow channels 4 inch wide, 6 inch deep, along paths, roads and green areas, placing connection boxes at the entrance of every premises.

The first tranche will go live in March or April, the rep Don Davern told councillors, agreeing after a request by Cllr Paschal McEvoy to use local contractors where possible.

We want this to be part of the local community, and to support groups like Tidy Towns and Chambers of Commerce, he said.

Virgin will offer a package of television, mobile, landline and broadband, at exceptionally competitive prices, on a par with Dublin prices, with an option to use 30 day contracts.

The speed will be 360mbs, expanded to 1gbs during the year.

He said the high speed network will create opportunities for foreign direct investment and for online sales, currently valued at 7.5bn per year, expected to double by 2021, as well as accommodate the growing trend for streaming live television and sharing videos and photos.

This is fantastic for Portarlington, it changes everything, said Cllr Padraig Fleming, asking if Graiguecullen, in the Laois side of Carlow town, could get connected up too.

This is the only town in the area we are doing, said Mr Davern.
Portlaoise's new secondary school is set to be housed in the former school building in the town centre, according to Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley.

Deputy Stanley said that the new Second Level College in Portlaoise will be located at Railway Street formerly the old Technical School and which more recently housed Educate Together. A significant portion of this building was renovated prior to Educate Together moving into it.

Laois Offaly Education and Training Board (LOETB) and An Foras Patrunachta, the Irish language school patron, have been awarded the Patronage. The LOETB

The school is due to open next September and will have both Irish and English medium streams.

Dep Stanley said there are serious capacity issues with the lack of second level places in the Portlaoise area at present and the fact that the new school is due to come on stream will help to cater for much of this demand.

This is a good medium term solution but in the longer term a new second level college will need to be provided as the population of Laois continues to grow at a level above the national rate, he said.
Gardai confirmed to the Leader today that an investigation has been launched into alleged sexual assault at a creche in County Kildare.

A spokesperson for the Garda Press Office said the there was a complaint and that investigations were at an early stage.

The spokesperson said they had no idea when the complaint was made but they anticipated the investigation would take quite some time.

The spokesperson said they did not know the age of the alleged injured party and did not identify an approximate location of the alleged complaint.

They did say that the Gardai were investigating the matter along with Tusla.

Media reports said two children were sexually assaulted at a creche by a staff member.

Other media said the allegations centred around a well-known creche in Co Kildare; that specialist officers have been investigating the case since complaints were made last week and that complaints were made to Co Kildare gardai by two different parents in the past ten days.

Media reports also said no arrests have been made in the case and the creche remains open.

The Garda spokesperson said: It is investigating a complaint and is currently working with Tusla. The investigation is at an early stage and is of a sensitive nature and we are therefore not in a position to comment any further as this is an ongoing investigation.

Media reports said all parents of children attending the creche have been informed of the allegations, but it was not known if the staff member has been suspended.

It has also been reported that the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Investigation Unit is expected to take a leading role in the investigation and that specialist child interviewers will be needed to question children who attend the creche.
The AGM of Coill Dubh Credit Union approved, by an overwhelming majority, to amalgamate with the neighbouring Edenderry Credit Union.

The AGM was held on Friday evening last in St Farnans school in Prosperous and saw more than 200 people attending.

The move to amalgamate the two credit unions began at last years AGM when the members gave the board the go ahead to explore the idea.

At the 2016 AGM on Friday, the secretary of the credit union Eammon OFarrell, outlined the rationale behind the proposal.

He said it would allow for greater loan types, greater services to members and ensured the future of the credit union.

He noted also that investment income was falling all the time and that an amalgamation would help in that regard.

He said also that it would ensure growth and security of savings.

He said that in the immediate term, members of the credit union could expect no changes to offices or staff.

The biggest difference will be a name change  to Croi Laighean, meaning Heart of Leinster.

Voices of concern included those who felt that they werent adequately informed of the proposal.

The Board responded that while they were waiting for Central Bank approval (which they got) they could not publicise it.

In the end the special resolution to join the two credit unions passed by 83%, with 174 votes out of 208 in favour.

Credit Union stalwart Johnny Callaghan told the Leinster Leader that he would be writing to the Central Bank to raise issues around the manner in which the resolution was handled.

While he acknowledged the amalgamation might ultimately be the right move, he was concerned about the process of agreeing it, saying it was badly handled from the start.
A pair of big hearted Newbridge brothers joined forces last weekend to shave their heads for the Eddies Engine charity, raising a total of 9,000.

Willie and George Hannon had been growing their hair for up to a year before getting the chop at The Athgarvan Inn last Saturday night.

I had retired from the Defence Forces, my brother was also in the Defence Forces and I wanted to let my hair grow and get it shaved for a charity. I never had long hair and I knew people would be interested to see what it looked, explained Willie.

My mother Molly, who passed away in 2010, was great friends with Lisas mother, so I decided to do it in her memory for Eddie's Engine.

Lisa Brett is mum to three year-old Eddie, who was born with Spina Bifida. The Monasterevin toddler has been attending Enable Ireland for all his ongoing appointments. In addition, the family have been bringing him to First Steps clinic in Limerick for intensive physio to help him walk. Eddies Engine was set up to raise much needed funds for his treatment.

George and Willie, who is a member of the band Granite, held a number of fundraising nights. We were thrilled with the response, its been brilliant, he said. George also had his beard shaved off.

Eddie Brett with Willie Hannon after the headshave

George Hannon before the headshave

George pictured after the headshave
The General Manager of the Slieve Russell Hotel, Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, has expressed his regret at the impact of the temporary closure of the premises this week following an outbreak of the Norovirus.

In a statement issued to the Leitrim Observer, Tony Walker said the temporary closure of the hotel was a "proactive and precautionary measure".

"There is presently a high incident of this infection in the community in Ireland and outbreaks have been noted in schools, residential care homes and hospitals throughout the country. Some of our guests who visited the hotel, as well as members of our staff, have reported symptoms of this Norovirus," he said.

"We immediately notified the HSE and the Environmental Health Officers and, with their advice and support, we have taken a number of preventative actions over the past week to reduce any risks relating to this virus at our premises.

"The health and safety of our staff, visitors and guests at the Slieve Russell Hotel is of paramount importance to us and we are taking every precaution to safeguard the health and wellbeing of all our patrons.

"We feel it our responsibility, in conjunction with the HSE, to minimise the possibility of spread of further infection to all our staff and patrons. It is with deep regret that we have taken the decision to close the Hotel. The Hotel will reopen as soon as is possible."
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If Britain does undergo hard Brexit, what do we do next? If said hard Brexit results in a consistent and high-reaching economic growth, what do we say? Unlikely, highly implausible, outright impossible might be the instinctive or well-thought through response of an expert (of the armchair or academic variety). But humour me. If something happens contrary to our expectations, how do we respond?

Its a relevant topic, given the year weve had. The idea that the referendum would result in Brexit was surprising (though, for me personally, not shocking). The idea that Donald Trump would be elected President of the US really was shocking. In both cases, the presumption of many was that they could not lose; that a variety of factors and self-evident prepositions resulted in an inevitable conclusion. I do not want to raise here why your or my presumptions were right or wrong, but how we should respond when we are mistaken.

It seems to me that the underlying condition that arose in 2016 was how headstrong everyone became. Every political hue became convinced that everything they asserted was undeniable, unless you were a blithering idiot (or deplorable). Facts became relative, and forecasts became cast-iron; unless of course, I disagreed with them. When did we lose the respect for our rivals, saying this is what I propose, but I accept you have an alternative?

It is astonishingly normal now for a politician or political party to assert that a statistic just isnt true, or a statement wasnt meant in the clearly intended way, based solely upon how they feel about it. I did not vote to leave the EU, and I did not think most other Brits would either (though I did think the vote would be close). I was wrong. But I cannot see the logic, as so many people do, of asserting that the result was inaccurate, or that people didnt really want Brexit. It was accurate because of a simple vote-count; and they do, at least the people I know who voted to leave.

This problem is universal, politically speaking. The Tories dont accept that much of the country is struggling enormously because of local government cuts, and the chaos surrounding Brexit. Labour doesnt accept that a credible, realistic plan for government is surprisingly important to the electorate. I think the solution is partly down to communication. Proclaiming my policy or idea will result in X is meaningless if you do not what it is you are trying to fix. Because of X, we propose Y is longer, more conditional, but also more achievable and more honest. And if X changes, we adapt.

If is not a comfortable word, especially in politics. But if voters know that you accept a fact, and have a proposal to deal with it, that has to be worth something. Most British people chose to leave the EU. This was a disappointing surprise to me, and to many others. But that was their decision. To the Lib Dems credit, we have proposed a way foward. This approach should be applauded, and copied for future decisions.

I dont believe that hard Brexit can be a success. If it happens, and if it is, I hope I would hold up my hands and say fair enough. But I would still think its a worse decision that remaining a member of the EU, albeit for different reasons. I would still want the Lib Dems to be an open, internationalist party. Facts are not dependent on belief; but beliefs are not substitutes for facts either.

So: if Britain does undergo hard Brexit, what do we do next?

* James Vincent is a philosophy graduate, keen environmentalist and agrarian, and Paris-based English teacher
When the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act was just a Bill being rushed through Parliament with indecent haste, the pros and cons were hotly debated on this site.Today, the European Court of Justice ruled that the general and indiscriminate collection of data was illegal.

Now, this was a Bill passed by the Coalition Government with Liberal Democrat consent So shouldnt we be feeling a bit embarrassed by this ruling? I guess we need to look at the position we were in at the time. Even if wed told the Tories that we wouldnt support the legislation, there would have been a majority in the House of Commons for it. In fact, Labour would have been falling over itself to make it even more authoritarian.

We also know what the Tories wanted to do with communications data  because they did it with the much more pervasive and illiberal Investigatory Powers Act passed, again with Labour support, as soon as they had a majority.

Back in 2014, we secured some important concessions from the Tories in return for our support on the DRIP Act. Julian Huppert wrote at the time that it was what we already had but with additional safeguards as he set out the context to it all:

There is an issue we have to deal with now. The European Court of Justice threw out the European Data Retention Directive, which underpins all collection of communications data in this country. I sympathise with the reasons, but we must acknowledge that it causes real problems  we do need to have some way to keep some communications data, but under very careful control. Some people would love to use this to bring back the awful Communications Data Bill  known as the Snoopers Charter  that Nick vetoed last year. A number of Tories pushed it and Labour tried something similar themselves. We will not allow this to happen. Weve blocked it once, and we will continue to do so. This legislation just allows the agencies to continue with their current abilities. Ive had the chance to speak to Nick and Norman Baker about this  all of us have been clear. We must keep our country and citizens safe, but not by allowing the erosion of our civil liberties and increasing unchecked intrusion into our lives. We need legislation to allow communications data to be available, but not to store more than is already allowed. And in this post-Snowden world, we need to move towards keeping less, and finding better and more proportionate ways to do so. We need to completely rewrite the law in this area. But that cannot be done quickly. We have to get it right, which will take a lot of work from many experts. Weve already started that off  our Digital Bill of Rights motion calls for a commission of experts to review all state surveillance and information from the Snowden revelations  that takes time. Nick has already started this work with the Royal United Services Institute, and they need to finish that work. So I think it is right to agree to a stop-gap. A piece of legislation that can be passed quickly, but crucially will automatically expire at the end of 2016, giving time to write something better, and the certainty of knowing it will not just become entrenched. And in this stop-gap legislation, we should agree to no more than was previously allowed. And weve managed better than that  weve also negotiated and won a package of pro-civil liberties measures to go with it: The Bill includes a termination clause that ensures the legislation falls at the end of 2016 and the next government is forced to look again at these powers.

Between now and 2016 we will hold a full review of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, to make recommendations for how it could be reformed and updated.

We will appoint a senior diplomat to lead discussion with the American government and the internet companies to establish a new international agreement for sharing data between legal jurisdictions.

We will establish a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on the American model, to ensure that civil liberties are properly considered in the formulation of government policy on counter-terrorism. This will be based on David Andersons existing role as the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation.

Further reform of the Intelligence and Security Committee, so that in future the Chair must be drawn from the Opposition parties.

We will restrict the number of public bodies that are able to approach phone and internet companies and ask for communications data. Some bodies will lose their powers to access data altogether while local authorities will be required to go through a single central authority who will make the request on their behalf.

Finally, we will publish annual transparency reports, making more information publicly available than ever before on the way that surveillance powers operate. I dont claim that this is a perfect long-term solution. But I dont think anyone could write down, right now, what would be perfect. And its a huge lot better than either the Tories or Labour would have done on their own. But because this legislation  though not the extra safeguards  will end in 2016, there will have to be a proper full discussion in the rest of this Parliament and the next on this  the status quo cannot be continued forever.

So we did what we could at the time to make the legislation a lot less invasive than it would have been had Theresa May done it on her own.

Brian Paddick said that todays ruling definitely called into question the legality of Theresa Mays bill subsequent Bill.

This ruling proves that this Conservative Government has overstepped the mark. The legality of the Investigatory Powers Act  passed into law with Labours full support  has now been called into question. Collecting and storing everyones internet web browsing histories and phone records so government agencies can look at them is an Orwellian nightmare that intrudes into our privacy and erodes our civil liberties. Liberal Democrats tried to stop the worst excesses and now the courts agree. We need to keep people safe but mass surveillance as sanctioned by the Investigatory Powers Act is unacceptable in a democratic society, would be unconstitutional in many countries, and is likely to be ineffective and counter-productive. This dreadful piece of legislation will cost millions to implement and unless the Government reconsider, they will inevitably face further embarrassment in the courts.

Todays ruling does not come as a huge surprise to anyone who has in-depth knowledge of these issues. There is an irony, of course, in that it was Brexit Secretary David Davis who was one of those who mounted the legal challenge when he was just an awkward squad backbencher. The next Cabinet meeting should be interesting.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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THERE may well be scenes reminiscent of the classic British feel-good film Love Actually at Shannon Airport this week, as families are reunited for Christmas.

But one Limerickman, 27, is preparing to arrive in on the quiet from Toronto to Dublin Airport, and surprise his mother.

Mom, surprise! Im coming home for Christmas, is Keith Beegans message to his mother Mary, from the Ennis Road in the city.

I hope you are reading this, but if not, Ill be an even bigger surprise when I arrive home.

Keith, who moved to Toronto three years ago, told the Limerick Leader: Im super excited, and know she will be gobsmacked. I wont reveal the day and time, so itll still be something of a surprise but itll be a flying visit.

She might be working a long shift that day at St. Johns Nursing Home, and if so I will be visiting her there, and cant wait to see her face, he said.

Keith works as a manager for a company called Tucows, which offers cellphone service to people living in the U.S. and manages a team of eight.

None of us went home for Christmas last year. We called it an Orphans Christmas with all the Irish immigrants gathered in one house, away from their families at home, eating good food and drinking hot whiskeys with lots of different nationalities, some of whom dont even celebrate Christmas, he said.

Although theres more of a chance of having a White Christmas in Canada during the winter, its never the same as being with your family in your home home.

There is a surprisingly high number of Irish people working here - from Limerick, Dublin, Kerry, Cork, Belfast.

I live with three of my best friends I met at the University of Limerick.

The Limerick Leader will feature a number of Limerick families who are coming home for Christmas this year, or those who regret that they wont make it home.

See all broadsheet editions of the paper, out this Thursday, December 22.

There is still time to contribute  email news@limerickleader.ie
LIMERICKS best young entrepreneurs are to go forward to compete for a 100,000 prize fund on the national stage.

The local winners of Irelands Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) have been announced at an awards ceremony in the Castletroy Park Hotel.

Winners include Kelly OBrien, CDK Tech, Paddy Finn, Electricity Exchange and Adrian Fleming, Accuvio Sustainability Software, with Mark OBrien, OBrien Creations, Philip Mackessy, Mackessy Technology Ltd and Paul Austin, Get West Events and Adventures Ltd runners up.

The winners will now proceed to a regional competition before potentially progressing to the IBYE national stage with an investment fund of 100,000 to be shared out at a ceremony at Google in Dublin in January.

Limericks Local Enterprise Office is investing 50,000 in the local winners and runners up and Eamon Ryan, Head of Enterprise, said the initiative was designed to foster a culture of entrepreneurship and to encourage the establishment of new innovative businesses by Irelands best young entrepreneurs.

The competition attracted over 60 applications from people aged between 18 and 35 from across the city and county and Mr Ryan said he was pleased with an increase of 58% in the number of applicants and I am delighted with the quality of applications submitted.

Minister of State Patrick ODonovan, who attended the awards, said it was great to see so many excellent entrepreneurs and business-people in Limerick getting involved in this competition.
FOR ADULTS living in the direct provision system in Limerick and across the country Christmas is just another day.

But for children it still needs to be special.

Each year, Doras Luimni, the local support group for all migrants in the Mid-West, issues an appeal at Christmas for gifts for children and their parents.

But they have never witnessed such a response as they have done this year, following an article in The Irish Times by Kitty Holland, detailing the guilt and anguish that parents feel as they cannot afford to buy the Christmas presents they would like for their children  if any at all.

For the first time, this year Doras believes it will have gifts for all 450 children and adults across Limericks direct provision centres  in Knockalisheen, on the Clare border, in Mount Trenchard in Foynes, Hanratty's on Glentworth Street, and Westbourne on the Dock Road. In Knockalisheen, there are 47 children  23 girls and 24 boys  aged from under six months up to teenage years.

The level of donations has been so great that they have kindly been given another office space in their building to store all the goods before they play Secret Santa.

Were really hoping that were going to have something for everybody this year. The response has been truly over-whelming. My phone has been ringing non-stop, and we are waiting on gifts from as far afield Australia.

"Weve asked for donations before, but we have never seen anything on this scale, said Aideen Roche, communications and campaigns officer with Doras Luimni, a charitable organisation.

The gifts donated and due to be distributed in the coming days include Dunnes Stores and All4One vouchers for adults, as well as phone credit.

For children, a dolls house, dvds, Lego, a cupcake playset, Bratz dolls, and puzzle games are among the items received, and more are still coming in.

Phone credit is such a life-line for people, particularly for single males, who have been forced to leave their wives or children back home, and its needed all year round  not just at Christmas.

Journalist and broadcaster Deirdre O'Shaughnessy, from Kilfinane, posted the Irish Times' article on her 'Deshocks' Facebook page, on the her blog bearing the same name, and couldn't believe the phenomenally generous response from the public.

She felt moved by the article, which detailed the heartache that many parents in direct provision system endure at this time of year, particularly after the birth of her son recently. She collected nearly 50 gifts in Cork city to cover all the children in direct provision in Limerick, and delivered them to the delighted Doras staff on Limerick's O'Connell Street this week.

- Doras Luimni will continue to accept donations of money, vouchers, and childrens gifts over the Christmas period. To make a donation, call (061) 310 328, or see dorasluimni.org.
The visual appeal of the U.S. Exploring The Solar System souvenir stamp sheet

Dec 20, 2016, 12 PM

An intact Exploring The Solar System souvenir sheet (Scott 3410) paid most of the postage on this cover mailed Sept. 28, 2000, from West Covina, Calif., to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Five $1 Exploring The Solar System stamps exactly satisfied the $5 fee on this certificate of bulk mailing for 5,067 pieces sent via standard mail. Up to 1,000 pieces required a fee of $3, and each additional 1,000 pieces or fraction cost 40.

By Charles Snee

In July 2000, the United States Postal Service staged World Stamp Expo 2000 in Anaheim, Calif.

Among the highlights of that show was the issuance of 15 stamps in a set of five souvenir sheets (Scott 3409-3413).

Titled Space Achievement and Exploration, the set features a number of firsts in U.S. stamp production: the first U.S. stamps with a hologram, the first circular U.S. stamp, and the first pentagonal U.S. stamps.

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(For those keeping track, the first U.S. issues of any kind to incorporate a hologram are two stamped envelopes issued in 1989 and 1990.)

In addition to the five separate Space Achievement sheets, the Postal Service also offered an uncut press sheet featuring all five sheets that measured an impressive 16 inches tall by 20 inches wide.

Some collectors groused at the cost: the 15 stamps, with face values ranging from 60 to $11.75, weighed in with a total face value of $38.50, and there wasnt a single stamp to satisfy the then-current 33 rate.

A total of 1,695,000 of each souvenir sheet was ordered. This total included 305,000 uncut press sheets.

These small print quantities, combined with rather lackluster sales, eventually pushed up the values of the sheets in the retail marketplace.

Today, a complete set of five sheets is valued at $135 in the Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers. An uncut Space Achievement press sheet is valued at $140.

Of the five Space Achievement issues, Ive always had a particular fondness for the Exploring The Solar System sheet containing five $1 pentagonal stamps (Scott 3410).

The stamps feature different dramatic images of the sun. My favorite is the top stamp in the sheet, which pictures a total solar eclipse with a halo-like corona.

In addition, the pentagonal arrangement of the five stamps and the congruence of their shape with the number of stamps in the sheet appeal to my sense of symmetry and balance. For sheer visual effect, this nifty sheet is hard to beat.

In the 2000 Linns U.S. Stamp Yearbook, George Amick writes that the sheet selvage depicts a NASA montage consisting of the ringed planet Saturn and a few of its moons, with the heavily cratered Dione in the foreground.

Just two errors are known: an imperforate sheet (Scott 3410f), and a sheet with a hologram from one of the $3.20 Escaping The Gravity Of Earth stamps applied (3410g).

The imperforate sheet is valued at $2,000 in the Scott U.S. Specialized catalog; the sheet with an errant hologram is dashed because there isnt enough market data to establish a value at present.

As you might guess, the Space Achievement issue was targeted directly at stamp collectors.

For all practical purposes, this means the vast majority of Space Achievement postal history is philatelic in nature. Even so, there arent that many covers out there.

Illustrated nearby is a representative philatelic use that I find particularly appealing because it is franked with an intact Exploring The Solar System sheet.

Due to space limitations, the sheet selvage was folded over the top of the envelope when it was affixed.

The expert committee of the Mexico Elmhurst Philatelic Society used the sheet in combination with other stamps to send pictures (as disclosed on the U.S. Customs form attached to the back) to the recipient in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

The cover was mailed from West Covina, Calif., Sept. 28, 2000, a little more than two months after the sheet was officially issued. Receiving handstamps on the back indicate the cover arrived at its destination in Monterrey Oct. 10.

Although not visible in the picture, a West Covina postmark applied to the central pentagonal selvage just barely ties the sheet to the envelope. Traces of purple ink from the postmark can be seen in some of the perforation holes of the central selvage.

Total postage of $8.46 paid for the international registration fee of $6 and first-class postage of $2.45 for a letter weighing not more than 6 ounces. In this case, the sender settled for a 1 convenience overpayment.

Also pictured here is a rather more unusual use of the five $1 Exploring The Solar System stamps.

It is a USPS certificate of bulk mailing franked with the five stamps, which were carefully removed from the sheet before being affixed.

As can be seen on the certificate, 5,067 identical pieces of mail with a total weight of slightly more than 124 pounds were sent via standard mail. The sender, Edwards Data Services, paid postage of $749.84.

At top left, under Fee for Certificate, a cost breakdown is given: up to 1,000 pieces cost $3, and each additional 1,000 pieces or fraction cost .40/1000, or 40.

In this case, those 67 pieces beyond 5,000 pushed the total certificate fee to an even $5.

Two indistinct strikes of a USPS business mail postmark tie the stamps to the certificate. The month and day appear to be Nov. 9, but only the first two digits of the year, 20, are readable.

Do you have some interesting on-cover uses of the Space Achievement and Exploration stamps? If so, Id enjoy learning more about them. Write to Dollar-Sign Stamps, Box 4129, Sidney, OH 45365-4129, or fire off an email to csnee@amosmedia.com.
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For many of us on Earth this year, celebrating the first day of winter, astronomically speaking, is more than a yearning for snow-covered landscapes and sips of hot chocolate  It also means we're closer than ever to the end of the year  and the beginning of a new one!

But the winter solstice is an astronomical marvel in its own right. Today, the Northern Hemisphere experiences the fewest hours of daylight for the year all because of our blue marble's tilt as it treks around the sun.

Although the solstice gets an entire day of recognition, it happens in an instant: At 10:59 a.m. EST (1559 GMT) on Tuesday (Dec. 21), when the North Pole is at its farthest tilt of 23.5 degrees away from the sun. This position leaves the North Pole beyond the sun's reach, and plunges it into total darkness, according to EarthSky.org (opens in new tab).

In the Southern Hemisphere, the sun will shine directly overhead at noon at exactly 23.5 degrees south of the equator, along the imaginary latitude line known as the Tropic of Capricorn, which runs through Australia, Chile, southern Brazil and northern South Africa. This is when when the sun appears to be at its southernmost point in the sky; as such, the Southern Hemisphere has its longest day of the year, and the Northern Hemisphere has its shortest day of the year, on the December solstice, according to EarthSky.

Related: 6 ancient tributes to the winter solstice

At the moment of the solstice, the sun will also reach its southernmost point in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere. After that moment, the sun will stop moving southward and will begin its trek northward in the sky  hence the name "solstice," which means "sun stands still" in Latin, according to NASA (opens in new tab).

After the winter solstice, the days will begin to get longer in the Northern Hemisphere. But that doesn't mean temperatures will increase immediately. Rather, northern midlatitudes will experience the winter chill partly, because they'll get about 9 hours of daylight in the weeks following the solstice, compared with the roughly 15 hours of daily sunlight they get around the summer solstice, Live Science previously reported. In addition, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, making it colder.

In addition, even as the days get longer, the oceans, which moderate temperatures on land, need a vast amount of energy from the sun to heat up.

Countless cultures have recognized the winter solstice. The most famous is in Stonehenge in England. When the sun sets on the shortest day of the year, the sun's rays align with Stonehenge's central Altar stone and Slaughter stone, which may have had spiritual significance to the people who built the monument, Live Science reported in 2013.

Across the world in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the ancient stonewalled Mayan city of Tulum also has a structure honoring the solstices. When the sun rises on the winter and summer solstices, its rays shine through a small hole at the top of one of the stone buildings, which creates a starburst effect.

Editor's note: This article was originally published Dec. 21, 2017. It was updated on Dec. 21, 2021.

Original article on Live Science.
The need to move things to the next level has been recognized for thousands of years. Elevators have a long history, going from a platform attached to a rope pulled by a human to the smooth, electric rides in boxes that we now enjoy.

Invention and evolution

Vertical lifts may have been used to build the pyramids in Egypt. However, the first recorded use came in the third century B.C., according to Elevator History. Archimedes, the Greek mathematician, physicist and astronomer, is typically credited with inventing the first known elevator, according to Landmark Elevator. His device was operated by ropes and pulleys. The ropes were coiled around a winding drum by a capstan and levers, according to Otis World Wide. These early lifts, or hoists, powered by people, animals or water, were primarily used to lift heavy loads, such as water or building materials.

Crude elevator systems lifted people as early as the first century A.D, according to Otis. The Roman Coliseum used lifts to raise gladiators and wild animals up from the lower levels to the arena level. In medieval times, hoists were the only way to get to the monastery in St. Barlaam, Greece, which stood on a pinnacle about 200 feet (60 meters) off the ground.

King Louis XV had the one of the earliest elevators designed specifically for passenger use, known as the "flying chair." It was installed by Blaise-Henri Arnoult at the Palace of Versailles in 1743, according to This is Versailles. Louis needed a private elevator to allow his mistress to secretly visit him. The passenger operated the elevator by pulling a cord connected to pulley system with counterweights.

The next big leap in elevator technology came with the invention of the steam engine in 1765 by James Watt, according to Landmark Elevators. The new invention allowed elevators to move larger, heavier loads  such as coal, lumber and steel  to upper floors of taller buildings as construction boomed during the Industrial Revolution.

Elisha Graves Otis introduced the first safety device for elevators in 1852, which prevented the elevator from plummeting to the ground in case the cables broke. According to Funding Universe Company Histories, the saw-toothed ratchet activated to hold the elevator in place when a spring lost its tension by the breaking of the lifting cables. The first passenger elevator complete with Otis' safety feature was operational by 1857 in a New York City department store, according to Columbia Elevator.

Werner von Siemens built the first electric elevator in 1880, according to Siemens. The elevator was moved by a motor built underneath the platform and raised it by using a gear system based on the dynamo-electric principle. The elevator was originally supposed to premier at the Mannheim Pfalzgau Trade & Agricultural Exhibition in Germany, but was delayed by two months. The elevator proved to be a huge hit with thousands of passengers able to take a ride.

There are many milestones in elevator evolution:

In 1878, the Otis company introduced a faster, more economical hydraulic elevator.

In 1887, Alexander Miles, an American inventor, patented a mechanism for automatically closing the doors to the elevator shaft.

Joseph Giovanni, an American inventor, patented a safety bumper in 1944 that prevented the elevator doors from closing on a passenger or another obstacle.

Otis Elevators, now owned by Elisha Otis' sons, installed the first control system that automatically controlled the varying speed of elevators in 1924. The system automatically controlled the acceleration, speed between floors, and deceleration as the elevator came to a stop, according to Otis World Wide.

Otis Elevators installed an elevator in the newly completed Empire State Building that was capable of traveling 1,200 feet per minute (366 meters per minute), according to Funding Universe Company Histories. The Empire State Building now contains 73 elevators.

Otis Elevators introduced microprocessors into their elevator control systems, which they called Elevonic 101, in 1979, which made elevators fully automated, according to Otis World Wide.

Innovations

As buildings grow, elevators need to be able to keep up with the increased number of floors and the need to deliver passengers to their desired floors quickly. According to CNN, one building in China holds three elevator records: fastest, tallest, and fastest double-deck elevator. Shanghai Tower is the second tallest building in the world at 2,074 feet (632 meters), and its elevator, designed by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in Japan, travels at 67 feet per second (20.5 meters per second) over 121 floors.

And in the ever-continuing race to build the biggest and best, Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, to be completed in 2019, will take over the record for the tallest building as well as tallest and perhaps fastest elevator, according to CNN. Standing at a full kilometer in height, various options needed to be reviewed in order to withstand the height and speed requirements of the elevator. Kone, a company based in Finland, has designed and built elevators using carbon-fiber ropes that are strong enough to enable elevators to travel 2,165 feet (660 meters), according to Kone.

With the increase in height and speed of elevators, innovators and inventors are constantly improving and introducing new safety features.

One such improvement includes a patent filed for over-acceleration and over-speed protection by a group of inventors at Otis Elevator Company in 2009. This system detects when the elevator begins to speed and automatically triggers mechanical brake attached to an electromagnetic trigger. Another patent filed in 2011 by Juan Carlos Abad, an inventor from Switzerland, includes a safety circuit that is used to decelerate an elevator in a controlled manner when the emergency stop is activated.

Artist's concept of a space elevator system, looking down at Earth from 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) up. (Image credit: NASA)

Future

New technologies are being developed and explored to make elevators taller, faster and safer.

Elevators are even aiming to use magnets in place of ropes. German company ThyssenKrupp is developing an elevator known as MULTI that uses magnetic levitation, according to Business Insider. The elevator will not only be able to reduce the elevator's footprint drastically, it will be able to greatly improve the efficiency of people moving by being able to have multiple cars in each shaft. And like the elevator straight from the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," it can travel horizontally as well as vertically, creating all sorts of new possibilities.

Just how tall can we actually build an elevator? Science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke popularized the idea that an elevator would travel all the way into space in his novel, "Fountains of Paradise." In his novel, a five-hour elevator ride goes from the surface of Earth to a space colony and provides "one of the most breathtaking views you will ever see" of the planet Earth growing smaller as passengers traveled up.

According to NASA, an elevator to space may actually be possible in the near future. The elevator would extend from a base tower approximately 31 miles (50 kilometers) tall attached to a geostationary satellite 22,236 miles (35786 km) above the Earth. There would be four to six tracks where electromagnetic elevator cars would be able to travel up to thousands of kilometers per hour.

Additional resources
Many staff members at marijuana dispensaries have not had any formal training for their positions, according to a small new study.

Researchers found that 30 people of the 55 dispensary staff members surveyed in the study (55 percent) had received any sort of formal training for their current positions.

Only 20 percent had received any medical training on the health effects of marijuana, and just 13 percent had received any training on the science of the drug, the researchers found. The staff members surveyed worked at medical or nonmedical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, California, Arizona, Oregon, District of Columbia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine. [25 Odd Facts About Marijuana]

Moreover, some of the dispensary staff members in the study made recommendations to people who were purchasing marijuana that were not accurate or appropriate for treating their customers' conditions, said lead study author Nancy Haug, a professor of addiction medicine at Palo Alto University in California.

For example, 13 percent of the staff members in the study said they had recommended types of marijuana that are high in levels of THC  marijuana's main psychoactive component  to patients who intended to use the marijuana to treat anxiety, the researchers found. However, previous research has shown that THC may make anxiety worse, Haug told Live Science.

And 7 percent of the staff members recommended THC for treating epilepsy, whereas research has shown that another marijuana compound, called CBD, may work to treat epilepsy, Haug said.

The researchers asked the study participants about their job responsibilities, and whether they had training related to their job. The researchers also asked the participants what types of marijuana they typically recommended to people with particular conditions.

They found that 35 percent of the dispensary staff members had received customer service training; 26 percent had received business training; 20 percent, medical training; and 13 percent, scientific training. Twenty percent had received some other type training that might have involved learning about cannabis.

Yet 94 percent of the study participants said that they had provided advice to customers. That included recommending which marijuana strains customers should use and advising customers on the benefits of marijuana for particular symptoms. [Marijuana Could Treat These 5 Conditions]

The staff members in the study said that the most common symptoms reported by their customers were chronic pain, insomnia and anxiety. Of all staff members in the study, 62 percent said that they always or often checked in or followed up with their customers after their purchases, to ask about their health conditions, according to the study, published Dec. 1 in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.

Overall, the staff members were more likely to recommend marijuana with an equal ratio of THC to CBD for people with anxiety, PTSD or trauma and Crohn's disease, rather than recommending marijuana that is high in THC, the researchers found. This is in line with what experts recommend, the researchers said.

Staff members were also more likely to recommend marijuana with high levels of CBD and equal ratios of CBD to THC for customers with ALS, epilepsy and muscle spasms, rather than recommending marijuana high in THC. For people with epilepsy and the other conditions, this recommendation is also in line with research suggesting that CBD may indeed benefit patients.

However, some staff members made recommendations that were not in line with what is thought to be effective for a given condition, the researchers said. For example, 10 percent of staff members said they had recommended marijuana with high levels of CBD for people who wanted to increase their appetite, but research has shown that it is THC, and not CBD, that may help patients increase appetite, the researchers said.

The results show that dispensaries should provide training to their staff members, Haug said. This training should be based on findings from current scientific literature on cannabis, she said.

Originally published on Live Science.
Fragments of carpet were discovered in a 17th-century shipwreck at the bottom of the sea off the coast of the Netherlands.

Fragments of a carpet that had been buried at the bottom of the sea for nearly 400 years are now on display in the Netherlands.

The carpet, which is made from silk and wool, is decorated with flowers and animals, including lions. Based on the patterns, colors and weaving techniques, art historians concluded that the fabric was likely manufactured in Lahore, in present-day Pakistan, during the second quarter of the 17th century, according to the Kaap Skil museum on Texel Island, which started exhibiting the rare textile this week.

During the Dutch Golden Age, ships traveling to and from Amsterdam would stop around Texel Island in the Wadden Sea. Because it was such a heavily trafficked area, the waters around the island are now littered with ships that sank during rough storms. [See Photos of the Carpet & Opulent Royal Booty Unearthed from the 17th-Century Shipwreck]

That's where a group of local divers recently found the Lahore carpet among other textiles in a shipwreck. Delicate fabrics typically don't survive for very long at the bottom of the sea, but the so-called Palmwood Wreck was covered in sand, resulting in unusually good preservation, the researchers said.

"It'salmost like having the fragments of an original Rembrandt in front of you," textile researchers Ebeltje Hartkamp-Jonxis and Hillie Smit, who examined the carpet, said in an emailed statement from the museum.

Earlier this year, the Kaap Skil museum started displaying a complete silk gown that was also recovered from the wreck. The dress had been preserved in a clothing box that was packed with many other items, including a cloak, stockings and bodices adorned with gold and silver thread.

A preserved silk dress and fragments of a 17th-century carpet, both found on the Palmwood shipwreck, are on display as part of the exhibition called "Diving into Details" at the Kaap Skil museum in the Netherlands until mid-February. (Image credit: Kaap Skil museum)

The sunken ship has also yielded crates that likely once contained incense or myrrh. Also within that shipwreck, divers have found a lice comb, Italian pottery, a beaded handbag and an intricately decorated "scent ball," which would have been worn around a person's neck to diffuse the smell of herbs or flowers.

Leather covers of books (the pages had disintegrated) were salvaged from the wreck, too. They bear the coat of arms of the English King Charles I, suggesting that perhaps the cargo onboard the ship belonged to the royal Stuart family. The lavish wardrobe, which seems to have belonged to a "fairly hefty" woman, has been linked to Scottish lady-in-waiting Jean Kerr, Countess of Roxburghe, the confidante of the Queen Consort of England, Henrietta Maria, according to researchers working with the museum.

The carpet fragments will be on display in an exhibition called "Diving into Details" until mid-February. Then, the textile pieces will be sent to the Archaeological Center of the Province Noord-Holland (North Holland) for further research, according to a statement from the museum.

Original article on Live Science.
During the "blood miracle" ceremonies (this photo from 2013), the archbishop of Naples shakes a vial of San Gennaro's "blood," a solid mass, to see if it turns into liquid.

2017 is set to be a disaster, if you believe in the bad omen brought by a 627-year-old "blood miracle" which failed to occur in Naples last Saturday.

The story goes that failed miracles have been followed by disasters such as the Nazi invasion of Italy, a cholera epidemic and a deadly earthquake.

Regularly recorded since 1389, the so-called miracle of San Gennaro involves the liquefaction of the congealed blood of Saint Januarius, a pious bishop who was martyred around 305 AD during the persecution of early Christians by Roman Emperor Diocletian.

Legend has it that when Gennaro was beheaded, a woman called Eusabia soaked up his blood with a sponge and preserved it in a glass vial.

The blood miracle normally happens three times a year: on September 19, the saint's feast, on the first Sunday in May, to celebrate the day the saint's body was brought back to Naples, and on December 16, to commemorate the 1631 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, whose lava is believed to have halted at the city's gates by the saint's intervention.

The procedure is always the same. During a ceremony attended by thousands, the archbishop of Naples shakes a vial in which a dark, solid mass can be seen turning into liquid.

RELATED: Doomsdays That Never Happened

But last Saturday the blood failed to liquefy. The failed miracle is popularly seen as a bad omen.

"We must not think about disasters and calamities," Vincenzo De Gregorio, the Abbott of the Chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro, told the Naples' daily Il Mattino. "We are men of faith, and we must continue to pray."

The failed liquefaction has been always seen as a sign of upcoming disaster, spreading from Naples to Italy and the world.

The blood did not liquefy in 1939, when World War II broke out, nor in 1943, the year the Nazi occupied Italy, nor in 1973, remembered for a bout of cholera in Naples. Most recently, it failed to liquefy in 1980, when a devastating earthquake struck Irpinia, some 30 miles east of Naples, leaving more than 2,400 people dead.

According to the website storiacity.it, over the centuries the failed miracle coincided with 22 epidemics, 11 revolutions, three droughts, 14 archbishops death (within a 30-day period), nine dead popes (over a period of a few weeks), four wars, 19 earthquakes, and three religious persecutions.

RELATED: Rome Still Intact Despite Earthquake Prediction

The Vatican has taken a neutral position on San Gennaro's blood "miracle," while several scientists remain skeptical.

In a 1991 study published on Nature, Italian researchers argued that the dried blood in the ampules contains a thixotropic gel that liquefies when the ampules are stirred or shaken and solidifies again when left undisturbed. This is known to happen with certain substances, including some types of mayonnaise.

The 14th-century hoax recipe would have required hydrated iron chloride, which occurs naturally in minerals found on active volcanoes and in limestone, marble, chalk and seashells.

Whatever the explanation, the "failed miracle leaves us with an irrational uneasiness," Il Mattino wrote.

Orignally published on Seeker.
Sylvia Earle, a deep ocean explorer, gives President Barack Obama a photograph of Tosanoides obama on Midway Atoll, from the film "Sea of Hope: America's Underwater Treasures" premiering on National Geographic Channel on Jan. 15, 2017.

Next time he's vacationing in Hawaii, President Barack Obama might just bump into his new namesake: a pink, yellow and blue coral-reef fish that researchers have named in the president's honor.

Researchers discovered the previously unknown fish species, now dubbed Tosanoides obama, during a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expedition to Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in June 2016.

"We decided to name this fish after President Obama to recognize his efforts to protect and preserve the natural environment, including the expansion of Papahanaumokuakea," the study's lead author, Richard Pyle, a scientist at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, said in a statement. "This expansion adds a layer of protection to one of the last great wilderness areas on Earth." [In Photos: Spooky Deep-Sea Creatures]

Obama expanded the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument on Aug. 26 after Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), along with conservationists and marine scientists, urged the president to protect the region's waters and marine life. The monument is now 582,578 square miles (1.5 million square kilometers), an area more than twice the size of Texas, that holds the title for largest permanent protected marine area on the planet. (The 598,000-squaremile, or 1.55 million square km, marine reserve in Antarctica's Ross Sea is larger, but that area is protected for only a 35-year period, Live Science reported in October.)

During a September trip to Midway Atoll, an island within the monument, Obama met with legendary scientist, conservationist and deep-ocean explorer Sylvia Earle, who gave the president a photograph of T. obama. The footage of the visit will be shown on the National Geographic global broadcast special, "Sea Of Hope," which will air Jan. 15, 2017.

Fishy find

T. obama is small, just 2.4 inches (6.1 centimeters) long, and it lives deep underwater, about 300 feet (90 meters) under the surface. Deep coral reefs grow at this depth, but despite the diversity of animals that live there, this so-called "twilight zone" isn't well-explored by marine biologists, the researchers said.

The closest known relative to the new species is Tosanoides flavofasciatus, a fish that lives in the Palau islands. (Image credit: Richard L. Pyle Bishop Museum)

When scientists first spotted the small pink fish, they thought it was a Pseudanthias thompsoni (another tropical fish species), but a prominent red spot on the end of the animal's dorsal fin indicated that the fish was a previously unidentified species, the researchers wrote in the study.

A later analysis found that the fish belongs to the basslet group, which includes colorful reef fishes often seen in the aquarium fish trade. The fish's distinctive spot, seen on males, is blue around the edge (although it looks purple in the photo) with red and yellow stripes in the center.

"The spot on the males is reminiscent of President Obama's campaign logo," said Pyle. "It seemed especially appropriate for a fish named in honor of the president."

The two other species in the genus Tosanoides live in the tropical northwestern Pacific Ocean, far away from the monument. [StarStruck: Species Named After Celebrities]

"The new fish is special because it is the only known species of coral-reef fish endemic to the monument [meaning that the species is found nowhere else on Earth]," said study co-author Randall Kosaki, a NOAA scientist and chief scientist of the research cruise. "Our research has documented the highest rate of fish endemism in the world  100 percent  living on the deep reefs where we found this new species."

Kosaki added, "With the onslaught of climate change, we are at risk of losing some of these undiscovered species before we even know they exist."

The first documented Tosanoides obama on record, alive in a holding tank aboard the NOAA ship Hiialakai. (Image credit: Richard L. Pyle Bishop Museum)

T. obama is the second new fish species discovered in Papahanaumokuakea this year. In August, Pyle and Kosaki published a study in the journal ZooKeys describing a new species of butterflyfish (Prognathodes basabei).

T. obama is also the latest of a long line of new species named for the 44th president of the United States. For instance, there's a new species of lichen named after him (Caloplaca obamae) and a trapdoor spider (Aptostichus barackobamai). But Obama isn't the only politician to be honored in this way. In 2005, researchers named newfound species of slime-mold beetles after President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (Agathidium bushi, A. cheneyi and A. rumsfeldi), and an extinct giant sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii) is named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president.

The study was published online today (Dec. 21) in the journal ZooKeys.

Original article on Live Science.
Dozens of people were nabbed in an undercover operation during the last three months in Montgomery County for trying to contact children on the internet to sexually exploit them.

The sting, dubbed "Operation Safe Holiday," snared a total of 36 people for online solicitation of a minor while the investigation was conducted in October, November and December, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.
Next year, an estimated 40,000 migrants from Haiti, Africa, Asia and the Middle East will enter Costa Rica through its border with Panama and then attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, according to Rep. Henry Cuellar.

CNN reported Monday that Costa Rica has seen an unprecedented influx of migrants, causing a logistical and humanitarian nightmare for the government there. The CNN report states that experts believe the majority of migrants are Haitians.

I recently spoke with the ambassador of Costa Rica to the United States, Roman Macaya, regarding a pending immigration crisis on their border and which will soon have major impacts here at the U.S. border, Cuellar, D-Laredo, said in a statement Tuesday.

If the Cuban crisis this past year has shown, (these immigrants) will likely soon find their way to our border, putting additional stress on our already thinly-stretched humanitarian resources; not to mention our immigration judges, who are working through a backlog of over half a million immigration cases, he said.

Most recently, approximately 56,000 Cuban migrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border after trekking through Central America.

This was in addition to the swell of 137,366 Central American children and families from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, Cuellar said. Many of the Haitians arriving at our border were previously working in Brazil.

However, due to the economic downturn in that country, they are seeking a path to the United States. Many have learned from smugglers and through social media that when they arrive at a port of entry or get picked up by the border patrol to claim they are seeking either a refugee status or asylum for a credible fear of persecution in their home country. This allows them to be granted a notice to appear for an asylum hearing and they are either briefly detained or allowed to enter the U.S. on their own recognizance.

Cuellar said he will continue to call on the U.S. State Department and Congress to look for ways to assist Central and South America in an attempt to stem the illegal migration.

This past year we provided $750 million in aid for Central America, he said. However, it was tied up with so many certification requirements that little of that money has actually been executed at this point. Im hopeful that that money will be obligated in the upcoming days.

Furthermore, Im working with my colleagues to provide our justice system with the immigration judges and necessary infrastructure to cut down on the backlog of immigration cases. In fiscal year 2016, we were able to provide the Justice Department with 55 new immigration judges and had a deal worked out in the fiscal year 2017 House Appropriations Act to provide 25 more.
Laredo police are asking for the community's help in identifying a man accused of stealing a vehicle.

He allegedly stole a silver 2013 Chrysler 200 from the 3500 block of Cuatro Vientos Drive.
Discussions have begun with Gas Networks Ireland about the possibility of running a gas pipeline through Co Longford.

Cathaoirleach, Longford Municipal District, Cllr Mick Cahill (FF) told members during last weeks municipal district meeting that he together with two members of the executive of Longford Co Longford met with officials from Gas Networks Ireland to discuss the possibility of Longford connecting to the national gas supply.

Cllr Cahill, CE, Longford Co Council, Paddy Mahon and Director of Services, Barbara Heslin attended the meeting.

From our regard it was a very positive meeting, Cllr Cahill told the Leader before pointing out that Minister Denis Naughten, Deputy Sean Kyne and Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran were also in attendance.

I outlined to all those present what it would mean to Co Longford to have a gas supply and everyone agreed that it was a critical piece of infrastructure that would improve the economy of Longford and the surrounding areas.

Mr Mahon then advised those present about the route that any potential gas pipeline in the county should take.

With the commencement of the constructioin of Center Parcs due to begin in Ballymahon in Spring, it is now envisaged that there will be a gas pipeline running from Mullingar to the south Longford town to accommodate the holiday park.

And, while Cllr Cahill agrees that this is a positive move, he adds that it simply does not go far enough in facilitating the entire county of Longford when it comes to the provision of gas.

The gas supply from Mullingar to Ballymahon will be a small supply and of no real benefit to Co Longford, added the local area representative in Carrickedmond.

What we want is the supply of gas from Athlone which is, in fact, a much bigger pipe.

Regional benefit

Cllr Cahill also pointed out, that once a service like that was up and running, it would not only serve the needs of Co Longford, but would benefit Co Roscommon and the wider areas of Co Westmeath too.

Minister Naughten gave us a good hearing at the meeting; he knows the midlands well - he is from across the Shannon - and he had a very good understanding of what we were saying to him, continued Cllr Cahill.

The Minister said that he was working on the situation, but did advise us that Gas Networks Ireland would only provide gas where it was economically viable to do so.

The local area representative in the Ballymahon Municipal District also said that in order to get the initiative across the line, it would probably take a lot of hard work and political will.

Hopefully, he added, that can be achieved.

This is something that has been looked at for Longford before, but I think this time, the fact that we have Center Parcs as a major customer in Longford will be viewed as a huge plus by Gas Networks Ireland.

We also need the motorway in tandem with this and with those two pieces of infrastructure in place, we could turn the midlands and west around.
Tech & Science, School & Education, Local News, Press Releases

By WFSD News Published: December 21 2016

William Floyd High School chemistry teacher Martin Palermo has been selected as a member of Stony Brook Universitys third annual class of 40 Under Forty honorees.

Mastic Beach, NY - December 20, 2016 - William Floyd High School chemistry teacher Martin Palermo has been selected as a member of Stony Brook Universitys third annual class of 40 Under Forty honorees for demonstrating achievements in education as well as exemplifying the spirit of Stony Brook, which includes commitment, passion, leadership and the pursuit of excellence. He is the only honoree in this years class in the category of Education.

I am truly honored and humbled by this recognition but as Albert Einstein said, I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious, said Mr. Palermo, who has earned two degrees from Stony Brook, a Bachelor of Science in Biology (2004), and a Master of Arts in Teaching (Biology, 2006). He is currently pursuing a PhD in chemical education at Stony Brook.

Mr. Palermo, a teacher in his 11th year at William Floyd, has been recognized by Governor Andrew Cuomo as a New York State Master Teacher (one of only 70 in the Long Island region), a designation given to the New Yorks most outstanding science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teachers for providing the most innovative STEM education to their students, their commitment to professional growth and enthusiasm for sharing successful practices with their colleagues.

Additional awards include the Suffolk ASSET (Association of Suffolk Supervisors for Educational Technologies) Bright Light Award for technology integration in the classroom and a Stony Brook University Campus Life Award for his commitment to promoting student success through teaching at Stony Brook, where he has previously served as an adjunct professor in undergraduate biology (anatomy and physiology).

Mr. Palermo also serves in a leadership position for the Long Island Association for Chemistry Teacher Support (LIACTS) at Stony Brook, in which eight NYS Master Teachers share best practices, pedagogical techniques and current chemistry topics while working to facilitate collaboration of chemistry teachers across Long Island. Fellow William Floyd High School chemistry teacher and NYS Master Teacher Kristen Drury co-founded the organization in 2014. In his spare time, he serves as a firefighter/rescue diver for the Hagerman Fire Department in East Patchogue.

This years awards also have an additional William Floyd connection through Dan McCloskey, PhD, a 1993 William Floyd High School graduate and winner of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, who currently serves as an associate professor of psychology at the College of Staten Island.
Local News, Crime, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: December 21 2016

New York Toy Gun Exchange - exchange toy guns for other, more appropriate toys in light of recent shooting tragedies that have occurred nationwide.

Hempstead, NY - December 21, 2016 - Village of Hempstead Mayor Wayne Hall and Hempstead Village Police Officials will join New York Toy Gun Exchange Program founder Jean Shafiroff at a press conference today, Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 2:00 pm at Brierley Park in Hempstead, NY to announce an exchange of toy guns for other, more appropriate toys in light of recent shooting tragedies that have occurred nationwide. Recently, 15 year old Joshua Guzman was shot and killed in Hempstead.



Since 1994, there have been at least 63 shootings linked to toy guns in New York State that resulted in at least eight deaths, according to the Attorney General's office. The Long Island Toy Gun Exchange Program is being sponsored by the Village of Hempstead and the toys are being donated by Ms. Shafiroff to stop gun violence - before it starts. Hempstead Village Police and other law enforcement officials will be attending the news conference. This is one of the first programs of its kind in the Long Island/New York City metropolitan area. Kids are invited to turn in their water pistols, replica fire arms and other imitation weapons for sporting goods, educational items and safe toys.



Gun violence in the U.S. has reached epidemic proportions, according to law enforcement officials. More than 30,000 people are killed by firearms each year in this country. Every day, more than thirty people are shot and murdered, one half between the ages of 18 and 35. One third of those killed daily are under the age of twenty. A mass murder - four deaths or more - occurred each day this year in the U.S. including the recent Orlando night club shooting where 49 people were tragically killed.

Last year, Disneyland banned toy guns in their theme parks. Walmart and Amazon have stopped sales of toy guns that look real in New York State. Toys 'R' Us stopped selling toy guns more than 20 years ago. There have been calls for similar bans in toy stores throughout the United States.
Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com

Columnists Press Releases
The introduction of the national rotavirus vaccination programme in England was followed by a sharp decrease in the number of GP visits for acute gastroenteritis, according to a new study published in the journal, Vaccine.

The study, led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine with Public Health England, found that the fall in visits was biggest among young children (the age group that receives the rotavirus vaccination), but there was also a decrease in visits by older children and adults. This suggests herd immunity from the vaccination programme; individuals were protected even if unvaccinated due to the decrease in circulating rotavirus.

Rotavirus is highly infectious and is the commonest cause of acute gastroenteritis in young children, causing diarrhoea, vomiting and fever. Infection with rotavirus results in considerable use of health services in the UK.

The UK-wide rotavirus vaccination programme was introduced in 2013. The vaccine is given as oral drops in two doses, to babies aged between two and three months old.

Previous research has shown that the introduction of the programme has resulted in a decrease in hospitalisations and Emergency Department visits for acute gastroenteritis among adults and children.

The new study used primary care data to look at the impact on GP visits and went on to estimate the visits and healthcare costs averted in England across all healthcare settings.

In GP surgeries, rates of acute gastroenteritis in young children fell by 15% overall after the vaccine introduction, and by 41% in the months where rotavirus circulation was historically high. Rates also decreased in older children and to a lesser degree in adults.

The researchers went on to estimate that across GPs, hospital admissions and Emergency Departments, 87,376 visits by children under five were averted in the first year of the vaccination programme. This was associated with an estimated 12.5 million reduction in healthcare costs.

Lead author Dr Sara Thomas from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "This study helps to give a more complete picture of the impact of rotavirus vaccination, and shows the rapid reduction in the burden of acute gastroenteritis seen in GP surgeries.

"We found that the expected seasonal peak of acute gastroenteritis in the months when rates historically would have been high completely disappeared. The fact that GP visits for gastroenteritis in other age groups fell provides evidence that unvaccinated older individuals are also benefitting from the vaccine being introduced.

"Our new estimates of the tens of thousands of health service visits by young children that have been averted, with a reduction in annual healthcare costs of more than 12 million, also provide important information for assessing the overall benefits of introducing the vaccine."

Study co-author Dr Shamez Ladhani, Immunisation Consultant at Public Health England, said: "This is good news and it is reassuring that the rotavirus vaccine is preventing so many cases of vomiting and diarrhoea since it was introduced three years ago. This is thanks to the high vaccine uptake in infants, which has also helped to protect older unvaccinated children and adults of all ages across the UK. It is also further evidence that our UK Immunisation programme is playing a vital role in protecting the public's health."

Nicola Blackwood, the Minister for Public Health and Innovation said: "This research shows the overwhelming public health benefit of giving young children the rotavirus vaccination. This vaccine is keeping children safe whilst freeing up more of doctors' and nurses' time and saving money for the NHS."

The authors say that one potential limitation of the study is that the decrease in acute gastroenteritis observed could be due to factors other than the introduction of the vaccine. Analyses are now underway to compare rates of acute gastroenteritis in vaccinated and unvaccinated infants, to obtain direct estimates of the effectiveness of the vaccine.

The study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Immunisation at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in partnership with Public Health England.

Publication

Sara L Thomas, Jemma L Walker, Justin Fenty, Katherine E Atkins, Alex J Elliot, Helen E Hughes, Julia Stowe, Shamez Ladhani, Nick J Andrews, Impact of the national rotavirus vaccination programme on acute gastroenteritis in England and associated costs averted. Vaccine. DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.11.057
Culture / Auctions

Dec 21, 2016 | By Staff Writer

The auction house of Drouot recently announced the sale of an 18th century Chinese imperial seal that made the headlines for more than just its historical value. Fetching 21 million euros, the rare stamp in red and beige nephrite jade had a final price tag that was over 20 times its estimate.

Believed to have been from the Qianlong period between 1736 to 1795, the stamp was owned by Emperor Qianlong, the longest serving emperor in chinese history. Nine dragons on the sides of the seal symbolise the emperors masculine power and imperial authority. The new owner happens to be an unnamed Chinese collector who won a furious bidding war.

The seal was acquired in the late 19th century by a young French naval doctor in China and had remained in the family since. The doctor built an impressive collection during his many visits to China. Other items that went under the hammer from the same collection, included two paintings from Japanese master Katsushika Hokusai. The paintings, 36 views of Mount Fiji and Big wave at Kanagawa were expected to fetch 30,000 euros.
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ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited has awarded contracts to SBM Offshore for a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO) for the Liza development and production in Guyana.

Under the FPSO contracts, SBM Offshore will perform Front End Engineering and Design for the FPSO, and, subject to a final investment decision on the project in 2017, will construct, install and operate the FPSO.

The Liza field has a potential resource estimate in excess of 1 billion oil-equivalent barrels and is located in the Stabroek block, which covers almost 27,000 square kilometers, approximately 193 kilometers offshore Guyana. Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is the operator and holds a 45 percent interest in the Stabroek block. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds a 30 percent interest, and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Limited holds a 25 percent interest.
Why Are Pakistans Stock and Financial Markets Soaring, Really?

During six decades of US aid, Pakistans living standards plunged. But in the past year, Asias largest frontier market delivered foretaste of its promise  with Chinas support.



Recently, Pakistans stock market crossed the 46,000 point milestone. Investor sentiment is increasingly bullish. In the past year, Pakistans equity markets beat those of China and India by a wide margin. The former was up 16%, whereas the latter were in negative for the year.





In 2017, the market is expected to see more than half a dozen new initial public offerings, while optimistic analysts anticipate the benchmark index advance to cross 55,000 points, which would potentially generate a yield of 17-21%.

Pakistans market success



Since competitiveness does not seem to explain Pakistans market success, Forbes attributes the latter to the countrys role as a frontier market, the inflow of Chinese investment, the World Banks support and recent acquisitions.



And yet, rankings in competitiveness index, which tends to measure past success, do not always explain market movements, which are based on future projections.



Second, the distinction between frontier and emerging markets has less to do with exposure to global markets than with the degree of development, as well as lesser liquidity and greater risk.



Further, Pakistan has received $1 billion from the World Bank. However, the Banks commitments in Pakistan amount to $8.6 billion in the past half a decade and have been substantial for some time.



What does seem to be relevant, however, is that Chinese companies  not US firms  have been behind major acquisitions.



Something is going on in Pakistans markets, but conventional wisdom does not capture the big picture. Theres more to the story.

Eclipse of US-Pakistan military ties



Recently, Washington suspended $300 million of military aid, after the cancellation of the deal to sell Pakistan eight F-16 fighter jets at a cost of $270 million. Since 2011, there has been a 73% decline in US security assistance and a 53% decrease in economic assistance to Pakistan.



These moves reflect a major shift. Between 1951 and 2011, US commitments in Pakistan totaled $67 billion; in the subsequent five years, almost $14 billion. Yet, between 2003 and 2015 alone, terrorism took the lives of almost 21,000 civilians and 6,400 security personnel. According to central State Bank of Pakistan, extremist violence has cost the country $118 billion in the past 15 years  over a third of its GDP.



Has the military assistance improved ordinary Pakistanis living standards? No. Rather, it has gone hand in hand with a dramatic deterioration of living standards. In 1980, Pakistans GDP per capita ranked 109th internationally; in 2000, 131st; and today 146th.



It is this era of military destabilization that is now fading in Pakistan as a new era of economic development is emerging  which markets have recognized.

Economic development with China



While significant challenges remain ahead, economy has somewhat stabilized. After the recently completed three-year economic reform program, Pakistans real GDP growth is almost 5% - at par with Malaysia (4.7%) and not far from that in Indonesia (5.8%).



Pakistan also has substantial growth potential. Despite massive amounts of US aid, over 42% of Pakistans people remain in agriculture. Almost two-thirds of Pakistanis still live in the countryside, which means that urbanization still has a long way to go - Karachis population is likely to increase to almost 20 million and Lahores to 10 million by 2025.



The migration to cities is also fueled by one of the fastest natural population growth rates in Asia. As a result, Pakistans cities struggle with capacity constraints in transportation and energy, while migration is occurring amid longstanding war and conflict.



Fueled by the China-Pakistan free trade agreement, bilateral economic relations have increased rapidly. China is now Pakistans largest trade partner and military supplier. And a massive China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is under construction; reportedly, at the cost of $51 billion. CPEC seeks to connect Kashgar and Gwadar, through a network of highways, railways and pipelines. It is an extension of and could become a model of Chinas huge One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative.



In turn, Chinese investors are acquiring Pakistani companies (e.g., Karachis K-Electric by Shanghai Electric Power Co) while the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Shanghai-based China Financial Futures Exchange seek to buy a stake of up to 40% in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

Second historical effort of modernization



With population estimated at 195 million, Pakistan is the sixth most populous nation in the world and the greatest potential emerging economy in the world after China and India, Indonesia and Brazil.



The current development craze is not the first one. During the 1960s, Pakistans real GDP growth was 6.8%, about the same as Chinas today, and the country was a world model of economic development.



Ironically, as South Korea tried to emulate Pakistan's economic planning, Pakistan itself failed to implement that model. Now, half a century later, Koreas GDP per capita is almost $37,000 but Pakistans less than $5,000.



Today, Pakistan is shifting toward economic development. That, however, requires peace and stability and thus minimal friction with regional neighbors  and the kind of massive infrastructure investment that China can offer. Development matters.

Dr. Dan Steinbock is an internationally recognised expert of the nascent multipolar world. He is the CEO of Difference Group and has served as Research Director at the India, China and America Institute (USA) and visiting fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (China) and the EU Centre (Singapore). For more, see www.differencegroup.net

 2016 Copyright Dan Steinbock - 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.




COLLINSVILLEA judge denied bail Tuesday for a woman charged with felonious abduction with intent to defile.

After hearing one witness on behalf of defendant Sherri Louise Johnson and arguments by Johnsons lawyer and a prosecutor, Henry County Circuit Court Judge David V. Williams ruled that the presumption against bail was not rebutted, and he denied bail.

Johnson, 26, is one of four Bassett residents accused of abducting a 16-year-old boy in July. Her co-defendants are Mikal Delonte Hampton, Brittany Nicole Dickerson and Zachary Michael Lane Powell, all of whom are charged with abduction with intent to defile. Powell also is charged with using an inanimate object to sexually penetrate another person and concealing or destroying physical evidence with intent to hinder an investigation, as the criminal complaint stated that he threw away a claw hammer in order to hide the evidence.

The criminal complaint alleges, among other things, that between July 18-21, Powell tied up the boy against his will and hit him with a pole; and that Hampton and Dickerson hit the boy with their hands and feet, respectively, while he was bound. The complaint alleges that Powell used the handle of a claw hammer to sexually assault the boy.

The complaint alleges the boy was forced into a bathtub while still bound at his hands and his feet were then bound. It also alleges that Johnson slapped the boy in the face while he was .

At the bond hearing Tuesday in Henry County Circuit Court, Johnsons mother, Susan Weatherton spoke in support of her daughter being granted bail. Weatherton indicated her daughter could live with her if released on bail and that she would try to make sure she abided by any bail regulations. Weatherton also said her daughter has had mental health and general health issues.

Henry County Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Awbrey Watts noted that Johnson has no criminal history, but added the commonwealth will be seeking additional charges in the incident beyond those already filed, when the grand jury meets in January. Watts called the incident horrible.

Matt Clark, Johnsons lawyer, indicated his client was not involved in some of the alleged physical acts that took place, and argued she was the most forthcoming of the witnesses. He also cited her need for services for mental health and health issues.

Clark also said that the alleged victim did not know Johnsons name, claiming the victim has been inconsistent in some of his statements and testimony.

Clark asked for bail to be granted, even if it is high and with conditions attached.

HENRY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT

In a different case Tuesday, Judge Williams denied a motion by the commonwealth to resentence Bryan Lee Franklin, whom Williams sentenced the day before. On Monday, Franklin, of Martinsville, pleaded guilty to distributing heroin and distributing methamphetamine on July 17, 2015. Williams sentenced him to a total of 10 years in prison (five years on each charge), with a total of one year to serve (six months active on each charge), and the balance suspended on conditions including probation, good behavior and payment of $500 restitution to the Henry County Sheriffs Office.

Watts asked Williams to change his sentence so that instead of giving Franklin six months of active time on each charge, to give him one year of active time on one charge and no active time on the other charge.

Watts said the change would not increase Franklins sentence, but that by making the change, the Department of Corrections would be responsible for retrieving Franklin from Arizona after he serves a sentence there and responsible for bringing him back to Virginia to serve the Henry County sentence. Unless Mondays sentence is changed, the Henry County Sheriffs Office will be responsible for retrieving Franklin from Arizona after he serves a sentence there to bring him back to Virginia, which the prosecution motion says is a strain on the manpower of the locality.

Franklins lawyer, Matt Clark, objected to the prosecutions motion, arguing, among other things, that there was no statutory authority to change the sentence.

Judge Williams denied the prosecutions motion, saying: I think youre right, Mr. Clark. I dont think we have any authority to change it.
Japan's top court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a government plan to relocate a U.S. military base on the island of Okinawa, dealing a blow to islanders' efforts to get rid of the base altogether.

The government and Okinawa authorities have been at loggerheads for years over the U.S. Marines' Futenma air base as resentment has simmered among residents who bemoan what they see as an unfair burden in supporting the U.S. military presence in Japan.

Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga has led the campaign to get the base off the island while the central government has proposed moving it away from the urban area where it is located to a less populated part of the island called Henoko.

As part of his campaign, Onaga rescinded approval for land reclamation work, issued by his predecessor, to clear the way for the base relocation. But a high court ruled his decision illegal and on Tuesday the Supreme Court upheld that ruling.
COLLINSVILLE-The Henry County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted 5-1 to renew the countys contract with Alcalde and Fay LLC, which advocates for Interstate 73 on the countys behalf.

The dissenting vote came from Collinsville District Supervisor Joe Bryant, who said that I-73 appeared to him to be at a stalemate and expressed doubt that the county would see any real benefit to funding the contract for another year.

Alcalde and Fay advocate for I-73 on the federal and state levels. The Interstate 73 Coalition includes the cities of Martinsville and Roanoke and the counties of Henry, Franklin and Roanoke.

The board ultimately approved a one-year contract extension at $1,500 per month, or $18,000 over the course of the year.

In response to Bryants concerns, Henry County Administrator Tim Hall said that from the perspective of county staff, it might be worth providing an additional year of funding to see if the needle moves.

If the needle doesnt move, particularly in the first year of the new administration, then perhaps we should reconsider at that point, Hall said. But I would hate to pull out from this and then see some activity that would have benefitted us at the federal level.

However, Hall added that there are no guarantees that an additional year of funding will produce concrete results.

Iriswood District Supervisor Milton Kendall agreed that a new federal administration could introduce changes that would make I-73 a more likely prospect, and Ridgeway District Supervisor Ryan Zehr said that he could support one more year of funding for Alcalde and Fay.

The contract renewal passed 5-1 with Bryant being the lone dissenting vote.

Representatives from Alcalde and Fay were not in attendance at the meeting.

Also at the boards 3 p.m. meeting, the supervisors:

-Approved a resolution honoring Joan Hall of the Department of Planning, Zoning and Inspections. Hall, who began working for Henry County on July 17, 1978, is retiring Dec. 31.

Lee Clark, Director of Planning, Zoning and Inspections, described Hall as the epitome of a public servant  the person who doesnt always get the credit, but gets the job done.

-Approved a date for the 2017 organizational meeting. The meeting is slated for Tuesday, Jan. 3 at 6 p.m.

During the meeting, the board will set its meeting dates for the 2017 calendar year and elect a chairman and vice-chairman.

-Approved a proposed calendar for preparation of the fiscal year 2017-2018 county budget.

-Awarded a four-year service contract to Physio-Control Inc. of Redmond, Washington in the amount of $5,712 annually for regular maintenance on defibrillators and heart monitors per a request from Henry County Public Safety Director Matt Tatum. By awarding the four-year contract, staff can secure a lower annual price for the service. Funding for the contract is included in the current year operating budget.

-Awarded a contract in the amount of $81,879 to J.C. Joyce Trucking and Paving Inc. of Patrick Springs for replacement of the asphalt walking trail at Jack Dalton Park. The award is based on a piggyback clause that was part of the administration building parking lot project.

-Accepted and appropriated a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice 2016 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) in the amount of $8,769 per a request from Sheriff Lane Perry. The funds will be used for deputy overtime to cover staff shortages, special operations, and off-site security of inmates during medical procedures.

-Scheduled a public hearing regarding a change to the county ordinance regarding unsafe structures. The public hearing is scheduled for the supervisors 6 p.m. meeting on Jan. 24.

Supervisor Ryan Zehr requested that the item be placed on the agenda for discussion of possible changes to the county ordinance referencing unsafe structures. The current ordinance does not include a penalty clause. However, if the building official deems a structure unsafe and the landowner does not comply with repairs or removal, the county has the authority to raze the unsafe structure and assess the cost of doing so on the parcel of land as a lien.

-Heard an update on activities at Piedmont Community Services (PCS). PCS board member Steve Eanes introduced the board to Greg Preston, the new PCS executive director.

Preston, who has been with PCS for a little more than 16 years, replaces former executive director Jim Tobin who retired earlier this year.

-Heard a monthly report on delinquent tax collection efforts from Henry County Treasurer Scott Grindstaff.

Grindstaff said that as of Nov. 30, his office has collected 97.72 percent of 2015 personal property taxes and 94.46 percent of 2015 real estate taxes.

-Did not hear the regular monthly update from Mark Heath, President and CEO of the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation, as Heath was visiting with a business prospect. Henry County Administrator Tim Hall said that Heath will update the board at a later date.

-Entered closed session. Following closed session, the board re-appointed David Stovall to the Public Service Authority for a term expiring Jan. 5, 2021; re-appointed Charles Bradshaw, Rodney Clark, Bruce Adkins, Eddie Light and Larry Wright to the Building Code Board of Appeals for terms expiring Jan. 31, 2021; re-appointed Daryl Emberson, H. William Martin Jr., Ken Adkins, Nancy Bradshaw and Joel Barnes to the Fire Code Board of Appeals for terms expiring Jan. 31, 2021; and approved the appointments of Tommy Wright, Truman Adkins, Wanda Hundley and Harold Martin to the Equalization Board for terms expiring Dec. 31, 2017.
MARTINSVILLE  Mayor Danny Turner believes the city is facing hard times financially.

Its going to be pretty tough in the years ahead, said Turner, whose eight years on Martinsville City Council  including the last two as the council-elected mayor  will end Dec. 31. Earlier this year, he decided not to run for a third four-year term.

Amid stagnant revenues as city operating expenses increase, the council will have to reduce its costs by at least $1 million for the new fiscal year that will start in July, Turner predicted.

He has heard talk among officials, he said, that to cope with its rising costs for wholesale electricity distributed to Martinsville Electric Department customers, the city may consider an electric rate hike in the coming months.

Turner said he also anticipates that the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality may force the city to clean up an unlined lagoon at its former landfill off Clearview Drive into which chemicals from industries of yesteryear were dumped. That will be seven figures in terms of cost, he predicted.

Ultimately, there will have to be some cuts to spending, Turner said, unless the city can find a way to generate more revenue.

He firmly opposes raising tax rates.

We shouldnt raise taxes at all, Turner said,  because the per-capita income is so low in Martinsville that residents cannot afford it.

An idea to reduce city expenses that has been examined several times, but never acted on, is to pursue the state letting Martinsville legally revert from city to town status. Under a reversion, Martinsville no longer would be an independent city but rather a town in surrounding Henry County, which would take over certain government functions such as constitutional offices and  more than likely  schools.

Other cities in Virginia are in similar, if not worse, shape financially, Turner said.

For that reason, instead of pursuing reversion, we need to go to the General Assembly and have them come up with a way to resolve independent cities problems, he said.

The biggest factor that will determine whether Martinsville prospers in the future will be how the New College Institute (NCI) evolves, Turner said. The more college-educated people there are locally, the better, he indicated.

NCI must become a place where people come to get a degree and live here, at least for a while, Turner said.

But it should not be a traditional four-year college, he emphasized, and instead provide students a unique higher education experience based around the areas economic needs.

Looking back

Despite being elected mayor, Turners relationships with other council members have sometimes not been congenial.

Among city officials and even members of the public, he received the nickname 4-to-1 because he frequently  at least at first  was the lone no vote among the other four council members when decisions were reached.

I saw a lot of intimidation (by other council members and city officials) when I first got on the council and he did not agree with them on issues, Turner recalled. I was considered the outsider by the inner bunch at city hall.

He maintains that council members should discuss issues in public as much as possible and that, in deciding how to vote on issues, they should listen to the publics viewpoints, even if those opinions go against theirs.

Youre not up there (behind the councils desk) to sing Kumbaya and hold hands, Turner said. Youre up there to represent the people.

We all voting together (on every issue)  is not the way the governments supposed to operate, he said.

During the past eight years, Turner said, he has realized the complexity of the citys budget and how important good personnel are in each and every role in delivering municipal services.

Current employees are smart enough to listen to the people and do a good job of serving them, he said.

Turner, 61, said he decided not to seek re-election because he thinks he has done all he could do to enable the city to operate efficiently and effectively.

He is not certain if he could have been elected to a third term.

Never having lost an election, you always think you could win again, he said, but you never know.

However, Im a firm believer in term limits, Turner said. You need to keep new blood and new ideas in the political system regularly to make it function effectively.

Unlike in many cities where mayors are elected by voters, Martinsville mayors are elected by the council every two years. The post is largely ceremonial as the mayor mainly serves as the spokesman for the city and presides over council meetings, Turner said. The mayor also often represents the city at public events.

Turner declined to say who he thinks the council should elect as the next mayor. Vice Mayor Jennifer Bowles is capable of serving in that role, he said, as is longtime Councilman Gene Teague and former council member Kathy Lawson, who was re-elected to the panel by city residents on Nov. 8.

Both Teague and Lawson are former mayors. Lawson was Martinsvilles first female mayor.

A retired United Parcel Service driver, Turner said he plans to remain active in the community by serving it in any way I can. But his service will be as a private citizen rather than as an elected official, he said.
The top human rights official at the United Nations on Tuesday called for an investigation of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte after Duterte claimed he personally killed several alleged criminals.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein called on Philippine authorities to launch a murder investigation into claims Duterte made Friday in which he said he shot and killed "about three" men while serving as mayor of the city of Davao.

It's "unthinkable for any functioning judicial system not to launch investigative and judicial proceedings when someone has openly admitted being a killer," Zeid said.

Duterte has said during recent speeches that he used to ride around Davao on big a motorcycle looking for criminals he could kill in order to have police officers emulate him.

"I go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around and I would just patrol the streets and looking for trouble also. I was really looking for an encounter to be able to kill," he said last week.


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Inmates at the Hampden County House of Corrections in Ludlow see no reason why they can't bring some holiday cheer, as they pulled together funds to donate to Toy for Joy this year.

Toy for Joy is a collaboration by the Salvation Army with The Republican and MassLive to provide children in need throughout Western Massachusetts with toys and gifts for the holidays.

The campaign needs to raise $150,000 by Saturday to reach its goal and cover the costs of toys distributed to families Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties.

Today's list of generous donors is led by the contribution of $5,000 from the jail inmates' commissary fund in what has become a more than 20-year tradition. The list totals $13,708, leaving $84,915.62 to be raised by week's end.

Among the gifts large and small is a $200 contribution from the Polish-American Club of Agawam bingo, $100 from the Dress Down Club at Fairview Elementary School in Chicopee, a $1,000 gift from U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, and $200 from state Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, and his staff.

Worker groups banded together to present Toy for Joy with contributions, including $412 gathered by employees at the Big Y Distribution Center and $500 from the Hampden County Registry of Probate.

The list also includes $1,006, generated by the third annual Wreaths for a Reason fundraiser conducted by the staff at CareOne at Redstone in East Longmeadow. The effort, in which decorated wreaths are raffled to benefit Toy for Joy, has steadily grown in its fundraising, with this marking the largest gift in the three years.

Sheriff Michael Ashe said inmates have gathered money from their commissary to give to children in need, recognizing it's a cause that helps families in need at a very special time of year.

"It's an honor," said Ashe. "Toy for Joy gives us an opportunity to participate and give back to the community so we're obviously honored to participate in that. It's special in terms of doing this."

The donation may even help the families of some of the inmates, who could be among those who registered to benefit from Toy for Joy, the sheriff noted.

Sheriff-elect Nick Cocchi feels the charitable act by inmates reflects the behavior and attitude that the Sheriff's Department works to instill in offenders while they are in custody.

"It's about showing respect and giving back as much as they can to people who need it," Cocchi said. "There's no question that these charitable donations are going to the families and a lot of them probably will be affected children of the people in our custody."

Personally, Cocchi said he feels it's important that children get the opportunity to wake up and have something for them under the tree.

"There's nothing more important than feeling that someone thought of you," he said.

Today's donations also include gifts made in memory of three law enforcement officers from Western Massachusetts, including Springfield patrolman Michael Schiavina, who was gunned down on duty in 1985, Springfield patrolman Kevin Ambrose, killed in the line of duty in 2012, and Prince William County Police Officer Ashley Guindon, a native of West Springfield, who was shot and killed in February.

To learn more about Toy for Joy, call the Salvation Army's Springfield citadel at 413-733-1518.

Online donations can be made by clicking here

Here is a list of the latest contributions to this year's campaign:

Happy holidays from the Hampden County Jail Inmates Commissary Fund $5,000

In loving memory of my husband, Jim Fitzgibbon, and our parents from Sue $25

Anonymous $25

In memory of Jennie, Art, Eleanor and Joe $20

In memory of my dear sisters Mim McNulty and Phyll Marhoffer $50

Merry Christmas from Bill and Kate $25

Love, peace and joy $60

Gene and Judy $25

Anonymous $25

Happy holidays from Lizzie, Patrick and Helen, Potsdam, Germany $25

Anonymous $20

Merry Christmas $25

In memory of my dear friend Jeannine. Love, Kate $25

So very grateful for my wonderful family and friends $100

Happy holidays from the Anfang family $25

In memory of our parents from Tom and Nancy $100

In memory of our parents Bill and Peg, Frank and Helen $25

In memory of Alice and Joe Haggerty $25

In memory of Skip Foresti. Miss you, from wife Becky and Lisa $25

Love to Chistina, Lauren, Emily, Kate and Mikey from Grandma and Grandpa Dunlop $25

Thank you for our many blessings $25

In memory of Mom, Dad, John, Chipper, Apache, Molly and Grettyl $50

Dad, we miss you one year later as much as ever. Ma talks to your picture everyday. She's being well taken care of. Merry Christmas. Love you, Brian, Janice and Nico $25

Happy holidays from Mark and Sue $200

In memory of our daughter Debbie. Love always, Mom and Dad $20

In loving memory of our son Toby who so loved Christmas. Love, Mom and Dad $100

In memory of Dad, Grandpa and great Grandpa. Love, the Sullivan family $100

Merry Christmas, Bill, Sue and Whitey $50

In memory of John and Jack from Audrey $100

In memory of Constance and Walter Maciolek. Love, Ray and JoAnn $35

In memory of Madeline and Armand Degree. Love, Ray and JoAnn $35

In memory of Jason Rivers. Merry Christmas $100

Merry Christmas everyone. Peace to all in the new year $25

In memory of Grandpa Dave and Nana Bridie. Love, Patrick and Brendan $50

In loving memory of Terry, Chick, Rose, Stan and Linda from Lynn and Gary $25

Maintain $50

We miss always, Peter and Helen Pappas and Diane Colapietro $25

Anonymous $25

In loving memory of Gram and Dad. Love, Emmie, Caleb, Heather, Peter, Kelly and David $225

In praise of all animals $10

In memory of family and friends. Love, Maryjo and Tom $50

In memory of Prince William County police officer Ashley Guindon $50

In memory of Springfield police officer Kevin Ambrose $50

Remembering Mom and Dad, Gracie and John. Merry Christmas $50

Merry Christmas Cora. Luv, Nana $100

Thomas $25

In dear loving memory of Dr. L. Lester Cohan, my father, my best friend. Love, Lana $20

In memory of our friend Dave Bean $100

Merry Christmas from the Kennedy 'Greats' $100

Merry Christmas from Ray and Sue $50

Happy holidays from Dan and Jane $100

Merry Christmas to every buddy at Chapin Street School $100

Blessed with two beautiful grandchildren, Chloe and Jonah $50

No child should go without a toy $50

Merry Christmas, Pete, Mae, Dan, Shelley and Ella $125

In loving memory of Samuel and Caroline Gledhill $10

In loving memory of Louise Beachell, Mary Stillwell, Babs Neary, Michael Lynch and Marie Cavallon. Good friends are a precious gift $15

Monet, Phoebe, Ketchen $50

In honor of our children Michael, Liliana, Stephen and Katie $25

From Rekha and Naveen $35

In memory of my parents Rev. Peter C. and Kay Katopis, who made all my Christmases so very special, from Stella Muzyka $50

In memory of a great father and husband Donald Fairbanks $100

In loving memory of our parents from Pat and Gary K $25

In loving memory of our parents, Ron and Nan G $100

In memory of Francis and Beatrice Cardwell, Felix and Charlotte Snigelski, Ernie and Grace Heon $200

Anonymous $50

In memory of Joseph Misiaszek from family $25

In memory of Matthew MacDougall from family $25

From the Barz family $100

In memory of Kathy Keenan and Donald Colburn, aka Mr. and Mrs. Claus $100

In memory of GG. Merry Christmas $20

Merry Christmas, Trish and Bob Griffiths $100

In loving memory of Michael Schiavina and his parents, Anne and Caesar Schiavina, love and missed, Kathy, Mark and Maura $100

In memory of Margaret Russell and Mildred Dumas $25

Merry Christmas and happy new year $5

In memory of John and Eleanor $200

In memory of my sister Patty. Love, Elaine $20

Anonymous $20

Merry Christmas to all from Bob and Maryellen $50

In memory of our son, Steven Wilmes. We love and miss you, Mom and Dad $100

In loving memory of Malcomb, Missy and Mindy $100

In memory of my mom and dad. Merry Christmas from Paul $20

In loving memory of Sonny and Danny Boy from Barbara Frances $100

Happy holidays from Nancy and Gene $25

Merry Christmas from Caleb $30

In loving memory of Myrtle and Steven Bacon $30

Merry Christmas from the Hills $50

Memory of JR from Lucy and Milo $50

Merry Christmas from the Big Y Distribution Center $412

Merry Christmas from the Polish American Club of Agawam Bingo $200

Anonymous $100

Anonymous $30

To Earl and Odette Benjamin. Love, Renee $20

Thanksgiving for my grandchildren Ben, Cameron, Hannah and Ellen. Love, GMA $20

Thanksgiving to blessed mother, sacred heart and all the saints $10

William Roberts Electric Co. $100

In memory of Rudy Lachut $20

In lieu of Christmas cards from Marion $20

Given in loving memory of our grandparents and great grandparents, Francis and Glenrose Rollet by Jeremy, Hilarie, Delaney and Hailey Stebbins $25

In memory of my Dad, the big man from Ballydavid, and my mom, the lady from Moorestown, County Dingle, Kerry, Ireland $20

With best wishes for Christmas and the new year from U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal $1,000

Happy holidays from CareOne at Redstone and Wreaths for a Reason $1,006

Wishing you all the happiest of holidays and joy in the new year from Sen. Stan Rosenberg and staff $200

Happy holidays from the Fairview Elementary School Dress Down Club and the Fairview Flyers, Chicopee $100

Best wishes from the staff at the Hampden Registry of Probate in Springfield $500

RECEIVED $13,708

TOTAL TO DATE $65,084.38

STILL NEEDED $84,915.62
taxgraphics7.jpg

(GRAPHIC FROM USA.GOV)

Updated at 3:41 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016 to clarify that Councilor Howard B. Greaney Jr. was absent from the City Council meeting because of a family matter.

This story elaborates on an article published on December 20, 2016 at 10:12 PM: New tax rate in Holyoke increases average homeowner's bill $48, cuts business rate but not enough, chamber members say

HOLYOKE -- It's hard to tell if the City Council's vote on the new tax rate Tuesday left anyone happy.

Business owners and chamber of commerce officials saw the commercial tax rate drop.

But the cut was not to the extent they said was needed to scrape off that figurative "Unfriendly to business" sticker attached to the "Welcome to Holyoke" sign.

Meanwhile, the owner of the average single-family home will pay $3,490 over the next year under the next tax rate. That's an increase of $48 above the previous $3,442, and anyone who likes paying more in taxes probably also enjoys going to the dentist.

Many residential and commercial property owners will be paying more in taxes because the values citywide increased an average of 2 percent compared to properties' previous values -- and the more value there is in a property, the more there is to tax.

The new tax rate is $19.18 per $1,000 valuation for residential property and $39.75 per $1,000 valuation for commercial property.

The previous tax rate was $19.12 per $1,000 valuation for residential property and $39.86 per $1,000 valuation for business property.

Here are five takeaways from the City Council's debate at City Hall about the tax rate:

1. The business folks tried.

One after another, they rose during the public speak out to urge councilors to yank down the business tax rate to $39.50 per $1,000 valuation (That would have increased the residential rate to $19.28).

Such a cut was necessary to make a difference and really reduce the business-tax pressure, they said. That's especially true after voters' adoption on the Nov. 8 election ballot of the state Community Preservation Act, which adds a surcharge to everyone's property taxes, they said.

Dropping the business tax rate to $39.50 would stimulate growth and growth helps the whole city, said Helen A. Florio, president of the Holyoke Taxpayers Association.

"More things will happen if, in fact, we're not the highest (business) tax rate in the commonwealth....So I do hope you'll do something bold tonight in terms of tax reform," said Glenn E. Shealey of Holy Family Road, who owns Quantum Properties LLC.

Reducing the tax rate tells a positive instead of a negative message to business owners, Gary Rome of Gary Rome Hyundai said.

"Whatever relief that you can offer, I'm sure will come back ten-fold," Rome said.

Kathleen G. Anderson, president of the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Holyoke Chamber Centennial Foundation Inc., said she participates in the state's Economic Assistance Coordinating Council among other economic development projects.

"I hear about the opportunities that people are bringing to their communities .... I see the types of tax breaks they are giving ... because it's all about stimulating economic growth...The more growth we have for business, the less burden it is on the homeowner," Anderson said.

General Manager Michael Filomeno of Marcotte Ford thanked the City Council for its support and urged more of it with a cut of the business property tax rate to $39.50.

"We cannot afford to have a business leave Holyoke ... We need to grow, we need to fill those buildings," Filomeno said.

2. Never came to a vote.

When debate began about the tax rate, Councilor at Large Rebecca Lisi proposed the rate that the business community favored -- $39.50 for commercial property, $19.28 for residential property.

But parliamentary rules played out to where the City Council never actually voted on that proposal.

The rules allow for two amendments to be made after the original motion. And if there are two amendments, the City Council votes first on the amendments, with the first vote taking place on the latest amendment, followed by the first amendment and then on the original motion -- if it gets that far.

Because the first of the three possibilities -- the original motion and the two amendments -- to get eight votes, which is a majority of the 15-member City Council, is the one that wins.

After Lisi's motion, the first amendment came from Councilor at Large Peter R. Tallman. He proposed the tax rate that eventually was established -- $19.18 per $1,000 valuation for residential property and $39.75 per $1,000 valuation for commercial property.

Ward 5 Councilor Linda L. Vacon proposed the second amendment, which called for a tax rate of $19.12-$39.90.

Because Vacon's amendment was the most recent, the council voted on that one first and rejected it by a vote of 10-4.

Councilor Howard B. Greaney Jr. was absent because of a family matter and the lack of an odd number of councilors voting would be felt quickly.

The council next voted on Tallman's amendment and it failed -- by virtue of a 7-7 vote.

Council President Kevin A. Jourdain moved for a reconsideration of that vote. On the re-vote, Tallman's amendment passed with Councilor James M. Leahy changing his vote for an 8-6 passage and a new tax rate.

Thus the tax rate the business community favored never came to a vote.

Tallman's proposal nearly failed to become eligible. No one seconded it immediately, until finally Vacon gave it a second and put it into play.

Joining Tallman in voting in favor of that rate were councilors Daniel B. Bresnahan, council President Kevin A. Jourdain, James M. Leahy, Diosdado Lopez, Todd A. McGee, Joseph M. McGiverin and Nelson R. Roman.

Voting against that tax rate were councilors Linda L. Vacon, Jossie M. Valentin, David K. Bartley, Gladys Lebron-Martinez, Rebecca Lisi and Michael J. Sullivan.



3. "Open for business."

Lisi said her proposed tax rate, the one urged by the business community, was a way to stimulate the economy.

"I think that Holyoke is ripe for economic development and so I think we really need to seize the opportunity....The city of Holyoke is open for business," Lisi said.

Tallman said his proposed tax rate, which was higher than what the business community wanted, also would be a stimulant.

"It's sending out the signal that we are open for business," Tallman said.



4. Tough call.

Ward 4 Councilor Jossie M. Valentin seconded Lisi's motion to support the proposed tax rate of $39.50-$19.28. She then summed up the tough call councilors face in deciding how to distribute the tax burden between home and business owners.

"It's hard to have people trust when you take a risk," said Valentin, but she said, "to me, when I came in today, I was thinking about what is the best case scenario in this worst-case scenario we have. I always say tonight is a night no matter what we do, we're not going to please everyone.

"At the end of the day, it's about how do we improve our infrastructure, how do we make this a better city to live in. And that always comes with risks," Valentin said.

5. Where was everybody?

The city has 10,079 parcels of residential and commercial property with a total valuation of $2,089,256,133.

The property at the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside, the city's largest taxpayer, is valued at $218,420,992 for nearly 97 acres.

Mall owner Holyoke Mall Co., a limited partnership, care of Pyramid Companies of Syracuse, New York, pays a yearly tax bill of $8,706,079.

The city in total will tap the more than 10,000 property owners here for a tax levy of over $52 million.

But City Hall, as usual, was relatively empty. Aside from the more than a dozen business people, the microphone during public speak out was absent a rush of property owners telling the elected officials seated in City Council Chambers who were about to decide how much of their money they must part with, "Hey, stop raising my taxes."
Mexico Fireworks Explosion

Firefighters and rescue workers remove debris from the scorched ground of Mexico's best-known fireworks market after an explosion explosion ripped through it, in Tultepec, on the outskirts of Mexico City, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016.

(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

TULTEPEC, Mexico -- A powerful chain-reaction explosion ripped through Mexico's best-known fireworks market on the northern outskirts of the capital Tuesday, killing at least 29 people, injuring scores more and sending a huge plume of charcoal-gray smoke billowing into the sky.

Video of the blast showed a dramatic staccato of rockets exploding in flashes of light, leveling the open-air San Pablito Market in Tultepec in Mexico State as it bustled with shoppers stocking up on fireworks to celebrate Christmas and New Year's.

Vendors' stands were reduced to piles of rubble, ash, and charred metal. It was the third devastating explosion and fire to ravage the market since 2005.

Crescencia Francisco Garcia said she was in the middle of the grid of stalls along with a few hundred others when the thunderous explosions began. She froze, reflexively looked up at the sky and then took off running through the smoke once she realized everyone was doing so. As she ran she saw people with burns and cuts, and lots of blood.

"Everything was catching fire. Everything was exploding," Francisco said. "The stones were flying, pieces of brick, everything was flying."

In comments broadcast on local TV news, Mexico State Gov. Eruviel Avila reported Tuesday night that in addition to the 26 people who perished at the market, three more victims died after being taken to hospitals. State Health Secretary Cesar Nomar Gomez Monge said 72 people were being treated for injuries including severe burns, in some cases over 90 percent of their bodies. Those hospitalized included 10 children.

Authorities have not yet said what may have caused the explosion but announced that an investigation had been opened.

"We are going to identify who is responsible," Avila said.

Sirens wailed and a heavy scent of gunpowder lingered in the air well after the explosion at the market, where most of the stalls were destroyed. The smoking, burned out shells of vehicles ringed the perimeter, and first responders and local residents wearing blue masks over their mouths combed through the ash and debris. Firefighters hosed down still-smoldering hotspots.

Tultepec Mayor Armando Portuguez Fuentes said the market was especially well stocked because demand for noisy firecrackers and rockets soars this time of year.

"We are obviously in the high season," Portuguez said. "There was more product than usual because we are a few days away from Christmas, a few days away from New Year's, and those are the days when the products made here are consumed the most."

Cesar Ornelas of Atizapan de Zaragoza was only 10 minutes into shopping with his son and his father when he heard the first explosions. He tried to run, but something knocked him to the ground from behind. He tried several times to get up, unsuccessfully, and ultimately his 15-year-old son Francisco had to drag him out.

"We didn't look back," said Ornelas, who suffered light burns and a large bruise over his left kidney. His white tank top had a fist-size burn on the chest. "We heard how the explosion was kind of going off bit by bit."

Nearly four hours later, he and Francisco limped gingerly out of the market area. Francisco said paramedics told him his leg was likely fractured by flying debris. Ornelas said his 67-year-old father, Ernesto, had run in a different direction and sought refuge in a nearby home. All the father's clothing was burned, and his face and arm were bloodied. An ambulance had spirited him to a hospital, but Ornelas wasn't sure where it was or how serious his injuries were.

"My condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this accident and my wishes for a quick recovery for the injured," President Enrique Pena Nieto said via Twitter.

A similar fire engulfed the San Pablito Market in 2005, touching off a chain of explosions that leveled hundreds of stalls just ahead of Mexico's Independence Day. A year later a similar incident at the same market also destroyed hundreds of stands.

Portuguez, the Tultepec mayor, said the manufacture and sale of fireworks is a key part of the local economy. He added that it is regulated by law and under the "constant supervision" of the Defense Department, which oversees firearms and explosives.

"This is part of the activity of our town. It is what gives us identity," Portuguez said. "We know it is high-risk, we regret this greatly, but unfortunately many people's livelihoods depend on this activity."

Deadly fireworks explosions have occurred with some regularity in Mexico: In 2002, a blast at a market in the Gulf coast city of Veracruz killed 29; in 1999, 63 people died when an explosion of illegally stored fireworks destroyed part of the city of Celaya; and in 1988, a fireworks blast in Mexico City's La Merced market killed at least 68.
AMHERST -- The Amherst Select Board has sent a letter to state officials raising concerns about the recent legalization of marijuana and asking that the law be amended to allow municipalities to delay commercial sales.

The board pointed out that the median age of town residents is 21.6, and with a third of the town's population under 25 officials are concerned the town "will not have sufficient time to adequately address the health and safety concerns within the timeframe included in the law. "

Massachusetts voters on Nov. 8 approved legalizing marijuana for recreational use. Some 74 percent of Amherst voters supported Question 4 on the statewide ballot.

On Dec. 15, it became legal for adults 21 and older to possess limited quantities of marijuana for recreational purposes. Establishments for retail sales of marijuana could open in 2018.

The Select Board is also asking the Legislature to revisit a provision of the law that allows people to grow up to a dozen pot plants per household and to give limited amounts away.

The board is concerned that the town could be flooded with recreational marijuana that would "create a heavy burden on our public safety and emergency response staff even before the sales of recreational marijuana becomes legal."

Chairwoman Alisa Brewer points out in the letter that medical dispensaries would be permitted to sell recreational marijuana and "this was not a known consideration during the Select Board's deliberations when deciding whether to issue letters of support for medical marijuana dispensaries."

The board issued four such letters. So far no facilities have opened in town, though one group recently said it hopes to set up shop on University Drive next year.

The board would also like the state to revisit the 2 percent local option tax allowed under the new law. Members said they don't think it will be sufficient to cover marijuana-related costs the town incurs.

"We also need more time to consider how our decisions impact bordering communities with significant numbers of college-age residents, including Hadley, Sunderland and Belchertown," the letter states.

The board wrote that if the state allows these changes it would "increase the likelihood of a smooth and successful implementation."

The letter is addressed to both Senate President Stan Rosenberg and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo.

Recreational Marijuana Question 4 Implementation Chair Letter Rosenberg DeLeo 12-19-16 by ledermand on Scribd
The UN General Assembly on Monday adopted a resolution referring North Korea's human rights abuses to the International Criminal Court and urging it to punish those responsible for violating human rights. In a full session at UN headquarters in New York, member states adopted the resolution by consensus, without a vote.

This year's resolution, the 12th, states that the abuses are committed by "institutions under the effective control of the leadership," making clear that Kim is personally responsible.

It cites detention of political prisoners in concentration camps, torture, rape and public executions among the most egregious violations. It also condemns the regime's disregard for the wellbeing of its people, who suffer chronic food shortages, while it concentrates on its weapons programs.

UN member states also express grave concern about the regime's exploitation of workers forced to toil overseas in conditions of near-slavery and demands the immediate release of foreigners kidnapped by the regime. This is the first time that a North Korea human rights resolution has mentioned overseas workers.
qt.jpg

Town Meeting to be asked to reconsider rejection of new school project in Amherst.

(Submitted)

AMHERST -- A citizens' petition may put a proposed $67.2 million elementary school building project back on the table after Town Meeting rejected the plan in November.

The Select Board will meet Dec. 28 to set a date for a special town meeting to reconsider the vote that brought the project to a halt.

Amherst voters on Nov. 8 approved a ballot question seeking to fund the construction of "twin" elementary schools to serve 750 students in grades two through six at the current Wildwood Elementary School campus. But the measure, which required Town Meeting approval to move forward, failed to win the required two-thirds majority at the Nov. 14 session.

Residents on Tuesday filed a petition with the Select Board Tuesday asking for a new vote.

The board now has 45 days to set the special town meeting, Town Clerk Sandra Burgess said in an email.

She said staff were certifying the signatures to ensure the papers were signed by at least 200 registered voters. She expected that to be complete later Wednesday.

School Committee chairwoman Katherine Appy told The Republican earlier this month that she has heard people in the community -- including "many, many teachers" -- who want to see Town Meeting reconsider the vote.

"Teachers are feeling that their support for the plan was misrepresented at this most recent Town Meeting," Appy wrote in an email.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority approved the plan for the "twin schools" proposal -- which would replace both the Wildwood and Fort River elementary schools -- and agreed to pay about $34.4 million, leaving Amherst to pay the remaining $32.8 million.

Following Town Meeting vote striking down the proposal, interim Superintendent Michael Morris asked if the authority would approve a design for a kindergarten through sixth-grade school. That option arose following questions from Town Meeting members.

State officials, though, said they would not consider the altered design -- but gave the town an extension to secure funding for the existing proposal.

The town has until March 31, 2017 to commit to funding the project. Initially, the town was required to commit funding within 120 days of receiving the state funding approval letter, or by Jan. 26, 2017.

In a recent letter, Morris wrote to state officials that if the town does not approve the funding, officials would withdraw the request for the project. He asked that it be acted on by Feb. 17.

The town could then provide statements of interest for the Fort River and Wildwood Elementary school for funding consideration.

Amherst currently has three elementary schools. In addition to building the "twin schools" at the Wildwood site, the plan calls for converting Crocker Farm Elementary into an early childhood center for kindergarten through first grade.
houe.JPG

Authorities say a woman was struck by a car driven by her husband in the driveway of 18 Hunters Hill Circle in Amherst on Dec. 20, 2016. She later died of her injuries.

(Diane Lederman / The Republican)

UPDATE, Dec, 22, 2016, 3:30 p.m.: The victim has been identified.

A new story has been posted 

AMHERST -- A 67-year-old woman died Tuesday night when she was struck in the driveway of her Hunters Hill Circle home by a vehicle driven by her husband, according to the office of Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan.

The name of the woman would not be released Wednesday evening, according to Sullivan spokeswoman Mary Carey.

The death remains under investigation, but police are looking at it as an accident, she said.

The collision happened at about 6 p.m. at 18 Hunters Hill Circle, according to police and fire sources. Carey said the woman was rushed by ambulance to Cooley Dickinson Hospital, and she was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.

Carey said the investigation is being conducted jointly by Amherst Police and Amherst Fire Departments, Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Northwestern district attorney's office, MSP Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section and MSP Crime Services units.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is scheduled to perform an autopsy and will determine the cause of death.

Hunters Hill Circle is located off East Hadley Road.
pot

(Associated Press)

Market and analytics experts published a study predicting one industry to blaze by all others in the Bay State, growing beyond $1 billion annually by 2020:



Marijuana.

With retail sales of the substance beginning in 2018, the study painted a picture of a changing commonwealth -- a destination visit for "canna-tourists" by the thousand -- the marijuana hub of New England, if not "the world."

Marijuana data and investment firms ArcView Market Research and New Frontier published the study earlier in the year, before the Election Day legalization vote.

Troy Dayton, CEO of The Arcview Group, made a bold prediction in a statement on the study.

"Unlike other places where cannabis is legal, Boston is within driving distance of many of the most populous places in America," Dayton said. "This will make Boston the cannabis capital of the world in short order. This cannabis tourism will drive significant revenue, tax dollars, and job growth which will make legalization very attractive to neighboring states," Dayton said.

Predicting 113 percent growth per year, the study estimated first-year sales of more than $300 million, tripling to $900 million in 2020 -- $1.17 billion counting medical marijuana sales.

Colorado's experience lends weight to the study's prognostication. According to The Denver Post's Cannabist, reported sales topped $996 million in 2015 -- the second year of retail marijuana sales in that state.

Those sales resulted in $135 million in marijuana taxes and fees.

Roughly 30,000 patients are certified to buy marijuana in Massachusetts as part of the state's blooming medical business at present, according to the state Department of Public Health. The total medical marijuana market in Massachusetts could top $78.7 million in 2016.



According to the National Cannabis Industry, the U.S. legal marijuana business totals $6.7 billion and will top $21.8 billion by 2020.



Massachusetts voters approved the ballot initiative to legalize marijuana -- Question 4 -- by a margin of 53.6 to 46.4 percent, or 1.75 to 1.51 million votes, on Election Day.






SPRINGFIELD  In the early 1990s Chinese teacher Mei-Ju Hwang convinced the administration at Springfield Central High School to get her connected to the internet so her students could do research and even email students in China.

"You have to always be embracing new technology otherwise you do not grow and your students do not grow," said Mei-Ju Hwang, who has been named the 2016 Chinese Teacher of the Year, by the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association. "I like to be up-to-date. Students use technology daily and I have to keep up with them."

Hwang has been a teacher with the Springfield Public Schools for 29 years and helped create the Mandarin Chinese language curriculum and assessment for the district. She is currently teaching at the High School of Science and Technology.

"I was very surprised, but for me this is not an award for myself, but for the whole department and the administration," Hwang said. " I have always been very blessed to have principals, and parents, and students who have supported me and worked with me. You need all of those elements to work together."

During a typical class, Hwang walks around the room stopping at individual student's desks to discuss the pronunciation of a word or explain a feature of the Quizlet program which she uses as an online learning tool.

"This is great because students can create their own flash cards and play interactive games to learn the language. Right now we are learning about the things inside an apartment, rooms, furniture, things like that," she said.

Hwang moves and talks quickly, she high-fives students when they do a good job, jokes with them, but still holds them accountable for doing good work.

"She is the sweetest thing," said Jasmen Burns, who along with her twin sister Peelmary Burns, has been in Hwang's class for three years. Both girls, who are seniors this year, loved her classes so much they volunteered for StarTalk, a summer Chinese immersion camp for children, which Hwang started several years ago.

"She's super funny and she is there to help us with whatever we need," Peelmary Burns said.

Both said they plan on continuing to study Chinese in college next year.

"I feel like I have learned enough to get a conversation going, but I want to know more," Jasmen Burns said.

Springfield Public Schools Director of Language Acquisition, Ann Ferriter, said it has been through Hwang's leadership, that Springfield's Chinese curriculum has served as a model across the nation.

In Springfield, Mandarin Chinese is now also taught at the Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy and the High School of Commerce, she added.

In nearly 30 years of teaching Hwang has co-authored several books and helped expand the Manadarin Chinese curriculum to the city's four major high schools as well as starting the summer immersion camp for elementary and middle school students.

For Hwang, seeing her students grasp the language is worth all of the work it has taken to get to this point.

She speaks proudly of several students who have gone on to use Chinese in their careers including Central High School graduates Catherine Hudak Klancer and Amy Miller Watts who went on to become a professor of religion with a focus on Confucianism at Boston University and a Chinese teacher in Connecticut Public Schools, respectively.

"It makes me so happy and so proud that they went to Springfield schools and they learned Chinese and use it in their careers," she said.

Hwang began her career in Taiwan, but moved to Springfield in the late 1980s to go to graduate school at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She then helped launch the Mandarin Chinese language curriculum at Central High School, where she taught for nine years before moving on to Sci-Tech.

Hwang said once she started working in a public school she never considered another career.

"This is a multicultural environment and I have found the people here to be so warm and welcoming," she said. "I feel very lucky to be working in the Springfield Public Schools and to be working with these students and their families. I love it."
new england clean power link.png

The New England Clean Power Link would transport 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy from Canada into the six-state power grid.

(NECPL)

The U.S. Department of Energy on Dec. 12 issued a presidential permit to a $1.2 billion, 1,000-megawatt high-voltage power line that would carry Canadian hydropower and New York wind power to southern New England.

The New England Clean Power Link is one of several planned transmission projects that could carry power from northern New England, northern New York, or Canada to southern New England and New York.

Two-thirds of the 154-mile cable would be buried beneath Lake Champlain. The rest would be buried along road and highway rights-of-way. The direct-current line would travel from the Canadian border to a transformer station in Ludlow, Vermont.

The presidential permit, required by executive order for any international power line, was granted to Transmission Developers Inc. New England (TDI-NE). The lead investor is the Blackstone Group, a private equity firm. TDI previously said seven electricity suppliers from Canada and the U.S. are interested in the project.

Earlier this year, the Vermont Public Service Board issued a certificate of public good for the cable, saying it would diversify the state's energy portfolio, reduce emissions, and provide economic benefits. With major environmental permits already in hand, developers hope to begin construction in 2018 with a proposed 2019 in-service date.

In an agreement with with the Conservation Law Foundation, NECPL will pay nearly $300 million over 40 years for the state's cleanup efforts in Lake Champlain. An extra $136 million will reduce transmission rates in Vermont for 40 years. Vermont will have dibs on the first 200 megawatts of the electricity, reports Vermont Digger.

Proposals that could transmit power produced by Hydro Quebec include New England Clean Power Link, Northern Pass and Champlain Hudson Power Express. Each has a capacity of about 1,000 megawatts. Northern Pass, proposed by Eversource, already has a deal with the Canadian utility.

Hydro Quebec has a generating capacity of around 37,000 megawatts, and has said it could export 3,000 megawatts without building new dams.

Other transmission proposals in the Northeast include the 400-megawatt Vermont Green Line, and the 600-megawatt Clean Energy Connect between Massachusetts and New York. Wind developers in the Pine Tree State are hopeful that the Maine Green Line, Maine Clean Power Connection or Maine Renewable Energy Interconnect will come to fruition.

In October, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island chose 460 megawatts of renewables under their New England Clean Energy RFP. The solar and wind projects were largely based in southern New England, and no large transmission projects were selected.

In April, transmission developers and their associated wind and hydro generators will have the chance to try again, when a much larger request for proposals will be issued by Massachusetts.

Legislation signed by Gov. Charlie Baker in August requires that the state's electrical utilities secure 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind and 1,200 megawatts of hydropower or other renewables by 2027.

A trade group representing the power sector has been fiercely against the carveout for renewables. The New England Power Generators Association, or NEPGA, has said it will unfairly undermine competitive energy markets, and cost ratepayers millions.

Massachusetts is mandated under its Global Warming Solutions Act to significantly cut emissions from its power sector in the coming decades.

Mary Serreze can be reached at mserreze@gmail.com.
PITTSFIELD - A former Adams police officer who previously served time for child pornography possession was ordered to serve 10-12 years in prison after pleading guilty to new charges related to the possession and distribution of child pornography.

Alan C. Vigiard, 51, of Adams on Tuesday in Berkshire Superior Court pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography and a single count of dissemination of child pornography, according to the office of Berkshire District Attorney James Capeless.

Judge Daniel Ford sentenced Vigiard to 10 to 12 years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Cedar Junction in Walpole.

According to the district attorney's office, Vigiard's conviction is the result of actions that occurred on May 27 and Nov. 2. His arrest was the result of an investigation by state police detectives assigned to Capeless' office and the Adams Police Department.

Vigiard was previously convicted in 2011 of 10 counts of possessing child pornography, and sentenced to a year in jail.

He was forced to resign from the Adams police in 2009 when it was determined he had been using police department computers to view and to share materials related to child pornography.

His activities came to light when he sent CDs that he thought contained photographic evidence of a larceny investigation to the DA's office, but the discs actually contained more than 150 photos of children engaged in sexual activity.
SPRINGFIELD -- Dennis Guyette won't be picking up anymore driving charges for a while.

The 34-year-old Springfield resident was ordered held without right to bail Friday following a probation violation hearing in a 2014 case in which he used a hearse to drive his estranged wife off the road.

The order, issued by Judge Paul Smyth, came one day after Guyette was arrested in an alleged drunken driving crash -- his second in six months, according to court records.

At the probation hearing, state officials argued that Guyette's two recent arrests were violations of his probation in the 2014 hearse chase case.

Guyette, a funeral home worker, was allegedly driving the hearse on Sumner Avenue when he spotted his estranged wife driving the other way. He began to chase her and eventually forced her off the road as a police officer drove past, according to court records.

"The driver shouted, 'Help, help, help,'" the officer wrote in his report. "She stated that the person in the hearse was trying to kill her."

Guyette was arrested a few blocks away.

Three months later, he was given an 18-month suspended sentence for violating his wife's restraining order and told to avoid any further legal trouble.

He was still on probation in June when he allegedly crashed into a pair of utility poles while driving drunk at 2 a.m. on Boston Road. Last week, Guyette was charged again -- this time for allegedly crashing into one telephone poll while driving drunk at 2 a.m. on Main Street in Indian Orchard, according to court records.

Later that day, Guyette was arraigned in Springfield District Court on the new charges and held for an already-scheduled probation violation hearing the next day.

After conferring with lawyers involved in Guyette's various cases, Smyth continued the probation violation hearing until Jan. 17 and ordered the defendant held without right to bail.
SPRINGFIELD -- The face of Baystate Health system for 22 years and namesake of one campus building, Michael J. Daly, died this week in North Carolina. He was 74.

The Baystate Board of Trustees appointed Daly president and CEO of the newly incorporated health system in 1983, a post he filled for the next 20 years. Daly began serving Baystate in 1981.

"His tenure as president and chief executive officer of Baystate Health and Baystate Medical Center was formative not only for Baystate, but also for the evolution of the American health care system," current Baystate President and CEO Mark A. Keroack said in a press release on Wednesday.

Baystate grew from "a single academic medical center to one of the most successful and respected integrated health systems in the nation," according to Keroack, adding Franklin Medical Center and Mary Lane Hospital to its network.

Baystate Health also helped to develop the retirement community Reed's Landing and acquired for-profit insurer Health New England during Daly's tenure.

"For all his accomplishments and renown, Mr. Daly was a kind and humble man with an ability to connect with any fellow person with compassion and empathy," Keroack continued. "Mr. Daly will be missed and fondly remembered by his professional colleagues and the communities he served throughout his career."

Mark R. Tolosky, Keroack's predecessor, succeeded Daly.

In 2007, the hospital Board of Trustees officially renamed and dedicated the former Centennial Building in Daly's honor. The building, now known as the Daly Building, contains the hospital's gift shop, a cafeteria, several physicians' offices, an operating room and Baystate Children's Hospital.
NORTHAMPTON -- A New Salem man arrested in connection with the shooting death of Jose "Joselito" Rodriguez in October is now facing murder and attempted murder charges in Hampshire Superior Court.

A Hampshire County Grand Jury on Tuesday indicted Soknang Chham, 33, on charges including murder, armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a firearm, assault with a dangerous weapon (firearm), illegal possession of a firearm (subsequent offense) and illegal possession of a firearm with two prior convictions for violent crimes.

Soksot Chham, 35, faces a charge in Eastern Hampshire District Court of being an accessory after the fact to the killing. He is due back in court Jan. 25.

The two men denied charges at their arraignment in Eastern Hampshire District Court on Friday.

Soknang Chham was held without the right to bail while Soksot Chham was ordered held in lieu of $250,000 cash or $500,000 surety.

The two men were extradited from Flagstaff, Arizona, where they had been held after their arrests there Oct. 25. The two fled following the shooting at Southpoint Apartments, authorities said.

A second man was injured in the Oct. 15 shooting but he was treated at a hospital and released. Police have not provided a motive in the killing of the 31-year-old Rodriguez.
Protestant Christians now constitute the largest religious group in Korea thanks to the massive spread of evangelical or born-again churches, according to the latest government statistics.

Statistics Korea compiles data on the religious composition of the nation every 10 years, and the latest figures shows that 43.9 percent of Koreans practice some type of religion while the rest say they are non-believers. This is the first time more than half of the country are non-believers.

Protestant Christians, including non-evangelicals like Anglicans, accounted for 19.7 percent of the believers with 9.67 million people, Buddhists for 15.5 percent or 7.61 million, and Catholics for 7.9 percent or 3.89 million. Protestants have now overtaken Buddhists, who used to be the biggest group.

The proportion of non-believers is high among younger Koreans at 64.9 percent of those in their 20s and 62 percent among teens. But among people in their 60s, 57.7 percent said they practice a religion, rising to 58.2 percent among the over-70s.

The findings have upset some critics, who believe the methodology must be flawed if the decline in established religions is so steep. Unlike previous statistics, the latest data are based on a sample survey involving only 20 percent of the country's total households.

The sample group consisted of 10 million people, with 51.4 percent of the data gathered from door-to-door visits and 48.6 percent through Internet surveys.

A spokesperson for the Jogye Order of Buddhism said, "Many of our followers are senior citizens and that puts us at a disadvantage in terms of electronic survey methods."

And a Catholic spokesman said, "We conduct a detailed annual study on the number of followers and the latest figure was 5.65 million as of the end of 2015" as against the government tally of 3.89 million. "Even if borderline Catholics are considered, the difference between the figures is too high."

Cho Sung-don of the Graduate School of Practical Theology said, "It seems that the method had a huge impact on the results. Evangelical Christians are usually more politicized than followers of other religions and more active in taking part in the survey."

Statistics Korea defended the findings. "Samples of 20,000 to 30,000 people are used to compile national data, but the latest study involved 10 million people and the data can be viewed as accurate, and there were no problems from a statistical standpoint," a spokesman said.


LUDLOW -- As Hampden County Sheriff Michael Ashe prepares to step down after 42 years, a recent review of his office by state Auditor Suzanne Bump shows no operational deficiencies or shortfalls within the department.

The audit, released Monday finds no problems with operations of the department, no irregularities with finances or inventory, and says security levels are adequate at the men's and women's correctional centers and at the minimal-security pre-release and correctional addiction centers. The Sheriff's Department budget of $71.7 million was described as adequate to cover its programs.

The report in full is just five pages long.

Bump, in the two-paragraph executive summary, notes the audit was performed between July 1 and Sept. 30 and looks only at operations within the Sheriff's Department under Ashe, and not any proposals being made by his successor, assistant sheriff Nick Cocchi.

"Based on our audit, we have concluded (the Sheriff's Department) has established adequate controls and practices we reviewed that were related to our audit objectives," the summary reads. "We did not identify any significant deficiencies in those areas."

The most interesting part of the audit is perhaps how it originated. Bump notes that Ashe requested it.

Ashe on Wednesday said he sought to have the auditor look at his administration one more time before his departure in order to see if there were any areas that could be improved before the start of the Cocchi administration.

"I felt that it was very important to have an objective, outside audit of our entire operations to ensure that if we had any areas in need of corrective action and improvement we could address these prior to the newly elected sheriff taking office," Ashe said in a statement.

"I am pleased to report we had a very successful audit which will allow Sheriff-elect Nick Cocchi to hit the ground running," he said.

Ashe announced two years ago that he would not seek re-election to the post he has held since 1975. Cocchi, elected in November, will be sworn in as the new Hampden County sheriff on Jan. 4.

At the end of the audit period, the Sheriff's Department had a total of 972 employees and 1,535 inmates.

As part of the audit, it reviewed 40 employees at random and found no discrepancies about about salaries, proper compensation or if each was supposed to be on the payroll.

Auditors also toured the four facilities were inmates are kept -- the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow, the Western Massachusetts Regional Women's Correctional Center in Chicopee, the Pre-Release Center and the Western Massachusetts Correctional Addiction Center in Holyoke.

Each was found to be adequately secured to prevent escapes, each met the minimum standards for security required by the state, and each was in line with state and national inmate-to-staff ratios.

A 2015 audit conducted roughly one year prior to this most recent review highlighted the amount of money the Sheriff's Department was spending on transportation, mostly due to shuttling inmates back and forth between jail facilities and court. It recommended the jails look to use more video-conferencing technology to reduce costs and wear-and-tear on vehicles.

The most recent audit makes no reference to the 2015 report or if any changes were implemented.

The audit also makes no mention of the Dec. 2, 2015, escape of Ackeem Graham from the men's facility in Ludlow, the only escape recorded from the secure facility in its 23 year history.

Graham managed to walk out of a pedestrian sally port just before he was admitted to begin serving a one-year sentence for firearm possession. He was eventually apprehended and sentenced in October to a year in state prison.

Cocchi said that despite an escape from the main facility and two "walk-outs" from minimum-security satellite programs in the past year, he believes the department's security is second to none.

"Our security is as good as any comparable facility anywhere, if not better," Cocchi said during an interview Wednesday.

"Our No. 1 weakness is not structural, and it's not programming. It's complacency -- because our facility is so secure," he added.

Cocchi said that he intends to establish monthly security forums once he is sheriff to examine any significant security breaches to improve measures and help his staff remain vigilant.

"Plus, if anyone knows security it's me. I'm a security guy," Cocchi said, noting his rise in the ranks from a corrections officer to assistant superintendent before being elected sheriff in November.

Dec. 19 audit report of the Hampden County Sheriff's Department by Patrick Johnson on Scribd
humason2.jpg

Sen. Don Humason, R-Westfield

(Republican File)

WESTFIELD - State Sen. Don Humason, R-Westfield, is seeking interns to help with constituent service and legislative work in his Westfield district office, located at 64 Noble St.

The internships are unpaid, non-partisan, and available immediately, according to Humason's office.

"The ideal intern is a college student who receives school credit for a structured internship experience," reads a press release, which says preference will be given to individuals who live in the 2nd Hampden and Hampshire District.

"Every day is unique in my office, which makes for a great opportunity to learn about our government and develop new skills," said Humason in a statement. "In addition to the quality constituent services we provide every day, we'll be starting a new session in the Senate that will bring a flurry of legislative activity to my office that makes for an exciting time for anyone interested in government."

Those interested may contact Andrew Renfro, Humason's district chief of staff, at (413) 568-1366. A resume, references, or writing sample may be required.

Humason represents the 2nd Hampden and Hampshire District, consisting of Agawam, Easthampton, Holyoke and Westfield, parts of Chicopee, and Granville, Montgomery, Russell, Southampton, Southwick and Tolland.
agawam sex den.jpg

Shown above is 50-year-old Chun Nu Li, who denied two counts of "trafficking persons for sexual servitude" at her arraignment Wednesday in Westfield District Court, where a judge set the Agawam woman's bail at $1 million. Li was arrested last week for her alleged role in a sex-trafficking ring that authorities say was operating from the Feeding Hills Spa on Springfield Street in Agawam.

(Hampden District Attorney's Office)

AGAWAM -- Bail for a woman charged in connection with an Agawam sex-trafficking investigation has been set at $1 million, according to Jim Leydon, public and media information director for Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni.

Agawam resident Chun Nu Li, 50, was taken into custody last week and charged with trafficking people for "sexual servitude," Leydon said.

A judge set the high bail at Li's arraignment Wednesday in Westfield District Court, where she pleaded not guilty to two counts of "trafficking persons for sexual servitude," Leydon said. Her next court date is Jan. 20.

Li was arrested in connection with an ongoing human-trafficking probe involving massage parlors. She was taken into custody Dec. 14 in Flushing, Queens, following Dec. 13 raids at two Agawam addresses: The Feeding Hills Spa and the Carriage House Apartments, both located on Springfield Street.

Searches of the addresses turned up two human-trafficking victims, both of whom were interviewed by investigators and reunited with family members, according to authorities.

"Human trafficking is an especially detestable crime, which preys on vulnerable people for the financial profit of the perpetrator," Gulluni said Wednesday.

The district attorney praised Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to his office, Agawam police, and investigators with the Department of Homeland Security for taking part in the lengthy probe.

After signing a waiver of extradition, Li was returned to Massachusetts Tuesday and held for Wednesday's arraignment.



Owners of massage parlors in East Longmeadow, Framingham, Hadley and Northampton have also been charged in connection with the investigation.

Sex traffickers manage to exploit legal loopholes by establishing prostitution dens under the guise of massage parlors, an industry monitored by the state Division of Professional Licensure.

The DPL is barred by state law from overseeing shops that offer "Asian bodywork therapy" and other services that may actually pertain to sexual acts.
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Gary Rome of Gary Rome Hyundai dealerships in Holyoke, Massachusetts addressed the City Council about the tax rate at City Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016.

(MIKE PLAISANCE / THE REPUBLICAN)

HOLYOKE -- The City Council approved a new tax rate Tuesday that will increase the bill of the average single-family homeowner by about $48 a year.

The rate the council approved in a split vote at City Hall cut the tax rate on business property owners, but not by nearly the amount urged by chamber of commerce officials.

They warned, as in previous years, the city's too-high business tax discourages new businesses from coming here and existing ones from reinvesting.

The new tax rate is $19.18 per $1,000 valuation for residential property and $39.75 per $1,000 valuation for commercial property.

The previous tax rate was $19.12 per $1,000 valuation for residential property and $39.86 per $1,000 valuation for business property.

Bills reflecting the new tax rate will be mailed in early January to owners of the 10,079 parcels of residential and commercial property.

Under the new residential tax rate, the average homeowner's bill -- based on the average single-family home's value of $181,986 -- will be about $3,490.

The bill for the average single-family homeowner was $3,442 under the previous tax rate and previous property values.

The tax rate the council approved after debate was proposed by Councilor at Large Peter R. Tallman. The vote to approve that rate was 8 yes, 6 no.

Joining Tallman in voting in favor of that rate were councilors Daniel B. Bresnahan, council President Kevin A. Jourdain, James M. Leahy, Diosdado Lopez, Todd A. McGee, Joseph M. McGiverin and Nelson R. Roman.

Voting against that tax rate were councilors Linda L. Vacon, Jossie M. Valentin, David K. Bartley, Gladys Lebron-Martinez, Rebecca Lisi and Michael J. Sullivan.

Councilor Howard B. Greaney Jr. was absent.

Business owners and chamber officials urged the City Council to establish a tax rate of $19.28 for residential property and $39.50 for commercial property. That rate would have cut the business tax rate enough to signal that Holyoke was welcoming to business, they said.

Other rates, including the one that was set, while cutting the commercial tax rate, still will bring a tax increase. That's because property values have increased compared to the previous values, and the more value a property has, the more there is to tax, they said.

Plus, they said, voter approval on the Nov. 8 election ballot of the state Community Preservation Act means that all property owners here will be charged a surcharge on top of the property tax they pay.

Gary Rome of Gary Rome Hyundai was among business owners urging that the Council drop the business property tax rate to $39.50 to send a positive message to business owners.

"Whatever relief that you can offer, I'm sure will come back ten-fold," Rome said.

Chief Assessor Anthony Dulude had released figures that show values of properties in nearly every residential and commercial category have increased compared to last year, an average of 2 percent.

The average single-family home rose in value to $181,986, an increase of $2,191, or 1.2 percent, over the previous $179,795, according to assessors' information.

The value of average two-family home increased to $154,822, an increase of $4,453, or nearly 3 percent, over the previous $150,369.

The average value of commercial and industrial property in the 300 to 400 classes within the state-determined classification system -- that's hotels, veterinary hospitals, restaurants, supermarkets, car washes, etc. -- rose to $579,716, an increase of $10,232, or 1.8 percent, over the previous $569,484.

The average value of other commercial and industrial property -- excluding the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside, which is the city's largest taxpayer -- rose to $339,097, an increase of $7,548, or 2.2 percent, over the previous $331,549.

A year ago, the mall property was valued at $218,416,492 and the mall owner paid a tax bill for the year of $8,721,370. The mall is owned by Holyoke Mall Co. limited partnership, care of Pyramid Companies of Syracuse, New York.

A story with additional details about the Holyoke City Council tax rate vote will be published later this week.
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Wilbraham Deputy Fire Chief David Bourcier, left, and Matthew Sterling, a paramedic/firefighter, are shown here meeting with the Wilbraham Board of Selectmen on Dec. 5, 2016. Bourcier, who has more than 30 years with the department, was recently named acting chief, while Sterling, a lieutenant with the Hampden Fire Department and formerly a Boston paramedic, was hired as a paramedic/firefighter.

(Town of Wilbraham)

WILBRAHAM -- The town has hired a new firefighter and appointed the Fire Department's deputy chief as interim fire chief.

Selectmen, at separate board meetings in December, approved the hiring of Matthew Sterling, a Hampden firefighter, to serve as a full-time Wilbraham paramedic/firefighter and also appointed Deputy Fire Chief David A. Bourcier to serve as acting chief.

Bourcier will become the Fire Department's new boss Jan. 20, when Chief Francis W. Nothe is expected to officially retire from the leadership position.

Town officials are expecting a smooth transition since Bourcier, currently the Fire Department's second in command,has been on the job for over three decades.

In terms of Sterling, whose family relocated to Hampden from Florida years ago, his application rose to the top of a pile of resumes that included 25 applicants.

But it was his Dec. 5 interview with the Board of Selectmen that sealed the deal for the certified paramedic, who has worked in Boston and currently serves as a lieutenant on the Hampden Fire Department.

Sterling told the board he was laid off in Boston "due to budget cuts," but the Minnechaug Regional High School graduate is back home and ready to commit to the community.

The other two finalists included fellow Minnechaug graduate Derrick Merrill and Connecticut resident Dylan Kessler, both of whom also scored highly in the interviews.

"I liked all three very, very much," said Selectman Robert J. Boilard, adding that he liked the fact that both Sterling and Merrill are both locals. But Sterling was "very well-spoken" and "hit the nail on the head for almost every question," Boilard said.

Boilard and fellow selectmen Robert Russell and Chairwoman Susan C. Bunnell voted to unanimously to hire Sterling.

Merrill, a paramedic with American Medical Response ambulance who's also a Hampden firefighter, emerged as the board's No. 2 choice for job, with Boilard calling him a "topnotch candidate."

The board agreed that if there are any job openings at the Fire Department over the next four months, they'd also like to hire Merrill. The starting annual salary for a full-time Wilbraham firefighter is between $47,000 to $48,000.
SPRINGFIELD -- Two months after admitting to a drunken driving charge in New York state, Joseph Parr denied a new charge Monday in Massachusetts.

Parr, 52, of Woodstock, New York, was arraigned in Springfield District Court on charges of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol (third offense), driving with a revoked license, a marked lanes violation and two counts of negligent operation of a motor vehicle.

The charges were filed Nov. 27 after Parr crashed into a guardrail on the Exit 4 ramp to the Massachusetts Turnpike, according to the state police report. The car had heavy front-end damage, its airbag was deployed and it was blocking traffic in both directions, Trooper Christopher Kudlay wrote.

When police arrived, Parr was sitting on the curb shaking uncontrollably. His speech was slurred, his breath smelled of alcohol and a pint of vodka was visible in the back seat, the trooper wrote. "The bottle was almost empty with approximately a mouthful left," Kudlay noted.

Parr's shirt also appeared to be stained with blood, Kudlay said. With help from the trooper and a turnpike employee, Parr stood up and climbed into a state pickup truck for protection from the cold, the report said.

"I drank too much; it's all my fault," Parr said, according to the report.

Despite drinking at his girlfriend's home in New York state a few hours earlier, Parr said he was able to drive with no problem, even though his car was equipped with a portable Breathalyzer and steering wheel lock. The device is designed to prevent someone with alcohol in his system from starting the car, the report said.

At his request, Parr was taken to Baystate Medical Center, where he agreed to have blood drawn for a blood alcohol test. The test was vetoed by the attending doctor, who explained that "Mr. Parr was not in the right state of mind," the report said.

A records check showed that Parr's New York driver's license was revoked on Oct. 13 after he pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated in that state. He was also convicted of drunken driving in September 1989, the report said.

Responding to a summons, Parr came to court Monday and pleaded not guilty to all five charges. He was released on personal recognizance and told to return for a pretrial conference Feb. 7.
The Montana Department of Commerce works with statewide and local partners, private industry and small businesses to enhance and sustain economic prosperity in Montana. - Montana Is On The Move
Kat Taylor discusses how her triple bottom line company enhances economic sustainability in low-income communities.

The mortgage crisis that precipitated the Great Recession of 2008 and the federal bailout that followed seemed to burnish the longstanding, negative image of bankers as selfish fat-cats. But not all financial institutions and the people who run them should be painted with the same broad brush. Kat Taylor is the co-founder and co-CEO of Beneficial State Bank, a triple bottom line business focused on enhancing the prosperity, and economic sustainability, of low-income communities. Taylor spoke with Katherine Klein, Whartons vice dean for social impact, about her groups long-term vision to set a different example for what a bank can be.
"The quality of veterinary services of the country is a sine qua non for the preservation of animal welfare..."
The Honourable Second Member for Port Louis South and Port Louis Central (Mr Uteem)

To ask Dr the Honourable Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development 

Whether, in regard to the proposed setting up of a manufacturing plant for the local production of COVID-19 vaccines and other pharmaceutical products in Mauritius, he will state if any company manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines approved by the World Health Organisation has been approached therefor?

Mr Speaker, Sir,

From the very outset, I wish to state, that the objective of the Government is to develop pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing into an industry that can potentially emerge into a growth pole for the Mauritius economy.

The emphasis on this industry was outlined during the 2021-2022 Budget whereby a seed funding of Rs 1 billion was earmarked for internationally renowned pharmaceutical and vaccine laboratories to set up manufacturing activities in Mauritius. We also made provision for the setting up of the Mauritius Institute of Biotechnology (MIB), with a view of channelling this funding into projects that meet the conditions set forth by Government.

Accordingly, pending the setting up of the MIB, the Economic Development Board (EDB) launched an Expression of Interest (EoI) on 19th June 2021 for the Development of a pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry in Mauritius in priority areas of vaccines and pharmaceutical products in speciality areas. The EoI, was diffused, through key local and international media, as well as through our embassies in Europe, USA and Asia.

Mr Speaker, Sir,

I wish to inform the House that 40 firms showed interest in the EoI exercise, which comprised not only vaccine manufacturing but also the production of generic pharmaceuticals and medical devices, amongst others.

As far as vaccine manufacturing is concerned, nine interests were received and five submitted their business proposals.

As part of the evaluation exercise, the EDB had enlisted the services of Dr Deoraj Caussy, an independent expert in epidemiology and virology, to assess the five proposals received. The expert report was submitted on 27th October 2021, and this includes recommendations on the proposals that may be considered by the authorities concerned. The experts report will be submitted to the Mauritius Institute of Biotechnology Ltd for its consideration.

Mr Speaker, Sir,

In parallel to this exercise, discussions are also being held with companies producing COVID-19 WHO-approved vaccines, in India and USA.

The MIB Ltd which has recently been set up, will oversee the implementation of this budgetary measure.
pas de changement pour la nomination du DG de la MBC.....
Scientists at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden have developed a new flexible microneedle patch that resolves some of the limitations of similar existing devices. Typically, drug delivery patches designed to penetrate only the top layers of skin, as opposed to transdermal devices, are made of a single material. While its best to have the base rather soft to achieve optimal contact and comfort, the needles have to be rigid in order to successfully pierce the skin.

The KTH team developed a composite device that consists of a soft base made from a polymer and rigid stainless needles that penetrate the skin. To the best of our knowledge, flexible and stretchable patches with arrays of sharp and stiff microneedles have not been demonstrated to date, said Frank Niklaus, a professor of micro and nanofabrication at KTH, in a statement.

The team built two versions of their patch, one more flexible than the other. The more stretchable device showed excellent pliability and each of its 50 needles successfully penetrated the skin in a 30 minute test.

If the technology proves itself in additional studies, it may help make microneedle patches considerably more common and applicable to a variety of patients and conditions.

Study in PLOS ONE: Flexible and Stretchable Microneedle Patches with Integrated Rigid Stainless Steel Microneedles for Transdermal Biointerfacing

Via: KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Hosted by the UK-based Healthcare Startup Society, the conference and awards ceremony on December 17th brought together nearly 200 participants, including some big name medtech innovators and startups, along with tech experts, VCs, students, and doctorpreneurs. Attendees had traveled to the conference from as far as Silicon Valley, and while the December weather in London could never rival California, the fantastic venue in Kensington did boast resident flamingos!

Guest speakers covered an impressive array of medtech subjects throughout the day. The issue of funding, from both sides of the table, was examined with talks by the teams behind crowd source platform Crowdcube and surgical simulator company Touch Surgery.

The importance of a great team, and then how to go about building it, was emphasized by the co-founders of Doctify. Some of the challenges and rewards of innovation as a clinician within the healthcare sector were presented by Harry Thirkettle from the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur program. While the team behind smartphone-based digital otoscope, Cupris, explained what it takes to bring a device from an idea to the clinic.

Special guest Shafi Ahmed explained the motivation behind his recent performance of the worlds first VR live-streamed surgery and the power of technology to help train thousands of surgeons worldwide at low cost and in increasingly remote areas.

The audience was challenged to think big by the Healthcare Startup Societys founder, Alex Young, while the Linguisticator team took the idea of abstract learning and medical education to a whole new level with VR mind palaces. Bringing start-up wisdom from outside of the healthcare space, the co-founder of Propercorn spoke about ensuring that all you do is done properly and the importance of sharing your story with customers and users.

In spite of the perpetual London fog, the informal atmosphere sparked lively discussion and networking opportunities between attendees from different disciplines and continents. The conference culminated in the presentation of the Healthcare Startup Society award winners, including:

Device of the Year

SightPlus from Givevision  SightPlus is an innovative system that couples a smartphone with a VR-like headset and helps restore vision for those with sight problems. SightPlus allows users to adjust the focus, color, contrast, brightness, and magnification of the world around themmaking reading, watching TV, or travelling independently possible, sometimes for the first time.

App of the Year

Echo  Echo offers a streamlined and sophisticated solution to allow patients to take control of their repeat prescriptions with their smartphone or smartwatch. A users medication list is stored in the app by scanning the barcodes or locating the drug in a database. And after giving the details of their NHS GP, the users prescription refills are automatically mailed to them when needed. The app also sends notifications reminding users when to take their medication, leaving them with one less thing to worry about.

Non-profit of the Year

Patient Innovation  Patient Innovation is based in Portugal but allows patients and caregivers around the world to connect. Users create and share solutions for health-related problems that they have developed independently or with collaborators. Founded in 2014, Patient Innovation boasts over 650 solutions from more than 40 countries, with solutions ranging from 3D-printed prosthetics to clothing and smartphones apps, all presented in step-by-step guides and how-to videos.

Entrepreneur of the Year

Stephanie Eltz and Suman Saha (Doctify)  Stephanie and Suman are the founding clinicians behind Doctify. Doctify is a user-focused database of UK private-practice health professionals that allows patients to search by specialism, location, and insurance coverage. The Doctify website then allows users to compare specialists after reading reviews from both verified patients and clinical colleagues, before booking a convenient appointment.

Peoples Choice Award

Sensely  Focused on chronic conditions, Sensely offers an innovative avatar-based care solution in the form of a smartphone app and their virtual nurse, Molly (or Olivia in the UK version). Sensely allows a clinician to seamlessly monitor a patients personalized care plan after being discharged from hospital: a patient checks-in with their nurse avatar periodically, while the clinician monitors risk factors and adjusts clinical protocol accordingly. Clinicians are alerted if the patient does not obey the regimen and can coordinate a follow-up video-call or specialist appointment.

Start-up of the Year

Cera  Cera helps users coordinate in-home care for a variety of needs including elderly, palliative, respite, dementia, and post-discharge care. The Cera system connects users, by phone call or smartphone app, with qualified, vetted, and user-reviewed professional carers who set up a personalized care plan in as little as 24 hours, complete with 24/7 support.

Link: The Healthcare Startup Awards
by Tanya Gazdik , Staff Writer, December 20, 2016

Its the time of the year for reflection and learning, and that applies to business dealings.

With auto sales rising higher than expected in November, the industry could be on track for a second straight year of record sales. After three months of dips, that took some by surprise.

Dealer.com, a Cox Automotive brand operating websites of 62% U.S. franchise car dealerships, has insights from its digital advertising network that provide a closer at the behavior of vehicle shoppers in 2016.

First off, there were no summer doldrums in auto sales. Summer shopping brought the years top traffic. The busiest day for car shopping (measured by vehicle detail page views on the Dealer.com network) was July 24, followed by Aug. 25, 26 and 29. Automakers should make note of that for next year.

Consumers arent just dreaming of the weekend on Fridays; they are also thinking about buying a new vehicle. Car shoppers visited Dealer.com websites most often on Fridays throughout 2016. Fridays, however, had the smallest ratio of forms-to-visits, leaving room for improvement in terms of dealerships closing out the deal.

"Friday afternoons were seen as days for shoppers to develop their game plans and do their automotive homework before hitting one or two dealerships for test drives over the weekend, said James Grace, senior director of analytics products, Cox Automotive Media Solutions Group. Our data shows that high traffic quantity doesnt always correlate to high quality, and there is significant room for improvement in terms of giving consumers more online deal-making tools that can close the gaps in engagement and conversion to sales.

Its old-school, but maybe Sunday really is a day of rest, including shopping. There was a definite slowdown, with Sunday, May 8, registering as the slowest day of the year. Nine out of the top 10 slowest car shopping days of the year took place on a Sunday. On the flip side, Sundays also had a higher tendency for engagement on vehicle pages.

If you want to get really specific, afternoons seemed to be the preferred time for vehicle shopping year-round. According to dealer.com, 2 p.m. Eastern was the most frequent timestamp throughout the year when it came to shoppers starting the car buying experience online.

A final fun fact: Everything truly is bigger in Texas. The Lone Star State had the highest aggregate traffic across the network, followed by California, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Its anyones guess what 2017 will set up to be.

The bottom line is, sales [rates] are still pretty high, but they are plateauing and it is taking more effort in terms of promotion and incentives to keep sales higher. And we expect that will be more of the same next year, said Michele Krebs, senior analyst for automotive website Autotrader.
by Gary Holmes , Op-Ed Contributor, December 20, 2016

Its been six weeks since the election, but the media are still buzzing about fake news and debating the extent to which it caused Hillary Clinton to lose the presidency. I know the journo-industrial complex likes nothing more than to talk about itself, but the ongoing press meltdown over the possibility that an unemployed blogger in Macedonia might have brought down their candidate is beginning to get a little ridiculous.

To hear the media talk, youd think that fake news was something unleashed by their nemesis Mark Zuckerberg, who also always seems to be plotting their eventual demise.

But fake news has a long and disreputable history in American journalism. The earliest newspapers were controlled by the Founding Fathers, who printed lies and half-truths about each other (go see Hamilton for the details). Fake news (Remember the Maine!) led to the Spanish-American War.

Journalism supposedly cleaned up its act in the 20th century, and has been posing as the great purveyor of neutral, nonpartisan, essential news reporting for decades. But somehow, even in the pre-Internet world, this didnt stop the spread of very dubious stories, such as the canard that FDR allowed the Japanese to bomb Pearl Harbor despite being tipped off ahead of time, or more recently, that Hillary Clinton murdered Vince Foster. To say nothing about ongoing conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination. Compared to those stories, an alleged child sex ring in a pizza parlor is small potatoes.

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And speaking of child sex rings, remember the media hysteria several decades ago about satanic sex rings in day-care centers, or the supposed outbreak of child kidnappings in the 1980s, both of which have since been disproved? The mainstream media, especially television, were complicit in perpetuating that fake news. And, again, that was before Facebook.

The mainstream media would probably dispute that their worst journalistic blunders should be classified as fake news because at least they were trying to uncover the truth, no matter how imperfectly. Actual fake news, as properly understood, is news made up out of whole cloth with no regard for the truth at all.

How then are we supposed to categorize the biggest journalistic blunder of 2015, Rolling Stones report about rape at a University of Virginia fraternity? This was a huge national story that caused colleges across the country to crack down on fraternities. And then it turned out to have been made up out of, um, whole cloth. If the Rolling Stone story wasnt fake news, I dont know what is  and yet there was President Obama himself appearing on the Rolling Stone cover immediately after the election, as if nothing had ever happened!

And lets not forget NBCs 1993 phony exploding GM truck story, supposedly demonstrating that GM trucks explode upon collision. In that case NBC set off explosive miniature rockets beneath the truck just before the crash. Or what about ABCs stories about the since-disproved Toyota sudden acceleration controversy? To make its coverage more dramatic, ABC spliced footage of a surging tachometer into a segment with ABC reporter Brian Ross driving a supposedly out-of-control car.

The medias chief complaint about what they call fake news is that its spread on Facebook and Twitter with no editorial control to screen out the most egregiously inaccurate stories. Of course it would be almost impossible for any social media platform to confirm whats true or not true on social media, so Facebook recently announced that it would be flagging content that seemed dubious according to the judgment of mainstream fact-checkers.

Scapegoating Facebook as a purveyor of fake news is the kind of mind-meld media pile-on that occurs all too often. Some call the media a hive. Others have talked about their herd mentality. Whatever metaphor you want to use from the animal kingdom, its clear theyre in a bubble  or maybe its an echo chamber.

You have to wonder if these reporters ever used Facebook for anything other than promoting their personal brand. The thing about Facebook is that its been full of fake news since day one. The whole point of social media is to present a highly curated, idealized version of your life. Half of the heart-warming videos that people share about generous subway musicians or ball girls making amazing catches are eventually outed as fake. Obvious satirical pieces are accepted as real.

But does that make any difference? Studies have repeatedly shown that people dont form their opinions after carefully weighing the facts. Instead they form opinions and then believe the facts that back them up, while dismissing the ones that dont. If theres one voter in America who was planning to vote for Clinton but changed his mind and voted for Trump after reading on Facebook that hed been endorsed by the Pope, Id like to meet him.

Far more influential than a post on Facebook that takes about 30 seconds to read are the hours and hours that people spend watching cable news. Its pretty rich for MSNBCs Brian Williams, whos told some serious whoppers of his own, to complain about fake news on a network that can make no serious claim to impartiality. The news networks gave Donald Trump $2 billion in free publicity  but now they blame some Reddit-inspired posts for his election? Give me a break.
by Thom Forbes @tforbes, December 21, 2016

Umpteen billion here; another billion there. Thats how its going at Volkswagen these days as the German automaker agreed yesterday to recall 63,000 model year 2013 to 2016 vehicles; buy back, modify or terminate the leases of 20,000 model year 2009 to 2012 vehicles, and fund projects focused on reducing nitrogen oxide emissions to the tune of $225 million.

The agreement  is another important step forward in our efforts to make things right for our customers , said Hinrich J. Woebcken, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America in a news release. We are committed to earning back the trust of all our stakeholders and thank our customers and dealers in the United States for their patience as the process moves forward.

And what a process it must be: The statement reveals that the agreement is with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State of California, by and through the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the California Attorney General.

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U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco announced the settlement in San Francisco.

The agreement addresses vehicles that were not included in Volkswagens agreement in June , reports Hiroko Tabuchi for the New York Times. Some details were still being worked out on Tuesday by the parties [involved].

This settlement is about taking pollution out of the air we breathe, said Cynthia Giles, the EPAs assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance, Tabuchi reports. Its also about showing what a strong EPA enforcement presence means for those who may break the law.

So far, a lot of restitution and fines if theyre caught.

Breyer in October approved VW's earlier settlement worth about $15 billion with regulators and the U.S. owners of 475,000 polluting diesel vehicles with smaller 2.0-liter engines, including an offer to buy back all of the cars, Automotive News David Shepardson reminds us. Breyer on Tuesday also said German engineering company Robert Bosch GmbH, which produced the software for the VW diesels, has agreed in principle to settle civil allegations made by U.S. diesel vehicle owners. The company confirmed it had reached the agreement, but declined to discuss specifics.

On Monday, Canadas Competition Bureau, its antitrust watchdog, said it reached a 2.1-billion-Canadian-dollar ($1.57 billion) class-action settlement to resolve Canadian claims about false and misleading marketing from the company about its diesel-engine emissions, Paul Viera writes for the Wall Street Journal. If the settlement agreement is approved by the courts, it would provide restitution to owners of roughly 105,000 vehicles, it said.

Consumers expect and deserve truth in advertising, particularly when it relates to such a significant investment, said John Pecman, the commissioner of the bureau, which, indeed, exists to promote truth in advertising in the marketplace by discouraging deceptive business practices. 

Theres more to come, it appears.

Yesterdays deal covered luxury VW, Audi and Porsche vehicles with 3.0-liter engines, meaning Volkswagen has now agreed to spend as much as $17.5 billion in the United States to resolve claims from owners as well as federal and state regulators over polluting diesel vehicles, writes Reuters David Shepardson.

The world's No. 2 automaker still faces the possibility of spending billions of dollars more to resolve a U.S. Justice Department criminal investigation and federal and state environmental claims, as well as oversight by a federal monitor.

An additional $25 million will be given to California to promote environmentally friendly cars and Volkswagen agreed to introduce several electric models in the state, Nathan Bomey reports for USA Today.

This settlement highlights the fact that cheating to get a car certified has consequences for air quality and the publics health  and that cheaters will be caught and held accountable, California Air Resources Board executive officer Richard Corey said in a statement, Bomey reports. The mitigation in this settlement will now help California address its serious air quality and climate challenges with a focus on putting the very cleanest vehicles in disadvantaged communities where they are needed most.

The criminal investigation by the Justice Dept. meanwhile, continues.
by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, December 21, 2016

During a recent Google Webmasters live stream on Search Console and mobile-first search indexing, John Mueller, Google Webmaster Trends analyst based in Switzerland, revealed an update to the amount of search data that Google could eventually make available to marketers in the Search Console, along with other tips.

Google's team is working to adjust the user interface to accommodate using a full year of search data in Search Console, Mueller said. It takes time to gather the correct data and to make sure the interface is easy to use, he said. "If you have a year's worth of data, then the UI needs to probably be slightly different than what we have now," he said.

Don't expect any changes during the holidays with launches, Mueller said. Google is giving users a chance to relax rather than making them continually play catch-up.

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The video walks through a variety of topic related to the Search Console, such as reasons why marketers should use it, how to handle verifications, property sets that can combine multiple sites into one entry, aggregate reporting tips, and data spikes. Search Console also includes analytics, allowing marketers to drill down into three months of data for details -- but that might change, according to Mueller.

Mueller also spoke about mobile-first indexing and the types of tools in Search Console that would help to monitor how pages render on smartphones. It also provides the ability to monitor metadata dashboards within the Search Console such as structured data, rich cards and hreflang reports in all the reports not visible to users.
by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, December 21, 2016

Campbell Soup Company has timed the launch of its pivotal clean canned soup line, Well Yes!, for the New Year, supported by a campaign that suggests making small, healthful daily choices rather than big, unrealistic resolutions.

The campaign, #WellYesMoment, is launching with a social media effort featuring actress (and mother) Busy Philipps, of Dawsons Creek and Cougar Town fame.

Consumers will be encouraged to share a #WellYesMoment  whether its taking the time to send a handwritten thank-you note to a friend or drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning  on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

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The social campaign will feature multiple pieces of creative and offer both video content and static images across Facebook and Instagram. Influencers will also be tapped to share personal #WellYesMoment social posts, a Campbell representative tells Marketing Daily.

In January, the brand will release videos/TV spots from BBDO New York that showcase the soups chef-selected ingredients, according to Campbell, which is not yet previewing the ads. The creative will air on television in high-profile, primetime programming and premieres, the company reports.

In addition, print ads will run in a broad range of womens lifestyle, health and fitness publications.

On the sampling front, Well Yes! will have a presence at the Womens Health Winterskol event.

Well Yes! is one of Campbells key innovation bets as it seeks to reposition as a maker of convenient but natural products. It was, according to the company, the brainchild of a group of employees who set out to create soups they wanted to eat: flavorful and employing only simple, healthy ingredients such as antibiotic-free chicken, kale, quinoa, barley, beans, sweet potatoes and whole grains.

The soups come in nine varieties, including minestrone with kale, sweet potato corn chowder, and black bean with red quinoa. They contain no artificial colors, flavors, ingredients or modified starches, and come in 16.6-ounce, non-BPA lined, recyclable cans (suggested retail $2.69). No GMO-free promise is made in the promotional materials.

We thought differently about the creation of this soup, from flavor combinations to our package design to the types of ingredients we sourced, said Sophie Arsenlis, director of marketing, soup strategy at Campbell. With the Well Yes! brand, we are saying yes to real food and well-being by only using ingredients that consumers know and trust.

The new brands area on the Campbells site offers more information.
by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, December 21, 2016

Progressives nationwide are upset with the election of Donald Trump. The rise in partisanship, coupled with alarming cabinet appointments, has heightened the sense of urgency in liberal circles. The Boston Globe reported today that his picks have a net worth greater than the world's 70 smallest countries  at least $13.1 billion.

Digital will play a crucial role in promoting and organizing action. Now more than ever, there is an overwhelming need to flex our civic muscles.

We saw the first glimpses with Jill Steins almost $7 million funding campaign for recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. She raised about twice as much in the few weeks after Trumps win than she did during her whole campaign.

Steins fundraising was driven by the hashtag #recount2016, with only social media able to disseminate her message to the audience she wanted to entice.

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If there was one thing that could get the base motivated, it was getting Donald Trump elected, Greg Berlin, founder of Mothership Strategies told Red, White & Blog.

Various progressive groups are seeing an incredible amount of involvement since the election, he continued. Groups like the National Democratic Training Committee have seen a groundswell of support, more than they would have expected after an election.

A group in Maryland that helps recruit women to run for office saw their meeting attendance soar, from 50 on average, to 175 following the election, Berlin added.

A digital-first strategy will be central to the successes of progressive groups like these.

Targeting voters under 40 with accurate messages will be able to move the needle when it comes to progressive endeavors, Berlin explained. No one single organization will be able to make enough noise to serve as a bulwark against Trump. We will need dozens of groups that are doing good work to speak out.

The media had various distractions that kept their focus off drilling deep into Trump's background (taxes, health record, company holdings) during the election. It will be much harder for Trump to deflect attention during his presidency. Digital platforms will play a crucial role in sustaining engagement from the progressive base and scrutinizing the 45th President of the United States.
by Sara Guaglione , December 21, 2016

This story has been updated.

According to theNew York Post, the Huffington Post has shut down its Rise vertical, which produced daily videos each morning focused on wellness and inspiration, as well as uplifting articles. Twenty staffers have been laid off, just before the holidays.

However, The Huffington Post has contested the NYP's reporting, telling Publishers Daily:

"HuffPost Rise is a brand. Its more than just a singular show or a series, but rather, a brand that we apply to multiple different innovative or experimental video offerings. We are not shuttering the brand and are continuing to work on, pursue and explore creative opportunities for Rise as we have always done. No employees were let go and we did in fact renew some contracts for Rise freelancers."

The daily tabloid contended this is likely the first of several sites that will be shuttered as new Huffington Post editor Lydia Polgreen gears up to take the reins in 2017.

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Polgreen, who was previously editorial director of NYT Global at The New York Times, is replacing co-founder Arianna Huffington. Huffington left the company this August to launch Thrive Global, a start-up focused on health and wellness.

Tim Armstrong, CEO of Huffington Post parent company AOL, announced last month the company would lay off 500 people, about 5% of its staff. The plan is to shift more resources to mobile, video and data offerings in 2017.

Polgreen previously told the NYT her main challenge is to get The Huffington Post back in touch with its fundamental roots in reporting.

Rise was originally an AOL site, but became part of The Huffington Post last year. Editorial director Danny Shea was tapped to oversee the vertical, but he left in June and now works at Thrive. Rise videos performed well on Facebook earlier this year, with more views, shares, likes and comments than other Huffington Post videos posted on its main Facebook page.

Theclaimed theemployees who were let go were mostly permalancers -- staffers who worked full time at the site, but were technically not full-time employees.
by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, December 21, 2016

Scrapping the net neutrality rules appears to be a priority for the two Republicans on the Federal Communications Commission.



This week, FCC Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly vowed to revisit those rules "as soon as possible."

What's more, even while the rules remain in effect, the GOP commissioners apparently have no intention of fully policing them. Pai and O'Rielly said as much in a letter sent to five industry trade groups: the CTIA, NTCA -- The Rural Broadband Association, Competitive Carriers Association, American Cable Association and WISPA -- Wireless Internet Service Providers.

Those groups had urged the FCC to permanently exempt small ISPs from a net neutrality rule requiring providers to transparently inform subscribers about broadband policies, including prices, speeds, surcharges, data caps and network management practices. (Other net neutrality rules include a prohibition on blocking or degrading traffic and on charging companies higher fees for prioritized delivery.)

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The FCC first passed disclosure rules -- also known as "transparency" rules -- in 2010, when the agency enacted an earlier version of net neutrality regulations. In 2015, when the FCC voted in favor of a new set of net neutrality rules, the agency beefed up the transparency mandate by requiring providers to disclose items like promotional rates, surcharges, and data caps as well as network management practices that can affect service.

The FCC recently accused two companies -- T-Mobile and AT&T -- of violating transparency requirements by allegedly failing to disclose that customers with "unlimited" data plans could nevertheless be throttled if they exceeded a monthly cap.

Last year, the FCC granted Internet service providers with 100,000 or fewer subscribers a one-year exemption from a net neutrality rule requiring carriers to disclose information about their practices to consumers. That exemption expired on Dec. 15.

But this week, Pai and O'Rielly told the trade groups that "small" ISPs need not worry about the disclosure requirements. "Although the exemption has technically lapsed, we note that the new requirements are not in effect and are not enforceable until January 17," the commissioners wrote. "We want to assure you and your members that we would not support any adverse actions against small business providers for supposed non-compliance."

Pai and O'Rielly don't define "small," but note in their letter that they supported a failed compromise that would have extended the exemption to ISPs with fewer than 250,000 carriers.

The commissioners added that they will "seek to revisit" the transparency rule as well as the entire net neutrality rules as soon as they can. Theoretically, that could happen as early as next year, given that the FCC will have a Republican majority after Chairman Tom Wheeler steps down next year.

What's more, even while the rules remain in effect, the GOP commissioners apparently have no intention of fully policing them. Pai and O'Rielly said as much in a letter sent to five industry trade groups: the CTIA, NTCA -- The Rural Broadband Association, Competitive Carriers Association, American Cable Association and WISPA -- Wireless Internet Service Providers.

Those groups had urged the FCC to permanently exempt small ISPs from a net neutrality rule requiring providers to transparently inform subscribers about broadband policies, including prices, speeds, surcharges, data caps and network management practices. (Other net neutrality rules include a prohibition on blocking or degrading traffic and on charging companies higher fees for prioritized delivery.)

The FCC first passed disclosure rules -- also known as "transparency" rules -- in 2010, when the agency enacted an earlier version of net neutrality regulations. In 2015, when the FCC voted in favor of a new set of new net neutrality rules, the agency beefed up the transparency mandate by requiring providers to disclose items like promotional rates, surcharges, and data caps as well as network management practices that can affect service.

The FCC recently accused two companies -- T-Mobile and AT&T -- of violating transparency requirements by allegedly failing to disclose that customers with "unlimited" data plans could nevertheless be throttled if they exceeded a monthly cap.

Last year, the FCC granted Internet service providers with 100,000 or fewer subscribers a one-year exemption from a net neutrality rule requiring carriers to disclose information about their practices to consumers. That exemption expired on Dec. 15.

But this week, Pai and O'Rielly told the trade groups that "small" ISPs need not worry about the disclosure requirements. "Although the exemption has technically lapsed, we note that the new requirements are not in effect and are not enforceable until January 17," the commissioners wrote. "We want to assure you and your members that we would not support any adverse actions against small business providers for supposed non-compliance."

Pai and O'Rielly don't define "small," but note in their letter that they supported a failed compromise that would have extended the exemption to ISPs with fewer than 250,000 carriers.

The commissioners added that they will "seek to revisit" the transparency rule as well as the entire net neutrality rules as soon as they can. Theoretically, that could happen as early as next year, given that the FCC will have a Republican majority after Chairman Tom Wheeler steps down in January.
An analysis of English NHS hospitals suggests that employing private as opposed to in-house cleaners is a false economy. While it may reduce costs, it could also raise risk of infection by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a superbug responsible for life-threatening infections that are hard to treat.

Share on Pinterest The study finds that incidence of MRSA superbug infection was higher in English NHS hospitals that used outsourced cleaning services, compared with those that employed in-house cleaners.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium that is resistant to many antibiotics  a so-called superbug.

In healthcare settings such as hospitals and nursing homes, MRSA can cause severe health problems, including bloodstream infections, pneumonia, and surgical site infections. If not treated quickly, such superbug infections can cause sepsis and death.

There is a view that outsourcing hospital cleaning leads to lower standards of hygiene and increased rates of hospital-acquired MRSA and other superbug infection.

In the United Kingdom, the National Health Service (NHS) in England has  partly in an effort to reduce costs  made extensive use of outsourced cleaning. However, health services in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales rejected this option.

Now, in a study published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, researchers examine the question of whether contracting out cleaning services in English NHS hospitals is linked to a higher risk of hospital-acquired MRSA infection and saves money.

Since 2005, NHS Trusts (the legal authorities that run one or more hospitals) have had to regularly report incidences of MRSA.
Cancer has a major impact on mental and physical wellbeing, researchers report at the ESMO Asia 2016 Congress in Singapore.

Results from a Malaysian study of 1,362 patients found more than four in five survivors were suffering from anxiety and a similar number had depression a year after diagnosis.

Lead author Shridevi Subramaniam, a research officer at the National Clinical Research Center, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said: "We urgently need new ways of supporting cancer survivors and addressing wider aspects of wellbeing.

"Instead of just focusing on clinical outcome, doctors must focus equally on quality of life for cancer patients especially psychologically, financially and socially."

Researchers included Malaysian patients from the ACTION study (ASEAN Cost in Oncology Study) and nearly a third (33%) had breast cancer. They filled in questionnaires to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Anxiety and depression levels were also included in the survey.

A patient's satisfaction with their physical health and mental wellbeing- or health-related quality of life -- is an important end result in cancer care. But the study showed that patients' mental and physical wellbeing was low overall 12 months after diagnosis. The more advanced the cancer, the lower the HRQoL.

The type of cancer was also a factor because disease severity differs. Women with reproductive system cancers, for example, had higher wellbeing scores than lymphoma patients. This could be explained by the fact that lymphoma is often aggressive and progresses quickly while reproductive system cancers, such as cervical, can spread slowly over a number of years. "The key message is to focus more on supporting patients throughout their whole cancer 'journey' especially in their lives after treatment," added Subramanian.

Young pay high mental and social 'cost' for cancer diagnosis

Cancer also has a significant impact on the lives and wellbeing of adolescents and young adults, as reported in a separate ongoing study.

Researchers set out to identify the extent of wellbeing issues and other problems in this group who not only are at major milestones in their lives but also do not expect to develop the disease. The study included patients who were newly diagnosed with cancer (n=56) and with an average age of 28. They completed a survey including questions on occupation and lifestyle, and were also asked about problems around physical symptoms, mental wellbeing and financial issues

Results showed more than a third (37%) were suffering distress at diagnosis of cancer. Nearly half identified the top cause as treatment decisions, followed by family health issues, sleep and worry.

Senior author Associate Professor Alexandre Chan, Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore and Specialist Pharmacist, National Cancer Center, Singapore, said: "The young differ from older people because they don't expect to be ill, and certainly not with cancer. They're also at a stage when they're facing many social responsibilities and family burdens. "That's why they need effective supportive care and help in managing the physical, psychological and emotional side-effects that come with both cancer diagnosis and treatment."

Commenting on these studies, Ravindran Kanesvaran, assistant professor, Duke-NUS Medical School, and Consultant Medical Oncologist, National Cancer Center, Singapore, said: "There is a critical need to find ways of addressing the high levels of distress among cancer survivors in general as highlighted by the Malaysian study.

"The psycho-social impact of cancer on adolescents and young adults also clearly needs further evaluation. This is to assess the impact on quality of life at the time of diagnosis as well as throughout and after treatment.

"What's required are specific interventions to meet the needs of this age group, as well as specially tailored survivorship programmes and supportive care.

"While it's not surprising that the young adult cancer population has a higher risk of suicide, conducting studies like this help us find new ways to address this issue effectively."
A study of unprecedented scale has led researchers to identify four previously unknown genetic risk locations for primary sclerosing cholangitis, a liver disease that lacks effective medical therapy. An article in Nature Genetics highlights the undertaking, which is the largest genome-wide association study of primary sclerosing cholangitis to date and a step toward providing breakthrough treatments for the unmet needs of primary sclerosing cholangitis patients.

The study was led by Mayo Clinic's Konstantinos Lazaridis, M.D., and Carl Anderson, Ph.D., of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, along with collaborators from six other U.S. medical centers and co-investigators from the U.K., Germany and Norway and collaborators from other European countries.

Primary sclerosing cholangitis affects 1 in 10,000 individuals, with about 75 percent developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), most often in the form of ulcerative colitis. However, only 5 to 7 percent of those affected by pre-existing IBD alone later develop primary sclerosing cholangitis.

Researchers compared the genetic information of 4,796 primary sclerosing cholangitis patients against a control population of nearly 20,000 individuals, the specimens of which were provided by patients from the U.S. and Europe, including healthy controls from Mayo Clinic Biobank.

"Considering the rarity of those affected by primary sclerosing cholangitis, the contribution of specimens by multiple centers across the globe allowed us to view the genetic comparisons of this disease in a much bigger picture," says Dr. Lazaridis. "This is a testament of trust from the primary sclerosing cholangitis patients to this investigative team to whom we are grateful. We feel a strong spirit of collaboration among the medical centers involved."

Using these data, researchers identified four new markers of primary sclerosing cholangitis risk on the human genome, bringing the total number of known predisposing locations to 20. One of the four new reported loci is expected to lower the protein expression of UBASH3A, a molecule that regulates T-cell signaling and correlates with lowering the risk of primary sclerosing cholangitis. Dr. Lazaridis says this molecule therefore should be further examined as a target of therapy for the disease.

The study also allowed for clearer estimations as to how primary sclerosing cholangitis and IBD may share genetic risk factors.

"The immense scale of this genetic study allowed us to analyze for the first time the complex genetic relationship between primary sclerosing cholangitis and IBD," says Lazaridis. "Additional scientific efforts for genome sequencing of primary sclerosing cholangitis patients will give us more opportunities to find the specific genetic underpinnings that contributing to the risk of primary sclerosing cholangitis and to explain what makes the correlation between primary sclerosing cholangitis and IBD."

Dr. Lazaridis says such knowledge will be important in facilitating the development of medical therapies for primary sclerosing cholangitis - an urgent need for patients.

The study was supported by: Chris M. Carols and Catharine Nicole Jockisch, Carlos Endowment in Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Kwanjeong Educational Foundation, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NoPSC and Wellcome Trust.
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People without dyslexia showed normal adaptation to a consistent voice. The adaptation process was slower in people with dyslexia

People with dyslexia with better reading skills showed better adaptation to audio stimuli

The adaptation was also less to visual stimuli in patients with dyslexia, suggesting that the adaptation process throughout the brain may be affected

Tyler K. Perrachione, Stephanie N. Del Tufo, Rebecca Winter, Jack Murtagh, Abigail Cyr, Patricia Chang, Kelly Halverson, Satrajit S. Ghosh, Joanna A. Christodoulou5, John D.E. Gabrieli. 'Dysfunction of Rapid Neural Adaptation in Dyslexia,' Neuron;(2016) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.11.020 Dyslexia Information Page - (https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/All-Disorders/Dyslexia-Information-Page)

Dyslexia is often diagnosed during the schooling years when the child finds it difficult to learn. Adults are also likely to have some traits of dyslexia, which may be either undiagnosed dyslexia during childhood or dyslexia that appears during adulthood for the first time due to conditions like brain injury or dementia.Normally, when the brain receives sensory input from the surroundings, it adapts itself immediately so that it can process the information and if necessary, cause a response. The process of adaptation to a repeated stimulus like a single consistent voice is almost immediate.The research team carried out functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in adults with or without dyslexia as they were listening to a series of words in the same or different voice. The scientists also exposed another set of adults with and without dyslexia to visual stimuli like images of written words, faces, and objects, which were either repeated or different.The team found that:The researchers confirmed their findings in a study in children between the ages of 6 and 9 years with or without dyslexia, with similar results.. Simpler functions like understanding speech or processing of seen objects and faces are usually not a problem in people with dyslexia since the brain appears to have multiple ways to overcome them.Further research could help to decode the exact mechanism of the brain function in dyslexic individuals and suggest ways to train individuals to overcome their difficulties.Source: Medindia
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The four-year study by Medical Research Council (MRC) scientists based at the MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Leicester is published in the. The study was led by Professor Andrew Tobin alongside colleagues from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company and the Monash Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences in Australia. The project was also partly supported by the Wellcome Trust.Corresponding author Professor Tobin, who alongside the lead researcher Dr Sophie Bradley has since moved from the University of Leicester to the University of Glasgow, said, "The paper describes drug-like molecules that can restore memory loss and slow progression of prion neurodegenerative disease in a manner that relates to the potential of these drugs in human Alzheimer's disease.""We have been using mice whose brain cells are progressively dying, similar to what happens in Alzheimer's disease. This project focuses on a particular protein in the brain, which is proposed to be involved in Alzheimer's disease, and as such could be a potential target for new drugs.""We have treated mice with a new class of drug, and found that these drugs can not only improve symptoms of brain degeneration, such as cognitive decline, but can also extend the life-span of these terminally-sick mice."The researchers state that drugs which activate this protein receptor in the brain have previously been tested in clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease, and showed positive results with respect to improving cognition, but the patients experienced a large number of adverse side effects. This new class of drug is more selective and does not cause any side-effects when administered to mice in the study.The study authors believe that this offers hope in the design of new drugs for improving cognition and extending life span.Professor Tobin said: "This work may provide important information as to whether this protein is a viable drug target in the treatment of diseases associated with the progressive death of brain cells. This is of great importance to society, based on the fact that the treatment options for Alzheimer's disease are very limited - there are no cures for Alzheimer's disease and current treatments are focused on relieving some of the symptoms."What we have found is a novel class of drugs, called allosteric ligands, that target a protein called the M1 muscarinic receptor, which is present in the brain. Activating this receptor protein can not only improve cognitive function in mice with progressive brain degeneration, but when administered daily, can extend life span."The scientists say the work is important because it focuses on identifying a treatment that not only improves symptoms associated with neurodegeneration, like current treatments, but also identifies a new strategy for slowing disease progression and extending life-span.Professor Tobin said, "I am proud to be involved in a collaboration with researchers across the world to address one of the world's major healthcare challenges. Our study opens up avenues for researchers to look at new drugs that treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's and also slow disease progression."Source: Eurekalert
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"This study shows just how contagious violence can be," said Robert Bond, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at The Ohio State University. "Acts of violence can ricochet through a community, traveling through networks of friends."Results showed that participants in the study were 48 percent more likely to have been in a serious fight, 183 percent more likely to have hurt someone badly, and 140 percent more likely to have pulled a weapon on someone if a friend had engaged in the same behavior.Bond conducted the study with Brad Bushman, professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State. Their results appear online in the American Journal of Public Health.These results fit in with other studies that have shown that characteristics and behaviors from happiness to obesity to smoking spread within social networks, at about the same rates found in this research."We now have evidence that shows how important social relationships are to spreading violent behavior, just like they are for spreading many other kinds of attitudes and behaviors," Bushman said.Data from the study came from 5,913 young people who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (ADD Health) and who were interviewed in-depth in 1994-95 and again in 1996. The ADD Health researchers interviewed as many students (grades 7 to 12) as they could from 142 schools across the country so they could have information on social networks within each school.Participants were asked to name up to five male and five female friends from their school at both of the two interviews. They were asked how often in the past 12 months they had been in a serious physical fight, how often they hurt someone badly enough to need bandages or care from a doctor or nurse, and how often they had pulled a knife or gun on someone.The researchers then analyzed whether each student's friends (and friends of friends, and so on) had said they committed the same acts of violence.The finding that adolescents were more likely to commit acts of violence if their friends had done so is not surprising, Bond said. Much of that association is related to what scientists call a "clustering effect" - people with similar interests, including the use of violence, tend to cluster together as friends.But the researchers also tested whether friends could influence each other to commit more acts of violence than they might normally commit given their friendship.They could estimate this influence effect because they had data from two different points in time, a year apart. They calculated the effect by determining whether friends had committed more violent acts at the time of the second interview than could be explained by what their shared history at the time of the first interview would suggest.Results showed that each additional friend who had seriously hurt someone increased the likelihood that a participant had hurt someone badly by 55 percent, even after taking into account the clustering effects and other factors. If you include only male participants (who were more likely than females to seriously hurt others), then the likelihood increased to 82 percent.After taking the controls into account, the researchers didn't find influence effects for being in a serious fight or pulling a weapon on someone. But that doesn't necessarily mean the influence of friends doesn't play a role in these violent acts, Bond said.One explanation may be that fights are common enough among these adolescents that it is difficult to find the role of influence. On the other hand, pulling a weapon was rare enough that they may not have had a large enough sample size to determine influence.This study is the first to show how far violent behavior may spread within a social network, Bond said. The findings showed that the influence of one person's violent act can spread up to two degrees of separation (friend of a friend) for hurting someone badly, three degrees (friend of a friend's friend) for pulling a weapon on someone, and four degrees for serious fights.The influence declines with each degree of separation, but is still noticeable. For example, a student in the study was about 48 percent more likely to have participated in a serious fight if a friend had been involved in one. But they were still 18 percent more likely to have participated in a fight if a friend of a friend had.This result is particularly important because it shows the value of anti-violence programs. "If we can stop violence in one person, that spreads to their social network. We're actually preventing violence not only in that person, but potentially for all the people they come in contact with," Bond said.Source: Eurekalert
Chinese company Blu are a smartphone manufacturers that uses preinstalled apps to spy on their customers. No doubt, this sounds very disconcerting but not really shocking news is it? It utilises a program called Adups which is pre-installed on many of Blu smartphones and it is being used to spy on many of its customers. Blus spying methods have inspired other Android device manufacturers to do the same and it wont stop anytime soon.

 Blu

The term mobile phone security is thrown around a lot these days and intelligence communities exploit, breach and bug our smartphones endlessly so that they can track and spy on normal citizens whenever they please. Not only does it invade our privacy but also puts our personal information at risk.

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Kryptowire, an internet security outfit shed light on how Adups uses updates for mobile devices to install firmware that facilitates spying. The firmware can snoop in areas where it shouldnt be present without a user ever knowing that he/she is being spied on. This information is collected by Adups and they can do whatever they please with the data.

Another digital security firm, Trustlook, dug even deeper to find out what other devices use Adups on their phones and the result was overwhelming. Trustlook believes that over 700 million Android smartphones have the same Adups firmware and it puts information like text messages, device information, and call histories at risk. All of this information is being collected by Adups without the owners' consent or knowledge. Adups is used by many smaller manufacturers who only release phones in Asian markets and other minor markets; however, the list also includes a major manufacturer  Lenovo!

Adups nefarious policies and software that helps them collect information has been one of the reasons why some companies have started to take action. In light of these insane and sinister events, other small manufacturers need to do the same.
Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias today met with his Iraqi counterpart, Dr. Al-Jaafari, within the framework of the 4th EU-Arab League Ministerial Meeting (Cairo, 20 December 2016).



During their meeting they looked at current issues of mutual interest, and, more specifically, the Iraqi Foreign Minister briefed Mr. Kotzias on the conditions prevailing in Mosul, the prospects for rebuilding the city, and the potential for supplying the city's residents with humanitarian aid.



Both Ministers expressed their intense concern at the destabilising action of Daesh throughout the Middle East region. Finally, Mr. Kotzias confirmed that he intends to visit Baghdad in the immediate future.
2017 Happy Chinese New Year events spread culture worldwide

From:chinadaily.com.cn | 2016-12-21 11:46

Intangible cultural heritages and traditional Chinese music will be the two main elements for the 2017 Happy Chinese New Year events in the countries part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Ministry of Culture announced this and other arrangements for the 2017 Happy Chinese New Year at a recent press conference.

Six performing troupes will tour Africa and a series of galas and ceremonies will be held in Asian countries, including Thailand, Japan and Singapore, to further enhance communications with local people.

High quality performances of traditional Chinese music, dance dramas, plays, martial arts and acrobatics will be featured in European countries.

More art shows will be held in North America, such as the Fantastic Art China in New York, that attract international artists of different genres to narrow the distance between Chinese and Western cultures.

The events in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau will be specially designed for adolescents and grassroots communities. Lantern Festival Celebrations and Lunar New Year customs exhibitions will be featured.
BAD AXE  Huron county is on the map.

With a new Geographic Information System (GIS) unveiled at Tuesdays Huron County Board of Commissioners meeting, residents, appraisers, real estate agents and surveyors will be able to save some trips to the courthouse.

I want people to sit at home in their pajamas and access this and never have to come to this building if they dont want to, said Deanna Kidd, county GIS director.

The GIS shows public information about parcels of property, such as whether delinquent taxes are due.

One can zoom in onto any property, and find out specific information, such as the distance from a building to a property line.

Everything available on the system is public information, and can be accessed for a $3 per-hit fee, Kidd said.

Those who may use the system frequently can set up an account, so that funds are automatically deducted from their bank accounts.

The more, say, a real estate firm hits the site, the cheaper it gets. If 100 hits were purchased, it would be $2 a hit, Kidd said.

County building and zoning officials, government agencies, the county treasurer, the Huron County Economic Development Corp. and the register of deeds are among agencies that will have free access to the information.

Kidds biggest goal is to link the site with the county register of deeds.

A person could click on a parcel of land to view the sales date, price, etc. There it also lists a number signifying where the property is recorded with the register of deeds.

I would eventually like people to click on that, and that takes you right into the register of deeds menu, she said.

Aerial footage of the county has been added to the system, as well as Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality wetlands maps.

We will be adding all kinds of information, Kidd said.

Kidd said school district maps, Michigan Department of Transportation right-of-way maps, original subdivision maps, county-zoned township maps, and emergency services information could eventually be added to the site.

Of the countys 31 taxing units, 17 are on board with the project, and will contribute a total of $3,300 to the financing of the project.

The county board allocated $6,000 to get the GIS up and running.

Once that $6,000 is recouped, the funds collected will be profit, Kidd told the Tribune.

In January 2015, a GIS ad-hoc committee was formed, of which Kidd was named the chairperson.

Kidd is also the equalization office manager and oversees tax mapping for the county.

Tuscola and Sanilac counties use the same system.

Kidd hopes that the system will be available to the public beginning next week. The system will be accessible from www.fetchgis.com.
Owendale-Gagetown Area Schools PTO sponsored its annual Santa Workshop. Every elementary student went shopping and purchased the perfect gifts for their special loved ones. Volunteers and high school students assisted with the shopping and wrapping. Organizers thank the community and local businesses for all their donations and support. Every child left with a smile on their face. (Submitted Photo)
UPPER THUMB  A veteran police officer tried to hide the fact that his weapon discharged in a Bay City school  and sent a bullet through a wall that grazed a teacher, according to reports obtained Monday by a newspaper.

The case has been referred to the Tuscola County Prosecutors Office for possible charges.

Police documents and video obtained by The Bay City Times through a public records request show Bay County sheriffs Deputy Adam Brown fired a pistol last month in Bay City Western High Schools robotics classroom while testing the trigger pull with a force machine. Brown, who was the schools resource officer at the time, had two guns and the one that discharged was a backup he was authorized to carry, the newspaper reported.

Reports said the bullet passed through drywall into a classroom occupied by a teacher and roughly 30 students. The bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and a wall, and then struck the teacher in the neck.

The teacher had a small scratch and went to pick up the fired bullet but dropped it because it was hot.

Brown didnt initially confess to staff members, leading officials to boost security measures while they tried to figure out what happened, reports say. A staff member gave Brown the spent bullet in order to protect it.

Investigators said in reports that Brown admitted to what happened after being confronted by school officials.

(Brown) left the school building, placing the fired gun in his personal vehicle, and threw the fired bullet into the school lawn in an attempt to thwart the investigation, a report said. It added that in a conversation with another officer, Brown was extremely emotional and said it was a total accident.

The Associated Press left a message on whats believed to be Browns number after a man hung up on the first attempt.

Investigators initially sent their reports to the Bay County Prosecutors Office on Nov. 18.

On Nov. 22, office staff forwarded the matter to the Michigan Attorney Generals Office with a request that a special prosecutor be appointed to review the case, to avoid any conflict or appearance of impropriety. State Attorney General Bill Schuette on Nov. 29 signed an order granting the request, appointing the Tuscola County Prosecutors Office to the task of determining whether charges are warranted.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the office said it had not filed charges and was still in the process of completing its investigation. A timetable for the completion of the investigation was not given.

Hes not serving in an official police capacity until everything is done with the court systems, Bay County Undersheriff Troy Cunningham said of Brown, a 20-year department veteran.
SAP SE, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an enterprise application software company worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Applications, Technology & Support; Qualtrics; and Services. It offers SAP S/4HANA, an ERP suite with intelligent technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced analytics; SAP SuccessFactors Human Experience Management provides cloud-based solutions, such as a human resources management system for core HR and payroll, talent management, employee experience management, and people analytics; and intelligent spend management solutions, including products branded under the SAP Ariba, SAP Concur, and SAP Fieldglass names. The company also provides SAP customer experience solutions; SAP Business Technology platform that enables customers and partners to extend and customize SAP applications in a cloud-native way; and SAP Business Network that enable companies to extend their ecosystem, react to supply chain disruptions, discover new trading partners, and find new opportunities. In addition, it offers business process intelligence solutions aim to help customers analyze their operations, understand their process bottlenecks, and improve their business process landscape; Experience solutions; SAP's industry cloud provides modular solutions addressing industry-specific functions; and SAP's ecosystem build, sell, service, and run SAP solutions and technology, as well as sustainable business solutions, services, and partnerships solutions. SAP SE was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Walldorf, Germany.
The Allstate Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides property and casualty, and other insurance products in the United States and Canada. The company operates through Allstate Protection; Protection Services; Allstate Health and Benefits; and Run-off Property-Liability segments. The Allstate Protection segment offers private passenger auto and homeowners insurance; specialty auto products, including motorcycle, trailer, motor home, and off-road vehicle insurance; other personal lines products, such as renter, condominium, landlord, boat, umbrella, and manufactured home and stand-alone scheduled personal property; and commercial lines products under the Allstate and Encompass brand names. The Protection Services segment provides consumer product protection plans and related technical support for mobile phones, consumer electronics, furniture, and appliances; finance and insurance products, including vehicle service contracts, guaranteed asset protection waivers, road hazard tire and wheel, and paint and fabric protection; roadside assistance; device and mobile data collection services; data and analytic solutions using automotive telematics information; and identity protection services. This segment offers its products under various brands including Allstate Protection Plans, Allstate Dealer Services, Allstate Roadside Services, Arity, and Allstate Identity Protection. The Allstate Health and Benefits provides life, accident, critical illness, short-term disability, and other health insurance products. The Run-off Property-Liability offers property and casualty insurance. It sells its products through call centers, agencies, financial specialists, independent agents, brokers, wholesale partners, and affinity groups, as well as through online and mobile applications. The Allstate Corporation was founded in 1931 and is based in Northbrook, Illinois.
Healthcare Trust of America, Inc. (NYSE: HTA) is the largest dedicated owner and operator of MOBs in the United States, comprising approximately 25.1 million square feet of GLA, with $7.4 billion invested primarily in MOBs. HTA provides real estate infrastructure for the integrated delivery of healthcare services in highly-desirable locations. Investments are targeted to build critical mass in 20 to 25 leading gateway markets that generally have leading university and medical institutions, which translates to superior demographics, high-quality graduates, intellectual talent and job growth. The strategic markets HTA invests in support a strong, long-term demand for quality medical office space. HTA utilizes an integrated asset management platform consisting of on-site leasing, property management, engineering and building services, and development capabilities to create complete, state of the art facilities in each market. This drives efficiencies, strong tenant and health system relationships, and strategic partnerships that result in high levels of tenant retention, rental growth and long-term value creation. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, HTA has developed a national brand with dedicated relationships at the local level. Founded in 2006 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012, HTA has produced attractive returns for its stockholders that have outperformed the US REIT index.
Arch Resources, Inc. produces and sells thermal and metallurgical coal from surface and underground mines. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated seven active mines. It also owned or controlled primarily through long-term leases approximately 28,292 acres of coal land in Ohio; 952 acres of coal land in Maryland; 10,095 acres of coal land in Virginia; 306,033 acres of coal land in West Virginia; 81,470 acres of coal land in Wyoming; 234,543 acres of coal land in Illinois; 33,047 acres of coal land in Kentucky; 362 acres of coal land in Montana; 248 acres of coal land in Pennsylvania; and 19,018 acres of coal land in Colorado, as well as smaller parcels of property in Alabama, Indiana, Washington, Arkansas, California, Utah, and Texas. The company sells its products to utility, industrial, and steel producers in the United States, Europe, Asia, Central and South America, and Africa. The company was formerly known as Arch Coal, Inc. and changed its name to Arch Resources, Inc. in May 2020. Arch Resources, Inc. was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.
Bancolombia S.A. provides banking products and services in Colombia, Panama, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. The company operates through nine segments: Banking Colombia, Banking Panama, Banking El Salvador, Banking Guatemala, Trust, Investment Banking, Brokerage, International Banking, and All Other. It offers checking and savings accounts, fixed term deposits, and investment products; trade financing, loans funded by domestic development banks, working capital loans, credit cards, personal and vehicle loans, payroll loans, and overdrafts; financial support to real estate developers and mortgages for individuals and companies; factoring; and financial and operating leasing services. The company also provides hedging instruments, including futures, forwards, options, and swaps; and brokerage, investment advisory, and private banking services, including selling and distributing equities, futures, foreign currencies, fixed income securities, mutual funds, and structured products. In addition, it offers cash management services; foreign currency transaction services; life, auto, commercial, and homeowner's insurance products; and online and computer banking services. Further, the company provides project and acquisition finance, debt and equity capital markets, principal investments, M&A, hedging strategies, restructurings, and structured financing; money market accounts, mutual and pension funds, private equity funds, payment and corporate trust, and custody; internet-based trading platform; inter-bank lending and repurchase agreements; managing escrow accounts, and investment and real estate funds; and transportation, securities brokerage, maintenance and remodeling, and outsourcing services. As of December 31, 2021, it operated 1,015 branches; 28,676 banking correspondents; 529 PAMs; 210 kiosks in El Salvador and 187 in Colombia; and 6,094 ATMs. Bancolombia S.A. was incorporated in 1945 and is headquartered in Medellin, Colombia.
The following companies are subsidiares of Iron Mountain: AB Archyvu Centras, AB Archyvu Sistemos, AB Archyvu Sistemos Estonia Branch, AS Archivu Serviss, Accutrac Software Inc, ArchivesOne, Archyvu sistemos, Arhiv-Trezor d.o.o., Ausdoc Group Pty Limited, Ausdoc Holdings Pty Limited, Bonded Services (International) B.V., Bonded Services Acquisition Ltd., Bonded Services Group, Bonded Services Group Limited, Bonded Services International Limited, Bonded Services Limited, Box Butler, Britannia Data Management Limited, Capital Vision Holdings SAS, Capital Vision SAS, Connected Corporation, Cornerstone Records Management, Crozier Fine Arts, Crozier Schweiz Ag, Custodia S.O.S. SA, DBJ Limited, DMS Storage s.r.o., DigiGuard, Disaster Recovery Services Limited, Docscan Cape Town Proprietary Limited, Docscan Proprietary Limited, Docu-File JHB Proprietary Limited, DocuTar Iratrendezo es Tarolo Szolgaltato Kft., DocuVault, Docufile (Pty) Ltd, EAC Invest, Eurospags Investments ApS, EvoSwitch, F.T.S. (Freight Forwarders) Limited, F.T.S. (Great Britain) Limited, F.T.S. (Road Transport) Limited, FTS Bonded Limited, Fairfield Fine Art, File Express Limited, Film Media Services Limited, First International Records Management AG, First International Records Management LLC, Fleet Freight Limited, Fontis International GmbH, Fortrust, G4S Secure Data Solutions Colombia, Glenbeign Records Mangement (GRM) DWC-LLC, Global Logistics Worldwide Limited, Haworth Group Holdings (UK) Limited, Haworth Group Limited, Hays IMS, Helcom Limited, IG2 Data Security, IM Mortgage Solutions LLC, IMI Investments Two Ltd, IMSA Peru SRL, IO.com, Information Storage Consolidation Co, Iron Mountain (Deutschland) Service GmbH, Iron Mountain (Espana) Services S.L, Iron Mountain (Gibraltar) Holdings Limited, Iron Mountain (Ireland) Services Limited, Iron Mountain (Nederland) Data Centre B.V., Iron Mountain (Nederland) Data Centre Holdings B.V., Iron Mountain (Nederland) Data Centre Services B.V., Iron Mountain (Nederland) Services BV, Iron Mountain (Schweiz) AG, Iron Mountain (UK) Data Centre Limited, Iron Mountain (UK) EES Holdings Limited, Iron Mountain (UK) PLC, Iron Mountain (UK) Services Limited, Iron Mountain A/S, Iron Mountain Acquisition Holdings Pty. Ltd., Iron Mountain Argentina S.A., Iron Mountain Arsivleme Hizmetleri A.S., Iron Mountain Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd, Iron Mountain Asia Pte Limited, Iron Mountain Australia Group Pty. Ltd., Iron Mountain Australia Group Services Pty. Ltd., Iron Mountain Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd, Iron Mountain Austria Archivierung Gmbh, Iron Mountain BPM SPRL, Iron Mountain Belgium NV, Iron Mountain Bulgaria, Iron Mountain Canada Operations ULC, Iron Mountain Ceska Republika S.R.O., Iron Mountain Chile S.A., Iron Mountain Chile Servicios S.A., Iron Mountain Cloud LLC, Iron Mountain Colombia S.A.S., Iron Mountain Cyprus Limited, Iron Mountain DIMS Limited, Iron Mountain Data Centers LLC, Iron Mountain Data Centers Services LLC, Iron Mountain Data Centre Pte. Limited, Iron Mountain Data Management (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Iron Mountain Data Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Iron Mountain Deutschland GmbH, Iron Mountain Do Brasil Ltda, Iron Mountain Document Holdings Sweden AB, Iron Mountain Document Storage Services LLC, Iron Mountain EES Holdings Ltd., Iron Mountain Enterprises Sdn. Bhd., Iron Mountain Espana SA, Iron Mountain Eswatini (Pty) Ltd, Iron Mountain Europe (Group) Limited, Iron Mountain Europe Ltd., Iron Mountain FZ-LLC, Iron Mountain Finland OY, Iron Mountain France S.A.S., Iron Mountain Fulfillment Services Inc., Iron Mountain Global Holdings Inc., Iron Mountain Global LLC, Iron Mountain Group (Europe) Limited, Iron Mountain Hellas SA, Iron Mountain Holdings (Europe) Limited, Iron Mountain Holdings (France) SNC, Iron Mountain Holdings Sweden AB, Iron Mountain Hong Kong Ltd., Iron Mountain Incorporated, Iron Mountain India Private Ltd, Iron Mountain Information Management LLC, Iron Mountain Information Management Services Canada Inc., Iron Mountain Information Management Services Inc., Iron Mountain Intellectual Property Management Inc., Iron Mountain International (Holdings) Ltd, Iron Mountain International Holdings BV, Iron Mountain Ireland Holdings Limited, Iron Mountain Ireland Limited, Iron Mountain Korea Limited, Iron Mountain Latin America Holdings Sociedad Limitada, Iron Mountain Lesotho (Proprietry) Limited, Iron Mountain Luxembourg Sarl, Iron Mountain Luxembourg Services S.a.r.l., Iron Mountain MDM Limited, Iron Mountain Macau Limited, Iron Mountain Magyarorszag Kereskedelmi es Szolgaltato Kft., Iron Mountain Management Services GmbH, Iron Mountain Mayflower Limited, Iron Mountain Mexico Holding S. de RL de CV, Iron Mountain Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Iron Mountain Mexico Servicios S. de RL de CV, Iron Mountain Mortgage Finance Holdings LLC, Iron Mountain Mortgage Finance I LLC, Iron Mountain Nederland B.V., Iron Mountain Nederland Holdings B.V., Iron Mountain New Zealand Limited, Iron Mountain Norge AS, Iron Mountain Participations SA, Iron Mountain Peru S.A., Iron Mountain Philippines Inc., Iron Mountain Poland Holdings Ltd, Iron Mountain Polska Services Sp z.o.o., Iron Mountain Polska Sp. z.o.o., Iron Mountain Receivables QRS LLC, Iron Mountain Receivables TRS LLC, Iron Mountain Records Management (Puerto Rico) Inc, Iron Mountain Records Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Iron Mountain SRL, Iron Mountain Sdn. Bhd., Iron Mountain Secure Shredding (Pty) Ltd, Iron Mountain Secure Shredding Canada Inc., Iron Mountain Secure Shredding Inc., Iron Mountain Services Private Ltd, Iron Mountain Services S.A.S., Iron Mountain Shanghai Co Ltd, Iron Mountain Singapore Pte. Ltd., Iron Mountain Slovakia s.r.o., Iron Mountain South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Iron Mountain South Africa Holdings (Pty) Ltd, Iron Mountain South Africa Information Management (Pty) Ltd, Iron Mountain South Africa Records Management (Pty) Ltd, Iron Mountain South America Sarl, Iron Mountain Southeast Asia Holdings Limited, Iron Mountain Sweden AB, Iron Mountain Taiwan Ltd., Iron Mountain UK Services (Holdings) Ltd, Iron Mountain US Holdings Inc, Iron Mountain Vietnam Company Limited, Iron Mountain d.o.o. Novi Banovci, Jigsaw Freight Limited, Jigsaw Pieces Limited, Jin Shan Limited, KDM Spectrumdata Pty Ltd, KH Data Capital Development Land LLC, Lane Archives Technologies Corporation, Livevault, Marshgate Morangis Sarl, Mimosa Systems, Nettlebed Acquisition Corp., Novo Group Limited, Novo Holdings Limited, Novo Overseas Limited, NxtGen Data Center & Cloud Services, OEC Records Management Company Private Limited, OSG Records Management (Europe) Limited, OSG Records Management Center LLC, OSG Records Management Centre LLC, OSG Records Management Crypto LLC, OSG Records Management Foreign LLC, OSG Records Management LLC, OSG Records Management LLC (Ukraine), OSG Records Management LLP, OSG Services sp. zoo, Oda International Management Corporation NV, Osrecki d.o.o., PT Iron Mountain Indonesia, Preferred Media Ltd, Prism Integrated Sdn Bhd, Recall, Recall (London) Limited, Recall (Shanghai) Ltd., Recall Europe Finance Ltd., Recall Europe Limited, Recall GQ Ltd, Recall Holdings, Recall Holdings Limited, Recall India Information Management Pvt. Ltd., Recall International Pty Limited, Recall Italy SRL, Recall Limited, Recall Overseas Holdings Pty Limited, Recall Shredding Limited, Recall Technology Pty. Ltd., Recall Total Information Management India Pvt. Ltd., Record Data Limited, Royal Seal S.R.O., SIA RIATech, Saracen Datastore Limited, Shanghai Iron Mountain Data Storage Co. Ltd., Shuttle SRL, Startify, Superior Storage Limited, UAB Confidento, and Xepa Digital.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Clean Harbors: Ace/Allwaste Environmental Services of Indiana LLC, Altair Disposal Services LLC, Aquilex Finance LLC, Aquilex Intermediate Corporate Holdings LLC, Aquilex Intermediate Holdings LLC, Aquilex LLC, Baton Rouge Disposal LLC, Bridgeport Disposal LLC, CARBER Holdings Inc., CB Canada Acquisition Inc., CB Canada Holdings Inc., CB US Holdings Inc., CH International Holdings LLC, Car-Ber Investments Inc., Clean Harbors Andover LLC, Clean Harbors Aragonite LLC, Clean Harbors Arizona LLC, Clean Harbors BDT LLC, Clean Harbors Baton Rouge LLC, Clean Harbors Buttonwillow LLC, Clean Harbors Canada Inc., Clean Harbors Caribe Inc., Clean Harbors Chattanooga LLC, Clean Harbors Clive LLC, Clean Harbors Coffeyville LLC, Clean Harbors Colfax LLC, Clean Harbors Deer Park LLC, Clean Harbors Deer Trail LLC, Clean Harbors Development LLC, Clean Harbors Disposal Services Inc., Clean Harbors El Dorado LLC, Clean Harbors Energy Services ULC, Clean Harbors Energy and Industrial Services Corp., Clean Harbors Energy and Industrial Services LP, Clean Harbors Energy and Industrial Western Ltd., Clean Harbors Environmental Services Inc., Clean Harbors Exploration Services Inc., Clean Harbors Exploration Services LP, Clean Harbors Exploration Services ULC, Clean Harbors Florida LLC, Clean Harbors Grassy Mountain LLC, Clean Harbors India LLP, Clean Harbors Industrial Services Canada Inc., Clean Harbors Industrial Services Inc., Clean Harbors Innu Environmental Services Inc., Clean Harbors Kansas LLC, Clean Harbors Kingston Facility Corporation, Clean Harbors LaPorte LLC, Clean Harbors Laurel LLC, Clean Harbors Lodging Services LP, Clean Harbors Lodging Services ULC, Clean Harbors Lone Mountain LLC, Clean Harbors Mercier Inc., Clean Harbors Pecatonica LLC, Clean Harbors Production Services ULC, Clean Harbors Quebec Inc., Clean Harbors Recycling Services of Chicago LLC, Clean Harbors Recycling Services of Ohio LLC, Clean Harbors Reidsville LLC, Clean Harbors San Jose LLC, Clean Harbors San Leon Inc., Clean Harbors Services Inc., Clean Harbors Surface Rentals Partnership, Clean Harbors Surface Rentals ULC, Clean Harbors Surface Rentals USA Inc., Clean Harbors Tennessee LLC, Clean Harbors Westmorland LLC, Clean Harbors White Castle LLC, Clean Harbors Wichita LLC, Clean Harbors Wilmington LLC, Clean Harbors of Baltimore Inc. (DE Corp.), Clean Harbors of Braintree Inc., Clean Harbors of Connecticut Inc. (DE), Confined Space Services L.L.C., Cousins Waste Control LLC, Crowley Disposal LLC, Cyn Oil Corporation, Debusk Industrial Services Company LLC, Disposal Properties LLC, Emerald Services Inc., EnviroSORT Inc., EnviroSORT Inc., Eveready, Evergreen Holdings, GSX Disposal LLC, Global Vapor Control Inc., Green View Technologies Inc., HPC PetroServ Inc., Hilliard Disposal LLC, HydroChem Canada ULC, HydroChem Industrial Cleaning LLC, HydroChem LLC, HydroChemPSC, IISG Central Region LLC, IISG Gulf Coast LLC, IISG Real Estate LLC, Industrial Service Oil Company Inc., Inland Industrial Services Group LLC, Inland Waters Pollution Control Services LLC, Inland Waters of Ohio LLC, Jesco Industrial Service LLC, LJ Energy Services Holdings LLC, LJ Energy Services Intermediate Holding Corp., Lonestar Sylvan Inc., Lonestar Vacuum Inc., Lonestar West, Lonestar West Enterprises LLC, Lonestar West Inc., Lonestar West Services LLC, Murphy's Waste Oil Service Inc., Northeast Casualty Insurance Company, Omnichem LLC, PMS Industrial Services LLC, PSC Industrial Holdings Corp., PSC Industrial Inc., PSC Industrial Outsourcing LP, PSC Industrial Outsourcing of Michigan LLC, PSC LDAR Services LLC, Peak Energy Services, Philip Services/North Central LLC, Plaquemine Remediation Services LLC, Power Vac Construction L.L.C., RMF Aquilex Corp., Roebuck Disposal LLC, Romic Environmental Technologies, Rosemead Oil Products Inc., SK D'Incineration Inc., Safety-Kleen, Safety-Kleen Canada Inc., Safety-Kleen Envirosystems Company, Safety-Kleen Envirosystems Company of Puerto Rico Inc., Safety-Kleen Inc., Safety-Kleen International Inc., Safety-Kleen Systems Inc., Safety-Kleen of California Inc., Sawyer Disposal Services LLC, Seaport Environmental LLC, Service Chemical LLC, Speed Industrial Corporate LLC, Speed Industrial Service Catalyst LLC, Speed Industrial Service LLC, Speed Industrial Service of Beaumont LLC, Speed Industrial Services of Lake Charles LLC, Speed Industrial Services of Louisiana LLC, Speed Industrial Services of Texas LLC, Spring Grove Resource Recovery Inc., The Solvents Recovery Service of New Jersey Inc., Thermo Fluids, Thermo Fluids Inc., Tri-vax Enterprises Ltd., Tulsa Disposal LLC, Universal Environmental, Veolia North Americas U.S. Industrial Cleaning Services Division, Versant Energy Services Inc., Versant Energy Services LP, and Vulsay Industries Ltd..

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The following companies are subsidiares of Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft: ABFS I Incorporated, ABS MB Ltd., Alex. Brown Financial Services Incorporated, Alex. Brown Investments Incorporated, Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft mbH, Ambidexter GmbH i.L., Argent Incorporated, BHW - Gesellschaft fur Wohnungswirtschaft mbH, BHW Bausparkasse Aktiengesellschaft, BHW Holding GmbH, BT Globenet Nominees Limited, Bainpro Nominees Pty Ltd, Baldur Mortgages Limited, Bankers Trust Investments Limited, Bayan Delinquent Loan Recovery 1 (SPV-AMC) Inc., Berkshire Mortgage Finance, Betriebs-Center fur Banken AG, Better Financial Services GmbH, Better Payment Germany GmbH, Borfield Sociedad Anonima, Breaking Wave DB Limited, Cardales UK Limited, Cardea Real Estate S.r.l., Cathay Advisory (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Cathay Asset Management Company Limited, Cathay Capital Company (No 2) Limited, Cedar (Luxembourg) S.a. r.l., Chapel Funding, China Recovery Fund LLC, Consumo Srl in Liquidazione, D B Investments (GB) Limited, D&M Turnaround Partners Godo Kaisha, DB (Barbados) SRL, DB (Malaysia) Nominee (Asing) Sdn. Bhd., DB (Malaysia) Nominee (Tempatan) Sendirian Berhad, DB Alex. Brown Holdings Incorporated, DB Aotearoa Investments Limited, DB Beteiligungs-Holding GmbH, DB Boracay LLC, DB Capital Markets (Deutschland) GmbH, DB Cartera de lnmuebles 1 S.A.U., DB Chestnut Holdings Limited, DB Corporate Advisory (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., DB Delaware Holdings (Europe) Limited, DB Direkt GmbH, DB Elara LLC, DB Energy Trading LLC, DB Equipment Leasing Inc., DB Equity Limited, DB Finance (Delaware) LLC, DB Global Technology Inc., DB Global Technology SRL, DB Group Services (UK) Limited, DB HR Solutions GmbH, DB Holdings (New York) Inc., DB IROC Leasing Corp., DB Impact Investment Fund I. LP., DB Industrial Holdings Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, DB Industrial Holdings GmbH, DB Intermezzo LLC, DB International (Asia) Limited, DB International Investments Limited, DB International Trust (Singapore) Limited, DB Investment Managers Inc., DB Investment Partners Inc., DB Investment Partners Limited, DB Investment Resources (US) Corporation, DB Investment Resources Holdings Corp., DB Investment Services GmbH, DB London (Investor Services) Nominees Limited, DB Management Support GmbH, DB Nominees (Hong Kong) Limited, DB Nominees (Jersey) Limited, DB Nominees (Singapore) Pte Ltd, DB Omega BTV S.C.S., DB Omega Holdings LLC, DB Omega Ltd., DB Omega S.C.S., DB Operaciones y Servicios lnteractivos Agrupacicm de lnteres Econemico, DB Overseas Finance Delaware Inc., DB Overseas Holdings Limited, DB Print GmbH, DB Private Clients Corp., DB Private Wealth Mortgage Ltd., DB Re S.A., DB Service Centre Limited, DB Service Uruguay S.A., DB Services (Jersey) Limited, DB Services Americas. Inc., DB Servizi Amministrativi S.r.l., DB Strategic Advisors Inc., DB Structured Derivative Products LLC, DB Structured Products Inc., DB Trustee Services Limited, DB Trustees (Hong Kong) Limited, DB UK Bank Limited, DB UK Holdings Limited, DB UK PCAM Holdings Limited, DB US Financial Markets Holding Corporation, DB USA Core Corporation, DB USA Corporation, DB Valoren S.a. r.l., DB Value S.a.r.l., DB VersicherungsManager GmbH, DB Vita SA., DB lmmobilienfonds 5 Wieland KG i.L., DB lo LP, DBAH Capital. LLC, DBCIBZ1, DBFIC Inc., DBNZ Overseas Investments (No.1) Limited, DBOI Global Services (UK) Limited, DBR Investments Co. Limited, DBRE Global Real Estate Management 18 Ltd., DBRMS4, DBRMSGP1, DBUK PCAM Limited, DBUSBZ1 LLC, DBUSBZ2 S.a. r.l., DBX Advisers LLC, DEBEKO lmmobilien GmbH & Co Grundbesitz OHG, DEE Deutsche Erneuerbare Energien GmbH, DEUKONA Versicherungs-Vermittlungs-GmbH, DEUTSCHE BANK AS., DI Deutsche lmmobilien Treuhandgesellschaft mbH, DISCA Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, DWS Alternatives France, DWS Alternatives Global Limited, DWS Alternatives GmbH, DWS Asset Management (Korea) Company Limited, DWS Beteiligungs GmbH, DWS CH AG, DWS Distributors Inc., DWS Far Eastern Investments Limited, DWS Group GmbH & Co. KGaA, DWS Group Services UK Limited, DWS Grundbesitz GmbH, DWS International GmbH, DWS Investment GmbH, DWS Investment Management Americas Inc., DWS Investment S.A., DWS Investments Australia Limited, DWS Investments Hong Kong Limited, DWS Investments Japan Limited, DWS Investments Shanghai Limited, DWS Investments Singapore Limited, DWS Investments UK Limited, DWS Management GmbH, DWS Real Estate GmbH, DWS Service Company, DWS Shanghai Private Equity Fund Management Limited, DWS Trust Company, DWS USA Corporation, Deposit Solutions, Deutsche (Aotearoa) Capital Holdings New Zealand, Deutsche (Aotearoa) Foreign Investments New Zealand, Deutsche (New Munster) Holdings New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Access Investments Limited, Deutsche Aeolia Power Production Societe Anonyme, Deutsche Alternative Asset Management (UK) Limited, Deutsche Asia Pacific Holdings Pte Ltd, Deutsche Asset Management (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Australia Limited, Deutsche Bank (Cayman) Limited, Deutsche Bank (China) Co. Ltd., Deutsche Bank (Malaysia) Berhad, Deutsche Bank (Suisse) SA, Deutsche Bank (Uruguay) Sociedad Anenima lnstitucien Financiera Externa, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft, Deutsche Bank Americas Holding Corp., Deutsche Bank Europe GmbH, Deutsche Bank Financial Company, Deutsche Bank Holdings Inc., Deutsche Bank Insurance Agency Incorporated, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A., Deutsche Bank Mutui S.p.A., Deutsche Bank Mexico. S.A., Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, Deutsche Bank Polska Spelka Akcyjna, Deutsche Bank Representative Office Nigeria Limited, Deutsche Bank S.A, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Limited, Deutsche Bank Societe per Azioni, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Delaware, Deutsche Bank Trust Company National Association, Deutsche Bank Trust Corporation, Deutsche Bank. Sociedad Anenima Espanola, Deutsche CIB Centre Private Limited, Deutsche Capital Finance (2000) Limited, Deutsche Capital Hong Kong Limited, Deutsche Capital Markets Australia Limited, Deutsche Capital Partners China Limited, Deutsche Cayman Ltd., Deutsche Custody N.V., Deutsche Domus New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Equities India Private Limited, Deutsche Finance No. 2 Limited, Deutsche Foras New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur lmmobilien-Leasing mit beschrenkter Haftung, Deutsche Global Markets Limited, Deutsche Group Holdings (SA) Proprietary Limited, Deutsche Group Services Pty Limited, Deutsche Grundbesitz Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., Deutsche Grundbesitz-Anlagegesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Deutsche Holdings (BTI) Limited, Deutsche Holdings (Grand Duchy), Deutsche Holdings (Luxembourg) S.El r.l., Deutsche Holdings Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 2 Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 3 Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 4 Limited, Deutsche India Holdings Private Limited, Deutsche India Private Limited, Deutsche International Corporate Services (Ireland) Limited, Deutsche International Corporate Services Limited, Deutsche International Custodial Services Limited, Deutsche Investments (Netherlands) N.V., Deutsche Investments India Private Limited, Deutsche Investor Services Private Limited, Deutsche Knowledge Services Pte. Ltd., Deutsche Leasing New York Corp., Deutsche Mexico Holdings S.a. r.|., Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Group Limited, Deutsche Mortgage & Asset Receiving Corporation, Deutsche Nederland N.V., Deutsche New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Nominees Limited, Deutsche Oppenheim Family Office AG, Deutsche Overseas Issuance New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Postbank, Deutsche Postbank Finance Center Objekt GmbH, Deutsche Private Asset Management Limited, Deutsche Securities (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Securities (Proprietary) Limited, Deutsche Securities (SA) (Proprietary) Limited, Deutsche Securities Asia Limited, Deutsche Securities Australia Limited, Deutsche Securities Inc., Deutsche Securities Israel Ltd., Deutsche Securities Korea Co., Deutsche Securities Mauritius Limited, Deutsche Securities SA. de C.V.. Casla de Bolsa, Deutsche Securities Saudi Arabia, Deutsche Services (Cl) Limited, Deutsche Services Polska Sp. z o.o., Deutsche StiftungsTrust GmbH, Deutsche Strategic Investment Holdings Yugen Kaisha, Deutsche Trustee Company Limited, Deutsche Trustee Services (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Trustees Malaysia Berhad, Deutsche Wealth Management S.G.I.I.C. SA., Deutsche lmmobilien Leasing GmbH, Deutsches lnstitut fur Altersvorsorge GmbH, Durian (Luxembourg) S.a. r.l., EC EUROPA IMMOBILIEN FONDS NR. 3 GmbH & CO. KG i.l., Elizabethan Holdings Limited, Elizabethan Management Limited, European Value Added I (Alternate GP.) LLP, Fiduciaria Sant Andrea S.r.l., Finanzberatungsgesellschaft mbH der Deutschen Bank, Funfte SAB Treuhand und Verwaltung GmbH & Co. Suhl "Rimbachzentrum" KG, G Finance Holding Corp., German American Capital Corporation, Grundstucksgesellschaft Frankfurt Bockenheimer LandstraBe GbR, Grundstucksgesellschaft Miesbaden LuisenstraBe/Kirchgasse GbR, Hollandsche Bank-Unie, ISTRON Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungs-GmbH, IVAF l Manager S.a.r.l., Immobilienfonds Buro-Center Erfurt am Flughafen Bindersleben I GbR, J R Nominees (Pty) Ltd, Joint Stock Company Deutsche Bank DBU, Jyogashima Godo Kaisha, KEBA Gesellschaft fur interne Services mbH, Kidson Pte Ltd, Konsul lnkasso GmbH, LA Water Holdings Limited, LAWL Pte. Ltd., Leasing Verwaltungsgesellschaft Waltersdorf mbH, Leonardo lll Initial GP Limited, MEF I Manager. S. a r.|., MIT Holdings Inc., Maher Terminals Holdings (Toronto) Limited, Morgan Grenfell & Company, MortgageIT, MortgagelT Inc., MortgagelT Securities Corp., OOO "Deutsche Bank TechCentIe", OOO "Deutsche Bank", OPB Verwaltungs- und Treuhand GmbH, OPB-Oktava GmbH, OPB-Quarta GmbH, OPPENHEIM Capital Advisory GmbH, OPPENHEIM PRIVATE EQUITY Manager GmbH, OPPENHEIM PRIVATE EQUITY Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, PADUS Grundstcks-VermietungsgeseIlschaft mbH, PB Factoring GmbH, PB Spezial-lnvestmentaktiengesellschatt mit Teilgesellschaftsvermogen, PCC Services GmbH der Deutschen Bank, PT Deutsche Sekuritas Indonesia, Pan Australian Nominees Pty Ltd, Plantation Bay. Inc., Postbank Akademie und Service GmbH, Postbank Beteiligungen GmbH, Postbank Direkt GmbH, Postbank Filialvertrieb AG, Postbank Finanzberatung AG, Postbank Leasing GmbH, Postbank lmmobilien GmbH, Quantiguous, R.B.M. Nominees Pty Ltd, RREEF, RREEF America LLC., RREEF China REIT Management Limited, RREEF European Value Added I (G.P.) Limited, RREEF Fund Holding Co., RREEF India Advisers Private Limited, RREEF Management LLC., RoPro U.S. Holding Inc., Route 28 Receivables. LLC, SAB Real Estate Verwaltungs GmbH, SAGITA Grundstucks-Vermielungsgesellschaft mbH, SAPIO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, Sal. Oppenheim, Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. Beteiligungs GmbH, Sharps SP l LLC, Stelvio lmmobiliare S.r.l., Suddeutsche Vermeigensvewvaitung Gesellschaft mit beschrenkter Haftung, TELO Beleiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Tempurrite Leasing Limited, Thai Asset Enforcement and Recovery Asset Management Company Limited, Treuinvest Service GmbH, Triplereason Umited, VOB-ZVD Processing GmbH, WEPLA Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Wealthspur Investment Ltd., World Trading (Delaware) Inc., lmmobilienfonds BuroCenter Erfurt am Flughafen Bindersleben II GbR, lmmobilienfonds Wohn- und Gescheftshaus Koln-Blumenberg V GbR, and norisbank GmbH.

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Camp Lejeune Town Halls Aim to Help Those Exposed to Toxic Water. Heres How You Can Go.

Retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger made it his mission to tell the world that if they lived or served on Camp Lejeune...
INFP: In orice moment se poate produce un cutremur cu magnitudine mai mare de 7 in zona seismica Vrancea / De ce sunt atatea cutremure in zona Vrancea?
The U.S. was reduced to the role of concerned bystander Tuesday as NATO-ally Turkey met in Moscow with Iran and Russia to plot Syria's fate following the fall of Aleppo and the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey.

"We weren't invited," State Department spokesman John Kirby said of the Moscow meeting of foreign ministers, but Secretary of State John Kerry made follow-up phone calls to his Russian and Turkish counterparts for readouts of what was discussed.

"The Secretary doesn't see this as a snub at all," Kirby said, and if the Moscow talks can somehow lead to a ceasefire, then "the Secretary is perfectly fine with him not being in the room."

However, a joint statement issued after the talks and remarks by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and others made clear that President Vladimir Putin viewed the Russia-Iran-Turkey partnership as a new power broker "troika" which would replace U.S. leadership in the Middle East.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Turkish Foreign Minister Mehmet Cavosoglu and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Sharif agreed in the joint statement to "express their willingness to help the Syrian government and the opposition draft a (peace) agreement and act as its guarantors," Lavrov said.

Shoigu said the immediate goal of the "Moscow Declaration" was to achieve a ceasefire in Syria's five-year-old civil war which has killed more than 400,000, displaced more than 10 million and led to a refugee crisis in Europe that has destabilized governments.

"All previous attempts by the United States and its partners to agree on coordinated actions were doomed to failure. None of them wielded real influence over the situation on the ground," Shoigu said.

Despite the joint statement, Cavusoglu described a major point of disagreement with Russia and Iran on arrangements for a Syrian ceasefire, particularly on the role of Lebanese Hezbollah fighters who have been instrumental in the success of the regime forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Cavusoglu said that the Shiite Hezbollah backed by Iran, the Islamic State of Iran and Syria and the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham group, formerly known as the al-Nusra Front and linked to al-Qaida, should not be covered by a ceasefire and should be targeted.

Lavrov said that some groups operating in Syria such as Hezbollah "were invited by the government of Bashar al-Assad." Zarif, Iran's main negotiator in the nuclear deal with the U.S. and others, said he respected Turkey's position on Hezbollah but "other countries don't accept it."

The Moscow talks came a day after Andrei Karlov, Russia's ambassador to Turkey, was assassinated in an Ankara art gallery by a gunman, later identified as a 22-year-old off-duty Turkish riot police officer, who shouted "Don't forget Aleppo, Don't forget Syria."

Karlov had been credited with patching up relations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a Turkish F-16 last year downed a Russian Su-24 warplane near the Turkey-Syria border. Both Erdogan and Putin made statements saying that the assassination would not stop the "normalization" process between the two countries.

At the regular State Department briefing Tuesday, Kirby said that Kerry would remain "100 percent" involved in seeking a political solution to Syria's civil war in his remaining days in office, and he denied that the U.S. role as the indispensable power in the Middle East had been diminished or replaced by Russia and it new allies.

"There's not a diminution of U.S. leadership or influence in the Middle East," Kirby said. "The U.S. still remains heavily engaged. The U.S. still has a robust military presence there, and I don't see that changing."

However, the fall of Aleppo and Turkey's alliance with Russia had implications for the presence of 300-500 mostly U.S. Special Forces troops in northeastern Syria who were now engaged in supporting a drive on Raqaa, the self-proclaimed ISIS capital, by a mixed Kurdish and Arab militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.

In recent weeks, U.S. military officials on the record and on background have expressed concerns over where the Syrian regime forces backed by Russia and Iran would move next after Aleppo, and those concerns were echoed earlier this week by retired Army Gen. David Petraeus.

The U.S. military officials described three possible scenarios for Assad's forces; they could move northwest against rebel forces in Idlib province, where many of the Aleppo refugees have fled; they could move northeast towards al-Bab, where Turkish forces have been trying to oust ISIS; or they could move east to retake Palmyra and open a corridor between Palmyra and the Syrian border with Iraq.

Under any scenario, "I think it portends more bloodshed," Petraeus said in remarks at George Washington University, "and it also may portend a situation where Humpty Dumpty can't be put back together again" in the form of a viable, Syrian government.

"It is hard to see," Petraeus said. "I don't have a sense that Bashar al-Assad and the Shia militia and even Russian airpower necessarily will enable him to conquer all the remaining elements."

The already complicated situation in Syria, with myriad groups battling Assad and sometimes each other, has been complicated further by doubts about the intentions of the U.S.

The U.S. has opposed the creation of safe zones and no-fly zones that would involve the deployment of substantial numbers of ground troops, but President-elect Donald Trump has continued to argue for safe zones.

At a rally in Pennsylvania last week, Trump said, When I look at what's going on in Syria, it's so sad, it's so sad, and we're going to help people."

Trump said the money for the safe zones would come from the Gulf states. "They have nothing but money," he said. "We don't have money," We owe $20 trillion. I will get the Gulf states to give us lots of money, and we'll build and help build safe zones in Syria, so people can have a chance. So they can have a chance."

R. Nicholas Burns, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said Trump was adding to the confusion over who speaks for the U.S. in the Mideast, and he should keep his thoughts on policy to himself until he is inaugurated.

"He has complicated things," Burns said on MSNBC. Those in the Mideast were "now hearing two competing voices" from the U.S.

However, Burns agreed that the U.S. has lost power and influence in the Mideast, as evidenced by the U.S. absence from the talks in Moscow. "We were the dominant diplomatic power. Now, we're not even at the table," Burns said.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at richard.sisk@military.com
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.
TODAY: Even after the Pirates reached an agreement with Ivan Nova, the Pirates are still trying to acquire Quintana, FOX Sports Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link).

WEDNESDAY: The Pirates have worked hard to trade for star White Sox lefty Jose Quintana, ESPNs Buster Olney tweets. Olney notes that Quintanas very reasonable contract  which guarantees him a very reasonable $15.85MM over the next two years, plus cheap options or $1M buyouts for 2019 and 2020  would fit into the budget of the low-revenue Pirates.

The Bucs currently have a very young and unproven rotation behind Gerrit Cole, and Quintana would certainly provide a big boost to a team that could conceivably contend in 2017. Acquiring Quintana, though, would seemingly constitute a significant change in direction for the Pirates, who have spent much of the offseason thus far discussing trades involving star outfielder Andrew McCutchen (who they now appear likely to keep). Adding Quintana, who has pitched over 800 innings in the last four seasons and who had a 3.20 ERA, 7.8 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 while finishing 10th in AL Cy Young voting in 2016, would dramatically increase the Pirates chances of making the playoffs next year.

Quintana would come at a significant price in prospects. The White Sox have driven hard bargains so far this offseason in trading Chris Sale and Adam Eaton, and they reportedly asked for top prospects Francis Martes and Kyle Tucker, plus big-leaguer Joe Musgrove, when the Astros called about Quintana. Thats not a wholly unreasonable price for a terrific pitcher with four years of control remaining, particularly given the seemingly seller-friendly market this offseason, but it isnt cheap, either. The Pirates could conceivably offer top prospects like Austin Meadows, Tyler Glasnow or Mitch Keller in a Quintana trade, although the exact players discussed as theyve worked to deal with the White Sox remain unknown.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Gabriel, a Denmark-based supplier to the furniture industry, will open its first North American manufacturing operation in a former furniture factory on the city's West Side.

The company will create 56 jobs and invest $1.5 million into 560 Fifth St. NW, according to a Wednesday, Dec. 21 announcement by The Right Place Inc. The 136-year-old office building includes manufacturing space built in the late 1990s.

Founded in 1851 in Denmark, Gabriel develops, manufactures and sells upholstery fabrics, components, upholstered services and related products and services. The company opened a sales offices in Grand Rapids since 2015.

Gabriel also has a sales office in Paris and operations in England, Lithuania and China, according to its website.

"Over the past year, The Right Place has been a valuable resource in establishing our first location in North America," said Lars Malte Hansen, Gabriel's director of business development. "The organization was able to directly assist us with a variety of business needs, as well as connect us with several additional services in the area."

Gabriel is not related the Gabriel Group, a West Michigan-based supplier of food service equipment that has offices on the fourth floor of the Widdicomb Building at 601 Seward Ave. NW.

The Danish firm's first connection to The Right Place came from Express Employment Professionals last year after Gabriel contacted them for human resource support, according to a Right Place press release.

"We were thrilled to welcome Gabriel Group to West Michigan in 2015 and assist with their talent acquisition plans," said Janis Petrini, owner of Express Employment Professionals of Grand Rapids.

"We were able to help them understand the current labor market in Grand Rapids and the unique strengths our region has to offer. We continue to work closely with Gabriel Group to attract talent and support their growth goals with help from The Right Place," Petrini said.

"Too often, communities pay too much attention to the business deal itself, not acknowledging the fact that this business will now be operating in a foreign country with little on-the-ground support," said Eric Icard, a Right Place senior business development manager who helped Gabriel find its location.
LANSING, MI - A 5-story apartment complex along the east bank of the Grand River on Monroe Avenue NW was cleared to capture over $1 million in local and school taxes to help pay for site cleanup costs.

The $9.6 million Rivers Edge project at 1001 Monroe Avenue NW will be built on a half-acre lot next to the city's Canal Street Park. It will replace a single story cement block office building that was demolished last month by developer Orion Construction LLC.

The tax capture was approved on Tuesday, Dec. 20, by the Michigan Strategic Fund Board.

The 12-year tax capture is designed to help the developer clear contaminated soil on the lot and prepare the site for new construction. Although the project is eligible for more than $1 million, state officials estimated the formula used for the capture will only yield $665,330 for the developers.

The Rivers Edge project will include ground floor commercial space, 32 apartments on the upper four floors and 32 spaces for parking. The project is expected to create the equivalent of about 35 full-time jobs.

The site was acquired in 2014 for $1.3 million. It is one of a few private non-residential properties on the west side of Monroe Avenue NW between Leonard Street and the Sixth Street Bridge.

Orion has been an active investor in the development of downtown apartments in recent years, putting together the $45 million deal to build Arena Place, which was recently completed at 55 Ottawa Avenue SW.
Custom Profile facility.jpg

Custom Profile, Inc. announced it will be moving the production from a Wisconsin company it recently acquired to its operations at 2535 Waldorf Court NW in Walker.

(Courtesy photo)

WALKER, MI -- Custom Profile, Inc. announced it will be moving the production from a Wisconsin company it recently acquired to its operations at 2535 Waldorf Court NW.

The company is expected to add 54 new jobs and invest $2.28 million to support the relocation over the next three years, according to an announcement by the Right Place Inc.

Custom Profile, which is owned by Blackford Capital, Inc., announced the purchase of privately held Bemis Manufacturing of Sheboygan Falls, Wis. earlier this year. Terms of the sales were not disclosed.

Founded in 1992, Custom Profile specializes in extruded plastic projects for the appliance, office furniture, automotive, energy, point-of-purchase, and marine industries.

With more than 180 employees, Custom Profile also provides design support and in-house tooling development.

"After the acquisition of the company, Custom Profile had several options on the future location of the business," said Jen Wangler, business development manager of The Right Place, Inc.

"Custom Profile could have kept the operations in Wisconsin or moved them elsewhere. Instead, working together, we were able to bring the operations here to West Michigan."

The project is being support by a $216,000 performance-based grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

This investment and expansion is the latest growth announcement for Custom Profile after several successful years since its acquisition by Blackford Capital, a national private equity firm headquartered in Grand Rapids.

Custom Profile was Blackford's seventh portfolio company, and its first using the firm's Michigan Equity Investment Fund.

"Since our acquisition of Custom Profile, the ownership team has met all expectations; from building a positive equity value and job creation, to creating a great workplace for our employees," said Martin Stein, Founder and Managing Partner, Blackford Capital, Inc.

"The City of Walker is proud to be home to Custom Profile and pleased to see their continued growth in Walker," said Walker Mayor Mark Huizenga, in an announcement on Wednesday, Dec. 21.

"Walker is committed to being a business friendly-community, we have no greater testimony than our businesses that continue to grow and thrive in the City. The city is grateful to The Right Place as we partner; enhancing the economic growth of our city and region."

"We are grateful for the support of The Right Place during this new phase of growth," said Jim Gorant, chief financial officer for Custom Profile, Inc.

"With all the operational complexities involved with an acquisition like this, it is extremely helpful to have an organization like The Right Place supporting us locally and ensuring we were able to move these jobs here to Walker."
The Jamestown Patmos Library Board is no longer a silent partner in the operation of the library. The full library board appeared at the township hall on Dec. 19 for a meeting with the Township Board to discuss library needs and to formally introduce the newly appointed library director, Stephanie Rogers.

Rogers has four years of library experience and also has a background in journalism. Formerly of Windsor, Missouri, she is now living in Sturgis, Michigan. She replaces former library director Christina Golm, and was appointed Nov. 28.

Rogers said the Patmos Library building is beautiful, but programming "needs some help." She told the joint board that more programming would require more hours, and hours should be based on population.

The current library board is the first in the library's history to be elected, although an advisory board has operated since the library opened. Current library board members were affirmed in office in the Nov. 8, 2016 general election. The meeting of the two boards was "to develop a relationship and relational support," according to library board President Deb Fridsma.

As the library board presented needs in the area of staffing, programming and materials, Fridsma said the library was looking for a "happy medium" for financial support for needs not funded through the board-approved millage.

Trustee Tim Tacoma said he considered the library a township asset, and that he could support paying "landlord" capital expenditures, such as lights, heat and water. It might be possible, he said, for a "one-time bailout" from the township for some repair costs, such as the message board, but long term, the library should not expect to be "a bucket dipping into township funds." If more money was needed, more millage should be levied, he said.

Township Treasurer Scott Brouwer said he believed that when the millage was originally approved, it was to get the library started and probably was not intended to be the final funding solution. He said the millage has not kept up with needs, and some cost sharing with the township has occurred.

Supervisor Ken Bergwerff said, "I was told by someone who does not live in the township that the library has been treated like a step-child."

There is still no formal budget for the library. Bills are sent to the township treasurer for payment. A more detailed view of library expenses and future needs will be prepared and sent to the Township Board to help determine whether general funds will be designated for library operations, expenses and personnel. The Township Board has begun budget review for the upcoming year.
Thinfilm to Demonstrate 'Smart Beer' and 'Smart Medical Devices' at CES 2017

Thin Film Electronics ASA ("Thinfilm"), a global leader in NFC (near field communication) smart-packaging solutions using printed electronics, will demonstrate its innovative technology at CES (News - Alert) in Las Vegas, January 5-8, 2017. In addition, Erwan Le Roy, Thinfilm's EVP Business Development & GM NFC Solutions and Smart Sensor Products, will deliver a presentation on Thinfilm's NFC mobile marketing solutions and the critical role they can play in expanding the Internet of Things (IoT).

On display at CES, Thinfilm will demonstrate connected items such as smart beer bottles and smart medical devices featuring Thinfilm's award-winning NFC tags, SpeedTap and OpenSense. The smartphone-readable tags integrate with powerful cloud-based software, enabling a direct connection between consumers and brands that effectively 'disintermediates' platforms such as Facebook (News - Alert), Amazon, and Google.

"CES promises its usual bevy of Internet of Things innovations, but in reality the industry has only just scratched the surface," said Thinfilm CEO, Davor Sutija. "To realize the full promise of IoT, we need to extend its traditional boundaries to include the hundreds of billions of everyday, disposable items that exist in the world. Thinfilm intends to play a key role in making those things smart - not only by providing an alternative to traditional silicon, but by producing affordable NFC chips in ultra-high volumes through roll-based processing."

Thinfilm will demonstrate how its NFC solutions enable craft beer bottles to provide consumers with brewmaster videos, pairing recommendations, and other information from the brewery through the simple tap of a smartphone. Earlier this year, Thinfilm announced a collaboration with Hopsy, the US's first local craft beer marketplace and beer delivery service, to integrate OpenSense into a variety of locally produced craft beers across the country.

Thinfilm will also show how its NFC technology can help improve patient adherence by demonstrating the YpsoMate Smart autoinjector pen, a medical device for patients that self-administer medication to treat chronic conditions. The smart medical device is the result of a collaboration between Thinfilm and Ypsomed, a leading developer and manufacturer of injection systems for self-medication.

Thinfilm's participation at CES follows several key 2016 milestones, which include the following:







The Venetian, Suite 29-226, by appointment only:

Led by CEO Davor Sutija, Thinfilm will demonstrate its NFC OpenSense and NFC SpeedTap tags in a private suite at The Venetian. To schedule a briefing and see how Thinfilm is working toward a ubiquitous world of connected objects, please email: [email protected] (media and analysts).

On stage, Friday, January 6 at 2:15pm, Tech East, LVCC, North Hall, Room N264

In addition to the demonstrations, Erwan LeRoy, EVP Business Development & GM NFC Solutions and Smart Sensor Products, will participate in the session, "Printed Electronics: Key Enabling Technology for IoT" moderated by Dr. Jeremy Burroughes, CDT (News - Alert). Mr. LeRoy will offer his thoughts on the printed electronics industry and how NFC smart packaging will help fuel the Internet of Everything.

About Thin Film Electronics ASA

Thinfilm is a leader in NFC smart packaging solutions using printed electronics. The first to commercialize printed, rewritable memory, the Company today creates printed tags, labels and systems that include memory, sensing, display, and wireless communication - all at a price point unmatched by conventional electronic technologies. Thinfilm's roadmap integrates technology from a strong and growing ecosystem of partners to bring intelligence to everyday items and effectively extend the traditional boundaries of the Internet of Things.

Thin Film Electronics ASA ("Thinfilm") is a publicly listed Norwegian company with headquarters in Oslo, Norway; product development and production in Linkoping, Sweden; product development, production, and business development in San Jose, California, USA; and sales offices in the United States, Hong Kong, and Singapore. For more information, visit www.thinfilm.no.

This information is subject of the disclosure requirements acc. to 5-12 vphl (Norwegian Securities Trading Act).

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161220005262/en/
business Domestic biz contributes around 5-6% to total sales: Datamatics In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Rahul L Kanodia, VC and CEO, Datamatics Global Services said that the company's top clients are mostly international insurance companies and banks.
business Ignis to target millennials; small cars need enabling tax:Maruti Ignis is an urban premium compact targeted at the millennials, said RS Kalsi, ED-Mkting & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India.
you are here:
business Govt asks RBI for report on bank oversight during demonetisation The finance ministry official said: aWhile the investigative agencies are doing their bit, we are seeking a report from the central bank on whether there is a systemic concern or case of few abad apples.a
The chronicle of a life split between urban Manhattan and rural Montana.
Friends In Pink is still on the radar and growing every year
December 21, 2016 How The Military Excluded The White House From International Syria Negotiations The NYT laments today that international negotiations about the situation in Syria now continue without any U.S. participation: Russia, Iran and Turkey Meet for Syria Talks, Excluding U.S. Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Moscow on Tuesday to work toward a political accord to end Syrias nearly six-year war, leaving the United States on the sidelines as the countries sought to drive the conflict in ways that serve their interests. Secretary of State John Kerry was not invited. Nor was the United Nations consulted. With pro-government forces having made critical gains on the ground, ... (Note: The last sentence originally and correctly said "pro-Syrian forces ...", not "pro-government forces ...". It was altered after I noted the "pro-Syrian" change of tone on Twitter.) Russia kicked the U.S. out of any further talks about Syria after the U.S. blew a deal which, after long delaying negotiations, Kerry had made with the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. In a recent interview Kerry admits that it was opposition from the Pentagon, not Moscow or Damascus, that had blown up his agreement with Russia over Syria: More recently, he has clashed inside the administration with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. Kerry negotiated an agreement with Russia to share joint military operations, but it fell apart. Unfortunately we had divisions within our own ranks that made the implementation of that extremely hard to accomplish, Kerry said. But I believe in it, I think it can work, could have worked." Kerry's agreement with Russia did not just "fell apart". The Pentagon actively sabotaged it by intentionally and perfidiously attacking the Syrian army. The deal with Russia was made in June. It envisioned coordinated attacks on ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria, both designated as terrorist under two UN Security Council resolutions which call upon all countries to eradicate them. For months the U.S. failed to separate its CIA and Pentagon trained, supplied and paid "moderate rebel" from al-Qaeda, thereby blocking the deal. In September the deal was modified and finally ready to be implemented. The Pentagon still did not like it but had been overruled by the White House: The agreement that Secretary of State John Kerry announced with Russia to reduce the killing in Syria has widened an increasingly public divide between Mr. Kerry and Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, who has deep reservations about the plan for American and Russian forces to jointly target terrorist groups. Mr. Carter was among the administration officials who pushed against the agreement on a conference call with the White House last week as Mr. Kerry, joining the argument from a secure facility in Geneva, grew increasingly frustrated. Although President Obama ultimately approved the effort after hours of debate, Pentagon officials remain unconvinced.

...

Im not saying yes or no, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, commander of the United States Air Forces Central Command, told reporters on a video conference call. It would be premature to say that were going to jump right into it. The CentCom general threatened to not follow the decision his Commander of Chief had taken. He would not have done so without cover from Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Three days later U.S. CentCom Air Forces and allied Danish airplanes attack Syrian army positions near the ISIS besieged city of Deir Ezzor. During 37 air attacks within one hour between 62 and 100 Syrian Arab Army soldiers were killed and many more wounded. They had held a defensive positions on hills overlooking the Deir Ezzor airport. Shortly after the U.S. air attack ISIS forces stormed the hills and have held them since. Resupply for the 100,000+ civilians and soldiers in Deir Ezzor is now endangered if not impossible. The CentCom attack enabled ISIS to eventually conquer Deir Ezzor and to establish the envisioned "Salafist principality" in east Syria. During the U.S. attack the Syrian-Russian operations center had immediately tried to contact the designated coordination officer at U.S. Central Command to stop the attack. But that officer could not be reached and those at CentCom taking the Russian calls just hanged up: By time the Russian officer found his designated contact  who was away from his desk  and explained that the coalition was actually hitting a Syrian army unit, a good amount of strikes had already taken place, U.S. Central Command spokesman Col. John Thomas told reporters at the Pentagon Tuesday. Until the attack the Syrian and Russian side had, as agreed with Kerry, kept to a ceasefire to allow the separation of the "marbled" CIA and al-Qaeda forces. After the CentCom air attack the Kerry-Lavrov deal was off: On the sidelines of an emergency UN Security Council meeting called on the matter, tempers were high. Russia's permanent UN representative, Vitaly Churkin, questioned the timing of the strikes, two days before Russian-American coordination in the fight against terror groups in Syria was to begin. "I have never seen such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness," he said, after abruptly leaving the meeting. The Pentagon launched one of its usual whitewash investigations and a heavily redacted summary report (pdf) was released in late November. Gareth Porter still found some usable bits in it: The report, released by US Central Command on 29 November, shows that senior US Air Force officers at the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at al-Udeid Airbase in Qatar, who were responsible for the decision to carry out the September airstrike at Deir Ezzor: misled the Russians about where the US intended to strike so Russia could not warn that it was targeting Syrian troops

ignored information and intelligence analysis warning that the positions to be struck were Syrian government rather than Islamic State

shifted abruptly from a deliberate targeting process to an immediate strike in violation of normal Air Force procedures The investigation was led by a Brigade General. He was too low in rank to investigate or challenge the responsible CentCom air-commander Lt. Gen. Harrington. The name of a co-investigator was redacted in the report and marked as "foreign government information". That officer was likely from Denmark. Four days after the investigation report was officially released the Danish government, without giving any public reason, pulled back its air contingent from any further operations under U.S. command in Iraq and Syria. With the attack on Deir Ezzor the Pentagon has: enabled ISIS to win the siege in Deir Ezzor where 100,000+ civilians and soldiers are under threat of being brutally killed

cleared the grounds for the establishment of an ISIS ruled "Salafist principality" in east-Syria

deceived a European NATO ally and lost its active cooperation over Syria and Iraq

ruined Kerry's deal with Russia about a coordinated fight against UN designated terrorists in Syria

kicked the U.S. out of further international negotiations about Syria It is clear that the responsible U.S. officer for the attack and its consequences is one Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian who had earlier publicly spoken out against a deal that his Commander in Chief had agreed to. He likely had cover from Defense Secretary Ash Carter. The White House did not react to this public military insubordination and undermining of its diplomacy. Emptywheel notes that, though on a different issue, the CIA is also in quite open insurrection against the President's decisions: [I]t alarms me that someone decided it was a good idea to go leak criticisms of a [presidential] Red Phone exchange. It would seem that such an instrument depends on some foundation of trust that, no matter how bad things have gotten, two leaders of nuclear armed states can speak frankly and directly. Posted by b on December 21, 2016 at 18:34 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page 
Champagne has been the drink of celebrations ever since French monk Dom Perignon discovered the libation in 1693 and exclaimed,Come quickly, I am drinking the stars.

Because Champagne is a proprietary word for bubbly wines produced in the Champagne region of France; here in the U.S., we label these sparkling. A handful of U.S. wineries continue to legally use Champagnegrandfathered to them under a 2006 trade agreement.

From dry to slightly sweet, there are a number of excellent local sparkling wines.

Brut style wines are crisp and clean on the finish and pair well with oysters on the half-shell, sushi, smoked salmon, macaroni and cheese and potato chips.

 Sarahs Vineyard, Brut Sparkling Wine $28

 Guglielmo Winery, Emiles Grand Cuvee $14.99

 Kirigin Cellars, Grand Cuvee Champagne $21.90

 De Rose Vineyards imported sparklers from France, Argentina and Italy ($17-$27)

Extra dry refers to bubbly that is slightly sweet on the finish and a perfect complement to the fiery flavors of spicy Mexican or Thai food.

 Creekview Vineyards, Raspberry Private Cuvee, $24

 Fortino Winery, Almond Champagne, $24 or Extra Dry Champagne, $19

 Guglielmo Winery, Emiles California Extra Dry Champagne, $12.99

 Kirigin Cellars, Champagne $19.90
Calgary real estate developer Riaz Mamdani has been confirmed to be in stable condition after being shot right outside his Mount Royal home a few days ago.Mamdani, who has figured in various legal disputes in the past few years, was the subject of what police officials have called a targeted attack around 8 a.m. on Monday morning (December 19).I don't want to go into details of the investigation at this point, but it does, from our standpoint, look very specific, Staff Sgt. Travis Baker said, as quoted by CBC News. An exact motive is not known at this time.If this is business related, we would certainly be exploring those things. We'll be looking at all different kinds of motives, Baker added.The founder of real estate investment and development company Strategic Group was leaving home in his dark Rolls Royce at the time of the attack. Investigators stated that the prime suspect is a man wearing a bright orange jacket.Among the most notable of Mamdanis legal entanglements is a $10-million lawsuit filed in 2014, which alleged that Mamdani dissolved a deal without offering an explanation to investors after raising $6.4 million to purchase land.
Fannie and Freddie Updates Including Duty to Serve, Risk Sharing, HARP, HAMP, ULDD, etc.

Hey, dont know what to get your favorite capital markets guy or gal this year for Christmas? Here's a memorable gift, with a one minute video. Although apps rose slightly last week, folks in the secondary marketing department are wondering if there any pipelines left to sell. And what will pipelines look like after the end of December when the pre-election loans fund? (Before I forget, here's a Christmas tip: take empty boxes, wrap them in festive paper, then throw them in the fire every time a child misbehaves.)

FormFree spread the word that, "Four of the most critical pillars of the loan are income, identity, asset, and employment. Now that Fannie Mae has weighed in on using automated verification technology for three of these four pillars (i.e. asset via AccountChek and Employment/Income via Equifax) through the Day 1 Certainty Initiative, the savvy lender will be turning their attention to bundling and automating all four pillars to create a true straight-through process environment in underwriting. This is an area to which FormFree has turned its attention in recent months, and we anticipate bringing to market an integrated verification platform called Passport, which we previewed at the SourceMedia Digital Mortgage Conference in San Francisco. The platform securely leverages both direct-access data and records from trusted third-party consumer information repositories to bundle and deliver this critical verification information into one easy report."

The FHFA continues to push Fannie & Freddie on credit-risk sharing. A regulatory 2017 scorecard for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac calls on the firms to transfer a significant portion of credit risk to third-party private investors on at least 90% of unpaid principal balance of newly acquired single-family mortgages. And legislation pops up occasionally.

Moody's: Privatizing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Would Cost "Hundreds of Billions". According to a new report from Moody's Investors Service, privatizing the GSEs is not only unlikely to happen any time soon, it's also hugely cost-prohibitive, and it would be a negative for bond investors as well.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued a Final Rule on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Duty to Serve Underserved markets. The statute requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to serve three specified underserved markets: manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation, and rural housing, by improving the distribution and availability of mortgage financing in a safe and sound manner for residential properties that serve very low, low, and moderate-income families.

Freddie Mac issued the following Statement on Duty to Serve Final Rule. "We look forward to working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and stakeholders to implement the Duty to Serve provisions. We're proud to responsibly increase our activities involving manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation and rural housing to help more American families. This is an opportunity for the entire mortgage industry to work together to address some of the toughest issues in housing, including the distribution and availability of both mortgage financing and affordable rental housing for working families. The Duty to Serve provisions align with our mission to build both a better Freddie Mac and a better housing finance system for this country."

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Offer New Loan Modification Program. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced new programs to provide relief for distressed borrowers. The Flex Modification programs will replace the Home Affordable Mortgage Program, the government mortgage assistance program developed in 2009 in the wake of the subprime loan crisis. HAMP is set to expire Dec. 31.

There were "only" 243,000 Fannie & Freddie residential loans that were refinanced in October of this year, which also saw the slowest HARP month on record. Mortgage Daily reported, "GSE Refinances Fall, Slowest HARP Month on Record." Just a month after surging to a three year high, refinances of government-sponsored enterprise loans fell, with federally funded transactions falling to an all time low.

Fannie Mae updated its Servicing Guide to reflect changes in Verifying Master Project Insurance, Maximum Allowable Foreclosure Attorney Fees for Judicial States, and Servicing Fees for Redeemable Mortgage Loans and Third-Party Foreclosure Sales. Read the Announcement for full details. Fannie Mae's Servicing Management Default UnderwriterTM (SMDUTM) Version 7.1 has been implemented. The SMDU Version 7.1 Release Notes supports the retirement of four modifications (HAMP, Mod24, MyCity Modification, Principal Reduction Modification). In addition, to create more efficiency, servicers can now utilize SMDU for additional case management functionality.

The Freddie Mac Flex Modification foreclosure prevention program, which is designed to help America's families by offering significant reductions in their monthly mortgage payments, replaces Freddie Mac's version of the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), which is set to expire at the end of this year. The new program was developed in alignment with Fannie Mae at the direction of the FHFA. The Flex Modification incorporates input from a wide range of industry participants as well as lessons learned from earlier programs. It's expected to provide a 20 percent payment reduction for eligible borrowers. A high percentage of those who are at least 60 days' delinquent would be eligible; the modification could also be an option for those who are current or less than 60 days' delinquent in certain situations. Servicers must implement the new program by Oct.1, 2017. In the interim, while HAMP expires on Dec.30, Freddie Mac's Standard and Streamlined Modifications will remain in effect until the new program is implemented. Visit Freddie Mac Flex Modification web page for additional information, including reminders and a link to the fact sheet. FHFA's statement about the Flex Modification is available here.

Desktop Underwriter (DU) has been updated with new features and functionality to help you enhance your business. Fannie Mae has implemented all components of Day 1 Certainty including: DU validation service for income, employment, and asset validation; Enhanced Property Inspection Waivers (PIWs) on eligible refinance transactions; and Certainty on appraised value powered by Collateral Underwriter (CUTM). Incorporated the updated HomeReady eligibility guidelines.

Day 1 Certainty provides lenders enforcement relief from representations and warranties, as well as efficiencies by bringing some quality control processes upfront with the DU validation service. The Quality Control Considerations job aid provides the information you need to adjust your prefunding and post-closing QC when using the optional DU validation service for income, assets, and employment.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced the Uniform Loan Delivery Dataset (ULDD) Phase 3, along with updates to each GSE's specification. ULDD Phase 3 will include approximately 30 new data points and updates to existing data (see Appendix D for a complete list). Nearly half of the new data consists of borrower demographic information in support of the HMDA rule (effective January 1, 2018). More information on the Phase 3 implementation timeline is forthcoming in Q1 2017.

Fannie Mae has implemented CU Version 4.0, which provides a new, easy-to-use CU web application design and layout. The new CU was designed based on customer feedback to enhance and simplify the appraisal review process. It delivers the dynamic functionality and cutting-edge analytics you've come to expect from CU in a new, attractive, streamlined format. Here's a short introduction video.

Fannie Mae recently announced the elimination of the $75 Property Inspection Waiver (PIW) fee. To accommodate this change, Pacific Union's Correspondent channel will discontinue the assessment of the $75 fee for loans purchased on or after December 16, 2016. Pacific Union will continue to audit the use of a PIW or appraisal and will rely on the Lender's Reps and Warrants as to impact of the PIW fee change to the Loan Estimate and/or Closing Disclosure.

Rats? Uh, I mean rates? Not doing much, given no economic news and some market participants are done for the year so hopefully we just sit around here through the end of December. Since nothing is going on here, let's look overseas. Investors in China are becoming more worried about wealth management products, financial products that were used to circumvent low bank deposit rates. Many of those WMPs borrowed money from short-term money markets to buy stocks, bonds, or bank loans. With the People's Bank of China now tightening liquidity in money markets to slow down China's credit expansion, some of which has been filtering into the property sector, and that tightening has caused unwinding in these WMPs as they have lost access to cheap financing.

Tuesday agency MBS closed unchanged to a touch lower in price. The New York Fed was in doing its usual buying, which knocks off next week for the holiday week. But the 10-year note sold off .250 in price to yield 2.57% and 5s worsened .125.

Today we've seen the MBA's weekly update on mortgage applications (+2.5%-3%, purchases & refis). November Existing Home Sales will be released at 10AM ET. To start the day the 10-year is yielding 2.56% and current coupon agency MBS prices are unchanged versus last night's close.



Jobs and Announcements

In job news, Firstrust is a privately held savings bank based in Philadelphia with assets in excess of $2.8 billion. Management is currently seeking to expand their retail channel in the PA, OH, NJ and DE markets. Firstrust is interested in individual loan officers or a team that is looking for an organization that offers local support, a strong compensation package and a high level of customer service. If you or your team is interested in discussing opportunities, please forward your information to Kelley Tyrell. Firstrust is also looking for experienced wholesale Account Executives in VA, DC, NC and CT. The wholesale channel offers a high level of customer service, a deep array of products and a highly competitive compensation package. Please contact Michael Scheier for additional information.

Wholesale AEs in California, it is critical to know the following things about a broker: Who they close loans with, their percentage of purchase vs refi, the breakdown of conventional, FHA, & VA, monthly volume & how thin do they spread the closings across lenders, and what is your share of their business. If you want a peek at the type of intel available as a Broadview Wholesale Account Executive, look at this sample report. Andrew Ryan Broadview's SVP of Wholesale Lending, said, "In my 22 years in wholesale, I've never seen this type of report on a broker which allows an AE to focus more time and energy on the RIGHT broker as they're trying to grow a territory. One of the great challenges to succeeding as an AE is identifying a broker, the extremely long sales cycle, obtaining a broker package, then having them submit loans. The ability to focus time and attention on productive brokers, with a sustainable mix of purchase vs refi business, is nothing short of a game changer." If you'd like to know more about opportunities with Broadview Mortgage as an Account Executive, contact Andrew Ryan.

Quickly expanding nationally, Loanwise Financial is hiring experienced licensed loan officers and branch managers to help build its distributed retail locations in Chicago, Phoenix, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Miami and the Washington DC Metro area. Also, Loanwise is looking for branch managers in CA, FL, TX, AZ, MD, IL, AL, MI and CO that will bring a team with them. "Loanwise is committed to providing the best in class customer service which leads to the certainty of execution on every loan closing. That starts with happy, engaged employees who are treated like family as the first 10% of all the company's profits are shared back with the employees and the next 2.5% to philanthropy in local markets. By reinventing the workplace, Loanwise staff, called 'family members' have the unique opportunity as owners to excel both personally and professionally while making more money than they ever have as Loanwise also has one of the top compensation plans in the industry." To learn more about this opportunity, please contact Loanwise's National Director and Partner, Randy Lightbody.

In retail job news, GSF Mortgage is looking to hire loan originators within its 31 state footprint. "GSF has 22 years of business and an exceptional retail branching platform. Providing direct servicing to Fannie, Freddie & Ginnie direct. GSF offers a lack of underwriting overlays, a 15-day close, and in-house dedicated underwriting teams. LOs would be hard pressed to find a more aggressive lending platform. And GSF offers customized branch setup on-boarding with marketing and recruiting assistance, along with full transparency and direct access to Senior Management & the entire operation team. Call today, we'd like to talk to you: 262-957-8901, or contact General Manager, Debbie Beier."

Congratulations to Flagstar Bancorp, Inc. Yesterday the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) terminated its Consent Order with Flagstar Bank, FSB, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. "In response to the Consent Order, the Bank implemented and adopted industry best practices related to, among other things, regulatory compliance, enterprise risk management, capital and liquidity...the OCC has determined that the Bank has met all of the Consent Order requirements."
Welcome to Week 45 of Mystery Mondays. The answer to Week 44s Mystery Photo is: The Falls at Charleston Fall Preserve. I took this photo on December 5, 2016 during the Miami County Parks Evening of Lights holiday event.

We congratulate our randomly drawn winner Miranda of Tipp City. Youve won two tickets to see the Legendary light of Clifton Mill.



Enter here:

http://goo.gl/forms/dyU55fzc48

Well post the winner next Monday with details about the photo as well as a new photo to challenge your knowledge of the Dayton area.

Thanks for playing and good luck!

Heres our Mystery Photo for Week 45:

Photo by Tom Gilliam of DaytonGram & Tom Gilliam Photography.
The Telangana chief minister has said the BDJS leader from Kerala was acting on the direction of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
First as students, then as active alumni, Derhun Sanders and Steven Tomaszewksi have made contributions to Michigan Technological University. Those contributions will take on added significance with their recent appointment to the University's governing board.

Governor Rick Snyder has announced the appointments of Derhun Sanders of Redford, Michigan and Steven Tomaszewski of Howell, Michigan to serve on the Michigan Tech Board of Trustees. The eight-person board is the governing body of the University. Both men are alumni of Michigan Tech.

Sanders graduated in 1997 with a bachelors of science degree in biological sciences. He is the Government Liaison and Congressional Lead for the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering (TARDEC).

Sanders was the 1996 recipient of Michigan Techs Percy Julian Award given to an undergraduate student leader who is active in the promotion of diversity, social equality or racial/ethnic and cultural understanding. Sanders has served on the Tech Alumni Association board of directors and the board of the Black Alumni Association.

In 2007, Sanders who was the Keynote Speaker at the 35th Anniversary Celebration of Michigan Techs Summer Youth Program, says he is honored to be appointed to his alma mater's governing board and looks forward to serving.

"As a native of Flint, Michigan, Tech was my home away from home for seven years,' Sanders says.

"Im extremely grateful for the life lessons learned on the Michigan Tech campus. I am honored to be a part of this board and look forward to giving back to a University that has given so much to me."

University President Glenn Mroz said he was pleased with the Governors picks. Derhun and Steve are longtime supporters of Michigan Tech and were really pleased and thankful that Governor Snyder has selected them to serve on the Board.

Tomaszewski is Director of Real Estate and Facilities Operations for General Motors Company. He received a bachelors degree in environmental engineering from Michigan Tech in 1991 and a masters from Wayne State University.

"I'm extremely grateful for the life lessons learned on the Michigan Tech campus." Derhun Sanders

He is one of the founders and past Vice President of the Michigan Tech Chapter of the Society of Environmental Engineers. He has served on Techs College of Engineering Advisory Board and the Civil and Environmental Engineering Professional Advisory Committee.

Tomaszewski received the Michigan Tech Young Alumni Award in 1999 and was instrumental in GMs involvement in the Ride the Waves Program. Ride the Waves, which came about when Tomaszewski contacted the University asking what GM could do to help get children involved with water issues, has taken about 2,500 children and adults on Lake Superior aboard the RV Agassiz.

He said its an honor and privilege to be selected to serve on the Board of Trustees. Twenty five years ago, Michigan Tech launched my career and prepared me for the global marketplace.

Tomaszewski said as a Grand Rapids native, he seldom traveled outside the city until he completed his studies in Houghton.

I walked out of the doors of Michigan Tech and joined GM which afforded me the opportunities to work in Russia, South Korea, Germany, Brazil, India and China. I know this was only possible due to the preparation at Michigan Tech.

He said he looks forward to using his global automotive experience to guide and share the future of the University while providing others the opportunity to step out on the global platform and succeed.

In a press release from the Governors office, Snyder said, I thank Derhun and Steven for their commitment to serving on this board. I am confident they will help the university continue its success."

The new appointees will serve eight-year terms expiring Dec. 31, 2024. Their appointments are subject to the advice and consent of the State Senate. Sanders and Tomaszewski replace Paul Ollila and Tom Baldini, whose terms expire on Dec. 31.

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.
"After I left the last treatment center, I knew what made me happy," Selena explains, "and it was a connection." But on the advice of her doctor, Selena's planned philanthropic visit to Kenya to see the schools she was helping to raise
New members inducted into Institute of ...
Russian probing officers have arrived in Turkey in order to investigate about assasination of Veteran diplomat Andrey G. Karlov.

An unrivalled three-way meeting on Syria between the foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia and Iran was held in Moscow Tuesday in spite of the assassination, with the diplomats backing a widening of a peace.

Turkish media said, "Six people have been detained over the Karlov assassination, including the sister, mother, father and uncle of the 22-year-old Altintas, the assasin."

Turkey is on high alert as an individual also attacked the US embassy office in Ankara. Although no damage to life was reported and the individual was detained.

Russian envoy to Turkey murdered while attending Art...

Truck runs over the crowd in Christmas market at Berlin

To send or not to send observers for Aleppo evacuation : UN will...
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the main icon of BJP, in rally of Uttar Pradesh. His efforts to foster digital economy and re-create corruption free India is at its peak. After a long war with opposition in winter session, PM Modi will focus on up coming election polls at Uttar Pradesh.

Elections at Chandigarh is the evidence of 'citizen supports to Modi'. PM Modi will be having his 8th rally towards Lucknow on 2nd of January to provide relief to people, who are suffering from cash crunch after demonetization.

Before Lucknow rally, PM Modi will visit Varanasi and announce infrastructure project budget of Rs.2000crore. President of Bharatiya Janata Party, Amit Shah said that, he wants BJP to win and to keep Narendra Modi as a supreme of the party.

'Youth can change the world' says PM Modi

Winter Session: PM Modi can speak in Parliament

Winter Session: PM Modi can speak in Parliament
Orange County deputies arrested two people they say stole packages from several neighborhood homes.

2 teens arrested in Orange County package thefts

Suspects accused of stealing packages from at least a dozen homes

Deputies say neighbors can help stop package thieves

Investigators say 18-year-old Alexander Reyes and a 15-year-old boy took packages from the doorsteps of at least a dozen homes in the Moss Park Landing subdivision. That's near the Lake Nona area.

A neighbor gave deputies a detailed description of the suspects and their vehicle, which helped lead to their arrests.

Deputies say there's been a rash of mail thefts in Central Florida recently and neighbors can help stop it.

"We can patrol 24/7, but at the same time, we're obvious. The citizens of Orange County are not obvious," said Cpl. Abby Horsley with the sheriff's office. "So, if you're in your home, you see a suspicious vehicle, if you could snap a quick picture of it, or anything like that, or if you see somebody stealing parcels off somebody else's porch, obviously these are things we want to know about."

In this case, deputies say they were able to return a lot of the stolen packages to the victims.

Mail thieves increase this time of year as more people do their holiday shopping online. A recent survey on the community social networking site NextDoor shows 42 percent of neighbors have experienced package theft. Nearly half of those had multiple packages stolen.

NextDoor suggests forming a virtual neighborhood watch, so neighbors can alert each other when packages are stolen, and also find people to help hold arriving packages until the receiver gets home.

There are only a few shipping days left before Christmas, but below you can find tips to help keep your packages secure, and also find out what to do if you are a victim of mail theft.
BBVA Compass named Onur Genc as its new CEO, effective during the first quarter of next year. Former chief executive Manolo Sanchez will become its non-executive chairman, the bank announced Wednesday afternoon.

Genc is currently deputy CEO of Garanti Bank, which is based in Turkey. Spain-based BBVA Group owns nearly 40 percent of Garanti.

"BBVA is a global financial group that can tap the world's best talent and Onur is a clear example of that," Sanchez said in a news release. "I am looking forward to helping him take BBVA Compass to the next level."

MORE: BBVA Compass settles in for the long haul in Houston

Prior to Garanti, Genc was a senior partner and Turkey office manager at McKinsey & Co., joining the global management consultancy firm in Canada. He became partner in 2004, rising to senior partner and Turkey Office Manager in 2009, according to the news release.

Genc also has Texas roots, starting his career in 1997 as a financial controller for American Airlines in Dallas. He holds a bachelor's in electrical engineering from Bogazici University in Istanbul and a master's from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Genc is married and the father to 12-year old twins.

BBVA Compass has roughly 1,300 employees and 77 branches in the Houston region.

Its holding company, BBVA Compass Bancshares, with roughly $90 billion in assets, is headquartered in a branded building near Houston's Galleria. Its subsidiary, BBVA Compass, with roughly $85 billion in assets, remains based in Birmingham, Ala.

The bank has 674 branches, including 345 in Texas, 89 in Alabama, 75 in Arizona, 62 in California, 45 in Florida, 38 in Colorado and 20 in New Mexico.

RELATED: Technological prowess key to growth, BBVA chief says
Why Him? takes a comic situation and then does everything it can to undermine it. Its more than unfunny. Its anti-funny.

It doesnt provoke laughter or even neutral silence but an increasingly stunned disdain. It is the movie equivalent of putting on a plaster life mask and letting it dry and lock your face into an expression of blank misery.

Still, James Franco can be comically annoying (and comical in his awareness of it)- and Bryan Cranston is good at being comically annoyed. There was potential here in the story of a father who meets his daughters boyfriend and hates him on sight.

But the filmmakers dont have a clue as to how to exploit that situation. Either that, or they just dont have the stomach to do it.

The movie takes place over Christmas, so this is this years really bad Christmas movie. Cranston plays Ned, a Midwestern businessman with a mid-sized printing business that is beginning to tank, due to the Internet. For the holidays, he and his wife (Megan Mullaly) and teenage son go out to Palo Alto, California, to visit their daughter, Stephanie, who is going to college. No sooner are they off the plane than the daughter springs the news that she expects them to stay with her at the boyfriends house.

So here we go. Its father, mother and little brother at the boyfriends place. We know going in that the father will find the boyfriend repellent. So what do you think the house is like?

Turns out, its a multimillion-dollar mansion. The boyfriend (Franco) is a very successful developer of apps, and hes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

More Information Why Him? (no stars) Quick take: A horror show See More Collapse

But wait, thats not bad, is it? Being seriously wealthy  thats usually regarded as a plus. So maybe something else is wrong with him, like hes a nasty guy. Or he mistreats his girlfriend. Or hes burning down the rainforest.

But no, none of those things. No, his big faults are that he curses a lot and has lots of tattoos. Thats about it. Thats whats wrong with the boyfriend.

See the problem? What could have been a funny situation, in which a father knows that his daughter is with a horror show but doesnt know what to do about it, is transformed instead into a series of minor misunderstandings or misperceptions based on superficial cultural differences.

At the center of the movie is the father, who is not a comic character, and yet hes the one thats obtuse. At one point, he finds out that the boyfriend has marijuana on the premises and warns his daughter that marijuana is the gateway to heroin, and that soon she will be working as a prostitute.

Its as if director John Hamburg and his co-screenwriters slapped on handcuffs from the beginning, preventing them from portraying the daughter as anything but wise, the boyfriend as anything but ingenuous, and the family as anything but nice.

The only avenue left was the father to be a stick-in-the-mud, like the dimwitted dads in TV commercials, but an impotent stick-in-the-mud isnt funny. Hes just a tangle of thwarted frustration and self-doubt. Imagine All in the Family with the power arrangement reversed, with Archie Bunker living in his son-in-laws house.

So having tossed away every possible laugh they might have achieved through the set-up, the filmmakers have nothing left but to be crude. Thus, we get the colossally unfunny sequence in which Dad sits on a Japanese toilet bowl in the boyfriends house, unable to operate the self-cleansing mechanism.

Enter help, in the form of the boyfriends assistant (Keegan-Michael Key), who announces, I see nothing. I smell nothing. Really? Because everyone in the audience feels like theyre seeing everything and smelling everything just by sitting there.

What was Cranston thinking? Just one phone call to Jeff Daniels might have told him that audiences really dont want to be picturing that kind of thing when they look at an actor. And at least in Daniels case, the scene in Dumb and Dumber was really funny.

Running time: 111 minutes

MPAA rating: R (profanity, lots of sexual material)
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Ive never been to Spain. But I kinda like the music.

As I pick through rose petals of paper-thin jamon serrano measured out in grams like coke at an 80s disco, I can hear the music at Jason Dadys new Spanish adventure, The Bin Tapas Bar.

The Bin is not so much a Spanish tapas bar as it is a song about a Spanish tapas bar, sung by well-dressed people standing at a crowded counter, drinking sangria and shopping for tapas arranged on a shelf like scented candles at the Pottery Barn.

Lets be clear: This new project from chef and serial entrepreneur Jason Dady (Shuck Shack across the street, Tre Enoteca, Two Bros. BBQ Market) is more of a bar than a restaurant. In fact, there are more sangrias, mojitos and gin-and-tonic combinations than there are tapas, snacks and small plates from the kitchen.

Ordering at The Bin is a study in instant gratification: look down at the menu, look up at that dish on a shelf behind the bar. For just a dollar, try a deviled egg with smoked paprika or a tiny skewer with olives, pickled pepper and anchovy. The tapas all-stars kick in at $5: luscious dates stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped with jamon serrano, sweet piquillo peppers stuffed with rice and a petite baguette sandwich called a montadito with pork terrine.

The blue cheese dates are one of several dishes carried over from the late Bin 555, the restaurant Dady ran until 2013 and to which The Bin, according to its Facebook page, is intended as a tribute.

See whether the tribute works by reading the full review, including the star rating, on our subscriber website, ExpressNews.com, or see the Taste section in the Sunday paper.

More Information 511 E. Grayson St., 210-994-8099, Facebook: The Bin Tapas Bar Quick bite: A casual, Spanish-style tapas bar with snacks and small plates in a bungalow-style house with counter service, pitchers of sangria and a gallery of gin-and-tonic cocktails. Hit: Stuffed piquillo peppers, blue cheese dates, red sangria Miss: Boquerones, tortilla Espanola, meatballs Hours: 4-11 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 4 p.m.-midnight Friday-Saturday Price range: Tapas, $1-$5 each; larger plates from the kitchen, $5-$22; sangria pitchers, $24; cocktails, $7-$13; wine $7-$10 a glass, $20-$100 a bottle. Alcohol: Wine, sangria, cocktails and beer. See More Collapse
The Houston Food Bank this week received its 30th annual mega-donation of fresh fruits and vegetables, the Gift of Produce from the Houston Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association.

Some 3 million pounds of fresh produce is now available for the food bank to distribute to its 600 partner agencies serving 18 counties in Southeast Texas. Altogether, that's 12 million servings of fruits and vegetables for those in need.

The HFFVA began more than 70 years ago to promote the consumption of fresh produce. Its first donation to the food bank was 30 years ago, with 100,000 pounds donated then.

Danielle O'Leary of Mountain King, current president of HFFVA, said the organization's goals align "with the Houston Food Bank's mission to not just provide food to people in need of food assistance, but to provide as many nutritious meals as possible."

"In our work with retailers across the city, we don't always have first-hand contact with people in our community who need help feeding their families. The Gift of Produce is our way of helping these neighbors," O'Leary said. "We are proud to partner with Houston Food Bank to fight hunger in our community with good nutrition, and I am proud of the work of our organization and its members."

Brian Greene, president and CEO of the Houston Food Bank, talked about food insecurity in Texas, where 18 percent of residents can't be sure they'll have access to enough food to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle.

"Nutritious foods shouldn't be a luxury, but for many they are," Greene said. "This is where Gift of Produce and the support of the Houston Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association throughout the year is invaluable. Houston Food Bank has a national reputation among its peers in hunger relief for putting strong emphasis on the distribution of healthy foods, particularly produce, and this is due in large part to the support we receive from Houston Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association. We are proud to say that we are a national leader among food banks in the distribution of fresh produce."

There were a couple of special guests on hand for the presentation, Commissioner Sid Miller of the Texas Department of Agriculture, and Pierce Bush, grandson of President George H.W. Bush.

Bush read a letter from his grandfather, who famously brought attention to the need for fresh produce in 1990, when he expressed his disdain for broccoli when he said: "I do not like broccoli. I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli."

The backlash from broccoli growers gave the HFFVA an idea to invite Bush to speak at an event and he's been a supporter of the group and the food bank ever since.
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A Mississippi man's kill may be the largest deer to be harvested on public land in the state.

"I mean it's crazy," Josh Clark, from Iuka, told The Clarion Ledger. "It took me two or three days to understand what I shot."

RELATED: Texas dad defends 7-year-old daughter's viral video of her first deer kill

Clark's massive kill, with a thick set of 17-point antlers, happened on Dec. 14 at the Canemount Wildlife Management Area, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Park confirmed to the Mississippi Sportsman.

"[...] I kept looking back in the truck saying, 'Man I didn't kill that,'" Clark told The Clarion Ledger.

RELATED: 12-year-old Utah huntress' graphic Facebook photos causing worldwide outrage, spurring death threats

Clark's buck could set a state record for "typical bucks harvested with a firearm," according to The Clarion Ledger.

The hunter told website he almost didn't notice he hit the deer at first because the recoil from his rifle hit him so hard. But, his shot to the shoulder was successful.

The buck had main beams in the 25-inch range over a 19-inch spread with 7-inch bases, according to The Clarion Ledger. An unofficial score put the Clark's kill at 205, subsequent scores are closer to 200, the website reported.

RELATED: Wisconsin man uses 66-passenger school bus to build an insane deer blind

An official score will be recorded once the deer's antlers dry for 60 days. A net score of more than 184 3/4 inches is needed for it to become a record, The Clarion Ledger reported.

"It's what you dream of growing up," Clark said in the interview. "What made it even better was that I killed it on public land."

mmendoza@mysa.com

Twitter: @MaddySkye
ALBANY  Some Capital Region residents are encouraging localities and law enforcement to provide safe havens for undocumented immigrants.

A sanctuary designation in essence would instruct government and law enforcement officials not to investigate or report someone's immigration status to federal agencies without a compelling reason, protecting immigrants from deportation if they are picked up for minor infractions or make a police report.

More than 50 people involved with New Sanctuary for Immigrants of the Capital Region rallied before Monday's Albany Common Council meeting to discuss threats to immigrants' rights.

They want lawmakers to make the city and Albany County sanctuary communities. A petition has over 1,000 signatures in support.

Event organizer Joe Paparone said from President-elect Donald Trump calling Mexicans criminals and racists to a lack of knowledge on the immigration process, public education is needed.

"People seem to think that it's a revolving door, and that's simply not the case," he said. Refugees are "extremely and thoroughly vetted. I don't know why people seem to think people are just hopping on a plane and arriving here. It takes a really long time."

The movement for sanctuary designation has spread across the Capital Region in response to the presidential campaign and Trump stoking fears that immigrants could be deported. A UAlbany petition requests Interim President James Stellar to declare the university a sanctuary campus for immigrants.

Opponents say the policy can threaten the safety of residents by enabling people with criminal histories who live in the country illegally to stay in the country.

Trump has threatened to pull federal funding from communities that don't comply with federal immigration policies.

In 2009, Albany passed nonbinding legislation calling on its officials to refrain from "unnecessary measures concerning an individual's immigration status." Council members unanimously reaffirmed it Monday.

"I was really concerned with the negative, angry rhetoric in the presidential campaign," said Councilwoman Cathy Fahey, who sponsored the resolution. "So much was about immigrants and a lot of things concerning human rights were threatened in my opinion. We do care very much how immigrants are treated here in our city."

Fahey said the reaffirmation was the first step in the conversation, and officials could look into creating a more binding ordinance in the future.

Immigrants' rights activists are working on legislation and look to extend sanctuary designation in Albany County and other communities.

"We're going to start spreading the love elsewhere," he said. "We welcome the contributions of immigrants to the community and society. They should not have to live in fear of interacting with police and government at any level."
FAIRFIELD  Michael Fontaine may have been seen in the neighborhood prior to allegedly raping and robbing a woman near the Fairfield train station Saturday night, just 11 days after he left state prison.

But Carla Miklos, executive director of Operation Hope, refuted the contention of one of the soup kitchens staff members, who said Fontaine had been served there.

Michael Fontaine was not a client ours, did not use our shelter services, did not come to eat at our community kitchen and is not someone who is known to us, Miklos said Tuesday.

Earlier, a kitchen worker who declined to give her name said Fontaine had eaten at Operation Hope, which is next door to the Police Department on Reef Road.

Police said that shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday, the 48-year-old Fontaine, whose last known address was in New Haven, attacked the woman from behind as she walked home from the Fairfield Train Station. He pulled out a knife, raped her and then stole several items, police said.

Fontaine was arrested and charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault  a rape charge  first-degree robbery, third-degree assault and second-degree larceny. He was held in lieu of $500,000 bond.

Long rap sheet

Police Lt. Robert Kalamaras said Fontaine does have a lengthy criminal record dating back to the 1980s.

In 1988 and 1989 he was arrested in Connecticut for burglaries and narcotics violations and sentenced in 1990 to one year in prison.

Transferred in 1991 to a halfway house, Kalamaras said Fontaine failed to return from a work assignment and his conditions for release were violated for escape.

The officer said Fontaine relocated to Massachusetts where he was convicted of a carjacking and rape.

He was charged again with rape for an incident in prison, Kalamaras said.

In 2011, Fontaine was released from prison in Massachusetts and moved to the Pittsburgh area where he was arrested for drunken driving.

In 2014, Pennsylvania prison officials were preparing to release Fontaine when Kalamaras said they called Connecticut officials on Nov. 5, 2014, and learned Connecticut authorities were still seeking Fontaine for the escape.

He was transferred to the Osborn Correctional Institute in Somers to serve out the rest of his outstanding Connecticut sentence and was released Dec. 6.
Albany

The lawyer for a parolee charged with burglarizing a University at Albany dorm room and raping a student in her sleep said Wednesday that a defense investigation uncovered evidence that will exonerate his client of "very salacious ... grossly overcharged crimes."

Franklin Casatelli, 25, of Guilderland, had been out of state prison for 10 days when police say he broke into the Stuyvesant Tower dormitory on the UAlbany campus and raped a 19-year-old female student. Police arrested Casatelli on Oct. 23. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday on a five-count rape and burglary indictment carrying a maximum of at least 25 years in prison upon conviction. It alleged Casatelli also tried to break into a dorm room in Ten Broeck Hall. Both Ten Broeck and Stuyvesant are part of the school's Dutch Quad dorm complex.

Attorney James Tyner told reporters following the arraignment that Albany County prosecutors, in his view, took an unusually long time to present the case to a grand jury, which allowed his investigators to delve into the allegations against Casatelli. The student was physically helpless and incapable of consent because she was asleep, the indictment said.

"Cases of this nature are normally run through the grand jury and an indictment is handed up within five or six days. Here we're talking about approximately 60 days," Tyner said. "Nobody has contacted me to tell me why they waited so long. It's been very fortunate for Mr. Casatelli's case because not only does he maintain his innocence, but it has allowed my office and my investigators to do a number of things that we would otherwise not be able to do."

Tyner declined to get into specifics of his defense but noted statements of witnesses and conversations with defense investigators.

"My investigation has revealed that he is not guilty. These are very salacious, I believe, grossly overcharged crimes in the indictment," Tyner said. "Based upon our investigation, my discussions with Frank and what I believe to be the proof that will be presented at trial, I believe that will become very evident."

Casatelli was paroled Oct. 13 after serving time for attempted drug possession.

Casatelli, who went to prison on a drug conviction in 2012, was conditionally released in February 2013. He violated his parole conditions in April 2013, September 2013 and June 2014, resulting in a return to prison. His fourth violation came with his Oct. 23 arrest, 10 days after his latest release.
Albany

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has until just before the end of the year to act on legislation sent to him Tuesday that would shift the cost of legal services for the poor from counties to the state in the coming years.

The indigent legal services bill was one of 24 sent to the governor Tuesday and Wednesday. He has until Dec. 30 to act on those bills, otherwise they automatically become law.

The legal services legislation has been pushed by a number of county-level officials for much of the past year. Albany County Executive Dan McCoy's office has been among those who say the costs are a burdens for counties to shoulder. It's estimated that with full funding of indigent legal services (advocates maintain they are currently underfunded), the statewide costs are somewhere near $500 million.

The bill would shift the full cost of services to the state by 2023.

Whether the governor will sign or veto the bill is unknown, though supporters have been optimistic. It's possible that the governor could coordinate with the Legislature to pass chapter amendments of some kind should he sign the bill.

Cuomo on Wednesday said the bill presents a financial question because it is being done outside the budget process.

"It is a very expensive bill for the state and will have a significant impact on the budget," he said. "But we're reviewing that."

The legislation would take effect April 1, after the next state budget deadline, should the governor approve it.

The lone bill not sent by Wednesday evening was the NYRA privatization bill, which would transfer the control of the New York Racing Association back to private hands after being in state control for the past few years. The governor said in August his hope always was to privatize the once-beleaguered entity when it got back on solid footing, but "the state should continue to regulate it because we have a significant investment in NYRA."

"We subsidize it by about $58 million a year," he said. "The state has to perform its role. But the best way to do it ultimately is to privatize it with continued state regulation."

mhamilton@timesunion.com  518-454-5449  @matt_hamilton10
Albany

Voters are just fine with Gov. Andrew Cuomo fighting the Trump administration from Albany. But they don't want him fighting the president-elect during the 2020 election season, a poll released Tuesday shows.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday shows that 50 percent of voters believe Cuomo should become a national leader by challenging President-elect Donald Trump's policies, while 43 percent say he should keep quiet. Forty-eight percent say Cuomo becoming a national leader by battling Trump policies would be good for the state; 38 percent say it would be bad.

Voters say by a 48-40 margin that Trump's policies will be bad for the state.

But 56 percent of voters say Cuomo shouldn't run for president in 2020.

Still, 53 percent of voters say it would be good for New York if Cuomo ran for president in four years, while just 29 percent say that would be bad for the Empire State.

Asked whether he would seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, Cuomo said on Monday he intends to run for re-election in 2018.

Asked about the poll results on Wednesday, Cuomo cracked a smile.

"Huh, they want to keep me as governor" he said. "That's how I take that. They love the job I'm doing. I'll take it."

At the very least, a plurality of voters thinks Cuomo is doing a good job as governor. His job approval rating is 49-34, the poll shows.

"If New Yorkers are bearish on a Cuomo presidency, they give him pretty good marks after six years in his current job, even though it was a not-so-good political year," Quinnipiac University Poll Assistant Director Maurice Carroll said in a statement.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,130 voters. The margin of error is +/- 2.9 percent.

mhamilton@timesunion.com  518-454-5449  @matt_hamilton10
BRIDGEPORT  A small fire outside of a portable classroom at Hall School was quickly extinguished Tuesday night, a city spokesman said.

Firefighters were called to the school at 290 Clermont Avenue at 8:35 p.m., assistant chief Mike Calderoni said. The portable classroom, used as a library, was smoldering on the exterior with a light smoke condition inside, he said.

Fans were used to clear the smoke and a small potion of the wall inside the library was opened up to check for hidden fire, Calderoni said.

Damage was minimal and there were no injuries. Students will be able to use the library after minor repairs are made, the assistant chief said Wednesday.

A fire inspector was called to the scene to determine the cause. Representatives from the Board of Education arrived shortly after the fire was out to secure the building and begin repairs, officials said.

The school is operating normally today.
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State Police shared the descriptions and mug shots of 10 fugitives on a social media Wednesday. The weekly warrant round-up includes one woman sought in the Capital Region.

Catherine Murray, 32, is wanted in Johnstown for petit larceny, endangering the welfare of a child and possession of a hypodermic instrument, all misdemeanors.

State Police said Murray stole merchandise from Target with a child watching. Troopers discovered she had a hypodermic needle during the arrest, State Police said.

Murray is described as a 5-foot-3 white woman with brown hair and eyes, weighing 150 pounds. She has ties to the Johnstown area, State Police said.

Anyone with information about wanted individuals is asked to contact the New York State Police immediately.

Citizens should not take any police action other than contacting troopers by calling (518) 853-4708 or emailing Crimetip@troopers.ny.gov.

State Police are seeking nine other people:

 Jaime A. Alvarez, 38, is wanted in Tarrytown for driving while intoxicated.

Troopers stopped Alvarez on the Thruway for a traffic violation on June 26, 2006 and determined he was drunk, State Police said.

Alvarez is described as a 5-foot-5 Hispanic male with black hair and brown eyes, weighing 175 pounds.

 Tracy Hill, 41, is wanted in Rochester for driving while intoxicated and other traffic infractions.

Troopers stopped Hill for speed and recklessly changing lanes on Interstate 490 in June 2016 and later arrested him for drunken driving, State Police said.

Hill is described as a 6-foot-2 white man with brown hair and hazel eyes, weighing 300 pounds.

 Tatyana Taylor, 31, is wanted in Nassau County for driving while intoxicated and other traffic infractions.

Taylor was injured when she crashed her car on the Southern State Parkway earlier this year, State Police said. She was later arrested.

Taylor was driving a gray Honda at the time of her arrest. Her last known address is in Bayshore.

Taylor is described as a 5-foot-1 Hispanic woman with brown hair and eyes, weighing 135 pounds.

 Martia C. Paige, 27, is wanted in Lockport for criminal obstruction of breathing and endangering the welfare of a child, both misdemeanors.

Paige choked a 12-year-old during a domestic dispute Jan. 1, State Police said. She failed to appear in court May 6, troopers said.

Paige is described as a 5-foot-7 black woman with black hair and brown eyes, weighing 240 pounds.

 Daniel A. McElroy, 40, is wanted in Binghamton for misdemeanor criminal possession of a controlled substance.

McElroy failed to appear in court on Dec. 23, 2010 to face the charge, State Police said.

McElroy is described as a 6-foot-2 white man with brown hair and blue eyes, weighing 170 pounds. He has a large tattoo on the side of his neck.

 Shawn A. Noel, 37, is wanted in Mamakating and New York City for misdemeanor unlawful imprisonment and felony criminal mischief.

State Police said, when a verbal fight turned physical, Noel assaulted the victim and prevented the person from leaving the home. Noel also damaged the residence and fled before police arrived, troopers said.

Noel is described as a 5-foot-10 black man with black hair and brown eyes, weighing 270 pounds.

 Jackie R. Otinger, 48, is wanted in DeKalb for menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, both misdemeanors.

Otinger threatened a 32-year-old man with a knife and a pry bar during an August 30, 2012, argument at a Richville residence, State Police said.

Otinger is described as a 5-foot-10 white man with brown hair and blue eyes, weighing 160 pounds.

 Jonathan Seabrook, 21, is wanted in Oswego County for felony robbery.

The county court issues a bench warrant on Dec. 19 after Seabrook failed to pay restitution for a 2013 robbery, State Police said.

State parole officers are also seeking the man and believe he may be in the Fulton area.

Seabrook is described as a 5-foot-9 black man with black hair and brown eyes, weighing 160 pounds.

 Heather Matula, 26, is wanted in Poughkeepsie and Wappinger for felony grand larceny.

Police received a fraud complaint in August accusing Matula of stealing more than $1,300 from a Wappinger man, troopers said. The warrant was signed September 2016. Matula previously lived in Poughkeepsie, State Police said.

Matula is described as a 5-foot-2 white woman with brown hair and brown eyes, weighing 125 pounds.
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When Lynn Ringh takes his Christmas tree and ornaments out of storage for the Christmas season, he's dusting off over 100 years of family history.

Ringh's family has passed down an artificial tree down through the generations since 1910.

His grandparents bought the tree at Eiband's Department Store in Galveston for $11 dollars. The tree was imported from Germany, and it was made to look like the Black Forest trees in Germany.

There was no electric lights made for trees at the time, so the tree has candlestick holders attached on the ends of the limbs. Candles were lit on the tree for the first few years.

"In 1913 they were one of the first families to get lights for the trees," Ringh said.

The tree has a wooden base with limbs made from iron that can fold up into the base when it is time for the tree to be put away.

Through the years, the tree was put out and the family gathered around it on each Christmas Eve.

"My mother and father, both born in Galveston, moved to Houston in the late 1920s and somewhere in the mid-1930s the tree was given to my mother. We kept the tree ever since," Ringh said.

In the 1960s the tree was given to Ringh, and that is when he decided to start the current tradition that still holds today.

"I have decided that the tree will be rotated around the family. I just ask that a family member let me know around Thanksgiving that they want the tree that year and I will give it to them. The person that has the tree that year invites the whole family and hosts a meal on Christmas eve," Ringh said.

According to Ringh, the tree has lost most of its foliage over the years, and is now mostly just the iron limbs, but if the tree is decorated fully with ornaments and garland, it looks beautiful.

The tree is filled with ornaments both modern and as old as the tree itself.

Ringh's favorite ornament is a mini white shoe, about three inches long, that was a birthday favor for his mother's 16th birthday party.

"One year I couldn't find it. I was really concerned. This year I found it again. It is definitely in a prominent place on the tree now," Ringh said.

Other old ornaments include a teddy bear, a straw hat and a small Christmas stocking. The angel on the tree has also been passed down through the generations.

Every year, family members like to point out all the ornaments that they have contributed to the tree over the years.

"There are ornaments on the tree from places all over the world like New Zealand, Belgium and Japan," Ringh said. "I try to get a new ornament every year, but I think the tree is getting full now!"

Sitting next to the tree each year is a 24x36 frame with a print of the Christmas tree history.

"In 1983 I donated the tree to be used for the candlelight tour at the Ashton Villa in Galveston. They asked if I could print a handout, and I thought that it would be nice for the family to see as well. So now the story is right next to the tree each Christmas," Ringh said.

Ringh has the tree again this year, and is expecting about a dozen family members over on Christmas Eve. He is looking forward to showing the tree and printed story to new members of the family.

"My nephew's youngest child, John, got married last December, and his wife has never seen the tree, so she'll be able to read the story when they come this year. I think the print is really great for everyone to learn and help remember the story."

Ringh hopes to pass the tree down to someone in his family, but there haven't been any takers yet. He may bring it to the Galveston Historical Foundation for everyone to enjoy.

"Everyone says it's an antique tree but I don't treat it like so. I think of it as a family tree," Ringh said. "This gathering, and this tree, has helped keep our family together each Christmas."
Dear Toni,

A few weeks ago, you wrote about the increases in Medicare's 2017 Medicare Part B and D premiums, but you did not explain how to lower your Medicare premiums if one's retirement income has lowered.

Our joint MAGI (Modified Adjusted Gross Income) in 2013, 2014, and 2015 was approximately $250,000 each year. Once I explained to the local SS office that I was no longer earning the $250K because I had retired, they suggested that we file a Social Security Life Changing Event form.

Wham! Our IRMAA was reset to zero. My wife and I refile this form yearly to keep our IRMAA at zero because our income now is $75K.

Many have income exceeding the IRMAA threshold long after enrolling in Medicare and then their income amount lowers. It would be unfortunate if your readers had no idea that they could pay a lesser IRMAA amount by simply filing a form at their local Social Security office.

Your column has helped me understand my Medicare options and I would like to bring help to those that need it. Please explain Social Security's Life Changing Event form Another Steve with an IRMAA problem.

Thank you, Steve.

Dear Steve,

You are so right, you can file form SSA-44 titled "Medicare Part B Income-Related Premium - Life-Changing Event" to appeal your Part B/D premium increase if you think your income is lower or not correct. Social Security uses your tax information from two (2) years prior (2015) to establish your 2017 Part B and D IRMAA premiums.

If your income was more than $85,000 for an individual or $170,000 for a couple, then your Part B/D premiums will be higher than $134 for 2017.

Once Social Security is satisfied with the evidence, it will update its records and correct Part B/D premiums to what your current income is. Keep filing the Life-Changing Event form yearly until your income lowers to the basic amount.

Don't forget a onetime increase in your income such as property that is sold, cashing in your IRA, or even winning the lottery can change your monthly adjusted gross income (MAGI) that may cause you to pay a higher Part B or Part D premiums.

A life changing event that can change your income can be:

you have gotten married or divorced, or your spouse has died;

you or your spouse have stopped working or have reduced your hours;

you have lost property that you were making money from due to a disaster or other event beyond your control; or you or your spouse's benefits from an insured pension plan stopped or went down.

Life Changing Event documents to show why your income changed are listed below:

You must give the original or a certified copy documents with form SSA-44.

If you filed a tax return for the year in which the income-changing event took place, provide a signed copy of your tax return. If you have not yet filed a tax return, you can submit an estimate of the change in your income.

If your marital status has changed, provide a marriage or death certificate.

If your employment status has changed, provide a letter from your employer about your retirement.

If you have lost income from a property, provide an insurance claim for property damage.

Visit Tonisays.com to receive your copy of the 2017 Medicare costs and to sign up for the latest Toni Says newsletter.

Toni King, author of the new Medicare Survival Guide offers a "Thank You, Houston" $5 discount available for Houston Chronicle/HCN readers at http://tonisays.com/reader-special Medicare consultations are available at the Toni Says office or email questions to info@tonisays.com or call 832/519-TONI (8664).
Ive just met you. Youre looking to buy a product or a service that I sell. I can see that you have the need. You ask questions. I answer them. Things are moving along. I think youll be a good customer. But then you say three words. And now I cant trust you as much. Your credibility has been ruined.

Moneys no object, you say.

Moneys no object? The three stupidest words anyone can say in a negotiation. I hear people say these words to me all the time. I need this new software for my businessand moneys no object.

Im looking for the best controller there isand moneys no object.

A customer order just came in and I have to buy materials as soon as possiblemoneys no object.

Who says this? Stupid people say this. Stupid because its not true. Stupid because it kills credibility. Really? Money is no object? Money is always an object.

Example: what would happen if I ask that same guy who just said moneys no object that the price of my product has increased from $99 to one million dollars? Hed be shocked! A million dollars? hed sputter. Youre kidding, right? I thought that thing sells for $99, right?

Yes, it does sell for $99 but you, silly man just told me that moneys no object? So can we now all agree: money really is an object, isnt it?

Related: Mark Zuckerberg Is So Rich He Got Morgan Freeman to Voice His Virtual Home Assistant

Why do people say such a thing? Ive thought about this and I think Ive figured it out. The individuals in my life who have told me that money is no object all share the same three characteristics: a lack of self-confidence, a denial of reality and small genitalia. I only suspect the last part of this theory but Im very positive about the first two. These are salespeople. Theyre promoters. Theyre performers. Theyre negotiators. These are people who want to have the upper hand in a conversation. They want to show that theyre the type of person who only wants the best, regardless of whether they can afford it or not. They have watched too many YouTube videos of Conor McGregor and too many episodes of The Sopranos.

Related: How This Mom Grew Multiple 6-Figure Businesses From Home

Are you one of these people? Then stop it. Are you sitting across the table from one of these guys? Then heres my advice: the earlier in the conversation that someone says to you that moneys no object the more important money is. If money is no object to someone then the topic of it is inconsequential to that person and therefore shouldnt come up at all  at least until its time to pay and then the person just pays what you quote because, remember, money is no object. But if your guy brings up money as soon as you sit down and assures you that moneys no object then hes lacking self-confidence about your transaction. Hes denying reality. He has small genitalia.

Related: How I Run 3 Multi-Million-Dollar Companies While Getting 9.25 Hours of Sleep a Night

Raise your antenna when you hear these words. No need to call him out on it. Dont even joke about it. Clearly, money is an object. A big object. When someone says this in a negotiation its a warning sign for you to tread very lightly around the subject of money and to do your best to demonstrate that the value of what your product or service provides will well exceed the price youre about to quote. And get ready to negotiate, because even though money is no object, the man sitting across from you today will more than likely remind you that he wasnt born yesterday, or that he appreciates the value of a dollar or some such nonsense. What hes really saying is that your price is higher than he wants to pay and money is definitely an object. Be prepared to counter-offer.

For some, money is truly not an object. But for the vast majority of people youll encounter, it always is. The people who say these three silly words lack self-confidence, a sense of reality and have small genitalia. Ive got enough self-confidence and sense of reality never to say these words. As for the other thing, well.

Related:

A Stupid 3-Word Phrase That Instantly Ruins Your Credibility

Don't Assume What Gifts Potential Partners Want -- You Can't Afford to Be Wrong

4 Keys to Making the Best First Impression



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
1 Email probe: The FBI was trying to get a look at thousands of Hillary Clintons emails on disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiners computer partly to see if anyone had hacked in to steal classified information, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday. Investigating possible hacking appeared to be a secondary rationale for the email search, which FBI Director James Comey launched in the waning days of the presidential election. When the FBI asked a magistrate judge in New York to issue a search warrant for Weiners computer on Oct. 30, an agent spent pages describing concerns it might contain evidence Clinton had mishandled classified information. The warrant application, made public Tuesday, was filed two days after Comey informed Congress investigators had discovered email correspondence that could be pertinent to his recently closed probe of Clintons use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

2 Bombing trial: The man accused of setting off bombs in New Jersey and New York, injuring more than 30 people, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to attempted murder charges in his first in-person court appearance. Ahmad Khan Rahimi, who was injured in a shootout with authorities, shuffled slowly into court in a dark-green prison jumpsuit and wearing a white skull cap. He didnt speak during the brief proceeding. Rahimi faces charges he tried to kill police officers before they captured him Sept. 19 outside a bar in Linden, N.J. He is also accused of detonating a pipe bomb in New Jersey and a pressure-cooker bomb in New York City. Rahimi faces five counts of attempted murder of a police officer as well as weapons offenses.
1 Brought to justice: Authorities in Senegal have arrested a former Guinean military leader long sought in connection with a 2009 stadium massacre that killed more than 150 people, Guinean officials confirmed Tuesday. Abubakar Toumba Diakite was the head of the presidential guard at the time of the massacre, and an investigative commission later determined he was to blame for ordering the violence. An Interpol notice was issued for him five years ago. Ibrahima Beavogui, spokesman for Guineas Justice Ministry, confirmed that Diakite had been arrested in Senegals capital, Dakar, where he had been living under a fake name for an undetermined amount of time.

2 Monsignor freed: Pope Francis on Tuesday freed a Vatican monsignor convicted of leaking confidential documents to journalists, granting him a Christmastime clemency and ending an embarrassing episode for the Holy See. Francis granted conditional freedom to Spanish Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda after he served half of his 18-month sentence, the Vatican said late Tuesday. Fired from his job as a high-ranking Vatican financial official, Vallejo now falls under the authority of his local bishop in Astorga, Spain. In July, a Vatican court convicted Vallejo of conspiring to pass documents to journalists, although it cleared him and a co-defendant of forming a criminal organization to do so.
Buster Dean/Houston Chronicle

Dec. 22, 1946: Regents of seven state colleges declared West Texas State Teachers College in Canyon to be reopened as of noon Saturday, but ordered an investigation into a strike by students that closed the institution Dec. 14. The protest was against what students termed to be inadequate housing conditions at the college.

--Solicitation letters will be placed in the mail by the Plainview Chamber of Commerce, which needs money to fund its programs. Individual members are being asked to give $12.50 and businesses are being asked for $25 and up, based on the size of their staff.
Two months after a sewage spill forced nearly a dozen residents to vacate a North Side mobile home park, the city has filed a lawsuit against the park owners alleging numerous code violations at the site.

A little more than 40 families are still living at the Oak Hollow Mobile Home Park, in the 6300 block of Prue Road, District 8 Councilman Ron Nirenberg said at a Wednesday news conference.
Mondays Permian Basin Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting marked a major step in making travel safer for Odessa residents.

The MPO policy board voted 6-0 to update the master transportation plan (MTP) by moving the overpass project at East Loop 338 and Yukon Road up from the unfunded list to the No. 3 spot on the list of fiscally constrained priority projects.

The Yukon Road project replaces the overpass project at Loop 338 and 52nd/56th streets, which policy board members Ector County Judge Ron Eckert and Odessa Mayor David Turner argued earlier this year was far less essential.

Hopes are high to convert Yukon Road into a reliever route to ease congestion on 42nd Street. The 42nd Street corridor is a major thoroughfare that includes the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, Ector County Coliseum, Permian High School and lots of shopping centers, including Music City Mall and Chimney Rock.

MPO Executive Director Cameron Walker said the policy boards vote is the last step he anticipates in amending the MTP. The MPO didnt receive any public comment, he said. MPO staff were directed in October to move forward with the steps necessary to make the change.

Turner motioned to approve the amendment; Eckert seconded the motion.

City of Midland District 2 Councilman and MPO Chairman John B. Love III said he is excited about the project and expects it to move along faster than anticipated.

Policy board member Martin County Judge Bryan Cox was not in attendance at Mondays meeting. He has voted in the past for action items in favor of the amendment.

In other business

 Study gets OK: The policy board approved 6-0 the Northeast Midland Corridor Feasibility Study. The study was conducted throughout the year to examine how to improve thoroughfares in northeast Midland, such as Elkins Road and Todd Drive, which have seen increased truck traffic.

The study, conducted by engineering firm Freese & Nichols, initially set out to analyze possibly extending Craddick Highway across State Highway 349 and connecting it to Interstate 20, creating an outer belt north of Loop 250.

Several public comment events throughout the year showed Midlanders were far more concerned with completing the eastern portion of Loop 250, which unlike the western portion is not interstate-grade highway.

The study suggests conversions of thoroughfares such as Elkins Road and Todd Drive that would widen them north and south of Loop 250 and suggests a possible route for an outer belt.

Freese & Nichols Eddie Haas said this feasibility study can be used in conjunction with others, such as the citys comprehensive Tall City Tomorrow plan that City Council approved this year. Haas said it will also benefit from the completion of the MPOs travel-demand model, which will give a clearer picture of traffic densities. The travel-demand model should be finished in 2017.

City Council approved the feasibility study at a previous meeting. The initial cost of the study was $200,000, with the MPO funding $50,000 and the city paying the rest. Haas said the study was finished under-budget and ahead of schedule.

In discussing the publics interest in the study, Love said he had never seen so many people come out to support transportation efforts.

 Labeling tweak: The policy board approved 6-0 to tweak labeling codes in the MTP for grouped projects. Theyre currently labeled similarly to control-section-job (CSJ) numbers. Per the MPO technical advisory committees (TAC) suggestion, they will now be labeled as GP, for group project, along with a shorter identification number. The change only affects the label, not the project itself nor its projected cost.

 MPO certified: The Permian Basin MPO has been recognized federally as a Transportation Management Area (TMA) since 2012 and was up for its quadrennial review by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Kirk Fauver of the FHWA Texas division presented the results of the evaluation. The MPO passed.

On strengths, Fauver said, Weve found that you have a strong planning process. He also commended the MPOs public involvement, updated website, Spanish translations, its engagement with bicycle organizations and freight providers and other items.

The lone corrective action was to document what the MPO is doing as it pertains to the congestion management process (CMP). Fauver gave the MPO a year to fix the issue, but Walker told the Reporter-Telegram on Tuesday that CMPO requirements would be met in a few months after the necessary data is available.

TMAs have population densities of 200,000 or higher. They can access more federal funding than a standard MPO but also must comply with more regulations.

 Lots of talk: The policy board and meeting attendees received an update on the ongoing Interstate 20 Corridor Study from CH2M Hills Will Barresi. The study is looking at the more than 40 miles of I-20 roadway between Midland and Odessa to find which portions should be addressed for improvement.

The ideas of converting existing two-way frontage roads into one-way, creating more turnaround opportunities and constructing backage roads to alleviate traffic were presented. All of this led to about 90 minutes of discussion.

 Speeding up: While not an action item, Turner asked that MPO staff collect and submit agency reports in writing before the monthly meetings to reduce meeting time. Staff reports are already produced and are part of agenda packets available to the public at the meetings.

 Full house: Mondays meeting was packed with a whos who of transportation and related figures. Some attendees of note were James Beauchamp of the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance (MOTRAN), MDC Chairman Brent Hilliard and city of Midland Director of Development Chuck Harrington.

There were 25 people in attendance, including the lone reporter.

Like Trevor on Facebook and follow him on Twitter at @HowdyHawes.






President Obama has ordered the Intelligence Community to finish a review of allegations of Russian election hacking by the time Obama leaves office on Jan. 20.

Don't look for the report to settle anything. After years of what some Republicans view as administration obfuscation, manipulation and slow-walking on intelligence ranging from Benghazi to U.S. Central Command assessments of the Islamic State to the papers of Osama bin Laden, distrust of the Intelligence Community is so high in some GOP quarters on Capitol Hill that unless the IC delivers a document of uncharacteristic openness and transparency, the debate over Russia's activities and intentions will continue well into the presidency of Donald Trump.

It hasn't started well. Earlier this month, House Republicans were mystified by news reports of disagreement between intelligence agencies over some aspects of Russian hacking, including the Russians' alleged motivation. On Dec. 12, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper saying, in effect: Why didn't you tell us? Why do we have to learn about this in the media?

Nunes demanded the DNI brief the Intel Committee on the Russia situation no later than Dec. 16. It didn't happen. First, DNI flatly refused Nunes' request. And then, included in an announcement that it would not brief the Electoral College, the DNI also announced it would offer no more briefings to lawmakers until after the Obama-ordered report is finished next year.

"Once the review is complete in the coming weeks, the Intelligence Community stands ready to brief Congress," DNI said in a press release.

After the first refusal, Nunes noted the DNI is "obligated to comply" with the House's "constitutionally vested" oversight activities. The committee is "deeply concerned" by the DNI's "intransigence," Nunes said in a statement.

After the second refusal, Nunes upped the ante. If DNI officials won't come to House overseers, he said in a Dec. 16 statement, then House overseers will come to DNI officials.

Nunes' statement suggested the standoff over Russian hacking could at some point change from a war of words to an actual physical confrontation.

The issue is not that Republicans don't believe Russia tried to hack the Democratic National Committee or other Democratic-affiliated organizations. Republicans involved in intelligence issues, like Democrats involved in intelligence issues, know that Russians (along with the Chinese) try every single day to hack into various institutions of American business and governance. They've succeeded many times, leading to some serious breaches. It's an unending phenomenon.

Over the last several years, some Republicans have been dismayed by the administration's lack of response. "Russia's cyber-attacks are no surprise to the House Intelligence Committee, which has been closely monitoring Russia's belligerence for years," Nunes said in a Dec. 9 statement. "As I've said many times, the Intelligence Community has repeatedly failed to anticipate Putin's hostile actions. Unfortunately the Obama administration, dedicated to delusions of 'resetting' relations with Russia, ignored pleas by numerous Intelligence Committee members to take more forceful action against the Kremlin's aggression. It appears, however, that after eight years the administration has suddenly awoken to the threat."

"Suddenly," that is, after Democrats lost a presidential election. Nunes' not-so-subtle point was that Russian hacking did not become a hair-on-fire issue for Democrats until it affected their political fortunes.

Beyond that, though, some Hill Republicans believe the Obama administration has concealed and/or manipulated intelligence at key times in the last few years. Those episodes do not give Republicans any confidence that the Obama Intelligence Community will be straight with them this time.

So what do those Republicans think actually happened during the election? First, they're entirely convinced the Russians tried to hack the U.S. political process because the Russians try to hack everything. They believe that Vladimir Putin probably saw Trump as an unserious candidate who was going to lose; Putin didn't have any more sophisticated political intelligence than anyone in the United States.

Next, they believe the Russians were able to hack some damaging material from the Democratic National Committee. (They're not clear about the John Podesta emails.) They believe the Russians had fun messing with Clinton, in part because Putin assumed she would be president, and a continuing target, after the election.

In a larger sense, they believe Putin was trying to show that the U.S. system is corrupt because Putin is always trying to show that the U.S. system is corrupt. The number-one thing Russians seek to do is to sow doubt about the United States.

All of that is conjecture, or mostly conjecture, at this point. And of course, the administration is likely to produce a somewhat different picture in January -- the big difference being that it will portray Putin as specifically working to promote the election of Trump.

That's what Republicans are trying to head off with their demands for briefings and to see more intelligence. So far, they're making no progress. They're also fighting a side battle with Democrats over the creation of a special committee to investigate election interference, which many Republicans view as a vehicle for Democrats to grandstand and to extend the Trump-delegitimization process throughout next year. (So far, GOP leaders appear determined to block a special committee.)

Finally, there's one huge factor that will come into play next month. After Trump takes office, the Intelligence Community will be under new leadership. CIA Director John Brennan will be out, to be replaced by Republican Rep. Mike Pompeo, a veteran of the House Intelligence Committee who took part in the various battles with the administration over intelligence in the past few years. Yes, of course, the entrenched bureaucracies in the Intelligence Community will stay in place. But new leaders can make a real difference. And after Jan. 20, the fight over Russian interference might take on a new character.

Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.
The good news: Both the left and the right have reached consensus that free speech is important.

The bad news: Free speech has apparently been redefined to mean speech with which I agree.

Over the past few years, there have been many high-profile cases of left-wing college students or their cowed administrators chilling the public discourse (by disinviting speakers, censoring artwork, disciplining transgressors of arbitrarily imposed cultural appropriation rules, threatening to defund school newspapers, etc.). Such actions have often been accompanied by dutiful statements about the campuss commitment to free and open dialogue. Silencing some peoples speech was supposedly necessary to make other speakers feel safe.

Now, the right has (re)discovered that two can play at this game.

In a disturbing series of events, conservative organizations have been claiming the mantle of free speech in service of suppressing campus speech they dislike, too. The most recent case involves professor Olga Perez Stable Cox at Orange Coast College in California. An anonymous student in her human sexuality class secretly recorded Cox discussing her political views. She referred to Donald Trump as a white supremacist, his running mate Mike Pence as one of the most anti-gay humans in this country and their election as an act of terrorism.

Her words were clearly liberal  and hyperbolic, although perhaps not as hyperbolic as they initially seemed: In the days since her act of terrorism talk ripped across the internet, she has received terroristic death threats herself. Cox has since fled the state.

Meanwhile, the Orange Coast College Republicans  the group that disseminated the gotcha video  is campaigning for her firing. The groups president said that expunging commentary such as hers from campus is necessary to ensure the colleges commitment to diversity, equity and inclusivity.

If this language sounds familiar, its because its eerily similar to the pseudo-free-speech rhetoric often used by the left to stamp out words and ideas it dislikes, too.

The conservative group Turning Point USA recently published a Professor Watchlist, a catalogue of what it thinks are dangerous and anti-American professors who deserve public shaming for allegedly trying to advance a radical agenda in lecture halls. The watchlist homepage of course includes a disclaimer that Turning Point will continue to fight for free speech and the right for professors to say whatever they wish.

Its tempting to attribute this right-wing weaponization of free speech rhetoric to cynicism. More likely its cognitive dissonance.

When I speak to conservative groups that claim a commitment to free speech, they often seem genuinely surprised by data showing that campus illiberalism is not exclusively espoused by liberals.

Theyre apparently unaware that conservative students are also requesting trigger warnings (typically about nudity, sex and gay themes), according to a faculty survey released by the National Coalition Against Censorship. They also dont seem to know that Republican undergrads are about as likely as their Democratic classmates to say that colleges should be able to restrict campus speech that expresses political views that are upsetting or offensive to certain groups, according to a Knight Foundation survey.

Beyond campus, Republicans more broadly are almost twice as likely as Democrats to support book bans.

Dont get me wrong. Campuses probably need more intellectual diversity (especially from conservative thinkers) and definitely more public debate. But the principled way to achieve those ends is to actually have the debate. Not to shut it down.

crampell@washpost.com
What is occurring in North Carolina might seem remote, but it presents an object lesson to the rest of the nation on the dangers of political tribalism.

In a bitterly contested election, Democrat Roy Cooper narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Gov. Pat McCrory to be the states new chief executive. When they cast their ballots, the voters presumably understood perfectly what the powers of the governor entailed. However, in the waning days of the year, the GOP-controlled Legislature has passed measures that curtail the authority of the incoming governor.
A recent cheating scandal involving 128 high school students has brought attention to a longtime Alamo Heights School District policy that allows the district to discipline a student for leisure-time activities.

Alamo Heights ISD has an Academic Integrity Policy, but it also has a 24 Hour Code of Leadership that high school and middle school students must agree to adhere to if they want to participate in extracurricular activities.

The code holds students accountable for their actions on and off school grounds for the entire school year, and students are subject to disciplinary measures if they violate the code.

The district has had the rules in place since 2002 and appears to be in the minority among school districts when it comes to holding students accountable for actions off campus 24/7.

The code has come under parental scrutiny in recent weeks in the wake of a plagiarism scandal involving more than 100 freshmen and juniors who allegedly shared answers they found online for their homework assignments.

Alamo High School Principal Cordell Jones sent parents a letter late last month informing them that student record and transcripts will not be affected by the academic transgressions. But some parents are upset by disciplinary measures that were taken under the code of conduct, which resulted in suspending students from participation in extracurricular activities for three weeks.

An online petition to get the issue before the Alamo Heights school board has garnered hundreds of signatures. The petition states the application of the Code has become arbitrary and/or capricious. This has resulted in inequitable treatment and created an environment of fear, confusion and frustration among the student body and parents.

The petition states the problem is not the districts Academic Integrity Policy or the 24 Hour Code of Leadership but the administrations enforcement of the two. Some of the proponents of the petition, however, have posted comments online suggesting that the 24/7 disciplinary rules are an overreach of authority by the school district.

We urge the school district to address parents concerns and maintain the 24 Hour Code of Leadership. It is another tool that school administrators and parents can use to help guide students through the angst-filled adolescent years.

Learning to live by the disciplinary rules on and off campus will benefit young adults headed to college. Many universities are monitoring students off-campus behavior. Potential employers are also keeping close tabs on the social media activities of young recruits.

If used appropriately to teach and guide students, the code can be invaluable in helping shape character. More districts could benefit from such a policy, and more students could avoid juvenile court.
The beverage industry says it will appeal the decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

PHILADELPHIA  A judge dismissed the beverage industrys lawsuit to overturn the citys soft drink tax, Forbes reports. The city levied a 1.5-cent per ounce tax on sweetened beverages, which is earmarked to pay for expanded pre-K programs.

Judge Gary S. Glazers 14-page ruling dismissed the case in its entirety. We greatly appreciate the thorough and timely consideration that Judge Glazer gave to this matter, said City Solicitor Sozi Pedro Tulante. The judge upheld the key points of our argument: the Philadelphia beverage tax cannot be considered a sales tax, and neither does it violate the uniformity clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

The lawsuit had claimed the ordinance would tax Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits illegally because such benefits are exempt from sales tax. The beverage industrys case also alleged that Pennsylvania would see revenue drop between $2.7 million to $7.8 million yearly because of fewer soft drink purchases.

Shanin Specter of Kline & Spector, counsel for the beverage industry, stated that they would appeal the ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The citys soft drink tax was enacted in June. Across the country this year,more localities passed taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, including Albany, Calif.; Boulder, Colo.; Oakland, Calif.; Cook County, Ill.; and San Francisco.
By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She now spends most of her time in Asia researching a book about textile artisans. She also writes regularly about legal, political economy, and regulatory topics for various consulting clients and publications, as well as writes occasional travel pieces for The National.

Weve become all too inured over the last several years to seeing the obviously guilty walk away from one corporate or public policy crisis after another, with nary a slap on the wrist.

Against that backdrop, I see some wee cause for optimism in yesterdays news from Flint, Michigan, of all places a place usually not synonymous with optimism, especially as it has recently endured its water crisis.

As reported today by the Detroit Free Press in this article:

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuettes criminal investigation of the Flint water crisis moved a step closer to the highest levels of state government Tuesday as he brought felony charges against two former emergency managers who reported to former Treasurer Andy Dillon and were appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. Schuette, who also charged two former City of Flint public works employees Tuesday, would not say how far the investigation would go, only that it will follow the evidence and nothing is off the table. We are closer to the end than we are to the beginning, he told reporters.

Charges Brought

Schuette charged Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, both former Emergency Managers, with multiple 20-year felonies conspiracy and false pretences charges for failing to protect Flint citizens from health hazards caused by contaminated drinking water. I should emphasize that both managers were appointed by Governor Snyder, under the authority of the states emergency management law.

Schuette also announced that Earley and Ambrose, along with ex-City of Flint executives Howard Croft and Daugherty Johnson, also face felony charges of false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretences arising from the roles they played in arranging bond issuances to pay for a portion of a water project described in greater detail below.

The latest criminal charges are the third round of criminal charges brought in this investigation by Schuette, who has also previously filed a round of civil law suits against two water supply engineering firms, Veolia and Lockwood. Schuette has thus far filed a total of 43 criminal charges against 13 current and former state and local officials since the start of his investigation, and has interviewed approximately 200 witnesses.

Several current and former state employee previously criminally charged are today scheduled to appear for a court hearing in Flint, according to this account in the Detroit News. The criminal charges arise from the alleged failure of these government workers to perform their respective roles in protecting public health. Those scheduled to appear are Stephen Busch, Patrick Cook, Michael Glasgow, Corrine Miller, Nancy Peeler, Michael Prysby, Adam Rosenthal, Robert Scott and Liane Shekter-Smith, according to the Detroit News.

Schuettes Summary of What Went Wrong

To those readers new to this story, allow me to quote at length from Schuettes summary of what went wrong:

The false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretense charges against Earley and Ambrose are based on the Defendants gaining authorization to borrow millions using the alleged reason of an environmental calamity. Without the funds from Flint, the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) Pipeline would have to be mothballed. However, as a bankrupt city, Flint needed the Michigan Department of Treasurys approval to get loans. Emergency Manager Earleys attempts to get funds in January and February of 2014 were rejected because the City was in receivership, had a $13-million deficit and no credit rating. State law banned the City from accumulating any more debt. However, the Defendants allegedly used the Home Rule City Act emergency bond clause, created to deal with cases of fire, flood, or other calamity, to borrow the tens of millions required to pay for Flints portion of the KWA. The clean-up of a troublesome lime sludge lagoon  holding by-products of water treatment  became the vehicle to get a state waiver for the bonds. To make the situation even worse, tucked inside the 15-page Statement of Purpose for an upgrade of Flints Water Treatment Plant system was a one-paragraph requirement that bound the city to use the Flint River as an interim water source, and the Flint Water Treatment Plant as the sanitizing and distribution center. The Flint Water Treatment Plant, however, was not ready to produce safe, clean water to the citizens of Flint. Regardless, the Defendants mandated the City to use the Flint Water Treatment Plant as part of the deal to get the ability to issue bonds. Defendants Croft and Johnson allegedly pressured employees of the Flint Water Treatment Plant to get the plant in working order before April of 2014, the scheduled date for re-start. When the deadline closed in, rather than sound the alarm, the defendants allegedly ignored warnings and test results and shut off the pipes pulling clean water from Detroit, and turned on the Flint River valves.

Who Knew and When Did They Know It?

Now, dear readers, I should confess at this point, that Ive not been following the twists and turns of this sordid story very closely. But I will venture that I dont think those indicted yesterday were able to pull off their alleged shenanigans while keeping the whole matter a closely-guarded secret. Turning to the Detroit Free Press again:

So many people knew that that plant was not ready  and yet it was done, said Andrew Arena, the former special agent in charge of the FBI in Detroit, and now Schuettes lead investigator. Thats the thing that shocked me.

The question is how far up the state chain of command did this knowledge extend? And that makes the key test of whether my cautious optimism is misplaced and that instead this is yet another case of legal misdirection, chasing small fry when the ultimate decision makers get a free pass if Schuette continues to follow the evidence right up the state chain of command potentially extending as far as Governor Snyder himself.

At least on what we can see from the outside, Schuette seems to be building a slow, methodical case. The managers just indicted could presumably turn on political masters in order to save their own skins. In fact, If convicted of all charges, Earley and Ambrose are looking at spending the next 46 years in prison, while Croft and Johnson would get off with a mere maximum of 40 years, according to The New York Times in this piece. That reality provides plenty of incentive to cut a plea and serve up anyone those indicted can.

Flint Mayor Karen Walker apparently concurs, with the New York Times reporting, She said she saw the charges as an indication that the investigation may reach still higher.

Its at present too soon to tell who Schuettes ultimate targets are that will ultimately involve not only an assessment of the legal situation but raw political calculation as well. Thus far, hes holding his cards close to his chest and not revealing more than he has to.

To return to the Detroit Free Press:

At least one member of Snyders cabinet, Department of Health and Human Services Minister Nick Lyon, has already been publicly identified as a target of the investigation, though Schuette has denied there are any targets other than those who are charged and no charges were announced Tuesday against Lyon.

Flawed Emergency Management System

Ill close by pointing out one problem thats well-known to those whove been following this issue more closely: the way the Michigans emergency management system remove key decisions from democratic control and places these in the hands of managers who are effectively insulated from accountability. According to the New York Times:

The claims also reopened a longstanding debate in Michigan over the states emergency management provision, reviving questions about whether the system removes power and control over local issues from those residents who come under state oversight.

Michigan is not alone in using systems of state oversight for fiscally troubled municipalities and other local government entities, and in fact, approximately 20 states employ some form of such systems, according to the New York Times. But the Flint water crisis has spotlighted the particular flaws in the Michigan system. During Governor Snyders term of office, hes appointed emergency managers in several Michigan cities, including Benton Harbor, Detroit, Flint, and Hamtramck.

As the New York Times elaborates:

For years, governors here have appointed emergency managers as a way to efficiently cut debts and restore financial stability in the most troubled cities. But residents of some majority-black Michigan cities, including Flint, argue that the intense state-assigned oversight disenfranchises voters, shifts control from mostly Democratic cities to the states Republican-held capital and risks favoring financial discipline over public health. Mayor Karen Weaver said that she was thankful Flint was now getting this level of accountability, but that the entire episode revealed a fundamental flaw of state-ordered oversight in any city. Thats what was missing when we had an emergency manager, Ms. Weaver said. Our voice was taken.

Bottom Line

Post hoc criminal charges are an inadequate albeit long overdue way of redressing the harms the water crisis has imposed on Flint residents. Ultimately, this crisis probably would not have occurred if citizens had a way of exerting more effective democratic control over decision makers and the states emergency management law had not thwarted such accountability.

Indeed, again turning to the New York Times:

Melissa Mays, a Flint resident and activist on the citys water crisis, said it was a significant step that the state-appointed managers would be held to account. The biggest thing for us is to see the emergency managers on there because for the longest time we were told they were untouchable.

Yet although legal remedies are inadequate, if Schuettes investigation is assiduously pursued wherever it might lead this is the best hope on offer that Flint residents will receive some form of justice, however imperfect, for the harms done to them.
#MBN Cable channel loses lawsuit against suspension order MBN, a cable TV channel, on Thursday lost a lawsuit against the government's order to suspend its operation for six months for accounting fraud. The Korea Communications Commis...

#Hybe Q3 Hybe posts highest Q3 revenue ever Hybe, the entertainment company behind K-pop superstars BTS, on Thursday reported a revenue of 445.5 billion won (US$314 million) for the third quarter of the year, up 30.6 percent...
Get out in the fresh air after the Christmas festivities and help support Pieta House with an unusual, night-time event!

The Premier Harrier Hunt Club will be hosting a Midnight Hunt and Walk to raise much needed funds for Pieta House on December 28 at 12 midnight in Dualla.

The Hunt for Light launch night took place on Monday, November 29, in Pat Foxes bar in Cashel. Organisers were delighted to welcome some very familiar sporting faces to support the initiative, former Ireland and Munster rugby player Denis Leamy led the charge, with jockey Seamie Heffernan bringing up the rear. Hurlers Kieran Bergin and Joe Hayes accompanied the two most important guests - The Liam McCarthy Cup and The Irish Press Cup. There was time for a photo with everyone!

Tipperary sporting legends were out in force, Pat Fox, Joe Hayes and racing pundit extraordinaire Ken Whelan to name but a few! The Premier Harriers would like to thank everyone that took the time to attend the launch of Hunt for Light to support this very worthy cause.

Suicide and depression has knocked on the door of many of our families and friends and the effect and aftermath of both has left a huge mark on our lives. Supporting Pieta House allows them to continue their heroic work to support those in suicidal distress or engaging in self-harm, their friends and families.

Premier Hunt Club member Fr. Peter Brennan will lead a short reflection on the night to remember all who have taken their own lives and for their families and friends.

The Hunt for Light event will be a unique opportunity to see hounds work at night. There will be strictly no jumping. All equine and walking enthusiasts are welcome! We will have refreshments available afterwards at the Horse and Hound pub and some fabulous spot prizes for those that take part in the event.

Organiser invite a donation of 20 for walkers and 50 for riders; you can pay on the night or fill a sponsorship card with the applicable amount.

So dust off the Christmas cobwebs and join Premier Harriers for a night of reflection and celebration with a bit of craic thrown in for good measure!

For more information on accommodation, overnight stabling or sponsorship cards please contact Susan Long, Premier Harrier Hunt Secretary, on 0864108362 or check out Facebook!

For more than 15 years, The Premier Harriers have raised thousands of euro holding charity events in aid of local causes such as The South Tipperary Hospice, Scoil Chormaic, Scoil na nOg, and The Injured Jockey Fund. Pieta House works to support people in suicidal distress or engaging in self-harm, and manages eight centres around the country. Pieta House also operates the Suicide Bereavement Counselling centres providing free counselling, therapy and support to individuals, couples, families and children who have been bereaved by suicide. Freecall 24/7 suicide helpline 1800247247. http://www.pieta.ie/
Two angling development projects in Tipperary have been awarded funding to improve angling access in the area.

The projects are some of 50 angling development projects across the country which will receive support from Inland Fisheries Ireland to the value of 500,000 in total as part of its Capital Works Fund.

The projects, which focus on improving angling access and infrastructure, will now be delivered in 2017. Applications for over 100 projects were received bringing the total value of projects looking for funding to above 2million.

The Tipperary projects are - River Suir, North Bank between Clonmel and Carrick on Suir  River Suir Angling Access Improvements (10,000) by Tipperary County Council. This project aims to improve angling access facilities between Clonmel and Carrick-On-Suir. This includes the upgrade of car parking and the upgrade of an access laneway on the outskirts of Carrick on Suir.

River Suir, Kilsheelan -Angling Access Project (5,360) by Clonmel & District And Trout Association. Installation of ladders and stile for access to River Suir at Kilsheelan.

The Capital Works Fund was announced in October 2016 with local groups and individuals including local development associations, tidy towns, angling clubs and others invited to apply for funding. The scheme is part of Inland Fisheries Irelands National Strategy for Angling Development. The Strategy aims to ensure that Irelands fish stocks and angling infrastructure are protected and enhanced with a view to ensuring a sustainable habitat and delivering the economic, health and recreational benefits they offer to communities across Ireland.

Suzanne Campion, Head of Business Development at Inland Fisheries Ireland said: The Capital Works Fund has been overwhelmed by strong project applications and following a considered review process, we are delighted to announce the 50 projects which have secured support which includes projects in Tipperary. The demand for improvements in angling access and development is evident. Rural communities across Ireland are engaged with angling and recognise the value of the fisheries resource to their local area".
A woman who devotes her spare time to feeding the hungry, homeless and those struggling with addiction was honoured at the presentation of the Volunteer Ireland Awards.

Ina Doyle, who started the Clonmel Soup Kitchen, won the award in the Social Work category at the awards ceremony, which was held at the City Hall in Dublin.

From almost 500 nominations, she was one of 29 exceptional volunteers from around the country who were shortlisted for the awards.

Ina, who lives in Clonmel and is originally from Cashel, has been involved in voluntary work for the past 20 years, starting at the Wilderness Youth and Community Centre in Clonmel with her friend Miriam Doyle,who was manager of the centre.

She got involved in the youth programme at the centre through the Waterford and South Tipperary Community Youth Service, lending a helping hand as an assistant and head chef at summer outings.

As Inas voluntary work began to blossom she became involved with social inclusion groups, community drugs programmes and womens groups, as well as fundraising for many events and local charities.

In 2012 she became increasingly aware of those who were homeless, struggling with addiction and social isolation and dealing with mental health issues.

Determined to tackle these issues, she and Amanda Quigley started Clonmel Soup Kitchen, distributing nutritious food from the boot of her car.

Since then the service has found a permanent home at the Blue Beret cafe at the town's bus and rail station. The cafe is made available free of charge by the local branch, Post 24, of the Irish United Nations Veterans Association (IUNVA).

The Soup Kitchen is also held in three other locations across Tipperary, providing 90 wholesome meals each week.

Ina works with other volunteers at the Clonmel Soup Kitchen every Friday and hasn't missed an evening in over three years.

Last week the Clonmel Soup Kitchen organised a free three-course Christmas dinner.

Her volunteering activities have been extended to organising an Ascot Day at a local Alzheimer's unit.

She has also organised Food Cloud donations, along with a number of local voluntary collectors, to distribute food donated by Aldi and Tesco to the needy.

She also volunteered for the EU Charter in Cashel when over 1,200 delegates were catered for over a three-day period.

Amanda Quigley, who nominated her for the award, says that Ina is completely focused and dedicated to giving back to the community.

In recent years Ina has had a number of health issues to contend with but that has never stopped her giving a hand to any charity or organisation who needs it", says Amanda.

"She is always recruiting new volunteers and letting people know the benefit of volunteering.

If you have an hour to spare Ina will rope you into helping out.
New York Community and Astoria Financial have a lot of explaining to do.

The banking companies left many industry observers scratching their heads after terminating their planned $2 billion merger, announcing the decision Tuesday in a one-paragraph press release that was short on details.

Many people are pondering why the deal, among the biggest announced last year, fell apart and what the future holds for each institution.

The $49.5 billion-asset New York Community had hoped that buying the nearly $15 billion-asset Astoria would help it confidently cross a key regulatory threshold. Astoria in Lake Success, N.Y., had been facing investor pressure to boost shareholder value or find a buyer before finding its way to New York Community in Westbury.

Several people have pointed to the role of regulators as a possible factor. New York Community announced last month that it would be unable to get regulatory approval in time to close the deal by Dec. 31.

"It is an example of the scrutinythat big bank deals are getting," said William Wallace, an analyst at Raymond James, particularly if there is a "regulatory trigger" involved. "Regulators want to make sure they get it right."

One issue may have been commercial real estate concentrations, which has been a hot button issue for regulators. New York Community, which is already heavily concentrated in CRE, would have done little to address that by absorbing Astorias balance sheet.

New York Community is also poised to become a systemically important financial institution by crossing $50 billion of assets. While regulators have approved other large bank mergers, New York Community's looming SIFI status could present a challenge given its thrift status and its CRE concentration, industry observers said.

"A common method for regulators  when they aren't pleased with a deal  is to extend the period for approval," said Jeffrey Marsico, an executive vice president at Kafafian Group, which had worked with Astoria before the sale announcement. "I mostly think it was the CRE concentration of New York Community. It wouldn't be relieved much with the Astoria acquisition."

Internal issues could have also been at work, some industry observers said. It is possible that Astoria may have wanted to renegotiate, given the recent surge in bank stocks and an improved outlook for the industry following the outcome of last month's presidential election. (Those factors recently prompted PrivateBancorp to delay a shareholder vote tied to its proposed sale to Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.)

Regardless of the reasons, the deal's termination leaves more questions about the fate of each company.

Astoria did not return a call seeking comment, while New York Community declined to comment beyond what was said in the release. Representatives for the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency declined to comment.

Astoria's board, which considered multiple offers last year, could have more leverage in future negotiations, industry observers said. The companys shares have risen by 9% since the deal was announced in late October 2015  and by 19% since the election  and the merger agreement had no breakup fee if the deal couldnt be completed by Dec. 31.

Astoria could decide to remain independent.

Before agreeing to sell, Astoria had been diversifying beyond residential mortgages by scaling up in CRE and multifamily lending, Marsico said. The company has also been developing better core funding.

"Astoria does have some quality executives that aren't at retiring age," Marsico said. "They can go it alone being so deep into the transformation of their balance sheet. They could continue to amp up their balance sheet and look for targets to acquire."

While staying independent is possible, doing so can be extremely difficult once an institution starts preparing for a sale, industry experts said. Employee defections are a concern; Astoria's workforce at Sept. 30 was down by 11% from a year earlier, according to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Perhaps one of the banks that failed to snag Astoria could resurface, said Michael Iannaccone, a senior adviser at Tangent Capital Partners. "It's hard to find someone to sell and [know] what they're willing to sell for but because Astoria has already agreed to sell, you have the answers to those questions," he said.

As for New York Community, management might choose to stay below $50 billion in assets by selling off originations, a strategy it has employed in recent quarters, until it finds a new acquisition or Washington makes fundamental changes to the SIFI standard or other key bank regulations. But doing so would also limit the company's ability to boost profit.

Regulatory relief is not a guarantee, industry observers said. And it is unclear if the company could get approval for buying another institution, particularly if its own CRE concentrations were an issue for getting approval for the Astoria deal.

"I don't see them being in a hurry to go over $50 billion of assets, but I don't know what the downside to going over in the first quarter is either," Wallace said. "There's a lot of brain drain that comes with preparing for a merger."
(Natural News) Over the past week, eight food recalls have been issued because the products may contain contaminated milk powder. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported a series of related recalls in fear of Salmonella contamination.

The contaminated milk powder products in question, made by Valley Milk Products, include Valley Milks High Heat Nonfat Dry Milk Powder and Sweet Cream Buttermilk Powder. Both sold in 50-pound bags to food companies across the nation.

These products are not sold directly to consumers, but are used as ingredients in a number of foods such as bakery products and distributed by brokers, said the recall statement from Valley Milk Products.

The FDAs announcement followed last weeks decision from Publix Super Markets to recall three of its waffle and pancake mixes. The recalled products were sold at stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Fear of salmonella contamination

At the companys production facility, the FDA found Salmonella residues on processing equipment and food contact surfaces after they had been cleaned. Exposure to Salmonella can result in diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and fever.

While most people who get sick from the bacteria recover without any treatment, for young children, the frail and elderly, and those with compromised immune systems, this kind of infection can have serious, even fatal, consequences. In rare circumstances, the Salmonella bacteria can make it to the bloodstream, causing septicemia, arterial infections, endocarditis, and arthritis.

According to Valley Milk, none of the analyzed milk powder samples tested positive for the Salmonella bacteria. Nonetheless, the announcement prompted several companies using the contaminated milk powder in their products to issue their own recalls.

One Ohio company, Brand Castle LLC, has recalled 16-ounce red boxes of monkey bread mix shipped to nearly 40 States  from Arizona to Washington and Florida to Massachusetts. Virtually all the food manufacturers that used the possibly contaminated milk powder in their end product made voluntarily recalls over the past week.

The health and safety of our consumers is always our top priority, Jim Goldberg, founder of Deep River Snacks, said in a statement. Although we havent found any contaminants in either our seasonings or our finished products, we are taking great precautions to protect our customers.

Heres a full list of companies and affected products:

Valley Milk Products: nonfat high heat milk powder and sweet cream buttermilk powder

Publix Super Market: pancake and waffle mixes

Shearers Foods, LLC: kettle chips, potato chips, and nacho chips

Deep River Snacks: kettle chips

Boulder Brands, Inc.: macaroni and cheese

Stonewall Kitchen: pancake and waffle mixes

TreeHouse Foods, Inc.: macaroni and cheese

New Hope Mills: crepe mix

Fourth Street Barbecue Inc.: macaroni and cheese

Brand Castle, LLC: monkey bread mix

For now, no one has reported getting sick from these products. However, all customers who have purchased any of the products mentioned above should throw them away or return them to the place of purchase for a refund.

According to the FDA, Valley Milk is currently investigating the cause for the positive environmental samples. Valley Milk has notified all companies that used the recalled milk powder or buttermilk powder in their ready-to-eat products and instructed them to return the bags of contaminated milk powder or document the destruction of the powder. Furthermore, all involved companies are advised to review their processing system and thoroughly clean their equipment to avoid contamination

Sources:

CNN.com

FDA.gov

FDA.gov

FoodSafetyNews.com
(Natural News) Well-known environmental activist (and Oscar-winning actor) Leonardo DiCaprio wants to help Make America Great Again by boosting employment  in the green jobs sector.

According to Breitbart News, DiCaprio met with President-elect Donald J. Trump at Trump Tower in New York City recently to discuss what the new administration had in mind regarding the promotion of green energy  which would, of course, necessitate the creation of more jobs in the renewable energy industry.

In a statement released to The Associated Press, CEO of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, Terry Tamminen, confirmed that his organizations namesake had indeed met with the president-elect. He added that he and DiCaprio made a presentation to Trump, his daughter Ivanka and other members of Trumps transition team about how focusing on creating renewable, clean energy would be an employment boon.

Today, we presented the President-elect and his advisers with a framework  LDF developed in consultation with leading voices in the fields of economics and environmentalism  that details how to unleash a major economic revival across the United States that is centered on investments in sustainable infrastructure, said Tamminen.

He added that, according to the LDFs assessment, millions of secure jobs would be created for Americans in the building and operation of commercial and residential clean, renewable energy production sites.

Isnt DiCaprio the guy who flies all over the world while telling people not to fly all over the world?

DiCaprio is a strong advocate of fighting so-called climate change that he insists is being created by humankinds modern existence. He is also interested in preserving wildlife.

A recent documentary he produced called Before the Flood addresses the alleged dangers that the world is facing due to so-called climate change/global warming.

Previously, DiCaprio met with Ivanka Trump and gave her a copy of the documentary, Breitbart News said.

Reports said that the meeting with Trump went on for about 90 minutes, with the Oscar-winning actor also giving the president-elect a copy of his film. Trump reportedly said he would watch it, according to a person familiar with the meeting who was not allowed to speak publicly.

Tamminen was the head of Californias Environmental Protection Agency under former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He said that Trump was receptive, and that the president-elect suggested they meet again in January, presumably after he assumes office Jan. 20.

Trumps not wavering on his global warming skepticism

There are a number of takeaways from the meeting that bear mentioning.

First, it could just be that Trump was being presidential, so to speak, by allowing the meeting to take place. Trump has made no secret of his disbelief in the notion of human-caused climate change/global warming, having mocked it in the past. Plus, its hard to take the movement seriously when its cultist adherents fake warming data all the time.

Also, his nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, who also knows that the notion of human-caused global warming is a hoax that is being perpetuated by the Left strictly for political purposes, is proof of where Trumps beliefs on the issue lie. Pruitt has even sued the EPA over its Obama-era job-killing regulations.

Trumps willingness to listen to an environmental hack who has no special knowledge of such things  but who just happens to be a famous actor  may also stem from his desire to Make America Great Again. Seriously, a yuuuuuuge part of Trump accomplishing that objective is to grow the U.S. economy and restore American manufacturing and industry. It makes perfect sense for a businessman-president who wants to put Americans back to work in well-paying jobs to examine every opportunity to do so. Its not that green jobs are bad. Up to this point it has been simply that green jobs are not plentiful because green power production is not efficient or economically viable; the technology just isnt there yet.

Trumps picks for his Cabinet and to lead key federal agencies have largely been aimed at reducing, not enhancing, the size, scope and power of an overly bureaucratic central government. He doesnt appear to be wavering on campaign pledges to do so. But at the same time, like any good businessman, he wont pass up on an opportunity to provide jobs and opportunities for Americans. If that means bolstering the green energy generation sector, hell be all for it.

But the sector will have to demonstrate its viability first. Not sure Leonardo DiCaprio is the one who can do it.

Sources:

Breitbart.com

Trump.news

BigGovernment.news

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Yet another assault on health freedom is reportedly occurring in the state of Georgia in the form of mandatory vaccinations for healthcare professionals.

In a YouTube video, Georgia hospital worker Lauren Atkinson claims that the federal government is forcing healthcare employers in the Peach State to vaccinate all or most of their employees with the influenza, or flu, vaccine. Non-compliant employees apparently face termination if they dont submit to the flu injection by a certain date, but most workers are going along with it, according to Atkinson, who intends to refuse the flu shot.

Natural News has previously maintained that there really is no good reason to get a flu shot. No legitimate evidence exists proving that they even work at all. But they do contain a variety of toxic additives that can cause severe side effects. In addition to conventional treatment, however, a variety of natural remedies are also worth considering to help ward off the flu bug, although that is a personal decision.

Citing Obamacare as the primary driver of an initiative to vaccinate 90% of all hospital healthcare workers for the flu, Atkinson explains how nurses en masse are complying with this rule, even though they may disagree with the idea of injecting potentially risky and useless chemicals into their bodies, out of fear of being fired. They are afraid to lose their jobs. She points out that of all the vaccines available today, the flu vaccine is the least effective because the flu is a virus that is constantly mutating and changing, therefore, a vaccine for any particular strain is highly unlikely to protect you from the latest mutation, Waking Times explained.

A nurse who works in an acute care unit where germs and bacteria abound, Atkinson wondered aloud on the video why authorities are focusing on the flu vaccine. The government wants us to inject ourselves with some mystery substance that cant even protect us from said virusIsnt it a little fishy that the government was forcing this? Do they want to keep us sick because there is money in keeping us sick? There is money for the pharmaceutical companies.

Among the potentially toxic ingredients often included in flu vaccines include mercury, Sodium deoxycholate, Neomycin sulfate, and polymyxin B.

Last year, Health Ranger Mike Adams wrote that The flu shot is a fraud. But its a fraud thats so deeply embedded in the delusional pro-vaccine culture of the pharma-controlled medical industry that even well-meaning doctors and pharmacists (who are otherwise very intelligent) fail to realize flu shots dont work. In fact, flu shot vaccine inserts openly admit there is no scientific evidence demonstrating flu shots work. 

Setting aside the mandatory flu vaccine issue for a moment, on the subject of mandatory vaccinations generally, youll recall that following the September 16, 2015, GOP presidential debate televised by CNN, Donald Trump, Dr. Ben Carson, and Dr. Rand Paul received condemnation merely for suggesting that childhood vaccines should be administered incrementally rather than all at once. CNN seemed hell-bent on pushing all three candidates into the anti-vaxxer camp.

Even raising the possibility of the toxic side effects, and/or merely having an open mind about vaccines, has prompted outrage (faux or otherwise) from the media and its approved array of experts, perhaps because of the all advertising money it rakes in from Big Pharma. According to the media echo chamber, no scientific evidence exists that vaccines, for example, cause autism.

Failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the recipient of more campaign donations from drug companies than any other candidate in the 2016 election cycle, is an advocate of mandatory vaccinations.

Sources:

NaturalNews.com

WakingTimes.com
(Natural News) It likely seems Orwellian to most Americans, but apparently some Japanese are okay with it: One city in the Asian nation has launched a unique program to help keep track of senior citizens who have a tendency to become losttagging their fingers and toes with scan-able barcodes.

As reported by Agence France Presse, a firm based in Iruma, located north of Tokyo, developed minute nail stickers, each one carrying a unique identifier that helps concerned families locate missing loved ones, according to the citys social welfare office.

The QR-coded, adhesive seals for nails, which are part of a free service that has only recently been launchedand is a first in Japanmeasure only one centimeter (0.4 inches) in size. Being able to attach the seals on nails is a great advantage, one city employee told AFP. There are already ID stickers for clothes or shoes but dementia patients are not always wearing those items.

If authorities find an elderly person wandering about, they will contact the local city hall, its telephone number and the wearers identification all placed within the QR code. The chips stay attached for about two weeks, even if they get wet, according to the company, citing recent field trials.

As Japans society grows older, governments face unique probless with dementia and other age-related health problems

In November, Japanese police started providing noodle discounts at local restaurants for elderly citizens who voluntarily agreed to give up their driver licenses. That offer was the result of a series of deadly accidents involving elderly drivers; its a huge problem because there are 4.8 million people 75 years old or older who hold drivers licenses.

Japan is struggling with a rapidly aging population. Demographers believe that by 2060, an astounding 40 percent of Japanese will be over the age of 65, as the countrys birth rate slips to about 1.41 children per woman.

As reported by the Japan Times, experts have described Japans birth rate situation as catastrophic because its society is aging as sexless couples are having fewer and fewer children. At present, in fact, the birth rate is below the death rate, meaning Japans population is slowly dying off. That said, the figures dont tell the full story; in fact, demographers say that the situation is reversing itself, the Times noted.

As for the tracking device, that is an idea that seems like an innocent solution to what appears to be a mounting problem in Japan. And it could just be an idea that only works in certain societies. But rest assured, the globalist ruling cabal likes authoritarian rule, and would love nothing more than to be able to track every human being on the planet.

There are those who would love to track every human on the planet

In fact, thats very nearly the case as it is, and we have done it to ourselves willingly, with technology. Our cellphones serve as miniature tracking devices. Automobiles equipped with satellite-fed featuresradio, emergency contact systems, remote start/shut-down systemsalso serve to track us wherever we go.

Then there are devices for the home that essentially keep track of us; virtually everything that is connected to the Internet or is satellite-linked. Even our smart electrical power meters are treasure troves of data that can indicate when we are at home, establish patterns of behavior and so forth.

Some societiesdictatorships, communist countries, and even some socialist-leaning nations in the European Unionwould either have little choice or may voluntarily agree to allowing themselves to be tracked by the government 24/7/365. That wouldnt work so well in the United States, however, with our constitutional privacy protections, though clearly there are even those in our own country who would love to circumvent those protections or have them overturned.

Sources:

Yahoo.com

JapanTimes.com

FreeBeacon.com
The India/Pakistan Heat Wave of 2015 affected more than the people who lost members of their communities. Scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory were greatly distressed by the climate disaster that they worked together on a paper that presented evidence of human influence on extreme weather events.

The research titled "The Deadly Combination of Heat and Humidity in India and Pakistan in Summer 2015" studied observational and simulated temperature and heat indexes. This led to the conclusion that the heat waves in India and Pakistan "were exacerbated by anthropogenic climate change." An estimated 2,500 people died of the 2015 heat wave in India while Pakistan's death toll reached 2,000.

"I was deeply moved by television coverage of the human tragedy, particularly parents who lost young children," shared Michael Wehner. A climate researcher at Berkeley Lab and the lead author on the paper, Wehner had studied extreme weather events and anthropogenic climate change extensively. He and his collaborators from Berkeley Lab, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and UC Berkeley decided to look more closely into the cause of the 2015 heat waves to determine if the two separate meteorological events were somehow linked.

Using simulations from the Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) that takes into account human influence on extreme weather in the context of long-term climate change, the researchers were able to run "factual" simulations of the world and contrast them to "counterfactual" simulations that might have occurred if humans had not changed the composition of the atmosphere by producing large amounts of carbon dioxide.

"It is relatively common to run one or a few simulations of a climate model within a certain set of conditions, with each simulation differing just in the precise weather on the first day of the simulation; this difference in the first day propagates through time, providing different realizations of what the weather 'could have been,'" explained Daithi Stone, the second author of the study and a research scientist in Berkeley Lab's Computational Research Division. "The special thing about the simulations used here is that we ran a rather large number of them. This was important for studying a rare event; if it is rare, then you need a large amount of data in order to have it occurring frequently enough that you can understand it."

The research team also discovered that even though the heat waves' proximity in terms of location and time, the two heat waves were "meteorologically independent." In spite of this discovery, Wehner emphasized, "the India/Pakistan paper confirms that the chances of deadly heat waves have been substantially increased by human-induced climate change, and these changes will certainly increase as the planet continues to warm."
If you think facial recognition is amazing, think of what happens if cows could do it too. Scientists are making the technology to identify cows, which also have their own unique set of facial features.



According to Dairy Global, Cainthus is the "only" company in the world that can facilitate visual recognition on cows.



Cainthus, based in Dublin, Ottawa and Francisco, is a budding machine vision company that has the technology to turn visual information into actionable data.



Their current focus is on improving agriculture, regardless if their technology's end-use has great potential.



According to Tech Republic, David Hunt is the co-founder of Cainthus along with his brother Ross. They aim to digitise agricultural practices with one of their goals is to develop facial recognition technology for cows.



Hunt said they're the only company in the world that can ID a cow using facial recognition, with a 97 percent accuracy in ID on an individual image.



They have also done their first commercial sale and installation, and they are prioritising larger dairies of "over 1,000 cows," as this is where their system makes the best impact.



Hunt said their mission to create an effective cow recognition system stemmed from the realization that one of the big problems in the industry is a lack of scale measurement.



They added that this can make things difficult to improve within the industry, as not being able to accurately measure something makes it hard to improve them. They then saw that imaging sensors turned out to be the cheapest way to provide commercial scale measurement for agricultural fields.



Hunt added that robotics in this scale and be a solution to a decreasing labour force, adding that the combination of advanced sensor data and analytics can make a platform capable of making constant "small" interventions to ensure productivity.



Hunt also said it's perfectly natural for farmers to feel both excited and skeptical on the new technology. According to SMH, Hunt said farmers may be skeptical about the new technology because of the amount of risks present, but he said their technology can contribute more than just letting know when cows "stop feeding."



Regardless, Hunt thinks this technology could make farms more of a mixed enterprise in the future. By 2050, Hunt thinks farms will be mixed and use agro-ecology style systems with many different crops and livestock.
The real-life Iron Man may be within our midst as Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, announced that he plans to build his own home-based AI similar to Iron Man's Jarvis. It has been reported that the real-life Iron Man may be within our midst as Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, has announced that he plans to build his own home-based AI similar to Iron Man's Jarvis.

According to Mirror UK, Zuckerberg wanted to create an Iron Man-style AI system for his own home this year and may be near success. Hold your excitement as the AI assistant may still be far from the free-thinking, intelligent, and powerful Jarvis from the Marvel film and is only targeted to do simple tasks at home, for the mean time.

Zuckerberg is reportedly spending his free time writing codes for a computer-controlled assistant that can do and operate simple things at home like opening and closing lights, locking and unlocking doors, turning up the volume of music, closing the television, and even controlling the temperature.

He also plans to include the AI in everyday tasks like waking up the children in the morning, having a toast with friends and family, and more. But we may wait a bit longer to see the AI acting and moving similar to Tony Stark's AI assistant.

USA today reported that he had planned to design it to recognize his voice so he could control it just by speaking to it, similar to Stark. In the future, it may be used for face recognition, natural language processing, and many more. However, whether or not it could engage in intelligent conversation is something that may not yet be in the plans and designs of the Facebook CEO.

In the event that the AI does engage in conversation, Zuckerberg announced that he plans to use the most recognizable voice of all-time for his AI assistant -- the voice of Morgan Freeman.
An unsuspected window cleaner was just finishing his cigarette when he spotted a strange object flying across the sky.

According to reports, the strange incident happened on the south of the British coast. As per the video uploaded by the witnessed who was identified as Darren Cooper, the ring-shaped object flew in speed. And as if the UFO was not enough to shock him, Cooper saw a black helicopter trailing behind the UFO.

"As I went back into the house to look at the footage, within two minutes the helicopter was above the house so I ran back outside with the camcorder and the chopper was on the same path as the object in the sky" Cooper said in the video caption.

"Notice in the video the helicopter is turning as if looking for something."

Meanwhile, according to Express, this is not the first time a black helicopter has been seen next to another unidentified object. It was believed that these helicopters have no marking that indicate their identities are part of a covert military force engaged in a secret UFO monitoring program.

Mirror UK reported that according to declassified FBI files, the same black helicopters were spotted during a wave of cattle mutilation cases in Colorado, where animals had organs removed with surgical precision and were completely drained of blood.

A testimony in Case 79232 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database said a witness reported watching a sphere-shaped orb UFO silently moving at the treetop level followed by three black helicopters,.

In an article published in New York Post, journalist Ben Mezrich chronicles Chuck Zukowski's journey as he tries to uncover the truth about the cattle mutilation is Colorado. According to the article cases like these had been happening in many other places for more than a decade. And all of them were unexplained.
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured two stunning nebulae within a small satellite galaxy about 200,000 light years away.

According to Hubble's official website, the two festive-looking emission nebulae were conjoined so they appear as one. Known together as NGC 248, the intense radiation from the brilliant central stars is making the hydrogen in the nebulae to glow in brilliant pink.

Located within the Small Magellanic Clouds, NGC 248 is about 60 light years long and 20 light years wide. The nebulae were first discovered by the astronomer Sir John Hershel in 1934. NGC 248 is one of the many glowing hydrogen nebulae in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy that lies in the southern constellation of Tucana, about 200,000 light years away.

The image of the stunning nebulae was taken using the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. It was observed as part of the Small Magellanic cloud Investigation of Dust and Gas Evolution (SMIDGE) survey, according to a press release.

During the SMIDGE survey, astronomers used the visual prowess of Hubble to look into the Small Magellanic Cloud. By studying the dust in the Small Magellanic Cloud, astronomers could determine the difference between satellite galaxies, such as the Small Magellanic Cloud and massive galaxies, such as the Milky Way.

The relative proximity of the Small Magellanic Cloud makes it a valuable target for studies. This satellite galaxy seem to have dust similar to what is expected to exist in the galaxies during the earlier Universe, only between a fifth and a tenth of the amount of heavy elements that the Milky Way has.

Due to this, astronomers are using the Small Magellanic Cloud as a cosmic laboratory to study the history of the Universe. Astronomers noted that during the star formation in the early Universe, the percentage of heavy elements in the Milky Way was much lower to than it is now. And, by observing satellite galaxies with similar low amount of heavy elements as to early Milky Way, astronomers could better understand the history of our own galaxy.


The creation of new islands could make up for the loss of land in the Maldives due to sea level rise, a study published in the journal Geology suggests.

Regional island building consists of lagoons filling with sand taken from the surrounding coral reefs. As this happens, plant and animal life take root.

By studying the history and timing of this process throughout the area, researchers concluded that the continued accumulation of sand within the reefs found inside Maldivian atolls offer an opportunity for future island development.

Smaller reefs where the lagoons are nearly filled in, the study showed, are most likely to give way to islands -- a process that could happen within 100 years if provided with enough sand.

The findings further suggested that these smaller islands could then grow into structures that could then be inhabited even as sea level rise reduces the land available on other islands.

Many existing islands were established and expanded through the last few thousand years under slightly higher-than-present sea levels, the researchers found.

"Many of the heavily populated islands in the Maldives have limited capacity to respond naturally to sea-level rise and this will necessitate additional spending on shoreline maintenance," Co-author Chris Perry from the University of Exeter said. "Our research suggests, however, that the potential does exist for new island formation on those reefs inside the atolls that have near fully infilled lagoons. These may ultimately provide additional land options across the region, and some possibilities for mitigation options under higher sea level conditions."

Researchers from the University of Auckland, James Cook University, the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Japan, Curtin University and the University of Glasgow all contributed to the report.
The Obama Administration is releasing new guidelines concerning the use of campus-based police officers across the countrys more than 95,000 public schools. The push for national reform comes in the wake of a more than a year-long NBC Bay Area investigation, which exposed how the misuse of school police officers can leave children with criminal records for what some describe as just childish misbehavior.

The Department of Education and the Department of Justice released the new recommendations in September, which outline how school-based police officers should be trained and deployed. The Administration hopes educators accept the recommendations, but some Bay Area school districts say they wont be making any changes.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Watch Part 1 of this NBC Bay Area Investigative Series:

Having police on school campuses is supposed to keep kids safe, but some say students are actually being harmed when the line between criminal activity and childish misbehavior gets blurred. Bigad Shaban reports in a story that first aired September 28, 2015.

Watch Part 2 of this NBC Bay Area Investigative Series:

A Bay Area school district recently referred more students to police than nearly every other district in the country. Bigad Shaban reports in a story that first aired September 29.

Watch Part 3 of this NBC Bay Area Investigative Series:

One of the largest school districts in the Bay Area is defending its discipline policies after an NBC Bay Area investigation revealed children were being left with arrest records for what some described as just childish misbehavior at school.

Watch Part 4 of this NBC Bay Area Investigative Series:

Sweeping changes governing the use of police officers at dozens of South Bay schools will go into effect this year as part of a pilot program after an NBC Bay Area investigation revealed students were being left with criminal records for what many describe as childish misbehavior. Bigad Shaban reports.

Watch Part 5 of this NBC Bay Area Investigative Series:

Most Bay Area students attend a school thats regularly patrolled by a campus police officer, but an NBC Bay Area investigation found many schools fail to outline even the most basic roles and responsibilities of those officers. Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban reports.

Watch Part 6 of this NBC Bay Area Investigative Series:

The Obama Administration is releasing new guidelines concerning the use of campus-based police officers. The push for national reform comes in the wake of a more than a year-long NBC Bay Area investigation. Bigad Shaban reports on a story that first aired on Dec. 20.

Watch Part 7 of this NBC Bay Area Investigative Series:

A nearly two-year long NBC Bay Area investigation revealed schools call the police on black students and children with disabilities at disproportionately higher rates than their peers. Following the series of Investigative Unit reports, California Assemblywoman Shirley Nash Weber (D-San Diego) is now proposing legislation that would require school districts to define the role and responsibilities of their campus based...

Investigative Unit Helps Spark Push for National Reform

The recommendations implore school districts to provide adequate training for school-based police officers and to clearly outline the roles and responsibilities of those officers in writing. The Investigative Unit found nearly 230,000 Bay Area students attend schools that regularly place law enforcement on campus without having a detailed agreement to outline the roles and responsibilities of those officers.

School resource officers should not be engaged in discipline day-to-day, said U.S. Secretary of Education John King Jr. Our worry is that in some districts, school resource officers are being asked to do the day-to-day discipline work that really should be the responsibility of educators who are trained on how to create supportive school climates for kids.

The Department of Education said that before releasing its new national guidelines, it had been monitoring and tracking NBC Bay Areas series of reports on the misuse of school police officers. King described the findings as distressing.

As the Investigative Unit first revealed last year, cuts in education funding have forced some schools to reduce staff, such as counselors, and rely more heavily on campus police officers to discipline students.

Across the country, 1.6 million students attend a school with a campus police officer, but not a single counselor, according to data compiled by the Department of Education.

King said the over-reliance on school resource officers as disciplinarians can harm students and leave them with criminal records for what some might call typical childish misbehavior.

NBC Bay Area

Students with Disabilities, African-Americans Disproportionately Impacted

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit found African-American students and students with disabilities are arrested at disproportionately high rates at schools in the Bay Area and across the nation.

Last year, the Investigative Unit collected and analyzed data from 20 of some of the largest school districts in the Bay Area, home to 374,266 students. The investigation found 1,841 students were referred to police and 198 students were arrested during the 2013-2014 school year.

While children with disabilities made up only 10 percent of the student population, they accounted for 27 percent of the students referred to law enforcement, and 23 percent of arrests. African-American students made up just 9 percent of the population, and were referred to police 16 percent of the time and arrested 24 percent of the time, the data analysis showed during the same time period. National averages were about the same, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection.

Once students get involved in the criminal justice system, that can often lead to further problems down the road for them and ultimately lead to prison, King said. So one of the things we want to do is make sure that students arent facing arrest for what really should be classroom management issues that are dealt with by principals and teachers.

King said he hopes districts will adapt their practices in light of several high-profile incidents involving campus-based officers.

NBC Bay Area

Children in Handcuffs

In Michigan last year, a 7-year-old boy was handcuffed at an after-school program. His outraged mom can be heard yelling at the officer in cell phone video capturing the incident.

In Kentucky, a school resource officer is now at the center of a federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU after putting handcuffs on an 8-year-old boy for misbehaving in class. Video shows the officer securing the handcuffs on the boys arms when they dont fit around his small wrists.

At least four other elementary school students were handcuffed at the same school district in roughly the same year, according to records obtained by the ACLU.

Weve had incidents around the country where a school resource officer approaching an incident in the same fashion they would with an adult on the street has caused harm to students, King said. So we know thats a problem and weve got to change that.

NBC Bay Areas investigation found other questionable incidents involving school resource officers.

Adrian Crosby, a 13-year-old student with autism at San Joses Bret Harte Middle School, was arrested after etching his initials onto a school sidewalk. Crosby wasnt placed in handcuffs, but he was given a juvenile citation, officially giving him a criminal record.

At the same school district, San Jose Unified, high school freshman Kai Segura was arrested for doing summersaults across the quad during a rainy afternoon.

Despite Washingtons recommendations to rein in the responsibilities of school officers, some school districts are resisting change. Of the 47 Bay Area districts that regularly rely on law enforcement to provide security on campus, the Investigative Unit discovered 20 of those school districts, over 40 percent, fail to outline the exact roles and responsibilities of those officers. NBC Bay Area contacted those districts to find out whether educators now plan to follow the Obama Administrations new guidelines. The Investigative Unit discovered that 15 of those 20 school districts still have no immediate plans to follow those recommendations.

Theyre making a mistake, King said. They should look at the letter and look at the resources we have provided and try to build more constructive roles for the school resource officers in schools. Ultimately the risk that theyre taking is that theyre going to have [school resource officers] involved in incidents where they shouldnt be, and thats a litigation risk for districts and ultimately a risk to their long-term success for their students.

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Watch the entire series in this NBC Bay Area investigation:
A man convicted of hiring an assassin to stage a robbery and kill his 17-year-old wife in a La Mirada park -- a crime that went unsolved for nearly two decades -- was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Morrad Ghonim, 43, was convicted Nov. 21 of the murder of Victoria Ghonim, who was shot on July 23, 1992, while sitting in a car with Morrad and her infant son in La Mirada Creek Park.

Jurors -- who deliberated over 4 1/2 days before reaching a verdict -- also found true the special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and murder for financial gain, as well as a gun allegation.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John A. Torribio denied a motion for new trial before ordering Ghonim to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Prosecutors earlier decided against seeking the death penalty.

The killing remained unsolved until 2009, when DNA linked a man named Leon Martinez to the crime. Martinez was arrested in October 2010 and convicted in March 2015 of first-degree murder.

The hitman later struck a deal with prosecutors and testified against Ghonim during a preliminary hearing. Martinez gave various accounts to police and in court as to what Ghonim paid him, at one point saying Ghonim offered him $10,000 and actually paid $5,000.

In other testimony, Martinez said he was paid only $500. The lower number was supported by testimony from Ghonim's second wife and the mother of five of his children.

The woman Ghonim married after killing his young wife testified that during a fight when she threatened to take the children and move to Texas, Ghonim told her, "If you ever think of getting a divorce, I'll hurt you. It cost me $500 then, it won't cost me much now,'' the Los Angeles Times reported.

Martinez is expected to be sentenced on Feb. 23 to 28 years to life in prison in exchange for his testimony.

Ghonim was charged in his wife's killing about a month after Martinez was convicted. At the time, Ghonim was living in Antigua. He was arrested in May 2015 and returned to the United States.

Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Howard Cooper testified that according to Ghonim, he was with his wife and infant son at the La Mirada park, standing near a foot bridge, when they heard catcalls coming from a group of people standing nearby.

Ghonim told the investigator that his wife began shouting back at the group, then the family hustled back to their car, where his wife continued to shout at the group, Cooper said. Ghonim said that as he was about to turn on the vehicle's engine, he heard gunshots, and he quickly started the car and sped away, realizing then that his wife had been shot.

Cooper said Ghonim claimed he never saw the actual shooter, but sped away trying to find a hospital. He was soon pulled over by a California Highway Patrol officer for running a red light, according to Cooper.

The CHP officer said Ghonim was sobbing, and the officer saw the woman in the vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound.
A group of San Francisco Bay Area artists have created a petition in hopes to place building fire inspections on hold in the wake of a deadly Oakland warehouse fire, while housing advocates are asking for a similar moratorium on evictions.

"City governments in San Francisco and Oakland are making things worse in their response," the petition by Julie Mastrine claims. "These cities are conducting witch-hunts of artist warehouse spaces, knocking on their doors and evicting the mostly low-income artists living there.

Mastrine, who works with Care2, delivered the petition signatures in person at the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection public meeting at City Hall on Wednesday. So far, more than 11,000 people have signed the petition, which has a 12,000-person goal.

The plight is personal for Mastrine. Her sister lives in an art warehouse, and she fears her sibling could get evicted with the increased public scrutiny. Her petition seeks that cities stop unsolicited building inspections, stop heavy-handed enforcement and waive permit fees for warehouse upgrades.

"To me, it feels like sometimes they are removed from what actually goes on in the day-to-day lives of artists and warehouse spaces," Mastrine said. "And you know, the law is one thing, but community is another. And when you take a punitive approach you are displacing communites and you are hurting artists."

Other artists in San Francisco are also feeling the ripple effects of the devastating fire.

Nathan Wilkinson Cottam is a professional ballerina who has for the last two years lived in whats known as the Bernal House in San Francisco, which he described as an absolutely safe place to live.

Cottam shared the $3,800 monthly rent with seven other artists. But their landlord terminated their lease agreement exactly 10 days after 36 people perished in the illegally converted Ghost Ship warehouse, he said.

On Wednesday, a handful of inspectors with the citys fire department toured the Bernal House.

"If we lose this, I cant imagine finding another place comparable that I can afford," Cottam said.

Singer and writer Tony Burgess agreed.

"This is where we make magic," he said. I think that losing something like this in the Bay Area means you lose a part of the community itself."

For his part, Tom Hui, of San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection said on behalf of the city, "We want to make sure that public safety is number one."

He added his department will indeed be called in if residents can't resolve fire safety issues. At a commission meeting, inspectors said they'd work with the fire department and code enforcement teams to find ways to legalize art spaces in San Francisco.

Similar steps against unpermitted warehouses used by artists have been taken around the country since the Ghost Ship fire, which was the nation's deadliest building fire in more than a decade.

Last week, Richmond officials closed a warehouse and punk-music venue known as the Burnt Ramen, and evicted its six residents. Fire officials say the problems included people living in crawl spaces and bars and chicken wire covering windows.

City Manager Bill Lindsay said authorities were willing to work with the venue's owner to make the building safe and legal.

"I do hope that things happen expeditiously and responsibly, so we can get this facility back to occupancy," Lindsay said.

A few dozen supporters of the Burnt Ramen carried protest signs to a Richmond City Council meeting Tuesday night, asking for time and guidance to fix safety and other code problems.

"They're not letting us fix our home,'' former resident Brandon Bailey, 29, told the San Francisco Chronicle at a small rally before the meeting.

The artists aren't alone in their attempt to find various long-terms solutions to their need for safe housing after the fatal deadly Dec. 2 blaze.

Abode Services, an affordable housing nonprofit in Fremont, sent a letter this week, urging Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and the Oakland City Council to impose an immediate moratorium on all evictions of live-work warehouse spaces. The group is trying to ensure a safe environment to transition these spaces into legal, permanent affordable housing.

Abode Services said in a statement that housing activists realize that Oakland leaders are receiving pressure from many sides to crack down quickly on similar spaces. But they wanted to remind city officials that these evictions are contributing to the overwhelming number of homeless people already seeking housing, and are reducing the overall housing stock in the city of Oakland.

Abode Services and others are trying to figure out how to make these buildings become safe and code-compliant.
The Contra Costa County Health Department on Tuesday identified the cause of the deadly outbreak last month at a Thanksgiving church dinner, where three people died and 14 others got sickened.

A laboratory at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the presence of Clostridium perfringens in the stool samples taken by those who fell ill at the Nov. 24 holiday celebration, according to health spokeswoman Vicky Balladeres.

The Golden Hills Community Church in Brentwood had put on the annual event at the Antioch American Legion Hall.

Seattle-based food expert attorney William Marler first told NBC Bay Area that he suspected that the most likely culprit was this very same bacteria, which is often mistaken for the 24-hour flu. The majority of outbreaks are associated with undercooked meats, often cooked in large quantities and which sit out for long periods of time. Its rarely fatal, but it can be.

Its not unusual for just a few people to get sick out of hundreds, Marler said in an email to NBC Bay Area. They may have been the only ones that ate the tainted portion or perhaps had underlying health issues that made them more vulnerable.

Marler said it reminds him of a case in Iowa years ago where only a few people got sick and one died during a Thanksgiving dinner for the elderly.

Despite coming up with what made the holiday guests fall sick, and even die, Contra Costa County Health officials said they couldn't figure out exactly what dish made them ill.

"After extensive interviews, we found most of the ill people ate turkey and mashed potatoes and they all ate around the same time," Environmental Health Director Dr. Marilyn Underwood said in a statement. "Some dishes served at the event, including cooked turkey, were brought to the site after they were prepared in private homes."

She added that proper food handling is key to preventing foodborne illnesses and added "were saddened for the families that suffered losses this holiday season."
A California man has pleaded guilty to a charge stemming in part from the theft of more than 100 wine bottles worth more than $500,000 from a famed Napa Valley restaurant.

Federal prosecutors said a judge Tuesday accepted Davis Kiryakoz's guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to transport stolen goods. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors said the 44-year-old Kiryakoz acknowledged conspiring to steal wine bottles from the world-renowned French Laundry restaurant in December 2014.

The theft occurred a day after Chef Thomas Keller's famed restaurant closed for a six-month kitchen remodel.

The Yountville, California, establishment is rated three stars in the Michelin guide and twice has been named the world's best by Restaurant Magazine.

The stolen wine included Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, a single bottle of which can cost up to $10,000. At the time of the theft, an online wine list showed the bottles sell for $3,250 to $7,950 at the restaurant.

Bottles of Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon, one of the most highly sought-after American wines, also were stolen. The restaurant wine list shows one vintage sells for $6,000.

Kiryakoz and a co-conspirator arranged to ship the wine to a buyer in North Carolina, where some of it was later discovered.

Prosecutors say Kiryakoz also conspired to steal wine from a steakhouse and a wine dealer. He is scheduled to be sentenced in March.
Ikea will pay $50 million to the families of three children who were killed by dressers that tipped over.

The Philadelphia-based firm Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig LLP announced Wednesday it had settled wrongful death lawsuits filed against Ikea for $50 million.

The firm represents the families of Curren Collas of West Chester, Pennsylvania, Camden Ellis of Snohomish, Washington, and Ted McGee of Apple Valley, Minnesota.

Collas, 2, died in his West Chester home in February 2014, when Ikeas MALM six-drawer dresser tipped over and fell on top of him, fatally pinning him against his bed.

About four months after Collas death, a three-drawer MALM dresser tipped over and fell on top of Ellis inside his Washington State home. Ellis was placed on life support, which was discontinued on June 15, 2014, only a few days after his second birthday.

McGee, 2, died after a six-drawer MALM dresser fell on top of him inside his bedroom in Minnesota.

A lawsuit from the families filed against Ikea stated the unsafe design of the MALM dressers made them inherently unstable and easy to tip over. The lawsuit accused Ikea of refusing to meet voluntary national safety standards for stability of chests and dressers. The lawsuit also accused the company of being aware of other deaths and injuries caused by their furniture that tipped over yet still refusing to redesign its products.

It was not until after the death of Ted McGee that Ikea finally agreed to stop the sale of its defective furniture and recall the MALM and other models of chests and dressers which failed to meet minimum standards for safety and stability, a spokesperson for Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig LLP wrote.

Ikea issued a recall on the MALM dresser on June 28, impacting 29 million furniture units.

The $50 million will be divided up evenly among the three families. As part of the settlement, Ikea agreed to donate $50,000 to the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia in Collas memory, $50,000 to a childrens hospital in Washington State in Ellis memory and $50,000 to a childrens hospital in Minnesota in McGees memory.

Ikea will also donate $100,000 to Shanes Foundation NFP, a childrens safety organization, and will only sell chests and dressers in the United States that meet or exceed the requirements of the national safety standard for clothing storage units. Finally, as part of the settlement, Ikea will increase funding for its Secure It program which raises awareness on the risk of furniture tip-overs.

Curren Collas mother Jackie Collas sent a statement to NBC10 about the settlement.

I am so proud that we were able to negotiate such great terms, she wrote. To know that my little boy was able to help save so many children makes my heart happy.

NBC10 reached out to Ikea for comment. We have not yet heard back.
John Kerry's spokesman said Wednesday the U.S. Secretary of State has raised concerns about "some of the rhetoric coming out of Turkey" suggesting U.S. is connected to a political movement the Turkish president blames for the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey, NBC News reported.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan claimed loyalists of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who lives in Pennsylvania, are responsible for Monday's killing of Ambassador Andrey Karlov at an Ankara art gallery, Reuters reported.

"It's a ludicrous claim, absolutely false, there's no basis of truth in it whatsoever," State Department spokesman John Kirby later reporters of rhetoric suggesting the U.S. supported the assassination "because of the presence of Mr. Gulen here in the United States."

No motive has been released for why 22-year-old Mevlut Mert Altintas, a member of Ankara's riot police, opened fire on the envoy. Senior Turkish officials don't believe it was a lone wolf attack.
President-elect Donald Trump plans to meet with his incoming national security adviser in the aftermath of a rattling day of violence around the world.

Trump appeared to jump ahead of investigators in blaming Islamic terrorists for deadly incidents Monday in Turkey and Germany and vowing anew to eradicate their networks.

He called the gunman who shot Russia's ambassador to Turkey a "radical Islamic terrorist."

And Trump released a statement about the Berlin truck crash in which at least 12 people were killed, saying that "Islamist terrorists continually slaughter Christians in their communities."

Trump's meeting Wednesday with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn comes a day after Flynn and other members of the incoming national security team met with Vice President-elect Mike Pence in Washington.
Investigators from Turkey and Russia hunted for clues Tuesday in the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey in front of stunned onlookers at a photo exhibition in Ankara.

A team of 18 Russian investigators and foreign ministry officials arrived in Turkey and began inspecting the art gallery where the shooting of Andrei Karlov took place.

Central to the joint Turkish-Russian investigation is whether Mevlut Mert Altintas, a member of Ankara's riot police squad, planned the attack alone.

One senior Turkish government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details to the press, said it was unlikely Altintas acted alone.

The official said the killing had all the marks of being "fully professional, not a one-man action."

So far, authorities have detained only people close to the gunman in their investigation: Altintas' parents, sister, three other relatives and his roommate in Ankara.

Independent Turkish security analyst Abdullah Agar said it was "likely that an organization was behind" the assassination.

The analyst said that Altintas' behavior and the manner in which he carried out the attack "gives the impression that he received training that was much more than riot police training."

Agar also said the gunman's words, which he uttered in Arabic, were from a passage frequently cited by Jihadists.

Altintas shouted "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!" in Turkish during the attack, and also yelled "Allahu akbar," the Arabic phrase for "God is great." He continued in Arabic: "We are the descendants of those who supported the Prophet Muhammad, for jihad."

A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said the country's foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, provided U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry information on the assailant during a telephone conversation on Tuesday.

Cavusoglu also told Kerry that both Turkey and Russia "know" that a movement led by U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind the attack, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government rules.

Turkey has accused Gulen of orchestrating a failed military coup in July aimed at toppling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and accuses the cleric of wanting to destabilize Turkey. It is pressing the United States to extradite Gulen to Turkey to stand trial for his alleged role in the coup attempt. Gulen has denied the accusations.

Few details about the policeman or the initial investigation have been made public. According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Altintas took leave from work and on Dec. 14 made a hotel reservation near the art exhibition center. He checked into the hotel on Monday. Following the attack, police searched and later sealed his hotel room, but did not announce whether anything was found there.

On arrival at the art gallery where the photo exhibition was taking place, Altintas was apparently initially stopped by security, but managed to get through with his weapon by using his police ID. The gun he used to shoot Karlov appeared to be a weapon that is standard issue for Turkey's riot police.

Originally from the western town of Soke, near Turkey's Aegean coast, Altintas had been serving in Ankara's riot police for the past two and a half years. But how or why he became impassioned with the war in Syria was unclear.

Police investigators said the policeman lived in an apartment building in Demetevler, a northern district of Ankara.

Some neighbors described him as a quiet person who kept to himself.

"He seemed to be a quiet and calm person. He was not speaking to us too much," said Halil Karan, a 22-year-old shopkeeper in the area. "We were seeing him in the evenings. He didn't come to his home for a long time though."

Some residents in the area said he mainly lived elsewhere in the capital.

Both Russia and Turkey have vowed that the assassination would not derail efforts to repair bilateral ties. Turkey and Russia have been at odds mainly over their opposing views to the conflict in Syria, with Moscow backing Syrian President Bashar Assad and Ankara supporting rebels fighting to depose him. With Russia's air support, Syrian government forces have pushed the rebels out of their last foothold in Aleppo.

Karlov's assassination came after days of protests by Turks angry over Moscow's support for Assad and Russia's actions in Aleppo.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin were "in agreement that this was an open provocation" and that a joint investigation was being conducted. The two spoke Monday night.

"Together with Mr. Putin, we have an understanding that our cooperation, especially in Syria, will not be affected by this attack," he said.

Karlov's body was flown home to Moscow on Tuesday afternoon after an emotional ceremony at Ankara Airport attended by Turkish government officials and diplomats. Karlov's wife, Marina Karlova, wept as her husband's flag-draped coffin was carried by a Turkish honor guard. She laid two red carnations on the coffin before it was loaded onto the aircraft.

On Monday evening, an Associated Press photographer and others at the art gallery watched in horror as Altintas, who was wearing a dark suit and tie, fired at least eight shots, at one point walking around the ambassador as he lay motionless and shooting him again at close range.
Illinois lost more residents in 2016 than any other state, according to a Chicago Tribune report based on U.S. census data released Tuesday.

Illinois lost 37,508 residents in 2016, bringing the state's population to 12,801,539 people. This marks the third straight year the states population has dipped. Nevertheless, Illinois remains the countrys fifth-most populous state.

Illinois population began its downward trend in 2014, losing 7,391 people. That number tripled in 2015, with the state losing 22,194 residents, and continued in 2016 with greater losses.

In total, the state lost roughly 114,144 residents in 2016, although some of those losses were offset by new residents and births, according to the report.

Illinois' population is expected to continue to decline as more residents leave the state. Last year, the Tribune surveyed a dozen former Illinois residents who credited high taxes, the state budget stalemate, crime, the unemployment rate and the weather as key reasons for their relocation.

According to the Tribune report, census data pointed to the Chicago area as the root of the states problem. In 2015, the city saw its first population decline since at least 1990, losing 6,263 residents.
A suburban mans kitchen remodeling job went awry when newly installed tiles cracked not once, but twice. When he asked Home Depot to fix it a third time, he didnt like the answer he got. So he called NBC 5 Responds.

His working years behind him, John Sorg was looking forward to spending time cooking in his newly remodeled kitchen. Instead, the recently retired Waukegan man says he spent time worrying about the cracks that popped up on the tiles of his kitchen floor four months after they were installed by Home Depot.

I got down on the ground and I noticed cracks in the floor and they were running north and south, Sorg recalled.

The work was still under warranty, so Sorg called Home Depot and asked them to send an inspector out to take a look. Which they did. Everyone agreed there was a problem.

"It wasn't done properly. So they said ok, we have to rip it up, Sorg said.

Home Depot then sent the same installer back to re-do the job. Everything seemed fine, according to Sorg, until two years later. Thats when he looked down and couldnt believe what he was seeing.

And I went oh man, you gotta be kidding me," Sorg said. The grout was popping up from between the tile, the tiles were cracking.

The same problem, but worse: more cracks, chipped and missing grout and uneven floors. Sorg called Home Depot again and asked for a third new floor, but didnt like the answer he got.

"And they told me well, we're going to replace a few broken tiles and then we will re-grout, Sorg said.

Convinced the suggested fix was nothing more than bandaid, Sorg reached out to NBC 5 Responds.

"My mother actually was saying you should call NBC, I see them on there and they'll get it done, you know, Sorg said.

After NBC 5 Responds reached out to Home Depot, the company did agree to replace the entire floor  for the third time  using a different installation team, a sturdier tile and a more expensive type of grout. Sorg estimates the new floor cost around $10,000.

"I couldn't have done it without you and I appreciate it, Sorg told NBC 5 Responds. "You guys are a Godsend.

Complaints against home improvement and remodeling companies are not unusual, according to the Illinois Attorney Generals office. More than 2000 were received in 2015, landing the industry in the number four spot in the top ten complaint categories.

In a statement, Home Depot told NBC 5 Responds it stands by its work and sticks with customers until the job is done right. The company said it appreciated the opportunity to do that for Mr. Sorg.
The Illinois Republican Party released a digital ad Wednesday attacking prospective Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedys ties to House Speaker Michael Madigan.

The Illinois Republican Partys ad praises Kennedys uncle, President John F. Kennedy, as a "legendary president" and lauds his father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, as a "legendary statesmen," cutting between archival footage of the revered Democrats.

The one minute spot then jumps to video of Kennedy ducking reporters after delivering a speech to the Illinois delegation at Julys Democratic National Convention. During the speech, Kennedy criticized Gov. Bruce Rauner and his turnaround agenda.

Over the course of the convention, Kennedy met with House Speaker Michael Madigan, Illinois Democratic Party chairman, about a prospective run. Following the meeting, Madigan called Kennedy a very good candidate for governor."

Chris Kennedy comes from a legendary American family with a history of public service, but instead of following in their footsteps, Chris Kennedy chose to serve corrupt politicians like Mike Madigan, Illinois Republican Party spokesman Steven Yaffe said in a statement.

The businessman's appearance at the DNC stoked speculation about a possible 2018 gubernatorial bid. Kennedy has reportedly been gearing up for a run, hiring staff and preparing to file papers with the state board of elections, Politico reports. According to the report, Kennedy is planning an announcement next month alongside a coalition of labor groups, ministers and businesspeople.

A spokesperson for the Chicago businessman confirmed Tuesday that Kennedy is planning an announcement in January, although details remain scarce. The source also confirmed to Ward Room that Kennedy has hired veteran political strategist Eric Adelstein.

"It's quite honestly laughable that this is the only thing that they have to attack Chris on is the fact that he didn't wanna do a media interview two and a half years out from an election," the spokesperson said.

"I think that Chris is someone to be reckoned with and clearly the Illinois Republican Party sees that," the source added.

The Kennedy spokesperson claimed the attacks look to divert attention from the recent records of Rauner and his fellow Republicans.

"They've potentially decimated the state, so this is all a distraction and trying to create some sort of narrative that is non-existant," the source told Ward Room.

According to the source, Kennedy is focused on "real issues," like cuts to social services and the state's ongoing budget impasse.

The Illinois GOPs new web video ultimately serves as an advertisement for the partys Boss Madigan website, which targets Illinois Democrats with ties to the powerful house speaker.

The Illnois Republican Party noted that Kennedy donated $50,000 to the Leading Illinois For Tomorrow political action committee, which has spent millions attacking Gov. Rauner. The Illinois GOP claims the PAC, which is chaired by Democratic state Sen. Daniel Biss, serves as Madigans political front group.

The Illinois Republican Party has also targeted billionaire J.B. Pritzker, another prospective Democratic challenger to Rauner. The Illinois GOP has attempted to tie Pritzker to incarcerated former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Pritzker raised money for the disgraced Democrat over the course of his political career.
Ever since Pope Francis was chosen to lead the Catholic Church, he has offered surprises as he emphasizes the poor and those disenfranchised.

Just as Francis celebrated his 80th birthday, a new book looks at his journey.



"He's always gone out into, and encouraged other priests to go out and work with and for, poor people," said Mark Shriver, author of the book, "Pilgrimage," which aims to explain more about who Pope Francis is and how his worldview has been formed.



His grandmother lived right around the corner in Florence, a town in Buenos Aires," Shriver said, "also an immigrant in Italy who stood up on a chair in a public square and denounced Mussolini."



Shriver spent more than two years researching Pope Francis travelling to both Argentina and Italy to meet with those who have known him well over the years.

"Hes getting the Church back to its roots, he said.



Pope Francis has said yes to creating a commission to look into making women deacons but no to women priests. On the priest sex abuse crisis, there are still questions if the church has reformed.



"We want change immediately, we want to put him in a box," Shriver said.

"Is he a progressive, or conservative, does he lean like the Democrats or the Republicans, or is he an independent. This guy transcends all that."



Shriver, part of the Kennedy family, tried every angle to interview Pope Francis for the book but was turned down.



It would have been fun to have had an interview with the pope," he said, "but the bottom line is, when he turned me down, he told me he didn't really care about this book because it's about him."



In the end, Shriver concluded the pope is a man of the people -- more interested in the message than personal attention.
A Texas man who grew up in Illinois was convicted Tuesday of murdering his grandmother in her suburban East Dundee home, according to the Kane County States Attorneys office.

A jury found 44-year-old Rich A. Schmelzer, of Frisco, Texas, guilty of first-degree murder in the July 2014 stabbing death of 85-year-old Mildred Dodie Darrington.

Over the course of the 11-day trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Schmelzer became deeply in debt as a result of a lavish lifestyle involving female escorts and other extravagances that were well beyond his means, the States Attorneys office said in a release.

At the time, he was married with four daughters and unable to pay his bills, authorities said, failing to make mortgage payments for more than four years. Schmelzer had asked family members for loans to no avail, officials said, and as the co-executor of Darringtons estate, began to transfer money from her credit cards.

Schmelzer stood to inherit half of his grandmothers $800K estate, and began plotting in mid-July 2014 to drive from Texas to the Chicago area to murder her, prosecutors said.

He had a cousin rent a car in the cousins name, officials said, and used a prepaid gift card to cover his expenses, including a cell phone he purchased to use on the trip. Schmelzer told his wife he would be attending a conference in the Dallas area, according to prosecutors, and began the 14-hour drive to East Dundee on July 17.

Schmelzer arrived the next morning, let himself in and stabbed Darrington in the neck as she was in bed, according to authorities. When she failed to show up for her regular hair appointment, her hairdresser went to check on her and called 911 upon finding her unresponsive in her bed, officials said.

Prosecutors said Schmelzer was able to obtain a receipt from a restaurant he frequented near his home, falsely marked with a date and time corresponding to his trip to Illinois, and also convinced an acquaintance to send him an email implying that they had eaten lunch together at a time when he was actually driving back to Texas.

Schmelzer was arrested and charged with first-degree murder the following month, and has been in custody in the Kane County jail since September 2014 in lieu of $5 million bail.

As we gathered the evidence of Mildreds murder, it became clear how Mr. Schmelzer went to great lengths to attempt to cover up his crime, Kane County States Attorney Joe McMahon said.

His deceit is astonishing, and it was done because he was so overcome with greed. Quite frankly, its still hard to fathom  this man killed his own grandmother to further a lifestyle of gluttony that he couldnt otherwise pay for. He had 14 hours and 900 miles to rethink his plan, but he carried it out, anyway  a calculated, cold-blooded murder.

Schmelzer faces between 20 and 60 years in prison, and is next scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 25, 2017.
A popular YouTube personality with a history of filming pranks and social experiments says he was kicked off a Delta flight in London after other passengers expressed their discomfort with him speaking Arabic while on the phone. The airline countered that Saleh "sought to disrupt the cabin with provocative behavior."

Adam Saleh tweeted a video about 6 a.m. ET Wednesday that showed him in a packed airplane bound for New York City with a friend and a flight attendant behind him. There are several people in Delta reflector vests on the plane as well.

"We're getting kicked out because we spoke a different language. This is 2016," Saleh says in the video. "I feel like crying."

Saleh later tweeted that he and his companion boarded a different airline's flight to New York City after speaking with police and going through Heathrow Airport's security again.

After landing in New York, he told NBC News that a woman sitting near him first became annoyed when he spoke with his mother over the phone, and then expressed anger when he began speaking with his friend on the flight with him in Arabic and laughing loudly and gesticulating.

"She was like, 'Oh, my God, you need to speak English, I feel so uncomfortable,'" said Saleh.

He said a man sitting with the woman stood up and told Saleh's friend, "You need to get chucked off the [expletive] plane."

"And it just turned into a whole chain reaction, like 10, 15 to 20 people got up, like, 'They need to get off, stuff happened in Germany, I don't feel comfortable here!'" he said.

The news garnered disparate reactions on social media, as some expressed outrage against Delta while others were skeptical of the prankster's account. Saleh insists this was not a stunt.

"If we were doing a joke or a prank, we would have our official camera. We had our phone camera to pull out," he told NBC News, though he later added that his friend pulled out a professional camera afterward to film the aftermath. "My life isn't a prank."

But Delta said Saleh "sought to disrupt the cabin with provocative behavior, including shouting," based on the information the airline collected from the flight's crew and several passengers that were interviewed after the flight landed at John F. Kennedy Airport.

"This type of conduct is not welcome on any Delta flight. While one, according to media reports, is a known prankster who was video recorded and encouraged by his traveling companion, what is paramount to Delta is the safety and comfort of our passengers and employees. It is clear these individuals sought to violate that priority," Delta said in a statement.

Saleh said he's angry because "they can take advantage of people like my mom, who don't even speak English at all."

"What if my mom was there? She has no camera, she has nothing, and they kick her off in a nice way? She's in a position where no one has seen anything," he said.

Passenger Marvin Avilez corroborated Saleh's account of a woman acting aggresively toward him, telling NBC News he saw a woman standing up and pointing and jabbing in the air toward Saleh.

But he said the other travelers were more disappointed and frustrated by the way Saleh was acting.

"It was the gesturing and the posturing," said Avilez. "In fact, one person I spoke to said, 'Look, I knew he was joking. But it went too far. It just wasn't appropriate for a plane flight leaving London for New York City.'"

Avilez added, "His actions were inappropriate for this type of setting. It's kind of like telling a really bad joke or saying something politically incorrect at a dinner table with your family."

Earlier Wednesday, Delta said it was investigating the allegation. The airline said more than 20 customers had reported being uncomfortable by the behavior of two men on the flight.

Some online compared it to an incident from November, when a white man stood up in the aisle of a Delta plane and went on an expletive-laced, pro-Donald Trump rant. He was not removed from the aisle, though Delta later barred him from flying the airline.

"Remember that token statement @Delta made about diversity after the white supremacist WASNT kicked off?" attorney Qasim Rashid tweeted. "This is why I'll never fly Delta."

People have been removed from airplanes for speaking in Arabic before.

In April, an Iraqi refugee who attends the Unviersity of California, Berkeley said he was removed from a Southwest flight and questioned by the FBI after a passenger overheard him speak in Arabic. Southwest said crew members were investigating "potentially threatening" comments. The Council on American-Islamic Relations later filed a federal complaint on the student's behalf.

And while Saleh said he was speaking to his mother before being kicked off the plane, the video posted online does not show what prompted the incident.

"I can assure you that this was not a prank, a member of Saleh's London-based management team told NBC in an email.

Another YouTube personality who said he was kicked off the plane as well had, a few hours earlier, posted a video that showed him walking up to an English man in what appears to be an airport and asking him in a kind of Arabic accent where the toilet was. The video was captioned "this is too fun," and Saleh retweeted it.

Saleh has been posting to YouTube for five years, with 3.91 million subscribers and 657 million video views on two accounts.

Many of Saleh's videos involve pranks or so-called social experiments. The most watched video on his personal account claims to test whether women are more likely to talk to a stranger on his own or if he has a red Ferrari. In the next most widely watched video, also from 2013, he and a friend repeatedly pray in New York's Union Square to find how people will react.

One popular video they posted, appearing to show a New York police officer stopping and frisking a man in traditional dress soon after watching him walk by in contemporary American clothing, was staged and meant to dramatize racial profiling they see regularly, according to the Huffington Post.

Last week, Saleh claimed he flew in the luggage hold of an Australian plane, though TigerAir refuted it as a stunt promoting dangerous behavoir, the New Zealand Herald reported.

He has posted other videos showing himself on planes. In January, he and a companion put on headscarfs for a flight "since people can wear whatever they want and feel comfortable," he explained.

In the same video, he films himself speaking Arabic with apparent strangers at an airport, and kisses a sleeping stranger as well.
A Chinese citizen has been sentenced in Connecticut to 12 months behind bars in a scheme that involved trafficking counterfeit computer chips.

Federal officials say 34-year-old Jiang Yan was sentenced Tuesday in Hartford and will be transferred to federal custody, then deported to China.

Federal prosecutors say Yan and two co-conspirators operated businesses in China that bought and sold electronic components and they came up with a scheme to steal Xilinx Corp. brand integrated circuits, or ICs, made for the U.S. military.

Court documents say a co-defendant in 2015 shipped a person in the U.S. eight counterfeit ICs to replace the stolen ICs. The trio was later arrested in Milford, where they planned to take possession of the military ICs.

Yan pleaded guilty in March to charges including conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods.
Fire tore through the old Amtrak train station at 51 Depot Road, in the Kensington section of Berlin, on Wednesday morning and destroyed everything inside.

More than 50 firefighters from several towns responded to the station before dawn.

Fortunately, no one was inside, but one of the towns most historic buildings might be a total loss.

"It's sad to see it go," Mayor Mark Kacynski said. "The plan was to restore it all to some of it's former glory, so it's too bad."

The depot first opened to passengers in 1900 and was active until earlier this year, when it closed to allow for a new facility being built as part of the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield Rail Project, according to the Great American Stations web site.

It was a beautiful building when it was built and still inside," Mark Lewandowski, chief of Kensington Fire Rescue, said. "Ive been in there, it had really nice wood furnishings. It was under the process of being restored to be a focal point in the community.

Video from fire earlier at 51 Depot Rd pic.twitter.com/kbteSw9Oye  Berlin Vol Fire Dept (@BerlinFire) December 21, 2016

As crews battled the fire, all service on Amtraks Springfield line was suspended, according to Amtraks district manager.

Trains are now getting through, but the fire marshal said trains can pass by but cannot stop in Berlin.

Officials from Amtrak said the Northeast Regional Train, 141, which operates between Springfield, Massachusetts and Washington, DC was delayed until 6:45 a.m. It was stopped, with 108 passengers onboard, until the fire marshal allowed the trains to pass through.

No one was injured and no other trains were delayed.

Travelers are advised to pick up their trains from New Haven.

Mayor Kacynski said the main thing is that no one was hurt during the fire.
A truck driver from Arizona was found with more than a million dollars worth of Fentanyl in the cab of his truck during a traffic stop on Route 34 in Derby Wednesday morning.

Police said Derby officers stopped the truck at 10:52 a.m. and found 55 pounds of Fentanyl in the cab. The drugs are estimated to be worth about $1.5 million on the street.

Fentanyl is a strong synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

It has also been combined with heroin to create a lethal drug cocktail that police have blamed for several fatal overdoses. The number of deaths linked to Fentanyl have been increasing. There were 14 in 2012, according to the office of the chief medical examiner. In 2015, the number was up to 188 people and the projected number of Fentanyl deaths in 2016 is 446.

Police identified the driver as 47-year-old Erick Escalante, of Arizona.

Because of the amount of drugs found, local police turned the case over to the Drug Enforcement Administration New Haven office for possible federal prosecution.
Named after the ancient Greek scientist, the Archimedes screw is an eco-friendly tool that generates electricity using the natural resource of water.

New England Hydropower Company installed the first of its kind in the United States Tuesday at the Hanover Dam in Meriden.

They looked at the site, they liked it, City of Meriden IT Director Steve Montemurro said. They felt it would be a perfect fit.

European countries have been utilizing this type of renewable energy technology for the past decade.

Our Industrial Revolution in New England was based on water power so what were doing is recapturing that energy that people have ignored for 150 years, New England Hydropower CEO and Founder Michael Kerr said.

For centuries, the Archimedes Screw has been used to pump water up hill. Ten years ago in Europe, Kerr explained inventors decided to invert the screw.

They could extract the potential energy of falling water and that was like a big a-ha moment, he said.

Power will be generated when water from the Hanover pond falls down the screw, causing it to rotate.

Once operational in the first quarter of 2017, Montemurro said the small-scale hydropower generator will cut the citys electricity costs.

We estimate at maybe $20,000 a year, he said. Its not all about the money, but its about technology, green energy and setting the stage for other communities to do the same thing.

Kerr told NBC Connecticut he does not think the ongoing drought in the state should discourage investment in water-based renewable energy.

Youre always going to get some dry years, but youre going to get some wet years, too as we all know, Kerr said, but over a 40- or 50-year period its generally going to be reliable.
Two holiday signs stand in stark contrast to each other on the Huntington Green in Shelton.

Last week, members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation posted a sign celebrating the winter solstice and calling religion a myth and superstition.

Right next to it the city also posted a sign that reads Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the City of Shelton.

The Huntington Green has long been home to a nativity display sponsors by the Boy Scouts.

According to the FFRF website, member Larry Bloom attempted to place the same solstice sign in a different location last year but was denied because city officials thought it would be offensive to many.

The post on the website goes on to say that after last years sign was denied they filed a lawsuit over censorship and the FFRF is negotiating a settlement to make sure Bloom gets equal access to city parks.

"We'd prefer to keep public parks and government buildings free from religious divisiveness," FFRF Co-President Dan Barker said in the post. "But if a devotional nativity display is allowed, there must be 'room at the inn' for all points of view, including irreverence and freethought."

This year Bloom obtained a permit and the banner is allowed up through Dec. 23.

"We are just happy that reason has prevailed and the City of Shelton decided to grant all viewpoints equal access to city property, said Ryan Jayne, an attorney for FFRF who is working the Shelton case.

Marc Connolly, leader of Boy Scouts 101 and Cub Scouts 24, said he supports the FFRF's right to free speech but questions the timing of the display.

"I believe the debate of freedom of speech is good. I believe ruining children and families impression during a time of their religious belief is wrong," Connolly said.

Mayor Mark Lauretti said that he understands everyone has different ways of celebrating the holidays and he wants to be respectful of all views.

You want to keep an open mind as we are supposed to do in America and everyone has the right to express themselves, so we let people do that within reason, he told NBC Connecticut Tuesday night.

Reaction to the signs varied, but most residents who spoke to NBC Connecticut on Wednesday agreed it's simply a matter of free speech.
Hartford police officers visited a brave little girl in Hartford this morning who has been recovering after being shot in November and they brought Santa along for the visit.

Police said the 10-year-old girl, Ariana, was sitting in her Branford Street home when gunshots rang out around 3:45 p.m. on Sunday Nov. 6 and a bullet struck her under her eye, police said.

When officers responded to the scene, they found Arianas father putting her in a car, police said.

Today Ariana is an inspiration to all, and doing very well. Happy Holidays to the toughest 10year old we know #citycops pic.twitter.com/17oNQxneTI  Brian Foley (@LtFoley) December 21, 2016

She was taken at first to Saint Francis Hospital, then transported to Connecticut Children's Medical Center.

On Wednesday, police officers, as well as the Hartford Guardians, went back to the girls home, but this time it was for a positive visit. They brought Santa with them to meet Ariana and spread some joy.
Shelton police have arrested two people on prostitution charges after hotel employees noticed a lot of foot traffic in and out of one room Monday.

Police responded to a Bridgeport Avenue hotel to investigate a complaint that many visitors, mostly men, were frequenting a room on the third floor. When police responded to the room they found the suspects, 20-year-old Lesley Michelle Reyes of Bridgeport, and 51-year-old Albert Beckwith of Beacon Falls, inside.

According to police, Beckwith solicited Reyes for sex online, determined a price, and the pair then met at the hotel.

Reyes was charged with prostitution and released on a $1,000 bond. Beckwith was charged with patronizing a prostitute and released on a $1,000 bond. Both are scheduled to appear in Derby Superior Court on Jan. 3.
A man accused of fatally shooting a 24-year-old Groton man then fleeing toward Canada has been turned over to the Groton Police Department, police said Wednesday.

Police had a warrant for the arrest of Dante Hughes, 30, for his connection to the fatal shooting of Joseph Gingerella on Dec. 11 outside Ryans Pub in Groton.

On Dec. 13, Hughes was found trying to cross into Canada at the US/Canadian border. He was detained by Canadian authorities and turned over to the United States Marshals Service on Dec. 20.

On Wednesday, Hughes appeared at Niagara County Court and waved extradition, according to police. He was turned over to the Groton Police Department and returned to Connecticut where he will be arraigned on a murder charge on Thursday.
Bob Welch, a former reporter and photojournalist who captured the only known audio recording of the official announcement of President John F. Kennedy's death, died Monday morning at the age of 80, his wife confirms.

Welch, who grew up in North Dallas, served as a combat photojournalist and reporter during the Vietnam War and later went on to work for Channel 5 and WBAP radio. [[300532411,C]]

On Nov. 22, 1963, Welch was covering Kennedy's visit to Dallas when shots rang out in Dealey Plaza. He delivered one of the first reports that the president had been shot. [[402370485,C]]

The following is a transcript of Welch's report from that day:

"As I say, it has not been fully confirmed, but police radios are carrying that the president has been hit. The president's party  his wife, the governor, senators, and all other political officials  were en route, as fast as they could get there, to Parkland Hospital under heavy police guard, going extremely fast past the Trade Mart, past the large throngs of people waiting to catch a glimpse of the president. It's thought that the incident occurred near the underpass section entering the Stemmons Expressway, just on the outskirts of Downtown Dallas. This unit is presently en route to Parkland Hospital. Confirmation will come shortly."

The audio reels from that day were donated to The Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. The reels had been forgotten until an NBC 5 news crew discovered them at the station's original Fort Worth studios more than three decades later. [[402318336,C]]

Welch is survived by his wife and two daughters.
The business of building well pads grinds almost to a halt when the drilling stops.

The Odessa American reports around February, when oil prices bottomed at about $26 a barrel, Silverado Contracting on Highway 385 found themselves with less than half the 20 workers who turned dirt during the boom.

Kevin Shifflet, the yard manager for the company on Highway 385, said they struggled to find 40 hours of work in a week. He took a pay cut. And when they could, they turned odd jobs like preparing construction sites for office buildings instead of readying prairie for future drilling.

But that's changing. And now, after weathering a two-year bust, it appears 2017 will be a busier year in the oil field. Not just for Silverado, but the broader region.

"We went weeks and months without getting bids at times, and now it's like once a week," Shifflet said, adding that companies are also moving up deadlines to have the pads ready so they begin work on the wells faster, he said. "It's really busy out there."

It's not just the prep work in the oil field that foreshadows a recovery in West Texas. Other signs include hiring in the region, ongoing land grabs and more and more announcements by oil companies of plans to spend more in the region in 2017. All of that dovetails with a brighter outlook for oil prices following OPEC's recent announcement to cut production, but it may have happened anyway.

"I believe 2017 is the Permian's year," said Joseph Triepke, the founder of Dallas-based research firm Infill Thinking and an Odessa native. "Companies were going to raise spending levels anyway, and OPEC was just icing on the cake."

Triepke estimates 150 rigs will be added in the Permian Basin in 2017 if the OPEC deal holds.

More conservatively, the energy intelligence firm Genscape estimates about 40 rigs will be added in the Permian Basin by mid-2017.

"It comes back to the economics of the Permian right now," said Jodi Quinnell, manager of crude analytics for the energy intelligence firm Genscape. "They are good. They are probably some of the best as you look across the shale plays."

The Permian Basin's rig count has already been rising for months.

After years of focusing on the best performing areas of the Permian Basin and honing techniques from the amount of sand used in a frack job or the length of a laterally drilled well, companies in the Midland Basin can break even or even profit on a well in the oil price range of $45 per barrel, according to Genscape. It's lower in the Delaware Basin to the southwest.

"Before the OPEC announcement, we definitely thought the Permian was going to be kind of the hotbed of activity, where a lot of the activity would be added back," Quinnell said. "And over the last seven months, we've seen that happen."

Oil companies have announced billions of dollars of land grabs in recent months, amid rising acreage values, often to add onto the sweet spots where they already focus.

Midland-based Diamondback Energy in mid-December announced plans to buy two sister companies and their acreage in the Delaware Basin in the southwest Permian Basin in a $2.43 billion cash and stock deal. Company officials said the deal supported plans to keep adding rigs in 2017.

Permian Basin-focused companies like Diamondback continue to outperform rivals elsewhere as they have through the two-and-a-half-year bust. And many have announced plans to boost spending in the region in 2017 by about 40 percent, Triepke said, citing averages from 15 companies he tracks.

Many of those budgets were announced before OPEC finalized a deal Nov. 30 to cut overall production by $1.2 million barrels a day to boost prices, with some non-members of the cartel such as Russia agreeing to further cuts.

It reversed a 2014 decision by the cartel to keep pumping, despite oversupply created in part by companies in regions like the Permian Basin, in an effort to win market share.

When the 2014 decision sent prices into a nosedive on Thanksgiving Day two years ago, it took months for the cartel's decision to show its effects in West Texas through a declining rig count. This time, there may be a similar lag as 2017 budgets take effect and companies add rigs, Triepke said.

"By February, you won't even recognize this place," Triepke said.

In the end, economist Ray Perryman wrote, "OPEC blinked." And the result was a stronger outlook for oil prices even while analysts awaited proof that the OPEC members with a long history of cheating quotas would make good on the agreement to cut production.

Permian Basin oil production, today about 2 million barrels a day, never significantly declined during the bust.

Companies in the region developed technological advances and more efficient techniques, while service companies faced pressure to lower costs, to the point that oil companies found it profitable.

In recent months, supermajor oil company Exxon Mobil discussed with investors a rapid decline in development costs in the Permian Basin that make many of its wells viable to drill at a $40-per-barrel price.

Development costs include costs such as installing production facilities and drilling development wells and completing them. Rival Chevron, for whom the Permian Basin is a priority, reported reducing development costs by 30 percent in the region this year.

Shifflet sees the benefits of such innovations. The bulk of Silverado Contracting's work has been for Exxon's shale-focused company, XTO Energy. In recent months, Shifflet said the company began building more and more pads for future drilling near Stanton as the company brought in rigs.

"Right now, as we speak, we are building one pad site that will have five wells on it," Shifflet said. "We just finished up a three-well pad, moved onto the five-well pad. We have noticed, dramatically, an increase. And most of it seemed to have begun after that OPEC deal."

Service companies who frack wells are also gearing up for a recovery.

More completion work seemed likely as oil prices appeared to stabilize in the $45 to $50 per barrel range, said Dale Redman, the CEO of the private oil field services company ProPetro based in Midland. But OPEC's decision suggested higher prices in 2017, solidifying the decisions of many oil companies to move forward with their plans.

Work for ProPetro had already been picking up gradually this year for the company, whose pressure pumping fleet had been 60 percent utilized during their lowest point in 2015.

Now ProPetro's entire 420,000 horsepower fleet is working. The company is also hiring. Redman said he is still "cautiously optimistic," but expects to expand in 2017.

"We are looking at building more equipment and adding capacity for our customers' growth needs, and we are very excited for what's going to happen in the Permian Basin for a lot of people," Redman said. "We are expecting some type of nice recovery."

Mounting signs in Odessa also point to stronger oil field activity in the coming year. "Now Hiring" signs are popping up outside of oil field businesses such as the Halliburton campus on West Murphy Street. Five months ago, the giant service company also had a job fair.

Social media groups like West Texas Oil field Jobs feature ads from companies like Key Energy, which went through bankruptcy but is still shoring up crews in the Permian Basin.

At the Helmerich and Payne yard on Business 20, where photos of dozens of stacked rigs became an iconic symbol of the oil bust, passers-by can count fewer that remain.

One of the men hoping to work on such rigs is 27-year-old James Zdonczyk, a former policeman from Hughes Springs in East Texas who recently had his second interview with H&P for a job as a floor hand in the Permian Basin.

"They said I'd probably be going to West Texas," Zdonczyk said. "That's where everything is going on."

Today, he's a medical technician, but Zdonczyk said he feels confident about landing the drilling job where he can earn more to support his family. And he said he senses the optimism from talking to the other job hunters, many of whom having experienced both boom and bust.

"That's what people are saying, beginning of the year it's going to be a totally different ballgame," Zdonczyk said. "There's going to be a lot of rigs going up, and a lot of work going on."
A Dallas Fire-Rescue chaplain's home caught fire Tuesday morning, just days before Christmas and seven days before he retires.

The front of Chaplain Willie Range's home on North Montclair Avenue in Oak Cliff caught fire at about 6 a.m.

"We started smelling the smell. I knew, from experience, we were going to have a problem," Range said.

The newspaper delivery boy saw flames shoot out from the home, Range said, and started honking his horn.

For the first time in his long career, Range found himself fighting a fire from the other side.

"My first thought was, 'Oh, my God!' My second thought was 'God help me!'" Range said.

His next two thoughts were how to get his 87-year-old father and 83-year-old mother out of the burning house.

Everyone made it out safely, and for that Range is grateful.

He is also grateful for the enormous amount of support he saw in the minutes and hours after the fire.

"It has made life a lot better today, and that's why I'm smiling," Range said. "Because I found out how many friends I have. And there are a lot of them."

Battalion Chief Michael Meador was one of the fellow firefighters who stopped by.

"I've always heard it said that the chaplain bears the weight of the entire fire department," Meador said. "That's our job, that's what we do  take care of each other."

Outside, nestled in the branches of the their outdoor Christmas tree, was another surprise for Range.

Charred remains that fell from above to form a perfectly shaped cross.

"I guess the Lord left a cross, to show us he's been watching over us," Range said.

Range said he believes a space heater shorted out and caused the fire, but he is leaving the official cause up to investigators to determine.

Range, 61, retires on Dec. 27. He spent 33 years as a firefighter in West Oak Cliff and the last five years as one of Dallas Fire-Rescue's two chaplains.

The Dallas Hispanic Firefighters Association has created a fundraising page to help Range and his family.
Fire departments across North Texas are urging everyone to check their smoke detectors. It's the first line of defense in fire prevention.

Hours after Arlington firefighters went door to door issuing fire safety reminders, a home on South Fielder Road was reduced to ashes Tuesday afternoon.

"When we were on scene, there was a large amount a fire coming from the garage and the roof, and then we made an interior attack," said Lt. David Tyler, with the Arlington Fire Department.

It turns out, the family had no working smoke alarms.

Tyler says little could be salvaged, and by the time they were notified the home was engulfed in flames, which is why prevention is key.

Around the time Arlington got the call, Senior Dallas Fire Prevention Officer Anthony Jacobs was making the rounds. With his operation installation kit in tow, he got right to work in Josepha Torres' East Dallas home. There was only one smoke detector in the home and it wasn't working. Jacobs installed two more.

"It was mainly cost that kept her from getting a smoke detector, and that's heartbreaking," Jacobs said.

"It costs a lot of money. We can't afford to buy three of them," said Torres.

But Jacobs said the right time to get a working smoke detector is right now.

"Today is the day," Jacobs said.

Fortunately, the Arlington family of four saw the flames and got out of the South Fielder home safely, but firefighters say a working smoke detector could have prevented the total loss.

"We never like to see people lose their property, especially in a house fire, especially around Christmas time. It just makes it that much worse," Tyler said.

The cause of the fire in Arlington remains under investigation.

Firefighters say the best piece of advice is to check your smoke detectors. If you're in Dallas and need a smoke detector, call 311, otherwise call your local department.
In response to a program last month where Fort Worth police gave away turkeys during traffic stops for Thanksgiving, officers partnered with an animal rights group on Wednesday to hand out Tofurky and vegan desserts

Officers, along with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Spiral Diner, are handing out vegan turkey substitutes for the holidays.

"Inside this box there's gravy and a brownie and everything you need for a holiday meal!" said one PETA volunteer.

Everything except the bird.

"We hope that people will consider trying new traditions with vegan versions of all their favorite holiday recipes," said PETA campaigner Katerina Davidovich.

PETA volunteers asked to partner up after seeing Fort Worth police hand out real turkeys on traffic stops before Thanksgiving. On Wednesday, it was all tofu.

"Always being a department that wants to reach out into our community, we said sure," said Fort Worth Police Sgt. Marc Povero.

Then they went a step further, sitting down with the crew for a vegan meal at the Spiral Diner on West Magnolia Avenue.

"We just make comfort food that happens to be vegan," said executive chef James Johnston.

The business is catering to a quickly growing clientele.

"The city itself is becoming more conscious about diet and the effects of diet," said Spiral Diner customer Bob Chandler.

It's another sign of the changing face of Cowtown.

"I think Fort Worth has become a place that has embraced all walks of life," said Johnston.

Sgt. Povero, son of a long line of butchers, bit into his first vegan burger Wednesday.

"I thought I was going to have to douse it with hot sauce. But it's delicious just like it is," Povero said.

And this weekend, there's a Christmas miracle coming to the Povero family table.

"We're gonna have a Tofurky. We're gonna see how that goes!" Povero said.

If you want to know just how good the vegan business is, Spiral Diner got a permit on Wednesday to open another location in Denton early next year. There's a third location already open in Dallas.
Monday marks one year since tornadoes tore through North Texas, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses on the day after Christmas 2015.

Some of those were in the tiny community of Copeville in Collin County.

As of Tuesday, the only store to rebuild in Copeville is open for business.

USA Fireworks was destroyed when a tornado touched down along Highway 78 on Dec. 26, 2015.

The stand, owned by Cody Wisdom, was toppled and containers full of fireworks were strewn all over the property at the intersection with Farm-to-Market Road 549.

"I never thought once not to rebuild," Wisdom said.

Wisdom starting rebuilding about three months after the tornado hit.

The stand is now replaced by a 6,000-square-foot indoor fireworks store.

Across the street, mangled metal and a makeshift relief center still serve as daily reminders of the damage caused by the tornado.

The supercenter is seen by some as a symbol of hope in a town seeing its strongest sign of recovery yet.

"It gives the community a sense of hope that we can recover from this tornado and rebuild this community," Wisdom said.
Santa entered North American airspace half an hour before Christmas Eve, at 04:30 Zulu time, according to the mission team in Canada charged with tracking his trip around the world this weekend.

That's right, Canada helps the U.S. track Santa's present-delivering flight. The North American Aerospace Defense Command, run jointly by the two nations, does it each year live online. Click here to watch Santa's progress.

Part of the team is based in Canada, and it's "one of the coolest jobs in the world," says Maj. Gen. Christian Drouin, commander of the Canadian NORAD Region, in a YouTube video that explains just how the tracking gets done.

Anyone can follow the journey online with the Santa tracker website  it's live now and began tracking Father Christmas early Saturday morning  but only a select few actually escort Mr. Kringle into North American airspace. That'd be a pair of Canadian fighter jets based out of Quebec, Drouin and his team explained.

Santa and the military communicate with a direct land line, and when he visits the Canadian NORAD Region headquarters in Winnipeg, he gets to sit in Drouin's chair in the briefing room. "Nobody else sits there but me!" Drouin exclaims.

NORAD monitors North American airspace for missile attacks and other unauthorized objects in the sky, and Drouin says the same technology keeps tabs on Santa's present-laden sleigh.

"Let me tell you a secret: Rudolph's nose glows on our radar. We can see the red nose from miles away," Drouin said, confidentially.

There are other videos live on the tracker website, along with games, music and more. As usual, "Santa Cams" are streaming videos as Saint Nick begins his route, and starting at 6:01 a.m., trackers can call 1-877-HI-NORAD or email noradtrackssanta@outlook.com and ask an operator for Santa's exact location.

Fifteen hundred people are answering phone calls and emails, while more than 9 million unique visitors visit the website from upwards of 200 countries and territories worldwide, NORAD says.

The tracking service began 61 years ago, when a misprinted phone number in a newspaper ad directed children thinking they had Santa's direct line to dial an Air Force base in Colorado that hosted the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center, now NORAD.

The commander on duty played along, checking the radar for signs of Santa for each of the inquisitive kids, and a tradition was born.
Attorneys in a packed Los Angeles courtroom argued over motions Wednesday in the murder case against New York real estate heir and former fugitive Robert Durst.

The prosecution told the judge that several witnesses in the case have expressed fears about their safety. Prosecutors asked that two witnesses give testimony on videotape before the preliminary hearing due to their ages -- or in case they are killed because they have information about the defendant.

One of the witnesses is 86 years old, but prosecutors declined to name the second witness, while insisting the person has "very important information."

A hearing was set for Jan. 6 to discuss the request, with prosecutors saying they hope to conduct the interviews Feb. 14.

The prosecution also requested that someone be appointed to review documents that were deemed attorney-client privilege. The judge agreed to appoint a "special master" to review evidence gathered during the investigation

Durst -- who was profiled in the HBO documentary series "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst" -- is charged with capital murder in the death of his friend, Susan Berman, who was found dead inside her Benedict Canyon home on Christmas Eve 2000. Prosecutors believe the 55-year-old woman was killed on or about Dec. 23, 2000.

The murder charge against the 73-year-old Durst includes the special circumstance allegations of murder of a witness and murder while lying in wait, along with gun use allegations. But a prosecutor said in court that the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office does not plan to seek the death penalty against Durst.

During his first court appearance in Los Angeles Nov. 7, Durst pleaded not guilty.

Authorities suspect Durst killed Berman because prosecutors in New York's Westchester County were about to interview her about the 1982 disappearance of Durst's first wife, Kathleen "Kathie" McCormack Durst, who was in the process of divorcing him.

According to court papers, Los Angeles police detectives claim two handwriting experts have linked Durst to an anonymous letter alerting authorities to a "cadaver" at Berman's home.

Durst was asked last week why he didn't split after documentary filmmakers confronted him in 2012 with the letter anonymously sent to police in 2000 tipping them to the location of Susan Berman's body that matched handwriting on a letter he had sent her years before.

"You saw the envelopes. How come you didn't ... leave then?" Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John Lewin asked. "It's mind-boggling to me."

"I guess inertia," Durst replied. "I just didn't really, really, really think that I was gonna end up arrested."

The comment was one of several that hinted at his involvement in three suspected killings chronicled in the documentary "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst," but Durst stopped short of confessing to any of them. The documents detail his interrogation by Los Angeles prosecutors while he was in custody in New Orleans after his arrest March 15 last year on a charge of murder in Berman's death.

Durst acknowledged he was in the process of fleeing when he was arrested. He was found in a hotel with a false Texas ID, stacks of $100 bills, bags of marijuana, a .38-caliber revolver, a map folded to show Louisiana and Cuba and a flesh-toned latex mask with salt-and-pepper hair.

"I was the worst fugitive the world has ever met," he said.

His arrest came the day the final installment of the six-part series aired on HBO. After being confronted with the two identical-looking envelopes, the documentary ended with Durst going into a bathroom where his live microphone captured him muttering to himself: "There it is. You're caught! What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course."

Durst told Lewin that he took meth during his interviews with the filmmakers and had smoked pot every day of his life.

The series traced the mysterious disappearance of his wife, Kathleen Durst, in New York in 1982, his acquittal on murder charges in the 2001 dismemberment killing of a neighbor Galveston, Texas, and the killing of Berman in Los Angeles as she was about to speak with prosecutors investigating his wife's suspected slaying.

When asked why he cooperated with the makers of "The Jinx," Durst said he felt filmmaker Andrew Jarecki had been sympathetic toward him in a feature-length film, "All Good Things," about his wife's disappearance. He gave Jarecki and his partner, Marc Smerling, two lengthy interviews and provided access to boxes of documents so they would get the full picture of his life.
What to Know The ex-sheriff is charged with conspiring to commit and committing obstruction of justice

Baca also is scheduled to face a second trial on charges of making false statements to the FBI

Baca did not testify at the trial

Jurors resumed deliberations Tuesday morning in the federal corruption trial of former Sheriff Lee Baca, who is accused of authorizing a conspiracy to thwart a federal probe into civil rights abuses in Los Angeles County's jail system. Soon after reconvening, the jury sent the judge two notes -- one asking for 12 copies of the indictment and one asking if a juror could use a laptop for note taking in the jury room, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office.

The judge will send the jury 12 copies of the indictment, and the computer issue "is being discussed," he added. After hearing closing arguments Monday, the jury at the new federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles spent almost three hours in discussions before going home for the day. The panel will resume deliberations at 8 a.m. today. If they do not reach a verdict, they will conclude their work at 3:30 p.m. and return Wednesday morning. Baca is accused of conspiring to commit, and committing, obstruction of justice from August to September 2011, and making false statements to the federal government in April 2013.

Prosecutors contend Baca lied to the FBI about his knowledge of department efforts to subvert a federal probe into corruption and inmate abuse in the jail system. The conspiracy count carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. The obstruction count carries a maximum of 10 years. Baca faces a third count of making false statements to federal investigators, which is to be the subject of a second trial.

That charge carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in federal prison. In closing arguments, a prosecutor told jurors that Baca "authorized and condoned" the conspiracy, but the defense threw blame on Baca's former second-in-command. In his summation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Fox told the six-man, six-woman jury that during Baca's 16 years as sheriff, he "abused the power given to him by the people of Los Angeles County" by ignoring evidence of brutality against jail inmates and working to ensure "dirty deputies" were not brought to justice.

"He wanted to ensure that no outside law enforcement would police the jails," Fox said. During nearly two weeks of trial, jurors heard accusations that the retired lawman was the "heartbeat" of the sheriff department's response to the federal grand jury probe. Defense attorney Nathan Hochman countered that it was former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka who was to blame for the department's actions. The then-sheriff "was not the driving force," Hochman said, telling jurors that Baca had no idea that Tanaka was running things. Tanaka was sentenced to five years in prison and is expected to begin serving his time next month. Hochman told the jury that the government had "completely failed" to prove its case and had included graphic testimony of jail violence "to poison your mind" against his client. Baca, 74, listened intently, an impassive expression on his face during about four hours of attorneys' closing arguments.

Prosecutors rested their case on Thursday, and the defense called a parade of witnesses Friday -- including former district attorneys Ira Reiner and Steve Cooley -- to speak on his behalf. Baca was not called to the stand. The judge split the trial into two parts after he agreed to allow testimony by an expert on dementia -- but only as it relates to the false- statements charge. Anderson agreed to hold a separate trial on those counts so the jury could hear the medical testimony. Baca is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. The charges focus on a period of time five years ago when sheriff's deputies based at the Men's Central Jail stumbled upon the FBI's secret probe of alleged civil rights abuses and unjustified beatings of inmates within jail walls. After guards discovered that inmate Anthony Brown was secretly working as an FBI informant, they booked him under false names and moved him to different locations in order to keep him hidden from federal investigators.

They also went to the home of an FBI agent and threatened her with arrest. Leah Tanner, the case agent on the FBI's civil rights investigation into excessive force and corruption among jail deputies, testified that on Sept. 26, 2011, two sheriff's investigators confronted her in the driveway leading into her apartment and told her that they were in the process of obtaining a warrant for her arrest. Prosecutors contend Baca so resented the federal government's probe that he attempted to force the FBI to back down by illegally having deputies confront Tanner.
John Oliver capped his latest season last month with an epic goodbye-2016 video that repeatedly employed an unrepeatable word.

The "Last Week Tonight" host ended the anything-but-fond farewell by pushing a dynamite plunger and blowing up the four numbers of ire.



It marked an explosive sendoff for a year that shook up the humor game: All the jokes aimed at Donald Trump, 2016's most pilloried comedic target, didn't stop him from getting the last laugh. And unlike any previous president-elect, the former reality TV star regularly responds to satirical jibes, even as he prepares to tackle the world's most serious job.

The coming year heralds more comedic climate change, boding for unpredictable storms with a television-savvy president who fancies himself an entertainer and a critic.



Amid the rise of fake news, comedy got real in 2016. Stephen Colbert's introduction of 11 years ago "truthiness"  a conception of truth as a gut feeling, with little or no relation to fact  played out in Trumps election season campaign rhetoric.

So-called fake news comedy shows delivered their own version of the truth, cloaked in laughs. The "Weekend Update" team of Michael Che and Colin Jost gelled this season on NBCs "Saturday Night Live" (Calling Breitbart a news site is like calling the R. Kelly sex tape a rom-com, Che cracked last month).

Trevor Noah affirmed Comedy Centrals confidence in him on "The Daily Show" with his October bit comparing Trump to an African dictator (He scams money like a Nigerian prince, he threatens opponents like an Egyptian leader and he constantly spews (expletive) out of his mouth like he has Ebola, Noah observed). Seth Meyers came alive on NBCs "Late Night" with his A Closer Look feature  including a September segment in which he called Trump a racist and liar for claiming Hillary Clinton started the so-called Birther movement.

But Trump, a seeming gift to comedy, came wrapped in Teflon.

The Republican president-to-be, known for bombast aimed at pleasing his fans, is at once fodder for comics jokes and their rival for attention. Trump also is a veteran self-styled comedy critic: In 2013, he sued HBO Real Time host Bill Maher for joking about his parentage. Now Trump tweets his displeasure with Alec Baldwins portrayal of him on SNL, a show he's twice hosted.

The incoming president may have sparked a larger backlash against funny folks: Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes recently got booed for slamming Trump. In October, some members of The Second City, Chicagos famed comedy outfit, quit  reportedly, at least in part, because of apparently Trump-emboldened hecklers hurling hate.

Its unclear if or how comedians might change their approach in the coming Trump era, though there are early hints of changing strategies.

Maher, whose pre-election show featured a Howard Beale-like rant against Trump, tendered a backhanded interview invitation to the next president. Full Frontal host Samantha Bee, the breakout late night TV comedy star of 2016, recently filmed a chat with conservative commentator Glenn Beck. Both bemoaned Trumps rise as they sealed their odd alliance with a "strange bedfellows" cake.

Whether Trump declares, Let them eat cake or throws more verbal pies in the faces of comics remains to be seen. So does whether hell regularly visit late night TV comedy programs as Barack Obama did with greater frequency than any previous president.

Whats clear is that comedians will be thrust into uncharted territory come Jan. 20, with little clue as to whether 2017 will make 2016 seem like the good old days.

Jere Hester is Director of News Products and Projects at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is also the author of "Raising a Beatle Baby: How John, Paul, George and Ringo Helped us Come Together as a Family." Follow him on Twitter.
A Florida man who sought to have a murder charge against him dropped based on the state's stand-your-ground law is heading to prison.

On Tuesday, a judge in Daytona Beach sentenced 64-year-old Robert Gelles to life in prison, saying he showed no remorse in the fatal shooting of 44-year-old Joseph Bailey III in September 2015.

A jury found Gelles guilty of second-degree murder on Oct. 20. He faced a minimum of 25 years in prison. But the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports Circuit Judge Terence Perkins handed down the life sentence. He said the shooting was neither justifiable or excusable.

Witnesses testified that Bailey and Gelles were driving as if they were involved in a road rage incident before the confrontation took place in Port Orange.
Weeks after the death of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the Governor of Florida is now making a plea to Castros brother in hopes of a free Cuba.

Gov. Rick Scott sent a letter to current Cuban leader Raul Castro  though the Cuban ambassador to America  saying the current government can allow a new era of freedom and opportunity.

After Pope Francis trip to Cuba, you suggested that you may return to the church and pray again. My prayer for you and the Cuban people is that you listen to Pope Francis and focus on bringing absolute freedom and democracy to Cuba, Scott wrote. You have a tremendous and historic opportunity right in front of you. You can take Cuba in one of two directions.

Castro is scheduled to leave office in 2018 and has shown in recent years he was at least open to some small changes, part of the changing relations encouraged by President Barack Obama. Still, critics have said nothing has changed regarding human rights violations and persecution of dissadents to the regime.

No one thinks you will choose the way of freedom, the way of democracy, the way of peace, said Scott. People will mock this letter and call it naive. But, for the sake of the Cuban people, I pray change will come.
Mike Saavedra was dog tired when he drove the old school bus to a shipping terminal on the Miami River. Saavdra is a ambulance driver and also works as a EMT in the Florida Keys. He doesn't get a lot of sleep and he's been on another project that has kept him on the run.

In January Saavdra, his brother Alex, and a band of EMTs were dispatched to Haiti to assist with Project Medishare. A makeshift hospital staffed by University of Miami doctors was working around the clock as surgeons and trauma staffers saved lives in the wake of the earthquake that leveled much of Port-au-Prince.

Saavedra and his crew knew that where they really belonged was in the street transporting victims. It was what they knew, and they got it on by hooking up with a guy named Grant who was hauling the injured to the hospital in a delivery truck.

The Miami EMTs worked the streets for two weeks saving lives and along the way fell in love with the orphans at Grant's orphanage.

God's Planet Orphanage cared for 150 Haitian kids who before the earthquake faced challenges, and it got even worse. The EMTs vowed they would help.

Grant said the kids needed a bus and lots of of supplies, like diapers, clothing, canned food, medical supplies. Grant made the bus happen, the Saavedras got Felix Varela High school to stage a donation drive. The result? The bus now painted in vivid island colors was packed with the needed goods and supplies.

Now the hard part, getting the bus to Haiti. Working with the Sisters in Christ the EMTs raised some of the cost for shipment. It was going slow -- donations tight -- but then a bit of a miracle.

Former Port of Miami Director Chuck Towsley was in Haiti on business. He now operates Sante Shipping Lines which services Haitian ports.

"When I got back my wife said that there was a story on NBC Miami that might be great for Sante Shipping Lines," Towsley remembers. He got a hold of NBC Miami staffers and hooked up with the Saavedra Brothers.

"We really felt that they had done so much and we would give back to them to help them so we reached out," the shipping industry veteran said. Not only did the company reach out, so did company employees who dug into their pockets chipping away at the shipping bill.

A big crane hoisted the bus on to the freighter that would make its way to a Northern Haiti port. Once the boat is off loaded and clears customs, Mike Saavedra vows he will drive it right to the orphanage.

For Saavedra it is a dream come true. "A great day for me," he says almost misty eyed. And for sure in a month or so a great day for 150 Haitian orphans who for the first time ever will have some transportation that will make life easier in a very tough world.
Police are looking for a man who was caught on camera robbing a Miami CVS using a 2x4 piece of wood.

The robbery happened around 11:50 p.m. Monday at the store at 888 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami Police said.

Surveillance video showed the man walk into the store holding the wood then stealing money from a register. Police said he stole about $580 then fled on foot.

The suspect was described as a slim black male, 28 to 32, about 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-9. Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
Authorities say an 11-year-old girl hid in a closet and called 911 when three would-be robbers broke into her Orlando home Tuesday.

Orange County Sheriff's spokeswoman Jane Watrel tells local news outlets it was just after 1 p.m. when the girl named Ashley saw an adult and two juveniles break into the home. She hid and called for help.

Watrel says the suspects left in a stolen car, but a deputy spotted them and began following the car. They continued for about four miles before slamming into a flatbed truck. The suspects were taken to a hospital. Their names and conditions haven't been released.

The girl was not harmed. The truck driver the suspects' car hit was treated for minor injuries.

Ashley told NBC affiliate WESH-TV said she did everything dispatchers told her to and described what happened as deputies arrived, saying four people broke in.

"I got scared because there were so many, like one against four. That was too much," she said.
The spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday refused to offer theories behind Monday's assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey but indicated that Moscow doesn't believe the gunman acted on his own.

"We shouldn't rush with any theories before the investigators establish who were behind the assassination of our ambassador," said spokesman Dmitry Peskov, though he offered no theories about who those people might be.

The ambassador, Andrei Karlov, was killed Monday evening in front of stunned onlookers at a photo exhibition in Ankara. The assassin, Mevlut Mert Altintas of Ankara's riot police squad, was killed in a police operation.

On Tuesday, Russia flew a team of 18 investigators and foreign ministry officials to Turkey to take part in the probe. Their plane returned with Karlov's body and his family home. Russian officials and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu who was visiting Moscow met the family at the Vnukovo airport late on Tuesday.

Ankara has not made public any theories. But a senior Turkish government official, who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details to the press, said it was unlikely Altintas acted alone.

The official said the killing had all the marks of being "fully professional, not a one-man action."

Peskov told reporters that Moscow on Wednesday the Kremlin will wait for the investigation to wrap up before voicing any theories.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Russian State Duma voted on a resolution that urged authorities to take extra steps to protect Russian diplomats abroad.
A group of utility workers contracted by Con Edison and National Grid "likely" cheated on their certification exams in order to qualify for their jobs, calling into question the quality of work on some gas mains and pipes across New York, state investigators say.

The I-Team has learned that Network Infrastructure, Inc. pipe installation workers had access to and "likely used" answer sheets for a written portion of operator qualification tests administered by the Northeast Gas Association. The tests measure how much candidates know about installing natural gas mains and pipes.

"These findings are deeply troubling, and they should concern every New Yorker who's concerned about their safety," said New York City councilman Eric Ulrich, whose district in Queens includes a decades-old gas main on Rockaway Boulevard replaced by Network Infrastructure last June.

Con Edison and National Grid were ordered to immediately stop using Network Infrastructure workers on their projects. The companies say they're cooperating with the state's investigation and that they'll proceed on projects with other contractors and company resources.

"We hold utilities and their subcontractors strictly accountable when they do not comply with our rigorous gas safety rules," said James Denn, a spokesman for the Department of Public Service, which conducted the investigation.

Patrick Clarke, the president of the Long Island-based Network Infrastructure, Inc. denies the company gave employees answers to the exams. He told the I-Team from the company's Hempstead office that he's been in business for 16 years and that he's cooperating with the state investigation.

"We are devastated," he said. "We think there was a rush to judgment."

Later in a released statement, Clarke said, "Network Infrastructure takes the safety and the quality of our work very seriously. At no time did any employee perform any safety sensitive task that he/she was not fully trained and qualified to perform."

"Notwithstanding the fact that our field workers were not given the answers to the operator qualification tests, Network has retained K2 Intelligence Inc. to conduct an independent, full fact finding investigation," he said.

The statement went on to say that the company will "continue to fully cooperate" with the investigations and will share its own investigate report with Con Edison, National Guard and the DPS.

Con Edison and National Grid have started their own internal quality assurance investigation by testing sections of Network Infrastructure-installed pipe, DPS officials say. It's not yet clear how many miles of installed pipe will need to be reexamined, but officials say it represents only a small percentage of the overall new gas pipe installed.

"We need to go back and inspect all the work they've done to make sure it's not shoddy or dangerous, and moving forward we need to take a closer look at the qualifications people have for installing these gas pipes," said Ulrich.

The current written tests administered by the Northeast Gas Association are no longer being used to qualify pipe workers, the DPS said.

Con Edison and National Grid are also working with the NGA to identify integrity problems and solutions to prevent another breach.

"It's outrageous that they were given answers to the questions, a complete bypass of a safety check that's designed to protect the people," said NatGas Consulting's Mark McDonald, a nationally recognized expert on natural gas safety.

"It's critically important that these people are properly trained to prevent catastrophic consequences," he said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says "cashless" automated tolls booths on all MTA-operated bridges and tunnels in the New York metropolitan region will be completed by the end of 2017.

The effort is part of the Democratic governor's "New York Crossings Project," which will also include color LED illumination of bridges and driver facial recognition cameras for tighter security.

"Why are we still stopping at toll booths?" Cuomo said Wednesday. "It's an outdated methodology of collecting money."

The governor said of the new cashless toll system: "It saves the average commuter 21 hours per year. Think about that. You get a day back per year where you're not sitting in a car."

Speeding up traffic is the goal of what's called open-road tolling. The governor first announced it in October but said Wednesday it's now full-speed ahead: the Queens Midtown and Hugh L. Carey (also known as the Brooklyn Battery) tunnels go cashless by Jan. 31.

Rockaway bridges will be completed in the spring and the RFK and Verrazano-Narrows bridges will be ready by the summer. Fall should see the completion of the Throgs Neck and Bronx-Whitestone bridges.

Cuomo also unveiled a new TV ad feature John Leguizamo encouraging New Yorkers to sign up for E-Z Pass. Those who don't have E-ZPass will be identified through license plate readers attached to overhead structures called gantries, and be sent a bill.

As for those who don't pay, 150 state troopers newly assigned to bridges and tunnels will be waiting. The revamped toll areas will have special pull-off lanes where police will learn quickly if drivers haven't paid in the past.

The technology will instantly transmit that data in less than five seconds, according to state police, and an alarm will trigger in the trooper's vehicle alerting of the violator.

Some drivers wonder if the unintended consequence is worth it: the tolls are still there, and law enforcement is watching like never before.

As for the 513 toll booth workers and agents employed by MTA Bridges and Tunnels, they'll be reassigned to work under the state police enforcement division, according to officials.
A delivery worker bringing material to a construction site in Manhattan plunged down a 15- to 20-foot hole Wednesday afternoon, and had to be rescued by firefighters and police through a pulley system, authorities said.

The worker was bringing material to a new building being constructed at 221 West 29th St., near 7th Avenue in Chelsea just after 2 p.m. when he fell, fire officials said.

The NYPD's Emergency Services Unit and the FDNY responded and set up a pulley system over the hole, about 4 feet in diameter. Two first reponsders climbed down a ladder, looked over the victim and then secured him into a basket.

Crews pulled him up vertically, and once on ground level, paramedics took over and transported him to Bellevue Hospital. The rescue lasted about a half-hour.

The man's injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
What to Know Vanessa Marcotte, a 27-year-old former Google employee, was killed while jogging near her mother's house on Aug. 7.

Police said Marcotte's body was naked and partially burned. There were also signs that she had struggled with her attacker.

State police detectives and local police say they have received more than 1,000 tips through a dedicated tip line.

The family of murdered jogger Vanessa Marcotte made their first public statement in four months on Wednesday, thanking the public for their support and announcing the establishment of a foundation in her name.

Standing outside the First Congregational Church of Princeton, Marcotte's uncle, Steven Therrien, read a brief statement as his wife and Marcotte's parents Rossana and John Marcotte stood silently alongside.

"This is our first public statement, and we would like to thank our family, friends, neighbors and the entire Princeton community for their overwhelming love and support during this most difficult time," Therrien said. "It has been more than four months since Vanessa was tragically taken from us. Not a day goes by that we don't reflect on the enormity of her loss."

Therrien also announced that the family has set up a website - vanessamarcotte.org - and established the Vanessa T. Marcotte Foundation to help support projects sharing Marcotte's values of "giving back and volunteerism." He also said further updates or comments from the family on Marcotte's murder will be posted on the website.

Marcotte, a 27-year-old former Google employee, was killed while jogging near her mother's house on Aug. 7. She lived in New York City but was in Princeton to visit her family for the weekend. She left her mother's home on Brooks Station Road to go for a run, but never returned.

Her body was found in a remote, wooded area a half mile away later that evening. Police said her body was naked and partially burned. There were also signs that she had struggled with her attacker.

State police detectives and local police said last month that they had received more than 1,000 tips through a dedicated tip line.

The district attorney's office said Wednesday that there is no update on the investigation.

Last month, police released new information about a dark-colored SUV that witnesses reported was parked near where Marcotte's body was found on the day she was found dead.

Marcotte's killing came just five days after the death of Karina Vetrano, another New York City woman whose body was found hours after leaving for a run in in Queens park. Police said Vetrano fought her attacker "ferociously" and DNA was found at the scene, but no arrests had been made. Police have also said there was nothing to make them think her death and Marcotte's were connected.

Anyone with information about the vehicle or the case in general is asked to call 508-453-7589.
What to Know German media are reporting that police have identified the man behind an attack on a Christmas market in Berlin

Dozens of people were killed in a massive explosion at a popular fireworks market north of Mexico City

North Carolina's legislature is reconvening in an attempt to repeal the state's so-called "bathroom bill"

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.

Police ID Suspect in Berlin Attack

German media reported that authorities have identified and are searching for a suspect in connection with the fatal truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market. The Allgemeine Zeitung in Mainz, weekly Der Spiegel and daily Welt reported Wednesday that police found documents in the truck cab that were issued to a Tunisian man. They did not cite any sources for the information. On Tuesday, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack at a holiday market, which killed 12 people and injured 48 more. A Pakistani asylum-seeker was detained and eventually freed Tuesday after prosecutors couldn't find evidence tying him to the attack. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump plans to meet with his incoming national security adviser in the aftermath of the Berlin attack and the assassination of Russias ambassador to Turkey. Security has been tight in New York City, where there are many holiday markets.

Fireworks Blast Kills Dozens in Mexico

A large explosion at a fireworks market north of Mexico City Tuesday killed dozens of people and injured scores more -- a devastating event that reverberated through Mexican-American communities in the tri-state. The third such blast to ravage the market on the northern outskirts of Mexico's capital since 2005 sent up a towering plume of smoke that was lit up by a staccato of bangs and flashes of light. Once the smoke cleared, the open-air bazaar was reduced to a stark expanse of ash, rubble and the charred metal of fireworks stands, casting a pall over the country's Christmas season. At least 29 people were killed and more than 70 were injured, many with burns.

Meeting Over N. Carolina Bathroom Bill

North Carolina's legislature is reconvening to see if enough lawmakers are willing to repeal a 9-month-old law that limited LGBT rights, including which bathrooms transgender people can use in public schools and government buildings. For months, the state's Republican leaders had said they were willing to consider repealing the law, known as the bathroom bill, if Charlotte acted first to undo its expanded antidiscrimination ordinance. But the mayor and most council members, with the support of gay rights groups, had been unwilling to do so in the name of equality.

Police ID Midtown Gold Thief

Police have identified the quick-moving crook who brazenly stole a bucket of gold flakes worth nearly $1.6 million from an armored truck and ran off with it in midtown Manhattan earlier this fall. The NYPD says Julio Nivelo is the man who allegedly swiped the 86-pound bucket of gold off the truck on West 48th Street in September, the heist seen in surveillance video first obtained by NBC 4 New York. Police believe hes hiding out in California with the gold.

Amy Schumers Gift to Dad

Amy Schumer has given her father an early holiday gift by buying back the farm her family once owned. Schumer posted a screengrab on Instagram on Monday of her delivering the news to her father on a video call. She also posted a video of herself as a child walking through a cornfield on the farm. She added in the caption, "We lost the farm when we lost everything else. But today I got to buy it back for him."

Cop Helps Speeding Student Tie His Tie

A frazzled college student thought he was getting a speeding ticket when he was pulled over by an officer. Instead, he got some much needed help tying his tie ahead of a presentation. Watch the hilarious video.

A Cappella on "Tonight"

Paul McCartney, Matthew McConaughey and other familiar faces joined Jimmy Fallon and The Roots to sing an a cappella rendition of the holiday classic Wonderful Christmastime.
Police on Long Island say they have arrested a student in connection with a spate of racially-charged graffiti, including swastikas, at Nassau Community College.

Nassau County police say 20-year-old Jasskirat Saini, of Plainview, was arrested Tuesday on charges of aggravated harassment.

Police say the man scrawled swastikas, KKK and "heil Hitler" at two campus buildings on Tuesday. Saini also allegedly confessed to nearly a dozen other vandalisms at the community college since October.

Saini pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer said the 20-year-old is not a "hateful guy." He added that his father is a military officer and that he deferred starting classes at SUNY Buffalo until January to help care for his mother, who has breast cancer.

Judge Joseph Girardi set bail for the man at $60,000 and said in open court that the graffiti was "like putting a match to gas."
A New Jersey newspaper is crying foul after police seized an allegedly stolen water meter the outlet obtained as part of an investigation into corruption at the local water utility.

New Brunswick Today's editor, Charles Kratovil, said police obtained a search warrant for the New Brunswick Water Utility meter, which which the paper said it obtained from a confidential source.

On Dec. 16, the newspaper put a broadcast on Facebook featuring the meter, which a former utility employee was "proof that a crime has been committed." Kratovil said that someone at the utility saw the meter in the broadcast and reported it missing.

New Brunswick Police Capt. Joseph T. Miller said that the department had asked the paper to hand over the meter several times after learning it was stolen, but Kratovil declined to hand it over on multiple occasions.

Miller added that the department is currently among several agencies conducting a criminal investigation into the utility, and that two people from the utility had been arrested earlier this month for allegedly taking bribes.

"A criminal investigation kind of outweighs (a newspaper's investigation)," Miller said.

Sean Monahan, the co-founder and publisher of New Brunswick Today, said that police also wanted to seize one of the news outlet's cameras used to report on the meter.

"The execution of this questionable warrant is a very serious concern, and not only because the item taken had the potential to support or prove allegations of corruption in the Water Utility's Billing and Meter Reading Division," Monahan said. "Even more alarming was the revelation that police were originally hoping to also seize our video camera, simply because it had been used in the production of a news broadcast featuring the water meter."

The newspaper is asking New Brunswick residents to attend a city council meeting Wednesday to speak out on the seizure.

It is also requesting that New Brunswick police publicly provide evidence that led it to believe the meter was stolen and to allow independent testing of the device outside of Middlesex County.

Miller declined to comment on both requests, citing the criminal investigation.

NBC 4 New York has reached out to the city of New Brunswick for comment.
Members of the NYPD joined forces with an acclaimed food truck Tuesday night to feed residents affected by a gas outage in Brooklyn.

Together, NYPD officers and chefs from the Snowday food truck delivered hot food to NYCHA residents at the Golden Age Center on East New York Avenue in Canarsie.

Residents gathered around the steaming food truck, which serves maple syrup-themed foods made with locally sourced ingredients.

There was reportedly enough food to serve 250 people.

This is a collaboration of a lot of people. The Citizens Committee for New York, collaborative policing, NYCHA  all coming together to try to help the residents out, NYPD Officer Jason Macaluso said.

The Snowday food truck is operated by the group Drive Change, which helps people who are getting out of jail or prison transition into the workforce.
An NYPD officer suffered serious head injuries when he was hit by a car in downtown Manhattan late Tuesday, police say.

The officer, who has not been identified, was hit around 11:30 p.m. near the intersection of Clinton and South streets. It also wasn't known if he was on duty at the time of the accident.

Police haven't disclosed whether the motorist remained at the scene. It's unclear whether the driver will face criminal charges.

The intersection was closed as police investigated the crash.
What to Know The victim, 23-year-old Connor Rasmussen, was stabbed on Madison Avenue early Sunday

The victim was able to pull the knife out of his own head, police said

He went to the hospital but was barely injured, and is now back home in Washington; he had come to the city to propose to his girlfriend

Police have released surveillance photos of the man suspected of stabbing a tourist in the back of the head near Grand Central Terminal over the weekend.

The images show the suspect walking down the street, wearing a black skull cap, black sweat pants, black sneakers and a black hooded sweatshirt with white stripes and the word "Jordan" written on the sleeve. The man appears to be holding some object in his hand, though it's not clear if it's a weapon.

Handout

The victim, 23-year-old Connor Rasmussen, had flown into the city from Washington state to propose to his girlfriend when he was attacked early Sunday. He was walking down Vanderbilt Avenue with a group of friends when he noticed someone following him, he later told police. He turned the corner at 46th Street, and the man allegedly yelled, "Hey!"

The Top 16 News Stories of 2016

Once they got to Madison Avenue, police said the man pulled out a steak knife and stabbed Rasmussen in the back of the head.

The victim was able to pull the knife out of his own head, police said. He went to the hospital but was barely injured, and is now back home in Washington.

Anyone with information on the suspect is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Top Tri-State News Photos
The body of a nurse and former reality show contestant who has been missing since leaving a birthday party in Torrance early Sunday morning was found buried at the Lennox home of a man who confessed to her murder, police said Tuesday.

Lisa Marie Naegle -- a 36-year-old registered nurse and former contestant on the E! network show "Bridalplasty" -- was last seen early Sunday morning leaving the party at Alpine Village, and a missing-persons report was filed on Monday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Jackie Jerome Rogers, a 34-year-old nursing student who accompanied Naegle to the party but claimed he left without her, was booked on suspicion of murder Wednesday morning, according to Los Angeles Police Department Detective Meghan Aguilar. Police and coroner's officials searched Rogers' home in the 5000 block of West 106th Street in Lennox and recovered her body in a shallow grave some time after 4 p.m., according to the LAPD.

Rogers had told police where to find the body, Aguilar said. Aguilar said "investigators haven't shared the details" of their talks with Rogers, but they began talking to him Monday night.

She also noted that "the family saw him on surveillance with Lisa." Relatives and friends had been pleading for the public's help in finding the missing San Pedro woman.

Rogers was booked on suspicion of murder and is being held on $2,000,000 bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department jail records.

Late Tuesday, coroner's officials confirmed to NBC4 that the body of Naegle was positively identified at the Lennox home.

According to Naegle's husband, Derek Harryman, his wife called him around 2:45 a.m. Sunday and said she was leaving the party but stopping to get something to eat on the way. She never came home. She also failed to show up for nursing classes she teaches at West Los Angeles College. Naegle's relatives said she went to the party with one of her nursing students, but he repeatedly told the family he did not leave the party with her.

"We begged and pleaded that he'd come to our home to kind of give us details on what time, where were things, and when he left her, but while he was talking to us and telling us his story, multiple different times he said he absolutely did not go home with her, or did not take her home," her sister, Danielle Naegle-Kaimona, said.

She added that a friend of hers at the party sent her multiple photos of her sister with the student and that surveillance footage showed Naegle getting into an SUV belonging to Rogers. There is also footage of the pair going to a gas station.

"Investigators have been talking to the family and have informed them of their belief at this time," according to Aguilar, who said Rogers would be booked on suspicion of murder.

News reports showed Rogers' home on a cul de sac near the 405 Freeway surrounded by crime scene tape as police conducted a search at the residence.

Naegle was a contestant on "Bridalplasty" in 2010. Aguilar declined to release information on the relationship between Naegle and Rogers, saying only that they knew one another.

Naegle-Kaimona told NBC4 Rogers was "infatuated" and "in love" with her sister and said he got upset when she didn't notice his advances.

The website TMZ.com reported that Naegle was struck repeatedly with a hammer after she and Rogers went to a Jack in the Box fast-food restaurant. TMZ also reported that Naegle and Rogers were romantically involved, but Naegle informed Rogers she was breaking up with him to be with her husband -- leading to the killing.
The 21-year-old boyfriend of a dead toddler's mother faces murder charges in the 2-year-old's death.

Philadelphia Police announced murder, involuntary manslaughter and related charges against Rimear Custis Wednesday in connection to the death of Zy'Air Worrell on Nov. 29.

Zy'Air's 23-year-old mom, Andrea Worrell, pleaded guilty to child endangerment and obstruction of justice charges in relation to the death inside a home along E. Clementine Street near F Street in Philadelphias Kensington neighborhood, said Philadelphia Police. She was released on house arrest as a mental health evaluation is planned, said court records.

Andrea Worrell held her unresponsive 2-year-old boy, identified by family members as Zy'Air Worrell, in her arms as officers arrived on the scene, said police. [[403901706, C]]

Police rushed Zy'Air to St. Christophers Hospital for Children where doctors pronounced him dead a couple hours later.

"He don't deserve that," Worrell's godmother, Tasha Nikajewett, said while in tears. "He was just happy. He was a happy little baby."

An autopsy of Worrell revealed that he had suffered a fractured rib, a bruised ear, an abrasion over his eye and a lacerated liver. The 2-year-old also tested positive for THC, commonly found in marijuana, said police.

Police questioned Andrea Worrell along Custis, who is not the child's natural father, said investigators.

Police charged the mom with child endangerment Thursday morning. The boyfriend wasn't immediately charged, said homicide investigators, who continued to look into the death.

Custis was held without bail, said court records.
A gunman opened up the passenger door of drivers car and shot him in the head overnight along a West Philadelphia street.



Police officers found the victim slumped over in the drivers seat of a running 2015 Toyota Camry parked on N 51st Street near Market Street just after 1 a.m.



The driver  a man in his 20s or 30s  was shot multiple times in the head, said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small. Medics pronounced the man dead a short time later.



The gunman appeared to have opened the passenger door and fired five bullets  at least two striking the victim in the head.



He shot into the open passenger side door, said Small.



The car is owned by a woman who lives a couple miles away, said Small.



Police didnt immediately have a motive for the shooting nor a description of the gunman. Investigators planned to look at area surveillance cameras in an attempt to find clues.

This wasn't the only deadly shooting in the city overnight as a man was shot dead along Allman Street near 60th Street in Southwest Philadelphia.
Authorities recovered 5 pounds of cocaine -- worth about $78,000 on the street -- from a pair of spandex shorts in a passenger's backpack at Newark Liberty International Airport, officials say.

The Netherlands man was stopped when he arrived at the airport last week on a flight from Aruba. Authorities say they found two packages in a pair of shorts in the man's backpack that had cocaine in them.

The man was taken into custody.

This latest seizure demonstrates the steadfastness of the CBP officers on the ground to detect and deter those who would try to import these illegal substances, said Robert Perez, director of New York field operations. CBP is ever vigilant in our daily battle against the flow of illicit narcotics being smuggled into the United States.
A suspect is in custody while another is on the loose after they allegedly led police on a chase through Philadelphia and Delaware County.

Police say they tried to pull over a vehicle on Aramingo Avenue in Philadelphia around 1 p.m. Wednesday and learned the car had been stolen in New Castle, Delaware earlier in the morning. The driver allegedly fled the scene however.

State troopers pursued the suspect through Philly and along I-95 in Delaware County. During the chase, the suspect allegedly sideswiped the pursuing troopers. The officers deployed stop sticks which slowed the car down and pinned the vehicle in. The chase finally ended on I-95 South near the Highland Avenue exit in Upper Chichester. No troopers were injured during the pursuit.

While police took the driver into custody, a passenger inside the vehicle fled the scene on foot. Police believe he ran into a wooded area.

Police have not yet released the identity of the driver but say he is from Wilmington, Delaware. They continue to search for the second suspect.




The Port of Philadelphia is getting a $300-million improvement.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., discussed the massive capital improvement program for the Port of Philadelphia at a Wednesday morning news conference.

"This is really important for all of Pennsylvania, it's going to create thousands and thousands of jobs," said Wolf.

The grant is intended to create jobs, double container capacity and improve infrastructure at the port with the goal of positioning the South Philadelphia port for future growth, said organizers.

The majority of the money will go to the Packer Avenue Terminal along S. Delaware Avenue.[[238427591, C]]
A Delaware County "sport killer" with a violent history also believed to be responsible for a slew of sex assaults in Philadelphia was facing murder charges Wednesday.

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan joined Yeadon, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia police to announce charges in the throat slashing murder of a Yeadon woman, another throat slashing and a series of a sex assaults in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood, calling the suspect "probably the most dangerous criminal I've ever seen in my years here in Delaware County."

Byron Allen, 37, of 73rd Street in Philadelphia is charged with first-degree murder in the Sept. 22 killing of Natasha Gibson on the front porch of a home along Baily Road near Orchard Avenue.

"He brutally attacked and murdered Miss Gibson," said Whelan. Prosecutors said robbery wasn't the motive for the deadly attack where Gibson was stabbed about 20 times. There appeared to be no connection between Gibson and Allen.

"The sport of killing was the motive in this particular crime," said Whelan. "We believe Byron Allen randomly selected this young innocent woman as his victim, following her in the dark of night and ruthlessly stabbing her multiple times on the front steps of her friends home."

Investigators followed a blood trail for more nearly two miles into Upper Darby and ultimately Southwest Philadelphia. It was there, at 61st and Baltimore, where they found a bloody steak knife -- the murder weapon -- in a storm drain, said Whelan. The victim's purse was found a block away, and in that same area, Yeadon Police Chief Donald Molineux said.

At the time, investigators released surveillance video of a person of interest. Investigators said the man in the surveillance video was bleeding from his hand when he walked into a store to get a can of Steel Reserve beer. The time stamp on the video -- 12:34 a.m. -- was after Gibson's murder, according to police. He came into the store from one direction and left in another. [[394633051,C]]

DNA evidence linked Allen to Gibson's murder and other cases, said prosecutors. Gibson has previously pleaded guilty to a slew of charges in a 2002 attempted murder. He was released in 2015, said Whelan.

"And he begins a brand new crime spree," said Whelan.

Over the summer, police released surveillance video of a man who may be responsible for attacks on women in the Kensington section of Philadelphia.

The video shows a man walking in and out of a convenience store on the 3900 block of Torresdale Avenue on July 12. Police said the man later approached a 24-year-old woman from behind while riding a blue and black mountain bike. He grabbed the woman and choked her until she became unconscious, according to investigators. [[387692972, C]]

When the woman woke up she was naked in the back of a property located on 3800 Jasper Street. She suffered head and facial injuries.

Investigators said the same suspect is also connected to the throat-slashing of a woman at Braddock and Toronto streets in Philadelphia in April. In that case the woman had her throat slashed with a box cutter. She spent several weeks recovering at the hospital, said police.

Allen is also responsible for a Jasper Street sex assault and a third sex assault along Ruth Street in October, said Philadelphia Police.

Police used surveillance video from the attacks to track down Allen who was charged in October with the Braddock Street attack. He was charged on Dec. 19 with the three sex assaults, said police.
President-elect Donald Trump said the truck ramming attack at a Christmas market in Berlin is an "attack on humanity and it's got to be stopped."

Trump made the comments in brief remarks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida following a top-secret security briefing. He said the violence in Germany validates his assessment of Islamic-inspired threats.

"Hey, you've known my plans all along and it's, they've proven to be right, 100 percent. What's happening is disgraceful," he said.

Trump condemned the Berlin attack in a statement on Monday.

"ISIS and other Islamist terrorists continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad," he said then.

Asked on Wednesday about his statement that ISIS is targeting Christians, Trump said: "Who said that, when did, when was that said?"

When a reporter said it was part of his statement, Trump responded: "It's an attack on humanity. That's what it is, it's an attack on humanity and it's got to be stopped."

With Trump during Wednesday's remarks were his pick for national security adviser, retired Gen. Michael Flynn, and his incoming White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus.

Trump also said he talked to President Barack Obama two days ago, but not since then.
Next year, even if President-elect Donald Trump does try to save the environmentally retrograde coal industry as promised, Google will be heading in the opposite direction  buying enough wind and solar energy to account for all of the electricity it uses at its data centers and offices around the world.

Another of Trump's promises, to abandon the Paris climate agreement, prompted hundreds of American companies, among them Mars, Levi Strauss, Nike and Starbucks, to write urging him to abide by the agreement and the decreases in greenhouse gases it calls for.

And in California, Gov. Jerry Brown warned after the election that if Trump puts an end to research conducted by NASA, "California will launch its own damn satellite."

With a Trump administration threatening to reverse the current administration's environmental agenda  his choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency has sued the agency repeatedly  corporations and states, not the federal government, could be out front on advances to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, create clean-energy jobs and keep the air and water free of pollution.

"A motivated state can accomplish a great deal," said Michael B. Gerrard, the faculty director of Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University in New York City. "California is the jurisdiction leading the world on action on climate change. It has adopted a very ambitious plan that in most respects does not depend on the federal government."

California's goal: to reduce pollution 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The plan will be anchored by the states own cap-and-trade program, which sets a limit on emissions and creates a market for carbon allowances.

California's governor vowed last week to challenge any attempts to halt climate change research, including NASA's satellite programs that collect information on temperature, ice and clouds. Climate scientists have been worried about the future of the program since two of Trump's space policy advisers wrote about the agency's focus on "politically correct environmental monitoring."

"We've got the scientists, we've got the lawyers and we're ready to fight," Brown told a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

Elsewhere states in the Northeast have come together to create a regional cap-and-trade program. Hawaii plans to use 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. Illinois' lawmakers this month voted for the Future Energy Jobs Bill, which is expected to expand clean energy, create thousands of jobs and spur billions of dollars in investment in what the Environmental Defense Fund called "the most significant clean energy economic development package in the state's history."

Twenty-nine states plus the District of Columbia require utilities to get a minimum percentage of their power from renewable energy, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. In 2013, the renewable portfolio standards accounted for 2.4 percent of nationwide electricity generation and a 3.6 percent reduction in fossil fuel generation.

Lawmakers who are less aggressive about advancing renewable energy are under pressure. Ohio's Republicans just voted to make the state's program optional and not only has Gov. John Kasich objected but the solar panel manufacturer, First Solar, which has a research laboratory in Ohio, is threatening to leave, taking with it the $100 million it spends in the state, according to Cleveland.com.

Most of the ways that states would reform the mix of their energy generation do not depend on the federal government, though tax credits for wind and solar energy are helpful, Gerrard said. The principal regulation that does require federal okay, though not money, is tighter fuel-economy standards for motor vehicles, he said. If the federal government were to back off those standards, California could pass its own but only with EPA approval. Other states could then adopt California's standards. There also are limitations on a state's ability to control the sources of electricity that flow into the state, he said.

Even states that are politically hostile to national efforts to fight climate change are taking action, often for economic reasons. Texas, for example, with the most proven oil reserves, is among the states that sued and temporarily blocked President Barack Obama's signature Clean Power Plan, the first to set a national limit on carbon pollution. At the same time, it is leading the country in the development of wind energy, which provided nearly 12 percent of the energy used in the state last year.

Gerrard said he was apprehensive about Trump's planned environmental program. The announced agenda calls for backpedalling on many of the country's most important environmental laws, he said.

"If Congress starts pre-empting state laws, then we're in wholly new territory, Gerrard said. "Hopefully they won't be that aggressive in trying to kill environmental protection."

There are some areas where the federal government does pre-empt state regulations such as those governing nuclear power, but not many, Gerrard said. And even if laws are not repealed, Trump could starve the EPA of the money it needs and slow enforcement dramatically, he said. It's also not clear if Congress will act to overturn Obama's recent protection of the bulk of U.S.-owned waters in the Arctic Ocean and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean from future oil and gas leasing.

The United Nations warns that climate change is already affecting every country on every continent with severe weather and rising seas. And if left unchecked, the effects will likely be "severe, pervasive and irreversible."

During the campaign Trump pledged to "cancel" U.S. participation in the Paris Climate Agreement, though he later told The New York Times he had an open mind to it. Bailing on the agreement could leave the planet in peril, scientists say.

The Paris deal, which officially went into effect last month, aims to avert the most dangerous effects of global warming by limiting the rise in the global average temperature to below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That's the tipping point beyond which many believe the effects of climate change will become irreversible, according to Climate Interactive, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

The United States, the worlds second-largest polluter, has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent below the 2005 levels by the year 2025. That accounts for about 20 percent of the expected reductions, Climate Interactive found.

What Trump believes about climate change isnt clear. During the campaign, he tweeted that it was a Chinese hoax meant to make U.S. manufacturing less competitive, though later he said his comment was a joke. In a video detailing his agenda for his first 100 days in office, he said, "I will cancel job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy  including shale energy and clean coal  creating many millions of high-paying jobs."

Then there are his nominees, proponents of fossil fuel and climate change skeptics. Environmentalists panned all of them.

The Oklahoma attorney general, Scott Pruitt, who would lead the EPA, questions how much effect human activity is having on global warming and is among the state attorneys general to sue over Obama's Clean Power Plan, a case that is pending. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, picked to head the Energy Department, has said he would eliminate the department and has mocked "the secular carbon cult." Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, Trump's choice for the Interior Department, has claimed climate change is not "proven science" and supports ending a moratorium on federal coal leases on public lands.

Finally, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who would become secretary of state, leads a company under investigation into whether it withheld information from investors showing man-made emissions were changing the climate. Under Tillerson's leadership Exxon Mobil has endorsed the Paris agreement and shifted its stance on climate change, though Tillerson has continued to question predictions about its effect.

"This is an administration that is dead set on putting polluters ahead of people every single time," said May Boeve, the executive director of the environmental group, 350.org.

Danny Cullenward, an energy economist and lawyer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in San Francisco, said that it was an important time to focus on the private sector and on government other than at the federal level.

"I would agree that states are absolutely in the driver's seat, he said. "And I think that goes to some really interesting opportunities to do things right, albeit maybe at a small scale.

States should focus not just on decreasing their own emissions but also on models that can be adapted to other places  ones with smaller regulatory agencies, for example, that need simpler policies to adopt.

"A lot of the regulation in the energy sector has traditionally been at the state rather than at the federal level," he said. "So states that want to change the way their energy systems, particularly their electricity systems, are operated have a lot of authority to do that."

A federal government determined to roll back environmental regulations could do real damage, environmentalists say. The GOP-led Congress has tried to pass almost 150 measures to reverse environmental regulations, including working against ones that set limits on mercury and ozone, said Jeremy Symons an associate vice president at the Environmental Defense Fund. The conservative House Freedom Caucus has provided Trump with a recommended list of regulations to eliminate, 43 of which are aimed at undermining the countrys progress on clean energy, while others would go after environmental protections, he wrote.

"It might be nice to think that things will just move forward but you cant ignore Washington and the potential move in the opposite direction, Symons said.

And although progress will be made outside of Washington, a lack of federal backing will hurt, Symons said. Not only is time running out to combat climate change, but with renewable energy affordable and creating jobs, this is when the country should be accelerating the transition, he said.

"If Washington is a drag pulling us backwards instead of propelling us forwards, there is an enormous missed opportunity there," he said.

A too ambitious agenda could backfire as happened to President Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, said Symons and Steven Cohen, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute. Reagan's choice of Anne Gorsuch Burford for the EPA resigned after 22 months after she cut the agency's budget by 22 percent and came under fire over mismanagement of hazardous waste cleanup. The Bush administration had to reverse itself on plans to withdraw rules limiting arsenic in drinking water.

Regulations often force an improvement on an industry, and people's expectations are raised, whether for health and safety or clean water and air, Cohen said. Ralph Nader's "Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile," published in 1965, eventually led to safety advances such as seat belts, airbags and antilock brakes  despite resistance from automobile manufacturers concerned about cost. Today, customers pay more for vehicles with higher safety ratings, Cohen said.

Climate change is more difficult an issue to tackle, because it is occurring everywhere and its effects are still largely in the future, he said. He would reframe the issue as one of air pollution.

"Air pollution, water pollution and particularly toxic waste, these are issues that people see and feel and smell," he said.

The EPA has been one of the most successful agencies, its regulations curbing pollution that had been rising in concert with an expanding economy, Cohen said. By the 1980s, the GDP kept growing but absolute pollution levels started to fall, he said. Some businesses might be harmed by regulation but society as a whole benefits, he said.

"The idea that you have to choose between protecting and growing the economy is simply untrue," he said.

Google announced this month that it would be powered 100 percent by wind and solar power next year  meaning that the amount it buys from renewable sources each year will match the electricity it uses. It signed its first agreement to buy all of the electricity from a wind farm in Iowa in 2010. In the six years since, the cost of producing wind power has come down 60 percent and that of solar power, 80 percent, the company said. Going forward, Google will be focused on signing agreements for low-carbon power that is not intermittent such as hydro and biomass.

"Many corporations realize they can save large amounts of money, energy efficiency of operations by lowering electricity and natural gas bills," Gerrard said.

Ceres, a non-profit organization advocating for sustainable business practices, has found that more than 60 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have set goals for the use of renewable energy or the most efficient use of energy, said Anne Kelly, a senior program director. States as a result are diversifying their energy sources to attract those businesses and the tax base and jobs they provide.

"There's really something to be said to the unstoppable momentum of the private sector, particularly in the area of procuring renewable energy," said Anne Kelly, a non-profit organization advocating for sustainable business practices.

Ceres will continue to make a clear business case for clean energy, for listening to the demands of power purchases not just power suppliers and the oil lobby, she said. Regulations such as the CAFE or corporate average fuel economy standards  first enacted by Congress in 1975 to increase the fuel economy of cars and trucks  are sending the right market signals and spurring the changes needed to transition to a low-carbon economy, Kelley said. Companies are locking into long-term power purchase agreements to try to avoid the volatility of natural gas prices.

"Given the momentum that I see in terms of private-sector leadership and state action makes me very optimistic, she said. I am certainly concerned about what could happen at the federal level but Im optimistic about the states and all of our environmental laws have originated at the state level."
The investigation into a mysterious shooting that locked down a Mira Mesa neighborhood has led to two arrests, San Diego Police confirmed Wednesday.

Officers blocked off several streets near Menkar Place and Markab Drive for hours beginning Monday night as the investigation into a fatal shooting led to a SWAT action.

Residents were told to shelter in place while officers searched for the person who fired a gun, striking and killing an 18 year old in the middle of the road.

The teenager died at Sharp Memorial from a gunshot wound to the upper torso, police said. A friend of the teenager pointed officers to a home at Menkar and Harlow as the possible site of the shooter.

Now, homicide investigators said the victim in the fatal shooting was actually in the Mira Mesa neighborhood to commit a crime when shots were fired Monday around 8:30 p.m.

James Carmona Martinez, 18, of San Diego was killed and two companions have been arrested in his death, police said.

Chien Ngoc Pham, 22, and a 17 year-old juvenile both from San Diego, will face criminal charges in the shooting, according to homicide Lt. Ray Valentin.

Martinez, Pham and the third suspect drove to the Mira Mesa neighborhood to commit a crime before "gunfire was exchanged" outside of a home on Markab Drive, according to Valentin.

No details were given on the type of crime the group had allegedly planned.

Anyone with information can call the Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
More than 700 potential homes have been identified for veterans enrolled in "Housing our Heroes", a city-wide campaign to reduce the number of homeless veterans in San Diego.

Mayor Faulconer and the San Diego Housing Commission launched the Housing Our Heroes campaign last March. The $12.5 million initiative is a call to action to secure housing for 1,000 homeless veterans and transition them off the street.

So far, the campaign has secured housing for 450 homeless veterans while an additional 254 individuals have received housing assistance, by way of housing vouchers and financial assistance, and are in the process of searching for an apartment. The landlord outreach component of the campaign has made available hundreds of units for homeless veterans and there are currently 141 units available for those still looking for a place.

Faulconer, City Councilmember Chris Ward and San Diego Housing Commission President and CEO Richard C. Gentry made the announcement outside one of program's locations at a North Park building at Howard and Mississippi.

The Mayor says since the program started, they have seen 18 percent fewer veterans on the streets, according to the Homeless Task Force Count.

Part of the delay with the project is making sure the VA can support the veterans with services. The other delay is finding landlords willing to help.

"And while many landlords have stepped up to take and homeless veterans today were asking for even more of our landlords to open their doors and make room for struggling heroes," Faulconer said.

Securing housing for homeless veterans is often a slow process. Thats due, in large part, to the tight rental market within the City of San Diego.

Our Housing Our Heroes goal is within reach, and with the support of property owners in our community this holiday season we can get 1,000 unsheltered veterans into permanent housing opportunities, Councilmember Ward said in a statement.

The City says they need more landlords to participate in the program and open up units for veterans.

Veterans who live in the units say they have been happy with the expediency. Paul, a Marine veteran who signed up for the program, recently moved into the North Park complex.

"I'm surprise how fast it worked, how fast I was able to get a place to stay," Paul said.

He worked with the VA and used VA housing benefits to move into the North Park apartment.

The City of San Diego is also contributing money from HUD for veterans to subsidize the cost of housing as part of the program.
The traditional Christmas tree can be found alongside gift shops and restaurants at the Old Town Open Market. It's one of the more popular tourist destinations, located just a few miles from downtown San Diego.

Shops were open Tuesday and vendors like Judith Roberts were still selling despite the news of Mondays violent attack on holiday shoppers in Berlin, Germany.

I think it's in the back of everyone's mind. It could happen, but we can't worry about that, Roberts said.

Hours earlier, in Germany, a truck had rammed into a crowded market killing 12 and injuring 48. Law enforcement agencies around the world are looking for the man wanted in the attack, identified as a man with three nationalities who has used six different names.

We are aware, said Harold Dozier, who works for an Old Town tour company. We're not blind to what's going on, but we are comfortable because we're here in San Diego.

The fact that San Diego is a military town may give locals and possibly tourists a sense of security. Some, though, consider that a double-edged sword.

The situation in Berlin shows these types of attacks cant always be prevented, especially when they target civilians in open and public spaces.

One couple told NBC 7 that even if they did have concerns, they were making a point to carry on their day as usual.

If we avoid going out and enjoying the beautiful day that we have today, avoiding going to markets similar to that in Berlin, then we would just be admitting defeat, said the father of three who asked not to be identified by name.

I think people just need to keep that in mind. Otherwise they change the way we live and then they're winning, his wife added.

Ed. Note: NBC 7 reached out to San Diego Police to ask about specifics regarding security for areas like the Old Town open market. We did not receive a response before deadline.


The San Diego Association of Goverments (SANDAG) Board of Directors pushed forward on Friday to settle with a developer in Clairemont that will provide parking for trolley riders.

Protea Properties will be building up to 150 parking spaces as part of a mixed-use development for riders at the planned station in Clairemont.

SANDAG is very pleased to be able to work out a compromise with Protea that serves the needs of future Trolley riders, and satisfies the desires of the community to see a mixed-use development at the Clairemont Drive site, said Ron Roberts, chair of SANDAG Board and County Board of Supervisors.

The Mid-Coast Trolley Station, expected to cost approximately $2.1 billion, will travel from the Old Town Transit Center to the University of California, San Diego where it will turn east and south on Genesee Avenue.

The extension to the exiting Trolley Blue Line, traveling from San Ysidro to Univercity City, will end at the Westfield UTC Mall, SANDAG said.

According to the settlement, SANDAG is asking the company to set aside a minimum of 150 parking spaces and maintain them for 30 years.

SANDAG staff have not yet executed a legal settlement with Protea Properties.

Service is expected to start in 2021.
One of the Middle East's richest nations said Tuesday it would host its annual Washington party at Donald Trump's new hotel, underscoring the president-elect's unusual status as the owner of a major venue for events in the U.S. capital.

Salem Al-Sabah, Kuwait's ambassador to the U.S., said the party would take place Feb. 25, adding that he hopes guests like the "new hotel in town." He said no one pressed him to move the Kuwaiti National Day event from its regular venue at the Four Seasons. Although Kuwait did not have a contract with the Four Seasons for the party, the date had been set aside for it to possibly take place there.

"I do not know President-elect Trump," the ambassador told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "I do not know any of his people. None of his people have contacted me." He added: "I thought would be exciting for our guests to see a new venue. It looks great. It looks cool. So let's do it."

Al-Sabah noted that last year's reception occurred at the Newseum, a museum promoting the media.

Nevertheless, the move to Trump's $200-million renovation of the Old Post Office Pavilion could reinforce questions raised about the incoming president's possible conflicts of interest. House Democrats already have warned that they'll make the splashy hotel a headache for Trump if he doesn't dump his ownership stake before taking office Jan. 20. Trump has a six-decade lease on the property.

The Trump Organization is moving to remove thorny overseas relationships, canceling hotel licensing deals in Azerbaijan, neighboring Georgia and Brazil.

Al-Sabah ridiculed the notion that he would choose the D.C. hotel to curry favor with the next administration.

"We have very deep economic, military and cultural ties; we've had tens of thousands of American troops in our country," he said, noting Kuwait's basing of forces for U.S. operations in Afghanistan and to fight the Islamic State group. "You think a two-hour reception in a ballroom does that?"
What to Know Thompson admitted setting up a $660,000 slush fund that aided Vincent Gray's election as District mayor in 2010.

The defense asked for probation and community service, citing his cooperation and noting his loss of businesses and status in the community.

The judge said Thompson's downfall was not enough of a deterrent to others.

A District of Columbia businessman who poured millions of illegal dollars into political campaigns was released from prison Wednesday following a 90-day sentence.

Jeffrey Thompson was released from federal prison in Kentucky Wednesday, News4's Scott MacFarlane reports.

Thompson admitted setting up a $660,000 slush fund that aided Vincent Gray's election as District mayor in 2010. Several other people who worked on Gray's campaign pleaded guilty to felonies.

At the time of his sentencing, the defense asked for two years probation and 1,200 hours of community service, citing Thompson's cooperation with the investigation and noting how he has lost his businesses and his standing in the community. The prosecution also did not seek prison time, asking for six months home confinement and the fine.

But the judge said Thompson's downfall was not enough of a deterrent to others and called him the mastermind of the scheme who tried to obstruct the investigation once he was caught.

He was sentenced to three months in prison followed by three months of home confinement. Thompson was also fined $10,000.

Gray denied wrongdoing in the case and was not charged, but the scandal was a factor in his failure to win re-election.

Gray's case was dropped last year. He won the Ward 7 seat on the D.C. Council in November.

Thompson will serve the final three months of his federal sentence at home in Washington, D.C. A judge rejected his request to travel to Jamaica during the holidays, according to court filings.
The D.C. Council has passed a bill to grant D.C. workers eight weeks of paid family leave.

The bill was approved on a 9-4 vote. Many people in the room applauded and held up signs thanking the Council.

"It's good for our workers, it's good for our economy, it's good for our city," Councilmember Elissa Silverman (I-at large) said.

If approved, the program would create one of the most generous paid leave programs in the nation.

Anyone would works for a private employer in D.C. would be allowed eight weeks of paid leave upon the birth or adoption of a child, six weeks of paid leave to care for an ill family member and two weeks of personal sick leave.

The program would be funded by a 0.62 percent increase to the D.C. payroll tax and administered by a new city agency.

The Council voted down an alternate plan presented Monday by Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3).

Here's what to know about the bill approved Tuesday:

What does the legislation propose?

The program would grant full-time and part-time workers in D.C. eight weeks of paid leave to take care of newborn or adopted children, six weeks of paid leave to help ailing relatives and two weeks of personal sick leave. Both fathers and mothers would be eligible to take time off.

The legislation would be funded by a 0.62 percent increase to the payroll tax. The first taxes would not be collected until 2019, and the first benefits would not be paid out until early 2020.

Employees would be eligible to receive up to 90 percent of their pay, with a weekly cap of $1,000.

Would a D.C. paid leave law affect federal government workers?

No. The District cannot impose taxes on the federal government.

Would a D.C. paid leave law affect people who live in Maryland or Virginia but work in D.C.?

Yes, and opponents of the plan say that is unfair because these D.C. employees do not pay D.C. income taxes.

How has the D.C. Council previously voted on this bill?

The Council gave preliminary approval to the bill in an 11-2 vote earlier this month.

How much will this cost?

Cheh and Evans said their revised bill would cost the city an estimated $40 million per year, compared to $250 million for the current legislation.

What was the alternate plan the Council voted down?

Cheh and Evans had an alternate bill that would have required private employers to provide the specified amounts of time off. Businesses with 70 or fewer employees would have been eligible for an annual tax credit of $200 per employee to ease the cost of compliance. Their plan would not have created a new agency.

What have businesses and nonprofits said?

On Monday, several businesses and nonprofit groups said they prefer a bill that would direct companies to provide the benefit without the tax.

We just feel that we are in a much better position than the District government to determine how best and how effectively we get that paid leave to employees, Solomon Keene of the Hotel Association of Washington said.

Doesn't create more bureaucracy, which I think many of us in the D.C. business community are a little bit tired of, Diane Gross of Cork Wine Bar said.

Supporters of paid family leave denounced the last-minute business bid to weaken the proposal.

They're speaking in the best interest of small business owners, when actually what theyre doing is trying to find a way to pass a law that would be far more beneficial to large corporations, said Michelle Sternthal of Main Street Alliance.

What happens next?

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser can veto the bill or let it go into effect without her signature. If she vetoes it, the Council will need nine vetoes to override the veto.

Bowser has repeatedly challenged the legislation, citing its cost.

She told The Washington Post in an interview Monday that the revised bill proposed by Cheh and Evans was "more likely to win my support."

I can say this: If I was on the council, Id be voting for it, she told the Post.

Bowser would not say on WAMU Radio last week if she would veto the bill if it passed.
The District of Columbia's population is now 681,170.

The figure was released Tuesday by the city. In a statement, city officials said the figure is one not seen since the 1970s.

The city said between July 1, 2015, and July 1, 2016, the city added 10,793 new residents, an increase of about 900 new residents per month.

The city said its population has grown over 13 percent since April 2010 when the decennial census count took place.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said the population growth showed that the nation's capital "continues to be an attractive place to live, work and start a family."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the largest contributor to population growth in Washington in this period was domestic and international migration people moving to Washington from other parts of the United States and from abroad.

Between July 2015 and 2016, in addition to the natural increase (births minus deaths) of 4,324, a total of 6,392 net new residents moved into Washington, or 59 percent of the total growth this period. Of these 6,392 net new residents to the city, 4,116 moved to Washington from other countries and 2,276 from other U.S. states.

Since 2014, Washington has attracted more than 4,000 new international residents each year.
The D.C. Council confirmed the next public schools chancellor by voice vote Tuesday.

Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Antwan Wilson will start Feb. 1.

Wilson was selected, in part, for his success in raising achievement scores, sources told News4.

"As superintendent [in Oakland], he has focused on managing and improving a complex organization, championing important messages to improve teaching and learning, increasing high school graduation rates, and improving social and emotional learning in special education processes," D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said when she announced her choice.

He also negotiated increases in teacher pay and per-student funding in Oakland, Bowser said.

According to the Oakland Unified School District website, Wilson previously served as assistant superintendent for post-secondary readiness in Denver Public Schools for six years, where he led Denver's Middle, High, and Intensive Pathway Schools. He arrived in Oakland in April 2015.

Former Chancellor Kaya Henderson stepped down at the end of September. John Davis is serving as interim chancellor. He previously held the role of DCPS chief of schools.
Medics are evaluating four people, including two children, after a dump truck collided with several vehicles before crashing into a house in Prince George's County, Maryland.

Larry Clark, the driver of the truck, said he was struck by a white truck, causing his front wheel to lock, which caused him to hit other vehicles before crashing in to a house in the 900 block of Owens Road in Oxon Hill.

Some witnesses at the scene said they saw the dump truck traveling erratically before crashing into the house. They didn't report seeing another truck hit the dump truck.

Prince George's County Police are investigating the driver's story.

The house sustained significant damage, said Prince George's County Fire & EMS spokesman Mark Brady. No one was in the house at the time.

Two vehicles the truck struck were occupied. A father and his two children were in one of the cars and a woman was in the other. All four were evaluated by medics.

Brady said there are "some injuries." However, the patients' conditions are unknown at this time.

Stay with NBCWashington.com and News4 for more on this developing story.
Two adults are without a home after improperly disposed fireplace ashes started a fire at their Rockville, Maryland, home Tuesday night.

The homeowners found the fire in the garage of their Pasture Brook Way home at 10:45 p.m. and attempted to fight it, delaying the call to 911, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue spokesman Pete Piringer said.

Piringer said a neighbor called 911 about the fire.

The fire spread to other parts of the home by the time firefighters arrived. Fire crews quickly extinguished the fire and will return to the neighborhood Wednesday to talk to residents about fire safety.

Piringer said fireplace ashes that were placed in the garage about an hour before the fire caused the blaze.

No injuries were reported.

This is the second time misplaced fireplace ashes have destroyed a home in the D.C. area this week.

On Sunday, a family of three was displaced from their home after fireplace ashes ignited a fire in their Fairfax County home.

The Fairfax County Fire Department recommends the following tips for disposing fireplace ashes:
Every year looters and smugglers make millions selling cultural property and artifacts on the black market.

The federal government has hundreds of agents working like Indiana Jones to find and return stolen relics.

In early December, several ancient artifacts were returned to Egypt by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a special repatriation ceremony attended by the countrys foreign minister.

Among the items was a 3,000-year-old mummified hand discovered at the Los Angeles airport and being passed off as a sci-fi movie prop. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents from ICE also seized a childs sarcophagus from a garage in Brooklyn, New York. At the repatriation, agents also returned a panel from a womans sarcophagus and a linen mummy shroud.

Ray Villanueva oversees the Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Program at ICE. A team of 400 agents around the world investigates the theft and trafficking of the items. Sometimes artifacts are found in the hands of oblivious collectors and museums. Sometimes, theyre in the hands of tomb raiders.

Theres individuals going to jail. They know they were stolen in Egypt, said Villanueva about people who smuggle looted artifacts into the U.S. Theyre bringing that through the black market to be sold in auctions.

Since 2007, ICE has returned almost 8,000 items to more than 30 countries.

"It's not like it was 20 or 30 years ago when there was nobody watching at all about the trade in antiquities, said National Geographic archaeologist Fred Hiebert. Today, we're sending the message around that people are watching."

Hiebert helps train HSI agents how to identify and handle relics and ancient art. He has taught them how to sort the artifacts, how to photograph them correctly and how to describe them.

The agents' work leads not only to finding long-lost antiquities. In the recent Egyptian case, it led to smugglers, money launderers and buyers, as well as two criminal convictions.

But its not always about prosecution, Villanueva said. Sometimes its about returning priceless works to their home countries to reinforce diplomatic relationships and to give the public the opportunity to enjoy a glimpse into a shared past or foreign culture.
Maryland authorities said a California man is facing charges after 250 pounds of marijuana was found in a vehicle he was driving.

The Montgomery County Police Department said in a statement Tuesday that Steven M. Tosi, 53, faces criminal charges related to the possession and trafficking of marijuana. Police said Tosi was pulled over Dec. 5 on Interstate 270 for speeding.

Police said the officer who pulled Tosi over could smell marijuana, and Tosi said he was smoking marijuana. Police said a search of the vehicle turned up vacuum sealed bundles of the drug.

Police said Tosi told them he picked up the marijuana in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and intended to deliver it to Virginia Beach, Virginia.

An online court record system didn't list an attorney for him.
A Montgomery County school's janitor is being charged with sexually assaulting a 6-year-old student last month.

Police said Ron Greene is accused of allegedly sexually assaulting the girl in November at Gaithersburg Elementary School. Police said Greene is facing a charge of second-degree assault, which has a minimum of 15 years if convicted.

Sgt. Rebecca Innocenti, of the Montgomery County Police Department, said the 6-year-old victim told detectives Greene sexually assaulted her while he was cleaning the girls' bathroom on a school day in November. Innocenti said police haven't received any reports of additional victims, but they're asking anyone who believes their child has been a victim to come forward.

Greene has been on paid administrative leave since the investigation began in late November.

It was not clear if Greene has an attorney.
Police charged two teens in the death of a man found behind a recreation center in Maryland Monday morning.

A woman discovered the body in the Brooke Road park in Capitol Heights and flagged down an officer, Prince George's County Police said.

Rayshand Lee Cotton, 27, of Landover was pronounced dead at the scene. He had been shot to death, police said. He was found scantily clad and badly burned, primarily on his lower extremities.

Police arrested 17-year-old Demiko Aiken and a 16-year-old Tuesday night in Cotton's SUV. Detectives believe theft of the SUV resulted in Cotton's death, police said. He and Aiken were acquaintances.

Aiken is charged as an adult with first- and second-degree murder.

The 16-year-old admitted helping Aiken dispose of the body and is charged as a juvenile with accessory after the fact, police said.
Two people were hospitalized Monday afternoon after a car struck a pedestrian then continued into a home in Needham, Massachusetts.

Police said the crash happened at 2:45 p.m. in the area of Webster and Powers streets.

Susan Barnes-Brown, whose home the driver crashed into, said the man who was struck had a young child with him.

"I hope he's alright. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," she said, visibly shaken. "I looked outside my kitchen window, and there was a car in my house."

Barnes-Brown said the driver was still conscious after the crash but did not know his condition.

"I brought towels and ice because his face was covered in blood. So i was trying to stop the bleeding," Barnes-Brown said.

While she helped the driver, neighbor Diana Conroy helped the injured man.

"I put my coat on him and he was bleeding pretty badly," Conroy recalled. "I put pressure on the wound until police and fire came."

Conroy believes the pedestrian was walking his grandson from nearby St. Joseph's when he was struck.

"My daughter and the police woman brought the little boy to our house to warm him up," she said.

The man who was struck was taken to Brigham and Woman's Hospital for treatment where his condition is unknown. The driver was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess for treatment.

Needham Police are investigating the exact cause of the crash.
Firefighters battled a 3-alarm fire at 259 Chestnut St. in Lynn, Massachusetts on Wednesday morning.

Eight people have been left homeless after the fire in the triple-decker sober house. One of the residents, a father, got out safely and managed to save Christmas presents for his children at the same time.

Firefighters were forced to pull out of the building after the structure became unsafe. Crews fought the fire from the outside instead.

No injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire has been determined to be the improper disposal of smoking materials.

Traffic was detoured for a time at Chestnut and Adams streets and Essex and Chestnut streets.
The police SWAT team in Manchester, New Hampshire arrested five people for a variety of drug and weapon charges Tuesday after enacting a search warrant on a home.

Officers responded to 642 Union St. around 3:30 p.m. after they received word someone wanted for armed robbery was staying there.

Officers located the target, Terrence Cannon, 36, and arrested him on the warrant. Detectives also located and arrested, Linda Chipchase, 40, Edward Deshawn Roberts, 37, Ashley Bradicich, 20 and Maria Camacho, 36.

Cannon is facing several charges after detectives located a stolen .40 caliber handgun, 86.8grams of crack cocaine and 23.2 grams of heroin inside of the apartment.

The remaining suspects are facing a variety of charges involving drugs and weapons.

Cannon, Chipchase, Roberts and Bradicich appeared in court Tuesday. Camacho was released on bail and is scheduled to appear in court on January 19.
A man impersonating a police officer test drove a truck at a auto dealership and never returned, according to Manchester, New Hampshire police.

Authorities said a man identified himself as Adam Foley at Team Nissan on Monday and claimed to be a Merrimack, New Hampshire, resident. He was wearing a black jacket with the Massachusetts State Police emblem on the left breast pocket when he asked to test drive a gray 2011 Chevrolet Silverado.

The individual flashed a badge from his wallet when he was asked for a license, but never provided a license to the salesman.

Unbeknownst to the salesman, the information provided by Mr. Foley proved to be false, and the salesman provided the truck for a test drive.

Manager Steven Gervino said the saleman let the man leave after he took the truck out once prior and because he thought he was an off duty officer.

"They went on a test drive and when they came back he said, 'I really like it, I'd like to show it to my wife. Mind if I take it for about an hour so I can show her - get the OK from her,'" Gervino recalled.

Police describe the suspect as a male last seen wearing blue jeans, a gray or white hooded sweatshirt, white sneakers and a white hat. He appears to be slightly overweight and approximately six feet tall.

The truck is worth an estimated $25,000.
With more than 400 airmen currently deployed around the globe, the family readiness unit of the Vermont Air National Guard is busy making sure relatives of service members who are gone for the holidays are not suffering in silence.

Its important that we stick together, that we lean on each other, network, and just be there for each other at these times, said Tech. Sgt. Emily Santillo of the Vermont Air National Guard.

Operation Phone Home launched Wednesday morning, with Air Guard leadership and other members dialing families of deployed airmen to check up on them and ask if they need any help, especially at the holidays.

Earlier this month, 300 Green Mountain Boys left Vermont to participate in missions the Guard described as air-to-ground combat against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

That followed another hundred personnel deploying for missions this fall.

Some deployed Airmen recorded holiday greetings through the Guards media services department.

Just wanted to say happy holidays and Merry Christmas, said one deploying service member who identified himself as Master Sgt. Provost.

Merry Christmas to all my family all around Vermont, said Tech Sgt. Josh Mitchell in another greeting the Guard recorded.

Cant wait to see to you guys soon, Master Sgt. Eric Ingleston told his family in another message the Guard made available to media outlets. Love you guys!

While those Guard members and their colleagues are overseas, family readiness staff is in touch with their loved ones who are still here at home.

During Operation Phone Home, Guard members called relatives of deployed airmen to make sure families are handing the separation well, and asking if they need any help, especially this time of year.

Over this past weekend, there was a furnace issue, and within 45 minutes, I had someone over the house to fix the problem, said Mary Mahoney, the airmen and family program manager for the Vermont Air Guard.

Mahoney said the Guards deep connections in the community as well as members who have expertise, like that furnace repair professional, help make this kind of support possible.
Massachusetts police are asking for the public's help in locating a missing man last seen in Lowell.

Authorities said Robert Ortiz, 28, of Methuen, was last seen on Monday at 29 Ash Street at about 2:30 p.m.

Ortiz has shoulder length, light brown hair, blue eyes, is 5'7" and weighs 168 pounds. He was last seen wearing black pants, a gray and white long sleeve shirt, a black sweatshirt and Nike sneakers.

Police said Ortiz has multiple arm tattoos and a Chinese symbol on his neck.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to contact Methuen Police at 978-983-8698.
Police in Natick, Massachusetts, are searching for a suspect wanted for an armed robbery of a gas station.

According to police, the robbery occurred Tuesday afternoon at the Speedway Gas Station on Route 9 Eastbound near the Oak Street intersection.

Once officers arrived on scene they learned a masked suspect entered the gas station and threatened to have a gun.

The suspect is described as a 5'10'' to 6' tall male with a stocky build.

He was wearing blue jeans with a black vest over a red hooded sweatshirt as well as a black knit watch cap and gray ski mask.

The suspect was only in the store for about 30 seconds before he exited.

Nothing was stolen.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the police department.
A Quincy, Massachusetts man has been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to raping a woman in his apartment.

The Patriot Ledger reports that Steven Lent pleaded guilty on Tuesday to aggravated rape, kidnapping, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

The 28-year-old Lent was also sentenced to 10 years of probation.

Authorities say Lent met the victim through a website known to be used to facilitate prostitution. They say he attacked her at knifepoint at his apartment in March.

Authorities say he tackled the woman on the stairs, strangled her until she was unconscious when she tried to flee, and then repeatedly raped her.

Police say he was wearing an ankle bracelet related to an unrelated sexual assault charge.
The desperate search for a missing New Hampshire man with special needs has reached the one-week mark.

Jack Walsh walked away from an appointment at Parkland Medical Center in Derry last Tuesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, Walshs sisters told necn they understand something tragic couldve happened to their brother over the last week, but theyre encouraged by sightings near the Loop, as recently as Monday.

Were frantically trying to find him, said Joanne Simpson to a shopper at the Loop.

Simpson and her sister Jennifer Bakanosky were passing out missing posters with a photo of their 63-year-old brother with special needs who has been missing for a full week.

Were really getting into panic mode now, the weather has been terrible, Simpson said.

Methuen Police have now joined the search  saying time is not on Walshs side.

The concern is very critical, said Police Chief Joe Solomon. You need to find the person before they lay down just to lay down and take a nap and slowly they start to slip away.

But for his family, a bit of hope is restored with each reported sighting.

He actually did come in the restaurant, looked at our TVs for minute or two and walked out, said Manager of Not Your Average Joes in Methuen, Ben Panunzio.

Hes sure Walsh was there a couple days ago.

Ive been mentioning it to all my staff all my employees, he told Simpson and Bakanosky.

A newly released photo shows Walsh in the same leather jacket he was wearing when he walked away from Parkland Medical Center in Derry last Tuesday. His sisters say, by now, hes grown a scraggly beard and theyre hoping hes found a hat to keep warm.

Jack is a smart person even though he suffers from dementia, some kind of survival skills are coming into play, Simpson said.

They believe in their brother. And with such compassion from this community, they believe theyll see him again.

We definitely are doing everything we can to help bring Jack home for the holidays, Panunzio said.

It would be like a miracle, a miracle, Bakanosky said.

Walshs family has been out here talking with shoppers for two full days now  asking them to keep an eye out for Jack.

They say if you see Jack, dont approach him, you might scare him, just call 911 right away.
A vigil was held Tuesday night for the many people who have tragically lost their lives in Massachusetts in workplace accidents.

The Massachusetts Coalition For Occupational Safety And Health held the vigil in front of the State House where family members remembered their loved ones.

The parents of Colleen Ritzer, a Danvers High School teacher who was murdered, were in attendance.

She was an innocent math teacher, said Chandler Creedon Jr., the Ritzer family spokesperson. We need to make sure schools are safe so we dont find ourselves in those situations.

The vigil honored 4 men who were recently killed  one while inspecting a water tank in Braintree, one in a construction accident in Duxbury, and two while working in a trench in Boston's South End.

Ronald and Mona Morse attended the vigil and said they still cant believe it will be their second Christmas without their son Ronald. The 40-year-old was killed in June 2015 in Somerville after being crushed by a construction type of elevator.

He was all about love and laughter every day. He was a gigantic kid  he was 390 pounds, 64 but he was still my baby boy, said mother Mona Morse.

The Morse family now wants Massachusetts lawmakers to extend OSHA regulations to public sector workers.

He didnt deserve to die the way he did but accidents happen and all we can do is mourn his death, said father Ronald Morse.
Outline planning application for Whitway houses on outskirts of village

BURGHCLERE parish councillors have thrown out scaled-down proposals for a housing development on the village outskirts.

The issue was decided by a narrow majority and on the chairmans casting vote at a Burghclere Parish Council meeting last Monday at the Portal Hall.

Applicant and site owner David Howard was at the meeting to answer any questions about his revised proposals for outline planning permission to build five houses with access at Whitway Farm Industrial Estate, Whitway, a brownfield site

Previous proposals for outline planning permission to build 14 houses and access  which had included proposals for affordable housing  had since been withdrawn after previous objections, which Mr Howard said he had taken on board.

Parish councillor Ian Findlay said the fact the site was brownfield helped with the application, although the junction from the main road was dangerous.

Mr Howard said he had owned the site for 22 years and, while acknowledging caution was needed at the junction, there was no record of any accidents at this spot.

He said any increase in traffic due to vehicle movements from the site would be negligible.

Traffic officers said the visibility splays were okay, but there should be a warning sign for traffic approaching from the south, said Mr Howard.

Parish councillor Geoff Morton pointed out that school runs and delivery vans would add to traffic movements.

Everyone is shopping online these days, so five houses will generate far more traffic, he said.

Mr Morton said although the revised proposals were for fewer houses, it was the beginning of another development.

Despite the site being previously used for industrial use, it lay within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Other parish councillors raised concerns that the site was distanced from supportive infrastructure such as shops and village facilities, while the village needed smaller, affordable housing for people to downsize.

Mr Howard pointed out only one of the houses was of a large size and he had earmarked it for himself.

The others are all smaller, he said.

Councillors voted two in favour and two against the proposals, which meant chairman Cliff James casting vote was needed to decide the issue.

Casting his vote against the proposals, Mr James said: I am of the opinion that we have enough executive-style houses in the village and it also stretches Burghclere into Whitway and Old Burghclere.

The site has been owned by Mr Howard since the 1990s, when it was a jam-making factory, then a poultry farm, before being used for light industrial use.

Most recently the 17,000 sq ft building had been used by Ibis Packaging Solutions.
Thatcham Performing Arts Society seeking help to promote the arts

A NEW charity looking to promote the arts in Thatcham and turn the Old Bluecoat School into a prime concert venue is seeking helpers.

The former chapel, which dates to the 14th century, serves as an ideal venue for chamber music, owing to its high roof, acoustics and intimate atmosphere.

Concert organiser, local accountant and keen amateur musician Simon Witcomb, said that, while the concerts had been successful, they had reached a point where a new organisational structure was needed to develop them further.

Bluecoats trustees have handed over the running of the concerts to a new charity, Thatcham Performing Arts Society. The charitys aim is to promote the performance of live music in the town.

Mr Witcomb said he believed that the Old Bluecoat School could be the jewel in the crown of West Berkshire concert venues.

He is looking for people to support the charity who share the same vision and who have the necessary time and energy to make it happen.

Help is needed in planning and marketing the concerts, as well as being available on the day for setting up, front of house duties, refreshments and clearing up afterwards.

Contact Mr Witcomb at simon@witcombs.co.uk or call (01635) 869869 if you can help.

The first concert under the new management will be on Sunday, February 5, 2017.

It will feature the London-based, award-winning Manon String Quartet who will perform music by Haydn and Schubert.

For more on the Old Bluecoat School visit www.oldbluecoatschool.org.uk
By Express News Service

BENGALURU : Expanding its presence in the southern market, Hyderabad-based cement major, My Home Industries Private Ltd has announced the launch of its new cement plant in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu. The plant, for My Home Industries flagship Maha Cement, is expected to start functioning from January 2017.



Addressing the media here on



Tuesday, executive director of My Home Industries, Samba Siva Rao said the grinding unit in Tuticorin would further expand its market share in the southern market. We are leaders in Andhra and Telangana. In Tamil Nadu we have about 7 percent market share and in Karnataka, it is about five to six percent. This plant would help strengthen our operations in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, he said. He further explained that, while at present, cement was being brought to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka from their plant in Kurnool, the one in Tuticorin would help distribute this load.



At present, the total capacity of the company is 8.4 million tonnes. With the launch of the Tuticorin plant, the capacity would go up to 10 million tonnes per annum, he added.



The company also unveiled its new brand logo for Maha Cement, incorporating Maha Man to signify strength. The refurbishing of the logo was done as we are entering the premium segment now, said PJ Mathai, Sr Vice President, Marketing.



My Home Industries factories are spread across Nalgonda in Telangana, Kurnool and Vizag in Andhra Pradesh.



The company has earlier changed the logo of its flagship brand Maha Cement. Focusing toward increasing presence in the premium product band and enhancing penetration in both traditional and new markets, it plans to boost its production capacity to above 10 million tonnes per annum.



The most visible sign of MHIPLs revamped brand and business strategy is the new logo, unveiled a few days ago, which company officials say perfectly captures the shift in their strategy The logo change also heralds a shift in gears, with the company expanding presence in new markets and trying to penetrate deeper into existing ones.

The company aims to rapidly increase its capacity utilisation to 90 per cent within three years.

BENGALURU : Expanding its presence in the southern market, Hyderabad-based cement major, My Home Industries Private Ltd has announced the launch of its new cement plant in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu. The plant, for My Home Industries flagship Maha Cement, is expected to start functioning from January 2017. Addressing the media here on Tuesday, executive director of My Home Industries, Samba Siva Rao said the grinding unit in Tuticorin would further expand its market share in the southern market. We are leaders in Andhra and Telangana. In Tamil Nadu we have about 7 percent market share and in Karnataka, it is about five to six percent. This plant would help strengthen our operations in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, he said. He further explained that, while at present, cement was being brought to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka from their plant in Kurnool, the one in Tuticorin would help distribute this load. At present, the total capacity of the company is 8.4 million tonnes. With the launch of the Tuticorin plant, the capacity would go up to 10 million tonnes per annum, he added. The company also unveiled its new brand logo for Maha Cement, incorporating Maha Man to signify strength. The refurbishing of the logo was done as we are entering the premium segment now, said PJ Mathai, Sr Vice President, Marketing. My Home Industries factories are spread across Nalgonda in Telangana, Kurnool and Vizag in Andhra Pradesh. The company has earlier changed the logo of its flagship brand Maha Cement. Focusing toward increasing presence in the premium product band and enhancing penetration in both traditional and new markets, it plans to boost its production capacity to above 10 million tonnes per annum. The most visible sign of MHIPLs revamped brand and business strategy is the new logo, unveiled a few days ago, which company officials say perfectly captures the shift in their strategy The logo change also heralds a shift in gears, with the company expanding presence in new markets and trying to penetrate deeper into existing ones. The company aims to rapidly increase its capacity utilisation to 90 per cent within three years.
By Online Desk

NEW DELHI: The income tax department has been keeping busy since the demonetisation move was announced on November 8, 2016. As per the latest reports, the department has detected over Rs 3,000 crore in undisclosed income, out of which Rs 86 crore has been seized in new notes. The I-T department carried out a total of 677 search, survey and inquiry operations, and has issued over 3,100 notices to various entities on charges of tax evasion and hawala-like dealings for laundering money, official sources said.

Here are some of the major raids that gained public attention since November 8:

 The Income Tax department raided two branches of Axis bank in Noida, National Capital Region. The officials found 20 fake companies with around Rs 60 crore of deposit in their accounts. During the raid, which lasted for more than two hours, roles of several bank employees came under the scanner. The accounts were also found linked to a jeweller who allegedly sold gold bricks worth Rs 600 crore after the government banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes on November 8. The bank suspended 50 accounts and 24 employees for suspicious activities.

 I-T sleuths seized Rs 1.4 crore cash, including Rs 8 lakh in new currency, in searches on the premises of a civil contractor identified as P L Soni, from Karol Bagh in New Delhi. The department that conducted the searches, acting on a specific tipoff, said the seized cash comprised both new currency as well as old notes, which included the demonetised currencies of Rs 1000/500 and legal tender of Rs 100.

 The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) last week conducted raids on the premises of five public servants including of L Bheema Nayak, special land acquisition officer, Karnataka Housing Board (KHB). Bheema Nayak, according to a suicide note of his driver Ramesh, allegedly converted about Rs 100 crore for former Karnataka BJP minister G Janardhan Reddy, post demonetisation. ACB raided the office and residences of four public servants identified as R Shivaramu, executive engineer, PWD, NHAI, K R Circle; Shivalingappa, asst. engineer, Panchayath Raj Engineering, Zilla Panchayath, Kalaburgi; D Narasimha Murthy, range forest officer, Koratagere, Tumkur and H M Shivaprasad, veterinary health officer, Nelamangala Taluk, Bengaluru Rural.

 Following the grandiose wedding of his daughter, the offices of Obulapuram Mining Company and Associated Mining Company, both owned by the mining baron and BJP leader G Janardhan Reddy and his family was raided by Income Tax sleuths. The raid came in the wake of his daughters wedding, in which he allegedly spent between Rs 200-500 crores.

 In multiple I-T raids carried out across the country, Rs 2.25 crore was seized in Bengaluru in new currency, while Rs 68 lakh was seized in Panjim, Goa. In Faridabad, Haryana, four were arrested with new currency of over Rs 25 lakh in the new Rs 2000 notes.

 In another massive haul, the Enforcement Directorate seized Rs 2.18 crore in Chandigarh which included new currency worth Rs 17.74 lakhs.

 On the same day, a joint team of Delhi Police and income tax department officials raided a hotel in Central Delhis Karol Bagh area and caught five men with scrapped banknotes worth Rs 3.5 crore. On interrogation, it was found that the accused were working as carriers for hawala operators based in Delhi and Mumbai among other big cities. They also claims that they packaged the banknotes with special tapes so that the packets did not get detected at airports.

The I-T department, they said, has seized cash and jewellery worth over Rs 428 crore during the same period even as the new currency seized (majorly Rs 2000 notes) is valued at about Rs 86 crore.

NEW DELHI: The income tax department has been keeping busy since the demonetisation move was announced on November 8, 2016. As per the latest reports, the department has detected over Rs 3,000 crore in undisclosed income, out of which Rs 86 crore has been seized in new notes. The I-T department carried out a total of 677 search, survey and inquiry operations, and has issued over 3,100 notices to various entities on charges of tax evasion and hawala-like dealings for laundering money, official sources said. Here are some of the major raids that gained public attention since November 8:  The Income Tax department raided two branches of Axis bank in Noida, National Capital Region. The officials found 20 fake companies with around Rs 60 crore of deposit in their accounts. During the raid, which lasted for more than two hours, roles of several bank employees came under the scanner. The accounts were also found linked to a jeweller who allegedly sold gold bricks worth Rs 600 crore after the government banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes on November 8. The bank suspended 50 accounts and 24 employees for suspicious activities.  I-T sleuths seized Rs 1.4 crore cash, including Rs 8 lakh in new currency, in searches on the premises of a civil contractor identified as P L Soni, from Karol Bagh in New Delhi. The department that conducted the searches, acting on a specific tipoff, said the seized cash comprised both new currency as well as old notes, which included the demonetised currencies of Rs 1000/500 and legal tender of Rs 100.  The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) last week conducted raids on the premises of five public servants including of L Bheema Nayak, special land acquisition officer, Karnataka Housing Board (KHB). Bheema Nayak, according to a suicide note of his driver Ramesh, allegedly converted about Rs 100 crore for former Karnataka BJP minister G Janardhan Reddy, post demonetisation. ACB raided the office and residences of four public servants identified as R Shivaramu, executive engineer, PWD, NHAI, K R Circle; Shivalingappa, asst. engineer, Panchayath Raj Engineering, Zilla Panchayath, Kalaburgi; D Narasimha Murthy, range forest officer, Koratagere, Tumkur and H M Shivaprasad, veterinary health officer, Nelamangala Taluk, Bengaluru Rural.  Following the grandiose wedding of his daughter, the offices of Obulapuram Mining Company and Associated Mining Company, both owned by the mining baron and BJP leader G Janardhan Reddy and his family was raided by Income Tax sleuths. The raid came in the wake of his daughters wedding, in which he allegedly spent between Rs 200-500 crores.  In multiple I-T raids carried out across the country, Rs 2.25 crore was seized in Bengaluru in new currency, while Rs 68 lakh was seized in Panjim, Goa. In Faridabad, Haryana, four were arrested with new currency of over Rs 25 lakh in the new Rs 2000 notes.  In another massive haul, the Enforcement Directorate seized Rs 2.18 crore in Chandigarh which included new currency worth Rs 17.74 lakhs.  On the same day, a joint team of Delhi Police and income tax department officials raided a hotel in Central Delhis Karol Bagh area and caught five men with scrapped banknotes worth Rs 3.5 crore. On interrogation, it was found that the accused were working as carriers for hawala operators based in Delhi and Mumbai among other big cities. They also claims that they packaged the banknotes with special tapes so that the packets did not get detected at airports. The I-T department, they said, has seized cash and jewellery worth over Rs 428 crore during the same period even as the new currency seized (majorly Rs 2000 notes) is valued at about Rs 86 crore.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Ten staffers of M S Ramaiah College hospital have been booked by Sadashivanagar police for allegedly transfusing a woman patient with HIV infected blood.

According to her brother, the 42-year-old married woman had gone to the hospital on October 5, 2013 with the complaint of infertility. She approached a doctor who advised her to undergo surgery.

On February 13, 2014, she was admitted to the hospital by her husband. As per doctors direction, she was transfused with blood which tested negative for HIV, and she was discharged on February 15.

Her discharge summary clearly showed that HIV 1 and 2 results were negative for Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

However, on February 19, when she got admitted for the surgery, she underwent some tests, reports of which came on February 20.

And to her shock, this time, she tested HIV positive.

Her brother alleged that the hospital authorities tampered with the medical records and changed the blood bag registration numbers. A private complaint was later filed in a local court, which directed Sadashivanagar police to register and probe the case.

DCP(central) Sandeep Patil said,A case has been registered and FIR filed already. We will seek help of medical experts in this case as it is related to medical negligence. Investigations are under way.

Dr Narsimhaswamy, Rotary Bangalore TTK Blood bank in-charge, without commenting on the case, pointed out some facts about blood testing.

ID-NAT can detect HIV after a window period of six days. ELISA fourth generation kit can detect HIV after a window period of two weeks. If a patient (who was previously tested negative) has tested positive for HIV five days after blood transfusion, it may be because when the test was first done the window period was not over and the virus could not be detected, he said.

MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospitals chief administrator Dr V Narendranath said, We have been following this case closely and as far as we know, an FIR hasnt been filed. If it has, let the police investigate. We maintain that there was no error or negligence on our part.

Karnataka is the only state in the country that has mandated individual nucleic acid testing (ID-NAT) of donor blood that has been deposited in government blood banks.

ID-NAT can detect infections in smaller window periods. An ID-NAT test ing facility has been set up at Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital and samples from government blood banks all over the state are sent there for testing.

Express had previously reported that the reason why private hospitals shy away from mandating ID-NAT is because it adds to the overall cost of the blood component.

BENGALURU: Ten staffers of M S Ramaiah College hospital have been booked by Sadashivanagar police for allegedly transfusing a woman patient with HIV infected blood. According to her brother, the 42-year-old married woman had gone to the hospital on October 5, 2013 with the complaint of infertility. She approached a doctor who advised her to undergo surgery. On February 13, 2014, she was admitted to the hospital by her husband. As per doctors direction, she was transfused with blood which tested negative for HIV, and she was discharged on February 15. Her discharge summary clearly showed that HIV 1 and 2 results were negative for Sexually Transmitted Diseases. However, on February 19, when she got admitted for the surgery, she underwent some tests, reports of which came on February 20. And to her shock, this time, she tested HIV positive. Her brother alleged that the hospital authorities tampered with the medical records and changed the blood bag registration numbers. A private complaint was later filed in a local court, which directed Sadashivanagar police to register and probe the case. DCP(central) Sandeep Patil said,A case has been registered and FIR filed already. We will seek help of medical experts in this case as it is related to medical negligence. Investigations are under way. Dr Narsimhaswamy, Rotary Bangalore TTK Blood bank in-charge, without commenting on the case, pointed out some facts about blood testing. ID-NAT can detect HIV after a window period of six days. ELISA fourth generation kit can detect HIV after a window period of two weeks. If a patient (who was previously tested negative) has tested positive for HIV five days after blood transfusion, it may be because when the test was first done the window period was not over and the virus could not be detected, he said. MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospitals chief administrator Dr V Narendranath said, We have been following this case closely and as far as we know, an FIR hasnt been filed. If it has, let the police investigate. We maintain that there was no error or negligence on our part. Karnataka is the only state in the country that has mandated individual nucleic acid testing (ID-NAT) of donor blood that has been deposited in government blood banks. ID-NAT can detect infections in smaller window periods. An ID-NAT test ing facility has been set up at Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital and samples from government blood banks all over the state are sent there for testing. Express had previously reported that the reason why private hospitals shy away from mandating ID-NAT is because it adds to the overall cost of the blood component.
Ram M Sundaram By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The governing body of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday approved restoring of the Class X board-based examinations from the next academic session, after a gap of seven years. The examinations for 2017-18 would be conducted in March 2018. While 80 percent of weightage would be for the Board exam, 20 percent would be based on internal tests.

The Board has also decided to bring in the controversial three-language formula, a move that is sure to trigger a furore in non-Hindi speaking states, particularly Tamil Nadu where there is a strong opposition to the imposition of Hindi and Sanskrit.

The decision has come just a day after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Pannerselvam called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to handover a memorandum with a charter of demands that included a strong opposition to the introduction of three-language formula in schools, as Tamil Nadu has historically followed a two-language formula witah Tamil and English being taught.

The CBSE was the only central board that was not following the three-language system up to Class X. Now the board has recommended it; the final decision is with the ministry, highly-placed sources told Express. Under the three-language formula, the first language to be studied must be the mother tongue or the regional language.

In non-Hindi speaking states, the second language will be English or Hindi and the third language will be English or a modern Indian language. In Hindi-speaking states, students can choose English and modern Indian languages as their second and third languages. The CBSE has also recommended that foreign languages be taught only as an elective.

CHENNAI: The governing body of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday approved restoring of the Class X board-based examinations from the next academic session, after a gap of seven years. The examinations for 2017-18 would be conducted in March 2018. While 80 percent of weightage would be for the Board exam, 20 percent would be based on internal tests. The Board has also decided to bring in the controversial three-language formula, a move that is sure to trigger a furore in non-Hindi speaking states, particularly Tamil Nadu where there is a strong opposition to the imposition of Hindi and Sanskrit. The decision has come just a day after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Pannerselvam called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to handover a memorandum with a charter of demands that included a strong opposition to the introduction of three-language formula in schools, as Tamil Nadu has historically followed a two-language formula witah Tamil and English being taught. The CBSE was the only central board that was not following the three-language system up to Class X. Now the board has recommended it; the final decision is with the ministry, highly-placed sources told Express. Under the three-language formula, the first language to be studied must be the mother tongue or the regional language. In non-Hindi speaking states, the second language will be English or Hindi and the third language will be English or a modern Indian language. In Hindi-speaking states, students can choose English and modern Indian languages as their second and third languages. The CBSE has also recommended that foreign languages be taught only as an elective.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Hailing the Centre for its radical monetary initiatives, members of the Forum for Good Governance have appealed to citizens to showcase economic patriotism by giving up cash transactions and going digital.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, they said that one should boycott buying goods and services from those who insist on cash transaction. They clarified that commercial establishments, doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants, clinics and hospitals, educational institutions, political parties, etc should be persuaded to do digital transactions.

In urban areas, cash is well on its way to become obsolete. Over a period, the rural areas are bound to be influenced by the urban practices and will become less-cash economies, they said, citing the examples of the United States and Sweden where 80 per cent and 97 per cent of transactions do not involve cash.

According to them, the economic strike is aimed at nearly ` 5 lakh crore of hoarded money, which is lying without participating in economic activities. This strike is also to disturb a traditional mental attitude of the people of hiding cash for the future security of the family, which is not anymore the best solution, they said.

Referring to a disorderly and confused stock of illicit and fake currency values in the country, they said it needed to be ensured post-demonetisation that people did not fall into the old habits of evading tax, offering and collecting bribes. Political parties should be prevented from collecting cash and distributing the same at the time of elections.

Pledge that we take no cash, give no cash, above one hundred rupees. Black money is black only to the extent of not paying taxes. Our politicians and bureaucrats should encourage tax complianace, said forum secretary M.Padmanabha Reddy.

Rao VBJ Chelikani, S Chandra Sekhar, Nallari Ashwin Kumar, S Karunakar, Lingala Venkateswara Rao and VV Rao were also present at the press conference.

HYDERABAD: Hailing the Centre for its radical monetary initiatives, members of the Forum for Good Governance have appealed to citizens to showcase economic patriotism by giving up cash transactions and going digital. Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, they said that one should boycott buying goods and services from those who insist on cash transaction. They clarified that commercial establishments, doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants, clinics and hospitals, educational institutions, political parties, etc should be persuaded to do digital transactions. In urban areas, cash is well on its way to become obsolete. Over a period, the rural areas are bound to be influenced by the urban practices and will become less-cash economies, they said, citing the examples of the United States and Sweden where 80 per cent and 97 per cent of transactions do not involve cash. According to them, the economic strike is aimed at nearly ` 5 lakh crore of hoarded money, which is lying without participating in economic activities. This strike is also to disturb a traditional mental attitude of the people of hiding cash for the future security of the family, which is not anymore the best solution, they said. Referring to a disorderly and confused stock of illicit and fake currency values in the country, they said it needed to be ensured post-demonetisation that people did not fall into the old habits of evading tax, offering and collecting bribes. Political parties should be prevented from collecting cash and distributing the same at the time of elections. Pledge that we take no cash, give no cash, above one hundred rupees. Black money is black only to the extent of not paying taxes. Our politicians and bureaucrats should encourage tax complianace, said forum secretary M.Padmanabha Reddy. Rao VBJ Chelikani, S Chandra Sekhar, Nallari Ashwin Kumar, S Karunakar, Lingala Venkateswara Rao and VV Rao were also present at the press conference.
Mithun MK By

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Even as people are being prompted to shift to digital modes of transaction and do away with use of liquid cash, several persons are found going back to use of cash doing away with digital money.

For instance, Mohammad Siddique, in his early forties, has stopped using PayTm at his poultry shop at Begumpet. Reason: PayTm does not allow him to transfer more than Rs 25,000 from his PayTm wallet to his bank account. Rest of the money he had amassed will remain in his e-wallet.

I am now using my PayTm wallet for my needs at home. What else can I do with my money now stuck with PayTm, said Siddique.

He became a PayTm merchant a week after the service was launched on November 23. The transaction limit set by PayTm is subject to changes based on notifications or guidelines issued by Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

On November 22, RBI came out with - Special Measures to incentivise Electronic Payments that had expanded the transfer limit through Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs), such as PayTm, to merchants bank accounts. The RBI had increased the limit from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000.

Twenty nine days after the RBI notification, PayTm increased the amount that can be accepted through their platform on Tuesday.

We are not accepting PayTm at our store anymore, said Mohammad Yacoob, owner of Green Mini mart supermarket, to a visibly irritated Smitha K, an IT employee. The supermarket like many other stores in the city would only accept debit cards if purchases are made above Rs 100.

The supermarket had started accepting payments through PayTm from December 13. People who wanted to purchase items below Rs 100 used to rely on PayTm, he added. The shopowner says its easier for them to rely on Point of Sales (PoS) machines than on PayTm.

With PoS, the money goes directly to our bank account. We can pay our vendors through our bank account using online payments or through cheques, said Yacoob.

Keeping the money in PayTm wallet is useless as we cant make payments to our vendors through the PayTm application. The transfer limit does not help us either, he added.

A self-declared merchant can accept payments upto Rs 50,000 in a month. Wallet balance of a self-declared merchant should not exceed Rs 20,000 post which, the amount is settled directly to the merchants bank account.

HYDERABAD: Even as people are being prompted to shift to digital modes of transaction and do away with use of liquid cash, several persons are found going back to use of cash doing away with digital money. For instance, Mohammad Siddique, in his early forties, has stopped using PayTm at his poultry shop at Begumpet. Reason: PayTm does not allow him to transfer more than Rs 25,000 from his PayTm wallet to his bank account. Rest of the money he had amassed will remain in his e-wallet. I am now using my PayTm wallet for my needs at home. What else can I do with my money now stuck with PayTm, said Siddique. He became a PayTm merchant a week after the service was launched on November 23. The transaction limit set by PayTm is subject to changes based on notifications or guidelines issued by Reserve Bank of India (RBI). On November 22, RBI came out with - Special Measures to incentivise Electronic Payments that had expanded the transfer limit through Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs), such as PayTm, to merchants bank accounts. The RBI had increased the limit from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000. Twenty nine days after the RBI notification, PayTm increased the amount that can be accepted through their platform on Tuesday. We are not accepting PayTm at our store anymore, said Mohammad Yacoob, owner of Green Mini mart supermarket, to a visibly irritated Smitha K, an IT employee. The supermarket like many other stores in the city would only accept debit cards if purchases are made above Rs 100. The supermarket had started accepting payments through PayTm from December 13. People who wanted to purchase items below Rs 100 used to rely on PayTm, he added. The shopowner says its easier for them to rely on Point of Sales (PoS) machines than on PayTm. With PoS, the money goes directly to our bank account. We can pay our vendors through our bank account using online payments or through cheques, said Yacoob. Keeping the money in PayTm wallet is useless as we cant make payments to our vendors through the PayTm application. The transfer limit does not help us either, he added. A self-declared merchant can accept payments upto Rs 50,000 in a month. Wallet balance of a self-declared merchant should not exceed Rs 20,000 post which, the amount is settled directly to the merchants bank account.
By PTI

MUMBAI: Two persons, including a fireman, were injured in a major fire that broke out in the hutments of Sankli street at Madanpura area in South Mumbai, a senior fire brigade official said today.

"Our control received a call at around 10.20 PM yesterday and 14 fire tenders were rushed to the spot," fire brigade chief of Mumbai civic body P S Rahangdale said.

The blaze got escalated due to blast in LPG cylinders, he said adding that the fire has been brought under control.

"The fire affected 50 to 60 structures on the ground-floor, and three floors above it in the area having various footwear and bag manufacturing units, scrap godowns, shops and residential structures. A few temporary structures also collapsed due to the blaze," Rahangdale said.

"The fire engulfed the electric wiring, some installations, household articles, LPG cylinders and other valuables. During the incident, three gas cylinders exploded.

Besides, leakage was found in two LPG cylinders which were later handed over to a gas agency," he said.

According to Rahangdale, "nuisance by public" and "vehicles parked on both sides of the road" posed difficulties for fire bridge personnel to reach the spot.

In the mishap, fireman Ashok Bane sustained head injury while a local resident got suffocated due to the smoke.

Both have been admitted to Nair hospital, officials said.

Earlier, a fire had broken out yesterday in the iconic Air India building at Nariman Point in South Mumbai, but there was no casualty or major damage as the blaze-hit floor on the premises was empty at that time.

MUMBAI: Two persons, including a fireman, were injured in a major fire that broke out in the hutments of Sankli street at Madanpura area in South Mumbai, a senior fire brigade official said today. "Our control received a call at around 10.20 PM yesterday and 14 fire tenders were rushed to the spot," fire brigade chief of Mumbai civic body P S Rahangdale said. The blaze got escalated due to blast in LPG cylinders, he said adding that the fire has been brought under control. "The fire affected 50 to 60 structures on the ground-floor, and three floors above it in the area having various footwear and bag manufacturing units, scrap godowns, shops and residential structures. A few temporary structures also collapsed due to the blaze," Rahangdale said. "The fire engulfed the electric wiring, some installations, household articles, LPG cylinders and other valuables. During the incident, three gas cylinders exploded. Besides, leakage was found in two LPG cylinders which were later handed over to a gas agency," he said. According to Rahangdale, "nuisance by public" and "vehicles parked on both sides of the road" posed difficulties for fire bridge personnel to reach the spot. In the mishap, fireman Ashok Bane sustained head injury while a local resident got suffocated due to the smoke. Both have been admitted to Nair hospital, officials said. Earlier, a fire had broken out yesterday in the iconic Air India building at Nariman Point in South Mumbai, but there was no casualty or major damage as the blaze-hit floor on the premises was empty at that time.
By IANS

MUMBAI: Actress and politician Hema Malini says that veteran actor Dharmendra is recovering well.

Dharmendra, 81, on Tuesday was taken to Nanvati Hospital here after he reportedly complained of uneasiness and pain.

"Just to reassure everyone concerned about Dharamji in hospital - he is recovering well and is likely to be discharged soon. Thank you all," Hema tweeted on Tuesday evening.

Dharmendra's son and actor-filmmaker Sunny Deol also shared on Twitter that his father is down with "food poisoning and is recovering fast".

"Thanks a lot for your concern about my father's health. He was down with food poisoning and is recovering fast. Please don't speculate about it," Sunny tweeted.



MUMBAI: Actress and politician Hema Malini says that veteran actor Dharmendra is recovering well. Dharmendra, 81, on Tuesday was taken to Nanvati Hospital here after he reportedly complained of uneasiness and pain. "Just to reassure everyone concerned about Dharamji in hospital - he is recovering well and is likely to be discharged soon. Thank you all," Hema tweeted on Tuesday evening. Dharmendra's son and actor-filmmaker Sunny Deol also shared on Twitter that his father is down with "food poisoning and is recovering fast". "Thanks a lot for your concern about my father's health. He was down with food poisoning and is recovering fast. Please don't speculate about it," Sunny tweeted.
Manju Latha Kalanidhi By

Express News Service

Memories of her lifes best 15-minute party on her 18th birthday with dad at the disco, the five-minute freedom she enjoyed on the East Coast Road with her sweetheart, and more go into the making of author Aishwaryaas debut book Standing on an Apple Box. We met the real girl minus the baggage when she was in town on Monday

Director, dancer and goodwill advocate for the United Nations, Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth Dhanush comes up with her debut book Standing On An Apple Box (Harper Collins, hardback, 170 pages, `399) this week. From why she chose to write a book and not make a movie of her reminiscences to how perhaps only a Karan Johar can coax her to reveal her love story with Dhanush, she talks 19 to the dozen about her extraordinary childhood as the daughter of Superstar Rajinikanth, the wife of Superstar Dhanush and the mom of two superstars Linga and Yatra. The unusual title is a jargon of cinema making and the book captures the world of cinema from the eyes of a shy girl who is intensely personal. Excerpts from the interview:

Why a book, and not a movie, considering you are a director and have grown up in the industry?

This content is not apt for a movie. A book dwells into my life much more naturally and organically. Books capture life with all its flaws than perhaps a movie.

Your book cover puts Aishwaryaa in the first line and Rajinikanth Dhanush in the second. So who is the real Aishwaryaa, minus the superstar dad and husband?

I cannot imagine life minus both, as they are integral part of my life. But if I am doing things that I am able to write books, sign contracts, make movies, give interviews like these, it is because of these men. Dad and Dhanush have always told me why they think I should have my own identity. Obviously I cannot match up to either of these guys, but that doesnt mean I live in their shadow. They are proud of me that I have come up with something that can be called Aishwaryaas. I am being my own person.

What prompted the book? Was it another book or a peer (like Twinkle Khanna) getting into writing?

My colleague Aditi has mentioned writing as a vocation as she has seen me write as part of my work. She used to tell me that I write well and that I need to write in a formal way. She suggested blogging first. But then, I am not tech savvy. Although I have an iPhone, I hate the keyboard. The Qwerty intimidates me. I am old fashioned that way. I like to write, that too with a pencil. May be because one can erase and write. Which is why I loved the crayon-feel to my book cover too. I wrote ten chapters and reached out to Harper Collins, my favourite publisher. Karthika from the publishing house gave me the go ahead. It took me an year to write. I wrote sporadically. Sometimes after the kids left for school, sometimes to unwind after a days work, while on the move. I started writing in December 2015.

How did the family react to this idea of putting your life out there?

The book breaks a few shackles and myths about growing up in celebrity households. My dad, mom, sister and Dhanush all trusted my instinct. They know what will be private and what will be public and there would be no controversy in it. My kids asked me innocently if they get a mention. I assured them that nothing about me would be complete without them.

Are there any more books or columns that are on the cards?

Nope. I am writing a script for my next movie. I should wrap by March or April. I am planning it as a Tamil and English film.

Is writing a script for a movie different from that of a book?

This book is difficult. I signed up for it only after getting an assurance from the publisher that there would be no back and forth editing. I am not a great writer and I am just putting together my thoughts and memories. So unless I write a formal book, may be fiction, with a deadline would be different and difficult. I dont want timelines and deadlines, I cannot write that way. That would mean pressure and that leads to writers block. Like an art, writing should just flow.

How are you handling the promos?

I must have given over 100 interviews in the last one week. The writing has been easy and organic. But going to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and now in Hyderabad.

Now, do you understand how your heroines feel when they have to promote your movie?

Oops, you caught me. But then in movies, it is a crew. There are about three to four stars and director etc. But in my case, I am doing all the talking, answering questions. Ha, how I wish the mediapersons all assemble in the same room and I answer them all in one go! Then they can write it in their own words. I have done photo shoots and magazine covers. How do they manage the pressure of looking good, I am zero make up person and somebody has just plastered me with makeup and my hair has gone for a toss.

In Mumbai, director and talk show host Karan Johar hosted it. Will Dhanush and you be part of his talk show soon, if he invites you?

Yeah, he is the kind who can give me a nudge. He has the knack of making a conversation that the whole country would watch. We would be more than happy to be part of his wacky show.

You have barely written anything about your courtship with Dhanush.

I think Karan can coax that out of me on his talk show.

Lastly, I am sure all the readers are curious about the chapter 22 titled Once Upon A Scandal about a beautiful actress much in love with a star with five kids who could not reciprocate it. Who is she?

That is for you to read and guess!

Memories of her lifes best 15-minute party on her 18th birthday with dad at the disco, the five-minute freedom she enjoyed on the East Coast Road with her sweetheart, and more go into the making of author Aishwaryaas debut book Standing on an Apple Box. We met the real girl minus the baggage when she was in town on Monday Director, dancer and goodwill advocate for the United Nations, Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth Dhanush comes up with her debut book Standing On An Apple Box (Harper Collins, hardback, 170 pages, `399) this week. From why she chose to write a book and not make a movie of her reminiscences to how perhaps only a Karan Johar can coax her to reveal her love story with Dhanush, she talks 19 to the dozen about her extraordinary childhood as the daughter of Superstar Rajinikanth, the wife of Superstar Dhanush and the mom of two superstars Linga and Yatra. The unusual title is a jargon of cinema making and the book captures the world of cinema from the eyes of a shy girl who is intensely personal. Excerpts from the interview: Why a book, and not a movie, considering you are a director and have grown up in the industry? This content is not apt for a movie. A book dwells into my life much more naturally and organically. Books capture life with all its flaws than perhaps a movie. Your book cover puts Aishwaryaa in the first line and Rajinikanth Dhanush in the second. So who is the real Aishwaryaa, minus the superstar dad and husband? I cannot imagine life minus both, as they are integral part of my life. But if I am doing things that I am able to write books, sign contracts, make movies, give interviews like these, it is because of these men. Dad and Dhanush have always told me why they think I should have my own identity. Obviously I cannot match up to either of these guys, but that doesnt mean I live in their shadow. They are proud of me that I have come up with something that can be called Aishwaryaas. I am being my own person. What prompted the book? Was it another book or a peer (like Twinkle Khanna) getting into writing? My colleague Aditi has mentioned writing as a vocation as she has seen me write as part of my work. She used to tell me that I write well and that I need to write in a formal way. She suggested blogging first. But then, I am not tech savvy. Although I have an iPhone, I hate the keyboard. The Qwerty intimidates me. I am old fashioned that way. I like to write, that too with a pencil. May be because one can erase and write. Which is why I loved the crayon-feel to my book cover too. I wrote ten chapters and reached out to Harper Collins, my favourite publisher. Karthika from the publishing house gave me the go ahead. It took me an year to write. I wrote sporadically. Sometimes after the kids left for school, sometimes to unwind after a days work, while on the move. I started writing in December 2015. How did the family react to this idea of putting your life out there? The book breaks a few shackles and myths about growing up in celebrity households. My dad, mom, sister and Dhanush all trusted my instinct. They know what will be private and what will be public and there would be no controversy in it. My kids asked me innocently if they get a mention. I assured them that nothing about me would be complete without them. Are there any more books or columns that are on the cards? Nope. I am writing a script for my next movie. I should wrap by March or April. I am planning it as a Tamil and English film. Is writing a script for a movie different from that of a book? This book is difficult. I signed up for it only after getting an assurance from the publisher that there would be no back and forth editing. I am not a great writer and I am just putting together my thoughts and memories. So unless I write a formal book, may be fiction, with a deadline would be different and difficult. I dont want timelines and deadlines, I cannot write that way. That would mean pressure and that leads to writers block. Like an art, writing should just flow. How are you handling the promos? I must have given over 100 interviews in the last one week. The writing has been easy and organic. But going to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and now in Hyderabad. Now, do you understand how your heroines feel when they have to promote your movie? Oops, you caught me. But then in movies, it is a crew. There are about three to four stars and director etc. But in my case, I am doing all the talking, answering questions. Ha, how I wish the mediapersons all assemble in the same room and I answer them all in one go! Then they can write it in their own words. I have done photo shoots and magazine covers. How do they manage the pressure of looking good, I am zero make up person and somebody has just plastered me with makeup and my hair has gone for a toss. In Mumbai, director and talk show host Karan Johar hosted it. Will Dhanush and you be part of his talk show soon, if he invites you? Yeah, he is the kind who can give me a nudge. He has the knack of making a conversation that the whole country would watch. We would be more than happy to be part of his wacky show. You have barely written anything about your courtship with Dhanush. I think Karan can coax that out of me on his talk show. Lastly, I am sure all the readers are curious about the chapter 22 titled Once Upon A Scandal about a beautiful actress much in love with a star with five kids who could not reciprocate it. Who is she? That is for you to read and guess!
By Express News Service

We all know the adulation that Raghava Lawrence has for Rajinikanth. The choreographer-actor-director is all set to remake another classic movie of the Superstar  Mannan (1992), the film that enjoyed a good run at the box-office.



If the grapevine is anything to go by, director P Vasu, who helmed the original version, will be directing this as well. Unconfirmed reports suggest that Vadivelu will reprise Goundamanis role and Kovai Sarala will reprise Manoramas role! However, official confirmation is awaited on the same.

Raghava Lawrence



In Mannan, Rajinikanth made a foray into playback singing. The movie became a huge hit because he represented the working class as a labourer. It also brought in a lot of accolades for Vijayashanti, who was the top heroine in both Tamil and Telugu film industries at that time. She towered over Rajinikanths performance easily.



But it is not known wholl be seen in Vijayashantis and Khushbus characters. While we hear the outline of the story is same, the content will be tweaked to suit the taste of the modern-day audience. This entertainer will be funded by Sivaji Productions.



When it was released, the film shocked the audiences as it had a scene where Vijayshanti slapped the Superstar. She is perhaps the only heroine who slapped Rajinikanth in a film, while playing the lead in the same film and escaped unscathed. Mannan is one of the movies that defined Rajinkanth the actor!



Vijayshanti played the role of a factory owner, whose pride takes a beating when her employee Krishnan (Rajini) challenges her candidacy in the union elections. This starts a series of events where she ends up marrying Krishnan, just to punish him. What follows after forms rest of the plot.



Raghava is also working on another Rajini classic, Moondru Mugam (1982), in which the Superstar played triple characters. As far as both the projects are concerned, details of the cast and crew havent been finalised yet.



Previously, there were rumours that Vijay will be starring in Mannan remake, which would be directed by KS Ravikumar. Soon, we may expect Lawrence to meet Superstar and seek his wishes.

We all know the adulation that Raghava Lawrence has for Rajinikanth. The choreographer-actor-director is all set to remake another classic movie of the Superstar  Mannan (1992), the film that enjoyed a good run at the box-office. If the grapevine is anything to go by, director P Vasu, who helmed the original version, will be directing this as well. Unconfirmed reports suggest that Vadivelu will reprise Goundamanis role and Kovai Sarala will reprise Manoramas role! However, official confirmation is awaited on the same. Raghava Lawrence In Mannan, Rajinikanth made a foray into playback singing. The movie became a huge hit because he represented the working class as a labourer. It also brought in a lot of accolades for Vijayashanti, who was the top heroine in both Tamil and Telugu film industries at that time. She towered over Rajinikanths performance easily. But it is not known wholl be seen in Vijayashantis and Khushbus characters. While we hear the outline of the story is same, the content will be tweaked to suit the taste of the modern-day audience. This entertainer will be funded by Sivaji Productions. When it was released, the film shocked the audiences as it had a scene where Vijayshanti slapped the Superstar. She is perhaps the only heroine who slapped Rajinikanth in a film, while playing the lead in the same film and escaped unscathed. Mannan is one of the movies that defined Rajinkanth the actor! Vijayshanti played the role of a factory owner, whose pride takes a beating when her employee Krishnan (Rajini) challenges her candidacy in the union elections. This starts a series of events where she ends up marrying Krishnan, just to punish him. What follows after forms rest of the plot. Raghava is also working on another Rajini classic, Moondru Mugam (1982), in which the Superstar played triple characters. As far as both the projects are concerned, details of the cast and crew havent been finalised yet. Previously, there were rumours that Vijay will be starring in Mannan remake, which would be directed by KS Ravikumar. Soon, we may expect Lawrence to meet Superstar and seek his wishes.
S Subhakeerthana By

Express News Service

When you speak to filmmaker Hari, you know what he wants and how clear he is about it. Maybe, thats why most of his films have done quite well at the box-office. Can you slow down a bit; so that Ill understand what you are trying to ask, he begins the conversation.



S-III isnt like a regular cop story. The emphasis is on entertaining the audience with a new narrative style. Personally, I would like to see a new genre cinema every Friday. This is one such movie. It keeps the audience guessing about the next scene. The screenplay goes beyond their anticipation at the same time sustaining their interest, he tells us.



He claims that for the first time in India, the same story line has been continued in the third sequel with the same set of artistes. Quiz him if Suriya plays a married man; he smiles, Theres a surprise element in it, so I cant reveal anything more.



He reasons out how the franchise films become successful only if big names are involved. We didnt pursue the original S-III script that I had on mind. Suriya and I discussed that well do it after five years. Since the audience was excited, I developed a new storyline and penned the whole script, he assures. S-III wont be a standalone venture, but has a connection with the first two parts. The sequels which were released of late werent successful because the storylines and actors were different.



Does he have some sort of fascination for sequels and cop stories? He grins, When I made Saamy with Vikram, at the end, we had a title card that read: Saamyin vettai thodarum. Sequels have always interested me because of the scope it gives me as far as storytelling and writing are concerned. I develop a bond with the characters I create, which motivates me to do sequels. S-III will be the most expensive film that I have made so far. As a team, we took extra steps to make sure that the plot and characters are evolved and improvised.



Haris growth as a director from an assistant director has been phenomenal. Ask him about it, and he credits his team of boys. Whenever I start a project, I brainstorm with my assistant directors. To me, a script is never complete. I work on it constantly. Many times, while shooting I have made changes, and till the last date of the release, I think about how it can be improvised, he says.



He refers to Suriya as a proven actor. He has this fire in him and has done a lot of hard work for the character he plays in S-III. As its a cop story, we verified many things from my inspector-friend. He also plays a small role in the film, he elaborates.



Stating that, it usually takes 6-8 months for him to complete a script, S-III took a year. Suriya was particular that his character is sophisticated. Its different from the earlier parts in a number of ways. Moreover, cop stories interest the audience. Since the level of interaction is limited between them and police officials, everyone looks forward to seeing such stories on the screen. Fast-paced action-packed films are my strength, he observes.



So far, Hari has never had second thoughts about investing his time on cop stories or sequels. I am a producers director, and I make him happy. I am comfortable doing films with any hero, and everybody gets along with me well. My goal is to make commercially-viable projects without compromising on my creativity. I am not a real creator, and I know it. My content is inspired by films made by Shankar, Mani Ratnam, Bala and KS Ravikumar, he chuckles.

When you speak to filmmaker Hari, you know what he wants and how clear he is about it. Maybe, thats why most of his films have done quite well at the box-office. Can you slow down a bit; so that Ill understand what you are trying to ask, he begins the conversation. S-III isnt like a regular cop story. The emphasis is on entertaining the audience with a new narrative style. Personally, I would like to see a new genre cinema every Friday. This is one such movie. It keeps the audience guessing about the next scene. The screenplay goes beyond their anticipation at the same time sustaining their interest, he tells us. He claims that for the first time in India, the same story line has been continued in the third sequel with the same set of artistes. Quiz him if Suriya plays a married man; he smiles, Theres a surprise element in it, so I cant reveal anything more. He reasons out how the franchise films become successful only if big names are involved. We didnt pursue the original S-III script that I had on mind. Suriya and I discussed that well do it after five years. Since the audience was excited, I developed a new storyline and penned the whole script, he assures. S-III wont be a standalone venture, but has a connection with the first two parts. The sequels which were released of late werent successful because the storylines and actors were different. Does he have some sort of fascination for sequels and cop stories? He grins, When I made Saamy with Vikram, at the end, we had a title card that read: Saamyin vettai thodarum. Sequels have always interested me because of the scope it gives me as far as storytelling and writing are concerned. I develop a bond with the characters I create, which motivates me to do sequels. S-III will be the most expensive film that I have made so far. As a team, we took extra steps to make sure that the plot and characters are evolved and improvised. Haris growth as a director from an assistant director has been phenomenal. Ask him about it, and he credits his team of boys. Whenever I start a project, I brainstorm with my assistant directors. To me, a script is never complete. I work on it constantly. Many times, while shooting I have made changes, and till the last date of the release, I think about how it can be improvised, he says. He refers to Suriya as a proven actor. He has this fire in him and has done a lot of hard work for the character he plays in S-III. As its a cop story, we verified many things from my inspector-friend. He also plays a small role in the film, he elaborates. Stating that, it usually takes 6-8 months for him to complete a script, S-III took a year. Suriya was particular that his character is sophisticated. Its different from the earlier parts in a number of ways. Moreover, cop stories interest the audience. Since the level of interaction is limited between them and police officials, everyone looks forward to seeing such stories on the screen. Fast-paced action-packed films are my strength, he observes. So far, Hari has never had second thoughts about investing his time on cop stories or sequels. I am a producers director, and I make him happy. I am comfortable doing films with any hero, and everybody gets along with me well. My goal is to make commercially-viable projects without compromising on my creativity. I am not a real creator, and I know it. My content is inspired by films made by Shankar, Mani Ratnam, Bala and KS Ravikumar, he chuckles.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Voters of Uttar Pradesh have got the gift of cheaper houses ahead of the high-staked poll battle. UP administration has sent its first proposals for construction of affordable houses for urban poor to the ministry of housing. The first such proposal for construction of 11,286 houses for urban poor in 34 towns of Uttar Pradesh was approved by the Centre as the Ministry as the election commission is set to annouunce poll dates in the coming days.

Officials in the ministry of housing said that Uttar Pradesh government proposed the construction of these houses under Beneficiary Led Construction component of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) Urban. Under this component, eligible beneficiaries are given central assistance of Rs.1.50 lakh each for the construction of new houses on their land or for improvement of existing houses. PMAY (Urban) was launched in June last year.

Some of the towns of UP for which construction of new houses was sanctioned include Barwar-925 houses, Iltifatganj-910, Maholi-602, Ranipur-574, Pali-549, Suriyawan-506, Chughuli-501, Sikandra-447, Kathera-415, Kora Jahanabad-413, Mahroni-411, Ranipur Mariharan-367, Churk Ghurma- 357, Sarsawan-343 and Bahua-316.

Three towns for which improvement of existing houses has been approved include Maghar-489, Ghuguhuli-299 and Shohratgarh-73. The ministry on Tuesday approved construction of 52,319 houses for urban poor under PMAY(Urban) involving an investment of Rs.2,946 cr and central assistance of Rs.778 cr. In the latest round of approvals, Madhya Pradesh got 25,097 houses, Chattisgarh-8,941 houses, Maharashtra-3,805, Nagaland-2,422, Puducherry-720 and Daman-48.

With this, the ministry has so far approved construction of a total of 13,43,805 houses for urban poor under PMAY (Urban) involving an investment of Rs.72,781 cr and central assistance of Rs.19,633.

NEW DELHI: Voters of Uttar Pradesh have got the gift of cheaper houses ahead of the high-staked poll battle. UP administration has sent its first proposals for construction of affordable houses for urban poor to the ministry of housing. The first such proposal for construction of 11,286 houses for urban poor in 34 towns of Uttar Pradesh was approved by the Centre as the Ministry as the election commission is set to annouunce poll dates in the coming days. Officials in the ministry of housing said that Uttar Pradesh government proposed the construction of these houses under Beneficiary Led Construction component of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) Urban. Under this component, eligible beneficiaries are given central assistance of Rs.1.50 lakh each for the construction of new houses on their land or for improvement of existing houses. PMAY (Urban) was launched in June last year. Some of the towns of UP for which construction of new houses was sanctioned include Barwar-925 houses, Iltifatganj-910, Maholi-602, Ranipur-574, Pali-549, Suriyawan-506, Chughuli-501, Sikandra-447, Kathera-415, Kora Jahanabad-413, Mahroni-411, Ranipur Mariharan-367, Churk Ghurma- 357, Sarsawan-343 and Bahua-316. Three towns for which improvement of existing houses has been approved include Maghar-489, Ghuguhuli-299 and Shohratgarh-73. The ministry on Tuesday approved construction of 52,319 houses for urban poor under PMAY(Urban) involving an investment of Rs.2,946 cr and central assistance of Rs.778 cr. In the latest round of approvals, Madhya Pradesh got 25,097 houses, Chattisgarh-8,941 houses, Maharashtra-3,805, Nagaland-2,422, Puducherry-720 and Daman-48. With this, the ministry has so far approved construction of a total of 13,43,805 houses for urban poor under PMAY (Urban) involving an investment of Rs.72,781 cr and central assistance of Rs.19,633.
By PTI

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav feels the days of caste-based politics in the state are over and now the two Ds -- development and demonetisation problems -- will work in favour of the Samajwadi Party in the upcoming assembly polls.

According to him, his family feud is no more a factor and all issues have been changed post demonetisation.

"That is a thing of past now. We are working together to win the elections. Issues have changed and post demonetisation nobody remembers that (family feud) now. All the other issues have been left behind and demonetisation has emerged as the key issue," he said.

He asserted that Uttar Pradesh will vote for his work, image and not on caste equations.

"Our work in last five years and the problems people are facing due to demonetisation will lead us to victory in upcoming elections. Jo kataarein ATM ke bahar lagi hai wo polling booth ke bahar lagegi (polling booths will see long queues like ones outside ATMs now," Akhilesh told PTI in an interview.

When asked who he considers the bigger rival -- BJP or BSP, he said people of Uttar Pradesh have lost faith in both of them.

"BJP has done nothing for Uttar Pradesh in last two and a half years. The Prime Minister was elected from UP, home minister and defence minister are also representing UP. They have maximum number of MPs from UP but they have given nothing to the state apart from Adarsh Gaon Yojna and nothing is happening on that front also," he said.

"As far as BSP is concerned, people are not interested in getting elephants installed everywhere," he added.

His father and SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has already ruled out any pre-poll alliance with Congress but Akhilesh said it will be premature to predict anything as of now.

"Of course the party president will take a call on that but I believe that we will get 300 plus seats if we enter into a pre-poll alliance with Congress. I know that netaji (Mulayam) has said there will be merger, no alliances but there is still time for the elections and you must wait and watch. Politics is full of surprises and you never know what will happen tomorrow," he said.

"I do not have any doubt on getting an absolute majority but we can get 300 plus seats if we fight together. Samajwadis believe that Congress is their best friend when it is weak," he said.

SP had gained an absolute majority in 2012 winning 224 seats. BSP had won 80, BJP 47 and Congress 28.

Akhilesh does not believe there is too much focus on Muslim voters.

"If I am talking about development, they (Muslims) should also get benefited by it. I am giving them their right. If we explain this, nobody will have any objection. Those who want to do communal politics will not be successful in UP. Politics has changed and it is no more based on caste equations," he asserted.

"People are connected through media and social media and they are aware of what is happening in the world. They want politics of development and positivity, not of hatred," he added.

On the law-and-order issue, he said he is leaving no stone unturned to restore faith of the people.

"I have sent my teams to New York, Singapore and Houston to study their police system. We have also started 'dial 100 scheme' which will be implemented in a phase-wise manner."

On party tickets, he said, "Ticket distribution is not in my hand. I can only give my suggestions and will do that.

Everyone is aware of my views on that. National president of the party will take a call on that," said Akhilesh, who stayed away when his father launched the party's poll campaign last month from a stronghold of the erstwhile Quami Ekta Dal (QED) led by Mukhtar Ansari.

He had opposed the merger of the QED with his party but Mulayam and uncle Shivpal Yadav overruled the young chief minister later.

Asked whether he got a 'free hand' to work during his tenure, Akhilesh said he feels more matured and experienced now.

"Last time I was new in politics and became the chief minister with the blessings of netaji. I am more matured and with age, I have also gained experience. I have fulfilled all the promises I had made in my manifesto. I have initiated schemes on which Samajwadis can do politics for next 10-15 years. In my next innings I will work harder to make UP number one state," he said.

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav feels the days of caste-based politics in the state are over and now the two Ds -- development and demonetisation problems -- will work in favour of the Samajwadi Party in the upcoming assembly polls. According to him, his family feud is no more a factor and all issues have been changed post demonetisation. "That is a thing of past now. We are working together to win the elections. Issues have changed and post demonetisation nobody remembers that (family feud) now. All the other issues have been left behind and demonetisation has emerged as the key issue," he said. He asserted that Uttar Pradesh will vote for his work, image and not on caste equations. "Our work in last five years and the problems people are facing due to demonetisation will lead us to victory in upcoming elections. Jo kataarein ATM ke bahar lagi hai wo polling booth ke bahar lagegi (polling booths will see long queues like ones outside ATMs now," Akhilesh told PTI in an interview. When asked who he considers the bigger rival -- BJP or BSP, he said people of Uttar Pradesh have lost faith in both of them. "BJP has done nothing for Uttar Pradesh in last two and a half years. The Prime Minister was elected from UP, home minister and defence minister are also representing UP. They have maximum number of MPs from UP but they have given nothing to the state apart from Adarsh Gaon Yojna and nothing is happening on that front also," he said. "As far as BSP is concerned, people are not interested in getting elephants installed everywhere," he added. His father and SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has already ruled out any pre-poll alliance with Congress but Akhilesh said it will be premature to predict anything as of now. "Of course the party president will take a call on that but I believe that we will get 300 plus seats if we enter into a pre-poll alliance with Congress. I know that netaji (Mulayam) has said there will be merger, no alliances but there is still time for the elections and you must wait and watch. Politics is full of surprises and you never know what will happen tomorrow," he said. "I do not have any doubt on getting an absolute majority but we can get 300 plus seats if we fight together. Samajwadis believe that Congress is their best friend when it is weak," he said. SP had gained an absolute majority in 2012 winning 224 seats. BSP had won 80, BJP 47 and Congress 28. Akhilesh does not believe there is too much focus on Muslim voters. "If I am talking about development, they (Muslims) should also get benefited by it. I am giving them their right. If we explain this, nobody will have any objection. Those who want to do communal politics will not be successful in UP. Politics has changed and it is no more based on caste equations," he asserted. "People are connected through media and social media and they are aware of what is happening in the world. They want politics of development and positivity, not of hatred," he added. On the law-and-order issue, he said he is leaving no stone unturned to restore faith of the people. "I have sent my teams to New York, Singapore and Houston to study their police system. We have also started 'dial 100 scheme' which will be implemented in a phase-wise manner." On party tickets, he said, "Ticket distribution is not in my hand. I can only give my suggestions and will do that. Everyone is aware of my views on that. National president of the party will take a call on that," said Akhilesh, who stayed away when his father launched the party's poll campaign last month from a stronghold of the erstwhile Quami Ekta Dal (QED) led by Mukhtar Ansari. He had opposed the merger of the QED with his party but Mulayam and uncle Shivpal Yadav overruled the young chief minister later. Asked whether he got a 'free hand' to work during his tenure, Akhilesh said he feels more matured and experienced now. "Last time I was new in politics and became the chief minister with the blessings of netaji. I am more matured and with age, I have also gained experience. I have fulfilled all the promises I had made in my manifesto. I have initiated schemes on which Samajwadis can do politics for next 10-15 years. In my next innings I will work harder to make UP number one state," he said.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Passengers can book train tickets by sending a text message to 139 from their mobile phones and money will be deducted from their bank accounts linked to the phone number. The SMS booking service has been started by the Railways for passengers who dont have access to the Internet and who still seek to do cashless transactions by using their cellphones.

Passengers will be required to send a simple text message containing travel information like number of passengers travelling, date of journey, class and train number.

They can make payments for the tickets using a transaction ID. The process involves registering with the IRCTC website and after sending the text message for ticket registration, passengers will get details of the cost of the ticket and other charges to be paid.

Another SMS needs to be sent confirming the payment.

The amount will be deducted from the account linked to the mobile number after generating a code needed for the payment process. Those making the booking will get the details related to the ticket.

The Railways has already announced initiatives for booking online tickets and cashless transactions. It has decided to give Rs 10 lakh free insurance cover to passengers booking tickets online to encourage

more people to shift to digital transactions.

NEW DELHI: Passengers can book train tickets by sending a text message to 139 from their mobile phones and money will be deducted from their bank accounts linked to the phone number. The SMS booking service has been started by the Railways for passengers who dont have access to the Internet and who still seek to do cashless transactions by using their cellphones. Passengers will be required to send a simple text message containing travel information like number of passengers travelling, date of journey, class and train number. They can make payments for the tickets using a transaction ID. The process involves registering with the IRCTC website and after sending the text message for ticket registration, passengers will get details of the cost of the ticket and other charges to be paid. Another SMS needs to be sent confirming the payment. The amount will be deducted from the account linked to the mobile number after generating a code needed for the payment process. Those making the booking will get the details related to the ticket. The Railways has already announced initiatives for booking online tickets and cashless transactions. It has decided to give Rs 10 lakh free insurance cover to passengers booking tickets online to encourage more people to shift to digital transactions.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Giving wings to Wing Commander Sandeep Kaurs endeavour to get Permanent Commission in the Indian Air Force (IAF), the Supreme Court has asked the service to consider her demand.

The IAF at present does not give Permanent Commission to women officers, who joined the service on Short Service Commission.



Following the Delhi High Court order, Kaur had pleaded that the Centre consider her for Permanent Commission but the government rejected it claiming she is not entitled to it. She then challenged the order before the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), which asked the government to consider her demands.



The AFT told the Central government to allow Kaur to continue to serve the nation if she was found qualified and capable of it in two months. But the Centre appealed against the AFTs order seeking a stay.



However, Chief Justice T S Thakur, while hearing her case, asked the Centre to reconsider her plea for Permanent Commission and observed, Let her fly, let her be airborne all the time. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Centre, assured the court that Kaurs plea would be reconsidered by the Air Force and that she will not be decommissioned before seeking permission from the court.



The Supreme Courts stand brings much cheer to other woman officers fighting for equality in employment in the Armed Forces.



The Delhi High Court had, in its 2010 ruling while giving Permanent Commission to all women who were posted in Short Service Commission, said, Women officers deserve better from the government. If male officers can be granted Permanent Commission, there is no reason why equally capable women officers cant.

Earlier, multiple petitions were filed in the High Court by several women officers to stop discrimination against women Army officers, who were given only Short Service Commission for periods extendable up to 10 years.

An appeal against it by the Army is pending before the Supreme Court for over five years now. The Army, while opposing the plea by women seeking a permanent commission, had said, Combat situations may be difficult for women to tolerate.

The High Court while allowing the plea of woman naval officers seeking Permanent Commission in the force had said that sexist and service bias would not be allowed to block the progress of women and had

observed, Women are here to stay and since they work shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts, it would frown upon any endeavour to restrain the progress of women.

NEW DELHI: Giving wings to Wing Commander Sandeep Kaurs endeavour to get Permanent Commission in the Indian Air Force (IAF), the Supreme Court has asked the service to consider her demand. The IAF at present does not give Permanent Commission to women officers, who joined the service on Short Service Commission. Following the Delhi High Court order, Kaur had pleaded that the Centre consider her for Permanent Commission but the government rejected it claiming she is not entitled to it. She then challenged the order before the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), which asked the government to consider her demands. The AFT told the Central government to allow Kaur to continue to serve the nation if she was found qualified and capable of it in two months. But the Centre appealed against the AFTs order seeking a stay. However, Chief Justice T S Thakur, while hearing her case, asked the Centre to reconsider her plea for Permanent Commission and observed, Let her fly, let her be airborne all the time. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Centre, assured the court that Kaurs plea would be reconsidered by the Air Force and that she will not be decommissioned before seeking permission from the court. The Supreme Courts stand brings much cheer to other woman officers fighting for equality in employment in the Armed Forces. The Delhi High Court had, in its 2010 ruling while giving Permanent Commission to all women who were posted in Short Service Commission, said, Women officers deserve better from the government. If male officers can be granted Permanent Commission, there is no reason why equally capable women officers cant. Earlier, multiple petitions were filed in the High Court by several women officers to stop discrimination against women Army officers, who were given only Short Service Commission for periods extendable up to 10 years. An appeal against it by the Army is pending before the Supreme Court for over five years now. The Army, while opposing the plea by women seeking a permanent commission, had said, Combat situations may be difficult for women to tolerate. The High Court while allowing the plea of woman naval officers seeking Permanent Commission in the force had said that sexist and service bias would not be allowed to block the progress of women and had observed, Women are here to stay and since they work shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts, it would frown upon any endeavour to restrain the progress of women.
Kiran Parashar K M By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: A native of Manipur, studying in Mysuru has written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and solve the economic blockade imposed in Manipur. The blockade that has been in place for the past two months has led to violence and has cut off the State from other parts of the country.



Ronald Laishram, a sixth semester BE student of Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, has written the letter.



In his letter, Ronald said that people were being killed like 'mosquitoes'.

"United Naga Council (UNC) has imposed the indefinite economic blockade on the state's lifelines - National Highway 2 (Imphal-Dimapur highway) and National Highway 37 (Imphal-Silchar highway) starting from November 1 midnight and still going on, disrupting the supply of commodities to Manipur. Vehicles coming toward the Imphal are being checked by the supporters of UNC to stop the transportation of essential commodities to the hills. The economic blockade has not only caused a shortage but also children are being deprived of education as they can't go to schools due to non-availability of fuel. It also added fuel to the fire when the demonetisation process is going on where the people don't have adequate money in their hands," he wrote.



And in the recent ambush, NSCN-IM killed four Manipur polices, injured eleven. Still, you don't say anything about it,  he said, questioning the Prime Minister's silence.



The present policy of the Government of India appeasing Naga underground (NSCN-IM) sacrificing the vital interest of Manipur added fuel to the prevailing ethnic tension in Manipur. This is definitely not a wise policy of the Government of India, his letter read.



Speaking to Express he said, I have requested Modi to give me an appointment to meet him as I do have ideas to solve the issue.



A top student of the college:

In 2015, Ronald Laishram was honoured by the former President A P J Abdul Kalam for discovering the Main Belt Asteroid Maur 397 as part of the All-India Asteroid Search Campaign (AIASC) held in December 2014 in his college. Ronald and his group had tracked objects by looking at the images of the sky provided by a telescope based in the US, as part of a competition called Astrometrica to discover new asteroids.

BENGALURU: A native of Manipur, studying in Mysuru has written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and solve the economic blockade imposed in Manipur. The blockade that has been in place for the past two months has led to violence and has cut off the State from other parts of the country. Ronald Laishram, a sixth semester BE student of Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, has written the letter. In his letter, Ronald said that people were being killed like 'mosquitoes'. "United Naga Council (UNC) has imposed the indefinite economic blockade on the state's lifelines - National Highway 2 (Imphal-Dimapur highway) and National Highway 37 (Imphal-Silchar highway) starting from November 1 midnight and still going on, disrupting the supply of commodities to Manipur. Vehicles coming toward the Imphal are being checked by the supporters of UNC to stop the transportation of essential commodities to the hills. The economic blockade has not only caused a shortage but also children are being deprived of education as they can't go to schools due to non-availability of fuel. It also added fuel to the fire when the demonetisation process is going on where the people don't have adequate money in their hands," he wrote. And in the recent ambush, NSCN-IM killed four Manipur polices, injured eleven. Still, you don't say anything about it,  he said, questioning the Prime Minister's silence. The present policy of the Government of India appeasing Naga underground (NSCN-IM) sacrificing the vital interest of Manipur added fuel to the prevailing ethnic tension in Manipur. This is definitely not a wise policy of the Government of India, his letter read. Speaking to Express he said, I have requested Modi to give me an appointment to meet him as I do have ideas to solve the issue.A top student of the college: In 2015, Ronald Laishram was honoured by the former President A P J Abdul Kalam for discovering the Main Belt Asteroid Maur 397 as part of the All-India Asteroid Search Campaign (AIASC) held in December 2014 in his college. Ronald and his group had tracked objects by looking at the images of the sky provided by a telescope based in the US, as part of a competition called Astrometrica to discover new asteroids.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

IMPHAL: Where the government has failed, people have stepped in to speak up for peace and reconciliation.

In what is seen as a long-standing need for Manipur, the first major attempt at ethnic reconciliation was made on Wednesday. Civil society groups and thinking heads from three major communities, such as Meiteis (Manipuris), Nagas and Kukis, got together to find a way out of the ethnic imbroglio that has disrupted the state.

On the political front, a BJP MLA resigned alleging that the Centre was playing politics on Manipurs situation. The lawmaker, Joy Kishan, joined the Congress.

Amid the renewed suspicion and mistrust at each other, the Nagas and the Meiteis, who are in the centre of the conflict, came together for the first time since the outbreak of the violence by sharing the dais at the all communities get together meeting for peaceful co-existence in Imphal.

They appealed to the protestors to lift the blockade and the counter-blockade and urged the states Congress government to talk to all stakeholders towards finding a solution.

The market (in Imphal) is a mirror of our society. Let us speak only good things and get involved towards improving the situation, rights activist Irom Sharmila, who belongs to the Meitei community, said. This was her maiden appearance at a public meeting since she had ended her epic hunger strike in August.

Nimthouja Lancha, another Meitei leader, observed that the root cause of the all-pervasive suspicion was peoples ignorance about one anothers history and cultures.

Each community must try and understand the other. We feel that the history and cultures of each community should be included in our school curricula. Ignorance often makes a community treat another as strangers, he said.

Romeo Bungdon, a Naga and leader of All Manipur Tribal Unity, said people should bury the hatchet and move on.

We can achieve peace only through peace negotiations by involving all stakeholders. The government has to take the initiative to bring them under one platform, he said.

Prof Rose Mangshi, a social activist, said the situation had worsened due to communication gap among communities.

We appeal to both sides to withdraw the blockades. We all should sit together and try and find out a solution. When we do so, we will surely achieve solution, Mangshi, who belongs to the Kuki community, said.

The Kukis are caught in the conflict between the Nagas and the Meiteis. The United Naga Council (UNC), which enforced an indefinite blockade on two national highways since November 1, alleged that by upgrading Nagas ancestral homeland Sadar Hills to a full-fledged district, the Okram Ibobi Singh government was trying to keep the Kukis in good humour.



IMPHAL: Where the government has failed, people have stepped in to speak up for peace and reconciliation. In what is seen as a long-standing need for Manipur, the first major attempt at ethnic reconciliation was made on Wednesday. Civil society groups and thinking heads from three major communities, such as Meiteis (Manipuris), Nagas and Kukis, got together to find a way out of the ethnic imbroglio that has disrupted the state. On the political front, a BJP MLA resigned alleging that the Centre was playing politics on Manipurs situation. The lawmaker, Joy Kishan, joined the Congress. Amid the renewed suspicion and mistrust at each other, the Nagas and the Meiteis, who are in the centre of the conflict, came together for the first time since the outbreak of the violence by sharing the dais at the all communities get together meeting for peaceful co-existence in Imphal. They appealed to the protestors to lift the blockade and the counter-blockade and urged the states Congress government to talk to all stakeholders towards finding a solution. The market (in Imphal) is a mirror of our society. Let us speak only good things and get involved towards improving the situation, rights activist Irom Sharmila, who belongs to the Meitei community, said. This was her maiden appearance at a public meeting since she had ended her epic hunger strike in August. Nimthouja Lancha, another Meitei leader, observed that the root cause of the all-pervasive suspicion was peoples ignorance about one anothers history and cultures. Each community must try and understand the other. We feel that the history and cultures of each community should be included in our school curricula. Ignorance often makes a community treat another as strangers, he said. Romeo Bungdon, a Naga and leader of All Manipur Tribal Unity, said people should bury the hatchet and move on. We can achieve peace only through peace negotiations by involving all stakeholders. The government has to take the initiative to bring them under one platform, he said. Prof Rose Mangshi, a social activist, said the situation had worsened due to communication gap among communities. We appeal to both sides to withdraw the blockades. We all should sit together and try and find out a solution. When we do so, we will surely achieve solution, Mangshi, who belongs to the Kuki community, said. The Kukis are caught in the conflict between the Nagas and the Meiteis. The United Naga Council (UNC), which enforced an indefinite blockade on two national highways since November 1, alleged that by upgrading Nagas ancestral homeland Sadar Hills to a full-fledged district, the Okram Ibobi Singh government was trying to keep the Kukis in good humour.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Having filed a chargesheet in the the Pathankot airbase terror attack case, the NIA will now move the trial court to issue a Letter Rogatory to Pakistan for seeking the custody of the four Pakistan-based conspirators, including Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar.

Top intelligence sources said the trial in the case cannot be initiated since the four Pakistani terrorists who hit the strategic airbase in Punjab were killed by security forces at the scene of the crime. The four other accused in the case  Azhar, his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar and two other accused  are also Pakistani nationals.

This is unlike the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case in which at least one accused, Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, was there and the trial was conducted in the absence of masterminds like Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and others who continue to be at large.

A senior NIA official conceded that the presence of the accused is required as per the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code during the framing of the charges.

And since the accused are at large, the court will take cognisance of the chargesheet and the proceedings in the court will be withheld sine die till further orders, the official said.

He further explained that in the absence of anyone to face trial, neither the abatement of proceedings nor prosecution against the accused can be pursued. However, after taking cognisance of the chargesheet, the trial court will direct the NIA to produce the accused persons before it for framing charges against them.

The NIA believes that Pakistan will very unlikely hand over the terrorists to India. The court is likely to declare them proclaimed offenders and the trial might be withheld.

NEW DELHI: Having filed a chargesheet in the the Pathankot airbase terror attack case, the NIA will now move the trial court to issue a Letter Rogatory to Pakistan for seeking the custody of the four Pakistan-based conspirators, including Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar. Top intelligence sources said the trial in the case cannot be initiated since the four Pakistani terrorists who hit the strategic airbase in Punjab were killed by security forces at the scene of the crime. The four other accused in the case  Azhar, his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar and two other accused  are also Pakistani nationals. This is unlike the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case in which at least one accused, Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, was there and the trial was conducted in the absence of masterminds like Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and others who continue to be at large. A senior NIA official conceded that the presence of the accused is required as per the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code during the framing of the charges. And since the accused are at large, the court will take cognisance of the chargesheet and the proceedings in the court will be withheld sine die till further orders, the official said. He further explained that in the absence of anyone to face trial, neither the abatement of proceedings nor prosecution against the accused can be pursued. However, after taking cognisance of the chargesheet, the trial court will direct the NIA to produce the accused persons before it for framing charges against them. The NIA believes that Pakistan will very unlikely hand over the terrorists to India. The court is likely to declare them proclaimed offenders and the trial might be withheld.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Amidst speculations over resignation, Eastern Army Commander Lt. General Praveen Bakshi on Wednesday afternoon met the defence minister Manohar Parrikar in South Block. After being overlooked for the post of Army chief, Bakshi sought an appointment with Parrikar to apprise him about the future course of action.

According to the ministry official, Baksh, who came all the way from Kolkata, held meeting with Parrikar in laters office that lasted for nearly 15 minutes.

It was a courtesy call which Lt. General Bakshi sought with defence minister Manohar Parrikar, a defence ministry officials said without revealing much about the one-on-one meeting between the two. But sources in the military establishment speculate the Lt. Gen Bakshi could resign as he has been superseded. The last time an officer was superseded in the appointment of a new Army chief, he had resigned. Lt General SK Sinha, who put in his papers after the Congress government of Indira Gandhi picked his junior General AS Vaidya to be chief in 1983.

The government on Saturday announced the appointment of Lt Gen Rawat as the new army chief superseding his two senior officers --Lt Gen Bakshi and Southern Command Chief Lt Gen P M Hariz.

Lt Gen Bakshi, an armoured officer, was considered as the front-runner for the top post in the Army. However, keeping aside the trend of seniority being the lone criteria, the government appointed Vice Chief of Army Lt Gen Bipin Rawat, a batch junior to Lt Gen Bakshi, as the next chief. While defending its stand, the government stated that the Lt Gen Rawat, an infantry soldier, was found best suited among three officers to deal with challenges like cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and the situation with Pakistan. And the government has maintained that both areas will be under focus for the next 2-3 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.

However, a section of military believes that government may consider him for the Chief of Defence Services post, as the post is under consideration for long with the successive government. Though the creation of the post is under active consideration by the government, but will take some time to happen, said an official.

NEW DELHI: Amidst speculations over resignation, Eastern Army Commander Lt. General Praveen Bakshi on Wednesday afternoon met the defence minister Manohar Parrikar in South Block. After being overlooked for the post of Army chief, Bakshi sought an appointment with Parrikar to apprise him about the future course of action. According to the ministry official, Baksh, who came all the way from Kolkata, held meeting with Parrikar in laters office that lasted for nearly 15 minutes. It was a courtesy call which Lt. General Bakshi sought with defence minister Manohar Parrikar, a defence ministry officials said without revealing much about the one-on-one meeting between the two. But sources in the military establishment speculate the Lt. Gen Bakshi could resign as he has been superseded. The last time an officer was superseded in the appointment of a new Army chief, he had resigned. Lt General SK Sinha, who put in his papers after the Congress government of Indira Gandhi picked his junior General AS Vaidya to be chief in 1983. The government on Saturday announced the appointment of Lt Gen Rawat as the new army chief superseding his two senior officers --Lt Gen Bakshi and Southern Command Chief Lt Gen P M Hariz. Lt Gen Bakshi, an armoured officer, was considered as the front-runner for the top post in the Army. However, keeping aside the trend of seniority being the lone criteria, the government appointed Vice Chief of Army Lt Gen Bipin Rawat, a batch junior to Lt Gen Bakshi, as the next chief. While defending its stand, the government stated that the Lt Gen Rawat, an infantry soldier, was found best suited among three officers to deal with challenges like cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and the situation with Pakistan. And the government has maintained that both areas will be under focus for the next 2-3 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government. However, a section of military believes that government may consider him for the Chief of Defence Services post, as the post is under consideration for long with the successive government. Though the creation of the post is under active consideration by the government, but will take some time to happen, said an official.
Sumit Kumar By

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi was on a two-day state visit to India on December 12-13. This was the first visit by an Indonesian President in the last six years and also the first bilateral talks since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Jokowi assumed office in 2014. While Vice-President Hamid Ansaris visit to Indonesia last year had emphasised Indias commitment to strengthen the relationship, President Jokowis visit focused on imparting vigour and momentum to the strategic partnership and shaping convergences to act as a force of peace, prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

Historically, India and Indonesia have shared cultural and religious ties. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are very famous in Indonesia. The countries are the two largest Asian secular, multi-religious democracies. The two countries also have shared colonial experiences. Based on these links, the two countries laid the foundation for an enduring relationship between the two countries, which was soon symbolised by the great success of the Bandung Asian-African conference in 1955. Over the years, New Delhi and Jakarta have not only deepened their relationship, but has become all the more important in the fast changing global and regional security-economic environment.

Security cooperation is an important aspect of the bilateral ties between India and Indonesia. For India, since Indonesia controls the entry points to Strait of Malacca, the main sea route between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, cooperation with Indonesia would ensure freedom of navigation and sea communication, as well as effectively tackle the issues of piracy and terrorism in the region. Chinese assertive behaviour in the South China Sea, its focus on improving its naval prowess has also assumed another important factor for New Delhi to foster cooperation with Jakarta.

For Indonesia, since President Joko Widodo has focused on transforming Indonesia into a global maritime axis and China continues to violate Indonesias Exclusive Economic Zone in the waters off Nathuna Island, he sees a big role for India to play in this regard. It was precisely in this context that the two leaders recognised the importance of freedom of navigation on the high seas, unimpeded lawful commerce, as well as resolving maritime disputes by peaceful means. This emphasis on peaceful resolution of disputes come in the face of Chinas refusal of an international arbitration tribunal which had earlier this year ruled against China in a case with the Philippines about Chinese fishermen landing in what the tribunal ruled was Filipino waters.

While the two countries signed a defence agreement in 2001, which was upgraded to the level of a strategic partnership in 2005, during President Jokowis visit, the two countries decided to include the Air Force officers for regular talks along with officers of their Army and Navy. This will enable the two countries to develop better understanding of each others military functioning and deepen defence cooperation. They condemned the act of terrorism and emphasised zero tolerance for acts of terror.

The two leaders noted with great concern the growing menace of terrorism and violent extremism. They called upon all countries to implement the UNSC Resolution 1267 and other relevant resolutions designating terrorist entities. In turn, alignment with Indonesia in the counter-terrorism area will help India to put pressure on Pakistan to rein in terrorist organisations operating on its soil.

Economical and trade ties have significantly increased since the two countries signed a free-trade agreement in 2010. In fact, Indonesia is Indias second largest trading partner in ASEAN, with the trade volume being $14 billion in 2015. Many Indian companies including the Tatas, Jindal Steel & Power and others have strong presence in Indonesia. As Indonesia is the largest economy in the ASEAN states, India believes that closer ties would strengthen its stature in this organisation and also in the East Asia Summit, a group of ASEAN-led 17 countries. Consequently, apart from economic benefits, cooperation with Indonesia is seen as an effort towards counterbalancing Chinas raising clout in the region. It is in this context that during the visit, President Widodos consent for early implementation of India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement in Services & Investment, and finalisation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is seen as an important step. At a time when one of the main aims of the Modi government is to attract foreign investments from East and South East countries under Indias Act East policy, the two countries asked the CEOs Forum to identify new avenues for wider and deeper industrial engagement.

Both leaders reiterated support for the ongoing reforms of the UN. With Modis special focus on building connectivity with Southeast Asia, the first direct flight between the two countries was launched from Jakarta to Mumbai on December 12. It would help enhance people-to-people contacts between the two countries. New Delhi and Jakarta can also introduce flights connecting Bali and Yogyakarta with Varanasi and Puri.

The two countries can also form a multilateral forum with countries like the US and Japan having shared interests in promoting a balance of power in their favour. With the visit of President Jokowi having infused a new momentum into the relationship, India and the Indonesia would further take efforts to realise the full potential of the relationship in the future.

The writer is with the UGC Centre for Southern Asia Studies, Pondicherry University. To contact him, mail at sumitjha83@gmail.com

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi was on a two-day state visit to India on December 12-13. This was the first visit by an Indonesian President in the last six years and also the first bilateral talks since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Jokowi assumed office in 2014. While Vice-President Hamid Ansaris visit to Indonesia last year had emphasised Indias commitment to strengthen the relationship, President Jokowis visit focused on imparting vigour and momentum to the strategic partnership and shaping convergences to act as a force of peace, prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Historically, India and Indonesia have shared cultural and religious ties. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are very famous in Indonesia. The countries are the two largest Asian secular, multi-religious democracies. The two countries also have shared colonial experiences. Based on these links, the two countries laid the foundation for an enduring relationship between the two countries, which was soon symbolised by the great success of the Bandung Asian-African conference in 1955. Over the years, New Delhi and Jakarta have not only deepened their relationship, but has become all the more important in the fast changing global and regional security-economic environment. Security cooperation is an important aspect of the bilateral ties between India and Indonesia. For India, since Indonesia controls the entry points to Strait of Malacca, the main sea route between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, cooperation with Indonesia would ensure freedom of navigation and sea communication, as well as effectively tackle the issues of piracy and terrorism in the region. Chinese assertive behaviour in the South China Sea, its focus on improving its naval prowess has also assumed another important factor for New Delhi to foster cooperation with Jakarta. For Indonesia, since President Joko Widodo has focused on transforming Indonesia into a global maritime axis and China continues to violate Indonesias Exclusive Economic Zone in the waters off Nathuna Island, he sees a big role for India to play in this regard. It was precisely in this context that the two leaders recognised the importance of freedom of navigation on the high seas, unimpeded lawful commerce, as well as resolving maritime disputes by peaceful means. This emphasis on peaceful resolution of disputes come in the face of Chinas refusal of an international arbitration tribunal which had earlier this year ruled against China in a case with the Philippines about Chinese fishermen landing in what the tribunal ruled was Filipino waters. While the two countries signed a defence agreement in 2001, which was upgraded to the level of a strategic partnership in 2005, during President Jokowis visit, the two countries decided to include the Air Force officers for regular talks along with officers of their Army and Navy. This will enable the two countries to develop better understanding of each others military functioning and deepen defence cooperation. They condemned the act of terrorism and emphasised zero tolerance for acts of terror. The two leaders noted with great concern the growing menace of terrorism and violent extremism. They called upon all countries to implement the UNSC Resolution 1267 and other relevant resolutions designating terrorist entities. In turn, alignment with Indonesia in the counter-terrorism area will help India to put pressure on Pakistan to rein in terrorist organisations operating on its soil. Economical and trade ties have significantly increased since the two countries signed a free-trade agreement in 2010. In fact, Indonesia is Indias second largest trading partner in ASEAN, with the trade volume being $14 billion in 2015. Many Indian companies including the Tatas, Jindal Steel & Power and others have strong presence in Indonesia. As Indonesia is the largest economy in the ASEAN states, India believes that closer ties would strengthen its stature in this organisation and also in the East Asia Summit, a group of ASEAN-led 17 countries. Consequently, apart from economic benefits, cooperation with Indonesia is seen as an effort towards counterbalancing Chinas raising clout in the region. It is in this context that during the visit, President Widodos consent for early implementation of India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement in Services & Investment, and finalisation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is seen as an important step. At a time when one of the main aims of the Modi government is to attract foreign investments from East and South East countries under Indias Act East policy, the two countries asked the CEOs Forum to identify new avenues for wider and deeper industrial engagement. Both leaders reiterated support for the ongoing reforms of the UN. With Modis special focus on building connectivity with Southeast Asia, the first direct flight between the two countries was launched from Jakarta to Mumbai on December 12. It would help enhance people-to-people contacts between the two countries. New Delhi and Jakarta can also introduce flights connecting Bali and Yogyakarta with Varanasi and Puri. The two countries can also form a multilateral forum with countries like the US and Japan having shared interests in promoting a balance of power in their favour. With the visit of President Jokowi having infused a new momentum into the relationship, India and the Indonesia would further take efforts to realise the full potential of the relationship in the future. The writer is with the UGC Centre for Southern Asia Studies, Pondicherry University. To contact him, mail at sumitjha83@gmail.com
By Express News Service

SHIVAMOGGA: The agitation by Diddalli tribals in Madikeri forced Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to announce immediate rehabilitation measures for the oustees on Tuesday. The CM has instructed Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya to visit the spot and personally supervise the rehabilitation work.

The tribals launched the agitation after over 550 families were evicted by the Forest Department on December 7 for residing in a reserved forest.

According to the department, Diddalli is in Devamachchi reserve forest area which comes under the buffer area of Nagarahole tiger reserve. The area was notified as a reserve forest by the then Coorg Commissioner of the British presidency in 1891.

Siddaramaiah assured immediate rehabilitation measures to a delegation from Kodagu, led by film actor Chetan which met him at his Home Office Krishna on Tuesday. Siddaramaiah instructed Anjaneya, who was also present there, to visit Madikeri on December 24 for spot inspection and initiating the rehabilitation process.

Siddaramaiah also said land had been identified for building houses for the evicted tribal families. Farm lands will also be distributed for these families, he added.

Issue takes a new turn

The Diddally tribal issue is now turning into a different ball game. The districts main pressure groups, District Budakattu Krishikara Sangha (BKS) and Codava National Council have expressed reservations on giving land to the agitators inside reserve forests. They urged the government to rehabilitate only 100 of the aboriginal tribals out of the 577 agitators. However, both the organisations made it clear that those landless labourers who are agitating in Diddalli should be suitably rehabilitated elsewhere.

SHIVAMOGGA: The agitation by Diddalli tribals in Madikeri forced Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to announce immediate rehabilitation measures for the oustees on Tuesday. The CM has instructed Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya to visit the spot and personally supervise the rehabilitation work. The tribals launched the agitation after over 550 families were evicted by the Forest Department on December 7 for residing in a reserved forest. According to the department, Diddalli is in Devamachchi reserve forest area which comes under the buffer area of Nagarahole tiger reserve. The area was notified as a reserve forest by the then Coorg Commissioner of the British presidency in 1891. Siddaramaiah assured immediate rehabilitation measures to a delegation from Kodagu, led by film actor Chetan which met him at his Home Office Krishna on Tuesday. Siddaramaiah instructed Anjaneya, who was also present there, to visit Madikeri on December 24 for spot inspection and initiating the rehabilitation process. Siddaramaiah also said land had been identified for building houses for the evicted tribal families. Farm lands will also be distributed for these families, he added. Issue takes a new turn The Diddally tribal issue is now turning into a different ball game. The districts main pressure groups, District Budakattu Krishikara Sangha (BKS) and Codava National Council have expressed reservations on giving land to the agitators inside reserve forests. They urged the government to rehabilitate only 100 of the aboriginal tribals out of the 577 agitators. However, both the organisations made it clear that those landless labourers who are agitating in Diddalli should be suitably rehabilitated elsewhere.
N V Ravindranathan Nair By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Baloch International Womens Forum leader Naela Quadri Baloch, who is in India as part of the efforts to reach out to the masses to mobilise support for forming a Baloch government in exile is set to address a public meeting in Thalassery on December 28. She will speak at a meeting to be organised under the aegis of Brennen Vibrant, an organisation of the old ABVP activists of Brennen College, Thalassery.

V Manivarnan, an office-bearer of Brennan Vibrant and Hindu Aikyavedi district general secretary, told Express that Quadri would be speaking on the topic, Freedom from oppressors, China and Pakistan. According to Manivarnan, the talk will focus on the Baloch national movement. Quadri will also highlight the organised looting of Baloch people by China in collusion with the Pak army. She has already written a letter to the mothers in China reminding them that the gold ornaments they wear were made by the gold illegally mined from Balochistan, he said.

According to Brennan Vibrant workers, their purpose of bringing Naela to Thalassery to speak about the aspirations of the Baloch people, including their efforts to form a Government of Balochistan in exile was to sensitise Keralites, especially the residents of the Communist fortress, about the tyranny of the Pak army and the plight of the hapless citizens in Pakistan.

Naela Quadri has stated that Pakistan was a failed state and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a pawn in the hands of the Pak army, said Manivarnan.

The Balochistan government in exile is an idea which is taking shape. It can be in India or anywhere else in the world, but the Baloch groups involved in fighting against the occupiers will soon make it a reality, he said quoting Naela Quadri in an interview. Baloch rebel leaders have been citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising the issue of Balochistan from the ramparts of the Red Fort during his Independence Day speech and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj raising the issue in UN General Assembly as clearly showing Indias position on the issue. Naela Quadri Baloch lives in Canada and is a professor by profession. Her husband has been a victim of Pakistani oppression over Baloch people.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Baloch International Womens Forum leader Naela Quadri Baloch, who is in India as part of the efforts to reach out to the masses to mobilise support for forming a Baloch government in exile is set to address a public meeting in Thalassery on December 28. She will speak at a meeting to be organised under the aegis of Brennen Vibrant, an organisation of the old ABVP activists of Brennen College, Thalassery. V Manivarnan, an office-bearer of Brennan Vibrant and Hindu Aikyavedi district general secretary, told Express that Quadri would be speaking on the topic, Freedom from oppressors, China and Pakistan. According to Manivarnan, the talk will focus on the Baloch national movement. Quadri will also highlight the organised looting of Baloch people by China in collusion with the Pak army. She has already written a letter to the mothers in China reminding them that the gold ornaments they wear were made by the gold illegally mined from Balochistan, he said. According to Brennan Vibrant workers, their purpose of bringing Naela to Thalassery to speak about the aspirations of the Baloch people, including their efforts to form a Government of Balochistan in exile was to sensitise Keralites, especially the residents of the Communist fortress, about the tyranny of the Pak army and the plight of the hapless citizens in Pakistan. Naela Quadri has stated that Pakistan was a failed state and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a pawn in the hands of the Pak army, said Manivarnan. The Balochistan government in exile is an idea which is taking shape. It can be in India or anywhere else in the world, but the Baloch groups involved in fighting against the occupiers will soon make it a reality, he said quoting Naela Quadri in an interview. Baloch rebel leaders have been citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising the issue of Balochistan from the ramparts of the Red Fort during his Independence Day speech and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj raising the issue in UN General Assembly as clearly showing Indias position on the issue. Naela Quadri Baloch lives in Canada and is a professor by profession. Her husband has been a victim of Pakistani oppression over Baloch people.
By Express News Service

KOTTAYAM: The protest march took out by BJP - Yuva Morcha activists in Kottayam turned violent on the third consecutive day on Wednesday. As many as 15 persons, including nearly 10 police personnel, a television journalist, and BJP leaders injured in stone-pelting and ensuing lathi charge by the police to disperse the violent agitators.

The injured include, BJP Kottayam district president N Hari, Changanassery DySP, V Ajith, Ettumanoor CI, A J Martin, ASI Latheef, CPO Madhu, and Janam TV reporter Sreejith Chandran. They were admitted to various hospitals.

It all commenced after the BJP - Yuva Morcha activists march organised in protest against the Nattakom ragging incident, reached at district Collectorate at around 11.30 am. With protestors started pelting stones at police, who were camped in front of the Collectorate entrance on K K Road, police resorted to lathi charge and fired tear gas shells to disperse the activists. However, the scattered agitators reached at the second gate and continued to pelt stones to Collectorate premises, which injured many police personnel, including DySP Ajith. Reporter Sreejith collapsed at the Collectorate premises after inhaling tear gas.

Traffic along busy K K Road was disrupted for nearly one hour following the march and ensuing violence.

However, the police team led by Ajith, soon took control of the situation and dispersed the agitators from the scene. The police also arrested many activists in connection with the incident. At the same time, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, who was supposed to inaugurate the march, abstained from the

meeting in view of violence.

Violence ruled the scene in the march took out by BJP activists in Kottayam on Monday in protest against the attack on district president Haris car on Sunday night, and ABVPs march held on Tuesday, in connection Nattakom ragging incident, also turned violent.





KOTTAYAM: The protest march took out by BJP - Yuva Morcha activists in Kottayam turned violent on the third consecutive day on Wednesday. As many as 15 persons, including nearly 10 police personnel, a television journalist, and BJP leaders injured in stone-pelting and ensuing lathi charge by the police to disperse the violent agitators. The injured include, BJP Kottayam district president N Hari, Changanassery DySP, V Ajith, Ettumanoor CI, A J Martin, ASI Latheef, CPO Madhu, and Janam TV reporter Sreejith Chandran. They were admitted to various hospitals. It all commenced after the BJP - Yuva Morcha activists march organised in protest against the Nattakom ragging incident, reached at district Collectorate at around 11.30 am. With protestors started pelting stones at police, who were camped in front of the Collectorate entrance on K K Road, police resorted to lathi charge and fired tear gas shells to disperse the activists. However, the scattered agitators reached at the second gate and continued to pelt stones to Collectorate premises, which injured many police personnel, including DySP Ajith. Reporter Sreejith collapsed at the Collectorate premises after inhaling tear gas. Traffic along busy K K Road was disrupted for nearly one hour following the march and ensuing violence. However, the police team led by Ajith, soon took control of the situation and dispersed the agitators from the scene. The police also arrested many activists in connection with the incident. At the same time, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, who was supposed to inaugurate the march, abstained from the meeting in view of violence. Violence ruled the scene in the march took out by BJP activists in Kottayam on Monday in protest against the attack on district president Haris car on Sunday night, and ABVPs march held on Tuesday, in connection Nattakom ragging incident, also turned violent.
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Film and TV actor Jagannatha Varma died at a private hospital in Neyyattinkara here on Tuesday. He was 77. Varma was admitted to the hospital the other day after he had been diagnosed with pneumonia.

His body was kept at Kalabhavan Theatre here from 2 pm to 5 pm for the public to pay homage. Noted personalities from film and political fields offered tributes. The body was later taken to Cherthala for the cremation which is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Varma, who retired as Superintendent of Police, began his acting career with Mattoli in 1978. In a career spanning 27 years, his roles in 190 films such as New Delhi, CBI Diarykkurippu, Sukhamo Devi, Parinayam, Lelam, Sallapam, Aaram Thampuran and Pathram and many serials were notable.

He had training in kathakali when he was 14 years old and rubbed shoulders with noted proponents of the art form. He also practised chenda under Kandalloor Unnikrishnan and had arangettam three years ago. He is married to Santha Varma. Varmas son Manu Varma also is an actor while his daughter Priya is married to noted director Viji Thampi.

Manu Varma, actor and son of Jagannatha Varma, paying last respects to his father at his residence in TPuram on Tuesday | Manu R Mavelil

Cremation at Kattunkal Kovilakom

Cherthala: The cremation of actor Jagannatha Varma will take place at Kattunkal Kovilakom in Varanad, near here. The relatives and neighbours of Varma have made elaborate arrangements for the funeral. Varmas body will be cremated on the premises of the Kovilakam on Wednesday at 11 am with full state honours. Varmas sister Prabhavathi Varma, 65, and her husband Venugopal, 68, now live in the Kovilakom. Jagannantha Varma was born and brought up here. Venugopal said that the Kovilakam is an ettukettu. One room which is known as nadakassala belonged to Varma. In that room, he had started his drama practise with friends. He also learned Kathakali there. Several leading Kathakali artistes have visited our house along with Varma, said Venugopal. K C Venugopal MP condoled in the death of Varma. He paid tributes at Thiruvananthapuram.

CM mourns death

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan mourned the death of actor Jagannatha Varma. He said that Varma had etched out several different characters on the silver screen which created unforgettable acting moments. He is always in the hearts of Malayalam cinema lovers with his adorable acting skills. His experience in Kathakali had helped his acting career and he had also excelled as a police officer. His demise is a big loss for the artistic scene of the state, said Vijayan.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Film and TV actor Jagannatha Varma died at a private hospital in Neyyattinkara here on Tuesday. He was 77. Varma was admitted to the hospital the other day after he had been diagnosed with pneumonia. His body was kept at Kalabhavan Theatre here from 2 pm to 5 pm for the public to pay homage. Noted personalities from film and political fields offered tributes. The body was later taken to Cherthala for the cremation which is scheduled for Wednesday morning. Varma, who retired as Superintendent of Police, began his acting career with Mattoli in 1978. In a career spanning 27 years, his roles in 190 films such as New Delhi, CBI Diarykkurippu, Sukhamo Devi, Parinayam, Lelam, Sallapam, Aaram Thampuran and Pathram and many serials were notable. He had training in kathakali when he was 14 years old and rubbed shoulders with noted proponents of the art form. He also practised chenda under Kandalloor Unnikrishnan and had arangettam three years ago. He is married to Santha Varma. Varmas son Manu Varma also is an actor while his daughter Priya is married to noted director Viji Thampi. Manu Varma, actor and son of Jagannatha Varma, paying last respects to his father at his residence in TPuram on Tuesday | Manu R Mavelil Cremation at Kattunkal Kovilakom Cherthala: The cremation of actor Jagannatha Varma will take place at Kattunkal Kovilakom in Varanad, near here. The relatives and neighbours of Varma have made elaborate arrangements for the funeral. Varmas body will be cremated on the premises of the Kovilakam on Wednesday at 11 am with full state honours. Varmas sister Prabhavathi Varma, 65, and her husband Venugopal, 68, now live in the Kovilakom. Jagannantha Varma was born and brought up here. Venugopal said that the Kovilakam is an ettukettu. One room which is known as nadakassala belonged to Varma. In that room, he had started his drama practise with friends. He also learned Kathakali there. Several leading Kathakali artistes have visited our house along with Varma, said Venugopal. K C Venugopal MP condoled in the death of Varma. He paid tributes at Thiruvananthapuram. CM mourns death Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan mourned the death of actor Jagannatha Varma. He said that Varma had etched out several different characters on the silver screen which created unforgettable acting moments. He is always in the hearts of Malayalam cinema lovers with his adorable acting skills. His experience in Kathakali had helped his acting career and he had also excelled as a police officer. His demise is a big loss for the artistic scene of the state, said Vijayan.
By Express News Service

KASARAGOD: An employee of Central University of Kerala in Periya lost Rs 60,000 from her bank account, in what appears to be a case of "high tech" online fraud, said the Cybercell of Kasaragod police. The Cybercell has traced the illegal transactions to Kolkata.

According to the complainant Bindu, Rs 60,000 was siphoned off in three tranches from her account with Canara Bank on December 16. All the three transactions of Rs 20,000 each happened within three minutes around 8.50 AM, and going by the bank statement, the money was transferred to a verified e-wallet of Paytm Mobile Solutions, a payment bank. "It is my salary account, that's all the money I had in the account," she said.

An officer of Cybercell Kasaragod said the fraudster had been identified because it was a verified account. Paytm has put a cap of Rs 10,000 per month for unverified accounts. The officer said the money from the e-wallet was transferred to a currency exchange company and converted to dollar. It could be eventually converted to bitcoins, a digital currency, he said.

"It does not appear to be a one man job," he said. "There is a high-tech racket behind it," he added.

He said the complainant did not receive the one-time password, essential to make online payment, in her mobile phone at the time of the transaction. "That can happen if the bank's security has been breached," he said.

However, a bank official said there was insurance to cover such cases, and the client would get the money back. "It has a process and will take time," he said. He also raised a possibility that the client might have revealed the account details, including the pin code, to scammers on phone or through phishing sites.

However, the Cybercell official and the complainant ruled out the possibility.

KASARAGOD: An employee of Central University of Kerala in Periya lost Rs 60,000 from her bank account, in what appears to be a case of "high tech" online fraud, said the Cybercell of Kasaragod police. The Cybercell has traced the illegal transactions to Kolkata. According to the complainant Bindu, Rs 60,000 was siphoned off in three tranches from her account with Canara Bank on December 16. All the three transactions of Rs 20,000 each happened within three minutes around 8.50 AM, and going by the bank statement, the money was transferred to a verified e-wallet of Paytm Mobile Solutions, a payment bank. "It is my salary account, that's all the money I had in the account," she said. An officer of Cybercell Kasaragod said the fraudster had been identified because it was a verified account. Paytm has put a cap of Rs 10,000 per month for unverified accounts. The officer said the money from the e-wallet was transferred to a currency exchange company and converted to dollar. It could be eventually converted to bitcoins, a digital currency, he said. "It does not appear to be a one man job," he said. "There is a high-tech racket behind it," he added. He said the complainant did not receive the one-time password, essential to make online payment, in her mobile phone at the time of the transaction. "That can happen if the bank's security has been breached," he said. However, a bank official said there was insurance to cover such cases, and the client would get the money back. "It has a process and will take time," he said. He also raised a possibility that the client might have revealed the account details, including the pin code, to scammers on phone or through phishing sites. However, the Cybercell official and the complainant ruled out the possibility.
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Government has increased the minimum ticket fare in KSRTC buses from Rs 6 to Rs 7. The new rate is now on a par with the minimum fare of private bus services. The Cabinet decision effectively reversed the decision by the Oommen Chandy government in February this year to reduce minimum charge exclusively for KSRTC resulting in a daily loss of Rs 25 lakh to the ailing state carrier.

Transport Minister A K Saseendran said the decision was taken to unify the minimum charges of private bus service and that of KSRTC. The previous government took populist decisions ahead of the election without considering the financial capacity of KSRTC. They did not take any effort to bring down the rates in private buses, said Saseendran. He was speaking at a meet-the-press at Kesari Memorial building here.

According to him, KSRTC suffered a loss of Rs 16 crore after the previous government made bus ride free for students up to higher secondary. Saseendran said the government was not taking any decision to revoke free ride immediately.

No magic wand to rescue corp: CM

TPuram:Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the government did not have a magic wand to rescue KSRTC from crisis, but it had not considered it best to leave KSRTC to its natural death. He was speaking after inaugurating the concluding session of the Save KSRTC campaign by KSRT Employees Association (CITU) at Thampanoor bus stand on Tuesday. The Chief Minister said the government is obliged to take immediate steps to revive the ailing KSRTC.

We need more energetic steps to tide over the crisis. A comprehensive plan to match revenue and expenses is needed. he said.

According to Pinarayi, a comparison with private bus operators was not necessary as the hallmark of KSRTC was its social commitment. We cannot review everything on the basis of profit and loss. No democratic government can stop night services based on revenue, he said.

From the daily collection of Rs 5.25 crore, Rs 2 crore is spent on salary. Rs 30 lakh is needed daily for interest payment.

The Chief Minister said it was not feasible to take loan every month for expenses. He sought the support of employees for the steps taken by the government to revive the KSRTC. The KSRTEA handed over the key of a new bus bought with the money collected from employees to Chief Minister.

LDF convener Vaikom Vishwan presided over the function. General secretary of KSRTEA C K Harikrishnan, V Sivankutty, Jayanbabu and K K Divakaran spoke at the function.

Fare hike no solution

TPuram: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has criticised the government decision to increase the minimum KSRTC bus fare from the prevailing Rs 6 to Rs 7, pointing out that it is wrong to burden the people without rectifying the maladministration in the PSU. The cut in minimum fare was effected last year,when the UDF Government was in power. Already,the KSRTC is experiencing a post-demonetisation dip in collection. The minimum fare hike may only increase the revenue gap. Past experience had shown that the fare hike will only distance people from patronising KSRTC buses and will eventually increase the losses. It will only aggravate the financial position of the ailing corporation, Ramesh said. If hike in diesel price is cited as a reason for the minimum fare hike,then what has to be done is to forgo the state taxes imposed on the increased price on fuel, he said.

Trade Unions withraw stir

TPuram:The trade unions in the KSRTC withdrew strike after the Transport Minister A K Saseendran agreed to address the salary and pension issue. In a meeting held between the minister and trade unions, the government agreed to give the rest of the salary within two days. Once again the government has turned to Kerala Transport Development Finance Corporation, a non-banking financial corporation, to find money for paying the salary. Employees received only 75 per cent of their November salary so far, as the KSRTC struggled to find a lender. KSRTC will take loans to pay salary and pension for the next month. He however hinted that strong action will be taken in the next three months to discontinue the practice of taking loans for paying salary.

When the KSRTC started giving pensions, the liability was just Rs 2 crore. It has now become Rs 61 crore. With no significant improvement in earnings we cannot go on for ever, said Saseendran. According to him, employees who go on unauthorised leaves and those who failed to report for duty before December 1 would be laid off. There are 2,400 such employees, out of which only 800 has responded to the notice served to them. We will take action after considering their merit, said the minister. He however allayed the concerns of trade unions that the KSRTC was planning a massive lay off. He said the government had a responsibility for saving KSRTC. The policies of previous government resulted in piling up of debt. Debt will not help it in the long run, he said.

Private bus operators to go on stir

The Government refused to accept the demand of private bus operators to hike the minimum fare in private buses to Rs 9 due to hike in diesel and tax rates. The Transport Minister said no decision has been taken in this regard. The Bus Operators Organisation said they would go on a strike by January second week.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Government has increased the minimum ticket fare in KSRTC buses from Rs 6 to Rs 7. The new rate is now on a par with the minimum fare of private bus services. The Cabinet decision effectively reversed the decision by the Oommen Chandy government in February this year to reduce minimum charge exclusively for KSRTC resulting in a daily loss of Rs 25 lakh to the ailing state carrier. Transport Minister A K Saseendran said the decision was taken to unify the minimum charges of private bus service and that of KSRTC. The previous government took populist decisions ahead of the election without considering the financial capacity of KSRTC. They did not take any effort to bring down the rates in private buses, said Saseendran. He was speaking at a meet-the-press at Kesari Memorial building here. According to him, KSRTC suffered a loss of Rs 16 crore after the previous government made bus ride free for students up to higher secondary. Saseendran said the government was not taking any decision to revoke free ride immediately. No magic wand to rescue corp: CM TPuram:Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the government did not have a magic wand to rescue KSRTC from crisis, but it had not considered it best to leave KSRTC to its natural death. He was speaking after inaugurating the concluding session of the Save KSRTC campaign by KSRT Employees Association (CITU) at Thampanoor bus stand on Tuesday. The Chief Minister said the government is obliged to take immediate steps to revive the ailing KSRTC. We need more energetic steps to tide over the crisis. A comprehensive plan to match revenue and expenses is needed. he said. According to Pinarayi, a comparison with private bus operators was not necessary as the hallmark of KSRTC was its social commitment. We cannot review everything on the basis of profit and loss. No democratic government can stop night services based on revenue, he said. From the daily collection of Rs 5.25 crore, Rs 2 crore is spent on salary. Rs 30 lakh is needed daily for interest payment. The Chief Minister said it was not feasible to take loan every month for expenses. He sought the support of employees for the steps taken by the government to revive the KSRTC. The KSRTEA handed over the key of a new bus bought with the money collected from employees to Chief Minister. LDF convener Vaikom Vishwan presided over the function. General secretary of KSRTEA C K Harikrishnan, V Sivankutty, Jayanbabu and K K Divakaran spoke at the function. Fare hike no solution TPuram: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has criticised the government decision to increase the minimum KSRTC bus fare from the prevailing Rs 6 to Rs 7, pointing out that it is wrong to burden the people without rectifying the maladministration in the PSU. The cut in minimum fare was effected last year,when the UDF Government was in power. Already,the KSRTC is experiencing a post-demonetisation dip in collection. The minimum fare hike may only increase the revenue gap. Past experience had shown that the fare hike will only distance people from patronising KSRTC buses and will eventually increase the losses. It will only aggravate the financial position of the ailing corporation, Ramesh said. If hike in diesel price is cited as a reason for the minimum fare hike,then what has to be done is to forgo the state taxes imposed on the increased price on fuel, he said. Trade Unions withraw stir TPuram:The trade unions in the KSRTC withdrew strike after the Transport Minister A K Saseendran agreed to address the salary and pension issue. In a meeting held between the minister and trade unions, the government agreed to give the rest of the salary within two days. Once again the government has turned to Kerala Transport Development Finance Corporation, a non-banking financial corporation, to find money for paying the salary. Employees received only 75 per cent of their November salary so far, as the KSRTC struggled to find a lender. KSRTC will take loans to pay salary and pension for the next month. He however hinted that strong action will be taken in the next three months to discontinue the practice of taking loans for paying salary. When the KSRTC started giving pensions, the liability was just Rs 2 crore. It has now become Rs 61 crore. With no significant improvement in earnings we cannot go on for ever, said Saseendran. According to him, employees who go on unauthorised leaves and those who failed to report for duty before December 1 would be laid off. There are 2,400 such employees, out of which only 800 has responded to the notice served to them. We will take action after considering their merit, said the minister. He however allayed the concerns of trade unions that the KSRTC was planning a massive lay off. He said the government had a responsibility for saving KSRTC. The policies of previous government resulted in piling up of debt. Debt will not help it in the long run, he said. Private bus operators to go on stir The Government refused to accept the demand of private bus operators to hike the minimum fare in private buses to Rs 9 due to hike in diesel and tax rates. The Transport Minister said no decision has been taken in this regard. The Bus Operators Organisation said they would go on a strike by January second week.
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: Clash broke out between BJP and BJD workers during the dawn to dusk Bhubaneswar Bandh which threw normal life out of gear in the city on Wednesday. At least three BJP activists were injured in the incident.



The 12-hour shutdown by Odisha BJP, demanding arrest of mayor AN Jena who is embroiled in a sex scandal, saw torching of vehicles and damage to public property in the city.



Pitched battle between activists of the two political parties was reported at the Ram Mandir Square near BJP State Headquarters forcing police to resort to lathicharge. BJP supporters, who were picketing, were taken by surprise when the youth wing of BJD reached the spot in a motorcycle rally from Vani Vihar Square and confronted the agitators.



A clash ensued in which BJP workers were allegedly assaulted by the lathi-wielding BJD workers. The three of the BJP activists were later hospitalised. Soon after incident, BJP workers also turned their ire on locals. They damaged shops and two-wheelers. Police rushed the spot and lathicharged them to disperse the agitators.

Alleging that the attack on BJP workers was done at the behest chief minister Naveen Patnaik, BJP general secretary Bhrugu Baxipatra said, the incident showed the goondaraj unleashed by the ruling Party.



The BJP accused the BJD of taking out the rally without prior police permission. "The ruling party prevented us from holding a peaceful agitation for which the Commissionerate of Police had granted permission. It was unprecedented, he said. BJP leaders also alleged that the ruling party activists resorted to blank firing. However the police denied the claims.



Similar incidents were reported from different parts of the city. The situation remains tense with a huge posse of police deployed at major locations of the State Capital.



BJP leaders, including former Minister Sameer Dey were and state vice-president Sameer Mohanty were arrested from the main gate of the State Secretariat while preventing government employees from entering the premises.



However, the chief minister Naveen Patnaik reached the Secretariat on time under heavy police security.

BHUBANESWAR: Clash broke out between BJP and BJD workers during the dawn to dusk Bhubaneswar Bandh which threw normal life out of gear in the city on Wednesday. At least three BJP activists were injured in the incident. The 12-hour shutdown by Odisha BJP, demanding arrest of mayor AN Jena who is embroiled in a sex scandal, saw torching of vehicles and damage to public property in the city. Pitched battle between activists of the two political parties was reported at the Ram Mandir Square near BJP State Headquarters forcing police to resort to lathicharge. BJP supporters, who were picketing, were taken by surprise when the youth wing of BJD reached the spot in a motorcycle rally from Vani Vihar Square and confronted the agitators. A clash ensued in which BJP workers were allegedly assaulted by the lathi-wielding BJD workers. The three of the BJP activists were later hospitalised. Soon after incident, BJP workers also turned their ire on locals. They damaged shops and two-wheelers. Police rushed the spot and lathicharged them to disperse the agitators. Alleging that the attack on BJP workers was done at the behest chief minister Naveen Patnaik, BJP general secretary Bhrugu Baxipatra said, the incident showed the goondaraj unleashed by the ruling Party. The BJP accused the BJD of taking out the rally without prior police permission. "The ruling party prevented us from holding a peaceful agitation for which the Commissionerate of Police had granted permission. It was unprecedented, he said. BJP leaders also alleged that the ruling party activists resorted to blank firing. However the police denied the claims. Similar incidents were reported from different parts of the city. The situation remains tense with a huge posse of police deployed at major locations of the State Capital. BJP leaders, including former Minister Sameer Dey were and state vice-president Sameer Mohanty were arrested from the main gate of the State Secretariat while preventing government employees from entering the premises. However, the chief minister Naveen Patnaik reached the Secretariat on time under heavy police security.
B Anbuselvan By

Express News Service

TIRUVANNAMALAI : The 20,000 odd residents of 15 villages near Akkur in Cheyyar taluk have to travel 10-12 km to Vembakkam, to withdraw cash from a bank or ATM. If no cash is available there, they said, they would have to go a further 18-20 km, to Cheyyar, Vandavasi or Kancheepuram.



In a petition submitted to Cheyyar sub-collector Prabhu Sankar on Tuesday, the villagers said, they had to spend nearly seven to eight hours a day to withdraw Rs 2,000, and that too, at the cost of their daily earnings.



One of the petitioners, S Govindarajan, said on December 15, when he travelled 12 km to Vembakkam, the ATM there was out of cash. Then, six of us had to go to Cheyyar, nearly 19 km away, on bikes. We had to search for an ATM for nearly an hour, he said. The ordeal was no different for residents of 15 villages located near Akkur. Those who dont have vehicles have to take a share auto and a bus to go to Cheyyar or Kancheepuram, said Samuthiram, a daily wager.



Until demonetisation, we had been withdrawing money once a month and there was no queue at ATMs. Now, we desperately need a bank branch in our village, or at least an ATM. If our demands are not met, we will return our bank passbooks and ration cards, the petition read.

TIRUVANNAMALAI : The 20,000 odd residents of 15 villages near Akkur in Cheyyar taluk have to travel 10-12 km to Vembakkam, to withdraw cash from a bank or ATM. If no cash is available there, they said, they would have to go a further 18-20 km, to Cheyyar, Vandavasi or Kancheepuram. In a petition submitted to Cheyyar sub-collector Prabhu Sankar on Tuesday, the villagers said, they had to spend nearly seven to eight hours a day to withdraw Rs 2,000, and that too, at the cost of their daily earnings. One of the petitioners, S Govindarajan, said on December 15, when he travelled 12 km to Vembakkam, the ATM there was out of cash. Then, six of us had to go to Cheyyar, nearly 19 km away, on bikes. We had to search for an ATM for nearly an hour, he said. The ordeal was no different for residents of 15 villages located near Akkur. Those who dont have vehicles have to take a share auto and a bus to go to Cheyyar or Kancheepuram, said Samuthiram, a daily wager. Until demonetisation, we had been withdrawing money once a month and there was no queue at ATMs. Now, we desperately need a bank branch in our village, or at least an ATM. If our demands are not met, we will return our bank passbooks and ration cards, the petition read.
Express News Service

COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan navy on Wednesday arrested 12 Tamil Nadu fishermen belonging to Pamban, while they were fishing in Sri Lankan waters off Talaimannar, Sri Lankan naval spokesman, Capt.Akram Alavi said.

The fishermen had come in a trawler and a country boat, Alavi said.

The boats have been impounded and the fishermen handed over to the Fisheries Department for legal action, he added.

Meanwhile, the seven fishermen seized off Delft Island on Tuesday were produced in court at Kankesanthurai and remanded till January 3, an official said.

According to Capt.Alavi, the number of fishermen from Tamil Nadu poaching in Sri Lankan waters had dwindled but is increasing now, despite the threat of arrest and impounding of boats.

152 boats and 19 Tamil Nadu fishermen are currently in custody in Sri Lanka.

COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan navy on Wednesday arrested 12 Tamil Nadu fishermen belonging to Pamban, while they were fishing in Sri Lankan waters off Talaimannar, Sri Lankan naval spokesman, Capt.Akram Alavi said. The fishermen had come in a trawler and a country boat, Alavi said. The boats have been impounded and the fishermen handed over to the Fisheries Department for legal action, he added. Meanwhile, the seven fishermen seized off Delft Island on Tuesday were produced in court at Kankesanthurai and remanded till January 3, an official said. According to Capt.Alavi, the number of fishermen from Tamil Nadu poaching in Sri Lankan waters had dwindled but is increasing now, despite the threat of arrest and impounding of boats. 152 boats and 19 Tamil Nadu fishermen are currently in custody in Sri Lanka.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: On May 16, the day late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa assumed office after returning to power in 2011, P Rama Mohana Rao was appointed as her secretary -I in the Chief Minister's Office. Five years later, after she won the re-election, Rao was made the chief secretary in a shock reshuffle of the brass.

As the head of Tamil Nadu's bureaucracy and also in terms of power and influence, Rao is among the most important persons in the administration who was found standing at Jaya's feet after her demise.

No wonder then that the IT officials' visit early on Wednesday morning has caused more than a flutter in the State. It has to be noted here that Rao has only seven months left for retirement.

Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, Rao belongs to the 1985 batch, and joined the service as additional collector in 1987. He was appointed as chief secretary on June 8, just a fortnight after Jaya's AIADMK government assumed office, removing the incumbent, K Gnanadesikan, abruptly. Gnanadesikan, who wielded considerable influence till then was even suspended from service.

Rao has never been on a Central deputation to serve in union ministries or departments in Delhi. But he worked as vice chairman of Gujarat Maritime Board between 2001 and 2003.

Rama Mohana Rao has worked in departments including health, water resources, transport, social welfare, housing and urban development among others. He also headed the Teachers Recruitment Board in 2007, was the CMD of Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited, and Commissioner, Land Reforms.

He has also been functioning as the Vigilance Commissioner and Commissioner for Administrative Reforms, another key portfolio in the state government.

On deputation, he had also served as Vice Chairman of Gujarat Maritime Board between August 2001 and October, 2003.



CHENNAI: On May 16, the day late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa assumed office after returning to power in 2011, P Rama Mohana Rao was appointed as her secretary -I in the Chief Minister's Office. Five years later, after she won the re-election, Rao was made the chief secretary in a shock reshuffle of the brass. As the head of Tamil Nadu's bureaucracy and also in terms of power and influence, Rao is among the most important persons in the administration who was found standing at Jaya's feet after her demise. No wonder then that the IT officials' visit early on Wednesday morning has caused more than a flutter in the State. It has to be noted here that Rao has only seven months left for retirement. Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, Rao belongs to the 1985 batch, and joined the service as additional collector in 1987. He was appointed as chief secretary on June 8, just a fortnight after Jaya's AIADMK government assumed office, removing the incumbent, K Gnanadesikan, abruptly. Gnanadesikan, who wielded considerable influence till then was even suspended from service. Rao has never been on a Central deputation to serve in union ministries or departments in Delhi. But he worked as vice chairman of Gujarat Maritime Board between 2001 and 2003. Rama Mohana Rao has worked in departments including health, water resources, transport, social welfare, housing and urban development among others. He also headed the Teachers Recruitment Board in 2007, was the CMD of Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited, and Commissioner, Land Reforms. He has also been functioning as the Vigilance Commissioner and Commissioner for Administrative Reforms, another key portfolio in the state government. On deputation, he had also served as Vice Chairman of Gujarat Maritime Board between August 2001 and October, 2003.
By Express News Service

WARANGAL: Warangal police has secured a place in the Guinness book of world records for imparting self defence training to 21,276 young girls at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium here on Wednesday.

Young girls from the city including students from Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, took part in the self defence training session. Girls from schools, junior colleges, degree, PG colleges and nursing students from private nursing homes and hospitals started poured in to the stadium early in the morning. A large number of students expressed their desire to join martial art academies to learn self defence.

A majority of the young girls, who attended the session, felt that learning martial arts would help them. DGP Anurag Sharma while appreciating Warangal police commissioner G Sudheer Babus effort to popularise self defence among young girls and women. We want to make them more self-reliant. The training would give lot of confidence to them. Martial art training is a must for girls. It would work as a deterrent to molesters, the DGP added.

WARANGAL: Warangal police has secured a place in the Guinness book of world records for imparting self defence training to 21,276 young girls at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium here on Wednesday. Young girls from the city including students from Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, took part in the self defence training session. Girls from schools, junior colleges, degree, PG colleges and nursing students from private nursing homes and hospitals started poured in to the stadium early in the morning. A large number of students expressed their desire to join martial art academies to learn self defence. A majority of the young girls, who attended the session, felt that learning martial arts would help them. DGP Anurag Sharma while appreciating Warangal police commissioner G Sudheer Babus effort to popularise self defence among young girls and women. We want to make them more self-reliant. The training would give lot of confidence to them. Martial art training is a must for girls. It would work as a deterrent to molesters, the DGP added.
By AFP

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Wednesday that nearly all the communication channels between Moscow and Washington were frozen, local media reported.

"Practically all levels of dialogue with the United States are frozen," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Mir TV, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

"We don't communicate with one another. Or we do so minimally."

Russia finds itself locked in its worst standoff with the West since the Cold War over its 2014 annexation of Crimea, the conflict in Ukraine and lingering disagreements about the conflict in Syria.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby assured later on Wednesday that "diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues".

"That we have significant differences with Moscow on some of these issues is well known, but there hasn't been a break in dialogue," Kirby said, adding that Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had spoken on the phone about the situation in Syria on Tuesday.

The Obama administration on Tuesday reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining sanctions on Moscow over Crimea with new financial restrictions on Russian businessmen and companies.

The White House this month also pointed to direct involvement by Russian President Vladimir Putin in cyber attacks designed to impact the US election.

The upcoming presidency of Donald Trump now casts doubt over the future of US policy towards Russia given his apparently softer line on Putin.

The Kremlin strongman has reiterated Moscow's readiness to work with the Trump administration once the president-elect takes office in January, stressing the importance of normalising the countries' relations.

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Wednesday that nearly all the communication channels between Moscow and Washington were frozen, local media reported. "Practically all levels of dialogue with the United States are frozen," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Mir TV, state news agency RIA Novosti reported. "We don't communicate with one another. Or we do so minimally." Russia finds itself locked in its worst standoff with the West since the Cold War over its 2014 annexation of Crimea, the conflict in Ukraine and lingering disagreements about the conflict in Syria. US State Department spokesman John Kirby assured later on Wednesday that "diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues". "That we have significant differences with Moscow on some of these issues is well known, but there hasn't been a break in dialogue," Kirby said, adding that Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had spoken on the phone about the situation in Syria on Tuesday. The Obama administration on Tuesday reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining sanctions on Moscow over Crimea with new financial restrictions on Russian businessmen and companies. The White House this month also pointed to direct involvement by Russian President Vladimir Putin in cyber attacks designed to impact the US election. The upcoming presidency of Donald Trump now casts doubt over the future of US policy towards Russia given his apparently softer line on Putin. The Kremlin strongman has reiterated Moscow's readiness to work with the Trump administration once the president-elect takes office in January, stressing the importance of normalising the countries' relations.
By AFP

BERLIN: German police launched a manhunt on Wednesday for a rejected asylum seeker suspected of involvement in a deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Officials said asylum office papers believed to belong to the Tunisian man with alleged links to the radical Islamist scene were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry used in the attack that killed 12 people.

"There is a new suspect we are searching for -- he is a suspect but not necessarily the assailant," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters, saying a Europe-wide search was underway. He declined to give further details.

But his regional counterpart in North Rhine-Westphalia state, Ralf Jaeger, said the man identified as Anis A. or Ahmed A. by media, had already been under investigation for planning an attack.

Counter-terrorism officials had exchanged information about him, most recently in November, and a probe had been launched suspecting he was preparing "a serious act of violence against the state," Jaeger said.

The suspect came to Germany in July 2015 but his application for asylum was rejected this June.

His deportation, however, got caught up in red tape with Tunisia, which long denied he was a citizen. The required documents only arrived on Wednesday, two days after the Berlin attack, said Jaeger.

One conservative lawmaker, Stephan Meyer, said the suspect was being watched by police.

"We are apparently talking about a potentially dangerous suspect who was known to authorities and belonged to the Salafist-Islamist scene," he told reporters after a meeting of parliament's interior affairs committee.

A previous suspect -- a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker -- was released late Tuesday for lack of evidence, prompting fears of a killer on the loose and further rattling nerves in a shocked country.

- Deportation debate -

Twelve people were killed when the Polish-registered articulated truck, laden with steel beams, slammed into the crowded holiday market late Monday, smashing wooden stalls and crushing victims.

The scenes revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist.

Twenty-four people remained in hospital, 14 of whom were seriously injured, De Maiziere said.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency said "a soldier of the Islamic State" carried out the Berlin carnage "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries".

There was no evidence to back the claim, nor was the perpetrator identified.

Germany is part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

Tunisia is one of the biggest suppliers of jihadist fighters, with some 5,500 of its nationals believed to be involved in combat in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

The attack comes at a delicate time for Chancellor Angela Merkel who is running for a fourth term in 2017 but has faced strong criticism over her decision last year to open the country's borders to refugees.

The case inflamed the debate about asylum policy in general, and in particular the speed at which rejected asylum seekers can be deported.

Germany this year moved to declare Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as safe countries of origin, to raise the bar for asylum requests after last year's record influx of around 890,000 people.

But the bill has been stuck in the upper house for months over human rights concerns in those countries.

- Germany in mourning -

A Polish man, killed with a gunshot, was found in the truck's passenger seat. The 37-year-old Pole named Lukasz worked for his cousin Ariel Zurawski's transport company in northern Poland.

Zurawski described him as a "good guy" and said his body showed signs of a struggle with the assailant or assailants including stab marks.

"One person would not have been able to overpower him," Zurawski said of the relative he had grown up with, a heavyset man who weighed in at 120 kilos (265 pounds) and stood 183 centimetres (six feet) tall.

"We could see injuries. His face was bloodied and swollen," he told private news channel TVN 24, referring to a photo he received from Polish police.

An autopsy indicated that the driver was still alive at the time of the attack, the daily Bild reported.

Merkel visited the scene of the carnage for a minute's silence on Tuesday and then joined a service in the adjacent Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

Mourners placed flowers and candles at the site while German flags flew at half-mast and Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate was lit in the national colours in honour of the victims.

Europe has been on high alert for most of 2016, with bloody jihadist attacks striking Paris since last year and Brussels.

In Germany, 15 people were injured in two attacks in July in the southern state of Bavaria committed by asylum seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group.

The arrival of 890,000 refugees last year has polarised Germany, with critics calling the influx a serious security threat.

Opponents were quick to seize on the carnage as proof that Merkel's liberal asylum policy had endangered the country.

Marcus Pretzell of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party labelled the Christmas market victims "Merkel's dead".

BERLIN: German police launched a manhunt on Wednesday for a rejected asylum seeker suspected of involvement in a deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group. Officials said asylum office papers believed to belong to the Tunisian man with alleged links to the radical Islamist scene were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry used in the attack that killed 12 people. "There is a new suspect we are searching for -- he is a suspect but not necessarily the assailant," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters, saying a Europe-wide search was underway. He declined to give further details. But his regional counterpart in North Rhine-Westphalia state, Ralf Jaeger, said the man identified as Anis A. or Ahmed A. by media, had already been under investigation for planning an attack. Counter-terrorism officials had exchanged information about him, most recently in November, and a probe had been launched suspecting he was preparing "a serious act of violence against the state," Jaeger said. The suspect came to Germany in July 2015 but his application for asylum was rejected this June. His deportation, however, got caught up in red tape with Tunisia, which long denied he was a citizen. The required documents only arrived on Wednesday, two days after the Berlin attack, said Jaeger. One conservative lawmaker, Stephan Meyer, said the suspect was being watched by police. "We are apparently talking about a potentially dangerous suspect who was known to authorities and belonged to the Salafist-Islamist scene," he told reporters after a meeting of parliament's interior affairs committee. A previous suspect -- a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker -- was released late Tuesday for lack of evidence, prompting fears of a killer on the loose and further rattling nerves in a shocked country. - Deportation debate - Twelve people were killed when the Polish-registered articulated truck, laden with steel beams, slammed into the crowded holiday market late Monday, smashing wooden stalls and crushing victims. The scenes revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist. Twenty-four people remained in hospital, 14 of whom were seriously injured, De Maiziere said. The IS-linked Amaq news agency said "a soldier of the Islamic State" carried out the Berlin carnage "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries". There was no evidence to back the claim, nor was the perpetrator identified. Germany is part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria. Tunisia is one of the biggest suppliers of jihadist fighters, with some 5,500 of its nationals believed to be involved in combat in Syria, Iraq and Libya. The attack comes at a delicate time for Chancellor Angela Merkel who is running for a fourth term in 2017 but has faced strong criticism over her decision last year to open the country's borders to refugees. The case inflamed the debate about asylum policy in general, and in particular the speed at which rejected asylum seekers can be deported. Germany this year moved to declare Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as safe countries of origin, to raise the bar for asylum requests after last year's record influx of around 890,000 people. But the bill has been stuck in the upper house for months over human rights concerns in those countries. - Germany in mourning - A Polish man, killed with a gunshot, was found in the truck's passenger seat. The 37-year-old Pole named Lukasz worked for his cousin Ariel Zurawski's transport company in northern Poland. Zurawski described him as a "good guy" and said his body showed signs of a struggle with the assailant or assailants including stab marks. "One person would not have been able to overpower him," Zurawski said of the relative he had grown up with, a heavyset man who weighed in at 120 kilos (265 pounds) and stood 183 centimetres (six feet) tall. "We could see injuries. His face was bloodied and swollen," he told private news channel TVN 24, referring to a photo he received from Polish police. An autopsy indicated that the driver was still alive at the time of the attack, the daily Bild reported. Merkel visited the scene of the carnage for a minute's silence on Tuesday and then joined a service in the adjacent Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Mourners placed flowers and candles at the site while German flags flew at half-mast and Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate was lit in the national colours in honour of the victims. Europe has been on high alert for most of 2016, with bloody jihadist attacks striking Paris since last year and Brussels. In Germany, 15 people were injured in two attacks in July in the southern state of Bavaria committed by asylum seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group. The arrival of 890,000 refugees last year has polarised Germany, with critics calling the influx a serious security threat. Opponents were quick to seize on the carnage as proof that Merkel's liberal asylum policy had endangered the country. Marcus Pretzell of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party labelled the Christmas market victims "Merkel's dead".
By AFP

ISRAEL: Israeli ex-president Moshe Katsav was freed from prison on Wednesday after prosecutors declined to appeal a parole board decision to release him after he served five years of a seven-year term for rape.

Katsav, 71, did not speak to a crowd of journalists gathered outside the Maasiyahu prison near Tel Aviv as he left while surrounded by family.

He was convicted in December 2010 of two counts of rape, sexual harassment, indecent acts and obstruction of justice.

The Iran-born bureaucrat, who rose from impoverished origins as a child immigrant, resigned from the largely ceremonial role of president in June 2007 and became an outcast of the political establishment.

When he entered prison in December 2011, he became the first former president to be jailed in Israel since its creation in 1948.

Katsav had been rejected twice by the parole board since he became eligible for the customary one-third reduction for good behaviour.

He had maintained his innocence, and his previous applications were turned down in part because he had expressed no remorse over his crimes and undergone no rehabilitative process.

Women's rights groups had especially criticised his refusal to acknowledge the facts that led to his conviction and to express regrets.

Israeli media reported, however, that the parole board in its latest decision, announced on Sunday, found that Katsav had more recently "undergone a change".

"The prisoner was asked many questions by the committee members regarding the circumstances of the offence, the victims' positions, his attitude to the victims and his understanding of his acts and their consequences, and the committee members were impressed by the honesty of his intentions," Haaretz newspaper reported the board as saying.

Israel's justice ministry announced Wednesday that prosecutors would not appeal the parole board's decision. They had been given a one-week deadline to do so.

- Release criticised -

Katsav will face restrictions on his movements including a ban on overseas travel and a requirement to be at home between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am.

Judiciary sources said he would also not be allowed to grant an interview for two years, the time he would have had to serve the remainder of his sentence.

The decision to free him has been criticised by a group of opposition lawmakers including the leader of the Meretz party, Zehava Galon.

"This is a dangerous message that you can attack women and get away with it with the least punishment provided you are well-connected," they said in a statement.

A member of the right-wing Likud party, Katsav in 2000 became Israel's first conservative president and the first born in an Islamic country.

For months he defied enormous public pressure to quit over the allegations before ultimately resigning as part of a plea bargain in 2007.

He was replaced as head of state by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and elder statesman Shimon Peres, his rival for the post in a 2000 vote. Peres died in September.

One of eight children, Katsav was born in December 1945 and arrived in Israel three years after the 1948 war of independence.

He was the first Israeli head of state to visit Austria, once annexed by Adolf Hitler as part of Nazi Germany, and Croatia, where an estimated 75 percent of its 40,000 Jews were killed during the World War II Holocaust.

One of Katsav's fellow inmates at Maasiyahu was former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who entered prison in February and is serving 27 months for corruption.

Olmert is the first former Israeli premier to serve jail time.

ISRAEL: Israeli ex-president Moshe Katsav was freed from prison on Wednesday after prosecutors declined to appeal a parole board decision to release him after he served five years of a seven-year term for rape. Katsav, 71, did not speak to a crowd of journalists gathered outside the Maasiyahu prison near Tel Aviv as he left while surrounded by family. He was convicted in December 2010 of two counts of rape, sexual harassment, indecent acts and obstruction of justice. The Iran-born bureaucrat, who rose from impoverished origins as a child immigrant, resigned from the largely ceremonial role of president in June 2007 and became an outcast of the political establishment. When he entered prison in December 2011, he became the first former president to be jailed in Israel since its creation in 1948. Katsav had been rejected twice by the parole board since he became eligible for the customary one-third reduction for good behaviour. He had maintained his innocence, and his previous applications were turned down in part because he had expressed no remorse over his crimes and undergone no rehabilitative process. Women's rights groups had especially criticised his refusal to acknowledge the facts that led to his conviction and to express regrets. Israeli media reported, however, that the parole board in its latest decision, announced on Sunday, found that Katsav had more recently "undergone a change". "The prisoner was asked many questions by the committee members regarding the circumstances of the offence, the victims' positions, his attitude to the victims and his understanding of his acts and their consequences, and the committee members were impressed by the honesty of his intentions," Haaretz newspaper reported the board as saying. Israel's justice ministry announced Wednesday that prosecutors would not appeal the parole board's decision. They had been given a one-week deadline to do so. - Release criticised - Katsav will face restrictions on his movements including a ban on overseas travel and a requirement to be at home between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am. Judiciary sources said he would also not be allowed to grant an interview for two years, the time he would have had to serve the remainder of his sentence. The decision to free him has been criticised by a group of opposition lawmakers including the leader of the Meretz party, Zehava Galon. "This is a dangerous message that you can attack women and get away with it with the least punishment provided you are well-connected," they said in a statement. A member of the right-wing Likud party, Katsav in 2000 became Israel's first conservative president and the first born in an Islamic country. For months he defied enormous public pressure to quit over the allegations before ultimately resigning as part of a plea bargain in 2007. He was replaced as head of state by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and elder statesman Shimon Peres, his rival for the post in a 2000 vote. Peres died in September. One of eight children, Katsav was born in December 1945 and arrived in Israel three years after the 1948 war of independence. He was the first Israeli head of state to visit Austria, once annexed by Adolf Hitler as part of Nazi Germany, and Croatia, where an estimated 75 percent of its 40,000 Jews were killed during the World War II Holocaust. One of Katsav's fellow inmates at Maasiyahu was former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who entered prison in February and is serving 27 months for corruption. Olmert is the first former Israeli premier to serve jail time.
By AFP

Following is a list of attacks on Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group after 12 people were killed on Monday in a truck rampage in Berlin:

December 19: Truck attack in Berlin

A Polish-registered truck laden with steel beams ploughs into a busy night-time Christmas market in central Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring at least 48.

The following day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel describes the assault as a "terrorist attack." German police arrest a Pakistani asylum seeker but release him for lack of evidence.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency later says "a soldier of the Islamic State" carried out the attack "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries."

August 6: Machete attack in Belgium

A machete-wielding man shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) attacks two policewomen in Charleroi, southern Belgium, badly injuring one in the face before being shot dead by a third officer.

Investigators give the initials of the assailant as K.B., describing him as a 33-year-old Algerian who had been living in Belgium since 2012.

The following day, IS says the attacker acted "in response to (its) calls to target citizens" of countries in the US-led coalition bombing IS in Syria and Iraq.

July 26: French priest killed

Attackers slit an elderly priest's throat in a hostage-taking at his church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

Abdel Malik Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, both 19, pledged allegiance to IS in a video made before the attack.

July 24: German suicide blast

A failed Syrian asylum-seeker blows himself up outside a music festival in the German city of Ansbach, wounding 15 others. The Bavarian interior minister says the man "pledged allegiance" to IS, while the jihadist-linked Amaq news agency said he was a "soldier" of the group.

July 18: German train attack

A 17-year-old asylum-seeker, believed to have been Afghan or Pakistani, attacks passengers on a Bavarian train with an axe, injuring five people, two of them critically. He is shot dead by police.

IS releases a video the following day purportedly featuring the attacker announcing he would carry out an "operation" in Germany.

July 14: Nice lorry attack

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rams a 19-tonne truck into people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 86 people and wounding more than 400.

IS said Bouhlel staged the attack "in response to calls to target nations of coalition states" fighting the jihadist group.

June 28: Istanbul airport attack

A triple suicide attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport kills 47 people and leaving more than 260 injured. Authorities blame IS, though there is no claim of responsibility.

June 13: French police couple killed

A man claiming allegiance to IS stabs a police officer to death before slitting his partner's throat in front of their young son at their home in Magnanville, west of Paris.

June 12: Orlando gay bar shooting

A gunman claiming allegiance to IS opens fire inside a gay bar in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people in the deadliest mass shooting in US history.

March 22: Brussels attacks

Suicide attacks claimed by IS kill 32 people and wound more than 340 at Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro station, near the European Union headquarters.

The attackers have links to the cell that carried out the November 2015 jihadist attacks in Paris.

March 19: Israelis killed in Istanbul

Three Israeli tourists and an Iranian are killed by a suicide bomber at an Istanbul shopping centre. Turkish authorities attribute attack to IS.

January 12: 12 Germans killed in Istanbul

Twelve German tourists are killed in a suicide attack in central Istanbul. Islamic State held responsible.

December 2, 2015: San Bernardino shooting

Syed Farook and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik open fire at a Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people. IS hails the attack, but does not claim direct responsibility.

November 13, 2015: Paris attacks

Coordinated suicide attacks in Paris kill 130 people and wound more than 350 at a concert hall, cafes and the national stadium. IS claims responsibility.

October 31, 2015: Russian jet bombed

An Airbus passenger jet owned by a Russian company crashes in the Sinai desert after a bomb rips a hole in the plane, killing all 224 people on board. IS claims responsibility.

June 26, 2015: Tunisia beach attack

Gunmen kill 38 people, including 30 British tourists, at a beach hotel in Sousse, a little more than three months after a similar attack at the Bardo museum in Tunis kills 22 people, including 21 foreign tourists. IS claims both attacks.

January 7-8, 2015: Paris shootings

Gunman Amedy Coulibaly, claiming allegiance to IS, kills a policewoman in a Paris suburb before attacking a Jewish supermarket the next day, where he kills four more people. He is killed in a police assault.

On January 7, the Al-Qaeda-linked Kouachi brothers had killed 12 people at the headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris

Following is a list of attacks on Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group after 12 people were killed on Monday in a truck rampage in Berlin: December 19: Truck attack in Berlin A Polish-registered truck laden with steel beams ploughs into a busy night-time Christmas market in central Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring at least 48. The following day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel describes the assault as a "terrorist attack." German police arrest a Pakistani asylum seeker but release him for lack of evidence. The IS-linked Amaq news agency later says "a soldier of the Islamic State" carried out the attack "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries." August 6: Machete attack in Belgium A machete-wielding man shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) attacks two policewomen in Charleroi, southern Belgium, badly injuring one in the face before being shot dead by a third officer. Investigators give the initials of the assailant as K.B., describing him as a 33-year-old Algerian who had been living in Belgium since 2012. The following day, IS says the attacker acted "in response to (its) calls to target citizens" of countries in the US-led coalition bombing IS in Syria and Iraq. July 26: French priest killed Attackers slit an elderly priest's throat in a hostage-taking at his church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. Abdel Malik Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, both 19, pledged allegiance to IS in a video made before the attack. July 24: German suicide blast A failed Syrian asylum-seeker blows himself up outside a music festival in the German city of Ansbach, wounding 15 others. The Bavarian interior minister says the man "pledged allegiance" to IS, while the jihadist-linked Amaq news agency said he was a "soldier" of the group. July 18: German train attack A 17-year-old asylum-seeker, believed to have been Afghan or Pakistani, attacks passengers on a Bavarian train with an axe, injuring five people, two of them critically. He is shot dead by police. IS releases a video the following day purportedly featuring the attacker announcing he would carry out an "operation" in Germany. July 14: Nice lorry attack Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rams a 19-tonne truck into people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 86 people and wounding more than 400. IS said Bouhlel staged the attack "in response to calls to target nations of coalition states" fighting the jihadist group. June 28: Istanbul airport attack A triple suicide attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport kills 47 people and leaving more than 260 injured. Authorities blame IS, though there is no claim of responsibility. June 13: French police couple killed A man claiming allegiance to IS stabs a police officer to death before slitting his partner's throat in front of their young son at their home in Magnanville, west of Paris. June 12: Orlando gay bar shooting A gunman claiming allegiance to IS opens fire inside a gay bar in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people in the deadliest mass shooting in US history. March 22: Brussels attacks Suicide attacks claimed by IS kill 32 people and wound more than 340 at Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro station, near the European Union headquarters. The attackers have links to the cell that carried out the November 2015 jihadist attacks in Paris. March 19: Israelis killed in Istanbul Three Israeli tourists and an Iranian are killed by a suicide bomber at an Istanbul shopping centre. Turkish authorities attribute attack to IS. January 12: 12 Germans killed in Istanbul Twelve German tourists are killed in a suicide attack in central Istanbul. Islamic State held responsible. December 2, 2015: San Bernardino shooting Syed Farook and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik open fire at a Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people. IS hails the attack, but does not claim direct responsibility. November 13, 2015: Paris attacks Coordinated suicide attacks in Paris kill 130 people and wound more than 350 at a concert hall, cafes and the national stadium. IS claims responsibility. October 31, 2015: Russian jet bombed An Airbus passenger jet owned by a Russian company crashes in the Sinai desert after a bomb rips a hole in the plane, killing all 224 people on board. IS claims responsibility. June 26, 2015: Tunisia beach attack Gunmen kill 38 people, including 30 British tourists, at a beach hotel in Sousse, a little more than three months after a similar attack at the Bardo museum in Tunis kills 22 people, including 21 foreign tourists. IS claims both attacks. January 7-8, 2015: Paris shootings Gunman Amedy Coulibaly, claiming allegiance to IS, kills a policewoman in a Paris suburb before attacking a Jewish supermarket the next day, where he kills four more people. He is killed in a police assault. On January 7, the Al-Qaeda-linked Kouachi brothers had killed 12 people at the headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris
By AFP

ANKARA: Russian investigators arrived in Turkey today to probe the assassination of Moscow's ambassador at an Ankara art show, as both sides pledged the murder would not damage improving relations. Veteran diplomat Andrei Karlov was shot nine times in the back by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas at the art gallery opening of a show of Russian photography on Monday.

The brazen killing stunned Ankara and Moscow, which have rowed repeatedly over the Syria conflict but in recent weeks have begun cooperating closely on the evacuations from war-wrecked Aleppo.

An unprecedented three-way meeting on Syria between the foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia and Iran went ahead in Moscow Tuesday despite the assassination, with the diplomats backing a widening of a truce. Six people have been detained over the Karlov assassination, including the sister, mother, father and uncle of the 22-year-old Altintas, Turkish media said.

Adding to the jitters, with Turkey already on high alert after a string of deadly attacks, an individual also fired outside the US embassy in Ankara overnight. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his secret services to boost security at home and abroad, and to step up cooperation with foreign intelligence services. "I ask you through channels of partnership to strengthen your work with the intelligence agencies of other states", he was quoted as saying by Russian news wires. Meanwhile, a Russian investigative team visited the scene of the attack at the Contemporary Arts Centre in central Ankara as part of a joint probe with Turkey.

Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul that he and Putin agreed in a phone call after the murder that "our expanding areas of cooperation with Russia, particularly on Syria, will not be hampered by this attack". Dramatic footage of yesterday's assassination showed Karlov stumble and crash to the ground on his back as Altintas brandished his automatic pistol at terrified onlookers who cowered behind cocktail tables. The lone gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest") and "Don't forget Aleppo", vowing that those responsible for events in Syria would be held accountable.

Altintas did not go through the metal detector security check when he entered the exhibition and was warned by a security officer, according to the Cankaya municipality where the exhibition centre is located.

ANKARA: Russian investigators arrived in Turkey today to probe the assassination of Moscow's ambassador at an Ankara art show, as both sides pledged the murder would not damage improving relations. Veteran diplomat Andrei Karlov was shot nine times in the back by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas at the art gallery opening of a show of Russian photography on Monday. The brazen killing stunned Ankara and Moscow, which have rowed repeatedly over the Syria conflict but in recent weeks have begun cooperating closely on the evacuations from war-wrecked Aleppo. An unprecedented three-way meeting on Syria between the foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia and Iran went ahead in Moscow Tuesday despite the assassination, with the diplomats backing a widening of a truce. Six people have been detained over the Karlov assassination, including the sister, mother, father and uncle of the 22-year-old Altintas, Turkish media said. Adding to the jitters, with Turkey already on high alert after a string of deadly attacks, an individual also fired outside the US embassy in Ankara overnight. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his secret services to boost security at home and abroad, and to step up cooperation with foreign intelligence services. "I ask you through channels of partnership to strengthen your work with the intelligence agencies of other states", he was quoted as saying by Russian news wires. Meanwhile, a Russian investigative team visited the scene of the attack at the Contemporary Arts Centre in central Ankara as part of a joint probe with Turkey. Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul that he and Putin agreed in a phone call after the murder that "our expanding areas of cooperation with Russia, particularly on Syria, will not be hampered by this attack". Dramatic footage of yesterday's assassination showed Karlov stumble and crash to the ground on his back as Altintas brandished his automatic pistol at terrified onlookers who cowered behind cocktail tables. The lone gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest") and "Don't forget Aleppo", vowing that those responsible for events in Syria would be held accountable. Altintas did not go through the metal detector security check when he entered the exhibition and was warned by a security officer, according to the Cankaya municipality where the exhibition centre is located.
Gore Verbinski may have left horror behind after directing one of the very few US remakes that worked, but it seems he's coming back to the genre that made him his career.

A Cure For Wellness sees Dane DeHaan play an ambitious company executive who is sent to Switzerland to bring home the mentally destabilised CEO of a major corporation. Whilst there, it's made clear that all is not as it seems and there's a-doings going on in the 'wellness clinic'.

Before long, DeHaan is battling to maintain his sanity whilst trying to uncover the dark secret at the core of the clinic. As mentioned, Verbinski's a dab hand at horror and it looks like A Cure For Wellness is going to be a welcome return to the genre for him. As well as this, you've also got a screenplay from Justin Haythe, who previously did the screenplay for Revolutionary Road with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

The vibe seems to be modern-day gothic horror and, to be honest, there aren't enough of them around anymore. Take a look.

A Cure For Wellness is slated for release on February 17th, 2017.
It's win-or-go-home time for Newport County football teams

This season marks the first time in three years all three Aquidneck Island high school football teams have qualified for postseason play.
Reporter/Columnist

Julie Wurth is a reporter covering the University of Illinois at The News-Gazette. Her email is jwurth@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@jawurth).
Reporter

Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 58F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 58F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph.
Based on the study of cell signalling networks, the cell signals that drugs alter when they reach their target molecule, an exhaustive in silico analysis of the pairing of 64 therapeutic agents used to treat breast cancer (half already in use and the other half in clinical testing phase) has allowed researchers at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) to identify 10 new and previously untested combinations that hold potential for the treatment of breast cancer.

Seven of the 10 combinations tested in breast tumour cells in vitro have shown a high level of synergy (the joint effect is greater than the sum of the individual effects) and one of these combinations has been validated in mice. The results in mouse models indicate that the combination of raloxifene and cabozantinib, two drugs prescribed by oncologists, "dramatically" boost the anti-tumour effects of each of the two drugs, as the authors explain in Cancer Research, the journal that has published the results in its advanced online edition.

Patrick Aloy, ICREA researcher and head of the Structural bioinformatics and network biology lab at IRB Barcelona, says, "we identify many more synergistic combinations in silico than combinatorial assays do until now with high-performance lab techniques, and we can provide experimental details. This implies that prior computational analyses give better results and are more reliable". The researchers point out that in 70% of the combinations tested, the joint effects of the two drugs is "much much greater" than the effect of each alone, and therefore the same effect could be achieved with a smaller dose.

In this case, when scientists tested combined raloxifene and cabozantinib treatment in mice, they observed that the tumour shrank by 60%, while the individual effect of each drug merely prevented further tumour growth. Moreover, with the combination, a dose 3 and 25 times smaller, respectively, can be used compared to current treatments. "This in itself is very important because drugs are in fact toxic and are used to kill cells. If, by using a smaller dose, a greateror even the samechemotherapeutic effect is achieved, it is a significant advantage with respect to reducing the side effects experienced by patients," says Aloy. "Also, in principle, resistance would be avoided or delayed," he comments.

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When tumour cells learn to evade attack

In cancer treatment, including breast cancer, one of the problems faced by patients and oncologists is the onset of treatment resistance. Cancer cells become "insensitive" to the drugs that should kill them.

Resistance arises because the cancer cell, via the development of random mutations, learns to evade the effect of the drug. In 15% of cases, alternative molecular signalling pathways are activated to allow the tumour cells to divide again or to evade programmed cell death. Combined therapy using two or more drugs emerges as a promising approach to tackle this kind of resistance.

"Our analyses have allowed us to predict the signalling pathways that are inactivated by the joint action of two drugs," explains Samira Jaeger, postdoctoral fellows and first author of the study. The scientists validated at the molecular level that the molecules predicted in the in silico model were indeed inhibited. "By combining drugs, we aim to attack the tumour cell simultaneously from various flanks, thus making it more difficult for the cell to resist treatment, as the pathways that allow it to survive and proliferate will be knocked out the same time," she explains.

Future option

Having validated the computational network model, the scientists have three research lines running.

First, and with the aim to move towards clinical applications, they will test combined treatment with raloxifene and cabozantinib in tumours taken from patients and transplanted in mice. For this purpose, and as in the study just done, they will work in collaboration with ICREA researcher Angel R. Nebreda, a member of the Oncology Programme at IRB Barcelona.

Second, with the same aim to find more effective treatments for breast cancer, the lab will focus on pairing an anti-tumour agent and a drug administered for other conditions, such as those used to treat diabetes and high blood pressure.

Finally, Aloy's lab is fine-tuning an experimental method that will allow them to validate the combined therapies that show the greatest long-term efficiency in treating resistance.
A commercial brand of mouthwash that is readily available from supermarkets and pharmacies can help curb the growth of the bacteria responsible for gonorrhoea, reveals preliminary research published online in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Daily rinsing and gargling with the product might be a cheap and easy way of helping to control the spread of the infection, suggest the researchers.

New cases of gonorrhoea among men are on the rise in many countries amid declining condom use, with the bulk of cases among gay/bisexual men, say the researchers.

Rising rates of gonorrhoea heighten the risk of the emergence of antibiotic resistant strains of Neisseria gonnorhoeae, the bacteria responsible for the infection, making the need for a preventive measure that doesn't rely on condoms even more urgent, they say.

As far back as 1879, and before the advent of antibiotics, the manufacturer of Listerine, a commercial brand of mouthwash, claimed that it could be used to cure gonorrhoea. But no published research has tested out this claim.

In a bid to rectify this, the researchers assessed whether Listerine could curb the growth of N. gonorrhoeae in laboratory tests and in sexually active gay/bisexual men in a clinical trial.

For the laboratory tests, different dilutions (up to 1:32) of Listerine Cool Mint and Total Care, both of which contain 21.6% alcohol, were applied to cultures of N. gonorrhoeae to see which of any of them might curb growth of the bacteria. By way of a comparison, a salt water (saline) solution was similarly applied to an identical set of cultures.

Listerine at dilutions of up to 1 in 4, applied for 1 minute, significantly reduced the number of N. gonorrhoeae on the culture plates, whereas the saline solution did not.

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The clinical trial involved 196 gay/bisexual men who had previously tested positive for gonorrhoea in their mouths/throat, and who were returning for treatment at one sexual health clinic in Melbourne, Australia, between May 2015 and February 2016.

Almost a third (30%; 58) tested positive for the bacteria in their throat on the return visit.

Thirty three of these men were randomly assigned to a rinse and gargle with Listerine and 25 of them to a rinse and gargle with the saline solution.

After rinsing and gargling for 1 minute, the proportion of viable gonorrhoea in the throat was 52% among the men using Listerine compared with 84% among those using saline.

And the men using Listerine were 80% less likely to test positive for gonorrhoea in their throat five minutes after gargling than were the men using the saline solution.

The researchers admit that the monitoring period was short, so the possibility that the effects of the mouthwash might be short-lived can't be ruled out. But the laboratory test results would suggest otherwise, they say.

This research is preliminary, so a larger trial is currently under way to confirm these results and see whether the use of mouthwash could curb the spread of gonorrhoea, they say.

"If daily use of mouthwash was shown to reduce the duration of untreated infection and/or reduce the probability of acquisition of N. gonorrhoeae, then this readily available, condom-less, and low cost intervention may have very significant public health implications in the control of gonorrhoea in [men who have sex with men]," write the researchers.
Animals often form either the mouth or the anus from an opening that appears in the early embryo, which is called the blastopore.

For instance, starfish develop the anus from the blastopore, but earthworms form the mouth out of it. How this happens has not been clear until now.

"Our findings demonstrate that whether the blastopore forms the mouth or the anus is a consequence of how each embryo is organized during early development. It is not a predefined attribute of the species, as previously thought," says postdoctoral researcher Jose Maria Martin-Duran, at the Hejnol Group at Sars Centre at the Department of Biology, University of Bergen (UiB).

"One of the most important conclusions of our work is that there is no necessary association of the mouth and the anus with the embryonic blastopore," says Martin-Duran.

"There is no necessary connection between the mouth, the anus and the blastopore, neither during the development of animals nor as an evolutionary step in the past."

Against the tradition

The different fates of the blastopore have been recognized for over a century. Two major explanations have been proposed, both of them using present embryos as proof of ancestral animal forms, which is an idea strongly influenced by the famous German zoologist Ernst Haeckel and his principle that development recapitulates animal evolution.

The first scenario is the Amphistomy concept, which assumes that the blastopore was originally both mouth and anus and the formation of only one or the other gut opening from the blastopore evolved later. On the other hand, the Planuloid-Acoeloid scenario proposes that the blastopore was originally the mouth, and that the formation of the anus from the blastopore evolved secondarily.

"Importantly, none of our findings gave support to any of these traditional explanations," says Martin-Duran.

Better understanding of animal evolution

Historically, the different fate of the blastopore has been a major feature to classify bilaterally symmetrical animals, that is, those with a head and a tail, and a back and belly.

Already in 1908, the Austrian zoologist Karl Grobben proposed that bilaterian animals should be classified according to whether they form the mouth from the blastopore (Protostomia; literally "first mouth") or the anus (Deuterostomia; "secondary mouth").

Although the researchers now use other methods to unravel the evolutionary relationship between animal groups, the division of Protostomia and Deuterostomia proposed by Grobben has demonstrated to be correct, with only some minor modifications.

"This is why evolutionary biologists have given so much emphasis to the fate of the blastopore in animal evolution, and why it was so important to attain a better understanding of the developmental mechanisms controlling this embryonic process," Jose Maria Martin-Duran points out.
Researchers funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) have developed a way to automatically label images of individual vertebrae during spine surgery, preventing mistakes and saving surgeons both time and stress in the operating room. New work recently published by the team demonstrates the accuracy, feasibility, and advantages of having the technology in the operating room.

Spine surgery requires careful assurance that surgeons are operating at the right level of the spine. But, because of obesity, low bone density, or anatomical abnormalities, the spinetwenty-four separated vertebrae, the sacrum, and the tailbonecan be difficult to distinguish and number. Both time and money are spent ensuring operations are performed at the right locations; sometimes an extra procedure is done before surgery to label the target vertebra. Still, in about one out of 3,000 procedures, a mistake is made and the wrong level is operated on, causing unnecessary damage and requiring an additional, corrective surgery.

To reduce both the chance of error and the burden on the surgeons, a team from Johns Hopkins University and Siemens Healthcare in Germany have developed an algorithm dubbed "LevelCheck" to help identify and label vertebrae in real-time during surgery.

"It's more than just avoiding those one in 3,000 cases. It actually provides assurance to the surgeon, so it means they can be more confident. It just makes for a better procedure," says Steven Krosnick, M.D., director of the NIBIB program in Image-Guided Interventions. It fits into the surgical workflow and doesn't require much additional time during surgery, he says.

"When you look at a radiograph [such as an x-ray] of the spine, it is difficult to say with 100 percent certainty what you're looking at. The potential for human error is one that an algorithm could help to avoid," says Jeffrey Siewerdsen Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering and computer science at Johns Hopkins University and senior author of the recent paper. "Surgeons spend a lot of time, energy, and stress to get it right, and we wanted to provide some decision support for that."

The researchers first described the algorithm in 2012. It takes advantage of two types of routinely taken images: a computerized tomography (CT) scan taken prior to surgery and a radiograph taken at the beginning of surgery. The CT is three-dimensional, more detailed than a radiograph, and can be used to accurately define and label the vertebrae. When surgery is set to begin, LevelCheck compares the current radiograph to the previously labeled CT, matches positions and landmarks, and projects the labels onto the radiograph. Using high-speed computing, the algorithm makes its comparison and provides labels in the span of 20 to 40 seconds.

In the new work, published in the Oct. 15, 2016, issue of the journal Spine, the researchers examined the usefulness of the LevelCheck algorithm by applying it to nearly 400 images previously taken from spinal surgery patients. Three spine surgeons evaluated both the algorithm's accuracy and how useful they thought such a tool would be during surgery. LevelCheck labeled the vertebrae correctly in every case and the surgeons judged it to be helpful in 42 percent of the cases and to improve confidence in 31 percent. The algorithm was particularly advantageous when anatomical landmarks usually used to count spine segments, such as the sacrum or twelfth rib, were missing, obscured, or abnormal; when spine segments were not easily distinguishable; and when the image quality of the radiographs was poor. As for the additional time spent waiting for the labels to appear, the surgeons said they'd be willing to wait up to a minute for the extra assurance.

Even though surgeons are accurate the vast majority of the time, an independent check can still help, especially since it doesn't require additional work. Siewerdsen compares LevelCheck to GPS in cars; you rely on it when you're driving somewhere new, but you might also use it as a check or confirmation even when going places you've been before. "Most of the time it is just confirming something that you would have gotten right anyway," he says. "But decision support can help you reach that decision a bit faster, with a bit more certainty. And every once in a while, it could even help prevent an error."

The team has also designed a version that can be used when only preoperative MRIs, rather than CT scans, are available. Siewerdsen also sees potential for the technology to track and guide devices during surgery and to provide easier ways to collect quantitative data about surgeries.

The current work is retrospectivethe researchers added the labels to images after surgery. Clinical trials that use the technology during operations are now underway. Still, Siewerdsen thinks LevelCheck could one day be commonplace in the operating room, installed into imaging systems so labelsand the precision and confidence they provideare just a button push away.
Scientists might be able to quickly predict how ovarian cancer patients are likely to respond to chemotherapy treatment using a simple blood test, according to a Cancer Research UK-funded study published in PLOS Medicine today (Tuesday).

In a study of 40 patients with high grade serous ovarian cancer, the researchers monitored tumour DNA that could be detected in a blood sample taken before each chemotherapy treatment. By measuring the levels of the mutated cancer gene TP53 they found those who responded well to treatment had a rapid fall in the levels of this circulating DNA.

The researchers tested levels of this circulating tumour DNA in patients before and after treatment. They found that it took longer for the disease to progress in patients whose tumour DNA count in the blood fell by more than a half after one cycle of chemotherapy, compared with patients whose DNA count did not drop. They also showed that the level of tumour DNA in the blood reflects the amount of cancer seen on scans carried out before chemotherapy.

This test may be particularly useful for patients with high grade serous ovarian cancer because the mutated cancer gene TP53 is found in more than 99 per cent of patients with this form of the disease. This type represents two thirds of all ovarian cancers.

Dr James Brenton, one of the lead authors of the study at the University of Cambridge, said: "There's a need for a test to find out quickly whether ovarian cancer patients are benefiting from chemotherapy. These are early results, but if bigger trials are successful, this test looking at the tumour DNA circulating in the blood could be a cheap, quick and easy way to get this information."

Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, said: "Although we're making great progress, we still have more to do for people with ovarian cancer, as only one in three patients survive for 10 years or longer. Having a test to tell us early on whether chemotherapy is working would be a big help, and in the future might be a useful way to suggest other types of treatment that could work better. This could be a good way to test new types of drugs that target cancer cells specifically and spare patients the side effects from treatments if they are not working."
According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 45 children is diagnosed with autism. As these children age, experiences such as leaving school, finding jobs and living alone can be stressful for adolescents with autism as well as their caregivers. Researchers from the University of Missouri have conducted the first study analyzing the perspectives of adolescents with autism to identify challenges as they "age out" of services. The researchers say these findings highlight the need for social workers and providers to assist children with autism as they transition to adulthood.

"The challenges of living independently, gaining employment, attaining postsecondary education and building social relationships are greater for adolescents and young adults with autism," said Nancy Cheak-Zamora, assistant professor of health sciences in the MU School of Health Professions. "It is vital that professionals are prepared to assist with the transition, and that they have insight into adolescent and caregiver experiences during the difficult time of transitioning to adulthood."

Cheak-Zamora, Jennifer First, a doctoral candidate in the MU School of Social Work, and Michelle Teti, associate professor of health sciences, analyzed the reported experiences of adolescents with autism and their caregivers. They identified main themes of stress impacting families: challenges in accessing services, difficulties with adapting to transition changes, and managing multiple responsibilities and higher education challenges.

One of the study participants, a caregiver named Mary, related how the autism center in her community offered no support once children with autism leave. She said that she wishes that services would increase during this period; once children reach a certain age, it is difficult to find help. Caregivers and adolescents also reported a variety of strategies to cope with the stress of transitioning to adulthood with autism. Main themes included: accessing community support; receiving support from friends, family and teachers; and creating opportunities for self-determination, such as making independent choices and setting goals.

"For families who are experiencing a lack of available services for their adolescent with ASD, social workers can collaborate in forming family groups that advocate for more services for individuals living with autism into adulthood," First said. "Social workers should assist families with the coordination of essential services such as medical treatment, mental health supports, independent living, respite care, college support and enhanced vocational support."

"A qualitative study of stress and coping when transitioning to adulthood with autism spectrum disorder," was published in the Journal of Family Social Work. Funding for the project was obtained from the Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau (H6MMC11059).

Cheak-Zamora also works with the MU Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, a national leader in confronting the challenges of autism and other developmental conditions through its collaborative research, training and service programs.
Coughing, sneezing and a runny nose: You might think it is yet another cold, but if your baby is under 2 years old, it could very well be respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

RSV is a virus infecting the lungs and respiratory tract that will sicken nearly every baby before age 2. Often mistaken for a cold, RSV can also infect adults because the body does not develop an immunity to it.

"Its commonality should not be taken lightly," said Alison Pittman, MSN, RN, CPN, clinical assistant professor at the Texas A&M College of Nursing. "Most healthy children will experience cold-like symptoms, but it can easily spread to babies with pre-existing conditions." RSV could have serious health implications for these high-risk individuals.

"RSV is spread through droplets expelled from a sneeze or cough that land on other people or surfaces like toys and door handles," Pittman said. "It invades the body through contact with the eyes, mouth or nose."

Symptoms of RSV

Most babies infected with RSV will experience coughing, a runny nose and other cold-like symptoms for one to two weeks. However, symptoms could take a dangerous turn. Contact your pediatrician should he or she begin exhibiting the following signs:

Wheezing or trouble breathing

High fever, particularly greater than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit

Coughing up yellow, green or gray mucus

Thick nasal discharge

Refusal to be fed

Dehydration

Blue discoloration of the lips or nails

Those at greatest risk for a severe infection include premature infants, children born with heart or lung problems or those with weakened immune systems due to chronic illnesses or other reasons. Adults with immune system conditions are also susceptible to worrisome infection.

Severe RSV can lead to serious infections like bronchiolitiswhich is inflammation of the smallest air branches in the lungsand pneumonia. "The body's response to these infections is to secrete more fluid in the lungs," Pittman said. "This makes it more difficult for a child to breathe and can cause a child to start wheezing."

"The only way to determine if a baby has RSV is with a rapid RSV test that can only be administered by a health care provider," Pittman added.

How to prevent RSV

According to Pittman, the methods to prevent RSV parallel those of preventing a cold:

Wash hands: Be sure to wash the hands with soap and water for 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer after sneezing or coughing and before eating.

Cover coughs and sneezes: The most effective technique to cover a sneeze is to use a tissue and dispose of it immediately.

Do not share utensils: Especially when sick, be sure to use sanitary tableware.

Stay home: When ill, treat yourself away from others to avoid spreading germs in communal spaces.

"Keeping your baby away from crowds and people who are sneezing, coughing or have not cleaned their hands can help mitigate some of the RSV risk to your baby," Pittman said.

High-risk babies may benefit from a very costly medication called palivizumab to help avert a serious RSV infection. The vaccine does not prevent RSV, but it can lesson the severity of the symptoms. This vaccine is injected monthly, at a tune of $1,500 to $2,000 per injection, during the fall and winter months when the likelihood of being afflicted by the virus is much higher. Insurance only covers the vaccine for children deemed high-risk and prone to infection.

How to treat RSV

There is no treatment for RSV. It is a virus, and viral infections are notoriously resistant to medication. If contracted, parents and doctors must treat the symptoms of RSV to minimize its toll on a baby's respiratory system.

Most symptoms can be treated at home by reducing the child's fever and increasing the amount of rest and fluids the child receives. Clearing mucus from the nose and using a humidifier may help ease a child's breathing.

Children who are hospitalized from severe RSV typically receive additional oxygen, intravenous fluids and medications to expand the lung's airways.

"Because parents often assume RSV is a cold, they may not be aware of the seriousness of the infection," Pittman said. "I always recommend that if a parent is unsure about their child's health, consult with a health care provider immediately."

Source: Texas A&M University
Mumps may seem like a contagion relegated to history books, but like many other diseases of the past now preventable with a vaccine, mumps has been making a resurgence. Cases are at 10-year high and are especially common on college campuses across the country. Now the Dallas area is seeing the largest outbreak in Texas in years. Cristie Columbus, MD, vice dean of the Texas A&M College of Medicine's Dallas campus and an infectious disease specialist, explains what people need to know about the mumps.

What is mumps?

Mumps is caused by a virus, specifically a type of Rubulavirus in the Paramyxovirus family. Before the vaccine was widely introduced in the United States in 1967, nearly every child would become infected. Although cases have declined more than 99 percent since then, outbreaks do still occasionally occur.

What are the symptoms of mumps?

The classic symptom of mumps is swollen salivary glands, which causes puffy cheeks and a swollen jaw that can make it difficult to eat. Other symptoms, which last seven to 10 days, may include a fever, fatigue and head and muscle aches. Some peoplepossibly as many as 40 percent of those infectedmay have only very mild symptoms (if they have any at all), and therefore might not realize they have the disease. Still, they may be able to spread the virus to others.

How long after being infected do symptoms usually appear?

Symptoms can appear between 12 and 25 days after the initial infection, but usually people begin experiencing them 16-18 days after they are infected.

Can mumps become serious?

Although most people recover completely in a few weeks, sometimes serious complications of mumps can occur, especially in adults. Men and adolescent boys can develop mumps infection of the testicles that results in testicular pain and swelling, which can cause sterility. Other types of inflammation associated with the disease include meningitis (which affects the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord) and encephalitis (which affects the brain itself). Rarely, these conditions can lead to permanent loss of hearing, disability or even death.

How is mumps spread?

The virus that causes mumps is spread in the saliva or mucus of those infected. This commonly occurs through coughing, sneezing or talking, but can also happen when people share items like drinking glasses that come into contact with saliva. Those infected are contagious from two to five days before symptoms begin until about five days after.

How can mumps be prevented?

Anyone who is eligible should be immunized with the MMR vaccine, which protects against mumps, as well as measles and rubella. Study after study have shown that vaccines, including the one for mumps, are safe and are not linked to autism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children get two doses of MMR vaccine, once when they are between 12 and 15 months old and again when they are 4 to 6 years old. Older children, adolescents and adults born after 1956 who did not receive the full series as a child should also be vaccinated unless they have a conditionlike pregnancy or a weakened immune systemthat prevents it. Those at increased risk, such as international travelers, health care workers and college students, should receive two doses of the vaccine if they are not known to be otherwise immune.

What should I know about the current outbreak in Texas?

There are now more than 50 cases in the Dallas area as the outbreak in Johnson County has grown and cases have been found in Dallas, Collin, Denton and Tarrant counties. In contrast, there haven't been more than 20 cases in the entire state in any year since 2011.
Anticholinergic medications, a class of drugs very commonly used by older adults, are linked to an increased rate of emergency department and hospital utilization in the United States, according to an Indiana University Center for Aging Research, Indiana University Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science, and Regenstrief Institute study of community-dwelling Americans age 65 and older.

Drugs with anticholinergic properties are frequently prescribed or purchased over the counter for chronic conditions including depression, anxiety, pain, allergy, incontinence or sleep problems. These drugs are used by as many as half of older adults and it is not unusual for an older individual to be taking two or more anticholinergic medications regularly.

The new study, published in the November 2016 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Phamacotherapy, analyzed actual prescription dispensing data from the Regenstrief Medical Record System to determine how much anticholinergic medication each person used, known as anticholinergic burden, and utilization of healthcare services such as hospital, emergency department and ambulatory visits. Prescription dispensing data are known to be more reliable than self-reported information.

Fifty-eight percent of the 3344 study participants were African-American; 71 percent were female. Fewer than 10 percent were cognitively impaired. All were patients served by Eskenazi Health, an academic teaching health care system in Indianapolis.

"Anticholinergics, the medications that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have previously been implicated as a potential cause of cognitive impairment, by us and by other researchers," said IU Center for Aging Research and Regenstrief Institute investigator Noll Campbell, PharmD, who led the new research. "This is the first study to calculate cumulative anticholinergic burden and determine that as burden increases, so does healthcare utilization in the U.S. -- both outpatient and inpatient."

Dr. Campbell and colleagues report that taking a drug with mild anticholinergic effect daily increased the likelihood of inpatient admission by 11 percent over a year. Many drugs used to treat heart failure and hypertension fall into the mild group, such as diuretics. Taking a drug with a strong anticholinergic effect daily increased the likelihood of inpatient admission by 33 percent over a year. Sleeping pills, one of the most common medications used by elders, are in this category as are antihistamines, which are available without prescription.

The IU Center for Aging Research has studied patient safety harms from anticholinergic medications in diverse populations for over a decade.

In 2008, center scientists, led by the Chief Innovation and Implementation Officer of IU Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science Malaz Boustani, MD, MPH, developed the Anti-Cholinergic Burden Scale, one of the most widely used tools to pinpoint the anticholinergic properties and anticholinergic load of specific drugs. Anticholinergic burden in this study was defined as the number of days someone was dispensed an anticholinergic medicine multiplied by the strength (mild versus strong) of the anticholinergic load.

The new study was the first time that the Anti-Cholinergic Burden Scale was employed to calculate a cumulative score weighted by both number of days dispensed and strength of anticholinergic effect using prescription dispensing databases.

In 2013 the IU Center for Aging Research investigators reported that continuously taking strong anticholinergics for as few as 60 days caused memory problems and other indicators of mild cognitive impairment. Taking multiple drugs with weaker anticholinergic effects, such as many common over-the-counter digestive aids, had a negative impact on cognition in only 90 days.

"As baby boomers age and the number of older adults increases, it is especially important to recognize the negative impact of anticholinergic medications on the aging brain and healthcare delivery cost," said Dr. Boustani. "There is a powerful association between these harmful medications and potentially avoidable cognitive impairment and increased visits to the doctor, the ER and the hospital."

"Individuals taking anticholinergics should talk with their doctors or pharmacists about possible alternatives," Dr. Campbell said. "This new study provides stronger motivation to design and conduct de-prescribing studies to determine safe ways to take individuals off anticholinergic medications in the interests of preserving brain health and decreasing healthcare utilization rates and their potential costs." Dr. Campbell is an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at Purdue University College of Pharmacy and a clinical pharmacy specialist with Eskenazi Health.
AXT is proud to be able to bring another cutting-edge technology to Australia that will help our medical researchers accelerate the rate at which they bring new cures, remedies and therapies to clinical realities. In this case, AXT have partnered with Magnetic Insight to make magnetic particle imaging (MPI) technology available to our researchers. This technology overcomes many of the shortcomings of existing medical imaging modalities such as sensitivity, resolution and high contrast.

Perfusion in a rat brain imaged using Magnetic Particle Imaging technology.

MPI is a new and safe molecular imaging modality that will give researchers an unprecedented insight into the functioning of the target organs and tissue. It offers the sensitivity of nuclear medicine, resolution of MRI and the speed of CT.

Using magnetic nanoparticles (Super Paramagentic Iron Oxide; SPiO), researchers can follow these nanoparticles at nanomolar concentrations anywhere in the body regardless of tissue depth. These particles can be used to tag cells enabling detection down to 100 cells. The first MPI Imaging system called the Momentum from Magnetic Insight, can generate quantitative images with excellent contrast required to analyze functional responsesto various treatments and drugs. MPI will directly benefit researchers working in fields such as oncology,, vascular function, immunology, stem cell research, theranostic imaging and functional nanoparticle targeting to namea few.

Researchers can follow the flow nanoparticles through the blood, and quantitate what is actually happening in real time. This type of information is invaluable to obtain a more holistic picture of what is going on in vivo. Furthermore, unlike other molecular imaging technologies it requires no exposure to radiation making it a safer alternative to some other medical imaging technologies and ideal for longitudinal studies over time frames even out to weeks or months.

Richard Trett, AXTs Managing Director said of the new distributorship agreement:

AXT is committed to bringing new and exciting technologies to Australia and MPI is one that has enormous potential. The technology offers high resolution, non-invasive functional imaging. It opens up long-term studies and other protocols impossible with PET and similar molecular imaging technologies. We look forward to meeting with potential adopters in the coming months to discuss how this technology can benefit their work.

Dr. Anna Christensen, CEO at Magnetic Insight commented:

we are changing the landscape of diagnostic imaging with the impact of what MRI, PET and CT offered over 30 years ago. MPI complements many of the existing imaging modalities but alsoprovides researchers and doctors levels of information that were not previously possible, all without radiation We look forward to working with the team at AXT to bring this technology to Australia.

The Momentum MPI imaging system is now available for preclinical imaging applications on small animals and utilises a workflow similar (and as simple) as optical imaging. MPI technology will likely become the next clinical molecular imaging modality and will enable early detection and monitoring of neurovascular diseases such as stroke.
Government must attract leaders to pursue career in the UK

Bold steps are needed to ensure UK science has a prominent place in the global economy after Brexit, says a Lords report out today.

The UK needs to retain current scientific talent and attract even more of the worlds leading scientists according to the Science and Technology Committees report A time for boldness: EU membership and UK science after the referendum. The UK should expand and enhance existing programmes. But it must also search out the worlds most accomplished scientists and persuade them to pursue careers here. The Government should send repeated signals to the global science community that the UK remains a welcoming place for talented scientists.

The report welcomes the major increase to science funding announced in the 2016 Autumn Statement. The Committee recommends that, in addition, the science and research budget should be re-based at an early opportunity to compensate fully for any reduction of funding from the EU.

UK scientific leaders should not to be consumed entirely with UK-EU negotiations and should explore scientific collaborations and shared protocols with the rest of the world  particularly where there is potential to build on existing relationships such as ones with the USA.

The UK should offer to host  in partnership with governments and funding bodies from other countries - one or more new, large-scale international research facilities. This would be a bold move to signal the UKs global standing in science.

Uncertainty over the future relationship between EU and UK science is having a corrosive effect on the UK research base. But the Government has the power to mitigate many negative effects of Brexit and use it as a catalyst to address long standing underperformance in economic productivity.

Lord Selborne, Chairman of the Committee said:

Positive assurances have been sent from the Government to UK science. We welcome the major increase in science funding announced in the 2016 Autumn Statement and the Governments separate assurance that it will underwrite funding for approved Horizon 2020 projects applied for before Brexit. The UK's outstanding reputation and performance in the scientific world depends critically on redoubling efforts to persuade many of the world's most talented scientists to pursue careers in this country. Our proposal to find global scientific leaders will help to tackle this and nurture the next generation of research leaders in the UK It is vital the UK is still seen as open to scientific talent; the Government has the ability to send this message to the scientific community enabling us to become world leaders after Brexit and beyond.

Key Findings from the report

Freedom of Movement

The report maintains that the Government should distinguish in the immigration statistics and the net migration target between studentsholding Tier 4 visasand other immigrants; and the Government should treat student numbers separately for immigration policy making purposes.

The EU referendum result and mixed messages from the Government could undermine the shared ambitions of the Government and the research community to welcome talented scientists to the UK.

Attracting talent

We recognise that at this early stage, there is little documented evidence of scientists from other EU Member States deciding not to come to the UK because of the EU referendum, or of UK scientists deciding not to work in other EU Member States for that reason. But there is a clear perception in the scientific community that discrimination is occurring.

We recommend that the Government, through its global science and innovation network, or the British Council, should perform annual surveys around the world assessing the UK's reputation in the global scientific community as a welcoming place to pursue a scientific career. The results of these surveys should be published.

Scientific advice

The Government must ensure that it has appropriate scientific advice during the Brexit negotiations. The voice of the scientific community should be heard alongside the voice of business during the Brexit negotiations and in making future alliances.

Source: https://www.parliament.uk/
In a first-in-children randomized clinical study, medical researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) and the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute (ISCI) at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have begun testing to see whether adult stem cells derived from bone marrow benefit children with the congenital heart defect hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS).

UM SOM surgeons are injecting the cells into the babies' hearts during open-heart operations at the University of Maryland Medical Center. ISCI is supplying the stem cells for the procedures.

Even with extensive surgical treatments, HLHS babies still do not have optimal outcomes. The researchers hope the cells will increase the babies' chances of survival as HLHS limits the heart's ability to pump blood from the heart to the body.

"The premise of this clinical trial is to boost or regenerate the right ventricle, the only ventricle in these babies, to make it pump as strongly as a normal left ventricle," says lead researcher Sunjay Kaushal, MD, PhD, associate professor of surgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine and director, pediatric cardiac surgery, University of Maryland Medical Center. "We are hoping this therapy will be a game-changer for these patients."

Kaushal says the first two patients, who were both four-months-old when the stem cells were injected, are doing well after their surgery.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells

This is the first HLHS research in the United States to use stem cells known as allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). Allogeneic cells can be used in other human beings without creating an immune response, which could cause the body to reject the cells. Additionally, these cells are a type of adult stem cell (found in both children and adults), unspecialized cells that can develop into tissue- or organ-specific cells. MSCs can be harvested in advance, expanded in culture, and stored for use later.

The allogeneic nature of the MSCs makes it possible for stem cells from one bone marrow donor to provide all the stem cells for this study. Researchers elsewhere are taking a different approach to strengthen the HLHS heart, with autologous cells, stem cells taken from the HLHS patient's own umbilical cord, for use in that specific patient.

In adult patients, MSCs in the heart have been shown to reduce scar tissue, reduce inflammation, cause new small vessels to grow, and stimulate the heart to regenerate itself, causing heart muscle cells and cardiac stem cells to grow.

"We've had incredible results in using mesenchymal stem cells to regenerate damaged heart muscle in adults," says Joshua M. Hare, MD, ISCI founding director and sponsor of the study. "This is the first time these types of cells are being used in infants, so this is very exciting."

The Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute has grown from a local research center to a national cell manufacturing facility. ISCI provides cells for the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network, has been named a Production Assistance for Cellular Therapies Center by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, and has been conducting research in stem cell use for cardiovascular repair since 2008.

Study Details

HLHS is one of the most challenging and complex congenital heart diseases to treat. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about 960 babies in the United States are born each year with HLHS. For unknown reasons, the heart's main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, does not develop completely during a critical growth period just prior to birth. The right ventricle normally pumps blood to the lungs at low pressure to be oxygenated, while the left ventricle pushes blood at high pressure through the aorta to the entire body. In children with HLHS, the right heart assumes the extra workload, temporarily supporting the circulation to both the lungs and body. That stress can cause the right heart to fail and the baby to die.

Current HLHS treatment options are either a heart transplant or a series of three open-heart reconstructive surgical procedures to connect the left and right sides of the heart. However, even with a transplant or the reconstructive surgical series, children with HLHS have an average five-year survival of only 50-60 percent.

In this Phase 1 safety and efficacy study, allogeneic MSCs are injected into the heart muscle during the second of the three reconstructive surgeries, typically performed at approximately four months of age.

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A total of 30 patients with HLHS will be enrolled in the study. Fifteen patients will receive six-to-eight stem cell injections each, based on the size of the heart, while 15 control patients will not receive the cells. This is an open-label trial, in which researchers and participant families will know whether or not the cells are administered.

Basic Science

Kaushal laid the groundwork for this trial eight years ago as he began exploring the possibilities of stem cells to strengthen children's hearts. Kaushal says he and his team developed many models trying to understand how these cells work in the laboratory before moving to a clinical application. "There's a lot of basic science behind what we're doing. I want to make sure that what we pursue is rigorous in the laboratory, to make sure that we're providing the best therapy for these little kids."

Several researchers at the School of Medicine's University of Maryland Center for Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine have added their expertise to the effort, collaborating with Dr. Kaushal to understand and develop stem cell therapy for children with heart failure.

"Dr. Kaushal and colleagues have discovered that the failing neonatal heart is actually a rich source of cardiac stem cells, but the existing stem cells in the hearts of these babies are not sufficient to overcome HLHS," says Curt I. Civin, MD, professor of pediatrics and physiology, director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine, and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "We are close to understanding one mechanism underlying this insufficiency. This line of research is a key part of our quest to use stem cells to repair, cure and prevent severe diseases in children and adults."

In previously published research, Kaushal demonstrated that mesenchymal stem cells can restore function in a pre-clinical model replicating many of the features of HLHS. The stem cells remodeled the heart muscle (myocardium) similar to normal myocardium. Stem cells in the heart may also secrete growth factors conducive to forming heart muscle and keeping the muscle from dying. "These key findings suggested these cells would work for HLHS patients," says Kaushal.

While stem cells have been used to regenerate adult hearts, Kaushal says improvements have been marginal. His research suggests results may be better in pediatric hearts: "The heart is able to remodel better in a younger patient than an older patient, because the body is still growing, good things are going on, and things are not deteriorating."

Civin, a pediatric oncologist, says his very first patient as a pediatric intern-in-training years ago was an infant with HLHS. "I've seen how devastating HLHS can be for babies and their families. I'm thrilled with the launch of this first-in-children stem cell therapeutic trial, and look forward to the patient outcomes."

The Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine is providing funding for the clinical costs associated with this trial. "Dr. Kaushal's research will give families with a devastating diagnosis hope for a better outcome for their child," says Stephen T. Bartlett, MD, the Peter Angelos Distinguished Professor; Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine; and Surgeon-in-Chief and Executive Vice President of the University of Maryland Medical System. "The Department of Surgery's funding of this project demonstrates the critical need and the promise this research holds for a very at-risk population who only have a 50/50 shot at survival with current treatment protocols."

"This novel therapeutic approach exemplifies how our faculty are unrelenting in their search for new ways to improve the health of some of our tiniest and most vulnerable patients," says E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, vice president for medical affairs, University of Maryland; the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor; and dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine." This stem cell therapy may provide a new treatment option not just for patients with HLHS, but also for patients with other congenital heart problems."
Twenty to thirty percent of the partners of cancer patients suffer from psychological problems. This percentage is even higher if the patients in question are terminally ill. With this in mind, scientists from the University of Twente's Institute for Innovation and Governance Studies and VU University Medical Center have developed a web-based self-help intervention for people in this situation. Nadine Kohle's PhD research showed that the partners involved were satisfied with the intervention, and that it helped them to cope better with their situation. Dr Kohle was awarded her doctoral degree last week at the University of Twente.

Partners of cancer patients often neglect their own needs because they think that these are less important considering the severity of the health problems their sick partner is facing. Many of the partners experience complaints such as sleep problems, depression, fatigue, social isolation and anxiety. Nadine Kohle takes the view that this situation merits greater attention. "Several studies have shown that the partners need support." However, the partners are usually fully occupied with care-related activities. Their main focus is the wellbeing of the patient. That is also why the web-based self-help intervention 'Hold on, for each other' was designed to enable the participants to follow it at a time that best suits them. Dr Kohle developed and evaluated the intervention during her PhD research. The intervention is based on approaches used in positive psychology (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and self-compassion).

Satisfied

Her research reveals that the participants greatly appreciated the intervention. Eighty-five percent of respondents indicated that they were 'satisfied' to 'very satisfied' with the intervention. Over eighty percent indicated that the intervention helped them deal with the problems they were facing. Furthermore, nearly 85 percent were prepared to recommend the intervention to acquaintances who were in the same situation. It was also striking that almost seventy percent of the participants actually completed the intervention, which is a very high percentage for interventions of this kind. Nadine Kohle says "It's great to see that the participants are satisfied. Having completed the intervention, they are now more aware of the situation in which they find themselves. The intervention also has a beneficial effect on their relationship with their partner. They feel even more connected. For us, it was great to see that the approaches on which the course is based have proved to be genuinely effective in practice. The processes of ACT and self-compassion are well suited to this particular problem."

Supervision

In her research, Dr Kohle also explored various forms of supervision, to see which was best suited to the partners' situation. For example, one group of participants received automated feedback, while another group received personal feedback from an online counsellor. In the long term, this latter variant seemed to be better at promoting recovery. However, based on her research, Nadine Kohle has not yet been able to reach any firm conclusions about which type and variant of the course is best. "More follow-up research is needed to determine that. However, the results do show that 'Hold on, for each other' certainly has the potential to support partners of cancer patients and reduce their psychological distress."

"The intervention is also applicable (in a modified form) for other target groups," the new PhD graduate adds. "These might include other informal carers of cancer patients, or the partners of patients suffering from a different chronic disease." Researchers at the University Medical Center Utrecht are currently assessing if the intervention might also be suitable for partners of ALS patients.
Social phobia is the most common anxiety disorder of our time. But the current treatment regimen for patients with this diagnosis has not proven very effective. Now a team of Norwegian and British researchers believe they have found a cure for social anxiety disorders.

"We've set a new world record in effectively treating social anxiety disorders," says Hans M. Nordahl, a professor of behavioural medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He has led a project with a team of doctors and psychologists from NTNU and the University of Manchester in England to examine the effects of structured talk therapy and medication on patients with social anxiety disorders.

Until now, a combination of cognitive therapy and medication was thought to be the most effective treatment for these patients. The researchers' results, which have just been published in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, show that cognitive therapy on its own has a much better effect in the long term than just drugs or a combination of the two.

Nearly 85 per cent of the study participants significantly improved or became completely healthy using only cognitive therapy.

"This is one of the best studies on social anxiety disorders ever," says Nordahl. "It's taken ten years to carry out and has been challenging both academically and in terms of logistics, but the result is really encouraging," he says.

Mistreatment with "happy pills"

To clear up some terms: social anxiety is not a diagnosis, but a symptom that a lot of people struggle with. For example, talking or being funny on command in front of a large audience can trigger this symptom. On the other hand, social anxiety disorder - or social phobia - is a diagnosis for individuals who find it hard to function socially, and anyone with this diagnosis has high social anxiety.

Medications, talk therapy or a combination of these are the most common ways to treat patients with this diagnosis. NTNU researchers set out to examine which of these approaches is most effective.

"A lot of doctors and hospitals combine medications - like the famous "happy pill" - with talk therapy when they treat this patient group. It works well in patients with depressive disorders, but it actually has the opposite effect in individuals with social anxiety disorders. Not many health care professionals are aware of this," says Nordahl.

Drugs camouflage the problem

"Happy pills," like selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), may have strong physical side effects. When patients have been on medications for some time and want to reduce them, the bodily feelings associated with social phobia, like shivering, flushing and dizziness in social situations tend to return. Patients often end up in a state of acute social anxiety again.

"Patients often rely more on the medication and don't place as much importance on therapy. They think it's the drugs that will make them healthier, and they become dependent on something external rather than learning to regulate themselves. So the medication camouflages a very important patient discovery: that by learning effective techniques, they have the ability to handle their anxiety themselves," says Nordahl.

Social anxiety - a public health issue

The most common anxiety disorder experienced today is social anxiety disorder. It is a public health problem with major negative consequences for the individual and for society. Nearly twelve per cent of the population will be impacted during their lifetime.

Most affected individuals report that anxiety has significantly hampered their functioning at school and in their work life. These are issues that negatively affect their choice of career, entry into the labour market and how they adjust to their work environment. They are also a major cause of absenteeism.

People with social anxiety disorder dread situations where they risk being exposed to the critical gaze of others. They are afraid that others will look at them, judge them and form a negative opinion of them. They especially fear the embarrassment of being deemed nervous, weak or stupid.

Speaking in front of large groups, participating in parent meetings at school, and eating or writing with others watching can be problematic for people with the disorder. Some people are particularly afraid that others will see their hands or voice shake, or that they are blushing and sweating. They will do their best to avoid these types of situations.

They may also resort to various coping strategies to hide their anxiety, which unfortunately only reinforce the problem.

Cognitive therapy is a treatment where the therapist works to get patients to accept their fear, to go into challenging situations and to shift their attention to what they want to say and do in those situations. In other words: Accept inwardly and focus outwardly.

World record in treating social phobia

NTNU researchers set up the project to compare the most recognized methods for treating social anxiety disorders. Well over 100 patients participated in the study and were divided into four groups.

The first group received only medication, the second group received only therapy, the third group received a combination of the two, and the fourth received a placebo pill. The four groups were compared along the way, and researchers conducted a follow-up assessment with them a year after treatment ended.

During treatment and right afterwards, the patients in groups two and three were managing equally well. But after a year, it was clear that the group two participants - those who had only received cognitive therapy - fared the best.

Only with the help of cognitive therapy have researchers managed to increase the recovery rate in patients with social anxiety disorders by 20 to 25 per cent, as compared with the norm for this group.

"This is the most effective treatment ever for this patient group. Treatment of mental illness often isn't as effective as treating a bone fracture, but here we've shown that treatment of psychiatric disorders can be equally effective," says Nordahl.

Many patients don't get adequate treatment

Torkil Berge is a psychologist at Diakonhjemmet Hospital in Oslo and head of the Norwegian Association for Cognitive Therapy. He says social anxiety disorder is a public health problem with major negative consequences for the individual and for society. Nearly twelve per cent of the population will be affected by this illness during their lifetime.

"This is a hidden disorder, and many patients find it difficult to communicate their struggle to their healthcare providers. Thousands upon thousands of individuals end up not receiving adequate treatment. Of those who do get treatment, most are probably offered drug therapy," Berge says.

"I can well imagine that the combination of drug therapy and cognitive therapy isn't the best approach, as NTNU researchers have determined in this study," he said.

Using metacognitive therapy

Nordahl and the rest of the research team have also worked to improve standard cognitive therapy. They have added new processing elements, which have shown greater effectiveness.

"We're using what's called metacognitive therapy, meaning that we work with patients' thoughts and their reactions and beliefs about those thoughts. We address their rumination and worry about how they function in social situations. Learning to regulate their attention processes and training with mental tasks are new therapeutic elements with enormous potential for this group of patients," says Nordahl.

The researchers now hope to develop standardized cognitive therapy further for patients who suffer from social anxiety disorders.
There is a strong suspicion that Helicobacter pylori is linked to the development of stomach cancer. Now an international team of researchers led by Prof. Donald R. Ronning (University of Toledo, USA) has used neutrons to unlock the secret to the functionality of an important enzyme in the bacterium's metabolism. This could be used as a point of attack for new medications. The team made the corresponding measurements at the neutron sources in Oak Ridge (USA) and at the research neutron source FRM II of the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

One in every two people everywhere in the world has it in his or her stomach: Helicobacter pylori. Ulcers and chronic gastritis are the most common illnesses associated with this bacterium. Up to now the standard therapy used to combat this stomach germ has been a combination of two antibiotics and a proton pump inhibitor. But this treatment is only successful in 70 percent of cases, and an increasing level of resistance is developing. For quite some time now scientists have therefore been searching for alternative medications to fight this dangerous bacterium.

In contrast to humans and to many helpful bacteria, H. pylori uses a special enzyme to synthesize vitamin K2. As a result, this enzyme, 5'-methylthioadenosine nucleosidase (MTAN), offers very promising prospects for the development of a medication that acts specifically against H. pylori without harming useful bacteria or even human cells.

Structural determination with neutrons

The enzyme MTAN is part of an important step in the synthesis of vitamin K2. Hydrogen bonds bind a precursor of the vitamin in order to cut off a side chain. But the positions and position changes of the hydrogen atoms essential to this process were not previously known with certainty.

The usual method of structural determination for enzymes, crystal structure analysis using x-ray radiation, is of little help here, since the x-ray radiation is almost blind to hydrogen atoms. Therefore, the researchers based their structural determination on neutrons, which are particularly sensitive to hydrogen atoms.

The scientists investigated different variations of the enzyme at the BIODIFF diffractometer, operated jointly by the TUM and the Julich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) in the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum in Garching north of Munich, and at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) neutron source. The joint measurements allowed them draw a detailed picture of the enzyme's mode of action.

"Now that we know the exact process of the reaction and the binding sites of the enzyme involved, it's possible to develop molecules that block exactly this process," says TUM biologist Andreas Ostermann, who supervises the instrument at the FRM II together with Dr. Tobias Schrader (JCNS).
An international team of scientists has announced a new advance in the fight against Alzheimers disease by identifying a new drug target for not only improving symptoms of brain degeneration  but also to extend the life-span of the terminally ill mice.

Dr Sophie Bradley and Professor Andrew Tobin. (Image Credit: Jonathan Sisson/ University of Leicester)

The four-year study by Medical Research Council (MRC) scientists based at the MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Leicester is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The study was led by Professor Andrew Tobin alongside colleagues from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company and the Monash Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences in Australia. The project was also partly supported by the Wellcome Trust.

Corresponding author Professor Tobin, who alongside the lead researcher Dr Sophie Bradley has since moved from the University of Leicester to the University of Glasgow, said:

The paper describes drug-like molecules that can restore memory loss and slow progression of prion neurodegenerative disease in a manner that relates to the potential of these drugs in human Alzheimers disease. We have been using mice whose brain cells are progressively dying, similar to what happens in Alzheimers disease. This project focuses on a particular protein in the brain, which is proposed to be involved in Alzheimers disease, and as such could be a potential target for new drugs. We have treated mice with a new class of drug, and found that these drugs can not only improve symptoms of brain degeneration, such as cognitive decline, but can also extend the life-span of these terminally-sick mice.

The researchers state that drugs which activate this protein receptor in the brain have previously been tested in clinical trials for Alzheimers disease, and showed positive results with respect to improving cognition, but the patients experienced a large number of adverse side effects. This new class of drug is more selective and does not cause any side-effects when administered to mice in the study.

The study authors believe that this offers hope in the design of new drugs for improving cognition and extending life span.

Professor Tobin said:

This work may provide important information as to whether this protein is a viable drug target in the treatment of diseases associated with the progressive death of brain cells. This is of great importance to society, based on the fact that the treatment options for Alzheimer's disease are very limited  there are no cures for Alzheimers disease and current treatments are focused on relieving some of the symptoms. What we have found is a novel class of drugs, called allosteric ligands, that target a protein called the M1 muscarinic receptor, which is present in the brain. Activating this receptor protein can not only improve cognitive function in mice with progressive brain degeneration, but when administered daily, can extend life span.

The scientists say the work is important because it focuses on identifying a treatment that not only improves symptoms associated with neurodegeneration, like current treatments, but also identifies a new strategy for slowing disease progression and extending life-span.

Professor Tobin said:
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has omitted a section dealing with Nadar womens historic struggle to cover their upper body in Kerala from Class nine textbooks.



The board issued a circular to all school heads affiliated to it stating that section 4.1 titled Caste conflict and dress change under the theme Clothing: a Social History in the text book India and Contemporary World-I for Class IX stands omitted.



The circular also says that no questions will be asked from this section in 2017. No reason has been given for the omission.



This omitted section covered how caste system clearly defined what subordinate and the dominant caste Hindus should wear, eat and so on.



In May 1822, women of the shanar caste were attacked by Nairs in public places in the southern princely state of Travancore (now part of Kerala) for wearing a cloth across their upper-bodies. Over subsequent decades, a violent conflict over dress code ensued.



In those times only the upper-class women were allowed to cover their upper bodies. It was against this practice that the Nadar women waged their historic fight.


Bengaluru: Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has refuted reports that he was against demonetisation, and has clarified that he continues to believe the note ban is a good decision, although implementation challenges exist.



All that the CM had said was that post demonetisation, it was taking time for normalcy to return and that he is having to spend time resolving issues, Naidus son and TDP youth wing leader Nara Lokesh told News18.



Two media outlets are misleading the entire country. We will soon come out with a press release clarifying our position he said.



Earlier, many publications had quoted Naidu as saying the decision to demonetise high value bank notes was not as per our wish: and that a lot of problems still remain without any solution in sight.



The critique had shocked government circles not just because Naidu is an NDA ally but also because he heads a 13-member committee appointed by the Centre to look into demonetisation issues.



Demonetisation was not our wish but it happened. More than 40 days after demonetisation, there are still a lot of problems but yet there appears to be no solution, PTI had quoted him as saying while addressing a workshop of MPs, MLCs, MLAs and other leaders of his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Vijayawada.



I am spending two hours daily to ease the problems caused by demonetisation. I am breaking my head daily but we are unable to find a solution to this problem, the agency quoted the CM.



Naidu had initially been a strong proponent of ban on high denomination currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000. In fact, he had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 12 reiterating his demand.



On November 9, a day after the Prime Minister came out with the demonetisation announcement, the TDP had even claimed credit saying it was a "victory for Chandrababu" over his fight on corruption.



"This is a moral victory for the TDP," the party had said in posts on Facebook and Twitter.
New Delhi: Sources in the Delhi Police on Tuesday said that it has written to Facebook authorities after investigations surrounding the missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed found out that two Facebook profiles with his name were active till a week after he went untraceable on October 15.



More than two months after he went missing, Police is also likely to conduct a polygraphic test on missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed's roommate Qasim after the massive search inside the campus premises made no headway in the case, sources said on Wednesday.



Cops are also likely to go for a polygraphic test of atleast ten people depending on their consent as it stepped up efforts to get clues regarding Najeeb.



According to sources in the Delhi Police, the Facebook profiles were used for chatting with some of the contacts and the police are now trying to get the details of the locations from where the account holders logged in to their accounts.



Police have so far served notices to six people, including family members of Najeeb as well as the students with whom he was allegedly involved in a brawl at his hostel a night before he vanished, said a senior police officer.



The police, represented by senior standing counsel for Delhi government Rahul Mehra, had told Delhi High Court that four students, who are suspected of beating up Najeeb, would be put to lie-detector tests to get leads or clues about his disappearance and whereabouts.



"We have served notices to six people and after their consent, we will be carrying out the tests. Qasim gave his consent and he will be put to a lie-detector test tomorrow," said the officer.



Many of the students have gone to their homes for vacations, which is hindering investigation, he said.



Meanwhile, more than 600 Delhi Police personnel assisted by sniffer dogs concluded their search of the sprawling JNU campus but could not find any clues of the missing student.



Police team began its search around 9 AM On Tuesday under the supervision of DCP (Crime Branch) G Ram Gopal Naik and finished by 3 PM.



The search had began on Monday and almost 60-70 per cent of the campus was covered while the remaining campus was scanned on Tuesday.



All agencies of Delhi Police including Special Cell, Special Branch and the local police, pooling more than 600 personnel scanned the interiors and residential areas, the official said.



Najeeb has been missing since October 15 after an alleged scuffle at his hostel with ABVP students on the night of October 14.



A reward of Rs 10 lakh has been announced by Delhi Police on any information about Najeeb.



The massive search was mounted following a Delhi High Court order last week directing the police to scan the entire JNU campus including hostels, classrooms as well as rooftops of the buildings with help of sniffer dogs.







After scanning the campus, the police is likely to ask JNU administration to beef up its security.



"We have observed that the forest area is quite dense and students go there even late in the night. We will request JNU authorities to increase security inside the campus for the safety of students," said an officer.



(With PTI inputs)
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav feels the days of caste-based politics in the state are over and now the two Ds -- development and demonetisation problems -- will work in favour of the Samajwadi Party in the upcoming assembly polls.



According to him, his family feud is no more a factor and all issues have been changed post demonetisation.



"That is a thing of past now. We are working together to win the elections. Issues have changed and post demonetisation nobody remembers that (family feud) now. All the other issues have been left behind and demonetisation has emerged as the key issue," he said.



He asserted that Uttar Pradesh will vote for his work, image and not on caste equations.



"Our work in last five years and the problems people are facing due to demonetisation will lead us to victory in upcoming elections. Jo kataarein ATM ke bahar lagi hai wo polling booth ke bahar lagegi (polling booths will see long queues like ones outside ATMs now," Akhilesh told PTI in an interview.



When asked who he considers the bigger rival -- BJP or BSP, he said people of Uttar Pradesh have lost faith in both of them.



"BJP has done nothing for Uttar Pradesh in last two and a half years. The Prime Minister was elected from UP, home minister and defence minister are also representing UP. They have maximum number of MPs from UP but they have given nothing to the state apart from Adarsh Gaon Yojna and nothing is happening on that front also," he said.



"As far as BSP is concerned, people are not interested in getting elephants installed everywhere," he added.



His father and SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has already ruled out any pre-poll alliance with Congress but Akhilesh said it will be premature to predict anything as of now.



"Of course the party president will take a call on that but I believe that we will get 300 plus seats if we enter into a pre-poll alliance with Congress. I know that netaji (Mulayam) has said there will be merger, no alliances but there is still time for the elections and you must wait and watch. Politics is full of surprises and you never know what will happen tomorrow," he said.



"I do not have any doubt on getting an absolute majority but we can get 300 plus seats if we fight together. Samajwadis believe that Congress is their best friend when it is weak," he said.



SP had gained absolute majority in 2012 winning 224 seats. BSP had won 80, BJP 47 and Congress 28.



Akhilesh does not believe there is too much focus on Muslim voters.



"If I am talking about development, they (Muslims) should also get benefited by it. I am giving them their right. If we explain this, nobody will have any objection. Those who want to do communal politics will not be successful in UP. Politics has changed and it is no more based on caste equations," he asserted.



"People are connected through media and social media and they are aware of what is happening in the world. They want politics of development and positivity, not of hatred," he added.



On the law-and-order issue, he said he is leaving no stone unturned to restore faith of the people.



"I have sent my teams to New York, Singapore and Houston to study their police system. We have also started 'dial 100 scheme' which will be implemented in a phase-wise manner."



On party tickets, he said, "Ticket distribution is not in my hand. I can only give my suggestions and will do that.

Everyone is aware of my views on that. National president of the party will take a call on that," said Akhilesh, who stayed away when his father launched the party's poll campaign last month from a stronghold of the erstwhile Quami Ekta Dal (QED) led by Mukhtar Ansari.



He had opposed the merger of the QED with his party but Mulayam and uncle Shivpal Yadav overruled the young chief minister later.



Asked whether he got a 'free hand' to work during his tenure, Akhilesh said he feels more matured and experienced now.



"Last time I was new in politics and became chief minister with the blessings of netaji. I am more matured and with age I have also gained experience. I have fulfilled all the promises I had made in my manifesto. I have initiated schemes on which Samajwadis can do politics for next 10-15 years. In my next innings I will work harder to make UP number one state," he said.
New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and alleged that he received kickbacks as Gujarat chief minister in 2012. He further said that the records are with I-T Dept for last two and half years and no action has been taken.

As per records available with Income tax department, Rs 2.5 cr was given to PM Modi on 30 Oct 13;Rs 5cr on 12 Nov 13;Rs 2.5 cr on 27 Nov 13;Rs 5cr on 29 Nov 13, Rahul said at a rally in Mehsana.

In a diary retrieved from the Sahara office during an I-T raid, there were file notings that clearly said that they paid Modi at least nine times in a duration of six months, Rahul added.

Reacting to the news, BJP spokesperson Zafar Islam said that Rahul Gandhi has been making false claims that he has proof against PM but where is the proof.

Stay tuned for live updates

Read all the Latest News , Breaking News , watch Top Videos and Live TV here.
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (EC) is likely to inform Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) about its decision to delist 200 political parties on suspicion of their alleged involvement in money laundering.



It was found that out of 200, many of these political parties have not contested any election in last 10 years and EC suspects that they could be involved in money laundering.



Sources said, CBDT will look into the financial transactions of these political parties since they are no longer entitled to any tax benefit.



"The initiative has been taken to curb black money menace and against those who are involved in forming political parties to turn black money into white," he said.



Presently there are seven national political parties, 58 state parties and nearly 1786 registered unrecognised parties active in India.










Bellur Narayanaswamy Srikrishna, Retired judge of the Supreme Court spoke to CNN-News18's Smitha Nair on recent controversy surrounding theatre activist Kamal Chavara who was charged with sedition in Kerala for allegedly insulting our national anthem over a Facebook post.



Excerpts:



News18: On Sunday writer and theatre activist Kamal Chavara was arrested and charged with sedition in Kerala. The complainant, a BJP worker, claimed the writer had insulted the national anthem in a facebook post ( an extract from his novel) How do you view this development?



Justice Srikrishna: The two offences are totally distinct. Assuming there was insult to the national anthem that may become punishable under some other provision of law but it cannot be called sedition.



News18: This arrest in Kerala came close on the heels of over 10 delegates of the international film festival of Kerala being booked for not standing up while the national anthem was not played. Is that not excessive?



Justice Srikrishna: Of course it is. In a country like USA it has been held that burning the national flag is the fundamental right of a citizen. Even in U.K. They were selling lingerie printed with the national flag at the time of the 75th anniversary of the Queen's ascension to the throne.



News18: How do you view the recent Supreme Court judgement making it mandatory for cinema halls to play the national anthem before the start of a screening?



Justice Srikrishna: I think the SC should steer clear of such issues and leave it to the executive to implement the laws already in existence. Nothing but judicial overkill in my view.



News18: Does the mandatory playing of the national anthem in your opinion help inculcate patriotism?



Justice Srikrishna: No. Respect must be commanded and not demanded or enforced. Enforcement of such sentiments will be counterproductive.



News18: what is sedition. How has the understanding of what constitutes sedition changed over time ? How did speaking ones mind or not standing up while the national anthem played become seditious?



Justice Srikrishna: The offence as defined consists of doing something by words or acts to promote disaffection towards the govt established by law. When it's constitutionality was challenged, the SC has read down the provision and held that there must be an additional element of incitement to breach of law and order in order to amount to offence of sedition.



News18: Increasingly in public discourse do you see the government of the day being equated with the nation. As in criticism of certain policies of the govt is viewed as or equated with being anti national.



Justice Srikrishna: Absolutely! The two are as different as chalk and cheese. One might hate the government and publicly show it but may yet be a nationalist. Much of the confusion has arisen because of the attempt to conflate the two concepts.


The Pakistan Navy's frontline combat unit carried out live missile firing in the North Arabian Sea, the country's leading daily DAWN quoting a press release on Tuesday.



Surface to Surface Anti-ship Missile was launched from Sword Class frigate PNS Aslat, the report quoting the release added.



Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Mohammad Zakaullah and Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman witnessed the live missile firing.



The Naval Chief stated that Live Missile Firing reaffirms credibility of deterrence at sea and reassures Pakistan Navys commitment to safeguarding our maritime frontiers against all threats.




Rajkot: Police on Tuesday raided the residence of a jeweller in Bhuj town of Kutch district and seized Rs 83.76 lakh in new as well as old notes.



Based on a tip-off, officials of the Bhuj Local Crime Branch (LCB) raided jeweller Kishor Gadhecha's house in Orient Colony and detained him and two others after seizing Rs 83.76 lakh cash found there, an LCB release said.



Gadhecha owns a jewellery shop in Bhuj, it added.



The other two detainees were identified as Jiva Rabari and Jitendra Gandhi. During questioning, Gadhecha told the police that while Rabari was his driver, Gandhi was his friend.



"The seized cash comprised 1,780 notes of Rs 2,000, 3,282 notes of defunct Rs 1,000 notes, 3028 bills of scrapped Rs 500 and 200 notes of Rs 100," the release said.



Gadhecha told the LCB that the cash came from his jewellery business.



"The LCB has handed over the probe to Bhuj 'B' Division police, which will now find out the exact source of the cash," the release said.


: Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, whose residence has been raided by Income Tax officials on Wednesday, was handpicked for the top job by the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa in June 2016.Rao is considered close to chief minister O Panneerselvam and Sasikala Natarajan who is set to take over as general secretary of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.The raids are considered an embarrassment for both of them; DMK leader M K Stalin has already called it a disgrace to the state.The raids happened just two days after Panneerselvam visited Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi. Sources in the Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate said the raids were in connection with the I-T raids against businessmen Sekar Reddy and Sreenivasa Reddy in Chennai.Though Rao is top bureaucrat of the state, he wasn't running the show when Jayalalithaa was in hospital as Sheela Balakrishnan the special advisor to the CM was in charge then. He was back at the helm following the death of Jayalalithaa
Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, one of Bollywoods most talked about couples, made headlines on December 20 as they welcomed their first child together and opting for a rather unique name for him - Timur Ali Khan Pataudi. But the name ended up sparking a debate online. The reason? Its connection to the name Timur, which was historically linked with the 14th century Turkic conqueror Timur the Lame, or Tamerlane. Timur, who is believed to have led a ruthless annihilation of Indians in 1399 AD. Tamerlane, or Timur died on February 18th, 1405. He was buried in Gur-i Amir or Guri Amir in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. And even after his death, he continued to scare everyone.



Nader Shah took away the stone adorning Timurs tomb



At that time, the stones that were laid on the upper side of Islamic structures were decorated, and the actual coffin would be kept in the lower area. Timurs tomb too was adorned with an expensive stone, In 1740 Nader Shah took the stone away to Iran where it was unfortunately broken into two parts. It is said, post this Nader Shahs ugly phase began. On being advised by his well wishers, Nader returned the stone on his coffin and the situation became normal.



Opening of the tomb of Timur



In 1941, Joseph Stalin ordered the opening of the tomb of Timur. Russian anthropologist by the name Mikhail Gerasimov was assigned the task of exhumation. It was he who suggested that Timur was 6 feet tall.



It is believed that on Timurs coffin Mikhail Mikhaylovich Gerasimov discovered a few warnings. 1) The world will be shaken once I resurrect 2) The one who will open my coffin will be defeated by his enemies. A few old men and a priest told Mikhail Mikhaylovich Gerasimov and Tashmukhammed Kary-Niyazov (who was the chief supervisor) that soon a problem will surface, but this warning wasnt taken seriously. These people stated that within three days, a problem would appear and it would affect that person who had opened the coffin. A day after the coffin was opened, on June 22 1941, Hitler attacked the Soviet Union.



Burial of remains



After several attacks by Germany, Stalin ordered the return of the remains of Temur and to bury them with full honor. This had happened on December 20, 1942. After Temurs remains were buried, German forces surrendered and Russians won the Battle of Stalingrad. This was referred to as one of the most terrible battles of the war.



The Mysterious Tomb



When Timurs coffin was opened it filled the mausoleum with a stench of frankincense, rose, camphor and resin. Initially it was thought to be the odor of different curses, but later it was found that the smell was actually from oils used for embalming.



Book References:

Orthodoxy, Innovation, and Revival: Considerations of the Past in Imperial Mughal Tomb Culture

History of Timur Bank: Sharf Ul Din Ali Zyadi

Taj Mahal Ya Mummy Mahal: Afsar Ahmad


Why don't they raid Amit Shah and others who are collecting money? 3/6  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) December 21, 2016

Reacting on I-T raids at Chennai Chief Secretary Ram Mohan Raos residence, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday lashed out at the Centre for harassing bureaucrats and questioned why they are not conducting raids at BJP President Amit Shahs house for collecting money.In a series of tweets, she said, Earlier the Principal Secretary of Arvind Kejriwal was raided and harassed. Now I read Chief Secretary of TN also raided. Why this vindictive, unethical, technically improper action? Is it only to disturb the federal structure? Why don't they raid Amit Shah and others who are collecting money?While corruption needs to be condemned strongly, raid on TN Chief Secretary by Central agencies devalues institution of head of civil service, her tweet reads.Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Siddharth Nath Singh said, When she (Mamata) question the Indian Army, she can question anyone. Lets not politicise the IT raid and let the government agency do their job.
PM Modi, you did not allow me to speak in Parliament for whatever reason. On November 22, 2014, there was an Income Tax raid on Sahara company. There were records of money paid to Modi in 2013 and 2014. In six months, Sahara people say, they paid Modi nine times. I-T Department says there should be an inquiry. Tell us Modi whether what Sahara alleges is true or not, Gandhi said in a rally in Mehsana in Gujarat on Wednesday.



Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of taking kickbacks from two business groups when he was Gujarat chief minister, citing records from a case which has not made much headway in the Supreme Court.Similarly, there is a record of Birla (Group) paying. Now it is your turn Modi to tell the country whether it is true or not. The records are with IT Department for last 2 and half years, yet no action has been taken. An independent enquiry must be initiated? the Congress vice-president said.The BJP immediately dismissed Gandhis allegations as baseless. There is no merit in his allegations. Nobody takes Rahul seriously, BJP spokesperson Zafar Islam told CNN-News18.Even as BJP leader taunted Rahul on whether this was the "earthquake" he was threatening to unleash, sources close to the Congress leader told News18 that he will come out out with "more issues and evidence".BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javedekar said, "These are baseless allegations and those who talk about earthquakes will themselves fall."Rahul Gandhi had levelled corruption allegations against PM Modi last week but this is the first time that he has gone into the details. If I speak there will be an earthquake, Gandhi had said.A case pertaining to the Sahara and Birla diaries filed by Prashant Bhushan is already pending before the Supreme Court seeking a SIT probe into the evidence gathered against the two corporate groups regarding bribing of politicians.The bench hearing the petition had said that it would not order an inquiry on the basis of Income Tax papers relating to raids at Aditya Birla Group and Sahara companies unless there was credible material to suggest illegal payoffs.The court asked Bhushan to show concrete and actionable evidence for the court to intervene. The next hearing in the matter will be on January 4, 2017.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, whose party had boycotted a function involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, will attend the public function in Mumbai on December 24 to be addressed by the PM.



The Prime Minister, after laying the foundation stone for two Metro rail projects, elevated rail corridors project, the Mumbai Trans Harbour link and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off Arabian Sea, will address a public function in suburban Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).



"There will be only one function to lay the foundation stone for these projects and Uddhav Thackeray will attend the proceedings at the MMRDA grounds in BKC," a close aide of the Sena chief told PTI today.



On October 11 last year, Modi had laid the foundation stone of a grand memorial to Babasaheb Ambedkar at the Indu Mills compound in the heart of Mumbai, a function which was boycotted by Shiv Sena whose chief Uddhav Thackeray was not invited.



Sena is a part of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre as well as the BJP-led Maharashtra government.



Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar is in Delhi and will attend the birthday celebrations of Ajit Singh, former union minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief on Thursday.



"Pawar saheb will attend the function to lay the foundation stone of Metro in Pune if invited. His office in Mumbai has not received an invite," one of the aide of the Maratha strongman said.




Bengaluru-based TeamIndus on Wednesday announced a commercial agreement to carry a robotic rover developed by Hakuto, the Japanese team in the Google Lunar XPRIZE, to the moon aboard TeamIndus spacecraft in late 2017.This is a first-of-its-kind collaboration of two private space enterprises competing in the Google Lunar XPRIZE, said TeamIndus which signed a launch contract to land a spacecraft on the moon with Indian space agency Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) earlier this month."We are delighted to welcome Hakuto on-board our spacecraft and look forward to working with them over the next few months," TeamIndus Fleet Commander Rahul Narayan said in a statement."After our PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) launch contract announcement, this is a reaffirmation of our technology preparedness as we continue to build towards becoming the first private entity to land on the Moon," Narayan added.TeamIndus can carry up to 20 kg of payload of which the Japanese rover weighs four kg."In addition to that we are carrying International University payloads and student experiments under our Lab2Moon initiative," Sridhar Ramasubban of TeamIndus noted.The goal of the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE is to ignite a new era of space exploration by lowering the cost and inspiring the imagination of the next generation.To win the prize, privately-funded teams must land their spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, travel 500 metres, and broadcast high definition video, images, and data back to Earth.Both TeamIndus and Hakuto had already demonstrated their technology by winning Milestone Prizes from Google Lunar XPRIZE in 2015.TeamIndus won $1 million for demonstrating its landing technology and Hakuto won the $500,000 Mobility Prize for the robotic rover it developed.The TeamIndus spacecraft, in addition to the Japanese Rover, will also be carrying the indigenously designed and developed robotic rover, ECA, the company said.TeamIndus said it would launch the spacecraft aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and would eventually soft-land on the lunar surface.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday opened a new road tunnel underneath the Bosphorus in Istanbul, the latest in a string of ambitious schemes to transform the country's infrastructure.



Erdogan, who has dominated the country from 2003 first as premier and then head of state since 2014, boasts that such undertakings are his "crazy projects" that no other Turkish leader had dared dream of.



From bridges to a shipping canal and airports, here is a rundown of the projects whose completion Erdogan has overseen and those still in progress.



MARMARAY TUNNEL

Opening date: October 2013

The Marmaray Tunnel was the first ever undersea passage beneath the Bosphorus between Europe and Asia. It is used by a suburban train system linked to Istanbul's metro network. According to the authorities, it has so far transported 172 million passengers.



OSMAN GAZI BRIDGE

Opening date: June 2016

The fourth-longest suspension bridge in the world, the Osman Gazi bridge stretches 2.6 kilometres (1.6 miles) across the Izmit gulf in Turkey's industrial northwest. It is named after the founder and first ruler of the Ottoman Empire.



SULTAN SELIM THE GRIM BRIDGE

Opening date: August 2016

A hybrid between a suspension and cable-stayed bridge, the Sultan Selim the Grim bridge is the widest suspension bridge in the world at 58.5 metres (192 feet). It is the third bridge across the Bosphorus, after the first opened in 1973 and the second in 1988. It is named after the 16th century sultan who conquered swathes of the Middle East during his eight-year rule.



AVRASYA TUNNEL

Opening date: December 20, 2016

The bridge is the first ever road tunnel underneath the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul and has been built at a depth of 106 metres (348 feet). The total tunnel project comprises an undersea Bosphorus crossing 3.4 kilometres (2.1 miles) long. The authorities are now considering building a third tunnel in Istanbul to take trains and vehicles.



ISTANBUL NEW AIRPORT

Opening date: February 26, 2018

Work on the new Istanbul airport is already well advanced. Built by the Black Sea, well outside the city centre, the authorities hope that the size of the facility will make Istanbul a global aviation hub like Dubai. Campaigners however accuse the authorities of ruining one of the few remaining green areas outside the city.



CANAL ISTANBUL

Opening date: Unspecified

Possibly the most ambitious of all of Erdogan's projects, the Canal Istanbul envisages the dredging of a new canal from the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, aiming to take pressure off the Bosphorus, one of the world's busiest shipping bottlenecks. The authorities have dismissed suggestions the Panama or Suez-style project is a step too far and Erdogan has said tenders will start in 2017.



DARDANELLES BRIDGE

Opening date: 2023

The bridge will span the famous Dardanelles Straits off the Gallipoli peninsula in a project that would dwarf the bridges over the Bosphorus. Erdogan has said construction will start on March 18. The area has huge national significance for Turks as the place where Ottoman troops resisted invading Allied soldiers in World War I. It is expected to be called 1915 Bridge after the year of the campaign.




Berlin: German authorities on Tuesday released a Pakistani asylum-seeker suspected of driving a truck into a Berlin Christmas market and killing 12 people due to a lack of evidence and the interior minister said the real perpetrator may still be on the run.



The truck smashed into wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages on Monday evening at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, one of west Berlin's most famous landmarks. Forty-five people were injured, 30 severely.



Islamic State claimed responsibility the attack, saying the perpetrator was a "soldier" of the militant group.



"He executed the operation in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition countries," its AMAQ news agency said.



But Germany's interior minister said that despite the claim, investigators were following various leads.



"We just heard about the supposed claim of responsibility by this so-called Islamic State that is in fact a gang of terrorists," Minister Thomas de Maiziere told ARD broadcaster. "There are several leads that investigators are following now."



The Chief Federal Prosecutor's Office said in a statement it had been unable to prove that the suspect had been in the cabin of the truck at the time of the attack and said he had denied any involvement.



Earlier, Die Welt newspaper quoted an unnamed police chief as saying: "We have the wrong man. And therefore a new situation. The true perpetrator is still armed, at large and can cause fresh damage."



Commenting on the suspect's release, de Maiziere told ZDF television: "That's why it is true that one cannot rule out that the perpetrator is still at large."



He said there was no doubt the Berlin incident had been an attack but the motive remained unclear. He also said it was not yet known how many foreigners were among the victims of the attack but no children had been among the dead.



News of the arrest of the 23-year-old Pakistani had led politicians in Germany and beyond to demand a crackdown on immigration, but Chancellor Angela Merkel urged caution.



"There is much we still do not know with sufficient certainty but we must, as things stand now, assume it was a terrorist attack," she told reporters earlier on Tuesday.



"I know it would be especially hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that the person who committed this act was someone who sought protection and asylum," she said.



POLISH CONNECTION



The truck belonged to a Polish freight company and its rightful driver was found shot dead in the vehicle. The Polish truck driver had arrived hours earlier in the German capital and spoken to his wife about 3 p.m., according to his cousin.



When she called again an hour later, there was no answer.



"At 3.45 p.m. you can see the movement on the GPS (Global Positioning System). The car moved forward and back. As if someone was learning to drive it," said the cousin, Ariel Zurawski, who was also the boss of the trucking company.



"I knew something was wrong."



Merkel joined hundreds of mourners on Tuesday evening at a memorial service at the church near the attack site. Her spokesman said she had spoken with the leaders of seven European countries and also with U.S. President Barack Obama, who all assured her of their support for Germany.



Security officials in Germany and Europe have warned for years that Christmas markets could present an easy target for militant attacks. In 2000, an al-Qaeda plan to bomb the Strasbourg Christmas market on New Year's Eve was foiled.



There were no concrete barricades at the Berlin Christmas market, as have been installed at a similar venue in Britain.



The attack fuelled immediate demands for a change to Merkel's immigration policies, under which more than a million people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere have arrived in Germany this year and last.



"We must say that we are in a state of war, although some people, who always only want to see good, do not want to see this," said Klaus Bouillon, interior minister of the state of Saarland and a member of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).



Horst Seehofer, leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, said: "We owe it to the victims, to those affected and to the whole population to rethink our immigration and security policy and to change it."



"FEAR OF EVIL"



The record influx has hit Merkel's ratings as she prepares to run for a fourth term next year and has boosted support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD).



AfD leader Frauke Petry said Germany was no longer safe and "radical Islamic terrorism has struck in the heart of Germany".



The incident evoked memories of an attack in Nice, France in July when a Tunisian-born man drove a 19-tonne truck along the beach front, mowing down people who had gathered to watch the fireworks on Bastille Day, killing 86 people. That was claimed by Islamic State.



The influx of migrants to the European Union has deeply divided its 28 members and fuelled the rise of populist anti-immigration movements that hope to capitalise on public concerns next year in elections in France, Germany and the Netherlands.



On Tuesday morning, investigators removed the black truck from the site for forensic examination. People left flowers at the scene and notes, one of which read: "Keep on living, Berliners!" One woman was crying as she stopped by the flowers.



Merkel said Germans must not be cowed by the attack: "We do not want to live paralysed by the fear of evil."



"Even if it is difficult in these hours, we will find the strength for the life we want to live in Germany - free, together and open."



Other European countries said they were reviewing security.



Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka called for biometric and fingerprint checks to be introduced along the Balkan route used by many migrants arriving in Europe in order to better control foreign jihadist fighters' movements.



London police said they were reviewing their plans for protecting public events over the festive period.














The IS-linked Amaq news agency said "a soldier of the Islamic State" carried out the Berlin carnage "in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries".

German police on Wednesday stepped up their hunt for the driver of a truck that rampaged through a Berlin Christmas market, in a deadly assault claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.The sole suspect -- a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker -- was released late Tuesday for lack of evidence, prompting worries of a killer on the loose and further rattling nerves in a shocked country."We can't rule out that the perpetrator is on the run," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told German broadcaster ZDF.Twelve people were killed when the Polish-registered articulated truck ploughed into the crowded market on Monday, smashing wooden stalls and crushing victims.Twenty-four injured remained in hospital, 14 of whom were in critical condition, according to de Maiziere.The scenes instantly revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist.There was no evidence to back the claim, nor was the perpetrator identified.Germany is part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.De Maiziere said several lines of inquiry were being pursued, but "we should let the security services do their job.""No-one will rest until the perpetrator or perpetrators have been caught," he told ARD public television.The attack comes at a sensitive time for Chancellor Angela Merkel who is running for a fourth term in 2017 but has faced strong criticism over her decision last year to open the country's borders to refugees.In a blow to investigators, federal prosecutors announced they had to release the only suspect in custody after finding no forensic evidence to link him to Germany's deadliest attack in recent years.The Pakistani man was arrested late Monday after he was reportedly seen jumping out of the truck and fleeing the scene.But officials had expressed growing doubts over whether they had the right suspect in custody."We may have a dangerous criminal in the area", Berlin's police chief Klaus Kandt said, adding that security would be boosted while urging "heightened vigilance".Following the suspect's release, Kandt told ARD television "one or more" perpetrators were believed to be on the run and possibly armed.Images from the aftermath showed the mangled truck with its windscreen smashed, a trail of destruction in its wake, while survivors recounted harrowing stories of near misses and bloody carnage.A Polish man, killed with a gunshot, was found on the truck's passenger seat, said de Maiziere. He was believed to be the initial driver of the Polish-registered vehicle.Merkel visited the scene of the carnage for a minute's silence on Tuesday and then joined a memorial service in the adjacent Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.Mourners placed flowers and candles at the site while German flags flew at half-mast.Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate was lit in the national colours in honour of the victims, and foreign leaders, led by US President Barack Obama, sent their condolences.Europe has been on high alert for most of 2016, with bloody jihadist attacks striking Paris and Brussels.In July, 15 people were injured in two attacks in the southern German state of Bavaria committed by asylum seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group.The arrival of 890,000 refugees last year has polarised Germany, with critics calling the influx a serious security threat.Opponents were quick to seize on the rampage as proof that Merkel's liberal asylum policy had endangered the country.Marcus Pretzell of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party labelled the Christmas market victims "Merkel's dead".
Ulaanbaatar: Mongolia's foreign minister says the Dalai Lama will no longer be allowed to visit his country after a visit by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader prompted protests from China and a suspension of talks on a major loan.



China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it "attached importance" to the Mongolian diplomat's statement and hoped the country would "honor the commitment" it has made on the issue.



Yesterday, the Mongolian newspaper Unuudur carried remarks by Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil that the Dalai Lama would not be allowed to visit Mongolia even on religious grounds.



Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to split Tibet from China.



Mongolia's economy is heavily dependent on China. The countries are discussing a possible USD 4.2 billion loan by Beijing to deal with a recession. (AP)








Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the reinforcement of security measures after the assassination of Russian ambassador in Ankara and terror attack in Berlin.



Putin called on the intelligence services to take additional steps to ensure security within Russia and abroad, and to strengthen the security of diplomatic delegations overseas as well as their employees, Efe news reported on Tuesday.



He called for closer cooperation with the secret services of other countries to prevent terror attacks like the one that happened on Monday night at a Christmas market in the German capital, leaving 12 dead.



The Russian president also called for more anti-terrorist measures, including "neutralizing militants and their leaders, preventing terrorist crimes and cutting short the channels of terrorism financing".



Putin stressed that the murder of the Russian ambassador in Ankara, at the hands of a Turkish policeman in revenge for the Russian role in Aleppo, was "particularly painful".



He also condemned the attack in Berlin and recalled his proposal to "present a common front against international terrorism".






Ankara: Seven-year-old Bana al-Abed, whose Twitter account gave a tragic description of the bombing of Aleppo in Syria, met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday at his palace in Ankara.



Erdogan received Bana and her family at his palace, the state-run Anadolu agency said, publishing a picture of Erdogan hugging the girl.



A video published by the agency also showed a seated Erdogan holding Bana and an unidentified boy sitting on his knees, flanked by his wife Emine.



The young Syrian girl was one of thousands of people evacuated from once rebel-held areas of Aleppo in the last days under a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia.



She was evacuated on Monday and Turkish officials promised she would come to Turkey with her family. But it was not clear when she had crossed over.



For her 330,000 followers, Bana is a symbol of the tragedy unfolding in Syria, although Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has slammed her and her mother's nearly daily tweets as propaganda.



Turkey is hosting some 2.7 million refugees from the Syria conflict but has made clear it now prefers to look after those recently displaced, who are not injured, on the Syrian side of the border.



However it makes exceptions for special cases and the wounded.
Washington/Colombo: A Tamil diaspora group in the US has appealed to President Barack Obama to de-proscribe the LTTE as a terror outfit in the country, saying this could give a "little relief" to the community which faces problems while travelling abroad.



The group 'Tamils for Obama' claimed that the LTTE has been defunct with no activities since 2009.



In a statement, the group have said that many Tamils are "suffering" because of the listing of the LTTE as a terror group in the US.



"Because of the listing of Tamil Tigers, it creates pain for many US Tamils when they travel to abroad and when they return to the US," the statement said.



"They have to go through many hours of interrogation. Some US Tamils have asked us to convince Obama to help us by removing Tamil Tigers from the list. Obama can give Tamils a little relief by de-listing the Tamil Tiger during this Christmas and giving season. There is no reason to keep them on the list," it said.



The group said it was a "mistake" by the George Bush's administration to support the Sri Lankan "genocidal war against the innocent Tamils". The Tamil groups also hope that the European Union would also de-list the LTTE.



The US banned the LTTE in 1997 followed by India, UK and the EU. The UN has estimated that 40,000 people died, many of them civilians, during the three-decade-long civil war that ended in 2009. It was under President Mahinda Rajapaksa's tenure that the Sri Lankan forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the separatist group that waged armed

insurgency against the government.
Moscow: The Russia on Wednesday said it was too early to conclude who was behind the murder of Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov in Ankara, after Turkey's foreign minister put the blame on exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.



"In this case it is hardly worth hurrying to any conclusions until the investigation determines - as our president said - who was behind the murder of our ambassador," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.



In the first official accusation against Gulen by a top Turkish official over the killing, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told US counterpart John Kerry in a phone call yesterday that Turkey believed Gulen's group FETO was involved, the foreign ministry said.



The US-based Gulen - who Ankara says also orchestrated an attempted coup in July - had earlier issued a statement to condemn the assassination as a "terrorist act" that left him "shocked and deeply saddened."



President Vladimir Putin will take part in mourning ceremonies for the slain ambassador tomorrow as he is laid to rest in his homeland.



Veteran diplomat Karlov was shot nine times in the back by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas at the art gallery opening of a show of Russian photography on Monday.



His body arrived back in Moscow late Tuesday after Russian investigators landed in Turkey to help probe the assassination.



The murder stunned Ankara and Moscow, which have rowed repeatedly over the Syria conflict but had recently begun to cooperate closely on the evacuations from war-wrecked Aleppo.
United Nations: The president of the UN General Assembly called Fidel Castro "one of the 20th century's most iconic and influential leaders" at a memorial tribute to the late leader of the Cuban revolution who led his country for nearly 50 years.



Peter Thompson told on Tuesday's ceremony that for many people Castro "embodied the struggle of the global south for independence, justice and development."



He said Castro's "activism in pursuit of a fairer and more just world made him a symbol of resistance and inspiration to people across the world in Latin America, Africa and beyond."



Nearly 30 speakers representing various groups and countries addressed the 193-member world body but there were no speakers from Western nations.
Washington: The US military has officially ended operations in a former Islamic State bastion in Libya, officials announced Tuesday.



The Pentagon had launched Operation Odyssey Lightning to help local forces push the jihadists from the coastal city of Sirte on August 1.



"In partnership with the Libyan Government of National Accord, the operation succeeded in its core objective of enabling GNA-aligned forces to drive Daesh (IS) out of Sirte," the US military's Africa Command said in a statement.



US drones, gunships and warplanes had hammered IS positions, conducting a total of 495 strikes.



"We are proud to have supported this campaign to eliminate ISIL's hold over the only city it has controlled outside Iraq and Syria," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters, using an IS acronym.



Officials said the United States would continue to strike IS jihadists if the Libyan unity government asked for help in doing so.



Unity government leader Fayez al-Sarraj on Saturday announced that military operations in Sirte were done, but IS still has fighters in Libya and on Sunday conducted a suicide attack in Benghazi.



The fall of Sirte -- Kadhafi's home town located 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of Tripoli -- is a major setback for IS, which has also faced military defeats in Syria and Iraq.



Libya descended into chaos following the NATO-backed ousting of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with rival administrations emerging and well-armed militias vying for control of its vast oil wealth.
BEDFORD  A Moneta woman who admitted to breaking into numerous cars in Bedford County, taking credit cards and other items early this year, was ordered in court Tuesday to go to prison for two years and pay thousands of dollars in restitution.

Chelsea Elaine Francisco, 22, also must undergo substance abuse evaluation and treatment after her defense lawyer said drug addiction fueled the rash of felonies.

Francisco pleaded guilty Sept. 2 in Bedford County Circuit Court to multiple felonies related to grand larceny with an alleged offense date of Feb. 20, court records show.

Bedford County authorities first arrested Francisco in March, saying she was identified in photos that showed a woman using a stolen ATM card at a local bank.

She was linked to 13 incidents in the south side of Bedford County early this year, the Sheriffs Office said after the arrest.

Francisco had been out on bond earlier in the year but was re-arrested in November because she and her probation officer hadnt met to complete a pre-sentence report. She will receive credit for that jail time.

Bedford County Commonwealths Attorney Wes Nance asked that the sentencing reflect the seriousness and number of break-ins in what can only be characterized as a crime spree.

Nance acknowledged the role drugs may have played but said when that substance abuse causes you to victimize others, youre not just hurting yourselves.

Circuit Judge James Updike Jr. ordered seven years in prison, suspended after two years, on each felony conviction. She earlier pleaded guilty to a dozen charges. Since all terms will run concurrently, the total active sentence is two years, with credit for time served.

Her defense attorney, Cam Warren, asked for a lesser sentence, saying Francisco was in need of substance abuse treatment rather than lengthy prison time.

He emphasized this was her only major brush with the law, and the cluster of break-ins took place around the same time overnight. Really were talking about one night of her life.

Judge Updike ordered five years of supervised probation for Francisco on her release, mandatory substance abuse evaluation and treatment and no alcohol use.

She also must pay restitution through the courts totaling an estimated $4,000 to the victims of the car break-ins and property thefts.
Trump's backers were snookered

When conservatives chose to believe fake news stories about Hillary Clinton and ignore real news stories about Donald Trump, they embraced the first anti-American presidential candidate in our history.

To be clear, they chose the propaganda bubble  it was not forced on them like in Russia  and by making this choice, theyve given America a man whose childish behavior, willful ignorance and petty arrogance are on display daily worldwide. My wish is that conservatives alone would reap the consequences of the emotionally dysfunctional, chaos-driven dictator wannabe they chose to dismantle the social safety net and justice system and to abandon any hope of fixing an economy too dependent on income inequality, but unfortunately we will all pay the price.

Ironically, his supporters will pay the highest price but again by choice.

Trump has already nominated anti-middle class, anti-working poor, pro-war, pro-Russia candidates for his Cabinet and has no interest in the nuances of national security. Gee, what could possibly go wrong? As the next four years of this lunacy unfolds, the conservatives, as always, will look for excuses as to why nothing they promised to the middle and working classes actually happened. Who do you think will fight his wars? For the super-wealthy, that will be a different story, of course. (Fun fact per the CEO of United Technologies, the $7 million Indiana taxpayers spent to keep 750 jobs at Carrier will be used to further automate the plant and layoff those same workers at a later date.) Oh and in case the fake news outlets didnt mention it, about 500 people did lose their jobs at Carrier.

Trump has no fear of basically saying his supporters are suckers for believing he would actually save jobs, replace Obamacare on Day One or actually lock her up. But give the devil his due: If nothing else, he knows his audience. Fake America Great Again.

WALTER DANIELS

Lynchburg

Peake for Virginia Senate

I am writing in support of Mark Peake for the District 22nd seat for the Virginia Senate.

I have known him for a number of years through my work as a police officer (retired) and now as the Clerk of the Lynchburg Circuit Court Clerks Office.

He is extremely well respected in our Judicial System and his interaction with his clients and the public is genuine and it shows that he cares for their wellbeing. He would make for an excellent representative for us in the Virginia Senate, and we need our voice back in the Lynchburg area.

I hope that everyone realizes the importance of this vote and will take a few moments on Jan. 10 to vote not only for Mark Peake, but for the only person who will represent Lynchburg and is aware of the needs of the 22nd District.

EUGENE C. WINGFIELD

Lynchburg

Thanks from Adult Care Center

The Adult Care Center wants to thank The News & Advance for printing our wish list in the Dec. 11 paper. We have joyfully received many much-needed donations. In fact, the response to our needs has been nothing short of phenomenal.

In this wonderful season of Thanksgiving, those of us who are here at the center every day have many reasons to be thankful. We have many wonderful volunteers, and we cherish each of them. But we want to especially thank the young men and women and their leader  Dr. V  who belong to the E.C. Glass ACabellas and ACafellas who came recently to sing for us. They are fabulous! The groups change every year when seniors graduate, but the quality of their music is consistently wonderful.

Then, we had a visit from second graders at James River Day School. These little people presented a 30-minute patriotic program for us. Just hearing these beautiful young voices sing The Star-Spangled Banner after they had explained the circumstances under which our national anthem was pinned made our hearts sing. As former Mayor Jimmy Bryant always said, Its a great day to be alive in Lynchburg!

SHANDA ROWE

Executive director

Adult Care Center of Central Virginia
As the holiday shopping season reaches its final peak, more and more customers are looking for that perfect last minute gift. Three new boutiques have opened within the last year, bringing additional fashion and design to the Lynchburg area.

Woven Devotion

105 Cornerstone St. Suite 102, (434) 534-3040, www.wovendevotion.com

During her time at Liberty University, Katie Galley had to search through countless stores to create an outfit that fit within the schools dress guidelines while still appealing to her fashion-forward sense of style.

That is hard to find even when I have so many different resources at my fingertips online, said Galley, whose dream of opening up a fashion boutique began in high school, when she would sketch clothing designs. Again, that takes countless hours of digging on my part.

Her new store, Woven Devotion in Cornerstone, focuses on taking current fashion trends and giving them a more modest spin. Her hope is to take the work out of shopping for women, who, like her, want to be fashionable while still feeling comfortable in their clothes.

I have done countless hours of research and shopping so you can come here as a one-stop shop and be able to leave with a full outfit, she said. A student can go on campus and still fit in with the Liberty Way.

Woven Devotion, which opened in October, carries clothing and accessories. Certain products are made by and benefit merchants and charitable organizations overseas. They include the Tamar Center in Thailand, which helps women find marketable skills outside of the red-light districts, and Brothers House, a project through a ministry called Sak Saum in Cambodia that helps rehabilitate men from addictive backgrounds, said Galley.

The store also sells locally-made candles from Simply by Susie and a portion of the proceeds from those sales goes to local charity Freedom 4/24.

My vision has always been to help women kind of  maximize their wardrobe, said Galley. Im sure weve all been there, where we take home one piece and you love it, but you dont know how to incorporate it into your wardrobe.

Galleys store features four different collections, including urban chic, young professional and Americana. Each of the items mix and match within the collection, providing a more complete and customer-friendly shopping environment as well as the opportunity to leave with a full wardrobe. The store also offers a personal shopping experience.

Currently, Woven Devotion carries sizes small through large, and occasionally extra small and extra large depending on if the clothing company carries these options. But Galley said she would like to expand that selection to plus sizes in the future.

When a girl walks out with a big smile on her face and pink bags in hand cause she found something she just absolutely loves and feels beautiful in, then I consider that a success.

SoHo Mercantile

18292 Forest Rd. Ste. F, (434) 319-5710, www.sohomerc.com

While working in Forest selling makeup and doing makeovers, Lisa Lee noticed her customers interest in their clothes.

She decided to create a space to help women find easy and comfortable wardrobe options that were stylish as well as budget-friendly and opened SoHo Mercantile along Route 221 in February.

Now, I think Forest is becoming a real shopping destination, she said. We all don't want to go down to Wards Road every time. Sometimes you just need to get a top for an event.

The shop focuses on everyday outfits that offer customers an elevated look so they can feel polished even in comfortable clothes, said Lee. These lines are available in sizes small to 3X.

Lynchburg has its own sense of style. Most people dont want something thats super edgy and on the cutting edge of fashion, she added. We like things that are a little more conservative with maybe some added spice.

In connection with Lees previous career as a makeup artist, SoHo Mercantile features a line of natural and organic skin care and cosmetic products. After all, she said, beauty starts with the skin. Currently, the shop carries two skin care lines: Andalous Naturals, which Lee said utilizes fruit stem cell sciences in its products, and a value brand.

The shop also sells accessories, like jewelry and shoes.

It needs to be kind of effortless, Lee said of fashion. It needs to be where you put on an outfit and you feel confident and youre not having to think about it all day long. You just wear it and it becomes part of you.

Southern Provisions

2704 Langhorne Road, (434) 845-2704, www.southernprovisionscompany.com

While its current location may be new, Southern Provisions has been in the Lynchburg area in various forms for several years.

A combination of both the former Southern Loom in Boonsboro and the closed Urban Merchant downtown, Southern Provisions is a full-service design company.

People come to us when theyre just moved and they need new furniture, said owner Rebekah Moody. People come to us when theyre wanting to update their space, so maybe their curtains are 15 years old and theyre looking for a new look. They can come to us and not only buy the materials that they want to use, but we also construct those items.

Moody originally started the company, then a fabric business for which she sewed items like pillows and drapes, out of her house six years ago. But when people began showing up without appointments late at night, she moved into a brick-and-mortar location in Boonsboro.

Southern Provisions, which opened on Langhorne Road over Memorial Day weekend, features its own fabrics by the bolt, in addition to other well-known lines; customers can also bring their own material if they cant find one that suits their fancy.

The store also carries items needed to finish an already furnished room, like lamps, towels, candles and soaps. It also has a selection of furniture and local art, as well as the only in-store collection of Moore & Giles leather in Lynchburg.

We do everything from the lamp on the table, to the table, to the accessory that goes next to the lamp to telling you what size table you need for your space and what size sofa, where the sofa should be, Moody said.

In addition to selling the fabrics, Southern Provisions also includes a design center to help shoppers create the perfect space, and an in-house workroom, where items are sewn on the store floor.

We really believe that the women who are making these items are as important to the design process as the designer whos gone out or the homeowner whos making these choices, said Moody. Its really a collection of all three parties, and so by having them here, it allows us to reduce risk and loss and be a part of that process.
20 X-Men characters that should make the jump from Marvel comics to the MCU

Some new mutant faces for the MCU X-Men era and a couple the movies can finally get right
Indian Govt offers schol

Applicants can also download the application forms and further information from the ICCRs website www.iccr.

gov.in The application form duly filled in with six copies, the MGICC said in a release, should be deposited at the MGICC, High Commissioner of India, Plaza de Montrose, Main Road, Chaguanas by Friday January 14, 2017. No application will be considered after that date.

For further information the director of the MGICC may be contacted on telephone numbers - general, 672-9184; directors office, 672- 5276.
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(Newser)  How much is "genius" worth? That's the question a British appeals court will decide in the case of an American financier who claims he got shafted in a divorce settlement. Randy Work, 48, says a judge erred by granting his wife half of the couple's fortune of more than $170 million. The Telegraph reports the multimillionaire says his "special contribution" to amassing the money pot was not considered. He says he is due around two-thirds, given his money-making "genius" while working at the Dallas-based private equity firm Lone Star. At issue is whether an appeals court should make an exception to British law that usually leaves a spouse entitled to half a couple's fortune. In a ruling last year, a London Court High judge found that Work's performance was not "wholly exceptional" to building the family bank account.

The judge awarded estranged wife Mandy Gray half the couple's money because the two had been equal partners for 20 years, reports the Financial Times. The judge also took issue with the word "genius," declaring: "To my mind, the word 'genius' tends to be over-used and is properly reserved for Leonardo Da Vinci, Mozart, Einstein, and others like them." At one point during last year's hearing, he declared to Work: "I am not sure you and I are on the same planet." Work is now trying to have the 2015 ruling overturned. A hearing in the case the judge called a "Titanic battle" is set for February, with some $4 million already spent on lawyers. Both Work and his wife were born in the US, but they have lived in London since 2008. (The case is small potatoes compared to this divorce in China.)
(Newser)  A 15-year-old girl in Nepal who had been banished to a tiny, outdoor hut because she was having her period was found dead in the morning, and now police are investigating, reports the BBC. It was cold, and she'd lit a small fire, but "there wasn't any space for air to come in or smoke to escape, so she died of suffocation," a government employee tells NPR in regard to the death of 9th-grader Roshani Tiruwa. Her father found her body. What's worse, another teen died under similar circumstances last month after she, too, had been sent to spend the night in a so-called "menstrual hut." The Achham district superintendent of police calls the tragedies a "big eye-opener" and says he expects the traditional practice to diminish.

In Nepal, girls and women who are menstruating are considered unclean and prevented from doing a wide range of ordinary activities, such as seeing and touching certain people, entering kitchens, and sleeping in their homes. Many must instead sleep in cattle sheds, as the Guardian explained in a feature earlier this year. The Hindu ritual is called "chaupadi," and even though the practice was banned in Nepal several years ago, it is still ingrained in local culture, with many fearing the wrath of the gods should the rules be broken. (Remember the Olympic swimmer who mentioned her period?)
(Newser)  As a teenager, 31-year-old Liz was convicted of fraud after attempting to return an item to a store for her uncle (she was unaware he hadn't bought it there). Years later, she was convicted again after agreeing to pick up a package for a friend, which she later learned contained drugs. She's one of hundreds of thousands of legal permanent residents with one or two misdemeanor convictions whom Donald Trump has promised to deport, reports the New York Times. But she has one final hope. More than 100 advocacy groups are urging President Obama to pardon the civil immigration violations of up to 200,000 green card holders now eligible for deportation under federal immigration law before he leaves office.

Obama's pardon can't be applied to the individuals' crimes, which violated state rather than federal law. But according to the Constitution, it could be applied to any "offenses" against the US, which include civil immigration violations, advocates say. This has never been done before but would give Obama, the so-called "deporter in chief"who oversaw the deportation of more than 2.5 million immigrants, per the APan opportunity to reshape his legacy, advocates say. "These are people he said it makes no sense to rip out of their American families," a law professor tells the Guardian, after making the case for such a pardon in a New York Times op-ed in July. "It's really a moment where we are going to see whether he lives up to the commitment to those communities." And while Liz says that "mistakes in life have to be looked at case by case," she says of Obama: "I think God has given me the strength to accept whatever decision he makes." (Read more pardon stories.)
(Newser)  Sad news from Erath County, Texas: Sheriff Tommy Bryant, the lead investigator in the 2013 murders of American Sniper author Chris Kyle and another man, was found dead at his home early Tuesday. The Dallas Morning News reports that authorities believe Bryant died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to the Stephenville Empire-Tribune, state authorities were investigating Bryant for allegedly cheating on his continuing education training by having a deputy take a course for him. Documents obtained by the paper state that Bryant was one of 190 Texas law enforcement personnel reprimanded earlier this year for failing to complete the 40 hours of training intended to keep them up to date with changes in the law.

Bryant, sheriff since 1997, was re-elected this year with around 70% of the vote. The Texas Rangers division of the state's Department of Public Safety say the death is being investigated. Friends and colleagues say Bryant was a good sheriff and he'll be missed. "It's a very sad situation, very tragic when you lose a colleague and a friend like that," Erath County Judge Tab Thompson, who worked alongside Bryant for many years, tells WFAA. "Our thoughts and prayers from the county go out to Sheriff Bryant's family, his wife and son. Very sad time for them and for us as well." (Earlier this year, the Navy revised Kyle's medal count downward.)
(Newser)  After Brexit, could "Calexit" be next? Leaders of a movement to turn California into an independent country hope so, and have now opened their own "embassy"in Moscow. "Yes California" backers staked a claim in the Russian capital last weekend as part of a what they call a "non-violent campaign to establish the country of California using any and all legal and constitutional means to do so," the Express reports. Taking a page from Britain's exit from the EU, the group wants to "start laying the groundwork for a dialogue about an independent California joining the United Nations now," leader Louis Marinelli tells the Los Angeles Times. The "embassy" will function as a cultural center to educate Russians about California and promote trade, Marinelli tells the Express.

So why open it in Russia? Marinelli and his Russian wife live in Yekaterinburg, about 1,000 miles from Moscow, per SF Gate. The San Diego transplant teaches English and is there to handle "various personal issues" regarding immigration, reports SF Gate. Marinelli vows not to seek "military assistance" or other help from Russia to bring about California's independence, and instead is hoping for victory via the ballot box. But a referendum calling for the state's secession faces long odds, requiring a nod by California in 2018 and a special election in 2019, not to mention innumerable legal challenges. ("Texit" is gaining steam, and a Northern California county tried earlier to secede from the rest of the state.)
(Newser)  Washington state police say they've nabbed a suspected bank robber who resembles a certain boy wizard, and who they say has a not-so-magical history of busting into banks. Police and the FBI say Caleb Andrew Dierlam, 20, is the "Harry Potter Bandit" responsible for at least six bank robberies in Washington and Oregon from late July through early November. The big break in the case came on Dec. 1 when an individual called police to say he recognized a Starbucks customer in Lynnwood from photos circulated of the suspect, who police described as a young man who altered his appearance during robberies with glasses, hair dye, and tanning products, reports HeraldNet.

Police then traced the suspect to a home in Mill Creek, reports Q13. The owners said they were friends of Dierlam's parents who'd allowed him to rent a room after he claimed to have taken a job with Amazon, police say. Police also found a makeup kit in Dierlam's room that police believe he used to disguise himself during robberies. Dierlam has since been charged with three counts of bank robbery stemming from a single robbery in Lynnwood, reports the Portland Tribune. OregonLive notes it isn't clear "if Dierlam identifies as a muggle or if he thought he was wearing an invisibility cloak while he allegedly robbed banks." (This bank robber can't spell robbery.)
(Newser)  Only 30 people were sentenced to death in the United States this year, the lowest number since the early 1970s and a further sign of the steady decline in the use of the death penalty. The number is a sharp drop from the 49 death sentences last year and just a fraction of the peak of 315 in 1996, according to a report from the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that opposes capital punishment and tracks the issue. "I think we are watching a major political climate change concerning capital punishment and it's reflected among reduced death sentences across the country," says Robert Dunham, the group's executive director.

The growing reluctance of juries to sentence defendants to death is one of several factors contributing to the overall drop in executions. Twenty people were executed this year, the fewest since 1991, when 14 people were put to death. Capital punishment remains legal in 31 states, but only five states conducted executions this year, the fewest number of states to do so since 1983. Georgia led the way with nine, followed by Texas with seven, two in Alabama, and one each in Missouri and Florida. About half of Americans still support the death penalty, according to a Pew Research Center poll earlier this year, but that's the lowest level in more than four decades. Public support for capital punishment peaked in the mid-1990s, when 80% of Americans favored it. (This year, Nebraska voted to bring back the death penalty.)
(Newser)  Investigators have a new suspect in the Berlin truck attack, say German newspapers. Der Spiegel reports that police found the identity papers of a 21-year-old Tunisian man in the truck's cab. The documents show that his bid for full asylum had been rejected, but that he was still allowed to stay in Germany. Two other German newspapers report the same, and the Washington Post says a manhunt is underway. We have a strong lead at the moment and our officers are out on the street," a senior investigator tells the Post. The development comes after police released a Pakistani man detained near the scene because they could find no evidence or witnesses linking him to the attack. ISIS has claimed responsibility in the assault, which left 12 dead and 48 injured.

Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller said Wednesday that people should remain vigilant and that it was "good to see that Berliners aren't being intimidated," the AP reports. "I don't think there's any need to be afraid," he told ZDF television. "The police presence has been significantly heightened ... and of course other measures taken to find the perpetrator quickly." Mueller argued that there are limits to increasing security. The BBC reports that investigators believe the Polish man who was the original driver of the truck fought desperately with the attacker, despite having been stabbed, and was shot dead when the truck came to a halt after plowing through the crowd. (Read more Germany stories.)
(Newser)  Illinois can claim a dubious honor for the third year running: It's the state that's lost the most people for the year, the Chicago Tribune reports. US Census data published Tuesday revealed the Prairie State said goodbye to 37,508 people between July 1, 2015, and July 1, 2016, per the Chicago Sun-Times, dropping its population to 12,801,539the lowest it's been since 2009 or so. The numbers lost by the state have increased exponentially in this most recent three-year span: In 2014, the loss was 11,961 people; in 2015, it was 28,497. And per a Simon Public Policy Institute poll in October of 1,000 registered Illinois voters, 47% of residents said they'd like to move away. "When you have a big state like Illinois  lose population for three years in a row? That's cause for alarm," a Brookings Institution demographer tells the Tribune.

So what's to account for the drop? First, there's been an exodus out of state (more than 114,000 left in 2016), mostly to warmer climes like Florida, Texas, and Arizona. But it's not just the weather that's causing defections: Michael Lucci, a VP with the conservative Illinois Policy Institute, says there are also better job opportunities elsewhere. Combine that with the overall national trend of decreasing birth numbers and more deaths, as well as a decline in the number of immigrants to Illinois specifically (especially Chicago, which has traditionally welcomed Mexican immigrants), and the influx of newbies isn't keeping up with the losses. "To reverse this trend, we need structural reforms to create more jobs, lower property taxes, improve our schools, and enact term limits to fix our broken political system," a rep for Gov. Bruce Rauner tells the Sun-Times. (Other states where people want out.)
(Newser)  It's the first quadruple murder the police department in Chester, New York, has ever investigated, as best Police Chief Peter Graziano can recall. The man suspected of doing the killings? A retired cop. Nicholas Tartaglione, formerly of the Briarcliff Manor PD, was arrested Monday; the 49-year-old is charged with killing four men in or around April 2016 while engaged in a conspiracy to distribute at least 5 kilograms of cocaine. On Tuesday, four people's remains were uncovered at a 170-acre property in Mount Hope that Tartaglione is renting. The Times Herald-Record described Tuesday's effort as a "massive evidence-gathering operation," comprised of more than three dozen police vehicles and two excavators.

Martin Luna, Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna, and Hector Gutierrez were captured on surveillance video between 2:30pm and 3pm on April 11. The men were seen getting out of a car outside a Chester diner, and the Journal-News reports that other than a 5pm phone conversation Miguel Luna had with a relative, the men haven't been heard from since. CBS New York reports prosecutors suspect the men were killed inside the Likquid Lounge, which sits in the same plaza and is owned by Tartaglione's brother. Authorities aren't saying how they zeroed in on Tartaglione, but do note that some of the missing men may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tartaglione has been receiving a $65,000 annual pension since he retired on disability in 2008, but recently applied for a spot with the Mount Vernon PD. (Read more murder stories.)
(Newser)  If there's one thing all Americans can count on in this crazy world, it's that a McDonald's Extra Value Meal will deliver exactly what it promises: extra value. Or so we thought. An Illinois bus driver is suing McDonald's and a local franchisee for tarnishing the Extra Value Meal name, reports the Daily Herald. James Gertie filed the lawsuit, which he hopes will go class action, Dec. 13 after realizing his $5.90 two-cheeseburger Extra Value Meal cost 41 cents more than just buying two cheeseburgers, fries, and a drink separately, according to the Cook County Record. "The reason that I am doing this is not about the 41 cents," Gertie tells the Daily Herald. "It's because of the principle."

The lawsuit states Gertie bought a two-cheeseburger Extra Value Meal from at least five suburban Chicago McDonald's locations in October and November, and each time it was 41 cents more expensive than the a la carte option. He tells WLS-AM that he also went to 25 other McDonald's locations just to compare prices, finding that many were charging the exact same price for the two options. He doesn't think McDonald's should be able to get away with such blatant false advertising, with the lawsuit stating the meal deal is clearly "no value at all, let alone an extra value.'" Gertie is seeking reimbursement for all customers "overcharged" for the two-cheeseburger Extra Value Meal. (Customers sued Chipotle over "300-calorie burrito.")
(Newser)  When Washington state's 12 electors cast their presidential votes this week, four of them defied their state's popular vote and ditched Hillary Clinton. Three of those dissenting votes went to Colin Powell and the fourth went to Faith Spotted Eagle. If that name has you wondering who on earth Faith Spotted Eagle is, well, that was exactly the intent of the man who cast that vote, Robert Satiacum. In what he says was a last-second decision, the member of Washington's Puyallup Tribe opted to vote for Spotted Eagle of South Dakota's Yankton Sioux Reservation to send a message about the environment. "Earth is on fire, and we are in need of first responders, and not more politicians," Satiacum tells the Los Angeles Times. As a result, Spotted Eagle is believed to be the first Native American to win an electoral vote for the land's highest office.

Spotted Eagle has made a name for herself as an environmental activist, most visibly in opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline and more recently the Dakota Access pipeline, notes the Seattle Times. The protest of the latter is where she and Satiacum met. "I thought it was fake news," says 68-year-old Spotted Eagle. "I told my daughter, "Is this real?' She said, 'I think it is.'" But she tells ABC News she understands the vote is about the movement she belongs to, not herself. She adds that she expects things to get worse for environmentalists under the Trump administration. "The people coming in are pro-oil, so I think for the next four years we're going to be in a battle, and I think all of America is going to be in a battle." (Read more electoral college stories.)
(Newser)  German police on Tuesday released a Pakistani man arrested for the Berlin truck attack and Wednesday announced a massive manhunt for a man from Tunisia instead. That suspect has now been identified as Anis Amri, believed to be 23 or 24 years old and who a German official has said has ties to radical Islamist groups and was deemed a risk, CNN reports. The Washington Post notes Amri had been the subject of a German terror investigation earlier this year. A $105,000 reward from German law enforcement for Amri, described as being under "urgent suspicion," is on the table, and he's described as being 5 feet 10 inches tall and about 165 pounds. "If you see this person that we are seeking, inform the police," the notice on Amri reads. "Please do not put yourself in danger because this person could be violent and armed!"

Per CBS News, Amri was registered in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and had attempted to gain asylum. The state's interior minister tells the BBC that even though asylum was denied in June, deportation papers hadn't yet been completedpartly because Tunisia denied Amri was a citizen and refused to take him back. A warrant issued for Amri holds six different aliases he's used in the past, which is also what's led to his age being somewhat unclear. A Tunisian security official tells the Local that Tunisian anti-terrorism cops questioned Amri's parents Wednesday. Amri is also said to have four sisters and a brother, though it's unknown if they're also being interrogated. Amri was reportedly arrested more than once in his home country for drug use before he defected to Italy in 2011 (the BBC says 2012), where he stayed for three years before heading to Germany, the source notes. (Read more Berlin stories.)
(Newser)  Using Google Trends, Estately has looked back at 2016 in Google searches to determine what each state googled more often than any other state during this "absolute garbage year." The results left the blog with one thought: "Let's hope 2017 offers much better things to occupy our internet searches." Estately lists a number of uniquely popular searches for each state; here's a sampling:

Alabama: "Was Scalia murdered"

Alaska: "Alan Rickman"

Arizona: "Brock Turner sentence"

Arkansas: "Kobe Bryant retirement"

California: "2016 worst year ever?"

Colorado: "Petyton Manning retirement"

Connecticut: "Billy Bush"

Delaware: "Brangelina divorce"

Florida: "Pulse Nightclub"

Georgia: "New Comey letter"

Hawaii: "fanny pack"

Idaho: "How did Trump win?"

Illinois: "Craig Sager"

Indiana: "Harambe meme"

Iowa: "ISIS"

Kansas: "LGBT"

Kentucky: "Axl Rose"

Louisiana: "Alton Sterling shooting"

Maine: "Sausage Party"

Maryland: "Simone Manuel"

Massachusetts: "Brexit"

Michigan: "Gordie Howe"

Minnesota: "Prince"

Mississippi: "Clowns"

Missouri: "McDonald's breakfast all day"

Montana: "White nationalism"

Nebraska: "Pepe meme"

Nevada: "Colin Kaepernick"

New Hampshire: "Abe Vigoda"

New Jersey: "Donald Trump"

New Mexico: "Gary Johnson"

New York: "Pizza box made out of pizza"

North Carolina: "Transgender bathroom laws"

North Dakota: "Dirty Grandpa"

Ohio: "3-1 lead"

Oklahoma: "Kevin Durant decision"

Oregon: "Syria"

Rhode Island: "How did Clinton lose?"

South Carolina: "KKK victory parade"

South Dakota: "Glenn Frey"

Tennessee: "Mr. T dead"

Texas: "Dallas police shooting"

Utah: "Zoolander 2"

Vermont: "Orlando Bloom naked"

Virginia: "Eric Fanning"

Washington: "Man in tree"

West Virginia: "Nancy Reagan"

Wisconsin: "Reince Priebus"

Wyoming: "Chewbacca Mom"

See the full list here . (Read more Google stories.)
Things looked to turn more unstable in West Asia after the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was assassinated by a gunman at a photo exhibition in Ankara on Monday (December 19). Karlov, 62, was shot multiple times by the man who was standing behind him when he was in the middle of a speech in the embassy-sponsored exhibition.

The assassin was heard shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) and "Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria!" in photos and video capturing the assassination that went viral on the Internet.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia's foreign ministry, later announced the envoy's death in a live televised statement. The killer was identified as a 22-year-old off-duty police officer who was stationed in Ankara, said the mayor of Turkey's capital city, Melih Gokcek. He was later killed by the police, Turkish station NTV reported later.

The assassination took place a time when Russia and Turkey are trying to mend their relations despite differences over handling the Syrian crisis on which Moscow and Ankara have differing positions. While Russia backs the Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad, Turkey has been in favor of toppling him. In November 2015, a Russian jet was shot down by the Turkish forces on their country's border with Syria, leading toa strained relation between the two countries.

However, following the failed coup to overthrow his regime and the counter-offensive against forces that 'conspired' to do so, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan found himself at odds with the western world including the United States and tried to mend relation with Vladimir Putin instead.

But now the assassination of the Russian envoy is feared to disrupt things again. However, the two countries have vowed not to let the tragedy affect their relations. The assassination has also happened at a time when Russia and Turkey have tried to effect a ceasefire in war-ravaged Aleppo to let the stranded civilians free themselves.

Erdogan and Putin had a telephonic talk following the assassination. Share your thoughts below!
The Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574.
Rajkot:

Police on Tuesday raided the residence of a jeweller in Bhuj town of Kutch district and seized Rs 83.76 lakh in new as well as old notes.

Based on a tip-off, officials of the Bhuj Local Crime Branch (LCB) raided jeweller Kishor Gadhechas house in Orient Colony and detained him and two others after seizing Rs 83.76 lakh cash found there, an LCB release said.

Gadhecha owns a jewellery shop in Bhuj, it added.

The other two detainees were identified as Jiva Rabari and Jitendra Gandhi. During questioning, Gadhecha told the police that while Rabari was his driver, Gandhi was his friend.

Also Read: Demonetisation aftermath | Bank deposits even up to Rs 2.5 lakh may be subjected to investigation

The seized cash comprised 1,780 notes of Rs 2,000, 3,282 notes of defunct Rs 1,000 notes, 3028 bills of scrapped Rs 500 and 200 notes of Rs 100, the release said.

Gadhecha told the LCB that the cash came from his jewellery business.

The LCB has handed over the probe to Bhuj B Division police, which will now find out the exact source of the cash, the release said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

The Islamic State group took the responsibility of Berlin Christmas market attacks that killed atleast 12 and injured dozens. A German police spokesperson told AFP that a man who was apparently driving the truck had been detained while the passenger was dead.

Germanys top prosecutor, Peter Frank, told reporters the attack on the popular market was reminiscent of Julys deadly truck rampage in Nice and appeared to follow instructions published by the Islamic State group.

Security sources cited by DPA news agency said that the man behind the wheel was an asylum seeker from Afghanistan or Pakistan who arrived in Germany in February.

German authorities said there was no indication of further dangerous situations in the city near Breitscheidplatz, where the suspected attack took place. We are investigating whether it was a terror attack but do not yet know what was behind it, a police spokesperson said.

Traditional Christmas markets are popular in cities and towns throughout Germany and have frequently been mentioned by security services as potentially vulnerable to attacks. Its awful. We were in Berlin for Christmas, said American tourist Kathy Forbes. We also thought it would be safer than Paris.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

After the series of reports of fake accounts being unearth at various branches of Axis bank across the India, now more fake accounts have been found during the forensic audit of Axis Bank.

23 fake accounts with cash deposits of Rs 45 crore have been discovered in Noida Sector 18 bank Branch. Interestingly, Axis Bank itself shared this data with Income Tax department. Now, the I-T is probing the final beneficiaries of these fake accounts.

Axis Bank has been in news post demonetisation for Income Tax raids at its various branches and for cases of money laundering and operational fake accounts.

Recently, The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case in the alleged forging of a customers identity to conduct huge illegal transactions in an Axis Bank branch in Noida for conversion of black funds into white post demonetisation.

Also Read: ED files money laundering case against fake account holders in Axis Bank's Noida branch

Income Tax raids Axis Bank's Connaught Place, Noida branch

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Twitter is buzzing with News alerts from India and rest of the world. Dwarka Court grants anticipatory bail to senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

Here are the latest updates from the micro-blogging site in one scroll -

#9:50 PM

Post denometisation Income Tax departmant referred more than 200 cases to ED & CBI. IT Sources- ANI

#8:56PM

One-family-one-ticket will be strictly enforced, ticket either to Navjot Sidhu or his wife, says Captain Amarinder Singh - PTI

#8:40PM

Suspected terrorists throw a grenade on a police vehicle in Shalteng area of Parimpora, Srinagar; No one injured - ANI

#8:17PM

Chennai: IT Dept officials conducted raid at office of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Rammohan Rao; CRPF & TN police was also present - ANI

#8:13PM

Pak court warns of issuing 'red warrant' to former dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf if he fails to appear for hearing - PTI

#8:12PM

Odisha: Long range (750 to 1000 km) subsonic cruise missile 'Nirbhay' flight tested at ITR in Chandipur from lunching pad no 3 - ANI

#8:02PM

Only 1% people in India pay income tax, the rest 99% doesn't: Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog - ANI

#8:01PM

NEET-UG to be conducted in 8 languages-Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese,Telugu & Tamil from 2017-18: Ministry of Health - ANI

#7:23PM

In an advisory US Embassy warns its citizens to stay away from places frequented by Westerners in India and to remain vigilant - ANI

#6:53PM

Norway-based NRI couple alleges Norway's Child Welfare Dept took custody of their son Aryan on Dec 13 from Kindergarten sans prior info. (ANI)

#6:45PM

China sticks to its stand about UN ban on JeM chief Masood Azhar despite NIA charge sheet in Pathankot Attack - PTI

#6:35 PM

Nitish Kumar consistently supporting demonetisation crucial but he has every right to review his stand: Shahnawaz Hussain, BJP

#6:20 PM

PM Modiji must come forward and say whether or not he took money from Sahara and Birla: Randeep S Surjewala, Congress (ANI)

#6:18 PM

Credibility, honesty and integrity of PM Modi at stake; We (Congress) have great respect for PM Modiji: Randeep S Surjewala, Congress (ANI)

#6:08 PM

Bihar: FIR registered against JD(U) MLC Dinesh Singh's son, booked in alleged murder case of a labourer in Fatehpur village in Muzaffarpur. (ANI)

#6:04 PM

We demand a thorough enquiry into Rahul Gandhi's allegations levelled against PM Modi, if need be CBI enquiry: Derek O'Brien, TMC

#6:01 PM

CBSE y'day recommended Class 10 board exams; We'll duly consider it & pass it so that from Mar '18 we'll have board exams: Prakash Javadekar (ANI)

#6:00 PM

CBI registers 7 more cases against customers of Paytm based on a complaint by Paytm officials (ANI)

#5:45 PM

National Political Parties received Rs 102 cr in 2015-16 in Donations above Rs 20,000; BJP got Rs 76.85 cr from 613 donations: Report (PTI)

#5:36PM

NGT issues notice to over 1400 defaulters for not paying environment compensation for pollution caused due to construction - ANI

#5:34PM

Mr Rahul Gandhi is leading his party to repeated disastrous defeat and hence he is levelling baseless allegations in his sadness: RS Prasad - ANI

#5:22PM

We sought time but the Lodha committee did not give us time in the past 2 months: BCCI Chief Anurag Thakur - ANI

#5:21PM

Most of it has been implemented,if members didnt agree with few recommendations,they wanted us to convey it to Lodha committee: Anurag Thakur - ANI

#5:20PM

I think the matter is sub judice. All I want to say is we've called meeting time & again to implement Justice Lodha recommendations: Anurag Thakur - ANI

#5:14PM

Pakistan Commander Southern Command Lt General Amir Riaz invited India to join the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (Source: Pak media) - ANI

#5:05PM

CBI arrest businessman Sekar Reddy over an alleged illegal money transaction case, sent to CBI custody till January 3 - ANI

#4:57PM

All three options are available with the employers to pay salaries to the employees (cheque, bank account and cash): Bandaru Dattatreya - ANI

#4:56PM

Ordinance to amend the Payment of Wages Act applicable to those with salary upto Rs 18,000 only: Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya - ANI

#4:53PM

Penalities imposd on these 5 banks - Bank of America, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, Deutsche Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland & Standard Chartered Bank - ANI

#4:51PM

RBI imposes monetary penalty on 5 banks fr violation of #RBIs instructions on reporting requirements of Foreign Exchange Management Act,1999 - ANI

#4:12PM

20.4 billion pieces belonged to small denominations of Rs 10, 20, 50 & 100s & 2.2 billion belonged to higher denominations of Rs 2000 & Rs 500: RBI - ANI

#4:11PM

From Nov 10 upto Dec 19 RBI issued 22.6 billion pieces of notes of various denominations to banks & their branches, for distribution to public: RBI - ANI

#4:11PM

From November 10, 2016 upto December 19, 2016, banks reported that banknotes worth Rs 5,92,613 crore have been issued to public: RBI - ANI

#3:55 PM

Sensex down 65.60 points to close at 26,242.38. Nifty settles at 8,061.30 - ANI

#3:54 PM

AgustaWestland case: Hearing on plea seeking bail of former Air Chief SP Tyagi, Sanjeev Tyagi and Gautam Khaitan deferred till December 23 - ANI

#3:37 PM

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi addressing a public rally in Mehsana - ANI

#3:21PM

Chennai: IT Dept officials also conduct raid at the office of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Rammohan Rao; CRPF and TN police present- ANI

#3:20PM

Lieutenant General Praveen Bakshi meets Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar at South Block; meeting underway. -ANI

#3:13PM

Seoni : Nagpur-Jabalpur bus catches fire in Rahiwada; Passengers safe in Madhya Pradesh - ANI

#3:10PM

Gujarat: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to address a public rally in Mehsana, shortly -ANI

#3:07PM

Hearing on plea seeking bail for former Air Chief SP Tyagi underway in Delhi's Patiala House Court: CBI's counsel seeks time till Dec 23. -ANI

#3:05PM

No question of perjury, I did not lie to the court: BCCI Chief Anurag Thakur on SC's observation on Lodha panel matter -ANI

#3:02PM

Anticipatory bail granted to Sajjan Kumar on condition that he'll cooperate wth investigation agencies;won't leave nation without permission -ANI

#3:00PM

1984 anti-Sikh riots case: Dwarka Court grants anticipatory bail to senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar. -ANI

#2:56PM

1984 anti-Sikh riots case: Court also asks senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar to furnish a personal bond and surety bond of Rs 1 lakh each. -ANI

#2:54PM

1984 anti-Sikh riots case: Dwarka Court grants anticipatory bail plea to senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar. - ANI

#2:46PM

U'khand govt inks pact with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for introducing Haridwar-Rishikesh-Dehradun metro service. Uttarakhand Metro -ANI

#2:42PM

DMK Chief Karunanidhi recovering well; Will be discharged from hospital after completion of course of antibiotics, says Kauvery Hospital in Chennai. - ANI

#2:30PM

Gujarat: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi offers prayers at Umiya Mata Temple in Mehsana, will address a public rally shortly. - ANI

#2:38PM

Counsel for SP Tyagi: All evidences asked by ED or CBI has been provided. Details of properties, bank a/cs & foreign trips were handed over"- ANI

#2: 36PM

Agusta West land case: Hearing on plea seeking bail for former Air Chief SP Tyagi underway in Delhi's Patiala House Court. - ANI

#2:34PM

IIT Kharagpur Director gheraoed by students overnight over hostel fee hike; protest ends after assurance that demands will be looked into. - PTI

#2:27PM

Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja top ICC Test rankings for bowlers -ANI

#2:04PM

Praful Patel re elected President of All India Football Federation (AIFF) - ANI

#01:54PM

Youth Congress activists protest against Kerala Public Service Commission bank list issue;Police uses water canon on protesters in Trivandrum -ANI

#01:37PM

India did not take part in Asian&Pacific Center for Transfer of Technology (APCTT)conference in Islamabad due to scheduling issues: Sources - ANI

#01:36PM

Reserve Bank of India has become 'Reverse Bank of India'; In last 43 days of demonetisation, they changed norms 126 times: Randeep Surjewala - ANI

#01: 26PM

Maharashtra ACB closes its inquiry in Anganwadi scam case; gives clean chit to State Minister Pankaja Munde. - ANI

#01:23PM

Raid on Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary's home by central agencies devalues the institution of head of civil service: Mamta Official- ANI

#01:12PM

Cabinet approves doubling of 172.64 km long Rajpura-Bathinda(Punjab) railway line - ANI

#01:1:20PM

RCom to receive upfront cash payment of Rs 11,000 crore (USD 1.6 billion), to utilise proceeds solely to reduce debt - PTI

#01:18PM

The proposed amendment will also ensure minimum wages are paid to employees and that their social security rights can be protected: Statement - ANI

#01:16PM

This will further provide crediting wage in account of employees or pay through cheque with existing provision in current currency: Statement - ANI

#01:13PM

Government proposes to bring amendment to Section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act: Statement -ANI

#01:12PM

Spurious CNG kits case: Delhi High Court issues notices to company GRECO, State Govt & Centre; asks Delhi Govt to address the problem.

#01:11PM

Reliance Communications signs binding pact with Brookfield Infrastructure and its institutional partners for sale of its tower business.- PTI

#01:08PM

It is surprising that EC has taken so much time to realise this: Somnath Chatterjee, former LS speaker on EC writes to CBDT- ANI



#01:05PM

RBI modifies old currency deposit rules; fully KYC compliant account holders can deposit over Rs 5000 without any questions asked - PTI

#12:53PM

RBI issues notification withdraws Rs.5000 deposit restriction for KYC compliant accounts -ANI

#12:52PM

Seven killed in hotel fire in Maharashtra's Goinda: Police - ANI

#12:46PM

For Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) transactions above Rs. 1000, a further discount of 50 paise on these rates shall apply, says MoF - ANI

#12:45PM

While corruption needs to be condemned strongly, raid on TN Chief Sec by Central agencies devalues institution of head of civil service, says WB CM - ANI

#12:44PM

Why don't they raid Amit Shah and others who are collecting money?: Mamata Banerjee -ANI



#12:43PM

Why this vindictive, unethical, technically improper action? Is it only to disturb the federal structure?: WB CM on raids at TN Chief Secy. - ANI



#12:36PM

Investigative agencies don't discriminate on religious background. This is a frivolous charge: Kiren Rijiju,MoS Home on Asaduddin Owaisi - ANI



#12:30PM

Protest against NSCN-IM & UNC blockade, Prices of commodities have sky rocketed -ANI



#12:26PM

ACB gives clean chit to Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde in Chikki Scam - PTI



#12:18PM

Cabinet approves re-promulgating ordinance to amend Enemy Property Act - PTI

#12:16PM

Payment of wages through cash, coin and online also in proposal(ordinance on payment of wages act): Sources - ANI



#12:13PM

Lt General Praveen Bakshi to meet Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday - ANI



#12:10PM

Govt approves ordinances on enemy property bill and payment of wages act, says Sources - ANI



#11:53AM

IT raids at Chief Secy residence is a disgrace to the state, perhaps for the first time a raid is conducted at a CS's place in TN, says MK Stalin - ANI



#11:43AM

Six people dead after fire broke out in a hotel in Maharashtra. 15 fire tenders at the spot.- ANI



#11:32AM

Union Cabinet approves setting up of Indian Enterprise Development Services (IEDS) -ANI



#11:18AM

Cabinet meeting underway. Union ministers arrive for the meeting in Delhi. - ANI



#11:17AM

Election Commission to ask IT authorities to look into finances of over 200 political parties 'delisted' for not contesting elections. - ANI

#11:00AM

Curfew lifted from 4am to 7pm on Wednesday from Imphal East, except for Lamlong to Yaingangpokpi in Manipur - ANI

#10: 55AM

Parts of Srinagar's Dal Lake frozen due to cold wave in the region -ANI



#10:41AM

Tax evasion case: I-T dept conducts searches against the son of TN Chief Secretary P R M Rao in Chennai and other locations -PTI

#10:38AM

8 IIT Kharagpur students sit on hunger strike protesting against fee hike by the institute in West Bengal. -ANI



#10:28AM



This is gundaraj. We want justice for the student who was murdered. Mayor is involved and CM is protecting him: Samir Dey,BJP - ANI

#10:03AM

Scuffle between BJP and BJD workers in Bhubaneswar after BJP's bandh call. Police intervene in Odisha -ANI



#9:43AM

IT raid at Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Rammohan Rao's residence in Anna Nagar in Chennai. -ANI



#9:23AM

UPDATE: 3 more Indian fishermen detained by Srilankan Navy near Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu. Country boat seized - ANI

#9:21AM

Kerala: 21 students of Govt. Medical College in Malappuram suspended over ragging allegations, the internal enquiry is going on. - ANI



#9:20AM

JNU student Najeeb Ahmed missing case: Delhi Police to conduct lie detector test of Najeeb's room partner - ANI



#9:12AM

EC to write to CBDT informing it about decision to delist about 200 parties as many of them could be money-laundering operations: EC sources -ANI

#9:04AM

Testimony links former head of the US-backed army in Colombia to extrajudicial killings of thousands of civilians. - AP



#8:58AM

17-year-old girl shot dead in Delhi's Najafgarh area. Culprit absconding. Police begin investigation - ANI



#8:52AM

Demonetisation was not our wish, there are still many problems. People are suffering, says N Chandrababu Naidu, Andhra Pradesh CM - ANI



#8:40AM

9 Indian fishermen detained by Srilankan Navy at International Maritime Boundary line near Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu - ANI

#7:34AM

West Bengal: Clashes between two communities over a religious procession in Howrah's Dhulagarh, more than 25 people injured - ANI

#7:02AM

Mexico State prosecutor says 26 people have been killed in a fireworks market explosion - AP

It is surprising that EC has taken so much time to realise this: Somnath Chatterjee,former LS speaker on EC writes to CBDT

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Karachi:

The screening of Bollywood films has resumed in Pakistan after three months in a low-key manner with cinema owners still fearing an adverse reaction from extremists amid recent tensions between India and Pakistan.

A visit to some single screen cinemas and multiplexes a day after the screening resumed on Monday showed small crowds and low-visibility publicity posters.

The manager of Capri cinema in Karachi admitted this is being done intentionally.

The relations between the two countries are not good so we are just keeping it low-key and not creating too much hype. It will take some time for things to get normal, Saleem said.

The response to the screening of Indian films once again has been a mixed one going by social media and other media outlets. While some are objecting in a spirit of patriotism there are others who support our decision, said well-known film distributor Nadeem Mandviwalla, owner of Atrium cinemas.

Also Read: Karan Johar's film: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena issues veiled threat to multiplexes

I can understand why my colleagues are still apprehensive about any strong reactions because I have been through it myself. Indo-Pak relations can stir very extreme reactions in both countries, more so in India, he said.

Mandviwalla also owns the historic Nishat cinema in the heart of Karachi which was burnt down in 2012 amid violent protests against a purportedly anti-Islamic short film called Innocence of Muslims aired on YouTube.

The Nishat cinema which was an iconic symbol at one time for Karachis thriving cultural and arts scene still remains a charred building with Mandviwalla refusing to rebuild it.

Also Read: Pakistan Cinema owners to resume screening Indian films

Freaky Ali, a 2016 romantic comedy which has a cast of Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Arbaaz Khan and Amy Jackson is the first Indian film to be screened after Pakistani film exhibitors, distributors and cinema owners had in a collective show of patriotism voluntarily suspended the screening of Indian films last September after a ban on Pakistani artistes in India by the Indian Motion Picture Producers Association.

Films that had already been imported will be screened as a token for now while we are negotiating for the release of new Bollywood releases, Mandviwalla said.

He said the decision to screen Indian films again was taken because the government had not pushed for any ban last September and there was no public agitation over the screening of the films at a time when there was a serious threat to Indian filmmakers in India over casting Pakistani actors.

Yes it is a commercially motivated decision partially but also because our cinema industry needs to get back on its feet and we need to show the world we are more open-hearted in Pakistan, he said.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

A 17-year-old girl was on Wednesday shot dead in front of her house inside a Mercedes car allegedly by her friend in West Delhis Najafgarh area. The boy then fled from the scene.

A case has been registered in connection with the case and police have begun its investigation.

After reaching her place, one of her friends came out of the car while the victim and her friend Shubham were inside the car, he said.

Her mother told police that she suddenly heard the sound of a bullet and saw her daughter lying in a pool of blood, he added.

Shubham fled from the spot. The victims mother and her friend Yogesh took her to a hospital where she was declared brought dead, police said.

The murder weapon has been recovered. Shubham and his family are absconding. Police is trying to ascertain the motive behind the murder. Further details are awaited
Mumbai:

SBI Cards, a subsidiary of the State Bank of India, is planning to offer credit cards to those who have a Rs 25,000 fixed deposit in any bank.

There will not be any charges on the card and it will be given away without seeking any proof of income or a credit history.

Also, the SBI arm has plans to offer credit cards to students of to 100 institutions in the country without any proof of income.

SBI Cards recently surpassed ICICI Bank and became the second largest card issuer after HJDFC Bank. Its parent SBI is looking towards launching five lakh additional swipe machines soon.



"Initially, this will be only for SBI customers but in future the lien can be on any bank's FD," Vijay Jasuja, CEO, SBI Cards was quoted as saying by a leading national daily.

SBI Cards will launch the credit card in January, while for students, it will be launched in December.

He said that with interoperable QR acceptance, aggregators are expected to enroll shopkeepers, enabling wider acceptance of cards. The other advantage in getting first-time users into credit cards is that the bank will be able to get a credit history, making it possible to extend personal loans in future.
Kolkata:

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday criticised the I-T raid at the residence of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, saying such a vindictive and unethical act by the central agencies devalues the institution of head of the civil service.



Why this vindictive, unethical, technically improper action? Is it only to disturb the federal structure? Why do not they raid Amit Shah and others... she said in a statement.



Banerjee said corruption needs to be strongly condemned, but the raid on Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary by central agencies devalues the institution of head of the civil service.



The proper procedure should have been to take the state leadership into confidence and removing him from the post prior to any preemptive action, based on information, she said.

ALSO READ | Income Tax raids at Tamil Nadu's Chief Secretary Rammohan Rao's residence



Earlier the Principal Secretary of Arvind Kejriwal was raided and harassed. Now I read Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu has also been raided, Banerjee said.



The Income-Tax department on Wednesday conducted searches at over a dozen locations in connection with its tax evasion probe against the son and few other relatives of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao.



It is understood that the official residence of the Chief Secretary in Chennai was also raided.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Donald Trump's emphatic run for presidency and his electoral triumph headlined much of 2016 that was also a "great year" for Indo-US ties as the two countries overcame "hesitations of history" to closely collaborate on key issues like defence, counter-terrorism and civil nuclear energy.

In a result that shocked the world, rank political outsider Trump was elected president crushing his strongly- favoured Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the November 8 poll.

Riding a wave of anti-establishment resentment in a closely-contested race to become the 45th US president, the 70-year-old billionaire businessman, who took to politics only 18 months ago, won with a comfortable margin.

He first beat 16 other Republican presidential hopefuls to clinch the nomination and then trumped Clinton.

Much of the year was headlined by controversies created by his bombastic style during one of the ugliest campaigns in USpolitical history that also saw Trump making alleged anti- Muslim assertions and sexist remarks.

In the election season, allegations flew thick and fast from Trump being accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women to Clinton's email saga.

However, it was the email scandal that finally proved to be her nemesis as just days before the election when she was leading in most polls, the FBI announced reopening of its probe into the saga which swung the pendulum in Trump's favour.

Though the FBI gave her a last-minute clean chit ahead of the polls, experts said it might have been too late by then.

Apart from the election, another issue that dominated the discourse were lone-wolf attacks and mass shootings, includingthe horrific Orlando gay nightclub shooting incident in which Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 peopleand wounded 53 others in the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11.

Post-election, there was a massive spike in hate crimes and assaults on hijab-clad women which many blamed on Trump'scampaign rhetoric.

On the bilateral front, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one among the top few world leaders with whom Trump spoke overthe phone after his victory.

By any standards it could be described as a "great year" for the Indo-US relationship. It was a year in which Modi made a historic address to a joint session of the US Congress and met President Barack Obama as many as three times, twice in Washington DC.

The year gone by also saw the signing of the long-overdue logistics exchange agreement, US designating India as a major defence partner and playing an instrumental role in India becoming a member of the prestigious Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

If it would not have been for Chinese resistance, the icing on the cake could have been India's membership to theelite Nuclear Suppliers Group. The US tried its best but was unable to cross the 'Great Wall of China'.

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Mumbai:

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, whose party had boycotted a function involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, will attend the public function in Mumbai on December 24 to be addressed by Modi.

The Prime Minister, after laying the foundation stone for two Metro rail projects, elevated rail corridors project, the Mumbai Trans Harbour link and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off Arabian Sea, will address a public function in suburban Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC). "There will be only one function to lay the foundation stone for these projects and Uddhav Thackeray will attend the proceedings at the MMRDA ground s in BKC," said a close aide of the Sena chief.

On October 11 last year, Modi had laid the foundation stone of a grand memorial to Babasaheb Ambedkar at the Indu Mills compound in the heart of Mumbai, a function which was boycotted by Shiv Sena whose chief Uddhav Thackeray was not invited.

Sena is a part of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre as well as the BJP-led Maharashtra government. Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar is in Delhi and will attend the birthday celebrations of Ajit Singh, former union minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief on Thursday.

"Pawar saheb will attend the function to lay the foundation stone of Pune Metro in Pune if invited. His office in Mumbai has not received an invite," one of the aide of the Maratha strongman said.
Los Angeles:

Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt celebrated his 53rd birthday on December 18.

The actor who was in the news lately following this divorce with Angelina Jolie, reportedly chose to celebrate his special day with close friends in a private dinner party.

"Brad Pitt spent his birthday enjoying a mellow dinner with a few close, old friends. Brad has been working hard on maintaining a low-profile and his plan is to stay out of the spotlight until his divorce and custody issues are finalised," a source said.

"He was not interested in celebrating his birthday out at any hot restaurants. Brad will not be doing anything that will interfere with his custody battle. His primary focus right now is working on himself and working on rebuilding his relationship with his kids," the source added.

Meanwhile, Jolie took daughter Shiloh, 10, camera shopping on Pitt's birthday.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Hollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Kolkata:

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday lashed out at the Centre as she criticised the I-T raid at the residence of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao.

If a state government officer involved in corruption, Centre should inform state, but they don't; even raided TN Chief Secretarys house, this is unconstitutional, she said.

From this Midnapur, I challenge that either PM Modi or India will stay because people are the biggest God. Want to tell Narendra Modiji and all BJP workers that don't attack anyone, just arrest me and all your political revenge will be completed, she added.

ALSO READ | Mamata Banerjee terms I-T raid at Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary's residence as vindictive, unethical

Earlier on Wednesday, Mamata had called the I-T raids at Rama Mohana Raos home a vindictive and unethical act by the central agencies devalues the institution of head of the civil service.

Why this vindictive, unethical, technically improper action? Is it only to disturb the federal structure? Why do not they raid Amit Shah and others... she said in a statement.

Banerjee said corruption needs to be strongly condemned, but the raid on Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary by central agencies devalues the institution of head of the civil service.

ALSO READ | Income Tax raids at Tamil Nadu's Chief Secretary Rammohan Rao's residence

The proper procedure should have been to take the state leadership into confidence and removing him from the post prior to any preemptive action, based on information, she said.

The Income-Tax department on Wednesday conducted searches at over a dozen locations in connection with its tax evasion probe against the son and few other relatives of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao.

It is understood that the official residence of the Chief Secretary in Chennai was also raided.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Patna :

BJP on Wednesday said that Nitish Kumars support to demonetisation was crucial but he has every right to review his stand on the issue, two days after the Bihar Chief Minister said he will come out with a point-by-point analysis of the move after December 30.

Kumars consistent support to demonetisation has been crucial. He is one of a few national leaders backing the move against black money in the country, BJP national spokesperson Syed Shahanwaz Hussain told reporters in Patna.

We value his support to demonetization. It will be his prerogative to review his stand on the scrapping of high-value currency notes. No problem. Let him review his stand on demonetisation after December 30... He has every right to do so, he said.

The chief minister had on Monday said demonetisation was not enough to root out black money and that he will come out with a point-by-point analysis of the note ban after December 30.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi while announcing the decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes on November 8 had said there will be some inconvenience to people for the initial 50-day period.

RJD, a coalition partner in the grand alliance government in Bihar, has been opposing demonetisation with its supremo Lalu Prasad saying it put people to a lot of hardships.

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A group of 20 global business and technology luminaries will invest $1 billion in a clean energy fund to help combat global climate change.

Spearheaded by Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft Corp, the star-studded lineup, which includes Alibaba Group Holding Ltd founder Jack Ma and real estate power couple Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin, pledged to foster new energy technologies in the private sector.

The fund - Breakthrough Energy Ventures - is designed to invest over a 20-year period in early stage startups that deliver emission-free energy, agriculture and goods to the world.

(From left) former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, Chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Jack Ma, Soho China Ltd CEO Zhang Xin and Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos are among the 20 global business luminaries investing in Breakthrough Energy Ventures. China Daily and Reuters

"The goal is to build companies that will help deliver the next generation of reliable, affordable, and emissions-free energy to the world," said Gates in a statement.

The fund will review prospective technologies with regard to the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the ability to attract capital from other sources, and whether there exists scientific proof of a concept that can be meaningfully advanced.

The fund signifies concerted efforts by people with profound knowledge in science, innovation and the energy market, Ma said in a statement to China Daily. He sits on the board of directors of the fund.

"We usually let our knowledge limit our recognition of the future. When it comes to energy, people say you cannot make money, and protect the environment while reaping benefits. But we know we can and we will," Ma said.

Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg is part of the fund. He said clean energy is "essential to solving many of the world's other problems".

Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos, SoftBank Group Corp Chairman Masayoshi Son and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman are also investors in the fund.

Tech companies see renewable energy as a natural solution for data centers, which are electricity hungry, said Hao Zhiwei, a Shanghai-based analyst on the information and communications technology industry.

"The likes of Microsoft, Amazon and Alibaba own large-scale data centers. Nearly half of the daily expenditure is on electricity," Hao said.

These customer-facing companies, which usually have very high margins, tend to pay "a little bit extra" to earn green energy kudos, according to Jonathan Koomey, lecturer at Stanford University, who specializes in the environmental effects of information technology.

An MIT study in July revealed that venture capital firms invested more than $25 billion from 2006 to 2011 on clean energy, but lost more than half of that money.

"If a new and more diverse set of actors avoids the mistakes of the clean-tech VC boom and bust, then they may be able to support a new generation of clean-tech companies," said Benjamin Gaddy, the lead author of the MIT report.

hewei@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/13/2016 page13)
Science writer Philip Ball's new book The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A British writer tells Andrew Moody how this vital resource has shaped Chinese life and culture for centuries.

Science writer Philip Ball believes water has played a determining role in shaping China's destiny.

This is the central thesis of his new book, The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China, which examines the country's long history through the prism of this vital aspect of its physical geography.

"China has had to develop a relationship with water that is unparalleled. You have a combination of factors that you don't see anywhere else in the world," he says.

"You have places like Bangladesh, where there is a constant risk of extreme flood and the Middle East, where there are always problems of water shortage but China has to deal with both."

Ball, 54, who was speaking outside the British Library near St Pancras in central London, makes the case that water is not just a matter of survival but an influence on many other aspects of Chinese life.

"What I hope is that by narrowing the focus to this particular window, it enables you to tell an extraordinary and surprisingly amount, about not just Chinese history but politics, culture, art, philosophy and language even."
Chinese and British leaders reaffirmed their keen willingness to strengthen the two countries' "golden era" of relations at the 8th China UK Strategic Dialogue in London on Tuesday.

The annual dialogue, led by China's State Councilor Yang Jiechi and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, follows the September meeting between President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister Theresa May at the G20 Leaders Summit in Hangzhou.

Both sides agreed to implement the two countries' leaders' agreement to increase strategic communication, improve political trust, deepen win-win collaboration and push forward China-UK ties under the current new landscape for development, and together work for global peace, development and stability.

Yang suggested the two countries should take advantage of the 45th anniversary of the establishment of ambassadorial-level diplomatic relations, to strengthen exchanges at different levels, to achieve fruitful results in investment, trade, financial services, innovation, infrastructure development and other fields.

Yang said the two sides should increase cultural exchanges and collaboration, and become strategic partners with a shared vision, mutual respect, trust, and learn from each other, to achieve common growth and development.

Johnson said the UK government should stay firm in developing its strategic partnership with China, to boost the China-UK "golden era" of relations.

Johnson said the UK is willing to increase strategic communication with China, to strengthen collaboration in sectors including trade, investment, aviation and infrastructure development. The two countries should join to respond to significant international challenges and strengthen coordination on important globally issues.

The two sides also exchanged views on international relations and regional issues of common concern, and released a statement on issues related to Afghanistan.
Japan tags senior citizens with scan-able barcodes to tackle their problem of elderly people gone missing

It likely seems Orwellian to most Americans, but apparently some Japanese are okay with it: One city in the Asian nation has launched a unique program to help keep track of senior citizens who have a tendency to become losttagging their fingers and toes with scan-able barcodes.

As reported by Agence France Presse, a firm based in Iruma, located north of Tokyo, developed minute nail stickers, each one carrying a unique identifier that helps concerned families locate missing loved ones, according to the citys social welfare office.

The QR-coded, adhesive seals for nails, which are part of a free service that has only recently been launchedand is a first in Japanmeasure only one centimeter (0.4 inches) in size. Being able to attach the seals on nails is a great advantage, one city employee told AFP. There are already ID stickers for clothes or shoes but dementia patients are not always wearing those items.

If authorities find an elderly person wandering about, they will contact the local city hall, its telephone number and the wearers identification all placed within the QR code. The chips stay attached for about two weeks, even if they get wet, according to the company, citing recent field trials.

As Japans society grows older, governments face unique probless with dementia and other age-related health problems

In November, Japanese police started providing noodle discounts at local restaurants for elderly citizens who voluntarily agreed to give up their driver licenses. That offer was the result of a series of deadly accidents involving elderly drivers; its a huge problem because there are 4.8 million people 75 years old or older who hold drivers licenses.

Japan is struggling with a rapidly aging population. Demographers believe that by 2060, an astounding 40 percent of Japanese will be over the age of 65, as the countrys birth rate slips to about 1.41 children per woman.

As reported by the Japan Times, experts have described Japans birth rate situation as catastrophic because its society is aging as sexless couples are having fewer and fewer children. At present, in fact, the birth rate is below the death rate, meaning Japans population is slowly dying off. That said, the figures dont tell the full story; in fact, demographers say that the situation is reversing itself, the Times noted.

As for the tracking device, that is an idea that seems like an innocent solution to what appears to be a mounting problem in Japan. And it could just be an idea that only works in certain societies. But rest assured, the globalist ruling cabal likes authoritarian rule, and would love nothing more than to be able to track every human being on the planet.

There are those who would love to track every human on the planet

In fact, thats very nearly the case as it is, and we have done it to ourselves willingly, with technology. Our cellphones serve as miniature tracking devices. Automobiles equipped with satellite-fed featuresradio, emergency contact systems, remote start/shut-down systemsalso serve to track us wherever we go.

Then there are devices for the home that essentially keep track of us; virtually everything that is connected to the Internet or is satellite-linked. Even our smart electrical power meters are treasure troves of data that can indicate when we are at home, establish patterns of behavior and so forth.

Some societiesdictatorships, communist countries, and even some socialist-leaning nations in the European Unionwould either have little choice or may voluntarily agree to allowing themselves to be tracked by the government 24/7/365. That wouldnt work so well in the United States, however, with our constitutional privacy protections, though clearly there are even those in our own country who would love to circumvent those protections or have them overturned.

Sources:

Yahoo.com

JapanTimes.com

FreeBeacon.com

Submit a correction >>
DANBURY  U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal visited the Hat City on a three-city tour Wednesday to stand with those advocating for new measures to fight Lyme disease.

Blumenthal helped write legislation that was incorporated into the 21st Century Cures Act, which was signed into law last week. The legislation doesnt include funding for scientists working to lessen the dangers of Lyme, but does label the disease as public health menace along with such afflictions as cancer and opioid addiction that the federal government is working to defeat.

Connecticut is the epicenter for the spreading scourge of Lyme throughout the country, Blumenthal said. This is a real breakthrough for prevention, research and education.

Three times in the past five years, Blumenthal has introduced the Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Prevention, Education, and Research Act to funnel money to scientists working on diagnosis and prevention, but the bill never passed. But with Lymes inclusion in the Cures Act, an advisory committee of doctors, experts, patients and advocates will now coordinate research to prevent and treat the bacterial disease.

Sometimes good things take time, Blumenthal said.

An estimated 300,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme in the U.S. every year, 22,000 from Connecticut alone. Lyme causes fevers, headaches, skin rashes and fatigue and if left untreated can spread to the heart, joints and nervous system and create debilitating symptoms that last for months or years.

On Wednesday, the senator met with experts from the Western Connecticut Health Network Biomedical Research Institute on West Street. There he lauded the efforts of scientists and advocates, who in turn praised Blumenthal for decades of work spreading awareness about tick-borne diseases.

At WCHN, Dr. Paul Fiedler and a team of scientists have worked for years on a new way to diagnose Lyme, which is now difficult to detect. Doctors can track the bodys immune reaction to Lyme, but cannot identify when the bacteria itself is in the body, which delays treatment and hurts patients.

This is progress, Blumenthal said, but it is far from the final step.

blytton@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3411; @bglytton
A former Danbury local civil rights activist charged in South Dakota with murdering his female companion hopes to suppress statements he made to law enforcement officials shortly after his arrest.

Brian Duncan, 60, was charged in July with second-degree murder in the death of Helen Wright, also a former Danbury resident, whose body was found in 2015 in a room they shared at the Western Thrifty Inn in Rapid City, S.D.

Duncan represented Wright, 60, seven years ago during her disputes with the Danbury Housing Authority. At the time, Duncan was successful in convincing then-Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to investigate Wrights claims of civil rights violations by the authority. The claims were later determined to be unfounded.

Officials in South Dakota declined to describe in detail the comments Duncan made to police after he was taken into custody in Texas, when he was considered a person of interest in the case. A hearing on the suppression motion is set for Jan. 12.

He made a number of statements about what occurred, but I cant really go beyond that, Rapid City Deputy States Attorney Wayne Venhuizen said Tuesday. He spoke to multiple law enforcement officers and there should be a good deal of testimony about it during the hearing next month.

Duncan filed the suppression request during a brief court appearance in the Pennington County Courthouse on Dec. 10. The request notes that Duncan spoke with several Rapid City police officers as well as other law enforcement officials during his trip from Texas to Rapid City.

Duncan and Wright met in Danbury about seven years ago, when Duncan approached members of the Danbury Housing Authority, describing himself as a civil rights advocate and investigator. Duncan helped Wright, who had an ongoing rent dispute with the authority, in filing complaints with local and federal agencies.

Wright, who had previously suffered a heart attack and used a walker and crutch to get around, told the News-Times in 2009 that she had received a series of eviction letters after putting her rent in an escrow account during a dispute over a mold problem in her apartment.

Shortly after Duncans arrest, Mayor Mark Boughton said he wasnt surprised, given Duncans often erratic behavior when dealing with city officials during the housing dispute.

The real tragedy is what happened to Wright, he said.

Duncan is being held on a $750,000 bond while the case against him is pending. He could face a life sentence if convicted of the murder charge.

dperrefort@newstimes.com
The Roger Sherman Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, which serves the New Milford area, will host the Wall That Heals in New Milford Oct. 27 to 30.

In addition, several other events will be held around town (see Wall Schedule below for specific times of ceremonies and special events).

The Wall That Heals, a 250-foot replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, along with a mobile education center, will arrive at Youngs Field on Youngs Field Road Oct. 26 at 11 a.m.

The wall will be open 24 hours a day beginning Oct. 27.

A daily opening ceremony will be held and a closing ceremony will be offered Oct. 30 at 3 p.m.

The Wall That Heals honors the more than 3 million Americans who served in the U.S. armed forces during the Vietnam War.

The wall, erected in a chevron shape like the original memorial, bears the names of the more than 58,000 men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam.

The replica is constructed of powder-coated aluminum, supported by an aluminum frame, and is made up of 24 individual panels, each containing six columns of names.

The names on The Wall That Heals replicate the names on the memorial in Washington, D.C. As on The Wall, the names are listed alphabetically by day of casualty.

WALL SCHEDULE

Oct. 26

The Wall That Heals will open Oct. 26.

Connecticut Patriot Guard, Iron Law, Connecticut Cruise News Minutemen and American Legion riders will escort The Wall, arriving at Youngs Field at approximately 11 a.m.

Mark Albertson will present a program, Horseback to Helicopters, at 6:30 p.m. at library on Main Street.

Oct. 27

A pause and reflect ceremony will begin at 9 a.m.

It will include a welcome greeting by Jennie Rehnberg of the Roger Sherman Chapter, DAR and the National Society DAR; the National Anthem sung by Ray Plue; the Pledge of Allegiance led by Jeffrey McBreairty of the American Legion Post 31; an opening prayer by Rabbi Ari Rosenberg of Temple Sholom; a proclamation by Mayor David Gronbach; a laying of the wreath/Vietnam Service Ribbon by New Milford Police Chief Shawn Boyne; blessings and reflections by the Rev. Jack Gilpin of St. Johns Episcopal Church; a reading by Vietnam veteran Bill Shemeley of the 32 Litchfield County individuals who were killed-in-action or missing-in-action; Taps by Commander James Delancy of VFW Post 1672; a benediction of the Rev. Michael Moran of the First Congregational Church; bagpipe playing by Patrick Maguire and Celtic Cross; a rifle salute by the New Milford Honor Guard and the New Milford Police Department Honor Guard.

In addition, Peter M. DiMaria, veterans service officer for the 5th District, will assist any veterans with questions regarding benefits, etc.

Oct. 28

The opening ceremony will be held at 10 a.m.

It will include a welcome by Rehnberg; a clearing of The Wall by Maguire and Celtic Cross; the presentation of colors by the Greater Danbury Area Korean War Veterans Association, the New Milford Police Department Honor Guard and the New Milford Honor Guard; the National Anthem sung by Judith Messer of the Roger Sherman Chapter, DAR and NSDAR honorary regent; the Pledge of Allegiance led by Lt. Col. Gerard J. Monaghan, AUS (Ret.); an invocation by the Rev. Joseph Lorenzo of St. Francis Xavier Church; a moment of silence; a proclamation from Governor Dannel Malloy red by Vietnam veteran Robert Coppola; a proclamation by Mayor Gronbach; guest speaker Jimmie W. Spencer, Command Sergeant Major, USA (Ret); God Bless America sung by the St. Francis Xavier Church choice; and the laying of the wreaths for the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps, the United States Navy, the United States Air Force, the United States Coast Guard, Prisoners of War/Missing in Action and Gold Star mothers; a rifle salute by the New Milford Police Department Honor Guard and the New Milford Honor Guard; Taps by Delancy; a benediction by Lorenzo; and a presentation of Vietnam veterans commemorative lapel pins.

A Quilt of Valor presentation will be held.

A Table of Remembrance, held under a tent, will be held at noon.

Bank Street Theater will offer a screening of Soldiers of Vietnam, , edited Chris Bryant and produced by Simon Melzer, at 3 p.m.

A POW/MIA candlelight ceremony with the POW/MIA Connecticut Forget-Me-Nots, Inc. will be held at 8 p.m.

The ceremony will include speaker Doris Maitland, sister of SMS Andre R. Guillet, Girl Scout Troops 40270, 40229 and independently registered Girl Scouts, music by St. Francis Xavier Church choir and bagpipes played by Maguire and Celtic Cross.

Oct. 29

Hearts in Harmony Jr. performers will sing Imagine and What a Wonderful World at 9:30 a.m., followed by a cannon salute with Colonel John Harrison and the First Litchfield Artillery Regiment at 9:45 a.m.

The opening ceremony will begin at 10 a.m.

It will include greetings by Rehnberg; a welcome by Alice Ridgeway, state regent of Connecticut DAR and Chris Nichols, president of Connecticut SSR; clearing of the wall by Celtic Cross; presentation of colors by General Wolcotts 6th Militia Brigade Color Guard; the National Anthem by Messer; the Pledge of Allegiance by Morgan Fischer, state president of CSCAR; Americans Creed led by Alec Marshall of the NSCAR, National chairman for government studies; an invocation by the Rev. Alex da Silva Souto of the New Milford United Methodist Church a moment of silence; a governors proclamation read by Vietnam veteran John Marshall; a proclamation by Mayor Gronbach; guest speaker Schwartz; God Bless America by Denise Doring Van Buren, first vice president general of NSDAR; the laying of the wreaths with the Charles Merriman, CAR and the Purple Heart CSCAR; a musket salute with General Wolcott's 6th Militia Brigade; Taps with Delancy; a benediction by de Silva Souto; and a presentation of Vietnam veterans commemoration lapel pins by DAR members.

A screening of Soldiers of Vietnam will be held at Bank Street Theater at 10:45 a.m. and noon.

LLC Comfort Dog Ministry and Joel Wardenburg of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Danbury will be on site from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Sing Out! CT will perform at the bandstand on the Village Green at noon.

A reception to honor Dr. Linda Schwartz, VA assistant secretary for policy and planning, and Gold Star Families will be held Oct. 29 at The Gallery on Bank Street, formerly the Harts Gallery.

Attendance is by invitation only.

A Quilt of Valor presentation will be held.

A reading of the names of New Milford Vietnam veterans who served will be held at 7 p.m.

A candlelight ceremony honoring all veterans, past and present, will be held at 8 p.m.

Oct. 30

A screening of Soldiers of Vietnam will be held at 10:45 a.m. and noon at Bank Street Theater.

The noon screening will be followed by a Q&A with Chris Bryant, director of the film.

LLC Comfort Dog Ministry and Joel Wardenburg of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Danbury will be on site from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Regiment Light Dragoons will be on hand at 2:30 p.m.

The closing ceremony will be held at 3 p.m.

It will include a clearing of The Wall by Maguire and Celtic Cross; a presentation of colors by the New Milford Honor Guard, the New Milford Police Department Honor Guard, the Northwest Connecticut Final Honors Squad from the Torrington Veterans Service Office; the National Anthem by Plue; the Pledge of Allegiance led by McBreairty; closing remarks by Rehnberg; the removal of memorabilia from The Wall; a blessing of memorabilia by Deacon Roland Miller of St. Francis Xavier Church; God Bless America by St. Francis Xavier Church choir; a benediction by Miller; a rifle salute by the New Milford Honor Guard, the New Milford Police Department Honor Guard and the Northwest Connecticut Final Honors Squad from the Torrington Veterans Service Office; Taps by the Northwest Connecticut Final Honors Squad LLC Comfort Dog Ministry and Delancy; bagpipe playing by Maguire and Celtic Cross; the retiring of the colors by the New Milford Honor Guard, the New Milford Police Department Honor Guard and the Northwest Connecticut Final Honors Squad.

Ongoing

Several other events will be offered in town during the Wall that Heals exhibit.

A six-week Gold Star display, created by CCSU Veterans History Project Director Eileen Hurst, is on view at Roger Sherman Town Hall at 10 Main St.

Tom Quinn, Ph.D., LCSW-R, of the Danbury Veterans Center will be at Youngs Field each day.

A Connecticut Vietnam casualties and missing-in-action exhibit, created by Hurst, will be on display Oct. 26-30 at the Wall that Heals.

A quilt display by Sue Reich will be on display at the railroad station on Railroad Street.

BACKGROUND

The Wall That Heals is transported from community to community by a 53-foot, fifth-wheel trailer with cases built into its sides, allowing it to serve as a mobile education center that tells the story of the Vietnam War, The Wall and the divisive era in American history.

Since its debut in 1996, more than 2 million people have visited The Wall That Heals sites.

It has made stops in nearly 400 U.S. communities, in addition to an April 1999 tour of the Four Provinces of Ireland and a visit to Canada in 2005.

For information, to view a schedule of events, volunteer, donate, advertise in a special commemorative booklet or purchase a Wall That Heals New Milford medallions, visit thewallnewmilford.org.
During the congressional election campaign in 1970, a campaign almost as nasty as this years presidential campaign, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew famously derided the Nixon administrations critics in the news media.

In the United States today, Agnew said, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.

Elected officials everywhere sometimes share that feeling, and Governor Malloy seems to be the latest one. Speaking last week to the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce breakfast in Cromwell, the governor complained about the dismal view of Connecticut that is sometimes reflected by news organizations. There is more good news than bad news, the governor insisted, but we dwell on the bad news.

Having suffered a lot of bad news during his six years in the states top office, news that included his two mammoth tax increases, the governor has developed a thicker skin, and his tone in Cromwell was more plaintive than demagogic like Agnews. Further, given the financial disaster bequeathed to him by his predecessors, Malloy is always deserving of some sympathy, while Agnew never was, since he was a mere political hatchet man and sometimes equated disagreement with disloyalty and even communism.

But most people in Connecticut really dont need to be told that times are good or bad. While they are paying less attention to the news and more to social media, less attention to public policy and more to cat videos and other comic relief, they still can tell if their incomes are rising and their tax burdens falling or not, just as they can tell if the people around them are happier or more harried and depressed. Even as national surveys still rank Connecticut high for quality of life, opinion polls of state residents find most of them in a mood so sour that they claim to be inclined to leave.

That is, while living conditions here still may be better than elsewhere, people sense that conditions are getting worse.

As the governor spoke in Cromwell, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that it would close its research and development office in Wallingford, eliminating 500 jobs or moving them out of state.

Just after the governor spoke three men were shot, one of them being critically wounded, in separate incidents in the poverty factory known as New Haven.

Meanwhile police in the poverty factory known as Hartford announced that they soon will start carrying the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone to combat the heroin plague that has broken out of the cities and is sweeping the rest of the state, even prosperous suburbs. (People tend not to inject themselves with heroin when their lives are going well.)

A few hours earlier Hartfords mayor had told a suburban audience that the city is insolvent and needs more of their money, but a suburban state senator replied that none would be forthcoming.

And just after he spoke the governor himself warned that a potentially deadly cold wave was sweeping down on the state from the northwest, prompting state government to begin emergency protocols to prevent the demoralized and destitute from freezing to death.

So even those who are not nattering nabobs of negativism might have been prompted by all this to start seeing virtue in those supposedly uneducated, uncultured, redneck-infested, and generally benighted but at least warm Southern states like South Carolina and Florida, especially the latter, since it has no state income tax and half its residents already seem to be exiles from Connecticut.

By May the young bloom of Connecticuts rolling countryside once again may make the state the most beautiful place in the world. But thats a long time to wait. Until then offsetting the states many disadvantages must begin with identifying them rather than minimizing them, which in turn will require some negativism and the nattering nabobs to provide it.

Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester.
Pakistani security team seizes 15 kg heroin at Karachi airport

Pakistan,Indo-Pak/Pakistan,Crime/Disaster/Accident, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Islamabad, Dec 21 (IANS) The security and vigilance team of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Wednesday foiled an attempt to smuggle 15 kg heroin from the country's southern port-city of Karachi to Saudi Arabia, officials said.

PIA spokesperson Danyal Gilani said the airline's team recovered the heroin at Karachi's Jinnah International Airport during routine pre-departure search of the plane.

He said that the flight, PK-7121, was scheduled to travel from Karachi to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.

The heroin was hidden in a secret compartment of the plane. Investigation was being carried out to arrest the culprit.

Officials from Airport Security Force, Anti-Narcotics Force and Pakistan Customs at the airport were also called in to investigate the heroin and the plane.

The custom officials arrested three PIA workers and sent them for investigations, local Urdu TV channel Dunya said.

The flight was delayed for 10 hours due to the incident and the spokesperson said that all passengers were accommodated in a hotel and later sent to Jeddah after the aircraft was cleared by the relevant agencies.

--IANS

ahm/dg
3 militants killed in Indonesia

Indonesia,Defence/Security,Terrorism, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Jakarta, Dec 21 (IANS) Indonesian police on Wednesday shot dead three suspected militants and captured another who planned to commit a suicide attack on a police post, police said.

"The militants had plotted to stab police personnel at a police post when they gather to the scene and then a suicide bomber will explode himself," Xinhua news agency quoted a police official as saying.

Oman, Helmi and Irwan were killed in a gunfight with police, the official said.

Police learned of the militants' presence from another suspected terrorist who was captured earlier on Wednesday.

--IANS

py/mr
Australia begins new koala breeding programme

Australia,Environment/Wildlife, Wed, 21 Dec 2016 IANS

Sydney, Dec 21 (IANS) Australia is implementing a new koala breeding programme to save fragmented populations of the tree-dwelling bear in the country's east, a minister said on Wednesday.

Queensland tourist park Dreamworld and the University of Queensland will initially use two rehabilitated koalas to begin developing a living genome bank where captive bred joeys will eventually be released, an important contribution to koala habitat rehabilitation in the state's southeast, Xinhua news agency reported.

"These rehabilitated koalas can now look forward to a productive future as we work to revitalise the region's dwindling koala population," Queensland state Environment Minister Steven Miles said.

"The establishment of a living genetic bank is an innovative response to the challenge of protecting koala numbers in the wild in south east Queensland and a great outcome for rehabilitated animals that can't return to their homes."

Dreamworld's general manager of life sciences Al Mucci said the koalas and their offspring will be kept in a special enclosure away from public display areas in the park's FutureLab, a joint project with Queeensland university to strengthen endangered species populations.

"We want to be able to release koalas which are bred through this programme to the wild and that needs careful and expert management so that the animals do not become used to people," Mucci said.

--IANS

py/vm
UN chief calls for India, Pakistan dialogue

United States,Indo-Pak/Pakistan,Politics,Diplomacy, Thu, 22 Dec 2016 IANS

United Nations, Dec 22 (IANS) The outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has again called for India and Pakistan to resolve their differences through dialogue and has expressed concern over the tensions along the Line of Control.

Ban, whose term ends this month, encourages the South Asian neighbors to continue their efforts to deal with their disputes peacefully and through dialogue, Farhan Haq, the Secretary-General's Deputy Spokesperson, told reporters on Wednesday.

Haq was replying to a Pakistani journalist who said that Ban has neither been outspoken on the Kashmir issue and the human rights situation on the Indian side of the line of control, nor endorsed the demand for sending human rights investigators made by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

Haq denied that Ban had ignored the Kashmir issue. "I would disagree with you on that. We have had statements including on the situation between India and Pakistan and specifically on Kashmir," he said.

"All I can say is that the secretary-general has had a very consistent position," he added. "One fact which we expressed last month is to say he is following concern the recent tensions along the Line of Control."

Ban "continues to encourages them to continue their efforts to peacefully and resolve their difference through dialogue," he said.

Ban has avoided becoming embroiled in the Kashmir dispute, which India has said is a bilateral issue and recognised as such by the two countries in the 1972 Simla Agreement.

Ban has offered his "good offices" to help the two countries resolve their difference if he is assed by them.

Other UN bodies like the Security Council and the General Assembly also sidelined Islamabad's attempts to raise the Kashmir issue.

Zeid is the only official to forcefully get involved in the Kashmir issue. He criticised India in September for not responding to his request to send a team from his office to Kashmir to carry out an "independent, impartial and international mission" on both sides of the line of control.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

al/pgh/
GANDER, NL, Dec. 20, 2016 /CNW/ - Workers at D-J Composites Inc., a Gander-based aerospace company owned by a U.S. firm, locked out its employees, members of Unifor local 597 late Monday evening.

"The members, skilled aerospace workers, have been trying for nearly two years to respectfully negotiate a reasonable, fair deal and just days before Christmas this American owned company puts its employees out of work. Words can't express my disappointment with this attitude," said Brian Murphy, Unifor National Servicing Representative for the workplace.

The company is demanding wage freezes for up to five years for some of the employees and three years of wage freezes for others with a small increase of 15 cents an hour in 2018, and 20 cents in 2019. Unifor has indicated that it is ready at any time to return to the bargaining table to work towards a fair contract that provides good jobs to Gander.

In response to the lock-out a picket line at the Gander facility was set up Tuesday morning. After 22 long months trying to bargain a new collective agreement the employees authorized a strike with a 100 per cent vote mandate. The union had informed the company that it was more than willing to continue at the bargaining table. This was despite the fact the employer had worsened its offer to the over 50 workers, which includes 19 on lay off, after an earlier offer was rejected in late October.

"This employer has always been extremely difficult to deal with over the years," said Carolyn Wrice, President of Unifor Local 597. "Our members are rightfully upset at the lack of progress at the bargaining table and with this lock-out just days before the holidays."

Unifor's Atlantic Regional Director Lana Payne said "Unifor members understand the challenges of a globally competitive aerospace industry and they have shown over and over again how willing they are to meet the standards expected. What we expect in return is a fair collective agreement with decent wages and benefits to sustain good jobs in the community."

Unifor remains ready to negotiate a fair contract that provides good jobs to Gander.

Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector, representing more than 310,000 workers. It was formed Labour Day weekend 2013 when the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union merged.

SOURCE Unifor

For further information: Brian Murphy, Unifor National Representative at 709-728-8966; Carolyn Wrice, President of Local 597 at 709-725-4884; Kathleen O'Keefe, National Communications at [email protected] or (cell) 416-896-3303.
COPENHAGEN, Dec. 21, 2016 /CNW/ - Following the success of the Natural Light solar lamp in Africa, the VELUX Group will deliver 20,000 more solar lamps to support sales agents in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and from now on also in Malawi.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click:

http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8006751-velux-more-natural-light-shine-in-africa/

Using an entrepreneurial distribution model, the Natural Light project will now donate a second instalment of 20,000 solar lamps. These will be sold by new sales agents in off-grid communities in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and, for the first time, in Malawi.

The aim of this project, besides bringing a sustainable light source to off-grid communities, was to create a business model for local sales agents to make a living. This has been a great success. Today more than 50 sales agents in three African nations - Zimbabwe, Zambia and Sierra Leone - have their own businesses selling Natural Light solar lamps.

The Natural Light project, in collaboration with social business Little Sun, and NGO Plan International, was created to celebrate the VELUX Group's 75th anniversary. Following an international design competition last year, which received 172 submissions from all over the world, the winning design was chosen and 14,500 units of the solar lamp were distributed in Africa - one for each employee of the VELUX Group and its sister companies.

Olafur Eliasson, artist and founder of Little Sun, says: "The Natural Light solar lamp is not only about providing energy to off-grid communities in Africa; it gives people the means to take charge of their own lives. By providing sustainable, reliable and affordable light, we've given people more independence and now they are able to work, study and cook safely in the dark."

Alongside light, the Natural Light solar lamps will also help to improve air quality by reducing the widespread use of toxic, carbon-emitting kerosene lanterns, and instead, harness the sustainable energy of the sun.

Michael K. Rasmussen, Senior Vice President, Brand, the VELUX Group, says: "As a company built on knowledge of light and fresh air, the Natural Light project was a beautiful way to celebrate our 75th anniversary and bring better living environments outside our normal markets. Apart from light for reading or cooking after sunset and substitute the smelly kerosene lamp, the Natural Light project has helped foster young, ambitious entrepreneurs who now have their own businesses."

He continues: "We have extended the program to Malawi after the very positive uptake in the other countries - team members from Zambia had shared the story with the new project participants in Malawi, and we are excited to have them join the Natural Light family."

The additional Natural Light solar lamps are ready for distribution. A number of local sales agents in Malawi will be trained on how to sell the solar lamps in the coming months, through a series of workshops, roleplays, demonstrations, and group work.

For more information, visit http://www.littlesun.com, facebook.com/ilovelittlesun, twitter.com/littlesun.

Press material at VELUX Media Centre

See and download our news videos, photos and press material at VELUX Media Centre at press.velux.com.

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/450767/VELUX_Natural_Light_Solar_Lamp.jpg )

Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/450767/VELUX_Natural_Light_Solar_Lamp.jpg Video: http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8006751-velux-more-natural-light-shine-in-africa/

SOURCE VELUX Group
CAPITAL REGION, N.Y. -- State Police have not added more resources or stepped up patrols on the border it shares with a state that legalized marijuana less than a week ago.

But they are waiting to see what, if anything, might spill over the border into New York following Massachusetts' Dec. 15 legalization of marijuana. On Nov. 8, Massachusetts joined eight states and the District of Columbia in legalizing use and possession of the drug. Shops that sell marijuana there will open in 2018.

"(State Police) have not made any operational changes. The patrols that are out on the state highways are still doing their normal thing," said William "Beau" Duffy, a spokesman for New York State Police. "If we notice any kind of an uptick in marijuana trafficking, we'll certainly respond accordingly."

And the federal government might also be paying close attention to whether there's evidence that marijuana is leaving Massachusetts into states where it is not legal, including New York.

When Colorado became the first state to legalize marijuana in 2012, Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote a memorandum to nationwide United States attorneys. The memo listed the Department of Justice's priorities for states that legalized a drug that remained illegal under federal law.

One of those priorities is to prevent "diversion of marijuana in states where it is legal under state law in some form to other states," Cole wrote in the August 2013 memo. Cole wrote that Congress still believed marijuana is dangerous but that the agency's "limited resources" might allow it some discretion in cracking down on states experimenting with legal pot.

"Outside of these enforcement priorities, the federal government has traditionally relied on states and local law enforcement agencies to address marijuana activity through enforcement of their own narcotics laws," Cole wrote in what's become known as the "Cole Memorandum."

Jim Borghesani, communications director for the campaign that pushed for legal pot in Massachusetts, said the memo does not give guidance to states that border those where marijuana is legal. He also said it might be difficult to monitor where marijuana originated if it's found in states where it is illegal.

"It's going to be very difficult to do other than searching every car that's leaving. Shops don't track who is buying. They may look at your license, but they don't take down information," he said. "It's going to be difficult for anybody to determine if any is leaving the state and how much."

Duffy said this week that State Police have received no instructions from the federal government on monitoring or preventing marijuana being brought into New York. Troopers at two State Police districts that patrol near the Massachusetts border said they've seen no uptick in crime, but it's only been a week.

In any case, the State Police officers and Duffy stressed that marijuana is not legal in New York, even if it's brought from a legal state.

"If we pull somebody over and they've got marijuana, they've got marijuana," Duffy said.

Borghesani also said it's unclear how long Massachusetts will get to keep its new law. Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump's new appointment as Attorney General, has said he thinks marijuana is a dangerous drug that should not be legalized. Borghesani said states like Massachusetts are waiting to see whether Trump's administration is as deferential to the "Cole Memorandum" as President Barack Obama's.

"There's worry, and there's fear, because of the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, being such an avowed marijuana opponent," he said. "Nobody knows what's going to happen."

Read the "Cole memorandum" below:



Cole Memo by PatLohmann on Scribd

Reporter Patrick Lohmann covers New York state government and other topics. He can be reached any time: Email | Twitter | (315)766-6670
Researchers at Tohoku University have, for the first time, successfully demonstrated the basic operation of spintronics-based artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence, which emulates the information processing function of the brain that can quickly execute complex and complicated tasks such as image recognition and weather prediction, has attracted growing attention and has already been partly put to practical use.

The currently-used artificial intelligence works on the conventional framework of semiconductor-based integrated circuit technology. However, this lacks the compactness and low-power feature of the human brain. To overcome this challenge, the implementation of a single solid-state device that plays the role of a synapse is highly promising.

The Tohoku University research group of Professor Hideo Ohno, Professor Shigeo Sato, Professor Yoshihiko Horio, Associate Professor Shunsuke Fukami and Assistant Professor Hisanao Akima developed an artificial neural network in which their recently-developed spintronic devices, comprising micro-scale magnetic material, are employed. The used spintronic device is capable of memorizing arbitral values between 0 and 1 in an analogue manner unlike the conventional magnetic devices, and thus perform the learning function, which is served by synapses in the brain.

(a) Optical photograph of a fabricated spintronic device that serves as artificial synapse in the present demonstration. Measurement circuit for the resistance switching is also shown. (b) Measured relation between the resistance of the device and applied current, showing analogue-like resistance variation. (c) Photograph of spintronic device array mounted on a ceramic package, which is used for the developed artificial neural network.

Using the developed network (Fig. 2), the researchers examined an associative memory operation, which is not readily executed by conventional computers. Through the multiple trials, they confirmed that the spintronic devices have a learning ability with which the developed artificial neural network can successfully associate memorized patterns (Fig. 3) from their input noisy versions just like the human brain can.

Block diagram of developed artificial neural network, consisting of PC, FPGA, and array of spintronics (spin-orbit torque; SOT) devices.

The proof-of-concept demonstration in this research is expected to open new horizons in artificial intelligence technology  one which is of a compact size, and which simultaneously achieves fast-processing capabilities and ultralow-power consumption. These features should enable the artificial intelligence to be used in a broad range of societal applications such as image/voice recognition, wearable terminals, sensor networks and nursing-care robots.

Applied Physics Express- Analogue spin-orbit torque device for artificial-neural-network-based associative memory operation

SOURCES  Tohoku University
One hundred and forty Nigerians were yesterday deported from Libya for immigration and sundry offences. The deportees were flown in a...

One hundred and forty Nigerians were yesterday deported from Libya for immigration and sundry offences.The deportees were flown in a chartered aircraft that landed at the cargo section of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.According to immigration sources, 74 of the deportees are adult females, 52 adult males, three infants and six unaccompanied persons .The source said the return of the deportees was facilitated by the cooperation between Nigeria and the International Office of Migration ( IOM).Some of the deportees narrated their ordeal in Libya, and expressed mixed feelings on their return.On arrival, the deportees were documented by relevant security agencies before they were ferried out of the airport by buses provided by emergency relief organisations.
While in Maiduguri, the Oxfam ambassador visited Jakana village, where he met a woman whose husband was arrested by the Nigerian Army.The Blood Diamond star and ex-husband of Kimora Lee Simmons also spent time with Mohammed at the home he shares with his mother, sister, wife and their five children.The 52-year-old actor, who has since returned to the U.S. pledged to tell stories of victims of Boko Haram insurgency.
Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has decried the way the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices an...

Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has decried the way the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Commission are going about the anti-corruption fight.Clark, who expressed worry that the anti-corruption fight would be lost with the way the EFCC and the ICPC were prosecuting the campaign against corruption, said that the fight was becoming selective.The leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum maintained that although President Muhammadu Buharis fight against corruption was genuine, the fight would only succeed if it was not selective.Clark stated this during a news conference on Tuesday at his Kiagbodo country house in Burutu Local Government Area where he read an open letter addressed to the Attorney General of the Federal and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN).The Ijaw leader particularly condemned and described as unimaginable the manner at which the anti-graft agencies abandoned corruption cases in court for several years despite enough glaring evidence to nail the accused persons in court.Making references to the recent re-arraignment of a former Governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu; and a former Governor of Oyo State, Alhaji Rasheed Ladoja, by the EFCC  after their cases were abandoned for over nine years, Clark said such an action smacked of selectivity.Clark said, While Nigerians appreciate this, it must be observed that the activities of some of the anti-graft agencies may seriously affect Mr. Presidents fight against corruption. All patriotic Nigerians are very supportive of President Muhammadu Buharis anti-corruption crusade.He (Buhari) has done well in his fight against corruption, and we all commend him for that. But for this fight to succeed, there should not be sacred cows. Therefore, those heading the anti-graft agencies must be seen to be above board in the discharge of their duties.A situation whereby cases on corruption have been abandoned in the courts for years is unimaginable. Now that they want to reopen them, only a very few of them seem to be selected for re-arraignment. This negates the principle of impartiality. The war against corruption should be total.Clark demanded that other abandoned cases involving ex-governors such as Gbenga Daniel (Ogun State), Ikedi Ohakim (Imo State), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa State), Senator Danjuma Goje (Gombe State), Sule Lamido, (Jigawa State) and his two sons be reopened without further delay.
Representatives at a ceremony when 1 billion offshore bonds denominated in yuan, or dim sum bonds, issued by the China Construction Bank, were listed on London Stock Exchange's markets in October 2015. [Photo/China News Service]

Chinese investment in the UK is set to grow in 2017 as China's financial markets increasingly integrate into the global system, in spite of Brexit.

Chinese banks grew in London at unprecedented speeds in 2016 and now China's rapid reform and liberalization, combined with the renminbi's international status as a reserve currency, should push this momentum further in 2017.

In 2016, London hit an important milestone when it overtook Singapore in renminbi clearing volumes, becoming the largest center for renminbi activities outside China.

This momentum is set to continue, especially as the renminbi has inked its global reserve currency status by joining the IMF's basket of special drawing rights currencies.

Now, central banks and global institutions are looking to increase their renminbi asset holdings in a rebalancing move in line with special drawing rights. In particular, they are looking to buy into renminbi bonds and stocks. Then, it's just a matter of time Chinese bonds are included in major Western bond indices such as JP Morgan's.

London, with its reputation as an international capital, is perfect for more renminbi bond issuance in 2017. Currently there are 95 issues of yuan-denominated bonds listed on the London Stock Exchange, raising 37.6 billion yuan ($5.97 billion).

A feasibility study on connecting the London and Shanghai stock exchanges is well underway, giving London investors the chance to directly buy Chinese stocks.

Although Brexit stirred up concerns over London's status as an international financial hub, most Chinese banks have affirmed their confidence and continued investment in the UK capital. Their logic is simpleEuropean activities can be left to their existing European branches. Their London activities are still set to grow, in particular, commodities trading, foreign exchange trading, and the trading of derivative products. Paradoxically, Brexit talks have made the UK's businesses keener to foster better relationships with China.

On July 22, UK Chancellor Philip Hammond and City of London policy chairman Mark Boleat led a delegation of the UK's major financial services and legal firms to a UK-China financial services roundtable in Beijing, in which they emphasized Britain's continued openness to Chinese financial cooperation. Two days later Hammond proposed a possible free-trade agreement between the UK and China.

When former Lord Mayor of London Jefrey Mountevans returned from his China trip in September, he announced that his Chinese counterparts had focused all major discussions on business opportunities and not Brexit.

The pragmatic Chinese government and businesses are clearly embracing the British government's increased attention toward China relations.
The Movement for Popular Democracy (MPD) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to re-nominate the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Fin...

The Movement for Popular Democracy (MPD) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to re-nominate the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, for confirmation as chairman by the Senate.MPDs Executive Director Theo Nwaigbo described as bogus lies, information making the rounds on social media accusing Magu of impropriety.Nwaigbo stated this in Lagos yesterday while reacting to the refusal of the Senate to screen Magu for confirmation because of an alleged security report against him from the Directorate of State Services (DSS).It is a shame that desperate corrupt politicians could resort to peddling wicked lies against such a decent officer.I have known Magu for over 20 years. He has handled petitions from our chambers, right from when he was in Special Fraud Unit (SFU). He never asked nor received money, even as a thank you gesture, after completing his assignment.He does not smoke cigarattes, not to mention Indian hemp or cocaine. Those are lies from the pit of hell. It is really a shame, Nwaigbo said.According to him, Magus only sin is his uncompromising stance on corruption.I know this fellow, if he were not a policeman, he would have been a priest. He is decent and disciplined.The problem they have with him is that he cannot compromise on crime.That is the heart of the matter. And you know we have a lot of crooks in high places in this country, he said.Nwaigbo urged President Buhari not to succumb to the cheap blackmail.Mr. President should repackage Magu and send him back to the Senate for confirmation. He should not allow this pure vendetta to derail the anti-corruption war, Nwaigbo added.According to him, the EFCC detention facilities are second to none in the country and of international standard.I was privileged to accompany the Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof Bem Angwe, to EFCCs cells and we were amazed at the quality of the facilities.
A former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, on Tuesday, said the economic recession in the country would last longer than expecte...

A former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, on Tuesday, said the economic recession in the country would last longer than expected.He stated this at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, while inaugurating a building donated to the radio station of the Department of Mass Communication, NAU, by the institutions Dean of Social Sciences, Prof. Chinyere Okunna.Obi said, I laugh when I hear people say the recession will soon end. This is not true. A critical analysis of the 2017 budget will show you that the recession will not end soon.The governor said it was foolhardy for anybody to think that the recession would end soon.But there is hope. The hope is for us to change our spending system. Government should cut down the cost of running government.If you see any government spending extravagantly, you shout and nothing will happen to you because it is your money that is being spent. That is one of the ways to tackle this recession, Obi stated.The former governor described Okunna as a very hardworking academic who had contributed greatly in the training of professionals in the field of mass communication.He said Okunna, who was a commissioner during his (Obis) eight-year tenure as governor of the state, demonstrated great managerial ability.Speaking, Okunna said she donated the building to support the institution that had become a part of her.She said, I came into this university over 20 years ago and as we are winding down our stay here, I felt that I should leave a legacy here.We could not have done this without the support of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Joseph Ahaneku, and the members of the management of the university, who gave us the necessary support.
The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has described the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as unfit to fight corruption becaus...

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has described the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as unfit to fight corruption because it is an irresponsible and corrupt organisation.The governor, who commended the judiciary for standing firm against the EFCCs tyranny, said the way and manner the commission had been going about shopping for court orders against Nigerians should concern lovers of the rule of law in the country.He said this in reaction to the Mondays Federal High Court, Abuja, judgment ordering the EFCC to release all his properties that were attached based on the order of the court made on July 20 and August 2.Fayose, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said, It is the height of irresponsibility and fraud for the EFCC to have approached Justice Okon Abang for a similar order and concealed the fact that the order obtained from Justice Dimgba elapsed on September 3 and had failed to approach the same court for an extension.The EFCC and its corrupt elements fraudulently approached Justice Abang, and the same EFCC has even moved to the Federal High Court, Akure in search of another order, ostensibly because they have realised that the judge in the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti wont play ball.
The UN Security Council has said that The Gambias President Yahya Jammeh must respect the results of the Dec. 1 presidential election. ...

The UN Security Council has said that The Gambias President Yahya Jammeh must respect the results of the Dec. 1 presidential election. The UN says Jammeh must carry out a peaceful and orderly transition process and transfer power to President-elect, Adama Barrow by Jan. 19, 2017, in accordance with the Gambias Constitution.In a Presidential Statement S/PRST/2016/19 after a seven-minute meeting, read by Council President for December, Roman Marchesi (Spain), the 15-country-member organ restated its stance on Gambia. The Security Council recalled the press statement of the Council members on Dec. 10, 2016, and took note of the communique of the Chairman of the AU on Dec. 10, 2016.It also recalled the joint communique of the ECOWAS Commission, the AU Commission and the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel on Dec. 10, 2016 regarding the situation in the Islamic Republic of the Gambia. The Security Council welcomes and is encouraged by the decisions on the political situation in the Gambia of the 50th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority held in Abuja on Dec. 17, 2016. The council applauded the decisions of the AU Peace and Security Council, at its 644th meeting held on Dec. 12, 2016, and the AU to recognise Mr Adama Barrow as President-elect of the Gambia.The Security Council reiterates its request to outgoing President Jammeh and the relevant Gambian Authorities to fully respect the results of the presidential election of Dec. 1, 2016. Jammeh should also respect the will of the Gambian people and to carry out a peaceful and orderly transition process, and to transfer power to President-elect Adama Barrow by Jan. 19, 2017 in accordance with the Gambian Constitution.The Security Council further welcomes the decision of ECOWAS Heads of State to attend the Jan. 19, 2017 inauguration of President-elect Barrow in Banjul, the presidential statement read.The council reiterated its support to the ECOWAS position on the Gambia and welcomed the appointment of President Muhammadu Buhari to lead further negotiations with both Jammeh and Barrow. The Security Council commends the initiatives of ECOWAS, including the visit of an ECOWAS/UN high level delegation in Banjul on Dec. 13, 2016, led by Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia and Chairperson of the ECOWAS Authority, aimed at ensuring a peaceful and orderly transition process in The Gambia.The security council welcomes the appointment by ECOWAS of His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the Mediator in the Gambia and His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana as the Co-chair. The security council recalled its members request that the security of President-elect Adama Barrow, and that of all Gambian citizens, be fully ensured, and supports the decision of ECOWAS 50th Session in this regard. The Security Council further requested that the Gambian defence and security forces to demonstrate maximum restraint to maintain an atmosphere of calm in Banjul.In this regard, the Security Council emphasises the important role of Mr Mohammed ibn Chambas, Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of UNOWAS in the current political situation in The Gambia. The Security Council further welcomes and reiterates its full support for the continued efforts of the AU and ECOWAS to promote peace, stability and good governance in the region. The Security Council expresses its intention to continue to follow the situation in the Gambia closely. (NAN)
Ghanas President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo yesterday paid homage to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Ghanas President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo yesterday paid homage to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.Akufo-Addo, who was on a trip to Nigeria for the Future of Africa Awards held in Lagos, said his visit gave him opportunity to wish Buhari happy birthday.He spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with the President.The President-elect said: I came on a private visit to Lagos on Sunday to participate in the Future of Africa Awards and I thought it is proper that I take that opportunity to come to Abuja to pay my respect to the President.I have been elected, but I have not taken the oath of office. That will be taking place on January 7. But in the meantime, I have come to introduce myself to President Buhari so that we begin to know each other.The relationship between our two countries is so important for our countries, West Africa and Africa. I think those of us who are in positions of leadership need to know each other and have an understanding and address the main concerns of our population.I had the opportunity to say a belated happy birthday to the President. His birthday is an important day in my life because that day is my late mothers birthday.We had a good exchange. We are determined to grow the relationship between our two countries.
Despite the completion of his jail term, ex-Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, on Wednesday fought till the last minute to regain free...

Despite the completion of his jail term, ex-Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, on Wednesday fought till the last minute to regain freedom.The British Home Office was said to have opposed Iboris release because confiscation hearing had not been concluded.But the Crown Prosecution lawyer, Sian Davies, did not object to Iboris release and return to Nigeria.The drama which beclouded Iboris release was contained in a statement issued by his Media Assistant, Mr. Tony Eluemunor.The statement said: At 12: 20 p.m. Wednesday 21 December 2016, Her Honour, Mrs. Justice Juliet May, Queens Counsel, dropped her verdict; she ordered the immediate release of Chief James Onanefe Ibori.With that Iboris lawyers won a major victory against the British Home Office, at the Royal Court of Justice, Queens Court 1, London, by successfully challenging the decision not to release Ibori who was due for freedom on Tuesday, December 20, after serving his sentence.In a curious move, the British Home Office, instead of releasing Ibori on December 20, informed him that he would be detained.So, in court, Iboris lawyers exposed the injustice in the indefinite detention the Home Office had planned for Ibori. They told the judge that there were no grounds in law under which Ibori could be detained and that his detention for one day by the Home office was unlawful.Therefore, there was high drama in the British High Court as senior lawyers for the UKs Home Office failed in their last minute bid to prevent Iboris release.The apparent decision to block Iboris release and detain him appeared to have come from the highest echelons of the UK Government  the Home Secretary who was accused in todays hearing of acting unlawfully and misusing her powers.The Crown Prosecution lawyer, Sian Davies, did not object to Iboris release and return to Nigeria, yet at the last minute the Home Office stepped in. There is clear discord between the two arms of the British Government.Iboris team was led by Ian McDonald QC, the leading QC on immigration.The visibly irritated judge could not understand the Home Secretarys position and at times was critical of the move to detain Ibori any further. Mrs. Justice May rejected the Home Secretarys requests for conditions to be imposed and ordered Iboris immediate release.Ivan Krolic, who also attended, explained that Iboris confiscation proceedings collapsed in 2013, after the prosecution was unable to establish any theft from Delta State and any benefit for Ibori, from anywhere. A three-week hearing which heard live evidence was abandoned by the prosecutors  Wass QC and Shutzer-Weissman. Both prosecutors have since been dismissed from the case for gross misconduct.Krollic further explained that British police officers in the case led by DC McDonald have again been referred to the Independent Public Complaints Commission and now face a thorough investigation into their corrupt activities in this case. The CPS has confirmed officers in the case were corrupt. It has since disclosed substantial material evidencing the graft.Ibori and others have long maintained that this prosecution was politically motivated. It was funded by the UKs Department for International Development, DFID, whose senior employee was also the jury foreperson in one of the earlier trials.The Ibori case has been plagued with British police corruption, exceptional prosecutorial misconduct and fundamental non-disclosure. A multitude of appeals have now been launched or are in the process of being launched.
Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo, has accused the police of allowing the killers of late Minister of Justice, Bola Ige, escape justice.





Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo, has accused the police of allowing the killers of late Minister of Justice, Bola Ige, escape justice.He claimed that the mystery behind the assassination was not resolved, because its the case of the killer looking for the killer.Ige was murdered by unknown men on December 23, 2001 in his Ibadan home.Speaking during a symposium held by the Bola Ige Centre for Justice to commemorate 15 years of Iges death, with the theme, Political killings and our criminal justice system: the impediments, he said Iges death showed the failure of Nigerias criminal justice system.He said: The state was complicit in Bola Iges murder. Eight days before his death, he was assaulted at the palace of the Ooni of Ife. Immediately that happened, a red flag should have gone up. When a Minister of Justice was publicly assaulted, the government should have beefed up security around him.Aside from this, the police were more interested in destroying the evidence at their disposal. They were struggling to redirect the focus of the investigation. Bola Ige was not killed by armed robbers.When they brought me to Alagbon Close in preparation to charge me with arson, because I was representing a group that burnt the NNPC building down, I met Andrew Olofu the principal witness in the same cell with the prime suspect.I told them the investigation had been destroyed because the prime suspect was in the same cell with the principal witness.Later, the same Olofu came to court to say that he could not recognise anybody (the suspects) again. That was where the prosecution collapsed. The case of Bola Ige is the case of the killers looking for the killers; that is why it could not be resolved.We need answers from the police on the whereabouts of the police officers who went to eat when the late Ige was killed? We need to find out what happened to those orderlies. They should be dismissed for negligence.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says the unity, progress and the development of Nigeria remain his foremost responsibility.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says the unity, progress and the development of Nigeria remain his foremost responsibility.The former President, who said this in Owerri, the Imo State Capital, during the Imo day of thanksgiving on Monday, added that he was passionate about the unity and growth of the country.Obasanjo said, As a former President, I have what I call residual responsibility for this country. I will continue to work for the unity and progress of Nigeria.The ex-President, who charged Nigerians to work for the unity of the country, irrespective of ethnicity or religion, averred that it was biblical to give thanks to God.He said, As a former president of Nigeria, where am I in the progress of Nigeria? As a citizen of Imo State, where are you in the progress of Imo State and Nigeria? As a Christian, where are you in the development of the society?Also, the President-elect of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, promised that his reign would witness stronger bilateral relationship between his country and Nigeria.Akufo-Addo, who said he would work to deliver on the mandate given to him by the people of Ghana, asserted that he would be working with Nigeria to develop the West African sub-region and the African continent.The state Governor, Rochas Okorocha, noted that the essence of the thanksgiving was to lend a helping hand to the less privileged in the society.Christmas is the time to remember the less privileged, though the poverty rate in Imo is low, but we shall dramatise love, show love and give love. For me, this life is meaningless and worthless, unless we are able to lend a helping hand to the less privileged, the governor said.The governor, who advocated stronger bilateral relationship between Nigeria and Ghana, expressed optimism that Akufo-Addo and President Muhammadu Buhari would work closely for the development of the continent.While declaring a three-week public holiday for civil servants in the state, starting from December 19 to January 10, to commemorate the Christmas and New Year celebrations, Okorocha suggested that political party affiliation should not hinder the progress of the country.Meanwhile, Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday, said the relationship between his country and Nigeria was important for the two countries, West Africa and Africa.He said that was why leaders in the two countries must collaborate to address the main concerns of their citizens.Akufo-Addo spoke with State House correspondents shortly after meeting President Buhari behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.The President-elect said he was on a private visit to Lagos and he decided to visit Abuja in order to pay his respect to Buhari.
Former governor of Delta State, Chief James Onanefe Ibori has been released from prison.

Former governor of Delta State, Chief James Onanefe Ibori has been released from prison.He was released a few minutes past noon upon a court order.His media aide, Mr. Tony Elumenor confirmed the release to Vanguard Newspaper.Recall that Mr. James Ibori was sentenced by a United Kingdom court to prison for 13 years and served out his term midnight yesterday.Expectation of his return home to Nigeria, however, remains murky as friends and associates many of who are gathered in London deliberate on the future of the former governor.
Hopes that former Delta State Governor James Ibori will celebrate this years Christmas with his kinsmen at Oghara in Ethiope West Local ...

Hopes that former Delta State Governor James Ibori will celebrate this years Christmas with his kinsmen at Oghara in Ethiope West Local Government Area may have been dashed.There have been frantic preparations in anticipation of his return, leading to several repairs and clearing at Oghara in the last few days.But it was learnt last night, that the former governor had shelved his return.Ibori is expected to regain his freedom this month after a 13-year term in a British prison.A source told our reporter in Warri that the former governor would leave the British jail at 11 p.m Nigerian time yesterday.But a close associate of his, who was also the Commissioner for Transportation in the last administration, Ben Igbakpa, said Ibori had said he would not celebrate Christmas at home.Igbakpa said: He has issued a statement to the fact that hes not coming for Christmas. His media aide, Mr Tony Eluemunor, issued a statement to that effect, since Tuesday, that hes not coming home for Christmas. Hes been away and everybody is enthusiastic to receive him back. But hes not going to be around for Christmas as he has said.Also, in anticipation of Iboris return, his kinsmen have begun preparations and celebration of arguably their most illustrious son.While the state government and Ethiope West Local Government Area have started series of repairs in Oghara, family and associates of the former governor are said to be cleaning his home.Hopes were high that Ibori would return to his home town yesterday.But some sources said this was not realisable because he was still in London.
The Senate yesterday said its rejection of Mr. Ibrahim Magus nomination as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFC...

The upper chamber also said the indictment of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal by the Senate in plenary followed the consideration of the report of the findings of its ad-hoc committee on humanitarian crisis in the Northeast.Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs Chairman Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said at a news conference in Abuja that the clarification became necessary following the statement made on Monday by Senate Leader Mohammed Ali Ndume said on Monday that the Senate did not reject Magus nomination.Sen. Abdullahi noted that the upper chamber did not only reject Magus nomination but had returned same to President Muhammadu Buhari for further action.Abdullahi reiterated that the decision of the Senate to reject the nomination was informed by unfavourable security report.The Niger North Senatorial District lawmaker, who said that the Senate was not aware of two security reports on Magu, insisted that all letters meant for Senates consideration were normally addressed to the Senate President or the Clerk to the Senate who will pass them over to the Senate President.Abdullahi added that the Votes and Proceedings of the Senate on Magus nomination and rejection were unambiguous.He said it was wrong for Ndume to mislead the public by painting a picture of what never happened on the floor of the Senate.Ndume told reporters after a meeting with President Buhari that the Senate did not reject Magus nomination.Abdullahi however said Ndumes statement misrepresented what transpired in the Senate.Abdullahi said: The call to national duty is crucial. So, I am here based on series of calls and text messages from you about what you thought are conflicting messages. It has become critical for the Senate to clarify issues. The 8th Senate believes in its integrity.We uphold and promote the rule of law, which is the basic thing about our democracy. We are committed to doing things differently to stabilise the polity in the collective interest of Nigerians.I would like to make the following clarifications:Im holding the votes and proceeding of Thursday. We had two votes and proceeding because we had to go into joint session to receive President Buhari.Our votes and proceedings are the official records of what transpired in chamber. I briefed you on Thursday to the effect that the Senate is announcing that in view of security reports we were unable to confirm Magu.We then rejected and returned the nomination to President Buhari for further action.Media reports emerging, especially from interviews granted by Sen. Ndume, meant we have to clarify issues.For the records, I am the official spokesman of the Senate and I intend to discharge this with honour and integrity because the sanctity of the institution is crucial to the sustenance of democracy.To clarify, I have only one point of reference, which is, the votes and proceedings.This is the only official position of the Senate. What I say, I say to on behalf of the Senate. Nigerians should be guided. There is no ambiguity in what we said.Senate is an institution and we are working with the Constitution and whatever rules we use, our powers are drawn from the constitution.We also want the media to be guided in the matter because of some misleading news in the public domain.Even with respect to SGF, you as journalists can do your proper investigation. The genesis was the motion raised by Senator Kaka (Garbai) and Ndume and Senate decided to take a look at the abuses and SGF was found to be part of the abuses.Allegations of two separate reports:Truth is sacrosanct. For every line of command, there is a line of communication. For the records, the leader that I know is Saraki and administrative leader is the Clerk to the Senate. As a routine, when you have a nominee, security report should be given.The report we are talking about was sent to the Acting Clerk of the Senate. If you talk about two reports which one is the second one?I heard a report was sent to Ita Enag but I am not holding brief for him. He is a liaison officer and if there is any communication, Saraki or clerk are (sic) in charge.It will be unfortunate for anyone to say that Senate will be subjected to a report sent to the liaison office.This does not undermine his office; he is one of the highest ranking officers. Let us not bring Ita Enang to a cross fire.It is the prerogative of the Senate and they have exercised that prerogative.We are all guided by processes. If President Buhari is going to resubmit the communication for re-nomination, he must come with the necessary reports, either negative or positive.The report was signed. The Senate cant just get a document from anywhere and work with it.Even petitions are signed, let alone a serious matter like this.The Senate leader is the Senate Leader, but I am the spokesman. He cant do my job and I cant do his job. He is my leader but we have different responsibilities.Occasioned by what he said, if people are making meaning from what he said, I am here to clarify.Nigerians are looking forward to all of us to take them out of recession.The media should also be guided to create environment for leadership to avoid tension.
Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun yesterday raised the alarm that militants are returning to the state.

Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun yesterday raised the alarm that militants are returning to the state.Amosun said the militants were not only regrouping in boundary communities within the state but also approaching Ijebu-Ode and Ogere  both in Ogun East Senatorial District.The governor spoke when the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 81 Division, Maj-Gen Babtunde Oyefolu, visited his Oke-Mosan office in Abeokuta, the state capital.He noted that before the militants were routed, following militarys air and land assaults on their dens in riverine parts of the state, they had sacked various communities, destroyed properties and displaced people.Amosun hailed the military for its efforts at degrading Boko Haram in the Northeast.Everybody would agree that we are winning the war, people are returning home, areas that were under the control of Boko Haram are now free and people are going back home. So, huge commendation for the military.When we bring it home here, not too long ago, we had these issues with these criminals. I dont call them militants, they are just criminals, who took over all our riverine areas, we ran to Mr President and they were sent away.What we are hearing is that they are now regrouping, they have moved from where they were sent away from, they are now moving very close to Ijebu Ode towards Ogere.Before now, they were in Arepo, Sagamu, Ikorodu but what they are now doing is regrouping and taking hostages around boundary areas.It is a very good avenue for me to inform you but we would be ready for them and it is good that I am putting you on notice, Amosun said.General Oyefolu lauded the government for supporting the Army, adding that security should be the business of everyone.'He appealed to the governor to extend his empowerment programmes to officers in the state.
Multiple sources in Rivers state have told newsmen that former Nigerian first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan is under pressure to contest fo...

Multiple sources in Rivers state have told newsmen that former Nigerian first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan is under pressure to contest for the Rivers East senatorial election in 2019.Mrs Jonathan, 59, is from Okirika in Rivers state and is eligible to contest for elections in the state as well as that of her husband; Bayelsa constitutionally.One of the source told NAIJ.com that a team of politicians have already started mobilising themselves for the task ahead.His words: ''There is already a team on ground working towards achieving this objective. Mummy (Mrs Jonathan) is aware and has not told them to stop which means she is okay with the idea.''The team has started reaching out to influential leaders in Rivers East senatorial district and beyond to ensure that their plans come to fruition.''Another source who spoke to NAIJ.com on the rumour confirmed the plans.''The plan is on course. In fact, we have people joining us on a daily basis because many know this is a done deal.''Mama Peace is no push over in Rivers politics and her entrance into the political fray will only boost the chances and image of the PDP.Asked if the ongoing investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against the former first lady won't affect her chances, the source said the she is only being persecuted.(NAIJ)
A group, the Integrity Youths Alliance (IYA), has urged Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike to stop diverting attention from the leaked r...

A group, the Integrity Youths Alliance (IYA), has urged Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike to stop diverting attention from the leaked rigging plan audio tape and face the police probe.Through its Secretary-General, Danjuma Lamido, yesterday in Port Harcourt, the state capital, the group urged Wike to own up to the threat to kill officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who might decline to rig the December 10 rerun in favour of the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after collecting his bribes.Last week in Abuja, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris inaugurated the probe panel with one month to the members to submit the report.But the governor said he and his allies would not appear before the panel.IYA said: Since an online news platform, Sahara Reporters, exposed Governor Nyesom Wike, he has been looking for ways to divert the attention of Nigerians and the international community from his threat to kill INEC officials.We are aware that Governor Wikes paid agents have taken over the social media to blackmail the Transportation Minister, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, and divert the attention of the security agencies from probing the leaked audio tape.The group also urged security agencies to investigate the killings in Rivers State during the legislative poll and bring the culprits to book.It said this would serve as a deterrent to others.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Mohammad Saad Abubakar III, has disclosed that the Igbo are subject to attacks in crisis periods because the...

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Mohammad Saad Abubakar III, has disclosed that the Igbo are subject to attacks in crisis periods because they are visible entrepreneurs located in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria.The Sultan also said real herdsmen, who own cows, dont kill but only criminals that parade as herdsmen kill.He, therefore, challenged security agents to find out sources of sophisticated arms being used by criminals in the guise of herdsmen. The Sultan spoke at a grand reception organized in his honour at Nsukka, yesterday, where he was welcomed back 39 years after he lived in the university town as a young soldier.Sultan said: I want to say that nobody in the North aims to kill any Igbo because he is an Igboman. They are killed because they are the industrious ones found everywhere and in every village but nobody plans or sends people to kill the Igbo.The closest man to my late father, Beke, was an Igboman and when he died, he was buried in the palace. We are all equal before God Almighty and the two major religions preach peace and love in their holy books.Real herdsmen dont kill No herdsman that has cattle kills. It is the criminals that do not own cattle that kill. They are mere criminals and more criminalities are committed even outside the country. They go around pretending to be herdsmen.Where do they get the AK-47 rifles that they use in killing? Thats the question Ive asked and we dont have answers yet. We need to find out what the issues are. The Sultan, who noted that returning to Nsukka was a home coming for him, said he started his adult life in Nsukka, adding that justice is a panacea for peaceful coexistence.He said: For a leader to be loved by his people, he has to do the right thing. Development is what Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is doing in Enugu State. I said I must be in Nsukka because I started my adult life in Nsukka and made friends.I had the best meeting with the Christian religious leaders in Enugu and we told ourselves the truth. Rev. Fr. Mbaka exposed the ignorance that had existed between us. We discussed herdsmen issues and we told ourselves the truth and that is the essence of dialogue.We have seen massive transformation from Opi to Nsukka that when you get to the road, you would think it is leading to a big town.
The Nigeria Police will hire foreign forensic experts to investigate the leaked audio where Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike was allegedly he...

The audio was released days after the Rivers re-run election that was marred by violence leading to the death of at least two police officers.It can be recalled that Mr. Wike could be heard in the audio threatening to kill some electoral commission, INEC, officials whom he claimed had received money but were yet to deliver on their promise.On Wednesday, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, confirmed that the forensic investigators would be invited.He said that forensic experts from outside the county would assist a panel to analyse the audio recordings.Mr. Idris said the panel to investigate incidents in Rivers elections would be inaugurated on Thursday. He said the police would legally deal with any of its officials involved in election fraud in Rivers.The Rivers Government has already set up its own commission to investigate the violence that marred the elections while the PDP has rejected the police investigation and asked President Muhammadu Buhari to set up an independent panel on the matter.The police chief also promised to prosecute those behind the killing of police officers during the re-run elections.At least two police officers died during the election.Alkali Mohammed, a deputy superintendent of police, was killed during an ambush at Omoku, Onelga Local Government Area.. He was killed alongside his police aide. Mr. Mohammed has since been buried.Mr. Idris spoke when the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, paid him a condolence visit in Abuja on Wednesday.I want to assure you and the country that we will not leave any stone un-turned to prosecute those behind the dastardly act, he said.He said that the officers were killed in the line of duty to their fatherland.The I-G said that the situation in Rivers called for the contribution and support of government and party leaders.The incidents in Rivers show that we need the support of the people in the areas where elections were held.The situation in Rivers has shown that we must say no to election violence in the country, he said.He said that four suspects had been arrested in connection with the killings, while investigations were ongoing to get to the root of the matter.Mr. Idris said that the severed bodies of the killed police officers had been found.The I-G urged Nigerians to appreciate the efforts of the police and INEC officers in conducting elections in the country.We need the support of government and members of the political parties of the states where elections are held, he said.Earlier, the INEC Chairman, Yakubu, said that there could never be peaceful elections in the country without adequate security.INEC cannot conduct free and fair elections without the Nigeria Police Force, he said.He said that the commission would continue to work with security agencies in the county to conduct peaceful elections.We have come to condole you and the police for the loss of your men at the Rivers elections, he said.
HACKENSACK -- The jury in Felix Roque's commercial bribery case is set to begin deliberations Wednesday morning, after the close of arguments Tuesday, when the physician and West New York mayor testified he never even sent patients to a Hackensack MRI lab, much less took kickbacks for doing it.



Roque, who was indicted in June 2015, is charged with accepting more than $200,000 in illegal payments between 2007 and 2014 in exchange for making more than 2,000 referrals to American Imaging Affiliates, part of a chain of a dozen MRI labs operated in New Jersey by Boonton resident Rehan Zuberi.



The single count of commercial bribery is unrelated to Roque's official duties as mayor of West New York, the crowded Hudson County community where the 60-year-old Democrat is in his second 4-year term.



Zuberi, a Pakistani immigrant now in the United States illegally, pleaded guilty in May 2015 to charges he orchestrated the kickback scheme under a plea deal with the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice.



Under the deal, Zuberi agreed to testify against Roque and other doctors he had named in the scheme -- some of whom have pleaded guilty -- in exchange for reduced prison time and a favorable letter from the state to U.S. immigration officials.



Zuberi was the state's principal witness in the case, and much of the defense's effort was aimed at undercutting his credibility and that of his wife and other witnesses who had also pleaded guilty and testified in the case. One of Roque's lawyers, Christopher Adams, reminded jurors during his summation that Zuberi had been convicted in a prior insurance fraud and money laundering scheme, when he also entered into a plea deal for leniency.



"He's a serial criminal and a serial liar," Adams told jurors.



Roque had been called to testify by his own lawyers on Thursday, when he repeated a simple "no" when asked weather he took kickbacks from Zuberi or sold out his patients.



Under cross examination on Tuesday from the state's lead prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General Peter Sepulveda, Roque disputed the premise that he "sent" patients to Zuberi's lab, or anywhere else.



"I'm a doctor, I deal with patients. I recommend things. I don't send people to any location," said Roque, a Cuban native who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and retired military doctor, who addressed the prosecutor and defense lawyers alike as "Sir."



Roque told Sepulveda and jurors that the Hackensack lab was on a list of MRI facilities he provided patients for whom he prescribed scans. He also said he considered the lab top notch until a doctor he admired left the facility, and that he would "recommend" the lab when patients asked him where to go.



"They ask me, 'Doctor, what is s a good place I should go for an MRI? What is a good facility?'" Roque testified. "At that time Hackensack had the best technology."



Tuesday's testimony brought back a dash of Zuberi's ill-gotten glamour that Roque's lawyer's evoked last week, when they showed jurors photos of the lab operator's exotic car collection, including a Rolls Royce, a Lamborghini and a rare Mercedes Benz.



This time, it was Sepulveda who told jurors that Zuberi had given his Bentley to Roque, and that the doctor and mayor appeared to have been driving it for 11 months, based on messages between the two men.

However, Roque said he had the car for just three weeks, and only while test driving it after the two had talked about a purchase.



"Not my Bentley," said Roque, who under further questioning from his own lawyer, and a closer examination of an email exchange with Zuberi, indicated he canceled a verbal agreement to buy the car and returned it.



But Sepulveda would have none of it. And in a summation as brisk as Adams' was exacting, the prosecutor reminded jurors that over two weeks of testimony, six other witnesses had corroborated Zuberi's testimony against the doctor. Zuberi asserted that Roque would be paid $50, $100 or $150 in cash, depending on the procedure, delivered in envelopes, and sometimes only in Zuberi's pocket, to Roque's West New York medical office.



Prosecutors used an overhead projector to show jurors deposit slips for thousands of dollars in cash deposited into Roque's bank account, which Sepulveda said were amassed from Zuberi's illegal payments.



Roque and his lawyers said the money came from patients' co-payments, from procedures her performed, and from rent paid by tenants of buildings Roque owns.



Both sides thanked jurors for their patience and commitment, and Judge Christopher Kazlau told the jury he would charge them first thing Wednesday morning, before they would begin their deliberations.

It will not be the first time a jury decides Roque's fate.

He and his son, Joseph Roque, were tried in October 2013 on federal conspiracy and computer hacking charges, accused of accessing the web site of a political opponent who was leading a recall effort. Roque was acquitted of both counts, though his son was convicted of the hacking charge after testifying that his father was not involved.



Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
NEWARK-- A Millville man was indicted on three counts related to his suspected participation in a dog-fighting ring involving individuals in New Jersey and at least three other states, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman said Tuesday.

Frank Nichols,39, was among nine people charged June 1 for allegedly keeping and transporting pit bulls for a dog-fighting network that had been operating since at least October 2015, according to the findings of a federal undercover investigation.

The fights, which often resulted in dogs' deaths, were discovered during Operation Grand Champion, which uncovered evidence including sightings of maimed dogs kept on suspects' property, discussions of the logistics of putting on the fights -- such as bloodlines of desireable dogs and gruesome details of prior fights -- and other evidence, authorities said.

Nichols and a conspirator from Vineland who was not identified by name brought a dog named Bubbles to Fort Wayne, Ind., for fights, according to the indictment. Nichols planned to use Bubbles and other dogs for fights in Chicago in October 2015, the indictment also states.

Nichols was indicted on one count of possession of firearms by a convicted felon and two counts of conspiracy to transport, deliver or receive a dog for dog-fighting.

Paul Milo may be reached at pmilo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@PaulMilo2. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Brian-Williams-MSNBC-show.jpg

Brian Williams, former anchor and managing editor of 'NBC Nightly News'. Williams moved to MSNBC after a suspension from NBC following an internal investigation at NBC News and his admission that he 'misremembered' facts about a story. (Matt Sayles/AP)

Brian Williams has been a presence on MSNBC since he returned to the cable network, where he spent an earlier part of his career, for more than a year after his dismissal from "NBC Nightly News."

Starting in September, he got his own dedicated time slot at 11 p.m. for a show that was supposed to last through the presidential election. But now, more than a month past Nov. 8, Williams is still anchoring "The 11th Hour with Brian Williams."

The "pop-up broadcast," which airs Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m., was an early ratings winner, besting CNN by drawing nearly 1.1 million viewers in its first week out.

Now sources tell Poynter that Williams is likely being primed for a better (earlier) time slot. The report specifically mentions Andrew Lack, NBC News chairman and known friend to Williams who reportedly had a significant role in the decision to keep the "Nightly News" anchor in the fold at NBCUniversal.

Williams, 57, who grew up in Middletown, would frequently trend on Twitter during his election coverage on MSNBC, whether it was for his sometimes interesting phrasing or the very fact that he was back on TV after being cut from his position at the helm of "Nightly News."

In 2015, Williams was suspended from NBC News after a discrepancy came to light in his "Nightly News" report on a veteran of the Iraq War who he said helped ensure his safety during his coverage of the war in 2003. While Williams said he had been riding in a helicopter hit by rocket-propelled grenades, the helicopter that was hit was actually an hour ahead of him.

Williams apologized for the error and explained the mistake by saying he had conflated his memories from the time. His original 2003 report of the incident relayed the truth, but in the following years, especially on visits to late-night talk shows, Williams appeared to embellish the story, putting himself in a helicopter that was forced down by rocket fire. The "misremembered" story moved NBC to open an investigation into Williams' past work.

During visits to talk shows, Williams had a tendency to put himself "closer to the action" when telling stories. But that penchant for exaggeration had also apparently started to bleed into his primetime reports.

"Looking back, it had to have been ego that made me think that I had to be sharper, funnier, quicker than anybody else," he told Matt Lauer in 2015.

By June of 2015, as his six-month suspension was winding down, Williams was let go at "Nightly News" and Lester Holt, his frequent stand-in, assumed the anchor position.

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.
Mogul Bobbi Brown, the Montclair resident who built a cosmetics empire and opened her first free-standing store and training studio in Lackawanna Plaza in 2007, has announced she will be leaving her company by the end of the year.

According to Forbes.com, Brown -- who founded Bobbi Brown Cosmetics in 1991 -- said she is thankful for the "extraordinary people" she has worked with during her 25-year career, and is "proud of the creative endeavors and innovative products we've shared together."

Brown, a 59-year-old mother of three, has published eight books and holds a degree in theatrical makeup. She has yet to announce what she plans to do next.

Bobbi Brown Cosmetics was acquired by Estee Lauder Companies in 1995, and now sells a full range of makeup, fragrances, and skincare products to stores in more than 70 countries.

Fabrizio Fredo, president and CEO of Estee Lauder Companies Inc. told Forbes that Bobbi Brown Cosmetics is a "global prestige cosmetics powerhouse with a promising future."

Brown was born in Chicago, but once called herself a "born again Jersey girl after choosing to put down roots in Montclair.

"I love Montclair," she told NJ.com in 2010. "To me, Montclair is the closest, nicest suburb to New York. The people in New Jersey compare with the Chicago people from the suburb I come from. The town next to me was Evanston, which looks exactly like Montclair; great old houses and trees."

Brown served as Chief Creative Officer of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics since 1995, and Editor-in-Chief at Yahoo Beauty from 2014 until February.

Kelly Roncace may be reached at

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NEWARK -- A New York doctor was charged Tuesday for taking cash in exchange for referring patients to a New Jersey lab for medical tests, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Thomas Savino, 57, who practiced in Staten Island, faces several charges including violating the Anti-Kickback Statute and wire fraud, according to the statement. He was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury.

The statement said Savino received cash bribes of at least $25,000 from employees and associates of Parsippany-based Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services in the referral scheme. His referrals netted about $375,000 in lab business for the clinic.

The referrals allowed BLS to receive payments from Medicare and other private insurance companies, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Savino is one of four doctors indicted in connection with the scheme -- which is believed to be the largest number of medical professionals prosecuted for a bribery case, according to the U.S. Attorney's statement.

BLS, which is now closed, pleaded guilty and forfeited all its assets in June.

Savino will be arraigned at a later date.

Rajeev Dhir may be reached at rdhir@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @googasmammoo. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
NEWARK-- A Pennsylvania man who worked for Amtrak in Essex County admitted asking for and receiving $7,000 in items from a vendor the railroad did business with, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Tuesday.

Louis Moschitti, a 68-year-old retired building and bridges supervisor, pleaded guilty to one count of corruptly soliciting things of value.

In that capacity, Moschitti used his procurement charge card to purchase $185,000 in items from Bayway Lumber in Linden between 2010 and 2013. In addition, he received items including a camera, tires, a television set and a sound system as a reward for making the purchases at Bayway.

A part-owner of the business, Robert Dattilo, previously pleaded guilty to commit conspiracy in connection with the exchange. He is serving a four-year prison sentence.

Moschitti faces up to 10 years in prison when he's sentenced in March 2017.

Paul Milo may be reached at pmilo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@PaulMilo2. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
NEWARK -- The mayor of New Jersey's largest city on Tuesday called for the state to fire an employee who allegedly grabbed a hijab off a woman's head and threw it on the ground.

A white, male state employee ridiculed a Black, Muslim female Newark employee and snatched her hijab Dec. 5 in the Newark One-Stop Career Center, Mayor Ras Baraka said in a press release.

"This was an act of hate against the Islamic faith, as well as an attack on her as a woman," he said.

Newark police arrested the man and banned him from the One-Stop Center, but Baraka said the Essex County Prosecutor's Office should have charged him with a hate crime. He also called on U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman to investigate the incident and file a hate crime charge.

In response, Essex County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Kathy Carter said based on the information her department received, the incident did not constitute a crime under state law.

The One-Stop Center is managed by the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development, which owns the building at 990 Broad St. Several state and city agencies comprise the One-Stop.

The man who allegedly harassed the city employee works for the state Department of Labor's Employment Services section.

Labor spokeswoman Amanda Pisano said in a statement that upon learning of the incident, the department suspended the employee without pay, cooperated with authorities and is pursuing termination in accordance with employee disciplinary procedures.

Newark police Capt. Derek Glenn said the suspect, a 67-year-old Brooklyn resident, faces harassment charges in connection with the incident.

"In the present climate of violence against Muslims across America and around the world, hate crimes must be recognized for what they are, and they must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Baraka said in the press release. "The climate of anti-Muslim violence that has exploded in recent weeks is leaving tragedy, pain and division in its wake."

New Jersey has seen other anti-Muslim incidents in recent months, including graffiti sprayed on a school used for Muslim prayers and "ISIS sympathizer" written on a campaign sign for a Muslim school board candidate.

Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
'ASIAN' = MUSLIM 99% OF THE TIME





The politically correct term 'Asian' is used by the leftist UK media as a way to cast suspicion on a wider group of people and take some of the negative attention away from the group usually responsible for committing the heinous acts.

A perfect example would be the Muslim grooming gang epidemic which are constantly referred to by the press and authorities as 'Asian' grooming gangs.

It isn't people from China, Japan or any Far Eastern Asian place.

Nor is it Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists,Christians Etc....

They are Muslims!!!!
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.
HONOLULU  President Barack Obama has designated the bulk of U.S.-owned waters in the Arctic Ocean and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing.

The move on Tuesday helps put some finishing touches on Obama's environmental legacy while also testing President-elect Donald Trump's promise to unleash the nation's untapped energy reserves.

Environmental groups hope the ban, despite relying on executive powers, will be difficult for future presidents to reverse. The White House says Obama has used a provision in a 1953 law to ban offshore leases in the waters permanently.

The Atlantic waters placed off limits are 31 canyons stretching off the coast of New England south to Virginia. Canada is also placing a moratorium on new leasing in its Arctic waters.

Obama used an arcane provision in a 1953 law to ban offshore leases in the waters permanently. The statute says that "the president of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf."

Trump has vowed a domestic energy revolution and is filling his Cabinet with nominees deeply opposed to Obama's environmental and climate change actions.

Along the Atlantic seaboard, states have had mixed reactions to the possibility of drilling. In Florida, the administration of Gov. Rick Scott, a Trump supporter, has raised concerns about the possible effects to the state's beaches and fishing industry, and residents in North Carolina's Outer Banks protested a move toward ocean drilling. But officials in South Carolina and Virginia have expressed support for the economic benefit of new oil jobs.

Industry groups are confident that the ban will not stand and Trump can simply issue a new proclamation after taking office that would allow for oil and gas production in the Atlantic. They point to President George W. Bush, who in July 2008 lifted some executive bans on Outer Continental Shelf leasing and drilling.

"There's no such thing as a permanent ban," said Erik Milito, a policy director at the American Petroleum Institute.
A state investigation found U.S. Steel committed four serious safety violations in the death of a steelworker in June at Gary Works.

The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration is fining U.S. Steel $28,000 for the lapses in safety that contributed to the death of 67-year-old Charles Kremke. The electrical maintenance technician died of accidental electrocution at the mill June 15.

U.S. Steel spokeswoman Erin DiPietro declined to comment.

The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker exercised its right for an informal settlement meeting, and IOSHA is in the process of working out a settlement agreement, IOSHA spokeswoman Amanda Stanley said.

IOSHA found Kremke had been changing out a 250 volt fuse holder at Gary Works while a 120 volt programmable logic control and a 480 volt transformer were still energized. Investigators identified four safety violations, all of which were deemed "serious."

State investigators faulted U.S. Steel for not de-energizing live parts before an employee worked on them, for not training an employee to be able to distinguish live parts from other electrical equipment, for not testing that circuit elements and electric equipment parts were de-energized before going in to do work, and for not providing a worker with protective shields or barriers to prevent inadvertent contact with an electrical current while working in a confined space.

Kremke had been electrocuted while working in the back of a 2-foot-wide, 2-foot-deep and 6-foot-tall cabinet in the Westinghouse basement of the No. 1 Caster, according to an IOSHA report.

As is customary, IOSHA is pursuing both fines and corrective actions that would prevent similar accidents from occurring in the future.

Kremke was one of two steelworkers to die at Gary Works this year. Jonathan Arizzola, a 30-year-old Valparaiso resident, died in a crane accident at the mill on the shore of Lake Michigan on Sept. 30. His wife said he suffered an electric shock in another accident earlier that week.

IOSHA continues to investigate that incident.

The United Steelworkers union said U.S. Steel had made the mill less safe by cutting maintenance workers and rushing roving labor gangs through a backlog of jobs. The steelmaker has since recalled most of those workers.
Hosting holiday houseguests or a New Years Day gathering? Brunch is the ideal meal for any occasion and is the perfect excuse to enjoy food and drink even when there isnt a special reason.

Katie Sannito, owner of the Gourmet Goddess in Munster, says she loves to make brunch because it is a versatile meal and there is usually something that appeals to everyone. Make sure theres a good mix between typical breakfast items and savory lunch items, she says.

Sannito suggests serving easily prepared items and those that can be repurposed. For instance, pair leftovers from cheese or antipasto platters with pastry dough. Roll the dough and add salamis, cheese and roasted peppers, then crack an egg in the center and bake. Voila! A tasty breakfast pizza.

She also recommends ham and cheese or turkey and cheese sliders with melted butter and mustard glaze. Make the sandwich part ahead of time and take out the next morning, brush on the glaze and warm them in the oven.

If youd rather have someone else prepare your meal, many Region restaurants cater to the brunch crowd. According to manager Christine Malone, Good to Go by Lucrezia, in Valparaiso, is a blend of a retail market and a restaurant, with unique menu items like flatbreads and a wine bar that focuses on great wines from around the world.

Good to Go offers a Mimosa Flight, which includes four 2-ounce servings: a classic mimosa, plus coconut, melon and a seasonal flavor. Recently in the rotation was a cinnamon apple mimosa, made with apple cider, a splash of cinnamon-pear balsamic vinegar and rimmed with honey and brown sugar. Its a very sweet experience, says Malone. We may replace it with a cranberry variety for the rest of the holidays.

The restaurant also sells a classic mimosa that uses Prosecco, a sparkling white wine made from grapes grown in Italy, in lieu of Champagne. Malone says they use Astoria, which is a leading brand used in Italian restaurants. The mimosas at Good to Go are served all day long, and Malone notes that guests order them with lighter fare.

Good to Go by Lucrezia in Valparaiso is one of four locations owned by Michael and Nada Karas, including Lucrezia Cafe and Restaurant in Crown Point and Chesterton, and Good to Go by Lucrezia in Chesterton. A fifth location, Lucrezia Trattoria, is slated to open soon in Culver, Indiana.
CALUMET CITY  Police on Wednesday were investigating the shooting death of a 19-year-old man at a neighbor's home.

Calumet City police were dispatched about 6 p.m. Tuesday to the 1300 block of Burnham Avenue for a report of a gunshot victim, Police Chief Christopher Fletcher said.

Jaylen Hayes, 19, of Calumet City, was taken to Franciscan Health Hammond, where he was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m., officials said.

Hayes died from gunshot wounds in a homicide, according to a Lake County coroner's office news release.

Hayes lived down the street from where the shooting occurred, according to the coroner's release.

Fletcher said police did not have anyone in custody as of Wednesday morning. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Calumet City police at (708) 868-2500.
GARY  A gas station employee told police Tuesday that two men robbed his store of a large sum of cash.

Gary police were dispatched about 9:10 p.m. to the Super Duper gas station near West 15th Avenue and Burr Street for a report of a robbery, Lt. Dawn Westerfield said.

An employee told police the men entered the store, grabbed a bat from behind a counter and threatened him with it before ordering him to lock himself in a bathroom. The men allegedly took a large sum of cash, which was in an envelope next to the register.

The employee was not injured, police said. The employee told police the men fled in a smaller white vehicle.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Sgt. Jon Basaldua at (219) 881-1210. To remain anonymous, call 866-CRIME-GP.
CROWN POINT  Robert A. Stone was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison for his role in the shooting death earlier this year of Iyuan Yarbrought, though Stone insisted at the sentencing hearing he was an unwitting accomplice in the killing.

Stone, 24, of Chicago, told Judge Diane Boswell he tried to serve as a role model for Alante D. Green, his 23-year-old friend from East Chicago who is alleged to have fatally shot Yarbrought March 31 in the 1000 block of Drackert Street in Hammond.

Stone was a star wide receiver at Hammond High School, who worked two jobs and talked about following his younger brother into the Navy.

Green came from a broken home, but Stone said he tried to introduce his high school friend to positive people, and help him find a job.

He said he thought he was once again helping his friend by giving him a ride on the day of the shooting, unaware Green planned to shoot Yarbrought over a woman and a mocking rap song.

I don't understand, Stone said, crying. I was a good kid.

Yarbrought was good, too, according to Pamela Newson, the 23-year-old man's mother, and he will not be with his family this Christmas because of Stone's actions.

I do forgive you, Newson told Stone. I pray you ask God to forgive you, too.

Yarbrought's aunt, Christina Clinton, said should could not forgive Stone. She said her nephew brought life and light to every family gathering.

It's senseless, Clinton said. It's pointless. Kids going out and killing kids.

Prosecutor Bob Persin said at the hearing it was not kindheartedness that caused Stone to stand before a judge in a jailhouse jumpsuit, but the decisions he made on March 31.

On that day, he made criminal decisions, which need to have consequences, Persin said.

Stone pleaded guilty to assisting a criminal on Nov. 22. He will serve two years probation after his release from prison for the conviction.

Green pleaded guilty to murder Oct. 27. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 5.
CROWN POINT  A 54-year-old man was arrested Monday on accusations he stabbed another man in the chest at a Highland residence.

Timothy R. Lewis was charged in Lake Criminal Court with attempted murder, aggravated battery and battery by means of a deadly weapon.

Lewis is alleged to have stabbed the man Saturday night at the man's home in the 2800 block of 37th Place, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The homeowner told police he and Lewis were drinking alcohol and watching music videos in his garage when they got into an argument, which turned into a fistfight, the affidavit states.

The man said he told Lewis, who he allowed to live in his garage, to leave the residence, the affidavit states.

Lewis then allegedly grabbed a large knife and plunged it into the man's chest, according to the affidavit.

Lewis fled the residence, and the man was transported to Munster Community Hospital by his girlfriend, the affidavit states.

Doctors told police the knife scraped the victim's ribs and narrowly missed his heart and lungs, according to the affidavit.

Lewis' bond is set at $50,000, according to court records.
VALPARAISO  Federal officials will not say whether Porter County Board of Commissioners President John Evans remains a target of an investigation.

The Porter County Council inquired about the status of the case after Evans, a Republican, approached the council earlier this month and asked to be reimbursed for $5,000 in legal fees associated with the investigation.

The law allows for elected officials to be reimbursed, but only if it is confirmed the investigation is over and no indictment is coming, Council Attorney Harold Harper has said.

Harper confirmed Wednesday that he spoke with David Capp, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana, who said a letter to the council will be forthcoming.

When contacted by Wednesday by The Times for comment, Evans said, "It is my understanding and confirmed by my attorney at the outset of the investigation that I was indeed the target. What they are not confirming is whether or not the investigation is over, but then again I'm told they never do."

Porter County Council President Dan Whitten said Wednesday he has seen this type of confirmation for clients he has represented in his private legal practice.

Evans is entitled to the reimbursement, he said, but not until there is confirmation the investigation is over.

"At this point, we are sort of in a holding pattern," he said.

Evans, whose term as a commissioner expires at the year's end, was honored Tuesday for 40 years of service to county government in that department and with the coroner's office.

State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, presented Evans with Distinguished Hoosier recognition.

Republican Portage Mayor James Snyder was indicted last month on federal counts of felony bribery, extortion and tax dodging, which carry long prison terms if he is convicted. He pleaded not guilty.

Snyder requested reimbursement of his legal fees prior to his indictment.

The Porter County Council will not meet again unit January.
For 24 years, local business, labor and community leaders have joined together to provide Christmas toys for needy children, this year raising more than $20,000.

This all volunteer group, known as Helping Hands, comes together in the fall of each year to raise necessary funds, which are distributed through the Salvation Army and also to local domestic violence shelters.

Helping Hands has zero operating expenses; so every dollar collected goes to local needy children. Lake Area United Way serves as Helping Hands fiscal agent. Toys in their original packaging were also accepted at all First Midwest Bank offices.

When we started this effort, we had no idea that we would be able to continue through all these years," said Calvin Bellany, one of Helping Hands founders. "We have done so because the need continues to grow.

BP Whiting Business Unit is one example of how the Helping Hands campaign raises funds. Each year, the BP fire department stands at refinery gates with their boots in hand seeking contributions from co-workers and contractors.

 No matter what the weather, our firefighters are out at refinery gates at 4 a.m., said BP Fire Chief Joe Grzymski. BP Director of Government and Public Affairs Tom Keilman was quick to add, These firefighters volunteer their time for a cause they believe in.

NIPSCO also provided substantial support for this years campaign.

Several other local businesses supported this years campaign, including Christenson Chevrolet, Hyre Electric, Williams Eye Institute, EcoServices, Inc., and Pangere Corporation. Also countless individuals contributed generously.

The Helping Hands steering committee consists of Calvin Bellamy of the law firm Krieg DeVault, Tom Keilman of BP, Randy Palmateer of the Building Trades Council and Monica Rubio of First Midwest Bank.
MERRILLVILLE The town knows which ambulance provider it wants to serve the community, but there is still some work to be done to finalize the matter.

The Town Council earlier this week unanimously chose Superior Ambulance Service to begin handling Merrillville's emergency medical calls starting in February.

The decision is subject to the successful negotiation of a service contract. Response times expected from the company are among the terms that will be established through the negotiations.

Mary Franco, Superior Ambulance Service vice president, said the company is grateful for the opportunity to serve the town.

Franco said Superior will have three advanced life support ambulances dedicated solely to the town. Merrillville's current ambulance provider, Prompt Ambulance Service, is contracted for two ambulances.

Franco said Superior has an existing location in the eastern area of Merrillville, and it's identifying sites in other locations of town for additional operational bases.

In Northwest Indiana, Superior provides municipal ambulance service in Chesterton and Burns Harbor, Franco said. The company also handles emergency calls in many communities in Illinois, she said.

Franco said Superior offers a wide range of other services, including private nonemergency transportation to and from medical facilities.

Merrillville officials in October issued a request for proposals from private EMS companies. Superior, Lakeshore and Kurtz responded.

An ambulance committee consisting of councilmen, Merrillville emergency personnel and Ross Township Trustee Joseph Shudick recommended the council select Superior.

Town Council President Richard Hardaway, a member of the committee, said Superior is interested in being a stakeholder in Merrillville.

They're excited about it, Hardaway said.

Prompt, which has been the town's ambulance provider since 2008, will continue to respond to emergency medical calls in Merrillville until its contract expires in February.

Prompt didn't submit a proposal when the request for proposals was issued. After viewing the RFP, Prompt Ambulance CEO Gary Miller said they didn't like the way it was structured and decided to end its relationship with the town.
VALPARAISO  A new bike share program will give local residents another option for getting around the city.

Starting in April, bikes provided by Zagster will be available to use, for a fee, by local residents and VU students.

Patrick Lyp, Valparaiso economic development director, said the idea for a bike share program originated with Valparaiso High School students who prepared feasibility studies for a bike share program for Porter County for a class taught by Tarik El-Naggar.

After seeing the students' presentations, Lyp said he thought the idea had merit for the city.

The Redevelopment Commission signed a contract this month with Zagster, a company that supplies bikes, racks and the technology to run the program.

The one-year contract requires Zagster to provide all of the equipment and maintain it. Valparaiso will get 25 bikes at a cost of $1,800 per bike per year, Lyp said. Five of those bikes will be sponsored by Valparaiso University.

While the upfront costs for the city will be paid by the Redevelopment Commission, the project will be administered by the Valparaiso Parks Department.

Parks Director John Seibert said his department will look for local sponsors to help offset the city's costs. Those sponsors could potentially have their logos on the bikes or the racks.

The program essentially allows users to rent the bikes per use through a smartphone or texting service. Billing is handled online.

Lyp said Zagster will maintain the bikes. Money collected from users will go back to the Redevelopment Commission.

The program has several purposes, Lyp said. Officials hope VU students will benefit from it and become more connected to other parts of the community, especially the downtown area. It's a quality of life issue for all residents, and offers another mode of transportation for residents with limited access to other transportation.

Jon Varnell, executive director of administration for Valparaiso University, said the bike share program has many benefits for the university.

It supports the school's master plan, which is geared toward pedestrian and bike traffic. It encourages a healthy lifestyle for students and encourages students to visit other parts of the city.

It's also practical for many students, who would like to occasionally ride a bike, but don't want to invest in buying and maintaining their own bike.

Varnell said it would also be a benefit to the hundreds of people who visit the campus during summer conferences.

He said many of the details have yet to be worked out, but he would expect there to be a rack near the Harre Union, which is centrally located on campus. Other racks potentially could be on the far east and west ends of campus.

Lyp expects the bikes to be available year-round.

Lyp said city officials will meet in January with Zagster to determine the cost for use and location of the bike racks. The Redevelopment Commission will decide later in 2017 whether to continue the program.

Zagster has bike share programs in about 150 other U.S. communities, many of them college towns. The program is already in place in Carmel, Fort Wayne, West Lafayette and Bloomington in Indiana.
Indiana moved up two spots in an annual ranking of the healthiest states, though still came in 39th out of 50.

The Hoosier state had been ranked 41st overall for four consecutive years.

Indiana scored high marks in percentage of high school graduates, low incidence of salmonella, and disparity in health status by educational attainment. But the state did poorly in air pollution, number of dentists and infant mortality, according to the United Health Foundation's America's Health Rankings.

Overall, the nation made improvements in smoking, the number of uninsured residents and preventable hospitalizations, but fell backward in drug deaths, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

"The health of our country is at a crossroads," said Dr. Rhonda Randall, chief medical officer for UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement. "Since 1990, smoking has decreased 41 percent, 17 of that in the last four years. In the most recent report we've seen the lowest point in American history for the uninsured rate, down 35 percent from last year."

But the uptick in obesity and drug deaths are countering those improvements in smoking rates and health coverage, she said. And, for the first time in many years, cardiovascular disease is on the rise. Due to factors like those, U.S. life expectancy dropped last year for the first time since 1993.

Success, challenges in Indiana

Indiana mirrored some of those national trends, seeing a rise in both drug and cardiovascular deaths over last year (the state's obesity rate did decline slightly). The Hoosier state ranked 38th in cardiovascular deaths, 36th in obesity and 35th in drug deaths, with rates for each category above the national average.

In Indiana, many of the drug deaths have been due to the opioid epidemic that has been taking lives around the nation. It's a scourge Northwest Indiana has not been spared from. Drug deaths in Indiana as a whole have increased by 27 percent over the past five years.

While immunization of females aged 13 to 17 for HPV, a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer, declined by nearly a third in the past year, more male adolescents have been getting the vaccine in Indiana, with an increase of 115 percent from 2015 to 2016.

Also in Indiana, preventable hospitalizations among Medicare enrollees decreased 25 percent over the past three years.

In addition, the state saw its smoking rate decrease from 22.9 percent last year to 20.6 percent in 2016, improving the state's ranking from 44th to 39th.

Work underway in the Region

In the Region and Indiana as a whole, groups have been sprouting up to tackle the state's health problems. The Alliance for a Healthier Indiana  which is made up of the state hospital and medical associations, chamber of commerce and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield  formed last month to try to improve the state's health status, first by reducing tobacco use. In Northwest Indiana, the Porter County Wellness Coalition and wellness coordinators with Purdue Extension Lake County have been aiming to address local health priorities.

"One of the challenges is just making people aware of just how large the problem is and how this kind of issue affects every aspect of the community," said Terri Saltzman, wellness coordinator for Purdue Extension Lake County. "It's not just the health of the citizens it affects. It's an economic issue. If you're not a healthy community, you're not going to attract new citizens, you're not going to attract new businesses, you're going to have a hard time retaining the talent you do have."

Wellness initiatives in Lake County include enhancing work-site wellness, increasing access to healthy food and creating indoor walking paths.

Annetta Jones, chairwoman for the Porter County Wellness Coalition, said projects are underway in that county to improve nutrition, curb smoking and decrease drug use. But she believes it will require a concerted, centralized effort to really make a difference.

"Communitywide I don't think we're quite all on board with giving the same messages," Jones said. "People are focused on specific mandates or specific programming. I think we're still trying to develop that message to really get it out in the community and make it a total, community awareness campaign."
Governor Andrew Cuomo is deploying more state troopers in New York City, which some view as an extension of his ongoing feud with Mayor Bill de Blasio. But Cuomo's team insists it's all part of a push to increase security after a bombing that rocked Chelsea and rattled the rest of the city back in September. Statehouse Reporter Zack Fink has more.

State troopers will soon be more visible in New York City with Governor Cuomo deploying of them to patrol state-owned facilities including MTA bridges and tunnels.

In an interview Monday night on "Inside City Hall" de Blasio downplayed any suggestion this was part of his feud with the governor. But he noted that he and the Governor have not spoken about the plan.

"I assume what we all believe in and certainly commissioner O'Neill believes in is a division of labor where state police work all around the state including on facilities  MTA facilities for example owned by the state," the mayor said. "Great. And let the NYPD do what it does best. And I assume that's what will rule the day."

In September, a bombing in Chelsea injured 29 people, resulting in a combined response by law enforcement agencies. It was actually the state police who discovered a second unexploded device.

But insiders say there were tensions between the mayor and the governor over this because Cuomo felt the state police did not receive enough credit in the aftermath.

People close to the Governor say the increase in manpower for "Troop NYC" is actually not new. The 150 additional troopers were announced in October.

They also say the surge of more law enforcement visibility in the city actually goes back to the fall of 2014 when Cuomo did two regional security press conferences with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. At the time, Cuomo cited an increased threat from the Islamic State.

"Its larger," Cuomo said. "It's more sophisticated. It has more resources. It's more complex than it was. And we are still one of the top targets."

In statement, a state police spokesman said: "As New York is increasingly a target of threats to security, this enhanced police presence will complement our longstanding partnership with the NYPD, enforce commercial vehicle traffic, and protect all New Yorkers."

While the Cuomo administration downplays any tensions with the mayor over this particular issue, it's hard not to view some of these unilateral actions as stick in De Blasio's eye from Cuomo. Just last week, the two leaders battled via press release over the fate of a wayward deer that ended up dead.
Queens neighbors and the NYPD honored two officers on the second anniversary of their death Tuesday.

City officials, police, and family gathered at Christ Tabernacle Church in Glendale to pay their respects for detectives Rafael Ramos and Weinjian Liu.

Both of them were shot in the head while on duty in their marked patrol car in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

The wife of slain detective Ramos spoke to us about her memories of her husband.

"I just want people to remember what a honorable man he was, loving, someone who cared so much for his family," Maritza Ramos said. "And just remember that he was a great man."

After the officers' deaths, the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley killed himself.

Police say he was troubled and shot and wounded an ex-girlfriend in Baltimore earlier that day.
The grand opening of the Second Avenue Subway tops this years best moments list for the MTA.

The Straphangers Campaign released their annual best and worst top 10 lists for the transit system.

Campaign coordinators say the approval of a capital plan comes in second place, followed by the formation of the NYC Bus Coalition, a commitment to improve bus ridership.

The promise of having countdown clocks, and a requirement for some small businesses to participate in a federal pre-tax program for commuter transit benefit, round out the top five.

Topping off the worst list is the possible 4 percent fare hike. The MTA is set to vote on the proposal in January.

Number two is Governor Andrew Cuomo not having any dedicated funds after promising to contribute $7.3 billion to the capital plan.

In third place is poor and unreliable service for Access-A-Ride customers.

A yearly favorite, subway overcrowding, makes the top five worst moments, along with the impending 18-month L-train shutdown to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy.
NEWARK  Jurors who convicted two former allies of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey in a political revenge plot acted improperly by disobeying the judges orders during deliberations, the two defendants claim in court filings seeking to have their convictions thrown out.

The two, Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, were convicted last month on all counts in an indictment that charged them with having lanes closed near the George Washington Bridge in 2013 to create traffic jams and punish a Democratic mayor who did not endorse Mr. Christie, a Republican, in his bid for re-election.

Ms. Kelly was Christies deputy chief of staff and Mr. Baroni was a top Christie appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge. Mr. Christie was not charged, though testimony by the two defendants and a third person who pleaded guilty cast doubt on Mr. Christies statements about when he became aware of the plot.

In filings in United States District Court in Newark late Monday and early Tuesday, Mr. Baroni and Ms. Kelly said some, but not all, jurors deliberated on a day when the judge had ordered them not to deliberate while lawyers were resolving a legal issue.
Then, on July 7, almost a year to the day after the couple first showed up at the homeless intake center, Ms. McGuire wrote online, Looks like things are finally looking up, adding the hashtags #lifeisgood and #onedayatatime. She had gotten a state license to work as a security guard, she wrote, and Mr. Ambrose had worked his first job as a house painter.

Everything would change on Dec. 7. It was a freak accident, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio: A valve had come off a radiator in the room where the girls slept, filling the room with intense heat and steam. It was not clear how long the steam had been pouring out, or whether the girls cries had gone undetected. A neighbor, hearing the parents screams, called 911 at 12:08 p.m.

Fifteen minutes later, the girls were declared dead.

It was a horrific story that focused attention on the bizarre cause, the tragic outcome and the somewhat unusual route the family took to establish a home in Hunts Point, where the city maintained a so-called cluster site: several apartments reserved for the homeless in a private building. Apartments like the one the Ambrose family stayed in are meant to be a temporary form of shelter, but the family stayed there more than 13 months.

Growing Up in Poverty

Houlton, a town of about 6,000 residents, is the seat of Aroostook County, known as the Crown of Maine, but it is one of the poorest in the state, where one in six people live in poverty. The county has the states lowest median household income, just $36,066, slightly higher than the Bronx, although with a more affordable cost of living.

Crystal meth and opioid use, as in so many small towns, was rampant. Through the end of September, 12 people had died this year from drug overdoses in Aroostook County; statewide 286 people had died from overdoses through that date, already surpassing the 272 overdose deaths in all of 2015, according to the Maine attorney generals office.
Two men were standing around, talking about two women not more than 20 feet away. The two men knew everything about the two women  every curve, every fold of their diaphanous gowns. And they had their opinions.

The one on the right is the bully, said Josh Young, who runs a foundry by the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.

The other man, Brian Tolle, was not so sure. He said she looked more relaxed than the woman on the left, who looked like someone caught at the moment when the photographer says, Dont move, Im taking the picture. The one on the right had the grateful look of the moment after. Her expression, he said, showed relief that the shoot was finally over and the pressure was off.

The two men could talk like this because the two women are statues  replicas of statues, actually. They were designed by Mr. Tolle, and the steelwork that will support them was fabricated by Mr. Young and his foundry crew.
A retired police officer has been charged with four counts of murder in what the authorities called the gangland-style killings in April of four men in a Hudson Valley bar in connection with a cocaine-distribution conspiracy.

The retired officer, Nicholas Tartaglione, 49, who worked for the Briarcliff Manor department in Westchester County, N.Y., was arrested on Monday and charged in the four killings, the federal authorities announced in a news release.

While all murders tear at the fabric of our communities, when the alleged perpetrator of a gangland-style, quadruple homicide is a former police officer, that strikes at the heart of civilized society, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

Beyond saying that the four men  Hector Gutierrez, Martin Luna, Miguel Luna and Urbano Santiago  had been killed in and around the Likquid Lounge in Chester, N.Y., in April, the authorities released few other details about the murders.
I sure hope that doesnt happen again next year, Mr. Zemsky said, in a deadpan.

Mr. Cuomo may also be using ride-hailing to lure recalcitrant upstate lawmakers to the table to address other issues. Companies like Uber are able to operate only in New York City because state laws for group insurance policies make it financially impractical to operate elsewhere. Industry backers point to a variety of evidence that upstate residents  and voters  want to use the apps. (In one case, Uber cited internal data to say that 43,000 people tried to gain access to its app in upstate New York on the day before Thanksgiving, one of the busiest drinking nights of the year, though that figure  or that drinking  could not be verified.)

Adrian Durbin, director of policy communications for Lyft, another major ride-hail company, noted that ride-sharing laws had been adopted in 36 states. We are hopeful that Albany will soon decide to bring all those benefits to New York State, he said in a statement.

Bills to change such insurance restrictions have run into opposition in the last two years from an array of groups, including the taxi industry, advocates of accessibility for the disabled and labor groups concerned about driver wages and the lack of other benefits. Jonathan Westin, the executive director of New York Communities for Change, said that Uber is quickly becoming one of the largest low-wage employers in New York, and suggested that the governor, who championed a higher minimum wage this year, should not back a company that helped exploit and devalue its drivers.

John Tomassi, the president of the Upstate Transportation Association, which represents taxi and livery car interests, said its drivers simply wanted a level playing field with ride-hailing companies, including structured fares and basic public safety requirements like fingerprinting.

He said he did not understand the rush to address such changes in a potential special session. Why wouldnt this be open to public discussions and hearings? Mr. Tomassi said. Why is this so special that we have to ram this through?

Ride-hailing companies seem willing to compromise, including paying new taxes on rides outside New York City, though they have opposed fingerprinting drivers, who the companies say are often part-time workers making money on the side.

Given the progressive leadership that the Assembly and the governor have played on criminal justice issues, we would be shocked, if they embraced fingerprinting, said Josh Gold, an Uber spokesman, saying it should not be an employment check.
He walked about a half-mile carrying a stolen bucket containing 86 pounds of gold flakes. Now, the police in New York City believe, he has traveled much farther to avoid arrest.

On Tuesday, the police identified the man who grabbed the pail from the back of an armored truck in Midtown Manhattan on Sept. 29 as Julio Nivelo. He is now believed to be in Los Angeles.

Image Julio Nivelo Credit... via NYPD

The flakes, which were valued at $1.6 million, are shed as jewelers and others work with gold. The scraps are weighed with precision and stored in buckets.
The F.B.I. told a federal magistrate judge in Manhattan in a sealed affidavit shortly before Election Day that there was probable cause to believe that emails belonging to Huma Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton, contained classified information, according to a redacted copy of the affidavit.

The affidavit, which was unsealed on Tuesday along with related materials in Federal District Court, was filed on Oct. 30 in support of the F.B.I.s request for a warrant to search a laptop containing the emails.

The government appears to have based its warrant request on the theory that because Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Abedin had exchanged many classified emails using Mrs. Clintons personal server, there was likely to be classified material in the additional emails discovered on the laptop, as well.

The affidavit, in a redacted reference that a law enforcement official said was to Ms. Abedin, noted that she typically communicated with Mrs. Clintons email account on a daily basis, and that the bureau had found more than 4,000 work-related emails between them from 2009 to 2013.
The populist right has wasted no time waiting for facts to emerge about the identity of the attacker in Berlin or a motive to slam Chancellor Angela Merkel for her humane asylum policy and to push its xenophobic agenda. This dangerous  if predictable  reaction plays directly into the hands of the Islamic State, which would like nothing better than to start a war between Christians and Muslims in Europe.

Shortly after the attack on Monday, Marcus Pretzell, a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, viciously tweeted, These are Merkels dead! On Tuesday, Geert Wilders, the leader of the Netherlands Party for Freedom, tweeted an image of Ms. Merkel spattered with blood; Nigel Farage, of Britains U.K. Independence Party, tweeted that such events will be the Merkel legacy; and Marine Le Pen, the French nationalist, issued a statement on the Islamist attack in Berlin and called for reinforcing Europes national borders there.

More may soon be known about the person who drove a truck into a Christmas market near Berlins Memorial Church, killing 12 people and injuring at least 48. A Pakistani immigrant detained after the attack was freed Tuesday, and the assailant, still unidentified, remains at large.

As the police asked the public to stay vigilant, Ms. Merkel, who said we must assume the attack was an act of terrorism, appealed to Germans not to let terrorism steal their way of life: We do not want to live with the fear of evil paralyzing us. Still, Christmas markets in Berlin remained closed on Tuesday. Londons Metropolitan Police assured that it had detailed plans for protecting public events, and Frances interior minister, Bruno Le Roux, said that after the attack, security for Christmas markets was immediately reinforced. Heightened fears across Europe are understandable; the attack resembled one on Bastille Day in Nice, where a truck was used to slaughter more than 80 people.
Apart from President Bashar al-Assad, no one has been more responsible for the carnage than Russia, which has provided fighter planes and troops, and Iran, which finances Hezbollah fighters. By the same token, should they choose, Moscow and Tehran can play a central role in ending the war.

At first blush, the killing of the ambassador might easily have been interpreted as an expression of anger at Russias role in Syria. And Russia, with a large Muslim population in the Caucasus, has to worry about how its Syrian involvement is perceived. Just before he fired, the assassin, Mevlut Mert Altintas, screamed: Dont forget Aleppo. Dont forget Syria. But it is not clear what his motives were, and whether he was connected to a jihadist group opposed to Mr. Assad, or acting alone, or simply trying to cause trouble for the Turkish government.

Image Sergei Lavrov, center, of Russia; Mevlut Cavusoglu, right, of Turkey; and Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran, after a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday. Credit... Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

In any case, Turkeys collaboration with Russia is a measure of how much the Syrian game board has shifted. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey was one of the first leaders to call for Mr. Assads overthrow. He has been a major supporter of rebel groups and for years allowed militants, including from the Islamic State, to cross into Syria.

But with Mr. Assad winning and likely to continue to control parts of Syria for the foreseeable future, Mr. Erdogan is now focused on ensuring that Kurdish groups do not secure too much territory along the border. He is at war with Kurdish separatists in Turkey and is determined to keep those in Syria from gaining a larger foothold, which in turn could strengthen the separatists in Turkey. There are reasons to worry that given a free hand by Russia, Mr. Erdogan would bomb the Syrian Kurds mercilessly, as he has done in Turkey, creating more enemies and instability.
The invitation made an extraordinary offer: Donors willing to write a check for $500,000 to $1 million would be granted access to Donald J. Trump the day after he is sworn in as president, along with the opportunity to participate in a multiday hunting or fishing trip with his oldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric.

But on Tuesday, the Trump Organization put out a statement distancing the family from the fund-raiser, saying the event had not been approved or pursued by the Trump family, even though legal documents show that Eric Trump served on the board of directors of the recently formed charity behind it, the Opening Day Foundation. The event is still scheduled, but references to the hunting trip have been removed, and Eric Trump said late Tuesday that neither he nor his brother would attend.

The abrupt turnabout was the latest example of the ethical thicket the president-elect and his family face as he prepares to take the oath of office. It highlights the need for Mr. Trump to clearly define what roles his adult children will play in his administration, according to former senior White House advisers who have served the last six presidents.

I am seeing insensitivity to what is ahead, said Michael H. Cardozo, who worked in the White House counsels office under President Jimmy Carter. The Carter administration struggled with the activities of the presidents brother, Billy, who had business dealings with Libya while Mr. Carter was in office.
In a critical step in a longstanding fight, Texas formally said on Tuesday that it was ending Medicaid funding of Planned Parenthood, a move the group said could affect 11,000 patients.

The office of inspector general for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission issued a final notice terminating Planned Parenthoods enrollment in the state-funded health care system for the poor. If it is not stopped, the termination will be effective in 30 days.

Planned Parenthood officials said on Tuesday night that they would continue to provide birth control, cancer screenings, H.I.V. tests and other care to Medicaid patients and seek an injunction in federal court to stop the state. The group sued the state in 2015 after a preliminary notice was filed, but the court case has lingered pending further action by the state.

At stake is about $4 million a year in Medicaid funding. The formal notice is the latest salvo in a legal and political fight that dates back years but intensified 15 months ago when the state issued a preliminary notice to end Medicaid funding for the groups 34 health care centers.
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo  Members of the Democratic Republic of Congos security forces opened fire Tuesday on protesters in Kinshasa and other cities who were demanding that President Joseph Kabila step down after his second term expired overnight, and human rights monitors said they had received reports that at least 20 people had been killed.

Scattered protests started on Tuesday, and an opposition leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, called on the Congolese people to peacefully resist Mr. Kabila, who is remaining in power beyond his constitutional mandate, with no election set to pick a successor.

The director of the United Nations human rights office in Congo, Jose Maria Aranaz, said there were pretty solid reports that as many as 20 civilians had been killed.

On the issue of deaths, it looks bad, he said.

A Human Rights Watch researcher, Ida Sawyer, said on Twitter that at least 26 people had been killed by the security forces. A government spokesman could not be reached for comment, and a police spokesman had no information on deaths.
After nearly half a year of purges in Turkeys security forces after a failed military coup, the assassination of the Russian ambassador by a vetted Turkish police officer suggests that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may face a resilient disloyalty problem.

Within hours of the assassination on Monday in Ankara, Turkish officials and the pro-government news media portrayed the gunman as a sleeper-agent disciple of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who commands a following in the country and is accused of having directed the July 15 coup attempt to topple Mr. Erdogan.

But it was also possible that the assassin, identified by the authorities as a 22-year-old riot police officer, Mevlut Mert Altintas, might have been a follower of the Nusra organization, linked to Al Qaeda, or of the Islamic State. Those extremist groups have used Turkey as a transit point into Syria and have battled Russia in the war there. The gunman shouted jihadist slogans invoking Syrian victims of Russian attacks as he fired bullets into the ambassador, Andrey G. Karlov, before being killed by fellow officers.

Political analysts said that regardless of Mr. Altintass affiliation  with Gulenists, Islamists or some other group  the assassination at an art gallery in Turkeys capital betrayed a glaring unknown among forces that have pledged fealty to Mr. Erdogan.
SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN JOHN KIRBY, SAYING: The United States is deeply concerned with the recent spike in violence in Eastern Ukraine. Over just the last two days, six Ukrainian service members have been killed and 33 wounded in a Russian separatist attempt to seize additional territory, the highest two-day casualty figure that weve seen since June of 2015. This is a clear violation of Russias commitment under the Minsk agreement and once again, we call on Russia to exercise its considerable influence over the separatists to put a stop to the violence and to allow OSCE monitors full and unfettered access. This decision by the Treasury department had nothing to do with the time on the clock. It had everything to do with Russias activities and support for the separatists in Ukraine and for their, and for their occupation of Crimea. Thats what it had to do with. It had to do with Russias actions. It had to do with holding Russia accountable for what its, for its violation of Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty. Thats what it had to do with. It had nothing to do with the calendar. The next administration will obviously have to make their own decisions about this. We hope that they will come to see the wisdom in not conducting business as usual with Russia, given their continued activities. As I said you know just in my opening statement, the recent violence here in Eastern Ukraine just over the last couple of days. We would hope that they would see the wisdom in keeping these sanctions and this pressure on Russia, because we have seen it have an effect.
BEIRUT, Lebanon  Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Moscow on Tuesday to work toward a political accord to end Syrias nearly six-year war, leaving the United States on the sidelines as the countries sought to drive the conflict in ways that serve their interests.

Secretary of State John Kerry was not invited. Nor was the United Nations consulted.

With pro-government forces having made critical gains on the ground, the new alignment and the absence of any Western powers at the table all but guarantee that President Bashar al-Assad will continue to rule Syria under any resulting agreement, despite President Obamas declaration more than five years ago that Mr. Assad had lost legitimacy and had to be removed.

Mr. Obamas reluctance to back that demand with more involvement as the war escalated leaves Washington with little leverage on a geopolitical crisis as President-elect Donald J. Trump prepares to take office.

Mr. Trumps only recent statement on Syria came last week, when he declared at a Pennsylvania rally that the situation was so sad and promised, Were going to help people. He vowed to extract funds from Persian Gulf nations to build safe zones in Syria so people will have a chance, without addressing the question of who would enforce those zones on the ground or in the air.
UNITED NATIONS  Diplomats are making an unusual push to enable the United Nations to collect, preserve and analyze evidence of war crimes in Syria and prepare cases for a tribunal that could be convened sometime in the future.

The proposal is to be put up for a vote in the 193-member United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday. Its chances of passage are unclear.

There is no dearth of accusations of crimes. In no other conflict have so many atrocities been so widely seen and shared via social media, including pictures of starving children denied food aid in Madaya, photographs that indicate torture in government prisons and videos of health workers treating victims of chemical warfare.

The atrocities have continued with seeming impunity. The International Criminal Court, whose reason for being is to try the worst perpetrators of the worlds worst war crimes, has no jurisdiction over Syria, which is not a member of the court. Efforts by the United Nations Security Council to refer the conflict in Syria to the court have been blocked by Russia. Nor is there any appetite at the moment, while the war is still raging, to set up a special tribunal.
BERLIN  If the music of Dmitri Shostakovich chronicles political repression in Stalinist Russia, that of Mieczyslaw Weinberg, his contemporary and close friend, is a testimony to the horror that swept through Europe in the 20th century.

Since the first full staging of his opera The Passenger at the Bregenz Festival in Austria six years ago, the composer has begun to overcome his reputation as a second-rate Shostakovich. But Weinbergs first stage work, which he never lived to see performed, is only one of many compositions that deserve to be posthumously enshrined in the 20th-century canon.

Now, the International Mieczyslaw Weinberg Society, founded by the conductor Thomas Sanderling and the violinist Linus Roth in the summer of 2015, hopes to create a place for the composer in the standard repertoire. In addition to gathering musicians and scholars under the aegis of the honorary president, Irina Shostakovich (widow of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich), their activities include premiere performances and recordings.

Weinberg is a great discovery, Mr. Sanderling said. Tragically, a discovery, because he didnt gain much recognition within his lifetime besides from a circle of insiders in Russia.
The New Years Day concert in the Golden Hall at the Musikverein in Vienna is as much a part of the holiday season as those rambunctious family gatherings and the kiss that follows the screaming countdown to the new year.

The concert by the Vienna Philharmonic, broadcast in almost 100 countries, is held each New Years Day with a different guest conductor. It is a celebration of music that is often heavy on waltzes by the Strauss dynasty and launchings of confetti, a real treat for those lucky enough to secure one of only 2,000 tickets available through a lottery system.

It is the hardest ticket in the world to get regarding classical music, said Bogdan Roscic, the president of Sony Music Masterworks, which each year since 2012 has released a recording of the concert shortly after the performance. It has an incredibly uplifting atmosphere. And it sends a message  and I marvel every year how well it captures a moment  that despite all the madness going on, you simply want to believe an optimistic message that there is something great ahead of you.

The 2017 concert has the potential to be something even more: The orchestra will be celebrating not only the 175th anniversary of the Vienna Philharmonic, but also the 300th anniversary of the birth of Empress Maria Theresa and the 150th anniversary of the first performance of Johann Strauss IIs Blue Danube waltz, performed every year at the concert. (All the Strauss references below refer to him.)
Good evening. Heres the latest.

1. The German authorities are searching for a 23-year-old Tunisian man in the deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. He is known to have used multiple aliases and is believed to be armed and dangerous.

Local news agencies reported that he has ties to an Iraqi preacher arrested in Germany last month who is accused of recruiting soldiers for the Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the attack.
We examine how Mr. Tillersons views on Russia were shaped over the years, and the personal relationships he established with leaders in Moscow.

 Clintons back in the news.

An affidavit that explains the F.B.I.s reasoning for reopening an inquiry into Hillary Clintons emails has added fuel to the debate over that decision. The document said there was probable cause that emails belonging to Huma Abedin, a top aide to Mrs. Clinton, contained classified information.

Separately, Bill Clintons comment to a local newspaper in New York that Mr. Trump doesnt know much led to a series of replies by the president-elect on Twitter.

 Explosions in Mexico.

Investigators are trying to identify the cause of blasts at a fireworks market on the outskirts of Mexico City that killed at least 27 people and injured 70.

A witness captured the scene on video.
Increasingly, many of those workers do the grunt work behind Chinas internet success stories. They drive cars for Didi Chuxing and Yidao Yongche, deliver packages for Alibaba Group and JD.com, and fetch takeout meals for Koubei and Eleme. Without them, Chinas thriving e-commerce industry could take a significant hit.

But the new ride-share regulations show that the technology industry in China is coming up against long-held concerns in the country about overcrowding, a widening wealth gap and access to education, health care and other services.

At the bottom of the conflict is tension between powerful vested interests and a new rising class, said Hu Xingdou, an economics professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology. The political power of Chinas taxi services  which see ride-hailing companies as dangerous rivals  presents a particularly strong challenge, he said.

It is not clear how many drivers would be affected, but the numbers could be significant. In Shanghai, for instance, fewer than 10,000 of the 410,000 active drivers registered to Didi Chuxing have permanent residency papers, according to Didi. Also on Wednesday, the southern boomtown of Guangzhou joined cities that had previously instituted less-restrictive residency requirements. In its statement, Didi said the city of Beijing had given it five months to implement the rules.

Officials in Beijing did not respond to requests for comment. But they were quoted by local news outlets citing safety concerns and a need to track drivers, as in the case a year ago, when a 28-year-old Beijing ride-share driver made headlines when he punched a drunk passenger, breaking an eye socket. The officials were also mentioned as citing local regulations already in place that require taxi drivers to be residents of the city where they work.

At issue is Chinas unique household registration  or hukou  system, which was intended to keep rural workers from flooding into more populous regions. The larger cities, like Beijing and Shanghai, need a steady influx of people like Mr. Luo to function.
LONDON  A former fund manager at BlackRock was sentenced to one year in prison on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to insider trading charges in November.

The fund manager, Mark Lyttleton, 45, oversaw the BlackRock UK Dynamic and BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha portfolios before he left the firm in March 2013. He pleaded guilty last month to two counts of insider dealing, the equivalent of insider trading in Britain.

At a hearing in London on Wednesday, Judge Andrew Goymer sentenced Mr. Lyttleton to 18 months in prison, but reduced the sentence to a year in prison as credit for Mr. Lyttletons pleading guilty in the matter, according to the Financial Conduct Authority, which brought the criminal case.

Insider dealing convictions carry a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.

Lyttletons insider dealing involved a gross abuse of the trust placed in him as a senior fund manager, Mark Steward, the regulators executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said in a news release.
LONDON  Investors are increasingly sounding the alarms over Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the beleaguered Italian lender, as concerns mounted on Wednesday about its ability to raise new capital and avoid a government bailout.

The troubled Italian banking system, stuffed with dubious loans, has broadly put global policy makers and investors on alert for signs of a potential shock. And Monte dei Paschi, the countrys oldest bank, is in the weakest spot.

The bank, which was the worst performer in the European stress tests this year, was given until the end of the month to raise 5 billion euros, or about $5.2 billion. But investors do not seem convinced that the bank can find the funds, sending shares plunging on Wednesday.

Thursday is the deadline for investors to agree to purchase new shares in the lender as part of its recapitalization plan, but news reports have indicated that Monte dei Paschi has struggled in its efforts to sell shares.
In its latest effort to defuse a major public relations problem that might have loomed over Donald J. Trumps presidency, the Trump Organization on Wednesday announced union accords at two major hotel holdings.

The agreements resolve labor disputes that could have posed a conflict of interest for the president-elect and come on the heels of other similar moves in recent weeks. In November, Mr. Trump paid $25 million to settle a number of lawsuits surrounding fraud allegations at Trump University, his former for-profit education business, and this month the Trump Organization extricated itself from the management of a hotel project in Brazil, where the authorities were investigating allegations of corruption.

Taken together, the moves suggest that Mr. Trump is sensitive to at least the perception that his business dealings could cast a shadow over his presidency, even if he has yet to detail how he might seek a more comprehensive solution to potential conflicts, such as outright divestment.

On the one hand, I think its important to acknowledge that this is meaningful, it does matter, Danielle Brian, the executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan ethics watchdog group, said of Wednesdays agreements. However, this piecemeal approach to dealing with conflicts is not going to deal with the bigger looming problem.
This year, D B Pace applied under a state program to undertake a voluntary cleanup of the property. If approved, the company would also gain protection against liabilities related to any pollution there, such as chemical contamination of local groundwater, caused by Titan Atlas and other past owners.

There is, however, a catch: To qualify for the protections, the buyer of a contaminated property must not be affiliated with a former owner, or have had involvement with the site.

The programs rules exist, lawyers said, to prevent a polluter from evading liability by using another company to stand in its place. You are basically drawing a line in the sand, said John P. Boyd, a lawyer in Columbia, S.C., who negotiates such so-called brownfields agreements for companies buying contaminated land.

D B Pace, which took title to the North Charleston property in January after a foreclosure proceeding, stated to South Carolina regulators that it was free of such associations. But according to a lawsuit, both the younger Mr. Trump and a Trump Organization lawyer, who is also a D B Pace executive, managed the Titan Atlas facility for two years before D B Pace applied to the states program.

The lawsuit at issue was filed in April by a former tenant at the Titan Atlas factory. In it, a building products company, Saint-Gobain Adfors, charged that it had complained since 2014 to Donald Trump Jr. and the Trump Organization lawyer, Michael Cohen, that rain coming through the buildings rotting roof was damaging materials stored there.
He seemed to trust the detectives, Dr. Frumkin said, noting his behavior in a video where he can be seen walking with them through SoHo after his arrest, from the bodega where he said he encountered Etan to near the corridor where he said he dropped the body.

He believed he was part of the team, Dr. Frumkin said. The detectives were his friends. They were reinforcing him. They were praising him.

Prosecutors have argued that Mr. Hernandez could have been feigning symptoms to avoid being convicted. Joel J. Seidemann, an assistant Manhattan district attorney, suggested that Mr. Hernandezs paranoid behavior  covering his windows and expressing fear that he was being watched, for instance  was a result of his cocaine use, and that his unusual beliefs could be traced to religious or cultural underpinnings.

Mr. Seidemann also took issue with the depiction of Mr. Hernandez as often having a stoic demeanor, another sign of schizotypal personality disorder, by showing a video of him singing at his brothers funeral. Mr. Seidemann suggested that Mr. Hernandez might instead have intermittent explosive disorder, which is characterized by angry and violent outbursts.

He argued that Mr. Hernandez had long been saddled with guilt and a desire to unburden himself. Mr. Seidemann showed a psychological report related to Mr. Hernandezs efforts to obtain disability benefits in which a doctor noted that he felt like a condemned person.

He feels that he deserves to be punished for wrongs he has committed, the report said.

At one point that, Dr. Frumkin said that Mr. Hernandez was not bright enough to malinger subtle features of a severe mental disorder. The defense showed a video, from 2014, in which Mr. Hernandez said he was certain he did not commit the crimes, and that one of the reasons he had confessed was for pity.

The defense noted the discrepancies in Mr. Hernandezs various accounts of his supposed encounter with Etan: He said he had never seen Etans face, and offered inaccurate descriptions of the weather and the time of day that Etan vanished.
It was the evening rush, but the kiosk at Grand Central Terminal was closed, its beer bottles and bags of peanuts tantalizingly out of reach in a clear case. And the bar carts typically stationed near the train tracks had vanished.

Sprinting commuters rushing to catch a train would have to ride home without their usual Brooklyn lager or India pale ale to take the edge off a long day.

The Metro-North Railroad shut down the bar carts this month amid an investigation into missing money among the vendors. For some riders, it was an ill-timed move, casting the agency as the Grinch who spoiled their commutes in the days leading up to Christmas.

Bring my bar cart back, Jon Friedman, a commuter from Westchester County, said on a recent evening as he rushed to catch his train. He was clutching a Budweiser can he had bought from a shop on his way to the train platform, but said the wheeled bar carts were more convenient.
When a Russian oncologist called her 3-year-old daughters brain tumor untreatable, Elena Romanova researched alternatives through the night.

A young mother of three, Ms. Romanova had spent a year and a half in a Moscow hospital as her daughter Ksenia Subbotina went through radiation, chemotherapy and two brain operations. Despite all of the treatment, the cancer had spread to her spine, and the doctor said Ms. Romanova should prepare end-of-life care for Ksenia.

I knew there was no cure in Russia, Ms. Romanova said. So the question was where to go next.

That July night in 2012 she emailed doctors around the world about additional treatments. A doctor in London offered a screening for $32,000 that included an M.R.I. and a pathology analysis to determine the next steps.

Ms. Romanova did not have that much money. The Russian government had paid for hospital stays and general medication during Ksenias years there, but in order to secure better care, the family had slipped money to doctors and nurses, spending all of their meager savings.
Our credibility is at stake with the immigrant communities that we work with, said Manny Castro, executive director of New Immigrant Community Empowerment, which works with day laborers in Queens.

He added: If something were to happen with this data that led to a family getting detained or deported, then how are immigrants supposed to believe the city when it comes to providing information to the police or public schools? It took decades for the city to build this credibility.

The IDs have also been popular with some of New Yorks most vulnerable residents: those living in homeless shelters, victims of domestic violence and transgender people. The cards allow entry to public schools, are accepted by the Police Department as a form of identification for people reporting crimes and grant free admission to museums.

According to the city, more than half of cardholders use the IDs as their primary form of identification. Since the programs inception and somewhat rocky start, the city has issued 988,066 cards.

The application does not ask applicants their immigration status. To obtain a card, an applicant can, for example, use a valid foreign passport or a consular identification, along with a utility bill that verifies a city address. An expired foreign passport is acceptable for up to three years, but the applicant may require two additional forms of proof. In addition, proof of residency in a homeless shelter for 15 days can be a form of identification.

Mr. Castorina said he became alarmed in September when New York States banking superintendent encouraged all state-licensed banks and credit unions to accept IDNYC. Only 13 banks in New York City accept the ID, and the de Blasio administration had pushed the superintendent to make such a recommendation to expand access to financial services for undocumented immigrants.
To the Editor:

As the Electoral College made the election outcome official, I thought of the words uttered by most of my friends: Well, not much we can do.

But there is definitely something they can, and should, do: share their concerns with their elected representatives in Washington, their senators and representatives.

I intend to be in communication with each of mine as important issues come up for votes or as hearings on important issues are conducted. I urge all Americans to be mindful that the legislative branch remains a significant element of our representative democracy.

EDWIN K. SEPPA

Wells, Me.
The Donald Trump presidency is not yet officially upon us, but the Trump era has already been good for political reading lists. Book buyers baffled by Trumpism and seeking understanding have turned to various sociologies of the ur-Trump voter, making best sellers out of J. D. Vances Hillbilly Elegy, Nancy Isenbergs White Trash and Arlie Russell Hochschilds Strangers in Their Own Land.

Liberals looking to feed their sense of alarm have been steered toward Hannah Arendts The Origins of Totalitarianism, Sinclair Lewiss It Cant Happen Here and Philip Roths Plot Against America. What Is Populism? by the German political scientist Jan-Werner Muller, has been widely recommended; so has Mark Lillas anatomy of reactionary thought, The Shipwrecked Mind; so has Richard Rortys Achieving Our Country, from back in 1998, mostly for a prescient few paragraphs on the nonsuburban electorate and its potential affinity for strongmen. The racial element in Trumpism has sent people back to W.E.B. Du Bois on Black Reconstruction  once theyve finished, of course, with the latest from Ta-Nehisi Coates.

But for your last-minute Christmas shopping, I have some slightly different recommendations to make. The Trump-era reading lists Ive seen include many worthy titles, but they also tend to focus heavily on the dark forces lurking out there, somewhere outside enlightened circles  in the hills of Appalachia, in the postindustrial heartland, in the souls of racists and chauvinists and crypto-fascists. They are anthropologies of populism, cautionary tales from history, blueprints for blunting revanchisms appeal. But they do not generally subject Western liberalism itself to rigorous critique.

And that might be what liberal readers needs right now: Not just portraits of the Brexit and Trump-voting domestic Other, but a clearer sense of their own worldviews limits, blind spots, blunders and internal contradictions.
To the Editor:

Re The Personality Politics of The Crown,  by Anna North (Editorial Notebook, Dec. 13):

Whats most interesting about Ms. Norths analysis of the Netflix series The Crown is that she compares Donald Trump not to the British political leader Winston Churchill but to the British monarch Elizabeth II. This is, no doubt, the comparison that Mr. Trump himself would find most appropriate.

He has spoken of being the greatest jobs president that God has ever created, revealing his preference to view himself as a divinely ordained ruler rather than a democratically elected leader. He refers to his cabinet picks and advisers as my generals, and to Mike Pence as one of my very good decisions, revealing his view of them as servants rather than colleagues.

It will not be long before he speaks of us, American citizens, as his subjects; there can be little doubt that he thinks of us that way already.

PAMELA J. GRIFFITH

Brooklyn

To the Editor:

Anna North characterizes the Netflix series The Crown as a fantasy in which ruling a country is rooted essentially not in laws or institutions but in personality. My reading of the series leads me to quite a different view.
BEIRUT  In October, Alaa Abed, a former police investigator, became the chairman of the human rights committee in Egypts Parliament. The majority bloc that supports President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to which Mr. Abed belongs, ensured his victory by flooding the committee with loyalist members, a show of strength that led Mr. Abeds rivals to drop out.

His victory, technically within the Parliaments rules, demonstrated Egypts take on managed democracy, a term experts often use to describe Russia under President Vladimir V. Putin and other countries ruled by strongmen. Its a system in which elections and other formal trappings of democracy persist but lose their meaning; in reality, authority is centralized, often in the hands of security agencies.

In Egypt, managed democracy appears to be the Sisi administrations solution to a delicate problem: how, after removing his predecessor in a coup, Mr. Sisi can claim to oversee a democratic country without having to subject his government to any real opposition.

Mr. Abeds personal history has moved in parallel with the culture of police abuse and political corruption that rose to define Egyptian public life in the era that preceded the 2011 uprising, and which has made a comeback under Mr. Sisi.
UNITED NATIONS  In January, an important world leader will take office when Antonio Guterres of Portugal replaces Ban Ki-moon as secretary general of the United Nations. As he assumes his post, he should know that Israel is ready to work together on repairing our fractious relationship with the United Nations and finally becoming a full partner in the worlds most important international forum.

There is good reason for skepticism about the prospects for such a change. The hostility toward Israel of an automatic majority in the General Assembly is well documented. In 2015 alone, the assembly passed some 20 resolutions condemning Israel  far more than any other country. Like all truly democratic countries, Israel has always been open to legitimate constructive criticism. Yet our critics in the General Assembly single out my country for unwarranted and excessive attention, while giving a pass to some of the worlds most brutal and despotic regimes like Syria and North Korea.

Despite these difficulties, Israelis have not despaired of the parliament of nations. Now there is a real opportunity to lay out practical steps that Israel and the new secretary general can take to reset this fraught history.

For Israel, the expectation from the United Nations can be summarized in one word: equality. We want to be treated no different from its 192 other member states. In particular, hatred against the Jewish people should be treated like hatred against all other groups.
To the Editor:

Re Wonder and Worry, as a Syrian Child Transforms (Refugees Welcome series, front page, Dec. 18):

As a member of a group sponsoring a Syrian refugee family, I thank you for your series about the Canadian Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program.

Our Syrian family has cousins who arrived in Canada as refugees in the 1980s. Having met that family, and in particular three of the daughters, who would have experienced, with their parents, many of the challenges that Bayan Mohammad, 10, featured in your article, now faces, I expect that the wonder of her transformation will prevail over the worry.

Those three daughters, now mothers, are each warm, highly articulate, well educated and, most important, fully engaged in organizations striving to enhance civil society. That my country welcomes, indeed encourages, such outcomes is what makes me a proud Canadian.

TREVOR BAIN

Toronto
Is that really the case?

Foreign policy was hardly the critical concern for the majority of Bulgarians who cast ballots. And truth be told, Moscows influence isnt creeping into Bulgaria  its long been here. A vast majority of Bulgarians value their membership in NATO and, even more, the European Union. But for historical and cultural reasons, most prefer not to see Russia as an enemy. So, unsurprisingly, both General Radev and his center-right opponent advocated lifting sanctions on Russia and improving relations with Moscow.

I share this Bulgarian story because the debate over the Kremlins alleged interference in the United States presidential election has revived a Cold War framework for understanding the world. Political outcomes in small countries tend to be explained as a zero-sum game between Russia and the West. There are three major problems with this approach.

First, it confuses more than it clarifies. In the 1970s and 80s a number of third-world nationalists were caricatured by the West as Communists, despite the fact that they were focused on fighting for independence, not Soviet Communism. The United States and its allies wasted energy warring with them. But misrecognizing nationalists as Communists sometimes became a self-fulfilling prophecy: After being labeled Communist, many of the third-world revolutionary governments indeed became pro-Soviet. The moral is that we should not be surprised if the constant labeling of populist parties and leaders in Europe as pro-Russian turns them into the Kremlins friends.

Second, the return of the Cold War narrative is becoming a factor in Russias growing international influence. The Wests current obsession with Mr. Putin is at the heart of the Russian presidents newly discovered soft power. If Moscow, as so much of the news media suggest, can really rig the American elections, how could a small Bulgaria, or for that matter even France, trust that anybody but the Kremlin would decide who the next president would be? Russias power of attraction today is rooted not in its ideology but in its powerful image. If you believe Mr. Putins most zealous opponents, he is winning all the time.

Finally, in a globalized world, foreign interference in elections is unavoidable. Private citizens  and not only governments  hack email accounts, spread fake news and conspiracy theories, and try to destroy the reputation of foreign leaders. Lone hackers and tiny rogue political groups can easily crash the servers of electoral commissions around the world. We are entering a period in which disruption is becoming an international contest, and many seek money and glory by demonstrating their ability to sow chaos beyond their borders. The Cold War narrative ignores this new reality because it tends to see any subversive activity as the work of states. A result is a growing risk of overreaction and conflict. In the world of mutually assured disruption, more than ever before what matters is the capacity to distinguish between state-inspired and state-run subversion.
As Ive written before, the college admissions process has become a dignity-ravaging frenzy, illustrated by the plot of a recent episode of the TV drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. It asked whether a man assuming a fake identity to seduce women could be prosecuted for rape.

What identity do you suppose he chose as the most potent and irresistible? Not a Hollywood director who could make the women stars. Not a Wall Street titan who could drape them in jewels. He impersonated a dean of admissions who could give their kids slots at an elite university. And one after another, these helicopter moms whirled into the boudoir.

Early decision and early action, which are offered by some 450 colleges, are a special and especially disturbing part of the frenzy. They refer to a process by which, broadly speaking, a student applies in November to just one, most-desired school, which answers in December. If the school practices early decision and says yes, the student is obliged to go. Early action isnt binding.

At least since 2001, when The Atlantic published a definitive article by James Fallows titled The Early-Decision Racket, theres been fervent discussion of the downsides of the process. But its more prevalent than ever, with some selective schools using it to fill upward of 40 percent of their incoming freshman class.

The biggest problem by far: It significantly disadvantages students from low-income and middle-income families, who are already underrepresented at such schools. Theres plenty of evidence that applying early improves odds of admission and that the students who do so  largely to gain a competitive edge  come disproportionately from privileged backgrounds with parents and counselors who know how to game the system and can assemble the necessary test scores and references by the November deadline.
Donald J. Trump has made bold and provocative campaign promises on taxes, trade, immigration and infrastructure. These pledges are all in service of bolstering our economic future. While we hope these initiatives will help our economic prospects, there is one important measure missing from the debate. And it could have an even more immediate and direct impact on economic growth: student debt relief.

Student debt now stands at $1.3 trillion. More than half of student borrowers are unable to repay their loans according to the original terms. In a well-intended but poorly executed effort to make college broadly accessible, the government has lent freely to students, with little attention to whether they can repay those loans. The result is millions of young people with debt they cannot afford.

As a college president, I frequently hear from students who are anxious about their ability to repay their loans once they graduate. Many let student debt guide their career choices.

The Department of Education has tried to provide relief through a complex web of alternative repayment plans, including those based on a borrowers income. However, these plans are limited to certain borrowers and involve a confusing array of options and bureaucratic recertification requirements, which cause a large portion of young people to lose eligibility each year. Student borrowers balances can actually get larger as they try to pay off their obligations.
Trump voters will be especially hard hit if just part of this sweeping agenda comes to fruition.

Conservatives often point to poor blacks and Latinos as the primary beneficiaries of federal health insurance programs. But such rhetoric obscures the enormous importance of Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare subsidies to economically struggling white Americans living in small cities and rural areas. In Pennsylvania, where Mr. Trump narrowly beat Hillary Clinton with overwhelming support outside big cities, about 17 percent of residents are 65 or older, above the national average. Meanwhile, some 16 percent of Pennsylvanians benefit from Medicare, and 18 percent from Medicaid. With the bulk of Medicaid going to elderly and disabled residents, that program is the single largest federal subsidy flowing into the Keystone State.

Repealing the Affordable Care Act would also hit Pennsylvania hard. Under the act, some 468,000 low-income Pennsylvanians had gained Medicaid coverage by August 2016, and another 439,000 bought private coverage on the Obamacare marketplace, with more than three-fourths of those people getting tax credits averaging $251 per month. Health care is often sparse in nonurban areas, and the providers that do exist depend on federal insurance programs that help many patients pay for care. If radical Republican cutbacks in federal contributions to health insurance are enacted, Pennsylvania hospitals and health care businesses will lose vital revenues, leaving many lower-income and sick Pennsylvanians at risk of losing access to care.

This is the case in other states as well, meaning many rural and small-town Trump supporters may soon see that Make America Great Again means accelerating economic decline and social devastation. Mr. Trump shows little understanding of the intricate interplay of subsidies and rules in the health care system, and probably has no inkling that federal taxes collected from liberal states like California, Massachusetts and New York heavily subsidize vital health services, businesses and family benefits in the very places that voted heavily for him. In delegating plans for huge health care cutbacks to hard-right congressional Republicans, he will be hurting his own base.

But will Mr. Trump suffer repercussions if the Republican Congress plows ahead? Its proposed changes are unpopular  including repealing the Affordable Care Act, which only one in four Americans support  and eliminating benefits usually arouses anger in the affected groups. But political punishment will not be automatic, because Democrats currently have little organized presence outside urban areas. Small cities and rural areas are overwhelmingly represented in Congress and state capitols by Republicans, who will do all they can to displace blame.

For the Democratic Party, the coming Republican assault on public health insurance represents a huge political opportunity. But to seize it, the party will have to beef up state committees and place a priority on activating volunteer supporters everywhere  getting people to write messages to local newspapers and social media sites, and reach out to hospitals, health care providers and nonprofits to beat the drums about losses the Republicans are inflicting. Even if Democrats cannot soon win outright majorities beyond their urban base, they must be actively involved in communities damaged by Mr. Trumps false campaign promises.
Nina Gibson, 52, has a long commute from her home in the harbor-side neighborhood of Black Rock, in the city of Bridgeport, Conn., to her job at Ralph Lauren Home in Manhattan. The Metro-North train ride takes up to 90 minutes, and the walk up Madison Avenue adds another 20.

But Ms. Gibson said she and her husband, John, 58, a social worker, cannot imagine moving out of Black Rock to be closer to New York. She describes the dense, walkable neighborhood as a down-to-earth niche of diverse, community-minded residents. In the 14 years since the couple moved into a 100-year-old Craftsman cottage there, they and their son have come to know someone on almost every street, Ms. Gibson said.

Bob and Rita Hannafin, who moved to Black Rock in 2015, said that, in 13 moves, they have never lived anywhere where residents were so involved in local politics and in the community. After Bob, 62, was named dean of the Fairfield University Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions in 2014, they thought they would buy in Fairfield, Conn. But he and Rita, 63, an artist, fell in love with a 108-year-old house in Black Rock that backs up to a tidal creek.

The block reminded me of where I grew up in Queens, with lots of front porches and people hanging out outside, Dr. Hannafin said. And, he added, the $310,000 price tag was far below what they would have paid in Fairfield.
When Facebook bought WhatsApp for more than $19 billion in 2014, Jan Koum, a founder of the messaging company, arranged to sign a part of the deal outside the suburban social services center where he had once waited in line to collect food stamps.

Mr. Koum, like many in the tech industry, is an immigrant. He was a teenager when he and his mother moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1990s, in part to escape the anti-Semitic tide then sweeping his native Ukraine. As Mr. Koum later told Forbes, his mother worked as a babysitter and swept floors at a grocery store to survive in the new country; when she was found to have cancer, the family lived off her disability payments.

Tales of immigrant woe are not unusual in Silicon Valley. But Mr. Koums story carries greater resonance because his app has quietly become a mainstay of immigrant life. More than a billion people regularly use WhatsApp, which lets users send text messages and make phone calls free over the internet. The app is particularly popular in India, where it has more than 160 million users, as well as in Europe, South America and Africa.

Because its free, has a relatively good record on privacy and security, and is popular in so many parts of the world, WhatsApp has cultivated an unusual audience: It has become the lingua franca among people who, whether by choice or by force, have left their homes for the unknown.
Are they the same actors they were then? Yes and no. Ms. Blanchett has never settled on any particular approach, though she did note that, As a parent Ive become a lot more economical.

Thats a great word, Mr. Roxburgh said. I dont tie myself up in such knots anymore about trying to get something that is unattainable or 

Perfect, Ms. Blanchett said.

Both of them are busy with children and competing projects. Ms. Blanchett has three sons and a toddler daughter. Mr. Roxburgh has two sons and a daughter due in March. He has been occupied with his Australian television series, Rake, in which he plays an ethically challenged lawyer whose dissipation rivals Mikhails. (In Season 3, Ms. Blanchett had a cheeky cameo as his lesbian alter ego.)

She has several films on the go and is appearing at the Park Avenue Armory in the video installation Manifesto, in which she plays 13 characters declaiming on art and life. This is in stark contrast to Anna, who is given to wearied statements like: Im so bored. Bored and disappointed.

But neither of them had any compunction about returning to Chekhov, first at the Sydney Theater Company and now again on Broadway through March 19. They spoke warmly about the richness of his characters and his writerly compassion for their follies and absurdities Theyre as slippery as we are as human beings. Ms. Blanchett said. Theyre full of secrets and self-delusion. Mr. Roxburgh agreed, though he cautioned that he had seen Chekhov plays that made him want to put my eyes out.

Both of them were excited to encounter a fresh version of a Chekhov play and Ms. Blanchett was struck by some of its contemporary resonances. The characters, she said, inhabit a political world in which theyve been lied to, they know theyve been lied to, the people who are telling the lies know that they know, but everyone is pretending that the truth is being told.
No, the Off Broadway musical Ride the Cyclone, which follows a group of teenagers who meet a deadly fate on an amusement park roller coaster, isnt a riff on the movie Final Destination 3, where characters meet a similar end. And no, the plot  which has the kids singing in a kind of purgatory  wasnt inspired by the musical Forever Plaid, where a quartet performs a concert from the afterlife after being killed in an accident. Nor by Cats, with which it shares some narrative threads.

Also, the shows setting and set werent inspired by classic musicals like Carnival, State Fair or Carousel. In fact, one of the shows composers had never written a musical before  and, for the record, had never seen Cats.

So where exactly did the creators of this offbeat show, produced by MCC Theater and playing through Dec. 29 at the Lucille Lortel Theater, find their inspiration? Below is a look at the familiar and the strange ideas that guided the shows writers, Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond of Canada, and the director and choreographer Rachel Rockwell.
A chef emerged from the kitchen carrying a tin of caviar and dolloped a heaping spoonful onto the back of my hand. Then the vodka, he said, nodding at a chilled glass on the table, as clouds of smoke billowed from behind the bar. Dinner at Stockholms Punk Royale Cafe had begun.

The energy swirling through the restaurant stood in stark contrast to its location: a forlorn block on the eastern edge of Sodermalm, an island that has been caricatured as alternately sinister (in best-selling Swedish crime novels) or trendsetting (see its No. 3 spot on Vogues 15 Coolest Neighborhoods in the World list).

Quiet and mostly residential, eastern Sodermalm is not noir, nor is it considered cool. At least not in comparison to nearby Nytorget, a square ringed with trendy restaurants and cafes in the heart of SoFo, as the neighborhood south of Folkungagatan is called. Instead, eastern Sodermalm is one of the islands last undeveloped pockets, a Wild West (or, rather, East) where imaginative young locals are now building a drinking and dining scene that diverges from the capitals buttoned-up style. All it needs is a nickname: Given its location north of the park Vita Bergen, NoVi seems inevitable.
The first job that Sherry Johnson, 56, lost to automation was at the local newspaper in Marietta, Ga., where she fed paper into the printing machines and laid out pages. Later, she watched machines learn to do her jobs on a factory floor making breathing machines, and in inventory and filing.

It actually kind of ticked me off because its like, How are we supposed to make a living? she said. She took a computer class at Goodwill, but it was too little too late. The 20- and 30-year-olds are more up to date on that stuff than we are because we didnt have that when we were growing up, said Ms. Johnson, who is now on disability and lives in a housing project in Jefferson City, Tenn.

Donald J. Trump told workers like Ms. Johnson that he would bring back their jobs by clamping down on trade, offshoring and immigration. But economists say the bigger threat to their jobs has been something else: automation.

Over the long haul, clearly automations been much more important  its not even close, said Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard who studies labor and technological change.
His radio crackled. Can you hear it? a veteran Army soldier named Tim Foley asked one weekend afternoon while traversing the remote trails off the remote community of Sasabe, a dot along a busy drug-smuggling corridor in southern Arizona.

Theyre pushing something through, he said. And theyre not too far.
President-elect Donald J. Trump appears to believe he owes little to the Republican establishment donor set, a majority of whom opposed him. He also ran a campaign that challenged longstanding shibboleths of American diplomacy.

Mr. Trumps choice of ambassadors could be a sign of how serious he is about both those stances. But as his transition team begins sifting through possible choices for a dozen major embassies, the signals are unclear.

Two of his three choices so far, Gov. Terry E. Branstad of Iowa for China, and David M. Friedman for Israel, are loyalists, not big donors. The third, Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina, picked as ambassador to the United Nations, was an ardent critic of Mr. Trump. Mr. Branstad has described President Xi Jinping of China as an old friend; Ms. Haley and Mr. Friedman have no diplomatic experience.

But the nomination of Mr. Friedman, a conservative who has been deeply critical of the pro-Israel lobbying group J Street, and who has vowed to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem, has roiled large sections of the foreign policy establishment  just the kind of disruption Mr. Trump liked to emphasize in his campaign.
Early on Oct. 6, Erin Piche-Pitts was awakened by the sound of her baby crying. She later told the authorities in Florida that she had picked him up from a bassinet, prepared some formula in a bottle and settled back into bed with him, propping him up with a pillow and nestling his head in the crook of her arm. Then she dozed off.

Two and a half hours later, according to a Polk County sheriffs affidavit, Ms. Piche-Pitts, 25, woke up in a panic. Blood was on her baby boy, Javier, who was less than a month old, and vomit was coming out of his mouth, she told officials.

Ms. Piche-Pitts, of Winter Haven in Central Florida, said she tried to revive the boy, and called 911. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

When investigators interviewed Ms. Piche-Pitts about the babys death, according to the document, she said, It happened again.
WASHINGTON  About 6.4 million people have signed up for health insurance next year under the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration said Wednesday, as people rushed to purchase plans regardless of Republican promises that the law will be repealed within months.

The new sign-ups  an increase of 400,000 over a similar point last year  mean the health care coverage of millions of consumers could be imperiled by one of the first legislative actions of Donald J. Trumps presidency. Hundreds of thousands of other people who took no action will be automatically re-enrolled by the federal government in the same or similar plans, officials said, and their coverage could be threatened as well. Consumers still have until the end of January to enroll.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, said the number of sign-ups was remarkable in view of headwinds created by premium increases for 2017 and by the uncertainty of the entire health law after Mr. Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

Americans remain divided over President Obamas most significant legislative achievement, even as 20 million people have gained coverage under the law and the percentage of those without insurance has dropped to record lows. Mr. Trump and Republican leaders of the House and the Senate have vowed to repeal the 2010 law as one of the first legislative actions of the Trump era.
Mr. Trump has also promised to edit the federal rule book, removing what he has described as overly burdensome restrictions. He said last month that the government would eliminate two regulations for each new rule it put on the books. For Mr. Icahn, who will not draw a salary, the new role formalizes his relationship with Mr. Trump, whom he advised on economic issues throughout the campaign. Mr. Icahn, 80, has no experience in government; like a growing number of Mr. Trumps appointees, he was prized for his success as a businessman.

Mr. Icahn, a brash New York billionaire who vocally supported Mr. Trump during the campaign, made his fortune as a corporate raider, buying stakes in corporations and demanding changes to reward shareholders. Carl was with me from the beginning, and with his being one of the worlds great businessmen, that was something I truly appreciated, Mr. Trump said in a statement. His help on the strangling regulations that our country is faced with will be invaluable.

Mr. Icahn will also play a role in the selection of a new chairman for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the regulator that serves as the referee for his battles with corporations.

Mr. Icahn, the child of two New York schoolteachers, was not known for political activism before the 2016 campaign, and he has insisted that he wants to help the country, not himself. But Mr. Trumps choice of a major corporate investor to play a role in rewriting regulations that could affect those companies renewed concerns about conflicts of interest in the next administration.
WASHINGTON  On the heels of headline-grabbing price spikes on prescription drugs, a bipartisan Senate report on Wednesday will call on Congress to take action to prevent huge, unjustified cost increases on decades-old prescription medicines that have no competition.

The Senate Special Committee on Aging, reporting the results of a yearlong investigation, said that some drug companies behaved like hedge funds because of the influence of activist investors. These companies, the committee said, have developed a business model that harms patients, taxpayers and the U.S. health care system.

For years, Republicans have sided with drug companies in resisting legislation to restrain drug prices, on the ground that drug makers need additional revenue to pay for research. But President-elect Donald J. Trump scrambled the politics of the issue during the campaign, and the committees call for action comes amid a changing political dynamic.

During his quest for the presidency, Mr. Trump promised to remove barriers to entry of imported safe and dependable drugs from overseas. He and his staff have not provided details, and it is unclear whether he intends to push for such a proposal. But he told Time magazine after the election: Im going to bring down drug prices. I dont like whats happened with drug prices.
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo  Nearly 300 people were arrested across the Democratic Republic of Congo as two days of protests against President Joseph Kabila appeared to subside on Wednesday, the police said.

Sporadic gunfire rang out over Kinshasa, the capital, and witnesses reported clashes in Lubumbashi, the southeastern mining hub, but nothing on the scale of the violence when youths took to the streets on Tuesday accusing Mr. Kabila of trying to cling to power.

The police said that 275 people had been arrested and that 21 civilians and one officer had been killed in the protests that erupted as Mr. Kabilas mandate expired without any elections in place to pick a successor. Rights groups earlier gave higher death tolls.

Mr. Kabila and his supporters have denied any plan to retain power and have said logistical problems delayed elections.
KABUL, Afghanistan  Taliban gunmen attacked the Kabul home of a prominent lawmaker on Wednesday, killing at least seven people in an overnight assault that lasted nearly 10 hours, Afghan officials said.

The lawmaker, Mir Wali, who survived the attack, is a prominent figure in the southern province of Helmand, and his family has long been a target of the Taliban. Mr. Walis son Hekmatullah, a district commander in Helmand, was killed last year by the Taliban.

Fraidoon Obaidi, who oversees criminal investigations for the Kabul police, said three gunmen targeted the house Wednesday afternoon, leaving seven people dead and four wounded. The assailants were also killed, in a battle with the police that lasted until 3:30 a.m. Thursday, Mr. Obaidi said. The operation took a long time because security forces tried to save civilians, he said.

Mr. Wali was rescued with minor injuries, Mr. Obaidi said.

A spokesman for the Kabul police, Abdul Basir Mujahid, had slightly different information, saying that the gunmen had killed eight people and wounded six. Among the dead were two of Mr. Walis grandchildren, one of his nephews and the son of the lawmaker Obaidullah Barakzai, he said. Eighteen people were rescued by security forces, he said.
Two Muslim American YouTube stars who were returning home to New York after a world tour said they were removed from a Delta Air Lines flight in London on Wednesday after other passengers expressed discomfort with their presence on the plane.

Adam Saleh, 23, a filmmaker from Manhattan, and his friend Slim Albaher, 22, from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, said they had been asked by the captain to leave their flight at Heathrow Airport after Mr. Saleh spoke in Arabic to his mother by phone, and he and Mr. Albaher followed up by speaking to each other in Arabic, causing alarm among British passengers on the flight.

The news was met on social media with anger at the airline industry, but also skepticism, though passengers who were on the plane when it landed in New York corroborated the mens story. Mr. Saleh, who has more than two million subscribers on YouTube, has a history of perpetuating video hoaxes and pranks, some of them aimed at exposing stereotypes about Muslims. In his latest YouTube video, posted this month, he pretended to smuggle himself onto a plane in a suitcase.

In a phone interview Wednesday from Heathrow before he and Mr. Albaher boarded a later flight, Mr. Saleh said this was not a stunt. The only thing I can say is, I would never film a phone video, he said. Thats when its really serious, and I must film. His video camera was in his luggage.
This is even more worrying than terrorism, strange though that may sound, said Jacqueline Boysen, a biographer of Ms. Merkel who has known her since the 1990s. Terrorism is terrible and frightening, but our political future is so uncertain.

After Donald J. Trump won the election in the United States, she noted: We dont know what will happen in America, and what, for instance, Trump might do with Russia and China. Europe is not even taken into consideration, and that is really worrying.

For now, Ms. Merkels main worry is at home, where the newspaper Bild tried to catch the national mood on Wednesday with a huge headline: Angst! or Fear!

Inside, the commentator Nikolaus Blome analyzed in greater depth, writing that it was up to politicians and especially Ms. Merkel to get a grip on terrorism. That will be tough: She cannot count on the trust and confidence she long enjoyed but which is now not as certain as it was even two years ago, he wrote. She is certainly not the only one to blame. But many people in the country project their anger, their fear, on Angela Merkel, on her personally. So it will become her toughest test. And the end is wide open.

Ms. Merkel has openly mused about her reluctance to run for a fourth term. But a sense of obligation  not just to her party and to her country, but also to Europe as populist forces gain pace  seemed to outweigh the obvious: Almost any democratic leader would be vulnerable to a desire for change after three terms in power.
BERLIN  Investigators undertook a Europe-wide manhunt on Wednesday for a young Tunisian ex-convict with multiple aliases who had been denied asylum in Germany and was considered a security risk, linking him to a deadly truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market.

The attack on Monday killed 12 people and wounded 48  12 of them seriously. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the assault, one of Germanys deadliest acts of terrorism in decades. The aftermath has been complicated by a botched search for the driver, who has remained at large.

The revelations added to the growing pressure confronting Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who decided last year to open the countrys border to roughly a million migrants and refugees.

A European arrest warrant identified the Tunisian as Anis Amri, 23, and said he had a history of providing false names and nationalities and should be considered armed and dangerous. German news agencies reported that the man had ties to Abu Walaa, a 32-year-old Iraqi Salafist arrested in Germany last month and accused of recruiting would-be jihadists to fight for the Islamic State. A reward of 100,000 euros, or about $104,000, was offered for information leading to his arrest.
Dec. 21, 2016

Italy Overwhelmed

The Aegean route is mostly closed, but the migrants keep coming, from Eritrea, Ethiopia and elsewhere. They cross the Mediterranean to Italy, a country struggling to deal with the influx. A political crisis is blooming, and the countrys institutions are straining to keep up.

The Italian Coast Guard has its hands full responding to the barrage of calls for rescue placed over satellite phones by distressed migrants at sea. Local municipalities have no housing for the migrants who try to keep moving north, and the police face the gruesome task of identifying the waterlogged bodies of those who die before they reach shore.

The European Unions flailing response to the migrant crisis is driving political upheaval in Italy, where voters are taking a critical look at the countrys membership in the union. Anti-European parties like the Five Star Movement and the Northern League led the opposition to a package of measures endorsed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi that voters rejected in a referendum on Dec. 4, prompting Mr. Renzi to resign.

Still, some Italians refuse to give up trying to help the migrants, seeing the humanity in their plight. These videos explore the overwhelmed Italian institutions, and the individuals fighting for the migrants.
LONDON  Blunt speaking made Nigel Farage, a former leader of the populist, right-wing U.K. Independence Party, one of Britains best-known politicians and it helped him persuade Britons to vote to quit the European Union.

But after accusing Brendan Cox, the husband of the murdered British lawmaker Jo Cox, of supporting an extremist organization, Mr. Farage faced possible legal action on Wednesday, as well as questions about his judgment.

The dispute arose on Twitter and in a radio interview in the charged aftermath of Mondays attacks in Berlin, in which 12 people were killed and dozens more wounded. It culminated in angry exchanges and claims from Mr. Farage that an organization that campaigns in Britain to combat far-right groups, is, itself, extremist.

A critic of both the European Union and of European immigration policies, Mr. Farage responded to news of the attacks in Berlin with a Twitter post that sought to lay blame on the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, for the welcome she offered to refugees from Syria and elsewhere in 2015.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said on Wednesday that he had no doubt the assassin of Russias ambassador had belonged to the outlawed Turkish organization of Mr. Erdogans rival, Fethullah Gulen.

The presidents assertion, 48 hours after the ambassador was gunned down by an off-duty police officer at an Ankara art gallery, essentially doubled down on the Turkish governments contention that evidence showed the assassin was a sleeper agent of Mr. Gulen, a Muslim cleric.

Mr. Gulen, who lives in exile in the United States, has denounced the assassination and denied any complicity in it. His spokesman has called such accusations nonsense meant to distract attention from what amounts to a spectacular security lapse in the Turkish capital.
BUCHAREST, Romania  In a surprise move, Romanias largest political party nominated a woman from the countrys Tatar minority for prime minister on Wednesday. If she wins approval from the president and Parliament, she will be both the first Muslim and the first woman to hold the post.

The Social Democratic Party scored a resounding victory in the Dec. 11 general election, winning more than 45 percent of the vote. Together with its smaller ally, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, it holds a majority of the seats in Parliament.

Ordinarily, the leader of the largest party is designated by the countrys president to become prime minister. But the Social Democrats leader, Liviu Dragnea, would have been a problematic choice: He was convicted of electoral fraud and given a two-year suspended sentence in April. President Klaus Iohannis has said that the countrys next prime minister should be untainted by criminal convictions or continuing investigations.

So the Social Democrats turned instead to Sevil Shhaideh, 52, a relatively little-known figure who served as minister of regional development for six months in the last Social Democrat-led government.
Bana posted on Twitter that she and her family were evacuated from eastern Aleppo this week along with thousands of Syrians who had been trapped in the shrinking rebel-held area of the city. A Turkish government official said on Wednesday that Mr. Erdogan sent a special representative to Syria to meet Banas family and have them airlifted out of the country to Turkey.

Bana, a little girl with a missing front tooth, became a global sensation over the past few months for messages and videos posted to her Twitter account, @AlabedBana. The account, managed by her mother, Fatemah, described the horrors of war in intimate detail. In some of the messages, Bana was smiling and reading. In others, she posted photographs of a bombed-out building that she said used to be my reading place.
But it would be an odd turn if weapons supplied by the United States ended up in the hands of militants fighting for Mr. Assad, as the Obama administration has resisted giving some advanced weapons to the Syrian leaders foes for fear that they would make their way into extremists possession.

Hezbollah is widely recognized as the most formidable military force in Lebanon, which the United States has tried to balance with support for Lebanons armed forces. While the two forces have historically remained separate, the escalation of the war in Syria has led to cooperation between them to secure Lebanons borders, according to Lebanese analysts close to the military.

The Israeli military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under army rules, showed a photograph of a number of military vehicles, including what he said were the American-supplied A.P.C.s, during an intelligence briefing for reporters at military headquarters in Tel Aviv. He said that Israel had shared this information with American officials a few weeks ago.

The official did not say how many of the A.P.C.s might have fallen into Hezbollahs hands or when or how it had happened, but he said he believed they might have been part of a deal between the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah.

John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, said on Wednesday: When this allegation was raised in November, the Department of Defense did a structural analysis of the armored personnel carriers in question at that time and concluded that these vehicles were not from the Lebanese armed forces. Our assessment remains the same now.
Italians have been erecting Nativity scenes for a very long time: St. Francis of Assisi is credited with setting up the first one on Christmas Eve in 1223, in the town of Greccio, north of Rome.

So theyve had a lot of practice, and it shows. Many Italian churches put up tableaus of the birth of Jesus Christ that are so elaborate and beautiful, and so varied in approach, that visiting a number of them has become a popular holiday social activity.

Rome, with its churches and chapels by the score, has an especially rich Nativity-scene scene.

One of the most beloved is at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli al Campidoglio, above, with its life-size figures, dramatic lighting and elaborate backdrop, painted in 1820.
B. 1936

The Lives They Lived

In 1981, the Louisiana Legislature passed a law that forbade public schools to teach evolution without also instructing students on creation science. The Creationism Act was challenged in court for breaching the constitutional wall between church and state, in a case that reached the Supreme Court in 1986. For seven justices, the decision involved a simple constitutional question. They saw the law as an effort to force religious belief into the science curriculum, and they struck it down.

Justice Antonin Scalia dissented. He saw the case as a question about certainty: What can we really know for sure? Pointing to ample uncontradicted testimony that creation science is a body of scientific knowledge, rather than revealed belief, he chided his colleagues for treating the evidence for evolution as conclusive.

Scalias opinion, joined only by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, drew a pained response from the Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould. I regret to say that Justice Scalia does not understand the subject matter of evolutionary biology, Gould wrote in a natural-history journal. We are not blessed with absolute certainty about any fact of nature, but evolution is as well confirmed as anything we know. Scalia, a conservative Catholic, defined evolution, like the creation story in Genesis, as a means to discover the origin of life. But scientists dont try to reach that ultimate answer, Gould wrote. We know that we cant, and we do not even consider such a question as part of science.

Scalias dissent, written in his first term, became part of a pattern over his 30 years on the court. He relished argument and debate, but when he had to grapple with scientific evidence, he was often wary. In all my conversations and observations of him, I dont remember him talking about science, says Steven Calabresi, a law professor at Northwestern University who clerked for Scalia and considers him a second father. Scalia was the courts indefatigable and irrepressible originalist, promising to interpret the Constitution based on its meaning when it was written. In his crowning achievement, the 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller, he used historical research to locate an individual right to bear arms in the 18th-century language of the Second Amendment. History is a rock-solid science compared to moral philosophy, Scalia said at the University of Virginia School of Law in 2010. In other words, he saw his project as stripping the law of judicial ideology. When his colleagues reached results that matched their politics, he derided them with the phrase any stick to beat a dog, according to another former clerk, Bruce Hay, now a law professor at Harvard. To prove the impartiality of originalism, Scalia often pointed to the occasional votes he cast against his preferences, like his support for a 5-to-4 ruling in 1989 that found a right to burn the flag in the First Amendment.

And so its striking, observes Justin Driver, a law professor at the University of Chicago, that the justice who more conspicuously than any other was invested in trying to make legal interpretation objective sometimes seemed to be skeptical of science itself, the best means we have of pursuing objectivity. At an argument before the Supreme Court in 2006, in a case about climate change, a lawyer for Massachusetts gently corrected Scalia for referring to the stratosphere instead of the troposphere. Whatever, Scalia responded. I told you before Im not a scientist. Thats why I dont want to have to deal with global warming, to tell you the truth.

Not one but two studies found that Scalia was the funniest justice on the bench, measured by laughter during Supreme Court arguments.

But the court had to deal. Justices are generalists by trade, picking their way through a minefield of facts without the benefit of personal expertise. A majority of the justices agreed in the climate case to state the scientific consensus: The harms associated with climate change are serious and well recognized. In dissent, Scalia held fast to doubt: The courts alarm over global warming may or may not be justified.

He also refused to treat social-science research as settled. In 2013, the lawyer defending Californias ban on same-sex marriage gave no examples of how allowing gay couples to marry could be harmful. I dont know why you dont mention some concrete things, Scalia prodded him. Theres considerable disagreement among sociologists as to what the consequences of raising a child in a single-sex family, whether that is harmful to the child or not. In fact, at that point there was a strong body of evidence showing that children fare as well with gay parents as they do with straight ones.

Scalia, whom Donald Trump has called his model for selecting future justices, also contradicted scientific consensus when he declared it very likely last year that the death penalty deters murder. He dismissed the findings of a panel of the National Research Council, which surveyed the relevant studies and unanimously concluded in 2012 that the death penalty does not have a deterrent effect. To support his claim to the contrary, Scalia cited three articles. Two were statistical studies that the National Research Council had discredited. The lead author of the third (which was not an empirical evaluation) had previously stated that his paper did not claim the death penalty had a deterrent effect. Scalia was willing to cite work that was thoroughly refuted by an accepted scholarly institution, without feeling any need to buttress his position, says John Donohue, a Stanford economist and law professor who conducts empirical research on the death penalty.

By seeking refuge in uncertainty, Scalia  paradoxical though it may sound  cast himself as a kind of apostate. He even refused to join part of a 2013 opinion, by Justice Clarence Thomas, that laid out basic principles of human genetics in textbook fashion: Sequences of DNA nucleotides contain the information necessary to create strings of amino acids. Scalia said he could not affirm the facts based on my own knowledge or even my own belief. The last bit could contain multitudes; Scalia didnt explain it.

Emily Bazelon is a staff writer for the magazine and the Truman Capote fellow at Yale Law School.
B. 1947

The Lives They Lived

For nearly 20 years, Coca Crystals weekly public-access show began with her smoking a joint. The shows title was a scrap of messy poetry, as unwieldy as the program itself: If I Cant Dance, You Can Keep Your Revolution. It was a no-fi interview show featuring scribbled title cards and minor downtown celebrities; regular guests included a singing dog and a disheveled poet who recited his work in a tapioca-thick mumble. She dedicated one episode to the second anniversary of the first nonstop balloon crossing of North America. The show isnt easy to characterize, but Crystal probably described it best: an hour of talk, telephone and technical failure. Every episode ended with her dancing to groovy music  a little shoulder sway, some finger snaps.

Crystal was born Jackie Diamond, a well-to-do girl from Westchester. That life didnt suit her. She was made for the East Village, and she found her way there as soon as she could. Back then, in the late 60s, the neighborhood was a world removed from Mad Men New York. It was more of a downtown commune where apartments were passed around like spliffs. It was the kind of place where you could knock on a neighbors door and ask to use her bathtub. Or maybe only Crystal did that.

While working at a short-lived psychedelic newspaper, The East Village Other, Diamond was rechristened Coca Crystal. She took the name not because she particularly liked cocaine  she much preferred pot  but because she liked the alliteration, the feel of it, the playful mysticism the name implied.

She started If I Cant Dance in 1977. The show resembled a daffy dinner party hosted by your coolest aunt, the one who let you sip a little wine when the grown-ups werent looking. Though she interviewed the days icons  people like Cesar Chavez and Philip Glass  her reportorial bent was reliably off-kilter; she loved asking her guests what was in their refrigerators. Debbie Harry of Blondie looked supremely stoned as she described the varieties of grape juice in hers.

Incredibly, the show ran until 1995. Later episodes have her in full, unreconstructed hippie garb  scraggly hair, chunky sunglasses, elaborately patterned vest  railing against Newt Gingrich and the Republicans (... eye of Newt and tail of Quayle ...). It finally went off the air when public-access administrators tried to move her to the ungodly hour of 11 a.m. on Friday. Crystal refused, read a TV bureaucrats phone number on the air (with some curse words thrown in) and retired her show for good.

In a sense, Crystal saw where American culture was going. Her show predicted the sensibility of the internet  nonlinear, surreal, personal, casual, satirical yet still passionately earnest. But she didnt divulge everything to her audience. Crystals viewers knew her as the ringmaster of a loopy circus, but she spent much of her time offscreen caring for Gustav Che Finkelstein, a nephew of hers who became her son. She adopted Gus, who was severely handicapped, when he was a toddler in the 1970s and remade her life around him. She even left Manhattan to move upstate so Gus would have more room.

Throughout his childhood, she drove into the city every Wednesday night, Gus alongside her, to record the show. Her friends and co-stars would take turns sitting with Gus in the audience while she was on air. Crystal always referred to Gus as her executive producer. And after the show wrapped each week, around midnight, she would thank her misfit crew for coming out for another taping. Then she and Gus would get back in the car and head north, just the two of them, for the long ride home.

Sam Dolnick is an associate masthead editor at The New York Times.
B. 1926

The Lives They Lived

On the 7:02 a.m. commuter train from Fairfield, Conn., to Manhattan, a woman with scarlet lipstick and chestnut hair slid beside a businessman reading his newspaper. May I ask you a question? she said. What do you think about breast-feeding? This was the mid-1950s. The woman was Dana Raphael, an anthropologist, a protegee of Margaret Mead and an outspoken feminist who, a decade before Betty Friedans The Feminine Mystique, refused to take her husbands name and shunned the conventional wedding her mother planned. She initially also had no intention of following the de rigueur practice of bottle feeding. But after she tried but mostly failed to nurse her firstborn son, she began an anthropological quest that would end up spanning decades: Why was breast-feeding more successful in some cultures than in others?

She posed the question in one way or another everywhere she went. She asked obstetricians and pediatricians, taxi drivers, ministers and factory workers, men and women sitting on park benches and walking down the street, recording it all in a 5-by-7 notebook she kept in her purse. Many people said breast-feeding was disgusting, animalistic or not for humans. Some women told Raphael they were open to trying it but lacked confidence. One-third of the mothers who tried to breast-feed, one doctor told Raphael, failed.

Breast-feeding had been on the wane since World War II as breasts became increasingly sexualized (pinup girls, Marilyn Monroe, Playboy magazine) and less functional: Doctors and formula manufacturers promoted formula as the scientific, modern, convenient method. If you were a young mother in 1950s suburban America, after leaving the maternity ward you were largely left alone to figure out life with a newborn. There was a good chance your own mother hadnt breast-fed. Or your sisters. Or your friends. Your pediatrician may have discouraged it. In the meantime, you were setting up the diaper service, doing laundry, cooking and cleaning, entertaining visitors bearing gifts and sending out birth announcements. How much easier to mix some evaporated milk, sugar and water than to puzzle out the mysteries of nursing.

It was far different in much of the world. In parts of East Asia, new moms returned to their parents home for weeks to be cared for. In the Latin American tradition of la cuarentena, postpartum women were encouraged to refrain from household work and sex for 40 days while relatives helped tend to mother and baby. In some cultures, the family brought a new mother special food to help her gain strength, while in others, elders shared their knowledge about how to care for the baby. All of it served to mother the mother, as Raphael put it, and insulate her from daily pressures so she could relax and  by extension  breast-feed.

Until age 89, Raphael took ballet barre classes three times a week with her son, who is the artistic director of the Connecticut Ballet.

Thats a doula, an elderly Greek woman told Raphael in the late 1950s when Raphael explained the concept. The Greek word meant female servant, and Raphael used it in her 1966 dissertation on cross-cultural practices of breast-feeding and later popularized it in her book The Tender Gift: Breastfeeding.

By then, Raphael was a breast expert (or as some professors at Columbia, where she got her Ph.D., disparagingly called her: the Tit Lady). When her second son was born, as if to make up for lost time, she nursed him for five years. She did it again when she and her husband adopted their daughter, Jessa. To get her breasts to relactate, Raphael, who had interviewed more than 40 adoptive mothers about the process, massaged her breasts, drank lots of water (and wine with seltzer to relax) and borrowed a friends baby to nurse.

She was an early critic of Nestle and other companies in the 1970s for pushing formula in developing countries where women often diluted it or mixed it with tainted water. But she wasnt a zealot. Working with the Human Lactation Center, which she founded with Margaret Mead, Raphael led a team of anthropologists who interviewed women around the world and discovered that many undernourished women were unable to breast-feed or too preoccupied with the basics of survival to find the time to do so. Formula, in other words, saves lives, too.

For Raphael, it was primarily about giving women options, including to breast-feed where and when they wanted. Raphael certainly did so: at the dinner table of her disapproving mother, during academic meetings, at the ballet and the opera, at parties, on the commuter train. She unbuttoned her blouse and opened it up. No embarrassment, no shame. No barriers between that baby and those very functional breasts.

Maggie Jones is a contributing writer for the magazine and a visiting assistant professor in the writing program at the University of Pittsburgh.
B. 1930

The Lives They Lived

There is a photograph of the astronaut Edgar Mitchell emerging from the Apollo 14 capsule, a ragged cone of scorched metal and shredded foil bobbing in the South Pacific 880 miles off the coast of American Samoa. A wetsuit-clad Navy swimmer is helping him out of the access hatch and into an inflatable raft. Mitchell, dressed in an olive-drab flight suit and a biological mask, steadies himself with his left hand on the door frame. He is 40, with the receding hairline and blandly gentle affect of a family dentist. It is Feb. 9, 1971, and he has just had an epiphany.

It happened on the flight back from the moon, where Mitchell and his colleague Alan Shepard had traversed the Fra Mauro region and trekked to the Cone Crater to gather geological samples that, it was hoped, might reveal something of the moons inner structure. As the Kitty Hawk command module hurtled homeward, Mitchell watched the earth, moon and sun passing by the window of the rotating capsule in two-minute intervals. Looking out into space, Mitchell later recalled, I realized that the molecules of my body and the molecules of the spacecraft had been manufactured in an ancient generation of stars.

Mitchell was a naval aviator whose doctoral dissertation, from M.I.T., was on guidance systems in low-thrust interplanetary vehicles. Nothing in his training had equipped him for a sudden discovery of the oneness of all things. It was a subjective visceral experience accompanied by ecstasy, he would later tell a yoga magazine.

In the Apollo years, NASA sent military test pilots into space, not poets or preachers; they came back in possession of extraordinary knowledge that, by dint of personality or professional inclination, they seemed helpless to communicate. As the Gemini and Apollo astronaut Michael Collins once put it, It was not within our ken to share emotions or to utter extraneous information. Asked what it was like to go to the moon, Apollo 12s Pete Conrad replied: Super! Really enjoyed it!

But then there was Mitchell. After returning to Earth, he left NASA, grew a beard and divorced his wife. He founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which advocated exploring the universe by means of inquiry that lay outside of science and religion. He sought out South American shamans and Haitian Vodou priests, promoted the benefits of Tibetan Buddhist lucid dreaming, visited the homes of people who claimed their children could bend spoons with their minds. He went on Jack Paars talk show with the self-proclaimed psychic Uri Geller. Two more marriages came and went. He got deep, very deep, into theories about extraterrestrials. He had a posthumous cameo in the cache of John Podestas hacked emails that WikiLeaks published this year, which included messages Mitchell sent to Podesta (a U.F.O. buff) asking him to discuss the possibility of disclosing the federal governments records of alien contact. He signed the emails 6th man to walk on the Moon.

The 1947 crash of a mysterious aircraft near Roswell, N.M., that fueled half a centurys worth of U.F.O. theories occurred near a ranch where Mitchell, then 16, lived.

If he got weird sometimes  O.K., a lot of times  could you really blame him? Few people had a closer view than Mitchell of the staggering velocity of the 20th century. He spent his early years on a West Texas farm with horse-drawn plows, watched a mushroom cloud bloom over a Marshall Islands atoll as a young Navy pilot and temporarily escaped his home planet before his 41st birthday. I have wondered if we are prepared for our own survival, he wrote late in life. The only way for humans to gain some control of the species mad trajectory, he believed, was by questioning many fundamental assumptions underlying civilization.

Mitchell was the last surviving member of his mission. The seven living Apollo astronauts who stood on the lunar surface are all in their 80s now; within a decade, probably, the experience of walking on the moon will be as alien to the living as the experience of fighting in the Peloponnesian War. The American flags Mitchell and the others planted there are most likely faded to white now, after years of unimpeded solar radiation, gnomic banners of no particular nation.

Americans, and especially American politicians, tend to consider this an indictment of the national character, the final departure from the moon in 1972 the beginning of a slow retreat from destiny. But Mitchell believed his odyssey was beyond the capricious political whim of a technological civilization. When he first stepped onto the moon, that pristine bone-white world, he was overcome with a sensation of belonging. The stillness, he wrote, seemed to convey that the landscape itself had been patiently awaiting our arrival for millions of years.

Charles Homans is the politics editor for the magazine.
B. 1955

The Lives They Lived

Role models often appear with a thunderclap, a bright flash on a dark horizon, but can feel remote and evaporate just as quickly. Gwen Ifill was different. I didnt know her, but I did get to know her influence, how it entered the lives of my students, especially girls and young women of color, whom I taught in Newark, N.J. For those like Jephtane Sophie Sabin and Isabel Evans, who watched Ifill on PBS over many years and eventually had the opportunity to meet her, Ifill created a warm and welcoming climate in which their aspirations had the chance to take root. Her impact wasnt instant but played out slowly over time, like the rain of a wet season.

Growing up, Ifill didnt have an Ifill to emulate. Her immigrant parents and five siblings would watch the news on television because thats the kind of nerdy family we were, she said in 2013. I would look up and not see anyone who looked like me in any way. No women. No people of color. Nonetheless, Ifill decided she wanted to be a journalist at age 9 in 1964, the year Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, ensuring her right to pursue her ambition.

Ifill drew her strength from her parents and their religious faith. Her father, a pastor from Panama, was so involved in the political battles of the 1960s that Ifills mother, who was from Barbados, worried he might get the family deported. Ifill worked as a reporter at a series of newspapers, including The Times, before making the leap to television. By 1999, she had found a permanent perch at PBS. Along the way, she became one of the nations most respected political journalists: the first African-American woman to moderate a vice-presidential debate and the first to host a major weekly political-affairs program. After Ifill became the co-anchor of the PBS NewsHour, she said she hoped little girls would watch her and think it perfectly normal to occupy an anchors desk someday.

Sophie encountered Ifill before she entered grade school. Her family had immigrated to the United States from Haiti in 2002 and spoke Creole. Her mother started watching television to learn English and was quickly drawn to Ifill, whose dark skin reminded her of loved ones back home. Soon, Sophie was joining her mother in front of the TV.

Isabel, who is two grades behind Sophie, was born in the United States to American parents. Her mothers ancestry is Puerto Rican; her father is black. Isabel was exposed to Ifill in middle school when she and Sophie took a class I helped teach that is part of a nationwide program created by the NewsHour called the Student Reporting Labs. Even after it was over, Isabel kept returning to Ifill at night. I am African-American, she says. I am Hispanic. I am a girl. Things that, according to history, should hold me back. But Isabel noticed Ifill had never been held back.

Sophie began making news broadcasts for classmates in fifth grade. She was shy, her teacher Sharon Alonzo recalls. It was hard coaxing her in front of a camera. In 2014, PBS gave Sophie an opportunity to interview Ifill via Skype. I didnt understand why this important person, who had this really busy schedule and lived in Washington, D.C., was taking time out to talk to me, Sophie says. She asked Ifill about it. Ifill replied: Well, Sophie, its because I was you.

Watching her growing up, Sophie says, there was this barrier in my mind. I didnt think of that person on the screen as a human being, as someone who could be like me. But she came to see Ifill as just much farther down a road she was also on. A few months later, Sophie and Ifill attended a PBS summer program. Sophie didnt think Ifill would recognize her, but Ifill rushed over to give Sophie a hug.

Sophie finished eighth grade and graduated from her Newark school in 2014. But Isabel was still there. So Sophie wrote to Ifill to ask if she would be the graduation speaker at the school the following year. Ifill agreed.

The night before the ceremony, Dylann Roof walked into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina and massacred nine parishioners. Ifills father had been an A.M.E. pastor. She wrote on Twitter: Once an A.M.E. preachers kid, always an A.M.E. preachers kid. My heart aches for Emanuel Charleston. In the morning, Ifill spoke to the eighth graders, expressing gratitude to be able to focus on the future with young people. Afterward, Ifill tweeted, I spent part of my day today with the terrific Sophie Sabin, adding, #spiritlifted.

At the gathering, Isabel got to interview Ifill, and that summer, a news package Isabel worked on appeared on the NewsHour. Sophie also continued to make her mark. This June, she covered the United State of Women Summit in Washington for the Student Reporting Labs. No longer shy, she conducted stand-up interviews with the comedian Amy Poehler and President Obamas adviser Valerie Jarrett. Ifill retweeted a picture of her protegee with Jarrett under a one-word exclamation: Sophie!!

Five months later, Ifill died of cancer. Few Americans, including Sophie and Isabel, were even aware Ifill had been sick. Isabels parents broke the news to her, and she couldnt stop crying. Sophie was also heartbroken. She still plans to pursue a career in journalism. I dont want to be the next Gwen Ifill, as there is  and always will be  only one Gwen Ifill, Sophie says. But Id maybe like to be the first Sophie Sabin.

Sara Mosle is a recent Spencer fellow in education reporting at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
B. 1925

The Lives They Lived

One day in the summer of 1953, Josephine Couch went with her boyfriend, Salvatore Del Deo, on an overnight trip to the dunes outside Provincetown. Theyd been invited by a friend, a former chorus girl who went by Frenchie Chanel, to stay with her at her tar-paper shack by the water. That day, amid the compass grass and rose hips, Josephine, 27, felt the rest of the world vanish: Birds cried, but the white noise of surf and wind enforced a hush. At night, the moonlight caused the dunes to glow. Josephine fell asleep in the arms of Salvatore, whom she married that fall, to the cooing of a dove.

Frenchies place was one of a scattering of shacks along a wild stretch of Cape Cod called Peaked Hill. These were modest structures  no electricity or running water, an outhouse somewhere nearby  yet Josephine described them, in her dune-life memoir, The Watch at Peaked Hill, as spiritual temples. She came to believe that there were settings where the creative spirit lived, offering refuge and renewal, and throughout her life she tried to protect such places.

Provincetown itself was the most obvious target of Josephines preservationist impulse. When she arrived in 1951, it was both a fishing village and a bohemian mecca, the kind of place where the Portuguese captains would leave the catch they couldnt sell on the dock so aspiring artists wouldnt starve over the winter. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Josephine, along with the modernist painter Ross Moffett, led a grass-roots campaign to donate public land to the nascent Cape Cod National Seashore, foiling a development plan that featured a three-story parking garage and a heliport. In 1968 she founded, with Salvatore and others, the Fine Arts Work Center in a lumberyard, giving emerging artists funding and a place to work in what was becoming an expensive town. Remarkably, Provincetown still looks something like the way Josephine found it  a vibrant artists colony of modest, handsome buildings near untamed dunes  and today she gets much of the credit.

Yet oddly enough, Josephines longest-running struggle pitted her against the officials who oversaw the National Seashore she helped create. The Peaked Hill shacks were on the land given to the Seashore, and the government considered them blemishes in need of removal. One dune resident had a shack where he observed birds and distilled beach-plum wine, but soon after he died, it was bulldozed, leaving his possessions strewn in the sand. Josephine and Sal inherited Frenchies shack, and in Josephines memoir, she argued that the government had made a destructive fetish of wildness. She pointed to Arkansass Buffalo National River park, from which hundreds of families were ejected, along with their traditions of weaving, spinning, basket-making, chair-caning, the art of the forge and the smithy, and folk music. Humans had been part of the Cape shore for millenniums. What needed preservation, Josephine argued, was not the physicality of a particular dune feature, or some collection of species, but the totality of what had grown up in that locale, including the people and their ways. She was also convinced that the shacks themselves held poetic and philosophical value. In her memoir, she describes a peerless day at Frenchies with her children, Giovanna and Romolo. They explored, played and rolled giggling down a dune. That evening, they walked the beach to bid the sun good night. Residency in the shacks created, she wrote, a metaphysical sense of place over time. Merely knowing of such spaces  outside and apart  had the power to refresh a stale vision of the universe.

Today the shacks are part of our national cultural heritage  theyve inspired many artists, including Eugene ONeill and Jackson Pollock  and they are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, in part because of Josephines writings. Her son, Romolo, a bronze sculptor, recently drove me into the dunes, his truck fishtailing through turns and shuddering on the rises. The sun had set, and the November light was blue and thin. The shack sat in a hollow, just two rooms and a screened-in porch, with a wooden star at the roof peak, overlooking a dune edge that drops to the beach.

The windows were boarded for the winter, and Romolo had to dig out the front door. Inside he lit a kerosene lamp. Im going to leave you with the shack for a few minutes, Romolo said, so you can become friends. I sat at a small table dusted with sand and listened to the wind. Part of the shacks magic, Josephine explained, was its minimalism, the chance it offered to witness what she called the oracles of nature: the passing seals and humpback whales, the wind-waved poverty grass, the bee at a solitary dune flower.

Suddenly Romolo called me outside. He gestured east, where out over the Atlantic, the moon was poking up. It was full, shining lurid orange, its shape unsettled as it rose. As it cleared the horizon, though, the color washed, the disk perfected itself and the dune light became vital. What else has royalty to offer me, Josephine wrote, that equals half this crooked shack?

Gareth Cook is a contributing writer for the magazine and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
B. 1926

The Lives They Lived

When you hear that a writer you first came to know in your youth is still writing in his advanced old age, you are at first surprised, as though he has risen from the tomb to write the poem you are reading. Then, once you absorb this fact, you go on to believe, quite illogically, that he will not die after all  certainly not soon.

For me, these two responses happened just this year. Last December, Michel Butor was asked by the organizers of the Albanian Pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale if he would contribute a poem for an album of songs on migration and displacement. After he sent it to them, they asked me if I would translate it. And then on Aug. 24, just a few months after I sent in my translation, Michel Butor died.

That Butor would respond, at the age of nearly 90, to the Biennales request with a poem so emphatic and moving as Squandered Bullion, which opens The bank has gutted itself/like an old-time samurai/practicing seppuku/and the safes entrails/spread through the street should not come as a surprise, considering his long, productive writing life, his ever-renewed formal innovation, his strong political and social convictions and his wide-ranging interests.

My own active involvement in his work occurred at three neat points  early, middle and late.

In college, I chose as a thesis topic the writers of the nouveau roman, discussing Sarraute, Robbe-Grillet and Butor. While the other authors interested me technically rather than emotionally, Butors Degres (read in Richard Howards English translation) captivated me.

Degres was Butors fourth novel. His third, La Modification (A Change of Heart)  written entirely in the second person, its action confined to a single train compartment  won him the prestigious Prix Renaudot. This fragile and ephemeral notoriety, Butor later wrote, allowed him to settle in Paris and embark on a still more formally audacious book.

Degres recounts the lives and studies of teachers and students in a Paris lycee as told by three different narrators in succession, beginning with a teacher whose ambition is to bring together into a coherent whole, for the benefit of his nephew, the different courses of study in the upper-grade curriculum. What I appreciated was, for one, the patient and unstinting detail  somewhat akin to James Agees Let Us Now Praise Famous Men; the embrace, within a work of fiction, of various bodies of knowledge  which I relished also in Flauberts Bouvard and Pecuchet; the extensive and frequent quotations from the works the children were studying  one critic complained that the reader drowns in a sea of them; and the mathematical fascination of author and narrators (and, of course, reader) with the complex interrelations, familial and other, among the characters (which now remind me of Georges Perecs Life: A Users Manual, confined to the population of a single apartment building  as was Butors first novel, Passage de Milan).

It was a collection of travel essays that next brought me into direct involvement with Butors writing, when in 1985, the Marlboro Press (then an adventurous one-man operation) hired me to translate the first volume of Butors suite of five travel autobiographies or geographical meditations, as he called them. This book, which we titled The Spirit of Mediterranean Places, opens with an essay on Cordova (Its network of white streets, along its sand-colored and whitewashed walls); and continues with chapters on Istanbul, Salonica and Delphi; Mallia, Mantua, Ferrara; and last  the entire second half of the book  Egypt.

In addition to his novels and travel books, Butor wrote art criticism  he loved painters studios and their conversation  poetry, translations of Friedrich Holderlin, Lukacs, Shakespeare and others; a work of fiction that included verse; artists books, literary criticism and a series of collections of invented dreams. He taught in many institutions, in France but also in Salonica, Egypt, the United States, Manchester  which provided him the material for his second novel, Passing Time  and, for many years, Geneva.

He died not far from there in Contamine-sur-Arve in France. His wife, Marie-Josephe Mas, a photographer, died six years earlier; together they had four daughters. He grew his luxuriant beard only after becoming a grandfather and preferred to dress in overalls.

He was not a writer who gradually faded from view but one who gave generously right up to the end. The poem that Butor sent earlier this year was one he wrote in 2014 for the artist Jacques Riby. It ends on a somewhat optimistic note, suggesting the power of the individual to rescue a thing of value, something that could galvanize our lives, from the catastrophe of economic corruption and collapse: The rare pearl ripens/in its wasteland exile/awaiting its discoverer . . . 

Lydia Davis is the author of one novel and several volumes of short fiction, as well as a translator of Proust and Flaubert.
B. 20??

The Lives They Lived

In 2003, the State of New Jersey allowed a black-bear hunt for the first time in 33 years. The resulting controversy, still smoldering today, seemed irresolvable: Depending on whom you asked, the hunt was either sadistic blood sport or noble tradition. Two sociologists, Dave Harker and Diane C. Bates, scrutinized 10 years of clashing regional newspaper editorials and letters to the editor and concluded that the two sides did not even seem to be arguing about the same animal. Actual bears had been replaced by competing social constructions of bears. Those in favor of the hunt imagined the animals as menacing threats that needed to be controlled; those against saw them as docile and benevolent creatures that just wanted to live in peace.

Each construction of the bear was then girded by the construction of subsequent constructions; the meaning-making escalated quickly. Voices opposing the hunt dismissed hunters as uncivilized killers incapable of reason and unworthy of respect, while hunters dismissed opponents as panicky suburbanites and anthro-antagonistic wackos of the PETA-Qaeda cult. With each side delegitimizing the other, actual dialogue seemed impossible. And everyone delegitimized the government, with each side believing that the state couldnt be trusted to make a fair decision about the hunt because it was corrupted by the other. The entire episode, the sociologists wrote, highlights how public discourse has fed intractability over the conflict rather than provided common grounds for consensus. Bears are huge, immovable objects, made of bone and meat. And yet here they were, being swished around like ephemeral sock puppets on a plane of pure, post-truth subjectivity called New Jersey.

So that was the backdrop. Now enter Pedals, shambling on two legs.

The black bear rose to fame in the summer of 2014, after a man in suburban Oak Ridge filmed him toddling through the bulb end of a quiet cul-de-sac at dawn. Pedals, as he became known, appeared to be missing his right front paw, and his left front leg seemed warped and truncated  injury or deformity, only he knew. But he had apparently compensated for these disabilities by learning to walk upright, an image that produced both delight and terror. It all felt deeply weird. Especially because Pedals was good at walking. The camera tracked him as he moved in a sturdy lurch, covering a lot of ground, holding his dangling, unnecessary arms close to his chest like a mime absconding with a snatched purse. At one point, Pedals leaned over a garbage can, just to check out what was inside. Then he crossed a lawn and accelerated into a stand of trees. It was obvious where he was heading: internet fame.

At first, many people refused to believe that the footage was real. But even those who did resorted to describing Pedals as looking like a human in a bear suit  which, on the skeletal level, is a fair description of what all bears are. His humanness was uncanny and made our animal-ness feel suddenly uncanny, too. After all, we were quadrupedal ourselves until three to six million years ago, when a few of us reared up and decided to stop moving dumbly in the direction of our digestive tracts. It was our earliest signature innovation. Now Pedals was innovating, too  crossing some sacrosanct threshold of verticality, blurring some line. They didnt contextualize the video like this when they played it on Good Morning America, but if the walking bear unsettled you, Im suggesting that this is why.

More people saw Pedals. More videos surfaced. The question became: What should we do about him? Two local women, Sabrina Walsh Pugsley and Lisa Rose-Rublack, started an online petition asking the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to capture the bear and transport him to an orphaned wildlife center in upstate New York. By 2015, they had wrangled about 300,000 signatures from around the world, and they ultimately raised almost $25,000 to pay for the relocation. They ceremoniously delivered the petition to the State House and staged a small protest outside. Rose-Rublack worked in the world of domestic animal rescue  saving dogs, saving cats. It seemed obvious to her that a crippled black bear warranted the same compassionate intervention. There were reports of Pedals looking exhausted or frail. We just wanted to take care of him, Rose-Rublack says.

State wildlife officials saw things differently. The bipedal bear, as they insisted on calling him, was not a victim but a survivor. Pedals was getting around, foraging, denning in winter  successfully executing all vital bear behaviors. They were hesitant to wrench an animal from the wild unnecessarily and warned that what might, through a certain anthropomorphic lens, feel like rescuing could actually be imprisonment. One wildlife expert, unaffiliated with the state but frequently called on by the press  a Pedals pundit  summed up the situation nicely: We process things differently in the wildlife community, she explained. She and her colleagues were looking at the exact same bear, feeling the exact same compassion. But, she said, they drew a different conclusion: We dont think he needs saving.

Every new Pedals sighting suggested that the states worldview best reflected the objective reality: He survived two winters; he was muddling through. When new footage of him appeared this June, wildlife officials noted that he even seemed to have put on some weight; they described him as thriving. But the wild card all along, of course, was New Jerseys bear hunt. And on Oct. 10, it happened: A bow hunter in Morris County lugged Pedalss body to a check station and weighed him in at 334 pounds. (Or what appeared to be Pedalss body; the state wont definitively identify any wild animal unless it has been tagged.)

One photograph, released by the government, shows Pedals hanging from a scale with a bloodied maw  vertical again, but this time upside down. The Department of Environmental Protection would not release the hunters identity. (When rumors swirled around one man, he says he received death threats.) And so it was impossible to know the circumstances: whether the hunter knew the bears identity before he or she fired; whether Pedals, who did spend some time on all fours, had been distinguishable from an ordinary bear; whether he had been standing upright in the wilderness, looking preposterous and conspicuous, and conspicuously like himself. That is, the bears posture  the very proof of his resilience  might have marked him for death.

It was never clear what we owed Pedals, exactly. You could argue that allowing Pedals to live in the woods and be hunted, like any other bear, was an act of respect  a validation of his wildness. You could also argue that it was a gruesome lapse of human compassion.

Pedals stood for something. We may never agree what it was.

Jon Mooallem is a writer at large for the magazine and the author of Wild Ones.
B. 1906

The Lives They Lived

When the shaking stopped on April 18, 1906, William A. Del Montes mother bundled him in a tablecloth and carried him out of the house and into the street, where her husband waited in a buckboard wagon. Amid San Franciscos chaos  broken water and gas mains, shattered windows, twisted telegraph wires, six-foot chasms in the fissured earth  a horse began hauling the family from their North Beach neighborhood to the ferry terminal by the Embarcadero. Dawn was breaking. Small fires were beginning to burn. Houses, tipped diagonally, seemed on the verge of collapse. The citys power was down, and its supplies of fresh water were mostly gone.

In letters and archived observations of survivors, we can experience how it must have felt to be in the city in the hours after the temblor  the feeling of drunkenness that began at 5:12 a.m. with the earth moving to and fro for 45 to 60 seconds and then the unsteady ground trembling through the day with aftershocks. Other recollections capture the background noise of human desperation: armies of the dispossessed dragging heavy trunks over cobbled streets, thunk thunk thunk, in an effort to get out of the city before it was too late.

When the Del Monte family arrived at the ferry building, they boarded a boat to Oakland, because no bridge spanned the bay yet (and none would be built for another 30 years). The family was lucky: As the owners of a summer farm, they could live outside the city while it recovered, rather than huddle in refugee camps. But first, they watched from afar for three consecutive days as San Francisco burned, the fires exceeding temperatures of 2,000 degrees. By the end, 508 city blocks were incinerated. According to some estimates, San Francisco didnt fully recover from the damage for two decades.

On the day of the quake, a fraternal organization known as the South Market Boys Club hung a wreath on Lotta Crabtree Fountain, a landmark that served as a meeting point for displaced San Franciscans. Since 1919, the disaster has been commemorated at this spot, becoming an annual ceremony  always on April 18, always at 5:12 a.m.  with a splash of flamboyance. Politicians sport bowlers and fake handlebar mustaches; aging survivors wear vintage fire hats. There is solemnity as well: a minute of silence for the 3,000 dead, along with warnings from fire officials that in California, a place that by nature looks ahead rather than behind, a tragedy like 1906 could easily happy again.

One attendee at Lottas Fountain was Bill Del Monte, by all accounts a charming man who loved to play the stock market. He delighted in telling the story he heard from his parents about his escape at 3 months old. He was the disasters last-known living survivor.

A vast digital trove of photographs and letters relating to the quake is now safeguarded for posterity, thanks to the efforts of several California libraries and historical associations. Archives are what we create in lieu of actual human engagement, however. And when the final survivor of a natural disaster or human catastrophe disappears, the loss seems greater than what any diligent historian can preserve. The death of Del Monte therefore seems a proper moment to consider the value of living memory, as compared with archived memory  a chance to ask how the presence of actual survivors bolsters a resolve that what happened before should not happen again.

It turned out that a number of good works and ideas came from those who lived through the disaster. One was that Bay Area city officials decided to build a more robust system of fire-pumping stations; another was that California eventually adopted building codes so that new construction could withstand another big jolt. The year 1906 also marked a significant expansion of seismological research in the United States, as scientists in the Bay Area began mapping the San Andreas fault nearby. The quakes epicenter was pinpointed a few miles offshore, where accumulated stresses along the San Andreas unleashed seismic waves that traveled around the city at speeds of 6,300 to 8,300 miles per hour.

We now know that dozens of active faults, some more stable than others, cut through Northern California. The United States Geological Survey recently put the risk of another major quake in the Bay Area over the next three decades at about 72 percent. And scientists say that a potentially far more dangerous fault line, the Cascadia subduction zone, just offshore Seattle, might erupt at any moment, releasing 30 times the energy that destroyed San Francisco.

Cities in the West will suffer again. The point of the gatherings at Lottas Fountain that Bill Del Monte so enthusiastically attended was not to displace scientific facts with memories. It was to persuade us, while we still might listen, to remember.

Jon Gertner is a Cullman fellow at the New York Public Library and a frequent contributor to the magazine.
B. 1917

The Lives They Lived

When Zerka Moreno gave birth to her son, Jonathan, in 1952, she saw his arrival as a golden opportunity. How much more fun and creative might his life be, she wondered, if he were raised using therapeutic techniques like role-playing or talking to an empty chair? Each was pioneered by J.L. Moreno, Zerkas husband and the founder of psychodrama, a form of therapy in which people act out their experiences and feelings in an effort to gain insight or achieve catharsis.

J.L. called his method Shakespearean psychiatry, and he and Zerka had little doubt that it would save the world  if only the world would play along. Not only did psychodrama help people suffering from grave psychological problems, the couple believed, but it had the added benefit of building understanding and empathy, whether for a nagging spouse or a beggar on the street. Put yourself into the place of a victim of injustice and share his hurt, J.L. once suggested as the first rule of psychodrama. Reverse roles with him. Warring countries might also benefit from psychodrama, if only J.L. could get their leaders in the same room. During the Vietnam War, he unsuccessfully lobbied Bill Moyers, the White House press secretary, to let him direct Lyndon Johnson and Ho Chi Minh in a psychodrama of potential healing.

Though Zerka had never heard of psychodrama before emigrating from Europe in 1939 and meeting J.L. two years later, she threw herself into his lifes work. She helped him establish the Psychodramatic Institute in Beacon, N.Y., home to a motley crew suffering from everything from addiction to schizophrenia. Unlike most psychiatric hospitals, this one featured a large stage on which patients were expected to act out their issues. When leading a session, Zerka had little patience for excessive navel-gazing. Too much talking; lets get into action! she would yell, certain that physically acting out a problem worked better than endlessly talking about it.

There was little daylight between the couples professional and personal lives  they lived some 50 yards from their sanitarium  and they saw no compelling reason not to create what they considered the first psychodramatic family. (They wrote a book by that name.) In her memoirs, To Dream Again, Zerka insisted that her goal was not to turn our child into a guinea pig or an experiment. Instead, she hoped to make Jonathans life  and that of his much older stepsister, Regina, from J.L.s previous marriage  more colorful and interesting. Zerka could imagine few fates worse than a humdrum existence.

Trying to see the world through her sons eyes, Zerka would lie on her back next to 5-month-old Jonathan, gurgling along with him. His sounds, she wrote, induced in me the most fantastic cosmic tales such as it has never been my pleasure to create sense. We exchanged opinions about how strange it was here, how peculiar these humans. When Jonathan was 2, Zerka taught him the concept of role reversal. If he fought with a friend over a toy, Zerka had Jonathan play the part of his friend. The tiff usually ended promptly, and play resumed. After all, Zerka wrote, each child was giving in to himself.

Psychodramatic techniques also defused typical parent-child squabbles. One night at dinner, Jonathan, then 3, said he wasnt hungry and refused to eat a meal Zerka had spent the afternoon cooking. They bickered until J.L. had heard enough. This is ridiculous, he said. Zerka, get up, become Jonathan and take his seat, and Jonathan, you be Mommy and sit in her chair. Playing his mother, Jonathan stretched his spine to make himself taller and looked down at Zerka, who had shrunk her body and lifted her feet off the floor to play the little boy. Eat! Jonathan commanded, doing his best overbearing-mother impression. Zerka, who had been grazing on food as she cooked and could relate to her sons lack of appetite, said she wasnt hungry. So dont eat, Jonathan said with a smile.

When they were older, Jonathan and Regina would wander over to the ostensibly off-limits sanitarium and hang out with patients. My best friends were drug addicts and narcissists, Jonathan, now a 64-year-old professor at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the countrys leading bioethicists, recalls. I could have very easily been totally nuts, but people are amazed at how normal I am. Though he rarely practices psychodrama with his own family (Im not inclined to be very dramatic, except in the classroom), he suspects his upbringing taught him keen observation skills. Im also told my interpersonal skills are good, but its hard to know if thats nature or nurture.

Regina, who is now 77 and teaches psychodrama in the Bay Area and in China, has little doubt that her unconventional childhood made me more empathetic, more open-minded. It also helped her work through teenage anxiety. When I had a relationship problem, my dad had me talk to an empty chair, she says. Id play myself and then switch and play the person I was in conflict with. It helped me work out my feelings.

Zerka never stopped practicing or promoting psychodrama, even after the amputation of her right arm from cancer in 1958 and J.L.s death in 1974. She wrote extensively and wasnt one to mince words, especially when it came to Sigmund Freud. Zerka mocked his penis-envy theory, what she called his military model of the family and psychoanalysis itself, which she believed was insufficient to achieve catharsis. In her memoirs, she wrote of the time J.L. confronted Freud after a lecture. You analyze peoples dreams, J.L. told a surprised Freud. In a way, you disillusion them. By contrast, J.L. said, I teach them to dream again.

Until her death, Zerka trained therapists from her room in a retirement community and then a nursing home, where she liked to tell jokes. But she could get serious in an instant. When Zerkas nephew Daniel came to visit a decade ago, he told her about a painful conflict with a family member, to which Zerka wasted little time pointing toward an empty chair by the window. They could work with that.

Benoit Denizet-Lewis is a contributing writer for the magazine and teaches at Emerson College.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for at least 44 attacks outside of Syria and Iraq in 2016, including a mass shooting at an Istanbul nightclub during a New Years celebration that killed 39.

The group has claimed attacks in at least 18 countries over the past year, a signal that the groups global campaign of terror continues, even as it loses territory in its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq.

The Islamic State issued a claim of responsibility the day after the Istanbul nightclub shooting, describing the gunman as a hero soldier of the caliphate.

A day after a truck plowed through a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12, the Islamic State described the driver that carried out the attack as a soldier.

In an attack in Karak, Jordan, on Sunday that left 10 people dead, the Islamic State said the perpetrators were caliphate soldiers, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

By claiming these attacks, they are able to recreate and sustain a narrative that they are still a powerful player, said David Sterman, a political analyst at New America, a think tank on American politics.

Attacks claimed by ISIS outside Syria and Iraq

The attacks have been executed in at least 16 countries across four continents. The most deaths have occurred in Yemen and Afghanistan.

A major question that arises with each one of these attacks is the extent to which Islamic State leaders are actually involved.

At least 10 have been directed by the groups external operations branch, which is dedicated to exporting terror abroad, according to thousands of pages of French, Belgian, German and Austrian intelligence and interrogation documents obtained by The Times.

The coordinated strikes in Brussels in March were planned and directed by the Islamic State, carried out by fighters who traveled to Syria and trained directly with the group.

July 24 Kabul bombing At least 80 dead June 12 Orlando nightclub shooting 49 dead Oct. 25 Quetta police academy 61 dead Dec. 19 Berlin truck attack 12 dead June 12 Orlando 49 dead July 24 Kabul At least 80 dead Dec. 19 Berlin 12 dead Oct. 25 Quetta 61 dead Photo credits (top left to bottom right): Carlo Allegri/Reuters, Valery Hache/A.F.P.Getty Images, Adam Ferguson for The New York Times, Arshad Butt/Associated Press

Many of the attacks were organized by Islamic State affiliates  groups in about a dozen countries outside of Iraq and Syria that have pledged allegiance to leaders in Syria.

In other cases, the perpetrators were inspired by the groups propaganda to undertake attacks, answering a call to wreak havoc on the West.

The group has had success using this strategy, spreading its influence through social media. More than a quarter of the Islamic States western militants were reported either to have been active in online jihadist circles or to have been radicalized via interaction online, according to a report by New America, the Washington-based think tank.

The greater issue is that it doesnt really matter how much of a direct influence ISIS has over these attacks, said Matt Henman, manager of IHS Janes Terrorism and Insurgency Center. Its that the attacks are happening.
In a study conducted by a team of researchers, they found that fun workplace environments had a significant impact on how well employees picked up lessons from unstructured, non-classroom forms of learning.



Informal learning is a common way employees pick up lessons that can improve their job performances, said lead study author, Michael Tews, associate professor of hospitality at Pennsylvania State University.



It's easier to make the connection between fun and retention, or fun and performance to the extent that it leads to creativity, but fun and learning doesn't seem connected at the face of it.



The gist of this argument, though, is that when you have a workplace that is more fun, it creates a safe environment for learning to occur.



He added that the activities themselves were not the most important factor but it was the fun factor that created an environment for better learning.



Employees who perceive work to be fun are more inclined to try new things and dont fear making mistakes, he said.



In fact, in their study, Does fun promote learning? The relationship between fun in the workplace and informal learning, they discovered that managers who supported fun more than learning had a bigger impact on the employee.



There's a lot of talk in the literature about a manager's support for learning, or creating a climate for learning, and how that makes a culture for learning where workers learn from one another, Tews told Science Daily.



What we're showing is that this fun on the job actually matters as much as  or even more  than that support for learning.



He said that while it is often looked at as a distraction, having fun at ones job improves a workers optimism, leading to better attention with tasks.



However, he cautioned managers to be discerning in how they promote fun and learning in the workplace as earlier research showed that while fun has a positive effect on learning and employee retention, it had a negative impact on productivity.



With most management tactics, there are always going to be pros and cons. There's never going to be a perfect workplace, there's never going to be a perfect management intervention, so you have to choose your battles, he said.



For this study conducted with fellow researchers business management professor John W. Michel and professor of management and HR Raymond Noe, they surveyed more than 200 participants from the restaurant industry as it provides limited opportunities for formal classroom learning and asked them to rate fun activities, their bosses support for these activities, and their attitude towards learning in the workplace.



Their research was published in the latest edition of Journal of Vocational Behavior.



This article is from HRD Singapore by Lauren Acurantes.


Elf the Musical has finally come to Orange County, and it was well worth the wait.

The 2003 Will Ferrell movie became a hit Broadway show in 2010 on the strength of its easy-to-take narrative and joyful songs.

In the touring show visiting Costa Mesa, Sam Hartley doesnt, of course, try to evoke Ferrell, putting his own stamp on the role of Buddy.

The little boy who crawls into Santas sack of gifts, winds up at the North Pole and is raised by Santas elves is obviously not an elf, so Santa (Ken Clement) fesses up and sends Buddy to New York City to find his real father, Walter Hobbs.

Walter (Mark Epperson) is a publishing firm executive whose wife, Emily (Marie Lemon), and son, Michael (Nicholas Canal), accept his dull, workaholic personality. Meantime, Buddy lands a job as an elf at Macys and falls in love with Jovie (Mia Weinberger), who has had all the joie de vivre drummed out of her by the rigors of urban life.

Can Buddy get Walter to accept him as his son, get Walter, Emily and Michael to believe in the magic of Christmas, win Jovie over, and convince her he really did live life as an elf?

Those are the questions posed by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martins book, elaborated on in song by composer Matthew Sklar and lyricist Chad Beguelin.

Those songs may not be, for the most part, showstoppers, but they express the inner selves of Buddy, Jovie, Walter, Emily and Michael. In the hands of director Sam Scalamonis top-flight cast and Connor Gallaghers choreography, those songs yield enough fully satisfying musical numbers to make Elf an honest-to-goodness, feel-good family holiday show.

That happy, kid-friendly ambiance gets a huge lift from the basic but vibrant color schemes of Gregg Barnes costumes and the lovely, softly cartoony look of Christine Peters scenic designs. Santas workshop is a joy to behold, but so is Rockefeller Center when bedecked at Christmastime.

Buddy wears his heart on his sleeve, so hes OK while with Santa  but he becomes vulnerable once in the big city, his fragile psyche at the mercy of callous urbanites. His Buddy is, in a word or two, a cream puff. Hartley projects Buddys energy, yes, but its a gentle energy tempered by trust and love.

Most of the shows biggest laughs derive from Buddys humorously naive responses to others  that and his jubilant spontaneity, which is also at odds with guarded, seriously jaded New Yorkers.

Among the most jaded is Jovie, who at first finds Buddys childlike nature annoying. Weinberger captures Jovies blase exterior and makes credible her hard-luck L.A. back story.

In fact, Meehan and Martin paint Elf as a tale of urban malaise that resists any good or kind impulses from, or toward, strangers. The theme recurs throughout Elf, mainly in Sklar and Beguelins frequently wonderful songs.

Tops on that list are Sparklejollytwinklejingley, Buddys big, bouncy number at Macys, bursting with Broadway pizazz; similar numbers like Happy All the Time; Jovies cynical, self-chastising Never Fall in Love; and woe-is-us songs like Ill Believe in You and Nobody Cares About Santa.

Walter is the storys Scrooge or Grinch, and Epperson is careful to not make him a mean jerk  just unimaginative, and blind to Christmastime virtues. Clements Santa is a pleasingly basic Middle America guy. As Michaels eyes are opened by Buddy to what its really like to be a kid, young Canal is especially good, but everyone, from the leads to the stellar ensemble, is simply splendid.

Elf the Musical has enough Christmas magic and spirit to power this two-act show while subtly working in the concept that this season has nothing to do with receiving or giving gifts  its all about the special connections we make and time we spend with those closest to us in our lives.

Those basic concepts are wonderfully expressed in the shows closing number, A Christmas Song. True, they may be oversimplifications, and they may even be overly sentimental, but heck  thats what Christmas is all about.

Contact the writer: emarchesewriter@gmail.com
Age: 52

Role: Attorney and philanthropist

Bio: A Huntington Beach native, Burbank spent 12 years in the U.S. Navy as a medical deep sea diver before attending law school in San Diego and opening a law practice in Orange County in 2003. Since then, he has been a dedicated philanthropist, working with the Roosters Foundation and Eastside Christian Church in Anaheim. He and his wife, Seon Chun-Burbank, began supporting Anaheims Rio Vista Elementary School a few years ago, participating in the schools annual service day. The couple live in Fullerton.

Why he is an influencer: In February, Burbank and Chun-Burbank announced they would pay the college tuition for all 26 kids in the kindergarten class at Rio Vista, a donation that Burbank estimates will cost around $1.2 million. The gift will pay for two years of Cal State University (or the equivalent if students attend a University of California or private school), plus books for each of the students. In exchange, the kids will send Burbank an essay each year about what college means to their families.

Biggest challenge: Making sure that these kids stay in school and are prepared for college. This gift doesnt kick in for 12 years, and these kids still face challenges every day when it comes to being ready for school.

Thoughts on schools: I think we need to make sure that every child is educated so that he or she can earn a living wage.

Inspiration: Jesus Christ.

Cant live without: My faith.

Whats next: Burbank says hes trying to get others to give in whatever ways they can.

 Grace Wyler
Since his earliest days on the campaign trail, Donald Trump has made no secret of his distaste for China.

Now, Trumps case against China is spreading. More than just an economic adversary, Beijing is cast by the president-elect as a pre-eminent foreign policy problem. While Mitt Romney warned that Russia was Americas No. 1 geopolitical foe, Trump clearly rejects that idea. Whats new is Trumps strong signaling that the Chinese are our top geopolitical enemy.

Perhaps that shows some deep fondness for Moscow. More likely, Trumps logic is that, of the two big non-allies on the Asian continent, China is the more powerful, expansionist and misaligned with us in its interests, so cutting deals with Putin makes more sense than trying to appease the Chinese. In fact, its better to affront them. (Think of Trumps disregard for the One China policy in speaking with Taiwans president.)

Its strongly tempting to find historical precedent for such a realist counterbalancing move. Richard Nixons deal with Mao Tse-Tung disrupted the Communist bloc, laying the groundwork for the eventual defeat of the Soviets. Especially when many analysts worry American power is overextended, underfunded and constrained by popular opinion, concentrating geopolitical energy on building partnerships at the expense of our biggest competitor seems plausibly smart.

And, as bad as Putins Russia may be, its true that Chinas leadership has set a breakneck course for something dismayingly reminiscent of out-and-out fascism. The Communist Party has embraced the corporatism, cult of personality, ethnic purification and nationalistic militarism that has defined fascist rule from the beginning. Russias ways are familiar to us; the China well now face will be a new one, posing new risks despite the familiarity of its fascistic trappings.

Nevertheless, Russia analogizes poorly to the China of Maos day. The Russians are not a nation of poor peasants. Rather than one of the last places to be transformed by economic and technological Westernization, they were one of the first. The buffeting forces of 1991 led to a Putin regime with a very different slate of interests and expectations than the Mao regime  and much less to gain from the United States, without major concessions. Chinas objective was to catch up to the West on the domestic front, not compete at the grand geopolitical game. Today, both China and Russia are bent on that kind of direct competition. Making nice with Russia wont change that, except at a significant cost.

Even from the standpoint of realpolitik, counterbalancing against China by building warmer relations with Russia is a risky proposition. The trust gap with Putins regime is simply massive, and the regime doesnt care. No country has done as much to undermine the sovereignty of countries friendly to the United States. And thats to say nothing of Russias meddling in Americas domestic affairs. Yet, Moscow is too weak and too smart to overextend itself in a traditional military sense.

The best case for gambling on a Russian counterweight to China is, in some ways, the most pessimistic. If both Washington and Moscow are too weak to get their ways individually, it may take more of a partnership than either desires to prevent China from dominating both.
DANA POINT  While two new City council members took their seats last week, incumbents Carlos Olvera and Scott Schoeffel stepped down.

Olvera, 74, a retired engineer and U.S. Navy commander, was voted onto the City Council in 2012. He chose not to run for another term. Schoeffel, 62, a lawyer, was voted onto the City Council in 2008. He was termed out.

Both are 33-year-residents of Dana Point and have served on the citys Planning CommissionOlvera 1989-1994 and Schoeffel from 1997-2008.

In an interview with the Register, Olvera and Schoeffel, reflect on achievements, public service and whats next.

Q. What are you most proud in accomplishing during your tenure?

A. Olvera: When I ran for the city council in 2012, my first priority was listed as completing the Town Center Plan. In nine months, ground was broken, and two years later the Lantern District opening had its ribbon cuttingIt was during that construction period that we changed the name to Lantern District to capture the historic elements of the 1929 ships lantern and installed replicas, along with maintaining the curb stamping and sidewalk design of the late 1920s. The second was beautifying our entrance to town from the south. Two new plaza parks will preserve our surfing history and include a descriptive history of the beginning of Pacific Coast Highway.

A. Schoeffel: Initiating the Doheny Village Specific Plan process in 2010 ranks near the top. I believe that area of town has potential to become the soul of Dana Point when the plan is complete and revitalization proceeds. Founding the citys Arts and Culture Commission in 2011 was also very important to me, as creation of that body officially established how vital music, arts, and culture are to our citys government, business and public identity.

Q. Any regrets?

A. Olvera: No regrets. I was involved in the grass roots efforts of cityhood. I was a charter member of the Dana Point Planning Commission and its second chair. I served as president of the Dana Point Historical Society twice and, as of today, the longest serving in the position.

That included getting the Dana Point Heritage Museum located to city hall, twice My 23 years of public service, 28 years of professional engineering, and 22 years in the Navy (Vietnam Vet) have been very rewarding.

Schoeffel: None. There are always going to be peaks and valleys in any career, but I consider myself the luckiest person in the world to have served the city I have called home for more than half my life.

Q. What drew you into public service?

A. Olvera: I have always been very committed to what I do. The only thing that changed over the years was attention to my hobbies, genealogy and restoration of my antique cars. My dedication, as observed by others, brought me many invitation to serve: I was asked to be the foreman of the OC Grand Jury, I was asked to be the chair of the OC Historical Commission, I was asked to be a Trustee of VFW 9934. It has been fun. My friends drew me into public service.

Schoeffel: I was originally approached by some local activists who were very unhappy with the citys handling of several major development projects in town. They felt my professional background and expertise in land use and real estate development law might help the public process, so I applied for and was appointed to a position on the Planning Commission in early 1997. I thought maybe two to four years on the Planning Commission would be enough to straighten out matters. Here I am, stepping off the City Council almost 20 years later.

Q. How would you describe the political climate in Dana Point this last year?

A. Olvera: The attitude of politics has changed dramatically. When I ran for the city council I ran against the status quo. Employees had gone without raises for four years because of the recession, yet we were a city without debt. I predicted four years ago change would be a problem. I am not surprised of our latest referendums. The recent national elections have demonstrated a discord.

Schoeffel: This past year I would say we have had a very fervent political climate, seeing many of our residents organizing and publicly engaging in major issues affecting our citys future. The success of the resident grassroots effort did not surprise me because we have a rich history of grassroots political success in Dana Point. Shortly before I joined the Planning Commission, citizens staged a successful referendum that knocked over a major city council zoning action and significantly changed public participation in municipal government for years.

Q. What do you most see changing in Dana Point in the next year?

A. Olvera: I do not foresee any drastic changes. The Doheny Village Plan will get done. Development will not other than traffic calming on a road that used to be US 101. Short-term rentals are here to stay. Right after we became a city in 1989, a magazine described the city as one large HOA with gated walls. That was an exaggeration, but seems to be truer now.

Schoeffel: I hope to see the city ramp up its economic development efforts, not only to enhance our existing businesses and attractions, but also to help lure other interesting and great enterprises to town to bolster our overall economy while improving the quality of our residents lives.

Q. Whats next for you?

A. Olvera: For me, full retirement is next. Georgelean and I have family in Idaho where the majority of our 16 grandchildren live. In 10 months there will be a mortgage burning party. After that maybe a move north where I can work on my family history and put my 1930 Model A Tudor sedan back together.

Schoeffel: The Orange County Board of Supervisors recently appointed me to the board of directors of CalOptima, Orange Countys managed Medi-Cal health plan that provides health care for one out of four Orange County residents.

I also have a busy private law practice and look forward to composing and performing a lot more music.
SANTA ANA  Two weeks after Santa Ana became the first Orange County municipality to adopt a resolution declaring itself a sanctuary for all residents regardless of immigration status, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted in favor of a corresponding ordinance adding teeth to that commitment.

Councilman Vincent Sarmiento acknowledged concerns among some community members that President-elect Donald Trump and his administration would pull federal funding from sanctuary cities, but, we feel its so important that its a risk we have to take.

While a resolution is a statement of policy, an ordinance is a specific law that upon violation could be punishable by either a fine or imprisonment, according to Jorge Garcia, senior management assistant for the City Managers Office.

RELATED: Being a sanctuary city: What it means, what cities can do, and what they cant

The ordinance adheres closely to the sanctuary resolution and incorporates appropriate language and style from it, Garcia said. The City Council approved the resolution 5-0 on Dec. 6, with Mayor Miguel Pulido and Councilwoman Michele Martinez absent. Two newly elected council members participated in Tuesdays 7-0 vote in favor of the ordinance.

Specifically, the ordinance requires the city to implement policies that include prohibiting the use of city resources for immigration enforcement, protecting sensitive information, preventing biased-based policing and directing law enforcement officials to exercise discretion to cite and release individuals instead of detaining them at a local facility or county jail based on the nature of the alleged crime.

Additionally, the ordinance calls for the city to provide more training for affected employees and establish a task force made up of community members to advise the City Council on policies related to the ordinance.

But unlike the resolution, the proposed ordinance stated that the restriction on use of city resources would not have applied when a subject was under investigation, had an outstanding criminal warrant, had been convicted of a felony or faced a felony charge.

Some two dozen immigration rights activists rallied outside City Hall before the meeting, calling for council members to adopt the ordinance to make Santa Ana a true sanctuary city, but to remove the exceptions allowing the use of city resources in the cases of criminal defendants.

Santa Ana resident Roberto Carlos Herrera, 25, a community engagement advocate for the immigrants rights group Resilience OC, said the added language sets up a good immigrant, bad immigrant narrative.

We dont want to get into this language in the ordinance that the city is not going to work with (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) on civil matters but they are going to work with ICE on criminal matters, Herrera said.

Councilman David Benavides heeded that request  also voiced by dozens of other public comment speakers  and motioned to omit that language.

What I would like to do tonight is to go ahead and stand with the community, do the right thing and go with the modifications, Benavides said.

The council unanimously agreed to remove that language.

Martinez, voted mayor pro tem last week, asked City Attorney Sonia Carvalho to clarify that the ordinance wouldnt have ramifications on federal funding to Santa Ana.

Trump has expressed opposition to sanctuary policies and in October released his 100-day action plan to Make America Great Again, stating that he will cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities.

This year, Santa Ana has received $123 million in federal grants, of which $66.8 million is recurring.

I dont see any immediate threats  but (the city is) preparing in the event we should see some threats, Carvalho responded.

Newly elected Councilman Juan Villegas, an Orange County Sheriffs deputy, said he supports the ordinance, but no one knows whats going to happen in the future, so if we have a severe impact (financially), I recommend that we revisit it.

Pulido  whose absence at the Dec. 6 meeting with the resolution vote was not excused by council members at that time  also spoke along those lines.

If things change and we know we are in danger of losing money, we need to revisit everything because we owe it to this community, the entire community, to get as much money for the city as we can, the mayor said.

The other newly elected councilman, Jose Solorio, said he stands for protecting residents and immigrants and that the ordinance is not enough.

I think we need to oppose the Trump administration on many things, Solorio said.

Councilman Sal Tinajero said passing the ordinance is important because we want the community to feel safe and empowered  that if anyone tried to harm them, that we will be there to defend their rights.

Santa Ana is one of the most ethnically and racially diverse cities in the United States, with immigrants comprising about 46 percent of the citys population, according to the ordinance.

The city has long derived its strength and prosperity from its diverse community, including those who identify as immigrants, and prides itself of the achievements, the ordinance states.

The ordinance passed on first reading, meaning it becomes law if approved on second reading at the next council meeting.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7762 or jkwong@ocregister.com Twitter: @JessicaGKwong
Its been called the worlds most exclusive fraternity: the men who have served in the Oval Office. Out of respect, members largely avoid criticizing one another, regardless of political party.

But now theres a new pledge, and Donald Trump is writing his own rules.

The soon-to-be 45th president took to Twitter on Tuesday to lay into Bill Clinton, saying the 42nd president had misrepresented a recent phone call between them in remarks reported by a newspaper that were sharply critical of Trump. He also tweeted that Clinton didnt know much about motivating voters in key swing states and that Hillary Clintons campaign had focused on the wrong states.

The broadsides were just the latest example of the Republican president-elect using Twitter in unprecedented ways, including provoking China and musing about possible punishments for flag-burners. This time, he and Clinton broke with a long tradition of U.S. presidents treating one another with kid gloves, at least outside political campaigns, presidential historians said.

Thats one of those many, many unwritten rules otherwise known as norms that Donald Trump has abandoned, said Thomas Mann, a scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Trump was apparently provoked by an editorial in the Record Review, a small-town weekly newspaper that serves readers near the Chappaqua, New York, home of Bill and Hillary Clinton. The papers editor, Ed Baum, wrote that he and his wife had gone into a local bookstore on Dec. 10 only to find the former president also doing what appeared to be holiday shopping.

For more than 35 minutes, Bill Clinton held court, answering question after question from patrons.

It was a setting he was comfortable in, and he felt at ease taking questions from the group, and he responded the way he wanted to, Baum said in an interview.

The article paraphrased Clinton as saying that he had received a phone call from the president-elect after the day after the election and that Trump was cordial like it was 15 years ago, when the Clinton and Trump families might be seen socializing.

Then, the paper said, Clinton was asked by an unnamed man if Trump is smart. He doesnt know much, Clinton replied, according to the report. One thing he does know is how to get angry, white men to vote for him.

No one in Clintons orbit has disputed the encounter. A Clinton spokesman declined to comment.

He appeared to still be wrestling with the election results and trying to come to terms with it, said Baum, who said he stood by and observed the encounter, taking notes. Baum said that during the course of the conversation, he identified himself to Clinton as a newspaper editor. The session was not recorded, he said.

Trump fired back to his 17.6 million Twitter followers: Bill Clinton stated that I called him after the election. Wrong. The former president did offer a very nice congratulations, Trump allowed.

But then he continued the criticism. Clinton, Trump wrote,  doesnt know much . . . especially how to get people, even with an unlimited budget, out to vote in the vital swing states (and more).

They focused on wrong states, Trump added.

Trumps electoral college victory was propelled by unexpected wins in the traditionally Democratic-leaning states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin; the latter two were not frequent campaign stops for Hillary Clinton.

Later Tuesday, Bill Clinton agreed that he had in fact called Trump  not the other way around.

Heres one thing @realDonaldTrump and I can agree on  I called him after the election, Clinton said in a tweet of his own.

How times have changed

The level of warmth among presidents has varied, but at the very least, the relationships have been characterized by mutual respect and understanding shared among the few  all of them men, so far  who have occupied the office.

I think it comes from the empathy of having felt the pain as well as the glory, and realizing that its difficult work and its something you share with very few people on earth, said Bruce Buchanan, a presidential historian at the University of Texas at Austin. Former presidents are very sympathetic and supportive of each other.

But like many things during and after this campaign, the Trump-Clinton relationship is complicated in a way not fully captured by considering them only as two men in e exclusive club of presidents.

They ran in similar New York social circles after Hillary Clinton became the states U.S. senator. Over the years, Trump donated $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation and to Clinton. In turn, the Clintons attended Trumps wedding to his third wife, Melania, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in 2005. One photo capturing the foursome caught up in a moment of good humor remains an artifact of that moment in their history.

A few years later, in a 2008 interview, Trump heaped praise on Hillary Clinton after she ran for the presidency and lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama.

I think shes going to go down at a minimum as a great senator, Trump said at the time. I think she is a great wife to a president, and I think Bill Clinton is a great president.

As they faced off in the 2016 race, both sides disavowed any past chumminess. Hillary Clinton repeatedly characterized her association with Trump as casual. And Trump declared it a product of his need to sweeten up politicians on both sides of the political aisle for the good of his businesses.

Today, the election wounds are still very fresh. And it isnt clear who is most responsible for extending the olive branch: the victor or the spouse of the political loser, Buchanan said.

If Bill Clinton didnt have as his spouse the person who ran against Trump, I dont think you would have heard him talk like that, Buchanan said. The comments Trump made about Hillary  crooked Hillary and that sort of thing  really irritated Clinton.

Just Monday, Bill Clinton served as an elector in New York for his wife, tweeting afterward that Ive never been more proud to cast a vote than my vote today for @HillaryClinton.

Adjustment hasnt set in

Buchanan said Trump hasnt yet learned to adjust his style to his new job.

The incumbent has to put his deployment of the presidency on a somewhat more elevated plane than that, he added. I dont think hes going to enjoy the kind of reactions hes going to get if he acts like a defiant teenager caught up in a catfight when hes having a discussion with someone hes dealing with.

Its not unprecedented for a former president to question the views of a sitting one. Richard Nixon, for example, was openly critical of President Ronald Reagans strategy toward the Soviet Union, said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University.

But, he said, Nixon was attacking Reagans policy. He wasnt attacking his brain. Its not this kind of personal nonsense.

Asked whether Clinton started the recent spat, Mann said he shouldnt shoulder the blame.

He didnt go out and make a public statement, Mann said. It was a conversation in a bookstore. Usually, you ignore that kind of thing.

Naftali offered a similar take but said Clinton should know that, in the age of social media, comments he thinks are private can easily become public.

I think he has a right to grouse, Naftali said, but he should grouse more carefully.
When Roy O. Disneys brother Walt Disney died in 1966, he was ready to retire. But his brothers death kept him on the job to tackle the biggest project the Walt Disney Company had ever done  the creation, building and opening of Walt Disney World.

Roy Disney set about that task by first getting the legislation passed in Floridas legislature to create a separate quasi-governmental agency for the 41-square-mile property that the company had amassed. Second, he secured financing for the inital project  $400 million  one of the largest and costliest private construction projects at the time.

He also announced a slight change in the name from Disney World to Walt Disney World saying, So people will always know that it was Walts dream.

RELATED: Remembering Walt Disneys legacy, 50 years after his death

Roy Disney was seen at times when driving around the rough terrain in a Jeep on the construction site looking skyward and saying Walt, what have you gotten me into?

Where Walt was the dreamer, Roy was the doer. He would find the ways to get things done, or get the money to do things like finish Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length animated movie ever made.

Roy Disney helped put together the group of companies, including the then-fledgling television network ABC, to finance one of Walts crazy dreams: Disneyland.

Walt and Roy would frequently argue about things that Walt would want to do, but in the end, Roy would find a way to get those things done.

Walt Disney World opened on Oct. 1, 1971 with Roy and Mickey Mouse on the platform for the dedication speech. Soon after, Roy Disney returned to California  intending to work half-time at the company, planning to fully retire in 1973  when he would have been at the company for 50 years.

But that was not to be, as just a few days before Christmas that year, he was found on the floor of his bedroom. He was taken to St. Josephs Hospital in Burbank, the same place Walt died, where he died of a cerebral hemorrhage on Dec. 20, 1971, at age 78.

Today, there is a statue of Roy and Minnie Mouse that stands in Town Square of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World honoring the man that Walt called the real Disney.

Contact the writer: meades@scng.com or follow on twitter @markaeades
SANTA ANA  A convicted drunken driver pleaded guilty to again driving under the influence in a crash that injured two young girls in his vehicle and was sentenced to four years probation and 158 days in jail, according to court records obtained Tuesday.

Victor Hugo Chavez Villegas, 32, was also ordered Monday to participate in a child abusers treatment program and 18 months in a multiple offender alcohol program.

Villegas was exiting the northbound I-5 freeway at Ortega Highway in San Juan Capistrano about 3:35 p.m. Oct. 2 when he lost control of his Toyota 4Runner, which slammed into a center divider wall, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Michael Shuman.

Two passengers, ages 8 and 9, sustained minor injuries and were treated and released from a hospital, Shuman said. It was not clear whether the driver was related to the girls.

Villegas pleaded guilty to misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, and misdemeanor driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit of .08 percent and two felony counts of child abuse and endangerment, according to court records.

Villegas was convicted of drunken driving on Feb. 24, 2014, in San Diego Superior Court, according to the criminal complaint.
Last December, when a Muslim family of 11 was barred by U.S. officials from boarding a flight from London to Los Angeles, British tabloid columnist and television personality Katie Hopkins immediately assumed something sinister was at play.

Mohammed Tariq Mahmood, his brother and nine of their children were scheduled to fly to Disneyland for vacation on Dec. 15, 2015, having saved up for months to make the trip. But authorities at Londons Gatwick Airport turned them away without explanation, prompting outrage from critics who argued the Mahmoods were targeted because of their faith.

Hopkins, a writer for Mail Online, found the familys story inconceivable. Authorities must have had a sound reason for barring them, she said. In two columns for the right-leaning tabloid, she not only suggested they lied about the nature of their trip  she accused the family of having ties to al-Qaida.

You cant blame America for not letting this lot travel to Disneyland  I wouldnt either, she said in a Dec. 23, 2015, post that has since been taken down. In a column later in the month, she posted a photo of the familys home and accused one of the sons of publishing extremist material sympathizing with the terrorist group on a Facebook page.

Hopkins accusations were entirely false. The family had no ties to extremists.

Now, after letting the incorrect statements linger for nearly a year, Mail Online has retracted the columns and agreed to pay 150,000 pounds (about $186,000) in libel damages to the family, the BBC reported.

In a statement Monday, the tabloid admitted the accusations were false and apologized to the Mahmood family, saying it was happy to make clear that family members were not extremists, nor did they have ties to al-Qaida. The tabloid also apologized for publishing the photo of the familys home and for alleging that the son was involved in the supposed extremist Facebook page.

They were traveling to the USA with their families to see one of their brothers for a holiday in California and they had indeed planned to visit Disneyland as part of their trip, the statement read.

Mail Online added: We and Katie Hopkins apologise to the Mahmood family for the distress and embarrassment caused.

Hopkins offered no words of her own, but tweeted a link to the statement at about 2 a.m. London time Monday.

Mohammed Tariq Mahmood and his brother Mohammed Zahid Mahmood said they were pleased that Mail Online had corrected the record after a great deal of dragging their heels, but called on Hopkins to personally apologize to the family. In an interview with the BBC, Tariq Mahmood said he worried anti-Muslim sentiment would not go away.

Once you drill a hole in the wall, you can fill it but the mark will always be there, he said.

Hopkins and a Mail Online spokesman didnt immediately respond to emails seeking comment on Tuesday.

Tariq Mahmood told The Washington Post last December that it was their children who first proposed going to Disneyland last year. After saving for months, Tariq Mahmood said, the family spent more than $13,000 on tickets. He said they applied for a visa waiver through the Department of Homeland Security and were able to check in at the airport on the day of their flight without trouble.

Minutes before they were set to board, however, a border security official told the brothers that officials in Washington had canceled their right to travel, Mahmood said.

The kids saw right away that we had our heads down, he told The Post at the time. They never see us like that, so they realized something was wrong. They had tears in their eyes.

U.S. officials didnt disclose why they had barred the family, but denied that religion played a role. The decision led advocacy groups and others to call for an investigation into whether then-candidate Trumps calls for a ban on Muslims entering the country had anything to do with it.

The columns attacking the Mahmoods were hardly the first of Hopkins pieces to draw controversy. Once a contestant on the BBC series The Apprentice, Hopkins has made something of a brand out of her outlandish views, coming under fire in recent years for ridiculing overweight people, saying she wouldnt allow her children to play with poor children, and comparing migrants to cockroaches.

Just before she wrote her columns about the Mahmoods, president-elect Donald Trump praised her on Twitter for powerful writing on the U.K.s Muslim problems.

Thank you sir, she replied. You have support in the UK.

Tariq and Aahid Mahmood said in a statement Monday that officials still havent told them why the family wasnt allowed to fly to Disneyland. For the past year, Hopkinss columns only rubbed salt in the wound, they said.

Matters are not helped when such sensationalist and, frankly, Islamophobic articles such as this are published, and which caused us all a great deal of distress and anxiety, they said. We are very pleased that the record has been set straight.
SANTA ANA  Jurors began deliberations Tuesday afternoon on whether to recommend the death penalty for a sex offender who kidnapped and killed four women and has told the panel he deserves to die.

Not once have I said I am going to ask the jurors to spare my life, Steven Gordon, who is representing himself, said during the penalty phase of his trial. And Im still not going to ask you. That is your decision.

But you heard my statement at the end of my testimony yesterday, he said. I stand by what I said. If you kill four people like this in cold blood you deserve to die.

Gordon has said that he and his former friend Franc Cano had sex with the four prostitutes and disposed of their bodies in a trash bin at the Anaheim industrial park where Gordon worked and the pair lived. Last week, he was convicted of kidnapping them from the streets of Santa Ana and Anaheim and killing them in 2013 and 2014. Cano will be tried separately.

During his closing arguments on Tuesday, Gordon also gave his most direct apology yet to the families of his victims: Kianna Jackson, 20; Josephine Vargas, 34; Martha Anaya, 28; and Jarrae Estepp, 21.

Nobody knows how I feel inside, he said. But truthfully, it is very hard knowing I caused this much pain to four families. It wont change anything, and it wont bring them back.

My actions were horrible and evil and you will get your justice very shortly.

Gordon has repeatedly alleged Cano was the one who strangled the women.

For much of his closing, Gordon read and rebuked a column written about his trial by Register columnist David Whiting. Gordon angrily pushed back against the columns description of the trial as a mockery of justice in which Gordon plays the role of the ringmaster.

Gordon countered that he had no choice but to go to trial, because the law prevents someone facing the death penalty from pleading guilty unless his attorney signs off, an action Gordon said his court-appointed public defender refused to take. Gordon said he chose to represent himself to get the trial over with as quickly as possible.

Jurors can recommend the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole to the judge, who will make the final decision. Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin urged the jurors to back capital punishment, pointing to the loss suffered by the victims families.

Today is the day to complete justice for them and him, Yellin said. To apply the law and give him what he deserves, which is death.

Contact the writer: semery@ocregister.com
Every generation gets the Guess Whos Coming to Dinner? that speaks most trenchantly to the evolving cultural issues of our time. Apparently, ours is Why Him? in which the young suitor isnt racially other, but from a completely different planet when it comes to culture, values and social norms. That planet? Silicon Valley.

In Why Him? directed by John Hamburg and written by Hamburg, Ian Helfer and Jonah Hill, Stanford senior Stephanie (Zoey Deutch) invites her tight-knit Michigan family to spend Christmas with her boyfriend, Laird (James Franco). Its only appropriate, seeing as their first introduction to the man was his unexpected naked rear on their video chat screen at dad Neds (Bryan Cranston) birthday celebration. And when the Flemings land in the Bay Area, theyre in for a cultural odyssey they could never have expected.

Why Him? is probably the best send-up of contemporary California tech culture to date. Theres the yoga, the fussy food (Laird practices lawn-to-table cuisine with the help of Top Chef Richard Blais), the pretentious art (a moose suspended in its own urine), the celebrity, the wealth, the tank tops, for crying out loud. When we see these cultures clash, its clear that #Calexit has already happened  it might as well be a foreign country for all the toilet mishaps and communication misunderstandings that take place.

Theres fun to be had in watching the Flemings go Cali, as mom Barb (Megan Mullally) learns about vaping and twerking and tween son Scotty (Griffin Gluck) takes up code and a slouchy beanie. Cranston, ever the fuddy duddy crank, as Ned, is more resistant. Threatened by Lairds off-putting lack of filter and peculiar ways, he staunchly refuses to give his blessing.

Franco is quite funny in his uniquely laid-back way as the computer nerd who never quite figured out how to interact with a family. While his initial forthrightness tends toward the TMI, hes refreshingly honest and endearingly vulnerable. His tribe is made up of Gustav (Keegan-Michael Key), his combination concierge, trainer and best friend, whose German accent wavers into Jamaican territory at times. Hes also hired Kaley Cuoco  the girl from Big Bang Theory! he exclaims  to voice Justine, the all-seeing, all-knowing smart house entity whose helpfulness verges on the intrusive.

In that vein, there are opportunities to explore how technology goes wrong, but Why Him? is far more about how the culture of tech is wacky; in this world, tech is good, tech has the power and money to save Middle American manufacturing companies and keep jobs right here in the U.S. of A. If a little privatized surveillance comes along with it, so be it.

The biggest problem with Why Him? though, isnt him, its her. Stephanie is so underwritten, that though these men are competing ruthlessly over her, she drops out of the story completely. Shes the center of attention, but shes a void. Thats not the fault of the winsome Deutch, its that the writers havent fleshed out her character, and she only has two modes, either bratty or exasperated, in which to work. Its difficult to empathize with her, so we latch on to the kooky Laird and stern Ned, whose rivalry the film revolves around. In true Hollywood fashion, they get hims right, but not her.
After a polarizing presidential election, many American political observers began to theorize over what Donald Trumps White House would look like.

Some hoped that Mr. Trump would follow Abraham Lincolns lead and create, to coin a phrase from historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, a team of rivals for his staff and cabinet. Thats not been the president-elects strategy, however. Hes opted to build, for the most part, a team of outsiders to sell his political and economic message.

This list includes individuals in business/finance, retired military figures and former 2016 GOP presidential candidates.

Yet, this unconventional strategy, from the most unconventional of soon-to-be presidents, could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

To be frank, why would we expect anything different from Mr. Trump in building his cabinet?

The president-elect is the ultimate political outsider. With the exception of floating trial balloons during several presidential and New York gubernatorial elections, and a brief dalliance with the Reform Party, he has no previous political experience. He threw the traditional political playbook out the proverbial window so many times that there was no longer a need to call in a repair crew. Hes not part of the so-called swamp in Washington, either.

While hes wisely made peace with some political rivals, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, he clearly doesnt want to build a Lincolnesque cabinet along these lines. Rather, Mr. Trump probably appreciates the fact that his team of outsiders will use their knowledge, associations, talents and life experiences as positive virtues. They may not see all the political pitfalls (real or imaginary) at once, but theyll work hard, take their lumps and learn their lessons. In other words, something akin to the president-elects rollercoaster ride to electoral success.

This strategy would drive the most experienced politicos to drink. Yet, it likely wont bother a political novice like Mr. Trump nearly as much  and would help earn his trust and respect for their commitment to the job.

Aligning with respected outsider businessmen like Messrs. Rex Tillerson, Andy Puzder and Wilbur Ross, therefore, gives credence to Mr. Trumps support for job and wealth creation without political interference. Meanwhile, aligning with outsider military leaders like Messrs. James Mattis, John Kelly and Michael Flynn proves (in his mind) that hes on the right track in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism.

As well, this team of outsiders isnt composed of weak-willed individuals. These are strong people with firm views, and theyll surely discuss and debate strategies with Mr. Trump. Although the president-elect will obviously have the final say, he certainly hasnt picked a bunch of yes men for his inner circle.

Meanwhile, there are political insiders in Mr. Trumps cabinet. Republican politicians Sen. Jeff Sessions, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt were picked for cabinet-level posts, and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence will be the vice president.

These fiscally conservative political insiders serve several purposes.

First, they provide ample political cover for the president-elect, who hasnt resembled either a modern conservative or Republican on the campaign hustings. Second, it will allow Mr. Trump to build new political bridges with the GOP after destroying so many of them during the primaries and presidential race. Third, it will attempt to show that Trumpism and conservatism actually have more similarities than differences.

For the record, Ive had real concerns about Mr. Trumps lack of commitment to fiscal conservatism, and was displeased with some of his language and behavior. Yet, Ive been pleasantly surprised with most of his cabinet and staff picks. As much as I hate to admit it, he may be on to something by ignoring traditional thinking and instead using his gut feelings to choose an inner circle that meshes with his views and values.

Is there so much visceral hatred for Mr. Trump that we can only look at the things hes doing in an irrational manner? Thats a huge mistake, because the current structure for his team of outsiders seems to be very rational.

Michael Taube, a Troy Media syndicated columnist and political commentator, was a speechwriter for former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He holds a Masters degree in comparative politics from the London School of Economics.
Alejandra Garcia Williams, the former Mexican consul in Santa Ana, died Monday from cancer.

She would have been 51 on Thursday.

She was always a person that was very giving to her job, and she was someone that was always fighting for the rights of the Mexican community  that was her main concern, said Arturo Sanchez, spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana. And also promoting Mexico everywhere she was.

Garcia Williams served close to 25 years in Mexicos foreign service, including five in the Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana, where she was typically seen with her Chihuahua, Miel (honey).

Last year, Garcia Williams left Orange County to head to Sacramento when she was promoted to consul general.

Prior to those posts, she served as acting consul general and later deputy consul general in San Francisco. In France, she headed the Office of Internal Politics, Human Rights and Legal Affairs at the Mexican Embassy from 2000 to 2006.

Across her different assignments, she participated in international conferences and worked on human rights and immigration issues.

In Orange County, Garcia Williams viewed her office as a place that some 900,000 people  either born in Mexico or of Mexican descent  could turn to for more than documents. At the Santa Ana office, Mexicans could learn about local laws, how to report a crime and how to prepare to get a drivers license.

The consul is the home of Mexicans here, she said in 2010. This is so they can better participate in civic matters and to avoid infractions that may later become bigger problems.

When Mexican consulates in the U.S. last year began offering certified copies of Mexican birth certificates, Mexicos secretary of foreign affairs chose the Santa Ana office as the site to announce the new service.

She had tremendous impact, said close friend Silvia Ichar, owner of the Orange County Spanish-language magazine Para Todos.

The Mexican consul, known for her wit and humor, was so humane, so caring, Ichar said.

An example from Ichar: A very humble young guy who was lost in drugs showed up at the consulate. She helped him to become clean and then promoted his paintings. The consulate would be the place where people would go for any matter.

And she would find the soul of the individual to help them blossom. Its really a huge loss for everybody who knew her and for her country. We are blessed to have had her, Ichar said.

Garcia Williams is survived by her husband, Remi Lacombe, and her daughter, Anne-Sophie.

A Mass will be celebrated at noon on Thursday at Saint Ignatius Loyola Parish in Sacramento, with pending services to follow in Mexico and in Orange County.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7829 or rkopetman@ocregister.com
The decommissiong czar overseeing the complicated $4.4 billion teardown of the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station will be a couple of czars  Los Angeles-based AECOM and Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions, Southern California Edison announced Tuesday.

Their job: Safely return most of the bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean to its original state. Its one of the nations largest commercial nuclear plant decommissioning projects and will stretch into the next decade and beyond.

Those iconic twin domes are made of concrete thats 4 feet thick and reinforced with steel and rebar. Dismantling them  and everything else, except the dry storage bunkers that will house spent nuclear fuel  will create about 600 jobs, including workers from local companies, Edison said.

Those San Onofre-related jobs that could go to local subcontractors include asbestos abatement, hazard disposal permitting, cafeteria services, demolition, crane and rigging services, radioactive analysis, radiological control and decontamination, reactor vessel and internal activation analysis, urine analysis, vessel segmentation, technical writing and scaffolding supply, Edison has said.

Major dismantlement work isnt expected until 2018, when state regulators are expected to be done with an environmental review.

Edison, majority owner and operator of San Onofre, will maintain strict oversight of the contractor and will continue to engage with the community through the process, said Ron Nichols, Edisons president, in a statement.

The news was greeted with sneers from some activists, who oppose leaving millions of pounds of spent fuel in dry storage on-site for what could be many decades.

Its basically a look at the shiny object hoax, said Ace Hoffman of Carlsbad.

The real concern is not this, Hoffman added. Its the 3.6 million pounds of extremely toxic spent nuclear fuel which is going into inadequate containers to be stored indefinitely on our beaches in an earthquake and tsunami zone, under several major air traffic routes, near a busy highway, vulnerable to terrorism and accidents, and not able to be inspected.

Edison, partnering with others, is developing inspection techniques to keep an eye on the casks, which will be encased in thick concrete on-site until the federal government figures out where to put the nations spent nuclear waste. Until then, the waste will be safe, Edison says.

Decommissioning a nuclear power plant is seriously big business. In 2013  the year the closure was announced  decommissioning efforts at San Onofre cost $237.9 million, according to Edisons filings with the Public Utilities Commission.

In 2014, they cost $210.8 million; in 2015, $282.8 million; and 2016, about $240 million. An additional $1.4 billion will be spent by 2020, and $1.6 billion more by 2030, after which spending is expected to taper off.

Three teams of major engineering firms were in the running for the massive general contracting job, valued at more than $1 billion: Westinghouse/Bechtel, CB&I/Team Holtec/Black & Veatch, and EnergySolutions/AECOM.

One requirement of bidders: Make a sizable percentage of your subcontractors local businesses owned by a minority, disabled veteran or woman.

Winner AECOM is a global infrastructure engineering firm, and EnergySolutions is a nuclear waste management and decommissioning services firm. Both tout decades of experience and expertise.

We are proud to be selected for one of the largest and most technically complex projects in the country, leveraging capabilities across all of our segments to ensure the safe decommissioning of the San Onofre nuclear plant, said Michael S. Burke, AECOMs chairman and chief executive, in a statement. This win is a tremendous accomplishment.

David Victor, director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation at UC San Diego and chair of the San Onofre Community Engagement Panel, said hes looking forward to meeting the contractors and helping them get engaged with the communities in the project.

The contractors have excellent reputations and long histories of high-quality work in this area, and I look forward to a very productive relationship unfolding in the coming years, Victor said. The panel he heads is a volunteer group of academic, industry, environmental and local government representatives advising Edison as the teardown process unfolds.

The companies are not without their critics.

In a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in September, an AECOM investor accused the company of violating federal securities laws and making materially false and misleading statements, overstating the profit it would generate through a proposed acquisition.

Also, AECOMs Australian unit settled a lawsuit for $201 million last year over faulty economic forecasts it made for a toll road. AECOM was paid a few million dollars in fees for its forecasting work but was held accountable when the project went bankrupt, The Wall Street Journal reported.

EnergySolutions is fighting an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, which seeks to block the companys acquisition of its biggest competitor in Texas. If the deal goes through, the combined company would be the only option for customers seeking low-level radioactive waste disposal in nearly 40 states, the DOJ said.

EnergySolutions also has faced roadblocks in its plan to dispose of depleted uranium in Utah. The project was put on hold after state regulators gave the company an indefinite amount of time to respond to eight major concerns.

While some will be happy to see the last scraps of the nuclear reactors go, activist Donna Gilmore wont necessarily be one of them.

The No. 1 concern everyone should have is Edisons plan to destroy the spent fuel and transfer pools when the fuel is moved to dry storage in 2019, she said.

The only method to deal with partial or through-wall cracks in these thin-wall canisters is to return them to the pool. Edison has no other Nuclear Regulatory Commission-approved plan to deal with this. And even partially cracked canisters cannot be transported per NRC regulations.

Spent fuel pools were dismantled at the decommissioned Zion nuclear plant in Illinois but remain at the Crystal River plant in Florida, so theres a way to reload fuel into new containers if necessary. Gilmore would like to see a pool remain at San Onofre, just in case.

Edison spokeswoman Maureen Brown said that, in three decades of operation, no dry cask storage canister has had to be unloaded, and the NRC has never required any plant to maintain a spent fuel pool.

If a significant crack were detected in a dry storage canister down the road, Edison could place the canister inside a transfer cask to contain the radiological material; place the canister inside a special oversized canister; or perform a weld repair, she said.

Contact the writer: tsforza@scng.com
WASHINGTON  President Barack Obama moved to solidify his environmental legacy Monday by withdrawing hundreds of millions of acres of federally owned land in the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean from future offshore oil and gas drilling.

Obama used a little-known law called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect large portions of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in the Arctic and a string of canyons in the Atlantic stretching from Massachusetts to Virginia from oil exploration and the potential for spills.

The announcement by the White House late in the afternoon was coordinated with similar steps being taken by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to shield large areas of that nations Arctic waters from drilling. Neither measure affects leases already held by oil and gas companies and drilling activity in state waters.

These actions, and Canadas parallel actions, protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other region on earth, the White House said in a statement. They reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the regions harsh conditions is limited.

White House officials described their actions to make the areas off limits to future oil and gas exploration and drilling as indefinite. Officials said the withdrawals under Section 12-A of the 1953 act used by presidents dating to Dwight Eisenhower cannot be undone by an incoming president. It is not clear if a Republican-controlled Congress can rescind Obamas action.

There is a precedent of more than half a century of this authority being utilized by presidents of both parties, a White House aide said. There is no authority for subsequent presidents to un-withdraw.  I cant speak to what a future Congress will do.

The U.S. is not acting alone today. Canada is acting to put an indefinite stop to activity in its waters as well, the aide said. With Canada, we send a powerful signal and reinforce our commitment to work together.

U.S. and Canadian officials have negotiated for months to reach a joint understanding on how to manage adjacent areas in the ocean in an effort to make the new protections as sweeping and politically durable as possible. Meanwhile, advocacy groups lobbied Obama to ban oil and gas leasing in the Arctic entirely.

Obama already invoked the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to safeguard Alaskas Bristol Bay in 2014, and again last year to protect part of Alaskas Arctic coast. The president has protected 125 million acres in the region in the last two years, according to a fact sheet issued by the White House.

The Beaufort and Chukchi seas are habitat for several species listed as endangered and species that are candidates for the endangered species, including the bowhead whale, fin whale, Pacific walrus and polar bear. Concern for the animals has heightened as the Arctic warms faster than anywhere else in the world and sea ice the bears use to hunt continues to melt.

The underwater canyons protected by the president cover nearly 4 million acres across the Atlantic continental shelf break, running from Heezen Canyon offshore New England to Norfolk Canyon offshore the Chesapeake Bay, according to a separate fact sheet.

They are widely recognized as major biodiversity hotspots that are critical to fisheries. The canyons provide deep water corals used by a wide array of fish. The area also provides habitat for . . . deepwater corals, deep diving beaked whales, commercially valuable fishes, and significant numbers of habitat-forming soft and hard corals, sponges, and crabs, the White House said.

The American Petroleum Institute denounced the decision. The administrations decision to remove key Arctic and Atlantic offshore areas from future leasing consideration ignores congressional intent, our national security, and vital, good-paying job opportunities for our shipyards, unions, and businesses of all types across the country, said Erik Milito, the groups Upstream director.

Our national security depends on our ability to produce oil and natural gas here in the United States, Milito said. This proposal would take us in the wrong direction just as we have become world leader in production and refining of oil and natural gas and in reduction of carbon emissions.

Contradicting the White Houses statement, Milito said George W. Bush removed previous 12-A withdrawal areas with a memorandum and made all but marine sanctuaries available for leasing. We are hopeful the incoming administration will reverse this decision as the nation continues to need a robust strategy for developing offshore and onshore energy, he said.

But a wide range of conservation groups hailed the decision. League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski called it an incredible holiday gift, saying that an oil spill in these pristine waters would be devastating to the wildlife and people who live in the region.

Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, called it a historic victory in our fight to save our Arctic and Atlantic waters, marine life, coastal communities and all they support.

Carter Roberts, president and chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund, applauded what he called a bold decision that signals some places are just too important not to protect.

Oil production in the Arctic represents a tenth of one percent of the nations oil production overall, the White House said. The area is so sensitive and so remote that the economics of exploration is costly.

Shell, which said in September 2015 that it would shelve drilling plans after spending $7 billion and not finding significant amounts of oil, still has one remaining lease in the Chukchi Sea where it drilled a well earlier last year. Shell is also part of a joint venture with Italian oil giant ENI and Spanish firm Repsol in the Beaufort Sea that holds 13 leases.

Shell held other leases in the Beaufort Sea, which the company transferred to the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., a company belonging to the Native Americans in the region.

An earlier plan to allow limited drilling off the Atlantic coast was shelved after state governments along the southern Atlantic coasts  including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia  expressed worries over the effect on their beaches, tourist industry and environmentally sensitive marsh.

The Navy also objected. The Pentagon provided Interior with a map that identifies locations . . . areas where the [Defenses] offshore readiness activities are not compatible, partially compatible or minimally impacted by oil and gas activities, department spokesman Matthew Allen said. The map included nearly the entire proposed drilling area.

Live training exercises are conducted off the Atlantic coast, from unit level training to major joint service and fleet exercises, Allen said in a statement. These live training events are fundamental to the ability of our airmen, sailors, and marines to attain and sustain the highest levels of military readiness.

The Obama administration eventually closed the Atlantic to drilling for five years.

President-elect Donald Trump could counter Obamas plan with his own five-year plan, but even so it would be years before drilling could start.

The president-elects authority to undo a permanent prohibition is unclear. But Congress, controlled by Republicans, could move to rescind the withdrawal of federal lands from oil and gas exploration.
HEALDSBURG  A judge has ruled that a man who allegedly drowned his 4-year-old daughter in a baptismal pool at a Healdsburg church is mentally unfit to stand trial.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports a doctors evaluation found Gerardo Mendoza Ordaz mentally incompetent to proceed inside a Sonoma County courtroom.

Sonoma County District Attorneys Office spokesman Joe Langenbahn says the 42-year-old Mendoza Ordaz will return to court Jan. 11 to determine where hell be treated until hes deemed fit to stand trial. He has been held without bail.

Officials say Mendoza Ordaz arrived at a police station Nov. 20 carrying his lifeless daughter, who was fully dressed and soaking wet. His 9-year-old son was with them and dressed only in shorts. Ordaz was naked.

Officials say Mendoza Ordaz is a laborer and farmworker who took work where he could. The girls mother is unemployed and pregnant, caring for three children, 9, 12, and 14.
SANTA ANA  Police are searching for a robber who used an assault-style rifle to hold up two Santa Ana businesses early Saturday.

A Chevron service station in the 1500 block of South Broadway was robbed around 2 a.m. and a 7-Eleven store in the 1100 block of South Bristol Street was held up around 4 a.m., said Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, a spokesman for the Santa Ana Police Department.

The robber used an assault-style rifle and demanded money from clerks. No one was hurt in either incident.

The robber was wearing a black ski mask during each hold-up, but he was captured unmasked on surveillance video prior to the 7-Eleven heist, Bertagna said.

He is described as white or Hispanic in his late 20s, standing about 5 feet 10 inches tall with a medium build and thin goatee.

The robber was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with Active in red letters across the front, along with gray slacks and black dress shoes, Bertagna said. He also appears to have piercings in his ears.

Anyone with information should contact Santa Ana Police Detective A. Garcia at 714-245-8408 or email agarcia3@santa-ana.org or Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7767 sschwebke@scng.com Twitter: @thechalkoutline
Motley Fool

Tech giants Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) were among the companies that posted disappointing quarterly results and saw their stock prices subsequently plunge. With powerful brands such as Windows, Office, Android, and Google between them, Alphabet and Microsoft have had unquestionable impacts on consumer technology and are still likely to continue doing so well into the future. As a result, you might be wondering which is the better buy: Alphabet or Microsoft?
San Juan Capistranos City Council is not accepting the California Public Utilities Commissions 5-0 decision to approve an expanded power substation in a residential neighborhood of San Juan.

On a 5-0 vote at a special council meeting held Monday evening, council members directed staff to seek a rehearing of San Diego Gas & Electrics South Orange County Reliability Enhancement Project that state regulators had approved Dec. 15 in San Francisco.

If the CPUC says no, the city can ask the California Supreme Court to review the application, City Attorney Jeff Ballinger said.

Council members emerged from a lengthy closed-door session and did not elaborate on their strategy.

The city opposed the $381 million project, which calls for a more robust electricity transmission and delivery system from SDG&Es Talega substation eight miles north to San Juan and partial demolition of an original San Juan power substation built in 1917 to replace it with larger facilities.

Contact the writer: fswegles@scng.com or 949-492-5127
SYDNEY  Weeks away from ending their search of a remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean for debris from a Malaysian jet that vanished in 2014, investigators admitted on Tuesday that they may have spent the past two years looking too far south.

Experts said in a report that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board, was most likely resting on the seabed in an area partly searched in late 2014 and early 2015. The searchers then moved south along a long arc thought to be the jets trajectory, off Australias far southwest coast.

They now want to expand the 46,000-square-mile search by around 9,700 square miles, to cover new ground and move it north, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a report, released along with analysis from Australias science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

Despite the new analysis, an Australian official said the search would end soon unless specific new information about the location of the wreckage emerged.

Darren Chester, the infrastructure and transport minister, said Australia, China and Malaysia had agreed in July that the search area would not be expanded unless credible evidence is available that identifies the specific location of the aircraft.

A team led by Australia has been searching for the jet, which disappeared in March 2014 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, on a flight bound for Beijing, but instead flew south for unknown reasons. Authorities believe it crashed into the ocean. A search of the seabed has been fruitless, but pieces of debris that have drifted to remote islands have been confirmed to have come from the plane.

The science agency said in its own report Tuesday that its scientists, by modeling wind and ocean currents and tracking replica plane parts dropped into the ocean, had come up with a location of the aircraft that is much more precise than we thought possible.

The agency recommended searching along the northern third of an arc that experts had previously mapped out as the jets likely trajectory, based in part on the planes electronic communications with a satellite.

We believe that the aircraft is on the seafloor within that area, David Griffin, a scientist in the agencys oceans and atmosphere division, said by telephone. Very close to the arc is the most likely place, but also very likely is an area 25 nautical miles to the west of the arc.

That area was partly searched in late 2014 and early 2015.

Australia is leading the search for the plane and is shouldering most of its costs, though China and Malaysia are also involved in the decisions. Most of the passengers on the plane were Chinese.

The search zone was expanded once before, in April 2015, when it was doubled to the current 46,000 square miles. About 90 percent of that area has been searched.

A spokesman for the Transport Safety Bureau, Daniel OMalley, said Tuesday that authorities were confident that if the plane were in the area already searched, it would have been found.
The latest Disney on Ice show allows guests to visit Radiator Springs from Cars, Arendelle from Frozen and Andys room from Toy Story without a passport, buying a Disneyland ticket or becoming a cartoon. Worlds of Enchantment opens at Honda Center in Anaheim tonight and remains through Sunday before moving on to the Long Beach Arena from Dec. 28 to Jan. 1 and Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario from Jan. 4 to 8.

Here are some things to know about the show:

Disney favorites

Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid may be ensemble skater Rebecca Neudorfers favorite number in Enchantment, but there will be something for all ages to take in  especially for fans of Cars, Frozen, Toy Story or Disney in general, she said.

The show definitely has some great stories. Hearing the different songs and storylines definitely takes you back, and every detail you can think of is on the ice, she said.

The spectacle

The show begins with Toy Story characters, including Woody, Buzz and Jessie, trying to make their way out of Sunnyside Daycare and back to the safety of Andys room. Then, Lightning McQueen and Mater take to the ice for a visit to Radiator Springs. Other segments include life under the sea a la The Little Mermaid and the snowy land of Arendelle from Frozen.

You definitely have to come and see the show because of the fun characters, said Neudorfer. It has so much music and sound that people dont want to sit down when they come see the show.

Bonus fun

Audiences are not only encouraged to come dressed as their favorite characters, but they might want to come early for a preshow dance party starring Mickey Mouse and friends. Performers get a kick out of seeing enthusiastic audiences.

It helps us put on a great show because you see how excited the kids are, said ensemble skater Benita Williams. It really is amazing, and its really cool to see how much stuff the kids are in now, especially the timeless classics that we get to bring to life.

Contact the writer: khernandez@scng.com or @TheFactsKris on Twitter
Steels double standard

Re: OCC should fire bully professor [Opinion, Dec. 18]: Shawn Steel seems to live in a morally fluid, post-modern world of his own as evidenced by his recent opinion piece in the Orange County Register. He offers a variety of characterizations and claims, which are, at best, distortions and double standards. Good for him that we are now living in a post-truth world, bad for the truth. I, for one, refuse to conform and still believe in facts. They are indeed pesky sometimes.

He claims, for example, that the union cites an obscure education code to justify their statement that the student may be punished. Obscure? Well, that is news to me, and the institutions who are governed by the California Education Code. Additionally, the student code of conduct and board policy prohibit student recordings without the instructors permission. The student should be disciplined appropriately as the instructors syllabus clearly indicates recordings are prohibited. The student can believe that he is right and still accept the consequences for having violated the policy. But questioning the propriety of the college enforcing its rules and arguing that surreptitious recordings are justified? Morally fluid, post-modernism at its finest, Mr. Steel.

He claims, as well, to speak for freedom and against academic intimidation, but believes the instructor should be fired for doing nothing other than exercising her rights, which are protected by the Constitution. As a political science instructor, I teach my students that Americans often adopt double standards when it comes to the individual freedoms protected by the Constitution. Unfortunately, I now have a new and too-close-to-home example to add to my list.

 Vesna Marcina, Rancho Palos Verdes, political science professor, Orange Coast College

Trump won

Numbers dont lie. I am a lifelong Democrat who wishes Hillary Clinton had won the election last month. But she didnt. Mondays Electoral College vote sealed the deal for Donald Trump. He will become Americas 45th president on January 20, 2017. Im not going to protest in the streets like many of my friends intend to do. Instead, I will remain at my desk, writing what I consider to be thoughtful responses to the new presidents initiatives. For me, its the best way my voice can be heard long after the marchers return home next month.

 Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Beach
LAGUNA NIGUEL  A nonprofit childrens theater had $10,000 worth of equipment and costumes stolen over the weekend, putting a holiday recital scheduled for this week in jeopardy and leaving law enforcement scrambling for leads.

Thieves broke into the Ovations Performing Arts Community on Forbes Road Saturday evening  taking theater lights, computers and microphones, said Lt. Sean Howell of the Orange County Sheriffs Department. Investigators have put more time into the case than they normally do for break-ins  checking pawnshops and eBay  to find the culprits and recover the items, but still have no suspects.

These are the cases that put me through the roof, Howell said. Investigators are hoping someone slips up and tries to sell the stuff.

It is a hard case for investigators to crack, however, because no one was at the theater during the break-in and there are no surveillance cameras, Howell said.

Ovations opened in fall 2015, bouncing around to different locations before setting up shop permanently at a warehouse on Forbes in June, said founder and director Charla Moore. Ovations teaches theater to children from 5 to 17 years old. The number of students has grown steadily since the theater opened, Moore said, but it still doesnt have the funding to withstand large financial hits.

We fight to pay our bills every month, just like every community theater, Moore said. So the theft will set us back financially.

The theater has a holiday show, A Very Merry Christmas Production, scheduled for Thursday that is now in danger of being postponed or canceled.

Moore has not locked down another location for the recital, though she said there are a couple of options.

The kids know and they are pretty upset, Moore said. Theyve seen how the theater has grown, so its tough.

Ovations has a GoFundMe account set up to try to recoup the $10,000.

Contact the writer: 714-796-6979 or chaire@ocregister.com
The black-and-white beauties are back.

Sometimes, years can pass before killer whales make an appearance off the coast. But in just the past few weeks, there have been several orca sightings  creating a buzz along the coastline as marine mammal lovers rush out to the water to get a glimpse of the rare sight.

The latest pod  thought to be the same offshore group that showed up on Nov. 30  was spotted late Monday. They were first spotted by a gray whale census group near Point Vicente, and word spread fast among whale watching boats that sped out to sea to see the orcas.

They found the pod of about 50 about six miles off Catalina Island, said Ryan Lawler, owner of Newport Coastal Adventure.

We were hoping they would circle back and come along the coast (Tuesday) morning and sure enough, they came two miles off Laguna Beach, he said.

This pod was different from the group of transient killer whales that showed up early December. This pod travels in a large group, with subgroups of about 10 or 15 that swim together.

Theres just spouts dotting the horizon, Lawler said.

Capt. Daves Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari owner Dave Anderson spotted them off Laguna Beach Tuesday morning.

Its so great to have killer whales hanging around, they might just stay around, said Anderson. Thats what Im hoping.

While all whales generate excitement among the charters, which all communicate and spread the word over radio channels when the sea creatures show, its the killer whales that generate the most thrill.

Killer whales are found in all oceans of the world, but we dont have any resident ones here, Anderson said. Sometimes we go years without seeing them The sightings have definitely increased, so Im thankful for that.

Anderson said you have to be in the right place, at the right time.

Its not like you can say Im going to go killer whale watching today, he said. They may come back, but they just as easily go up the coast and we dont see them for years. Its definitely an opportunistic thing, if youre in the right place at the right time.

California State Lifeguards were on a boat tracking the whales miles off Newport Beach as part of their interpretive program, sharing videos on social media about the sightings. State Parks supervisor Ryan Gates said people watched the video from as far away as Germany.

You can see pictures in National Geographic and now were here, said Gates. Its pretty cool we can come out and share it with the world.

Gates has been a lifeguard for 20 years, and it was his first time seeing orcas out in the wild.

Carla Mitroff, photographer for Dana Wharf Whale Watching, was on a boat searching for them late Tuesday afternoon after seeing them on the morning trip off Newport Beach.

They were on the move, she said.

She marveled at how they swam in a formation, all different sizes, even some babies among the pod. Theres something about how rare they are, and the fact that they are a top predator in the ocean, that makes the sightings so special.

They seem to be hanging around up and down the coast here, she said. Thats exciting  were learning new information about them, because we dont see them often.

ABOUT ORCAS

Orcas, or killer whales, are the largest of the dolphins and one of the worlds most powerful predators. They feast on marine mammals such as seals, sea lions, and whales using teeth that can be four inches long. They are known to grab seals right off the ice. They also eat fish, squid, and seabirds.

Killer whales hunt in pods, family groups of up to 40 individuals. There are both resident and transient pod populations of killer whales. Resident pods tend to prefer fish, while transient pods target marine mammals.

They use echolocation to communicate and hunt, making sounds that travel underwater until they encounter objects, then bounce back, revealing their location, size, and shape.

Mothers give birth every three to ten years, after a 17-month pregnancy.

Source: National Geographic

Contact the writer: lconnelly@scng.com
A 6-months-pregnant Florida student has found a very simple yet highly controversial way of paying her college fees  selling positive pregnancy tests online for $30 a piece.

Very self explanatory: I am 6 months and I am providing a product in which the consumer is able to purchase positive pregnancy tests or urine for your own use, the womans Craiglist ad states. Whether you are using it for your own amusement such as a prank, or to blackmail the CEO of Apple who you are having an affair with I DONT CARE AT ALL. As if it wasnt clear enough already, the woman assures potential clients that this is an absolutely no questions asked type of deal.

Photo: Danielle Avitable/Twitter

After being tipped off about the Craiglist ad, Jacksonville-area TV station WJAX replied to the young woman, undercover, asking to meet up and purchase a $30 positive pregnancy test. They set up a meeting place, and after buying a pregnancy test from the nearest pharmacy, the woman, who wished to remain anonymous, went into a toilet and came back with the promised positive pregnancy test in a zip bag. 

She told reporters that she had been looking for a job she could do while pregnant, and after hearing about this practice from other women, she decided that the money was too good to pass up. I saw from other women and their experiences that its very easy, $200 in a day off something I have to do no matter what, she said. Me being in college working on a bachelors and needing all this money to pay for a degree, this was a no-brainer.

As soon as she placed the first ad on Craiglist, the money started flowing. The woman added that dozens of people contact her to meet up for positive pregnancy tests and urine every day, with some traveling all the way from Orlando, but she never asks what they are using them for. To her, its just a job that happens to pay very well.

WJAX legal expert Dale Carson says that this kind of practice falls into a legal gray area, since its not illegal to sell urine, but the buyer could be using it to commit fraud. This is the kind of thing that makes legislators go we need to pass a law that says you cant do this,' he added.

As the woman in this story admitted, she is not the first person to sell positive pregnancy tests on the internet. In fact, two years ago, The Daily Dot interviewed a pregnant woman who also sold them on Craiglist to other women who used them to fake pregnancies and even get back at their disapproving mother-in-laws.

After this story was picked up by national news outlets, the Craiglist ad was removed.
Chris Wermann

Cosmetics giant Avon Products has hired Chris Wermann to serve in the role of chief communications officer and group VP of corporate relations.

Wermann's appointment becomes effective January 3, 2017. He succeeds current SVP and chief communications officer Cheryl Heinonen, who will be stepping down from the position at the beginning of the year. Heinonen, who formerly counseled consumer clients on branding, international and reputation issues at Burson-Marsteller, has filled the CCO slot at the New York-based direct sales company since 2012.

Wermann joins Avon from UK-based retailer Home Retail Group PLC, where he served as director of corporate affairs. Prior to that he was a longtime regional director of corporate affairs at Kellogg Company, where he led corporate affairs strategy for the food manufacturing giant in Europe. He was also EMEA director of corporate affairs for Avis Europe and a deputy director of corporate affairs at the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Wermann will now head corporate and internal communications at Avon, as well as corporate social responsibility and sustainability initiatives and operational oversight of the Avon Foundation for Women. Hell report to Avon CEO Sheri McCoy and will be based in London.

Avon is currently the fifth-largest beauty company and second largest direct selling entity in the world. The company, which was founded in 1886, earlier this year announced that it would relocate its headquarters from New York to the UK as part of a three-year turnaround plan to revitalize the company.

Avon (NYSE:AVP) has a market capitalization of $2.51 billion. The company hit its 52-week high of $6.96 on October 25 and bottomed out at $2.21 at the beginning of the year on January 20.
A trio of subsidiaries owned by ad/PR holding company WPP have been issued subpoenas by the U.S. Department of Justices Antitrust Division in connection with an ongoing investigation into price-fixing practices occurring within the ad industry.

The British conglomerate in a December 19 statement confirmed that three of its subsidiaries had received DOJ writs, and said it is fully cooperating with the inquiries. The worlds largest advertising group, WPP owns ad giants Young & Rubicam, Ogilvy & Mather and J. Walter Thompson, as well as PR agencies Ogilvy Public Relations, Cohn & Wolfe, Burson-Marsteller, Finsbury, Hill+Knowlton Strategies and Prime Policy Group. WPP did not disclose which units had received the subpoenas.

The Justice Department is allegedly investigating agencies use of in-house video production and post-production divisions, and whether agencies are rigging the bidding process by steering clients to award contracts to their own production and post production units as opposed to hiring independent companies. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the probe on December 6.

WPP is the last of the big four ad/PR holding companies whose units have received DOJ subpoenas this month: The Wall Street Journal in December reported that ad/PR holding conglomerates Omnicom Group, Publicis Groupe and Interpublic Group had also received Justice Department subpoenas.

All three companies said they were cooperating with the DOJs investigation. French PR/ad combine Publicis  which owns Publicis Worldwide, MSL, Saatchi & Saatchi, BBH, Leo Burnett and Razorfish  on December 16 issued a statement claiming that one of its unnamed subsidiaries had received a DOJ subpoena two days prior.

Omnicom  which owns creative agency BBDO Worldwide, as well as PR giants FleishmanHillard, Ketchum, Porter Novelli, CLS Strategies, Cone and Marina Maher Communications  in a December 16 statement said its outside legal counsel has contacted Antitrust Division representatives.

Interpublic  which owns ad networks McCann Worldwide, Lowe and Partners and FCB, as well as PR firms Weber Shandwick, Golin, DeVries, Powell Tate and Rogers & Cowan  in a December statement confirmed that it was contacted by the DOJ for documents regarding video production practices.

The video production and postproduction industry within the advertising world  which includes everything from sound editing to video directing to special effects  is a $5 billion market. An eight-month study of media transparency issues in the U.S. ad industry, conducted by marketing trade group the Association of National Advertisers, found that non-transparent business practices were pervasive in the U.S. media ad-buying climate.

The ANA report, which was released in June, cited inconsistent and questionable media management practices that were often treated as a regular course of business and were not limited to a specific type of media or agency, including poor contract stewardship, pervasive receipt of non-disclosed rebates not returned to advertisers and potentially problematic agency conduct hidden by principal transactions, which often resulted in "media agencies sometimes acting on their own account and not always in the best interests of advertisers.

The ANA report also stated that in some cases, agencies and holding companies senior executives were aware of and even mandated these practices. The ANA report concluded that its findings accounted for a serious wake-up call for the industry.
Methodist Health System is moving its corporate headquarters westward from its central Omaha location to a soon-to-rise three-story office structure at 168th and Pacific Streets.

The plan does not affect the hospital, which is to remain at its current location at 8303 Dodge St.

But the health systems administrative offices, which are based in a couple of structures near the hospital, are nearing the end of their useful life, said John Fraser, president and chief executive of Methodist Health System.

Information and technology needs have evolved and are growing, he said. The current buildings  both originally built more than 50 years ago  cant adapt to keep up with those demands, he said.

Our current corporate location has served its purpose well, he said, but the future will require enhanced functionality, efficiency and flexibility in our work and also in our buildings.

He said that recruiting new talent also was a factor in the decision to relocate executive, finance, marketing, human resources, information technology and other hospital support offices from 8511 and 8601 West Dodge Road to a new facility on 168th and Pacifics northwest corner.

The new 160,000-square-foot corporate home will provide less square footage overall than the existing office campus, which totals about 185,000 square feet. However, officials said, the new and updated site will consolidate all 800 employees under the same roof, and in state-of-the-art quarters that can do more with less space.

We took into consideration travel time and distance for our employees, which was an important consideration when assessing locations, Fraser said. We also wanted a site that was close in proximity to our three hospitals and our more than 25 clinic sites in the metro and southwest Iowa. This particular property met all those criteria.

The other two hospitals are Methodist Womens Hospital, 707 N. 190th Plaza, and Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs.

Methodist officials declined to give an estimate of the investment, saying the headquarters still is being designed.

If the plan clears city approvals, construction could begin in mid-2017, with estimated completion in late 2018.

The move opens up valuable real estate along the popular West Dodge corridor, near an expanding Childrens Hospital & Medical Center campus and not far from the Crossroads Mall, which is slated for redevelopment.

Methodist says it is in planning stages to determine the fate of the current campus, much of which has been linked to the hospital system for decades. As many recall, it was home to our nursing college at one time, Fraser said.

The 8511 structure, built in 1960, spans more than 7 acres with parking and once was home to Schimmels Indian Hills Inn. (It also has an 8501 entrance, but Methodist refers to the facility by a single address.) After Methodist bought it in 1968, the structure became the dormitory for Methodist student nurses and in the mid-1980s, it became corporate headquarters for the health system.

The smaller 8601 structure covers an additional 4.5 acres, was originally built in 1964 and purchased by Methodist in 2001, when it was remodeled.

Also at the current corporate complex are the Methodist Physicians Clinic administration and legal offices, a large ballroom meeting space and a corporate cafeteria.
Hormel Foods will hire 37 women at its Fremont, Nebraska, hog processing plant, and will pay $550,000 in back wages to 403 female job applicants, to resolve a U.S. Department of Labor complaint that alleged the company discriminated against women in hiring at the plant.

The Austin, Minnesota, companys hiring practices discriminated against qualified female job applicants for production positions for a year starting in February 2008, and the company failed to keep required hiring records, the Labor Department determined in a scheduled review of the companys compliance with federal contract requirements.

Hormel did not admit liability as part of the settlement.

While we disagree with the Department of Labor, we believe a settlement will avoid further litigation and an unnecessary distraction to our business, Hormel said in a statement to The World-Herald.

The company said it meets or exceeds local, state and federal hiring laws in employing a diverse workforce.

Hormel and its subsidiaries have received federal contracts as a food supplier to the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Defense.

When contractors accept federal funds, they agree to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws, said Thomas M. Dowd, acting director of the departments Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. This voluntary settlement ensures Hormels compliance and provides a remedy for the affected applicants.
There was, in hindsight, a clear element of risk to Tesla Motors decision to install Autopilot hardware in every car coming off the production line since October 2014. It paid a price, with federal regulators probing the deadly crash of a Model S while in driver-assist mode and critics slamming Tesla for rolling the technology out too soon.

But there was also a reward. The company has collected more than 1.3 billion miles of data from Autopilot-equipped vehicles operating under diverse road and weather conditions around the world. And in the frantic race to roll out the first fully functional autonomous vehicle, that kind of mass, real-world intelligence can be invaluable. In that way, for now, the electric-car maker has a leg up on competitors including Google, General Motors Co. and Uber Technologies Inc.

Theres no question that Tesla has an advantage, said Nidhi Kalra, a senior information scientist at the Rand Corp. They can learn from a wider range of experiences and at a much faster rate than a company that is testing with trained drivers and employees behind the wheel.

The big promise of autonomous motoring is that it will save lives, and a Rand report in April that Kalra co-authored warned that cars would have to be driven hundreds of millions of miles and sometimes hundreds of billions of miles to demonstrate their safety. The more data you have, the faster the programming will learn.

Of course, not all miles are created equal: There are semi-autonomous as well as fully self-driving ones, real-world versus simulated, highway versus those racked up in tricky urban environments. Still, Tesla is in a very unique position to push the state of the art of algorithmic driving and machine learning in personal transport, said Adam Jonas, the lead analyst at Morgan Stanley for autos and shared mobility.

The autonomous autos Google developed have covered 2 million real-world miles  with employees on board  since 2009, according to the company. Parent Alphabet Inc. last week spun the self-driving project into a business called Waymo.

Uber, which has been piloting self-driving rideshare vehicles in Pittsburgh, recently deployed a fleet in San Francisco in its partnership with Volvo Cars. Each SUV is staffed with two employees, one ready to grab the wheel and the other on the lookout for pedestrians. (Uber made the move without approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, and state prosecutors have threatened to seek a court order to force the company to stop. An Uber executive responded that its acting just like Tesla.)

As for GM, itll be putting its flotilla on the streets in Michigan, now that Gov. Rick Snyder has signed a law allowing public-road testing of cars without steering wheels, gas or brake pedals  or any need for human control. But GM engineers will be in the front seats, as they are in test-trips that have been taking place in Arizona and California. Ford Motor Co. has been doing its controlled runs on Michigan roads since 2015, including when its snowing.

When Autopilot is turned on, a Tesla car is able to do things like change lanes and parallel-park itself. Tesla stresses to owners that theyre in charge  and must always have hands on the wheel  but the company is effectively trying out evolving technology with people who may not fully comprehend theyre expected to maintain control or who may ignore Teslas instructions.

The fatal accident occurred in May when a man drove his 2015 Model S under the trailer of an 18-wheeler on a Florida highway. Neither the driver nor Autopilot noticed the white side of the semitrailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake wasnt applied, according to the company. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating.

The 1.3 billion miles of data Tesla said it has collected represents those covered by its vehicles even when Autopilot isnt switched on  it operates in shadow mode, with sensors tracking real-world data when its off.

In May, a Tesla executive said at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology conference that the cars had driven 100 million miles with Autopilot actively engaged. In October, Musk said on Twitter that the number of cumulative Autopilot-on miles was 222 million.

Whether they are ahead or not, Tesla certainly has tons of data, said Richard Wallace, director of transportation systems analysis at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They will be able to analyze that six ways from Sunday and continue to tweak their algorithms.
GERING, Neb.  Gering High School has provided a way for students to give back to their fellow students recently.

Students were selling paper to make links over the last three weeks. The project is called Chain of Hope and raises money for students.

The students raised more than $400.

The main reason we do it is for all types of emergencies with students, said Matt Salomon, student council sponsor at Gering High School in Gering, Nebraska.

Students sold the chain links for 10 cents each.

The students in Salomons class have been doing the stapling for the links during Bulldog time a 20-minute period set aside for students to develop soft skills that employers look for.

Drew Gieschen, junior at Gering High School, said selling the links was a good idea and she enjoyed stapling during Bulldog time more than she thought she would.

I think its really cool that we are giving the donations to our school rather than something in the community, said Gieschen.

Counselors at the high school are responsible for allocating the funds to students.

Sharyl Hamer, counselor at Gering High School, said Salomon brought the idea forward to the school counselors and they decided the fundraiser was something that would help them.

We use the money because we end up with students who are homeless and in transitional living so they need help, said Hamer.

Salomon said the funds pay for students heat bill, graduation clothing, and some money might even go to parents so they have money for gas.

One time we had a student who needed braces and there was a special donation to Webb Orthodontics, said Salomon.

Hamer said the students are grateful.

Two students were given assistance this past year when they lost parents and had to go to transitional living.

Salomon said they are hoping the money raised lasts throughout the year.

This was the first year the students have raised money to go toward this cause. The student council did a chain fundraiser two years ago when three teachers had serious medical problems. There was over $600 raised for the teachers.

Hamer said the students and staff at Gering High School always step up and are continually taking care of one another.

This pretty much tells us what amazing students we have in the building who are willing to donate their extra cash for other students working through a difficult situation, said Hamer.

Salomon said the students covered all of the main hall with the chain links in two and a half weeks.

It gained momentum after the students saw the chains getting longer, said Salomon.

Paige Peterson, junior at Gering High School, said the money for students are for funds that students dont really think about.

It really makes you think how giving this school is with how many chains Ive put together, said Peterson.

Peterson said it has brought attention to how more people could receive help.

According to Salomon, most of the students who participated donated change, but some students have given bills as large as $20, which covers a lot of space in the hall.

Salomon said they were running out of hall space.

The students last day to donate was Dec. 16. Unlike other fundraisers, there were no competitions or prizes for individuals who donate the most.

We want them to donate because its the right thing to do, said Salomon.
The first segment of the West Broadway reconstruction plan can now officially get going.

The Council Bluffs City Council on Monday evening gave its green light after reviewing the specifics, including the costs.

City officials in the past year laid out a master plan to completely rebuild West Broadway from 36th to 15th Streets in five phases or segments, one per year for five years beginning on the western side.

Like the other future segments, the first from 36th to 33rd Streets will involve the replacement of pavement, traffic signals, street lights, sidewalks and storm sewers for drainage improvements. It also will include decorative pedestrian lights, brick paver bands behind the curbs and at intersections, ornamental fencing, ornamental arms for street lights, concrete pavers in crosswalks, decorative paving in the center turn lane and at key intersections, masonry columns and trees.

There will be no raised medians in the center lane, unlike the other segments.

Council Bluffs has received $20 million from the state for taking over responsibility of West Broadway. The first phase has a budget of $4.5 million from the state funds and $1.5 million in sales tax funds. The Iowa West Foundation has agreed to provide funding for the streetscape amenities estimated at $1.2 million.

After the council voted Monday, Councilman Nate Watson said this was the first time in 66 years that considerable money was being spent to improve the busy street.

Its an area that has been neglected, he said.

Councilman Roger Sandau, who has opposed the installation of medians, voted for the segment because there are no medians planned.

Mayor Matt Walsh urged residents to continue supporting businesses affected by the construction.

Its important that these businesses sustain themselves during construction, he said.

Bid letting for this segment will be held on Jan. 24, with the award given out on Feb. 13.
Even the Lords foot soldiers are at risk when they cross the street.

A Catholic priest who had just completed morning Mass was struck by an SUV as he walked across the street to his home.

The Rev. Joseph Sund, 30, was taken to Nebraska Medical Center for treatment of a possible head injury, and for scrapes to his head and face. Sund is an associate pastor at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church and School, 14330 Eagle Run Drive.

We think hes suffering from the effects of a concussion, said the Rev. Dan Kampschneider, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul. Were real hopeful that hell be back with us in a short time.

The accident occurred about 7:30 a.m. on Eagle Run Drive at its junction with 143rd Circle. There is no marked crosswalk at the site, and police said Sund had paused on a raised median in the middle of Eagle Run due to traffic congestion.

A witness told police she had stopped her car in traffic and was waiting to turn north onto 143rd Circle when she spotted Sund crossing Eagle Run Drive. Police said he was then struck by an eastbound Acura SUV. Rescue squad personnel reported to Douglas County 911 dispatchers that the SUV was probably traveling at a low speed.

The SUV, driven by Lesley Lowe, 45, of Omaha, was rear-ended by an eastbound Ford Escape driven by Rachel Wapelhorst, 28, of Omaha, police said. Lowe and Wapelhorst were not injured.

Traffic in the area was stacked up while authorities tended to the scene.

Sund, an Omaha native who was ordained in June and came to St. Vincent de Paul in July, had just finished 6:45 a.m. Mass at the church, Kampschneider said. Sund was returning for breakfast at the home the two share on the south side of Eagle Run Drive.

Everybody has accidents, Kampschneider said. Things just happen.

Parishioners and students prayed for Sund throughout the day, Kampschneider said.

Hes got his humor, said Kampschneider, who noted that Sund was able to visit and, like so many millennials, was quickly back on his smartphone. Were real hopeful he can have a complete recovery. He took a hard hit. Were grateful it seems to be going well for him.

The crash remains under investigation, police said.

In an email to parishioners, Kampschneider said: We are grateful to hear from the hospital staff that Father Joe does not have internal injuries. ... Father Joe will be kept overnight in the hospital for observation.

We are most grateful that his injuries do not seem critical. We ask for your prayers for Father Joe, his family and all those involved with the accident.
At least one state senator is not satisfied with the progress Omaha has made in resolving its pension problems, and hes looking at major changes in benefits for future Omaha and Lincoln firefighters and police officers.

Omaha has been grappling with its underfunded pension liability for years, and the public safety pension has improved from a low point of being only 39 percent funded to 50 percent funded.

But State Sen. Mark Kolterman of Seward, chairman of the Legislatures Retirement Committee, said that remains troubling, and hes concerned that Omaha city leaders might eventually ask the state to bail out the pension system.

I just dont see how theyre going to dig themselves out, he said.

Kolterman plans to sponsor a bill that would require that future fire and police employees in the states two largest cities receive a cash balance plan, which is a hybrid of a traditional pension and a 401(k). The proposal would not affect benefits for current employees.

Already, the Omaha police chief, city unions and others are pushing back on Koltermans idea, saying it wouldnt help with the unfunded liability and it would hurt Omahas ability to attract and retain workers.

This is going to be a massive fight in the Legislature, said John Wells, president of Omahas police union.

Mayor Jean Stothert declined to take a position on Koltermans proposal, saying she hadnt seen the specifics. But she said she would rather resolve the issue on the local level, and she continues to push the police union for more concessions on pensions.

Lincolns fire and police pension system is doing somewhat better than Omahas, at a funding level of 64 percent.

The City of Omaha and its unions agreed in 2012 to a host of changes intended to prevent a collapse of the police and fire pension system, including increased payments from both the city and employees and reduced pension benefits.

Now, the plan is slightly more than 50 percent funded  which leaves roughly $600 million in unfunded city liability for the fire and police pension system alone.

The citys pension liability is the amount of money the pension system needs today to be able to pay for all of its obligations due in the future. The unfunded liability is the shortfall between the pension liability and all of the funds the pension system currently has.

Bond raters, who assess the citys ability to pay off its debt, said this year that the unfunded liability in the citys two pension plans  the other is for civilian workers  is keeping Omaha from a AAA top bond rating.

We view the citys pension liabilities as significant, wrote a Standard and Poors analyst this year. Without additional necessary structural reforms, we view growing pressure on the citys finances and tax base as likely. At this time, the poorly funded pension plans and lack of a sufficient enacted plan to address the obligations preclude a higher rating.

Civilian employees approved a contract in 2015 under which employees hired in March or later would be covered under a cash balance plan. That plan is 56 percent funded, and Stothert said the cash balance plan puts the pension system on the path to being fully funded.

Kolterman said hes concerned that Omahas police and fire pension system will worsen. Kolterman said the funding shortfall is not the states responsibility  but making sure pension plans are well managed is.

Our intent is to make sure the plans are financially solid going forward, and we have a way to at least give the cities of Omaha and Lincoln an opportunity to make that happen, he said.

He said a cash balance plan is still better than what many private employers offer.

Kolterman said hes not sure of the bills chances but said he will make a serious effort to push for the proposal. And he said he is willing to talk to union leaders about the issue.

Were very willing to talk. Were very willing to listen, he said. But at the end of the day we have to do whats best for the taxpayers and the people.

The Platte Institute for Economic Research has been pushing for such changes to Omahas pension plans for years.

The groups CEO, Jim Vokal, said hes working with the national group Retirement Security Initiative to advocate for pension changes.

We feel its important to stop the bleeding for taxpayers, Vokal said.

Stothert has been pushing the police union for more concessions to officers pension benefits, which she said would make them comparable to firefighters benefits.

The mayor has asked officers to accept two changes: putting an additional 1 percent of their salary into the pension system, and lowering the pension cap for new hires to 65 percent of their salary. The current maximum is 75 percent. She said that would put their benefits in line with what firefighters receive.

But the police union maintains that theres no need because the changes theyve agreed to are working.

Police officers are the only bargaining unit in the city without a current labor contract. The previous contract expired in 2014.

The city and the union went to the state labor court last month to present arguments over 2015 wages for officers.

Stothert said she has not asked legislators to intervene on the citys pension plan.

She said that shed prefer to settle the matter through a new labor contract and that shed recently had a productive meeting with union leadership.

I think we can come to a resolution without state involvement, Stothert said.

At a Platte Institute legislative summit last year, Stothert said on a panel that shed be open to legislative changes. Stothert said Vokal, who was moderating the discussion, did not specify what those changes might be and did not ask if shed be open to legislation such as Koltermans proposal.

She said she doesnt intend to ask the fire union for more concessions on their pensions.

Stotherts mayoral challenger, outgoing State Sen. Heath Mello, who sits on the Retirement Committee, said he doesnt support Koltermans proposal. He said he doesnt believe it will solve the unfunded liability problem.

Mello also said he believes Omaha would have problems attracting and retaining new public safety employees under the proposal.

Other cities across the country whove done this are dealing with the aftermath of their decision, Mello said.

Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said he hadnt seen the specifics but said losing a traditional defined benefit pension plan would probably make it more difficult for the department to hire and keep good officers.

He said policing can have some extreme lows for officers  he cited the death of Omaha Police Officer Kerrie Orozco, who was killed in the line of duty in May 2015  and they need an incentive to stay.

It would seem to me that this is just going too far, he said.

The fire union president, Steve LeClair, said he foresees a similar problem with retention in the Fire Department. He said job candidates would probably come to Omaha as a training ground, then move on to departments that offer better benefits.

LeClair said hes prepared to push back against Koltermans proposal.

If the state wants to step in and assume responsibility and usurp Omahas authority, he said, then they can assume the full unfunded liability.
LINCOLN  Tax-increment financing in Nebraska is subject to remarkably little monitoring and oversight, according to a new state audit released Tuesday.

State Auditor Charlie Janssen said the funding tool also known as TIF is being used differently across the state.

If thats the intent, so be it, he said. I just want to point it out to the Legislature if thats your intent, this is how its working. If not, heres some options to fix it or tweak it.

One option could be the creation of a state-level oversight committee to monitor the compliance of projects in an effort to protect the interest of taxpayers and their communities, he said.

TIF is a public subsidy that allows a city to divert the increased property taxes generated by a project to repay the cost of improvements associated with it, such as building new streets and tearing down old buildings.

The new development remains off the tax rolls for up to 15 years or until the improvements have been paid off. The law that provides for TIF is to redevelop blighted urban areas  not farmland.

Janssen launched the audit after hearing concerns from state senators. Among its findings, based on a review of 22 TIF projects out of Nebraskas more than 700:

 TIF funds are being used differently in cities and villages. The Farmers Cooperative project in McCool Junction used TIF to finance general municipal improvements, such as roads and parks, which did not increase property values. Its redevelopment area included all but a portion of the center of town.

North Platte, meanwhile, created a revolving loan program from TIF revenues for non-TIF projects. And Lincolns 18th and Q Streets redevelopment project made questionable expenses with TIF funds, including wall panels, sun shades and other enhancements, though those expenses appear to be permitted under broadly worded statutory language.

 Fourteen projects did not maintain adequate documentation for redevelopment expenses.

 Six projects failed to meet the specific requirements to be considered blighted. The audit noted that state law does not specify how blighted an area must be, allowing for a broad range of areas to receive the designation.

Bellevue State Sen. Sue Crawford, who chairs the Legislatures Urban Affairs Committee, said she had not had time to fully review the auditors findings, but noted that all 22 projects passed the audits test of whether project expenditures were allowable.

She said shes working to reform TIF to provide for greater local oversight and record-keeping and increased transparency.

Omaha Sen. John McCollister is also looking at such efforts.

Crawford said that while some changes to TIF are needed, she would caution against using the audit as an argument to create an unnecessary and duplicative state bureaucracy to review TIF projects.

The decision to utilize TIF for economic development is ultimately a local one, and we should tread carefully before eroding local control, she said.

Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte, who has been outspoken about TIF, said he supports its use for urban, truly blighted areas. But the tool is being abused, he said. While he hadnt yet read the report, Groene said oversight is overdue and suggested that it could be placed in the Department of Revenue.

I can call anybody to find out if a liquor license is being done correctly. I can call the Department of Roads to find out if the county is putting a road in correctly, he said. On TIF, theres nowhere to go at the state level.

A link to the audit: http://bit.ly/2hUIC0x
Those shrewd Russians are at it again

Got to hand it to the Russians. Theyre so powerful that they forced all but two Republican electors to vote for Donald Trump and scared some Democratic electors so much that three voted for Colin Powell, one for Ron Paul and one for a Sioux Indian leader.

The force is definitely strong in Vladimir Putin.

Ken Ramold, Omaha

Electoral College gives little states a voice

Those who advocate doing away with the Electoral College either lack knowledge of American history or are willing to end 227 years having the same form of government and Constitution because they are unhappy with the current election results.

The Founding Fathers provided for our government to function as a republic, not a democracy. Our representative democracy functions as a majority government, but with checks and balances.

With no Electoral College, just a few states with large populations  New York, California and Texas or Florida  could determine the outcome of a presidential race, so candidates would concentrate their time on those states issues and the rest of the country would be left out for all practical purposes.

Anthony Gruber, Omaha

Celebs should keep campaign promises

I feel that I got cheated with this election. The fact that Donald Trump won the election didnt disappoint me.

However, I was led to believe that if he won, celebrities like Cher, Barbra Streisand, Miley Cyrus and Amy Schumer, just to name a few, would leave the United States. Now, with comments like: . . . just kidding, I can do more good here, etc., they are still here.

Is it possible that the electorate could have been swayed to vote for Trump because they had vowed to leave the U.S.?

Jim Busenbark, Omaha

Obama did nothing about hacking

In answer to Dec. 18 Public Pulse writer Paul Gedbaws question as to who knew about the hacking and when (Hacking should affect electors vote), all he has to do is to watch the news and listen to President Barack Obama and former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Both have admitted knowledge of the hacks as far back as October.

Like everything else, Obama was too inept to deal with it. And the left wants us to believe Trump is unqualified?

Del Ostergaard, Omaha

Putin behaving as expected

The news of alleged Russian hacking plays easily into Democrats hand-wringing over losing the election (Obama said he warned Putin: Cut it out,  Dec. 17 World-Herald).

Its unreasonable to think that a career KGB man like Vladimir Putin wouldnt try to influence events in another country  friend or foe. This is classic Cold War-era Russia playing its covert, underhanded games.

We should at least count ourselves lucky that theres no evidence of Russian intrusion into states voting systems or the mechanics of the election.

This was the theft and publication of routine communications between top Democratic National Committee staff.

A Democrat winning a third term in the White House would have been very unusual from a historical perspective. Even if you subtract Russian meddling from the equation, history was against the Democrats this year.

Eric Foster, Lincoln

Aleppo is Putins creation

How many of those who voted for Donald Trump have contacted him to ask him to contact Vladimir Putin to stop the bombing of Aleppo? Russia is responsible for the women and children being slaughtered there.

Jean Seibel, Bellevue

Tick, tick, tick

Lets see what we have for our future. We have an unstable leader in North Korea who may soon have a long-range nuclear first-strike capability. We will have, on Jan. 20, 2017, a thin-skinned bully with a juvenile mentality as president of the United States. His national security adviser is a conspiracy theorist who gets his news from fringe sources.

Heaven help us. The doomsday clock is getting closer to striking midnight.

Nathan Feldman, Omaha

Nurture our creative Nebraskans

Nebraska: Good Life; Great Opportunities is our states new brand. The World-Heralds Sunday editorial, Brain drain challenge, highlights the innovative efforts statewide for providing great opportunities to retain young people.

However, many leave because they believe there are not enough activities to live a good life here. Growing communities across the country are investing in their creative industries  programs and facilities that help promote individual creativity and vibrant communities.

Our wonderful arts organizations and local arts councils across the state are additional assets we should also include as having an important role in growing our states economy. These organizations not only improve the quality of our lives but create jobs, too.

Doug Zbylut, Omaha

executive director, Nebraskans for the Arts
Income Tax raids at Tamil Nadu secretariat; govt in a huddle

Chennai

oi-Anusha

Officials from the Income Tax department carried out raids at the Tamil Nadu secretariat on Wednesday. Raids were conducted at the office of Chief Secretary Ram Mohan Rao. Earlier officials had raided his residence in Anna Nagar, Chennai.

CRPF personnel were also deployed outside the secretariat as raids were underway. CRPF was deployed at all places where IT officials carried out raids across Chennai. Two teams of IT officials were present at Anna Nagar residence of the Chief secretary and one team at the secretariat in his office. Raids were carried out in five places including Kodambakkam, Valsarvakkam, Tiruvanmiyur.

[Also Read: IT raids: CRPF deployed at chief secretary's residence; across Chennai]

Relatives of the IAS officer in Chittoor and Vijayawada were also raided. Officials seized Rs 24 lakh in cash and 40 kgs gold from Vijayawada and 4 kgs gold from Chittoor.

The IAS officer was late J Jayalalithaa's pick as recently as June this year. The 1985 batch officer is also the vigilance commissioner and commissioner for administrative reforms in Tamil Nadu.

OneIndia News
IT raids: CRPF deployed at chief secretary's residence; across Chennai

Chennai

oi-Anusha

In the backdrop of the Income Tax Department's raids at the residence of the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Ram Mohan Rao, heavy security has been deployed across Chennai. Personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force were posted in four locations across Chennai. CRPF personnel have been posted outside the chief secretary's residence where raids are being conducted since 5.30 am on Wednesday.

Officials opted for the presence of central forces since deploying state police personnel would give access to the chief secretary's office. Crowds started gathering outside the residence of the Tamil Nadu chief secretary as soon as news of Income Tax raids broke out.

However, a source from the Union Home ministry maintained that the move to deploy CRPF personnel was merely a security measure. The CRPF deployment spooked the Tamil Nadu government that went into a huddle immediately. Chief Minister O Panneerselvam called for an urgent meeting of ministers following raids of the chief secretary.

[Also Read: Why is IT department not targetting Amit Shah, asks Mamata]

The move was reminiscent of the flutter that army deployment at toll booths in West Bengal had created following which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had alleged of the possibility of a coup. The army had to issue a statement rubbishing the claims and called the deployment a routine activity that took place with full cooperation and knowledge of the state machinery.

Mamata termed the raids on the TN chief secretary's residence as vindictive. She also questioned why the Bharatiya Janata Party's national president Amit Shah was not being targeted by the IT Department.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, December 21, 2016, 14:33 [IST]
Karunanidhi fine, to be discharged on Friday; hospital releases photo

Chennai

oi-Anusha

Kauvery Hospital in Chennai released photo of a recovering M Karunanidhi and announced that the leader will be discharged soon. In a photo release showing the chief of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam watching television with his medical team, the hospital said that he was recovering well and will be discharged after completion of an antibiotic course.

DMK's treasurer M K Stalin had said earlier on Wednesday that Karunanidhi will be discharged from the hospital on December 23. The 92-year-old leader was re-admitted to Kauvery Hospital in Chennai following lung and throat infection on December 17. The DMK chief under went a tracheostomy to help his breathing.

[Also Read: Karunanidhi undergoes Tracheostomy to help in breathing]

Karunanidhi had been in and out of hospital twice in less than 18 days after suffering from infections since November. The DMK had put off its general body meet indefinitely owning to the leader's health.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, December 21, 2016, 17:16 [IST]
A nutty affair: When a leopard decided to stroll up, down a coconut tree (Watch video)

At least 12 dead, 38 injured as bus catches fire in Maharashtra's Nashik

11 prisoners shifted out of Nashik jail

India

oi-PTI

Nashik, Dec 21: As many as 11 prisoners serving life sentence in the Nashik Central Jail have been shifted to prisons in Pune and Navi Mumbai after mobile phones were found in some of their barracks, a senior official said today.

Following suspicion, a through search was carried out last week during which eight mobile phones were found in different barracks.

Some prisoners were also found talking over the mobile phones, Nashik Jail Superintendent Ramesh Kamble said.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (Prisons) Rajendra Dhamane also paid a two-day visit to the Nashik Road Central Jail and inspected the jail barracks, he said.

Subsequently, the decision was taken to shift some of the prisoners from the jail, he said. While five prisoners were shifted to Pune Central Jail, six others were shifted to Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai on Monday, he added.

PTI
4.5 kg Opium seized by NCB, MBA student arrested in Delhi

India

oi-Anusha

New Delhi, Dec 21: A 26 year old MBA student was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau in Delhi over allegations of operating an international drug racket. 4.5 kgs of opium has been seized. The opium was intercepted in two courier parcels that were to be shipped to Canada.

Acting on the basis of tip off, sleuths of Narcotics Control Bureau intercepted two courier parcels containing opium on December 20. Information was received in Delhi Zonal Unit office of NCB that drugs are being shipped to Canada concealed in Courier parcel. The NCB acted on these leads and intercepted parcels booked at a courier company with forged Identity proofs.

The addresses of the consignor recorded as being from Chennai was found to be non-existent on investigation. The opium was concealed in Turbans. Another parcel was booked at another courier company similarly on December 20 and the opium was found concealed in folders.

After further probe, the NCB was able to apprehend a 26 year old woman. The MBA student revealed that she had sent many similar drug parcels to different countries during interrogation. NCB in a release also said that she has revealed information about other associates in the racket. The NCB is currently on the lookout for her associates.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, December 21, 2016, 19:34 [IST]
One of the hardest, how team Doval built a fool proof case to get Michel to India

AgustaWestland: Tyagi's bail plea adjourned

India

oi-Vicky

A special CBI court on Wednesday adjourned to December 22 hearing on a bail plea filed by former Air Chief S P Tyagi in connection with the AgustaWestland probe.

Tyagi's counsel during the course of arguments informed the court that all documents relevant to the case had been handed over to the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. Banks accounts, foreign trip details and details of properties had been handed over the counsel also submitted.

The CBI's counsel accused Tyagi of giving a step by step progress of the case to European middlemen Guido Haschke in connection with the AgustaWestland case.

The defence counsel had on the last date of hearing submitted that Tyagi's arrest was aimed at taking the focus away from demonetisation. The FIR was filed in 2013 and the arrest made almost three years later. This is illogical, the counsel also submitted to the court.

OneIndia News
CDS chopper crash: Brigadiers family to get Rs 50 lakh from Haryana govt

CDS chopper crash: What is CFIT that is pronounced as see-fit

India set to get new CDS: The importance of a military theatre command

Army Chief-designate Bipin Rawat meets Defence Minister

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, Dec 21: Lt. Gen. Bipin Rawat, who is set to be the next Army Chief, met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday.

The meeting, which lasted for about 25 minutes, was described as a "courtesy call" by sources.

Rawat later also met outgoing Army Chief General Dalbir Singh.

Rawat was named as the new Army Chief on Saturday, superseding two more senior Lieutenant Generals -- Eastern Army Commander Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi and Southern Army Commander Lt. Gen. P.M. Hariz.

Bipin Rawat to be new Army chief, Dhanoa to head IAF

Rawat would take over as the new Army Chief on December 31.

IANS


Be a part of India's shift towards cashless society: Javadekar urges youths

India

oi-PTI

Pune, Dec 20: Stating that India was going through a huge transformation, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar today urged students to be "agents of change" and take part in the country's growth story by adopting various digital modes of payments. "I appeal students to be a part of the transformation of India and be a part of transformation from cash society to cashless society," Javadekar said.

"As a part of the digital literacy campaign, we have launched Vitta Saksharata Abhiyan (VISAKA) throughout the country and receiving tremendous response from the students. I exhort students to register themselves as volunteer and be a part of change," the Union HRD Minister said. He was addressing over 7,000 students from various colleges at the SP College ground in the city. In the wake of demonetisation, the HRD Ministry has launched a month-long campaign from 12 December to spread awareness about digital transactions among university students and teachers across the country. He said there are several modes of digital payments available in the country, however, technology alone cannot bring about the change. "All the revolutions in the world took place because of youth power and being agents of change, you can bring the digital revolution in the country.

"So make a resolve to become a part of transformation process of India and move from cash society to less-cash society and also make promise to educate at least 10 families around you to adopt the digital payments," he said. With the help of bank employees, the minister gave presentations on various modes of digital payment options. He said in the developed countries, on an average cash is four per cent of the GDP, while in India it is 12 per cent, which is maximum. "Through this move, we aim to go to at least eight per cent in the coming years and with the power of youth, it is quite possible," he said.

He said that the ministry has directed universities and colleges to give certificates to the students, who are registering themselves as volunteers for this campaign. He said a lot of people, including paanwalas, vendors, vegetable sellers are using e-payment options. "After petrol pumps stopped taking old currency notes from December, the e-payments or digital payments have jumped from 20 per cent to 70 per cent and this is the huge change," he said.

PTI


Bhubaneswar: Bandh cripples life; BJP, BJD engage in violence

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Bhubaneswar, Dec 21: Life came to a standstill in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, on Wednesday, after the Bharatiya Janata Party called for a 12-hour-long bandh in the state capital on Wednesday.

Due to the bandh, most government offices and educational institutions either remained closed or witnessed low attendance. Vehicles also remained off the roads, causing great inconvenience to commuters.

The bandh was called by the state's main opposition party BJP to protest over the alleged link of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation Mayor Ananta Jena in a sex tape scandal. Jena is also alleged to be involved in the murder of an engineering student.

The bandh was marked by violence. According to media reports, scuffle broke out between the BJP and the ruling Biju Janata Dal workers. Police was called in to disperse the protesting crowd.

"This is gundaraj (rule by criminals). We want justice for the student who was murdered. The Mayor is involved and the CM (Naveen Patnaik) is protecting him," BJP leader Samir Dey told ANI.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, December 21, 2016, 12:53 [IST]
Generosity is at the core of the holiday season, and each year many Americans make it a point to donate to the causes most important to them.

Choosing which nonprofit to give to this season can prove difficult, as there are hundreds of choices for every cause. Furthermore, not all organizations are alike, with some more efficient and more transparent than others. The best charities are those that are able to devote the largest share of total donations to the cause they support.

Fortunately, Charity Navigator, itself a nonprofit group, reviews and rates major nonprofits based on two major categories: 1) financial health, and 2) accountability and transparency. 24/7 wall St. reviewed nations largest nonprofits that receive the best ratings from Charity Navigator in each of 12 major categories of giving.

ALSO READ: America's Most Segregated Cities

Each of these nonprofits performs very well in important categories such as fundraising efficiency, lower administration fees including executive pay, and a favorable ratio of capital to assets, meaning they are able to weather declines in revenue without cutting program operations.

One of the best ways to determine the efficiency of a charitable organization is by examining the percentage of an organizations total expenses spent on the services and programs the charity delivers. While some nonprofits spend less than 50% on their designated operations, the vast majority of the charities on this list spend at least 80% of their total expenses on their specified programs.

It is important to note that the organizations on this list are scored by Charity Navigator based on the obstacles, opportunities, and expenses inherent to the causes in which they operate. U.S.-based nonprofits, but only against others in the same categories and subcategories. Museums, for example, must maintain expensive collections and facilities and necessarily have much greater overhead than food pantries, which do not require large overhead expenses and are able to spend much closer to their entire budgets on programs.

Story continues

The Smithsonian Institution, for example, devotes just 77% of total resources to its programs and services, while food pantry service Feeding America is able to budget 98% to programs. Each, however, are among the highest rated organizations in their respective categories.

These organizations are also transparent and accountable, meaning they follow best practices of governance and release clear and complete records of their financial operations. Many of the nonprofits on this list practice policies such as disclosing the pay of the CEO and board members, including a whistleblower policy for handling internal complaints, and publicly documenting board meetings.

To determine the best charitable organizations to give to this holiday season, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the National Center for Charitable Statistics database of the largest public American charitable organizations. We considered all organizations that ranked among the top 10 in either annual expenses or net assets in each of the major classes of charities. From this list we pulled the organization rated the highest by charitable organization ratings group Charity Navigator. Nonprofits that received less than a score of 90 out 100 were excluded from consideration. Charity Navigator only evaluated organizations that largely rely substantially on support from individual donors.

These are the best charities to donate to this year.

Art Museums

> Charity: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

> Annual revenue: $473,744,517

> Headquarters: New York, NY

Founded in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art operates three major exhibition centers in New York City. According to its current mission statement, The Metropolitan Museum of Art collects, studies, conserves, and presents significant works of art across all times and cultures in order to connect people to creativity, knowledge, and ideas. While it receives government grants, collects membership dues, and has other sources of revenue, more than 40% of the organizations annual revenue comes from fundraising events and donations. According to Charity Navigators assessment, the organization is highly transparent and manages its resources well. About 86% of the organizations budget goes directly to programs serving its mission, while other prominent museum foundations spend less than 75% on such programs.

ALSO READ: Cities Where You Don't Want to Get Sick

Civil Liberties

> Charity: American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc

> Annual revenue: $94,047,925

> Headquarters: New York, NY

The ACLU is arguably the most influential civil liberties advocacy group in the country. Among other activities, the organization provides litigation aid in civil rights cases and initiates class action lawsuits on issues of civil liberties and basic human rights, including privacy, equality, and fair treatment in the criminal justice system.

The ACLU Foundation, the charitable arm of the ACLU, only engages in education and public defense aid and cannot legally initiate public actions such as class action suits. The Foundation spends about 42% of its annual budget directly on litigation efforts and the rest on education and transfers to other organizations.

Environmental Protection and Conservation

> Charity: The Conservation Fund

> Annual revenue: $215,096,466

> Headquarters: Arlington, VA

Based in Arlington, Virginia, the Conservation Fund works to conserve and protect land resources in the United States, with particular focus on efforts that do not harm the American economy. To date, the fund has ensured the conservation of over 7.5 million acres of habitat across the country. The best charitable organizations are those that are able to minimize overhead and devote the maximum amount of resources to the cause. The Conservation Fund spends 97.3% of its annual budget on program expenses, while others in the category of environmental protection spend less than 80% on programs.

Food Banks & Pantries

> Charity: Feeding America

> Annual revenue: $2,200,852,165

> Headquarters: Chicago, IL

Feeding America operates food pantries all over the country, servicing low-income families. According to its fiscal 2016 report, the organization helped serve 4 billion meals to 46 million Americans. Feeding America also provides millions of dollars in grants to food banks. The organization is an extremely efficient fundraiser. In order to raise one dollar, the organization spends less than one cent on fundraising efforts. To raise a single dollar, many other major food pantry organizations spend more than 10 cents on fundraising. Just 0.3% of annual expenses go to administrative costs. All but 2% of all donations the organization raises go directly to its programs.

ALSO READ: Beers Americans No Longer Drink

Homes for Children & Adolescents

> Charity: Boys Town

> Annual revenue: $272,940,728

> Headquarters: Boys Town, NE

Giving to a charity comes with the expectation that the money actually goes to the organization's specified programs and services. Youth development, shelter, and crisis services charity Boys Town allocates 81.8% of its annual budget to its core programs and services. The high percentage partially explains the charitys high rating on Charity Navigator. In addition to its schools and sites in Nebraska and Iowa, Boys Town operates across the nation through its affiliated sites in California, central Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, New England, New York, North Florida, Florida, Texas, and Washington, D.C.

International Development

> Charity: PATH

> Annual revenue: $289,280,944

> Headquarters: Seattle, WA

Seattle-based PATH, which was previously known as the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, is an international health organization. PATH focuses on the creation of better technology, vaccines, and other solutions to address issues such as malnutrition, unsafe water supplies, and infectious diseases. In collaboration with pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, PATH contributed to the development of the first malaria vaccine approved by the World Health Organization. PATH is one of the few nonprofits of such size to earn a perfect rating in transparency from Charity Navigator.

International Human Rights

> Charity: The Carter Center Inc

> Annual revenue: $152,171,860

> Headquarters: Atlanta, GA

U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, founded The Carter Center in 1982. The organization engages in health and peace development around the world. Some of the Center's notable accomplishments include helping to nearly eradicate Guinea worm disease -- an excruciating infection contracted by drinking contaminated drinking water. Over the course of the Centers eradication campaign, the global incidence of the disease fell from 3.5 million cases in 1986 to just 22 in 2015. While many prominent international human rights organizations spend less than 80% of their annual budgets on programs and services, the Carter Center spends 91% on such programs.

ALSO READ: The Worst Companies to Work For

International Relief

> Charity: Save the Children Federation Inc

> Annual revenue: $667,604,478

> Headquarters: Fairfield, CT

According to its most recent financial report, Save the Children Federation campaigns helped approximately 185 million children across 120 countries, including the United States. In addition to its nutritional training programs, and other health and education programs, Save the Children responds to emergencies. In 2015, the organization responded to nearly 100 humanitarian crises in nearly 60 countries -- from monsoons across Africa to refugee crises in Europe.

Save the Children spends $9 out of every $10 on programs and services the charity is designed to deliver.

Museums

> Charity: Smithsonian Institution

> Annual revenue: $1,452,410,465

> Headquarters: Washington, DC

The Smithsonian Institution manages museums, education, and research facilities. Facilities include 17 museums in Washington D.C. as well as two in New York City, the National Zoological Park, and nine research facilities. In its last recorded tax year, the Smithsonian Institution reported $1.45 billion in revenue, making it one of the highest-earning nonprofit museums in the country. The Smithsonian Institution does a relatively good job managing its resources, according to Charity Navigator, which gave it a nearly perfect 97 out of 100 on accountability and transparency of operations.

Patients' Rights

> Charity: Patient Advocate Foundation Inc

> Annual revenue: $76,020,912

> Headquarters: Hampton, VA

Undergoing treatment for a serious illness can be financially burdensome and difficult to navigate. The Patient Advocate Foundation, founded in 1996, assigns managers to assist patients in all aspects of the healthcare and insurance systems. Advocates will help patients file for insurance payments, ensure they are not unfairly fired as a result of time missed due to illness, and assist in debt repayment management.

The Hampton, Virginia-based organization receives excellent scores in both financial management and accountability. Just 3.3% of the organizations annual expenditures goes to administrative costs such as executive pay.

ALSO READ: American Cities Adding the Most Jobs

Womens Rights

> Charity: National Womens Law Center

> Annual revenue: $5,761,673

> Headquarters: Washington, DC

The National Womens Law Center works to advance policies that guarantee equal rights for women and girls in all aspects of life. The NWLC states that it has been on the front lines of virtually every major advance for women since 1972. In its most recent annual report, the organization highlighted progress made on several issues, including protecting pregnant workers from job discrimination, the adoption of birth control coverage by insurers, and exposing discrimination and harassment of African American girls in schools.

The Center receives very high ratings in both accountability and transparency, as well as financial health categories. It is also an efficient fundraiser, with each dollar raised costing the organization 5 cents, while similar organizations spend close to 20 cents per dollar raised.

Wildlife Conservation

> Charity: Wildlife Conservation Society

> Annual revenue: $291,614,080

> Headquarters: Bronx, NY

The goal of the Wildlife Conservation Society is to prioritize the conservation of ecosystems in 15 at-risk regions around the world, and reverse the decline of six species. The populations of various endangered species are maintained at the societys five New York City wildlife parks. The Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, and the New York Aquarium house a total of 16,523 specimens representing 1,176 species. The organization reports $291.6 million in annual revenue, primarily from gifts and grants and from the city of New York.

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Chennai IT raids- Rs 30 crore worth assets seized

India

oi-Anusha

Chennai, Dec 21: Income Tax officials who raided Tamil Nadu's Chief Secretary Ram Mohan Rao have seized assets worth Rs 30 crore. The cumulative seizure comes from raids conducted in over 13 places including Chennai, Bengaluru and parts of Andhra Pradesh.

IT officials also said that the IAS officer's son confessed to possessing Rs 5 crore unaccounted money. 10 teams of IT officials raided the IAS officer including his office inside the Tamil Nadu secretariat. Relatives and associates of the officer were raided by the central agency.

Raids at a relative's residence at Vijayawada led to seizure of Rs 24 lakh in cash, 40 kgs of gold. 4 kgs of gold was recovered from another relative's residence in Chittoor.

Further, IT department officials said that Rs 30 lakh in cash and 5 kgs gold was seized from Rao's residence.

OneIndia News
Bookings now open for the Ola Electric Scooter! Reserve at just Rs 499, pricing and other details here

Centre directs edible oil firms to reduce prices by Rs 15 with immediate effect

Hiked by Rs 2.63 per unit, piped cooking gas in Delhi gets dearer

Milk gets costlier as Amul hikes prices by Rs 2 per litre; Check new rates here

Cottonseed futures up Rs 6 per quintal

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Dec 21: Cottonseed oilcake prices improved by Rs 6 to Rs 1,941 per quintal in futures trading today as traders were accumulating positions, thanks to firm physical markets.

Marketmen said, rising price of cottonseed in futures markets was mainly influenced by the widening of bets by traders, driven by firm spot markets, where prices remained in demand following better offtake by animal feed makers amid less arrival from growing regions.

At the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange counter, cottonseed oilcake delivery for January rose by Rs 6, or 0.31 per cent, to Rs 1,941 per quintal, depicting an open interest of 57,120 lots.

February delivery also increased by same margins of Rs 6, or 0.30 per cent, to Rs 1,974 per quintal, showing an open interest of 30,570 lots.

PTI
Gap between rich and poor has widened, needs to be bridged: Gadkari

Development of UP not possible without BJP: Nitin Gadkari

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Lucknow, Dec 21 Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said real development in Uttar Pradesh can be ushered in only by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Addressing a large public meeting in Faizabad, the Union Minister said the roads being constructed by the Union government would be such that they would "remain pothole-free for another 200 years".

He also announced that the 84-kosi Parikrama route in Ayodhya would soon be declared a National Highway. He added that instructions have already been issued to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for the 250-km road which will also have accommodation facilities for pilgrims at four places.

The former BJP National President also said that of the 111 rivers proposed to be linked to waterways, Saryu river in Ayodhya would be one of the rivers and a beginning will be made by constructing a barrage on this river.

The Minister also announced construction of a road in the neighbouring hill state of Uttarakhand to Mansarovar.

"I pray that Ram Rajya is ushered in the country under the able leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Gadkari further said.

He also listed various development and infrastructure projects along with welfare schemes rolled out by the NDA government for the people.

--IANS

md/vgu/dg
EC to ask IT authorities to look into finances of 200 'delisted' parties

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Dec 21: The Election Commission is set to write to the Income Tax authorities asking it to look into the finances of over 200 political parties it has 'delisted' over a period of time for not contesting elections.

The Commission has, over a period of time, identified various parties which have not contested polls since 2005 and has 'delisted' over 200 of them. The poll panel believes that most of them exist on papers to help people convert their black money into white by accepting donations.

In the next few days, the Commission will send the list of the delisted parties to the income tax authorities seeking action against relevant laws if they are found to be involved in money laundering. While the poll watchdog has the mandate to register a political party, it lacks power under electoral laws to deregister any party.

As its demand to get power to deregister a party is pending with the Law Ministry, the Commission used its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution to delist parties for being dormant and not contesting elections for a long time.

There are over 1780 registered, but unrecognised political parties in the country. Besides, there are seven national parties -- BJP, Congress, BSP, TMC, CPI, CMI-M and NCP -- and 58 state parties. Seeking to stem flow of black money in elections, the Commission has proposed a slew of electoral reforms but most are pending with the government.

PTI
Mulayam Singh Yadav: A quick look at his controversies that made headlines

Flashback 2016: Top 10 controversial remarks

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Several noted people have landed themselves in trouble for making controversial statements in public domain. Whether it is Salman Khan's comment on rape victims or Shoba De's mocking Indian athletes over Rio games, the controversy just refuses to die.

Om Puri's insensitive remarks on martyrs:

Veteran actor Om Puri drew a major flak for his remarks during a debate on ban on Pakistan artists from working in India. The issue of banning Pakistan artists was heavily debated following a terrorist attack in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, which left 19 soldiers dead.

"Who had asked the soldiers to join the army? Who told them to pick the weapons?" Puri said following the September 18 terror strike.

Puri is not new to controversies. During Anna Hazare's anti corruption movement in Delhi's Ramlila Maidan, Puri had called the political class naalayak (incompetent) and ganwar (unedcuated).

This did go down too well with the politicians and leaders across the party line slammed him for it.



Gopal Shetty compares farmers' suicides to 'fashion trend'

This BJP MP from Mumbai triggered a controversy after he compared suicides of farmers to 'fashion' and 'trend'.

"All suicides do not happen because of unemployment or hunger. A fashion trend is going on these days. If the Maharashtra government is giving Rs 5 lakh as compensation, the other state gives 7 and the next 8 lakh. There is competition in giving compensation to farmers," he had said in February this year.

Shetty's controversial comment came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed farmers in Sehore in Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress attacked Shetty over the statement, saying it reflected BJP's insentivity towards farming community.

Salman Khan's infamous 'rape victim' comment

Salman kicked a storm ahead of the release of his movie Sultan. The actor compared his exhaustion from a physically demanding shooting sequence to the film to the exhaustion of a "raped woman".

Salman said how he had to pick up a man weighing 120 kg almost 10 times for different camera angles.

"It is like the most difficult thing...When I used to walk out of that ring, it used to be actually like a raped woman walking out," he said in June this year.

Such was uproar over the comment that Salman's father Salim Khan had to apologise on his behalf to calm the media.

Salim said Salman's statement was wrong but intentions were not.



Shobha De on Indian athletes in Rio Olympics

Writer Shobha De mocked Indian athletes participating in the Rio Olympics for failing to win medals.

"Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity," De had tweeted in August.

Shobha's remarks did not go well as fans, sportsmen and people from all walks of life expressed their anger in reply to her tweets.

She, however, stood by her tweet and said she is entitled express her opinion.



Bhawani Singh on Bihari students:

BJP MLA Bhawani Singh Rajawat's remark on Bihari students studying in the state irked politicians so much that deputy chief minister of Bihar Tejashwi Prasad Yadav wrote a letter to to Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje in the matter.

The Kota MLA has said, "Students from Bihar are spoiling the atmosphere of the city and they must be driven out of the city".

He had also reportedly alleged that many of the Biharis were indulging in unlawful activities.

Bhawani Singh drew a major flak from leaders, especially from Bihar for his statement.



Salman Khan on Yakub Memon

Salman's tweet on the death penalty of 1993 serial blasts convict Yakub Memon stirred a major controversy. Such was the impact that Public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said the tweets could invite charges of contempt of court.

Salman said Yakub's brother, Tiger Memon, the main accused in the case and who is absconding, should be sent to the gallows, and not not Yakub.

In a series of tweets, Salman said "Get tiger hang him. Parade him not his brother."

The actor also said killing Yakub would be killing humanity.

"1 innocent man killed is killing the humanity"

"Phasisi k phande pe chardne walla hai . Koi statement. Koi address. Kuch toh bolo k tum teh. Wah bhai ho toh aisa. Matlab. Ya khoob menan (Going to the gallows. Any statement? Say something. What a brother)," he said in another tweet.

Yogi Adityanath on Mother Teresa

BJP MP Yogi Adityanath stirred a controversy by saying that Nobel Laureate Mother Teresa was part of a conspiracy to propagate Christianity in India

"Mother Teresa was part of a conspiracy to convert Hindus to Christianity. Hindus were targetted in the name of doing service and then converted by her," Adityanath had said at a religious meeting in June.

At the same function Adityanath had also called for called for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

Known for controversies, the BJP MP from UP had earlier said that Muslim Ullemas 'stink'.

Azam Khan tells Yogi Adityanath to get married

Samajwadi Party leader and Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan termed sages in India as a 'frustrated' lot and advised BJP MP Yogi Adityanath to get married to prove his 'masculinity'.

"Yogi Adityanath should first get married and prove his masculinity," Khan told media persons in May this year.

Infuriated by Khan's remark, Adityanath had asked UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to sack Khan. The BJP MP also said Khan had lost his mental balance and needed medical attention.

Sakshi Maharaj on Muslim women

Known for his controversial remarks, BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj ignited a controversy in April this year by saying women in Islam are 'no better than footwear'.

"Women in Islam are no better than footwear," the Unnao MP had said.

Last year, Sakshi Maharaj had called on Hindu women to produce at least four children to protect Hinduism.

Azam Khan on Bulandshahr gangrape case

This Samajwadi Party leader made headlines yet again by calling the Bulandshahr gang-rape incident 'a political conspiracy'.

Such was the uproar that Azam Khan had to tender an apology for his remarks.

The opposition parties in UP assembly trooped into the Well of the House, demanding Khan's resignation.

The Supreme Court initially rejected Khan's apology with Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi pointing out that it was a conditional apology.

Khan later filed a fresh affidavit, which was accepted by the apex court.

The Bulandshahr incident happened on the night of July 29, when a group of highway robbers stopped the car of a Noida-based family and sexually assaulted a woman and her daughter.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, December 21, 2016, 17:43 [IST]
Great tolerance, the CBI is sitting idle in Goa says its SP

Goa polls: Congress to announce list by Jan 12

India

oi-PTI

Panaji, Dec 21: Congress party on Wednesday said they will be announcing the list of their candidates for the upcoming Goa Legislative Assembly elections between January 10-12.

"The next meeting of screening committee would be held in Delhi on January 4. After that we will be announcing the list of candidates between January 10-12," All India Congress Committee General Secretary Digvijaya Singh told reporters here.

Singh is in Goa for the meeting of the screening panel which is considering candidates across all 40 constituencies in the state. He said during the meeting on Wednesday that there was a detailed discussion on the candidates.

Responding to a question on Congress MLA Mauvin Godinho joining BJP and another legislator Pandurang Madkaikar planning to join the saffron party on Thursday, Singh recalled that then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had levelled serious allegations of corruption against both the leaders.

"What has happened now ? Have they become pure after joining BJP ? BJP and (Narendra) Modi were saying we will not accept bribe nor allow corruption. Now what happened?," he asked.

PTI
Iraq gets a new government after a year of deadlock

New IT rules will make sure no unlawful content is posted online: Minister

Govt clears creation of Indian Enterprise Development Services

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Dec 21: Government today approved the creation of the Indian Enterprise Development Services (IEDS) in the Office of Development Commissioner, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

The Service has been created by absorbing 11 trades, recruitment to which had been done differently following different rules, official sources told PTI.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

"The 11 trades were created in the 1950s and 1960s when there was prevalence of a regulation regime. Therefore, a need was felt for a cadre to work towards development of enterprises in the country," a senior official said.

The Indian Enterprise Development Services, to start with, will have a cadre strength of 617 officers, 6 of which will be at the level of joint secretaries.

These officers will man 72 field offices of the Development Commissioner and the headquarters in Delhi. Out of the 72 field offices, 30 are MSME development institutes and 28 branch institutes.

PTI
How almonds fund terror activities in J&K

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Srinagar, Dec 21: The National Investigating Agency is probing a large scale transfer of funds from Pakistan to India through the import of California almonds (badam giri). The NIA has learnt the import was taking place through the Trade Facilitation Centres located at Salamabad, Uri in Baramulla district and Chakkan-da-Bagh in Poonch district.

The NIA says that this is in gross violation of the state policy of prohibition on trade in 'third-party origin goods.' Preliminary investigations have found that the money raised through this mechanism was being used to fund terrorism activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Union government has directed the NIA to probe thoroughly into the matter. The NIA has been probing the various sources of funds that is being raised in the Valley to fund terror. The Intelligence Bureau has been saying that terrorists have been coming up with various ideas to raise funds to carry on with their activities.

The NIA has filed an FIR and presented the same before the special NIA court at Jammu. Searches are being conducted at various places. The NIA team is also inspecting various documents in this regard.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, December 21, 2016, 19:53 [IST]
If you want news, we will give you: Parrikar to media

India

oi-PTI

Panaji, Dec 20: Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday said here if the media wanted news desperately, BJP can give it news. "I read some news reports related to the Deputy Chief Minister in one of the newspapers. Some weird news was carried. If journalists want news, we will give them," Parrikar said, addressing a rally here.

Referring to negative coverage orchestrated by political opponents' after the then Congress legislator Mauvin Godinho joined BJP, Parrikar said, "It was not a new fact that Godinho joined BJP. It was a known fact, for four and a half years Godinho is with us. Similarly (Congress legislator Pandurang) Madkaikar has been expressing his wish to join BJP for last six months."

About party's recent split with alliance partner Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, Parrikar said BJP knew how to respect the alliance dharma'. "Despite having 21 legislators, we gave two ministerial berths (to MGP), one to an independent MLA....But that does not mean we should take alliance partner in confidence while deciding our Chief Minister. That is the decision of the party," he said.

"You cannot be in the government and criticise it. I always say if you tell me something politely I am ready to sweep your house, but if someone shows arrogance then I will kick his butt," Parrikar said. The former Goa Chief Minister said the only promise given to voters here that he could not keep was to shift to Panaji (from neighbouring Mapusa). "I wanted to buy a flat in Panaji but it was not affordable for me....I had to buy it on the outskirts," he said.

PTI
Registrations for CEED, UCEED 2023 to commence in October: All the details here

IIT-Kgp Director gheraoed by students over fee hike

India

oi-PTI

Kolkata, Dec 21: The IIT Kharagpur director, registrar and other officials of the institute were gheraoed overnight in their offices by a group of students protesting against 20 per cent hike in hostel fee.

The decision to hike the fee was taken recently and will be effective from January next year. The protests, which began yesterday, ended this morning after a meeting between the students and management in which an assurance was given that their demands will be looked into.

IIT-KGP Director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, Registrar Pradip Pyne, dean of students and a number of other senior officials were not allowed to leave their office by the students who sat at the gate last night.

"We were wanting a discussion with the management over this fee hike. Kharagpur is a cheap place, but the fees are the highest across all IITs. So what is the logic behind the hike?," said one of the protesters.

He said recently they were informed about a 20 per cent hike in the hostel fees. The worst affected are the research scholars who get a Rs 25,000 monthly stipend from the elite institution, said the students.

"If the stipend is not increased how can we pay the increased hostel fees? Within that small amount we have to manage our food and other living expenses also," said a PhD student.

In April this year, a large number of students at IIT Kharagpur had stated a peaceful protest against the HRD Ministry's decision to hike fees.

PTI
Cruise missiles: Nirbhay better than Babur, but is it as good as US' Tomahawk

Indigenous Nirbhay missile test fails

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, Dec 21 The indigenous Nirbhay subsonic cruise missile's fourth test failed on Wednesday, sources said, even as the DRDO refused to make any official comment on the issue.

According to informed sources, the missile was blasted off around noon from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Balasore in Odisha but had to be aborted due to "technical glitches". According to the source, the missile's take off was fine, but then it deviated from its intended course.

With the threat of the missile hit the ground, it had to be destroyed within minutes of blasting off. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), however, did not comment on the test, with an official saying they were not even "aware" of the test.

The six-metre-long Nirbhay is a long range, subsonic cruise missile designed and developed by the DRDO. It is capable of carrying conventional and nuclear warheads, has a range of more than 1,000 km and weighs about 1,500 kg. The missile's first test on March 12, 2013 had failed within 20 minutes of flight. The second test on October 17, 2014 also failed as it could not maintain a low height.

The third test, on October 16, 2015 saw the missile nose-dive into the Bay of Bengal 128 km into its flight. The cruise missile is expected to supplement the BrahMos Indo-Russian that can carry warheads up to 290 km.

IANS
Not just in Quran but Lord Krishna taught lessons of Jihad to Arjun in Mahabharat: Cong veteran Shivraj Patil

After the 'Jihad' comment, Patil now claims \"I never said it\"

Jihad will come in a big way warn terrorists of the Bengal Caliphate

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Dec 21: Jihad will come in a big way and you will witness something that you have never seen before was a chilling message put out by members of the Bengal Caliphate recently.

[Also Read: Why India should not ignore the rise of the Bengal Caliphate?]

The formation of the Bengal Caliphate is real and is posing a danger to India especially in states such as West Bengal and Assam. The members of the group look to recruit several persons from these states in a bid to strengthen the Bengal Caliphate which is being run out of Bangladesh.

A Home ministry report suggests that there were signs of a build up when the Burdwan blasts of 2014 took place. A bomb had accidentally went off at Burdwan in West Bengal.

Investigations revealed that bombs were being prepared and they were to be used to carry out blasts in Bangladesh and West Bengal. The Burdwan blasts were just a pre-cursor to what lay in store.

The Islamic State which is trying to make its mark in the sub-continent is relying heavily on radical youth from Bangladesh, West Bengal and Assam. The threat is real and must be dealt with soon.

The respective state governments must also play a proactive role in helping central agencies deal with the threat, the report also states.

'Try and stop us'

A 5.5 minute video was recently released by the group that calls itself the Bengal Caliphate. According to Indian security agencies, this group is affiliated to the IS and claims to set up the Caliphate.

In the video that has been recorded at Al Raqqah in Syria, three youth speaking in Bengali warn that attacks would take place. Attacks will take place until you lose and we win, the youth say.

"The Sharia will be established and the Bengal Caliphate will be a reality. Try and stop us. How do you people support democracy? Jihad will come in a big way and you will witness something that you have never seen before," the three persons further state.

The Bengal Caliphate comprises Bangladesh, West Bengal and Assam. The idea is to put up a solid outfit and then stage attacks in India.

The message makes the intention of the operatives clear.

IS takes notice:

The IS sees a great potential in Bangladesh where there are groups such as Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, Bangladesh and the Ansarul Bangla Team which subscribe to the ideology of the terror group.

Experts say that the IS will continue to urge the youth in Bangladesh and several parts of India. They will keep releasing video and put out propaganda material. The IS would also look to work alongside an outfit in the region which is familiar with the logistics.

Sending fighters from Iraq or Syria would not be feasible because of logistics and language problems. Officers say that the focus would be on the local youth who would be urged to stage lone-wolf attacks.

OneIndia News
Lone wolves will target crowded areas in India: Intelligence Bureau warns

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Dec 21: The Intelligence Bureau has yet again warned of a possible lone wolf attack in India. The alert comes a day after the Berlin attack in which 12 people were killed.

[Also Read: Berlin attack: Did police arrest the wrong man?]

With Christmas and New Year approaching, the IB says that lone wolves would try and target crowded areas. It does not necessarily have to be a coordinated attack by some terrorist outfit, an officer with the Intelligence Bureau adds.

It could be an inspired attack. States such as Goa will be on high alert as huge crowds gather there during this season, the officer also noted. The IB further warns that the strike could be carried out by an infiltrator or a sympathiser of a terror group. Militants from Kashmir, too, could slip into other parts of the country and attempt strikes.

The IB has been picking up chatter from various terrorists groups that are looking to carry out a major attack. The IB has taken note of the several ceasefire violations being reported from the border, which is nothing but cover fire being provided by the Pakistan army to aid infiltrations into India, giving rise to fears that terrorist groups are preparing for a major attack.

The police have been told to be on very high alert. Further the alert also states that militants will look to carry out strikes along highways since these areas have less security. Some elements will look to replicate the Jammu and Kashmir style of operations where a majority of the attacks have been along highways.

OneIndia News
Pankaja Munde gets clean chit by ACB in 'chikki' case

India

oi-PTI

Mumbai, Dec 21: In a relief for Maharashtra Women and Child Welfare Minister Pankaja Munde, the Anti-Corruption Bureau has give her a clean chit in the 'chikki' case pertaining to alleged irregularities in awarding contracts for materials worth Rs 206 crore for school children.

"The ACB has closed the case. There was nothing to substantiate allegations against her," an ACB official said on Wednesday. He said ACB's Additional CP Keshav Patil had, in a letter to MPCC spokesperson Sachin Sawant, informed the Congress leader that no "truth" was found in the allegations against Munde.

Sawant had last year lodged a complaint with the ACB demanding an inquiry into the allegations against Munde and submitted a file of documents purportedly supporting the charges. The minister was accused of flouting procedures in awarding contracts for supplying items like 'chikki' (sweetmeat made with nuts and jaggery), mats, notebooks, water filters, etc, for school children.

Munde had earlier rubbished the charges and said she was prepared for any inquiry. "This is a scam of words. The allegations against me are politically motivated," Pankaja, the daughter of late Union minister Gopinath Munde, had said.

The earlier Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra had purchased similar items at a cost of Rs 408 crore, she said. "You term that a 'purchase' and call our procurement a 'scam'," she had said. Claiming that the items were purchased at a higher price by the previous government, Munde said the charges against her were totally baseless.

Munde had accused the opposition of pinning the scam on to a BJP minister, and said there was nothing wrong in the purchases made through the rate contract system.

Sawant had said "Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has a habit of giving clean chits and he has said that prima facie, he did not find anything wrong. Thus, we submitted all the documents we had as evidence to the ACB," Sawant had earlier said.

PTI
Peter was part of conspiracy from start: CBI in Sheena case

India

oi-PTI

Mumbai, Dec 20: CBI on Tuesday told a court here that former media baron Peter Mukerjea, accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, did not come to Mumbai with his wife Indrani in April 2012, because he feared it would show his complicity. The court is hearing arguments on framing of charges in Sheena murder case. Prosecutors Bharat Badami and Kavita Patil today said Indrani came to Mumbai on April 23, 2012, a day before murder.

Peter came three days later, because he feared he would be arrested if the murder ever came to light and it was seen that he was with Indrani at the time. Indrani was informing Peter about every step taken by her in the meantime, Badami said. After Sheena got engaged with Rahul, Peter's son from first wife Shabnam Singh, only Shabnam and Sheena's father Siddharth Das blessed the couple but not Peter, the prosecutor said, because "Peter was unhappy about this relationship".

Indrani spoke to Peter on phone even from a spot she identified for disposal of Sheena's body, which "cannot be a coincidence", Badami said, adding that "He (Peter) was part and parcel of the conspiracy". The prosecutor said for two years before the murder Indrani and Sheena were not on talking terms. But on the day of the murder, Indrani invited her to dinner. Peter told his house help (after the murder) that "Indrani has separated Sheena and Rahul", which "discloses that Peter had full knowledge of murder," said Badami.

Peter never lodged any missing person complaint after Sheena disappeared, the prosecutor said. By killing Sheena, her daughter from relationship with Siddharth Das, Indrani ensured that she did not face any embarrassment due to Rahul marrying Sheena, and all the properties would go to Vidhie (Indrani's daughter with former husband and co-accused Sanjeev Khanna), Badami said. CBI today finished its arguments. Defence is likely to begin their arguments on Thursday.

PTI
Congress will bring back old pension scheme in Gujarat, if voted to power: Rahul Gandhi

'Reverse bank of India': Congress mocks RBI

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

The Congress on Wednesday lashed out at the Reserve Bank of India for making changes in its guidelines on deposit of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Taking a dig at the RBI, Congress spokeperson Randeep Surjewala described the central bank as 'Reverse bank of India'.

"The Reserve Bank of India has become 'Reverse Bank of India'; In the last 43 days of demonetisation, they changed norms 126 times," ANI quoted Surjewala.

In its circular of December 19, the RBI had said that deposit of old Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes would be allowed only once until December 30. That same evening, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the one-time deposit till that date would not invite scrutiny by bank officials.

On Tuesday, Jaitley emphasised that only one-time deposit would be allowed.

On Wednesday, the RBI notified that it was withdrawing the first two paras of its Monday notification for KYC-compliant accounts.

By doing this, the RBI has now contradicted what the finance minister said on Monday and reiterated on Tuesday -- that deposits can be made only once.

OneIndia News
Uddhav to attend PM Modi's public function on Dec 24

India

oi-PTI

Mumbai, Dec 21: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, whose party had boycotted a function involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, will attend the public function here on December 24 to be addressed by Modi.

The Prime Minister, after laying the foundation stone for two Metro rail projects, elevated rail corridors project, the Mumbai Trans Harbour link and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off Arabian Sea, will address a public function in suburban Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC). "There will be only one function to lay the foundation stone for these projects and Uddhav Thackeray will attend the proceedings at the MMRDA grounds in BKC," a close aide of the Sena chief told PTI on Wednesday.

On October 11 last year, Modi had laid the foundation stone of a grand memorial to Babasaheb Ambedkar at the Indu Mills compound in the heart of Mumbai, a function which was boycotted by Shiv Sena whose chief Uddhav Thackeray was not invited. Sena is a part of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre as well as the BJP-led Maharashtra government.

Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar is in Delhi and will attend the birthday celebrations of Ajit Singh, former union minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief tomorrow. "Pawar saheb will attend the function to lay the foundation stone of Pune Metro in Pune if invited. His office in Mumbai has not received an invite," one of the aide of the Maratha strongman said.

OneIndia News
3 Pulse families sue social media, alleging aid for IS

International

oi-PTI

Orlando, Dec 20: Families of three patrons killed in the Orlando nightclub massacre are suing Facebook, Google and Twitter, claiming the gunman who killed their loved ones was radicalized through propaganda found through social media.

The families of Tevin Crosby, Juan Ramon Guerrero Jr and Javier Jorge-Reyes filed the lawsuit yesterday in federal court in Michigan. The complaint says the companies should be doing more to stop the Islamic State group from using their platforms. During the June rampage at the Pulse nightclub, gunman Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Forty-nine people were killed in the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

Facebook says in a statement the company "takes swift action" to remove terrorist content when it's reported. A similar lawsuit against Twitter was dismissed in August.

PTI
Congo forces killed 26 demonstrators, claims human rights group

International

oi-PTI

Kinshasa, Dec 21: Security forces in Congo killed at least 26 demonstrators on Tuesday and arrested scores more amid protests against President Joseph Kabila holding on to power, a rights group said.

The deaths were the first reported since Kabila's mandate ended at midnight. Military and police forces were firing live bullets, raising fears that more people have been killed, Human Rights Watch said. Its researcher Ida Sawyer said on Twitter that the killings took place in the capital, Kinshasa, the southern city of Lubumbashi and elsewhere.

Residents told the group that Republican Guards were carrying out door-to-door searches and arresting youths. Protesters burned the headquarters of the ruling party in Kinshasa. Kabila, who took office in 2001 after his father's assassination, is constitutionally barred from seeking another term, but a court has ruled that he can remain in power until new elections, which have been delayed indefinitely.

They were meant to be in November, but the ruling party says it needs more time until 2018 at least. The leader of Congo's largest opposition party, Etienne Tshisekedi, urged peaceful resistance to what he called Kabila's "coup d'etat."

In a statement posted on YouTube on Tuesday, he called the president's actions "treason" and appealed to the Congolese people and the international community to no longer recognize Kabila's authority. Political talks between the ruling party and opposition, which stalled over the weekend, were expected to resume on Wednesday with mediators from the Catholic church.

The political impasse has fueled fears of widespread unrest in the vast Central African nation that has trillions of dollars' worth of natural resources but remains one of the world's poorest and most unstable countries. After Kabila's mandate ended, people blew whistles and rattled pans as part of a protest meant to symbolize the "end of the match."

The political negotiations that stalled over the weekend failed to reach an agreement on a date for new elections or the release of political prisoners. Both are key demands of the opposition parties, along with the dropping of criminal charges against opposition leader Moise Katumbi, who fled the country as authorities announced plans to try him. Katumbi's supporters say the charges of hiring mercenaries are politically motivated, as he had been a leading presidential candidate.

PTI
Fidel Castro towered on the global stage: India says in UN homage

International

oi-PTI

United Nations, Dec 21: Paying tributes to Cuba's late leader Fidel Castro, India said Cubans have achieved notable success in education and healthcare under his leadership despite outside pressures and Havana's struggle for the global south brought it and the Caribbean island nation together.

"Fidel Castro indeed towered on the global stage. Under his leadership the people of Cuba achieved notable development successes in areas such as education and healthcare, despite outside pressures," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said at a special commemorative meeting in the General Assembly on Tuesday to pay tribute to the late commander of the Cuban revolution.

Akbaruddin said Cuba gave a "significant voice" for the cause of the global south, and this is what drew India and Cuba together. Over the years, the two nations have worked together closely at the UN to promote the aspects of economic equity and social justice in international relations, he added. Nearly 30 envoys representing regional groups and nations paid tributes to Castro, who died at age 90, and his indelible legacy during the ceremony, presided over by General Assembly President Peter Thomson.

While speakers included Russia, South Africa, Iran and China, there were no representatives from Western nations. Akbaruddin said Indians learnt about Castro's demise last month "with a sense of loss."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had described Castro as one of the most iconic personalities of the 20th century and had captured the emotions of India's one billion people when he stated that the country mourns the loss of a "great friend", Akbaruddin added. As a mark of respect to the legendary leader, members of both houses of the Indian Parliament had paid tributes to the late leader.

Also read: Fidel Castro hailed as iconic leader of 20th century

The Indian envoy told the General Assembly that India was one of the first countries to recognise Castro's government after the Cuban revolution in 1959. "Fidel Castro was a stalwart of the Non Aligned Movement during the Cold War years, when India and Cuba commenced their close partnership to advance the interests of developing countries," Akbaruddin said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in his message on the occasion said, Castro was "one of the most important Latin American leaders of the 20th century" and "the most influential shaper of Cuban history since his own hero, Jose Marti, struggled for Cuban independence in the late 19th century."

The outgoing UN Chief said as president, Castro turned Cuba into a "regional model of access to education and public health" and "until his last days he was deeply concerned about the future of humanity and challenges of the current times."

Castro left "a major imprint on his country and global politics," Ban said in remarks read by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca. Lauding Castro's "charismatic and wise leadership," Akbaruddin said India will always "remember and cherish our friendship" with the "strong leader of a resilient nation."

PTI
BP plc BP recently inked agreements with Kosmos Energy Ltd. KOS to purchase 62% working interest in the exploration blocks of the latter in Mauritania and a 32.49% effective working interest in Kosmos Senegal exploration blocks.



Both these acreage hold world-class deepwater gas discoveries and exploration prospectivity across both countries.



The agreement includes acreage spanning across 33,000 square kilometers and comprises the Tortue field. Per Kosmos, the field is estimated to hold over 15 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of discovered gas resources, while the total acreage is estimated to hold about 50 tcf of gas resource potential and over 1 billion barrels of liquids resource potential.



An investment of nearly $1 billion is expected from BP in the form of a multi-year exploration and development carry to obtain a 62% interest and operatorship of offshore Blocks C-6, C-8, C-12 and C-13 in Mauritania and an effective 32.49% interest in the Saint-Louis Profond and Cayar Profond blocks in Senegal.



The partners intend to process and transfer the gas from Tortue to a nearshore LNG facility to lower development time and enhance capital efficiency. The proposed complex could be expanded in phases to accommodate future gas discoveries.



Per the terms of the agreements, BP and Kosmos have also decided that the latter will remain the technical operator for the exploration phase of the project and drill three new exploration wells, starting in 2017.



In addition to the existing blocks, the companies have agreed to cooperate in areas of mutual interest in offshore Mauritania, Senegal and The Gambia with Kosmos acting as the exploration operator and BP as the development operator.



The agreements are anticipated to close by the first quarter of 2017, subject to government approvals. We expect these developments to result in stock price appreciation. Year to date, the stock has gained 17%, while Zacks sub industry Oil & Gas-International Integrated Market has increased by 18.6%.



Story continues



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SunCoke Energy posted a positive earnings surprise of 177.78% in the last reported quarter. It reported a positive earnings surprise in three of the four preceding quarters.



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Indian woman visiting Dubai dies of heart attack

International

oi-PTI

Dubai, Dec 21: A 64-year-old Indian woman who was attending a conference in Dubai died after suffering a heart attack here, according to a media report.

Vasantha Reddi collapsed in a shopping mall after experiencing chest pain, and later died on her way to the hospital in an ambulance.

Vasantha was on a visit to Dubai with her 68-year-old husband Sathyanarayana Reddi. They were among the several hundred delegates visiting the country to attend a Rotary Club conference, Khaleej Times reported.

The couple from Chennai was married for 39 years and this was their first foreign trip together. "We came to Dubai for the first time and my wife was quite happy. We were in Dubai Mall visiting various shops and taking pictures.

All of a sudden, she felt uneasy and fainted. She wanted to rest as she was experiencing severe pain and we had to call an ambulance. While going to the hospital she died in the ambulance," Sathyanarayana was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

PTI
TRS, BJP are two sides of same coin: Rahul Gandhi in Telangana

Congress will bring back old pension scheme in Gujarat, if voted to power: Rahul Gandhi

Modi had taken money from Sahara, Birla groups: Rahul

India

oi-PTI

Mehsana, Dec 21: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday leveled serious allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that Modi, as Gujarat chief minister, had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and demanded an independent inquiry into it.

Addressing a rally in Mehsana, Gujarat, the Congress vice president alleged that in the I-T records there are notings of Sahara officials' claims that they had paid 9 times to Modi between October, 2013 and February, 2014. Gandhi said the documents in this regard were with IT Department which had raided the company when Modi was Gujarat chief minister.

6 mahine mein 9 baar Sahara ke logon ne apni diary mein likha hai ki humne Narendra Modi ji ko paisa diya hai: Rahul Gandhi in Mehsana pic.twitter.com/D45hks2QBZ  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

Similarly, as per documents with Income Tax department, the Birla group also paid Rs 12 crore to Modi when he was chief minister, he said. Wondering as to why there has been no probe in the matter so far, Gandhi demanded an independent inquiry.

IT Department raided Sahara Company on 22 Nov, 2014: Rahul Gandhi pic.twitter.com/HXbIHzCA3H  ANI (@ANI_news) December 21, 2016

Last week, Gandhi claimed that he had evidence of 'personal corruption' of the prime minister but he was being prevented from speaking in the Lok Sabha because it would cause an earthquake.

The BJP, however, rubbished the allegations, saying it was an attempt to divert attention from the AgustaWestland probe.

Reacting to Gandhi's allegations, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in New Delhi that the charges are 'baseless, false, shameful and mala fide' and an attempt to divert attention from the AgustaWestland probe as names of Congress leaders and the 'family' are coming up.

BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said Gandhi was immature and was just indulging in bluff and bluster because people are not taking him seriously.

"People of India have stopped taking him seriously. Rahul Gandhi is just bluff and bluster. There is no substance in what he says. He is just showing his and his party's incompetence," he said.

Gandhi said he was raising the issue on behalf of the country which needs answers over the questions raised against the prime minister.

"PM Modi takes bribes and then shamelessly foists Demonetisation on Indians under the garb of 'fighting Black Money'," Congress tweeted after the rally quoting its Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.

"Rahulji asks if Modiji received this money from Sahara or not? If this document is with Income Tax, will Modi now investigate it?," tweeted party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.

PTI
North Korea: Kim Jong supervises missile firing contest

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Seoul, Dec 21: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised an armed forces rocket launch contest, the authorities said on Wednesday.

According to state media KCNA, Kim Jong-un supervised the contest from an observation post as batteries of several artillery units of the Korean People's Army launched missiles from a beach into the sea, Efe news reported.

However, details on the date or place of the contest were not given.

"When the order to fire was given, all the gunners in the contest opened fire with a will to reduce the enemy's post to ashes at a strike," said KCNA.

Kim Jong-un "underscored the need to conduct the training of artillery units under the simulated conditions of an actual battle," it added.

According to another statement by the agency, apart from the contest, the North Korean supreme leader also oversaw a night assault combat flight drill of the country's air force, in which fighter planes aimed at ground targets.

The drills were held despite the UN Security Council imposing new financial sanctions on the Kim Jong-un regime for its latest nuclear test.

IANS
Caught on camera: The moment before shots were fired at Imran Khan rally

'Allah has given me another life': Imran Khan after surviving assassination bid

Pakistan Navy undertakes live missile firing in Arabian Sea

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Islamabad, Dec 21 The frontline combat unit of Pakistan Navy on Wednesday undertook live missile firing in the North Arabian Sea, media reported.

Pakistan Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah witnessed the launch of the surface-to-surface anti-ship missile from sword class frigate PNS Aslat. The missile successfully destroyed its intended target with pinpoint accuracy, Radio Pakistan reported.

Admiral Zakaullah expressed satisfaction at the operational preparedness of the Pakistan Navy. "Live missile firing reaffirms credibility of deterrence at sea and reassures Pakistan Navy's commitment to safeguarding its maritime frontiers against all threats," he said. Last week, Pakistan conducted a successful test of an enhanced version of the indigenously-developed Babur cruise missile.

Babur weapons system version-II incorporates advanced aerodynamics and avionics that can strike targets both at land and sea with high accuracy at a range of 700 kms. It is a low flying, terrain hugging missile, which carries certain stealth features and is capable of carrying various types of warheads, according to a press statement.

The missile was equipped with state-of-the-art navigational technologies of Terrain Contour Matching (Tercom) and all-time Digital Scene Matching and Area Co-relation (DSMAC) which enables it to engage various types of targets with pinpoint accuracy even in the absence of GPS navigation. Babur weapons system is an important force multiplier for Pakistan's strategic defence.

IANS
32,000 girls converted to Islam and sold as ISIS slaves: This is The Kerala Story

IS in Mosul targets civilians as it retreats: Rights group

International

oi-PTI

Baghdad, Dec 21: Islamic State militants in Mosul are deliberately targeting civilians who refuse to join them as they retreat ahead of advancing Iraqi forces involved in a large-scale government operation to retake the militant-held city, an international watchdog said today.

The statement from Human Rights Watch also said that Mosul civilians were increasingly being caught in the crossfire, with at least 19 killed and dozens wounded in the period from the third week of November into the first week of December.

The New York-based group said the fatalities incurred from IS mortar or sniper fire, car bombs, roadside bombings and direct attacks, as well as in airstrikes by the Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition.

The findings were based on interviews with more than 50 residents who had fled eastern Mosul, HRW said.

It cited instances of IS militants telling residents that those who stay behind are "unbelievers" and therefore valid targets beside the Iraqi and coalition forces.

HRW warned that targeting civilians or using them as human shields is a war crime, and appealed on both sides to spare civilians.

"Civilians are being hit from all sides in Mosul," said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at HRW, adding that Islamic State group's "atrocities do not absolve Iraqi forces and the international coalition from doing their utmost to protect civilians."

Bengaluru man with ISIS links arrested in Kullu

The Iraqi military launched a massive operation in October to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city and the extremist group's last major urban bastion in Iraq. The troops' advances slowed once they pushed into more densely populated areas.

IS captured Mosul in the summer of 2014 as part of a blitz that placed nearly a third of Iraq under their control. Since last year, IS has lost swath areas in western and northern Iraq.

AP
Russia joins probe into Turkey envoy murder

International

oi-PTI

Ankara, Dec 20: Russian investigators arrived in Turkey today to probe the assassination of Moscow's ambassador at an Ankara art show, as both sides pledged the murder would not damage improving relations. Veteran diplomat Andrei Karlov was shot nine times in the back by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas at the art gallery opening of a show of Russian photography on Monday.

The brazen killing stunned Ankara and Moscow, which have rowed repeatedly over the Syria conflict but in recent weeks have begun cooperating closely on the evacuations from war-wrecked Aleppo. An unprecedented three-way meeting on Syria between the foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia and Iran went ahead in Moscow Tuesday despite the assassination, with the diplomats backing a widening of a truce.

Six people have been detained over the Karlov assassination, including the sister, mother, father and uncle of the 22-year-old Altintas, Turkish media said. Adding to the jitters, with Turkey already on high alert after a string of deadly attacks, an individual also fired outside the US embassy in Ankara overnight. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his secret services to boost security at home and abroad, and to step up cooperation with foreign intelligence services. "I ask you through channels of partnership to strengthen your work with the intelligence agencies of other states", he was quoted as saying by Russian news wires. Meanwhile, a Russian investigative team visited the scene of the attack at the Contemporary Arts Centre in central Ankara as part of a joint probe with Turkey.

Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul that he and Putin agreed in a phone call after the murder that "our expanding areas of cooperation with Russia, particularly on Syria, will not be hampered by this attack". Dramatic footage of yesterday's assassination showed Karlov stumble and crash to the ground on his back as Altintas brandished his automatic pistol at terrified onlookers who cowered behind cocktail tables.

The lone gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest") and "Don't forget Aleppo", vowing that those responsible for events in Syria would be held accountable. Altintas did not go through the metal detector security check when he entered the exhibition and was warned by a security officer, according to the Cankaya municipality where the exhibition centre is located.

PTI
Sri Lanka vs Pakistan: When and where to watch Asia Cup 2022 Final Match live online?

'Sirisena will die on Jan 26' predicts Lankan sailor who struck Rajiv Gandhi

International

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Former sailor, Wijemuni Vijitha Rohana de Silva, known for attacking former PM Rajiv Gandhi during his 1987 Sri Lanka visit, has predicted the death of Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena by January 26 next year, said Indian Express.

Wijemuni, who was jailed for attacking Rajiv on 30 July 1987, who has now become an astrologer, made this prediction on Facebook.

According to reports, Sri Lankan authorities are infuriated by Wijemuni's prediction and have lodged a complaint against him. Lankan officials are of the opinion that this could be a part of a larger plot to assassinate the President.

Gandhi was in Colombo in July 1987 to sign the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord which led to the Indian Peace Keeping Force to be deployed in Sri Lanka to tackle the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. While Gandhi was inspecting the guard of honour at President's House in Colombo, Wijemuni, who was part of the naval contingent, stepped forward and attempted to hit the former PM with his rifle butt.

Gandhi, however, managed to duck and missed the full brunt of the blow. Wijemuni was subsequently tried by a court martial and sentenced to six years in prison. Some two-and-a-half years later then president Premadasa granted Wijemuni a state pardon.

Wijemuni was supposedly enraged by India's alleged support to the LTTE and interference in Sri Lanka's internal affairs.

OneIndia News
Sri Lanka vs Pakistan: When and where to watch Asia Cup 2022 Final Match live online?

India to stop providing further financial aid to crisis-hit Sri Lanka? Indian embassy reacts

Sri Lanka arrests 12 Indian fishermen

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Colombo, Dec 21: The Sri Lanka Navy assisted the Coast Guard to arrest 12 Indian fishermen poaching in the northern seas of the island country, the navy said on Wednesday.

Two Indian fishing trawlers were seized, Xinhua news agency reported.

The fishermen and the trawlers were brought to the northern town of Mannar and handed over to the Department of Fisheries for further action.

Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said there had been a 50 per cent drop in poaching by Indian trawlers in Sri Lankan waters due to enhanced patrolling by the navy and Coast Guard.

The minister said all boats seized before last year were returned to India.

He said while the fishermen were released on humanitarian grounds, Sri Lanka will continue to arrest any Indian fishermen poaching in Sri Lankan waters.

Sri Lanka and India will hold more talks to seek a solution to the long-standing disputes between fishermen, he said.

The Indian foreign minister and fisheries minister were expected to attend the talks in Colombo on January 2, 2017.

IANS


World Bank refuses new financial aid to debt-ridden Sri Lanka

WB to finance improved waterway connectivity in Bangladesh

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Dhaka, Dec 21 The Bangladesh government on Wednesday signed a $360 million financing agreement with the World Bank to improve the navigability of 900 kms of inland waterways and connecting routes.

The accord will enable year-round safe transport for passengers and cargo along the country's busiest waterways, Xinhua news agency reported.

Mohammad Mejbahuddin, senior secretary of Bangladesh's Economic Relations Division, and Qimiao Fan, World Bank country director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides.

The Bangladesh Regional Waterway Transport Project-1 will help reduce travel time and cost for cargo and passenger transport, and boost national and regional trade, said the Washington-based lender.

IANS
Whisky makers in Scotland cheer Brexit boon

International

oi-PTI

Glasgow, Dec 21: While most of Scotland voted against leaving the European Union, whisky makers have quietly been making the best use of a side-effect of the Brexit vote -- a plunge in the value of the pound.

The currency devaluation has made exports cheaper, generating a bump since 90 per cent of Scotch whisky is sold outside Britain, although the industry warns the longer-term outlook is far more cloudy.

David Williamson, communications director for the Scotch Whisky Association, said: "Because of the relative strength of the pound we're certainly getting anecdotal reports back from our member companies that has helped to boost exports."

And Tony Reeman-Clark, who runs the Strathearn Distillery in Perthshire -- a relative newcomer to the market -- said: "I have been talking to people from bigger distilleries who said there has been a lot of interest, and a lot of sales, because of the weak pound."

Reeman-Clark, who is also the founder of the Scottish Craft Distillers Association, said Strathearn began producing whisky three years ago and its first 100 bottles were auctioned off on 1 December.The first sold for 4,150 pounds to an Italian buyer, far exceeding Reeman-Clark's expectations. He said he had received bids from as far away as "Auckland, Beijing, Hong Kong, Israel, Germany, America, all over the world".

Since the shock June vote the pound has tumbled about 15 percent against the greenback and Graham Hutcheon, the operations director of distiller Edrington, said the industry was having a "jamboree time". However, he urged the government to provide clarity on Brexit, Bloomberg news agency reported.

"We don't know the questions to ask, let alone answer," said Hutcheon, whose company makes whiskies such as Macallan and The Famous Grouse. More than 10,000 people are now directly employed in the industry -- up six per cent in the past three years - while a further 30,000 people are employed in its supply chain from bottling to distribution.

The main markets in the first half of this year were the US (357.4 million pounds), France (193.1 million pounds) and Singapore (99.6 million pounds), with total exports equivalent to 533 million bottles of whisky. More than 500 million bottles worth around 1.7 billion pounds are exported from Britain every year. The full impact of Brexit is not expected to be revealed until distillers complete their annual returns in early 2017.

PTI
WASHINGTON (AP)  Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht and major petrochemical company Braskem have agreed to pay a combined penalty of at least $3.5 billion to settle allegations that they bribed government officials in a dozen countries around the world, U.S. authorities said Wednesday.

The Brazilian corporations admitted to paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes, money that law enforcement officials say was authorized at the highest corporate levels and was concealed through shell companies and offshore entities. Both companies have pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges in federal court in New York and have resolved charges from the authorities in Brazil, Switzerland and the U.S.

The Justice Department called it the largest resolution ever under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a 1977 law that makes it illegal to bribe foreign government officials for business.

U.S. law enforcement officials say bribes totaling about $788 million were paid since 2001 in connection with approximately 100 projects around the world, including to secure public works contracts in Panama, Peru, Angola and several other countries. Some of the offshore entities that were used to hold and disburse the funds were owned or operated by people in the U.S., and some meetings where the scheming occurred took place in Miami, federal prosecutors said.

Court documents allege that Odebrecht created a stand-alone unit, called the Division of Special Operations, that "effectively functioned as a bribe department" within the company and that relied on an off-the-books communication system of secure emails, code names and passwords.

"Odebrecht had a division in its company dedicated solely to bribery, a full team of people dedicated to criminal conduct," FBI assistant director Stephen Richardson told reporters in a conference call.

The companies have both agreed to cooperate with law enforcement, including in investigations into individual company officials. They've also agreed to be under the watch of independent compliance monitors for the next three years.

Story continues

In a statement Wednesday, William Burck, a lawyer for Odebrecht, said the company was "glad to be turning the page and focusing on its future."

Earlier this month, the company apologized for its involvement in corruption scandals that led to the arrest of its former chief executives and several of its officials. It acknowledged having made serious mistakes and promised not to rely on extortion or bribes to get contracts from public officials. Odebrecht signed another agreement with Brazilian authorities to return almost $2 billion to public coffers.

The company is at the center of the mushrooming probe at state-run oil giant Petrobras, which has ensnared Brazilian politicians and business people across the board.

Some of the corrupt payments alleged Wednesday went to Petrobas employees and executives, and to political parties and government officials in Brazil, the Justice Department said. Prosecutors also accused Odebrecht of conspiring with other Brazilian construction companies to rig bids for Petrobas contracts.

Dozens of Odebrecht executives signed plea bargains with Brazilian prosecutors and as many as 200 politicians might be implicated in the corruption scandal. The company has fired 51 people who participated in the misconduct and disciplined an additional 26, according to the Justice Department's plea agreement.

Plea bargain testimony obtained by The Associated Press cites Brazilian President Michel Temer 44 times, with accusations of illegal campaign financing that put his embattled administration at an even bigger risk of ending within months.

The 82 pages of testimony by former Odebrecht director Claudio Melo Filho include allegations that Temer illegally financed his campaign in 2014. If the accusations are confirmed by Brazil's top electoral court next year, the president will be removed and Congress will pick a successor. In May, President Dilma Rousseff was impeached for breaking fiscal rules.

It is not clear whether U.S. prosecutors will be able to bring criminal charges against individual executives or employees implicated in the corruption, though they will likely face pressure to do so. A memo last year from Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates reminded Justice Department prosecutors that they should strive when possible to hold individuals accountable for corporate misconduct.

____

Savarese reported from Rio de Janeiro
Uproar in UP Assembly, BJP demands Azam Khan's resignation

Lucknow

oi-PTI

Lucknow, Dec 21: Question Hour of Uttar Pradesh Assembly today washed out amid uproar by BJP members demanding resignation of controversial minister Azam Khan for his alleged remark on the sensational Bulandshahr gangrape case. BJP and BSP members trooped into the Well of the House as soon as it met with separate banners demanding resignation of Azam Khan and over "poor law and order situation" in the state.

BJP members were demanding resignation of Khan for his alleged remark on Bulandshahr rape victims. BSP members having banners mentioning SP government as 'Bhrasthachari and kisan virodhi sarkar' (corrupt and anti-farmer government) and poor law and order in the state. Amid the din, Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey adjourned the House for entire Question Hour. Later, talking to reporters BJP legislative party leader Suresh Kumar Khanna demanded Khan's resignation.

"He has no moral right to sit in the House. He should resign and we are demanding it." The brutal Bulandshahr incident happened on the night of July 29, when a group of highway robbers stopped the car of a Noida based family and sexually assaulted a woman and her daughter after dragging them out of the vehicle at gun-point.

The Supreme Court had on August 29 taken note of the alleged controversial remarks of Khan that the gang rape case was a "political conspiracy". On November 17, the apex court directed Khan to tender an "unconditional apology" for his remarks and last week it accepted his "sincere and heartful remorse." Initially, the FIR was lodged by the Uttar Pradesh Police under various provisions on July 30. The CBI re-registered the case on August 18 in pursuance to the Allahabad High Court's interim order in the case.

PTI
'Vijay Mallya's airbus as should be sold as scrap'

Mumbai

oi-Vicky

Mumbai, Dec 21: 'Sell it as scrap' is what Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) said about VIjay Mallya's Airbus A 319 which remains parked in the city's airport. The submission was made before the Bombay High Court on Tuesday. Further the MIAL also urged the court not to grant the service tax department any additional time to find a buyer for this aircraft.

Also read: Mallya's Kingfisher House auction fails for the third time

The court was hearing a petition filed by the service tax department to recall the e-auction of the aircraft. The department told the court that the proceeds of the auction were low and the highest bid was only for 81.8 per cent of the reserve price. The department submitted that the aircraft should be valued at around 12 million dollars.

The MIAL, however, intervened and argued that it has been facing space crunch. The department should not be given any additional time to look for a new buyer. Instead CJ Leanings, the company that leased the aircraft to Mallya, should be asked if it was willing to buy back the plane, MIAL also argued.

MIAL also submitted that the plane is not in a condition to fly. It was seized in 2013 and three failed attempts were made to sell the aircraft. "It is no longer in a condition to fly and has turned into scrap," MIAL also argued. The court has granted the department time till January 19 2017 to get a revaluation of the plane done by experts.

OneIndia News
Zakir Naik's money trail- His family has the answers

Mumbai

oi-Vicky

Mumbai, Dec 21: In a bid to get to the bottom of the money trail, investigating officials have started questioning Dr Zakir Naik's family members. Investigations found that Naik, the controversial Islamic preacher, had used accounts of his family members to transfer money received by his NGO, Islamic Research Foundation (IRF).

Officials from various agencies have been questioning his family members to understand the money trail. Investigators are looking into accounts and are also trying to find out for what purpose the money had been used.

During the course of investigation it was found that Naik had transferred money received by his NGO to the accounts held by his relatives. The probe also found that the money which came into the IRF was moved into accounts held by his relatives and later routed through some companies.

Naik's family probed

Investigators are also looking at the companies that were floated. It is alleged that money was laundered through these companies. A senior official informed OneIndia that prima facie it appears as though money was moved out of the IRF into the accounts of family members.

Also read: Revealed: How Zakir Naik laundered money through his relatives' accounts

Further it was also found that nearly Rs 50 crore had been deposited into accounts held by Naik's relatives. The funds were routed into the accounts held by his wife and children. Naik had set up a video and television software production house called the Harmony Media in Mumbai. He is also alleged to have set up two real estate firms. These companies were set up between 2005 and 2008. It was found that Naik's wife was one of the promoters of the real estate firms.

Investigators also found that the real estate firms had not reported any income between 2009 and 2015. Further it was also found that the Harmony Media that was set up in 2005 saw a major growth in the past few years. Naik's wife was appointed on the board in 2006 but resigned in 2013.

What was done with the money?

The million dollar question is what exactly did Naik use the money for? There have been allegations that some part of the money was used for conversions. This was a case of the Kerala police which during investigations learnt that money for conversion had come from the donations that Naik had received.

Also read: Realty, construction firms associated with Zakir Naik under NIA scanner

The probe is still underway and the National Investigation Agency is looking into it, the Kerala police say.

Further doubts were raised when the NIA found that a scholarship was granted to a youth from Tonk in Rajasthan. The NIA said that Abu Anas received Rs 80,000 as scholarship in October 2015. Anas was arrested in January 2016 when he was trying to join the ISIS in Syria.

NIA officials say that they are joining the dots to see if the scholarship and the attempt made by Anas to join the ISIS was connected. After the Dhaka attack one of the terrorists had said that he was inspired by the speeches made by Naik. "We are finding out if this was the case regarding Anas too," the officer added.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, December 21, 2016, 8:16 [IST]
A 17 year old girl was shot dead by her friend in Delhi's Najafgarh area. Police officials said that the incident happened in the evening when the teen was returning home from a lunch with two friends, Shubham and Yogesh.
The West Bengal police have been arrested 25 people in connection with communal violence at Dhulagarh in Howrah district. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that BJP is trying to create communal violence in the state. The violence began after December 12, Muslims claimed that a Hindu group objected to their procession on the occasion of Milad-un-Nabi. Next day, a mob of Muslims attacked on Hindu houses and shops and set them fire.
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Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry speaks to shareholders during the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) annual general meeting in Mumbai, India June 28, 2013. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash/File Photo

By Promit Mukherjee and Euan Rocha

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Tata Sons' [TATAS.UL] ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry, in his first legal salvo against the conglomerate, has appealed to a quasi-judicial body to either replace the company's current board, or appoint a retired Supreme Court judge as non-executive chairman.

Mistry ratcheted up his battle versus the $100 billion salt-to-software conglomerate by filing a petition with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday.

The complaint levels allegations on mismanagement and corporate governance failures within the company, while also seeking to restrain Tata Sons from issuing any new equity or altering its articles of association, according to a copy of the petition seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

After resigning from the boards of listed Tata entities on Monday, Mistry vowed to keep up the fight to improve governance norms in the nearly 150-year-old conglomerate.

Mistry's petition alleges that Tata Sons abused its articles of association by "protecting the legacy left behind" by Ratan Tata, by continuing to invest in its "doomed Nano car project" and continuing to stick by its loss-making European assets that were acquired under Tata's watch before he retired in 2012.

Tata has returned as interim chairman of Tata Sons following Mistry's ouster as chairman in October.

Mistry has filed his claims under section 241 and 242 of the Companies Act of 2013 that deal with shareholder oppression and mismanagement.

Mistry's Shapoorji Pallonji family own a roughly 18 percent stake in Tata Sons, with Tata Trusts - a cluster of public charities - owning a controlling 66 percent stake in the holding company. The Trusts are currently chaired by Tata.

Mistry, who maintains he was illegally ousted as chairman, has for weeks waged a public war against the company and Tata.

The complaint also details Mistry's allegation that Tata and his long-time aide Noshir Soonawala, both trustees of Tata Trusts, undermined group company boards by demanding a say in key internal matters years after they had retired.

Story continues

He has also alleged malfeasance in the award of certain contracts by Tata entities and fraud at one of the group's aviation ventures.

Mistry has asked the tribunal to restrict Tata Sons from initiating any new line of business, or acquiring any new business without the permission of the tribunal.

Tata Sons has repeatedly rejected Mistry's allegations and dubbed them as "baseless, unsubstantiated and malicious".

In its statement on Tuesday, Tata Sons said it had followed the highest standards of corporate governance, while adding that it "views the petition as an unfortunate outcome".

(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee and Euan Rocha; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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SOFIA (Reuters) - More than 4,000 ducks were culled in Bulgaria over the past few days after bird flu was found on three farms, the Bulgarian food safety agency said on Monday. Some 3,150 of the ducks were from a farm in the southern village of Manole, another 900 ducks were from a farm in the northwestern town of Vratsa and several dozen of birds were from the village of Novo Selo on the river Danube. "They were killed after a virulent bird flu was discovered," Martin Radev, the agency spokesman said. "Most probably, it is H5N8 but I am still not able to confirm this because the laboratory tests are still under way." A series of European countries and Israel have found cases of H5N8 bird flu in the past few weeks and some ordered poultry flocks be kept indoors to prevent the disease spreading. France has extended restrictions to the entire country after the detection of several cases of the H5N8 strain on farms. A case of H5N8 bird flu was also reported on a farm in Britain on Friday and on two farms in Germany earlier on Monday. The Bulgarian authorities have introduced tougher sanitary rules to prevent infection, including a nationwide ban on poultry markets. Hunting of game birds has also been prohibited. (Reporting by Angel Krasimirov. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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.

From Sputnik



Flying High

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Never in living memory has the West been plunged into the kind of hysteria and madness that currently engulfs its political and media establishments.



Just pause to consider where we are for a moment. We have lame-duck US president, in the shape of Barack Obama, threatening Russia with retaliation for alleged Russian cyber-hacking and interference in the US elections, while at the same time the man who is about to replace him in the White House in just a few weeks, Donald Trump, has been refuting those allegations.

What does this say about the level of polarization and disunity that has become the new normal in Washington? It describes political paralysis and a political class thrown into disarray by its inability to come to terms with a world that has changed -- i.e., one that is no longer theirs to dominate and control. It is a truth, a hard truth, that many in Washington are clearly unable to grasp, plunging normally rational human beings into paroxysms of anguish and despair.



There is simply no other explanation for the torrent of anti-Russia paranoia that has been unleashed since the US presidential election on November 11. Indeed, it has now surpassed a torrent and to become a full-blown flood, wherein everything from Trump's victory to Brexit to the weather is being blamed on Moscow. It is what democracy looks like when it is tested and fails that test.



Not that this is a defense of Donald Trump. My own preference for president, speaking as a non-US citizen, was Bernie Sanders, the only candidate whose anti-establishment principles on the side of working people are authentic, inclusive, and eminently more credible than Mr Trump's.

But then Sanders was denied the nomination by a Democratic Party machine that supported Hillary Clinton's nomination from the outset, and which approached the presidential election as courtiers at a coronation rather than officials running an impartial primaries election process. It is their inability to deal with Clinton's defeat at the hands of a billionaire reality TV star with no prior political experience that lies at the root of the current crisis.



On the allegations of hacking, a group in the US calling itself Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) publicly disputes them. The group's spokesman, Bill Binney, a former high level intelligence analyst with the United States National Security Agency (NSA), believes that contrary to the claim that the emails released by WikiLeaks came via somebody hacking the DNC, they were instead leaked from within Washington.

In a recent open letter, six retired US intelligence officials write:

"The evidence that should be there is absent; otherwise, it would surely be brought forward, since this could be done without any danger to sources and methods. Thus, we conclude that the emails were leaked by an insider -- as was the case with Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning. Such an insider could be anyone in a government department or agency with access to NSA databases, or perhaps someone within the DNC."

Britain's former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, has also stated that the so-called Podesta (John Podesta, Clinton presidential campaign chairman) emails were leaked from within Washington, and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange maintains that they have not come from Russia or have anything to do with Russia.

Thus far the CIA has failed to produce any compelling evidence for its allegations that Russia hacked the DNC and interfered with the US election. However there is a vast trove of evidence that the CIA, throughout its history, has interfered with countless elections, subverted the political systems of other countries, and worked to bring down sovereign governments all over the world. For a comprehensive account of this ignoble history and record, the work of US author and historian William Blum is unsurpassed.



History reveals that the decline of empire is a messy affair. The ideological and psychological shock suffered by its proponents is monumental, challenging received truths and cultural values without which they are left rudderless and spiritually bereft. This is what we are witnessing now when it comes to the decline of the empire of our time, emanating from Washington.



As such, the challenge for the rest of the world is managing that decline, the psychological and ideological damage incurred, to ensure the process of transition from uni-polarity to multi-polarity is as smooth as it can possibly be under the circumstances.





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Ann Wright being arrested

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Governments go to pretty low tricks to silent dissent -- curtailing ones that travel to neighboring countries and now stopping social security checks.

First, in 2005 and 2006 it was the Bush administration putting some of us protesting Bush's war on Iraq on the National Crime Information Data base. Yes, we had been arrested for failure to comply with orders to move from the fence in front of the White House during protests against the war on Iraq, torture at Guantanamo and other US prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan or refusing to end protests by sitting in ditches at Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch. But these were misdemeanors, not felonies, yet we were put on the FBI's international crime list, a list for felony violations.

Fortunately, Canada is the only country that seems to use the list-and they use it to deny entry into Canada. At the request of Canadian parliamentarians to challenge Canada's compliance with the Bush administration's political retaliation list, I made another trip to Canada to test it and was expelled from Canada in 2007. The Canadian immigration officer told me as he was putting me unceremoniously on the flight back to the U.S., "An expulsion is not as bad as being deported. At least each time you want to attempt to come into Canada, you can undergo 3-5 hours of interrogation answering the same questions as the last time you attempted to enter and you might get an exemption to the expulsion. With a deportation, you will never get in."

Over the past six years, I have gone through the lengthy interrogation twice and was given a 24-hour exemption to the expulsion on one occasion when accompanied by a Canadian parliamentarian and a Canadian Broadcasting TV crew filming the event, and the second time a two-day exemption in order to speak at several Canadian universities.

Now under the Obama administration, the latest effort to silence dissent, for those of you 62 or older, is someone in the government falsifying jail records to show that you were in jail/confinement for more than 30 days and sending the records to the Social Security Administration. SSA will then stop your monthly Social Security check and will send you a letter stating that you must repay back months of payments for the time you were allegedly in jail -- in my case $4,273.60.

On March 31, 2016, I, along with seven others, six Veterans for Peace and one Granny Peace Brigade members, was arrested at Creech drone base, Nevada as a part of the semi-annual protest against assassin drones. We spent five hours in the Clark County Jail as our arrests were processed and then were released. Our cases of being charged with "failure to disperse" were eventually dropped by the Clark County court.

Yet, someone submitted my name and social security number to SSA as a person who has been confined in a jail since September 2016. Without any notification to me of this allegation that would disrupt for months my Social Security benefits, SSA ordered that for my "criminal conviction and confinement in a correctional institution for more than 30 days, we cannot pay your monthly Social Security payment."

I have gone to my local SSA office in Honolulu and explained the situation. The office staff said their supervisor must call Las Vegas and get documents that I have not been convicted of a crime, nor that I am in jail or have been in jail for 30 days or more. Until then, the monthly social security checks are stopped. As we know, investigations by the government bureaucracy can take many months if not years. In the meantime, the checks are suspended.

If I didn't know better I might think this is part of the Israeli "lawfare" program in which Israel attempts to derail protests against its policies by filing bogus lawsuits that end up having to be answered in court, tying up time and human and financial resources. Since I came back in October from Israeli prison after having been kidnapped on the Women's Boat to Gaza, taken against my will to Israel, charged with entering Israel illegally and deported ...again. This is the second time I have been deported from Israel for challenging the illegal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. My deportations from Israel now total 20 years, which preclude me from visiting Israel or the West Bank.

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To welcome you and ease your transition to D.C., I'm writing again. I've already introduced you to your councilmember. Now let's talk about your new hotel, just blocks from the White House.

It's really something! And, despite a damning reviews, so popular! At least among a certain crowd.

Diplomats the world over are eager -- certainly not pressured -- to throw money your way.

"Why wouldn't I stay at his hotel?" a diplomat from Asia asked the Washington Post. "Isn't it rude to come to his city and say, 'I'm staying at your competitor?'"

"Believe me, all the delegations will go there," explained a diplomat from the Middle East.

I know, I know, you're not at all surprised by the success. Like you said, "occupancy at that hotel will be probably a more valuable asset now than it was before [the election]."

Of course with the big bucks rolling in, there's bound to be a few haters.

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Corporate News

(Image by nationofchange.org/2015/wp-content/uploads/corporate-media.jpg) Details DMCA



This just in.

The fledgling government of President-elect Donald Trump suffered a serious setback this week when US Intelligence agencies went public with their "consensus" that high-ranking officials within the Russian government "interfered" with the recent presidential election.

According to the Washington Post and the New York Times, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his FBS associates accessed the Democratic National Committee's email account in an effort to tilt the 2016 election in Trump's favor. Putin is, according to anonymous sources within the CIA, a close friend of President-elect Trump. Since he's Russian and therefore by default a threat to US interests, he is obviously a "person of interest" when it comes to subversive leaks. That is, "hacks." In addition, sources close to the investigation indicate that, since Putin is already considered a suspect, "he must be guilty of something."

Progressives and other anti-America organizations were quick to point out that neither the CIA nor the White House has provided any evidence to support the claim that Russia was actually involved.

Unnamed sources within the Obama White House, however, tell All News Network that government officials aren't losing sleep over whether or not Progressives believe Putin hacked the recent election. "We know what we know. They'll just have to trust us."

"Trust us?" Where have we heard that before?

Oh, right ...

In 1964 Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave President Lyndon Johnson the power to wage full-scale war in Vietnam. The resolution was based on a lie concocted by the very same intelligence agencies, and spread by the very same corporate media, that are now saying Russia "hacked" the 2016 presidential election.

In 1983 President Ronald Reagan declared Nicaragua an imminent threat and ordered the CIA to arm the "contras" seeking to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Daniel Ortega. Reagan's covert war in Latin American was based on a lie concocted by the very same intelligence agencies, and spread by the very same corporate media, that are now saying Russia "hacked" the 2016 presidential election.

In 1990 George HW Bush took the US to war with Iraq because Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had allegedly "annexed" Kuwait. The war was based on a lie concocted by the very same intelligence agencies, and spread by the very same corporate media, that are now saying Russia "hacked" the 2016 presidential election.

In 2003 George W Bush took the US to war with Iraq because he said Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks. The war was based on a lie concocted by the very same intelligence agencies, and spread by the very same corporate media, that are now convinced Russia "interfered" with the 2016 presidential election.

In 2013 President Obama was on the verge of taking the US to war with Syria when he accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of using chemical weapons against the citizens of Ghouta. One year later Obama was on the verge of taking the US to war with Russia when he blamed pro-Russian separatists for shooting down Malaysian Airlines Flight 47. Both charges were based on lies (here / here) concocted by the very same intelligence agencies, and spread by the very same corporate media (here / here), that are now declaring Russia "hacked" the 2016 presidential election.

Given its history, one could legitimately assume that the US gov't is run by crooks, charlatans and sociopaths, that it functions as the operational arm of a criminal enterprise, with corporate media as its mouthpiece, and that the two work in tandem to ensure elite rule.

What's important to keep in mind is that fake news and fake-news sites dominate the public airwaves and viewers need to be cautious consumers of what they see and hear on MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS -- or what they read in the New York Times and the Washington Post. These are corporate entities. They do not exist to inform. They exist to confuse, to obfuscate, and to incite.

Not here.

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When is the last time the American people have seen an incoming U.S. president take a stand against the ultra-powerful CIA and then act as the defense attorney of an adversarial nation, in this case, Russia, and its leader Putin? I can't recall that ever happening but, strange as it may be, it's happening right now.

Something is not passing the smell test and it just might be the budding relationship that has developed in recent times between Trump and his Russian friends. This is quite troubling in that every time the CIA or the FBI makes a statement about this investigation about Russia's intervention in America's election process Trump immediately comes out to raise an objection to the accusations.

The Guardian recently reported: "Donald Trump said on Sunday that a CIA conclusion that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election was 'ridiculous', and that he did not believe that the Kremlin had tried to bolster his candidacy." Further, that "the CIA's assessment was just another excuse for his stunning defeat of Hillary Clinton last month."

Trump may have made a huge mistake when he decided to disparage the CIA for its accusations against Russia. From CNN: "President-elect Donald Trump's transition team slammed the CIA Friday, following reports the agency has concluded that Russia intervened in the election to help him win."

The NY Times reported that Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, had divulged that the Russian government had maintained contact with members of Trump's campaign during the election process. Ryabkov said, ""Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage."

Later, probably because he was forced by his Russian bosses to back off that statement, he said that the contacts were actually made with U.S. politicians and supporters of Trump and not his campaign staff. You can be sure the CIA is going to very closely follow up on that specific report.

Talk about getting off on the wrong foot! Trump will find that discrediting the CIA's conclusions may come back to "bite" him. But that's what Mr. Trump does to anyone who dares to question anything he says or does. However, the CIA is a very powerful organization run by deeply embedded officials; as such you should want this kind of organization on your side and working for you, rather than angered.

As he is prone to do in so many situations Trump has now placed himself in the middle of a massive political storm as U.S. intelligence agencies dig deeper and deeper into this issue. Instead of lashing out at the CIA he should have let things evolve and let the CIA and the FBI come up with the evidence to prove their contentions.

Maybe they can and maybe they can't so we'll just have to wait and see. Perhaps Trump reacted so strongly and quickly because he has something to hide and he's trying to prevent further investigations. That's never going to work.

These allegations by the CIA may largely stem from the fact that several of Trump's close associates are known to have close ties with the Russians directly or indirectly. One is Paul Mantefort, who once was in charge of Trump's campaign and who worked closely with pro-Russian operatives in Ukraine. The other is Rex Tillerson, Trump's choice for Secretary of State who has had a great deal of interaction with Russia, including meetings with Putin himself.

Then there is Carter Page, a Trump foreign policy adviser, who also has had very close business ties within Russia for some time. He will certainly come under scrutiny by those conducting these investigations. There are numerous stories emerging about the strong belief that the Russian government has for years been working to cultivate a relationship with Trump.

The CIA is said to have been looking into the connections between Trump and his various advisers and Russia for some time now. So when it suddenly announces that it has some definite evidence in this matter it's highly likely that they actually have something concrete. Where there's smoke there often is fire.

What about the Republican Party; does it seem to be alarmed and upset about this possible Russian intervention? Well, except for John McCain and Lindsey Graham, its leadership and most all its members are remaining silent and not pressing for a full investigation. It's becoming crystal clear that Trump has quickly managed to remove the fangs of the Republican Party, and the vast majority of its Congressional members.

One thing for sure; from now until Trump's inauguration the CIA and the FBI will be burning the midnight oil looking for more evidence of some kind of political collusion between the Russians and Trump and/or his advisers. And if it's out there somewhere in the cyber world chances are that they are going to find it.

If an in depth investigation determines that there was a covert plan between the Trump campaign and the Russians to use highly sophisticated methods to infiltrate and manipulate election results to make certain that Trump would win, then all hell is going to break loose and Mr. Trump will be in big time trouble.

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From could-be to maybe to impossible-to-scoff,

We've seen this scam building from five whole weeks off,

To corner the Donald and make him go squirms

On good Russ relations and then come to terms

With neocon thinking that like weeds and bugs

Infects foreign policy and MSM thugs.

Layer on layer the stories do mount,

Till they've reached Putin on whom they can count,

To provide us a baddie dark-scowling and fraught,

And lend that round mug to a scam-job well-wrought.

Like CSI-Vegas you need some big crumb,

To scare up some audience and rattle the dumb.

How Vlad must despair of our media wattle,

When he loosens tie and uncorks a good bottle!

He can't fight it or bribe it or bomb it to bits;

Just tell his own version and hope for some hits.

But diff' versions go begging along the airwaves:

RT on a good day or Alex Jones raves.

You'd think after all of the mess with Joe Mc,

We'd avoid a new crisis and ask for proof quick.

Bin Laden, Saddam, and now back to Russians,

All of it certain, no room for discussions.

Like A/C on cars the truth is an option,

Abandoned in haste, given up in adoption.
From Consortium News

Barack Obama's chance for a transformative presidency ended when he bowed to Official Washington's foreign-policy establishment of neocons and liberal interventionists and bought into the elitist notion that the American people should be guided by propaganda, not informed by facts.

Although he began his presidency by promising transparency, Obama instead undertook an unprecedented crackdown on national security whistleblowers, prosecuting more than all other presidents combined. Meanwhile, he authorized partial and misleading releases of information about key events. Instead of an informed public, his administration sought maximum propaganda advantage, such as with the Aug. 21, 2013 sarin gas attack outside Damascus, Syria, and with the July 17, 2014 shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine.

But Obama's anti-democratic approach to information, i.e., treating Americans like mushrooms in a darkened cellar, creates an opportunity for President-elect Donald Trump to do the opposite, reinvigorate U.S. democracy by arming citizens with facts. By doing so, he also can counter his reputation as someone hostile to reality.

Once in office, Trump could use his power over pardons and commutations to reverse Obama's punishment of truth-tellers -- the likes of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden -- and Trump can authorize as full a release of evidence about turning-point events as possible. There's no justifiable reason for the U.S. intelligence community to continue to withhold its assessments on the Syria-sarin case, which killed hundreds of civilians, or on the shoot-down of MH-17, which killed 298 people.

I've been told by intelligence sources that there is a great deal more evidence regarding each incident than the Obama administration has shared even with official inquiries, although holding back this information has allowed guilty parties to escape while sending investigators off in wrong directions. [See here and here.]

Instead of pursuing justice, the Obama administration exploited the atrocities to demonize geopolitical "enemies." The sarin case was pinned on the Syrian government and the MH-17 shoot-down was blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin -- all the better to gin up the New Cold War and justify massive new armaments spending.

Official Washington's foreign-policy establishment, aided and abetted by the mainstream U.S. media, also concealed or played down other relevant facts about Syria and Ukraine. Regarding Syria, the Obama administration hid the degree of collaboration between U.S.-backed "moderate" Syrian rebels and radical jihadists, including Al Qaeda's affiliate, Nusra Front. On Ukraine, Obama concealed American complicity in the violent putsch that overthrew Ukraine's elected President Viktor Yanukovych and threw Ukraine into a nasty civil war with the pro-U.S. side relying on neo-Nazi storm troopers to kill ethnic Russian Ukrainians. Those realities had to be whitewashed because they didn't reinforce the desired narrative.

Opening the Records

On his first day in office, President Trump could order his CIA Director Mike Pompeo to review these cases and release all information that does not compromise sensitive sources and methods. The order could extend to other intelligence-related mysteries, including some that may reflect poorly on Republicans such as the October Surprise mystery of 1980, whether Ronald Reagan's campaign went behind President Jimmy Carter's back to undermine his hostage negotiations with Iran and thus ensure Reagan's election.

By demonstrating a readiness to tell it like it is -- regardless of where the partisan chips fall -- Trump could reassure nervous Democrats and progressives who view him as a demagogue who disdains facts and exploits emotions for political gain. He could reverse that negative image by doing what Obama promised -- but failed to deliver on -- a transparent government that trusts the people.

Trump also could put mainstream U.S. media outlets in a bind since they would have to admit that much of what they have reported about Syria and Ukraine amounted to either propaganda or disinformation. As much as the big newspapers have decried Trump as a purveyor of "fake news," they would have a hard time arguing against the release of information that gives Americans a fuller understanding of the world around them.

After opening up these intelligence files, Trump could explain why he believes neocon/liberal-hawk "regime change" strategies are unwise and how relations with Moscow could be improved based on a clear knowledge of what the Kremlin has and has not done, rather than a slanted and selective presentation of propaganda designed to manage the perceptions of the American people.

Advice to Obama

In early 2014, as the New Cold War was starting to heat up, I advocated for President Obama to find within himself the courage that Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy displayed when they explained real dangers that Americans faced from, respectively, the Military Industrial Complex and the demonizing of Moscow's leaders in the pursuit of the original Cold War.

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Thermal Power in Indonesia, Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2016 - Capacity, Generation, Investment Trends, Regulations and Company Profiles

http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis/901208

http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/901208

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"The Report Thermal Power in Indonesia, Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2016 - Capacity, Generation, Investment Trends, Regulations and Company Profiles provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz""Thermal Power in Indonesia, Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2016 - Capacity, Generation, Investment Trends, Regulations and Company Profiles is the latest report from GlobalData, the industry analysis specialists that offer comprehensive information and understanding of the thermal power market.The report provides in depth analysis on global thermal power market with forecasts up to 2030. The report analyzes the power market scenario in the Indonesia(includes thermal, nuclear, large hydro, pumped storage and renewable energy sources) and provides future outlook with forecasts up to 2030. The research details thermal power market outlook in the country and provides forecasts up to 2030. The report highlights installed capacity and power generation trends from 2006 to 2030 in the Indonesia thermal power market. A detailed coverage of energy policy framework governing the market with specific policies pertaining to thermal is provided in the report. The research also provides details of active thermal power plants in the country, upcoming thermal installation details and company snapshots of some of the major market participants.The report is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, secondary research and in-house analysis by GlobalDatas team of industry experts.View Report AtScopeThe report analyses global thermal power market, the Indonesia power market and the Indonesia thermal power market. The scope of the research includes -- A brief introduction on global carbon emissions and global primary energy consumption.- Historical period is during 2006-2015 (unless specified) and forecast period is for 2015-2030.- Detailed overview on the global thermal power market with installed capacity and generation trends, market forces analysis (drivers, restraints and challenges), installed capacity by fuel type, installed capacity split by region, installed capacity split by major countries and cross country comparison among thermal sources such as coal, oil and gas.- Power market scenario in the Indonesia and provides detailed market overview, installed capacity and power generation trends by various fuel types (includes thermal, nuclear, large hydro and renewable energy sources) with forecasts up to 2030.- Detailed overview of the Indonesia thermal power market with installed capacity and generation trends, installed capacity by fuel type, net capacity addition by fuel type, owners share, market size of major equipments such as steam generator and turbine, and information on major active and upcoming projects.- Key policies and regulatory framework supporting thermal power development.- Company snapshots of some of the major market participants in the country.Reasons to buyThe report will enhance your decision making capability in a more rapid and time sensitive manner. It will allow you to -- Identify key growth and investment opportunities in the Indonesia thermal power market.- Facilitate decision-making based on strong historic and forecast data for thermal power market.- Position yourself to gain the maximum advantage of the industrys growth potential.- Develop strategies based on the latest regulatory events.- Identify key partners and business development avenues.- Understand and respond to your competitors business structure, strategy and prospects.Download Sample copy of this Report at :Table of Contents1 Table of Contents 21.1 List of Tables 61.2 List of Figures 72 Executive Summary 92.1 Global Thermal Power will Continue to be the Major Source of Electricity, despite Decreasing Growth Rate of Capacity 92.2 Fossil Fuels Lead the League in Indonesian Power Mix 92.3 Coal to have Maximum Net Capacity Additions in Indonesia 113 Introduction 123.1 Carbon Emissions, Global, 2001-2015 123.2 Primary Energy Consumption, Global, 2001-2025 153.3 Report Guidance 174 Thermal Power Market, Global, 2006-2030 184.1 Thermal Power Market, Global, Overview 184.2 Thermal Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity, 2006-2030 194.3 Thermal Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity Share by Region, 2015 and 2030 214.3.1 Thermal Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity Share by Country, 2015 and 2030 234.3.2 Thermal Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity Share by Segment, 2015 and 2030 254.4 Thermal Power Market, Global, Power Generation, 2006-2030 264.4.1 Thermal Power Market, Global, Generation Share by Region, 2015 and 2030 284.4.2 Thermal Power Market, Global, Generation Share by Country, 2015 and 2030 304.4.3 Thermal Power Market, Global, Generation Share by Segment, 2015 and 2030 325 Coal Power Market, Global, 2006-2030 345.1 Coal Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity, 2006-2030 345.1.1 Coal Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity Share by Region, 2015 and 2030 365.1.2 Coal Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity Share by Country, 2015 and 2030 385.2 Coal Power Market, Global, Power Generation, 2006-2030 405.2.1 Coal Power Market, Global, Generation Share by region, 2015 and 2030 425.2.2 Coal Power Market, Global, Generation Share by Country, 2015 and 2030 446 Oil Power Market, Global, 2006-2030 466.1 Oil Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity, 2006-2030 466.1.1 Oil Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity Share by Region, 2015 and 2030 486.1.2 Oil Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity Share by Country, 2015 and 2030 506.2 Oil Power Market, Global, Power Generation, 2006-2030 526.2.1 Oil Power Market, Global, Generation Share by Region, 2015 and 2030 546.2.2 Oil Power Market, Global, Generation Share by Country, 2015 and 2030 567 Gas Power Market, Global, 2006-2030 587.1 Gas Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity, 2006-2030 587.1.1 Gas Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity Share by Region, 2015 and 2030 607.1.2 Gas Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity Share by Country, 2015 and 2030 627.2 Gas Power Market, Global, Power Generation, 2006-2030 647.2.1 Gas Power Market, Global, Generation Share by Region, 2015 and 2030 667.2.2 Gas Power Market, Global, Generation Share by Country, 2015 and 2030 688 Power Market, Indonesia, 2006-2030 70MarketResearchReports.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
Mining Chemicals Market Size, Share, Analysis, Report and Forecast to 2022

According to Stratistics MRC, the Global Mining Chemicals Market accounted for $22.17 billion in 2015 and expected to reach $34.39 billion growing at a CAGR of 6.5% during the forecast period of 2015 to 2022. The lessening ore quality has bound metal extraction companies to use flocculants, frothers, collectors, grinding aids and solvent extract ants for better extraction. Increasing applications of metal in packaging, construction and oil & gas industries in fast growing economies has led to an increase in mining activities, in addition to this the growing population and urbanization is driving the market growth. But high cost of production had given major setback and restrained the market growth.Grinding aids segment accounted for the largest revenue owing to their increasing use in inducing floatability of ore which enables easier metal extraction. Moreover, flocculants are expected to be the fastest growing due to an increase in waste water treatment. Asia Pacific is estimated to be the fastest growing market owing to the rising incidents of mining activities in the region.Some of the major players of the mining chemicals market include Air Products and Chemicals, Akzonobel, Arizona Chemicals Co., Arrmaz Gulf Chemicals, Arrmazcustom Chemicals, Ashland Inc., Austin Powder Co., BASF SE, Beijing Hengju, Cheminova A/S, Clariant Ag, Cytec Industries Inc., Nasco International, SNF FloMin and The Dow Chemical Company.Products Covered: Flotation Collectors Flocculants Solvent Extractants Frothers Scale inhibitors Crystal Growth modifiers Defoamers Grindidng Aids Other Productso Depressantso Activatorso ModifiersApplications Covered: Mineral processing Explosives and Drilling Water and Wastewater treatment Other Applicationso Analysis & ExplorationRegions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo UKo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of the Worldo Middle Easto Brazilo Argentinao South Africao EgyptWhat our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 7 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsWe offer wide spectrum of research and consulting services with in-depth knowledge of different industries. We are known for customized research services, consulting services and Full Time Equivalent (FTE) services in the research world. We explore the market trends and draw our insights with valid assessments and analytical views. We use advanced techniques and tools among the quantitative and qualitative methodologies to identify the market trends. Our research reports and publications are routed to help our clients to design their business models and enhance their business growth in the competitive market scenario. We have a strong team with hand-picked consultants including project managers, implementers, industry experts, researchers, research evaluators and analysts with years of experience in delivering the complex projects.STRATISTICS MRC17049 King James Way, Gaithersburg,MD, 20877, USA
The smart way of designing test environments

www.professionaltester.com/files/PT-issue39.pdf

Moehrendorf, 16 December 2016  Test environments are a crucial factor for every software quality project. However, their contribution to the projects success is often underestimated. In the new issue of Professional Tester, Dr Christian Brandes outlines an approach for designing test environments in a feasible, describable and comparable way.What is needed for conceiving an appropriate test environment? There is no enshrined set of standards yet. In addition to that, the definition of a term like near environment is often imprecise. Hence it is high time for a systematic approach in describing and comparing test environments.Dr Christian Brandes, trainer and principal consultant at imbus, does so in his new technical article named Designing Near-Production Test Environments. He examines already existing standards for environments in IT and defines near-production as a central term. After that, the journey from the test objective via required near-production to the test environment is displayed. The readers learn how to identify multi-purpose environments and their characteristics.By using Dr Christian Brandes approach, newly emerging requests for environments can be catered to a reliable manner. All stakeholders get a common understanding and vocabulary making the communication a lot easier. Diverging ideas about test environments can be documented in a collaborative and comprehensible way.The entire article can be downloaded free of charge atimbus is a leading solution partner for professional software testing and intelligent software quality assurance.Our portfolio includes consulting for process improvement, software testing services, test outsourcing, test tools, and training.With our comprehensive know-how, the latest tools, and our proven methodology, we increase the reliability and performance of software products, software-intensive systems, and complete IT structures, and as a manufacturer-independent partner, we assure their correct functionality.Since 1992, the experienced and highly-qualified imbus team has been synonymous with across-the-board software quality assurance from a single source that covers the entire lifecycle.The expertise acquired from around 6,000 successful projects over a period of 20 years provides a solid foundation for the daily work of our experts, all of whom are ISTQB Certified Testers. Here you can find the corresponding reference projects.imbus is currently represented by more than 260 employees at locations in Moehrendorf near Erlangen, Munich, Cologne, Hofheim near Frankfurt, Lehre near Braunschweig, Norderstedt near Hamburg, Toronto (Canada), Shanghai (China), Peja (Kosovo) and Sousse (Tunisia).imbus AGPress OfficeFiona ProellKleinseebacher Str. 991096 MoehrendorfGermanyPhone +49 9131 7518-0Fax +49 9131 7518-50Mail presse@imbus.de
EuroPriSe: GDPR ready certification criteria for products and services to be operational from January 2017

Logo: EuroPriSe GmbH

https://www.european-privacy-seal.eu/EPS-en/Criteria

www.european-privacy-seal.eu

In spring 2016, the entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which will be applicable from late May 2018 required EuroPriSe to initiate an update of its certification criteria. The major objective of this update was to incorporate the new legal provisions that are introduced by the regulation into the existing certification catalogue. At the same time, EuroPriSe Certification Authority (CA) took the opportunity to adjust this catalogue to the effect that it distinguishes now even clearer between the certification of IT products and the two main types of IT-based services (controller services vs. processor services).A full-fledged draft version of the updated criteria catalogue was distributed to the members of the EuroPriSe advisory board and discussed during the third meeting of the board in early December. EuroPriSe took the advice of the board to further improve the readability and understandability of the catalogue and made further amendments to the document subsequent to the meeting. Today, the final outcome of the months-long update process is published.The new, GDPR ready version of our criteria catalogue may be used for future (re)certification projects from January 2017 says Sebastian Meissner, Head of the EuroPriSe Certification Authority. Hereby, EuroPriSes existing and future clients are given the opportunity to prove from day 1 of the GDPRs applicability that their products and services comply with the new legislative framework.The new criteria catalogue is publicly available atAbout EuroPriSeEuroPriSe started as an EU-funded project aimed at establishing a trans-European privacy seal. Today, EuroPriSe offers certifications for IT products, IT-based services and websites throughout the EU. A unique certification, the EuroPriSe seal assures users that their personal data are handled in accordance with European data protection laws. As the only EU-wide, independent privacy seal, EuroPriSe enables enterprises to demonstrate their compliance with European laws and regulations. EuroPriSe certifications have been awarded to businesses of all sizes, including small and medium-sized companies as well as multinational organizations such as Microsoft, SAP and Siemens.Press contact:Sebastian MeissnerEuroPriSe GmbHJoseph-Schumpeter-Allee 25, 53227 Bonn, GermanyEmail: contact@european-privacy-seal.euPhone: +49 228 763 679 30
Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) and Companies Involved in Therapeutics Development Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) and Companies Involved in Therapeutics Development

Ethocle Reports latest Pharmaceutical and Healthcare disease pipeline guide Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome)  Pipeline Review, H2 2016, provides an overview of the Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) (Central Nervous System) pipeline landscape. Infantile spasms are a type of epilepsy with a characteristic age of onset (typical age when seizures start), pattern of seizures and electroencephalogram (EEG). Symptoms include typical pattern is of a sudden flexion (bending forward) in a tonic (stiffening) fashion of the body, arms and legs. Sometimes, the episodes are different, with the arms and legs being flung outwards (these are called extensor spasms). Causes include central nervous system infections, abnormal brain development or injury, genetic abnormalities (Down syndrome, Miller-Dieker syndrome) and metabolic disorders (mitochondrial diseases, phenylketonuria, and hypoglycemia). Treatment includes antiepileptic medications.

Report Highlights Ethocle Reports Pharmaceutical and Healthcare latest pipeline guide Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome)  Pipeline Review, H2 2016, provides comprehensive information on the therapeutics under development for Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) (Central Nervous System), complete with analysis by stage of development, drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type.

Read Complete Report @ http://www.ethoclereports.com/report_details/5858fd30821fb12b5484a9da

The guide covers the descriptive pharmacological action of the therapeutics, its complete research and development history and latest news and press releases. The Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) (Central Nervous System) pipeline guide also reviews of key players involved in therapeutic development for Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) and features dormant and discontinued projects. The guide covers therapeutics under Development by Companies /Universities /Institutes, the molecules developed by Companies in Phase II, Phase I and Preclinical stages are 2, 2 and 4 respectively.Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome). Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) (Central Nervous System) pipeline guide helps in identifying and tracking emerging players in the market and their portfolios, enhances decision making capabilities and helps to create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage.

The guide is built using data and information sourced from Ethocle Reports proprietary databases, company/university websites, clinical trial registries, conferences, SEC filings, investor presentations and featured press releases from company/university sites and industry-specific third party sources. Additionally, various dynamic tracking processes ensure that the most recent developments are captured on a real time basis. Note: Certain content / sections in the pipeline guide may be removed or altered based on the availability and relevance of data. Scope - The pipeline guide provides a snapshot of the global therapeutic landscape of Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) (Central Nervous System). - The pipeline guide reviews pipeline therapeutics for Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) (Central Nervous System) by companies and universities/research institutes based on information derived from company and industry-specific sources. - The pipeline guide covers pipeline products based on several stages of development ranging from pre-registration till discovery and undisclosed stages. - The pipeline guide features descriptive drug profiles for the pipeline products which comprise, product description, descriptive licensing and collaboration details, R&D brief, MoA & other developmental activities. - The pipeline guide reviews key companies involved in Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) (Central Nervous System) therapeutics and enlists all their major and minor projects. - The pipeline guide evaluates Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) (Central Nervous System) therapeutics based on mechanism of action (MoA), drug target, route of administration (RoA) and molecule type. - The pipeline guide encapsulates all the dormant and discontinued pipeline projects. - The pipeline guide reviews latest news related to pipeline therapeutics for Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) (Central Nervous System) Reasons to buy - Procure strategically important competitor information, analysis, and insights to formulate effective R&D strategies. - Recognize emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter-strategies to gain competitive advantage. - Find and recognize significant and varied types of therapeutics under development for Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) (Central Nervous System). 

Classify potential new clients or partners in the target demographic. - Develop tactical initiatives by understanding the focus areas of leading companies. - Plan mergers and acquisitions meritoriously by identifying key players and its most promising pipeline therapeutics. - Formulate corrective measures for pipeline projects by understanding Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) (Central Nervous System) pipeline depth and focus of Indication therapeutics. 

Develop and design in-licensing and out-licensing strategies by identifying prospective partners with the most attractive projects to enhance and expand business potential and scope. - Adjust the therapeutic portfolio by recognizing discontinued projects and understand from the know-how what drove them from pipeline.

Buy this report@ http://www.ethoclereports.com/report_details/5858fd30821fb12b5484a9da

Table of Content includes:-

Table of Contents 2

List of Tables 4

List of Figures 4

Introduction 5

Global Markets Direct Report Coverage 5

Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) Overview 6

Therapeutics Development 7

Pipeline Products for Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) - Overview 7

Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) - Therapeutics under Development by Companies 8

Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) - Pipeline Products Glance 9

Clinical Stage Products 9

Early Stage Products 10

Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) - Products under Development by Companies 11

Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) - Companies Involved in Therapeutics Development 12

Anavex Life Sciences Corp 12

Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Inc 13

GW Pharmaceuticals Plc 14

INSYS Therapeutics Inc 15

Novartis AG 16

Retrophin Inc 17

Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) - Therapeutics Assessment 18

Assessment by Monotherapy Products 18

Assessment by Target 19

Assessment by Mechanism of Action 21

Assessment by Route of Administration 23

Assessment by Molecule Type 25

Drug Profiles 27

ANAVEX-273 - Drug Profile 27

Product Description 27

Mechanism Of Action 27

R&D Progress 27

AVL-5189 - Drug Profile 35

Product Description 35

Mechanism Of Action 35

R&D Progress 35

cannabidiol - Drug Profile 36

Product Description 36

Mechanism Of Action 36

R&D Progress 36

cannabidiol - Drug Profile 42

Product Description 42

Mechanism Of Action 42

R&D Progress 42

cosyntropin - Drug Profile 45

Product Description 45

Mechanism Of Action 45

R&D Progress 45

cosyntropin ER - Drug Profile 46

Product Description 46

Mechanism Of Action 46

R&D Progress 46

CPP-115 - Drug Profile 47

Product Description 47

Mechanism Of Action 47

R&D Progress 47

JBPOS-0101 - Drug Profile 51

Product Description 51

Mechanism Of Action 51

R&D Progress 51

Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) - Dormant Projects 52

Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) - Product Development Milestones 53

Featured News & Press Releases 53

Sep 19, 2016: Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Announces Publication of CPP-115 Clinical Efficacy Data for Infantile Spasms in Epilepsy & Behavior Case Reports 53

Jun 22, 2016: Anavex Announces U.S. FDA Orphan Drug Designation for ANAVEX 2-73 for Treatment of Infantile Spasms 53

Jun 21, 2016: GW Pharmaceuticals Announces New Planned Epidiolex (Cannabidiol or CBD) Development Program in Infantile Spasms (IS) 54

May 18, 2016: Anavex Announces Positive Preclinical Data for ANAVEX 2-73 in Infantile Spasms 54

Feb 09, 2016: Insys Therapeutics Enrolls First Patient in Phase II Study for the Treatment of Infantile Spasms Using Pharmaceutical CBD 55

Dec 16, 2015: Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Announces Top-Line Results in Phase 1(b) Trial of CPP-115 55

Aug 04, 2015: Insys Therapeutics Receives FDA Orphan Drug Designation for Its Pharmaceutical Cannabidiol for the Treatment of Infantile Spasms 56

Nov 24, 2014: Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Announces Notice of Allowance of U.S. Patent Application for the Reduction or Elimination of Visual Field Defects by Treating Patients With CPP-115 56

Sep 02, 2014: Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners Initiates Phase 1(b) Safety and Tolerance Study for CPP-115 57

Nov 18, 2013: Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners Announces Publication of Preclinical Proof-of-Principle of CPP-115 Efficacy in Suppressing Infantile Spasms in Epilepsia 58

Feb 13, 2012: Catalyst Receives Orphan Medicinal Product Designation In EU For CPP-115 To Treat West Syndrome 58

Jan 31, 2012: Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners To Present CPP-115 Progress At 2012 Epilepsy Pipeline Update Conference 59

Dec 15, 2011: Catalyst Announces Scientific Paper Regarding CPP-115 For Treatment Of Cocaine Addiction Accepted For Publication In Journal Of Medicinal Chemistry 60

Dec 13, 2011: Catalyst Starts Phase Ia Safety Study For CPP-115 60

Dec 02, 2011: Catalyst To Present Data On CPP-115 At American Epilepsy Society's 65th Annual Meeting 61

Appendix 62

Methodology 62

Coverage 62

Secondary Research 62

Primary Research 62

Expert Panel Validation 62

Contact Us 62

Disclaimer 63



Syndrome)  Pipeline Review, H2 2016, provides an overview of the Infantile Spasm (West Syndrome) (Central Ethocle Reports latest Pharmaceutical and Healthcare disease pipeline guide Infantile Spasm (West Nervous System) pipeline landscape.



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Rex Villa, Sr. No-36, Mozeswadi, Vadgaonsheri. Pune-411014



+91 20 6533 3231



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info@ethoclereports.com



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Appsecco, the application security company, secures funding for growth

Appsecco, the application security company launched last year, has secured first-stage seed funding from a consortium of investors in order to expand its operations to meet the needs of its growing customer base in the UK and overseas.Appseccos aim is to offer pragmatic, objective and understandable advice in the fields of web application security, mobile application security and application software security, across the globe.The funding that led to Appseccos seven figure valuation was 100% over-subscribed, and was closed last week meaning shareholders will be receiving issues imminently.Co-founder, Gwilym Lewis, formerly of Kieon, a global web application development specialist which was recently sold to Communisis plc, said of the companys investment plans, Were thrilled to have reached our initial investment target which will allow us to expand our operations in India and increase our marketing efforts in our core markets of the UK, India and Qatar. We hope to start exploring a market-entry strategy for the US later in 2017.Bringing together the expertise of its founders, Appsecco has unrivalled access to an impressive wealth of skills and knowledge in its field. Services cover the entire software development lifecycle, from advising on how to build and foster a culture of security within development teams and organisations, reviewing and advising on the security of applications and associated infrastructure under development, to providing rapid response and advice in the event of a security breach or incident.Appsecco is a specialist application security company providing industry leading IT security solutions that are firmly grounded in commercial reality. Its services cover the entire software development lifecycle, from advising on how to build and foster a culture of security within development teams and organisations, to reviewing and advising on the security of applications and associated infrastructure under development, to providing rapid response and advice in the event of a security breach or incident.Appseccos founders have long-standing experience and demonstrable success in the security, development and technology sectors, which they use to ensure that the company can offer the highest possible standards of service and advice. Together, they offer strong complementary skills in creating and developing businesses, software development and application security.Stream (UK) LimitedUnit 20612-18 Hoxton StreetN16NG
Global RF Shields Market 2016: Worldwide Survey, Sales Revenue, Trends And Value Chain Analysis

RF Shields

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Global RF Shields Market is an in-depth report that offers a unique mix of specialist industry knowledge and the region-wise research expertise. The report delivers the market size and the trends for each sector. A detailed estimation of the markets regions like United States, EU, Japan and China as well as worldwide. This Research Report provides a Major Manufacturers Analysis of RF Shields- with detail like Company Profile, Product Picture, Specifications, Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, Revenue and Contact Information. The report estimates the current size of the RF Shields market and all important segments within it.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report on Global RF Shields industry begins with an overview of the market. The report details the historical data of the Global RF Shields market along with the current scenario. Then the report covers the trends shaping the Global RF Shields market. The drivers and restraints that will shape this industry during the forecast period have been evaluated in detail. Moving on, the report dwells on the market opportunities and their impact on the key players operating in the market. Moreover, the key threats the Global RF Shields market will experience during the forecast period are discussed.The next part of the report features an in-depth segmentation of the market. The report includes valuable information about the key segments in the Global RF Shields market along with their sub-sectors. Revenue share and size along with insightful forecasts of these key segments and other prominent sub-segments are available in this report. The report explores the trends that will impact the growth of the emerging regional sectors in the Global RF Shields market.The recent findings along with the promise they hold for the future in the Global RF Shields market have also been analyzed. The report features contributions from several key industry participants along with scientists that are leading figures in their respective fields.Towards the end, the report scrutinizes the competitive landscape of the Global RF Shields market. Most prominent players with their business overview are featured in this research study. The key players market revenue, top strategies, innovations, collaborations, and other developments are mentioned in detail in the report. These insights about the top companies in the Global RF Shields market will let the user know about the market opportunities they can tap on to, with the best of tactical decisions.Browse Complete Report with TOC @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. 1-855-465-4651Email: sales (@) qyresearchgroup (dot) com
Moulded Fiber Pulp Packaging Market Driven by Need of Eco-friendly and Sustainable Packaging

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The need for eco-friendly and sustainable packaging has led to the development of moulded fiber packaging material. Moulded fiber material is made from recycled material such as newsprint or paperboard. On the basis of moulds used during manufacturing process, thickness of packaging and application, moulded fiber/ pulp packaging can be classified into four types which are transfer moulded, thick wall, processed and thermoformed. Transfer moulded type is used to in electronic consumer products packaging and egg trays and cartons. Thick wall type is used in packaging of heavy and non-fragile items. Processed type are customised moulded fiber/ pulp with special additives or slurry ingredients. In May 2016, HUHTAMAKI GROUP, a Finland based company expanded its production facility in Ivanteevka, Russia. The expansion included new production unit, warehouse and improvement of infrastructure. With this expansion, the company claims to meet the increasing demand for packaging in growing egg market in the region. Carlsberg, a Denmark based brewing company has entered into partnership with ecoXpac A/S, a Denmark based packaging product manufacturer to develop eco-friendly, biodegradable moulded fiber/ pulp based bottles.Download PDF Brochure:Moulded Fiber/ Pulp Packaging Market: Drivers and RestraintsMoulded fiber/ pulp packaging is cost saving alternative as compared to other packaging types, which is the major driver for the growth of global moulded fiber/ pulp packaging market. The other advantages of this packaging type is that it is more durable under humid and high temperature conditions. The vibration absorption capability of moulded fiber/ pulp packaging is also better as compared to other packaging types. The ease of handling moulded fiber/ pulp packed product and environment friendly material has led to its use as plastic alternative, which is anticipated to boost the growth of global moulded fiber/ pulp packaging market. Stringent regulations and the increasing emphasis for sustainable development by food and beverage and consumer product manufacturers is anticipated to drive the growth of global moulded fiber/ pulp packaging market.Moulded Fiber/ Pulp Packaging Market: SegmentationOn the basis of product type, the global moulded fiber/ pulp packaging market can be segmented as follows:-Transfer MouldedThick WallProcessedThermoformed/ Thin WallOn the basis of packaging type, the global moulded fiber/ pulp packaging market can be segmented as follows:-TraysEdge Protectors/ End CapsClamshellsRoll CradlesOn the basis of end use sector, the global moulded fiber/ pulp packaging market can be segmented as follows:-Beverage IndustryRetail and Consumer Products IndustryMoulded Fiber/ Pulp Packaging Market: Region Wise OutlookThe global moulded fiber/ pulp packaging market can be divided into five regions, namely North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Middle East & Africa (MEA). APAC accounts for major share in moulded fiber/ pulp packaging market owing to the rise in demand for recyclable plastic alternatives for packaging. The growth of e-commerce retail sales also contributes to the growth of moulded fiber/ pulp packaging market in the region. APAC is followed by North America in terms of market share in global moulded fiber/ pulp packaging market. This is attributed to the well-established food processing industry in the region and increasing sales through modern trade stores and packed food items. Europe moulded fiber/ pulp packaging market is expected to register high CAGR over the forecast period due to increasing sustainable packaging industry in the region.Moulded Fiber/ Pulp Packaging Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players in the global moulded fiber/ pulp packaging market are as follows:HUHTAMAKI GROUPUFP Technologies, Inc.Henry Molded Products Inc.The Haddy CompaniesMoulded Fibre Products Ltd.KEIDING INC.Brodrene Hartmann A/SEnviroPAKBerkley InternationalHeracles Packaging Co. S.A.Footprint, LLCAbout TMRTMR 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 TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Flexible Lid Stock Packaging Market Driven by Increasing Smaller Households and Convenient Way of Handling With Barrier Properties

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Flexible packaging requires less than 75% of plastics than rigid type of packaging and also lighter in weight. In terms of cost too flexible packaging are far cheaper. Flexible lid stock packaging is mostly used for dairy, dry goods, medical packaging industry. Flexible lid stock packaging solution offers peel-able as well as lock seal type of characteristics. The material mostly used in flexible lid stock packaging is polymer which includes PS, PP, PE, and PET. Flexible lid stock packaging is of great use in the packaging of consumer goods such as bottles, containers, cups as well as medical packaging such as thermoformed trays.Request Sample Pages of Premium Research Report :Superior microbial barrier properties offered by high density polyethylene fibers such as Tyvek of DuPont is a popular flexible lid stock packaging material for surgical instruments and implantable devices. Also, demand from various application sectors especially from dairy and food industry is expected to augment the growth of flexible lid stock packaging market. Increasing growth of packaging industries has positive influence on the flexible lid stock packaging market, since major companies such as Oracle Packaging, Pregis LLC and others are expanding their extrusion facilities. The competition among manufacturers is strong and thus, offering products beyond food industry is seen to be a strategic move. Flexible lid stock packaging in pharma and medical devices are expected to be major growth generating sectors during the forecast period.Increasing smaller households and convenient way of handling with barrier properties, drives demand for flexible lid stock packaging market. Besides, increasing use of ready to eat meals fuels consumption of flexible lid stock packaging market. The sterile properties offered by flexible lid stock packaging materials momentous the usage in medical instruments and devices. Also, population growth is expected to drive the market of flexible lid stock.The global flexible lid stock packaging market is segmented on the basis of type, process and application.Based on the material type the global flexible lid stock packaging market is segmented into:PaperAluminum foilsNon-wovenPolymer filmsMetalized polymer filmsBased on the type of manufacturing process the global flexible lid stock packaging market is segmented into:Extruded filmsExtrusion coatingFluid coatingLaminationsBased on the end-use industry the global flexible lid stock packaging market is segmented into:Food and BeverageDairyChemicalsPersonal CareHealth CareSpecialtiesOthersThe global flexible lid stock packaging market has been divided in to five key regions including North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa. Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be the dominant market in terms of consumption for flexible lid stock packaging market followed by North America and Europe. China, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan are the key countries for next generation growth in Asia Pacific region. Factors such as urbanization, increasing standard of living, convenient handling and trend towards smaller households will stimulate the demand for the flexible lid stock packaging market globally.Some of the key players in the global flexible lid stock packaging market are Chase Corporation, Constantia, Glenroy Inc., Oracle Packaging, Huhtamaki Group, International Plastics, Berry Plastics Corporation, Schur Flexibles Group, Heyne & Penke Verpackungen GmbH, Printpack Inc., Winpak Ltd etc. The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections done using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, type, machine size and end use.About TMRTMR 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 TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Macro 3D Printing Market Estimated to Grow Strongly by 2026

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With the advent of industrial automation, macro 3D printing is expected to gradually gain market in the construction industry. 3D printers use materials such as concrete, steel and aluminium to build three-dimensional structures under computer system control. Macro 3D printing is a technology for printing large structures of as big as six meters in each dimension. Thus, with the increasing adoption of industrial automation, technologies such as macro 3D printing will be used for printing building structures.Request to view Sample Report @Macro 3D printing technology is at infant stage and its mainstream adoption is still expected to be ten years away. It is anticipated to have wider applications in construction for printing buildings or components of buildings, in medical field for printing medical devices and in automotive for printing cars and automotive components and in aerospace for printing components.Construction industry is expected to be the largest application market for macro 3D printing. According to United Nations, around three billion people will need basic infrastructure and proper housing by 2030. Macro 3D printing technology can help to solve the housing shortage issue in the future by printing large building structures. Macro 3D printing technology minimizes material and labor cost, thus it can be expected to have positive impact in developing countries.However, as macro 3D printing technology is at infancy stage thus it is very expensive, causing insignificant mainstream adoption by consumers. Further, calibration and maintenance of the machine is also one of the factors that might limit the wider adoption of macro 3D printing technologies in future.The gradual shift to industrial automation will create opportunities for macro 3D printers in the future. For instance, the future of construction industry includes 3D printers, drones and robotic bulldozers which will provide support for creating robotic building site. Further, Local Motors, a US based company has already developed a 3D printed car named Strati.Open collaboration platforms for 3D printing such as Spark, support companies to build different types of 3D printing technologies by providing extensible Application Programming Interface (API) for different stages of the 3D printing workflow. Using this application, companies can build 3D models for any 3D printer. This type of platform is helping to create awareness and promote macro 3D printing.Request to view Table of content @Currently, very few companies are producing macro 3D printers. Some of the players in the Macro 3D Printing market include: Genesis Dimensions, iBox Printers, Worlds Advanced Saving Project (WASP) by Centro Sviluppo Progetti (CSP).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
Alginate Market Revenue Predicted To Go Up by 2016 - 2024

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Alginates are type of hydrocolloids which are extracted from brown seaweed. It has different functional properties such as thickening agent, ability to form gel and its usage to form films of sodium and calcium. Alginate has varieties of application in food, textile, printing, dyeing, pharmaceutical and in cosmetic industry. Apart from this, it also has application as binding agent for welding rods and in preparing animal feed. Europe and Asia Pacific dominates the alginate market over the forecast period in terms of volume.View Sample Report @Key market drivers which influence the demand of alginate in market is from the food and beverage manufacturers due to its functional properties such as thickening agent, gelling agent, stabilizer, emulsifier and film-forming property. Reason behind its increasing demand in food industry is due to its extraction from natural seaweeds, one of safest food additive in food industry and also certified by FAO/WHO. Food and beverage manufacturers primarily used alginate as thickening agent and texture-improver. On the other side, it is also gaining its demand from textile industry as it is primarily used for printing, designing and dyeing on cotton and jute fabrics.Market of Alginate is segmented in two different basis including on the basis of form and on the basis of application. As per the market segment by form, it is segmented in three different form of alginate which are sodium alginate, calcium alginate and potassium alginate. Sodium alginate has varieties of application in food and textile printing industry and due to which it is expected that it fuels the market growth of alginate over the forecast period. Further, market segment of alginate is segmented on the basis of its application which includes food and beverage, paper, textile, pharmaceutical and other (welding, pet food and cosmetic). Primary demand of alginate in global market accounts from food and beverage, paper and textile industry. In food and beverage industry, demand of alginate is increasing due its higher demand in preparing products such as ice cream, jellies, salads, alcoholic drinks, lactic drinks etc. and in many other products. Key reason behind the increasing demand of alginate in food and beverage industry is also due to its multifunctional properties as it plays significant role as thickening and gelling agent, emulsifier, stabilizer and used to enhance the texture of food recipes. In context to its demand in paper and textile industry, it is used for dying and printing purpose and to control the viscosity in processing of final product. Further, alginate is also gaining its demand form pharmaceutical industry where it has application in manufacturing of tablets, liquid medicines and for making dental impression materials. On the basis of market share, results of alginate market on pie chart shows that, food and beverage industry and textile industry dominates the alginate market over the forecast period.On the basis of regional segment, market of alginate is segmented into five regions namely: North America, Latin America, Europe and Middle East and Africa. As per the alginate production, major producing regions are Europe and Asia Pacific and contributes majority of market share in global level market. In terms of value, it is expected that Europe and North America accounted to major share in terms of value and also as a lucrative market in near future.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:Some of the key players which are operating in alginate market are: DuPont, KIMICA Corporation, Qingdao Rongde Seaweed Co., Ltd., Prestige Brands, Inc., Cargill, Incorporated, Qingdao Liyang Seaweed Industrial Co.,Ltd, Shandong Jiejing Group Corporation, Prinova Europe Limited, Compania Espanola de Algas Marinas S.A. and A2 Trading GmbH.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
Smart Cities Market To Lead Worldwide By 2026

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With the increasing population shifting to urban areas, an inevitable strain is being put on the resources. Government of various countries are thus focusing on creating a healthier and smarter environment by implementing new technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), advanced networking technologies and intelligent data-management.Request to view Sample Report @A smart city is a framework for urban development by implementing these new technologies for efficient energy, water management, smart mobility and security, focusing on improving the life of residents. Rising awareness towards energy conservation and green infrastructure is paving way for smart cities.According to United Nations, global urban population in 2015 was 54% which is expected to increase to 66% by 2050. This will put pressure on available resources creating congested landscapes giving rise to issues including climate change, high energy consumption, water scarcity, and other economic and social problems. Smart cities implement new technologies which ensure optimal utilization of available resources along with providing superior connectivity and healthy lifestyles and not be hit by resources scarcity. Thus, rapid urbanization is the major driver for development of smart cities.Also, there is an increasing need to improve energy infrastructure in developed and developing countries. The outdated designs of these infrastructures are not suitable for handling growing power requirements which is having significant impact on households and businesses. Smart cities provide improved infrastructure for optimal utilization of energy, thus controlling energy wastage.However, integration of new technologies within existing infrastructure is a major concern for the smart cities market players. The existing infrastructure might not support new technologies hence needing to replace the old infrastructure with new one, thereby increasing the cost. Further, new innovative technologies have high risk for investment and unsecure ROI, thereby creating constraints for smart cities market.Some of the prominent players in the Smart Cities market include: AT&T, Cisco, Ericsson, General Electric, Hitachi, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Panasonic, Philips, SAP, Schneider Electric, Siemens and Toshiba.Request to view Table of content @Many new clean technology startups are realizing opportunities in the smart cities market, thus many of them have started rebranding themselves as smart city companies. They are targeting their existing products and services for smart city applications. Many venture capital firms are planning to invest significant amount of capital in smart city companies, which is a good news for clean tech startups. As per Bloomberg, Q3 of FY2016 witnessed an investment of US$ 741 million in clean tech start-ups across 65 deals.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
Cellulose Paints Market Set to Grow Exponentially During the Forecast 2015 to 2021

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Cellulose paints are plant based coatings which carry the advantage of being painted in layers as compared to conventional distemper paints. Cellulose paints have a mixture of pigments which exhibit their aesthetics due to the ability of the pigments to show light refraction. These paints are easy to remove during the coating of another paint as its temporary in nature. It is not high in opacity or hiding power. Large scale corporations such as AkzoNobel N.V. are significantly involved in the production of cellulose paints through their product Bermocoll. These paints contain a range of non-ionic cellulose ethers which are use as water retaining agent, stabilizers, and thickeners for water based paints for decorative applications. During the production of these paints, cellulose reacts with various substituents such as ethyl, methyl and hydroxyethyl or hydrophobic groups, which is called etherification that makes Bermocoll water soluble in nature. Cellulose paints are regarded as active agents with polymeric surface and exhibit the ability to contribute to disperse the pigments by enhancing the flow during grinding. Cellulose paints are manufactured in a broad range of viscosities which enable consumers to choose the specific viscosity required for the application of the paint. In order to avoid the lump formation during addition of water to cellulose paints, manufacturers treat all the paint grades with a controlled amount of glyoxal.Request to View Sample Report @The global market for cellulose paints has been witnessing a significant increase on account of growth from its well established end user industries such as automotive, construction and industrial. Significant investments from certain large scale companies such as BASF SE, AkzoNobel, and Eastman Chemical Company among others to expand in quite a few countries of Asia-Pacific and Latin America have been witnessed. Demand for green coatings in these regions have still been in the development and are anticipated to have a huge potential in the near future. Moreover, focus on R&D activities for developing low VOC coatings industry coupled with product innovation has also contributed to the growth of the market. Asia Pacific currently dominates the global market for cellulose paints, with emerging economies such as China and India dominating the region. It was followed by North America where demand for these paints has been witnessing a noticeable increase with the presence of the large automotive industry in the region. Future market growth is expected to be from Asia Pacific as well owing to several new renovation and construction projects in South Asia, specifically in China thereby boosting the demand for cellulose paints.Growing demand for non-hazardous, low VOC green paints from various end-user industries are expected to boost the demand for cellulose paints over the next few years. In addition, growth of the automotive and construction industry has also been the current growth factors for cellulose paints. However, increasing use of other better performing green substrates such as powder coatings is expected to hamper the growth of the cellulose paints market. Focus on product innovations to manufacture non hazardous paints with low VOC content is expected to provide new opportunities for the growth of the market.Request to view Table of content @AkzoNobel N.V., BASF SE, Eastman Chemical Company, PPG Asian Paints, and The Dow Chemical Company are some of the key players present in the cellulose paints industry.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
Chloromethane Market to Record an Impressive Growth Rate During the Forecast 2021

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Chloromethane, also known as methyl chloride, HCC-40 or R-40 belongs to a group of organic compounds called haloalkanes. It is an extremely flammable colorless gas which is usually detected at toxic levels. Chloromethane is synthesized by boiling a mixture of sodium chloride, sulfuric acid and methanol. Significant amount of chloromethane is produced naturally in the oceans by the action of sunlight on chlorine and biomass in sea foam. It is majorly used in manufacturing silicone polymers, butyl rubber and in petroleum refining. Chloromethane was initially used as a refrigerant, but was discontinued on account of its flammability and toxicity. Due to its substantial toxic effects, it is no longer used in consumer products. Different types of chloromethanes such as methyl chloride, methylene chloride, chloroform, and carbon tetrachloride are produced in the industry. Methyl chloride is the largest segment and is also the most important type of chloromethane, largely used in medical and pharmaceutical industries. In terms of application, the silicone industry is expected to witness the fastest growing application segment over the forecast period due to the rising demand from medical and personal care industries. Moreover, growing household incomes, rising living standards and an ever-expanding middle class in Asia Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW) are contributing to the boost in demand for high quality products containing silicone. China has been the most attractive market in Asia Pacific for chloromethane with a significant potential for massive growth in certain end-user industries such as automotives and pharmaceuticals.Request to View Sample Report @The global market for chloromethane is expected to witness a moderate growth with leading manufacturers such as AkzoNobel N.V. and The Dow Chemical Company implementing strategies to balance the demand-supply issues. Various regulations supporting the production of chloromethane across different regions, as well as new application development across the vertical industries are expected to be important growth factors in the chloromethane market. Asia Pacific accounts for the largest market for chloromethane on account of minimal regulations and rising industrial activities in end-user industries such as pharmaceuticals. In addition, significant population demand and improving infrastructure are also expected to contribute towards the growth of the market. Various emerging and developed economies such as China, India and Japan are anticipated to witness significant growth on account of high-growth potential for chemical intermediates, foam blowing agents and pharmaceuticals. The market for chloromethane in other regions such as Europe is highly regulated owing to growing environmental concerns related to industrial toxic gas emissions.Growing demand for chloromethane from the silicone industry in various applications such as transportation, automotive, medical and personal care is expected to be one of the major drivers for the chloromethane market. Strong performance attributes of silicone has enabled its application across a host of industries thereby contributing towards the growth of chloromethane market. However, growing health concerns regarding the hazardous use of chloromethane owing to its toxicity and flammability is expected to slow down the growth of the market. Focus on research and development (R&D) activities towards developing innovative techniques used for the production of chloromethanes are expected to provide new opportunities for the growth of the market.Request to view Table of content @Asahi Glass Co. Ltd., Alfa Aesar, Akzonobel N.V., Ercros S.A, Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd., INEOS Group, Kem One, Occidental Chemical Corporation, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd., Solvay, SRF Ltd., The Dow Chemical Company and Tokuyama Corporation are some of the key players present in the industry.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
Future of Global Hemp Protein market: 2016 - 2026

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Hemp protein refers to the industrial by product of hemp seeds. Hemp seeds have a composition of approximately 45 percent oil, 35 percent protein and 10 percent carbohydrates. Hemp seed is very eco- friendly, as it can be grown without using herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides. Also, it can efficiently absorbs carbon dioxide. Hemp protein is a rich source of all essential amino acids that are necessary to meet the protein needs of humans. Hemp protein cannot be considered as a pure protein supplement owing to its composition of 10% fatty acids and higher fiber content. Owing to the higher fiber content, hemp proteins lowers the risk for constipation, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and diverticular disease. Hemp proteins are easily digestible, and are used as an active ingredient in shakes and smoothies. Health benefits of hemp proteins includes anti-fatigue properties, enhances immune system, and have kidney protective effects. The growth of hemp protein market is propelled by improved economic conditions coupled with increase in household wealth, due to which consumers have shown willingness to spend on food products that are rich in hemp proteins so as to maintain their health.View Sample Report @Owing to the high nutritional benefits of hemp protein, the market is expected to witness modest growth in coming years. The growth of hemp protein market is driven by increasing demand of hempseed oil, growing health consciousness among consumers, rising demand for nutritional food products, new product developments, and improved supply chain to ensure the product availability. Hemp protein market is characterized by the stringent regulations laid by various regulatory bodies that govern and inspect the food products and issues guidelines for food processing.Hemp protein market is segmented on the basis of form, application and geography. Based upon form, hemp protein market is segmented into powdered form, and liquid form. Hemp protein in the powdered form is expected to witness high demand over the forecast period. Based upon application, hemp protein market is segmented into pharmaceutical, food & beverages, cosmetics, industrial, and others. Food & beverages is expected to be the largest application segment in global hemp protein market. High demand of hemp protein in food & beverages segment can be attributed to its high fiber content. Rise in the health concerns among consumers escalates the demand of hemp protein over the forecast period. Pharmaceutical application segment is poised to witness fastest growth in the global hemp protein market owing to the increased application scope in ailment of various cognitive diseases, diabetes, and health diseases. Owing to the combination of essential fatty acids and fiber, it is used in cosmetic products to maintain healthy skin and hair.Based on geography, hemp protein market is segmented into seven different regions namely North America, Middle East and Africa, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Japan. North America is expected to lead the regional market for hemp proteins during the reviewed period. The high market share can be attributed to the strong demand from U.S. Western Europe is expected to hold second largest market share in global hemp protein market over the forecast period while Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest growing region in the global hemp protein market owing to the increased demand from China and India. Leading manufacturers in the hemp protein market focus to leverage opportunities posed by emerging economies like India and China to expand their revenue base.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:Some of the key players in the hemp protein market include Navitas Naturals, Hemp Oil Canada, North American Hemp & Grain Co., Hempco, Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods, Cosucra Groupe Warcoing SA, CHII Naturally Pure Hemp, GFR Ingredients Inc., and Green Source Organics among others.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
Ether Carboxylates Market Set to Grow Exponentially During the Forecast 2015 to 2021

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Ether carboxylate is one of the major sub-types of a carboxylate which is produced from the reaction of ethoxylated alcohols with sodium chloracetate. Its manufacturing process involves etherification where a carboxyl group-containing compound and a hydroxyl group-containing compound are reacted in an aqueous medium with the help of a rare earth element containing catalyst. The carboxyl group containing compound present in the reaction is one compound which is selected from carboxyl group containing epoxy compounds as well as unsaturated carboxyl group containing compounds. Ether carboxylates are widely used in personal care products, surfactants, admixtures applied in the construction as well as serve as the vital component of superplasticizers. As surfactants, ether carboxylate produces an ultralow interfacial tension (IFT) under high temperature and high salinity conditions. Their consumption in the textile industry is based on their electrolyte, alkali, and hard water stability as well as their good wetting and detergent properties. As compared to cold process soaps, ether carboxylates are less sensitive to hard water and more soluble in water. In addition, they impart good wetting and foam stabilizing properties as well as provide creaminess and mildness in the finished products. Owing to their property of being substantive to hair and skin, ether carboxylate exhibits a conditioned feeling to the human body. When combined with alkyl ether sulfates such as sodium laureth sulfate, they are used for manufacturing shampoos on account of their compatibility with cationic ingredients.Request to View Sample Report @The global market for ether carboxylate has been witnessing a significant increase on account of growth of its application industries such as personal care and surfactants. Ether carboxylate shares a wide application scope in various industries such as soaps, detergents, textiles, shampoos, and plasticizers among others. In addition, bio-based surfactants has emerged as one of the major opportunities for the growth of the surfactant industry due to growing awareness among consumers towards eco-friendly products which in turn has contributed towards the growing demand for ether carboxylate in surfactants. Major applications of ether carboxylate-based surfactants include detergents, pharmaceuticals, textile and personal care among others.Other applications of ether carboxylate include the manufacturing of plasticizers. The market for ether carboxylate in plasticizer has been witnessing significant growth on account of emerging economies and changing lifestyles. In addition, rising environmental awareness coupled with increasing legal provisions have been serving as catalysts for the plasticizers market in certain emerging economies such as India, China, Russia and Brazil. While matured regions such as North America and Europe accounted for the highest demand for ether carboxylate due to presence of vast and skin care and hair care industries, emerging regions such as Asia Pacific are anticipated to witness the fastest growth over the next few years on account of vast textile industries in economies such as China as well as growing demand for personal care products. Various factors such as rising awareness regarding healthy hair and skin among consumers as well as changing lifestyles are expected to boost the demand for personal care products which in turn is anticipated to contribute towards the demand for ether carboxylate. Growing demand for personal care products such as skin care and hair care on account of increasing awareness for healthy skin and hair is anticipated to be on the major factors driving the market for ether carboxylate. However, fluctuating prices of key feedstock materials has been major concern for the manufacturers and is expected to limit the growth of the market. Focus on commercializing and developing cost-effective bio-based surfactants using ether carboxylate is anticipated to provide new opportunities for the growth of the market.Request to view Table of content @BASF SE, Huntsman Corporation, KAO Corporation, and Nippon Shokubai Co., Ltd. are some of the key manufacturers of ether carboxylate present in the market.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
Customized Premixes Market is Expected to Gain Popularity Across the Globe

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The insufficient nutrient supply from the food source and the changing lifestyle leads to the deficiency of basic nutrients to the body and increase the prevalence of the various chronic diseases, to which the customized premixes has become the best alternative to supply the required nutrients. The customized premixes are the blend of desired functional ingredients. The customized premixes contain the ingredients such as vitamins, amino acids, minerals, neutraceuticals, nucleotides, and herbs. In customized premixes, many numbers of ingredients are combined to increase the nutritional value of the product as per the demand of the user. The customized premixes deliver all the desired macro and micro nutrients in single blend and enhance the nutritional value of the product.View Sample Report @The global customized premixes market has expected to register the significant growth over the forecast period as the demand of the customized premixes has increased due to the availability of various nutrients in a single product form. The customized premixes are also available in different blends, tests, flavors, and colors and as per the required proportion of nutrients which boost the demand of the customized premixes and drive the growth of the global customized premixes market. The operational efficiency in the manufacturing of customized premixes such as reduced ingredients inventory, reduced quality control costs, reduced supply chain complexity and shorter lead time leads to the cost cutting and moreover to the decrease in the price of the customized premixes, which drives the growth of the global customized premixes market.However, the controversies in the market regarding the actual benefits of the customized premixes may hamper the demand of the customized premixes and restrain the growth of the global customized premixes market. The false claims by the few of the manufacturers about the product ingredients and its applications may distract the consumers which could restrain the growth of the global customized premixes market.In terms of geography, the global customized premixes market has been divided into five key regions, including North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Middle East & Africa (MEA). The North America has contributed the leading shares to the global customized premixes market in terms of revenue. The Asia Pacific has also registered the highest shares in the global customized premixes market in terms of volume due to the increasing awareness about the health benefits of the customized premixes and increasing demand of premixes. Europe has contributed the descent shares to the global customized premixes market. The Latin America and MEA regions are at a nascent stage and contributed lowest shares to the global customized premixes market in terms of revenue and volume due to the less demand from the non-developed countries from the Middle East and Africa region.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:Some of the key players of the global customized premixes market are Glanbia plc., Vitablend, Corbion, DSM, Stern Vitamins GmbH, Arla, Cargill, Watson, The Wright Group and Farbest Brands. Various global companies are contributed the descent growth to the global customized premixes market in terms of volume and revenue. The key players from North America and Europe contributed leading shares to the global customized premixes market.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
Distributed Acoustic Sensing Market Set for Expansive Growth Over Next 10 Years

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Distributed acoustic sensing is a technology which is used in distributed fiber optic sensing. Distributed acoustic sensing technology measures acoustic energy across the length of an optical fiber. Major advantage of distributed acoustic sensing technology is as it banks on optical fiber for its sensing needs, so it is free from electromagnetic disturbances. The long range of distributed acoustic sensing technology is another advantage it has over other technologies used in fiber optic sensing. Distributed Acoustic Sensing is an optoelectronic system, it records the acoustic signal continuously along the path of sensing fiber. Distributed acoustic system is a type of optoelectronic system which continuously records the acoustic signal along the path of sensing fiber.Request to view Sample Report @Distributed acoustic sensing allows underground fiber-optic cables, to be turned into a giant string of microphones. It can then be used to monitor all sensitive locations, from oil and gas pipelines to railway tracks, military bases and international borders.There are various trends of distributed acoustic sensing market such as the use of distributed acoustic sensing for hydraulic fracturing which is a highly efficient way to release oil and natural gas trapped in rocks. Another trend is, the use of the existing fiber optic infrastructure for implementing distributed acoustic sensing is the ongoing trend in the distributed acoustic sensing market.Deployment of the acoustic technology in safety and security system is a driving factor for the growth of distributed acoustic sensing market. For Instance, now a days the security systems made for homes are being equipped with distributed acoustic sensing due to its robustness and advanced sensing capabilities. Another driving factor is systems long range is also a driving factor for the market growth. As long range ability of the distributed acoustic sensing is aiding to expand its usage to oilfield services. In areas such as oil field continuous evaluation is necessary this is where distributed acoustic sensing comes to play in evaluation, production and completion services in oilfield. Additionally, the need for pipeline management is another factor driving the distributed acoustic sensing market growth. In Pipeline management system distributed acoustic sensing is helpful in leak detection, PIG detection, in detection of third party activities that may harm the pipeline.Rising security concern is also boosting the distributed acoustic sensing market growth. This distributed acoustic sensing is helpful to tackle situations and provides continuous monitoring and stringent security. The applications of distributed acoustic sensing in military is helping the distributed acoustic sensing market to grow. As distributed acoustic sensing is helpful in border surveillance, monitoring of sites in harsh weather conditions.Distributed acoustic sensing is helpful to monitor traffic, asset condition monitoring, infrastructure monitoring is increasing the demand of distributed acoustic sensing and further boosting the distributed acoustic sensing market.Guidelines for the use of distributed acoustic sensing equipment and the developing standards is a restraint for distributed acoustic sensing market. On the other hand, management of the data sets generated by the technology is again a restraint.The Distributed Acoustic Sensing market is segmented on the basis of fiber type, by end user and by region. By fiber type global distributed acoustic sensing is segmented into single mode and multimode fiber based DAS. Segmentation of global distributed acoustic sensing market by end user is done as oilfield services, pipeline integrity management, site security, military and transport industries. The Distributed acoustic sensing market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa.Request to view Table of content @Some key players of the distributed acoustic sensing market are Halliburton Co., Schlumberger NV, Omnisens SA, Ziebel AS, Baker Hughes, Inc., Fotech Solutions ltd, Silixa Ltd., Qintiq Group PLC, Future Fiber Technologies Ltd., Northrop Grumman Corp and Opta Sense.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
Industrial Explosives Market Set to Grow Exponentially During the Forecast 2015 to 2021

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Industrial explosives are blasting explosives with significant hazards, which are majorly used in construction, quarrying and mining industries. To enter into the industry, manufacturers require an explosives license to sell as well as sore industrial explosives or in some cases, they are exempted by the Explosives Act and Regulations. Various types of explosives and their accessories are manufactured in the industry such as safety fuse, detonating fuse, detonators, gun powder, nitro compound, ANFO (Ammonium nitrate  Fuel Oil) based explosives, cartridge explosives, bulk explosives and nitrate mixtures. Asia Pacific dominated the global industrial explosives market in terms of production with more than 30 key players involved in industrial explosives industry. Some of them include Indian Oil Corporation, Hubei Kailong Chemical Group Co., and Solar Industries India Limited among others. Europe accounts for the second largest manufacturer for industrial explosives, followed by North America, particularly United States and Canada.Request to View Sample Report @The global industry for industrial explosives has been witnessing significant growth due to growth of its end user industries such as mining and construction. Emerging economies such as India serves as a huge opportunity for the industrial explosives industry and its accessories. The industry in India has noticed a major shift from complete dependence on imports over the past few decades to increased production and exportable surplus currently. The industry for industrial explosives comprises the activities such as selling and producing the explosives in bulk, catridge, gun powder, and ANFO based explosives of the nitrate mixture, nitro compound including boosters and PETN as well as explosives accessories such as safety fuse, detonating fuse and detonators. The mining industry accounts for the largest market share in overall industrial explosives market with coal mining dominating the mining industry for explosives, due to increasing demand for coal. This growth can be mainly attributed to the increasing demand for coal, cement and electricity in the country thus driving the market. The global market is largely driven by bulk explosives. In addition, accessories such as detonators are also leading the market due to its strong governmental policies and regulations coupled with growing usage in initiating an explosive charge. The industry for these explosives remains concentrated with various companies such as Solar Industries India Limited being one of the prominent players on account of the companys thriving record of project execution as well as a strong brand name in the field of industrial explosives.Rising construction activities as well significant growth of the mining industry is expected to boost the demand for various materials such as coal, electricity and cement. This factor is expected to drive the demand for industrial explosives which are to be used in the mining and construction activities. However, price variations in explosives are expected to slow down the growth of the market. Increasing focus towards product innovation and technological advancements as well as focus on market expansion in developing and emerging regions is expected to provide new opportunities for the industrial explosives market.Request to view Table of content @AEL Mining Services Ltd., Enaex, EPC Groupe, Gulf Oil Corporation Limited, Guizhou Panjiang Chemical Plant, Hubei Kailong Chemical Group Co., Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, and Solar Industries India Limited are some of the major players present in the industrial explosives industry.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
Shrink Plastic Film Market is Expected to Gain Popularity Across the Globe

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Shrink plastic film is made up of polymer plastic film. Plastic is covered to the product and heat is applied to covered plastic which shrinks tightly over the product it is covering. The shrink plastic film is majorly used for the wrapping food, boxes, and bottles. The shrink plastic film includes polyolefin, PVC, polyethylene, polypropylene and several other compositions. Polyolefin is a preferable plastic film used for the covering and packing due to its chemical and physical properties such as availability, variety of thickness, clarities, strengths and shrink ratio over the shrink plastic film made by other materials.The global shrink plastic film market is projected to grow at a significant CAGR as a demand of the shrink film is increasing from the rapidly growing food and beverages industry due to its various applicability to the industry. The inherent property of shrink plastic film to mold into various shapes and sizes for the purpose of packaging, storage, and transportation of edible items, which also to boost the demand of the shrink plastic film and growth of the global shrink plastic film market.View Sample Report @However, the availability of the alternative materials to the plastic can be the major restraining factor to the growth of the global shrink plastic film market. The cost of the shrink plastic film and the instruments required for the same are expensive as compared to normal plastic film used for the packaging of the products which can hamper the demand for the shrink plastic film and growth of the global shrink plastic film market.Nowadays, plastic is available in the biodegradable form, which has a tremendous demand due to awareness about the environmental issues and has become the trend of the global shrink plastic film market.The global shrink plastic film market is segmented on the basis of the type, by application, on the basis of the form of the shrink plastic film and geographical region.In terms of geography, the global shrink plastic film market has been divided into five key regions, including North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Middle East & Africa (MEA). The global shrink plastic film market has expected to register moderate growth over the forecast period. Asia Pacific has contributed the major share to the global shrink plastic film market due to the rapidly growing industrialization and demand for packaging material such as shrink plastic film in Asia Pacific. North America and Europe regions are also growing at a decent growth and expected to register the significance CAGR over the forecast period. Latin America and MEA regions are at a nascent stage and anticipated to register the healthy growth over the forecast period.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:Some of the key players of the global shrink plastic film market are AEP Industries, Bemis Co Inc., Berry Plastics, Sigma Plastics, FUJI Seal International Inc, Anchor Packaging, Berry Plastics, Polymer Group Inc, Dow Chemical Company and Intertape Polymer Group Inc. Various global companies are contributed decent growth to the global pre-stretch film market. The key players from Asia pacific region has contributed the major share to the shrink plastic film market in terms of value and volume.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.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.com
Pneumatic Tyres Market: Recent Industry Trends and Projected Industry Size by 2020

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In the past, rubber tyres were solid not pneumatic. In the recent scenario, majority of tyres are pneumatic inflatable structures and comprising a doughnut-shaped body of cords and wires encased in rubber and usually filled with compressed air to form an inflatable cushion. Pneumatic tyres production needs various raw materials such as synthetic rubber, natural rubber, fabric and wire, along with other chemicals. Different types of rubber are used for production of pneumatic tyres, the most common being styrene-butadiene copolymer. Pneumatic tyres consist of a tread and a body. The tread provides traction while the body provides containment for a quantity of compressed air. Pneumatic tyres provide grip to the vehicle, resist abrasion and carry and transport loads. Thus pneumatic tyres provide safety and performance to the vehicle. On the basis of vehicle type pneumatic tyres market can be classified as bicycle, bus and lorry, car, motorcycle and aircraft. The use of tyres are not limited in new vehicles only, it can also be used in old vehicles due to wear and tear and for replacement purpose, which is also a major market for tyres. Airplane tyres are a niche market, but is a high revenue contributor to the pneumatic tyres market.Request for Sample Report:North America is the largest market for pneumatic tyres, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing market. China and India hold the key for future market trends in pneumatic tyres market owing to large population, rising disposable income and high growth rate of automotive industry in these regions. Germany, France and Italy are hub for some of the major automobile manufacturers in Europe where as the U.S. is the largest market in North America.The market of pneumatic tyres is expected to witness a double digit growth rate in the coming years. Some of the major drivers contributing the overall market growth of pneumatic tyres include increased in the production of vehicles globally, rising disposable income and ever-increasing population. Increasing price of raw materials and rise in fuel prices can act as restraints for pneumatic tyres market.Request for Table of content:The major companies operating in the pneumatic tyres market include Dunlop, Michelin, Bridgestone Corporation, MRF, Goodyear and Maxxis International.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:
Methacrylic Acid Market is Expected to Witness a Steady Growth During the Forecast 2015 to 2021

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Methacrylic acid (MAA) is a colorless, viscous organic compound having an unpleasant odor. It is a carboxylic acid which is water soluble and mixable with organic solvents. MAA is industrially manufactured on a large scale as a precursor to its esters, specifically polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and methyl methacrylate(MMA). MAA is used in an extensive range of applications, most notably in the production of polymers with trade names such as Plexiglas and Lucite. MAA is manufactured in different conditions. In one route, tert-butanol or isobutylene is oxidized to methacrolein to give methacrylic acid. For this purpose, methacrolein can be obtained from ethylene and formaldehyde. Isobutyric acid can also be dehydrogenated to methacrylic acid. In the second route, acetone cyanohydrin is converted to meth acrylamide sulfate using sulfuric acid, which then hydrolyzed to MAA.Request to View Sample Report @The global market for MAA is anticipated to be driven by the growth in end-user industries such as construction, automobiles, and electronics, where MAA is significantly consumed in light panels, windows, facades, TV display panels, coatings and emulsions amongst various others applications. In addition, technological advancement, coupled with a wide range of broadening applications of MAA is also expected to contribute towards the growth of the market. Key players have entered into several collaborations and agreements with other companies for the marketing of new products as well as garnering a larger share in the market. Manufacturers are focused towards developing bio-based solutions for MAA owing to fluctuating petrochemical raw material prices and frequent supply bottlenecks.Among the regions, Asia-Pacific accounted for the largest market share for MAA and is also expected to be the fastest growing segment over the forecast period. It was followed by Europe which has been witnessing moderate growth on account of Eurozone crises and economic fluctuations in the region. Latin American countries such as Brazil is all set to host the Olympics in 2016 which have been majorly prompting the growth of construction activities in the country, thereby driving the market for MAA in Central and South America (CASA) over the next few years.Among the applications, electronics are anticipated to be the fastest growing segment, with rising disposable incomes in developing and emerging economies being one of the major factors driving the demand for electronic equipment and further demand for MAA. Moreover, energy efficient and lightweight properties of MAA have contributed significantly to its improving demand in various industries such as transportation and automotive. Demand for lightweight vehicles with lower emissions and better efficiency has witnessed a noticeable boost on account of stringent regulatory laws executed in Western Europe and North America.Growing consumption from major end-use applications such as electronics, signs and displays, and automotive industries is expected to significantly boost the global demand for MAA. These industrial sectors are witnessing rapid growth in Europe, Asia Pacific, and other regions, thus fuelling the demand for MAA. However, volatile raw material prices of petrochemicals are expected to slow down the growth of the market. Focus towards developing bio-based MAA is expected to catch up in the near future owing to their eco-friendly characteristics and secure raw material supply, providing new opportunities for the growth of the market.Request to view Table of content @Asahi Kasei Corporation, Chi Mei Corporation, Evonik Industries AG, Mitsubishi Rayon Group, and The Dow Chemical Company are some of the major manufacturers of MAA dominating the industry.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
Globalization of Dimethyl Carbonate Market Spurring Growth by 2021

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The report covers forecast and analysis for the Dimethyl Carbonate market on a global and regional level. The study provides historic data of 2015 along with a forecast from 2016 to 2021 based on volume and revenue (USD Million). The study includes drivers and restraints for the 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 Dimethyl Carbonate market on a global level.Get a copy of free Sample Report @In order to give the users of this report a comprehensive view on the Dimethyl Carbonate market, 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 Dimethyl Carbonate market has also been included, strategic development along with patents analysis is included in this report. The study encompasses a market attractiveness analysis, wherein type segments are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate, and general attractiveness.Inquire more before buying this report @Dimethyl Carbonate finds widespread applications in Polycarbonate, Solvent, Pharmaceutical, Pesticide, and Other Applications. All the segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends and the market is estimated from 2015 to 2021.The regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa with its further bifurcation into major countries including U.S. Germany, France, UK, China, Japan, India, and Brazil.Browse detail report @The report covers detailed competitive outlook including company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report include Dongying City Longxing Chemical Co., Ltd., Shandong Shida Shenghua Chemical Group Co., Ltd., Alfa Aesar, EMD Millipore Corporation, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC, HaiKe Chemical Group, Akzo Nobel N.V., UBE Industries Limited, Tangshan Chaoyang Chemical Co., Ltd., and BASF SE.This report segments the Dimethyl Carbonate market as follows:Dimethyl Carbonate Market: Applications Segment AnalysisPolycarbonateSolventPharmaceuticalPesticideOthers (Including methylating agents)Dimethyl Carbonate Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.EuropeUKFranceGermanyAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East and AfricaAbout Us:Syndicate Market Research provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Syndicate Market Research cover more than 30 industries including energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with the one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Contact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street, Suite #8138Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@syndicatemarketresearch.comWebsite:
Nitrogen Market to Record an Impressive Growth Rate During the Forecast 2015 to 2021

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Nitrogen is an odorless, colorless chemical element which is a source of raw material in various important industrial compounds such as nitric acid, ammonia, and cyanides. It occurs in majority of the organisms, primarily amino acids such as proteins, and nucleic acids (RNA and DNA). Nitrogen is widely used as fertilizers where synthetically manufactured nitrates and ammonia are some of the vital industrial fertilizers used in the agrochemical industry. Other than fertilizers, nitrogen compounds are versatile organics used in industrial applications, developing Kevlar fabric and pharmaceutical drugs such as antibiotics.Request to View Sample Report @The global market for nitrogen has been witnessing noticeable growth mostly due to the development of the fertilizer industry. Moreover, long term leases of ammonia vessels at fixed prices have enabled large scale companies to manage transportation costs thereby providing economical delivery to the consumers in developed as well as developing regions. These companies also own manufacturing facilities as well as major supply contracts with certain region emerging economies such as China thereby gaining flexibility and logistics strength for the imports.Growing demand for fertilizers on account of increasing food grain production is anticipated to boost the demand for nitrogen over the forecast period. However, increasing health and environmental concern regarding the ill effects of nitrogen based chemical fertilizers are expected to slow down the growth of the market. Increasing focus towards developing bio based agrochemicals such as nitrogen fixation biofertilizers are anticipated to provide new opportunities for the growth of the market. North America remained the largest consumer for nitrogen. However, Asia Pacific is expected to lead the market over the forecast period on account of increasing use of agrochemicals and rising industrial activities in emerging economies such as China and India.Request to view Table of content @Agrium Inc., PotashCorp, ICL Fertilizers, K+S AG, Sinofert, Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile(SQM), andThe Mosaic Company among others are some of the major manufacturers of nitrogen dominating the market.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
Oleyl Alcohol Market Set to Grow Exponentially During the Forecast 2015 to 2021

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Oleyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol which is usually found in fish oil and beef fat. It is unsaturated and non-ionic in nature which shares a wide scope in various application as well as end-user industries. Oleyl alcohol is used in an extensive range of applications such as lotions, thickener in skin creams, emulsifiers, surfactants, hair coatings, hair conditioners, and plasticizers for softening fabrics. The global market for oleyl alcohol has been witnessing significant growth on account of increasing demand from its application industries such as personal care. It is used in a variety of applications such as surfactants, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. One of the major opportunities for the surfactant industry is bio-based surfactants where rising awareness among consumers towards eco-friendly products has noticeably contributed towards the growing demand for oleyl alcohol in surfactants. Surfactants also share a broad application scope as foaming agents, emulsifiers, detergents, and wetting agents. Conditioning and detergency are some of the vital properties of surfactants due to which they share a wide application scope. Major applications of oleyl alcohol-based surfactants include personal care, textile, pharmaceutical, soap and detergent among others. Key manufacturers have entered into several collaborations and agreements with other companies for the marketing of new products as well as garnering a larger share in the market.Request to View Sample Report @Other applications of oleyl alcohol include plasticizer for use in fabrics. The market for oleyl alcohol in plasticizers has been witnessing noticeable growth due to changing lifestyles and emerging global economies in Asia Pacific and Latin America. Additionally, growing environmental awareness and rising legal provisions have been serving as a catalyst for the plasticizers market with developments in various emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, China and India. Matured regions such as Europe and North America accounted for the highest demand for oleyl alcohol due to the presence of vast hair care and skin care industries in these regions resulting in significant demand for the chemical. Moreover, emerging economies in Asia Pacific such as Japan, China and India are anticipated to witness the fastest growth rate over the forecast period on account of growing hair care, skin care and pharmaceutical industries in the region. Various factors such as rising awareness regarding healthy hair and skin among consumers as well as changing lifestyles is expected to boost the demand for personal care products which in turn is anticipated to contribute towards the demand for oleyl alcohol.Increasing demand for personal care products such as hair care and skin care on account of rising awareness for hair and skin is expected to be another major factor driving the demand for oleyl alcohol. Moreover, growing demand for pharmaceuticals is also expected to contribute towards the growing demand for oleyl alcohol in the production of various drugs and ointments within the forecast period. In addition, increasing consumption of oleyl alcohol in surfactants due to their low cost and ease of availability has also contributed significantly towards the growth of the market. However, fluctuating prices of key feedstock materials has been major concern for the manufacturers and is expected to limit the growth of the market. Focus on commercializing and developing cost-effective bio-based surfactants using oleyl alcohol is anticipated to provide new opportunities for the growth of the market.Request to view Table of content @AkzoNobel N.V., P&G Chemicals, Sigma Aldrich Corporation, Stepan Company, and The Lubrizol Corporation are some of the key manufacturers of oleyl alcohol present in the market.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
In-Chassis Cooling Market: Headed for Growth and Global Expansion by 2024

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In- Chassis Cooling is necessary for the ejection of excessive heat produced by computer peripherals namely CPU (Computer Processing Unit), GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) & Hard disk since heat produced may result in decreased stability & performance of laptop & desktop which in turn leads to reduction in overall efficiency of the system. Adequate cooling of systems integral components improves the overall stability of the system and may also caters to extend the life of the system. In- Chassis cooling system employs several components namely fan tray, temperature sensor, control software and logic, bezels, air filter & others. Each component serves their individual purpose to meet the cooling demands of the system, failing of one would lead to the failure of the complete systems. For instance, fan tray is utilized to maintain the speed of rotation and temperature sensors are necessary to monitor change in temperature primarily to ensure efficient working of the cooling system.Request for Sample Report:In-Chassis Cooling Market: SegmentationGlobal In-Chassis Cooling market can be segmented on the basis of technology and application. Based on the technology, global In-Chassis Cooling market can be segmented into Airflow Through (AFT) cooling, spray cooling and Liquid Flow Through (LFT) cooling. By application global In-Chassis Cooling market can be segmented into Electronic, automotive and aerospace & military.In-Chassis Cooling Market: DynamicsModification in data center standards such as certifications for warm liquid cooling has led to increased adoption of In-chassis cooling systems by major system integrator.Manufacturers are more focused towards addressing evolving needs for various business. For instance, over 20% of the companys data center business team is involved in tracking such trends in data center energy savings and interfacing with end users for direct feedback regarding the needs and requirements of the industry.Increase in the number of companies outsourcing small data centers to cloud providers thereby reducing the need for power and cooling. Further, growing adoption of virtualization and improvements in server technology lead to an increased computer performance per watt, which then requires less power and cooling backup. Development in liquid cooling chassis technology such as using dielectric liquid as a coolant other than water is one of the major trend identified across the market.In-Chassis Cooling Market: Region-wise OutlookGlobal In-Chassis Cooling market is divided into five key regions namely Latin America, North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Middle-East & Africa.Request for Table of content:In-Chassis Cooling Market: Key PlayersSome of the major players identified across global In Chassis cooling market includes Asetek, Iceotope, Spraycool, Parker Hannifin Corp., Lytron Inc, Cisco, CURTISS- WRIGHT DIVISIONS, NZXT, Cooler Master technology Inc., CORSAIR, BROCADE and SilverStone Technology Co. Ltd.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:
Smart Motor Market : Global Market Snapshot by 2022

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Smart motor is a highly programmable digital motor which can be programmed and work accordingly as per requirement of application. It can easily store the information related to its speed and can change it immediately with the single pressing of a button or after a particular given time. These smart motor is integrated with an encoder, an amplifier, motor driver, communication buses, dual port Ethernet port, and USB interface for programming, remote terminal unit (RTU), half duplex communication port and IOs. The microcontroller integrated with smart motor detects the presence of load on the shaft and correspondingly adjust the power extraction to the load. The main specialty of the smart motor is its ability to produce highest torque at lowest speed. The technological advancement and innovation brings the smart motor to completely new stage, now smart motors can support industrial Ethernet protocol including Ether CAT and PROFINET. The main applications of this smart motor is in industrial automation and robotics applications, which are undoubtedly the emerging sectors across the globe and hence the demand of smart motor is also rising up in global market.Request to view Sample Report @The key trend of global smart motor market is the tremendous increment in the demand of smart motor for the application in the industrial automation.There are various factors driving the growth of global smart motor market such as the advantages provided by smart motors over the traditional AC motors as it requires less wiring and onsite space, cost reduction, increased effectiveness of equipment, less power consumption are some of the global smart motor market drivers driving this market. On the other side there are some factors which are responsible to hinder the growth of global smart motor market, which are; lower rate of implementation and additional consideration for variable frequency drive are some of restraints of smart motor market.Among all the regions North America is the highest contributor in term of revenue in global smart motor market followed by Asia Pacific & it is expected that in near future Asia Pacific is going to lead this market.Request to view Table of content @The key players of global smart motor market are Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) Ltd., Rockwell Automation, Inc., Moog Animatics, General Electric Co. Ltd., FUJI Electric Co. Ltd., Siemens AG, Technosoft S.A., Schneider Electric SE, Robotshop, Inc., Roboteq, Inc. and others.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
India Air Treatment Products Market Expected To Observer Major Growth By 2020

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The air treatment equipment includes those products which modify or change the technological characteristics and properties of air. This modification may include the treatment of harmful gases present in the air, increasing or decreasing the air temperature, compressing the air, removal of harmful microorganism from the air, increasing or decreasing the air pressure, removal of extreme odours and others. The air treatment equipment includes air compressor, air dryers, air washers, air filters, injectors and others.?On the basis of application the air treatment products are available for both industrial and domestic use. It is also used for roadways vehicles, waterways vehicles such as for ships, marines, and also for airways such as in aeroplane, spaceship, fighter plane and others. For domestic use air treatment equipment are offered to the consumers in the modified form and available in the consumer durable products for their convenient use. The air treatment consumer durable product includes hot air blowers, air conditioners, automatic washing machine, microwave, oven, automatic washer dryers, hair dryers, refrigerators, dishwashers and others.On the basis of domestic use the air treatment products is sub-segmented into air conditioner, air purifier, humidifiers and dehumidifiers and others. Among all these sub-segments air purifiers are further sub-segmented into air filters purifiers, ionizing purifiers, ozone generators, adsorbents and others. Whereas air conditioners is sub-segmented into room air conditioners, split air conditioners, window air conditioners and others.Request Free Report Sample@Globally Asia-pacific is considered to be the highest market for the air treatment products followed by North America and Europe. In Asia Pacific China, India and Japan represent ample opportunities for players in this market. This growth in these countries is supported by increasing number of health conscious consumers and rising disposable income of the consumers.Among all these countries, India accounted for low growth for air treatment products in 2011 due to economic slowdown. Moreover, the demand of air conditioner segment also registered less growth as monsoon arrived early in the country. However, the market growth for air treatment product showed a positive growth in 2013 due to rise in country economic condition and urge of the consumer for better and healthier life. It is expected that India will show a potential growth for air treatment products in the forecasted period. This growth will be supported by rise demand for air conditioners in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and others due to rise in heat and temperature. It is expected that air conditioner will occupy the largest position of the pie as the consumers in India are making their switch from ceiling fans or table fans to air conditioner. Among all the sub-segments of air conditioner, split air conditioner is expected to show the highest growth. Furthermore, it has been found that awareness among the consumers for purified air will also fuel the market growth for air treatment products in India. States such as Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat is expected to support the growth of air purifiers as these states possess large number of industries.In India, high entrant of manufacturing industries, outsourcing companies and rise in commercialization are some of the major drivers supporting the market growth. In addition, increase in number of health consciousness among the consumers coupled with rising disposable income is also expected to fuel the market growth for air treatment products in India.Request For TOC@However, the market of air treatment products in India possess some restraining factors. This includes lack of awareness among the consumers regarding the product such as humidifiers, dehumidifiers and others. Additionally, the consumers perceives these products as quite expensive and also it is considered as a luxury product and not an absolute necessity.The key players for air treatment products in India includes Bajaj Electricals Ltd, Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd., Usha International Ltd., Panasonic Corp, Atlas Copco AB, Eureka Forbes, OSIM International, SANYO Electric Co ., Ltd and others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comPress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Bamboos Market Intelligence Report Offers Growth Prospects

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Bamboo is a flowering perennial evergreen plant which belongs to the grass family. Among the grass family, giant bamboo is said to be the largest member of the family. Bamboos are known to be one of the fastest growing plants globally, owing to the rhizome-dependent system. It is considered to be one of the most valuable non-timber forest resources in the world. The products of bamboo have great potential to thrive in the American and European markets. They are notable cultural and economic significance in South East Asia, South Asia and East Asia, as bamboos are used as a food source, as a building material and as a versatile raw product. Good quality bamboo is stronger than steel and hence, it is used as weaponry and building material.Bamboo has wide range of applications that include non-residential, housing, pulp, rural usage, packing including basket, furniture, transport and other wood working industries.The major factors that drive the global bamboo market include growing end use industries such as the paper, building and construction,textile and wood. Additionally, the medical industry contributes to the growing demand for bamboo due to various medicinal uses. Bamboos are used in the manufacture of pulp and paper, scaffolding bridges, mat, baskets and brooms, home furnishing, fuel and packaging among others. Medicinal uses of bamboo include Acetylcholine which is found in bamboo in high levels acts as a neurotransmitter in humans and animals.Request Free Report Sample@The key regional segments for the market include North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and Rest of the World (RoW). Asia Pacific and China is expected to be the fastest and largest growing economies for the global bamboo market owing to the growing demand from the building and construction industry in the region.The key players of the bamboo industry include: Native KONBAC, TENBRO and VEDHA among others.This research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data and statistically-supported and industry-validated market data and projections with a suitable set of assumptions and methodology. It provides analysis and information by categories such as market segments, regions, product types and distribution channels.Request For TOC@The report covers exhaustive analysis on:Market SegmentsMarket DynamicsMarket Size & Forecast 2015 -2025Supply & Demand Value ChainCurrent Trends/Issues/ChallengesCompetition & Companies involvedTechnologyValue ChainMarket Drivers and RestraintsRegional analysis includesNorth AmericaUS & CanadaLatin AmericaBrazil, Argentina & OthersWestern EuropeEU5NordicsBeneluxEastern EuropeAsia PacificAustralia and New Zealand (ANZ)Greater ChinaIndiaASEANRest of Asia PacificJapanMiddle East and AfricaGCC CountriesOther Middle EastNorth AfricaSouth AfricaOther AfricaABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comPress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
New Research Report on Clinical Trials Market, 2015-2025

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Clinical trials are research studies performed on humans to gain specific information about biomedical interventions such as novel vaccines, devices, treatments and drugs and thereby generating safety data. Clinical trials are regulated by health authorities and ethics committees.Documents required for performing clinical trials are investigators brochure (IB) which include current and relevant scientific information about the investigational product, United States Food and Drug (FDA) form 1572, protocol and amendments, inform consent, other written information for participants, recruitment advertisement, financial disclosure form (FDF), master clinical trial agreement (MCTA), institutional review board (IRB) approval, medical licensure, training records, laboratory accreditation, visit monitor reports, miscellaneous document, signature sheet and documentation of investigational drug destruction. The International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) brings together regulatory authorities of Europe, the United States, Japan and experts from pharmaceutical industry to frame and regulate the technical and scientific aspects of pharmaceutical product registration. The Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) states rules and standard guidelines for clinical trials. ICH guidelines are followed as law by several countries in the world.Clinical trials are conducted in four phases namely, Phase I, II, III and IV. Phase I is conducted for safety, phase II is conducted for efficacy, phase III is conducted for final confirmation of safety and efficacy and phase IV is conducted for post sales studies. Risk to participants involved in clinical trials decreases from phase I to phase VI. Number of participants increases from phase I to phase IV resulting in increasing cost of trials. Based on the phases of clinical trials, global clinical trials market is segmented as follows:Request Free Report Sample@Phase IPhase IIPhase IIIPhase IVBased on indication, global clinical trials market is classified as follows:Blood disordersOphthalmologyAutoimmune diseasesCirculatory diseasesCancerGenitourinary diseasesCongenital diseasesMusculoskeletal diseasesCentral nervous system (CNS)InfectionsDermatologyMetabolic disordersCardio vascular system (CVS) diseasesGastrointestinal diseasesMental disordersOthersBeing relatively costly process, in order to reduce economic burden on company and shift focus on core business activities, many companies outsource their clinical trial activities to contract research organizations (CROs). Contract research organizations provide services such as clinical trial management, clinical research and preclinical research. Factors such as advancement in technology and increasing demand of innovative solutions in healthcare industry are driving the market of global clinical trials towards growth. On the other hand, factors such as high cost and stringent regulations are restraining the growth of clinical trials market globally. Geographically, the global clinical trials market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World.Request For TOC@North America is the leading consumer of global clinical trials solutions, followed by Europe. Ample availability of funds to outsource clinical trials serves as the major growth driver for the North America clinical trials market. Asia-Pacific demonstrates impressive growth potential for clinical trials market and is expected to show the highest growth rate as compared to other regions in the world. Countries such as India are attractive markets due to advantages such as availability of skilled practitioners and availability government support in terms development of outsourcing hubs thus attracting pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to outsource clinical trial activities to CROs in this region. Some of the market leaders contributing to the global clinical trials market include Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk A/S, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Ltd., Sanofi Aventis A.S. and Roche Group.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comPress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Renewable Fuel Market Productions, Growth Elements, Key Market Plans and Recent Developments

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Global Renewable Fuel Sales Industry 2016 Market Overview, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Technology, Applications, Growth, Market Status, Demands, Insights, Development, Research and Forecast 2016-2020.The market intelligence report provides reliable data and analysis of the global Renewable Fuel Sales market. With this report, the reader will be able to explore in detail the overall market and its affiliated industries. It serves as an executive-level blueprint of the global Renewable Fuel Sales market. It also studies the latest development in the market and how the recently adopted government policies are impacting the trajectory of the market during the forecast horizon.This research report on the global Renewable Fuel Sales market includes:Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the key trends and future developments across the globe and different regions in the Renewable Fuel Sales marketEssential insights into the market growth and industry performanceIndustry data including exports, imports, production data, suppliers, industry buyers, cost structure, and profitabilityAttractiveness index that gauges market performance in both challenging and stable economic conditionsAnalysis of bargaining power of suppliers to the industryAnalysis of bargaining power of buyers from the industryTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report will provide answers to the questions such as:What is the revenue generation of the global Renewable Fuel Sales market?What is the cost structure in the global Renewable Fuel Sales market?How profitable is the global Renewable Fuel Sales market?Who are the key consumers in the global Renewable Fuel Sales market?Who are the prominent players in the global Renewable Fuel Sales market?Is the market fragmented or consolidated?What is the extent of threat from new players and substitutes in the global Renewable Fuel Sales market?Which region is likely to remain lucrative throughout the forecast period?What are the leading product and technology segments in the global Renewable Fuel Sales market?To provide a detailed assessment of the vendor landscape, the report also profiles key players in the market along with their business strategies, latest developments, and market shares.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Table of ContentsGlobal Renewable Fuel Sales Market Report 20161 Renewable Fuel Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Renewable Fuel1.2 Classification of Renewable Fuel1.2.1 Biodiesel1.2.2 Bioethanol1.2.3 Biogas1.2.4 Biomass Briquette Fuel1.2.5 Other1.3 Application of Renewable Fuel1.3.1 Transportation1.3.2 Home use1.3.3 Other1.4 Renewable Fuel Market by Regions1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Renewable Fuel (2011-2021)1.5.1 Global Renewable Fuel Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2021)1.5.2 Global Renewable Fuel Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)2 Global Renewable Fuel Competition by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Global Renewable Fuel Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1.1 Global Renewable Fuel Sales and Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2011-2016)2.1.2 Global Renewable Fuel Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2011-2016)2.2 Global Renewable Fuel (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Renewable Fuel Sales and Market Share by Type (2011-2016)2.2.2 Global Renewable Fuel Revenue and Market Share by Type (2011-2016)2.3 Global Renewable Fuel (Volume and Value) by Regions2.3.1 Global Renewable Fuel Sales and Market Share by Regions (2011-2016)2.3.2 Global Renewable Fuel Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2011-2016)2.4 Global Renewable Fuel (Volume) by Application3 United States Renewable Fuel (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Renewable Fuel Sales and Value (2011-2016)3.1.1 United States Renewable Fuel Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016)3.1.2 United States Renewable Fuel Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2016)3.1.3 United States Renewable Fuel Sales Price Trend (2011-2016)3.2 United States Renewable Fuel Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers3.3 United States Renewable Fuel Sales and Market Share by Type3.4 United States Renewable Fuel Sales and Market Share by Application4 China Renewable Fuel (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Renewable Fuel Sales and Value (2011-2016)4.1.1 China Renewable Fuel Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016)4.1.2 China Renewable Fuel Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2016)4.1.3 China Renewable Fuel Sales Price Trend (2011-2016)4.2 China Renewable Fuel Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers4.3 China Renewable Fuel Sales and Market Share by Type4.4 China Renewable Fuel Sales and Market Share by ApplicationAbout UsQYReseachReports.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. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Global Automotive Gear Oil Market: Expected to Provide Suitable Growth by 2020

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Automobile gears (or cogs) are rotating machine part having cut teeth, or cogs which mesh with another toothed part in order to transmit torque. The arrangement of two or more gears forms automotive transmission system. Automotive gear oil can be petroleum or synthetic based, used especially for lubricating automotive gears for all class of vehicles. It provide high transmission efficiency, reduce engine heating, provides proper clutch friction, insure better oxidation and protects gear teethes from corrosion.Request for Sample Report:Automotive gear oil generally has high viscosity level in comparison to transmission fluid and automotive engine oil. This is necessary for better performance and protection of gears. The high viscosity level provides better transmission of lubricant throughout the gear trains. Devices requiring heavy oil do not have to use extra force to transfer the oil, since only a fraction of the lowermost gears are covered in an oil sump. Gear oils have extreme pressure or EP stabilizer and anti-wear stabilizer to deal with the sliding action of gears. Based on technology, gear oils can be broadly categorized as synthetic gear oil and petroleum-based gear oil. Synthetic gear oils are superior to petroleum-based gear oil as they provide superior resistance to shear breakdown and reduce energy consumption due to its low friction coefficient.The gear oils are standardised by American Petroleum Institute (API STANDARDS) based on the viscosity level and their use in automatic and manual transmission based vehicles. The different classification of the API includes GL-1, API GL-2, API GL-3, API GL-4, API GL-5 and API GL-6 and, SAE 75W-90, SAE 75W-140, SAE 80W-90, SAE 85W-140 and LS- for limited slip. For maximum transmission efficiency, gear oils must lubricate, cool and protect complete gear systems. It also supposes to transfer damaged particles away from the contact areas, guarantee protection against extreme pressure and temperature and reduce noise in the transmission operation.North America is the largest market for automotive gear oil mainly attributed to large volume of motor vehicle in this region, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. The market is witnessing an escalating growth in Asia Pacific region. China, in recent years, has become the global hub for the automobile industry. Some of the other region in Asia Pacific such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines have emerged as the largest small cars markets in the world.Growing middle class, rising disposable income, developing surface transportation infrastructure, growing aspiration of owning private vehicles, increasing mobility due to development of satellite township near megacities and increase demand of goods carriers from micro, small and medium size enterprises are fueling the market for automotive gear oil in Asia Pacific region. Growing automotive aftermarket and do it yourself (DIY) culture in North America and Europe is fueling the growth of automotive gear oil in retail sector in these two region.Request for Table of content:Some of the major players operating in the automotive gear oil market include Saudi Arabian Oil Co., Total S.A, Gazprom, ROSNEFT, LUKOIL oil company, Royal Dutch Shell plc, Exxon Mobil Corporation, BP p.l.c, Statoil, Chevron Corporation., Sinopec Lubricant Company, JIANGSU LOPAL TECH. CO.,LTD and Ashland Inc.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:
Online Advertising Market to Register a Strong Growth By 2021

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Online advertising is likewise known as internet advertising or digital advertising which makes usage of the cyberspace to communicate the promotional marketing message to the customers.Request to view Sample Report @The online advertising term is broadly categorized on the basis of types of advertising which includes search engine optimization (SEO), banner marketing, search engine advertising (SEA), email marketing, online video advertising, local online advertising, social media optimization (SMO) strategies and additional types of online advertising. These online advertisings appear on the internet more often than traditional advertising media such as television and newspapers.Search engine advertising and pay per click marketing are the fastest evolving advertising concepts for numerous assortments of businesses. Pay per clip is comparatively simple and effortless to carry out scalable, enormously cost efficient and in house. PPC is a huge component of effective and efficient online advertising for the business.Online advertising uses numerous tools and techniques for online marketing functions which include sales CRM, e-commerce, e-mail, marketing automation, WCM, social CRM and web analytics. All these software tools collectively facilitate an organization to develop and implement effective and efficient marketing strategies.The global online advertising market continues to rise in tandem with the global internet user base, social networking websites, income and widespread adoption of broadband. The industry is being motivated by mobile internet activity, increasing attractiveness and fame of mobile devices which includes tablets and smart phones that are proving to be beneficial.The main factors that are driving the online advertising market are increased focus on digital media, cost effective, smart phone penetration, advertising by content providers and rising numbers of advertisers on social networking sites. The main factor that is restraining the growth of online advertising are lack of skilled personnel and still use of tradition advertising factors such as television and newspapers. The main opportunity for the growth of online advertising in future would be the emergence of SAAS based solutions.The online advertising market is segmented on the basis of advertising sectors which include online classifieds, search, directories, and general advertising. In addition, the market is segmented on the basis of its mode of interaction which includes web sites, commercial online services, email providers, as well as other companies selling online advertising. Further, the online advertising is segmented on the basis of end use industry which includes BFSI and automotive industry among others. Furthermore, the market could be segmented on the basis of geography which includes North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and RoW.The North American region dominates the market of global online advertising industry and is remain the market leaders in future as well. Asia Pacific region is expected to be the biggest emerging market for online advertising because of the large customer base.Request to view Table of content @Some of the major companies that are dominating in the online advertising market include IBM Corp., SAP AG, Oracle Corp., Salesforce.com Inc., Aplicor LLC, Adobe Systems Inc., ComScore Networks Inc., Ebay GSI Commerce, Lithium Technologies Inc., Demandware Inc., Attensity Corp., Microsoft Corp., LongJump CRM, OpenText Corp., StrongMail Systems Inc., Percussion Software Inc., Zoho CRM Inc., Yahoo Analytics, SugarCRM Inc., Netsuite Inc. and Sitecore Inc. among others.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
Mobile Relay Networks Market Set to Grow Exponentially By 2021

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A relay network is a wide set of network topology usually used in mobile or wireless networks. In such networks the destination and source are interconnected by the help of few nodes. In such a design of network the destination and source are unable to communicate directly with each other as the distance between the destination and source is larger than their transmission range, hence the requirement for intermediate nodes to relay. These networks help to expand the distance between the source and destination by increasing the number of nodes. When a mobile relay is connected to a wireless relay network it gets converted into mobile relay network. Mobile relays are specialized nodes that travel all through the network to gather data from source nodes and convey it to the access point or destination node. They are free to follow a fixed or variable route, at variable or constant speed.Request to view Sample Report @Mobile relay forwarding (MRF) concept is a result of tremendous innovation done in the networking sector. There exist particular mobile relays (nodes) in the network that are used to collect transmission from the source nodes, and either delivers it to the destination or closer to the destination. The number of mobile relay in a network may differ depending on number of factors such as amount of data traffic to managed, number of regular nodes, costs and quality of service (QoS) requirements.Some of the important factors which are used in designing mobile relay network are coordination between nodes, node mobility, mobile relay destinations, number of mobile relay and mobile relay speed among others.The major driver for this mobile relay networks is the increase network scalability by the addition of extra relay to the network structure with increasing the routing complexity. Mobility of mobile relays (MRs) can be controllable or non controllable in nature depending upon the need for deployment. These MRs can be a preexisting part of the system, or deployed just to improve routing performance. In addition, MRs usually has lesser resources availability limitation as compared to other nodes of the network. Thus, they can effectively increase connectivity of the network and data delivery in the networks.The mobile relay network market is segmented on the basis of type of mobility into task driven mobility or message driven mobility. In addition the market is segmented based on the type of routing in the network into infrastructure based and infrastructure less. Further, the infrastructure based is sub segmented into context-based and dissemination-based. On the basis of mobile relay type the market is segmented into MR as a part of the environment and MR specifically designed to be the element of the network infrastructure.Request to view Table of content @The key players of the mobile relay network market are Megatone Electronics Corp., Changan Group Co. Ltd, Excel Cell Electronic Co Ltd (ECE), Wenzhou Start Co. Ltd, Meisongbei Electronics Co. Ltd, Archers Electronics Ltd, Xiamen Jinxinrong Electronics Co. Ltd and Huge Electrical United Development Co. Ltd among others.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
Global Waterproofing Admixture Market  Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, Share, Growth and Forecast, 2014  2020

Global Waterproofing Admixture Market

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Waterproofing Admixture (Crystalline, Pore Blocking and Others) Market for Building & Construction, Public Infrastructure, and Commercial Space Applications  Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Segment, Trends and Forecast, 2014  2020Global Waterproofing Admixture Market Set for Rapid Growth, To Reach Around USD 3.70 Billion by 2020The report covers forecast and analysis for the waterproofing admixture market on a global and regional level. The study provides historic data of 2014 along with a forecast from 2015 to 2020 based on both volumes (Kilo Tons) and revenue (USD Million). The study includes drivers and restraints for the waterproofing admixture 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 waterproofing admixture market on a global level.Request Sample Report:In order to give the users of this report a comprehensive view on the waterproofing admixture market, 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 waterproofing admixture market has also been included. The study encompasses a market attractiveness analysis, wherein product segments are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate and general attractiveness.The study provides a decisive view on the waterproofing admixture market by segmenting the market based on product types and applications. All the application segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends and the market is estimated from 2014 to 2020. Crystalline, pore blocking and others is the type segment of waterproofing admixture market. Key application markets covered under this study includes building & construction, public infrastructure, and commercial space applications. The regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa with its further bifurcation into major countries including U.S. Germany, France, UK, China, Japan, India and Brazil.Browse detail report at:The report covers detailed competitive outlook including company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report include BASF SE, SIKA AG, W.R. Grace & Co., Wacker Chemie AG, DOW Corning Corporation., RPM International Inc., Pidilite Industries, Evonik Industries, Fosroc International Ltd, Mapei S.P.A., and Xypex Chemical Corporation.The report segments the global waterproofing admixture market into:Global Waterproofing Admixture Market: Type Segment AnalysisCrystallinePore BlockingOthersGlobal Waterproofing admixture Market: Application Segment AnalysisBuilding & ConstructionPublic InfrastructureCommercial SpaceGlobal Waterproofing Admixture Market: Regional Segment AnalysisRead Report TOC:North AmericaU.S.EuropeUKFranceGermanyAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East & AfricaAbout A to Z ResearchA to Z Research is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations. A to Z Research is 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:
Baby Food Packaging Products Market: Headed for Growth and Global Expansion by 2021

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Baby food packaging products are designed to target the manufacturers dealing with baby and toddler food products. It is also designed to provide convenience to consumer in terms of carrying food products form one place to another. Increased consumer preference towards spending on packaged baby food product is expected to drive the demand of baby food packaging product market in the near future.Request for Sample Report:Baby food packaging product market is segmented on the basis of raw material which includes glass packaging material, rigid plastic packaging material, flexible plastic packaging material paperboard packaging material, and metal packaging. Among all these segment flexible packaging material is expected to occupy major market share followed by rigid plastic packaging material during the forecast period.Baby food packaging product market is further segmented on the basis of type which includes bottles, cans, liquid cartons, pouch/sachet and others. Among all these segment pouch/sachet is expected to contribute major share in terms of revenue. Pouch/sachet packaged products are easy to use and convenient to carry which is predicted to support the growth of pouch/sachet packaging segment in baby food packaging product market. Moreover, liquid cartons is also expected to show a substantial growth in the near future. Increasing demand of flavored milk and juices for toddlers is predicted to support thre4 growth of liquid cartons segment in baby food packaging market.Baby food packaging product market is also segmented on the basis of application which includes, milk formula, dried baby food, prepared baby food, ready to feed baby food and others. Among all these segment milk formula is expected to contribute the major share in terms the usage of baby food packaging material. Moreover, ready to feed product is also expected to show a substantial growth in the near future. Increasing urbanization and rising disposable income has led the consumer to get inclined towards more convenient product which is supporting the growth of ready to feed baby product market. Thus is expected to simultaneously support the growth of baby food packaging material market across the globe.On the basis of geography, Europe is expected to contribute to the highest in terms of market share in baby food packaging product market. Moreover Latin America is expected to show a substantial growth in the near future. In Latin America Brazil is expected to contribute the major share in terms of revenue. Increased demand of baby food products especially prepared baby food across the country is expected to support the demand of baby food packaging product market within next five to six years. Whereas, Asia pacific is concerned it is expected to register a healthy double digit growth by 2020. In Asia pacific region China is expected to be the most dominant market for baby food packaging product market followed by Japan and India. Increasing awareness regarding the nutritional benefits for packaged baby food product is predicted to drive the growth of baby food packaging product market across the region. Moreover, rising demand for convenience baby edible products due to increased number of working women is predicted to drive the growth of baby food packaging product market in Asia Pacific region.Rising disposable income coupled with increased number of working mother has raised the demand of baby food which is expected to support the growth of baby food packaging material across the globe. However, packaging manufacturers need to consider food perishability, which is expected to restrict selection of packaging material, and thus predicted to restraints the overall market growth.Request for Table of content:Some of the major player operating in baby food packaging material market includes Prolamina Packaging, Tetra Laval, RPC Group, Silgan Holdings, Rexam PLC, CAN-PACK S.A, Winpak 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:
Toluene Diisocyanate Market - Global Industry Analysis 2023

Toluene Diisocyanate Market

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Transparency Market Research has released a new market report titled Toluene Diisocyanate Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023. According to the report, the global toluene diisocyanate market was valued at US$ 6.72 Bn in 2014 and is likely to reach US$ 10.27 Bn in 2023, expanding at a CAGR of 4.8% from 2015 to 2023. In terms of volume, demand for toluene diisocyanate stood at 2,231.5 kilo tons in 2014.Toluene diisocyanate is one of the primary raw materials used in the production of polyurethane products across the globe. The toluene diisocyanate market is segmented based on product types such as flexible foam, rigid foam, coatings, adhesives & sealants, and elastomers. Flexible foam was the largest application segment in the global toluene diisocyanate market, accounting for about 80% share in 2014.Get Pdf Brochure For More Professional And Technical Insights :In terms of volume, demand for flexible foam stood at 1,909.3 kilo tons in 2014 and is expected to reach 2,815.0 kilo tons in 2023, increasing at a CAGR of approximately 4.4% between 2015 and 2023. Demand for flexible foam is due to rising demand for bedding and mattress across the globe. Furthermore, demand for toluene diisocyanate, used in the production of automotive seats, is projected to witness strong growth in the next few years.Similarly, the market for rigid foam was valued at US$ 315.4 Mn and is anticipated to reach US$ 465.6 Mn in 2023, expanding at a CAGR of about 4.4% between 2015 and 2023. In terms of both volume and revenue, Asia Pacific was the largest market for toluene diisocyanate. The region accounted for about 40% share of the global toluene diisocyanate market in 2014.In terms of volume, the market for toluene diisocyanate in Asia Pacific stood at 897.5 kilo tons in 2014 and is likely to reach 1,380.3 kilo tons in 2023, expanding at a CAGR of 4.9% from 2015 to 2023. Asia Pacific is estimated to dominate the market due to growth in the bedding and mattress industry coupled with increasing demand for automotives in the region.Major players in the toluene diisocyanate market include The Dow Chemical Company, Mitsui Chemicals, Inc., and Huntsman Corporation.Global Toluene Diisocyanate Market  Application Analysis-Flexible Foam-Rigid Foam-Coatings-Adhesive & Sealants-ElastomersAbout Us:-Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. 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.Contact Us:-Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Brazil Ophthalmic Devices Market Cataract Surgery Devices, Intraocular Lens (IOL), Vitreo Retinal Surgery Devices, Glaucoma Surgery Devices, Ophthalmic Lasers, Ophthalmic Diagnostic Equipment and Vision Care

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"The Report Brazil Ophthalmic Devices Market Outlook to 2022 - Cataract Surgery Devices, Intraocular Lens (IOL), Vitreo Retinal Surgery Devices, Glaucoma Surgery Devices, Ophthalmic Lasers, Ophthalmic Diagnostic Equipment and Vision Care provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"GlobalDatas new report, "Brazil Ophthalmic Devices Market Outlook to 2022", provides key market data on the Brazil Ophthalmic Devices market. The report provides value, in millions of US dollars and volume (in units) within market categories - Cataract Surgery Devices, Intraocular Lens (IOL), Vitreo Retinal Surgery Devices, Glaucoma Surgery Devices, Ophthalmic Lasers, Ophthalmic Diagnostic Equipment and Vision Care.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.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.View Report AtScope- Market size for Ophthalmic Devices market categories - Cataract Surgery Devices, Intraocular Lens (IOL), Vitreo Retinal Surgery Devices, Glaucoma Surgery Devices, Ophthalmic Lasers, Ophthalmic Diagnostic Equipment and Vision Care.- Annualized market revenues (USD million) and volume (units) data 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 Ophthalmic Devices market.- Global corporate-level profiles of key companies operating within the Brazil Ophthalmic Devices market.- Key players covered include Essilor International, Alcon, Inc., Bausch & Lomb Inc, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc 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 whats the most preferred mode of product distribution - Identify, understand capitalize.Download Sample copy of this Report at :Table of Contents1 Table of Contents 21.1 List of Tables 61.2 List of Figures 82 Introduction 112.1 What Is This Report About? 112.2 Ophthalmic Devices Market Segmentation 112.3 Definitions of Markets Covered in the Report 133 Ophthalmic Devices Market, Brazil 203.1 Ophthalmic Devices Market, Brazil, Revenue ($m), 2008-2022 203.2 Ophthalmic Devices Market, Brazil, Revenue Mix ($m), 2015 223.3 Ophthalmic Devices Market, Brazil, Category Contribution by Revenue ($m), 2015 233.4 Ophthalmic Devices Market, Brazil, Category Comparison by Revenue ($m), 2008-2022 253.5 Ophthalmic Devices Market, Brazil, Revenue ($m), 2008-2015 273.6 Ophthalmic Devices Market, Brazil, Revenue ($m), 2015-2022 293.7 Ophthalmic Devices Market, Brazil, Volume (Units), 2008-2022 313.8 Ophthalmic Devices Market, Brazil, Volume (Units), 2008-2015 333.9 Ophthalmic Devices Market, Brazil, Volume (Units), 2015-2022 353.10 Ophthalmic Devices Market, Brazil, Company Share by Revenue ($m), 2015 374 Cataract Surgery Devices Market, Brazil 394.1 Cataract Surgery Devices Market, Brazil, Revenue Mix ($m), 2015 394.2 Cataract Surgery Devices Market, Brazil, Segment Contribution (%), 2015 404.3 Cataract Surgery Devices Market, Brazil, Revenue ($m), 2008-2015 414.4 Cataract Surgery Devices Market, Brazil, Revenue ($m), 2015-2022 434.4.1 Ophthalmic Viscoelastic Devices (OVD) Market, Brazil, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2008-2015 454.4.2 Ophthalmic Viscoelastic Devices (OVD) Market, Brazil, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2015-2022 474.5 Cataract Surgery Devices Market, Brazil, Volume (Units), 2008-2015 494.6 Cataract Surgery Devices Market, Brazil, Volume (Units), 2015-2022 514.6.1 Ophthalmic Viscoelastic Devices (OVD) Market, Brazil, Volume (Units), by Segment, 2008-2015 534.6.2 Ophthalmic Viscoelastic Devices (OVD) Market, Brazil, Volume (Units), by Segment, 2015-2022 554.7 Cataract Surgery Devices Market, Brazil, Distribution Share by Revenue ($m), 2014-2015 574.8 Cataract Surgery Devices Market, Brazil, Company Share by Revenue ($m), 2015 585 Glaucoma Surgery Devices Market, Brazil 595.1 Glaucoma Surgery Devices Market, Brazil, Revenue Mix ($m), 2015 595.2 Glaucoma Surgery Devices Market, Brazil, Segment Contribution (%), 2015 605.3 Glaucoma Surgery Devices Market, Brazil, Revenue Mix ($m), 2015 615.4 Glaucoma Surgery Devices Market, Brazil, Revenue ($m), 2015-2022 63MarketResearchReports.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
Global Agricultural Chemicals Industry Analysis, Trends and Forecast Report 2016

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"The Report Global Agricultural Chemicals Industry 2016, Trends and Forecast Report provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"2016 Global Agricultural Chemicals Industry Report is a professional and in-depth research report on the world's major regional market conditions of the Agricultural Chemicals industry, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia) and the main countries (United States, Germany, Japan and China).The report firstly introduced the Agricultural Chemicals basics: definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain overview; industry policies and plans; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, capacity utilization, supply, demand and industry growth rate etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.The report includes six parts, dealing with: 1.) basic information; 2.) the Asia Agricultural Chemicals industry; 3.) the North American Agricultural Chemicals industry; 4.) the European Agricultural Chemicals industry; 5.) market entry and investment feasibility; and 6.) the report conclusion.Download Sample copy of this Report at :Table of ContentsPart I Agricultural Chemicals Industry OverviewChapter One Agricultural Chemicals Industry Overview1.1 Agricultural Chemicals Definition1.2 Agricultural Chemicals Classification Analysis1.2.1 Agricultural Chemicals Main Classification Analysis1.2.2 Agricultural Chemicals Main Classification Share Analysis1.3 Agricultural Chemicals Application Analysis1.3.1 Agricultural Chemicals Main Application Analysis1.3.2 Agricultural Chemicals Main Application Share Analysis1.4 Agricultural Chemicals Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.5 Agricultural Chemicals Industry Development Overview1.5.1 Agricultural Chemicals Product History Development Overview1.5.1 Agricultural Chemicals Product Market Development Overview1.6 Agricultural Chemicals Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.1 Agricultural Chemicals Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 Agricultural Chemicals Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 Agricultural Chemicals Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 Agricultural Chemicals Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.5 Agricultural Chemicals Global Market Development Trend AnalysisChapter Two Agricultural Chemicals Up and Down Stream Industry Analysis2.1 Upstream Raw Materials Analysis2.1.1 Upstream Raw Materials Price Analysis2.1.2 Upstream Raw Materials Market Analysis2.1.3 Upstream Raw Materials Market Trend2.2 Down Stream Market Analysis2.1.1 Down Stream Market Analysis2.2.2 Down Stream Demand Analysis2.2.3 Down Stream Market Trend AnalysisPart II Asia Agricultural Chemicals Industry (The Report Company Including the Below Listed But Not All)Chapter Three Asia Agricultural Chemicals Market Analysis3.1 Asia Agricultural Chemicals Product Development History3.2 Asia Agricultural Chemicals Process Development History3.3 Asia Agricultural Chemicals Industry Policy and Plan Analysis3.4 Asia Agricultural Chemicals Competitive Landscape Analysis3.5 Asia Agricultural Chemicals Market Development TrendChapter Four 2011-2016 Asia Agricultural Chemicals Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast4.1 2011-2016 Agricultural Chemicals Capacity Production Overview4.2 2011-2016 Agricultural Chemicals Production Market Share Analysis4.3 2011-2016 Agricultural Chemicals Demand Overview4.4 2011-2016 Agricultural Chemicals Supply Demand and Shortage4.5 2011-2016 Agricultural Chemicals Import Export Consumption4.6 2011-2016 Agricultural Chemicals Cost Price Production Value Gross MarginChapter Five Asia Agricultural Chemicals Key Manufacturers Analysis5.1 Company A5.1.1 Company Profile5.1.2 Product Picture and Specification5.1.3 Product Application Analysis5.1.4 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value5.1.5 Contact Information5.2 Company B5.2.1 Company Profile5.2.2 Product Picture and Specification5.2.3 Product Application Analysis5.2.4 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value5.2.5 Contact Information5.3 Company C5.3.1 Company Profile5.3.2 Product Picture and Specification5.3.3 Product Application Analysis5.3.4 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value5.3.5 Contact Information5.4 Company D5.4.1 Company Profile5.4.2 Product Picture and Specification5.4.3 Product Application Analysis5.4.4 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value5.4.5 Contact Information...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 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
North America Non-Lethal Weapons Market to Expand at a CAGR of 5.8% 2021

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Transparency Market Research (TMR) has published a new report, titled Non-Lethal Weapons Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2021. According to this report, the global non-lethal weapons market will expand at a CAGR of 6.10% during the forecast period from 2015 to 2021. In 2014, the global non-lethal weapons market was worth US$3.2 bn and by 2021, the market is projected to be worth US$4.8 bnThe global non-lethal weapons market is driven by the rising deployment of military forces in non-combat zones. In addition to this, the global non-lethal weapons market is also driven by the adoption of advanced technology in the manufacturing of non-lethal weapons. Furthermore, the rising demand for crowd control weapons to address protests and riots and escalating military expenditures will also propel the market. On the other hand, the global non-lethal weapons market will be constrained by the influence of humanitarian groups against the use of non-lethal weapons and other restrictions imposed by the law.Product-wise, the global non-lethal weapons market is segmented into explosives (flash grenades and sting grenades), water weapons, gases and sprays (scent-based weapons, pepper spray, tear gas, and others), conducted energy weapons, and directed energy weapons (sonic, laser, and high power microwaves). The global non-lethal weapons market was led by the explosives segment in 2014. The demand for directed energy weapons is projected to witness significant growth in the coming few years.Get More Information :Technology-wise, the global non-lethal weapons market is divided into electromagnetic (visible light, electroshock, infrared and ultraviolet, and radiofrequency and microwave frequency), acoustic (infrasound, ultrasound, and audible), chemical (foams and malodorants), mechanical and kinetic (barriers, entanglements, and blunt implant devices), and other technologies (markers and others). Some of the technology segments expected to witness rapid growth are electromagnetic, chemical, and acoustic.Application-wise, the global non-lethal weapons market is segmented into civilians, law enforcement agencies, and the military. The application of non-lethal weapons by law enforcement agencies is projected to expand at a 6.10% CAGR during the forecast period from 2015 to 2021.Region-wise, the global non-lethal weapons market is classified into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). In 2014, North America dominated the global non-lethal weapons market with a share of more than 30% and is projected to continue its dominance in the coming few years. The North America non-lethal weapons market benefits from the growing adoption of high-end weapons systems used to gain an advantage in asymmetric warfare. The U.S. is estimated to be the largest national market in the world for non-lethal weapons and is expected to lead the global market in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, Asia Pacific is projected to progress at the fastest CAGR of 6.80% during the forecasting horizon.Players in the global non-lethal weapons market will benefit from the growing number of R&D initiatives undertaken by several nations, military modernization projects, and elevated capabilities offerings and broader applications of non-lethal weapons. The key players operating in the global non-lethal weapons market are Chemring Defence, TASER International, BAE Systems, General Dynamics, and FN Herstal.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:
Worldwide Fall Protection Equipment Market to Expand at 9.0% CAGR from 2020 owing to Implementation of Safety Mandates

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Fall protection equipment include devices that are used to prevent free fall. These are used to restrain a worker at a particular position in order to prevent free fall. The fall protection equipment used for rescue purposes finds application across various industries including construction, manufacturing, oil and gas and government usage among others. Body belts, chest harness, full body harness, suspension belts and safety nets among others. Vertical lifelines, horizontal lifelines and self-retracting lifelines are major types of suspension belts commonly used.Get More Information:Full body harness is one of the major types of fall protection equipment used for rescue purposes. The better support provided by full body harness in height rescue is one of the major factors fueling the demand for full body harness globally. The full body harness segment was valued at USD 676.7 million in 2013. However, safety net is one of the fastest growing types of fall protection equipment used for rescue purposes. The safety net segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.6% from 2014 to 2020.North America and Europe are some of the major markets for fall protection equipment in rescue. The North America fall protection equipment market in rescue was valued at USD 670.7 million in 2013. However, it is expected to experience a stable growth throughout the forecast period. Africa is having huge untapped potential for fall protection equipment in rescue. The fall protection equipment market in rescue in Africa is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.9% from 2014 to 2020. Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria are some of the major countries fueling the demand for fall protection equipment in this region.The fall protection equipment market is dominated by few major players. However, there are large numbers of local manufacturers who operate at country level. Capital Safety, 3M Co., Alpha Pro Tech Ltd., Ansell Ltd., Avon Rubber p.l.c., Cofra Holdings AG, Oftenrich Holdings Limited (Golden Chang), Honeywell Safety Products, Rock Fall Ltd. and Uvex Safety Group among others are some of the major players operating in fall protection equipment market in rescue.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.ontactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Traction Equipment Market (Equipment Type - Traction Transformer, Traction Motor, Traction Converter) Forecast 2016 - 2024

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The global traction equipment market is extremely technology-centric and is immensely fragmented. Despite the fact that only companies that can provide cost-effective and high-efficiency products can sustain in this market, the degree of competition is anticipated to remain high during the forecast period owing to the constant demand for traction equipment, especially from emerging markets.The global rise in the demand for mass transportation can be attributed to the surge in investments in the expansion of railway networks across both developing and developed economies. Traction equipment is what drives locomotives and countries such as China, India, the U.S., and Germany have been presenting an increased demand for the same.View exclusive Global strategic Business report :In terms of volume, the global traction equipment market was pegged at 1.1 mn units in 2015. Expanding at a subdued CAGR of 2.09% from 2016 to 2024, the demand is expected to reach 1.3 mn units by 2024. By cumulative revenue, the market is forecast to register a 2.34% CAGR during the same period.Expansion and Upgrade of Rail Transit Systems Boost Demand for Traction Equipment in APACIn terms of geography, the global traction equipment market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. In 2015, Asia Pacific a share of around 40% both by revenue and volume and has emerged as the leading revenue generator. The region is expected to remain one of the most attractive markets for traction equipment. The significant development of trade and rapidly growing economies have contributed toward the expansion of this market. China is building a major transcontinental cargo rail service under the Silk Road Economic Belt project, which is likely to increase Chinas trade with European countries. India recently announced its plans for the electrification of its existing railway network with a US$137 bn investment. Australia is working toward expanding its light rail transit systems as well as intercity trains. This increased focus on expanding and upgrading railway networks and systems has boosted the APAC traction equipment market over the years.Europe is one of the oldest markets for traction equipment as the first steam, electric, and diesel locomotives were invented in this region. The region is anticipated to trail Asia Pacific in terms of volume and revenue during the forecast period. The strengthening of emission control policies in Europe has made railways an attractive alternative to other modes of transport and this anticipated to fuel the demand for traction equipment in the region.Traction Motors Take the Lead as Suppliers Offer Customized SolutionsBy type of equipment, the traction equipment market was led by traction motors. This segment accounted for a massive share of nearly 80% in 2015 and is expected to retain its lead through 2024. Traction motors are used in electric and diesel locomotives and the key suppliers of traction motors, such as ABB Ltd. and Siemens AG, have been offering customized traction motors to suit the unique requirements of locomotives. Traction converters and transformers are used in electric locomotives as well as in traction substations. The market for these will grow in the forecast period due to various projects being undertaken for the electrification of railway lines across the globe.Browse Report with Full TOC at :Leading vendors in the traction equipment market include ABB Ltd., Alstom SA, American Traction Systems, Bombardier Inc., Caterpillar Inc., Crompton Greaves Limited, Siemens AG, General Electric Company, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, VEM Group, Toshiba International Corporation, and TTM Rail - Transtech Melbourne Pty Ltd.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: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.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.90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207
Silicones Market Is Expected to Reach $20,784 Million, Globally, by 2022

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Silicones Market Report, published by Allied Market Research, forecasts that the global market is expected to garner $20,784 million by 2022, registering a CAGR of 4.9% during the period 2016-2022. Silicone elastomers segment dominated with more than one-third share of the market revenue and volume in 2015.Access Full Summary at:The silicone market is driven by factors such as rapid infrastructure development, growing adoption of medical implants, and superior properties namely less CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions from silicone products. Silicones bond with most materials, from concrete, glass, granite, and marble to aluminum, steel, and plastics. These are the best choice for various infrastructure activities owing to their advantages such as high durability and resistance to decay caused to other materials through rough weather conditions, moisture, or sunlight. Silicones are widely accepted as safe materials for human body and are also approved by FDA after extensive research to be used as a fixture or implant in different parts of the body. They are also utilized in many other medical treatments to facilitate healing at a faster rate, enhance the appearance of existing scars, and decrease discomfort. The factors that restrain the market growth include availability and volatile cost of raw materials.Download Free Sample @Silicones market is segmented into different types such as elastomers, fluids, resins and gels. The elastomer segment accounted for more than one-third of the global silicone market, both in terms of volume and revenue in 2015, owing to its unique ability to retain its mechanical properties over a wide temperature range. Hence, silicone elastomers are mostly applicable in construction, where they are used as structural glazing sealant. Silicone fluids is the second largest segment and is mostly used in cosmetics, paints & coatings, and healthcare industries.Key Findings of Silicones Market:1. Asia-Pacific is expected to continue to lead the market throughout 2022, followed by Europe.2. The building & construction end user segment accounted nearly half of the global silicones demand in 2015.3. Silicone elastomers market volume is projected to grow with a higher CAGR of 5.6% during the forecast period.4. China contributed one-fifth of the silicones market volume in 2015.Asia-Pacific and Europe collectively contributed about two-thirds to the silicones market revenue in 2015. In the year 2015, Asia-Pacific dominated the silicones market due to its high consumption in building & construction and vehicle production. The prominent players profiled in this report include Bluestar Silicones International Co., Ltd. (France), Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd. (Japan), Momentive Performance Materials Inc. (U.S.), Wacker Chemie AG (Germany), Dow Corning Corporation (U.S.), Evonik Industries AG (Germany), Sivance LLC (U.S.), CSL Silicones Inc. (Canada), Emerald Performance Materials, LLC (U.S.), and ICM Products Inc. (U.S.).Allied Analytics LLP provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions". Allied Analytics LLP has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.About UsWe 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.Contact:Sona Padmanabhan5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesDirect: +1-503-894-6022Toll Free: +1-800-792-5285 (U.S. &Canada)Fax: +1(855)550-5975E-mail: sales@alliedmarketresearch.com
President-elect Donald Trump plans to create a National Trade Council within the White House, to be run by economist Peter Navarro of the University of California at Irvine.

The elevation of trade policy to the same heights as the National Security Council in the White House hierarchy appears to demonstrate Trumps seriousness about focusing on an overhaul of the systems under which goods flow into and out of the U.S.

In a statement, the transition team said that the National Trade Council would work collaboratively and synergistically with the National Security Council, the National Economic Council, and the Domestic Policy Council to fulfill the Presidents vision of peace and prosperity through military and economic strength and would think strategically about the health of Americas defense industrial base and the role of trade and manufacturing in national security.

Related: Trump's Incredibly Wealthy Cabinet: Here's How Much They're Worth

Further, the NTC will advise the president on innovative strategies in trade negotiations, coordinate with other agencies to assess U.S. manufacturing capabilities and the defense industrial base, and help match unemployed American workers with new opportunities in the skilled manufacturing sector. It will also oversee Trumps promised effort to focus federal procurement dollars on U.S. companies.



The nomination of Navarro to oversee that effort is likely to cause a lot of heartburn among conservative economists. While his qualifications, including a Harvard Ph.D., are impeccable, Navarro is definitely an outlier among his fellow economists when it comes to the impact trade policy has on the economy. Like Trump, he appears to relish confrontation on trade issues, which will raise concerns about the possibility of damaging trade wars during a Trump administration.

Particularly on the question of trade policy with respect to China, Navarro is a hawks hawk. His 2011 book, Death by China: One Job at a Time, was turned into a documentary film. A lurid poster advertising the film showed a knife inscribed Made in China plunged into a flag-draped United States of America with blood pouring out of it.

Story continues

Related: There Are Still Some Big Holes in Trumps Plan for Economic Growth

In September, Navarro and private equity investor Wilbur Ross, Trumps pick for commerce secretary, released a white paper defending the candidates economic proposals. At the heart of their argument was the assurance that Trumps plans for a massive tax cut wouldnt harm the federal budget because of offsetting gains from his trade policy.

In considering how to score these competing plans fiscally, it is important to note that the Trump plan generates positive and substantial tax revenue offsets from its synergistic suite of trade, regulatory, and energy policy reforms, they wrote. Any analysis that scores the Trump tax cuts in isolation is incomplete and highly misleading.

In their analysis, they argued that the gains from trade could be expected to add $1.74 trillion in additional tax revenue to the U.S. Treasury over the space of 10 years.

Economists -- particularly conservative economists with a free trade bent -- were incredulous.

Related: Trumps $1Trillion Infrastructure Plan Raises a Red Flag

An economist from the Tax Foundation called it nonsense. Another from the Cato Institute tweeted out the hashtag #WeAreAllDoomed. A conservative Canadian financial columnist warned a colleague not to even try reading it, predicting, you will poke your eyes out with hot spikes.

Many economists were troubled by the papers apparent assertion that simply by exporting more and importing less, the U.S. GDP would grow dramatically. Experts said that prediction flies in the face of basic economic theory about what contributes to GDP growth.

The paper also advocated a far more confrontational approach to dealing with international partners such as the World Trade Organization, threatening to pull out of the organization entirely unless U.S. goods receive more favorable treatment.

Donald Trump understands that the only way to correct this unfair tax treatment is for the US to use its status as the worlds largest economy, the worlds largest consumer, and the worlds largest importer to put pressure on the WTO to change this unequal treatment, Navarro and Ross write. Without the US as a member, there would not be much purpose to the WTO, but prior occupants in the White House have been unwilling to lead on this issue despite its significant negative impacts.

Related: Trump Proposes $1 Trillion for Infrastructure Without Raising Taxes

Again, trade economists were stunned at this proposal, which one described as playing chicken with the WTO. They argued that the idea that the U.S. could strong-arm the WTO -- a body where all decisions must be unanimous -- is fanciful.

But its precisely the willingness to ignore conventional thinking about trade policy that makes Navarro so attractive to Trump.

The transition team release noted, Navarro has been instrumental in challenging the prevailing Washington orthodoxy on so-called free trade.

A statement attributed directly to Trump said, I read one of Peters books on Americas trade problems years ago and was impressed by the clarity of his arguments and thoroughness of his research. He has presciently documented the harms inflicted by globalism on American workers, and laid out a path forward to restore our middle class. He will fulfill an essential role in my administration as a trade advisor."

Also in a prepared statement, Navarro said, I am deeply honored for the opportunity to serve the President-elect and this nation and to advise on policies to rebalance our trade, rebuild our industrial base, and restore Americas comprehensive national power by making America great again.

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Global Modem Ics Market - Maxim, Samsung, Analog Devices, Parametres, DSL-Modem, ECOPC

Modem Ics Market

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In depth analysis of Modem Ics Market is a professional research report.The review has been based on the report titled, " Modem Ics Market 2016 - 2020."Read Complete Report @To begin with, the report elaborates the Modem Ics Market Various definitions and classification of the industry, applications of the industry and chain structure are given. Present day status of the Modem Ics Market in key regions is stated and industry policies and news are analysed.After the Modem Ics Market analysis report speaks about the manufacturing process and cost structures.The process is analysed thoroughly Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers, various manufacturing associated costs (material cost, labour cost, etc.) and the actual process.Request for Sample Report @This report studies Modem Ics in Global market, especially in United States, China, Europe, Japan, focuses on top players in these regions/countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each Manufactures player in these regions, coveringON SemiconductorMaximExarSamsungSTMicroelectronicsAnalog DevicesFTDIParametresMarket Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with sales (consumption), revenue, market share and growth rate of Modem Ics in these regions, from 2016 to 2021 (forecast), likeUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanTo provide information on competitive landscape, this report includes detailed profiles of Modem Ics Market key players. For each player, product details, capacity, price, cost, gross and revenue numbers are given.Inquiry for Buying Report @In this 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 Industry growth is included in the report.About Us:MarketResearchStore.com is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact US:Joel JohnSuite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Web:Email: sales@marketresearchstore.com
Everything IT Provides Reliable Backup Services and High-End ICT Solutions

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Business interruptions like natural disasters, fire, computer viruses, crashes or such calamities have catastrophic effects and can cripple a business. Everything IT provides support solutions and expert ICT services. The establishment has many years of experience in the field; the company offers high-end products and services. The market leader provides managed support and Information Communication Technology (ICT) services, Information Management and trusted network security. Known for exceptional response time, the dedicated team of staff serves clients across the industries. They can develop, manage, and maintain business systems needed to set a company apart from the rest.Everything IT ensures that your infrastructure can support vital business processes like information security, systems availability, data protection and performance. We are committed to value, quality and client satisfaction. Through customized solutions created for our customers over the years, we have seen regions, and businesses revolutionized. Our company has a goal to help you maximize the value of technology invested. We have partnered with the industry's best suppliers and manufacturers ensuring our clients get top quality services, products, and guidance. At the same time, our customers get access to most sophisticated tools available in the industry today, said the Assistant Corporate Affairs Manager.In the past, businesses have suffered great losses from backups that allow them recovery to the point of backup. This is because the point of backup can be much earlier than that of interruption and the period in between make a big difference. Everything IT provides the best backup service in the UK as it allows mission-critical cloud backup solutions. Unlike the earlier versions that were more prone to error and driven by tape, the cloud backup strategy is seamless and transparent. The simplicity ensures the client gets an accurate backup plan. In the event of interruptions, the speed of recovery is crucial and Everything IT offers open and fast recovery solutions through the cloud backup services.Speaking on the benefits of the backup system to businesses with multiple operation points, the Assistant Corporate Affairs Manager said, The recovery site is operative in any location in the world as long as one can access the web and retrieve backup remotely. Real-time remote backup is used to activate the recovery operation. Most businesses running in multiple locations have facilities to serve as back up to each other and the remote backup can be used as a restoration vehicle.Everything IT provides best IT support services and is renowned for professional services including virtualization, network services, deployment solutions among others. Other services are managed services, procurement, cloud computing, and moving services. The company has provided impeccable services to enterprises of different sizes throughout the United Kingdom and throughout Ireland.Everything IT is an organically-formed company with a multi-faceted team of passionate ICT experts. Started in 2010, the Dublin-based business offers reliable remote backup service in UK and information communication technology services (ICT) and solutions. With a cloud operation that works 24/7, Everything IT offers the best remote backup solutions in the UK and beyond.Phone: +353 1 524 0755Address: Unit 1a, Bracken Business ParkBracken Road Sandyford,Dublin 18Website :
Microgrid Market - Global Industry Analysis 2020

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A new Transparency Market Research report states that the global microgrid market stood at US$9.8 bn in 2013 and is expected to reach US$35.1 bn by 2020. It is expected to expand at a whopping CAGR of 20.70 % between 2014 and 2020. The title of the report is Microgrid Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2014 - 2020.As per the report, the global microgrid market is fuelled by the economic development and the rapid industrialization witnessed globally. In addition, the technical, direct and indirect economic, social, and environmental advantages related to the usage of microgrids will further stimulate the market. The factors such as the growing demand for energy and the development in the technologies of renewable energy have also impacted the market positively. On the other hand, the factors such as the absence of an adequate regulatory framework and the increasing cost of development along with operational challenges are amongst the chief factors that may pose a negative impact on the growth of the market for microgrids.Get Free PDF Brochure for more Professional and Technical Insights:On the basis of product, the market is segmented into remote (off-grid) and grid-tied (grid connected). Amongst these, grid-tied microgrids are able to operate with or without a connection with the main grid, while off-grid microgrids are autonomous systems manufactured for utilization within areas that lack proper grid infrastructure.On the basis of application, the microgrid market is segmented into community and utility, campus and institutions, defense and military, commercial and industrial, and remote islands. Amongst these, the segment of campus and institutions is predicted to lead the market in the forecast horizon. This is owing to the rising government funding to enable growth of renewable energy sources at institutions and campuses. On the other hand, as per the report, the demand for microgrids within remote islands will rise at a swift rate in forthcoming years.In terms of geography, the microgrid market is segmented into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). The segment of defense and military is poised to be the biggest user of microgrids and is predicted to fuel growth within the region of North America. This is due to the requirement for enhanced energy reliability and security within the defense and military sector of this region. On the other hand, the regions of Europe and Asia Pacific are also likely to use microgrids extensively in the coming years. This is due to the increasing count of investments made for restructuring energy mixes. In addition, the backing from supportive regulatory policies will also fuel the demand for microgrids within these two regions.As per the report, the nations that havent invested in microgrids as yet will emerge as chief targets for the prime players operating in the market in forthcoming years. Viridity Energy, Inc., Schneider Electric, S&C Electric Company, Honeywell International, Inc., GE Energy Management, ABB, Echelon Corporation, ZBB Energy Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, Pareto Energy, Siemens AG, Chevron Corporation, and Power Analytics Corporation, among others are the key players dominant in the market for microgrids.The segmentation of the global microgrid market is as follows:Global Microgrid Market: Product SegmentGrid-tied (Grid Connected)Remote (Off-grid)Global Microgrid Market: Application SegmentCampus and InstitutionsCommunity and UtilityCommercial and IndustrialDefense and MilitaryRemote IslandsGlobal Microgrid Market: Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificRest of the World (RoW)Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. 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 ResearchUS Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Bulk Food Ingredients Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Growth, Trends, Forecast 2016 - 2024

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Bulk food ingredients are food components which are used in packaged, processed foods and ready to eat foods like confectionery items, biscuits, beverages, chocolates, etc. The bulk food ingredients include grocery items like, artificial sweeteners, sugars, coffee and tea extracts, nuts and seeds, spices and herbs, dry fruits, dehydrated vegetables, wheat and rice among others. These food ingredients are purchased in bulk or huge quantities from the wholesale supplier and brought in to the retail stores.. The bulk food ingredients are also known as whole food ingredients and are often found in organic form. Due to their organic properties the bulk food ingredients are regarded for being health foods.. These products can both be processed and non-processed.Download Research Brochure PDF@The use of these ingredients was prevalent in North America due to a high consumption of packaged, processed and ready to eat foods. Now Asia Pacific is the leading player in the bulk food ingredients market due to increase in global exposure and western lifestyle influence. Changing consumer lifestyles have led to an increase in the demand for processed and ready to eat food and beverages. Furthermore,rise in health awarenessamong consumers has led to an increased demand for wellness products.Despite of western market influence on the emerging economies of Asia Pacific, there is still skepticism regarding the consumption of ready to eat food in these economies. Concerns regarding the freshness and safety of the processed food products have always been bothering a considerable section of the population who are not so dependent on the ready to eat and packaged foods. Also the packaged ready to eat foods come at a high price which is not affordable by the middle class segment of the population.The global demography can be found to be dominated by young population mostly of the working age. Owing to this fact, the lifestyle patterns of the majority population is found to be busy and hectic therefore requiring the need for ready to eat foods. Also the advertisement strategies and celebrity endorsements of packaged foods will keep the market for packaged foods stable and this in turn will boost the market for bulk food ingredients during the forecast period .By product the bulk food ingredients can be segmented into, wheat grains, rice, nuts (Almonds, cashews, hazel nuts, peanuts, pistachios, walnuts, etc.), green food (alfalfa powder, barley grass powder, kelp powder, chlorella powder, etc.), Spices and herbs (bay leaves, dried basil, chamomile, green tea, saffron, etc.), sugar, artificial sweeteners, coffee and tea extracts, custom blended products, gums, dehydrated vegetables, and freeze dried fruits,among others . By application the market can be segmented into, confectionery, food and beverages, chocolates, snacks. Some spice herbs are also used by the pharmaceutical industries due to their medicinal properties. Similarly they are also used by the personal care industries as green tea, coffee and tea extracts, saffron and some herbs are used in making face creams, soaps and other personal care products.By region the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East. Asia Pacific is the leading market for consumption of packaged and processed owing to its increasing working population and increased exposure to western lifestyle patterns due to globalization. The emerging economies of Asia Pacific region have also experienced a increase in their disposable income which has helped them to improve their standard of living and afford the ready to eat meals.The lead players in this market are, Archer Daniels Midland Company, EHL Ingredients, El.Du Pont de Nemons and company, DHM Ingredients, Ingredion Incorporated, Community Food Limited, Olam International, and Cargill Incorporated among others.Browse Full Report@About Us:-Transparency Market Research 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 Us:-Transparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
Wood Pellets Market : by Application - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2023

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Albany, NY, 21 DEC : The research study is designed to analyze the global wood pellets market. The market is calculated in terms of volume (Million Tons) and revenue (USD Million) based on the consumption of wood pellets. The market for wood pellets has been segmented on the basis of application and geography. The global wood pellets market, based on application, has been segmented into power plants and heating.The regional segments included in this study are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Central and South America. These regional segments are further divided into country-wise sub-segments. The report provides a detailed growth forecast for the 2015-2023 period, considering 2014 as the base year. Projections have been provided for both volume (Million Tons) and revenue (USD Million), considering the consumption of wood pellets.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @The report includes the key market dynamics affecting the demand for wood pellets. As a part of our market dynamics analysis, we have analyzed the market drivers, market restraints, and market opportunities. A comprehensive competitive landscape, which includes market attractiveness analysis, has also been provided in this report. The report also provides a detailed industry analysis of the global wood pellets market with the help of Porters Five Forces model. The Porters Five Forces analysis aids in understanding the five major forces that affect the industry structure and profitability of the global wood pellets market. The forces analyzed are the bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, and degree of competition.The study also includes the value chain of the global wood pellets market which provides a glimpse of key suppliers, manufacturers, distribution channel as well as interaction of suppliers and buyers with end-users. The market attractiveness analysis involves benchmarking and ranking each application and region on the basis of numerous parameters. The parameters selected are likely to have a pronounced effect on the demand for each application in the current scenario as well as in the near future.Key participants in the global wood pellets market include Andritz AG, Drax Group plc, Enito Singpellet Pte Ltd, Enviva LP, F.E. Wood & Sons, German Pellets GmbH, Georgia Biomass, LLC, Allance Pellet Machinery, The Westervelt Company, Pinnacle Renewable Energy Group, Rentech, Inc., Energex, and Wood Pellet Energy (UK) LTD. The report provides an overview of these companies, followed by their financial revenues, business strategies, and recent developments.The global wood pellets market has been segmented as follows:Global Wood Pellets Market: Application Segment AnalysisPower PlantsHeatingEnquiry @Global Wood Pellets Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeU.K.ItalySwedenDenmarkGermanyRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaJapanSouth KoreaResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @
Sugar Excipients Market worth 1,060.6 Million USD by 2021

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The report "Sugar-Based Excipients Market by Product (Actual Sugars, Sugar Alcohols, Artificial Sweeteners), Type (Powder/Granule, Crystal, Syrup), Functionality (Filler & Diluent, Tonicity Agents), Formulation (Oral, Topical, Parenteral) - Global Forecast to 2021", The sugar excipients market has witnessed healthy growth during the last decade, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.3% between 2016 and 2021 to reach USD 1,060.6 Million by 2021.Growth in this market can be attributed to factors such as increasing use of co-processed excipients, rapid growth in the generics market due to the patent expiration of many blockbuster drugs, and increasing development of orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs).Download PDF Brochure @The global sugar excipients market is segmented based on product, type, functionality, formulation, and region. Based on product, the market is segmented into actual sugars, sugar alcohols, and artificial sweeteners. Based on type, the market is segmented into powders/granules, direct compression sugars, crystals, and syrups. Similarly, on the basis of functionality, the market is segmented into fillers & diluents, flavoring agents, tonicity agents, and other functionalities. Based on formulation, this market is segmented into oral formulations, parenteral formulations, topical formulations, and other formulations. Based on regions, the sugar excipients market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World.In 2015, actual sugar accounted for the largest share of the global sugar excipients market. The sugar alcohols segment is expected to witness the highest growth in the next five years primarily due to the rising use of mannitol in a wide range of dosage forms such as oral and topical, and its high adaptability in emerging formulation technologies, such as orally disintegrating tablets. On the basis of type, powders/granules segment accounted for the large share of the global sugar excipients market. The large share of the powders/granules segment is mainly attributed to its wide use in various types of formulations in the pharmaceutical industry. Based on functionality, fillers & diluents segment accounted for the largest share in this market. The large share of this segment is primarily attributed to huge utilization of fillers and diluents in the development and production of oral dosage forms such as tablets, capsules, and syrups. On the basis of formulation, oral formulations accounted for the largest share in the global sugar excipients market due to it increased use of oral formulations such as tablets, capsules, solutions, and emulsions for various therapeutic areas.Europe is the largest regional segment for the global sugar excipients market. The large share of this regional segment can be attributed to increasing investments in drug development, increasing production of generic drugs, and favorable government initiatives in the region. The market in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to register the highest CAGR owing to the significant growth in the regional healthcare market as well as the pharmaceutical industry, growing scientific base and capability, and favorable government policies, and low-cost manufacturing advantage in this region.Roquette Group (France), DFE Pharma (Germany), BASF SE (Germany), and Ashland Inc. (U.S.), held the major share of the sugar excipients market, and are expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. Other major players in this market are Associated British Foods Plc (U.K.), Cargill, Inc. (U.S.), Colorcon, Inc. (U.S.), FMC Corporation (U.S.), MEGGLE AG (Germany), and The Lubrizol Corporation (U.S.).About MarketsandMarketsMarketsandMarkets 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.Contact:Mr. RohanMarkets and MarketsUNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZMagarpatta city, HadapsarPune, Maharashtra 411013, India1-888-600-6441Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com
Halal Products Market (Product Type - Primary Meat, Processed Food & Beverages, Pharmaceuticals, and Cosmetics and Personal Care Products) - Worldwide Industry Examination, Size, Share, Trends, Prediction 2024

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The global market for halal products is highly diversified, comprising product varieties in the areas of food and beverages to personal care and pharmaceuticals. Halal food companies account for the dominant share in the global markets revenue as halal food and beverages account for nearly 50% of the worlds total halal products market demand, observes a recent report by Transparency Market Research. With the fast pace of globalization and the increasingly complex nature of supply chains, end-to-end halal integrity has become a profound concern for consumers. In this scenario, companies capable of demonstrating a high level of commitment in this area have an upper hand to the companies who consider halal simply as an add-on to an existing range of product.The leading players in the halal products market for the food and beverage segment is Nestle S.A. For halal products for cosmetic and personal care application Unilever is the leading player, besides several other notable players. Reckitt Benckiser Group plc. is one of the leading players catering to the chemical and materials industry.Get More Information:Asia Pacific to Remain Dominant Regional MarketTransparency Market Research estimates that the global halal products market was valued at US$2.70 trillion in 2015 and is expected to reach USD 10.51 trillion by 2024, exhibiting a CAGR of 16.2% from 2016 to 2024. Geographically, the halal products market in Asia Pacific accounted for over 47.0% of the global halal products market in 2015 and is also expected to be the region exhibiting the most significant growth in the next few years. In terms of product variety, the segment of processed food and beverages accounted for the dominant 25.9% share in the market in 2015 and is expected witness a vast rise throughout the forecast period as well.Rising Global Muslim Population Key to Market GrowthBeing the prime consumer of halal products, the rising population of the Muslim community across the globe is one of the most prominent drivers of the global market for halal products. Studies estimate that by 2030, nearly 26% of the worlds population will be accounted by Muslims, which is a vast rise from the 19.9% in 1990. Moreover, the rising disposable income of Islamic countries, chiefly owing to the rapid growth of the Islamic economies in Middle East and South East Asia, is also expected to contribute to the market growth in the next few years. In addition to this, the consumption of halal products by other communities is also on the rise, which is expected to further fuel the global demand for halal products.The market is also embarking upon a promising growth path owing to rising urbanization and the resultant improvement seen in the retail sector in the past few years across many key markets. Earlier, the halal food market was highly unorganized. The present-day halal products market, on the other hand, features a highly organized retail structure with the presence of a large number of retail outlets selling a vast variety of halal products. Moreover, the high degree of globalization of the halal market and multilateral trade agreements have boosted the trade flow of halal products.Lack of Globally Uniform Standards to Hinder Market GrowthThere exists a clear distinction between halal products and haram products, with the latter denoting food or daily use items unacceptable for use according to Islamic (sharia) law. Nevertheless, the difference in Islamic regulatory bodies across different countries leads to varying definitions of halal products across the globe. Hence the products accepted by the Halal Certification Board of a particular country may not be accepted in another country.For instance Non Alcoholic Beer was accepted by the Halal certification board in the ASEAN economies. However it was rejected by their counterparts in the GCC, thus creating chaos among the manufacturers and consumers. Such lack of a global halal certification board is projected to be a significant restraint for the market in the next few years. Such lack of a regulatory body capable of monitoring all the processes involved on the production and marketing of halal products is expected be a key restrain for the global halal pharmaceutical and halal personal care market in the near future.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:
Global Business Use Smartphone Market 2016: Industry Size, Review, Research, Statistics and Growth to 2021

Business Use Smartphone

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Global Business Use Smartphone Industry 2016 Market Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and ForecastMarket Research Report on Business Use Smartphone Market is a professional and in-depth research report.The review has been based on the report titled, " Business Use Smartphone Market - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2016 - 2021." This report studies Business Use Smartphone in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market.Browse Full Report @Firstly, Business Use Smartphone Report provides a basic overview of definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain overview, industry policies and plans, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures and so on. The Business Use Smartphone Report include Product Development History,Process Development History,Landscape Analysis, Development Trend by globally.The Business Use Smartphone Report important aspects like development Trends , Capacity Production Overview,Production Market Share Analysis, Demand Overview and Supply Demand.This Business Use Smartphone Report also state Import/Export Consumption,Cost Price Production Value and Gross Margin.The Business Use Smartphone Research study covered Cost Price, Production Value,Gross Margin and Revenue by Region (North America, Europe and Asia) and by Country(United States, Germany, Japan and China).Do Inquiry About This Report Here:Various analytical tools are applied in the analysis on the Business Use Smartphone market to achieve an accurate understanding of the market players into the potential development of this market. These tools include feasibility analysis, investment return analyses, as well as SWOT analysis of the major market players.Market Research Store is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations. Market Research Store is 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.Joel JohnTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651Email: sales@marketresearchstore.comWeb:
Global Industry Analysis of Semiconductor Inspection Systems Market Predicts Higher Growth till 2021

Semiconductor Inspection Systems Market

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Albany, New York, December 21, 2016: Market Research Hub (MRH) has recently added a latest study, titled Global Semiconductor Inspection Systems Market Research Report 2016 to its report offerings. This study provides a holistic perspective on the current state of the global market during the period of 2011 to 2021, with a strong focus on some key regions including North America, Southeast Asia, Europe, China, Japan and India.Request for Sample Report:The inspection of intermediates products and the analysis of substrates is crucial and this has necessitated the requirement for semiconductors inspections. It can be defined as, it is the part of fabrication equipment i.e. used in manufacturing process of semiconductor device to detect the failure that interrupts the production. Once the defect is obtained and sufficiently removed, the process is advanced to the next step. Main defects in the semiconductor manufacturing process includes pattern defects and small particles on semiconductor wafer.Further, the market has been segmented on the basis of various types and applications. By types, it covers: wafer inspection and mask inspection systems. The wafer inspection system features improved sensitivity to defects on silicon, poly and metal films. It also has the ability to sort defects by the type and size. Through the geographical analysis, North America region holds the largest market share of global semiconductor inspection system market. This region is also home to many of the key players of the market. In Europe region, the market is witnessing moderate growth rate. Germany, being the largest electronics manufacturer and automotive hub, contributes enormously to the Semiconductor Inspection Systems in Europe market.According to the report, growing requirement of semiconductor inspection system will be a key driver for market growth during the forecast period. The technical development in the electronics and semiconductor device markets is propelling wafer manufacturers to invest heavily. Factors such as the increasing demand for low-cost, high-performing semiconductor devices and growing complexity of design and manufacturing process of these devices will expand the usage of inspection systems in the semiconductor manufacturing process in future years.Moreover, the report recognizes the following companies as the key player in the global semiconductor inspection system market: Applied Materials Hermes Microvision Hitachi High-Technologies KLA-Tencor Lasertec SML Holding Carl Zeiss Planar FEI Nanometrics Nikon Rudolph Technologies Tokyo Seimitsu Toray EngineeringRead Full Report with TOC:The report offers profiles of key players along with their cost and revenue structure, business strategies, latest developments and contact information. It also mentions their 2015 and 2016 market shares, capacity and product specification. In the end, the report also provides a comprehensive evaluation of industry chain structure including upstream raw materials analysis, main equipment and downstream demand analysis.About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Follow Us On Twitter:
How Elections 2016 emphasized the need for Penetration Testing Services in USA?

Penetration Testing Services

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Texas (USA), Canada (Toronto) & India (Business Network): Penetration Testing services in USA have never been more important than now. The country saw some large-scale hacking attacks during the Presidential Elections 2016 along with several security breaches that compromised confidential data in renowned private organisations. Penetration Testing services are not only helpful in identifying loopholes in the IT infrastructure but also help in creating a healthy security ritual in the company.So how can you utilize penetration testing services USA for improving your security structure?1)If you want penetration testers to help you identify the maximum numbers of vulnerabilities, perform the tests periodically.2)Make penetration testers check your network connectivity, active firewalls, system changes, etc.3)Designate specialized security professionals to manually analyse the vulnerability assessment reports to avoid false positives4)Reliable penetration testing services will also help you stay updated with legal compliances and certifications5)Get the effectiveness of your protection devices such as IDS, IPS or WAF during a penetration testing sessionWith a well-round security audit of your IT assets, penetration testing services will empower organisations to proactively detect and mitigate security threats. But companies should also keep in mind that penetration testing alone will not make them completely secure against cyber-attacks. Organisations must allocate the required budget and resource to fight security vulnerabilities on a continuous basis so that they dont have to suffer irrecoverable damages.Prova Solutions has been offering a comprehensive range of penetration testing services for USA to companies in Logistics, Healthcare, Manufacturing, IT, E-commerce, Retail and various other sectors.For more details & information-Name - Richard SmithContact No-+1 281 764 1821Email - info@provasolutions.comWebsite -Prova Solutions has been offering a comprehensive range of penetration testing services for USA to companies in Logistics, Healthcare, Manufacturing, IT, E-commerce, Retail and various other sectors.Prova Solutions7880 San Felipe Street,Ste 120,Houston TX 77063-1647
Hospital Linen Supply and Management Services Market - Worldwide Manufacturing Share, Growth, Trends Prediction 2024

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Global Hospital Linen Supply and Management Services Market: SnapshotDriven by the augmenting need for sophisticated and hygienic medical and healthcare facilities, the global market for hospital linen supply and management services is likely to witness a sturdy rise in the forthcoming years. The market, which stood at US$7.4 bn in 2015, is projected to expand at a CAGR of 2.40% between 2016 and 2024 and reach a value of US$9.1 bn by 2024.In addition, the rise in the outsourcing of hospital linen supplies is likely to support the growth of this market significantly in the near future. The increasing addition of value added services to the portfolio of leading players is also expected to boost the market substantially over the years to come.Continued Demand for Linen Bed Sheet/Pillowcase to Ensure Segments LeadThe key products of the global hospital linen supply and management services market include bed sheet/pillowcases, patient repositioner, blankets, bathing/cleansing accessories, and bed pads/under pads. Among these, bed sheets/pillowcases have been registering a greater demand and the scenario is expected to remain same over the forthcoming years.Get More Information :Bathing/cleansing accessories are also expected to witness a strong demand from consumers across the world in the near future on account of the increasing awareness pertaining to hygiene and the need for sanitation maintenance.North America to Remain Dominance in FutureThe worldwide market for hospital linen supply and management services is spread across Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East and Africa. Thanks to the presence of advanced healthcare infrastructure and of state-of-art medical facilities, North America has emerged as the key contributor to the global market. The soaring count of hospitals is likely to fuel the demand for hospital linen in this region, leading to the continued dominance of North America on this overall market over the forthcoming years.Asia Pacific is also projected to experience an upswing in the market for hospital linen supply and management services in the near future. The ongoing construction of a number of big healthcare institutes, hospitals, and clinics in Asian economies, such as China and India, is expected to act as the key driving force behind the growth of this regional market over the next few years.On the other hand, the markets in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa are likely to witness steady growth over the forecast period. The continual addition of value added services, such as rental services and distribution of linen in bulk, is anticipated to drive the Europe market, whereas, the markets in the Middle East and Latin America are projected to be propelled by rising awareness among consumers regarding hygiene and sanitation. The U.K., the U.A.E., and Brazil are anticipated to acquire the leading positions in their respective regions.AmeriPride Linen & Uniform Services, Tetsudo Linen Service, Unitex Textile Rental Services, Emes Textiles Pvt. Ltd., Sobel Westex Inc., Angelica Corp., E-town Laundry Co., Healthcare Services Group Inc., ImageFIRST Healthcare Laundry Specialists, and Synergy Health Plc are some of the leading players in the global market for hospital linen supply and management services.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:
2-Methylfuran Market with Current Trends Analysis, 2016-2026

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The global pharmaceuticals market is expected to increase at a CAGR of over 4-5% during forecast period. 2-Methylfuran is expected to gain traction in the near future as it is primarily used in pharmaceuticals industry. It is a light yellowish green volatile organic compound with an ethereal odor and is also known as sylvan. 2-Methylfuran changes its shading to black or yellow when exposed to sunlight. It is highly flammable and hence is stored in a ventilated, cool dry place far from heat & fire. 2-Methylfuran is widely used in manufacturing of drugs like atropine, sodium acetate, furadantine, anisodamine and thiamine furan. In pharmaceuticals industry, synthesis of vitamin B1 is done using 2-Methylfuran. It is less dense than water but its vapors are heavier when contrastedwith air. 2-Methylfuran also finds application as a tool for screening of lung cancer and production of anti-malarial drug like chloroquine. It is also used to produce methyl furfural, aliphatic compounds and sulfur and nitrogen heterocycles. Moreover, 2-Methylfuran is also used for making pesticides, flavors or fragrances and has narcotic effect. Hence, the global 2-Methylfuran market is expected to grow at a moderate CAGR during the forecast period.Global 2-Methylfuran Market Dynamics:2-Methyl furan is soluble in alcohol and ether and has the potential to be used as an alternative fuel. This factor is expected to drive the demand for 2-Methylfuran in chemical industry. The growing pharmaceutical industry is also anticipated to be the major driving factor for the growth of global 2-Methylfuran market. Moreover, increasing demand for pesticides coupled with growing agricultural sector is expected to set an opportunity for the growth of 2-Methyl furan market. One of the major factor restricting the growth of the global 2-Methylfuran market is its high flammability and lower flash point. This makes the transportation of 2-Methylfuran difficult, which in turn is expected to restrain the growth of 2-methylfuran market in the near future. Moreover, environmental regulation are imposed for limited usage of 2-Methylfuran because of its toxic effects and thus expected to challenge the overall growth of the market. Additionally, the key players are responding to the challenges and are expanding their global presence in order to sustain their share in the global 2-Methylfuran market.Request Free Report Sample@Global 2-Methylfuran Market: SegmentationThe global 2-Methylfuran market can be segmented on the basis of applications and regions. On the basis of applications, the global 2-Methylfuran market is segmented into pharmaceuticals, agricultural and chemical industry. Pharmaceutical industry is estimated to account the largest share in global 2-Methylfuran market. On the basis of regions, the global 2-Methylfuran market can be segmented into North America, Western Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Japan and Eastern Europe.Global 2-Methylfuran Market: Region wise OutlookNorth America is expected to be the most dominant region in global 2-Methylfuran market. Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the most promising revenue generating region for 2-Methylfuran and is expected to grow at significant rate. Due to availability of labor and low cost of raw material, China is projected to be one of the highest revenue generating country in Asia Pacific region in 2-Methylfuran market. Middle East & Africa and Latin America are also expected to show positive growth in the near future.Visit For TOC@Global 2-Methylfuran Market: Key PlayersSome of the major key players identified in the global 2-Methylfuran market are as follows:Capot Chemical Co. Ltd.Angene ChemicalA&J Pharmtech Co. Ltd.Sigma-AldrichFinetech Industry Ltd.ChemExper Inc.MP Biomedicals, LLC.Amadis Chemical Co. Ltd.AN PharmaTech Co. Ltd.Tractus Company Ltd.Haihang Industry Co. Ltd.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Sourdough Market Growth, Trends and Value Chain 2016-2026 by FMI

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Sourdough bread is made by fermenting the dough with naturally occurring lactobacilli and yeast. The yeast used in sourdough are more varied which raises the dough more slowly by providing a flossy texture and better taste to the bread. The sourdough bread contains a mild sour taste due to the presence of bakers yeast and the lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli which enhances the quality of bread. Sourdough is easier to digest as compared to standard loaves and is more nutritious. Addition of rye flour to sourdough helps in regulating the blood sugar level in case of diabetic people. With the several hours of fermentation in sourdough, the phytic acid is neutralized, that is present in the flour and thus makes the vitamins and minerals of the sourdough available to the body.Global Floral Flavors: Market SegmentationThe global sourdough market is segmented on the basis of product type, application type and region type. On the basis of product type, sourdough is segmented as sourdough product type1, sourdough product type 2 and sourdough product type 3. The sourdough product type 1 contains a ph range of 3.8 to 4.5 and is fermented at a temperature of around 20 to 30 with mainly lactobacillus sanfranciscensis microorganism and is a traditional process. The sourdough product type 2 consists of microorganism as lactobacillus pontis at a temperature of around 40 to 50 with a ph range of less than 3.5 and is industrial process. The sourdough product type 3 is artificially composed from the dried sourdoughs by spray drying process which is carried out in the industries.Request Free Report Sample@The sourdough market is segmented on the basis of application type in which sourdough is used in pancakes, waffles, desserts, muffins and piecrust.Global Sourdough Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the global sourdough industry can be divided by major regions which include North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific region, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America contributed the highest share in the global sourdough market in 2015. Popularity of sourdough in European region such as in U.K., Italy and Germany has strengthened the growth of Europe market in the same year. Rising economic growth along with increasing demand and changing lifestyle especially in India and China is expected to expand the growth of Asian sourdough market over the forecast period.Global Sourdough Market: Growth DriversThe sourdough market drivers includes gluten free bread which is the most vital driver for the sourdough market due to the intolerance of gluten present in dough. Sourdough bread is used globally due to the addition of beneficial yeast that helps in breaking down the gluten, which is consumed mostly by the gluten intolerant consumers, that is anticipated to bolster the growth of sourdough market in the future. Besides this, there is an increase in the various flavors of sourdough and addition of beneficial components as antioxidants including vitamin C, vitamin E and anti-allergenic substances such as gluten, as one of the factor projected to expand the growth of sourdough market over the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Global Sourdough Market: PlayersSome of the key players identified across the value chain of the global Sourdough market include Puratos, Lallemand, Boudin SF, Truckee Sourdough Company, Riverside Sourdough, Gold Coast Bakeries, Morabito Baking Co. Inc, Alpha Baking Co. Inc, Bread SRSLY and Josey Baker Bread. Amongst these players, Riverside Sourdough captured the highest market share in the global sourdough market in 2015. The companies are anticipated to expand their business by enhancing their product portfolio in sourdough. The companies are expected to frame certain strategies in future in order to gain the competitive advantage in global sourdough market till 2026.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
TestingWhiz Introduces Christmas Offer

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New Jersey, USA, December 21, 2016  TestingWhiz, a leading test automation solution provider rolls out Christmas offer on TestingWhiz license purchase as a part of Christmas celebration and holiday season.Under this offer, TestingWhiz licenses will now be available at 10% discount, adding fervor to the festive season. This offer aims to kick off sales and boost customer excitement to use TestingWhiz for any kind of test automation requirements.The discount is applied on monthly pricing with an annual subscription for any number of licenses. Thus, users will be able to enjoy the benefits of TestingWhiz at a discounted price on a yearly basis.Talking about the Christmas offer, Mr. Premal Dave, the General Manager at TestingWhiz, said, This is a small favor from our side for our customers so that they can use the tool at a specialized price on a continuous basis for 12 months. With this offer, we aim to get more new customers and help them experience the power of codeless test automation with TestingWhiz.The offer has been rolled out on 20th Dec and will last until January 2017.To avail this offer, users can directly visit the TestingWhiz website and buy the desired number of license where the price of the tool has been already quoted at a discounted rate.For more information, visitTestingWhiz is a Codeless Test Automation Tool for Web, Database, Web Services/API, and Mobile testing. It is based on a proprietary FAST (Flexible Automation Scripting Technology) Automation Engine, and comes with 290+ readily available test commands that eliminate long hours of scripting, allowing users to code less and test more.Website:Email Id: info@testing-whiz.comContact: +1-855-699-6600Twitter: @itestingwhizMack-Cali Centre III,140 East Ridgewood AvenueSuite 415 ST, Paramus,NJ 07652, USAinfo@testing-whiz.comPhone: 1-855-699-6600
Oil and Gas Separation Equipment Market - Global Industry Analysis 2024

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Oil and gas separation equipment is a pressure container used for separating a well stream into gaseous and liquid components. This separator installed either in an onshore processing position or on an offshore location. Based on the vessel configurations, the oil and gas separators equipment can be divided into spherical, vertical and horizontal equipment. Gravitation is the most conventional technique used for oil and gas separation and its accessible capacities fixed with its effective separation and its contributed to its growth in this market.Get Free PDF Research Brochure for more Professional and Technical Insights:Oil and Gas Separation Equipment Market: Trends and OpportunitiesOil and gas separation equipment market is projected to grow during the forecast period. The rising need of separation equipment for maintaining an optimum pipeline and fluid quality are expected to drive oil and gas separation equipment market globally. The separation along with low gas to water and oil to gas ratio in Kuwait conventions and U.S. EPA regulations also boost the oil and gas separation equipment market.In addition, various countries across the world are revving up their exploration and production quality in onshore and offshore location along with rising levels of water production in tight reserves, which is in turn contributing to the growing demand for oil and gas separation equipment. Another addition, installation of several on-site and off-site processing facilities, particularly in Canada, Mexico, Russia and Indonesia is further driving the demand for oil and gas separation equipment.However In the oil and gas separation equipment market growing solid handling issues and in high installation cost is acting as a restraint in the oil and gas separation equipment market. The ongoing technological advancement in the oil and gas separation equipment industry is acting as an opportunity for the market. In addition, a new innovation which is a third separation mechanism and its called inertial impaction which transpires when a gas passes through a network, such as fibers and impingement barriers.Oil and Gas Separation Equipment Market: SegmentationThe oil and gas separation equipment market is segmented in four categories: by types of product, by technology, by application and by region. By types of product the market can be divided into two phase separators three phase separators, scrubber and others. In terms of technology, the market can be divided into gravitational separation, and centrifugal separation among others. In terms of application, the market can be segregated into Onshore, offshore, Refineries and others.By geography, the market is divided in four major regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the world. North America and Europe are the early adopters of technology and hence will occupy majority of the market share. However, Asia Pacific region is expected to see faster growth during the forecast period due to the presence of developing nations such as India and China. This growth is attributed to the availability of skilled workforce required to oil and gas separation equipment market.Browse Market Research Report with ToC & Free Analysis :Oil and Gas Separation Equipment Market: Competitive LandscapeThe key players participating in the oil and gas separation equipment market are Pentair Ltd, GEA Westfalia Separator Group GmbH, Fjords Processing AS, Enviro Voraxial Technology Inc., FMC Technologies, Inc, Andritz Group, Honeywell International Inc., ProSep, Inc, Prosernat SA and Seair, Inc. among others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.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 :
Inverters for Renewable Energy Equipment Market - Global Industry Analysis 2024

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The inverter industry is witnessing an emerging trend transition in its history. The inverter market is undergoing a major and intense technological innovation. The inverter industry has been a central focus for investments and project developments. The market witnesses regulations for safety and reliability of invertors by various organizations across the world. Additionally, technical challenges, imposed standards and requirements are increasing; however, the market players are competing with these challenges and are coming up with new products. Thus, against such backdrop in technological change and competitive landscape, the global inverter market is likely to grow significantly in the near future.Get Free PDF Research Brochure for more Professional and Technical Insights:Inverters for Renewable Energy Equipment Market: TrendsVendors are investing a large amount of funds in research and development to develop large capacity inverters advanced cooling systems which will also be able to tackle frequency fluctuation efficiently. Factors such as interruptive funding for technological innovation are changing the renewable energy inverters industry rapidly. As a part of technological development, renewable energy inverters are being developed; wherein, the market for these inverters is solely dependent on the renewable energy market. Several vendors are investing in order to provide better service to the customers and to increase the competency in the inverter market.There are certain design modifications of renewable inverters according to the area of application such as solar PV inverters, wind inverters, V2G-enabled PV inverters and stationary fuel cell inverters. Solar PV inverters can also be further segmented as string inverters, module-level power management optimizers and central inverters. North American and European renewable energy markets have grown at quite a good pace. Thus these regions are dominating the demand for renewable energy inverter. In addition, replacements repair and maintenance activities will help renewable energy inverter market grow in these regions. However, Asia Pacific and RoW are expected to become opportunities for this market considering the high development potential for renewable energy market.Browse Market Research Report with ToC & Free Analysis :Inverters for Renewable Energy Equipment Market: Drivers and RestraintsIncreasing consumption of solar energy across the world is one of the major driving this market. The solar energy industry is emerging rapidly due to its advantages and governmental schemes such as feed in tariffs (FIT). Each of solar installations requires a mean of conversion from DC to AC such as solar inverter systems, which facilitate generated electricity to be fed into the power grid.However, the market faces challenges to deal with the factors such as high maintenance cost. Renewable energy inverters require constant maintenance and monitoring to ensure best possible functional efficiency. Moreover, unplanned maintenances and repairs increase the overall operational cost to the owner of inverters. The wind energy market has been facing high growth and demand in various regions. One of the major reasons behind this is growing demand for energy and imposed rules for the utilization of the renewable energy across the world.Inverters for Renewable Energy Equipment Market: Competitive LandscapeChinese manufacturers dominate the production in inverters for renewable energy market due to the availability of electronic components in low cost. Toshiba Corp., TDK Corp., Siemens AG, Riello S.p.A, Proniso REFUsol GmbH, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Jiangsu Zeversolar New Energy Co. Ltd, Fronius International GmbH, Enphase Energy Inc., Emerson Electric Co., Eaton Corp., Danfoss Solar Inverter, Bonfiglioli Riduttori S.p.A., SMA Solar Technology AG., Schneider Electric Co., Power-one Inc., KACO New Energy Inc. and GE Co. are some of the key palyers in the inverter for renewable energy market.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.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 Ascorbic Acid Market  Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, Segment, Trends and Forecast, 2015  2021

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Global Ascorbic Acid Market for Pharmaceutical, Food & Beverages, Personal Care and Other End-user Industries: Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Segment, Trends and Forecast, 2015  2021The report provides analysis and forecast for the ascorbic acid market on a regional and global level. According to the report, the global ascorbic acid market was around 150.2 kilo tons in 2015. The global ascorbic acid market revenue accounted for USD 820.4 million in 2015 and is expected to reach USD 1083.8 million by 2021, growing at a CAGR of around 4.8% between 2016 and 2021. The study provides drivers and restraints for the ascorbic acid market coupled along with the impact they have on the demand over the forecast period. Moreover, the report also covers the analysis of opportunities existing in the ascorbic acid market on a global level.Request Sample Report:With the objective to give the users of this report a complete view on the Ascorbic Acid market and to better understand the competitive landscape in the market, an analysis of Porters Five Forces model for the Ascorbic Acid market has also been covered. The study shares a market attractiveness analysis, wherein end-user segments are benchmarked based on their growth rate, market size and general attractiveness.Ascorbic acid production is hugely dependent on availability of raw material. Thus, any fluctuation in availability and prices of raw material can severely affect ascorbic acid market. This is expected to curb the growth of ascorbic acid market over the years. However, investments in research and development by major industry players coupled along with exponential technological advancements in pharmaceutical industry is expected to act as a major opportunity for ascorbic acid market.Browse detail report at:In terms of geography, Asia-Pacific was largest consumer of ascorbic acid in 2015. The consumption in Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a rapid pace mainly due to availability of low cost manufacturing facilities in China. China is the largest consumer and producer of ascorbic acid. Moreover, the ever increasing demand for food and health supplements primarily in Asia Pacific is expected to boost the demand for ascorbic acid in this region. Europe and North America also consume ascorbic acid on large scale. The demand for ascorbic acid in this region is also expected to grow in coming years as a result of increasing demand from personal care and food & beverages end-user industry. Ascorbic Acid demand is increasing in emerging nations such as Brazil, India and China.The study provides a clear view on the ascorbic acid market by segmenting the market based on end-user segment and regions. All the segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends and the market is estimated from 2015 to 2021. Based on end-user segment, the Ascorbic Acid market has been segmented into pharmaceutical, food & beverages, personal care and other end-users. The regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, and Middle East and Africa with its further bifurcation into major countries including China, Japan, India U.S. Germany, France, UK, and Brazil.Some of the key players of the market include, DSM, DuPont, BASF SE, Northeast Pharmaceutical Group, Shandong Luwei Pharmaceutical, Hebei Welcome Pharmaceutical Co, North China Pharmaceutical Group, Bactolac Pharmaceutical Inc, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, Dishman Group, Aland Nutraceuticals Group, NBTY Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc. and others. The thorough description of players includes parameters such as company overview, business, financial overview, and recent developments of the company.Other Categories Reports :-Food and beverage:Chemical and materials:Consumer Goods:This report segments the global ascorbic acid market as follows:Global Ascorbic Acid Market: End-user Segment AnalysisPharmaceuticalFood & beveragesPersonal CareOthersGlobal Ascorbic Acid Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.EuropeGermanyUKFranceAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East and AfricaAbout A to Z ResearchA to Z Research is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations. A to Z Research is 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:
Wind Energy Foundation Market - Global Industry Analysis 2024

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As reforms and policies stressing on adaptation of renewable energy are increasing, wind energy is expected to occupy a major market share of global power production in coming years. Demand for clean energy as well as depletion of conventional reserves have promoted use of renewable energy resources. Wind energy structures can be segmented on basis of location as offshore and onshore projects. Offshore wind turbines are now being installed in deep water also. These structures are extremely huge and heavy. The tower constructed for wind turbines carry weight of blades and also absorb static loads caused by fluctuations in wind power. Along with tower, foundation also carries weight of these structures. Hence to guarantee stability of wind energy project, the foundation should be strong enough to handle pressure exerted by slender structure above it.Get Free PDF Research Brochure for more Professional and Technical Insights:Foundation refers to support structure or geotechnical component for wind turbines situated between tower and seabed. In case of onshore wind energy project, foundation is constructed on different types of terrains under challenging soil and environmental conditions. For onshore construction, foundations can be segmented as raft, pile, and well foundations, among others. Raft footing is among frequently used structures and comes in different shapes depending upon various factors such as wind class, type of tower, and turbine capacity. The foundation designs varies according to the project, ground conditions, and the local rules and regulations.Wind Energy Foundation Market: Segment-wise InsightFor offshore wind energy projects, foundation structures can be classified as mono-pile, jacket-pile, gravity-type, tripod and suction caissons. Mono-pile comprises of steel pile that is situated at around 30-60 ft. into the seabed. Mono pile is among the most used types of foundations especially in Europe. However, they are not considered well-suited for large turbines, which are among latest trends of wind industry. Gravity-pile foundation are made of precast concrete and are ballasted with sand, gravel or stones. In these type of foundations turbines depend upon gravity to stand erect.Tripod foundations use the principle used in the oil and gas industry and are used for deeper depths. In this type, the foundation consists of three piles which are driven 32-46 ft. into the seabed. Jacket is another popular technology used for deep waters. It is made of steel beams welded together to form a jacket or cover. A floating offshore wind foundation is not used on a large scale. The deep water offshore wind structures are preferred as winds are stronger here as compared to the shores.However, the cost of offshore wind foundations is a major restraint for this market. The University of Dundee estimated in 2014 that foundations and installations can represent about 25% of the total wind turbine capital investment. Construction of foundations is critical as it depends upon many factors and requires extensive research. Apart from load that forms a major factor, motion caused by coupling of translational and rotational platforms and turbines are also considered. The foundation design also depends upon mooring lines for floating systems. Corrosion is another serious threat and requires extensive monitoring. As foundation contributes to major part of wind energy investment, these factors are critically analyzed.Browse Market Research Report with ToC & Free Analysis :Mono-pile projects are most used form of foundations in Europe. Seabed structures and ongoing projects for sustainable energy promotions in Europe have helped in creating huge market opportunity for mono-pile foundation. The foundations market also depends upon the suppliers for materials. The suppliers for different types of foundation are not uniformly distributed globally. This is another reason for mono-pile being used extensively in Europe and jacket foundations is preferred in the U.S. Jacket foundation are light weighted as compared to other types and hence are easier to install. Mono-piles structures transportation is challenging as they are quite heavy. This may act as a restraint for mono-pile market in coming years.Wind Energy Foundation Market: Competitive OverviewMajor players in this market are Suzlon Group, Ramboll Group, Owec Tower AS, Offshore Wind Power Systems of Texas LLC, Blue H Engineering BV, SWAY AS, Marine Innovation & Technology, Statoil, Principle Power, Inc., DONG Energy Burbo Extension (UK) Ltd., Bladt Industries A/S, TAG Energy Solutions, MT Hjgaard, Fugro Renewable Services, and Dillinger Hutte.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth insights, understanding market evolution by tracking historical developments, and analyzing the present scenario and future projections based on optimistic and likely scenarios. Each research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology developments, types, applications, and the competitive landscape.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 :
Nuclear Fuel Market - Global Industry Analysis 2024

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Marine industry is anticipated to grow during the forecast period as it is one of the largest means of transportation. This will increase the consumption of marine fuels. Combustible fuel is the primary means of powering a shop across the globe. However, harmful effects of unburnt fuel and air pollution are concerning factors for maritime. This is expected to increase the demand for nuclear fuel for marine propulsion systems.Maritime transport accounts for approximately 3% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and this is a major contributor to contamination close to ports and coastal areas, many researching organizations have been conducting research on alternative fuel for ships. Nuclear propulsion is proved to be a more efficient compared to other alternative fuels to combat the reliance on combustible fuel.Get Free PDF Research Brochure for more Professional and Technical Insights:Nuclear Fuel Market for Marine Propulsion Systems: Key Growth EnablersNuclear fuel for marine propulsion systems is becoming increasingly popular due to its negligible emission through nuclear propulsion. Factors such as installation, maintenance, safety concerns for the crew and disposal cost were obstructing the use of nuclear as a fuel for marine propulsion system, however these hurdles are slowly being overshadowed, as more funds are being invested by many countries for marine industry worldwide. The nuclear reactor produces heat on the ship, which is used to generate steam that is used to power turbines.Nuclear fuel can be used in two ways for propulsion such as in combination with conventional marine fuels and an only fuel on the tanker. The percentage of conventional fuel substituted with nuclear fuel will have a direct impact on the vessels emissions including greenhouse gases. For marine propulsion nuclear fuel can be of different type depending on the fusion capability such as thorium, uranium and plutonium.Nuclear Fuel Market for Marine Propulsion Systems: SegmentationThe global nuclear fuel market for marine propulsion systems can be segmented on the basis of different types of propulsion used on ships and vessels that need to be self supporting for extended periods without refueling such as ultra large crude carriers (ULCC) and very large crude carriers (VLCC). The U.S. was the pioneers of nuclear fuel as marine propulsion in 1940 and after the success of the research; first nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus began its voyage in 1955. Later on this technology was similarly implemented for cargo and other vessels. Britain, France and Germany in Europe are spending on R&D to use nuclear fuel for marine propulsion systems. China has also initiated research on the use of nuclear energy for marine propulsion. The Russian fleet known as ice-breaker is one example, where nuclear power is fully adapted operating in the northern sea route.Browse Market Research Report with ToC & Free Analysis :Environmental concerns, stringent emission norms, availability of fossil fuels, cost of conventional fuels and energy security are some of the factors driving the global nuclear fuel market for marine propulsion systems. Some of the regions that are likely to provide lucrative opportunity for nuclear fuel for marine propulsion systems includes North Sea, the Baltic, Sea of Marmara, Hong Kong, parts of the coastline of Guangdong in China and a zone extending 200 nautical miles from the coastline of North America due to stringent emission norms.Some of the key players for nuclear propulsion retrofitting and new installation are China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, General Electric and Babcock International Corporation.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth insights, understanding market evolution by tracking historical developments, and analyzing the present scenario and future projections based on optimistic and likely scenarios. Each research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology developments, types, applications, and the competitive landscape.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 Silicon Carbide Market 2015-2022 Research Report - DecisionDatabases.com

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DecisionDatabases.com offers Silicon Carbide Market Research Report. This Report covers the complete Industry Outlook, Growth, Size, Share and Forecast Till 2022.Get Free Sample Copy @The report on global silicon carbide market evaluates the growth trends of the industry through historical study and estimates future prospects based on comprehensive research. The report extensively provides the market share, growth, trends and forecasts for the period 2015-2022. The market size in terms of volume (KT) and revenue (USD MN) is calculated for the study period along with the details of the factors affecting the market growth (drivers and restraints).A glimpse of the major drivers and restraints affecting this market is mentioned below:A. Drivers> Increasing demand from steel and energy> Growing semiconductor and electronics industryB. Restraints> Cost issuesFurthermore, the report quantifies the market share held by the major players of the industry and provides an in-depth view of the competitive landscape. This market is classified into different segments with detailed analysis of each with respect to geography for the study period 2015-2022.The comprehensive value chain analysis of the market will assist in attaining better product differentiation, along with detailed understanding of the core competency of each activity involved. The market attractiveness analysis provided in the report aptly measures the potential value of the market providing business strategists with the latest growth opportunities.The report classifies the market into different segments based on product and end-use. These segments are studied in detail incorporating the market estimates and forecasts at regional and country level. The segment analysis is useful in understanding the growth areas and probable opportunities of the market.Leading Segment in this market:By Product - Black Silicon CarbideBy End-User - Steel and EnergyBy Geography - Asia Pacific (APAC)View More about Silicon Carbide Market Research Report @The report also covers the complete competitive landscape of the worldwide market with company profiles of key players such AGSCO Corporation, Carborundum Universal Ltd, Dow Chemical Company, Entegris Inc, ESD-SIC b.v, ESK-SIC GmbH, Gaddis Engineered Materials, Grindwell Norton Ltd, Saint-Gobain Ceramics Materials GmbH, and Snam Abrasives Pvt. Ltd. A detailed description of each has been included, with information in terms of H.Q, future capacities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial overview, partnerships, collaborations, new product launches, new product developments and other latest industrial developments.Major table Of Contents:1. INTRODUCTION2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY3. MARKET ANALYSIS4. SILICON CARBIDE MARKET ANALYSIS BY PRODUCT5. SILICON CARBIDE MARKET ANALYSIS BY END-USE6. SILICON CARBIDE MARKET ANALYSIS BY GEOGRAPHY7. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE OF THE SILICON CARBIDE MARKET COMPANIES8. COMPANY PROFILES OF THE SILICON CARBIDE MARKET INDUSTRYOrder a Complete Silicon Carbide Market Research Report @DecisionDatabases.com is a global business research reports provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains.Our expert research analysts have been trained to map clients research requirements to the correct research resource leading to a distinctive edge over its competitors. We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed.3rd Floor,Fountain chambers,Nanabhai Lane,Fort, Mumbai - 1E-Mail: sales@decisiondatabases.comPhone: +91 99 28 237112Web:
Pharmacy Automation Systems Market - Technologies, Trends and Benefits 2018

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Increasing incidence of deaths and injuries due to medication prescription error is consistently putting pressure on healthcare providers and pharmacists to deploy more effective technologies. Also, the medication distribution system is becoming more and more complex with the rising number of patient visits along with the pressure of ensuring their safety needs. Advanced automated technologies and solutions are emerging as the most effective tools to reduce medication errors and improve patient safety. Installing automated systems also helps pharmacists and healthcare providers to lower pharmacy costs.Download Exclusive Sample of this Report:The demand for pharmacy automation systems has been particularly high across Europe and North America. The growing trend of e-prescribing has further aided the growth of the market across these regions. However, the market players are focusing on the developing regions across the Middle East and Asia Pacific where the expansion of the healthcare sector has led to the healthy demand for pharmacy automation systems.High Cost of Implementation of Pharmacy Automation Systems is a Major Hiccup in Growth of the MarketIn recent years, the role of IT applications in pharmacy automation has extended to e-prescribing, clinical decision support system (CDSS), electronic health record (EHR), computerized physician order entry (CPOE), and interactive voice response (IVR). The rise in deaths associated with medical prescription errors is one of the primary reasons driving the growth of the global pharmacy automation systems market. Increase in drug prices, coupled with reduced reimbursement has propelled the demand for drug dispensing systems to control the pharmacy cost. The rise in per capita healthcare expenditure and growing awareness about the various advantages offered by pharmacy automation systems will also support the growth of the market during the forecast period.Dispensing the right dosage of medicine and reviewing the inventory at a specified location help to increase the efficiency of a pharmacy while keeping the costs low, notes a TMR analyst, pointing out the benefits of pharmacy automation systems. However, the high cost of implementation of pharmacy automation systems is expected to play spoilsport in the markets growth.Growing Need to Prevent Medical Prescription Errors Drives Demand for Automated Medication Dispensing SystemsPharmacy automation systems are majorly used for applications such as automated packaging and labeling, automated medication dispensing, automated compounding devices, automated storage and retrieval systems, and table-top tablet counter. In 2011, the automated medication dispensing systems segment accounted for 48% of the overall market and generated revenue worth US$2.3 bn. The pressing need to prevent medical prescription errors has stoked the demand for automated medication dispensing systems, states the TMR analyst. During the period between 2012 and 2018, this segment is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 6.7% and reach a valuation of US$3.6 bn by 2020.Browse Research Report:In 2011, the global pharmacy automation systems market stood at a valuation of US$4.7 bn. Expanding at a CAGR of 7.3% during the period between 2012 and 2018, this market is anticipated to be worth US$7.8 bn by 2018.The review is based on the findings put forward by a TMR report, titled Pharmacy Automation Systems Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2012 - 2018.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:
Technological Advancements and Rising Number of Diabetic Patients are Expected to Fuel the Growth of Continuous Glucose Monitoring Market

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Rapid rise in diabetic population across the globe has considerably increased the demand for effective diabetes management systems. Currently, blood glucose meters are widely used for diabetes management; however, the trend is shifting towards minimally invasive (CGMS) or noninvasive glucose monitoring systems as these systems reduce the need for regular finger pricking and also lessen the pain. Continuous glucose monitoring systems are real time glucose sensing and monitoring devices that measure and display glucose levels of a patient at regular intervals. The usage of CGM is substantially increasing over traditional glucose monitoring systems as these systems are user friendly, provide access to real time values and trend, and provide enhanced accuracy.Get a Sample of Research Report:Additionally, it has been observed that continuous glucose monitoring significantly helps in diabetes management especially in type I diabetics, and helps in reducing long-term complications associated with diabetes. Increasing awareness in developed and developing economies, technological advancements and rising number of diabetic patients are some of the key factors that are expected to fuel the growth of this market.According to International Diabetes Federation (IDF) reports, approximately 382 million people globally were diagnosed with diabetes in 2013 and this number is expected to grow to 592 million by 2035. Additionally, as per Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the prevalence of type I diabetes rose by 23% in the U.S. between 2001 and 2009 for children under 20 years of age and is identified as the seventh leading cause of death in the country. Hence, rising number of patients suffering from type I diabetes is likely to increase the demand for CGMS.The continuous glucose monitoring market has been segmented on the basis of various CGM systems available in the market including Guardian Real Time CGM System, FreeStyle Navigator, Dexcom Seven Plus, Dexcom G4 Platinum and MiniMed Paradigm Revel/Veo CGM Systems. In 2012, the market for Guardian Real Time CGM system held the largest share globally, followed by Dexcom Seven Plus CGM system.However, during the forecast period 2013 to 2019, growth of the market for Guardian Real Time CGM system is expected to be slowest due to market saturation and development of innovative competitor products. Dexcom G4 Platinum CGM System market is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period. FreeStyle Navigator that witnessed a decline in its market share in 2012 due to product recall from the U.S. market is anticipated to show significant growth during the forecast period due to expected launch of FreeStyle Navigator ll in 2014 in the U.S. market.North America held the largest share in the global continuous glucose monitoring market in terms of revenue in 2012. Factors responsible for the leading position of this region were rising obesity population, aging population and increasing acceptance of technologically advanced devices. Europe held the second largest market in 2012, followed by Asia-Pacific. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to show the highest CAGR during the forecast period because of the presence of growing patient awareness, economic development and changing lifestyle. Other factors such as increasing healthcare expenditure, increasing market penetration by CGM players in this region are anticipated to increase the uptake of these devices in this region.Browse Research Report:Medtronic, Inc., Dexcom, Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care, Inc., Bayer AG, Nova Biomedical Corporation, Senseonics, Incorporated, GlySens, Incorporated and Insulet Corporation are the major companies engaged in the development and commercialization of the continuous glucose monitoring systems. Presence of very few players in the CGM market provides ample opportunity for further research and development for both existing and emerging players.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:
Barium Oxide Market - Global Industry Analysis 2023

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Barium oxide is a hygroscopic compound majorly used for ceramic coating, glass, optical applications. It is a non flammable compound prepared by heating barium carbonate with coke, carbon black or tar. Other method by which barium oxide can be produced is by thermal decomposition of barium nitrate. It is cubical in structure.View exclusive Global strategic Business report:Barium oxide is majorly used for coating applications. It is used to coat hot cathodes such as cathode ray tubes. It is used as a substitute to lead oxide for the production of certain types of glasses such as optical crown glass. Barium oxide is used as an ethoxylation catalyst in the reaction of ethylene oxide and alcohols. This reaction takes place between 150o and 200o. In addition, it is also a source of pure oxygen though heat fluctuation. Barium Oxide powder is typically insoluble in aqueous solutions (water) and is extremely stable making them useful in ceramic structures such as producing clay bowls, advanced electronics and in light weight structural components in aerospace and electrochemical applications such as fuel cells in which they exhibit ionic conductivity. Furthermore, barium oxide is available in pellets, powder, tablets and nano  powder. Thus, they can be used in an array of applications.The growing demand for coating applications in various industries in order to make the products and equipment corrosion and heat resistant is expected to augment the growth of the barium oxide market. In addition, barium oxide is extensively used in nanotechnology. Thus, the increasing demand for nanotechnology coupled with its wide applications in other industries such as glass and ceramics is anticipated to propel the demand for barium oxide. However, barium oxide is harmful to human skin and if swallowed in large quantity causes irritation. Excessive quantities of barium oxide may lead to death. If it contacts the skin or the eyes or is inhaled it causes pain and redness. However, it is more dangerous when ingested. It can cause nausea and diarrhea, muscle paralysis, cardiac arrhythmia, and can cause death. If ingested, medical attention should be sought immediately. Moreover, it is harmful to aquatic organisms. Thus, there are stringent regulations on the use of barium oxide which may restrain the growth of barium oxide in the near future.Browse Full Report with ToC:Asia Pacific was the leading regional market for barium oxide. China had the largest demand for barium oxide owing to huge demand from the automobile and other industries. However, other countries such as India, Japan and South Korea are likely to exhibit more demand for barium oxide in upcoming years. Asia Pacific has experienced dynamic economic growth in the past decade. This trend is expected to continue in the next few years. Asia Pacific was followed by North America. U.S. had the largest demand for barium oxide. The demand was huge owing to increasing demand from various applications and for research and development purposes in chemical industry. Europe had the third largest market share in barium oxide market. Growing demand from automobile industry is driving the barium oxide market in Europe. European countries such as Germany and the UK were the major consumers of barium oxide in this region. Rest of the World market is anticipated to have stable demand for barium oxide market in near future. Latin America is one of the largest markets for barium hydroxide in the Rest of the World.Some of the key players in the barium oxide market are Tianjin Flourish Chemical Co. Ltd. and Alliance Global among others.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:
Geomembranes Market - Global Industry Analysis 2020

Geomembranes Market

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Geomembranes are very low permeability synthetic membrane liners or barriers used with any geotechnical engineering. Geomembranes are made from the impregnation of geotextiles with asphalt, elastomers or multilayered bitumen geocomposites. Major materials used for manufacturing geomembranes are EPDM, PP, HDPE, LDPE and PVC. Geosynthetic membranes are typically used for reinforcement. They are permeable fabrics made of natural or synthetic sources which perform various functions such as separation, filtration and reinforcement among others. They are commonly used in construction of roads, drainage sub-systems, to control erosion, to reduce land sliding and promote vegetation growth.Geomembranes market is expected to grow substantially within the forecast period as geomembranes are being increasingly used for road construction activities as a result of the growing awareness of the benefits they offer. They are used as a part of the foundation in asphalt layovers, as they help in strengthening weak soil by holding it together, resulting in increased life span of roads. Repair and replacement of roadways and railways and other infrastructure activities are increasing across countries such as Europe on account of the initiation of the New Road Construction Concepts (NR2C) innovation projects of Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL) supported by the European Commission. This in turn is expected to boost the demand for geomembranes in this region over the next few years. They are also being used in building and maintenance of a wide network of bridges present in this region. Thus, highly developed infrastructure and its maintenance are expected to act as the driving forces for the market. Furthermore, environmental awareness by promoting vegetation growth in this region would fuel the demand over the next few years.Get Free PDF Brochure for more Professional and Technical insights:Additionally, geomembranes used for drainage acts as a permeable separator that allows water to pass into the drainage system seamlessly. Owing to such advantageous parameters the demand for geomembranes for drainage applications is expected to grow exponentially in the near future. Geomembrane liners are being largely used in landfills due to their low hydraulic conductivity which results in lower rate of seepage out of the landfill. The increasing need for landfills along with reduced contamination of surroundings has resulted in an escalating demand for geomembranes. Moreover, mining applications are expected to open new avenues in the near future.There is a growing demand for geomembranes in Asia Pacific due to heavy infrastructural development in this region. In addition, innovation in geomembranes for drainage sub-system applications is further expected to aid in the growth of the market. The demand in Asia Pacific is followed by Europe on account of the increasing roadways and infrastructural activities in countries like Germany and France. Demand for geomembranes is expected to be steady in North America as it is a mature market and less construction activities are anticipated to be undertaken in this region within the forecast period owing to dipped economic conditions of the nations in the region. However, owing to the presence of numerous water bodies in this region, geomembranes are being increasingly used to curb erosion problems. Rising number of experiments undertaken by various regulatory bodies is expected to augment the demand for this fabric in the near future. Rest of the World (RoW) is undertaking heavy transport and roadways projects, which is expected to be a primary factor driving the demand for geomembranes in this region.Some of the key players in the geomembranes market are Agru America Inc, Carthage Mills, Colorado Lining International, Inc., Juta A.S, Nilex Inc, Officine Maccaferri 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 insights for 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, TMR employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop 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:
Tantalum Market - Global Industry Analysis 2019

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Tantalum is a hard, bluish grey, transition metal. Previously it was known as tantalium and is a rare earth metal. It is characterized by its incredibly high melting point which is bettered only by tungsten, rhenium, osmium and carbon. Tantalum along with similar metals such as Neobium, can be found in minerals such as coltan, columbite and tantalite. Most of the tantalum is derived from hard rock mines; however it can also be obtained from tin slags, and artisanal mines. Tantalite is highly resistant to corrosion and is a part of the refractory metals group.Download Free exclusive Sample of this report:The main application of tantalum is in the electronics industry where it is employed in manufacturing capacitors and high power resistors. In this application, tantalum has to compete with low cost ceramic and aluminum capacitors. As a result tantalums use is mostly limited to high end capacitors where stability and high volumetric capacity is of paramount importance. Other electronic applications of tantalum are sputtering targets and target acoustic wave filters. Apart from that tantalum finds application in medical devices, chemical processing and manufacturing of super alloys. Tantalum-oxide is used in camera lenses as well as X-ray equipments, while tantalum carbide is used to manufacture cutting tools.One of the major drivers of this market is the growing importance and demand for electronic gadgets and equipments. Tantalum alloys are used extensively in aviation and land based gas turbine, and the demand from this sector is expected to rise at a brisk pace in the near future owing to the high growth in aviation and aerospace industries. The same is true for land based gas turbines as well. The highest quantity of tantalum demand is expected to come from tantalum powder/ wire application, followed by its application in super alloys.Browse Full Report with ToC:Most of the tantalum that is mined globally comes from Africa, where the largest resource of tantalum is present. Tantalum is widely available in Central Africa as well as other parts of the region. Countries such as Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Gabon, Zimbabwe and Namibia have huge tantalum deposits and cumulatively account for over 50% of the global production. Tantalum is also abundant in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the metal from DRC is called conflict tantalum, as the metal mined in the conflict region is sold to perpetuate warfare. A ban on importing or trading conflict metals has been imposed, which is expected to hurt the Central African economy and the local people. The blanket ban is also expected to affect other regions of Africa which are not conflict zones. Other than Africa, tantalum is mined in South American countries such as Brazil and Argentina; European countries such as Germany and Austria; and Asian countries such as Australia, Japan, Thailand and China. The mining of tantalum in North America is almost negligible; however mining activities are expected to commence in the near future. The Central African crisis and ban on tantalum imports are expected to drive demand from the Asia Pacific and South American countries.Some of the restraints of this market are the demand supply imbalance due to the ban on Central African imports and price fluctuation of tantalum ores in different mining locations. For instance, the price of tantalum imported from South America is slightly lower as compared to the mineral mined in Australia. Supply chain and inventory are some of the other concerns for end use industries. However, long term supply agreements are expected to substantially reduce the price compared to spot rates and also guarantees supply.Some of the top tantalum producing companies are Talison Minerals Pty Ltd., Cabot Corp., China Minmetals Corp., and Ethiopia Mineral Development Share Company among others. Some of the top tantalum producing mines are located at Wodgina, Greenbushes, Nanping and Kenticha among others.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:
Cellulose Acetate Market - Global Industry Analysis 2023

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The global cellulose acetate market is highly consolidated, with strong competition among the few dominant players who have strong distribution networks to ensure uptake of their branded products. In fact, the top five players accounted for the lions share of the market in 2014  over 90.0%. Their names are Celanese Corporation, Eastman Chemical Company, Solvay Acetow GmbH, Daicel Corporation, and Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd. Celanese Corporation among them, held the maximum market share in 2014. It was followed by Solvay Acetow GmbH.The cutthroat competition among the leading players has resulted in reduced market profitability, which in turn is slated to crimp the growth rate of the market in the forthcoming years. As per a report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the market would expand at a lackluster CAGR of 3.5% during the period from 2015 to 2023. In 2015, the global market for cellulose acetate had raked in an overall revenue of US$5.041 bn. By 2023, the revenue would be worth US$6.715 bn, predicts the TMR report.Get Free PDF Research Brochure for more Professional and Technical Insights:On account of the stronghold of the few key players, new entrants is also likely find it tough to gain a toehold in the market. The high initial capital required for installing machinery and equipment is another deterrent for such aspiring market players.End-use Segment Cigarette Filters to Continue Dominating Market due to Rising ConsumptionDepending upon the type of products, the global cellulose acetate market can be bifurcated into cellulose acetate tow and cellulose acetate filament. Cellulose acetate tow that finds application in making cigarette filters held a whopping 85.1% share in the market in 2014 and going forward it is anticipated to marginally increase that share. Depending upon end-use application, the global market for cellulose acetate can again be divided into cigarette filters, photographic films, textile and apparel, extrusion and molding, and tapes and labels. Among them, cigarette filters accounts for a staggering share of the market. It is expected to hold on to the dominant share in the near future too on the back of increasing consumption of cigarettes, particularly in countries of India, China, and Russia.Geography-wise, the TMR report has divided the global market for cellulose acetate into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Asia Pacific dominates the market with maximum share, which would see further increase in the years to come. The region is also predicted to outpace all other regions in terms of growth rate because of its exploding population, government initiatives to aid industrialization and trade, and increasing spending power of consumers.Expanding Textile and Apparel Industry in BRIC Nations to Fillip MarketThe significant increase in cigarette consumption in emerging economies of the world has majorly contributed to the global market for cellular acetate. The consumption would further increase in the coming years, thereby further boosting the market. Another factor filliping growth in the market is the expansion of textile and apparel industry in BRIC nations. Cellulose acetate fibers and filaments are increasingly used in textile processing as they offer various attributes to the fabric. These fibers can be easily bonded, are hydrophilic and eco-friendly, and have been approved for usage in medical applications such as production of diapers and wipes, elaborates the analyst of the TMR report.Browse Market Research Report with ToC & Free Analysis :Constraining the growth in the market is the unstable prices of acetic anhydride, the primary raw material used in production of cellulose acetate. The price of acetic anhydride reached roughly around US$2,167.0 per ton at the end of 2014, points out the analyst of the report.This review is based on the findings of a TMR report titled Cellulose Acetate - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2015-2023.Cellulose Acetate Market, by ProductCellulose acetate towCellulose acetate filamentCellulose Acetate Market, by ApplicationCigarette filtersTextile & apparelPhotographic filmsTapes & labelsExtrusion & moldingOthers (Including printing ink formulations, etc.)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.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.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
Indonesia Welding Consumables Market-Industry Analysis 2023

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The Indonesia welding consumables market is a moderately consolidated one. The top five players in the market accounted for 57.3% share in the market in 2014. Those top five names are LincolnElectricalHoldings,Inc., NikkoSteel, Voestalpine Bohler Welding GmbH, P.T. Intan Pertiwi Industri, and PT. Ispat Indo. Among them, Lincoln Electrical Holding, Inc. was the ahead of all in terms of market share in 2014.In the Indonesia welding consumables market, the companies compete strongly against each other through product differentiation, joint ventures, and strategic alliances. The market is also characterized by the presence of numerous small regional players. This coupled with cheap imports from neighboring countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea has further intensified the competitive atmosphere in Indonesia market. Another major factor responsible for heating up the competition is the high threat of new entrants, who have it relatively easy due to comparatively lower amount of capital required in the business.Get Free PDF Research Brochure for more Professional and Technical Insights:Expanding at a CAGR of 7.7% from 2015 to 2023, the Indonesia welding consumables market is slated to clock in a revenue of US$293 mn in 2023 from US$150.3 mn in 2014.Substantial Capacity Addition in Power Sector Boosting GrowthOne of the main drivers in the market is the extensive capacity addition in the power sector in Indonesia, which is anticipated to generate substantial demand for welding consumables in the country. The swiftly reviving manufacturing sector in the nation is also upping demand in the market significantly. The analyst of the report explains, The manufacturing sector in Indonesia is being driven by a strong domestic consumer base despite the unfavorable global economic environment. The manufacturing sector accounted for the major share of 25.54% of the countrys GDP in 2014. Manufacturing output is increasing due to the rising population and expansion in the middle class population in Indonesia.Growth in the manufacturing sector in the country is estimated to drive the domestic welding consumables market driven by cheap labor and strong trade relations with other ASEAN economies and key economies such as China, Japan, and South Korea.Stick Electrodes to Pare Market Share due to Looming Product Life Cycle MaturityThe welding consumables market in Indonesia can be segmented on the basis of product into stick electrodes, flux-cored wires, SAW wires and fluxes, solid wires, and others such as gases, rods, etc. Among them, stick electrodes dominates the market with slightly over half the share in it. Going forward, however, it would likely pare its market share marginally as it has almost reached its product life cycle maturity. In terms of revenue, the Indonesia stick electrode market was worth US$83.6 mn in 2015.Browse Market Research Report with ToC & Free Analysis :Among end users, automotive and transportation dominates the market for Indonesia welding consumables. In the next couple of years, it is slated to exhibit maximum pace of growth too. It is followed by the oil and gas sector, which in the near future is anticipated to trim its share in the market on account of declining oil drilling activities in the nation. Building and construction comes in third vis-a-vis market share. In terms of growth rate, however, the power sector would clock maximum rate after automotive and transportation sector on the back of robust domestic demand for electricity.This review is based on the findings of a TMR report titled Welding Consumables - Indonesia Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015-2023.Indonesia Welding Consumables Market, by ProductStick electrodesSolid wiresFlux-cored wiresSAW wires & FluxesOthers (Including gases, etc.)Indonesia Welding Consumables Market, by End UserAutomotive & transportationBuilding & constructionMarinePowerOil & gasOthers (Including maintenance and repair, etc.)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.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.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
Increasing Foreign Direct Investment and Presence of Local Manufacturers Impels Reciprocating Compressors Market in China | Researchmoz.us

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Reciprocating Compressors (By Type - Industrial Process Gas Reciprocating Compressors, Labyrinth Piston Compressors, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Reciprocating Compressors, Oil-free Reciprocating Compressors and Hyper Compressor; By Application - Upstream Oil and Gas, Refinery, Industrial Gases, LNG and CNG Transport and Storage and Ethylene and LDPE Plants) Market - China Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.Reciprocating compressors are facing increasing competition from other compressor types such as screw and centrifugal compressors. However, the demand for reciprocating compressors continue to grow due to their cost-efficacy and the emerging demand from replacement of older compressors. Alongside a stable demand from manufacturing industry, future driving force for the market would be expansion of Chinese petroleum and chemical industries. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, China is the second largest consumer of crude oil and consumed 10.7 Mn barrels per day in 2013. The consumption of oil is expected to increase in coming years to cater to both energy and petrochemical sector. Growing emphasis on better energy utilization is expected to sustain market growth of compressors including reciprocating compressors during the coming years. Moreover, industrial growth and growing number of automobiles in China are also propelling the demand for reciprocating compressors in applications such as refineries, and LNG and CNG transport and storage.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @This research report provides in-depth analysis of the China reciprocating compressors market based on compressor type and applications. The various segments of the study are analyzed in terms of revenue generation. China reciprocating compressors market is categorized based on type into industrial process gas reciprocating compressors, labyrinth piston compressors, liquefied natural gas (LNG) reciprocating compressors, oil-free reciprocating compressors and hyper compressors. The study is further categorized into upstream oil and gas, refinery, industrial gases, LNG and CNG transport and storage and ethylene and LDPE plants based on applications. Furthermore, the report analyzes the factors that drive and restrain the growth of reciprocating compressors market in China. The report also discusses the prevailing market trends, prospective growth opportunities, and major strategies increasing the popularity of reciprocating compressors in China. It also provides the market estimates and forecasts for all the segments in terms of revenue. Also provided is the market share of key China-based companies manufacturing reciprocating compressors.Additionally, the report includes profiles of major China-based players engaged in offering reciprocating compressors. The key companies profiled in this study include Shenyang Yuanda Compressor Co. Ltd., Wuxi Compressor Co. Ltd., Shenyang Blower Works Group Corporation, Shanghai Dalong Machinery Factory Co., Ltd., CNPC Jichai Power Equipment Company, Sichuan Jinxing Compressor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Sichuan Dachuan Compressor Co., Ltd., Zigong Tongda Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Shenyang Gas Compressor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Jiangxi Gas Compressor Co., Ltd., Nanjing Hengda Compressor Co., Ltd., Jinan Compressor Factory Co., Ltd., Tuoge (Shanghai) Compressor Co., Ltd., Shanghai Shengyi Compressor Co., Ltd., Jinan Gelan Compressor Co., Ltd., Hebei Wuqiao Air Compressor Co., Ltd., ZIGONG DONGFANG TONGYONG GAS COMPRESSOR CO., LTD., Shanghai Landward Machines Co., Ltd., Desran Compressor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Beijing JinKaiwei General Machinery Co., Ltd., Yantai Blue Star Compressor Co. Ltd., Sichuan South Gas Compressor Co., Ltd., Kerui Group, Chengdu Tianyi Natural Gas Compressor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Shanghai Xinran Compressor Co. Ltd., Shenyang Gas Manufacturing Compressor Co. Ltd., Bengbu Hongshen Special Gas Compressor Manufactory, Kaifeng Huanghe Air Separation Group Co., Ltd., Tonglint Industries Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Nanya Air Compressor Co., Ltd., Beijing Prova Energy Development Co., Ltd., Chongqing Anneng CNG Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Nanjing Compressor Co., Ltd., Fu Sheng Industrial (Shanghai) Co., and Shanghai Souair Industrial Co., Ltd.China Reciprocating Compressors MarketBy TypeIndustrial Process Gas Reciprocating CompressorsLabyrinth Piston CompressorsLiquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Reciprocating CompressorsOil-free Reciprocating CompressorsHyper CompressorsBy ApplicationUpstream Oil and GasRefineryIndustrial GasesLNG and CNG Transport and StorageEthylene and LDPE PlantsMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Africa Lead Acid Battery Market to Reach US$1,014 mn by 2021, Rising Automotive Industry to Drive Growth

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Lead Acid Battery Market - Africa Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2021" to its huge collection of research reports.This market research study analyzes the lead acid battery market on African regions and provides estimates in terms of revenue (USD million) from 2015 to 2021. It identifies the drivers and restraints affecting the industry and analyzes their impact over the forecast period. Moreover, it highlights the significant opportunities for market growth in the next six years.Due to the trend of rapid globalization and industrialization in countries across the globe, lead acid batteries are increasingly finding application in numerous areas and devices. Increasing requirement for UPS systems in corporate offices, industries, research and educational institutes, and homes is driving the demand for lead acid batteries. In addition rising demand for electric and hybrid vehicles, which use lead acid batteries is also set to bolster the growth of the lead acid battery market in Africa, during the forecast period. Moreover, installation of telecom towers and renewable energy systems, setting up of smart grid projects, and implementation of vehicle charging systems are all set to drive the market for lead acid batteries in the region. Lead acid batteries have been used in a wide range of products for over 150 years; since 1860, they have been considered reliable and safe energy storage devices. The batteries have voltage specifications of 12V and 24V, with 2V batteries assembled in a circuit. It comprises of a cathode (lead), an anode (lead dioxide), water in a specific quantity, and an electrolyte (sulfuric acid). Lead acid batteries play a significant role in the automotive and lighting sectors. In addition, such batteries find application in electric vehicles, medical equipment, and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems. Due to the increasing requirement for UPS systems and inverters in homes and the industrial, corporate, and research and education sectors, lead acid batteries are witnessing immense demand. The use of UPS systems and inverters is complementary to that of lead acid batteries. All UPS systems and inverters require batteries to function and lead acid batteries are among the most efficient energy storage sources for such devices. Their low cost and reliability are set to increase the demand of these batteries in the coming years, in Africa.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The Africa lead acid battery market is set to surge in the coming years. The increasing production of automobiles and motorcycles, and the growing application of such batteries in industrial sectors such as healthcare, chemical, and oil &gas, have spurred the growth of the lead acid battery market in the region. In addition, the low cost and improved performance of lead acid batteries are fueling the growth of the market. Due to competition from lithium-ion batteries and the rising demand for low-cost, efficient batteries, lead acid battery manufacturers are focused on research and development activities in order to meet such demands and sustain themselves against competition in the global battery market.The market is segmented on the basis of countries in Africa into Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Rest of the Africa and these segments have been estimated in terms of revenue (USD million). In addition, the report has been segmented based on types, which includes Engine Starting, Motive Power, Standby Power, Valve regulated lead acid battery. Apart from this, the report is also being segmented by application that includes Industrial, Automobile, Commercial, Residential and Power.For better understanding of the lead acid battery market, the study comprises market attractiveness analysis, where the applications are benchmarked based on their market scope, growth rate and market attractiveness.The report also provides company market share analysis of the various industry participants. Key players have been profiled and their company overview, financial overview, business strategies, SWOT analysis, and recent developments have been covered in the report. Major market participants profiled in this report include Enersys, Exide Technology, Johnson Controls Inc., Dixon batteries among others.Africa Lead Acid Battery Market: By type- Engine Starting- Motive Power- Standby Power- Valve Regulated Lead acid batteryAfrica Lead Acid Battery Market: By application- Industrial- Automobile- Commercial- Residential- PowerAfrica Lead Acid Battery Market: By country- Nigeria- Egypt- South Africa- Kenya- Ghana- Zimbabwe- Rest of AfricaThe report provides a cross-sectional analysis of application segments with respect to the above mentioned regions.Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Drug Delivery Technologies Industry Forecasts By Revenue For The Market Until 2020

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Drug Delivery Technologies - Innovation Driven by Rapidly Expanding Injectables Market and Increasing Usage of Complex Biologics during the Forecast Period" to its huge collection of research reports.GBI Researchs latest report, ""Global Drug Delivery Technologies Innovation Driven by Rapidly Expanding Injectables Market and Increasing Usage of Complex Biologics during the Forecast Period"" discusses the drug delivery technologies and trends in the market and the evolving business strategies being adopted and leveraged by companies globally. The ultimate goal of drug delivery research is to develop formulations and devices that can be used in clinical applications to treat various diseases. Delivering a drug with the desired release kinetics requires an understanding of the underlying physicochemical properties of the drug, which determine the type of delivery material and drug release mechanism. Numerous parameters need to be considered, and their inter-dependence has to be taken into account to develop successful drug delivery systems for the intended applications. It is important to understand the complexity associated with the development of a drug delivery system that can ultimately be used in human patients. The report covers the currently available drug delivery technologies and recent advances in the field, with granular analyses of the different types of delivery systems, their advantages, disadvantages and opportunities for future development. The report provides global market forecasts by revenue for the market until 2020. Additionally, forecasts by revenue for key geographical markets and supporting analyses of the main factors driving or restraining growth are included. The market for drug delivery technology is poised for strong growth in the coming years. Key factors promoting growth include the rapidly expanding injectables market, the growing incidence of chronic diseases and the expected significant increase in the use of complex biologic drugs that necessitate novel delivery systems. Drug delivery companies have had to adapt to challenging times in the same way as pharmaceutical companies have had to over the past decade. These companies have achieved this by adopting new business strategies that allow them to take better control of their commercial and financial future. The report analyzes how business models in this dynamic industry have evolved over the last couple of decades and how new companies with improved product portfolios and propositions are emerging.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Scope- What are the drug delivery technologies used in the market and how have they evolved in recent years?- What will be the market value, by revenue, of the market over the coming years?- Drivers and restraints in the drug delivery industry:- What are the most important factors promoting growth in the market at a global level?- What are the most important factors restraining growth in the market?- What is the impact of novel delivery systems on the management of a products lifecycle?- Will emerging markets contribute significantly to the growth of the global market?- How will regulatoryand reimbursement-related challenges hinder the market?- Technologies based on drug vehicle/carriers:- What are the various advantages, limitations and applications of the currently available drug carriers?- Technologies based on route of administration:- How can lifecycle management strategies reposition existing drugs by changing their route of administration?- What are the advantages, limitations and applications of the different drug delivery technologies, based on their route of administration?- What are the prospects for revenue growth for the latest technologies, including metered-dose inhalers and hydrogels?- Technologies for injectables:- Which technologies in the injectables market have contributed to overall growth?- What is the market forecast for needle-free injectors in the coming years?- What is driving the need for novel delivery systems for injectable drugs?Reasons to buy- Gain insightful analyses and understanding of market dynamics. The report comprehensively describes and assesses the most important factors driving and restraining the drug delivery technology market.- Evaluate a granular assessment of the pipelines for the various drug delivery technology segments and the prospects and revenue forecasts for the upcoming delivery technologies until 2020.- Evaluate the strategies and business models used by companies to achieve their full commercial potential.- Gain insight on upcoming trends and factors influencing the global market for drug delivery technology.Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
India Vision Care Market Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast Research Outlook to 2022

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "India Vision Care Market Outlook to 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.GlobalDatas new report, "India Vision Care Market Outlook to 2022", provides key market data on the India Vision Care market. The report provides value, in millions of US dollars, volume (in units) and average prices (USD) within market segements - Contact Lenses, Spectacle Lenses, Contact Lens Cleaning and Disinfecting Solutions and Microkeratomes.The report also provides company shares and distribution shares data for each of these market segements, and global corporate-level profiles of the key market participants. Based on the availability of data for the particular market and country, information related to pipeline products, news and deals is available in the report.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.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Scope- Market size and company share data for Vision Care market segements - Contact Lenses, Spectacle Lenses, Contact Lens Cleaning and Disinfecting Solutions and Microkeratomes.- Annualized market revenues (USD million) and volume (units) data for each of the market segements. Data is provided from 2008 to 2015 and forecast to 2022.- 2015 company shares and distribution shares data for each of the market segements.- Global corporate-level profiles of key companies operating within the India Vision Care market.- Key players covered include Alcon, Inc., Essilor International, Bausch & Lomb Incorporated 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 whats the most preferred mode of product distribution - Identify, understand capitalize.Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
India Ophthalmic Diagnostic Equipment Market Outlook to 2022 Now Available at Researchmoz.us

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "India Ophthalmic Diagnostic Equipment Market Outlook to 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.GlobalDatas new report, "India Ophthalmic Diagnostic Equipment Market Outlook to 2022", provides key market data on the India Ophthalmic Diagnostic Equipment market. The report provides value, in millions of US dollars, volume (in units) and average prices (USD) within market segements - Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), Retinal Ultrasound Imaging Systems, Corneal Topography Systems, Ophthalmoscopes, Perimeters, Auto Refractors & Keratometers, Slit Lamps, Tonometers, Fundus Cameras, Projectors, Acuity Systems, Lensometers and Optical Biometry Devices.The report also provides company shares and distribution shares data for each of these market segements, and global corporate-level profiles of the key market participants. Based on the availability of data for the particular market and country, information related to pipeline products, news and deals is available in the report.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.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Scope- Market size and company share data for Ophthalmic Diagnostic Equipment market segements - Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), Retinal Ultrasound Imaging Systems, Corneal Topography Systems, Ophthalmoscopes, Perimeters, Auto Refractors & Keratometers, Slit Lamps, Tonometers, Fundus Cameras, Projectors, Acuity Systems, Lensometers and Optical Biometry Devices.- Annualized market revenues (USD million) and volume (units) data for each of the market segements. Data is provided from 2008 to 2015 and forecast to 2022.- 2015 company shares and distribution shares data for each of the market segements.- Global corporate-level profiles of key companies operating within the India Ophthalmic Diagnostic Equipment market.- Key players covered include Topcon Corporation, Haag-Streit AG, Nidek Co., Ltd., Carl Zeiss AG 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 whats the most preferred mode of product distribution - Identify, understand capitalize.Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Uschi Ackermann's and Pug Sir Henry's Perfume Bottles at Ketterer Kunst - A Sensational EUR 120,000 for a Good Cause

Auctioneer Robert Ketterer joking with Anita and Erwin Muller. Photo: Ursula Dornberger-Duren

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Munich, 20 December 2016 (kk)  The atmosphere was great, the success terrific. Yesterday Robert Ketterer, auctioneer and owner of Ketterer Kunst, sold what presumably is the biggest private collection of large-size factices of perfume classics for a fantastic total of around EUR 120,000. Compiled by Uschi Ackermann, public relations specialist and owner of Sir Henry, Germany's most famous pug, proceeds of the around 300 flacons will go to VITA, an organization that trains assistant dogs.The rush on the charity auction was tremendous. The list of celebrity guests was long and included, apart from the Who's Who of the German media scene, names like Princess Alexandra von Hohenzollern, Chiara Ohoven and Sophie Wepper and her husband David Meister. Anita and Erwin Muller, owners of the drugstore chain of the same name, did not miss out on this event, either. Other guests were Stefan Mulder, vice president of Lornamed Europe, Sibylle Schon of Aigner as well as Yvonne and Dr. Eric Schulte, owners of the cosmetics series QMS.Perfume lovers came from near and far as this was a one-time occasion as many of the noble decoration bottles are no longer available as perfumes. Experts in the perfume business came from Berlin, Hamburg, Ulm and the rest of Germany, as well as from Kitzbuhel, Marbella, Nice, Vienna and Zurich  to name just a few places.The large number of bidders in the salesroom did not miss the chance to prove their generosity. On top of flacons by Chopard (lot 100), Salvador Dali (lot 45), Guerlain (lot 83), Elisabeth Taylor (lot 87) and Vivienne Westwood (lot 97), each sold for EUR 5,000, the perfume classic Chanel N 5 (lot 43) made for the highlight of the evening. While half a dozen written bids had already been placed for the noble bottle beforehand, the price rose quickly and it needed a bid of EUR 8,000 from a perfume lover who had come all the way from California to stop the race. A total of 17 of the 289 scent bottles were sold at prices in four-digit realms. Everyone realized that the event was about both unique cult objects as well as a good cause.Uschi Ackermann has been involved with the VITA assistant dog organization for a couple of years. Just as it was the case with the perfume bottles, it was love at first sight with the dogs, too the widow of Gerd Kafer, delicatessen king and organizer of legendary party events, recalls. I met the eleven-year old Ben Neumann and his VITA-trained dog Quest at an event organized by VITA and was deeply impressed by both of them from the start. It's the way that the dog makes Ben happy that inspired me to donate the proceeds of my collection to the organization.Robert Ketterer felt the same when he met Ben, who, by the way, opened the auction with a wonderful speech. Enthusiastic about the idea of this charity auction, the auctioneer hosted the evening with a lot of charm and motivated the audience to ever new bidding heights. I am utmost happy that we were able to realize this impressive result with such an unusual auction, says Robert Ketterer. He continues: The assistant dogs do not only facilitate everyday life for many people, they are also loyal friends and an invaluable support. That's why I am very glad that our donation will assist VITA in the great job they are doing.Since it was founded in 1954, Ketterer Kunst has been on the forefront of auction houses dealing in Fine Art and Rare Books, with its headquarters in Munich, and a branch in Hamburg. Representatives' offices in Berlin, Heidelberg, Dusseldorf, the Benelux Union, France, Switzerland and the US have contributed substantially to the company's success. In addition, exhibitions, special thematic and charity auctions as well as monthly online auctions atare regular events at Ketterer Kunst. Robert Ketterer is owner and CEO of Ketterer Kunst.Press inquiries:Ketterer KunstJoseph-Wild-Str. 1881829 MunchenMichaela Derra M.A.Telefon: +49-(0)89-55244-152Fax: +49-(0)89-55244-177E-Mail: m.derra@kettererkunst.deClient inquiries:Ketterer KunstJoseph-Wild-Str. 1881829 MunchenTel. +49-(0)55244-444Fax.: +49-(0)55244-177E-mail: infomuenchen@kettererkunst.de
Auctions at Ketterer Kunst with Modern Art and a US-Focus - Stable Autumn Results

The result of EUR 625,000* - a European record* for H. Frankenthaler's Marchioness

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Munich, 21 December 2016 (kk)  It was a very good auction. We were able to achieve many records and excellent overall results. All in all around 70% of the objects were sold, making for total proceeds of around EUR 22 million before the post-auction sale, says Robert Ketterer. He continues: The increasing appeal of contemporary art has been proven by some 30% first-time buyers in the respective auction and the collection Good Taste.Top 5Lot 226: Emil Nolde  Figur und Clematis. Result EUR 725,000*, starting price: EUR 500,000Lot 833: Helen Frankenthaler  Marchioness. Result EUR 625,000*, starting price: EUR 200,000Lot 266: H. Max Pechstein  Wintermorgen. Result EUR 537,000*, starting price: EUR 75,000Lot 830: Sam Francis  Over orange. Result EUR 475,000* starting price: EUR 120,000Lot 835: Sam Francis  White line. Result EUR 450,000*, starting price: EUR 120,000Another high-ranking artist in the auction was Hermann Max Pechstein, whose work Wintermorgen (lot 266) made for more than a seven-fold of its calling price of EUR 75,000. An art lover from the south of Germany relegated competitors from the rest of the country, Austria and Switzerland to places second and beyond with her offer of EUR 537,500*. The 1922 oil painting RoteHauser (lot 221) saw a likewise tremendous increase and soared from an initial price of EUR 160,000 to a result of EUR 437,500*. A persistent collector from Hesse stood her grounds against tough opponents in the saleroom, the long list of written bids and a persevering phone bidder from Switzerland.The sculpting section was dominated by Georg Kolbe's Auferstehung (lot 255), which was sold for a price of EUR 155,000* (starting price: EUR 35,000) to a Southern German collection and the bronze Der Flotenblaser (lot 224) by Ernst Barlach. A collector from Hesse won the plastic for a result of EUR 112,500* after fighting a battle against a tough phone bidder from Northern Germany.Half a dozen works on paper by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner were also much sought-after and were almost entirely sold with remarkable price rises, first and foremost the work Badende am Ufer (lot 220) which will remain in Southern Germany with a result of EUR 106,250*.Excellent results were also realized by the following:Lot 205, Kandinsky (oil), Tunis  Strand. Starting price EUR 150,000, result EUR 193,750*Lot 208, Munter (oil), Murnau, Hauptstrasse am Sonntag  Starting price EUR 120,000, result EUR 175,000*Lot 263, Amiet (oil), Lueg (Landschaft bei Oschwand). Starting price EUR 40,000, result EUR 112,500*Lot 201, Werefkin (oil), Souvenir. Starting price EUR 70,000, result EUR 106,250*2. Post War ArtThis department was clearly led by Helen Frankenthaler's work Marchioness (lot 833), whose admirers did not only come from Germany. Phone bidders from the Netherlands, Great Britain and from several places in the US were ready to contend with each other for the large-size work. Eventually a private collector from Luxemburg won the race and will carry the trophy home for a result of EUR 625,000*, This is more than a three-fold of the starting price of EUR 200,000 and a new record price* for a work by the artist in Europe. So far higher prices had only been realized in New York*.Sam Francis was another star of the evening. His seven works on paper were at the top of buyers' wish lists and were all sold with excellent price rises. The two works Over Orange (SF58-058) and White line (SF59-283), called up at EUR 120,000 each, made for a dense atmosphere in the saleroom. More than 30 phone bidders for both works came from, among others, Belgium, China, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands and, of course, the USA, providing a remarkably thrilling bidding skirmish that ended with a new auction record* for a work by Sam Francis in Germany: While lot 830 found a new home in Israel for EUR 475,000*, lot 835 will remain in Germany for a price of EUR 450,000*.It took the sum of EUR 362,500* for a Swiss collector to win Willi Baumeister's Phantom mit Rot (lot 802). After it had been called up at EUR 250,000, he defended the work with great pertinacity against mainly German competitors.The appeal of ZERO art is still high and the triumvirate Gunther Uecker, Otto Piene and Heinz Mack alone was represented with around 60 lots which saw a very good sale. Next to Heinz Mack's lot number 817, which was sold to Belgium for a price of EUR 225,000*, Otto Piene's Tandem (lot 856) went to a collector in Luxemburg for a result of EUR 187,500* and Gunther Uecker's Handlung (lot 878) was sold to a German art trader.More great results were realized by the following works:Lot 847, Castellani, Superficie bianca. Starting price EUR 260,000, result EUR 337,500*Lot 823, Vasarely (acrylic), Korna. Starting price EUR 90,000, result EUR 275,000*Lot 805, Nay (oil), Drei gelbe Scheiben. Starting price EUR 170,000, result EUR 225,000*Lot 865, Graubner (object), Farbraumkorper. Starting price EUR 70,000, result EUR 193,750*3. Collection Good Taste / Contemporary ArtA selection of around 50 choice artworks presented in the small but fine extra catalog Good Taste  A private Collection was met with great attention. The range of works in this exquisite collection of a Southern German architect was led by Study for Homage to the Square: Two Yellows with Silvergray (lot 770), an oil painting by Josef Albers. Under lively participation of bidders from Germany, Switzerland and the USA, the bright yellow work soared from its calling price of EUR 180,000 to the superb result of EUR 387,500* offered by a phone bidder from the US East Coast.Gerhard Richter's untitled color photograph (lot 781) found a new home in Switzerland after the battle had been fought out among half a dozen written bids and more than a dozen phones from all over the world. In the end it was no big surprise that a four-fold of the calling price of EUR 38,000 was realized at a result of EUR 150,000*.Some more good results:Lot 784, Imi Knoebel (oil), Pure Freude 84. Starting price EUR 59,000, result EUR 125,000*Lot 769, Caro A. (sculpture), Table Piece CCCLVI. Starting price EUR 30,000, result EUR 87,500*Lot 782, Richter G.(color photograph), Untitled. Starting price EUR 18,000, result EUR 77,500*The range of offers in the department of Contemporary Art, with the acrylic work on aluminum Kreuz und quer (lot 696) by Imi Knoebel at its top, was very popular with the audience. With strong headwinds from Belgium, Southern Germany and, of course, the Rhineland, it was eventually sold to a private collection in Hesse for a result of EUR 127,500*. At the same time a new record* was set, as this was the first time that the 100,000 euro line was crossed for a work by the artist in Germany.Some more good results:Lot 709, Fetting (oil), Iris. Starting price EUR 25,000, result EUR 85,500*Lot 673, Ghenie (oil), Untitled. Starting price EUR 25,000, result EUR 72,500*Lot 652, Struth (color photograph), Gerhard Richter 1. Starting price EUR 40,000, result EUR 62,500*Unsold objects can be purchased in the post auction sale until January 2017. Result lists are available by phone on +49-89-552440.* The rounded result is the hammer price + 25 % premium without VAT for hammer prices up to EUR 500,000.The share of the hammer price above EUR 500.000 is subject to a premium of + 20 % without VAT, which is added to the premium for the hammer price up to EUR 500.000.* Source:Since it was founded in 1954, Ketterer Kunst has been on the forefront of auction houses dealing in Fine Art and Rare Books, with its headquarters in Munich, and a branch in Hamburg. Representatives' offices in Berlin, Heidelberg, Dusseldorf, the Benelux Union, France, Switzerland and the US have contributed substantially to the company's success. In addition, exhibitions, special thematic and charity auctions as well as monthly online auctions atare regular events at Ketterer Kunst. Robert Ketterer is owner and CEO of Ketterer Kunst.Press inquiries:Ketterer KunstJoseph-Wild-Str. 1881829 MunchenMichaela Derra M.A.Telefon: +49-(0)89-55244-152Fax: +49-(0)89-55244-177E-Mail: m.derra@kettererkunst.deClient inquiries:Ketterer KunstJoseph-Wild-Str. 1881829 MunchenTel. +49-(0)55244-444Fax.: +49-(0)55244-177E-mail: infomuenchen@kettererkunst.de
Hoverboard Scooters Market 2016 - IO Hawk, Swagway, Phunkeeduck?, Imoto, Razor Hovertrax

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http://marketinsights.biz/global-hoverboard-scooters-market-2016-by-manufacturers-regions-type-and-application-forecast-to-2021/

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The Global Hoverboard Scooters Market 2016 Industry Research Report focused on major manufacturers, regions, type as well as application of the Hoverboard Scooters industry. A self-balancing scooter or self-balancing two-wheeled board, commonly referred to as a hoverboard, is a type of portable, rechargeable battery-powered scooter. They typically consist of two wheels arranged side-by-side, with two small platforms between the wheels, on which the rider stands. The device is controlled by the riders feet, standing on the built-in gyroscopic, sensored pads.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Hoverboard Scooters in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.For free sample of report visit atMarket Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversIO HawkSwagwayPhunkeeduck?ImotoRazor HovertraxMonoRoverPowerboardSkqueLeray Two WheelCyboardChic RoboticsHover WayStreet SawJetsonFiturboVecaroSpace boardMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)Latin America, Middle East and AfricaDetail overview of report visit atMarket Segment by Type, covers6.5-inch wheels8-inch wheels10-inch wheelsMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoTeenagersAdultsThis Hoverboard Scooters Industry report also states Company Profile, sales, Hoverboard Scooters Market revenue, and price, market share, Contact Information and gross margin by regions.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and methodology of the report are offered.About Us:"MarketInsights.Biz offer reports from top publishers and update to serve you with immediate on-line access to professional insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends. Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact US:Frank ValadezDirector of Business DevelopmentWebsite:Email:sales@marketinsights.biz
Christensen Law continues push for removing drunk drivers from the road with its New Years Eve Safe Ride Home program

https://www.davidchristensenlaw.com/

At least one Michigan law firm is doing its part to fight drunk driving in metro Detroit with an initiative that includes paying for the cab or Uber fare of people who might otherwise be tempted to drive drunk on New Years Eve.Christensen Law and its founder Dave Christensen will be once again sponsoring "Safe Ride Home" as an opportunity to make a difference on one of the most vulnerable nights of the year when it comes to people getting behind the wheel when they should be taking a cab.The Centers for Disease Control, while not specifically calling out New Years Eve, does indicate that some 1.9 percent of Michigan drivers report driving after drinking too much in the last 30 days.This year, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard has stepped forward to encourage anyone who might otherwise get behind the wheel to take advantage of Christensen Laws "Safe Ride Home" program."Keep yourselves and others safe this New Years Eve by not drinking and driving," said Sheriff Bouchard. "If you do drink, designate a driver, or find a service like Uber or a cab to take you home. Safe Ride Home is helping to encourage folks to make the right decision related to responsible drinking."Dave Christensen, a personal injury lawyer who has seen first-hand how devastating a drunk driving incident can be in the lives of families he has served, has made it his mission to do what he can to fight the issue, including his involvement with the Washtenaw Council on Alcoholism, Spectrum Treatment and Prevention Services, and other organizations.This initiative is part of what motivates him to do even more.How Safe Ride Home WorksIf youve had too much to drink on New Years Eve, just call a cab or Uber to take you from the bar to your home. Pay for the ride that night and get a receipt. The next day, simply email a copy of your receipt along with a copy of your drivers license to saferidehome@davidchristensenlaw.com to receive a reimbursement of up to $35.Restrictions: Offer is good from 4 p.m. on December 31, 2016 to 4 a.m. on January 1, 2017. You must be at least 21 years old. Maximum reimbursement is $35, good for a one-way ride to your home. Receipts must be received by Christensen Law by midnight, January 6, 2017 to be eligible for reimbursement. Ride must be within Wayne, Macomb, Oakland and Washtenaw counties. Provider of ride must be a licensed taxi company or Uber. Email a copy of the official taxi company or Uber receipt along with a copy of your valid drivers license to saferidehome@davidchristensenlaw.com OR send those materials via U.S. Mail to Christensen Law Safe Ride Home, 25925 Telegraph Rd., Suite 200, Southfield, MI 48033.Call Christensen Law at 248-213-4900 for more details.Christensen Law is a personal injury law firm that specializes in helping victims of automobile and truck accidents. For more info visit:Founder David Christensen earned his law degree, with honors, as well as a Masters Degree from the University of Michigan. He is past chairman of the Michigan Association for Justices no-fault committee, past chairman of the negligence section of the Michigan State Bar, and is a member of the Council of Chief Justices Civil Justice Initiative. He testifies before the Michigan legislature, and his expertise has led to appointments to key positions that affect the development of Michigans no-fault law. In 2012, Christensen was chosen as a Leader in the Law by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.David Christensen Law25925 Telegraph Rd.Suite 200Southfield, MI 48033248-213-49003049 Miller Rd.Ann Arbor, MI 48103734-890-5200
21443474-mmmain.jpg

The University of Oregon's School of Law

(The Oregonian)

The University of Oregon School of Law professor who made national headlines for wearing blackface as part of a Halloween costume this fall violated school anti-discrimination policies, according to an investigation released Wednesday.

The university took the unusual step of publishing a redacted version of the 29-page investigation, citing the "public nature of the act" and professor Nancy Shurtz's subsequent apology. The investigation was conducted by a Portland-based law firm on behalf of the school's Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity.

The investigation found Shurtz committed "discriminatory harassment" by wearing the blackface costume, despite protections for free speech and academic freedom, because of the "significant" implications her costume had on the tight-knit law school.

The university declined to release what punishment, if any, Shurtz received as a result of the investigation. She is no longer on paid administrative leave and remains on the faculty, a school spokesman said.

"The dean's office will work with Prof. Shurtz regarding her work duties in the spring semester," spokesman Tobin Klinger wrote in an email. "At present, she is not scheduled to teach any courses."

Scott Coltrane, UO's provost, said while Shurtz did "not demonstrate ill intent," she still violated school rules.

"The violation and its resulting impact on students in the law school and university outweighed free speech protections provided under the Constitution and our school's academic freedom policies," he said.

Shurtz, who has taught at UO since 1982, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The investigation is the latest development in an embarrassing episode for UO that resulted in a swift denunciation from President Michael Schill, calls for Shurtz's resignation from dozens of faculty members, and marches and other public actions on campus to show solidarity with students of color.

Shurtz wore blackface, a black afro wig and a white lab coat to a Halloween party at her off-campus home Oct. 31. She said in a subsequent apology that she had intended to dress as Damon Tweedy, an African American physician whose memoir chronicles the difficulties of being a minority in the medical world.

Shurtz, who once led the law department's diversity committee, was not aware of the term "blackface," according to the investigation.

Investigators interviewed 11 students or faculty members who attended the party.

Shurtz had sent classroom-wide emails to her two tax courses at the law school this fall informing students of the Halloween party. She dropped hints that she would be "dressing as the title of a book."

Investigators found students at the party were immediately offended by Shurtz's costume. The tenured professor of more than 30 years appeared unaware of that fact.

"One student said that the costume was so ludicrous and offensive that it was apparent that many of the guests were avoiding interaction with Shurtz," the investigation said. "Students and one of the faculty members in attendance felt that the attendees were shifting around, looking at each other, looking down at the ground, unsure what to do."

Students told investigators they felt obligated to attend the party because of the law school's small class sizes. They also said they felt obligated to stay despite the "surreal" sight of a professor in blackface.

"Several students reported avoiding the rooms where Shurtz was, declining participation in a group photo, and generally feeling like they could not say anything because they were in Shurtz's home," investigators wrote.

After the party, and after Schill's denunciation and Shurtz's apology, students described a difficult atmosphere at the school.

A professor sent a schoolwide email supporting Shurtz, which some students said put them in a difficult place. Other students told investigators the atmosphere at the school became more difficult for students of color, who were put in the awkward position of having to explain why blackface is inappropriate.

The ongoing reverberations after the party played into the school's ruling that Shurtz's actions violated discrimination policies, as did the school's lack of diversity.

"The open discussions in class have also resulted in racial hostility between the students," investigators said.

"The lack of understanding by some students, coupled with an existing lack of diversity in the law school student body, has led to minority students feeling further disenfranchised from their classmates and the school."

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen
Michigan Commencement

Graduates listen as Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder delivers his address at the University of Michigan commencement ceremony in Ann Arbor, Mich., Saturday, April 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

The average 2016 graduate is

. Something has to be done about college tuition, but people can't agree what needs to be done. Many people think

, and free tuition is a

. Critics say making college free would counter-intuitively help rich people instead of the middle class and poor, and would incentivize more people to go to college when they don't need to.

What do you think?

PERSPECTIVES

Here's a real-time tally of student loan debt in the United States.

Free tuition is one of those ideas that look nice on paper, but in practice, not so much.

Free tuition certainly helps some people, but it is not the most efficient use of money if the goal is to increase access to university education and reduce the debt of poor and middle class families. Currently, the American university system is very progressive. The amount families end up paying is based on their income, which means richer students subsidize poorer ones. A free tuition model is more regressive because it gives richer students a subsidy and places a bigger burden on poor students by not helping them with the cost of living.

Bernie Sanders brought up this idea as one of the central planks of his platform. The fact that it resonated so strongly with millennials shows how deeply this issue effects that generation.

In fact, it's what many of our colleges and universities used to do. The University of California system offered free tuition at its schools until the 1980s. In 1965, average tuition at a four-year public university was just $243 and many of the best colleges - including the City University of New York - did not charge any tuition at all. The Sanders plan would make tuition free at public colleges and universities throughout the country.

Here is why people think college should not be free.

Absurd. College should not be "tuition free". This only devalues higher education and promotes the lie that everyone should go to college.  Drew Kuzma (@Kuzma1012) July 26, 2016

College should not be free, higher education is a privilege not a right  Anakin (@Felipe_Calle_) November 8, 2016

I'm sorry but tuition should not be "free".. free tuition = less work ethic in school and for scholarships and college being less credible  Dustin Smith (@Aye_YoD) October 20, 2016

Other people agree with Sanders and think college should be free to all.

Higher ed, like K-12, must be a public right, not a consumable good.



College should be free without the corrupt price tag of tuition.  Huey (@HueyFischer) December 12, 2016

College should be free point blank period! There should be no reason why a person has to start their life in debt just to get a job  ._emurb. (@a_peel_ing) December 19, 2016

I think college should be free so more ppl can take sociology and history and philosophy  John Legend over All You Rancid Asses (@MeLaMachinko) December 12, 2016

College should be free.

College should be free.

College should be free.

College should be free.

College should be free.  millie with the ie. (@spazzataz) November 23, 2016

The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Digital, Inc. property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say.
Conservation groups successfully stalled a bid to clear-cut 49 acres of the Oregon Coast Range this week, after a federal judge agreed the logging plan posed a danger to the federally protected marbled murrelet.

U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken issued a preliminary injunction Monday preventing logging on a portion of the Elliott State Forest the state sold to Scott Timber Co., a subsidiary of timber giant Roseburg Forest Products.

The Audubon Society of Portland, the Center for Biological Diversity and Cascadia Wildlands sued in August to stop logging on the property due to the presence of the threatened sea bird. Aiken's injunction means no logging will occur on the 355-acre so-called Benson Ridge slice of the forest until she rules on the overall case, which could be more than a year from now.

But environmental groups involved in the suit praised the move as a key victory in what they're calling a test case for protecting the bird on private property.

Nick Cady, legal director for Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands, said Aiken's decision has huge implications as state officials consider selling off the 82,500-acre forest to raise money for Oregon schools. The state received a $221 million bid for the forest this month.

The Benson Ridge land was among three chunks of the forest sold in 2014 to timber companies.

Cady said it's historically been impossible to hold companies responsible for violating protections outlined under the federal endangered species act. His organization sees Aiken's ruling as a step forward.

The forest is also home to federally protected coastal coho salmon and northern spotted owl.

"The state represented to these private timber interests that the forest could be logged without legal consequence," Cady said in a statement, "and this ruling establishes that private timber companies can no longer violate federal environmental laws with abandon."

Roseburg Forest Products declined to comment for this story.

"This demonstrates the incredible cynicism that underpins the state's efforts to sell the Elliott off to private timber interests," Bob Sallinger, Audubon's conservation director, said in a statement. "Not only does it put fish and wildlife species at risk and eliminate use for future generations, but it also is predicated on those private timber companies returning to the illegal logging practices that the state was forced to abandon."

The injunction is the latest development this fall involving the Elliott State Forest and marbled murrelet.

State fish and wildlife officials are exploring changing the bird's status from threatened to endangered.

And last week, Gov. Kate Brown asked the Department of State Lands to explore options beyond selling the forest to Lone Rock Timber Resources and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribes of Indians. Brown floated the idea of issuing $100 million in state bonds to keep at least a portion of the forest in public hands.

The State Land Board is expected to meet in February to discuss the Elliott forest again.



-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen
kate brown4.JPG

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, in a file photo

(Staff/File)

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown brought surprise to a recent meeting of the State Land Board by suggesting an option for the Elliott State Forest would be for the state to buy a portion of it outright from the state's Common School Fund, its keeper. That's a significant shift - for the better - in Oregon's posture towards a beloved forest that has failed to generate sufficient logging revenue for public education. In the face of Elliott's declining revenue, the State Land Board had looked at simply selling it off.

Kudos to Brown for stepping in front of the privatization train - at least for now. The Elliott, an 82,500-acre patchwork of land situated in coastal mountains near Coos Bay, is the prolific mainstay of forests long owned by Oregonians and logged by companies in rural communities. But statewide, lands held in the public's trust have dwindled dramatically over the last several decades. Future generations in a more developed Oregon will likely find the Elliott essential as an historic natural resource offering recreation, sustainable logging, carbon sequestration and species protection, among other things.

Brown's embryonic proposition for the Elliott, however, is without detail. She tossed out $100 million in purchasing power as the number the state might start with but later explained to Andrew Theen of The Oregonian/OregonLive that in her recent budget calculations, "We left $237 million of bonding on the table." Why not more for the whole Elliott? Buying the forest to be placed under the aegis of the Oregon Department of Forestry, for example, amounts to nothing more than the state's buying the Elliott from itself to get the forest out from under the constitutional requirement that it generate solid returns for schools.

Brown asked that the Elliott debate run in two directions. She said she wanted deeper consideration of a recent $220.8 million bid for the forest by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, joined by majority stakeholder Lone Rock Timber Resources. And she asked that a partial purchase of the Elliott by the state be explored with the potential outcome that the land be allowed to remain in public hands or come under tribal management, Theen reported. Questions abound.

Oregonian editorials

reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom.

are Laura Gunderson, Helen Jung, Mark Katches, John Maher and Len Reed.

To respond to this editorial:

Post your comment below, submit a

,

or write a

.

If you have questions about

the opinion section,

contact Laura Gunderson,

editorial and commentary editor,

at lgunderson@oregonian.com

or 503-221-8378.

State Treasurer Ted Wheeler, who leaves his seat on the three-member Land Board next month to become Portland's mayor, was clearer. He said the Cow Creek/Lone Rock plan for the Elliott was, as currently iterated, not the right plan going forward. And he told Brown directly: "We have heard a very clear consensus, governor, that we should separate the Elliott State Forest from state funding," referencing the Common School Fund, and "step forward with public funds" to purchase the Elliott. Last week, in an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board, Wheeler said he felt the state would have more than enough bonding capacity ahead to purchase the Elliott outright if the Land Board decides next year it is the right thing to do.

Brown is wise to reframe the Elliott conversation to include some new form of state ownership. Oregon could partner with the Cow Creek or, perhaps, a collection of conservation organizations whose interests align with some of the Elliott's distinct attributes, among them clean waterways and abundant habitat for the protected marbled murrelet, a sea bird. Or it could buy it from itself outright.

The Land Board will soon comprise Dennis Richardson and Tobias Read as well as Brown. Full outright purchase by the state of the Elliott should be seriously weighed as an investment in Oregon's future as well as present. With continued and stepped-up leadership on this matter from Brown, the Legislature could make it so.

-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board
fossilfuel.jpg

Portland Mayor Charlie Hales with activists and students who supported the city's vote to ban new new bulk fossil fuel storage terminals on Wednesday at City Hall.

(Ted Sickinger)

On Sunday, we asked another Hot Button question: Should Portland block the development of all future fossil fuel terminals?

Today, we're publishing some of the responses. If you'd like to add to the discussion, please see the Share your opinion info box on this page and let us know what you think. Look for a new Hot Button question on Sunday.

CARING FOR THE FUTURE

I am 18 years old, which means I will be alive to witness the full effects of climate change. On most days, this thought fills me with fear, but on December 14, the day that the Portland City Council passed the fossil fuel terminal ban, I was filled with hope and gratitude. To know that our city council cares enough about me, as a person, to take concrete steps to protect my future, to lead the charge toward breaking free from fossil fuels, to be an example for other cities to follow means so much to me.

Maddie Adkins, Beaverton

BEGIN THE TRANSITION NOW

In answer to your question about favoring Portland's ban on future fossil fuel facilities: My answer is a resounding yes. While we will need to continue to use fossil fuels in the short term, in order to protect the earth from catastrophic climate change we must begin the transition to a fossil-fuel free future now. Building new fossil-fuel facilities would be an investment in the old world. The new world needs us investing in renewable forms of power, retrofitting our homes and commercial and government facilities and teaching ourselves to use less energy.

The good news is that a report last year from the Labor Network for

Sustainability found "investments in the Pacific Northwest in renewable energy and energy efficiency can generate more jobs in construction, transportation, supply chains, and operations and maintenance than a similar dollar investment in oil, coal, and natural gas infrastructure."

We'll get the added benefit of cleaner air which should lead to less

asthma and other pollution-related disease - saving money as well as lives.

I am proud and excited that my city believes in science and is taking

the lead in climate action.

Sandy Polishuk, Northeast Portland

The author is a board member of 350PDX which helped shape the policy adopted by the Portland City Council.

GROWING THE FUTURE

If you care about Oregon agriculture, the recent vote to ban future fossil fuel facilities was a win for the long-term health of our state, our freedom and our ingenuity.

Oregon's agricultural industry is valued at about $5.4 billion, making it the second largest economic driver. About 80% of Oregon agriculture is exported, bringing in new money. And it supports nearly 400,000 jobs in the region.

In this same region, however, temperatures are expected to increase by 3-10degF by the end of the century. This means Oregon will have longer growing seasons, but less snowpack, greater stress on irrigation, more pests and greater crop disease that would offset any CO2 fertilization, and more wildfires.

All these effects will follow from rises in temperature that are linked to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, such as those produced by fossil fuels.

By fighting fossil fuels, we have fought so our farmers will face less stress in a more stable climate.

Our bodies are the tables our spirits gather round. Thanks to both our hardworking agricultural community and our cities fighting carbon, the table has been set. Our children will be more able to enjoy the food we've grown and placed before them.

Danny Thiemann, Northwest Portland

REDUCE THE RISKS

I support the landmark resolution by Portland City Council, banning future fossil fuel facilities!! As the mayor of Mosier, we are still recovering from a train derailment of a unit train of crude oil. We realize that letting the Columbia River Gorge become a super highway for fossil fuel transport would be utterly misguided at a time when we are facing the results of climate change and must wean ourselves from fossil fuels as a path forward. It makes no sense at this point to invest in infrastructure of a mode of energy that is not sustainable. Plus, as we prepare for a major earthquake, we must reduce the risks caused by the transport and storage of volatile fuels. I am so thankful for the brave and bold leadership of Portland City Council to lead the way to the future.

Arlene Burns, Mosier

The author is the mayor of Mosier

DO ALL WE CAN DO

Climate chaos is upon us. We are seeing increasing numbers of record-setting weather events like the California drought and Superstorm Sandy, as well as more extreme events in other areas of the world, like prolonged deadly heat. The changes in the Arctic are accelerating. The feedback cycle driving this is more and more difficult to alter. Knowing the science and caring about our grandchildren leads to one position: Do all we can to rapidly shift to renewable fuel sources. So preventing expansion of our oil terminals is crucial. We are providing leadership to other municipalities. I fully support the city's decision!

Joe Stenger, Northeast Portland

DON'T INVEST IN DEATH

I wholeheartedly agree with the ban on future fossil fuel facilities. To maintain a habitable planet we must keep fossil fuels in the ground, therefore any new fossil fuel infrastructure is self-sabotaging, it compounds an already existential crisis. We need new energy infrastructure, but we must be intelligent and future-focused about it. It's simple, don't invest in death products. Especially when revolutionary, clean alternatives exist and make good financial sense.

Tom DeBeau
Charlie Kawasaki

I'm terrified of the direction that our country appears to be going. The normalization of unrestrained self-interest and the politics of fear and division. The systematic attempts to undermine our democratic process and 75 years of advancement in social justice. The efforts to dismantle our country's safety net, and the empowerment of radical white nationalism in our national policy making.

Given the recent comments by Donald Trump and his transition team about a national race registry for immigrants and the disturbing discussion about the "precedent" set by the Japanese American internment camps in the U.S. during World War II for similar treatment for Muslims, I must speak out and say, "Never again!"

Haven't we learned anything from the devastation caused by the infamous Japanese American internment camps, one of the most flagrant violations of civil liberties in American history?

Or, maybe people can't picture the hardships faced by the Japanese American prisoners. The shocking photos taken by Dorothea Lange of Japanese Americans imprisoned in several internment camps show some of the impact. Interned Japanese American families lost their homes, jobs, possessions, friends, family members and nearly four years of their lives because they were prevented from functioning in society as regular American citizens.

Politicians and others working to perpetrate this catastrophe on the nation appear to do it from selfish privilege and ignorance of its impact. My family knows the impact of the internment camps only too well. In fact, my family history offers a case study of the impact of these government policies.

In 1942, President Roosevelt signed an executive order that resulted in the imprisonment of some 120,000 Japanese American families. My father's family was forced into the prison camp at Minidoka in Idaho, along with 9,000 other families who lost their homes and livelihoods. This followed years of discrimination, hate, fear mongering and popular misunderstanding of the Japanese Americans, a fiercely loyal community that was well documented to be no threat to America. My grandfather never recovered from the imprisonment and subsequently hanged himself. My father, suffering from emotional instability, was unable to provide for his family, ended up homeless and on the streets of Seattle, and drank himself to death.

In 1975, with my father unable to provide for our family, our house was repossessed. We became homeless briefly, and depended on federal and state emergency food supplies, food stamps and unemployment benefits. My mother then shouldered the responsibility of raising four children on a meager hourly wage while putting herself through college.

My lucky break came in my senior year, thanks to a federally-funded program enabling low-income high school students to intern at any non-profit. I landed a programming internship at the University of Washington Computer Center. Several mentors at the center made a world of difference, particularly Larry Gales and Wayne Erickson, who subsequently hired me in my first software company, Microrim, Inc. The rest of my 35-plus-year career in the computer industry is detailed on LinkedIn. I've helped launch numerous high-tech companies, raised more than $75 million in venture capital and hired hundreds of people along the way.

I wouldn't have been able to enter the high-tech industry without the federally funded work program and my family wouldn't have survived without the federal financial and food assistance that we received during those desperate times. I strongly believe that from 1935 until today, these programs have been a safety net for the disabled, the disfranchised and the dispossessed like my grandfather, my parents and me. More important, they were a good investment for the nation many times over, for they made producers and job creators out of have-nots like me.

For more than 20 years I've contributed to the community as a means of repaying that assistance, serving as a volunteer board member of industry associations focused on building the economy and creating jobs. I've mentored numerous high school and college students, run several successful capstone projects at Portland State University, and helped create company internships.

Today, in addition to my "day job," I'm managing a high school cybersecurity summer camp http://bit.ly/pdxcyber, providing technical training and helping inspire students to join the cause of defending the nation from cyber attack. That effort is more relevant than ever, given recent news of cyber-based interference with our election process.

Share your opinion

Submit your essay of 500 words or less to commentary@oregonlive.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification.

It has taken decades for my family to overcome the tragic impact of the internment camps. The government has made apologies but we must never let it happen again. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a Civil Liberties Act declaring that the decision to incarcerate Japanese Americans was spurred by "racial prejudice, wartime hysteria and a lack of political leadership." President George H. W. Bush issued another formal apology in 1991, saying: "The internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry was a great injustice, and it will never be repeated."

Let's not forget the mistake that was made during WWII when our country imprisoned Americans because of their race. Join me in saying, "Never again!" We need to work together to defend our civil liberties and all of the things that make our country great so America can truly offer liberty and justice for all.

Charlie Kawasaki is the chief executive of Software Diligence Services.
1zinke.JPG

In this photo taken Oct. 20, 2016, Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke speaks with a supporter in Billings, Mont., as he campaigns for re-election to a second term as the state's sole representative in the U.S. House.

(AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

By Robert P. Saldin

Special to The Washington Post

For Democrats, the past six weeks have been a downward spiral, with each Cabinet announcement from President-elect Trump inducing further panic. The emerging hallmark of Trump's nominees has been a hostility to the core mission of the agencies they would soon be running. Betsy DeVos, nominee for education secretary, is a strident advocate for "local control," which some perceive as code for draining federal money from public schools to subsidize private school tuition for well-off families. Over at the Energy Department, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is set to lead an agency he vowed to eliminate during his 2012 presidential run. Trump's pick for the Environmental Protection Agency is Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate-change denier with a long history of legal wrangling with the agency he has been chosen to take over.

The names on Trump's shortlist for interior secretary were downright frightening to those in the conservation community: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Texas oil tycoon Forrest Lucas, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, and two of Congress's leading anti-public-lands zealots, Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and Raul Labrador, R-Idaho. But this week's surprise announcement that Rep. Ryan Zinke, a first-term Montana Republican, has been tapped for the position is reason for many in the conservation community to break out the champagne.

Before Zinke's pick, many Westerners were holding their breath for word about who would lead the Interior Department, arguably the most important Cabinet-level position for the region. The federal government owns massive swaths of the American West, including more than half of the land in Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Alaska and Oregon, with California and Wyoming falling just short of that threshold. Of America's public lands, 75 percent fall under the purview of key Interior agencies: the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and theFish and Wildlife Service. Overall, the department manages more than 500 million acres for recreation and energy development.

Palin, Bishop, Labrador and others who were being floated for the top job are more in tune with populist-style conservatives over how to manage these lands. A national movement to transfer federal public land ownership to the states has effectively become the default position for the GOP and was endorsed in the party platform this summer. A more extreme version, but by no means beyond mainstream discourse, calls for selling off and privatizing public lands, with possible exceptions carved out for Yellowstone, Yosemite and other treasured national parks and wilderness areas.

During a campaign stop in Boise ahead of last spring's Idaho primary, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, captured the animating sentiment: "Too much land in this country, particularly in the West, is owned by the federal government. It's not right; it doesn't make sense. And we need to transfer that land back to the states or, even better, back to the people . . . In my home state of Texas, 2 percent of the state is owned by the federal government, and I gotta tell you, in Texas, we think that's 2 percent too much."

In many ways, Zinke is an unlikely pick for Interior. In his short political career, the former Navy SEAL has been much more devoted to foreign affairs and national security than to domestic issues. And he has often seemed less interested in mastering the details of policy than in his cable TV appearances or in moving up the Washington pecking order. (After just 10 months in Congress, he talked about mounting a bid for House speaker and, later, possibly joining the race to become Trump's running mate.)

But more significantly, Zinke's record on public lands puts him out of step with the GOP's ideological warriors. During his time in the Montana legislature, he was known as a moderate and enjoyed a good working relationship with Democrats on issues such as land banking, a conservation strategy of swapping hard- or impossible-to-access public land with areas that are easier to reach. He also played a key role in a local conservation effort in his home town. In Congress, Zinke supported the Land and Water Conservation Fund and repeatedly opposed efforts to sell off public land. He also resigned as a delegate at Republican National Convention over the party platform's call for transferring land to the states.

These deviations from conservative orthodoxy haven't gone unnoticed. Scott Christensen of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition expressed optimism over Zinke's nomination: "While we haven't seen eye to eye with him on everything, we have seen some areas where he's able to work with us and support us. That's one area where we'd like to see him stand strong in the future and continue pushing back against schemes to sell off and transfer public lands in the West."

Still, some environmentalists will undoubtedly oppose Zinke's confirmation, at least publicly. He has drawn criticism for his work to fast-track logging projects and bypass litigation from environmental groups. He also supported allowing states to manage small portions of federal land as a pilot project that some conservationists see as nearly indistinguishable from formal transfer to the states.

But the bigger concern for environmentalists is that as a pro-coal, pro-gas enthusiast, Zinke is bad for climate change. Yet even here, it's hard to imagine that some other Trump appointee would be preferable. Regardless of what may be expressed in news releases, behind the scenes, many environmentalists recognize that Zinke -- as a supporter of public land and a mainstream Republican on fossil fuels -- is the best they could reasonably hope for under the incoming administration.

In the aftermath of the election and some of Trump's early personnel moves, one risk for liberals is to fall into a lazy rut of assuming that every action taken by the president-elect is an atrocity. It's important to distinguish between those Trump actions that really do risk taking public policy in a radical direction or that threaten democratic norms and institutions, and those that could be considered "normal politics," or what we'd expect if a more conventional Republican -- say Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney -- were moving into the White House.

That Zinke's nomination is what passes for good news these days may be an indication of how far right the Republican Party has moved on public lands. But it also reflects that the probable interior secretary is someone many conservationists see as a pragmatist rather than an ideologue, who understands the sacred value many Westerners place on public lands and who, above all, was perhaps the only acceptable option on a disturbing shortlist of candidates. To be sure, liberals would have preferred any of the candidates Hillary Clinton was purportedly eyeing. Yet for those who have come to expect the worst from the Trump administration, Zinke at the Interior Department offers a welcome respite.

Saldin is an associate professor of political science at the University of Montana and the author of "When Bad Policy Makes Good Politics."

(c) 2016, The Washington Post
Trump24.JPG

President-elect Donald Trump, during his visit in the White House with President Barack Obama.

(AP Photo/File)

DISOBEY AN UNFIT COMMANDER: Like Donald Trump or loathe him, the truth is that he is unstable and unfit for the presidency and the role of commander in chief.

My father fought four years in the South Pacific as a Marine working a 30-caliber machine gun for this country. He went on to do a tour of duty in Vietnam. He retired as a colonel, and I can honestly say he expected better from our elected commander in chief. He died just recently. He was not going to vote for Trump.

I make this appeal to the U.S. military in my father' memory: Do not obey unlawful or unreasonable orders from this unstable, dishonorable man. For the sake of our children, for all children of the world, please.

Trump will lead us into unnecessary war through fragile ego and blunder. Do not allow him to do so. It is your duty not to follow unlawful orders or orders from an unfit commander.

With respect, do what is right.

Charles Phillips, Portland
SemiVAmtrak2.jpg

A semi-truck crashed into an Amtrak train near Oregon 99 East on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016. There were no reported injuries.

(Clackamas County Sheriff's Office)

A semi-truck crashed into an Amtrak train on Oregon 99 East near South End Road Tuesday afternoon, the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said. No one was injured, the sheriff's office said.

Photos tweeted by the sheriff's office show a semi-truck on the train tracks off of Oregon 99 East.

Amtrak train vs. semi -- there appear to be no injuries. However, avoid 99E near South End Rd. if possible. pic.twitter.com/ML4ZbsQEjf  Clackamas Sheriff (@ClackCoSheriff) December 21, 2016

Sheriff's officials ask that people avoid the area.

This post will be updated with more details as they become available.

-- Samantha Matsumoto

@SMatsumoto55; 503-294-4001
A Portland judge ruled this year that a double murderer could not be executed for his crimes.

Michael Davis suffers from an intellectual disability,

. His IQ was measured at 61 or 62.

And executing people with intellectual disabilities is unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002, because it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

Despite that ruling, according to a report released Tuesday, most of the inmates on

are much like Davis. Two-thirds suffer from impaired mental and emotional capacity,

.

More than a quarter of Oregon's 35 death row inmates have evidence of an intellectual disability or traumatic brain injury. Others endured "devastatingly severe" childhood trauma. Six were younger than 21 when they were arrested.

Oregon's rate of impaired inmates is on par with states such as Alabama and Texas, the report found. Researchers said they didn't examine the cause of Oregon's rate.

One death row inmate, Issac Creed Agee, has a psychotic disorder and suffers from partial fetal alcohol syndrome, visible defects in his corpus callosum and a low IQ, the report said. He has an adaptive functioning equivalent to that of a 71/2-year old.

"We are just not getting the worst of the worst," said Rob Smith, director of the Fair Punishment Project. "We're getting the most broken of the broken, the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. Any observer who is looking at how the death penalty is functioning has to conclude that there is no possible way Oregon's death row represents a restrained, humane or constitutional use of the justice system."

Oregon has not executed anyone since the 1997.

that Brown will continue former Gov. John Kitzhaber's moratorium on executions. The state's death row prisoners all stay in their cells 23 hours a day.

The Fair Punishment Project began researching Oregon, Smith said, expecting to find a "more progressive, more civilized, more careful" justice system.

The Project had reported on the U.S. counties with the highest execution rates and thought the Pacific Northwest might offer an alternative. Instead, Smith said, researchers found Oregon's death row inmates have the same, and at times higher, rates of impairments as some southern states.

"You have a little bit of the deep South in Oregon's death row," Smith said. "When you have an image of a state as progressive and fair, it should be disturbing that your death penalty looks a lot like Birmingham, Alabama's."

, a national figure in the death penalty debate, called the comparison "deeply offensive."

Marquis has prosecuted many murder cases and said he agrees people charged with violent crimes tend to come from disadvantaged backgrounds. But, Marquis said, Oregon's judicial system has rigorous safeguards to ensure those who end up on death row belong there.

"Are they there because they are poor or black? If they are, that's wrong," Marquis said. "Or are they there because they committed a deliberate, horrific much-worse-than-average murder? If you look at every person on death row, you will find they have. And it was no snap deliberation by a prosecutor or a jury or appeals court to make that decision."

Sometimes jurors decide violent criminals are capable of redemption, Marquis said. "Sometimes jurors say, 'Yeah, they were really young,' or 'They were really stoned.'"

Randy Lee Guzek (right), convicted of killing a Terrebonne couple in 1987, speaks with his attorney during his fourth death penalty trial in 2010. He was convicted by a Deschutes County jury that same year and The Oregon Supreme Court upheld the penalty in a November 2015 ruling. (The Oregonian/File/2010)

Harvard's report mentions

, an inmate whom Marquis prosecuted three times. The report calls Guzek "a boy who was just one month past his 18th birthday and who appears to have been high on meth at the time of the crime."

Marquis said he was so upset reading the report, he let out a small shout. He allowed that Guzek had a rough childhood. Guzek's father was an alcoholic who sexually assaulted his daughters. But Marquis said juries three times considered whether Guzek was capable of redemption. He remains on death row.

"Randy Guzek is the most calculated sociopath I have encountered in 40 years of law enforcement," Marquis said. "We very, very rarely find people who are this evil."

Both sides agree: No inmate is likely to be executed under Brown's watch. Though anti-death-penalty activists may take solace in that, Smith said the uncertainty amounts to torture for inmates.

"It's tormenting to wake up every day and not know if you're going to die," Smith said. "When you're someone who has a severe mental illness, it's increasingly hard to understand that circumstance. That is a punishment that goes beyond even the actual sentence."

-- Casey Parks

503-221-8271

cparks@oregonian.com;
Oregons super-charged growth, with new residents arriving at a rate not seen since the 1990s, could boost its chances to add a congressional seat in 2020.

The Census Bureau said Tuesday that Oregon had grown by 1.71 percent in the past year, making it the sixth-fastest-growing state by percentage. Its 69,000 new residents also make it the ninth-fastest-growing state in absolute numbers.

A report from Virginia-based Election Data Services Inc. says Oregon is on track for another congressional seat, joining Florida, North Carolina and Texas.

Going from five to six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, along with Oregon's two seats in the U.S. Senate, would also give the Democratic-leaning state slightly more weight in presidential contests.

Oregon would move from seven electoral votes to eight, although experts say that gain would likely be offset by growth in Republican states.

But Oregonians have been here before. In the late 2000s, Oregon was also a shoo-in for a sixth House seat -- until the Great Recession hit, putting a damper on migration.

"We're probably as likely to get a new seat as not at this point," said Jim Moore, director of the Tom McCall Center for Policy Innovation at Pacific University.

Seats in Congress are shuffled between states every 10 years based on results from the Census. Oregon last gained a seat after the 1980 Census, and it's long been on the cusp of another.

But a lot can happen in the four years leading to the next Census.

"The change in administration could have a profound impact on population change and growth in this nation," said Kimball Brace, the president of Election Data Services. "Having worked with Census data and estimates since the 1970s, it is important to remember that major events like Katrina and the 2008 recession each changed population growth patterns, and that impacted and changed the next apportionment."

Another economic downturn could dramatically slow migration again. About 85 percent of the state's population growth came from migration last year, and migration tends to follow the health of the economy. Oregon's job market has been growing faster than nation overall.

And even if the economy doesn't falter, forecasters who predicted a spike in population growth this year expect it taper in the near future. The state's short-term population forecasts call for slower growth each year from 2017 to 2020.

Metro's population forecasts for the Portland area also call for slightly slower growth.

If Oregon does gain a congressional district, it would further concentrate political influence in the Portland area, Moore said.

The state Legislature would be tasked with redrawing congressional maps, with the result included in a bill for the governor to sign or veto.

Regardless of the politics, the state's mostly rural 2nd congressional district among the largest in the nation by size, would likely grow even larger and more dispersed. The Portland metro area would probably be further divided among several districts.

"It's a further marginalization within the state of the rural voters," Moore said. "But that's what the population has been showing us. The only places that are losing population or staying even are the rural areas."

It would also likely have little impact on the national political stage.

A new blue district in Oregon would be offset by new red districts elsewhere. Election Data Services found that its projections would not have changed the outcome of any Electoral College decisions in any of the past five presidential contests.

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com 503-294-5034 @enjus
A 19-year-old gang member who in broad daylight opened fire on a car in a Northeast Portland McDonald's drive-thru was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison.

Lofton Thomas Lane had been aiming at a 19-year-old gang rival -- Anthony James Gray -- but missed. Lane's gunfire, however, struck an innocent woman driving the car carrying Gray. She was shot near the neck and shoulders.

A teenager in the backseat of the car also was grazed by a bullet, but no bystanders were injured.

The shootout happened about 5:20 p.m. on April 4 at the McDonald's along Northeast Halsey Street next to the Gateway Shopping Center.

Investigators say Gray returned fire -- and that seven to nine bullets were exchanged between the two men. Lane was a Hoover gang member, and Gray was a Blood gang member, investigators say.

After the shooting, Lane drove off with a bullet hole in his car, and Gray and some others fled the scene, shedding their jackets and walking into the nearby Kohl's store.

In October, Lane pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon. During Wednesday's sentencing hearing, Multnomah County Circuit Judge Kenneth Walker told Lane that he's seen a lot of shootings and death from guns in his life.

"The biggest fear that I see in this community and around the country is (about) these young men with guns," the judge said. "Some 3-year-old gets shot or some kid in a house playing gets shot. ... Guns never seem to do what you want them to do. They always seem to hit some innocent person."

The judge told Lane that if he keeps up his gun lifestyle, "you're going to end up dead. ... Guns lead you to a life of death and destruction."

Earlier in the hearing, Lane acknowledged trouble he'd gotten into as a child, and said he's had "enough." He told the judge he wants to turn his life around.

"I'm truly sorry," Lane said. "I want to continue my life for myself and my family."

Defense attorney Downing Bethune said his client is motivated to change because his girlfriend recently gave birth to a girl.

"He wants to be out of custody, so he can be a father for her," Bethune said. "He couldn't do anything about the past, but he could atone for this in the future."

Deputy District Attorney Eric Zimmerman said he's known Lane since Lane was 14 and became involved in the juvenile justice system. Zimmerman said he's spoken with Lane many times since his April arrest for the drive-thru shootout, and Zimmerman said he's seen him mature and express what seemed like a genuine interest in leaving behind the gang lifestyle.

"I really, really hope that he does make that change," Zimmerman said.

The judge also sentenced Lane to five years of probation. If Lane violates the terms of his probation, he could face another four years in prison.

Gray, the man who returned fire in the drive-thru, pleaded guilty in August to unlawful use of a weapon charges and was sentenced to five years of probation after spending four months in jail while his case worked its way through the court system.

But Gray is back in jail. On Nov. 27, he was arrested on accusations of attempted aggravated murder after police say he was part of a group of angry young men who shot at least 24 bullets at a Southwest Portland home, where partygoers were celebrating an 18-year-old woman's birthday. A guest was struck in the hip and buttocks.

-- Aimee Green

503-294-5119
UPDATE: Gresham man accused of shooting girl in possible road rage incident arraigned

Police arrested the man accused of firing a gunshot at a car on Interstate 84, hitting an 8-year-old girl in the backseat.

Joshua Eric Constantine

Joshua Eric Constantine, 32, is charged with second-degree assault and first-degree attempted assault. He was booked into the Multnomah County Jail on Tuesday at about 8:15 p.m. and will be arraigned Wednesday.

Police said Constantine fired a gunshot at a car driven by the 8-year-old victim's mother as she passed him on Interstate 84.

The bullet struck the girl in the foot, police said. She suffered minor injuries.

Police ask anyone with information about the shooting contact Detective Todd Christensen at 503-823-0880 or by email at todd.christensen@portlandoregon.gov; or Detective Arjay Dran at 503-823-0483 or by email at arjay.dran@portlandoregon.gov.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive
reynaldodiazcabrera65.jpg

Reynaldo Diaz Cabrera, 65, was arraigned in Multnomah County Circuit Court Tuesday afternoon on two counts of attempted murder with a firearm and two counts of unlawful use of a firearm. He told authorities he had lived in an apartment in the 5700 block of N. Kerby Ave. for nine years before his ordered eviction on Monday. (MCSO)

Shortly after he was ordered evicted, Reynaldo Diaz Cabrera walked into the office at Cascadian Terrace Apartments in North Portland, pointed a revolver at two of the complex managers who had testified against him in court and fired multiple shots, according to a prosecutor.

Cabrera didn't say a word, one of the managers told police.

The gunman walked out and also shot at the front apartment doors of two other residents who had testified against him in his eviction hearing, deputy district attorney Samuel Leineweber wrote in a probable cause affidavit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Tuesday.

The shooting had occurred about 12:30 p.m. on Monday.

Doris Bray, 64, was shot in the arm and chest. Bill Maddrell, 45, suffered a wound to the arm, according to the affidavit.

Police recovered a .357-caliber revolver from Cabrera when he was arrested a short distance from the crime scene in a car near the intersection of Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Winchell Street, the affidavit said.

Two live rounds remained in the revolver, with four empty casings, police said.

Cabrera, 65, was arraigned Tuesday afternoon on two counts of attempted murder with a firearm and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon.

He told authorities he had lived alone in Apt. 416 for nine years and received disability benefits and food stamps.

Cabrera told a detective he fired the gunshots because he was angry about having been evicted from his apartment in the 5700 block of North Kerby Ave. He said the two apartment managers he shot, and the residents he targeted, had testified against him in court earlier in the day, according to the affidavit.

Cabrera has two prior felony convictions, including first-degree burglary in 1982 and possession of a controlled substance in 1987.

He remains in custody at the Multnomah County Detention Center on $510,000 bail, and is due back in court on Dec. 29.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian
BERLIN (AP) -- The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Tuesday for a truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that German authorities said came right out of the extremist group's playbook, inflicting mass casualties on a soft target fraught with symbolic meaning.

The Monday night attack on the popular market by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the heart of former West Berlin left 12 dead and 48 injured  the first mass casualty attack by Islamic extremists carried out on German soil. German security forces were still hunting for the perpetrator after releasing a man from custody for lack of evidence.

The claim of responsibility carried on the Islamic State group's Amaq news agency described the man seen fleeing from the truck as "a soldier of the Islamic State" who "carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition."

Germany is not involved in anti-IS combat operations, but has Tornado jets and a refueling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, among other assets.

The claim of responsibility came not long after German prosecutors said they had released a man picked up near the scene of the attack, initially suspected of driving the truck.

The man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany last year, was taken into custody based on a description from witnesses of a suspect who jumped out of the truck and fled after the attack.

Even before his release, officials had expressed doubt the man was behind the attack.

"We may still have a dangerous criminal out there," warned Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt, whose office urged people to be "particularly vigilant" and report "suspicious movement" using a special hotline.

Though Germany had not seen any successful mass-casualty Islamic extremist attacks until Monday, attempts and recent attacks in neighboring France and Belgium had made many feel it was inevitable.

Story continues

"We've all been prepared that something like this could happen, so we were not surprised," said economics student Maximilian Much.

The 24-year-old Berliner said the attack hit home because he'd often visited the Christmas market with his girlfriend, but that he wouldn't let himself be led by emotion.

"I'm not going to change my life style now," he said. "The chances that I get killed in a car or bike accident are bigger."

Germany's top prosecutor, Peter Frank, told reporters the attack on the popular market was reminiscent of July's deadly truck rampage in Nice and appeared to follow instructions published by the Islamic State group.

"There is also the prominent and symbolic target of a Christmas market, and the modus operandi that mirrors at least past calls by jihadi terror organizations," Frank said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the attack "bears the hallmarks of previous terror attacks," but said U.S. officials didn't have enough information to back up the IS claim of responsibility. "There is no direct evidence of a tie or a link to a terrorist organization," he said.

The man arrested near the scene denied any involvement in the attack. Under German law, prosecutors have until the end of a calendar day following an arrest to seek a formal arrest warrant keeping a suspect in custody.

Prosecutors said they decided to release him after turning up no forensic evidence proving he was in the truck's cab during the rampage, and no witnesses who were able to follow him from the scene to where he was picked up.

Among the injured was Inaki Ellakuria, who underwent surgery Tuesday for a broken tibia and fibula on his left leg. He said he knew immediately it was no accident.

"It came fast, too fast to be driving off the road accidentally," the 21-year-old student from Spain tweeted only minutes after the attack. "It has swept me and ran over both of my legs."

Juan Jose Ellakuria told the Associated Press his son also suffered broken bones in his right ankle and instep, as well as damage to his hip.

"He's come out of surgery and he's making good progress," Ellakuria said.

Frank, the German prosecutor, said there were still a lot of unanswered questions.

"We don't know for sure whether it was one or several perpetrators," he said. "We don't know for sure whether he, or they, had support. These investigations aren't concluded yet."

Witnesses saw only one man flee from the truck after it hurtled through the market for 60 to 80 meters (200 to 260 feet) before coming to a stop near the 19th-century church, which was badly damaged in World War II bombing but left standing as a memorial to the destruction of the war.

The head of the Federal Criminal Police Office said authorities had yet to find a pistol that is believed to have been used to kill the Polish truck driver who was supposed to be delivering the steel beams the truck was carrying.

The Polish owner of the truck, Ariel Zurawski, said he last spoke with the driver, his cousin, around noon on Monday and he told him he was in Berlin and scheduled to unload Tuesday morning.

"They must have done something to my driver," he told TVN24.

Flags flew at half-staff on government buildings across the country Tuesday, and in Berlin the national and city flags were projected onto the Brandenburg Gate in tribute to the victims.

Authorities said that in addition to the Polish truck driver, six of the people killed were German but the others have not yet been identified.

Germans have been increasingly wary since two attacks by asylum-seekers last summer were claimed by the Islamic State group. Five people were wounded in an ax rampage on a train near Wuerzburg and 15 were wounded in a bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, both in the southern state of Bavaria. Both attackers were killed.

Those attacks and two others unrelated to Islamic extremism in the same weeklong period, contributed to tensions in Germany over the arrival last year of 890,000 migrants.

Far-right groups and a nationalist party seized on Monday night's attack, blaming Chancellor Angela Merkel for what happened.

"Under the cloak of helping people Merkel has completely surrendered our domestic security," wrote Frauke Petry, the co-chairwoman of the Alternative for Germany party.

The attack also raised concerns of a possible backlash.

"No question, the atmosphere in this country will change and become more tense," said Tarik Elsayed, the 22-year-old German-born son of Egyptian parents.

"Of course, as an Arab I will get more hostile looks, it will get only worse now."

But Tarek Elmasoudi, an Egyptian asylum-seeker, said he wasn't afraid of repercussions. "The Germans are very nice and I want to stay here."

Already under pressure for the huge influx of migrants, Merkel addressed head-on the possibility that an asylum-seeker was responsible for the carnage.

"I know that it would be particularly hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that a person committed this act who asked for protection and asylum in Germany," she said in a nationally televised statement.

"This would be particularly sickening for the many, many Germans who work to help refugees every day and for the many people who really need our help and are making an effort to integrate in our country."

"Twelve people who were still among us yesterday, who were looking forward to Christmas, who had plans for the holidays, aren't among us anymore," she said. "A gruesome and ultimately incomprehensible act has robbed them of their lives."

___

Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber, Ciarian Fahey and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Aritz Parra in Madrid, Bradley Klapper in Washington and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
mexico

Multiple explosions at a fireworks market in a town north of Mexico City on Tuesday killed at least 31 people and left dozens wounded, according to various reports.

Just before 3 p.m., numerous explosions reverberated around the center of the San Pablito pyrotechnic market in the municipality of Tultepec in Mexico state, about 20 miles north of Mexico City.

Firefighters and civil-protection forces responded soon after, and initial reports indicated that at least 40 and as many as 70 people were injured by the blasts. Civil-protection authorities later put the number of injured at 60, while the federal police said as many as 70 could've been hurt.

On Tuesday night, the death toll was put at 31 people, while 72 were injured. Another 13 minors were to be sent to a hospital in Texas to treat their extreme burns, according to ABC.

The cloud of smoke created by the blasts reached a width of more than a 1,000 square meters, according to El Universal, and was floating south.

National Civil Protection coordinator Luis Felipe Puente told Milenio TV that some nearby homes had been damaged, and he urged people not to come within 3 miles of the site. He also said there was no option but to let unexploded fireworks go off.

Mexico state officials said they were focused on the injured and the cause of the explosions was still under investigation. Many people in the area make fireworks for a living, some of them doing so in clandestine work spaces, according to The Guardian.

San Pablito Tultepec Mexico fireworks explosion

Police officers, firefighters, paramedics, military units, and other authorities from surrounding municipalities reportedly mobilized to support officials in San Pablito.

At least 10 ambulances and 50 paramedics from the Red Cross were on the scene of the explosion.

The San Pablito market is the largest in Mexico for the sale of pyrotechnics, home to 300 vendors selling with official permission. The town is also the site of a yearly fireworks festival, and visitors and shoppers may have been among the injured.

Story continues

There have been explosions at the San Pablito market in the past. A September 2005 blast injured 128 vendors and customers. It reopened the following year with new regulations on stall construction and fireworks handling.

But explosions in 2006 and 2007 destroyed the entire market; after those incidents security measures were introduced to prevent chain explosions.

Days before the blast, the director general of the Mexican Pyrotechnic Institute said the San Pablito market was the safest fireworks market in Latin America, "with perfectly designed stalls and with sufficient space so that a spark will not cause a chain conflagration."

Footage recorded after the explosion showed emergency crews on the scene, with scattered bursts continuing.





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A Texas Southern University student accused of fatally stabbing his mother broke down at the sight of his family in court Monday.

Blake Jefferson, 22, was arrested Friday on a charge of murder, accused of killing Dedre Jefferson.

As he was led out of a holding cell into the courtroom of state District Judge Jeannine Barr, Jefferson, handcuffed and wearing an orange jail uniform, sobbed and doubled over when he saw family members sitting in the gallery.

ORIGINAL STORY: Alief ISD mourns trustee stabbed to death, allegedly by her son

After a brief hearing in which the judge read Jefferson his legal rights and he was uncuffed to sign a document, Jefferson put his hand over his heart and cried as he tried to mouth words to his family.

As bailiffs led him out of the courtroom to a holding cell, he wailed and doubled over in tears again.

Neither his attorney, nor family, spoke to reporters as they left the courtroom.

Jefferson is accused of stabbing his mother in the west Harris County townhouse they shared, according to authorities.

PARENTS KILLED: Teen appears in court in fatal shooting of parents

On Friday, friends and family said the allegations were a surprise because Jefferson had never been in trouble with the law. He had been acting strangely in the days leading up to the incident and had asked for help, according to police and the family's pastor.

Jefferson's estranged stepfather said the accused killer had contacted him and begged to meet up to talk. They had agreed to meet Saturday.

The 48-year-old victim was an alumna of Alief ISD's Elsik High School. She taught in the district for nearly 20 years before winning election last year to the board of trustees, where she was vice president.

The school district announced it would hold a candlelight vigil at 6 p.m. Monday in the Alief ISD administration parking lot, at 4250 Cook Road.
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Cari Marchands face was glowing as she watched her fourth graders fill gift boxes for soldiers theyd never met.

Marchand has taught her entire career at Adams Elementary. For the past seven years, her fourth grade classroom has eschewed the traditional holiday getting and focused more on the giving.

This year, 25 students packed more than 30 boxes of books, DVDs, games, food and toiletries to send to military men and women serving overseas, who are

away from families during one of the most sacred times of year.

That theyre not getting something, I dont think that even crosses their mind, Marchand said as the kids scurried by. Theyre thrilled.

Marchand said she encourages kids to think beyond themselves to make someones life better. In past years, it meant working with the Humane Society of Midland County, the Diaper Alliance and Cancer Services of Midland.

Lots of kids have military backgrounds in their families,

Marchand said, crediting a student who took the idea during a brainstorming session in class and ran with it.

They partnered with Aarons Gifts from Home, a local nonprofit headed by Deb Ullom, whose son, Aaron, was a 2009 Midland High School graduate who joined the U.S. Navy and was killed by enemy gunfire on July 12, 2011, while in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, students rushed to partner up, grab an empty box and bolt for the library. They flanked the table in a flurry, packing items donated by parents and friends of the class, Family Video in Midland, TownePlace Suites in Auburn Hills, Fairfield Inn in Battle Creek and Friends of the Library.

They returned to the classroom for a sugar tsunami of punch, cookies, cupcakes and other treats.

Max Stoecker, 9, said he wanted to make soldiers overseas feel like theyre home.

They serve for us and risk their lives for us, Stoecker said, sitting at a table and unwrapping a cupcake. We need to give them something because they give us something every day, and thats freedom.

Cara Bucci, 9, said she felt very happy. In her family, a 96-year-old great-uncle and a great-grandpa both served in World War II.

I feel happy that Im warming their hearts, she said of those currently serving overseas.

Students wrote letters of gratitude and penned words in poetry on colorful paper. They put them atop the goods so it would be the first thing a soldier sees. One, written in acrostic form with the first letter of the first word of each line spelling America, read: A brave solider/Making our country better/Enthusiastically living life/we Respect you/ Independence/we Care for you/America supports you.

Deb Ullom arrived at the school to see the 30-plus boxes ready to ship.

You rocked it! she told the students. Thank you so very much.

She told the class that the military men and women keep the letters and poems as mementos in a scrapbook to show their own families.

Then it was off to the parking lot as each student carried a box. They loaded a blue Dodge pickup truck and afterward held smiles for a class photo as a ball of sunlight painted faces gold.

Marchand lives for days like these  days when she can see the excitement in the eyes of her students and that light bulb moment when they realize theyre giving and thinking beyond their immediate world, and are excited to do so. It helps build them into responsible citizens, she said. It helps build comfort, peace and community for the troops, she said.

These kinds of days, these are what make it so worth it. Thats why Im a teacher.
Three U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortresses returned to Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, Dec. 21, 2016, after executing 15 sorties near Australia and in the South China Sea in conjunction with forces from U.S. Pacific Command, U.S. European Command and Australia in support of U.S. Strategic Commands bomber assurance and deterrence mission.

During the Dec. 3 to 18 deployment to the Indo-Asia-Pacific, the B-52s integrated with B-1B Lancers assigned to U.S. PACOMs Continuous Bomber Presence mission at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, for joint and combined operations.

"These strategic bomber missions, especially when integrated, provide unparalleled training opportunities for our forces to work together in a joint environment, strengthening our capabilities and ensuring our ability to prepare for contingencies and rapidly respond to crises," said Brig. Gen. Dirk D. Smith, Pacific Air Forces Director of Air and Cyberspace Operations. "This deployment also allowed for greater collaboration between the U.S. and Australia, where we exercised and improved our combined combat capabilities."

Also during this deployment, the B-52s joined other U.S. forces and Australian military partners to conduct exercise Phoenix Black, offering coalition training opportunities and enhancing interoperability.

U.S. and Australian military partnerships are critical to the peace and stability of the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, said Maj. Patrick Applegate, Pacific Air Forces bomber operations deputy chief. As key allies, these exercises provide us with a unique opportunity to work together in a training environment before we work together operationally.

Forces who participated include the B-52Hs, B-1Bs, F-15C Eagles, KC-135 Stratotankers, C-5 Galaxies, C-17 Globemaster IIIs, E-3 Sentry, RC-135 Rivet Joints as well as U.S. Army and Marine Corps ground parties with attached Joint Terminal Attack Controllers, and Royal Australian Air Forces F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and JTACs, encompassing more than 70 sorties.

Not only did this deployment provide the B-52s opportunities to work with allies and familiarize aircrew with airbases and operations in the Indo-Asia-Pacific, but it also enabled crews to maintain a high state of readiness and proficiency through joint training.

After military exercises with the Australians, the B-52s teamed up with other U.S. forces to conduct joint operations in the South China Sea.

U.S. forces conduct routine training operations within the international air and maritime passages in the South China Sea, said Maj. Ryan Simpson, Pacific Air Forces bomber operations chief. Our joint and Pacific partners recognize the importance this area serves as the global commons which connects the Pacific and Indian Oceans. These operations create unique opportunities for our partners in the Pacific to integrate with a joint force of bombers, tankers and other assets within the theater.

The routine small force training sortie included a B-52H, two B-1Bs, four F-15Cs and the USS Mustin, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer currently assigned to U.S. Pacific Fleet. Seven tanker aircraft operating from several forward operating locations supported the mission.

This operation showcased the U.S. Air Forces unparalleled combat capability and precision, said Capt. Chandler Anderson, 34th Bomb Squadron assistant flight commander and airborne mission commander. From a B-1 pilots perspective, we mission planned simulated standoff weapons, were the overall airborne mission lead, and coordinated with all the other assets using only a rapidly deployable expeditionary communication suite planning environment on the flightline, thousands of miles away from our counterparts. We truly validated the B-1s ability to operate outside of Andersen AFB. Our participation, along with the B-52s, F-15Cs, RC-135, and USS Mustin, enabled us to practice tactics in the South China Sea that offered many valuable lessons learned that will make us even more lethal in combat.

These joint engagements as well as operations with our Australian ally are representative of the shared commitment to global security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.
Find Someone Who Looks at You the Way Chris Hemsworth Looks at Michael Shannon

By Courtney Enlow | Celebrity | December 21, 2016 |

Michael Pena, Chris Hemsworth, and Michael Shannon are making a movie together because the casting gods heard our pleas and are giving us gifts.

Horse Soldiers is the true story of special forces soldiers, who joined with the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan and went to war against the Taliban on horseback.

A photo posted by Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth) on Dec 16, 2016 at 2:27pm PST

A photo posted by Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth) on Dec 18, 2016 at 8:55pm PST

The cast is clearly getting along, as evidenced by this look of absolute utter love on the face of Chris Hemsworth.

#horsesoldiers week3 with @chrishemsworth @michaelshannon A photo posted by Michael Pena (@mvegapena) on Dec 20, 2016 at 5:23pm PST




NORMAL  An ordinance limiting the number of animals that can be housed at a Normal residence may be tweaked to stop such things as puppy mill
SPRINGFIELD  Illinois top leaders arent meeting to discuss the state budget, but a group that includes rank-and-file lawmakers from both parties has been meeting more frequently in recent weeks to come up with a plan to overhaul the way the state funds public schools.

Despite the standstill over the broader state budget, members of Gov. Bruce Rauners education funding reform commission say theyre optimistic that the group, which has been meeting since summer, will be able to come up with at least the outlines of what a new school funding formula should look like.

When the first-term Republican governor announced the group in July, he set a Feb. 1 deadline for it to complete its work. The commissions next meeting is set for Wednesday.

Weve made meaningful progress on an incredibly difficult issue, said state Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, a member of the commission and a leading voice in his caucus on school funding issues.

If reform is going to occur, Barickman said, the group  and ultimately the General Assembly  will have to come to a consensus on complicated issues such as property taxes and achieving parity among school districts, from Chicago Public Schools, the nations third largest school system, to tiny rural districts.

State Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, the point person for the Senate Democrats on school funding issues, said he believes the group will be able to complete at least a set of specific recommendations that could be the framework of legislation.

I personally believe that we can produce a bill before Feb. 1, Manar said, adding that others on the commission might disagree.

Barickman said he believes the more likely scenario is a number of separate bills based on the commissions recommendations.

None of those recommendations have been put to paper yet, but Manar said he believes theres agreement that the states new approach to school funding needs to take into account the varying needs of individual districts.

A recent report from Advance Illinois, an education advocacy group, notes that under the current formula, Illinois spends 81 cents educating students from low-income families for every dollar it spends educating kids from wealthier ones.

So far, however, long-term proposals aimed at fixing the problem havent been approved because they would either take money away from wealthier districts or vastly increase state spending on public education, both of which are politically challenging.

Despite the political challenges inherent in the debate over education funding and the heated political environment in Springfield surrounding the election, both Barickman and Manar said the commission has managed to keep partisanship out of its work.

A complicating factor in the groups work is Rauners recent push for a freeze on local property taxes, which are the primary source of school funding in the state.

While elementary and secondary education is funded through the rest of the school year, a stopgap spending plan for other state operations expires Dec. 31. Rauner has said hell only sign another short-term spending plan if lawmakers approve a property tax freeze and a referendum on amending the Illinois Constitution to create term limits for elected officials.
BLOOMINGTON  The former executive director of the city-owned U.S. Cellular Coliseum is under investigation for possible "financial impropriety" discovered at the public facility he previously managed in Bemidji, Minn.

Meanwhile, Curtis Webb, 45, has pleaded not guilty in McLean County Circuit Court to theft of government property, a felony, for allegedly taking an unspecified amount of money from the city of Bloomington between July 31 and Aug. 30.

"I can confirm we are conducting a thorough investigation," Bemidji City Manager Nate Mathews told The Pantagraph Wednesday. "VenuWorks is conducting that, and we have been in touch with our county attorney and our police department just to put them on notice that we have financial impropriety that we are investigating.

"The city (of Bemidji) is aware of some impropriety that Curtis Webb (allegedly) conducted while he was under employment in the city of Bemidji," said Mathews. "The news broke in Bloomington and then it was discovered here."

Webb was fired in late October by VenuWorks, the firm that manages the city-owned event centers in both Bloomington and Bemidji.

"VenuWorks, when they had a leadership change in 2013, ... (Webb) came in and took the reigns of this facility with his staff and (VenuWorks' finance department). We welcomed him in. We had no reason to suspect anything was up until the news broke in Bloomington and (alleged financial impropriety) was discovered here," said Mathews.

VenuWorks President Steve Peters said previously that the company became suspicious after charges not related to the business were found during a routine review of Coliseum financial records. Multiple airline tickets to a destination inappropriate for business were among the questionable expenses, said Peters.

When asked about whether an investigation was underway related to Webb's management of Bemidji's 4,700-seat Sanford Center, Peters said Wednesday, "We're still assessing the damage there, but he will probably be charged (in Bemidji) as soon as we complete the final analysis. We're working with law enforcement there as well."

"We're still sorting through the facts-finding right now," Mathews added. "We don't have a firm number yet, but we do know it's substantial."

Mathews said Webb was executive director of the Sanford Center from 2013 until May 2016, when VenuWorks, based in Ames, Iowa, named him to lead daily operations in Bloomington.

Webb is scheduled to appear in court here for a status hearing on Feb. 23. His bond was set at $50,000, and he posted $5,035 and was released from custody.

The city of Bemidji also has been in touch with the state of Minnesota auditor's office "and they are reviewing the internal investigation that VenuWorks is completing."

"We had the option of doing it ourselves, but (the state auditor's office) suggested they could do this audit and investigate what happened," said Mathews. "They have forensic accountants on staff at the state auditor's office. We gladly accepted their assistance to take a look at this, as it is public funds."
Glatfelter Announces Planned Executive Leadership Transition in Human Resources Dec. 16, 2016 - Glatfelter today announced that Senior Vice President of Human Resources & Administration, William T. Yanavitch II, will retire from the company, effective March 31, 2017. Yanavitch joined the company in July 2000 as Vice President, Human Resources and was promoted to Senior Vice President, Human Resources & Administration, in 2014. Eileen Beck, Vice President, Global Compensation & Benefits, has been selected as Yanavitch's successor. Beck will have overall responsibility for the global human resources and corporate communications functions at Glatfelter. In making this announcement, Dante C. Parrini, Chairman & CEO, said, Bill is an exceptional leader and business partner, who has ensured that Glatfelter PEOPLE remain at the forefront of our culture and a source of competitive advantage as we execute our ongoing transformation into a leading, global engineered materials company. During his sixteen-year career at Glatfelter, Bill established a comprehensive talent management and recruiting process that has enabled the company to recruit, employ, and retain top talent to drive the successful execution of business strategy across the organization. He has also led an effective government & public relations program in support of the Company's legislative and community interests. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the Senior Executive Team, I thank Bill for his dedicated years of service and many contributions to Glatfelter. Eileen Beck joined Glatfelter in 2012 as Global Director of Compensation & Benefits, and was promoted to her current role in September 2015. Prior to joining Glatfelter, Beck worked for Armstrong World Industries for approximately 28 years with leadership assignments in Shared Services and Corporate Human Resources. She also served in various business unit Human Resource roles, as well as Vice President, Training & Development, and Vice President, Compensation & Benefits. Beck earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Shippensburg University. Mr. Parrini commented, I am especially pleased to promote from within Glatfelter for this critical leadership assignment as we continue to focus on strengthening our talent management capabilities, becoming more operationally excellent, and executing our global growth strategy. Eileen will be a strong addition to our senior executive team and I look forward to her continued success in her new position. Headquartered in York, Pennsylvania (USA), Glatfelter is a global supplier of specialty papers and fiber-based engineered materials, offering innovation, world-class service and over a century and a half of technical expertise. To learn more, please visit: www.glatfelter.com. SOURCE: Glatfelter
Fortress Paper Announces Agreement with Executive Chairman Chad Wasilenkoff Dec 21, 2016 - Fortress Paper Ltd. is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Chad Wasilenkoff for his continued role as Executive Chairman of the company on a full-time basis, effective January 1, 2017, for a term of four years. According to Fortress, the agreement supersedes and replaces Wasilenkoff's transition agreement and all other services arrangements with the company and its subsidiaries, and provides Fortress with a further deferral until the end of the term, or the termination of the agreement, of the $3 million payment that the company agreed to pay him under the transition agreement. In a press release, Fortress paper said, Over the past 12 months, the Company has achieved improved financial results and a strengthened balance sheet which provide for greater flexibility to pursue new business opportunities. The Company has also identified certain value creating initiatives which could be realized by leveraging the Company's core strengths. The Company believes that Mr. Wasilenkoff's more robust role will provide a catalyst to achieving the Company's renewed strategic direction which will focus on growth and expansion. Yvon Pelletier, Fortress Paper's CEO, commented, We are extremely pleased to have come to an agreement with Chad regarding his continued employment with the Company as its Executive Chairman, ensuring that the Company retains a valuable executive for the medium to long-term. Chad's strategic and entrepreneurial talents are an asset to our Company, and we look forward to working with him to maximize value for all our stakeholders. Wasilenkoff commented, "I look forward to continuing to work with Yvon and our talented management team. Yvon's strong operational experience and leadership has played a key role this year with Fortress Paper successfully completing various strategic initiatives. As we move forward, the entire team is excited about the opportunities and potential within our existing business segments, as well as the prospects of new growth initiatives which leverage the company's core competencies." Fortress Paper operates internationally in two distinct business segments: dissolving pulp and security paper products. To learn more, please visit: www.fortresspaper.com. SOURCE: Fortress Paper Ltd.
A group of MPs is urging the British government to take measures to prevent cases that pertain to suicides, given how it has rapidly increased lately. The group says proper support should be given to those who opt for it.

As what the parents and friends of those who committed suicide have reported to BBC News, the basic problem is the fact that there are no proper services such as support groups for those at risk are available. If these services are provided, the rates of suicides will be much lesser.

The reasons why this is happening or people choose to commit suicide remains unknown. As most of the friends and families who have lost their loved ones because of suicide say, they couldn't figure out the reason why they would end their own lives  from one moment they would talk to them on the phone and the next thing, they're gone.

The same happened with Angela Samata. As The Nursing Times reports, her friend Mark took his own life. She said it was an incident that was hard to believe.

Fortunately, Samata is now working for this purpose as she knows the pain and the suffering of those who tried committing suicide. She also runs a charitable program now.

Meanwhile, the program run by the MPs showed more practice is needed to spot the people who are said to be at the risk of having suicidal thoughts or tendencies. Guidance and proper help should be given to the people after they are discharged from the services and from the help of psychiatrists.

A spokesperson from the Health Department said every suicide case disturbs the family and is always a tragedy. The health departments have been investing a huge amount of money to help those who are at risk. There should be safe centers that could provide help to these people but sadly, the rate of centers that provide proper support are much lower.
College students might love the downtimes during winter break but it also opens up opportunities to make money. If one is especially living on a student's budget, getting a job during the holidays is only smart and practical.

The team at Care.com has looked into the top cities in the United States where college students are likely to be hired with good-paying jobs during the Christmas season. The researchers looked into data of popular student jobs from Dec. 15, 2015 to Jan. 15, 2016 to arrive at their findings.

The top 10 cities where college student can find a good-paying job for the holidays are Minneapolis, Seattle, Denver, Austin, San Jose, San Francisco, Phoenix, Dallas, Washington, D.C. and Portland (Oregon, not Maine). The top jobs include babysitting, pet sitting, dog walking and tutoring. Other jobs include running errands, home organization or transportation services.

College students are likely to earn between $1,100 to $1,500 over the holidays at these cities and with the specific jobs. Below is a more comprehensive breakdown.

According to CNBC, the income a college student earns from the holiday job might be subjected to taxes, so it pays to be aware of this for filing later on. The news outlet also cites that even dependents of parents could be required to pay income tax for self-employment. This covers babysitting and dog walking jobs, among others. The IRS provides an in-depth explanation of this under "Other Filing Requirements" for dependents.

According to Entrepreneur, the holiday gig will help with a college student's tuition fund or it can be used for daily expenses, groceries or utility bills upon return to the university. It's an easy and rewarding task compared to just slacking off the couch for four weeks.

Parents, do you live in any of the top cities in the research? Do you have a college student coming home? Will you tell them about these employment possibilities?
A new study proves that gender plays a huge role for patients to survive in a hospital. This has been quite a buzz online on December 20.

Based on a report by Denver Post, a patient is more likely to be discharged from the hospital if the doctor tending is a female. Male doctors are good but apparently, this study proves that women doctors handle it better than them.

Researchers based their findings using old patients who were confined in the hospital due to some common diseases. About 11.5 percent of patients died after being treated by a man, the death rate of patients treated by a female doctor was only 11 percent. The difference is not that big but it still means that one's chance of survival is high if the doctor is a woman.

This study also said that if male doctors would work the way the female ones do, then mortality rate could go up that 32,000 deaths annually could be prevented. Although this paper can prove number and statistics of the success rate that female doctors have over the years, it didn't say anything about the reason behind it. Just because female doctors are highly recommended for a patient's high survival rate, it doesn't mean that one should just completely avoid male doctors.

Meanwhile, although female doctors have this reputation of doing well with their jobs more than male doctors, one would be surprised that their salary and funding for researchers is actually 8 percent lower than what male doctors are receiving. The Atlantic pointed out that fact, which makes female doctors even more impressive and it shows that they are not just in it for the money but for the passion that they have to people.

The next time you get confined or rushed in a hospital, make sure that you choose a female doctor. Share this to your friends and family today.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law in upholding a statewide autism range disorders advisory, last Wednesday. According to the law, it requires the state to deliver additional focus and potential funding to recognize, to treat and provide essential services for families dealing with autism sponsored by state Sen. Mike Nozzolio, R-54 of Fayette. It will uphold a 19-member advisory board by a bipartisan effort.

In 2015, a federal lawsuit was filed in United States District Court, one of the state's largest Medicaid managed care organizations refusing to cover medically necessary Applied Behavior Analysis treatment for children with autism, filed with attorneys Richard Ganulin of Cincinnati and Aimee Gilman of Cleveland according to Autism Speaks.

By law, it is required to cover all medically necessary treatments for children under the age of 21, and an estimated one-third of all children with autism receive primary coverage through Medicaid. The federal Medicaid Act mandates that all states provide Early Periodic Screening Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) services for all eligible children under 21 years of age.

As stated by the Executive Director of Autism Speaks Legal Resource Center Dan Unumb, the purpose of the program is to ensure that the conditions are treated early and children that enter adulthood as healthy and functional as possible.

Unumb notes that in the last several years there have also been several successful lawsuits by Medicaid families whose children with autism had been wrongfully denied access to medically necessary treatment.

Experts in the field of autism and community advocates includes the member from numerous state agencies. People who live with autism are tasked to determine a strategy to disseminate information and resources better.

According to Finger Lakes Times, one in 68 children ( 1 in 42 boys and 1 in 189 girls) identified as having an autism disorder, it has become more common compared to childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes, and pediatric AIDS combined.

Nozzollio said in a release that autism continues to be the fastest-growing developmental disability in the United States and this new autism spectrum disorders advisory board will present the significant opportunity in improving and providing services that support the aid to those who are living with these diseases.

CEO of Geneva-based Happiness House Mary Walsh Boatfield compliment the legislation, she accredits Sen. Nozzolio's work in establishing the critical importance of advisory board. Nozzolio has been devoted to individuals and families living with autism and hosted numerous events to raise awareness of the issue and provide information about services available for families who deals with autism. Admiring the determination of the parents to provide every possible opportunity for their child, Nozzolio added.


A teenager was left with severe wounds after getting into a fight with three unknown men on Kingswood Road, near Queen Street East, Toronto, Canada. The incident happened just a few blocks away from the victim's home.

According to the statement given by the victim to the Toronto police, the incident happened just a few meters outside their home in Kingswood Road. The 16-year-old victim decided to go outside his home and stroll Monday, December 19, an evening when some three men approached and confronted him.

After several minutes, the confrontation angered the three suspects that they started to scare and bully the victim. The three men, armed with knives, punched the teen several times. When the teen was too weak to be able to fight, it is then when they stabbed him and left him with "a sharp pain on his body," Toronto police said in an interview with CBC Toronto. One of which even "brandished a gun." The incident happened at around 11:30 p.m.

Early Tuesday, December 20, the victim was transferred to a trauma center where his injuries were treated. Doctors found his wounds critical that the teen gets intensive care and medication. After almost two days of treatment, the teen's condition is now better. In fact, his health is now stable, Yahoo! Canada reported.

Information regarding the suspects and intention of the crime are still undiscovered yet. There are still no enough facts and witnesses available to conduct a clearer picture of what exactly happened. With these given reasons, Toronto police are asking for those who have knowledge about the crime to speak up and help them solve the mystery of the crime, CBC Canada reported. Anyone who is willing to stand up to help the victim gain justice is encouraged to call Toronto police hotline at 416-808-5500.


Five teenagers, who reportedly stole the van of a church deacon, were facing murder charges. The man, who was subsequently shot and ran over by the group of teens, was in a coma for two months after the attack before he died in November.

The church deacon was also a carpenter in New Mexico and was identified as Hector Aguirre. Aguirre was trying to stop the group of teenagers from stealing his work van. The five suspects were members of a self-proclaimed group who was notoriously considered dangerous.

The group has been the suspect of escalating crimes all over Albuquerque. NBC 5 reported that they are also associated with a robbery crime where they killed a dog and are suspects in a drive-by shooting.

Police spokesman Fred Duran said that witnesses and citizens called cops to say that the suspects in the death of Aguirre are the group of teenagers. Witnesses claimed that Aguirre held onto the windshield wipers of his van and one of them pointed a gun at him. He then let go but the teens decided to run over him. The incident took place in September, Albuquerque Journal reported.

Aguirre was said to be giving a potential customer an estimate for the remodeling of kitchen cabinets when his van was stolen by the group of teens. The van was parked at a home on Compound North Court NW. Aguirre heard the engine of his van start and he ran outside to try and stop them from taking his vehicle.

Aguirre, who was a father of three boys, eventually died last Nov. 9 at a local hospital. The teenagers were arrested only last Monday. Their identities have been revealed as 19-year-old Daniel Sandoval, 19-year-old Dominic Jiminez, 19-year-old Xavier Montoya, 15-year-old Cornelius McCullum, and 16-year-old Lanise Padilla. The three 19-year-olds have been charged as adults while Montoya and McCullum were charged as juveniles.

More on the drive-by shooting that the group was suspected of committing, the victim was identified as 18-year-old Aliyah Garcia. She was shot in May.
A 20-year-old man pleaded guilty after he was accused last July of killing his ex-girlfriend and two other people at a house party. The plea came a day before a judge was supposed to decide on whether he will be suffering the death penalty.

CBS News reported that the shooting took place last July 30 in Mukilteo. The guilty plea was entered on Monday and the suspect was identified as Allen Ivanov. According to reports, Ivanov was upset that he and his former girlfriend have broken up and that she seemed to have moved on after he saw her with other males at the house party.

Ivanov pleaded guilty to the three counts of aggravated first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. Aside from the three killed, there were two more people injured. The ex-girlfriend was identified as Anna Bui and the other two fatally shot were identified as Jacob Long and Jordan Ebner. All of them were 19 years old, New York Daily News reported.

Ivanov bought an AR-15 style rifle with two 30-round ammunition before he consummated the crime. He never fired the weapon before he went to the house party and had to read the instruction manual outside the home where the party was taking place.

Ivanov also wrote a six-page letter explaining that he was upset over the break-up adding that there was nothing wrong with him. He also said that there was nothing wrong with the way he thinks and that he was just selfish that is why he chose to shoot his former girlfriend.

Last week, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Janice Ellis declined the request of Ivanov's legal team to have more time in order to get more evidence. The defense team of Ivanov wanted to prove that Ivanov had untreated neurological problems.

Meanwhile, the sentencing is scheduled on Jan. 12. It is unclear what Ivanov's punishment would be.
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On September 17, 2016 Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple lost a Patent Case based on a Nokia Patent. Will the EU now Open an Antitrust Case against Nokia as Promised?" Obviously we were bang on because Apple is going to wait for the EU to act, Apple has launched an antitrust lawsuit against Acacia and all those listed on the docket noted in our cover graphic. The filing has a notation at the top that states: "REDACTED VERSION OF DOCUMENT SOUGHT TO BE CONDITIONALLY SEALED."

Apple's Introduction of the Case

Apple Inc. ("Apple") brings this action to remedy a continuing anticompetitive scheme. Acacia Research Corporation and its subsidiaries (collectively, "Acacia") and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc. ("Conversant") and its subsidiaries (collectively, "Conversant") have respectively colluded with Nokia Corporation (itself and through its affiliates Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy and Nokia Technologies Oy (collectively "Nokia")) to obtain from Nokia thousands of patents as part of a plan to extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly and anticompetitively from Apple and other innovative suppliers of cell phones, and ultimately from the consumers of those products. Acacia, Conversant, and many other patent assertion entities ("PAEs") have conspired with Nokia to use unfair and anticompetitive patent assertions to improperly tax the innovations of cell phone makers.

This conduct is all the more pernicious because it unfairly and anticompetitively evades binding commitments that Nokia made to license declared standard essential patents ("SEPs") on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory ("FRAND") terms. Nokia positioned itself to claim that its patents cover technologies included in telecommunications standards by repeatedly assuring standard-setting organizations that it would license its patents fairly. Yet Acacia and Conversant are now conspiring with Nokia in a scheme to diffuse and abuse such patents and, as the PAEs and Nokia fully intended, monetize those false promises by extracting exorbitant non-FRAND royalties in ways Nokia could not.

Acacia's and Conversant's illegal conduct takes place against the backdrop of Nokia's failure as a supplier of cell phones. In 2011, Nokia remained a major supplier of cell phones, but, due to its failure to innovate, was facing business prospects so dire that Nokia ultimately exited the cell phone market. As Nokia's CEO had announced to employees the previous year, Nokia was standing on "a burning platform." Unable to compete with innovative companies such as Applewhich had developed a revolutionary hardware and software platformNokia quickly transformed itself. It changed from a company focused on supplying cell phones and other consumer products to a company bent on exploiting the patents that remain from its years as a successful cell phone supplier. In its changed form, Nokia has sought to extract exorbitant patent royalties from Apple and other cell phone makers, and Acacia and Conversant have been its willing conspirators to that end.

With the active collaboration of Acacia and Conversant, Nokia avoids licensing its own portfolio directly and transparently, though it is fully competent to do so. Instead, Nokia has 6 divided its patent portfolio and distributed portions of it among Acacia, Conversant, and other PAEs, while retaining an interest in revenues generated by those PAEs. Nokia then enlists mercenary PAEs including Acacia and Conversant  that have offered their services aggressively to threaten, sue, and thereby extract exorbitant, above-market royalties from cell phone makers, including for declared SEPs. The reasons why Conversant and Acacia have conspired with Nokia are clear. The PAEs can take advantage of the fact thatunlike Nokia, which now focuses on the network businessthey produce nothing at all and therefore have no desire or need for "patent peace," and can impose disproportionate discovery and litigation costs on the product companies they sue. By conspiring with Nokia in a scheme to disperse the Nokia portfolio to the PAEs, Acacia and Conversant can obtain more royalties from product companies than Nokia cold have obtained through direct and transparent licensing, and then share with Nokia the ill-gotten fruits of their illegal exploitation.

Acacia and Conversant are chief partners with Nokia in an overarching patent transfer scheme that has resulted in at least nine PAE partners armed with former Nokia patents, many of which have embarked on serial, abusive, and anticompetitive assertions of their former Nokia patents (both SEPs and non-SEPs) against Apple. These Nokia partners have sued Apple at least twelve times based on former Nokia patents alone. Acacia and its shell subsidiaries, themselves, have sued Apple in the United States and abroad more than forty times, based on patents they acquired from Nokia or others, demanding exorbitant royalties based on unsupported infringement claims. For its part, Conversant, through its subsidiary Core Wireless Licensing S.a.r.l. ("Core Wireless"), has asserted over two dozen patents against Apple. These serial assertions and litigations have forced Apple to incur multiple millions of dollars in defense costs, precisely the sort of leverage that Acacia and Conversant intended to create when they agreed to conspire with Nokia. In sum, by conspiring with Nokia to obtain weak Nokia patents and then using them to extort product innovators, Acacia and Conversant have engaged in widespread violations of competition law and breaches of FRAND commitments.

That Acacia and Conversant have fully intended to maximize the total royalties that can be extracted from Apple and other cell phone makers using former Nokia patents is apparent from the structure of their agreements with Nokia: Nokia has retained the right to receive a large portion of any royalties and settlements that Acacia, Conversant, and their respective subsidiaries extract. And, collectively, Nokia and its partners are demanding far more in royalties than Nokia could have sought on its own. Unless enjoined and remedied, the conduct described herein will continue to injure Apple, other participants in industries that are vital to the national economy, and consumers in the United States and elsewhere.

Acacia's and Conversant's schemes to conspire with Nokia for the abusive and anticompetitive diffusion of Nokia's patent portfolio has already imposed extraordinary costs and burdens on the cell phone industry. Rather than defend against patent assertions by Nokia alone, Apple and other victims of the scheme are subjected to serial assertions by Acacia, Conversant, and their shell subsidiaries, who (along with other PAEs) have offered up their services to add to the cumulative burdens on Apple, other suppliers of cell phones, and U.S. and other consumers.

Apple brings this action to address the harm it has already suffered from the violations of federal antitrust and state unfair competition laws and breaches of contracts set forth herein. Apple has suffered damages from excessive royalty payments and the costs and burdens of defending against the barrage of patent litigation unleashed by Acacia and Conversant, along with other PAEs. Apple also seeks injunctive relief to put an end to the illegal conduct and the resulting harm to Apple, the broader industry, and U.S. and other consumers, and to unwind the patent transfers that have enabled the anticompetitive conduct described herein.

Apple Files Five Counts

Count #1: Breach of FRAND Contract

Count #2: ACACIA-NOKIA, CORE WIRELESS-NOKIA AGREEMENTS to Restrain Competition in Cellular Technology Licensing (Section 1 of the Sherman Act).

Count #3: Unlawful Asset Acquisition (Section 7 of the Clayton Act)

Count #4: Conspiracies to Monopolize the SEP TECHNOLOGY MARKETS (section 2 of the Sherman Act)

Count #5: Unfair Competition under Cal. Bus. & Pro. Code  17200

Apple Respectfully Requested the Following Relief from the Court

A. That Defendants' unlawful conduct be declared a violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C.  1 and 2, and Section 7 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C.  18;

B. That Defendants' unlawful conduct be declared a violation of Cal. Bus. Prof. Code  17200, et seq.;

C. That Defendants' unlawful conduct be judged a breach of contract;

D. That Apple recover damages against Acacia and Conversant, including incidental and consequential damages, in an amount to be determined and multiplied to the extent provided by law;

E. That all contracts or agreements that Nokia, on the one hand, and or Acacia or Conversant, on the other, entered into in violation of the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, Cal. Bus. Prov. Code  17200, et seq., or in breach of Nokia's FRAND undertakings be declared void and the patents covered by those transfer agreements be transferred back from Acacia and Conversant (or their respective subsidiaries) to Nokia;

F. That all patents transferred by Nokia to, or acquired by, Acacia or Conversant (or their respective subsidiaries) in violation of the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, Cal. Bus. Prof. Code  17200, et seq., or in breach of Nokia's FRAND undertakings be declared unenforceable;

G. That Acacia and Conversant be enjoined from seeking injunctions against Apple based on declared SEPs for which Nokia made FRAND commitments;

H. That Apple be awarded expenses and costs of suit, including reasonable attorneys' fees, to the extent provided by law; and

I. That Apple be awarded such additional relief as the Court may deem proper.

Apple's antitrust case presented in today's report was filed yesterday in the California Northern District Court, San Jose Office. At present, no Judge has been assigned to the case.

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Walt Mossberg today looks back at 2016 and provides a quick look at what the top dogs of tech and in this report we cover what Walt said about Apple. Mossberg notes in his report that although "Apple is primarily a hardware company, in January I urged it to focus on improving its core software: the Apple-made Mail, Calendar, Music, Photos, and other apps on its devices. And in fact the company did some of this. Examples include a new user interface for Apple Music, easier app access on the Apple Watch, lots of new features in iMessage and improvements in Apple Maps, and in the default keyboard's predictive typing. And Apple's commitment to privacy and security remains steadfast and admirable.

But the all-important Mail app, on both iOS and macOS, is still poor at handling the overwhelmingly popular Gmail service and the iOS calendar is still clumsy; iTunes and Photos still need work.

Most importantly, and unforeseen by me back then, Apple managed to disappoint in 2016 with a series of hardware products that, while very good, weren't up to the company's high historical standards, in my view.

In most cases, I attribute this to an overemphasis on design at the expense of function. This isn't solely an Apple problem, but it's most clearly evident there.

The iPhone 7, while boasting better specs, axed the long-standing, perfectly fine headphone jack, making a dongle necessary to charge the phone while using earbuds. The MacBook Pro was made thinner and lighter, and given a narrow function screen atop the keyboard called the Touch Bar. But, in the process, it became a tweener with less battery life. And the new, wireless AirPod earbuds, while impressive in many ways, can't adjust the volume or skip a track without either interrupting the music to ask Siri to do it or fumbling for your phone or Apple Watch. That's a step backwards from the silent, manipulable control module on familiar old EarPods."

To rub it into Apple's face, Mossberg noted in his coverage of Microsoft that "the company's relatively small Surface hardware group scored a coup by enchanting designers, video editors, and other creatives with a gorgeous all-in-one desktop just as Apple was disappointing some of them with the new MacBook Pro."

Ouch. Yesterday Mark Gurman hit Apple with a report that pointed to that same 'disappointment' of the MacBook Pro in contrast to Microsoft's Surface computers offering "Apple-esque quality." The tech press overall saw Microsoft's Surface Studio as a knockout blow to Apple this fall and see Microsoft's hunger at taking the fight to Apple all the way back to the top.



To read Mossberg's take on other tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, click here.

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In Early November Patently Apple posted a report titled "Samsung Confirms AI is coming to the Galaxy S8 in Late February Courtesy of Viv." The news of Samsung delivering a custom AI solution to their Galaxy smartphone line-up and extending it to home automation hubs was quite the leap and a way to challenge Apple's Siri in a way different from all other Android smartphones. The fact that Viv's AI team was the group who invented Siri gave it instant credibility. But now, in a surprising news story today, we're learning that Google may have stomped on Samsung's plans to introduce a Viv based AI solution to their Android devices.

Today's Asian report notes that Samsung and Google have generally maintained a close relationship but that they're now turning their back on each other over the next-generation growth engine, artificial intelligence (AI). This is because Google has stomped on Samsung's plans to launch the Galaxy S8 with an AI-powered assistant.

The problem is that Samsung signed a patent-sharing agreement with Google back in 2014. Under the deal, the two companies share each others patent technologies as well as existing patents for the next ten years. The agreement also included a non-compete provision.

Richard Windsor, an analyst at U.S.-based investment intelligence firm Edison Investment Research, said in a report, 'Since the non-compete agreement means that Samsung cannot offer any Android services that compete with Google's own services, Samsung may not be able to release smartphones with its own AI service.' For now, Google is currently providing its voice-recognition AI assistant service 'Google Assistant' with Google Pixel premium phones.

Information and communications technology (ICT) experts say that it is a very serious problem if Google thwarts Samsung's plan on the AI service is true. They criticize that Google should not hinder the development of new technology and innovation considering the fact that AI is not a simple tool to target the smartphone market but rather a next-generation indispensable technology that embraces smartphones, home appliances and cars.

If Google cracks down on this, then it will effect Huawei's latest Honor Magic smartphone that we touched on yesterday as well. Huawei claims that their AI is better than Apple's Siri because it's tuned to local needs in China better than what Apple provides.

For the record, there's been no official statement from Google on this matter as of yet and I'm sure that they'd like to avoid making this a major issue publicly to hurt Android. But if most major Android OEM's choose to use their own AI solutions and not adopt Android's 'Google Assistant' then fragmentation of Android will deepen over time and put the whole ecosystem in danger.

On the flip side, Android is supposed to be an open OS. Some say it's just 'more open' than iOS. Either way, it's an interesting conundrum for Google.

To date, Google Assistant is only on Google's Pixel smartphone. Will Google quickly make this available to their partners to avoid a war with their partnering OEM's or did the rumor miss the boat? Considering that that the publication reporting on this today is a business site, rumors aren't generally something they openly support unless they have something supporting it.

Of course in the end, it'll all come down to what Samsung actually introduces with their Galaxy S8 at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona in February. That's where the rubber meets the road. So we won't have long to wait to see how this plays out.

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Earlier today Patently Apple posted an in-depth report titled "Apple Files a Major Antitrust Case against Acacia Research Corporation Pointing to a Conspiracy with Nokia Corporation." After Apple launched their bombshell antitrust lawsuit involving Nokia patents, Nokia struck back within 24 hours with lawsuits filed in three German cities and in the Eastern District Court in Texas.

Today Nokia Corporation announced from Finland that they've "filed a number of complaints against Apple in Germany and the US, alleging that Apple products infringe a number of Nokia patents.

As one of the world's leading innovators, and following the acquisition of full ownership of NSN in 2013 and Alcatel-Lucent in 2016, Nokia now owns three valuable portfolios of intellectual property.

Built on more than EUR 115 billion invested in R&D over the past twenty years, our tens of thousands of patents cover many important technologies used in smartphones, tablets, personal computers and similar devices.

Since agreeing a license covering some patents from the Nokia Technologies portfolio in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products.

Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Patent Business at Nokia, said: "Through our sustained investment in research and development, Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products. After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights."

These actions have been filed with the Regional Courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich in Germany and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, with 32 patents in suit across all of the actions, covering technologies such as display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets and video coding.

Nokia is in the process of filing further actions in other jurisdictions.

Dec. 22, 2016 Update: Nokia has added more patent to their case which now brings it to 40 patents in 11 countries.

Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of certain legal cases/ lawsuits which are part of the public record for journalistic news purposes. Readers are cautioned that Patently Apple does not offer a legal opinion on the merit of the case. A lawyer should be consulted for any further details or analysis. About Making Comments on this Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments. Those using abusive language or behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.
Check out this letter to the editor from October, 1935, found on tumblr. It was published in the Moody Monthly, a magazine produced by Moody Bible Institute.

Here is a transcript of the text:

To the Editor: After much prayer to our Saviour, I send you this word. I think you very much for your article in June about our brethren in Germany. God bless you that you give justice to Adolf Hitler, that you do not misjudge him. He tries as best he knows how to help Germany. You know that he was a Roman Catholic and he still knows little about the Bible. But he studies the New Testament, and we who know Christ as God and Saviour who died for our sins on the cross, love him, and we have to pray for him and not to believe everything his enemies speak about him. I am a German. Two years ago I was on a visit in Germany for three months. All my relatives live in Germany. They are Christians that believe in the shed blood of Christ for our sins. They praise Hitler. They have full freedom to preach Christ crucified for our sins. We believe that Christ will come soon and that He will be merciful to Hitler too. Hitlers father was a drinker, but Adolf lives with his mother and is a very good son. I am an old woman and pray for the coming of the Lord. Sincerely yours, Hedwig Nabholz

Lets see. Hitler is trying as best he knows how to help Germany, so we shouldnt judge him too harshly. Hitler knows little about the Bible but studies the New Testament, so hes presumably open to the gospel and interested in learning more. And finally, Hitler is a very good son who lives with his mother, so he must be a good person. (Hitlers mother died decades before this, which suggests that people also werent always as informed about him as they thought.)

It is imperative that we talk about the sorts of arguments and rhetoric used to justify authoritarian leaders who preach hate. In some sense, the leaders themselves are less dangerous than those who defend and justify them. It is those people, after all, who put such leaders in office, keep them there, and blithely justify their actions.

To put it bluntly, we need to understand the ways people make excuses for bigoted autocratic leaders so that we can prevent what happens next.

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Iran Expects First Airbus Jet In Mid-January

12/20/16

Source: RFE/RL

Iran expects to receive its first jet next month under a multibillion-dollar deal with Airbus for 100 planes, a senior Iranian official said.





Deputy Iranian Roads and Urban Development Minister Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan told Reuters in an interview that the negotiations with Airbus have been finalized and that the deal is expected the be signed on December 20 or 21.



The timetable suggests the first Airbus A321 could arrive before the January 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has opposed the nuclear deal reached last year between Tehran and six world powers that curbed Iran's controversial nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.



Airbus has said it was still negotiating the deal with Iran Air, the national airliner.



The deal comes after the U.S. Treasury Department in September granted permission to Boeing and Airbus to sell billions of dollars' worth of aircraft to Iran.



Kashan's comments about Airbus come one week after Iran Air announced it would buy 80 planes from Boeing over the next decade.

Based on reporting by Reuters

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
Iran, Russia, Turkey start bid to solve Syria crisis diplomatically: Iranian FM Zarif

12/21/16

Source: Press TV

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iran, Russia and Turkey have started the process of finding a political solution to the Syria crisis.



Foreign Ministers at a news conference in Moscow on December 20, 2016

Left: Iranian FM Mohammad Javad Zarif

Center: Russian FM Sergei Lavrov

Right: Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu



There is no military solution to the Syria conflict and the country's crisis can only be solved through political approaches, Zarif said in Moscow on Tuesday.

The Iranian foreign minister was speaking at a meeting with his Russian and Turkish counterparts Sergei Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu, respectively, and members of the three countries' delegations, which had gathered in the Russian capital to discuss the latest developments in Syria, particularly those concerning the newly liberated strategic city of Aleppo.

He expressed hope that a ceasefire agreement could be reached in Syria, saying that now is a good time for the resumption of negotiations to find a political solution to the crisis in the country.

Joint statement by Iran, Russia, Turkey FMs

At the end of their trilateral meeting, the foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey issued a joint statement on agreed steps to revitalize the political process to end the Syria crisis.

Zarif, Lavrov and Cavusoglu agreed on the following topics:

Iran, Russia and Turkey reiterate their full respect for the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, non-sectarian, democratic and secular state. Iran, Russia and Turkey are convinced that there is no military solution to the Syrian conflict. They recognize the essential role of the United Nations in the efforts to resolve this crisis in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 2254.

The ministers also take note of the decisions made by the International Syria Support Croup (ISSG) and urge all members of the international community to cooperate in good faith in order to remove the obstacles on the way to implement the agreements contained in these documents. Iran, Russia and Turkey welcome joint efforts in eastern Aleppo allowing for voluntary evacuation of civilians and organized departure of the armed opposition.

The ministers also welcome the partial evacuation of civilians from Foua, Kefraya, Zabadani and Madaya and commit to ensure the completion of the process without any interruption and in a safe and secure manner.

They express their gratitude to the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) for their assistance in the conduction of the evacuation. The Iranian, Russian and Turkish ministers agree on the importance of expanding ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian assistance and free movement of civilians throughout the country. Iran, Russia and Turkey express their readiness to facilitate and become the guarantors of the prospective agreement being negotiated between the Syrian government and the opposition. They invite all other countries with the influence on the situation on the ground to do the same. They strongly believe that this agreement will be instrumental to create the necessary momentum for the resumption of the political process in Syria in accordance with the Security Council resolution 2254. Zarif, Lavrov and Cavusoglu take note of the kind offer of the president of Kazakhstan to host relevant meetings in Astana. Iran, Russia and Turkey reiterate their determination to fight jointly against Daesh and al-Nusra terrorists and to separate them from armed opposition groups.



Russia FM urges uncompromising, merciless war on terror

In a meeting with his Iranian counterpart in Moscow on Tuesday, Lavrov stressed the importance of fighting terrorism in an "uncompromising and merciless" way.

He pointed to the assassination of Russia's Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov in a gun attack in Ankara and said, "We feel that this barbaric crime is a fresh reminder the war on terrorism must be uncompromising and merciless."

Karlov was shot dead while delivering a speech on the opening of a photo exhibition on Monday.

The Russian minister rejected as "absolutely unacceptable" the attempts to connect terrorist attacks to his country's support for Syria in its fight against terrorism and said such moves are aimed at shielding the militants.

"This is a provocative, perverse and unacceptable logic, these people are trying to protect terrorists and stop the fight against them," Lavrov said and added that the efforts to make the world believe that supporting the legitimate Syrian government would increase the threat of terrorism "are absolutely unacceptable."

Iran FM: Terrorism knows no borders

During the meeting, Zarif expressed his condolences to the Russian government and nation as well as the family of the assassinated diplomat.

"Terrorists recognize no location and no geography and it is necessary that all [countries in] the world fight against terrorist groups," the Iranian minister said.

Zarif said the Iranian government and nation are standing by Russia in the battle against terrorists and see no justification for acts of terror, adding that all countries must come to the conclusion that terrorists are not useful "even for short-term purposes."

Those countries, which are sponsoring terrorism, must realize the "catastrophic dimensions" of their support for terrorist groups, Zarif noted.

Ahead of their talks in Moscow, the Iranian and Russian foreign ministers paid tribute to the murdered Russian ambassador to Ankara.

The assassination, condemned by the Turkish and Russian leaders as an attempt to sour the bilateral ties, came as the countries are cooperating over the Syrian crisis.

Turkey is partaking in talks on behalf of anti-Damascus militants, who had been in control of the eastern part of the city until recently. Russia has been supporting the Syrian government and has been negotiating on its behalf.

Iran, the US, NATO, and other countries and world institutions have also condemned the assassination of the Russian ambassador.

Meanwhile, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan held talks with his Russian and Turkish counterparts, Sergei Shoigu and Fikri Isik, respectively, in Moscow on Tuesday about the latest developments in the region and the situation on the ground in Syria, especially in Aleppo.

During the meeting, the Iranian defense minister praised military cooperation between Ankara and Moscow in Syria.
Iran Floating Oil Storage Builds Up: Report

12/21/16

Source: Press TV

Iran currently has 28.95 million barrels of oil and condensate in floating storage, a rise of 2.1 percent over the past week, the Fars news agency says.



Iran Najm Oil Tanker



Citing shipping data and sources which track tanker movements, the news agency said on Wednesday that 38 tankers with stored oil were parked in sea lanes close to terminals in four Iranian ports.



"Figures show 61 percent of the existing space for storage has been filled up," Fars added.



Another report said India's oil imports from Iran fell 19 percent in November from a record high the previous month.



Shipments from Tehran were about 620,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil in November, down from 765,500 bpd in October, but well above 138,100 bpd in November 2016, Reuters said.



According to the report, Saudi Arabia and Iraq raised sales to the world's third biggest oil consumer, regaining their positions as the top two suppliers.



OPEC members and other global producers agreed at the end of last month to cut output in a bid to bolster weak oil prices, with Saudi Arabia pledging to bear the lion's share of reductions.



The rise in the kingdom's exports to India is raising fresh questions about Riyadh's commitment to its pledge to cut output.



Supplies from Iran to India more than doubled in January-November to 468,900 bpd from 205,900 bpd in the same period last year, the data showed.



India's average Iranian oil imports in April-November rose 126 percent to 532,100 bpd and Tehran's share in overall purchases jumped to 12.5 percent from 5.9 percent, according to Reuters.



Since the lifting of sanctions in January, Iran has doubled oil exports as prices have recovered. Last month, the country was allowed by OPEC to raise output further while other members were obliged to slash.



Europe represents Iran's biggest post-sanctions recapture of the lost market, where the continent currently receives more than 700,000 barrels per day of Iranian crude oil.

'Eni clinches Italy's biggest oil deal in Iran'

On Wednesday, the Mehr news agency said Italy's Eni had signed a contract to buy between 60,000 and 100,000 barrels per day of oil from Iran for one year.



The deal is the biggest sale of Iranian oil to Italy after Saras signed to take in 35,000-60,000 barrels per day of crude oil from the Middle Eastern producer earlier this year, the report said.



"Starting from January, 60,000 barrels at a minimum and a maximum of 100,000 barrels of oil is expected to be sold daily by the National Iranian Oil Company to Eni," the news agency said.



"According to the terms of the agreement, 14.5 percent of the value of the exported oil will go to clearing the Italian company's investment in phase 1 and 2 of the Darkhovin oil field," Mehr added.
Cyber Monday gaming laptop deals 2022: everything we expect

Cyber Monday 2022 We're getting you up to speed on all this year's Cyber Monday gaming laptop deals, with the dates, prices and models you need to know about.
A product manager at Google has sued the company for its allegedly illegal confidentiality agreements, policies and practices that among other things prohibit employees from speaking even internally about illegal conduct and dangerous product defects for fear that such statements may be used in legal discovery during litigation or sought by the government.

The alleged policies, which are said to violate California laws, restrict employees right to speak, work or whistle-blow, and include restrictions on speaking to the government, attorneys or the press about wrongdoing at Google or even speaking to spouse or friends about whether they think their boss could do a better job, according to a complaint Tuesday in the Superior Court of California for the city and county of San Francisco.

The policies prohibit Googlers from using or disclosing all of the skills, knowledge, acquaintances, and overall experience at Google when working for a new employer, according to the complaint, which alleges that the companys confidentiality policies are contrary to the California Labor Code, public policy and the interests of the state.

Googles Global Investigation Team also relies on volunteers to report other employees who might have disclosed any information about the company, according to the complaint, which paints a picture that is in sharp contrast to the glowing image one usually gets about Googles workplace culture and perks.

Under a program called Stopleaks, Google also asks employees to report on strange things around them such as anyone asking detailed questions about an employees project or job, according to the complaint. Employees are also said to be banned from writing creative fiction such as a novel about someone working at a tech company in Silicon Valley, without Googles approving the book idea and the final draft.

The policies are said to be be intended to control Googles former and current employees, limit competition, infringe on constitutional rights and block the reporting of misconduct. The complaint goes on to state that the case does not concern Googles trade secrets, consumer privacy or information that should not be disclosed under the law, but reflects the companys use of confidentiality and other policies for illegal and improper purposes.

In the lawsuit, first reported by The Information, the employee who has filed anonymously as John Doe, claims that Brian Katz, Googles director of global investigations, intelligence and protective services, had falsely informed some 65,000 Google employees that the plaintiff was terminated for leaking information to the press, without naming him. Katz and Google used him as scapegoat to ensure that other employees continued to fall in line with the companys confidentiality polices, according to the complaint, which asks that the employee should not be asked to self-publish his name.

Google could not be immediately reached for comment on the lawsuit after business hours. The company was quoted by some news outlets as saying in a statement that its employee confidentiality requirements are designed to protect proprietary business information, while not preventing employees from disclosing information about terms and conditions of employment, or workplace concerns.

In September this year, the employee had complained to the Labor Workforce and Development Agency, after which Google made an amendment in which it purported to broaden Googlers right to discuss pay, hours or other terms of employment and to communicate with government agencies regarding violations of the law, according to the complaint.

Employees were not informed of the amendment and other policies were not changed, and in fact, Googles actual policies and practices remained unchanged, it added.

The employee has asked the California court for penalties for each of the 12 alleged violations under the Private Attorneys General Act on behalf of himself, the state of California and other Google employees.
European governments must not oblige network operators to indiscriminately retain bulk customer communications data, the European Unions top court reaffirmed on Wednesday.

The ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU came in response to a question from the U.K.s Court of Appeal, which is examining the legality of the U.K.s 2014 Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act, and a similar question from the Swedish telecommunications regulator.

But the ruling also calls into question the validity of the U.K.s more recent Investigatory Powers Act, which received Royal Assent last month.

That law requires telecommunications companies to retain communications data, including calls made and lists of websites visited, and make it available to tens of thousands of government employees, including tax inspectors and food safety regulators.

It will now be for the Court of Appeal to determine the case, said a Home Office spokesman, referring to the challenge to the 2014 act. The Government will be putting forward robust arguments to the Court of Appeal about the strength of our existing regime for communications data retention and access.

Meanwhile, he said, Given the importance of communications data to preventing and detecting crime, we will ensure plans are in place so that the police and other public authorities can continue to acquire such data in a way that is consistent with EU law and our obligation to protect the public.

The CJEU ruled Wednesday that EU law forbids the general and indiscriminate retention of traffic data and location data.

That ruling calls into question the U.K.s 2014 and 2016 acts.

However, the CJEU gave the U.K. government some leeway, saying the law does allow targeted retention of certain data for the purpose of fighting serious crime, provided that governments limit the data retained to what is strictly necessary. In all cases, the retained data must stay within the EU and an independent authority must review all requests to access the data, it said.

Lobby group Privacy Internationals legal officer, Camilla Graham Wood, said that, like its predecessor, the new Investigatory Powers Act did not contain the necessary safeguards, and called on the U.K. government to urgently fix it so that access to data is properly authorized.

The court has rightly recognized that our communications data is no less sensitive than the content of our communications. This is something that the UK Government has willfully ignored, allowing a large number of public bodies to access our personal data without a warrant, she said.

The CJEUs position on data retention is relatively recent. EU law used to allow  and even require  much greater retention of communications data, until a challenge from Digital Rights Ireland in 2014 prompted the CJEU to declare the 2006 Data Retention Directive invalid because of its interference with the fundamental rights to respect for privacy and the protection of personal data.
Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has filed lawsuits against Apple in Germany and in the U.S., alleging that the smartphone giant has infringed 32 of its patents, including the widely used H.264 video codec.

The patent infringement lawsuits, filed with the Regional Courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich in Germany and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, cover patents related to displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets, and video coding, Nokia said Wednesday.

Nokia is planning to file more lawsuits in other jurisdictions, the company said in a press release.

The eight patents covered in one Texas lawsuit, filed Wednesday, are related to the H.264 Advanced Video Coding standard approved by the International Telecommunication Union, according to Nokias complaint. A second Texas lawsuit covers a range of other technologies.

Apple products using the H.264 video codec include the iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch, Macs, and Apple TV, Nokia said in its complaint.

Despite all the advantages that have been enjoyed by Apple, Apple has steadfastly refused to agree to license Nokias H.264 patents on reasonable terms, Nokias lawyers wrote. Dozens of companies have licensed Nokias patents for use in their products  Apple, however, refuses to pay Nokias established royalty rates.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the lawsuits.

As part of the ITU standards process, Nokia agreed to grant licenses for the H.264 decoder on reasonable and nondiscriminatory, or RAND, terms, the company said. However, the ITU standard covers only the decoder, and not the encoder, the complaint said.

Nokia has offered Apple a license for the encoder technology on RAND terms, but Apple has refused to pay, the company asserted.

Nokia has negotiated in good faith and made substantial efforts to enter into a license agreement with Apple on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, its lawyers wrote.

Nokia research has contributed to fundamental technologies used in Apple products, Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Patent Business at Nokia, said in a press release. After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apples use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights.

The lede paragraph is fixed to clarify that the lawsuits were filed in Germany and in the U.S.
UPDATE (Thursday, Dec. 22): Authorities release name of Riverside double-homicide suspect killed by Fresno County deputies

Fresno County sheriffs deputies shot a 24-year-old man to death Wednesday in Coalinga as they attempted to arrest him. He was a suspect wanted in the slaying of two people in Riverside in October 2015.

A SWAT team was assisting the U.S. Marshals Service in serving a search warrant, with the suspect as the target, sheriffs spokesman Tony Botti said.

Riverside Police Department spokesman Officer Ryan Railsback confirmed Wednesday that a search warrant was being served for a suspect in the Oct. 23, 2015 killing of Guatemalan immigrants Juan Bartolo, 45, and Domingo Esteban, 26. The men were shot to death near their homes as they walked on Seventh Street just west of Kansas Avenue.

Railsback said the police department is actively investigating the slayings.

Officers had surrounded the Coalinga house and ordered the man to surrender, Botti said. When he fled the house and fired at officers, they returned fire and shot him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The mans name had not been released by Wednesday afternoon.

Three adults and two young children were at the Coalinga home when the officer-involved shooting occurred, according to a Fresno County Sheriffs Department news release. Nobody else was injured.

The victims of the Oct. 2015 killing appeared to be random victims, targeted only because they were Latino, Riverside police Sgt. Bill McCoy said at the time.

McCoy said police believed the shooters are in a gang and that they are African American.

A news conference will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday in which Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz and Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin will talk about updates in the investigation.
Connie Cagle of Redlands harnessed her sewing skills five years ago to fashion a hand-made doll for a friend from Peru.

She never had dolls when she was growing up, Cagle said. I thought, What could be more American than a Raggedy Ann doll? 

She had so much fun that she used the leftover material to make another doll to donate to the local chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Cagles grandson, Dane Egizi, 10, of Riverside was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 2 and the whole family is active in fundraising for the foundation, she said.

Making dolls helped Cagle fight a disease of her own, since she was recovering at the time from cancer treatments.

The therapy of sewing them saved my life, she said. I could sit down, focus and get the job done, and discovered I had a passion for it.

Cagle has since fashioned more than 300 of the 18-inch dolls, which she has either given as gifts, donated for fundraisers or sold, with profits going to the foundation. She calls them her Hearts Desire Dolls because it is her hearts desire to see a cure for juvenile diabetes discovered in her lifetime.

Each doll, a modern riff on Raggedy Ann, comes with a name and a birthday indicated on its back. The birthday is the day Cagle paints the dolls heart, adorned with an uplifting message, such as You are my sunshine, Be brilliant or Shine brightly. The cloth body is then dressed in colorful clothing, accented with sewn-on shoes and topped with a head of hair made from a full skein of yarn.

While most of the dolls are female, a number have been male and many have been specially commissioned characters, such as pirates, superheroes or vampires.

Cagle spends eight to 10 hours a day sewing and figures it takes her about four days to complete a doll. She sells the standard ones for $45 and the special characters for $60 because they require custom-designed outfits. For the traditional ones, she adapts patterns from the Butterick clothing line for the dolls clothing. She paints on the faces, the hearts and the names and adorns each one with a beaded bracelet.

I love color, sewing and painting and I get to do all three making my dolls, Cagle said.

She grew up in Southern California in a craft-loving family and learned to sew from her mother when she was 15. Now retired from a career in health information management, she enjoys home decorating and has helped many friends with their design projects.

Since 2012, she has donated $8,000 to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, with another $1,000 to come from her recent sales at the Redlands YMCA Holiday Boutique. Her original goal was to raise $10,000 before she stopped but says she may continue beyond that because she finds it so rewarding.

Donations are critical to fund the cutting-edge research we are doing, said Cathy Sleva, executive director of the Orange County chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

She acknowledged the contributions made by Cagle through the familys team, The Dane Train, which raises money through the organizations charity walks.

Everyone has a part to play and can contribute in a meaningful way, Sleva said.

I love the joy the dolls bring to people, who always smile when they see them, Cagle said.

She will be selling her dolls at a booth during the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation charity walk in Ontario in April.

For information, call 951-204-5688 or email c.cagle@hotmail.com and put Dolls in the subject line.

Contact the writer: community@pressenterprise.com
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Climate change challenge

Re: What were 2016s biggest news stories? [Opinion, Dec. 20]: I believe global climate change was, and will continue to be, the biggest news story. If Trump backs off our commitments to reduce emissions, other countries will follow. Serious consequences, including increasing desertification of Southern California, will follow.

 Bill Brown, Temecula

A scary time to grow up

As a child, I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis distinctively. Our family huddled in the basement of our Baltimore home, hearing the roar of engines, watching hundreds of planes fly over. It was a very scary time to grow up. So the death of Fidel Castro was the most significant for me.

 Joanne Brunn, Temecula

State lawmakers back on track

Re: California Assembly wants to ignore voter-approved 72-hour rule [Opinion, Dec. 16]: Defy the people. Disrespect the will of the voters. The California Legislature is back on track. Its been less than two months since the election and the pledges and promises of those elected to office have been forgotten. Nothing new here.

The voters approved Prop. 54 wanting better transparency in the Legislature by a margin of 2-1. Did our lawmakers listen to the voters? No, of course not, and they have no intention of doing what the voters want. Its the same old, same old. When will the voters in this state admit that the lawmakers in Sacramento are not for the people and have not been for the people in a long time?

The lawmakers have an agenda to make the people more and more dependent on the government. The peoples thoughts, needs and wants are immaterial.

We want transparency to see what is going on in Sacramento, and it is ludicrous that the lawmakers will look for ways to defy what the people want. The lawmakers have written new language into their operating rules. How dare they change what the people voted for!

Who are the lawmakers who approved of adding new language on Dec. 5? Why are the voters subjected to a bait-and-switch tactic when the elected lawmakers dont want to do as the people say? Why are propositions changed to suit the agendas of the lawmakers? This needs to stop. Those lawmakers defying the will of the people should be sanctioned, up to and including losing their elected positions.

 Susan McCormick, Norco

Climate change challenge

Re: What were 2016s biggest news stories? [Opinion, Dec. 20]: I believe global climate change was, and will continue to be, the biggest news story. If Trump backs off our commitments to reduce emissions, other countries will follow. Serious consequences, including increasing desertification of Southern California, will follow.

 Bill Brown, Temecula

A scary time to grow up

As a child, I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis distinctively. Our family huddled in the basement of our Baltimore home, hearing the roar of engines, watching hundreds of planes fly over. It was a very scary time to grow up. So the death of Fidel Castro was the most significant for me.

 Joanne Brunn, Temecula

State lawmakers back on track

Re: California Assembly wants to ignore voter-approved 72-hour rule [Opinion, Dec. 16]: Defy the people. Disrespect the will of the voters. The California Legislature is back on track. Its been less than two months since the election and the pledges and promises of those elected to office have been forgotten. Nothing new here.

The voters approved Prop. 54 wanting better transparency in the Legislature by a margin of 2-1. Did our lawmakers listen to the voters? No, of course not, and they have no intention of doing what the voters want. Its the same old, same old. When will the voters in this state admit that the lawmakers in Sacramento are not for the people and have not been for the people in a long time?

The lawmakers have an agenda to make the people more and more dependent on the government. The peoples thoughts, needs and wants are immaterial.

We want transparency to see what is going on in Sacramento, and it is ludicrous that the lawmakers will look for ways to defy what the people want. The lawmakers have written new language into their operating rules. How dare they change what the people voted for!

Who are the lawmakers who approved of adding new language on Dec. 5? Why are the voters subjected to a bait-and-switch tactic when the elected lawmakers dont want to do as the people say? Why are propositions changed to suit the agendas of the lawmakers? This needs to stop. Those lawmakers defying the will of the people should be sanctioned, up to and including losing their elected positions.

 Susan McCormick, Norco
More Californians voted last month than in any election in state history, the secretary of states office reported late last week.

About 14.6 million Californians  roughly the population of the six states in New England and more than the population of all but four U.S. states as of 2015  cast ballots in the Nov. 8 presidential election, according to results certified by Secretary of State Alex Padilla.

The previous record of 13.7 million voters was set in November 2008. Statewide voter turnout last month was 75.27 percent, the highest since the 2008 presidential election.

Presidential election turnout is traditionally higher than other statewide elections. Just 42 percent of voters cast ballots in the November 2014 general election, and turnout was a mere 25 percent in the June 2014 primary.

Almost 20 million Californians were registered to vote prior to Election Day 2016, an all-time high. The previous record of 18.2 million was set in 2012.

The rise in registered voters mirrors the states population growth. Since 1990, California, which currently has 39.2 million people, has added more than 9 million residents.

Voter registration surged before the June primary and the November election. Interest in this years primary grew with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders actively campaigning in California for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Encouraging voter participation is a priority for California election officials. Voters can register online, registration forms are available in public offices and voters can register when they obtain or renew a drivers license.

Unlike other states, California allows voters to vote early or mail in their ballots weeks before Election Day, and a voter whose name isnt on a polling place list still can fill out a provisional ballot.

Mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received up to three days after polls close must be counted. Provisional ballots are counted once the voters eligibility is confirmed.

Because of those rules and the states huge population, it typically takes weeks for California to count all the ballots. The states 58 counties had 28 days to certify their election results.

TOPS IN CALIFORNIA

Clinton received 62.6 percent of the statewide vote, topping Donald Trump by more than 4.2 million votes, the largest margin of victory in California for a presidential candidate since 1936.

Her win isnt surprising, since 45 percent of California voters are Democrats compared to 26 percent for Republicans, and the states electoral votes havent gone to a Republican since 1988.

Even though Clinton won California, Trump will be Americas 45th president because he won more electoral votes.

Clinton won Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and she was the first Democratic nominee in 80 years to win Orange County.

Via Twitter, Trump alleged there was voter fraud in California and other states. Padilla, a Democrat, called Trumps tweets reckless and inappropriate and unbecoming of a president-elect.

Turnout in Riverside and San Bernardino counties came in a tick under 76 percent while Orange Countys turnout was 80.7 percent, its highest in 40 years. Los Angeles County voter turnout was below the state average at 67.5 percent, although the county led all others in the number of votes cast.

Marin County had the states highest turnout, with 89 percent of registered voters casting ballots. Fresno County was last with 66.7 percent.

VOTE BY MAIL

This election marked the sixth straight in which the majority of ballots were cast by mail. About 58 percent of voters mailed in their ballots.

Expanded use of mail-in ballots is on the horizon thanks to SB 450, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in September. Under the new law, voters in many counties could get ballots in the mail 28 days before an election. Those voters could mail their ballots back or deposit them at drop-off locations.

At counties discretion, polling places would give way to voting centers that would open 10 days before an election. The centers would offer in-person voting, same-day voter registration and let voters cast ballots throughout their county of residence.

While many counties, including Orange, can opt into the new system in 2018, Riverside and San Bernardino counties wont be able to join the effort until 2020. L.A. County will mail ballots to every voter starting in 2024, according to one of SB 450s sponsors, state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica.

Supporters say SB 450, which is modeled after Colorados system, will cut election costs and make voting easier. But critics warned that doing away with neighborhood polling places could discourage voters accustomed to voting at those sites.

Staff Writer Martin Wisckol contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9547 or jhorseman@scng.com
Plans to create an outdoor dining area in Riverside are moving ahead as the city prepares to extend the Main Street pedestrian mall south of City Hall.

City officials will host a public hearing in spring on closing Main between 10th and 11th streets to traffic, and the project  known as Chow Alley  could be under construction by summer, City Manager John Russo said Tuesday, Dec. 20.

Riverside is negotiating with a San Diego company called RAD Lab to create the project, which would include outdoor dining areas in a plaza-type setting, refurbished shipping containers to house food vendors, and possibly a small stage for live music and other performances.

Its an urban space  thats what were trying to create there, Russo said. Another goal is to create a visual window from Market Street over to Main so people can see the architecturally striking historic courthouse, he said.

The countys new public defender office building, which is under construction, has held up Chow Alley a bit but its expected to be finished by June, Russo said.

Residents in the Downtown Area Neighborhood Alliance have mixed opinions about the project, alliance member Tom Donahue said.

Some people say, Oh, itd be great to have more dining options. Other people say the last thing we need to do is close another part of the street, he said.

Donahue said hes excited to see how the concept of pop-up restaurants in cargo containers will work. But he would like the city to block the street with removable barriers or perhaps keep one lane open for emergency vehicle access.

A new food hall being developed blocks away next to the Fox theater, two historic buildings are being renovated and nearly 20 other projects are moving forward, Donahue said, adding, To me theres a good buzz about whats going on in downtown.

The Chow Alley idea is not a winner with everyone.

On Tuesday, Riverside resident Bertha Thigpen parked in one of the metered spots that would disappear to make way for the dining area.

More food choices would be nice for people serving jury duty, she said, but shes satisfied with the fare at the taco stand across from the courthouse.

People who come downtown are often pressed for time, she said.

Unless theyre going to provide other areas for parking, I dont see the point of it.

RELATED

PHOTOS: Claremont space offers preview of what Riverside could be

RIVERSIDE: Main Street mall could get more food, event choices

Contact the writer: 951-368-9461 orarobinson@scng.comTwitter: @arobinson_pe
Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton secured nearly 3 million more votes than President-elect Donald Trump in the final popular vote tally, which by Wednesday morning was certified in all 50 states and Washington, DC.

The Democratic presidential nominee ended up with more than 65.84 million votes, compared with the more than 62.97 million ballots cast for the president-elect.

Of course, Trump won the Electoral College and thus the presidency by pulling off narrow wins in traditionally Democratic states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, while Clinton ran up higher vote totals than President Barack Obama did in the 2012 election in states like California, Texas, and Arizona.

Clinton's popular vote total fell just short of Obama's 2012 result, by fewer than 75,000 votes. Trump secured the most votes of any Republican presidential candidate in history.

In terms of overall percentage, Trump's 2.1% loss in the popular vote was the third-lowest mark for a victor in the past 49 elections. Trump's share of electoral votes ranked 46th out of 58 elections.

But Trump and his surrogates have insisted on calling his victory a "landslide." On Wednesday, after news of the final tally broke, Trump tweeted that he would've campaigned differently if the election were based on winning the popular vote.

"Campaigning to win the Electoral College is much more difficult and sophisticated than the popular vote," he posted. "Hillary focused on the wrong states!"

"I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote  but would campaign differently," he continued. "I have not heard any of the pundits or commentators discussing the fact that I spent FAR LESS MONEY on the win than Hillary on the loss!"

NOW WATCH: Heres the $5.3 million mansion the Obamas will live in after the White House





More From Business Insider


The deep sea, where no light nor evidently gods blessings reach, is known to be full bizarre-looking creatures that look like they belong in Googles Deep Dream AI system rather than in our natural world.

But a Russian deep sea fisher has been posting pictures of the creatures his fishing trawler spits up on Twitter, and its caught the attention of local media.

The Moscow Times reports that Roman Fedortsov is based in Murmansk, a port city in the extreme northwest part of Russia, and started tweeting his finds earlier this year.

And yeahyeahyeah theres a lot to be said for over-fishing / leaving creatures where they belong and all that, BUT WOULD YOU LOOK AT THESE FISH THAT GOD FORGOT?

Something to think about next time youre going for a swim.

Im watching you!

How do you find such a beauty? That #chimera, which is now caught in the #trawl.

For newly arrived on the board, once underwater predator.

Hello everybody! Continue #fishing.

Another #burbot in #trawler. Pretty boy.

Another #grenadier caught in #trawl. The stores sold the carcass, so as not to scare customers.

Sad underwater inhabitants.

Everyone have a great day!

I hope such a creation is not poisonous :)

Photo: Twitter / @rfedortsov.
When life Mike Baird takes down one graffiti, another appears in its place.

A brand new piece of street art depicting #CasinoMike shaking hands with Fat Tony  a.k.a. Springfields law-evading mob boss  has appeared in Chippendale in the last 48-hours, and boy is it a doozy.

If youre thinking this looks familiar, youd be right: Sydney artist Scottie Marsh is behind it, who also gave us the last iconic #CasinoMike masterpiece.

Marsh said on Instagram that this latest piece is aiming to call out alleged corruption within the Baird Government over the highly contentious WestConnex project.

The more I speak to people much more intelligent and knowledgable than me about the WestConnex project and @mikebairdmps overhaul of the #icac the shadier it gets, he said, asking people to Follow the money like financial breadcrumbs.

The more I speak to people my much more intellegent and knowledgable than me about the #westconnex project and @mikebairdmp overhaul of the #icac the shadier it gets #followthemoney #theperceptionisthatthisiscorrupt #casinomike #mikebaird A photo posted by Scott Marsh (@scottie.marsh) on Dec 20, 2016 at 12:31am PST

Former Mayor of Leichhardt Darcy Byrne  who was one of 42 elected mayors and councillors sacked by Baird in May this year, for reasons that are still vague as hell  posted a pic of the wall to Facebook.

Hey Mike Baird, dont go taking this one down, its called art, he wrote.



Obviously, Baird made a giant social media faux pas EVEN FOR HIM when he posted a pic of himself in front of the last #CasinoMike piece of street art back in October, claiming it was for NSWs official graffiti removal day and coming across as exactly the smug piece-of-shit youd like to clock behind the bike sheds.

Plot twist: itd been painted over months ago. Baird saved this photo *specifically* to be a jerk.

With any luck, this new one  which appears on the side of tattoo parlour Venomous Ink  will have a longer life.

Photo: Facebook / Liam Hogan.
In a paper pushed out on Tuesday, the Turnbull Government has outlined a proposal to ban Australias most popular type of fuel within two years, which could lead to price hikes but would also be substantially better for health and the environment.

Regular old unleaded petrol is by far Australias most popular kind of petrol  at least since Howard phased out leaded fuel. You look at the premium unleaded for about half a second before your brain processes that it costs about ten cents more so you immediately revert to regular unleaded. Everyone does this.

Australia has the lowest quality petrol of any nation in the OECD, and the government thinks that phasing out regular unleaded and limiting sulphur content in premium unleaded will result in marked improvements to the environment and public health.

Similar standards are already in place across Europe. NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury told Fairfax that such regulatory burden isnt necessary in this country.

If you go down the path of phasing out regular unleaded you would be exposing motorists to even more rorts than we are now, he said. Premium unleaded already costs 21 cents more than ethanol  imagine what could happen if we adopt European standards.

Regular unleaded is currently used by around 80% of motorists outside New South Wales. Due to NSWs compulsory ethanol mandate, its a little different  regular unleaded only accounts for around 30% round those parts.

The government offered four options  one of which is business as usual  with the most radical being a total ban on unleaded petrol within two years. Other options involved a tightening of standards and stricter controls on the sulphur content in

Source: Sydney Morning Herald.

Photo: The Simpsons.
It turns out the huge snafu in Sydney last night that saw trains stranded on the city circle and the Harbour Bridge and required the evacuation of trains stuck in tunnels was all thanks to *drum roll* a bracket.

At around 5 yesterday arvo (peak commute time, no less) a power supply issue at Wynyard Station caused massive power outages across the network, which saw a whole grip of Sydneysiders stuck in toiletless, air-conditioningless carriages when they could well have been at home, with their pants off, watching Netflix, like God intended all of us to do after we finish work.

It turns out the power supply issue was, in fact, some power lines that had fallen off their pole thanks to a faulty bracket, leaving the wires in contact with the top of a train. That same bracket had even been inspected that morning and found to be fine.

Transport Minister Andrew Constance, quite accurately, described the shutdown as a bugger of a situation for everyone:

I know how frustrating and difficult the situation was for commuters. We are not sugar coating it.

Chief executive of Sydney Trains, Howard Collins, was baffled:

For some reason just one of those brackets broke, the wire dropped down, it was actually touching on the top of the train. This particular bracket had been inspected according to the routine  it was all OK even in the morning.

Collins said that anyone who got stuck on one of the trains can get their fare refunded by calling 1300 OPAL, but that refund did not extend to everyone, just specifically those who were directly affected, caught on the trains.

They reckon that the ridiculous heat might have had something to do with it:

It is a rare occurrence. In hot conditions in the past the wires would sag because they expand, weve done a lot of work in that area. I think the last incident was in February this year when we had a problem with a dropper.

Droppers being the adorable name they give to the brackets that hold up the power lines. Congratulations on learning a new train fact.

It was a huge inconvenience and, at best, people will only get a few dollars back but, hey, at least we got a few good tweets out of it.

Given the context the brand of water being handed out at Wynyard is just the best #sydneytrains pic.twitter.com/g5EzFDPb8M  Eduardo Corrochio (@EdCorrochio) December 20, 2016

Source: SMH.

Photo: Twitter / @EliseJCooper.
A van carrying gas cylinders was driven into the headquarters of the Australian Christian Lobby in Canberra last night, causing an explosion.

News Corp reports the van exploded around 10:45pm, destroying the vehicle and damaging the two-storey office building. No injuries have been reported from those inside the building, though the alleged driver of the vehicle is receiving medical treatment.

ACL managing director Lyle Shelton posted reported the event on Twitter and posted photographs of the van in question and confirming that no one was injured.

A vehicle has rammed our office in Canberra & exploded. All staff are safe. I do not know the condition of the driver. Prayers appreciated. pic.twitter.com/R1cKOIfMTC  Lyle Shelton (@LyleShelton) December 21, 2016

A closer view of the car bomb driven into the ACL office in Canberra tonight. Shocked that this could happen in Australia. pic.twitter.com/GxJQZLTFQr  Lyle Shelton (@LyleShelton) December 21, 2016

Police contacted me and told me that someone has driven a white van into the carpark of our office and it has been loaded with gas cylinders and then it has been detonated, Shelton told News Corp.

We have had the normal trolls on social media and even had death threats sent to our Canberra office over the year but I am very concerned someone would do this.

Though the ACL nominally advocate for broad public policy in accordance with Christian ethics and morality, theyve been single-mindedly focused on blocking the advance of same-sex marriage for a number of years. Recently theyve taken to opposing the Safe Schools program.

MP George Christensen is suggesting on Twitter that the attack may be politically motivated.

I hope youre all ok @LyleShelton  if this indeed a politically motivated attack it is disgraceful & should be denounced.  George Christensen (@GChristensenMP) December 21, 2016

Well keep you posted.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald.

Photo: Twitter / @LyleShelton.
In the most recent episode of her Women of the Hour podcast, Girls creator and actor Lena Dunham spoke out about a recent visit to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas.

Dunham regularly speaks out about government control over womens bodies, and the necessity of Planned Parenthood and other pregnancy clinics where women can exclusively receive medical assistance, including abortions/terminations.

In the podcast, she tells this story:

I havent had an abortion, I told her. I wanted to make it really clear to her that as much as I was going out and fighting for other womens options, I myself had never had an abortion.

She explains that due to societal stigmatisation of abortion, even someone who is an avid advocate for womens autonomy over their bodies often accidentally refers back to elements of societal conditioning that they try so hard to reject:

I realised then that even I was carrying within myself stigma around this issue. Even I, the woman who cares as much as anybody about a womans right to choose, felt it was important that people know I was unblemished in this department.

Theres literally nothing wrong with this  its admitting to still be swayed ingrained societal norms, something we have all had to acknowledge at some point.

However, the actor completely fell down at the end of this statement, saying something that now has both anti-abortionists AND pro-choicers in an uproar:

Now I can say that I still havent had an abortion, but I wish I had.

Erm nope. Nooooooooooooooooooooope. Nopenopenope.

Of course, it goes without saying that every woman should have the unquestioned right to terminate a pregnancy if she wants or needs to. But saying I wish Id had one is undeniably, insanely insensitive.

For many (not all, obviously), having an abortion can be unspeakably difficult and taxing on emotional, mental, and physical health; even a woman who is 100% sure of her decision can still feel devastated by the choice, and/or the operation.

Dunhams comments show a hugely out-of-touch mindset; a huge amount of privilege is clearly present if you wish youd had an abortion purely to be able to connect to other women, when millions have had to go through the often-terrifying procedure out of actual necessity. And for so many in the world, an abortion is an unattainable option.

Plenty of women are furious over the comment:

The most vile thing @lenadunham has ever said. Im pro-choice, but an abortion isnt something you should wish to go through. https://t.co/rclghmqddc  Sarah Baram (@sarahbaram) December 20, 2016

As someone who has had an abortion, pls stop Lena Dunham. PLEASE STOP.  Anna Akana (@AnnaAkana) December 20, 2016

An abortion is not some fun activity. Its a terrifying procedure that many women have to go through extreme, dangerous lengths to get.  Leah Rocketto (@LRocketto) December 20, 2016

Theres a difference between fighting for reproductive rights and wishing youd had an abortion, @lenadunham. If only you understood that.  Sarah Baram (@sarahbaram) December 20, 2016

Lena Dunham visiting fans in burn wards: I wish someone had set *me* on fire. pic.twitter.com/7W3mAEYr0f  JenAshleyWright (@JenAshleyWright) December 20, 2016

Lena Dunham must got a special brand of narcissism. She can make anything, ANYTHING, about her.  Shyne Coldchain Jr. (@Smooth_Orator) December 20, 2016

I dont believe abortions are inherently stressful or sad, but its incredibly out-of-touch and privileged for Lena Dunahm to wish for one.  Sam Escobar ?? (@myhairisblue) December 20, 2016

Lena Dunham almost made it a month without saying something dumb af.  laire (@laire) December 20, 2016

@morninggloria extremely not helping is what lena dunham has always been about  brian levinson (@BrianBLevinson) December 20, 2016

how feminists look at Lena Dunham every time she opens her mouth pic.twitter.com/4T98ZHuukQ  yung goku (@palegoon) December 20, 2016

I generally advise against reading any story with a headline that begins lena dunham on her podcast pic.twitter.com/00qVjhVshg  Liam Stack (@liamstack) December 20, 2016

How insensitive is Lena Dunham to have the nerve to claim to want to have an abortion???  Blair (@bsqueakk) December 21, 2016

@lenadunham No woman wants to have an abortion for the experience. You are ridiculous. https://t.co/wMWwvbFbmM  _Heidi?? (@garden_heidi) December 21, 2016

LOL @lenadunham no one wishes they had an abortion. You can support a cause without it directly having affected you & still create change.  ladyjane. (@HerHIGHNESSx) December 21, 2016

Lena Dunham: never had an abortion, but I wish I had

Me: pic.twitter.com/H7CNAR9RjG  Erin (@EZErin_) December 21, 2016

The lesson here is: you can still be an ally without experiencing the issue at hand. You dont have to have experienced something to be able to listen and connect and have empathy for and fight alongside those that have been affected.

You just have to listen, rather than talk. Support the group in question. If you have a platform to create change, elevate their stories and lived experiences  dont make a situation about you. Its not about you.

Source: Twitter.

Photo: Randy Shropshire / Getty.
The Bachelors Megan & Tiffany  who are now allowed to be referred to by their full names, Megan Leto Marx and Tiffany James  are obviously the best thing to come out of the hetero show.

The pair famously fell in love with each other instead of Bachie Richie Strahan, and made worldwide headlines when they confirmed their relationship in October.

In fact, such is the rampant public interest in their antics (not to mention theres Insta-cash to be made) that the two even launched their own couples Facebook page, which may be the first time any couple have gone to such lengths to make something Facebook official.

2016. Its a time, I tell ya.

The really cool thing here  besides the fact that both girls seem to be genuinely stoked with each other, which is always nice in a relationship  is that that their relationship is helping bring more visibility to same-sex couples in Australia, which in turn normalises queer experiences and will hopefully abet the effort to overturn the discriminatory laws against LGBTQIA people.

Megan + Tiffany have posted a series of v. v. cute posts in the last 24-hours, offering a glimpse into their relationship and raising awareness of the discrimination faced by queer people in Australia every day.

If you took the whole same-sex issue out of our relationship, it would still be untraditional. We ordinate our own life and love terms, and somehow it works, wrote Megan.

Tiffany quoted America author Marie Lu, but her words were obviously directed at Megan and goddamn its cute.



You drive me insaneYoure the scariest, most clever, bravest person I know, and sometimes I cant catch my breath because Im trying so hard to keep up. There will never be another like you. You realise that, dont you? Billions of people will come and go in this world, but there will never be another like you.



In a post last week, Megan used her growing fame to highlight Australias outdated marriage equality laws and called on the country to get its act together.

Ive been wanting my story with Tiffany to pleasantly and without force try to help normalise same-sex relationships and desires. Unfortunately, the more stories I hear and people I talk to, the more vividly I see the social, political and mental oppression the Australian government has inflicted on sexual minorities with a law created by privileged white men, a very long time ago. It was 1902 when women in Australia were granted the right to vote and 1962 before Aboriginal people were granted this same right. Before this, voting essentially was a privilege made and utilised by white men. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, is not an opinion or some quote you put on a fucking fridge magnet- its a moral obligation- and the first article point in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was proclaimed by the UN and signed by Australia in 1948. Sixty eight years later our liberal, secular democracy upholds an outdated and oppressive law that states you cannot marry who you love if it is out of the script of what is traditional. Voting was made for white men- and we have changed the law despite its inception. Why cant we do the same with marriage? If you are a man, and you find the idea of being with another man sexually disgusting, I guess the answer is to not fuck another dude, instead of using political and social means to instil personal inclinations on minorities with different sexual agendas. Our beautiful country has become an embarrassment to me, as I believe it has allowed religious sentiments to be involved where they should not be- in politics. Good on you Aus, for supporting programs that help young people deal with mental health issues arising from being part of sexual minorities, but maybe ceasing social and political oppression would reduce mental health struggles in the first place. Im not wanting to get married any time soon, nor do I have a vendetta against men or those who hold religious values. My cause is only one that supports human rights for ALL humans. Come on Australia, quit the fucking around.

Three goddamn cheers to that.

Photo: Instagram / Megan Leto Marx.
WASHINGTON (AP)  So much for an Electoral College revolt.

Despite weeks of lobbying and a day of protests, President-elect Donald Trump won all but two of the Electoral College votes he claimed on Election Day, ensuring he will become America's 45th president.

There were more protest votes among Democratic electors  five  than there were among Republicans.

All 538 electors met in state capitals across the country Monday to cast their votes. Trump's polarizing victory in November and the fact that Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2.8 million votes had stirred an intense lobbying effort. But the endeavor produced more noise than results.

With all states reporting, Trump finished with 304 votes and Clinton had 227. It takes 270 Electoral College votes to win the presidency. Texas put Trump over the top, despite two Republican electors casting protest votes.

"We did it!" Trump tweeted Monday evening. "Thank you to all of my great supporters, we just officially won the election (despite all of the distorted and inaccurate media)."

He later issued a statement saying: "With this historic step we can look forward to the bright future ahead. I will work hard to unite our country and be the President of all Americans."

Befitting an election filled with acrimony, thousands of protesters converged on state capitals Monday, urging Republican electors to abandon their party's winning candidate.

More than 200 demonstrators braved freezing temperatures at Pennsylvania's capitol, chanting, "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!" and "No treason, no Trump!"

In Madison, Wisconsin, protesters shouted, cried and sang "Silent Night." In Augusta, Maine, they banged on drums and held signs that said, "Don't let Putin Pick Our President," referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Among the Republican electors in Texas who cast protest votes, one voted for Ohio Gov. John Kasich; the other voted for former Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Story continues

Clinton lost four electors in Washington state  three voted for former Secretary of State Colin Powell and one voted for Native American tribal leader Faith Spotted Eagle. She also lost an elector in Hawaii to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Clinton beat Sanders in the Democratic primaries.

Several Democratic electors in other states tried to vote for protest candidates but they either changed their votes to Clinton or were replaced.

The Electoral College has 538 members, with the number allocated to each state based on how many representatives it has in the House plus one for each senator. The District of Columbia gets three, despite the fact that the home to Congress has no vote in Congress.

There is no constitutional provision or federal law that requires electors to vote for the candidate who won their state  though some states require their electors to vote for the winning candidate.

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, elector Charlie Buckels reached out to Trump's opponents after the New York businessman got all of the state's eight votes.

"For those of you who wished it had gone another way, I thank you for being here," said Buckels, the state GOP finance chairman. "I thank you for your passion for our country."

A joint session of Congress is scheduled for Jan. 6 to certify the results of the Electoral College vote, with Vice President Joe Biden presiding as president of the Senate. Once the result is certified, Trump will be sworn in on Jan. 20.

___

Associated Press writers Paul Weber in Austin, Texas; Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Erik Schelzig and Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; Kathleen Floody and Alex Sanz in Atlanta; Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Marina Villeneuve in Augusta, Maine; Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington; and Juliet A. Williams in Sacramento, California, contributed to this report.

___

Online:

AP interactive on election results: http://interactives.ap.org/2016/road-to-270/

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/stephenatap
Michele Buck

Michele Buck named next CEO of The Hershey Company.

(The Hershey Company)

The Hershey Co. has named Michele Buck as the new CEO of the company. Buck, who is a native of central Pennsylvania, will take over from outgoing CEO John P. Bilbrey in March.

Bilbrey will remain as the non-executive chairman of the company's Board of Directors following his retirement, the company said in a statement. Buck is currently the company's executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Buck, who will be the first woman to head the Derry Township-based chocolate company, joined Hershey in 2005, having previously worked for Kraft Confections, a business that included the Life Savers, Altoids, CremeSavers and Toblerone brands. She also previously held marketing positions with Frito-Lay and Kraft General Foods.

At Hershey, Buck has previously served as a senior vice president and global marketing officer, as well as senior vice president, chief growth officer. Per Hershey, Buck was the architect of the company's strategy to expand into broader snacking categories and oversaw the acquisitions of KRAVE and barkThins brands.

She is a graduate of Shippensburg University and earned her masters at University of North Carolina.

In a statement, Bilbrey said Buck, "is a proven leader who, during 11 years at Hershey and more than 25 years as an executive in the consumer packaged goods industry, has a demonstrated track record of building brands consumers love while bringing out the best in employees amid a rapidly changing business environment."

Hershey has approximately 21,000 employees around the world, with more than 80 brands and $7.4 billion in annual revenues. While publicly traded, the Milton Hershey School Trust owns a controlling interest in the company as part of its portfolio, which is used to fund the operation of the Milton Hershey School, also in Derry Township.
Joe Biden

Vice President Joe Biden is headed to the University of Pennsylvania after leaving the White House, according to reports.

(Manuel Balce Ceneta, Associated Press)

Vice President Joe Biden is coming back to Pennsylvania.

The Scranton native will "set up shop" at the University of Pennsylvania after leaving office next month, according to a Politico report.

"Biden has hinted that he's in search of a university to house his staff and his post-government work," Politico reported.

It's not immediately clear what the 74-year-old Biden will be doing at the Ivy League university in Philadelphia or what his set up will be.

When PennLive asked for more information, UPenn's director of media relations Ron Ozio said, "Sorry, but we don't have anything to offer about this."

Biden, who lost his son Beau Biden to brain cancer last year, has been looking for a higher education institution where he can focus on work to eradicate the disease, the New York Post reported.
WILLIAMSPORT -- It was a birthday gift a Williamsport man did not want.

A Lycoming County jury of six men and six women Tuesday found Dante Jamile Washington guilty of charges that he critically wounded a Williamsport taxi driver and robbed him of $26 in 2014.

Washington, of Williamsport, was joking about his 27th birthday when court reconvened Tuesday morning but he was somber when the verdict was read late in the day and he was found guilty of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, robbery and related counts.

Judge Nancy L. Butts revoked the $750,000 bail he had not posted and ordered him detained until he is sentenced on Feb. 14.

Washington claimed in testimony during the seven-day trial he was not involved in the crime contending he was playing poker when it occurred.

But, the prosecution presented implicating evidence that included the identification Washington, DNA test results and gun powder residue on his clothing.

Assistant District Attorney Martin Wade cited Washington's cell phone records that showed calls except for the period around the shooting.

Jurors believed he called a taxi shortly after 6 a.m. on March 15, 2014, and then robbed and shot driver Eugene Phillips.

Phillips was critically wounded and underwent a number of surgeries for damage to both lungs, liver and stomach.

He said he was shot even though he gave the robber money when he demanded it.

Phillips identified Washington from photos but Chief Public Defender William J. Miele questioned his ability to do so because the robber wore a hoodie that was pulled down and sun glasses.

Miele also challenged the DNA and gun residue evidence claiming the latter could have been transferred from a police officer.

It was brought out during the trial Washington owed child support and had set up a payment schedule the day before the shooting.

Jurors found Washington guilty of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, robbery, possession of an instrument of crime and theft.

Butts found him guilty of convicted felon not to possess a firearm and unauthorized possession of a firearm. The parties agreed she would rule on those charges.

Washington was on state parole when the robbery occurred because of a 2009 drug conviction. That conviction prevented him from possessing a firearm.
school bus Pixabay.jpg

Officials with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General say a western Pennsylvania transit company knowingly employed drivers with criminal records to transport charter school students in vehicles that were not properly insured. Photo via Pixabay.

Officials with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General say a western Pennsylvania transit company knowingly employed drivers with criminal records to transport charter school students in vehicles that were also not properly insured.

The announcement was made by Attorney General Bruce R. Beemer's office on Wednesday, and included the filing of formal charges against Martin W. Betchy, 35, the owner of Three Rivers Transit LLC in Allegheny County.

According to a criminal complaint filed in support of the charges, Betchy contracted with Propel Schools, a Pittsburgh-based federation of not-for-profit charter schools, to provide transportation to its students and was paid approximately $2.4 million since Jan. 1, 2012, to do so.

Investigators allege one driver employed by Betchy was convicted of robbery and aggravated assault, while another had been convicted of identity theft and burglary. Investigators reportedly also found that "many of the drivers" had been charged in the past with possessing drugs or driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, meaning in some cases they were transporting school students without a valid driver's license. The investigation also revealed that Betchy failed to perform child abuse clearances and background checks that were required of him by law.

In addition, officials say Betchy's vehicles were not properly insured. Many were insured under personal insurance policies -- rather than commercial policies -- and were not registered under Three Rivers Transit LLC.

As a result, when one of Betchy's drivers, in January of 2015, caused a multi-vehicle crash while transporting a 9-year-old student, the student's mother's automobile insurance carrier paid bills related to the child's medical treatment. The student had suffered a concussion in the crash, authorities say.

"The conduct of this individual put many innocent children at risk," Beemer said in a statement referring to Betchy.

"There are safeguards in place to ensure that the people trusted with transporting school students are qualified and suitable drivers. Those necessary protections were ignored time after time as this individual acted with disregard for the law and the safety of these children."

Betchy, a resident of McKeesport in Allegheny County, and Three Rivers LLC are charged with seven counts each of insurance fraud and one count each of theft by deception, criminal attempt to commit theft by deception, criminal use of a communication facility, deceptive or fraudulent business practices, endangering the welfare of children and unlawful use of a computer and other computer crimes.

A preliminary arraignment is scheduled in the case for Thursday. Meanwhile, an attempt to contact Three Rivers Transit LLC's offices on Wednesday was unsuccessful.

In a phone call with PennLive, Kelly Wall, senior director of strategic communications and engagement at Propel Schools, said the schools' contract with Three Rivers Transit had been terminated, and that immediate action had been taken to provide alternative transportation to impacted students. Wall placed the number of impacted students at 55 out of a total 3,700.

She also said she expects a new transportation agreement with a new vendor to be in place by Jan. 4, 2017.

"The safety of our students is of the utmost importance," Wall said. "We're on the phone with families now to make sure we've got arrangements in place."

UPDATE: This article has been updated to include comment from a Propel Schools spokesperson.
Route 11/15 southbound has been reopened following a fatal vehicle-pedestrian crash Tuesday night in Camp Hill, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

The crash occurred between Country Club Road and 21st Street, also known as the Camp Hill Bypass, just before 7:30 p.m., authorities said.

The roadway was reopened at about midnight, PennDOT said.

For more traffic information, follow live traffic updates, accident reports and road closures below from PennDOT, Total Traffic Network and other Twitter sources.

Get a look at conditions on local roads -- via PennDOT traffic cameras -- anytime here on PennLive. For Pennsylvania Turnpike updates and possible travel delays visit the Turnpike website here.

Tweet us at @pennlive with any incidents you see on your commute or send a submission to submissions@pennlive.com.
Seth Meyers Trump tweets final

On Tuesday night's episode of "Late Night," Seth Meyers introduced a new segment that will certainly become a staple of the show for the next four years: "Tweetin' with the prez."

As Meyers points out, once President-elect Trump takes office it will be "the most tweet-filled presidency in history," especially if Trump will in fact end daily press briefings with White House reporters, as he's hinted.

"We're about to enter an era where our president can bypass the traditional press directly and spread lies and conspiracy theories unfiltered through his twitter account," said Meyers.

Meyers also points out the range of topics Trump will likely address, like Trump's recent tweet that a China warship seized an underwater drone operated by the US Navy in an "unprecedented act" (though his original tweet he spelled the word as "unpresidented"). And then there was his negative tweet about Vanity Fair after the magazine wrote a negative review of his restaurant Trump Grill.

Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFair Magazine. Way down, big trouble, dead! Graydon Carter, no talent, will be out!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2016

He writes his tweets like hes interpreting them from a border collie," joked Meyers. "Whats that, girl? Way down? Big trouble? Dead? Mine collapse? Worker trapped? Call the sheriff! Go!'

Watch the complete segment below:

NOW WATCH: Watch the trailer for the new Martin Scorsese film that took over 20 years to make





More From Business Insider


PORT TREVORTON -- A third person has been charged in connection with activities at a Snyder County camper that allegedly included sex with young women, alcohol, drugs and pornographic movies.

More details have been disclosed with the arrest of a third person, Pamela Sue Poust, 35, of Sunbury.

She is the ex-wife of Craig L. Poust who was charged last week with his live-in girlfriend Chanel Hope Kantz.

The charges allege girls as young as 16 were invited to the Poust camper in the Port Trevorton area from 2012 into 2014 where they were given marijuana, alcohol and pills crushed with cocaine followed by sexual activity.

A 16-year-old told police she went to the camper approximately 10 times in the summer of 2012, the first time at Poust's request to tutor his daughter, the arrest affidavit states.

The charges allege the teen had sexual contact with both Pousts and on several occasions were joined by an 18-year-old female.

The arrest affidavit accuses Poust of taking pictures of her in various state of undress including when she exposed her breasts at his request.

The women mentioned in the charges claimed the mixture they were given made then unable to resist what they were asked to do.

Pamela Poust is jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail on charges of rape, deviate sexual intercourse, conspiracy, corruption of minors, furnishing alcohol to minors and aggravated indecent and indecent assault.

Craig Poust, 42, and Kantz, 25, are facing similar charges. Poust, who is serving a state prison sentence in an unrelated case, has yet to be arraigned.

Kantz, who is accused of participating in the activity, is jailed in lieu of $200,000 bail in that case and is now serving a 90-day to 23-month sentence in another case.

She pleaded guilty Tuesday in Snyder County Court to charges of possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and an offensive weapon.

Poust and Kantz had fled to California while free on bail after being accused of growing marijuana and possessing a firearm with a homemade silencer.

Those charges followed the execution of a search warrant during which 20 marijuana plants, growing equipment and a .22-caliber handgun registered to Kantz with a silencer made from an oil filter were found.

Poust was found guilty of drugs and weapons charges and on Oct. 13 was sentenced to 81/2 to 20 years in state prison He is appealing his conviction.

Kantz has been in jail since Sept. 1 when bail on the earlier charges was revoked.
Dylann Roof

In this June 18, 2015 file photo, Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof is escorted from the Cleveland County Courthouse in Shelby, N.C. Prosecutors who wanted to show that Roof was a cruel, angry racist simply used his own words at his death penalty trial on charges he killed nine black people in June 2015 at a Charleston church. Roof's two-hour videotaped confession less than a day after the shooting and a handwritten journal found in his car when he was arrested were introduced into evidence Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)

By Angela Kirkland

On June 17 of last year, a young white man named Dylann Roof sat among nine black people gathered for a prayer meeting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.. He viciously gunned them down.

Angela Kirkland (PennLive file)

The next day, he was taken into police custody unharmed.

Last week, Roof was found guilty of all 33 federal charges against him. The only thing left unresolved is whether he'll be sentenced to life without parole or get the death penalty.

It is interesting how Roof's punishment for his crime is even something that is still a choice.

Consider these two other mass murders:

July 20, 2012, Aurora, Colorado: James Holmes, a young white man, entered a movie theater and fired repeatedly, killing twelve and injuring 70 others. Holmes was apprehended by police while in his car, and was taken into custody unharmed. He was sentenced to life in prison.

January 8, 2011, Tucson, Arizona: Jared Lee Loughner, a young white man, interrupted a constituent meeting hosted by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords with gunfire. He killed six people and wounded 13 others.

He was arrested peacefully by police after sustaining minor injuries from bystanders detaining him. He was sentenced to life in prison.

In case you haven't noticed a pattern, the men listed above have a few things in common. They are all young and white. They all committed mass murder. They were all arrested alive and unharmed and got a trial.

They had an attorney appointed to them, to defend them to the best of their ability. They had a jury deliberate over their guilt. They had a chance to remain alive, though imprisoned.

While I have your attention, consider the three tragedies below:

April 4, 2015, North Charleston, South Carolina: Walter Scott, a black man, was shot eight times in the back while fleeing from white police officer Michael Slager. Slager was quoted as having feared for his life because Scott got hold of his Taser. Video footage taken by a witness revealed that Slager had not been in danger, and his Taser appeared to have been planted near Scott's prone body after he was shot. Slager's charge of first-degree murder recently resulted in a mistrial.

July 5, 2016, Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Alton Sterling, a black man, was fatally shot by two police officers, Howie Lake II and Blane Salamoni. Sterling had been selling CDs outside of a convenience store when he was detained as a result of an anonymous phone call that described him as a threat.

Sterling was tased by officers and forced down to the ground. Shouts from the officers indicating that Sterling was reaching for his gun were quickly followed by multiple gunshots.

Multiple witnesses, including the store owner, Abdullah Muflahi, stated Sterling had never threatened the officers or wielded the gun that officers recovered from a pocket in Sterling's pants. So far, no charges have been filed in Sterling's murder.

July 6, 2016, Falcon Heights, Minnesota: Philando Castile, a black man, was shot to death in his car by Mexican-American police officer Jeronimo Yanez. Castile was stopped because he "resembled" a suspect in a robbery.

According to Castile's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, who recorded the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Yanez asked for Castile's license and registration. Castile said it was in his wallet and that he also had a pistol and license to carry. Yanez shot Castile seven times after telling him not to move and Castile was putting his hands back up. Yanez has been charged with manslaughter and is awaiting trial.

These three men have a few things in common, also. They are all black. They are all dead after an encounter with law enforcement.

They were apprehended on suspicion of having committed a crime, but they were not hauled to jail. They were not afforded an attorney, or a trial. They were automatically sentenced to death.

How are cops able to control their fear of losing their lives when confronted with white men who are armed, who have just slaughtered multiple people for no reason aside from their intense hatred, extreme belief system, paranoia, or all of the above?

How are cops overrun with fear for their lives when faced with black men who are under suspicion?

How are cops trained to de-escalate?

This training rarely seems to come into play when dealing with black men who are innocent of anything that could possibly justify their immediate death? How are white men who are clearly guilty of mass murder able to leave the scenes of horror they created and enter police custody while still breathing, in some cases not sustaining any injury?

Why is the best of our criminal justice system continually reserved for the Dylann Roofs of the world, those young white men who commit atrocities?

Why is the worst of it continuing to seep into black communities and killing those who have done nothing to deserve it?

Angela Kirkland of Harrisburg is a PennLive Opinion contributor. Her work appears biweekly.
Donald Trump

FILE - In this Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016 file photo, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Progressives attack adversaries without evidence; create false, scandalous narratives; and patronize unhinged, anarchical movements.

Moreover, they harbor unbridled pride that seethes in denial of defeat, and a lost honor.

The current task: destroy the Trump presidency. They think vengeance will revive their quest for corrupt power and secularism.

With the media in tow, they believe a dismantlement would exonerate their giddy, misleading intimations of a Clinton victory.

However, conventional polling models proved unreliable against a social media challenge.

Large rally turn-outs of adversaries didn't shake their misplaced confidence in "old school" predictions. But the media and progressives were stung badly.

The "opposite outcome" lingers terribly, begetting aberrant reactions, with "adults" behaving like children denied "participation trophies".

The corrupt Democratic Party was nearly shattered. It remains intentionally hobbled with failed leadership, while the "glass ceiling" awaits the inevitable push of an honorable woman.

Bottom line, the people rejected Establishment nonsense regarding 21st century pursuits of unfettered diversity, open borders, and a new global economy.

That thinking evolved into twisted concepts of apology, sacrificed sovereignty, and a "global immersion" that ruined our nation.

JERRY DONATUCCI, Upper Allen Township
Steve Hnatko, of Tymac Tidal Transport, carries a Christmas tree up the gangway of the Hanjin Scarlet container ship during a visit by volunteers delivering donated food, supplies and gifts to the stranded crew, near Saturna Island, B.C., on Tuesday December 20, 2016. The B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers' Union, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Victoria Filipino Canadian Association organized the care packages for the crew, some of whom have been stuck onboard the vessel for three and a half months after the shipping company Hanjin filed for bankruptcy in August. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Boyne City Splash Pad construction continues, to open next year

The project is being funded by the sale of the Boyne City Community Building.


Exxon to invest in 2017 on a FPSO to manage the 1.4-billion barrel Guyana lisa oil field



A floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel, Exxon plans to used it to handle crude pumped from the field 120 miles (193 kilometers) off Guyana's coast.

CHICAGO

Petroleumworld.com 12 21 2016

Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to formally approve investing in the 1.4-billion barrel Liza oil discovery off the coast of Guyana by the end of 2017.

Exxon hired SBM Offshore NV to design a floating production and storage vessel that will handle crude pumped from the field 120 miles (193 kilometers) off Guyana's coast, the Irving, Texas-based explorer said in a statement on Tuesday.

If Exxon's board ultimately approves moving forward with the project, SBM would construct, install and operate the vessel, according to the statement. In the initial phase of development, Exxon envisions the field producing 100,000 barrels a day, Jeffrey Woodbury, vice president of investor relations, said during an Oct. 28 conference call with analysts.

Exxon owns a 45 percent stake in the Liza field. Its partners include Hess Corp., which owns 30 percent, and CNOOC Ltd. with a 25 percent interest. Exxon is drilling additional wells near the Liza discovery with Stena AB's Stena Carron drillship, Woodbury said during the call.






This piece, titled, The New Plague, depicts life in Philadelphia in the age of COVID. Artist and educator Raphael Tiberino began painting at the age of four and has been in the spotlight as a professional creative for over 25 years.
By Brendan O'Brien

(Reuters) - Computers and devices sold in South Carolina that can access the internet would be required to have filters installed to prevent people from viewing pornography, although buyers could pay a $20 fee to remove the blocking software under a proposal before the legislature.

The amendment would require manufacturers or sellers of computers and internet-accessible devices to install software that blocks pornography, according to a draft of the amendment filed with the South Carolina General Assembly on Dec. 15.

One of its sponsors said on Tuesday the amendment would help raise money for the state's task force to combat human trafficking, adding that the measure would not restrict their legal liberties, indicating it would allow for viewing adult pornography.

"This is a way to preserve freedom, not raise taxes and combat a serious problem all in one," State Representative William "Bill" Chumley, a Republican, said in an interview.

Buyers over 18 in South Carolina would have to pay a $20 fee to have the block removed. Manufacturers or sellers would pay a $20 opt-out fee for each computer or device sold so they didn't have to install the blocking software, according to the proposed measure.

The amendment did not address any technology challenges or whether the filter would be a barrier to interstate commerce for technology firms that sell their devices nationwide.

There was no timetable for debate and a possible vote. Chumley has told local media that he sees the amendment as a starting point for debate and that the proposal he co-sponsored may be adjusted.

The amendment corresponds with the Republican Party's national platform that calls for states to get tough on pornography, adding that the internet has become a safe haven for predators.

"Pornography, with its harmful effects, especially on children, has become a public health crisis that is destroying the lives of millions," the GOP said in its platform. "We urge energetic prosecution of child pornography, which is closely linked to human trafficking."

In April, a Republican-backed resolution in Utah declared pornography a public health hazard and an epidemic that normalizes violence against women and children and makes men less likely to want to get married.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
By Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for a daughter of the woman at the centre of President Park Geun-hye's corruption scandal and investigators raided the National Pension Service over possible links to the scandal. A special prosecutor's investigation started on Wednesday into the influence-peddling scandal that threatens to make Park, 64, the first democratically-elected leader to leave office early in disgrace. Parliament has voted to impeach Park, a decision that must be confirmed or overturned by the Constitutional Court. A court issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday for Chung Yoo-ra, the 20-year-old daughter of Choi Soon-sil, Park's long-time friend who is in custody and on trial for fraud and abuse of power. Chung's lawyer has said she is in Germany, where she flew with her mother and child in September, according to media reports. "We have Chung's arrest warrant on several charges including obstruction of justice and we plan to request the cooperation of German prosecutors based on these charges," Lee Kyu-chul, a spokesman for the special prosecutor's office, told a news conference. Lee said authorities are working to invalidate Chung's South Korean passport and have asked German prosecutors for information on her whereabouts and financial assets. Chung, an equestrian athlete who competed in the 2014 Asian Games and won a gold medal in a team competition, sparked public ire earlier this year when it emerged that she had received special treatment from the prestigious Ewha Womans University. Her admission to the university was subsequently cancelled. She was also stripped of her high school diploma for fabrication of grades and attendance, according to the Seoul education office. PENSION OFFICE RAIDED Hours earlier, investigators raided the office of the world's third-largest pension fund, the National Pension Service (NPS), over possible links to the scandal. The special prosecutor's office is looking into NPS' decision last year to back the $8 billion merger of two Samsung Group affiliates, which was criticised for strengthening the founder family's control of the group at the expense of other shareholders. The NPS was a major shareholder of both companies. Investigators are also examining whether Samsung's support of a business and foundations backed by Choi may have been connected to NPS' support of the deal, a prosecution official told Reuters, declining to be named because he was not authorised to speak with media. An office at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which administers the NPS, was also raided on Wednesday, a Ministry of Health and Welfare spokeswoman confirmed. NPS and Samsung Group could not immediately be reached for comment. NPS' backing of last year's merger of Samsung C&T Corp and Cheil Industries was seen as crucial to the deal winning shareholder approval. Last month, a different team of prosecutors raided offices of Samsung and the NPS. Meanwhile, more than 30 lawmakers from Park's ruling Saenuri Party who supported the impeachment vote announced on Wednesday they plan to break from the party, a move that will undermine the party's position in the 300-member chamber. The conservative Saenuri Party currently holds 128 seats. Park's possible impeachment has upended politics in South Korea, where, if she leaves officer early, an election will be held in 60 days. Park was stripped of her powers, which are now held by the country's prime minister. (Additional reporting by Joyce Lee; Writing by Christine Kim; Editing by Tony Munroe and Michael Perry)
Our final crankbrothers for others (#cb4others) charity auction is live this week. Tuesday the 20th and ending on Friday the 23rd at 10AM PST.This is a very special auction for us as it is in memoriam of Steve Smith. The auction contains some Fox race kit to it but we have added a very special pair ofcustom Mallet DH pedals to the kit.We put this together with products that we had on hand. The jersey is a size large and the pants are a 36. They never belonged to Steve but maintain that same feel and vibrancy that he had and gave all of us.100% of the proceeds will go to the Steve Smith Memorial Fund to help the next generation of Canadian shredders. In the name of the Chainsaw, please bid often and share the link with all of your friends.Auction on ebay. and happy holidays from all of us at crankbrothers.
When we visited Nvidia (NVDA) earlier this month to research the Yahoo Finance Company of the Year, we noticed something unusual roaming the hallways: canines.

Nvidia, it turns out, allows and even encourages its workers to bring their dogs to work. Dogs, as we know, get lonely, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang tells Yahoo Finance. If you want to be a responsible dog parent, one way to do that is to provide them company. I see it from the perspective of the dog. Its the right thing to do.

Nvidias puppy love began informally several years ago, when one worker asked Huang if he could bring his dog to work. Sure, the CEO said: I used to have a dog myself. Id go home from work to see the dog during lunch.

A digital message board inside Nvidias cafeteria. Photo: Rick Newman

More dog owners started bringing their pets, and the company adopted a formal policy. Dogs have to be leashed while on campus, and attended by their owner. They arent allowed near food areas, for sanitary reasons. If a meeting is on the schedule, the owner has to get a co-worker to keep an eye on the dog. In some cases, dog owners have been relocated to accommodate a neighbor with an allergy or other aversion to dogs.

Since the Silicon Valley tech company occupies a sprawling, low-rise campus, theres plenty of outdoor space for letting the dogs out, as evident in the video above. The company provides poop bags, but no staff to handle the chore; owners must clean up after their own dogs.

As our cameras rolled, several dogs frolicked in the grass, each seemingly comfortable with the others. Dog feuds are rare, Nvidia employees told us. Most dogs adjust quickly to the new digs once they start coming to work, and owners bring beds or blankets to cozy up on the floors of their cubicles, where dogs loll much of the day. Naps are often interrupted by co-workers or visitors who want to play.

A few other companies allow dogs, including Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), Salesforce (CRM), hotel chain Kimpton and candy company Mars. (About 7% of US employers allow pets in the workplace, according to the Society of Human Resource Management.) The perk saves owners the expense of paying for a dog walker at home. Some managers say pets promote collegiality in the office, and even help reduce employee stress. Nervous about your deadline? Here, pet this.

Cats, alas, are not welcome at Nvidia, or any other company were aware of, because theyre less comfortable in unfamiliar placesand they occasionally provoke the dogs. Besides, the cat probably enjoys the solitude when the dogand its ownergo to work.

Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman.
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Legal experts were left in disbelief on Tuesday after the pre-election warrant that damaged Hillary Clintons campaign was unsealed, showing that there was no justification for steps taken by the FBI just days before the Nov. 8 presidential election.

According to reporting by USA TODAY, the lawyer who requested that the document be released Randy Schoenberg  says there is nothing at all to justify the bureaus pre-election behavior.

More from the report:

I see nothing at all in the search warrant application that would give rise to probable cause, nothing that would make anyone suspect that there was anything on the laptop beyond what the FBI had already searched and determined not to be evidence of a crime, nothing to suggest that there would be anything other than routine correspondence between Clinton and Abedin, Schoenberg said in an email to USA TODAY. It remains unknown why they thought they might find evidence of a crime, why they felt it necessary to inform Congress, and why they even sought this search warrant, he said. I am appalled.

Not only were the FBIs pre-election actions unprecedented in that the bureau was publicly discussing an ongoing investigation, but it turns out the investigation itself was bogus and there really was no probable cause to begin with.

Whats worse, as USA TODAY noted, is that while the FBI, led by James Comey, was inexplicably blowing smoke about Clintons emails while Americans were deciding who to cast their vote for, Comey was aware of evidence that Russia was engaging in cyber attacks against the Democratic Party, which ultimately hurt Clinton and helped Donald Trump eek out a victory.

Former Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon quickly responded to the news via Twitter:

The unsealed filings regarding Humas emails reveals Comeys intrusion on the election was as utterly unjustified as we suspected at time  Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) December 20, 2016

While its always been disturbing that Russia  a foreign power  interfered with our electoral process in a meaningful way, its particularly troubling that our own institutions were also taking steps that directly impacted the outcome of a presidential election.

It remains to be seen whether the actions by the FBI were the result of incompetence or if they were an effort by the bureau to damage Hillary Clintons presidential campaign.
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While an increasing number of military officials express their belief that Russia is the top threat to the United States, a memo obtained by Foreign Policy shows that Russia doesnt even make the list of defense concerns for the incoming Trump administration.

According to Foreign Policy, Top cabinet officials at the Defense Department and the intelligence community cited Russia as the foremost threat because of its vast nuclear arsenal, sophisticated cyber capabilities, recently modernized military, and willingness to challenge the United States and its allies in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and other regions.

Yet, Donald Trump  who just eeked out an Electoral College victory with an assist from Moscow  thinks Russia really isnt worth wasting time on. Imagine that.

More from the report:

Steven Pifer, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who spent 25 years as a State Department diplomat, said the memo was both surprising and concerning  given what the Russians are doing against Ukraine, their military modernization effort, the bellicose tone weve heard from Moscow the past three years, and NATOs effort to bolster conventional deterrence and defense capabilities in the Baltic region.

Last February, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper emphasized that the Islamic State terrorist group isnt nearly as threatening to U.S. interests as Moscow. The Islamic State cant inflict mortal damage to the United States, he said. Russia can.

That outlook is reflected in how the federal government has directed billions of dollars of defense spending. The Pentagons chief weapons buyer earlier this month said that U.S. defense budgets are now focused primarily on countering Moscow.

The White House earmarked an extra $3.4 billion in the 2014 defense spending bill to deploy two more U.S. Army brigades to eastern Europe  along with hundreds of tanks and heavily armored vehicles pre-positioned for use in case of war with Russia.

While those in the Pentagon and the current administration have been working to put the necessary resources in place to defend against the growing threat that Russia poses, the incoming president seems not only unconcerned about Moscow but even friendly with them.

As Foreign Policy noted, the Trump administration is likely to take a softer stance on Russia than the current White House. The president-elect may even scale back the defensive measures currently being put in place.

And, of course, Trumps secretary of state pick and Putin best friend Rex Tillerson is likely going to be a major part of this pending pro-Russia shift in Americas foreign policy.

None of this should come as a surprise to those who spent the campaign listening to Trump heap praise on Russian President Vladimir Putin. Even now, the president-elect wont admit what the FBI and CIA both are saying  that Russia, under Putins direction, was behind a cyber attack meant to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Trump.

Theres no concrete evidence showing that Trump is returning the favor to Russia, but this is probably what it would look like if he was.
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While warning that a repeal of the ACA would be devastating for small business owners, a small business coalition is urging Republicans not to repeal Obamacare.

Small business owners are warning that the planned Republican repeal of the ACA would lead to a collapse in the insurance market that would leave small businesses scrambling to find health insurance.

Lets be clear: rather than focusing on strengthening the coverage, the Republican plan would destroy the insurance market and leave millions of business owners without coverage, said Amanda Ballantyne, National Director of Main Street Alliance. Stripping subsidies and removing the individual mandate could lead to the death spiral of spiking premiums, dwindling healthy participants, and fewer insurance companies offering coverage. If we dont fight back, we could witness the near collapse of the private insurance market.

Small business owners wont be the only people harmed by the Republican plan. It is estimated that 30 million Americans will lose access to their health care if Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Mr. Trump and Republicans leadership in Congress are trying to push through a plan that would eliminate affordable health care for my employees and customers, said Marilyn Sealy, owner of Wells Rugs Service in Morristown and a member of the Main Street Alliance of New Jersey Steering Committee. Marilyn called and spoke to Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen (R). That means less money in the pockets of people in my community, and fewer people were buying goods and services from small business owners like myself. It would be a disaster for our state economy.

Repealing the ACA is viewed as the first step in the Republican plan to privatize Medicare by turning it into a voucher system that will lead to huge out of pocket costs for seniors.

Small business owners dont need the uncertainty that will come with ACA repeal. While major corporations can survive any changes, going back to the bad old days of health insurance could drive small businesses around the country out of business.

If Republicans really cared about small business owners, they would think twice about their haphazard repeal with no replacement plan for the ACA.
The following timeline charts the origin and spread of the Zika virus from its discovery nearly 70 years ago: 1947: Scientists researching yellow fever in Uganda's Zika Forest identify the virus in a rhesus monkey 1948: Virus recovered from Aedes africanus mosquito in Zika Forest 1952: First human cases detected in Uganda and Tanzania 1960s-80s: Zika detected in mosquitoes and monkeys across equatorial Africa 1960s-80s: Zika found in equatorial Asia, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan 2007: Zika spreads from Africa and Asia, first large outbreak on Pacific island of Yap 2012: Researchers identify two distinct lineages of the virus, African and Asian 2013-14: Zika outbreaks in French Polynesia, Easter Island, the Cook Islands and New Caledonia. Retrospective analysis shows possible link to birth defects and severe neurological complications in babies in French Polynesia March 2, 2015: Brazil reports illness characterized by skin rash in northeastern states July 17: Brazil reports detection of neurological disorders in newborns associated with history of infection Oct. 22: Colombia confirms cases of Zika Oct. 30: Brazil reports increase in microcephaly, abnormally small heads, among newborns Nov. 11: Brazil declares public health emergency November 2015-January 2016: Cases reported in Suriname, Panama, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Paraguay, Venezuela, French Guiana, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Ecuador, Barbados, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Curacao, Jamaica Feb. 1: World Health Organization (WHO) declares public health emergency of international concern Feb. 2: First case of Zika transmission in United States; local health officials say likely contracted through sex, not mosquito bite Feb. 5: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says virus being actively transmitted in 30 countries, mostly in the Americas Feb. 8: U.S. President Barack Obama requests $1.9 billion to fight Zika Feb. 18: CDC adds Aruba and Bonaire to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 32 Feb. 23: CDC adds Trinidad and Tobago and Marshall Islands to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 34 Feb. 25: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases number more than 580 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers, with an additional 4,100 suspected cases of microcephaly Feb. 27: France detects first sexually transmitted case of Zika March 8: WHO advises pregnant women to avoid areas with Zika outbreak and said sexual transmission of the virus is "relatively common" March 19: CDC adds Cuba to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 38 March 22: CDC adds Dominica to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 39 March 31: The World Health Organization says there is a strong scientific consensus that Zika can cause the birth defect microcephaly as well as Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis, though conclusive proof may take months or years April 1: CDC adds Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 40 April 4: CDC adds Fiji to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 41 April 13: The CDC concludes that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies. CDC adds St. Lucia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 42 April 18: CDC adds Belize to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 43 April 25: Canada confirms first sexually transmitted Zika case April 29: Puerto Rico reports first death related to Zika, according to the CDC. The island territory also confirms 683 Zika cases, including 65 pregnant women, and five suspected cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome from Zika May 4: Panama confirms four microcephaly cases tied to Zika May 6: Spain has first case of Zika-related brain defect in a fetus May 9: CDC adds Papua New Guinea, Saint Barthelemy and Peru to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 46 May 12: CDC adds Grenada to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 47 May 13: Puerto Rico reports first case of Zika-related microcephaly May 20: WHO says an outbreak of Zika virus on the African island chain of Cape Verde is of the same strain as the one blamed for birth abnormalities in Brazil May 26: CDC adds Argentina to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 48 June 9: WHO updates guidelines on prevention of sexual transmission of the Zika virus, including advising women living in areas where the virus is being transmitted to delay getting pregnant June 14: El Salvador confirms first case of microcephaly linked to Zika June 30: CDC adds Anguilla to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 49 July 8: CDC confirms a Utah resident's death from the previous month is the first Zika-related death in the continental United States July 14: CDC adds Saint Eustatius to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 50 July 15: New York City's health department reports the first female-to-male transmission of the Zika virus.

Story continues

July 18: CDC reports the caregiver of Utah man who died of Zika tested positive for virus, raising questions about its spread July 19: Florida health officials investigate a case of Zika virus infection that may have been caused by local mosquito bite July 22: New York City health officials reports first baby born with Zika-related birth defect July 25: Spain reports first case in Europe of baby born with Zika-related defect; CDC issues updated recommendations for preventing and testing for Zika infection, warning that the virus can be transmitted through unprotected sex with an infected female partner July 26: Honduras detects 8 cases of babies with Zika-related defect; CDC adds Saba to countries and territories with active outbreaks with total at 51 July 27: Paraguay reports first cases of microcephaly linked to Zika July 29: Florida authorities report what is believed to be the first evidence of local Zika transmission in the continental United States Aug. 2: CDC adds Antigua, Barbuda, and Turks and Caicos to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 54 Aug. 3: U.S. researchers said they launched Zika vaccine clinical trial Aug. 11: CDC adds Cayman Islands to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 55 Aug. 12: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declares a public health emergency in Puerto Rico over Zika with 10,690 laboratory-confirmed cases Aug. 13: Brazil reports 1,835 confirmed cases of microcephaly Aug. 16: Haiti reports first case of microcephaly linked to Zika Aug. 17: Guatemala confirms first case of newborn with microcephaly linked to Zika Aug. 19: Florida governor says five cases of Zika are believed to have been contracted in Miami Beach, the second area in Miami-Dade county where the virus is spreading.

Aug. 25: CDC adds The Bahamas and the United States to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 57 Aug. 26: FDA recommends that all blood donated in the United States and its territories be tested for Zika virus, starting with 11 states in the first phase; Nicaragua confirms first microcephaly birth linked to Zika Aug. 27-29: Singapore confirms first case of locally transmitted Zika virus, which rise to 56 cases two days later Aug. 30: Confirmed cases in Singapore rise to 82, with some of the latest infections detected beyond the area of initial outbreak. Several countries advise pregnant women or those trying to conceive to avoid traveling to the city-state. Australia, Taiwan, South Korea and the United States issue travel warnings Aug. 31: CDC adds Singapore and the British Virgin Islands to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing tally to 58 (The CDC groups together Antigua and Barbuda in its updated official count) Sept. 3: Malaysia detects first case of locally transmitted Zika Sept. 5: Philippines confirms first case of Zika virus likely to have been transmitted locally Sept. 6: Florida confirms 56 locally transmitted cases, 577 travel-related infections, and 80 infections involving pregnant women Sept. 8: Singapore reports 283 cases of locally transmitted Zika virus Sept. 10: Singapore locally transmitted Zika cases rise to 329 Sept. 13: Thailand said it has recorded 200 cases of Zika since Januuary, the first time the health ministry has confirmed the number of cases this year.

Sept. 16: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports 20,800 confirmed cases of Zika virus in U.S. states and Territories. The department says there are 3,176 confirmed cases in U.S. states and District of Columbia. As of Sept. 8, the department said there were more than 1,880 pregnant women with evidence of Zika virus in U.S. states, District of Columbia and U.S. territories Sept. 19: Florida's governor declares Wynwood neighborhood in Miami Zika-free but the CDC leaves travel warning for Miami Beach Sept. 26: CDC adds St. Kitts and Nevis to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing tally to 59 Sept. 29: CDC issues travel advisory urging pregnant women to postpone non-essential travel to 11 Southeast Asian countries in connection with the Zika virus and Brazil reports 1,949 confirmed cases of microcephaly believed to be linked to Zika infections in pregnant women Oct. 13: Florida reports new area of transmission in Miami and says it had 164 cases of Zika caused by local mosquitoes Oct. 19: U.S. health officials create color-coded system for Florida's Miami-Dade County to distinguish risks of transmission in certain areas Oct. 27: Myanmar confirms fist case of Zika virus infection Oct. 28: Brazil says there are 2,063 confirmed cases of microcephaly Nov. 16: CDC adds Singapore and Palau to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing tally to 61 Nov. 18: WHO declares end of Zika emergency but said more action needed through a "robust program" Nov. 21: CDC adds Montserrat to countries and territories with active outbreaks, pushing total to 62 Nov. 22: CDC says as of Nov. 16 there were 4,255 cases of Zika reported in the continental United States and Hawaii. Of the total reported Zika cases, 35 are believed to be through sexual transmission and 1 case from lab exposure.

Florida removes parts of Miami Beach in Florida from active transmission zone areas. The health department also reports 1,201 cases of Zika with 236 cases locally acquired Nov. 28: Texas reports first case of Zika spread by local mosquitoes Dec. 2: CDC says all pregnant women in the U.S. should be evaluated for possible Zika virus exposure during each prenatal care visit Dec. 3: Brazil confirms 2,228 cases of microcephaly linked with Zika, and is still investigating another 3,173 cases Dec. 9: Florida Department of Health says all areas cleared of active transmission in Florida CDC says as of Dec. 8 there were 4,575 cases of Zika reported in the continental United States and Hawaii. Of the total, 38 cases are believed to be the result of sexual transmission. One case was the result of lab exposure Dec. 14: U.S. researchers say about 6 percent of women in the United States infected with Zika during pregnancy had fetuses or babies with birth defects CDC issues travel advisory warning pregnant women to consider postponing travel to Brownsville, Texas because of risk of contracting virus SOURCES: World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reuters (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Compiled and edited by the Americas Desk)
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We are right to feel that perhaps, at the end of it all, the Founding Fathers vision failed both themselves and us. That same Electoral College, their ultimate failsafe against tyranny, instead of keeping a demagogue out of the White House rubber-stamped his entry.

Bill OReilly, however, is pretty worked up about the idea that the Electoral College is an idea whose time has passed. Because getting rtid of it is, he says, all about race and the idea that white privilege in America is seen by the left as an oppressive force that must be done away with.

Well, yeah. By definition if one group has privileges the others do not, its oppressive. And in particular, the history of white privilege in America has led to all sorts of evils, and in this election in particular, to a crtical suppression of non-white votes. Is it any wonder people are upset?

Watch courtesy of Media Matters for America:

Abolishing the Electoral College, that is the subject of tonights Talking Points Memo. After Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, the left in America is demanding that the Electoral College system put into place in 1787 be scrapped. But theres a hidden reason for this.



As we reported, even though Secretary Clinton won the popular vote by 2.8 million, the progressive state of California provided all of that margin. Clinton defeating Trump there by about 4.3 million votes. So if the Electoral College were abolished, presidential candidates could simply campaign in the nations largest states and cities, New York, L.A., Chicago, Houston, and rack up enough votes to pretty much win any election. Thats what the left wants. Thats what they want. Because in the large urban areas and blue states like New York and California, minorities are substantial. Look at the landscape. Philadelphia, Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami. In all of these places the minority vote usually goes heavily to the Democrats. And to that New York City, L.A., Chicago, San Francisco, dont really have a national election anymore, do you? You have targeted populations. Newspapers like the New York Times and the L.A. Times have editorialized to get rid of the Electoral College. They well know that neutralizing the largely white rural areas in the Midwest and South will assure liberal politicians get power and keep it.

As opposed to how Republican voter suppression efforts and unconstitutional gerrymandering assure conservative politicians get power and keep it. In his defense of white privilege, OReilly cries Racism!

Talking Points believes this is all about race. The left sees white privilege in America as an oppressive force that must be done away with. Therefore white working class voters must be marginalized and what better way to do that than center the voting power in the cities. Very few commentators will tell you that the heart of liberalism in America today is based on race. It permeates almost every issue. That white men have set up a system of oppression. That system must be destroyed. Bernie Sanders pedaled that to some extent Hillary Clinton did. And the liberal media tries to sell that all day long. So-called white privilege bad. Diversity good.



If you look at the voting patterns, its clear that the Democrats are heavily reliant on the minority vote. Also on the woman vote. White men have largely abandoned the Democrats and the left believes its because of racism that they want to punish minorities, keep them down. So thats whats really going on when you hear about the Electoral College and how unfair it allegedly is. Summing up, the left wants power taken away from the white establishment. They want a profound change in the way America is run. Taking voting power away from the white precincts is the quickest way to do that.

Actually, of course, getting rid of the Electoral College is an idea even Trump once supported  until it worked in his favor. Even then, he managed to make it about his genius.

OReilly here employs a number of myths about the Electoral College, including the idea that the system was put in place to protect small states (So if the Electoral College were abolished, presidential candidates could simply campaign in the nations largest states and cities).

Then there is the not so little issue that the Electoral College was supposed to protect us from demagogues like Trump. Forcing electors to cast their votes in accordance with the popular vote defeats the intent of the Founding Fathers, as the electors are supposed to be the last line of defense against tyranny.

Allowing the electors to simply ignore the popular vote leads to another evil: the negation of the democracy upon which our system of government is predicated, the political power derives from the will of the governed, as opposed to a few electors.

There are many reasons to get rid of the electoral college. When most Americans support eliminating the Electoral College, there are very few reasons to keep it. Because democracy, Bill OReilly.
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*The following is opinion by R Muse*

After Americans listened to FBI Director Comeys and Vladimir Putins designee as Americas next White House occupant, they probably are aware that the nations environmental protections are set for a proper deletion as if they never existed. That is, after all, exactly what the Koch brothers have demanded for thirty-plus years and something Donald Trump has pledged to see to fruition. It is why he chose an oil industry acolyte and sworn enemy of the Environmental Protection Agency to oversee its dismantling to demonstrate that when dumb Donnie says climate change is a Chinese hoax he is serious about making America great again by dismissing science as a hoax; likely perpetrated by those Chinese folks.

Of course, the Trump has pledged to reverse any and all environmental protections put in place by President Barack Obama, or any other administration, and disavows Americas agreements with the rest of civilized humanity to combat what is the greatest threat to Americans health, the economy, and national security  anthropogenic climate change.

Yesterday, Tuesday, President Obama demonstrated that, despite Trumps pledge to undo all of American environmental protections, he is devoted to protecting Americans enough to cite a sixty-three-year-old law that empowers him, as sitting President, to act unilaterally and permanently ban offshore oil and gas drilling along the Eastern and Alaskan Seaboards. The Presidents declaration entails a permanent ban on oil and gas drilling on the ocean floor from Virginia to Maine, and along much of Alaskas coastline.

It is noteworthy that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau simultaneously announced a ban on new drilling in Canadian Arctic waters. President Obama said,

These actions, and Canadas parallel actions, protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other region on earth. They reflect the scientific assessment that even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the regions harsh conditions is limited.

Other presidents have, in fact, used an obscure provision in the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to temporarily protect small portions of federal waters, but President Obamas declaration is taking great advantage of part of an Act that was passed by a Republican-majority Congress and signed into law by a Republican president. With a moron disguised as a conscious human being and an alt-right Congress in thrall of, and deeply indebted to, the Koch brothers oil industry, President Obamas attempt to protect Americas coastline will likely be challenged in the federal courts; courts the Koch brothers co-own with Russian Vladimir Putin and evangelical religious extremists.

According to a professor of environmental law at Vermont Law School, Patrick Parenteau said the President Obamas declaration has never been done before, there is no case law on this. Its uncharted waters.

The Presidents action, considered creative by supporters and abusive by opponents, is an obvious effort to protect as many of Americas environmental policies as he possibly can from Trump who vowed to roll them all back into non-existence. In fact, The New York Times noted that part of the reason the President, in concert with the rest of the worlds leaders, rushed to ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change was to put the multinational accord into force before Trump is considered the president.

Environmentalists were quick to draw comparisons between President Obamas clever use of the 1953 law to ban new drilling and an earlier declaration to protect Americans health from dirty air and combat climate change. It is what the Koch brothers and Republicans called tyrannical overreach and an illegal effort to combat climate change Republicans and Trump claim is non-existent. The President earlier found, and embraced, an obscure and rare provision in the 1970 Clean Air Act to enact lifesaving regulations requiring states to begin shifting their electricity generating systems from dirty fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. As an aside, during a news conference on Monday, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman proudly announced that,

We can brag that the city, this city of Las Vegas, is one of the few cities in the entire world that can boast using all of its power from a green source. It was an announcement that is certain to inflame the Koch brothers and incite Trump to rage because a ten-year effort reached fruition before he could act out on the oil industrys behalf and crush renewable energy usage.

Trump will likely harshly criticize the President for doing what a real leader is supposed to do; look out for the health and welfare of the American people. In fact, late last week President Obama finalized his permanent ban on Republican theocrats from withholding any federal family-planning funding from any health clinics that provide abortion services. That measure takes permanent effect two days before Putins man Trump is allowed to be in the White House. It is noteworthy that the new rule is meant specifically to prohibit the evangelical fanatics in Republicans states from using their bastardized interpretation of the Christian religion to impose restrictions on Americans rights or unconstitutionally force religion by legislation down Americans throats.

It isnt unusual for an outgoing president to use the final days of their administration to enact policies important to protect Americans; particularly when the incoming administration vows to protect corporate profits. As the NYT noted, Because of new and legally inventive strategies, Mr. Obama may well have built firewalls around environmental policies that could hold off his successor  or at least keep him at bay for several years.

The oil industry is, of course, apoplectic over a clever move by President Obama to protect Americans and their environment. The senior policy adviser at the American Petroleum Institute, one of the Koch cabal that controls congressional Republicans said We dont see how this could be permanent. Legal experts say the Presidents ban will withstand legal challenges because of specific language in the 1953 law that says, The president of the United States may withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the Outer Continental Shelf. As a lawyer working for the oil industry against President Obamas Administration commented, The statute does not say, A president can reinstate. It only seems to be one-directional.

This latest action by President Obama reveals that not only is he committed to protecting Americans until his last day in office, he is acutely aware that Trump has every intent to protect dirty fossil fuel at the expense of national security, economic prosperity, and the American peoples health and well-being. Many Americans are cognizant that President Obama has been the only firewall to all manner of Republican atrocities over the past eight years, and they should rejoice that at least in the foreseeable future, no matter how abominable the Trump-Republican assault on the environment may be, at least two major portions of Americas coastlines will be protected.

It isnt the greatest news, but these days anything that isnt terrifying should be welcomed and celebrated. Because in a few weeks the concept of good news in America will be a thing of the past for everyone but Vladimir Putin, the Koch brothers and the evangelical fanatics who will completely own and operate the United States government.
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The so-called and ironically named First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) makes two claims, that (1) marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or (2) sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.

Obviously, thats not much of a basis for a defense of the First Amendment. But thats not the real problem with the legislation.

The real problem is that the FADA would prohibit discriminating against anyone who discriminates against LGBT people. In other words, in the name of freedom, the FADA provides tyranny: carte blanche to anyone who wants to discriminate against a marginalized group in the name of freedom.

The FADA was sponsored by Rep. Labrador, Raul R. [R-ID-1] and Introduced in June 2015. It had 171 House Republican co-sponsors. It did not get further than a House hearing at the time. Everyone knew President Obama would veto it.

But now with the Religious Rights messiah Donald Trump heading to the White House/Trump Tower, Sen. Ted Cruz and his fellow religious bigots figure theyve got a lock on finally sticking it to the LGBT community. Hard.

This is the text of what can only be described as the establishment of religion, an act that is specifically forbidden by the First Amendment it pretends to protect:

First Amendment Defense Act



Prohibits the federal government from taking discriminatory action against a person on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that: (1) marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or (2) sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.



Defines discriminatory action as any federal government action to discriminate against a person with such beliefs or convictions, including a federal government action to:

alter the federal tax treatment of, cause any tax, penalty, or payment to be assessed against, or deny, delay, or revoke certain tax exemptions of any such person;

disallow a deduction of any charitable contribution made to or by such person;

withhold, reduce, exclude, terminate, or otherwise deny any federal grant, contract, subcontract, cooperative agreement, loan, license, certification, accreditation, employment, or similar position or status from or to such person; or

withhold, reduce, exclude, terminate, or otherwise deny any benefit under a federal benefit program.

Requires the federal government to consider to be accredited, licensed, or certified for purposes of federal law any person who would be accredited, licensed, or certified for such purposes but for a determination that the person believes or acts in accordance with such a religious belief or moral conviction.



Permits a person to assert an actual or threatened violation of this Act as a claim or defense in a judicial or administrative proceeding and to obtain compensatory damages or other appropriate relief against the federal government.



Authorizes the Attorney General to bring an action to enforce this Act against the Government Accountability Office or an establishment in the executive branch, other than the U.S. Postal Service or the Postal Regulatory Commission, that is not an executive department, military department, or government corporation.



Defines person as any person regardless of religious affiliation, including corporations and other entities regardless of for-profit or nonprofit status.

Trump did indeed vow to sign the bill in order to protect the deeply held religious beliefs of Catholics and the beliefs of Americans of all faiths. Except Americans of all faiths do not support discriminating against people on the basis of the religious beliefs of some. Even their own.

Trump has had nothing to say on the matter since the election. It remains to be seen if he will stand by his support of the bill, or if like his comments on Hillary Clinton, they were designed only to secure him some votes.

Note that this legislation does not protect any other religious convictions. Like the religious conviction that it is okay for same-sex couples to marry.

Just as obviously, corporations were never meant to be included in the Founding Fathers definition of We the People. This is an ill-disguised attempt to establish religion and force all others to abide by that religion.

As Jennifer Pizer, Law and Policy Director at Lambda Legal, told NBC,

This proposed new law violates both Equal Protection and the Establishment Clause by elevating one set of religious beliefs above all others, Pizer said, And by targeting LGBT Americans as a group, contrary to settled constitutional law.

In a word, it gives tyranny in place of the promised freedom.
Real estate funds no longer the darling of Hungarian investors

The total asset value of investment funds in Hungary grew more than HUF 20 billion month-on-month in November, reaching HUF 5,687 billion. Absolute return funds were the number one choice in terms of the amount of money invested, whilst real estate funds experienced a setback after a year-and-a-half of positive sales data, with HUF 3.6 billion pulled out by investors in November. Regardless of sales, real estate funds remained the best performers with 5% yield, while their share of the pie is approaching 13%.

Absolute return funds most in demand

Real estate funds yield 5% return

Investment funds in Hungary saw over HUF 20 billion expansion in asset value to HUF 5,687 billion in November from October, a 0.36% increase, according to the latest statistics of the Association of Hungarian Investment Fund and Asset Management Companies (Bamosz).The increase in assets was driven by return on investment, which totaled HUF 34.5 billion in November, while more than HUF 14 billion worth of investment was liquidated.For the first time in quite a while, absolute return funds have taken over from the real estate segment as the top most popular choice of investors. Some HUF 7.5 billion was newly invested in them; with private equity funds ranked second with HUF 4.4 billion in sales.Not only did real estate funds fail to make it to the top three, they were not even among the most popular options. Investors liquidated HUF 3.6 billion of real estate fund shares in the course of November. Yet, they were not the worst performers in terms of sales, either; the latter included protected funds, bond funds and money market funds, with liquidated assets totaling almost HUF 28 billion.According to the 12-month trailing data, money market funds continue to lose ground, simultaneously with gradually deteriorating sales data for bond funds. Meanwhile, real estate and derivatives funds maintain a steady presence, with a stable position among the various types of investment fund options.Real estate funds stood out with the best monthly returns in November, with commodity and other types of investment funds ranked second and third but lagging way behind with about 1% yield. Derivatives funds were the month's worst performers with -3.3%, while mixed funds and bond funds also closed the month with minor negative returns.Bond funds remained the largest chunk of the investment fund pie, commanding a 23.6% share of total assets. The next largest share was that of money market funds with almost 17.3%, although their weight is on the decline. Absolute return funds gained a minor advantage over mixed funds. Real estate funds are edging close to a share of 13%.
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If youve been unfortunate enough to endure a flood caused by nature or human error, but fortunate enough that your home survived, its at the top of your list of worries: mold. Its why you have to act immediately to haul out all the contents, rip out carpets and even walls: to prevent the  Read moreEditorial: The simple first step to solving the insidious problem of mold in SC colleges
SEATTLE  Ishea Brown grew up in a huge family that celebrated Christmas like nobody's business.

Her mother, who is one of 15 siblings, and her father, who is one of 12, love having their home be their clan's social center during the holidays, spending untold hours from Thanksgiving on running around, decorating, cooking, shopping and getting ready for the festive climax.

"Growing up, I had no choice but to be surrounded by all the people who were always at our house," Brown said. But when the 32-year-old Capitol Hill resident moved out of her parents' home about 10 years ago, she realized she could opt out and spend Thanksgiving and Christmas alone.

"It's honestly so awesome," said the Meredith Corp. senior campaign manager. "I could cook what I wanted when I wanted. I could stay in my pajamas all day. I could nap on the couch with my dog. I didn't feel obligated to go anywhere or do anything. It was so freeing."

'Taking care of yourself'

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Brown is among a growing number of people who are talking about, and owning, their decision to withdraw from the holiday frenzy. In addition to avoiding the anxiety, stress and financial strain of Christmas, some people find the pressure to "be merry and happy" difficult.

Others find that spending holidays alone, with pets or select friends, is a healthy alternative to time with dysfunctional, abusive or alcoholic family members, said Nancy Goldov, public education coordinator for the Washington State Psychological Association. Goldov said another possible trigger for some people this year is the highly fraught political situation that's polarized some families.

"Some people may choose to set aside the same days to stay home alone that others set aside to be with others as a way to circumvent experiences of conflict during the holidays," Goldov said. "It's important to recognize that taking care of yourself is your first priority and not taking care of yourself isn't an option."

That annual reprieve is something that Jim Thomsen looks forward to all year long.

As a freelance editor who also cares for disabled relatives, Thomsen is used to being on call the rest of the time.

"I love being a part of a community and a society," he said. "But this is my day to pull the curtains on the rest of the world and be good to myself."

Permission to do nothing

Thomsen, who is self-employed, says Christmas is the lone day he gives himself permission to do nothing. "If I want to read three books, I'm going to do that. If I want to go for a five-hour walk, I'm going to do that. If I want to do nothing but heat up spaghetti, that's what I'm going to do. I give myself permission not to be part of society for one day, and it's a great luxury."

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For Dena Landon, an accountant and writer from Seattle who now lives in St. Paul, Minn., it was a few "pity invites" she endured while attending college in Massachusetts that led her to her tradition of solo holidays.

In an essay published in The Washington Post, Landon described being at the house of a school friend during her first Thanksgiving away from home and finding herself in the middle of battling strangers after her friend declared she was changing her major. The second year, she was seated next to a young man who made an awkward play for her while explaining that a would-be pastor needed a wife to land a job.

"I found myself thinking, "Man, I would rather be eating stale pizza."

The third year, she said no to a well-intentioned friend's overture and her "introvert's tradition was born," she said in a recent telephone interview. "I spent three or four days by myself and it was really nice. I went for walks, sat on Newbury Street (in Boston) and watched people, drank cider and read books for fun which I never got to do during school."

After Landon's piece appeared last month, a number of people contacted her to thank her.

"A lot of people retweeted it and said 'Oh my God, you get me,' " she said. "Others said, 'I wish I could do this but I told someone I would do this thing and now I have three different things to do and I have to bake cookies.' They're called social obligations for a reason."
The case of a 21-year-old man who authorities initially believed was struck and killed in a hit-and-run while riding a motorized bicycle in late August has been resolved.

Ramiz Hamzagic, of Rochester, was found dead Aug. 26 in the 4900 block of Broadway Avenue North after a caller reported coming upon a motorcycle crash. When first responders arrived at the scene about 10:30 p.m., Hamzagic was at the edge of the roadway's northbound lane. A motorized bicycle was nearby.

Evidence at the scene indicated Hamzagic was traveling in the northbound lane when he was struck, Capt. Scott Behrns of the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office said at the time, "but other than that, we have nothing else to go on."

Subsequent investigation revealed Hamzagic was in fact already on the ground when he was hit  likely by the initial caller, a 43-year-old man from rural Rochester.

No charges will be filed, Behrns said today, and the investigation will become "inactive," meaning no more will be done unless new, viable information or evidence is recovered.

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Based on an investigation that included the Rochester/Olmsted County Forensic Mapping Unit, the medical examiner and law enforcement, "it has been determined that other potential suspects, crimes, or involved parties could not have been responsible for the death," Behrns said in a statement.

Hamzagic left a party that night and drove into Rochester to meet some friends. He'd been drinking, the report says, and chose to ride a friend's motorized bicycle back home. His friends were to drive his car back to the residence.

Video gathered from businesses along the route, as well as the physical evidence at the scene, indicated Hamzagic crashed the bicycle while riding north on Broadway Avenue. Small blood droplets were found leading from the southbound to the northbound lanes, the report says.

Perhaps because of his fall, Hamzagic was lying on his back in the northbound lane, Behrns said.

Video has also shown the 43-year-old man driving north, then making a "slight evasive maneuver to the left ... in the area where Ramiz's body was discovered by emergency personnel," the report continues.

The vehicle then made a U-turn and stopped in the northbound lane, facing south. The 911 call came in at that time.

The driver told officers he noticed metal lying in the roadway and saw a red flashing light on the southbound shoulder; the light was from the motorized bicycle Hamzagic was riding.

The man said he drove around the metal, then saw Hamzagic in the road, but thought he was able to avoid hitting him.

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The 43-year-old showed no signs of impairment or intoxication, nor had he committed any crime or violated any traffic laws, the report says.

The bicycle sustained severe rear tire damage consistent with being run over while lying down, a bike shop employee said, not from being struck from behind.

There was "very little tissue, if any, obtained from the man's vehicle," Behrns said.

According to the medical examiner, Hamzagic's blood alcohol concentration at the time of his death was .192, more than twice the legal limit to drive in Minnesota. In addition, he had minor injuries on his torso, "consistent with falling from a moving bicycle and landing on asphalt."

Hamzagic's fatal head injuries were "indicative of being struck by a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed." The speed limit at the scene is 55 mph, but anything more than 30 mph is considered a high rate of speed by the medical examiner, Behrns said.

"There's no indication that (the driver) was speeding," he said.

Hamzagic was born in Germany and moved to Rochester at age 4. After high school, he moved to Georgia for a short while, and lived in Rochester since returning.
"Think you can't afford a new car? Let Ruben and the knowledgeable staff at G.A. Lewis show you how easy it is to step up to the economy of a four with the smoothness of a six, Plymouth for 1932."

G.A. Lewis Inc. was one of two Rochester auto dealers that sold REO, De Soto and Plymouths during the Great Depression, but only G.A. Lewis Inc. was located on Rochester's famed Automobile Row.

When it opened in 1928 at 319 First Ave. SW, Twin Cites-based Lewis hired Rubin Grundmeyer as its local manager. In 1932, Grundmeyer bought out Lewis and moved the agency to North Broadway, three blocks from the other REO, De Soto and Plymouth dealer, Ellis Motors.

Did you know that the name Plymouth came from a popular brand of binder twine, not from Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock, although the Mayflower was later used in its advertising?

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MINNESOTA CITY  A man lost his home and his dog in a fire late Tuesday.

Minnesota City Fire Department crews, along with the city's first responders and area law enforcement, responded to an 11:39 p.m. call to a home in the 100 block of Iowa Street. When crews arrived they found the detached garage, which had been converted into an apartment, on fire, said Winona County Sheriff Ron Ganrude.

The garage's resident, Logan Keeling, 19, told responders that he had left home at about 6 p.m. and found the garage on fire when he returned around 11:15 p.m. He then woke up the family in the adjacent home and called 911, Ganrude said.

Ganrude said the home's resident said they had been having some trouble with the propane heater used in the garage.

There were no injuries due to the fire, though Keeling owns a dog, which died as a result of the fire, the sheriff said. The house did receive some smoke damage, and the garage was a total loss.
RED WING  In its final meeting of 2017, the Goodhue County Board of Commissioners moved its solid waste plan to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, passed its final levy and budget for 2017 and said goodbye to 26 years of combined experience in board members Ted Seifert and Dan Rechtzigel's last meeting.

On a 3-2 vote, with Rechtzigel and Seifert opposed, the board authorized staff to submit the Goodhue County Solid Waste Designation Plan to the MPCA for approval.

"Once we have PCA approval, we can sit down an negotiate with the waste haulers," said Public Works Director Greg Isakson. The negotiations would take 90 days. "Then we can come to the board with the ordinance."

The plan would bring all solid waste in the county to a closed landfill in Red Wing. The plan would also, according to Rechtzigel, create a third-party monopoly that would not allow competition in pricing.

"Residents in my area will have absolutely no say in what price they'll pay in having their trash processed," he said. "This is a failing facility that we are now a part of. I don't like the heavy handedness of the state."

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The board also passed the 2017 budget and levy. The levy was set at $30,968,619, a $2,020,214 increase over 2016. However, due to a change in the tax base, the actual tax rate will fall 0.93 percent. The levy and budget were passed without much discussion by a 3-2 vote with Seifert and Commissioner Jason Majerus voting no.
HAYFIELD  It was definitely home, sweet home for this family. Perhaps for new families, Hayfield can be home for them, too.

Christina and Phil Bogojevic finished building a two-story house in Hayfield in mid-July. With a family of four, the couple needed to find a place close to their 10-year-old son's school, as well as with a park nearby where their children could play.

However, it was difficult to find a place to call home within the small town before building their house, said Christina Bogojevic, a Minnesota State Patrol lieutenant. When they started looking for a home, there only were seven houses on the market to choose from.

"There weren't a lot of options. We were driving our son back and forth while looking and just couldn't find anything to suit our family," Christina Bogojevic said. "We needed a bigger house."

Luckily, the city of Hayfield and Hayfield Economic Development Authority initiated an incentive program on Jan. 6 to encourage more residential building within city limits. The Bogojevics received $7,740 to help with their project.

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The benefit is calculated as 3 percent of the home's estimated value on the building permit. There's no cap on the incentive, and the price of the lot isn't included in the calculation. The program excludes homes built by the EDA, said Lori Kindschy, city clerk-treasurer.

The program is funded by a local sales tax distribution from Rochester. In 2014, small towns, within a 30-mile radius of Rochester  including Hayfield  began to receive a share of Rochester sales tax revenue , according to Kindschy. Hayfield's share amounts to $143,000.

Hayfield gave $50,000 of that money to the EDA to fund the new residential building incentive program. The performance of the program will be assessed to determine whether it is continued.

Kindschy, who lived in Hayfield for two decades, noted about five homes were built during that time, but in the last two years, five more were built.

"We would like to encourage more people to move to Hayfield," she said. "We haven't seen a decrease  but we would like to increase new home building. We've had available lots for years."

The incentive program has had four applications so far.

Incentive dollars stay with the parcel and are given to the new homeowners after they have paid their first water and sewer bill and after all permitting and hookup fees are paid. The money can be used by the homeowner for things such as landscaping, appliances, decks, cement and sod.

The builder, developer or contractor aren't eligible for the incentive, however. The final occupants of the home are the ones who qualify.

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Construction must be on current vacant taxable parcels in the Hayfield city limits, and residential permits approved on or after Jan. 6 are eligible. This is meant for single-family residential construction.

Now Bogojevic has a home to raise her children, where her son can ride his bike to and from school. The incentive program helped her family find a place to call home without giving up anything they wanted in their town, she said.

With the program, she said she hopes Hayfield will draw more families to move there and establish a stronger student base to keep the school district strong.

"This is a great way to do it," she said. "With Rochester expanding, I'm hoping Hayfield will grow also. It definitely exceeded our expectations. I know the people in the community are extremely friendly.  I felt like this was home."
MINNEAPOLIS  Last year, Mayor Betsy Hodges said she didn't support a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour for the city alone because she wanted a higher minimum wage across the Twin Cities.

Since then, advocates have won a sick leave mandate in Minneapolis and St. Paul and preliminary approval for a higher minimum wage from the city council in Minneapolis.

But then came last month's election. Republicans added three seats to their majority in the Minnesota House and won back the Senate.

"My stance on a regional minimum wage hasn't changed, but the conditions under which we can accomplish that have with the Nov. 8 election," Hodges said, which means a new state law to raise the wage across the metro area isn't in the plan.

Facing a potential DFL endorsement battle in coming months and a re-election bid in November, Hodges has opted to side with supporters of the Minneapolis-only plan, likely a sizable majority on the city council.

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"It's clear that the city council is going to act and move forward on something," she said, "and I wanted to make sure that I set down some principals for that conversation, including that I don't support a tip penalty."

That means the minimum wage also would apply to tipped workers, such as restaurant servers.

While some businesses have expressed at least grudging support for a hike in the minimum wage, some remain reluctant. The Minnesota Restaurant Association said including tipped workers in the proposal will hurt the city's hospitality industry.

Businesses already have been pushing back hard on the city's workforce initiatives. The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is fighting the city's sick and safe leave mandate in court and business groups applauded a state Supreme Court decision that struck a minimum wage measure from the ballot in Minneapolis this year.

Republicans in the Legislature also are watching developments in Minneapolis closely.

Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, who chairs the House jobs committee, said he thinks lawmakers indeed will take action on minimum wages, but not the regional hike Hodges was hoping for.

"The concern at the Legislature is more that we live in one state, and we should have one policy for these important issues," he said. "If we start allowing every city in the state to have their own sick leave, own maternity policy, their own minimum wage, it's just going to make it completely unworkable to do business in the state of Minnesota. And this is going to result in fewer jobs and lower pay for workers."

Garofalo adds that developments elsewhere in the country also could swing the pendulum the other way. He says cases working through federal courts could allow local employment ordinances, including some that could cut into union bargaining rights.

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"It creates exposure for a totally different patchwork of labor policies, depending upon what city you're in," he said. "And it could do that in a way that is shown by the progressive left to expand the minimum wage. But it could also be used by conservative groups to push right-to-work laws on a municipal level."
ST. PAUL  With the number of hate crimes targeting Muslims on the rise in the U.S., some Muslim-Americans are responding by taking self-defense courses.

Nausheena Hussain organized a self-defense class last weekend in Fridley because she wanted her fellow Muslim women to be prepared for the worst.

"Given the sort of negative national rhetoric around Muslims we've been seeing across the nation ... we wanted to make sure we could prepare the women just in case something were to happen," said Hussain, executive director of Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment.

FBI statistics show the number of assaults on Muslims in 2015 was the highest it's been since just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Southern Poverty Law Center recently reported 867 hate incidents in the 10 days after the presidential election.

The Saturday class at Al-Amal School was taught by Brooklyn Park Police Sgt. Toni Weinbeck, who demonstrated basic self-defense strategies such as punching, elbowing and kicking. She described simple safety precautions such as being aware of your surroundings and staying in well-lit areas.

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Many of the group of about 20 women who attended the class said they already have had experiences that make them feel unsafe.

Paige Ingram said a man once tried to pull off her hijab. Amina Gouse said she was chased through a parking lot. Hussain said she's been yelled at from passing cars.

Other women said they've never been attacked or intimidated, but they've begun to feel less safe in recent weeks.

"I've never actually felt threatened or unsafe until after the elections," said Iftou Yoya, a new executive board member for RISE. "And I feel like a lot of people have those same sentiments now."

During a recent visit to a mosque in Virginia, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch railed against the spike in hate crimes against Muslims, saying they "stain our dearest ideals and our nation's very soul."

Hussain said she plans to organize more self-defense training classes because so many women showed interest in the class.
Explanations for Donald Trump's election victory have proliferated almost as much in recent weeks as the president-elect's tweets.

It's an insoluble debate, deciding which factor was most crucial: Trump's promise of sweeping change; Hillary Clinton's weakness as a candidate, her email server or her campaign's blue state political malpractice; the mistaken intrusions of FBI Chief James Comey; damage from Bernie Sanders' exaggerated primary criticisms; or apparent Russian efforts to help Trump.

The likeliest answer is that all contributed to the unexpected outcome, which hinged on Trump's victory in three Rust Belt states by less than 80,000 votes.

In any case, the election's unfortunate fallout is becoming increasingly evident, such as Trump's decision to install domestic Cabinet chiefs who support policies that would weaken federal protections for many Americans.

Even more serious perhaps is the growing evidence Trump would abandon 70 years of U.S.-led Western firmness against Soviet and Russian expansionism by seeking friendlier relations with President Vladimir Putin, whose aggressive policies represent one of the greatest threats to European stability.

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From picking top aides with long-standing ties to the autocratic Russian leader to dismissing the increasing evidence Putin's agents sought to manipulate the 2016 U.S. election, Trump is pushing ahead with his unproven belief that a friendlier approach will somehow benefit the United States. (It may benefit business interests whose pro-Trump lobbyists are already at work in Moscow.)

Unlike the sharply conservative tone of the heretofore politically androgynous Trump's domestic appointments, his pro-Putin thrust should come as no surprise. Throughout the campaign, Trump made it clear he favors closer ties with Russia, and he mocked suggestions it sought to influence the outcome.

He called Putin "a better leader" than Barack Obama. He gave misleading answers about their relationship, at one point telling George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week," "I've no relationship with Putin. I've never met him." But in a 2014 Fox News interview, he said, "When I went to Russia with the Miss Universe pageant, he contacted me and was so nice."

Trump said he had no financial dealings with Russia other than running the 2008 Miss Universe pageant there. But the website eturbonews.com quoted Donald Trump Jr. telling a 2008 real estate conference: "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia." In a detailed article, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo suggested Trump is "highly reliant on money from Russia" to finance his debts  something that could be checked if Trump followed past practice and released his tax returns.

Whether Trump was motivated by his finances or wishful thinking, there was little doubt before intelligence agencies confirmed Russian efforts that Putin favored Trump's election. His antagonism toward Clinton seems to stem mainly from her December 2011 statement expressing "serious concern" about the fairness of Russian parliamentary elections and calling for a "full investigation" of irregularities.

In other words, Putin objected to the fact that, as secretary of state, Clinton properly decried his increasingly anti-democratic tendencies, a stance the United States has traditionally taken around the world. Now, Russian leaders reportedly are delighted with Trump's election, believing the United States will be more interested in financial dealing than in opposing Russian expansionism and autocracy.

Still, whatever Putin's motives, it's far worse that he tried actively to interfere in our election, probably to help elect Trump. That's why leading Republicans such as Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham joined top Democrats in bipartisan calls to investigate.

Even some lawmakers who don't acknowledge Putin sought to help Trump understand his ultimate goal is to destabilize the Western alliance that has kept European peace since World War II and remains a vital barrier to renewed Russian expansionism. Trump may face considerable resistance if he tries to ease economic sanctions on Russia.

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Meanwhile, he should join demands to determine what happened in the campaign, rather than continually cozying up to the country Mitt Romney in 2012 presciently called America's "No. 1 geopolitical foe." That would require the transition he has yet to make from Republican candidate to president of all Americans.

Whatever Trump says or does, this issue will be front and center when Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which must approve his nomination. Even senators inclined to back the oil mogul will want to know if Trump's administration will take the realistic stance toward Russia that has been lacking in his campaign and post-campaign pronouncements.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News.
The Associated Press fact checker exposes some fake news about Sarah Palin that was propagated on Facebook:

A story claiming former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called for boycotting the Mall of America in Minnesota over its black Santa Claus is false.

The story, posted by Newslo [Ed.: Never heard of it.] and some affiliated websites, claims Palin told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, Santa was always white in the Bible. Its been widely shared on Facebook.

But the Star Tribune never ran such a story. And the newspapers managing editor, Suki Dardarian, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that none of her reporters ever spoke with Palin about the malls recent hiring of its black Santa.

Palin appeared to deny the false story in a Facebook post earlier this month, posting a shot of that story with an acerbic comment.
The Daily Mail passes on the last name and photo (right) of the suspect identified by the authorities in the Berlin massacre. He is believed to be armed and dangerous. And, oh, yeah, he is probably a member of a large Islamic organization:

This is the Tunisian asylum seeker with links to Islamic extremists who has become Europes most wanted man after his ID was found under the seat in the lorry used to massacre 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market. Police today revealed they are hunting Anis Amri, 23, a refugee who came to Germany earlier this year. His paperwork was found in the trucks footwell. He is probably armed, highly dangerous and a member of a large Islamic organisation and has weapons training abroad, security sources say. The suspect was also in contact with a network of leading Islamist ideologists. This afternoon, police raided a migrant shelter in the town of Emmerich, western Germany, where he is believed to have lived. Amri, who was born in the desert town of Tataouine in 1992  a well-known ISIS stronghold close to the Libyan border  was apparently recently arrested for GBH but vanished before he could be charged.

In August 2016 he was arrested with a fake Italian passport and released but his phone was said to be monitored. He then disappeared in December, according to Die Welt. A Facebook profile in his name shows likes linked to Tunisian terror group Ansar al-Sharia, a Tunisian group with followers linked to extremists who murdered 22 at Tunis Bardo Museum in March 2015 and then 39 tourists at a beach resort in Sousse. Germanys state minister said the suspects asylum application had been rejected and that he appeared to have used different names. Amri has temporary permission to stay in the country but was due to face an asylum hearing.

I find this almost unbelievable:

Despite an unfolding international manhunt the first pictures of him released in Germany have his eyes deliberately covered, thought to be because of strict privacy laws there. MailOnline has uncovered unblurred images.

We have some reason to hope that the suspect is not operating at full strength:

Police are believed to have found blood in the trucks cab and now assume that the suspect may be badly injured.

Where did the hunt go wrong at the outset? The Daily Mail offers this:

The attacker was followed by a witness for a mile and a half  updating police on his mobile phone  but who is then said to have lost him in the citys Tiergarten park. On the basis of the description of the attacker given to police by the witness, officers pounced on Mr Baluch near the parks victory column. Police celebrated the swift arrest, with spokesman Winfrid Wenzel hailing the civic courage of the witness. But relief later turned to helplessness as the authorities admitted they had been wasting their time with the Pakistani, whose DNA was not in the butcab.

The Daily Mail story has more current information and photographs, all of which is of interest. Indeed, the case of Anis Amri may offer a teachable moment or three for citizens of the United States.

STEVE adds: Im a little skeptical of this story. His ID just happened to fall out of his pocket to the floor of the truck? Its plausible that this happened in the struggle to kill the Polish driver of the truck, but it also sounds like exactly what youd do to throw off the investigation if in fact this terrorist strike was part of large organizational effort. I wouldnt be surprised to find out in a day or two that this Amri fellow has slipped out of Germany and is safely back in Syria or Iraq.
TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - December 20, 2016) - Triple Flag is pleased to announce that Triple Flag Mining Finance Bermuda Ltd. ("Triple Flag Bermuda") has entered into a silver stream agreement with Milpo UK Limited ("Milpo UK"), a subsidiary of Compania Minera Milpo S.A.A. ("Milpo"), in relation to silver production from Cerro Lindo, a poly-metallic zinc mine in Peru. Triple Flag Bermuda will make an upfront payment of US$250 million to Milpo UK and will pay 10% of the spot silver price at the time of delivery for each ounce of silver delivered under the agreement. Milpo is 100% owner of Cerro Lindo and is a subsidiary of VM Holding S.A. ("VMH"), part of Votorantim S.A.'s portfolio. For further details, see the presentation on our website at http://www.tripleflagmining.com.

Terms of the Agreement:

Triple Flag Bermuda funding is currently expected by December 21 st , 2016, with first delivery of silver to Triple Flag Bermuda in January of 2017.

The stream will be based on all payable silver from the Cerro Lindo Stream Area. Initially, Triple Flag Bermuda will be entitled to 65.0% of all payable silver until such time as 19.5 million ounces have been delivered under the agreement. Thereafter, Triple Flag Bermuda will be entitled to 25.0% of payable silver.

Triple Flag Bermuda will pay to Milpo UK 10% of the spot silver price in cash for each ounce of silver delivered under the stream agreement.

Transaction Highlights:

Cerro Lindo is an ideal cornerstone asset with an excellent track record: Cerro Lindo is a low-cost, long-life poly-metallic zinc mine located in Peru that commenced operations in 2007. It produces zinc, lead, and copper concentrates, with significant by-product silver.

Cerro Lindo had 2015 C1 cash costs of US$0.51/lb zinc, placing it just above the first quartile of its global peers on the zinc mine cost curve. Cerro Lindo commenced operations in 2007 with a capacity of 5 ktpd throughput, and has since had three successful staged expansions that have increased capacity to 18 ktpd in 2014, an incredible achievement for a total capex spend of US$390 million. A further US$20 million expansion to 20 ktpd is underway. Cerro Lindo is a modern, best-in-class operation utilizing dry-stack tailings and desalinated seawater.



Milpo is an ideal long-term partner: Milpo has a long history of successful operations and a conservative capital structure with low leverage.

Milpo is a proven operator with more than 67 years of experience operating in Peru. Milpo is an important asset for VMH, part of Votorantim S.A.'s portfolio, which includes also cement, aluminium, steel, energy, pulp, orange juice and banking businesses. Votorantim S.A. is a 98-year-old leading, highly successful multi-generational private Brazilian company.



Exploration and expansion potential: Cerro Lindo is a VMS deposit with a strong history of reserve replenishment and growth, and Milpo has plans to continue exploration activities in coming years.

"Triple Flag is pleased to partner with Milpo in concluding its first transaction since its inception seven months ago," said Shaun Usmar, CEO of Triple Flag Mining Finance Ltd. "Cerro Lindo is one of the world's ten largest zinc mines and has an excellent track record of low-cost staged expansions as well as reserve replacement and life extension. It is an ideal cornerstone asset for the business and Triple Flag looks forward to a long-term partnership with Milpo, which has a long history of successful operations."

"The Triple Flag team was able to differentiate themselves throughout this transaction with their combination of deep mining experience, understanding of our business needs, and ability to deliver a transaction that met our objectives," said Tito Martins, member of Milpo's Board and Milpo's upcoming CEO. "We are very pleased to be entering into this long-term partnership with Triple Flag for the life of our world-class asset."

About Triple Flag

Triple Flag Mining Finance Bermuda Ltd. and Triple Flag Mining Finance Ltd. together constitute Triple Flag. Triple Flag primarily targets streaming and royalty investments in the mining sector with backing by Elliott Management Corporation, an experienced global investment firm with more than $30 billion of assets under management. Triple Flag's investment focus is primarily on precious metals with a mission to become a leading sought-after long-term funding partner to mining companies throughout the commodity cycle. For more information, visit http://www.tripleflagmining.com.

About Milpo

Compania Minera Milpo S.A.A. (Milpo) is a Peruvian mining company dedicated to the exploration, extraction, processing and marketing of zinc, copper and lead concentrates, with silver and gold content, and it is currently one of the main polymetallic producers in Peru. Milpo develops its operations with a clear social responsibility and environmental commitment. Since 2010, Milpo is part of VM Holding S.A. (VMH), the metals and mining business of Votorantim S.A., a privately-owned Brazilian company with almost 100 years of history and presence in many key sectors of the economy across more than 23 countries.
German media report that police are searching for a Tunisian named Anis A, born in 1992 in the city of Tataouine, after a temporary-stay permit was found under a seat in the cab of the lorry. Thats how the BBC puts it. The man is aged 21 or 23 and also known by two aliases, according to unconfirmed reports in the daily Allgemeine Zeitung and the Bild newspaper.

The UKs Telegraph adds that, according to German reports, asylum office papers believed to belong to the man were found in the cab of the truck. Did they just get around to searching the cab of the truck?

The BBC adds that German media have also reported a police operation in process in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

We know that the truck used in the attack had been hijacked. The Polish truck driver was killed in the attack but it appears that he struggled valiantly to prevent it:

[I]t has emerged that the original driver of the truck may have fought the attacker as the vehicle was being driven into the market. Polish citizen Lukasz Urban was found dead on the passenger seat with gunshot and stab wounds. Investigators quoted by German media say there is evidence that, despite being stabbed, Mr Urban wrestled him for the steering wheel. One official quoted by Bild newspaper said it appeared from the post-mortem examination that the driver had survived up to the attack and was shot dead when the truck came to a halt. No gun has been recovered. Ariel Zurawski, the owner of the Polish transport company, said he had been asked to identify Mr Urban from photographs. His face was swollen and bloodied. It was really clear that he was fighting for his life, he told broadcaster TVN. Company manager Lukasz Wasik described Mr Urban as a good, quiet and honest person and said he believed he would have defended the truck to the end.

Sky News has more here.

It strikes me as odd that the German authorities seem not even to have released the full name of the current suspect. I cant find additional identifying information beyond the suspects first name  no last name, no photograph. So far as can be determined from the British press, the authorities have not enlisted the assistance of the public in locating the suspect.
President Obama today used his pen to withdraw hundreds of millions of acres of federally owned land in the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean from new offshore oil and gas drilling. Obama acted pursuant to something called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. It includes a sentence saying the president may from time to time, withdraw from consideration any currently unleased lands in federal offshore waters.

The White House described its prohibition on future oil and gas exploration and drilling as indefinite, and it claimed that the ban cannot be undone by an incoming president. There is a precedent of more than half a century of this authority being utilized by presidents of both parties, a White House aide said. There is no authority for subsequent presidents to un-withdraw.

I have no view on the merits of Obamas withdrawal of the offshore waters from consideration for drilling. However, the claim that Trump cant reverse this strikes me as questionable. David Rivkin argues, plausibly, that the power to withdraw entails the power to un-withdraw, especially if circumstances change.

Rivkin says its not clear why Congress would give a president tremendous authority operating only in one direction. Unless the legislative history supplies an explanation, we should perhaps conclude that Congress didnt.

If the withdrawal cant be reversed by Trump, Congress could pass legislation reversing it. But this would probably require 60 votes in the Senate.

Right now, there seems to be little impetus for drilling in the waters in question. According to the Wall Street Journal:

The announcement carries symbolic significance but little immediate impact, since no commercial drilling is currently taking place in U.S. federal waters of either the Atlantic off the East Coast or the Arctic north of Alaska. Persistently low oil prices have depressed the oil industrys appetite to make big investments in new offshore projects, and any production would take the better part of a decade to come online.

However, Obamas ban is of indefinite duration. Thus, as Tyler Durden of ZeroHedge says, we can expect the oil and gas industry to push for a reversal, and shouldnt be surprised if Trump attempts one.
UK & Argentine Falklands Rapprochement

Britain and Argentina appear to have made significant headway towards improving relations after reaching an agreement to identify the bodies of more than 100 unknown Argentinian soldiers buried on the Falklands Islands after the 1982 war. The two countries also agreed to increase the number of flights between Argentina and the islands, which they claim as the Malvinas.The 74-day war, which began when Argentina seized the islands and Britain sent a taskforce to retake them, saw 649 Argentinian and 255 British soldiers, as well as three Falkland islanders, lose their lives.Under the agreement announced on Tuesday, the Red Cross will assemble a team of forensic experts, including two Argentinians, who will retrieve DNA samples from 123 unidentified Argentinian combatants buried at at Darwin Cemetery on East Falkland. The samples will then be compared against the samples taken from the volunteer Argentinian families. Work on identifying the remains will begin early next year, according to the Argentinian foreign ministrys statement.The two governments also announced that talks are proceeding smoothly for the opening of extra flights between the South American mainland and the islands. FCO minister Sir Alan Duncan tweeted that Argentina and Britain had agreed a way forward on new flights from Falkland Islands to Latin America. Press reports in Argentina indicated that these could include a flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Mount Pleasant airport near Port Stanley, the capital of the islands, stopping over at Argentinas capital city, Buenos Aires. The Argentinian foreign ministry said in its statement: Both countries will negotiate with the air authorities in Brazil and Chile to determine what the stopovers will be.At the moment a twice-weekly flight is operated by the British ministry of defence from the United Kingdom to the Falklands, as well as a weekly flight from Punta Arenas in Chile that makes a monthly stopover at Rio Gallegos in Argentina.Relations between London and Buenos Aires have improved significantly since Argentinas president, Mauricio Macri, took office a year ago. Macri abandoned the confrontative attitude of former president Cristina Kirchner, who restricted hydrocarbon exploration in the area around the islands and at one point barred sea cruisers bound for the Falklands from docking at Argentinian ports.The agreement was signed in London by Sir Alan Duncan, minister for Europe and the Americas at the Foreign Office, and Argentinian foreign deputy minister Pedro Villagra Delgado. The signing was attended by Falkland Islands officials.
This weekend promises to be exciting as various top Nollywood movies are scheduled to hit the cinemas.

Emem Isongs new movie, Ayamma, is one of those movies that will be showing in cinemas from Friday.

The musical movie under the production of Royal Arts Academy, is produced by renowned Nollywood producer and director stars, Adesua Etomi, Wale Ojo, Ime Bishop Umoh, Ekere Ekanga, Theresa Edem, Majid Michel, Moses Armstrong and so many others.

The star-studded movie, which focuses on culture and history, is as a magical story of love, treachery, lust and revenge, all entwined in the beauty of music and dance.

Set in a fictitious village somewhere in Ibibio land in Akwa Ibom State, Ayamma tells the story of Prince Daraima (Wole Ojo), the fascinating heir to Obong Ikpaisong, who repeatedly dreams of Ihuoma (Adesua Etomi), poor but radiating maiden whose beauty is matched only by her voice.

He is in love with the girl of his dreams. In the real world, Prince Daraima is set to marry Princess Ama (Tinsel star, Theresa Edem), the arrogant child to a neighbouring Monarch.

Princess Ama observes her groom-to-be captivated by Iko and resolves to nip this obvious threat in the bud.

The movie is bound to be a good company for everyone this yuletide season. It is a beautiful story mixed with different features.

The movie was directed by renowned Nigeria director, Chris Eneaji.

Watch trailer of the movie and the premiere video below.
A-MA-LA: a tri-syllabic word that salivates may be the middle name of this rustic city, and its new carnival of the palate.

When you hear about amala, there are various questions that pop into your head. Sometimes one wonders, why are people so enamoured with a dish whose colour is most unlikely to attract the retina? Why is it that when people step into Ibadan for the first time the one thing they are, almost invariably, asking for is an amala buka?

As a child growing up in Ibadan, I know that at some point in my life I have had memories that were tied to the legendary amala. There were days when we would drive past any of the canteens in Ibadan and I cannot help but imagine pots of steaming amala with the signature gbegiri and ewedu soup, a combination called abula. For sure, culture is the way of life of a group of people and part of our culture is our food. Our food sometimes defines our identity.

We all have wondered for years now what makes amala special? Anybody can prepare amala at home on a gas cooker, so whats the special thing about the buka amala? The answer to that question is probably simple. It is the euphoria, that strange feeling you get when you have just 45 minutes to spare for a lunch break and you have no car, and you must have Bodija Market amala for lunch. So what to do? You pick a bike and already 10 minutes of your time is gone, rush into the buka and the queue is terrible; the noise annoying and the heat maddening  there is obviously no air condition but you must eat that amala. When it is finally your turn you still have to spend five minutes arguing with the lady who is supposed to give you meat but when you start eating the amala, your fingers are burning and you are all drenched in sweat but you dont stop, you keep eating. Finally done, you take that toothpick and put it in your mouth even when you have nothing there I guess that is what makes amala special; yet, all we amala fans arent totally unaware of the sometimes suspect sanitary condition of some city joints. I sometimes strangely imagine if this really isnt a mark of its authenticity?

This grassroots love seems to have been identified by the Oyo State government. And the government, in conjunction with the Commission for Museums and Monuments and the National Museum of Unity, Alesinloye Ibadan, presented this Ajodun Oka, the amala fiesta which they titled The Making of Amala. And though I did not make the opening ceremony, but have it on authority that the event, which took place at the Trans Amusement park, Ibadan, was commissioned by the governor of Oyo state who was represented by his wife Mrs Florence Ajimobi. Mrs Ajimobi urged Nigerians to embrace African cultural values. There was also in attendance the state Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Mr. Toye Arulogun.

There were different stalls awarded to different participants from various canteens in Ibadan North to aid them in the preparation of this delicacy. We had canteens like Omolayo, Iyadunni and Iya Oyo; just a slight chip of the iya- omo canteen-naming predilection of Ibadan where most canteens are named after a mother and/or a child. There were also stalls for side attractions like the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training which displayed different books and even a grasscutter. The various canteens are expected to prepare amala and abula, while people are expected to go eat, and have fun free of charge!

Any surprise at the timing of this festival? A dwindling income from oil reserves forcing federating units and states to look inwards, some have suggested. Tapping into a potential local market of indigenous passion of palate, is another way some have explained it. What seems incontrovertible is that Nigeria is becoming highly culturally conscious everyday, and although we have a lot of festivals, we do not really have a lot of festivals depicting our indigenous delicacies and their preparations. The Ajodun Oka serves as an opening to showcase Nigerian food such as amala, and to encourage everyone, particularly the new generation to embrace indigenous food, especially when they are highly organic and healthy.

Iwalewa Olorunyomi writes from the Department of Classics, University of Ibadan.
Former United States Ambassador to Nigeria and an expert on Nigerian and African affairs, John Campbell, in this one-on-one interview with PREMIUM TIMES Washington Bureau reporter, Bisi Olanipekun, discusses Nigeria, his new book on South Africa and the U.S.-Africa relations especially with the incoming Trump administration.

PT: As a former ambassador and political counsellor to Nigeria and South Africa respectively, how would you assess the importance of these two countries to the United States and the world?

Campbell: I would argue that Nigeria and South Africa are the two African countries of the greatest strategic importance to the United States. Nigeria because of its sheer size, but also because it is, I think, a noble experiment. A multi-ethnic, multi-religious democracy in a continent that is part of the developing world. Nigerias sheer size, I think, also raises the possibility that Nigeria can have a seat at the table with the other big powers around the world. In the case of South Africa, there you have a highly-sophisticated economy. A country, which has in the past been bitterly divided along racial lines. And a country with a history of white supremacy and its consequences, not unlike the history of the southern parts of the United States. Very interesting parallels, I think, between the two. Well, I first actually served in Nigeria from 1988 to 1990 as a political counsellor. I was then political counsellor in South Africa from 1993 to 1996 and then ambassador to Nigeria from 2004 to 2007.

PT: How would you rate the Buhari administration in terms of the fight against terror, corruption and the dwindling economy?

Campbell: Well, I think the elections of 2015 were enormously important, because in Africas largest country the opposition came to power through the ballot box. After the elections of 2015, I think one can genuinely say that Nigeria is a democracy. I mean, if you define democracy as a political system in which the opposition stands a reasonable chance of coming to power through the ballot box, Nigeria now meets that criteria. So, the fact of the elections is enormously important. Now, President Buhari campaigned essentially on two major planks. The first one was to restore the security situation with specific focus on Boko Haram. And the other was anti-corruption. In the case of Boko Haram, Boko Haram has been cleared out of the territory that it once occupied. But, Boko Haram is far from having been destroyed. And in fact, Boko Haram operations are continuing. President Buhari, I think, quite rightly has put an emphasis on a multilateral approach to Boko Haram with Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. But, Boko Haram is going to be very difficult to actually rout out. With corruption, he has taken some really quite dramatic steps to address corruption at the highest levels. The difficulty is, corruption in Nigeria is structural. In other words, it infuses the whole political system. And therefore, its much more difficult to root out. And in a sense, everythings related to everything else. Take the police, for example. Okay. The police set up checkpoints, and basically they shake down people that are passing through those checkpoints. Thats a form of corruption. But the police are so poorly paid that unless they man checkpoints and shake down people, they literally will not have enough money to keep their families alive. So, if youre going to address police corruption, you also have to address police salaries. You also have to address the poor levels of police training. So in other words, its complicated. And corruption in this sense is not just simply people being bad, but it is rather people trying to adjust to extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

PT: Would you then say, to paraphrase the title of your book on Nigeria, that Nigeria is still dancing on the brink or have we fallen off it completely?

Campbell: Its dancing on the cliff, not falling off. If the elections in 2015 had not been regarded by most Nigerians as credible, then I think there would have been a danger of going over the brink. That didnt happen. The security challenges that the Buhari government faces continue to be Boko Haram in the north, now the unrest in the Delta, plus a resurgence of interest in Biafra, which its hard to see how thats going to play out. Nigeria is an extraordinarily difficult country to govern, but it has not gone over the brink.

PT: On Nigeria-U.S. relations, what are your thoughts, especially as the United States no longer depends on Nigerias oil? Are there other areas of cooperation or bilateral relations?

Campbell: Well, youre perfectly correct, that the United States is no longer dependent on Nigerian oil, primarily because of the increase of American oil production, but also increases in the production of countries that are closer in field, such as Canada or Venezuela. So, the energy relationship is, I think, a much less important component in the bilateral relationship. That said, Nigeria still remains, I think, of central importance to American policy in Africa, because it is a functioning democracy and as such, has a leadership role on the continent.

PT: Away from Nigeria, Ambassador, can we briefly touch on your new book, Morning In South Africa? How has South Africa fared post the Nelson Mandela era, considering you witnessed first-hand the transition period from apartheid to black majority rule?

Campbell: Depends on the area you look at. What are the achievements? One: the rate of extreme poverty has been cut in half. Two: three million new houses have been built. Further, those houses built by the government are distributed to people in fee-simple ownership. Now, what that means is that those houses can be bought, sold, and mortgaged, which means they also become a way of accumulating capital. And amongst black South Africans, particularly under apartheid, it was almost impossible for them to accumulate capital. So, the ability to accumulate capital through home ownership, which is how most Americans accumulate capital, is I think a major achievement. Three: the altogether dismantling of the apartheid structures. Extraordinarily difficult. There were some 19 different educational systems inherited from apartheid. You had black schools, coloured schools, Indian schools, white schools. The list goes on and on and on. And in fact, they have now, I think, relatively successfully been amalgamated. Next: there have now been  how many  one, two, three, four national elections, all credible. At least as many local government elections, all credible. There is a general acceptance of the South African Constitution, generally regarded as one of the most liberal in the world. You have among the most complete protections of human rights of any constitution in the world. These are not minor achievements.

One can argue, one should argue, that the fundamental issues of inequality continue. In fact, the gulf between the net worth of white people and everybody else in South Africa is greater now than it was at the end of apartheid. In other words, whites have gotten richer. So, too, has everybody else. But whites have gotten richer than everybody else. So, the part of this is bound up in a major area, which has to do particularly with primary education, where the backlog of the shortcomings of Bantu education, education for black people under apartheid, those shortcomings have still not been adequately addressed, and far too many black children are in schools that are inadequate to prepare them in the modern economy. So education is a shortcoming. Continuing inequality largely based on race is another shortcoming. South Africans tend to shy away from what is a fundamental reality in contemporary South Africa, and that is, most, not all, but most rich South Africans are white, and most poor South Africans are black. Thats a reality which South Africans are hesitant, I think, to confront head on.

PT: What is your current assessment of the US-South Africa relations, considering it was not rosy during the period of Apartheid in the 80s and 90s.

Campbell: Oh, its quite bad. The official relationship. Its a very interesting question. At the time of the transition, when I was living in South Africa, everybody assumed that the bilateral relationship between two multi-racial democracies was bound to be very close. Well, it wasnt. And part of that is because there were unreal expectations on both sides. Mandela and Mbeki both, I think, anticipated much larger, even transformative, investment from the United States in South Africa. They overlooked the fact that the American government has no power to command American companies to invest anywhere. And investment decisions by American corporations are largely economically driven. On the American side, there was disappointment that the Mandela and Mbeki administrations continued to have close relations with people like Fidel Castro and Muammar Gaddafi. Disappointments on both sides. On the South African side as well, particularly for the ANC, there was the widespread feeling that the United States came late to the anti-apartheid struggle. The relationship is correct, but not particularly warm. I think thats how I would characterize it. In the late apartheid period, the apartheid government didnt like the United States very much, because of what it perceived as its support for the anti-apartheid effort. But, the ANC and the PAC didnt like the United States very much, because of what it perceived as its support for the anti-apartheid effort. But, the ANC and the PAC didnt like the United States very much either, because they thought that the American effort was pretty weak. So, both groups are not really very happy with the Americans.

PT: How do you see the U.S.-Africa relations play out under a Trump Presidency?

Campbell: U.S.-Africa relations and where its going to go? Yes. Where to start? The first place to start is that in the presidential debates, Africa was mentioned not once. I mean, it was as though Africa was altogether absent. So, if you ask about what we can anticipate from the Trump administration with respect to Africa, my answer to you will be, We dont know. We have absolutely no idea. Who Mr. Trump chooses as his Secretary of State will be quite important. If, for example, it were to be Mitt Romney, then I think we could anticipate that the, at least, the formal diplomatic relationship with African countries will continue much as it has been. But, if somebody is selected who has very little foreign policy knowledge or experience, then who knows what direction it will take?

PT: Could a Trump administration jeopardize or halt the recently extended AGOA (African Growth Opportunity Act) by the U.S. Congress?

Campbell: Not much, as a practical matter. I mean, its there in place. I suppose in theory it could try to repeal it, but its unlikely to try to do that. So, I think AGOA will remain in place. Now, I have no idea whether it will be expanded. In a Clinton administration, I think it probably would have been, but now I dont know.

PT: Your take on Trumps policies on immigration and the banning of Muslims.

Campbell: Banning Muslims, that is to say, people who adhere to a specific religion would almost certainly be unconstitutional. So, you couldnt do it. You could, at least in theory, deport illegal aliens in the United States who are Muslim, on the basis theyre illegal aliens. I think it would be very difficult to ban Muslim visitors to the United States. I think it would be difficult to prohibit Muslim immigration to the United States, because of the guarantees of freedom of religion that are in the constitution. But the rhetoric is certainly unfriendly to Muslims. By the way, an interesting aspect, the Nigerian community in the United States has done extraordinarily well- its one of the most successful of the immigrant communities here. But, there are very few Muslims. I mean, theyre mostly from the south and west of Nigeria.

PT: Your thoughts on the currently concluded U.S. election. Do you think the Electoral College system should be eliminated as suggested by some Americans and even by the former Vice President, Al Gore?

Campbell: Well, Al Gore, like Hillary Clinton, won the most votes, but lost in the Electoral College. The Electoral College has been in the constitution since day one. It would require a constitutional amendment to remove it. That would be politically very, very difficult to do. What the Electoral College does is it puts a thumb on scale, as it were, for the smaller states in the Union. So, you get lots of support for eliminating the Electoral College in New York or California, but youre not going to get it in Wyoming or Delaware or other small states.

PT: How would you assess the Obama Presidency and its relations with the African Continent?

Campbell: I mean, thats right. Obamas widely criticized in Africa for a seeming lack of attention. I would suggest that African expectations there were unrealistic. Too many Africans thought that simply because Obama had an African father, he would have some kind of orientation towards Africa. In fact, he visited Africa two or three times altogether over eight years. And one of them was for Mandelas funeral. He never visited Nigeria. Though, the period that he was president, the Nigerian government was particularly problematic. Those were the days of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, massive human rights abuses connected with the struggle against Boko Haram, and so forth. He did visit Kenya, which also had, and has, a problematic government, the Kenyatta administration. They didnt stay very long, and he certainly tried to minimize contact with the Kenyatta administration. So, in other words, I think African expectations were unrealistic. I mean, Obama was president of the United States, he wasnt president of Africa. He had one or two other things to worry about. He had Iraq, Afghanistan, and preventing the collapse of the American economy. So, just how much can you do?

PT: Your thoughts on Obamas POWER AFRICA and YALI initiatives.

Campbell: Thats right. Interesting African initiatives. Power Africa addresses a very fundamental problem. The Young AfricanLeaders Initiative also, I think, may well bear fruit sometime in the future.

PT: Again, on the Trump Presidency, for a man with no prior military or political background as is the norm with previous presidents of the US, how would he fare four years down the road?

Campbell: We just dont know. This is new. Just as you say, its new. Very few of his announced appointments have been people with a deep knowledge of the U.S. government. I worry about the lack of experience. It could be that Nigerias not the only country dancing on the brink. And also, which Trump are we talking about? Because, sometimes, his statements are reassuring. Other times, particularly his tweets, are alarming. Part of the alarming dimension of his tweets may be that you only have 140 characters. Well, its hard to be subtle in 140 characters.

PT: On a lighter note and in conclusion, Can you say what your favourite dish and genre of music were while you served as Ambassador in Nigeria.

Campbell: I like jollof rice. I enjoy High life music, which, of course, is Nigerian. People often dont recognize that. And I particularly like the painting and the sculpture thats associated with the art school at LSU. I have a small collection of Nigerian paintings. But, it tends to be abstract expressionism. Its highly sophisticated. Its not a painting of a lady carrying a jug on her head. Its much more, you know.

PT: Favourite Nigerian politician(s) if any.

Campbell: I admire President Buhari. I think that, given the enormous challenges that he faces, I do admire him. I also admire Donald Duke, who was governor of Cross River. I admire Fashola, who I think actually was able  look at Lagos, 22 million people, built on a swamp. I mean, one would have thought, its almost impossible to govern. And yet, he did, with improvements in the way people actually lived  trash collection, and that sort of things.

PT: Thank you Ambassador for your time.

Campbell: Thank you for coming.
Congo police on Wednesday reported no fewer than 22 people dead after anti-government protests in various cities in Congo, with over 275 arrested.

The deaths occurred on Tuesday as demonstrators clashed with police to protest against President Joseph Kabilas plan to stay in power after his second mandate expired on Monday.

Jose Maria Aranaz, UN human rights director for the central African country, had earlier spoken of 19 people killed and 45 injured just in Kinshasa.

Human Rights Watch researcher Ida Sawyer tweeted earlier that 26 people had been killed in Kinshasa, Lumumbashi, Matadi and Boma.

Sporadic gunfire was heard in Kinshasa on Wednesday, though the city appeared generally calm.

Clashes between demonstrators and police were reported in the second-largest city, Lumumbashi, while the pro-democracy group La Lucha said 18 of its activists had been arrested in Goma in the east.

The United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) criticised the disproportionate use of violence by the Congos security forces.

It also accused them of using lethal weapons against protesters.

Police said emergency measures would stay in place until after the upcoming Christmas holidays.

Mr. Kabila would normally have relinquished power on Monday at midnight, but elections that had been planned for November were postponed to April 2018. The government cited logistical problems.

Most of the opposition regards the postponement as a ploy to allow Mr. Kabila to stay in power beyond the two terms allowed by the constitution.

Negotiations were due to restart between the government and the main opposition parties, which reject a transitional government, formed by the ruling coalition and smaller opposition parties.

The Congo embassy in South Africas administrative capital, Pretoria, meanwhile announced that it would close until next year after being stoned by Congolese demonstrators on Tuesday.

Several protesters were reportedly injured by rubber bullets fired by South African police.

Pope Francis renewed his earlier appeal to the Congolese, expressing hope that in this delicate moment of their history, may they be artisans of reconciliation and peace.

May those who are in positions of political responsibility listen to the voice of their conscience.

Also learn to see the cruel sufferings of their fellow citizens and have at heart for the common good, the pontiff added.

Observers fear increasing unrest in Congo, which has been unstable since the fall of dictator Mobutu Sese Seku in 1997, with dozens of armed groups vying for power in the mineral-rich east of the country.

(dpa/NAN)
Chinas Foreign Ministry on Wednesday welcomed the decision by the African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe to break ties with Taiwan.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying did not mention any potential links between the tiny nation and Beijing, but offered appreciation for Sao Tome and Principes return to the right track.

China is ready to develop friendly and cooperative relations with all countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and the one-China principle, she said.

According to Taiwans Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sao Tome and Principe recently asked Taipei for up to $100 million to cover financial shortfalls. Taiwan turned down the request, the ministry said, leading to an ending of relations.

Its indeed a significant amount of financial assistance to a country with the population of 150,000, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee said.

Starting Wednesday, Taiwan will retreat from the West African country, withdrawing its embassy and technical personnel, Lee said.

When asked by reporters if Taiwan was concerned about a domino effect of countries severing their ties with Taiwan and instead adhering to Chinas One-China policy, Lee said China is currently Taiwans largest trading partner and Taiwan is one of the largest investors in China.

The island nation has its own currency, passport and flag and is represented overseas by de facto embassies known as Taipei Economic and Cultural Offices.

The self-governing island has held democratic elections for decades and competes in international sporting competitions under the moniker Chinese Taipei.

Wednesdays decision by Sao Tome and Principe left Taiwan with diplomatic ties to only 21 states, including the Vatican.

The number has been declining since 1979, when the U.S. established official diplomatic ties with the government in Beijing instead of Taipei.

In November 2013, another West African nation, Gambia, also removed itself from the list of countries that officially recognise Taiwan.

(dpa/NAN)
A string of explosions at a fireworks market in Mexico on Wednesday killed at least 31 people, and more than 70 others were reportedly injured, according to reports.

The explosions took place at the San Pablito fireworks market in Tultepec.

Eruviel Avila, governor of the local state, said 26 people had died at the scene.

Three badly injured children were transported to the United States for treatment, he added.

The rest of the victims died in hospital, reports said.

Officials were investigating the cause of the massive explosion.

The market, located around 40 kilometres north of the capital Mexico City, had approximately 300 vendors and reportedly sold 80 per cent of all pyrotechnics in Mexico.

Mexican President Enrique Pena said: My condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives in this accident and my wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured.

Shooting flames and fireworks could be seen in a large cloud of smoke rising from the area in videos of the explosion.

The blast damaged nearby homes and soldiers evacuated buildings around the market.

Rescue personnel searched the remains of the market stalls for buried victims and special police units were sent to Tultepec to assist, Mexican Federal Police Official, Manelich Castilla, said.

As many as 2,000 visitors and buyers may have been at the market when the explosion occurred, according to Mexican news outlet, El Universal.

Fireworks accidents in Mexico are common; they are used throughout the year at religious festivals, on the countrys national holiday in September and at Christmas.

In 2013, 16 people were killed and 153 others were injured by exploding fireworks at a procession in the state of Tlaxcala.

In 2003, 28 people were killed in an explosion at a fireworks market in the state of Veracruz.

(dpa/NAN)
Israels former president, Moshe Katsav, was on Wednesday freed on parole after serving five of his seven-year prison sentence for rape and other sexual offenses.

Live television and radio broadcasts showed Mr. Katsav walking out of the Maasiyahu Prison, east of Tel Aviv, where about a dozen of family members and supporters were waiting for him.

He hugged his wife, Gila, and entered a car that took him to his home in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi.

His release came about an hour after the State Attorney, Shai Nitzan, said that the prosecution would not appeal the Parole Committees decision to grant Mr. Katsav an early release.

Under the terms of his parole, Mr. Katsav would have to join a prison service rehabilitation programme.

He would also have to stay under house arrest every night, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., until the end of his parole period.

The committee also imposed restrictions on speaking to the media and forbade him to hold a job position in which he would have female subordinates.

Mr. Katsav, 71, was born in Iran and became the first president who was born in a Muslim country.

He served as Israels seventh president between 2000 and 2007.

In 1977, at the age of 30, he first became a parliament member with the right-wing Likud party.

In November 2011, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed his conviction on two counts of rape of a former employee during his term as a tourism minister in the 1990s.

He was also convicted of indecent sexual assaults and sexual harassment of two other women while being president, and obstruction of justice.

(Xinhua/NAN)
donald trump

President-elect Donald Trump fired back at former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday morning after Clinton said in an interview that Trump "doesn't know much" except for "how to get angry, white men to vote for him."

Speaking to The Record Review earlier this month, Clinton said Trump called him after the election and was cordial "like it was 15 years ago" when Trump was a friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Trump disputed the claim in an early-morning tweet, mocking Hillary Clinton's loss in key swing states such as Pennsylvania and Florida.

"Bill Clinton stated that I called him after the election. Wrong, he called me (with a very nice congratulations). He 'doesn't know much,'" Trump wrote.

He added:

especially how to get people, even with an unlimited budget, out to vote in the vital swing states ( and more). They focused on wrong states  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2016

Several hours later, Clinton responded on Twitter.

Heres one thing @realDonaldTrump and I can agree on  I called him after the election. https://t.co/URSS89oQ6P  Bill Clinton (@billclinton) December 20, 2016

Though Clinton garnered 2.8 million more votes than Trump, the real-estate magnate was able to carve an electoral path through key swing states such as Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Florida, and won traditionally Democratic states like Wisconsin and Michigan.

For his part, Clinton himself didn't struggle in swing states. He won 370 electoral votes in the 1992 presidential election, and 379 electoral votes in his 1996 reelection.

High-profile disputes between current and former presidents are not common.

Story continues

President Barack Obama formed a rapport with former President George W. Bush, whom he praised for helping steward a smooth transition between their administrations, while Clinton famously formed a deep bond with former President George H. W. Bush.

Clinton, however, felt that former President Jimmy Carter was often too critical of Clinton's presidency, and was partially responsible for Clinton's 1980 gubernatorial loss.

This post has been updated.

NOW WATCH: 'He has a personal beef against me'  Clinton blasts Putin and says he's a reason she lost the election





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The group operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, recorded a cumulative loss of N411.1 billion in 21 months between January 2015 and September 2016, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, has stated.

In report, the agency said its review of the NNPCs monthly financial and operational reports show that the national oil company earned marginal profits in only two months during the period under review.

Apart from January 2015 when the group made a profit of N7.6 billion, it also realised N0.27 billion as profit in May 2016, with total profit in 21 months coming to N7.87 billion, as against the loss of N418.97 billion, with total loss coming to N411.1 billion, NEITI said in its report.

A review of the losses revealed volatility in the pattern in which its expenditure consistently outstripped revenues, with the difference varying from N3.55 billion in January 2016 to N45.49 billion in September 2015.

The analysis was contained in the maiden issue of the NEITI Occasional Paper Series, published jointly with BudgIT, a technology-driven, civic-advocacy group on budget and public finance issues.

Titled Review of NNPCs Monthly Financial and Operations Reports, the joint publication analyses data publicly disclosed by NNPC covering a 21-month period between January 2015 and September 2016.

Major highlights of the report included a drop by about 27.2 per cent of Nigerias crude oil production between January 2015 and September 2016.

The crude oil production fluctuated during the period under review, from 69.49 million barrels, the highest monthly production, recorded in October 2015, to 46.56 million barrels, the lowest recorded in August 2016.

A similar trend was noticeable in terms of average daily production per quarter, as 2.16 million barrels were produced daily on the average in the first quarter of 2015 as against the 1.60 million barrels average daily production per quarter in the third quarter of 2016.

The report, which attributed the fall in oil production to growing vandalism and militancy in the Niger Delta region, said this could impact negatively on the implementation of the current budget, based on assumed daily production of 2.2 million barrels.

Also, the report said average capacity utilisation of the four refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna in the 21 months period was about 8.55 per cent.

In seven out of the 21 months under review, the report said the refineries did not process any volume of crude oil, with consolidated capacity utilisation of the refineries put at above 20 per cent only in August 2015 (24.08%).

Comparatively, the report described Kaduna refinery as the poorest performer, and the Port Harcourt refinery the best.

The report also reveals that out of the 245.48 million barrels received by NNPC for domestic supply in 21 months, only 24.78 million barrels were delivered to the refineries for processing, amounting to only 10.06 per cent of total allocation for domestic consumption.

Between January 2015 and September 2016, the report said total crude oil lifted and utilized came to 1.28 trillion barrels, out of which international oil companies and independents lifted 809.98 million barrels.

Government lifted 441.37million barrels while those with alternative financing arrangements lifted 30.15 million barrels, with total value of the liftings for the period put at about $61.17 billion.

Out of the figure, government, IOCs and independents, and alternative funders lifted crude valued at $20.9billion, $38.78 billion and $1.5 billion respectively, with only 9.74 per cent of the crude lifted by NNPC for domestic crude delivered to the refineries.

In terms of refined petroleum products, the report said about 24.24 million litres of petrol was sold daily within the period under review, with daily average sales of petrol fluctuating between 15.23 million litres in September 2015 and 35.09 million litres in May 2016.

The daily average sales for diesel and kerosene came to 1.06 million litres and 3.12 million litres respectively.

The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Waziri Adio, commended the NNPC for providing up-to-date information to Nigerians on the state of the countrys petroleum sector through the monthly financial and operational reports published since August 2015.

He however called on NNPC to improve on its self-declared commitments to openness, transparency, and accountability.
Eighteen years after Nigerias richest oil block, OPL 245, was controversially awarded to a new company, the then petroleum minister has been charged for crimes related to the block.

Dan Etete was petroleum minister in 1998 under the military dictator, Sani Abacha, when the block was awarded to Malabu Oil and Gas, a firm he partly owned. The company was registered on April 20, 1998 and was awarded the block nine days later.

The Department of Petroleum Resources last week confirmed that due process was not followed in the award of the block and that it was awarded to Malabu only on the directive of Mr. Abacha.

In the nine-count charge filed at the Federal High Court by the anti-graft agency, EFCC, on Tuesday, Mr. Etete featured in seven of them.

However, the charges were not related to the controversial award of the block in 1998, they were related to incidents that happened 13 years later, in 2011.

The $1.1 billion 2011 deal

After several political and judicial intrigues that ensured OPL 245 changed hands several times between Malabu, Shell, and the Nigerian government, Goodluck Jonathan emerged Nigerias president in 2010. On the prompting of his attorney general, Mohammed Adoke, one of Mr. Jonathans first directive upon assuming office was that the oil block be given to Malabu.

Persons close to Mr. Jonathan told PREMIUM TIMES the former president took the decision because of his closeness to Mr. Etete who had helped him during his tenure as petroleum minister and because of the perception among persons from the oil producing Niger Delta that OPL 245 was one of the few oil blocks awarded to someone from the region.

By 2010, Mr. Etete had schemed out other owners of Malabu including by fraudulently altering Corporate Affairs Corporation, CAC, documents, investigations revealed.

The CAC last week said its official in charge of the Malabu documents was brutally murdered.

Despite Mr. Jonathans directive that Malabu be given OPL 245, the company really did not exist and had no staff or technical competence to manage the block. Based on advice from desperate businessmen including an Israeli, Ednan Agaev, Mr. Etete decided to cash in on the block. Through various middlemen, the former minister approached oil giants, Shell and ENI, to buy the block. Knowing Mr. Etetes history including the fact that he had been convicted in France for money laundering, the oil firms would not do a direct deal.

For the transaction to continue, a legally recognised mediator would have to be found.

That mediator turned out to be the Nigerian government, represented by Mr. Adoke.

The agreements that were sealed led to Shell and ENI paying the $1.1 billion into a Nigerian government account in JP Morgan Chase in London. The money was to then be transferred to Malabu accounts controlled by Mr. Etete.

Although Shell and ENI have repeatedly claimed they did not know the money was going to end up with Malabu, investigations in Nigeria and Italy as well as leaked documents revealed that claim to be false. Mr. Adoke, himself would later admit that he, on behalf of the federal government, only acted as a mediator for two willing parties  Malabu and the oil majors. Mr. Adoke was, however, aware of the various fraudulent manipulations of Malabu by Mr. Etete when he authorised the transaction, multiple sources have told PREMIUM TIMES.

THE TRANSFERS TO FRAUDULENT FIRMS

To ensure no one stopped the shady transfer of the $1.1 billion to Mr. Etete, the money had to be quickly transferred. More so, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was set to assume office as Nigerias Finance Minister and the officials involved were not sure she would play ball.

On August 16, 2011, a day before Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala was to assume office, Mr. Adoke and the then Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, authorised the transfer of the money to Malabu accounts in Nigeria controlled by Mr. Adoke. However, all the $1.1 billion could not be transferred. Emeka Obi, a man who claimed he helped broker the deal between Malabu and the oil majors filed a suit in the UK, that ensured $215 million was frozen of the money. The remaining $801 million were subsequently transferred to Mr. Etete: $400 million was transferred to a Bank PHB account while $401 million was transferred to a First Bank account.

Immediately Mr. Etete received the money, curious transfers began. PREMIUM TIMES investigations, now confirmed by the EFCC, reveal that shady companies linked to Abubakar Aliyu received about $479 million dollars from Mr. Etete. Our investigations later showed that most of the companies were non-existent and used fake addresses in their registration documents.

The companies  Rocky Top Resource Ltd, Imperial Union Ltd, Novel Properties & Dev. Co. Ltd, A-Group Construction Ltd, and Megatech Engineering Ltd  were all charged in the suit filed on Tuesday by the EFCC.

While Mr. Etete later admitted that only $250 million of the money paid into his account was his, Mr. Aliyu is believed to have acted as a front for officials of the Goodluck Jonathan administration including Mr. Adoke.

THE CHARGES

The nine-count charge filed by the EFCC on Tuesday has nine defendants, Messrs. Etete, Abubakar and Adoke; Malabu Oil and Gas ltd; and Mr. Aliyus five companies.

The counts against Mr. Etete were that he fraudulently received a total of $801 million from the Nigerian government. The two against Mr. Adoke were that he aided the transfer of the money to Mr. Etete and conspired with him to commit money laundering offences

Mr. Aliyu was accused of receiving a total of $478.6 million fraudulently from the transaction.

With the courts going on recess from Wednesday, the suit is expected to be assigned to a judge with trial commencing early next year.

It is not clear if all the accused will appear for trial though. Mr. Adoke is currently in the Netherlands while Mr. Etete, who was granted administrative bail by the EFCC is suspected to have fled Nigeria.

Also, the suit filed on Tuesday is expected to be the first of a series to be filed in relation to the juicy OPL 245.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has explained how its new policy on whistle blowing will work.

The policy aims to encourage Nigerians to report financial and other related crimes to relevant authorities.

The Government released a 19-point agenda of how the policy will operate, via a statement by the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday.

These include the types of information whistle blowers are expected to submit and how they can do so.

The statement also showed the reward accompanying any successful submission.

The policy was approved on Wednesday at the meeting of the Federal Executive Council, chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari inside the Council Chamber of the Aso Rock Villa.

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, who announced the new policy to State House correspondents, said it was being put in place in conjunction with the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.

She said the policy is a stop gap initiative, until the National Assembly formally passes a law on whistle blowing.

She said the aim is to strengthen the fight against corruption by the Buhari administration.

Below is the full list of items as they relate to the new policy:

FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE WHISTLEBLOWING PROGRAMME

1  What is the Federal Ministry of Finance Whistleblowing Programme?

It is a programme designed to encourage anyone with information about a violation, misconduct or improper activity that impacts negatively on the Nigerian people and Government to report it.

2  Who is a Whistleblower?

Any person who voluntarily discloses information in good faith about a possible misconduct or violation that has occurred, is on-going, or is about to occur.

3  What is the Whistleblowing Portal?

A secure online portal where the information can be submitted. If you have already submitted your information, you can also check the status of your report on the portal.

4  What type of information can be submitted?

Some examples of information that can be submitted include:

Mismanagement or misappropriation of public funds and assets (e.g. properties and vehicles).

Financial malpractice or fraud.

Collecting / soliciting bribes.

Corruption.

Diversion of revenues.

Fraudulent and unapproved payments.

Splitting of contracts.

Procurement fraud (kickbacks and over-invoicing etc.)

5  What type of information cannot be submitted?

The programme does not apply to personal matters concerning private contracts or agreements.

6  How do I submit my information under the Whistleblower Programme?

You can submit your information through the online portal by e-mail or by phone.

7  Who can make use of the Whistleblowing Portal?

Anybody with the required information including but not limited to:

Internal stakeholders e.g. Government employees;

Inter-Government stakeholders e.g. Government agencies;

Institutional stakeholders; and

All members of the public.

8  Can I submit my information to the Whistleblowing Portal anonymously?

Yes. You do not have to disclose your identity while providing information.

9  What additional information is required from a whistleblower?

You can submit documentary evidence on the portal. You can also provide specific and fact based information such as what occurred, amount involved, who was involved and dates of occurrence on the portal.

10  Will my identity remain confidential?

Yes. Confidentiality will be maintained to the fullest extent within the limitations of the law.

If you choose not to disclose your identity, there will be no record of who you are.

If you choose to disclose your identity, it will be fully protected.

11  Will I be protected as a whistleblower?

Yes. If you whistleblow in public-spirit and in good faith, you will be protected.

If you feel that you have been treated badly because of your report, you can file a formal complaint.

If you have suffered harassment, intimidation or victimisation for sharing your concerns, restitution will be made for any loss suffered.

12  How will the information that I provided be used?

The information you provide will be reviewed and analysed to determine whether or not to open an investigation on the matter.

Investigations will be confidential, objective and speedy.

13  What if it is a criminal case?

That has been considered. It will be referred to the relevant agencies; Police, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) or Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

14  Will there be sanctions for individuals or corporate bodies involved in diversion of public funds?

Yes.

Referral to anti-corruption agencies for possible prosecution.

Blacklisted from working with or doing business with the Government.

15  Is the whistleblower entitled to a financial reward?

It depends.

If there is a voluntary return of stolen or concealed public funds or assets on the account of the information provided, the whistleblower may be entitled to anywhere between 2.5% (Minimum) and 5.0% (Maximum) of the total amount recovered.

You must have provided the Government with information it does not already have and could not otherwise obtain from any other publicly available source to the Government.

16  Is there protection from False or Malicious Claims?

Yes. A first level review will always be carried out to determine credibility and sufficiency of information received.

If you report false or misleading information, it will be referred to the enforcement agents for investigation and possible prosecution.

17  What turnaround time should I expect once the information is acknowledged?

o You receive an acknowledgement immediately you submit the information.

o An initial review to confirm violation or potential violation (10 working days)

o If an investigation is opened, the nature and complexity of the matters under investigation will dictate the time frame.

o You can always independently monitor the status or progress report with code generated.

18  Can I receive status updates on the progress with the information that I have provided?

Yes. When you submit information, the portal will generate a unique reference number. To know the status of your submitted tip, simply click on Get Feedback and enter the reference number.

19  What is the purpose or expected outcome of the programme?

Increase exposure of financial or financial related crimes;

Support the fight against financial crimes and corruption;

Improved level of public confidence in public entities;

Enhance transparency and accountability in the management of public funds;

Improve Nigerias Open Government Ranking and Ease of Doing Business Indicators; and

Recovery of public funds that can be deployed to finance Nigerias infrastructure deficit.
The Nigeria Police will hire foreign forensic experts to investigate the leaked audio where Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike was heard threatening to kill uncooperative electoral officials.

The audio was released days after the Rivers re-run election that was marred by violence leading to the death of at least two police officers.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr. Wike could be heard in the audio threatening to kill some electoral commission, INEC, officials whom he claimed had received money but were yet to deliver on their promise.

On Wednesday, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, confirmed that the forensic investigators would be invited.

He said that forensic experts from outside the county would assist a panel to analyse the audio recordings.

Mr. Idris said the panel to investigate incidents in Rivers elections would be inaugurated on Thursday. He said the police would legally deal with any of its officials involved in election fraud in Rivers.

The Rivers Government has already set up its own commission to investigate the violence that marred the elections while the PDP has rejected the police investigation and asked President Muhammadu Buhari to set up an independent panel on the matter.

The police chief also promised to prosecute those behind the killing of police officers during the re-run elections.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the killing of at least two police officers during the election.

Alkali Mohammed, a deputy superintendent of police, was beheaded during an ambush at Omoku, Onelga Local Government Area.. He was killed alongside his police aide. Mr. Mohammed has since been buried.

Mr. Idris spoke when the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, paid him a condolence visit in Abuja on Wednesday.

I want to assure you and the country that we will not leave any stone un-turned to prosecute those behind the dastardly act, he said.

He said that the officers were killed in the line of duty to their fatherland.

The I-G said that the situation in Rivers called for the contribution and support of government and party leaders.

The incidents in Rivers show that we need the support of the people in the areas where elections were held.

The situation in Rivers has shown that we must say no to election violence in the country, he said.

He said that four suspects had been arrested in connection with the killings, while investigations were ongoing to get to the root of the matter.

Mr. Idris said that the severed bodies of the killed police officers had been found.

The I-G urged Nigerians to appreciate the efforts of the police and INEC officers in conducting elections in the country.

We need the support of government and members of the political parties of the states where elections are held, he said.

Earlier, the INEC Chairman, Yakubu, said that there could never be peaceful elections in the country without adequate security.

INEC cannot conduct free and fair elections without the Nigeria Police Force, he said.

He said that the commission would continue to work with security agencies in the county to conduct peaceful elections.

We have come to condole you and the police for the loss of your men at the Rivers elections, he said.
The Federal Government says it will embark on building of nuclear plants and careful application of nuclear energy to meet the needs of the country.

Ogbonnaya Onu, the Minister of Science and Technology, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, on Wednesday in Abuja.

Mr. Onu said that nuclear energy would bridge the energy gap needed to enhance agriculture, advance health, improve education and boost manufacturing in the country.

He said that the Federal Government had started making arrangement with the Russian State Nuclear Corporation, Rosatom, to actualise its dream of application of nuclear energy.

He said that the reason the country chose the Russian state nuclear corporation was because of its essential experience in nuclear technology.

According to the minister, Rosatom will prepare the agreement on the construction of a nuclear power plant in the country.

Onu said that the country would in turn prepare an agreement on the development of the project which would determine further steps on the construction of the nuclear power plant.

Nuclear power is considered a prominent alternative and a more environmentally beneficial solution since it emits far less greenhouse gases during electricity generation than coal or other traditional power plants.

It is a manageable source of generating electricity and has large power-generating capacity that can meet industrial and city needs.

It is not like the low-power technologies such as solar that might meet only local, residential or office needs but cannot generate power for heavy manufacturing, he said.

He said that the envisaged project would be a success because the plant would be fed from the uranium deposit in the country.

(NAN)
Some 140 Nigerians stranded in Libya on Tuesday arrived the Murtala Muhammed Airport, MMA, Lagos, aboard a Libyan Airlines plane.

The returnees are among those who voluntarily agreed to return to Nigeria from the North African country.

They are 74 adult females, 52 adult males, one female child, two male children, three female infants, two male infants and six unaccompanied kids, out of which five are female and one male.

Muhammad Sidi, Director General, National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, said the International Organisation for Migration, IOM, facilitated their journey to Nigeria.

Mr. Sidi, who was represented by Onimode Bandele, Deputy Director, Search and Rescue, NEMA said: What makes this special is that we have four minor accompanied among them.

We have to do proper training to see that these people are united with their families.

We have three medical cases on board and our doctors are aware of their cases and waiting to attend to them, he said.

He thanked IOM that made it possible for the Nigerians to return home and also commended the government for mobilising different agencies for the exercise.

He advised the returnees to stop running away from the country, and urged them to remain in Nigeria to develop assist other compatriots in the development of the country.

My advice for you is to sit down at home, struggle and lets develop our country. The country you are running to, their citizens developed it. If all of us run out of the country, who will develop it?.

So let stay back, struggle, work hard and ensure that our country is a better place for us, he said.

Head of Lagos Office of IOM, Nahashon Thuo, said most of the returnees were trying to cross to Europe without valid immigration papers.

Mr. Thuo said they were arrested by Libyan immigration officials.

The returnees, he said, indicated their interest to return to Nigeria, and added that they would be given 50 dollars each by the organisation.

One of the returnees, Ifeoluwa Adeosun, said she sold all her property to travel to Germany when her husband.

An indigene of Owo in Ondo State, she said she decided to go abroad in search of the means to take care of her children after the demise of her husband.

She thanked IOM and Federal Government for facilitating her trip back to Nigeria.

Mrs. Adeosun appealed to the Federal Government to evacuate other Nigerians in Libya, adding that they were suffering there.
Zion Emori,19, on Wednesday appeared in an Ikeja Magistrates Court for allegedly raping an 11-year-old girl.

The accused, who resides in Gbeni Gbeni area of Oke Odo, Abule Egba road, a Lagos suburb, is facing a charge of rape.

The prosecutor, Simeon Inuoha, told the court that the accused committed the offence on December 6 at in Gbeni Gbeni area of Oke Odo, Abule Egba road.

Mr. Inuoha said that the accused raped his neighbours daughter in his room after he lured her in under the guise of sending her on an errand.

The accused was caught by the victims mother who heard the cry of the daughter and rushed to the scene, he said.

Mr. Inuoha said that the offence contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge and the Magistrate, B. O Osunsanmi, admitted him to a bail in the sum of N300, 000 with two sureties.

Mrs. Osunsanmi, who said that the sureties must show evidence of tax payment to the Lagos State Government, adjourned the case to January 24 for mention.

(NAN)
The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, has appealed to President Idris Deby of Chad to call on all those who pledged financial and material support to Lake Chad Basin Commission to fulfill their promise.

Mr. Deby is the current chairman of the African Union.

A statement by the ministry said the minister made the appeal when he led a team of Ministers of Defence and Chiefs of Defence Staff from troops contributing countries of multi-national joint task force on a visit to Mr. Derby.

The countries are Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroun and Benin.

The minister and defence chiefs were in NDjamena for a meeting of the LCBC  Lake Chad Basin Commission.

The statement, issued by Tukur Gusau, the ministers Public Relations Officer, was made available to journalists on Wednesday in Abuja.

Mr. Dan-Ali said the call was necessary to enable the multi-national task force execute its mandate in the region effectively.

He also appealed to African leaders to improve the means of livelihood of the people of the region to deter terrorist from recruiting their youths for their nefarious activities.

Responding, Mr. Deby assured the visiting ministers and Chiefs of Defence staff of the support of all LCBC presidents to the MNJTF operations.

He also promised to speak with the donors to fulfil their promise

The Chadian president paid tribute to the soldiers of multinational Joint Task Force and urged them to clear the region of Boko Haram terrorists as soon as possible.

(NAN)
The President-elect of The Gambia never threatened to investigate or prosecute the outgoing leader, Yahya Jammeh, a party leader has said.

The chieftain of The Gambias coalition political party which defeated Mr. Jammeh also said the country has no fully constituted Supreme Court to hear the incumbents petition against the results of the election won by the opposition candidate.

Mr. Jammeh, who has led Gambia for 22 years, was defeated at the November 21 poll by Adama Barrow, the candidate of the opposition coalition.

Seven political parties came together and adopted Mr. Barrow who did not belong to any of the parties as their candidate.

Mr. Jammeh at first accepted defeat and even called Mr. Barrow to congratulate him. He however, changed his mind and said he would challenge the outcome of the poll and insisted that fresh election must hold.

He has also vowed not to hand over power in January when his term expires.

Mai Fatty denied reports that Mr. Barrow caused Mr. Jammehs change of heart through his statements to the effect that the Gambia would return to the International Criminal Court.

Such statements were reportedly interpreted by the outgoing president that his successor plans to call for his prosecution at the ICC.

I employ you media personalities to go and make the widest investigation anywhere and you will not find a single statement attributable to His Excellency, President-elect Barrow, making any threat on this outgoing president or any member of his government or his family, he said.

He however, added that a person who is neutral, not a politician, who is not a member of any political party and who was brought in to co-chair, made certain statements that are going round the internet

But these statement were exclusively the opinion of this person, it was made without the knowledge of the coalition or the President-elect; it was unauthorised and did not represent the position of either the coalition or the President-elect.

So the house should be categorically clear that the coalition and the President-elect Barrow did not take any affirmative decision on the issue of prosecution or threat against the outgoing president, he said.

Mr. Fatty said what the coalition wants is a peaceful, stable and seamless transition.

He said they were not focussed on the wrongs of the incumbent President.

Our focus is moving The Gambia forward. Take over power, as granted by the voters of The Gambia and do the business of The Gambians, that is our focus. Whatever the alleged crimes or the alleged blessings of the Ex-president is a matter that is not of prime importance at this stage, he said.

No SUPREME COURT

The leader of the Gambian Moral Congress, GMC, said although it was proper for Mr. Jammeh to submit a petition challenging his defeat at the November 21 election, unfortunately the Supreme Court is not properly constituted in The Gambia at the moment.

He said the countrys apex court presently has only the Chief Judge in office when it is supposed to have seven Justices, with at least five of them sitting to determine the election petition.

Mr. Fatty who spoke at a media briefing in Abuja alongside another coalition figure, Haman Baah, said for over one year and a half, it was the constitutional prerogative of His Excellency, President Yahya Jammeh, to appoint judges in the Supreme Court. He has not done so, and we are now faced with a constitutional crisis.

How can you determine an election petition when there is no supreme court to preside on the matter?

Regional bloc, ECOWAS had on Saturday asked Mr. Jammeh to prepare to hand over to Mr. Barrow. It also appointed Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, and his Ghanaian counterpart, John Mahama, to mediate for a peaceful transition.

Mr. Fatty on Tuesday said another problem was the apparent moral dilemma that Mr. Jammeh faces.

He said the presidents reluctance to constitute the full panel of the Supreme Court has come to haunt him now because he is the only one at present with the power to appoint the six remaining Justices.

Although the president is using his constitutional rights to do that (appoint justices), he did not exercise this power for over a year and half, therefore, if he now appoints Supreme Court judges, it will be exclusively for the purpose of receiving his election petition and make a determination on it.

Nobody questions his constitutional right to do that but we are saying, he will be a judge in his own case and it it is against the principles of natural justice, he said.

Reacting to reports that Mr. Jammeh insists he would not hand over power, Mr. Fatty said as far as Gambian people were concerned, Mr. Jammeh remains president till January 19.

He also said Mr. Jammeh lacks the power to annul the result of the election, saying only the Independent Electoral Commission, IEC, can do that.

The president also annulled the result of the election but that jurisdiction is designed exclusively for the IEC. Unfortunately, this decision cannot also stand. I can go into the legalities but this is not the time for that, we have gone beyond that

What is at stake is that we have an incoming government that won an election which is very clear, the outgoing president had conceded, there are no legal mechanism in the country today to contest the presidential election through the medium of the courts, it does not exist in our country today, he said.
Reports out of London on Wednesday indicate that convicted former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, has been released from custody after completing a 13-year jail term.

Private radio, Ray Power FM, said in a news update on Wednesday afternoon that Mr. Ibori, a former governor of Delta State, was released following a court order that declined a British governments request for an extension of his prison remand.

Although his spokesman, Tony Eluemunor, declined to confirm the development to PREMIUM TIMES Wednesdayafternoon, an online newspaper, The Will, reported that Mr. Ibori had been released but will not be allowed to travel outside the United Kingdom for the time being.

THEWILL can, however, report that Ibori, who was in court for the suit will have to reside at his St. Johns Wood residence ONLY and will report to the police once weekly, the paper said.

The UK Home Office had opposed Mr. Iboris release, citing inconclusive business in the asset forfeiture proceedings against the corrupt former governor.

Mr. Ibori was jailed on April 17, 2012, for 13 years. That was the third time the former governor, described as a thief in Government House, got sentenced for theft in London.

He is alleged to have stolen more than $250 million from the treasury of the oil-rich Delta State, plunging even more of his people into abject poverty and deprivation. The ex-governor is expected to be prosecuted by the anti-graft EFCC when he returns to Nigeria.

Some of his stolen cash and assets were later stashed away in offshore tax havens as revealed by PREMIUM TIMES series on Panama Papers published earlier this year.
An analysis of factors that have helped Boko Haram fester and recruit must come to grips with issues of poor socio-economic environment and access to justice in Nigerias north-east, the United States has said.

The U.S. issued the position in a new law, S. 1632  An Act to require a regional strategy to address the threat posed by Boko Haram  signed into law by outgoing American President, Barack Obama, last week.

It is the sense of the Congress that lack of economic opportunity and access to education, justice and other social services contribute to the ability of Boko Haram to radicalize and recruit individuals, said the U.S. in the new law obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.

Nigerias north-east is the worst among the countrys regions affected by development concerns caused by years of mismanagement and corruption.

The north-east has the highest poverty rate in Nigeria. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the regions poverty rate is above the national average of 60.9 per cent.

The region consists of Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe states. It has a history of chronic underdevelopment in terms of illiteracy, poverty, widespread drug abuse and joblessness.

Coming into its ninth year of active insurgency, Boko Haram has killed thousands of people, devastated infrastructure and displaced millions of people who now face acute humanitarian crisis.

According to the United Nations in September, 49,000 of the 244,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Borno State would die over the coming 12 months, translating to about 134 every day (if nothing is done).

Some 65,000 people are in famine-like conditions, the worst level of food insecurity, and facing starving to death for lack of food. It is a very unique situation in the world.

But Nigerias government said the UN was exaggerating the situation in the North-east.

To address the problems provoked by Boko Haram and combat the terrorism with lasting measures, Nigerias government and the countrys neighbours must accept and address the legitimate grievances of vulnerable populations affected by Boko Haram, said the U.S., in evolving strategies to help Nigeria combat the terrorist group through the new law.

According to the law, the counter-terrorism strategy must follow a means for assisting Nigeria, and as appropriate, the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to combat Boko Haram, to counter violent extremism, including efforts to address the underlying factors shown to contribute to the ability of Boko Haram to radicalize and recruit individuals.

The law also provides for plans to enhance the capacity of Nigerias MNJTF partner nations to investigate and prosecute human right abuses by security forces; promote respect for the rule of law within the military; and prevent corruption.

Former military and security chiefs, including former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, are under investigation and prosecution for allegedly misappropriating funds meant to purchase arms and cater for welfare of soldiers deployed to combat Boko Haram. And there have been accusations of rights violations  though denied  made against Nigerias military.

The U.S. law also provides that the American government should, pursuant to existing authorities and restrictions, help enhance the military capacity of Nigeria and partner nations, including Chad, Niger and Cameroon, to combat Boko Haram.

It also provides that Nigeria should be helped in terms of long-term capacity to enhance security for schools such that children are safer and girls seeking education are protected, and to combat gender-based violence and inequality.

The strategies, the law provides, should form elements of a five-year plan to be submitted to U.S. Congress within 180 days by the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense.

Then, the Director of the US National Intelligence should assess the willingness and capacity of Nigeria and regional partners to implement the plan and submit a report on the assessment to Congress, the law further provides.

Specifically, the law seeks assessment of Nigerias readiness to address socio-economic factors that help Boko Haram fester and legitimate grievances of populations affected by the group.

Although the law provides that the U.S. should militarily assist Nigeria and her regional partners, there is no specific provision to sell arms to Nigeria.
The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has called on members of the public to be vigilant over Lassa fever. He also confirmed the death of a health worker from the disease in Ogun State.

Mr. Adewole gave the advice through a press statement by his ministry on Wednesday.

The authorities in Ogun state, where the death occurred, have set up an isolated centre to monitor scores of persons who had contacts with the victim.

Mr. Adewole, a professor of medicine, urged Nigerians to be calm and seek care in healthcare facilities in the event they noticed any symptom of the disease.

Anybody with symptoms which include fever, headaches, vomiting, should report immediately at the nearest medical facility.

Healthcare professionals are reminded to test before treating for suspected malaria, and if the test is negative for malaria, to maintain a high index of suspicion for Lassa fever. Lassa fever is treatable when detected early.

Medical personnel are hereby directed to report cases of suspected Lassa fever immediately to the state Epidemiologist, who has been provided with the commodities, by the National Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, to respond to cases, he said.

The death of the health worker in Ogun came barely four months after the state government declared the state free of the disease.

The viral disease, known as Lassa Hemorrhagic Fever (LHF), has claimed many lives.

According to a Channels Television news report, the Ogun State commissioner for Health, Babatunde Ipaye, who also confirmed the incident, said that about 196 primary contacts with the victim and possible secondary contacts were being monitored.

Mr. Ipaye stated that though the primary source of the new case was yet to be identified, the case was being investigated.

Also, the acting chief medical director of Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, Kehinde Hunyinbo, who spoke on the development said that the area where the deceased was attended to has been decontaminated, while an isolation centre and other necessary things meant for treatment had been put in place.

He added that the centre was working hand in hand with the Ogun state government to curtail the spread of the virus.
The Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh, has hit out at regional mediators urging him to step down, saying he will not be intimidated.

President Jammeh had earlier conceded defeat in the election, after a 22-year-rule, but recanted a week later, asking for fresh polls to be conducted by a god-fearing and independent electoral commission.

His decision not to accept the result has drawn condemnation worldwide including from the UN, ECOWAS, and the U.S.

Nigerias President Muhammadu Buhari and Presidents Ernest Koroma, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and John Mahama of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana respectively led an ECOWAS delegation to visit Mr. Jammeh last week Tuesday.

The West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, had called on him to honour his initial pledge to accept electoral defeat.

The leaders are not expected to reveal the details of the of the mediation until all talks are concluded. However, observers believe apart from asking Mr. Jammeh to leave office, the West African leaders are also trying to save him and his loyalists from prosecution after leaving office.

ECOWAS had said military intervention might be a possibility if diplomatic efforts failed to persuade Mr. Jammeh to leave office.

Mr. Jammeh has launched a court action to annul the vote after the electoral commission changed some results.

In a 45-minute speech at the African Bar Association on Tuesday night, Mr. Jammeh defended his position, saying West African leaders had violated the ECOWAS principle of non-interference.

Who are they to tell me to leave my country? he said during his televised speech.

I will not be intimidated by any power in this world. I want to make sure justice is done.

Im a man of peace, but I cannot also be a coward. I am a man of peace but that does not also mean that I will not defend myself and defend my country and defend my country courageously, patriotically and win.

The BBCs Umaru Fofana in Gambias capital, Banjul, says it was Mr. Jammehs first public reaction to last weeks intervention by ECOWAS leaders. The Gambian leader used the opportunity to reiterate his call for fresh elections as the only way to resolve the impasse.

Some analysts have suggested that reports that Mr. Jammeh could face prosecution were behind his refusal to leave office

Human rights groups have accused the Gambian leader of committing serious abuses against opponents during his 22-year rule.

The Gambia has not had a smooth transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1965.
The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has confirmed that 20 persons lost their lives and about10,000 others were displaced in the recent communal clash in Dan-Anacha village in Gassol Local Government area of Taraba State.

Saad Bello, the Agencys Coordinator in charge of Adamawa and Taraba Operational Offices, confirmed the development to the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Yola.

Mr. Bello said that the displaced persons, mostly children and women, were camped in four camps in the state.

So far, 20 people were killed and about 10,000 internally displaced in the recent communal crisis between farmers and herdsmen in Dan-Anacha village in Gassol LGA of Taraba State, Mr. Bello said.

He said that the number of injured persons had not been ascertained.

Mr. Bello commended the efforts of Taraba State Emergency Management Agency for reaching out to the affected areas.

He said that NEMA was contacting security operatives on the safety situation to enable its members reach all affected areas with additional humanitarian assistance.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the violence which commenced on Saturday through Sunday.

Sources from the area said the crisis started on Saturday when two corpses of Fulanis were found killed in a bush. This triggered their kingpins carrying out reprisal attacks on Tivs, mostly farmers.

 I counted about 20 corpses who were believed to have been killed early hours of today, Sunday, a resident of the area told PREMIUM TIMES.

Many people including women and children are nowhere to be found, the source added.
The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, John Odigie-Oyegun, at a ceremony in Jos on Wednesday, formally received former governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye; a former deputy governor of the state, Ignatius Longjan; and a reported crowd of 343,190 members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state into the APC.

While Mr. Dariye, who was governor of the state between 1999 and 2007, had announced his defection into the APC since September, the decision of the others to change camp was made public only recently.

Mr. Dariye was last year elected to the Senate on the platform of the PDP.

Other prominent politicians among the defectors were a former minister, Jethro Akum; 2015 governorship aspirant, Jimmy Cheto; serving deputy speaker of the state assembly, Yusuf Garga; 2011 governorship aspirant, Pam Dung Gyang; former state PDP chairman, Maichibi Vwarji; and former Jos North local government council chairman, Daladi Atu.

Receiving the defectors, Mr. Oyegun assured them of full membership status as party faithful.

The rescue mission of Governor Simon Lalong has just begun rescuing Plateau people into the APC, Mr. Oyegun said at the ceremony.

Speaking on the economic recession, the APC national chairman appealed to Nigerians to endure the situation, stating that economic hardship will be history by the end of 2017.

By this time next year, you will start having cause to smile and thank President Buhari for the good works he is doing. President Buhari does not talk much, but he is an action man.

In his remarks at the ceremony, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, described the move of the former PDP stalwarts into APC as a homecoming.

For me, these personalities who just joined us in the APC only returned home, and we will embrace them in warm reception, Mr. Dogara said.

He also pleaded with Nigerians to bear the current economic hardship, stressing that the President Buhari-led APC administration has the capacity to resolve the economic crisis.

Mr. Dogara said the 2017 Budget at the national level will end the hardship of Nigerians.

In his address, Governor Lalong said with the arrival of the PDP stalwarts in his party, political opposition had ended in Plateau State.

The ceremony was attended by the north-central zonal chairman of the APC, Zakari Idde; Plateau State Deputy Governor, Sonni Tyoden; and state APC chairman, Letep Dabang.
The National Board for Technical Education has started the process for the accreditation of Aminu Dabo College of Health Science and Technology, the first private science institution in the north of Nigeria.

A team from the board undertook the Advisory/Resource Inspection Visit to the college, located in Kano, on Wednesday.

The leader of the board, Garba Ningi, said although he was emotionally touched by the status of the institution as the first privately-owned science tertiary institution in the North, the team would do a diligent job to ensure it meets all the relevant requirements for accreditation.

He said that was the reason why he was advising the college to have a director of physical planning to take charge of its planning.

Mr. Ningi expressed delight that the college came at a time Northern Nigeria was lagging behind in professional education, specifically in the sciences.

However, he emphasized that we are here on business, regardless of my personal emotional feelings, and the business will be accurately and diligently carried out to have a sound science institution.

The proprietor of the college, Aminu Dabo, a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, noted that his ambition was to have a science institution that will stand the test of time.

Mr. Dabo said he initially wanted to establish a polytechnic for which he had secured land and all the necessary tools.

But along the way, the NBTE advised me that what the North needs now are science and medical institutions to fill the gap and I accepted the advice.

That is why today, we have the structure in the College of Health Science and Technology, he said.

He said the college was starting with four courses; Dental, Laboratory Science, Health Information Management and Environmental Health Science.

He added that the school would not start any course until it was accredited by the authorities concerned.
A 24-hour curfew has been imposed on three local government areas in Kaduna State.

The affected areas are Zangon-Kataf, Kaura and Jemaa.

The State Security Council said it took the step following credible intelligence about risk to lives and property in the areas. Kaduna has 23 local government areas.

Governor Nasir El-Rufais spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, disclosed this in a statement shortly after an emergency meeting of the Council on Wednesday in Kaduna.

Mr. Aruwan disclosed that the Council also reaffirmed the ban on all processions and unlawful assembly throughout the state.

The statement said that security agencies had also been empowered to arrest and prosecute any individual or group that violate the orders.

However, the Council urged security operatives to ensure best practices in enforcing the directives.

The council meeting, which was chaired by Governor El-Rufai, had in attendance the Deputy Governor, Barnabas Bala, State Commissioner of Police, Agyole Abeh, and Director State Security Service, Mohammed Tijjani Wakili.

Also at the meeting were I. Isa, Commander of 1 Division Garrison of the Nigerian Army, T. T. Dakwat, Commandant of Nigerian Navy School of Armament, Kachia and Bello Garba, Base Commander of Nigerian Air Force, Kaduna.
The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on Wednesday appealed to citizens in the state not to react to the treatment meted on him by demonstrators in Kafanchan, Jemaa local government area on Tuesday.

Mr. El-Rufai and his entourage were pelted with stones and some of their vehicles damaged after addressing some demonstrators, immediately after he held the state security council meeting in the area.

The official residence of the local government chairman, Bege Katuka, was also burnt down in the attack.

According to a resident of Kafanchan who witnessed the attack on the governor, the attack was not by women who initiated the protest, but by youth who joined the protesters.

They threw dangerous items at the governor. Bottles, stones and rods. They were shouting and singing hate songs, the resident said.

The governors spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, disclosed in an official statement that Mr. El-Rufai considered the unfortunate event as part of the burden of leadership.

He added that the governor urged that there should be no reaction to the incident, other than a continued commitment to restoring peace and harmony.

The statement quoted the governor as saying that in the name of God, I am begging you. No one should take the law into his or her hand over what happened in Kafanchan.

Although it is unfortunate, we must rise above induced prejudice and hatred. We must defeat hate with patience, love and dedication to duty and not an eye for an eye.

It is also a burden of leadership and we will, by the special grace of God, overcome these forces of darkness who are dividing our citizens using religion, ethnicity and politics. I commend the high sense of professionalism exhibited by security personnel.

I listened to three of the women who led the protesters as they asked me questions. I answered them and even invited them to a larger meeting, but they went on the rampage and burnt the residence of the local government chairman.

The government of Kaduna State and the Security Council sympathise with the chairman of Jemaa local government, Dr. Bege Katuka, and his family over the unfortunate incident that led to the burning of their home. Our prayers and support go with them, the statement quoted the governor as saying.

In a related development, the state government has imposed a 24-hour curfew on three local government areas.

The affected areas are Zangon-Kataf, Kaura and Jemaa.

The government said it took the step following credible intelligence about risk to lives and property in the areas.
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State and his Kebbi State counterpart, Atiku Bagudu, on Wednesday officially launched the long awaited Lake Rice to be sold to the public at N12,000 per 50kg bag.

Mr. Ambode told a news conference in Alausa, Lagos, that the public would from Thursday, December 22, have access to the rice in 10 designated areas in Lagos State as would be advertised by the government.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the 50kg rice will sell for N12,000, while the 25kg and 10kg will sell for N6,000 and N2,500 respectively.

The Lagos State governor described the launch of the rice as historic, saying the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Lagos and Kebbi in March 2016 had started yielding fruitful results.

He added that we signed an MoU in March 2016 with an understanding that being proudly Nigerians, we want to come out with what will be made in Nigeria and what is good for Nigerians.

We took all that President Muhammadu Buhari said on the need for us to grow our food and we decided that we would prove a point and that is what today is all about.

He explained that Lake Rice was grown and milled in Nigeria, with extreme high quality.

He noted that we also have Ofada rice and imported rice in the country and we want to show our people that Lake Rice is the way to go.

The major difference between Lake Rice and imported rice is that imported rice has a minimum storage capacity of five and six years but Lake Rice is fresh.

The governor said that the state would expand its rice mill as it had the largest consumption market in Nigeria.

Mr. Ambode said interested buyers would need to get ticket to pay for a bag of rice in the bank before going to any of the locations for collection, adding that this was done to allow the rice to go round and for everyone to have access to it.

We want to ensure that this rice goes to everybody. You cannot buy twice, he said.

Earlier, Mr. Bagudu said 16 months ago during the National Executive Council meeting in Abuja, he entered into a discussion with Mr. Ambode for a joint partnership for the production of rice in view of what was happening in the country.

Since then, we have been working assiduously on this after we signed the MoU.

Mr. Bagudu said the product could stand any integrity test in Nigeria as it was of high quality.

He added that Lake Rice is of high quality. I am proud of this joint venture but we can do more, we are glad that we are launching this commodity today.

(NAN)
Traders and street hawkers in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, on Wednesday resisted attempts by officials of the Ministry of Works to restrain them from displaying their wares along the roads.

Having prepared well to make huge gains in the ongoing yuletide, the traders considered the action of the task force a disturbance, and an attempt to deny them of their seasons profit.

They also engaged in street protests, bonfires, and even vandalizing the office of the Commissioner for Works, Funmi Ogun.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that trouble began when early on Wednesday morning, officials of the ministry, popularly called Dagrin, prevented street trading in the city by arresting and seizing wares of many who had displayed them on the streets.

The move angered the traders who reacted by vandalizing properties in sight, shattering windows and doors of government offices.

Ms. Ogun was said to have narrowly escaped the wrath of the protesters, who were obviously looking out for her.

The task force should realize that this is festive period, Christmas is just four days while new year is less than two weeks, one of the protesters who would not want his name mentioned, explained while speaking to journalists.

And it is at this time that selling, especially on the streets booms. So, they ought to allow us to do our business now.

Many of us have market stalls in the demolished markets and are awaiting spaces in the new Oja-Oba market under construction.

We cannot afford to go and get shops now as that would be too expensive. So they should pardon us for this time. At least, we have obeyed them all along before now.

Anti-riot policemen were, however, dispatched to the scene of protest to ensure calm. They fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.

Three of the aggrieved traders were also arrested by the police.

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, also went to the scene to see things for himself.

He appealed to the protesters to stay calm as the government would look into the cause of the problem.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti State Command, Alberto Adeyemi, told PREMIUM TIMES that the suspects were not arrested for protesting, but for vandalizing government property.

They vandalised government properties and mashed government vehicles, he said.

Even the police van that was sent to curtail their activities was also destroyed, so we are investigating the matter.

He however said the situation had been brought under control and residents were freely going about their businesses.
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP  Stockton Universitys new Atlantic City Campus is not built yet, but college officials already have a five-year agreement with Atlantic Cape Community College to share hospitality programs in the city.

Under the agreement signed Wednesday, students from Atlantic Capes Worthington Center in Atlantic City will have access to activities at Stocktons new Gateway campus, particularly those run by the Hospitality and Tourism Management Studies program.

Stockton students will be able to take hands-on culinary classes at the Worthington Center.

A news release issued by Stockton said faculty from both schools will work together to identify and/or develop classes that can be used in both curriculums, with transferable credits.

The agreement also calls for both programs to sponsor and participate in hospitality and culinary arts events for the community.

Atlantic Cape President Peter Mora, who is retiring Dec. 31, said in a recent interview he was looking forward to the college working with Stockton.

I was raised in Atlantic City  thats my hometown, so this is especially important to me, Mora said in a statement issued by Stockton.

Stockton President Harvey Kesselman said Mora has been a great partner for Stockton in providing South Jersey residents with access to affordable higher-education opportunities.

This provides paths to opportunity for all of our students, Mora said. Its another avenue for Atlantic Cape students to get to a four-year college and is especially important to Atlantic City students.

Atlantic Cape operates the Academy of Culinary Arts in Mays Landing but also has culinary facilities in its new wing in Atlantic City.

Otto Hernandez, vice president of Academic Affairs at Atlantic Cape, said the plan is to provide flexibile scheduling between the two schools, enabling more students to complete degrees in less time.

We will do anything we can to make it a more affordable experience for Atlantic City residents, Kesselman said.

Stocktons Gateway Campus is a public-private partnership with Atlantic City Development Corp. being built at Atlantic, Albany and Pacific avenues.

The university plans to open the residential campus in 2018 with about 1,000 students.
MAYS LANDING  Barbara Gaba, of Princeton Junction, was unanimously approved as the ninth president of Atlantic Cape Community College at the Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday.

Gaba is currently provost and associate vice president for Academic Affairs at Union County College in Cranford, a position she has held since 2002.

Gaba was one of three finalists for the job and the only one from New Jersey.

Trustee Brian Lefke, who chaired the search committee, said they were impressed with her enthusiasm, energy and interest in the area. He said her experience in the New Jersey county college system also is an asset.

She understands the ins and outs of Trenton and our enrollment and financial challenges, Lefke said.

Gabas contract will run from Jan. 30 through June 30, 2020.

She will be paid $180,000 per year, plus she will receive a pension contribution equal to 10 percent of her salary.

President Peter Mora is retiring Dec. 31. Richard Perniciaro, executive vice president for planning, research and facilities, will serve as interim president from Jan. 1 through Jan. 29 with a per diem stipend of $250.
ATLANTIC CITY  The city and Atlantic County are still fighting over $4 million.

A state law letting casinos make fixed payments in lieu of property taxes takes effect next year, but officials havent resolved how much money will go to the county.

Casinos will collectively pay $120 million each year for a decade, so long as casino revenue stays at current levels. The county wants a 13.5 percent piece of the PILOT pie, which reflects the countys historic share. But city officials say the county should get just 10 percent, which is in line with what the county has received recently. Its a difference of $4 million.

The state, which will ultimately decide who gets what, is mum on the issue. A Department of Community Affairs spokeswoman declined comment.

City Councilman George Tibbitt has urged Jeffrey Chiesa, who is leading the state takeover of the city, to not let the county get the larger share. He said at a recent council meeting that city residents, who are facing a nearly 13 percent tax increase this year, would have to make up the difference if the county gets 13.5 percent of the PILOT.

Atlantic County maintains credit strength despite Atlantic City turmoil Atlantic City's continued financial issues, leading to a recent state takeover, shouldnt ha

That $4 million will come out of these peoples pockets, people who are struggling now, Tibbitt told Chiesa at the Dec. 1 meeting. Casinos wont get hit with that short change if we give the county more money than the 10 percent. Small businesses and homeowners are going to be the only ones paying this.

But County Executive Dennis Levinson is trying to protect his taxpayers, too. He has long fought for the 13.5 percent share, which he said is needed to avoid a county tax increase. He had struck a deal with Mayor Don Guardian last year to get the desired share with no strings attached. But since then, the citys proposed recovery plan gave the county just 10.3 percent.

Why should every taxpayer in this county have to pay more taxes, and the only ones who dont are the casinos? Levinson recently said. He said if the county gets the lower amount, thats another $3.5 million that taxpayers in other municipalities will have to make up.

Here's how much Jeffrey Chiesa is being paid per hour to fix Atlantic City ATLANTIC CITY  Jeffrey Chiesa will make $400 an hour as he heads a state takeover of the ci

Gov. Chris Christie promised Levinson the 13.5 percent in an April news conference. But state officials have recently said the county must take on more services and responsibilities on behalf of the city to earn the larger PILOT share.

City Council approved a shared-services deal with the county this year for meals on wheels, senior transportation and some health services. Officials say that will save the city more than $1 million. However, that deal still hasnt been processed, the City Clerks Office said.

I havent really looked at the level of service to see if it rises to the value of $4 million, said state Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, who sponsored the PILOT law. If youre just talking meals on wheels, that probably doesnt get you there.

Levinson said the county is willing to do more but is waiting for direction from the state.

We cant put a gun to the head of Atlantic City and say we want these things. Thats why (the state) sent a so-called czar, to direct it, Levinson said. They want us to do solid waste (collection)? They have to say, This is what youre going to do.

State and city officials, meanwhile, are negotiating with the casinos over the PILOT. The law requires the city to enter into individual agreements with each casino.

Officials are negotiating to ensure standardization among the deals, that pending tax refunds cant be offset against PILOT payments and that the city has remedies should a casinos payments not be made in a timely manner.

Sharpton blasts state takeover at Atlantic City rally ATLANTIC CITY  The Rev. Al Sharpton called a state takeover of this city unconstitutional S

The city owes its most successful casino, Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, $150 million in tax refunds.

A spokeswoman from the Casino Association of New Jersey declined comment.

Tibbitt, in making his case to give the county just 10 percent, cites the citys declining ratable base, which has sunk from $20.5 billion in 2010 to about $6.5 billion today.

Why should the county get the same amount of taxes when we were assessed at billions of dollars more than what we are now? Tibbitt asked last week. If were down to $6.5 billion, guess what? Thats what you get.

But Levinson said the county has suffered too as the city lost its gambling monopoly. The county has paid the city $44.1 million in refunds since 2010, he said, making Atlantic Countys refund burden seven times larger than any other county in the state.

And you tell me how Im supposed to, as the county executive, and the county taxpayers and the freeholders, how were supposed to sustain this, he said.
Sweeping changes to New Jerseys criminal justice system start Jan. 1, when many people accused of minor crimes wont have to sit in jail if they cant post bail.

And violent offenders may not have the option for bail at all.

The Bail Reform and Speedy Trial Act, passed by referendum in 2014, is touted by supporters as a way to ease jail overcrowding while preventing low-level offenders from languishing in jail because they cant afford bail.

But county governments say the regulations will be costly, with the bill going to taxpayers.

About 12 percent of people in New Jersey jails cant afford bail of $2,500 or less, according to a 2013 study commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance.

Sharpton blasts state takeover at Atlantic City rally ATLANTIC CITY  The Rev. Al Sharpton called a state takeover of this city unconstitutional S

There are too many times when someone sits in jail for months because they cant post $100 or $200 bail on cases that end up with probation, acting Atlantic County Prosecutor Diane Ruberton said at a bail reform seminar Monday in Atlantic City. In the old system, the only person that seemed to make a profit was a bail bondsman.

Jail is often used for people charged with crimes to await trial or resolution of their cases.

The new system will distinguish cases between a complaint warrant and a complaint summons. People arrested on a summons will be taken to a police station, booked, issued charges and released.

People arrested on a warrant will be taken to the county jail for up to 48 hours until a decision is made on whether they will be kept or released.

That decision will be based in part on a new scanning system that brings up alleged offenders entire criminal histories and helps determine whether they are a risk to the community or a risk of fleeing before a court date. The juvenile justice system is unaffected by the changes.

The system comes with a price.

Here's how much Jeffrey Chiesa is being paid per hour to fix Atlantic City ATLANTIC CITY  Jeffrey Chiesa will make $400 an hour as he heads a state takeover of the ci

A decision on whether an offender is kept in jail must be made by the prosecutors office and confirmed by a judge within 48 hours. That means the court will now be open Saturdays.

The prosecutors office will now be a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation.

Ruberton said she hired more assistant prosecutors. The county has also bought technology that will create a video courtroom for Saturday appearances.

Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson said the county has spent nearly $3 million implementing the new law. He said it is frustrating because the law was presented as a cost-saver because jail populations would go down.

Atlantic County, however, has already significantly reduced its jail population over the past eight years through the use of electronic monitoring devices and cooperation between the jail and the Prosecutors Office, he said.

Its laudable what theyre trying to do because reform is a good idea, he said. But the devil is in the details. The criminal code should have been looked at because some of these people shouldnt be in jail in the first place. But now, everyone in the county is going to feel the bite of this.

John Donnadio, executive director of the New Jersey Association of Counties, said the implementation will cost $45 million to $50 million statewide.

I agree that its good public policy, but the implementation cost was never fully thought out, he said, and the state has not given counties any money for the program.

The million-dollar question is whether good policy is worth the cost, and thats not for me to answer, he said.

For others, however, the cost is worth it. Especially for people who argue the old system disproportionately affects minorities.

This levels the playing field because its going to create a better chance for people to not get incarcerated, said Perry Mays, chairman of the Coalition for a Safe Community in Atlantic County. The disproportionate amount of African-Americans and minorities in jail should decrease.

Mays said the reform runs parallel to the coalitions goal of safe communities because it will keep dangerous people in jail while awaiting trial.

Folks who have been charged with horrific crimes  those people will not be able to post bail anymore, he said. So I think theres a good balance and it will benefit the community.
Fewer children are spending time in jail, but those who do are still overwhelmingly black, according to a report released Tuesday that calls for more community-based intervention programs.

The policy brief from the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice said incarceration rates for juveniles have been cut by more than half between 1997 and 2010 due to the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative.

The program, started by the New Jersey Judiciary and the Juvenile Justice Commission, focuses on decreasing the number of young people detained before trial.

Programs in Atlantic and Cumberland counties were cited as making a difference. However, Atlantic County residents still accounted for 8 percent, or 22 of the 274 males, committed to a juvenile facility in December. Residents of Camden, Essex and Passaic counties made up almost half.

State Sen. Nellie Pou, D-Bergen, Passaic, sponsor of a 2015 law that revised some juvenile justice procedures, said the report makes it clear there is more to do.

We need to make sure youth have access to prevention, she said. She said she would look at how funds are allocated and maybe even if a juvenile detention center could be closed and the funds used for community-based programs.

Data from the Juvenile Justice Commission show that the number of juveniles committed to a facility dropped from 517 in December 2011 to 285 in December of this year. However, black prisoners made up 75 percent of the males and 67 percent of the females.

Andrea McChristian, author of the report, said black juveniles were more likely to be arrested and less likely to be diverted to other options, even though they often committed the same types of crimes as other youth.

Youth who were incarcerated also were more likely to end up back in jail compared with those offered community-based alternatives.

Atlantic County was one of four counties in a program with the Burns Institute and the Juvenile Justice Commission between 2009 and 2012 that worked to reduce racial and ethnic disparities. The county reduced detentions for violating probation by 72 percent.

The Youth Advocate Programs MERGE (Males Engaged in Reducing Violence through Gainful Employment) initiative, a three-year program in Atlantic City to help at-risk young men with job training and placement, achieved a 60 percent success rate in finding employment by the end of the program.

Fred Fogg, director of operations for the Northern-Metro N.J. & Delaware Youth Advocate Programs Inc., said Atlantic County has one of the most organized Youth Services Commissions in the state with an active community engagement committee.

Procedures also vary by county, and the report said the state Attorney Generals Office should provide more oversight.

Counties also varied in the amount of time a juvenile stayed in detention.

Sharon Lauchaire, spokeswoman for the Juvenile Justice Commission, said the report acknowledges the progress of the initiative in reducing the incarceration of young people, as well the remaining challenges to eliminate disproportionate minority contact with the justice system.
A Lumberton woman who had been a fugitive was sentenced Dec. 16 to 364 days in the Atlantic County jail.

Christina N. Marino, 23, was texting while driving when she ran a stop sign, causing a two-car crash Aug. 24, 2013, in Hammonton that resulted in the victim being put on life support for four days afterward, according to a news release from the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office.

Marino failed to yield to traffic and struck a vehicle driven by James Badagliacco, 36, of Hammonton.

Marino left the scene of the accident.

Badagliaccos truck slammed into a tree, and he was flown to Cooper University Hospital in Camden with a head injury.

Marino and her vehicle were located in Winslow Township.

The vehicle was impounded by police.

Marino was examined and cleared by medical personnel, then interviewed by police who charged her with several motor vehicle offenses.

Nearly a year later, Hammonton police charged her with assault by auto in the fourth degree and knowingly leaving a motor vehicle accident with serious bodily injury in the third degree. An Atlantic County jury indicted her on both counts April 2, 2015.

On Feb. 15, 2016, U.S. Marshals arrested Marino in Florida as a fugitive. She was extradited to New Jersey.

Marino pleaded guilty to both crimes Sept. 20.

Badagliacco has continued to obtain treatment for injuries caused by the collision, in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities.

Marino also will serve five years of probation and pay $23,455 in restitution to the victim for out-of-pocket medical expenses.
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) has agreed to a $1 billion settlement to fix or buy back another 80,000 polluting diesel vehicles sold in the United States as the German automaker on Tuesday took new steps to put its emissions cheating scandal behind it.

The settlement deal covered luxury VW, Audi and Porsche vehicles with 3.0-liter engines, meaning Volkswagen has now agreed to spend as much as $17.5 billion in the United States to resolve claims from owners as well as federal and state regulators over polluting diesel vehicles.

The world's No. 2 automaker still faces the possibility of spending billions of dollars more to resolve a U.S. Justice Department criminal investigation and federal and state environmental claims, as well as oversight by a federal monitor.

The new agreement, settling part of litigation brought against VW by federal and California regulators, "is another important step forward in our efforts to make things right for our customers," Hinrich Woebcken, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer announced the settlement during a hearing in San Francisco.

Volkswagen also agreed to boost electric vehicle efforts in California and faces additional costs as it works to finalize an agreement to provide what Breyer called "substantial compensation" to the owners of the 3.0-liter vehicles.

Breyer in October approved VW's earlier settlement worth about $15 billion with regulators and the U.S. owners of 475,000 polluting diesel vehicles with smaller 2.0-liter engines, including an offer to buy back all of the cars.

Breyer on Tuesday also said German engineering company Robert Bosch GmbH [ROBG.UL], which produced the software for the VW diesels, has agreed in principle to settle civil allegations made by U.S. diesel vehicle owners. Bosch confirmed it had reached the agreement, but said it was not accepting liability nor admitting to the allegations made in the lawsuit by owners who said the company was a knowing and active participant in VW's emissions cheating scheme.

Story continues

Reuters reported on Monday that the settlement was expected to be worth more than $300 million.

VW admitted in September 2015 to installing secret software known as "defeat devices" in 475,000 U.S. 2.0-liter diesel cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests and make them appear cleaner in testing than they really were. In reality, the vehicles emitted up to 40 times the legally allowable pollution levels.

The company later admitted to also using "defeat devices" in the 3.0-liter vehicles. The 80,000 3.0-liter U.S. vehicles had an undeclared auxiliary emissions system that allowed the vehicles to emit up to nine times allowable limits.

The scandal hurt VW's global business and reputation, and led to its CEO's ouster.

POLLUTION REDUCTION

VW previously agreed to contribute $2.7 billion to a pollution reduction fund to make up for the excess emissions from its 2.0-liter diesel cars through programs like paying for school systems to buy newer, less-polluting buses to replace older ones. Under the new settlement, VW agreed to contribute another $225 million to the fund to offset the excess emissions from its 3.0-liter diesel engines.

Cynthia Giles, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assistant administrator, estimated that the costs of buybacks, fixes and diesel offsets agreed to by VW in the new settlement amounted to about $1 billion.

Under the deal, VW will buy back or fix 20,000 of the 3.0-liter diesels and fix another 60,000. The automaker still must get U.S. regulatory approval for those fixes. The judge still must give final approval to the deal.

VW previously agreed to pay $5,100 to $10,000 in compensation to each of the U.S. 2.0-liter owners. If the new settlement follows this pattern, it could add $400 million to $800 million to the 3.0-liter settlement. But funds from Bosch's settlement are expected to defray VW's compensation costs.

California said in a separate court filing that Volkswagen agreed to add by 2020 at least three additional electric vehicles, including an SUV, in California and must sell an average of 5,000 electric vehicles annually through 2025. Volkswagen also agreed to pay California's state air board $25 million, the state said.

California Air Resources Board executive officer Richard Corey said the new settlement showed that "cheaters will be caught and held accountable."

As part of the earlier settlement, VW agreed to spend $2 billion over 10 years to boost zero-emission vehicle infrastructure.

The buyback offer is for about 20,000 2009-2012 Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q7 diesel models. If VW had been forced to buyback all of the vehicles it could have added billions of dollars to the company's costs.

Breyer said owners of 3.0-liter vehicles would receive "substantial compensation" for getting their vehicles fixed or repaired but said there were some remaining issues to be resolved, and set a another hearing for Thursday for an update.

Volkswagen on Monday also agreed to spend up to $1.6 billion to buy back up to 105,000 polluting 2.0-liter vehicles in Canada.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Detroit; Editing by Will Dunham)
An Ocean County man was arrested Tuesday in the drug-related death of a 24-year-old Stafford Township resident.

Peter Caragiani, 23, of Barnegat, was arrested at his James Hollow Way home in connection to the November drug death of Michael Nugent, 24, of Stafford Township, according to a statement from the Ocean County Prosecutors Office and Stafford Township police.

Caragiani is charged with strict liability drug-induced death, manslaughter, possession of fentanyl, possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and distribution of fentanyl. He is lodged in Ocean County Jail on $150,000 cash bail.

Local authorities have said Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid more potent than heroin and morphine, has been linked to an increase in drug overdose deaths in the state, according to local authorities.

N.J. overdose deaths rise with more synthetic drugs being used Drug overdose deaths continued to rise in New Jersey in 2015, spurred by a powerful syntheti

At 10:18 p.m. on Nov. 7, Stafford Township police responded to Nugents home on South Main Street for a death investigation. Police found Nugent unresponsive, and he was later pronounced dead.

The following investigation linked Caragiani to Nugents overdose death, the statement said. The Stafford Police Department Drug Enforcement Team, Ocean County Special Operation Group and the Ocean County Major Crime Unit, as well as Ocean County Sheriffs Department CSI all contributed to the investigation.

Dealers who are relentless in their efforts to profit from the misery and deaths of others have now resorted to dealing deadly doses laced with powerful synthetic opiates in order to combat our initiatives and to increase their addictive grip on users, Joseph D. Coronato wrote in a statement. We will continue to send a strong message through our enforcement efforts to these callous dealers, but law enforcement cannot address this evil alone.
COMMERCIAL TOWNSHIP  State Police were still searching in Cedarville Wednesday morning for Jeremiah Monell, who allegedly killed his wife, Tara OShea-Watson.

OShea-Watson lived in fear of her husband, the man who beat and abused her for more than a decade, her friends say.

Monell has not been located and State Police said as of Wednesday morning they were searching for the suspect near Sawmill Road.

{blockquote class=twitter-tweet data-lang=en}{p lang=en xml:lang=en dir=ltr}Troopers have resumed search for murder suspect Jeremiah Monell in the area of Sawmill Rd in Cedarville. Updates to follow as info comes in.

There were times when all OShea-Watson did was talk with a family member and Monell would freak out on her, prompting beatings that resulted in bruises, said Jennifer Messeck, OShea-Watsons friend since childhood.

But what may have put Monell, 32, over the top occurred in the past few months, Messeck said. Thats when OShea-Watson got a restraining order she finally decided to enforce and filed for divorce, Messeck said.

That was the final straw, she said.

State Police said they found the 35-year-old OShea-Watson unconscious and unresponsive when they arrived at her Raymond Drive home in the townships Laurel Lake section shortly after 8 a.m. Monday. State Police said they were responding to a call about a dead woman.

Monell, a 5-foot-9, 140-pound white man, is wanted on a murder charge and weapons offenses. Bail is already set at $1 million.

Later Tuesday afternoon, State Police found his truck near railroad tracks off Sawmill Road. Police searched the area with dogs and helicopters Tuesday night.

Authorities arent saying why Monell allegedly killed OShea-Watson. They also arent disclosing how Monell allegedly killed his wife.

OShea-Watson has three children  ages 18, 16 and 15  from different relationships, said friend Penny Morey, of Cedarville in Lawrence Township. OShea-Watson was living at the Raymond Drive site with two of Monells children, who are ages 12 and 5, Morey said.

Messeck, who lives in Laurel Lake, said the two children werent harmed during Mondays incident. She wouldnt disclose the childrens current location.

While State Police wont comment further on the incident, friends of OShea-Watson said the stay-at-home moms life was far from pleasant since she married Monell about 12 years ago.

He was abusive the entire time they were together, Messeck said.

Messeck said OShea-Watson tried to flee from Monell, running to family, friends, anywhere she could be safe, even crossing state lines a few times. Monell found OShea-Watson each time, she said.

Morey, who said shes known OShea-Watson for about seven years, said OShea-Watson took out several restraining orders against Monell but never had them enforced.

She would always drop them, Morey said. He promised to change. She bought into that. I think she felt sorry for him. Being a victim of abuse myself, I know how hard it is.

But there were times when Morey said OShea-Watson visited her home with visible bruises, battered lips and other injuries.

He beat her, Morey said. She was in fear of her life. I helped her out as much as I could.

Anyone with information about the incident or Monells whereabouts can call State Police at the Port Norris barracks at 856-785-0036.
Tara OShea-Watson was a tough yet kindhearted mother.

And she kept showing compassion for family and others in need even though she was beaten and abused by her husband for more than a decade, her cousin said Wednesday.

Tara was an awesome person, Bryan Dunn, 29, of Clayton, Gloucester County, told The Press of Atlantic City. She was amazing. She was the best mom. Those kids had everything.

Authorities continued the search Wednesday for Jeremiah Monell, the man State Police said killed his wife Monday at her Commercial Township home and fled. Police scoured an area of Saw Mill Road in Cedarville, Lawrence Township, where 32-year-old Monell lived before suspending the search at 5 p.m.

Its possible Monell could be just about anywhere, said Trooper Lawrence Peele, a State Police spokesman.

State Police are warning people not to approach Monell.

(Monell) should be considered dangerous, Peele said. Whether or not hes armed, its yet to be determined.

State Police havent commented on what prompted the slaying or how OShea-Watson was killed.

Dunn recalled growing up with OShea-Watson, and said how she would take him and his friends to the Franklinville Skating Rink and to a mall. Dunn said he saw his cousin frequently, as she would always go out of her way for people.

OShea-Watson lived with two of her five children, ages 12 and 3. Her mother and her 18-year-old daughter live in Tennessee. Some of her other family members are in California, and another is in New York, he said.

Dunn said there are more females than males in their family, and his grandfather always said the girls would fight before the boys. That was especially true for OShea-Watson, he said.

She was tough. She was a fighter, Dunn said. The smile never left her face.

Then she met Monell more than 10 years ago and the smiling stopped, Dunn said.

He wouldnt let her go anywhere, Dunn said. Anytime I would call her, he would tell her to hang up.

Dunn said he advised OShea-Watson not to marry Monell, saying he knew Monell was trouble.

Jennifer Messeck, OShea-Watsons friend since childhood, said OShea-Watson got a restraining order and filed for divorce.

That was the final straw, she said of the legal actions that may have led to Monell killing OShea-Watson.

Officials with the state judiciary system said the restraining order is not public record.

Messeck, who lives in Laurel Lake, said the two children who lived with OShea-Watson were not harmed Monday.

A memorial was placed along the fence of OShea-Watsons home.

One sign read, In loving memory of Tara OShea. Rest in Peace Tara, read another, which also referred to OShea-Watson as a wonderful daughter, mother and friend. Gone but not forgotten. A small purple stuffed bear sat on the ground behind a row of candles.

The home was decorated for the holidays. Small lights were draped on the fence, on which the memorial signs were placed. A large inflatable snowman was still operating in the front yard that contained two small childrens bicycles. A childrens playhouse sat in the backyard.

Friends and family of OShea-Watson are holding a candlelight vigil for her at 7 p.m. Thursday in front of her home on Raymond Drive.

On Wednesday morning, customers and staff at Dinos restaurant in downtown Cedarville said they spent an anxious night after learning State Police were searching for Monell in nearby woods.

The people, who did not identify themselves, said they made sure doors to their homes, sheds and other buildings were securely locked. One man said all he heard during the night was the sound of a State Police helicopter flying over the scene.

State Police said they found OShea-Watson unconscious and unresponsive when they arrived at her Raymond Drive home in Laurel Lake shortly after 8 a.m. Monday. State Police said they were responding to a call about a dead woman.

Monell, a 5-foot-9, 140-pound white man, is wanted on a murder charge and weapons offenses. Bail is already set at $1 million.

Anyone with information about Monells whereabouts should call State Police at the Port Norris barracks at 856-785-0036.
The rushed legislative proposal to end the consistent printing of public notices in newspapers has been defeated, after intense opposition from New Jerseys newspaper industry and a gratifying public response. Were glad the publics awareness of important local matters wont be diminished and that the states newspapers will keep getting paid a little (just several percent of overall revenue) for providing the most reliable and widely seen places for such notices, in print and online.

The attack on newspapers by Gov. Chris Christie and some leaders of both parties in the Legislature the past week was unfortunate and wouldnt have happened in a state functioning properly. It was part of a political scheme to increase spending on government more quickly than the public could respond.

The proposal to allow public notices  of local government contracts, public hearings, major property changes and such  to be placed variably on hundreds of new websites and possibly never in print made so little sense that we doubt many legislators of either party thought of it as more than a political card to play. Christie and Democratic leaders sort of claimed it would save local governments money, but almost certainly would have cost them more  note the lack of support for the proposal from mayors and the silence of local government organizations. Advocates of the scheme didnt even bother to think how scattered online legal notices would work as legal, verifiable proof that the public has been notified on a date certain. Hacking and government cheating would be easy.

The other alleged motivation for the proposal  that Christie wanted revenge on newspapers, whose reporting had undermined his political career  might sound more plausible to the 77 percent of state residents who disapprove of his performance. But this requires thinking that a high-level politician would give up some of his most valuable legislative bargaining chips for a mere feeling and nothing of actual value to him. Note that the revenge narrative was begun by a single, unnamed source in a single story in North Jersey.

Theres a far simpler explanation: Christie and legislative leaders had things they wanted, could agree on a deal to help each other, but knew it would look bad to the public  as seen largely through the states newspapers. So, time to trot out the familiar threat to newspaper publication of legal notices as a powerful distraction to take the heat off what many would deem self-serving actions. Christie was glad to attack the media, since hes got nothing to lose and it seemed to work for Donald Trump.

The intended payoff for Christie was a bill allowing him to profit from a book deal while still in office. Legislative leaders had asked whats the harm in that, so here are some answers if the issue ever comes up again: He could reward the publisher of the book at the publics expense in return for the book deal. He could spend even less time doing his job and instead write and promote the book. He could use his position to get publicity for the book.

Legislative leaders wanted raises for judges, Cabinet members and others, as well as a big boost in funds for legislative offices  not easy in a nearly bankrupt state. Theres no question that these things instantly arouse disapproval among many citizens, and even when a strong case can be made for them, those doing so pay a political price. But increased spending on government must be done openly and with public consideration  and, frankly, if state officials acted responsibly with state finances overall, the case for needed raises and increases would be pretty easily made. Instead, the states political leaders waste a lot of time and effort in adversarial and dishonest schemes that leave everyone  including themselves!  worse off.

Despite the distracting attack on newspapers, the rush of these self-serving bills collapsed Monday as legislators realized citizens still smarting from the gas-tax increase might turn on them.

N.J. officials need to update their approaches to government and politics in light of this inexorable trend: The citizens they represent are communicating more, are engaged more and are increasingly demanding better, more open government.

That will mean fewer secret deals and more public consideration of proposals and counter-proposals. Resistance is futile. The citizens, as voters, will eventually have their way.
Give Trump a chance

Enough is enough. The election is over, and Im glad that Donald Trump won. I strongly feel that people and the politicians in government now, whether theyre Republican or Democrat, should give him the respect and the chance to try and bring back the America thats lost.

The United States has lost the respect and recognition it used to have as the superpower country, since the last eight years with President Barack Obama. I am very disappointed with President Obamas behavior since the election, making it clear to the American people that he hates Donald Trump.

I think its very low-class and hypocritical of Obama to say that he accepts the results of the election and will do everything in his power to make the transition as easy as possible for the president-elect.

Obama has no legacy. He is a smooth talker who failed to care about the American people.

Joseph C. Geralis

Egg Harbor Township

Trump victory a reaction to presidency of Obama

Donald Trump winning the election is a reflection of how many Americans really feel but just didnt have a way of expressing.

The hate, bigotry and anti-Semitic tone of his campaign are what a lot of people really espouse, and now they have a like-minded president to rally around. Or so they think.

Barack Obama becoming president didnt sit well with many Americans, no matter how color-blind or open-minded he tried to be. Lets face it, many just didnt want a black president.

So electing someone with the rhetoric and views that Trump has was also a payback to minorities and those who voted in a black president. Somewhere along the lines of you had yours, now we got ours.

Trump has always been a selfish, self-serving businessman. I heard one of his campaigners say, Hes rich, he cant be bought. How did he acquire all those riches? Underhanded deals and stepping on others.

And the only funny part in all this is that all those so-called forgotten Americans who were looking for an economic savior are gonna have a rude awakening. They got duped by a practiced, skillful conman.

Id rather be governed by a professional politician whos trying to take us forward than to be taken back to the good ole days by a narcissistic bigot.

God bless America, because were gonna need it.

Robby Neil

Pleasantville

Need younger Congress

I believe that President-elect Donald Trump will do the best job he can with what he has to work with. There are a lot of Congress people late into their 70s and 80s who dont even know who they are. A younger generation is needed to do these jobs.

Also, Rep. Frank LoBiondo sure got his vote in at the last moment for the president.

Wayne Mclean

Absecon
Volkswagen (XETRA: VOW3-DE) has agreed to recall 83,000 3-liter diesel vehicles with model years between 2009 and 2016, in a deal with regulators, the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday.

The company said, specifically, it will recall 63,000 model year 2013 to 2016 vehicles. Volkswagen has the option of buying back, modifying or terminating the leases of the 20,000 model year 2009 to 2012 vehicles. The emissions modification must be approved by regulators.

Hinrich Woebcken, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, said in a statement that the agreement is another "important step forward in our efforts to make things right for our customers," calling it a "fair and reasonable resolution."

Regulators said, however, that the settlement doesn't address potential criminal liability. It also doesn't resolve pending claims from consumers, individual owners or the Federal Trade Commission .

As part of the agreement, Volkswagen will also spend $225 million to fund projects focused on reducing nitrogen oxide emissions. Reuters reported that Cynthia Giles, EPA assistant administrator, estimated that the costs of buybacks, fixes and diesel offsets were about $1 billion, including the $225 million going into a trust fund to offset excess diesel emissions.

Volkswagen will also pay $25 million to the California Air Resources Board to support the use of zero-emission vehicles in the state.

The German automaker faced fines after it was caught last year cheating on American air pollution tests by the EPA. The scandal has damaged the company's reputation and hurt its sales.



The report comes after a series of delays this week to give the sides more time to negotiate.

Volkswagen previously reached a deal for the other 475,000 polluting vehicles in the scandal, according to The Associated Press. That deal gives owners of 2-liter diesel cars the option to have the company buy back their vehicle regardless of its condition.

Story continues

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said German company Robert Bosch, which produced the software for Volkswagen diesels, has agreed in principle to settle civil allegations made by U.S. diesel vehicle owners. The settlement was expected to be worth more than $300 million, Reuters reported.

 Reuters and AP contributed to this report.





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For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




Jewel Samad | AFP | Getty Images. The FBI later told Congress that the newly discovered emails did not make it change its conclusion that Clinton should not be prosecuted.

A federal judge on Tuesday released an October warrant used by the FBI to search additional emails related to Hillary Clinton's private server, casting light on a development that at the time sent shockwaves through the final stretch of the presidential race.

The partially redacted document shows that the FBI in late October told federal magistrate judge Kevin Fox there was "probable cause" to believe that a laptop owned by Clinton aide Huma Abedin's estranged husband Anthony Weiner could contain classified information in email exchanges between Clinton and Abedin. They based this partially on the conclusion that other emails between the pair had classified information in them.

The FBI later told Congress that the newly discovered emails did not alter its earlier conclusions that Clinton should not be prosecuted for her handling of sensitive data. Comey said earlier this year that Clinton's team was "extremely careless" with classified information but added that "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a case against her.

Comey's letter to lawmakers about the emails found on Weiner's laptop jolted the last week of the presidential race. Then-candidate Donald Trump jumped on the news, claiming it showed Clinton's inability to serve. Clinton partially blamed the Comey announcement for her loss in remarks to donors, according to NBC News.

No charges have been brought in relation to the handling of classified information, but some Trump associates have said they'll push for a prosecution after the White House transition.

Some Democrats, meanwhile, have seized on the FBI's handling of those emails as a possible factor in the electoral outcome, which saw Trump outperform polling averages in key states to pull off an unexpected victory.

Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon contended Tuesday that the document shows the email search was "utterly unjustified."





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PHOENIX (AP) -- The new mother of quintuplets kept her excitement in check for the first six months of her pregnancy  even putting off setting up a nursery.

But Margaret Baudinet could finally take a sigh of relief after a team of Phoenix doctors delivered five early Christmas presents, all wrapped in hospital blankets.

Baudinet and her husband Michael welcomed four girls and one boy on Dec. 4 at Dignity Health St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center.

The Virginia couple temporarily moved to Arizona to be closer to Dr. John Elliott, a specialist in multiple-birth pregnancies.

She said it wasn't until she was discharged from the hospital that her fear of things going wrong had lifted.

"I have a very odd relationship with hope," she said Wednesday at the hospital, where Santa Claus stopped by to see the quintuplets.

Friends and family in Virginia have prepared the nursery for Baudinet, who plans to return next month with her five healthy babies.

The children, all of whom weighed a little more than 3 pounds at birth, were delivered within 17 minutes with the help of a team of 24 medical professionals that included two anesthesiologist, three surgeons, and 15 employees from an intensive care unit.

"It takes a lot of people doing their job correctly," Elliott said.

Dr. William Chavira, who assisted in the delivery, said things went smoothly because the team was prepared. "It was pretty much a routine cesarean section," Chavira quipped, "except that instead of one baby, it was like a clown car. They just kept coming  one, two, three, four, five."

The children, who remain in the intensive care unit, can now breathe on their own and are being bottle-fed.

"I would imagine having five newborns, I will feel a lot of feelings over the next two years or so," Baudinet said. "But I'm OK with that. That's what we wanted."

___

Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jacques-billeaud.
EDMONTON, Alberta, December 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Alberta Investment Management Corporation ("AIMCo"), on behalf of certain of its clients, is pleased to announce that it has agreed to acquire an ownership stake in Howard Energy Partners from EnLink Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:ENLK). The investment, representing an ownership stake of approximately 28% of Howard Energy Partners, makes AIMCo the second largest unitholder in the company. The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

The transaction follows AIMCo's initial investment in August 2016, which allowed for the purchase of up to US$500 million of Series B Preferred Units (Preferred Units) of Howard Energy Partners.

Howard Energy Partners is a diversified, growth-oriented midstream provider with assets in the Eagle Ford Shale region of South Texas, along the Gulf Coast of Texas, as well as in the Marcellus Shale region in Pennsylvania. The investment represents a compelling opportunity for AIMCo's clients to participate in an attractive midstream portfolio with exposure to high demand markets. It is supported by a high quality management team with a demonstrated track record of execution and a robust project pipeline that will produce stable, fee-based cash flows.

Commenting on the investment, Kevin Uebelein, AIMCo Chief Executive Officer said, "AIMCo is very pleased to have the opportunity to increase our investment in Howard Energy Partners. Since our preferred investment in August, we have forged a strong working relationship with Howard Energy Partners' management team, as well as with the other investment partners, and we are confident in their opportunities for continued growth in the future."

Evercore served as financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to AIMCo.

About Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo)

AIMCo is one of Canada's largest and most diversified institutional investment managers with more than $90 billion of assets under management. AIMCo was established on January 1, 2008 with a mandate to provide superior long-term investment results for its clients. AIMCo operates at arms-length from the Government of Alberta and invests globally on behalf of 31 pension, endowment and government funds in the Province of Alberta. For more information on AIMCo please visit http://www.aimco.alberta.ca.

About the EnLink Midstream Companies

EnLink Midstream is publicly traded through two entities: EnLink Midstream, LLC (NYSE: ENLC), the publicly traded general partner entity, and EnLink Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: ENLK), the master limited partnership entity. EnLink Midstream is a leading, integrated midstream company with a diverse geographic footprint and a strong financial foundation, delivering tailored customer solutions for sustainable growth.

EnLink Midstream's assets are located in many of North America's premier oil and gas regions, including Oklahoma's Midcontinent, the Permian Basin, and the Gulf Coast region. Based in Dallas, Texas, EnLink Midstream's assets include approximately 11,000 miles of gathering and transportation pipelines, 21 processing plants with approximately 4.4 billion cubic feet per day of processing capacity, seven fractionators with approximately 260,000 barrels per day of fractionation capacity, as well as barge and rail terminals, product storage facilities, purchase and marketing capabilities, brine disposal wells, an extensive crude oil trucking fleet, and equity investments in certain private midstream companies.

Additional information about the EnLink companies can be found at http://www.EnLink.com.

About Howard Energy Partners

San Antonio-based, Howard Midstream Energy Partners, LLC dba Howard Energy Partners is an independent midstream energy company, owning and operating natural gas gathering and transportation pipelines, natural gas liquids processing plants, rail facilities, liquid storage terminals, deep-water port facilities and other related midstream assets in Texas and Pennsylvania. The company has corporate offices in San Antonio, Houston and Mexico City. For more information on Howard Energy Partners, please visit our website http://www.howardenergypartners.com.

Media Contact: Denes Nemeth; Corporate Communication, O: +1-780-392-3857, M: +1-780-932-4013, E: denes.nemeth@aimco.alberta.ca

SOURCE Alberta Investment Management Corp.
ABU DHABI, UAE, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The ever-changing skyline in the Middle East is hard to keep up with. Architecturally amazing buildings are designed and built all year round, however in an industry that is so fast paced we often forget to stop and think about the purpose of these buildings. The comfort and productivity of People.

Whether building occupants are business professionals, students or patients, all humans have the same basic needs; clean air, general maintenance, thermal comfort and cleanliness, to name a few. While regional buildings may be architecturally exciting from the outside, they often lack a clear focus on the quality of experience for the occupants and therefore most regional buildings perform poorly in terms of thermal comfort, acoustics quality, mold containment and lighting quality.

Over the past six months Alpin's local GCC team worked with Berkeley's world renown Centre for the Built Environment (CBE) in California to change this. Our first order of business to bring best practices for occupant-focused operations to the Middle East was to customise and translate a cost-effective, web-based survey, which is now available in English and Arabic.

The live survey, which is also closely aligned with the LEED and WELL building certification systems, is focused on: Acoustic Quality, Air Quality, Cleanliness + Maintenance, Lighting, Furnishings, Space Layout and Thermal Comfort.

"We believe in sustainability for the built environment, and it is for this reason that we were happy to work with Berekley in creating an innovative tool to help optimise building performance," Jourdan Younis, Managing Director of Alpin.

This Occupant Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) survey provides an invaluable source of information for improving the performance of buildings. It takes approximately ten minutes to complete, and the results are quickly available in a visually appealing format.

With this information readily available, local building owner/operators will have the ability to optimize buildings and help drive employee productivity, student learning and patient recovery.

Not only does this survey allow building operators to receive a pulse as to how buildings are being perceived by their occupants, it also helps inform them as to how well their design updates are working and also provides information as to where to invest in the optimization of their future built assets.

"We were happy to partner with Alpin to develop a tool which will improve the performance of buildings and we will be offering our CBE partners 4 complimentary surveys a year," Lindsay Graham, Berkeley

This tool is a perfect way for building owners to future-proof their buildings, as they are able to compare their building's performance against the CBE's international database of buildings. Helping owner/operators to gain a better understanding of what design features work and don't within their building portfolios.

Anthony Moddesette, Manager of Plant Operations & Maintenance, UC Davis Medical Centre said, "We manage 2.1 million square feet of medical research space. CBE's Occupant IEQ Survey allowed us to quickly identify the causes of complaints in our buildings, and was an invaluable tool in communicating with senior management to revise our priorities."

To view the IEQ tool, visit http://www.cbe.berkeley.edu/research/survey.htm

SOURCE Alpin Limited and UC Berkeley
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Andreas Falkenmark will be leaving his posts as head of PostNord's Business Area Communication Services and as a member of PostNord's Group Executive Team by August 2017.

The rapid pace of digitization clarifies the need to dedicate additional energy to PostNord's digital communication business and to intensify the development of the Group's digital service offering. The time is therefore right to implement a shift in management of this business area.

Andreas has successfully managed the letter business for more than eleven years, making outstanding contributions within the Group. We are now in complete agreement that this is the right time for a new head of the business area and I am extremely pleased with the willingness that Andreas has shown to contribute to a smooth transition, says President and Group CEO Hakan Ericsson.

Andreas Falkenmark will now complete work that is currently ongoing in the business area and leave the Group by August 2017. Recruitment of a successor has been initiated.

Andreas Falkenmark joined Posten AB in 2005 as head of what was then the Sales and Marketing Division, after which he took over the position of CEO of Posten Meddelande AB following the restructuring of the Group in 2007. He was head of Business Area Mail Sweden from the time that PostNord was established in 2009 until 2014. When the current matrix organization was introduced, Andreas held the position of head of Business Area Mail & Communication and since 2015 he has been the head of Business area Communication Services, which was formed through the merger of the business area with Stralfors' service development business.

For further information, please contact

PostNord Media Relations,

Tel: 46 10 436 10 10,

E-mail: press@postnord.com

Contact person: Emma Riblom. This information is information that PostNord Group AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 08.30 AM CET on December 21, 2016.

CONTACT:

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/postnord/r/andreas-falkenmark-will-leave-postnord-s-group-executive-team,c2154490

The following files are available for download:

SOURCE PostNord
LONDON - 21/12/2016, December 21,2016 /PRNewswire/ --

21 December 2016

BCRE - Brack Capital Real Estate Investments N.V.

("BCRE" or the "Company")

Refinancing of bank loans in Russia

The Company is pleased to announce that certain subsidiaries of BCRE Russia ("subsidiaries") have entered into agreements with the existing financing bank concerning four major projects in Russia, whereby the main loan terms have been amended and the corporate structure of the subsidiaries will be revised ("refinancing"). The Company expects that the amendments of the existing loan facilities will have a positive impact on the debt servicing obligations and on the liquidity of BCRE Russia.

The key amendments to the existing loan facilities and to the corporate structure of the subsidiaries, among other things, are the following:

 Where relevant, final maturity dates shall be prolonged by 3 to 4.5 years

 Amortisation payment schedules shall be postponed towards the maturity dates

 Interest rates have been improved

 Some material loan covenants have been relaxed

 The financing bank shall obtain a 'golden' share in each project, which provides the financing bank, inter alia, with a veto right in respect of material decisions at the level of the subsidiaries. The 'golden' shares can be repurchased subject to meeting certain conditions.

The completion of the refinancing is subject to (i) certain other conditions which need to be fulfilled by the subsidiaries and (ii) the approval of the transfer of the 'golden' shares to the financing bank, by the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation ("conditions precedent"). The conditions precedent should be completed within a period of eight months after the signing of the relevant agreements. The Company shall make further announcements of the final key amendments when the refinancing will be completed.

ENQUIRIES:

BCRE - Brack Capital Real Estate Investments N.V. Ariel Podrojski, Chief Executive Officer Nansia Koutsou, Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer +31 20 514 1004 Novella Communications Tim Robertson Toby Andrews +44 203 151 7008

About BCRE

BCRE is an international real estate development and investment group, headquartered in the Netherlands and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Through its subsidiary and associated undertakings, the Company is interested in, develops and operates an international portfolio of real estate assets, predominantly located in the USA, Germany and Russia.

The Company has established local management team platforms with significant local market expertise in the US, Germany, Russia, India and the UK with exclusive access to over 550 staff. At present, the Company has offices and teams in New York, London, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Moscow, Kazan, New Delhi, Amsterdam and Limassol.

This is a disclosure announcement from PR Newswire.

SOURCE BCRE - Brack Capital Real Estate Investments N.V.
GOTEBORG, Sweden, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Capio AB (publ) has signed an agreement to initially acquire 70% of the shares in CFR Hospitaler A/S "CFR" in Denmark. The CFR Group comprises four specialized hospitals and four radiology units with estimated net sales in 2016 of MDKK 280. The acquisition of CFR represents a new market entry for Capio, adding to the Group's Nordic home base and pan-European footprint for driving Modern Medicine and increased productivity in healthcare services.

CFR operates four hospitals, of which two are located in the Copenhagen region, one is located in Odense on Fyn and one in Skrping, North Denmark (Nordjylland). The Copenhagen hospitals represent approximately 70% of the CFR Group's net sales. Specialized in orthopedics, spine surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, urology and ear-nose-throat disorders, CFR annually performs more than 80,000 consultations and 8,000 surgeries. In addition to the hospitals, CFR comprises four radiology units, one in each of the hospital facilities, offering MRI, mammography, ultrasound and X-ray diagnostic imaging. CFR is active in three out of five regions in Denmark.

Thomas Kir, the founder and former main owner of CFR will continue as CEO of CFR Group after the acquisition and will remain as a shareholder of CFR.

"We are very pleased with the opportunity to acquire CFR Hospitaler, a well-established and professionally operated healthcare company. CFR matches Capio's core medical specialties and shares our fundamental view of delivering high quality healthcare. I am looking forward to further developing CFR together with Thomas Kir, his management team and medical staff", says Thomas Berglund, President and CEO of Capio AB.

"We are very happy and look forward to being a part of the Capio Group in the future. We are well-established in Denmark, and have focused on delivering healthcare of highest medical quality for a long time. Together with Capio, we see an opportunity to continue this development with a very experienced and strong partner with a long track record of delivering good quality healthcare in several European countries. As CEO of the company, I look forward to being part of an experienced and well-managed international group focusing on high quality healthcare", says Thomas Kir, CEO of CFR.

The Danish healthcare environment is similar to the one in Sweden and other Nordic countries, with a growing share of elderly population and increased GDP spend on healthcare. The market for healthcare in Denmark is estimated to be worth approximately BDKK 105, with a small private hospital share of 2%. Denmark has come far in Modern Medicine with a high share of day surgery and short AVLOS (Average Length Of Stay), but has availability challenges and productivity can be further improved. Hence, the outsourcing of public contracts is expected to gradually increase in line with the development in other Nordic countries.

Enterprise value is MDKK 199 for 70% of CFR and Capio has the option to acquire the remaining 30% of the shares after two years. The acquisition is estimated to be closed and included in the Capio Group from January 2017. CFR is expected to have a positive impact on Capio's earnings during 2017.

After the acquisition, Capio will have operations in five countries; Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France and Germany. The Danish operations will be included in the Nordic segment.

For information, please contact:

Thomas Berglund, President and CEO

Telephone: +46 733 88 86 00

Olof Bengtsson, CFO

Telephone: +46 761 18 74 69

Kristina Ekeblad, IR manager

Telephone: +46 708 31 19 40



This information is information that Capio AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 08:45 CET on December 21, 2016.

CONTACT:

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/capio-ab/r/capio-to-acquire-the-danish-hospital-group-cfr-hospitaler,c2154550

The following files are available for download:

SOURCE Capio AB
LONDON, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Cashfloat.co.uk, has revealed research about how poor people who are struggling to pay for basic necessities often pay more for simple items.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160817/398829LOGO )



Western Circle Ltd (WCL), a London-based lending company trading as Cashfloat conducted this research as a further effort to understand their poorest customers living in the UK. Some of the startling results showed how much poor people pay due to a lack of bank accounts, cars and washing machines. Cashfloat published the findings of their research on Sunday 18 December 2016.

Buying a basic microwave can cost two and a half times the price of a higher quality model, in the long run.

Poor people pay at least 5p more on washing powder for each wash.

It costs 40% more to buy an orange in a local shop than in the supermarket.

Poor people pay enough in rent over 20 years to buy a house.

The poverty penalty caught the attention of Cashfloat's researchers as they strive to understand the struggles and issues that payday loan customers are dealing with on a day-to-day basis.

"We did this research because we really want to help people, so we looked at what their problems are," says Jeremy Lloyd, Director at Cashfloat.

"We were a bit horrified at what we discovered. We all know that living in poverty is difficult, but the idea that saving money is too expensive is shocking!"

The research includes two in-depth case studies. Additionally, Cashfloat's researchers conducted on-the-spot interviews in places that poor people frequent, such as the local launderettes and cash converters.

The team at Cashfloat are constantly striving to understand their customers better, so they can help UK citizens improve their financial situation in the long run.

Article and explainer video:

https://www.cashfloat.co.uk/blog/money-borrowing/poor-people-pay-more/

Infographic:

https://www.cashfloat.co.uk/infographics/poor-pay-more/

About Cashfloat

Cashfloat.co.uk is a trading style of Western Circle Limited; an FCA-fully authorised direct lender. The Cashfloat model is based on fundamentally good morals and the most advanced artificial intelligence technology designed to help and protect people taking payday loans online.



Contacts:

Kelly Richard, +44(0)20-3757-1933

kelly.richard@cashfloat.co.uk

or

SEO & Strategy related queries

Ofer Valencio Akerman

akerman@masterlevelseo.com

Social media accounts:

http://www.cashfloat.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/cashfloat

https://twitter.com/cashfloat_kelly

https://www.linkedin.com/company/cashfloat

https://plus.google.com/+CashfloatUk-loans



SOURCE Cashfloat.co.uk
HELSINKI, Finland, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Finnair has today transferred a total of 26,641 own shares held by the company as treasury shares to the 28 participants of Finnair's share-based incentive scheme 20132015 as a reward payment.



More information on the share-based incentive scheme 20132015 is available in Finnair's Remuneration Statement 2015, page 4.



After the transfer of shares, Finnair holds 788,964 own shares as treasury shares.

The transfer is related to the changed payment schedule of the share-based incentive scheme. For more information, see Finnair's stock exchange release published on 21 December 2016 at 10.05 am.



Finnair Plc

Communications

CONTACT:

Further information:

Finnair communications, tel. +358 9 818 4020, comms(a)finnair.com

Distribution:

Nasdaq Helsinki

Principal media

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/finnair/r/change-in-the-amount-of-finnair-treasury-shares,c2155276

SOURCE Finnair
Organised by UBM Malaysia, MIFF 2017 is again fully-booked and pre-registered visitor numbers are running strong for the four-day event taking place at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) and MATRADE Exhibition and Convention Centre (MECC) from March 8 to 11.

The trade show which posted record US$908 million sales in 2016 will feature 500 companies and attract an estimated 20,000 buyers from 140 countries and regions.

MIFF 2017 continues to benefit from the cross-promotion of the trade show across UBM and Alibaba.com platforms as a result of a strategic "online and offline" collaboration to create the next generation of B2B trade sourcing experiences.

Around 70 per cent of exhibitors are Malaysian companies while the rest are from overseas including from China, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and Vietnam.

"There will be a lot of new products releases during MIFF 2017 based on the product range indicated by exhibitors. The new products and design are very refreshing, this is great for buyers. Many companies are seeing this as an opportunity to boost their visibility and increase business leads because they want a bigger footprint in 2018 when MIFF expands to 100,000 sqm at the new Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC) and PWTC. We are also seeing very good numbers from pre-registration from over 100 countries so far," said MIFF General Manager Ms Karen Goi.

MIFF 2017 will feature a dedicated segment -- MIFF OFFICE -- to showroom the biggest range of office solutions with 130 companies at PWTC.

Malaysian companies which would be participating in MIFF 2017 include well-known exporters such as Merryfair Chair System, Euro Chair, Poh Huat, Soon Her Sing Industries, Oasis Furniture and Safari Office System.

The China Hall will be larger with over 150 companies as more furnishing exhibitors are coming from southern Guangdong province led by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Guangzhou Council (CCPIT Guangzhou).

Other attractions are Taiwan Hall with 30 companies and Muar Hall, organised by Muar Furniture Association and a strategic partner of MIFF, will feature over 80 member companies.

Buyer registration and a preview of products from exhibitors are available at www.miff.com.my.

Overseas visitors are eligible to attend Buyers Night gala, access to International Buyers Lounge and discounts on hotel rates and airport transfers.

Updates on MIFF 2017 and free subscription to the MIFF e-newsletter are also available on www.miff.com.my.

EXHIBITORS' COMMENTS:

MS LYNN LIAO, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF CCPIT

"We are bringing more exhibitors to MIFF 2017 because it is a proven platform for our companies to showcase their products to global buyers. The valuable experience has helped our companies to better develop their business, how to get new customers and open up more markets. MIFF is strongly supported by CCPIT and it has a 70% rebooking rate from Chinese exhibitors, that's the highest in any international trade show participated by Chinese companies."

MR NEO CHEE KIAT, PRESIDENT, MUAR FURNITURE ASSOCIATION

"We are very excited at the coming show because our exhibitors had achieved very good sales in 2016. MIFF has given a big opportunity for local manufacturers to discover new business and develop international networks because of its global standing. This is very important for manufacturers like us because Malaysia's furniture industry is an export sector and Muar is the biggest production hub in Malaysia. We expect to have a busy time again."

Notes to Editors:

About MIFF (www.miff.com.my)

Malaysian International Furniture Fair (MIFF) is an export-oriented furniture trade show held annually in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is also a global leading trade show approved by UFI, The Global Association for Exhibition Industry. Since 1995, MIFF has nurtured invaluable partnerships between thousands of buyers and furniture makers across the globe.

Related Links

http://www.miff.com.my



SOURCE UBM Asia (Malaysia)
EFFRETIKON, Switzerland, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

In preparation for the next world's fair in 2017, Expomobilia, the general contractor for trade fair booth, pavilion and event construction from Zurich, has established a new office in Astana, Kazakhstan.

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/451670/Expomobilia_AG.jpg )



"We want to work with the on-site project team, existing infrastructure and main office in Switzerland to manage our upcoming projects, such as the Swiss Pavilion, and offer our customers first-class support," says Florian Faber, Managing Director of Expomobilia AG.

The first project for the Expo 2017 in Astana: the Swiss Pavilion.

Expomobilia is collaborating with the renowned design and architecture company Atelier Oi based in La Neuveville to create the pavilion under the theme 'Nature in Motion'. As part of this entertaining and interactive exhibition, visitors will be able to test and experience their relationship with energy and resources in intelligent and efficient ways. This intuitive creative concept will also demonstrate how each and every one of us can make a small contribution towards saving resources and making the world a better place.

Further information:

http://www.expomobilia.com/en-US/News/News-2016.aspx#a_D8F08CA94CED44C1A03950217738D2B7

With over 40 years of experience in the field of customised and temporary constructions, Expomobilia AG from Effretikon in Zurich has established itself as a globally active general contractor for trade fair booth, pavilion and event constructions. In addition to the main office in Zurich-Effretikon, the company also has branches in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Expomobilia AG has been an independent subsidiary of the MCH Group AG since 2007 and employs around 95 members of staff.

Further information:

Expomobilia AG

Irene Graven-Koller

igraven@expomobilia.com

http://www.expomobilia.com



SOURCE Expomobilia AG
HELSINKI, Finland, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Finnair Plc - Stock Exchange Release - 21 December 2016 at 10:05 am EET

Employee share plan

The Board of Directors of Finnair Plc has decided to launch a new 12-month savings period under the Employee Share Plan. The purpose of the plan introduced in 2013 is to encourage the employees to become shareholders in the company, to provide long-term rewards through potential share price appreciation and thereby strengthen the employees' interest in the development of Finnair's shareholder value.

Participation in the share savings plan is voluntary. The decided 12-month savings period will commence on 1 July 2017. Potential future savings periods are subject to separate Board decisions.

The eligible Finnair employees are offered the opportunity to invest part of their base salary in Finnair shares through the plan. Finnair awards each participant one Matching Share for each two purchased shares after a holding period of approximately two years. The awarded shares are taxable income for the recipient.

To increase the attractiveness of the plan, each employee participating in the plan for the first time in this savings period will additionally be awarded 20 bonus shares in October 2017, provided that employee participates at least in the first three months of the plan. The plan will be offered to approximately 5,000 Finnair employees in Finland. The maximum monthly savings are eight per cent and the minimum are two per cent of each participant's gross base salary during one month. In order to simplify the structure of the plan, the Board of Directors has decided to remove the monetary maximum limit of savings which the individual participant may annually make under the plan.

The total amount of all savings in 20172018 may not exceed 7.5 million euros, which equals 1.875 million shares, using the 20 December 2016 closing share price of 4.0 euros.

Shares will be purchased with the accumulated savings at the market price quarterly, after the publication dates of the Finnair's interim results. Any dividends paid on purchased shares during the commencing savings period will be reinvested into additional shares on the following purchase date. These shares will have equal rights to Matching Shares.

Performance-based incentive plan for key personnel

The Board of Directors has decided to simplify the structure of performance share plans within the company's long-term incentive arrangement which is aimed at the key personnel of Finnair Group. The purpose of the arrangement is to motivate the management to work for increasing the shareholder value in the long-term and to commit the management to the company.

In the revised structure the annually commencing performance share plans include a three-year performance period like before. Unlike in the earlier structure, the potential share rewards will be delivered to the participants in one tranche after the performance period and they are at the participants' free disposal after delivery.

The members of Finnair's Executive Board are expected to retain at least fifty per cent of the net shares received based on the arrangement until their share ownership in Finnair corresponds to at least their annual gross base salary.

The maximum combined value of all variable compensation paid to an individual participant in any given year may not exceed hundred and twenty per cent of the participant's annual gross base salary.

The aim of the structural revision is to simplify the long-term incentive structure and to increase alignment with the shareholders. The revised structure is in line with the Finnish Government's Resolution on Ownership Steering Policy adopted on May 13, 2016.

The Board of Directors of Finnair has approved the first individual performance share plan covering the years 20172019 within the above described revised structure. Within the plan, the participants have the opportunity to earn Finnair shares as a long-term incentive reward, if the performance targets set by the Board of Directors for the plan are achieved. The potential share rewards will be delivered to the participants in the spring 2020.

The performance criteria applied to the plan 20172019 are earnings per share and revenue growth.

If the targets set for the plan for years 20172019 are fully achieved, the maximum number of shares to be delivered based on this plan is approximately 750,000 shares. This number of shares represents a gross earning, from which the applicable payroll tax is deducted and the remaining net-value is delivered to the participants in shares.

The number of employees eligible to participate in the plan 20172019 is approximately 60 persons.

The Board of Directors anticipates that no new shares will be issued in connection with the share-based incentive plans and that therefore the arrangement will have no dilutive effect on the registered number of the company's shares.

In accordance with the afore-mentioned revision of the long-term incentive plan structure, the Board of Directors has decided that the share rewards earned under the plan 20132015 which have not yet been delivered to the participants, will be delivered before the end of the year 2016. Accordingly, the Board of Directors has also decided that share reward possibly earned and payable under the individual plans which commenced at the beginning of 2014, 2015 and 2016 will be delivered in one tranche after the respective three-year performance periods of these plans have ended.

Finnair Plc

Communications

CONTACT:

Further information:

Finnair communications, tel. +358 9 818 4020, comms(a)finnair.com

Distribution:

Nasdaq Helsinki

Principal media

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/finnair/r/finnair-s-board-of-directors-decided-on-new-periods-and-changes-to-the-employee-share-plan-and-incen,c2154656

SOURCE Finnair
NEW YORK, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The reluctance of orthopedic patients towards the use of conventional cementing materials for surgical adhesion procedures is influencing the development of organic alternatives. Globally, the consumption of bone glue in hospitals is on an upsurge, owing to their widespread acceptance by both healthcare professionals and patients. The global market for bone glue is currently valued at US$ 600.6 million, and is expected to reach US$ 1,032.9 million in revenues by the end of 2024.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/438683LOGO )



Persistence Market Research's report titled "Global Market Study on Bone Glue: Rising Adoption of Bone Glue for Orthopedic Surgeries Expected to Boost Demand for Bone Glue over the Forecast Period," has estimated that the global market for bone glue will register a CAGR of 7.0% during the assessment period of 2016-2024. Prevalence of bone related disorders continues to be on a rise, urging manufacturers to come up with advanced glues. Preference to bone glue remains higher for adhesion procedures in arthroplasty surgeries. By the end of 2024, the application of bone glue in arthroplasty surgeries is slated to surpass 40% share of global market value, rendering it as the most prominent application for bone glue adhesives.

Key end-use segments of the market include hospitals, specialty clinics and ASCs. High costs of orthopedic surgeries and growing number of accidents have increased the influx of orthopedic patients in hospitals. Since treating such patients requires the inclusion of bone glue as surgical adhesives, manufacturers are likely to concentrate their supply more towards hospitals and similar medical organizations. Specialty clinics are expected to be the second-most prominent end-user in the global bone glue market. On the account of their individual value share, specialty clinics and ASCs are projected to attribute to 17.9% and 10.9% share of the global bone glue market by 2024 end.

Request a Sample Report@ http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3720

Regional Overview

In terms of value share, North America's bone glue market accounts for half of the global market value, primarily due to advanced pharmaceutical production and robust healthcare infrastructure in the US. The bone glue market in the Asia Pacific region is expected to surge at the highest CAGR of 7.6% during the projected period. Latin America's bone glue revenues are likely to surpass US$ 50 million by 2024, while bone glue sales in Middle East & Africa (MEA) region will expand sluggishly. On the other hand, revenues generated from bone glue sales in Europe are expected to be worth over US$ 150 million by the end of the forecast period.

Higher Demand for Synthetic Bone Glue

The production of bone glue through synthesis of constituent adhesive elements becomes more cost-effective and practical for manufacturers. Over 80% of global revenues estimated in 2016 and beyond are projected to be accounted by synthetic bone glue over natural bone glue. Revenues from global sales of synthetic product called methacrylate will incur a rise of estimated US$ 23.8 million between 2016 and 2017, while global cyanoacrylate revenues are likely to surpass US$ 250 million by 2024 end.

" View Report Table of Contents, Figures, and Tables "

Ethicon & Baxter International: Key Market Players

As a manufacturer and supplier of bone glue adhesives, Ethicon, Inc. (US) is estimated to hold 40% revenue share of the global market. Baxter International Inc. is the other leading player in the global bone glue market. Companies such as Cryolife are expected to expand their market presence through increasing distribution. C. R. Bard, Inc., Luna Innovations Incorporated, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Cohera Medical, Inc., Tissuemed Ltd., Chemence Medical, Inc., Integra LifeSceinces Corporation, and DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc., are also some of the prominent companies participating in the growth of the global bone glue market.

To Buy Full Report for a Single User @ http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/3720

PMR Overview

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

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U.S. Sales Office:

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New York City, NY 10007

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SOURCE Persistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd.
DUBLIN, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Yellow Pages - Global Strategic Business Report" report to their offering.

The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Rest of World.



Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2015 through 2022. Also, a six-year historic analysis is provided for these markets. Market data and analytics are derived from primary and secondary research.

This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Yellow Pages in US$ Million by the following Segments:



Print Yellow Pages

Digital Yellow Pages

The report profiles 101 companies including many key and niche players such as



Albanian Yellow Pages Inc. (US)

Dex Media, Inc. (US)

Egypt Yellow Pages Ltd. ( Egypt )

) EUROPAGES SA ( France )

) Hibu plc (UK)

Hibu, Inc. (US)

Sensis Pty Ltd. ( Australia )

) Trudon (Pty) Ltd. ( South Africa )

) Yellow Pages Group ( Canada )

) Yellow Media Inc. ( Canada )

) YP LLC (US)

Key Topics Covered:



1. INDUSTRY OVERVIEW



Yellow Pages

The Original Search Engine

Print Yellow Pages Continue to Lose Momentum

Digital Expansion Peps Up Revenues for Digital Yellow Pages

Despite Cannibalization by Alternative Technologies, Yellow Pages Continue to Find Favor for Local Searching

Home/Trade SMBs

The Key Users of Yellow Pages for Advertising Location-based Advertising: A Preferred Advertising Solution

Innovations Continue Despite Tough Market Environment

2. SEGMENT REVIEW



Print Yellow Pages Market under Pressure

Search Engines Spelling Doom for Printed Directories?

Dealing with Google's Dominant Presence

Directories in Metros: No Longer Viable?

Directories with Specific Functions: Opportunities to Tap

Printed Directories Find Favor among Specific Businesses

Small or Large: Deciding on the Ad Size in Printed Directories

Printed Directories Focus on Leads- Based Selling

Sustainability: A Key Concern for Print Yellow Pages Market

Ban on Distribution of Print YP

Small Businesses and Printed Yellow Pages

Digital Yellow Pages Revolutionize Traditional Directories

Internet Marketing Gaining Over Yellow Pages

Can Internet YP Companies Fight Declines in Printed Directories Category?

Brand Image Propels Internet Yellow Pages Searches

Mobile Format Aids Growth of Yellow Pages Market

3. YELLOW PAGES - AN OVERVIEW



Yellow Pages: The Concept

From Where Do Publisher's Source the Listings?

ROI Generation in Yellow Pages Industry

Print Yellow Pages

Advantages of Print Yellow Pages Ads

Disadvantages of Print Yellow Pages Ads

Digital Yellow Pages

Internet Yellow Pages (IYP)

Types of Internet Yellow Pages Advertisements

Sponsored Listings

Banner Advertisements

Email Links

Advantages of Internet Yellow Pages

Mobile Yellow Pages

A Typical Mobile Yellow Pages Model

Benefits of Online and Print Yellow Pages over Other Sources

Permission-based Marketing

Targeted Solutions

Ideal for Movers

Cost Effective Surrogates: A Threat

4. RECENT INDUSTRY ACTIVITY



Hibu Joins Facebook Marketing Partner Program

Hibu Affiliate Files for Bankruptcy

Yellow Pages Plans to Relaunch its Brand in Kenya

YP to Spin off Print its Yellow Pages Business

Wall2Wall Media Adopts New Name

Yellow Pages to Drop Home Delivery in Some Areas

YP Unveils New Local Search Marketplace

YP Introduces New PPC Search Solution

YP Launches Cross-Device Retargeting

5. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS



6. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE



Total Companies Profiled: 101 (including Divisions/Subsidiaries 106)



The United States (42)

(42) Canada (3)

(3) Japan (2)

(2) Europe (16)

(16) - France (2)

(2) - Germany (2)

(2) - The United Kingdom (3)

(3) - Italy (1)

(1) - Rest of Europe (8)

(8) Asia-Pacific (Excluding Japan) (25)

(Excluding Japan) (25) Latin America (5)

(5) Middle-East (9)

(9) Africa (4)

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5fh3cr/yellow_pages

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
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

GomSpace ApS - a subsidiary of GS Sweden AB (the "Company") has entered a turn-key contract to deliver, launch and commission a satellite for the Colombian Air Force. The Earth observation satellite will be able to serve a wide range of applications such as studying land usage, planning urban development, detecting illegal crops, monitoring natural disaster effects, etc. The delivery of the satellite and launch will take place in the first quarter of 2018.

CONTACT:

For more information, please contact:

Niels Buus (CEO)

Tel: 45 40 31 55 57

Email: nbu @ gomspace.com

Miscellaneous

This information is information that GomSpace is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 8.45 a.m. CET on December 21, 2016.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/gomspace-a-s/r/gomspace-enters-a-turn-key-contract-with-the-colombian-air-force,c2153375

The following files are available for download:

SOURCE GomSpace A/S
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

"The Scandinavian market has contributed increased sales in local currency."

Read the CEO statement in the enclosed report.

In the quarter sales increased by 8.3 per cent to SEK 1,261 (1,165) million. Sales in comparable stores increased by 4.8 per cent.

(1,165) million. Sales in comparable stores increased by 4.8 per cent. During the quarter, fifteen KappAhl stores and another three Newbie Stores opened.

Since the launch of the new smart phone app for customer club members in Sweden and Finland so far it has been downloaded half a million times.

and so far it has been downloaded half a million times. The operating margin for the quarter was 11.4 (10.0) per cent.





First Quarter 2016/2017 (Sep-Nov) 2015/2016 Change









Net sales, SEK million 1 261 1 165 96 Operating profit/loss, SEK million 144 117 27 Gross margin, % 65,3 65,6 -0.3 Operating margin, % 11,4 10,0 1.4 Profit after tax, SEK million 107 83 24 Earnings per share, SEK 1,39 1,08 0.31 Cash flow from operating activities, SEK million 162 89 73

CONTACT:

For further information

Danny Feltmann, President & CEO.

Tel 46 31 771 5661.

Anders During, Chief Financial Officer.

Tel 46 708 887 733.

For photos and company information

Charlotte Hogberg, Head Corporate Communications,

Tel 46 704 71 56 31,

E-mail: charlotte.hogberg@kappahl.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/kappahl/r/kappahl-q1-report-2016-2017--a-good-start-to-the-new-year,c2154455

The following files are available for download:

http://mb.cision.com/Main/732/2154455/606678.pdf 161221 KappAhl Q1 report 2016/2017: A good start to the new year http://news.cision.com/kappahl/i/danny-feltmann-kappahl-2016-3,c2045710 danny feltmann kappahl 2016 3 http://news.cision.com/kappahl/i/161221-q1-xmas,c2045711 161221 Q1 xmas http://news.cision.com/kappahl/i/anders-during-kappahl-2016,c2045712 anders during kappahl 2016 http://news.cision.com/kappahl/i/kappahl-image,c2045713 KappAhl image

SOURCE KappAhl
STOCKHOLM, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday December 21, 2016, RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Drottninggatan 33 in Stockholm under the chairmanship of the Chairman of the Board Laszlo Kriss.

Adoption of income statement and balance sheet and resolution concerning discharge from liability

The AGM adopted the income statement and balance sheet for the Parent company and the consolidated income statement and consolidated balance sheet for the fiscal year that started September 1, 2015 and ended August 31, 2016. The AGM discharges the members of the Board and the President from personal liability for the 2015/2016 financial year.

Dividend

The AGM resolved in accordance with the Board's motion that a dividend of SEK 0.25 per share to be paid for the September 1, 2015  August 31, 2016 fiscal year, and Friday December 23, 2016 as the record day for distribution.

Determination of the number of directors and the number of auditors and deputy auditors

The AGM approved the Nomination Committee's proposal that the Board shall consist of six Board members and that the number of auditors shall be one without deputy auditors.

Election of Board members

The AGM voted to re-elect Board members Laszlo Kriss, Per Thunell, Ivar Fransson, Michael Lemner, Monika Elling and Sara Wimmercranz to the Board. Laszlo Kriss was elected Chairman of the Board.

Fees to Board members and auditors

The AGM adopted the Nomination Committee's proposal that total directors fees of SEK 1 275 000 be paid, whereby each Board member who is not employed by the company will receive SEK 160 000. SEK 350 000 will be paid to the Chairman of the Board. A special fee of SEK 75 000 is to be paid to the Chairman of the Audit Committee and SEK 25 000 to the other 2 members of the Audit Committee. Otherwise, no fees are to be paid for committee work. Fees to auditors are paid on a current account basis as invoices are received.

Appointment of auditors

The AGM adopted the Nomination committee's proposal to re-elect Ernst & Young for the period from now until the close of the AGM for 2016/2017 fiscal year. As auditor in charge the auditing company has appointed Johan Eklund.

CONTACT:

This information is information that RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out below, on December 21, 2016 at 20:00 p.m. CET.

For further information, please contact:

Magnus Hakansson, CEO, RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS AB, 46 8 410 520 02, 46 768 87 20 02,

e-mail: magnus.hakansson@rnb.se

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/rnb-retail-and-brands/r/information-from-annual-general-meeting,c2155434

The following files are available for download:

http://mb.cision.com/Main/5860/2155434/607332.pdf PDF

SOURCE RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS
DUBLIN, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Saudi Arabia Valves Market, By Material Used (Stainless Steel, Copper, Plastic & Others), By Application (Industrial Vs. Civil), Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2011-2021" report to their offering.

The valves market in Saudi Arabia is anticipated to cross US$5 billion by 2021.

Industrial valve is a mechanical/electromechanical device used for controlling, regulating and diverting flow and pressure in fluids (liquids, gases and slurries) by closing, opening or blocking the passage of fluid. Increasing industrialization, growing construction activities, strong government support in the form of favourable FDI policies in oil & gas sector and advantageous incentives schemes are expected to drive Saudi Arabia valves market during the forecast period.



The government has formulated plans to become the second largest exporter of refined oil products in the world by 2017, and has opened the sector for private investments. With growing developments in petrochemical and refinery infrastructure, the demand for valves is anticipated to increase at a robust pace during 2016-2021.



The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the only country among the GCC nations that has allowed participation of private players in refinery and petrochemical sectors. This has had a huge positive influence on the country's valves market. Moreover, industrial cities such as Yanbu and Al Jubail, are expected to be the major consumers of valves during the forecast period.



Growing demand from various end user industries such as refinery, metallurgy, food & beverage, chemicals, etc., coupled with implementation of favourable government policies are projected to increase demand for valves in Saudi Arabia during 2016-2021. Furthermore, huge investments in Saudi Arabia for capacity additions at existing end user facilities coupled with launch of new projects is anticipated to further boost the Saudi Arabia valves market through 2021. Some of the leading players operating in the market includes Emerson Process Management, Cameron International Corporation, Flowserve Corporation and Pentair Ltd., among others.

Companies Mentioned:



AVK Saudi Valves Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

Cameron International Corporation

Emerson Process Management

FMC Technologies Inc.

Flowserve Corporation

KSB Pumps Arabia Ltd.

Kitz Corporation

Pentair Ltd

Valvitalia Group SpA

Weir Group PLC

Key Topics Covered:



1. Product Overview



2. Research Methodology



3. Analyst View



4. Saudi Arabia Valves Market Outlook



5. Saudi Arabia Industrial Valves Market Outlook



6. Saudi Arabia Civil Valves Market Outlook



7. Market Dynamics



8. Market Trends & Developments



9. Channel Partner Analysis



10. Saudi Arabia Economic Profile



11. Competitive Landscape



12. Strategic Recommendations



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

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
VIENNA, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Last year, sequences believed to be permanently lost from what is arguably the most important Austrian silent movie, THE CITY WITHOUT JEWS, were discovered by a coincidence at a Paris flea market and subsequently acquired by the Film Archive Austria.

The film, based on a novel by Jewish writer and journalist Hugo Bettauer and shot in Vienna in 1924, is eerily prescient in its portrayal of a society that is both intellectually and economically impoverished due to the expulsion of its Jewish population.

The newly discovered sequences not only allow us for the first time to see the movie in its entirety, but also cast fresh light on it. Hitherto unknown scenes show Jewish life in a society in which hatred of Jews is being stoked. These scenes bring into much sharper focus the political message of the movie with its depiction of the vituperative antisemitism of interwar Vienna.

Owing to its advanced age, the highly inflammable nitrate material of the film rolls formerly thought to be lost evinces the beginnings of decomposition. Saving the film by transferring it to safety film must be given top priority. The film will then have to be restored and integrated into the already existing version. Since the financial support from the public sector was insufficient to accomplish the urgent task of preserving the material, the Film Archive Austria launched the largest cultural crowdfunding initiative in Austrian history in order to save THE CITY WITHOUT JEWS from perdition. The campaign, which ended December 10, was a success. More than 700 supporters made it possible to rescue the film by contributing more than 86.000 Euro.

After completing the restoration, the movie will be screened in late autumn 2017 in the original version last seen more than 90 years ago. In addition, THE CITY WITHOUT JEWS will be given center stage in an exhibition organized by the Film Archive Austria. The opulent show at the Metro Kinokulturhaus will open in late autumn 2017 and explore the relations between cinema and Jewish culture in the period 1918-1938.

Press photos: http://www.filmarchiv.at/presse

Contact information:

Filmarchiv Austria

Larissa Bainschab

00436643883013

presse@filmarchiv.at

Obere Augartenstrae 1e

1020 Vienna, AUSTRIA



http://www.filmarchiv.at

SOURCE Film Archive Austria
OSTERSUND, Sweden, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The seven floors high office building Aura will have a fantastic location close to transport links at Malmo Central. The building will also offer various forms of meeting points and services. The project is aiming for LEED Platinum certification.

Construction has begun and will be completed in February 2019.

In the block, Skanska also builds apartments, ready for occupancy in the fall of 2018. Along with the homes, the new office building Aura is a natural continuation of the nearby Malmo Live, and Malmo's new market hall. Universitetsholmen will also get a wider variety of new workplaces, housing and a new kindergarten.

At Universitetsholmen in central Malmo, Skanska has previously developed several projects, including Malmo Live and STUDIO.

Skanska Commercial Development Nordic initiates and develops property projects in offices, logistics, business premises and rental apartments. The company's operations are concentrated in the three metropolitan regions in Sweden, the Copenhagen region in Denmark, the Oslo region in Norway, as well as Helsinki in Finland. The development of logistic properties is conducted in strategic locations in Sweden and rental apartments in Copenhagen.

CONTACT:

For further information please contact:

Camilla Wieslander,

President, Skanska Oresund AB,

Tel +46 (0)70-621 52 64

Andreas Joons,

Press Officer, Skanska AB,

Tel +46 (0)10 449 04 94

Direct line for media,

Tel +46 (0)10 448 88 99

This and previous releases can also be found at www.skanska.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/skanska/r/skanska-invests-about-sek-240m-in-office-project-in-malmo--sweden,c2154558

The following files are available for download:

http://mb.cision.com/Main/95/2154558/606748.pdf 161221 SE office investment http://news.cision.com/skanska/i/161221-se-office-building-aura,c2045743 161221 SE Office building Aura

Related Links

http://www.skanska.com



SOURCE Skanska
OSTERSUND, Sweden, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Skanska has sold the Nordic Light office building in Budapest, Hungary, to the real estate funds of Erste Alapkezelo Zrt.  one of the subsidiaries of Erste Asset Management GmbH. The value of the transaction is EUR 67M, about SEK 630M. The transaction has been recorded in December, with the transfer of the property scheduled for the first quarter of 2017.

Nordic Light is Skanska's seventh office development in Hungary. The project, situated in the 13th district of Budapest, offers 26,200 square meters of total leasable space and underground parking floors. The first phase comprises 6,600 square meters and was commissioned for use in May 2016, while the second phase comprises 19,600 square meters and was commissioned for use in September 2016. The office complex is already 86 percent leased to well-established international tenants.

Nordic Light is LEED Gold certified. The development features energy-efficient and environmental friendly solutions, including green terraces and bicycle parking facilities. The surrounding area has been improved to create a pleasant environment for both tenants and the local community.

Skanska Commercial Development Europe initiates and develops office property projects. The company's operations are concentrated in the metropolitan areas of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Poland and are conducted in four local units: Skanska Property Czech Republic, Skanska Property Hungary, Skanska Romania and Skanska Property Poland.

CONTACT:

For further information please contact:

Magorzata Kubica, External Communication Manager, Skanska in Poland,

tel +48 502 747 454

Andreas Joons, Press Officer, Skanska AB,

tel +46 (0)10 449 04 94

Direct line for media: +46 10 448 88 99

This and previous releases can also be found at www.skanska.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/skanska/r/skanska-sells-office-building-in-budapest--hungary--for-eur-67m--about-sek-630m,c2154567

The following files are available for download:

http://mb.cision.com/Main/95/2154567/606752.pdf 161221 HU office investment http://news.cision.com/skanska/i/161221-nordic-light---01,c2045750 161221 Nordic Light - 01 http://news.cision.com/skanska/i/161221-nordic-light---02,c2045751 161221 Nordic Light - 02

Related Links

http://www.skanska.com



SOURCE Skanska
DUBLIN, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "UAE LNG Market Demand & Supply Analysis, By Region, By Application, By LNG Terminal, Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011-2025" report to their offering.

The UAE LNG market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.6% during 2016-2021. UAE is the third largest importer of LNG in Middle East & Africa region in 2015. The country mainly imports LNG from Qatar, Australia, Trinidad & Tobago and Indonesia. Various upcoming LNG terminal projects, surging demand for natural gas and cost-effectiveness of LNG in comparison with other alternative fuels are major factors anticipated to positively influence the LNG market scenario in UAE, over next ten years.

Growing focus on expansion of gas pipeline infrastructure, along with increasing utilization of natural gas for re-injection into oilfields to enhance oil production, declining LNG prices and implementation of favorable government policies is expected to boost demand for LNG in the UAE. In order to address the growing domestic demand for LNG, the country imports natural gas and LNG from Qatar through Jebel Ali LNG Terminal and Dolphin Energy operated pipeline. Jebel Ali (OFFSHORE) LNG Terminal was commissioned in 2010 in Dubai, with an initial LNG handling capacity of 3 mmtpa, which increased to 6 mmtpa in 2015.

Power generation sector was the largest consumer of LNG in the UAE as of 2015, however, with commissioning of four nuclear plants with 5.6 GW capacity, demand for LNG from power sector in the country is expected to decline during the forecast period, thereby impacting demand for LNG in the region.

Why You Should Buy This Report?

To gain an in-depth understanding of LNG market in the UAE.

To identify the on-going trends and anticipated growth in the next ten years.

To help LNG terminal operators, aggregators, suppliers, marketers and consultants in aligning their market-centric strategies.

To obtain research based business decisions and add weight to presentations and marketing material.

To gain competitive knowledge of leading market players.

To avail of 10% customization in the report without any extra charges and get research data or trends added in the report as per the buyer's specific needs.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Product Overview

2. Research Methodology

3. Executive Summary

4. UAE Primary Energy Consumption

5. UAE LNG Supply Market Outlook

6. UAE LNG Potential Demand Market Outlook

7. UAE LNG Potential Demand Supply Gap Outlook

8. UAE LNG Regional Market Outlook

9. UAE LNG Market Outlook

10. Import-Export Dynamics

11. LNG Pricing Analysis

12. UAE Pipeline Infrastructure Outlook

13. Competitive Analysis

14. Customer & Supplier Analysis

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/t8msrc/uae_lng_market

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
PLYMOUTH, Minn., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Travel Leaders Group  North America's largest traditional travel agency company with nearly $21 billion in annual sales volume  revealed the results of its 2017 Business Travel Trends Survey, which indicates that there is no slowing down for business travel. According to the survey, 86% of Travel Leaders Group's business travel-focused agents are reporting that they expect bookings to remain as high or higher than the same time last year. The participating travel agents also noted that while business travelers' top concerns are travel logistics, ranging from delayed or canceled flights to limited air seating, they have the expertise in mitigating them.

"Business travel is a vital engine not only for the travel industry, but particularly for the American economy. When business travel is up, it demonstrates a higher degree of confidence in our economic system," said Ninan Chacko, CTC, Travel Leaders Group CEO. "The responses from the survey clearly show that although business travelers have well-founded concerns, including late and canceled flights, our exceptional agents are skilled at minimizing the impact their travelers face."

Conducted from November 17 to December 9, 2016, the Business Travel Trends survey collected responses from 541 Travel Leaders Group travel agent experts throughout the United States whose portfolio consists of 50% or more business travel clients. (Travel Leaders Group's 2017 Travel Trends Survey results may be viewed here.)

Anticipated Business Travel in 2017

When Travel Leaders Group's business travel agents were asked "Comparing your overall 2017 business travel bookings so far to your 2016 business travel bookings at this time last year, which is true?" they said:



2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 Booking levels will increase 32.0% 36.6% 45.5% 38.4% 38.7% 34.5% Booking levels will remain on par 54.0% 40.2% 34.0% 39.4% 40.8% 42.2% Booking levels will decline 14.0% 6.6% 4.9% 5.7% 9.8% 4.7%















Top Business Travel Concerns

When asked, "What are the top 3 concerns for your business travelers?" agents said:



2017 2016 2015 2014 Delayed flights 73.2% 78.7% 68.5% 70.1% Limited airline seat availability 43.8% 38.3% 42.0% 46.7% Earning frequent flyer/loyalty points 41.0% 37.6% 32.9% 37.5% Ease of passing through security 31.4% 33.8% 33.1% 28.3%

When asked, "Which concerns are you most able to address or mitigate for your business travelers?" the business travel agents were able to name up to three concerns. The top five are:



2017





Delayed flights 48.6%



Making sure someone has their back 39.2%



Earning frequent flyer/loyalty points 32.3%



Limited airline seat availability 28.7%



Travel costs 25.1%





Ancillary Fees for Business Travelers

This year, travel professionals were asked "Which ancillary fees do you most consistently assist your clients in avoiding?" The top five were:

Hotel fees for cancellations (53.2%)

Airline fees for changing flights (41.4%)

Airline fees for seat assignment (39.9%)

Airline fees for baggage (21.8%)

Hotel fees for early check-in/late check-in (16.6%)

"Now, more than ever, business travelers need a travel professional on their side," said Gabe Rizzi, President of Travel Leaders Corporate. "Our travel agents are skilled at resolving issues business travelers routinely face, and they are equipped at alleviating concerns about fees, airline seating and more. Their expertise is crucial to their travelers, positively affecting everything from employee business traveler satisfaction to customer relationships."

Travel Leaders Group is one of North America's largest travel companies  encompassing nearly one-third of all travel agents  and generated gross travel sales of approximately $21 billion in 2015. Travel Leaders Group is a leader in both the retail travel agency space and corporate travel, and it consistently ranks as one of the top travel companies nationwide.

About Travel Leaders Group

Travel Leaders Group (www.travelleadersgroup.com) is transforming travel with a commitment to our vacation and business travel clients via our progressive approach toward each unique travel experience. Having already assisted millions of travelers  through our beginnings as Carlson Leisure Group, a division of Carlson Companies, TraveLeaders and Tzell Travel Group and through the additions of Nexion, Vacation.com and Protravel International  Travel Leaders Group manages leisure, business and franchise travel operations under a variety of diversified divisions and brands. With annual sales approaching $21 billion through over 7,000 locations, Travel Leaders Group ranks as one of the industry's largest traditional travel agency companies.

SOURCE Travel Leaders Group

Related Links

http://www.travelleaders.com


DUBLIN, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Base2Digital, one of the leading Irish digital marketing companies, is proud to announce it is working with ActionAid Ireland, the Irish member of one of the world's most respected development organisations, for a three month period.

A Base2Digital spokesperson said: "We're delighted that one of the world's top aid organisations has joined our roster of clients. Our aim is simple. We want ActionAid to be even more effective at communicating its message, so that more people in need around the world can be helped."

Base2Digital will be working on promoting ActionAid Ireland's newly launched website through online channels so that the site is as effective as possible.

ActionAid's work is primarily with women and children living in areas of desperate poverty in both Africa and in Asia. Child sponsorship is one key aspect of this work.

For Base2Digital, the task is how to successfully communicate the effectiveness of ActionAid Ireland's work. ActionAid has a high donation to action ratio with 86.5% of funds raised in 2015 going to charitable activities. This is one aspect of why Base2Digital is excited to work with ActionAid.

ActionAid's aim is to work with communities over many years to strengthen their own efforts to throw off poverty, taking a human rights based approach to development and social justice.

With Base2Digital's support, ActionAid will be able to better highlight the effectiveness of its work and the power of each and every individual donation.

ActionAid's work began in 1972, and from small beginnings, the organisation is now recognised as one of the most effective in working to eliminate poverty, and in particular, child poverty. Harnessing the technological power of a connected world means that the compelling stories of individual women and children lifted out of poverty will reach a still wider audience.

For children in ActionAid Ireland's partner countries of Malawi, Kenya and Uganda in Africa, and Vietnam, Cambodia and Nepal in Asia, the results may prove to be life-changing.

Action Aid Ireland has also taken a rather unusual twist to Christmas fund raising. A professional choir for the Swedish division of Action Aid has made a completely bizarre video by singing carols in the style of goats. Their repertoire includes Silent Night, White Christmas and We Wish you a Merry Christmas, which strangely sound pretty good.

You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/LUMZQMDjvkA

The video might be utterly hilarious, but it's also got a serious message. ActionAid wants you to buy a goat for someone in need this Christmas.

Goats are an amazing gift because their milk can provide nutrition to the family who owns it. They can also sell off the extra milk for a profit, enabling them to pay for education for their children.

The goats can also be bred and sold on, securing a profitable future.

To find out more visit: https://actionaid.ie/give-goat-gift/

Ends

SOURCE Base2Digital
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An AJC leadership delegation met with Argentine President Mauricio Macri yesterday in Buenos Aires.

The private meeting was the centerpiece of a two-day visit that also included meetings with the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Gustavo Slauvinen, U.S. Ambassador Noah Mamet, and Israeli Ambassador Ilan Sztulman.



The AJC group was led by CEO David Harris and Chair of AJC's Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs (BILLA) Mario Fleck, a prominent businessman and Jewish leader from Sao Paulo, Brazil.



Among the principal topics of discussion were: (a) expanding U.S.-Argentinian bilateral and hemispheric relations; (b) ongoing efforts by the Macri administration to implement economic and other reforms; (c) deepening Argentinian-Israeli ties; (d) regional security challenges; and (e) the tragic legacy of the 1992 and 1994 terrorist attacks against the Israeli Embassy and AMIA in Buenos Aires, as well as the circumstances of the unresolved death in 2015 of Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor in the 1994 AMIA bombing case.



"Argentina is a country with substantial regional and global potential," said Harris, who has been traveling regularly to Buenos Aires for three decades. "Under President Macri it is making impressive strides to fulfill that potential, including deepening links with the U.S. and Israel. We were there to acknowledge the progress that's been achieved and discuss ways of enhancing it still further."



The visit was organized by BILLA, in cooperation with AMIA, AJC's longstanding institutional partner in Argentina. It was AJC's second trip to Buenos Aires in the past four months alone, reflecting the importance the global agency attaches to the country. BILLA is led by its Washington-based director, Dina Siegel Vann.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

Related Links

http://www.ajc.org


Established by a group of high school students in 2014, Leaders of the Future is an organized force against poverty, blight and degradation in the city of Pontiac. The future of Pontiac will be determined by the next generation, and AkzoNobel is recognizing the Leaders of the Future for the grassroots, hands-on approach its members are taking to invigorate the city.

The grant is awarded through AkzoNobel's Human Cities initiative, the company's global commitment to improving, energizing and regenerating urban communities across the world.

"Empowering the next generation of young people to take action helps build lifelong leadership skills and creates stronger communities," said U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI). "I congratulate Leaders of the Future on this grant supporting their mission to strengthen and revitalize Pontiac, and I look forward to seeing all they accomplish as they work to help the City of Pontiac thrive. I thank AkzoNobel of Pontiac and Troy for their dedication to supporting the Pontiac community and the next generation of Michigan leaders."

AkzoNobel is a leading paint, coatings and chemicals company with more than 46,000 employees worldwide and operations in 80 countries. In North America, the company employs nearly 5,000 people across 45 sites with its regional headquarters in Chicago. At its Pontiac and Troy, Michigan sites, the company employs more than 300 people supporting customers in the automotive industry.

"AkzoNobel traces its origins in Pontiac back to 1902 and as a company that's proud of this heritage we were impressed by the sustainable activations the Leaders of the Future have introduced to revitalize the city," said Johan Landfors, President of AkzoNobel North America.

Accompanied by Pontiac Mayor Deirdre Waterman and the Leaders of the Future organization, Landfors announced the donation during a press conference held at Pontiac City Hall.

"My theme for the city of Pontiac in 2016 is 'Bringing it Back Home,' because I want to draw attention to the fact that the city of Pontiac is rejuvenated, and we are working togetherelected officials and citizensto bring the city back," says Mayor Waterman. "I am very proud of the contributions made by the Leaders of the Future, and I commend AkzoNobel for supporting the mission and community focus of this exciting grassroots effort."

Over the next two years, the AkzoNobel Human Cities grant will provide $50,000 to support various sustainability-themed community projects that Leaders of the Future will activate in Pontiac. In addition, AkzoNobel will contribute $50,000 to establish a higher education scholarship fund supporting the educational ambitions of the group's membership.

Added Landfors: "This grant will help to expand the good work they do, while our scholarship program will give their members the opportunity to enter higher education and provide a springboard to what I'm sure will be very successful careers."

Leaders of the Future, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, was founded by Anders Engnell and three of his high school friends. Over the past three years, with limited resources, they have completed a number of community projects, including house renovations, parks clean-up and restoration, and the group also provided training and developed the business and leadership skills of Pontiac youth.

"We at the Leaders of the Future are immensely excited to launch projects with greater sustainability and community impact thanks to AkzoNobel's generous donation," said Engnell. "For example, our first project in 2017 will be an orchard and apiary that we'll design and install on a set of two lots on the southwest side of Pontiac. Alongside AkzoNobel volunteers from the Pontiac operation site, we'll also plant peach, apple and cherry trees and place beehives for the community to care for and enjoy."

For more information, visit www.akzonobel.com and http://www.lfpontiac.org.

About AkzoNobel

AkzoNobel creates everyday essentials to make people's lives more liveable and inspiring. As a leading global paints and coatings company and a major producer of specialty chemicals, we supply essential ingredients, essential protection and essential color to industries and consumers worldwide. Backed by a pioneering heritage, our innovative products and sustainable technologies are designed to meet the growing demands of our fast-changing planet, while making life easier. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, we have approximately 45,000 people in around 80 countries, while our portfolio includes well-known brands such as Chemcraft, Sikkens, International, Interpon and Eka. Consistently ranked as a leader in sustainability, we are dedicated to energizing cities and communities while creating a protected, colorful world where life is improved by what we do.

About Human Cities

AkzoNobel's Human Cities initiative is an active expression of our company purpose to create everyday essentials to make people's lives more liveable and inspiring. It's everything we do for and with society and is our commitment to improving, energizing and regenerating urban communities across the world. The initiative has helped to revitalize favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as well as creating jobs for young people in the UK. It is also making sport more accessible to young people and helping to restore historic landmarks, such as Burkill Hall in Singapore and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

About Leaders of the Future

The Leaders of the Future is a teen-led 501(c)3 nonprofit whose mission is to transform the city of Pontiac through community service and positive action. The LF was founded in September of 2013 by Pontiac School District students Anders Engnell, Courtland Sargent, Lauje Scott, Noel Waterman, and Steven Martinez

Not for publication  for more information

Media Relations:

T 312-259-7136

Contact: Dan Green

SOURCE AkzoNobel

Related Links

http://www.akzonobel.com


HOUSTON, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC) announced today it has agreed to sell its operated and non-operated upstream assets and operated midstream assets in the Marcellus Shale of north-central Pennsylvania to Alta Marcellus Development, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alta Resources Development, LLC, for approximately $1.24 billion. The midstream assets in the Marcellus owned by Western Gas Partners, LP (NYSE: WES), Anadarko's sponsored master limited partnership, are excluded from the agreement.

"With this transaction, we have announced or closed monetizations totaling well in excess of $5 billion in 2016, while principally focusing Anadarko's U.S. onshore activities on our world-class oil-levered assets in the Delaware and DJ basins," said Al Walker, Anadarko Chairman, President and CEO. "Our Marcellus team has done a superb job of maximizing the value of our position in this natural gas play, and we are grateful for their efforts and dedication."

The Marcellus Shale divestiture includes approximately 195,000 net acres and, at the end of the third quarter of 2016, sales volumes from these properties totaled approximately 470 million cubic feet per day.

The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions and adjustments. Jefferies LLC marketed the assets, and Sidley Austin LLP served as Anadarko's legal counsel.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141103/156201LOGO

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation's mission is to deliver a competitive and sustainable rate of return to shareholders by exploring for, acquiring and developing oil and natural gas resources vital to the world's health and welfare. As of year-end 2015, the company had approximately 2.06 billion barrels-equivalent of proved reserves, making it one of the world's largest independent exploration and production companies. For more information about Anadarko and Flash Feed updates, please visit www.anadarko.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Anadarko believes that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions. No assurance, however, can be given that such expectations will prove to have been correct. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the projections, anticipated results or other expectations expressed in this news release, including Anadarko's ability to consummate the transactions described in this release. See "Risk Factors" in the company's 2015 Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other public filings and press releases. Anadarko undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Anadarko Contacts

MEDIA :

John Christiansen, [email protected], 832.636.8736

Stephanie Moreland, [email protected], 832.636.2912

INVESTORS:

Robin Fielder, [email protected], 832.636.1462

Jim Grant, [email protected], 832.636.8320

Pete Zagrzecki, [email protected], 832.636.7727

SOURCE Anadarko Petroleum Corporation

Related Links

http://www.anadarko.com


HOUSTON, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BBVA Compass today named Garanti Bank's Onur Genc as its next CEO and announced that Manolo Sanchez will become its non-executive chairman, strengthening the management structure of the BBVA Group's U.S. franchise.

Onur Genc is currently deputy CEO of Garanti Bank, Turkey's largest bank by market capitalization ($9 billion) and the BBVA Group's most advanced franchise in digital sales. Genc leads Garanti's retail banking, private banking and asset management efforts, among other responsibilities. He joined the bank in 2012 and was named deputy CEO in 2015. Garanti serves about 14.4 million customers1 and is the top institution among private banks in Turkey in terms of mortgages, consumer loans, auto loans and credit cards. BBVA is Garanti's largest shareholder with a 39.9 percent stake.

Prior to Garanti, Genc was a senior partner and Turkey office manager at McKinsey & Company, joining the global management consultancy firm in Canada. He became partner in 2004, rising to senior partner and Turkey Office Manager in 2009 at age 34. Genc started out his career in 1997 as a financial controller for American Airlines in Dallas, Texas. He holds a bachelor's in electrical engineering from Bogazici University in Istanbul and a master's from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Genc is married and the father to 12-year old twins.

"BBVA is a global financial group that can tap the world's best talent and Onur is a clear example of that," Sanchez said. "I am looking forward to helping him take BBVA Compass to the next level."

Sanchez will remain as chairman of BBVA Compass, extending a career of more than 25 years with the BBVA Group. He was named country manager for BBVA in the U.S. in 2010, and previously worked for the BBVA Group in Mexico, New York, Paris and Madrid.

"I am thrilled to have this opportunity," Genc said. "I cant wait to join the team and to work with Manolo to extend the success story of BBVA Compass."

The appointment will be effective during the first quarter of 2017.

1 As of September 30, 2016.

About BBVA Group

BBVA Compass is a subsidiary of BBVA Compass Bancshares Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of BBVA (NYSE: BBVA) (MAD: BBVA). BBVA is a customer-centric global financial services group founded in 1857. The BBVA Group is the largest financial institution in Spain and Mexico, has leading franchises in South America and the Sunbelt region of the United States and is also the leading shareholder in Garanti, Turkey's largest bank based on market capitalization. Its diversified business is focused on high-growth markets and it relies on technology as a key sustainable competitive advantage. Corporate responsibility is at the core of its business model. BBVA fosters financial education and inclusion, and supports scientific research and culture. It operates with the highest integrity, a long-term vision and applies best practices. The Group is present in the main sustainability indexes. More information about the BBVA Group can be found at bbva.com.

About BBVA Compass

BBVA Compass is a Sunbelt-based financial institution that operates 674 branches, including 345 in Texas, 89 in Alabama, 75 in Arizona, 62 in California, 45 in Florida, 38 in Colorado and 20 in New Mexico. BBVA Compass ranks among the top 25 largest U.S. commercial banks based on deposit market share and ranks among the largest banks in Alabama (2nd), Texas (4th) and Arizona (4th). BBVA Compass was recently named Best Digital Bank in North America by global finance magazine Euromoney and the best regional bank in the South & West and best mobile app in Money magazine's 2015-2016 list of the Best Banks in America. Additional information about BBVA Compass can be found at bbvacompass.com, by following @BBVACompassNews on Twitter or visiting newsroom.bbvacompass.com.

Editor's Note:

BBVA Compass is a trade name of Compass Bank.

SOURCE BBVA Compass

Related Links

http://bbvacompass.com


ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Dec. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the Dec. 19 truck attack at a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany, Squaremouth established a travel insurance information center to answer questions about coverage for the attack.

Can I still buy travel insurance for my upcoming trip to Germany?

Travelers can still buy a policy for their upcoming trip to Germany. However, policies purchased on or after December 19 will not include coverage for the attack. This means travelers can no longer buy a policy with the intent to cancel their trip because of the Christmas market attack.

Those who want to insure an upcoming trip to Berlin should review each policy's Terrorism coverage before making a purchase. Some policies exclude coverage for terrorism if a prior attack occurred in the same city within the past 30-90 days.

Can I cancel my trip to Germany because of the attack?

Travelers may be covered to cancel their trip to Germany if they had a travel insurance policy with Terrorism coverage in place before December 19. Typically, travelers must be departing within 7-30 days of the attack, with plans to visit Berlin or a nearby city, in order to cancel their trip.

What if I'm afraid to travel to Europe because of the attack?

Fear of potential terrorism is not a covered reason to cancel with standard travel insurance policies. Only travelers with the Cancel For Any Reason upgrade can cancel their trip out of fear of traveling. This upgrade significantly increases the cost of a policy and is only available within 14-30 days of a traveler's first booking for their trip. It also requires travelers to cancel at least 2-3 days before their trip, and they will only receive partial reimbursement of their trip cost.

What should I do if I am currently in Germany?

Travelers currently in Germany should contact their travel insurance provider's 24-Hour Emergency Assistance department. Affected travelers may be covered to return home early if the attack meets their policy's Terrorism coverage requirements.

Visit Squaremouth's Berlin Christmas Market Attack and Travel Insurance Information Center for regularly updated official provider position statements, answers to frequently asked questions, and more information about travel insurance coverage for the attack. Travelers with additional questions can contact Squaremouth's team of licensed travel insurance experts, who are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by chat and by phone at 1-800-240-0369.

ABOUT SQUAREMOUTH

Squaremouth compares travel insurance policies from every major travel insurance provider in the United States. Using Squaremouth's comparison engine and third-party customer reviews, travelers can research and compare insurance products side-by-side. More information can be found at www.squaremouth.com.

Available Topic Expert:

Rachael Taft

[email protected]

(727) 264-5174

SOURCE Squaremouth

Related Links

http://www.squaremouth.com


NASSAU, Bahamas, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Blue Isle FX, a prime of prime and leading Forex broker-dealer serving individual and corporate clients, announced today a strategic partnership with Geluk Global Fund Ltd SAC that is comprised of three funds -- the Geluk Global Gold Fund, the Global Marco Premier Fund and the Geluk Global Macro Accelerated Fund. Blue Isle will serve as the prime of prime broker for all three hedge funds and will provide a transparent platform with institutional pricing and world class service.

"We have been very impressed with the Blue Isle FX team, which is led by a 25+ year experienced team who offers only ECN/STP market liquidity and who fully understand the importance of direct market access with straight through processing. We're confident that by working with Blue Isle FX our trading team will have the advantage with institutional execution," said Geluk Capital Management Ltd Founder Douglas Fathers.

In a concerted effort to attract commercial trading clients and very seasoned retail traders, Blue Isle provides an exceptional platform, unrivaled by any retail broker dealer in the industry.

"As a result of our long term, high level industry relationships, Blue Isle FX is one of only a handful of global brokerages with the ability to offer hedge funds a full suite of both vanilla and exotic options with straight through derivatives. We look forward to working with the Geluk Capital team to provide a comprehensive suite of 81 different instruments including OTC options, high equity leverage, first class technical support, consulting services, free on-going education, customized algorithms and managed account options," said Blue Isle FX General Manager Michael Stewart.

About Blue Isle FX

The Blue Isle FX platform allows clients to trade currencies, CFDs, Metals and Minerals. Clients may select from various trading sizes - Trade Standard or Mini Lots, each of which is subject to the desired leverage and account size. Full service support, quick and easy client account funding mechanisms and fast account approval means the process is seamless and even easier to use.

To open a Blue Isle FX trading account, please visit http://www.blueislefx.com. For additional information, email, [email protected] or call 011-242-702-3105. Offices are located in Nassau, Bahamas.

Disclaimer

In no event should the content of this material be construed as an advertisement, express or an implied promise, guarantee or implication by or from Blue Isle Markets Inc. (BIFX) or any of its partner or subsidiary companies. This is not an attempt to sell or solicit any security and should not be taken as such. The content of this email is for informational purposes only. Potential Investors are advised to carefully read the Disclosure Documents to determine whether a FOREX Account for investment is consistent with their financial situations and investment objectives. Past results are no guarantee of future performance. BIFX is a St. Vincent and the Grenadines Registered Corporation, with corporate offices in Nassau, Bahamas. BIFX does not operate within the United States of America.

For additional information

http://www.blueislefx.com

[email protected]

011-242-702-3105

SOURCE Blue Isle Markets Inc
SHENZHEN, China, Dec. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2016 Fintech Global Summit is held here. Among multiple major events, the founding of the Blockchain Application Sub-Committee initiated by China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing (CFLP) enjoys most of the spotlight. As an emerging industry, blockchain has a promising future. And as the initiator and organizing body, Shenzhen Digital Singularity Ltd is the only private company providing blockchain technology support. The company will lead by setting standards and rules for the industry.

Blockchain for Logistics

The 2016 Fintech Global Summit marks the founding of the Blockchain Application Sub-Committee initiated of the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing. It has been learned that the Sub-Committee was initiated by a blockchain startup, logistics companies and financial institutions. The Sub-Committee will be focusing on the promotion of blockchain technology in logistics by introducing blockchain technology and business training, R&D standards of blockchain for logistics, blockchain-based company credit mechanism and finally the total upgrading and re-direction of the logistics supply-chain industry.

Liu Yang, CEO of Shenzhen Digital Singulariy Ltd told us that blockchain by nature enjoys high accountability, anti-counterfeiting ability and immutability. As of the past the technology was mainly used for Bitcoin, while nowadays, in the financial sector, the application of the technology is witnessing a mandatory trend. Liu Yang went on and said that the procedures of logistics are so long that problems occur constantly. Problems like the loss and mistakes of cargo delivery require powerful tracing ability. It is obvious the blockchain technology can perform well for logistics in that regard. The China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing has foreseen the incoming profound impacts from blockchain technology with overseas counterparts launching similar researches. So the Association takes the lead by founding this Sub-Committee, hoping that the introduction of blockchain technology can tackle the existing problems in logistics as well as tapping into the financial sector.

Liu Yang told us that Shenzhen Digital Singularity Ltd previously has her business mostly focusing on Bitcoin, for example, www.bitkan.com, and thus have developed sound R&D capabilities of the blockchain technology. For the Sub-Committee, Digital Singularity will be the only blockchain technology provider, responsible for the making of standards. Liu Yang will also run for the presidency of the standard committee. Liu Yang expressed the wish to promote the standard-making in the industry as well as to provide comprehensive blockchain solutions that are capable of addressing real problems in cooperation with traditional logistics and procurement companies.

Blockchain Technology Expected to Significantly Improve Operational Transparency

Recent years saw the rapid rising of the logistics supply-chain in China with accelerating competition and merging. Logistics companies with sound supply-chain management capabilities are rising, along with improving third-party supply-chain management abilities. However, upper stream of the supply-chain are mostly small and mid-sized companies with low credit ratings. They are regular turned-aways of the banks' funding services. The conflict of the capital demand and availability is deepening considering their importance on the supply chain. Logistics, Capital and Information are 3 factors pivoting the supply-chain; while the Capital is the main hindrance for the mid and small-sized the companies and their ability on continued service. This will take a toll on the national economy as a whole if the theory goes on. As a central government demand, the finance should serve for the development of tangible economy; the Association also did tremendous work on improving the environment. But, the credit issue is still turning these companies into homeless kids.

Liu Yang considers blockchain technology to be the cure by his analysis. Blockchain can be served to tag and anchor the credit rating of supply chain companies if with the cooperation from upper and lower stream participants. Liu Yang believes that the blockchain industry is still in her infancy and every party is just starting to explore. As of this moment, according to Liu Yang, the focus is on traceability and efficiency. On-Credit orders are big concerns for the industry, that upper stream company cannot have timely payment from big companies, like, 1 month of delay is commonly seen. With layered re-contracting, the chauffeurs will hurt. Chauffeurs cannot pay on credit, they pay in advance. That's why terminal small companies are struggling. Banks will simply turn away: they need factories and warehouses as collaterals. Blockchain technology, however, will save the day by turning the companies' financials transparent to the extent that the financial institutions can understand their operational status thus ultimately removing the hindrance for loan.

Blockchain Technology to Dramatically Sharpen Logistics Efficiency

With the founding of the Blockchain Application Sub-Committee, Digital Singularity is taking the lead. Liu Yang considers this a proof of the company's might. The four founders of the company were formerly with Huawei and Tencent, rich in the experience of large system standard making. The complexity of logistics is just as much as that of the telecommunication industry. Standardization is the answer to the former's procedures. Digital Singularity thus enjoys obvious merits. On the other hand, Digital Singularity is well-known for the rich foundation in Bitcoin. Their prototype product came live on early 2013, and the reputation is unquestionable both at home and abroad. The blockchain technology reserve and momentum of Digital Singularity speaks for itself.

From the value transfer of Bitcoin in her early days to the transfer of physical objects in the real world, Blockchain is growing her applications. Liu Yang believes that in the near future, the perfect combination of blockchain technology and logistics industry will tackle the financial hindrances in logistics, and significantly improve the efficiency. Internet has had her days of information propagation; Jack Ma also wishes the logistics efficiency can be improved to a new high. With blockchain technology, this day may come sooner than you think.

Please visit: www.bitkan.com

SOURCE Shenzhen Digital Singularity
The Baudinets' dreams of being parents seemed impossible. But, on Dec. 4, Margaret gave birth to Ava, Clara, Camille, Luke and Isabelle Baudinet.

"This is an incredible time for the Baudinet family and for the hospital," said Patty White, president and CEO of St. Joseph's "They are now a part of the rich history here at St. Joseph's."

After two miscarriages, the Baudinets decided to try fertility treatments. Upon learning the treatment was successful, the couple recalls feeling a mixture of shock and joy alongside a healthy dose of fear and anxiety.

"Going to our first ultrasound, I was worried it would result in yet another miscarriage,'" said Margaret, 31, who manages College Solutions, a private college counseling firm in Richmond, Virginia. "Then, I remember the nurse started to giggle as she performed the sonogram. She told us she saw at least four heart beats. We immediately went into shock which was only furthered when we later learned that I was actually carrying five babies."

While complications can happen with any pregnancy, Margaret's pregnancy would pose higher risks for prematurity, low birth weight, sight and hearing deficiencies, underdeveloped lungs and cerebral palsy, among other risks. Quintuplets are rare, occurring only once in several million pregnancies.

"I was prepared for two or three children, and always thought it would be fun to have twins. I wasn't at all prepared for five children all at once. Still, after all we've been through, it wasn't until about 24-weeks gestation that we actually started to feel excited," said Michael, 34, a lawyer at McGuireWoods LLP in Richmond.

After a lot of research, Margaret ant Michael spoke with renowned perinatologist John Elliott, MD, in Phoenix. Following a phone consultation, they decided to move temporarily from their Virginia home, near Richmond, to Phoenix to work with Dr. Elliott. The plan included delivering the babies at St. Joseph's Hospital.

"Like many patients who call, they were scared and looking for answers," said Dr. Elliott, who specializes in high-risk pregnancies and has delivered more sets of quintuplets than any doctor in the world. "Our goal is to give them a program; a blueprint to help them feel more in control and more optimistic for success."

The Baudinet quintuplets were born at 32-weeks via cesarean section. Delivering the five babies took the 24-person team at St. Joseph's just 17 minutes. Despite their early arrival, the five babies had better than anticipated weights ranging from three to four pounds. All are doing well and will spend their first Christmas continuing to grow in St. Joseph's NyICU, before heading to Virginia in January.

The Baudinets have chronicled their pregnancy on their blog, A Bundle of Baudinets, which has links to a Go Fund Me campaign and other baby registries.

"We are very grateful to our friends and family for all their love and prayers and to McGuireWoods for all the support it has provided us," Michael said.

About Dignity Health St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center

Located in the heart of Phoenix, AZ, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center is a 586-bed, not-for-profit hospital that provides a wide range of health, social and support services with special advocacy for the poor and underserved. St. Joseph's is a nationally recognized center for quality tertiary care, medical education and research. It includes the internationally renowned Barrow Neurological Institute, the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center, the Norton Thoracic Institute, a campus of Creighton University's Medical School and the first Level I Trauma Center in Arizona verified by the American College of Surgeons. U.S. News & World Report routinely ranks St. Joseph's among the best hospitals in the United States for neurology and neurosurgery. For more information please visit our website at www.dignityhealth.org/stjosephs.

SOURCE Dignity Health St. Josephs Hospital and Medical Center

Related Links

http://www.dignityhealth.org/stjosephs


NEW YORK, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Boards of Directors of Cohen & Steers Closed-End Funds announced today the monthly distributions for January, February and March, as summarized in the charts below:

Ticker Fund Name Monthly

Dividend FOF Cohen & Steers Closed-End Opportunity Fund, Inc. $0.087 INB Cohen & Steers Global Income Builder, Inc. $0.069 MIE Cohen & Steers MLP Income and Energy Opportunity Fund, Inc. $0.077 RNP Cohen & Steers REIT and Preferred Income Fund, Inc. $0.124 LDP Cohen & Steers Limited Duration Preferred and Income Fund, Inc. $0.156 PSF Cohen & Steers Select Preferred and Income Fund, Inc. $0.172 RFI Cohen & Steers Total Return Realty Fund, Inc. $0.080 RQI Cohen & Steers Quality Income Realty Fund, Inc. $0.080 UTF Cohen & Steers Infrastructure Fund, Inc. $0.134

Distributions will be made on the following schedule:

Month Ex-Date Record Date Payable Date January Jan. 17, 2017 Jan. 19, 2017 Jan. 31, 2017 February Feb. 14, 2017 Feb. 16, 2017 Feb. 28, 2017 March Mar. 21, 2017 Mar. 23, 2017 Mar. 31, 2017

Cohen & Steers Global Income Builder, Inc. has decreased its monthly distribution by $0.008 per share, to $0.069 per share. The distribution for the Fund has been adjusted to reflect current market conditions.

Cohen & Steers Closed-End Opportunity Fund, Inc., Cohen & Steers Global Income Builder, Inc., Cohen & Steers MLP Income and Energy Opportunity Fund, Inc. and Cohen & Steers REIT and Preferred Income Fund, Inc. pay regular monthly cash distributions to common shareholders at a level rate that may be adjusted from time to time. Each fund's distributions reflect net investment income, and may also include net realized capital gains and/or return of capital. Return of capital includes distributions paid by a fund in excess of its net investment income. Such excess is distributed from the fund's assets. Under federal tax regulations, some or all of the return of capital distributed by a fund may be taxed as ordinary income. The amount of monthly distributions may vary depending on a number of factors, including changes in portfolio and market conditions.

Distributions of a fund's investment in real estate investment trusts (REITs), master limited partnerships (MLPs) and/or closed-end funds (CEFs) may later be characterized as capital gains and/or a return of capital, depending on the character of the dividends reported to each fund after year end by the REITs, MLPs and CEFs held by a fund.

Cohen & Steers Limited Duration Preferred and Income Fund, Inc., Cohen & Steers Select Preferred and Income Fund, Inc., Cohen & Steers Total Return Realty Fund, Inc., Cohen & Steers Quality Income Realty Fund, Inc. and Cohen & Steers Infrastructure Fund, Inc. only:

Cohen & Steers Limited Duration Preferred and Income Fund, Inc., Cohen & Steers Select Preferred and Income Fund, Inc., Cohen & Steers Total Return Realty Fund, Inc., Cohen & Steers Quality Income Realty Fund, Inc. and Cohen & Steers Infrastructure Fund, Inc. declared their monthly distributions pursuant to the Fund's managed distribution plans (the "Fund"). Each Fund implemented a managed distribution policy in accordance with exemptive relief issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The policy gives each Fund greater flexibility to realize long-term capital gains throughout the year and to distribute those gains on a regular monthly basis to shareholders. Information can also be found on the Funds' website at cohenandsteers.com. The Board of Directors of each Fund may amend, terminate or suspend the managed distribution policy at any time, which could have an adverse effect on the market price of each Fund's shares.

Each Fund's distributions may include net investment income, long-term capital gains, short-term capital gains and/or return of capital. Under the plan, prior to the payment date of the distribution every month, each Fund will issue a press release and a notice containing information about the amount and sources of the distribution and other related information to shareholders of record on the record date. Please note that the notice is not provided for tax reporting purposes but for informational purposes only. Information can also be found on the Funds' website at cohenandsteers.com.

Shareholders should not use the information provided in preparing their tax returns. Shareholders will receive a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year indicating how to report Fund distributions for federal income tax purposes.

Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expense of the fund carefully before investing. You can obtain the fund's most recent periodic reports, when available, and other regulatory filings by contacting your financial advisor or visiting cohenandsteers.com. These reports and other filings can be found on the Securities and Exchange Commission's EDGAR Database. You should read these reports and other filings carefully before investing.

Website: cohenandsteers.com

Symbol: (NYSE: CNS)

About Cohen & Steers. Cohen & Steers is a global investment manager specializing in liquid real assets, including real estate securities, listed infrastructure, commodities and natural resource equities, as well as preferred securities and other income solutions. Founded in 1986, the firm is headquartered in New York City, with offices in London, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seattle.

SOURCE Cohen & Steers

Related Links

http://www.cohenandsteers.com


ATLANTA, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) and Aeromexico (BMV: AEROMEX) today accepted the final order issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation granting them antitrust immunity and allowing the airlines to establish a joint cooperation agreement. This historic agreement will establish the largest transborder alliance between Mexico and the United States, expand competition and benefit customers of both airlines.

"Together, Delta and Aeromexico are stronger in the U.S.-Mexico market than either airline can be on its own," said Delta CEO Ed Bastian. "The partnership will make it possible for us to offer customers more flights to more destinations, with more choices every time someone travels across the border. We will offer industry-leading reliability, great service and an unmatched array of options."

"This agreement will mark the beginning of a new era in the aviation of North America, as the first and the largest cross-border alliance between Mexico and the United States," said Aeromexico CEO Andres Conesa. "It is the next step in our relationship, and our networks will provide more benefits to our customers while increasing the options for connectivity, products and services."

Bastian added that the partnership will benefit employees as well. "Our partnership means growth of services and jobs for both Delta and Aeromexico," he said.

Once conditions requested by DOT and the Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission have been fulfilled, the agreement will allow Aeromexico and Delta to coordinate efforts to enhance the travel experience with expanded destinations and frequencies, improved connecting schedules and seamless operations.

The agreement will also improve the experience on the ground, allowing the airlines to co-locate and invest in airport facilities by improving gates and lounges. The airlines also will increase joint sales and marketing initiatives.

Delta will offer a strong presence in the United States through its hubs in Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York, Salt Lake City and Seattle; while Aeromexico will offer larger access to Mexico through its hubs in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara.

The airlines have been partners for 22 years. The regulatory approval represents an important milestone in the process, announced last year, to launch a cash tender offer for Delta's acquisition for up to 49 percent of Grupo Aeromexico S.A.B. de C.V., capital stock, further strengthening the partnership between the two airlines.

About Grupo Aeromexico

Grupo Aeromexico, S.A.B. de C.V. is a holding company whose subsidiaries provide commercial aviation services and promote passenger loyalty programs in Mexico. Aeromexico, Mexico's global airline, operates more than 600 daily flights from its main hub in Terminal 2 at the Mexico City International Airport. Its route network spans more than 80 cities on three continents including 45 in Mexico, 18 in the United States, 15 in Latin America, four in Europe, four in Canada, and two in Asia.

Grupo Aeromexico's fleet of close to 130 aircraft includes Boeing 787, 777, and 737 jet airliners and next generation Embraer 190, 170, and 145 models. In 2012, the airline announced the most significant investment strategy in aviation history in Mexico, to purchase 100 Boeing aircraft including 90 MAX 737 airliners and ten 787-9 Dreamliners.

As a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance, Aeromexico offers customers more than 1,000 destinations in 177 countries served by its top 20 airline partners rewarding passengers with benefits including access to 672 premium airport lounges around the world. Aeromexico also offers travel options through its codeshare partners Delta Air Lines, Alaska Airlines, Avianca, Copa Airlines, and WestJet with extensive connectivity in countries like the United States, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. www.aeromexico.com and www.skyteam.com.

About Delta

Delta Air Lines serves nearly 180 million customers each year. In 2016, Delta was named to Fortune's top 50 Most Admired Companies in addition to being named the most admired airline for the fifth time in six years. Additionally, Delta has ranked No.1 in the Business Travel News Annual Airline survey for an unprecedented six consecutive years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 323 destinations in 57 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs more than 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 800 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry's leading transatlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia as well as a joint venture with Virgin Atlantic. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 15,000 daily flights, with key hubs and markets including Amsterdam, Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK and LaGuardia, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Tokyo-Narita. Delta has invested billions of dollars in airport facilities, global products and services, and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on the Delta News Hub, as well as delta.com, Twitter @DeltaNewsHub, Google.com/+Delta, and Facebook.com/delta.

SOURCE Delta Air Lines

Related Links

http://www.delta.com


PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Service members deployed this Christmas will still enjoy a traditional holiday meal, with all the trimmings, thanks to the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support.

More than 26,000 pounds of turkey and 530 gallons of nonalcoholic eggnog were delivered in time for troops in Afghanistan to enjoy their holiday meals.

"Wherever our nation's military are serving around the world, DLA Troop Support is committed to providing quality, nutritious and delicious meals to them," said Anthony Amendolia, with DLA Troop Support's Subsistence supply chain. "If they can't be home for the holidays, we'll bring the holidays to them."

The combined amounts of food provided through DLA Troop Support for service members deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan and Kuwait include:

90,727 pounds of turkey

39,970 pounds of beef

22,830 pounds of ham

1,079 gallons of eggnog

4,704 pounds of marshmallows

2,774 gallons of sparkling cocktail juice

27,792 pounds of shrimp

4,812 pies (cherry, pumpkin and more)

477 pumpkin cheesecakes

DLA also ensured that service members at sea and other locations around the world will be able to enjoy their holiday meals. Subsistence employees began gathering holiday meal requirements from the military services in May so that they could order and transport the food in time.

They're already working to ensure service members will be able to celebrate other important events in the near future, including the Super Bowl, Easter and Passover, said Amendolia.

"While we try to ensure our military members get a great meal every time they go to the dining facility, we're committed to making sure they're not forgotten during those holidays," Amendolia said.

DLA Troop Support supplies America's armed forces with $14 billion annually of food, uniforms, protective equipment, medicine and medical supplies, repair parts, and construction and equipment.

As a Department of Defense combat support agency, DLA provides the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, other federal agencies, and joint and allied forces with a variety of logistics, acquisition and technical services. The agency sources and provides nearly 100 percent of the consumable items America's military forces need to operate, from food, fuel and energy, to uniforms, medical supplies, and construction and barrier equipment. DLA also supplies more than 88 percent of the military's spare parts.

Headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, DLA has about 26,000 employees worldwide and supports more than 2,430 weapon systems. For more information about DLA, go to www.dla.mil, www.facebook.com/dla.mil or http://twitter.com/dlamil.

Photo available at the following link:

https://media.defense.gov/2015/Dec/22/2001328327/-1/-1/0/131225-A-ZT122-085.JPG

Task Force Lifeliners Lt. Col. Octave V. MacDonald, support operations officer in charge, 1st Lt. Charlee R. Warford, strength manager officer, and Lt. Col. Eric J. Sloughfy, deputy commander, serve Christmas lunch Dec. 25, 2013 at the Koele Dining Facility at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. As tradition has it, senior military leaders served their troops a feast worthy of the Holiday. Service members around the world can enjoy a traditional Christmas meal thanks to the Defense Logistics Agency. Army photo by Sgt. Sinthia Rosario

SOURCE Defense Logistics Agency

Related Links

http://www.dla.mil


RYE, N.Y., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Harvey Building Products ("Harvey"), a portfolio company of Dunes Point Capital, LLC ("DPC"), has acquired Soft-Lite Windows ("Soft-Lite"), a manufacturer of vinyl replacement windows. Soft-Lite is headquartered in Streetsboro, OH and distributes its products throughout much of the United States. DPC previously acquired Harvey in 2015. Harvey is a leading manufacturer and distributor of high quality building products, with a deep presence in the Northeast.

About DPC: Founded in 2013, DPC is a family office and private investment firm, pursuing control investments in companies operating in the general industrial sector. DPC targets companies with enterprise values of up to $500 million. For more information, please visit www.dunespointcapital.com.

About Soft-Lite: Soft-Lite is a vinyl replacement window manufacturer headquartered in Streetsboro, OH. Soft-Lite sells its products directly to its customers, specializing in large, private label window dealers. For more information, please visit www.soft-lite.com.

About Harvey: Founded in 1961, Harvey is a leading manufacturer of high quality building products. Headquartered in Waltham, MA, Harvey sells directly to contractors, builders, general contractors and other building industry professionals. In addition to manufacturing vinyl windows and doors, they also distribute siding, roofing, decking and trim. The company has approximately 1,500 employees and operates two manufacturing facilities, 35 distribution centers and 14 product showrooms that are open to the public. For more information, please visit www.harveybp.com.

SOURCE Dunes Point Capital, LLC

Related Links

http://www.dunespointcapital.com


EASTLAND, Texas, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- With the Verity certification announcement from the Texas Secretary of State's office this month, Eastland County elections officials are moving forward with their plan to purchase the most advanced voting system in the U.S., Hart InterCivic's Verity Voting system.

Verity, which will be used for the county's May 2017 election, was certified Dec. 15 by the Texas Secretary of State's office and has passed rigorous testing at the state and federal levels. It will replace Eastland County's 11-year-old legacy voting system from Hart.

"I can't wait to move to Verity's new technology," said Laurie Mangum, Joint Elections Administrator. "Verity's touchscreen will make it easier for the voters, and that could improve our voter turnout. We are all about the voters, and they are all used to touchscreens."

Keeping the same customer service and relationships they have had for more than a decade makes sense for Eastland County. "Hart customer service is really good. They are always ready to help," Mangum explained.

Officials were also impressed with the security features of the new system. Printed audit logs and custom reports provide "paper trail" security superior to other electronic voting options.

"Eastland officials knew that the time was right to move to Verity. We have worked with the county since 2005, and we are sensitive to their budget and security needs," said Phillip Braithwaite, President and CEO of Hart InterCivic. "We were happy to work with them on when to take delivery and how to handle transparent, trustworthy elections. We know that Verity will serve their voters for many years to come."

Eastland County voters will be using Verity Touch, which is the only all-new direct-recording electronic (DRE) device on the market that complies with all federal and state guidelines.

While the Verity touchscreen is bigger and easier to read, the complete system weighs less than older options. Its portable, briefcase style simplifies transport, setup and storage.

Voters can switch between available ballot languages at any point in the voting process, adjust the font size and/or contrast on the screen, and control both the speed and the volume of the audio if they are using the headphones. To serve voters who cannot enter the polling place due to physical disabilities, poll workers need only turn a key and lift the 6 pound, rugged tablet from its base to carry it outside. "Unlock, pull out and go," said Mangum. "Making it easy on voters who can't walk so far is an advantage."

Verity's first release was certified by the federal Election Assistance Commission in May 2015, and the system has now been selected by jurisdictions across eight states. The version certified in Texas this month was designed to meet the needs of longtime and new Texas customers. Hart, which provides voting system solutions for 111 Texas counties, has headquarters in Austin and more than 100 years of history in the election business.

Braithwaite anticipates more Verity announcements from Texas counties in the coming weeks.

Learn more about Verity in Texas: http://www.hartintercivic.com/texas4verity.

About Hart InterCivic, Inc.

Austin-based Hart InterCivic is a full service election solutions innovator, partnering with state and local governments to deliver secure, accurate and reliable elections. Working side-by-side with election professionals for more than 100 years, Hart is committed to helping advance democracy one election at a time. The Hart mission fuels passionate customer focus and a continuous drive for technological innovation. The company's new Verity Voting system makes voting more straightforward, equitable and accessibleand makes managing elections more transparent, more efficient and easier.

SOURCE Hart InterCivic, Inc.
MOSCOW, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. updates Elcomsoft Phone Breaker, the company's mobile acquisition tool. Version 6.30 gains the ability to extract information about the user's recent Web browsing activities, notes and calendars from the cloud. In contrast with cloud backups this information along with call logs and contacts is available with little or no delay, enabling near real-time access to essential user activity data.

"This is not backups," says Vladimir Katalov, ElcomSoft CEO. "Cloud backups are daily at best. We offer access to information such as Web browsing just minutes after the activity occurs."

Information such as call logs, contacts, notes, calendars as well as Web browsing activities including Safari history and open tabs can be synced with Apple servers. Unlike iCloud backups that may or may not be created on daily basis, synced information is pushed to Apple servers just minutes after the corresponding activity has taken place. Once uploaded, synced data can be retained for months with is no option for the end user to clear the data or disable the syncing.

Background

A month ago, Elcomsoft Phone Breaker 6.20 provided the ability to download iPhone call logs and contacts synced with iCloud. Version 6.30 extends this ability by including notes, calendars and Web browsing activities, displaying Safari opened tabs and browsing history just minutes after the user visits follows a link.

Elcomsoft Phone Breaker 6.30

Elcomsoft Phone Breaker is a mobile forensic tool helping law enforcement specialists to extract information from offline and cloud backups created by Apple, BlackBerry and Windows devices. The update brings Web browsing activities call before the eyes of the law enforcement just minutes after the user opens a new tab or follows a Web link in Safari. Synced call logs, calendar events, notes and contacts are also downloaded.

The user's Apple ID and password or iCloud authentication token are required to extract data from the cloud. By using authentication tokens, forensic specialists can bypass two-factor authentication checks.

About ElcomSoft Co. Ltd.

Founded in 1990, ElcomSoft Co.Ltd. develops state-of-the-art computer forensics tools, provides computer forensics training and computer evidence consulting services. Since 1997, ElcomSoft has been providing support to businesses, law enforcement, military, and intelligence agencies. ElcomSoft tools are used by most of the Fortune 500 corporations, multiple branches of the military all over the world, foreign governments, and all major accounting firms.

SOURCE ELCOMSOFT Co. Ltd.
TEL-AVIV, Israel, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Ellomay Capital Ltd. (NYSE MKT; TASE: ELLO) ("Ellomay" or the "Company"), an emerging operator in the renewable energy and energy infrastructure sector, today reported the publication by the Israeli Public Utilities Authority - Electricity (the "Electricity Authority") of its decision concerning the tariff updates for 2017 (the "Decision").

The Decision follows the previously announced scheduling of a hearing (the "Hearing") concerning possible changes in tariffs, including possible reductions in the electricity production tariff of approximately 8%. The electricity production tariff is used by Dorad Energy Ltd. ("Dorad"), in which the Company indirectly holds 9.375%, as the basis for the price charged for the electricity it provides. Based on Dorad's financial statements for the period ended September 30, 2016, Dorad expected that the previously discussed reduction would have a material adverse impact on Dorad's cash flows, its profits and on its coverage ratios and that from the beginning of 2017 it may not be able to meet the coverage ratios, specifically for distributions to its shareholders.

On December 19, 2016, following the Hearing, the Electricity Authority published the Decision in which, among other things, it determined to limit the reduction in the electricity production tariff to approximately 0.45% and it states that it will not further update the tariffs until December 2017.

Ran Fridrich, CEO and director of Ellomay commented: "We are pleased with the decision of the Electricity Authority, eliminating almost completely the proposed tariff reductions. We expect that the new tariff, which is set for at least one year, will enable Dorad to meet the financial covenants for distribution to its shareholders, including Dori Energy, in which we own 50%".

About Ellomay Capital Ltd.

Ellomay is an Israeli based company whose shares are registered with the NYSE MKT and with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the trading symbol "ELLO". Since 2009, Ellomay Capital focuses its business in the energy and infrastructure sectors worldwide. Ellomay (formerly Nur Macroprinters Ltd.) previously was a supplier of wide format and super-wide format digital printing systems and related products worldwide, and sold this business to Hewlett-Packard Company during 2008 for more than $100 million.

To date, Ellomay has evaluated numerous opportunities and invested significant funds in the renewable, clean energy and natural resources industries in Israel, Italy and Spain, including:

Approximately 22.6MW of photovoltaic power plants in Italy and approximately 7.9MW of photovoltaic power plants in Spain ;

and approximately 7.9MW of photovoltaic power plants in ; 9.375% indirect interest in Dorad Energy Ltd., which owns and operates one of Israel's largest private power plants with production capacity of approximately 850 MW, representing about 6%-8% of Israel's total current electricity consumption; and

largest private power plants with production capacity of approximately 850 MW, representing about 6%-8% of total current electricity consumption; and 75% of Chashgal Elyon Ltd., Agira Sheuva Electra, L.P. and Ellomay Pumped Storage (2014) Ltd., all of which are involved in a project to construct a 340 MW pumped storage hydro power plant in the Manara Cliff, Israel .

Ellomay Capital is controlled by Mr. Shlomo Nehama, Mr. Hemi Raphael and Mr. Ran Fridrich. Mr. Nehama is one of Israel's prominent businessmen and the former Chairman of Israel's leading bank, Bank Hapohalim, and Messrs. Raphael and Fridrich both have vast experience in financial and industrial businesses. These controlling shareholders, along with Ellomay's dedicated professional management, accumulated extensive experience in recognizing suitable business opportunities worldwide. Ellomay believes the expertise of Ellomay's controlling shareholders and management enables the Company to access the capital markets, as well as assemble global institutional investors and other potential partners. As a result, we believe Ellomay is capable of considering significant and complex transactions, beyond its immediate financial resources.

For more information about Ellomay, visit http://www.ellomay.com.

Information Relating to Forward-Looking Statements



This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties, including statements that are based on the current expectations and assumptions of the Company's management. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release regarding the Company's plans and objectives, expectations and assumptions of management are forward-looking statements. The use of certain words, including the words "estimate," "project," "intend," "expect," "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in the forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements. Various important factors could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements, such as regulatory changes, changes in demand, technical and other disruptions in the operations of the power plant operated by Dorad and changes in the prices of natural gas. These and other risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business are described in greater detail in the filings the Company makes from time to time with Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 20-F. The forward-looking statements are made as of this date and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact:

Kalia Weintraub

CFO

Tel: +972 (3) 797-1111

Email: [email protected]



SOURCE Ellomay Capital Ltd
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Environics Communications in Washington, D.C., is pleased to announce the two beneficiaries of its #GivingTuesday initiative, which donates $20,000 of pro-bono communications work to two Washington-area nonprofits. After reviewing many qualified and worthy submissions, Environics selected the Animal Welfare Institute and the Mathematical Association of America to each receive $10,000 worth of communications work.

Both recipients were selected because of their clearly defined goals and measurable impacts. Environics was inspired by the Animal Welfare Institute's dedication to alleviating the suffering of animals and the Mathematical Association of America's work to advance accessibility to education in mathematical sciences at the elementary, secondary and collegiate levels.

"We are delighted to provide both these nonprofits with a dynamic communications campaign, including both digital and traditional tactics, to help them further their missions," said Mimi Carter, U.S. General Manager of the Toronto-based agency. "Community outreach is part of our agency's culture and this is an exciting opportunity for us to provide some compelling strategies and tactics to help them reach their goals."

"Our working partnership with Environics Communications will strengthen our efforts to save the vaquita, the world's smallest and most endangered porpoise, from extinction," said Amey Owen, Public Relations Coordinator at the Animal Welfare Institute. "The agency's support will enable us to raise public awareness about the plight of the vaquita. We look forward to collaborating with Environics on this campaign."

This #GivingTuesday campaign is an extension of Environics' commitment to giving back to organizations in the D.C. area that are having a measurable impact in the community. In addition to this effort, Environics also supported the Giving Tuesday campaign of local nonprofit Inner City-Inner Child, another of the agency's pro-bono clients.

To learn more about Environics' work with nonprofits, click here.

About Environics Communications

Environics Communications, Inc. , is a full-service, integrated public relations and marketing communications agency. Since our founding in 1994, the company has grown to a staff of more than 140 in the U.S. and Canada with clients in the association/nonprofit, consumer markets, corporate/financial, environment, healthcare, and technology. We proactively seek big ideas in order to achieve results with impact.

SOURCE Environics Communications

Related Links

http://www.environicsdc.com


CARROLLTON, Texas, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- FASTSIGNS International, Inc., franchisor of FASTSIGNS, the leading sign, graphics and visual communications franchise, announced today that it has received World-Class Franchise certification for the seventh consecutive year from the Franchise Research Institute.

This recognition comes after an independent franchisee validation survey conducted by the Franchise Research Institute, in which 63.6% of all FASTSIGNS franchisees participated. The survey was designed to determine the quality of 10 key metrics crucial to franchisee success.

According to Jeff Johnson, Founder of the Franchise Research Institute, "FASTSIGNS understands the importance of the partnership between franchisor and franchisees, and relies on unbiased data to make decisions, which help maximize franchisee sales and profitability. FASTSIGNS' willingness to share this 'look behind the curtain' provides a level of transparency that is critical for franchise candidates."

The survey asked FASTSIGNS' franchise owners to rate their franchisor through a series of questions in categories such as overall quality, growth potential, support and communication.

Among the responses received from FASTSIGNS' franchisees:

100% gave a positive rating to the overall quality of the franchisor.

99% gave a positive rating to the quality of products and/or services received from the franchisor.

98% gave a positive grade to the ongoing training and support supplied by the franchisor.

98% gave a positive rating to the overall communication between home office personnel and franchisees.

98% gave a positive rating to the opportunity provided by the franchise system.



"This certification from the Franchise Research Institute is outstanding validation of FASTSIGNS International's commitment to our franchisees and how our entire organization is determined to provide each franchisee with the tools, resources, support and training they need to maximize their success," said Catherine Monson, President and CEO, FASTSIGNS International, Inc. "We are proud to receive this confirmation of our support and commitment from our most trusted allies--our franchisees--and look forward to continuing to provide the best support and training in the industry. Being recognized for the 7th year in a row as a "World Class Franchise", along with other franchisee satisfaction ratings from other organizations received throughout the year, reinforces the ongoing support and training that new and existing franchisees receive when joining FASTSIGNS."

In addition to this achievement, FASTSIGNS garnered national recognition in the industry for their strong veteran support in 2016. The brand was selected as one of 15 national recipients of the 2016 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award, the Department of Defense's highest recognition presented to employers for their exemplary support of National Guard and Reserve members. FASTSIGNS was also named a top franchise by Franchise Business Review (FBR) in its 2016 Top Franchises for Veterans Report, ranking the brand 11th overall, earning its designation as "The Best of the Best" Franchise for Veterans. In addition, FASTSIGNS International was honored at the 2016 Franchise Update STAR Awards, placing 2nd for best recruitment practices.

Earlier this year, the company launched a new franchise development website, making it easier for potential franchise candidates to learn about the FASTSIGNS brand and opportunity.

For information about the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity, contact Mark Jameson ([email protected] or 214-346-5679) or download an eBook that explores the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity at http://amzn.to/1FrnDJu.

About FASTSIGNS 

FASTSIGNS International, Inc. is the largest sign and visual communications franchisor in North America, and is the worldwide franchisor of more than 650 independently owned and operated FASTSIGNS centers in nine countries including the US, Canada, England, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Grand Cayman, Mexico and Australia (where centers operate as SIGNWAVE).

FASTSIGNS locations provide comprehensive sign and visual graphic solutions to help companies of all sizes and across all industries attract more attention, communicate their message, sell more products, help visitors find their way and extend their branding across all of their customer touch points including decor, events, wearables and marketing materials. Learn more about sign and visual graphic solutions or find a location at fastsigns.com. Follow the brand on Twitter @FASTSIGNS, Facebook at facebook.com/FASTSIGNS or LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fastsigns.

CONTACT: Chelsea Bear

Fish Consulting

954-893-9150

[email protected]

SOURCE FASTSIGNS International, Inc.

Related Links

http://fastsigns.com


ORLAND PARK, Ill., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Yesterday in Evanston, a single fire sprinkler extinguished a fire after a stovetop burner was left on and ignited nearby boxes of food in a residence at The Mather, a 10-story senior living facility. According to fire officials, no one was injured and over $150,000 in damage was prevented thanks to the quick action of the fire sprinkler.

The sprinkler save marks the second time this year that fire sprinklers prevented major fires at residential high-rises in Evanston. In March, a single fire sprinkler extinguished a kitchen fire in an apartment unit of the 11-story Housing Authority of Cook County's Perlman Apartments high-rise. The building recently had been retrofitted with fire sprinklers in November 2015.

"Both of the buildings where the fire sprinkler saves occurred this year have senior residents that are at high risk in the event of fires, according to the NFPA. Also, there is the added risk due to limited escape routes in high-rises," says Evanston Fire Captain John Roche. "In each case, a single fire sprinkler averted a potentially serious incident."

"By following national model codes that require fire sprinkler protection in high-rises, Evanston city officials are ensuring the safety of high-rise residents. That gives the city a huge life safety advantage over the city of Chicago, which unfortunately does not require all high-rises to be sprinklered," says Tom Lia, executive director of the nonprofit Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board.

About the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board (NIFSAB)

NIFSAB is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting progressive legislation, raising public awareness, and educating code officials and governmental policy makers by demonstrating the proven performance of fire sprinklers in saving both lives and property. For more info, visit www.firesprinklerassoc.org.

SOURCE Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board (NIFSAB)

Related Links

http://www.firesprinklerassoc.org


WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Food Tank (FoodTank.com), in partnership with The George Washington University, will hold a one-day summit entitled "Let's Build Better Food Policy," Thursday, February 2, 2017 from 9AM to 5PM EST. The summit will take place in the Jack Morton Auditorium at The George Washington University.

Please direct inquiries to Food Tank Media Outreach Associate, Thomas Moes, at [email protected]. A limited number of press passes are available.

The event will bring together 35+ expert speakers who are among the top leaders across all sectors of the food industry, including business, government, and elected officials, policymakers, nonprofit groups, farmers, unions, chefs, and more. Interactive panel topics include Creating Resiliency in the Food and Agriculture System, Global Food Security and Change, Local and Regional Food Systems, and Future of the Farm Bill. Expert journalists and food advocates will moderate each panel.

Confirmed speakers include (in alphabetical ordermore to be announced soon): Chuck Abbott, Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN); Chef Jose Andres, ThinkFoodGroup; Allison Aubrey, NPR; Eliza Barclay, Vox.com; Tim Carman, Washington Post; Shenggen Fan, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); Matt Herrick, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); Roger Johnson, National Farmers Union (NFU); Kathleen Merrigan, The George Washington University; Gerald Nelson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank; Marc Oshima, AeroFarms; Kip Tom, Tom Farms; Eric Trachtenberg, McLarty Associates; Ambassador Darci Vetter, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; and Malik Yakini, Detroit Black Community Food Security.

The entire event will be broadcast on a free livestream at FoodTank.com. There will be backstage interviews on Facebook Live at facebook.com/TheFoodTank/. More than 15,000 people from around the world streamed the last Food Tank Summit in Chicago, while there were one million organic views on Facebook Live.

Following the Summit, all attendees are invited to a reception hosted by Restaurant Nora (America's First Certified Organic Restaurant). The Food Tank Summit dinner will feature a three-course plated dinner prepared by Restaurant Nora's founder, Nora Pouillon. For more information, including ticket purchase options to the Summit, reception, or dinner, please click here: www.eventbrite.com/e/lets-build-better-food-policy-2017-food-tank-summit-dc-tickets-26771991748.

WHO: 35+ experts and top leaders across all sectors of the food industry WHAT: One-day summit hosted by Food Tank and The George Washington University WHEN: Thursday, February 2, 2017 from 9AM to 5PM EST. For more information: https://foodtank.com/summit WHERE: Jack Morton Auditorium at The George Washington University, 805 21st St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20052

Last year's D.C. Food Tank Summit brought together 70+ speakers for a completely sold-out event (400 in-person attendees) from more than 25 states. There were more than 30,100 livestream participants from more than 125 countries. This year, Food Tank will hold inaugural summits in Boston and L.A., while expanding globally in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The final 2017 summit will be held Chicago, IL.

About Food Tank

Food Tank (FoodTank.com) is focused on building a global community for safe, healthy, nourished eaters. We spotlight environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity, and poverty. Food Tank creates networks of people, organizations, and content that push for food system change.

About The George Washington University

Founded in 1821 through an Act of Congress, the University has fulfilled George Washington's vision of an institution in the nation's capital dedicated to educating and preparing future leaders. The George Washington University attracts a wide range of students, faculty, and staff from around the world with a wealth of viewpoints, perspectives, values, and experiences. GW responds to the growing needs of the community through the use of their D.C. location, diversity, and accomplished expertise and ability to advance research to support a forward movement.

Media Contact:

Tom Moes

[email protected]

3128003913

SOURCE Food Tank

Related Links

http://FoodTank.com


Gabriel & Co.'s Global Style Director, Hal Rubenstein, met with Naeem to discuss his views on minimalism in fashion, his Indian influence in his designs and how there is no such thing as a "statement" necklace, since all jewelry is a statement, especially Gabriel & Co.'s jewelry. Naeem, who has dressed First Lady Michelle Obama over 10 times in the past eight years, also explains his inspiration behind the jaw dropping dress she wore in 2009 to a state dinner with the Prime Minister of India.

Like the first Designer Flash, Naeem gives readers his top 10 tricks of the trade to finding your ideal style, which is perfect timing as we all gear up to dress our best for the holidays and New Year's Eve. Some of his key tips include adding another layer of sparkle every day and remembering that the bigger the gown, the bigger the jewels.

The interview with Naeem is online now at https://www.gabrielny.com/designer-flash-naeem-khan. To listen to Naeem's podcast with Hal download now at https://www.gabrielny.com/video/scene7/NaeemKhanPodcast1-AVS.

About Gabriel & Co.:

Gabriel & Co. is proud to celebrate 25 years in making hand crafted fine jewelry with timeless designs and unparalleled quality. Founded in 1989 in Manhattan by brothers Jack and Dominick Gabriel, the aptly named Gabriel & Co. has grown into a world-renowned brand amongst consumers and within the fine jewelry industry. Most recently, the brand was voted the most preferred and the most profitable brand by both JCK Magazine's Retailer Survey and INSTORE magazine's annual Big Survey. For more information, visit GabrielNY.com.

SOURCE Gabriel & Co.

Related Links

https://www.gabrielny.com


TOKYO, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Honda R&D Co., Ltd., the R&D subsidiary of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., announced today that it is entering into formal discussions with Waymo, an independent company of Alphabet Inc., to integrate its self-driving technology with Honda vehicles. This technical collaboration between Honda researchers and Waymo's self-driving technology team would allow both companies to learn about the integration of Waymo's fully self-driving sensors, software and computing platform into Honda vehicles.

As part of the discussion on technical collaboration, Honda could initially provide Waymo with vehicles modified to accommodate Waymo's self-driving technology. These vehicles would join Waymo's existing fleet, which are currently being tested across four U.S. cities.

If both parties agree to enter into a formal agreement, Honda R&D engineers based in Silicon Valley, California and Tochigi, Japan, would work closely with Waymo engineers based in Mountain View, California and Novi, Michigan.

Honda previously announced its intention to put production vehicles with automated driving capabilities on highways sometime around 2020 related to its goal of a collision-free society. In addition to these on-going efforts, this technical collaboration with Waymo could allow Honda R&D to explore a different technological approach to bring fully self-driving technology to market. These discussions are an initial step that will allow Waymo and Honda R&D to further explore the potential of a broad range of automated driving technologies.

About Honda R&D Co, Ltd.

Honda R&D Co., Ltd. is an independent subsidiary company of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. and serves as Honda's primary research and development organization for the company's automobile, motorcycle, power products and aviation products. Based on over half a century of accumulated engineering expertise, Honda R&D seeks to actively lead the way through new technologies and resources to define the future of mobility. Honda R&D is playing a central role in the development of Honda's automated driving technologies, with responsibility for the entire process from fundamental research to product development. For more information, please visit: http://world.honda.com/RandD/

About HSVL

The Honda Silicon Valley Lab (HSVL) is a division of Honda R&D Americas, Inc., the North American research and development subsidiary of Honda R&D Co., Ltd. HSVL was established in May 2011 in Mountain View, Calif. as an open innovation lab for global Honda, focused on information technology. HSVL interfaces with a broad spectrum of IT innovators, from large, well established companies to small startup firms and individuals. This technical collaboration with Waymo is a part of its role. For more information, please visit: http://www.hondasvl.com

About Waymo

Waymo is a self-driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around. We're determined to improve transportation for people around the world, building on software and sensor technology developed in Google's labs since 2009. In October 2015, we achieved the world's first fully self-driving trip on public roads, in a car without a steering wheel or pedals. We refine Waymo technology through one billion miles of simulation testing each year, and our cars have self-driven over two million miles on public roads across four U.S. cities.

SOURCE Honda Motor Co., Ltd

Related Links

http://world.honda.com/RandD


"We are extremely thankful for Larry's dedicated leadership and we respect his request to retire," said Thomas W. Rabaut, lead director of the board and chairman of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee for Allison. "He has successfully guided Allison through several periods of significant change and positioned it well for the future. We are confident that the transition plan will be well executed."

Dewey will be retiring after a career spanning 44 years, which includes serving as CEO since 2007. As the longest-serving head of Allison in its 100 year-plus history, he oversaw the company's transition from being a division of General Motors Co., to becoming an independent company with private equity ownership, to offering equity on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012 and, for the last four years, as an independent public company.

"As Allison enters its second century I'm energized about the opportunities that lie ahead for this great company and its talented employees, both in the U.S. and around the world," said Dewey. "Over the next 18 months, I plan to work closely with the board to ensure a smooth and successful transition of the company's leadership."

About Allison Transmission

Allison Transmission (NYSE: ALSN) is the world's largest manufacturer of fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles, and is a leader in hybrid-propulsion systems for city buses. Allison transmissions are used in a variety of applications including refuse, construction, fire, distribution, bus, motorhomes, defense and energy. Founded in 1915, the company is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA and employs approximately 2,700 people worldwide. With a market presence in more than 80 countries, Allison has regional headquarters in the Netherlands, China and Brazil with manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Hungary and India. Allison also has approximately 1,400 independent distributor and dealer locations worldwide. For more information, visit allisontransmission.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release are forward-looking statements, including all statements regarding future financial results. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expect," "plans," "project," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "intend," "forecast," "could," "potential," "continue" or the negative of these terms or other similar terms or phrases. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks. Factors which may cause the actual results to differ materially from those anticipated at the time the forward-looking statements are made include, but are not limited to: risks related to our substantial indebtedness; our participation in markets that are competitive; the highly cyclical industries in which certain of our end users operate; the failure of markets outside North America to increase adoption of fully-automatic transmissions; the concentration of our net sales in our top five customers and the loss of any one of these; future reductions or changes in government subsidies for hybrid vehicles, U.S. defense spending; general economic and industry conditions; the discovery of defects in our products, resulting in delays in new model launches, recall campaigns and/or increased warranty costs and reduction in future sales or damage to our brand and reputation; our ability to prepare for, respond to and successfully achieve our objectives relating to technological and market developments and changing customer needs; risks associated with our international operations; labor strikes, work stoppages or similar labor disputes, which could significantly disrupt our operations or those of our principal customers; and other risks and uncertainties associated with our business described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that the expectations will be attained or that any deviation will not be material. All information is as of the date of this press release, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in expectations.

SOURCE Allison Transmission Holdings Inc.

Related Links

http://www.allisontransmission.com


BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- "I had a productive meeting with President-elect Trump this afternoon. I appreciated the opportunity to discuss the importance of the F-35 program and the progress we've made in bringing the costs down. The F-35 is a critical program to our national security, and I conveyed our continued commitment to delivering an affordable aircraft to our U.S. military and our allies."

Marillyn Hewson

Chairman, CEO and President

Lockheed Martin Corporation

About Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT)

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 98,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

SOURCE Lockheed Martin

Related Links

http://www.lockheedmartin.com


TOANO, Va., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Lumber Liquidators (NYSE: LL), the largest specialty retailer of hardwood flooring in North America, recently donated 225 square feet of Vinyl Wood Plank flooring to the Buffalo, N.Y. chapter of Special Spaces.

Special Spaces focuses on renovating and redecorating bedrooms for children battling life-threatening illnesses. These bedrooms are designed with the child in mind, to provide a "special space" to heal, find peace and just be a kid.

"All of our rooms are funded solely by donations by individuals and companies here in Western New York," said Lynn Wall, Director of Special Spaces Buffalo. "Lumber Liquidators has, once again, made it possible for us to continue our mission and provide comfort to children that need it most. It is an invaluable partnership."

Lumber Liquidators has made multiple donations to Special Spaces over the past several years. Most recently, a laminate flooring donation assisted with the completion of a Special Spaces room for a 16-year-old girl battling cancer.

Lumber Liquidators' support of Special Spaces was administered through its philanthropic program, Lay It Forward, which supports organizations that benefit generations to come. This principle also inspires the lasting quality and sustainability of Lumber Liquidators' products.

About Lumber Liquidators

With more than 370 locations, Lumber Liquidators is North America's largest specialty retailer of hardwood flooring. The Company features more than 400 top quality flooring varieties, including solid and engineered hardwood, bamboo, cork, laminate, resilient vinyl and engineered vinyl plank. Additionally, Lumber Liquidators provides a wide selection of flooring enhancements and accessories to complement, install and maintain your new floor. Every location is staffed with flooring experts who can provide advice and installation options for all of Lumber Liquidators' products, much of which is in stock and ready for delivery.

With premier brands including Bellawood and Morning Star Bamboo, Lumber Liquidators' flooring is often featured on popular television shows such as HGTV's Dream Home and This Old House. For more information, please visit www.LumberLiquidators.com or call 1.800.HARDWOOD.

Lumber Liquidators aims to be the industry leader in sustainability. For more information, please visit www.LumberLiquidators.com/Sustainability. Learn more about our corporate giving program at LayItForward.LumberLiquidators.com. You can also follow Lumber Liquidators on Facebook and Twitter.

For further information contact:

John Feld  One Simple Plan

Tel: 612.677.2248

SOURCE Lumber Liquidators, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.lumberliquidators.com


KELOWNA, British Columbia, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Marapharm Ventures Inc. ("Marapharm"): United States (OTCQB: MRPHF), Canada - (CSE: MDM), Germany - (FSE:2M0), announces updates of timelines for its Las Vegas, Nevada project announced previously in news releases November 14, 2016, November 23, 2016, December 4, 2016 and December 6, 2016.

The two starter buildings have arrived at the Marapharm property located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Site preparation is underway. Forms and slab pour and cure time is slated to be January 16, 2017. The building erection crew is slated to begin January 17, 2017. Interior prep and finishing for grow ready is to commence January 28, 2017. Fencing, security and signage is projected for completion February 20, 2017. Numerous construction items and interior furnishings, equipment and preparations to go to March 30, 2017 and growing, cultivation and processing for 3 licensed facilities commences April, 2017. Delivery of pre-sold cannabis after curing, testing and packaging projected to be within 3 months of the initial harvest.

"We are excited. Nevada has 50 million adult visitors per year and marijuana is legal for medical and recreational use so the market is beyond huge and we will be ready! Our land is paid for. The buildings, equipment and many other items are paid for. We are in good shape financially with close to $4 million in cash presently for working capital for the Las Vegas project and credit facilities are available if required. The building plans for the entire build-out will be ready shortly, to reflect the height changes to accommodate our vertical plus farming model, and then we go into the final construction stage. Construction photos will be posted shortly on our website," Linda Sampson, Marapharm CEO.

FORWARD - LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumption but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and the forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

http://www.marapharm.com or Linda Sampson, CEO, 778-583-4476 [email protected]



SOURCE Marapharm Ventures Inc.
DALLAS, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A Dallas-based development authority and Founder of Western Rim Property Services, Marcus Hiles recently responded to reports of an upswing in Texas home sales during 2016's first quarter. The release was distributed by the Texas Association of Realtors and outlined several key market indicators for buyers, sellers, and residential construction entrepreneurs. Among the document's many findings, the piece noted a 7.8 percent upsurge in the number of residences sold in the state for Q1 2016 when compared to the same quarter in 2015.

As CEO of Western Rim Property Services, a regional firm specializing in luxury subdivisions, Marcus Hiles recognizes that the Texas Association of Realtors' discoveries can help him best serve local clientele. "At Western Rim, we are constantly monitoring industry temperature and momentum to understand what our customers need most," Hiles said. "The Association's recent findings offer invaluable insight to our team regarding the current status of regional property sales. Most importantly, it proves that the state's overall real estate vertical is thriving. It's an exciting time to live in Texas."

The Association's article also points out that while residential sales have steadily increased, actual housing inventory and active listings have significantly decreased in Q1 2016 when compared to 2015. According to the report, listings fell a total of 11.9%. Additionally, the study shows that active first quarter listings spent an average of only 64 days for sale on the market, down three days from first quarter 2015.

Marcus Hiles owns and operates Western Rim Property Services, a Texas-based development firm that specializes in upscale rental housing solutions at economical price points. An avid philanthropist, he donates his time, capital, and other resources to various charities and organizations to make a difference throughout the region. The property developer and investor has also made his mark as a dedicated conservationist, making public parklands and green spaces an integral part of every Western Rim community.

Marcus Hiles - Chairman & CEO of Western Rim Property Services: http://www.MarcusHiles-News.com

Western Rim Property Services- Marcus Hiles - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Western-Rim-Property-Services-Marcus-Hiles-1013270532051763/

Marcus Hiles (@marcus_hiles) - Twitter: https://twitter.com/marcus_hiles

Marcus Hiles - The Mansions on the Park - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce1ez9C8XsA

SOURCE Marcus Hiles
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- McClatchy (NYSE:MNI) today announced it has acquired the assets and operations of The (Durham, NC) Herald-Sun, including related digital assets, from the Paducah, Kentucky-based Paxton Media Group, which has owned the publication since 2004. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"The Herald-Sun and its predecessor publications have been serving Durham since 1889," Paxton Media Group's president and CEO David Paxton said. "We believe this transaction strengthens the newspaper and assures that it will continue to serve the community for many years to come. We are confident McClatchy will carry forward The Herald-Sun's legacy and mission of service to the community of Durham. McClatchy is committed to providing top-notch journalism to the Carolinas. We also want to thank all employees for their contributions to the community and newspaper during our ownership.

"Paxton Media Group has been publishing newspapers since 1896. Like McClatchy, we believe newspapers, in print and digital forms, have a vital role to play in their communities, and we remain committed to the business." Paxton Media Group will continue to operate newspapers in more than 50 communities after this transaction.

Sacramento, California-based McClatchy is a leading provider of digital and print news and information in cities across the country, including several markets in the Carolinas. In addition to owning The News & Observer in nearby Raleigh, it also owns The Charlotte Observer and several papers in South Carolina: The State, in Columbia, The Island Packet, in Hilton Head, The Beaufort Gazette; The Sun News in Myrtle Beach; and The Herald, in Rock Hill.

"We're grateful to Paxton Media Group for choosing McClatchy when it decided to sell. To be entrusted with the journalistic legacy of The Herald-Sun is a privilege," said McClatchy president and CEO, Pat Talamantes, "We look forward to serving The Herald-Sun's readers and customers well."

Sara Glines, president and publisher of The News & Observer, will oversee its operations. Glines noted, "We are excited to be able to expand our print and digital presence in the Raleigh-Durham area. We'll give our utmost focus and attention to The Herald-Sun's customers and continue to be a strong partner in the community."

Durham is a vibrant and dynamic community offering residents and visitors access to top universities and schools, healthcare, outdoor experiences and events, and a wide array of cultural activities. In April of 2016, Livability ranked it one of the Top 100 Best Places to Live in the United States.

About McClatchy

McClatchy is a 21st century news and information leader, publisher of iconic brands such as the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee, The Charlotte Observer, The (Raleigh) News and Observer, and the (Fort Worth) Star-Telegram. McClatchy operates media companies in 28 U.S. markets in 14 states, providing each of its communities with high-quality news and advertising services in a wide array of digital and print formats. McClatchy is headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., and listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MNI.

About Paxton

Paxton Media Group is a family owned media company founded in 1896. The company is owned and managed by fourth- and fifth-generation family members and operates daily and non-daily publications and related digital products in more than 50 markets in ten Midwestern and Southern states. The company also owns a television station, WPSD, the NBC affiliate in Paducah, Kentucky, and a radio station.

SOURCE McClatchy

Related Links

http://www.mcclatchy.com


EVANSTON, Ill., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Medill Justice Project premieres its first documentary about the death penalty, examining the life and death issues through the lens of the William Thomas "Tommy" Zeigler murder case. This is the third part of the "Death Denied" series investigating the 40-year-old conviction.

In 1976, Zeigler was convicted of a quadruple homicide at his Florida furniture store, a crime he maintains he did not commit. Zeigler, 71, is one of the longest serving death-row inmates in the country.

The video, "Sword of Damocles," is available at www.medilljusticeproject.org.

In June, MJP published its investigation of the case, shedding light on two witnesses who call into question Zeigler's guilt but whose accounts never made it into the trial. Prosecutors argued Zeigler shot himself in the lower torso to make it appear he was the victim of a robbery. But experts say it is practically unheard of for someone to shoot themselves in such a critical place, risking death, to cover up a crime. And the two key witnesses against Zeigler offered accounts of the night of the crime that have changed over the years while details have disappeared.

In July, MJP released a seven-part podcast series offering listeners exclusive access to its investigation of the case.

About The Medill Justice Project

The Medill Justice Project, founded at Northwestern University in 1999, is an award-winning national investigative journalism center that examines potentially wrongful convictions, probes national systemic criminal justice issues and conducts groundbreaking research. As journalists, MJP advocates only for the truth.

For more information:

Prof. Alec Klein, Northwestern University

Director, The Medill Justice Project

(847) 467-4476

[email protected]

Amanda Westrich

Director of operations, The Medill Justice Project

(847) 467-5307

[email protected]

Allisha Azlan

Associate, The Medill Justice Project

(847) 491-5840

[email protected]

Rachel Fobar

Associate, The Medill Justice Project

(847) 491-6916

[email protected]

Related Links

The Medill Justice Project

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

SOURCE The Medill Justice Project

Related Links

http://medilljusticeproject.org


LOS ANGELES, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- PTC'17, Asia-Pacific's premier telecommunications event, will take place January 15-18, 2017 in Hawaii. Zenlayer, a global software defined network and service provider and a sponsor of PTC'17, will be at the conference and would love to connect.

Zenlayer is seeking solution and resell partners for its global data center, SD-WAN and edge computing platforms. In particular, Zenlayer's strength and connections in China offer unique opportunities for companies to reach this traditionally challenging country.

In addition, Zenlayer is planning significant expansions in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Singapore, and would love to meet carriers and data center operators with resources in these locations.

How to Meet Zenlayer

Zenlayer's meeting room will be at Tapa Tower, Room T430, Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort. Please stop by or schedule a meeting with us at [email protected].

Zenlayer's CEO Elected to PTC's Advisory Council

Zenlayer has been increasing its involvement in PTC throughout the years. Recently, Zenlayer's Founder and CEO, Joe Zhu, was elected to the Pacific Telecommunications Council's (PTC) Advisory Council. His four-year term starts on January 14, 2017, when he will join senior executives from CITIC, NTT, Equinix, etc. and academic leaders from prominent universities in guiding PTC's work and progress.

"I am passionate about telecommunications and Internet network and design," said Mr. Zhu, "I look forward to the opportunity to contribute my knowledge, experience and network to help spread the influence of PTC, bring in more members, and elevate awareness of PTC."

About Pacific Telecommunications Council

PTC (www.ptc.org) is the leading membership organization for telecommunications and information and communication technology (ICT) professionals with interests in the Asia-Pacific region. Through its annual conference (now in its 39th year) and initiatives, PTC brings together senior industry leaders and provides them with opportunities to build partnerships with one another and share insights on industry trends, business strategies, policy and regulations, best practices, and new communication technologies and services.

About Zenlayer

Zenlayer (www.zenlayer.com), a global software defined network and service provider, is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. Enterprises utilize Zenlayer's platform to quickly deploy and manage global IT resources so that they can globalize their business within minutes. Zenlayer's flagship Network as a Service platform, built upon its global SDN network, is automated, on-demand and carrier neutral.

Media contact

Dalerie Wu

[email protected]

1.909.718.3558 (x1111)

SOURCE Zenlayer

Related Links

http://www.zenlayer.com


DAVIS, Calif., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) today announced $225 million in funding for 88 partnership projects nationwide. California captured funding for four projectsthree completely within the state and one shared with Nevada. Funding comes through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), created in the 2014 Farm Bill.

"RCPP continues to fund partnered projects in California that address some of the most important conservation issues facing farmers and ranchers," said NRCS State Conservationist Carlos Suarez. "This year is no different with four outstanding projects that focus on flooding, water quality, soil health, wildlife and much more."

Each project has its own set of conservation benefits, specific goals and management practices. Over the coming weeks, NRCS California staff will work with representatives from the selected projects to develop project specific plans to implement the work.

California-Specific Project Overviews:

Black Rascal Creek Project. Lead partner: Merced County. The project will provide flood protection to the communities of Merced and Franklin/Beachwood and surrounding prime agricultural lands, an area that has seen frequent and severe flooding. In addition to flood control, the project will address drought, water quality, soil quality and improve wildlife habitat.

San Diego County Partners Agricultural Sustainability. Lead partner: Mission Resource Conservation District. The project will promote irrigation system evaluations and conservation plans will be utilized to ascertain the baseline conditions of each participating property and to determine the necessary conservation practices needed to ensure sustainability.

San Mateo Coast Farmland, Water and Wildlife. Lead partner: Peninsula Open Space Trust. The project will expedite delivery of natural resource conservation on agriculture lands by integrating land protection and stewardship strategies farm-by-farm and across the region to address these priority challenges.

California-Nevada Project Overview:

Livestock in Harmony with Sage Grouse. Lead partner: Eastern Sierra Land Trust. The project will protect and measurably enhance sage-grouse habitat on working ranchlands, improve water quality, and assist producers in meeting or avoiding the need for natural resource regulatory requirements.

Since 2015, the first year of RCPP, NRCS has funded 16 California projects benefitting bird habitat, climate change, water quality, forest health, and other natural resources to further the health and sustainability needs of California's agricultural landscape.

NRCS selects RCPP projects designed by local partners specifically for their state or region. Eligible partners include private companies, universities, non-profit organizations, local and tribal governments and others joining with agricultural and conservation organizations and producers to invest money, labor and materials to complete proposed initiatives.

-NRCS-

SOURCE USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service

Related Links

http://www.ca.nrcs.usda.gov


NEW YORK, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- New York REIT, Inc. ("NYRT" or the "Company") (NYSE: NYRT), today announced the closing of a new $760 million financing secured by 12 assets. As previously announced, NYRT intends to use the proceeds from the financing to repay its existing credit facility in full, to provide liquidity for the exercise of its option to acquire all or substantially all of the remaining equity interest in Worldwide Plaza that the Company currently does not own, and to provide increased flexibility to allow the Company to proceed with its proposed plan of liquidation and dissolution, subject to stockholder approval. The financing was provided by Credit Suisse.

Randolph C. Read, Chairman of the Board commented, "We are pleased to announce this financing, which provides us the financial flexibility and balance sheet strength to capture additional value associated with Worldwide Plaza and proceed with our plan of liquidation, pending stockholder approval. We look forward to executing the plan of liquidation as expeditiously as possible, once approved by NYRT stockholders."

"NYRT has a strong portfolio of high-quality, well-leased assets in one of the best real estate markets in the world and we believe that increasing our ownership of Worldwide Plaza will bring significant value to our stockholders," said Michael Happel, Chief Executive Officer and President of NYRT. "In addition to providing us with the capital we need to exercise the option at Worldwide Plaza, this financing allows us to pay off our existing credit facility in full and move forward with the previously announced plan of liquidation, following stockholder approval."

The current credit facility had an outstanding balance of approximately $485 million as of December 19, 2016. The Company obtained the new financing partly because the former credit facility did not permit a liquidation or sale of all or substantially all of the assets of the Company.

Worldwide Plaza, a two million square foot office building in Manhattan, is the Company's largest asset. The Company currently owns a 48.9% interest in Worldwide Plaza and has a fixed price option to purchase all or substantially all of the rest of the property.

About NYRT

NYRT is a publicly traded real estate investment trust listed on the NYSE that owns income-producing commercial real estate, including office and retail properties, located in New York City. Additional information about NYRT can be found on its website at www.nyrt.com. NYRT may disseminate important information regarding it and its operations, including financial information, through social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking Statements

The statements in this press release that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements. These forward looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in the forward-looking statements NYRT makes. Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements regarding stockholder liquidity and investment value and returns. The words "anticipates," "believes," "expects," "estimates," "projects," "plans," "intends," "may," "will," "would," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to: the impact of current and future regulation; the impact of credit rating changes; the effects of competition; the ability to attract, develop and retain executives and other qualified employees; changes in general economic or market conditions; the Company's ability to complete asset sales, refinance its credit facility on favorable terms, if at all, and realize the results of its plan of liquidation; the timing of and the amount of proceeds of asset sales; and other factors, many of which are beyond NYRT's control, including other factors included in NYRT's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), particularly in the "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of NYRT's latest Annual Report on Form 10-K for year ended December 31, 2015, filed with the SEC on February 26, 2016, the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2016 filed with the SEC on November 9, 2016, and the Preliminary Proxy Statement on Schedule 14A with respect to the plan of liquidation filed with the SEC on December 9, 2016 (the "Preliminary Liquidation Proxy"), as such Risk Factors may be updated from time to time in subsequent reports. NYRT does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Additional Information about the Plan of Liquidation and the Election of Directors and Where to Find It

The plan of liquidation and the election of directors at the Company's 2016 annual meeting of stockholders will be submitted to the stockholders of the Company for their approval. The Company has filed the Preliminary Liquidation Proxy and expects to file with the SEC other relevant materials, including definitive proxy statements which will be mailed or otherwise disseminated to the Company's stockholders when available. THE COMPANY'S STOCKHOLDERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO READ ANY PROXY STATEMENT AND OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC IF AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION.

Investors may obtain free copies of the Preliminary Liquidation Proxy, any other proxy statement and other relevant documents filed by the Company with the SEC (when they become available) through the website maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov. Copies of the documents filed by the Company with the SEC are also available free of charge on the Company's website at www.nyrt.com.

Participants in Solicitation Relating to the Plan of Liquidation and the Election of Directors

The Company and its respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from the Company's stockholders in respect of the plan of liquidation and the election of directors at the Company's 2016 annual meeting of stockholders. Information regarding the Company's directors and executive officers can be found in the Company's latest Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, filed with the SEC on February 26, 2016 and the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on October 24, 2016. Additional information regarding the interests of such potential participants has been included in the Preliminary Liquidation Proxy and will be included in any other proxy statements or other relevant documents filed with the SEC in connection with the plan of liquidation or the election of directors at the Company's 2016 annual meeting of stockholders when they become available. These documents are available free of charge on the SEC's website and from the Company's using the sources indicated above.

Contacts



Media: Investors:

Jonathan Keehner Michael A. Happel Matthew Furbish Mahmoud Siddig CEO and President Director, Investor Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher New York REIT, Inc. Relations [email protected] [email protected] New York REIT, Inc. [email protected] (212) 415-6500 (212) 415-6500 (212) 355-4449





SOURCE New York REIT, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.nyrt.com


JUNO BEACH, Fla., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) today announced that for the second consecutive year the Association of ERGs and Councils has named NextEra Energy a recipient of its premier national award that celebrates the outstanding achievements of employee resource groups (ERGs), business resource groups (BRGs) and diversity councils. In its eighth year, the ERG and Council Honors Award recognizes organizations committed to diversity and inclusion for their programs' results, management commitment, measurement and accountability, and communication and education. NextEra Energy again this year was the only large U.S. electric utility company to receive a Top 25 ranking.

"At NextEra Energy, our team of 14,300 talented employees is our greatest competitive advantage," said Jim Robo, chairman and chief executive officer of NextEra Energy. "We're always working to strengthen our team and one way we do so is by making our workplace more inclusive. Being recognized today for our strong track record in diversity and inclusion speaks directly to that effort. I'm very proud of our entire team, including the many NextEra Energy employees who are active in our employee resource groups, as well as other activities that foster an inclusive culture. Whether they're learning new skills, serving customers in new ways, or taking on special community projects, it's really all about delivering sustainable value."

"NextEra Energy's Corporate Diversity Council scored very high in accountability and high in the areas of talent management, creating a culture of inclusion, middle management demonstrated commitment and communication," said Fernando Serpa, executive director of the Association of ERGs and Councils. "The Council competed against a national field of 1,279 ERGs, BRGs and diversity councils to make the Top 25 for the second consecutive year. This is a testament to the impact this group is having on their workforce, marketplace and community."

NextEra Energy's Corporate Diversity Council provides strategic oversight, guidance and direction to corporate-wide engagement, diversity and inclusion initiatives by ensuring alignment with business objectives and collaboration across business units. The council is also responsible for overseeing activities of the company's 11 ERGs, including developing strategies to leverage and engage the groups in the corporate diversity and inclusion strategy, career development, skill building and community involvement. This overall strategy helps make the company smarter, more adaptable and more reflective of its customer base.

Among the numerous NextEra Energy initiatives processed and scored for this recognition are:

Business development: The company's Corporate Diversity Council and business unit senior leaders leveraged meetings with the ERGs to gain valuable input and feedback on new product development and services ideas. As a result, 100 new initiatives were introduced to increase revenue.

Talent management: The executive sponsor and senior members of the African American Professional ERG identified a need to enhance the development of the group's membership and bring a greater awareness of internal talent. They launched a leadership council to serve as mentors, conduct skill set reviews, identify top talent within the group and build their commercial skills, executive presence and personal marketing. The result was the recognition and promotion of four employees.

Culture of inclusion: The Women in Energy ERG has always prided itself on helping members of the community. The group wanted to increase its presence by identifying organizations with a specific focus on women. The group partnered with the external affairs team to identify organizations in need. As a result, the group represented the company in the Dress for Success, Habitat for Humanity Women Build and Hope House Florida for Human Trafficking Victims initiatives.

for Human Trafficking Victims initiatives. Management engagement: ERG leaders have reached out to members who are middle managers outside of their own departments to speak with them about ERGs. In turn, the managers are referring their employees to the groups. ERGs are also reaching out to middle managers to participate in event and volunteer activities. The result has been an increase to 1,300 from around 700 in the number of employees who are ERG members.

The ERG and Council Honors Award is the latest recognition for NextEra Energy, which has long been committed to building a top-notch workforce and challenging its team to help solve America's energy challenges sustainably and responsibly. During the past year alone, the company has been recognized as being No.1 in the electric and gas utilities industry on Fortune magazine's 2016 "World's Most Admired Companies" list and A World's Most Ethical Company by the Ethisphere Institute for the ninth time.

See the complete list of honorees, as well as additional information on this awards program, at

http://www.ergcouncilconference.com/honors-award-2016-recipients.html. Learn more about NextEra Energy's diversity and inclusion strategies and activities by viewing its most recent corporate responsibility report at www.NextEraEnergy.com/crr.

NextEra Energy, Inc.

NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) is a leading clean energy company with consolidated revenues of approximately $17.5 billion and approximately 14,300 employees in 27 states and Canada as of year-end 2015, as well as approximately 45,000 megawatts of generating capacity, which includes megawatts associated with noncontrolling interests related to NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NYSE: NEP) as of April 2016. Headquartered in Juno Beach, Fla., NextEra Energy's principal subsidiaries are Florida Power & Light Company, which serves more than 4.8 million customer accounts in Florida and is one of the largest rate-regulated electric utilities in the United States, and NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which, together with its affiliated entities, is the world's largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun. Through its subsidiaries, NextEra Energy generates clean, emissions-free electricity from eight commercial nuclear power units in Florida, New Hampshire, Iowa and Wisconsin. A Fortune 200 company and included in the S&P 100 index, NextEra Energy has been recognized often by third parties for its efforts in sustainability, corporate responsibility, ethics and compliance, and diversity, and has been ranked No. 1 in the electric and gas utilities industry in Fortune's 2016 list of "World's Most Admired Companies." For more information about NextEra Energy companies, visit these websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com, www.NextEraEnergyResources.com.

SOURCE NextEra Energy, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.nexteraenergy.com


NEW YORK, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Pareteum Corporation (NYSE MKT: TEUM) ("Pareteum," or the "Company"), a leading international provider of mobile networking software and services, today announced it has secured an expanded Global Cloud Platform services agreement with its largest European customer. The new contract, an extension of its existing MVNE relationship with Vodafone Enabler S.L.(VEE), will allow for the creation and launch of unique Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) service offerings backed by a Tier-1 network operator's global roaming services operation. These services, together with the first MVNO customer rollout, are expected during the first quarter of 2017.

"With our enhanced, market-leading cloud-based global mobility platform, Pareteum is now unlocking tremendous new opportunities for operators looking to create new global MVNO revenue streams by eliminating the limitations of location," said Hal Turner, Pareteum's Executive Chairman. "Because Pareteum's mobility platform already powers our European customer's MVNO brands, we are now in the process of quickly launching these services together with the first MVNO customer. Through a combination of our leading-edge technology and strong industry relationships, we are now better positioned to benefit from the MVNO market estimated to be worth $89.25 billion by 2022, according to new research published by Global Market Insights, Inc."

The new MVNO service will take full advantage of existing carrier network and worldwide roaming agreements and will run on Pareteum's cloud based platform, allowing for prepaid and postpaid services outside of the MVNO's traditional operating geography. One of the greatest challenges facing MVNO's looking to create and deploy new services is that the physical and geographic boundaries of provisioning services outside of home country can be difficult and cost prohibitive. The new MVNO services platform supports a diversity of users including brands, enterprises, IoT devices and those on 4G networks, representing substantial new revenue generating opportunities for Pareteum. Services under the new agreement are already being provisioned and new subscriber additions are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2017. The expanded agreement also paves the way for additional brands looking to go global and benefit from Pareteum's extensive mobile services platform and the network reach of this tier one global carrier.

Luis Jimenez Tunon, Chief Executive of Vodafone Enabler added, "We have moved to the next logical step in our partnership with Pareteum. We started with a platform to enable our existing MVNO and Lowi.es businesses using their enablement platform and our positive experience has enabled us to now open our opportunities to other Vodafone properties and global roaming and to embrace our joint IP transformation. This natural expansion is a result of the focused effort by both teams to bring additional opportunities to the VEE platform throughout the Vodafone Group."

"We are excited to extend our relationship with our largest customer and to play a critical role in their ambitious global expansion plans," said Vic Bozzo CEO of Pareteum. "Today's agreement further demonstrates the momentum and traction we are seeing in the market, driven by our unique ability to enable our customers to extend their offerings and for the first time, empowering MVNO brands to break free of their geographical bounds."

About Pareteum Corporation:

Pareteum Corporation, and its subsidiaries provide a complete mobility cloud platform, utilizing messaging and security capabilities for the global Mobile, MVNO, Enterprise and IoT markets. Pareteum's large MVNE customers, include Vodafone (the world's second largest mobile operator by customer), Zain (the 4th largest mobile operator in the world in terms of geographical presence), Cleartech, Expeto and other Tier 1 and MVNO customers. For more information please visit: www.pareteum.com.

Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements contained herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may include, without limitation, statements with respect to Pareteum's plans and objectives, projections, expectations and intentions. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about Pareteum's industry, management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by management. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Because such statements involve risks and uncertainties, the actual results and performance of Pareteum may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Unless otherwise required by law, Pareteum also disclaims any obligation to update its view of any such risks or uncertainties or to announce publicly the result of any revisions to the forward-looking statements made here. Additional information concerning certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested in Pareteum's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available from the SEC or may be obtained upon request from Pareteum.

Investor Relations Contacts:

Steve Gersten

813-334-8920

[email protected]

Scott Gordon

CoreIR

631-703-4900

[email protected]

SOURCE Pareteum Corporation

Related Links

http://www.pareteum.com


PHOENIX, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Parker & Sons has been providing electrical, HVAC, and plumbing services to the Greater Phoenix area for over forty years. They have been ranked as one of Phoenix's top service providing companies, as well as consistently being ranked as one of Phoenix's top customer service and satisfaction providers. The company has just announced that they are looking to expand their HVAC division, and are looking to hire on a number of Lead Installers and Apprentices.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161207/446804LOGO

Parker & Sons representative Josh Kelly is excited about this public announcement. When asked about these open opportunities, Kelly pointed to the benefits that Parker & Sons employees receive with their employment. These include things like continuous paid training programs paid for by the company including EPA and NATE certifications, Heat Pump Council, as well as technical and customer service training. Parker & Sons also provides a comprehensive benefits package which features medical, dental, vision, and legal insurance, as well as short and long term disability insurance, paid time off, tool accounts, and a 401 (k) retirement plan.

"We usually start off by paying our oncoming lead installers with a wage of $20-30 an hour, which has always increased for within a short time for enthusiastic employees. We've actually seen some increase their wages quite a bit even in a couple of months!" said Kelly.

What's also important about Parker & Sons announcement is the opportunity for young and inexperienced HVAC technicians to serve as apprentices to lead installers. Apprenticeships have always been an important aspect to Parker & Sons continued success and employee retention rate. Not only do apprentices' make $14-20 an hour depending on previous experience, but many, if not all apprentices are hired on as full time employees at the end of their apprenticeship.

Kelly mentioned that while there are more technical requirements needed to perform this job, such as the ability to perform moderate to heavy lifting, needing a high school diploma or GED equivalent, having a valid driver's license, having the ability to pass a background check and drug screen, as well as pass a DMV check, there are many soft skills they look for when vetting applicants. Some of these include the ability to work well with others, the ability to problem solve, and having a real passion for the industry, as well as a desire to grow both personally and professionally.

All of the details regarding the positions for apprentice and lead installer can be found on Parker & Sons website, at parkerandsonsaz.com.

SOURCE Parker & Sons

Related Links

http://parkerandsonsaz.com


HARRISBURG, Pa., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- At her regular briefing of the status of Pennsylvania's Medical Marijuana Program, Secretary of Health Dr. Karen Murphy today announced applications for medical marijuana grower/processors and dispensaries will be available beginning January 17, 2017. Permit applications will be accepted from February 20, 2017 until March 20, 2017.

"I am excited to announce that we've reached an important milestone in the program with the release of permit applications on January 17, 2017, on our website at www.health.pa.gov," Secretary Murphy said. "In the first phase of the program, there will be up to 12 permits issued for grower/processors across Pennsylvania's six medical marijuana regions, and up to 27 permits issued for dispensaries. The decision for which counties will be issued permits in this first phase was determined by using the department's medical data, as well as comments from more than 5,000 patients and nearly 900 potential grower/processors and dispensary applicants."

Secretary Murphy also discussed recommendations made by the Physician Work Group, which met November 28 in Harrisburg.

"We cannot underestimate the role of physicians in making sure that patients can access medical marijuana," Secretary Murphy said. "That's why the involvement of physicians and health care professionals through our Physician Workgroup is vital to the successful development and implementation of Pennsylvania's Medical Marijuana Program. At this meeting, we were able to speak with physicians, hospital administrators, and addiction specialists about their role in the program."

Some of Physician Workgroup recommendations include:

Clearly identifying the role of physicians serving adults and children for the conditions outlined in the program;

Developing specific training for dosing recommendations for physicians at dispensaries and for quality monitoring of the program; and

Having different approaches for rural and urban areas in program access, education and medication delivery.

The medical marijuana program was signed into law by Governor Tom Wolf on April 17, 2016. Since that time, the department has:

Completed the Safe Harbor temporary guidelines and Safe Harbor Letter application process, as well as approved 134 applications;

Slated temporary regulations for laboratories to be published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on December 24, 2016 ;

; Released public surveys to aid in the development of temporary regulations for growers/processors and dispensaries/laboratories;

Published temporary regulations for growers/processors and dispensaries in the Pennsylvania Bulletin;

Developed the Medical Marijuana Physician Workgroup; and

Released a Request for Quotations for Electronic Tracking IT solutions for the tracking of medical marijuana.

The medical marijuana program became effective on May 17, and is expected to be fully implemented by 2018. The program will offer medical marijuana to patients who are residents of Pennsylvania and under a physician's care for the treatment of a serious medical condition as defined by Act 16.

Questions about the medical marijuana program can be emailed to [email protected]. Information is also available on the Department of Health website at www.health.pa.gov.

MEDIA CONTACT: April Hutcheson, 717-787-1783

Attachment:

The following tables represent the number and counties for medical marijuana primary dispensary permits.

Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

Medical Marijuana Region 1  The Southeast District Counties Number of Permits  10 Berks 1 Bucks 1 Chester 1 Delaware 1 Lancaster 1 Montgomery 2 Philadelphia 3

Medical Marijuana Region 2 - The Northeast District Counties Number of Permits  4 Lackawanna 1 Lehigh 1 Luzerne 1 Northampton 1

Medical Marijuana Region 3 - The Southcentral District Counties Number of Permits  4 Blair 1 Cumberland 1 Dauphin 1 York 1

Medical Marijuana Region 4 - The Northcentral District Counties Number of Permits  2 Centre 1 Lycoming 1

Medical Marijuana Region 5 - The Southwest District Counties Number of Permits  5 Allegheny 2 Butler 1 Washington 1 Westmoreland 1

Medical Marijuana Region 6  The Northwest District Counties Number of Permits  2 Erie 1 McKean 1

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Health

Related Links

http://www.health.pa.gov


NEW YORK, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Below are experts from the ProfNet network who are available to discuss timely issues in your coverage area.

You can also submit a query to the hundreds of thousands of experts in our network  it's easy and free! Just fill out the query form to get started: http://prn.to/queryform

EXPERT ALERT

Conflict in Aleppo: Biblical Understanding and the Christian Response

EXPERT ROUNDUP

Trump Presidency Predictions (continued)

MEDIA JOBS

South Florida Reporter  The Real Deal

Editor/Journalist  MT Newswires

Senior Reporter, Business of Law  Law360

OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES

Holiday Gift Guide: Last-Minute Ideas for Bloggers and Storytellers

Blog Profiles: Holiday DIY Blogs

Journalist Spotlight: Amanda Baltazar , Freelance Journalist

-------------------------------------------------------------------

EXPERT ALERT:

Conflict in Aleppo: Biblical Understanding and the Christian Response

Jamie Sanchez

Professor of Intercultural Studies

Biola University

Sanchez is available to discuss the conflict in Aleppo; biblical understanding of refugees and the humanitarian response; refugees resettled in Southern California: "News and images from Aleppo have once again brought the dire situation in Syria to our collective attention. Perusing news sites about the Syrian Civil War will alert readers to the many complexities involved there, which include culture, politics, history, power, and economics. Making the situation even more complex are the geopolitical forces also involved in the conflict. However, a deep understanding of the situation, while very important, is not the main question with which many are concerned. Rather, it's the images of children shell-shocked from surviving a bomb, families fleeing gun fire, and other stories that have emerged from this humanitarian crisis that pose the greatest concern for many people. The question that dominates face-to-face and virtual conversations is, 'But, what can be done?' Because many refugees have been resettled here in Southern California, there are many opportunities to be involved in the Syrian crisis."

Based in Los Angeles, Sanchez is developing a graduate level seminar for summer 2017 to be taught in Biola University's Cook School of Intercultural Studies. This interdisciplinary seminar will explore the historical framework for the Christian response to forced migrants and refugees. Additionally, this seminar will investigate the complex realities refugees face when leaving one nation-state where the religious worldview is different than the Christian worldview held by many of the welcoming nation-states and humanitarian aid workers. The aim of this seminar is to investigate historical perspectives for the purpose of enhancing current praxis.

Website: www.biola.edu

Contact: Jenna Loumagne, [email protected]

EXPERT ROUNDUP: Trump Presidency Predictions (continued)

Following are additional experts from the ProfNet network who are available to discuss various issues regarding what we can expect from a Trump presidency. To view the original roundup, visit http://prn.to/trumppredictions

Climate Change and Energy Policy

George Borovas

Partner, Project Development & Finance

Shearman & Sterling

Borovas is a partner in Shearman & Sterling's Project Development & Finance Group and the head of the firm's Global Nuclear Group. He concentrates his practice and advises lenders, governments and sponsors on the development of civilian nuclear power programs and the financing and construction of nuclear power plants. He has worked on projects and transactions in the U.K., the U.S., Russia, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, China, Australia and South Africa and has been named a Leading Lawyer in the IFLR1000 Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms (2015-2017). He regularly negotiates contracts and advises clients on the establishment of global joint ventures relating to the nuclear industry as well as on transactions for the trading of fuel, equipment and services for nuclear power plants. He also advises companies on international nuclear liability and export compliance issues and has represented buyers in transactions involving the acquisition of nuclear power plants.

Contacts: Wendy Lee-McGuinness, [email protected], and Madison Malloch-Brown, [email protected]

Environment and Politics

David Konisky

Associate Professor

Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs

"The appointment of Scott Pruitt as the next EPA Administrator signals a monumental shift for U.S. environmental policy. As attorney general of Oklahoma, Pruitt has been a vocal critic of nearly all the EPA has done during the Obama administration, and he will likely look to rollback efforts to address climate change, strengthen air and water quality standards, and regulate fracking. As administrator of the EPA, Pruitt is likely to further shift responsibility for environmental protection from the EPA to the states. The lead contamination in Flint, Mich., is a good reminder that state governments are not always up to the job."

Konisky is a renowned environmental politics and policy expert whose research focuses on American politics and public policy, with particular emphasis on regulation, environmental politics and policy, state politics, and public opinion. Prior to joining IU, Konisky was an associate professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and an assistant professor at the Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri.

Bio: https://spea.indiana.edu/faculty-research/directory/profiles/faculty/full-time/konisky-david.html

Website: https://spea.indiana.edu/

Contact: Kemba Neptune, [email protected]

Stock Market, Economic and Sector Growth

Todd Sheldon

Author, "Turbulent Money"

"There are three major things that have distorted sector performance in the business cycle: central banks, market manipulation, and corruption. I believe Trump will bring it back in line with sectors matching the late cycle."

Sheldon's expertise includes topics such as: various American ventures that will be unequivocally affected following Trump's rise to presidency; how Brexit and U.S. elections affect U.S. equity and foreign exchange markets; how higher home loan rates affect housing recuperation; healthcare issues -- we will lose advances in medicine if research companies are unable to recoup the nearly $1 billion an FDA post-approval costs.

Website: https://www.turbulentmoney.com/about/?v=7516fd43adaa

Contact: Adrienne Mazzone, [email protected]

****************

MEDIA JOBS:

Following are links to job listings for staff and freelance writers, editors and producers. You can view these and more job listings on our Job Board: https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/community/jobs/

South Florida Reporter  The Real Deal

Editor/Journalist  MT Newswires

Senior Reporter, Business of Law  Law360

*****************

OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES:

Following are links to other news and resources we think you might find useful. If you have an item you think other reporters would be interested in and would like us to include in a future alert, please drop us a line.

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE: LAST-MINUTE IDEAS FOR BLOGGERS AND STORYTELLERS. When you're a professional storyteller  be it a journalist, blogger, videographer, or cartoonist  you're only as good as the tools you use. This holiday season, there's a host of new gadgets and gizmos available to aid in the search of the story or combat any issues one may come across in their pursuit. Below, we've compiled a list of our favorite gift ideas, so you can keep the journalists, bloggers, and storytellers in your life equipped to catch their next byline: http://bit.ly/2hLNEu5

BLOG PROFILES: HOLIDAY DIY BLOGS. Each week, PR Newswire's Audience Research team selects an industry/subject and a handful of blogs that do a good job with contributing to the conversation. This week, they look at holiday DIY blogs: http://bit.ly/2hiDznf

JOURNALIST SPOTLIGHT: AMANDA BALTAZAR , FREELANCE JOURNALIST. In our Journalist Spotlight Q&A series, PR Newswire for Journalists and ProfNet users share their insight and advice on how PR professionals and experts can improve communications and increase their chances of being featured in their publications. In this edition, we catch up with Amanda Baltazar , a freelance writer for a variety of trade publications. Amanda writes about nearly everything -- except perhaps politics. A few of her trade and industry specialties include restaurants, food, beverages, retail, and health. She also writes essays for consumer publications: http://prn.to/abaltazar

****************

PROFNET is an exclusive service of PR Newswire.

SOURCE ProfNet

Related Links

http://www.profnet.com


NEWARK, N.J., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G), New Jersey's largest utility, announced today that it will provide bill credits this winter that will lower monthly bills by about 9 percent during January and February for a typical residential gas heating customer. Those customers will see a total bill credit of approximately $25 this winter.

The bill credits are in addition to a 3 percent annual bill decrease that took effect Oct. 1 that is saving the typical customer $26.40 a year. Since January 2009, annual bills for PSE&G's typical residential gas heating customers are 52 percent -- or $879 -- lower due to supply rate reductions.

"The cost of natural gas continues to be low," said Jorge Cardenas, PSE&G vice president of asset management and centralized services. "In addition, our transportation capabilities and the way we manage our contracts have enabled us to pass these savings along to our customers as the temperature drops."

PSE&G makes no profit on the sale of natural gas, and passes along what it pays to customers. Last winter, PSE&G gave back $152 million to customers in the form of bill credits. The utility will be returning about $36 million to customers with the credit announced today.

PSE&G

Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) is New Jersey's oldest and largest regulated gas and electric delivery utility, serving nearly three-quarters of the state's population. PSE&G is the winner of the ReliabilityOne Award for superior electric system reliability. PSE&G is a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG) (NYSE: PEG), a diversified energy company.

Visit PSEG at:

www.pseg.com

PSEG on Facebook

PSEG on Twitter

PSEG on LinkedIn

PSEG blog, Energize!

From time to time, PSEG, PSE&G and PSEG Power release important information via postings on their corporate website at http://investor.pseg.com . Investors and other interested parties are encouraged to visit the corporate website to review new postings. The "Email Alerts" link at http://investor.pseg.com may be used to enroll to receive automatic email alerts and/or Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds regarding new postings.

SOURCE PSE&G

Related Links

http://www.pseg.com


MUMBAI, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Qure.ai (http://www.qure.ai), a healthcare AI subsidiary of Fractal Analytics, today announced that it has won the Social Innovation Award at the Nvidia Emerging Companies Summit, India.

Nvidia, the AI computing company, hosted their first Emerging Companies Summit India on December 5, 2016 in Mumbai. The event is a gathering of innovative young companies applying graphics processing unit (GPU) technology to address mega-trends in AI, virtual reality, autonomous vehicles, robotics and allied areas.

Qure.ai won the Social Innovation Award for its transformative vision of AI driven affordable healthcare for medical imaging and diagnostics. The Social Innovation Award honors companies that strive to make a positive societal impact for humanity.

"Winning the Social Innovation Award is a great honor. AI will enable doctors and radiologists to make more consistent and accurate diagnosis of diseases and improve healthcare outcomes globally, especially in India. We are thankful to Nvidia for recognizing our vision," said Prashant Warier, CEO, Qure.ai.

"Qure.ai has built impressive solutions in the imaging diagnostics space using innovative deep learning techniques fine-tuned for healthcare imaging data. Deep learning innovation is fueling the transformation of healthcare, and Qure.ai has the potential to play an important role in this space," said Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, NVIDIA South Asia.

About Qure.ai

Qure.ai's mission is to make healthcare affordable and accessible using the power of artificial intelligence. Qure.ai's deep neural networks can understand and interpret medical images with unprecedented accuracy and enable machines to perform routine diagnostics, thus improving healthcare outcomes and costs.

Qure.ai was founded in 2016 as a subsidiary of Fractal Analytics and has a team comprising computer scientists, deep learning experts, medical practitioners and bioinformaticians.

About Fractal Analytics

Fractal Analytics is a strategic analytics partner to the most admired Fortune 500 companies globally and helps them power every human decision in the enterprise by bringing analytics and AI to the decision.

Fractal Analytics has more than 1000 people across 12 global locations including the United States, UK and India and has been named a 'Cool Vendor in Analytics' and a 'Vendor to watch' by Gartner.

SOURCE Fractal Analytics
MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Air Force has awarded Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) a $37 million contract to demonstrate new satellite communications technology that will continuously link tactical users with military leaders in contested environments.

Managed by the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, the Protected Tactical Services Field Demonstration, or PTSFD, program represents a major improvement in anti-jam security via the Wideband Global Satellite Communications, or WGS, constellation and commercial satellites.

Eventually, hardware developed and tested under the PTSFD contract can be deployed as upgrades to existing satellite communication terminals. By reusing the antenna and RF front end of existing terminals, costs are greatly reduced, since those are the most expensive elements of any SATCOM terminal.

"In today's global environment, affordable, protected and resilient satellite communication is crucial," said Brian Gray, senior director of Raytheon Protected Communications Systems, Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. "Raytheon is uniquely qualified to deliver a reliable and affordable terminal for this critical mission."

The new, protected SATCOM system will bring a distinct set of capabilities, including flexible access to commercial and government SATCOM channels for seamless transition between SATCOM systems to maximize communications availability for tactical forces.

Work will be performed in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed by September 30, 2020.

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2015 sales of $23 billion and 61,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 94 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5I products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. Follow us on Twitter.

Media Contact

James Jackson

+1.972.952.3014

[email protected]

SOURCE Raytheon Company

Related Links

http://www.raytheon.com


MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Navy awarded Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) a $32 million production contract for next-generation encryption devices to safeguard military tactical data transmissions across air, surface, subsurface and ground assets. The Link Level Communication Security 7M encryptor, or LLC 7M, provides enhanced security for the Link 22 tactical radio system used by the U.S. military and its allies.

The LLC 7M has received the National Security Agency's only Type 1 certification for protection of information classified up to the Secret level in the Link 22 environment. Link 22 replaces the legacy Link 11 radio system, and is interoperable with the current Link 16 system, providing longer-distance, beyond-line-of-sight communications without reliance on satellites or persistent airborne relay.

"With the signing of the LLC 7M production contract, and its ability to seamlessly integrate with Link 16, the Link 22 system is now ready for prime time," said Chuck Schwartz, project manager for SPAWAR's NILE project office. "We expect the system to eventually be adopted by more than 30 allied nations."

The LLC 7M is being developed under contract with the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, or SPAWAR, as part of the NATO Improved Link Eleven, or NILE project, which includes international partners Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. Raytheon's $32 million contract includes a five-year base performance period with an additional five-year option. If exercised, the option could bring the cumulative value of the contract to $63 million.

"Securing our nation's critical information, while enabling communications is paramount to victory on any battlefield, and Raytheon is delivering this capability with the LLC 7M," said John Droge, director of Secure Information Systems at Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems.

"The LLC 7M flexible platform is ruggedized and form-factored for easy installation, enabling Raytheon to support additional capabilities, design enhancements and expanded use cases in the future. LLC 7M is available to U.S. military operators and under Foreign Military Sales through the SPAWAR's Indefinite Delivery Requirements contract vehicle.

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2015 sales of $23 billion and 61,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 94 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5I products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Follow us on Twitter @Raytheon.

Media Contact

James Jackson

+1.972.952.3014

[email protected]

SOURCE Raytheon Company

Related Links

http://www.raytheon.com


CRESSKILL, N.J., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- RD Legal Funding, LLC ("RD Legal Funding") continues to expand their services to the attorney community by broadening the availability of their Fee Acceleration product to those who practice business litigation on contingency. Plaintiffs' attorneys who practice in traditional areas of litigation like personal injury, employment law, and even class actions and MDLs have been able to access legal funding on their cases. Recently, the number of attorneys taking on business litigation clients on contingency has increased. As the market adjusts to this new movement, RD Legal Funding has found a way to help those attorneys avoid certain issues that can arise with contingency fee practices. "For years, we've provided post-settlement funding to plaintiffs' attorneys because of their contingency based fee structure," says Roni Dersovitz, Founder of RD Legal Funding. "As more attorneys take on business litigation cases on contingency, we decided we can offer those same services to them as this trend continues to grow."

According to some studies on the topic of business litigation, companies spend billions every year on litigation. The Office of Advocacy from the U.S. Small Business Administration published a study in 2005 titled Impact of Litigation on Small Business. In that article, they talk about the personal investment most small business owners have in their business and their motivation to pursue litigation if necessary to protect it. The findings in the study also showed that most small businesses tried to stay out of court and settle their case prior to a trial, but with mixed results. Business litigation is a wide category and it involves a variety of scenarios including business disputes, contract disputes, fraud and misrepresentation, intellectual property, breach of fiduciary duty, and many others.

For decades, attorneys approached with business litigation cases would require payment upfront. After the financial crisis of 2008, some clients started pushing back against the traditional upfront fee model and started looking for alternatives. Law firms are starting to respond to that need by taking business litigation cases on contingency. In 2011, the Michigan State Bar published an article titled Contingency and Referral Fees for Business Disputes wherein a variety of contingency fee arrangements that attorneys taking business litigation cases can use are described. Currently, there are many law firms, on the internet and on their websites, advertising the ability to take on commercial litigation cases on contingency. The hyper competitive nature of litigation will eventually lead to more attorneys taking on the kinds of business litigation cases mentioned above.

"Certain kinds of cases may be on a downward trend due to shifts in technology. We think we'll see more attorneys pivoting part of their contingency fee based practices towards business litigation," says Roni Dersovitz. "For us as a company, we aren't deviating from what we do; we're just adding business litigation to the list of cases we can advance on."

Attorneys with fees in business litigation settled cases where payment is delayed can apply for funding at www.legalfunding.com. In addition, plaintiffs with awards in business litigation settled cases can apply on our website. If you have any questions or want to find out more about our Fee Acceleration product, please contact RD Legal Funding at 800-565-5177.

SOURCE RD Legal Funding, LLC
"I am so proud of the way our employees give their time so generously all year long to these worthy organizations." Mr. Stekol continued, "This incredible effort is rarely recognized outside the charities we help, but so appreciated by the Directors and the deserving people each charity helps."

Jean Kelly, Executive Director of The INN, commented, "Ridgewood Savings Bank has been a huge supporter of The INN for over 20 years. Employees are front and center at our fundraising events and familiar faces as volunteers in our soup kitchen. They have donated countless items that guests desperately need for daily basic survival, including food, clothing and personal care items. We are deeply humbled to have this level of support from the staff and management of Ridgewood Savings Bank and consider them an important part of The INN's family." The East 233rd Street Senior Center director, Rachel McNeil, commented "the Ridgewood Savings Bank employees stop in, bring food, organize the pantry and even cook the food that is given to the seniors at the center. I love that they are actively helping our cause." Bethany Brichta, Manager, External Relations for Room to Grow commented, "Ridgewood's generosity and their teams of volunteers help support Room to Grow in our mission to enrich the lives of babies born into poverty throughout their critical first three years of development. Room to Grow provides one-on-one parenting education and all the needed baby essentials to families dedicated to giving their children the best possible start in life. The Ridgewood volunteers are here for every step of their journey."

About Ridgewood Savings Bank

Founded in 1921, Ridgewood Savings Bank is the largest mutual savings bank in New York State, with over $5 billion dollars in assets. With 34 branches in the New York area, Ridgewood Savings Bank continues to serve its community as it did in 1921, with their continued focus always on their customers.

About The INN

The INN (Interfaith Nutrition Network) is a dynamic, not-for-profit, volunteer-based organization working to resolve Long Island's hunger and homelessness issues by providing food, shelter, long-term housing, and supportive services in a dignified and respectful manner to families and individuals seeking assistance. A dedicated staff, committed volunteers, and broad- based community support helps The INN to deliver its services through 19 soup kitchens, three homeless shelters, and 25 long-term housing apartments. As one of Long Island's largest private social service agencies, The INN is ranked among the most cost-effective charities in the United States. For more information on The INN please visit www.the-inn.org or call (516) 486-8506.

About East 233rd Street Senior Center

Our primary mission is to improve and enhance the quality of life for all senior people, with special emphasis on seniors 60-100 years of age who might be economically, social or recreationally disadvantaged. We exist to assist senior people without exception to religion, race, creed or color to realize that life is not over and the potential for growth and development through resources necessary to life and to succeed in a complex environment.

About Room to Grow

Room to Grow is dedicated to enriching the lives of babies born into poverty throughout their critical first three years of development. Parents are referred to Room to Grow by a network of prenatal programs assisting low-income families. Upon their referral, families visit Room to Grow's warm and inviting space once every three months from just before the birth of the baby until their child turns three. During their one-on-one appointments with our staff social workers, typically lasting two hours, parents receive developmental information, customized support, and all of the needed baby items to ensure a healthy and secure start for their child.

Facebook: RidgewoodBank

LinkedIn: ridgewood-savings-bank

YouTube: RidgewoodBank

71-02 Forest Avenue, Ridgewood, NY 11385

Member FDIC

SOURCE Ridgewood Savings Bank
NEW YORK, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruder Finn, a leading independent global creative and communications agency, announced today that David Brooks has joined the firm's U.S. Healthcare Practice as Senior Vice President of Digital and Social Health. Brooks brings 20 years of experience in creating and managing impactful digital and social programs to pharmaceutical, technology and consumer goods companies worldwide. He will be based out of Ruder Finn's New York headquarters and report to Sally Ann Barton, Head of the U.S. Healthcare Practice.

Brooks joins Ruder Finn from Ogilvy Public Relations, where he served as SVP, Digital & Social Strategy, supporting B2B, consumer and government-facing clients including Pfizer, Ambry Genetics, SAP, Biotheranostics, IBM and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Prior to Ogilvy PR, Brooks was Director of Digital Strategy at Burson-Marsteller, where his work included social channel development and strategy, desktop and mobile sites, email marketing, product development, online advertising and search marketing for firms in healthcare, CPG, financial services, government and more.

"I've had the pleasure of knowing David for five years and I'm thrilled to have him join our team as we continue to push digital and social boundaries for our clients," said Barton. "David has an amazing ability to stay ahead of tech trends and to develop  and inspire others to develop  programs that bring emotion, technology and learning together in a way that create truly compelling results."

Brooks will be responsible for developing digital, social and content strategies in healthcare and will apply his extensive corporate communications and tech experience to all the firm's clients. In this role, he will build on the success of current client offerings in medical technology, expanding capabilities in biotechnology and life sciences.

"I am thrilled to join a company that nurtures creative ideas and has a long history of pushing boundaries and anticipating 'what's next'," said Brooks. "I look forward to working with world-class clients on creating and implementing digital programs and strategies that help them better connect with patients and other stakeholders in an increasingly complex healthcare environment."

Brooks' appointment complements the ongoing success of Ruder Finn's Healthcare Group. Earlier in 2016, the agency brought on 20-year veteran Sally Ann Barton as head of the U.S. Healthcare practice, charged with strengthening Ruder Finn's core competencies in emerging areas of the rapidly changing healthcare environment, including multi-channel customer engagement, consumerization of science, connected health and data analytics. The practice has been recognized by numerous 2016 awards programs, including The Holmes Report North American SABRE Awards, multiple Big Apples and the Bulldog Reporter Media Relations Award.

ABOUT RUDER FINN

Ruder Finn, Inc. is one of the world's largest independent global communications and creative agencies with dual headquarters in the U.S. and China. Founded in 1948, Ruder Finn serves the global and local communication needs of over 250 corporations, governments, non-profit organizations and startups. The agency is organized around four strategic pillars that reflect its core areas of expertise: Health & Wellness, Corporate Reputation & Transformation, Technology & Innovation, and Consumer Connections. RFI Studios, the agency's full-service digital practice, leads the industry in designing and developing internal collaboration platforms, building conversations and communities around brands, and staying top-of-mind in the world of mobile applications. Ruder Finn's work, talent and culture have received industry-wide recognition, featuring awards from the Cannes Health Lions, the Clio's, the SABRE Awards, the Big Apples and the PRWeek Awards. In 2016, Bulldog Reporter named Ruder Finn Large and Tech Agency of the Year, and PR News' has listed Ruder Finn as one of the Top Places to Work in PR for three years in a row. For more information, visit www.ruderfinn.com.

CONTACT:

Katy Kelley

Ruder Finn

646-757-6123

[email protected]

SOURCE Ruder Finn

Related Links

http://ruderfinn.com


DALLAS, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ryan, a leading global tax services firm, has acquired Shiv Om Consultants, an industry-recognized pioneer and leader in severance tax consulting. Shiv Om Consultants, based in Houston, Texas, is one of the most established severance tax firms in the industry. This acquisition adds a team of highly qualified tax specialists with proven experience reducing severance tax liabilities for large oil and gas exploration and production companies, and brings a number of significant Fortune 500 relationships to Ryan's client portfolio.

"Ryan's strategic acquisition of Shiv Om adds substantial capabilities to our Severance Tax practice to meet increasing client demand in the oil and gas industry," said Matt Travis, Principal and Severance Tax Practice Leader of Ryan. "Our Severance Tax practice is now the undisputed market leader, supporting most of the largest energy companies in the world."

"With complementary strengths and a similar client-centric approach, we are excited to be joining Ryan," said J.C. Thakker, Founder and CEO of Shiv Om Consultants. "I look forward to helping support the seamless integration of our organizations and ensuring outstanding client value for our newly combined client portfolio."

"The strategic acquisition of Shiv Om Consultants is another milestone in our strategy to build on our market leadership as the largest firm in the world specializing exclusively in tax services," said G. Brint Ryan, Chairman and CEO of Ryan. "Our clients will benefit tremendously from the unmatched severance tax expertise of our newly combined team of tax professionals, and we look forward to delivering even higher levels of client service and results."

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.

PRESS INFORMATION CONTACT:

Carol Vieira

Senior Manager, Public Relations and Communications

Ryan

[email protected]

401.871.7676

SOURCE Ryan

Related Links

http://www.ryan.com


DUBLIN, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Saudi Arabia Valves Market, By Material Used (Stainless Steel, Copper, Plastic & Others), By Application (Industrial Vs. Civil), Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2011-2021" report to their offering.

The valves market in Saudi Arabia is anticipated to cross US$5 billion by 2021.

Industrial valve is a mechanical/electromechanical device used for controlling, regulating and diverting flow and pressure in fluids (liquids, gases and slurries) by closing, opening or blocking the passage of fluid. Increasing industrialization, growing construction activities, strong government support in the form of favourable FDI policies in oil & gas sector and advantageous incentives schemes are expected to drive Saudi Arabia valves market during the forecast period.



The government has formulated plans to become the second largest exporter of refined oil products in the world by 2017, and has opened the sector for private investments. With growing developments in petrochemical and refinery infrastructure, the demand for valves is anticipated to increase at a robust pace during 2016-2021.



The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the only country among the GCC nations that has allowed participation of private players in refinery and petrochemical sectors. This has had a huge positive influence on the country's valves market. Moreover, industrial cities such as Yanbu and Al Jubail, are expected to be the major consumers of valves during the forecast period.



Growing demand from various end user industries such as refinery, metallurgy, food & beverage, chemicals, etc., coupled with implementation of favourable government policies are projected to increase demand for valves in Saudi Arabia during 2016-2021. Furthermore, huge investments in Saudi Arabia for capacity additions at existing end user facilities coupled with launch of new projects is anticipated to further boost the Saudi Arabia valves market through 2021. Some of the leading players operating in the market includes Emerson Process Management, Cameron International Corporation, Flowserve Corporation and Pentair Ltd., among others.

Companies Mentioned:



AVK Saudi Valves Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

Cameron International Corporation

Emerson Process Management

FMC Technologies Inc.

Flowserve Corporation

KSB Pumps Arabia Ltd.

Kitz Corporation

Pentair Ltd

Valvitalia Group SpA

Weir Group PLC

Key Topics Covered:



1. Product Overview



2. Research Methodology



3. Analyst View



4. Saudi Arabia Valves Market Outlook



5. Saudi Arabia Industrial Valves Market Outlook



6. Saudi Arabia Civil Valves Market Outlook



7. Market Dynamics



8. Market Trends & Developments



9. Channel Partner Analysis



10. Saudi Arabia Economic Profile



11. Competitive Landscape



12. Strategic Recommendations



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

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


NEW BRITAIN, Conn., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK), an S&P 500 global diversified industrial company, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the majority of its Mechanical Security businesses to dormakaba for $725 million in cash. The sale includes the commercial hardware brands of BEST Access, phi Precision and GMT, which together represented LTM revenues and EBITDA of approximately $270 million and $52 million, respectively. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions including required regulatory approvals. The remaining part of the Mechanical Security businesses, Sargent and Greenleaf (LTM revenues of approximately $50 million), was not included in the sale.

Stanley Black & Decker also announced that it intends to retain for the long-term its commercial electronic security (LTM revenues of approximately $1.5 billion) and automatic doors (LTM revenues of approximately $0.3 billion) businesses.

President and Chief Executive Officer James M. Loree commented, "After an extensive evaluation of our Security business, we are sharpening our focus on areas within our portfolio which are strategically attractive. While BEST Access, phi Precision and GMT are healthy and profitable businesses, they are a better fit in dormakaba's portfolio and their divestiture will allow us to deploy capital in a more accretive and growth oriented manner. With this transaction and our decision to retain the electronic security and automatic doors businesses, we have concluded our previously announced Security portfolio assessment."

Loree continued, "The commercial electronic security business, with its inherent linkage to the digital world provides both a stable recurring revenue stream and an opportunity to develop and market high value, high growth customer solutions incorporating IOT, cloud, advanced analytics and other emerging technologies. Our scale and global footprint in this business is an excellent platform to build upon, both organically and inorganically. Our automatic doors business also represents an attractive growth opportunity for market expansion through both core and breakthrough innovation. We remain focused on applying the principles of our proven operating system, SFS 2.0, to enhance the growth, profitability and asset efficiency of these businesses."

This taxefficient sale transaction is expected to generate net after-tax cash proceeds of approximately $700 million, with capital loss carryforwards offsetting the majority of taxes otherwise due. The company expects the 2017 earnings per share impact of this transaction (estimated full year dilution of $0.20) to be more than offset by accretion from the recently announced Newell Tools acquisition, newly identified low-interest financing strategies related to such acquisition, and the potential redeployment of excess cash proceeds for opportunistic share repurchases. The impact of the aforementioned items is expected to result in net earnings accretion of at least $0.05 per share in 2017. Further information relating to the estimated 2017 Stanley Black & Decker earnings per share impact will be provided upon the closing of these transactions. In regards to the timing of the Newell Tools closing, we have received antitrust clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act in the U.S. and subject to receiving other regulatory approvals outside the U.S., expect to close the transaction during the first quarter of 2017.

Stanley Black & Decker, an S&P 500 company, is a diversified global provider of hand tools, power tools and related accessories, mechanical access solutions and electronic security solutions, healthcare solutions, engineered fastening systems, and more. Learn more at www.stanleyblackanddecker.com.

Investor Contact:

Greg Waybright

Vice President, Investor Relations

[email protected]

(860) 827-3833

Media Contacts:

Shannon Lapierre

Vice President Communications / Public Relations

[email protected]

(860) 827-3575

Tim Perra

Vice President Communications

[email protected]

(860) 826-3260

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Stanley Black & Decker makes forward-looking statements in this press release which represent its expectations or beliefs about future events and financial performance. Forward-looking statements are identifiable by words such as "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "will," "may" and other similar expressions. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements made in this press release, include, but are not limited to, statements concerning: consummation of the transaction; opportunities for future growth; net proceeds from and tax treatment of the transaction; and accretion to earnings per share.

You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future events and involve risks, uncertainties and other known and unknown factors that may cause actual results and performance to be materially different from any future results or performance expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the failure to consummate, or a delay in the consummation of, the transaction for various reasons; the failure to consummate, or a delay in the consummation of, the Newell Tools transaction for various reasons (including but not limited to failure to receive required regulatory approvals); and failure to realize the expected benefits of the recently announced Newell Tools acquisition.

Forward-looking statements made herein are also subject to risks and uncertainties, described in: Stanley Black & Decker's 2015 Annual Report on Form 10-K, its subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q; and other filings Stanley Black & Decker makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, actual results could differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements, and therefore you should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Stanley Black & Decker makes no commitment to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring or existing after the date of any forward-looking statement.

SOURCE Stanley Black & Decker

Related Links

http://www.stanleyblackanddecker.com


Overseeing the ceremony, the Mayor of Taipei City, Ko Wen-Je, was joined by the Secretary General of Icsid, Dilki de Silva, and Yung-Feng Chung, the recently appointed Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Taipei City Government. Talking in a pre-recorded video, the Director General of WDC Mexico City 2018, Emilio Cabrero, shared his thoughts on the upcoming program.

Opening tonight's event, Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-Je spoke of the ways in which the WDC program has worked over the past four years to change the lives of Taipei's citizens. He stressed that although the Convocation Ceremony represented a celebration of past achievements, "Today is not an end; we'll continue our work in the future." Future development, he announced, could be cultivated in three directions: the establishment of better cross-departmental relationships; the identification by the government of where the energy in the community lies and a willingness to support the resulting grassroots initiatives; and a readiness to listen to citizens to better understand when and where change in the city is necessary.

Secretary General de Silva, who was representing Icsid, the organization who established and manages the WDC designation, followed Mayor Ko on stage tonight. "We are all gathered here to celebrate a great accomplishment and to plan the future for Taipei," she said. "The design community, together with the city and the local planning committee, have done a wonderful job, and we know that the Taiwan Design Center, a long time member of Icsid, has worked very hard to gather the design community together and create a program that benefits the citizens of Taipei."

The ceremony represented an opportunity to reflect on the achievements and challenges of WDC Taipei 2016. In a forum entitled "Design X Life: Urban Actions", key figures involved in the WDC Taipei 2016 initiatives - such as Re-create Taipei, Play Bubble, and the Small Shop Signboard Manufacturer - came together to discuss the insights they have gained from a year of targeted design interventions and their future aspirations for the WDC Taipei 2016 legacy.

Indeed, in his closing speech, Commissioner Chung talked about the importance of adopting what he termed an approach of "mutual subjectivity." He named cross-departmental collaboration within the city government and cultivating an attitude of clear dialogue with city councillors as key factors in ensuring design is incorporated into city development in the future. "First of all," he said, "design is not just about decorating the city. I think it's about having our citizens and designers work together to utilize design as a platform and to introduce design into our administration."

Among the speakers who took to the stage was Agua Chou, founder of Agua Design, who led Re-Create Taipei in collaboration with Spanish artist collective Basurama. The key outcome of the project, which was part of the WDC Taipei 2016 International Open Call program, was the creation of two playgrounds, each made from up-cycled trash and located in two different underused urban areas in Taipei City. Chou was joined by Li Yu Fu of the Cheng-An Neighborhood Community Development Association.

Yan-De Wu, founder of Do You A Flavor, a social enterprise based in Taipei that aids homeless and impoverished people, also spoke about the Play Bubble initiative. For this project, famed Taiwanese designer Aaron Nieh was invited to design bubblegum packaging in order to give street sellers a high quality product to sell and stimulate fun interactions between street sellers and pedestrians. Wu was joined by Xiao Ming, one of the street sellers who benefited from this initiative.

Mark Yeh, one of the co-founders of the non-profit organization Agoood, spoke about his work with people with learning difficulties. As part of WDC Taipei 2016's Design Station project, the team turned designs created by people with learning difficulties in art classes into a wall mural at the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall MRT Station. In order to engage the public and inject some fun into the often mundane daily commute, viewers of the mural were encouraged to find the "Fish Man" hidden in the imagery.

Xiang-Jin Huang, the Chairman of the Dazhi Market Stall-Holder Committee, shared his insights into how the Small Shop Signboard Manufacturer project, which was managed in tandem by Archicake Design and City Yeast, has improved commerce in the Dazhi Market and how the project could be developed in future. In 2016, Xiang-Jin Huang welcomed three professional designers into the traditional market, and encouraged nine stallholders to participate in the program.





Lastly, Jin-Fu Guo and Wei-Han Chen, two of the volunteers from the WDC 2016 Design Volunteer Program, who assisted in organizing and running many of the WDC programs and events, discussed the insights they have gained through their participation and their hopes for the future transformation of Taipei through design.

Located in Warehouse One of the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, the ceremony took place from 7.30PM to 9.30PM on the evening of Wednesday, December 21, 2016. Images and biographies of speakers and special guests can be downloaded from the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ifd1znma1zq2r17/AACVm0mOIbBdFKkgzspOYR1Fa?dl=0.

About WDC Taipei 2016

"Adaptive City -- Design in Motion" was Taipei City's core concept in its 2015 application to host World Design Capital 2016. How can we apply innovative "design thinking" practices to overcome the constraints that limited resources place on our city's development, pursue continual change in our urban governance, create happiness in the lives of our citizens--providing them with a better quality of life in a more livable, forward-looking city? These are the goals for Taipei City. 2016 marks the beginning of an evolution for Taipei, where we will take advantage of the potential in change by "Engaging Communities," "Connecting Information," and "Revitalizing the City." For more information on WDC Taipei 2016, visit the official website http://wdc2016.taipei/en/, or follow on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/taipeidesign/.

About World Design Capital

World Design Capital (WDC) is designated by Icsid every two years to recognize a city's innovative use of design for economic, social and cultural development and to showcase effective design-led urban revitalization strategies that other cities can benefit from. Past cities to hold the WDC title include Torino (Italy) in 2008, Seoul (South Korea) in 2010, Helsinki (Finland) in 2012, and Cape Town (South Africa) 2014. Taipei (Taiwan) is this year's WDC, and Mexico City has just been named WDC 2018. For more information, please visit http://www.worlddesigncapital.com.

Media Contact Taipei City Government Contact Saskia Kerkvliet Olivia Hsu International Media Liaison World Design Capital Taipei 2016 Office +886 2 2311 7007 *406 +886 2 2720 8889 *3657 [email protected] [email protected]





Taipei WDC Office Contact

Kyle Tang

World Design Capital Taipei 2016 Office

+886 2 2745 8199 *463

[email protected]

SOURCE World Design Capital

Related Links

http://www.worlddesigncapital.com


"We wanted to give our heavy-duty customers a premier lighting solution, one they can count all year long, operating 24/7 in the harshest conditions possible," said Michael Stoeckel, Director of Aftermarket Sales for J.W. Speaker. "We are pleased to deliver the industry's first heavy-duty headlight that is not only ideally suited for this market, but it also meets NHTSA's proposed requirements for a lighting as part of their safety rating system. This gives the vehicle operator unparalleled performance in terms of visibility, for maximum safety and comfort."

J.W. Speaker leveraged their solid optics technology to upgrade their previous Model 8800, exceeding the proposed FMVSS 108 standard in three of the main criteria; light output, glare reduction, and light placement.

The Model 8800 Evolution 2 will include both heated and non-heated versions. The heated version combines electronic intelligence and a thermally conductive grid system to dynamically de-ice the lens on a real time basis without requiring any involvement from the driver. As a result, the Model 8800 Evolution 2 addresses the need for effective and speedy de-icing for commercial trucking.

The Model 8800 Evolution 2 offers improved sealing, superior condensation management and a wider operating voltage. The combination of superior visibility with intelligent heating, delivers a superior lighting solution that will benefit drivers and fleets alike.

To learn more about J.W. Speaker or their LED lighting for the heavy-duty trucking market, visit J.W. Speaker's website, www.jwspeaker.com. J.W. Speaker specializes in the design and manufacture of vehicle lighting systems for global OEM customers and distribution partners. For more information, contact J.W. Speaker at 800.558.7288 or [email protected].

*When installed on vehicles at gross weight with headlights at 0.81.2m off the ground.

SOURCE J.W. Speaker

Related Links

http://www.jwspeaker.com


SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Learning Counsel today released the results of its third annual Survey of school and district digital curriculum strategy and transformation, sponsored by Ruckus Wireless. A total of 708 U.S. schools and districts responded to the national Survey, which showed a primary point of attention by schools now is on teacher effectiveness in the implementation of digital curriculum.

The survey found that 78% of students nationally have access to a computing device for a good portion of the school day or the full school day. It also forecasts that district spending on hardware, networks, and major system software will see a slight increase in 2017, rising to $16.2 billion.

The top three digital device trends the survey found were the following: 1) tablets are losing popularity; 2) Chromebooks have had the most significant gain in popularity, a trend that is likely to continue; and 3) there is no agreement among schools about the best device based on the age of the student. Further, even though schools cite 7991% network coverage in classrooms and common areas, it's not enough to support the burgeoning use of digital curriculum. The networks are considered "unreliable" by most teachers.

The Survey found that 86% of schools and districts expect to be spending more on digital curriculum in the new year. 56% of respondents say teachers already use 50-75% paid resources over free open-education resources for their digital learning objects. However, billions in spending on curriculum overall has yet to move from paper textbooks into digital: 80% of respondents said district curriculum budgets still haven't shifted from paper-based resources.

2016 was also the highest year on record for digital curriculum spending. A 25% jump was due to years of non-adoption of textbooks in several states, causing more digital acquisitions at the same time that the market reached an inflection point of saturation of devices.

Out of $9 billion in total K-12 digital curriculum spending, the market "flipped" by an estimated $2 billion to be weighted more in organizational spending than individual teacher spending for the first time. This is one of many signs the market is maturing.

LeiLani Cauthen, CEO and publisher of the Learning Counsel, said that the survey was developed as a tool to evaluate national trends in how digital transitions are happening, particularly from the view of software sophistication and its impact on device and network infrastructure. "Beyond providing all of education with that national view, it is an invaluable tool for every school and district to use to self-assess," Cauthen said.

Kahle Charles, the Executive Director of Curriculum at St. Vrain Valley Schools, commented, "As our district was transitioning to digital content, it was critical to conduct a needs assessment early in the program planning and development process. The Learning Counsel's Assessment Tool and Survey proved to be a valuable aide in this process. Through the survey, we were able to understand the extent of our digital content implementation, identify the gaps in our implementation of digital content, and gather the information about next steps in our action plan. This also provided a great opportunity to engage current staff members in the planning and implementation process."

The Learning Counsel Community would also like to thank SoftChalk for its sponsorship of the awards ceremony for specially recognized participants in the survey.

About the Learning Counsel

The Learning Counsel is a mission-based organization focused on helping education professionals in the K-12 sector gain research and context on the shift to digital curriculum. For more information, please visit TheLearningCounsel.com.

SOURCE The Learning Counsel

Related Links

http://www.TheLearningCounsel.com


NEW YORK, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- TransPerfect, the world's largest privately held provider of language services and translation-related technologies, has been recognized as a winner of the 2017 Future 50 Award by SmartCEO magazine. The program recognizes 50 of the New York region's fastest-growing mid-sized companies, six Blue Chip companies, and four Emerging Growth companies. TransPerfect was honored in the Blue Chip category.

The New York winners, which included companies from all different verticals, were selected based on a three-year average of revenue and employee growth. This year, TransPerfect joins a group of New York-based companies who collectively generated $3.5 billion in annual revenue and employ over 11,000 people in the New York City metro area.

TransPerfect's Co-CEO Liz Elting commented, "We are honored to be acknowledged as one of the fastest-growing Blue Chip companies in New York, and I am incredibly proud of our team and their tireless work to ensure that TransPerfect continues to get bigger and better with each passing year."

Phil Shawe, Co-CEO at TransPerfect, added, "It's beyond exciting to see TransPerfect honored alongside so many great companies in the New York area who share in our passion for growth, job creation, disrupting the industry, and propelling businesses to the next level. I'm thrilled that SmartCEO has again recognized our accomplishments."

"From growing a startup to scaling an established organization, this year's Future 50 winners have executed their growth strategies year after year. More impressively, they have created job opportunities and fueled economic prosperity in our region," says Jaime Nespor-Zawmon, President of SmartCEO. "These passionate and driven entrepreneurs embody the true definition of leadership. We honor them for their unwavering commitment to building their businesses, shaping our communities, and making our region a better place to work and live."

More than 500 local executives and guests will attend the awards gala at 180 Maiden Lane on March 16th to celebrate the winners and their achievements.

About TransPerfect

With annual revenues of more than $500 million, TransPerfect is the world's largest privately held provider of language services and technology solutions. From offices in over 90 cities on six continents, TransPerfect offers a full range of services in 170+ languages to clients worldwide. More than 3,000 global organizations employ TransPerfect's GlobalLink Product Suite to simplify management of multilingual content. With an unparalleled commitment to quality and client service, TransPerfect is fully ISO 9001 and EN 15038 certified. TransPerfect has global headquarters in New York, with regional headquarters in London and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit our website at www.transperfect.com.

About SmartCEO

SmartCEO's mission is to educate and inspire the business community through its award-winning magazine, connections at C-level events and access to valuable online resources. SmartCEO's integrated media platforms reach decision makers in the Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, metropolitan areas.

SOURCE TransPerfect

Related Links

http://www.transperfect.com


ST. HELENA, Calif., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Trinchero Family Estates (TFE) today announced its acquisition of Mason Cellars, owners of Pomelo and Three Pears wines. As the super-premium ($7-10) and ultra-premium ($10-15) segments continue to show growth, this acquisition adds an important offering to the Trinchero family of brands. President and COO Bob Torkelson commented, "We are delighted to bring Mason Cellars into our family, and in doing so add to the breadth and depth of our collection of brands. TFE remains committed to diversifying our portfolio in a way that supports our mission to be consumer-driven and consistently offer quality and value. The wines of Mason Cellars are unique and have demonstrated great success in the market, thus offering a significant addition to the ever-growing portfolio of premium and luxury wine at TFE."

Mason Cellars was founded in 1993 by renowned white winemaker Randy Mason and wife Megan Mason. California-appellated Pomelo wines offer a Sauvignon Blanc and Rose, are distributed nationwide and have earned numerous accolades including Top 100 and Top 100 Values from Wine Spectator. Mason Cellars wines include Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon, all sourced from premiere Napa appellations. Randy Mason will continue to be involved in the production and promotion of Mason wines for Trinchero Family Estates. Global Wine Partners represented Mason Cellars in the transaction.

Trinchero Family Estates is the second largest family-owned wine company in the United States that began in 1948 with one storied brand: Sutter Home. Multiple generations of the Trinchero family continue to own and operate the Napa Valley-based business that now employs over 1,500 employees and manages over 10,000 acres of vineyards.

About Trinchero Family Estates

Trinchero Family Estates is wholly owned and operated by the Trinchero family, Napa Valley vintners since 1948. The TFE portfolio includes more than 40 brands including Sutter Home, Menage a Trois, Trinchero Napa Valley, Napa Cellars, Folie a Deux, Terra d'Oro, SeaGlass, and the number one alcohol-removed wine, Fre. TFE also markets and sells a stable of notable brands including Joel Gott Wines, Charles & Charles, Taken Wine Co., and Bandit. TFE's import portfolio also includes Angove Wines from Australia; Dona Paula Wines from Argentina; Carmen and the Wave Wines from Chile; and a spirits portfolio that includes Amador Whiskey Co and Tres Agaves Tequilas. Visit www.tfewines.com to learn more.

SOURCE Trinchero Family Estates, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.tfewines.com


PHOENIX, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- La Locanda Italiano celebrates their grand opening on December 27, 2016 located in Old Town Scottsdale. La Locanda Ristorante Italiano offers to Scottsdale a slice of authenticity, a distinctive Italian dining experience amidst the glitz and glamour. La Locanda philosophy is straight-forward: use the best local ingredients, treat them as simply as possible, and serve them with flourish and joy.

Andrea Volpi

La Locanda's menu is simple and direct, offering fresh original recipes from the North regions of Italy. Pasta is freshly made topped with mouthwatering recipes. Hearty, flavorful entree includes meats and seafood selections. Gourmet salads are comprised of fresh organic local ingredients. La Locanda presents an impressive wine list, boasting bottles from regions in Italy, and around the world. La Locanda introduces both classic and adventurous specialties, with an ideal blend of Italian culture and excitement perfectly suited for Scottsdale's energetic spirit.

La Locanda that means "the inn" in Italian. The atmosphere in La Locanda is a perfect blend of old world meets modern. The environment has red wine colored leather banquettes with reclaimed barn wood on the walls, and Rat Pack music on the speakers.

"We want our guests to feel they are in a very special setting, we keep it simple and friendly while maintaining a very high level of culinary expertise."  Andrea Volpi, Chef & Co-owner.

Andrea Volpi is the original founder of La Locanda in Chicago in 1989-1994 and opened La Locanda in North Scottsdale in 1994-2008. After 8 years of restaurant experiences in different USA states and the openings of successful restaurants in North Scottsdale; in partnership with one of the original chef of La Locanda, Gugliermo Alcala and Carlos Ochoa, GM for Morton's steakhouse for the past two decades; reopen la Locanda in old town Scottsdale. Together they bring over sixty years of experience and a culinary philosophy is to maintain the sensibility of home style recipes, mixed with unexpected delight and creativity and professional and focused service.

About La Locanda - Arizona

La Locanda's menu is simple and direct, offering fresh original recipes from the North regions of Italy. La Locanda prides itself on a prompt, friendly and relaxed service with an old world modern twist. For more information about La Locanda please visit our website www.lalocandaaz.com or call (480) 284-6511.

Media Contact:

Bree Kruger

Communications Director

West USA Realty, Inc.

602-942-4200

[email protected]

SOURCE La Locanda

Related Links

http://www.lalocandaaz.com


DUBLIN, Dec 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "UAE LNG Market Demand & Supply Analysis, By Region, By Application, By LNG Terminal, Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011-2025" report to their offering.

The UAE LNG market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.6% during 2016-2021. UAE is the third largest importer of LNG in Middle East & Africa region in 2015. The country mainly imports LNG from Qatar, Australia, Trinidad & Tobago and Indonesia. Various upcoming LNG terminal projects, surging demand for natural gas and cost-effectiveness of LNG in comparison with other alternative fuels are major factors anticipated to positively influence the LNG market scenario in UAE, over next ten years.

Growing focus on expansion of gas pipeline infrastructure, along with increasing utilization of natural gas for re-injection into oilfields to enhance oil production, declining LNG prices and implementation of favorable government policies is expected to boost demand for LNG in the UAE. In order to address the growing domestic demand for LNG, the country imports natural gas and LNG from Qatar through Jebel Ali LNG Terminal and Dolphin Energy operated pipeline. Jebel Ali (OFFSHORE) LNG Terminal was commissioned in 2010 in Dubai, with an initial LNG handling capacity of 3 mmtpa, which increased to 6 mmtpa in 2015.

Power generation sector was the largest consumer of LNG in the UAE as of 2015, however, with commissioning of four nuclear plants with 5.6 GW capacity, demand for LNG from power sector in the country is expected to decline during the forecast period, thereby impacting demand for LNG in the region.

Why You Should Buy This Report?

To gain an in-depth understanding of LNG market in the UAE.

To identify the on-going trends and anticipated growth in the next ten years.

To help LNG terminal operators, aggregators, suppliers, marketers and consultants in aligning their market-centric strategies.

To obtain research based business decisions and add weight to presentations and marketing material.

To gain competitive knowledge of leading market players.

To avail of 10% customization in the report without any extra charges and get research data or trends added in the report as per the buyer's specific needs.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Product Overview

2. Research Methodology

3. Executive Summary

4. UAE Primary Energy Consumption

5. UAE LNG Supply Market Outlook

6. UAE LNG Potential Demand Market Outlook

7. UAE LNG Potential Demand Supply Gap Outlook

8. UAE LNG Regional Market Outlook

9. UAE LNG Market Outlook

10. Import-Export Dynamics

11. LNG Pricing Analysis

12. UAE Pipeline Infrastructure Outlook

13. Competitive Analysis

14. Customer & Supplier Analysis

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/t8msrc/uae_lng_market

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

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

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Continental Who's Who recognizes Vanessa Gonzalez, CMS, CHt, FIBH, as a Pinnacle Lifetime Member in recognition of her contributions to the Hypnotherapy field.

Gonzalez brings expertise in all areas of hypnotherapy as well as physical and emotional well-being to her own practice, Vanessa Gonzalez Hypnotherapy. She has owned and operated the practice successfully for the past nine months and takes a particular interest in working with pregnant women.

"I specialize in Medical Hypnotherapy which is an effective adjunct to conventional medical treatment," Gonzalez said. "I believe that we have the power within us to create a truly happy, healthy and fulfilling life."

Gonzalez earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from Montclair University. She is affiliated with the International Board of Hypnotherapy and is a member of the National Association of Professional Women. She is certified in Past Life Regression Therapy and Natal Regression Therapy.

"Hypnotherapy is a positive, life-changing tool and a gateway to living a more joyful life," Gonzalez said. "As a Medical Hypnotherapist, my client's goal becomes my goal. Physical and emotional healing can be achieved through hypnosis."

Gonzalez cites freedom from traumas and phobias, managing physical pain, weight loss, preparing for childbirth and eliminating asthma as just a few benefits of Hypnotherapy. She offers free consultations to any new, potential clients.

When not working, Gonzalez devotes her time to Operation Smile. She enjoys quality family time as well as spending the precious moments with her dog.

Gonzalez dedicates this recognition to her parents, Alejandro and Olexis, and thanks them for their love and support.

For more information, visit https://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/name/Vanessa+Gonzalez+Hypnotherapy_San+Francisco_California_275011

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who

Related Links

http://www.continentalwhoswho.com


HOLMDEL, N.J., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG) today announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Alan Masarek, is scheduled to present at the Citi 2017 Internet, Media & Telecommunications Conference on Wednesday, January 4 at 3:30 p.m. PST in Las Vegas, Nevada.

A live webcast of this event will be available live on Vonage's Investor Relations website at http://ir.vonage.com/. A replay will be available shortly after the live webcast.

About Vonage

Vonage (NYSE: VG) is a leading provider of cloud communications services for business. Vonage transforms the way people work and businesses operate through a portfolio of cloud-based communications solutions that enable internal collaboration among employees, while also keeping companies closely connected with their customers, across any mode of communication, on any device.

Vonage's Nexmo API Platform provides tools for voice, messaging and phone verification services, allowing developers to embed contextual, programmable communications into mobile apps, websites and business systems, enabling enterprises to easily communicate relevant information to their customers in real time, anywhere in the world, through text messaging, chat, social media and voice.

The Company also provides a robust suite of feature-rich residential communication solutions. In 2015 and 2016, Vonage was named a Visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as-a-Service, Worldwide. Vonage has also earned the Frost & Sullivan Growth Excellence Leadership Award for Hosted IP and Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) Services. For more information, visit www.vonage.com.

Vonage Holdings Corp. is headquartered in Holmdel, New Jersey. Vonage is a registered trademark of Vonage Marketing LLC, owned by Vonage America Inc. To follow Vonage on Twitter, please visit www.twitter.com/vonage. To become a fan on Facebook, go to www.facebook.com/vonage. To subscribe on YouTube, visit www.youtube.com/vonage.

(vg-f)

SOURCE Vonage Holdings Corp.

Related Links

http://ir.vonage.com


FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai Motor America today announced a continuation of a reorganization that began late this year by appointing W. Gerald (Jerry) Flannery as interim president and CEO, effective immediately. He succeeds Dave Zuchowski who will be leaving the company.

Flannery, who has been with Hyundai since 1987 and is responsible for all legal matters in the U.S., will retain his duties as Chief Legal and Safety Officer. He is widely recognized as an authority on automotive product liability, regulatory and safety matters. His immediate focus will be enhancing the company's brands, accelerating change for growth and customer satisfaction opportunities in the U.S. market.

"We appreciate Dave's decade of service to Hyundai, especially his leadership as president and CEO, which has made us a stronger organization," Flannery said. "I look forward to working closely with our dealers, affiliates, senior management and our talented and hard-working employees across the country to realize Hyundai's full potential."

Since joining Hyundai during its infancy in 1987, Flannery has been instrumental in leading the company through periods of rapid change and positioning it for steady growth. Recently, he created Hyundai's first safety office in North America. Previously, Flannery was a senior attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at Ford Motor Co.

A search for Zuchowski's replacement will begin immediately.

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

SOURCE Hyundai Motor America

Related Links

http://www.hyundainews.com


Often, the road to recovery begins by getting out of the house and back into an active lifestyle. WWP program events and activities are held in settings that accommodate physical injuries and social anxieties and often introduce warriors to the benefits of connecting with other injured veterans and getting involved with their communities.

In a WWP survey of the injured warriors it serves, more than half of survey respondents (51.7 percent) talked with fellow Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, or Operation New Dawn veterans to address their mental health issues.

"Establishing the warrior-to-warrior support structure in the civilian world is vital as veterans rely upon one another's learned experiences when managing day-to-day challenges," said WWP CEO Mike Linnington. "Thanks to the generous support of donors, in 2016, WWP was able to support more than 66,000 warriors and their family members through this free, essential connection program."

While learning about Baltimore's industrious history, participants celebrated the the holiday season with a private train ride with Santa. Children spent one-on-one time with Santa as he walked through the train to meet each warrior family. After the ride, families indulged in milk and cookies during a special story time with Mrs. Claus.

WWP offers a variety of programs and services that assist injured veterans with mental health, physical health and wellness, career and benefits counseling, and connecting with other warriors and their communities. These resources empower warriors to achieve educational and employment goals, maintain independence, and stay connected with their families, communities, and one another. Generous donors make it possible for wounded warriors to take part in connection activities and benefit from program resources at no cost to them.

To learn more about how WWP's programs and services are making an impact on the lives of wounded warriors, visit http://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org/. To find photos from this event, click on multimedia, then images.

About Wounded Warrior Project

We Connect, Serve, and Empower

The mission of Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) is to honor and empower Wounded Warriors. WWP connects wounded warriors and their families to valuable resources and one another, serves them through a variety of free programs and services, and empowers them to live life on their own terms. WWP is a national, nonpartisan organization headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. To get involved and learn more, visit woundedwarriorproject.org.

SOURCE Wounded Warrior Project

Related Links

http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org


"Xceligent products and ClientLook were purposely designed with an open architecture to make work easier for CRE professionals," said Michael Griffin, founder of ClientLook. "The launch of these integrated technologies comes at an important time for Xceligent , as the company is expanding its footprint nationwide to several key markets throughout the U.S., including the New York Tri-State, South Florida, and Houston."

This launch is part of Xceligent's continued roll out of its uniquely-designed open source platform, which enables clients and partners to license its comprehensive set of leasing intelligence, marketing tools, sales comps, and research. The open-API design means that partner technologies like ClientLook can integrate Xceligent data directly into their solutions and provide clients with complete property information all in one place. Xceligent business development resources will promote the ClientLook CRM as part of its Solutions Set currently available in 50 US markets, as well as to users of its national marketplace, CommercialSearch.

"Xceligent's open platform design revolutionizes the way commercial real estate professionals can consume property data," said Xceligent CEO Doug Curry. "The upshot is that by integrating with our open platform, the industry enables a better user experience and fosters true market innovation," he said.

ClientLook CRM enables brokers and real estate professionals to organize and track prospective clients, deals, and properties of interest on one simple, cloud-based platform. Through the integration, ClientLook users will seamlessly and instantaneously access property data and research, powered by Xceligent's flagship commercial property database, Xceligent CDX.

Additionally, ClientLook will integrate with Xceligent's free listing marketplace for property sales and leasing, CommercialSearch. Users will now be able to track and edit their company's active listings on ClientLook, and can publish a listing on CommercialSearch directly from the CRM platform by marking it for "publication."

Earlier this year, Xceligent announced integration with Xceligent Spaceful, a next generation dynamic tour book experience for CRE tenant brokers and their clients. Other products include Xceligent Direct, a tool that automates, updates and improves the search and marketing functions of corporate websites; and Xceligent Market Direct, a service that provides verified sale and lease listings for local economic development organizations and municipalities to share on their websites.

About ClientLook

ClientLook is a leading provider of simple, smart and intuitive CRM for commercial real estate. The company was founded in 2009 by Michael Griffin, who has been pioneering industry-specific software initiatives since 1995, along with a team of the industry's top brokerage, research and technology veterans. Today, ClientLook is used in more than 1,200 cities and seven countries worldwide. For more information, please visit www.clientlook.com.

About Xceligent

Xceligent is commercial real estate's partner for building data and market analytics, enabling industry professionals to optimize their business operations by tapping into a trusted collection of listing intelligence, marketing tools, sales comps and research. Backed by dmg information, Xceligent recently launched an aggressive national expansion that will provide researched information in the 65 largest United States markets. For more information on Xceligent, please visit www.xceligent.com.

Media Contact:

Sam Lewis

[email protected]

513-907-2518

SOURCE Xceligent

Related Links

http://www.xceligent.com


HOUSTON, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, on behalf of its client, Alexia Palma, First Liberty Institute filed a legal complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charging Palma's former employers, Legacy Community Health (LCH), with religious discrimination. In the complaint, Palma, a young Catholic woman, says that her employers fired her after she requested a simple religious accommodation from a task that constituted less than 2% of her job.

Read the EEOC Charge

Palma worked as a health educator at LCH, a clinic for low-income patients in Houston's inner city.

"I emigrated from Guatemala to America as a child," Palma said. "Finding this job, where I could serve those in need in my community, was my American dream come true."

As a health educator, Palma taught many classes, but only one conflicted with her religious beliefs: the class on contraception. Because of her Catholic faith, Palma requested a simple religious accommodation  to be able to show a video on birth control instead of personally advocating for contraception. Her supervisors agreed, and the arrangement worked well for a year and a half.

In June 2016, after Palma was placed under new management, she was called into a meeting with company executives. Ms. Amy Leonard, the Vice President of the Public Health Department at LCH, gave Palma an ultimatum  "put aside" her religious beliefs or be terminated.

Palma reminded Ms. Leonard that teaching the birth control class was less than 2% of her job. She requested an accommodation to allow her to continue showing the video or to allow another employee, who had volunteered to teach the class, to substitute teach the class for her. LCH refused her accommodation request and she was terminated.

"I really loved my job and my patients, but I couldn't do what the company was asking," Palma says. "Through my difficult childhood of abuse and abandonment, God has always been faithful to me, so I must be faithful to him. My faith comes first."

"The company gave Alexia an ultimatum  violate your faith or be fired," Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute, the religious freedom law firm representing Palma, says. "That's a violation of federal law and it is blatant religious discrimination."

On December 21, First Liberty Institute filed an official charge with the EEOC on behalf of Palma, alleging that LCH engaged in religious discrimination.

"No one should be fired over their religious beliefs," Dys says.

Read more and view legal documents at FirstLiberty.org/Palma

About First Liberty Institute

First Liberty Institute is the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.

SOURCE First Liberty Institute

Related Links

http://FirstLiberty.org


New Delhi, Dec 16 : A 20-year-old woman was raped in the national capital by a cab driver on the pretext of giving her a ride, police said on Friday. The driver has been arrested.

The 30-year-old driver, identified as Aman, is a resident of the Moti Bagh slums in south Delhi. He was nabbed on Thursday noon from his residence.

According to police, the woman, a resident of Noida, was raped on Wednesday-Thursday night in the car which bore a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) sticker on its windscreen.

The woman had come to Delhi on Wednesday in search of a job. The car has been seized.

"The woman was waiting at the AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) bus stop around 9 p.m. on Wednesday to go back to her home when Aman offered her a lift," Deputy Commissioner of Police Ishwar Singh told reporters here.

"After she got into the vehicle, he molested her on the way. When she resisted, the driver stopped the vehicle somewhere in Moti Bagh and raped her.

"But the woman somehow managed to escape from the car and approached a policeman around 1.30 a.m.," the officer said.

"The policeman instantly informed the nearby Emergency Response Vehicle which took the girl to a police station and sent her for medical examination."

Police said the car belonged to a CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) Head Constable who resides in Kotla Mubarkpur in south Delhi. The car was rented to the accused driver by the owner's son a week ago."

Asked how the car got a MHA sticker, the police said a relative of the CISF Head Constable worked in the ministry.
Beijing, Dec 17 : Beijing and about two dozen cities saw the year's worst smog on Saturday, which may last for days, making pollution worse in a country where 1.2 million die of it annually.

At least 24 cities are already under red alert -- highest of the four-tier warning system for pollution.

During the alert, construction activities are suspended and schools and kindergartens are shut. The cars follow the odd-even license number plate rule.

Beijing activated its first red alert for smog this winter as the air began to turn hazy on Friday, ending several days of blue sky.

All road construction and maintenance sites have been ordered to stop work, Xinhua news agency reported.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, the PM2.5 density exceeded 200 in the downtown areas of the capital, indicating the air is heavily polluted, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre.

"It's killing and it's already dark at 4 p.m.," a resident of Beijing told IANS on the phone.

Beijing's environmental and housing authorities have strengthened inspection of vehicles, construction sites and factories, punishing those that fail to meet the requirements under the red alert.

The air quality index (AQI) readings at some sites in Tianjin, a northern port city neighbouring Beijing, exceeded 300 on Saturday morning, indicating serious air pollution.

Tianjin dispatched government inspection teams to check whether response measures have been implemented by companies, construction sites and drivers.

Air pollution is one if the biggest problems of China, which has taken steps in this regard.

Many top officials in provincial governments have been sacked for failing to contain pollution.

In 2015, China shut down some 17,000 polluting units in the country.
London, Dec 18 : The doors to Britain's most famous clock tower, London's Big Ben, was closed to the public in preparation for a facelift costing more than $40 million, reports said.

The iconic hourly gong of the bells fell silent for the first time since 2007 as the 157-year-old Elizabeth Tower that houses the clock and Westminster chiming bells closed doors on Saturday, Xinhua news reported.

The restoration project that could take around three years would see major work on the clock mechanism, including repairs to the clock's hands and its pendulum.

As part of the restoration, the famous bells would stay silent for a number of months, but no date for this part of the project was announced yet.

British Parliament officials at the Palace of Westminster have described the clock mechanism condition as "chronic".

Concerns were also raised about the fabric of the tower which was close to reaching an "acute" condition.

When the work on the tower is over, it would be easier for disabled people, to ascend to the top as the 334 steps would have the alternative new elevator.

The clock faces would be covered with sheets as the work progresses, though at least one clock face would remain visible at any time.

Although the Big Ben clock is one of the most photographed in the world, it is not the biggest.

By about a meter's difference in diameter, the clock faces on the Royal Liver Building in Liverpool is Britain's largest clock face.
Pune, Dec 19 : Indian Army soldier Saurabh Nandkumar Pharate, who was killed by gunmen in a military convoy attack on Saturday in Jammu and Kashmir, was cremated here on Monday morning with full military honours, officials said.

Pharate, 32, was among the three soldiers killed when gunmen opened fire on the military convoy near Kadlabal in Pulwama district on Saturday.

Hailing from Bhekrainagar in Fursungi, his body was brought from Jammu to Pune on Sunday and kept at the Armed Forces Medical College here, where several thousands of people paid their homage.

Among those who offered their last respects, included Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, who also met the family members of the dead soldier, besides other local political and social bigwigs.

"We remember him a lot... We cherish many memories of Saurabh, how he was always courageous since his childhood and wanted to do something for the nation," said the grieving father, Nandkumar Pharate to Pawar, who consoled him.

Recalling his son's supreme sacrifice for the country, Pharate demanded toughest action by the government against the terrorists responsible for his death.

Saurabh had spent two months on vacation with his family and celebrated the birthday of his twin daughters on October 24.

Following in the footsteps of his elder brother, Saurabh had joined the army around 2003.

After his vacation, he had resumed duties barely a week ago when his entirely family had given him a fond farewell.

He is survived by his wife, twin daughters, a brother also posted in Jammu and Kashmir, and their aged parents.

Many of the grieving mourners from Bhekrainagar and surrounding villages joined the funeral procession amid cries of "Saurabh Pharate Amar Rahe" and "BharatMata Ki Jai".
New Delhi, Dec 19 : A court here on Monday decided to frame charges on Thursday against former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and others in the Aircel-Maxis case.

Special Judge O.P. Saini postponed the order to December 22, saying that it was not ready as the documents were voluminous in nature.

The court would also pronounce its order on the bail plea of Dayanidhi Maran, his brother and businessman Kalanithi Maran, and others accused in the case on the next date of hearing.

The CBI has chargesheeted the Maran brothers and Chennai-based firm Sun Direct TV, Malaysian businessman T.A. Ananda Krishnan, Augustus Ralph Marshall and the two accused firms -- Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Astro All Asia Networks.

The chargesheet alleged that Dayanidhi Maran used his influence to help Krishnan buy Aircel by coercing its owner, C. Sivasankaran, to part with his stake.

It was alleged by Sivasankaran that Dayanidhi Maran favoured the Maxis Group in the takeover of his company.

In return, he alleged, the company made investments through Astro Network in a company stated to be owned by the Maran family.

The chargesheet was filed under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

In the other case, the Enforcement Directorate chargesheeted the Maran brothers, Kalanithi's wife Kavery Kalanithi and South Asia FM Ltd (SAFL) Managing Director K. Shanmugam and two companies -- SAFL and Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd (SDTPL) -- for laundering Rs 742.58 crore.
New Delhi, Dec 19 : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who underwent a kidney transplant on December 10, was on Monday discharged from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the hospital announced.

"MEA Minister Sushma Swaraj has shown a speedy recovery after her kidney transplant and has been discharged today (Monday)," said the statement issued by the AIIMS' communication department.

According to the authorities, the minister's post-operative recovery was closely monitored by a team of specialists.

They included transplant surgeons and a team of nephrologists, cardiologists, endocrinologists and pulmonologists, as well as anaesthesists and critical care experts. The team also included hysiotherapists, resident doctors and specialised nurses.

Sushma Swaraj underwent the kidney transplant from an unrelated donor on December 10 at AIIMS overseen by a dedicated team of 50 medical staff, including several senior doctors like M. Minz, V.K. Bansal and Preet Mohinder Singh, led by AIIMS Director M.C. Misra.

The three-hour surgery was performed at the Cardio Thoracic and Neuro Sciences Centre of the AIIMS.

The 64-year-old minister, who has been in and out of AIIMS for the past few months, was admitted to the hospital on November 7.
New Delhi, Dec 19 : Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Monday said that the central government's campaign for cashless economy, involving digital transactions, net and mobile banking, is an "effective mission to establish clean, honest and transparent system".

Addressing a 'Cashless Chaupal' organised by his Minority Affairs Ministry at Dalpatpur in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad city, hei informed people about benefits of digital transactions, online and mobile banking.

"India being the largest democracy of the world, where 100 per cent electronic voting system has been successful, the same way digital transactions, online and mobile banking will be successful," an official release here quoted him as saying.

"As the electronic voting system has been a great success as it ensured transparency in elections, likewise the campaign of digital transaction will succeed," he added.

The minister said that digital transactions will strengthen the country's taxation system as more and more people will be brought under the income tax system.

"Cashless system will also help farmers, small traders of the country," he added.

Naqvi also appealed to the Muslims and other sections of the society to join the government's campaign and help in eradicating the "cancer of corruption".

He said that small shopkeepers, traders will be able to compete with big companies by adopting digital payment system, while the cashless economy will also reduce burden on the banking system.
Moscow, Dec 21 : Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the reinforcement of security measures after the assassination of Russian ambassador in Ankara and terror attack in Berlin.

Putin called on the intelligence services to take additional steps to ensure security within Russia and abroad, and to strengthen the security of diplomatic delegations overseas as well as their employees, Efe news reported on Tuesday.

He called for closer cooperation with the secret services of other countries to prevent terror attacks like the one that happened on Monday night at a Christmas market in the German capital, leaving 12 dead.

The Russian president also called for more anti-terrorist measures, including "neutralizing militants and their leaders, preventing terrorist crimes and cutting short the channels of terrorism financing".

Putin stressed that the murder of the Russian ambassador in Ankara, at the hands of a Turkish policeman in revenge for the Russian role in Aleppo, was "particularly painful".

He also condemned the attack in Berlin and recalled his proposal to "present a common front against international terrorism".
Washington, Dec 21 : Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has signed a controversial physician-assisted suicide bill.

The bill, if it goes through Congress, will allow terminally ill but mentally capable patients, aged 18 years or older, to legally end their lives, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the bill, which the D.C. Council approved in November, doctors will be allowed to prescribe fatal medication to patients with less than six months to live. These patients must make two requests over a period of two weeks and ingest the drugs themselves.

Mayor Bowser signed the legislation on Monday, clearing it to be sent to Capitol Hill for a 30-day review, according to the Washington Post.

However, it is unclear if Congress will approve the legislation, said the report, noting that local opponents of the law have vowed to press the Republican-controlled Congress to void the bill.

Under the US Constitution, Congress has to sign off on all D.C. laws. If approved, the earliest date the law would take effect would be next October.

"Every terminally ill adult should have the freedom and liberty to make their own decisions about how they want to die in comfort and peace, in consultation with their family, physicians and spiritual leaders," said Donna Smith, an organiser with the national right-to-die advocacy group Compassion and Choices.

Since 1998 when Oregon became the first US state enacting physician-assisted suicide law, the practice has now been considered legal by a court ruling in Montana while by similar laws in the states of Washington, Colorado, Vermont and California.
New Delhi, Dec 21 : Give your taste buds a zing with specially curated Christmas cocktails. These ideal winter concoctions mastered to perfection; gift you the culminating experience of everlasting aroma, texture and taste. Ensuring that your festivities, getaway or romantic date are an occasion to remember and cherish forever.

Jacob Alexander, brand ambassador of United Spirits, has rolled out some cocktails that can be served during this festive season.

White Christmas: A delightful wintery cocktail, perfect for an after dinner dessert drink. It's a classic blend of chocolate and cream helps adding to the warm romantic Christmas cheer.

Glassware: Champagne Saucer

Ingredients:

45 ml VAT 69

15 ml CrAme de Cacao

10 ml Caramel Syrup

15 ml Cream

Method: Pour all the ingredients in a Boston shaker and strain

Garnish: Dust with choco powder

Black Sage: Smoothness of Black and White mixed with the richness of pineapple and warmth of ginger and honey all combined to give a lovely start to your cool party evenings this festive season.

Glassware: Martini Glass

Ingredients:

60ml Black and White

1-inch stub Root Ginger (peeled)

60 ml Pineapple Juice

10 ml Lime Juice

10 ml Honey

Star Anise

Method: Muddle, shake and double strain into a chilled glass.

Garnish: Star Anise.

Santa's Night Cap: Cosy up by the fireplace with this delightful fusion of Black Dog with Coffee and Hazel nut before you hit the bed.

Glassware: Coupe

Ingredients:

60 ml Black Dog Triple Gold Reserve

25 ml Black Coffee

15 ml Hazelnut Syrup

20 ml Cream

Method: Pour all ingredients in a Boston Shaker and strain in a Coupe glass over crushed ice

Garnish: Grated Nutmeg

Johnnie and Ginger: The spirited Johnnie Walker Red crackling with spice and bursting with vibrant smoky flavour served tall with Ginger Ale and Apples.

Glassware: Collins

Ingredients:

60ml Johnnie Walker Red Label

Quarter Red Apple Chopped

10 ml Red Apple Syrup

Ginger Ale - To Top

Two drops Angostura Bitters

Method: Mix the Johnnie Walker Red with the apple syrup in a Collins glass. Top up with Ginger ale; garnish with chopped apples and angostura.

Garnish: Apple Fan

Autumn Sunshine: The quintessential Whiskey Sour, that serves up the taste-tingling collision of sweet and sour. The cocktail combines citrus and sweet to compliment the rich complex and incredibly well balance, full of dark fruits, sweet vanilla and signature smokiness of the Johnnie Walker Black Label. Topped with a flamed orange zest, the concoction gives you a delightful winter offering helping you brave the chill.

Glassware: Old Fashioned Glass

Ingredients:

45 ml Johnnie Walker Black Label

15 ml Grand Marnier/Cointreau

10 ml Fresh Lime

Two tsp Orange Marmalade

20 ml fresh orange juice

Method: Shake all the ingredients in a Boston Shaker and serve over ice

Garnish: Flamed orange zest
Chennai, Dec 21 : Actor Raghava Lawrence plans to remake yet another popular yesteryear Rajinikanth's hit Tamil film "Mannan". He says talks are still premature as he is busy wrapping up upcoming Tamil horror-drama, "Shivalinga".

"I'm currently busy with 'Shivalinga', and we are soon planning to shoot in Bangkok. Talks regarding 'Mannan' remake have been initiated but everything is still premature. It's too early to comment on this project," Lawrence told IANS.

P. Vasu, who helmed "Mannan", might helm its remake too.

He will also star in and produce the remake of another Rajinikanth Tamil hit, "Moondru Mugam".

"Both these projects will only happen next year. Since all my focus is currently on 'Shivalinga', I don't want to think about anything else," he said.
Mumbai, Dec 21 : Actress and politician Hema Malini says that veteran actor Dharmendra is recovering well.

Dharmendra, 81, on Tuesday was taken to Nanvati Hospital here after he reportedly complained of uneasiness and pain.

"Just to reassure everyone concerned about Dharamji in hospital - he is recovering well and is likely to be discharged soon. Thank you all," Hema tweeted on Tuesday evening.

Dharmendra's son and actor-filmmaker Sunny Deol also shared on Twitter that his father is down with "food poisoning and is recovering fast".

"Thanks a lot for your concern about my father's health. He was down with food poisoning and is recovering fast. Please don't speculate about it," Sunny tweeted.
Kolkata, Dec 21 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday lashed out at the central government after an income tax raid at the house of the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary.

Banerjee dubbed the move "vindictive, unethical and technically improper action".

"Earlier, the Principal Secretary of Arvind Kejriwal was raided and harassed. Now I read the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu has also been raided. Why this vindictive, unethical, technically improper action? Is it only to disturb the federal structure," the Trinamool Congress supremo asked on Twitter.

Banerjee demanded to know why raids were not carried out on properties associated with Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah and others.

"Why don't they raid Amit Shah and others who are collecting money? While corruption needs to be condemned strongly, the raid on Chief Secretary by central agencies devalues the institution of head of the civil service," she said.

She said the Tamil Nadu leadership should have been taken into confidence prior to the raid.

"The proper procedure should have been (followed) to take the state leadership into confidence and removing him from the post prior to any pre-emptive action based on information," she added.
Mumbai, Dec 21 : Actor Shahid Kapoor is taking lessons in sword fighting as well as horse riding for his upcoming film "Padmavati", says a source.

In the upcoming Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial, Shahid will be seen as Raja Rawal Ratan Singh. To get into the skin of the character, Shahid is busy undergoing sword fighting and horse riding training.

"Being a perfectionist, Shahid has hired a personal trainer who is busy training him in sword fighting as well as horse riding. The actor wants to get everything right and bring more authenticity to his role. The actor is busy shooting at night for the film. He takes classes during the day," said a source close to Shahid.

The film also stars Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh.
Mumbai, Dec 21 : Industrialist Nusli Wadia on Wednesday said he will not attend the extra-ordinary general meeting (EGM) of Tata Steel where he is expected to be removed as an Independent Director of the company.

The development comes on the day when Tata Steel has convened an EGM to decide whether or not to remove Wadia as an Independent Director on its Board.

The agenda of the EGM was to take shareholders' approval for the removal of Tata Sons ousted Chairman Cyrus Mistry and Independent Director Wadia from its Board of Directors.

"What is at stake now is not whether I am removed or not but the fate of the very institution of the Independent Director that has been created in law and by SEBI to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders," Wadia said in a letter to the shareholders of Tata Steel.

"It is in your hands to vote with your conscience for what is right for your company and more important for the institution of Independent Directors," the letter read.

"I have chosen not to attend the meeting as I understand that recent meetings held of other Tata Companies have been inappropriately and shamefully stage-managed by the requisitionist controlling the entry into the hall as also in the selection and choice of the speakers as never before seen in Indian corporate history."
New Delhi, Dec 21 : Lt. Gen. Bipin Rawat, who is set to be the next Army Chief, met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday.

The meeting, which lasted for about 25 minutes, was described as a "courtesy call" by sources.

Rawat later also met outgoing Army Chief General Dalbir Singh.

Rawat was named as the new Army Chief on Saturday, superseding two more senior Lieutenant Generals -- Eastern Army Commander Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi and Southern Army Commander Lt. Gen. P.M. Hariz.

Rawat would take over as the new Army Chief on December 31.
Patna, Dec 21 : An IAS officer, along with 15 other officials, was booked on Wednesday for alleged irregularities in disbursement of post-matric scholarship among SC/ST students pursuing technical education outside Bihar.

"An FIR has been lodged against IAS officer S.M. Raju and 15 others in the vigilance police station," Ravinder Kumar, Director General of Vigilance Investigation Bureau, Bihar, said.

"The bureau has found evidence against Raju for wrongly distributing SC/ST scholarships worth crores of rupees among students when he was Secretary of the Welfare Department in 2013-14," an official said.

The Vigilance Investigation Bureau launched its probe into the scam in March this year after the opposition BJP raised the issue in state assembly.
New Delhi, Dec 21 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit his parliamentary constituency Varanasi on Thursday and lay the foundation of various projects.

The projects include the Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Cancer Hospital and a Centenary Super Specialty Hospital at the BHU campus. He is also expected to address a gathering of BJP workers.

The Prime Minister's visit comes ahead of assembly elections in the state.

Modi will lay the foundation of an ESI hospital with 150 beds, official sources said.

Modi is also likely to attend the Rashtriya Sankriti Mahotasava organised at the BHU campus by the Ministry of Culture.

He will also visit Kabir Nagar and inspect the work of underground electric cabling, being implemented under the Integrated Power Development Scheme.

This will be Prime Minister Modi's first visit to Varanasi after November 8 demonestisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Beijing, Dec 21 : A day after Mongolia said it would never again allow the Dalai Lama to visit the country, China hoped it will learn a lesson from the Tibetan spiritual leader's visit last month after which Beijing punitively hiked tariff on Mongolian trucks passing through Chinese territory.

Beijing also urged Mongolia to stick to its promise.

"China hopes Mongolia will learn lesson from the Dalai Lama's visit last month and respect China's core interests," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said here on Wednesday.

"China attaches importance to the Mongolian Foreign Minister's explicit statement... China urges Mongolia to honour its commitment and make efforts to improve bilateral relations," Hua said.

On Tuesday, Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil said the Dalai Lama will never be let in again, even for religion.

Defying Beijing's warning, Mongolia in November hosted the Dalai Lama who met worshippers in the majorly Buddhist nation.

In turn, China hiked tariff on Mongolian trucks moving through its territory. The situation created a blockade of sorts for the poor nation.

Mongolia also sought India's help in tiding over the crisis caused by the hiked tariff.

The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959.
New Delhi, Dec 21 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into corruption charges against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Aam Aadmi Party leader also asked Modi to step down until he was cleared of the charges -- like veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani did in the 1990s.

Kejriwal addressed the media shortly after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi told a public rally in Gujarat that Modi took huge bribes from two corporate houses when he was the Chief Minister of the state.

Kejriwal said he exposed the bribery in the Delhi Assembly on November 15 this year and had since been doing so at one public rally after another across the country.

He said the Supreme Court should take suo moto cognizance of the matter and set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) with all powers to probe the charges against Modi.

Flashing what he claimed were Income Tax department papers, including four volumes of an Appraisal Report, Kejriwal said one of the corporate houses paid Modi Rs 40 crore in instalments.

Documents seized in the premises of another corporate house showed that a part of a Rs 25 crore bribe was given to Modi. he said.

After Gandhi's Gujarat speech, the BJP denied the allegation hurled at Modi, saying the Prime Minister was "as pure as the Ganga" river.

Kejriwal also chided Gandhi for taking so long to take up an issue he had been flagging for months. "Rahul Gandhi had no choice but to do it," the AAP leader said.
Gurugram, Dec 21 : Authorities here on Wednesday razed over 200 shops and business establishments in five markets in Gurugram's upcoming residential sectors, including Sectors 82, 82A and 83.

In the presence of heavy police force, District Town Planner (enforcement) Wing of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) demolished nearly 250 'illegal constructions' erected on private lands belonging to local farmers.

"Constructions were erected on agricultural lands and were illegal as the owners did not obtain Change of Land Use (CLU) certificates from concerned departments," said a HUDA official.

However, the people affected by the demolition drive alleged that the action was taken at the behest of a builder.

"Authorities took action to benefit a builder who is developing these sectors. It is simply to force farmers to sell their lands to the builder," said Mahesh Yadav, one of the shop owners.

"We had been running our business here for nearly three years and had availed electricity connections and TIN for business issued by Excise and Taxation Department on this address," said Rajesh Kumar, another affected businessman.

"Vatika India Next has grabbed revenue pathways of villages, my cousin Pradeep Yadav filed a written complaint about the illegal grabbing at Gurugram's Deputy Commissioner, Commissioner of Police and local police station over two years ago but the authorities did not take any action against the builder," Sudhir Kumar, a resident of Village Sikanderpur said.

Vatika India Next is building houses, flats and villas and developing commercial sites on more than 700 acres after purchasing the land from farmers of Sikanderpur, Shikohpur, Sihi and Rampura villages, the firm said.

"We have nothing to say. The drive was carried out by HUDA department," a Vatika group spokesperson told IANS.
Chennai, Dec 21 : Leaders of Tamil Nadu's opposition DMK and PMK demanded immediate dismissal of Chief Secretary P.Rama Mohana Rao, whose residence was raided on Wednesday by Income Tax officials.

Raids were also conducted in several other places connected to Rao, his son and also the residence of Ramesh, Private Secretary of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam.

Speaking to reporters here, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly M.K.Stalin said the Chief Secretary should immediately resign.

The DMK leader also said that it was most important for the Chief Minister to appoint a new Chief Secretary in Rao's place.

He also demanded a detailed statement from Pannerselvam on the issue.

Terming it as a disgrace for the state, PMK founder S. Ramadoss demanded Rao's dismissal and legal action against him.

Rao was appointed to the most important post overlooking the seniority of several other IAS officials.

Meanwhile, former IAS officer and a social activist M.G.Devasahayam told IANS that the government has the power to summarily dismiss an IAS officer under the Article 311 of the Indian Constitution.

"The raid has opened a Pandora's box. Corruption cannot happen in government without the connivance of corrupt bureaucrats," former IAS officer Devasahayam told IANS.

He also said the central government cannot wash off its hands of its responsibility and also take credit now.

"Rao superceded several senior IAS officers when he was appointed as the state Chief Secretary. Even today there are 18 IAS officers senior to him working in the state or in the central government," Devasahayam said.

"The raid in Rao's residence is a great, great shame for the IAS cadre," he added.
New Delhi, Dec 21 : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday chaired a meeting of Group of Ministers (GOM) to discuss issues related to Lokpal Bill.

The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Minister for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh among others.

Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and Department of Personnel and Training Secretary Sanjay Kothari, were also present during the meeting, said sources.

Sources said that the ministers discussed on various aspects of the Lokpal and Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which was passed by the Lok Sabha and the upper house on July this year.

The bill, an amendment of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013, allows extension of the time given to public servants and trustees and board members of NGOs, receiving government funds of more than Rs 1 crore or foreign funding of more than Rs 10 lakh, to declare their assets and those of their spouses.
New Delhi, Dec 21 : The Congress party on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should get a fair probe done into allegations that he took money from two corporate houses -- Birla and Sahara groups.

At a press conference called within an hour of a BJP press conference, where the ruling party dismissed allegations against the Prime Minister, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the BJP should have answered whether Modi took money or not.

Surjewala said the BJP was "perturbed" and that "they did not answer whether or not Modi took money".

The Congress spokesperson sought a probe, but added: "CBI cannot probe the Prime Minister."

While not demanding Modi's resignation directly, Surjewala cited the example of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who had resigned when the office of profit issue came up in 2006, and BJP veteran L.K. Advani had resigned as an MP in 1996 following allegations of his involvement in the infamous Hawala scam.

"We are asking valid questions. Do not get angry, just answer the questions. The Prime Minister should come forward and answer whether he took money from Birla and Sahara or not," he said.

At a public rally in Gujarat's Mehsana, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that the Sahara Group paid Rs 40 crore to Modi during his tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad soon after dismissed the allegation calling it "baseless" and added that Gandhi was "frustrated" because of repeated electoral losses and was trying to divert attention from the AgustaWestland scam.
Hong Kong, Dec 21 : China has banned its internet users from sharing on the social media videos that are not from official sources, media reports said.

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (China), in a notice, said Chinese social media platforms WeChat and Weibo were not allowed to disseminate user-generated audio or video programmes about current events, reported the Guardian on Tuesday.

"The move is likely to weed out smaller players," said Duncan Clark, founder of investment advisory firm BDA China, which specialises in the Chinese Internet.

"The government prefers to have concentration on larger sites, where it has greater sway. There has also been an explosion of live-streaming sites in recent years, and the government is keen to rein them in and assert control," he said.

But the larger implications for China's already limited freedom of online speech will depend on how strongly the new rules are implemented, Clark said.

China was ranked by Reporters Without Borders as one of the worst countries for press freedom. Reporters Without Borders is an international non-profit, non-governmental organisation that promotes and defends freedom of information and press.

The news landed quietly among China's internet users, with only a handful discussing the new rules on Weibo, many seemingly resigned to ever increasing censorship.

"The authorities regulate everything, what a step backward for Weibo," one user said on the online platform.

Another commenter wondered: "What do we do now, just give up on self-made media?"

The ban comes barely weeks after a draft law aimed to give the local police the power to censor the internet in the wake of natural disasters, another situation where the government often struggles to control the narrative.
Kochi, Dec 21 : A clergyman in Kerala has donated his kidney to a Muslim woman who was suffering from kidney ailments for the last four years and saved her life, hospital authorities said on Wednesday.

The 39-year-old Priest Shibu Kuttiparichel of Cheengery St. Mary's Jacobite Syrian Church in Wayanad district, donated one of his kidneys to the 29-year-old woman.

The kidney was harvested and transplanted into Kairunnissa at a private hospital here.

Kairunnissa hails from Thrissur and was selected as the recipient from others registered with the Kidney Federation of India.

The federation was founded by another Christian priest Davis Chiramel, who himself had donated one of his kidneys a few years back.

Kairunnissa was suffering from kidney ailments for the past four years and had undergone several rounds of dialysis, said the hospital management.

"Even as Kairunnissa's 56-year-old mother, Shereefa was ready to donate one of her kidneys to her daughter, it was not matching," according to the hospital authorities.

Later Kuttiparichel's blood group matched with Kairunnissa and the transplant was possible," said the authorities.

Both the donor and recipient are in good condition. Kuttiparichel will be discharged in four days, while Kairunnissa will be discharged after a week, said the hospital.
Mumbai, Dec 21 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will perform bhoomi pooja for a grand statue and memorial of Chhatrapati Shivaji during a day-long visit to Maharashtra on Saturday, officials said.

The memorial and statue are expected to come up on a rocky islet around one kilometre into the Arabian Sea overlooking Marine Drive or Queen's Necklace, with Malabar Hill on one end and Nariman Point at the other in south Mumbai.

"This memorial, Shiv Smarak, in the Arabian Sea will be the tallest memorial not only in the country but in the entire world," Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said of the ambitious project estimated to cost around Rs 3,600 crore.

The state government has secured 12 major permissions from the Centre including the Environment Ministry, Defence Ministry, Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and others, he added.

Slated to be 309 feet tall, the statue along with a pedestal and foundation will be taller than the State of Liberty and is expected to be a major tourist attraction.

The memorial complex on the islet will house a library on the warrior king, an amphitheatre, an aqauarium and an IMAX cinema hall to screen films on the Chhatrapati, guest rooms and a helipad.

There will be replicas of the entrance arch of the historic Raigad Fort, of the Tulja Bhavani temple, forecourts designed after his palaces and wadas of the Maratha era.

The Shiv Smarak shall be accessible by boats to arrive and depart from jetties to come up at Radio Club in Colaba, Nariman Point and at Sagar Sangam in Navi Mumbai.

However, some fisherfolks' organizations like Akhil Maharashtra Machhimar Kriti Samit and Paramparik Machhimar Seva Samit have opposed the project on grounds it could severely hit their livelihood.

Modi would be accompanied by Fadnavis and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray.

Two state cabinet ministers - Chandrakant Patil and Vinod Tawde - on Wednesday called on Thackeray at his home to formally invite him for the event on Saturday.

Modi will also lay the foundation stones for two metro railways, an elevated railway corridor, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link and address a public rally in Mumbai.

In adjoining Raigad, he will inaugurate the new SEBI Campus and later in Pune he will lay the foundation stone for the proposed Pune Metro Railway.
Berlin, Dec 21 : The German Interior Minister on Wednesday announced that a European arrest warrant has been issued against a new suspect in connection with Monday's Berlin terror attack.

At the end of an extraordinary meeting of the German parliament's interior committee, Thomas de Maiziere stressed that this wanted person, of whom he did not provide details, remains a suspect, Efe news reported.

The 'wanted' was not necessarily the author of the attack in which a truck ploughed through a crowd in a Christmas market, killing 12 persons and wounding 48 others, Maiziere said.

He also said that a lot of information was disseminated.

Earlier in the day, the police in Germany was reportedly searching for a Tunisian man in relation to the attack.

He was identified by Der Spiegel magazine as Anis A., a 24-year-old Tunisian who could be using two different aliases.

A residence permit was found in the truck that on Monday ploughed through the crowd.
Chennai, Dec 21 : The Indian Railways on Wednesday launched a Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) provided by French firm Thales on the 68-km-long Basin Bridge-Arakkonam section in southern India, said a Thales official.

The TPWS-equipped section was inaugurated by Akhil Agrawal, Director General (Signal & Telecommunication), Railway Board, at Ambattur station, Chennai, a press release from the company said.

Global technology major Thales' European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 1 solution is known in India as TPWS.

In September 2014, Southern Railway had awarded this signalling contract to Thales.

As part of the contract, Thales supplied ETCS Level 1 solution and was also responsible for the design, supply, installation and commissioning of track-side equipment, the release added.

With the completion of this project, Thales brings to India the advanced signalling system that has been deployed in Europe.

Raviprakash Karcherla, Director in Charge of Ground Transportation for Thales in India, said: "As passenger safety and train security are of utmost importance, we are proud to have brought the advanced and capable train protection system to India's railway networks through this project.

"We look forward to further supporting the Indian Railways in its ongoing modernisation plan and contribute to the development of railway infrastructure in the country."

Karcherla was further quoted as saying: "This project is intended at optimising train security and passenger safety while enabling trains to run faster, leading to shorter travel times and increased line capacity through the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) capability."

Thales is one of the principal suppliers of train signalling technology and the worldwide leader in the supply of ETCS solutions with 16,000 km of ETCS line or 30 per cent of the global market share.
London, Dec 21 : The European Union's highest court has ruled as illegal "general and indiscriminate retention" of emails and electronic communications by governments, media reported on Wednesday.

The judgement by the European Court of Justice comes as a blow to Britain's new Investigatory Powers Act -- the so-called snooper's charter, said a report in the Independent.

Britain's Investigatory Powers Act passed into law in November, granting the government powers to indiscriminately hack and store data relating to internet use.

Only targeted interception of traffic and location data in order to combat serious crime is justified, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said in Luxembourg, boosting the case against the sweeping collection of emails, text messages and internet data.

The case was brought to the European court by Brexit Secretary David Davis and Labour Party's deputy leader Tom Watson over the legality of British intelligence and security organisation GCHQ's bulk interception of call records and online messages.

The duo had already won a high court victory on the issue, but the government appealed and the case was referred to the ECJ.

The decision could prove inconsequential after Britain withdraws from the EU, when the European Court of Justice will no longer have jurisdiction over the government.

"This ruling shows it is counter-productive to rush new laws through Parliament without proper scrutiny," said Watson.

"At a time when we face a real and ever-present terrorist threat, the security forces may require access to personal information none of us would normally hand over."

"That's why it's absolutely vital that proper safeguards are put in place to ensure this power is not abused, as it has been in the recent past," he said.

Martha Spurrier, director of the human rights group Liberty, said: "Today's judgement upholds the rights of ordinary British people not to have their personal lives spied on without good reason or an independent warrant."

However, the British government vowed to appeal against the decision.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We are disappointed with the judgement and will be considering its potential implications."

"Given the importance of communications data to preventing and detecting crime, we will ensure plans are in place so that the police and other public authorities can continue to acquire such data in a way that is consistent with EU law and our obligation to protect the public," the spokesperson said.
Abuja, Dec 21 : A van which lost control ran into an assembly of school children in Nigeria's northeastern state of Gombe, killing 12 children and injuring 19 others, police said on Wednesday.

Gombe State police spokesman Ahmed Usman told Xinhua the incident occurred on Tuesday during an annual religious procession by school children in Malam Sidi Town, located 20 kms away from Gombe, the state capital.

Hundreds of Islamic school children usually gather to hold the annual Maulud procession in the Nigerian state.

The driver of the van, travelling alone, was apparently driving at high speed when he ran into the procession, Usman said.

According to him, an angry mob set the driver and his van ablaze before the arrival of the police at the accident site.
Jerusalem, Dec 21 : Israel's former President Moshe Katsav was freed on parole on Wednesday, after serving five of his seven-year sentence for rape and other sexual offences.

Live television and radio broadcasts showed Katsav walking out of the Maasiyahu Prison, east of Tel Aviv, where about a dozen of family members and supporters were waiting for him, Xinhua reported.

His release came about an hour after State Attorney Shai Nitzan said the prosecution would not appeal the Parole Committee's decision to grant Katsav an early release.

Under the terms of his parole, Katsav would have to join a prison service rehabilitation programme. He would also have to stay under house arrest every night, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., until the end of his parole period.

The committee also imposed restrictions on speaking to the media and forbid him to hold a job position in which he will have women subordinates.

Katsav, 71, was born in Iran and became the first President who was born in a Muslim country. He served as Israel's seventh President between 2000 and 2007. In 1977, at the age of 30, he first became a parliament member with the right-wing Likud party.

In November 2011, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed his conviction on two counts of rape of a former employee during his term as Tourism Minister in the 1990s, indecent sexual assaults and sexual harassment of two other women while being President, and obstruction of justice.
Keller Williams North Pointe was recently acquired by a group of successful operators from the Keller Williams Glen Ellyn office in Chicagos West Suburbs. These new owners of the Libertyville Office played an integral role in growing the Glen Ellyn office from three agents in 2008 to 160 agents today.

Under the new leadership, Keller Williams North Pointe has doubled the size of their office space and relocated to downtown Libertyville. The new office is situated on the 2nd floor of 325 N. Milwaukee Avenue in 6,922 square feet.

Keller Williams North Pointe was represented in the transaction by commercial office brokers at The J. Rich Company, LLC (JRICH) while CBRE represented the landlord.

We are very excited to employ the same successful Keller Williams models and systems we used in Glen Ellyn to grow in Libertyville.  Jani Burke, Co-owner of Keller Williams North Pointe. Matt McCollum, also Co-owner, stated, This acquisition made sense and we chose Libertyville to be our long term home in the north suburbs because of its accessibility and market potential.

Rich Schulz, President of JRICH, stated, We analyzed all Keller Williams competitor locations in this specific market and were intent in finding the most superior office location and top building to attract the best talent for their residential brokerage business. We are confident this building and space is just that.

Keller Williams Realty, Inc.

Austin-Texas based Keller Williams Realty, Inc. is the largest real estate franchise by agent count in the world with more than 800 offices and 152,000 associates across the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. In 2015, Training Magazine named Keller Williams the No. 1 training organization across all industries in the world.

Since 1983, Keller Williams has grown exponentially and continues to cultivate an agent-centric, education-based, technology-driven culture that rewards agents as stakeholders. The company also provides specialized agents in luxury homes, commercial and farm and ranch properties. For more information, visit http://www.kw.com.

J. Rich Company, LLC (JRICH)

The J. Rich Company, LLC is a commercial real estate advisory firm based in Chicago which strictly specializes in representing the interests of tenants. JRICH works with clients on a brokerage and consulting basis; and has completed transactions all around the globe. JRICH clients range from single office users, to the Countrys fastest growing startups, to Fortune 50 Global Headquarter relocations. For more information, please visit http://www.jrichrealestate.com.
Our latest additions to the ApconTap family are key in next generation data centers to monitor networks without disrupting service or taxing processing on network devices.

APCON, a leading provider of intelligent network monitoring and security solutions, today announced it is expanding its ApconTap family with the introduction of passive fiber 40Gbps and 100Gbps TAPs with short range, long range and bidirectional models to accommodate requirements for next generation data center deployments.

TAPs allow network engineers to access data throughout their networks, ensuring the data is forwarded to the right monitoring and analysis tools. TAPs offer an uncensored view of all network traffic and are an integral part of the network monitoring architecture.

Network engineers rely on TAPs to analyze network data and diagnose and debug problems faster, said Richard Rauch, president and CEO of APCON. Our latest additions to the ApconTap family are key in next generation data centers to monitor networks without disrupting service or taxing processing on network devices.

APCON offers a portfolio of passive TAPs that captures network traffic under all conditions and simplifies network monitoring and security efforts. The modular design of the ApconTap eliminates unnecessary cabling and connections, improving both reliability and security. Each ApconTap model supports common data center optical fiber standards.

ApconTaps fully integrate with IntellaFlex XR, APCONs network visibility platform, to support packet aggregation, rate conversion, port tagging, filtering and NetFlow generation. With convenient housing in the same data center rack as the APCON monitoring switch, IT and security professionals can scale their network monitoring architectures according to their data center growth plans with the same vendor, making the purchase process easy.

Contact the APCON public relations team at 503-682-4050 to learn more.

About APCON

For more than 20 years, APCON has consistently delivered smart, stable and scalable technology solutions that provide an unparalleled level of confidence to service providers and businesses seeking total data center visibility and security. Its customers range from midsize companies to Fortune 1000 enterprises in more than 40 countries. APCON assures superior network monitoring while supporting traffic analysis and streamlined network management and security. For more information, visit http://www.apcon.com or follow us on Twitter @apcon.

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Jarrod McClaine of Stillwater, who joined the credit union in 1995, was the first member to visit the new branch on its opening day. Branch Manager Sarah Jaeger presented McClaine with a gift basket. We are proud to become Stillwaters first credit union and offer a more contemporary approach to traditional banking. - Ideal CU President/CEO Brian Sherrick.

When Ideal Credit Unions new Stillwater branch opened for business on December 5, 2016, it was more than just another new office opening - it was history in the making. That day, Ideal officially became the first credit union to operate in the Stillwater community in its 162 years of existence.

Located at the intersection of Highway 36 and Washington at 2020 Washington Avenue, the new tech-savvy Stillwater branch is approximately 3,000 sq. ft. and offers 24/7 drive-up ATM lanes for deposits and withdrawals, a full-service teller counter inside, self-serve coin counter and three offices for new accounts and member service discussions. Mortgage Services and Wealth Advisor Investment services will be available in branch on an as-requested basis.

We are proud to become Stillwaters first credit union and offer a more contemporary approach to traditional banking, said Ideal CU President/CEO Brian Sherrick. Since announcing our expansion to Stillwater we have received extremely positive feedback from not only our members, but potential members who are anxious to experience the ideal difference in financial services. With our doors now open, we invite everyone to stop by and receive friendly day-to-day banking.

Jarrod McClaine of Stillwater, who joined the credit union in 1995, was the first member to visit the new branch on its opening day. Branch Manager Sarah Jaeger presented McClaine with a gift basket and thanked him for stopping by.

The new Stillwater branch processed 112 transactions, welcomed 8 new members, helped 4 existing members and opened its first business account in its first week. Close to 1,000 current Ideal CU members live in the Stillwater community.

Founded in 1926, Ideal Credit Union is a member owned financial institution that specializes in providing excellent member service, great rates and convenience to 50,000 members. Ideal CU offers a complete range of services, including a full suite of electronic banking products, savings, checking, loans, mortgage products and title services, exclusive VIP member payback, business services, investment services and more. Visit idealcu.com for details and locations.
Over the past four years, Creekside Village has sold a total of 504 homes, an average of at least 10 every month. With 820 homes planned in the community it is now 61% sold.

Continued Advancements

The fourth of five total phases was opened in 2016 which included some of the communitys most anticipated homesites. Some of these homesites back to forest conversation while others back to large open spaces. All of the homesites in this phase will be in close proximity to the Creekside Village park with is expected to open in the spring of 2017.

During development, an archeological rock that had a cross chiseled in it was located. It is believed that this artifact was used as religious altar for slaves and free blacks in 1800s. The rock was relocated in 2016 to Hall United Methodist Church on Solley Road and Atapco Development is currently completing a monument to recognize it. To learn more here is a link to an article in the Capital Gazette.

The developers of Creekside Village also funded and managed much need road improvements in the area, specifically the intersection of Route 648 and Marley Neck Boulevard. This work has already resulted in significantly reduced traffic congestion.

Come and See Why Were North Arundels Fastest Selling New Home Community.

Creekside Village is lovely pedestrian and pet-friendly community that offers one of a kind living on the Marley Neck peninsula! A serene setting with urban conveniences close by, Creekside Village offers resort-style living. Enjoy this thoughtfully designed community that puts work AND play close to home!

For more information, please visit http://www.creeksidevillagemd.com.
It is never to early to begin talking to your children about money. Children learn most of their money habits from their parents, so parents are in the unique position of being a childs first teacher. - -Charlene Fadirepo

Today, Charlene Hill Fadirepo, Founder and CEO of SmartChoiceNation (SCN), has confirmed that her brand new childrens book on money management Ayos Money Jar is available now in paperback via Amazon.com. The book follows its main character, Ayo, a smart, curious little boy, growing up in a multicultural family. In the story, Ayo helps his parents around the house and learns a lasting lesson about money management.

Ayos Money Jar is the first book in a series for children ages 2-6 called SmartChoiceNation (SCN) Kids. This edition of the book features beautiful original artwork from Nigerian visual artist and painter, Aniekan Udofia. Each SCN book teaches a specific financial education concept. In addition to the story, the book includes a conversation guide section with suggested family activities and a glossary of terms to reinforce the learning process. Ayos Money Jar focuses on money management, and explores the Give, Grow, Go (3Gs) concept, a SCN money management rule of thumb for children.

According to a 2015 7th Annual Parents, Kids, & Money Survey by T. Rowe Price, 91% of the parents surveyed thought it was appropriate for kids to learn about financial matters at school. However, financial education instruction in K-12 schools is inconsistent at best. According to the Council for Economic Educations 2016 report, more states are implementing standards in personal finance, but the number of states that require high school students to take a course in personal finance remains unchanged since 2014  only 17 states . Since 2014, two additional states include personal finance in their K-12 standards and require those standards to be taught. Only 20 states require high school students to take a course in economics  thats less than half the country and two fewer states than in 2014. The study goes on to note that state requirements often set the tone for districts, some states offer little guidance to school districts related to what personal finance content to offer in schools at each grade level; others have pushed ahead, requiring courses from elementary to high school-aged students, supporting and training teachers, and in some cases even testing students on learning outcomes. 

I believe parents need to be proactive about teaching these concepts to their children, especially since financial education instruction in schools is still a work in progress. My overall goal is to inspire every American parent to start a household conversation about money. Hopefully the story, definitions and family activities in the back of the book will help to make that conversation much easier," said Charlene.

A bank regulation executive by profession with a Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, Charlene has spent the past 10 years teaching financial education programs through a number of organizations including Citibank and PwC. Charlene also serves as the President of Greater Washington JumpStart Coalition, a DC based youth focused financial literacy non-profit organization. Thru her work with Greater Washington JumpStart Coalition, Charlene was able to support financial education workshops for nearly 800 local students during a 2 year period.

It is never to early too begin talking to your children about money. Children learn most of their money habits from their parents, so parents are in the unique position of being a childs first teacher., says Charlene. My book is aimed at parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles and caregivers who want to start teaching their children the basic foundations of financial decision making.

About Charlene Fadirepo:

Charlene Fadirepo is a former banker, management consultant and the author of Ayos Money Jar, a childrens book on money management. She is also the founder of SmartChoiceNation, a financial education social enterprise firm and she runs a blog for financially empowered parents, called SmartChoiceMoms.com. Charlene is the President of Greater Washington JumpStart Coalition, a youth focused financial education youth non-profit organization in the DC metro area. She lives in Washington, DC with her son, Ayo, and her husband Rinde.



Learn more about the book at the official website: http://www.ayomoneyjarbook.com

The book is available exclusively on Amazon: Ayos Money Jar: http://a.co/ga9IgTf

Learn about resources to teach your kids about money via Charlenes blog: http://www.smartchoicemoms.com

Social Links:

-https://www.facebook.com/SmartChoiceNation/

-https://twitter.com/@SmartCNation

-https://www.instagram.com/smartchoicenation/

Media contact information:

Charlene Fadirepo

Email: information(at)smartchoicenation(dot)com

Tel: 240-401-4640
GI Go Fund Executive Director Jack Fanous (c) and Panasonic Sr. Business Analyst, IT and Army Veteran Tyrell Cotten (r) present gifts to a veteran and his family

GI Go Fund partnered with Panasonic, one of the largest electronics companies in the world, to provide thousands of dollars in the form of electronic supplies to veterans in need during the holidays. The company supplied the organization with hundreds of products to be given to veterans struggling to provide gifts for their loved ones this Christmas.

Panasonic has been consistently showing its commitment to supporting military families. In addition to the holiday presents, the company has been working with GI Go Fund to help train and educate military veterans to find and qualify for the best employment opportunities. To this end, Panasonic has offered tens of thousands in state-of-the-art training equipment that will go towards the development of a one-of-a-kind Veterans Training Center for Employment and Entrepreneurship.

Panasonic has really gone above and beyond with its dedication to supporting veterans, said GI Go Fund Executive Director Jack Fanous. From the thousands in gifts today to the thousands more they have pledged towards the development of our Veterans Training Center, which will bring incredible resources to veterans looking to improve their skills and become highly qualified job candidates or small business leaders, Panasonic is making an incredible difference in the lives of our veterans.

In addition to the Panasonic products, GI Go Fund provided veterans with toys and Visa Gift cards, which could be used by veterans use towards the purchase of food, clothing, and presents for their families.

GI Go Fund has been incredibly committed to ensuring that they can support as many veterans as possible this holiday season, having provided tens of thousands of dollars to veterans in the form of toys, care packages, and direct financial assistance.

The organization was able to distribute these cards to needy families thanks in large part to the record-breaking Jeans For Troops fundraising drive during Veterans Day 2016. The nationwide movement featured employees at thousands of companies and schools donating $5 and wearing Jeans to work to honor our military veterans. After five years, the drive has been able to raise nearly $3 million for military families.

The organization is planning on handing out thousands more in aid to veteran families in the coming year.

About GI Go Fund

GI Go Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization that provides assistance to all military veterans by helping them find employment, access housing, and secure their educational and health benefits. Having partnered with great corporate leaders like PSEG and Panasonic, as well as innovative employment services like JobPath, to help veterans train, connect to mentors, and find work, the group has helped thousands of veterans across the country and is paving the way for the next generation of veterans to get back on their feet. For more information, visit http://www.gigo.org.
Because theyve been good all year long, Christmas comes earlier for Colombian expats. More precisely, on December 20th, when LlamaColombia.com launches a holiday offer: for any Voice Credit order above $15, customers get $2 extra. The Christmas bonus can be used to call Colombia for 68 minutes, in case customers are calling mobiles, or 57 minutes, if they are calling landlines. The promotion is valid for 3 days.

But LlamaColombia.com has more surprises in its bag this Christmas: customers are also invited on LlamaColombia.com Facebook page to join a fun contest and win $10 free Voice Credit for international calls. All they have to do is add a comment mentioning the name of the person who fits the description of the elf LlamaColombia.com is searching for this Christmas. It may be the name of a family member, a friend or even their own name. The contest is open for two days.

The international calling service offered by LlamaColombia.com is intuitive and simple to use, since calls can be placed from:

1. any phone through the use of access numbers

2. any computer with an Internet connection through the Web Call application or

3. any smartphone as LlamaColombia.com offers a free app, for both iOS and Android devices, called KeepCalling. By using the free app, customers can make calls by using their phone contacts as long as they are saved in international format.

Besides Voice Credit, LlamaColombia.com also offers Monthly Plans and a Mobile Recharge service. Monthly Plans are monthly subscriptions which offer discounted rates for frequent calls to both landlines and mobiles in Colombia. The plans available on LlamaColombia.com are Colombia 300, that includes 300 calling minutes for $5.79/month, Colombia 500, with 500 calling minutes for $9.49/month, and Colombia 1000, offering 1000 calling minutes for $17.99/month.

Mobile Recharge is a service that helps customers recharge phones anywhere in the world. The process is fast and secure and the credit reaches its destination instantly. The operators available for top ups to Colombia are Tigo, Movistar, Claro, Uff Movil, Virgin Mobile, Avantel, ETB, and UNE.

The mission of LlamaColombia.com is to bring people together, no matter the distance, because no distance is too far if people stay connected. Thats why all the services the website offers are a great solution for keeping a close relationship with everyone still living back home in Colombia. This is mainly due to:



the customer-focused approach, based on safe and easy to use services

the frequent special offers: bonuses on international top ups or discounts on international calls

the great Customer Service available 24/7, both in English and Spanish.

About LlamaColombia.com

LlamaColombia.com is an interactive website designed by KeepCalling, a global telecommunications company registered in 2002 in USA. Presently, KeepCalling provides its services to hundreds of thousands of consumers and businesses worldwide, with a focus on customer satisfaction. KeepCalling has been listed by Inc 5000 as one of the fastest growing companies in the USA for 5 consecutive years. In 2015 the company registered a revenue increase of over 200% from 2011 to 2014.
American International College "We give veteran students transfer credits for service in the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard, helping service members and veterans get a head start on earning their degrees."

American International College has earned the 2017 Military Friendly School designation by Victory Media, publisher of G.I. Jobs, STEM JobsSM, and Military Spouse.

First published in 2009, Military Friendly Schools is the most comprehensive, powerful resource for veterans today. Each year, the list of Military Friendly Schools is provided to service members and their families, helping them select the best college, university, or trade school to receive the education and training needed to pursue a civilian career.

Institutions earning the Military Friendly School designation were evaluated using both public data sources and responses from Victory Medias proprietary survey. More than 1,700 schools participated in the 2017 survey; 1,273 were awarded with the designation.

Ratings methodology, criteria, and weightings were determined by Victory Media with input from the Military Friendly Advisory Council of independent leaders in the higher education and military recruitment community. Final ratings were determined by combining the institutions survey scores with the assessment of the institutions ability to meet thresholds for student retention, graduation, job placement, loan repayment, persistence (degree advancement or transfer) and loan default rates for all students and, specifically, for student veterans.

American International College is proud to assist those men and women who serve our country. The College recognizes the value of the many educational and leadership experiences that occur in the Armed Forces, and the excellent foundation that military experience provides. In turn, we give veteran students transfer credits for service in the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard, helping service members and veterans get a head start on earning their degrees, says AIC President Vince Maniaci.

According to Daniel Nichols, a Navy Reserve veteran and chief product officer at Victory Media, Our ability to apply a clear, consistent standard to the majority of colleges gives veterans a comprehensive view of which schools are striving to provide the best opportunities and conditions for our nations student veterans. Military Friendly helps military families make the best use of the Post-9/11 GI Bill and other federal benefits while allowing us to further our goal of assisting them in finding success in their chosen career fields.

For more information about AICs commitment to attracting and supporting military students, visit AICs website at http://www.aic.edu or https://www.aic.edu/admissions/undergraduate/veterans/. AIC will be showcased along with other 2017 Military Friendly Schools in the annual Guide to Military Friendly Schools, special education issues of G .I. Jobs and Military Spouse Magazine, and on militaryfriendly.com.
EB Industries, a leading provider of electron beam and laser welding services, is pleased to announce the appointment of Thomas A. Shelby to the position of Director of Operations. The hiring of Mr. Shelby is part of EB Industries ongoing strategic initiative, which is focused on expanding the companys capabilities of processing large quantities of parts quickly, while maintaining high levels of quality and cost effectiveness.

EB has always been known for high quality, technical excellence, and superb customer service, but our growth means our operations infrastructure has to expand to maintain our standards, said EB President Steve DeLalio. We plan to apply Toms industry expertise to improve our processes and operational efficiency. These improvements will allow us to advance our production capabilities, as well as add more value-added services, such as rapid tooling development and supply chain integration. Mr. Shelby will be responsible for existing operations and ensuring that EB Industries remains on the cutting edge of precision welding technology and continuing to exceed customers expectations every day.

Mr. Shelby, most recently the Vice President of Operations for Monarch Metal Fabrication in Bohemia, New York, has over 25 years in various manufacturing environments, including over 15 years of management experience and over 20 years in engineering and process development. His background includes working in medical, aerospace, construction, oil and gas, flow control, robotics, scientific and optical industries.

In the past 3 years, EB Industries has made significant investments in both welding technology and people. My prior experience in operations, quality and engineering fit in well with the company's strategic plans. My goal is to work with the amazing EB team, expand and grow into new areas while continuing to maintain operational excellence, Mr. Shelby said.

About EB Industries, LLC

EB Industries, LLC has been a leading provider of electron beam welding, laser welding, and laser hermetic sealing services since 1965. They also offer a range of secondary services on the basis of customer interest, including CAD/CAM product design, tool design and fabrication, metallurgical evaluation, non-destructive testing, and thermal treating. They are ISO 9001:2008 and Nadcap certified. For more information please go to http://www.ebindustries.com.
Gender diversity at every rank and stage of a companys life leads to greater performance.

Today, OpenView, the expansion stage VC, announced its partnership with theBoardlist, a curated marketplace for female board candidates. The announcement marks a significant investment by OpenView to ensure its goals around diversity are met over the next two years.

The firms diversity goals stem from OpenViews participation in the National Center for Women & Information Technologys Pacesetters program, which requires that members set specific, quantifiable and aggressive goals spanning two years. Upon joining, OpenView laid out the following goals:



One-quarter of all on-site interviews for technical roles are women

One-third of all of on-site interviews for sales roles are women

Half of all of potential board seat introductions are women

Today, six months into their membership, OpenView is on or above target for hiring, but is far from meeting its goals around board diversity. Women comprise only 19% of all board seat introductions made by OpenView to its portfolio companies over the last six months.

Gender diversity at every rank and stage of a companys life leads to greater performance, says Devon McDonald, a Partner at OpenView heading up the firms diversity efforts. By joining theBoardlist and acknowledging our shortcomings publicly as well as setting real, quantifiable goals around diversity, we believe we can truly move the needle. Hopefully the steps we have taken and continue to take will not only help OpenView create a more diverse workforce and portfolio, but inspire other VCs and tech companies to set and publish their own goals.

You can learn more about how OpenView plans to leverage theBoardList and NCWIT to meet its diversity targets here.

About OpenView

OpenView, the expansion stage venture firm, helps build software companies into market leaders. Through our Expansion Platform, we help companies hire the best talent, acquire and retain the right customers and partner with industry leaders so they can dominate their markets. Our focus on the expansion stage makes us uniquely suited to provide truly tailored operational support to our portfolio companies. Learn more about OpenView at openviewpartners.com.

About theBoardlist

theBoardlist is a curated talent marketplace for business leaders to recommend, discover and connect highly qualified women with private and public board opportunities at scale. To learn more visit theBoardlist.com.

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Media Contact:

Gail Axelrod

OpenView

gaxelrod(at)openviewpartners(dot)com
Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) is pleased to announce that registration is now open for its July 2017 conference, Mutual by Design: Building Gods Church Together.

The conference will promote the view that the Bible places no gender-based limits on Christian service. The conference theme is based on 1 Corinthians 11:11-12: However, woman is not separate from man, nor man separate from woman in the Lord. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.

The speaker lineup is representative of the scholarship and diversity of the evangelical egalitarian movement, according to CBEs president, Dr. Mimi Haddad. Were proud to feature scholarship from a group of women and men who are racially diverse and come from a wide variety of theological and professional backgrounds, all united by the ardent belief that God intends for all people to serve the church according to their gifts, without gender-based restrictions.

Plenary speakers include Rev. Dr. Mitzi J Smith, professor of New Testament at Ashland Theological Seminary; Dr. Jamin Hubner, chair of Christian studies and director of institutional effectiveness at John Witherspoon College; Dr. Ben Witherington III, Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and emeritus doctoral faculty, St. Andrews University, Scotland; Rev. Gricel Medina, a leadership and community development expert and pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church; and Dr. Michael F. Bird, lecturer in theology at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia. Additional speakers are highlighted on CBEs website.

Registration can be done online or by calling CBE at 612-872-6898. Early-bird registration, available through December 31, is $159. Regular registration is $199. Mutual by Design will be held July 21-23, 2017 at Wyndham Lake Buena Vista Resort in Orlando, Florida.

In its effort to advance a biblical foundation for gift-based rather than gender-based ministry and service, CBE sponsors annual conferences, facilitates local chapters, hosts an online bookstore, and publishes two award-winning journals. For more information, visit http://www.cbeinternational.org.
CenterStone Technologies, provider of the leading B2B wholesale e-commerce platform for consumer brands in the action sport and apparel industries, today announced that ONeill Wetsuits has launched the iVendix platform to support its Order Management initiatives. Over 45,000 dealers and retailers use iVendix worldwide for order management, merchandising, and assortment planning. ONeill, makers of the most technically advanced wetsuits for men, women and kids, chose the iVendix platform to support their reps and customers ability to easily manage all aspects of wholesale ordering.

ONeill Wetsuits IS Manager, Peter McAneny: We had long known CenterStone was the leader in B2B e-commerce in our industry. It was that stability, expertise, and proven record that convinced ONeill that CenterStone was the best fit for us. Also, many of our dealers were already using iVendix with other top brands so adoption for them has been rapid and painless. For our dealers new to iVendix, CenterStone has an excellent support and training group that ONeill can rely on to handle enrollment and training.

CenterStone is transforming the way brands do business with their dealers and reps through powerful and intuitive solutions that empower sales and marketing teams to work together to increase brand penetration and revenue growth. Says Dave Mathias, CenterStones Vice President of Sales & Marketing, We recognize that the landscape is changing and that B2B buyers demand highly personalized interactions. Brands want to transform their wholesale shopping experience to be 24 x 7, share accurate product availability information, move their catalogs from printed to online, and use these B2B interactions to reflect this new reality. Were excited to be working with ONeill because they recognize the value that comes from putting their wholesale business online.

About ONeill:

ONeill, the original California surf, snow and youth lifestyle brand, was founded in 1952 when a young man named Jack ONeill took his unstoppable passion for surfing and used it to beat Mother Nature at her own game.

Pioneering the first neoprene surfing wetsuit, Jack had successfully found a way to extend his surf sessions in the bone-chilling breaks of Northern California. He opened up the garage doors to his first surf shop in Santa Cruz soon after. With amazing tech features like the patented fast drying TechnoButter neoprene, F.U.Z.E. closure system and 2-Air Firewall, ONeill wetsuits are not only technologically advanced, but also offer advanced mobility and unrivalled warmth.

About CenterStone Technologies, Order Management Software:

CenterStone Technologies, and the iVendix suite is leading the way in digital marketing, sales tools and professional strength order management software for footwear and apparel brands. Our company was created from an industry-bred passion for footwear and apparel brands and an understanding of the unique marketing and sales opportunities that can come from wholesale e-commerce sales tools. Every day we strive to deliver real value to our customers; delight our user community with an unparalleled user experience; leverage the power of SaaS-based development, infrastructure and minimal downtime for our clients IT departments; and make CenterStone a special place in which to work. CenterStones applications are easy to use and supported by a multi-lingual team of marketing, technical and industry specialists. CenterStone Technologies, Inc., is headquartered in Denver, Co. with additional offices in Paris, France. For more information visit http://www.centerstonetech.com.

CenterStone Technologies and iVendix, the CenterStone logo, and the iVendix logo are trademarks of CenterStone Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
zpizza, the first artisan-inspired pizza chain, today announced the debut of the zpizza Tap Room in Rancho Cucamonga. The restaurant will open at 11:00 am on December 23rd with an opening day celebration and the first 100 guests to arrive starting at 5:00 pm will receive free pizza for a year*.

The restaurant will feature zpizzas signature artisan brick-oven baked pizzas made with premium ingredients and the franchises new self-serve tap wall with 26 local craft beers and 4 taps serving wine. Customers will pour their own beer or wine by using wristbands they scan at the taps that also track the amount poured. The restaurant has modern and industrial design elements that are friendly and inviting, as well as a large outdoor dog-friendly patio that seats 30.

We wanted to open a zpizza Tap Room because its the kind of place we would be proud to take our family and friends. We have created a very warm, casual environment with plenty of big screen TVs for game nights, said Jesse Torres, zpizza General Manager. Were excited to bring this unique dining experience to the Rancho Cucamonga community and look forward to serving the many residents, travelers and businesses that surround us.

The new zpizza Tap Room is located at 11144 Foothill Blvd. in the Terra Vista neighborhood. Foothill Boulevard is best known as the old, historic Route 66. Hours of operation will be from 11:00 am to 10:00 pm Sunday through Thursday and 11:00 am - 12:00 am (midnight) Friday and Saturday.

Like all zpizza locations, the zpizza Tap Room offers the choice of delivery, dine-in, take-out and catering, in addition to easy online ordering so patrons can customize orders with ease from the comfort of their home or office. For more information, please call (909) 466-7750. For those looking for special discounts and offers year round, the new restaurant will also offer zTribe membership.

zpizza Tap Room Rancho Cucamonga is the sixth location in the U.S., with other locations in Raleigh, NC, Tucson and Phoenix, AZ, Sacramento, CA and Silver Spring, MD. zpizza restaurants are located across the globe, with 70 locations in the United States and 6 additional international stores.

zpizza Tap Rooms serve zpizzas signature brick oven baked pizzas made with premium ingredients, including fresh produce, award-winning skim mozzarella, certified organic tomato sauce and non-GMO flour. Other trademark menu items include salads, wings, shareable appetizers, and build-your-own Jr. Chef pizzas for kids. For more information, please visit http://www.zpizza.com.

*Free small pizza each month for a year

ABOUT ZPIZZA

Founded in 1986 in the heart of an art colony in Laguna Beach, California, zpizza is the first artisan-inspired pizza chain that appeals to traditional pizza lovers, health-conscious consumers and gourmet palates alike. For more information on zpizza and store locations, visit http://www.zpizza.com
Kevin and I partnered to build Jigsaw, which we sold to Salesforce.com, and weve worked together at Digital Impact before that, says Jim Fowler, founder and chief executive officer at Owler. Kevin is one of the brightest stars in the business information industry, and Im thrilled to work with him again.

Prior to Cision, Kevin was general manager and senior vice president at Oracle Marketing Cloud where he orchestrated and executed a prolific acquisition strategy, including Marketing Automation, Data, Omni-Channel Campaign Management, and Web Personalization, and grew Oracle to the #2 player in the entire industry in under three years. Akeroyd has held senior leadership positions at companies including Jigsaw (now Data.com), Salesforce.com, and RR Donnelley.

Owler is fundamentally disrupting the business information industry with its crowdsourced business model, said Kevin Akeroyd. Im honored to work with Jim again and serve on Owlers Board of Directors.

Kevin joins Owlers existing board whose members include:

Jeff Crowe, Managing Partner at Norwest Venture Partners. Jeff currently serves on the boards of Lending Club, RetailMeNot and private companies Extole, Glint, HoneyBook, Madison Reed, Modsy, Opendoor, Owler, Talkspace, and Turn. Jeff is responsible for Norwests investments in Jet (acquired by Walmart), Spotify, and Uber. Jeffs past investments include Badgeville (acquired by Callidus), deCarta (acquired by Uber), Jigsaw (acquired by Salesforce.com), amongst many others.

Patricia Nakache, General Partner at Trinity Ventures. Patricia has investments in EAT Club, KIXEYE, Mayvenn, Owler, Ruby Ribbon, ThredUP, and Turo. Patricias past investments include Affinity Labs (acquired by Monster Worldwide), Care.com (IPO), LoopNet (IPO), PayScale (acquired by Warburg Pincus), Sabrix (acquired by Thomson Reuters), and more.

Patrick Spain, Co-founder and long-time chairman and CEO of Hoovers, Inc., Spain led the company from a small book publisher in 1992 to a profitable, online business information services company with $31 million in revenue in 2001 with a sale to D&B in 2003 for $119 million. Following Hoovers, Spain founded and served as chairman and CEO of HighBeam Research, an online research service, which he started in 2002 and sold to Cengage Learning in 2008. Currently, Spain is the Chairman & CEO First Stop Health, and an investor in other companies.

Jim Fowler, founder and CEO of Owler. Prior to Owler, Jim founded Jigsaw in 2003 and was CEO until it was acquired by Salesforce for $175 million in 2010. Jigsaw is best known for pioneering crowdsourcing in the B2B information industry and for creating the business category of Data-as-a-Service (DaaS).

About Owler

Owler (http://www.owler.com) is the crowdsourced business insights platform that business professionals use to outsmart their competition, gain competitive insights, and uncover the latest industry news and alerts. Owler is powered by an active community of over 1 million business professionals, who contribute unique business insights such as competitors, private company revenue, and CEO ratings. From startups all the way to large enterprises (including 96% of the Fortune 500), CEOs, salespeople, marketers, product managers, and all types of business professionals use Owler daily.

With unique data on 15 million searchable company profiles and proprietary community driven Competitive Graph, Owler helps business professionals uncover competitive insights and discover new companies that participate in their space. Owlers web platform provides members with real-time actionable insights not found anywhere else.

Launched in 2014, and funded by Norwest Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures, Owler is headquartered in San Mateo, CA with offices in Coimbatore, India.
The Upton Law Firm announces that on Friday, December 9, 2016, WLPR morning drive DJs Chaz & AJ broadcasted live from Jordan's Furniture in New Haven, where they hosted the Chaz & AJ McDermott Chevrolet & Lexus Toy Drive. The Upton Law Firm is proud to have sponsored this holiday toy drive to benefit children in Milford and surrounding areas.

The toy drive featured performances and appearances from comics, local news personalities, politicians, School of Rock and more. As a special treat, Jefferson Starship performed live as part of the event.

Last year's toy drive raised over $105,000 in cash and toys for Connecticut children. Beneficiaries of the toy drive include McGivney Community Center in Bridgeport, The Children's Center of Hamden, Boys & Girls Village in Milford, The Village for Families & Children, Family & Children's Agency, and Boys and Girls Club of Lower Naugatuck Valley.

The Upton Law Firm is proud to have served as one of ten sponsors for this year's toy drive. The attorneys and staff at the firm are pleased to have been able to come together at this time and support such a worthwhile event.

About The Upton Law Firm

With offices in West Hartford and Milford, The Upton Law Firm provides a diverse legal practice to the people of Hartford County and New Haven County. Owned and operated by United States Military Veterans, the attorneys at the firm focus on providing the utmost in personalized, effective legal advice and representation in the areas of personal injury law, criminal defense, divorce and family law, real estate closings, wills and trusts, workers' compensation, social security disability, and Veteran's issues.
This years contest was a bigger version of the one that Airtel conducted last year and hence, we partnered with Kirusa to benefit from their Contest Application platform. I am delighted to announce that the results were marvelous.

Airtel Rwanda, a leading telecommunications network company, successfully organized a consumer promotion contest titled Tunga,' in partnership with Kirusa, a global leader in providing telecom and social media solutions. The promotion that ran from August 11, 2016, to November 17, 2016, recently concluded last week where Airtel handed over a brand new car Suzuki Alto to the lucky winner that participated in answering the trivia questions.

The 90-day promotion was a series of SMS trivia quizzes, wherein subscribers would SMS or call 155 to mark their answers. Subscribers earned 100 points for every correct answer and received 50 additional points for attempting. Weekly Tunga promotion winners won new motorbikes, for over 12 weeks, and the grand winner being awarded the New Suzuki Alto-800. The contest also brought forth daily winners as well, who got airtime transferred on their Airtel account balance.

Airtel Rwanda has received a remarkable response from its subscribers since launching the contest on Kirusas Contest Application (KCA) technology platform.

Airtel Rwanda Director, Moses Abindabizemu said, Our Tunga promotion was organized as a gesture of appreciation towards our customers for investing their trust and loyalty in Airtel. Which is why we created an opportunity, wherein customers can stand to win a range of prizes. This years contest was a bigger version of the one that Airtel conducted last year and hence, we partnered with Kirusa to benefit from their Contest Application platform. I am delighted to announce that the results were marvelous.

On a similar note, Barinderpal Mumick, Vice President of Operations, Kirusa said, We are honored to have collaborated with Bharti Airtel in this effort to maximize customer engagement in Rwanda. We hope that this gesture goes a long way in making an active and positive imprint amongst Rwandans.

About Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high-speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 359 million customers across its operations at the end of July 2016. To know more, please visit, http://www.airtel.com

About Kirusa

Kirusa is a global leader in providing telecom & social media solutions that enable customers to have a voice and connect seamlessly. Kirusas solutions include InstaVoice, InstaVoice Celeb, InstaVoice Sports, myGenie & a host of mobile marketing solutions, which are offered in partnership with over 40 mobile carriers in Africa, India, LatAm, and the Middle East, as well as via the app stores for iOS, Android & Windows. Kirusa solutions are built on its patented technology and its highly reliable, scalable multimodal & cloud platforms, which manage over 1.6 billion calls a month. Kirusa solutions are being used by over 85 Million mobile users in four continents every month. Kirusa has been recognized as one of Top 20 most promising technology companies by Silicon India and one of Top 25 emerging technology companies by Smart Techie magazine. The InstaVoice app won first prize at NJTC Mobile Apps Forum. Informa selected InstaVoice as a finalist for the Best App in Africa. Headquartered in New Jersey and led by an experienced team of wireless telecom executives and technologists, Kirusa has offices in four continents. InstaVoice is a US registered trademark of Kirusa, Inc. For more information, visit: http://www.kirusa.com

For further inquiries, please contact

For Airtel Rwanda

Rutarindwa Bob

Account Manager PR

Tel: +250738188002

Email: bob.rutarindwa(at)hkstrategies.co.rw

For Kirusa

Alchemy Corporate Communications

Anju Makin

Tel: +1(973) 536-2652

E-mail anju_makin(at)alchemycc.com
One of their many California locations that leverages xtraCHEF for invoice processing and data analytics Adding 800 Degrees Pizza as a customer holds great importance as they are key players in the fast casual restaurant space. - Dayna Barringer, Director of Business Development at xtraCHEF

800 Degrees Pizza has chosen xtraCHEFs cost automation technology to automate paperinvoice processing at all of their California locations.

The fit seemed to make sense as soon as the two companies met in Chicago.

I had been searching for a system that would help us as we moved accounting functions. I came across xtraChef at the National Restaurant Association show and was immediately impressed. Once all setup is complete is truly is as simple as taking a picture and sending it off. The onboarding process takes a little time but xtraChef is extremely responsive during the whole process. Our management and backoffice staff are able to focus on other tasks instead of manually entering data and we were able to reduce some headcount. No more weekly packages having to be picked up or overnighted to the office.  Steve Overholt, CEO, 800 Degrees Pizza

XtraCHEF packages superior technology in a unique architecture that provides a onestep solution that is both innovative and economical.

Adding 800 Degrees Pizza as a customer holds great importance as they are key players in the fast casual restaurant space. They have been pivotal in helping us work more efficiently with fast casual concepts and making our product scalable over numerous locations, particularly for QBO customers. We are excited to help provide an invoice processing platform that will assist 800 Degrees Pizzas ability to streamline their BOH processes as they continue to grow.  Dayna Barringer, Director of Business Development at xtraCHEF

About xtraCHEF:

XtraCHEF is a mobile, subscriptionbased application that captures, digitizes, maps, and autocodes vendor invoices and purchase inventory in realtime. Extraction technology reads an invoice image line byline, warehouses it in the Cloud, and provides timely and accurate reporting that allows restaurants to gain transparency in their workflow and to have a firm grasp on their daily spending across multiple outlets from a simple and easy to use platform.

About 800 Degrees:

800 Degrees serves up its Old World Neaopolitan-style pizzas in wood-fired ovens with local ingredients and cured meats and flour imported from Italy. They currently have 9 locations in the US, and 7 locations overseas. 800 Degrees Pizza plans to grow more aggressively through a combination of franchising in the U.S. and internationally, along with company-owned locations.
David Burkes Primehouses Tasso Toasted Ravioli & Maple Bacon Macarons Bacon is the one gift that everyone loves, it always fits, and it never goes out of style, Seth Zurer, co-founder of Baconfest Chicago

Just in time for the holidays, tickets for Baconfest Chicago 2017 are on sale now. Snuggies, Chia Pets, Lazy Mop Slippers, lets stop the holiday gift giving madness. Instead of more stuff, give a once-in-year bacon experience, said Seth Zurer, co-founder of Baconfest Chicago. Bacon is the one gift that everyone loves, it always fits, and it never goes out of style.

On March 31 and April 1, more than 150 of the citys best chefs will gather together with members of the bacon community to celebrate pork and culinary ingenuity at the ninth annual Baconfest Chicago. Baconfest Chicago 2017 will unfold over the course of three sessions at the UIC Forum located at 725 West Roosevelt, each with its own unique menu of creative bacon dishes and its own lineup of celebrated chefs.

2016 Baconfest Chicago Highlights

From left to right: Autre Monde Cafes Bacon Pate Banh Mi Sandwich - Bacon pate, cherry bomb relish, Kewpie mayo, cilantro, baguette, David Burkes Primehouses Tasso Toasted Ravioli & Maple Bacon Macarons - Ravioli created with a blend of pea, egg, and smoked seasoned pork jowl paired with a bacon macaron with maple buttercream and bacon caramel and Honey Butter Fried Chicken Bacon Chicken and Grits with bacon, grits and fried chicken.

Baconfest Chicago Tickets

Early Bird pricing for General Admission tickets will be $75 plus ticketing fees; Early Bird VIP tickets will go for $175 plus fees. Once Early Bird tickets are sold out, prices rise to $100 for General Admission and $200 for VIP. All ticket holders get access to their selected General Admission session, including unlimited bacon dishes from more than 50 chefs as well as seven drinks tickets good for beer, wine and cocktails. VIP ticket holders are allowed one hour of early access to the session selected, with no crowds and unfettered access to bacon pleasure. Tickets to the event are on sales now at baconfestchicago.com/ticket. A limited number of discounted Early Bird tickets will be available for purchase.

Baconfest Chicago supports the Greater Chicago Food Depository with a donation from event proceeds, a raffle on site and a food drive at the event. Over its eight year history, the event has generated more than $360,000 in donations to the area's largest food bank. This translates to more than 1.1 million meals for hungry people in our community.
Paula Allen, vice president of human resources for FirstService Residential, North Americas largest residential property management company, has been selected to participate in the South Florida Business Journals HR Roundtable on Friday, January 13, in Fort Lauderdale.

Allen will join fellow human resources professionals from across South Florida, to discuss Banking on Millennials. The roundtable discussion will focus on the unique characteristics of Millennials, in contrast to Baby Boomers and Generation X. They will talk about effective strategies to motivate and mentor millennials  the next generation of leaders key to furthering businesses success.

Allen joined FirstService Residential in 2015, bringing with her more than 20 years of HR industry-related experience. Prior to joining FirstService Residential, Allen worked for several major corporations in South Florida, including Baptist Health, the largest healthcare organization in South Florida, and Burger King, where she led a team that supported operations with annual revenue in excess of $10 billion.

FirstService Residential has given me the opportunity to bring my extensive experience to the thriving, fast-growing industry of community association management. It is an honor to share what I have learned from so many years in human resources with our associates, and especially with the communities in our care, said Allen. Serving on this distinguished panel is an extension of that. I look forward to sitting alongside my peers and learning from their insights.

About FirstService Residential

FirstService Residential is North America's largest manager of residential communities and the preferred partner of HOAs, community associations and strata corporations in the U.S. and Canada. FirstService Residential's managed communities include low-, mid- and high-rise condominiums and cooperatives, single-family homes, master-planned, lifestyle and active adult communities, and rental and commercial properties.

With an unmatched combination of deep industry experience, local market expertise and personalized attention, FirstService Residential delivers proven solutions and exceptional service that add value, enhance lifestyles and make a difference, every day, for every resident and community it manages. FirstService Residential is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation, a North American leader in the property services sector. For more information, visit http://www.fsresidential.com
Wolter Power Systems recently worked together with the American Red Cross, Stiegler Electric and Generac Industrial Power to ensure the supply and installation of a Generac emergency power generator at the American Red Cross facility in Green Bay, WI to support lifesaving efforts.

The American Red Cross works to care for those in need with numerous locations across the United States and abroad. This time, it was The American Red Cross in Green Bay, WI in need. In order to keep the blood flowing, its vital for the lights to stay on, blood donor equipment to function and the refrigerated storage units, cold. Thats why when the American Red Cross asked for help, it was our turn to step in. They needed a new emergency generator solution to aid during power outages or disasters that could last for days or even months.

Being located in Green Bay Wisconsin, winters average below freezing temperatures as the city is only one hour from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Its vital for the American Red Cross to provide proper heating and air conditioning in its facility at all times for the surrounding communities.

"Together, Wolter Power Systems, Generac and Stiegler electrical contractors worked to install a new Generac Industrial Power 50 kW diesel generator, one of the most reliable and powerful systems in the market today" stated Joe Rubens, VP of Sales at Wolter Power Systems.

The NEC and NFPA compliant Generac diesel system has two outputs; one for life safety and the other for emergency power. The System features a sound attenuation package, keeping the noise produced by the generator down to a minimum. Since the American Red Cross is surrounded by residential homes, keeping noise to a minimum was an important feature.

The switch over from the old system to the new Generac 50kW generator transitioned successfully. The life safety and backup power supply proved its speed and reliability during a critical situation simulation at just 6 seconds! Every month the new Generac system is tested to ensure its proper operation. For an industrial power system that sits and waits in the background, its one of the most important aspects to the American Red Crosss continued operation. They never miss a beat.
Best Buddies International, a global nonprofit dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), is collaborating with the private, nonprofit National University to integrate Sanford Harmony, an innovative social emotional learning program that helps reinforce positive peer interactions among children through easy-to-use activity and lesson plans.

Through the leadership of National University, Sanford Harmony is being introduced to students in public and private schools and youth programs around the country. Designed to improve relationships among children, and into adulthood, Sanford Harmony aligns strongly with the goals and principles of the Best Buddies program, which helps to eradicate the social, physical and economic isolation of millions of individuals with IDD.

Best Buddies is honored to partner with National University to offer Sanford Harmony to our student participants and further progress our mission of friendship and social inclusion in a powerful way, said Anthony K. Shriver, Best Buddies Internationals Founder and Chairman. This is an incredible addition to the Best Buddies curriculum and I truly do believe that it will change the way our participants learn about the core values of Best Buddies, including diversity, empathy, inclusion, and communication.

The partnership with the San Diego-based National University and its Sanford Harmony program helps reinforce the mission of Best Buddies, which helps individuals with disabilities form meaningful friendships with their peers, secure successful jobs, live independently, improve public speaking, self-advocacy and communications skills, and feel valued by society. Sanford Harmony is in the process of being adopted by 500 Best Buddies elementary and middle school programs around the country -- a number that represents about 10,000 students in 44 cities -- as part of Best Buddies efforts to support and foster friendships and collaborations between volunteers and Best Buddies partners.

We are so very pleased to be collaborating with Best Buddies to bring Sanford Harmony to their programs since it addresses such a critical need in our society, said Dr. Michael R. Cunningham, Chancellor of the National University System. Sanford Harmony is helping children of all backgrounds learn to respect each other and collaborate, creating a foundation that will last a lifetime.

To date, Sanford Harmony is in various stages of adoption in more than 16,970 classrooms around the country, which represents over 366,000 students in more than 20 states. Designed to integrate seamlessly into classroom and learning environments, Sanford Harmony was inspired by businessman and philanthropist T. Denny Sanford, who saw a need for developing strong social and emotional skills in children as a way to improve relationships between adults. The PreK-6 research-based program, which includes classroom lesson plans, storybooks and activity cards available in a toolkit-style box, has been found to encourage positive attitudes toward school, increased academic performance and empathy as well as reductions in stereotyping and aggression.

National University, which has the 10th largest school of education in the country and a substantial special education program, is leading the national expansion of Sanford Harmony through collaborations with other universities, a group called the Sanford Education Collaborative that is introducing the program to schools, after-school programs and in conjunction with other youth-focused organizations within their own regions. The program expansion phase involves public and private schools in major school districts spanning from Los Angeles to New York City, as well as organizations such as local Boys and Girls Clubs, Head Start programs and a recent partnership with LAs best after-school enrichment programs.

About Best Buddies International

Best Buddies is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Founded in 1989 by Anthony K. Shriver, Best Buddies is a vibrant organization that has grown from one original chapter to more than 1,900 middle school, high school, and college chapters worldwide. Today, Best Buddies eight formal programs  Middle Schools, High Schools, Colleges, Citizens, e-Buddies, Jobs, Ambassadors, and Promoters  engage participants in each of the 50 states and in over 50 countries, positively impacting the lives of more than 900,000 people with and without disabilities around the world. In many cases, as a result of their involvement with Best Buddies, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities secure rewarding jobs, live on their own, become inspirational leaders, and make lifelong friendships. For more information, please visit http://www.bestbuddies.org, facebook.com/bestbuddies or twitter.com/bestbuddies.

About National University and its Sanford Education Center

National University, founded in 1971, is among the largest private, nonprofit universities in California with more than 150,000 alumni. The University, an affiliate of the National University System, offers programs through two Colleges and four Schools and it ranks as having among the Top Ten largest schools of education in the country. The University is also the home of the Sanford Education Center, established in 2014 through the generous support of philanthropist T. Denny Sanford to provide innovative programs in the nonprofit and PreK-12 sector. The Center, in coordination with universities around the country, is leading the national expansion of three initiatives: Sanford Harmony, Sanford Inspire and the Sanford Institute of Philanthropy. Learn more about the Centers initiatives here: http://www.nu.edu/SanfordEducationCenter.html
Prize Wheel at the Flatiron North Plaza

Join in the fun at 23 Days of Flatiron Cheer, a holiday event at Flatiron District.

Cesar New York, the North American flagship for Italian kitchen cabinetry company Cesar, has contributed a special prize to Flatiron prize wheel, which attendees may spin at the event, which is happening at various days and times everyday until December 23, 2016. This will be the final weekend of prize wheel fun.

The events will take place at North Flatiron Public Plaza. Tonights guests will get free hot chocolate from La Pecora Bianca and a chance at the prize wheel.

The events are part of 23 Days of Flatiron Cheer, an event that kicked off December 1 in the Flatiron district. The program was coordinated by the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership Business Improvement District. Several local businesses contributed prizes, gifts, or refreshments.

For more details on 23 Days of Flatiron Cheer, visit: http://www.flatirondistrict.nyc

Cesar New York is Cesar Italys North American flagship location. Cesar is a luxury European kitchen cabinet company that produces extremely high quality contemporary kitchen cabinet and kitchen storage solutions. Cesar New Yorks showroom is open to trade designers and to the public. It is located at 50 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010.
The Massachusetts Chapter of the Women's March on Washington (WoMaWaMa) today announced that, thanks to a multifaceted readiness campaign, they now have over 8,100 registrants. This is the second most number of registrants of any state participating in the Womens March on Washington, which will be held on January 21, 2017. The march is expected to draw 250,000 nationally and is part of a growing international grassroots movement designed to send a clear message on the first day of the new administration that womens rights are human rights.

WoMaWaMa has created a number of ways to get 10,000 Bay State marchers to and from DC safely, including:



A centralized website with bus, organizing, and other march-related information. tiny.cc/womawama

Twenty lead organizers responsible for organizing each county and large metropolitan area.

Daily communications via email, Facebook and social media. The WoMaWaMa email opt-in list has more than 5,000 contacts.

An information page with bus times by city of departure using crowd sourcing technologies through Skedaddle and Rally Bus. Over 30 buses are being tracked and publicized. The schedule is posted at: tiny.cc/womawama/getting-to-the-march.

A partnership with Womens Fund of Western Massachusetts to raise money to provide financial assistance to support women traveling to the march who otherwise wouldnt be able to afford to go.

The state is the first to offer themed clothing as a fundraiser to support women getting to the march and to build an organization after the event: https://teespring.com/stores/womawama

Were inspired by the work of Massachusetts, says Mrinalini Chakraborty, Lead Coordinator for Illinois and National State and Global Coordinator for the Womens March on Washington. The leaders in Massachusetts have created a scalable, effective infrastructure in a matter of days. We love sharing ideas back and forth with Tami Gouveia and her team.

Our registrant and participation levels are second only to New York, says Senator Jamie Eldridge. I am excited to see that Massachusetts is once again a hotbed of independent thinking and precedent-setting leadership. I encourage residents to sign up, and more importantly, to attend the march. You can make a difference.

However, the reason for the traction in Massachusetts goes far beyond operations and logistics. According to WoMaWaMa leader Tami Gouveia, In Massachusetts, weve found that being inclusive is crucial. Our entire approach emphasizes diversity and inclusion. We were the first to announce a truly diverse team. We feel like that was critical for our success in attracting so many supporters.

To date, WoMaWaMa has 8,000 registrants for the March on Washington. Their goal is to achieve registration levels of more than 10,000. To that end, the group continues to encourage women, men and families to join the march. To learn more and register today, visit tiny.cc/womawama.

RELEVANT QUOTES #WhyIMarch

Acton, MA

Tami Gouveia, Lead Organizer, WoMaWaMa

So many women  Muslims, Latinas, women of color, indigenous, disabled, low-income, lesbian and transgender women  were insulted by the rhetoric of this years election. Marching in solidarity with women from diverse communities is a vital step toward healing the divisions that have been created over the years. I am so proud of the Massachusetts Chapter and all our efforts to lead in the fight for equity and justice for all.

Acton, MA

Nicole T. LaGuerre, State Co-Leader, WoMaWaMa

Originally from Jamaica and proud of it, I became a US Citizen so I could vote in the last election. I have always been attracted to fighting for the rights of women. Now, I am inspired by all the activists before us and those currently fighting for social justice, equity, and human rights. We wont rest until women have parity and equity at all levels of leadership in society. Its an inclusive and exciting group. Being part of it is the most fun I've had to date.

Pittsfield, MA

Rupal Parmar, AFDP, State Co-Leader, WoMaWaMa

As a first generation Hindu American, I have worked hard to break from tradition and create my own journey. I know first hand the struggles Hindu women face to obtain freedom. I support the march for the belief that we are all equal and deserve to live in a kinder, more uplifting world free of hatred.

Cambridge, MA

Johanna Schulman, State Co-Leader, WoMaWaMa

My wife and I were the 19th same-sex couple in the country to be granted a marriage license. It is not overly dramatic to say that our well-being, safety andfor some of usour very lives are on the line. The election of this President has emboldened racists, xenophobes and misogynists to come out of the shadows in disturbing and dangerous ways. Im not afraid of a long fight. Weve done this before and can do it again. And besides, the Massachusetts team is a joy to work with.

Newton, MA

Christina Bauer, Marcher

Women across the US are worried about how their families will pay the bills. Yes, were marching for tolerant language, but were also laser focused on the language of campaign promises, too. We must hold folks accountable for policies that drive true economic growth. Im originally from Buffalo, NY, an area thats been called the buckle of the rust belt. Weve rebuilt our economyas have other regions such as Clevelandbut those proven strategies havent been put forward as part of a comprehensive post-election policy to help areas that are facing hardship. With this march, women have a voice. We wont be quiet until things change.

Somerville, MA

Shuo Jim Huang

"I, like many people of color I have felt constantly on edge after the election. Seeing the various rallies of support  like at the Greater Boston Islamic Cultural Center last week and the Womens March on Washington  make me feel safe and like I can finally let my guard down. These events for solidarity make me realize that a lot of people truly had both my back and the backs of others when/if things get really bad."

ABOUT THE MARCH

The Womens March on Washington is on track to be the largest demonstration ever in response to a presidential inauguration. Sister marches are being planned in Boston, Pittsfield, and Worcester on the same day for those who are unable to make the trip to D.C.

For more information about the Womens March on Washington  Massachusetts Chapter:

Website: tiny.cc/womawama

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/589686194556600

Twitter: @womawama

Instagram: /womawama

FOR MEDIA INQUIRIES:

Tami Gouveia

Lead Organizer

Massachusetts Chapter of the Womens March on Washington

Massachusetts(at)womensmarch(dot)com

978-844-6870
AIM Solder, a leading global manufacturer of solder assembly materials for the electronics industry, is pleased to announce that Timothy ONeill, Technical Marketing Manager, successfully completed the Application Specialist course of study on IPC-A-610, Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies, and is now recognized as a Certified IPC Specialist.

With this accomplishment, Timothy ONeill shows his continued ability to provide the highest quality of technical support and recommendations to AIMs current and potential customers.

About Timothy ONeill

Timothy O'Neill is the Technical Marketing Manager for AIM Solder. Operating out of AIM U.S. Headquarters, Mr. O'Neill is responsible for developing and optimizing product and technical information, collaborating with complementary suppliers and equipment manufacturers and ensuring AIMs products exceed expectations and meet market requirements.

Mr. O'Neill is also a technical writer and presenter for industry trade publications and events. He has co-authored several papers on PCB assembly subjects.

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.

Upcoming Events:

February 14-16, 2017  IPC APEX Expo 2017  San Diego, CA
AP collects truckload of toys for Toys for Tots drive.

Temperatures may be below freezing, but that has not stopped Adolfson & Peterson Construction (AP) employees from heating things up with their holiday Toys for Tots drive. Exceeding expectations, AP collected and donated a total of 212 toys and $5,000! On Thursday, December 15, AP employees bundled up to bare the 2 weather to drop-off the truckload of toys and present the large check on KARE 11s 6:00 PM newscast.

AP continually seeks ways to give back and pay-it-forward through community service. Across the country, employees exemplify APs vision to build a better tomorrow and enhance communities for future generations. Employees at each regional office make a lasting impact by supporting local charitable and community organizations they are passionate about. Every year, hundreds of AP employees generously donate their talents, their energy and thousands of hours of their time to charitable organizations around the country.

As an office, AP finds a way to give back several times throughout the year, especially around the holidays. In November, the office conducted a Clean Out your Cupboards food drive  collecting over 350 pounds of food, which was donated to St. Louis Park Emergency Program (STEP). Last years big holiday focus was with Cornerstone, a local violence prevention and emergency service organization. AP donated over 175 items for their Holiday Shop  their annual holiday program for hundreds of kids and families who are struggling from abusive homes to receive and pick out a few holiday gifts to lighten the burden they face. Furthermore, in February AP plans partner with American Red Cross to host a Blood Drive.

This holiday season, AP selected to give back to the community by collecting toys for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program  a program that collects and distributes new toys to help less fortunate children, throughout local communities, experience the joy of Christmas. As an officially recognized Toys for Tots drop-off location, APs office and each job site collected new, unwrapped toys and money from Monday, November 21  Wednesday, December 14. Additionally, they reached out to over 11 nearby businesses to encourage their participation as well. Boxes full of toys started to take over the front office on Wednesday, December 14 as toys were collected from each job site and piled onto the tables already full of toys. It filled up even more with another box full of toys donated by local business, Catapult-Me. Once all toys were received, 15 brave AP employees stood out in the freezing cold temperatures to haul the truckload of toys over to KARE 11s Toys for Tots drop-off tent and present the $5,000 large check.

It may be cold outside, but AP and their employees generous donation will be sure to warm and brighten the spirits of many less fortunate children and families this holiday season!

About AP

Adolfson & Peterson Construction (AP) is a U.S.-based, privately held builder that is consistently ranked among the top 50 construction managers and general contractors in the nation. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the company delivers innovative and collaborative building solutions for clients across the country from its regional offices in Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis and Phoenix. Founded in 1946, AP serves clients in the education, healthcare, commercial, municipal, multifamily, hospitality and senior living market sectors. For more information, visit http://www.a-p.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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We are committed to helping them avoid risks while reducing the burden of necessary change-management as part of their compliance obligations.

Invoiceware by Sovos, the leader in Latin American electronic invoicing and fiscal reporting, has extended its Mexico CFDI e-invoicing solution to support companies mandated to implement significant electronic invoicing upgrades by July 1, 2017. As the biggest CFDI schema update since 2011, companies must comply with several new validations as part of the Mexican tax authoritys goal to improve the accuracy and quality of the transactional data being collected.

Recently acquired by Sovos Compliance, Invoiceware International simplifies e-invoicing and fiscal reporting compliance for multi-national companies such as Brown-Forman, The Coca-Cola Company and Philips in one of the most complex regulatory environments in the world. The leading compliance-as-a-service platform in the region helps clients increase internal efficiencies while reducing the risk and costs associated with fiscal compliance across Latin America. Invoiceware by Sovos provides complete compliance support for companies affected by Mexicos e-invoicing mandates, solving challenges associated with configuration, accounts payable and accounts receivable processes, and language barriers.

When Mexicos tax authority (the SAT) mandated CFDI v3.3 in December 2016, it listed several new validations to help improve transactional processes and data accuracy. Companies operating under the current CFDI v3.2 schema in Mexico are currently required to go live with these updates by July 1, 2017. Specific validations for CFDI v3.3 include: 23 new catalogs, time zones with respect to the place of issuance, transferred and retained tax according to catalogs, and use of additional currencies outside of the peso.

Now that the much anticipated CFDI v3.3 has been mandated by the SAT, companies operating in Mexico will need to prepare quickly in order to implement these significant changes in the next six months  or risk significant business disruption, said Steve Sprague, general manager, Invoiceware by Sovos Compliance. Our clients doing business in Mexico have experienced the constant evolution of e-invoicing legislation in this part of the world. We are committed to helping them avoid risks while reducing the burden of necessary change-management as part of their compliance obligations.

Click here for more information about Mexico and the SATs CFDI v3.3 requirements or contact Invoiceware International to learn more.

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About Invoiceware by Sovos

Invoiceware by Sovos Compliance standardizes complex compliance regulations in Latin America for the worlds largest companies, including The Coca-Cola Company, Philips, Kellogg, DuPont and Siemens. As the largest processor of e-invoicing transactions in the region, Invoiceware reduces the risk and cost of compliance, empowering its clients automate government standardized e-invoicing and fiscal reporting to improve supply chain efficiency and optimize cash flow. Invoiceware by Sovos is based in Atlanta with operations covering Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Argentina. For more information, visit invoicewareint.com and follow @InvoicewareInt on Twitter.

About Sovos

Sovos Compliance is a global leader in tax, compliance and business-to-government reporting software, safeguarding businesses from the burden and risk of compliance in thousands of tax jurisdictions around the world. With a 35-year track record of accurate and complete regulatory analysis and a global suite of software solutions, Sovos helps finance, tax and HR professionals in 4,500 companies, including half of the Fortune 500, stay ahead of complex and fast-changing government regulations. The companys compliance platform integrates with a wide variety of business applications, providing the control and visibility required to manage global tax compliance activities. Based in Boston, Sovos has offices throughout North America, Latin America and Europe. For more information visit http://www.sovos.com.
PowWow Mobile Our SmartUX Platform has gained the worldwide trust of customers and partners, across all industries as the enterprise mobility platform of choice to seamlessly modernize and mobilize their systems of record.

PowWow Mobile, the leading enterprise mobility platform that allows companies to deliver powerful, modern native mobile apps quickly, simply and economically, today announced that it increased its annual revenue by 410 percent and grew its global client roster in 2016. New customers spanning government, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, transportation and other industries  many of which are investing in mobility as a catalyst for a broader digital transformation strategy  spearheaded the companys growth.

PowWow Mobile disrupts the speed, complexity and economics commonly associated with delivering productivity enhancing apps to an increasingly mobile-first workforce. The PowWow SmartUX Platform accelerates mobile app development by transforming existing Windows and web applications and workflows into modern mobile experiences or; by creating net new apps that connect to any third-party data source, API or SQL. With PowWow Mobile, users can easily design and deploy personalized, intelligent and secure apps that run anywhere, on any device (PC, laptop, tablet, phone or watch) and any OS (iOS, Android, Windows 10, or HTML5).

PowWow Mobiles significant growth proves that organizations are embracing digital transformation, enabling workforce mobility and increasing productivity by delivering modern app experiences for anytime, anywhere access, on any device, transcending smartphone, tablet and PC, said Kia Behnia, CEO of PowWow Mobile. Our SmartUX Platform has gained the worldwide trust of customers and partners, across all industries as the enterprise mobility platform of choice to seamlessly modernize and mobilize their systems of record."

Todays news follows PowWow Mobiles recent acquisition of the rapid mobile application development platform, StarMobile, and comes just six months after Kia Behnia transitioned from the Board of Directors to CEO. Additionally, PowWow Mobile broadened its management team with several new key hires in marketing, sales, customer success and product development in 2016.

PowWow Mobiles 2016 Milestones Include:

Releases the SmartUX Platform, enabling users to rapidly design, build and deploy personalized, intelligent apps that run anywhere, on any device.

Secures $4.25 million in seed funding.

Kia Behnia hired as CEO.

Named as the 2016 Cool Vendor in Mobile App Development by Gartner.

Becomes the first and only RMAD platform to offer Windows 10 ecosystem support.

Acquires rapid mobile application development (RMAD) platform vendor StarMobile.

Announces expansion into Asia-Pacific through partnership with Japans NTT Software.

Successful customer deployments spanning government, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and transportation industries with over 100,000 users across the globe now using PowWow Mobile based apps.

For more information on PowWow Mobile, visit http://www.powwowmobile.com and follow us on Twitter @powwowmobile.

About PowWow Mobile

PowWow Mobile allows enterprises to transform business applications into modern, mobile app experiences. PowWow Mobile eliminates business-IT friction as enterprises seek competitive advantage and increased productivity through mobile for todays digital workplace. SmartUX Platform accelerates enterprise application transformation by creating new, native mobile apps from any web or Windows app, quickly without sacrificing quality, and at a lower cost than custom solutions or other tools. PowWow Mobile works with customers across industries, including financial services, healthcare, telecom, software, consulting and public sector. PowWow Mobile is based in San Francisco. Learn more at http://www.powwowmobile.com
We expect this momentum to accelerate in 2017 as interoperability standards come to the forefront of HIT decisions and unshackle healthcare providers who have been locked into products that are not meeting their needs.

OP (Office Practicum), the leading innovator in pediatric-specific practice solutions, today announced record bookings growth in 2016, making it one of the fastest growing electronic health record (EHR) companies in the nation and the market leader among pediatric-specific EHR. As one of the only EHRs built for pediatricians, OPs 2016 financial performance proves its filling a gap in the pediatric Health IT market.

While most of the big box brands in the EHR market struggled to maintain their customer base in 2016, OPs record growth proves that pediatricians are looking for - and will switch to - solutions with a specialty-targeted mix of features, workflow and usability, said Gregory H. Anderson, CEO of OP. We expect this momentum to accelerate in 2017 as interoperability standards come to the forefront of HIT decisions and unshackle healthcare providers who have been locked into products that are not meeting their needs.

In 2016, OPs sales growth can be attributed to the markets acceptance of pediatric-specific solutions to achieve real improvements in revenue and profitability, as demonstrated by OPs community of users. Today, the company enjoys a 97 percent client retention rate among pediatric providers in 48 states and the Caribbean who rely on OP to help them navigate ever-changing regulatory challenges, operate more efficiently, increase profitability, and put their focus back on patients.

Filling a Market Need: Purpose-built for Pediatricians

According to The American Academy of Pediatrics most recent child health policy agenda, only eight percent of office-based EHRs contain full pediatric functionality. Further, pediatrician participation in the Meaningful Use program has fallen behind that of other providers, despite being early adopters of HIT, demonstrating their frustrations with generic EHRs.

When my practice set out to select an EHR, the most important attribute that we looked for was a pediatric-specific product, said Dr. George Rogu, owner of RBK Pediatrics, a 17 provider, 4 location practice in New York, and one of the newest members of the OP community. Every vendor out there will tell you they do pediatrics, but only a pediatric-specific vendor does it well. Thats why we chose OP.

For more information on how OP connects physicians and patients to an engaged community of the best pediatric resources, people and technology, schedule a demo today and follow us on Twitter @OfficePracticum.

About OP

OP (Office Practicum) is a top ranked provider of electronic health record and practice management software for use in clinical settings. Since 1992, the innovative Office Practicum solution has been delivered to over three thousand pediatricians across 48 states and the Caribbean, ranging from solo providers to enterprise groups. The privately held company maintains primary offices in suburban Philadelphia, Cleveland and central California. For more information visit http://www.officepracticum.com.
"We are pleased to have Farsight Security join S2ERC at Georgetown and participate in the CyberISE research project," said Dr. Eric Burger, S2ERC Director.

The Security and Software Engineering Research Center at Georgetown University (S2ERC ) announced today that Farsight Security, Inc., provider of the worlds only real-time DNS intelligence, has become an affiliate member as S2ERC continues to expand its base of industry members.

Leveraging proprietary technology that provides over 200,000 Domain Name System (DNS) observations per second, Farsight Security delivers the world's largest real-time actionable intelligence on how the Internet is changing. Security analysts around the world use this information to provide critical context to existing threat data in order to increase detection and mitigation of today's Internet security threats.

As an affiliate member of S2ERC, Farsight Security will join one of its signature programs  the Cyber Threat Intelligence Sharing Exchange Ecosystem (CyberISE). This S2ERC initiative consists of several related projects that include technology, policy, legal and economic research. These initiatives all have the same goal of accelerating the adoption of the automated sharing of threat intelligence.

"We are pleased to have Farsight Security join S2ERC at Georgetown and participate in the CyberISE research project," said Dr. Eric Burger, S2ERC Director. "With cyber threats growing in scale, size, speed and sophistication, there is a need for standardized and automated cyber risk intelligence sharing with the goal to transform how we monitor, detect, share, react, and remediate cyber threats."

"We are very proud to become an affiliate member of S2ERC at Georgetown University. Farsight Security looks forward to collaborating with S2ERC members to reduce the risk of cyberattacks around the world. With the adoption of Internet of Things, the attack surface has grown substantially over the last few years. Our DNS intelligence  real-time visibility of a changing Internet  can enrich an organizations existing threat feeds as well as provide new intelligence that measurably increases the speed of detecting and mitigating todays cyber threats," said Andrew Lewman, Chief Revenue Officer, Farsight Security, Inc.

About Farsight Security, Inc.

Farsight Security, Inc. provides the world's largest real-time threat intelligence on changes to the Internet. Leveraging proprietary technology with over 200,000 observations/second, Farsight provides the Internet's view of an organization and how it is changing purposely, inadvertently or maliciously. For more information on Farsight, please visit https://farsightsecurity.com.

About the Security and Software Engineering Research Center at Georgetown University

The Security and Software Engineering Research Center at Georgetown University (S2ERC) is a National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored research center working on the safety, security, and stability of today's communications networks. S2ERC uses applied and basic research to address the technology, policy, regulatory, legal, governmental, and business issues impacting secure networks. S2ERC research results create solutions to technical issues and enable vendors and service providers to offer products and services that real enterprises need and can deploy. Learn more at https://s2erc.georgetown.edu/.
Whether you are inviting family and friends over for a holiday dinner, a New Years Eve party, caroling, gift exchanges or cookie baking, we can tackle some of those big cleaning projects for you before all your company arrives

EMJ Cleaning Services, the premier maid service in the Atlanta area, wants to help homeowners prepare for holiday company and entertaining. The company is offering 50 percent off their normal rates on extra services such as cleaning the refrigerator, oven or garage. This promotion is available to new and existing clients in the Atlanta area, and is good through December 31.

Whether you are inviting family and friends over for a holiday dinner, a New Years Eve party, caroling, gift exchanges or cookie baking, we can tackle some of those big cleaning projects for you before all your company arrives, says Eric Cano, owner of EMJ Cleaning Services. Its a good idea to have the insides of your oven and refrigerator thoroughly cleaned for your Christmas dinner. You may also want to have your garage cleaned so you can create more space for storage, and then after the holidays youll have a good place to put all your decorations when you take them down.

With 50 percent off extra cleaning services, EMJ is trying to make it a little easier for homeowners to get some of these special cleaning projects done. To get the 50 percent discount, all you have to do is mention this promotion when you call to schedule your cleaning, and tell us where you found out about it, Cano says.

EMJ Cleaning Services is the trusted choice for maid services in Atlanta and surrounding communities. In addition to providing the extra cleaning services noted above, EMJ offers a regular residential deep cleaning service which includes a thorough cleaning of all rooms, hallways and entryways. EMJs staff is fully licensed, background checked and bonded, giving customers peace of mind when they are cleaning their home.

To take advantage of EMJs holiday cleaning special and schedule an appointment, please call EMJ at (678) 966-9469. For a free cleaning estimate, fill out EMJs online form at http://www.emjcleaning.com/free-estimates, or send an email to services@emjcleaning.com.

About EMJ Cleaning Services:

EMJ Cleaning is a licensed, bonded and insured professional home cleaning service in Atlanta, Georgia. The company has been in business for over 14 years, and provides cleaning services to residential and commercial buildings six days a week throughout metro Atlanta. EMJ Cleaning provides specific services such as window cleaning, carpet cleaning, heavy duty cleaning, weekly deep cleaning and move-out cleaning; these are offered in both EMJs office cleaning service and home cleaning service. For more information, visit http://www.emjcleaning.com.
Flairsoft leverages Izenda inside its Flairdocs software, enabling users to create reports and dashboards in real time for actionable insight. Leveraging Izenda inside Flairdocs, users can use available data fields and drag and drop to create reports and dashboards in real-time, and share the output with managers, stakeholders, regulators, and other interested parties.

Izenda, offering a self-service business intelligence (BI) and analytics platform for OEM use by software companies and solutions providers, today announced that Flairsoft has expanded its licensing relationship with Izenda. This IT consulting and software solutions company serves public utilities and state clients with Flairdocs - a web-enabled software product that manages the complex interstate property acquisition and agreements associated with real property and Right-of-Way negotiations.

Organizations, utility companies, and governments in the Right-of-Way industry are under increasing regulatory and competitive pressure to improve operational efficiency and provide users the ability to analyze data in real-time, from anywhere, including mobile devices.

Flairdocs is a suite of cradle-to-grave solutions that support property life cycle management with end-to-end tracking and business process automation for all aspects of Right-of-Way acquisition and land management projects. This includes the acquisition, construction, maintenance, and release phases. Automated flexibility makes Flairdocs a perfect fit for everything from highway, pipeline and electrical transmission projects, to renewable energy and communication sectors. Flairdocs ensures project accountability, information security, and legal compliance through an integrated GIS and mobile ready solution.

Izenda aligns with Flairdocs highly configurable, innovative and scalable web-based solution that replaces outdated, time consuming manual processes for document generation, document management, and reporting, said Nick Kulshrestha, Vice President of Operations at Flairsoft. Not only does this automation and inclusion of approved documentation within the application workflow and notification eliminate clerical errors and potential legal issues, but powerful business intelligence and data analytics capabilities provide the insight needed to make in-the-moment strategic decisions imperative to effective negotiations.

Strict Federal and State laws and regulations govern how right-of-way and other property transactions are conducted and recorded. Flairdocs allows for real-time completion of the various forms, agreements based on defined templates and reports associated with the transactions. This gives utilities and government agents mobile access to pertinent property information, such as property owner information, property legal descriptions, and associated rights. The agent can modify those agreements while on site during the negotiations and submit them for legal approval. This real-time access streamlines the right-of-way negotiation process.

Izendas embedded analytics solution powers real-time reporting and dashboards that provide information based on project, geography, status of property acquisition and other parameters an organization may need to smoothly manage their projects. Izenda provides Flairsoft customers a way to manage information and differing state regulations associated with these projects more efficiently and effectively.

Leveraging Izenda inside Flairdocs, users can use available data fields and drag and drop to create reports and dashboards in real-time, and share the output with managers, stakeholders, regulators, and other interested parties, says Flairsofts Kulshrestha. Izendas ability to integrate with our security model to manage user roles and access rights to BI functionality and data, along with Izendas support for multitenancy makes it easier to manage and monitor large projects and growth as we scale and enhances adherence to compliance mandates. These were key drivers in our decision to select Izenda as our preferred integrated BI solution provider.

The Izenda Flairdocs integration also brings benefits for training initiatives. New employees can view interactive dashboards that demonstrate proven methods and strategies. Organizations can more efficiently teach the art of successfully negotiating an easement agreement with a property owner, while reducing training expenses by up to $500,000 per year.

About Flairsoft

Flairsoft is a dynamic information technology firm and a certified small business serving federal, state and commercial clients across the United States since 2001. Its flagship product, Flairdocs, is an innovative, web based, business process management solution developed by Flairsoft in 2003. Flairsoft uses state and federal government experience, coupled with commercial best practices, to empower its customers in the acquisition of business capabilities.

Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Flairsoft has branch offices in Montgomery, Ala. and Tampa, Fla. and federal operations in Fairborn, Ohio near Wright-Patterson AFB. For more information, visit http://www.flairsoft.net. Connect with Flairsoft on LinkedIn http:// https://www.linkedin.com/company/flairsoft.

About lzenda

Izenda offers a self-service business intelligence (BI) and analytics platform designed for independent software vendors, solutions providers and their customers. Izenda embeds seamlessly in applications to deliver BI and analytics directly to the people who need it most  the users of your application. Our integrated BI platform allows end users to easily analyze, visualize, and share valuable data and insights in real time.

Based in Atlanta, Ga. and founded in 2007, Izenda is used by more than 10,000 organizations on a daily basis. For more information, visit https://www.Izenda.com. Connect with Izenda on Twitter (@Izenda), LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/Izenda), and Facebook.
Life in Smoky Mountains is getting back to normal after the recent Gatlinburg fires. Venture Resorts (https://www.cabinsofthesmokymountains.com), the largest vacation rental company in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, today reported that nearly 90% of its vacation cabins were untouched by the recent wildfires.

The fires were definitely scary, and our hearts go out to those who lost their homes, says Billy Parris, general manager of Venture Resorts, Things would have been a lot worse, except for heroic efforts by area firefighters.

Partly because of those efforts, Parris says that the vast majority of his companys rental cabins were untouched by the Gatlinburg fire. Parris reports that Venture Resorts has more than 400 vacation cabins that were unaffected.

We did lose some cabins, says Parris, But immediately after the fire we rebooked guests scheduled to stay in those cabins and moved them to an unaffected cabin, or we refunded their money.

Wildfires swept through the area on November 29th, and the city of Gatlinburg was placed under an evacuation order. Firefighters battled fires in multiple locations throughout Sevierville County. The fires were a tragedy that resulted in 14 deaths.

In total, forest fires burned 14,000 acres - approximately 23 square miles- within Sevierville County and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. However, Parris points out that Sevierville County and Great Smoky Mountains National Park are over 1,400 square miles in size.

If you think about it, less than 2% of the land area burned, he says.

Parris says that he is concerned that misconceptions about the fires may keep travelers away from the Smokies.

Depending on where you stay, you may see little or no evidence of the fire, says Parris. All of the major tourist attractions in the area are open and doing fine.

Despite initial reports that Ober Gatlinburg ski resort was damaged, and that Dollywood was threatened, both venues were undamaged by the fire.

Since the fires, life in both Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge is returning to normal. Both cities are hosting their annual Winterfest, and the area is hosting its well-known Christmas light shows, including Shadracks Christmas Wonderland.

The Smokies are still beautiful, says Parris, And all of us in Gatlinburg are lucky to live and work here.

About Venture Resorts

Venture Resorts is the largest luxury cabin rental agency in the Smoky Mountains, managing over 400 cabins within minutes of Great Smoky Mountain National Park and family-friendly attractions in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

For more information, call (866) 347-6659 or visit one of the companys web sites https://www.cabinsofthesmokymountains.com or https://www.cabinsofpigeonforge.com.
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TSC Advantage Launches Full-Service Website Federal agencies and the energy sector have relied on TSC Advantage for cybersecurity programs and objective enterprise risk assessments, but the new website will give a more cohesive picture of our broad and deep expertise."

TSC Advantage, a leader in cybersecurity consulting and enterprise risk assessment, announced the launch of its new company website http://www.tscadvantage.com. The updated website provides quick and easy access to essential information on the wide range of services that TSC Advantage offers. Visitors will also benefit from easy navigation, helpful resources, and an uncluttered design optimized for viewing on any device or screen size.

The fresh look and new bright design match TSCs empowering view of enterprise security  that a risk-based view of identified information assets combined with a holistic approach to security, will ultimately make organizations more resilient to ever-changing threats.

Many customers know TSC Advantage through its decade of cybersecurity support to federal agencies. Others in the private sector have experienced its enterprise security assessments and solutions to fully understand their security risks and develop a strategic plan to protect their valuable assets. The updated website provides greater detail about the full suite of traditional and new services, including: security programs and planning; insider threat programs; vulnerability scanning and penetration testing; compliance readiness; third-party management.

Federal agencies and the energy sector have relied on TSC Advantage for cybersecurity programs and objective enterprise risk assessments, but the new website will give a more cohesive picture of our broad and deep expertise, said Sean Doherty, president and founder of TSC Advantage. We invite visitors to read our Solutions and Careers pages, and to share our blog, infographics, and Cyber Risk 360 newsletter.

About TSC Advantage

Headquartered in the Washington, DC region, TSC Advantage is a Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) with 10 years of experience helping the federal government and Fortune 500 in the proactive and holistic defense of intellectual assets and sensitive information. A leader in enterprise security assessments, cybersecurity consulting, and managed services, TSC Advantage has also partnered with leading global underwriters to provide pre- and post-binding assessment to support cyber insurance policies for the critical infrastructure market.

To learn more about TSC Advantage, visit http://www.tscadvantage.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Synchrono, a leader in modern demand-driven manufacturing software, today released its 2017 Top Ten Trends in Modern Demand-Driven Manufacturing. The list is based on interactions with hundreds of manufacturers and industry experts addressing challenges, innovation and technologies associated with manufacturing digitization, visibility and synchronization.

Demand-Driven Manufacturing is a method of manufacturing primarily used in discrete engineer-to-order (ETO), make-to-order (MTO, build-to-order (BTO) and make-to-stock (MTS) manufacturing environments where production is based on actual demand (orders or consumption) rather than a forecast. Demand-Driven Manufacturing combines the best of Lean Manufacturing, Constraints Management and Six Sigma principles to synchronize activities, improve production flow, eliminate waste, and drive on time delivery.

Modern Demand-Driven Manufacturers take these principles to new levels. In continuously improving their operations, they create more opportunities for innovation. As such, Smart Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are concepts that Modern Demand-Driven Manufacturers embrace. The 2017 Top Ten Trends in Modern Demand-Driven Manufacturing report provides additional insight into why these concepts are gaining traction and how they will be implemented.

The 2017 Top Ten Trends in Modern Demand-Driven Manufacturing report includes descriptions and real-world examples of each trend. The report is available for online download. To learn more about Modern Demand Driven Manufacturing, visit http://www.synchrono.com/

About Synchrono

Synchrono LLC enables the modern, digital demand-driven visual factory of the future; synchronizing people, processes, machines, materials and data to drive production flow from order inception to delivery. The award winning Synchrono Demand-Driven Manufacturing Platform includes a production planning, scheduling and execution system; ekanban inventory replenishment and supply chain collaboration software; a data collection, historian and automated workflow engine; alert management and monitoring software; and a real-time visual factory information system. The Platform components may be implemented independently or collectively to enable the Internet of Things and an unprecedented foundation for communication, collaboration and continuous improvement. Synchrono helps clients manage constraints, improve flow and drive on-time delivery to maintain a competitive edge. Sync with us at http://www.synchrono.com and follow the Demand-Driven Matters blog at http://www.synchrono.com/blog.
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Buffy Cummins, lead bookseller and assistant buyer at Second Star to the Right Childrens Books in Denver, shares her excitement about The Lotterys Plus One, the first novel for younger readers by Room author Emma Donoghue and illustrated by Caroline Hadilaksono, due out next March.

There is so much to love in Emma Donoghues middle reader debut. Ill admit that I was glad to hear a sequel is in the works, as I definitely dont feel finished with nine-year-old Sumac Lottery and her 11-person family  and I cant wait to see more of Caroline Hadilaksonos illustrations.

I smiled and laughed many times throughout my two readings of the novel. When Sumac and her father are on a plane together, the stewardess asks where her mom is. Ive got two, Sumac tells her. One of them is practicing aikido, and the other is running a free legal advice clinic. Also another dad whos minding my siblings and making something called mulligatawny soup. The stewardess isnt quite sure how to respond, but readers will embrace the quirkiness of this multicultural Canadian family. When a grandfather Sumac has never met begins to show signs of dementia, the family brings him to live at their Toronto home, called Camelottery. Her grandfather is less than happy about this move, and Sumac isnt sure how to feel about his reluctance to accept her family as they are.

I know some readers may accuse The Lotterys Plus One of being just a little too too much, but the longer I live and the more conversations I have with children and teens, the more Im convinced that we all have a little too much in our lives. And our world is certainly as diverse as the wonderful and eclectic bunch who live in Camelottery. Im so glad young readers can be a part of the fun.

Im excited about sharing this book with only children who wish they werent, unschoolers, children from big families, anyone who loves a bit of a hippie element in their reading, book lovers (Sumac takes a book with her everywhere and the titles are usually mentioned), children who would like to see the diversity of their own families reflected in print, and anyone who welcomes a good intergenerational story with great character development.

The Lotterys Plus One by Emma Donoghue, illus. by Caroline Hadilaksono. Scholastic/Levine, $17.99 Mar. ISBN 978-0-545-92581-5
A bookstore opens in a country store in Massachusetts; an indie returns to Missouri; new stores prep for opening in New Jersey and Oklahoma early next year; and more.

B&N and Rutgers to Open in Downtown Newark in February: Newark, N.J., is the latest community to get a boost to its downtown revitalization plans from the opening of a Barnes & Noble Education bookstore in conjunction with a local university, Rutgers-Newark. The 10,000 sq. ft. bookstore will be part of a mixed-use redevelopment, which includes a Whole Foods Market and a Marcus Samuelsson restaurant. Earlier this month Monroe College and Barnes & Noble Education opened a downtown store in New Rochelle, N.Y.

Magic City Books Opening in Tulsa: Tulsa Literary Coalition (TLC), a not-for-profit organization started by former Tulsa City librarian Cindy Hulsey and Jeff Martin, founder of Booksmart Tulsa, will open the for-profit Magic City Books early next year. Hulsey told Bookselling This Week that income from the 3,700 sq. ft. bookstore will be used to enable the coalition to become self-sustaining. The store will have a cafe, a meeting space, and offices for TLC.

Soft Opening for Readers World in Missouri: Cowley Distributing, which previously owned Warrensburg Books and Toys in Warrensburg, Mo., returned to the city following the closing of a Hastings store. The new, general interest bookstore, called Readers World, had a soft opening in the Midtown Connection Shopping Center earlier this month.

Veterans Voice Bookstore Opens Inside the Postie: Bob Neson and his partner, Marsha Robitaille, recently held a grand opening for Veterans Voice Bookstore, which they opened inside Egypt Country Store (aka the Postie) in Scituate, Mass. The bookstore is intended to promote veteran-authored books and DVDs. In the new year Robitaille plans to host monthly book readings and invite book clubs to meet authors.

Author and Bookseller Crystal Wilkinson Named a Southerner of the Year: Crystal Wilkinson, who co-owns The Wild Fig Books in North Lexington with her partner, Ron Davis, was one of Southern Living magazines Southerners of the Year. At first glance, wrote the magazine, author Crystal Wilkinsons shop, The Wild Fig, might just look like any other small, independent bookstore, but inside its become something of a town hall where just as many discussions are had over a new bestseller as about gentrification, race relations, and city issues. Wilkinson received the Ernest J. Gaines Award for her debut novel, Birds of Opulence.
A lot of comics are weird. Some are really out there. One of the upsides of being an offbeat art form is the creative freedom its practitioners enjoy. Writers and artists can let their imaginations run wild, crafting esoteric narratives to take readers on eye-opening psychedelic trips. The comics below are unabashedly strange, their visuals outlandish, and they often explore existential concepts, inviting readers to tune in, freak out, and enhance their consciousness. No substances required.

Strange Tales & Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Jim Steranko. Marvel, 19651968 For his work on Nick Fury and Strange Tales (particularly Dr. Strange), Steranko employed the psychedelic sensibilities of the 1960s in his stylish art, making it visually unique among the other offerings at the time. His innovative breakdownsincluding the first four-page spreadexpanded what could be done on a comic page.

The Incal Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius. Les Humanoides Associes; Epic, Humanoids; 19811988 The cosmological journey of neer-do-well John Difool, a quest through the structure of the universe, is recognized as one of the most influential comics of all time thanks to Jodorowsky's expansive narrative and Moebiuss wildly imaginative art. The original series, The Black Incal, was followed by a prequel, Before the Incal, and sequel, After the Incal.

Shade, the Changing Man Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo. Vertigo, 19901996 During the 90s "British Invasion," Shade (a 70s-era superhero created by Steve Ditko) received the Vertigo treatment, giving the onetime Suicide Squad member a provocative and socially-conscious demeanor. The reimagined Shade now possessed a hallucinogenic cape that could bend reality, and could be killed and reborn in myriad forms.

The Invisibles Grant Morrison et al. Vertigo, 19942000 A teenaged British troublemaker joins a troupe of rebellious psychological agents who fight against inter-dimensional overlords. The series allowed Morrison to explore a cornucopia of postmodern and new age theories and concepts such as hypersigils (Morrison's term for a work of art that is magically imbued with its creator's will).

Promethea Alan Moore, J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray. Americas Best Comics, 19992005 An immortal deity chooses a young girl to be her latest host, leading her on a journey through time, literature and spirituality. On her explorations through the afterlife, Sophie faces literal and figurative demons from her (and her predecessors') past. Moore used much of the comic as a vehicle for this thoughts on mysticism, science, and religion.

Multiple Warheads Brandon Graham. Oni Press; Image, 20072014 A pair of quirky lovebirds traverse a dreamlike landscape while a blue-haired bounty hunter chases down a payout in Grahams sci-fi serial. His blend of American, European, and Japanese styles creates a pastel-colored world filled with aliens, far-out gizmos, and punny argots.

Casanova Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon. Icon; Image, 2006ongoing Casanova Quinn is a reluctant field agent working for E.M.P.I.R.E., an international and inter-dimensional spy agency run by his father. As a member of E.M.P.I.R.E., Casanova jumps between alternate realities to foil plots orchestrated by the nefarious W.A.S.T.E. organization and its enigmatic leader, Newman Xeno.

Lose Michael DeForge. Koyama Press, 2009ongoing Canadian artist DeForges anthology series is a showcase for his warped imaginings and offbeat, genre-bending cartoons. While the art is simplified and often uncolored, the shorts are subversive explorations of psychological themes. DeForges other works, including Very Casual and Ant Colony, also display his penchant for weirdness.

The Understanding Monster Theo Ellsworth. Secret Acres, 20122015 In Ellsworths intricately crafted trilogy, a group of toys in a shapeshifting house save and revive Izadore, a being destined to transcend Toy Mountain and regain his corporeality. Along the way, a bevy of bizarre incidents and obstacles attempt to block Izadore. The story reflects Ellsworths own mentality and ideas on creativity and personality.

BodyWorld Dash Shaw. Pantheon, 2010 A drug-addled botanist ventures into a remote, experimental community in search of a plant with powerful hallucinogenic properties, but what he finds exceeds even his wildest dreams. Shaws vertically-oriented comic is a kaleidoscopic trip into the recesses of the mind, utilizing color and texture for an avant-garde comics experience. Read it in its entirety here.

Forming Jesse Moynihan. Nobrow Press, 2011 Gods, aliens, spirits, and a litany of mythic figures enter into conflict and congress as they compete to assert their authority over Earth and its inhabitants. The origins and intermingling of the deities makes for entertaining interactions and fantastic sequences, all flush with Moynihans vibrant color palette. A sequel, Forming II, was released in 2014, and a third entry is planned.

Green Lantern: Will World J.M. DeMatteis and Seth Fisher. DC Comics, 2001 A young and amnestic Hal Jordan tumbles down the rabbit hole and finds himself in a surreal world where his thoughts manifest themselves physically. Presented in Fishers clean and candy-colored art, Jordan comes upon all matter of unusual characters and happenings, ultimately as a test for mastering his power ring.

The Frank Book Jim Woodring, Alternative Comics; Tundra Publishing; Fantagraphics, 2011 The Frank Book is a collection of over a decade of Woodrings stories and illustrations starring Frank, an anthropomorphic animal character that innocently and haphazardly tramps through life in a trippy cartoon world. Franks blank countenance and naivete make him an ideal vessel for the various morality fables and non-sequiturs he finds himself in. The character has also appeared in Woodrings Weathercraft (2010) and Congress of the Animals (2011).

The Cartoon Utopia Ron Rege Jr. Fantagraphics, 2012 Rege's musings on magic and philosophy are shared through a race of cherubic beings that impart their wisdom in the form of cryptic proclamations and reveries. Every page is crammed with a lattice of lines, geometry, and text resulting in an phantasmagoric wall of art.

The Boulevard of Broken Dreams Kim Deitch. Pantheon, 2002 Ted Mishkin is a troubled animator and creator of the popular character Waldo, a cartoon cat with an off-color affect that Ted dreamt up in childhood. But Waldo is also of a tormentor to Ted, who's gradual divorce from reality causes his life to fall apart. Deitch blurs the line between the real and the imaginary to great effect, while also giving a darkly comic look at the nascent animation industry.

The Bulletproof Coffin David Hine and Shaky Kane. Image, 2010 Hine and Kane celebrate pulp in all its absurdity with the story of a man who comes upon a set of golden age comic books that seem to come to life. The minimal narrative serves as an excuse for the duo to indulge in whatever fantasy they can concoct, with Kanes simple and bold artwork depicting the boffo insanity on every page.

The Zaucer of Zilk Al Ewing and Brendan McCarthy. 2000AD; IDW, 1977, 2012 The Zaucer of Zilk follows its eponymous hero as he escapes his drab reality and assumes the role of a psychedelic hero in a day-glo dreamworld. Plotwise, Ewing and McCarthy are at their most unrestrained and abstract, but beneath the zaniness is a sincere meditation on comics and the self.

American Barbarian Tom Scioli. AdHouse Books; IDW, 2012, 2015 Scioli flexes his Jack Kirby muscles with the bombastic tale of Meric, a young warrior prince in a post-apocalyptic kingdom who must avenge the death of his family. The tri-color-coiffed hero looks like He-Man on acid and does battle with enemies like a colossal pharaoh with tanks for feet. It was originally serialized online and can be read in its entirety here.

Animal Man Grant Morrison et al. Vertigo, 19881990 For years, Animal Man was a largely unused DC superhero with the power to embody animalistic traits. But in the late '80s, writer Morrison took the title to heady new heights which lead its hero to question his reality and even break the fourth wall. As part of DCs New 52 initiative in 2011, the series was given a Cronenberg-inspired reboot that continued its reputation for subversion.

Patience Daniel Clowes. Fantagraphics, 2016 Clowes's science fiction love story stars Jack, a down-on-his-luck man who tries to undo the death of his wife by going back in time. Unsurprisingly, things dont go as planned, and Jack seems to be causing irreparable harm to himself and those around him. As he takes more jumps through time, Jack increasingly experiences dissociative episodes that are visually arresting and unnerving.
Australias long fight over opening the book market to parallel imports may be finally coming to an end, but not one for which publishers and authors had hoped.

Monday, the Australian Productivity Commission, which oversees copyright in that country, issued a report supporting the governments plans to overhaul laws governing commercial protection of creative work. The report states that Australias copyright arrangements are skewed too far in favor of copyright owners to the detriment of consumers and intermediate users. Among the key proposals supporting the government is the intention to end restrictions on parallel book imports before the end of 2017.

That change would open up the book market to direct competition from U.S. and U.K. publishers, allowing retailers to source and sell books from abroad. In addition, the report states that copyright protections on the creative work itself may be far too long, suggesting that protections be limited to as little as five years. It also advocated moving toward implementing fair use provisions similar to those in place in the United States.

Currently, under the Parallel Import Rules, booksellers cannot sell an imported title if an Australian publisher offers the same title on sale within 14 days of the international pub date.

Hundreds of authors, publishers, printers and others associated with Australias creative industries had expressed views opposing the news proposals. Predictably, yesterdays news drew a flurry of negative comment.

Robert Gorman, publisher of Allen and Unwin said, Local publishers directly invest A$120 million in Australian writers and the promotion of Australian stories each year. The Commission's recommendations would jeopardize that investment and risk returning Australian writing to the days when London and New York publishers decided what Australians read.

Author Richard Flanagan was perhaps most colorful when he said, The Productivity Commission is like a deranged hairdresser insisting their client wears a mullet wig.

Most industry members believe the change to parallel imports will ultimately be to the exclusive benefit of online retailers with vast resources and access to broad international catalogs.

The Australian publishing industry is valued at approximately A$1.5 billion a year, publishes 10,000 titles and employs 20,000 people.
Boosted by the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts 1 and 2, sales in the childrens/young adult category jumped 31.1% in July over a year ago, according to figures released by the Association of American Publishers as part of its StatShot program. Cursed Child gave a particular spark to the segments hardcover format, where sales soared 95.2% over July 2015. The other formats in the childrens/YA category all declined in the month, including e-books, which fell 29.3%.

For the first seven months of 2016, sales in the children's/YA category were up 6.3% over a year ago.

Without a book similar to Cursed Child, sales in the adult book segment fell 5.4% in July. The biggest decline came in hardcover, with sales falling 22.2%. Last July, Go Set a Watchman was a huge hit in hardcover. The brightest spot for the adult segment was once again digital audio, with sales up 23.2% in the month. E-book sales fell again, dropping 12.7% in the month.

For the first seven months of 2016, sales of adult books were down 3.3%.

For the entire publishing industry, sales fell 17.9% in July compared to a year ago. The educational segments took the biggest hits, with July sales off 20.2% in the K-12 instructional category and down 27.1% in the higher educational course materials segment.

Sales are based on reports from 1,208 publishers.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Farmers can learn how to market their products to institutional markets such as schools, hospitals, restaurants and grocery stores in a Purdue Extension workshop at the 2017 Indiana Horticulture Congress.

The MarketReady Producer Training Program will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Jan. 12 at the Indianapolis Marriott East Hotel, 7202 E. 21st St., Indianapolis. The MarketReady program was developed by the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service to help producers expand their customer base.

Anyone who wants to improve their sales skills is encouraged to attend, said Roy Ballard, Purdue Extension educator in Hancock County and one of the workshop organizers. While the Horticulture Congress has traditionally focused on fruits and vegetables, producers of beef, pork, lamb, fish, honey and even related value-added products are welcome and will find useful information in the discussions.

Timothy Woods, Extension professor of agricultural economics at the University of Kentucky, will discuss key business functions involved in working with institutional buyers, including packaging, pricing, supply, insurance and quality assurance. The afternoon session will cover direct selling to local school systems.

Participants may attend a working lunch with a panel of buyers who will discuss the Indiana State Department of Agriculture Indiana Grown program and other resources from state and federal agencies. Registration for the lunch is $20.

The MarketReady program is part of the Indiana Horticulture Congress and Trade Show, an annual Purdue Extension conference designed to help commercial and private growers network and learn about the latest news in production practices, pest control, food safety and other topics.

Registration for the full conference is $100 and $75 for each additional participant from the same company. Registration for one day is $70 and $55 for additional participants from the same company. To register online, go to http://bit.ly/INHortReg.

For more information about the MarketReady program, contact Ballard at 317-462-1113 or rballard@purdue.edu.

Writer: Jessica Merzdorf, 765-494-7719, jmerzdor@purdue.edu

Source: Roy Ballard, 317-462-1113, rballard@purdue.edu

Agricultural Communications: (765) 494-8415;

Darrin Pack, dpack@purdue.edu

Agriculture News Page
BETTENDORF -- A man shot by police late Monday was carrying an air pistol, according to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

Around 11:30 p.m. Monday, Bettendorf Police were called to a disturbance at Home Depot, 920 Middle Road, Bettendorf. Arriving officers encountered Joshua G. Price, 19, of Bettendorf, holding what initially was thought to be a handgun.

Mr. Price's behavior included "suicidal tendencies" as he interacted with officers, according to a release from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, which is leading the investigation into the incident. During a confrontation, police shot Mr. Price, later learning he had been holding a "soft-air gun" that closely resembled a real pistol, the news release stated.

Mr. Price was first taken to a local hospital, then sent to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the release states. His wounds are believed non-life-threatening. No one else was hurt during the incident, according to the release.

Stephen Holmes, a Home Depot spokesman, said the incident involved a "former employee threat" and the store was closed at the time.

The officer who shot Mr. Price has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation of the shooting, which is standard procedure. The Davenport Police Department, the Scott County attorney's office and state officials continue to investigate the incident.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP)  Former Illinois U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock has asked a federal judge to delay his corruption trial until the summer.

In a filing Wednesday, Schock's attorneys said they need more time to go through "voluminous" paperwork that they have yet to receive from prosecutors in the case. Schock's trial is currently scheduled to begin Feb. 7 in Springfield. His attorneys are asking the judge to delay the trial until at least July.

The 35-year-old Republican from Peoria pleaded not guilty earlier this month to charges that he misused government and campaign money for personal use. Schock has said he is innocent, referring to the spending in question as "honest mistakes."

The 24-count federal indictment was unveiled last month. It was the culmination of a 19-month investigation that included two grand juries.
CHICAGO (AP)  Officials in Chicago have identified the four people found shot dead last week in a home on the city's South Side.

The Cook County medical examiner's office identified the two men and two women found Saturday as 19-year-old Nateyah Yafah Hines of Chicago, 36-year-old Elijah Jackson of Chicago, 40-year-old Shacora Jackson of Chicago and 45-year-old Scott Travis Thompson of Romeoville.

Police believe the fatal shootings happened during a home invasion or robbery. Authorities haven't announced arrests but have said police have leads in the case.

Officials have said an 18-year-old woman was hospitalized in critical condition after the shootings and a 2-year-old child wasn't hurt.

According to autopsies conducted Sunday, three of the victims were shot in the head and the fourth suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
OREGON, Ill. (AP)  A former northern Illinois county sheriff has pleaded guilty to charges he used thousands of dollars of government money for personal items.

The (Dixon) Telegraph reports a Carroll County judge sentenced 55-year-old former Ogle County Sheriff Michael Harn on Monday to four years of probation and ordered him to immediately pay more than $10,000 in restitution to the county treasurer. Harn's guilty plea to two counts of felony theft was part of a plea agreement.

Judge Val Gunnarsson told Harn that he "grossly violated" the public trust. Harn also must pay more than $2,300 in court costs and perform 384 hours of public service.

Court documents say Harn bought electronic and boat equipment, coolers, weapons, clothing and other items with county money. The charges stemmed from an Illinois State Police investigation.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP)  A federal judge has sentenced a Michigan woman to a year in prison for stealing at least $42,000 from an Illinois animal shelter.

The (Springfield) State Journal-Register reports the court in Springfield also ordered Susan G. Oldham on Monday to pay back the money she took from the nonprofit Mason County Pets Without Parents. Oldham is formerly of rural Havana in Mason County.

The 60-year-old Allentown, Michigan, woman pleaded guilty to mail fraud under a plea deal.

Court papers show Oldham spent some of the stolen money on gourmet cookies and Amtrak tickets.

Authorities say Oldham stole the money while volunteering at the shelter from 2006 until 2010. The newspaper says Oldham was convicted in a separate case of embezzlement and money laundering in 1999.
SILVIS -- Council members Tuesday toured the yet unfinished new police station, at 600 Illini Drive, before their regular meeting in the station's new community room.

Ald. Matt Carter, 2nd Ward, noticed the new station had no emergency sprinkler system, which surprised him.

Project manager Lindsay Eisentrout said sprinkler systems weren't required for a building that size.

Ald. Carter declined to share his opinion about the new center, saying he hasn't seen a finished project, or final bills for it, yet.

Ald. Robert Cervantes, 1st Ward, was pleased with what he saw, saying it has been a long time coming and is far better than the old downtown station.

Ald. Caryn Unsicker, 4th Ward, called it "impressive" and said it made her proud of the city, police chief Mark VanKlaveren and Mayor Tom Conrad.

"It's a first-class structure," Mayor Conrad said.

A "soft" opening and ribbon-cutting will be held Jan. 24, followed by a February or March grand opening.

Ground was broken in February for the $2.5 million building. Work has been ahead of schedule, according to earlier reports, with about 130 local skilled tradespeople working on it under an impact agreement.

The building includes wireless Internet service, a concrete-enclosed booking room accessible only by a key code, a staff fitness room, a community room, a squad car garage and modern plumbing and mechanical systems.

In other action, Mayor Conrad:

-- Read a public commendation honoring Silvis Police Detective Allison McNeil for her Dec. 4 actions responding to a car crash and helping revive an accident victim, including driving an ambulance to allow its two EMTs to care for the victim.

-- Announced receiving a news release from NAI Ruhl Commercial Co. senior vice president John J. Corelis, announcing a property sale at 1301 1st Ave., Silvis, The property had been a Silvis Cashway Lumber and Pro Build Contractor Supply business but has been vacant for many years.

Specific plans weren't announced, "but the property will be remodeled and open for business by spring with a new use, name and jobs forthcoming," read the news release. The property has a 37,000 square-foot retail building on seven-plus acres and has numerous outbuildings. It's on the east side of downtown Silvis, near Interstates 5, 88 and 80.

City administrator Jim Grafton was quoted in the news release as saying he's pleased to hear the property was sold and "will welcome further information, all the new jobs and all the new business to the community."

According to the release, Mr. Corelis remembers having listed the property in the 1970s as a former ice house that was soon thereafter ravaged by a terrible fire that reduced the building to rubble, before it was cleared and sold to Payless Cashway.
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The new contract, which includes around 40m a year in funding from the city council, will come into effect with the expiry of the current operating agreement at the end of 2017.

In addition to its extensive tram and bus networks, DVB operates ferries on the River Elbe and two funicular railways.

Further increases in ridership are anticipated and plans are being developed for the expansion of the network and the acquisition of new high-capacity LRVs.
Stadtwerke Potsdam awarded DPP a contract to refurbish 12 vehicles in May 2016 following a European tender.

Modernisation of the fleet is intended to extend the life of the vehicles by eight years or 800,000km. The 17-month programme includes the replacement of floors and an exterior repaint.

Potsdam has opted to upgrade its Tatra trams as a quick and cost-effective response to rapidly-increasing ridership on the tram network. The work is being carried out as part of a 50m project to upgrade and expand the network.
MTA New York City Transits long-anticipated Second Avenue Subway will make its inaugural run in time for New Years Eve, with revenue service launching at noon on Jan. 1, 2017.

Representatives say the completed first phase of the Second Avenue Subway, which is designated the Q Line, signifies the most impactful changes made to New York Citys subway service in decades. The subway is set to be built in four phases, with Phase I providing service from 96th Street to 63rd Street. The line is expected to serve more than 200,000 passengers daily, officials say.

Trains will run every six minutes during peak hours and will run from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. for the rest of the first week. Overnight service will begin on Jan. 9.

The Second Avenue Subway is the most significant addition to our system in 50 years and will serve more riders on opening day than Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Boston transit systems combined and will significantly reduce crowding on the Lexington Avenue line, said MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast. Opening the line on time could not [have] happened without the support of [Governor Andrew M. Cuomo] and the round-the-clock hard work and dedication of the thousands of men and women on this project who made this opening possible.

New Yorkers have waited nearly a century to see the promise of the Second Avenue Subway realized, and after unrelenting dedication from thousands of hardworking men and women, the wait is over and the subway will open on December 31, said Gov. Cuomo. The on-time completion of this major, transformative project reaffirms confidence in government competence, increasing capacity on the nations busiest subway system, and delivering a new, vital transportation artery to millions of New Yorkers.
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For years it has been known that insufficient sleep impacts individuals' health and wellbeing. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared insufficient sleep a public health problem, with more than one-third of American adults not getting enough sleep on a regular basis.

Despite these well-known concerns, getting enough sleep is not a priority for many people. At the same time, companies are unlikely to make the sleep welfare of their employees a top business priority, perhaps because there have been limited efforts to quantify the impact of insufficient sleep on the bottom line.

However, our report Why Sleep MattersThe Economic Costs of Insufficient Sleep shows that a lack of sleep can have expensive national and even global economic consequences. On a smaller scale, this translates into negative impacts on the bottom line of businesses. Insufficient sleep is linked to lower productivity at work, which results in working days being lost each year. Someone who sleeps less than six hours a night loses six more working days a year compared to someone who sleeps between seven and nine hours a night, which is often described as the healthy sleep range.

Fortunately, even taking relatively small steps to address the problem of sleep deprivation can make a big difference. For example, if Americans who sleep less than six hours a night increase their nightly sleep to between six and seven hours a night, this could on average add up to $226.4 billion to the U.S. economy. Clearly, these changes in sleep duration require the commitment of employees, as sleep discipline is very individual. However, employers can also play a significant role in supporting sleep health.

This could be as simple as discouraging the excessive use of electronic devices outside of working hoursa sleep-interfering behavior that is often modeled by supervisors and CEOs.

Employers could also incorporate sleep health into health and wellbeing initiatives at work. The use of wearable devices that monitor sleep and physical activity levels are useful tools to facilitate behavior monitoring and could be used to incentivize improvements in sleep health.

People reporting unrealistic time pressures and stress at work sleep less.

To address the sleep impacts of workplace-related stress, employers could allow for flexible scheduling or avoid setting unrealistic time pressures for workers. According to the report, people reporting unrealistic time pressures and stress at work sleep less per day than those reporting low time pressures and stress.

Allowing employees to work from home could also help. Our study showed a link between long commutes and lower sleep duration. Heavy commuters traveling more than an hour each way for work sleep on average 17 minutes less per day than those with short commutes of up to 15 minutes each way. And working from home may be particularly beneficial for sleep-deprived new moms and dads, whose sleep is severely sacrificed due to the competing demands of work and family life.

Looking beyond these simple measures, there are more adventurous initiatives that could be put in place by businesses. These might include nap rooms for staff. Studies have shown that a nap in the morning can boost creative thinking and afternoon naps can help people feel better physically. Google, Zappos, Huffington Post and Ben & Jerry's have all built nap rooms in their offices.

Our study has put a financial figure on insufficient sleep and shown its impact on the bottom line. This is why it is important that businesses, from small and medium sized enterprises to big multinationals, take the lead in addressing sleep deprivation among their workers.

There is an opportunity here for businesses to help improve the health and wellbeing of staff, improve their bottom lines and contribute to a growing economy. Surely a win-win all round.

Marco Hafner is a research leader and senior economist at RAND Europe. He was the lead author for the study Why Sleep MattersThe Economic Costs of Insufficient Sleep. Wendy M. Troxel is a senior behavioral and social scientist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.

This commentary originally appeared on Thrive Global on December 20, 2016. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
Australian pay-TV operator Foxtel has unveiled an app for children and families to stream and download their favourite shows on-demand and uninterrupted by advertising.





The new app, launched to coincide with Australias summer holidays, offers the ability of off-line viewing of downloaded content, to help occupy passengers during long drives, flights or holidays spent away from internet connections. Parents can set a time limit for watching the app and to select classifications between G and PG ratings for age appropriate viewing.Were delighted to bring our new Foxtel Kids app to Australian kids and families. After taking on board some great customer feedback coupled with our own research, weve designed what we think is the best app to keep kids entertained and parents informed; and, with the Christmas holidays just a few weeks away, it couldnt come at a better time, said Deanne Weir, managing director of content aggregation and wholesale, Foxtel. The VOD app , available from the Apple App Store and Google Play, features content from major kids brands including Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, CBeebies, Discovery Kids, Cartoon Network and Boomerang.It is available to Foxtel and Foxtel Play customers who subscribe to the Foxtel Kids pack at no extra charge. The app can be registered to five devices and can be used simultaneously by two users. Downloaded programmes are available to view for 31 days.
Disneys Maker Studios is losing its head, according to sources speaking to Variety who say that company head Courtney Holt is being replaced by Andrew Sugerman, currently EVP of the divisions Content & Media area.





The decision signals a shift in where Disney thinks Maker fits into its overall strategy. Holt isnt leaving the House of Mouse: He will have a new role as EVP of media and strategy, reporting to Kevin Mayer, senior EVP and chief strategy officer at Disney.Merging Maker Studios with Content & Media allows DCPI to continue to expand audiences  across both physical and digital content, Holt wrote in a company memo revealed by the industry bible. And, by taking a broader digital content offering to market, we can truly differentiate ourselves to advertisers and distribution platforms.He added, In the weeks to come, youll hear more about how the teams will come together around an integrated digital content strategyboth domestically and internationally. Andrew is a fantastic leader and Im energised by his passion for the organisation and what we do at Maker.Maker Studios was acquired by Disney in 2014 for $500 million. At the time, Maker was responsible for a multichannel YouTube network with 350 million subscribers; overall, Maker is one of the most popular channels on YouTube according to comScore, drawing some 5.5 billion views monthly.Concerns remain about synergies with existing Disney businesses however, and Maker already laid off about 30 employees in July. A rep for Disney declined comment.
Sixteen persons sentenced for treason, espionage in Russia in 2016

MOSCOW, December 21 (RAPSI)  Sixteen individuals have been convicted and sentenced in Russia for treason and espionage in 2016, RIA Novosti reported Wednesday, citing the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court.

Thirteen persons were convicted of treason; three other individuals were condemned for spying. Only one of convicts has pleaded guilty. Courts have not delivered acquitting judgements in such cases, according to the courts Judicial Department.

Nine people were held liable for divulging state secrets in 2016. Eight persons were pardoned while one received a suspended sentence.

In total, 261 individuals were condemned in Russia for crimes against constitutional order and internal security of the State; 45 of them were sentenced to real prison terms, 60 of them received suspended sentences. Courts also imposed alternative punishment in such cases including community service.

People sentenced to prison received terms varying from 2 to up to and beyond 15 years.
One of the President-elects earliest supporters, largest donors and closest advisors, Carl Icahn, wants the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to rig the system in favor of one of his largest investments. Mr. Icahns problem is with the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which requires refineries to blend increasing amounts of renewable fuels like ethanol and biodiesel into the nations fuel supply. Under the RFS, the EPA designated refiners and importers as obligated parties because placing the obligation on a smaller number of parties with significant assets generally results in a more efficient and effective program. Mr. Icahn claims this is costing CVR Energy - the refinery in which he owns an 80% stake - $200 million a year. Icahn and a small group of refineries want EPA to shift that obligation downstream to independent blenders and retail gas stations.

Investors are betting that Mr. Icahn has the President-elects ear, but as a candidate, Trump vowed to protect the RFS. Shifting the point of obligation would not only be a significant market interference - it would make it nearly impossible for the President-elect to keep several of his campaign promises - particularly fostering domestic energy independence, ensuring low energy prices and reducing the size and scope of the EPA.

Decreasing Renewable Fuel Production

My father started our company in 1964 with one filling station in Lubbock, Texas. We now operate terminals, fuel storage facilities, retail gas-stations and truck-stops across the Southwest. Among other services, we blend ethanol and biodiesel into traditional fuels, as required under the RFS. We also ship unblended fuel to terminals across the country. Mr. Icahn argues that shifting his burden onto our business will increase the use of biofuels and promote energy independence. The opposite is true.

The renewable credits that are available for blending are a pass-through cost regardless of the point of obligation. For refiners that cannot blend enough renewables to meet the RFS  they can buy credits or export fuel to offset those costs. As a terminal operator  we can only offset our costs by blending renewable fuels. Shifting the point of obligation means we would incur significant losses shipping to terminals that we dont control  and we would stop doing so as a result. This is exactly what is happening in California which operates under the same onerous rules that Mr. Icahn wants EPA to impose on the rest of the country. By the close of 2016, we will stop shipping fuel to California. Were EPA to follow suit, our company alone would see a reduction in the consumption of renewable fuels by 40% based on 2015 numbers.

Raising Gasoline Prices

Gas is a commodity with the free market determining the spot price. Small operations like ours compete with major refiners every day to sell retail fuel to consumers at the lowest possible price. Moving the point of obligation eliminates our ability to compete and gives major refiners a significant unfair advantage over small businesses in small markets across the country. Liquidity and competition are what keep fuel prices low. If we obligate blenders and retail operators, liquidity would be squeezed out of the market, killing competition. We chose to make significant infrastructure investments in railroad logistics, terminal blending expansion and retail blending at the pump - enabling us to blend renewable fuels. Those investments have created lower cost fuel options for consumers and created jobs. If we are forced to buy from refiners, we lose the ability to buy fuel in the open market and compete with refiners on price. Once that happens, we will be forced to stop shipping to other terminals. Once pipeline shippers like us start leaving markets like we have in California  refiners will lose a major competitor and fuel prices will go up.

Empowering EPA Bureaucrats

Currently, there are approximately 200 obligated parties under the RFS. Mr. Icahn is proposing EPA increase those by about 500% - creating 1,000 new individual points of obligation. This means more transactions to track, more EPA staff to track those transactions and many more opportunities for error and outright fraud.

Even though they all have the same obligations under the law, and have for nearly 10 years, many refiners oppose changing the point of obligation. These are refineries that invested in the infrastructure necessary to comply with the RFS. These investments allow them to offset the costs associated with being an obligated party and get credit for blending renewable fuels at their terminal rack facilities. Refineries like Mr. Icahns that divested their terminal rack and retail operations to become pure-play refiners are the only ones looking for a government bailout. These were business decisions informed by their view of the marketplace but many of these refiners only did so under pressure from investors like Mr. Icahn. This was poor advice to follow, but rewarding them would only perpetuate the rigged-system that Mr. Trump campaigned so hard against.
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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 12/21/2016



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

star Nick Viall 's journey begins Monday, January 2 on ABC, and the show's star has teased what fans can anticipate this season.Shortly after ABC revealed Nick's 30 bachelorettes , the handsome 36-year-old software salesman from Wisconsin participated in a media call through which he opened up about his time handing out roses as the Bachelor following three failed searches for love on spinoffs of the reality franchise.During a recent conference call, Nick -- who admitted he found love on -- shared his desires, expectations and challenges on the show. He also addressed some juicy rumors floating around out there.Below is a portion of Nick's interview with reporters. To read more, check out Reality TV World's page I have been to Canada. I think Canada's a lovely place. You know, [ Kaitlyn Bristowe ] was Canadian too. I mean, I know a lot of Canadian women. I think Canadians are wonderful.I have a lot of Canadian friends; I've worked with a lot of Canadians. I don't know, they seem to be a lot of fun and lighthearted and nice people and have a great a sense of life, and I've always enjoyed the company of Canadians.I mean, you know, I have no complaints. I suppose it's better, but at the same time, it's one of those grass is always greener type of things. I'm a one-woman guy, so dating multiple women is hard.And you know, I certainly felt fortunate for the opportunity but it can be very difficult. It's certainly something I wasn't used to, and I don't know if I'll ever want to be used to it, but I suppose it was nice to change it up a bit.Well, I don't know, I didn't have any specific routine. I try to work out a little bit every day. I just tried to relax, you know, clear my head and listen to some music and try to kind of just get my mind in the right place so that I could be prepared to meet all the women.Also, I tried to take a little bit of a nap because it was a really long night. But other than that, I mean, I had my suit picked out days in advance and it wasn't too exciting of a day leading up to the night.I don't know. I don't have the most impressive playlist. I'm a big Kings of Leon fan and, you know, there's probably some Britney Spears and Justin Beiber in my playlist, which I'm not ashamed of, but yes.I really don't have a relationship with Josh. It's, you know, I have a lot of other friends in Bachelor Nation, [ Jared Haibon ] being one of them, [ Ben Higgins ], [JJ Lane], [Tanner Tolbert], you know, certainly a few more. I feel very lucky, I mean, and that's from the guys side.And obviously I'm very close to the twins [ Emily Ferguson and Haley Ferguson ], and [ Ashley Iaconetti ] and [ Sharleen Joynt ] from [ Juan Pablo Galavis ]'s season, and [ Carly Waddell ] and [ Evan Bass ].They're all close friends and I'm very thankful to have those friends in my life. And you know, and there's others I just don't have a relationship with, and that's okay.I mean, if I was lucky enough to find someone and to be engaged, I think decisions like that are ones that I'll always make with the person I'm dating or with. So that's hard for me to answer at this point.The first night, well I do get advice from some former bachelors Ben, Chris, you know, two of my good buddies and the one and only [ Sean Lowe ], and they gave me some advice and I'm very thankful for it.You know, I interestingly enough, you know, when I was asked to be , I felt very lucky to have met a lot of people in my life and a lot of those people were women and the ones I dated, I felt very fortunate to have them in my life.But as , I think I just wanted a clean slate. Other people I had met in my life were great, but obviously none of them I felt at that time were someone that I wanted to potentially spend the rest of my life with. And so, I was really looking forward to meeting new women and seeing where that could go.Don't sweat the small stuff.I don't think I've changed all too much between Bachelor in Paradise and . I think every experience in life that you have, good or bad, you know, hopefully you can learn from it and use that going forward to hopefully make better decisions.But I don't think I'm that much of a different person between Paradise or , and for that matter, I don't think I'm that much different of a person from the time I went on [ Andi Dorfman ]'s season to Kaitlyn's season.But I've certainly learned a lot about myself, about life and I've learned about, you know, world a little bit more. And I'll always continue to use my past experiences, good or bad, to help me make better choices in the future.To read more from Nick Viall 's interview, check out Reality TV World's page To check out a gallery of Nick's hottest and sexiest photos, click here . Also, click here to see a photo gallery of all 30 bachelorettes or click here to see a gallery of their Night 1 arrivals.
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RECOILtv Road Trips (s01e02): Gambler 500

If you haven't heard of the Gambler 500, it's a race through the Pacific Northwest in a vehicle costing no more than $500. This being RECOIL and all, we decided that nothing would fit those conditions better than a 1960 Seagrave fire engine. Piloting this vintage gem is editor Iain Harrison doing his best to get this thing road ready and keep up with the pack of other entrants whose vehicles range from mild to wild. It's Emergency meets Cannonball Run! Check out the action as we venture through some of America's best landscape in an emergency vehicle brought back out of retirement. Watch it all right here on RECOILtv.

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Senior bureaucrats say the government has planned a 'feel-good' Budget after the 'pain' of demonetisation.

Arup Roychoudhury and Archis Mohan report.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

The Narendra Modi government and the Bharatiya Janata Party have planned a blitzkrieg of initiatives to recast the political narrative at the expiry of the '50 days of pain' because of the note ban, particularly before the assembly polls in five states, including Uttar Pradesh.

Senior BJP leaders and ministers claim Modi's rally on January 2 in Lucknow is set to be a game-changer in the note ban discourse.

This would also be an opportunity for the Modi government to announce such measures before the Election Commission of India's Model Code of Conduct kicks in after the announcement of poll dates for five states, likely in the first week of January.

According to sources, the PM could announce a number of relief measures for the rural population, agrarian sector, and small and medium enterprises ahead of the Union Budget 2017-2018.

The Budget, likely to be presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 1, is expected to announce income tax relief for professionals and greater outlay for primary education and health.

While the Opposition parties are likely to cry foul at the budgetary announcements as a violation of the model code, finance ministry sources said the Budget was a Constitutional exercise and didn't come under the purview of the code.

The 2012-2013 Budget was postponed in view of the elections in five states -- Manipur, Goa, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

The elections were held in February-March and the Budget session of Parliament, which usually begins in the last week of February, began on March 12 after the polls.

The PM and senior BJP leaders like party chief Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will also get an opportunity to reach out to party cadres at the BJP National Executive in the national capital.

Another Mody rally is likely in Delhi on January 6 and 7.

Party sources, however, said the national executive will be devoted to strategising about how the government's message should reach the public at large.

Since Monday, december 19, the government has made efforts to reach out to the BJP's traditional and new support base, comprising traders and farmers.

The government announced a 2% rebate for small traders and businesses accepting digital payments.

It also instructed the Income Tax Department not to harass small traders for bank deposits below a certain threshold.

On Tuesday, the government gave 60 more days to farmers for loan repayments.

Apart from the PM's announcements, the Budget could provide substantially higher allocations for rural-focused schemes, infrastructure, health care and job creation.

Senior bureaucrats say the government has planned a 'feel-good' Budget after the 'pain' of demonetisation.

According to a source in the human resource development ministry, since the PM has taken the ownership of the note ban decision, he is likely to announce the 'gains' himself.

"We believe this phase of economic slowdown will last barely two to three quarters. We have the political resilience to withstand this period. Once the economy starts improving, the gains will show," BJP National Secretary Sidharth Nath Singh said, pointing at the BJP's victory in the civic polls, including Chandigarh, on Tuesday, as evidence that the people were with the PM.

Singh said economists who criticised the note ban were losing sight of the long-term economic gains from the decision, particularly a wider indirect and direct tax base and lesser printing of currency notes in the future.

Senior BJP leaders estimated the economy would not only recover but also start growing by 7% to 8% by mid-to-end 2018, a healthy situation for the Modi government to go into the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

When asked if a number of sops could be announced before February 1, the expected Budget day, an official, aware of the Budget preparations, said: "There is no rule which stops the government to announce measures outside the Budget. The Budget is a fiscal document which presents the Centre's expected revenue and expenditure."

"It is up to the political leadership to decide which announcements will be made in the Budget and which will be made outside of it."

Economists tell govt to increase spending

They told Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to present an 'out of the box' Budget, ensuring focus on heathcare, job creation and infrastructure.

Arup Roychoudhury reports.

Economists and experts told Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in pre-Budget consultations on Tuesday, to present an 'out of the box' Budget, ensuring focus on heathcare, job creation and infrastructure.

Those present at the meeting were National Institute of Public Finance and Policy Director Rathin Roy, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad Professor Ravindra Dholakia, Nomura Executive Director Sonal Verma, State Bank of India Chief Economic Advisor Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Ajit Ranade, Surjit Bhalla and others.

They also advised the government that the Budget should carry forward the work done through demonetisation and push for greater digitisation in the economy.

The economists also told the government that the Budget should have a detailed list of the costs of demonetisation on all related activities such as printing of new notes, etc.

While demonetisation could check black money for the moment, tey added it would not be able to stop the generation of black money in the future.

A finance ministry statement said, 'So the next task should be to stop generation of black money in the future. For this, the government should incentivise people to move from the informal to the formal system and maximise the use of e-payments.'

'Some members felt that even after demonetisation, there is a strong case for boosting capital expenditure as public infrastructure in India is too low,' added the statement.

People aware of the discussions in the meeting, the economists also advised the FM to stop worrying about fiscal deficit targets and focus on increasing capital expenditure and social sector spending.

Despite years of effort to rein in fiscal deficit, they added the rating agencies the ratings agencies had not upgraded its long-term sovereign ratings.

In such a scenario, and at a time when major developed and developing economies were increasing federal spending, India should do the same.

The focus of the Centre's spending, said economists, should be on infrastructure, job creation, and the social sector.

With private sector balance sheets still weak, the government would not only have to maintain its public spending spree, but maybe even increase it.

The fiscal deficit target for the financial year 2016-2017 is at 3.5%. Jaitley is likely to meet that target, thanks mostly to encouraging trends in direct and indirect taxes.

The fiscal deficit for the coming years will be based on what the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management committee recommends to the government.
What surprises will the finance ministry and the RBI spring on us next?

Put on your thinking caps and predict the next boomerang coming our way!

In the 42 days since demonetisation, the government and the Reserve Bank of India have performed 59 U-turns, saying one thing one day, changing it in the days that followed.

Leaving most Indians confused about what to do.

The latest boomerang the finance ministry hurled was its diktat on Monday, December 19, that no one would be allowed to deposit over Rs 5,000 in scrapped 500 and 1,000 rupee notes more than once.

This after both the prime minister and finance minister told the country that there was absolutely no need to rush to the banks and we had up to December 30 to deposit these scrapped notes.

Monday's edict came with a demand that all deposits must be accompanied by a written reason explaining the delay in depositing these funds.

Yogendra Yadav, the distinguished political scientist, put it best in a note to his bank that went viral.

Another Indian revealed last night on Twitter that when he wrote that the delay was because he trusted what the prime minister and finance minister said, the bank manager refused at first to accept that explanation and tried to persuade him to instead cite a busy schedule as the reason.

It was only when he insisted that his explanation be accepted that the bank manager reluctantly accepted the form.

Columnist Rajeev Sharma points out that the process to deposit these notes involves the following steps:

You have to give a written application to the bank about the deposit of Rs 5,000 or more, giving a reason why you didn't deposit it earlier and the reason for the delay.

The same application to be attached with a copy of your Aadhar card even though the cash is being deposited in your own account.

After this the bank will give you another printed form where you have to give complete details of your account, ID, denomination of cash and reply to two questions: a. why the delay in depositing the amount, and b. the sources of the amount being deposited.

Once you complete this process, this will have to be verified by two bank officials.

After the verification process is over, you have to produce your cash deposit slip which has to be presented to another official who will check your account details and enter the details of this transaction in a separate register and enter the serial number on the register and authenticate it.

After this is done, you then move to the cash counter with all the documents and cash. The cashier will first satisfy himself that your entire paper work is in order and then your cash will be deposited.

On an average, says Rajeev, this entire process takes at least 45 minites provided there are no queues and all your documents are in order.

Interestingly, he adds, the banks already had these printed forms, indicating that the Reserve Bank of India had done its homework much in advance.

On Wednesday afternoon, in yet another turnaround, PTI reports that the RBI 'modifies old currency deposit rules; fully KYC compliant account holders can deposit over Rs 5,000 without any questions asked.'

What surprises will the finance ministry and the RBI spring on us next?

Put on your thinking caps and predict the next boomerang coming our way!

Please post your predictions in the message boards below.
Distress sales, market closures and anchoring of fishing fleets have been reported from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

A particular hammer blow appears to have been dealt by the new Rs 2,000 note because there is no change to return, reports Mukta Patil/IndiaSpend.

IMAGE: A typical Goan fish market brought to life by the late cartoonist, Mario Miranda. Photograph: Rediff Archives

Gangu Kundaikar is a small-framed, sari-clad woman who rises at 3 am every day, wraps a cloth around her waist so the fish does not soil her sari, and takes a rented tempo to the Malim jetty in Panaji, North Goa, 8 km from her village, here in one of Indias most prosperous and literate states.

Kundaikar, 50, brings her days supply of fish back home to her village, Chimbel, where she sells them.

Kundaikar, who studied up to class 10, has no bank account and a phone without an internet connection. She is the only earner in her family of three, which includes her ageing mother and unemployed son.

Kundaikar bought fish worth Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 every day and kept the unsold catch in her refrigerator -- her only asset. She worked through most of the day and barely made enough to keep her family fed.

That was before midnight on November 8, when Prime Minister Narendra Modis government scrapped 86 per cent of Indias bank notes, by value.

Since then, Kundaikar has struggled to balance her familys budget: Demand for fish has fallen and sales have dropped by 30 per cent.

We are poor, hard-working people, she told IndiaSpend. Because of this move by the government, it has become hard for us.

IMAGE: Drying Bombay duck in order to preserve it. Photograph: Jayesh Phatarpekar/Creative Commons

After China, India is the worlds second-largest producer of fish, but it is a perishable commodity and less than 19 per cent of the fishing centres nationwide have infrastructure that allows fish to be processed or stored.

Less than 23 per cent of the fishing villages have internet access, and the fishing economy depends on cash.

Profit margins vary according to the species sold, varying from 3.5 per cent (medium-priced fish) to about 10 per cent (high-priced fish) to 20 per cent (low-priced fish), according to this 2012 research paper.

So merchant charges by banks -- of 2-2.5 per cent (on credit cards), 0.75-1 per cent (on debit cards) -- and even the 1 per cent fee charged by Paytm, a digital wallet, is largely unaffordable, even if fishing villages had good internet access, which they usually do not.

With notebandi -- as the scrapping of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes is colloquially called --stories like Kundaikars have become common in fishing communities nationwide.

Distress sales, market closures and anchoring of fishing fleets have been reported from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. A particular hammer blow appears to have been dealt by the new Rs 2,000 note because there is no change to return.

The crisis of 14.5 million Indians -- more than the population of Greece or Portugal -- dependent on fishing has crippled an industry that generates almost 1.1 per cent to Indias gross domestic product.

A quarter of these people work along 8,118 km of Indias coastline and 10 million along 197,024 km of inland waterways.

Most of these 14.5 million are part of Indias informal sector, unorganised workers, who constitute 82 per cent of Indias 500-million-strong workforce -- more than the combined populations of the USA, Germany and South Africa -- and generate half of the national GDP.

Their world, as we found, changed almost overnight.

Ground reality: Over 50 per cent loss in business, anger at government

IMAGE: Fishermen at the Chennai harbour with their day's catch. Photograph: Babu/Reuters

Ground reality: Over 50% loss in business, anger at government

Of the 20 fish sellers that IndiaSpend surveyed at a government-run market in Margao, south Goa, more than 80 per cent reported buying less fish from wholesalers because demand was low, while 75 per cent reported income losses of half or more over the past month.

Our survey also showed that 30 per cent of the women did not have a bank account and that 55 per cent did not use phones. Of the ones that did, only 33 per cent had internet on their phone, which they did not use for banking.

Small-scale fish retailers earn between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000 every day, IndiaSpend found. If they were to use Paytm for transactions, they would be paying 1 per cent charge to withdraw their money, which is Rs 30-40.

For a daily profit of Rs 350-400, they said this is unaffordable.

Cashless transactions are not an immediate option, so the losses will continue.

In any case, most have no internet on their phone and hardly use their bank accounts, said Shashikala Govekar, president of the Fish Vendors Association at the Mapusa market.

IMAGE: The Chinese fishing nets at Kochi, Kerala. Photograph: Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

We found a cascading effect of such losses.

Before November 8, fish sellers got Rs 280 to Rs 300 per kg of mackerel (bangda), which is now down by about 35 per cent to Rs 180 to Rs 200 per kg, according to members of the All Goa Wholesale Fish Market Association.

The Margao Wholesale Market is the only wholesale market in Goa, where catch from the neighbouring states of Maharashtra and Karnataka is also sold. Vehicles carrying fish from outside the state have fallen by a third.

Unless frozen, fresh fish must be thrown away if not sold within two days: 67 per cent of the fish consumed in India is fresh; no more than 23 per cent is processed (dried, frozen or canned).

Neither fish markets nor landing centres (harbours where fishermen land their craft) have cold storages.

Post-harvest fishing losses due to lack of infrastructure (for landing and berthing vessels) and domestic marketing are estimated to be as high as 20 per cent, according to a 2011 report of the erstwhile Planning Commission. These losses are exacerbated by the current market slump.

By 2012, less than 19 per cent of Indias fishing centres (256 of 1,376) were developed, which meant they had adequate landing and berthing infrastructure, and fish preservation and storage infrastructure.

There are onshore facilities for a third or less of Indias marine fishing vehicles, said the report.

With a large part of the industry informal and beyond the governments purview, fisher folk are devising extra-legal ways to survive #Notebandi.

The case of the Rs 500 note: Still legal tender at fish stalls

IMAGE: Fishing boats at Rameswaram. Photograph: A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com Fishing boats at Rameswaram.

By 11 am on a sunny day in Siolim, North Goa, half of Deepali Govekars sales were in Rs 500 notes, which are, of course, outlawed.

Govekar runs Dilip Sea Food, a makeshift stall supported by wood and crates that she rents for Rs 80 per day.

Govekar sold jumbo prawns, squid, red snapper, and Indian salmon (rawas) to James DSouza, who buys fish here every day for his restaurant in Mandrem, North Goa.

We are forced to give, and they are forced to take, said DSouza, referring to the seven Rs 500 old notes he had given Govekar.

We have to take, otherwise the fish will rot, Govekar said. I will give them to the tempo that brought the fish as payment, and he can use it for diesel at the petrol pump.

This circulation of notes from customers to retailers to wholesalers to transporters/ trawlers was underway until December 2 -- the last day that petrol pumps were accepting old notes.

Small-time fish sellers who had bank accounts were accepting Rs 500 notes even after December 2 and were depositing them because no one outside the fish market was accepting them.

If they refused these notes, they lost out on customers and were left with rotten fish the next day, because they had no change for the new Rs 2,000 note.

All but one of the 20 retailers we surveyed at the Margao market said they did not have change for customers, and this was why they were accepting Rs 500 notes, as of December 7.

Why did the government not introduce the new Rs 500 note first? asked a Margao fish seller who requested anonymity. This difference between the Rs 100 and the Rs 2,000 note is too large. Our business is suffering terribly.

Can Goa really go cashless?

IMAGE: Fishermen pull their fishing net from the waters of Bay of Bengal during sunrise in the southern Indian city of Chennai. Photograph: Babu/Reuters

A major reason that India is unprepared for a cashless economy is a lack of connectivity.

At least 73 per cent per cent of Indians (912 million people) do not have access to the internet, IndiaSpend reported on December 3.

Within 3,237 marine fishing villages in nine of Indias coastal states, 91 per cent villages have mobile phone coverage, but barely 23 per cent have access to the internet.

Fishing is predominantly a cash-based economy.

The diesel used for trawlers and transport, renting of stall space at markets, labour and buying ice, and payment for fish (whether by retailers or customers) is done with cash or taken on credit.

Ashok Lamane, who sells fish to several restaurants near Morjim, said the credit component of his transactions increased manifold since November 8. I am owed at least Rs 1,80,000 by the restaurants and, in turn, I owe money to the trawler owners, he said.

At the Margao wholesale market, the use of credit is rising.

Earlier, too, the market worked on credit -- around 50 per cent of all transactions  but now, this has increased to 80 per cent, said Sridhar Pujari, a wholesaler. And while earlier, the payments would come in two to three days, now it is taking people eight to 10 days to return the cash.

Pujari pays for fish stock by cheque, but said it is impossible for the business to go cashless.

One reason is the nature of the business itself. Since fish does not last long, retailers buy on credit and then repay wholesalers after they have sold their stock.

Another reason is that daily wage labourers, such as fish cleaners, ice carriers and crate carriers, dont have bank accounts and want to be paid daily in cash.

Back in Mapusa, Shashikala Govekar -- she has no internet on her phone, and has not used her ATM card despite having one -- offered her response to Modis cashless urgings.

Seventy per cent of people dealing with fish, whether wholesale or retail, are illiterate, she said. We dont even know how to use smart phones, how will we operate swipe machines?

We make a profit maybe once in four days and have 12 other kinds of trouble without having to add these machines to the list.

Besides, the wholesale markets run from 3 am to 6 am, and it is dark. While handling fish, how will we swipe and sell?

Mukta Patil is an analyst with IndiaSpend.

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'One can be sure that General Rawat will have all-round support and that the Indian Army will have a strong chief,' says Rear Admiral Sudarshan Shrikhande (retd).

Much has already been written and voiced over the selection of the new army chief. Nonetheless, here is a slightly different viewpoint on some of the arguments for/against the appointment of the third or fourth-most senior army commander as the Chief of the Army Staff.

That Bipin Rawat happens to be his name or that the service in question is the Indian Army is generally irrelevant to the issue. Neither this government, nor any in the past can actually be faulted on 'violating' the principle of seniority.

It, in any case, is not a principle, or even a tenet, merely an oft-followed custom, quite unique to India. Neither should a custom be called a 'tradition.' The Services, especially, should not conflate the two.

Supporters of the government's decision (relying on references from electronic media debates and alleged explanations attributed to MOD officials) could also be faulted for highlighting secondary arguments, or in quoting precedents.

Importantly, no apologies are required. At the same time, some spokespersons for the Congress, sound quite rich when they insist that seniority should be the prime criterion for appointment when internally for them genealogy has trumped both seniority as well as merit in the party leadership for decades.

Let us consider some other reasons one by one, not necessarily in order of importance.

That there have been precedents/or never was there a precedent for supersession by more than 'one' name, is a specious argument.

Even if this were the first time that supersession has occurred, it would still be in order because 'seniority above all' is not a criterion that makes for logic.

It has not been followed in any armed forces, including in democratic or Communist States. In 1970, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt was appointed the US navy chief, stepping over 26 vice admirals and six admirals!

Even Britain has not given any consideration to this 'principle' at any time. So much for either custom or tradition!

In all promotions preceding the final one to four-star rank, seniority is not the governing criterion for selection in any case.

Therefore, defending this decision on the grounds that Congress governments have also done this in some cases need not be trotted out.

What could be said that in some earlier cases that this was done, a better, strong-willed general (or equivalent) was denied the opportunity to lead his Service.

The next argument: Since all the candidates are equally eligible, the senior-most becoming the chief is the appropriate thing to do.

This argument was crisply countered by Colonel R S N Singh on a television channel by saying that this was sometimes simply not true and that occasionally officers were manoeuvred into the inner track at the expense of others years before they come into the zone of final selection and were therefore already in the 'line of succession.'

This line, created adroitly, is then easier to preserve and protect. Bharat Karnad has also written similarly elsewhere. Nitin Gokhale has commented about the timidity often exhibited by those waiting in line for their turn.

While this is not so in the current case, and all those considered are greatly respected in the army itself, there is widespread belief that such lines can be created and nurtured with care to larger detriment.

The related apprehension, that the uncertainty of selection for chief may result in senior officers courting political masters is extremely unlikely.

On the contrary, to take Mr Gokhale's argument further, hopefully, it might spur more to be bold and forthright without worrying whether they are jeopardising their own chance at the top slot.

Why should a government mind that, especially when security threats and great power rivalry are growing in the Asia-Pacific?

Would supersession affect the morale of the Service(s)?

Most officers are likely to respond by essentially saying, 'Come on, give us a break!'

Morale is affected not by supersession at this final stage, but by incompetence, apple-polishing, yesmanship and petty or significant corruption.

Such wrong-doing often includes rewarding juniors of their own ilk and sometimes setting aside, with the finesse of their pens, worthier officers who may wield the sword with greater boldness and commitment.

Next, and if true, then the assertions from the official sources that the present selectee has a better combat record could present a weak argument in support of a fundamentally good move.

Firstly, in the Services, one does not, should not or at least cannot easily choose one's own career profile. Rather, the personnel system chooses an officer for a job, usually fairly, but sometimes also with incorrect motivations.

This incorrectness is not attributable to the 'system.' but to individuals who bend it.

Secondly, unless an officer actively participated in the IPKF or specifically in combat in Kargil, as such, no officer currently in uniform really has a combat record.

A cavalry/artillery/engineer officer shall have lesser counter-insurgency/counter-terrorism experience in any case if the infantry-heavy op areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the North-Easr are considered.

In fact, governments and Service HQ should groom potential leaders accordingly.

In any case, combat with Pakistan or China, or both will go well beyond what experience counter-insurgency/counter-terrorism and peacetime Line of Control/Line of Actual Control/International Boundary deployments can provide.

Further, these should not really be called 'combat' profiles considering they are within our own borders.

While such career profiles are certainly important, how a general could execute higher military strategy by orchestrating swift, joint operations should be the vital assessment to be made.

This assessment is difficult in any case because it is hypothetical but necessary. Needlessly stressing the present selectee's career profile as the possible clincher is very likely to create consternation and perhaps even have some bearing on the morale of officers from other arms.

Additionally, the army could develop a somewhat constrictive combat-outlook if artillery/armoured and other arms conclusively feel like second fiddles. Perhaps the government does not intend it this way and neither should commentators.

One can be sure that General Rawat has, in any case, what it takes without second-guessing the logic that led to his selection.

Finally, supersession in a pyramidal structure is a reality (by and large fair, but sometimes egregiously and obviously stage-managed) at all steps of an officer's career from the rank of colonel; in the case of the present pool, from the time they were selected for lieutenant colonel.

What earth-shaking disturbance can this possibly create if it happens at the final stage?

Those superseded at the present moment have also reached almost the pinnacle of their own service in any case by the dint of their merit and competence.

One should not assume that they may think otherwise. It is understood that in the Japanese self-defence forces, once someone from a batch becomes head of his service, his batch mates leave the service, not in chagrin, but as a measure of support to him to have a clear field and then assist him in spirit and with advice from outside.

This writer cannot vouch its veracity but if it is so, it shows true solidarity and goodwill among peers and a fine ability to walk away with heads held high.

The suggestion is not that such steps need to be considered by individuals in India but that it has merit. In any case, there is no ignominy either in continuing to serve even after supersession.

One can be sure that General Rawat will have all-round support and that the Indian Army will have a strong chief.

It is time that our armed forces and government accepted that there is very little merit in fixed, metronomic rotation between the Services in joint-billets ('rotation above all') and fixed ratios amongst services for senior-level billets; or seniority above all as 'principles.'

It is time we concentrated on the principles of war.

Shouldn't that be our principal driver? It is time!

Rear Admiral Sudarshan Shrikhande, AVSM, served the Indian Navy for 36 years.
IMAGE: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

If the Opposition is bent upon shouting its own agenda on a deaf ruling dispensation, then it becomes binding upon the chair to ensure that the parliamentary affairs aren't reduced to a farce, argues Sudhir Bisht.

Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari is also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha which is also called the House of Elders and formed by 245 wise men and women.

They are considered important enough by the political parties to be in Parliament, but some may not have the mass base to win a direct election when the people of India cast their vote.

A few of the these elders are also the defeated candidates of the Lok Sabha elections, but their inclusion in the Union council of ministers requires them to be accommodated in the Upper House of Parliament.

Ansari has been our VP since August 2007. He has also been an ambassador and a vice-chancellor. As someone who is almost going to be 80 years of age, he is expectedly one of the most respected statesmen of our country. So it shouldn't be tough to handle a House of eminent, retired, retiring and educated politicians.

Sumitra Mahajan is the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and has been a member of seven Lok Sabhas in the past. Her fellow members of Parliament, the Lok Sabha MPs, represent the voice of India.

These men and women have gone through the grind of direct elections and are sensible enough to know that they have reached the top echelon of their political careers.

I am sure that the Lok Sabha MPs realise that they ought to work inside the temple of democracy in a manner that those who elected them feel proud of their conduct.

Combine the four elements of parliamentary democracy -- the VP and the Rajya Sabha MPs; the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Lok Sabha MPs -- and you should have a well-oiled machinery that should work in a civilised and orderly manner.

But unfortunately the winter session of Parliament that just went by proves quite the opposite.

The MPs behaved as if they were competing for the gold medal in exhibiting outlandish behaviour.

The chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha Speaker appeared to have forgotten that it takes a lot more than just raising their voices and expressing anguish if one were to manage members who seem to be taking pride in their disorderly behaviour.

A distraught VP unable to enforce order in the Rajya Sabha was matched by an exasperated Speaker who failed to control the street fighters masquerading as Lok Sabha members.

In the order of precedence of the Republic of India, the Vice-President is ranked number two after the President and the Lok Sabha Speaker is ranked at a high number six, alongside the Chief Justice of India.

The two of the most powerful positions in India are given the task of ensuring the smooth functioning of Parliament sessions.

The objective of Parliament sessions itself is fairly simple. It is supposed to discuss and debate the issues facing the Republic and to legislate.

However the winter session saw nothing of that sort happening in either of the two Houses of Parliament.

The 21-day session was the least productive session in several years. It has been called a washout and at least one Member of Parliament, the Biju Janata Dal's Jay Panda, was so distressed that he has declared that he would not be taking any salary for this period.

Panda is a sober man and his is an act of listening to one's conscience and is worthy of praise, but in the overall scheme of things, it is too insignificant to make an impact on the collective image of parliamentarians.

The principal Opposition party's leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge and his counterpart in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, have said that it is the duty of the ruling party to ensure that Parliament functions smoothly.

What does it mean? That the ruling party should allow the Opposition to dominate Zero Hour and allow them to modify the bills in whichever way it wants and that the ruling party should drop the bills that the Opposition doesn't agree with?

Do Kharge and Azad, egged by the Gandhis, believe that they have been ordained by God to determine which member of the ruling party should be present in the House to listen to their tirade against the ruling party?

If a junior minister replies to their question, they object and seek the answer from the Cabinet minister and if the finance minister participates in the debate on finance matters, they demand answers from the prime minister.

Kharge and Azad want that the ruling party members should smile as they mock the finance minister when they suggest that even he didn't know anything about demonetisation.

Is the sole job of the Opposition to slander the prime minister by saying that he has the 'blood of Indian jawans on his hands' outside Parliament?

Does the Kharge-Azad duo consider it their divine right to stall Parliament if their party vice-president is not allowed to speak in the House without sufficient advance notice on a subject that is not listed for discussion?

The Opposition has been saying that since the current ruling dispensation stalled the House proceedings when it was in the Opposition, it is their fate to suffer the frequent stalling of Parliament now.

Can there be something more loathsome as this line of action?

So Parliament is meant for tit-for-tat ego trips?

I gather from media reports that only two bills were passed in the winter session.

The Lok Sabha functioned only for 19 hours in the entire session and the Rajya Sabha for 22 hours.

Some of the most crucial legislative work that pertained to the Goods and Services Tax couldn't be taken up for discussion. The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha lost 176 hours of work and at an estimated cost of Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) per hour, the nation lost nearly Rs 352 crore (Rs 3.52 billion).

But then we have an Opposition that cares too hoots for several thousand crores of Indian currency. I recall that the same set of people had called the loss of several more crores due to the 2G spectrum scam as a notional loss.

By berating the Opposition, I am not calling the ruling party an assembly of saints either.

I think that the National Democratic Alliance leadership could have been more accommodating.

I think the prime minister should have been in Parliament more often for sure.

I think that the floor managers of the ruling party could have reached out to neutral (on demonetisation) MPs from the BJD and Janata Dal-United to impress upon the leadership of the Congress and Communist parties to allow the House to function.

I think that the magnitude of opposition demonstrated by the Trinamool Congress could have been softened a bit if some of NDA leaders had spoken with Mamata Banerjee directly.

I think BJP patriarch L K Advani could have shown his anguish to Sonia Gandhi and not to Ananth Kumar.

So in my belief the resident of 7, Lok Kalyan Marg didn't live up to expectations, but the primary blame for failing Parliament rests with the lady who calls 10, Janpath her home.

And now I come to the two eminent Indian leaders who could have salvaged the pride of Parliament.

The chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha should not have just presided over the chaos and cacophony by repeatedly adjourning the two Houses. I wish they had shown some ruthlessness and evicted the members who were responsible for the washout.

I wish they had taken inspiration from Speaker Ramanlal Vora of the Gujarat assembly who in August evicted and suspended 50 Congress members for their unruly behaviour.

I wish Ansari and Mahajan had found courage from the act of Tamil Nadu Speaker P Dhanapal who suspended 89 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MLAs from the assembly for continuous disruption of proceedings in August.

I wish they had followed the steps by Madam Speaker herself when she, in August 2015, suspended 25 Congress MPs for five days when they were wilfully and persistently obstructing the House from carrying out its day-to-day business.

If the Opposition is bent upon shouting its own agenda on a deaf ruling dispensation, then it becomes binding upon the chair to ensure that parliamentary affairs aren't reduced to a farce.

Sadly both Ansari and Mahajan were found wanting in their resolve to rule with a whip.

So the ultimate blame for the session's washout must rest upon those who are responsible to ensure that such things do not occur. And I will not hesitate to put the blame squarely upon the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha Speaker.

I hope Parliament functions much better in the next session.

I hope that the Opposition stops being a croaking frog in the well of the House.

I hope the ruling party has better floor managers and most importantly the VP and Speaker crack the whip.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav feels the days of caste-based politics in the state are over and now the two Ds -- development and demonetisation problems  will work in favour of the Samajwadi Party in the upcoming assembly polls.

According to him, his family feud is no more a factor and all issues have been changed post demonetisation.

"That is a thing of past now. We are working together to win the elections. Issues have changed and post demonetisation nobody remembers that (family feud) now. All the other issues have been left behind and demonetisation has emerged as the key issue," he said.

He asserted that Uttar Pradesh will vote for his work, image and not on caste equations.

"Our work in last five years and the problems people are facing due to demonetisation will lead us to victory in upcoming elections. Jo kataarein ATM ke bahar lagi hai wo polling booth ke bahar lagegi (polling booths will see long queues like the ones outside ATMs now)," Akhilesh told PTI in an interview.

Family feud is thing of past now. We are working together to win the elections. Issues have changed and post demonetisation. All the other issues have been left behind and demonetisation has emerged as the key issue.

When asked who he considers the bigger rival -- the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Bahujan Samaj Party, he said people of Uttar Pradesh have lost faith in both of them.

"The BJP has done nothing for Uttar Pradesh in last two and a half years. The prime minister was elected from UP, the home minister and the defence minister are also representing UP. They have maximum number of MPs from UP but they have given nothing to the state apart from Adarsh Gaon Yojna and nothing is happening on that front also, he said.

"As far as the BSP is concerned, people are not interested in getting elephants installed everywhere," he added.

His father and SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has already ruled out any pre-poll alliance with Congress but Akhilesh said it will be premature to predict anything as of now.

"Of course the party president will take a call on that but I believe that we will get 300 plus seats if we enter into a pre-poll alliance with Congress. I know that netaji (Mulayam) has said there will be merger, no alliances but there is still time for the elections and you must wait and watch. Politics is full of surprises and you never know what will happen tomorrow," he said.

"I do not have any doubt on getting an absolute majority but we can get 300 plus seats if we fight together. Samajwadis believe that Congress is their best friend when it is weak," he said.

The SP had gained absolute majority in 2012 winning 224 seats. The BSP had won 80, the BJP 47 and Congress 28.

I have fulfilled all the promises I had made in my manifesto. I have initiated schemes on which Samajwadis can do politics for next 10-15 years.

Akhilesh does not believe there is too much focus on Muslim voters.

"If I am talking about development, they (Muslims) should also get benefited by it. I am giving them their right. If we explain this, nobody will have any objection. Those who want to do communal politics will not be successful in UP. Politics has changed and it is no more based on caste equations," he asserted.

"People are connected through media and social media and they are aware of what is happening in the world. They want politics of development and positivity, not of hatred," he added.

On the law-and-order issue, he said he is leaving no stone unturned to restore faith of the people.

"I have sent my teams to New York, Singapore and Houston to study their police system. We have also started 'dial 100 scheme' which will be implemented in a phase-wise manner."

On party tickets, he said, "Ticket distribution is not in my hand. I can only give my suggestions and will do that. Everyone is aware of my views on that. National president of the party will take a call on that," said Akhilesh, who stayed away when his father launched the partys poll campaign last month from a stronghold of the erstwhile Quami Ekta Dal, led by Mukhtar Ansari.

He had opposed the merger of the QED with his party but Mulayam and uncle Shivpal Yadav overruled the young chief minister later.

Asked whether he got a 'free hand' to work during his tenure, Akhilesh said he feels more matured and experienced now.

"Last time I was new in politics and became chief minister with the blessings of netaji. I am more matured and with age I have also gained experience. I have fulfilled all the promises I had made in my manifesto. I have initiated schemes on which Samajwadis can do politics for next 10-15 years. In my next innings I will work harder to make UP number one state," he said.

Photograph: Sandeep Pal
IMAGE: Firefighters and rescue personnel stand near a destroyed house after an explosion at the San Pablito fireworks market outside the Mexican capital in Tultepec on Tuesday. All Photographs: Edgard Garrido/Reuters



At least 31 people died and over 72 were injured in a massive explosion that gutted Mexicos biggest fireworks market.

The incident happened at 2.50 pm (local time) on Tuesday when the San Pablito market at Mexico City suburb of Tultepec was packed with customers buying pyrotechnics for traditional end-of year festivities.

'We have recovered 26 bodies from the spot. Five died in the hospital, for a total of 31 dead,' Mexico state's governor Eruviel Avila was quoted as saying by agencies.

Federal police said on Twitter that 72 people were hurt and were transported to emergency rooms.

Fire crews struggled for three hours before bringing the blaze under control.

According to the New York Times, the market was certified by the states Institute of Pyrotechnics, which just last month described it as the safest in all of Latin America.

IMAGE: Police officers walk amongst the wreckage of houses destroyed in the explosion.



"The entire market is gone," said the head of the civil protection service Luis Felipe Puente, adding that firefighters had to wait for all the fireworks to finish exploding before they could extinguish the flames.

The cause of the blast is not known yet, however, some said it could have been caused by mishandling of gunpowder or other fireworks components.

Several of the injured are said to be critical and rescue workers are searching for more casualties in the scorched area.

IMAGE: People look at charred vehicles.



Homes and vehicles nearby were also severely damaged. In some areas, authorities were gently probing for survivors under heaps of charred and twisted roofing material.

People desperately searching for family and friends shouted and gestured to rescuers about where they hoped their missing loved one might be found.

Most of those being picked up by rescuers had severe burns, many over their entire bodies.

The military, which is in charge of issuing fireworks sales permits, was deployed to help emergency crews transport casualties to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter.

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted his condolences to the families of those killed and his wishes for recovery for those hurt.

IMAGE: A sign reading 'no alcoholic beverages' is seen next to flattened houses after the explosion.



The explosion at the San Pablito market was the third major blast there in the last 11 years. In 2005 and again in 2006, major explosions took place. While no one was killed in those two episodes, vendor stalls and surrounding areas were damaged, the NYT said.
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, whose party had boycotted a function involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, will attend the public function in Mumbai on December 24 to be addressed by Modi.

The prime minister, after laying the foundation stone for two Metro rail projects, elevated rail corridors project, the Mumbai Trans Harbour link and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off Arabian Sea, will address a public function in suburban Bandra-Kurla Complex.

There will be only one function to lay the foundation stone for these projects and Uddhav Thackeray will attend the proceedings at the MMRDA grounds in BKC, a close aide of the Sena chief told PTI on Wednesday.

On October 11 last year, Modi had laid the foundation stone of a grand memorial to Babasaheb Ambedkar at the Indu Mills compound in the heart of Mumbai, a function which was boycotted by Shiv Sena whose chief Uddhav Thackeray was not invited.

Sena is a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre as well as the BJP-led Maharashtra government.
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UN Security Council Aleppo resolution long overdue

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 19 December 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, UN Security Council Aleppo resolution long overdue , 19 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a35ba4.html [accessed 3 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 protracted politicking and negotiations have finally resulted in a Security Council resolution allowing UN monitors to be sent to Aleppo.

The resolution follows a weekend of intense negotiation under the threat of a third Russian veto in three months.

"The world is watching how the UN responds to the plight of Aleppo. This important measure has come far too late, with hundreds of thousands of people demanding the Syrian and Russian governments allow a safe evacuation and independent monitoring. But thousands are still trapped in besieged areas of Eastern Aleppo, waiting for hours in sub-zero temperatures to be evacuated," said Sherine Tadros, Head of Amnesty International's UN office in New York.

"Evacuations have been taking place now for days and in that time we have seen convoys being attacked - why has it taken so long for this necessary step to be taken? UN monitors should not just observe but also be allowed to investigate war crimes being committed.

"Now that it has finally agreed to act on Aleppo, the UN Security Council needs to build on this first step and urgently send monitors to all areas of evacuation, not just Aleppo."

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Saudi Arabia: Immediately abandon all use of cluster munitions

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 19 December 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia: Immediately abandon all use of cluster munitions, 19 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a36124.html [accessed 3 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 Arabia should immediately abandon all use of cluster munitions, destroy its stockpile and accede to the international Convention on Cluster Munitions, Amnesty International said after the Kingdom's surprise admission today that it used the inherently indiscriminate weapon in Yemen.



General Ahmed al-Asiri, the spokesperson for the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition, stated today that it would cease use of UK-made BL-755 cluster munitions, confirming Amnesty International's finding that this type had been used since at least December 2015. Amnesty International previously revealed the coalition's use of UK, US and Brazilian-made cluster munitions in the conflict.



"It's astonishing that it has taken this long for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition to formally admit that it used inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions in the Yemen conflict," said James Lynch, Head of Arms Control and Human Rights at Amnesty International.

"It's astonishing that it has taken this long for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition to formally admit that it used inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions in the Yemen conflict," said James Lynch, Head of Arms Control and Human Rights at Amnesty International.

"Of course we have already known this for months. Amnesty International and others gathered damning evidence of how these weapons were killing and maiming civilians, including children, in farming villages in northern Yemen following their use earlier this year.

"This episode highlights the urgent need for an independent international investigation to look into the mounting evidence of violations of international law in Yemen and ensure accountability.

"The irresponsible and unlawful flow of arms to parties to the Yemen conflict has fuelled civilian suffering. All states must impose a comprehensive embargo on arms transfers that could be used by any of the warring parties."

Background

Amnesty International and others have been calling on all states for years to immediately halt the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions and to join the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). Neither Saudi Arabia nor any of its coalition members have joined the CCM. However, under customary international humanitarian law, coalition members must not use inherently indiscriminate weapons including cluster munitions, which invariably pose a threat to civilians.

Cluster munitions, which are banned by more than 100 countries, present an enormous danger to civilians. Dropped from the air or fired from the ground, they are designed to break open in mid-air, releasing the sub-munitions over a wide area in a way that cannot discriminate between civilians and military targets. Many of the sub-munitions fail to explode on impact and effectively become anti-personnel mines. Unexploded sub-munitions have the potential to remain lethal for years, posing a high risk to the civilian population, both during and after the conflict. Because they are inherently indiscriminate weapons, cluster munitions should not be used in any circumstances.

Members of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition should immediately provide the UN with precise locations of cluster munition attacks, including maps, data with the exact dates of strikes, specific types and quantities of the weapons used, in order to facilitate clearance and risk-education activities and to reduce the potential for further civilian casualties.

Saudi Arabia and other coalition members should facilitate clearance of areas contaminated by unexploded ordnance. States in a position to do so should provide all possible technical, financial, material, and other assistance to facilitate the marking and clearance, removal or destruction of cluster bomb submunitions, duds and other explosive remnants of war. They should also provide victim assistance, including for the medical and psychological care and rehabilitation of victims and their families, as well as risk education.

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Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
UN condemns assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN condemns assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey, 19 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a420040c.html [accessed 3 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.

19 December 2016 - Strongly condemning the assassination today of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov in Ankara, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Security Council emphasized that there is no justification for targeting diplomatic personnel and civilians.

"The Secretary-General is appalled by this senseless act of terror," according to a statement issued by Mr. Ban's spokesperson, which added that he also expressed his deepest condolences to the family of Ambassador Karlov and to the Government and people of the Russia.

Mr. Ban emphasized that there can be no justification for the targeting of diplomatic personnel and civilians, and according to the statement, he is "following the unfolding situation closely" and wished the other people who were reportedly injured in the attack a speedy and full recovery.

In a separate statement, the Security Council also condemned the deadly terrorist attack and expressed their deep condolences to the family of the Ambassador and the Russian Government.

Reiterating the need to bring the perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of terrorist attacks to justice, Council members reaffirmed that terrorism in all forms is constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable.

In their press statement, the members of the Council also stressed the fundamental principle of the inviolability of diplomatic agents and consular officers and the obligations, including under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on diplomatic agents and consular officers.
DR Congo: UN envoy voices concern over wave of ongoing arrests and detentions

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 20 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, DR Congo: UN envoy voices concern over wave of ongoing arrests and detentions, 20 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a422240c.html [accessed 3 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.

20 December 2016 - The United Nations envoy for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) expressed grave concern today over the wave of arrests and arbitrary detention "of those who seek to express their political views" in the country over the past three days, and reiterated the necessity for all Congolese authorities to respect the rules of the country and ensure protection of free speech.

"I urge the national authorities to strictly adhere to their international human rights obligations, to create a climate of political tolerance and respect at this important juncture in the DRC's history, and to grant full access to United Nations personnel to all detention centres," said Maman S. Sidikou, the Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO).

The United Nations has documented 113 arrests in the country, including opposition leaders and sympathizers, civil society activists and human rights defenders, media professionals and other individuals, since 16 December. In addition, the UN has not always been granted the required access to verify the conditions of those arrested, he explained.

Most of the arrests took place in Goma, Kinshasa and Bukavu, undertaken by the Congolese National Police (PNC), Agence National de Renseignement (ANR) and the Republican Guard.

"I call on the relevant authorities to apply due process for all those who have been detained and to bring an end to politically-motivated detentions," said Mr. Sidikou, adding that he has previously highlighted the necessity for all Congolese to respect the laws of the Republic.

The Special Representative also underlined the importance of promoting and protecting human rights, including the freedoms of opinion, expression and peaceful assembly enshrined in the Constitution, in an open political space. "This is essential to create a conductive environment for the conduct of meaningful dialogue on the way forward in the DRC," he stated.

Just three days ago, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said he was "deeply alarmed" at a planned Government shutdown of social media networks in the country from the evening of 18 December, ahead of the end of President Joseph Kabila's mandate, coupled with a continuing ban on demonstrations by civil society and the opposition.
As evacuations resume in Aleppo, UN prepares to redeploy staff to monitor process

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 20 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, As evacuations resume in Aleppo, UN prepares to redeploy staff to monitor process, 20 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a425b40d.html [accessed 3 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.

20 December 2016 - As the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) resumed this morning evacuations from besieged neighbourhoods in eastern Aleppo, the United Nations reported that it has received authorization to send 20 international and national staff to the city to play a critical role in the monitoring and the response.

"This will almost triple the number of international staff currently deployed to Aleppo," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the regular news briefing in Geneva where he informed reporters of the Syrian Government's decision to "unblock" the 20 staffers, who were already in the capital, Damascus, to be redeployed "as soon as possible to Aleppo."

He noted that perhaps 100 UN staff members are already in western Aleppo and ready to deploy to the eastern districts.

Mr. Laerke praised the efforts of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and ICRC, who have been overseeing the evacuations in Syria. As of 9:20 a.m. local time today, the organizations had escorted 10 buses from the Ramouseh checkpoint to Khan al-Assal in western Aleppo. Nearly 19,000 people have been evacuated out of east Aleppo since the evacuations began on 15 December and more buses are expected to transport civilians out of the city today.

According to the spokesperson, the operation will continue until all those who need and wish to leave have been able to do so safely and with dignity.

A former cotton factory serving as a refugee shelter in Jibreen, Aleppo. Thousands of internally displaced people from eastern Aleppo have passed through this site, staying only a few days as it offered little protection to vulnerable people from freezing cold temperatures. 2 December 2016. Photo: OCHA Syria/L. Tom

Yesterday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution to enable the UN and its partners to carry out monitoring activities on evacuations from eastern Aleppo, report on such operations, and deploy additional staff. It "demands all parties to provide these monitors with safe, immediate, and unimpeded access."

The resolution opens the door for evacuations and humanitarian assistance. It also requires the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report to the Security Council within five days on the implementation of the text.

Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the UN Information Service in Geneva, noted that the resolution followed a dramatically more difficult situation on the ground, as well as Mr. Ban's assessment that the city had become "a synonym for hell."

A spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that so far, 301 patients have been medically evacuated (43 yesterday) to hospitals in Idlib, rural western Aleppo, and Turkey. UN partners and non-governmental organizations in Gaziantep and Idlib province are receiving people as they arrive and providing urgent humanitarian assistance, including medical care for the sick and wounded.

A team of 233 staff members from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is also providing assistance with non-food items such as health, emergency, and shelter kits in Aleppo.

Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), reported that the UN had no indication of people moving across the border to Turkey and that refugee camps in the country were being run by Turkish authorities. However, UNHCR has stockpiles in place and ready for an additional 100,000 people should the situation change.
As bitter winter grips Middle East, UNICEF faces funding gap for support to millions of children

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 20 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, As bitter winter grips Middle East, UNICEF faces funding gap for support to millions of children, 20 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a42a740e.html [accessed 3 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.

20 December 2016 - Millions of children throughout the Middle East are in danger as bitter cold temperatures and winter weather bear down on the region, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today, as it warned the agency faces a $38 million funding gap as it races to provide assistance.

"The winter months are even more brutal for vulnerable children in the region," said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

He explained that they are weakened from months of undernutrition and lack of health care, putting them at high risk of hypothermia and serious respiratory infections from the cold.

"Without help, winter could be another harsh sentence for many of them," the UNICEF official stressed.

Families affected by the conflict in Syria and Iraq are exhausted from years of violence, displacement, and unemployment. Their financial resources are drained, making it all but impossible to purchase warm clothing and heating fuel. On top of the struggle to survive with the bare minimum, many are living in makeshift shelters and camps that offer scant protection against the cold. Many have fled conflicts without bringing any belongings.

UNICEF is hoping to provide more than 2.5 million children in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Egypt with warm clothing, thermal blankets, and cash assistance for families this winter.

So far, winter kits have been distributed to nearly 50,000 children in Syria, including those living in shelters following evacuations from east Aleppo. The agency has provided heating to schools in Lebanon for 95,000 children and cash assistance for more than 50,000 in Jordan. 38,000 children and 400 pregnant or lactating mothers in Iraq have received winter clothing.

However, needs are outpacing support: UNICEF has received just slightly more than half of the $82 million required to help protect vulnerable children from the cold.

The winter assistance the agency seeks to provide is in addition to its ongoing programmes that provide health, nutrition, water, sanitation, protection, and education to millions of children throughout the Middle East.
UN rights chief calls for murder investigation after Philippine President admits to killing three people

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 20 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN rights chief calls for murder investigation after Philippine President admits to killing three people, 20 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a42f440e.html [accessed 3 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.

20 December 2016 - Stressing that the killing of "about three" people, which the President of the Philippines admitted to personally committing, while serving as the Mayor of the city of Davao clearly constituted murder, the United Nations human rights chief called on the judicial authorities in the country to uphold the rule of law and investigate the self-professed crimes.

"The killings committed by [President Duterte of the Philippines], by his own admission, at a time when he was a mayor, clearly constitute murder," said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

"It should be unthinkable for any functioning judicial system not to launch investigative and judicial proceedings when someone has openly admitted being a killer," he added.

According to the UN human rights arm, Mr. Duterte told business leaders last week that he had patrolled the streets personally on his motorcycle and killed people. On Friday, in an interview with the BBC, he confirmed that he had personally killed "about three" people during his term as the mayor of Davao.

"The killings described by President Duterte also violate international law, including the right to life, freedom from violence and force, due process and fair trial, equal protection before the law, and innocence until proven guilty," underscored High Commissioner Zeid, adding that if Mr. Duterte, as a government official, encouraged others to follow his example, he may also have committed incitement to violence.

It should be unthinkable for any functioning judicial system not to launch investigative and judicial proceedings when someone has openly admitted being a killer High Commissioner Zeid

Mr. Zeid also said that Mr. Duterte's repeated calls for the police, military and the general public to engage in a 'war on drugs', bringing people in 'dead or alive', has emboldened an environment of alarming impunity and violence and that repeated statements indicating immunity for police officers who engaged in human rights violations in the line of duty were "a direct violation of all democratic safeguards that have been established to uphold justice and the rule of law."
DR Congo: Ban condemns killing of UN peacekeeper

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, DR Congo: Ban condemns killing of UN peacekeeper, 19 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a432140e.html [accessed 3 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.

19 December 2016 - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the killing of a peacekeeper from South Africa deployed with the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) in North Kivu earlier today.

The Secretary-General "calls on the authorities of the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo] to ensure that this attack is investigated and its perpetrators are brought to justice. He underlines, once again, that attacks against UN peacekeepers are unacceptable," according to a statement issued by Mr. Ban's spokesperson.

The peacekeeper was killed in Butembo during an exchange of fire with suspected combatants of a Mayi Mayi armed group. Two other peacekeepers from South Africa were also injured, the statement added. According to MONUSCO, a member of National Police was also killed.

Maman S. Sidikou, the Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of MONUSCO, also strongly condemned the mission referred to as a militia attack.

"Underlining that attacks against peacekeepers are considered a war crime and that perpetrators will be held accountable, Maman Sidikou reaffirms that this heinous attack will not undermine the commitment and determination of MONUSCO to fulfil its protection of civilians and neutralization of armed groups mandate," said a statement issued by the Mission.

Mr. Ban and Mr. Sidikou expressed their deepest condolences to the families of the deceased as well as to the governments of DRC and South Africa. They also wished the injured a quick recovery.
Act now to halt South Sudan's 'trajectory towards mass atrocities,' Ban urges Security Council

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Act now to halt South Sudan's 'trajectory towards mass atrocities,' Ban urges Security Council, 19 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a434a412.html [accessed 3 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.

19 December 2016 - Amid growing tensions and increasing despair among South Sudan's population, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today warned that the international community's failure to act now could put the country on a trajectory towards mass atrocities.

"It is time to put the people of South Sudan, and not its leaders, at the forefront of any strategy," Mr. Ban told the Security Council in a briefing that also featured UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien.

"We should be united and determined in following through with severe consequences for those who impede the path to peace and stability," stressed the Secretary-General.

The UN chief informed the Council of reports suggesting that South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and his loyalists are contemplating a new military offensive in the coming days against the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)-In Opposition, as well as of reports that long-time rival Riek Machar and other opposition groups are pursuing a military escalation.

Underscoring that the parties in South Sudan must be prevented from launching any military operation, particularly with the beginning of the dry season, Mr. Ban stated: "I urge the Security Council, regional leaders and the international community to make it clear to President Kiir and Riek Machar that initiation of a military offensive will carry serious consequences."

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) line up early in the morning for a general food distribution at the UN Protection of Civilians Site, Malakal, South Sudan. Photo: IOM/Bannon

Reiterating his call for an arms embargo, the Secretary-general said such a measure "would diminish the capacity of all sides to wage war."

The conflict in South Sudan has already assumed an ethnic dimension.

Sounding the alarm at the rising ethnic tensions in the country, including increasing hate speech from many in leadership positions as well as the warning from Adama Dieng, the UN Special Envoy for the Prevention of Genocide, Mr. Ban underlined: "I am afraid that process is about to begin unless immediate action is taken. The Security Council must [] send a clear warning that hate speech, incitement and violence must end, and that there will be accountability for mass atrocities and other crimes."

He also told the Council that the UN Mission in the country (UNMISS) continued to face serious restrictions on its freedom of movement throughout the country, and called on the Government to fulfil its pledges of unconditional acceptance of the deployment of the Regional Protection Force.

"Words alone are insufficient. They must be matched by practical actions that demonstrate a strategic shift to fully cooperate with the United Nations and all partners for peace."

Concluding his briefing, Mr. Ban noted that the people of South Sudan have suffered far too much, for far too long.

"Its people will be the target of those atrocities while they pin their hopes on the international community in general and the Security Council," he said, adding: "I appeal to the Security Council to act, to act now, in fulfillment of its responsibility and in support of ongoing regional efforts."

After Srebrenica and Rwanda. Given the clear facts and evidence this evening in South Sudan, how many more clues do you, do we all, need to move from our anxious words to real, preventative action? Emergency Relief Coordinator O'Brien

Further today, Stephen O'Brien, who is also the head of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stressed that decisive action is needed to end the violence and that it is incumbent upon the Security Council to make sure the necessary action is taken.

Drawing the attention of the Council to the challenges faced by aid workers, he said:

"I am appalled to highlight that around 67 per cent of [the incidents of] violence against humanitarian workers or assets. [] Last month, one hundred reports of humanitarian access incidents were documented - the highest number in any month since June 2015."

The situation is particularly difficult in locations where towns are controlled by one party to the conflict and surrounded by another. For instance, in Yei (Central Equatoria province) and in Wau (Western Bahr el Ghazal province) tens of thousands are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance.

"The recent proliferation of armed actors has increased the complexity of access negotiations and heightened risks to aid workers," he added.

Highlighting three key areas of action: cessation of violence; ensure unhindered access to all those requiring assistance; and arrest the imminent risk of violence escalating along ethnic lines, Mr. O'Brien concluded:

"After Srebrenica and Rwanda. Given the clear facts and evidence this evening in South Sudan, how many more clues do you, do we all, need to move from our anxious words to real, preventative action? How many lives, how many women, men and children, can you, can we all, save if you and those with influence over the parties act decisively today?"
Ban commends West African countries' firm decision to stand by Gambian President-elect

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Ban commends West African countries' firm decision to stand by Gambian President-elect, 19 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a438f40e.html [accessed 3 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.

19 December 2016 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today commended decisions by a bloc of West African countries to take all necessary actions to enforce the outcome of the presidential election in Gambia, guarantee the protection of President-elect Adama Barrow, and attend the new leader's inauguration ceremony on 19 January 2017.

"The Secretary-General commends the firm stance taken by the Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on 17 December with respect to the situation in Gambia," said a statement issued by Mr. Ban's spokesperson.

The Secretary-General remains deeply concerned about the situation in Gambia following the presidential election on 1 December, in particular that the Independent Electoral Commission continues to be under the control of military forces, the statement added.

"He urges the Gambian security forces to uphold their neutrality and demonstrate restraint under the unfolding circumstances," the statement said.

The Secretary-General underscores the UN's commitment to fully support ECOWAS decisions, including, if requested, assistance to the mediation effort to be led by Presidents, Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria and John Dramani Mahama of Ghana.
UN envoy urges all Afghans, including the Taliban, to enter peace process and reject 'endless war'

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN envoy urges all Afghans, including the Taliban, to enter peace process and reject 'endless war', 19 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a46cb40e.html [accessed 3 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.

19 December 2016 - The United Nations envoy for Afghanistan today called on the Taliban to participate in peace talks with the national Government, stressing that the conflict in the country has no military solution and the only path to a meaningful peace is through intra-Afghan dialogue.

"The Taliban leadership must reconsider the notion that their objectives can only be achieved on the battlefield," the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, told the Security Council during a debate on the situation in the country and its implications for international peace and security.

"It takes courage to enter into a peace process. It is not an admission of defeat - it is a recognition of reality. An endless war ruins the country and impacts on people," he added.

The only path to a meaningful peace is by Afghans talking directly with Afghans, he continued, urging all parties to the longstanding conflict to identify common interests, and in particular the Taliban, to engage in direct talks with the Government "without preconditions."

The peace agreement with the Hizb-i Islami armed group shows that the Government is prepared to negotiate on key issues, such as prisoner release, lifting of sanctions, and integration into the political life of Afghanistan, said Mr. Yamamoto, who is also the head of the UN Assistant Mission in the country, known as UNAMA.

"Successful implementation of the agreement should address any remaining doubts, help unite the Afghans, and could pave the way for further peace agreements," he said.

Photo: UNAMA/Fardin Waezi

Looking at the overall situation, despite security challenges and some political volatility, he said he continues to see opportunities and hope in Afghanistan.

Since the formation of a national unity Government two years ago, the Afghan leaders have continued working to overcome their differences to advance the country's reform agenda, he said. The international community also responded with significant financial commitments in both security and development, allowing Afghanistan to achieve greater stability and self-reliance.

Peace and stability in Afghanistan are not the sole interest of Afghanistan, he said, urging regional countries to play their role as such conditions will benefit them security-wise and economically.

Turning to large-scale population movement, he said Afghan citizens are returning home in record numbers, including hundreds of thousands of people from both Pakistan and Iran in the past six months alone.

Over 1.5 million people are "on the move" this year. It is likely that 2017 will see similar numbers of people will necessarily bring with it strains and pressure on the economy, on social services and could further swell the number of those seeking employment, he added.

"Refugees come back to Afghanistan with hopes," he said, noting that, however, "a better future is not possible without peace." In 2016, thousands and thousands of Afghans have been killed in the conflict, and tens of thousands more were wounded.

The conflict also erodes the living conditions of people and deprives the country of opportunities for development and growth, with economic investment - much-needed to achieve a sustainable future - falling by around 50 per cent.

"Financial resources that are spent on the conflict could be utilised for the economic prosperity of Afghanistan," he said.
UN-backed $547 million appeal launched for humanitarian needs in Occupied Palestinian Territory

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN-backed $547 million appeal launched for humanitarian needs in Occupied Palestinian Territory, 19 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a471840c.html [accessed 3 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.

19 December 2016 - The United Nations and the State of Palestine today jointly launched an appeal seeking $547 million in funding for 2017 to support the humanitarian needs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

"International support is critical to continue providing relief to vulnerable Palestinians," said the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities, Robert Piper, in a joint press release with the Minister of Social Development of the State of Palestine, Ibrahim AlShaer, and issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"But we are just trying to buy time - this humanitarian response must be coupled with bold political action to bring the world's most protracted protection crisis to a close," added Mr. Piper.

The plan seeks $547 million in donor funding to implement 243 projects by 95 organizations, including 47 national and 35 international non-governmental organizations, and 13 UN agencies. Nearly 70 per cent of the requested funds target Gaza, where humanitarian needs are highest due to the blockade and recurrent hostilities, further exacerbated by the impact of internal Palestinian divisions.

According to humanitarian assessments, some 1.8 million people are in high need of protection in the occupied Palestinian territory and 1.6 million people are moderately to severely food insecure. In Gaza, over 50,000 people remain displaced from the 2014 hostilities, while 8,000 people in the West Bank are at high risk of forcible transfer due to a coercive environment. Throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, hundreds of thousands of people still have restricted access to essential services.

"This humanitarian funding appeal seeks to give a hand to the most vulnerable, the worst affected amongst Palestinian households across the whole occupied territory," Mr. Piper said.
Stop targeted repression and double standards, UN rights experts tell DR Congo authorities

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Stop targeted repression and double standards, UN rights experts tell DR Congo authorities, 19 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a481d40d.html [accessed 3 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.

19 December 2016 - Raising alarm over "double standards" applied by the authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - allowing pro-government youths to conduct public political activities while repressing dissenting voices - a group of United Nations rights experts today called on the Government to end the "targeted repression" and to guarantee conditions that allow fundamental rights and freedoms to be exercised peacefully.

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), DR Congo has seen a wave of protests expressing concern that President Joseph Kabila will refuse to step down from office today (19 December) when his second and final term under the current constitutional arrangements come to an end. Elections to replace him have been delayed until 2018.

"The targeted repression of dissenting voices of civil society and human rights defenders is contrary to democratic principles [] If civil society is not allowed to exercise the rights of freedom of expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, protesters will inevitably resort to violence, for which only the authorities are to be blamed," warned a group of UN human rights experts.

These measures have most recently affected the citizens' movements Lucha and Filimbi, both young citizen movements aiming at promoting political participation, which recently launched a public awareness campaign calling for respect for the Constitution.

On 1 December, five Lucha members and a journalist were arrested in the vast country's eastern Ituri province while they were preparing a press conference to launch the campaign. The journalist was later released, but the other five are still in detention facing jail for alleged incitement of misconduct toward the authorities.

On Saturday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein had also expressed deep concerns over the situation in the country and called on the authorities, in particular the security forces, "to take all necessary measures" to guarantee the rights to freedom of association and of peaceful assembly.

Furthermore, according to reports, DRC authorities have also ordered all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to socialmedia websites. The block was planned to be enforced from Sunday evening.

"A measure of this broad scale suppresses the right of the people of DR Congo to access information and to communicate. This right is particularly essential during times of public debate and democratic choice," the experts underlined.

The human rights experts raising their concern included:

Independent experts and Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
Security Council approves UN monitors for Aleppo evacuations

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Security Council approves UN monitors for Aleppo evacuations, 19 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a48d140e.html [accessed 3 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.

19 December 2016 - Alarmed at the devastating humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, where perhaps thousands of civilians remain trapped, the Security Council today requested the United Nations and other relevant institutions to carry out adequate, neutral monitoring and direct observation on evacuations from the eastern districts of the war-battered city.

Through a unanimously adopted resolution, the Council also requested the UN to ensure further deployment of staff for Monitoring and reporting on the evacuations, as needed and demanded all parties to provide these monitors with safe, immediate and unimpeded access.

Noting that urgent humanitarian evacuations and assistance are now needed by a large number of Aleppo inhabitants, the Council demanded that all parties provide the UN and it is implementation partners with safe, immediate and unimpeded access to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches people through the most direct route, in order to meet basic needs, including the provision of medical care.

The French-led resolution also calls on all parties to respect and protect all medical and humanitarian personnel, their means of transport and equipment, as well as hospitals and other medical facilities throughout the country.

The Secretary-General is requested to take urgent steps to make arrangements, including security arrangements in consultation with interested parties, to allow the observation by the [UN} and other relevant institutions of the well-being of civilians, and to report back to the Council within five days.

Thousands of civilians are reportedly awaiting evacuations to resume today.

Highlighting the plight of civilians, Ertharin Cousin, the head of WFP underscored: "All Syrians - no matter where they are - deserve nothing less than food, shelter and safety from the continuing conflict."

Beyond Aleppo, WFP is supporting more than four million Syrians affected by the conflict. There are nearly one million people residing in areas that remain besieged that WFP cannot reach on a regular basis.

As the Syria crisis enters its sixth year, civilians continue to bear the brunt of a conflict marked by unparalleled suffering, destruction and disregard for human life. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 13.5 million people require humanitarian assistance, including 4.9 million people in need trapped in besieged and hard-to-reach areas, where they are exposed to grave protection threats.
Lebanon: UN chief welcomes new Government led by Saad Hariri

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Lebanon: UN chief welcomes new Government led by Saad Hariri, 19 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a48fb40c.html [accessed 3 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.

19 December 2016 - Welcoming the announcement of new Cabinet members in Lebanon, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed hope that the new Government will ensure that the country's forthcoming parliamentary election is successfully conducted within the timeframe set by the constitution, according to his spokesman.

The United Nations looks forward to working with the new Government to continue to address political, security and humanitarian challenges, improve socioeconomic prospects, and ensure the effective implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) and other relevant resolutions, which remain essential to the stability of Lebanon and the region, said a statement issued by Mr. Ban's spokesman.

The Secretary-General congratulated Prime Minister Saad Hariri on the swift process and encourages Lebanon's political leaders to build on the momentum of national unity, and paid tribute to outgoing Prime Minister Tamman Salam for his leadership, the statement added.

The announcement yesterday of the new Cabinet members followed the election of President Michel Aoun on 31 October 2016, which ended the country's 29 months without a president. The stability of the country is crucial as it is currently hosting 1.1 million Syrian refugees in addition to the 300,000 Palestine refugees since 1948.

Council resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, called for a full cessation of hostilities in the month-long war between Israel and Hizbollah, mapping out a formula for the phased withdrawal of the Israel Defence Forces from southern Lebanon.

The United Nations works on multiple fronts to assist Lebanon in forging a peaceful, stable and democratic future. The world body's efforts there include the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL)  the Special Coordinator serves as the Secretary-General's representative to the Lebanese Government, all political parties and the diplomatic community based in the country and carries out good offices work on behalf of the UN chief to assist Lebanese parties to reach peaceful and consensus-based solutions to contentious issues.
Lebanon: Reform Rape Laws

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 19 December 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Lebanon: Reform Rape Laws, 19 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a4a7b4.html [accessed 3 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.

Lebanon's parliament should repeal a penal code provision that allows rapists to escape prosecution by marrying their victims, Human Rights Watch said today. Parliament should also amend other provisions to adequately criminalize sexual assault and rape, including by spouses.

On December 7, 2016, members of the Parliamentary Committee for Administration and Justice announced an agreement to repeal article 522 of the Lebanese Penal Code, which allows halting the prosecution or suspending the conviction of a person who has committed rape, kidnapping, or statutory rape if he marries the victim. Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri expressed his support for the measure on Twitter. The proposed reform, once officially confirmed by the committee, will next go to the full Lebanese parliament for review.

"The current law allows for a second assault on a rape survivor's rights in the name of 'honor' by trapping her in a marriage with her rapist," said Rothna Begum, Middle East women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Protecting honor should be about ensuring that attackers are punished and promoting social attitudes that support survivors of sexual violence instead of stigmatizing them."

The proposed repeal follows years of campaigning by Lebanese women's rights organizations. Abaad, a local women's rights group, campaigned in recent months for the repeal of article 522 with a viral video, billboards, events outside parliament, and an online petition with the hashtag #Undress522.

Parliament should also address the issue of marital rape. The parliamentary committee is still reviewing penal code articles 503-521, which address rape, acts of indecency, statutory rape, and kidnapping. Article 503 defines the crime of rape as "forced sexual intercourse [against someone] who is not his wife by violence or threat."

The 2014 law on domestic violence makes threats or violence by a spouse to claim a "marital right to intercourse" a crime, but does not criminalize the non-consensual violation of physical integrity itself. The penalties for this are covered under articles 554-559, which provide for as little as a fine of 10,000-50,000 Lebanese pound (US$6.66-$33) or a maximum of six months in prison if the victim required 10 days maximum of rest to recover, compared with at least five years for rape under article 503.

In November 2015, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, during its review of Lebanon's record under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, called on Lebanon to criminalize marital rape.

"The Lebanese parliament should ensure that the legal definition of rape is comprehensive, and does not make exceptions for marital rape," Begum said. "Rape inside and outside of marriage should be treated exactly the same."

Lebanon's parliament should also clearly define sexual assault as a violation of bodily integrity and sexual autonomy, and rape as a form of sexual assault that is a physical invasion of a sexual nature without consent or under coercive circumstances, Human Rights Watch said. A physical invasion would include penetration, however slight, of any part of the body of the victim  or of the rapist by the victim  with a sexual organ, or of the anal or genital opening of the victim with any object or any other part of the body.

The penal code, under articles 507-510 and beyond, refers to violent acts of "indecency." However, "indecency" is ill-defined, and it should instead be replaced with specific reference to sexual assault that is not penetrative rape.

If Lebanon abolishes the loophole for rapists who marry their victims, it will join a growing number of countries around the world that have made similar reforms in the past 30 years, including Costa Rica (2007), Uruguay (2006), Romania (2000), Peru (1998), France (1994), and Italy (1981).

Regionally, in 1999, Egypt repealed article 291 from its penal code which had allowed rapists or kidnappers to escape prosecution by marrying their victim. In January 2014, Morocco's parliament removed a clause from article 475 of its penal code that had allowed some men to escape prosecution for raping a child if they agreed to marry her.

Countries in the region that retain such provisions include Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia.

Some of these are considering reforming their laws. Jordan is considering a proposal to amend article 308 of its penal code to end the exemption from investigation and prosecution for people accused of sexual assault if they marry their victims and remain married for at least five years. However, a proposed provision allows men to escape statutory rape consensual sex  in cases where the child is above 15, if they marry the victim.

Bahrain's parliament on May 31, 2016, approved the abolition of article 353, which exempts those who commit rape from punishment if they marry their victim, and called on the Council of Ministers to return to parliament a draft law of the abolition to be enacted. On November 7, the Council of Ministers noted that the Ministerial Committee on Legal Affairs is studying the issue.

"Lebanon, Jordan, and Bahrain should all move forward to adopt and implement proposed reforms to prevent rapists from escaping prosecution by marrying their victims," said Begum. "Other countries should follow suit."

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Central African Republic: Mayhem by New Group

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 20 December 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Central African Republic: Mayhem by New Group, 20 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a4aee4.html [accessed 3 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.

A recently formed armed group called "Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation," or 3R, has killed civilians, raped, and caused largescale displacement over the past year in northwest Central African Republic. United Nations peacekeepers in the area have been unable to fully protect civilians.

"The Central African Republic is on the international agenda, but its neglected northwest territory now presents an emerging crisis," said Lewis Mudge, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The 3R armed group, which originally portrayed itself as a protector of the Peuhl, has used it increased strength to expand abusive attacks."

Between November 21 and 27, 2016, Human Rights Watch documented the killing of at least 50 civilians in the Bocaranga and Koui sub-prefectures in Ouham Pende province. Human Rights Watch interviewed 42 people, including 8 victims of 3R abuse, 9 relatives of victims, and 16 witnesses. They described how 3R members shot and killed civilians, raped women and girls, and pillaged and burned villages. The force's actions have displaced at least 17,000 people: 14,000 around the town of Bocaranga and 3,000 on the border with Cameroon.

The number of 3R's victims is probably higher but Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm all reported killings and rapes due to limited access and security concerns. Human Rights Watch saw one village, Bogon III, that 3R had destroyed, and heard credible accounts of others, including seeing photographs of the destruction.

Under the command of self-proclaimed General Sidiki Abass, 3R emerged in late 2015 to protect the minority Peuhl population in the region from attacks by anti-balaka militia, one of the two major combatant groups in the country in recent years. In April and May 2016, 3R increased its attacks on villages in the Koui sub-prefecture, allegedly in retaliation for anti-balaka activity. On September 27, 3R attacked the town of De Gaulle, the sub-prefecture capital, with about 20,000 people, and other villages in the area. 3R deny they have committed any abuses.

Anti-balaka, under the command of a self-proclaimed general, Abbas Rafal, have also killed Peuhl civilians and fighters in and around Bocaranga, where Human Rights Watch saw dozens of armed anti-balaka fighters moving freely in late November. Human Rights Watch also saw at least 100 armed 3R fighters in De Gaulle.

On November 22, Sidiki told Human Rights Watch by telephone that all his men respect human rights and denied allegations of abuse. On November 25, Human Rights Watch met with a spokesman for 3R, who goes only by the name Bashir and refused to give his family name, and the group's general secretary, Patrick Gombado. Both men admitted that 3R had attacked De Gaulle  because of the anti-balaka presence in the town, they said. Bashir told Human Rights Watch that some 3R fighters had stolen private property for personal use during the attack because: "It is combat," he said. "But we do not pillage as a group." Bashir claimed the group does "try to address this type of indiscipline" but did not specify how. Both men denied that 3R fighters had committed any unlawful killings or rapes.

On November 26, Rafal told Human Rights Watch that his group executed Peuhl suspected of being spies "even if they are unarmed." Human Rights Watch confirmed two such killings in November. Anti-balaka fighters also raped at least six women and girls in 2016, according to people providing services to survivors and monitoring sexual violence in the area.

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that Sidiki arrived in the area in 2015 and held meetings in several villages around Koui, saying 3R's goal was to ensure that Peuhl could live in peace with other inhabitants of the area. But fighters associated with 3R soon began attacking these villages, they said, ostensibly provoked by anti-balaka attacks on Peuhl and cattle theft by both anti-balaka and local residents.

The attacks increased in 2016. On September 27, 3R carried out its largest attack, on De Gaulle. Human Rights Watch documented 17 civilians who were killed during or just after the attack, and the total number is probably higher as many people remain missing.

People monitoring sexual violence in the area, who did not want to be identified due to security concerns, said they received reports of rapes of 23 women and girls by 3R fighters during and after the De Gaulle attack. Human Rights Watch interviewed two women and one girl who gave accounts of Sidiki's men raping them. Two of the survivors said that their children witnessed the rapes. "Blandine," a 30-year-old woman from De Gaulle, told Human Rights Watch that 3R fighters broke into her home:

One said, "Where is your husband?" I said that he was not thereOne of them cocked his gun and pointed it at me and said, "We are going to have sex with you." He threw me on the ground and [one of them] raped me. Another was waiting for his turn, but there was shooting outside while the first one was finishing, so when he was done they both left. [M]y two younger children were right beside me, crying.

As of December 13, groups that provide services to rape victims had limited access to the area because of security concerns.

The UN peacekeeping force in the country, the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), has 12,870 forces in the country, including about 100 combat ready soldiers in Bocaranga and 100 in De Gaulle.

UN officers in Bocaranga told Human Rights Watch on November 26 that they are trying to conduct as many patrols as possible with the combat-ready men they have, but admit that both the 3R and anti-balaka are emboldened to circulate freely with their guns. They said that all information is sent to Bangui, the capital, but no troop increase to the region was expected.

Consistent with the mission's mandate, MINUSCA should take steps to protect civilians, including older people, women, and girls, and including by use of force. MINUSCA should also take steps to ensure access to life-saving services, including comprehensive post-rape medical and mental health care.

The crimes committed in the area fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose prosecutor opened investigations into crimes in the country in September 2014, as well as the Special Criminal Court (SCC), a new judicial body with national and international judges and prosecutors that has a mandate to investigate and prosecute grave human rights violations in the country since 2003. The SCC offers a meaningful opportunity to hold accountable commanders from all parties to the conflict responsible for war crimes, and needs sustained international support, Human Rights Watch said.

Extrajudicial killings, targeted killings of civilians, rape, and other forms of sexual violence all violate international humanitarian law and may be prosecuted as war crimes. International humanitarian law also strictly prohibits parties to non-international armed conflicts from resorting to acts of revenge or any countermeasures against civilians or fighters who have ceased to take a direct part in hostilities.

The 3R attacks come at a time of increasing unrest and violence in the center of the country, particularly in Kaga-Bandoro, Bria, and Bambari.

"The national government and MINUSCA face immense problems, but they need to help stop the violence in the northwest and reassert some degree of the rule of law," Mudge said. "Sidiki and Rafal should be warned that they are being watched and will be judged for their actions."

Central African Republic in Crisis

The Central African Republic has been in crisis since late 2012, when mostly Muslim Seleka rebels began a military campaign against the government of Francois Bozize. The Seleka took control of Bangui in March 2013. Their rule was marked by widespread human rights abuses, including the wanton killing of civilians. In mid-2013, Christian and animist anti-balaka militia organized to fight the Seleka. Associating all Muslims with the Seleka, the anti-balaka carried out large scale reprisal attacks against Muslim civilians in Bangui and western parts of the country.

Since 2013, Human Rights Watch has documented numerous cases in which anti-balaka militias, civilians and Seleka groups have targeted the Peuhl.

3R (Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation)

The 3R spokesman, Bashir, and its general secretary, Gombado, assert that 3R is not a rebel group but a resistance movement to defend Peuhl from violence that is expanding into the Nana-Mambere, Ouham Pende, and Mambere-Kadei provinces. They said 3R wants national authorities to return to De Gaulle, which they left after the September 27 attack, but that 3R will keep its guns until anti-balaka are disarmed and Peuhl are protected.

Local leaders said that relations with Sidiki and 3R were amicable at first but then anti-balaka increased their activity in the area and 3R started attacking villages. One local official who did not wish to be named explained:

Sidiki said he was there to protect herders who had been attacked and, in order to do so, he had to form a group. He said he was not a rebel but was there to protect Peuhl and he wanted the authorities to be aware of his presence. He also said he was ready to go into DDR [Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, a joint disarmament program of the national government and MINUSCA] if the anti-balaka were not a threat. But then he changed his position and started to attack villages. He attacked Boumari in 2015 and then the attacks just increased. Now he has destroyed the sub-prefecture.

Another local official said that the violence worsened in April, when the anti-balaka started to attack Sidiki's men. "Sidiki sent his men to burn villages and to kill under the pretext that the people were hiding anti-balaka and stealing cows," he said.

Bashir and Gombado said they sell cattle to procure weapons from the black market but they denied allegations of murder and rape. "Not one civilian has been killed by our men," Bashir told Human Rights Watch. "Not one woman has been raped. There has been no violence committed by our men in De Gaulle or in Koui."

Attacks on Koui Villages

According to local authorities, residents, and others monitoring conditions in the area, 3R has attacked at least 13 villages in Koui sub-prefecture since November 2015. Anti-balaka were present in some of these villages but, local residents said, they quickly fled, leaving civilians to bear the brunt of the attacks. Human Rights Watch spoke with residents of nine villages who described these attacks.

In November 2015, days after Sidiki had assured the villagers that his men would not target civilians, 3R fighters attacked Boumari, about 40 kilometers from De Gaulle, and killed the village chief, 75-year-old Abel Ndombe. "The chief did not run when he saw the fighters because he thought it was safe to talk to them," a witness said. "He approached them and they shot him in the throat."

On January 23, 3R fighters attacked Sangodoro, a village 22 kilometers south of De Gaulle. A witness said:

It was around 5:30 a.m. and I heard shooting in the village. I ran like everyone else into the woods. From the woods we watched the attackers burn the village. It was Sidiki's men; we could tell by their uniforms. I saw the bodies of two people [both civilians] from the village, Desa Amado and Anicet.

Another resident said:

I ran outside and found my neighbor, Anicet, and we ran for the woods. He was shot in the head as we ran  he fell right away. I ran and hid where I found others from the village. After a few hours, a man named Mado decided he was going to go back to the village to look for some money that he had buried in the ground near his house. We soon heard a shot. A little while later we heard his daughter screaming. He had been shot by the 3R but was still alive and we found him in the woods. But it was not good. He was shot in the chest and he knew he was going to die. He was saying, "I am going to die, who is going to care of my kids?" He died a short while later.

In mid-September, 3R fighters attacked the village of Bouzou, 50 kilometers from De Gaulle, killing two people. The attack forced residents to flee to De Gaulle, which was attacked a few days later.

A 40-year-old woman from Bouzou said: "When the attack started I ran into the bush. By the afternoon I returned to the village and saw that everything had been burned, even the church. I then decided to walk to De Gaulle. I had to manage the journey with six children so it took two days."

Ousmanou Alain Doui, 63, died after his family fled to De Gaulle. His son said: "The voyage was just too much for him."

Attack on De Gaulle

Residents of De Gaulle told Human Rights Watch that they noticed an increase in attacks by 3R on the outskirts of the town in the days leading up to the main attack on September 27. "Emmanuel," 56, who like others asked not to be identified by name for fear of reprisal, said:

On September 26 I was at the place outside of town where I keep my cows and sheep. A group of Sidiki's men arrived  I recognized two of them. They surrounded me and saw a bow and some arrows that I use to protect the animals. One of the fighters said that proved I was an anti-balaka. He said, "We are going to kill you and take your animals." I said, "Take the animals but let me live." But he said, "No, we are going to kill you anyway." I said, "Do what you want, God will decide my fate." They tied me up with my feet tied to my hands behind my back and started to kick me in the sides. One took at a knife and started to cut my throat. When I started to bleed I thought that I was dead. But when they left I was still alive. My son soon arrived and found me. It hurt to speak and I had to turn my head and put a hand over my throat to keep the blood from spilling out, but I was alive.

"Emmanuel" said he hid for four days with his son before being transported to Bocaranga, where he received medical treatment. Human Rights Watch saw what appeared to be knife scars on his neck.

As 3R took the town, its fighters began targeting civilians. "When I heard the shooting I went outside and started to run," a 50-year-old man said. "I saw one of Sidiki's fighters and he shot me in the knee. He kept shooting at me, but I ran to the bush where I hid for four days. I was unarmed  he just shot at me like I was an animal." Human Rights Watch saw what looked like a bullet wound scar on the man's knee.

One resident described the killing of his father, Alain-Josue Yapele, who was between 65 and 75 years old:

He said to leave him in the house as they wouldn't kill an old man. We hid behind the house and from there we saw Sidiki's men enter. We heard shots. The attackers left the house shortly after and we ran to see my father. He told us, "They broke down the door and just started to kick me and beat me with their guns before they shot me." He said he knew one of the attackers, a Mbororo (Peuhl) from De Gaulle. [He] was one of Sidiki's men. My father was shot in the arm and in the face.

The son said that they were unable to get him help because of the dangerous conditions, and that his father lost blood and died. They buried him and fled and have not returned to De Gaulle.

After the attack, 3R fighters chased residents into the surrounding woods, targeting civilians. A 35-year-old woman, "Isabelle," who was eight months pregnant at the time, said:

When De Gaulle was attacked I ran with my husband and nine kids into the bush. We hid there with about 30 other people from the town. The next morning, we were having breakfast but Sidiki's men found our hiding place. They came quietly and surprised us. There were at least 10 of them and they started to shoot at us straight away. I saw four people killed: Noui Njacko, Andre, Elizar, and Korin Nzako. Korin was pregnant. She was shot in the stomach while trying to run away.

Korin Nzako, a 16-year-old mother of one, was four months pregnant at the time of her death.

Rape by 3R

People monitoring sexual violence in the area, who did not want to be identified due to security concerns, told Human Rights Watch they had recorded 43 cases in which women and girls said they had been raped by 3R fighters, 23 of them during or just after the attack on De Gaulle. While some of these cases may be recorded by more than one person or agency, the total number of cases is likely to be much higher due to underreporting of sexual violence. Human Rights Watch interviewed three survivors.

A 33-year-old woman, "Agnes," said she ran with her husband and their 7-year-old son into the woods when the 3R attacked. As they fled, her husband was shot in the leg and she and her son became separated from him:

[My son and I were] walking when we came upon a group of 10 fighters from Sidiki's group. Two of them raped me One of them pointed his gun and said, "If you don't have sex with me, I'll kill you."They raped me one by one. My son was right there throughout it all. They forced me to just put him to the side. He was crying.

A 14-year-old girl, "Delphine" said that she and her father fled their village after a 3R attack. They were approaching De Gaulle at dawn when a 3R fighter armed with a rifle came up behind them:

He grabbed me and when my father attempted to react [he] grabbed my father's throat. I screamed because I thought he was going to kill my father. He let my father go and instead grabbed me by the throat. He threw me on the ground and hit me on the side with his rifle. He pointed his gun at me and said, "If you don't sleep with me I'll kill you." He then pointed the gun at my father and said, "If I don't sleep with your daughter I will kill you." My father had to stay under a tree some distance away. Then he forced himself on me When he finished the act he left without saying a word Sometimes I dream that I am being raped by this man and that he is going to kill me after he is done.

While some survivors of sexual violence have been able to access psychological and medical care, service providers told Human Rights Watch that only a small number of woman and girls were able to access services due to lack of security. A service provider told Human Rights Watch that most survivors of sexual violence have not received essential post-rape care, including post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to prevent HIV transmission. Organizations that provide assistance to rape survivors were forced to evacuate Bocaranga on September 27 due to lack of security and did not restart services until October 11. Anti-balaka forces have not allowed these organizations to access the Koui sub-prefecture since September 27, 2016.

Torture by 3R

Human Rights Watch confirmed three cases, and heard reliable testimony of several others, in which 3R fighters tortured men in the Koui sub-prefecture.

After 3R attacked De Gaulle, they took "Claude," 21, to Sidiki's base:

They kept asking for the gun and I said I did not have one. One man said, "Okay, because you will not show us the gun, we will torture you until you give it to us." They tied me up with my feet tied to my hands behind my back for two days. During those two days they beat me severely with a metal cord. At one point they tied me up by my neck, again, with my feet tied to my hands behind my back, and then suspended me in the air for a few hours. After two days the MINUSCA soldiers came and saved me. The 3R fighters said I could leave with MINUSCA because they had done their own investigation and they found no gun The pain I felt is difficult to describe. Even now, almost two months later, I vomit and it still hurts to eat.

Human Rights Watch saw the man's scars, which showed clear traces of beating.

"Jean" said he arrived in the village of Ngaokala after fleeing the De Gaulle attack and saw a boy of 14 or 15 years with his feet bound to his hands behind his back. He had been accused of stealing cattle and beaten by 3R fighters for hours while in that position. The local community raised 170,000 francs (approximately US $275) to free him, "Jean" said.

A resident of De Gaulle, "Pascal," said he witnessed 3R fighters and Sidiki himself torture and kill a man from the town, 34-year-old Nambona Dounia, whom they found near Makonzi Wali, a crossroads 20 kilometers from De Gaulle. "He was taken in front of the sub-prefecture administrative building and beaten by about 20 men," he said. "After a while they slit his throat. I saw Sidiki there, he participated."

Killings by Anti-Balaka in Bocaranga

Anti-balaka fighters under the command of self-proclaimed General Rafal murdered at least two unarmed Peuhl in November. Human Rights Watch was not able to confirm the identity of one of the victims, but Rafal himself said that he had killed the unarmed Peuhl man he suspected was a spy on the outskirts of town on November 24.

In early November, Rafal and his men killed Amadou Tourra, a 27-year-old Peuhl, witnesses said. Tourra had fled areas under Sidiki's control in March because, people who spoke with him said, 3R was trying to forcibly recruit him. Acquaintances of Tourra said that 3R fighters had injured Tourra in the arm with a knife after he refused to join.

The witnesses said that at about 4 a.m. on November 11, Rafal and approximately six anti-balaka fighters broke into the compound were Tourra was hiding. They forced him to his knees and, despite his pleas for mercy, shot him in the head and the arms. Human Rights Watch saw photos of Tourra's body taken in the hours after his death, showing what appeared to be bullet wounds in his arms and head.

Displacement and Humanitarian Needs

Fighting in the Ouham Pende province has displaced at least 17,000 people during 2016. The majority are living in makeshift grass huts next to villages along principal roads. Some are staying in the homes of friends or family. Due to ongoing security concerns, aid groups have not been able to deliver all the needed assistance.

A 40-year-old man from Boumari, who now lives with his family of six on the outskirts of Bode, 20 kilometers north of Bohong, said:

Many of us can't access our fields and those who dare to go back have to walk all day, work in the fields and then return the following day. We have lost all of our belongings in the attack. The NGOs that provide support do not come often because the roads are dangerous. Our village is now scattered throughout the bush. How long can we live like this?

A 41-year-old mother of four from De Gaulle staying with relatives in Douya, south of Bocaranga, said, "The kids are now out of school and just here, doing nothing. We can't go back to De Gaulle and restart our lives because Sidiki's men are still there. Until it is safe, we will just stay here and depend on the charity of our family. Life has been suspended."

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Taipei, Dec. 21 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen () on Wednesday invited lawmakers across party lines to join her on a trip next month to four of Taiwan's diplomatic allies in Central America, saying that "the greater the pressure, the greater the need for unity and to venture out."
Germany: Deadly Attack on Christmas Market

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 20 December 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Germany: Deadly Attack on Christmas Market, 20 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a4b8c4.html [accessed 3 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 truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin on December 19, 2016, is a despicable act of violence that cannot be justified.

At least 12 people were killed and at least 48 wounded, many of them seriously, according to the authorities. The Berlin police is treating it as a deliberate attack. No group has claimed responsibility.

Human Rights Watch expresses its sincere condolences to the relatives of the victims and wishes for a speedy recovery for the wounded.

The Berlin attack follows a series of recent deplorable violent actions in other countries, some of them with mass casualties, including in Istanbul, Ankara, and Madagali, Nigeria.

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Colombia: New Evidence Against Ex-Army Chief

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 20 December 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Colombia: New Evidence Against Ex-Army Chief, 20 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a4bc84.html [accessed 3 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.

Previously unpublished evidence strongly suggests that a former top commander of Colombia's military did not take reasonable steps to stop or punish hundreds of illegal killings, Human Rights Watch said today. The Colombian Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez Neira should revive the stalled prosecution of the general, Mario Montoya Uribe.

Montoya has been under investigation since at least 2015 for "false positive" killings throughout the country when he was the army commander between February 2006 and November 2008, a period during which these killings peaked. The thousands of false positive killings, committed systematically by soldiers throughout the country to boost enemy body counts in the war, began in 2002. In March 2016, Montoya was summoned to a hearing where prosecutors were set to charge him, but he has yet to be charged.

"Montoya led the Colombian army while it engaged in one of worst episodes of mass atrocity in the Western Hemisphere in recent years" said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "The case against him is a test on how far Attorney General Martinez is willing to go to prosecute those most responsible for these killings."

Montoya was summoned to a hearing where prosecutors were set to charge him in March 2016, but the Attorney General's Office cancelled the hearing. In November, lawyers representing victims asked the Attorney General's Office to set a date for a new hearing, media reports said, but no date has been set and Montoya has not been charged. Later that month, the prosecutor in charge of the case reportedly replied to victims' lawyers that his office was still reviewing the evidence against Montoya. However, lawyers with detailed knowledge of the case told Human Rights Watch that authorities within the Attorney General's Office have apparently decided to stall the prosecution.

In October 2016, Human Rights Watch had access to hundreds of pages of transcribed testimony provided by six current and retired army generals to prosecutors in closed hearings carried out between August 2015 and January 2016. The testimony strongly suggests that General Montoya knew, or at the very least had information available to know, about false positive killings under his command, and did not take measures he could have taken to stop them.

Montoya is one of at least 14 generals currently under investigation for their alleged roles in false positive killings. Others include Luis Roberto Pico Hernandez, who commanded one of the seven divisions of the army during Montoya's time, and Juan Pablo Rodriguez Barragan, the current commander of the Colombian armed forces.

Human Rights Watch is concerned that the prosecution against Montoya and others could be jeopardized because many false positive cases could be tried before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, an ad hoc judicial system created by the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as part of their peace talks.

During the almost three years Montoya commanded the army, extrajudicial killings in Colombia reached unprecedented levels. Prosecutor's office data shows that at least 2,500 civilians were allegedly killed during that period, most of them by army troops. In 2006 and 2007, for example, more than one in every three reported combat killings could be extrajudicial executions by the army, according to the office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights in Colombia. Montoya resigned in November 2008, right after false positives were unveiled in the "Soacha scandal"  involving army killings of young men and teenage boys from the Bogota suburb of Soacha.

The testimony Human Rights Watch reviewed strongly suggests that General Montoya failed to take steps to prevent the false positive killings. Gen. Jorge Arturo Salgado Restrepo, who currently commands one of the nine army divisions and is himself under investigation, told prosecutors that General Montoya should have known of false positive killings and did not take reasonable steps to prevent or punish these crimes.

Similarly, Gen. Gustavo Matamoros Camacho, who was Montoya's chief of operations, told prosecutors that he warned Montoya about irregularities in the reported combat deaths in 2008 that might have indicated illegal killings, but Montoya did not take any action to address them.

The testimony adds to other evidence implicating Montoya that Human Rights Watch and others have already released. In 2009, the army's inspector-general told the US Embassy that a main factor behind false positives was Montoya's "constant pressure for combat kills," and said that he was among the officers who were "involved in" or "tacitly condoned" the crimes, according to an embassy cable. In 2015, a Colombian journalist released an interview of a former soldier and paramilitary who suggested that General Montoya actively furthered false positive killings.

In the June 2015 report, "On their Watch: Evidence of Senior Army Officer's Responsibility for False Positive Killings in Colombia," Human Rights Watch presented convincing evidence suggesting that numerous senior officials, including General Montoya, bear criminal responsibility for false positive killings. Evidence against Montoya in the report includes the testimony of one high-ranking army officer who told prosecutors that Montoya knew of the executions when he was the army's top commander, and the testimony of Lt. Col. Gonzalez del Rio, who said that when Montoya was the army's top commander, he pressured subordinate commanders to increase body counts, punished them for failing to do so, and was the principal "motivator" for false positives.

"The evidence against Montoya piles up only to gather dust in a drawer somewhere in the Attorney General's Office," Vivanco said. "It is about time Colombian authorities move forward with this case."

Montoya is being investigated for "homicide of protected people," meaning civilians, which is a crime committed during conflict. Since the Special Jurisdiction for Peace will hear cases of crimes that were "directly or indirectly related" to the armed conflict, it is possible that it would handle his case.

The justice portion of the peace deal dictates that the Special Jurisdiction will rely upon a narrow definition of command responsibility  the rule that establishes when superior officers can be held responsible for crimes committed by their subordinates  that does not conform with international law. The definition could require authorities to prove commanders actually knew about and had control over the actions of their subordinates at the time they committed the crimes.

Such a narrow definition of command responsibility would mean that commanders who were not present at a crime scene to exercise control over their troops' actions at the time, but had effective control over the troops implicated in abuses and should have known about their actions, could escape accountability, although they bear criminal responsibility for their troops under international humanitarian law.

Under international law, a superior is criminally liable when he knew or should have known that subordinates under his effective control were committing a crime, but failed to take the necessary and reasonable steps to prevent or punish the acts.

"Montoya's case could end up being a paradigmatic example of how the deliberate ambiguities in the justice agreement could be misused to let senior army generals off the hook and to deny the many victims justice," Vivanco said.

Testimony Against General Montoya

In October 2016, Human Rights Watch had access to hundreds of pages of transcribed testimony provided by six current and retired army generals to prosecutors. The testimony strongly suggests that General Montoya knew or at the very least should have known about false positive killings under his command, and did not take measures he could have taken to stop them.

The officers whose testimony implicated General Montoya are: Freddy Padilla De Leon, commander of the Colombian armed forces between 2006 and 2010; Gustavo Matamoros Camacho, the army's chief of operations in 2008; Carlos Suarez Bustamante, who commanded the armed forces' chief of operations in 2007 and 2008 and the army's inspector-general in 2009; Jorge Arturo Salgado Restrepo, who currently commands the 7th army division and is under investigation for killings committed in 2006 and 2007; Reinaldo Castellanos Trujillo, commander of the army until 2006; and Jorge Rodriguez Clavijo, who commanded the army's 4th brigade between 2006 and 2007, while it allegedly engaged in dozens of killings. A small part of Salgado's testimony was published by the Colombian newspaper El Espectador in April 2016.

Among the new evidence suggesting that Montoya knew of false positives:

General Padilla de Leon, commander of the armed forces during Montoya's time as army commander, said that in 2007 Montoya and other top commanders and officials, including President Juan Manuel Santos, who was then the defense minister, met with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) officials roughly every month to receive reports of extrajudicial killings. General Padilla said there were "increasing" complaints against the army and that Montoya was aware of many of these complaints because they were discussed at these meetings, which he attended; and

General Matamoros, who was Montoya's chief of operations in 2008, told prosecutors that around March 2008, officials from the Attorney General's Office met with Montoya and reported several "false positive" cases to him.

Montoya Had Reason to Know About False Positives

The new evidence Human Rights Watch reviewed shows that Montoya had reason to know about false positives because he had detailed knowledge of combat killings, access to credible reports of false positives, and knew of the implausible circumstances of many reported combat killings. In fact, General Matamoros, Montoya's head of operations in 2008, told prosecutors that it was possible for Montoya to realize that reported combat kills were in fact extrajudicial executions.

Similarly, General Suarez told prosecutors that when he was the army's inspector general, immediately after Montoya resigned, he identified many false positive killings throughout the country. This indicates that it would have been possible for Montoya and his inspector generals to know about these killings.

The new evidence Human Rights Watch reviewed provides numerous reasons to believe that Montoya had available information to know about false positives and should have reasonably known about the killings.

Reason One: Montoya Knew of the Implausible Circumstances of Reported Combat Killings

As Human Rights Watch showed in "On Their Watch," the implausible circumstances of the reported combat killings, including the types of weapons reportedly found on victims, the location and function of the military units reporting the deaths, and the large number of common criminals reported killed in military operations, should have led commanders to suspect unlawful killings. The new evidence suggests that General Montoya knew or could have known about these irregularities:

Matamoros told prosecutors that he warned Montoya in a 2008 meeting with other senior officials that irregularities appeared in the casualties reported by brigades. Based on an analysis of the areas where the killings were reported, Matamoros found that "most of the casualties were not being produced in the base areas [with more enemy combatants] where they should be being caused." General Matamoros had also found and told Montoya that "we were killing more militiamen with short weapons (pistols and revolvers) than guerrilla fighters with long weapons  and [brigades] were not identifying enemies killed in combat. Instead, all were being reported as 'no name.'" General Matamoros noted that this information was also "available" to army top commanders like Montoya before Matamoros was appointed chief of operations of the army in 2008;

General Salgado told prosecutors that the implausible circumstances of reported killings was "easy to detect" and that the number of common criminals killed in combat "had to create an alert" for commanders because the army is meant to target civilians with lethal force only in exceptional circumstances. Salgado also said that the army leadership never asked brigade commanders about the inconsistencies they reported, including the number of deaths reported as "no name," the many killings reported in areas where guerrillas were not present, and the number of victims found with pistols and revolvers, which guerrillas normally do not use;

Under Colombian law, as Generals Castellanos and Padilla de Leon said in separate testimony, the army is supposed to fight "ordinary criminals" only in exceptional circumstances. However, official figures revealed to Human Rights Watch show that between 2004 and 2007, the reported number of common criminals killed in operations by the army grew by 1,200 percent, from 27 to 325. General Suarez said that the army registered these killings, which should have led General Montoya to notice irregularities in the supposed operations and to suspect unlawful killings; and

General Rodriguez Clavijo said that the Pedro Nel Ospina engineer battalion, under Col. Edgar Emilio Avila Doria, reported the highest number of enemies killed in combat at least in 2006. Clavijo said he could not "square" this at the time because as an engineer battalion, the Pedro Nel Ospina was not supposed to engage in combat. Since Montoya had access to daily and monthly reports of the killings reported by each military unit, this information should have led him to suspect illegal killings. (The Pedro Nel Ospina case was also reported by the Colombian investigative outlet La Silla Vacia, and Colonel Avila Doria is facing prosecution).

Reason Two: Montoya Had Access to Credible Reports on 'False Positives'

Credible public reports of false positives emerged at least several years before the Soacha scandal broke in late 2008, as Human Rights Watch has shown. The new evidence suggests that these reports had reached the highest levels within the army and were thus accessible to Montoya:

General Matamoros said that there were "many" complaints of illegal killings starting around 2003 or 2004, including from the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights in Colombia, Human Rights Watch, and many other organizations;

General Salgado said he knew that the 11 th brigade, which he commanded, had received reports of false positive killings and that the division to which his brigade belonged, the Seventh, had convened "many" meetings to discuss these reports. In particular, Salgado recalled a meeting with Seventh Division commanders around November 2007, during which the ICRC "called their attention to a number of cases";

brigade, which he commanded, had received reports of false positive killings and that the division to which his brigade belonged, the Seventh, had convened "many" meetings to discuss these reports. In particular, Salgado recalled a meeting with Seventh Division commanders around November 2007, during which the ICRC "called their attention to a number of cases"; General Padilla de Leon, the armed forces commander during Montoya's time as army commander, said that the armed forces received multiple complaints of "procedures that were not correct," including two from the office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights in Colombia, in 2004 and 2005; and

General Rodriguez Clavijo said he spoke with General Salgado when he was appointed commander of the 11th brigade in 2008 because there was "noise" about the "results reported by his predecessors" in the brigade.

Reason Three: Detailed Knowledge of Combat Killings

The senior officers testified that Montoya had detailed knowledge of the reported combat killings, which makes it all the more likely that he could have known that army brigades were engaging in false positives. The generals said that Montoya visited military units frequently, received daily reports of military activities, and had access to monthly and daily bulletins about the deaths reported by each military unit. His detailed knowledge was such that General Matamoros told prosecutors:

If anyone knew everything that was going on, that was General Montoya. Although some say he didn't know anything, if someone did not report to him, he signed his own death sentence. So everyone reported everything to him and he knew absolutely everything.

Matamoros said that Montoya had given an order to inform him immediately about casualties and asked for details about each of the casualties, including how each took place and where. Similarly, General Suarez said that in monthly calls  in which Montoya participated  commanders described casualties in detail, including where these had occurred, whether those killed belonged to guerrilla groups, other groups, or were common criminals, and what weapons were used to kill them.

Reason Four: Montoya's Pressure to Boost Body Counts

Evidence from " On Their Watch " suggests that commanders measured success in terms of reported combat kills and pressured subordinates to increase them. The pressure appears to have pervaded the army's chain of command, ranging from General Montoya to brigade and battalion commanders, all the way down to the soldiers who pulled the triggers.

The new evidence corroborates that General Montoya's pressure to increase combat kills led to false positive killings. In addition, the unreasonable way this pressure was imposed on brigades  for example, by comparing brigades that, due to their location and function, were likely to kill enemy combatants with others that were not  makes it likely that Montoya should have known his policy could have driven soldiers to report innocent civilians as enemies killed in combat. Evidence that pressure from Montoya actively furthered killings includes:

General Clavijo described Montoya's pressure for body counts as "constant" and said that it motivated the extrajudicial killings. He said Montoya overwhelmingly focused on killings, ignoring other relevant variables. Clavijo noted that he "never heard" General Montoya congratulate a commander because an "area [of the country] was calm." Clavijo said that he believes that many brigade commanders were removed from their posts because they were not reporting a significant number of kills in combat compared with previous years. As Clavijo noted, this demand "did not make sense" because if commanders "were doing their job, unless the enemy was recruiting an impressive amount of people  and that was not what Intelligence was saying  [then each year] there would have been fewer possibilities of combating [enemies]";

General Matamoros said that Montoya "sorted" brigades by the number of their kills and that "there were people that were upset because they said, 'nothing happens in my area' and I told Montoya, 'General, how can I report kills in Cundinamarca if there are no enemies here?'" Matamoros said that Montoya focused on killings and noted that "there were a number of privileges for those who showed more results  trips abroad, commissions, a number of stimuli, because they were supposed to be the best and, logically, those who did not report results were questioned and sometimes relieved [of their posts]." He said that "there were many commanders who had lots at stake, they had their promotions at stake, their commissions abroad, and they may have done things ... there was a lot of pressure and I'm sure some commanders with weak character did things they should have not done to please their bosses"; and

General Salgado told prosecutors that under Montoya's command, "everything was oriented" toward the number of kills, including awards, and commanders were requested to report "more or at least the same number" of kills compared with the previous year. "I believe that [in] the units, or many of the units, that were involved in false positives, well  surely many [soldiers] were subject to pressure to report results from unscrupulous people and they said, 'OK! They want results, I'm able to report results  crossing the lines I need to cross.'"

No Steps to Prevent, Punish 'False Positives'

Human Rights Watch has found no evidence that military commanders took steps to prevent or punish false positives until 2007. That year, the high command of the armed forces and Defense Ministry issued several new directives, including one in November 2007 that gave demobilizations and arrests priority over combat kills. It is not clear to what extent, if any, these measures caused army commanders to change their practices. They were certainly not sufficient to stop false positives. Prosecutors have opened investigations on more than 550 alleged extrajudicial killings by state agents in 2008, most by army troops. The evidence that these crimes were coming to a halt only began after the government dismissed 27 army officers  and Montoya resigned  following the Soacha scandal in late 2008.

The new evidence corroborates that Montoya failed to take measures to prevent or punish false positives. For example, General Matamoros said that Montoya did not give him any specific order to address the irregularities in casualties he reported to Montoya and other senior officials in the 2008 meeting.

Similarly, General Salgado told prosecutors:

Prosecutor: Did the commander of the army [Montoya] take any measure to ensure that casualties were "well-done" (legitimate combat deaths)?

Salgado: No.

Prosecutor: At the Joint Command or Division level did they carry out a

Salgado: Control? No.

Prosecutor: There only was a warning before the killings [that casualties should be "well-done"], but nothing during [operations] or after?

Salgado: Exactly.

Similarly, senior officials' testimony suggests that soldiers were scarcely, if ever, investigated and punished by the army for involvement in false positives. General Suarez told prosecutors that he could only recall one "exceptional" case in which a soldier was relieved from his post for committing a crime. General Clavijo noted that General Pico Hernandez  one of the generals under investigation  had loose control of the Seventh Division under his command and when he was appointed commander of the 4th brigade in 2006: "there was no control, disciplinary investigations were in charge of officers who did not have competence to address them, [and] some had been closed due to statutory limits."

Possible Destruction of Evidence

The senior officers' testimony reviewed by Human Rights Watch suggests that General Montoya and General Pico Hernandez, who was then commander of the Seventh Army Division, might have been involved in destroying evidence of pressure to increase combat kills that led to false positive killings:

General Salgado told prosecutors that in April 2008, when he commanded the 11 th brigade, General Pico Hernandez ordered brigades and battalions in the Seventh Division to burn copies of a directive that established rewards for soldiers who reported a high number of killings. Salgado said that burning directives was not the normal or legal way to abrogate directives. He also noted that he was "sure" that the order came from General Montoya because, as the army's commander, he was the only one authorized to abrogate directives; and

brigade, General Pico Hernandez ordered brigades and battalions in the Seventh Division to burn copies of a directive that established rewards for soldiers who reported a high number of killings. Salgado said that burning directives was not the normal or legal way to abrogate directives. He also noted that he was "sure" that the order came from General Montoya because, as the army's commander, he was the only one authorized to abrogate directives; and General Rodriguez Clavijo, in a separate testimony, said that when he commanded the 17th army brigade in 2008, he received the order from General Pico Hernandez to burn a directive, apparently the same one mentioned by General Salgado. Clavijo said that the order made an impact on him because it did not comply with the "normal parameters or regulations."

In March 2016, the office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights in Colombia reported that it had reviewed an "official document from the military" that "proves" that an "army commander" had ordered that a directive that established rewards for soldiers who reported high number of killings should be burned.

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Tajikistan: Abuse of Dissidents' Families

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 20 December 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Tajikistan: Abuse of Dissidents' Families, 20 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a4d0f4.html [accessed 3 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.

Tajikistan's security services have taken new actions against relatives of at least three political activists abroad who engage in peaceful criticism of the government, Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee said today.

Tajik security services have arbitrarily detained, interrogated, and seized the property of family members, and in one case badly beat and ill-treated a relative who is currently imprisoned on politically motivated charges. The United States, the European Union, and other key international actors should make unequivocal calls for the Tajik government to stop retaliating against relatives of perceived government critics, the groups said.

"Tajikistan's intimidation of individuals for a family member's peaceful political activity is as shameful as it is inexcusable," said Marius Fossum, Norwegian Helsinki Committee regional representative in Central Asia. "Tajik authorities should immediately stop the arbitrary seizure of property and all other acts of retaliation."

Tajikistan's government is pursuing its most intense human rights crackdown in 20 years, with the banning of the country's main opposition party, the systematic jailing of political opponents, and harassment of journalists and nongovernmental organizations. Authorities have targeted the country's independent legal profession, imprisoning at least six lawyers. Retaliation and collective punishment against the relatives of perceived government critics in and outside the country has been a constant feature of the crackdown.

Recent actions against family members include:

Shukhrati Rahmatullo

Shukhrati Rahmatullo is a well-known journalist with the opposition TV station Payom.net, based outside of the country. He regularly reports on political developments inside Tajikistan, including critical reports on government repression.

Credible sources told Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee that in early December prison staff retaliated against his father, Rahmatulloi Rajab, a senior leader of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), who was sentenced to 28 years in prison in June following an unfair trial. Prison authorities placed him in solitary confinement and badly beat him, telling him that the beating was because of his son's reporting and that "if your son stays quiet, we will stop."

Tajik security services also summoned Rahmatulloi Rajab's wife in Dushanbe for several days of interrogation in December, warning that her son should immediately stop his journalistic work. She has not been allowed to bring her husband food packages or visit with him for several weeks. Shukhrat told Human Rights Watch he has received numerous death threats in recent weeks. One person wrote in the comments page on YouTube, where Rahmatullo's news program is shown, that "we will find your newsroom office and kill you. You will not last long!"

Vaisiddin Odinaev

On December 1, Tajikistan's president, Emomali Rahmon, arrived in Prague for an official visit with Czech president Milos Zeman. As Rahmon's delegation arrived to the Prague castle, several peaceful Tajik protesters, including Vaisiddin Odinaev, a political activist, chanted that Rahmon is a dictator and held up signs that read "Rahmonov! Don't Run from the People!"

The protesters said that several Tajik security personnel dressed in civilian clothing approached them and attempted to stop their protest, shouting "We will kill you right here!"

At about 11 a.m. on December 6, Tajik security service officers took Odinaev's 75-year-old grandfather, Kudrat Oev in Hissar, to the Shahrinav district police station and interrogated him for five hours about his grandson's opposition activities. When the grandfather asked why police would detain a 75-year-old man who has not seen his grandson in many years, the police replied "say thank you to Vaisiddin for your detention!" Vaisiddin is the brother of Ehson Odinaev, a Tajik independent blogger and opposition activist who went missing in St. Petersburg, Russia, on May 20, 2015, after Tajik authorities subjected him to surveillance and declared him wanted on charges of unspecified "cybercrimes," registering his case with Interpol.

Ilhomjon Yakubov

Authorities have repeatedly persecuted the relatives of Ilhomjon Yakubov, a prominent IRPT member, since his participation in an intergovernmental conference about human rights and fundamental freedoms in Warsaw, Poland in September. Yakubov appeared in a video titled "Tajikistan: Hunting Critics at Home and Abroad," which was shown at the annual Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) Warsaw conference.

In the two months since, several of Yakubov's relatives were forced to flee Tajikistan. Security services in Sughd, Tajikistan's northern region, have confiscated his relatives' homes as punishment, and his older brother is missing, sources close to the Yakubov family told Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.

On September 20, after Yakubov and several dozen other IRPT and opposition movement Group 24 members peacefully protested at the Warsaw conference, Tajik security services summoned for questioning and detained up to 30 relatives of the protesters in cities across Tajikistan. Yakubov's mother, brother, and sister were detained and threatened overnight.

Between September 22 and 27, incidents of harassment continued, with mobs of up to 200 people appearing outside his relatives' homes in Khujand. The mobs chanted that Yakubov was an "enemy of the people", "traitor", and "terrorist", threw rocks at his sister's and mother's homes, and twice attempted to force their way into the families' homes. On September 26, security service officers warned family members that their property would be confiscated unless Yakubov immediately returned to Tajikistan.

Yakubov's mother and sister soon fled the country. Yakubov's older brother, Farrukh Yakubov, was not able to leave because his passport had expired. Relatives report last seeing him sometime between October 10 and 12. The family fears he may have been detained and forcibly disappeared.

Shortly after Yakubov's mother and sister fled Tajikistan, a group of more than seven men broke into the apartment where Yakubov had lived before he left the country a year before. Witnesses said that the men identified themselves as security service officials, said they had come to confiscate the property, stole numerous valuables, and seized and sealed off the property. The security service also seized and sealed off the homes of Yakubov's mother and sister.

Yakubov has received death threats by phone and via social networking sites, including from one person who said that "they" would find and kill Yakubov in Europe.

The US, EU, and other key international actors should press the Tajik government to end these abuses and uphold its international obligations to respect freedom of association, assembly, expression, and religion. They should be willing to impose targeted punitive measures, such as asset freezes and visa bans, on Tajik government officials responsible for arbitrary imprisoning peaceful activists, torture, and other grave human rights violations.

"A pattern of violent retaliation against family members of dissidents seems to be one of the government's preferred tactics," said Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Washington, Brussels, and Tajikistan's other international partners should publicly and privately press Tajikistan to end the abuse."

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Iraq: ISIS Attacking Civilians in Mosul Retreat

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 20 December 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Iraq: ISIS Attacking Civilians in Mosul Retreat, 20 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a4dd64.html [accessed 3 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.

Fighters with the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) have indiscriminately attacked civilian areas in eastern Mosul with mortar rounds and explosives, and deliberately shot at fleeing residents, Human Rights Watch said today. Iraqi and coalition forces have also killed and wounded civilians by striking or deploying from homes.

Fleeing residents who spoke with Human Rights Watch said that ISIS justified the attacks on civilians because many of them had refused the group's orders to join its retreat west to areas of Mosul that it still controlled, where they feared they would be used as human shields. Residents said ISIS members told them in person, by radio, and over mosque loudspeakers that those who stayed behind were "unbelievers" and therefore valid targets along with the Iraqi and coalition forces.

"If ISIS really cared about the people trapped in its so-called caliphate it would let them flee to safety," said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Instead, it is indiscriminately or deliberately killing and wounding people for refusing to be human shields."

In interviews in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in December, 2016, Human Rights Watch spoke with more than 50 residents who had fled eastern Mosul. Thirty-one of them provided firsthand accounts of 18 mortar or sniper attacks, car bombings, or detonations of improvised explosive devices by ISIS that indiscriminately or directly killed or wounded civilians. Witnesses said that some ISIS mortar attacks took place in areas where Iraqi military forces had positioned soldiers inside homes or on residential rooftops in densely populated areas. Five witnesses described what they said were three separate Iraqi or coalition airstrikes that targeted ISIS fighters similarly positioned on residential rooftops or in alleys between homes, but that also killed civilians.

The incidents took place from the third week of November into the first week of December. The witnesses said that 19 civilians were killed and dozens wounded in the attacks by both sides that they described, but that these were a fraction of the total. The United Nations reported that 926 civilians were killed and 930 wounded in November in Iraq from violence including acts of terrorism and armed conflict. Of those, 332 were killed and 114 injured in Nineveh, the governorate that includes Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.

In the days before the Iraqi ground forces entered neighborhoods in eastern Mosul, most of those interviewed said, ISIS fighters began rounding up civilians to retreat with them. But many refused.

"They were coming door-to-door, saying, 'Do you want to leave with us or not?'" said "Ammar," who fled the eastern Mosul neighborhood of Intisar after being wounded in an ISIS mortar strike on December 5. "We said we would not go with them and they said, 'You are kuffar [unbelievers].  They said, 'Whatever happens to you guys, you deserve it.'"

"Ammar" said that on November 30, using binoculars, he stood on a rooftop and saw an ISIS gunman on another rooftop across a nearby, two-lane highway, firing on Iraqi forces while flanked by a woman on one side and a child on the other.

The witnesses described house-to-house combat between ISIS fighters and Iraqi forces, particularly the Golden Division, the most prominent of Iraq's Special Forces, in areas still inhabited by large numbers of civilians. They said they knew ISIS was responsible for multiple mortar rounds and sniper fire because those attacks came from the direction of ISIS-controlled areas where there were no Iraqi forces.

"Asma," from al-Qadisiyah al-Thaniyah neighborhood, said that an ISIS mortar shell hit and wounded her three young children  "Alaa," 12, "Mohamed," 10, and "Rasha," 5  at about 11:30 a.m. on December 1, as they played in the family's courtyard.

"The mortar [shell] hit when I had gone to get water from the [local] tank because there was no running water," she said. "When I came back out Alaa hugged me and I saw that half his face was blown off."

Several witnesses said that when either ISIS or Iraqi military forces took up positions inside homes or on residential rooftops they generally did not give residents a say in the matter. The United Nations Human Rights Office also made this point, saying residents had reported that ISIS on November 11 shot dead 12 civilians in the Bakr neighborhood for refusing to let them launch rockets from their rooftops. In some cases, the witnesses told Human Rights Watch, by the time Iraqi or coalition forces attacked the ISIS positions in homes, the ISIS fighters had already left.

A dozen residents told Human Rights Watch they had to leave their homes as a result and seek shelter in nearby buildings that in some cases were also hit by ISIS mortar rounds or car bombs, or Iraqi or coalition airstrikes.

"Abu Ali," 32, said an Iraqi or coalition airstrike on his home in al-Murur neighborhood, apparently targeting ISIS fighters, at about 5 or 6 p.m. on December 1, killed his wife's grandmother and wounded him, his wife, and their 4-year-old son:

The house collapsed  the ceiling fell down on us. I saw the shrapnel hit my grandmother in the head. She died immediately. I called for my wife and ran to her. She was bleeding. Shrapnel had hit her back. Then I realized my son was bleeding. Shrapnel hit his right temple and his nose. By the grace of God most of us survived. Neighbors ran to us and we dragged everyone out. But it was too dangerous to go for help at night. My wife bled all night.

"Abu Ali" said the neighbors told him that the airstrike killed four ISIS fighters whom they had seen drive up next to his house, leave the car, and open fire on Iraqi military forces with a machine gun from behind a wall and the rooftop of an adjacent, empty home. The strike also hit the ISIS car, which was filled with explosives, compounding the damage, they said.

ISIS should cease deliberate attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks and stop forcing civilians to accompany ISIS fighters, Human Rights Watch said. Directly targeting civilians or using them as human shields is a war crime. The presence of ISIS fighters among civilians does not absolve anti-ISIS forces from the obligation to target only military objectives. All warring forces should take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from harm.

Under international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, civilians and civilian structures may not be harmed disproportionately to the expected military gain. Warring parties are also required to take all feasible measures to minimize civilian harm. Iraqi military forces should avoid positioning forces inside homes in densely populated areas, thus endangering civilians and civilian objects.

"Civilians are being hit from all sides in Mosul," Fakih said. "ISIS atrocities do not absolve Iraqi forces and the international coalition from doing their utmost to protect civilians when attacking ISIS."

Most of the witnesses spoke with Human Rights Watch from West Erbil Emergency Hospital, where they were undergoing operations for injuries caused by metal fragments such as severed limbs or bullet wounds. Others spoke from sprawling camps for the displaced. Many broke down in tears as they said they could not reach family members still trapped in Mosul. Some said they watched helplessly as wounded family members or friends bled to death, trapped by the fighting, and said they or their neighbors had to bury the dead in their yards.

Human Rights Watch has changed the names of those interviewed to protect them and their relatives still in ISIS-held territory from reprisal.

Indiscriminate, Disproportionate, or Deliberate Attacks

The witnesses provided detailed, firsthand accounts of 10 mortar attacks, two improvised explosive device blasts, three suicide car bombings, and three sniper attacks by ISIS in eastern Mosul that killed and wounded civilians. The witnesses to 15 of the attacks said there were military objects nearby but that in the cases of sniper fire they believed they were directly targeted.

"Fatima," 30, said three mortars struck the family's home in the Aden neighborhood on November 25, killing her mother, shattering her left foot, and wounding four other relatives include two of her young sons. The strikes also destroyed her family's house and car. "We were just finishing our breakfast and removing our plates from the table when the shelling started," she said. "My mother was killed. The rest of us were injured. So many of our neighbors were killed  the elderly, women, children."

Those who crossed over to areas controlled by the Iraqi forces faced ISIS sniper fire, car bombs, or improvised explosive devices. "Rana" said an ISIS sniper shot her, a brother-in-law, and a niece in the legs, injuring all three, as they returned at about 3:30 p.m. on December 4 to their home in al-Zuhour neighborhood after seeking clothing and other aid from Iraqi forces in nearby al-Zahra.

"The bullets came from the ISIS side, they were definitely from ISIS," she said. "We were carrying a white flag and we think it made us targets. We stayed there for two to three hours, bleeding, until the counterterrorism forces could come for us. We had to leave everything we had brought with us in the street."

Several displaced residents described fleeing attacks by one side only to be wounded in another.

"Ahmad" told Human Rights Watch that he moved his wife and five children from their home in al-Maidan, western Mosul, in August after ISIS began using nearby homes as bomb factories. He sought refuge in the eastern Mosul neighborhood of al-Murur. But as the battle for Mosul spread to al-Murur, "we were locked in our rooms, there was no electricity, water, or food. If we went outside [ISIS] snipers shot at us," he said.

After a mortar coming from ISIS-held areas struck the family's house on December 2, Ahmad packed up the family again, determined to reach the Golden Division. On their way, at about 9:30 the next morning, an improvised explosive device killed his 16-year-old son, "Murad," and wounded "Ahmad," his 14-year-old daughter "Ayisha," and his 8-month-old son "Yasin." ISIS must have planted the explosives because they lay in the path of advancing Iraqi forces, which have not been using improvised explosive devices, Human Rights Watch said. "Ahmad" said:

We walked 2 kilometers, and during that time there were no birds in the sky because mortars were falling, 50 mortars fell while we were walking. We were completely alone in the streets. We walked slowly because there were IEDs [improvised explosive devices] in the streets. I had been in the military so I helped my family pass them. We passed five IEDs, but at the sixth IED there was a trip wire and my son Murad walked right into it and it exploded. We were 5 meters behind him. I fell down and couldn't hear anything, everything went dark. Then I saw Murad and his whole upper body was severed. The army forces were coming toward us but ISIS was shooting at them so they couldn't reach us. I grabbed my 8-month old son, and I carried him and my wife on my shoulder; the bullets were whizzing past me. Then I carried my daughter and another son to the army. Ayisha was still there, and her stomach was completely opened. I went back and grabbed her. I had to leave Murad's body there, the mortars were falling, and I couldn't bring him.

The laws of war prohibit deliberate, indiscriminate, or disproportionate attacks against civilians and civilian objects. Mortar attacks are indiscriminate when used in populated civilian areas as they cannot be precisely directed at a military objective, making it impossible to limit their potential impact on civilians. Improvised explosive devices that are triggered by contact with or proximity to a person are banned by the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, to which Iraq is a party.

Access to Medical Treatment

Most of the wounded people Human Rights Watch interviewed had to change ambulances two or three times to reach Erbil as they passed from the front line through territory held by Iraqi forces, then Iraqi Kurdistan's Peshmerga fighters. Many wounded civilians said that the Iraqi military and Peshmerga swiftly transported them to medical treatment. A few said the journey took several hours or days.

"Walid," of the Samah neighborhood, described being stuck for 11 days in a neighbor's home as he bled from a mortar strike on November 20 that sent shrapnel through his back, almost puncturing his lungs. Unable to find transport or medical care, "Walid's" wife finally rented a tractor to drive him about two kilometers to the town of Gogjali, where Iraqi forces transported him out by ambulance.

Authorities have allowed only one person to accompany each war-wounded civilian seeking emergency medical treatment in Erbil. "Hamad," who had learned via Facebook that his wounded son was being treated in Erbil, said that the only way he could enter Iraqi Kurdistan was by serving as the escort of an unaccompanied wounded man he did not know whom he spotted at a Peshmerga checkpoint near the Khazir Camp for displaced Iraqis between Mosul and Erbil. Once "Hamad" arrived in Erbil he found his son in the hospital. "Asma," whose three children were wounded in a mortar strike in the al-Qadisiyah al-Thaniyah neighborhood, said that her husband attempted to join the family in Erbil, but was not permitted to pass the Peshmerga checkpoint at Khazir.

While Human Rights Watch recognizes the need for reasonable security measures with those fleeing ISIS-controlled areas the Kurdish Regional Government has an obligation to uphold the right to free movement of displaced civilians, Human Rights Watch said. International donors and aid organizations should press authorities to respect the rights of the displaced, including to free movement.

While under international law the authorities may limit individuals' movement in conflict areas for security reasons, any restrictions must be in accordance with national law, well-tailored to achieving their legitimate aim, proportionate, and nondiscriminatory. Proportionate restrictions mean limiting their time and regional scope to what is strictly necessary and not where such restrictions would cause significant harm, including on access to essential healthcare.

With scores of new war-wounded packing Erbil's emergency hospital daily, many of those interviewed were bracing for rapid discharge. Those without family members to host them said their options were moving into overflowing tent camps for the displaced, or returning to battle-scarred neighborhoods of Mosul, many still planted with IEDs.

"We lost everything," said Fatima, the wounded woman from Aden. "Even if we can go back home we have nothing to return to."

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Thailand: Cyber Crime Act Tightens Internet Control

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 21 December 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Thailand: Cyber Crime Act Tightens Internet Control, 21 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a4e284.html [accessed 3 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.

Thailand's new Computer-Related Crime Act (CCA) gives overly broad powers to the government to restrict free speech, enforce surveillance and censorship, and retaliate against activists, Human Rights Watch said today. Despite concerns expressed by civil society, business, and diplomatic representatives, the controversial law was unanimously adopted on December 16, 2016, by the junta-appointed National Legislative Assembly.

"The adoption of the Computer-Related Crime Act drastically tightens the chokehold on online expression in Thailand," said Brad Adams, Asia director. "Hundreds of activists have been prosecuted since the May 2014 coup for exercising their freedom of expression online, and these latest amendments will make it even easier for the junta to punish its critics."

Before the law was passed, more than 300,000 people signed a petition demanding that the National Legislative Assembly reject the controversial amendments, which they saw as an infringement of privacy and freedom of expression on the Internet.

Thailand has an obligation to protect human rights, but it is moving in the opposite direction. Human Rights Watch has repeatedly raised concerns that Thai authorities, private companies, and individuals often retaliate against those reporting alleged human rights violations by filing defamation lawsuits, accusing activists and victims of making false statements.

Since the May 2014 coup, the ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) junta has arrested and filed computer crime charges under the old 2007 CCA against numerous critics who posted commentary on Facebook and other social media platforms, alleging corruption by junta leaders. Articles 14(1) and (2) of the new law provide grounds for the government to prosecute anything they designate as "false" and, in the case of article 14(1), "distorted" information, terms which are likely to be open to abuse as past prosecutions have shown.

The new CCA is also likely to increase censorship due to its ambiguity because of the broad grounds for offenses "likely to cause damage to the public" under article 14, including "false or partially false" data, "distorted or partially distorted" data, or data likely to "cause public panic" or harm "maintenance of national security, public safety, national economic security, public infrastructure serving the public interest." Service providers such as social media platforms and access providers will also be required to delete or otherwise prevent the availability of such content following government notification, or they will also be subject to punishment for that content.

Furthermore, new provisions under articles 16/1 and 16/2 state that the court can order information that is found to be false and having caused damage to other persons or the public to be removed from the Internet and deleted from computer systems. If these articles are enforced arbitrarily, such actions will have dire consequences on research and reporting on contentious topics of public concern, including incidents related to serious state-sponsored rights violations, such as the 2003 "drugs war," the 2010 violent political confrontations, and abusive counterinsurgency operations in the southern border provinces.

Under newly amended article 20(3) of the CCA, even content online that is not illegal can be banned and ordered to be deleted by the court based on a request from a computer data screening committee, appointed by the Minister of Digital Economy and Society, stating the the content is considered to be against public order or good morals of the people. The precedent of interpretation by authorities that are neither judicial nor independent from the executive has troubling implications for human rights reporting. After the May 2014 coup, the government blocked the Human Rights Watch Thailand webpage for containing information that was considered by authorities to be "inappropriate."

The government's interest in using the new law to suppress criticism was indicated on December 15, 2016, when Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha gave a media interview stressing the need for authorities to have a tool to act against online content considered to be critical and offensive to the monarchy. Criticizing the monarchy is a serious criminal offense in Thailand. In most cases, convictions of those charged with lese majeste (insulting the monarchy) result in harsh sentences. Since the May 2014 coup, Thai authorities have charged at least 68 people with lese majeste, mostly for posting or sharing comments online.

Privacy of online communication is also seriously under threat under the new CCA amendments. The amendments expand data collection and other investigatory powers under the act by granting their use in any criminal offense under other laws that involve the use of computer systems, computer data, or devices for carrying out the offense. Service providers may be required to retain user data for up to two years in unspecified special cases, an increase from the previous requirement of up to one year.

The new articles 18(2) and (3) continue to allow authorities to access "traffic data" and other user-related data without a court order to assist their investigation of an offense under the CCA or other laws. Article 18(7) also allows authorities with a court order to potentially compel service providers to assist with decrypting encoded data, raising concerns that the law could undermine the use of encryption tools that protect cybersecurity and the privacy of users.

The government has shown an increasingly aggressive attitude toward critics of the CCA. The spokesman of the Prime Minister's Office, Lt. Gen. Sansern Kaewkamnerd, told media on December 18 that people who participated in any form of protest against the CCA could be prosecuted for causing public disturbances. Two days earlier, the Army Cyber Center warned that posting or sharing online commentary that criticizes the CCA could be considered false information and result in prosecution.

"Under this draconian law, Internet users will have to look over their shoulders when going online," Adams said. "The Thai military government has now given itself sweeping power to monitor, search, and acquire information, invading people's privacy on a massive scale."

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Lebanon: Syrian Refugee's Account of Torture

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 21 December 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Lebanon: Syrian Refugee's Account of Torture, 21 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a4e914.html [accessed 3 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.

A 31-year-old Syrian refugee in Lebanon was allegedly detained and tortured in February 2016, apparently on suspicion of being gay, Human Rights Watch said today. The man, identified only as Shadi for his protection, told Human Rights Watch that he had been detained by Lebanese Military Intelligence officers, and tortured over a five-day period at Military Intelligence, Ministry of Defense, Military Police, and Internal Security Forces centers.

Human Rights Watch interviewed Shadi in Beirut in March, but, upon his request, waited to publish his story until he was safely resettled to Europe. On November 2 and 3, Human Rights Watch sent letters to the Ministries of Defense and Interior, Military Intelligence, Military Police, and Internal Security Forces, detailing the torture allegations and calling for a full investigation. The Interior Ministry responded on December 13, saying that it had a complaints procedure but would not be able to pursue an investigation and penalize offending officers unless the victim filed a complaint in person.

"Torture is common in Lebanon's detention centers, but vulnerable people like Shadi, a gay Syrian refugee, are at particular risk," said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The routine abuse of detainees isn't going to stop until Lebanon puts an end to the culture of impunity surrounding its security forces."

Lebanon has failed in the past to properly investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment by security services. Lebanese authorities should immediately investigate the allegations of torture in this case and hold everyone responsible to account.

Shadi said that all interrogations at security branches focused on trying to elicit a confession that he was having sex with men or to punish him for being gay. He said he was not allowed to contact his friends or a lawyer during his detention, and that he was never informed of the charges against him or brought before a judge.

Shadi said that in January, armed Military Intelligence officers raided an apartment he shared with several other Syrian refugees in Jounieh, interrogated him and his roommates, punched them in the face, and hit them with batons. After seeing a picture of Shadi and a transgender woman hanging on his wall, the officers questioned him about his sexuality. Military Intelligence officers returned in February and arrested Shadi. "Every time I asked why I was being arrested the officers just hit me and didn't answer my questions," he said

Shadi said he was transferred to the Sarba military intelligence branch in Jounieh, where officers blindfolded him, stripped him naked, and tortured him throughout a two-hour interrogation. He said the interrogator beat him with sticks and punched him in the face once. The next morning officers blindfolded Shadi and forced him to sign a paper he could not read. Shadi said he asked what he was signing, but was only hit again. The officers then transferred him to the Defense Ministry in Yarze.

There, he said, officers took him underground to an interrogation room and questioned him for more than four hours about his sexuality. Shadi said the interrogator elbowed him in the stomach, on his neck, and kicked him in the groin in an attempt to elicit a confession that he was having sex with his male roommates. He recalled the interrogator saying, "You gays are coming here and making our country dirty Neither our society nor God accepts this!"

Shadi said that security officers then transported him to Rehanieh military police prison, where officers took him into a room and told him to undress. He said he was handcuffed naked and told to bend over facing the wall. "I will insert this into your anus to determine how many times you've had sex," Shadi said an officer told him. He inserted the rod, causing Shadi to scream out in pain and beg the officer to stop. Forced anal examinations lack evidentiary value and are a form of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment that may in some cases amount to torture.

Shadi said that he asked to call a friend or a lawyer, but was refused. He slept in a cell, handcuffed to a wall. The next morning, he said military police officers took him downstairs into an interrogation room, with a number of officers slapping and cursing at him along the way. Shadi was then transferred to Jounieh police station.

There, Shadi said, officers slapped him several times in the face and punched him in the stomach. They interrogated him the next morning. He quoted one officer as saying, "We don't know how to get rid of you Syrian refugeesand now you bring us gay Syrians?" One officer kicked Shadi in the chest, causing him to fall backward with his feet in the air.

An officer then beat Shadi on the soles of his feet with a stick. Human rights organizations have documented the use of Falaqa, or beating the victim with sticks, batons, or whips on the soles of the feet, as a torture method in Lebanon. Several hours later Shadi was transferred to Beirut's Hobeish police station, where he was not ill-treated, and eventually released.

Human Rights Watch has corroborated Shadi's story with an international and a local organization providing him with assistance. Human Rights Watch also reviewed a medical report prepared by a local doctor shortly after Shadi's release, documenting fluid in Shadi's ear and swelling and bruises all over his body due to beatings.

Homosexuality is not expressly outlawed in Lebanon. Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code states that "any sexual intercourse contrary to the order of nature is punishable by up to one year in prison." This provision has been used to prosecute people suspected of homosexuality even though the law does not define the phrase "contrary to the order of nature," leaving it to the interpretation of individual judges.

Shadi said he is concerned that others may experience similar treatment in Lebanon. "It's true that I suffered under torture but I was lucky that international and local organizations intervened to help," he said. "I'm worried that others may not be as lucky as me. What if another Syrian refugee is arrested and tortured but no one knows about his case to help?"

Human Rights Watch has long documented torture by Lebanon's security services, and the failure of authorities to properly investigate allegations of abuse. In a 2013 report, Human Rights Watch documented the widespread use of torture by the Lebanese Internal Security Forces against vulnerable groups like drug users, sex workers, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. In July 2013, Human Rights Watch documented seven cases of torture of detainees in military custody, including two children, following clashes between followers of Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir and the Lebanese army.

The UN Committee against Torture found in its 2014 report of an inquiry in Lebanon that "torture in Lebanon is a pervasive practice that is routinely used by the armed forces and law enforcement agencies for the purpose of investigation, for securing confessions to be used in criminal proceedings and, in some cases for punishing acts that the victim is believed to have committed."

The need to combat torture and ill-treatment lie at the heart of several international conventions, treaties, and declarations that Lebanon is obligated to uphold under international law and is bound to by the preamble of its constitution. These include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and its optional protocol.

Lebanon's parliament on October 19 took a positive step to try to end the use of torture with a new law to establish a National Human Rights Institute (NHRI), which will include a Committee for the Protection from Torture, known as a national preventative mechanism. The committee will have the authority to conduct regular unannounced visits to all detention sites, investigate the use of torture, and issue recommendations to improve the treatment of detainees.

Lebanese authorities should fund and staff the NHRI with qualified, independent experts and ensure that it is able to visit all detention sites in the manner and with the frequency it wishes without fear of sanction or reprisal. Lebanon should also bring national legislation into compliance with the Convention against Torture, including criminalizing all forms of torture and ill-treatment and confirming its obligation to pursue all torture allegations in a diligent, timely, and effective way to bring those responsible to justice.

Donor countries providing assistance to Lebanon's security agencies should ensure that aid supports Lebanon's compliance with the Convention against Torture, including by providing support for internal oversight and accountability mechanisms, and refrain from funding units that are credibly found to abuse human rights.

"Shadi's case is unfortunately far from an isolated incident," Fakih said. "It's long past time for authorities to enact long-awaited reforms and systematically stamp out the use of torture in Lebanon."

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Nigeria fails to come to grips with separatist "New Biafra"

Publisher IRIN Author Eromo Egbejule & Obi Anyadike Publication Date 16 December 2016 Cite as IRIN, Nigeria fails to come to grips with separatist "New Biafra", 16 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a4f2c4.html [accessed 3 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.

A treason trial will start next month in a Nigerian high court that has major implications for the country's stability.

In the dock will be Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Along with three other men, he is facing a charge of "treasonable felony".

Biafra was the secessionist Igbo enclave of southeastern Nigeria that existed between 1967 and 1970  its defeat may have claimed as many as one million lives. The Igbos are the third largest ethnic group in Nigeria, and Kanu the leading light in a growing movement reviving the idea of separation.

Kanu was director of London-based Radio Biafra, which transmits via the internet and shortwave to southeastern Nigeria. A skilled propagandist, his message was simple: for their future survival, Igbos must leave the "zoo" that is Nigeria, which he claims is dominated by an Islamic Hausa-Fulani (the majority ethnic group) elite.

It's not hard to find inflammatory statements linked to Kanu. He has described President Muhammadu Buhari as "terrorist-in-chief"; threatened "if they fail to give us Biafra, Somalia will look like a paradise"; and at the World Igbo Congress in 2015, told the audience: "we need guns and we need bullets".

Kanu was arrested in Lagos in 2015, and despite a court ruling demanding his release, has remained in detention. The government is clearly concerned by his influence among disgruntled Igbo youth.

Before IPOB, there was the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, led by Ralph Uwazuruike. For many years now across the southeast, it's been hard to ignore the Biafran flags flying from lamp posts or emblazoned on t-shirts, part of MASSOB's agitation. But MASSOB fell apart amid internal bickering and allegations of corruption.

Hard line

The government has taken a far harder line with IPOB, formed in 2012. According to Amnesty International, the army has gunned down more than 150 unarmed Igbo civilians, most of them IPOB supporters, between August 2015 and August 2016. Many of those lives were lost this year on 30 May in rallies to mark "Biafra Remembrance Day".

"There has been no independent investigation nor has the president instructed the armed forces to comply with international human rights law in responding to IBOP protests," said the Amnesty report.

The government has instead doubled down. In late November, it launched Operation Python Dance, a security crackdown in the southeast involving the army. Its targets are a range of security threats, including "violent secessionist attacks", according to spokesman Colonel Sagir Musa.

Willie Obiano, governor of Anambra State, one of the economic engines of the Igbo southeast, recently defended the operation, saying: "Similar exercises have taken place in other geographical zones of the country without incidents or controversy; Niger Delta and [the] northwest being the most recent, weeks ago."

Shoot-to-kill

But in the current atmosphere, Operation Python Dance is seen by many Igbo as a provocation.

"The government has a hidden agenda in sending soldiers to the east during Christmas," said Ebuka Anyansi, a lawyer based in the eastern state of Enugu. "There's crises everywhere in Kaduna and Kano [in the north], but no soldiers have been deployed there. What exactly is this government's grouse with the Igbos?"

The Nigerian army's shoot-to-kill approach, totally inappropriate for a law and order role, has come in for particular criticism by Amnesty.

Ifeanyichukwu Nwankwo (not his real name), a street trader, was shot in the thigh by soldiers during a rally in Onitsha, the Anambra state capital, demanding Kanu's release.

"I had to rush down from my place of work to go and make sure [he] got treatment," his brother told IRIN. "Soldiers who are protecting the people have now turned to shoot at them. This is why we want Biafra, where we can have freedom."

Biafra still has a powerful resonance in Nigeria. For the Nigerian establishment at the time, the division of the country and the loss of its oil-producing region was a direct threat to the survival of the newly independent nation. For a generation of military officers, including President Buhari, it was a formative experience.

In the southeast, it's still seen as a heroic struggle of a people resisting "genocide". With impressive self-reliance, Biafra held on for 30 months against the weight of the Nigerian state, backed by the international powers. It is wrapped up in beliefs of Igbo exceptionalism.

But it was an unwinnable war, though starvation proved the ultimate weapon in Biafra's defeat. To cement the peace, the federal government promoted a policy of "no victor, no vanquished", and every Igbo man was awarded the equivalent of roughly $20 to restart a new life.

"Sell-outs"

They are the whizz kids the media loves to extol, but also the hustlers in the underbelly of the world's major cities, and the wannabe migrants struggling to Europe.

IPOB takes a very different approach to that of the traditional Igbo establishment, led by Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, a political/cultural group representing Igboland's political and business elite - an elite whose corruption has also played a part in the southeast's infrastructural negelect.

Igbo nationalism, as expressed by Ohanaeze, seeks to play the "politics of the centre" and re-integrate the Igbo into mainstream politics, with the ultimate goal of delivering an Igbo president for Nigeria.

In contrast, "youth"-led IPOB and its predecessor MASSOB, ostensibly reject the idea of the Nigerian state and instead dream of a "New Biafra", argues analyst Godwin Onuoha.

"Eastern politicians are only concerned with their businesses and selling out regional interests for a pot of porridge," lamented lawyer Anyansi. "Since [Biafra war leader Emeka] Ojukwu and [former senate president] Chuba Okadigbo died, we have had no one to fight for our rights. Ohanaeze has become a laughing stock."

Alternatives

Kanu's status has risen since his detention. But there is a generational divide: few people who went through the war can countenance a return to conflict, no matter what they feel about the authenticity of IPOB's pro-Biafra arguments.

But "their separatist demands are actually drawing attention to certain fundamental flaws in the nation's federal system, particularly on the rights of citizens [a reference to federal quotas in public jobs seen by some as discriminating against Igbos]," said Nnamdi Obasi, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.

"To that extent, they are definitely seen by many in the southeast, as giving a voice to the region's deprivations and to millions of its alienated youth."

Simple steps can be undertaken by the government to undercut that sentiment, according to Obasi.

"President Buhari should lead this communication drive with an official visit to the southeast, specifically acknowledge Igbo grievances, and publicly commit to addressing them," he told IRIN.

That would certainly be a change from the current approach of confrontation and conflict.
From war to want: South Sudanese find less violence but grim conditions in Uganda

Publisher IRIN Author Amanda Sperber Publication Date 20 December 2016 Cite as IRIN, From war to want: South Sudanese find less violence but grim conditions in Uganda, 20 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a4fe74.html [accessed 3 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.

For leverage, Helen grips the rungs on the side of the rusting hospital bed with her toes. "Sindika!" encourages Aisha Ayikoriu. "Sindika! Sindika!" In Luganda, the Bantu language widely spoken in Uganda, Sindika means "push".

Built in the early 1990s to serve 10,000 local Ugandans, Ocea Centre Two is now the biggest of four clinics serving Rhino, a settlement of some 85,000 South Sudanese refugees.

As the UN makes repeated statements about ethnic cleansing and budding genocide in South Sudan, Uganda can barely open camps fast enough to accommodate the influx of refugees. An average of 2,500 have been arriving every day since July, with that figure as high as 7,000 earlier this month. A massive settlement for 100,000 has just opened in Moyo district in the tip of the north. With dry season offensives expected to begin any day now, it could be overflowing before mid-January.

In its most recent update, on 19 December, the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, says 584,573 South Sudanese refugees have arrived in Uganda since the civil war broke out in December 2013. Almost 400,000 of them have come since July, fleeing an upsurge in fighting and indiscriminate bloodletting in the southern Equatoria region.

The lack of resources for the refugees is evident. There isn't enough water, let alone sanitary pads for women, and schools for children. It may be safer in Uganda, but the conditions here are inhumane.

At Ocea Centre Two, there are two beds for women in labour. On the other side of the green fabric that serves as a curtain are five mothers with newborns. They share cots and use cloths to cushion themselves and their little ones on the concrete floor. Mothers fuss over the babies. Though the situation is grim, the scene isn't sad.

The "inpatient" unit is 14 beds in a tent. It is the only clinic at Rhino equipped to do minor surgical procedures. The beds in the tent are always full and often overrun, with patients sharing beds or staying on the floor.

For any major operations, patients must be sent to the nearest hospital, 72 nauseatingly bumpy kilometres to the west, in Arua, the closest main town. There is only one ambulance available. Vincent Debo, a clinical officer, looks embarrassed when he shares these statistics.

Frontline Equatoria

The fight that has ruined the world's newest nation turned three on 15 December. South Sudan itself is just five, having celebrated its independence in July 2011.

The conflict is an ethnically tinged power wrangle between the SPLA (government forces made up mostly of President Salva Kiir's Dinka tribe) and the SPLA-IO (opposition forces  initially mostly Nuer people loyal to former vice president Riek Machar, but now increasingly mixed with members of South Sudan's 63 other tribes).

Equatoria had remained a bastion of relative calm while war over resources and power infected the rest of the country, but the seat of the conflict has shifted. A failed, internationally-brokered August 2015 peace agreement positioned IO troops alongside the SPLA in these states, priming the place for a bloodbath. In July, fighting broke out in the capital Juba, located in the south, in the middle of the Equatoria region. A chase down country for the ousted Machar was followed by massacres that have yet to stop.

Refugees from Equatoria say they left because staying at home was untenable. If it weren't for the gunshots every night, the bodies in the streets, the families burned alive in their homes, and the women gang raped by the side of the road, they would have stayed.

"Fear made me come here," Peter Dada, originally from Laniya in central Equatoria, tells IRIN at Rhino settlement. "There is killing, continuously. No compromise."

Dada says if the government soldiers see you, they kill you. If IO soldiers see you, expect the same. He blames the SPLA alone though for the massive levels of rape, saying: "That one is being done by the government soldiers."

Most refugees say both sides are complicit in the sexual assault that has reached "epic" levels in South Sudan.

It is less violent across the border, but the living conditions are dreadful.

Shortages

The largest encampment in Uganda opened on 3 August, at Bidi Bidi. A small village a few months ago, it is now the world's second largest refugee settlement, with a population of more than 260,000. Like Rhino, it is spread out across unforgiving terrain.

The majority of the refugees at Bidi Bidi and Rhino are from a mixture of South Sudan's smaller, marginalised tribes, like the Kakwa and the Acholi. In the northeast of Uganda, the settlement at Adjumani hosts another 60,000 South Sudanese, but they are mostly of Kiir's Dinka tribe.

Of the 100,000 school-age children in Bidi Bidi, only 10,000 attend classes. There is just one primary school.

Robert Baryamwesiga, Bidi Bidi's camp commandant, says the biggest challenge is water. There are 70 boreholes on the sprawling 250-square-kilometre property. Sixty-five percent of the water is trucked in from the Nile. Each refugee has about eight litres a day for drinking, washing, cooking, and bathing. The World Health Organization recommends that 15 litres a day is needed for survival: drinking and cooking.

"Every day, more refugees were arriving than new boreholes could be drilled to supply them water," said Harmen van den Berg, a hydrogeologist with UNHCR.

Jean-Luc Anglade, the country representative for Medecins Sans Frontieres in Uganda, explained that a substantial amount of money is being spent exploring the groundwater in Bidi Bidi. Normally, a hydrogeology survey is completed before a plot of land is selected for a refugee settlement. In this case, it's ongoing, after the camp is already full. "The water supply is too low in terms of quality/quantity delivered despite lots of efforts from partners," Anglade told IRIN by email.

The water situation at Rhino isn't any better.

Grace Ropani says it takes two or three people to "farm" the water. Pumping from the boreholes is exhausting, and can take two hours.

Ropani's grandmother was macheted to death on 5 August. She didn't see it happen; her neighbours gave her the news. "Here, we don't hear the sound of guns," she says of life in Rhino camp. Unlike others, Ropani isn't concerned about the food supply, but she does need soap and salt, and she says the women need sanitary pads and underwear.

Yasmin Abdayy was elected by the Rhino refugee community to be an unpaid watchman for Oxfam's water tank 171. As a truck pumps 20,000 litres into the tank, Abdayy keeps an eye on the line forming at the spouts. Everything is orderly, except the boys who dangle the truck's dribbling hose into their containers to get every drop.

According to Abdayy's calculations, each family gets two jerry cans' full, about 40 litres, each day. Going by the WHO standards of 15 litres per person as the basic emergency level, a family of five would needs 75 litres to survive. Abdayy says there is just half the water needed. What he really wants is simply a notebook and a pen to keep track of the situation, so he can do his job correctly.

Food is also an increasingly acute concern.

In August, the World Food Programme cut rations by 50 percent for all refugees who had been in Uganda before July 2015. Now, the organisation faces a funding shortfall of $62 million for all refugee operations in the country for the next six months. If this is not met, WFP will be forced to cut the quota for new arrivals as well. Even though they are allegedly getting the requisite amount of food, the majority of newly arrived refugees, including Abdayy and Dada in Rhino settlement, speak of hunger and say they don't have enough to eat.

It is 1pm, and neither Abdayy nor his five children have eaten. "The food is finished," he says, adding that his family won't eat that day unless he can find a way to do some small paid labor, or perhaps make a trade. Other refugees spoke of exchanging supplies like pots for food.

Some aid organisations attribute the lack of schools, health services, food, and water to the scale of the influx. But Shoshon Tama-Sweet, Africa and Middle East programme manager with Medical Teams International (MTI), finds that rationale lacking.

"They [UN and NGOs] prepared for 700,000 refugees before the Mosul offensive [in Iraq]," he told IRIN. "South Sudan has been at war since 2013. The refugees started flooding Uganda in July. They used surprise as an explanation for lack of preparation. Now, it's December. They still can't be surprised. We're running to stand still."

Speaking again to the relativism other aid staffers apply to explain conditions, Tama-Sweet said: "You can't say: 'Well, they wouldn't have water in South Sudan either.' In South Sudan, they had community coping mechanisms, they knew the land. This isn't the same thing."

Birth

Back at Ocea Centre Two in Rhino settlement, Ayikoriu, the midwife, is giving instructions.

Helen is 25. This is her first child. She purses her lips and screws up her eyes in painful effort, but she doesn't make much noise.

She hasn't taken any pain medication. Lili Aya, the birth attendant, and Ayikoriu shift Helen into the most comfortable position; first draping her arm over her back and moving her onto her side, then holding her neck and massaging her breasts and belly. Helen's only cover is a limp plaid blanket. It's a physical process; the women are comfortable with each other.

Beads of sweat form on Helen's lips. The room smells vaguely of hay. Ayikoriu advises her patient to push like she's trying to go to the bathroom. "She's putting her effort here," Ayikoriu says, indicating her neck. "I'm telling her to push down."

Ayikoriu ties a rubber glove around Helen's arm. She's found they make perfect tourniquets. She gives Helen an intravenous drip of glucose for energy, and some oxytocin to speed up her slowing contractions.

Now, Helen is not contracting at all. A clinical officer calls the ambulance. It's time to take Helen to the hospital. Ayikoriu is not worried about Helen's health, but she is concerned the baby will suffocate. The ambulance is already on its way to the hospital with someone else. It will be hours before it can come back for Helen.
Israel and Palestine: Whether a Palestinian who has lived outside of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) for a number of years can return to reside in the OPT; whether the returnee requires an Israeli-issued identity card and whether it is possible to obtain the card from abroad; whether someone born in Gaza faces particular challenges returning to the OPT

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 26 April 2016 Citation / Document Symbol ZZZ105520.E Related Document(s) Israel et Palestine : information indiquant si un Palestinien qui a vecu a l'exterieur des Territoires palestiniens occupes (TPO) durant un certain nombre d'annees peut retourner vivre dans les TPO; si la personne qui retourne vivre dans les TPO doit se voir delivrer une carte d'identite par Israel et s'il est possible d'obtenir la carte depuis l'etranger; si une personne nee a Gaza doit surmonter des obstacles particuliers pour retourner dans les TPO Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Israel and Palestine: Whether a Palestinian who has lived outside of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) for a number of years can return to reside in the OPT; whether the returnee requires an Israeli-issued identity card and whether it is possible to obtain the card from abroad; whether someone born in Gaza faces particular challenges returning to the OPT, 26 April 2016, ZZZ105520.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a7db14.html [accessed 3 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.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Documents Required to Return to Live in the OPT

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, an official at the Palestinian General Delegation in Ottawa stated that Palestinians require Israeli-issued IDs [called Hawiyeh, "identity card" in Arabic (Palestine 21 Apr. 2016)] in order to enter Palestine (Palestine 18 Apr. 2016). The official further noted that it is not possible to obtain the Israeli-issued ID from abroad (ibid. 19 Apr. 2016). The same source indicated that Israel does not limit the amount of time that Palestinians can spend outside of Palestine, but that in order to return, they need to have an Israeli-issued national ID that was issued after the Oslo Accords of 1995, or, if the ID was issued before 1995, that they left Palestine after 1995 (ibid. 18 Apr. 2016). The official further noted, however, that Israel revoked the IDs of some people who left before the peace process started (ibid. 19 Apr. 2016). According to the same source, the dependents of Palestinians who hold national IDs need to be added to their parents' ID card before they turn five, or, if the parents are in North America, before they turn fifteen (ibid. 18 Apr. 2016). The official stated that the IDs do not have expiration dates (ibid. 19 Apr. 2016).

The Palestinian General Delegation official indicated that the Israeli-issued ID card contains the personal information of the bearer in Arabic and Hebrew on the right side and a photo of the bearer on the upper left side (ibid. 21 Apr. 2016). The official further explained that the ID card indicates the place of birth and place of issuance, showing whether someone is from the West Bank or Gaza, but in either case, the card follows the same format (ibid. 22 Apr. 2016). A sample of the ID card could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Regarding the documents required for a Palestinian to enter and reside in Palestine, in addition to the Israeli-issued ID card, the official stated that "it depends on the situation" of the person entering and that Israel is the party that makes the decision (ibid. 19 Apr. 2016). The official explained that "being Palestinian" does not mean that Israel will grant the person access to Palestine (ibid.). While some Palestinians hold Palestinian passports for the purpose of external travel (with passport numbers that start with a zero), they "[do] not grant entry to Palestine" (ibid. 18 Apr. 2016). The official also noted that some Palestinians have travel documents issued by other countries which do not allow entry to either Palestine or to the country that issued the document (ibid.).

A report by the UN Human Rights Council quotes information provided by Israeli human rights NGOs as stating that Israeli authorities require Palestinians to obtain permits to cross between Gaza and the West Bank and to enter and remain in large areas inside the West Bank (UN 20 Jan. 2016, para. 14). According to the same source, this "permit regime" allows Israeli authorities to "limit and control Palestinians' movement in the OPT beyond their immediate residential area" (ibid.).

2. Challenges Faced by Gazans Returning to the OPT

The Palestinian General Delegation official indicated that there are "a lot of additional factors and challenges that people returning to Gaza face" and that Israeli-issued IDs for people from Gaza do not allow for entry to Palestine through Jordan unless there is a "special permit given by Jordan and Israel" (Palestine 21 Apr. 2016).

According to Freedom House, approximately 35,000 Gazans lack identity cards, "severely limiting their ability to travel," and Israel controls the Palestinian Population Registry (Freedom House 2015).

According to the UN Human Rights Council, there are "[l]ongstanding restrictions on free movement between Gaza and the West Bank" (UN 20 Jan. 2016, para. 8). The same source explains that after Hamas took over Gaza in 2007, there was a "strict quota system imposed" for being allowed to enter or exit Gaza, which was "limited to specific categories of persons, such as individuals in need of emergency medical evacuations, medical referral patients, certain businessmen and humanitarian cases" (ibid., para 37). Similarly, a Gaza-based research assistant for Human Rights Watch stated that "travel into and out of Gaza is reserved for exceptional cases," and that the Erez crossing, which is the only crossing linking Gaza to Israel and the West Bank, is limited to "'exceptional humanitarian cases'," which "according to the Israeli military, includes medical patients and their companions, merchants buying large quantities of goods, and family visits for marriage, death, or grave illness" (Human Rights Watch 30 Mar. 2016).

The official of the Palestinian General Delegation indicated that the only port that people from Gaza are allowed to cross, if they have the proper paperwork, is the Rafah crossing in Egypt, and that they are only allowed to enter Egypt if the Rafah crossing is open on that day (Palestine 21 Apr. 2016). The official further noted that the Rafah crossing has not been in operation for the general public "for a while now" (ibid.). According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), a Gaza-based NGO "dedicated to protecting human rights, promoting the rule of law and upholding democratic principles" in Palestine (PCHR n.d.), the Rafah crossing was closed for 241 days in 2014 (66 percent of the year), and "thousands of Palestinians were stuck in Egypt on their way back to Gaza" (PCHR 3 June 2015, 48).The UN Human Rights Council quotes data gathered by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs as stating that, during the period from 1 November 2014 to 31 October 2015, the Rafah crossing was closed except for 37 days, during which it was partially opened (UN 20 Jan. 2016, para. 39). A 2015 article published in the Jerusalem Post similarly reports that Egypt has "almost totally" closed the Rafah border with Gaza and that Israel "remains in full control of Gaza's borders, airspace and coastal waters" (10 June 2015).

The official of the Palestinian General Delegation stated that Palestinians with ID cards from Gaza, whether or not they spent time abroad, "are not allowed to visit or live in the West Bank unless they have a special permit from Israel, which is very rare" (Palestine 22 Apr. 2016). Similarly, the Human Rights Watch research assistant stated that, for Gazans, the West Bank "has been mostly off-limits since 2000" (Human Rights Watch 30 Mar. 2016).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Freedom House. 2015. "Gaza Strip." Freedom in the World 2015. [Accessed 20 Apr. 2016]

Human Rights Watch. 30 March 2016. Deema El Ghoul. "Penned in Gaza and Dreaming of the World Outside." [Accessed 20 Apr. 2016]

Jerusalem Post. 10 June 2015. "Encountering Peace: Israel's Strategic Choices Regarding Gaza." (Factiva)

Palestine. 22 April 2016. Palestinian General Delegation in Ottawa. Correspondence from a counsellor to the Research Directorate.

Palestine. 21 April 2016. Palestinian General Delegation in Ottawa. Correspondence from a counsellor to the Research Directorate.

Palestine. 19 April 2016. Palestinian General Delegation in Ottawa. Correspondence from a counsellor to the Research Directorate.

Palestine. 18 April 2016. Palestinian General Delegation in Ottawa. Correspondence from a counsellor to the Research Directorate.

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). 3 June 2015. Annual Report 2014. [Accessed 20 Apr. 2016]

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). N.d. "About PCHR." [Accessed 25 Apr. 2016]

United Nations (UN). 20 January 2016. Human Rights Council. Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem. [Accessed 20 Apr. 2016]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Gisha-Legal Center for Freedom of Movement; Israel - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Embassy in Ottawa.

Internet sites, including: B'Tselem; ecoi.net; Factiva; Gisha-Legal Center for Freedom of Movement; Israel - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Embassy in Ottawa; UN - Refworld.
Libya: Civil Registry Authority (CRA), including current areas of operation and leadership; types of documents produced by the registry, including ability to access the documents; service levels, disruptions and attacks (November 2015 - November 2016)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 21 December 2016 Citation / Document Symbol LBY105697.E Related Document(s) Libye : information sur le Bureau de l'etat civil (Civil Registry Authority - CRA), y compris sur ses fonctions actuelles et ses dirigeants; les types of documents produits par le Bureau, y compris l'accessibilite aux documents; les niveaux de service, les interruptions et le piratage (novembre 2015-novembre 2016) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Libya: Civil Registry Authority (CRA), including current areas of operation and leadership; types of documents produced by the registry, including ability to access the documents; service levels, disruptions and attacks (November 2015 - November 2016), 21 December 2016, LBY105697.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a7ef84.html [accessed 3 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.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Civil Registry Documents and Access

The Libya Herald, a Libya-based news website, describes the CRA as "Libya's registry of families, marriages, births, deaths, passports etc." (Libya Herald 10 Oct. 2016). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), who provided information based on data collected by staff in Libya for the purpose of this Response, indicated that the CRA works to register the civil status of Libyan citizens and issues the following documents:

Birth certificate for citizens / for foreigners

Death certificate for citizens / for foreigners

Marriage certificate for citizens / for foreigners

Divorce certificate for citizens / for foreigners

Widowed certificate for citizens / for foreigners

Family book for citizens

Civil status form number 13 [which] contains all the civil information related to the citizen. (IOM 2 Dec. 2016).

A 2014 report published by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and written by country analysts from Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, stated that each municipality has a civil registration office where "birth, marriage, divorce and death must be registered" (The Netherlands et al. 19 Dec. 2014, 10). The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs report further cites two Libya Herald articles as stating that there are approximately 400 CRA offices across Libya (Libya Herald qtd in the Netherlands et al. 19 Dec. 2014, 10). According to the IOM representative, without providing details and based on the information collected from IOM contacts in Libya, "the civil registration department is fully functioning in all of Libya and their main office is in Tripoli" (IOM 2 Dec. 2016). An October 2016 Libya Herald article states that the CRA headquarters is located in the Drebi area of Tripoli (Libya Herald 10 Oct. 2016).

A 2015 article published by the Libya News Agency (LANA), Libya's national state news agency (AFP 11 Feb. 2014), reports that the CRA announced that it was opening offices for national number services [1] in neighbouring countries in collaboration with Libyan embassies, in order to better serve Libyans abroad, beginning with Tunisia as of 15 February 2015 (LANA 8 Feb. 2015) Further and corroborating information about access to the documents issued by the CRA, or CRA offices abroad could not be found among the sources consulted by this Response.

2. Control and Operations

The information provided by the IOM representative indicates that the civil registry is an administratively and financially independent department that is "technically" under the Ministry of Interior (IOM 2 Dec. 2016). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

The Libya Herald states that "the CRA has  been very much at the centre of multiple kidnappings as it has got itself unintentionally but  inextricably embroiled in Libya's political split and polarization since the militia coup in Tripoli in the summer of 2014" (Libya Herald 10 Oct. 2016). The same source indicates that a dispute broke out between the CRA's management and the "internationally unrecognized Salvation Government [2] in Tripoli" over the independence of the civil registry database [3] (ibid.). The source further explains that the dispute arose because "CRA staff accused the Salvation Government of wanting to politicise the [civil registry] system" (ibid.). In June 2016, the Libya Herald reported that Eastern and Western Libyan authorities did not trust each other to physically control the CRA database, because they are "politically, and at times, militarily at war with each other" (ibid. 2 June 2016). According to the same article, Western authorities refused to use the database unless it was under their control, while Eastern authorities did not trust the Western authorities to control it as they feared that they would "politically misuse or alter" the database (ibid.). The Libya Herald also notes that in June 2016, the CRA database was moved to an unnamed "neutral location" accessible to both sides, as a compromise (ibid.). Further and corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

2.1 Leadership

Information about the leadership of the CRA was scarce among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response. Media sources indicate that the following individuals occupy leadership roles within the CRA:

Abdelgader Alsaity, deputy head (Libya Herald 23 Sept. 2016);

Ibrahim Al-Fallag, chairman (Libya Observer 13 March 2016);

Mohamed Buker [Boker], "head" (Libya Herald 10 Oct. 2016) or "dismissed chairman of the CRA" who was reportedly dismissed by the Salvation Government over alleged corruption and forgery cases, as well as for establishing "secret contacts" with the Eastern Government (Libya Observer 13 March 2016);

Siddiq Al-Nahaisi, acting head of the Tripoli-based CRA (Libya Herald 10 Oct. 2016), or head of the CRA (Libyan Express 11 Oct. 2016).

Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3. Service Levels, Disruptions and Attacks

In March 2016, the Libya Observer, a Tripoli-based online news source, cites the head of the CRA as stating that the website of the CRA was attacked by hackers, "forcing the engineers to bring down the entire database" in order to protect it, which caused "a disruption in services" (Libya Observer 13 March 2016). The Libya Herald cites the CRA as "revealing" that it "had been forcibly taken over by 'ideologically extremist groups' who had taken control of its database of Libyan citizens which would have 'enabled them to control the affairs of Libyans and the manipulation of their identities for their own identities'" (Libya Herald 23 Sept. 2016). However, the Libyan Observer reports that this statement came from a Facebook post by the dismissed former chairman of the CRA (Libya Observer 13 Mar. 2016). The same source cites a CRA engineer as stating that "no armed groups attacked the [CRA; this] was only a failed cyber attack by hackers" (ibid.).

In May 2016, the CRA in the western region "rejected the decision of the Interior Ministry of the Salvation Government related to forming a committee to reactivate the civil registration system" (Libya Observer 10 May 2016). According to the same source, the CRAs southern branch also rejected the government's order, and that Jalu city's civil registry in the east refused to deal with the Interior Ministry committee (ibid.).

In June 2016, the Tripoli-based CRA announced that it had resumed services, which had been suspended since March 2016 as the result of the dispute over who controlled the database, which had forced the Tripoli-based CRA to "revert to paper based services" (Libya Herald 2 June 2016).

In September 2016, after two CRA engineers were kidnapped in the Sug il Juma [Sooq al Jomoa] area of Tripoli (Libya Herald 23 September 2016; Libyan Express 22 Sept. 2016), the CRA announced in a statement, that it was "shutting [down] all of its bureaus" (ibid.) or that it was suspending all work in the "west, east and south of Libya," until the employees were released (Libya Herald 23 September 2016). The Libya Herald notes that the CRA complained of "continuing kidnappings, forced arrests, and assaults" against its employees (ibid.).

In October 2016, an armed group attacked the CRA headquarters in Tripoli, killing the head of the CRA, Siddiq Al-Nahaisi (ibid. 12 Oct. 2016; Libyan Express 11 Oct. 2016), and leading key officials to go on strike in reaction to his killing (Libya Herald 12 Oct. 2016).

Further and corroborating information about service levels disruptions, and attacks could not be found among the sources consulted by the research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Notes

[1] For further information on National Identity Numbers in Libya, see Response to Information Request LBY104666 of November 2013.

[2] According to the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR), a pan-European think tank on European foreign policy that receives funding from "charitable foundations, national governments, companies, and private individuals" (ECFR n.d.), the Salvation Government [Government of National Salvation] is one of the three rival governments operating in Libya in 2016 (ibid. 19 May 2016). The Salvation Government is based on the parliament originally elected in 2012, and is located in Tripoli, but "no longer controls any relevant institutions" (ibid.). The second government is the Presidential Council, which was created in December 2015 as a result of a UN-brokered agreement (ibid.). It is the internationally recognized Libyan government that presides over the Government of National Accord (GNA) and it is located at a naval base in Tripoli (ibid.). The third "power center" is made up of authorities based in Tobruk and al-Bayda, in the East of Libya, and is supposed to concede power to the GNA, but has not done so (ibid.). It was the internationally recognized government until the creation of the Presidential Council (ibid.).

[3] The 2014 Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs report states that two Libya Herald articles indicate that the Libyan Government announced it completed a new national database, the National Identity Number System (NID), in February 2013, and that all civil registry offices in the country were "interlinked by computer" (The Libya Herald qtd in the Netherlands et al. 19 Dec. 2014, 9-10). The same source indicates that civil registry records are in a "bad state" and "are known to consist of many unauthenticated family books and records" (ibid.).

References

Agence France-Presse (AFP). 14 February 2014. "Gunmen Abduct Libya State News Agency Journalist." [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016]

European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). 19 May 2016. Mattia Toaldo and Mary Fitzgerald. A Quick Guide To Libya's Main Players. [Accessed 1 Dec. 2016]

European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). N.d. "About the European Council on Foreign Relations." [Accessed 1 Dec. 2016]

International Organization for Migration (IOM). 2 December 2016. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

Libyan News Agency (LANA). 8 February 2015. "Civil Registry Opens Offices in Neighbouring Countries to Offer National Number Services." [Accessed 16 Nov. 2016]

Libya Herald. 12 October 2016. "Database Chief Dies of Wounds After Attack." [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016]

Libya Herald. 10 October 2016. Sami Zaptia. "Assassination Attempt on Tripoli Civil Registry Authority Acting Head."

Libya Herald. 23 September 2016. Sami Zaptia. "Civil Registry Authority to Strike in Protest at Kidnap of Employees." [Access 30 Nov. 2016]

Libya Herald. 2 June 2016. "Civil Registry Authority Back Working in Tripoli After Technical Compromise." [Accessed 30 Nov. 2016]

Libya Observer. 10 May 2016. "Civil Registry Authority Rejects Salvation Government's Order to Activate the Civil Registration System." [Accessed 16 Nov. 2016]

Libya Observer. 13 March 2016. "Hackers Attack Libya's Civil Registry Database." [Accessed 16 Nov. 2016]

Libyan Express. 11 October 2016. "Head of Libyan Civil Registry Authority Killed in Armed Attack." [Accessed 16 Nov. 2016]

Libyan Express. 22 September 2016. "Civil Registry Shuts All Bureaus Across Libya Over Kidnap Acts in Tripoli." [Accessed 16 Nov. 2016]

The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden. 19 December 2014. Immigration and Naturalisation Service, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, LandInfo, Swedish Migration Agency. Libya: Nationality, Registration and Documents. [Accessed 1 Dec. 2016]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Canada - Embassy to Libya based in Tunis; Lawyers for Justice in Libya; Libya - Civil Registration Authority, Embassy in Ottawa; UN - High Commissioner for Refugees, Population Fund.

Internet sites, including: BBC; Canada - Embassy in Tunis; ecoi.net; Factiva; Libya - Civil Registry Authority, Embassy in Ottawa, General Information Authority; Marsad Libya; Observatorio Politico y Electoral del Mundo Arabe y Musulman; UN - High Commissioner for Refugees, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Refworld; The Tripoli Post; US - Department of State, Embassy in Tripoli.
Libya: Information on renewing an older (green) passport via the Libyan Embassy in Canada, including requirements and procedures (2014-August 2016)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 24 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol LBY105667.E Related Document(s) Libye : information sur le renouvellement des anciens passeports (verts) a l'ambassade de la Libye au Canada, y compris sur les exigences et la marche a suivre (2014-aout 2016) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Libya: Information on renewing an older (green) passport via the Libyan Embassy in Canada, including requirements and procedures (2014-August 2016), 24 October 2016, LBY105667.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a81014.html [accessed 3 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.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Renewing a Passport

According to a translated July 2014 communique posted on the website of the Libyan Embassy in Ottawa, passports issued since 2007 will be renewed for "a validity period of two years[,] [p]assports issued in 2006 will be renewed for one year [and] [p]assports issued before 2006 will be renewed for six months" (Libya 14 July 2014). The same source further states that the validity period of the passport when applying for renewal must be less than 10 months, and passports that are valid for more than 10 months "will not be renewed" (ibid.).

According to the communique, the following must be included when renewing a passport:

Fill out 1 copy of Passport Renewal Form

1 photo, dimensions 3x4 cm

It should include the stamp of the photographer on the back and it should be taken no more than 30 days prior to the submission date.

The passport to be renewed.

Money postal order or certified cheque in the amount of CAN$ 30.00, payable to the Embassy of Libya.

Prepaid registered envelop for the purpose of returning the passport - please include name, address and telephone number. (ibid)

Further and corroborating information on the renewal of passports could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

2. Obtaining a New Passport

The website of the Embassy of Libya in Ottawa notes that

The Embassy would like to inform the Libyan community that the Embassy has run out of new passports. Therefore, we are unable to process applications for new passports until the passports arrive from Libya. However, the Embassy can renew the validity of expired passports. (Libya n.d.)

According to the same source, the following is required to obtain a new passport:

Fill out 2 copies of Form 1 (Obtaining a passport). 

3 photos, dimensions 3x4 cm

The name should be included on the back, as well as the stamp of the photographer. The photos should be taken no more than 15 days prior to the submission date.

Photocopy of the family booklet of the head of the household

Photocopy of identity card

Photocopy of birth certificate, extract from the family booklet

Previous passport

Money postal order or certified cheque in the amount of CAN$ 45.00, payable to the Embassy of Libya.

Prepaid registered envelop for the purpose of returning the passport - please include name, address and telephone number.

The passport is valid for only two years as of the date of issue.

Please send the documents to:

Embassy of Libya, Consular Section

Suite 1000, 81 Metcalfe Street

Ottawa, ON K1P 6K7

You may submit the documents in person to the Consular Services. (ibid.)

A translated copy of the application for a new passport is attached to this Response. Further and corroborating information on obtaining a passport from the Libyan Embassy in Ottawa, including availability of new passports, could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Libya. 14 July 2014. Embassy of Libya in Ottawa. "Renewing Your Passport." Translated by the Translation Bureau, Public Works and Government Services Canada. [Accessed 13 Oct. 2016]

Libya. N.d. Embassy of Libya in Ottawa. "New Passport." Translated by the Translation Bureau, Public Works and Government Services Canada. [Accessed 13 Oct. 2016]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral Sources: Libya - Embassy in Ottawa.

Internet Sources, Including: CBC; Factiva; Ottawa Citizen; United Nations - Refworld.

Attachments

Libya. N.d. Embassy of Libya in Ottawa. "Application." Translated by the Translation Bureau, Public Works and Government Services Canada. [Accessed 13 Oct. 2016]
Libya: Treatment of members of the Zintani tribe in Tobruk City; presence of Gaddafi supporters in Tobruk; presence and operational strength of the organization of Islamic State (IS) in Tobruk; ability of Libyans fleeing conflict in other parts of the country to relocate to Tobruk and reside there safely; whether Tobruk airport is operational (2014-August 2016)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 3 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol LBY105631.E Related Document(s) Libye : information sur le traitement reserve aux membres de la tribu des Zintanis dans la ville de Tobrouk; la presence de partisans de Kadhafi a Tobrouk; la presence et la force operationnelle du groupe Etat islamique a Tobrouk; la capacite des Libyens fuyant le conflit dans d'autres regions du pays de s'installer a Tobrouk et d'y vivre en securite; information indiquant si l'aeroport de Tobrouk est operationnel (2014-aout 2016) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Libya: Treatment of members of the Zintani tribe in Tobruk City; presence of Gaddafi supporters in Tobruk; presence and operational strength of the organization of Islamic State (IS) in Tobruk; ability of Libyans fleeing conflict in other parts of the country to relocate to Tobruk and reside there safely; whether Tobruk airport is operational (2014-August 2016), 3 October 2016, LBY105631.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a81ad4.html [accessed 3 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.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Treatment of Zintani Tribe Members in Tobruk City

The Zintani tribe is mainly located in the western town of Zintan (CNN 4 Mar. 2011; ISW Nov. 2011, 14), which has a population of about 25,000 (ibid.). A CNN article describes the tribe as "influential" and reports that it was "allied in the past to Gadhafi's own tribe" before joining the opposition (4 Mar. 2011). In 2011, the city of Zintan was referred to in a Spiegel Online article as "the center of the rebellion" against Gadhafi in the West (Spiegel Online 26 July 2011).

Information on the presence and treatment of members of the Zintani tribe in Tobruk City could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

2. Presence of Gaddafi Supporters in Tobruk

Sources report that there are two distinct governments claiming legitimacy in Libya; one government is based in Tripoli (General National Congress, GNC), and the other, the internationally recognized House of Representatives (HoR), is based in Tobruk (UN Oct. 2015, 3-4; Freedom House 2016). In 2014, the GNC and HoR split into "rival political and military camps" (ibid.). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a senior analyst for Libya at the International Crisis Group who travels to Libya for meetings with people from different political and military coalitions, including in the East and specifically Tobruk, and who provided the information in her personal capacity in that role, stated that

Tobruk is currently under the control of a military faction headed by [General] Khalifa Haftar and it has ties to supporters of the former Gaddafi regime. Several high level members of the old regime have returned to Tobruk over the past months and they dominate both the political and military scene in Tobruk. (Senior Analyst 16 Sept. 2016)

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a representative of CESVI, a humanitarian aid and development organization active since 2011 in Libya, including Eastern Libya [1], explained that in the Gaddafi regime, aspects of state participation were drawn from tribal relationships and most were descended from the main tribes in Libya of Ghadafi, Werfalla, Wershefana (from the West) and Barasi, Aubidat [Obeidat], Magharba, Awagir, and Dresaa (from the East) (CESVI 14 Sept. 2016). Furthermore, the source explained, without providing details, that after 2014, Tobruk's government took initiatives on the possibility of return of former Gaddafi figures (ibid.). Tobruk became the first city to receive displaced returnees and the local community has welcomed the return of some of these tribal communities from all regions of Libya, some of whom are employed in the parliament and government, noting that "each class live according to their economic situation and what links them is suppor[t] of the former regime" (ibid.). Further information on the presence of Gaddafi supporters in Tobruk could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3. Presence and Strength of Daesh in Tobruk City

The CESVI representative indicated that, according to that organization's knowledge, "[t]he Islamic State does not have any public activity in Tobruk" (14 Sept. 2016). Based on information available to the Senior Analyst, the source stated that she did not believe that there was "any substantial presence of IS in and around Tobruk;" the source noted, however, that there was a substantial IS presence in nearby Derna, about 150 kilometres from Tobruk, until a few months ago (16 Sept. 2016). An article by the Libyan Gazette reports on claims by Derna's local authorities that Daesh was driven out of the city in April 2016 (22 June 2016).

4. Instances and Ability of Libyans Fleeing the Conflict to Relocate to Tobruk, Including Zintani Tribe Members

A January 2016 tracking report on internal displacement in Libya produced by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) states that there are in excess of 400,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Libya (IOM Jan. 2016, 2); however, the August 2016 edition of the same report states that IDPs had decreased to 348,372 (ibid. Aug. 2016, 4). The same source states that in January 2016 the top five areas where people were displaced from were: Benghazi (35.5 percent), Tawergha (12.7 percent), Derna (10.5 percent), Sirte (9.6 percent) and Awbari (7.4 percent) (ibid. Jan. 2016, 4). In August 2016, the main three areas of origin for IDPs were Tawergha, Sirte and Benghazi (ibid. Aug. 2016, 6).

In January 2016, the areas of residence which hosted the largest number of IDPs in Libya included Tobruk, which hosts 6.4 percent of IDPs tracked by IOM, or about 17,205 individuals (ibid. Jan. 2016, 4). According to the same report, IDP movement into Tobruk was principally from Derna (ibid., 5). By August 2016, Benghazi, Bani Waled, Ajdabiya, Abu Salim, Al Bayda, Alzintan and Tarhuna were the main areas of residence for IDPs and the number of displaced persons had decreased to 11,530 individuals being hosted in Tobruk (ibid. Aug. 2016, 7). The Senior Analyst explained that

[m]any people who have fled the Islamist-dominated areas of Libya (including Tripoli) or war[-affected] areas have found refuge in Tobruk over the past few years [because] it was considered a peaceful city, with no ongoing military clashes. Generally speaking, it is easier for somebody with family or tribal ties with people in Tobruk to [relocate there], so these tend to be people who are originally from Eastern Libya with ties to the dominant tribe there, which is the Obeidat. (16 Sept. 2016)

The CESVI representative provided the view that Tobruk is "safe to a certain extent" and not affected by security issues of tribal origin, stating that the security situation of IDPs in Tobruk is not different from the rest of the city's inhabitants (CESVI 14 Sept. 2016). According to the IOM, in regards to the general situation of IDPs surveyed in Libya, 84 percent of IDP households reside in private accommodation or are hosted by relatives or non-relatives, while 16 percent live in "informal or collective settings" (IOM Aug. 2016, 10). Further and corroborating information specific to IDPs in Tobruk could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response. A map of Libya, produced by the IOM, showing major displacement patterns of IDP from areas of origin to areas of current residence since 2011, representing about 80 percent of the displaced population in Libya (IOM Jan. 2016, 5), is attached to this Response.

Information on instances of Zintani tribe members who have relocated to Tobruk could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response. The Senior Analyst gave the view that, although she did not know of any instances of Zintani living in Tobruk,

[m]embers of the Zintani community support the military coalition headed by [General] Haftar, which is very strong in Tobruk  [and which] include many members of the security forces once active under Qaddafi. (16 Sept. 2016)

An article by the Libyan Gazette states that the Zintan brigades are "loyal to the HoR and its militia led by Haftar" (26 May 2016). Another article by the Libyan Gazette explains that Haftar "gained the support of the Zintan brigades in west, who shared his anti-Islamist cause" and that "[t]he majority of those who supported him felt threatened by the rise of Islamist forces who sought to extinguish any leftover traces of Gaddafi's old regime" (ibid. 22 June 2016). For further information on the Zintan brigades, including areas of operation, relationship with the government and involvement in human rights abuses, see Response to Information Request LBY104472 of June 2013.

The Senior Analyst gave the opinion that "Tobruk would be considered a relatively safe place for Zintanis to live given the current network of alliances and given the military landscape" (16 Sept. 2016). However, in 2014, Human Rights Watch wrote that "[t]here is a lack of access to information inside of Libya that would allow for a meaningful individualized risk assessment" and takes the position that "anyone forcibly returned to any part of Libya would be exposed to a real risk of serious harm" (Human Rights Watch 5 Dec. 2014). The UNHCR's position on returns to Libya, published in October 2015, states the following:

UNHCR urges all States to suspend forcible returns to Libya, including Tripoli, until the security and human rights situation has improved considerably. Given the volatility of the situation, the fragmentation of control and the plethora of armed groups, UNHCR considers that, in the current circumstances, the relevance and reasonableness criteria for an internal flight or relocation alternative are unlikely to be met. (UN Oct. 2015, 14)

Further information on the ability of Libyans fleeing conflict to relocate to Tobruk could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

5. Tobruk Airport

In 9 September 2016 correspondence with the Research Directorate, a regional manager for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) [2] stated that, according to the organization's Safety Division, there are only two flights per day to Tobruk, which both fly from Tripoli (IATA 9 Sept. 2016). The same source also indicated that there are no international overflights permitted and there are "no active [notices to airmen, NOTAMs]" for Tobruk airport at the time of the correspondence (ibid.). The source defined a NOTAM as a "notice alerting pilots of potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the safety of the flight" (ibid.). The IATA Regional Manager also noted that the status of the Tobruk airport is subject to change due to country circumstances (ibid. 3 Oct. 2016). Further and corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Notes

[1] CESVI and has provided assistance such as funding and psychological assistance, civil society strengthening, and facilitation of immigrant registration with the UNHCR (CESVI 14 Sept. 2016). The organization has offices and centres in two major Libyan cities and has joint projects with UNICEF, UNHCR, and the Swiss Government (ibid.). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a representative provided information based on interviews with people living in Tobruk and CESVI experience in Eastern Libya (ibid.).

[2] IATA is "the trade association for the world's airlines, representing some 265 airlines or 83% of total air traffic. [IATA] support[s] many areas of aviation activity and help[s] formulate industry policy on critical aviation issues" (IATA n.d.).

References

Cable News Network (CNN). 4 March 2011. Moni Basu. "Libya's Tribes Rise Up Against Gadhafi." [Accessed 28 Sept. 2016]

CESVI. 14 September 2016. Correspondence from a representative to the Research Directorate.

Freedom House. 2016. "Libya." Freedom in the World 2016. [Accessed 25 Sept. 2016]

Human Rights Watch. 5 December 2014. "Libya: Countries Should Suspend Forcible Returns." [Accessed 25 Sept. 2016]

Institute for the Study of War (ISW). November 2011. Anthony Bell, Spencer Butts and David Witter. The Libyan Revolution: The Tide Turns (Part 4). [Accessed 28 Sept. 2016]

International Air Transport Association (IATA). 3 October 2016. Correspondence from a regional manager for the Middle East and North Africa regions to the Research Directorate.

International Air Transport Association (IATA). 9 September 2016. Correspondence from a regional manager for the Middle East and North Africa regions to the Research Directorate.

International Air Transport Association (IATA). N.d. "About Us." [Accessed 24 Sept. 2016]

International Organization for Migration (IOM). August 2016. Displacement Tracking Matrix - DTM Round 5 - Libya. [Accessed 30 Sept. 2016]

International Organization for Migration (IOM). January 2016. Displacement Tracking Matrix - DTM Round 1 - Libya. [Accessed 25 Sept. 2016]

Libyan Gazette. 22 June 2016. "General Khalifa Haftar and the Libyan National Army." [Accessed 25 Sept. 2016]

Libyan Gazette. 26 May 2016. "Haftar Diverting Libyan Army's Focus Away from ISIS." [Accessed 25 Sept. 2016]

Senior Analyst, International Crisis Group. 16 September 2016. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

Spiegel Online. 26 July 2011. Mathieu von Rohr. "Settling Old Scores: Tribal Rivalries Complicate Libyan War." [Accessed 29 Sept. 2016]

United Nations (UN). October 2015. UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). UNHCR Position on Returns to Libya - Update I. [Accessed 25 Sept. 2016]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: African Airlines Association; African Civil Aviation Commission; Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development; Danish Refugee Council; Human Rights Watch; Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre; International Organization for Migration; Lawyers for Justice in Libya; Libya - Civil Aviation Authority, Embassies of Libya in Ottawa, Washington; Libyan League for Human Rights; UN - UNHCR; World Organization Against Torture.

Internet sites, including: Al Jazeera; Al-Monitor; Amnesty International; BBC; ecoi.net; European Council on Foreign Relations; Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre; International Organization for Migration; Jamestown Foundation; Libya Herald; Libya Observer; UN - Refworld, ReliefWeb; US - Department of State.

Attachment

International Organization for Migration (IOM). January 2016. "IDP Movement from Areas of Origin to Areas of Current Residence." Displacement Tracking Matrix - DTM Round 1 - Libya. [Accessed 25 Sept. 2016]
Cote d'Ivoire: Situation of educated women living alone, whether single or divorced, particularly in Abidjan and Bouake; whether they can find work and housing; support services available to them (2014-April 2016)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 2 May 2016 Citation / Document Symbol CIV105508.FE Related Document(s) Cote d'Ivoire : information sur la situation des femmes eduquees qui vivent seules, qu'elles soient celibataires ou divorcees, particulierement a Abidjan et a Bouake; information indiquant si elles peuvent obtenir un emploi et un logement; services de soutien qui leur sont offerts (2014-avril 2016) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Cote d'Ivoire: Situation of educated women living alone, whether single or divorced, particularly in Abidjan and Bouake; whether they can find work and housing; support services available to them (2014-April 2016), 2 May 2016, CIV105508.FE, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a83284.html [accessed 3 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.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Overview

An article in the French daily Le Monde notes that there is

[translation]

[a]n underrepresented category in Cote d'Ivoire-women who, because they attended school for a long time, do not need a man to support them and  [who,] in a society where a woman's fulfilment is dependent on her marriage,  have considerable difficulty finding their place. (Le Monde 25 Jan. 2015)

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a representative of the Association of Women Lawyers of Cote d'Ivoire (Association des femmes juristes de Cote d'Ivoire, AFJCI), a non-profit NGO (AFJCI n.d.a) that [translation] "helps to promote and capacity build the law and access to justice in Cote d'Ivoire" (ibid. n.d.b), pointed out that women are living alone

[translation]

more and more; it is common, especially for women who are more than 30 years old-they can live alone fairly well, without parents being concerned, however, before that age, it is a little more complicated, particularly for single women. (ibid. 21 Apr. 2016)

That same source stated that [translation] "single women can easily get around, move and resettle in Abidjan or Bouake without fearing for their personal safety," but that the idea of women living alone "is not welcome" particularly with respect to "customs, habits and the family" (ibid.). However, in correspondence with the Research Directorate, a representative of the Women's Centre for Democracy and Human Rights in Cote d'Ivoire (Centre feminin pour la democratie et les droits humains en Cote d'Ivoire, CEFCI), an NGO (CEFCI n.d.a) that aims to [translation] "[h]elp reduce inequalities between men and women in order to improve the living conditions of women" (ibid. n.d.b), stated with respect to women living alone that [translation] "there are no impediments as such in the customs and habits in Cote d'Ivoire. The impediment is instead whether they have the financial means to take care of themselves" (ibid. 21 Apr. 2016). She stated that, in the large cities like Abidjan and Bouake, [translation] "women are able to live [alone] if they have the means," but that "in the villages, it is more complicated: tradition plays a role and it has a greater influence" (ibid.).

In an interview broadcast on the TV5 Monde website, former Minister of the Promotion of Women Constance Toma'm Yai denounces [translation] "the deplorable economic situation of Ivorians," who are "even poorer than their poorest sisters in Southern Africa" (TV5 Monde 2 Nov. 2015). According to Country Reports 2015,

[s]ome women had trouble obtaining loans because they could not meet lending criteria, including requirements for posting expensive household assets as collateral, which may not have a woman listed on the title. Women also experienced economic discrimination in owning or managing businesses. (US 13 Apr. 2016, 22)

The representative of AFJCI stated the following:

[translation]

There are criteria set out-it is not the matrimonial situation that determines the granting of funds; it is especially the ability to carry out an activity and be able to reimburse the funds. There is also the issue of credit with the banks. They do not consider a woman's matrimonial situation but rather her ability to reimburse. Whether the woman is single or in a couple, it does not change anything; it is her credit, work and income that count. (AFJCI 21 Apr. 2016)

Le Monde points out that [translation] "[r]egardless of religion, marriage is considered to be proof that a woman has been educated well enough by her parents to find a man who accepts her" (Le Monde 25 Jan. 2015). That same source cites Constance Toma'm Yai who states that

[translation]

[s]ingle women face enormous social pressure daily. Even if their professional situation is sound, they are constantly humiliated, depreciated and the subject of malicious rumours; they are excluded from decision making and their words are heard after those of married women. (ibid.)

Cited in that same article, Mariam, a young Muslim woman who studied in Morocco and whose parents are public servants, stated that [translation] "it is still very poorly viewed for a woman to live alone, even in Abidjan" (ibid.).

2. Legislation

According to the US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015, "[t]he law prohibits discrimination based on gender, and the government encouraged full participation by women in social and economic life" (US 13 Apr. 2016, 22). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, the representative of AFJCI stated that, in Cote d'Ivoire,

[translation]

[t]here is no law concerning single, celibate or divorced women. Whether they live in a home with a companion without being married or they live alone, there is no legal impediment. (AFJCI 21 Apr. 2016)

3. Employment

Empowering African Women: An Agenda for Action. Africa Gender Equality Index 2015, a report published by the African Development Bank (AfDB), states that, according to an AfDB report on gender equality published in 2012, women [AfDB English version] "own a third of all businesses across Africa, up to a high of 62 % in Cote d'Ivoire" (AfDB May 2015, 11). According to Country Reports 2015,

[l]abour federations attempted to fight for just treatment under the law for workers when companies  discriminated between classes of workers, such as women. (US 13 Apr. 2016, 31)

According to the representative of CEFCI, with respect to access to work, the fact that a woman lives alone [translation] "poses no problem" (CEFCI 21 Apr. 2016). According to the same source, [translation] "there may be situations, however, [such as] promotions, when they may try to see whether a woman is married  but this is not a criteria" (ibid.). Similarly, according to the representative of AFJCI, for women living alone,

[translation]

[t]here are no impediments, and it is not something that you are asked during the hiring process. However, [with respect to] executives,  if a woman is married, there may be certain advantages because, for some employers, an unmarried woman may be perceived as irresponsible. (AFJCI 21 Apr. 2016)

Information concerning the type of work that women living alone in Cote d'Ivoire do or do not have access to could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

4. Housing

With respect to the possibility of women living alone and renting or buying a home or apartment, the representative of CEFCI stated that,

[translation]

[i]n small villages, it is more complicated because of tradition  [and] the land issue, because women do not have access to land in all villages. Even if they work, and even if they have the means, they often have to be accompanied by a brother or cousin because it is prohibited in some places for women to own land. (CEFCI 21 Apr. 2016)

Similarly, in a report on Cote d'Ivoire published in 2013, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) explains that, [translation] "in customary land ownership,  women do not have access to property" (US May 2013, 9).

Furthermore, in a report titled Displaced Women's Rights to Housing, Land and Property in Post-Conflict Western Cote d'Ivoire, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) states that, with respect to possible land disputes,

[Norway English version]

[w]omen who are aware of their rights  can fear physical retribution or social exclusion if they attempt to seek help from NGOs or statutory courts.  Neither can they generally rely on customary justice systems to resolve intra-familial [housing, land and property] disputes in their favour. (Norway 2015, 24)

Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

In a text published by Gender Links News Service, a multi-media project of Gender Links, a South African NGO that promotes gender equality (Gender Links n.d.), Augustin Tape, a journalist interested in gender equality issues and the coordinator of the News Ivoire information website, wishes [translation] "the creation of offices to facilitate women's access to land ownership" as a means of helping to eliminate discrimination against women in Cote d'Ivoire (ibid. 3 July 2014).

The representative of CEFCI notes with respect to housing for women living alone that,

[translation]

it is easier in Abidjan; however, even in Abidjan there are some owners who are reluctant to rent to single women.  some women stated that they had to bring their brother with them in order to rent a house because the owner did not want single women in their house. Sometimes they refuse to rent to single women. (CEFCI 21 Apr. 2016)

According to the representative of AFJCI, [translation] "there are no special problems for single women. What is mainly asked is whether they have a job and they are able to pay" (AFJCI 21 Apr. 2016). The representative of CEFCI added the following specification: [translation] "it depends on the religion. For example, in the Muslim religion, [a single woman] is generally less accepted than in Christian religions" (CEFCI 21 Apr. 2016).

5. Social Services

Without providing further details, the representative of AFJCI and the representative of CEFCI stated that there are organizations that help women, but they are not specifically for single women (AFJCI 21 Apr. 2016; CEFCI 21 Apr. 2016). The representative of CEFCI added that, to her knowledge, no government organization provides help to single women in particular (ibid.).

Information on organizations whose mission is to provide support to women living alone in Cote d'Ivoire could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

African Development Bank (AfDB). May 2015. Autonomiser les femmes africaines : plan d'action. Indice de l'egalite du genre en Afrique 2015. [Accessed 22 Apr. 2016]

Association des femmes juristes de Cote d'Ivoire (AFJCI). 21 April 2016. Correspondence from a representative to the Research Directorate.

Association des femmes juristes de Cote d'Ivoire (AFJCI). N.d.a. "About." [Accessed 26 Apr. 2016]

Association des femmes juristes de Cote d'Ivoire (AFJCI). N.d.b. "Activites." [Accessed 26 Apr. 2016]

Centre feminin pour la democratie et les droits humains en Cote d'Ivoire (CEFCI). 21 April 2016. Correspondence from a representative to the Research Directorate.

Centre feminin pour la democratie et les droits humains en Cote d'Ivoire (CEFCI). N.d.a. "About." [Accessed 26 Apr. 2016]

Centre feminin pour la democratie et les droits humains en Cote d'Ivoire (CEFCI). N.d.b. "Presentation du CEFCI." [Accessed 26 Apr. 2016]

The Gender Links News Service. 3 July 2014. Augustin Tape. "L'elimination des discriminations contre les Ivoiriennes passe par une application des lois." (Factiva)

The Gender Links News Service. N.d. "GL News Service." [Accessed 27 Apr. 2016]

Le Monde. 25 January 2015. "Cote d'Ivoire : une generation de femmes independantes, libres et sans mari '2e bureau'." [Accessed 19 Apr. 2016]

Norway. 2015. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). Droit au logement, a la terre et aux biens des femmes deplacees. By Safiatu Ayandunke Alabi, Laura Cunial, Kirstie Farmer and Kelsey Jones-Casey. [Accessed 20 Apr. 2016]

TV5 Monde. 2 November 2015. Liliane Charrier. "Rapport de la BAD sur l'egalite des genres en Afrique : l'electrochoc." [Accessed 20 Apr. 2016]

United States (US). 13 April 2016. Department of State. "Cote d'Ivoire." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015. [Accessed 20 Apr. 2016]

United States (US). May 2013. Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID Country Profile - Property Rights and Resource Governance - Cote d'Ivoire. [Accessed 22 Apr. 2016]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Organisation des femmes actives de Cote d'Ivoire.

Internet sites, including: Abidjan.net; Actu360.info; Africa Confidential; Africahotnews.com; Africa News Hub; Afrik.com; Amnesty International; Association tchadienne pour la promotion et la defense des droits de l'homme; Cairn.info; Coordination pour l'Afrique de demain; Cote d'Ivoire - Competences feminines, ministere de la Promotion de la femme, de la Famille et de la Protection de l'Enfant; Cote-d-ivoire.net; Courrier des Afriques; Droits de l'homme sans frontieres - Afrique; ecoi.net; Federation internationale des ligues des droits de l'homme; Freedom House; Human Rights Watch; Minority Rights Group International; Mouvement mondial des droits humains; il d'Afrique; Radio France internationale; UN - UN Office for West Africa, Human Rights Council, UN Population Fund, UN Development Program, Refworld, UNESCO.
Cote d'Ivoire: The practice of excision among the Malinke, including the frequency and age at which the excision is practiced; whether it is customary for a young woman to be excised before marrying; legislation on excision; the possibility of refusing excision and the consequences of such refusal; recourse available (2014-2016)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 24 March 2016 Citation / Document Symbol CIV105478.FE Related Document(s) Cote d'Ivoire : information sur la pratique de l'excision chez les Malinkes, y compris sur sa frequence et l'age auquel l'excision est pratiquee; information indiquant si la coutume veut qu'une jeune femme soit excisee avant de se marier; les lois touchant l'excision; la possibilite de refuser l'excision et les consequences en cas de refus; les recours possibles (2014-2016) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Cote d'Ivoire: The practice of excision among the Malinke, including the frequency and age at which the excision is practiced; whether it is customary for a young woman to be excised before marrying; legislation on excision; the possibility of refusing excision and the consequences of such refusal; recourse available (2014-2016), 24 March 2016, CIV105478.FE, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a85fcd.html [accessed 3 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.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Malinke Ethnic Group

The website of the National Institute of Statistics (Institut national de la statistique, INS) of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire states that the Malinke are one of the main people who make up the Mande [Mandingo] ethnic group, which is present in the north-western part of the country (Cote d'Ivoire n.d.). The Mande ethnic group is made up of Mande from the north, to which the Malinke belong, and Mande from the south (ibid.). Other sources state that the Malinke come from the north (UN 1 Mar. 2016; AFJCI 26 Feb. 2016) or the north west (associate professor of history 8 Mar. 2016) of the country. According to sources, today, the Malinke are present all across Cote d'Ivoire (ibid.; professor of sociology 10 Mar. 2016; UN 1 Mar. 2016). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a professor of anthropology from the Northwestern University who studies Muslim minorities involved in the trading tradition in Cote d'Ivoire explained that the Mande from the north speak Mandingo, which includes a number of dialects (professor of anthropology 4 Mar. 2016).

During a telephone interview with the Research Directorate, an anthropologist who is a professor of sociology at the Universite du Quebec in Montreal and who is interested in social transformations in postcolonial societies in Africa, including Cote d'Ivoire, stated that the Mande group, aside from the Malinke, includes [translation] "for example, the Bambara, the Mandika or Mandiga and the Dioula" (professor of sociology 10 Mar. 2016). According to the Professor of anthropology, the terms Malinke, Mandingo [Manding] and Dioula [Jula, Dyula] [translation] "tend to confuse" (4 Mar. 2016). Similarly, the Professor of sociology stated that the terms Malinke, Mandingo and Dioula refer [translation] "more or less [to] common categories" (10 Mar. 2016).

2. Practice of Excision Among the Malinke of Cote d'Ivoire

2.1 Frequency of Excision

Sources state that excision is a [translation] "common" practice among the Malinke (associate professor of history 8 Mar. 2016; UN 1 Mar. 2016). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a teacher and researcher at the Department of Criminology at Universite Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan, who has researched excision, including within a community identified as Malinke, stated that this practice, while [translation] "very common," is "becoming much less so, especially in large centres" (Teacher and researcher 1 Mar. 2016). During a telephone interview with the Research Directorate, the Secretary General of the Association of Women Lawyers of Cote d'Ivoire (Association des femmes juristes de Cote d'Ivoire, AFJCI), an organization that aims, among other things, to promote the rights of women, the family and the child (AFJCI n.d.), stated that excision is no [translation] "longer widespread" among the Malinke, although it does exist, "especially in rural areas" (ibid. 26 Feb. 2016).

The 2011-2012 Demographic and Health and Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (Enquete demographique et de sante et a indicateurs multiples, EDS-MICS) [1], conducted jointly by the Ministry of Health and Fight Against Aids and the INS of the Cote d'Ivoire, finds that 38 percent of Ivorians surveyed, ages 15 to 49, have been excised (Cote d'Ivoire June 2013, 329). That survey revealed regional disparities, with a higher frequency among respondents from the north-western regions (80 percent) and from the north (74 percent) of the country (ibid., 330). The US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 reports that, in 2014, [US English version] "[female genital mutilation/excision] was most common among rural populations in the northern and northwestern regions [of Cote d'Ivoire], where more than 75 percent of women were subjected to the practice" (US 25 June 2015, 20). According to the EDS-MICS 2011-2012 survey, about 67 percent of respondents who had been excised belonged to the Mande ethnic group in the north (Cote d'Ivoire June 2013, 329).

The AFJCI Secretary General stated that excision, among the Malinke, is [translation] "handled only by the women" (AFJCI 26 Feb. 2016). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, an associate professor of history at Howard University in Washington, whose work regards the history of Cote d'Ivoire, stated that women have control over the excision ceremony and the [translation] "'economy' of it," which includes, for example, gifts exchanged during the ceremony (associate professor of history 8 Mar. 2016).

2.2 Age when Excision Is Practiced

The EDS-MICS 2011-2012 survey reveals that a [translation]"high proportion" of excision cases, that is, 55 percent, occur before the age of five among the Mande in the north (Cote d'Ivoire June 2013, 331). This survey also reveals that [translation] "almost all" of the respondents belonging to the Mande in the north and who had been excised, that is, about 91 percent, were subjected to it before the age of 15 (ibid., 331-332).

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a program manager for protection, education and capacity building for the National Organization for the Child, Woman and Family (Organisation nationale pour l'enfant, la femme et la famille ONEF), an Ivorian organization that works to prevent excision (ONEF n.d.), stated that excision is practiced among the Malinke between the ages of 12 and 15 (ibid. 6 Mar. 2016). Similarly, the President of the Women's Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (Centre feminin pour la democratie et les droits humains en Cote d'Ivoire, CEFCI), an Ivorian NGO founded in 2003 (CEFCI n.d.), stated in correspondence with the Research Directorate that excision affects Malinke girls between the ages of 13 and 15 (ibid. 1 Mar. 2016). In an article published in December 2015 in the European Scientific Journal, three university academics affiliated with the Department of Criminology at the Universite Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan, stated that, [translation] "among the Koyaka Malinke, excision is rarely practiced on young children; it is instead practiced just before marriage or before the first pregnancy" (Koudou et al., 229). These university academics stated that the Koyaka Malinke ethnic group is the ethnicity of the city of Mankono, the location targeted by this study and located in the centre-west region of Cote d'Ivoire (ibid., 227).

The ONEF Program Manager made the following clarification: according to him, although excision is generally carried out at puberty, [translation] "communities [now] tend to excise babies" to counter the awareness campaigns and "repression" (ONEF 6 Mar. 2016). Similarly, the Associate Professor stated that it was aimed at [translation] "increasingly younger victims," to prevent potential "disputes" (8 Mar. 2016). According to the AJCI Secretary General, excision currently affects victims aged 0 to 7, [translation] "especially in rural areas, where police forces and gendarmerie are lacking" (AFJCI 26 Feb. 2016).

2.3 Excision and Marriage

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a program manager who works at the Abidjan office of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and who is dedicated to the campaign to end fistula, stated that the Malinke custom [translation] "recommends  excision before marriage" (UN 1 Mar. 2016). The Professor of sociology stated that it is [translation] "generally" customary (10 Mar. 2016). The ONEF Program Manager stated that [translation] "among the Malinke, excision is essential to the marital process" (ONEF 6 Mar. 2016). That same source explained that excision provides girls with their status as a woman (ibid.). Similarly, the CEFCI President explained that, once excised, [translation] "the young girl truly feels like a woman , becomes respected by her family and community and ]then has the right to a spouse" (CEFCI 1 Mar. 2016). According to the teacher and researcher, [translation] "[a]mong some, [excision] is a vital prerequisite and a sign of purity that opens the door to marriage" (Teacher and researcher 1 Mar. 2016). However, he added that "[a]mong other Malinke groups, it is not a requirement of marriage" (ibid.). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3. Legislation

Sources state that excision is illegal in Cote d'Ivoire, under Act No. 98-757 of 23 December 1998 (Federation nationale GAMS 11 Mar. 2016; CEFCI 1 Mar. 2016). The UNFPA Program Manager stated that this legislation punishes [translation] "the perpetrators, accomplices and co-perpetrators [of an] excision" (UN 1 Mar. 2016). Act No. 98-757 of 23 December 1998 on the repression of certain forms of violence against women (Loi no 98-757 du 23 decembre 1998 portant repression de certaines formes de violences a l'egard des femmes) states that the following:

[translation]

Art. 2. - Everyone who commits genital mutilation shall be imprisoned for one to five years and receive a fine of 360,000 to 2,000,000 CFA francs [between about C$804 and 4,466].

The sentence is doubled if the perpetrator belongs to the medical or paramedical corps.

The sentence is imprisonment for five to 20 years if the victim has died.

When the perpetrator belongs to the medical or paramedical corps, the jurisdiction of the judgment may prohibit the individual from practicing their profession for a period not exceeding five years.

There is no offence when the mutilation was carried out under the conditions set out in Article 350 of the Penal Code.

Assault is punishable.



Art. 4. - Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 279 of the Penal Code, any father or mother, allies and parents of the victim including to the fourth degree, who orders the genital mutilation, or who knows it to be imminent, or anyone who has the capacity to prevent it, and fails to report it to the administrative or judicial authorities, shall be punished by the penalties set out in the first paragraph of Article 2(1).

The penalties set out in the first paragraph of Article 2 also apply to spouses, allies and parents of the perpetrator of the act, including to the fourth degree inclusively.

The statements in the preceding paragraphs do not apply to the minors belonging to the families of the victim or of the perpetrator of the act. (Cote d'Ivoire 1998)

Article 350 of the Ivorian Penal Code, to which Article 2 of Act No. 98-757 of 23 December 1998 refers, states the following:

[translation]

There is no charge when the homicide, injury or assault results

from medical acts, as long as they are:

consistent with scientific data, medical ethics and standard trade practices;

carried out by a person who has the legal authority to practice them;

carried out with the consent of the patient or, if this individual is unable to provide consent, with the consent of their spouse or their guardian, unless it is impossible, with no risk to the patient, to communicate with them;

from acts carried out during a sporting event as long as the perpetrator complied with the rules of the sport practiced. (ibid. 1981, Art. 350)

4. Possibility of Refusing Excision and Consequences of Such Refusal

The CEFCI President stated that [translation] "a young girl may not refuse the excision" (CEFCI 1 Mar. 2016). According to that same source, [translation] "the social weight" of the excision is such that "it is for the good of their daughter that the parents want her to be excised" (ibid.). The AFJCI Secretary General stated [translation] "[t]hat, in general, the women in the villages will accept the excision of their child," considering that "it is a good thing" (AFJCI 26 Feb. 2016). Other sources stated that a young woman may refuse the excision but she typically must run away (ONEF 6 Mar. 2016; UN 1 Mar. 2016; teacher and researcher 1 Mar. 2016). The teacher and researcher stated that the ability to refuse is, however, dependent on the young woman's age: [translation] "it is almost impossible for the youngest" to refuse the excision (ibid.). The ONEF Program Manager explained that, among the Malinke, such a refusal

[translation]

is considered by the parents, grand-parents and community as a betrayal, [so much so that] returning to the family is never easy for the girl. (ONEF 6 Mar. 2016)

The UNFPA Program Manager stated that refusing excision leads to [translation] "social exclusion of the 'rebel' by the community" (UN 1 Mar. 2016). The teacher and researcher cited [translation] "exclusion, banishment, renunciation of the family and abandonment" as consequences to be faced by a Malinke teenager who refuses excision (1 Mar. 2016). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, the General Director of Federation nationale GAMS [2] stated that, although it is not generalizable,

[translation]

when a woman refuses excision for herself or her child, she risks disgracing them and being shunned by her family, and even her village.  [E]ven for people living in urban areas, particularly if the excision is considered necessary to enable the marriage, the family will continue to pursue (psychological abuse, moral harassment, physical violence) the "uncooperative" person in order to succeed and eventually put her on the street and, in some cases, renounce the mother. (Federation nationale GAMS 11 Mar. 2016)

According to the CEFCI President, in cases where excision is refused, the families of the young girls will also be stigmatized and lose [translation] "their social status" (CEFCI 1 Mar. 2016). However, the AFJCI Secretary stated that, [translation] "in the north of Cote d'Ivoire, if a woman refuses excision for her child, she will not be rejected" (AFJCI 26 Feb. 2016). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

5. Recourse

Sources state that, in the case of excision, a complaint may be made to the police, gendarmerie or public prosecutor (ONEF 6 Mar. 2016; AFJCI 26 Feb. 2016). The ONEF Program Manager stated that, if the victim is a minor, the complaint may be filed by their parents (ONEF 6 Mar. 2016). According to the AFJCI Secretary, [translation] "the mother or any other parent" of the victim of excision may seek judicial recourse for the matter (AFJCI 26 Feb. 2016).

The ONEF Program Manager noted that it is [translation] "often" the parents themselves who ask for their daughter to be excised (ONEF 6 Mar. 2016). He stated [translation] "that perpetrators are very seldomly identified and pursued," and he described the judicial recourse procedure in the case of excision as "theoretical,  friendly settlements between community members still override legislation" (ibid.). Similarly, the teacher and researcher stated that, since the coming into effect of the 1998 law prohibiting excision, victims of excision have [translation] "[r]arely or never  sought recourse with the authorities" and that cases of refusing excision are managed within the concerned community (Teacher and researcher 1 Mar. 2016). That same source added that [translation] "[t]he young Malinke girl is not accustomed to filing complaints with the police" (ibid.). The AFJCI General Secretary noted that complaints are [translation] "rare," as people prefer to make anonymous reports "out of fear of reprisal" (AFJCI 26 Feb. 2016). She explained that [translation] "[i]f you file a complaint against a relative, you are up against the entire community" (ibid.).

According to the same source, at present, [translation] "impunity in the case of excision is fairly uncommon" (ibid.). Country Reports 2014 notes that the [US English version] "government successfully prosecuted some [female genital mutilation/excision] cases during [2014]" (US 25 June 2015, 20). In a report published in June 2014, the Ministry of Solidarity, Family, Women and Child in Cote d'Ivoire reported a total of seven convictions since the law came into effect prohibiting excision, more specifically in the following cities: Katiola, Danane, Seguela, Odienne, Bouake and Tabou (Cote d'Ivoire June 2014). According to sources, the first conviction took place in July 2012 (ibid.; VOA with AFP 26 Mar. 2015), in Katiola (ibid.). Country Reports 2014 gives the example of a practionner found guilty and sentenced to a one-year prison term in April 2014 by a court in Seguela (US 25 June 2015, 20). Sources state that in March 2015, in northern Cote d'Ivoire [in Katiola (VOA with AFP 26 Mar. 2015)], a mother who had her four-year-old daughter excised was sentenced to one year in prison (Intellivoire 25 Mar. 2015; VOA avec AFP 26 Mar. 2015). According to those same sources, a family member accompanying the mother was also sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of 360,000 CFA Francs [about C$804] (ibid.; Intellivoire 25 Mar. 2015).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Notes

[1] The survey, conducted from December 2011 to May 2012, concerned a "national sample of 10,413 homes  selected  in order to provide an adequate representation" (Cote d'Ivoire June 2013, 7).

[2] The National Federation Group for the elimination of female genital mutilation, forced marriages and other traditional practices harmful to the health of women and children (Federation nationale Groupe pour l'abolition des mutilations sexuelles feminines, des mariages forces et autres pratiques traditionnelles nefastes a la sante des femmes et des enfants, Federation nationale GAMS) is a French NGO found in 1982 by a group of women, including African women living in France, working to fight violence against women in immigrant populations (Federation nationale GAMS n.d.).

References

Associate professor of history, Howard University, Washington, DC. 8 Mar. 2016. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

Association des femmes juristes de Cote d'Ivoire (AFJCI). 26 February 2016. Telephone interview with the Secretary General.

Association des femmes juristes de Cote d'Ivoire (AFJCI). N.d. "Objectifs et missions." [Accessed 14 Mar. 2016]

Centre feminin pour la democratie et les droits humains en Cote d'Ivoire (CEFCI). 1 Mar. 2016. Correspondence with the Research Directorate by the President.

Centre feminin pour la democratie et les droits humains en Cote d'Ivoire (CEFCI). N.d. "Presentation du CEFCI." [Accessed 15 Mar. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. June 2014. Ministere de la Solidarite, de la Famille, de la Femme et de l'Enfant. Rapport de la Cote d'Ivoire sur la mise en oeuvre du programme d'action de Beijing 20 ans apres. [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. June 2013. Ministere de la Sante et de la Lutte contre le sida and Institut national de la statistique (INS). Enquete demographique et de sante et a indicateurs multiples (EDS-MICS) 2011-2012. [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. 1998. Loi no 98-757 du 23 decembre 1998 portant repression de certaines formes de violences a l'egard des femmes. Sent to the Research Directorate by the Program Manager, Campaign to End Fistula, United Nations Population Fund, Abidjan office, 3 March 2016.

Cote d'Ivoire. 1981 (amended in 2015). Le Code penal. [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. N.d. Institut national de la statistique (INS). "Langues officielles et langues nationales." [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016]

Federation nationale Groupe pour l'abolition des mutilations sexuelles feminines, des mariages forces et autres pratiques traditionnelles nefastes a la sante des femmes et des enfants (Federation nationale GAMS). 11 March 2016. Correspondence from the General Director to the Research Directorate .

Federation nationale Groupe pour l'abolition des mutilations sexuelles feminines, des mariages forces et autres pratiques traditionnelles nefastes a la sante des femmes et des enfants (Federation nationale GAMS). N.d. "Qui sommes-nous?" [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016]

Intellivoire. 25 Mar. 2015. "Cote d'Ivoire : une mere condamnee a un an de prison pour la mutilation genitale de sa fille de 4 ans." [Accessed 29 Feb. 2016]

Koudou, Opadou, Fatoumata Traore and Ismaila Bakayoko. December 2015. "Sujet - La resistance au changement chez des femmes violentes en Cote d'Ivoire : cas des exciseuses." European Scientific Journal. Vol. 11, No. 35. [Accessed 29 Feb. 2016]

Organisation nationale pour l'enfant, la femme et la famille (ONEF). 6 Mar. 2016. Correspondence from a program manager for protection, education and capacity building to the Research Directorate.

Organisation nationale pour l'enfant, la femme et la famille (ONEF). N.d. "Connaitre l'ONEF : domaines d'intervention." [Accessed 15 Mar. 2016]

Professor of anthropology, Northwestern University. 4 March 2016. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

Professor of sociology, Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM). 10 March 2016. Telephone interview.

Teacher and researcher, Department of Criminology, Universite Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Abidjan. 1 March 2016. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

United Nations (UN). 1 March 2016. United Nations Population Fund (UNPF), Abidjan office. Correspondence from a program manager, Campaign to End Fistula, to the Research Directorate.

United States (US). 25 June 2015. Department of State. "Rapport 2014 sur les droits de l'homme en Cote d'Ivoire." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014. [Accessed 26 Feb. 2016]

La Voix de l'Amerique (VOA) with Agence France-Presse (AFP). 26 Mar. 2015. "Excision : une mere condamnee en Cote d'Ivoire." [Accessed 29 Feb. 2016]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Cote d'Ivoire - ministere de la Solidarite, de la Famille, de la Femme et de l'Enfant; Fondation Djigui, La Grande Esperance; Ligue ivoirienne des droits de l'homme; United Nations - Abidjan office of UNICEF.

Internet sites, including: 28 Too Many; Afrik.com; AllAfrica; L'amenagement linguistique dans le monde; Amnesty International; Child Rights International Network; Cote d'Ivoire - Commission nationale des droits de l'homme; ecoi.net; Ethno-Net Africa; Excision, parlons-en!; Factiva; Freedom House; Genre, parite et leadership feminin; Human Rights Watch; Intact Network; Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices; IRIN; Minority Rights Group International; Reseau des observatoires de l'egalite du genre; Rezo-Ivoire.net; Save the Children; UN - UN Development Program, UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire, UN Women, Refworld; Women in Law and Development in Africa.
Cote d'Ivoire: Identity documents, including the national identity card (carte nationale d'identite, CNI), the birth certificate extract and the certificate of nationality; the procedure to obtain each of those identity documents and the information that appears on each of them (2014-February 2016)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 12 February 2016 Citation / Document Symbol CIV105441.FE Related Document(s) Cote d'Ivoire : information sur les documents d'identite, notamment sur la carte nationale d'identite, l'extrait d'acte de naissance et le certificat de nationalite; information sur la marche a suivre pour obtenir chacun de ces documents d'identite ainsi que sur les renseignements qui figurent sur chacun d'eux (2014-fevrier 2016) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Cote d'Ivoire: Identity documents, including the national identity card (carte nationale d'identite, CNI), the birth certificate extract and the certificate of nationality; the procedure to obtain each of those identity documents and the information that appears on each of them (2014-February 2016), 12 February 2016, CIV105441.FE, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a87444.html [accessed 3 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.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. National Identity Card (CNI)

1.1 Overview

According to its Internet site, the National Identification Office (Office national d'identification, ONI), the public institution that since 2001 has issued identity documents to Ivorians and foreigners in Cote d'Ivoire, issues the CNI (Cote d'Ivoire n.d.a).

The same source indicates that Decision No. 2005-05/PR from 15 July 2005 is the most recent legislation that has come into force with respect to the identification of persons and foreigners staying in Cote d'Ivoire (ibid. n.d.b). Article 3 of Decision No. 2005-05/PR from 15 July 2005 on the identification of persons and on foreigners staying in Cote d'Ivoire (Decision n 2005-05/PR du 15 juillet 2005 relative a l'identification des personnes et au sejour des etrangers en Cote d'Ivoire) states that the CNI establishes [translation] "the identity of nationals" (ibid. 2005, Art. 3). The ONI states that the CNI [translation] "is issued to person who are sixteen (16) years of age and older" and is valid for 10 years (ibid. n.d.c).

Sources state that in 2014, the CNIs resumed being issued after a fiveyear hiatus (Notre Voie 7 July 2014; Fraternite matin 24 Feb. 2015).

Sources cite a circular from Cote d'Ivoire's Minister of the Interior and Security, which states that, since 1 March 2015, the CNI is required in order to obtain any civil or administrative document (ibid.; L'Expression 25 Feb. 2015). Expression, an Ivorian daily, provides a list of the processes that require the CNI:

[translation]

[e]nrolling in the business registry; subscribing to water, gas, electricity, telephone and a mailbox; opening a bank account or postal cheque account; issuing and receiving orders of any kind; applying to obtain and renew a driver's licence; entering into a contract of intercity carriage ; signing an employment contract; collecting family-related benefits; enrolling in an educational institution, for parents of minor children; and obtaining marriage, adoption and child filiation documents. (ibid.)

1.2 Procedure to Obtain the CNI Within the Country

The Internet site of the ONI provides the following information about the documents required to obtain a CNI:

[translation]

A copy of the birth certificate, a birth certificate extract or a judgment in lieu of birth certificate (original);

[a] new format certificate of nationality (original);

[and] [a] receipt for (5,000) francs (payable at the cash of the National Identification Office and in the Treasury offices). (Cote d'Ivoire n.d.c)

Article 5 of Decree No. 2014-319 from 4 June 2014 on conditions for the establishment, receipt and format of the national identity card (Decret n 2014-319 du 4 juin 2014 portant conditions d'etablissement, d'obtention et de forme de la carte nationale d'identite), a copy of which is attached to this Response (attachment 1), states [translation] "[t]hat in the case of loss or theft of a [CNI], the holder obtains a duplicate upon presentation of a certificate of loss issued by the competent authorities" (ibid. 2014).

1.3 Content of the CNI

Article 3 of Decision No. 2005-05/PR from 15 July 2005 on the identification of people and on foreigners staying in Cote d'Ivoire states the following:

[t]he [CNI] will indicate, at the very least, the following:

the official reference to the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire;

the title "national identity card" followed by the registration number and any other identification number required;

the nature of the identity card (original or duplicate document);

the date and place of establishment, as well as the validity period of the certificate;

the surname and given names of the applicant;

the date and place of birth;

the gender (sex);

the height;

the full filiation of the applicant;

the full address of the applicant;

the profession of the applicant;

the fingerprint of the applicant;

the photograph of the applicant;

the signature of the applicant, or any other form of authentication required;

the signature of the competent authority.

Any other markings are determined by decree by the Council of the Ministers.

The conditions for the establishment, receipt and format of the national identity card are determined by decree by the Council of the Ministers. (ibid. 2005)

Decree No. 2014-319 from 4 June 2014 on the conditions for the establishment, receipt and format the national identity card provides specifications concerning the information contained on the CNI, as well as information about the security features of the document (ibid. 2014).

A sample of the CNI, taken from the Electronic Document Information System on Network, EDISON TD), is attached to this Response (attachment 2).

Information on the possibility of obtaining an Ivorian CNI outside the country could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

2. Birth Certificate Extract

The Internet site "eRegulations," belonging to the Government of Cote d'Ivoire, states that the birth certificate extract is a [translation] "document that determines an individual's filiation" (Cote d'Ivoire n.d.d). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, the Chief of the Child Protection Section at the Abidjan office of UNICEF stated that obtaining the birth certificate extract is subject to the registration of the applicant with the Ivorian civil status (UN 5 Feb. 2015). Sources state that, in Cote d'Ivoire, a birth must be declared within three months of the birth (ibid.; Cote d'Ivoire [2015], 31).

2.1 Procedure to Obtain a Birth Certificate Extract

According to the Chief of the Child Protection Section, the individual seeking to obtain a birth certificate extract, or a person representing them, [translation] "must go in person to the civil status centre where the birth was registered (no applications may be made from a distance)" (UN 5 Feb. 2016). Similarly, the eRegulations Internet site states that [translation] "establishing the birth certificate extract may only be done in the city hall of the [applicant's] place of birth" (Cote d'Ivoire n.d.d).

According to that same source, the procedure to obtain a birth certificate extract has three steps: [translation] "[p]urchasing a municipal stamp, submitting the application for the birth certificate extract and collecting the birth certificate extract" (ibid. n.d.e). The Chief of the Child Protection Section stated that the issuance of a birth certificate extract requires [translation] "the payment of a revenue stamp of 500 CFA francs [about C$1.20]" (UN 5 Feb. 2016). According to the eRegulations Internet site, the 500 CFA francs correspond to the full amount that a person must pay to obtain a birth certificate extract (Cote d'Ivoire n.d.e).

According to that same source, it takes between one and three days to obtain a birth certificate (ibid.). However, the Chief of the Child Protection Section stated that, if the birth extract is not delivered within 15 days, the applicant may contact the judicial authorities for a followup with the civil status office concerned (UN 5 Feb. 2016). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

According to the Chief of the Child Protection Section, an Ivorian born in Cote d'Ivoire and living abroad must make an application for a birth certificate extract at the civil status centre of the district of their place of birth (ibid.). According to information on its Internet site, the Embassy of the Cote d'Ivoire in Belgium will issue a birth certificate extract to [translation] "Ivorian nationals born in the consular district and whose birth has been transcribed in the civil status registries of the embassy's consular service" (Cote d'Ivoire n.d.f). According to that same source, a consular identity card and an identity document are the supporting documentation to provide in support of an application for a birth certificate extract to the embassy (ibid.).

2.2 Characteristics and Content of a Birth Certificate Extract

The Chief of the Child Protection Service stated the following: [translation] "there is no official national form. Each commune edits the extract form, on which it may even affix its own emblem as a header" (UN 5 Feb. 2016). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

According to that same source, under legislation, a birth certificate extract must have the following information:

[translation]

the year, month, day, time and place of birth, the gender of the child and the given names;

[t]he given names, surnames, ages, nationality, professions and domicile of the father and mother and, if applicable, of the applicant. (ibid.)

Article 42 of Law No. 99-691 of 14 December 1999 on the Amendment of Law No. 64-374 of 7 October 1964 on Civil Status (Loi no 99-691 du 14 decembre 1999 portant modification de la Loi n 64-374 du 7 octobre 1964 relative a l'etat civil) states that the birth certificate contains this same information (Cote d'Ivoire 1999).

3. Certificate of Nationality

Sources state that in January 2015, [translation] "secure legal documents" were introduced in Cote d'Ivoire to prevent fraud (Le Patriote 24 Jan. 2015; AIP 23 Jan. 2015). The Ivorian newspaper Notre Voie states that [translation] "secure" certificates of nationality are among the 69 documents concerned (Notre Voie 25 Jan. 2015).

3.1. Procedure to Obtain a Birth Certificate

The portal of the Ivorian administration posts the following information about the procedure to obtain an Ivorian certificate of nationality:

[translation]

This procedure may be carried out by any Ivorian.

What forms should be provided?

The documents to provide for this procedure are the following:

1. the original birth certificate extract of the applicant;

2. a photograph of the CNI of one of the Ivorian parents;

3. a handwritten application addressed to the president of the court;



This procedure costs 1,500 FCFA [about C$3.50].



The issuing delay is six days.



In case of loss, you must restart the procedure.



[The application must be addressed to head office or registry of any of the courts. (Cote d'Ivoire n.d.g)

However, in March 2015, sources stated that the fee of the certificate of nationality had increased to about 3,000 FCFA (Soir info 10 Mar. 2015; Akody.com 8 Mar. 2015). Notre Voie states that those who have obtained the secure certificate of nationality since the new legislation came into force, in January 2015, may make any subsequent application for a certificate of nationality from the jurisdiction of their place of residence, which is a new development (25 Jan. 2015).

An interdepartmental circular from March 2014 concerning the implementation of Law No. 2013-653 from 13 September 2013 with specific provisions on acquiring Ivorian nationality by declaration (Loi no 2013-653 du 13 septembre 2013 portant dispositions particulieres en matiere d'acquisition de la nationalite ivoirienne par declaration) states that [translation] "only the Minister of Justice or the person delegated by the Minister" is responsible for issuing the first certificate of nationality to the person concerned; and subsequent certificates come under the courts (Cote d'Ivoire 27 Mar. 2014, c. III). Further information on the procedure for obtaining a certificate of nationality in Cote d'Ivoire could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3.2 Content of the Certificate of Nationality

Information on the content of the certificate of nationality in Cote d'Ivoire could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Agence ivoirienne de presse (AIP). 23 January 2015. "Lancement des actes de justice securises : les populations invitees a tourner le dos aux intermediaires." [Accessed 8 Feb. 2016]

Akody.com. 8 March 2015. Bertin Mambo. "Actes de justice : Voici le nouveau prix du casier judiciaire et du certificat de nationalite ivoirienne." [Accessed 8 Feb. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. [2015]. Commission nationale des droits de l'homme de Cote d'Ivoire (CNDHCI). Rapport annuel 2014 : l'etat des droits de l'homme en Cote d'Ivoire. [Accessed 5 Feb. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. 27 March 2014. Ministere de la Justice, des Droits de l'homme et des Libertes publiques et ministere d'Etat, de l'Interieur et de la Securite. Circulaire interministerielle no 06 MJDHLP/MEMIS du 27 Mar. 2014, mise en oeuvre de la Loi no 2013-653 du 13 septembre 2013 portant dispositions particulieres en matiere d'acquisition de la nationalite ivoirienne par declaration. [Accessed 5 Feb. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. 2014. Decret no 2014-319 du 4 juin 2014 portant conditions d'etablissement, d'obtention et de forme de la carte nationale d'identite. Sent to the Research Directorate by the US Library of Congress, 9 February 2016.

Cote d'Ivoire. 2005. Decision n 2005-05/PR du 15 juillet 2005 relative a l'identification des personnes et au sejour des etrangers en Cote d'Ivoire. [Accessed 8 Feb. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. 1999. Loi n 99-691 du 14 decembre 1999 portant modification de la Loi n 64-374 du 7 octobre 1964 relative a l'etat civil. [Accessed 5 Feb. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. N.d.a. Office national d'identification (ONI). "A propos de l'ONI." [Accessed 29 Jan. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. N.d.b. Office national d'identification (ONI). "Historique." [Accessed 8 Feb. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. N.d.c. Office national d'identification (ONI). "Carte nationale d'identite." [Accessed 29 Jan. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. N.d.d. eRegulations. "Actes d'etat civil et de justice." [Accessed 29 Jan. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. N.d.e. eRegulations. "Actes d'etat civil et de justice - Obtention de l'extrait de naissance." [Accessed 29 Jan. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. N.d.f. Portail de l'Administration ivoirienne. "Demander un certificat de nationalite ivoirienne." [Accessed 29 Jan. 2016]

Cote d'Ivoire. N.d.g. Embassy of the Cote d'Ivoire in Belgium. "Formalites administratives : extrait d'acte de naissance." [Accessed 5 Feb. 2016]

L'Expression. 25 February 2015. Ben Ayoub. "L'attestation d'identite supprimee, la CNI obligatoire." [Accessed 29 Jan. 2016]

Fraternite matin. 24 February 2015. "Etablissement d'actes administratifs et civils : la CNI, desormais unique document de reference." [Accessed 29 Jan. 2016]

Notre Voie. 25 January 2015. Coulibaly Zie Oumar. "Cote d'Ivoire : modernisation de la justice ivoirienne - 69 documents de justice dits securises disponibles." [Accessed 8 Feb. 2016]

Notre Voie. 17 July 2014. "Carte nationale d'identite : L'operation redemarre timidement a Bingerville." [Accessed 29 Jan. 2016]

Le Patriote. 24 January 2015. "Cote d'Ivoire : securisation des actes de justice / Hamed Bakayoko - 'C'est une operation contre les parasites de la justice'." [Accessed 8 Feb. 2016]

Soir info. 10 March 2015. Elysee Yao. "Certificat de nationalite et casier judiciaire : Pourquoi les couts augmentent." [Accessed 29 Jan. 2016]

United Nations (UN). 5 February 2016. United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Abidjan Office. Correspondence from the Chief, Child Protection Section, to the Research Directorate.

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Cote d'Ivoire - Embassy in Canada; main partner, Civil Registration Centre for Development (The Netherlands).

Internet sites, including: Afrik.com; Conseil de l'Europe - PRADO; Cote d'Ivoire - embassies in Canada, the United States and France, Assemblee nationale, ministere des Affaires etrangeres, ministere d'Etat, de l'Interieur et de la Securite, ministere de la Justice, des Droits de l'homme et des Libertes publiques; Droit-Afrique.com; ecoi.net; Factiva; Keesing Reference Systems; Lexadin; Organisation internationale pour les migrations; Radio France internationale; United Nations - United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire, United Nations Development Programme.

Attachments

1. Cote d'Ivoire. 2014. Decret no 2014-319 du 4 juin 2014 portant conditions d'etablissement, d'obtention et de forme de la carte nationale d'identite. Sent to the Research Directorate by the US Library of Congress, 9 February 2016.

2. Electronic Document Information System on Network (EDISON TD). N.d. National Identity Card Sample. [Accessed 9 Feb. 2016]
Angola: The Angolan Revolutionary Movement [Movimento Revolucionario de Angola] (MRA [MRAN]), including its structure, leaders, members and objectives; the treatment of its members by authorities (2015)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 15 March 2016 Citation / Document Symbol AGO105452.FE Related Document(s) Angola : information sur le Mouvement revolutionnaire angolais [Movimento Revolucionario de Angola, Mouvement revolutionnaire de l'Angola, Mouvement revolutionnaire d'Angola] (MRA [MRAN]), y compris sur sa structure, ses dirigeants, ses membres et ses objectifs; information sur le traitement reserve a ses membres par les autorites (2015) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Angola: The Angolan Revolutionary Movement [Movimento Revolucionario de Angola] (MRA [MRAN]), including its structure, leaders, members and objectives; the treatment of its members by authorities (2015), 15 March 2016, AGO105452.FE, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/585a883a4.html [accessed 3 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.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Overview, Structure and Objectives

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a professor from a European university whose work focuses on Sub-Saharan Africa and who had written about Angola explained that the MRA is [translation] "not structured like a political party. It is rather a movement that brings together a variety of actors who rally around political claims, such as the resignation of the president [of Angola, Jose Eduardo] dos Santos" (Professor 3 Mar. 2016). The Professor stated that the MRA had [translation] "appeared spontaneously in 2011, in the heat of the Arab spring revolution," and that

[translation]

The MRA etiquette refers  more to a social movement than an organized political movement, [and] even less to a political party. Further, [the MRA] is identified by a strong desire for independence with respect to all political parties. (ibid.)

The Professor added the following regarding the opinion of MRA members:

[translation]

They consider that the ruling regime is corrupt and more concerned with its own material interests and a reckless quest for enrichment than with the wellbeing of the public. More broadly, the claims of the [MRA] concern all of the social inequalities in the country. (ibid.)

Maka Angola, an Internet site funded and run by journalist Rafael Marques de Morais [1], and that is dedicated to fighting corruption and defending democracy in Angola (Maka Angola n.d.a), calls the MRA a "group of friends and activists who have been holding anti-government protests since 2011" (ibid. n.d.b). Referring to young [MRA members] who were arrested in June 2015, Radio France internationale (RFI) states that they [translation] "represent a swath of youth who are favoured, but who were inspired by 'the Arab spring' and who no longer accept the authority of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has been in power for 36 years" (RFI 12 Jan. 2016). Agence Afrique , a pan-African news agency with a head office in Morocco (Agence Afrique n.d.), notes that the MRA is made up of [translation] "youths who have formed an association" (ibid. 22 June 2015).

In a 2013 article in the magazine Afrique contemporaine, a periodical whose articles are peer-reviewed (France n.d.), the author, Juliana Lima, a PhD student in political sciences at Universite Paris 1, comments on movements, including the MRA, that have risen in Angola in the wake of the [translation] "Arab spring," and states that their organization is [translation] "not very institutionalized, mostly for reasons of security,  [and that it] is not very (or not at all) hierarchical"; she notes that "the non-political nature of these movements is also stressed by the activists" (Lima 2013). In her article, Lima explains that the members of these groups, including the MRA, join forces through the social networks (ibid.).

The Professor is of the opinion that the MRA

[translation]

is semi-clandestine given its repression by the regime since 2011. The fact that it has not structured itself as a political party or even as a clearly identifiable and recognized movement is part of a protective strategy that has existed since the movement's inception. (Professor 3 Mar. 2016)

2. Leaders and Members

Information on the MRA leaders was scarce among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Journalist Rafael Marques de Morais reports on the testimony of an activist who was arrested on 29 July 2015; when asked about the names of the MRA leaders in his sector, the activist responded "we [have] no leader" (Maka Angola 1 Aug. 2015). According to the Professor,

[translation]

[s]ince it is a voluntarily loosely structured movement, a network, it is not easy to tell who the leaders are. It cannot be said that the MRA has well-identified leaders. Many have appeared at various times in its brief history. From its inception, the movement has also been the target of a double strategy by the government: repress and attempt to coopt. The attempts to coopt (or to appropriate) led some to change sides and therefore [resulted in] divisions within the movement.

 [Any] list of leaders of the movement  would clearly be incomplete and could give the false impression that those who are not on it are not important for the movement. (Professor 3 Mar. 2016)

Sources state that Angolan rapper Luaty Beirao [Luaty da Silva Beirao, Henrique Luaty Beirao] is a member of the MRA (AFP 12 Nov. 2015; BBC 21 June 2015; Professor 3 Mar. 2016). The Professor stated the following:

[translation]

[K]nown by his stage name Ikonoklasta, [Luaty Beirao] made himself known right away by relaying a call for protest during a concert filmed and posted on YouTube at the end of February 2011. Since his arrest in June 2015, he has appeared in Angola, and especially on the international scene as the movement's thought leader. However, he does not call himself its leader, and even less the leader of the MRA. (ibid.)

Jeune Afrique adds that he is also known under the name of Brigadeiro Mata Frakus and that he was [translation] "behind the major protests against the re-election of the president in 2011" (Jeune Afrique 22 Sept. 2015).

The Professor gave the name of two other rapper members of the MRA: "Casimiro 'Carbono' Cardoso," who [translation] "played a key role at the start of the movement [but who] has been less active since approximately 2014," and Manuel Chivonde Baptista, nicknamed "Nito Alves" (Professor 3 Mar. 2016).

Sources state that "Manuel Nito Alves" and Mbanza Hamza, personalities known by the Angolan public, formed the association [translation] "Revolutionary Movement (Mouvement revolutionnaire)" (BBC 21 June 2015; Jeune Afrique 22 Sept. 2015). Jeune Afrique notes that they are human rights defenders (ibid.).

Another Jeune Afrique article notes that the MRA is [translation] "made up of students and young professionals" (Jeune Afrique with AFP 20 Sept. 2013). According to the Professor,

[translation]

MRA members are mostly young, urban and rather well-educated people (compared with all of the Angolan population). They live mostly in the peripheral neighbourhoods of Luanda. Luaty Beirao, the son of a former regime leader, is an exception. (Professor 3 Mar. 2016)

The Professor stated that, to his knowledge, there is no MRA membership card, and he explains this by the fact that it is a social movement (ibid.). Corroborating information or information on the number of MRA members could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3. Treatment of MRA Members

3.1 Before 2015

The Professor stated that,

[translation]

[s]ince the first protests in 2011, the [MRA] has faced extreme repression by the Angolan authorities. [In addition], the regime also tried to attract certain [MRA] members, generally by promising them significant sums of money or other material benefits. But all of the youths whom I have interviewed in my research mentioned ill-treatment by the authorities, especially during the protests that they organized between 2011 and the end of 2014. (ibid.)

Corroborating information about government attempts to coopt MRA members by providing money or other benefits could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3.2 Since 2015

In its 2015-2016 annual report, Amnesty International (AI) states the following about the demonstrations in Angola:

[AI English version]

[A]lthough by law demonstrations do not require authorization, the authorities frequently refused to allow them to take place. When demonstrations did take place, police often arbitrarily arrested and detained peaceful protesters. On a number of occasions police detained and beat protesters before leaving them many kilometres away from where they were seized. (AI 23 Feb. 2016)

According to the Professor, [translation] "[s]ince 2015, the repression has taken a different angle with the highly publicized arrest of 15 youths in June" (Professor 3 Mar. 2016). Some sources state that, on 20 June 2015, the police arrested 13 youths in Luanda, including Luaty Beirao (ibid.; RFI 21 June 2015; AFP 21 June 2015) and Manuel Nito Alves (ibid.; Professor 3 Mar. 2016). The BBC states that Mbanza Hamza was among those arrested (21 June 2015). Jeune Afrique cites the three men as being among those arrested (22 Sept. 2015). According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), activists stated that about 20 of them had been arrested on that date (AFP 21 June 2015).

The authorities stated that these youths had been planning actions that would upset public order and create a state security hazard (ibid.; Agence Afrique 22 June 2015; RFI 21 June 2015). According to sources, these youths were either all (ibid.) or mostly members of the MRA (Human Rights Watch 27 Jan. 2016). The BBC states that the youths were holding a meeting at the home of Luaty Beirao when they were arrested (BBC 21 June 2015). According to the Internet site Maka Angola, they were actually meeting in a library (Maka Angola n.d.b). Sources state that they had gathered to discuss books on civil rebellion (Professor 3 Mar. 2016; Human Rights Watch 27 Jan. 2016) or to translate one (RFI 12 Jan. 2016). According to the Professor,

[translation]

[t]hey were arrested in June 2015 because they had been "caught" reading and discussing Gene Sharp's book (From Dictatorship to Democracy) [2]. Furthermore, their arrest occurred some time after a list had circulated on social networks, which was relatively implausible and more humorous than political, concerning members of what should be a "national salvation government." Despite the visibly "folkloric" nature of the list, it became "evidence" in the eyes of the prosecutor conducting the trial. (Professor 3 Mar. 2016)

According to some sources, 15 people were arrested in total in this context in June 2015 (Human Rights Watch 27 Jan. 2016; AI 23 Feb. 2016), from 20 to 24 June (ibid.). In a July 2015 article, IHS Global Insight, a global insight organization that provides "economical, financial and political data" on countries and industries (IHS Global Insight n.d.), states that Osvaldo Caholo is "an activist connected to the revolutionary movement" and that he has been detained since 24 June 2015 (ibid. 2 July 2015). Sources note that two other activists [who took part in the meeting on 20 June 2015 (Maka Angola n.d.b)] were questioned by the police in August 2015, but that they were not imprisoned (Human Rights Watch 27 Jan. 2016; Maka Angola n.d.b).

AI states that the 15 people arrested in June 2015 were charged on 16 September with [AI English version] "preparatory acts of rebellion and of plotting against the President" (AI 23 Feb. 2016). The Professor stated that the youths had been charged, among other things, of [translation] "attempting to overthrow the regime" (Professor 3 Mar. 2016). AI adds that three of the activists [AI English version] "faced additional charges: Manuel Nito Alves, for illegal change of name ; Luaty Beirao for falsification of documents , and Osvaldo Caholo for theft of documents" (AI 23 Feb. 2016). Sources state that the charges were laid after more than three months' pretrial detention (Professor 3 Mar. 2016; Human Rights Watch 27 Jan. 2016; Maka Angola n.d.b), exceeding the timeframe allowed by law (ibid.; Human Rights Watch 27 Jan. 2016).

In January 2016, RFI stated that [translation] "the trial of the 17 young opponents, charged with planning a rebellion and attack on the head of state," had resumed on 11 January (RFI 12 Jan. 2016). According to AI, [AI English version] "[t]he trial of the activists started on 16 November and breached numerous international fair trial standards, including the right to a public hearing and the right to be tried without undue delay. On 18 December [2015], the 15 activists were placed under house arrest" (AI 23 Feb. 2016). The Professor stated, for his part, that,

[translation]

[t]he conditions of their detention and the conduct of the trial, which began in the fall of 2015 and was still not finished in March 2016, were considered by all the human rights organizations that addressed the issue to have presented a serious breach of freedom and human rights.

Furthermore, the lack of independence in the Angolan justice system, which was highlighted several times,  [raises] concern that the trial [led to] overly harsh sentences for the 15 youths arrested in June 2015 and the two other activists who are also involved in the trial. (Professor 3 Mar. 2016)

The 2015 annual report by Human Rights Watch notes that the authorities banned any demonstrations in support of the 15 jailed MRA activists (Human Rights Watch 27 Jan. 2016). Similarly, AI states that,

[AI English version]

[o]n 11 October, supporters of the 15 youth activists held a vigil at Sagrada Familia Church in Luanda. According to those who took part, the police arrived at the vigil with guns, water cannons and dogs. To avoid conflict with the police, the participants cut the vigil short. The next day another vigil was held, and several people were briefly detained by the police before being released without charge. (AI 23 Feb. 2016)

According to AFP, [translation] "[a]t least 12 opponents demanding the resignation of the Angolan president  were arrested [on 11 November 2015]" and released the next day; they were "all members" of the MRA (AFP 12 Nov. 2015). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Notes

[1] Rafael Marques de Morais is a contributor to the British daily The Guardian (The Guardian n.d.). Transparency International (TI) gave him an award in 2013 for his participation in the fight against corruption in Angola (TI n.d.).

[2] The Internet site Irenees.net, "a documentary website," states that From Dictatorship to Democracy is a book that [translation] "explains how to destroy a dictatorship, however powerful, in a brilliant lesson of strategy" (Irenees.net 2010).

References

Agence Afrique. 22 June 2015. "Angola : intervention musclee contre de jeunes protestataires." [Accessed 23 Feb. 2016]

Agence Afrique. N.d. "Qui sommes-nous?" [Accessed 10 Mar. 2016]

Agence France-Presse (AFP). 12 November 2015. "Angola : 12 opposants interpelles le jour du 40e anniversaire de l'independance." [Accessed 24 Feb. 2016]

Agence France-Presse (AFP). 21 June 2015. "Angola Arrests 13 Dissident Youths, Including Rapper." (Factiva)

Amnesty International (AI). 23 February 2016. "Angola". Amnesty International - Rapport 2015/16 : la situation des droits humains dans le monde. [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016]

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). 21 June 2015. "Angola : des activistes arretes." [Accessed 19 Feb. 2016]

France. N.d. Agence francaise de developpement (AFD). "La collection." [Accessed 14 Mar. 2016]

The Guardian. N.d. "Rafael Marques de Morais." [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016]

Human Rights Watch. 27 January 2016. "Angola." World Report 2016: Events of 2015. [Accessed 5 Feb. 2016]

IHS Global Insight. 2 July 2015. Martin Roberts. "Watch for: Indiscriminate Violence and Arbitrary Arrests in Luanda over the Coming Week During Police Raids and Protests." (Factiva)

IHS Global Insight. N.d. "About IHS Global Insight." [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016]

Irenees.net. 2010. Federico Mayor Zaragoza. "Gene Sharp - Trois livrets pratiques pour la non-violence." [Accessed 9 Mar. 2016]

Jeune Afrique. 22 September 2015. Sabrina Myre. "Angola : 13 militants arretes par la police, dont le rappeur Luaty da Silva Beirao." [Accessed 23 Feb. 2016]

Jeune Afrique with Agence France-Presse (AFP). 20 September 2013. "Trois manifestants arretes a Luanda par la police angolaise." [Accessed 19 Feb. 2016]

Lima, Juliana. 2013. "Des 'printemps arabes' a la 'nouvelle revolution' en Angola. Mobilisation et contestation politique dans l'apres-guerre." Afrique contemporaine, Vol. 1, No. 245. [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016]

Maka Angola. 1 August 2015. Rafael Marques de Morais. "Violence and Arrests Thwarted Another Protest in Angola." [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016]

Maka Angola. N.d.a. "What Is Maka?" [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016]

Maka Angola. N.d.b. Rafael Marques de Morais. "Rights Groups Demand the Release of 15 Youth Activists." [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016]

Professor, specializing in Sub-Saharan Africa. 3 March 2016. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

Radio France internationale (RFI). 12 January 2016. "Angola : reprise du proces de 17 opposants." [Accessed 25 Feb. 2016]

Radio France internationale (RFI). 21 June 2015. "Angola : arrestation de plusieurs jeunes opposants au regime." [Accessed 19 Feb. 2016]

Transparency International (TI). N.d. "Rafael Marques de Morais, Journalist and Human Rights Activist - Angola." [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Professor of African politics, Oxford University.

Internet sites, including: Africa Confidential; Africatimes; Afrik.com; Afrique News Info; AllAfrica; Angolan News Agency; BD Live; Camerpost.com; Central Angola 7311; Club-K; Council on Foreign Relations; ecoi.net; Factiva; Freedom House; Global Voices; The Guardian; Ireland - Refugee Documentation Centre; Minority Rights Group International; il d'Afrique; Political Handbook of the World 2015; Politics.ox; Stanford University; Swiss Peace; United Nations - Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Refworld, ReliefWeb; United States - Department of State; Voix de l'Afrique in Canada.
Dan Conway, Don Lipps discuss challenges at MSD of Martinsville

For the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville, there are two open seats for the school board in Tuesday's election.
More than a dozen Montagnard asylum seekers in Cambodia were repatriated to Vietnam this week after they failed to qualify for refugee status, and authorities in Phnom Penh say most of the nearly 160 other Montagnards living in capital city are likely to meet the same fate.

Thirteen Montagnard asylum-seekers returned voluntarily to Vietnam earlier this week, U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Vivian Tan told RFAs Khmer Service.

The members of the group had either received negative decisions on their asylum applications or had withdrawn their applications before they could be assessed, she added.

The group left Phnom Penh on Monday and crossed into Vietnam on Tuesday under escort from UNHCR officials, who also planned to check back in on the group to assess their wellbeing, Tan said.

UNHCR escorted them up to the border before Vietnamese officials took over to bring them back to their villages in the Central Highlands, she said. We plan to visit them soon as agreed with the Vietnamese authorities.

Currently, 156 Montagnards remain in Phnom Penh. While the evaluation for refugee status has yet to be concluded, Tan Sovichea, head of the Interior Ministrys refugee department, said most of those Montagnards would be sent back to Vietnam as they failed their initial interviews.

The answers provided by the asylum-seekers were irrelevant to political persecution, which makes up the grounds for granting refugee status, explained Interior Ministry spokesperson Khieu Sopheak.

Vietnams Central Highlands are home to some 30 tribes of indigenous peoples, known collectively as Montagnards or the Degar. The group of Montagnards who fled to Phnom Penh comes from the mountainous region of Gia Lai, Dak Lak, and Kon Tum provinces in central Vietnam, which border Rattanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces of Cambodia.

The Montagnards living in Phnom Penh are among the more than 200 who have fled their country and crossed the border into Cambodia seeking help from UNHCR, citing oppression by the Vietnamese government.

Rights groups say the Montagnards, many of whom are Christian, have been victims of persecution and repression in Vietnam. The Montagnards also backed the U.S. in the Vietnam War and some have suffered repercussions for this.

Reported by Vuthy Tha for RFA's Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
Cambodians lay flowers on the car carrying the body of independent political and social analyst Kem Ley outside the store where he was shot dead earlier in the day in Phnom Penh, July 10, 2016

Cambodias minister of the interior may shed some light on the governments investigation into the July murder of popular political analyst Kem Ley when the cabinet member appears before the National Assembly in January, RFAs Khmer Service has learned.

The appearance comes as Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang, who heads the National Assemblys Human Rights, Complaints and Investigation Commission, seeks to question top government officials about the unsolved murder.

Eng Chhay Eang confirmed to RFA on Wednesday that his commission submitted a letter summoning Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana to the National Assembly to answer questions about the investigation on Jan. 12.

Justice is important, and all citizens must receive justice in any matter, not just the Kem Ley case, Eng Chhay Eang told RFA. Competent authorities must carry out their roles properly in order to render justice to those victims of all kinds of murder cases.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Khieu Sopheak told RFA that Sar Kheng plans to provide clarification on the investigation to the National Assembly, but the exact nature of the clarification was unclear. In addition to his role as interior minister, Sar Kheng also carries the deputy prime minister title.

Kem Ley was gunned down in broad daylight on July 10 when he stopped in a Star Mart convenience store beside a Caltex gas station in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.

Though authorities charged Oueth Ang with the killing, many in Cambodia dont believe the governments story that Kem Ley was killed by the former soldier over a debt. While the accused killer has been identified as Oueth Ang, he has used the nom de plume Chuop Samlap which roughly translated means meet to kill.

Why dont the authorities reveal the security footage?

Just days before he was gunned down, Kem Ley had discussed on an RFA Khmer Service call-in show a report by London-based Global Witness detailing the extent of the wealth of the family of Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for 31 years.

Since the arrest, the investigation has apparently stalled, or is not being pursued as the Cambodian authorities have someone in custody.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesperson Ly Sophanna, briefly told reporters via instant message on December 21 that the investigation is still active.

A senior interior ministry official told RFA that the accused murderers use of the alias appears to be an attempt to befuddle investigators.

We have concluded that the accused has the intention to confuse authorities by not telling the truth, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Am Sam Ath, head of human rights organization LICADHOs investigation bureau, told RFA the interior ministry still needs to release the security footage from the gas station where Kem Ley was killed.

Video was released in several other high-profile murder cases in Cambodia, but the video of the Kem Ley killing has yet to be released.

Why dont the authorities reveal the security footage? he asked.

CNRP President Sam Rainsy filed a petition in with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, requesting Chevron Corporation to release any surveillance footage it may have of the shooting death of Kem Ley.

The company owns and runs the Caltex gas stations and on-site Star Marts throughout Cambodia, Sam Rainsy wrote in a release posted on his Facebook Page.

The gas station at which Dr. Ley was killed is equipped with multiple video cameras, he added. Human rights organizations and media sources have confirmed that Chevron has refused or ignored requests to release the footage to date.

Reported for RFAs Khmer Service by Zakariya Tin. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
Sichuan rights activists Yang Xiuqiong (L) and Huang Qi (R) in photo taken before their detention, Feb. 18, 2016.

Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan have formally arrested the founder of a rights website on state secrets charges while detaining a writer who criticized widespread air pollution on suspicion of subversion.

Huang Qi, who founded the Tianwang rights website, was formally arrested by the state prosecution office in the provincial capital Chengdu in recent days on charges of "illegally supplying state secrets overseas," local activists told RFA.

"Huang Qi is currently being held in the Mianyang Detention Center, and his mother received notice of his formal arrest on Dec. 16," Chengdu-based petitioner Li Zhaoxiu told RFA. "The charge is illegally supplying state secrets overseas."

Huang's 83-year-old mother Pu Wenqing went missing after Huang's home was searched and her son detained on Nov. 28.

Li said Pu was taken to hospital after the incident, and escorted home by the authorities on Dec. 16.

"I spoke to Huang Qi's mother [recently]," she said.

Lawsuit over illegal actions

Meanwhile, Huang's lawyer Li Jinglin is expected to arrive in Chengdu at the end of next week to represent him, as requested in writing by Huang before his incarceration.

"Huang Qi had previously instructed Li Jinglin as his lawyer, so I expect he will be arriving from Beijing," fellow petitioner Zhou Jun said.

She said Pu is now safely home. "She is a bit better now ... and she told us petitioners not to worry about her," she said.

"I expect I will be going there on Dec. 26," Li Jinglin said in a brief interview on Wednesday. "I will visit his mother first, so get a clearer picture of the situation, and then I will go to Mianyang, if it is confirmed that that is where he is being held."

"I will proceed on the basis of his previous written instructions," he said.

The Tianwang website carried a statement vowing to sue the Sichuan provincial party secretary Wang Dongming and provincial police department for "their illegal actions in pursuing the Chinese rights group Tianwang."

"We will pursue those who are responsible all the way," it said.

Huang, 51, was detained and his home raided by police officers from the provincial capital Chengdu and the earthquake-hit regions of Neijiang and Mianyang.

He had already served a sentence of three years in prison from November 2011 after launching an investigation into shoddy school construction blamed for thousands of deaths during a massive 2008 earthquake.

Wang Fei, who goes by the pen-name Hai Di, in an undated photo. Photo courtesy of Hai Di's wife Writer Hai Di detained

Last week, Chengdu police also detained writer Wang Fei, who goes by the pen-name Hai Di, at the railway station before searching his home and taking him away.

Hai Di's wife, who gave only her surname Feng, said he is currently being held in the Shuangliu police station on the outskirts of Chengdu and investigated for "subversion of state power."

"I demanded documentation of his detention from the police, but they refused to give it to me," Feng said. "They said he is being detained on suspicion of subversion of state power."

"They said they weren't issuing a notice of criminal detention because apparently it would compromise their investigation," she said.

Hai Di frequently posted articles on current affairs, and his writings had gained a following on social media, Feng said, adding that he had recently criticized the government's handling of air quality after Chengdu was shrouded in toxic smog last week.

"Hai Di would write articles and post them online, most quite critical and sharp, attacking society, especially its darker side," she said.

"He also had a lot of followers, and people would come and visit him to pay their respects," she said.

An officer who answered the phone at the Huanglongxi police station, nearest to Hai Di's house, declined to comment when contacted by RFA.

Repeated calls to the Chengdu municipal police department rang unanswered during office hours on Wednesday.

His lawyer Lu Siwei confirmed the charges against his client, and his location in Shuangliu county.

"Frankly, there's very little we can do right now, except watch ever move the police make," Lu said. "But the police can just ignore us."

He said if Hai Di isn't released within 37 days, then the authorities are likely to proceed to formal arrest.

He said Hai Di's writings didn't amount to subversion.

"There was some social criticism in there, and his personal opinions, but it didn't amount to an attack on [the ruling Chinese Communist Party], or on the political system as a whole," Lu told RFA. "

Reported by Qiao Long and Xin Lin for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wong Lok-to for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
Come and enjoy Read more [...]
Kang Chun-hyok took a different path in his new life in South Korea than most North Korean defectors. Instead of keeping a low profile, the artist and musician has attempted to gain the worlds attention as the only rapper to come from the closed country. As the defector rapper, Kangs flow deals with his life under the oppressive regime, a life that reflects the musics underpinnings in the African-American community. Kang recently talked about his music and art with RFA journalist Yongjae Mok. The following is an edited version of that interview.

RFA: You recently released the record, For the Freedom. What made you record the song?

Kang Chun-hyok: I participated in the South Korean rap competition television audition program, Show Me the Money. I went out of the competition in the second round, but I wanted people to hear me sing so I released the song that I have been working on for a long time.

RFA: Whats the basis for the song?

Kang Chun-hyok: The first verse tells my story. How I was born in North Korea and how I lived in North Korea. The second verse explains how I defected from North Korea and stayed in China and elsewhere. Lastly, the third verse is about how I came to South Korea.

RFA: The lyrics are critical of the North Korean leadership, take us through them.

Kang Chun-hyok: As I talk about my life story, I also criticize North Korean politics in the lyrics. In North Korea, Kim Jong Un is the father of citizens, and [his wife] Ri Sol Ju is the mother of the citizens. But what I articulated in my lyrics is that they are not my father and mother. The content teased Kim Jong Un. Since he is fat, I am teasing him like, lose your belly fat. I criticized Kim Jong Un as a spoiled young politician. You know, when kids throw a tantrum, they lash out at their parents first. So I criticized Kim Jong Un, even if you cry, you are just the kind who goes to your mothers bosom.

Why did you choose hip-hop and rap music?

Kang Chun-hyok: Hip-hop comes from poor African-American people. It started out as they plead for their human rights and talked about their situations. North Korean residents live under dictatorial government, which ignores human rights. People come out of North Korea in search of freedom, but they get killed in the river or become caught up in human trafficking. The situation in North Korea is worse than it is for African-Americans, so I think hip-hop suits my story better than other genres.

RFA: Although you are known as North Korean defector rapper, you majored in art. Tell us about your exhibitions.

Kang Chun-hyok: I have done one in South Korea, and also have opened exhibitions in Indonesia and Germany. In the past, I tried to describe how children and young people live in North Korea. Now I draw paintings that are a form of satire that mocks North Korean politics.

RFA: As a musician and artist, what do you see in your future?

Kang Chun-hyok: I would like to study art more and exhibit the art works to as many people as possible In South Korea. Some people consider North Koreans a different people, even though we are all Korean people. Therefore, I want to change that perception by showing my art, especially to young people. Music has the merit of being popular, and it appeals to many people. Through the music, I can let them know about human rights in North Korea.

Written by Yongjae Mok. Translated by Soo Min Jo. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
Major General San Lwin, chief of the border guard police, briefs journalists at the Kyikampyin border guard headquarters in Maungdaw township, western Myanmar's Rakhine state, Dec. 22, 2016.

Border guard police in Maungdaw township in Myanmars Rakhine state told journalists visiting the violence-ravaged area on Wednesday that assailants responsible for a deadly attack on border guard posts in early October included both local Muslims and ones from neighboring Bangladesh.

Major General San Lwin, chief of the border guard police, told a group of local and international reporters at the Kyikanpyin border guard headquarters that those who attacked three border patrol stations in Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships on Oct. 9 received training from the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), a small local militant group active in the 1980s and the 1990s but believed to be defunct. Nine officers were killed in the raids.

The attackers also organized local Muslims to participate in subsequent clashes with security forces, which were intended to drive ethnic Rakhine people from their homes in the area, he said in remarks that could not independently be confirmed.

Myanmar army soldiers and border police, who swept into Maungdaw to lock down the area and search for the assailants, have arrested 609 people believe to be connected to the initial attacks and subsequent clashes between villagers and security forces, San Lwin said.

Seventy-three people have been found dead, and 106 have been sentenced, he said.

Authorities allowed in the government-selected group of local and international journalists from independent media organizations for a three-day visit to the affected areas on Dec. 19-21. Security forces have escort the team to Maungdaw, where a dusk-to-dawn curfew has been in place since Oct. 10.

The team of 13 journalists, including a reporter from RFAs Myanmar Service, said that most houses in Rohingya villages in Muslim-majority Maungdaw remain empty.

About 27,000 Rohingya have fled their homes to seek refuge in Bangladesh, where authorities have previously denied that any attackers came from the country and crossed into Myanmar.

Some of them have accused Myanmar security forces of extrajudicial killings of villagers, rape, torture and arson, though the Myanmar government has denied the claims.

Maungdaw district administrator Ye Htut told the reporters that government authorities have granted permission to build seven ethnic villages in Maungdaw township for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.

The reporters also visited villages where authorities say attackers fired on government troops and set fire to houses.

In the run-up to the visit, the United Nations, Western countries, and international human rights groups had called on the Myanmar government to open Maungdaw to independent journalists to investigate reports of killings, rape, torture, and arson by army soldiers who conducted security sweeps of Rohingya villages.

The Myanmar government has rejected allegations of misconduct and abuse by security forces in Maungdaw.

Report calls for ASEAN action

Researchers at Singapores Institute of Southeast Asian Studies-Yusof Ishak Institute, meanwhile, issued a report on Wednesday, urging members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to pay close attention to the situation of Muslims in Maungdaw in the aftermath of the attacks.

Though ASEAN members adhere to a principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of others in the regional organization, the researchers called on them to persuade Myanmar to allow ASEAN representatives to access Maungdaw, deliver humanitarian assistance to people there, and encourage initiatives to promote peaceful coexistence between ethnic Rakhine people and the Muslims.

The October armed attacks in Rakhine and subsequent developments have taken on new dynamics that have region-wide security ramifications and that affect ASEAN unity and credibility, the report said. It is increasingly untenable for ASEAN to insulate itself from this unfolding crisis behind the shield of noninterference.

Researchers also urged ASEAN to step up efforts to combat human smuggling and prevent traffickers from exploiting the situation in Rakhine, and enhance regional cooperation in border management and promote antiradicalism among Muslims in Myanmar and in other countries.

The travails of the Rohingya, especially in the wake of the reported torching of buildings in Wa Peik [village] last month, have caught the imagination of Muslims worldwide and made it fertile ground for a new front of jihadism, the report said. Northern Rakhine may therefore be on the verge of becoming another pocket of radicalization in Southeast Asia.

The report warned that pro-Rohingya sentiments are also energizing extremist elements in Indonesia and Malaysia at a time when religious tensions and the trend towards Islamic orthodoxy are running high in these countries.

The report came two days after Myanmars de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi called a meeting with 10 ASEAN foreign ministers to discuss the crisis.

She told them that the government is committed to resolving the crisis, but needs time. She also emphasized the importance of clearing up differences among ASEAN members through friendly consultations.

In the weeks before the meeting was called, Muslims in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia staged protests over the Myanmar governments handling of the matter.

Reported by Min Thein Aung for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Chinese police in Sichuans Ngaba county detained and beat a young Tibetan last week after he launched a solo protest calling for freedom for Tibet in the eighth such protest reported in the county so far this year, sources said.



Tenpa, a former Kirti monastery monk about 18 years old, was taken into custody in the afternoon of Dec. 16 while carrying a photo of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama along a main road of the Ngaba county seat, an exile-based Tibetan told RFAs Tibetan Service.



About ten security officers jumped on him and beat him severely before taking him away, RFAs source named Meruma Kunjam said, citing contacts in Ngaba.



His relatives have no idea where he is being held or what his present condition is, Kunjam said.



Tenpa comes from Meruma township in Ngaba and was a monk at Kirti monastery but later de-robed and lived as a layman, he said.



He is about 18 years old. His fathers name is Lochoe, and his mothers name is Gyalmo."



Speaking earlier to RFA, a Tibetan living in Ngaba confirmed Tenpas protest and detention, though not identifying him by name.



He was overpowered by plainclothes police who shoved him to the ground and gagged him so that he could not call out, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



Later he was taken away, he said.



Heroes' Road



Tenpas protest had begun at the head of a main road, the site of frequent protests, in Ngaba town now called Heroes Road by local Tibetans, the source said.



He carried a photo of the Dalai Lama and a yellow scarf and walked in protest for some time before being attacked by the police.



It happened so fast that details about his name and family could not immediately be checked. A number of police officers and other security officials were then deployed in the town and at Kirti monastery, he said.



Ngabas Kirti monastery and the countys main town have been the scene of repeated self-immolations and other protests in recent years by monks, former monks, nuns, and other Tibetans opposed to Chinese rule.



Eight solo protests have been carried out by Tibetans in Ngaba so far this year, with another nine reported in the county in 2015, according to Tibetan sources in the region and in exile. However, numbers are difficult to obtain owing to communication clampdowns imposed by Chinese authorities in the area.



Reported by Lhuboom and Kunsang Tenzin for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.




Gunmen have attacked the house of an Afghan lawmaker in the capital, Kabul, killing at least five people, Afghan officials and media say.

Police said three attackers stormed the house of Mir Wali, a lawmaker from the volatile southern province of Helmand, at 7 p.m. local time on December 21, detonating explosives inside the house.

Tolo News reported that the legislator's two grandsons and his 25-year-old son, Obaidullah Barikzai, were among the dead. Two security guards were also killed, it said.

Mir Wali himself reportedly managed to escape, but an unknown number of people -- the family members and guests -- were still inside the house.

The Taliban said in a statement the group's suicide bombers raided the house to disrupt an "important gathering of security officials."

Quoting local residents, Tolo News reported late in the evening that the gunmen were still believed to be in the house, where the sound of gunfire and explosions could be heard.

Police special forces were sent to the scene of the attack.

Based on reporting by Tolo News and Reuters
It could have been a still from a Quentin Tarantino movie: the image of a photogenic young man -- armed and dangerous, and impeccably dressed in a dark suit and white shirt -- surrounded by an audience of TV cameras and smartphones, went viral in minutes.

He shouted in fury while the body of his dead victim lay motionless in the background. His right hand tensed by his side, clutching a gun. His left raised skyward to denote "Tawhid" (the oneness of God), usurping the traditional Muslim symbol for declaring God's unity in prayer, long since subverted by jihadists across the world.

In fact, he got it wrong. He should have raised his right hand, but it had just been used for murder and was otherwise engaged. Even this mistake seemed somehow to encapsulate our posttruth age. It was terrorism of the most contemporary kind, likely not conducted by a well-indoctrinated holy warrior, but by a frustrated, hopeless young man.

Mevlut Mert Altintas, a 22-year-old policeman from Ankara, had just shot dead Andrei Karlov, Russia's ambassador to Turkey. His motives in the December 19 killing seemed clear enough as he shouted a series of religious and political slogans, beginning with an Arabic hadith (an ancient text that reportedly recorded some of the teachings and acts of the Prophet Muhammad) from Sahih al-Bukhari that referenced the Battle of the Trench (Ghazwah al-Khandaq) in which Muhammad and a band of followers tactically overcame a numerically superior army.

The assassin then laid out his grievances in Turkish. "Don't forget Aleppo; don't forget Syria. Don't forget Aleppo; don't forget Syria," he raged. "Until our provinces are safe and secure, you will not taste security," he continued, ordering the crowd to "stay back" before completing his diatribe: "Only death will make me leave this place; and whoever has played a role in this brutality will have to give an account for their actions."

The massive bombing campaign Russia carried out against the Syrian city of Aleppo, allowing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces to reclaim the city from rebels, was clearly at the heart of the assassination. Russia killed thousands of Syrians in Aleppo; Altintas killed a Russian official in response, shooting him first in the back, for a reported total of nine times.

This has been a year of tumult, unexpected political events, and geopolitical uncertainty -- including Brexit, the U.S. presidential election, the continuing global refugee crisis, massacre in Syria and Yemen, and more Russian aggression in Ukraine. Fears that the world is in a pre-1914 period -- slowly drifting toward war -- are rife. Then, an assassination became the spark that caused World War I. Now many are asking whether the killing of a Russian ambassador could be an "Archduke Ferdinand moment."

The answer is an unequivocal "no," at least not in the way that some may conceive it. Far from being a source of increased tension between Turkey and Russia, bringing the two countries closer to war, Karlov's assassination could bring them closer together and have repercussions on the ongoing war against the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.

Gift To Erdogan

For Turkey, the assassination can be seen as a gift to its increasingly autocratic president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who in July crushed an alleged attempted coup against his rule that Ankara claims was orchestrated by the U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen is accused of leading what Turkish officials have labeled the Gulenist Terrorist Organization (FETO), and following the botched coup attempt thousands of officials, from the army to the judiciary to even the education system, were arrested or expelled from their posts, accused by the government of being "Gulenists."

Now, in the wake of Karlov's killing, which Gulen has condemned, Ankara has wasted little time laying the blame squarely at the feet of his followers, informing the United States on December 20 that it believed they were responsible.

Erdogan will now have even more of an excuse to purge supposed Gulenists from all branches of government and state apparatuses. A foreign diplomat has been killed: he has a blank check on which to write the names of yet more of those who oppose him. He will only become stronger now.

But his alliance to the United States may become even weaker, a process that has been ongoing for some time but was made worse by the failed coup attempt. Turkey is a NATO ally, but the United States has been slow to act on Ankara's demand that Gulen be extradited immediately to face trial in Turkey over his alleged role in the coup attempt, which the cleric denies.

Green Light For Moscow

As far as Moscow is concerned, the picture, perhaps counterintuitively, could be more advantageous. The killing of a Russian diplomat on Turkish soil is hugely embarrassing to Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin now has significant political leverage over him. The Turkish president is in his debt. The two have had closer relations since the July coup attempt. Instead of that process being interrupted, it will likely gather momentum.

Interestingly, Russian media coverage of the assassination reveals a clear pattern. It is sticking to the Turkish "Gulenist" line, but is taking care to cite it as the Turkish view on events rather than fact.

Moscow is keeping its options open. Soon after the assassination, Putin went on Russian state TV to say that the assassination was "undoubtedly...aimed at disrupting the normalization" of bilateral ties between the two countries. More pertinently, he said it was also aimed at disrupting the "peace process in Syria." And more chillingly, he declared that "there is only one possible response to this -- the strengthening of the fight against terror, and the bandits will feel it themselves."

WATCH: Russian President Vladimir Putin said the killing of his ambassador in Turkey was a "provocation" aimed at spoiling Russia-Turkey relations, and derailing the Syria peace process. He spoke about the incident during a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Kremlin. (Reuters)



His import was clear. As Karlov's killing will allow Erdogan to further his primary domestic goal -- the crushing of all and any opposition to him -- it will allow Putin to further his primary foreign-policy goal in the Middle East: winning the war in Syria. Russia will now be able to pursue its war with even more confidence that Turkey will not try to stop it. There is suspicion that a deal may have been cut between Erdogan and Putin in August that would allow both Russia and Turkey to advance their own agendas in Syria. That deal will now almost definitely remain in place.

The Russian argument will be clear, and simple, and deadly. A terrorist sympathizer shot a Russian diplomat in revenge for the carnage of Aleppo. The terror threat from IS and other jihadist groups that Russia claims it is fighting in Syria has not diminished. The only response must be to strike at IS and its affiliates harder. Aleppo has fallen. The Russians will not stop. Idlib may well be next. Thus will Putin's Russia continue to project its "imperial power" in the world while at the same time ensuring that its puppet Assad remains in nominal control of the country, preserving Moscow's naval facility at Tartus in the process.

To Putin, it does not matter how much of Russia's narrative is true, and much of it is not. What matters is that Moscow's military campaign remains unchallenged, and its narrative is just one way that the Russian government has ensured that a strong opposition to Putin's methods has yet to materialize, at least not at the state level.

Was the killing of Andrei Karlov an assassination that draws the world one step closer to all-out war? No, it was merely a tragedy that Moscow and Ankara could exploit to further their own political and military ends. This is not a step toward a wider war -- except for the Syrians, many more of whom will now be killed in the name of "fighting IS." This is realpolitik, at its dirtiest and most cynical. It is realpolitik, in the style that has come to characterize the Middle East in the post-Arab Spring era -- just with a Russian twist.

The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL
So, does anybody remember Crimea?

The UN General Assembly does.

This week, it passed a resolution recognizing the peninsula as "temporarily occupied" by Russia and condemning abuses against ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars.

Amnesty International, it appears, also remembers Crimea.

Last week, it issued a report on how Moscow and its local proxies have demanded "total submission" to the "brute fact" of Russia's annexation.

And those who don't comply have been persecuted, exiled, or disappeared.

Vladimir Putin's regime, of course, would like us all to forget about Crimea.

It would like us all to submit to the brute facts that Moscow has created on the ground.

Andrei Komissarov, an official with Russia's Federal Nationalities Agency, recently spoke about the need to establish stricter controls on "people arriving from Ukraine to Crimea" -- ignoring the legal fact that Crimea is Ukraine.

Just over 1,000 days ago, Russia did something that nobody in Europe has done since the Second World War.

Just over 1,000 days ago, the Putin regime committed an act that nobody in Europe has committed since the Third Reich.

Just over 1,000 days ago, the Kremlin used brute force to change Europe's borders.

And for the past thousand days and four weeks, they've been using brute force and deception to make the world accept this.

Keep telling me what you think on The Power Vertical's Twitter feed and on our Facebook page.
German authorities are offering a reward of up to 100,000 euros ($105,000) for information leading to the arrest of a Tunisian man suspected of involvement in the Berlin Christmas-market attack, identifying him as 24-year-old Anis Amri.

In a statement issued on December 21, the Federal Prosecutor's Office warned that the suspect could be "dangerous and armed," and urged members of the public to notify police if they see him.

The statement said a search for Amri was under way, with support from police forces in all of Germany's 16 federal states.

Twelve people were killed and 48 wounded in the truck attack on a Christmas market late on December 19.

German media have reported that the Tunisian suspect has used various identities since coming to Germany in 2015.

Earlier, Ralf Jaeger, the interior minister in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia where the suspect had lived, said the suspect's asylum request had been rejected and that he was due to be flown back to Tunisia in August but didn't have the necessary papers to be returned.

He added that the suspect was known by Germany's counterterrorism center and his case discussed by intelligence officials as recently as last month.

Jaeger said that legal proceedings against the man had been opened on the suspicion that he was planning a "serious crime."

German authorities are focusing their search in western Germany, where the suspect was registered in a refugee center near the Dutch border.

French President Francois Hollande said on December 21 that his country's intelligence services were in "constant contact" with German officials.

A website linked to Islamic State (IS) extremist group has claimed responsibility for the December 19 attack.

In a December 20 statement, the Amaq website said, "The executor of the operation...in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic State and he executed the operation in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition countries."

A similar attack with a truck -- driven by a Tunisian man-- in the French resort city of Nice in July killed 86 people.

German authorities had initially arrested a Pakistani asylum seeker who had been the sole suspect in the case but prosecutors said they lacked evidence against the 23-year-old Pakistani man and released him.

German President Joachim Gauck visited some of the nearly 50 people who were injured in the incident. Officials said 14 people are considered to be in serious condition.

"My visit is a symbol of millions of people across our country taking an interest in the fate of the victims, and those who are fighting for their lives, and others who have a good chance to fully recover," Gauck said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the truck rampage, in which the vehicle plowed 80 meters through the crowd, "would be especially hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that [the] person who committed this act was someone who sought protection and asylum" in Germany.

Merkel is under fire over her decision in 2015 to admit almost 900,000 migrants -- most from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan -- into Germany on humanitarian grounds as they backed up on southern EU borders.

The deadly attack at the Christmas market in the center of the German capital has shocked average Germans and angered Merkel's political opponents.

Police say the truck used in the attack was hijacked by the suspect from a Polish driver, who was found injured in the passenger's seat of the truck.

Police say he was alive at the time the truck drove into the shoppers at the Christmas market but medics were unable to save him.

The White House condemned "what appears to have been a terrorist attack" and said the "horrific incident" appeared to "target our way of life."

The U.S. State Department issued a European travel alert in November warning Americans of a "heightened risk of terrorist attacks throughout Europe, particularly during the holiday season," and urging "caution at holiday festivals, events, and outdoor markets."

Series Of Attacks

The attack in Berlin is the latest in a series of similar incidents in Germany since the summer.

In July, a 17-year-old claiming to be an Afghan asylum seeker attacked passengers on a Bavarian commuter train with an ax and a knife. A week later, a 27-year-old Syrian asylum seeker blew himself up outside a music venue in the Bavarian town of Ansbach, injuring more than a dozen people.

A 12-year-old boy with dual German-Iraqi citizenship also allegedly attempted to explode a nail bomb at a Christmas market in the western German city of Ludwigshafen a few weeks ago.

Christmas markets have a long history in Germany stretching back to the Middle Ages and have grown dramatically to become popular places to socialize -- to drink mulled wine and to eat snacks in the weeks running up to Christmas.

Security has been increased at Christmas markets all over Germany, where nearly every town and city has such a market during the holiday season.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, N-TV, Der Spiegel, and dpa
ASTANA -- Authorities in Kazakhstan say they have detained 16 suspected members of a banned Islamic group during a major security operation in three parts of the predominantly Muslim Central Asian country.

The National Security Committee (KNB) said on December 21 that it had launched a counterterrorism operation targeting suspected cells of Takfir wal-Hijra, which is on lists of terrorist organizations in Russia, the United States, and several other countries.

The KNB released few details about the operation, which it said is being conducted in Almaty -- Kazakhstan's biggest city -- as well as the Almaty, Aqtobe, and Atyrau regions.

Takfir wal-Hijra (Excommunication and Exodus) emerged in Egypt in the 1960s and is believed to have links with Al-Qaeda.

The group was banned in Kazakhstan in 2014.

Critics of President Nursultan Nazarbaev's government say the authorities sometimes use allegations of extremism as a pretext to suppress dissent.
Kazakhstan says Turkmenistan has suspended visa-free travel for Kazakhs living close to the Turkmen border.

Officials from Kazakhstan's western Manghystau region said on December 21 that Turkmenistan had tightened security along the border but did not give any reasons for the move.

Residents of Kazakhstan's Manghystau region are normally allowed to visit Turkmenistan's Balkan region without a visa for a period of five days.

Turkmenistan has temporarily closed the Turkmen-Kazakh border at least three times since July.

A closure on October 27 was the only time the measure was explained, as Turkmenistan held celebrations marking Independence Day.

In the other cases, unspecified security reasons were cited.

Based on reporting by KazTAG and Kazinform
A prominent TV journalist has quit his job at Kazakhstan's leading state-run channel after presenting a faked interview last week, colleagues say.

Ruslan Smykov of First Channel Eurasia filed a resignation letter citing "differences with management" after the interview in question was aired on December 17, his co-workers at the station said on December 20.

Smykov hosted a program last week that included footage appearing to show Aimira Shaukentaeva, another presenter at First Channel Eurasia, being interviewed by Russian journalist Vladimir Pozner on his popular TV program.

Pozner told RFE/RL on December 19 that the interview had never taken place, called it "a fake" and its broadcast "colossal stupidity."

The channel's editorial board later said that the interview had been "a joke," and Kazakh Information Minister Dauren Abaev called it "a very unfortunate joke."

Internet users condemned the faked interview and created several memes mocking Smykov and Shaukentaeva.

In April and May, Smykov and Shaukentaeva faced criticism after they repeatedly said in a television program that protesters demonstrating across Kazakhstan against the governments land reforms were paid by "foreign forces" from "across the ocean" who wanted to incite disorder in Kazakhstan.

With reporting by Nur.kz, Today.kz, and RFE/RL's Current Time TV
Moscow police detained seven civil-society activists who said they were on their way to stage an event at Russia's Federal Security Service headquarters. Police bundled them into a minivan on December 20, along with a reporter and cameraman from RFE/RL's Russian service, who were covering the group. (RFE/RL's Russian Service)
Ukrainian forces are facing Russian attacks in multiple locations, where heavy shelling and air strikes damaged infrastructure as Moscow stepped up its offensive, the Ukrainian military said on November 3.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

The Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine was again disconnected from the power grid after shelling damaged the remaining high voltage lines, leaving it with just diesel generators, Ukraine's nuclear firm Enerhoatom said.

Enerhoatom said it believes Russia will soon try to repair and connect Europe's largest nuclear station toward the Russia-occupied Crimea and Donbas regions.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said in its November 3 briefing that heavy fighting was under way in the east, with Russian troops conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Novopavlivka areas of the Donetsk region.

Russia launched attacks on 12 settlements in Donetsk and the neighboring Luhansk region. Ukrainian forces repelled the attacks, the military said.

In Luhansk, the Ukrainian military accused Russian forces are using civilians as human shields. The claim could not be independently confirmed.

Russian strikes were also reported in the central area of Kryviy Rih and in the northeast in Sumy and Kharkiv.

"The enemy is trying to keep the temporarily captured territories, concentrating its efforts on restraining the actions of the defense forces in certain areas," Ukraine's military said.

Russia has targeted Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure in recent weeks, prompting power and water outages and causing casualties among civilians.

Russia keeps denying targeting civilians, though the conflict has killed thousands, displaced millions, and razed some Ukrainian cities to the ground.

In the south, Ukraine's counteroffensive has left Russian forces fighting to hold their ground around the city of Kherson, on the right bank of the Dnieper River.

Moscow-installed authorities are urging residents to evacuate, the Ukrainian military said.



Residents of the town of Nova Zburiyvka had been given three days to leave and were told that evacuation would be obligatory from November 5, it said.

Russian authorities have repeatedly said Ukraine could be preparing to attack the massive Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper and flood the region. Kyiv denies that.

Russia and Ukraine will each hand over 107 captured fighters on November 3 in the latest prisoner exchange between the two sides, Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed administrator of Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine's Donetsk region, said in a post on his Telegram channel. He said 65 of those released by Ukraine will be separatist fighters from Donetsk and Luhansk.

Seven ships carrying agricultural products left Ukrainian Black Sea ports on November 3, a day after the resumption of a grain deal aimed at delivering Ukrainian food to foreign markets, the Infrastructure Ministry said.

The vessels were loaded with 290,000 tons of food products and were headed toward European and Asian countries, the ministry said in a statement without elaborating.

The British ambassador arrived at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow on November 3, Reuters reported, after she was summoned to discuss Moscow's claims that Britain was involved in a Ukrainian drone strike on Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.

WATCH: RFE/RL asked people in Moscow how they thought the war in Ukraine -- which Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains is a "special military operation" -- is going.

Russia's Defense Ministry has said the attack was carried out under the guidance and leadership of British Navy specialists, an assertion Britain has dismissed as false.

Meanwhile, two U.S. officials told CBS News on November 2 that senior Russian military leaders discussed last month how and when they might use nuclear weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin was not involved in the talks, they told CBS News.

The White House said it has grown "increasingly concerned" about the potential use of nuclear weapons in the past few months. But it stressed Washington saw no signs of Russia preparing for such use.



In September, Putin escalated his nuclear and anti-Western rhetoric, mentioning that Russia could use all means at its disposal to protect itself and the occupied Ukrainian territories.

With reporting by Reuters and BBC
Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesman has criticized the United States for targeting additional individuals and organizations with sanctions over Moscows aggression in Ukraine and suggested the Kremlin would respond in kind.

Speaking on December 21, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed "regret" over what he called the "destructive obstinacy on the part of our American colleagues."

He said that the U.S. policy of imposing sanctions "does serious damage to our bilateral relations" and that Russia "will take adequate measures" in response.

The U.S. Treasury Department issued an updated list on December 20 that includes seven Russians and more than three dozen companies in Russia and Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.

"These targeted sanctions aim to maintain pressure on Russia by sustaining the costs of its occupation of Crimea and disrupting the activities of those who support the violence and instability in Ukraine," John Smith, acting director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in a statement.

The list includes Yevgeny Prigozhin, a St. Petersburg businessman who has been linked to a "troll factory" that paid Russians to post anonymous comments to news sites, social-media networks, and blogs in an effort to bolster Kremlin policies.

The U.S. Treasury announcement said Prigozhin had provided financial, material, and technological support for senior Russian defense officials and has had extensive business with the Defense Ministry. That includes a company linked to him that has a contract to build a military base near the Russian border with Ukraine, the department said.

Prigozhin has been dubbed "Putins chef" thanks to state catering contracts his firms have secured with the Kremlin and elsewhere.

Russians targeted by the U.S. sanctions over Ukraine are barred from traveling to the United States and any assets they hold there are frozen.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called the fresh sanctions a "hostile move" and warned on December 20 that Russia would retaliate, at least in part by expanding its own lists of Americans subject to similar sanctions.

"We will be expanding our lists. We will see how we can respond asymmetrically," the state-run TASS news agency quoted Ryabkov as saying.

Russia does not publicly release the names of the U.S. citizens targeted by its sanctions.

With reporting by TASS
Russia is fighting on the wrong side in Syria and has turned close neighbor Ukraine into a "hostile state" through its aggression, Kremlin foe Aleksei Navalny has said in an interview.

Navalny, an anticorruption crusader and opposition leader who announced last week that he plans to run for president in 2018, spoke to RFE/RL's Russian Service on December 20.

He said that Russia should be battling Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria as part of a U.S.-led coalition rather than helping President Bashar al-Assad's forces retake territory from rebels in a civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people.

Russia should not "try to save Assad, who represents a military junta," Navalny said. He said that getting involved in the war on the same side as Shi'ite-dominated Iran and Hizballah, the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group fighting alongside Syrian government forces, stokes anger among members of Russia's mostly Sunni Muslim minority.

"That is exactly why people from the North Caucasus go to Syria in droves to fight along their Sunni brothers against Shi'a," Navalny said, referring to the part of southern Russia that includes mostly Muslim regions such as Chechnya and Daghestan.

"That, I think, was the reason for the fanatic who committed that terrorist act yesterday," Navalny added, speaking of the fatal shooting of the Russian ambassador to Turkey on December 19 by a gunman -- identified by the Turkish authorities as an off-duty policeman -- who shouted, "Don't forget Aleppo!"

Russian military support has helped Assad's forces take most of eastern Aleppo from rebels in recent months in a persistent campaign that has led to accusations of atrocities and war crimes.

Navalny said that comments on social networks from some Ukrainians about the killing of the ambassador underscored the level of animosity in that county toward Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and has backed separatists in a war that has killed more than 9,750 people in eastern Ukraine since that April.

"We just see that with our own hands we have created a hostile state where...people hate Russia en masse," Navalny said. He said that "a couple of generations" will have to pass before ties with "the culturally and linguistically" close neighbor can return to normal.

Navalny also said that to make sure that no Russian troops are on Ukrainian territory, Russia must fully implement the Minsk agreements on resolution of the conflict in Ukraine's east, where Russia-backed separatists control some districts.

If elected, he said, he would initiate "a normal referendum" in Crimea to legally define the status of the peninsula.

Russia seized control of Crimea in March 2014 after flooding the peninsula with troops and staging a referendum denounced as illegitimate by Ukraine, the United States, and a total of 100 UN member states.

Domestic Focus

Navalny, 40, could face an uphill battle just to get on the ballot in the 2018 election, in which Putin is widely expected to seek a new six-year term but has not announced his candidacy.

Navalny will need to clear hurdles that Kremlin critics say have been used extensively in the past to block opposition politicians from challenging Putin. He has been convicted of financial crimes twice in trials he says were Kremlin-dictated revenge for his opposition activities, though a Supreme Court decision to throw out one of the convictions removed a legal restraint that had barred him from running for office.

If he is convicted in the retrial, which is under way, he could be barred from the ballot.

While he spoke about Syria and Ukraine in the wide-ranging interview, Navalny said that as president, he would focus much of his attention on pressing domestic concerns.

Among other things, he said he would free political prisoners, pursue judicial reforms to make the courts independent, and take steps to ensure oligarchs and business giants do not control the media.

Navalny also said he would hold a new election to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, contending that the September vote that elected the current Duma was rigged in favor of the ruling United Russia party.

Navalny was a key leader of large street protests that erupted in Moscow over claims of widespread fraud in the December 2011 Duma elections and Putin's plan to return to the Kremlin in 2012 after a stint as prime minister.

He said he would bring back the four-year presidential term to prevent future presidents from being "being spoiled by power" in six-year terms, reversing a change made in 2008.

Navalny predicted that recent and upcoming elections in the United States and European Union countries will have little long-term effect on their relations with Russia, in part because election cycles mean leaders in the West can frequently be replaced.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said he will seek to improve ties with Russia, which are badly strained by Russia's actions in Ukraine and Syria, among other things.

But Navalny said that "Trump is supported by Republicans and Republicans are very belligerent on [Russia-related] issues."

Written by Merhat Sharipzhan based on an interview by RFE/RL's Russian Service
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says that he does not know whether President Vladimir Putin plans to seek reelection in 2018.

"I don't know about that," Peskov said on December 21 when asked whether Putin, in power as president or prime minister since 1999, will seek a new six-year presidential term.

While Putin is widely expected to run and analysts believe that he is carefully planning his political future, Peskov said that the election "is not on the agenda" at this point.

Putin, 64, is likely to be asked the question again during an annual press conference on December 23.

Prominent Kremlin foe Aleksei Navalny announced last week that he intended to run in the election.

The election is due to be held in March 2018, but there has been speculation that the Kremlin could move it up to late 2017.

Based on reporting by RIA Novosti, Interfax, and TASS
Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded restrictions on the sale of surrogate alcohol after at least 62 people died in the Siberian city of Irkutsk from drinking bath lotion.

Putin asked the government on December 21 to draft tighter rules for the production and sale of drinks, perfumes, and other liquids with more than 25 percent alcohol content, as well as medicines containing ethanol.

Putin's order to the cabinet was made public after regional health officials in Irkutsk said the death toll from drinking a scented bath lotion called Boyaryshnik (Hawthorn) had risen to 62.

The Investigative Committee said the bath lotion contained methanol -- which can be fatal if consumed internally -- instead of regular alcohol, or ethanol.

It said 12 people suspected of selling the lotion have been detained and two illegal workshops producing the lotion had been found in the region.

Poisonings with surrogate alcohol are frequent in Russia, where people sometimes drink substances that contain alcohol that are cheaper than alcoholic beverages.

Russian consumer protection agency Rospotrebnadzor said in November that 36,000 cases of alcohol poisoning had been registered across the country in the first nine months of 2016, of which 9,300 led to deaths.

The Reuters news agency cited alcohol market expert Vadim Drobiz as saying this week that up to 12 million Russians, or about one-twelfth of the population, drink cheap surrogate alcohol.

Based on reporting on Interfax, Reuters, and TASS
What to make of Serbian-Russian relations at this critical juncture in global affairs?

The pace of diplomatic visits and gift exchanges has picked up recently, but one gets the sense that both sides doth protest too much. The sudden burst of enthusiasm may be all that it appears, or it may be a sign that relations between Belgrade and Moscow have hit a rocky patch that requires smoothing over with gifts and visits.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic is currently in Moscow, and less than 10 days ago Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in Belgrade. Meanwhile, it has been announced that Russian Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev, whose visit has been postponed a few times, will visit Belgrade in the first quarter of 2017.

On his recent visit, Lavrov said that "the Kremlin is ready to boost Serbia's defense capacity." In Moscow, Vucic is scheduled to meet with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to finalize the arrangements for a special gift to Serbia of six MiG-29 fighters. The warplanes are out of service in Russia, and Serbia will pay for their overhaul and modernization.

B92 quoted Ivan Safronov, a journalist with the Moscow daily Kommersant, as reporting that Russia's aim is to boost its interests in a region where most countries are now NATO members.

Kommersant also quoted one of Moscow's most reliable friends in Belgrade, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, as saying: "Serbia will never become an anti-Russian state and we will never join sanctions against Russia."

He might as well have said: "We will never be like Montenegro."

Montenegro, Serbia's smaller southern neighbor, is on the brink of becoming NATO's 29th member, pending approval by its parliament and the rest of the current member states of the alliance. Montenegrin prosecutors and other officials in Podgorica, meanwhile, have implicated Russians in an attempted coup on election day whose aim was to assassinate the outgoing prime minister and install a pro-Russian government in Podgorica.

This failure, and Montenegro's likely "defection," may explain Moscow's perceived desire to rein in Serbia and increase Belgrade's dependence on Russian military equipment.

The Russian "gift" of six jets, for which Serbia may in fact end up paying around $50 million according to media estimates of the cost of the necessary overhaul, has nevertheless been welcomed in Serbia.

An opposition lawmaker from Vojvodina, Nenad Canak, is virtually the lone voice expressing concern over his country's dependence on Russia: "It's clear that Russia views Serbia as its colony in the heart of Europe...and it is equally clear that we should be wary of what appears to be a concerted Russian diplomatic offensive [aimed at destabilizing Europe]."

However, Florian Bieber, a Balkan expert and director of the Center for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz, in Austria, disagrees, and says that Russian influence in Serbia is overstated.

"Both Serbia and Russia have much to gain from playing up their ties," Bieber said. "The current Serbian government can pour cold water on its nationalist [and anti-Western] critics, while at the same time using supposed Russian influence as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with Europe over EU membership. This is a game of high-stakes poker in which Serbia is bluffing with its Russian hand, which is far weaker than it appears, while Russia gets to appear more influential in the region than it is in reality."

In either case, Russia's gift to Serbia of fighter jets, which not only need refitting but also come with so much else attached, brings to mind the saying that the most expensive lunch you can get is a free lunch.

The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL.
ON MY MIND

With the ruling United Russia party signing a cooperation agreement with Austria's far-right Freedom Party, the Kremlin's ideological orientation and its hostility to mainstream Europe is official.

Russia's support for xenophobes, Euroskeptics, and extremists is no longer an active measure with plausible deniability. It's no longer a stealth operation -- although it never really was that stealthy to begin with. But now it's out in the open and in your face.

The Kremlin is formally opposed to the political consensus and security architecture that has kept Europe safe and prosperous for decades. Kremlin surrogates are fond of saying they favor a "Europe of nations."

This is just another way of saying they prefer a return to the 1930s.

IN THE NEWS

Turkey has informed the United States that it believes followers of the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen were responsible for the assassination of Russia's ambassador in Ankara.

The United States has welcomed an agreement by Russia, Iran, and Turkey to work toward drafting a peace deal in Syria but expressed some skepticism that it would come to pass.

The United States has levied new sanctions against more Russians for Moscow's actions in Ukraine, hitting well-connected insiders, including the man known as Russian President Vladimir Putin's chef.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has again rejected calls for a special congressional committee to investigate alleged Russian computer hacking during the presidential election.

Aleksei Kungurov, a Russian blogger, has been convicted and imprisoned for a post harshly criticizing the governments military operation in Syria that prosecutors say was sympathetic to terrorism.

Ukraine's parliament has approved a budget for 2017, raising its chances of securing more aid from the International Monetary Fund under a $17.5 billion loan package.

The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution that recognizes Crimea as "temporarily occupied" by Russia and condemns the "abuses" and "discrimination" against Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians, and other groups on the peninsula.

WHAT I'M READING

Amnesty International's Crimea Report

Amnesty International has published a new report, Crimea In The Dark: The Silencing Of Dissent.

Here's the teaser: "Since the Russian occupation and annexation of Crimea in February-March 2014, the Russian and de facto local authorities have demanded total submission to this brute fact. With most opponents of Crimeas annexation harassed into exile or silence, Crimean Tatar leaders and activists have been the most organized focus of opposition, and have borne the brunt of the repression. Their representative structure, the Mejlis, was banned as an 'extremist' organization and any association with it has been outlawed; its leaders have been exiled or prosecuted on a range of trumped-up charges; several have been forcibly disappeared."

The Middle East's New Villain -- Russia

The Wall Street Journal's Yaroslav Trofimov writes that due to its intervention in Syria "Moscow has taken the place the U.S. long occupied in the minds of many in the Middle East: an alien imperialist power seen as waging war on Muslims and Islam."

In his column for Bloomberg, political commentator Leonid Bershidsky makes a similar argument.

Russia, Turkey, And The U.S.

Emily Tamkin has a piece in Foreign Policy on why the United States is likely to be one of the big losers in the fallout from the assassination of Andrei Karlov, Russia's ambassador to Turkey.

Diplomatic Security

According to an interview published in RosBalt, Karlov had no security detail because Turkey would not allow the elite force that guards Russian diplomats to operate there.

Russia's War On The West

Jakub Janda, head of the Kremlin Watch Program of the Prague-based European Values think tank, has a piece on The Atlantic Council website on How The West Can Beat Back The Kremlin.

Also on The Atlantic Council's website, Stephen Blank of the American Foreign Policy Council argues that Russia's War On The West Is Real. Why Arent We Fighting Back?

The Russian Non-Threat?

According to a report in Foreign Policy citing a Pentagon memo, Russia is not included in Donald Trump's defense priorities.

Kremlin Laughter And Denial

Joshua Yaffa has an essay in The New Yorker on Russia's reaction to U.S. election hacks -- "denials, amusement, comeuppance."

Target: Europe

A New York Times editorial looks ahead to Russia's Meddling And Europe's Elections.

In The Disinformation Crosshairs

In her column for The Washington Post, Anne Applebaum recalls what it feels like to be the target of a Kremlin-backed smear campaign.

The 1917 Question

Kommersant has a piece on how the Kremlin plans to mark the centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The message: "The main theme of all commemorative activities must be reconciliation between the descendants of the Reds and Whites."

Elections And Referendums

Dozhd-TV has a report on how the Kremlin is considering plans to hold referendums on various regional issues on the same day as the 2018 presidential election. The move could have the effect of increasing turnout and neutralizing opposition figures like Aleksei Navalny.

Russia's Information Security Doctrine

The Finnish Institute of International Affairs has issued a comment on Russia's new Information Security Doctrine.

Navalny's Latest Expose

Anticorruption blogger and opposition leader Aleksei Navalny has a new video claiming to expose the secret U.S. real-estate holdings of Nizhny Novgorod Mayor Ivan Karnilin.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the Turkish policeman who gunned down the Russian ambassador in Ankara was a member of the network of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.

"There is no reason to hide that he's a member of the FETO network. All his connections, from where he was educated to his links, point to FETO," Erdogan said at a news conference on December 21.

Turkish authorities refer to the followers of the U.S.-based Gulen as the "Gulenist Terrorist Network" (FETO).

Gulen himself has condemned the assassination of ambassador Andrei Karlov, calling it a "heinous act of terror."

The envoy was shot nine times while speaking at an art exhibition on December 19. The off-duty policeman, who authorities identified as Mevlut Mert Altintas, was later killed by police.

Altintas shouted "Don't forget Aleppo" and various Islamic slogans at the scene of the murder before he was killed.

On December 20, the Turkish Foreign Ministry quoted Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as telling U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone conversation that "Turkey and Russia know that behind the attack...there is FETO."

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said on December 21 that one should not "rush to conclusions before the investigation determines who was behind the killing."

"Moscow believes that it's necessary to wait for the results of the joint investigative group's activity," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, referring to an investigation by Turkish and Russian authorities.

Turkey has demanded the extradition of Gulen, who lives in exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, in connection with a failed coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July. Ankara has chafed as the U.S. Justice Department has so far refused to extradite Gulen, saying that Turkey must present compelling evidence implicating him.

Some Turkish officials in recent days have suggested that the United States supported the assassination of Karlov, prompting a sharp rebuke from U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby on December 20.

Kirby said Kerry raised concerns about "some of the rhetoric coming out of Turkey with respect to American involvement or support, tacit or otherwise, for this unspeakable assassination yesterday because of the presence of Mr. Gulen here in the United States."

"It's a ludicrous claim, absolutely false. There's no basis of truth in it whatsoever," Kirby said. "And the secretary made that very clear in his discussions today with the foreign minister.

"We need to let the investigators do their job and we need to let the facts and the evidence take them where it is before we jump to conclusions," Kirby said.

Kerry reportedly offered U.S. assistance to Turkey in investigating the killing. However, Ankara has said it will jointly investigate with Russian authorities, and Moscow dispatched a team of about 20 investigators to Turkey on December 20.

Gulen, a reclusive figure who preaches interfaith dialogue and whose followers and organizations are best known for sponsoring schools and charitable causes, has condemned what he called the "heinous act of terror" that killed Karlov.

While Turkish authorities are seeking to determine whether Altintas had ties to Gulen, the slogans he shouted may be more closely associated with a radical Islamist group in Syria that has ties to Al-Qaeda.

One slogan in particular shouted by Altintas -- "We are the ones who swore allegiance to [the Prophet] Muhammad for the jihad!" -- was commonly used in propaganda videos of Syria's Jabhat al-Nusra militant group, according to Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper.

Jabhat al-Nusra, which changed its name to Fatah al-Sham, is one of the rebel militias that Syrian regime forces are now pushing out of Aleppo as they clinch their grip on the city.

With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters
Open-source investigator Bellingcat says Russia launched "systematic" artillery and other barrages against Ukraine in 2014 that were "essentially an act of war" against its smaller neighbor.

In its December 21 report, titled Putin's Undeclared War, the group confirms Russia deliberately fired thousands of shells and missiles into eastern Ukraine in the opening months of a conflict in which Moscow has consistently denied playing any direct role.

The barrages came at a crucial juncture in the separatism-fueled war and appear to have been aimed at helping pro-Moscow fighters repel Kyiv's efforts to retake areas held by the separatists.

"Our evidence shows that this was a systematic attempt by the Russian military to destroy Ukrainian forces all along the border of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in 2014, so it was essentially an act of war of Russia against Ukraine," says Sean Case, one of the researchers who compiled the report.

The report offers the first detailed public assessment of the extent of the Russian cross-border shelling into Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the summer of 2014.

U.S. and Ukrainian officials have previously accused Moscow of using artillery and rocket launchers based in Russia against Kyiv's forces in 2014 but have not publicly detailed the scale of the attacks.

Bellingcat, a group of investigative journalists and citizen journalists specializing in analysis of open-source images and other materials, found artillery units of the Russian armed forces fired on at least 149 separate occasions against targets in Ukraine from July to September 2014. The analysts used images from Google Earth and other open sources to document activities along the border during the three-month period.

The targets were military positions the Ukrainian Army had taken up in June along the eastern border in an effort to cut off supply lines from Russia to separatist forces deeper inside Ukraine. In some cases, the researchers found evidence of Ukrainian positions being pummeled by massive Russian fire.

"Several of the Ukrainian camps were hit with what appears to be hundreds of artillery shells in a very short space of time," Case says. "For example, there is one camp just south of the town of Biryukove, close to the Dolzhanskyy checkpoint, and on July 16 on the satellite image you can see that the camp is covered with literally hundreds of artillery craters, each at least a few meters wide, and which seems to have basically annihilated the Ukrainian position."

He says that in this case, the researchers traced the fire back to a Russian position a few kilometers away with batteries of multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS).

"There is a Russian military position of 10 rocket launchers, each of which can fire 40 rockets at a time, which we believe was all used either at the same time or in a very short space of time to fire at this Ukrainian military position," Case says. "We believe that here and in many other cases the intention of the Russian military was to completely annihilate these Ukrainian camps and remove completely their ability to take part in the Ukrainian conflict."

To find evidence that specific Russian units engaged in shelling, the researchers looked for the telltale blast marks that howitzers and rocket-launch systems leave on the ground beneath and around them. The Russian military used artillery located mostly on Russian territory but in some cases set up just inside Ukraine itself to get the best line of fire on the Ukrainian camps, the researchers said.

In addition to what they say is clear evidence of shelling from at least 149 positions, the researchers also found another 130 Russian locations they judged likely to have been used as firing positions. In those locations, they spotted concentrations of howitzers or rocket-launch systems that were aimed at Ukrainian positions but which did not show clear signs of blast marks.

The Russian artillery fire proved so effective that by August the Ukrainian military was forced to retreat from the border and abandon its efforts to cut off the separatists' supply lines. The defeat was the first in a series of setbacks that subsequently saw the Ukrainian Army lose much of the territory it had earlier retaken from the Russian-backed separatists during Kyiv's summer counteroffensive.

Case says that the new report proves that Russia's cross-border shelling of Ukraine was a deliberate part of Moscow's strategy to help the separatists roll back Kyiv's forces.

"Our evidence shows that one cannot say that this artillery fire was just due to mistakes by Russian commanders on the ground or that this was the action of individual commanders who fired across the border," he says.

Moscow has repeatedly denied that it conducted cross-border shelling into Ukraine in 2014. The shelling was first reported by Ukrainian officials as it occurred and was later corroborated by NATO's release of satellite imagery the same year.

Kyiv and NATO have also provided evidence of wider Russian military intervention in Ukraine in 2014 that included Russian servicemen operating without identifiable markings inside Ukraine and delivery of unmarked Russian tanks and other heavy military equipment to separatist units.

After repeatedly denying the presence of Russian forces in Crimea after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych fled in February 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin eventually acknowledged sending troops there to support "Crimea's self-defense forces" and in March 2015 said he had ordered a plan to seize the peninsula from Ukraine weeks before a Russian-staged referendum there.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 9,750 people since March 2014, and international negotiations have hit a stalemate in their efforts to secure a lasting peace deal.

Bellingcat was among the most vocal debunkers of Moscow's claims that a Russian-supplied missile launcher could not have been used to shoot down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, killing 298 people. The group's investigators asserted in November 2014 that a launcher "the Russian military provided separatists in eastern Ukraine with the Buk missile" was the likely culprit in the MH17 tragedy -- two years before a similar conclusion was reached by an official investigation.
U.S. prosecutors said they have sentenced a Dutch-Turkish citizen to seven years in jail for providing support to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a designated terrorist group.

The sentencing on December 20 came after Irfan Demirtas pleaded guilty in September to charges that he acted as a fund-raiser and facilitator for the group from 2006 and 2008 in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Jordan, the Netherlands, France, and elsewhere.

Demirtas, 58, was arrested in Germany last year and extradited to the United States. His plea agreement requires him to be deported after he serves his jail sentence.

U.S. prosecutors gave him credit for serving 62 months in jail in France.

Prosecutors said the Uzbek militant group was formed in 1991 with the goal of overthrowing the government of Uzbekistan and creating an Islamic state governed by Shari'a law.

The Uzbek group has conducted military operations in Uzbekistan and Pakistan and fought against coalition forces in Afghanistan. It was designated a terrorist group in September 2001.
The United States has welcomed an agreement by Russia, Iran, and Turkey to work toward drafting a peace deal in Syria but expressed some skepticism that it would come to pass.

"The United States welcomes any effort to try to get a cease-fire in Syria that can actually have meaningful results, particularly for those people that remain in Aleppo, as well as the resumption of political talks," State Department spokesman John Kirby said after Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with his Russian and Turkish counterparts about the agreement on December 20.

The foreign ministers of Russia, Iran, and Turkey said after meeting in Moscow that they would seek to widen the cease-fire in Syria and increase access to humanitarian aid and eventually would act as "guarantors" of any future peace deal.

Russia and Iran have backed the Syrian regime in the six-year civil war, while Turkey has backed rebel forces.

Kirby said that Kerry would like to get "political talks back on track as soon as possible," but believes it is "too soon to know" if the Moscow declaration will have any impact.

He said Kerry was skeptical of success, given his own experience with seeing the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad torpedo past attempts to impose a cease-fire and political settlement in the country.

"Given that the meeting just broke up today and given the fact that we have seen repeated promises to appropriately influence the Assad regime...fail, I think we really need to wait and ascertain the results over the coming days," Kirby said.

While the Moscow meeting did not include the United States, which has been a top player in past peace negotiations, U.S. officials sought to downplay any notion that Washington was being sidelined.

"We are not excluded, we are not being sidelined," Kirby said. "We would obviously refute any notion that...the fact that we weren't at this one meeting is somehow a harbinger or a litmus test for U.S. influence and leadership there or anywhere else around the world."

One of the tenets agreed to at the Moscow meeting, however, was anathema to the United States: to give priority in Syria to the fight against terrorism and not the removal of Assad, whom the United States and its allies have accused of war crimes.

Because of his brutal tactics, the United States and its allies in previous peace negotiations have insisted that Assad must step down as part of any political settlement. Russia, Iran, and Syria have rejected that precondition.

The deep divide over the fate of Assad has led several times to an impasse in the UN peace talks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after the Moscow meeting that he hopes the "troika" talks will overcome the "stagnation" of the UN talks.

"The format you see today is the most efficient one," Lavrov said. "It's not an attempt to cast a shadow on the efforts taken by our other partners, it's just stating the facts."

He cited the recent evacuation of civilians and rebels from Aleppo, brokered by Moscow and Ankara, as proof of the efficiency of working with parties that are directly involved in the war and not merely bystanders.

"More than any others, our states are ready to help the settlement with real deeds and not just words," he said.

With reporting by AP and Reuters
Good.U.S., Canada ban offshore drilling in Arctic watersPresident Barack Obama on Tuesday designated the bulk of U.S.-owned waters in the Arctic Ocean and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing.The White House announced the actions in conjunction with the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which also placed a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing in its Arctic waters, subject to periodic review."Today, President Obama and Prime Minister Trudeau are proud to launch actions ensuring a strong, sustainable and viable Arctic economy and ecosystem, with low-impact shipping, science based management of marine resources, and free from the future risks of offshore oil and gas activity," the statement read.The move helps put some finishing touches on Obama's environmental legacy while also testing president-elect Donald Trump's promise to unleash the nation's untapped energy reserves.Obama is making use of an arcane provision in a 1953 law to ban offshore leases in the waters permanently. The statute says that "the president of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf."Environmental groups hope the ban, despite relying on executive powers, will be difficult for future presidents to reverse. The White House said it's confident the president's directive will withstand legal challenge and said the language of the statute provides no authority for subsequent presidents to "unwithdraw" waters from future lease sales.The Atlantic waters placed off limits to new oil and gas leasing, which hold the volume equivalent of 31 Grand Canyons, stretches off the coast of New England south to Virginia.
Across the U.S. in 2016, there were the fewest executions of any year since 1991, as well as the fewest new death sentences since capital punishment was struck down in 1972, according to a report by the Death Penalty Information Center.

The centers year-end report released today projects that 30 death sentences will have been imposed nationally in 2016. The most recent death sentence imposed among the seven men on Virginias death row was in 2011. Nationally, 20 executions were carried out this year, none in Virginia, although one is set for next month.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment was unconstitutional in 1972 but allowed it to resume in 1976. Since then Virginia has executed 111 people, third most in the country behind Texas and Oklahoma. The last person executed in Virginia was Alfredo Prieto, in 2015, after court battles over the states lethal injection procedure came down to the wire.

A similar battle appears to be shaping up for Ricky Javon Grays execution, scheduled for Jan. 18. His lawyers contend, among other things, that the use of two drugs made by compounding pharmacies and not pharmaceutical manufacturers risks inflicting cruel and unusual punishment.

Gray, and an accomplice sentenced to life in prison, murdered seven people in Richmond in less than a week starting Jan. 1, 2006. He was sentenced to death for the slayings of sisters Ruby Harvey, 4, and Stella Harvey, 9, in their South Richmond home.

The decline in executions, the Death Penalty Information Center says, is in part the result of pharmaceutical companies refusing to make their drugs available for use in executions.

The centers report contends public support for the death penalty is declining, citing a poll by the Pew Research Center that found just 49 percent of Americans favored capital punishment and one by Gallup that found that 60 percent supported it but that the level of support had dropped 9 points over the past decade.

America is in the midst of a major climate change concerning capital punishment, said Robert Dunham, the centers executive director and the author of the report. While there may be fits and starts and occasional steps backward, the long-term trend remains clear.

Whether its concerns about innocence, costs and discrimination, availability of life without parole as a safe alternative, or the questionable way in which states are attempting to carry out executions, the public grows increasingly uncomfortable with the death penalty each year, Dunham said.

The report noted, however, that last month voters in Nebraska overturned the state legislatures repeal of the death penalty; in California voters rejected an effort to abolish capital punishment there; and in Oklahoma voters  66 percent to 34 percent  approved the adoption of any execution method not barred by the Constitution.

Joshua Marquis, district attorney for Clatsop County, Ore., and a defender of the death penalty, pointed to the recent election results as demonstrating there is still strong support for the death penalty.

There has not been a single place in the United States where the voters have rejected capital punishment since 1964  in my state of Oregon, Marquis said. And even in Oregon, voters voted twice, subsequently, in 1977 and 1984, to reinstate capital punishment.

Marquis said there are several reasons for declining numbers of death sentences and executions, among them that prosecutors are being more selective and pursuing death sentences in only the more egregious cases.

I think the attitude is the death penalty should only be reserved for a very, very narrow class of murderers, he said.

Also, Marquis noted, the number of all murders has been generally declining in the U.S. so there are fewer people who could receive the death penalty.

The centers report says prosecutors in four of the 16 counties that impose the most death sentences in the nation were defeated by candidates opposed to the death penalty or who said they would reform their countys death penalty practices.

Death rows also shrank nationally, with the Death Penalty Information Center reporting that the number of people whose convictions or death sentences were overturned or those dying in custody outpaced the number of new death sentences in most states. States including Texas, Georgia and Missouri carried out more executions than the number of new death sentences that were handed down.

The most death sentences imposed in a year since 1976 was in 1996, when 315 were imposed. The most executions, 98, were in 1999.

The center also reported that Virginia and Mississippi enacted laws this year to keep secret the compounding pharmacies that make execution drugs, something Grays lawyers are complaining about in federal court.
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A shopping trip to Central Park turned out poorly for two women Tuesday afternoon, as one crashed her car into the other, who was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

Shortly after 3 p.m., an elderly woman driving a Subaru Forester was apparently attempting to park in a handicapped spot next to the Ulta store when she lost control of the SUV, according to Sarah Kirkpatrick, spokeswoman for the Fredericksburg Police Department.

The Subaru struck a woman walking on the sidewalk and knocked her through the glass window of a vacant store next to Ulta in the 1600 block of Carl D. Silver Parkway.

The victim suffered serious injuries and was taken to Mary Washington Hospital, Kirkpatrick said.

The window was shattered and the metal framing was crumpled in the crash; there was a small pool of blood amid the shattered glass on the vacant stores floor.

Kirkpatrick said the building was going to be inspected for structural damage.
History celebrates Henry Clay as the Great Compromiser. A native of Virginias Hanover County, as a young man he moved west and represented Kentucky in Congress. A Whig and candidate for the presidency, he fought to preserve the Union. He brokered the legislative deals that averted the Civil War for a considerable spell. A slaveholder by inheritance, he freed his slaves upon his death. His unionist sympathies doomed the peculiar institution. Clay saw the conflagration to come. He and Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) were related by blood.

Although Clay did not actively seek abolition, his policies doomed slavery. The injustice needed to expand, as Southern partisans well knew. The Senates Hall of Fame immortalizes Clay; Virginias State Capitol honors a native son. Clay belongs in the Senate Hall of Fame. His American system inspired Abraham Lincoln, who as a Republican pursued Clays Whig legacy. The fabled compromises may have condoned slavery but they deferred the Civil War until the North and justice were poised to prevail. Kentucky did not secede. Virginia scorned the higher honor. Washington wept.

Former Sen. John Danforth of Missouri, another border state that did not betray the Union, cites Clays sentiments while lamenting the decline of the legislative enterprise. This is what Clay said:

There are, no doubt, many men who are very wise in their own estimation, who will reject all propositions of compromise, but that is no reason why a compromise should not be attempted to be made. I go for honorable compromise whenever it can be made. Life itself is but a compromise between death and life, the struggle continuing throughout our whole existence, until the Great Destroyer finally triumphs. All legislation, all government, all society is formed upon the principle of mutual concession, politeness, comity, courtesy; upon these, everything is based.
By Stephen J. Farnsworth and Stephen Hanna

Virginia was one of the bright spots for Hillary Clinton and the Democrats in Election 2016, and an examination of the partys gains over time demonstrate just how much the Old Dominion has changed during the past several presidential elections.

The commonwealths new voting patterns are obscured by traditional political maps that show a sea of rural Virginia red and patches of Democratic blue in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, greater Richmond, and in independent cities likes Charlottesville and Fredericksburg. Fairfax County may not be anywhere near the largest county in terms of geographical size, but it is by far in terms of political size, casting more than twice as many votes as any other Virginia jurisdiction.

To put this point another way, people vote and acres dont.

To demonstrate visually the magnitude of the Democratic gains over the past five presidential elections, we have created a cartogram, which resizes the states counties and cities according to the total number of voters cast in the 2016 presidential election. The greatest Democratic gains since 2000 are shaded black while their greatest losses are white. Lighter shades signify less dramatic changes over the past 16 years.

Al Gore lost Fairfax County to George W. Bush by a 47 percent to 49 percent margin in 2000, but Democratic presidential candidates have won the county ever since. By 2016, Hillary Clinton received more than 64 percent of 550,000 votes cast in Fairfax. Donald Trump received only 28.6 percent, more than 10 percentage points behind Mitt Romneys performance in the county four years earlier.

Heavily Democratic jurisdictions also became notably more Democratic over the past five elections. Hillary Clinton received 78 percent of the vote in the city of Richmond, a jurisdiction that provided Gore with around 65 percent of its votes in 2000. Heavily Democratic Arlington County went from 60 percent to more than 75 percent Democratic during that same 16-year period.

Loudoun County, which ranked second behind Fairfax in number of votes cast in 2016, was reliably Republican not long ago. George Bush won the county in 2000 by a 15-point margin, but Clinton won it by a 16-point margin this time. The fast-growing county cast fewer than 76,000 votes in 2000, as compared to 182,000 votes 16 years later.

Clintons decision to name Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate may have added a few points to the Democrats statewide total, but it was probably not decisive. Trump was always a tough sell in Virginia, where Republican proposals to shrink the size of government do not go over well in a state teeming with federal employees and contractors. Similarly, Trumps message of economic decline fared much better in the industrial Midwest than in Virginia, which possesses a vibrant export economy and an unemployment rate consistently below the national average.

Chesterfield County, outside Richmond, has long been the states largest reliably Republican county. Trump won Chesterfield, which ranked third in the total number of votes cast, but only by 2 percentage points, compared to an 8 percentage point margin for Romney four years ago and a 28 point advantage for George W. Bush in 2000.

Southwest Virginia contains a number of counties that have turned strongly Republican. Not that long ago, this region was known as the Fighting 9th, a highly contested congressional district. But theres not much fight left there: Democrats have lost more than 30 percentage points in presidential elections since 2000 in Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell, and Wise counties, largely rural counties where the steady decline of coal mining jobs primed voters to take Trumps message of economic decline to heart. But these four counties together have fewer than 45,000 voters, so the massive pro-Republican shift in Virginias coal country has little impact on statewide elections.

These presidential election trends should not be read to justify Democratic complacency. Virginia is far from becoming the next Maryland in its politics. After all, presidential years are not the full story of Virginia politics: In November 2017 the commonwealths voters will select a new governor. Turnout is likely to be lower  and more Republican  than it was in 2016. How much more Republican it will be depends largely on how well or how poorly Virginias voters view Donald Trumps first nine months in office.
OMAHA Cass County Nebraska Economic Development Council (CCNEDC), part of the Greater Omaha Chambers economic development partnership, has appointed Jennifer Serkiz as its next executive director. She will be responsible for the promotion of economic development activities in Cass County effective Jan. 3, 2017.

Cass County is poised for growth, Serkiz said. I am looking forward to working in the place I call home to bring great new jobs to the community. There is so much potential for future growth, and I am excited to lead this effort.

Prior to this appointment, Serkiz worked for the Greater Omaha Chamber as a business development specialist and was responsible, before that, for managing the Chambers workforce and talent development strategy.

Jennifers drive to get things done promises concrete results for Cass County  expanded economic development that will continue moving our community forward, said CCNEDC President Jane McDaniel.

In her new position, Serkiz will focus on retaining existing businesses, attracting new businesses, creating new jobs and expanding current business and industry in Cass County.

Jennifers energy, enthusiasm and economic development expertise will make her a tremendous asset for Cass County and our partnership, said Randy Thelen, the Chambers senior vice president of economic development.

In addition to her work with the Greater Omaha Chamber, Serkiz worked as an administrative associate with the Plattsmouth Chamber of Commerce. She used her expertise to help with the 2014 Cruisin Main and the chamber auction/awards banquet.

A resident of Cass County, she holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Bellevue University.
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The horse isnt dead but its surely taking a beating.

Incomplete and insufficient. A rolling document that challenges public review. Hazards that have not been not fully assessed.

These and other comments filed Wednesday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency express numerous concerns about the sufficiency of a draft environmental impact statement, or EIS, released in September for the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline.

The EPAs comments, which came from the agencys Region III office in Philadelphia, were filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which issued the draft statement. EPA asks FERC to consider revising the document or issuing a supplemental version  something FERC says it has never done.

The EPA contends the draft statement fails to adequately address a fundamental issue  whether the ambitious infrastructure project is even necessary: EPA recommends that the EIS include a more thorough discussion of the purpose and need or public benefits of the project.

As an interstate pipeline, the 303-mile Mountain Valley project, which would transport natural gas at high pressure through a 42-inch-diameter buried pipeline, needs FERCs approval to proceed.

EPA is a cooperating federal agency during the projects review. FERC is the lead agency.

Advised of EPAs critique and suggestions for a revised draft, Tamara Young-Allen, a spokeswoman for the commission, responded via email: FERC staff will address all concerns raised in comments, including EPAs, in the final environmental impact statement.

She added, EPA, like any other commenter, may recommend a course of action. Their comments are given the same weight/consideration by FERC staff as other comments.

Young-Allen responded similarly earlier this week in response to a host of other recent filings  by regional counties, environmental groups and others  that described the draft environmental impact as incomplete and in need of extensive revision.

FERC has said it anticipates releasing a final environmental statement for the Mountain Valley pipeline project in March. The commissions comment period on the draft statement ends Thursday.

Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC wants to build a pipeline and compressor stations to push natural gas from Wetzel County, West Virginia, to the Transco pipeline in Pittsylvania County. As currently routed, the $3.5 billion project would enter Virginia in Giles County and pass through Montgomery, Craig, Roanoke and Franklin counties en route to the Transco pipeline.

If FERC approves the pipeline, Mountain Valley will have access to eminent domain to acquire permanent easements across private property if negotiations with property owners fail to yield a sum acceptable to all.

That reality has helped stir opposition to the pipeline project that goes beyond concerns about its potential threats to the environment and public safety.

The pipeline would pass through extensive stretches of karst terrain in the region, where the landscape is characterized by sinkholes, caves, springs, sinking streams and complex networks of underground aquifers vulnerable to contamination.

EPA quotes research that suggests the blasting that might be necessary during pipeline trench excavation could negatively affect karst habitat and the unique organisms it often supports: Blast-induced vibrations and shock waves can cause cave roofs to crack or collapse, and karst environmental conditions can be altered by just one crack.

The EPA warns that pipeline construction through karst landscapes could result in contamination of both groundwater and surface waters.

And the agency says the draft environmental impact statement fails to adequately spell out how landowners will be protected from or compensated for any damages to private wells.

EPA, like many others who have reviewed the draft statement since its Sept. 16 release, notes that Mountain Valley has filed reams of material with FERC in the weeks and months that have followed.

It is not apparent within the EIS how FERC intends to include public participation and comment on these subsequent filings, EPA observes. Without this process clearly articulated, it appears that the EIS is a rolling document providing just a snapshot in time.

Young-Allen has said it has been common practice for applicants to FERC to continue to provide information past the release date of a draft environmental impact statement.

Natalie Cox, a spokeswoman for Mountain Valley, said this week that the company has been diligent about providing information to FERC. She said Mountain Valley believes the FERC review process has provided a meaningful opportunity to review and comment on the projects information.

Meanwhile, EPAs critique of the draft environmental impact statement finds fault with a host of other issues, ranging from an inadequate review of alternative pipeline routes to how the pipeline would cross or otherwise affect high-quality streams, such as Bottom Creek in Roanoke County.

The EPA also contends the draft statement fails to document the projects cumulative contribution to greenhouse gases and impacts to water from hydraulic fracturing, a calculation the agency said ought to include the number of wells required to supply the pipeline.

Coincidentally, the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition, a group opposed to both the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the separate but similar Atlantic Coast Pipeline, released information Wednesday about past EPA critiques of FERC environmental impact statements for natural gas projects.

The coalition found numerous examples of the EPA identifying what it deemed to be significant problems with FERC environmental statements. But it also found that EPAs comments seemed to fall on deaf ears at FERC.

It suggested EPA has failed in its duty as a watchdog over FERCs implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act.

Jeffrey Lapp, associate director for EPAs Region III office, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
No one was home when a fire broke out and consumed a house at 216 Prairie Road in Plattsmouth Dec. 11.

Plattsmouth Volunteer Fire Department, Plattsmouth Emergency Medical Services responded to the scene at 1:20 a.m. that Sunday.

A mutual aid call for tankers and manpower also brought Offutt Air Force Base, Bellevue, Murray and Louisville firefighters to help quell the blaze. Firefighters used tankers to shuttle water to the scene because there were no fire hydrants nearby.

About 45 firefighters were on the scene for about six and one-half hours, said Plattsmouth Fire Chief Mike Wilson. Upon arrival, the fire was in the attic, and a small amount of flames were coming from the top of the roof around the flue pipe of the wood burning stove.

Fire crews entered the house and extinguished the fire in the attic from the first floor. Shortly after making entry inside, the roof on the structure started to show signs of collapsing, forcing firefighters outside. Fire crews started exterior defensive attacks on the structure, trying to contain and extinguish the fire, Wilson said.

The house and its contents have been declared a total loss. American Red Cross members assisted at the scene.

The State Fire Marshall investigated and determined the fire resulted from the wood-burning stove in use at the time the fire erupted.
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Osino receives 20-year mining licence for Namibia project Osino Resources has received a 20-year mining licence for its wholly-owned Twin Hills gold project, in Namibia. The mining licence is subject to the fulfilment of several customary conditions which include adherence to an agreed work programme, conclusion...

Newmont announces third quarter 2022 results Newmont Corporation announced third quarter 2022 results. The company produced 1.49 million attributable ounces of gold and 299.000 attributable gold equivalent ounces from co-products.

Debswana boosts diamond sales Debswana, a 50/50 joint venture between De Beers and the Botswana government, recorded a 37.5% growth in rough diamond sales in the first nine months of 2022, statistics released by the Bank of Botswana showed Tuesday, driven by steady demand for...

AGC signs declaration of responsibility and sustainability principles with gold industry leaders Artisanal Gold Council Executive Director Dr. Kevin Telmer signed a Declaration of Responsibility and Sustainability Principles along with other gold industry leaders at the LBMA/LPPM Global Precious Metals Conference in Lisbon on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022...
HRD Antwerp will become the first grading laboratory to offer diamond reports in two languages, the company said.

Meanwhile, its officials participated in a trade mission to Korea.

The lab will launch bilingual reports in English and Korean, as well as in English and Chinese, from February 1 next year. HRD said it will offer the reports in additional foreign languages over the course of 2017.

Diamond reports already exist in Chinese, but this is the first time that one report will be offered in two languages anywhere in the world, HRD claimed.

The trade mission to Seoul was attended by Bart De Wever, the mayor of Antwerp, and representatives from the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC). The visit, which aims to promoted the Antwerp diamond trade in the region, features networking events and the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Jeweller Confederation Association to explore collaboration opportunities.

The South Korean market represents great opportunities and our presence here today is just a first step in what will undoubtedly become a mutually beneficial relationship, said Ari Epstein, who serves both as chairman of HRD and CEO of the AWDC.

As part of the program, HRD has donated to the Korean industry an M-Screen+ device for screening round polished diamonds between 0.005 carats and 0.10 carats.




Jerry Ehrenwald, President and CEO of International Gemological Institute, was elected to sit on the Board of the U.S. Kimberley Process Authority after Mark Gershburg vacated this position having spent more than ten years as one of the three directors at USPKPA.

USKPA is a trade association helping the U.S. Government to eradicate conflict diamonds from legitimate supply channels. It oversees the use of KP certificates in rough exports from the United States.

We look forward to working with Mr. Ehrenwald and the IGI staff to fulfill this meaningful mission for the U.S. rough diamond industry, said Dr. Martin Hochbaum, executive director and member of the USKPA Board.

I am pleased to be appointed to the USKPA board and look forward to the opportunity to help enhance the KP Process as well as support the vital message that KP certification means to the diamond industry  from the mine to the ultimate consumer, Jerry Ehrenwald said in his statement in connection with this appointment.

Theodor Lisovoy, Rough&Polished, Moscow




The National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) has named honorees for its 2016 special awards.

The 2016 NRC Field Employee of the Year is Greg Dunn, project manager for Herzog Contracting Corp. Dunn began as a heavy equipment operator more than 30 years ago and has worked his way through the ranks to his current position successfully managing more than 15 rail and heavy civil projects for clients that include Amtrak, North County Transit District, the Southern California Regional Rail Authority and the San Diego Association of Governments. Alan L. Landes, Herzog Contractings president and CEO described Dunn as one of the companys more trustworthy professionals.

The latest project Dunn managed was the $158-million Pier E project in Long Beach, Calif., which was selected as the 2015 NRC Project of the Year. Darrin Lambrigger, assistant director of construction management at the Port of Long Beach, said that Dunn was a superb project manager and a straight shooter respected for his expertise.

Gregs unparalleled knowledge of the industry, his commitment to his customers and his dedication to safety are among many attributes that make for an outstanding NRC Field Employee of the Year, the association said in a press release.

In addition to the Field Employee of the Year, NRC named two Projects of the Year in a large and small category.

For their flexibility in complex environments, safety records and commitment to exceeding customer expectations, the NRC is proud to honor these projects as our Large and Small Projects of the Year, the association explained.

The Exposition Light Rail Transit Phase 2 Design-Build (Expo 2) project by Skanska-Rados Joint Venture (SRJV) was named the 2016 Large Project of the Year. Expo 2 added seven stations along 6.6 miles of urban light rail and for the first time in 60 years, connected the University of Southern California, Exposition Park and West Los Angeles.

Systems and electrical work included a low-profile overhead catenary system (OCS), train control and signals, crossing protection, traction power and communications. The projects urban location required extensive maintenance of traffic planning for vehicles, public transit commuters, pedestrians and cyclists. Additionally, area residents, high profile theaters and recording studios expressed worries about noise levels. SRJV installed a GERB track system, the first installed in the United States, to mitigate vibration and noise emitted by light-rail vehicles.

NRC also pointed out that beyond the challenge of meeting community needs, Expo 2 met numerous technical challenges to become the first transit project in the United Sates to receive Envision Platinum certification from the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure.

In other awards news, Granite Construction was awarded the NRCs 2016 Small Project of the Year for the Walong to Marcel 2nd Track project. Union Pacific tasked Granite Construction with the project, which included clearing, excavation, embankment, drill and shoot rock, rock anchors, storm drain culverts, headwall structures and sub ballast to create approximately one mile of roadbed for a second mainline track. Additionally, six 48-inch steel pipes were bored and jacked under the live track to facilitate drainage flow.

Granite Construction dealt with challenging topography and a dry, fire-prone environment with the project. The existing topography was very steep with a tunnel in the middle of the existing single track segment. Instead of widening the tunnel to create room for the second track, dirt and rock were excavated to create the second track alignment around the tunnel. Additionally, the project was located in an Extreme Fire Danger Class area. Granite Construction took extensive precautions, including performing Fire Risk Assessments several times a day and adjusting tasks as needed, which resulted in zero fires during the project. There were no delays or impacts to train traffic, no injuries occurred and the project was completed on time and under budget.

The award winners will be recognized at the 2017 NRC Conference in Boca Raton, Fla., as well as in the May issue of RT&S.
The International Monetary Fund's executive board has reaffirmed its "full confidence" in IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde despite she being found guilty of negligence for improperly overseeing a 2008 case when she was France's finance minister.

"The Executive Board met today to consider recent developments in the legal proceedings in France involving Managing Director Christine Lagarde. The Executive Board took all relevant factors into account in its discussions, including the Managing Director's outstanding leadership of the Fund and the wide respect and trust for her leadership globally," the International Monetary Fund said in a statement.

"In this context, the Executive Board reaffirms its full confidence in the Managing Director's ability to continue to effectively carry out her duties."

A French court found Lagarde guilty of negligence while she was French finance minister in 2008 when she approved an award of 404 million euros to businessman Bernard Tapie for the disputed sale of a firm. However, the court did not hand down any punishment.

Lagarde, who always denied of any wrongdoing, said she would not appeal against the ruling. "There's a point in time when one has to just stop, turn the page and move on and continue to work with those who have put their trust in me."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
New Zealand had a merchandise trade balance of NZ$705 million in November, Statistics New Zealand said on Wednesday - representing 18 percent of exports.

That missed expectations for a shortfall of NZ$500 million following the NZ$815 million deficit in October.

Exports came in at NZ$3.86 billion, shy of forecasts for NZ$4.00 billion and down from NZ$3.91 billion in the previous month.

On a yearly basis, meat and edible offal led the fall, down NZ$158 million (31 percent), while milk powder, butter, and cheese rose NZ$31 million (2.6 percent).

Logs, wood, and wood articles rose NZ$34 million (12 percent), led by untreated logs, while fruit rose NZ$16 million (27 percent) and the quantity rose 31 percent.

Exports to the EU fell NZ$116 million (32 percent), and to the USA by NZ$111 million (23 percent). Other top export destinations (China, Australia, and Japan) showed little change.

Imports were at NZ$4.56 billion versus expectations for NZ$4.50 billion and down from NZ$4.72 billion a month earlier.

On a yearly basis, capital goods led the fall in imports, down NZ$326 million (26 percent), while intermediate goods fell NZ$53 million (2.9 percent).

Consumption goods fell NZ$34 million (2.6 percent). Crude oil was up NZ$52 million (29 percent) in value.

Of our top import partners, the USA fell NZ$351 million (46 percent), led by aircraft and parts. Other top import destinations (China, Australia, and Japan) rose in value.

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.
Beverage giant Coca-Cola Co. (KO) and Belgian brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev NV or AB InBev (BUD,AHBIF.PK) on Wednesday said they have reached an agreement regarding the transition of AB InBev's 54.5% equity stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa or CCBA for $3.15 billion, after customary adjustments.

CCBA includes the countries of South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ghana, Mayotte and Comoros.

In addition, the companies have reached an agreement in principle for Coca-Cola to acquire AB InBev's interest in bottling operations in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, El Salvador and Honduras for an undisclosed amount.

The transactions are subject to the relevant regulatory and minority approvals and are expected to close by the end of 2017.

Coca-Cola plans to hold all of these territories temporarily until they can be refranchised to other partners. Coca-Cola's intent is to account for the acquired stakes as a discontinued operation for reporting purposes.

Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola, said, "We will move forward with our long-term strategic plan in these important growth . We are continuing negotiations with a number of parties who are highly qualified and interested in these bottling territories and look forward to refranchising these territories as soon as practical following regulatory approval."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Norway's unemployment rate declined in October, Statistics Norway showed Wednesday.

The unemployment rate came in at 4.8 percent in October versus 5 percent in July. The rate came in line with expectations.

Unemployment decreased by 0.2 percentage points, or 6,000 persons, in October from July. However, the statistical office said the decline was within the margin of error.

At the same time, the number of employed persons increased by 6,000.

The rate for October indicates the average of September to November and the July figure reflects June to August period.

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.
German shares were little changed in light pre-Christmas trading on Wednesday, as worries over Italy's fragile banks offset investor optimism that the U.S. will help lead global growth.

The benchmark DAX was up 8 points or 0.07 percent at 11,472 in opening deals after rising 0.3 percent the previous day.

Banks traded mixed, a day after Italy's third largest lender, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, cautioned that it could run out of cash at a faster pace than previously forecast if its recapitalization fails. Commerzbank edged down marginally while Deutsche Bank rose 0.7 percent.

Volkswagen rose half a percent after the carmaker agreed to a $1 billion settlement to fix an additional batch of diesel-powered vehicles tainted with emissions-cheating software.

Chip maker Infineon Technologies traded flat after issuing a statement that its lawsuit with Macom is not settled.

Linde shares rallied 1.5 percent, a day after the industrial gases maker and its U.S. competitor Praxair announced a merger to create a global giant in the sector.

Air Berlin climbed 5 percent on a report that Etihad Airways is considering rolling back its European investments.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Actuant Corp. (ATU) announced, for the full year, the company increased its adjusted EPS guidance to $1.10-1.30 from $1.00-1.20. Actuant said it is pursuing further actions which should reduce the company's income tax expense, driving incremental EPS of approximately $0.10 for the fiscal year. The company maintained its prior sales guidance in the $1.075-1.125 billion range with core sales down 2-6%. Free cash flow is projected to be in the $85-95 million range in fiscal 2017.

Actuant expects second quarter sales to be in the $250-260 million range, with EPS of $0.08-0.13. The company noted that its second-quarter outlook incorporates the normal seasonal slowdown experienced across nearly all of its businesses.

Excluding items, adjusted EPS for the first quarter of fiscal 2017 was $0.20 compared to $0.31 in the comparable prior year period. Consolidated sales were $266 million, 13% lower than the $305 million in the comparable prior year quarter. Core sales were down 14% while foreign currency rate changes reduced sales 1% with net acquisitions/divestitures a 2% sales benefit.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
After the governor of Texas announced that the state would stop accepting Syrian refugees, the Obama administration went behind his back secretly conferencing with a mayor that offers illegal immigrants sanctuary and Syrians a welcome mat, Judicial Watch said Tuesday.

The plan, evidently, was to continue sending Syrian refugees to the Lone Star State, even as the governor initiated litigation to halt the flow, according to the judicial watchdog.

Judicial Watch claimed that it obtained records of the administration's behind-the-scenes efforts to keep sending Syrians to Texas despite fierce opposition from state officials over the security threats created by refugees from an Arab nation that's a hotbed of terrorism.

The White House looked to Austin Mayor Steve Adler, going around Texas Governor Greg Abbott to confer with a city leader who espoused the controversial Syrian resettlements, Judicial Watch said quoting the records. Shortly after the Governor announced that the state wouldn't accept any more Syrian refugees, the administration responded by colluding with Adler, according to records of a conference call between the mayor's office and the White House. The administration also furnished Adler with "talking points" involving the refugee resettlement and the parties discussed Abbott's lawsuit, it says.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
Parliament Speaker Meets Iranian Charge d' Affaires





SANAA, Dec. 19 (Saba)- Parliament Speaker Yahya Ali al-Raiee met here with Iranian Charge d' Affaires to Yemen Mohammed Farhat on Monday.



At the meeting, the Speaker praised the historical bilateral relations between the two countries, including parliamentary cooperation.



Al-Raiee asked Farhat to convey his greetings to Dr. Ali Larijani, the head of the Iranian Shura Council and all the parliamentarians and officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran, hoping for more economic, commercial and health cooperation to serve common interests of the two brotherly countries.



He also called to employ the Iranian external political movements and diplomatic relations with all our brothers and friendly countries to put an end to the unjust aggression war imposed against Yemen, lifting the unfair land, sea and air siege on Yemen.



For his part, the Iranian Charge d' Affaires to Yemen expressed his pleasure to promote bilateral relations to include various fields that serve the interests of the Iranian and Yemeni peoples.



Farhat also stressed on the importance to enhance the economic cooperation in different fields.



The meeting was attended by deputy parliament speaker Nasser Mohammed Bajeel, the Parliament Secretary General Abdullah Ahmed Sofan and Parliament members, Bassam Ali Hassan al-Shater and Amin Mohamed Basha .



TN/ZaK



Saba

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[19/December/2016]
US-Saudi aggression warplanes continue bombing Yemen's areas

SANA'A, Dec. 21 (Saba)  US-Saudi aggression warplanes continued on Wednesday targeting citizens' houses and their properties in a number of the republic's provinces in the past 24 hours.



A military official said to Saba that the Saudi aggression targeted a women gathering on a water well in Tallan area in Haidan district in Sa'ada province.



US-Saudi aggression warplanes waged two air raids on al-Magram area in Baqem district in Sa'ada, an air raid on al-Sawh area in Kutaf district, the official said.



The warplanes targeted the coastal defense zone in al-Jabana area in al-Salif district of Hodeida province with four raids, he added.



He said that US-Saudi aggression warplanes launched two air raids on Hodeida international airport , an air raid on Kahbob area in Lahj province.



US-Saudi aggression warplanes launched waged four raids on Midi desert in Hajjah province, he added.



The aggression warplanes launched an air raid on Ayeal Mohammed area in Nehm district, three air raids on al-Ghail, Mahali village and Ramaha areas, two air raids on Wadi al-Asarat and Bani Hagel area, and an air raid on al-Mabrak site in Jizan, he said



The child Anwar Abdulmawla was injured by a sniper of Saudi-paid mercenaries in al-Hawd village, al-Sharaf area, al-Selwi district in Taiz province.



Saudi-paid mercenaries also targeted a house near junction of the Republican Palace in Taiz with a mortar.



HA

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[21/December/2016]
By SA Commercial Prop News

Minister of Public Works Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde



The government, stung by billions spent on leasing buildings, wants all its departments and entities that occupy private properties to relocate to state-owned buildings in the next three years.

Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde said during her budget vote speech yesterday that her department had concluded that the government could save billions by moving state departments housed in private properties to government-owned buildings.

"The leasing portfolio is costing the state a lot of money. The department has in the past spent billions in leases and functional accommodation for client departments," she said.

Public Works was planning to build new government buildings and to maintain existing ones to make space for departments that lease private buildings, she said.

"This will also include ensuring the relocation of national departments to state-owned buildings where it is feasible to do so," Mahlangu-Nkabinde said.

Such a move could clip the wings of dodgy building lease agreements such as the controversial attempt to move South African Police Service headquarters to a Pretoria building owned by businessman Roux Shabangu.

The Sunday Times exposed the R500-million lease agreement deal entered into by national police chief Bheki Cele and Shabangu, which would have resulted in police headquarters being relocated to the latter's property at the Sanlam Middestad building in Pretoria.

But Public Protector Thuli Madonsela put the brakes on the deal when she ruled that the contract entered into with Shabangu was "improper and unlawful".

Ironically, Mahlangu- Nkabinde, who signed off on the deal after she was appointed minister, was severely criticised by the Public Protector for authorising the deal.

Mahlangu-Nkabinde acknowledged yesterday that the task of relocating state departments to government-owned buildings could take a while to complete.

"We acknowledge that our lease portfolio will take a while to reduce, but in the interim, the department will continue to find ways to structure its current leases such that the socio-economic goals of the government are realised," she said.

The minister further told MPs that Public Works, in collaboration with the Department of Higher Education and Training, had decided to renovate and convert idle state buildings to provide cheap accommodation to higher education students.

So far, the HG de Witt building in Tshwane is being refurbished and will house 180 students when completed. The department is refurbishing the Pelonomi hospital in Bloemfotein, which will accommodate 700 students when it is ready.

"Through this intervention, the department is looking at alleviating the problem of a lack of decent student accommodation while creating job opportunities," she said.

Mahlangu-Nkabinde promised to lift service delivery after criticism.

"Our maintenance record leaves much room for improvement. This has forced us to reconsider other options which will be rolled out in this fiscal year," she said.
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
Schwan's announces further expansion at Salina facility

The distribution center, in addition to the 400,000-square-foot pizza expansion, will bring the Salina Schwan's site to over 1 million square feet.
Re: Genesis, divine and humanity Bravo brother; you nailed it. The same symbiotic relationship between Church and State for more then two thousand years since the Roman Empire when Christiandom took control of the world.

They killed off the Gnostic Christians who were teaching the Christ within us. And the notion that our body is the Temple of God. Why? because God dwells in us. The Temple that was not built by hand.

Leituala Roger B
Over a 120 people gathered at Taumesina Resort last Wednesday to witness six local companies attain international accreditation in H.A.C.C.P. certification, a significant tool for quality assurance and a platform of confidence and trust between exporters and importers in the Food & Beverage industry.

Funded by the Australian and New Zealand Government aid programmes, the Pacific Horticultural and Agricultural Market Access (P.H.A.M.A) programme provided support for H.A.C.C.P. (Food Safety and Management Programme) training and the certification process at the request of the Samoa Association of Manufactures and Exporters (S.A.M.E).

President Tagaloa Eddie Wilson welcomed officials and guests and emphasised the need to improve the quality of Samoan products as well as their competitiveness on the world market.

When Samoa was at the crossroads to access W.T.O., the challenge from government is for S.A.M.E. to pull up their socks, for export companies to improve their efficiency and be competitive with quality products in a globalised market.

Since 2009 S.A.M.E. had launched I.S.O. 9000 with 24 companies and now attaining this new milestone in their operations, said Tagaloa.

And in 2014 with the assistance of P.H.A.M.A., the H.A.C.C.P. certification programme was facilitated and launched by Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

The event today is to witness six companies who have attained yet again another milestone. Both H.A.C.C.P. and I.S.O. 9000 programmes are continuing with 12 more companies expected to achieve international certification.

Tagaloa acknowledged the contribution of the public private partnership of government, S.A.M.E., P.H.A.M.A., S.R.O.S., and farmer groups in helping address challenges to the export value chain.

As a direct result of their achievement, the certified companies have already begun to receive an increase in demand for exports and new export pathways are expected to be established.

S.A.M.E. is targeting Samoan Merchandise export revenues to hit the $100 million tala mark by 2020 - which triples Samoas exports when the S.A.M.E.-Samoa Buy Samoa Made Export drive started in November 2013.

Australian High Commissioner Sue Langford congratulated the six companies attaining H.A.C.C.P. certification.

The six companies are recognised by New Zealand and Australia, and other export markets. The H.A.C.C.P. certification programme is central to farmers and processors aims, to maintain existing markets and to build capacity to value-add Samoas primary produce.

Most significantly, this programme will help improve the national economy through income generation benefitting farmers, including women and young people.

In concluding, Ms. Langford says she wants to see continuing collaboration between S.A.M.E., P.H.A.M.A., government and other development partners to help improve the competitiveness of Samoan products on the world market.

Minister of Finance, Sili Epa Tuioti, gave brief remarks from the Samoan government side, pointing out the recently launched Strategy for the Development of Samoa (S.D.S.) 2017-2020 with an emphasis on accelerating sustainable development and economic opportunity for all.

He noted of S.A.M.E. in launching their Samoa Export Plan 2016-2017  2019/2020 coincides with the S.D.S time frame, and suggest that the two documents aligned to the same objectives and complementary. S.A.M.Es Export Plan meets four out of the five Key Outcomes of the S.D.S Priority Area 1: Economic- of the S.D.S Plan. He noted the second key outcome of the S.A.M.E Export Plan which aims for agriculture and fisheries development to be sustained, which aligns well with the S.D.S to re-invigorate agriculture.

The Minister pointed out the agriculture sector hasnt been performing well in past years, and thus needs to be properly re-formed to produce sufficient supplies of primary products needed by S.A.M.E companies for value-addition and for exports.

Our farmers need to be incentivised to go out and plant more, theres a strong demand for cocoa for the chocolate manufacturing, theres a strong demand for taro, we dont have enough taro, a strong demand for coconut based products, but not enough supply. So theres a need for reforms to ensure enough supplies to meet the demand for an increasing export market.

He said government recognizes the private sector as a key development partner helping address economic development and creating jobs.

The food and beverage companies with H.A.C.C.P. certification are now global players and must maintain competitiveness with a much more discerning consumer base.

The Minister acknowledged S.A.M.E. partner P.H.A.M.A., financially supported by the governments of New Zealand and Australia, for initiating H.A.C.C.P. certification and with partial funding by the Government of Samoa, S.A.M.E. had provided supportive resources. H.A.C.C.P. certification is a very expensive process and companies themselves invest a lot of their own resources to attain this international recognition.

The S.A.M.E. Export Plan targets local agriculture and is for everyone from farmers to store owners to business owners.

At least ten other companies have enrolled in the to H.A.C.C.P. certification programme for the Financial year 2016-2017.
Yazaki EDS Samoa celebrated the end of the year in style yesterday.

Staff members took time out from their work to rejoice in the spirit of the Christmas season in what will be the last for many of them since the company is closing shop.

Senior staff member, Malaeloa Toleafoa, said yesterdays celebration was the companys way of thanking their staff for their hard work.

As we all know this year is also the last year for the company so not only s it our end of year party but this will be one of the last times Yazaki will have such a celebration, he said.

Today we also commemorate some of the achievements and to say thank you to all our staff members. So the management decided to give gifts to all the employees.

Malaeloa said they havent heard anything from the management about when the company will officially close. At the moment we are not sure of the exact date, he said All we heard is that its some time in the middle of next year.
Thousands of Samoans have gathered in Apia to throw a massive homecoming party for their world champion.

Lupesoliai Laauliolemalietoa Joseph Parker was the centre of attention when the nation stopped to pay tribute to his achievement on Beach Road today.

The government honoured Lupesoliai by giving public servants half a day off work so they could celebrate with him.

Lupesoliai is in Samoa with his parents, his management team and friends.

More details soon.
A businesswoman is set to receive the raffle prize of a lifetime today when she is presented with the keys to two brand new Ford Ranger trucks.

Anarosa P. Molioo has won two of three Ford vehicles in the Raffle of the Century which kicked off over a year ago. The other vehicle has been won by Marist Brothers School (M.B.S.) Mulivai.

Proceeds of the raffle will be used to fund developments at St. Josephs College and M.B.S.

Moments before the draw, FaolotoiFatialofaPogi represented Marist St. Joseph, Auckland, and presented the raffle committee with $50,000 in support of the raffle.

According to the Raffle Committees Vice President, Masuisui JR Pereira, said the presentation today will be the culmination of 18 months of hard work.

But before that, there was a whole lot of planning for the set up of the Ford Mobile Raffle of the Century. So today is a culmination of 18 months of hard work.

In particular, not only our partners, the likes of Ah Liki Wholesale, Taula Beverages, B.S.L, of course Krissy and then Ford Samoa.

Masuisui acknowledged the work of everyone involved.

He said the response from the public was overwhelming.

Typical Samoans always leave things to the last minute, he said.As you can see we are delaying the draw because there are still people coming in to buy the raffles in particular the parents of the students of the M.B.S. Mulivai and St. Josephs Alafua.

So as we do this interview they are still writing the receipts for those wanting to purchase raffle tickets. Thank you Ford for these great prizes; three brand new Ford Rangers.

Thats the winner; future generation of Samoa.
Think a minuteSome time ago in Egypt, we learned of terrible attacks on foreign news reporters, including the horrific sexual assault of Lara Logan, a well-known female journalist from South Africa. In another instance, a reporter from the New York Times was kidnapped by the Taliban for 8 months, but was eventually able to escape. Of all the jobs in news and journalism, being a war correspondent is the most dangerous.

Young 25-year-old Leonard Spencer was a reporter for the London Morning Post. His assignment was the Boer War in South Africa. Leonard was riding a train to the frontlines of battle when suddenly there was a violent crash. The Boer army had ambushed this British train. During the shooting Leonard jumped out amidst the flying bullets and exploding shells to help clear the train tracks. Ironically, after the trains getaway with many British soldiers saved, the one man left behind to face the enemy alone was this young newspaper reporter, Leonard Spencer.

He was captured and put into the Pretoria prison, known for its maximum security and few escapes. Yet amazingly, young Leonard was able to break out of this famous fortress. However, there was still 300 miles of enemy territory through which he had to find his way to freedom. He walked alone for many days and nights, continually dodging enemy soldiers. Tired, hungry and thirsty, he finally reached a mining town and knocked on the door of the only British citizen living there. Leonard was then smuggled onto a train to the British consul and safety.

What is surprising is that Leonard Spencer is not remembered for his bravery in the South African Boer War. For this young journalist who saved a train of British soldiers and escaped the enemy against all odds, continued to do the impossible for the rest of his life. We know him as Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, Englands brave and brilliant Prime Minister who helped save the free world from Adolf Hitlers murderous, evil tyranny.

Churchill decided from an early age what kind of character he would have that served others well throughout his lifetime. Our way of life and character starts with the choices we make now. If we have not chosen to do the right things in our daily life, we definitely will not choose to do them later when there is a greater risk and price to pay. Jesus is the only One Who can truly strengthen our willpower so we can start changing our heart and habits today. With His guidance and power, you can start living His way every dayno matter how much it costs you. Wont you ask Jesus to forgive you for not living the way you know you should? Then ask Him to take charge of your heart and way of living every day. It is the only way you can develop His character and courage to consistently do the right thing. Just think a minute...
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The president of the U.N. General Assembly called Fidel Castro "one of the 20th century's most iconic and influential leaders" at a memorial tribute to the late leader of the Cuban revolution who led his country for nearly 50 years.

Peter Thompson told Tuesday's ceremony that for many people Castro "embodied the struggle of the global south for independence, justice and development."

He said Castro's "activism in pursuit of a fairer and more just world made him a symbol of resistance and inspiration to people across the world in Latin America, Africa and beyond."

Nearly 30 speakers representing various groups and countries addressed the 193-member world body  but there were no speakers from Western nations.
The Commission of Inquiry tasked to review the performance of Land and Titles Court Judges has presented its report to Parliament.

The more than 80 pages report was tabled by the Chairman of the C.O.I, Lopaoo Natanielu Mua when Parliament convened on Tuesday.

Speaker of the House, Leaupepe Toleafoa Faafisi, said the report is referred to the Judiciary System for their response.

He made it clear that the response needs to be tabled in Parliament when it reconvenes on Tuesday 24 January 2017.

Outside parliament, Lopaoo said it would be contempt to release a copy of the report until the Judiciary has responded to the claims.

He added that once a response is tabled by next year, the report is then up for Parliaments discussion.

The Inquiry was called by Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi in June this year to look into performances of the L.T.C. judges.

At the time he announced the inquiry, he said the investigation should make it clear that the appointments of L.T.C. judges are contractual so they can be re-interviewed if they are still qualified to continue their duties.

Also tabled in Parliament was the Auditors Report on Irregularities for 2012  2013, 2013  2014, 2014  2015 and 2015  2016.

The report to Parliament on the Operations of the Audit Office from July 2012  June 2013, Report of the Controller and Auditor General to the Legislative Assembly on the Operations of the Samoa Audit Office for the financial year 1 July 2013  June 2014 and Samoa Audit Office Report on Irregularities were all tabled.
Members of Parliament observed a minute of silence on Tuesday in honour of former Cabinet Minister, the late Leiataualesa Vaiao John Alailima.

Leiataualesa was first elected in parliament as the Member of Parliament for Aiga ile Tai in 1988.

Speaker of the House, Leaupepe Toleafoa Faafisi conveyed his condolences to the family of Leiataualesa and his constituency.

He was 95 years old when he passed away peacefully in American Samoa.

Born and raised in Gataivai SavaiI, Leiataualesa came from a big family of 22 sisters and brothers. The former M.P. was a Minister of Justice, Labour and Public Service and a former Minister of Public Works.

His other ministerial positions include Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister before retiring from politics in 1996.

He held three prominent high chief titles; the Amituanai in Lotofaga, the Leiataualesa in Faleu Manono and Fuimaono from Salani.

Following his retirement Leiataualesa went on to complete his research on Our Ancestors.

During his time in parliament he had served his constituency through electrification of Manoo Island, securing 58 acres of land for Manono residents and construction of the main district wharf to name a few.

The former Minister also sponsored many students from the district to attend Polytechnic and National university of Samoa. Leiataua was married to renowned Pacific author the late Fay G Calkins of, Aggie Grey, Samoan Saga and the subject of her book My Samoan Chief.
Fledging fitness-focused app Lymber outlasted 75 tech-centric local startups in this years PitchFest competition, ultimately winning a $5,000 check and earning the honorary title of San Diegos top technology idea of 2016.

Founded earlier this year, Lymber makes an iPhone app that helps locals book a drop-in spot at 180 studios in San Diego, and more than 600 around the country.

The startup is looking to slice off a portion of the $22-billion annual gym-membership business with a pay-as-you-go marketplace where supply and demand dictate drop-in rates at partner facilities.

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Unlike New York-based ClassPass, which was founded in 2013 and charges a monthly subscription fee, Lymber offers workout seekers a no-commitment way to explore various disciplines offered around town. Classes available range from the standard to the bizarre, and include things like yoga, barre, rock climbing and even spearfishing.

The PitchFest competition, an annual affair hosted by the San Diego Venture Group, invited local early-stage companies to measure their business plans and investor appeal against others in town. Some 124 startups applied to participate in October. Applicants were divided into tech and biotech categories, with roughly 70 percent falling into the former bucket. A panel of judges picked two finalists per division to compete in a live demo in front of a crowd of 480 people.

Lymber narrowly won the tech division of the pitch-off on Dec. 13, securing the crowds vote over challenger Approved, which makes software for mortgage professionals. In the biotech group, Sun Genomics bested Poiesis Therapeutics.

Lymbers signature feature, called dynamic pricing, likely played a role in its win. Dynamic pricing means that studio fees will fluctuate depending on the day of the week, the time of day and the popularity of the studio or instructor. The studios set a high price and a low price  anywhere from a few bucks to $40 per class  and then Lymbers algorithm goes to work, using real-time and historical data to adjust class rates on the fly.

While the startup may have earned the approbation of its peers, the companys young app  2-months-old  is still looking to secure a sizable audience that will vote in the only real way that matters: studio bookings. So far, Lymber has landed just 100 local users. Though those who are using the app tend to be repeat visitors, as the company is averaging three visits per user, CEO Doug Hecht said.

Lymber has raised $1.1 million in seed funding. Currently, the company is looking to raise an additional $1 million in capital, and aims to use the money to continue to build its foundation in San Diego and recruit new users.

The first million was spent on building supply and now were raising money for consumers, Hecht said.

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jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruin
The Del Mar City Council approved a resolution this week opposing some of the ideas raised by President-elect Donald Trump that could target Muslims and unauthorized immigrants.

Trump said during his presidential campaign that he would deport millions of unauthorized immigrants and that he would support creating a registry for immigrants from Muslim nations.

Its unclear whether he would actually create such a registry  his Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said that, while no Muslim registry has been proposed, it also hasnt been ruled out.

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The Del Mar council approved the resolution by a 4-1 vote Monday, with Mayor Terry Sinnott opposed. He said the document was political in nature and one-sided.

Councilman Dwight Worden, who wrote the resolution, said his aim was to reassure residents and visitors that the city supports basic constitutional and human rights.

Im hearing from constituents who do want to be reassured, Worden said. Where does our city stand on these issues?

In the resolution and a letter accompanying the proposal, Worden, a former city attorney, wrote that Del Mar should not participate in any religious registries or rounding up of undocumented persons.

The resolution also says the city should continue to adopt policies  such as the citys new Climate Action Plan  that address climate change grounded in the best available science not partisanship or ideology.

Sinnott said the resolution was slanted.

It represents the liberal, Democratic position on federal issues, Sinnott said. Would we be willing to add conservative issues to the resolution, such as Del Mar support for enforcement of existing federal laws, options to improve education, balanced budgets and reduced regulations, investment in infrastructure?

There were no public speakers on the matter during the meeting, but city staff said there were 25 letters and emails submitted. Of those, 23 were in favor of the resolution and two opposed.

Worden said he personally received 40 emails in support of the resolution and two opposed. He added that he did not intend to make the resolution political.

I think its important. I wouldnt have brought it forward if I didnt, Worden said. I think its tame. Its directed. Its not inflammatory.

In recent months, many cities and police departments have taken similar positions, including Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck who said last month his department will not help deport immigrants.

Mayors in other cities, including New York, Oakland, San Francisco and Seattle, have made similar statements.

edward.sifuentes@sduniontribune.com

@EdwardSifuentes
CITY COUNCILS

DEL MAR

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The Del Mar City Council met Monday to certify the November election and swear in new members Dave Druker and Ellie Haviland, and re-elected member Sherryl Parks. The council chose Terry Sinnott as the new mayor and Dwight Worden as deputy mayor. The council considered increasing the number of meetings, and discussed asking council committees and the public about goals for the upcoming year. The council also discussed implementation of the recently passed Measure Q, the Transactions and Use Tax, and decided to come up with criteria for judging proposed projects.

SOLANA BEACH

The Solana Beach City Council met Dec. 9 in closed session to discuss litigation and labor negotiation. In open session, the council approved conditional permits and a comprehensive sign plan for a mixed-use development at 330 S. Cedros Ave.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

BONSALL

The Bonsall Unified School District board met Dec. 8 in closed session to discuss labor negotiations and litigation. In open session, the board accepted a proposal from Hernandez Environmental Services for $38,810 for biological surveys at the new Bonsall High School Gird Road site; and accepted the initial proposal from the California School Employees Association, Bonsall Chapter #703, to reopen negotiations for the 2016-17 school year. The board commended Megan Nowosad, Claire Green, Phoebe Anderson, Sara LaRussa, Gunnar Streich, Kristi Leung, Ginger Lowe, Delainy Reinard, Bradley Brown and William Winebrennera of the Bonsall High School Student Action Committee for their work in the recent election supporting Measure DD, the high school bond. They made campaign calls, placed campaign signs, walked neighborhoods and knocked on doors of residences to encourage support for the measure, which failed. Dr. Timothy Coen was elected as board president, and Erin English as board clerk.

ESCONDIDO

The Escondido Union School District board met in closed session Monday to discuss litigation. In regular session, the board swore in new members, and elected Zesty Harper as president, Gary Altenburg as vice president, and Joe Muga as clerk. The board approved raising substitute teacher pay to $130-$140 per day, and approved change orders and additions to maintenance contracts for work at district schools.

SAN DIEGUITO

The San Dieguito Union High School District board met in closed session Dec. 8 to discuss personnel issues. In open session, the board elected Amy Herman as board president, Joyce Dalessandro as vice president, and Beth Hergesheimer as clerk. The board also approved several new policies on topics including soliciting and selling, employee safety and security, and health and welfare benefits; and several revised and new policies on topics including tobacco, suspension and expulsion, bullying and child abuse prevention and reporting. The first interim financial report was also approved.

laura.groch@sduniontribune.com
Filipino food is having a major moment in America, and a handful of local Filipino chefs are taking the lead by infusing their menus with modern takes on favorite childhood dishes.

Anthony Sinsay from Jsix Restaurant, Danilo DJ Tangalin at Tidal, Evan Cruz at Arterra and Kristianna Zabala at Nomad Donuts have incorporated Filipino ingredients and cooking techniques into dishes that are now top-sellers. They all say Filipino food  long overlooked by critics for being too strange, too downscale, too derivative or too fatty and sweet  has finally arrived.

People are always looking at whats next, and were in a great spot right now, Tangalin said. Filipino food can be at the forefront of the story.

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Seafood Sinigang by executive chef Danilo DJ Tangalin at Tidal restaurant at the Paradise Point Resort & Spa. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune / Zuma Press )

Over the past four years, Filipino food has been increasingly on the tongues of the worlds tastemakers. Bad Saint, a Filipino-American restaurant in Washington, D.C., ranks No. 2 on Bon Appetits list of Americas 10 best new restaurants of 2016.

Two restaurants in Manila have made the Worlds 50 Best Asian Restaurants list since 2015. Food critics at the New York Times and L.A. Times have raved about Filipino pork and chicken dishes. And globe-trotting TV chef Anthony Bourdain has declared the pork dishes in the Philippine island of Cebu as the worlds best.

San Diego was singled out as a trendsetter by Andrew Zimmern, host of Travel Channels Bizarre Foods, who said in a 2012 USA Today article that Filipino food is the next big thing and this citys chefs are leading the charge. The following spring, he and a TV crew followed Sinsay to the local Filipino market Seafood City, where they lunched on fried Filipino milkfish, pork rinds and pandesal (soft and airy bread rolls).

Executive Chef Anthony Sinsay at Jsix Restaurant in downtown San Diego. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune / Zuma Press )

Melting pot

Sinsays parents, U.S. Navy veterans who immigrated from the Philippines in 1960, wanted their four U.S.-born children to embrace America, so they didnt teach them Tagalog. Sinsay grew up on his dads traditional cooking, but spent most of his career cooking French and other cuisines. Then after he met his Colombian wife, Elyse, in 2010, he re-embraced his roots.

She always pushed me to cook from my heart, Sinsay said. When I was young, I thought Filipino cooking wasnt sophisticated enough. I identified with it, but I always shunned it. As I got older, I developed a passion for finding my own culture.

Roasted Chicken prepared similar to lechon at chef Anthony Sinsay at Jsix Restaurant in downtown San Diego. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune )

San Diego County is home to nearly 200,000 Filipinos, one of the largest concentrations in America. Yet despite the communitys strong local presence, most of its Filipino restaurants are deli-like shops known as point-point joints (point at what you want) in National City and Mira Mesa. Local non-Filipinos may love lumpia, pancit and chicken adobo  traditional Filipino foods  but Cruz says theyve barely scratched the surface of the nations cuisine.

Cruz was born at Subic Bay, the huge naval base built by the Spanish in 1885, but run by the U.S. Navy for most of the 20th century. After the base closed in 1992, Pacific Rim businesses from Korea, China and Japan flooded in. Cruz described Filipino food as a melting pot of international influences.

Evan Cruz is the executive chef at Arterra Restaurant at the San Diego Marriott Del Mar. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune / Zuma Press )

Chefs in the Philippines may cook with homegrown pork and rice, regional fish, ube (purple yam) and calamansi (citrus fruit), but theyre with prepared with American sugar, Chinese noodles, Japanese soy sauce, Thai curry and Spanish paprika.

The unifying ingredient is vinegar, which Cruz said chefs traditionally used to stew fresh produce and proteins before they spoiled in the tropical heat and humidity.

Cruz, Sinsay and Tangalin all work at restaurants affiliated with local hotels, so their menus read as mainstream American, but many of the dishes are Filipino in spirit.

Cruzs Arterra, at the San Diego Marriott Del Mar, serves homemade longanisa as the breakfast house sausage and his Coca-Cola-sweetened ribs are cooked adobo-style with vinegar, garlic and onions.

A traditional Filipino sausage breakfast by Evan Cruz, the executive chef at Arterra Restaurant at the San Diego Marriott Del Mar. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune / Zuma Press )

Sinsays warm beet salad is a vegetarian twist on paksiw (vinegar-simmered stew), his stir-fried dish is an adaptation of pancit bihon (noodles), and his roasted chicken dish riffs on lechon kawali (deep-fried pork belly) with Mang Tomas (pork liver) sauce.

Tangalins Tidal, at the Paradise Point Resort, has refashioned traditional bulalo (bone marrow soup) into a French onion soup, his mussels dish has tamarind broth, his house bread is pandesal and the ceviche starter is kilawin-style (a raw seafood or meat dish).

Tangalins family ran a fish farm in the Philippines and he grew up cooking in his mothers carinderia (street cafe) before they immigrated to Hawaii when he was 16. Locally, he worked at Prepkitchen, JRDN and Decoy before launching the Filipino-inspired menu at Tidal in October. Because most of the customers at his bayside restaurant arent Filipino, he said revamping the dishes and names to local tastes introduces the cuisine in an accessible way.

I want to share my culture with everyone else but not force it, he said.

Executive Pastry Chef Kristianna Zabala of Nomad Donuts in North Park. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune / Zuma Press )

Zabala has delivered Filipino flavors in the most unique way: gourmet doughnuts. She grew up in Northridge, where her parents moved from the Philippines in the late 1960s. By age 7, she was baking trays of sweets for the neighbors and by 17 was in the kitchen at the Bali Hai restaurant on Shelter Island.

After culinary school she cooked her way around the country, including four years as executive pastry chef at the Michelin-starred Village Pub in the Bay area. Two years ago, she left her pastry position at Mister As in Bankers Hill to create the globally inspired doughnut menu at North Parks Nomad Donuts.

One of her first creations was the purple ube taro coconut flavor, which is now Nomads signature product. Other Philippine-themed doughnuts she has created are coconut pandan, calamansi and halo-halo (a baked version of the parfait dessert, with custard, red beans and pandan).

I like to introduce many things that people arent used to seeing, and being that Filipino cooking is part of my background, I want people to become more familiar with this cuisine for sure, she said.

Pastry chef Kristianna Zabala with her top-selling ube taro coconut doughnut at Nomad Donuts in North Park. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune / Zuma Press )

The four chefs say challenges remain to mainstreaming Filipino cuisine. Filipino-Americans arent accustomed to paying a lot for their native dishes and there are no standard recipes, since ingredients vary widely in the 7,600-island archipelago.

Three-Michelin-star chef Alain Ducasse has opened two culinary schools in the Philippines, but he says the nations cuisine cant be elevated until its purged of excessive fat, salt and sugar.

The most accessible dishes will come first, like the famous Filipino fried chicken produced by the internationally known Manila-born fast-food chain Maxs, which will open three outlets next year in San Diego County, beginning with one next spring in Chula Vista.

For now, Sinsay and others say theyre doing what they can to honor their parents and grandparents, who used food to express their love for family.

Were not a Filipino restaurant, were an American restaurant with Filipino influence, Sinsay said. Im just a fat Filipino kid from San Diego cooking inauthentic dishes from my childhood.

Chef Anthony Sinsays warm beet salad is a vegetarian twist on paksiw, a vinegar-simmered stew from the Philippines. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune / Zuma Press )

___________________________________________________

Danilo DJ Tangalin: Tidal Restaurant

Age: 31

Home: Escondido

Favorite dish from childhood: Dinuguan (pork braised in pork blood)

Favorite dish on my menu: Local fish kilawin (Filipino-style ceviche)

Little-known fact: Spent two years as a nursing student in New Jersey before switching to culinary school

______________________________________________________

Anthony Sinsay: Jsix Restaurant

Age: 33

Home: Vista

Favorite Filipino dish from childhood: Sisig (sizzling pork face with chile, garlic and vinegar with fried egg)

Favorite dish on my menu: Beet Paksiw (beets cooked in vinegar and garlic)

Little-known fact: Started cooking at 14 and won Chef of the Fest at the 2009 San Diego Bay Food & Wine Festival.

______________________________________________________

Evan Cruz: Arterra Restaurant

Age: 38

Home: Carmel Valley

Favorite dish from childhood: Adobo (meat stewed in vinegar, garlic and spices) and grandmas Asian curry

Favorite dish on my menu: Longanisa (Filipino-inspired house sausage)

Little-known fact: Was born premature at 4- pounds and was overfed by his worried grandmother, contributing to a lifelong passion for eating.

______________________________________________________

Kristianna Zabala: Nomad Donuts

Age: 32

Home: North Park

Favorite dish from childhood: Sinigang (tamarind soup)

Favorite dish on my menu: Scotch eggs donut

Little-known fact: Recently won $10,000 on the cooking Channels Sugar Showdown TV contest.

pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com
Jazz flexed its formidable muscles in welcome new ways in 2016, nationally and locally.

Visionary saxophonist and composer Henry Threadgill, 72, became only the fourth jazz artist  after Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis and Ornette Coleman  to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize. One of his recent collaborators, trumpeter Stephanie Richards, 34, teaches music at UC San Diego and in August recorded two new albums that are set for 2017 release.

At the other end of the spectrum, young piano phenom Joey Alexander, 13, was the youngest jazz artist to perform in this years Grammy Awards telecast (although he was still 12 at the time). He also became the youngest jazz artist in Grammy history to earn a nomination, let alone two. He just earned another earlier this month.

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Of course, jazz has long welcomed young lions into the fold. Its a key way to demonstrate how the musics traditions can speak to  and through  fresh-faced performers and, ideally, to draw in other young people.

But Alexander is younger than most  and far more accomplished. As such, he could become one of the more effective entry points for jazz since the then-teenage Marsalis burst onto the scene in the 1980s and jump-started the young lions phenomenon.

Joey is not something you can even explain! Weve never had anyone like him in this music, not with that harmonic maturity, Marsalis said, speaking in an Oct. 1 Union-Tribune interview. I wasnt anywhere near Joeys sophistication at his age, nor has anyone I know ever been. I didnt ever think of myself, at all, being on his level.

Alexander was initially scheduled to perform here at the Jan. 23 Jazz@The Jacobs, concert with Eric Reed, Helen Sung and El Cajon keyboard wizard Joshua White, but dropped off the bill before it was announced. The concert was the second in the San Diego Symphonys successful inaugural jazz series  which was curated by top trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos  and the best-attended.

In February, the tireless Castellanos, who leads weekly jam sessions at Panama 66 in Balboa Park, collaborated with the San Diego Ballet. White, who in 2011 earned second-place honors in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Piano Competition, was also a vital presence here this year. He won additional acclaim touring the world in sax great Rudresh Mahanthappas band.

In June, veteran jazz saxophone star Charles McPherson, a San Diego resident for more than 30 years, was presented with the prestigious Don Redman Heritage Awardin West Virginia.

Closer to home, the star-studded Athenaeum Jazz at TSRI concert series celebrated its 20th anniversary in La Jolla. The Athenaeum also began staging concerts at its new Athenaeum Arts Center, housed at Bread & Salt in Logan Heights.

In Mission Valley, the Handlery Hotels 950 Lounge continued its weekly Friday night jazz series, which showcased top local musicians and brought in such notable performers as saxophonist Bob Sheppard and guitarist Bruce Forman. Downtown saw the launch of Harbor Music Hall, which hosts live jazz performances each Thursday through Saturday. And,

Sadly, the very jazz-friendly Croces Park West in nearby Bankers Hill closed its doors in January, while the fall sale of 98 Bottles saw the discontinuation of its live jazz programming. And Dizzys  the all-ages jazz venue that celebrated its 16th anniversary in June  last month had to leave its Pacific Beach site and relocate to Bay Park, its fourth home since 2000.

On a brighter note, radio station KSDS Jazz 88 was named JazzWeeks 2016 Station of the Year, marking the fourth time it has received that honor since 2011. Equally notable, the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts Jazz Ensemble was the only California band to perform at the prestigious Essentially Ellington Jazz Band Competition, winning several awards.

Best Jazz Albums of 2016

1. Henry Threadgill, Old Locks and Irregular Verbs (Pi)

2. Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane, Matthew Garrison, Movement (ECM)

3. Donny McCaslin, Beyond Now (Motema)

4. Wadada Leo Smith, Americas National Parks (Cuneiform)

5. Gregory Porter, Take Me To The Alley, (Blue Note)

6. Andrew Cyrille Quartet, The Declaration of Musical Independence (ECM)

7. Mark Dresser Seven. Sedimental You (Clean Feed)

8. Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow, Andando El Tiempo (ECM)

9. The Claudia Quintet, Super Petite (Cunieform)

10. Joey Alexander, Countdown (Motema)

11. Logan Richardson, Shift (Blue Note)

12. Aziza, Aziza (Dare2)

13. Catherine Russell, Harlem On My Mind (JazzVillage)

14. Brian Lynch, Brian Lynch presents Madera Latino, a Latin Jazz perspective on the music of Woody Shaw (Holistic Musicworks)

15. Marquis Hill, The Way We Play (Concord Jazz)

16. Julian Lage, Arclight / Live in Los Angeles (Mack Avenue)

Best San Diego Jazz Concerts of 2016

1. Luciana Souza, March 17: Athenaeum Jazz at TSRI Auditorium

2. Joe Lovano & John Scofield Quartet, Feb. 24: UC San Diego Price Center Ballroom

3. Gregory Porter, May 7: San Diego Symphony Jazz@The Jacobs, Copley Symphony Hall

4. Myra Melford & Ben Goldberg, Feb. 4: La Jolla Athenaeum Music & Arts Library

5. Cecile McLorin Salvant, Aug. 18: San Diego Symphony Summer Pops

6. Paquito DRivera, Aug. 17: La Jolla Music Society Summerfest, Sherwood Auditorium

7. John Hollenbeck Claudia Quintet, June 25: La Jolla Athenaeum Music & Arts Library

8. Geoffrey Keezer & Friends, Sept. 24: Athenaeum Jazz at TSRI Auditorium

9. Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, featuring Wynton Marsalis, with the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts Jazz Ensemble, Oct. 6: Balboa Theatre

10. Joel Harrison Quintet, featuring Brian Blade, Oct. 17: Dizzys

11. Kenny Barron Trio, April 15: Athenaeum Jazz at TSRI Auditorium

12. Tito Puente Tribute, featuring Gilbert Castellanos, July 14: Summer Pops

13. Dorado Schmitt & The Django All-Stars, Nov. 29: Athenaeum Jazz at TSRI Auditorium

14. Joshua White, Eric Reed & Helen Sung, Jan. 23: San Diego Symphony Jazz@The Jacobs, Copley Symphony Hall

15. Aaron Goldberg, featuring Leon Parker, Feb. 18: La Jolla Athenaeum Music & Arts Library

16. Rhythm Future, June 17: AMSDconcerts

Twitter @georgevarga

george.varga@sduniontribune.com
It took Father Joe Carroll four decades to collect almost 700 Nativity sets. And just one afternoon to sell them.

An online auction last week netted more than $23,000, money that the 75-year-old retired priest said he needs to pay his bills.

Theyre all gone, he said Tuesday. They went for a lot less than they were worth, but they sold.

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Carroll, a San Diego icon known for his work on behalf of the homeless, started collecting Nativities after he was ordained in 1974. A frequent traveler, he picked up additional sets as he visited different states and countries, and the collection became remarkable for its size and breadth.

There were Nativities made out of wood, metal, ceramic, cloth, stone, plastic  almost every material imaginable. Some had figures that were life-sized; others were small enough to fit into matchboxes and eggshells.

The collection was kept in display cases at St. Vincent de Pauls administrative office, where it drew people every December for tours.

Carroll retired on his birthday in 2011 and has mostly faded from the public eye. Hes had a series of medical problems, including diabetes-related amputations of his feet. He put his Nativity collection on the block Dec. 14 through Cal Auctions & Estate Sales, saying, I need the money.

The online auction included 364 different lots, some of them with multiple Nativities. Carroll had talked before the auction about having additional sales later if necessary, but everything sold, said Jason Hanks, Cal Auctions president.

I think it did really well, Hanks said. We got a ton of calls (after an article about the auction ran in the Union-Tribune), people wanting to help Father Joe.

There was no minimum bid on the items. The highest price was fetched by a six-piece, hand-signed Lladro Nativity, which drew 26 bids and went for $1,100. The lowest amount paid was $1.10 for three figures handmade out of burlap. (All the winning bidders also paid a 15 percent buyers premium, which goes to the auction house to cover its expenses.)

The item that drew the most interest was a Lenox Renaissance set with 26 figures, including a rare one of an elephant. It drew 38 bids and went for $428. The item with the fewest number of bidders was a collection of five 10-inch plates depicting Navajo Christmas scenes. It drew two bids and sold for $1.75.

Carroll said hes heard in recent days from several of the winning bidders, who told him which sets they had purchased and why. Almost all of them, he said, had this reaction: Its too bad you had to sell them all and break up the collection. (Carroll did keep one Nativity out of the auction, a set that originally belonged to his mother.)

Now comes the final clean up of boxes, paper and packaging materials left behind when the bidders came in over the weekend and picked up their Nativities. Carroll said he and some volunteers would remove those items this week.

Ill be crying half the time, he said.
A man who admitted killing his estranged wife years ago, but whose murder conviction was overturned in July, wants a different judge to preside over his case as it moves toward a trial.

Armando Perez, 43, is accused in the 2010 stabbing death of 19-year-old Diana Gonzalez in a mens restroom at San Diego City College.

Once again, he is serving as his own lawyer in the case just as he had leading up to November 2014, when he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.

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In July, a three-judge panel of the states 4th District Court of Appeal determined that Superior Court Judge Charles Rogers erred by allowing Perez to plead guilty without a lawyer in a case in which he faced life in prison without parole.

The panel sent Perezs case back to the trial court with instructions to strike his guilty plea and schedule further proceedings.

Since then, Perez has filed a motion  known as a peremptory challenge  asking for the case to be reassigned to a judge other than Rogers. State law allows either party to ask for a judge to be disqualified without having to formally state a reason.

On Wednesday, Rogers scheduled a hearing for Dec. 27 to discuss that matter and directed attorneys in the meantime to make sure Perez has access to reports, photos and other evidence pertinent to his case.

Deputy District Attorney Jessica Lees told the judge that thousands of pages of discovery have been made available to the defendant  with help from the county Office of Assigned Counsel  either in paper and electronic form.

No new trial date has been set.

Perez was considered a suspect in the case almost immediately after Gonzalezs body was found at the community college in October 2010. She had been stabbed multiple times.

Perez was charged with murder and a special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait. He remained a fugitive for more than a year before he was arrested in downtown Tijuana in February 2012.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @danalittlefield
A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit accusing San Diego police of using excessive force against a family at their City Heights cellphone store in 2014.

According to the lawsuit filed in San Diego federal court, officers assumed Hedy Julca and her three sons were intruders at the Lucky Star Mobile store she owns on University Avenue and arrested them in a violent encounter. The family was living at the store at the time.

The settlement was reached Dec. 8, but the terms have not been made public, court records show. The City Council must still approve the deal.

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The incident occurred about 10:30 p.m. on July 29, 2014, when the store was closed. Julca was inside with two of her sons, Luis Lobaton, then 20, and B.C., 3.

Other son Diego Lobaton, 19, was returning to the store, trying to open the front door with a key, when he was confronted by four San Diego police officers, according to the lawsuit.

Officers Kelvin Lujan and Sam Euler are accused of assaulting and arresting Diego outside the store. Then Lujan and Officer Ali Bakhshi burst into the store without a warrant and repeatedly punched Luis, the complaint alleged.

Meanwhile, Officer Nathan Parga entered the store and grabbed Julca by the neck, head, arm, and torso and wrestled her to the ground, according to the lawsuit.

Two other unnamed officers also showed up, the suit alleged.

The arrests occurred as the toddler watched nearby.

Luis and Julca were ultimately taken to jail, and Luis was charged with obstructing a peace officer. The charge was dismissed a few months later. Julca was not charged.

The encounter inside the store was captured on a surveillance camera system and, according to the lawsuit, police reports of the incident differed wildly in some parts when compared to the video.

For example, some of the officers reported that Luis had a fighting stance, and Lujan stated Luis tried to swing at him, according to the online news website Voice of San Diego, which first reported about the incident.

However, the video appeared to show Luis holding a cellphone and backpedaling when the officer came inside and struck him, according to the Voices story.

The lawsuit points out a recent federal report investigating misconduct at the Police Department. The lawsuit also accuses the department of whitewashing internal affairs investigations and racial stereotyping. Julca and her sons are Hispanic.

The City Attorneys Office generally denied the accusations in a response to the lawsuit.

Defendant City of San Diego, its agents and employees acted in good faith and with a reasonable belief that their conduct was lawful and did not violate clearly established law, the response stated.

Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman was shown the video footage as part of settlement talks and she referred the incident to internal affairs, the city said.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis
A San Diego federal judge has approved the $25 million Trump University settlement, allowing the process of notifying class members to begin.

Lawyers for both sides filed a document Monday evening asking for preliminary approval of the settlement, and U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel responded with his approval 24 hours later.

The settlement, reached Nov. 18 just days before the first of the cases was set to go to trial, resolves three lawsuits against President-elect Donald Trumps real estate success program. Trump, who said he wanted to focus on his transition to the White House, admits no wrongdoing as part of the agreement.

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With preliminary approval granted, the roughly 7,000 class members will begin receiving notifications by mail within 15 days. A notice will also be published in USA Today.

The class members can fill out a one-page claim form, which can be accessed via the settlement website, trumpuniversitylitigation.com. Members can also call (866) 841-7311 for more information.

Class members will have 75 days  by about March 1  to turn in their forms or to object in writing to the settlement terms.

The settlement calls for $21 million to go to class members involved in two San Diego lawsuits. Another $4 million resolves a lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general.

Trump has agreed to deposit the full settlement amount in an escrow account by Jan. 18.

A final approval hearing is set for March 30.

Related

 Attorneys in Trump University case talk strategy, leaks and deposing the future president

 $25M settlement reached in Trump University lawsuits

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis
A $25 million settlement was reached resolving three Trump University lawsuits, but it is still awaiting the approval of the judge before it can move forward.

On Monday night lawyers for both sides took that next step, filing a document that asks for preliminary approval of the settlement and lays out how the roughly 7,000 class members would go about collecting their awards.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel is expected to rule on the preliminary approval request within the next few weeks.

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The settlement was reached Nov. 18, just 10 days before the trial was to begin in San Diego federal court in the first of the cases. Donald Trump agreed to a deal after his election as president; the settlement does not admit any wrongdoing on his part.

Trump has agreed to place the full settlement amount in an escrow fund by Jan. 18  two days before he is set to be inaugurated as president.

The deal calls for $21 million to go to class members, entitling them to recover at least half of what they spent on Trump University, Trumps real estate success program. Nearly 6,000 class members purchased the $1,495 three-day seminar package, and about 1,000 purchased an elite package ranging from $9,995 to $34,995.

The lawyers who represented the class agreed to waive fees and costs. However, the five named class representatives who put in numerous hours of work on the two San Diego cases  including Chula Vista resident Sonny Low  are requesting up to $15,000 each for their services in the case.

The remaining $4 million will go to the New York Attorney Generals Office to resolve its lawsuit.

By any metric, this is a fair, adequate and reasonable settlement. Both Plaintiffs and Defendants believe in the merits of their cases and compromised to reach this result, the motion states.

If the judge grants preliminary approval, that would set a timeline into motion. Fifteen days later, notices would go out to class members and a notice would also be published in USA Today. Class members would be encouraged to fill out a one-page claim form asking how much they spent on Trump University and any additional details.

The forms would be due 75 days after the preliminary approval.

Class members were already given an opportunity to opt out of the litigation earlier in the case and wont be given another chance to do so. However, class members would be able to object to the settlement  an option available on the claim form.

Related

 Attorneys in Trump University case talk strategy, leaks and deposing the future president

 $25M settlement reached in Trump University lawsuits

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis
Now theres no more doubt about it: Wallis the rhino was shot.

A trail of clues that started more than a year ago with a wound on the left side of Wallis chest, right over her heart, led the 3,000-pound mammals caretakers to suspect that someone tried to kill the rhinoceros before she came to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in November 2015.

The decisive clue surfaced Saturday.

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While getting Wallis ready for a presurgical examination, Jill Hampson, a mammal keeper at the parks Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center, spotted a black object about the size of a ballpoint pens tip poking out of the animals wound. She immediately called over Dr. Jim Oosterhuis, a veterinarian at the park, to take a look.

Right away, Oosterhuis knew he was dealing with a bullet fragment. With only his trusty Leatherman tool at the ready, he reached in, grabbed onto the black speck and pulled on it. Out came a larger metal ring with jagged edges.

I jerked it through the hole, pulled it out, and I had the bullet in my hand. It was an unbelievable feeling, Oosterhuis recalled Tuesday. Ive been here 41 years now, and it never ceases to amaze me the stuff that happens.

Technically, that metal ring appears to be a bullet jacket, the soft brass or copper coating often applied to the outside of lead bullets to increase penetration power. In this case, the veterinarian said, the casing seems to have peeled away from the bullet once inside the rhinos inch-thick skin, lodging under one of her ribs but not puncturing her left lung or the thoracic cavity that holds her vital organs.

The lead bullet itself is probably still somewhere inside the rhinos body, but there have been no signs of it causing additional injury, Oosterhuis said.

Wallis caretakers have been playing the role of patient detectives for more than a year. After her arrival, they began flushing the wound with a saline solution and treating it with antibiotic ointments, but the lesion wouldnt heal.

Given the wounds location on Wallis body and the fact that she was taken from an area where poachers had shot several other southern white rhinos, her team surmised that it was looking at a gunshot wound. Still, confirming that theory wouldnt be easy.

While Wallis was anesthetized, caretakers explored the wound site to make sure the rhino didnt have reproductive-system problems. During this procedure, they discovered that the wound ran deeper than anticipated  about nine inches along her rib cage before dipping below a rib.

Swiping a metal detector over the site, the safari parks staffers detected a strong signal that a metal object was present. When veterinarians followed up with an X-ray, though, their equipment wasnt powerful enough to penetrate Wallis nearly three-foot-thick chest. Undeterred, the team called in the San Diego Fire-Rescue Bomb Squad, which confirmed the presence of metal with extra-powerful equipment it uses to conduct investigations of explosive devices.

We were able to confirm that there was a metal fragment in her side, but because this wasnt medical equipment, we werent able to pinpoint the exact location, Oosterhuis said.

With noninvasive options exhausted and the wound still refusing to heal, the caretakers chose exploratory surgery. Before giving the go-ahead to the surgical team, Oosterhuis decided to check the wound site one more time with a metal detector. Thats why he was at the park Saturday.

With the bullet jacket in hand, the park staff was able to make its confirmation: Similar to what happens with many other animals, the shell had worked its way back through the path of its original entrance. The vets believe this casings ragged contours scraped along the edges of Wallis wound, preventing it from healing until the foreign object was expelled.

Oosterhuis said since the extraction, the change in Wallis injury has been dramatic.

In the four days, it has healed up quickly. I just palpated it today, and its only about a half-inch deep, he said.

The rhinos caretakers are now left to estimate the mechanics and motives for the shooting.

The reason for the gunshot seems clear: African rhinos are regularly killed due to the tragically mistaken notion that their horns have medicinal properties. Some cultures also prize the horns as status symbols. According to Save the Rhino, an international nonprofit conservation group, poachers killed 1,175 South African rhinos in the wild last year. That was more than three per day on average.

As to how Wallis survived the likely poaching attempt, it appears that the bullet didnt hit her side at a perpendicular angle  which probably would have allowed it to enter her chest cavity and cause life-threatening damage.

It was definitely a heart or lung shot that somebody was going for. My guess is she turned toward them and the shot came in at a shallow angle and bounced off a rib, Oosterhuis said.

The zoo plans to have its key piece of evidence examined by an as-yet-unspecified local forensics lab before putting it on exhibit as compelling proof of the perils that rhinos face in the wild. The goal is to identify the caliber of the bullet it came from and the type of gun that fired the bullet. Such information would then be communicated to the South African reserve where Wallis came from.

The reserve had reported suffering several rhinoceros poaching incidents right around the time that Wallis was collected for transfer, the safari parks officials said.

Modern forensics labs can learn a lot from bullet fragments.

Lt. Scott Wahl, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department, said if theres enough material to work with, a professional lab can use recovered bullet casings to determine caliber and even which gun fired the round. The barrel of each gun leaves a distinct pattern of grooves, similar to a fingerprint, on the outside of each bullet fired.

Wallis came to the park to be part of an ambitious breeding program that seeks to bring the northern white rhino back from the brink of extinction.

Currently, there are only three northern whites left in the world. The number was four until November 2015, when a bacterial infection forced the park to euthanize Nola, a 41-year-old park veteran, after repeated treatments couldnt eliminate the pathogens.

Because the worlds remaining northern whites are too old for active breeding, a collaborative program that includes the San Diego Zoo seeks to use the southern-white branch of the genetic tree as a surrogate. Thats how Wallis, a 5-year-old southern white, joined the initiative.

The first step will be to perfect the zoos ability to transfer embryos grown in labs to the six recently arrived female southern whites at the safari park. Once that technique is refined, the next step could be to create hybrid northern-southern offspring using sperm collected from male northern whites. Finally, if those steps go well, advanced genetic techniques could help turn cell samples collected from 12 northern whites into stem cells that could then used to produce northern white rhino sperm and eggs.

Those would then be combined to generate a northern white embryo. Researchers would transfer that embryo to a southern white female rhino, which would nurture it all the way through birth.

The zoos staff estimates it could take at least five years to achieve this milestone.

Health Playlist On Now Video: Why aren't Americans getting flu shots? 0:37 On Now Video: Leaders urge public to help extinguish hepatitis outbreak On Now San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A On Now Video: Scripps to shutter its hospice service On Now Video: Scripps La Jolla hospitals nab top local spot in annual hospital rankings On Now Video: Does a parent's Alzheimer's doom their children? On Now Video: Vaccine can prevent human papillomavirus, which can cause cancer 0:31 On Now 23 local doctors have already faced state discipline in 2017 0:48 On Now EpiPen recall expands On Now Kids can add years to your life

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Republicans will lead as many San Diego City Council committees as Democrats for the first time in many years under a list of assignments proposed by Council President Myrtle Cole, a Democrat, and approved this week by the full council.

While Democrats have a 5-4 majority on the council, the two parties will lead four committees each. Cole also appointed Republican Mark Kersey as Council President Pro Tem, the councils No. 2 position and the person who would lead meetings in Coles absence.

The assignments generated controversy over Cole not including any council members from the citys most ethnically diverse and lowest-income council districts on the Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee, which deals with racial profiling by police and other sensitive issues.

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Cole also shifted leadership of that committee from Democratic to Republican, replacing retired Marti Emerald with Chris Cate. Leadership of the councils Economic Development Committee will also shift from Democratic to Republican, with Lorie Zapf replacing Cole.

The only other committee where leadership will shift parties is the Audit Committee, where Democrat Georgette Gomez will replace Republican Scott Sherman.

Democrat Barbara Bry will lead the Budget Committee, replacing Todd Gloria who was elected to state Assembly; Sherman will replace Zapf as chairman of the Smart Growth and Land Use Committee; and Cole will replace termed-out Sherri Lightner as head of the Rules Committee.

Kersey will continue to lead the Infrastructure Committee and David Alvarez will continue to lead the Environment Committee.

Several southeastern San Diego community leaders criticized Cole for leaving council members who represent Districts 4, 8 and 9 off the public safety committee. They also complained the committee had no members representing communities south of state Route 94.

Im really disappointed, said Dwayne Harvey, a resident of Lincoln Park in District 4. Its disheartening to me.

Harvey said the members of the committee  Cate, Bry, Zapf and Democrat Chris Ward  cant understand problems between police and residents in San Diegos low-income areas without immersing themselves there.

Come and talk to the people in the neighborhoods that are impacted so you understand our concerns and understand our troubled relationship with the Police Department and other issues in our community, said Harvey. Were going to hold you accountable.

Cole didnt specify why she chose to exclude from the committee herself as representative of District 4, Alvarez from District 8 and Gomez from District 9.

But Cole, who served on that committee under Emerald, said she would keep close tabs on public safety issues and send a staff member to every meeting of the committee.

In addition, she expressed confidence in Cate as chairman and said she would continue to meet regularly with Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman on issues affecting her district.

Cate and Bry promised to visit southeastern San Diego neighborhoods to meet with community leaders.

You are the experts in your neighborhoods  I am not, Cate said. My intent is not to have any kind of closed-door process.

Bry said she was committed to improving relations between police and residents.

Its very important we have a Police Department that everybody in our community trusts, she said.

Cole appointed herself as the councils representative on the boards of the Metropolitan Transit System and the San Diego Association of Governments.

On naming Kersey council president pro tem, Cole said he meshes well with his colleagues.

Ive gotten to know Councilmember Kersey and appreciate his leadership style and ability to work with all the council members, she said.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
San Diego, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/21/2016 -- Here is exciting news for those who love to travel to new destinations and more particularly, who look to try Costa Rica backpacking. Costaricabackpacking.com provides them with details of the top 10 Costa Rica destinations so even first-timers can easily plan their itinerary. The website points out that the island of Costa Rica is a popular tourist destination for backpackers, luxury vacationers and avid shoppers.



According to Costa Rica Backpacking, the cloud forests around Monteverde and Southern Elena tops their list. Backpackers and travelers will realize the immense potential of organic farming and alternative energy sources after seeing the place. Thanks to the high altitude of the forests, the weather conditions are generally cloudy and humid here. It is estimated that 400 species of birds, 110 species of amphibians and lizards, 100 species of mammals and over 2500 species of plants are there in these forests.



Second on the list is Arenal Volcano National park and Observatory, that is a live and active volcano located in the San Jose area. Backpackers will have the opportunity to walk through lava rocks for reaching the place. They can see the spectacular sight of the volcanic eruption also.



Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio, a famous national park located on the south of Quepos on the Pacific Coast, is popular for its expansive white sand beaches and evergreen forests that consist of primary forests, secondary forests, mangrove swamps, lagoons and beach vegetation.



Tamarindo Guanacaste, a resort town and a playful haven, provides urbanized facilities to backpackers. The place is famous for its amazing stretch of white sandy beaches, Caribbean blue waters and green virgin forest teeming with wildlife.



Samara, Guanacaste, with its pristine beaches with powdery white sand surrounded by turquoise blue waters, offers a picture-perfect scenery. Backpackers can indulge in sport fishing, snorkeling, beachwalks, swimming, and bird watching.



Our Lady of Los Angeles Church with the statue of the Virgin Mary, called La Negrita, is a famous church in the Cartago Region. This statue was discovered at the site of the present church in 1635. It is believed that the statue reappeared miraculously after it was removed.



Mal Pais & Santa Teresa, a destination duo at the tip of the Peninsula de Nicoya, is a place where all the parameters like the shape, color and temperature are perfect. Backpackers can enjoy the sea and the wildlife in the place.



Next on the list of Costa Rica Backpacking is Santa Ana that offers modern residential living at affordable costs. This is a good place with international boarding school systems, private hospitals, and shopping areas.



Montezuma, a small village in Costa Rica, is famous for the natural beauty of its beaches and waterfalls. Backpackers and especially, beach lovers and eco-tourists will love this place because it is surrounded by jungle-covered hills with small rivers forming scenic waterfalls and pools.



In Santa Rosa National Park, one of the oldest parks in Costa Rica, covering almost 100,000 acres of land on the Santa Elena Peninsula, backpackers can enjoy hiking and the breathtaking scenic views. They can sight various types of native wildlife. Costa Rica Backpacking points out that this is also the home for a sea turtle sanctuary.



About Costaricabackpacking.com

Costaricabackpacking.com provides the details of the top 10 tourist destinations in Costa Rica for helping tourists and more particularly, those who visit the island for the first time. With the help of these details, tourists and backpackers can plan their itinerary easily.



For Media Contact:

http://www.costaricabackpacking.com/contact/
Grass Valley, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/21/2016 -- Dryland Wild Farming Systems, an ecological research and development group, has officially launched a Kickstarter campaign for 'Lungs of Fruit', a trailblazing, ecological restoration effort, located in the Sierra Nevada Range in California. The Kickstarter campaign aims to garner widespread support and financial backing to facilitate the widespread seeding of native trees and improve California's environment to the degree of permanently increasing annual rainfall.



California's drought has claimed well over 70 million trees from drought-induced bark beetle infestations. In many communities of the central and southern Sierra Nevada range it is estimated that up to 80 percent of trees are actually dead. 'Lungs of Fruit' (aka Pluvia Semini) is a ground-breaking crowdfunding campaign of ecological restoration, designed to inspire simple change in ideals towards food. The project hopes to test what it ancient thinking with bold innovations.



"We are seeding a future generation, and their way of life. We are taking responsibility for ourselves and choosing a free domain to live within. A freedom supported by localized food and residential wisdom." Said 'Lungs of Fruit' project director Austin Wilkins. "Following our immediate afforestation, the Sierra Foothills will begin to function more and more like lungs. Cleaning up vast volumes of air, while providing highly sustainable sources of food, medicine and other useful materials."



Pluvia Semini is laying the groundwork and catalyzing a green belt running up and down the state of California. The grassroots effort is based in the Sierra Nevada Foothills of Northern California and deploys hundreds of plant species throughout thousands of acres of Nevada County. During the fall, the organization, through its vast network of volunteers, distributes seeds directly to the land, preserving the plants pristine tap-root, to be far more tolerant of drought and other stressors. The organization has been vigilant in choosing native tree species for each climate that require zero irrigation, and no maintenance in general after seeding.



"Pluvia Semini volunteers and team members live on site, directly within the project. Working in the forest with our primary tools being: soil, seed and rain. Our current infrastructure is lightweight and highly efficient," says Wilkins.



Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects. Everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. 'Backers' who support a project on Kickstarter get an inside look at the creative process, and help that project come to life. All 'Backers' of the 'Lungs of Fruit' Kickstarter campaign who pledge $24 or more will receive over 1000 seeds in a half ounce bag of a specified tree seed mix. Backers who pledge larger amounts will receive additional Rewards.



The Kickstarter campaign is officially open until January 13, 2017.



For more information about the Kickstarter campaign, visit: http://kck.st/2gK1Ypr



Contact:

Austin Wilkins

Email: drylandwfs@gmail.com

Website: http://kck.st/2gK1Ypr
Salt Lake City, UT -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/21/2016 -- Wall & Wall Attorneys at Law now offers an affordable option for Utahns to receive the attorney representation needed to complete an uncontested divorce quickly and with no hidden costs.



The Salt Lake City-based law firm provides two flat-rate service fees for representation in uncontested divorce cases. The fees are $1,000 for an uncontested divorce that doesn't involve children and $1,500 for cases with children.



In Utah, an uncontested divorce involves two spouses that agree to the divorce, allowing them to settle the divorce agreements outside of court on their own or through a mediator. Most divorces are uncontested, as that avenue offers certain advantages, including more control over decisions regarding property division, child support and visitation; a faster resolution process; and less public dissemination of information through court records.



Uncontested divorces have the additional benefit of helping both parties, as well as children and family members, avoid stress and preserve their relationships. While all divorces must be finalized by a court order, both spouses in an uncontested divorce case can generally file paperwork without a court appearance.



Wall & Wall's flat-rate fees are available to individuals wanting to obtain a simple uncontested divorce in the state of Utah. The rates are based on an understanding that the client and their spouse have agreed upon all issues and merely need various documents prepared by a legal team. The rates are not available to those clients needing to consult with an attorney and/or obtain legal counsel.



The law office has made available online instructions to guide clients through the system, from taking a divorce education class and setting a time schedule for completing the divorce process, to preparing important paperwork, such as the petition for divorce and the summons; a divorce questionnaire; child support location information forms; affidavits; and proof of income forms. This streamlined system enables clients to complete the steps for their divorce in the most economical manner possible.



Wall & Wall's flat-rate fees do not include time for counseling with an attorney. The legal team at Wall & Wall Attorneys at Law are happy to offer counsel and assistance preparing various legal documents, but those services carry additional costs that vary based on what the individual attorney charges.



For all divorce cases, contested or uncontested, potential clients can benefit from receiving more information on the process through a free 30-minute initial consultation.



About Wall & Wall Attorneys at Law

Wall & Wall Attorneys at Law was established in 1973. A family-owned law firm in Salt Lake City, Utah, Wall & Wall specializes in family law, with expertise in all facets including divorce, separation, alimony, child support, custody, paternity, domestic violence and visitation issues. At Wall & Wall, clients are treated to a comfortable environment where they receive personalized attention from a team of attorneys, paralegals and staff. The team is dedicated to listening carefully to each individual client, treating them with respect, exploring all their options and personally representing them in court to successfully resolve their case.



Contact:

Corey Wall

Wall & Wall Attorneys at Law PC

Address: 2168 Fort Union Blvd., Salt Lake City, UT 84121

Phone: 801-441-2388

Email: WallLegalSolutions@gmail.com

Website: https://WallLegalSolutions.com
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/21/2016 -- The welding consumables market in Indonesia is a moderately consolidated one. The top five players in the market accounted for 57.3% share in the market in 2014. Those top five names are LincolnElectricalHoldings,Inc., NikkoSteel, Voestalpine Bohler Welding GmbH, P.T. Intan Pertiwi Industri, and PT. Ispat Indo. Among them, Lincoln Electrical Holding, Inc. was the ahead of all in terms of market share in 2014.



In the Indonesia welding consumables market, the companies compete strongly against each other through product differentiation, joint ventures, and strategic alliances. The market is also characterized by the presence of numerous small regional players. This coupled with cheap imports from neighboring countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea has further intensified the competitive atmosphere in Indonesia market. Another major factor responsible for heating up the competition is the high threat of new entrants, who have it relatively easy due to comparatively lower amount of capital required in the business.



Get Free PDF Brochure for more Professional and Technical industry insights: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=6739



Expanding at a CAGR of 7.7% from 2015 to 2023, the Indonesia welding consumables market is slated to clock in a revenue of US$293 mn in 2023 from US$150.3 mn in 2014.



Substantial Capacity Addition in Power Sector Boosting Growth



One of the main drivers in the market is the extensive capacity addition in the power sector in Indonesia, which is anticipated to generate substantial demand for welding consumables in the country. The swiftly reviving manufacturing sector in the nation is also upping demand in the market significantly. The analyst of the report explains, "The manufacturing sector in Indonesia is being driven by a strong domestic consumer base despite the unfavorable global economic environment. The manufacturing sector accounted for the major share of 25.54% of the country's GDP in 2014. Manufacturing output is increasing due to the rising population and expansion in the middle class population in Indonesia.



Growth in the manufacturing sector in the country is estimated to drive the domestic welding consumables market driven by cheap labor and strong trade relations with other ASEAN economies and key economies such as China, Japan, and South Korea."



Stick Electrodes to Pare Market Share due to Looming Product Life Cycle Maturity



The welding consumables market in Indonesia can be segmented on the basis of product into stick electrodes, flux-cored wires, SAW wires and fluxes, solid wires, and others such as gases, rods, etc. Among them, stick electrodes dominates the market with slightly over half the share in it. Going forward, however, it would likely pare its market share marginally as it has almost reached its product life cycle maturity. In terms of revenue, the Indonesia stick electrode market was worth US$83.6 mn in 2015.



Browse The Full Article Here: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/indonesia-welding-consumables-market.html



Among end users, automotive and transportation dominates the market for Indonesia welding consumables. In the next couple of years, it is slated to exhibit maximum pace of growth too. It is followed by the oil and gas sector, which in the near future is anticipated to trim its share in the market on account of declining oil drilling activities in the nation. Building and construction comes in third vis-a-vis market share. In terms of growth rate, however, the power sector would clock maximum rate after automotive and transportation sector on the back of robust domestic demand for electricity.



Factors restraining the growth in the welding consumables market in Indonesia is the dearth of welding expertise and legal framework adversely impacting foreign direct investment. With new technologies being unveiled every now and then in the welding industry, it is getting increasingly difficult to find workers having advanced skills to manage these new technologies. Moreover, mostly small and short term projects have been attracting FDI, further hobbling the market's growth.



Indonesia Welding Consumables Market, by Product



-Stick electrodes

-Solid wires

-Flux-cored wires

-SAW wires & Fluxes

-Others (Including gases, etc.)



Indonesia Welding Consumables Market, by End User



-Automotive & transportation

-Building & construction

-Marine

-Power

-Oil & gas

-Others (Including maintenance and repair, etc.)



This review is based on the findings of a TMR report titled "Welding Consumables (Product - Stick Electrode, Solid Wires, Flux-cored Wires, and SAW Wires and Fluxes; End User - Automotive and Transportation, Building and Construction, Marine, Power, and Oil and Gas) - Indonesia Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 20152023."



About Transparency Market Research

Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The company's exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend 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.



TMR's 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.
Oxnard, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/21/2016 -- There are many challenges that businesses face when trying to stand out in a saturated industry such as Distribution. Longstanding companies often change processes on a frequent, ongoing basis to improve efficiency, organization, and time management best practices. Displays2go, a marketing display product provider in Fall River, Massachusetts, found itself in a bittersweet dilemma. Due to the rapid growth in product demand, the company sought better ways to run internal day-to-day operations, and after searching long and hard, they partnered with Western Computer for assistance with their Enterprise Resource Planning needs. Western Computer is a California-based company that specializes in Microsoft enterprise solutions including Dynamics 365, Dynamics AX, Dynamics NAV, and Dynamics CRM.



Displays2go evaluated 15 ERP packages before deciding that Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 would be the best fit for their short-term and long-term distribution goals. "At the end of the day, everyone in the room favored Dynamics NAV and Western Computer," recalls Erol Fikri, Director of Supply Chain and Logistics. "The software was easiest to use, and our Finance department felt like it was the strongest in terms of the way it handles financials. But more importantly, Western Computer stood out from the other vendors. Western was clearly the most knowledgeable and the most transparent, and had the best references of everyone we considered."



The implementation of financial reporting and accounting controls was just one of the main goals of this massive project. Displays2go also wanted to automate paper-based processes, which proved to save time and make an environmental impact. Additionally, Western Computer customized the software's coding to become a consolidated data center that is centralized and accessible by multiple departments at once. Western Computer also configured sales campaigns to better target their specific client-base. This provides valuable information to other departments such as Marketing, Customer Service, and the executive team.



Since partnering with Western Computer and Microsoft NAV, Displays2go has seen dramatic success within their warehouse management system. By automating packing tasks and eliminating some of their sorting processes, Displays2go's shipping department has become a lot more efficient, reducing the number of orders being repacked from 42% to 10%. Dynamics NAV also increased the warehouse's activity level to support volumes of up to 2,400 transactions per day.



Erol Fikri of Displays2go estimates that Microsoft NAV and Western Computer have reduced the average time from order to shipping by at least 34%. "We cut over to the new system with no interruption in service," says Fikri. "Our first day live on Dynamics NAV, we shipped 1400 orders. It's remarkable; our operations continued and we were able to meet our customer's expectations immediately once we went live." For more information on Microsoft NAV or Microsoft Dynamics 365 for operations such as distribution, visit http://westerncomputer.com today.



About Western Computer

Founded in 1987, Western Computer, a leading provider of Microsoft Dynamics solutions, was established to help businesses streamline internal business processes to supply convenience, organization, and detailed analysis to their clients. The company specializes in implementations, training, upgrades, cloud computing, data hosting, custom development, and is known for exceptional ongoing technical support. In 2016, Western Computer was named #13 on Accounting Today's VAR 100 list.



For more information on their ERP solutions including Dynamics 365, Dynamics NAV, Dynamics AX, and Dynamics CRM, visit http://westerncomputer.com or call 805-581-5020.



About Displays2go

Displays2go manufactures and distributes supplies, fixtures, and presentation materials for retail and trade show displays. A subsidiary of TAKKT AG, the company sells more than 7,000 products through catalog and e-commerce channels. Displays2go prides itself on its broad product selection and fast shipping, offering same-day shipping on most of its in-stock products.
[BUENOS AIRES] Approximately 10,000 beavers are being exterminated in Tierra del Fuego because of the danger they pose to the biodiversity of that area, which is shared between Argentina and Chile.

Beavers (Castor canadensis) are considered an invasive species. They were introduced to this binational island during the 1940s and now threaten to reach the north of the Patagonia.

Our goal is not to kill beavers but to recover the environment destroyed by a species that has no predators in the south, Adrian Schiavini, head of the project and researcher at the Southern Center for Scientific Research (CADIC/Conicet), told SciDev.Net.

The number of animals the project will eradicate represents less than 10 per cent of the beaver population currently in the area. The intention, in this first stage, is to eliminate the species  using 200 reusable traps  in 8 Argentinean and 2 Chilean zones. Eventually the project will be extended to the rest of the island.

Our goal is not to kill beavers but to recover the environment destroyed by a species that has no predators in the south. Adrian Schiavini, CADIC/Conicet

In three years, some indicators will be measured again to confirm whether the aquatic and terrestrial environment has recovered to its previous state in terms of water quality and presence of organic matter, Schiavini explains. Beavers transform mountain rapid rivers into muddy reservoirs, damaging the quality of water and the entire biological community.

In an e-mail sent to SciDev.Net, the Conservation Commission of the Argentinian Society for the Study of Mammals (SAREM) voiced support for the measure.

The recovery of the environment and its functionality is crucial, the SAREM board of directors said in the statement. We believe that the entire programme for the eradication of exotic fauna must include management and control strategies to prevent further leakage of [individual animals]. It also needs to have a public education plan that shows, from a social perspective, the damage that humans have caused with this kind of introduction [of an invasive species].

Giorgia Graells, a biologist at the Catholic University of Chile and coordinator for the governmental organisation Ciencia Austral, agrees that this project is necessary to assess the situation and initiate complete eradication.

She added that this pilot scheme  funded in part by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization  serves to study the effectiveness of eradication and how a delay in taking this step might affect efforts to prevent the Beaver population from expanding to the north.

Alexander Pietrek, a researcher in zoology and ecology at the University of Florida (USA), also agrees on the need to undertake such a project. Obviously, there are disadvantages that have to do with costs and long-term planning, but it is clearly feasible, he says.

However, Pietrek also points out that other strategies to control the beaver population could also be considered, and these will be proposed in an article that is still under peer review.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net's Latin America and Caribbean edition.

This article is part of a series on invasive species supported by CABI
[YAOUNDE, CAMEROON] Strengthening collaborations among institutions and small-scale cassava farmers could help Central Africa reduce hunger and foster nutrition security, experts say.



Research scientists from academic institutions and policymakers say that collaborations in research and development would promote innovation to address the challenges of nutrition insecurity such as stunting in children.



The experts were speaking at a forum on cassava that brought delegates and smallholders farmers in Cameroon to discuss the challenges and opportunities in cassava farming in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon.

Nutrition insecurity is a real problem in Central Africa affecting many households. Judith Francis, CTA

The forum was organised by the Netherlands-headquartered Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in partnership with Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and Nigerian-headquartered International Institute for Tropical Agriculture.



Bringing together the main actors in the cassava value chain in Central Africa to have a common agenda to be addressed by researchers, policy makers and financiers was the key objective of the forum that took place in Cameroon early this month (6-9 December). The forum also provided a platform for trade between smallholders and potential buyers of cassava.



The experts were concerned that despite efforts to achieving food security in the region, little is being done to address undernutrition, especially stunting and a rise in non-communicable diseases.



They noted that understanding the nexus between agriculture, food and nutrition has become a research and development priority.



Nutrition insecurity is a real problem in Central Africa affecting many households, says Judith Francis.



Francis, who is a senior programmes coordinator, science and technology policy, CTA, tells SciDev.Net that well-coordinated collaborations among organisations are necessary to help address nutritional challenges.

She adds that cassava has a lot of nutritive value with its leaves rich in vitamin A and minerals such as potassium which could help address stunting problems he the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases including diabetes.But we need accurate and timely data on nutrition to be collected in Central Africa to help address the challenge, explains Francis, adding that the forum has helped raise the profile of cassava as an important nutrition security crop.Ben Bennet, the director of UK-headquartered Natural Resources Institute, adds that there is a need to continue educating people on the nutritional values of cassava.Bennet urges African governments to play a central role in coordinating individuals and institutions to drive the nutrition security agenda in Central Africa.This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.
Now that the 114th Congress draws to a close, many space-related bills seeking passage, together with NASA authorization bill, are in great danger of running out of time. The top priority for the Congress is a passage of a still continuing resolution (CR) to be able to fund the federal government.

The CR is presently funding government agencies at the fiscal year of 2016 levels that expired on Dec. 9. Appropriators are expected to introduce a brand new CR on Dec. 6 that will continue funding the goverment in 2017, according to Space.com.

Originally, the new CR would extend through March; however, several congressional leaders stated last Monday that it might run through April, giving the Congress a longer period of time to finalize revised spending bills that take into consideration priorities of the incoming Trump administration. The new CR, may not be that surprising, may be a blow to some in Congress who had hoped to finalize the fiscal year of 2017 spending bills throughout the post-election official session, Yahoo reported.

In a Nov. 29 speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) who is the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and is also the highest Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, stated that she is disappointed and she thinks that it should not be this way. The senator is retiring this year.

The Congress is anticipated to adjourn after the passage of the CR, the last "must pass" bill of this Congress, to be submitted by the end of the week. That provides proponents of many space-related bills still unfinished approval with a little time to win the passage.

Among them is the long-awaited NASA authorization bill. Negotiations are in process for weeks on a revised version of the said authorization bill, the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2016, which the Senate Commerce Committee approved on Sep. 21.
Astronaut Thomas Pesquet is getting ready for his spacewalk. He will then be the 11th European to achieve the walk on space.

European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet will be performing his spacewalk next month. He will be venturing outside the International Space Station (ISS).

Thomas Pesquet's walk will last up to seven hours and was scheduled on Jan. 13, 2017. The purpose of this walk is to ensure the power supply of the ISS from the solar panels of 2,500 sq m.

Shane Kimbrough, the Station commander, will be leading the spacewalk. Thus, he will be accompanied by Thomas Pesquet. Meanwhile, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano will direct the duo; he will be the lead communication at the NASA's mission control in Houston.

In line with this, Phys.org reported that Luca Parmitano himself is an experienced spacewalker. He underwent two sorties during his six-month period of mission in 2013. He will be guiding Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet in space for them to achieve their goal. Thus, he will be giving them a hand through radio support.

The spacewalks are needed for them to upgrade and replace the older technology batteries with the newer lithium-ion designs. The batteries are needed to store power for supplying the ISS as it flies through the Earth's shadow. Thus, two spacewalks for the month of January are needed.

Before the spacewalk, the adapter plates that arrived through Japans' HTV cargo ferry last week will be relocated to an external platform with the help of the robotic arm of the station. One of the objectives for Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet is to head outside and collect the adapters. They will then have to install them and reattach the batteries.

Land and sea sometimes seem to melt together, like here in the gulf of aqaba https://t.co/G8JWnQ68Ro #Proxima pic.twitter.com/YlfAUv9Kx7  Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) December 20, 2016

The preparations for these complex operations are doing well. Thomas Pesquet posted on his Facebook page that, "We have started well in advance to prepare for the spacewalks of January. It is a lot of work to service the suits and get them ready, get familiar with the choreography and prepare the tools and equipment. Not even mentioning the thousands of hours of work for all the personnel on the ground," according to Space Daily.
Amazon.com founder and chief operating officer CEO Jeff Bezos proclaimed on Dec. 6 that construction is ongoing and has a replacement rocket producing facility in Florida for the private spaceflight company Blue Origin. In an e-mail message to subscribers, Bezos shared an image of the construction site, where the skeletal form of a building seems to be coming together.

In the e-mail, it said that the construction is ready to be completed by the end of 2017. Blue Origin can use the facility to manufacture its reusable, heavy-lift orbital rocket named New Glenn, according to Space.com.

The huge rocket will have two forms: a towering 270-foot tall or 82 meters version and an even larger 313-foot (95 m) variant. Jeff Bezos wrote that it was of a very short note to update on the 750,000 square-foot New Glenn rocket facility that they were building in Florida.

Jeff Bezos also added that the team has created extraordinary progress that can be clearly seen in these photos. The facility can be found in Exploration Park, a 299-acre facility positioned next to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC),which is about 50 miles east of Orlando.

Exploration Park was developed by Space Florida, which is the state's aerospace economic development agency, in partnership with KSC. Jeff Bezos, who is both the CEO and founder of Blue Origin, has stated that the company plans to launch New Glenn from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is next to KSC.

In a statement in 2015 that was posted on the company's web site, the reusable rocket boosters also will be sent back to the facility once used and ready for added flights. According to a statement, locating vehicle assembly close to their launch area eases the challenge of processing and transporting gigantic rockets.
An international team of astronomers associated with the Pan-STARRS project has released the world's largest digital survey of the visible universe. The survey reportedly includes observations of billions of stars and galaxies and comprises of two petabytes of computer data, which are comparable to a billion selfies.

According to an India Today report, the astronomers continuously scanned and imaged three-fourths of the visible sky for more than four years with a 1.8 meter telescope located at Hawaii's Haleakala Observatories in Maui. The scientists scanned 3 billion objects in the Milky Way, and the scans were conducted 12 times using five different filters. The celestial objects that were catalogued include stars, galaxies and asteroids among others. The survey also identified probable exoplanets and asteroids apart from gathering data about billions of stars. The Pan-STARRS images were analyzed by algorithms for evidence of moving objects.

"Pan-STARRS has already made discoveries from Near Earth Objects and Kuiper Belt Objects in the Solar System to lonely planets between the stars," said Ken Chambers, director of the Pan-STARRS Observatories at the University of Hawaii, as revealed by Queen's University Belfast. "It has mapped the dust in three dimensions in the Milky Way and found new streams of stars, and it has found new kinds of exploding stars and distant quasars in the early Universe," he added.

It may be already tough to grasp the immensity of two petabytes of data; however, this is not the extent of the astronomers' observations. The research team is going to release even more detailed images and data in 2017.

Pan-STARRS, which is short for Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, is a mission whose primary objective is to detect near-Earth objects that threaten impact events, as well as create a database of all objects visible from Hawaii, which is basically three-fourths of the entire sky. The project is funded largely by the United States Air Force.
This is not out of any science fiction movie, for scientists have recently discovered more than a hundred endangered species in South East Asia.

Deforestation and fast-paced development have undoubtedly risked the wildlife habitat, and the greater Mekong region is proof enough, WWF conservationists say. Mekong is a region in southeast Asia, which comprises of Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and some parts of China. This region boasts of high diversity that is one of the main reasons for being a home to some of most endangered species on the planet.

A report published early this week pointed to the presence of 163 endangered species discovered in Greater Mekong Region. Some of the rarest discoveries are a dragon-like lizard,a rainbow-headed snake, a gecko in Laos with pale blue skin and a newt that bears an uncanny resemblance to a Klingon from Star Trek.

An extremely rare banana species was also found by conservationists in northern Thailand that is critically endangered because of increasing deforestation, reports CBC.

Scientists have cautioned that some of these new species are under threat of extinction and need to be protected against the fast-paced development in the area.

Jimmy Borah, Wildlife Programme Manager for WWF-Greater Mekong, expressed hope after the discovery of the new species, and he said that with concerted effort, the extinction rates can be brought down.

Furthermore, the region is a global center for illegal trade of wildlife. This type of illegal trade thrives because collectors are ready to shell out thousands of dollars for the most unique species, reveals Gizmodo.

"To save them, it's crucial that we improve enforcement against poaching and close illegal wildlife markets," Jimmy Borah said.

"The Greater Mekong region is a magnet for the world's conservation scientists because of the incredible diversity of species that continue to be discovered here," Borah further added. "These scientists, the unsung heroes of conservation, know they are racing against time to ensure that these newly discovered species are protected."
It looks like a collision of Saturn's moon, Mimas, and the rings of Saturn in the image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. On the other hand, it is not.

Mimas is 28,000 miles (45,000 kilometers) away from the rings of Saturn. NASA officials said that there is a strong connection between the icy moon and Saturn's rings. They further said that the gravity links them together and shapes the way they both move.

Saturn's moon Mimas looks as if it's crashing through the rings, but it's actually 28,000 miles away: https://t.co/B2dxPWHbUL @CassiniSaturn pic.twitter.com/HXf7THIwdo  NASA (@NASA) December 19, 2016

NASA officials added that Mimas, which is less than 250 miles (400 kilometers) in diameter, creates ripples in Saturn's rings with its gravity. Its gravity generates the Cassini Division, which separates the A and B rings, according to Space.com.

Cassini spacecraft took the image on Oct. 23, 2016. It was released by NASA on Dec. 19, 2016. It is captured at an estimated distance of 114,000 miles (183,000 kilometers) from Mimas and at a Sun-Mimas-spacecraft, or phase, an angle of 29 degrees. The scale of the image is about 3,300 feet (1 kilometer) per pixel, according to Space Daily.

Cassini spacecraft was launched in 1997 by NASA and the European and Italian space agencies. It collected data about the planet Saturn including its rings and moons for years. It will end its mission with a dive into Saturn on Sep. 15, 2017.

Saturn's moon, Mimas, was discovered by William Herschel in 1789. It was named after Mimas, the son of Gaia in Greek mythology. It has a diameter of 396 kilometers and less than the area of Spain. It is considered the smallest astronomical body with round shape due to self-gravitation.
President Barack Obama announced that he has called a permanent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in wide areas of the Atlantic and Arctic in what seems to be the final attempt to nail an environmental legacy before Donald Trump takes over the role of POTUS.

Invoking the obscure provision of a 1953 law called Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, this enables the current president to act unilaterally. Past presidents have used the same law to protect smaller portions of federal waters on a temporary basis. But The New York Times noted that Obama's declaration, which stretches on portions of the ocean floor from Virginia to Maine, to most of Alaska's coast, is breaking new ground.

Patrick Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at Vermont Law School, noted that this kind of declaration has not been done before. "There is no case law on this. It's uncharted waters." No matter the case, it is already making waves: Obama's move can be considered either creative or abusive by his critics. While critics like Senator Ted Cruz hopes for a reverse of the decision, advocacy groups are still lobbying for Obama to ban oil and gas leasing entirely.

The Washington Post also noted that Barack Obama's declaration is similar to the steps being taken by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is also shielding large areas of Arctic waters from drilling. While neither measure affects existing leases held by companies, it will prevent others from doing so.

In a statement, the White House noted that the actions are protecting sensitive and unique ecosystems unlike any other on Earth. It also added, "the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region's harsh conditions is limited."

The U.S. and Canadian officials are said to have negotiated for a joint understanding on managing these areas in the ocean -- and this is a joint effort to make new protections as widely reached and as politically durable as possible.
Christmas is about remembering the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ, who was born by a virgin named Mary in a manger in Bethlehem. The story continues with three wise men visiting the baby after following a giant star that led them to the site.

While there has not been any scientific explanation behind the astonishing birth that originated Christmas, Phys.org reported that astronomy Professor Caroline Simpson from Florida International University cited some astronomical occurrences that could possibly explain the famous Star of Bethlehem, also known as the Christmas Star.

According to Biblical history, the three wise men were looking for the Messiah who has been foretold in the Scriptures. They found a huge rising star as a sign of Christ's birth and it went before them until they reached the manger.

There, the wise men worshiped the baby Jesus and they offered him gifts. This probably explains the Christmas gift-giving tradition that people do through the years.

Since the Christmas Star was not a comet and definitely not a stationary object in the sky, Simpson hypothesized that it could be a nova -- where a star suddenly increases its brightness for a certain period of time -- or a supernova -- which is an explosion of a giant star that could be visible for weeks. Although these two theories may be possible, the occurrence of nova and supernova have been well-documented by astronomers. Unfortunately, the only documented occurrence during the Biblical time went in another direction, which was probably not what the wise men followed.

Moreover, Simpson guessed that the Christmas Star could also be a form of planetary conjunction, where two or more planets appear together in the sky. While these are just likely scenarios, astronomers still have not found any scientific evidence for a certain conclusion.
A so-called alien call was recorded 36,000 feet below Earth's surface. Scientists have not yet identified it, but it possibly came from a whale species.

The researchers at the Hatfield Marine Science Center were baffled upon hearing a mysterious noise while monitoring the deep-sea whale communication at the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. The noise lasted around three seconds. It hits super-low and the pitch to super-high frequencies, according to Fox News.

The researchers look at the possibility that the mysterious noise came from the whales 36,000 feet below the Earth's surface. Yet, they have never before heard the ones that they have recorded.

The experts in the field of Marine sent off a machine called a hydrophone down to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. It is located between Australia and Japan.

As for the hydrophone, it can travel through the sea for more than a month's time. It also can dive up to 1,000 meters. That is where the researchers picked up the so called "Alien Call," according to The Sun.

For some, they believe that the sound came from the mating call of a Baleen whale. However, the pattern of the mysterious sound has never been encountered by the researchers ever since.

A partnership between OSU and the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, senior faculty research assistant in Marine Bioacoustics at Oregon State Sharon Nieukirk shared that, "If it's a mating call, why are we getting it year round? That's a mystery. We need to determine how often the call occurs in summer versus winter, and how widely this call is really distributed."

In a report by the Oregon State University, Sharon Nieukirk explained that the call is somehow tricky to find when combined with the recorded sound data, because of its huge range of frequency. Typically, acoustic scientists zero in on narrower frequency ranges when analyzing ocean recordings, and in this case, that would mean not detecting portions of the "Western Pacific Biotwang."

Furthermore, Sharon Nieukirk added that, "Now that we've published these data, we hope researchers can identify this call in the past and future data, and ultimately we should be able to pin down the source of the sound. More data are needed, including genetic, acoustic and visual identification of the source, to confirm the species and gain insight into how this sound is being used."

Thus, she and her team are thinking about a wider study to figure out where the sound came from. Nieukirk further shared that, "Our hope is to mount an expedition to go out and do acoustic localization, find the animals, get biopsy samples and find out exactly what's making the sound. It really is an amazing, weird sound, and good science will explain it."
ATLANTA  Wilson High School student Travis Dias has been named a semifinalist for the 2017 class of the Coca-Cola Scholars Program. With the 2016 class, the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation will have provided more than 5,700 Scholars nationwide with more than $66 million in scholarships.

As a premier scholarship provider, we recognize our role in helping young people achieve their college goals, said Mark Davis, President of the Foundation. The economy continues to affect many students ability to attend the college of their choice, so it is critical we continue to stay the course. The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation received nearly 86,000 applications this year, and the Semifinalists are truly some of the most accomplished students in the country.

Dias ranks with approximately 1,900 high school seniors who are in the running for 150 college scholarships worth $20,000 each. Students are selected to advance to this next phase based on academic excellence, leadership and service demonstrated in school and community activities. The class of 2017 Coca Cola Scholars will mark the 29th consecutive year that the Foundation has awarded scholarships.

In addition to receiving college scholarships, those students selected as Coca-Cola Scholars will be welcomed into a vibrant and growing family of alumni that fosters lasting connections with its members. No other scholarship program maintains such lifetime connections or nurtures such a unique culture. Coca-Cola Scholar alumni stay in touch through regional councils, special events, and though their local Coca-Cola bottling facilities. In 2006, a Coca-Cola Scholar Alumni Advisory Board was created to build on the efforts of the Coca Cola Scholars Foundation through networking, mentoring, collaborations and friendships in order to make an even greater positive impact together.

The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, a joint effort of Coca-Cola Bottlers across America and The Coca Cola Company, is one of the largest corporate-sponsored, achievement-based scholarship programs of its kind in the United States. The program recognizes a diverse group of extraordinary high school seniors who have demonstrated academic and civic excellence in their schools and communities.

The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation was created in 1986 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Coca Cola and to establish a legacy for the education of tomorrows leaders through college scholarships.
LAKE CITY, S.C.  ArtFields Jr. is expanding its 2017 art competition to include applications from student artists throughout South Carolina. The organization is accepting submissions from students, grades 1-12, through Feb. 22.

The 2017 event marks its fifth anniversary, prompting the team to implement a statewide expansion, significantly widening its talent pool and raising the stakes for competitors. In the past, the junior version of ArtFields was limited to students in Lake City.

A review panel will evaluate work submitted to the competition through the free online application, and student winners will be notified by phone or email if they qualify. Selected pieces will be displayed through the month of April and judged during ArtFields 2017.

ArtFields Jr. winners are separated into four categories by grade level and will receive prizes up to $500, depending on grade and whether they place first, second or third.

In addition to the category winners, two Student Choice prizes will be awarded as determined by student votes: one winner from grades 1-6 and one winner from grades 7-12. Each of these winners will receive an ArtFields Jr. Prize Package during the ArtFields Jr. Awards Ceremony.

Winners and special presentations will be announced during the ArtFields finale event scheduled for 7 p.m. April 29 on The Green in Lake City.
ANKENY  In its annual report for Fiscal Year 2016, the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division showed another year of strong revenue growth.

Total liquor sales from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016, topped $288.9 million with overall revenues surpassing $330.4 million. These totals represented an annual rate of growth of 4 percent.

More than $131.1 million was returned to public treasuries, including monies earmarked to the Iowa Department of Public Health for substance abuse and prevention programs, the Iowa Economic Development Authoritys Beer and Wine Promotion Board and local governments for their share of alcohol license fees.

More than $105.6 million was deposited directly into the Iowa General Fund for legislative appropriation.

The alcohol beverages industry is thriving in Iowa, said ABD Administrator Stephen Larson in a news release.

We are continuing to do our best to ensure that our stakeholders can succeed while we provide the regulatory framework needed to keep our communities safe and healthy as well as working to revert as much revenue to the General Fund as possible, he said.

In the past fiscal year, ABD took considerable strides in rebuilding a compliance program that had been relatively dormant for two decades.

A revitalized regulatory team, including auditors and inspectors, was in effect for the Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) with meetings held with local authorities and more than 400 licensees along 2016s route prior to the event as well as checking on compliance throughout the week of the ride.

In Fiscal Year 2015, ABD also launched a YouTube channel with videos clarifying the three-tier system of alcohol regulation as well as videos on tastings, trade practices and growlers.

The YouTube channel was recognized by Stateways Magazine as a winner in the Educational category for 2016.

ABDs fiscal year 2016 Annual Report is accessible online at ABDIowa.gov. Financial figures have not yet been audited.
RICEVILLE  Betty Borchardt, of Riceville, has a unique collection of Nativity scenes from around the globe. Many have been collected while traveling.

I started with a Santa Clause collection and then Del bought me a Nativity scene, and I decided to collect them, because that is what Christmas is all about, said Borchardt. Between wall hangings and Christmas tree ornaments I have about 50 different Nativity items.

Her husband, Del, gave Borchardt her first Nativity set in the late 60s.

Borchardt said her largest Nativity scene was purchased through mail order installments as two or more pieces arrived every three months. Eventually she cancelled future orders after she had already obtained over 40 figurines.

When I traveled, I tried to pick up Santa Clauses and Nativity sets, said Borchardt. In her collection is a beautiful wood carving of the Holy Family made from olive wood, which she purchased in Bethlehem, while on a trip to Israel and Palestine in 2005. Traveling with the tour group, she visited the Sea of Galilee, Jordon River, Golan Heights, the Church of the Nativity and spent three days in Jerusalem.

Among other sets displayed in and on top of her glass display case is a deep, red-toned Nativity set, which she purchased in Sedona, Arizona.

It reminded me of the red stone in that area, but I dont know if the set is made of it, said Borchardt. Another unique set of ceramic figurines were purchased in Taex, New Mexico. This Nativity set portrays all the characters in the Christmas Story as Native Americans.

Wood carved and painted with solid tones, one set was purchased in Ecuador in 2007, when she traveled with a Kiwanis group that spent time visiting South American schools and hospitals.

On the same shelf, with the Ecuadorian set, is a unique Nativity set purchased in Columbia during the same trip. The much smaller figurines are made from bread dough, painted with bright colors and baked in an oven to harden.

Del also bought Borchardt a beautifully hand-carved, wooden set in Rochester, Minnesota, which was produced in the Holy Land. A music box is installed in the top of the stable, which plays an enchanting tune. Betty and Del have also purchased several scenes with figurines by Jim Stone and other regional artists.

In 2000, Betty traveled to Oberammergau, Germany, to see the famed Passion Play, which is only performed once a decade. While there, she purchased a beautiful wood carving of the Holy Family, which is displayed on her mantle.
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Norwegian Sky's first Cuba departure is May 1.

After sailing from Miami the ship will arrive in Havana the next morning and stay alongside until evening the following day. This gives time to experience cultural traditions through people-to-people exchanges. Norwegian will offer shore excursions complying with US regulations that visit historical places such as Old Havana, and give opportunities to see art and experience the music scene.

Additional departures are May 8, May 15, May 22 and May 29.

Norwegian Sky's Cuba cruises are priced starting at $699 per person. The fare includes unlimited complimentary beverages.
Simply put shipping, or that part that is in the public eye, continues to decline as revenues fail to cover costs while the ships age and decline in value.

Much has been written about Brexit and the Trump win in the US election but I suggest neither will have any effect on international shipping.

Shipping is a unique industry in that most of the ships are registered as owned in small nations, Open Registries, which can process all the shipping paperwork, but are barely involved in the actual trade of the ships.

This has created an enormous efficiency as thousands of ships have been built and are operating with little or no political influence from the nations at either ends of their voyages,

However, some countries have imposed restrictions on their domestic seaborne trade. The largest of these is the infamous US Jones Act that restricts shipping between US ports to US owned companies using ships built in the USA and employing US crews.

This has combined to create an enormous surcharge on the domestic shipping trade and has prevented coastal shipping solutions taking cargoes off the clogged highways of the US East coast.

The shipping industry has raised substantial funds through the public stock markets, supported by an equally huge amount of debt from careless banks and export credit agencies in the major shipbuilding nations of Korea and China,

These funds were chasing the illusion that ship values would quickly rise enabling the ships to be sold for a profit.

The reality is that shipping is a service industry whose assets physically depreciate over a relatively short time and only earn money when they carry cargoes.

The influx of this new money caused a surge of orders for new ships culminating in a huge increase in the carrying capacity of most sectors of the world fleet, at a time when the Chinese industrial boom had stalled and continues to decline.

Thus the cargo interests have been able to set freight rates at historically low levels, below operating costs in many sectors. This has caused most shipping companies to be unprofitable and unable to generate funds to replace their ageing fleets.

Investors need to understand the workings of the industries they invest in and not attempt to influence the values of the assets that generate the operating revenues.

Shipping will continue to carry the worlds cargoes into the far distant future but as ships physically depreciate so the capital requirements for their replacements will continue. Unfortunately the industrys present problem, caused by excessive investment in new ships, has created a severe financial recession in the companies that own and operate the ships.

Service industries flourish by meeting the demands of their customers and shipping provides an extraordinary service operating thousands of ships of all types and sizes. However investors have speculated in building hundreds of new ships without securing their profitable employment.

Investors who have speculated by funding the construction of hundreds of new ships without securing any profitable employment when they are delivered, has caused most of the shipping industry to languish in losses.

Cargo owners would pay more for shipping their cargoes if there were fewer ships available and the owners were financially able to properly maintain and operate the ships with greater efficiency for their customers.

Surprisingly a lot of new funding has emerged for some of the public companies but one most hope it isnt wasted on ordering new ships.

A closer relationship between shipowners and cargo interests is essential for both industries to flourish and continue to carry world trade for the foreseeable future.
The award will be presented at gala dinner on 22 March 2017 following the annual CMA conference.

The CMA is honored to present Jack Noonan with the 2017 Commodore Award. As the current president and as a former education chair of the CMA and board member of the CMA Education Foundation, it has been my great pleasure and honor to have seen and benefited first hand from his generosity of spirit and substantive support of our community, said Joe Gross president of CMA.

Education about what the industry contributes is paramount to all of us at CMA. And in the time I have had the chance to know Jack, I can honestly say that no one speaks more to the important core values of enthusiastically representing the business, whether it is in commercial dealing with his clients and customers, with his active support of the maritime academies, the growth and development of his company here in Connecticut, and his very clear enthusiasm for the people in the business.

Noonan himself is a former graduate of the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point and sailed for six years as deck officer with the US flag fleet of Texaco. He has over 30 years experience in the tanker industry joining Chembulk as coo in April 2007. He was promoted to president after the acquisition of Chembulk by Berlian Laju Tanker (BLT) in December 2007 and subsequently to ceo of the BLT Chembulk Group in November 2010. He was actively involved in the restructuring of Chembulk Tanker parent BLT, spearheading the business-related initiatives of the process from January 2012 until its conclusion in November 2015.

CMA Commodore in 2016 was Euronav ceo Paddy Rodgers.
The new service  China Saigon Indonesia Services (CSI)  will give direct connections between Chinese ports and Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta and Semerang rather than shippers having to tranship their cargoes.

K Line is deploying four 2,500 teu capacity vessels on the service.

The service will call Qingdao  Shanghai  Ningbo  Ho Chi Minh  Jakarta  Semarang  Xiamen  Qingdao, with the first sailing from Qingdao on 26 December.
CLEAR LAKE | With the onset of ice cover, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources reminds lake users that the winter aeration system is now operating.

Aerators are on the east shore in front of the water treatment plant and the north shore near the pump station west of Venetian Village. Those using the lake should stay away from these open-water areas.

Unsafe ice in the vicinity of the aerators will vary depending upon the weather. The open water will be marked with reflective thin-ice signs once the ice becomes safe enough to travel on.

Aerators are designed to reduce probability of winter fish kill in an attempt to maintain a high-quality fishery. The other aeration systems in North Iowa are on Crystal Lake, Rice Lake, Silver Lake and Little Wall Lake. For more information contact Scott Grummer, DNR, 641-357-3517.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2016-274

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Sharon B. Binger, Director of the Philadelphia Regional Office, will leave the agency at the end of the year. Following her departure, G. Jeffrey Boujoukos, the Philadelphia offices Associate Regional Director for Enforcement, will serve as Regional Director.

Ms. Binger has headed the Philadelphia office since February 2014, overseeing a staff of more than 150 attorneys, accountants, and other professionals responsible for conducting investigations, litigation, and examinations in a region covering Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Sharon exemplifies the high standards of leadership we set at the agency  tough but fair enforcement, inspiring leadership, and impactful results, said SEC Chair Mary Jo White. The public has benefited from her deep commitment to protecting investors.

Ms. Binger said, It has been an incredible honor and a joy to lead the Philadelphia Regional Office and its dedicated and talented staff. I am grateful to have had this opportunity and I am very proud of the high quality, innovative work we have accomplished together.

During Ms. Bingers tenure, the SECs Philadelphia Office filed dozens of enforcement matters involving a variety of securities law violations, including the SECs charges against:

Two brokers who traded on inside information ahead of the $1.2 billion acquisition of SPSS Inc. in 2009 by IBM Corp.



An investment advisory firm that failed to properly prepare clients for additional transaction costs beyond the wrap fees they pay to cover the cost of several services bundled together



Nationwide Life Insurance Company for routinely violating pricing rules in its daily processing of purchase and redemption orders for variable insurance contracts and underlying mutual funds

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC for submitting deficient information to the SEC over a two-year period about trades done by its customers, commonly referred to as blue sheet data

The Philadelphia office also is litigating the SECs charges against dozens of defendants for taking part in a scheme to profit from stolen nonpublic information about corporate earnings announcements. The Philadelphia office is leading the SECs continuing litigation, where the agency has obtained $53 million in settlements from 13 defendants.

Sharons creativity and vision, along with her steady leadership, have been critical to the success of the Philadelphia offices enforcement program, said Andrew J. Ceresney, Director of the SECs Enforcement Division. She instituted significant changes to the office, diversifying the offices docket and energizing the staff, resulting in important and path-breaking cases.

Ms. Binger also helped bring about successful changes in the structure and processes of the exam program. She put in place initiatives to instill a more risk-focused approached to examinations and adapt the program to the large influx of newly-registered hedge fund managers and private equity funds under the Dodd-Frank Act.

Sharon has been an outstanding leader for the exam program in the Philadelphia Regional Office. She has been a strong advocate for investors and delivered on OCIEs Four Pillars of promoting compliance, preventing fraud, informing policy and monitoring risk, said Marc Wyatt, Director of the SECs Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations.

Ms. Binger joined the SECs Enforcement Division in 2008. She was promoted to assistant regional director in the SECs New York Office in 2011. Prior to her arrival at the SEC, she spent seven years in private practice with a large international law firm. Ms. Binger graduated from Northwestern University in 1998 and earned her law degree with honors from Duke University School of Law in 2001.
A Russian deep-sea fisherman has grabbed the internet's attention by posting photos on Twitter of his more unusual, and undoubtedly creepy, marine-life finds. Roman Fedortsov works on a trawler based in Murmansk, Russia, in the far northwest. Many of the deep-sea creatures he pulls up look downright terrifying, but in his photos, Fedortsov appears to handle them without much difficulty.

Seeing such uncommon creatures is pretty shocking to those of us who don't regularly study the depths of the ocean, but to a deep-sea biologist, for example, Fedortsov's photos are pretty standard. "No monsters here. Most are pretty small, a few inches long at most. Some of the shallower living, lighter-colored fishes might be a couple of feet," Professor James Childress, who researches the biology of deep-sea animals at University of California Santa Barbara, told Seeker.

Childress supposes that Fedortsov isn't specifically trawling for these creepy, crawly swimmers, but instead scooping them up incidentally with the rest of his catch. "I assume that he's just a commercial fisherman towing nets down to 600m or 700m at the most," Childress said. "These are presumably bycatch. There's always a lot of bycatch in commercial net fishing - stuff caught that wasn't the target of the fishing." Given how rare the creatures in Fedortsov's photographs look to be, it seems as though capturing them would pose a threat to the species' existence, or possibly be in violation of a maritime regulation. Childress points out that some commercial fishing can pose a threat to bycatch fish, but overall, there's really nothing dangerous going on here.

"As far as I know, none [of the species] are endangered, though commercial fishing can severely deplete stocks of some bycatch species," Childress said. "While there are sometimes regulations about the taking of particular species of commercially valuable species, as far as I know there are no regulations concerning species such as these, which are of no commercial value." Marine biology researchers, Jo Clarke of Glasgow University and Francis Neat of Marine Scotland Science, found in a 2015 study that the biodiversity of the ocean greatly increases with each 100-meter depth increase. Eighteen new fish species are observable with each additional 100 meters, and the catch-to-bycatch ratio increases as well. In weight, the catch-to-bycatch ratio is five-to-one at 300 meters, but at 600 meters the ratio increases to three-to-one.
Doug Rozendaal has been flying airplanes for more than four decades, but when he took off from Mason City Airport on Friday it was a first for
The winter solstice is a vampire's dream. No other night is longer and no day shorter. But it also means the subsequent days get longer.

This year's winter solstice will occur in the Northern Hemisphere at 5:44 a.m. Wednesday. At that moment, the sun will be directly overhead at 23.5 degrees south latitude, and the Earth's axial tilt will be as far from the sun as possible.

When the celestial fireball finally makes its appearance, it keeps a low profile. On the winter solstice the sun follows the lowest path of the year in the sky of the Northern Hemisphere.

For modern city-dwellers, the solstice is little more than a curiosity, but in ancient times it was of vital importance.

RELATED: What Is the Summer Solstice?

In the northern hemisphere, knowing when the dark days of winter would start to lengthen could give hope to people trying to make the harvest of the previous year stave off starvation for a few more months.

The day was so important, that some of humanity's earliest monumental structures were aligned with the rising or setting of the sun on the winter solstice. Stonehenge in England, for example, is lined up with the winter solstice.
Weather forecasters predict that temperatures will be several degrees below freezing in the capital city of Greenland, Nuuk, for the rest of this year. While many of us would huddle indoors under such weather conditions, Inuit in the iceberg capital of the world will continue to go about their business with barely a shiver.

It turns out that they, along with Native Americans and some Siberians, possess a unique gene variant associated with cold tolerance, according to a paper published in Molecular Biology and Evolution. This variant is a close, but not exact, match to a gene sequence found in Denisovans, which are extinct humans who once ranged from Siberia to Southeast Asia.

People with the variant today, however, live in places at or near where Neanderthals once were. This means that Native Americans, Inuits and certain Siberians are all related to Denisovans, to Neanderthals (perhaps more so than the rest of us with European and/or Asian heritage), or to an as-of-yet unidentified extinct human ancestor.

RELATED: Alaskan Village Relocates Due to Climate Change

The gene variant is "almost absent in Africa, which is one of the reasons why we think the variant was introduced from archaic humans living in Eurasia," lead author Fernando Racimo of the New York Genome Center told Seeker.

Racimo, who was a graduate student at UC Berkeley at the time of the study, and his team compared genetic data from nearly 200 Greenland Inuit to people tracked in the 1000 Genomes Project and to ancient human DNA from Neanderthals and Denisovans. The other known archaic human from outside of Africa-the Hobbit (Homo floresiensis)-wasn't included in the study because there is no complete Hobbit genome yet.

The comparison put a spotlight on the region of the genome containing two genes: TBX15 and WARS2. This is where the variant possessed by the cold-tolerating people lies. Racimo explained that it is thought to cause a certain type of body fat commonly known as "brown fat" to generate heat.

RELATED: Ancient Humans Had a Crazy Sex Life

He continued, "The gene is also involved in a number of other traits, like body fat distribution, bone and facial morphology (structure)."

The discovery marks only the second major finding that ancient interbreeding conferred useful traits to modern humans. The first was the discovery that Tibetans have a very beneficial gene variant, likely inherited from Denisovans. It allows them to use oxygen efficiently when the air is thin at high altitudes.

The authors speculate that the Native American, Inuit and Siberian gene variant could be part of early American history. That's because the people who expanded throughout Siberia and across Beringia-the former land bridge connecting what are now Russia and Alaska-and into the Americas all likely had the special genetic adaption for cold tolerance.

As Racimo said, "perhaps as modern humans were expanding across Beringia, it might have been useful to have this variant."

WATCH: Why You Should Sleep in a Cold Bedroom
Scientists just got a new tool in the quest to predict if, how much, and when sea levels will rise on our planet in the future. The Global Land Ice Velocity Extraction project (GoLIVE) created a software tool that crunches both historical satellite images and current high-resolution pictures taken by the Landsat 8 satellite, which captures pictures of Earth's entire surface every 16 days, to give scientists an unprecedented and detailed image of how glaciers move.

The NASA-funded project - a collaboration between scientists from the University of Colorado, the University of Alaska, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. - is able to analyze both Landsat 8 images and historical satellite images to identify the subtle patterns in the surface of the ice and how they have changed over time. That data allows them to create computer models to predict what those ice flows will do in the future.

And predicting ice flow is essential to predicting the rise of ocean levels.

RELATED: Here Are 10 Striking Images of Future Sea Levels

"Sea level rise is two things," said Dr. Alex S. Gardner, a JPL research scientist working on the project. "It is the ocean warming, because warm water takes up more volume than cold water. And it is ice from the continents that ends up in the ocean. If you want to know what sea level rise will be in the future, you have to know how much ice will go into the ocean. Once you answer that question, you know how much sea level will rise."

In this effort, having high-quality images from the Landsat 8 satellite is important. But it isn't the key that unlocks the answer. "The satellite is fantastic," says Gardner. "But it was never designed to map glacial flow. The most important thing about this mission is continuity."

The new Landsat 8 has a radiometric capability, which means it can resolve the greyscale in satellite images with much finer detail, giving scientists a crystal-clear image of how the ice is moving. And it collects an enormous quantity of images, so many that just downloading them to earthbound computers created a bottleneck.

Earlier satellites also collected images of the glacial ice. But those showed the ice as white, without the detail of the Landsat 8. "But with the Landsat record we get a very long - in many places 30 years - historical record of ice flow," says Gardner.

RELATED: Dino-Killer Crater Reveals Clues About Ice Age Sea Level

But much of the data from both sources went untapped because it required too much processing power to access. Technology has advanced to the point where it is possible for this team of scientists to mine that data. "So we can now see how ice flow is changing with time. And that is one of the most important variables to understand when predicting future changes."

This effort, led by a team that specializes in studying ancient ice, may seem to the uninitiated as worthy but purely academic. But the work is crucial especially as climate scientists fear that funding will be pulled in an incoming Trump administration. The project also has enormous financial implications.

"This has pragmatic impact on shoreline infrastructure and for urban development," says Gardner. "For example, deciding to build a one-meter or two-meter high sea wall has huge financial implications. We are trying to estimate the rise of sea level so we can plan for the future."

WATCH: What Happens If All The World's Ice Melts?
Grace Wilson sold barn wood crosses and God's Eyes at the Seeley Lake Senior Bazaar this past November as a fundraiser for her mission trip this summer to Malawi, Africa.

SEELEY LAKE  Thirteen-year-old Grace Wilson will go on her first mission trip this summer. While many youth who are interested in mission work start out by going on a trip close to home, Wilson is going to Malawi, Africa for three weeks with a team from Teen Missions International. Her goal is to share the Good News and love of Jesus Christ with everyone she meets.

Wilson has been interested in mission work for many years.

"A lot of people need to know about Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the cross because He is the perfect sacrifice," said Wilson. "God sent his Son into the wor...
As a student at Detroit's Cody High School, Hassan Almaleki never knew he wanted to be a chef. All he knew was that he loved food and wanted to learn how to cook for himself.

But after joining

and entrepreneurship

Youth entrepreneurship programs like Detroit Food Academy engage youth across the city in hands-on, place-based entrepreneurial training, equipping them to both launch their own businesses and use entrepreneurial thinking to solve problems at school, work, and in their own communities.



Takyhai Burns and Jacob Schoenknecht making Mitten Bites Being a part of something bigger



DFA engages youth through its after-school, summer, and "small batch" programs, which introduce healthy eating and cooking, business planning, and food product development to the youth who participate. Last year, DFA worked with 250 students across seven high schools in Detroit, and they're looking to expand into three more this year.

"We want to use this engaging space of food to invite our students to build a really tangible idea that makes an impact on their school or neighborhood," says Jennifer Rusciano, executive director of Detroit Food Academy. "Detroit has an obsession with importing talent from other places, but we have amazing students who want to be a part of what's going onthey just need a vote of confidence and the opportunity to make their ideas a reality."

Students who participate in DFA learn skills such as basic math and financial planning, how to cook for themselves, and interpersonal communication. DFA's ultimate goal is building the emotional wellness and self confidence of participants, many of whom have never cooked before, let alone planned a food business concept, or pitched a business idea to a panel of judges.

"DFA changed my view on how to talk to people," says Almaleki, who is now an employee of DFA as well as a culinary arts student at Schoolcraft College. "When I started the program I was a very shy kid. As I went through the program I had to stand in front of people and tell them about my product. Little by little it brought me out of shell."

Almaleki shares that as he continued to participate in DFA, he realized that it was more than just cooking well that drew him to the program, it was about wanting to "be a part of something bigger."

Seeing opportunities in Detroit

While DFA teaches youth concrete skills they can utilize in their daily lives, the program also emphasizes a place-based approach to building a business, where youth feel connected to their communities and excited about the options available to them here in Detroit.

This engagement with Detroit is one of the main goals of Our Town, a youth driven tour guide program founded by Anise Hayes of





Anise Hayes, founder of Atlantic Impact "It was actually one of our students at Denby High School who came up with the idea for the program," says Hayes. "We were on a field trip downtown and he had never been there. He asked, 'Why doesn't my neighborhood look like this? Why don't people come and visit where I live?'"



The program partnered with

Hayes explains that by having youth design and lead tours, they are placed in a position of authority, and consequently feel more empowered to make a difference in Detroit.

"Growing up in the city, I didn't see the good things about Detroit often," says Lerrell Carr, a graduate of Denby High School who participated in the program during its pilot this past summer. "But after learning more about its history and giving tours downtown, it opened my eyes a bit wider. I realized it was actually a major city in the world."

Carr is now a freshman at Ferris State University and sees himself moving back to Detroit after graduating.

As part of the current yearlong program, students at Denby High School, which is situated on Detroit's east side, are developing a tour of the west side for their peers. The tour will include visits to the Livernois Avenue of Fashion, Marygrove College, and the University District.

Cultivating entrepreneurial thinking

In addition to providing youth with hands-on experience, another core element of youth entrepreneurship programs is developing an entrepreneurial mindset.





Deborah Parizek, executive director of JumpStart "In school, we tend to give kids the message that there's a right answer and wrong answer," says Deborah Parizek, executive director of JumpStart. "Those outcomes are often defined by somebody else and they have minimal connection to students' lives. Design thinking helps us counter that message."



Throughout the two days of the program, students engage in a process of human centered design or design thinking, which emphasizes engaging with potential users or customers of a service or product to understand their needs before defining the problem and developing solutions.

In a pilot with fifteen students from Henry Ford Academy this past September, participants explored the question "How do we ease the transition to college or post secondary learning for high school students?" Through a process of research, interviews, and visiting college campuses, teams developed rough conceptual prototypes for their "user"a prospective college student.

One group developed a mobile app idea for an 11th grader they called "Worried Wilson," who doesn't want to pay "a ridiculous amount of money" for a college that doesn't provide the resources he needs to succeed. The app provides a customized survey to students, and matches them to a list of colleges that best fit their needs.

While the students in the program learn concrete skills such as interviewing and public speaking, JumpStart's program director Marcus Harris, explains that, "Beyond concrete skills, we want participants to develop the idea of thinking entrepreneurially. Not all of them are going to go out and launch their own venture, but at least they will walk away with creative problem solving skills that they can use not only in their careers but also in their everyday lives."

This article is part of Michigan Nightlight, a series of stories about the programs and people that positively impact the lives of Michigan kids. It is made possible with funding from the

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MASON CITY | If anyone walks into the lobby of the Cerro Gordo County Courthouse and hesitates, even for a moment, they are likely to be greeted by Supervisor Phil Dougherty darting out of his office to help them find their way.

Those who know him and have worked with him say that is part of his DNA -- to help people find their way.

On Tuesday, Dougherty will be participating in his final meeting as a supervisor after 16 years on the board. In November, the Democrat from Dougherty who was seeking his fifth term, was defeated by Republican Chris Watts of Mason City.

As a young man, Dougherty, 60, had an interest in local politics at the township level and attended Democratic caucuses but never had a burning desire to run for public office, he said.

"I didn't have a 'lightbulb moment' where I knew I had to run," Dougherty said. But in 2000, when Supervisor Bob Ermer of Rockwell chose to retire, he decided to make his move.

He defeated Mark Young in the Democratic primary and Larry Johnson in the general election and has been in office ever since.

"Once you're elected, you learn a lot of things. You learn what you can't do as well as what you can do. And you learn when you come to the table, don't be a Johnny-come-lately. Do your homework," said Dougherty.

He said when he was first elected, a constituent gave him a piece of advice he's never forgotten.

"He said, 'Before you vote on anything, think of how your decision will affect your dad.' I don't know whether he meant my dad as an elderly citizen or a farmer or a property owner or just a common guy -- or maybe all of those things. But I've always remembered that," he said.

Dougherty said another thing he's learned in government is that public service never stops.

"From the road you drive on, the street you walk on to the streetlight you stand under, it's ongoing," he said.

Looking back over his 16 years, Dougherty said he is proud of how the county has held the line on taxes, has supported the CLEAR project to improve Clear Lake and was the first county in what is now a 22-county consortium on mental health needs.

He has experienced much tragedy in his personal life. Two children have died in their youth, one from a traffic accident, one from illness. His wife, Alice, underwent a heart transplant several years ago.

He said he and his wife have been sustained by the support of family, extended family, friends and a gracious, caring community.

"I hope nobody ever voted for me out of pity. I've always tried to keep that at arm's length," said Dougherty.

He said his personal life has helped put a lot of things in perspective.

"There are worse things that can happen to someone than losing an election," he said.

He and his wife have a grown daughter and three grandchildren.

Dougherty said he's not sure what the future will bring.

"I'm definitely in the job market," he said with a laugh. Prior to his government work, he was employed by Huber Supply for 14 years.

Former Supervisor Bob Amosson said, "If you can't work with Phil, you can't work with anybody. You'll never meet a nicer guy to work with.

"And if you had someone come into the office who was a little upset, you'd send them to Phil. He could 'un-upset' someone in a hurry just by the way he treated them."

Tom Drzycimski, county administrative officer, said, "I've always said that it seems like Phil knows everybody. And if he doesn't know someone, he soon will."

As an example, Drzycimski said last summer he came across Dougherty in a grocery and they walked and talked for awhile.

"We crossed paths with probably four or five different people and Phil knew them all and they all knew him," he said.

Drzycimski said Dougherty is constantly learning.

"He makes no pretense about not knowing all the answers and seeks information he needs to know," Drzycimski said. "He devours newspapers. Many times he'd spot an article with relevance to Cerro Gordo County and bring it to me.

"If I had to sum up Phil in just a few words, I would call him a humble, thoughtful, servant."

Dougherty said he isn't concerned about what his legacy might be.

"I hope people felt I was approachable," he said.
CHARLES CITY | A Charles City man who was given a suspended two-year prison sentence for assault with intent to commit sexual abuse had his guilty plea and sentence vacated Wednesday.

The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that the case against Barry J. Holden Jr., 32, be sent back to Floyd County District Court for further proceedings because his lawyer did not inform him before his guilty plea of the correct amount of time he would spend on probation.

Holden pleaded guilty in 2015. He was put on probation for two years, concurrent with the probation he was already serving in another case, and ordered to register as a sex offender.

Once his probation ended he was to be under the supervision of the Iowa Department of Corrections for 10 years as part of the special sentencing provisions for sex offenders.

Holden claimed that when he entered his plea, he did not understand he would be on probation for two years. He stated he believed the probation for the assault with intent to commit sexual abuse conviction would end at the same time as his probation in the other case, which was slated to end in a few weeks.

Holden originally was charged with felony counts of first-degree burglary, third-degree sexual abuse and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse resulting in bodily injury. He allegedly committed those crimes on July 4-5, 2013, in the 800 block of C Street in Charles City, according to court records.

The third-degree sexual abuse charge was dismissed in exchange for Holden pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, rather than assault with intent to commit sexual abuse resulting in bodily injury.

The burglary charge was dismissed by the state due to lack of sufficient evidence to proceed.
They worked long, grueling shifts shoveling debris from the fire-gutted Ghost Ship warehouse in Oaklands Fruitvale district, searching for the 36 people who died in the horrific Dec. 2 blaze.

On Tuesday, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors recognized their efforts in a heavyhearted ceremony that began with a moment of silence.

Weve always said this, but you are the best, Board President Scott Haggerty said to the dozens of county employees who received certificates of commendation, including sheriffs deputies, firefighters, health care workers, district attorney staffers, public works staff and employees of the general services office.

Sheriff Gregory Ahern applauded the rescue workers for maintaining their composure, even during the most difficult points in the recovery effort.

At the onset (of the Ghost Ship fire) we knew there was a great deal of loss of life, Ahern said. Each time a body was located, all work stopped. Everybody just focused on the individual they were recovering.

The Rev. Jayson Landeza, a volunteer chaplain for the Alameda County Sheriffs Office, the Oakland Fire Department and the Oakland Police Department, counted the fire among the worst tragedies he has handled during his 21-year career. That includes being on the scene in East Oakland after convicted felon Lovelle Mixon shot and killed four police officers in 2009 and helping respond to the mass shooting at Oaklands Oikos University in 2012.

Landeza rushed to the Ghost Ship site shortly after firefighters arrived at about 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 2. He stayed all night comforting people who had fled the party as they huddled in a Wendys parking lot across the street.

A lot of people were calling friends who they thought were still inside the building, and a lot of those calls went straight to voice mail, said the chaplain, who was among the honorees Tuesday.

Tears showed in his eyes as he recalled the details of that night and the following four days, when he escorted grieving families to the memorials around the building.

Nothing compares to losing 36 people, he said.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
A developer plans to build the largest industrial complex San Francisco has seen in 50 years, a 1.16 million square foot project advocates say could help stem the loss of blue-collar jobs from a rapidly gentrifying city.

Prologis, a San Francisco industrial developer that operates in 20 countries, filed an application with the city Tuesday to build a three-story complex on 17 acres of land on a Bayview district site bordered by Rankin Street, Toland Avenue, Kirkwood Avenue and McKinnon Avenue. The development, which is being called the San Francisco Gateway Industrial Center, would replace four single-story buildings constructed in 1940 and totaling 448,000 square feet.

The project and a similar one Prologis plans to build in Seattle would be the first modern multistory warehouses built in the United States. Prologis has built multistory warehouses in Japan, Singapore and China.

Multistory industrial developments are essentially warehouses stacked on top of one another and connected by a network of truck ramps, loading docks and freight elevators. They are flexible and divisible and are equally well suited to manufacturing as they are warehousing goods.

Given the escalation of land values in dense urban areas like San Francisco, it makes sense to build denser and more efficient warehouses, which can bring production, distribution and repair services closer to urban consumers, according to Prologis Chief Executive Officer Hamid Moghadam.

It makes sense in any urban area where land values are high, development pressures are great and land is scarce, he said.

The proposal comes as San Franciscos tech-fueled housing and office development boom squeezes out production, distribution and repair companies  a category of the economy that the city calls PDR. Between 2011 and 2015, approximately 1 million square feet of PDR space was lost in the Mission District, Potrero Hill, South of Market and Dogpatch, according to a city report.

A lot of developments have been about eliminating these kind of jobs. We have an opportunity here to increase the number of jobs by a factor of eight or 10, said Moghadam.

Prologis has hired a team of brokers and translators to work with current tenants on the property, which includes several Chinese businesses, according to Dan Letter, a managing director with Prologis. Some of the current tenants, which are generally paying below-market rate rents, could end up in the new building. But many will likely be relocated to other Bayview properties.

Todd Rufo, Director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, said the city is continuing to work with Prologis to ensure that existing businesses on the site are able to relocate nearby when construction begins.

Weve been watching this proposal with interest because it would provide a lot of net new space for PDR jobs, helping meet one of Mayor Lees key goals of expanding good middle class employment opportunities within the city, said Rufo.

Prologis, which owns more than 600 million square feet of space in 20 countries, hopes to have the project approved in 2017. It would take 14 months to build.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

I think this is really exciting for the city  were talking about an actual expansion of PDR uses at a scale we have not seen before, said Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the urban think tank SPUR. This is a modern version of how to provide the services that support the every day functioning of a big city.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@
Cybersecurity is an increasingly important consideration in tech mergers and acquisitions  and Verizons fraught acquisition of Yahoo may serve as a blueprint for future deals, experts say.

News that Yahoo has suffered two major hacks, one in 2014 affecting at least 500 million accounts and the other in 2013 affecting over 1 billion accounts, appears to be causing Verizon to rethink its purchase. Yahoo disclosed both breaches after the acquisition plan was announced this summer, with the 2013 breach  believed to be the largest hack ever reported  made public only last week.

How Verizon proceeds will probably depend on whether it views Yahoos breaches as material enough to warrant a reassessment of the terms of the deal itself. Materiality, broadly construed, usually hinges on whether an unforeseen event would cause an investor to reconsider their decision to purchase stock in a company, or in Verizons case, a company itself.

Edward McAndrew, a partner at the law firm Ballard Spahr and a former federal cybercrime prosecutor, said that the Yahoo case could serve as an instance that would be studied in business schools and law schools across the country.

Because cybersecurity is a relatively new field, he said, one of the things we dont hear about when deals go badly is that cybersecurity issues were a material factor in the failure of the deal, at least when it comes to transactions involving public companies.

Most legal precedents for materiality in mergers and acquisitions law are long-standing. Companies have decades of case law to lean on when, for instance, an acquisition target loses a contract with a key supplier before a deal officially closes.

But what we dont see in the law is what materiality really means when it comes to the impact of a data breach on an investing decision, McAndrew said.

All of that might change, depending on Verizons next move, McAndrew said. If Verizon walks away from the deal, it would be very hard to say that (cybersecurity) wasnt material. It would also serve as an example for other companies that find themselves in Verizons position  trying to do a deal with a company that is just discovering online breaches.

As weve said all along, we will evaluate the situation as Yahoo continues its investigation, Verizon spokesman Richard Young said in an email. We will review the impact of this new development before reaching any final conclusions.

Yahoo said it hasnt been able to identify the source of the 2013 theft, in which an unauthorized third party made off with more than a billion user names, passwords, email address and other pieces of personal information.

Verizon is undoubtedly assessing what Yahoo knew about the breaches, and when. The company will then compare that information with Yahoos policies and plans for addressing cybersecurity breaches generally to see if more could have been done to protect user data, legal experts said.

We are confident in Yahoos value and we continue to work towards integration with Verizon, said Mary Aiello, a Yahoo spokeswoman, in an email Tuesday.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Randy Sabett, a special counsel at the Cooley law firm and a former software engineer for the National Security Agency, said that a companys ability to work backward from a breach and demonstrate that it made good-faith efforts to keep data secure is crucial.

By being proactive when youre involved in a transaction, if you can show you did A, B and C, that you were prepared for it and that you had a plan for handling it  you might have had an incident, but with respect to the transaction, youre able to address things confidently.

According to a survey this year of 30 mergers and acquisitions executives at private-equity firms and corporations, 23 percent of respondents said they have walked away from a deal entirely because of data security issues at a target company. The study was released by the business-technology consulting firm West Monroe Partners.

I would not be surprised in the future if we see more and more deals that are affected by cybersecurity incidents, Sabett said. And if they werent handled properly, they might affect things like the valuation of the deal, or the deal itself.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
Stephen and Ayesha Curry brought Riley, 4, to the San Francisco Ballet performance of Nutcracker on Friday, Dec. 16. Riley wasnt exactly the victim of a clothing malfunction, but she did  according to her moms Instagram  have an acute need for some on-the-spot tailoring. The little girl had a meltdown, said her mom, because shes a kid and shes growing and her leotard was too tight.

Ayesha borrowed scissors from the restaurant in which theyd dined before the show, and executed a midriff slash, thereby creating a comfortable crop top. The alteration provided instant relief. (DIY alterations in which a close-fitting garment is fixed with scissors may have been shocking to the Currys hosts for the evening. La Perla, the fancy Italian lingerie maker that is a sponsor of the coming gala in January.)

The family, peers of the Golden State Warriors realm, went backstage during intermission, where they were greeted by peers of the San Francisco Ballet realm (Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson and his wife, Marlene, and board chair Carl Pascarella and his wife, Yurie); and members of the troupe, who showed Riley some ballet moves.

The 85th birthday of John Burton was celebrated with a Thursday, Dec. 15, fundraiser at the Fairmont Hotel for John Burton Advocates for Youth, which benefits foster children. The event also marked Burtons last year as chairman of the California Democratic Party.

The guest speaker for the evening was Olympic champion Simone Biles, who was in conversation with Belva Davis. Biles, whose mothers problems with drugs resulted in her being placed into foster care as a child, was later adopted by her grandparents. Although the self-assured superstar says she never needed prompting to go to the gym, her adoptive father had been a military officer, used to giving orders, as Davis put it. Biles, 19, joked that he told her she could start dating at 35.

Less than a week before a charity party Dec. 5 hosted by Robert Meyer  which he has put on for 38 years, collecting contributions for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots and the San Francisco Firefighters Toy Program  Meyer learned that its planned venue was unavailable. Meyer says hed had flyers around the place for months; the venue said he hadnt formally booked the space.

Thanks to concerned citizens, I found the Cambria Gallery at the last moment, says Meyer. Due to the changed date, I lost a 70-pound baron of beef from Harris Restaurant, a giant paella from Gerard, the S.F. Police Lion Dancers and five wineries. On the plus side, I was able to acquire four turkeys and two hams, as well as donations from Lefty ODouls, Bakers of Paris, Liguria Bakery, Piazza Pelligrini, Marin Joes, Patxis Pizza, La Mediterranee, Bronco Wine and Trois Petits Cochons Pates. So the party went on, a few weeks after its original schedule.

We had five overflowing barrels of toys, said Meyer. We usually have three times more.

Toy donations are being accepted through Saturday, Dec. 24, at Lefty ODouls.

Adda Dada spotted an elderly African American gentleman wearing a button that said Make America Love Again. And Ken Maley saw a license plate that reads, DUIWHY, about which Im wondering why?

While Fences was showing at the Curran on Thursday, Dec. 15, Denzel Washington and the rest of the visiting cast  whod been available in the red carpet tent for a pre-showing photo op  had dinner at Perbacco. After dinner, they went back to the theater for an onstage Q&A.

The San Francisco International Film Festival, which will be marking its 60th festival next year, has announced that its 2017 dates are April 5 to 19  two weeks ahead of the usual time. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts are being added  to the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission, Castro, Roxie and Victoria theaters  as primary venues.

Days of Dismal Dysfunction:

There are people sleeping in tents on the sidewalks of San Francisco. And The Chronicles Andy Behr found the flyer in her email in-box: Satisfy your horses wish list this Christmas!

Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, (415) 777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik

Public Eavesdropping

Mother, my life is not yet so incredibly boring that Im reduced to growing my own parsley.
Why Him? takes a comic situation and then does everything it can to undermine it. Its more than unfunny. Its anti-funny. It doesnt provoke laughter or even neutral silence, but an increasingly stunned disdain. It is the movie equivalent of putting on a plaster life mask and letting it dry and lock your face into an expression of blank misery.

Still, James Franco can be comically annoying  and comical in his awareness of it  and Bryan Cranston is good at being comically annoyed. There was potential here in the story of a father who meets his daughters boyfriend and hates him on sight. But the filmmakers dont have a clue as to how to exploit that situation. Either that, or they just dont have the stomach to do it.

The movie takes place over Christmas, so this is this years really bad Christmas movie  there usually is one. Cranston plays Ned, a Midwestern businessman with a midsize printing business that is beginning to tank because of the Internet. For the holidays, he and his wife (Megan Mullally) and teenage son go out to Palo Alto to visit their daughter, Stephanie, who is going to college. No sooner are they off the plane than the daughter springs the news that she expects them to stay with her at the boyfriends house.

So here we go. Its father, mother and little brother at the boyfriends place. We know going in that the father will find the boyfriend repellent. So what do you think the house is like? Turns out, its a multimillion-dollar mansion. The boyfriend (Franco) is a very successful developer of apps, and hes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

But wait, thats not bad, is it? Being seriously wealthy  thats usually regarded as a plus. So maybe something else is wrong with him, like hes a nasty guy. Or he mistreats his girlfriend. Or hes burning down the rain forest. But no, none of those things. His big faults are that he curses a lot, and he has lots of tattoos. Thats about it. Thats whats wrong with the boyfriend.

See the problem? What could have been a funny situation, in which a father knows that his daughter is with a horror show but doesnt know what to do about it, is transformed instead into a series of minor misunderstandings or misperceptions based on superficial cultural differences.

At the center of the movie is the father, who is not a comic character, and yet hes the one whos obtuse. At one point, he finds out that the boyfriend has marijuana on the premises and warns his daughter that marijuana is the gateway to heroin and that soon she will be working as a prostitute.

Its as if director John Hamburg and his co-screenwriters slapped on handcuffs from the beginning, preventing them from portraying the daughter as anything but wise, the boyfriend as anything but ingenuous, and the family as anything but nice.

The only avenue left was the father to be a stick-in-the-mud, like the dimwitted dads in TV commercials, but an impotent stick-in-the-mud isnt funny. Hes just a tangle of thwarted frustration and self-doubt. Imagine All in the Family with the power arrangement reversed, with Archie Bunker living in his son-in-laws house.

So having tossed away every possible laugh they might have achieved through the setup, the filmmakers have nothing left but to be crude. Thus, we get the colossally unfunny sequence in which Dad sits on a Japanese toilet bowl in the boyfriends house, unable to operate the self-cleansing mechanism.

Enter help, in the form of the boyfriends assistant (Keegan-Michael Key), who announces, I see nothing. I smell nothing. Really? Because everyone in the audience feels like theyre seeing everything and smelling everything just by sitting there.

What was Bryan Cranston thinking? Just one phone call to Jeff Daniels might have told him that audiences really dont want to be picturing that kind of thing when they look at an actor. And at least in Daniels case, the scene  in Dumb and Dumber  was really funny.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles movie critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle

Why Him?

Comedy. Starring Bryan Cranston and James Franco. Directed by John Hamburg. (R. 111 minutes.)

To see a trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO6qLC4cL8E
The state Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked enforcement of Proposition 66, an initiative that seeks to speed up executions in California, for at least the next five weeks while it considers a lawsuit challenging the measure.

The court halted implementation of Prop. 66 to give both sides time to submit written arguments, due by Jan. 23.

State voters approved Prop. 66 by a 51 percent majority on Nov. 8 while rejecting, by 54 to 46 percent, a competing measure, Prop. 62, that would have repealed Californias death penalty law.

Prop. 66, sponsored by prosecutors, would require the state Supreme Court to rule on death penalty appeals within five years of sentencing, more than twice as fast as its current pace. It would set the same five-year deadline for the second-stage appeals known as habeas corpus and would require defense lawyers to file those appeals to the trial judge within a year, compared with the current three-year deadline.

Another provision would expand the pool of defense lawyers by requiring attorneys to take capital cases if they accept court appointments to represent criminal defendants in other cases. Prop. 66 would also eliminate administrative review of the states newly adopted rules for executions by a single drug. Execution using a single drug replaced the states previous three-drug procedure.

The suit was filed a day after the election by former state Attorney General John Van de Kamp and Ron Briggs, a former El Dorado County supervisor whose father, state Sen. John Briggs, sponsored the states current death penalty law as a 1978 ballot measure.

The suit contends Prop. 66 would interfere with courts constitutional authority, cause confusion and upheaval in the states judiciary, and force both courts and lawyers into hurried and less-reliable decisions in capital cases.

One of the authors of the ballot measure said the courts order did not mean the suit was likely to succeed, but probably was intended to preserve the status quo.

Theres nothing wrong with waiting a month, said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which backed Prop. 66. He said most of the arguments in the lawsuit were aimed at individual provisions of the measure, and the only argument that attacks the entire initiative  that it violates the constitutional ban on initiatives covering more than one subject  was meritless to the point of being frivolous.

Christina Von der Ahe Rayburn, a lawyer for Van de Kamp and Briggs, countered that the suit challenged several speedup provisions that, if upheld in court, would invalidate all of Prop. 66.

Were gratified that the court saw the importance of this issue, she said.

Defendants in the case include the state Judicial Council. For that reason, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, chairwoman of the council, and Justice Ming Chin, the vice chairman, have removed themselves from the case and will be replaced by two appeals court justices, yet to be named. Tuesdays order was approved by the courts remaining five justices.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
MASON CITY | The Iowa Court of Appeals Wednesday ordered a North Iowa man to be re-sentenced after being sent to prison for two years on a public intoxication conviction.

Michael Robert Handt, 60, originally was sentenced in March in Cerro Gordo County District Court after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of public intoxication, third or subsequent offense.

The defense claimed the district court considered improper claims when sentencing Handt, noting the judge referenced his allegedly being prescribed medication for a mental health disorder and taking that medication with alcohol even though he was not supposed to.

However, the record did not indicate anything about Handt's taking medication for a mental health disorder or combining prescription medications with alcohol consumption, according to the defense.

Handt was sentenced in March to another two-year prison term for two Floyd County convictions of public intoxication, third or subsequent offense. Handt appealed that sentence as well, but the appeals court affirmed the district court's decision last month.

-- Mary Pieper
Regarding Judge cleared of bias in Turner case (Dec. 20): Im shocked and disappointed that our states Commission on Judicial Performance has not found Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky guilty of judicial misconduct in his six-month sentencing of Brock Turner in the notorious Stanford University rape case. Judge Persky, who was a Stanford alum and, like the defendant, a student-athlete there, should have recused himself from hearing this case.

His short-term sentence certainly reflects bias toward someone of a similar background, while ignoring the lifetime sentence of psychic pain the victim of this crime will endure. If citizens want to send a message to the Commission on Judicial Performance that its decision is unacceptable, they should immediately commence efforts to recall Judge Persky.

Vivian Wexford, San Francisco

Thank you to all

As I finish up my final days serving in the U.S. Senate, I wanted to say thank you to The San Francisco Chronicle and its readers.

To all the journalists at The Chronicle  thank you for your coverage over all these years, ever since my first (unsuccessful) race for the Marin County Board of Supervisors back in 1972. I didnt always agree with what you wrote. Your editorial board and columnists didnt always like my stands.

But you challenged me, you covered some of the biggest debates I was involved in (like the Iraq War), and you shined a bright light on the important issues we face. Thats what a free and independent press is all about.

To Chronicle readers  thank you for being engaged. Thank you for calling and sending me letters. Thank you for subscribing to a real newspaper rather than relying on fake news.

As we head into uncharted waters with our new president-elect, we need active, informed citizens like you  now more than ever. And we need a fierce, courageous press corps that wont be bullied  now more than ever.

Even as I leave the Senate after 24 years, I plan to stay in the fight for womens rights, civil rights, immigrants rights, LGBT rights, voting rights, a clean, healthy environment and a more peaceful world. I am confident that you will, too.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

Great leadership

Regarding Our state must lead, not secede (Open Forum, Dec. 19): Lenny Mendonca fails to mention the exquisite leadership shown by Gov. Jerry Brown, as demonstrated by his recent speech to the American Geophysical Union. Addressing scientists deeply involved in climate research, Brown did not mince words in defending climate data, stating that if necessary, California will launch our own satellites.

Perhaps the author has a bias toward Republican governors, but Democrat Jerry Brown told the thousands of attendees were ready to fight. He was fiery and he was funny, telling former Gov. Rick Perry we have more sun in California than Texas has oil. He turned to the Latin phrase reductio ad absurdum (meaning reduction to absurdity) to give us hope that absurdities we are seeing on a daily basis will be followed by the light. And when you do that, everybody sees the absurd path youre on. It was leadership in action. Lets keep it up.

Lorraine Lerman, Berkeley

Russias role

Before you blame President Obama for Aleppo, lets remember how this conflict progressed. When this civil war began five years ago, Obama was hesitant to seriously arm any of the numerous, unpredictable, and potentially jihadist rebel factions, for good reason. The only credible reason to support the fractious opposition at any level was to force President Bashar Assad to the bargaining table. That was a possibility, as the level of opposition was significant, but without Russian and perhaps Chinese cooperation, that did not happen.

Russia did help Obama effectively disarm Assad of chemical weapons, with only minor violation. But clearly, Russia would protect its vested interests in Syria, with their use of the Mediterranean port of Tartus being high on that list. And so, during the last year, Russia fully backed Assad with air power. Any thought that we would or should have intervened in Syria at that level is frankly really dumb. Should you need to cast blame, start and end, with Assad, Putin and Iran.

Terry Clark, Bayside, Humboldt County

U.S. interference

Whats with all this self righteous palaver? Vladimir Putin interfered with the U.S. election. Oh, horrors. I recall that the U.S. interfered with Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, El Salvador and Nicaragua, just to name the ones I can remember.

The CIA disrupts governments, electorates, politicians and the military all over the world. Our tax dollars pollute other countrys activities right up to this very moment through the nefarious activities of the CIA, Secret Service and the U.S. Military.

Robert Cromey, San Francisco

Native language

Regarding Its up to us to save Spanish, our states native language (Insight, Dec. 18): I agree with Joe Mathews that we need to continue teaching Spanish in our schools. Native Spanish speakers will be a majority of our population within the next decade. But Spanish isnt really the native language of our state. The Native Americans spoke languages derived from over two dozen language groups, thousands of years before the Spanish arrived. The Spanish and subsequent Europeans did everything in their power to eliminate Native languages and culture. Lets not repeat the mistake. Welcome to Ohlone lands.

Bob Flasher, Berkeley

Teacher salaries

Regarding S.F. district to provide pathway to teaching credential (Dec. 20): The San Francisco Unified School Districts decision to go into the teacher-credentialing business is insulting to the thousands of highly qualified teachers in the Bay Area and throughout California.

We were trained in university courses in teaching methodology and classroom management, and spent many months as unpaid student teachers both observing and learning from master educators. The SFUSD Pathway program will be unable to provide this type of rigorous precredential experience for its applicants. If the district truly wants to recruit more individuals to the teaching profession, it should focus on offering higher salaries that would allow them to live in the countrys most expensive city.

Julian Grant, Pacifica

Collateral damage

I am writing in response to the attack in Berlin, Germany on unarmed civilians, men, women and children by a truck driver. My greatest concern from this is we are taking the wrong lesson. It is not how we stop drivers from this kind of attack. It is how can we keep driverless vehicles from being used as a weapon of war to attack innocents?

It is much easier to take remote control of a vehicle than it is to convince someone to carry out a suicide attack. Smart people designing software to eliminate jobs and costs of labor never account for cost of collateral damages. We must not allow human beings to be removed from the consequences of their actions.

Thaddeus Tidd, San Mateo
As I knock on the door of Don and Kay Baumhefners Petaluma home, I have the strange sensation that I am about to solve a mystery.

Ever since I first learned of him, the legend of Don Baumhefner and his Chateau Beaux Hauts  a short-lived sparkling wine project two decades ago  has haunted me, the way I imagine it must feel to seek out a lost bootleg recording of a legendary basement concert.

The specter first appeared to me in 2014 when I was having dinner at Commanders Palace in New Orleans. Wine director Dan Davis was offering a 1992 Chateau Beaux Hauts En Tirage Extra Brut by the glass.

What was this? A 22-year-old Sonoma sparkling wine that no one had heard of? It had been disgorged  that is, the yeast removed from the bottle  in 2010, after an unheard-of 18 years en tirage (resting, in contact with the yeast). It tasted uniquely bizarre, and I liked it: smoky and nutty, the color of dark rust.

Registering my confusion, Davis suggested I look up Beaux Hauts on YouTube. When I did, I found a video of Michael Broadbent, one of the worlds foremost wine experts, tasting the wine and appearing astonished  insofar as an 85-year-old British wine expert can express astonishment. His son Bartholomew is filming. Tastes like an old Bollinger, exclaims Broadbent, sniffing furiously. A Bollinger R.D. Hes referring to the late-disgorged bottling from that famous Champagne house.

Yet the Internet yielded little information about Beaux Hauts. There was donbaumhefner.com, made on a low-tech blogging platform the winemaker once used; but I could find no reviews, no articles, no discussion forums. It seemed that this fellow Don Baumhefner had stopped making sparkling wine after 1992. What led him to make such an anomalous wine? And why had he stopped? Why had he left it en tirage for two decades? What was he doing now?

I found an email address for Baumhefner and wrote to him. Several months later, he replied. And thats how I ended up at his home, 2 years after first tasting Beaux Hauts in New Orleans.

As I approach the door, my imagination runs wild. Would I find a Boo Radley character, reclusive and complicated? Might he have some interminable magnum opus up his sleeve, some unfinished lifes work hes hiding in the cellar?

The reality is not so dramatic. I spend the morning with Baumhefner and his wife, Kay, listening to them recount the last few decades of their lives in food and wine, and it becomes clear to me that the real story Im uncovering is not the story I expected to find here at all.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

Turns out, the Chateau Beaux Hauts sparkling wine is one of many brief, brilliant projects that Don and Kay, now in their 60s, undertook over their long and varied careers. Hes a winemaker, shes a chef. Mostly. Theyre also farmers, artists, teachers and entrepreneurs. And they have been a kind of behind-the-scenes presence in Sonoma County since they arrived here in the 1970s, helping to propel the movements that have come to define this place: back to the land, artisan winemaking, farm to table.

Don and Kay met in the eighth grade in Los Altos, which was then apricot country. In 1974, they got jobs teaching Montessori preschool in Santa Rosa and moved to a farm in Forestville. We were all trying to get back to real food, says Kay. Our generation was disgusted by how big business had wrecked our food. If you wanted organic produce, you had to grow it yourself.

Like many of their friends, the Baumhefners kept chickens and milking goats. They made their own cheese. They flocked to Alice Waters summer produce tasting every year. They helped friends make garage wine, which is how Don Baumhefner came to work for the salty old Swede (his words) Joseph Swan, Russian River Pinot pioneer. That partnership lasted until Swans death in 1989.

When Don and Kay were hired to resurrect the Russian River Vineyards winery and restaurant, in 1977, they tapped their friend Merry Edwards  whom theyd met as undergraduates at UC Berkeley, and who was then working for Mount Eden winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains  to be the winemaker. They convinced John Ash to be the chef. We envisioned a more relaxed, French-style dining experience taking advantage of local products, says Don. He put Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Montrachet on the list for $40. (The 2010 vintage of that Chardonnay is $3,000 retail.)

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

But the enterprise barely got off the ground: We never got paid our promised salaries by the man, whom it turned out had misrepresented himself as the owner, Don recalls. He felt awful that hed enticed Edwards to move to Sonoma for the job, but Edwards ended up joining forces with a new friend in Bennett Valley, Sandra Steiner (now MacIver), and together the women launched Matanzas Creek Winery. The rest of Merry Edwards career, of course, is history.

That sort of serendipitous turn is typical of the Baumhefners story. They watched Raiders games with Alice Waters; they sold Swans earliest vintages to Kermit Lynch and Darrell Corti. Listening to them, I experience a similar thrill of recognition at historical events and influential figures that I get when watching Forrest Gump.

For example: With John Ash, in 1980, they opened John Ash & Co. in Santa Rosa; Don was the sommelier, Kay the pastry chef. There, they hired Dan Kosta and Michael Browne, who would later found Kosta Browne winery together.

The Baumhefner web stretches beyond restaurants. In addition to planting the Copeland Creek Vineyard on Sonoma Mountain (which later became the source for his short-lived Copeland Creek wine label), Baumhefner helped plant the now-famous Gaps Crown Vineyard in the Petaluma Gap, supplying cuttings from the Joseph Swan estate.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

Meanwhile, Kay earned high praise as the chef of the Opera House Cafe in Petaluma. In a 1987 review, then-Chronicle food editor Jane Benet captured Kays culinary ethos: Home-cooked like almost no home cooks prepare any more. ... She believes that good food should be fresh, cooked to perfection and served only in season.

It was in 1983 that Baumhefner first experimented with sparkling wine. Swan had done some late-summer fruit thinning, cutting off hundreds of beautiful red bunches of Pinot Noir, so as to concentrate the energy of the vines into fewer bunches as he had seen them do in Burgundy, Baumhefner recalls. I asked him if I could gather up the bunches and do something with them. Since the grapes were still unripe, the obvious recourse was to make sparkling wine.

The 1983 Joseph Swan Estate bubbly turned out well, and so the next year Baumhefner sought out Pinot Meunier grapes  a major grape in Champagne, scarcely planted here  from his friend Bob Hopkins vineyard on Healdsburgs Eastside Road. The Hopkins vineyard eventually became the source for the Beaux Hauts wines, which Baumhefner made commercially starting in 1988. Some years the wine turned out a rose, other years a blanc de noirs. He released the sparkling wines haphazardly, as he felt they were ready. His 1988 bubbly, released after three years en tirage, was on the wine list at Chez Panisse. The 1991 edition, released in 1994, became Plumpjacks private-label sparkling wine.

But the 1990 and 1992 Beaux Hauts vintages showed the most promise, and Baumhefner held them back even longer. Inspired by his favorite Champagne, the late-disgorged Bollinger R.D., Baumhefner decided to see what would happen if he left those two vintages on the yeast longer. He tasted them monthly; every year, he thought maybe this would be the year to disgorge. But he didnt feel they were ready until 2011. To emphasize their extended aging, he labeled them En Tirage.

By then, Baumhefners frenetic wine-industry activity had quieted. The 1992 sparkling, which he released first, received little attention, save the Broadbent YouTube video in 2012. That didnt bother him and Kay. En Tirage was always more an experiment than a deliberately commercial enterprise, she says.

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But why, I press, did he stop making it after 1992? Baumhefner shrugs. Other projects came along.

And its a good thing he stopped when he did, he says. It was an unsustainable business practice to make wine, age it for 20 years and then begin to sell it.

Yet thanks mostly to the Broadbent video, the En Tirage became the object of obsessive search for a few of us, including Dan Davis  who waited two years for Baumhefner to return his initial email  and me.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

The 1992 En Tirage has sold out, and Baumhefners current release is the 1990. Desmond Echavarrie, of local distributor Scale Wine (and another obsessive searcher of En Tirage), has picked it up. The 1990 is currently on the wine lists at Michael Mina ($176) and Epic Steak ($170) in San Francisco, as well as Kenzo in Napa. About 50 cases remain.

Near the end of my visit with the Baumhefners, we open a bottle of the 1990 En Tirage. Its oxidative, for sure  an extreme rendering of nutty, autolytic character. Umami detonates from the glass: bacon, soy sauce, that same smoky quality I remember from New Orleans and tense, exhilarating acid. Then Kay presents a bottle of the 1990 that shed opened three hours earlier. With a little breathing time, it has transformed  now mellow and creamy, plump with brioche and apricot marmalade.

But my pleasure is suddenly interrupted by guilt at having prompted Don and Kay to open two of the last remaining bottles of this final vintage. Have I coerced them to hasten the extinction of the species?

Don and Kay laugh. Theyre happy to have both open for dinner tonight, they say. Im struck by how unconcerned they seem with the preciousness of the commodity  an unusual posture for a winemaker, so often attached to his creations as if they were his children. But then again, the Baumhefners have lived through enough finales by now to have a different sort of perspective.

I remember one last question as Im about to leave.

Beautiful heights? I ask. Whats the meaning of Chateau Beaux Hauts?

Its an inside joke, Kay explains. Beaux Hauts is a homonym for bozo, a nickname she gave to her goofy husband.

After all, says Don, in those early days of Northern California winemaking, many self-proclaimed wine snobs would only drink French wines. Even as fellow Francophiles, we found that all very funny.

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles wine, beer and spirits writer. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermob
The abrupt inspection of the Potrero Hill warehouse her identical twin sister shares with other artists prompted Julie Mastrine to act, bringing her before San Francisco building officials Wednesday.

Armed with an online petition with more than 10,000 signatures, Mastrine called on the Building Inspection Commission to impose a moratorium on fire and code spot inspections that city officials contend are necessary to keep warehouse dwellers safe in the wake of the Dec. 2 Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland that killed 36 people.

The nationwide scrutiny on such spaces  including the recent eviction of six people from longtime punk venue Burnt Ramen in Richmond  has been too reactionary, Mastrine said. She added that taking a punitive, forceful approach runs the risk of displacing artists who say they have nowhere else to live with rents as high as they are in the Bay Area.

The law is the law, but you dont have to be super forceful and heavy-handed in your enforcement of the law, said Mastrine, a 25-year-old San Francisco resident.

The Department of Building Inspection and other city agencies have identified about a dozen similar warehouse properties for code compliance checks since the Oakland fire, including that of Mastrines twin sister, Amy, who said her warehouse was suddenly inspected Dec. 14 and found to be in violation of three fire code requirements.

The space was cited by fire inspectors for construction without permits, as well as maintaining hazardous and un-safe living conditions, according to a copy of the violation obtained by The Chronicle. Residents were ordered to immediately evacuate and given one day to correct the violations, the report shows.

Together, the Mastrine twins said theyve heard of about a dozen inspections throughout the Bay Area and one eviction in San Francisco. Seven inhabitants of a converted warehouse in Bernal Heights last week received an eviction notice from their landlord.

The Bernal Heights warehouse underwent its scheduled city inspection around 10 a.m. Tuesday, said resident Nathan Cottam  about the same time as the Building Inspection Commission meeting. While results of the inspection will take some time, Cottam said it went as well as it could have. He said he supports the goal of the petition to give residents more notice, considering they only got the word about a weekahead of their inspection.

The unnecessary stress of it, of someone coming into your space, and hearing that other warehouses were evicted, was very unnecessarily stressful, and all it brought was added trauma to an already traumatic situation, Amy Mastrine said.

Even before the Oakland fire, San Franciscos building and planning departments had joined with the Fire Department to establish a prevention task force that seeks to bring spaces  often illegal ones  up to code before inspections, said Tom Hui, director of the city Department of Building Inspection.

Safety is the first concern of city officials, he said, adding that there were no plans to halt inspections forthright. That outreach matters, Hui said, because once inspectors go in, we cannot do selective code enforcement, meaning they cant ignore clear-cut violations.

Our community is important to us, Hui said. We love the community. But fire safety is the No. 1 concern for us.

Amy Mastrine  who has lived in the Potrero Hill warehouse since October, paying $1,000 a month for a space where she can paint  contended that she and her radical artist sentiments started taking fire safety more seriously after the Oakland fire.

Residents held a fire safety meeting, she said, pointing out exits, to which the buildings manager later painted large arrows on the floor. The buildings manager also installed a new exit door and ordered a fire escape ladder to the roof, as well as a whole bunch of fire extinguishers, she said.

Many artists who live in such spaces resent the government interfering in their do-it-yourself makeshift homes, and Amy Mastrines warehouse  with its massive mirrors, panel-style art, bike storage nook and plants growing in the sun  is no exception.

My space is safe, Amy Mastrine said. We took the fire seriously, without any bullying. ... My strongest point, I think, is that we can take care of our own, and we really dont need to be policed in this way.

Lt. Jonathan Baxter, a spokesman for the San Francisco Fire Department, said that if inspectors give a notice of violation to a living or working space, its occupants are usually given 72 hours to fix things. But that can be extended, he said, as long as there are clear signs of progress, so we dont basically have to vacate individuals.

Were not going out and saying, Heres your violation. Fix it. If its not fixed within this certain parameter of time, were going to go to the next step. Were very open to working with all members of the community, as long as were moving forward toward that safety goal.

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @michael_bodley
An Alameda County traffic court commissioner whom the states judicial disciplinary agency accused of deriding defendants in his courtroom and making sexual and racial comments to court clerks has resigned from the bench.

The Commission on Judicial Performance said Tuesday that it had dismissed its misconduct case against Commissioner Taylor Culver after his resignation Nov. 30. He has agreed not to accept any future judicial assignments, the commission said.

Superior Court judges appointed Culver in 2005 as a commissioner with the authority to judge traffic cases. In its disciplinary charges filed in October, the state commission accused him of mistreating defendants in dozens of cases since 2012.

Many of the allegations involved verbal rebukes to defendants contesting traffic charges. In one April 2015 case, the commission said, a defendant objected to one of Culvers comments and told him, Im a person like you. Culver told her, the commission said, to keep your mouth shut and later said, I wish I didnt have this robe on.

He told two other defendants that police would show up in court and call you a liar, referred to another defendant as madame politician, and told another that she was running your mouth when you should be running your ears, the commission said. It said he also failed to notify a number of defendants of their rights before accepting their guilty pleas.

When an earthquake was felt in his building in October 2011, the commission said, Culver told his two female clerks that if this were his last day on Earth, he would jump into the courtroom well, where they worked, and get some kissing done. The commissioner, who is black, also referred to a female clerk as white girl and honorary black girl, the commission said.

Culvers lawyer, Arthur Harris, said Tuesday that Culver had determined that he wanted to retire from the bench prior to entering into any stipulation, or agreement, with the state commission. He said Culver was satisfied with the manner in which the formal proceedings were resolved.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
A storm expected to move through Northern California starting Friday will leave in its wake a chilly Christmas Day, a heap of fresh snow in the Sierra and the possibility of powder dusting on some Bay Area mountain peaks, forecasters said.

Temperatures on Christmas Day will hover in the upper 20s for the inland region and around the 30s and 40s for urban areas. Highs are forecast to be in the 50s, said Bob Benjamin, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.
A developer plans to build the largest industrial complex San Francisco has seen in 50 years, a 1.16 million square foot project advocates say could help stem the loss of blue-collar jobs from a rapidly gentrifying city.

Prologis, a San Francisco industrial developer that operates in 20 countries, filed an application with the city Tuesday to build a three-story complex on 17 acres of land on a Bayview district site bordered by Rankin Street, Toland Avenue, Kirkwood Avenue and McKinnon Avenue. The development, which is being called the San Francisco Gateway Industrial Center, would replace four single-story buildings constructed in 1940 and totaling 448,000 square feet.

The project and a similar one Prologis plans to build in Seattle would be the first modern multistory warehouses built in the United States. Prologis has built multistory warehouses in Japan, Singapore and China.

Multistory industrial developments are essentially warehouses stacked on top of one another and connected by a network of truck ramps, loading docks and freight elevators. They are flexible and divisible and are equally well suited to manufacturing as they are warehousing goods.

Given the escalation of land values in dense urban areas like San Francisco, it makes sense to build denser and more efficient warehouses, which can bring production, distribution and repair services closer to urban consumers, according to Prologis Chief Executive Officer Hamid Moghadam.

It makes sense in any urban area where land values are high, development pressures are great and land is scarce, he said.

The proposal comes as San Franciscos tech-fueled housing and office development boom squeezes out production, distribution and repair companies  a category of the economy that the city calls PDR. Between 2011 and 2015, approximately 1 million square feet of PDR space was lost in the Mission District, Potrero Hill, South of Market and Dogpatch, according to a city report.

A lot of developments have been about eliminating these kind of jobs. We have an opportunity here to increase the number of jobs by a factor of eight or 10, said Moghadam.

Prologis has hired a team of brokers and translators to work with current tenants on the property, which includes several Chinese businesses, according to Dan Letter, a managing director with Prologis. Some of the current tenants, which are generally paying below-market rate rents, could end up in the new building. But many will likely be relocated to other Bayview properties.

Todd Rufo, Director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, said the city is continuing to work with Prologis to ensure that existing businesses on the site are able to relocate nearby when construction begins.

Weve been watching this proposal with interest because it would provide a lot of net new space for PDR jobs, helping meet one of Mayor Lees key goals of expanding good middle class employment opportunities within the city, said Rufo.

Prologis, which owns more than 600 million square feet of space in 20 countries, hopes to have the project approved in 2017. It would take 14 months to build.

I think this is really exciting for the city  were talking about an actual expansion of PDR uses at a scale we have not seen before, said Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the urban think tank SPUR. This is a modern version of how to provide the services that support the every day functioning of a big city.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@
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Napa Valley is not only beautiful; its also expensive. Thats no secret. But whats less known is the difficulty seniors, many of them deeply rooted residents, are having surviving in the valley as rents soar.

Larry Hyson, a 71-year-old Calistoga man, is among those struggling. A longtime chauffeur and transportation services worker, he lost his job and spent months trying to find a new one. To get by, he sold off household items and some personal possessions. And he found a new job, shuttling employees up and down the hill to a hotel. But it was part time and didnt pay enough to cover the rent on his mobile home.

I was at the point that if I didnt get help I would have been evicted, he said, sitting in a tall chair in his home. You have to pay the rent on time. Its not the kind of place where you can say Ill get it to you next month.

Hyson sought help from UpValley Family Centers, a nonprofit on the north end of the valley that helps people facing economic challenges. Elena Mendez, senior services manager, contacted The Chronicles Season of Sharing program, which paid a month of Hysons rent.

That was enough to get me by, he said. It seemed to start to click for me after that.

Hysons part-time job at the Auberge du Soleil resort in Rutherford became full time. That made it easier to pay the rent, though he said its still tough to get ahead.

Mendez said the help Hyson received from Season of Sharing was critical to keeping him in his home.

If we didnt have Season of Sharing, there would not be a lot of help out there for this kind of assistance, she said.

Hysons story is becoming increasingly common in the Napa Valley as the cost of living, especially rent, climbs and many seniors are forced to continue working past retirement age or return to the workforce after retirement.

Older people are being really stretched to the limit, Mendez said. People in their 70s and 80s have to continue to work to supplement their retirement. We even have people in their 90s still looking for work. Its become more of a common thing. They have to work; its not that they have time on their hands.

Hyson found his career behind the wheel by accident.

After years cooking up food at Zims and Doggie Diner restaurants, Hyson attended Sonoma State University, where he studied philosophy and literature and earned his bachelors degree.

Unable to find work in the slumping economy of the early 1980s, he took a job at a hotel in Texas as a chef, then became a wine steward after his bosses learned he came from California.

Because I was from California, they figured I must know wine, he said.

One day the hotel owner needed a ride to the airport, Hyson said, and he was chosen as the driver.

They liked the way I drove better than the way I cooked, so I kept the chauffeur job.

Hyson took to driving but not to the Texas weather, and he returned to Wine Country after six months. He worked as a chauffeur for Christian Brothers Winery for eight years until they were sold and also operated his own chauffeur service on the side for 20 years, driving a charcoal gray 1989 Lincoln Continental with a red pinstripe.

After the Christian Brothers job ended, he drove shuttles for Kaiser Permanente then for the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena.

At Auberge du Soleil, a luxurious hilltop resort, Hyson drives a Chevy van, shuttling employees more than a mile up Rutherford Hill between an auxiliary parking lot and the hotel. He also manages the hotels parking lots to keep traffic flowing.

The hotel is a beautiful place, he said. I like the job.

He also loves Napa Valley and hopes to continue living there, even though everything costs a little bit more here. But its a great place to live.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan

ABOUT THE FUND

For the past 30 years, the Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund has helped more than 100,000 Bay Area individuals and families facing an unexpected life crisis. The idea of neighbors helping neighbors was introduced to The Chronicle by the late Walter A. Haas Jr. and Ira Hirschfield, president of the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, in 1986. Since then, the Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund has distributed $113 million to help those living in the Bay Area.

Each year, the fund provides temporary assistance to approximately 4,500 families, allocating most of its grants for housing needs, as well as paying for other critical necessities such as essential furniture for families recovering from a fire in their home or helping to purchase a wheelchair. Grants are paid directly to the supplier of services, such as a landlord. Individuals do not receive direct grants from the Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund.

The fund, which also distributes more than $1 million each year to local food banks, relies on donations from readers. The money is distributed year-round.

Every penny of your donation goes to help those who need it most. All expenses are covered by the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund and The San Francisco Chronicle. We are proud to say that since its inception, 100 percent of the money raised for the Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund has gone directly to help the families and communities we serve.

For more information, visit www.seasonofsharing.org.
Gaffes and glitches continue to beset Ubers tests of self-driving cars in San Francisco.

Already under fire from state and city lawmakers for not getting permits, the cars are now raising an outcry from bicyclists, who say they make illegal and unsafe right turns through bike lanes. And a business owner says he saw one of the cars, which appeared to be in self-driving mode, go through a red light a few weeks ago.

Brian Wiedenmeier, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, was among a score of nonprofit leaders, elected officials and policymakers who took test drives in the cars last week, two days before Uber began a test with paying passengers on Dec. 14. The cars operate with a human in the drivers seat who can take control.

While the vehicle was in self-driving mode, it made an illegal right turn through a bike lane, Wiedenmeier said. I pointed this out to the test drivers, who seemed unaware that the turn was illegal. The car did it again a few blocks later, he said. Wiedenmeier said he expressed his concerns to Uber personnel, who said theyd look into it.

Under California law, cars are supposed to merge as far right as practical before making right turns. Instead, Ubers cars make turns called right hooks from the lane adjacent to the bike lane  increasing the chance of colliding with bicyclists.

Uber said it has instructed drivers of the semiautonomous cars to take control for that type of turn. We take safety very seriously, the company said. Were aware of this and were working to address it.

But Wiedenmeier, who has heard from others who witnessed the cars making right-hook turns, said that seems inadequate.

I felt an ethical responsibility to alert people who bike in our city, he said. Right-hook turns are one of the most hazardous things bicyclists face. He has started a petition on his groups website asking Uber to address the issue.

Several reports have surfaced of the retrofitted Volvo XC90s running red lights, which Uber attributed to human error.

However, Christopher Koff, owner of AK Subs at Eighth and Harrison, recounted a red-light incident he witnessed in the early morning a few weeks ago, while Uber was testing the cars without passengers. He could see that the drivers hands werent on the wheel, he said, meaning the car was probably in self-driving mode.

I noticed one of the Uber cars (a Volvo headed westbound on Harrison) pull up at the red light on Harrison, he said. I stood there looking at it because it had all those bells and whistles on it. There were two guys in the car. The guy in the drivers seat was looking at the guy in the passengers seat having a conversation while the car was stopped.

All of a sudden, the car just took off and went through the intersection while the light was still red, Koff said. A car coming down Eighth Street had to slam on the brakes (to avoid a collision), and laid on his horn, coming to a screechy stop.

Uber said this incident was also due to human error.

Ubers semiautonomous cars have generated plenty of controversy in recent days. The company declined to get a required permit for testing autonomous vehicles, saying it is exempt because the cars must have a human driver to operate. The Department of Motor Vehicles, the state attorney generals office and San Francisco City Hall have all demanded that Uber cease its tests until it gets the permit or face unspecified legal action.

Theyre rushing unsafe, untested technology onto the streets, said John Simpson, privacy director of Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group. There is a procedure in place which is supposed to ensure responsible, safe testing, which requires permitting, and theyre completely ignoring that.

Both Simpson and Wiedenmeier said they see the long-term promise of autonomous vehicles to improve safety, but meanwhile, they said, Uber should comply with the law.

Uber is using a public good, our streets and roads, to run their business, and as such theyre subject to the rules and regulations just like everybody else, Wiedenmeier said.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid
In a twist on the peddling of fake news to real people, researchers say that a Russian cyberforgery ring has created more than half a million fake Internet users and 250,000 fake websites to trick advertisers into collectively paying as much as $5 million a day for video ads that are never watched.

The fraud, which began in September and is still going on, represents a new level of sophistication among criminals who seek to profit by using bots  computer programs that pretend to be people  to cheat advertisers.

We think that nothing has approached this operation in terms of profitability, said Michael Tiffany, a co-founder and the CEO of White Ops, the ad-focused computer security firm that publicly disclosed the fraud in a report Tuesday. Our adversaries are bringing whole new levels of innovation to ad fraud.

The thieves impersonated more than 6,100 news and content publishers, stealing advertising revenue that marketers intended to run on those sites, White Ops said.

The spoofed outlets include a whos who of the Web: video-laden sites like Fox News and CBS Sports, large news organizations like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, major content distributors like Facebook and Yahoo and niche sites like Allrecipes and AccuWeather. Although the main targets were in the United States, news organizations in other countries were also affected.

It will be a big shock to all of these publishers that someone was selling inventory supposedly on their sites, Tiffany said in an interview the day before the reports release.

He said White Ops had traced the fraud to Russia and believed that the organization behind it was a criminal enterprise out to make money. There was no evidence of a connection between the fraud and the politically motivated hacking during the United States election that U.S. intelligence agencies and President Obama have linked to the Russian government.

The Methbot scheme  named after the word meth that shows up in its software code  was carefully designed to evade the antifraud mechanisms the advertising industry has put in place in recent years. Digital ad fraud was projected to cost marketers more than $7 billion in 2016, according to a study by the Association of National Advertisers and White Ops.

To carry out the operation:

(1) The Methbot forgers first took numeric Internet addresses they controlled and falsely registered them in the names of well-known Internet service providers.

Among those were Comcast, AT&T and Cox, as well as fake companies like AmOL. This allowed the thieves to make it look as if the Web traffic from Methbots servers in Dallas and Amsterdam were really coming from individual users of those Internet providers.

(2) The forgers then associated the addresses with 571,904 bots designed to mimic human Web surfers.

Embedded in the bots Web browsers were fake geographic locations, a fake history of other sites visited and fake log-ins to social networks like Facebook. The bots would start and stop video just like people do and move the mouse and click, Tiffany said.

(3) The perpetrators connected the bots to the automated advertising networks that sell unsold ad space for thousands of Websites.

A bot would pretend to visit a website like CNN, and the ad networks would conduct a microsecond bidding war against one another to show a brands video ad. But instead of going to the real CNN, the bots Web browser would go to a fake site that nobody could see, and the ad would play there.

(4) Finally, the system would report fake data to the ad networks and advertisers to persuade them that a human had watched the ad on the real content site.

It would send just the right kind of metrics back to look like real live audiences that were logged into Facebook and watching videos all day, Tiffany said. The thieves then collected payment for the ads.

The report did not name the advertisers tricked by the fraud.

White Ops said the thieves received high prices for the fake ad views, garnering an average price of $13 per 1,000 video views. Overall, the botnet delivered 200 million to 300 million fake ad views per day and brought in $3 million to $5 million in daily revenue, according to the companys analysis.

White Ops is releasing the full list of fake Internet addresses and impersonated Websites so that fraud-detection services and ad networks can block them. The company has also shared its findings with U.S. law enforcement authorities and is working with them to further investigate the fraud.

Tiffany said the use of bots to steal ad revenue is not new in the industry, but it has never happened at this scale before.

He continued, It all adds up to the most profitable bot operation weve ever seen.
Uber pulled its self-driving Volvos off the roads in San Francisco on Wednesday, a week after they began picking up passengers, as the Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the cars registrations.

It was determined that the registrations were improperly issued for these vehicles because they were not properly marked as test vehicles, the DMV said in a statement following a meeting of the agency, Uber and the California attorney generals office.

The ride-hailing company had angered state and local officials by refusing to get a permit to operate the self-driving cars. Since the pilot began on Dec. 14, San Franciscans have flagged several incidents involving the self-driving Ubers, from running red lights to making right turns through bike lanes  even though cars had human operators in them too.

Ubers next move is unclear, but the company has stopped the pilot and may now send its 16 self-driving Volvo XC90s elsewhere. Uber still has the option of applying for a DMV permit.

Were now looking at where we can redeploy these cars but remain 100 percent committed to California and will be redoubling our efforts to develop workable statewide rules, an Uber spokeswoman said in an email.

San Francisco officials applauded the DMVs action.

I have always been a strong supporter of innovation and autonomous vehicle development and testing, but only under conditions that put human, bicyclist and pedestrian safety first, Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement.

San Francisco resident James Sword said that, as a frequent bicyclist in the city, he is relieved that Uber can no longer operate the autonomous vehicles until the state deems them safe.

Uber as an organization has been thumbing its nose at regulations from the beginning, Sword, 39, said. I dont have any confidence that the self-driving cars will be any safer, and not create any hazards.

The showdown began Dec. 14 when Uber announced that it would deploy self-driving cars to pick up paying passengers in San Francisco.

The DMV swiftly sent Uber a strongly worded letter that it must cease using self-driving vehicles until getting the appropriate permit. Uber pushed back, saying its vehicles do not fit the DMVs definition of autonomous because they still require a human to operate them.

The state attorney generals office threatened court action to get the cars off the road. The DMV noted that 20 companies, including Google and Tesla Motors, have received permission to operate an overall total of 130 test vehicles, and they are obeying the law.

The DMV said Wednesday that Uber is welcome to test its autonomous technology in California like everybody else provided that it gets a permit, with applications potentially taking less than 72 hours to process.

So far, Uber has balked. Under the DMVs testing regulations, manufacturers are required to report when one of their autonomous vehicles is involved in a traffic accident. Such reports are made public. Uber has insisted that it is declining to register on the principle that its vehicles need human operators and cannot fully drive themselves  not to avoid reporting accidents.

The cars quickly came under fire in San Francisco when a video circulated online that appeared to show one of the retrofitted Volvos running a red light. A few similar reports also surfaced; Uber has attributed the red-light issues to human error.

Our roads are confusing, and you cant just be doing what you want to do, San Francisco Board of Supervisors President London Breed said Wednesday evening. This is a new industry, its evolving, and we need to understand how this impacts public safety.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has said the cars make illegal and unsafe right turns through bike lanes. Uber said earlier this week that it is working on this problem and had instructed drivers to take control for that type of turn.

This clash is reminiscent of Ubers early days, when it began offering its ride-hailing service in cities nationwide without local permission. The company argued that its approach to ride-hailing was fundamentally different and therefore it was exempt from rules governing taxis.

But this case was much more extreme, experts said.

When (Uber) first started putting cars on the road, it was doing the same thing as taxis, said Dennis Cusack, a partner in the Insurance Recovery group for Farella Braun + Martel LLP, a San Francisco-based law firm. In the case of self-driving cars, the technology is so new that consumer confidence is  and will be  an issue.

Brian Wiedenmeier, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, said autonomous vehicles are an inevitable part of the citys future that can eventually make the roads safer.

But now, with the DMVs decision, he said Uber has an opportunity to step back and do things the right way.

Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani
Are you there, God? Its me, Mark

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has enlisted the help of Morgan Freeman and taken a shot at Nickelback while unveiling his artificial intelligence assistant. In a post on Facebook (of course), Zuckerberg showed off Jarvis, a voice-interactive assistant that takes its name from a similar device in the Iron Man films. Freeman provides its voice. Zuckerberg is shown using Jarvis to control lights, adjust the thermostat and even make toast. It also plays music, but when Zuckerberg asks for some good songs by Nickelback, Jarvis replies: There are no good Nickelback songs.

Number of the day

41 cents

Thats what led a man to sue McDonalds restaurants in two Illinois counties, arguing that an Extra Value Meal cost that much more than buying the items separately. James Gertie tells the Arlington Heights Daily Herald that bundling two cheeseburgers, medium french fries and a drink for $5.90 costs 41 cents more than when theyre purchased separately. He says the lawsuit is about a principle, and hopes for class-action status, alleging consumer fraud and deceptive practices.

Atticus might be just the ticket

An app named Atticus  like the attorney in To Kill a Mockingbird  has arrived to help you seek justice, well at least if youre fighting a traffic ticket. You download the app, upload a picture of the ticket and hire an attorney. Theres a flat rate of $249 for the legal help, and no guarantee you will win. Right now its only in Georgia, but its backers hope it will expand.

The Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techbriefing
A Modesto man pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of premium wines  including rare vintages taken from the renowned French Laundry restaurant in Yountville  and ship them out of state, federal prosecutors said.

Davis Kiryakoz, 44, admitted plotting to steal more than $870,000 worth of wine and sending more than $370,000 worth of it in interstate commerce, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty before a federal judge in San Jose and is free on bail while awaiting sentencing, scheduled for March 28.
When Janet Stone lost half her life savings in the 2001 stock market crash and again in the national economic meltdown of 2008, she had enough with the banks and other financial institutions.

The 48-year-old San Francisco single mother and yoga instructor withdrew what was left of the nest egg shed been stashing away in a bank since she was in her 20s, invested in a home safe and hid the key somewhere she thought no one would ever find.

But in a shocking twist, Stone went bust for a third time.

On Dec. 14, a burglar pried open the door of her home near Mount Davidson Park, broke into the trusty safe and swiped her life savings of more than six figures as well as jewelry and precious family heirlooms. Even the contents of her two young daughters piggy banks were stolen.

I had been saving for over 20 years. I just crouched on the ground, put my head on the floor and cried, Stone said. I couldnt believe that could happen.

Despite the devastating loss, Stone said she looked around her ransacked home and was grateful that the thief left her Christmas tree intact.

The investigation of the crime is ongoing and, so far, no arrests have been made, said Officer Robert Rueca, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department.

There is no surveillance footage capturing the incident or witnesses, Rueca said, making it even more difficult to capture the bandit.

It felt like they knew exactly where the safe was. It felt like they were in the house before, Stone said, adding that she is very open with her home and often rents it out on Airbnb.

The burglar was able to find the key to the safe, which had been packed away in the back of a closet and zipped up in an ancient purse, Stone said.

She said she last pulled her money out of the bank in 2008 when she lost over half her savings in the national economic crisis.

She thought a home safe would better protect her earnings than a bank, but now, she said, shes forced to rethink her ways.

Anything that I was saving went into the safe, said Stone, who lives with her 10-year-old and 13-year-old daughters. We are just trying to make it. We dont have a lot of cushion for later or if my kids get sick or if I get sick, so thats really what that (money) was for.

Unless the culprit or culprits are caught, that money will never be replaced, Stone said, adding that home insurance doesnt cover cash.

In addition to losing the money, the burglar snatched her jewelry, including her grandmothers diamond wedding ring, a family heirloom shed been hoping to pass on to her children.

That stuff was really sentimental, those things mean a lot. I dont have photos of those things, Stone said of the jewelry.

Stone has been a yoga instructor in San Francisco for 15 years and teaches classes at Yoga Tree, which has studios throughout the city. She also teaches workshops for yoga instructors around the world  including Bali, Indonesia, India and Australia.

Since the burglary, the yoga community has rallied around Stone, organizing a GoFundMe page. One yoga studio in Canada added a fundraising campaign to its classes to help Stone recoup some of her losses, said Connie Engel, who works as a training coordinator for Stone.

When I first walked in and dropped to the floor, I lifted my head and was like, Thats so unkind, Stone said. But theres been such an outpouring in the community and I just kept putting my attention on the kindness.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
A film fan who reportedly sent actor and all-around cool guy Tom Hanks a note "on a whim" likely didn't expect a response from the busy actor, let alone a quick one.

And yet, apparently the actor and Bay Area local had a bit of downtime between working on his three upcoming films and probable unannounced projects to take a moment to type a response to a fan letter and to take a selfie to enclose with it.
CHARLES CITY | Four people were hurt Tuesday when a SUV crossed the center line into oncoming traffic in Charles City.

The crash was reported about 4:50 p.m. on Highway 18 just west of Commercial Avenue.

State troopers say a westbound Buick Terraza driven by Anthony Schmitz, 44, of Ionia, crossed the center line of the highway and hit an eastbound GMC Denali driven by Heather Meyer, 52, of Bassett.

Schmitz and a passenger in his vehicle, Mary Jane Schmitz, 11, were flown by helicopter to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, according to an Iowa State Patrol crash report.

Meyer also was flown by helicopter to the Mayo Clinic.

A hospital spokeswoman said Anthony Schmitz was listed in fair condition and Meyer was listed in good condition Wednesday morning.

Mary Jane Schmitz's information wasn't immediately available.

A fourth person, Miley Schmitz, 10, was taken by amubulance to Floyd County Medical Center in Charles City.

She was listed in stable condition Wednesday morning.

The crash report does not say if citations were issued.

Additional information wasn't immediately available Wednesday morning.

Several local law-enforcement agencies and local citizens assisted troopers at the crash scene, authorities say.
Death sentences and executions nationwide have fallen sharply this year, while California  which hasnt executed a prisoner in more than a decade  has issued nine death sentences, 30 percent of the nations total, according to a report released Tuesday.

And while the study by the Death Penalty Information Center also found a continued decline in public support for capital punishment, voters in both California and Nebraska rejected ballot measures last month that would have repealed their states death penalty laws. Oklahomans voted 2-1 to make the death penalty part of their state Constitution so that state judges could not overturn it.

Overall, this years developments show America has deep divisions about the death penalty, said Robert Dunham, the centers executive director and author of the report.

He noted that prosecutors in four of the 16 counties that imposed the most death sentences in the nation between 2010 and 2015  two in Florida and one each in Texas and Alabama  were voted out of office this year.

In Kansas, four state Supreme Court justices were re-elected despite a campaign by death penalty supporters prompted by rulings overturning several death sentences. In 1986, a similar campaign in California ousted Chief Justice Rose Bird and two liberal colleagues and swung the state Supreme Courts majority rightward.

The report said the 30 death sentences issued in the U.S. in 2016 were 19 fewer than the 2015 total and the lowest number since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down then-existing death penalty laws in 1972. By contrast, Dunham said, there were 315 death sentences nationwide in 1996.

Murder rates have declined somewhat since then, he said, and seven states have repealed their death penalty laws in the past decade, bringing the total number of states that have outlawed capital punishment to 19. In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has banned executions of juveniles and the mentally disabled and struck down parts of several state laws. Many drug manufacturers in both the United States and Europe have refused to provide drugs for use in lethal injections.

In addition, Dunham said, prosecutors are seeking fewer death sentences, and jurors are less willing to issue death verdicts.

California, with the nations largest population, is regularly among the leaders in death sentences, and has more than one-fourth of the nations condemned prisoners, with 750 on Death Row. But Dunham said the figures reflect policy more than population  a relative handful of counties account for most of this years death sentences, and Los Angeles County, with four, was the only one in the nation to sentence more than one person to death.

After Californias last execution, in January 2006, a federal judge ruled that flaws in the states lethal injection procedures created an undue risk of a botched and agonizing execution. Subsequent state efforts to resume executions have been rejected by state and federal courts. Voters last month approved Proposition 66, intended to speed up executions by tightening court deadlines and limiting appeals, but the state Supreme Court put the measure on hold Tuesday to consider a legal challenge.

Asked about the decline in death sentences, Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento and an author of Prop. 66, said, I dont put a lot of stock in the numbers. Weve always said it should be for the worst murderers, and over the long term the number of murders is down by a large amount.

There have been 20 executions nationwide this year, down from 28 in 2015 and the lowest total since 1991, the report said. Georgia had the most, with nine. Texas, which heads the list most years, has conducted seven executions, while its courts have blocked seven others, the report said.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
Despite all the hoopla about fake news  President Obama has denounced it and Facebook has pledged to rein in websites that spread it  the phenomenon is not new.

In the U.S., what today might be considered propaganda or fake news was commonly accepted practice in the late 18th and 19th centuries, said Andie Tucher, a historian and journalism professor at Columbia University.

Newspapers were very political in the early years of the republic, Tucher said. There was no understanding and no expectation that news should be impartial. News was the thing that expressed opinion.

With the arrival in the 1830s of the penny press, which made news accessible to the lower and middle classes for the first time, sensational news and gossip proliferated. In 1835, the New York Sun published a six-part series about the discovery of life on the moon. It sold like hotcakes, Tucher said.

As the field of journalism became professionalized in the late 1800s and early 1900s, respectable newspapers refused to publish deliberately false reports, even tongue-in-cheek ones.

But if this year is any guide, some people have trouble telling fact from fiction.

Mainstream newspapers and fact-checking websites like Snopes.com, FactCheck.org, and PolitiFact have been busy identifying fake news stories over the last year. In case you missed them, here are a few:

Pizzagate: A false story alleged that Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman, John Podesta, were involved in a child sex ring based out of Comet Ping Pong, a pizza store owned by James Alefantis in Washington, D.C.

Trump and the pope: In July 2016, the website WTOE 5 News reported that Pope Francis had taken the unprecedented step of endorsing Donald Trump for president.

Hillary Clinton and the FBI: A headline that read FBI agent suspected in Hillary email leaks found dead in apparent murder-suicide circulated widely on Facebook in November.

Clinton backs the Islamic State: A story that claimed Clinton sold weapons to the Islamic State terrorist group was among the five top-performing fake election stories on Facebook in the months leading up to the election, according to a BuzzFeed analysis.

First lady insulted: Of the top 20 fake stories that trended on Facebook, only three could arguably be considered to be against Trumps interests. One said Indiana Gov. Mike Pence called first lady Michelle Obama the most vulgar first lady weve ever had. He did not.
PALM BEACH, Fla.  President-elect Donald Trump met Tuesday met with candidates for his unfilled Cabinet positions, including prospective hires to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, a beleaguered agency that the Republican businessman has vowed to overhaul.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence met with members of his incoming national security team a day after acts of violence rocked the world.

At Mar-a-Lago, Trumps palatial Florida estate, the president-elect met with Luis Quinonez, who runs a company with military and health care ties and is said to be under consideration for VA secretary. He also interviewed Toby Cosgrove, the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, who later withdrew from consideration.

Others said to be considered for the post include ex-Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, Florida Rep. Jeff Miller and Pete Hegseth, an Army veteran and former CEO of Concerned Veterans for America.

Trump is also considering Jovita Carranza, who worked in President George W. Bushs administration, as his choice for U.S. trade representative. She served as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration under Bush.

With just a handful of Cabinet posts to fill, Trump is facing some criticism for a lack of diversity in his senior team, which currently includes no Hispanics. Carranza was a member of Trumps Hispanic advisory council during the campaign.

Pence, meanwhile, met in Washington with former Texas state official Susan Combs, who served both as state agriculture commissioner and comptroller. Trump also needs to fill the Agriculture Department slot. Transition officials did not confirm whether Combs is up for that post.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump was on Twitter after Bill Clinton told a suburban New York City newspaper that Trump doesnt know much. One thing he does know is how to get angry, white men to vote for him.

The Bedford-Pound Ridge Record Review reported that the former president said Trump called him after his election victory over Hillary Clinton.

Wrong, he called me with a very nice congratulations, Trump tweeted. The president-elect added that Clinton is the one who doesnt know much... especially how to get people, even with an unlimited budget, out to vote in the vital swing states (and more).

Bill Clinton later responded on Twitter, writing, Heres one thing @realDonaldTrump and I can agree on  I called him after the election.

Pence met with retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, the incoming national security adviser; retired Gen. John Kelly, Trumps nominee for head of Homeland Security; retired Gen. James Mattis, the pick for defense secretary; and Rex Tillerson, the head of Exxon Mobil and the intended nominee for secretary of state.
GARNER | A man was life flighted after hitting a school bus in rural Garner Monday.

The Hancock County Sheriffs Office says Stephen Edward Markle II, 32, hit the rear of a Garner-Hayfield-Ventura school bus which was stopped at 2198 Vail Ave. after dropping off two students around 4:11 p.m.

Markle was flown by Mercy Air Med to Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa and later was transferred to a hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. He is in critical condition, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

There were eight students and a driver on the bus, all of whom were uninjured. They were evaluated by medical personnel.

The Garner Police Department, Garner Fire Department and Garner Volunteer Ambulance Service provided assistance at the scene.

 Ashley Miller
"Hillbilly Elegy" continues to be near the top of the bestseller list and appears on every major publication's end-of-year list of notable books. Now author J.D. Vance wants to use his newfound fame and fortune to return home to Ohio and make a difference - and maybe one day run for office.

If you haven't read it, the book is a 32-year-old's memoir about his hardscrabble upbringing in the Rust Belt. With his mom battling addiction, and his father absent, his grandparents mainly raised him. He struggled in high school but wound up joining the Marines, graduating from Yale Law School and getting a cushy job at an investment fund in San Francisco. That's what a Horatio Alger story reads like in 21st century America.

Donald Trump's name never appears, but the timing was fortuitous. Vance offered outsiders a window into why such a huge percentage of the white working-class folks he grew up with would embrace the president-elect so wholeheartedly. Just as so many have also turned to drugs, alcohol and suicide to numb their pain.

From the perspective of a conservative, Vance paints a depressing picture of a proud, but broken, people: the cycle of dependency, the near total lack of personal responsibility, rising domestic violence, declining church attendance, laziness, etc. In one unforgettable scene, his mom loses her job as a nurse because she's so high, and she makes him give her a urine sample so she can pass it off as her own. (Reading the book inspired me to travel to his hollowed-out hometown of Middletown, Ohio, for an October item about how Trump really could win the election.)

Rather than just collect royalty checks and give TED talks, Vance wants to do something to deal with these afflictions.

He is currently looking to re-settle from California to either Columbus or Cincinnati. His San Diego-born wife has gotten onboard, and he thinks their two dogs will adjust well.

He is filing paperwork to set up a new nonprofit group, a 501(c)(4), called "Our Ohio Renewal."

He is scheduled to speak at about a dozen Lincoln Day dinners for county-level Republican chapters around the state in the next three months.

He recently lectured at The Ohio State University and plans to visit other campuses around the Buckeye State soon.

Jai Chabria, who after 20 years as a top adviser to Ohio Gov. John Kasich moved into private practice this year, is helping Vance navigate this process.

"The book has given me a platform I frankly didn't expect to have," Vance said in an interview. "The plan is to go all-in on Ohio. One of the things that concerns me is that so few people who go and get an education elsewhere ... feel any real ... pull for returning home. I don't think the answer is for everyone who grows up in Middletown to come back. But we do owe something to the community."

He explains that the book mostly diagnosed the problem, and now he wants to pivot toward finding solutions. His initial emphasis will be on two broad issues: managing the opioid crisis and improving vocational education.

Before diving in on policy, Vance plans a listening tour around Ohio. He's spent a lot of time in the southern part of Ohio, but he doesn't know the areas around Toledo and Cleveland too well. "At this stage, the thing I want to do the most is to go around the state and learn about what's actually going on," he explained. "I'm not one of these people who thinks I know all the answers. The first thing I want to get a sense of is what's actually been tried on the ground already."

He believes that fixing the cultural problems and stigmas he outlined in "Hillbilly Elegy" will take more than just government pulling levers. "To solve a problem as complex as the opioid crisis, you have to take an all-hands-on-deck approach," he said. "Policy can help ... but you can't find everything with legislation."

Every step that Vance is taking is exactly what a sophisticated person in his position who wanted to run for statewide office would do. He insists that's really not what this is about, while leaving the door open for down the road: "No, not now," he said when asked if he'll ever run for office. "I think that I need to live in the state for a while and get to know these problems a little better before actually doing something like that. Never say never, but it's certainly not something I am thinking about over the short-term."

Vance voted for independent Evan McMullin, not Trump, last month. "I always understood why he was so appealing to so many folks back home," he said of the president-elect. "It's not surprising they voted for him. ... My fear with Trump was always that he didn't have great solutions. I am pessimistic that you can flip the trade switch and make all these steel jobs come back to Middletown."

The investment group that Vance works for was co-founded and funded by billionaire Peter Thiel, who has emerged as a key adviser for Trump during the transition. (Stat News posted a story Wednesday morning on Thiel's influence in the filling of health and science posts.) "I don't interact with him a ton, but I certainly have dealt with Peter, and he's been a pretty good mentor to me," Vance said of their relationship. "I have all the respect in the world for him."

Still, the 32-year-old remains somewhat nervous about the policies that Trump espoused on the campaign trail, though his fingers are crossed. "Solutions are complex," he noted, "and I continue to worry that Trump didn't fully appreciate the complexity of what's going on. Consequently, I worry about whether he's going to make the problems a whole lot better. ... But I am a Republican, and we really should give the guy a chance to govern and hope he's successful."

(c) 2016, The Washington Post
MASON CITY | The trial date is set for man accused of killing a 19-year-old Mason City woman.

Larry D. Whaley, 60, will face a jury trial in March. He pleaded not guilty to felony first-degree murder in a written arraignment Tuesday.

Whaley is accused shooting Samantha Teeter in the head early Dec. 2 in an apartment building on 17th Street Southeast. Teeter died several days later at a Minnesota hospital.

The trial is set for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 7, in Mason City.

-- Courtney Fiorini
LOS ANGELES  It is the very symbol of traffic and congestion. Interstate 405, or the 405, as it is known by the 300,000 drivers who endure it morning and night, is the busiest highway in the nation, a 72-mile swerving stretch of pavement that crosses the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles.

So it was that many Angelenos applauded when officials embarked on one of the most ambitious construction projects in modern times here: a $1 billion initiative to widen the highway. And drivers and others put up with no shortage of disruption  detours and delays, highway shutdowns, neighborhood streets clogged with cars  in the hopes of relieving one of the most notorious bottlenecks anywhere.

Six years after the first bulldozer rolled in, the construction crews are gone. A new carpool lane has opened, along with a network of on- and off-ramps and three earthquake-resistant bridges.

But the question remains: Was it worth it?

In the long term, it will make no difference to the traffic pattern, said Marcia Hobbs, who has lived her whole life in Bel Air. I havent noticed substantial cutbacks in traffic. As a matter of fact, I would say it was the opposite.

The cost of the Sepulveda Pass project was supposed to be $1 billion. It has now reached $1.6 billion, after transit officials approved $300 million in new expenses last week.

Peak afternoon traffic time has indeed decreased to five hours from seven hours duration (yes, you read that right) and overall traffic capacity has increased. But congestion is as bad  even worse  during the busiest rush hours of 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., according to a study by the county Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The aftermath of the 405 project has emerged as a cautionary tale for Los Angeles, as well as for President-elect Donald Trump, regarding ambitious public works construction. On election day, voters here approved a sales tax surcharge that over the next 40 years will pay for $120 billion in spending on highways, subways and bus lines, also overseen by the county transportation authority. Trump has said a vast national infrastructure project will be one of his first priorities upon moving into the White House.

For many in Los Angeles  a city which, for all of its many pleasures, is in no small part defined by traffic congestion  one outcome of this closely watched endeavor was disappointment.

Transit officials were quick to defend the 405 project, saying it was an essential part of a crucial campaign to expand the transportation network in a city notorious for traffic congestion. It was extraordinarily complicated, they said, because the highway remained open while the work continued, and contractors had to grapple with moving hundreds of miles of utility pipes and lines discovered only after ground was broken.

Still, the price was high  in inconvenience as well as dollars.

As far as improvement, I dont see anything, advisor Bob Anderson said. Was it worth a billion dollars? I doubt it. Was it worth $1.6 billion?
Paul Chinn

One man was shot to death and another was seriously wounded Tuesday in an apparent robbery at a Vallejo pawn shop, police said.

Officers said they responded to reports of a possible robbery in progress at the shop on Springs Road at 3:10 p.m. and found the victims lying wounded at the scene. Both were taken to a hospital, where one of the men died, police said. Their names were not released.
MASON CITY | The Mason City School Board has passed a resolution supporting "The Promise of Iowa" campaign.

The campaign focuses attention on the future of Iowa public school students and is rallying support for public education in the state, according to a statement from the district.

It is coordinated statewide by the Iowa Association of School Boards, a non-profit organization representing more than 1,900 people serving on locally-elected school boards.

The campaigns focus is on building public understanding about the work of public schools today, which the association says is innovating to ensure students are positioned for successful futures.

Another of its goals is to encourage Iowans to show support for investments needed to keep schools strong.

Mason City Interim Superintendent Mike Penca said the board's support of the campaign is an important step in raising awareness statewide about the value of public education in shaping the next generation of Iowa leaders, workers and citizens.

The district says it will share information on public schools statewide and encourage local residents to take part.

Campaign website www.promiseiowa.org provides more information on how to become involved.
MASON CITY | A North Iowa woman who has a long commute to her job received a free 1998 Ford Taurus Wednesday through the Wheels for Work program.

The United Way of North Central Iowa, the Mason City Motor Co. and North Iowa Community Action Organization teamed up this year to bring Wheels for Work to the area.

Mason City Motor Co. donated the car into the program to be given a safety inspection and repairs so it could be given to a family in need of a vehicle.

The recipient was Tomica Wright, who lives with her 11-year-old son and currently spends $10 a day to take public transit to her job 30 miles from her home.

She often would have to leave home an hour or two before her shift began to use public transit and wait for it again after work.

Wright said now that she has her car, she plans to take more shifts at work. She couldn't work on nights and weekends before because public transit isn't available then.

She also is looking forward to getting her son involved in more after-school activities now that she has the transportation to get him there.

"My son is so excited for me to pick him up from school today," Wright said in a press release from the United Way. "I woke up on cloud nine today!"

Brian Taylor, executive manager at Mason City Motor Co., told the Globe Gazette the United Way and Community Action chose the family who would receive the car.

As a new business in town, the company wanted to start a holiday promotion, according to Taylor.

"We are just very excited to be involved in the community here," he said.
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The first thing she heard was a muffled bang.

Then, for nearly three minutes, she watched in horror as a 27-year-old woman died a slow and brutal death on the streets of San Francisco.

Lindsay McCollums violent final moments along 16th Street in the citys Mission District are seared into the memory of one witness, who was likely the first at the scene to call 911.

That woman, who asked not to be named out of concern for her safety, described the troubling details of the killing that left McCollum and 51-year-old Eddie Tennessee Tate dead on 16th Street near Shotwell Street.

The San Francisco medical examiner identified McCollum, who had no fixed address, as the second victim in Sundays attack, which has shocked the neighborhood and the homeless encampment where the violence unfolded.

But defining McCollum simply as homeless isnt a complete depiction of the young woman, said the 35-year-old witness. She did not know McCollum, but said she felt a kinship to her because of her own troubled past battling drug addiction.

Somebody loves her. She was a person. She wanted to live and she tried to get help, the woman said. She didnt belong there.

It was around 8:45 p.m. Sunday when the woman, who works for a ride-hailing service, pulled her car over on 16th Street, near a 76 gas station.

After a few minutes, she said, she heard what sounded like a muted clap before McCollum came walking like a zombie in front of her car from the nearby cluster of tents.

She was half stumbling, the woman said. She was making very strange movements and didnt look right. Then I noticed blood on her hair and face.

The witness immediately called 911, and pleaded with dispatchers to send help. In the ensuing 2 minutes and 46 seconds, she watched McCollum start ripping her clothes off.

She was very much alive, the woman said. She walked far.

Soon, McCollum was mostly naked and got into the fetal position on the ground, the woman said. She began rocking back and forth when, suddenly, she slammed backwards, hitting her head on the pavement.

Finally, she started shaking as police arrived and bystanders rushed to her side and started pounding on her chest, hoping to revive her.

Police said McCollum died at the scene.

It was awful, the witness said.

She later learned that Tate had been dying from a gunshot wound at the same time, just feet away from his makeshift wooden shelter on the sidewalk.

She didnt belong there, the woman said of McCollum. She had nice trendy clothes on. She was not a street person, and if she was she just got there. Somebody loves her and took care of her.

Police are hunting for two possible suspects seen running from the scene, but they have not identified them or made any arrests in the case.

Investigators, though, dont believe the attack was random, police said.

Many of those who camped at the corner scattered as police and paramedics arrived at the scene and cordoned off the area. Paramedics rushed Tate to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Tate was well known in San Francisco homeless circles and was a fixture at the long-standing camp at 16th and Shotwell.

City homeless advocates also knew Tate, who was featured in The Chronicle when city officials were clearing out a homeless camp under the Central Freeway along Division Street earlier this year, where he had set up a wooden box shelter.

He was resourceful and streetwise but quiet. He worked on bikes and other appliances out of his mobile shelter.

Those in his camp knew that with his arsenal of tools, Tate was the person to see if anything needed fixing.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Kevin Fagan contributed to this report.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
OSAGE | Nicholas Lenz was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Tuesday after a Mitchell County jury found him guilty of first-degree kidnapping in October.

Outburst follows guilty verdict in Lenz kidnapping trial in Mitchell County OSAGE  Chaos erupted in a Mitchell County courtroom Friday evening after a jury found Nicho

Lenz, 23, Mitchell, confined and beat a woman he was romantically involved with over the course of two days in March, according to the prosecutor in the case, Iowa Assistant Attorney General Coleman McAllister.

At one point Lenz took the victim from her residence in Mitchell to a cold, unheated camper, tied her up with zip ties and left her there for a time before eventually taking her back home, according to McAllister.

When the jury verdict was read in court in October, Lenz yelled and swore at the victim, who also was present, and at law enforcement officers before they cuffed him and led him out of the courtroom.

However, there was no outburst this time.

Lenz was shackled at the wrists and ankles. At least five deputies stood close to him during proceedings.

When Judge Christopher Foy asked Lenz if he wished to address the court before sentencing was pronounced, he consulted with his attorney, Letitia Turner, before saying, I have nothing to say.

The victim gave a statement before sentencing was pronounced.

She said she is glad justice was served and thanked McAllister, the investigators in the case and Crisis Intervention Services for their support.

I couldnt have made it and stayed so strong without them, she said.

She also said she wanted to give a shout-out to her father and Mitchell County Sheriffs Deputy Jerry Jensen, who went to her home and found her and Lenz.

The woman said what she went through has changed her life  for better as well as for worse.

She said she has been in and out of the ER because of her injuries and the stress made her physically ill.

However, she said she is now feeling much better and has found a new house to live in after being homeless and in and out of shelters. She also said she is going back to college to become a nursing assistant.

The woman said the worst part was being separated from her children.

They are my angels, she said.

The woman said she is now a strong-minded woman who has more self-esteem and confidence than she has ever had.

Im still alive and loving life, she said.

Foy said he appreciates what the victim went through, noting it had to be harrowing for her to testify on the stand during the trial about her two-day ordeal.

He also said nothing can take away the harm that Lenz caused.

However, Foy also said the reality is Lenz is going to be behind bars for the rest of his life and thats also tragic.

In Iowa first-degree kidnapping in Iowa carries a mandatory penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Foy said he believes everyone has good in them, and he hopes Lenz will have the inner strength to make something positive out of the situation.

The jury also found Lenz guilty of willful injury causing serious injury in the case. Foy sentenced him to up to 10 years in prison on that charge, but ordered it to be served concurrently with the life sentence for kidnapping.

In August Lenz had his probation revoked on a second-degree burglary conviction unrelated to the kidnapping case and was ordered to serve up to 10 years in prison. That sentence is to be served concurrently with his other two sentences.

Lenz broke into a home in Mitchell on Aug. 17, 2015, while the owners were present, according to the criminal complaint.
President-elect Donald Trump recently picked Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions as his nominee for U.S. attorney general, a position that leads the Department of Justice and serves as the top law enforcement officer for the country.

But even a cursory look at Sessions record shows that hes absolutely unfit to serve in this role and cannot be trusted to safeguard the rights of all Americans. Time and again, hes displayed a willingness to put his own ideology above our laws and values.

For example, among other extreme anti-immigrant positions, Sessions has challenged the 14th Amendments unambiguous promise that people born in our country are U.S. citizens. Apparently Sessions hostility toward immigrants trumps respect for the Constitution.

In a similar vein, after Trump suggested a blatantly unconstitutional ban on Muslims entering the United States, Sessions defended him, saying its appropriate to begin to discuss this.

Sessions also has a shameful record on voting rights, one of our most critical constitutional rights as Americans.

As a federal prosecutor, he led a witch hunt against black organizers helping to register African-American seniors, threatening three organizers with 100-year sentences. Later, as a senator, he applauded the Supreme Courts Shelby County decision gutting the Voting Rights Act, dismissing the need to address ongoing and well-documented racial discrimination in voting.

Perhaps most disturbing, Sessions voted against a prohibition on torture and against a ban on the cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of prisoners, extremely troubling stances from both moral and legal perspectives.

In all of these instances, Sessions put his own right-wing ideology above peoples constitutional protections. What Americans need from our attorney general is exactly the opposite: someone willing and able to stand up for our constitutional rights, stand up for our laws and make sure theyre applied fairly.

This will be especially critical with soon-to-be President Trump in charge, a leader whos repeatedly shown contempt for the law and the Constitution, whos poised to bring an unprecedented number of conflicts of interest into office and whos already floated unconstitutional measures like a Muslim registry.

With any number of potential crises looming around the corner, would Sessions  who was the first senator to endorse Trump  be able to enforce laws impartially and independently rather than simply doing Trumps bidding?

More than ever before, we need an attorney general who respects the rights of all Americans and the rule of law. Sessions is not that person. The Senate should reject his nomination and demand a nominee who Americans can trust to protect justice for all.
Weve long known Alliant Energy to be a good corporate entity in North Iowa. Important and vital, even, as we depend on the company to keep our lights and heat on in all kinds of weather.

Certainly, its an economic driver with projects such as the recent announcement of the $1 billion wind farm project in Franklin County which is scheduled to go into operation in 2019. And it sponsors many events throughout North Iowa.

So were willing to give them a pass in the recent snafu over billing issues, even though the company let a lot of people down.

Alliant/Interstate Power and Light Co. said high bill sent to some Iowans were caused by higher energy use in the hot summer and problems with a new billing system. It said it has fixed a software patch problem that caused a number of bills to be estimated.

Alliant Energy reaches settlement over Iowa billing issues DES MOINES  Alliant Energy and the Office of Consumer Advocate have reached a settlement ag

Part of the problem occurred because the new system caused some customers to receive bills with their usage estimate based on the previous years use, which was less than the amount actually used this year because of hotter weather, Alliant said. When meters were read and the actual amount of energy used was added back in, significant jumps appeared on some statements, causing great consternation among some customers.

The state Office of Consumer Advocate received more than 300 complaints. The Iowa Utilities Board took note and scheduled a hearing on the matter.

But Alliant reached agreement with the Office of Consumer Advocate, and all sides are satisfied. Alliant is adjusting its billing process to prevent estimates for multiple months and has hired more employees to review bills. It also will adjust thresholds that trigger bill reviews at certain times. And it will make 24-month payment agreements for customers who received hefty estimated bills in 2016.

Iowa Utilities Board to hold hearing on Alliant Energy billing practices MASON CITY  Alliant Energy will have a hearing with the Iowa Utilities Board Dec. 19 over b

The Iowa Utilities Board found the solution acceptable, and all is well again. We hope.

We trust that there will be no next time, that the company will do a thorough review and testing of any policy changes before implementing them.

Thats the kind of standards we expect from any company  especially one that thousands of Iowans depend on.
Steps are in the works to stop unlimited turtle harvest in Iowa, and were squarely behind them.

Iowa turtle harvest season proposed DES MOINES | Turtles in Iowa would be subject to commercial and recreational seasons and dai

Iowa is one of a few states that allow commercial trappers to catch an unlimited number of certain species of turtles.

The Sierra Club and other organizations say turtle populations are declining due to over-harvest and harvesting during breeding and egg-laying months. Most of the turtles commercially trapped are sent to overseas markets, mainly in Asia, according to the conservation organization.

Rules proposed to a legislative panel would attempt to strike a balance between the some 60 Iowans licensed to harvest turtles commercially and conservationists who want Iowa to be like surrounding states and prohibit turtle trapping completely.

Regulations cover spiny softshell, smooth softshell, painted and four common snapping turtles.

We have to trust the Iowa Department of Natural Resources which says its proposed rules would protect turtles during their nesting season along with setting possession limits.

Right now we feel like weve landed in the right place. Weve used the data thats available, said Bruce Trautman, deputy director of the DNR. We feel weve got a reasonable rule out there.

If the rules make it through the legislative process, and we hope they do, theyll take effect next harvest season. The Sierra Club says if that happens, if trapping seasons are closed to correspond with breeding and nesting seasons, turtle populations can increase to a more sustainable level.

These rules wont satisfy either side completely, but sound like a good compromise to a problem many Iowans may not be aware of.